36. Interference

No one expected it.

One minute, the espada and captains were battling as they were meant to, throwing power around Karakura Town at levels capable of killing lesser beings.

The next: Chaos.

The city exploded into millions of tiny fragments, scattering shrapnel over a mile into the air and in every direction. As arrancar and shinigami alike reeled from the shock, scrambling to recover and rise above the confusion, missiles rained from above. The vworp-vworp sound of helicopter rotors and subsonic screams from military aircraft cut through the air, hemming them off from above and trapping them within the blinding clouds of dust and debris. Strafing fire forced the shinigami to dodge and flee from the aircraft, trying and failing to regain the upper ground, while the only three arrancar still standing responded instinctively by fleeing from the threat, taking refuge in the half-demolished faux-city below and abandoning their opponents.

They were the first to encounter the ground troops; scores of giant tanks rolling their way into the city, flanked by armored vehicles bearing heavy duty weapons, troops, and guidance systems. At the sight, Barragan sneered and released a lazy cero, intent on destroying the puny humans with as little effort as possible. Except…it didn't work. The cero bounced off a circular shield around a vehicle that flashed when it was struck. Immediately, the weapons on board were aimed at Barragan and he was forced to dodge as a giant reiatsu powered shell ripped past him.

"Whoa!" Lilynette yelled in surprise from her position as a gun in Starrk's hand. "What was that? Can humans do that?"

Starrk frowned and backed away, but when he went to sonido, he found himself staring down the barrel of a tank. He had just enough time to widen his eyes before it fired, and barely managed to dodge before the artillery shell hit.

He stepped back, ready to counter-attack or flee, but the barrel panned wide, covering an area around him without aiming. Cautiously and making sure to avoid using sonido, Starrk walked out of the target area, then stopped and observed as the tank did NOT follow him.

"They can't see us." He realized. "They're aiming at our reiatsu."

With the new understanding, he was able to easily manage the streets by simply walking past the artillery. He could get within touching distance of the ground troops with them none the wiser…so long as he didn't manifest any reiatsu attacks. The slightest flicker of a cero, sondio, or even a bala immediately drew the attention of every human in a 100 meter radius.

A spate of panicked shouting drew his attention and, interest peaked, he walked in that direction and peaked around a corner.

On the perpendicular street there was a group of shinigami, most of them lying on the ground inside an orange kido cube. (Starrk could recognize a healing station, even if such a thing did not exist for hollows.) There were no less than TEN tanks surrounding them and he watched as one of the shinigami attempted to disarm the humans with a kido attack, only to give them a target and find himself in the same situation Starrk had barely escaped…without Starrk's reaction time.

The missile struck the blonde shinigami in his chest, knocking him back ten feet and painfully incapacitating him. As soon as he was weakened and separated from the others, a troop of humans wearing goggles and bearing strange tube-like devices leapt out of a vehicle and surrounded him. He was unable to get away as they unleashed their weapons, shooting some sort of solid/reiatsu hybrid restraints from their weapons, wrapping in him layer upon layer of sticky, immobilizing energy. The screaming of the other shinigami was ignored as the humans dragged their captive away. (It was likely they couldn't even hear it.)

Starrk quietly pulled back, considering what he'd seen. He had no interest in watching the humans capture the rest of the shinigami; an inevitable result considering their superior, but flawed, technology. Evidently they were able to sense the buildup of reiatsu, but were unable to see the people they were attacking. In fact, it was quite possible they did not know they were attacking intelligent beings, and thought they were neutralizing mere soulless collections of energy.

"Did Aizen…?" Lilynette questioned, sounding uneasy and confused.

"I don't know." If it was a part of Aizen's plan, it wasn't something he'd shared with the espada. That was unnerving, considering the results. He watched with vague interest as the shinigami they'd caught was sealed (still shouting and struggling) into a large circular container, which was then attached to one of the tanks. It lit up with a deep thrum and several of the soldiers exchanged high-fives and cheers of accomplishment.

Well, souls were basically energy at their core. If the humans truly did not know what they were dealing with, it would make sense for them to want to harness such a resource –a renewable, clean source of almost unlimited power. A living, unkillable battery. And the shinigamis' natural aversion to harming the humans they had sworn to protect would only hasten their defeat.

"It was probably Aizen." Starrk decided. There was no way the humans had managed to create reiatsu-based weapons specifically capable of disabling shinigami and arrancar on their own, and Aizen was the only one with enough power and influence who would benefit from such a thing. After all, he knew his hollow minions would flee once they realized their attacks couldn't work, and could predict that the shinigami would not.

Instead the shinigami were trying to take control of the situation. Many were still standing in the air (an automatic expenditure of energy that was allowing the humans to zero in on them) while others were attempting to respond with non-lethal kido attacks. Their efforts were not working, and more fell to the humans every moment.

Starrk stood silent amidst the chaos and watched the devastation unfold.

First of three (unrelated) updates - ficlets from last year that I never got around to editing and posting.

This particular installment was a very small plot bunny that I didn't feel strongly enough about to expand upon.

Please R&R!