Emilia stumbled into the room with the grating flooring. The faint orange glow to the room from some sort of lighting or fire possibly underneath them. Lining the walls were active machines that were processing data of some sort. Controls on them that Emilia had only the knowledge so far on how to use about half of them from pure inspection.
Her heavy feet on the grating sent out clangs with each step.
There was only dark to the room. Nothing more just yet. She could hear only the churning of the machines and a burst of flame.
Where is the mechanic?
It didn't sit well with her. Then there was the drop of metal pieces onto the metal floor and the young blonde haired man stumbled out with a playful laugh of embarrassment. "Ah…I guess I'm it now aren't I?"
Emilia just stared at the man. He was younger than her and she found it odd that he thought they were playing hide 'N' seek. The young man just rubbing the back of his head with a tongue sticking out from his lips from the same embarrassment his playful laugh came from. "What-"
The young man was all up in her face within moments jumping with excitement. "My name's Sour Ryoga! That's my name! Do you need to hear it again? It's Sour if you hadn't!" His jumps stopped and instead pure emotion that be his excitement channeled in his fists as they shook in front of him. "You came to play a game right? You did, didn't you?"
Emilia saw the limits of the man's brain. That he was just a little child in mind. "No…I'm not here to play any games with you. I'm more interested in the main console that controls the fortresses defenses."
The man's head bobs up and down. "I know what that is! I know it cause I made it for my construction set. Yep. And if you play a game with me I'll show you all of my toys."
Emilia stared at the hopeful young man. There was not enough time to actually look through all of the consoles. Her only choice was the one before her now. "What's the game?"
The small room that be the elevator came to a stop at the top floor. When the doors had separated Frank stepped out with Sandra following behind. The room was well-lit by various openings in the walls much like windows, but lacking the clear walls that would be a window. There was a ledge that you can walk out onto without any problem. The two of them walking forward to the chest the gauntlet was in.
Frank held out his hand. "The key, Sandra."
She nods in silence. The small key leaving her hand for his when he touch hers. There was a brief period of a smile on her lips that went away as the man turned back to the chest. "So…are you ready…Frank?"
"It was here many years ago that Hawthorne stood at the same height in the sky in his stone tower. While the tower had fallen, and the town that stood here fallen as well, I have established this new tower to continue that legacy." He looks to the chest. "It's only a matter of time now that I open it up. Then the world will know the genius that I own that Enduro never had."
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Jet came to a shrieking stop as his boots made a loud annoying squeak as he came to the end of the hall. He quickly jumped to the right side of the hall and directed himself back for the other end of the hall. Just as soon as he landed where he had on the other side of the hall a shadow missile crashes with the wall quickly following after him as it jumps along the wall.
It was a great chase so far. Jet was running as hard as he could around the halls as Ranchel continued giving chase to him. Every attack she made was full force which was why much of the wall had large indentions from the all of the attacks she has missed so far on.
She lunged again by bouncing off of the one wall for the side that Jet stood on. At the last minute Jet ducks as she misses his head by mere inches. His fist is thrown into her left breast out of panic by Jet who was just intent on getting a hit in. As she stepped back on the floor he dashed away from her drawing his ARM quickly.
When she saw that she quickly drew her own weapon which was a large knife. She charged forward and sent her knife for his heart, to which he was quick to throw his ARM in front and block.
Jet had no idea how to handle this assassin, but his only choice for the moment was give them distance. If he could do that he'd have the advantage with his long-ranged weapon compared to her short-ranged one. To begin he kicks the femme fatale away from him and took the gun into his strong wrist and went to aim at her. He had been watching the ARM when he was lashed back out at by Ranchel. His ARM now flying across the floor before he too hit the ground harshly in the other direction. With a loud groan there was a crescent kick headed for the dazed Jet.
He had no idea as to what direction he was lying in at the moment. Not being able to tell up or down. He was still able to dodge the attack that splintered the metal of the floor. Ranchel's eyes were already glared at him.
Swinging her blade the kinetic energy of the air and her swing brought together a blade much like Emilia's Transcendent the Blade, but made of kinetic energy instead. It was not just one. Ranchel was quick to add three more attacks to the air headed for the man who moved around the first and ducked below the second. He was stuck in a crouch for the next two, but that was a low one that would hit him any moment. Jet calculated his own strength and let loose a Lion's Shield on the floor that blocked out the last two attacks.
Standing back up Jet grinned. "Positive Cannon Fire!" His attack comes at Ranchel in mere seconds, but Ranchel is able to dodge the attack. As it dissipated into the air the destructive path of it was now etched into the floor. It had left a small depression in the ground of a rounded nature. Dug in by about five inches. A small canal of sorts.
Ranchel took it to her advantage and lashed out on Jet knocking him across the hall where he skipped across the floor two times. She goes to use her kinetic blade attack again, but nothing comes. "Wh-"
"If you change the environment around you…you can't use that attack any longer. You obviously need to know everything about your territory and made calculations and measurements about it to create those attacks." Jet explained.
"You…You meant to miss me with that last attack to throw of my measurements."
"Right!" Jet wasted no more time and headed straight for the shocked Ranchel. Gathering her mind back together though she jumps away and Jet stops short leaving the two standing in silence.
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The room filled with a pillowing expansion of purple light as Honey fell to the floor in a rough manner. Adven stood on the other side still standing, but covering his body in defense.
She could not believe how he stopped her Negative Cannon attack. She was known for that attack! She used it all the time to get her foes to a point near death so she could finish the job easily without wasting her stamina.
Still…she stood up with a cross face. "So…you know the Negative Cannon as well. It seems crazy for you to block mine with your own at such a close range." She throws her hair over her shoulder and fixed her bangs. "I didn't give you enough credit." There was silence to the room as Adven lowered his arms from his defense stance. The two stared right into one another's eyes. A flicker of their brown eyes. "Negative Cannon Blast!"
"Negative Cannon Blast!" Adven sent the same attack back as the collision of raw negative emotions break upon each other and sending a wave of wind through the room mussing up the hair of each of them. Adven stood unfazed in that reaction…and still yet…he missed the fact that Honey had fired off three more rounds of the attack through the settling assault from the first one. His mind went blank for a moment and the fear came to him that he would get his butt kicked by this. Still…even though his own mind was dead and his strategy gone his memories went to work for him. His body responding to that. "Positive Cannon Fire!" He sent out the wave of positive emotions—though small and weak compared to Jet's—and disrupted and cancelled the three attacking negative ones.
Her eyes were open though. "Wow…I'm not sure what the heck that was."
"It's the opposite of our attack. All it ends up doing is canceling the other two out in a mild explosion depending on how much of each emotion are involved."
"Yes…but it was much weaker than your Negative Cannon." She points out. She saw that as her advantage now.
"Of course it was weaker…I'm not a very positive person."
"I'll still kill you! Negative Cannon Blast!" The purple emotions came with multiple rounds of three again and instead of reacting or sending out his own Adven charged forward towards them.
"Positive Cannon Fire!" He fires out at the ground in front of him expanding the range of the attack and the strength through the reflection off the ground as it rained upward. Her own attacks became negated by his defense and the room was filled with a bright light. As the light receded she looked and saw no Adven until she looked to her side where Adven now was with his one hand stretched towards her. "Negative Hand Blast!" With his one hand a stream of negative energy blows her across the room where she collapsed onto the ground. His hands came together as he let out a groan and his arms folded towards his body. He had to unleash the maximum of his current ability. "Negative Missile Barrage!" Hundreds of small Negative Cannon attacks fired out and covered the room within a 180 degree range of his body…or anything that stood in front of him when he had his arms outstretched.
The room covered with burns and scarred over with the damage left by the attack was enough for him to grin slightly. The worst was over now. She stands up nevertheless in a damaged form. There were only slight scuffle marks and black smudges on her face though. "That was impressive. I never knew there could be such improvements to the Negative Cannon technique. Still…the Negative and Positive attacks cannot kill another person directly."
"I haven't even shown you the true extent of the Negative ability. You don't know what you got yourself into. You're the novice here…not me." His foot kicks off the ground as he lunges for her in what could be a near hover almost. His fist began to glow dark purple as he thrust it forward to meet her chest throwing the woman into the far wall. His landing perfect as she slowly slid down the wall onto the floor. "That was the Surging Punch. You can channel the attack to body parts as well to instill a greater power into a punch or a kick." He grits. It was like he was trying to teach her some lesson for calling him unworthy of fighting. She was also in his way of helping his beloved Sakura.
Honey's face twitched as her own fear began to take her. Her body was shaking out of nervousness. Her throat was closing up. Still…she needed to continue with her attack. She promised to kill him after all. "N-Negative-" She stood there silent. "I…I can't use the attack?"
"Knowing the attack isn't everything." Adven warns seriously. "It's all about being able to control the free-floating negative energy and put it to good use. You've been simply calling on the energy, but you've never controlled it…that's why I was able to sap up all the energy that you were about to use and put it inside of you." She backed away until touching the wall. Her fear in her eyes. Adven was in total control of the situation. "Think about that while you lay in a hospital bed." There was an implosion of negative energy within her body that harmed her insides and organs as she fell to the ground in exhaustion. With rigid breaths in short inhales and exhales. He looked to the hole in the wall he fell through. "Sakura."
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"Three-in-a-row. I win." Emilia declares as she puts a line through the three diagonal circles she had on the paper she was playing Sour against in tic-tac-toe.
He rips up the paper. "Wrong! Wrong! You cheated! Most definitely cheater! You are!" He denied. "We'll play this fighting video game now!" He insists as he throws a controller into her hands and turns on the console. It was a quick fight and Sour became the winner being that Emilia had no idea how to fight. "I win! I win! You don't get to see my toys now."
"What? No!" She said in outrage. "You got another chance at playing a game after I lost so I should get a second chance as well! It should be best two-out-of-three!"
"That's unfair! That's unfair! It's so against the rules!"
"We never made up rules at all! That's why it can't be unfair!"
Sour jumps up and down out of rage and threw a fit. His whining was annoying and vicious at a point that would hurt your ears. A loud and echoing smack came to his face. "Wh-"
"You have so much potential…but you will never leave being a child." She rips into him through harsh words and tone. "You may like games, but we aren't playing one here! People's lives are in danger…people whom I care about and people you do as well. The man who said he was playing some game with you and made you build this product of a 'construction set' is using you!" She threw the crying man to the ground. "He wants to control and not help!"
"I…I-I don't know what to do sister." Sour cried in the dark corner. His confusion taking him as does the fear. "Sweet! Sweet please help me! I need you!" He sat there in silence as Emilia stood as the only one there. "Sister…where…are you?"
"Sometimes you have to do things on your own…but even though you be alone…there will always be someone there for you at heart. Stick to that and you'll be fine. If you honestly believe in your sister than you can do anything." She admits. "If you will allow me to…I will help you now as your friend. Will you just please help me turn off power to everything aside from the lights."
"Th-that's impossible." The young man mutters. "The top floors can only be reached by the elevator…and there is no stair or maintenance ladder. If you do that your friend won't make it up there."
She smiles. "I know he will find some stupid way to get up there."
The man stood with shaky knees. "This is the console here." He showed her the panel there. "Everything aside from the lights will be turned off." Emilia nodded and manipulated the console as the lights flickered and a noise signified the power lost to all other systems.