Whispers of War

This was an international mission, one that was so important that the usual important prerequisite of having a passport could be overlooked, as long as it could be ascertained that one was a legal mage. And that was why Yamadera Terumi was here in Felidae City, the largest city in all of Joya. Everyone was aware of the massive event that was sure to shape the political face of all of Ishgar for many years: the Ishgarian Symposium for Peace. It was no wonder, then, that different countries and different guilds would be sending their representatives to take a part in the official cessation of hostilities between two superpowers who had been at each other's throats for most of recent history. Terumi was honored to have been a part of the delegation sent by one of Fiore's finest guilds, Sabertooth, and she was not going to let her guild down.

Terumi... or perhaps "Senka" would be more accurate, maintained a leisurely stroll as she made her way through the busy streets of Felidae City. She stood out a little in the crowd, what with her domino mask and "superhero" outfit, but then again, Joya was a country where many not-so-normal people and events occurred, so she didn't stick out too much, at least, not like a sore thumb would. She was a little early for her patrol, but she liked it that way, as it was always better to be prompt than late. Besides, she would have a little time to breathe and center herself before the activities of the day kicked off in full swing.

It had been rumored that there might be a group of terrorists intending to detonate a bomb, and Senka's primary mission was to locate and dismantle the bomb, as well as identify and subdue any hostiles in the area. She was not sure of how the mission would turn out, or what unforeseen circumstances would present themselves in the course of the day, but Senka was confident that she had the skillset to defuse a bomb, provided it didn't have sophisticated anti-tampering measures. She could deal with rune locks, though...

The large city provided various vantage points from which people could look out on the streets below, and perhaps get away from the crowds if they were not afraid of heights. Senka sat perched atop a high stone column, her silky hair gently stirred by the breeze. This was not a bad place from which one could scout and get an aerial view of Felidae City. Thus, if something big was happening, or there was a commotion, she would be able to locate it quickly. However, she also knew that she needed eyes on the ground and among the crowd, which was why her Hidama no Tama floated among the masses, shifting out of the range of any inquisitive felines who were feeling rather touchy... and many of them seemed to be in the mood today. Still, the orb could easily avoid them by ducking through spaces much smaller than the human body, and so it could continue its observation in peace.

Up above, Senka waited and hoped. She couldn't tell how the Symposium would turn out, but she prayed it would go along well, and the war between Bellum and Pergrande would come to a peaceful conclusion. There were many dark forces, however, that due to their selfishness or some other contrary motive, wished for the ceasefire to end and the war to bloom afresh.

She prayed that they would not succeed.

The sights, sounds and smells of the wonder known as Felidae City were a rather new experience for the Luminous Rose mage who was currently utilizing almost all of her willpower to keep from standing stock still with saucer-wide eyes and gaping mouth, staring at the spectacle before her. The first word that came to mind was 'rowdy', although there was a unique charm that the strange, exotic city bequeathed on the good-natured commotion that roiled in its streets. This place was a huge distraction (in the most positive terms, as far as the blonde mage was concerned), and it was certainly one of the best places in Earthland to go to, if you just wanted to have the time of your life as a tourist. There were a number of places that Fortunita had decided she would be visiting, as soon as she had less things to do, and more money to spend on her hands. And that was the problem. She had neither less things to do, nor more money to spend, which was why she couldn't afford to just keep staring at all the colors and sights. Because she was here on a guild assignment, and one which had great value to her personally.

It was news to no one that Pergrande and Bellum were at war. If there was anyone who wanted the fighting to end, it was Nita, primarily because she was Pergrandian by birth. Despite the fact that she wasn't sure she could ever return to her homeland permanently, due to the affliction (or was it a blessing?) which she currently possessed, Fortunita had never hated Pergrande; as a matter of fact, like every true Pergrandian, she had had very strong nationalistic views, right up until she had been forced to run away from her homeland, due to the unexpected events that suddenly bestowed on her the ability to use magic. Returning home meant death, or at the very best, rejection (which was very unlikely, and more in favor of the first option), but her upbringing made it difficult to hate the land she had known for so long. As a matter of fact, right up until she had been afflicted with the scourge of magic, Nita had feared and hated the 'odious magic users'. There had been recurring thoughts of suicide after she had absorbed the essence of the elder god in a place so far removed from Earthland as far as physical distance was concerned. But she was too enamored of life to put an end to hers. Besides, she thought it a craven thing to do, to run away from her own struggles by taking such an apparently easy way out.

And so, because of love of a motherland which she knew would never love her again, the young mage had gladly jumped at the opportunity to serve the interests of Pergrande, even if indirectly. Truth was, even though Nita wanted the war to be over, and with as few deaths as possible, she knew deep down that if asked which country she would prefer to have the upper hand, it would be Pergrande. And in her inner thoughts, she knew that this was a terrible error of bias, for now, she would be more accepted by the Bellians, who welcomed anything magic with open arms, even going so far as to worship it. Still, it was Pergrandian blood that flowed in her veins, that would always flow in her veins. Humans had such silly biased systems of reasoning and thought. It was a wonder they considered themselves capable of objective contemplation. She almost laughed at the thought, before a more frightening one quickly replaced it: was her derision of human thought an offshoot of her own will, or was it that when she had absorbed the powers of the deity, she had absorbed its will as well, and that was slowly trying to overwhelm her mental faculties?

It was best not to consider such things, especially as this all-important mission stood needing to be carried out. In her own little way, she would contribute to the peace of this event, and hopefully, Pergrande would settle its ancient score with Bellum without further bloodshed. Were this to happen, who knew if Pergrande would not become more open to magic users? It was a thing too precious to hope for, but Nita was willing to allow herself to hope. And for this hope to even have the faintest chance of coming to pass, this summit had to be kept safe from those who wished to profit from the war. Nita had been told in the mission briefing that she had to look out for eco-terrorists, but Heaven knew what an eco-terrorist looked like. She was sure they didn't have branded tee shirts or badges which they gave out at the local eco-terrorist conventions. This meant that she would have to identify them successfully, and neutralize their threat, hopefully without any loss of life. So, in order to complete her mission, Nita had dressed as casually as possible in her usual skimpy style, this being an advantage what with the jungle heat and humidity in the area. To any observer, she was just a tourist. Her guild mark was covered by the sleeves of her short jacket, so no one would be able to easily identify her as belonging to a guild. The discovery of the presence of a guild mage could make the eco-terrorists suspicious.

The sight of two people speaking in low tones caught Nita's attention. It was here that Nita discovered the most interesting dynamics of the small crowd which surrounded the speakers. To an unsuspecting person, it seemed to be a normal chaotic group. On closer observation, however, there seemed to be some people, whose milling about ensured that they remained the only people around the speakers. Anyone who drew too close was subtly jostled away from the speakers. This was interesting. Nita drew close enough to hear snatches of the conversation while remaining undetected. It was very likely that the fact that she was an obvious foreigner helped, because she was not expected to understand what was being said in the Joyan tongue. If they only knew. From the snatches of conversation, she caught words like 'bomb', and 'place' and 'soon'. And then they parted ways, the leonine fellow striding off into the thicker press of the crowd, and the other one (Nita wasn't particularly sure what sort of animal this horned fellow with spectacles was) began walking with an absentminded air as he spoke to himself. Most of the small crowd that had surrounded the two speakers broke off and began milling loosely around this horned (Nita was going to go with goat, although she knew goats didn't have long tails) fellow. He carried a bag and wore spectacles, your run-of-the-mill genius goat. And Nita decided what she would do.

Her plan was to attempt to discover what was in the bag. Perhaps it was the bomb she had heard about from the snatches of discussion. Moving as though she had the same general direction as the genius goat, while one of the milling crowd members was trying to inconspicuously bump her away, the Pergrandian chose that as a perfect time to trip on herself, crashing into the genius goat from behind. It had all seemed like an accident, except that Nita, in the expected flailing dance that bipeds used to attempt to save themselves when falling, reached out and broke the closing clasp of the genius goat's bag. As both fell, a plethora of small spherical vials rolled out of the bag, each one bearing a liquid of specific color. The genius goat was up, muttering a string of curses as he retrieved his bottles, while the pretending crowd members became more committed, as one helped Genius Goat gather his spilled items while the others formed a barrier between Genius Goat and Nita, who just stared at them like a confused and hapless tourist.


WC: 1338

Terumi scanned the edges of the crowd, making a slow visual sweep from one end of what she could see to the other. A hot-blooded person would consider this to be quite a boring mission, just sitting there and doing nothing, while waiting for something big to happen. Still, to let down her guard would be unwise. Most of the time, it was while vigilance slipped that the event meant to be avoided happened. As far as she was concerned, if the whole day passed without any event, she would be pleased. Sure, she might not have a chance to shine in her formal debut outing as a hero, but that would mean that at least, the peace of Felidae City would not be broken. Then again, she was strong for a reason, a reason such as this. She had to admit eventually that she was looking forward to some sort of action, if not for anything, just to take note of the crowd's reaction to a  superhero coming in to save the day. No, she was not looking for the adulations of the masses... okay, maybe just a little. To be fair to her, Terumi was not interested in anyone worshipping her, but she always wanted to feel loved, useful, like she was making a difference...

Her purple eyes, which had stared off into space suddenly focused in tandem with her eyebrows dipping slightly, as she registered a telepathic ping from her Tama. She was up on her feet in a moment, peering intently at the milling mob below her. While she was looking for visible crowd stirrings, she was very sure that her connection with the Tama would give her a clearer position on what she was being alerted to. Through the Tengan ability, she could detect that not so far from the Hidama no Tama was a group of people who seemed like they wanted to gang up on someone. Was this simply a bunch of roughs looking to start a fight? Or was this the starting of the terrorists' plan to arm their bomb? Whichever was the case, breaking up the altercation before it became more advanced was the best way to go. Even if the terrorists were  not involved in this, they could simply use the unrest to further their goals of disrupting the Symposium. Not on Senka's watch. She would ensure that no civil unrest would prevail in this part of Felidae City, even if she  had to fight the entire crowd to achieve this.

She raised an eyebrow. Someone in that crowd looked familiar...

Already, the masses had put a little bit of distance between themselves and the players of this situation, namely, the blonde outsider on one side, and the scholarly looking Joyan and his supporters on the other. "Can't say that looks like a fair fight. Wonder what she's doin here, though. If I recall what the soothsayer back in Oak Town said to her, she's probably quite powerful. Still, it won't do to wait and see how this scenario is going to resolve itself. Some 'law enforcement' might be in order."

Senka stepped off the the pillar and fell towards the masses below.

Her expression remained unwavering as she dropped a height that would be fatal to most people, but she didn't wait to hit the ground, or the people beneath, to discover whether she could survive such impact. Fine, she was certainly going to survive such a fall, but it would likely cause her a bit of injury,  and she was not ready to suffer any damage, no matter how small, at this point in time. There was a flash of fire, and the falling woman vanished. It may have caught some attention, and caused some people to look upwards, but Senka was sure to activate her Firestep high enough so as not to cause a panic among the people below. Within that same instant, there was another flash of fire, this time above the area where the Joyans had come together to serve as a defense for the bespectacled one. Within that space, she appeared, high enough to not instill the feeling of being attacked in the people below, but low enough to not cause her any discomfort when gravity took its toll. With almost no sound and an enviable grace, Senka dropped to the ground between Nita and the Joyans. Expectedly, most, if not everyone present showed varying degrees of surprise, but Senka noted silently that while most of the by-standers were simply amazed, confused or curious, or even all three together, the ones behind whom the flustered and horned scientist stood were obviously hostile. Senka reasoned that if they had nothing to hide, they were not supposed to be that testy. Agreed, there were certain Joyan natives that were rather xenophobic, but they often stayed away from Felidae City to avoid the "outsiders". Being in Felidae City and showing open antagonism was enough to get Senka suspicious of their true motives.

Her back was to Nita, her face to the Joyans, her expression calm but mildly suppliant. She wasn't here to pick a fight... but she was ready to give it, should the situation call for it.

"Good morning. I'm sorry for..."

"If you're sorry, why don't you just get lost?!" one of them snapped, cutting her off. Okay, that was very discourteous. Normally, Terumi would have ignored the insult and backed away, but if she did so now, she would be leaving them to their own nefarious devices, without a check on them. Besides, if Nita was actually a citizen in distress, would she walk away, just because she did not want to offend these indigenes? On a last note, she had a job to do, and they would not prevent her from doing it. They might even be the ones she was after.

"I apologize profusely for any inconveniences caused," she said, with a bow, "so, we'll all get back to what we were doing. Thank you very much."

None of them moved; if anything, their irritation and annoyance only grew. They were obviously spoiling for a fight. Terumi wasn't too pleased with how she was acting like she didn't know her friend here. She would have liked to share pleasantries with Nita, but those would have to come later. Or, they could come in the thick of the fight... because for all intents and purposes, a brawl was brewing.

After her purposeful accident, Nita did not bother to rise from her seated position on the ground, as she just kept staring up at the angry-looking group of beastmen who scowled down at her. At present, they were on the verge of taking action, but they seemed to be holding themselves back. So far, it appeared that they were not supposed to draw much attention to themselves until they had hatched whatever plan it was they were planning to hatch, and Nita had a strong feeling that it had a lot to do with the bomb that she had heard mentioned. A part of her thought with no little degree of irritation about how this was, if her suspicions were correct, a pulled out page from the Terrorist’s Guide to Successful Terrorism handbook. Go and kill innocent bystanders, just because you wanted to prove a point. There was this irritating voice deep down within her that pointed out how nobody was really innocent; the “innocent bystanders” all had their own vices and petty demons, and maybe unless they were newborns, there was nothing to pity them for, if they got killed. Besides, existence was simply a cycle of birth, life, and death. And her powers were a testament to that age-old truth.

Nita was really getting concerned about these thoughts that seemed to fly into her brain from left field. Did other human beings have such thoughts? It made her temporarily wonder whether she was indeed completely human. She was sure that she was, in part, but exactly how human was she? Following the lines of such thoughts made her wonder whether she wouldn’t end up eventually like the people she was trying to stop today. People who did not gave a single care about how much pain and suffering they caused, as long as they had made their point clear. Steely resolve formed within her mind. It was to prove to herself, if not the world around her, that she was human, that she was trying so hard to make sure that other people were able to live their lives peacefully and without fear of death and destruction. Every day she performed her duties as a light mage, it was so that she could look into the mirror and see a human being staring right back. Or at least someone who valued human life. It was odd that most of those responsible for human deaths were also humans, so how did wanting to save human life make her more human than the ones trying to destroy such. If a robot, or an extraterrestrial creature, valued human life, would that make it more human?

Using a lot of mental effort to push aside such thoughts, Nita was planning her next move, when a flash of fire caught everyone’s attention, and a woman appeared in the air, before dropping to the ground between Nita and the group of antagonizing beastmen. There was something awfully familiar about the newcomer, and Nita realized it was her hair. She had not met many people with mint-colored hair before; thinking about it, she had only met two, and on the same night, but they were apparently unrelated by blood. It seemed that the female of the mint green individuals was the one standing in front of her. If Nita remembered her, she had given her name as Terumi. Still, the Pergrandian was not interested in just firing off on that assumption and calling her by name. It would be quite embarrassing if she turned out to be a different person from the one Nita was expecting. So she said nothing, preferring to watch the proceedings, and not say anything to her apparent savior, unless said savior decided to address her first. In the meantime, with people’s attention on the flashy mode of Mint Green’s arrival, Nita discretely moved her hand to grip a reasonably sized pebble, which she maintained her grip on, although she still kept her hand on the ground.

Mint Green seemed to be trying to talk peacefully to the aggravated beastmen, one of whom responded rudely. And they didn’t seem to be too interested in deescalating the situation and letting matters be. All well and good, as far as Nita was concerned. Getting to fight them meant that if she had to interrogate anyone of them, she would not be particularly considered terrible for doing so. Grabbing an apparent stranger for questioning was at best rude, and at worst cruel. Questioning someone who attacked you, well that was another ball game entirely. And Nita was sure she could employ less cordial means of extracting information from them, if they were considered as hostiles. But first, she had to steer this into combat waters, while making it all seem like none of this was her fault. If these guys were of the eco-terrorist sort, they were most likely of the xenophobic persuasion. As someone who knew enough cues about communication to understand that one could say something and portray an entirely different message, Nita put her plan in action.

”Yes, as Mint Green said, we apologize for any inconveniences caused,” Nita echoed, still staying in her sitting position. She made sure that her natural Pergrandian accent was even thicker than normal. There were reasons for her accent and her choice of words. Firstly, a xenophobe would react negatively to that which sounded more foreign. A Fiorean accent sounded much more similar to that of the Joyan, than did a Pergrandian accent. So, hearing a much farther removed accent from theirs would be more jarring. Also, calling Terumi Mint Green painted Nita with a flippant brush. It was more satisfying roughing up a frivolous or carefree person, than taking on a respectful, well-composed person, whose image Terumi was actually conveying so well. ”So, maybe we can all just shake hands, exchange kisses on the cheeks, and enjoy such a wonderful Joyan day, right?” One of the Joyan thugs, a traditional feline man, snarled and took a step forward. And Nita released the final bait. ”Oh?” she said, looking genuinely surprised, ”that’s not how it works here? Okay, I can pet you on the head if that’s what works for you.” What made matters even more aggravating was the innocent offhandedness with which Nita spoke; to the average person, it would be seemingly obvious that she apparently had no idea how annoying she was being. ”Rough them up, quickly,” Genius Goat muttered, obviously just as irritated as his fellow thugs.

Nita was still talking, apparently oblivious to the storm she was brewing. ”You see, I knew this old lady who had this kitty that had your type of fur. And oh! he was horridly ugly when spitting, quite like you are right now. You might just be related! She called him Mr. Puce, yes, not the double ‘s’ that comes with the normal spelling, but with that particular ‘c’ that Minstrellians….” The snarling cat man hissed at Genius Goat’s command, and pounced, his claws outstretched, aiming to throttle the seated girl. And Nita was still talking.  Her intention was to see what Terumi would do, for to reach Nita, the cat man had to get past Mint Green, which is what he was in the process of doing, ignoring the flame superheroine as he did. Nita was sure Terumi would react. But she had the stone, just in case somehow, the cat got past Terumi.


WC: 1240
PWC: 2578

Senka was doing a very good job of keeping her emotions in check, which was a very useful tool: if this had to go down in the records, it would be plain and obvious that she was neither the trigger nor the fuel. And despite their open shows of hostility, she remained placid, but resolute. Many people stupidly took an apology for weakness. If any of these Joyans thought so, she would educate them on the error of their ways. For a brief moment, neither side moved; each seemed to be considering the wisdom of escalating this situation into fisticuffs. In fact, for the most fleeting of moments, Senka thought that the xenophobic Joyans would mutter some insult, or throw one or two threats at the two women, then go on their not-so-merry way. Yes, that was a reality... until Nita started talking.

It was a good thing that Terumi knew how to conceal what she was feeling behind an air of aloofness or serenity, because she almost couldn't believe what her friend was saying. First, which was not really problematic, was the appellation Nita gave her: "Mint Green". It was actually true, and not insulting, in her opinion. She had, after all, that interesting shade of green hair color. Wait, was it that her friend did not recognize her in her superhero suit? That would be very unlikely, because she remembered how quite a number of people had commented that the domino mask was useless in hiding her identity. She wasn't trying to use it to go incognito; it was part of the costume, designed to do little more than project her "hero" identity. Maybe Nita liked nicknames. That was more likely, seeing as back in Oak Town, she had seemed the amiable, chatty sort. However, speaking of "amiable", Nita seemed to be doing the exact opposite of charming the wrathful Joyans.

Senka didn't know whether to be amused or exasperated. Nita's words only served to further the Joyans, but she kept talking, like she was unaware that she was having that effect on them. At the part she talked about patting their heads, it was all Senka could do from slapping a palm to her forehead. There was no way the blonde was not doing this intentionally. But behind the seeming frivolous flippancy Nita was using to anger the beast men to no end, Senka felt she could scry a hidden, more intelligent motive. She, Senka, had chosen the path of testing the Joyans' actions; an exaggerated aggression would likely mean they were the faction she was after, or likely related. In any event, they were potential sources of unrest and would have to be subdued. Nita, on the other hand, seemed to be triggering them into making a rash move earlier than they intended to. That would not only throw parts of their plans into disarray, but they could easily be arrested under the premise of being civic nuisances without even having to link them to the bomb she had been detailed about. Perhaps Nita knew some things she didn't.

She frowned slightly when the academic looking one, the seeming "brains" behind this operation,  told his goons to "rough them up". Here she was, trying to broker peace, and this guy offhandedly ordered that she get beaten up? Besides, did people know how painful it was to be beaten by a mob? She did, from first hand experience, and remembering such always put her in a sour mood. Maybe she wouldn't feel so bad knocking these brutes around a bit. She felt like telling them that they were choosing a very unwise option, but she knew that words were useless at this point. All that was left would be to show a display of power.

Nita was still talking.

In Senka's opinion, the crowning glory of the subtle baiting was when Nita started talking about the old lady's kitty. This time, Senka nearly gasped. Okay, this one was downright insulting, wasn't it? She had to admit that there was something annoying amusing about the way Nita threw those barbs, like she had trained the art to mastery. Senka wasn't sure she could crack such jokes or trash talk like that; sure, she had her own humor, but it tended to be dry and occasionally unreliable. But Nita was right; that feline was rather "horridly ugly", what with the way he curled his lips when snarling. The beast man charged.

Battle time.

Senka stepped in the way of the beast man, who took a swipe at her with his claws. She pulled her head backwards out of the way, caught his wrist, spun a full three-sixty degrees and hurled him back the way he came. The beast man found himself on his back, right in front of his colleagues, some wind knocked out of him but relatively unhurt. He rolled over, hissing, as two others stepped forward. Meanwhile, a crowd had gathered to watch the scuffle, shouting cheers, encouragements and boos at both sides. As Senka readied herself, she realized that while she was trading blows with these fellows, the bomb terrorists might be launching their plan. Still, she got that side covered. The Hidama no Tama was out looking for any other suspicious movements. Until it located something interesting, it would not bother notifying her of the business of the common folk, so that she would not be distracted. Still, the sooner she swept this up, the better for her. She would be able to focus on finding the bomb.

"Don't make this difficult for yourselves," Senka warned, but the two who had flanked the feline attacked her at the same time, just as he got to his feet. Best thing would be to take them down as quickly as possible. How? Hit fast, and really hard.

"Fourth Restricted Voidfire Tech: Muspel March!"

With a "whoosh", Senka's hair seemed to catch fire (or did it transform into flame?), as she felt her physical strength backed up by the power of her flames. Undeterred by her strange hair, the beast men came in, one striking for her legs, the other curving round to go for her head from the side. Terumi leaped over the first attack, spinning in the air to launch a kick at the second beast man. His reflexes were fast; he had already raised his arms to block her attack, but he was not ready for the strength behind that kick. Terumi blew him off his feet, straight into a wall at the side, effectively putting his lights out for a while. As for the other beast man, who was more or less below her, she twisted her body sinuously, and bent over in mid air to catch him by his shoulders. Before he could react, she continued the somersaulting motion she had initiated by bending to grip his shoulders, completed a front flip, carrying the beast man through the air to smack him into the road.

Now that the battle lines were clearly drawn, Senka could see clearly that the number of bodyguards the horned brains-behind-the-operations had were seven. With two knocked into next week, five remained, and they were already attacking again, with ugly kitty at the head of the onslaught. Senka would have to be quick on her feet, so that they wouldn't overwhelm her with their numbers. She had some powerful spells for crowd control, but she didn't want to use her flames on anyone unless they proved too difficult to defeat with physical force.

Nita did nothing to leave her comfortable position, watching intently as Terumi stepped up to defend her from getting the beating of her life from the irate beastmen. That is, if indeed they could manage to handle her. One thing Fortunita never got tired off was seeing how most people just assumed she was some small, weak girl, an assumption that always returned with gaping fangs, to bite them in the rear. But she wouldn’t just show her prowess yet. She felt that there would be a much better time to utilize the element of surprise than the present moment, which saw Senka holding her own against a band of seven beastmen. While by numerical standards, the odds weren’t in Senka’s favor, Nita was of the opinion that her green-haired friend was quite a capable fighter, at least with what she had just seen, and even if anything happened to turn the battle against Senka, Nita would be ready to pitch in… that is, if she wasn’t engaged in a battle of her own. Because since she had forced the wheels of this wonderful enterprise to start turning, the Pergrandian knew that it would be very likely that whoever was connected to these goons would want to hurry their plans along.

As Senka proceeded to impressively dodge, kick and throw her first opponents in one breath, Nita decided to tread the dramatic route once more. She whooped and punched her fist into the air, a look of exhilaration on her face. With Senka’s extensive movements, the Pergrandian had been able to see her face, and ascertain that she was the one from Oak Town. ”Whooooo!” Nita screamed. ”Uppercut, Terumi! Do an—oh drat!” The excitement vanished from her face, as one of the growling beastmen did a wide circle round Terumi to come after her. Ah well, if it was any blessing, Terumi had less people to fight now. Nita scrambled to her feet in apparent alarm, as the beastman charged in only to find a stone connect with the side of his face, and then sweet oblivion followed quickly. Before anyone could even register that the seemingly defenseless girl had just one-shot a street tough, Nita threw the stone in her hand. It covered the distance between her and her intended target in record time, smashing Genius Goat’s glasses off his face and temporarily removing his consciousness from Earthland’s plane. ”That’s 2 for Stone, 0 for goons,” Nita said, just before something flying through the air caught her eye.

It was a small vial, similar to what Genius Goat had been carrying. Instinctively, Nita took note of where it was going to land (on her head, if she didn’t move), and reverse-traced its trajectory, even as she leaped out of the way. There was a small explosion, as the vial shattered violently on hitting the stony ground of the street, but Nita had already cleared the range of the blast. She had seen the culprit: an ape-man. Okay, actually just a big gorilla-ape, wearing clothes. Their eyes met, and then he pulled a number of vials out of his bag and flung them in a careless swing of his wide arm. Nita was already in the air again, this time her own flight trajectory rapidly closing in on the retreating ape. As people screamed at the explosions caused by the vials thrown by the ape, Nita descended cleanly on the running miscreant, sending him down to the ground. He rolled over and threw a punch, which Nita blocked by catching his hand, before twisting his wrist painfully. There was a dramatic scream.

”Get off me, you stupid ape!” the gorilla whined, eliciting a look of disbelief from Nita. ”Ape. Really?” she asked, twisting her captive’s hand even more. There was a shriek, and the gorilla’s tone became more placatory. ”Wait, can we discuss like civilized beings? You tell me what you want, and I see if I can do it for you.” Nita nodded. ”Sounds fair. I want to break your wrist.” Copious sweating occurred. ”Or, you could tell me about the bomb I overheard that guy over there discussing about.” She gestured at the fallen form of Genius Goat, and turned back to look at the ape. ”I’m afraid I can’t do that,” he replied with a nervous smile. ”Just call the cops and let them whisk me off. That’s what you heroes do, right?” There was something that changed in Nita’s expression that seemed to make the entire emotional atmosphere change with it. ”And who told you I was a hero?” she asked. ”I saw what you did, when you wanted to escape; you threw your bombs at random, expecting that I would go to save whatever unfortunate people would be endangered by the blast, right? That’s what heroes would do. You might have noticed that I did not.”

Deep down, Nita’s heart was bleeding. When the gorilla had thrown his bombs, she had been torn between trying to save the people around, and catching her prey. Due to the fact that her powers, as they did from time to time, had decided to act up, she had no means to prevent the falling bombs from doing their work, and so, she had done the next logical thing. If you cannot stop a crime, bring the offender to task. ”And that is why,” she whispered menacingly, with a sweet smile on her face, ”I am going to break your arm.” Quickly, the ape started spilling information. It seemed he was part of a terrorist cell (‘duh’ had been Nita’s response); he and Genius Goat had made a bomb; he didn’t know where it was, but he was interested in seeing the effects of his creation, never mind the terrorist cause or the lives that the bomb would take. As his spoke, Nita’s expression progressively darkened. It was people like the ape that irritated Nita, people who gave no thought for the lives they destroyed, simply because they wanted to achieve their goals. She stayed silent, until she was sure he was only giving unnecessary information to stall her from harming him, and then she dislocated the ape’s shoulder with a single punch. He passed out from shock. He was lucky that—

Something swinging her way with speed made Nita duck instinctively, before a knee smashed into her crouching form, sending her sliding a good number of meters before she was rudely stopped when her back connected with the side of a sturdily built stall. Before her was the leonine fellow she had seen talking with Genius Goat previously. He would most likely know where the bomb was. And he had an axe. Which was what Nita had very likely dodged before getting hit by his knee. This one was certainly a cut above the common rabble.

”Here, kitty, kitty, kitty,” she drawled, settling into a fighting pose.


WC: 1149
PWC: 3727

There were five enemies to contend with. Senka was not surprised when one of them skirted her and went for Nita. She had been  the one to stoke the flames of this fight, and if there was really anyone these beast men would want to teach a painful lesson, it would be her. Senka was just in the way, but she had proven to be a formidable threat, so they couldn't underestimate her. Still, no matter how prudent they wanted to be, she could tell from their movements that they were outclassed by herself. That wasn't a boast; it was plain and simple fact.

She let the one that went after her blonde friend to his own devices; she was convinced that Nita could deal with him. And if she couldn't, Senka would probably toss a flaming incendiary his way or something. For now, her focus remained on the four other beast men, who were approaching a little more warily than they had moved before, obviously disturbed at the swift efficient way she took out two of their comrades. Still, they felt they could overwhelm her with their numbers. Good for them. They were all more cautious... all, except one.

The feline whom Nita had insulted seemed to be beyond the point of thinking, because he had run ahead of the others, charging at Senka with all his claws flexed. His snarls, at this point in time, had evolved into some odd form of shrieking, which amused Senka more than it bothered her. Still, she did not show any emotion as she took a step forward to meet him. She didn't really have an interest in making him feel worse than he already did... emotionally, anyway. As far as physical hurt was concerned, oh, he was so getting some!

Being one conversant in martial arts of various sorts, Terumi understood his intentions from his movements. He had previously attacked, she had countered. He was probably planning to attempt a grapple, because from the kinetics of his elbows and knees, he wasn't planning on drawing any back for an attack. In a fight, being unpredictable was an advantage. And Senka played that card. Nobody was expecting her to walk straight into him, planting a solid straight kick into his face before he could clamp his clawed hands on her body. This time, it took him out  of the  fight, sending him a few paces to fall on his back once again. Perhaps what some people believed about the back of a cat not being able to touch the ground was not very accurate.

One of the beast men growled in angry frustration, a sound that changed to a yelp of surprise and pain, as Senka suddenly moved in and drove a closed fist into his solar plexor, the blow lifting him off his feet and roughly a meter into the air. She whirled around to face the other two who were already starting to back away, but something stopped her in her tracks, before she could expose them to the hurt she had prepared for them. Someone else, another beast man and most likely one of their number, had just thrown a bunch of globular bottles in a random, careless fashion. She was very surprised when the bottles exploded with loud reports, setting various places on fire and filling the street with cries of pain and fear. For the moment, Senka forgot about the hoodlums she had been throttling, her thoughts on how she could stop the fires and ensure everyone's safety.

And that distraction gave the beast men all the chance they needed.

The fires were serious in three areas, and to her horror, she noticed that there were two people who had been set ablaze. Senka focused on them first, stretching forth her hand to force the flames to do her bidding. The fires obeyed and winked out on the smoldering bodies of their victims. Next, she was going to take care of the rest of the burnings, when the earth suddenly shot up around her in four places, forming a sort of rectangular enclosure which pressed her limbs firmly to her body. A series of vines followed, wrapping around the stone entrapment to bind her securely in place. Her eyes, wide with surprise and incredulity, turned from the fire and smoke, to the two remaining beast men she had been fighting. From their body postures and expressions, they were the ones responsible for this. And they didn't seem to be bothered that the street was being damaged by the rapidly spreading fire, instead rushing at her while wielding nasty looking clubs. Seeing as only her head remained  exposed, there was no doubt what they had planned for her.

Senka's expression changed from one of shock to fury.

No words were spoken; a single explosion just happened right there on the street at the exact point the two beast men were closing in on. She had used her Bakuhatsu spell almost involuntarily; such was her disgust at how they couldn't be bothered with saving the lives that needed help. The spells that held her down were blown away by the force of the explosion around her, but the fire did not damage or affect anything else... excluding the beast men. Both of them were blown away in opposite directions, crashing into a wall and the ground with enough force to give them serious concussions. Senka, for her part, not wasting any more time, raised one hand and yelled: "Yamero!"

The raging fires instantly obeyed that Midijin command, and they faltered and went out in seconds. Senka closed her eyes and exhaled slowly, and as her Tama identified those who were injured, she sent forth a stream of healing flames in every direction. The Joyans exclaimed in wonder as cuts closed up, burns vanished and pain was alleviated. As she opened her eyes, she noticed that people were gathering around her, their expressions grateful and amazed.

"Everyone okay?" she asked, though it wasn't needed. If anything, her Exorcist Flames were very thorough at their healing work, and the only problem would be the collateral damage caused by the bombs. Her fires could not reverse the time of structures... or at least, she had not tried it, thanks to her fear of dabbling with the powers of Time.

"Yeah... thanks, lady. Your fire is something I've never seen before," an elderly Joyan said, with a slight bow. Senka turned to him and gave a very formal bow of her own. "I apologize for any inconveniences caused by this fight. I Senka, promise you that those responsible for planning this destruction will be..."

Danger alert! Senka sensed the attack coming before her physical senses even noticed, and she blocked it by raising her arms to catch the impact with her lower arms. Despite the fact that she ws still empowered by her Restricted Voidfire Techs, the strength behind the attack flung her clean into a building. The gathering Joyans scattered in all directions, and Senka heard a chuckle, even with her spinning head.

"And here I was thinking we won't have any problems with our liberation plans," came a feminine voice. Senka got to her feet and, ignoring the pain, marched through the dust and smoke to face her assailant. She found herself glaring at another feline, but this one was female, and she had an air of authority around her. The beast woman was taller than she was, and she noticed that her left arm, which had transformed from the elbow down into a massive ram's head, had just resumed its normal arm shape. The feline sized up Senka with a look and smiled slowly. "You're a tough one. That's good. I would have hated to come out all this way to pulverize some weakling into the dust. Throw all you've got at me! I'll use you to make a statement to all the unworthy outsiders trampling our beautiful city!" Her voice became agitated with emotion. "Always treating us like second class citizens... even on our own land. I will show you racists what it feels like to be treated like dogs!"

Senka sighed. Already, her Voidfire was burning away the pain, so she already felt better and would be able to engage in some rigorous, violent physical activity, which seemed inevitable. "I won't deny or refute your accusations, for I am not Joyan, and I cannot claim to know what you have gone through. However, your righteous intentions are nullified by your nefarious acts. These Joyans are your people. If you wanted to make a statement, why would you cause more grief for your own? The bomb will hurt more Joyans than us outsiders."

"It will make a statement, like I said. We have been ruled by the weak for far too long. But all that changes today. With this bomb, and my defeat of you, I shall usher Joya into an age of the mighty. Prepare yourself, hairless one, to be struck down by the Inquisitor of the People."

"You may have good reason," Senka reiterated, "but I cannot abide your actions. I must stop you." She took a battle stance. "Prepare yourself, Inquisitor; Sabertooth's Verdant Flame is your opponent!"

Apparently, Nita's leonine adversary was too self-controlled to take her verbal bait, instead circling her slowly as he twirled his large axe. Then he charged, swinging the weapon in a swipe graceful enough to suggest to Nita that he had quite some expertise in the usage of this weapon. Nita held out both hands, and in them formed Regulus, a black, arcane staff, with a white crystalline orb as its head. She lifted the staff, just as the lion’s descending swipe connected with the shaft of the rod. Then she twisted her arms to the left, diverting the axe-wielding beast man in that direction, while kicking at his knees to throw him off balance. The attempt was successful, as the beast man staggered to one knee, only to get Nita’s own rising knee connecting with his face. As though she was performing some sort of elegant combat dance, Nita fluidly linked her knee strike with a spin, twirling Regulus as she spun to lend more kinetic power to her next attack, a bludgeoning one to the side of the lion man’s head. As Regulus’ head connected with his, Nita activated the staff’s Starburst ability. There was a white flash, and the lion corkscrewed through the air like a ragdoll to crash into a nearby wall. He remained where he was.

”That takes care of the minor distraction,” the Luminous Rose mage muttered, as the staff dissipated into thin air, and she dusted her hands dramatically, eyes closed as if to express her disdain at the meager amount of effort she had expended to handle her opponent. But despite the gesture she had made which normally signified that work had been completed, Nita knew she still had a bit of work to do. There was, after all, a bomb to take care of. Walking over to the still unconscious ape, Nita knelt down beside him and placed a hand on his head. Due to her ability to glean the histories of whatever she touched, the Pergrandian was able to travel back a bit through time in the perspective of the beast man scientist. There was a bit of unnecessary trivia, some embarrassing nonsense that Nita hoped she would forget before day end, and then she saw what she was looking for. Ape and Goat wheeled a relatively small, but ominous-looking device to a niche in a wall carefully prepared for it, and the niche was plastered up so that the thing just looked like a normal wall. That was definitely the bomb. And it was here on this particular street, no less. Nita thus realized what had been going on. The terrorists had gathered probably to make sure that there were enough people on the street, for the sake of ‘making a statement’, as the feline lady currently fighting Terumi had said. It was very likely that the bomb had been primed, and the terrorists had been in the process of leaving the area, when the foreigners came and meddled. But there was still a bit of more meddling to do, if all was to end well.

Using the memory she had gained from touching the ape, Nita found the wall behind which the bomb was located, and created a black card, which she used to proceed to cut a hole in the wall, her remembrance of the ape’s memory being enough to help her know the exact location of the bomb. It helped that she could sense the object with her refined psychic sensing field. In little time, she had cleared the bricks away from the hole she had made, and pulled out the bomb. It wasn’t very large, as far as size went; it just came up to a little higher than her knees. Yet it was quite heavy for its size, and though it looked a bit crudely designed and cobbled together quickly, there was something ominous about it that made all the bystanders who saw it realize what it most likely was. Now, Nita could either teleport it out of here, but that meant it would blow up elsewhere. Her best bet was to let the tech genius Terumi deal with it, but Terumi was currently busy. As a good number of the people on the crowded street began to hurry away from the bomb, Nita cast a small Runewall around herself and the shield, and then stepped out of the barrier spell. In her hands formed two ornate flintlock pistols, which she pointed at Terumi’s opponent, and pulled both triggers at the same time.

”So sorry to disturb your playtime, love, but something more important has come up, so let me borrow Mint Green for a bit,” the Pergrandian said, before blowing at the smoke coming out of their nozzles and doing some theatrical gun spinning. ”And that being said, Terumi dear, could you please help me with that thing?” Nita gestured to the bomb. ”I’m about as clueless as to what to do with it as an idiot in advanced geometry class.” Actually, she had ideas, but defusing the bomb would probably be the safest one, and besides, it looked like the sort of stuff Terumi would love doing, if she knew anything about her green-haired friend. ”Oh, and don’t mind the cute little shield. You can go through it, but step out at once if you think the bomb might go off.”


WC: 898
PWC: 4625

Senka's eyes widened as there was a sudden loud crack of gunfire, and the Inquisitor's head snapped violently to the side. The culprit of this surprise attack was Nita, who had shot her with two flintlock pistols. On a good day, Senka would have liked to see how well she could fare against the Inquisitor, but today was not a good day. Delays only meant that the  bomb had more and  more chances of detonating. Fighting against a strong opponent was not as important as saving lives and keeping the peace. Even though the shots from Nita's guns seemed to pack a good punch, the Inquisitor was still on her feet. Senka reasoned that the best course of action would be to hit her with one of her strongest spells, to keep her down and out for as long as the  bomb needed disarming. Before the Inquisitor could recover enough to attack Nita or go defensive, Terumi inhaled sharply, the action puffing up her chest. Then she let it out:

"Kakyojin no Himei!"

The Fire Titan's Scream blasted across the entire length of the street, bulldozing the Inquisitor away and flinging her into the distance. Senka hoped she hadn't overdone it, though she felt the action was necessary. While she was not too comfortable with sucker punching an opponent when they were distracted or attacked, only the living could judge an action as honorable or otherwise. Perhaps some would speak ill of her choice of actions, but as long as no one died today, Senka wouldn't mind. Her attack was not going to kill the Inquisitor; she was sure of it. The woman seemed to be very tough. It would knock her senseless, though, and she would have some singed fur to lament about. So, that was settled.

The bomb.

Senka hurried over and crouched to take a look at the primed device. "Why do I have the feeling that you have a knack for bringing bathetic resolutions to otherwise epic situations?" She glanced up at her friend and grinned at her. "Nevertheless, it's good to see you here, Nita. How have you been?" She turned back to  the bomb. "We have less than three minutes before this bad boy goes off, but I only need one. Tama! To me!"

Immediately, Terumi's floating orb whizzed through the air and stopped by her side, running various scans and analyses on the bomb as Terumi took note of the wires. "Hmmm... crudely coupled, but it was still crafted well," she mumbled to herself, as she traced a wire with her finger. "An nitrion fuel core, simple timer, fuse... there we are!" Terumi picked up a chip of wood and jammed it into a narrow space somewhere on the bomb's trigger device. "There! Even if the timer counts down to zero, the fuse can't ignite the nitrion. But, to be on the safe side..."

Terumi reached between the chassis that held the bomb's charge and tinkered for a while, unscrewing some nuts and bolts as she did so. Finally, she let out a held breath as she extracted a large, black, spherical item. "Here's your bomb. Relatively safe, unless exposed to a high level of electrical current. I think it will be safe to leave this in your shield, until Felidae's bomb squad comes for it... or I could use the nitrion as an energy source for a project or two..."

She straightened to her feet as the Joyans around cheered and clapped for the two mages. She bowed and said, relief evident in her voice: "Thank you. I'm pleased to see everything is fine now. Nothing should go wrong, with us around. Thank you."

After order had been restored, and the terrorists had been handed over to the authorities, she went over to have a chat with Nita, to catch up on what her friend had been up to since they'd last met. Little did she know that the last statements she made to the Joyans would be proven horribly wrong in that same day. To her credit, nothing went wrong at her side of the city, but by the time the day was done, Felidae had been overthrown by a massive disaster, one that would leave her in tears just witnessing the sheer horror of the destruction.

This day had started well; her debut as a superhero had gone well, but riding hard on the tails of her success was the terrible and overwhelming reminder that there was so much to be done, for many still walked Earthland who wielded insane power, and were as evil as they were strong.