Submersion

Admin Posts : 72 Join date : 2012-03-26

Mr. Elchanan handed Tanya his coffee mug, still about half full, as he began requiring both hands, one to hold the assault rifle case, the other to begin unlocking the case.

"Have the Human Engineering Core mobilize, with emphasis on containment of the enemy and defense of critical locations. The DaCre will be our spear, the Human Engineering Core, our shield. Also, make sure to put in a call to R7D, and have them ramp up the signal dampening between floors one and three. No reason not to take measures that won't hurt our chances but might keep PIT from noticing our DaCre resources. Also, do you want a weapon? I have a sidearm available." Mr. Elchanan looked up at Tanya for a moment as he finished loading a rather oversized magazine into his weapon. They were about halfway there, to the main floor.

Posts : 45 Join date : 2012-03-24

Tanya took Mr. Elchanan's mug with only a fleeting look of distaste- technically, of course, she was his employee too, but she liked to think of herself as exclusively Nate's most of the time. Keeping the coffee sturdily gripped in one hand (the CDC had a history of dramatic elevator lurches when situations like this happened), and pulled out a small blackberry with her other hand, a bulbous encoder on the side. Even within the facility proper, with the hacking potential that PIT and such groups had at their disposal they rarely left things on open networks like computers- it was all quick, automated signals, that would delete themselves automatically from logs after a short time as a precaution. Better to send the same memo three times than to risk it getting out into a newspaper somewhere.

The entire message was out to the cores in text form within moments, though the dampening would have to be done with actual phone call: PIT knew they had DaCre, so normally they wouldn't have to worry much about that sort of thing, and it wasn't in regular coding. Only within the base itself would it be possible to pick out the individual human soldiers among more powerful presenses like Siege.

"Done." Tanya blinked at the mention of a sidearm, and though the thought immediately popped into her head- ~SHOOTALICESHOOTALICESHOOTALICESHOOTALICESHOOTALICE~- she stifled it. Getting her hands dirty working against Alice wasn't in her job description, just something she enjoyed. Not mixing business with pleasure was something of an old creed, but it was often a good idea.

"Haha, no thank you. I'm a secretary sir, not a fighter." Tanya said with her typical amiability. "If security can't even keep me out of harms way, we might just have to some more weeding."

Admin Posts : 37 Join date : 2012-03-23

"My only concern is that she has a much greater range than we do," Kyotei quipped, shaking his head. "Our earth-manipulating friend here can only move so fast underground, and I'm willing to bet our opponent can move more quickly away, and then use her superior range to slowly pick us off. She does have a gun, and since we were all summoned to fight her, it's likely that it's powerful enough to go a serious distance."

Kyotei sighed. "What's more, your plan makes me basically useless unless she comes into close range. My attacks are only effective at close to mid range, within three or so meters. She has no reason to come that close. The only thing I could do is waft your attack in her direction, and it would probably get quite diffuse at that long range..."

Alphonse had reached the group at this point, and heard most of their spiel. "Why don't you buff Kyotei and let him circle around to approach from the other side. That way, he can try to back that gunman into your perfume. The shrew can launch attacks in the mean time and try to hold her in the perfume once she's in it."

Kyotei glanced at his tamer and seemed to consider this. "Once she entered the perfume, it might not be as easy for me to fight, since I'd have to use my innate to keep the perfume away from me."

"You wouldn't have to. The shrew could take over at that point." Alphonse shrugged. "I'm sure it's not a perfect plan, but we don't have forever to come up with one. Thoughts?"

Admin Posts : 72 Join date : 2012-03-26

As Petra dodged to the inside of Exemplar's punch and let loose the punch of her own, Exemplar did not draw back her arm in an attempt to block, but rather pushed her rear leg straight and slid her forward towards Petra's new location. Leaning into it, she tried to bring it behind Petra's leading left foot. Tightening her elbow from the failed punch, she brought it down on Petra's incoming arm knocking out any meaningful momentum, while attempting to slide her wrist under Petra's armpit of the arm that was throwing the punch, locking the arms together. Regardless, Petra's attack was largely nullified, Exemplar's left hand was still on standby to block a follow up, and Exemplar's attacks were underway.

"Correct. I am a grappler." Exemplar answered.

~~

Felix leaned his head down, shielding his face with his fedora other than his sly smirk, "I'll just try to keep myself out of the way and support." Tilting to let one eye glance at Parquis and Floppity, and turning his sly smirk into a cheesy one sided grin, "Just let me know when you want me to bring on the explosions though."

Posts : 45 Join date : 2012-03-24

In response to Alphonse's question, Parquis exhaled a big burst of her energizing perfume in Kyotei's face. As long as he didn't get hit too much with Floppity's blend after this point, he could keep getting it as much as he wanted. She also breathed a bit at the ground for the shrew or Felix to waft up, if they cared to get close- Parquis had to admit, she was a bit pleased she had spooked the skunk so thoroughly, even if she would explain herself properly later. It was unlady-like to tease too much, and he was, despite himself, quite the gentleman, in his own way. A classy gambler.

"I'll work on ranking up then. Perhaps then I might have something else for you, bird brain." Parquis closed her eyes, but Floppity was stepping carefully towards Exemplar. Might as well debuff her too, given the chance. And... since Petra seemed to be holding her own pretty well. Floppity felt a bit proud of her Tamer, standing up to a gun-toting higher-rank DaCre like that.

* * *

"Ah, so I am seeing." Petra was caught off guard- what Exemplar was doing now was certainly not boxing. But she wasn't particularly hurt by Exemplar's counter- just thrown off guard, and with a hand creeping towards her armpit.

"Is much more intimate fighting, this grapple, yes?" Instead of trying to slip out of the grapple, Petra slid into it, pressing against Exemplar with her body and sliding her un-caught hand up onto Exemplar's own arm, trying to grab it as Exemplar had her and putting them into a strange sort of dance move while she also tried to push the DaCre forcefully back onto the ground. A fall of a couple feet wouldn't hurt anyone, but it would leave Petra on top, and in a much better position to bludgeon the her opponent further.

As she pushed, Petra smiled mischevously. "Not that I am minding. I am be used to... cozy spaces."

Admin Posts : 72 Join date : 2012-03-26

Of course, Petra probably shouldn't have let Exemplar set up her footwork unchallenged, like she had been setting up previously. As Petra attempted to reach in with her other arm, Exemplar would simply lean in, twist her leg, apply pressure, and send Petra to the ground before she could reach. At this point, with everything set up in Exemplar's favor, Petra might be able to cling onto Exemplar's arm or something, but her body would be going down at least a bit.

"This is pointless, you have nothing meaningful to offer in a fight between DaCre. You're just killing time. Rank up your DaCre, and we'll start this battle." Exemplar would be looking at Petra.

~~

Felix remained in D. He didn't really need to rank up to do his assigned purpose in this fight.

Posts : 45 Join date : 2012-03-24

"Nothing meaningful!?" Petra seemed highly offended, both at the trip (using your legs was not a part of boxing), and the implication. Her face hardly changed when she was thrown back to the ground- it had already grown upset from the feeling of the trip taking place, and the sand was not a particularly hard surface, though she scrambled with her feet a bit to avoid just laying there.

"You is wanting meaning? I give you old home-country saying. He who hesitate is-" With that, Petra slammed her left foot towards Exemplars stomach, and her other foot swung to knock Exemplar's right leg out from under her. One did not kick at all in boxing- it was considered foul play even. But if Exemplar was changing the rules, than she could to! Though, assuming she hadn't successfully toppled Exemplar, Petra did clarify this much:

"You do not trip in boxing! You is bad at the sportswomen's ship!"

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Exemplar simply walked toward Floppity and Parquis. She was no longer holding back, if Petra got in the way, Petra's body would simply break or be pushed aside.

Her gun reformed in her hand, and she took aim at Floppity and Parquis, aiming for their torso, though she was still advancing.

Subject: Re: Submersion Thu Apr 05, 2012 1:02 am

Aaaaand it was moving now. Takita had long ago finished her burrow. Actually thank's to Petra it could now accommodate three DaCre. But what mattered now was that Exemplar was on the move, and her signal was starting to flare this time. Bog was up as quickly as possible. It wouldn't do much to stop that gun, but it would certainly slow down the Wielder.

Meanwhile, up above, the serpent had been playing things a little close. It could be reformed later, so there was no point in it staying behind. It now skirted forward a bit, digging under after a foots advance. With Bog active it would do it's best to get as close to exemplar as possible to score some critical damage.

Admin Posts : 37 Join date : 2012-03-23

Kyotei focused, tensing up, ready to act in an instant. Leaving to go on the offensive now would leave him unprepared for his opponent, so he had to be ready to protect this support DaCre and, if needed, spring into action at the last second... While he was normally a lighthearted person, he took combat seriously and the tension was visible around him.

Alphonse stepped off to the side, wanting to get out off of the battlefield somewhat... but couldn't stifle his curiosity. "Excuse me, miss, but may I ask your name?" He directed his question to Exemplar, face neutral, respectful even. This "Lord" was clearly deserving of his respect, and he wanted to at least know her name so he wouldn't have to keep thinking of her as "the opponent" or "the foe" during the conflict.

Posts : 45 Join date : 2012-03-24

"Ummm... Parquis?"

"Not now Floppity, I'm almost done focusing." Parquis scrunched up her eyes, feeling the change to C-rank flow over them.

"But... Parquis-"

"Just a minute Floppity, I'm busy!" Parquis squeezed her eyes completely shut, and-

"Look out!" The giant Snurtle that was Parquis and Floppity's C-rank leapt out of Exemplar's sights, Floppity dragging the pair out of the way before the now undistracted woman could fire for them.

"Deceleration Gel!" Petra managed to shout, scrambling her way off the ground.

As the snurtle moved (with suprisingly good speed, especially considering the stereotype), Floppity opened her mouth and spewed forth a torrent of hissing blue gel over the spot where Exemplar was and was walking. Her slow, serial-killer like walk was going to be through an acid-bath if she kept it up, not to mention what it would be like to have the gunk on the rest of her- and, almost as importantly, her gun.

"She's after us?" Parquis blinked. "Then what happened to-"

"Do not be running away from me!" Petra had now risen from the sand, and was running towards Exemplar again before the acid-wash halted her advance. Stopping at its boundary, she instead walked over to Alphonse... And began staring at his shoes.

If Parquis didn't know better, she would have sworn the woman was judging how heavy he would be to throw.

Admin Posts : 72 Join date : 2012-03-26

Exemplar took to the skies, nimbly leaping, with the aid of Reactionless thrust, in a high arc over the Deceleration Gel. This had the happy side effect of dodging the Bog and Sand Serpent.

One might notice, if one's eyesight was very good, however, that she left a wire from herself to the ground. As she reached the apex of her jump, due to the cessation of Reactionless Thrust, she initiated phase two of her plan.

She unleashed an A-Rank level burst of electricity into it. This would have detrimental effects to with more than one contact point to the ground when it hit. While nowhere near as powerful as a direct hit, the fact that Takita had softened the ground with her bog, allowed electrical attacks a potent aoe. Soft, especially moist, ground as found in a bog, allows electrical currents of significant power, of which Exemplar's attack certainly created, to travel significant distances. Normally, this grounded electricity wouldn't do a whole awful lot. However, DaCre are, on the whole, less resistant to electrical currents than most data, much like humans to most matter. Thus, when a current is traveling through the ground, and someone is standing on it, the current will "take a shortcut" by traveling through their legs as it seeks the path of least resistance. This is called ground potential rise and electricians and electrical engineers have to work countermeasures to this in their projects that involve ridiculous amounts of current. Exemplar was not so kind as to do this.

Poor Takita would probably take the worst damage of all, being underground. Given it being a relatively high GE A-Rank electrical attack, she might in fact be danger of "death" in one or two rounds if this kept up.

Exemplar would land outside the bog, on the other side of Parquis and Floppity, assuming she had no need to cut off the flow of power to the ground and make midair corrects. At this point, she would answer the question that had been put to her. "Exemplar."

Subject: Re: Submersion Sat Apr 14, 2012 5:11 pm

Being that Exemplar had no way to analyze how bog worked her plan would hold multiple problems. Considering the bog made little contact with her, so too had she little time to analyze it. She had little way to pin down Takita's location. In addition Takita's bog did not make the earth 'moist', only soft or less compact. It merely had a metaphysical effect on ground bound enemies. The wide surface of the land would be difficult to penetrate for the electricity could not be expected to carpet the entire area and deal great damage.

The second problem was that using an ability only heightened a DaCre's signal. It did not give essence to the actual move. Since Parquis had always been in range of Takita's bog when Exemplar landed she'd quickly realize her calculations had been off. A second serpent had spawned, far away from Exemplar. However, since the first had dove underground it would be extremely difficult to know there was now two of them. The new serpent quickly went about ripping up the wire. Assuming it couldn't cut the wire with it's fangs the soft soil would make it easy to pull it free.

Admin Posts : 37 Join date : 2012-03-23

Kyotei acted as soon as Exemplar moved, leaping up to intercept her, wings beating powerfully, and using his innate generously. Aided by the speed boost provided by Parquis, he moved at a speed slightly less than but comparable to Exemplar's when using Reactionless Thrust. He quickly launched two Air Cutters toward her, forming an invisible X in the air, cutting off his innate for an instant since he was unable to use it in conjunction with another attack.

Posts : 45 Join date : 2012-03-24

"Annnd... Up you is going!" Petra, having made whatever strange calculations she needed, now hefted Alphonse up like a wrestler, catching the apparently distracted youth completely by surprise and managing to launch him- a full two feet. Apparently her strange calculations were also very off, because there was no way that Tamer was landing anywhere near Exemplar.

It would, however, spare him from the sudden jolt that Petra felt herself, her hairs sticking up abruptly as Exemplar's attack hit the ground.

"Ikes!" Petra hopped back and glared at Alphonse. "You is not needing to be tazing me about it! Sheesh, I vill be chucking harder next time."

Parquis, meanwhile, took advantage of the already beginning assault on Exemplar to fire her own assault, the shock in the ground scarcely even prickling her interest with her general rubbery-ness.

"Thorn Spear!"

Instead of targeting Exemplar proper, Parquis instead fired above the rising nanobotithingy, the spear expanding into a wide, slicing net above, and slightly in the opposite direction Kyotei's own strike at Exemplar. With any luck, dodging Kyotei would jam her right into Parquis's own attack instead. And of course, Floppity's goo and Takita would keep her off the ground. All they needed now was for Felix to pick up the tail of the fencing-in manuever and the railgunner would be roasting in a firestorm in no time.

Admin Posts : 72 Join date : 2012-03-26

Takita was able to cut the wire relatively quickly after the electricity burst, minimizing the suffered damage.

Exemplar herself, dodged towards Kyotei, She moved herself forward, such that her body was now parallel to the ground, head towards Kyotei, reaching out a hand at him. This dodged the "x" by narrowing her profile such that her center was above the center of the x. I'm assuming this also dodged the other attacks, as they were designed to hem her in.

Felix watched worriedly, as he wasn't much use in an aerial battle, especially one moving so fast that his dice couldn't keep up.

Subject: Re: Submersion Sat Apr 21, 2012 3:24 pm

Takita summoned a third serpent underground. With her opponent airborne there wasn't much else to do but wait for an opportunity.

Admin Posts : 72 Join date : 2012-03-26

Unless Cold posts something contrary before Ark does, Alice and Roeh are getting godmodded out of the building, and going to retreat to ground level*.

*which will be made fairly darn dangerous soon, so, hopefully Cold has something up his sleeve.

Posts : 45 Join date : 2012-03-24

As Exemplar deftly dodged their pinning manuever, Parquis swung around her thorny net and simply released it in Exemplar's general direction. She had no way to keep it airborne, and unlike with Felix, spinning it around here would only wind up killing all of their Tamers. If, of course, Petra didn't manage to get them all killed herself.

Flight was a tricky thing too. On the positive end of things, Parquis was sure she would be able to avoid any attacks that Exemplar could throw at them from a distance. On the other, she didn't have much she could do while the railgunner was fleeing. Approaching, sure. But whatever rank she was, Exemplar in air moved considerably faster than Parquis's projectiles could be fired from the ground. And... Past the bird, it seemed like she was fighting a solo battle. Takita had vanished into the mire somewhere, and Felix- Felix was just standing there!

She couldn't go for a killshot on Exemplar, but Parquis did know how to get a man moving. Ignoring the fleeing enemy for a moment, she instead sidled over to the small skunk, Floppity looking around in confusion as their body got moving.

"Why are we-"

"Shhhh."

"But I-"

"Shhhhhhhhh."

"But-"

"I'M TRYING TO BE LADY-LIKE!" Parquis snapped, and then made a small, nervous chuckle, having reached Felix during their argument. Clearing her throat, the serpent fluttered her eyelashes at the smaller skunk, acting coy.

"Darling, we really can't handle this sort of affair alone..." Parquis wound her long neck around one of his shoulders, resting her head on the other. "Certainly a big, strong skunk like yourself has a few more tricks up his sleeve than standing around ogling the wildlife. Or maybe you need a little... Motivation?"

"Maiden's Kiss," Petra whispered, suddenly creepily close. Floppity tried to hop backwards in fright, but Parquis managed to keep them on track, leaning in and planting a small peck on Felix's cheek. He would, shortly, be feeling a fantastic boost that, combined with a rank up, would hopefully be able to keep up with Exemplars own whizzing about. After all, Felix *could* teleport.

((My bad XD Too many raccoons in my life lately. I think I fixed all three cases. But Parquis would surely be able to identify a fellow smell-maker DaCre, if for no other reason but that.))

Admin Posts : 72 Join date : 2012-03-26

*Ok, coming up with a C rank, hopefully before High posts....*