Shattered Soul [Ask to join]

[Galihan]

The situation had in an instant changed from caution to hostile as the wall came down and the large serpentine hollow exposed itself as if unintentionally paying homage to certain home-wrecking beverages gone horribly wrong. While one might have considered it humorous to want to shout out 'oh yeah!' under different circumstances, the current scenario was nowhere near that lighthearted. In a brief moment, a Grunt's armor was ripped apart with a generous shower of red hot blood painting the walls a deep crimson. The vile monster turned its cold gaze to the most imposing figure present, the Battle Operative Daniel Conrad, who returned the cold glare from behind his face-obscuring visor only to take notice of the other end of the snake-monster after a brief staredown.

The impaled body of the man by the name of Henry Murdowe, also known as "The Tiger" in the NWO flailed helplessly on the end of the hollow's spear-like tail, suffering a most painful fate short of being burned alive. Faint cries for help could be heard as the last painful sobs slipped through the hopelessly dying man's lips until he was silenced forever when a bullet of pure spiritual energy to the head put him out of his misery. The few men present would surely have recognized that the shot fired from their commanding officer's pistol was out of mercy and for the best that "The Tiger"'s suffering be put to an end. Daniel ejected the battery magazine from his handgun and replaced it with an ammunition clip of solid .50 bullets that began to hum for about a second as the large pistol charged the ammunition for maximum killing potential, and subsequently also drew in his other hand his secondary firearm, an energy pistol meant for stunning opponents as opposed to killing. Daniel's advanced artificial body would allow for him to handle both handguns with literally robotic precision and accuracy with the aid of his helmet's HUD, but he was going to need all the firepower he could get to take down this son of a bitch and two pistols were somewhat lacking.

"Wait for my signal," Daniel commanded in a hazy, icy tone over his com-link as most of the soldiers were back on their feet after being knocked down, though many still slightly dazed or disoriented for the time being. "When the slightest opening presents itself, open fire on that abomination."

The Hollow roared and charged at Daniel, who proceeded to open fire upon the evil spirit, aiming for the vulnerable eyes that weren't covered by its armored white mask. One of the non-fatal bolts of energy found its target sending a wave of immobilizing currents through its long body that caused it to mess up its trajectory allowing for Daniel to sidestep and avoid that dangerous spear that was adorned with the corpse of "The Tiger", and Daniel was quick to spin around and fire a large bullet into the back of the hollow's head as it passed by, crashing into the wall at the end of the corridor. The Battle Operative dove for an auto-assault 12 shotgun dropped by a man who was earlier hit hard by the crashing wall and was unable to stand for the time being.

"NOW!" Daniel shouted as he took aim down the iron sights and began unloading a half-drum of charged FRAG-12 rounds, as did a handful of Grunts and ELITES who were able to stand at this point. Hundreds of bullets and explosive shells flew down the hallway's length and a painful howl indicated that the hollow was wounded but probably still dangerous as ever. Unlike Daniel who had precise aim, the bulk of the other men were most likely unable to aim properly given their condition and probably only a dozen or so of their shots dealt any serious injuries. Smoke obscured their vision, but Daniel was able to read his HUD for a moment to see that the hollow was on the move, likely heavily injured from that run-in before the red blip on his radar vanished. Daniel was sure that the hollow was likely waiting in ambush somewhere nearby, but for now he decided to tend to the guards present to ensure that any casualties would be taken care of and capable soldiers could continue the hunt.

[Zhiel]

When Azerin had come up with his less than stellar plan he had not taken into account that Shin was actually expecting an ambush. However when the man never appeared before the weak barrier Azerin began to suspect all too late what had gone wrong and whirled around to look up at the edge of the buildings roof just in time for the shinigami to fire his hado, the powerful water-stream drenching Azerin in a moment causing him to lose focus of his bakudo that simply fizzled away as the former shinigami was drawn along with the water that had become a miniature stream and hit his back against the very barrier he had formed not too long ago. This combined with the force of the water was too much for the barrier, for while the Kyomon could resist a great deal of harm on the outside it was extremely fragile on the opposite side and to top it off Azerin had intentionally made this barrier weaker than necessary...

As the barrier was shattered the water which had previously been about to flow right back down the narrow alley suddenly had a place to go and so dragged the flailing Azerin with it, try as he might to get a foothold or grab ahold of something. And as the water spread out in the more open space outside of the alley Azerin came to a stop nearly upside-down by the opposite wall, lying partially on his back and left shoulder in a rather comical fashion... However he was quick to stand up, and shortly after tossed a old decomposed banana peel off of his other shoulder before he looked up at Shin once more and put his right hand on the hilt of Hitozarai.

"Give up, and be handed to Ninth Division you mean? I can think of better ways to end my miserable life." Azerin replied to Shin's remark about saving them both trouble, though his voice was mostly neutral it was clear he was either angry, or scared. Maybe a bit of both would be most appropriate for while he did not fear Shin directly he feared what the man represented but was also angry over how the man looked down on him, thinking him to be inferior. "I don't know who you are, but with how fast you can run I would bet second division, fitting of someone only capable of winning by stabbing people in the back." Azerin then said, putting on a mocking bravado as he pulled Hitozarai out of it's sheath, holding the katana out beside him in his right hand before he spoke again. "I wanted to avoid a fight as I do not wish to harm other Shinigami, but as you leave me with no choice then so be it." Saying this reiatsu began to surge around Azerin, though it was clearly not his maximum output it was still a fairly impressive amount for someone who was a former third seat and as he remained in still in that position it would soon become clear he was waiting for Shin to make his move. All the while Azerin had observed the position of the shadows covering large portions of the alleyways they were in, though he could not utilize them to get all the way up to Shin but counter-attacking would be more productive. However that Shin had been briefed on Azerin's zanpakutou's ability was more than just a little likely, but if he was aware that it worked outside of shi-kai or not was impossible to say.

---

Once the smoke cleared it was indeed evident that the serpentine hollow had made a run for it, what with the large hole in the wall behind where the hollow had been as it was assailed by a barrage of powerful mini-grenades. With how many smaller craters and holes there was around the larger hole though it was also evident that many of the FRAG-12 rounds had missed or perhaps been deflected, though the presence of dark fluids on the ground suggested it had been wounded though the extent of the injuries was impossible to judge from this alone. While Daniel checked up on the ones who had been wounded one ELITE who seemed to be a squad leader walked up to the Combat Operative.

"Sir, our techs believe the Radar Array will be set-up shortly, however we have received reports that the AT Chopper transporting Operative Truax have been taken down by Hollow. The state of the crew is currently unknown." The man reported while standing at attention, and shortly after another ELITE, the same one who had separated from the larger group after they had first returned to the base walked up to Daniel and saluted though otherwise remained 'at ease'. "I believe we might be able to track the hollow currently present within the base by activating the tracking beacon in PVC Murdowe's armor suit. I've currently noticed the hollow to be somewhere around us but it keeps just outside our limited short-range scanners." The man said this just loud enough for Daniel to hear but still so that no one other than the ELITE squad leader beside him could hear it as well. Reason for this would become obvious with a little thought, after all even few ELITEs knew of the tracking beacons inside each armor suit.

Even as this was being taken care of however, once they had gotten the beacon remotely active it would become apparent the Hollow was actually behind the wall on the very opposite side of the corridor where it had escaped earlier, and a large reiatsu spike suddenly became apparent on their HUD's radar as mere moments later a deep-red beam shot through the wall as it flew with high-speed toward Daniel and anyone near him, the beam was roughly two meters wide by the time it reached them and as it passed right beside the unprotected walls of the prison the stone itself seemed like if it was melting unnaturally... It was unlikely anyone wearing a Mk1 armor would survive this attack though Daniel's improved Mk2 was likely to withstand it, though the paint-job might get messed up.

Whether Daniel was hit or not though, the ELITE that had spoken to him previously had quickly thrown himself to the side through the very hole the hollow had first entered from and with grace had rolled up on his feet before drawing his modified Barrett REC7 ELITE standard issue assault rifle. Those hit by the beam screamed as the armors themselves seemed to melt before it pierced through to their skin which instantly fizzled away into nothing, leaving only the back or front-half of the armor left, of which was still heavily damaged... Then the hollow came through the hole it had created behind them, slowly slithering along the ground as it's eyes searched through the dust that had been kicked up in the wake of the reiatsu beam, and now it was apparent that while the beast was injured on several places along it's long slender body none of it was anywhere near life-threatening for the beast. Suddenly with a deep and proud voice the hollow spoke "I am impressed, never would I think to see the day humans could withstand my power. However you are a nuisance and must be dealt with, I can ill afford your foolishness to interrupt me before my task is complete." The fact that the hollow was incredibly arrogant despite having been dealt damage just minutes earlier was probably it's biggest weakness, for it's speech had definitely given time for Daniel and some others to pin-point it even through the thick smoke.

---

Though it was questionable if Marisa noticed or not the hollow that had been around her previously suddenly pulled back, disappearing into the sky as a thick mist began to fall on the city, almost as if to compliment the reiatsu shroud that blocked the senses, yet the hollow did not appear to have any issues finding their targets...

Not far from Marisa's current position "Aure" suddenly stopped as she looked up into the sky as a smirk appeared on her lips. However even if Aiko did look up he would be unable to see much as the cloudy sky that was now being besieged by mist seemed to hide it from his eyes, it could be she had felt something or thought of something funny too of course though that did not seem to be the case come her next few words. "They are here!" She said with an almost giddy voice, completely different from her previous nigh emotionless state and as she lowered her head once more she giggled silently to herself before beginning to walk off once more, seemingly having forgotten completely about Aiko.

However as this occurred static began to play in whatever communications equipment Aiko and Shin had, as a broken-up voice spoke, trying to reach them both before it dissolved completely into gibberish from the interference. Whatever was going on here seemed intent on keeping the outside world out of the loop.

[Darkoda]

The water stream worked as expected, flushing out Azerin, and even better, dragging him out of the alleyways and into an open space, where he would have a much harder time trying to run from him again. Azerin’s trip in the flood was also far more amusing than Shin expected it to be; if nothing else, going over the footage from this chase would have some clear moments of amusement. Maybe he could make some money off of selling it….especially that landing at the wall; that was a definite keeper.

The time for minor amusement was over for now, as Azerin had managed to right himself. His first comment about getting thrown to Ninth Division certainly had merit; more likely than not that was exactly what Captain Yun was going to do with him, and with a fate like that, many things sounded far more preferable. Maybe it was the thought of suffering such cruel and usual punishment that had him sounding so jittery; that, or he was more than a little ticked off at Shin for nearly drowning him, most people didn’t appreciate being on the receiving end of that hado.

Either way, he was done running around for now – he had no choice in the matter really, but still, he was willing to fight him, which meant the increased likelihood of having to deal with that impossibly annoying shikai of his. The reiatsu he was pushing was considerably high for a third seat and it didn’t appear to be his full power either, but then Shin had seen enough to convince him that their information on the rogue was quite outdated. From his vantage, Shin had a clear view of all the shadows in the area that he would have to memorize if Azerin’s shikai came into play; which might be more surprising than one would expect for a zanpakuto release, after all, for all he knew, the rogue had managed to gain his bankai. Then Shin would have a whole other set of problems on his hands; he might end up needing the help of that idiot vice captain.

The best option was to end the fight immediately before Azerin had time to react. From their chase, speed wasn’t exactly Azerin’s forte, and although he was clearly waiting on him to make the first move, that didn’t mean that he couldn’t speedblitz him.

“I find it fairly amusing that you believe that I have to backstab to win, yet this whole chase, you’ve been constantly presenting your back to me. I do appreciate you giving me a fair chance to take you down though. In return, I’ll humor you and acquiesce to your demands to fight head on instead of using deceit and hiding behind barriers. Hado #4, Byakurai.”

Immediately after his response to the rogue, Shin sent his hado at Azerin’s right kneecap, aiming to cripple him on the spot. Whether or not Azerin avoided it somehow was the least of Shin’s concerns though, as if Azerin didn’t keep focused, he could end up missing that Shin had moved from the rooftop using far more speed than he had shown previously, his sword aimed for his soul chain to end things in one blow.

[schitzo7830]

Aiko was suprised by the fact the woman infront of him was able to so easilly ignore him. After all from waht he could tell the woman had very little power at all. Then again she had just slain a hollow with her zanpakutou... what was she Aiko thought to himself as the woman strutted by. Miyu then decided to chirp in on the quiet convorsation.

"Do you think she can even see you? I mean after all she is ignoring you almost completely... Without responding the shinigami turned towards the woman and studied her. She did have quiet the physique. He was kind of suprised by her outfit, it was soo.... Uniform.

The decintegrating hollow disperced into spirit particles like any other spirit would after death. That did not strike Aiko for odd at all. what did set him off was how after the puple and blue particles floated into the air they floated...to the girl and then *poof* disapeared. Aiko thought maybe coincidence and that at the moment there was more important things to worry about; like who the hell this woman was and when he could attend the local pubs. The woman then began to move towards him.

As she approached he realized her true beauty and he was suprised that a woman as...'attractive' as her would be out hunting down hollow. After all it was suprising to see many female shinigami's around. Or maybe it was just Aiko and his way of not paying them any heed unless he was looking to not sleep alone? Another question the male shrugged off before returning his eyes on the girl. This time she was looking at him as she strode towards him, though as soon as his eyes came upon her she was back to looking straight ahead. This frustrated him to no end. She couldnt even give him enough respect to look him in his eye! The womans eyebrows raised after Aiko had spoken and for the first time she actually recognized him. This faded as the woman outreached her arm and dropped her weapon which seemingly disappeared into thin air as it hit the ground. "What th-" Aiko began to ask before the woman cut him off.

"Shinigami? Soul Society? Gigai?" She spoke with a light russian accent that seemed friendly enough.Did she really have no idea what the Soul society was? Or what a Shingami was? He realised for the second time that day he was over his head. It wasnt his job to explain to armed spirits what was around in the spirit world, it was his job to fight. He wasnt some damn english teacher. Aiko kept his gaurd up and studied the slightly shorter girl. Woman or not he couldnt tell what she was. And as if cutting him off mid-sentence wasnt rude enough she began walking past him and talking before he could respond. As she approached Aiko's hand shot for his Souba and tensed up on the grip only to release it when he watched her walk right passed him finnaly introducing herself. "You can call me Aure, I am busy however so please do not bother me."

Aiko began to protest the woman that was walking away from him. demanding she hold still for a second and listen however he was again, cut off, as the dark haired girl;Aure looked into the sky and laughed. "They are here!"

Aure??? What are you talking about who is here? Whats going on? He spoke to the woman and regardless of her response Aiko was to busy trying to pay atention to his radio chatter on his ear piece. Someone was yelling something to him over the earpiece but it was garbled and went dead. The last words Aiko heard before it went dead were kind of errie. " Shin and Aiko --- Out of there --- Something on --- Loosing communication --- Large reitsu patterns ---" The mic was dead. Frustrated Aiko ripped his earpiece off and stomped it. God damn it all!. Quickly reserving himself he noticed the girl Aure walking off.

"Can someone give me awnsers to whats going on around here? Who is here? Please stop a minute... I really dont want to hit a girl...


<<OOC: I apologize for the time it took me to post. I intend on posting more frequently. Just last week was my first week in school after a month of moving. I should have thrown something up in Vacation boards but i was very busy. Anyways... "lets kick some ass!!!">>

[Mr. Butterfly]

The mist fell as Marisa made her way through the streets, blanketing her progress. She had mixed feelings on the fog - while it could end up working to her advantage in keeping her hidden, it also meant that her primary sense of sight was being limited, which was a bad thing as the reiatsu that was in the city was messing with her natural ability to sense incoming spirits, and her radar system wasn't operating at a functional capacity yet. She sighed, leaning up against the side of a building just long enough to double check her clip to make sure she had properly reloaded. I'll be so glad when I'm back at HQ...

The slight sensation of danger, that special tickling down her spine that Marisa had learned to trust, hit her at that moment. As a first reaction she looked up, but saw nothing in the sky beyond mist and the occasional shadow of a flying spirit, which seemed to not notice her.... or at least not care. Her second reaction was to check her corners, so she glanced around the street, and saw nothing - but again, when she looked to the left, the sensation hit again. Curiosity hit her, and so she nimbly made her way to the crossway that would lead her between some buildings. She skimmed the side of the building, and then the stealth operative peered around the corner.

In her field of view was two figures - one female, one male. The male was obviously a spirit, as she had seen the robes on spirits before - but the other was different. Marisa clicked her visor to see if a scan would reveal anything. She eyed the man and picked up reiatsu signatures of a decent caliber. She turned her attention to the female... and was a bit confused. The readings were fluctuating from no spiritual activity to higher than the male's readings. Marisa turned her scanner off, blaming the reiatsu in the city for the bad readings, and switched it over to the high-resolution camera mode. She managed to get an excellent picture of the girl as she was walking away from the male, and then got in a good picture of the male. Marisa knew that any intel she could bring back was better than none. She focused on trying to figure out what they were up to, watching their movements and gestures. Marisa tried to message in to HQ about her situation, but her radio was on the fritz - her communicating end was damaged from the crash, although it appeared that the receiving end still worked. Cursing her luck, she crouched down, trying to keep a low profile...

[Zhiel]

OOC: Couldn't find anything else to add, hope it does the job

Azerin had never liked 2nd Division, to his eyes they did not seem like much more than cowards who only struck when the opportunity presented itself, never truly engaging in a honourable battle. The fact that most of 2nd division held a begrudging dislike for Yun might have something to do with his dislike as well, as even now he greatly respected his former captain. He wasn't about to let some 2nd division dog drag him back when he had come so far, he couldn't give up now then everything would have been meaningless! It was about then that Shin began to speak, replying to what Azerin had said and mocking him further and with a growing frown on his face Azerin's grip on Hitozarai's hilt tightened, however just as he was about to interrupt the bastard, Shin fired off a kido, having used his speech as a way to draw Azerin's attention away from what he was actually doing. Pretty clever, though despite the speed of White Lightning Azerin was not that easy to deal with.

Keeping Shin within his sights as he fired the kido Azerin diverted part of his attention toward the bolt of white reiatsu as he swept swiftly with his zanpakutou deflecting it and making it hit the ground a few meters beside him, carving a small ditch before the energy depleted itself. Though having kept decent check on Shin, Azerin had noticed the man had moved from his position though the speed with which he did so surprised him and it was only with a sheer guess that he swiftly half-turned as he looked up behind him and saw Shin coming down upon him, despite what he had said earlier using deceit and trying to stab him in the back. Though this understandably angered Azerin, for the moment he had to act and so quickly raised his left arm and pointed his hand at Shin as he muttered a quick phrase "Hado #1, Thrust.", sending a small wave of force toward his enemy that would hopefully be strong enough to keep the man stuck in the air for a second or so as Azerin skipped away, landing several meters away as he backed up near the wall with his zanpakutou held out before him in a balanced posture, making it clear he was either vary of the other man or despite his previous words did not truly wish to fight.

Growling under his breath as he stared at the other man, though he had a number of things he'd like to say regarding the mans hypocrisy he already knew the man would no doubt not care. No, people like him only cared about the results, not how they were achieved and so there was little reason to give Shin further opportunity to set underhanded plans in motion. Though thinking that, he also realized he could do little to actually engage the man without his shikai released, but if he indeed did not know about the shadow walk working outside of shikai then... There was too much to gain from it. With a sudden motion Azerin thrust his left arm forward as he quickly spoke the name of the same bakudo he had used at the start of their chase sending the blinding red energy at Shin in an angle that, obvious or not, would make dodging it to the left easier though incidentally that would also bring him closer to the side of a building and if he did indeed act as Azerin hoped the renegade shinigami would drive his sword through the ground infront of him, 'transporting' the blade through the wall and hopefully inflicting a deep but non-lethal wound on his assailant. Should this not work out too well Azerin would simply charge at him, aiming to test Shin's zanjutsu until another opportunity presented itself.

---

"Aure" as she called herself seemingly ignored Aiko's protests as she walked away from him before she noticed something in the sky and giggled to herself after uttering that one confusing phrase. However she did seem to take note of him again when he yelled in frustration at the now dead headset that he now stomped on though he had merely glanced back at him to see what the fuss was about before she turned back. Though as he again turned his attention to the Russian woman and with what might seem a desperate attempt to get her to tell him about what she knew, or thought she knew, she did seem to acknowledge his presence again though as she turned around and looked him dead in the eyes with a neutral expression on her face. "You're not like me, you wouldn't understand it..." She said, her voice trailing off as she looked to the side thoughtfully for a few seconds before she seemed to get an idea and raised her right arm up beside her and almost out of nowhere the zanpakutou appeared once more.

"Imagine that you are part of a collective, you need each others to survive though in a sense you're also family. If someone forcibly separates you, you would wish to return where you belong. Right?" As she was 'explaining' this she was doing an overly simple 'illustration' on the asphalt ground with the tip of the zanpakutou consciously or not showing she possessed both remarkable strength and reiatsu control as she handled it almost like if she was moving it through sand. After making a number of smaller circles close together and then a circle around them, she raised the sword and held it upside down in her hand above the circle, as she thrust down in the very centre of it. The blade plunged a good two feet into the ground and as it did cracks formed outward as the smaller circles were 'separated' by them. She then let go of the sword and let it rest in the ground as she looked at Aiko again. "That's why I'm here, that's why we're all here, I think... 'It' will start soon, and that's why I need to go." Though she seemed unsure about what she said at first, she seemed genuinely happy toward the last sentence as she smiled briefly, before she turned away from Aiko once again though rather than walking away she seemed to be surveying the area both between the many passages between houses and the sky.

If Aiko or Shin were carrying any hollow detection devices of any kind, they'd suddenly run haywire as they detected a thick mass of hollow presence all around and above the city...

[Darkoda]

Shin landed on the ground easily, as Azerin ran off to a wall, still carrying on that pretense of not wanting to fight. Well in his defense, he was smart enough to recognize that Shin had no intention of following his nonsense code of battle; his job was to get him back to Soul Society, and he really didn’t care much how he managed to do it. He was fighting him one on one, that was close enough to fighting fair in his book.

“It’s a bit hard to run when your back’s against the wall.” Shin mentioned, although he was already considering that the guy was looking to release and jump through the shadows near him. He really wasn’t feeling like chasing down the rogue again, it was only fun for so long before running after cowards got boring. However, Azerin was either truly willing to fight him or more likely it finally sunk in that running would get him nowhere, as thrust his arm forward, launching another binding kido at him. He even tried to put an angle on it to try to make it hard to evade, how cute. Shin moved a bit to the side, preparing to launch himself at Azerin again, when the rogue decided to stab his sword into the ground. The shadow covered ground.

Well fu- The good news was that he noticed Azerin’s actions fast enough to get out of the way of a potentially fatal stab. The bad news was that he still managed to get in a moderately deep wound, and even if he didn’t hit anything vital, it would be a good idea to stem the bleeding; fighting while losing a few pints wasn’t wise. On that note, he also needed to have a chat with intelligence – someone screwed up when they forgot to mention that the shadow power worked while his sword was sealed. That was for later though, first, time to kill this guy.

Alive, Yun wanted him alive.

And I wanted to know all about Azerin. Yun felt like withholding information yet again, I feel like killing his wayward vice captain. He’ll live with it

As Azerin charged at him, likely to capitalize on his injury, Shin muttered under his breath his own phrase. “Embrace the darkness, Kumori.” Hey, if he was going to kill him, he was going to make it hurt. Time to find out if Azerin was quick enough on his feet to avoid the explosion of dark energy he unleashed in front of him. Of course Azerin being stupid enough to charge through it worked too, even a quick kumori katsu like that would inflict a deep wound if someone tried to barrel through it, but the guy was likely far too much of a coward to do that; he would run, and try to jump for a shadow more likely than not.

“And you call me underhanded? That was a trick to make an assassin proud; for all of your misplaced pride, when it comes down to it you throw it all away and do whatever it takes to win. Personally, I think that your hypocrisy makes you worse, but you believe what you want to sleep at night.”

Cloaked in a wildfire of smoky flames, Shin had a small smirk on his face, even as he pressed his left hand to his bleeding wound. “Still, I’m glad that you have enough backbone to fight me, maybe you aren’t just a hopeless coward after all.” He suddenly swung his sword forward, a wide wave of fire launching out at Azerin. Again, considering that the rogue was more interested in running so far, it was unlikely that he would be willing to brave the flames and find out that these particular ones dealt no physical damage. He only needed a few seconds to cauterize his wound enough to stem the bleeding under any event – kido was good for more than blowing stuff up. If he grew a big enough pair to actually try to fight, Shin would just keep his distance while sending waves of flames at him to weaken him enough that he couldn’t afford the reiatsu to shadow hop. Well that was what he was doing now, but it was probably enough for that baby.

[schitzo7830]

You're not like me, you wouldn't understand it..."

The woman began trailing off. Her zanpakutou reappearing as she gave an explanation that she said Aiko wouldn't understand anyways. He was only half focused on her words as she began to draw a diagram in the ground with her blade. He was more focused on the intense sweat that had covered his brow. He had a bad feeling... something about this city had switched from peaceful to....uneasy in just the short time he had been there. He wasn't paying much attention. He stared off into the distance lost in thought, temporarily letting his guard down. Aure was still speaking;’ “It' will start soon, and that's why I need to go." Aiko snapped back into it looking at the woman now. Her drawing was actually a diagram. Aiko had been lost in thought and hadn't paid much attention to her words.

Aiko noticed the woman now seemed to be happy about what she had said. Staring at the diagram he noticed multiple smaller circled as a collective inside a larger one. She had split them apart with her sword. Recalling something he remembered her saying "that's why we are all here" There we more than just one of her. The girl also stated they wanted to reunite so he figured his best bet would be to fallow the woman. Releasing tension on his blade he turned his body and leaned back against the burnt warm wall. The street light streaked down the alley and onto his face illuminating his facial features. His smooth pale skin was lit up by the light and now if Aure looked at him she could clearly see through his orange tinted glasses at his dark blue eyes that were staring her down.

As the woman began surveying the area around them, appearing to be checking the alleys around them he began to do the same. Aiko already had a bad case of paranoia that he never had before tonight so he checked his hollow radar on the cell phone the Soul Society had given out. The device was either going haywire or Sweden was about to burn to the ground with the amount of hollow swarming the area around them. Aure was either oblivious to the amount of hollow on their way or unworried. Either way it further unnerved him…

“Listen, Aure… there are a whole lot of those hollows on their way. Fighting a few isn’t a problem. But when a mass amount begin to show up problems arise. Either I can fallow you or you can fallow me… but I’m not giving you the option of disappearing alone.” Aiko was proud of his little speech. Usually he didn’t get out more then two sentences and then *BAM*… a fight.

Aiko was about to continue speaking when he was cut short. A body had fallen from the roof above Aure and Aiko and landed in between the both of them. The body was of a human and seemed to be just a regular plus. It was mutilated and a bone was sticking out of the mans left arm as the spirit began to turn into spirit particles. . Aiko instinctively drew his double bladed katana and out of impulse his eyes follow the body’s flight path. Looking up at the top of the building he realized why he had been so unnerved; at the top was two adjuchas class hollow. One looked like a large gorilla with the skull of a crocodile and claws of a falcon. Its skin was all blue. Well the other perched on all fours and mimicked the grey skin tone and appearance of a late eighteenth centaury gargoyle. As Aiko observed the two hollow they began two screeched. Aiko rushed stretched and smiled. Two hollow didn’t worry him at all… He began to laugh as the two hollow began to make their way slowly down the side of the building parallel to one another they were barely able to fit. Aiko could hear Miyu purring un his ear at the idea of a fight. Hopefully Aure was just as ready…

"Lets do this"

[Galihan]

Daniel was rather unimpressed by the apparent lack of damage that even the higher-end quality hardware was faring against this rather unpleasantly tough serpent. What was even more frustrating was that it managed to escape and was out of their sensors' range yet again, and even though their own armor was able to block out their presence to the Hollow, the NWO soldiers did not have the advantage of being able to phase through, or even easier yet simply crash through walls. When the squad leader had suggested to activate the tracking device in Murdowe's armor, Daniel himself was moreso considering remote-activating the self-destruct, but that would surely raise more dilemmas among the rank-in-file who would surely be more distraught learning that they were rigged to blow than if they discovered that they could be tracked.

Unfortunately, just as the device was being activated, and it was becoming clear that the Hollow was not on the move, it's death ray vaporized the wall it was hiding behind and came roaring down the narrow corridor. Had he been wearing his full armor, the blast would likely have been minimal against Daniel, however he was in a hurry when the enemy was first detected and thus was only wearing his lighter underarmor, really more akin to a Stealth Operative's getup than his usual heavy shell. Fortunately, the reduced weight was ideal for an excellent bonus to his mobility and thus Daniel was able to pin himself against the wall alongside the ELITE from earlier who proved to be highly competent, avoiding injury unlike the poor bastards who were instantly incinerated by the attack.

What was most surprising, even more than that the monster was still alive or had just killed a few of Daniel's soldiers, was that it not only proved capable of imitating human speech, but appeared to be both intelligent and motivated by some planned out objective. The fact that this Hollow was intelligent, albeit arrogant, shook the Battle Operative on the inside as one of his most deeply-held beliefs about these beasts was being proven wrong. These sons of bitches could think, and therefore he had been underestimating their capabilities and the threat they posed to the world. The Boss' World. Sure, Daniel knew that some hollows could think, such as the hybrid shinigami-hollow that had defeated him in the past, but he assumed that that intellect was a part of the humanoid form among hollows and equally as rare. In order to defeat this bastard, Daniel knew he had to fight without any conventional rules of fairness and civility as if he ever did to begin with.

Scattered around the hallway were the charred remains of numerous NWO grunts who were melted by the hollow's cero, though many of them seemed at least partially intact which gave the Battle Operative a rather grim situation to formulate an equally grim strategy. Though most of their armors were nearly melted, many of them appeared to remain at least partially operable for some of their most deeply integrated functions, their tracking and self-destruct devices. Considering that it was known publicly among the NWO grunts that their armor contained internal batteries powered by spirit energy, Daniel would be able to pass off his bold tactics as simply overloading such batteries instead of actually activating a purposefully built-in bomb like it would have been apparent if he had decided to do so earlier with Murdowe.

"I have a plan, so wait here for a moment while I give it some presents."

Daniel spoke quietly to his teammates as he slowly walked around from the corner of the hole, and picked up the ashen-bodies of his fallen subordinates. He was certain that the Hollow, being as arrogant as it appeared so far, would not simply charge him at fist glance, the proud always savored their kills, and Daniel used that moment to rip his own hands deeply into what remained of the suits' circuit boards surrounding their energy cores, and a sharp, beeping noise had alerted the Battle Operative that in his hands he was now carrying two giant, dangerously unstable grenades of spirit energy.

Twirling around and whipping the dangerously unstable explosive corpses at the Hollow. Its own energy beam was capable of reducing these men to smoldering bundles of scrap metal, but these suits were designed to self-destruct into pure nothingness even when in top-condition. With nothing but charred slag and human leather to contain the energy cores, the blast would hopefully be more than enough to far surpass the damage of their munitions in that previous confrontation.

[Zhiel]

Azerin was almost surprised by how efficient his use of the shadow walk had been, either the guy had simply not been informed about how Hitozarai worked (which could make sense since about only Yun knew it worked partially while sealed), or he had not taken Azerin seriously, something which seemed quite likely with his disposition. Whatever went on in Shin's mind wasn't important though, what was important was how the man would react now that he had been the first to actually be wounded, and it seemed to be a fairly deep cut as well though not lethal just as Azerin had intended. Though Azerin was prepared for the eventuality the man tried another kido or even bringing out his shi-kai, he had not expected it to create an explosion of dark fire as it was released prompting Azerin to slide to a sudden stop by driving his sword into the ground, using the momentum he had built up by partially sliding and partially swinging around it in a half circle before he pulled it out of the ground and slid to a stop while once again turning toward Shin with his sword at the ready.

“And you call me underhanded? That was a trick to make an assassin proud; for all of your misplaced pride, when it comes down to it you throw it all away and do whatever it takes to win. Personally, I think that your hypocrisy makes you worse, but you believe what you want to sleep at night.”

While listening to Shin's words Azerin was also thinking through his options at this point. It was likely that his opponent would try to stem the bleeding from his wound, but that he didn't do it with the fire from his zanpakutou was curious... Even if it didn't naturally hurt him, like with most elemental abilities one could control it to do so with enough skill. Though the black color of the fire also suggested it wasn't normal fire, perhaps only reiatsu taking the form of flames though their actual properties was hard to discern without first hand experience and Azerin was not feeling up for that. Azerin was about to respond to Shin's taunts, though the man was apparently not finished as he began to speak once more.

“Still, I’m glad that you have enough backbone to fight me, maybe you aren't just a hopeless coward after all.”

Then without warning once again the man swung his sword outward releasing a burst of black fire that travelled quickly across the area and easily prevented escaping to the sides and with the rather short distance between them going up would be stretching it as well... Though the longer he spent deciding the more likely he was to be burnt to a charred corpse, or whatever effect those black flames held. Instead of taking a large risk by getting caught by the flames Azerin instead backed up completely against the wall and as the flames was about to reach him he activated the shadow walk and melded into the shadow covered wall, the benefit of fighting in an area like this and with the sun blocked by the cloudy sky meant there was very little direct sunlight, thus shadows was almost everywhere. At the very same moment as he sunk through the wall Azerin then appeared ahead of the flames, a few meters ahead of his current position and as he did he held out Hitozarai in front of him though the pose was different from before as he held the sword more to the side and the blade angled almost to the flat side. "Bring forth the end, Hitozarai." Azerin muttered under his breath as blue reiatsu covered the blade before the shape changed dramatically, growing both longer and larger in general as it nearly took on the shape of a western two-handed sword, though the back-end of the blade and the guard greatly differentiated it with the dozen spikes that was attached to the back of the blade and the black and red spiky guard that covered almost the entire hilt on the front end.

Without pause Azerin instantly swung the sword down at the ground beneath him, the tip of the sword melding with the shadow he stood upon, as two of the back-spikes closest to the tip was released from the blade, but with small thin chains still connecting them. As they disappeared through the shadows Shin would notice they appeared out of the wall right next to him, aiming for one of his arms. While the reiatsu in the spikes were significant for something so small, the size made it obvious they would be unlikely to cause fatal injuries unless there were a lot of them or they hit a weak point, but they would still make fairly deep slices unless avoided or deflected. The chains attaching them seemed weaker however. Whether the "teeth" of Hitozarai hit or not, Azerin pulled the blade closer to him afterwards calling the teeth or at least the chains back as he began to move sideways, trying to keep Shin on his toes by making it clear Azerin could easily make a run for it now that his back wasn't against a wall, though he didn't actually intend to just yet. "You expect me to fight with honour against those who do not have any? I alter my fighting style to suit my opponent so if you see me as underhanded then I only mirror yourself. That you possess a zanpakutou that would be a disgrace to the second division is hardly an issue of mine however." Azerin spoke out in response to Shin's previous statements, the last part referencing how flashy the black flames was for a second division member, though yet again he seemed to intentionally allow Shin to act first and though it wouldn't require deep thought to figure out that he was observing Shin's powers and capabilities before he would fight him seriously the way he spoke to Shin could cloud his better judgement should Shin be easily angered.

---

Despite her attempt at explaining what was going on, or what Aure thought was going on anyhow, Aiko didn't seem all too focused on it or maybe had lost interest... She seemed a little annoyed by this but let it slide as she went off to check the surroundings, Marissa managing to avoid detection by a small margin. As she returned to the centre of the rather large alley crossroad Aiko had leaned up against the wall in front of where they had first met and was staring at her, the dim light of a street light making his stare visible through the orange glasses, to which she only gave a mild smile as she walked closer a bit, though she seemed pretty uninterested in him otherwise. Once she reached the 'drawing' she had done on the ground she pulled her zanpakutou out of the ground and just as before let it go while it disappeared like if erased from reality, just in time for her to watch Aiko pull out his cellphone like radar issued to almost all Shinigami that went to the real world, and she could clearly hear it was making a lot of noise.

“Listen, Aure… there are a whole lot of those hollows on their way. Fighting a few isn’t a problem. But when a mass amount begin to show up problems arise. Either I can fallow you or you can fallow me… but I’m not giving you the option of disappearing alone.”

Listening to Aiko the woman turned to look at the sky once again before she cocked her head to the side a bit as her eyes and facial features took on a contemplative look for a few seconds and though it looked like she was about to say something she was also interrupted by the sudden appearance of a mutilated body falling down between them, talk about rude! Glancing up toward the source of the falling body Aure also took note of the two adjuchas class hollow standing above them though she seemed to lose interest almost straight away... Seemingly being ignorant of the danger in the situation Aure turned away from the two hollow and began to walk off, while talking like if she was having a nice stroll through the park. "Yeah, seem a lot of 'uninvited guests' have arrived as well, kinda like you, though these guys aren't nearly as polite." She said, and as if to illustrate the point the gargoyle-esque hollow leaped off the side of the building, pushing the other hollow into a free-fall into the ground as the first one flew at Aure with clear intent to have juicy human for dinner. What it probably wasn't expecting though was Aure turning halfway toward it as it did so, while she raised her left arm at the hollow and when it was just a scant meter from reaching her a crimson red beam of reiatsu exploded out of her open palm completely incinerating everything it came in contact with, even most of the hollow that had attempted to attack her as bits and pieces that had been outside the beams radius rained down around her though even they seemed to slowly be eaten away. What was more pronounced though was the almost perfect circular hole the beam had cut in the top of the nearby buildings... What she had fired was, unmistakably, a cero.

---

Having little to do but wait for the smoke to clear the large serpentine hollow was not at all expecting charred bodies and metal armor to fly out of the cloud and smack it straight in the face, and though the impact itself did little more than nudge its shark-like face the incineration of the NWO mk1 armorsuits produced such intense heat that the remains turned into super-charged scatter grenades that send dozens upon dozens of super-heated shards of reiatsu charged metal all over the hollows face and the front of its body. With a massive roar easily surpassing the metallic grinding noise of the armor suits ripping apart easily, it was pretty clear Daniel had managed to hurt the thing and as the smoke cleared from the small wave of force produced by the exploding suits it would become obvious why.

Almost the entire surface of the hollows mask had been broken and cracked as metal pieces jutted out everywhere, some pieces had even been completely blown off exposing a bleeding second mouth deeper inside the hollow, it had even taken out it's left eye. The body itself hadn't taken as much direct damage, though it too had scrap metal stuck in the softer skin on it's "stomach" and other nearby areas which were all bleeding a lot more than the mask were and though the hollow stumbled slightly trying to regain it's balanced it didn't seem close to toppling over just yet. However as trained soldiers those Grunt's and ELITEs that hadn't been incinerated was immediately aiming their weapons at the beast and firing away, rather than the previous blind-fire they were now aiming with precision and thus nearly all of the shots connected with the hollow, the mini-explosions from the AA-12 frag rounds cracking and breaking it's protective layer where they hit, while the bullets either glanced off or piercing cracks in it's skin and widened them. After only a few seconds it became clear the thing was about to fall.

Unfortunately the hollow was not done just yet, as in response to the new attacks the angered hollow rammed it's body into the ceiling above it, before pulling back as it came crashing down in front of it blocking sight for the most part and thus preventing the use of the AA-12 shotgun. Instantly the hollow backed away as it roared angrily though under it was a discernible message. "Mark my words human! After my work is complete I will return and consume every one of you!" And just as the message had implied the tracking beacon on Murdowe's suit showed the hollow was indeed leaving the facility, going through the underground levels until it reached an area that was filled with water where the sudden dive caused Murdowe's body to loosen from the tail. Whether it returned or not was impossible to say at this point but it seemed to have left. Though straight away afterwards the ELITE that had spoken with him earlier walked up to Daniel and saluted. "Sir, the radar array and satellite have finished calibrating and is now ready for use. All that is necessary now is for the main computer to broadcast the signal to our armor suits. Do you want me to go activate it now?"

Upon activation the NWO radar array, while providing them with a more accurate close range scan, would appear completely off as just like the Shinigami's equipment it would show hollow presence all over Helsinki...

---

"So it has begun..."
"Indeed, soon we shall become one again."
"Will it really be so simple?"
"Naturally, it is what they were born to accomplish, they all wish for the same thing."
"... And so the war for the soul shards begin..."

Suddenly and almost without warning large rifts appeared all around Helsinki, with more and more covering the space around the city, after only ten minutes it had formed a circle around the city as more and more rifts appeared, starting to cover it even above in the sky... Helsinki was completely surrounded by hundreds if not thousands of garganta, it was nearly as if the town had been sucked into Hueco Mundo itself and from the rifts hollow poured in the hundreds...

In just a few minutes the relatively peaceful, yet tense atmosphere in the city had turned into that of despair and chaos as the hollow began to wreak havoc on the streets, though what was an interesting scenario to most was how many hollow seemed to be fighting each others. What also became apparent shortly afterwards was the intense gathering of spiritually aware and some even powerful individuals as at least several dozens of people began to fight back against the hollow with spiritual powers that seemed all too similar to each others... Whatever was going on, chaos would soon descend on Aiko and Aure, along with Shin and Azerin.

[schitzo7830]

Aiko began to engage the free falling Adjuchas as soon as it was in range. He jumped straight into the sky directing himself at the hollows flight path. As he passed the hollow his Souba found its way along the beast arm gouging it with two parallel slashes. The hollow let out a screech and swiped at Aiko just barely missing the vice-captains leg. As the hollow fell and hit the ground Aiko began to re-route his way down towards the hollow but before he could attack again a cero swept below him killing both the gargoyle like hollow and the other one in a single blast. Aiko starred momentarily at the person who had fired the cero, it was the same woman who had drawn a zanpakutou to draw a diagram in the earth just a moment ago. It was also the same woman who appeared to be human but unmistakably had the powers of both a shinigami and a hollow. Aiko was confused. He felt a mass amount of reitsu in the air. There were probably dozens of hollow in Helsinki and there was no way for him to contact Soul Society but he was sure they would notice.

Well moments before Aiko had been containing hope at the site of only a couple dozen hollow and the possibility of reinforcement from the SS that quickly faded when large rifts began appearing in the sky above them. Many different colors and patches blotted out the sky as hollow poured out of the gargantia they formed and began to descend on the city. Aiko fully took in the gravity of the situation and quickly ascended into the air. He was sure that there were other shinigami in the area and if he was hoping to survive he had to find at least another ally. His original plan to stick with Aure had changed when the mass hollow hordes appeared and now his plan was to survive.

“God damn hollow… BRING IT ON YOU UGLY SON OF A BITCHES!” The vulgar language flew out as he began to insult the hollow that were undoubtedly going to find there way to him. turning to the girl again he yelled down to her “Hey we need to get out of here. NOW!.. I hate running… but it would be suicide to stay and fight them” Aiko yelled to Aure, waving at her to fallow him. If she did fallow him Aiko would begin moving towards the small group of reitsu on the other side of town that seemed to be different from the hollows. The reitsu there seemed to have a shinigami’s aura about it. However if she didn’t he would make his way towards the reitsu that was defiantly a shinigami, though Aiko did not know who’s it belonged to (Shin). Either route he took Aiko was moving at top speed and wasn’t stopping to assist anyone.

[Galihan]

The deafening screech of mutilated corpses erupting at thousands of degrees, one of the few things left in the world to Daniel, post-reconstruction, could truly consider orgasmic. Though, while the lack painfully torturous screams of death were a bit of a letdown compared to when he had forced Pvt. Aiasa to detonate himself, the excess of two micro-reactors detonating was nothing short of blindingly beautiful to anyone who was into explosions. That being said Daniel was nearly tempted to stay out in the corridor to witness the blast himself, however the unpredictable nature of potential shrapnel due to the already heavily damaged suits he MacGyver'd into a pair of bombs weighing over a hundred pounds each was enough that even someone as headstrong as him knew to take cover back behind the wall where the surviving grunts and ELITES were positioned.

After the two suits detonated, immediately afterward the men turned the corner from the hole in the wall and resumed unloading gloriously charged munitions into what was remaining of the hollow. Again, energized bullets were only ad best chipping into preexisting cracks in its though hide caused by the molten shrapnel or the energized frag shells. To this, Daniel was becoming analytical of the damage being dishes out by their weaponry. From this encounter, and the earlier battle against the crab-hollow at the beach was evidence to the Battle Operative that their standard spiritually enriched 5.56 rounds were ineffective at piercing armor, yet spiritually-fueled explosions had been proving devastating. Something worthwhile to take note of for future reference, unfortunately spiritually-enriched explosives were far less efficient to control, as well as a waste of resources to mass produce. Perhaps Daniel would bring it up with Ordinance sometime upon returning to Tokyo after this assignment, or at least include it in a report if he was expected to send one back to HQ from all the way out here.

The hollow did manage to escape unfortunately, though not before leaving a rather foreboding message. Not that Daniel himself would have been concerned in the slightest, hell, if it did show it's shark-like face again then the Battle Operative would just make sure to engage it while wearing his full armor in order to take it head-on. But that was the least of concerns facing them at the moment. Fact of the matter was that this battle had caused serious structural damage to the facility and given that much of their fortress had been renovated from an old abandoned prison, being able to actually get repairs done would be difficult. Best they would be able to do would be to block off entry to this wing of the base and relocate whatever of their own equipment to another part of the prison while engineers did what they could to fortify the damaged walls and ceiling after having been rammed, battered, vaporized and demolished to minor degrees.

Daniel, being approached by the same ELITE once again, had agreed to have the network broadcast to their displays, though not before expressing his own concern about the collateral around them. Not that he was usually concerned about collateral damage, but as the commanding officer it was his responsibility to uphold the Boss' image and making sure that their own base was structurally sound was only the sane thing to do. It was unfortunate that most of those concerns were dwarfed by the sudden imminent peril that was appearing in the form of massive swarms, perhaps hundreds of thousands of hollows ripping through the sky itself to descend upon the Finnish capitol. As Daniel himself was suiting himself up into his full armored shell, news of the incoming doom was flooding his helmet's display and he wasn't entirely sure how to feel at the situation. He himself arrived with a small platoon of 5 ELITES and 15 grunts, which added to the already garrisoned forces present in the city ahead of time making the NWO's presence of about 200 armed combatants along with another few dozen engineers, scientists, and tech-supports. Overall they were vastly outnumbered, even with any additional Special Operatives in the area, and as much as Daniel hated to admit it, he would be hoping that the Shinigami would be able to be of some use and help in destroying these hollows, providing that even if they were both evil spirits using the human's world as their own battlefield, at least they would prove useful now if ever.

"Send word to Tokyo and Stockholm," Daniel issued orders as calmly as he could, considering that they were being faced with unbeatable odds and even he was understandably unnerved.

"Tell HQ that they are not misreading this. All hell really is breaking loose here, and we very well may not have any change short of obliterating this entire city to the ground."

[Darkoda]

Azerin was smart enough to stop himself mid-charge, before he became crispy. Ah well. The real problem was that he was using that shadow walk to full effect, bypassing what should be hard to evade flames and reappearing a few feet closer. Now Shin was starting to understand why people in 2nd Division didn’t get along with Captain Yun – the guy was completely worthless as far as getting reliable information went. And now Azerin had gone and released.

At least this time, Shin was ready for the shadow stab, and when two spikes attached to chains shot out from the wall beside him, it wasn’t particularly difficult for him to simply step back, thrusting his sword forward and releasing a fireball of darkness, hopefully damaging the chains to those spikes enough to break them; if nothing else, until Azerin fully recalled the chains, he would likely be unable to put out the flames eating at them. Still, it was little solace in an incredibly annoying situation; if he tried to keep Azerin within a confined space, between the lack of sunlight, and abundance of walls, his shikai became incredibly difficult to avoid. In an open area, then he had freedom to run for it, and within a city, it would be easy to find enough shadows to make things bothersome. Fortunately, Azerin’s lack of aggression made it easy for him to cauterize his wound, so bleeding out was no longer an issue.

During all this, Shin heard Azerin’s response to his comments. Whether or not he felt like goading him into action, Shin had little interest in doing anything more straining than a few bursts of flame; his best option was still to wait for Azerin to run out of reiatsu. “That’s what I just said. You run around on a moral high-horse when it’s convenient, yet the moment you get into any trouble, you immediately start disregarding your ‘superior’ moral standings to save your skin, and you still try to pretend that you’re some moral guardian. No matter what words you use to try to justify it to yourself, you’re still a hypocrite. If you want to bitch about my apparent lack of morals – which is, by the way, exactly what the shinigami academy teaches since you clearly forgot - you should try practicing what you preach, instead of chickening out the moment things get tough.”

With this reply, Shin shot out another wide wave of fire, just so Azerin didn’t get too comfortable over there; unlike last time though, he was ready for however he dodged; Shin would prefer him jumping and making himself an easy target to bind, but even if he jumped in a shadow, there were only so many places he could show that wouldn’t be in the path of the fire. Shin just had to keep an eye on those shadows, and trap him in a Rikujōkōrō when he showed. Hopefully, he wouldn’t be able to react to the speedy kido fast enough.

Whatever happened, soon enough Shin got bigger problems on his hands, with gargantas tearing across the sky en masse, completely blotting out the sky, as thousands of hollow erupted from the rifts, causing mayhem in the city. Of course at this point, Shin’s priority became to call for some serious backup, when he noticed that he couldn’t get a connection to soul society. Reiatsu signatures were popping up all over, as the city went to war, and Shin now had to deal with the prospect of an unwinnable fight. Which meant that he actually needed Azerin’s help for now; at least Aiko was on his way.

[Zhiel]

OOC: Ugh... Terrible post but had to get something up...

The Stealth Operative disguised as an ELITE nodded in acknowledgement and agreement toward Daniel's concerns regarding the structural damage that had been caused by the hollow and immediately turned to the uninjured Grunt's in the battered hallway and ordered them to proceed with the relocation and to call for their engineers. By the time he turned back to Daniel the radar array had synced with their armor suits and they were immediately overwhelmed by the massive amounts of signatures... It was impossible to tell how many there were from these readings and it was questionable if even the main radar array in Tokyo could have successfully traced them all, it was simply too many!

While the Grunt's and even some ELITEs began to panic upon this revelation the ELITE before Daniel seemed only shaken at best but still calm as he turned to the others and barked to them to calm down and get back to work, before he followed Daniel as the "Operation Commander" went to suit up. While standing at the doorway to the Warden's office that Daniel had taken for his own the ELITE voiced his concerns. "We never anticipated something like this happening, something must be drawing these hollows out... But regardless, like this our radar array won't be helpful and I believe our best choice of action is to simply make it boost our armor suits internal radar systems." He said this while Daniel was putting his armor suit back-on and as the bio-engineered man was done the 'ELITE' continued. "Obviously this will mean we will lose intelligence on what occurs throughout the city itself, but we should be able to get detailed short-range scans instead."

This ELITE might seem to know an awful lot about how the NWO's technology worked, far more than what some Special Operatives knew even, though if Daniel bothered to check the dossier on him that would have been provided of all the soldiers under his command he'd find out why as he was their assigned Tech Specialist, among other functions. It didn't take long after that all the ELITEs and surviving Grunts inside the HQ had gathered in the "lobby", which was the largest area of the prison that was still intact, ready and waiting for orders.

Simultaneously they would discover that long-range communications seemed to be just as screwed up as their Array readings, as any communications between the Outpost in Stockholm and Helsinki were barely more than static and they were completely unable to establish a link with the main HQ in Tokyo, probably a result of the Garganta covering the entire city like a barrier.

---

After having inflicted the first wound Azerin was taking it slow, studying his opponent to learn of his powers and fighting style. His last attack had went about as well as could be expected, with Shin dodging it and then retaliating before Azerin was able to fully recall the blade teeth by swinging his own zanpakutou and releasing a ball of black fire onto the chains clearly breaking one of them apart while the other narrowly escaped but was still caught by the black flames that began to slowly spread across the chain. Having noticed the black fire early Azerin stopped dragging the remaining blade back in as he moved around Shin to a better position, the chain clattering against the ground as he dragged it with the black fire still burning on it. While Azerin was taking a risk now as he did not know the exact properties of the flames he shifted enough attention to it to make sure it didn't spread rapidly and through his connection with the blade he was able to tell the chain was slowly being drained of reiatsu... Great, a reiatsu eating fire zanpakutou, just what he needed...

Having reached his new position with his back to the open alleyway now Azerin gave his response to the mans taunts, with Shin responding in turn giving a long-winded speech that Azerin used to cover for him letting the already loose chain slowly sink through a shadow near his feet, the tip now hanging from the wall slightly above Shin and descending down nice and quietly. When Shin finished his speech, that Azerin had mostly ignored, the blade would be in an angle where it COULD inflict harm if used right however as Shin sliced with his sword sending another wave of black fire at him he was forced to move earlier than he'd have preferred. With a quick tug of the blade Azerin hoped to lodge the free-hanging blade under one of Shin's arms or so but it wasn't too far-fetched the man would have heard the very faint rustling of the chains and be able to avoid it but given how much he talked it was also possible he wouldn't. Then right after Azerin focused reiatsu under his feet and in his legs as he jumped onto the side of one of the buildings, burying his left carapace-covered claw-like hand into it's surface as he narrowly escaping the wave, or would have had it not died away before it reached his position... Well either way with the force of his jump, if the chain had done it's part it would no doubt inflict a nasty gash on Shin hopefully disrupting any follow-up attacks the man had in mind but just in case it didn't he'd be ready to meld into the shadow covering the side of the buildings wall, planning on appearing far past Shin, nearly at the next crossroads within the alley.

For whatever reason, he was too focused on the battle at hand and so was completely oblivious to the horde of hollow descending upon the city.

---

As seemed characteristic of Aure she didn't really seem to pay attention or care much for what Aiko said or did and started walking in a different direction when he took off in search of Shin.

As Aiko made his way through the city he'd be able to see all forms of carnage unfolding as numerous mindless hollow swarmed the streets, killing civilians left and right, with the occasional empowered human that was able to fight back but was shortly overwhelmed... What was noticeable even at the pace he was going though, was that none of the empowered humans seemed scared or even panicked as they were overrun... Either they were damn brave, or there was something not quite right about them. What he'd also witness was hollows tearing each other apart, though in what could nearly be described as a sea of monstrosities it was seemingly isolated incidents with other hollow completely ignoring those that fought... In-between these waves there were a few more powerful hollow, though they seemed to be holding back, waiting for something...

Obviously he'd be intercepted by many hollow as they poured down from the massive dome-like rift in the sky and around the city, but being a battle hardened Vice Captain he could easily avoid them or kill them without slowing down, most of the hollow present within the city right now were of the most common and weakest around, most only drawn due to the large reiatsu presence within the city. It wouldn't be long before he'd get to Shin and Azerin if he kept his pace up.


From an overlook of the city, it would be clear why the massive invasion wasn't as obvious to Shin or Azerin yet, as the majority of hollow were swarming around the perimeter of the rifts, many breaking off from the main horde but the majority still not being anywhere near the centre where Shin and Azerin were having their fight.

[Darkoda]

((Joint Post with Zhiel))

Shin really disliked real world missions.

Wait, that needed to be rephrased; he disliked missions in heavily populated areas – especially with annoying people like Azerin. The guy was insistent on staying within the building confines, admittedly with very good reason considering his zanpakuto, which made things especially annoying with all the shadows. Not only was he in one of the best positions he could be in, but Shin had to watch his attacks, lest he end up destroying a building and killing who knows how many people. This of course, had to the easiest method of dealing with this guy…..

So he really had nothing better to do than continue the verbal spat while taking shots whenever he could get away with it, it kept Azerin pissed enough to not run anyway, which Shin needed since he couldn’t very well keep him still easily. That, and Azerin didn’t seem to have that much attack options; kido, try to stab him through a shadow again, send out one of those chain spikes…..you would think he would have chosen a chain that he didn’t just torch, but whatever rocked his boat.

Shin was a bit egocentric and didn’t mind his mini-speeches. That did not mean that he didn’t pay attention while he was ranting, especially after the last shadow incident; the point was to distract Azerin, not himself. So when Azerin jumped away from his latest attack, Shin’s hand shot up, grabbing hold of the chain and pulling back down. While he had little idea how that shadow warping worked, hopefully him pulling on the chain would keep Azerin from warping anywhere else; at least, it did keep him from grabbing onto the building properly, even if it would have been better if he got slammed to the floor. This of course meant that he now had to have a tug of war with the vizard, but it wasn’t as if he was going to play fair.

Kumori lit up in flames, as he stabbed the blade at Azerin, the condensed Kumori katsu racing towards him. At least this way, if Azerin dodged, he shouldn’t do much more damage than clipping the roof of a building.

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It wasn't as if Azerin was underestimating Shin, no he had simply made the error of assuming the man to be an arrogant windbag and now got to pay for it when Shin grabbed ahold of the chain that had been lowered down behind him and tugged on it causing Azerin to just barely reach the wall he had aimed for... And rather than being able to easily grab ahold of it he really had to sing his left hands claws into the stone building to not get pulled back after having lost his momentum, the fact he'd lose his grip entirely if he tried to shadow walk did not help at all... Being in a rather uncomfortable position Azerin had a hard time keeping his focus on not falling and on Shin, which was why his reaction to the other man's next attack came a bit too late.

Sensing the sudden flare of reiatsu Azerin tried to get a lock on his opponent though his back was practically turned toward Shin due to the stretched chain so he couldn't really get a clear view on what was going on but saw that something black was coming his way and so attempting to avoid it he pushed away from the building with both his legs and his left arm, making him go at break-neck speed toward the solid ground below him however he had not reacted quickly enough as the 'blast' hit his left side and arm. The impact of the Kumori Katsu caused a large gash in the white hollow carapace that covered most of his left side and arm, which may very well have saved his life there but despite this blood was still seeping from the gashes quite readily and the pain that shot through him was more than a mere cut would produce... Which became obvious why as black flames lingered around where he had been hit as he felt his reiatsu being slowly drained.

The fact that Shin still had one of his zanpakutou's chains in his grasp didn't exactly make things look better either, and knowing that Azerin grit his teeth as he tried to angle himself toward the chain and just a moment later slashed with the sword splitting the already weakened chain in half, though given the way of his fall and the hit he had taken he knew he wouldn't manage a very good landing and so tightened his grasp around Hitozarai as he activated his shadow walk once more, moving nearly thirty meters behind Shin in the blink of an eye and with the momentum he had managed to build up was able to reach the roof of a three story building. Once he planted his feet on the solid roof Azerin immediately turned to where Shin would be, or had been in case he had moved as he let out a painful growl while letting reiatsu flow over him soaking the black flames... It felt like they had been there for an eternity, but it had only been a few seconds... He still had a bleeding problem though. He had little time to think of a counter-attack however as with the shift of location to a more open space he began to see just what was going on. "How... Did I not sense this..?" He seemed to ask himself.

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His precaution turned out to be unnecessary though, as Azerin was unable to actually properly avoid the blast. When his attack actually hit the vizard on his side, for a moment, Shin considered the fight more or less over; getting blasted through there should be more than enough to at least disable someone, if not outright kill them. Of course, he quickly noticed that Azerin had far too small a wound for an unguarded hit; that hollow carapace, it likely just saved his skin back there. Of course, either way he was wounded, but Azerin could still fight, and Shin moved to fix that.

The moment of hesitation that he should have used following up his attack cost him though; he gave Azerin the time he needed to cut the chain loose, the vizard falling to the ground rapidly as Shin swung at him again, flames flaring in an arc across the ground, and missing completely as Azerin entered one of the shadows again. He immediately spun around, cursing his carelessness and stretching his senses as much as he could in the fog, and picking up on a faint burst of reiatsu. Moving even before he looked to confirm, he shunpoed up to the roof of a building, noting Azerin a few buildings away. From his new height though, he realized that the hollow problem he sensed earlier wasn’t even the tip of the iceburg.

He expected it to be bad, but this…..the entire city was quite literally overrun, hollows swarming around the city in a dome as if they wanted to ensure that no one could escape, thousands of them at least not counting the ones in the city itself, and he still couldn’t get through to Soul Society. With a greatly annoyed sigh, he turned to Azerin, raising his voice for the vizard to hear. “It looks like I have bigger problems than chasing you down now. You get to run for a bit longer vizard.” Of course, Shin didn’t even know where to start on a problem so big….he should probably regroup with Aiko at least.