Operation: Gigas Freedom Event Start

[bravenewmods]

True to their word the Seekers lead the teams discretely through the winding streets of Gigas and into service entrances, gaining them admittance into the heart of Gigas’s political compound. Bringing them stealthily along the catwalks, the Union infiltrators were brought to the inner sanctum, close to the captive Gigases and their mission.

Sharp-looking soldiers in fatigues holding machine guns patrolled diligently, although their demeanor was not especially tense. It seemed no immediate operations were taking place at this time as no engineers were present. And in their enormous cages, the Gigases slept. Waiting.

Comments

[senpaidol]

"Just let me know if he needs dance partners, Yukiko," Rise says with a smile. She makes sure Himiko studies the maps along with the humans, in case it helps with an emergency teleport later.

[soulofmagus]

The coolness radiating from Ami certainly helps ease off the headache brewing behind Sophia's pensive expression, and she sighs very slightly as the others volunteer the parts they can play if push indeed comes to shove. A handful of the spells she knows will likely see much use in the hours to come, but she'd truly prefer that it were otherwise.

"It's such a pity.." Her voice trails off, then she shakes her head, perhaps dismissing whatever else she was going to say.

Then, there's a shink sound from the Doublade watching the screens, a sound of alert to his human charge. "..Did you see something, Ymir?"

[toxicrevenger]

"The light is a good idea, but we would have to make certain it didn't blind our own forces in the process," Pamela put in. "Otherwise, it would be more difficult to evacuate them quickly."

Although she walked a great deal, and Haruka had given her some instruction in how to use a sword, Pamela still didn't regard herself as a warrior, or even an athlete, really. She didn't want to be stuck having to lug around people who were stumbling around blinded if it could be avoided.

She perked up when Sophia mentioned the beginnings of trouble and turned her attention to the screens.

[senpaidol]

"Looks like Registeel and Regice groups have reached the main chambers and engaged the enemy. There are a lot of people around, but it doesn't look like they were expecting an attack...," Rise reports, eyes darting back and forth between the monitors. "Regirock and Regigas groups are still in the corridors. Uh, anyone who knows about electronic security should help them out."

"Santiago's group is uh..." Rise begins, then blinks. "Wait, what the heck is that?"

[windyflower]

As Fuuka looked straight to the monitor, it looked like her fears were coming true. Whatever that was attacking Santiago's group, they were in danger. Looking at her other comrades, it looked like they needed that distraction and fast.

"Quick, I think we might need a distraction!" She mumbled as she looked at her Pokemon. "I'm not sure what it is but we need to do something!"

[allergictoloveletters]

"We have no idea what that thing is," Ami remained calm, never one to allow changes in plans to upset her. "And any distraction that we can't communicate to them would be detrimental to those still with that thing."

"But I do wonder... perhaps we can put the head in a coma with hypothermia. Or we can use the steel against it and have it boiled in its own glass if things become truly bad." Ami was ruthless when she needed to be, when she knew that the death of one could save far more. "But we don't know what that thing is and what it can do or what it's connected to. But if we can send a message to our own about the distraction, then it could work."

She didn't want to discard the distraction idea, but she would keep killing the thing outright if she needed.

"Maka-chan is a psychic, can anyone send a message to her?"

[bnw_sheepy_npcs]

And, as she warned, things suddenly began pouring in. Rise was the first to catch something and, looking at the monitor, Maeve swore under her breath. Another deep, somewhat hissed breath in, and her head was back in the game.

"All right, so," Drawing her attention to the group, she spoke quickly. "You've got a direct link to everyone on this operation, you just need to let them know what you see. Let's see here.

"It looks like that," Pointing toward the first monitor, "May have something to do with the overall controls for the perimeter. They should be able to control a lot of the regulatory systems through that, but they'll need a password. If we have to, we can brute force it by linking it with the Warp Band system."

"Monitor two..." She made a face. "Yeesh, those look nasty. Okay, so, bad news, those weapons they're holding look like they have an alarm system built in. Good news, they look pretty fragile. I bet if you break them before they go off, they should be okay. No guarantees."

Gesturing toward the next screen, she curled her other hand under her chin. "Hmm, let me take a look at that a sec." Walking toward the display, she gave it a look over, an actual smile crossing her face. "Oh good, that'll be easy to deal with. Another console. I can't quite tell what it does, but like with the first group, we can probably force out way into their system. Have that group patch their Warp Band through, and we can try to hack into it from our side."

Looking at the next monitor, she shrugged. "Drones. Awesome. Tell 'em to blow them up. I'll try to get a read on the rest of the room when I can."

Drawing her attention to the last monitor, her smile fell, and the red-haired Seeker girl went quiet. Even a psychic type could likely feel the change in the air, a strange but familiar-feeling Pressure hovering around the room. Rufus, who had until this point been on standby, stepped forward, putting a hand on her shoulder.

"That's him." Her voice was low, and dangerously quiet. "That's the Emperor."

[burningblossoms]

Yukiko pointedly tries to ignore the jabberings and chattering, focusing now more on the monitors, but the sudden shift in the room was almost palpable. Unsteadily, the girl sat down and pulled out her warp band, busying herself with something instead of worrying about that. That's more important, even if she's pretty afraid of that feeling.

"I will relay to the group on monitor two. You guys get the word to the rest."

[arachnocide]

"I can take the first one," He volunteered as he grabs his band, glancing over to Maeve uneasily as he reminds himself to stay detached. Pario chirps quizzically behind him, and soon ducks behind him.

[senpaidol]

"I..." Rise looks things over, hesitating just for a moment. "...I'll help the group fighting the Emperor," she says, focusing all her powers of analysis and all her now-surprisingly-extensive battle experience on the armored figure on the screen.

[soulofmagus]

"He looks... Off." She's aware her tone is vague, Sophia squinting a little over Rise's shoulder at the monitor, before wincing hard at the Pressure that filled the room. There was a whine from the Riolu, who immediately edges over to her trainer, side-eyeing the Seekers warily, while the Leafeon's ears flattened back against her head. "..Raine and Waver described him differently. Immobile. Not like..that."

And then she's recoiling from the monitors featuring combat, distaste for violence and killing putting her off entirely. Due to that, she focuses on screen 3 - she has some Engineering skill, after all, and she knew both Kiho and Waver well enough to work with them.

[windyflower]

As Fuuka looked at the last monitor, she knew what she had to do. "I'll help Rise take care of the Emperor too. I'll try to figure out where its weak point is." She said before focusing her energy toward the enemy.

Hopefully the battle won't be as bad as it looked.

[soulofmagus]

Or it could look just as bad as it appears.

No sooner has Sophia established connection with monitor 3's team than everything goes decidedly explosion-shaped, the escalation of events rapidly outpacing any actions that the command center might make.

"Waver!" Her voice might be startlingly loud, even to Sophia, and there's a squeak of alarm from Gebo as the entire screen is rendered little more than snow with the power unleased by the gigas. A hand lifts, clenched and held to her chest, hoping to see something. Anything.

In the distance, there's a BOOM from the city. Ouka and Gebo both twitch ears, perking up. When things finally do begin to clear up, hazy as the image is, it's not hard to make out the lone figure shielding the rest, and there's a small gasp covered by trembling fingers. How is Kiho doing that? Just how powerful ARE the Seekers?

Sophia says none of this, eyes remaining wide, before she makes out shapes moving, and she presses down on her own warp band to transmit a signal. She cannot see the ceiling damage at this angle, doesn't know that the blast may have been reflected back up into the city proper. Right now, there are more immediate priorities.

"Waver? Can you hear me? Is everyone alright?" How ever are they going to get them all out of there safely?

[toxicrevenger]

"I'll relay to the fourth group," said Pamela. "Oh...I forgot to mention it, but can also make plants walk around like foot soldiers. They're nowhere near as intelligent or strong as Pokemon. The sheer oddity of it might distract the Gigas forces a bit, though."

She glanced around briefly at the other monitors. It looked bad. None of them had gone into this expecting it to be easy, and still, she worried. She tried to have faith in their comrades, but she couldn't help but hope that the gods would show up to help them once again.

[bnw_sheepy_npcs]

"Good, good." She answered tensely, her attention focused on the last monitor. Her expression was steely, remote, the Pressure mounting--not focused on them, but at the screen itself, at what was going on.

They were going to lose there. They were going to get killed. Their blood would be on Maeve and Ceilto's hands, all because of that man. Her eyes glowing a faint amber, the screen began making a strange, low-pitched wail before shorting out completely. She did not seem to notice, or care.

"Rufus!" Her voice crackling with a strange, psychic energy, she cast a look at the large man. "I'm stepping out."

She moved with inhuman speed, passing through the compound, hovering slightly, before exiting and taking to the air. Anyone who happened to look out might see a flash of red and white, a strange and unfamiliar form shooting across the sky toward the battlefield.


[[OOC note: The command center will still be able to communicate with the last group, but will no longer have a visual feed.]]

[soulofmagus]

[ There's a startled growl from the Haxorus standing guard outside, even as Sophia gapes at Maeve's sudden, strange exit, that crackle of psychic voice still ringing in her mind. The screens are, unfortunately, useless to them now. But that's not an immediate concern.

She left us.

Yes, they have Rufus here, but the younger Seeker had abandoned the humans that they had gathered together for this mission. To.. To do something. To head into the heart of chaos, no doubt. And now the command center team had no means to see what was going on.

Swallowing around a dry throat a moment, Sophia turned back to the group, trying not to wring her hands. Gebo hopped off the table and pressed against her legs, while Ouka snarled quietly. Ymir simply turned to look at Rufus, unyielding steel radiating displeasure. ]

..The warp bands may be monitored, or even blocked in there now. Can anyone reach the others some other way? [are they victims? or is there more they as a group can do to get their friends and allies to safety?]

[senpaidol]

Rise boggles after Maeve as she transforms, but only briefly. A lot of people are in trouble in there.

She nods at Sophia's question. "I can keep in contact psychically. I'm gonna go put eyes and hands on the situation...sorry. Himiko, let's go."

Rise closes her eyes and focuses as she holds hand to fin with her Gardevoir. At the same time Rise starts glowing pinkish-purple with the light of Mega Evolution, both of them disappear in a flash.

[burningblossoms]

Yukiko just stops, freezing in place in complete and total shock. Did that just...

Her face turns blue, her fingers clinching up. This was not at all what she'd expected from her boss.

"Did that just happen?!"

[toxicrevenger]

Pamela's eyes widened. "Either it did, or that was a mass hallucination from the stress of the situation. I'm going to go with it actually happening, though."

Unbelievable as it seemed.

[allergictoloveletters]

"It did, and we would do well to accept it and refocus," she said, allowing herself to compartmentalize it and deal with it later.

She frowned as she looked at where Rise and Maeve had been and the air around her got colder.

"We need to make sure we help the others without splitting ourselves up. We've lost a monitor but we can still keep in touch. Stay calm and focus, deep breaths," she was used to high stress in operating rooms and the medic center, she could stay calm in this.

"We need to figure out what each group needs to come out of this alive and go from there."

[windyflower]

As Fuuka was trying to understand why her boss just suddenly decided to leave, she couldn't think about it for long. There was so much going on, she needed to remain calm about this no matter what.

"I'll try my best to see if I can read where the enemy might be. I just hope that I can figure out where their weak spot might be."

Although, she had to admit, things were getting dire. If was difficult but she can't allow herself to panic.

[soulofmagus]

The drop in temperature does not go unnoticed, though there's a small eon of complaint from Gebo. While her human partner may appreciate the colder clime, it's nipping a little too much for her grass-type liking.

Gathering the eeveelution up into her arms, Sophia frowned, then shakes her head. "We must assume our position has been compromised. If we had a means to see within those rooms, there's little to stop them finding us with their superior technology. We must fall back to a new point, and leave this place with as little evidence of our passing as possible."

At least, that's what her gut feelings tell her. Ymir growls once, then floats outside to talk with his fellow pokémon on guard duty. Had they noticed anything, aside from strange humans-turned-dragons?

"Once we know where to go, we can pass on the rendezvous location to members of the retreating teams." If they can reach them, that is.