The Lightning Country Saga, Act 2 Scene 3[B]

[Takaki Saeko]

The Lightning Country Saga: Act 2, Scene 3
”Prelude to War” from the Space Marine OST​

Imperial Army Thunderhawk Transport “Lance of Jove”
Central Kaminari no Kuni, 1000 feet above sea level
…1500 hours

Inside the transport, the cacophony of explosions outside was thankfully muted by a combination of the enclosed space as well as the fact that they were still relatively high in the air. Below, the Raiden’s Breath awaited, an angry porcupine veiled in smoke, defending itself with high-power arbalestillery launched at them as well as the myriad of Army and Navy vehicles and personnel that attempted to harass it to distract its wrath from the true targets it should be worrying about. The Thunderhawk carrying the HRT had just made its dive descent, and they were next.

“Masao nii-chan, the attackers have massacred the servants on board and taken all of the defenses,” said Eru, who wore her mask now, complete with its own patch over the right eyehole.

“Clever of the damned terrorists. Keeps us off their backs while they abduct the Crown Prince,” said Morishima Haruka, casting a glance backward at the trainees who had accompanied them.

An explosion and pressure wave suddenly assaulted everyone’s consciousness, causing the transport to violently lurch and roll to the side, tossing human bodies against its frame and seats. Metal crossbeams shrieked and whined as the vehicle attempted to roll the opposite direction to compensate for the sudden disturbance. Sparks flew from electronic equipment that had now been ripped from the walls and lay strewn across the floor.

“Pilot, report!” said Morishima, who had managed to avoid being thrown by grabbing a nearby wall strap in time.

“We’ve taken damage. Starboard ailerons have been destroyed. We are losing altitude. We cannot make the assault dive without crashing,” replied a man’s voice over the intercom, strained with the effort of keeping control over the vessel, which was now violently shaking as it continued in its original direction.

“Haruka-nee-chan! Masao nii-chan is hurt!” said Eru worriedly, causing everyone to look over in her direction. Takaki Masao lay on the floor, his head now cradled in Eru’s lap, a large gash across his scalp. Hastily, she checked his pulse and listened for breath. It was there, but ragged – he had been knocked out cold, and there was no telling how long it would take for him to return to consciousness. Morishima grit her teeth, both out of worry for him as well as realization that command of the mission now fell to her. “Any ideas?”

“Ideas? Captain, there's no time! If we want to get on that train, we have one option...” Tagiushi Moro remarked gravely, ripping his eyes from the unconscious Vice Commander Takaki Masao to throw his head back towards the transport loading dock in an ominous cue. “We jump.”

Bodies shifted uneasily as silent objections were exchanged, and all but one remained reticent; "We're falling too fast." Hoshiko Gin interjected, only to bite her lip tentatively and address the trainees. "But you're right-- Motomiya and Kogami, you both have one chance. Make it count, I leave it up to your own imaginations as to what will happen if you fail."

"The Codex Ansatsu does NOT support this action," objected Eru, pouting underneath her mask.

"We have no choice. Should we be separated, continue with your mission and proceed with caution. Preferably, rendezvous with any known allies. Affirmative?" asked Haruka Morishima, scanning the faces aboard with an even gaze, she was met with a chorus of 'hais'. "Good. Hoshiko, Tagiushi, make way for our descent. Trainees, you're next. Natsumi and I will bring up the rear."

Both point operatives looked at each other, locking eyes for a split second before moving in unison to stand juxtaposed in front of the heavy steel door, simultaneously activating both manual opening switches. The Thunderhawk wobbled and involuntarily banked as the ramp opened wide its maw, forcing all passengers to lurch slightly forward as the sudden rush of air stole their breath. It sent the female agent forward, unable to catch herself, she slipped from the jaws of the transport glider.

Panic invaded as she had been caught off guard, but she felt a hand catch her wrist. It was Moro, the entire span of his arms put to use, he held onto another brilliantly placed wall strap, a look of consummate concern plastered across his features. Looking straight down, she could see the target in their sights, and smiled behind her mask. Barely audible above the roaring gale,

"Trust me."

With a sudden flick, she snatched her hand away to be released into an abrupt plunge. Throwing caution to the wind, (huehue) in a knee-jerk reaction Moro swan dived after her. The Trainees waited the required 10 count, Kogami Ayumu eagerly sprinting and cannonballing off the ramp, Motomiya Kinten simply shrugged and strolled calmly into nothingness without a change of pace.

The two remaining long-time squadmates spent their precious 10 seconds exchanging unspoken words, staring at each other. Eru went first, stealing a quick hug from Masao's unconscious form, before starting off at a walk, quickly gaining speed and launching off of the ramp with her nose pinched between thumb and forefinger. Now acting Captain, Haruka snapped orders with ease, "Pilot, as soon as I'm clear, take this bird back to Kumogakure, and you'd better make it...or there'll be Shinbatsu to pay." She crouched down to ruffle Masao's hair. "You would find a way out of this one, you bastard." Striding to the lip of the ramp, she checked that her Baretto was secure one final time, before spreading her arms out wide and turning about. With a parting two-fingered faux salute and wink to the Vice Commander, she simply shifted her weight backwards, effectively turning 360 degrees and walking away. She waited to see the Thunderhawk lazily double back in a wide loop, trailing smoke, before turning her attention to her fall.


IAT Raiden’s Breath, Car 18, Grand Conference Room
Central Kaminari no Kuni, 250km from the Capitol City
...1500 hours

Aside from an initial attempt to capture Amakusa Ryuu, the hijackers had not attempted yet to seize any of the faction leaders still occupying the conference room where up till a few minutes ago, they had been discussing the fate of the nation. In that meantime, they had managed to pile as much loose furniture as possible in front of the front access door, forming a makeshift barricade. The central table was simply far too heavy to move, and would be more valuable as concealment, anyway. But all in the room knew that the temporary reprieve was about to end.

“Sir, I hear their voices. They’re planning a breach. No idea where the Crown Prince is,” said Naoto now, lifting his head from the floor, through which he was able to eavesdrop via his earthsense.

“All who can fight, we need to stand united for this,” said Kouhei, gripping his blade and prompting nods from the other parties. “Anyone who cannot fight, please move to the rear. Countess Oishi, please guard the Chancellor.” Grudgingly, Ryuu and Daiki stepped back, as did Miyu and Ami along with Mizuki.

“Sir! They’re counting down,” said Naoto, moving into a battle stance, as the little glass window set in the door of the conference room now shattered with the impact of something that flew through it.

“Flashbang! Get DOWN!” roared Kouhei, recognizing the small metal canister that now bounced into the room. Too little time later, the canister now ignited with a deafening, disorienting explosion of light and sound that blanketed the entire room in agony. Even were the defenders to avert their eyes in time, the noise would surely temporarily deafen them, sending their equilibrium completely out of balance. And as predicted by military doctrine, the room breaching now began as a heavily armored pair of shock troopers now burst into the room, machine-bolters firing indiscriminately…

Immediately, one of the invading pair’s arms were both separated from their body at the elbows by a swing of Kouhei’s no-dachi, the folded metal of the marshal general’s sword easily cleaving through the ceramic plate and ballistic fiber arm guards. The other’s face-shield shattered into thousands of splinters as Sir Yui’s spiked kanabo smashed into it before going on to turn the man’s head into a slurry the consistency of pudding with the force of impact. As the two initial invaders now fell back, however, they were quickly replaced by four more heavy shock troops, who this time carried double-bladed war-axes. Kouhei narrowly managed to avoid having his head taken off but was bowled back by the force of the weapon as he parried it. Yui’s kanabo managed to land a hit on one of their knees, breaking it, but she was forced back by another axe blow, which opened up a crimson rent in the padding of her chest armor.

Naoto leapt forward now, his face grim as he intercepted an axe-blade with his metallic-stony hands and wrenched the weapon away before driving his hand like a blade into one of the invaders’ chests. Another invader now charged at Takumi, lofting the weapon high and snarling. The Admiral merely laughed before leveling one of his hand-arbalests at the attacker and pulling the trigger. Shock Trooper chest armor could protect against up to a .50 caliber bolt impact – the admiral’s particular hand-cannons shot a .998 caliber bolt, which ripped a hole as large as a fist in the attacker’s chest as well as various body parts of the three men behind him. Meanwhile, Kenta had drawn both of his swords, and traded swings and feints with another trooper, this one more lightly armored but clearly outfitted for speed and armed with a pair of electrified stun prods. Despite the heroic efforts of the nobles and bodyguards, the stream of attackers into the conference room now seemed impossible to stem. In the back, Mizuki fumbled as he attempted to reload his submachine crossbolter, finding that he had run out of ammunition.

“Milady! I know you’re not a warrior yourself, but we’re the last line of defense here!” he said, throwing the weapon away and drawing a small tanto from his belt. He now stepped in front of Ami, next to whom was huddled none other than Ryuu, who seemed to do naught but seethe at his recent betrayal. One of the shock troopers now approached, flail in hand, and bore down on Bakunin. The short little woman in front of him was an easy target. He swung his weapon at the countess...


IAT Raiden’s Breath, on top of Car 15
Central Kaminari no Kuni, 250km from the Capitol City
...1500 hours

With the sound of thumping feet, the Main Branch Hostage Rescue Team hit the upper deck of the Raiden’s Breath and rolled expertly to cover. Immediately, their glider’s elevators now angled sharply downward, and the transport leapt in the air, yawed to the side, and sped away from the chaos. The Vice Commander had not exaggerated when he had compared the train to a battleship on rails. Far from the normal, smoothly curved and featureless roof one might expect on a normal train, this one’s roof was a full-featured combat deck, complete with railings to the sides, metal corrugated flooring, and numerous nest positions where fire teams could place portable mounted arbalests to fire on attackers with within and without. Up to twenty meters wide, a single car stretched for almost fifty meters in length. The center of the car was dominated by what appeared to be one of the large, 155mm rooftop turret arbalestillery emplacements, as well as smaller emplacements that fired upwards and to the sides at the chaos of Imperial Army and Naval war vehicles that harassed the train from the ground and the air. The air was filled with a combination of smoke and the acrid odor of cordite and fuel, and each time the massive arbalest turret fired, the sudden release of its gigantic prods sent a deep booming wave of pressure past the shinobis’ faces.

Their arrival had not gone unnoticed, unfortunately for the HRT. Shouts of men were now interspersed with the sounds of heavy bolter fire, and projectiles whizzed by Rai and Haruka’s heads. Intermixed with the mechanical projectiles, occasional streaks of what could only be jutsu also flashed by, gouging holes in the metal where they hit. So it was true – there were probably some lower-ranked missing shinobi in with this bunch. It was only natural that they gravitate to Makoro, who was the strongest missing shinobi Cloud had ever encountered thus far.

“Turn the countermeasures on!” Haruka heard someone say. Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed a cluster of heavily-armored troopers running toward a small metal tower about twenty meters away. Emerging from the top were what looked like weathervanes, except these vanes seemed to spark and surge with...electricity.

“Adjust the main battery! Change to flechette rounds! Aim for their position!” Rai now heard as well. This was especially troublesome. Even if they could resist the electrification for a while, having a 155mm explosive arbalest bolt go off near them and release a literal shitsorm of tiny knives flying in every direction would certainly spell their doom indeed.

They needed to act, and act quickly.


IAT Raiden’s Breath, Car 9, Linen Service
Central Kaminari no Kuni, 250km from the Capitol City
...1500 hours

Shiranai held his breath as he rolled from one large container of laundry to another. Although he was by no means a powerful shinobi, he had still been trained in the fundamentals of stealth by the academy. Fortunately for him and genin accompanying him, this particular railcar offered plenty of concealment, with its gigantic washing and drying machines and liberal scattering of giant bins full of white or soiled linens, curtains, and uniforms. The constant wum-wum sounds of the machines served to add a luxurious cushion of sound concealment as well. They had heard voices and footfalls, and so they traversed the area carefully. Senna and Tama had scouted ahead, and as soon as they gave the clear signal, he crept up to them, crouching. As they slunk along the face of a washer, around the corner, in a little alcove, voices became audible.

“Come on, we don’t have time for this. The Count is getting mighty pissed that no one’s found the damn Prince yet,” said a soldier, pacing.

“Yeah, but Makoro told us that we can use whatever interrogation methods we want when we had hostages. So I’m going to screw it out of her,” replied another evilly, prompting a female whimper.

If Shiranai or the genin dared to take a peek around the corner, they would see four soldiers standing in a loose circle around a battered-looking servant girl on her knees on the floor. All of them were clad in armor suits, except for one of them, who appeared to be fumbling with the belt buckle on his pants. A shock of recognition would hit the shinobi who saw her. It was the same girl who had told them about the ring’s location. She looked considerably worse for wear, her face bruised, lip cut open, and clothing ripped and stained. Furtively, she tried to hold her torn blouse closed with one hand, while in the other she grasped at a symbol that Senna would easily recognize: a Tenouzan symbol.

“Do what you want. Don’t expect a part of the bonus when we’re the ones who capture Shiranai while you were diddling the maids,” said one of the group, signaling for the other two to follow. As they slowly started to walk off, the remaining soldier, the one fumbling with his belt, roughly grasped the girl’s wrist, yanking her upright. As she screamed and struggled, he dragged her over to a nearby table and roughly bent her over onto it. It did not take a leap of imagination for all of the shinobi witnesses to figure out what was going to happen next...


IAT Raiden’s Breath, on top of Car 12
Central Kaminari no Kuni, 250km from the Capitol City
...1500 hours

Shinrya Kitsune slowly and painfully opened her eyes first, lids sticky from the coagulated blood that covered them like a horrifying cosmetic treatment and left drying streaks of dark red down her face. As light now streamed in through the little slits through which she viewed the world, her hearing started to come back, at first only a slow, dull roar, but as her brain shook off the remaining vestiges of unconsciousness, the dull roar became a shrill one, like wind whipping by at great speed. Her body hurt all over, especially in places that she could not have imagined had pain-sensing neurons. Raising a hand in front of her, she saw now that it was also streaked with blood, but still moveable. Now, she regained a sense of where exactly she was.

She was still strapped into the jump seat that she had occupied only a few minutes earlier, except it had been turned in such a way that she stared up at the sky, which she could see through the holes in the torn and mangled fuselage of the glider... With a start, she realized that she was still in the glider. But hadn’t she just been preparing to leave it? That was right – it had started its dive toward the Raiden’s Breath, expertly weaving out of the path of hundred-millimeter diameter arbalest bolts launched at it, when suddenly, cries of an impending impact with another glider careening out of control had been followed by a crashing sound, everything going white, and then complete blackness. She looked around for the other mednin who had been with her. The others had... Died, she concluded, casting a gaze over the two bloody, broken bodies in the seats next to hers. Hinote was nowhere to be seen. But considering the size of the holes in the fuselage, it was likely he’d been sucked out of one, or more accurately, blown out of one in the crash. But where was this wreckage now? Based on the fact that she felt the rumbling of a train under her seat, and the fact that the sky overhead seemed to be moving, and the wind blowing in her ears, she could only come up with one conclusion. She had crashed on top of the Raiden’s Breath.

Suddenly, the sound of voices and boots stomping on metal greeted her ears.

“Check this one for survivors! If you find any, execute them immediately! We can’t have any loose ends!” she heard someone say. This was immediately followed by the revving of cutting saws, and the grating whine of rotary teeth against metal. They were coming for her, she realized, and not only that, but she was trapped. The webbing of tangled belts prevented her legs from moving, and a solid chunk of metal laid over her torso, freeing only one arm. If she stayed like this, she would be helpless, even as a shinobi. She only had a minute to act...


IAT Raiden’s Breath, Car 5, Coolant Storage
Central Kaminari no Kuni, 250km from the Capitol City
...1500 hours

“Nyet! The way is completely blocked. I cannot force this door open,” said Reina, angrily kicking against the metal surface of the blast door that had shut in their faces and interrupted her and Horo Danshi’s mad dash toward the others. They had just reached the end of this particular railcar, this one keeping in line with the poorly-lit, grungy, and oppressive mechanical motif of the front end of the train. This area seemed to be devoted to housing many oblong metal tanks, whose thick glass observation windows showed them to be holding a sloshing, glowing green liquid. From these tanks issued a plethora of pipes, valves, and wires with no apparent plan or organization. The catwalks overhead seemed to be for traversing the area more easily from above. As Horo and his would-have-been partner to join the 60-kilometer-per-hour club pondered what to do, suddenly voices and footfalls from the catwalk above. “Sssh!” said Reina, dragging Horo into a gap between the tanks, shrouded in inky shadow.

“I am sorry, my lord, we have not been able to find the Crown Prince yet,” said a soldier ahead to an unknown other.

“You mean to say ‘I am sorry that I am a lazy scumbag who cannot do his job properly,’ yes?!” responded another voice, this one with a slightly mechanical quality to it, as if it had been subtly but indelibly warped by chaos and evil. The soldier did not respond. “Are you familiar with the concept of ingestion through defecation?”

“I...uh...” responded the man.

“I’ve created a few human centipedes over the years. You take three or four subjects, select a head subject, and then fasten the others’ mouths to the head’s anus, repeating until you reach the tail. You feed the head via the mouth, and the body segments feed on the digested matter of the previous segment ahead of it, down to the subject used for the tail. They always die in the end. But I try anyway, because maybe one day it’ll work. So if you’re going to be a lazy little turd, I might want to make you the tail as opposed to the head. I’m sure Makoro will accede to my little request. Do you get my drift?!” said Count Seiji Souta, now stepping into view above Horo and Reina, who resisted the urge to gasp mightily as she saw his face. Although the count’s original appearance had never been handsome, this one was positively ghastly to behold. The lower half of his face had been replaced by what looked like a reticulated, alien-appearing maw that bore sharp, glistening fangs from which thick, clear mucus dripped regularly. The man’s tongue had been replaced by a snake-like protrusion that seemed to also have its own fanged mouth and moved independently, suggesting that his voice was being supplied via some other means. Tentacles and tubes writhed from other locations on his face and torso, lending him a shoggoth-like appearance.

“Yes sir! We will redouble our efforts to locate The Crown Prince! We’re breaching the conference room as we speak. Once we have interrogated the nobles, we will use them to assist our capture efforts.”

“Very well. After we’ve located the Prince, you may dispose of all of them. Makoro only wants Shiranai, anyway,” said Souta, shrugging. Another soldier new stepped into view, his hands on a portable radio.

“My lord! I’ve gotten confirmation that Kumogakure has deployed multiple shinobi against us! A large force of ANBU and Main Branch Elites are attempting to board us! They’re hiding themselves amongst the Imperial Army formation that’s harassing us right now!” said the soldier breathlessly to Souta.

“That is not a concern, soldier,” said Souta dismissively, starting to walk again.

“Sir, with all due respect, may we ask why?”

“Because that’s what I planned for them to do. Some of those shinobi will invariably attempt to disable this train by shutting down or sabotaging the engine, the main driveshaft, or the reactor itself. But as soon as they do so, they will be in for a big surprise. I’ve had those gloppy-headed engineers on board reroute all systems so that any attempt to tamper with the drive system or shut down our weapons systems will immediately withdraw all boron control rods from the reactor at once. Instant nuclear meltdown,” he cackled. “Of course, I planned to have this done shortly before we reached the Capitol, but if it has to blow early to kill off some troublesome shinobi, then so be it.”

As Souta walked off, he chortled noisily. Reina looked at Horo, her eyes concerned.

“Bliad! If what he says is true, your friends might kill all us by accident! We need to warn them!"

Jesus Saito, I have way too much time on my hands. I could've been like, solving world hunger or something, but instead I'm writing mahou shoujo/shounen adventures. I'd like to credit Gin and Moro for writing a section of this with me!

In any case, situation is as follows:

1. ANBU Operatives are falling toward the RB and have become scattered in the process. I will leave it up to the individual player to choose where and how he/she lands, and if they are close to anyone else (you can resolve this through PM or IRC with each other), and what the resistance is going to be like. Fortunately, the Main Branchers have taken a lot of heat that may distract the hijackers on board from noticing your descent, if you want to play it like that. Concentrate on trying to link back up with each other to fulfill your goals.

2. Main Branchers have had a successful insertion and are next to each other. Unfortunately, your arrival has been noticed and you are pinned down by heavy enemy fire and jutsu use (you can assume there are some lower-level genin/low chuunin strength chakra users among the enemy). They are also going to try to electrify the rooftop and also smoke you out with heavy artillery fire.

3. Mednin: So Hinote posted pretty quickly in the exit thread, so I didn't have time to account for everything he wrote. Basically, Kitsune, your situation remains the same. For Hinote, you were on the transport with Kitsune but due to the midair crash with the other craft, you have been ejected from the glider and Kitsune assumes you are dead. I will leave it up to you where and how you decide to land and what the resistance is around you. You can assume that the other teams have your scroll clones.

(For the other teams, you may use them as you see fit - think of them as emergency medpacks if I decide to injure you for stupidity because of plot reasons.)

4. Bakunin: You are desperately trying to repel a heavily-armed breaching attempt of the conference car with the other nobles. Although most of them can hold their own in a fight, this cannot last forever. You will need to find some way ideally to 1) save your own skin and 2) help the others repel boarders. You may use whatever technique or tactics you wish for this. You have no idea where Shiranai/the genin/Horo are.

5. Tama/Senna: You probably should consider saving the servant girl from a special sort of evil. She may help you guys out if you do. Assume that the other soldiers have left and cannot hear/see what you do to the one remaining, unless of course you cause a massive explosion or something.

6. Horo Danshi: You are still accompanied by Admiral Reina and are hiding in the coolant car. Count Seiji has inadvertently leaked some information that could be extremely important. You do have your headset on you, BTW. Are you willing to risk giving up your position/secrecy to warn the others? Do you want to direct them to meet somewhere? Are they even going to believe you? I mean, I guess the alternative is that we all put on our helmets and go live in Smoking Crater Gakure after the meltdown. Oh Horo Horo Day!

 

[Tagiushi Moro]

Moro plummeted headfirst after Gin, robes whipping and snapping behind him, soon realizing that with the drag that his robes created, he would never catch her before impact. The robe, and more importantly, the contents of its many pockets was something he desperately wanted to keep. Righting himself, he concentrated on making the drop in one piece, summoning his mask with one hand. Since the outer carapace of the Raiden's Breath was almost entirely metallic, he realized that not only would he, but also operative Natsumi could potentially fare better than the others.

Using all of his concentration to generate two positive magnetic poles in each of his feet, he tried to make the general surface area of the train car he was speeding towards the same. He drew dangerously near to the train before his decent was slowed whatsoever, and so he upped the polarity in his legs, stopping him abruptly, even hovering a few inches off the surface of the train. Unfortunately, the train kept moving. Moro simply banana peel slid, or rather was pushed off in the direction of the edge of the car roof, before deactivating the polarity in his legs. Now carrying unwanted lateral momentum, he rolled several times as he scrabbled recklessly for purchase. Somehow finding an errant railing, his body snapped out fully, perpendicular to the train, before he crashed with a heavy THUNK against the side of the car, leaving a sizable dent. He gasped as the air left his lungs with the force of impact. He pulled himself fully onto the roof of the car through sheer willpower; where he collapsed, choking down whatever air he could find. His rotator was throbbing sharply, as was each expansion of his chest. At least now he was on board the train. Safe, (a train powered by unknown volatile means, barreling at a breakneck 60 knots towards a densely populated city with no intention of stopping, hijacked by rogue shinobi that he was supposed to neutralize.) and sound. (other than maybe a cracked rib or two and no allies in sight.)

[ooc: this can be oocly tweaked if anyone has a particularly nifty idea hit me up!]

 

[Kogami Ayumu]

Sitting in his seat of the glider, Ayumu had been talkative for a while before they neared their destination. As they drew close, he grew silent and began making last minute checks of his equipment. Inside, his stomach felt full of butterflies as excitement rose and he struggled to stop from laughing like a giddy child. A giant grin was plastered across his face, thankfully hidden by his mask lest the others think him crazy. He wasn't, really, just a bit of an adrenaline junkie. The one-eyed ANBU spoke, reporting to the Vice Commander that the enemy was killing innocents, a fact Ayumu had to work not to let kill his buzz. He thought that he might actually go out of his way to kill a few if he could, now that he had heard that. Ayumu crossed one leg over the other and leaned back comfortably, though he knew in a moment they would be landing. Just as the ANBU Captain Morishima turned back to look at the trainees, a violent explosion shook the craft and jarred Ayumu from his seat, going so far as to toss him to the ground.

"They got us?!" he shouted as he pushed himself back up to his feet and moved to a wall to hold on to a strap. Morishima called out to the pilot who confirmed what was fairly obvious by the shaking of the entire craft. Eru spoke up, revealing what could be even worse news as Ayumu looked upon the unconscious body of the Vice Commander. 'Ah, shit...' Ayumu thought, scratching the back of his head at a loss for words. The new head of the mission asked for idea, of which Ayumu was fresh out. That was when his male sempai, Moro, spoke up with an "idea" Ayumu could only admire. It was true, they really only had one option. Gin seemed as though she wanted to object to the idea, but could not. As she spoke to him and the other trainee, Ayumu realized that he was grinning once more. Eru produced one final objection, but Morishima had already decided and began to give instructions.

Although Ayumu had already begun to step forward to go first, he stepped back to follow orders and watched as the ramp opened. At the same time, Gin lost her balance only to be caught barely by Moro's hand. Ayumu could see but not hear her whisper something inaudible to Moro before pulling her hand away and dropping, with Moro going right after her. He hoped they would be okay. Barely waiting for the allotted ten seconds, Ayumu sprinted towards probable death and jumped, pulling in his arms and legs in a cannonball. "Yahoooooo~" As he plummeted through the air, he caught sight of both Gin and Moro making their landing further down the train and counted the cars between them and where he expected to land.

He braced for the impact and rolled as soon as he hit the train car's roof. His momentum carried him past his initial landing point near the front of the car and he continued rolling uncontrollably as the train moved in the opposite direction underneath him. As he tumbled down the length of the car, he managed to latch his grappling hook on to a rail and grasped hold of the rope which slid through his gloves so fast he could feel the heat through them. He slowed and finally stopped, sprawled out with his legs hanging over the other end between two cars. Sitting up, he let out a sigh of relief and then gave the rope a quick whipping motion to dislodge the hook from the rail and reeled it back in strapping it to his belt in a loop once more. Landing successful!

Judging by the fact that they had been moving in the same direction as the train, and that they had taken turns jumping with a delay of 10 seconds, he figured that he and the other trainee would have landed between where Hoshiko and Tagiushi had landed and where Morishima and Eru had landed. Since they were headed for the front of the train, the first to jump would be farthest from the front and the last to jump would be closest. Ayumu pulled his legs up on to the car and got on his feet, though he remained crouched in order to minimalize his visibility. Putting a hand up to his ear, he pushed the button on his headset to speak to the rest of the ANBU, assuming they had headsets (of course they did).

"This is Kogami. Did everyone make it? Hoshiko-sempai, Tagiushi-sempai, you should have landed a bit further down the train than Motomiya and I. I'll hold here until you can reach this spot, then we can meet up with Morishima-taichou and Eru-sempai further ahead. Basically, pick us each up as you reach us on the way til we've all regrouped. Sounds good?" he suggested, while hoping that all those meant to hear his message were still alive to hear it. Of course, if one of his superiors had a better plan he was ready to act on it. He looked around, wondering where exactly Motomiya had landed. He imagined the other trainee would be close. In hindsight, it might have been a good idea to synchronize their jumps. The sound of a door between the cars opening surprised Ayumu and he took a step back from the edge, putting a hand on his sword. Hopefully it wasn't somebody coming to investigate.

Spoiler

TLDR: Ayumu lands, sliding across top of roof and uses grappling hook to stop himself. He suggests via radio that Gin/Moro head towards the front of the train picking each of us ANBU/trainees/NPCs up on the way.

 

[Umeki Rai]

Fortunately for the Hostage Rescue Team, the trip to the train had been primarily uneventful. Their glider maneuvered itself perfectly and the Jounins were able to find themselves on board without much of an issue. Unfortunately, they landed right in what appeared to be one of the heaviest areas in terms of manned defense. Henchmen all around were making it their goal to make life hell for the two shinobi, but it would most likely only end in pain for them. These men should be no match for such high caliber ninjas.

The first thing Rai did was follow the Medical Chief's instructions and release the scroll, using the gem to restore his chakra. He assumed the clone would just take cover with them for now, so he didn't worry about it. The clone was supposed to operate on it's own anyway.

Afterwards, Rai quickly went through his options. His first thought was to look for a possible way to escape to the inside of the train because such a feat would kill two birds with one stone. They would be able to escape the opposition, and they would be closer to completing their mission. The problem was that even if they got inside, the henchmen would surely follow. The battle would then continue inside the train, which was a battle that Rai did not want to fight. If they took care of the enemy right now, it would probably save them a lot of trouble later when they search the train for the hostages.

With this in mind, he quickly formulated a plan. They needed to take out the men heading to tower as a number one priority. Electrifying the train would be bad news for Rai, who had no defense against electric current. He did, however, briefly think about trying to shut down the tower with a lightning jutsu, but thought better of it in case the logistics of that attack would end in the train exploding. After quickly finishing the plan in his mind, he made a move to act. There was no time to explain to Haruka that he was going to take out the men heading for the tower, leaving himself possibly exposed to the turret but also eliminating the threat of an electrified train, but he kinda hoped she would catch on.

Reaching into his pocket, he quickly found what he was looking for. Taking a VERY brief glance over his head to measure distance, Rai threw the smoke bombs over to where the turret was. The train was moving at high speeds, so the smoke would surely clear out very quickly, leaving Rai only a snap of the fingers to reach the men. Luckily, moving quickly was his specialty. In one fluid motion, Rai unsheathed his dagger and leaped through the air towards the henchmen just as the smoke bomb went off. Quickly, he sprinted, covering the ground in an instant. If any attacks were launched by the enemy, he would attempt to flash behind them and quickly take them out. If not, he would unleash a flurry of basic Taijutsu attacks both unarmed and with his dagger on the men, with the focus being to eliminate any possibly resistance in the form of killing or knocking them out. The difference was irrelevant at this point.

Spoiler

1. Use smoke bomb to distract
2a. Attempt to take out henchmen and ninja heading to the tower
2b. If attack is made on Rai, use Flash Counter and attack dudes from behind

 

[Hoshiko Gin]

Her body twisted and turned, fighting for control against the powerful air currents rushing past her. Finally, stabilizing, she could see she was closing in with Moro not far behind. And they were both falling. Fast. Never before had she realized, those dreams of falling through the sky had been brought to life. However, she had always planned on having a parachute slapped tightly onto her back.

Formulating a last minute course of action, mere yards from impact, she went into action. With her left hand, she pushed her mask to cover the back of her head.

"Don't fail me now." A powerful gust emitted from her mouth [Wind Release R2], following a hasty set of hand seals, cutting most of the force she would feel in hitting the hunk of mobile metal at such high speeds. She landed ungracefully on her back with a light "tink" just before Moro's impact one car back, pulling her hand to her chest, Gin sought air with a few coughs and wheezes (and holding back pained whimpers), only taking a short second to recoup. The woman stood to seek out Moro, pulling her mask back around to both conceal her identity and genuine concern. To her relief, he had made it, though the severity of his impact brought her distinct worry.

Looking around for their adversaries, she hopped sorely over to stand beside him and reached down to offer a hand to help him up. "You alright..? Glad you made it in one piece." Whether he took it or not, she proceeded in turning her back to him moments later. "And... thanks.."

Just then, there was crackling message from her headset. "Blasted thing must have been damaged in the fall.." Grumbled Gin, forcing the earpiece further to her ear to decipher the message. To her understanding, the trainee had suggested they all meet and hold positions until they were reunited.

"Affirmative; although *crackle* not hold *buzz* understood? *wacklecracklesilence*"

And then her feed came back in and out again, before she finally gave it up as a lost cause: "We'll cat--- time"

"You caught that, right?" She asked Moro, hoping they had a least one reliable headset between the two. Her eyes were ever watchful for the Hayata grunts, however all seemed diverted towards the main branch for now; which was why their haste in catching up to their unit was of upmost importance. Or to, at the very least, meet up with an HRT squad or Mednin on site.

Spoiler

Infusing chakra into their breath, the user is able to blow air from their mouth to manipulate the force of air around them. While not condensed enough to cause harm, the force of this gust is more than enough to clear the surrounding area of distractions and lingering hazards, such as smoke or flames.

Information
Prerequisites: C Rank

Rank 1: Creates powerful gust of wind that dispels effects that obscure the fields visibility. This also may dispel maintained Lightning D Rank and Below jutsu with a contested Ninjutsu check.
Master: Creates powerful gust of wind that dispels effects that obscure the fields visibility. This also may dispel maintained Lightning/Dust/Vapor jutsu C Rank and Below jutsu with a contested Ninjutsu check.

Cost: 560 Cp, with an additional +10% Cp cost for every jutsu attempted to dispel.

Notes:
- This may be used once per round.
- Effects that obscure the field refer to things such as Smoke bombs, Hidden Mist, Sandstorm Veil, and so on. This does not effect Level A+ effects.
- Dispelling any jutsu requires a Ninjutsu check between the user and the user of the contested technique. The user has a -2 penalty against B Rank effects.
- Dispelling smoke bombs is automatic, and prevents their effects from taking place for a full round.

 

[Shinrya Kitsune]

As Kitsune slowly woke up from the unconscious state that she had been in not moments before, her brain slowly pieced together what had happened. The glider had crashed. She was trapped underneath it. And apparently, she had injured herself during the crash.¬ The sticky blood had made that all too clear to her. Then there were the voices barking orders to cut the wreckage apart and finding survivors and killing them. That was definitely something that Kitsune didn’t like the sound of. So she started struggling as quietly as possible to get her other arm free.

After a few minutes of struggling she got her arm free and she then formed the handseals to the jutsu Ionic Laser, which she used to cut off the bit of wreckage keeping her pinned down, and to make a hole into the train’s hull. From what she could see, she had made a hole into the ventilation shafts. She could use that to her advantage, as her eyes allowed her to warp to other places, she could warp inside there.
Kitsune then remembered the chemicals she had brought and checked the vials. They were still intact. So she took a few of the vials and placed them in the wreckage so that upon shattering, they’d set off an explosion, and she’d be hiding in the ventilation shafts, out of the goons reach.

The instant she could, she warped inside the vents, and aimed another Ionic Laser out of the hole, and directly at the chemicals, hitting them and igniting them, only to make them explode in the wreckage.
*I really hope this works enough to distract those nutcases.* she thought and started making her way towards the front of the train, hoping to reunite with some of the other members of the mission, especially Hinote, the med-nin chief that had been swept out of the glider during the crash somehow.

 

[Morishige]

Haruka's feet met with the roof of the car with a thud, one of her hands pushing her bangs out of her eyes so she could get a good look of what they were dealing with. As their best chance of retreat turned away to safety, Haruka's bright blue eyes widened at the opposition before her. "Ahh-" she caught herself, looking around. Only one other member of the HRT? "Why didn't they summon more..." Haruka asked herself, letting her mind wander to one sub-obvious conclusion. She had no doubt the knowledge of her little outbreaks got to the ears of the main branch Sennin, but were they actually going to rely on Tomomi? Or… she was over thinking it, and it was merely a personnel oversight; budget cuts maybe. Her eyes returned to the battlefield before the duo. Things weren't good, and that was a blatant understatement.

A giant turret sat in the middle of the car, which was obviously the most immediate threat. It could probably rip them apart in seconds. Thankfully, the chosen transportation to the scene had given them precious moments to survey further. Beside the smaller weapons focused on the army and navy, men began to flood the deck with handheld weapons. Haruka quickly began to retreat to a nearby side turret hoping that it would be too preoccupied with fire elsewhere to turn to face her. If it did, well, she would move behind another causing friendly fire? She was gonna use the turret to hide behind as the men swarming the deck began firing at her while the sub-par shinobi's jutsu flashed past her. Her heart was hurting with pressure as she sat immobile behind the turret. BOOM! The giant turret shot again; Haruka's ears rang slightly. The situation only had one outcome, and Haruka sighed because she knew just what she had to do. ”Tomomi-“

But her thoughts were interrupted by a man's voice. "Counter measures?" she said, peering to the side of the turret. It was something that Masao had mentioned before, the hull was capable of being electrified. Haruka hated the feeling of electricity jutsu, so this would be an annoyance at best, but as that giant turret turned to face her and her companion... fear took hold of her, and Haruka froze, eyes wide. Her partner was en route with a plan in mind, but she just sat there...

Then, something that should perhaps have been ominous, came to comfort her... "I told you Haruka. You will always need me."

Those electric blue eyes turned to flaming red orbs of power, and her skin took a turn for the worse. As Haruka, began to slip away, the seals on her neck and chest began to dissipate into her skin. Her hair turned ebony as she drew upwards to take in the situation under a new perspective. As if a few rounds contacted with her skin, her skin morphed into a hardened substance taking on a green tinge. The combination of her solar and gaia seal worked perfected at keeping her physical being safe. Suddenly, just out of the blue, she clapped her hands together with a creepy little smile. "This is child's play! Let's have a little fun why don't we!!" She called out in a dark tone as she leaped forward, prepared to take on a new form.

As her arms shifted into giant jagged blades, Tomomi jumped through the air, straight down the middle of the car, arms spread out wide ready to cut in half anyone stupid enough to get in their way. Her eyes focused on one thing, and one thing only, and if anyone stepped in her way, they would be sliced in down the middle. There was one weapon on his train that actually posed a threat to her, and it needed to be destroyed. As she landed a few feet away, she laughed maniacally as it began to target. As several more rounds bounced off her skin, she lifted one of the giant arms in the air, ready to take a chance at cleaving the machine in two. As she prepared to thrust her arm downward, she hesitated in a moment of inspiration, Tomomi grinned. "Why don’t we see just who has the bigger stick!” she shouted as both her arms shifted into halves of a giant barrel, mimicking that on the turret itself. Jumping into the air, she clapped her morphed appendages together and they seamlessly combined into one massive cannon. "EAT SHIT AND DIE!" she cried as a flash of bright light drenched the area in chakra byproduct. Within her arm itself a chakra rapidly proceeded down the tube, barreling towards the arbalest.

Spoiler

Let's see, if I were to battle system this up...

Haruka taking cover: Enter Stealth (meh)
Tomomi: Abom Tech: Psychotic Affliction Active
Two giant sword arms and skin: Abom Tech: Partial Transformation: Giant Blades = Gaia's Damage Reduction and Solar's Health Regeneration
Le giant double armed cannon: Abom Tech: Malevolent Annihilation otherwise known as Kamehameha

And with a conditional if something potentially harmful that Tomomi or Haruka would notice, Abom Tech: Accursed Protection to use a shield to defend.

 

[Oishi Shichimenchou]

Let me recap the day thus far for those of us joining us mid-story.

Earlier in the day I had been sent a notice to report for duty. I had expected to be assigned to do paperwork at the gates. My expectations turned to be incorrect as I was conscripted into a mission as a diplomatic representative of Kumogakure in talks regarding the current succession crisis. Said discussions had taken a brief tea break when I received a love letter from one of the other nobles, a baron. I had been halfway through a blackberry scone when the current attack began. Today has been a confusing day, but such is the life of a bureaucratic in the village hidden in the clouds.

Instinctively I dodged the attacking soldier, leaving in my place a wooden plank with a crudely drawn image of myself on it. It was the best that I could do after having my senses dulled from the earlier bomb.

I pulled my rapier out and lunged towards my would-be attacker. Rapiers rely primarily on thrusts and lunges, as opposed to the common slashing of the peasant's sword. This meant I was in something of a pickle due to the tight fighting quarters we found ourselves in. I could hardly put much strength behind one of my lunges unless I had more room to move around in and would quickly be beaten if I relied on my sword alone.

Which means it is a good thing I wasn't relying on my sword alone!

With my off hand I began to perform a one handed hand seal. I was attempting to use an ink ninjutsu to summon as much of the ink in the room into my hand. When a sufficient amount has been lifted from nearby pieces of paper I would form several pellets and throw it towards the eyes of our attackers. Upon contact the pellets should splatter and leave some of the attackers blinded, even if only temporarily as they wiped the ink off their eyes.

The Viscount was correct in saying that I wasn't a warrior, but that didn't mean I didn't know a trick or two on how to survive combat. I was quite proficient in the usage of ink and paper jutsus as a matter of need.

After finishing my initial lunge and throwing my ink pellets I would begin a second technique. This time I would motion the nearby pieces of paper to surround the Chancellor Ami as a makeshift shield. I had no way of knowing where the Prince was, which meant that the Chancellor was the highest priority in protecting. I could be replaced, the Daimyo's and Admiral's death would actually be beneficial, and the General seemed more than capable of saving his own skin. The Chancellor was replaceable too, but only if the Prince was safely secured. Till then her safety weighed higher than my own.

Assuming that my lunge, ink pellets, and paper shield succeeded, I would position myself in front of the now-hopefully shielded Chancellor to act as a second shield for her.

"CHANCELLOR!" I growled, "COULD I PERCHANCE BORROW YOUR MAKE UP KIT?"

Yes, I was yelling. Not because I was angry, but because in battle you tend to need to yell to get heard. And yes, I had asked for the Chancellor's make up kit. I needed its contents for a jutsu, and I could use a new coating of lipstick.

 

[Hyoujin]

Heat. The only thing Hinote could feel as he was propelling forward towards the train inside part of the transport that had been blown off with him. Thinking fast, the aeon shifted out of the dimension of the world for a split second to break free from the debree. But now there was another problem, how was he going to reach the train before he fell to his death? He formed a small amount of handseals and created a clone which was used to help launch Hinote forward towards the speeding bullet. As he was about to make impact, he realized that he wasn't going to make it on top of the train. Instead he would smack right in the side. Hinote's body begun to shift in and out of the world, trying to calculate how time the phase so he could land inside the train without being stuck inside the side of the train. He had made it, barely, inside the train where he collided with a guard that had been in a not so favorable spot for him, knocking the man unconscious for the time being. This, however, alerted the other guard that was in the same cart. Thinking quickly, Hinote lunged towards the guard. While doing so, a tendril of chakra began to grow out from his back, which proceeded to wrap itself around the guards neck swinging Hinote over top and behind him. When he landed, Hinote placed his hand on the metal ground, bending the metal to suck in the man's legs making him unable to move. The guard, confused but not useless of his hands, formed a series of handseals which had caused the hair on his body to become spikes, shooting at Hinote. He tried his best to block, however Hinote took a full hit of the attack.

"Interesting." Hinote made his hand into what would seem like a spear and plunged it into the skull of the man who only let out a cry of pain for a split second before his life had ended. Hinote pulled out his now closed hand and flicked away the brain matter that was inside. His body seemed to instantly heal from the wounds, and not a single mark was left on his clothing. "I was hoping to save that for you boss, now I only have two left." A shattering noise had been heard from behind Hinote, causing him to turn around to see that the door leading to the next cart had been frozen solid and then kicked down by another guard who seemed to be summoning some type of ice jutsu, judging by the chakra that was being emitted from his body. Judging by the chakra particles, the attack seemed to be nearing full completion. However, it seemed to be scatted all over the place in the cart, some type of area move perhaps to keep Hinote from escaping? "You should try harder than that, human." Hinote formed a quick set of seals with his hands, creating a hot burst of solar winds from his body which begun to counter the move of the guard's area of effect jutsu. The two jutsus clashed, causing sparks to bounce around everywhere in the cart as if a series of fireworks had been set off. "Interesting, I want to know how that works." He said as the jutsus dissipated into nonexistence. "Show me how that works." He said with a sinister smile from behind his wrapped face. He held up one arm in the air, which seemed to knock the man to the side of the cart, pinning him there unable to create jutsu or move. With his free hand, Hinote placed his index and middle fingers to the side of the man's skull and moved it slowly. The man let out horrendous screams of agony as Hinote sliced the top part of the man's skull off to show his brain. Hinote walked up slowly to the pinned man and looked over his brain, interested at first, but then disappointed.

"Nothing special, you're not worth salvaging." He said in a deadpan voice, releasing the dead man from the wall. Hinote pulled out the third scroll he had saved and broke the gem to restore a tiny amount of chakra and then opened the scroll to release the clone. It was a young women, no more than 20 years of age looking, with long red hair and emerald eyes. She wore of a standard white medical coat like everyone else in the hospital.

"Yes master?" She said an emotionless voice.

"There were only three men here in these carts, which means that the bulk of the forces are on the other sides of us, closer towards the other. No doubt they will need my help. Not to mention the fact that my little show here probably caused enough noise to grab the attention of at least a handful or more of soldiers that will be coming this way. Ai, stay here and set up 4 Class A barriers on both sides of the cart to keep anyone out. Keep applying the barriers if you are met with force until you are programmed to run out of chakra. We need to use this cart as a fall back point should we need to. Let any Cloud Shinobi if they request it. Do NOT tend to their wounds if you are going to lose the barrier."

"Yes master."

Hinote took the scroll off from his back and unraveled it a bit to summon a headset which he placed on his head and began to radio in to the group. "This is Hinote. I have made it inside Raiden's Breath and have been met with only minimal resistance. I assume that the rest of the army is somewhere near your positions however I need you to tell me where your at and what type of help you need. I was blown away from the transport unit and visuals on everyone. If you can hear this and you are alive, give me your location as best possible. If do make it inside and you come across a cart that is blocked by a barrier with a medical clone inside, call her by the name Ai and she will let you through. I will be making my way through the train disguised as one of the guards I have killed to help blend in until I hear back from you all." With that said. Hinote walked over to the guard that was knocked out when Hinote crashed into and took a good look at him, making sure that he wouldn't miss any details when transforming. Satisfied with his assessment. He stomped on the man's head, killing him. Hinote took on the appeared of the man and opened up the door to the next cart, stepping through to the other side and closed the door. When it shut, Ai began to make the arrangements to seal off both sides of the cart with two barriers on each side.


((Tried to leave the cart description as vague as possible I didn't really get a chance to ask where everyone else was and how far out I was from everyone before I left for the night. So if things are off Masao, just ignore stuff you don't like that I wrote. I assure you things will go much more smoothly this time since you will be able to enorperate me into the next post. Also sorry for any grammar or spellling errors it's 7AM and I'm freakin tired.))
Actions

Spoiler

Clone self and launch into the train using super awesome Temporal Strider hacks to warp self into it.
Collide with a guard and knock him out.
RP flair tendril with Temporal Strider hacks to phase into another guard's head and kill him.
Renewal (1/3 used for mission), to void out damage taken.
Solar Winds against ice guard to counter jutsu.
Kinesis chakra to hold up man to wall and slice open his head.
Summon Clone
Use headset to ask Masao if the others are inside yet and what type of help they need.

Cone Actions: Barrier x4

 

[Takaki Saeko]

For Senna/Tama and Horo, since you haven't posted, I'm essentially suspending time for you guys and moving everyone else along. For now, this is fine because your actions don't directly affect what the others have done. Go ahead and post what you were going to post to the previous mod post to catch up, and I'll eventually bring you all up to speed with the others.

"A Hero's Legacy" from the Space Marine OST​

IAT Raiden’s Breath, on top of Car 15
Central Kaminari no Kuni, 235km from the Capitol City
...1515 hours

Rai’s grenade flew through the air, its timed fuse activating the detonator right before it hit the ground. The instant reaction of white phosphorus flakes with air sent brilliant plumes of yellow and white in all directions like an ethereal starfish whose tendrils incinerated men on contact and spread a thick cloud of noxious smoke over the surroundings. Technically it was illegal in Lightning Country to use such devices against humans, but shinobi did not follow the traditional rules of warfare. With the distraction created by the smoke, the Main Branchers now rushed forward. Haruka sprinted forward, taking rounds in her torso that she did not feel or care about, her arm blades cutting some men in half where they stood, firing at her in vain. One of them, a moody-looking missing Cloud genin of the Uchiha branch, started to activate his Sharingan in an attempt to stop her, only to have the long metal appendages slice through those eyes and take off the top half of his head. The body fell off the side of the moving railcar, bounced on the ground, and was sucked into the undercarriage where the wheels turned it into a cloud of red mist. One traitor down, with many more to go.

The stiletto point of Rai’s fighting dirk plunged into the small of one man’s back up to the hilt, and with a quick flick of his wrist, the jounin severed the aorta, causing a spurt of blood to rocket out and drench his hand. Whipping the knife out of his victim and changing to a pakal grip, Rai immediately dodged a bayonet thrust aimed at his face, using his free hand to grab the crossbolter and pull the attacker toward him, where he answered the attack with a horizontal slash that opened both carotids. A sudden blow to his abdomen knocked the jounin to the floor, where he rolled quickly to avoid a slashing blow from a bladed chain that rent a large gash in the metal plating. As he regained his footing, he saw that his opponent was likely another missing nin, as seen from the scratched-out NeoKonoha symbol on his forehead protector. The missing grinned evilly as he started to swing the chain faster and faster, its course becoming unpredictable. Slowly, Rai started to back away as the missing advanced, savoring the moment before the kill. When the attack came, the jounin suddenly ducked, parrying upward and sending the chain awry, where it wrapped around the exposed spines of the electrification tower. Before the missing could retract, Rai now threw a nearby switch, turning the current on. As arcs of blinding blue fire coursed around the missing’s body, it jerked wildly, still holding the chain that connected spire to human, before suddenly bursting into flames. One more traitor down.

Haruka’s chakra blast fired down the barrel of the arbalest turret just as the massive prods swung forward to send the Killer Junior round speeding toward her at over five thousand feet per second. The metal top of the turret seemed to split open like a rupturing grape as the twin explosions traveled out of their confined spaces, peeling the turret’s barrel into thin strips as if it were a banana. And that was before the shock wave hit that smashed into the jounin, hurling her backwards and almost embedding her into the metal flooring of the train. Her body had been rendered impervious to most damage by her seals, but the left side of her face now ached for some reason, and as she rubbed it, she figured out why: the fleshy part of her mouth had been torn wide open, giving her the leering visage of a Glasgow smile.

Situation: Rai and Haruka have cleared the upper deck of Car 15 of all opposition, and have disabled the electrification systems and main turret. Where the turret was, there is now a large, gaping hole on top of the train with a clear path to the heavily-damaged interior. You are now free to plan your next actions in your posts, as well as communicate with others

IAT Raiden’s Breath, Car 18, Grand Conference Room
Central Kaminari no Kuni, 235km from the Capitol City
...1515 hours

With a sickening crunch, the flail’s spiked head crashed into Bakunin’s head – that is, the head crudely painted on the kwarimi target she had switched herself with just for this sort of occasion, shattering the wooden dummy into thousands of tiny splinters. The real Countess had managed to roll away, drawing her espada and parrying another blow. This was enough to buy her time to exert her jutsu on all documentation in the room, which became blank as ink and pigment lifted off the pages and coalesced into small, suspended orbs that flew through the air like birdshot and peppered the attackers’ faces and helmets, blinding them. It was enough for Sir Yui, wounded and grappling on the floor with a knife point merely millimeters from her neck, to take advantage of the confusion and kick her opponent off before performing a coup de grace with her kanabo, glistening with sticky crimson. The ink blinding was also enough for General Kouhei, his no-dachi broken down to the hilt, to sink his shattered weapon into an invader’s throat, leaving it there. And for Bakunin, it was enough for her to make an admittedly imperfect lunge that found a gap in the flail-swinging heavy shock trooper’s armor and plunged into his warm gore, dropping him.

“Keep at it! They’re starting to waver!” shouted Kouhei, kicking another attacker to the ground, which was followed by the twin reports of Takumi’s hand-arbalests. As Bakunin started to form her second jutsu, however, one of the supposedly downed attackers now reached into a holster and leveled a pistol crossbolter at Ami, who had raised her head over the end of the massive central table to peer at the action. It was a clear shot, and he pulled the trigger... Only for the bolt to be stopped by a sudden shield of swirling paper that sprang up in front of her. A second later, Mizuki’s tanto found the attacker’s neck, and the crossbolter clattered to the floor.

“My thanks for saving the Chancellor, Countess,” he said, wiping his brow with a bloody sleeve. Even dirty, wounded, and bloodied, the man still managed to appear more handsome than even the most bishounen Kumo shinobi.

“And mine too!” shouted Ami back to Bakunin, apparently unfazed by the fact that she had nearly died. Reaching into her robe, she pulled out a small compact and tube of lipstick – ‘CoverShoujo’ brand in ‘natural sugar-almond’ color. “I don’t wear much makeup, but I do appreciate good foundation and some moisturizing gloss,” she said offhandedly. “If you’re looking for eyeliner or mascara, Sir Yui has a surplus of that!” Suddenly, another explosion shook the car, bowling everyone over with a pressure wave. As if prompted by the sounds of the explosion, the attackers now started to fall back in earnest, retreating through the doorway they had originally breached. Within a few seconds, they were now gone. Kouhei scanned the hallway, a battle axe in his hands. The rest of the fighters were in bad shape, from what Bakunin could see. Yui was wounded in several painful-looking ways, the Grand Admiral was busy digging a piece of shrapnel out of his neck while Shou’s arm seemed broken, and Kenta appeared to nurse an abdominal wound that Princess Miyu was busy bandaging.

“Sounds like your backup is here,” said Izanagi Naoto, who limped over to Bakunin, his legs peppered with holes that strangely did not bleed. “We’ve earned a brief respite, but the attackers will be back for sure. The only reason they raided us was probably because they couldn’t find Shiranai. Hopefully His Majesty is being hidden by the other shinobi. I suggest we go look...”

“To hell with Shiranai,” growled Ryuu to Naoto and Bakunin, flanked by Daiki. “He is in all likelihood long dead! That makes me the Crown Prince, and you lot need to get me off this train immediately. Ami, if you have a shred of integrity and respect for the Council’s Protocols, order your shinobi over here to do that! Otherwise we have no government!”

“Daimyo Amakusa...” Ami began with a warning look. However, what he said had a ring of truth to it – if Shiranai had truly perished, then Ryuu was the next in line, and by default would become Shogun. As chancellor, her duty was to ensure the succession, no matter who it was.

Situation: Bakunin and the nobles have managed to push the attackers back for now, with the help of the distraction created by the Main Branch only two cars away. Shiranai’s whereabouts remain unknown, but hope is fading that he is still alive, given the fury of the hijacking attempt.

IAT Raiden’s Breath, Car 10, Main HVAC
Central Kaminari no Kuni, 235km from the Capitol City
...1515 hours

With a shower of flames and sparks, the wreck of the crashed glider ignited with unanticipated fury, forcing the hijackers to step back from the burning hulk. The metal struts and beams started to warp as its ballistic fiber wings ignited and with a crash, it lifted in the gusting wind and fell by the side of the train. The pressure differential sucked what remained under the train’s wheels, shredding it into small pieces. Fortunately, Kitsune was now safely in the train’s vent shafts, as opposed to the carcass of her transport. From above, she heard voices.

“That settles it. No one could’ve survived that. Now move out! We’re getting reports of some bald-headed blue-skinned motherfucker who’s causing trouble,” said one of the soldiers above, as their footfalls slowly faded away. So far, Kitsune’s plan had worked. Quickly, she shuffled forward, doing her best to remain silent. Futher ahead, she could sense a barrier being formed. There was a possibility that the numerous missing-nin among the hijackers could have formed it, in which case going through such a barrier would mean her instant vaporization. And yet there was something familiar about it – comforting, in a way. This did bear some investigation. A short time later, she heard the distant sound of an explosion and felt a hint of the pressure wave that did no more than gently nudge her consciousness, but it was a sure sign of trouble. From slightly below, she could now hear a mechanical, somewhat unnerving man’s voice conducting a somewhat one-sided conversation.

“Yes, yes, I know, Makoro! Look, I assure you that the Crown Prince is still on this train. There’s no possible way for him to have escaped… No, he wouldn’t have committed suicide. I know the brat’s profile, he’s too weak-willed. In any case, we have at least an hour to go before we hit Raiden’s Eye… I will fulfill my end of the bargain. All YOU have to worry about is keeping YOUR promise. The specimens MUST be under eight years old to be worth anything to me, don’t forget!”

If Kitsune had dared to peek out of the slats in the vent grating to the side of her, she would catch a glimpse of a horribly altered man walking away from her toward the back of the train, angrily slamming a handheld phone shut. Accompanying him, at least four hard-looking individuals whose scratched-over forehead protectors identified them as missing nin. One of the missings wore a slashed-up chuunin vest festooned with wreath of strung-together human ears, and from his belt hung the severed hands of what could have only been small children. Another wore ostentatiously large sunglasses and kept his hair in a giant afro, toting an oversized, gold-plated “Desert Eagle” hand-arbalest. The third was a completely hairless woman whose only covering seemed to be a long piece of parchment with eye-searing religious gibberish scrawled across it at all angles that just barely covered her breasts and groin. And the last was a man in a perfectly-fitted tuxedo and white kid gloves, making him look like some sort of butler, save for the viciously-outfitted razor-puppet perched on his shoulder. One look at these oddballs was enough to let Kitsune know that the odds were not in her favor to deal with them – at least, not by herself.

Coincidentally, Hinote now strode through the empty corridors of the Raiden’s Breath in disguise as an enemy heavy trooper, his trademark appearance proving handy for intimidation but terrible for maintaining a low profile, as he sought to do now. The sound of footfalls grew nearer, and he took the opportunity to duck into a nearby alcove and observe. Count Souta and his retinue rounded a corner, passing Hinote by barely a meter, and stopped. The count’s facial tentacles (really the only appropriate description for the horrid appendages) started to twitch.

“Fan out and search the area,” he suddenly ordered to his subordinates. “I smell…chakra. Two of them are nearby. Bring me the corpses,” he snarled. Without a word, the four missing shinobi started their task. They were getting closer.

Situation: Kitsune and Hinote have run into Count Souta and his entourage of missing nin. As their physical descriptions might hint at, they are in all likelihood completely batshit, but also powerful opponents. Souta himself is not a fighter, but can detect any movements or chakra signatures very easily, so it is easy to be detected by him. The best strategy here is to isolate and silently dispose of the missing nin as they search, before dealing with Souta if that is what you choose to do. Kitsune is still in an overhead vent but there are numerous exits from the vent system into the hallways in this railcar. You are in an air-conditioning/heating control car, so there are lots of vents, pipes, and catwalks to hide in. There are also numerous small crevices/alcoves/containers to dispose of bodies in. Remember that blood trails and screams will attract attention, as will significant chakra use.

IAT Raiden’s Breath, On top of Car 6
Central Kaminari no Kuni, 235km from the Capitol City
...1515 hours

Mempo Natsume Eru grit her teeth as she sent a burst from her submachine-bolter into the chest and head of a soldier who charged at her with an axe. The explosive bolts sent spatters of blood and gore flying in all directions as they detonated within their target’s body and vaporized it from the waist up.

“Hostiles approaching from your left,” sounded Morishima Haruka’s voice over the girl’s headset, accompanied by the steady booming of a sniper arbalest from a perch high above. As the eyepatched-girl pivoted to meet the new threat, the heads of two of those new attackers instantly turned to fine red mist. With practiced ease, she leveled her bolter at the remaining one, sending another stream of bolts into his abdomen and messily cutting him in half. After brushing a piece of stray intestine off of her shoulder, Eru quickly ejected her magazine, letting it fall to the metal flooring with a clattering sound, and inserted a new one. She barely had time to draw the charging handle and let it chamber a new quarrel when a hulking missing shinobi, this one likely a low-level Akimichi, now charged at her. Directing quick bursts into his legs, she dropped the overweight traitor where he stood, only to have him now drag himself toward her with his arms. Grimly, she continued to pull the trigger, and emptied the rest of the magazine into his head and body, turning it into a bloody paste. Another traitor done for.

“Eru-chan, hold your fire. Our operatives have arrived,” said Haruka’s voice over her headset. Eru exhaled, letting the bolter fall to her side and hang on the sling, before turning around and practically launching herself into Moro’s arms, tackling him with a hug. “Moro, Gin, Trainee Kogami, you all arrived just in time. If you’re wondering where I am, just look up,” said the Captain, waving down at them from her perch on one of the tall battlespires that had emerged from the train when it had shifted to a combat configuration.

“Ah! Gomen, Moro-nii-chan!” said Eru as she realized that she was essentially laying on top of Moro. Awkwardly, she clambered to her feet. “Hello Gin-nee-chan, Kogami-nii-san,” she said to Gin and Ayumu.

“Since Vice Commander Takaki is out of commission, I’m staying up here so I can get a better view of the whole situation and direct the teams as needed,” said Haruka again. “So far, it looks like the HRT has managed to survive, and even took out one of the large arbalest turrets in the back. They’ll give me a status report when they’ve secured the nobility and Shiranai. The Pararescue team’s glider crashed and burned, but I managed to get in contact with their Chief. He’s aboard and setting up a field hospital in car eight. Still nothing from Horo Danshi or his genin,” she paused. “Just follow the protocols if you come across their bodies,” she said grimly. “For now, this might be a good place to enter the actual train. Eru, can you break into a hatch?”

“Hai, Haruka-nee-chan!” responded the girl, walking over to a heavily sealed hatchway. As she scrunched up her face in concentration, she extended both palms toward it. With the grating whine of metal moving on metal, the armored doorway began to twist slightly and then rotate, as if unscrewing from the train itself.

“Eru-chan, you need to hurry,” Haruka suddenly broke in over their headsets. “There’s a force of at least thirty foot-mobiles advancing rapidly on your position. From what I can tell, looks like actual missing shinobi, not just humans. Chuunin among them.”

“I need more time, nee-chan!” protested Eru.

“Moro, Gin, Kogami! You’re going to need to protect her,” said Haruka. “I’ll provide covering fire from here. It’s time to rock and roll.”

Situation: Koutamon asked for an ass-kick moment and here it is. You are going to need to defend Eru while she attempts to force open a hatch to gain you all access into the interior of the train. Your enemies are up to thirty high-quality Makoro henchmen, some of them missing nin, and some of them chuunin-level enemies. Remember that they can use powerful jutsu against you too, and that your best course of action may be to delay/confuse/impede them so that your sniper can pick them off.

 

[Suzuki Setsu]

Tama wasn’t going to sit and let this atrocity occur in the middle of her debut as a stealth operative. Although ironically by ignoring this she probably would have succeeded in the stealth aspect a bit more. But Tama never really cared much for stealth and secrecy anyway, people should know she was coming and be there for it, or else she wasn’t much of a performer now was she. Still she was aware of the life and death situation she had suddenly found herself in, and it had rattled her a bit as this was the first such situation in which she had ever been. However, she likened it to stage fright, and Mochizuki Tama wasn’t about to cut out on a performance especially to a new audience. She was shaking partly from shock and fear, but mostly from the excitement that she got right before a show started.

Chakra augmenting her physical abilities, she dropped into the opening stance of Dim Mak and prepared to strike. First she silently moved through some handseals casting a genjutsu she had mastered early on in her academy days. The man was clearly focused on the young serving girl before him, and would be completely blindsided by the mental assault. Dashing forward, she jabbed the man in the pressure points along the spinal cord, then flipped over him socking him twice in the stomach. The man would see three Tamas around him, all appearing to attack him at once. The illusionary Tamas would begin speaking in tandem, “Welcome lady and germ,” the first Tama clone would say, “To the greatest show on earth,” the second would finish.“Please keep your arms, legs, and other appendages to yourself during the performance,” said the first Tama clone as the real Tama nailed the offending appendage with a swift kick. And as the real Tama finished her attack with a chakra-augmented side kick that would hopefully send the goon flying into the wall, the second finished with, “And we hope you enjoy the show!”


Since she had used the clone genjutsu the noise the clones had made should have been only in the man’s head, their position shouldn’t have been completely given away, but Tama wasn’t sure if her attack had left the goon completely incapacitated or if he would recover quickly. So while he was recovering, Tama grabbed the girl’s hand and using her photon jutsu made a small but intense flash of light appear in front of the goon’s eyes that potentially would blind him, at least temporarily.

Before she dashed away, girl in tow, she said quietly, “Be grateful, the last thing you ever saw was the performance of the talented and enigmatic Mochizuki Tama of the Mochizuki Performance Troupe. You should be honored to have gotten a private showing.” She had a had a big smile plastered across her face, there were so many potential audience members on this train, and this was her debut performance, she couldn’t be more excited.

 

[Akemi]

The moment the other soldiers left, Senna's hand instantly went to her wind-bolter pistol, whipping it from it's holster and drawing it to point right at the would-be rapist who stayed behind. She was disgusted, she was enraged, she was....

... trembling...

It was her first time in a real life-or-death situation, and it was showing. She knew she wanted- no- had to stop what was about to happen. But she couldn't keep her aim steady no matter how hard she tried to. She stared at her trembling hands, horrified that her own body and psyche was working to subvert her efforts to save the poor maid girl. 'No, I can't- I- I- I need to protect her- I can't be helpless here! I need. TO. BE-'

She pulled the trigger.

Unfortunately, her weapon wasn't as ready as she hoped. The bolt fired from Senna's pistol, but it hardly flew a foot before making a steep dive into the floor. Senna had to suppress the urge to shout in rage (and in doing so, most likely give her position away to everyone even remotely close). All that tension, and her weapon failed? 'It- that's not... fair...'

Fortunately, before the situation had any time to get any more out of hand, Tama threw herself into the fray. The surprise attack combined with a little use of rudimentary genjutsu spelled a quick demise for the lone soldier, and timely salvation for the maid. Senna sighed in relief.

She looked back at Shiranai, then to Tama, then back to Shiranai. Now that the immediate threat was gone, Senna was able to think a bit more clearly.

"If we follow his squad mates, we could ambush them and take a little bit of heat off everyone else. If they're alone, we should be able to defeat them in one swift attack. Then we'd just have to fall back before someone finds us." Senna suggested to the group, in theory it could work; three shinobi attacking three soldiers from behind, if all the attacks were properly aimed they would all be taken out simultaneously (of course, this all assumed that those soldiers were still alone).

But, first of all, Senna would need a weapon. She peeked her head out, making sure she wasn't in any immediate danger, and then started to move out towards where the soldier was (before he got a free trip, courtesy of Tama Express Air).

- Search the downed soldier and the surrounding area for any usable weapons (preferably one of the bolters that these goons have been lugging around, or some grenades).

- If Shiranai agrees to ambush the other soldiers, take point and advance cautiously in pursuit of our new targets.

 

[Umeki Rai]

Rai's blade was swift and accurate, finding its targets with ease. Upon finishing off his last enemy, he glanced over to Haruka just in time to see her completely obliterate the turret. He took a moment to marvel at the power that she produced. She was much stronger than he, but in a completely different way. Where Rai excelled in the tight quarters and quick movements, Haruka would be much better in open area combat.

As much as they probably didn't care, he needed to notify the others that they were well on their way. Holding his hand up to his ear, Rai spoke into his headset. "The Hostage Rescue Team is entering the train a couple cars away from our target. We should have the hostages secured shortly. Over and out." As he finished, he muted his headset and turned to Haruka.

The decision was pretty simple. They could either run across the top of the train over the car the hostages resided in and enter from above, or they could enter and work their way through the train. Even though Haruka seemed to have a skill set that benefited from fighting on the top, Rai concluded that they should take the sure thing and go through the train. He also wanted to avoid the task of breaking into the car from above as it might give the hostages the wrong impression if done too violently.

"I think we should go through the train", he said to Haruka. "That way we can limit our exposure and take the sure route."

1. If Haruka agrees, fall through opening and make way towards car 18
2. If not, follow Haruka

 

[Horo Danshi]

[OOC: YES I KNOW I'VE BEEN AWAY HERE IS A PAINFULLY LONG POST TO MAKE UP FOR IT <333]


After his dispatching of the first armored assault trooper, Horo Danshi had fallen into just the sort of reverie that was exceptionally, well, dangerous amongst most Seikon users. Considering the splattered mess that was once a man’s skull and braincase, he found himself lingering upon the individual components of that formerly-living body, the trillions of universe-y things that had gone into its development, the literally unfathomable confluence of circumstance that had brought that being and that boot together in such disharmonious union. Even as his would-be ravisher rushed him through the guts of the Raiden’s Breath, Horo Danshi was only half-present to the interior unfolding around him, preferring instead that quiet music that hummed to the Seikon-sanctioned:

You are the univeeeeeeeeerse, it sang. It is the Horo Horo univeeeeeeerse…

We are fucking scared to death of youuuuuuuu…

:-( Horo Danshi mused at existence at large, and in some alternate dimension, a baby’s spit bubble erupted into a planet-consuming nova of time and sound.

He was returned to the present world by the change of atmosphere around him, and the Dipshit Kid awoke to his surroundings suddenly filled with the hiss and thrum of ancient machinery. Unlikely colors glared at him from behind tenuous barriers of glass, and the chuunin frowned deeply at the devices even as he poked and tapped at them in passing. Well aren’t you a sperm-killing little number he judged severely as he passed.

The misguided vixen with the ABSOLUTELY ABOMINABLE FEATURES HORO GO FOR IT HORO NO I’M SERIOUSLY ACTING IN YOUR BEST INTERESTS THIS TIME WOULD YOU JU—[/b]whoooooakay then, ahem, with the puckering aspect of a terrible accident was stymied in her inexorable process forward by a particularly troublesome door, it seemed. She spoke in a butchered accent, the very desperation of which drove something in tide-like fashion back and forth in Danshi’s crotch (or was that the contents of the vats, HMMMM), that bespoke to the Dipshit Kid nothing but the vaguest, broadest ideas at words. Hush my eczemic pancake, the romantic within the chuunin whispered, though on the outside, the idea of actually talking to a girl suddenly set in and caused Horo Danshi to freeze up in totally embarrassing manner.

This was actually fortunate, for it was at this point that the catwalks above them were suddenly filled, as if by a flurry of particularly persistent nastygrams, with an arrival of mercenary soldiers and shinobi. All of them located around one voice, unfamiliar, that rambled on for a while about threats, zoology, Mexican plastic surgery gone horribly wrong, etc., before finally ambling off again and leaving the Dipshit Kid with a handful of salient points:

1) Somehow, he had not failed his mission yet! Hu-zzah for the crown prince, whoever the hell that was!

2) Other kumo-nin had arrived! Hu-zzah for shared responsibility when things inevitably went to sh!t!

2) There was a nuclear reactor aboard this train that, should any very logical tampering be done to it, would result in a catastrophic nuclear meltdown.

2a) If not, then it would run right into the middle of the capitol city of Lightning Country and burninate/sludgify the inhabitants in most severe a fashion.

2b)Horo Danshi (and his crispy companion~) appeared to be the only ones to know about this.

“Bliad! If what he says is true, your friends might kill all us by accident! We need to warn them!"

”Hm? Oh.” Horo Danshi considered the problem. ”Yes.” He considered it still further. ”Maybe.”

For in scratching his head, the Dipshit Kid had reminded himself of the headset still attached ruggedly to his gross, square-jawed frame. And that, oh Horo-est of readers, had given him an idea.

It took some time for the details to come together fully inside his (admittedly rather disconnected) brain (I mean seriously have you ever held the onus of countless other worlds inside your mind shit is ex-HAUST-ing). It was time that his buxom partner spent unhappily, no doubt, but continued placations from the Dipshit Kid meant that, some short few minutes later, she had not absolutely pummeled him to pasty goo when he looked up, eyes a-glint, and gave a frantic, nervous smile to nothing in particular. Finger to his ear, he keyed the GENERAL//ALL channel on his headset.

”Horo horoooooo,” he sang into the headset, beginning to stomp about between the terrifying machinery, ignoring the testosterone-withering invisible tendrils they sent wrathfully towards him. ”This is genki-Horo Danshi-desu, broadcasting from Home-Safe-Home-Headquarters! Who reads me?~~"

He waited a moment for the inevitably torrent of caustic, confused spew to answer him from the enemy (and perhaps his own!) side before continuing, heedless of any replies. ”The Crown Prince is secure and in my custody, we are now exiting the premises. All fellows make an orderly retreat through the exits and to safety, yes? Mind the goon squads, hmm?”

He killed the transmission, and waited. There was a heaping of reply chatter, but it was not long at all before one other, different, familiar voice cut above the rest:

”I would not advise that course of action, shinobi,” the voice of Souta hissed above the comm chatter.

The Dipshit Kid’s panicked grin widened, just a hair. ”Horo?” he transmitted to the listening battlefield.

”I will take that idiot…noise…as your confirmation,” snarled the rogue lord. ”I was going to save this to surprise you, but I see, you’ve tipped my hand. Leaving this train with the young prince may be in your interests, but it would be leaving a king without a kingdom – you see, I have coerced this vehicle’s systems in a very interesting way. If you leave, the Raiden’s Breath will continue on its course. And suffer a nuclear meltdown – in the middle of Raiden’s Eye.”

Horo Danshi’s eyes gleamed with what might have, in a brighter light, been known for malevolence. ”Horo, he confirmed.

”It is set to explode if either the drive train or power supply are hindered,” the voice hissed. ”Now be a good little paid poppet and hand over the dear prince, and we can all avoid this messy fate. Well. The million citizens of the capitol city, at any rate.”

There was a quiet moment, as Horo Danshi appeared to consider. He picked at the inside of his free ear with a little finger, and dismissively flicked away what he found there. He blinked and then, in an almost curious tone, recited into the headset: ”Drive train, power supply….” He paused. ”Nothing on the tracks themselves though, eh?”

He pulled the headset from his head and stuffed it casually into one of his vest pockets. He grinned hugely at Reina, showing perhaps half of his coffee-stained, goon-square smile. ”Should send every able-bodied merc to the front of the train to stop us, if they know what’s good for them,” he sang. ”You heard how much they wanted the crown whosa-whatsit.”

”Now! Let’s derail us a train."

The blast doors ahead of him parted like so much wet paper as the Seikon brutalized the fabric of reality with one of his bloodline’s signature maneuvers. Shrugging the tension from his shoulders, he half-danced, half-trudged happily forward, wondering at the commotion that must be headed right in his direction. Of course, blowing the train off its tracking was absurdly dangerous, and might have upset the reactors at the best of times. But then again, the impractical battlefield favored the shinobi: and what was more impractical than a fortress-sized train tumbling through the air, blown entirely free of its moorings to the world, a potentially explosive wreck of nuclear proportions that, yet, was still far enough away from the city of Raiden's Eye to spare it from any ill effects? That was a flavor of impracticality that Horo Danshi the shy-noobi could get behind.

Wherever that crown prince was, well. He would just have to deal.

The Dipshit Kid grinned as he turned back to Reina in half-jog. ”Well it’s like Momma Horo always said,” he explained, making his way towards the front of the train. ”Life gives you lemons, you throw those lemons back and you grab a steak while they’re distracted, you hear me BWAH?!?”

Horo Danshi warmed at heart. He loved his momma.

 

[Tagiushi Moro]

His breath returned, and there he lay, with his eyes shut momentarily. The hail of bolterfire and explosions sounded far away, distant and tertiary compared to the metallic thrumming of the Raiden's Breath and the wind rushing past his ear drums. Soft footsteps approached and were almost on top of him before his eyes snapped open.

There she stood, blonde bob blown awkwardly forward as her back was to the rushing front of train, her gray orbs staring directly into his own, hand extended. The tension left his shoulders and his hand slipped from the hilt of his combat dagger. "You alright..? Glad you made it in one piece." He grasped her hand in his and she pulled him to his feet. His smile of relief turned grimace with the light strain. Even here and now, no. Especially now, there was not a single soul that he would've rather have at his side. "Yeah, i'm okay." She showed him her back as he brushed himself off. "And... thanks.." He wanted more than anything to walk up behind her and put his arms around her, whisper in her ear that he would've done it a thousand, thousand times, no matter what horo horo universe they inhabited, but he said nothing.

Kogami's transmission came in loud and clear on his somehow unharmed headset. "Affirmative. We look to be on top of car 12 or so, we're heading to the front now." With a nod at Gin he shrugged his Garando off his back and into his cradling arms with the delicacy of a newborn.

_______________

A half dozen cars, and minimal resistance later the pair happened upon Operative Natsumi engaged in what kids called these days 'doing work on scrubs.' He barely had time to call "Friendly!" and drop his bolter onto his own sling before the monocular deathmachine veritably glomped him. "Ooph! i'm happy to see you too Eru-chan!" She'd missed a bit of viscera but it was easier to let her wipe it on his gear than make the feeling that Gin's eyes were boring into his back any worse. For once, Moro cursed his cuirass, unwarrantably protecting him from Eru's epic curves.

He waved to Captain Haruka as he regained his feet and cleared his throat and hopefully cleared his mind of unsavory thoughts. Moro could use a bit of triage, he and Gin had apparently passed right over the field medics, which must've been that odd barrier he sensed. He had known that if they'd stopped to investigate every car they would have never made it here, and there was no time to lament over missed opportunities.

Eru went to work on the hatch and almost instantly a full platoon of missing nin emerged a couple cars away. He met both Kogami and Gin's eyes in turn. They all knew that this was their last stand. If they failed here, not only would it be impossible to stop the Raiden's Breath, thousands of lives and millions of dreams of peace for Kaminari no Kuni would be lost. They would need to rely heavily on Haruka's support, and to buy time they would need a distraction. "Lets see what you're made of trainee!"

Fairy Tail -Magic Last

Horrible, dark funnel clouds oozed in and coagulated above their heads as Moro's eyes turned from their normal tarnished grey to a bright, quicksilver platinum. Thunder boomed and almost immediately sharp spikes of hail and errant lightning began to pummel the general area between themselves and the nuke-platoon. Screaming with rage he magdumped his garando. As the last of the bolts expelled themselves the clip flew off the side of the train with a high-pitched *ping*. That should at least slow them down, Moro hoped, as he turned to Kogami and ripped through several seals. Extending both hands towards the trainee, From his right hand emerged a steady stream of crackling electricity, and from his left a gout of water, they swirled and condensed, forming a protective globe around the young man's body.

Moro then turned to Gin, and held out his hand, much the same way she had only a few minutes before, and although his eyes glowed, he smiled at her, grinning with bloodlust and blushing unabashedly. Cheek to cheek in a deadly tango of chakra and elemental forces, Moro summoned as much raw lightning as he could into their clasped hands, pointed at Kogami's back...

Spoiler

1. Storm Call R3
2. MAGDUMPIN'
3. Shielding Tempest -> Kogami
4. Yunizonreido

 

[Morishige]

As she flew backwards, Tomomi contorted her body in a way that Haruka had never even trained for. Such was the power of the way her body reacted. Lands with legs spread wide and one hand forward in a type of tripod, she slid backward from the force, feeling the blood dripping from her face. "What's this?!" she exclaimed, and brought hands gently to her cheeks. Her solar seal had already begun the work of healing it. As the young trouble woman tentatively to feel her skin mending itself, her glaring eyes made their way to the man who was on her team.

In her ear chimed his voice, taking the necessary steps to let the leaders know what was going on. "Like it matters." Tomomi scoffed and began her way over to the hole while he was standing next to. Upon arrival he spoke up, offering a plan, and Tomomi simply...agreed? She didn't like to think about things. It was all about feeling with her. So she just looked at the man, waiting for him to proceed inside before jumping in after him to follow. By this time, her arms had returned to normal, but that wasn't going to be for long. "Close quarters eh? Need something less bulky..." she mumbled. In a swift jerk, she morphed her hands now into massive claws that seemed appropriate for the space they were expected to fight in, should the need arise.

-Followin' Rai-

 

[Oishi Shichimenchou]

I outstretched my arm for the CoverShoujo makeup, but managed only to grab hold of the lipstick before being pushed back by an explosion. This caused me to fall and scrap my leg with some shuriken that had found their way to the floor. Compared to the injuries of the others though I was still in top health. I wished for once that I had entered the medical branch so that I could offer some support for them. All I could offer them was to wrap their injuries with paper, and I doubted any of them would find that useful.

I looked at the lipstick and began to apply a new coating of it on my lips. It was inappropriate, but I suspected I wouldn't get a better chance later in the day and you never know who you are going to meet while in a hostage situation!

I had no sooner started this that the Daimyo found it neccessary to yell about how he was the crown prince now that the former one was likely (I would say possibly, not likely) dead. This I found hard to swallow.

"Hey," I said waving the lipstick towards Amakusa, "You are not next in line! Are you not eighty eight in line or something? Your father would be crown prince before you were."

I glared at the Daimyo. I agreed that we needed to ensure the line of succession, but I don't recall getting a memo that he was next in line. The Chancellor's safety and finding the current Crown Prince were the priority right now, not getting this Daimyo off the train.

"I say for now we barricade ourselves in. We do not know when they will try to swarm into the room again. We need to use this moment to build up what defenses we can until a rescue team comes for us."

I sheathed my sword and began to push some wooden furniture towards the open gaps. It was the least I could do while we waited. Why hadn't I brought a headset with me? I would try to send a message... Actually. I stopped mid-way as I was pushing a cabinet and began to perform a handseal.

Like earlier in the day I created a paper airplane infused with chakra and wrote on it a note,

We are injured, but alive. The Crown Prince is missing. Is he with you by chance?
-Countess Bakunin.

I doubted the message would get through, as it would need to physically find a friendly recipient, but it was worth a shot. I gave a flick of my wrists and sent the paper airplane forward. Hopefully someone did find it.

 

[Hoshiko Gin]

Midst the severity of the situation they found themselves in, as they jumped car-to-car, she couldn't resist the overwhelming feeling of hope that things would change for the better from this point on. They met the others, and before she could say anything, in came Eru; crashing into Moro and smothering him with her welcomes. Gin's face contorted into an ugly scowl in green-eyed rage. Numerous vulgarities strung one after the other in her head, as she pried her eyes from the pair. What hope that was regained beforehand, was forgotten, and instead replaced with what she could only describe as closure. He was not hers to claim.

Swallowing her pride, she mustered a short greeting before falling silent and looking upwards to Natsumi. All teams had made it aboard, though how many casualties they would suffer was questionable; they had yet to contact the team held captive, which could only lead to one of three scenarios. One, their corpses laid strewn somewhere within the Raiden's Breath. Two, the had not yet come to a point they could contact ally forces. Or three, they were already combatting their foes and were outnumbered greatly.

Let's hope one of the latter choices.

It was times such as the present, despite her outright affections towards the Santaru, Eru's talents as a Tsuchimikado were best put to use. Nodding in understanding, it was at that moment the hoard of Makoro's grunts unveiled themselves in what seemed like seconds. Her eyes met Moro's and Ayumu's in the same instant, knowing mistakes were absolutely forbidden now of all times. There were lives at stake here, and how they handled themselves now was the deciding factor of their success or shamed failure.

In the camouflage of the storm brought upon by the enraged spirit of a Santaru, Gin took the opportunity of their enemies confusion to her use. Looking to one who seemed especially disgruntled and an easy target, she smirked, planting a seed of one of his comrades false betrayal (for convenience, the one directly behind). There was an instant change in his expression, as he whirled around on his heels, instead of charging ahead to attack the kumo-nin and tackled his own ally. The pair trudged over the side, falling to their deaths underneath the train. Uneasiness plagued the remaining, as they were met with a barrage of bolts, courtesy of Moro. They would not fall for the same trick twice, however.

A hand was presented to her, and instinctually she took it, turning her head to face the maddened smile that was met with her own. She blushed profusely, as they made contact; and there could be only one course of action from here. A strong Gail of wind swirled around them, as she harnessed the concentration of elemental chakra in her palm. The two forces were released, dancing in a wild spiral towards Ayumu's back, the force of her wind chakra forcing him forwards....

Spoiler

1) Betrayal Genjutsu - mastered to two enemies located close to edge of train car. Splat!
2) Yeah, what Moro said!

 

[Shinrya Kitsune]

Kitsune held her breath as she saw the four missing nin. All with their own special look and crazy weapons. Really? A hand-arbalest? So gaudy! That person would need to be taken out fast. Moreover, the bald chick with the religious scribbles all over her “clothes”? Definitely a crazy person too.
A plan sprung into Kitsune’s mind, it involved dropping down from the vent behind afro-guy and strangling him with a wire that had been soaked in paralytics. If that didn’t paralyze his vocal cords and nervous system, she didn’t know what would on such short notice.

She grabbed a pair of leather gloves from her inner pocket and put them on to avoid getting her hands paralyzed by the prepared barbed wire. After putting the gloves on she grabbed the wire from the pouch by her right leg. She grinned evilly and waited for him to be right below the vent opening. The instant he was under the opening, she dropped down and swiftly put the barbed wire around his throat. The barbs went through the ninja’s skin and the poison did it’s job and paralyzed his nervous system as well as his vocal cords, so he couldn’t call for help which was probably a good thing.

Upon his death by asphyxiation, she dragged his body to the nearby alcove, where she placed it against the wall, so it looked like he was standing up, but you’d have stand right in front of the alcove to see him. Fortunately, his sunglasses hid his lifeless eyes and made Kitsune’s life a bit easier.
Once his corpse was hidden, she jumped back up into the vents, and awaited her next target: the religious chick. Kitsune gazed out the opening in the vent, aiming her arm-mounted senbon launcher right at the neck. The senbons she used were, of course, also soaked in paralytics and lethal poisons that would leave no trace and make the body stiff as a board yet oddly natural looking.

A tiny sigh escaped Kitsune’s lips. She really didn’t like having to kill people when her job was to heal the sick. Oh well, the life of a ninja wasn’t an easy one. She put it away from her mind and got back into the murderous mindset of her past, thinking of what would be best to use to keep her position hidden and eventually she came up with the idea to shoot the chick through the throat with five – six senbons. The second she lined up the shot, she fires all six senbon. Four of them struck right on target: the chick’s throat and they went right through. The remaining two missed their target and instead hit metal next to her and bounced off and fell under the grating on the floor.

Kitsune hoped dearly that no one had heard the ‘clink’ of two senbon hitting metal. As she watched, the religious chick’s body became stiff and unwilling to do the bidding of its owner. Kitsune grinned and snuck down to hide away the body, hoping that she wouldn’t get discovered along the way; all while thinking of a way to take out the remaining two nutcases as well as the mutant blob-monster.

 

[Hyoujin]

Hinote stopped for a brief moment whenever he heard what appeared to be Count Souta, and his group of missing ninjas, that he could sense two people nearby and for them to fan out and look for them. He continued to walk after hearing this acting as if he were part of the group. Hinote turn sharply the right in a little hide away and went invisible with a Genjutsu placed on the man with ears around his neck, waiting for him to pass by. Hinote made sure to walk slowly so he could not be heard and then reappeared visible to him should he look behind. "Hey huh, man. You know where the bathroom is? I really gotta go, I drank too much water before getting here." He waited for the man to turn around for a brief moment, he would probably chuckle or scoff at Hinote for such a stupid question. He turned back around and pointed towards the direction they both were heading. Before he could say a word, Hinote was already right up on him, slitting his throat him with Kunai. Before the blood could even hit the ground, he opened up the floor below and let the man fall underneath the train to have his body destroyed by whatever lay below.

"I can't draw too much attention with more chakra use. But if I can make it appear that chakra is everywhere, he won't know where to find me." Hinote said to himself as he was formulating a plan. He could perhaps use confusion jutsu of some sort to trap Souta and the others. "Too risky, I couldn't pull off a Genjutsu that strong without it failing on someone and attracting attention. Souta probably has a high sense of knowing his in a Genjutsu with his chakra sensing." And then it came to him, he could hide in the floor. No, become the floor, and then he could see where everyone was at then dispose of them as he needed. Hinote placed a hand on the floor after forming the proper handseals and become one with the floor of the train car section. He could see only Souta and the man with the gloves and suit. Hinote reached up at the ankles of the man and grabbed him and threw pulled him down into the ground under the train as he opened up a a small portal into the floor. Now with him taken care of, that only left Souta but wasn't sure of what to do. "If I can knock him out then that only solves half of the problem. I could hide his body until after we secure the prince and take over the train but if the train is somehow destroyed? If I open up a portal back to the hospital, chances are I won't be able to make it back. Appearing from one place to another is easy as long as the places you go to are stationary or at least moving slowly. Trying to reappear in a speeding bullet is too risky. If I use a Class A Genjutsu on him, I would easily be able to subdue him long enough to take him to the hospital but, if I go, I won't be able to make it back. Besides, using all these techniques has drained my chakra by quite a lot. Calculations indicate only have 32% chakra available." He let out a sigh as he thought, uncertain of how to do.

Hinote combined with the floor again and prepared for a strong Genjutsu known as Utopia to cast upon Souta. In this Genjutsu, he would appear as his true self with his six tendrils of lightning behind him moving ever so gracefully. Hinote would tell Souta not be alarmed, that he had been watching over the man much throughout his life time, watching over him to ensure his safety. He would offer Souta a gift for his hard and work, a gift power which most men desired. Power behind his dream and wild imagination. Trapped in the Genjutsu, he would nod in agreement and begin to walk forward in both the real world and fake, towards a portal Hinote had opened up portal in both worlds which would take them to the office of the Sennin. There, Hinote would knock out the man with a swift blow to the back of the head.

Should his plan fail, however, Hinote would appear from the ground behind Souta and knock him out cold and devise a plan on what to do next after alerting Masao via headset communication.

[Topic left, maybe?]