Theories - First training (Closed)

[Zhiel]

OOC: Dont even ask whats up with the name or "first" thing If you want to join, PM me with what character and how you feel you can fit into it.

The day had passed fairly predictably. Richard had went to his office early as usual, finished off any reports or paperwork that had arrived the day before, then as was customary for him he had went down into one of his labs.

This time he was working on several prototypes for how to improve the effectiveness of the Mark 2 Spirit Combat Suit, however he yielded barely no results. Even though he had several theories that he had tested, none of it improved the defense of the armor over what was already present, and if it did, it required a massive energy supply.

In other words he was unsure of how to further the development on the power armors he was so proud off. There had to be a way to improve it further than he already had, he just had to find the key.

Now late in the evening, Richard was walking through the now not so crowded streets of Tokyo, taking a stride from the headquarters to his residence, a large mansion like house a few kilometers away from the main HQ. However one thing he was not taking note off, was when he came into a street that was completely deserted.

As he casually walked through the long path next to the road, an eerie feeling started to fill him, and just as he was about to look around his cellphone bleeped, indicating a com-link transmission. Flipping it open in one smooth gesture an image popped up on the small screen, showing a japanese man with glasses and a white coat.

"Yes Scout, what is it?" Richard asked, though he wasnt really annoyed the way he said it might have made him appear as such, he was just uncomfortable about the feeling he had had just a moment ago.

"Hunter, I've located a strong signal, its probably one of those masked beasts." The japanese man said in near fluent english, his voice indicating he was somewhere in his twenties.

"Alright, send the HALO squad, they could use the exercise as they havent had work in a while. What is the coordinates?" Richard replied, changing the image on the phone to a form of map radar rather than Scouts image.

"241 and 841, its on the eastern edge of the city." Scout replied, from the quick tapping sound on the other end he was sending the HALO squad a message right then.

"2..4...1 and.. 8..4..1.." Richard repeated as he tapped it into his map radar, then he stared at the screen results for a few seconds before tapping another button, making the view change back to the image. "Contact them ASAP, I'm going to need backup." And with that he cut the channel, the result on the map radar had been right on himself. And just then he could hear the loud distorted scream of a hollow from somewhere nearby. Not wasting any time Richard activated the radar beacon on his cellphone, took out his gun from under the buisness suit, and started running as far as he could away from the source of the sound, however, he could tell it wouldent be long until the monster caught up with him.

OOC: Too be continued Too tired right now

[Zhiel]

Sure enough, after running for only a minute through strangely deserted streets with his gun in hand, Richard could hear the sound of something large moving at a high speed somewhere behind him, it would not be long until the hollow caught up with him, and judging by the spirit pressure it was not a simple weakling. 'Shit.. Im not sure I can handle that thing with only this side-arm... I hope they will come soon...' He thought as he rounded a corner and kept running, he wondered why there was no one at all in sight, everything seemed deserted, could if be the cause of the monster? No he doubted it could have killed so many without making a fuss, it was probably something else.

Then a loud bang sounded out from just behind Richard as two massive hands slammed into the ground, sending debris flying, luckily for Richard nothing of the bigger ones hit him as he turned around quickly, skidding to a stop with his gun raised. As the smoke from the... explosion... disappeared Richard could see the full horror that was the monsters form, a six meter tall hollow that stood on two hing-leg formed legs with four pointed claws on its feet. Its torso was formed nearly like a humans, with the back and spine being the main difference as it stuck out, razor sharp spines sticking out nearly a meter from it, with its hole adorning its chest. Its arms was similiar to its legs, except they were obviously not used for standing on, with the right one having longer claws adorning the fingertips, each of them nearly half a meter long, while the left was thicker but had no claws or such on it, with its mask looking like a combination between a human and a raptor, its back spikes going up all the way to its head, though much shorter at that point. Its brightly glowing yellow eyes and sharp teeth did nothing to lower the already high intimidation factor of the hollow.

Richard gritted his teeth, this thing was far stronger than he could deal with without his armor. 'Damn it, why must the suits be so hard to carry around...' He thought as he raised the gun to the hollows face before he shot, however then the hollow did something unexpected. It howled loudly in the way only a hollow could, sending its soul piercing shriek out, however there was something else too it as well, as before the powerfull bullet could hit the mask of the beast it was deflected and sent back towards Richard, who had to jump back to not get his own bullet in his leg. '..Shiiit. Even worse, its got some strange ability that counter-reacts my gun' He thought as he then watched the hollow lurch forward slightly, not good.

Suddenly the hollow shot forward, trying to cruch Richard with its body, however the ten meters between the two was enough for Richard, who was already expecting it, to get out of the way by throiwng himself to the side, just slightly avoiding the debris that shot up from the crash Richard slid across the ground as he turned around and shot at the hollow, this time hitting it once in the shoulder and once on the side of its chest, however even though the shots burried rather deep in the hollow did not even flinch. Before he let the hollow do yet another move however Richard was up on his feet and running as fast as he could away from the hollow, throwing himself into a nearby alley that seemed too thin for the hollow to fit in, bad mistake.

Hiding away in the alley, taking deep controlled breaths Richard thought he might have gotten away from the hollow, he did not really understand why it was after him in the first place, he barely had any power at all.. Unless... they were involved... Whichever was the case, he needed to get out of there alive before he could do anything about it. However just then the ground trembled as a massive shockwave was sent through it, and merely a few seconds later the house that Richard had been leaning against began to collapse, the hollow standing over it glaring down at him. 'Well shit...' He thought as he stood ontop of a container to avoid the falling rubble, then he jumped off it and began to run once more, the hollow giving chase.

[Zhiel]

Richard had been running for nearly four minutes now, only barely avoiding the hollows attempts to catch him. He was well trained and while he did not have a lot of spiritual power it was enough to make him stronger and faster than your average well-trained human, and his training in the Combat Suit had given him reflexes high above the norm, enabling him to predict and dodge the hollows attacks before they reached him. Still he was starting to get tired and while he could continue another ten minutes he knew his movements and reactions were beginning to slow. As proof of this he was barely able to dodge another of the hollows clawed arm swipes, the tip scratching the back of his suit ripping a hole in it, just after it crashed into the side of a building, sending debris flying, one rather large piece hitting Richard in the back, making him hurtle forward. However being the well-trained person he was he was able to catch himself and roll up to his feet without losing much time, and without even looking he quickly threw himself to the side as the Hollow tried to crush him with its massive frame once more.

This was getting ridiculous, this hollow while powerful would not be a problem for him in his power armor. If there was just a way to carry them around in a condensed form... However before he could delve deeper into this Richard had to once again dodge the hollows attack, jumping toward a buildings wall to his left as it swiped with its right arm, using the buildings surface as a way to push himself away, effectively flying over the hollows arm and getting quite a distance away from it before he landed and began to sprint once more. 'Shit, where are they? Its starting to catch up faster than before.' He thought as he looked back, seeing how the hollow started coming after him again. He was breathing heavily now, but there was nothing he could do about it, this hollow would not give up until he laid on the ground not moving, so he had no choice but to keep running despite how his heart was pounding, he refused to die to a simple hollow after all these years.

However despite his determination it was only a matter of time until the hollow became increasingly aggravated, it had been trying to catch him alive despite its many deadly attacks, but now it was in a bloody frenzy where it only wanted to see his dead body in a pool of blood. This time it let out another soul piercing shriek, being so close to it Richard was suddenly pushed forward, being so surprised by it he had no way to react properly, and instead caught himself with his hands before pushing up to his feet once more, but the hollow was already over him. Desperately Richard threw himself to the side as the hollows clawed arm crashed down where he had been, sending shards of debris flying everywhere. While attempting to avoid the debris Richard jumped up onto a small container on the side of the alley they were now in, intending to use the edge of it to get a slight boost away from the hollow, but before he could properly position himself he noticed how the hollow came after him again, and nearly panicking Richard jumped back out into the middle of the alleyway to avoid the incoming attack, however that was a bad mistake as the hollow was raising its large left arm to crush him, but now being in its path it instead hit him in the chest and sending him flying upward, onto the roof of the building above them.

Crashing onto the roof with a painful groan Richard tried to get up on his feet, but when he tried to move pain shot through his right leg and chest, he assumed the hollow had broken at least a few ribs, and he seemed to have broken his leg too upon landing, or at least it was not feeling right. This was indeed bad. However being the fighter he was he tried not to give up, making an effort to crawl away from the side he had been thrown up from, but with only one leg it was proving difficult and slow, and before he had really gotten anywhere close to the other side he could hear the hollows claws ripping into the building, probably using its arms to climb the structure. Panting heavily and holding his painfully aching chest with his right arm Richard sat leaned against the railing of the roof, he realized that this must be it for him, the halo storm was late and with the hollow so close and him unable to move he doubted rescue was coming like in every other B movie and series where important people was always saved at the last second. "Heh... Yeah right." He said to himself, as he watched the hollow come up fully on the roof. So his life would end just like his sisters...

[GoldenKitten]

Indeed, Richard Mallory was correct, heroes and important individuals only get saved in the legends for such proper timing is unheard of in life. Thus it should have been no surprise when the hollow began eating his face, or at the very least thats what it appeared ready to do. It made odd sounds in between its screeches, comparable to death rattles but there was an unmistakable trace of victory in the tone of its utterings. The raptor like hollow dashed across the roof ready to pounce upon its downed prey, long tongue lapping hungrily at its maw in a rather disgusting manner while yelping.

Just feet from Richard as it bent down to tackle him at a better angle a plethora of spotlights kicked on from above the adversary's. The massive transport hovercraft like helicopter of the Halo Storm, bearing no emblems and displaying a clean black matte paint job came swooping in next to the hollow. It hovered feet from the roof with unerring precision even an attack helicopter would have been hard pressed to match. It did so in comparable silence, even close like this the sound rushing over the hollow, whose attention had been totally pulled from his original target to the mechanical monstrosity, was only that of the air being pushed over it with no actual “blade” sounds. Rather than running like any intelligent creature the hollow began screeching and barking at the machine while raising its arms as if trying to scare it off as a predator might try to show its supremacy over another for rights to a hunting ground.

The side door to the transport opened exposing nothing but a pitch black interior though little flickers of silver light could be seen, namely the reflection of the spotlights off a large cylindrical object in the center of the door. A blaring, droning sound filled the heads of everyone around as the object opened fire, the mini-gun fired at a near imperceptible rate and cast a light on the four figures still waiting in the doorway, one of the smaller ones manning the weapon. The hollow never really had a chance as it was cut to shreds by the unending wave of lead and within the first few moments one of its arms and several of its back spines were cut clear off the body, blood black in the dark night and white energy filling the air. The weapon tore right through the creature and pummeled the building that was behind it into nothingness in the process, not ceasing its fire until the creature hit the roofs “floor” and began bleeding out in mass quantities.

Immediately as this happened three of the figures departed the transport, two of them pulling out large machine guns and covering their sides. The largest one, Derrick, who was wearing a huge suit of armor and was carting a weapon of massive proportions, a long and wide barreled weapon that had three large drums attached to its bottom and a three foot rack slide extending out of its top, walked straight toward Richards form. Just as he was leaning down to his employer there was movement to the side and the battered form of the hollow began twitching. With great speed it pulled with its claws and darted around the fire of the two members of the Halo Storm at the open doors of the chopper. It extended to its full height and was about to jump off the roof when it was hit in the back by a huge volley of spirit infused pellets expelled from the giant shotgun Derrick was carting, blood erupted from its back and it went spilling over the edge. Derrick threw the gun over his shoulder with unnatural strength and raced toward the edge, he pointed at Richard. While his mask covered whatever he said it was clear that he had issued an order.

As Derrick jumped off the roof exactly where the hollow had fallen over the edge the two men at the transport ran to Richard and gently grasping him on each side ran him with fantastic speed to the cover of the helicopters door. They got him inside without causing further injury while the man at the door, whose face was unmasked exposing the young African American known as Bear, covered them with the mini-gun. As soon as they had him laid out on a rack of seats to the side the little one who had pulled him in went rushing off toward the cockpit, likely to order takeoff while Bear pulled the large door-mounted gun in and threw the solid metal entryway closed. The larger man removed his mask exposing the heavy-set but powerful man known as King who bent over Richard while an obvious motion began rocking all of them ever so gently. Though there was no noise inside there was no doubt they had taken off and were now shooting through the air, the outside lights had been cut and they were now basked in only the dim red preparation light that filled the hold.

While Zaks returned from the cockpit King who despite his unassuming appearance was the closest thing the Halo Storm had to a medic began inpecting and fixing what he could without any proper equipment. That mostly revolved around setting Richards broken leg and bandaging what wounds were exposed to the air. While time moved quickly in the diligent but hasty atmosphere it had really only been about two minutes when Zaks now exposed com lit up like a Christmas tree, almost making him jump as he had been watching King closely. He held up a small pad and clicked a button in the center, the pad lit up to show what someone was now looking at. On the pad was the corpse of a hollow who was quickly turning into white spirit energy, Zaks turned the pad and showed it to King and Richard. Bear grabbed Zaks shoulder and turned the pad around for him to see, ever brash.

“Whats our status?” came Derricks voice from the pad.

“We are taking him to one of the closer outlying facility's. Hes beat up but not badly, he won't need the primary tech at HQ.” Zaks replied in a casual manner as if this happened every day.

“Alright. I'll move to one of the safe houses and call for pick-up later. It'd be hard for me to trek it to any of the facilities, giant armored soldiers tend to get noticed.” Derrick told him into total dead-pan.

Zaks humored him a chuckle though he was always to serious in the middle of a mission to care and then replied, “Alright, speak to you soon, out.” And with that Zaks turned the pad off.

Derrick meanwhile removed his hand from his ear and his com immediately went down. He looked down at what remained of the hollow on the ground as it continued to dissipate, without thinking he hoisted the large gun he had used to split the beast right in half on to his shoulder. Without much more thought on the matter he got his bearings and called up where the closest place he could retreat to was held on his in-suit browser. Finding the place he made off in that direction, he had only proceeded a few meters when his suit-enhanced hearing picked something up and he stopped dead in his tracks. At first it was little more than a murmur but it quickly exploded into a cacophony of sounds, tortured souls speaking out to him and beastly things screaming. He didn't see anything just yet but there was a sudden surge of motion in what had been a still and silent zone since Richard had entered it. Derrick rushed to the street and looked down in both directions, shadows were moving everywhere and off to his right there was another beastly scream. Within his suit he took a deep sigh while removing his weapon and taking aim at the nearest shadow.

“Wonderful.”

[Zhiel]

If he would still have had his gun, Richard would probably have shot wildly at the Hollow until he'd realize the gun was empty, then regret not saving a last bullet for himself as he knew what horrible fate awaited those who were eaten by a hollow, or atleast he thought he knew. But unfortunately, or rather luckily so, he had dropped his gun when the hollow had smacked him onto the roof. With nothing else to do Richard closed his eyes and took a deep but painfull breath, awaiting his inevitable doom. Just then however he heard a familiar sound, it was very faint, but he was sure he recognized it.

When he opened his eyes he saw how the hollow had stoped closeby and was screeching and barking at something behind Richard, and judging by the very faint but to him still audible sound, he knew what it was and couldent help but smile even in his downed position. It seemed luck was on his side today, perhaps it was a sign that his cause was necessary, though he did not believe much in fate or destiny. Richard did his best to cover his ears when the choppers mounted machine gun starting blaring as it ripped into the large reptilian hollow, but due to having several broken limbs and laying in a rather uncomfortable position it was not easy with it being so close, but it was not so bad that it would affect his hearing.

As the hollow finally fell to the 'floor' three of the HALO Storm members jumped out from the 'chopper' and landed nearby on the roof, two taking up defensive stances while the largest one, Derrick, moved up to Richard while carting a massive spirit shotgun specifically designed for the man. Richard let out a groan of pain as he looked up at the man. "Took you long enough." He was about to say something else, but just then the hollow was suddenly on its feet again and was rushing towards the chopper, however just before it could reach it Derrick shot it in the back with the shotgun he now wielded, making it fall over the edge. "I see... You like your new toy." Richard then commented, but wheter Derrick heard him or not was up in the air as he rushed after the falled hollow, issuing an order to the two others, most likely to take him to safety.

Sure enough right after Derrick had disappeared after the hollow the other two ran up to him and carried him with surprising speed, barely causing him any further pain, straight to the lowered transports open door where he was hoisted inside with care, on the way inside he caught a glimpse of Bears unmasked face as he sat by the machinegun. 'Cripes... I've told them to always wear the helmets during missions...' He thought, then realizing just how ironic it was of him to think that in the current situation, he would have almost laughed, if it didnt hurt so much.

With Richard safely in the transport the large form of King leaned over him as he started a routine health check, bandaging open wounds and setting his broken bones in place, which caused a bit of swearing from Richard, but that kind of thing always hurt so it was understandable. Afterwards Richard laid on the rack of seats breathing deeply, both from exhaustion and from the pain that was fortunately starting to subside somewhat, and it was about this time that he noticed the tell-tale motions of the chopper that it was moving. "Remind me to not walk home again." He said with a sigh, though his tone was sarcastically humorous, which rose a chuckle or two from one or both of the two big guys in the chopper, Richard really did not know whom it had been, but he didn't care either. Atleast this was going to be over soon, though Richard would not be able to join in on any operations for a week or two, their medical equipment was still fairly basic ((Meaning no magic healing )).


The next day Richard found himself lying in a hospital issue bed in one of the New World Order's outlying facilities mostly used by Hunting squads who was on duty and needed a place to retreat or fall back to, but also for some of their less important or secretive research. Stirring Richard grunted in pain as he had tried to move his broken arm, having completely forgotten about it. Laying back down he looked around the room, seeing no one in the windowless room, though there was two soldiers he recognized as ELITE's due to their Advanced Mark 1 armors that was bordering on the first Mark 2's technology. From the look of it they were guarding the room, which while he thought in general to be unecessary in their own base, he was gratefull for. He also noticed that there was a 'get well soon' card lying on the white desk to his side. What the hell?

Being unable to do work in the field did not necessarily mean he coulden't do work at all however, so he leaned slightly out of the bed and stretched for his belongings which had been laid there and picked up his... His broken cellphone... With a snarl the cellphone went flying into the wall and shattered into a thousand pieces. The sound caught the ELITE's attention, whom immidiately rushed into the room with their weapons up high. "Sir, whats the problem sir!?" One of them asked, seeing there was no 'attacker' in the room but rather a rather frustrated Richard. The pile of scrap metal and other assorted materials in the cellphone which now lied on the floor did not miss their attention, though they were wise enough to not question it.

"Could you be so nice as to get me a phone?" Richard asked, though frustration was obvious on his face he talked with a prety calm, more depressed sounding voice than anything, though it was obvious it had not really been a question. "Right away sir!" The same ELITE answered as he scurried out the door, the other ELITE returned to his post in the meantime, and after just a minutes time the first one came back holding a Special Operative class cellphone, with almost the same functions as Richard's own. "Great, thank you." He said with a sincere tone of voice as the ELITE handed him the phone. "Dismissed." He then said as he opened the cellphone and began to type a number. "Yes sir!" The man replied with a salute as he turned and walked out the door, resuming his post.

In the meantime Richard had dialed a number and was waiting for the call to be recieved, which it was shortly. ["Yes, this is Operative Kae."] Came a familiar voice through the cellphone. "Good morning Kae, Hunter here. I'd like to request some materials from the main storage area." Richard then said into the cellphone, at which he heard a chuckle from the other end. ["Always working, eh? Very well, tell me what you need and I will get it to you in about an hours time."] Came the response from Kaeshi, Richard's secretary and general assistant. "Good, I'd like to have all our video and data materials on Shinigami, especially if they have done anything... Odd. I might be onto something, but I'd like verification first."


Later...


"I see you never rest, eh?" Came the voice of Kaeshi through the door of Richard's 'hospital' room as the mid-twenties, short japanese man stepped in. Richard was sitting up in his bed and was typing away on a laptop he had in his lap, though there were also a long series of symbols and equations drawn on the many pages of a sketchblock. While Richard was busy typing away, more or less ignoring the younger man, a habit of his when working frantically, his secretary took up the sketchblock and looked over several of the pages. He had a look of both surprise and curiosness about him when he shifted the page a fifth time, just about then it seemed that Richard was finished with what he was doing as he closed the top of the laptop and turned his eyes to Kaeshi. "If I rest, who will bring these 'spirits' to justice? You know as well as I do that we need stronger equipment to fight on par with those black robed bastards." Richard said, though his voice was in general calm, there was a great passion about what he said.

Kaeshi just ignored him and changed pages once more. "So, about this... You're not doing what I think you're doing, are you?" The japanese man asked.

A victorious smile spread on Richards face as he heard this. "Oh yes, if you're thinking what I think you are, then I am."

"You can't be serious... How were you able to figure something this complicated out from mere video photage?" The man asked, sounding rightfully surprised. The theories that was covering the sketchblock was nothing short of the compression rate of spirit particles as well as a basic, but still very complicated outline for how the Shinigami zanpakutou worked and how to use the design for themselves. Though it was an obviously incomplete theory.

"Well, as you might be able to tell its incomplete still, but the events yesterday had me thinking, and be it that or by chance I managed to figure it out, for the most part. I still think we could need one of their swords to make a detailed analysize." Richard said in response, his smile did not fade from the issue with his ideas however. "With a little more work I can make the theory work for our armors as well. Think about it, a armor suit more powerful than even the planned Mark 3, that can be activated at any time! With that kind of technology we are no longer limited to the physical limitations of our worlds materials!" The sheer anticipation was more than glaringly obvious in Richard's voice as he said this.

Kaeshi just sighed before putting down the sketchblock. "I still think you're getting a little ahead of yourself."

"Better be farther ahead with the possibility of falling than always behind."