Fiary Guy 2013/07/27(Sat)00:21 No. 528144 ID: 184dd1
File 137490966007.jpg - (218.41KB , 570x380 , Fairy-Artwork-cover.jpg )

You've still got awhile till food will be ready. And Lira did say when you got the chance. Might as well head on down to the market and see what Daniel's got. The trip doesn't take very long, even with you starting somewhere else, and soon enough your weaving in between customers in the market. It doesn't seem like this place ever dies down, and you find it somewhat comforting. After a few minutes of getting your bearing, you arrive at your destination to find that it isn't Daniel tending to the shop this time. A young woman, perhaps 16, 17, is busily reading through a magazine. She doesn't even glance up as you arrive, even as she begins what you think is a rehearsed speech.

"The boss isn't in right now, had some business to attend to. Go ahead and take a look at the wares, and if you see anything you like, bring it up to me and we'll talk price. If you're expecting something specific, let me know and I'll tell you whether we got it or not..."

"Uh... yeah, alright. I'm supposed to see Daniel about an avatar?"

"An avatar?"

That gets the girl's attention, and she tosses the magazine to the side to focus on you. For a moment, she's frowning at you suspiciously, then she spots your brother, and her eyes go wide. For a moment, there's silence from everybody, then your brother offers the girl a smile and a wave.

"Hey! How's it going?"

"... Oh SHIT! It really IS an avatar! Oh SHIT! I didn't believe the boss when he said it! No way! COOL! He got any cool super powers yet?"

The girl starts poking at your brother from across the counter, who only halfheartedly bats at her fingers in a lame attempt to prevent her from touching him. You shake your head in response to her question, which seems to deflate her a little, but then she's back to being more cheerful.

"Oh well. I'm Kim, I work for the bo- I mean, Daniel. He's an okay guy, even let's a normal like me work for him. I think it's mostly cause of my dad, but I'm okay with that. Daniel gets to use my dad's contacts, I get a steady paycheck and get to see all these cool foci everyone's got. Ah! You came for the avatar, right? Daniel said you might drop by. Hold on, I think it's..."

Kim drops down below the counter, digging through things by the looks of it, and you sigh silently to yourself. The talkative type. Not really your kind of person, but... well, she doesn't seem like a bad person all around. Your brother seems especially disinterested, which doesn't surprise you, he'd always been popular with the ladies, but tended to prefer older women. You can't really recall the reason why. Suddenly, Kim's popped back up with a small bag, gently placing it on the table before opening it and drawing out a tiny figure, maybe only a few inches in height at best. The tiny thing is placed once again gently on the table before Kim backs up, giving you a look at it.

The thing looks a little like a fairy, with butterfly like wings sprouting from it's back. It appears to be asleep, and although tiny, you can tell that it easily fits into the "beautiful woman" category. Except for being small enough to fit into the palm of your hand. You examine it a little longer before Kim starts talking again, this time about the fairy.

"We got it from some trader downtown. Not a nice man to deal with, but he couldn't unload the thing at all, so it was no skin off his back to get paid cash for it. Daniel got as much info about this one as he could to, since he didn't want to screw you over or anything. Apparently, she's called Sidhe. Something Irish or Scottish or something like that. Anyway, her first owner was apparently a lover of fairy tales and the like, and she was born from that... and the not so good tales. Her main power is the ability to erect temporary barriers, kinda like an instant shield. They only last for a few seconds, but they can deflect pretty much anything. Our contacts also said something about her being temperamental, but I can't really speak for the truth of that. She's kinda... well, you know.

"Daniel said he's willing to start the bartering at 5 foci. I mean, come on. Look at all the effort we went into to get this for you."

>>>Input Command

"No, no, I already paid for the procurement, we're bartering for the price of exchanging ownership of the product. 2 foci."

>Sidhe
Oh dear. These aren't the happy fluttery fairies of Disney films. These are the 'angry magical wasps in human shape' type.

>Barrier fairy
Yesss.

>>528170 Yup. Gonna make things interesting.

>Brother
Huh. Wonder how the popular with the ladies thing works now. (Might have to spend more points on humanlike, actually. :V ).

...what's he think? Of the fairy. He sense anything? ...do you sense anything?

>5 foci
That was what we'd agreed on before, and it's not as if you have much else you can can do with them.

Once we're done with that transaction, maybe see about setting up the next one. Could he check with his west coast contacts if they know anything about a Makoto Muramasa? Maybe where she is? Uh... although if we gave them all the spare foci we have, we'll have to pay next time we see them, or later, in exchange for the information.

>what do with Sidhe?
We shouldn't tune her here, in the market. Kim might be disappointed, but we don't know how Sidhe's going to wake up. Her first breaker is dead, right? ...so she might not exactly be happy. Probably best that that doesn't happen in a public arena. Whatever happens should happen in a more secure place.

Might want to talk to Lira first. Fairy's probably going to keep us occupied the rest of the evening.

>XPs
I'm thinking now we tune back at the house, and then decide where to throw the last two points once we see the fairy's stats. Although I think I'm leaning +2 will for Guy.

>>528202
...although Guy doesn't know she's out west. Dangit. He just has to make a general request if Daniel can see where she is.

"Uh... yeah I'll-"

"No, no, I already paid for the procurement, we're bartering for the price of exchanging ownership of the product. 2 foci."

Your brother suddenly cuts in, and is obviously getting ready to enjoy himself. A fresh challenge maybe? You don't know what possessed your brother to do this, but whatever it is, he'd suddenly on a roll, and you back up to let him do his thing. Kim seems just as happy to clash with him, if anything she seems even happier knowing he's an avatar.

"Ah! But the we had to burn some bridges to get it! Besides, this is an avy we're talking about. There's only two of these things on the market. The boss went through a lot of trouble to get this thing. I want to see him get paid his due, you know? 4 foci."

"3 foci, cause you're such a nice girl, and I'll take you out on a date tomorrow. Assuming that's alright with you, Bro?"

Kim looks surprised, which is a perfect mirror of your own expression. Both of you are shocked into silence, which your Brother apparently takes as agreement, because he scoops up the avatar on the counter, places it in back in the bag and drops that into your hands.

"Alright. That settles it. Pay the girl and finish up whatever other business you got. We're outta here. Getting hungry. See you tomorrow, by the way."

Your brother excuses himself completely from the conversation, moving off to stand a few feet away and watch the crowds. You sigh a little to yourself, your brother is certainly forward, but regardless, you drag out three foci and place them on the counter. You start to draw out a fourth, but Kim quickly stops you, apparently fine with the deal. Still, as she swipes the foci off the counter, you can hear her muttering about hoping the boss doesn't find out.

"So... uh... that all I can help you with?"

"Actually... I was wondering if Daniel might be able to find someone for me?"

"Oh? I can handle that, I usually do. Who we looking for?"

"A woman, named Makoto Muramasa. She's Division 7, I think. I don't know much more than that."

"Ah. Division 7. No worries. I should be able to come up with something. I don't promise any miracles though."

"Fair enough. How much are we talking?"

"For starting it? Nothing. For getting the info later, a foci should be fine. I'm not gonna charge you if I can't find anything. That all?"

"Yeah, that's it."

"Cool. Uh... tell your brother I'll be waiting here at 10 tomorrow, alright?"

She's looking a little embarrassed, but you don't pay it any mind. Not your business. You promise to pass on the message, and then you're off, heading back home. When you arrive, food is already prepared, and the meal is eaten in silence at first. What comes soon enough, however, is Lira deciding it's time to talk.

"Hey Guy? You busy?"

"Um... I'm kinda eating, but other than that, no. Why?"

"I wanted to bring this up. I was digging through all this data here, and well... you show up in it."

"Huh? What do you mean?"

"Well, not you specifically. There's a lot of mention of some Guys, capital G. There's not much to go off of, but apparently D7 was doing something with them. They weren't at the facility we screwed over though. Those ones were all in a facility somewhere inside Central Downtown. I have no idea where that is, but I thought I should let you know..."

"So what, Guy was part of Division 7 or something?"

"I don't know, Jager. Maybe they have a project the same as his name? You remember being part of D7, Guy?"

"No. I was in college for awhile. Brother came back... yesterday? Was it yesterday? Seems so much longer ago. Anyway, I don't remember being a part of D7."

"For what it is worth, I have never heard of this project either, although I was a bit... less than fully aware of other projects most of the time."

"Thanks Rise."

"Well, whatever works, I guess. I have all the other data pulled up and ready. So... anyone got any questions?"

>>>Input Command

>>Mass produced Guys.
That's an interesting thought. If they all break like our Guy here, Avatar style, that's going to change the game a bit! Avatars for all the Avi users!
On the flipside...That makes me wonder about the authenticity of THIS Guy. But then again, we'll deal with that when it comes up.
>>Bro's date
I feel like you should high-five Bro for pulling that off. Nice haggling job man! That makes me wonder if we'll need to hang around or if we can send him off on his own and spend that day on the down-low.

Well. I mean, it doesn't have to be me, right? I don't exactly have the... least generic name in the world.

>D7 Questions
Erm. Hacked right into one of their databases and we can't ask after the really good stuff due to Guy's ignorance (raw reality, the unmaker rounds, what McCarthy / the Demon / tears in reality are, etc). ...although I guess if she found something groundbreaking, she would volunteer the information.

Well, do we know what they're up to besides killing breakers and trying to mind control them? Or... do they know anything more than we do about how or why we can do what we do?

...anything in there about Rise's sister?

>Date
Huh. Wonder how that's going to work. Too bad we spent all our cash at the gun range.

>later
After dinner we should check out the fairy alone with our brother. See if either of you feel anything from it. (Might be nice to get a first warning of what we're getting into). And what he thinks.

Then if we don't have any reason not to, we go ahead and tune her and see what happens.

"Anything in their about plans other than mind controlling/ killing everybody?"

"Nope. Sorry. It seems that's what most facilities are up to. Very few that do much of anything else. At least, according to the records I have."

"And is there anything about a Makoto Muramasa?"

"I'm assuming Rise's sibling? Not much. She went missing awhile ago, somewhere on the west coast, but other than that, I got nothing."

"Every little bit helps. I'll see you guys later. Got something to do."

"Alright. Talk to you later."

Rise gives a small nod of farewell, and Jager is busily eating, although he gives you a small hand wave as you get up and leave the table. After you've cleaned up your dishes somewhat and have retreated to your room, you slide the avatar gently from it's bag and examine it more closely. It feels incredibly soft to the touch, much like you'd expect velvet or silk to feel. The wings especially seem fragile and prone to damage, although after a small experiment, you find them incredibly resistant to being torn. Likely helpful when it's your main means of transportation. You try feeling it out with you... less physical senses, but instead of finding something there, you find the lack of something. The moment you realize this, you feel the incredible urge to fill the gap, and without thinking, you push a little of yourself into the fairy.

Almost immediately, there's a flash of light, nearly blinding you, then you feel something else brush against your mind. Unlike your brother's feeling, which was warm and protective in some way, this one feels... not necessarily hostile, but it doesn't trust you. Regardless, as you blink the light from your eyes, you find yourself staring at the fairy, who's small wings are holding her hovering in front of your face, mere inches away.

She doesn't speak, although she certainly looks like she's suspicious of you. Perhaps in another way, however, she gets her feeling across. You somehow understand that she is confused and unsure, and you suspect explaining might do you some good. A quick rundown of how she came into your possession follows, and she is clearly frowning by the end of it, even if you can barely see her doing so. She touches down gently on your shoulder for a moment, making a soft humming sound as she does so, then she sits down resolutely and points at herself, then at you, then makes a sort demanding motion.

You get the feeling she's telling you your supposed to serve her now or something. You'd don't, however, feel any particular need to do so. Odd.

You brother is observing from a corner, and although he's not particularly hostile towards the tiny avatar, he seems wary of it for some reason. You get the feeling he's threatened, although not physically. Odd.

>>>Input Command
Experience Remaining: 2

Oh, she doesn't speak, even to you. Wasn't expecting that. Guy could hear his Brother even before we bought the speech upgrade. She's doing the Tinkerbell thing. All gestures and poses and telegraphed emotion. I like it.

>Brother wary, threatened
Well, yeah. Of course. He's supposed to be yours. He came back from the dead for you. To protect you. And now you've got someone new. Who wouldn't feel threatened in that situation?

>You're supposed to serve her now or something
You uh, don't think you can exactly do that. Counter-proposal. Would she be open to more of a partnership? Working together? (Maybe offer her a hand for an absurd different sized hand-shake).

"Uh. I don't think it works like that. Maybe. Erm... damn, this is hard... uh, you think we could be partners instead? Friends maybe?"

The little fairy frowns again, then picks herself up and floats to the front of your face again, she crosses her arms in mock annoyance but nods her head in agreement. Good she can do that. Doesn't seem all that hard-

Suddenly, there's a loud popping sound and the breath is knocked from you, almost like that wind thing from yesterday, only now your stomach hurts like hell. There's a musical tinkling noise coming from somewhere above you, you can only assume the fairy thing, right up until you glance up and notice your brother's hand close around the little thing and slam it into the desk, hard.

"Try that again, you little piece of shit. I dare you. I'll rip your little wings off slowly and painfully."

"Ah... *cough*... um... bro? I'm fine. Really. I just... whooo... need to catch my breath..."

"I don't like this one. Can we get rid of her?"

The little fairy is obviously not at all liking that idea. Or maybe it was the threat of violence. Regardless, she did SOMETHING to you. What you don't know, but whatever it was, it hurt. The fairy though, is giving off the same empathic signals as before, only... there was no hostility. It was more like she did it for the hilarity she found in it, and not to actually hurt you... too much. How confusing.

>>>Input Command

Hrrrm. She's mischievous...I think she can work, but maybe next time run it by Bro if she wants to prank you, or run it by me if she wants to prank Bro.
As far as getting rid of her...Well, considering the foci we spent GETTING her, I dunno about that.
Ask Fairy what exactly she just did though. we thought her thing was making shields? Like, isn't her powers defensive in nature? Possibly a nice compliment to Bro's desire to keep us safe.

I'm pretty sure you just had the air knocked out of you. Her power was barriers and shields right? Apparently she can hit things with them. (Fae punch!).

>Can we get rid of her?
Yesterday I would have said that's not even an option, but we just learned it's possible to untune foci. Not that we really want to, but technically, yes, we could.

...I think it would be somewhat cruel to cast her aside, trapped as a doll, just for pulling a prank, Brother. I'm all right, really.

I don't think she meant any harm. We were never the kind of brothers to pull that kind of thing, but she's a fairy, right? Different set of rules. It's just mischief for her. Or testing us, maybe.

...maybe we'll need some ground rules. Or something to keep her amused. Could you let her up?

I'm sorry about that, but this is my brother. He takes protecting me pretty seriously, okay?

"I think... maybe we'll need some ground rules for this friendship of ours. Could you let her up please, brother?"

"... Yeah. Alright."

He releases the tiny fairy, and she immediately darts over to you, landing lightly on your shoulder. You marvel for a moment at how light she actually is. You can barely feel her weight at all. You're a little amazed she could knock the wind out of you at all. Well... maybe not amazed at all. Everything else seems to have crazy things happen around them lately, you don't see why this one shouldn't either.

"Alright... sorry about my brother, he's a little protective is all. Still, I think we should avoid hurting me in anyway, just to avoid setting him off, yeah?"

You get a profoundly "loud" sense of agreement from the fairy, her small hands wringing nervously as she glances at the much larger avatar across the room. Still, it seems like she's agreed to not harming you at least. Hopefully. It's kinda hard to tell just off this weird emotion sensing thing. Regardless, the night is late, and you feel tired from all the antics. After setting a few ground rules with Sidhe(that was her name, wasn't it?), you turn in early for the night, finding sleep quickly.

--------------

Dream... another one? Different this time. Thoughts are swirling around you, ideas, memories, thoughts. Something tells you you've been here before. No... not here. Somewhere like here. Somewhere like here but less... distant and confusing. The inky blackness seems to roll and swirl like mist caught in a tornado. Is that even possible?

Regardless, that mist parts, and you find yourself standing alone in a room with metallic walls. Odd. This room seems so familiar, yet you've never seen it before. What is this? Why would you be here?

A wall suddenly opens up across from you, yet as you start to head towards it, a voice cuts through the silence and confusion.

"Wait! Don't go! Please! Don't go! We need you here with us! Don't go! You can't leave me here all alone!"

"I have to go. Someone has to. You'll be fine on your own. You've got the others to look after you."

Your own voice. Yet not. It's familiar again. Or maybe it isn't. You can't really tell. Why? What's going on? Who are you? This isn't you. Can't be you. You don't even know where you are. You try turning around, but you find no one. Yet as you head towards the door again, voices start to beg you again.

"Please! You know they don't care about what happens to me! I was just an experiment! I was just a trial! They never needed me! Please! If you go, I swear I'll kill myself!"

"You do that, and you'll never see me again. It's not like I'm disappearing. You'll be able to find me whenever you like. Just come looking. Goodbye, -----. See you later."

The world goes black again, and once again, the world comes crashing down on top of you-

------------

You awake with a start, the vivid dream still fresh in your mind. You're breathing heavily, and as you calm down you feel something light land on your shoulder again.

"Good... good morning, Sidhe."

You feel the response, a blossom of flowers in your mind. How you know what that feels like, you have no clue, but you know that's what she meant. You pull yourself to your feet, glancing around for your brother to find him missing. You frown, only to check the clock as you get dressed for the day and find it to already be nearly 11 in the morning. Damn. You'd slept late. You head into the living room and find a note left on the table. Picking it up and reading it seems the most intelligent thing to do, so you check it as Sidhe starts to explore her surroundings.

Guy

If you're reading this, me and Jager went out to see about finding us a new place to hide out. Our growing family is going to need more space soon, and we don't want to hang around that house too long. We dropped your brother off at the market, said he had something to take care of. Pass the message along to Rise when you see her, she wasn't up when we left either.

-Lira

Ah. That's where he went. Well... seems like you got the day to yourself then. Don't want to wander too far though. You find another note and a pile of cash as you enter the kitchen in search of an easy meal, with a note simply saying Guy on it. You'd assume it means that this is your share. A check nets you a good 1000 dollars. Huh. More than you expected.

Options for the day seem limited though. You could try going out and getting more shooting practice in you suppose. There's also maybe seeing about waiting till Rise gets up and asking if she wants to do anything. Or you could ask her to help you with self-defense. Your brother had suggested she might be able to teach you something. Or... you don't know. Having a day off seems a little anti-climactic after all this crazy stuff recently.

>>>Input Command

Well. That dream wasn't ominous at all.

Hope your brother will be fine on his own. I guess he feels he can head off a bit with Sidhe around.

Start small. Eat some breakfast, wait for Rise to wake up. The self defense doesn't seem a terrible idea. Maybe experiment some more with this emotion-communication thing some more in the meantime. ...does she need to eat? Does your brother, come to think of it.

(We could just buy her speech, but unless she shows frustration or unhappiness with this means of communication, I don't see a reason to. This way is interesting).

>XP
Okay, I think our options boil down like this:

-Save up, so we can immediately go for spirit 4 the next chance we get.
-Invest both in will. Maybe it'll help with avatar management, at least it's good for other interpersonal stuff.
-Invest in finesse. Realistically, we need a few points if we expect our gun to be at all useful against other breakers. Although I'm not sure how much XP we can afford putting into a non-manifestation weapon- there are countless ways other breakers could damage or deny the weapon to us. (Meaning we use it only as a surprise, or when it would really count. ...or we have to keep using active breaks to fix it).
-Experiment with buying an in-theme power for our brother. (Although, I think we're still kind of too low on BP to be powering abilities, and the theme is still kind of shaky enough that I'd have a hard time inventing powers).

...I'm thinking what we want to do now is go for will. It's potentially too important to pass up, and it doesn't hurt to have. And then later we put a point in two in finesse for competency, and then spirit, and then experiment with avatar upgrades.

Well...Hrm
Hoping we get to talk to Lira about what she wanted to mention to us soon!
For now, maybe go talk to Rise about self-defense and train with her (and perhaps let Sidhe prank her a bit to see how good she is!)

>talk about what Lira wanted
We already did, at dinner last night. The fact that the division 7 files she stole mentioned some Guys, capitol G.

Experience Allocated:
Will-5

You settle yourself at the dining table, a plate of food warm and ready to eat, and find yourself observing your newest family member. The tiny fairy sets down next to the food, eying it with interest, and when you cut of a small piece and offer it to her, she takes it gently and sits herself down, nibbling at it piece by piece. You take your time to finish your breakfast, in no real hurry, and in the process experiment with this odd form of communication. You find that no matter what you try, the only real "feeling" you get from Sidhe is general emotions and "ideas" like the blossoming flowers thing from earlier. Those emotions are then given some context or direction by Sidhe through body movements and her pointing things out, or in some cases, acting them out if they are activities. It's an interesting communication method. In the process you even discover that certain "feelings" are used specifically for certain things. Good morning, for example, is the blossoming flowers feeling she gave you when you woke up.

Finishing breakfast, Rise still isn't up, so you spend some time watching something random on tv. An hour later, at about 1230, Rise is finally up, looking a bit tired. She'd dressed again in that combat uniform, likely because she doesn't have anything else to wear, but regardless, she greets you warmly before hunting in the kitchen for something to eat. You hear her go through some cabinets, then the clinking of plates, and ten minutes later, Rise has joined you in the living room, apparently having eaten in that span of time. You remain quiet for a little while, watching Sidhe dart around the room exploring, before your thoughts are interrupted by Rise.

"I hope I am not prying by saying this, but I could not help but overhear your argument with your brother yesterday, regarding your lack of safety."

"Ah... yeah. I tried practicing with the handgun you gave me yesterday, but I don't think I'm very good with it. Can't expect me to be any good in one night. I was actually hoping you'd teach me some self defense today, if you didn't mind."

"Of course not. Anything I can do to help. Shall we begin now?"

"Sure."

Rise stands again, and gestures you towards the backyard while she heads off towards her given room. She joins you outside soon enough, bringing one of those suits you looted from the D7 base with her. She hands it to you, and tells you to get dressed quickly. After getting changed, Rise helps you adjust it till is fits your body nicely, then she stands back to observe you.

"Not very physically inclined, are you?"

"Ah... yeah, no. I used to... well, let's just say I never played sports much."

"Hm. Still, you are not really out of shape. I can teach you some things, but if you want to be capable at all, you will need more than just technique. Proper execution is only aided by a good physical condition. Regardless, that can come later. Here. Place your body like so. No, like this. There. Now-"

The next 4 hours are grueling to say the least. Rise shows little remorse for the strain she's placing on your muscles, although she gives you short breaks now and then. She seems to mostly focus on techniques for avoiding or redirecting attacks directed at you, frequently demonstrating the motions on you and sending you tumbling to the ground again and again. She isn't unfair however, and she lets you use her body to practice as well, guiding you through the same motions again and again until she find herself on her back, only to repeat the process. By the time you are done, you are sore everywhere, muscled you didn't know you possessed screaming at you not to move.

"Gah. I hurt."

"Yes. That does tend to happen. Still, while I would not call you a natural, you pick up things rather quickly. Much faster than my brother, at least."

"Wait... these are techniques from your family?"

"Yes. Although really, all martial arts are similar."

"Should you be teaching me family techniques?"

"I think my father would be fine with this. If not, it is a little late to be worrying about it."

"Right... aaaah! God. I need a shower. A nice long hot shower."

"Haha... turn over."

"Huh?"

"Turn over. It will help, I assure you."

You do so, confused as you lie down on your stomach, only to feel a sudden weight on your back and pressure suddenly get pressed into your shoulder and neck. The next ten minutes are spent in utter bliss, fatigue getting massaged from your tired body by skilled fingers. When it's done, Rise rises and sits next to you again, while you drag yourself up.

"Thanks for that."

"It will help. Tomorrow we do this all again."

"What?"

"One day hardly makes a warrior. We will need to continue."

"Oh... god..."

"He has little to do with this."

Still, when you stumble into the house, you find that Lira and Jager have returned. They seem hardly enthusiastic, although they have a few things to report to you. They found somewhere new to live, and Lira will be moving all the things over tomorrow. In the meantime, there's going to be a night job, apparently some fixers are pushing a little too hard at the Sewer Rats territory, and your needed to... discourage... further encroachment. Lira won't be going on this one, no security to hack into underground, so it'll just be you and Jager, maybe Rise too, if you can get her to come. The pay is all cash, plus whatever you can loot, but there's rumor of D7 activity in the area as well so...

Regardless, there's time before that, and Lira's managed to go through even more of the data. If you have any questions regarding that, or for anyone else really, now's the time. Your brother also calls you in the time provided, saying he'll be back in an hour. He's still got to drop of the "little miss" before he can head home.

>>>Input Command

Oh geeze. Poor Guy. We put the will build through physical combat training. (Hopefully that'll pay off. She focused on avoidance, so that should make our finesse count more. We'll have to invest a little in that at some point).

...at least Sidhe probably found the torment amusing.

>brother coming back from his date
Oh, we gotta ask how that went.

>talk to Lira
Yeah, why not see if there's anything else on the supposed mystery of Guy. (You don't think you're involved in anything but... anything is sort of possible with breaking, right? And D7 is all about mind control and messing with memories, so it's not like you could actually rule it out). Maybe we could ask about the general lack of enthusiasm too- what's got them down?

>bring Rise?
I don't see any reason not to. Unless we need to leave someone combat capable behind with Lira. (I suppose we could leave an avy in the house, but I doubt your brother would want you going hunting with just Sidhe. She'd built for a protection detail, but I did kind of want to bring her along, see how she does in combat).

"Hey, Lira, you find out anything else about this Guy project thingy?"

"No... not really, anyway. I mean, apparently someone really important was leading the whole thing, but other than that, there really wasn't much in the database. It was more like someone deliberately tried to get rid of data though, instead of just not having any. Really oddly done to, they hardly tried to cover up that they deleted all that data, but its like... they didn't use a computer or anything to do it. Even breaking leaves some traces, but I didn't catch anything at all. It's a little odd..."

"I... I see, I think. So, it could be something not a breaker?"

"I guess. But I don't know what is or isn't a breaker. What else could it be, really?"

You happen to know what it could be from talking with Rise, but you let it slide. No use getting her worried. For now though, you move on with your questions. Namely, why they seem so down, even with everything going on. Lira's response is hardly comforting.

"Ah... yeah... D7 is moving. A lot. Not changing locations at all, but... hunting. We're moving partly because of that, but... they're good. I mean, hunting us is what they do. It'll be hard to move around the city with them active, but we should be fine as long as we don't draw too much attention to ourselves. Let's just hope Rise doesn't get noticed anytime soon."

That information could hardly be called good in any way, and you feel a shiver of unease go through you. D7 is active now, and that'll make doing things much more difficult. You'll have to avoid encounters with them as much as possible for now. When you suggest possibly leaving someone here to watch Lira, however, she waves you away, ignoring the issue. She'll be fine on her own. The house has a lot of security you can't see, most of it set up by her. If anything so much as takes a step within three blocks of the place, she'll know about it.

Rise agrees readily enough to coming with you tonight, happy to be useful, although she seems uncertain regarding D7's activity. She drops into thought once your conversation is done, obviously thinking on everything that's happening. Your brother, on the other hand seems practically overflowing with energy, and when you ask about his date, he simply smiles at you.

"Way more fun than hanging around here and doing whatever it is you did. You lot need to lighten up. Get out. Live a little. Especially you, bro. Cooping yourself up in here is bad for your health."

Regardless, the next few hours are spent resting and preparing for the job tonight. Eventually, it's time to go, and the group heads out, ready to get to business. The sewers remain the safest way to travel, and your end destination anyway, so you travel down the barely lighted tunnels, passing the market, and eventually reach a slightly better lit area with two other breakers waiting for you. They nod at you before turning to Jager.

"Hey, Jags. Been awhile."

"Not long enough. What the hell do you assholes want us here for? You can do this on your own."

"Not this time. Fixers are getting worked up. They're gonna try pushing down into our territory, and we need you guys to help us hold them here until the rest of the rats can get here."

"Why not just have everybody here to begin with?"

"Because then the fixers won't move at all. We set up some traps and defensive positions, use em as you like. They should be here soon, so don't take too long to get yourself prepped."

"Yeah, yeah... Hey Guy, where are you gonna be? And what's this damn thing flitting around my head doing here?"

Sidhe seems quite intent on Jager, although the feeling your getting is one of a mischievous grin. Something tells you she's already thinking up ideas to prank your partner. Here's hoping she keeps it out of the fight at least. You ignore your partner for the moment, however, to consider your options.

Most of the "traps" are just bear traps, things set up to hinder. You suppose that makes sense, breakers aren't exactly easy to defeat in one go. Still, you'll have a few places to hide if you want to go that route. The narrow tunnels make excellent killing zones, but the area you are currently in opens up into a wide area. If you can hold them in the tunnels you'd have the advantage, but... you won't be able to bring your full force to bear, and you're the only ranged fighter by the looks of it. You'd be holding them back on your own really.

>>>Input Command

>data just gone, not breaking or computers
Huh. So tears have their own way of affecting things. Makes sense they might be destruction oriented.

>only ranged fighter
...well, if you're counting your avatars as ranged weapons. I wouldn't count on your gun by itself to hold off breakers. You're not that good with it yet, and there's a decent chance a breaker will try to separate you from it or break it.

Also, don't get overconfident. You're still fairly new at this- you're not ready to pull a one-man army against competent opponents.

>she's already thinking up ideas to prank your partner
>traps
Redirect her intentions. I'm sure she can come up with some pranks to enhance the traps in place. Make them more dangerous, more lasting, or more of a hindrance, or better concealed. This is practically her element. (Illusions covering them? Irritants, allergens, poisons or drugs in the trap? Blinding or deafening flashes? Terrible smells? Something hard to get off- forcing them to waste BP getting it off and respawning? Something that explodes when you remove the trasp? There are tons of ways they could be enhanced).

Just have to make sure she gets back before the enemy starts showing up.

>tunnels or open room stand?
Choke points are a good thing. Best use of the tunnels would be to set up ambushes paired with traps. Yes, some traps can serve to bleed BP as they approach- but others can be used to leave them vulnerable to sudden attack.

Problem is the lack of places to hide. Unless someone here is good at breaking that kind of thing (really, all we need are corners or recesses to work with), or it counts as part of the prank...

If we can't bring full forces to bear, splitting up might make sense. Pick off a few, then fall back to regroup and fight the remainder in the open room?

Hunh.
So we're the ONE archer out of a bunch of melee breakers. Tch.
Very well.
Bro: Guy, you'll be in the back, waaay in the back.
Guy: Bro-
Bro: You've got a gun. The rest of us have fists, swords (jerks thumb at Jager, who is now holding a bloody nose and trying to swat Sidhe.)
Bro: FAIRY! It's your job to keep my brother here safe for me.
Sidhe: *surprise, questioning, Bro*
Bro: I'm gonna be in the front, other breakers behind me.
Jager, you deal with any slow, strong breakers.
Jager: Slow and strong? Why that in particular?
Bro: Because your sword looks like it could cut a man in half.
Guy, try to shoot any fast guys we start having trouble catching.
Guy: Alright then Bro.
And you two...Well, what do you fight with? I figure you two can help back me up, between the three of us no one should be getting through.
Past us three is Jager, and finally Guy and Sidhe. Sound good?

"Uh. Sidhe?"

The tiny fairy darts back over to you, hovering inches in front of your face again. It seem personal space means little to the little creature, but that is beside the point. She seems to be confused... or was that inquisitive? It's kinda hard to tell. Either way, you forge on.

"You think you can... ah... make those traps a little more... distracting. You know, just to make this a little more interesting."

The fairy suddenly brightens considerably, and a rainbow cascades into your thoughts. Joy/Excitement. Well, good to know she thinks highly of the idea. Sidhe disappears off down the corridor, searching for the traps, while the rest of you set up and get ready to fight. You volunteer yourself to be closest to the tunnel entrance at least, hoping to pop off a few shots at the attackers before retreating behind the safety of your allies. No one seems to object except your brother, who you quickly remind that you've got Sidhe now. She'll look after you... hopefully.

Regardless, you're next few minutes is spent with everyone getting ready, one of the Rats doing stretches, the other praying, Jaeger taking a nap from what it looks like, Rise waiting patiently in that odd sitting position of hers, and your brother looking vaguely annoyed. Still, you set yourself up at the entryway into the tunnel, checking the pistol in your hands. The weight is still very unfamiliar in your hands, but you understand at least the basics to hitting your target, especially with all that practice yesterday. The only thing you can hope now is that you'll be able to hit something.

The minutes tick by, and Sidhe come zipping back from her task, another burst of rainbow in your mind conveying her thoughts. You ask her to stick with you and put up her barrier when you get attacked. There's a sense of agreement, and the fairy lands on your shoulder before humming happily to herself. Soon after, the sounds of footsteps can be heard, and your allies behind you ready themselves. It's almost time. You feel yourself tensing up unconsciously, and rather offhandedly, you recall Rise telling you that it was always best to maintain a paradox of calm and tense at the same time. You steady yourself a little, taking comfort in the familiar feeling of your brother at your back and the slight weight on your shoulder, then a snap can be heard of a bear trap clamping shut, followed quickly by a scream of pain and fear.

"WHAT THE HELL!? SOMETHING GOT MY LEG! SOMETHING GOT MY LEG!"

"Jack? Jack what's wro- HOLY SHIT!"

Gunfire starts up, along with the sound of metal scraping against stone, and your hear the chiming of bells in your ear. Ah... illusions and pranks. Someone shouts that nothing's really there a minute later, and you can hear more sounds start to echo louder and louder as the enemy approaches, however, with every step, they run into new traps and further pranks, whether they be bursts of light, or the ground suddenly going slick, or on one occasion, narrated to you by the poor man's buddies, one of the traps literally leapt into the air and clamped around a man's neck. Regardless, soon enough, you see the first group stumble into view, their bodies covered in wounds. Clearly, they had not gotten through unscathed.

"What the hell was all that?!"

"How would I know? Think the higher ups knew about all that?"

"Does it matter? Let's just get some revenge for all this pain."

"Right."

Targets. People to shoot. You peer around your corner, eyeing the approaching group. Four men. Two with pistols like you. Another with a shotgun, if those look like anything from the movies you've seen. The last is holding one of the oddly standard baseball bats. Funny, you've seen a lot of those. Can't be that many people traumatized by baseball bats. Still, it's time to pick your targets. You've got fifteen rounds, plus two extra clips of the same. Better use them wisely.

>>>Input Command

Hrrm...Alright.
Shoot Shotgunner, since he's the biggest threat in the close range.
After him, comes pistols and bat boy, unless you can time shooting bat boy while fighting the other two...Which you probably can't.
After a bit, you'll probably want to fall back to the main group. The idea was to amplify the effeciency of the traps, more so than anything...

Whoo! Traps! Go viscous little fairy. You the girl.

>enemy group
Aw fug, three gun users? That means they're all finesse types. I don't know how fast you need to get before you start being able to dodge bullets fired from not very far away, but they're likely all going to have more than Guy's 2 fin. Although I suppose there's a group of them in a hall, not a lot of room to dodge.

>Can't be that many people traumatized by baseball bats.
Well, it's not as if every breaker's weapon is that literal a representation of their injury. A lot of things could have a connection with beating the shit out of things.

>what do
All right. They have a lot of gun users. We don't that means they have the advantage at range. At least, ignoring Sidhe's shield (we don't know how much abuse it can take before breaking). I think the general idea should be to engage, do as much damage as we can quickly, and piss them off enough to basically charge into the teeth of your allies instead of hanging back.

Start shooting at the them. Prioritize the gun users over the bat (since they can reach you), and prioritize keeping the shotgun down over the others. If we assume Sidhe's shield can only take so much abuse before cracking, a shotgun hits harder than a handgun.

Kill them as many times as you can before they start closing or putting up more of a fight than you can cope with, or you have to reload (which you have to do by hand- the gun breakers can do that without a delay) and then fall back against the wall and away from the door. Hopefully they pursue, charging into the room, where you allies engage.

Oh, and also, aim for the center of mass. No fancy shots, you're new at this. First time you're personally using a weapon on someone, actually. Try not to focus on that, though.

Fighting withdrawal is indeed the order of the day.

You quickly make your decisions, focusing on center mass instead of anything fancy. You'd rather injure than miss completely. The crack of your pistol is heard in rapid succession, the one with the shotgun surprised as his chest suddenly sprouts bloody holes. His friends are equally surprised, obviously not expecting to suddenly be shot at, and as the first target drops, you manage to take out one of the handgun users before the remianing two turn on towards you. The bat guy charges down the corridor, shouting insults, before his leg is caught in another viciously hidden bear trap, and his own momentum rips his leg clean off and leaves him screaming in pain. You hear the soft tinkling giggle of Sidhe next to you, but push thougts from your mind as you fire a couple more rounds. Thankfully, it seems these ones aren't very powerful when it comes to breaking, or at least, they don't seem to be able to dodge very well. Regardless, all four are down in some way by the time your first clip is through, and as you reload your pistol. The one with the shotgun is just starting to get up.

He snaps his own weapon up as you begin to take aim however, and while he has no real hope of hitting you, the crack of the shotgun going off causes you to flinch in surprise. The extra few seconds is all his companions needed, and suddenly the ring of handgun fire can be heard ricocheting down the passage. You're nearly hit three times, but they seem to bounce of something you can't quite see, and an angry burst of reds and blacks floods your mind. Ah.

"Thanks, Sidhe."

The response is a rainbow burst, and you quickly retreat as you hear more shouting coming from further down the passage. Sounds like the fixers are getting some more friends. As you pass up your more melee oriented fellows to get to your position in the back and out of the way. Which just makes it oddly more funny when a group of about four fixers rush into the room, all gungho and ready to kill you, and are suddenly and violentely descended upon by five strong melee types. You find yourself looking after those from your own group, and watch as your brother rips the head off one, Jaeger cleaves another in two, and Rise dances past the last two(letting the rats deal with them) and takes up a position next to the entryway, whereupon another guy comes through and has his torso separated from his legs.

All in all, the effect is staggering, as the few that come into the room are brutally murdered. Still, you feel like this is way too easy for an assau-

Suddenly, the ceiling explodes inwards, and people drop inside, flashlights flooding the room with light and black suits still somehow remaining spotless. For a moment, you somehow get a flash of... nostalgia? That's... odd. Still, the issue is moot, as you hear the echoes of similar explosions everywhere. Whatever is happening it's not limited to here.

"Attention, breakers. Lay down your weapons and surrender yourselves now, or we will be forced to terminate yo-"

The suit is interrupted by the rather violent response of your brother, who's fist connects with the man's throat and sending him into a coughing fit, while he grabs the other one and hurls him straight up into the streets above.

"NOW CAN I START GETTING WORRIED ABOUT YOU, BRO?"

The clatter of gunfire can be heard, and sirens are coming from the streets above. You've no idea what's really going on right now, and you doubt your fellows do either. Unsurprisingly, there's a quick conference with your group, even the fixers backing off to confer with there own.

"So... I'm assuming the jobs off now, right?"

"Yeah. Still, I think we should head back towards the Rats hideaways. The damn D7 were never this aggressive before."

"That is... incorrect. The agents just tend to cover up major incidents. Still, they never went this active unless they were searching for something..."

You get the feeling Rise might be referring to herself, but at the same time, you notice your brother looking oddly... withdrawn. He seems to be avoiding getting involved in this discussion, instead keeping an eye on that hole in the ceiling, yet at the same time...

You shake yourself from your thoughts as Jaeger speaks up again, looking worried.

"If this was because of that assault, then my group has bigger problems. We know some rats joined in on that little raid, and if they're looking for participants in that, then..."

"Look. I know you have Lira, Jags, but going on your own will just get you all captured. Help us fend off the attacks, and we'll give you all the help we can. You know Tramp is good for it, she always is."

Jaeger, for the first time since you'd met him, seems uncertain of his direction, and both Rise and your brother are looking to you. An odd situation to get thrust into the leader role. You don't have much time either, the sound of combat is everywhere, and you can be almost certain that there's more agents up above ready to descend on your little party.

>>>Input Command

Oooooh...
Crazy idea- get together- mass break yourselves elsewhere.
Just get away from this area.
Team Breaker teleports, let's see D7 chase you after that!

>nostalgia, brother looking oddly withdrawn
...dangit, was there something to what Lira said after all? Not as if you can expect a strait answer from your brother. (That's an odd feeling to get used to). It'll have to wait till later.

>what do
Okay, we have the choice of helping fight off the D7 incursion here, or leaving the rats to fend for themselves and rushing to get back to Lira. (Damn it, I knew we should have left someone with her, but she waved it off).

A good part of me wants to rush off and rescue Lira. She's a friend. Another selfish part of me wants to get to her so we don't lose all that data she has- it's looking more and more important.

The tactician in me disagrees, though. If this is a coordinated attack, we're already too late to make a difference. Either Lira's surveillance and security worked and she got away, or they already have her. By the time we get past the baddies here and make it there, it'll be over, one way or another. We'd have to run the streets, which we know aren't safe, or go through the sewers, which are being attacked already.

We're much better off helping the rats and everyone else, here. There's a lot of people at risk here, and we're going to need help finding Lira later, whether D7 gnabs her or not.

...we could send Sidhe. Zip strait up out the whole in the street and take to the skies. Provided we momentarily distract anyone on the surface from noticing, that leaves her free to watch what happens back at the house. If Lira's gotten out, or only has a small threat to deal with, Sidhe could assist directly, or if she's been gnabbed, Sidhe can float around up high and track her for us until we get the chance to rescue her. Tricky bit is we don't have long range communication, and we'd have to arrange a meet up somewhere.

>Jaeger
Where'd that extra e come from? :p

>>538579
Uh... I don't think that's an option. We've got a group of pretty low level breakers here- Guy and Jager are spirit 3 and I doubt the two rats are any better (they might be worse), assuming they'd be willing to bail on their own to help. We don't have Rise's stats, but she might be as high as 4? (I'm assuming she's currently the strongest in the party, but we've seen no evidence of a personal power, yet).

And teleportation is a big thing. Chris' is a personal power, short range, and five BP. The XP costs for avatars who get sudden appearance is kind of absurd (5XP per level!). I don't see a collaborative break getting us anywhere near the power we'd need for a precise, long range group teleport. I'd wager even trying it with our main group would have decent odds of just failing and splatting everyone involved, although if we channeled it through Chris for her affinity and forced rerolls through Nicole and Aria it might work?

Given that a long range port isn't feasible, then we should fight.
We run to Lira, and if D7 doesn't know where she is before, they will after we bolt for her.
It's probably more effective to fight, D7 doesn't have a lot of breakers if I recall? And I can't help but think the normal breaker instinct is to 'run' which gets them caught. Fighting and covering each other's back probably is a more effective tactic to deal with the D7...
The problem might be making the will roll to get the fixers and breakers to fight side by side, because their aid will make things much easier then two seperate groups. Especially since you and Jäger are the big guys on the field.

>making the will roll to get the fixers and breakers to fight side by side
Good thing Guy invested in will! And these fixers are all low level str and finesse types- everyone one of them probably has will for a dump stat.

After we've straitened out what we're doing with our allies, Guy should address the fixers in the room. You guys hate D7 more than us, right? (They funded other breakers to attack D7, after all). We can settle our differences later, when the common threat is dealt with.

"We need to stay and fight. Lira might not be able to fend them off if they get to her, but we can't do anything to help her dead either."

"Yeah... yeah, you're right. That means we've only got one option really. Ben, we're with you. Where should we be going?"

"We need to get back to the Warren. Safest place, we should be able to drive them back from there."

"Good enough. Let's move people."

Your group starts to head off, but a somewhat insane idea hits you, and you break off to waltz right up to the Fixers, who're are still looking somewhat confused.

"Hey! You guys aren't exactly on friendly terms with D7, are you?"

"No, I wouldn't say we are. Why?"

"Because it would be safer for everyone involved if we stuck together, at least for a little while."

"... You're right, I think. I also think the Rats won't exactly welcome us into there hidey holes with much enthusiasm."

"I'll deal with them. In the meantime, get your men ready to go. We can't stick around here for long."

"Alright. You heard him, you lot! We're sticking with them for awhile. Get your asses in gear and lets move!"

The Fixers start to snap back into motion, quickly moving to join your group. The hostility between the Rats and the Fixers is there, but thankfully, it seems to be overridden on both sides by the need to not get killed or caught by D7. Within moments, the group is heading deeper into the sewer tunnels. The sounds of fighting can be heard echoing from the walls, and while the Rats try to steer you away from the worst of it, you can still hear the dying all around you. You do your best to ignore it, but it still gets to you in some ways, and you feel a flash of comforting rainbows go through your head, Sidhe perhaps trying to comfort you in some way. You smile a little to yourself, the tiny fairy resting on your shoulder providing a lot more comfort than you thought she'd be capable of.

Eventually, however, you make it down into the depths of the sewers, into a brightly lit and well occupied area you'd never have thought could exist so far down into the earth, and you get your first glimpse of the Warren. The massive chamber is covered in lamps and campfires and all manner of other light sources, and even the amount of people in the place is enormous. Still, the feeling you get seem to be that most are noncombatants, as many are disappearing down into specific crevices and holes in the walls, likely to make room for the fighters. More are barricading off some of the side tunnels, forcing the enemy to come through only one tunnel, still, as your group and the fixers find an out of the way place to rest, a comment from your brother catches your attention.

"These people... the end for them is drawing near."

You can only stare at him in shock, this being nothing like what you remember your brother as, but it's Jager that responds, the anger clearly evident in his voice.

"What the hell do you mean by that?"

"Closing themselves off... there's no where to run. And the Division won't just let them leave. Easiest way would be to close of outside access completely. Starve them to death. They'd last maybe a month, with this many people. It's what... they'd do in the old days. Lay siege. And they're doing it to themselves. Leaving themselves with no way out."

... Ah shit...

"Then what do you suggest they do!?"

"I don't suggest they do anything. You seem to forget, Jager. I don't care about them. I only care about my brother. And I can get him out easily enough. Slip out during all the fighting at the beginning. He may not like it, but the little fairy knows what I'm talking about. She'd help me, if for nothing else than staying alive."

"I swear to god, you ass, if we abandon them-"

"What else do you expect me to do?! Help them?! How?! I can't fight against all those people?! And if everything follows, then with this many breakers in one place, what do you think they'll send after us?!"

It was Rise that answered that one. In a voice so quiet and full of fear that you barely caught it, and yet you still shivered.

"One of the different ones."

>>>Input Command

...right. Then we know this strategy won't work. We can't hole up and survive a siege. And as I'm not particularly fond of plan "wait for everyone else to die and slip away in the confusion" (glare at your brother), that means we need to change our plan before it's too late.

We need to fight back, break the siege. Give the people here a chance to scatter, and evacuate. We have the advantage that they think they already know our strategy- they won't be expecting us to see the trap. There have to be key places in their offense we can hit. We have the advantage of knowing, partially, how they think (look to Rise as you say this, but wonder how much you mean yourself, and your brother).

There has to be a command structure. Take that out, we make them disorganized and confused. Suborn or impersonate it with breaking, and we can lead them to disaster.

They only have so many enslaved breakers. They'll be using them at key points in the assault. Taking them out will make this a lot harder on them.

...and all the non-combatants here. A lot of them are still breakers, right? Is breaking... cumulative? Cooperative? Additive? Even if they can't fight, or they're not strong individually, we have a lot of people here. Get them organized, working together on something. Don't make it a siege, make it buying time for whatever superweapon or distraction or counter attack they cook up. Put that power to use.

(Yes, a desperate collaborative break by a whole lot of non-coms. It's a bit of a reach, since Guy and possible no one here actually knows if collaborative breaks work, but it's not much of a stretch for him to infer it might be possible, and it's possibly the biggest card we have to play right now).

If the division hasn't already deployed one of these different ones against us, we still have a chance here.

>Jager
Pull him aside after. You're sorry for what your brother said before. He's... kind of hung up on protecting you above all else. But you're not thinking that way, all right?

...maybe he's lucky he doesn't have to listen to his sword demand he kill everything.

>Brother
We need to reason with him, too.

His initial analysis is draconian, but correct. It doesn't work long term, though. Guy is a lot safer if there are more breakers around than if we let D7 slaughter so many, capture more to brainwash and use, and leave Guy one of the few remaining for them to hunt. We can't survive against something like that alone, not forever. If he needs a reason to help you help these people, that's it.

Think of it as a down payment on risk. We're taking some risk on now in order to avoid having to deal with a much bigger payment later.

Soo what should the grand break be?
I've several ideas-
Teleport Break- plain and simple. Let's see D7 catch us after we bounce ourselves across the city!
Lift Break- Flying Fortress- we break this whole underground area up into the sky. More of a creating a bastion should other breakers need help, might more useful in the long run than short though.
Banish Break- just take all of D7's forces, and break-warp them all over the place. No need to even care if they turn out alright either!
Death Break- exactly what it says on the tin.

>>539847
Well, I think whatever they get up to will kind of be shaped by their own talents, especially whoever they end up channeling the break through. Who, presumably, should be a leader among them, and someone they trust, to maximize chances of this working.

I would also point out that every successful collaborative break we've done has had side effects. For instance, the Godzilla thing Elizabeth summoned was uncontrollable. And we didn't expect to make Linda nonexistent.

A mass teleport might work, except we don't really have a destination in mind. And if it fails, it'll probably tele-frag everyone involved. (Hopefully that would only kill everyone involved once, but maybe they'll end up chain killed inside solid objects?).

The floating fortress sounds a bad idea™. First off, if targets the entire area we have our non-coms. A failed roll would probably be pretty catastrophic for the hideout. A successful roll would have problems too- first off, we'd be completely cut off in the air, with no exit. We'd also be a lot easier a target (they could call in the air force to blow us out of the sky). ...also, there's no way of knowing of the thing would be sustainable. What happens if the whole thing comes crashing down?

A mass death spell also seems like a bad idea, if they lose control of the scope or aim. We could end up hurting our own people, or a ton of normal civilians.

>>539822
>It's what... they'd do in the old days.
OK, he DEFINITELY knows more than he's letting on about D7.

>>539894
No, he's talking about ancient warfare tactics. You know, sieging castles and all.

And I think a mass break to either teleport D7 away or teleport our side out would be best.

"... Ok. Uh... I... might have an idea."

Everyone turns to you, looking a bit surprised, you're brother included, before they snap out of it and watch you expectantly. Your mind is racing as it tries to fit the pieces together, and you're getting this painful throbbing in your skull that isn't helping the matter at all. Still, the plan forms in your head, and you smile a little to yourself. This had to work. It... there wasn't any other options, and you didn't want to see anyone else die. Not here.

"Uh... this is gonna sound crazy I think... um... excuse me?"

You intercept the path of one of the rats whose rushing around. You don't know if he's anyone important, but he'll do for the question you need answered.

"Is everyone here in the Warren a breaker?"

"Mostly. A few normals that wanted to stay with their loved ones, but otherwise yeah. Can I go now?"

"Yeah, thanks."

"What the hell was that about?"

"Just something I needed to know. Look, I need anyone capable of fighting to help hold off the enemy. I don't really have time to explain to everyone. I need one of the Rat leaders as well... Anyway, I need the Fixers, Jager, Brother and Rise to head over and help out best you can. The more time you can get me, the better."

"Seriously, what's going on? Because I'm not leaving your side, little broth-"

"No questions. Just go."

Your brother growls in annoyance, but apparently being the actual breaker in the relationship does come with some perks, as he reluctantly does as he's told. The others follow after him, but you have little time to talk. Still way too much to see get done. You grab the attention of another of the rats, and get him to direct you to a leader, on Carl Jenkins. The tall man is bellowing orders, shouting at his fellows to hide, at least until he notices you.

"Hm? Who are you and what do you want?"

"My name's Guy, and I don't have a lot of time. I'm trying to save as many as I can. How many breakers do you have here?"

"Wha- What does that even matter?"

"HOW MANY?!"

"I don't know. Here alone maybe a little over a hundred. Why?"

"Want to try out an idea. Do you know if people can... link their breaks together? Make one massive break with a lot of people?"

"Uh... I don't know if that's ever been tried before?"

"We're going to try it now. Get everyone you can out here. We're gonna do one massive break. We'll have to funnel it through one person I think, like a focusing lens, so we'll have to figure out who can do that but... ah... no time! Just get everybody you can!"

"Why should I-"

"NOW!"

Carl blinks in surprise, but the man begins shouting for breakers to gather in the main tunnel instead of running off to hide. They'll need some time to gather, which leaves you with time to piece your plan together a bit more.

You'll need someone to act as the focusing lens, the central point. It might result in some... unpleasant side effects, but... regardless, that issue needs taking care of. You'll also need to decide what you want to attempt. You doubt all that breaking will do any good with no intent behind it...

Damn... if only you could get rid of this damn headache...

>>>Input Command

Hrrm...This plan might make whoever goes through it non-existant.
I'm thinking look for a Fixer or Rat with high amounts of Spirit...But how 'aware' are breakers of things like that? I mean, it SOUNDS like they're aware of their powers and abilities, but...
Someone, a Spirit three or higher (since that's where Guy& Jager are at.) But not Guy-we've already one non-existant protagonist, we don't need two!

>>540236
Not necessarily nonexistent. What Linda did was a more major violation of casualty than this. But we do want a strong Breaker, most likely.

Just going with the omni-break, then? ...I suppose this group really doesn't have the points to go to war counterattacking D7 at the same time. Just manifestations likely puts us all in single digits.

>This plan might make whoever goes through it non-existent.
...maybe. Although there were a few special caveats that time- we broke time, we brought back people who were all the way dead (something we've had two separate outsiders confirm is supposed to be beyond the scope of what can be done via breaking), we fueled the break with raw reality, and we rewrote predetermined events / defied prophecy, keeping Elizabeth alive when she was 'supposed 'to die.

I've also been justifying the nonexistence to myself in this way: a rewrite of reality to that extent required Linda to actually step outside reality, in order to make the changes. She pulled her own thread out of the pattern. And she didn't make it all the way back in, only partially reintegrating.

Here, we're not planning on bringing anyone back, none of this is predetermined (as far as we know), and there's no raw reality. It should be is safer.

...the part that's less safe is we have way more breakers than we've ever tried to work with before. A spirit 5, 4 and 3 working in concert created Godzilla. Who the hell knows what a hundred people can do. The other problem is whoever we use as the 'lens' is going to be weaker than anyone we've tried before.

If Guy went Nonexistent we'd also have the problem that tuning spare foci to act as memory charms isn't really an option for him, being an avatar type and all.

>who use as the focus
Guy's only spirit 3, ideally we want the strongest person around bearing the load. Preferably someone who's in theme with whatever break we decide to go with for a further bonus (although I doubt we have enough people to chose from for that).

(Although Elizabeth was only Spirit 3 when she did Godzilla. Granted, she had stronger breakers focusing on her, and her weave-affinity gives her bonuses to free form breaks...)

Our choices are Guy (his idea, the protagonist), whoever leads the Rats (you'd expect the leader to be the strongest person here, and breaking to protect his or her people, and using their power might net an additional bonus?) or maybe Rise (I'm pretty confident she's at spirit 4).

>what do?
This is the really tricky part. We need an idea that is both something we think we can do, and that will accomplish our objectives.

For example: We could probably summon a giant, uncontrollable Godzilla monster. That wouldn't exactly be a good solution, though. Or we could try teleporting everyone to sun city. That would get them out of danger, but I expect the attempt would fail catastrophically (moving too much, way too far, with not enough power).

Things that might work:

A more local teleport. The problem is we'd need a safe location D7 doesn't know enough, big enough for all these people. That D7 couldn't just follow us to. Not sure we have a location that meets these criteria- this place was supposed to be the safe retreat.

Some kind of attack on the D7 forces, intended to wipe them out. The violent solution. I like them being the target of the break (rather than us) in case anything goes wrong. Problems might include how complete the attack is (did we get em all), or if the damage runs over into other people / things (potential for massive collateral damage among our forces, or civilians in the city above).

Normalize the D7 forces. Instead of trying to escape, or kill our attackers, we turn them into people who have no interest in attacking us. Think of it like turning a neuralizer on all of MiB. All the agents become normal people who don't remember joining no secret agency- all the weapons and tanks and helicopters and holes blown in the sewers just go away. Make everything normal- there never was no massive secret agency attack here. In fact, the parts of the secret agency involved in this attack never were.

Personally, I like the last approach the best. It seems the least directly dangerous to our forces, and has less risk of going out of control than a more offensive break. And it's great for fucking with whatever's left of D7. And we could get a further success bonus by trying it to an actual spirit ability.

...although then we want the focus to be someone who can actually normalize. Which brings us back to putting Guy in charge.

The idea of making the whole attack vanish by simply normalizing it away is surprisingly nifty. But the problem here is if one of the 'differ ones' is walking around out there. That said, costing them resources and whatnot might buy us enough time to make a more clean breakaway.

That said, the teleport has the advantage of getting us away from that, if one's here. Then again, the normalizing costs them stuff and makes it so they would have to start over again on an assault, and likely get more men in. A teleport would get us a more clean immediately getaway, but normalizing would likely have more long term results. I say let's do the normalizing.

And agreed. Priority is finding someone good at breaking, overall, I think.

>>540248
By finding someone good at breaking, I meant asking around for the best at breaking stuff. We probably want someone with Active Break and similar abilities.

>But the problem here is if one of the 'differ ones' is walking around out there.
Yes, if they have a tear like McCarthy / the Demon, they would probably be unaffected by any break we through at them (although our belief that they're immune to breaking is still only an untested guess).

I'd kind of assumed that they hadn't deployed one yet. And even if they do- that's only one person. He or she couldn't take down all of us alone, and there's no reason a small group of breakers couldn't stall him or her while everyone else runs. I mean, sure, McCarthy came back every time we shot him, but bullets to the face would at least slow him down and force him to grow back.

Oh, and since forgot to specify before:

Ideally, we want to push the normalize as far as it can go. Not just un-agenting all the attackers involved, but removing all the evidence and information that lead them to attack in the locations they did, wipe out the local surveillance network and any data it's ever sent anywhere else, the works. (Making the places under attack 'safe' again. Not just no attack, no reason to attack).

I want the the rest of the division to blink and wonder why they never noticed a giant hole in their organization all around anything connected to central.

An idea springs into your head while your mulling over everything for the fourth time. Previously, you'd been trying to do something that should have been relatively violent or dangerous to the targets. But what if you simply made it so the attack just... stopped. Or maybe wasn't happening. Can't have happened? You don't really know how to phrase that, but you have the idea in your head. You done stuff like that before, just not on such a... grand scale. Still, the idea was valid at least, you knew it could be done, all you needed was someone who was capable of-

"Hey! Hey you! We're all gathered! What's next?"

"Huh? Oh! I need... is someone really good at breaking reality around here?"

"... Why?"

"I... I want to try combining everyone's powers into one massive break, but we need someone to be the focus. The lens I guess you could say. Someone to actually use all that power."

"... You want someone to be the barrel of the gun?"

"Uh... yeah?"

"While also loading way too much powder into the shot?"

"I... guess so?"

"No."

"What?"

"I'm not making any of my people do it. You're crazy idea. You do it."

"But-"

"No! You want to do it, fine! But you get the dangerous job, damnit!"

"... Alright. Alright. I can do that. I can do that. Just... have everyone focus all their strength on me or something."

"Or something?"

"In case you hadn't noticed, I'm taking a big gamble here. Let's just... let's just get started."

While the massive amount of breakers gathered is somewhat skeptical about the instructions they've been given, they all soon begin to focus, aiming their strength in your direction. For your part, you close your eyes, feeling around blindly with your thoughts, trying to gather... something. At first, you get nothing. Slowly, however, you begin to feel an odd sensation in your gut, like something had lodged itself there and refused to budge. You focus on that feeling, coaxing it to grow larger, imagining tendrils of energy seeming to coalesce and form themselves deep in your stomach. The feeling grows larger and heavier, at the same time growing more difficult to control and maintain. Every second that ticks by, that ball in your stomach bucks against your will harder, trying to slip from your fingers and dissipate. You hold on however, growling in determination.

Still, you can't hold it for long, and it doesn't help that the pounding that seems to have been with you since you'd gotten here is pounding away inside your head ever louder. It's like something is trying to get your attention, trying to call to you, distract you, force you to notice it. You'd been pushing the feeling away, but now, the pounding was getting insistent. Overpowering. Almost completely unbearable. Still, you held on, if only for a few seconds more, before focusing and directing all that power welling up inside of you to the purpose you desired. Let them stop existing. The attack never happened. Everything in the city was... normal.

You feel a rush, all that focus and will pushed through you like water from through a pressure washer, and suddenly that splitting headache is so much more. You feel like you could reach out and touch someone, like the world was at your fingertips, like the rush of power was everything you could hope to dream of was within your reach. Then the cold reality of the world comes crashing down on you, and you feel your legs give out and hear the sound of hysteric bells ringing in your ears as you black out completely.

---------------

To you, it was just a blackout. A loss of consciousness. You'd get some unwanted rest, probably a worse headache, and a stern talking to from your brother, Sidhe, and Rise. To everyone else, though...

Those who had given you their strength collapsed, although more from exhaustion and lack of energy than anything. Mere seconds later the wave of breaking that exploded outwards from your body bowled everyone over, including the warriors holding the enemy at the entry way. When the chaos finally settled, the D7 agents are found to be... gone. Simply gone. Breaker energy still cracks and sparks occasionally, but somehow, for the most part anyway, there is no sign of anything happening at all.

Most curiously of all, even if no one noticed his presence, was the one man who'd survived the onslaught of normality, he's eyes glowing slightly in the sudden gloom of the repaired sewers. He seems oddly calm given the situation, although as he looks around, he grimaces in annoyance.

"Well... that's new. And very... odd. Even given all that there should be..."

The man stares off down the corridor he's in, eyeing nothing and yet everything, before a small smile forms on his lips. Without another word, he turns on his heel and starts off into the gloom, whistling a tune happily. All those agents gone, and yet... all was well.

------

You awake later, eyes blurry, to find your head resting against something soft. A quick check finds it to be a pile of pillows, and you frown in confusion, even as the throbbing in your head returns full force. You groan in pain as you struggle to sit up, only to be greeted by a cascade of rainbows in your skull and the tinkling of bells. You hear movement outside, and then light hits you in the face, doing nothing for the throbbing of your skull.

"Gah! Light! Light!"

"GUY! You alright little brother?"

"NO! LIGHT!"

"Ah! Sorry..."

Your brother gives a sheepish grin, but before he can close the door again, both Jager and Rise slide into the room as well, Rise looking considerably more relieved at you being awake then Jager, who just looks suspicious. You make no comments though, instead focusing on the fairy that fluttering around your face excitedly. Her thoughts and emotions are coming at you rapid fire, and you have troubled sorting through all her intents and ideas. Eventually, though, you calm the little thing, and she lands upon her customary place on your shoulder. You turn to your companions, and it's Rise who breaks the silence first.

"You scared us with that little stunt you pulled. Your brother over there nearly started murdering people. Are you feeling alright?"

"I did NOT nearly murder anyone... mostly..."

Bro flipping his lid I suppose is to be expected.
Sidhe also was not helping things it seems...I wonder what that 'throbbing' in our head was? Maybe next time we should try and find a way to break on that instead...But more importantly? Status report. What happened, tell them about the man if they don't remember, and all that jazz. We need to know what gives, and to warn them D7 might be playing a long con with us.

Huh. Now I'm wondering if that normality killed and covered up every agent involved, or if they actually got normalized back to before they ever signed up. I was initially planning the later, but the language used in the descriptions would support the former as well. ...too bad we've no way to check up on that.

>non-existent
Well, the lack of a being from outside reality crashing our dreams is reassuring, though hardly definitive. Linda also didn't wake with a headache. That's a good sign- I think. Physical damage means we didn't push things far enough for meta-physical damage, I hope.

>one man who'd survived the onslaught of normality
...oh goodie, D7 does have a second tear. Unless McCarthy left Sun City for Central to lead this attack a while ago. Technically possible, but given his preoccupation with Linda, I kinda doubt it.

Good thing he didn't press on, though.

>Are you feeling alright?
Like the worst hangover of my life. I'm pretty sure now I'm nowhere near strong enough for that to have been a good idea.

...what happened? Did it work? How long have I been out?

Possible follow up question (assuming things worked, and it's been some time): did you find Lira? I don't know how far I pushed that but...

"Like... the worst hangover of my life. I'm pretty sure I'm not strong enough to do something like that completely safely... What happened? Did it work? How long was I out?"

"Slow down a little bro. You don't need to take this all in at once. Besides, we're still here, aren't we? Whatever you did worked. I guess."

"Your brother is right. Whatever you caused, all of the D7 agents are simply gone. Initial reports from the Sewer Rats around the city seem to confirm that whatever you did affected the whole city as well. D7 is just... gone."

"At least from this city. And they're already starting to move back in, if a bit more cautiously. As for how long you've been out... a few days now, I guess."

"That's... that's good to know. Is Lira alright?"

"Yeah. She called me, told me that she was getting attacked by D7, only... you did your thing, and poof. No more D7. She says she doesn't think it's safe for us to stay in the city anymore. Least, not now. I suggested we leave, head south to the LR, they don't have anyone hunting breakers down that way, but... let's just say she doesn't support my views exactly. Either way, I think we should hook back up with her before we make any major decisions."

Jager seems a little unhappy, mostly with you, given what you can see, since he seems to be glaring at you and is speaking to you in a tone suggesting hostility. Just a little. Still, he hasn't stopped talking to you, so at least he's willing to keep talking. Regardless, as you start to rise to your feet with a grunt of pain, your brother speaks up again, sounding a bit more cheerful.

"Ah! Before I forget, Kim called me up, said she had that info we were looking for. Probably made it easier to hunt down, with your whatever you did, but either way, she said if we swung by the market she'd hand it over. Said she'd rather not talk about it over the phone, although I think she just wants to flirt with me some more."

... Smug bastard. He's got that grin on his face he only uses when he knows he's got some girl hanging off his every word. Good or bad, humility is not one of your brother's strong points.

>>>Input Command

A few days? Geeze. You've spent more of your time as a breaker asleep than awake.

Assuming you can walk, and you're not ravenously hungry, we got things to do. We should collect that info before we think about leaving town. It's looking like you probably need to have a talk with Jager, seems like there's air to clear there. And then all of you are going to need to get together and figure out what you're doing (why are we running, exactly?).

...What's this LR place you're talking about Jager?
And yea, get the info, but remind bro that however he interacts with the girl, don't forget the plan is to move outta the area soon-we might not be able to retain that relationship with D7 no-doubt gunning for answers as to what just happened.

>What's this LR place you're talking about Jager?
It's the Latin Republic. Alternate universe geography. See:

>>/questdis/61193

"Alright. Alright. I think I'm good. Need a little food first thou-"

Your brother unreservedly shoves a sandwich into your open mouth, forcing you to both chomp down ravenously and almost gag at the same time. It's very confusing all in all. Still, as you try to get up and get moving, it's Rise who blocks your path, surprising you a little bit.

"You are in no condition to be moving around."

You stare at her a moment as you finish your sandwich, choosing to fill your stomach first before doing anything, then finally get to the talking bit, interested to find out what she's so concerned about.

"Why are we stopping me from leaving again?"

"You just woke up from doing something extremely dangerous, and which probably has not ever been tried before."

"Yeah. So?"

"And you are are still ALIVE."

"That's a good thing I thought."

"I am not contesting whether it is a good thing or not. I am contesting the fact that you are alive and seemingly completely unharmed by the experience."

"I still don't see why I should be questioning that. At least not right now."

"The sewer rats tried the same thing the day after the attack. Three times. All three are now either dead or insane beyond all hopes of recovery. And that was with small groups of them, not the couple of hundred you tried it with. And this is not mentioning the people who participated in your attempt. Seven literally up and evaporated in the middle of it. Gone, just like that."

"Oh..."

Well... that was... that was new. You didn't get it at all. Still, you push the thoughts from you head, letting some other piece of you consider that while you got on with your day. Now was neither the time nor the place to consider this. You had things to do.

"Rise. I understand your concern. Really, I do. But now really isn't the time for this. We have to get ready to move. I'll talk with you as much as you want when we have more time. But not now, alright?"

"... I understand."

Rise lets you through, and you're quickly swamped with breakers as you step out of your unofficial hospital room. Most just want to shake your hand or thank you for helping them. A few women try to come on to you, but fortunately or unfortunately, Rise's presence seems to dissuade them fairly quickly. Odd, given that she isn't exactly trying to get them to go away. Regardless, getting out of the Warren isn't easy, and you waste a good half hour just getting back to the entrance. After that, however, it's a quick stroll over to the market, with Jager splitting off from you halfway to go hook up with Lira. The trip is thankfully uneventful, and the market seems largely unchanged since your last visit. Upon arriving at Daniel's stall, you find the owner and Kim in heated discussion, although they cease as soon as they notice your presence slipping through the crowd.

"Ah! Uh... Guy, right? Heard you came by to pick up Sidhe there. How she working out for you? What can I help you wi-"

"MOVE! I gotta give him this info!"

"HEY! Watch it!"

"Yeah yeah. Hey! Listen to this! Apparently, out west, there's a group of breakers that got together, kinda like the Rats, only their bigger! Like the whole west coast bigger! They control all of it! It's amazing. The entire west coast of the UNA!"

"Uh... that's... good I guess?"

"Damn straight it is! Apparently, they actually choose to protect their members and any breakers in their territory. And try to keep the normals out of it to. Pretty impressive, given it only really came about within the last few weeks."

"Wait. Hold on. Stop the press."

Your brother suddenly breaks into the conversation, looking confused and a little concerned.

"You're telling me that a breaker gang set itself up, expanded, took control of, and solidified said control over the west coast, in the space of a few weeks?"

"Well, yeah. It helped they practically demolished every single fixer base there was. Almost literally raised a few of them to the ground. Killed someone important to the group to. Trevor something or other. Oh! And before I forget. That lady you were looking for, Makoto or whatever it was? Yeah, apparently she's hanging around with them now."

"What was that?"

Rise practically strangles the poor girl, but her eyes are filled with both interest and hope. Kim just lets herself get practically thrown around, even while trying to clarify her statement.

"Well. Maybe not. I mean, that's where I tracked her to, but the lady that's with this new group doesn't call herself Makoto. Her name is Chris instead. Chris uh... Wayneright I think. She looks kinda like you though, here, I even got a pic-"

"That's her! THAT'S HER!"

Rise is practically ecstatic with joy, snatching the picture from the younger woman and clutching it tightly in her hands. Almost too tightly. You let her have her moment though, and thank the pair of them. You're business concluded, with your brother managing to extricate himself from any promises with Kim, you all head back home, very pleased with the outcome, as well as a little intrigued about this new group that's sprung up. Apparently, other breakers from various regions have had a hard time deciding what to do about the organization, especially because the group, for whatever reason, has yet to call itself anything. No names for it have been adopted by the general breaker population either, even if a few have been thrown around here and there. Regardless, you return home to more arguing, this time between Lira and Jager, and both don't stop as you arrive.

"-ee the point of going through with this! If we're leaving we should just leave!"

"But we need to know! If we don't, we could have worse things happen later! And dragging something like that around isn't good for anyone!"

"Uh... what's going on here? I thought we were discussing leaving?"

"Lira wants to do a smash and grab on a fucking D7 base. I think it's a terrible idea."

"There's no one even in the damn things! We break in, take what we want from the data vaults, then immediately head elsewhere!"

"I'm still convinced the LR is the place to go!"

"But getting into the LR is going to be hell! Besides, we have no idea how to deal with the LR breakers. They could do anything!"

"And this new group out west is any better?"

"At least they are trying to protect people!"

... Well... this doesn't seem like it's going to end anytime soon. Not, at least, without some sort of intervention...

>>>Input Command

Experience Gained: 9

Jager Experience Gained: 3

Rise Experience Gained: 3

>3 other people who attempted collaborate breaks are dead or insane
>7 of the hundred(s) who participated in our attempt up and evaporated
>Guy, a brand new and not particularly strong breaker, is magically all right
...jeeze. Wasn't expecting that.

I mean, I could see death or insanity resulting from trying to lead too big a collaborative break. But small groups should be fine, unless the leader is very weak, right? And we've never seen the donor participants affected negatively, before.

I suppose we don't know how small these test groups were. A three man gal team of average breakers summoned godzilla. And a... six(?) man team with some power boosts broke time. It could be the safe group sizes are relatively low. If they were working with say, ten or a dozen people, that might be too far.

It might also be what they tried? We've been very careful with our breaks, trying to pick things we had reason to think would work, or that fit with themes, powers, etc. If the sewer rats experimenting tried something that couldn't work, I could see a failing roll from a collaborative break having more serious consequences than a regular free form break.

It might also be the people involved, not the number. Maybe only certain breakers can safely lead collaborative breaks? Something that sets Linda and Elizabeth and Guy apart from those who couldn't.

Tl;dr- we need more information on what the rats actually did (how many people, how strong, what the break was, etc) to evaluate (maybe Rise can specify when we talk more later?). Possibly we need more experimentation too, but that's not exactly safe.

>thanks / hitting on
Huh. I would have expected a more muted reaction, considering the people who died participating, or trying to recreate it. I guess your almost dying yourself absolved you somewhat? Or the cost was so low compared to what could have been...

>loss of Trevor important
Huh. But no mention of Maria? Thought she outranked him. Or maybe the wolf-monster was just more memorable to non-fixers than the gun user.

>no name causing unease
Pff, our laziness has actual plot relevance.

...kind of makes we wonder if we should make a PR effort, though. Have Linda put some of the more entertain-y types in a room, dump some money on it, and figure out some kind of outreach to breakers outside our area of influence?

>XP
9? Wowzers, that's a lot. Gotta think on that a bit.

>What do
...I think Lira's right about D7, at least. It's not like you're going to be able to do what you did before again. We've got an opportunity, here. And remember- that attack was familiar to you. There was the mention in those other files. You did something crazy and didn't die. These guys brainwash people and mess with memories. Maybe you're missing something. It's worth getting to the bottom of.

We can worry about where to run after that.

I think we shouldn't do it. Frankly, we only heard D7 was getting more active and agressive, chose a job AWAY from messing with them, and basically got government army swarmed. I'd rather not piss them off again, especially since we had JUST came from hitting D7 when we went to the Rats.
And besides, we were lucky to -have- a small army of breakers there for a mass break. And on top of that, we were -allowed- to escape, not actually being completely sucessful.
I think D7's playing a long game here with us, and if we do the obvious, which is go for the data while they're 'scattered' so to speak, we'll play right into their hands.
No, we run to LR or the Grand Breaker Army in the West, no more risk-taking.

>>541583
Ignoring our obvious problems (the dreams, the data, some of our borther's comments, etc) that connect to D7 is taking a risk, though.

Point out that you remember one member of D7 not getting affected by your massive break and that it's likely they'd be protecting the base. Given what they survived, trying to tackle them is probably suicidal.

>>541792
Except Guy doesn't remember that. It's out of character information from an omniscient perspective swap while he was unconscious.

And I highly doubt McCarthy or anyone like him would be willing to sit around guarding an empty base. There's too much ego involved.

And even if we run into a tear, there's only so much just one person can do. He can't guard every location (they had more than one), or every door. And even if he doesn't die right, and even if breaks don't work, bullets do, and there's nothing stopping us from running.

>why we should do this
We are literally never going to have a better opportunity to find out what D7 is all about. We pulled off a break that should have killed Guy, and several other people did die for. The data is all but undefended, and we don't have to worry about anyone trying to kill the data before we get to it- the base is unmanned. And we have a person ideally suited for data mining. Even Linda and co couldn't deliberately pull that off this neatly with the resources they have to hand.

It's worth the risk, and the risk is manageable. (If we play our XP right, say, we could use our avatar to cover our retreat running for our lives, and then recall him to safety with sudden appearance, say?).

(Possession of the data might also naturally steer us towards the west rather than the LR, once they realize the data might be valuable to them).

>>541797
It was? Huh, that's annoying. Think I'd rather not know in that case.

>>541799
Well, the update in question did specifically note that "To you, it was just a blackout" and that "no one noticed the presence" of the man being described. To me that says Guy didn't see.

OOC information is part of the situation, anyways. We have a much better understanding of breaking and his capability that Guy did, we have information from Linda's perspective, Elizabeth's perspective, the dis thread, etc.

I mean, we can use it to influence our decisions (you can argue we don't want our people going near D7 because of the Tear). It just can't be an argument Guy makes himself.

So after bouncing it around in dis, I vote we spend our XP this way:

2XP Sudden appearance upgrade for our brother
3XP Guy to spirit 4
2XP Increase Guy's BP twice
1XP Brother str +1
1XP Brother fin +1

You sigh and rub your forehead a little. You think it's funny that you're getting used to playing the mediator somewhat. And a little odd these two would be together like this, when all they seem to do is disagree about things all the time. Still, both sides have merit to them.

"Alright. So, D7 isn't going to restore itself that quickly, is it?"

"Honestly? I don't know. D7 is strong, very strong. I wouldn't be surprised if guards are already being replaced. If we go, it's gotta be now. It's the best chance we have."

"But there still might be one of those things Rise was talking about wandering around. What if we meet one of them?"

"There is little chance of that. There is, to my knowledge, only one currently in Central, and that one tends to keep to the southern sections of the city. The likely hood of encountering it are minimal."

"... You're not helping."

"I apologize, Jager. Still, it is not as dangerous as it could be. If they haven't purged the system yet, I could even get as past the automated defenses easily enough."

"St-"

"We aren't going."

Your brother suddenly butts into the conversation, looking extremely unhappy. If anything, he looks agitated, uncomfortable and irritable, things you aren't used to your brother being. Usually he's all happy smiles and cheer and such. This new him is... confusing. Very confusing. Still, at the same time, it seems like oddly nostalgic behavior. Or maybe it's just your head throbbing even harder. Hard to tell. You feel a splash of blues and greens invade your thoughts, and glance at the small fairy hovering gently next to you, looking somehow angrily concerned. It makes you smile a little, which just makes Sidhe frown even harder, but you wave it away and try your best to ignore the painful headache that just won't seem to go away.

"Brother, as much as I hold your opinion in high regard, it's not just you that get's to make them. For now... let's just take a vote or something. It'll make it easier on everybody."

Almost instantly, the sides are made clear. Lira and Rise support raiding a D7 base, Lira giving a specific one(which is located in the northern part of the city, and is identified as a research lab), and Rise suggesting that it might yield information useful for later use a bargaining chip with another group. Jager and your Brother, on the other hand, are voting to skip town as quickly as possible, your Brother not caring where, while Jager hopes to head south into the LR and put everything that's happened so far in the past and out of mind. Sidhe, for her part, seems to not care, as long as she's awake and taken care of, although you still feel those hues of blue and green splash across your mind, the feeling of concern strong whenever you give her even a moment's attention.

It looks like, in the end, it's up to you to decide.

>>>Input Command

dang it...
Long game-sleeper agent Guy is hard to plan for, because I don't KNOW what we're going to become here. It's like...If we go to any breakers, we'll get sleeper popped. If we go back to D7, we get wiped and sent back out again...
D7 it is. We need to figure out what the deal is with mass-produced Guys.

Hey, Jager and your brother agree on something. The men of inaction. (No, don't taunt them, that's a bad idea).

I still think we should go. There are risks, but we sort of know what to expect. Lira's right we'll almost certainly right we'll not get this chance again (even Linda's group isn't so well positioned to hit D7, and hasn't shifted from recovering and consolidating after the Fixers, yet). Rise is the person here most familiar with the threat D7 poses, and she's willing to risk it.

And your Brother is against it. Note he doesn't say it's too dangerous, or he wants to keep you out to protect you, as would be in character. Instead he seems to be hiding something. Again. That alone is reason enough to go. You can't afford to ignore whatever hidden connection there is between you, your brother, and Division 7.

>guards already being replaced
If they're moving in new personnel, and in a rush to get set up again, that means things will be hectic and disorganized, with a lot of new faces. Should make normalizing and bluffing our way around considerably easier, if we have to.

(Well, unless we run into someone a normalize won't work on- a captive breaker who sees us for what we are, or a Tear).

>where go afterwards?
Keep our options open. Head south and west, and as we get closer to the LR border and this west coast breaker group, see if we can get better information. Something that will allow a more informed decision as to whether we keep going west, or try to cross the border to the south.

Rise will want to go west, anyways.

Experience Allocated
Guy
Spirit 4: Choose Aggressive or Defensive
BP: 20

Brother
Strength: 5
Finesse: 5
Sudden Appearance 1

"... I say we go in. We have the chance, especially if they're weakened. We hit fast, we hit hard."

Both Jager and your Brother don't look too happy. Jager drops the issue however, instead turning to Lira and getting her to bring up what she can on this base you were going to be assaulting. If he was going to do it, he was going to do it right, and with as much information as he could get. Your brother, on the other hand, is not exactly so compromising.

"Guy! We are not going in there! We can't!"

"Brother, if you can't give me more of a reason then you don't want to, then I'm going. You can stay behind if you like, but I want to know what we have to do with D7."

The headache you'd had for awhile now suddenly spikes, and you feel yourself get dizzy before almost collapsing. Your brother is the one to catch hold of you, steadying your body, even as you feel more splashes of green and blue invade your thoughts. Everyone stops what they're doing, looks of concern crossing their faces. Still, after a moment, the pain subsides, and you get back on your own feet.

"I'm fine. Just... just a headache."

"Guy, if this is something to do with that break you did-"

"We don't have time to worry about it right now. Besides, I don't think it has anything to do with that. I had it awhile before that. I think it's just... adjusting to all of this. I haven't really had any down time."

"... I hope so."

"Look, let's get this plan in motion alright? Do we know what we're going to do?"

"Yeah. This is the northernmost base. As far from that guy Rise was talking about. It's got a data vault stored inside, give me a half-hour, tops, and I should be able to download anything of importance. Rise can get us through most of the automated defenses on the way in, but the guards..."

"I can handle them. I've got this trick I can do."

"Alright. More than likely, even with this base inactive, we'll have to fight our way out anyway. There's another reason I picked this base though. This one has something to do with you, at least it might. There's a room labeled 'Guy Preparation', whatever that means. I figure you and Rise can head for that once we're inside, while me and Jager deal with this data."

"Works for me."

"Alright then. The plans set. Or as much as it can be. Let's get this over with."

It takes an hour to ready the few things everybody needs. After you do this raid, there is no coming back. You'll be hightailing it on the road. Thankfully, you'd been prepped from the road for awhile. No reason for you not to be ready now. Within that hour, you find yourself drifting off to sleep while the others ready themselves, and once again living another dream...

-----------------------

"Is the plan set?"

"As set as it's going to get."

"Are you sure you want to do this? She's not very happy about this."

"She never is when it comes to me leaving her alone. But we have no time. Whatever reality is doing, we need to figure out something. Particularly when it comes to that one."

"Yes. Her. Linda McCallahan. She's important. More so in that she's simply gone from all our data. Even the broken pets we keep can't remember a thing about her. McCarthy says he has it handled though."

"All the more reason to do this. McCarthy has never been... trustworthy... when it comes to his playing."

"True enough. All that remains is... are you sure we should be trying this. Artificial breaking? The tests on the Muramasa children were hardly-"

"Enough! Just flip the damn switch and be done with it!"

"But to try it on-"

"DO IT!"

---------------------------

You awake screaming, bursts of pain and light flooding your senses. You feel hands grasp yours, and something rings like bells next to your ears, before you quiet yourself and find everybody staring at you. You vaguely remember getting into the car, but the trip after was... was...

"You alright?"

"I... I... think... so."

"This is a bad idea, we should call it off."

"NO! No... we... I need to do this. Something... Something happened. I want to know what."

"... Alright. Rise, you're up first."

"Follow closely. We will need to move quickly."

The group follows the woman, keeping as close together as possible. Rise arrives at a door with a keypad and quickly taps a few keys before the lock disengages and lets you in. The room behind it is covered in cameras, but there seems to be little issue as you make your way inside and downstairs, where more keypads wait. Rise makes her way to each one, tapping a code into it, before gesturing everyone inside a door you almost wouldn't notice. Then you're in a corridor with stark, steel walls, and the sound of footsteps ringing against it is the only sound you hear as you make your way to a door on the opposite end. Rise halts you there, listening intently for a moment, then motions you forward.

"There... should be two guards on the other side. This is the end of my usefulness, at least for now, so from here on, it's your show. Be careful, the agents here are more than likely going to be highly suspicious. Anything other than a believable story is going to set them off."

>>>Input Command

>Spirit 4: Choose Aggressive or Defensive
Hmm. I think the only will-based spirit 4 powers we've seen have been fear itself and unbroken will. Although we might always get something else.

I guess I'd lean aggressive? We've got Sidhe now, and we've been sort of working on building a defense. Guy could use some aggressive options in a real fight.

>dream / memory
Interesting they can remember that they don't remember. How many meta-layers to you need to buffer yourself with to be aware of the effects of nonexistence? Even the fixer leader kept forgetting her name and had to rely on Jacob.

Also interesting that at least some people in D7 realize McCarthy is crazy and have qualms about trusting him.

...and I might be wrong here, but that dialog looks like Guy was an agent who when and artificially induced breaking in himself.

>it's your show
All right. Time to make ourselves fit in. Normalize the group so we look like we belong, and we seem to have whatever paperwork the checkpoint will want, and we show up on the schedule, etc. Act confident and unconcerned.

The story is we're bring in more personnel, escorting little miss scientist to the data center (we can even allude to, or them them suggest it's part of a countermeasure after what happened when breakers got ahold of the other one). If they protest there's already someone here working on it or something, play to the divide between combat grunts and technical specialists. If the nerds want to squabble over their toys, it's not your problem. You've got your orders.

We've also got warped minds on most the party for additional wiggle room. You and Rise don't, but so long as she doesn't draw her sword and you keep Sidhe out of sight, I don't think you'll break the illusion.

Hrrm...Offensive=Brother Break?
Defensive=Sidhe Break?
...Offensive I think. Guy seems too much like he's got a 'bubble' around him shielding him from his current reality, but part of me wants to see how that 'Defensive' Spirit Break would manifest, ESPECIALLY with how Breakers seem to effectively be 'Glass Cannons'-stronger Breakers just have more BP/Lives to burn through, instead of being able to take hits from each other.

Confidence. You belong here. There's nothing wrong at all with you entering. Or everyone with you. You're just here to check the data stores. Upload new security systems or something. No, you ARE here to upload some new security systems. That simple. You will be fine. Alright. Let's do this.

You push the door open and enter the room, normalizing as you enter and projecting an aura of confidence that you don't really feel. You can only hope this works, cause if it doesn't you have the feeling very bad things are going to happen. Still, as always, the things you do come naturally, and acting has always been one of them. This skill comes in handy once again, as one of the two guards on duty steps forward, hand raised to stop you, other hand reaching for his gun.

"Hey! What are you-"

"Of course they didn't! They never do! Amy, didn't I tell you they'd forget to let them know!?"

You round on Rise, who's look of shock and confusion is clearly not going to be of any use in backing up your story. Thankfully, your brother is a bit more familiar with you, and has seen you act numerous times before. Ad libbing had always been a strength of yours. Or rather, "creative story making".

"As always, you're right. Please, calm yourself sir, I'll get this straightened out right away. YOU!"

Your brother rounds on the guard, immediately launching into rant about the lackluster treatment of a master technician(you). While he grabs their attention, you clue in the others, hoping their acting skills are up to the task, or that they can at least keep their mouths shut and go with it. All of them still look a little confused, but get the idea. Just run with it.

"- and another thing-"

"Please, Jimmy. We don't have all day. Just ask them the way to the server room and we can get this over with and be on our way. We DO have other clients to see."

"Right away sir! Well?! You heard the man!"

"Uh... um... down that corridor, first door on your left!"

"THANK GODS! Someone has some semblance of intelligence. We'll just be passing through now."

The group moves along, the guards on duty already returning to the dull boredom of their task, and gossiping about the "asshole and his posse". You could care less though, as you're through. Good enough. Minutes later, you've made it into the server room, and set up Lira and Jager. Lira says she only needs a half- hour to get things done, which means you had better make your own side trip fast. Rise opts to stay behind and help guard Lira, partly out of concern for them, and partly to let you confront whatever is going on by yourself. Thankfully, Lira found the base schematics for you, and ten minutes later, you've found what you're looking for. Your brother hangs back oddly as you stare at the door, and you glance back at him questioningly.

"Brother? What's up with you?"

"We... You shouldn't go in there..."

"What? Why?"

"I... You... shouldn't go in there. It'll... change everything."

"I think everything's been changed quite a bit already. A little more can't hurt."

"... You... don't understand. And... I can't explain... I... can't... remember... everything... but... don't... just... don't..."

Your brother seems to be in obvious pain, but nothing seems wrong with him on the outside. Similarly, now that you're so close to this place, pain lances through your head with every beat of your own heart. Sidhe hovers next to you, wringing her hands, blues and greens washing over your thoughts, somehow helping you stay grounded. How, you aren't sure... but... the decision needs to be made. Turn your back on this door and everything to do with it... or push forward and find out what's going on.

>>>Input Command

Okay, slow down. We have time. Most of a half hour left.

Kneel down, see to your brother. He's in pain.

Then let's think about this. Going into the room will have consequences. But what about seeing in? Or... not even seeing, directly. Just knowing about the things in there. You're a breaker. You might be able to cheat here- skirt around the edges instead of falling down the rabbit hole.

Like... we could active break part of the wall or door into transparency, a window to see into the room. Or if even seeing is too much, Sidhe looks through the peephole (who point of an avatar, really. To act in your stead). That way, whatever's in there comes filtered through a perspective that's not tied to your past, and though her odd form of communication.

(Yeah, trying to find out some of what's going on without triggering what are likely horrible memory failures. Havingitbothways, suggestor wanted Linda approved).

Hrrm..I like the Sidhe peeping idea, and it does seem rather like it will avoid the dangerous consequences that could result-namely, Guy finding himself torn between being a normal breaker, or going back to being an agent...
Part of me thinks that this is basically going to turn into a question of fighting Mcarthy now or later...The problem is, There's no way to tell if he works like a Breaker or if we need 'reality' powers like the Angel Avatar to deal with him.

Oh, and to avoid the obvious pitfall here:

If we active break a viewport or something into the room, it should be one-way.

You crouch down next to your brother, trying to gauge how much pain he's actually in. It's hard to tell, though, given that your brother isn't natural. Wait... what? Your brother is... unnatural? Why would you think that? What... No! That's wrong. That... that's wrong. Your brother is your brother. There's nothing else that matters. Still, you can't tell how bad he is, especially not when you yourself are in so much pain.

Even with the pain, though, you manage to scrounge an idea up from your head. If your brother doesn't want you going in there, then...

"Sidhe? Could you... could you take a look inside for me? Please? The peephole there should work fine."

The little fairy huffs in annoyance, but flits over to the keyhole and gazes inside. For a moment, there's nothing, then the little fairy darts away, alarm, fear and uncertainty coming across your mental link. You brace yourself, prepared for anything, only to have the door flung open and find that one breaker from the D7 base raid... uh... Emily?

"Geez. Took you long enough. What are you waiting around out here for? Come on!"

The woman practically drags you in, only briefly considering your brother and completely ignoring Sidhe. For a moment, you're confused, until, out of the corner of your eye, you catch a glimpse of an older man, looking vacant of emotion and completely disinterested. You start to turn towards him, only to have your attention grabbed by Emily again.

"I've been waiting for DAYS. Damn, you'd think you'd never felt curiosity before or anything. Not that it matters. Anyway, let's get you all hooked up and ready so we can get your memories back."

"Uh... Emily, right?"

"Huh? Oh! Yeah, sure, whatever makes you happy. Just hurry it up, people are going to start noticing soon, and we don't want that. Too many questions. Hurry, hurry."

Emily ushers you towards the center of the room, which you notice has what appears to be a chair with a glowing ring hanging above it. Nothing really seems overly odd, in fact, it seems rather nostalgic, but at the same time...

"Guy! Guy! No! NO! NONONONONONONO!"

Your brother is practically freaking the hell out, but he can't seem to move his body at all. It's like he's frozen up. Sidhe hovers uncertainly next to you, tinkling softly in your ear. Emily starts humming in impatience rocking on her feet as you seem to stumble towards the chair, only to stop in your tracks.

"Brother?"

"No time! Hurry up!"

"But my brother-"

"He'll be fine. Good as new once we clear up that head of yours. Now come on!"

"But..."

"For the love of- Can we just get this over with already?!"

The man in the corner suddenly seems to grow more interested in what's going on, eyes flicking upwards to lock on to you. For a moment, you feel like there's a breeze flowing through the room, even though you know there's no way for that to occur naturally. At the same time, Emily continues to look more and more irritated the more you hesitate. Still, the nostalgia you feel from that chair is almost overwhelming, yet you can't name why.

>>>Input Command

Geeze, why did the others leave you alone for this.

Okay, look- you're getting all trapped in emotions and uncertainty. That won't fly. Detach for a moment- force yourself to fall back on an analytical math problem mindset. Step one: list everything we know. Step two: see what solutions you can derive from that.

So review what just happened: what do we know?

>older man in the corner
>you feel like there's a breeze flowing through the room
Ah. We've found breezy, from before. A man with wind manipulation powers. A form type, or just an unusual weapon type? If he's a form type, that means he'll be hard to hurt. Sidhe's shield might be able to protect you from strangulation this time, though.

If he's got the wind powers, that means you have no idea what 'Emily' is capable of, unfortunately. You don't even know her name, even. The way she responded before revealed it as a lie.

>memories / nostalgia
Look, you came here to try and find out what was going on. Obviously there was something wrong. But that does not mean you do so by throwing yourself headfirst down the rabbit hole.

Emily was expecting you to show up here. She makes it sound like you were programed or conditioned to do so at one point. That's not a good thing- that means you're playing into someone else's game here. And we don't know if that's someone you can trust or a game you want to play into.

Emily's talking about restoring your memories. Cleaning up your head. You know D7 has some kind of mind control or brainwashing tech.

...so why the heck would you walk yourself right into it? You can't trust that!

Case (1)- you've already had your head messed with. But you can't trust messing with it again. Maybe this will bring back memories- but that could be good or bad (do you accept death of self to unlock a previous self?). Maybe it'll place you deeper under someone else's control, or cost you more.
Case (2)- you haven't had your head messed with- so no outcome of getting it messed with now is a good thing.

To say nothing of the fact you know this girl has lied to you before, is trying to rush you before anyone (your allies) notice, the implied threat breezy is making to get you to comply, and the one person who wants nothing more to protect you is crying out against this.

You can't trust running headlong into this.

>what do
Stop, shields up.

I came here to try and find out what was going on, not to blindly go along with it.

I barely know you, you've lied to me, and hidden things, he attacked me, and you're talking about editing my memory and cleaning my head in a place that brainwashes and enslaves people.

You're asking for a hell of a lot of trust here. You're not getting it without a lot better an explanation.

...then we see if that gets her talking, or if they try and force you.

Stop, and break free of Emily's grip if she has one on you.
Guy: Emily, Old man Wind, can we talk about this for a second? I think I've pieced it all together. We set this up. I'd go and become a Breaker for D7, and then the three of us would hunt the Breakers. But it went wrong. I lost my memory instead, and got no foci out of it, either. So I was let go, to live an ordinary life. But then Bro here showed up, and when I started fighting, you found out, and you came for me, to bring the old me back.
But there's one thing wrong though. I don't need to look out for myself, because Brother's there to look out for me. If I'd be fine at the end of this? Then he wouldn't be freaking out.
I DO remember there being someone desperate for me to not go through with the plan originally. I also remember a 'She' that I was close too. That's you, Emily, right? Now, I know I'm not the Guy you once knew, and I won't be if I don't get in that chair. But if Brother is scared of what will happen, I'm not going to do it.

Sidhe reacts immediately as you pull away from the woman violently, practically shoving her back even as you start to back away towards your brother. A glowing circular field erects itself around you, and you notice the breeze suddenly stop as if cut off. Still, as you begin to speak you don't even try to hide the anger you feel.

"I came here to try and find out what was going on, not to blindly go along with it. I barely know you, you've lied to me, and hidden things, he attacked me, and you're talking about editing my memory and cleaning my head in a place that brainwashes and enslaves people. You're asking for a hell of a lot of trust here. You're not getting it without a lot better an explanation."

"Emily" blinks in surprise, then a pretense of civility seems to vanish. Instead of going off on some crazy rant to you, however, she turns her attention to your brother, clearly not pleased.

"This is your fault you useless scrap of reality. Can't even stay quiet long enough to let me do what I need to do. Hell, you aren't even real. Never were. Some broken thing my friend dreamed up in his head for the soul purpose of protecting and sheltering his newly shattered mind. But I don't have time for this right now. Those breakers are gonna notice something's up soon, and it'll be easier if you aren't around."

The woman starts to stride towards the prone avatar, and you react instantly, Sidhe zipping forward to erect a barrier even as you start to fly into a blind rage, aiming to tackle the woman and keep her away. But as you draw close, you suddenly get this feeling from her, like everything is... is... is gonna be alright. Something is going to fix EVERYTHING.

Then you find yourself spinning through the air, "Emily" having just roundhouse kicked you in the head, displaying a remarkable amount of strength. Way more than a normal human should have...

"Lay down and stay quiet, Jean. Once I get rid of that annoyance, we'll get you all settled in and ready to go. Then you'll be back to normal again, and everything will be fine."

"Emily" strides towards the barrier, looking determined. You can't help but find it slightly funny, and cheer a little, as the woman slams headfirst into Sidhe's barrier, an expression of astonishment on her face. She places her hand on the barrier, glaring at nothing in particular for a moment, then leans her weight forward, a smile slowly spreading across her face as you watch the barrier simply rip open like paper, allowing her through. Sidhe freaks, the barrier dropping as she loses concentration, but by that time, "Emily" has already moved on, crouching next to you brother and ignoring the small fairy entirely.

"So annoying. So pointless. This thing was a bad idea in the end after all. This whole thing was pointless too. Who cares what a breaker thinks or feels? We'll just fix the problem in our own way. First thing first, though. What to do with you?"

"Emily" pokes the prone avatar, clicking her tongue against the roof of her mouth as her finger seems to sink into your brother's cheek, causing the material to start unraveling like threads. Your brother screams, and you feel the backlash come across a link you can't hope to describe, pain wracking your body. Pain and... familiarity.

If you can... this is the only chance you'll have to do anything. Maybe save your brother. Maybe kill this... whatever she is. And whatever you do, it better be done fast.

>>>Input Command

...damnit, I think Emily is the tear. She hasn't manifested anything, and the way she broke through Sidhe's barrier reads more as negating breaking than overpowering it. That, and she's literally unraveling our brother.

>what do
We're ready for a hail Mary, here, I think. Otherwise brother dies, and Guy as good as does after she messes with his head.

We still have our gun. And we never used our grenade. Just the flash-bang.

Draw and shoot her. That won't stop her, but it should distract her momentarily from the process of killing your brother. Then throw the grenade- or active break it right to her (or into her), to make sure it counts. (Or active break to counter her from stoping the grenade, on the off chance she trys to stop it). Sidhe throws up a bubble shield around her to contain the concussive force- hopefully protecting you (although, if not, saving your brother is certainly something worth spending your first death on), and redirecting all that energy that would have escaped outwards back into pulping Emily. That won't kill her, but there will be a delay while she has to reform an entire body blown to a fine red mist.

Then Sidhe blocks Windy's attacks while you grab your brother and gtfo. If possible, have him use sudden appearance to get to your side and out the door faster. Active break to close off the passage behind you- make the door part of the wall, collapse the ceiling, anything.

Ideally, we really want to warn your allies shit is going down and you're being attacked. I doubt you really have time to text all that on your phone, so burn another BP active breaking to do that.

...Everything's going to be alright? It's all going to be fixed?
Sonnova-We've NEVER gotten a BP readout from Guy EVER! Or a manifest cost or anything!
This isn't a Breaker! It never was a breaker! GUY WAS A CAKE ALL ALONG! A LIE!!! HE'S A FREAKING TEAR!!!!
Tell Sidhe to get out of here. Run. We're not a breaker! We're one of Them. We're a tear. D7 is producing tears in reality, and our brother was there to try and get us away from our true fate.
Tell Sidhe to run, fly away. Warn Jager, Warn Lira and Rise, tell them to contact everyone we've met and get out of dodge while they still can, as a final gift from the young breaker they took in. Because the next time they see Guy?
The hunt will be on for them.

Actually, let's take this to dis. See if we can run through the conflicting theories of what's really going on, and use that to try and plan some intelligent action.

Flailing around and either attacking or running blind likely results in Guy's death (or loss of self at least) as well as our brother's.

Are we on the lowest floor of this place? If not, active break the floor out from under her. Hell, even if so, break s pit under he. But not under Brother. At the very least, that should buy us a few seconds. Then... I wonder if we could break the air in the room to mostly be some sort of combustible gas, like propane, then Sidhe could use a prank to make a spark after putting a shield back up on Guy and Bro. That should alert everyone else that shits going down, screw with air guy, and maybe buy us some more time.

Thinking it over, there are a lot of things that could go wrong with this >>545159 (it won't work right if Emily isn't a tear, or if I'm wrong about the respawn time, or if we get caught in the blast too, etc).

Alternate plan: maybe we should opt to target the chair (and the ring above it), instead. If Emily needs it to mess with your memories, destroying it should ruin what she's planning. And attacking it should at least draw her attention away from your brother.

Hey! You want me in that chair? *lob grenade*

Use a shield around it to block the wind guy from knocking it away, and counter any attempted active breaks with your own. If Emily lunges for the grenade, shoot her in the back. >>545195 Active breaking the floor under the chair and/or Emily is a good idea too, a collapse, fall, or getting buried on a lower floor will probably take longer to recover from than a mere death. Sidhe might be able to stack a prank on the grenade too- make the blast worse, or shaped, or go off on impact instead of waiting out the timer.

(Best case we could actually stack this with my original plan- bomb the chair, Emily goes for it, and blow them both to hell).

After the immediate distraction (and destruction) you need to grab your brother and get the hell out of there. Again, any active break that covers your retreat or makes you harder to follow is a good one, and warning your allies ASAP is also a good idea.

>I wonder if we could break the air in the room to mostly be some sort of combustible gas
We've never had anyone try anything like that- we don't know what kind of spirit level would be needed for a reasonable success rate.

But I'm inclined to think something that massively changes the enviroment and is that dangerous in combat is beyond what spirit 4 can do. Especially if the person with an affinity for wind tries to block it.

>realizing way too late it's the chair from the first post
...huh.

You feel utterly worthless at the moment, and especially bad because your brother is both in danger, and completely right about coming here being a bad idea. Still, if you have any hope of getting out of this alive and not... whatever the hell the crazy chick wants to do with you, then its time for some desperate measures. Very desperate measures. Lets hope this goes well.

The first step is to distract the crazy bitch away from your brother. Thankfully, you have this convenient grenade you never used. Good thing you remembered to bring it. Would have been bad if you hadn't. It's only a flash-bang, but that's better than nothing, and all you need is a distraction anyway. You prep the thing, then smirk as you toss it at the thing that seems to be most precious to the woman.

"Hey! You want me in that chair, right?"

"Emily" turns, eyes flicking for a moment to you before catching sight of the grenade. With only seconds to react, she does something you'd never have thought of doing if you weren't sure she wasn't normal. She dives for the grenade, even as the other man, let's call him Breezy for now, does almost the same thing, lunging towards the chair in a bid to protect it. You take the opportunity to basically throw yourself at your brother, grabbing hold of him and covering your eyes and ears in hopes of foregoing some of the damage. Still, as seems to be the frequent case lately, someone else comes in to help save you unexpectedly. Sidhe, still attached to your shoulder, throws up another barrier, and you barely hear a soft thump as the grenade goes off right in "Emily's" face. You pick yourself up to the muffled sound of the woman screaming curses at nothing in particularly, and you manage to drag your brother out of the room as she's flailing about on the floor, along with her partner, who seems to be utterly confused about what just happened.

As you exit the room, your brother, while still obviously in pain, seems to pull himself back together somewhat and get himself on his feet. He shakes his head to rid himself of... something, then turns to you.

"NOW can we leave?"

"Yes! Sorry about not believing you!"

"Not exactly the time for a heart to heart, little bro!"

Just as you finish your conversation and start taking off down the corridor you'd come from, the wall behind you literally seems to disintegrate, and you feel that feeling of... nostalgia... hit you again like a sledgehammer. You'd seen something like this before...

"WHAT! THE! FUCK! THAT HURT, JEAN! THAT FUCKING HURT! YOU GET BACK HERE RIGHT NOW, SO I CAN FIX YOU AND WE CAN GO BACK TO THE WAY WE WERE BEFORE!"

No one else seems to react at all to what she just said, but for some reason, you know it's not something meant to be heard in the traditional sense. It's something to be... felt. And understood. How you know, you have no clue, but you can't really bring yourself to care at the moment. Got to go, got to go, got to go!

As you reach an intersection, your brother skids to a halt glancing behind you in fear.

"So... we got some options brother of mine. We can head back to our gang and then bug out as quickly as possible, not suggested, by the way. We could head for the exit ourselves, and hightail it, which I think would be the better course of action, personally, I mean, live to fight another day and all that. Or... or we could try fighting her or something. Not sure what we'd do other than... that... but... I don't really want to do that. That isn't very fun, and that could have very bad consequences. Of course, I suppose that wouldn't really matter anymore in the end if she does whatever that chair does, but at the same time, that couldn't be much bet-"

"Brother! What the hell are you talking about?"

"Uh... That... you know... That... I... uh... can't really talk about it. Unless we do that... course, then, you'll know, and I won't really have to talk about it... Might want to hurry up on the decision making. Just my vote, if it counts, but I say we bug out. Hightail it. Be not here. The others can fend for themselves."

The walls around you are starting to... unravel... if they can be described that way. It's like they seem to be woven threads, and are just coming apart... This lady must be pissed...

>>>Input Command

....we have our cell phone, right? And even if it turns out there's no tower coverage here, or whatever Emily's doing creates interference, you're a breaker. We can active break around that. And Lira's thing is tech. We don't need to get to our allies- we just need to force a message through to them (or rather, her).

"Found something bad. REALLY bad. Take what you have and get out NOW. Meet outside, or on the way out."

Reroll and commit more than one BP if you have to. Whatever's going on can't block all breaks, and the time saved getting them to start moving on their own rather than having to get to them is well worth it.

...and if your brother brings up the fact your odds are better just running rather than worrying about them- it was your vote that got them here. And does he really think you're going to do well, alone? We need friends. You're not even sure you can trust yourself anymore. ...and maybe Lira got information we can use without going crazy.

Plan everyone bugs out.

>fight her
Not sure we even have a way to do that. (Although we do have a spirit 4 ability we haven't seen yet). She's not normal, and I don't think she's a breaker, either.

The unraveling would be consistent with a tear, I think. Although the shouting in Guy's head might support her being Jean's avy? But then again, I don't think an avatar would have been stunned by a flashbang.

Text the gang to get out of dodge while running for the hills. Tell them to just go-pack up and leave NOW. We'll figure out a plan to meet up later- for now we run- run to that breaker gang out west-a faction that large HAS to be powerful right?

Fated Decisions Guy 2013/11/04(Mon)04:54 No. 546606 ID: d77784
File 138356968398.jpg - (181.25KB , 1024x640 , demon_woman_by_anderson17-d62o6s1.jpg )

You quickly pull out your phone and tap out a text, probably the fastest text you'll ever make. You make it as small and direct as possible, then combo the text with a break, hoping it'll get through. For a moment, you feel the flicker of something, reality warping to meet your demands, only to have that feeling seemingly unravel in your hands. The text is saved, thankfully, and you take off towards the exit, even as you try texting again, hoping to see it work. This time, not only does the text not work again, but your phone almost literally unravels in your hands, like something else just ate it. You curse under your breath, and adjust your path, heading for the server room. Hopefully you can make it in time to get everyone.

As you race down the corridors, the odd feeling and the disappearing walls seem to fall behind you, although your brother seems very afraid regardless. By the time you make to your companions, you're out of breath and everyone simply stares at you confused. It's Rise who finally breaks the silence, moving forward slowly while giving you what you think is meant to be a comforting smile.

"Um, are you alri-"

"NO TIME!... Son of a- Didn't think I'd be able to run that long... We need to move.... NOW!"

"What? Wh-"

"EVIL PSYCHO CRAZY BITCH IS AFTER GUY! NOW LET'S GO!"

Your brother interjects quickly, you being out of breath making it difficult to communicate quickly, but regardless, everyone starts packing up quickly, and within moments you're already racing down the corridors to the exits. It's strangely quiet, all things considered, as you expected to find guards in your path at least, but instead all you get is a slight bree-

"Ah... Fuck."

"Wha-"

Jager is suddenly hurled through a wall an into another room, a form coalescing in front of him. You can vaguely make out some sort of body made of wind, and you get the distinct impression that this might be Mister Breezy from before, or at the very least, his doing. Regardless, as you skid to a halt to help, Sidhe suddenly throws up a barrier around the remainder of your group, and something explodes against the barrier. You watch it shatter, even as it takes all the force, and the little fairy on your shoulder shudders and lets out a horrible screeching sound that seems to stab into your very being. You get the distinct impression that she barely managed to block whatever it was, and it had hurt to do it. As you catch the little thing before she can slide from your shoulder, "Emily" steps from the shadows in front of you, looking distinctly different from before. More like her skin was literally cracking and flaking off, revealing some sort of glowing red substance. Perhaps more disturbing to you, was that you could actually feel reality dying around her, like it was simply unraveling itself. In fact, for some reason, you knew that was exactly what it was doing. Why would you know tha-

"STOP TRYING TO TAKE HIM FROM ME! THIS IS ALL YOUR FAULT, YOU STUPID DOLL!"

The crazy psychotic bitch throws her will out, targeting your brother, and instinctively, you throw something right back, a little ball of reality. Surprisingly, when the two collide in the middle, your will pulls through, the reality you hurled out reaserrting itself and dispersing her attack. Even more surprising, it continues on and hits her square in the face, which sends her reeling in surprise, although it didn't seem to do too much to her otherwise. Still, you can't hope to win. Not with just that.

"Oh gods above..."

"Rise?"

"That's... she's one of those... things..."

"NO! NO NO NO! WE ARE NOT BROKEN! WE ARE NOT BROKEN! YOU'RE ALL THE ONES THAT ARE BROKEN! AND WE WERE SUPPOSED TO FIX YOU! JEAN WAS SUPPOSED TO FIX YOU!"

"Emily" pushes forward, undeterred by whatever you did, and as she draws closer, you see Rise and Lira suddenly collapse, looking almost like they're being strangled by something. Your brother seems unaffected, and moves to try to defend you, almost instantly locking himself into open combat with the woman, even as it looks like he's already outmatched. As you try to move to help, however, you find yourself pinned to the floor by a sudden increase in pressure around you. You glance up to find the windy figure standing over you, simply waiting. You can't leave it like this though. You've got to be able to do something. Anything.

And you feel it. In your gut. There, as always, is the power to break reality. Familiar now. Present now. It could help. If you are strong enough to break yourself more. To destroy your own mind in an attempt at freedom. A promise of strength without control.

Or... there is something else. Something new, or old, or nostalgic, or familiar, or foreign. You can't tell. Can't touch it without using it. But you can feel it, pounding away in your skull. Demanding your attention. You could use it. You could use it and save your friends. But at what cost?

"DON'T! BROTHER, NO MATTER WHAT! DO NOW TOUCH THAT!"

>>>Input Command

...Destroy your mind-unleash the Giga-Breaker form. If we need a final-one liner from Guy, something like this:
This is for you, bro.

She truly is a Tear, but this is fascinating- her 'shell' of humanity seems to be cracking as her emotions drive her further into crazy-ville. At the same time, she's more and increasingly overt about her destruction of Reality. I'm HOPING that the Tears are more 'working in the shadows' then 'outright warring with reality defenders' type. The former makes a hot-head like Emily bad news for them-her going nova will make the tears quite obvious, and better yet, could cause D7 to kick em out, as well as giving dudes like The Angel, and that Skull Slugger guy from before a BIG target to hit.
'warring basically means we just went 'FINAL DESTINATION! FOX ONLY!' early, and we can only hope we're not about to get our butts kicked.

>phone breaking blocked
Proof that tears can directly counter or negate breaking (although, hard to know if she was doing that deliberately, or if it was a side effect of being in cross proximity to an unraveling reality. Can't break what isn't there, after all).

Down 2 more BP. Puts us at 17 with the normalize from earlier, I think. (Not that our score really matters in these circumstances).

>reality ball
Okay, I have no idea what that was. Breaking to reassert reality where she unwove it? Countering a tear with raw reality? (If so though, where did he get it from? Stolen from his own thread?) Some weird thing that only works because Guy's apparently a breaker built on top of a memory-wiped tear?

(We still haven't died. I'm starting to wonder what would happen if we did- would Guy use death avoidance or regenerate? Might explain the D7 normalize we pulled off- it should have killed him, but he just endured).

...does confirm though that tears can have active powers. She's got some kind of ranged disruption attack.

>most the party locked down by windy
Dang it, he's pinning or strangling almost everyone, and they don't have weapons that will work against him. Sidhe might, but she's down after taking the tear's attack. I kind of doubt a quick dismiss or remainifestion will fix that, though. She's going to need time to recover.

Jager has active break, but he would have to think to use it. What would be nice is if, say, someone broke the ventilation system into overdrive and sucked breezy out of here. Give us a window of opportunity to act before he can counter it, or find a way back.

>break or... other
Break.

You don't know who Jean is, or why he chose to act the role of Guy. But this isn't acting for you anymore, it's real. You are the role. You're not interested in going back- in giving Emily what she wants. Breaking isn't about being broken- about needing to be fixed. It's about giving broken people the power to break the world back, give them what they need.

Maybe all your world's a play, but you'd rather break the rules than see the whole thing torn down.

Your decision is made before you even begin to think on it. You feel the break within your soul, the core of your being, the reality that makes you you, and you feel like you can grasp hold of it. And break yourself even more. Doing so comes with the promise of never coming back, of being as broken as one can get, but maybe, just maybe, you'll have the strength to fight this crazy bitch off. In the end, that is all you can hope for. Still, you take a moment to give one final thought to your brother, in hopes that he'll understand.

"This is for you, bro."

"Wha- NO! STO-"

The resulting explosion of reality seem to restore the environment around you, even as you feel your mind begin to warp and shift, ripping apart predefined notions of what breaking is. You see, perhaps for the only time, what you had been meant to do, both as a tear and as your new breaker form. And you also see that you'll never get to accomplish either of those tasks. Perhaps though, you can help that forgotten woman so far away by removing one of the most dangerous of her enemies, even if she'll never know of it.

Even as you find your mind begins to slip away, you focus on the task at hand. You only have a few minutes to set things right, and you know, even with everything that's happening, you'll have to sacrifice quite a bit to do it. For now though, that can come later. Now, the beast awakens, and you have a fight to get to.

"Guy? What the hell just-"

"No time, brother. We have maybe ten minutes, at most. We need to make this quick."

"... Alright. I'll believe in you. I don't know what you did, but... I feel flooded with power. And for once, I don't feel afraid of the crazy bitch."

Said crazy bitch is picking herself up from her spot on the floor, more cracks forming in her skin, and she growls in pain and rage. She's lost all semblance of humanity by this point. You can feel it. She thinks you are wrong. Knows you are wrong. If she can't fix you, then she'll erase you, like she's done to so many more.

Thankfully, you don't have a lack of power anymore.

>>>Input Command

Special Rules for this Combat:

Guy has temporarily and fatally gained the ability to utilize all three breaking manifestation types. These manifestations are not restricted to what he has on hand, instead, he may manifest at will what he desires. He may also survive Unraveling, and may break at whim. However, all uses of any of these abilities tears away at his own thread of reality, which can only be measured by feelings given in the narrative.

>manifest all
>burning ourselves for it.
..Let's keep this as mundane as we can.
Brother engages, we hold him solid.
For windy, IF he insists on being a pain, we manifest...Hrrm. I want to say something like 'anti-break' weapon, but that might use up reality fast to make. Then again, if Winds is tied up holding our friends down, then we can focus down Emily first, then deal with Breezy.

...I'm thinking we manifest some sort of shockwave generating power gauntlets for our Bro, so he can keep his distance to avoid being unmade(less burning of ourselves to prevent that), he can disrupt windy with shockwaves, and hit much harder.

Does this flooding with energy and restoration include Sidhe? If she's active again, her shield would be the quickest and cheapest way to free your allies from being strangled by Windy.

If she's not been revitalized, using some power or a break to help fix her is a good idea.

>fatally
...ouch. I was expecting breaking our mind to leave you a vegetable, not dead. A vegetable might still have had active avatars (just no ability to give them orders), and we might have had ways to fix a vegetable (George or the Nightmare focus, which might ave been encountered if Guy's surviving allies kept him around and continued west towards Rise's sister). Dead is not so fixable.

(Actually, I wonder if the avatars will remain active anyways? The situation is certainly fucked up enough to break normal rules, and it would kind of be fitting that Guy's last act might be to make his brother 'real').

>all three weapon types
>not limited by what's on hand
Which means, in addition to being able to manifest anything we could possibly think of, we could manifest anything we've seen any other character ever use. Which is possibly the more potent application- since we can draw on powers we already understand without the need for experimentation.

Ideally, we want to pick powers intelligently- so we get the most result using the fewest powers. Be nice if Guy's thread survived this, even if he does not.

>help her, even if she'll never know of it.
Your friends will, if they survive, and anything of your thread remains for them to remember. And Elizabeth will know. That's... something.

>possible min/maxing options
(brainstorming. Obviously, doing everything is a bad idea).

The Doctor. His power is the ability to manipulate foci / manifestations. If we tap into that we can get a cheap force multiplication- bolster or enhance our allies' weapons in such a way that they will be effective against an insubstantial foe like Windy and/or against the tear. We have spare foci (and our allies have looted spares too) that could be consumed to power this. (Dunno if such enhancements should be temporary, or toggle-able, the way manifesting an alternate ammo is? There's also the slight problem that by the normal rule of Doc modifications, upgrades are rest / lost, which might be a problem with Rise's weapon. Unless we can just burn more foci to circumvent).

The nightmare. One tactic I had actually planned for Linda if and when it came to a fight with McCarthy. If the tears are human enough to feel emotion- they're human enough to know fear. And that's a potential weakness to be exploited. (And windy is obviously not immune, either). Potentially the only way we actually know to hurt one of these things.

Twin ring? I'm not so sure about this one, but it duplicates manifestations along with wearer. Theoretically, could be used as a means to double our avatars. Although if the duped avies end up Twinda-dumb, they're not much use in combat. Not the most reliable plan.

If we really want an anti-breaking weapon, there's Linda's shotgun. Which... could probably be used to shut down Windy, but probably be useless against the tear. The blue potion might give us a little more power to burn, staving off eating through Guy's thread.

As cool as trying to game precog might be, the oracle eye probably isn't workable. Sudden use of it would be too overwhelming, and I'm not sure it would work right in close proximity to so much damage to the weave. (Hard to read the future in the threads as Emily shreds them).

If we really wanted to try and meta-game, we could try manifesting Angelica. Force the warden to help us maintain reality. She has knowledge and an understanding of the weave and reality that could make this fight easier. And if we're burning through Guy's thread, she could be forced to provide us with an alternate source of raw reality- something else to feed the fire or bolster ourself (eat Windy, maybe? Or whatever shell 'Emily' was hiding behind?). Downside is pulling her back into reality may not be possible, or might be really expensive to pull off.

>our biggest problem
We can think of all kinds of fancy ways to protect ourselves, or attack, but we don't actually know what kills a tear. I'm not sure just pumping damage will do the trick. Any insight from your new awakened perspective, Guy? How does one close or patch tear?

Thinking literally, she's a tear. How do you mend a tear in reality? Sew it up. One very specific but complex break: Wrap a new reality around here. Give her a past, a life. Repair the tear by making her human.

Whether that's even possible depends on how tear effect everyone else. We've performed at least one wide-area context sensitive break, but that was harnessing a whole mass of breakers to do the fine work while we just pointed them together. This time we'd need to finesse everything.

>>546745
Yeah, that's probably how one undoes or depowers or destroys a tear (if the being is the absence or damage in the weave, it's hard to say what patching it does. Turns them normal, kills them, makes them cease to exist, or erases them from the timeline the same way destroying a person's thread does). I think the problem is we need to subdue her first. It's a lot harder to sew up a moving tear, or one that can unravel the thread you're trying to use, as it were.

>>546757
Probably can't erase her entirely. She's been around for a while, so has torn through a lot of reality. Fixing that perfectly is going to be nigh impossible, but just trying to sew it up it leaves an obvious patch. So that patch itself needs to fill in for the history that the tear created.

In the short term; revitalise and soup up Sidhe to allow her to contain the Tear with an inverted shield. We can then focus for a bit on helping our allies with Windy before tackling the Tear herself.

Your head throbs as you tear a piece of yourself clean from your threads, wrapping the small fairy in your hands in them and "breathing" life back into the small frame. For a moment, there's no sign of activity at all, but you can feel it. She's alive. And not just the fake life that your brother has, or that she had before, she has her own thread, constructed from threads torn from your own, and it pulses with the weight of reality. She'll last even without a wielder now, and perhaps more importantly, her own powers have amplified considerably. You hear the tinkling of bells as she awakens, and an explosion of rainbows in your mind, then the wind that seems to whip around you is suddenly cut off, and out of nowhere, there's an unnatural giggling sound, like a child possessed. There's a sudden crack, and Mr. Breezy suddenly finds himself captured inside a collapsed shield created by Sidhe. Perhaps even more helpful, is that Sidhe doesn't seem to need to centralize her shield around herself anymore.

That issue taken care of, your companions are freed from being suffocated to death, but left in no real condition to fight. Not that you would want them to in the first place. Your brother, on the other hand, seems to draw on your increased power, and as "Emily" moves forward to, preparing to hurl another ball of... whatever... your brother suddenly appears in front of her and, smiling like a maniac, smashes his fist into her face, hurling her into a backwards flip that ends with her on the ground. Almost instantly, your brother is on top of her, and his fist continually smashes into her skull, sending flakes of human "bits" hurtling off of her form and revealing more of that reddish color under her body. "Emily" can do little but take it for a few precious seconds, allowing you time to move your friends to a safer location via breaking. The burst of light that enveloped your companions seems to surprise them, but Rise seems to be the only one who reacts in time, shooting forwards to try to grab hold of you and do... something. You smile a little, happy that even now she's trying to look out for you, but you've set your course. There's little she or anyone else can do for you now.

"What is going on, Guy?"

"I'm keeping you all safe. Make your way west, Rise. You'll find your sister. I'm sure of it. Oh... take Sidhe and Mr. Breezy with you, why don't you? They'll be safe in your hands, I'm sure."

A splash of reds and greens flood your thoughts, and you get the idea that Sidhe is not happy with the proposed plan. Too bad it isn't a democracy. The light widens, encompassing the small fairy, and you find your smile widen as you let go of your connection to your second avatar. She'll be fine. You know it. You feel a sharp pain shoot through your body suddenly, you seem to be taxing yourself heavily just to keep them safe, but... it would be worth it. You hoped. Then they were gone, disappearing much farther west, safely out of the hands of this particular demon of reality.

In your lack of attention, however, your brother has been literally half-disintegrated, and yet is still smashing his free hand into the enemy. You let more of your power out of repair the damage, feeling more pain shoot through you, but for the moment, your brother can keep the enemy pinned. Now all that remains is a final plan. A final desperate attempt.

And a decision as to how you plan to attempt to "kill" your opponent.

>>>Input Command

Do we still have our gun? Shoot her in the face. Counter it if she tries to unravel her, but just shoot her in the face.

So Guy breaks his allies the hell out of there even when not ordered to. Hmm. Good on you, I suppose. Sticking to those values even when we don't remind you of them.

...there's also an opportunity to cheat, and given them a better explanation, if you want. You could leave a break message a la Aria or Elizabeth on one of them. When they eventually notice it and activate / break it, 'you' can tell them what happened. (Assuming Lira didn't get enough of the story from the computer).

>time to finish this
Draw your gun. You took it up and practiced with it as a way to defend yourself- so you could contribute directly to a fight. Seems fitting that you use it to finish this.

Break or manifest it into something different (or so it fires something different), if that's what you need to finish the job. (Ie, change it so it actually hurts her).

...looks like our first death is gonna be our last.

You slide the pistol from it's holster, eyeing your target. She's screaming incoherently at this point, the occasional understandable word making it seem like gibberish at this point, but as you stride forward, she seems to suddenly realize you're still there, and her attention sharpens again, in a way, looking almost pleading.

"JEAN! JeAn! You're still here! Help me! Save me! There's still time. Time to fix this! Time to make everything better! Everything can be like it used to be! You and me! Together..."

"... No. We... I'm not who I used to be. And in the end, that's all that matters. I don't know who or what I was. But I am what I am... I'm sorry. But this needs to end."

You aim and fire a round right into her forehead, and she drops, surprise written on her face. Then anger. She starts to do her regeneration trick, but you put another round into her skull. Again, she starts to regenerate, but your brother smashes his fist into her face, forcing her head to the floor again. You focus a moment, ripping threads of your own reality out in order to form the pistol in your hands into a more appropriate weapon, the pistol practically humming with power, and the dull heartbeat of reality seeming to come from the weapon. For a moment before you take aim and fire again, you see an odd mix of emotions form on the woman's face. Fear. Anger. Sorrow... Relief. In that moment, you feel calm, and that throbbing in your head subsides completely, as if something inside of you is ready for what comes next. A name floats into your thoughts, and memories of a different, happier time...

"Goodbye... Isabelle. Sleep well. I'll be joining you soon enough."

You fire the weapon, and Isabelle, the round penetrating into the red material of her skull, collapses backwards, staring at nothing. For a moment, nothing seems to happen, then her body simply dissolves, and all the threads she's destroyed and consumed escape once again into the fabric of the Weave. You collapse yourself, back against the wall, and your brother joins you, sitting next to you, looking as tired as you feel.

"So, Guy... this is it, huh?"

"Yeah... this is it."

"Heh... I'm sorry."

"What do you mean?"

"I knew. I mean, I kinda knew. What you were, what you are, what you were supposed to do."

"... That's fine. I remember now, but it really doesn't matter anymore. I had a new purpose, and... that didn't work out too well either. All I've really left behind it three friends and an avatar that doesn't need a wielder anymore. I'd do that for you too, but..."

"I understand, little brother. Time to head into oblivion, huh?"

"Just about... one last thing to do, though. This gun... it'll be important, I think. Very important. So... last thing to do with what's left of my threads."

You reach out towards the weapon in your hands and condense it, wrapping it in reality and forcing it to compact into a smaller form, the bullet that clatters to the floor after that still has that heartbeat sensation, but you're too weak to pick it up. So... weak...

"Brother?"

"Yeah?"

"Were you ever... real?"

"... I'm as real as you want me to be, little brother."

"... Then... I think I'll keep on believing in this dream of mine... it was... warmer... than my reality."

"Hush, little brother. It's alright now. Time to sleep."

"... Alright... Goodnight... Brother..."

The disappearance of a single strand is barely noticed by reality or its observers. At least, by most of them. Far to the west, in the City of the Sun, a 17 year old girl jolts awake from her musing of the future to stare eastward, eyes watching intently. For a moment, there is something, a powerful influence, a changer of stories, a Weaver of Threads. Then, mere minutes later, those threads burn away, lost forever. The Weave, as always, works in mysterious ways, and with no one around, the knowing smile of the girl goes unnoticed by all.

Another piece of the puzzle has been born into reality.

-----------------------

Westward of the Capital City, in the plains of the middle states, a group of breakers appears, dazed and incredibly confused. A sound like tinkling bells catches the attention of one of them, and as the woman stands, a fairy lands on her shoulder.

"What... what happened? Where's... Who am I looking for?"

For a moment, the woman seems lost in thought, but the two with her orient themselves and interrupt her thoughts.

"Rise? Rise, we gotta go."

"Yes, you are... you are right."

"Me and Lira are headed south, towards the LR. You're free to join us..."

"No... No, I have to find my sister. She's in the west. I'll head that way."

"Alright. Maybe we'll see you again someday. Lira made a copy of the data she stole for you. You can take that with you to give to this breaker group out there. Maybe that'll convince them to help you."

"Maybe... Sidhe, where are you going to go now?"

The fairy makes no outward comment, but seems to settle more solidly on Rise's shoulder. The woman nods her acceptance, and turns east one last time, as if expecting... something... before turning away and starting her journey west. Hopefully, it would not take too long.

-----------------------

The last strands burned away as Jean sat there, staring at the remains of his original body. Guy. Huh. He felt... unhappy. Sorrow. What an odd feeling. Tears streamed down his face and he didn't know why. Regardless, this experiment had gone... unexpectedly. The death of his "sister" had been a pleasant, if unwanted, surprise. To think such a thing would happen. Regardless, to unknowingly cause so many problems... How unexpected. He'd almost been pulled back into the fake a couple of times as well. That would have ended... badly.

Still, his brothers remained unaware of his experiments, and furthermore, he was certain that this new focus laying at his feet would prove useful in the continued development of the unmaker rounds. With that, perhaps he'd be able to help her-

Jean shook his head, looking surprised. Mental contamination couldn't have... could it? This was a problem. A very large problem. If he wasn't careful, he might cause her har-

"Damn it all! All that effort and yet-"

Jean paused and took a calming breath. Perhaps... in the end, this might not be such a bad thing after all. As a tear, Jean had no purpose. No driving force behind him, at least, none that he was allowed to know. He was the youngest, after all, and was not as trusted among the others as he would like. This new, unpleasant desire in his heart, the almost physical need to help HER... it was a purpose. Something to strive for. And something to throw in the face of his siblings.

Perhaps... perhaps... perhaps...

Only time would tell in the end, after all. Jean picked himself up, brushed himself off, and bent down, picking up the focus and tossing it up into the air before catching it again and pocketing it. He might have to rip through time now. What a pleasant thought. He'd never done it before. He couldn't let Lira and Jager get to the LR with such valuable information. That was for HER and HER alone. Killing them would be pointless and painful... heh odd feeling again... but making them harmless... yes, good decision.

"So much to do. So little time."

Good god did we convert a tear to our side?