KAIJU FIGHT #2

[synfluxmods]

KAIJU FIGHT #2

CONTENT WARNINGS: electrophobia, body horror, death/injury, gore, violence.

▶ 001. IT'S A SMALL WORLD AFTER ALL

On the 1st of April, Outsiders will be rudely awakened by the sudden voice of Captain Yamakawa:

"Angels of Lilith. I require your immediate attention. Through your efforts at extracting information from our captives, and intel collected by our intelligence team, we have located the culprits who have stolen our specimens and are conducting illegal experiments. Your mission briefing will arrive shortly. Take caution, however. The Neo Tokyo Meteorological Agency is reporting strange abnormalities in their readings. We will look further into this. For now, stay sharp and be prepared."

The alarm will sound in the base, urging all Outsiders to suit up, bring their weapons and get ready for the mission. A location pin will then be downloaded into their implant, along with an associated mission briefing. The location will lead to an abandoned amusement park that might be familiar to some - Tokyo Disneyland. The brief will report that according to intel, there is an unauthorized research facility hidden within the premises. Outsiders are to locate it, storm it, and seize any lab specimens they can find.

To get to the theme park, characters will be able to take trains to the edge of Neo Tokyo where they can then be transported by armored trucks through what remains of old roads. Eventually, when the terrain becomes too destroyed and overgrown with brush, they’ll have to travel by foot the rest of the way. However, they will have to be careful because it looks like someone has laid out traps. Some of them are designed to capture animals but others are clearly booby traps meant to deter intruders.

From the outside, nothing looks out of the ordinary in this old park - there are classic attractions such as Cinderella’s castle, the Haunted Mansion, Alice’s Teacup ride, the Western River Railroad, and many, many more. While most of the rides are weathered down and no longer functional, there are plenty of old gift shops and carnival game booths with prizes to take home for free (if you don’t mind a really old Minnie Mouse doll).

LILITH was not able to pinpoint exactly where this secret laboratory is hidden within the enormous park, and it’s now up to the Outsiders to find it. All implants will be fitted with a heat-seeking function to allow Outsiders to detect anomalies within the park.

The first part of the mission is simple: Scour the rides and attractions and find the entrance.

Outsiders may encounter more booby traps while searching the park. Traps will range from making parts of attractions and buildings collapse on intruders to more elaborate and high-tech ones like electric fields or explosive traps. Players are more than welcome to come up with their own traps so long as it fits the setting.

▶ 002. BOO WHO?

Eventually, Outsiders will find themselves drawn to the Haunted Mansion, where there appear to be several abnormal signs of life. While the mansion would hardly have been scary to anyone but children several hundred years ago, centuries without any sort of maintenance have turned the place into a real nightmare. Pitch darkness, decrepit fake graves that look like they could be real ones, and the mysterious chatter of – is that a ghost? There are flickers of life within the old animatronics, and ever so often you might see a skeleton or zombie twitch. They might even take a swing at an unsuspecting Outsider.

The deeper into the mansion you travel, the more power it appears to have, until the Outsiders reach a door that appears to be heavily guarded by a group of humans holding vicious chimeras on a leash.

Once LILITH receives this intel, the next order is given: Storm the lab immediately!

▶ 003. LET'S GECK-GO!

As the Outsiders infiltrate the lab, the air buzzes with electricity and everyone's hair begins to stand on end not from fear but from the sheer amount of energy generated. There may be a lot of machines generating a lot of power and some of it may be spilling excess electricity into the air but this feels different. It feels more potent.

Suddenly, the park comes to life. Old generators buzz to life, staticky music begins to play on the worn out speakers, and the lights begin to flash. From the overgrowth surrounding the park, trees begin to topple over. It is obvious that something is approaching and whatever it is seems to have a lot of energy. From the trees, a giant, gecko-like creature emerges. The air around it sparks and each step it takes generates a wave of electricity that follows the many wires and systems laid out underground.

The energy at the park seems to be drawing the unknown kaiju towards the park and more geckos appear from the forests behind it. They move quickly through the park and climb over the buildings and attractions. When they see a hybrid or a person nearby, they will stun them with their electric fields and try to eat them. As they begin to swarm the park, they go into a feeding frenzy that infects the air around them. Rides begin to spin faster, the music grows louder, lights explode, and the more electricity and power the geckos absorb, the bigger they become when they shed their skins.

One gecko in particular grows faster than the others. This one will keep growing with no apparent end in sight and begins climbing over the highest rides until they topple under its weight. Outsiders will have to avoid collapsing rubble and climb over ruined attractions to take down this kaiju while also stopping the other geckos from growing to the same size.

After dealing with the gecko kaiju for some time without any information, a report will finally come in:

█ █ █ MONSTER DEBRIEF SHEET
NAME: Yamadenki
HEIGHT: 3 metres- unknown (does not stop growing)
WEIGHT: 1,500-70,000 kg
CLASS: Dangerous
LOCATION: Kanto, Japan
ABILITIES: Stores electricity within its body. Uses static electricity to climb up and stick to objects. Can use electric shocks to stun and injure prey. The more energy they absorb, the bigger they grow. When close enough to a human, it kills them by biting into their flesh and absorbing the electrical currents within the cells, disrupting the heart rate and nervous system. It then eats the flesh.
WEAKNESS: Attacks to the head and body. Ice and extreme cold (they are cold blooded).
EXTRA NOTES: Can regrow appendages. Their severed appendages and bodies can retain electricity for an unknown amount of time so proceed with caution.

█ █ █ MISSION OBJECTIVE:
✖ Cut off the supply of electricity at the park by disabling all generators
✖ Bring back the Yamadenki (alive or dead) for research purposes
✖ Bring back the hybrid specimens
✖ Capture all suspicious persons for interrogation

█ █ █ ATTACHED PHOTO:

The Outsiders will have to cut off all energy supplies to stop feeding the newly named Yamadenki and then defeat them.

▶ 004. A RIFT IN SPACE-TIME

"MAYDAY, MAYDAY! Unknown energy signal detected! Reaching maximum output! Our sensors are detecting a breach in the inter-dimensional fabric!"

An hour into battle, Outsiders will receive a sudden warning signal, urging them to complete their mission and eliminate the Yamadenki before it’s too late. All that concentrated energy generated at the park is being corrupted by the Yamadenki, and it’s not long before a rift bursts through from beneath the Haunted Mansion, causing a huge explosion and a rain of rubble and mysterious energy. It’s the first of its kind. A rift has never opened this close to Neo Tokyo!

Energy from the rift seems to affect anyone standing too close to it, transforming any unprotected human into a snarling, groaning, human-reptilian hybrid. These hybrids have electrical qualities similar to the Yamadenki and are just as ferocious. The plugsuits issued by LILITH should protect characters against any nasty transformations (unless there is some damage to them or they have taken them off), but exposure to the rift can still result in increased headaches, vertigo, irritability and impulsiveness.

The rift is growing larger by the minute, and from the other side of it - the growling of a number of unknown beasts can be heard. Even the higher ups within LILITH are anxious about this. The only way to stop the rift is to cut off its power supply.

"Angels of LILITH! We must act fast! Disable all generators and subdue the Kaiju before it’s too late!"

▶ 005. AFTERMATH.

As the Outsiders shut down generators and take down the Yamadenki, the rift shrinks in size until finally it closes. Everything at the park goes still now that there is no more power to run things. Some of the corrupted humans and hybrids still linger and will have to be taken down or captured but they are in weakened states now that the rift has closed.

Outsiders will be tasked with capturing the Rift-infected humans who will then be transported to LILITH base for treatment... if they can be treated, that is. Outsiders will also need to report for treatment. Characters may experience the lingering effects of the rift such as the vertigo, headaches, shorter tempers, and impulsive behavior. The LILITH medics aren’t sure what to do other than prescribing bed rest and maybe offering some medication for their headaches. The worst cases may be prescribed sedatives.

Normally, LILITH would order the Outsiders to retrieve specimens from the field but given the events that unfolded, they are told to standby until a special research unit can inspect the area for contamination and give the all clear.

▶ 006. AFTERWORD.

Welcome to our second Kaiju log! As before, all prompts are highly encouraged but OOCly optional. ICly, any characters suffering negative effects from the rift will recover within a week, though you are welcome to determine the severity of their symptoms during that time.

Feel free to NPC your characters' fights with the smaller kaijus. The main fight with the largest gecko will be determined via a HP-based system (See below).

All tags in this log count for 2 reward points each. Ask any further questions below!

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Comments

[the_fourteenth]

[Raidou was attempting to keep watch, but Yuji collapses to the ground in a heap.]

Yuji! [He hisses out the name harsher than he ever intended, the pain and fatigue and the strange side effect causing his temper to be running on the shortest fuse he's ever had. Didn't he just say to look out for traps--

He dashes back to him, unsteady on his feet. He kneels down, hesitating for a half-second as he spots the amount of blood Yuji had been losing, shiny in the dim light of the path. At least it wasn't a trap's tripwire, though this is still much worse than he thought.]

Yuji, why didn't you say-- Look, you have to get up. I-I can't--

[He can't stand to use that word, but Raidou knows he doesn't have it in him to carry him. His voice is hoarse, impatient, scared. The anger he's feeling swiftly moves from being pointed to Yuji, and more to this whole damnable situation.

Raidou takes Yuji's good hand in his own shaking one, eyes darting around him to make sure no infiltrators or kaiju were coming. His breathing comes in short and ragged bursts. This silence won't last, and the longer he lays here, the more danger they're in. He has no idea if his healing factor will work fast enough, if at all. Or if he even had the energy to spare.]

We have to go.

[eyescar]

No, it's fine, just - let me...

[ Yuji hates the upset he can hear in Raidou's voice, the sudden harsh tone, the anger - he doesn't think about anything like traps, or if he made a mistake, or that Raidou might be irritated because he set something off. All he can think is that the other boy is mad at him for his weakness, for not being able to get his legs working properly, and it makes it even harder to blink back the tears.

This is all his fault. If he had fought the geckoes better. If he had learned to heal better. If he had listened more, if he had the right weapons, something that meant he wasn't so weak (as if he hadn't been fighting for hours at that point, as if he wasn't burning from exhaustion, every single part of him shredded to try and protect other people).

Whatever he is now, however hard he's worked, it isn't good enough.

Pushing Raidou's hand away from him, he tries to get to his feet, and it's hard, but he does it. Wobbling, he wipes at his face, blood and dirt mixing with the tears in his eyes. This might kill him, but if it keeps people safe... ]

I get it, sorry. I - I can go. Let's go, before my legs stop working.

[the_fourteenth]

You're not.

[Neither was Raidou, neither of them were even close to fine. He's not fine with being pushed away when he wanted to help Yuji up, despite needing to take great care to stand himself. He's not fine with the phrase before my legs stop working which hits Raidou hard. It's a miracle Yuji was even on his feet at all.

Seeing Yuji in this state is crushing his heart in a way he's never felt before. Bleeding and broken and tearful and pained. All Raidou can manage to feel is anger, one of those few emotions that manages to break through that facade more than he would ever admit to. He needs to use it, as it's the only energy he has left.

Despite any protests Yuji might try to put up, Raidou takes his good arm and slings it over his shoulders. Raidou unholsters his gun and readies it, in case anyone or anything dares to approach them. Who knows if he could hit anything with how his hands shake.]

I've got you. I will get you back.

[eyescar]

[ Yuji doesn't want this; he doesn't want Raidou to have to be here, half carrying him, when there's trouble ahead. He tries to fight, but he simply doesn't have the strength to do it, no will in him to push away and find relief somewhere else: a wall, a fence, even a trap to get him off his feet. None of it is good enough, not when it puts someone he cares about in danger, and the twist in his gut is too real.

He tries to shake Raidou off, but his limbs aren't working. He feels a little too close to passing out, to fainting, the energy completely ripped from him. He keeps bleeding, but at least he's not going to die from blood loss: his technique is handling that well enough, clotting where it can, his healing doing the rest.

Groaning softly, he forces the tears to stop, turning to look at Raidou with a shake of his head. ]

I can head back to the main base, it's - it'll be okay, Johei. I'm just going to slow you down if we keep this up. You should let me go... Or we should go back together.

[the_fourteenth]

[He shoots him a look that suggests that Yuji must be crazy if he thinks for one moment Raidou was going to let him go. That Yuji would even think for a moment that he would do such a thing flares that temper. He might be sapped of energy himself, but there is still intensity in those cold gray eyes of his.

Instead, the hand on Yuji's waist, helping him move along, tightens slightly.]

I will get you back. [He repeats, though any determination or force in those words are undercut by the exhaustion in his voice. It will be slow, yes. Raidou has to take care in every step, and keep an eye every point around them. Whatever it takes to get Yuji back to the rally point in one piece he will do. He will not fail him.]

We will go back together. [We will.]

[gimu]

[ choso didn't need a tracker ring to know where to go; the crash of his heart led the way, the phantom fist around his organs tugged him in the right direction. freed in time from the company of an absurd wave of giant geckos, the pull of his blood leads him barrelling through the park at a dead sprint, with the much-needed help of flowing red stack bolstering his electrified limbs in vaulting barriers and toppled attractions in his wild flight. he had no more time to lose.

yuji needed help. yuji's blood was spilling too freely.

look, there, gleaming in the distance: a splatter on the pavement. the culling of the invasive gecko population may have killed the power, plunging the park back into darkness, but this spatter would have shone in choso's eyes even in a void of light; it could be no one else's but yuji's. he was close, but nowhere near close enough for the amount here.

it's nightmarish, there could be no other word for it. the spatters keep going. the trail continues on, chaotic and strewn with an abandon that churns choso's gut, that twists him up from the inside out such that by the time he finally fucking reaches the end of this gory trail, his heart feels like it's in his throat, his hands shake in the fists he's clenched them into.

the road choso has followed to find the boys is paved in carnage. ]

Yuji!!!

[ he should be quieter, should have maybe a little more fucking caution than this, but the darkness stretches as far as he can see, light and power sparking far enough away that he can't give enough of a fuck to berate himself about it now. he approaches at that pellmell run, somehow not flagging yet despite the coldness creeping into his extremities, the kiln-heat burning in his cheeks like a vent for the blaze in his chest. his pulse is so loud, it's almost deafening. he can barely hear the crunch of the debris under his boots. ]

Kuzunoha! I am here! Yuji!

[eyescar]

[ Yuji thinks he can feel him coming.

It’s not a connection like Choso feels it, and it might just be from the solid technology of their matching tracker rings, but he can feel the shift in the air. It grants him a kind of relief that cottons his tongue and strips the strength from him, a sure and perfect belief, unchanged. If there’s one thing Yuji can believe in when it comes to Choso, it is this: his brother will always save him. Choso will come for him, in life and in death.

Hearing that familiar shout has his body collapsing on itself, the strength finally giving way to exhaustion. He doesn’t have to make sure Raidou is safe because he can ask Choso to do it. Maybe he’s strong enough to carry both, or maybe he can take Raidou and come back for Yuji, but either way…

Yuji sobs, dropping down on himself, blood and tears soaking his face as he reaches out for his brother, to grasp his hands as an anchor through the pain and the heartache and all the agony that twists inside him. It’ll be okay… It has to be okay… ]

Onii-san!

[ A shout that will get Choso’s attention if nothing else, bring him here, and Yuji leans into Raidou’s body as he clings to consciousness. He can’t give in until he knows his partner is safe - and he has to make sure Choso is alright too. If he gets here and is wounded, hurt in some way…

Wincing, Yuji reaches up to touch Raidou’s face gently, smearing a little of his own blood on his cheeks accidentally. ]

It’s okay… Choso will look after us. It’ll be okay, Johei, we’ll be fine.

[the_fourteenth]

[The fact that anyone has managed to find them in the chaos seems like a miracle to Raidou; doubly so once he hears it's Choso. He lets out a shaky breath, relieved, but he knows their plight is far from over.

The sudden hand on his cheek is like being dunked in ice water, and that anger vanishes as he looks at the boy leaning on him. Someone who looks like he doesn't have long to live from what Raidou can see.

Now he panics.]

Choso--

[Raidou tries to yell, but it barely croaks out, broken, and he coughs.]

Get him to the medics. Please.

[gimu]

[ first assessment: they look like shit. second assessment: it was worse than it looked. kuzunoha, calm and collected, is a ragged shadow of his usual self, spattered in blood like a battlefield wraith, and yuji--

choso, he is quick to dart in, staggering to a halt only a foot away from the pair as he grasps at yuji's outstretched hand, bloody palm in bloody palm with a sticky clap, grip tightening white-knuckled and reassuring as if to say: look, i am here, i am here, i am here for you now. ]

Both of you.

[ no time for breath, for collection, no time for pleasantries or manners. he steps in to better fit his body around the both of them, clutching to yuji with the one hand while the other envelopes Raidou's shoulders, a shield as much as a support.

choso, he stinks of blood; it spatters him from head to toe. how much was his? how much was his? ]

Hold on. We're going home.

[eyescar]

[ Perhaps it’s a poor thing, in turn, to see his brother as he does, the relief thrumming like a whip crack and relaxing all his muscles. It means his heart pounds faster with joy and his excitement grows - and the blood bumps more, faster. Does it matter, when Choso is here, can control his blood as surely as Yuji does his own?

Sinking into his brother’s embrace, he sighs softly. The pain is still there, a burning agony that makes him want to fight and fight, but he doesn’t have the strength. Choso is here and Raidou will be safe, and it calms the storm of anxiety and hurt inside of Yuji, that makes him want to keep lashing out.

He doesn’t. There can be no more battles for him today, worn down by the work of pushing himself to the limit with nothing left but his own sheer determination. Relief pounds into his head like an ache, and he closes his eyes. He can breathe again. ]

Take care of him, okay, brother?

[ And then Yuji is done, collapsed against the weight of his brother with a pained sigh, exhaustion taking him over and stealing his consciousness. ]

[the_fourteenth]

[No! He can't, there are still too many kaiju out there, too many people fighting alone. Yuji can be safe now, with Choso to take him back before it's too late.

Raidou tries to resist, to stay back, but with someone else suddenly there to hold them both, it's like all energy has left him, the last of his adrenaline coming to an end. He doesn't want to let that happen. There's too much left to do.]

Yuji--! [He coughs again, electric shocks having scorched him all over. Raidou reflexively grabs on to Yuji as he collapses on to Choso.]

If it's faster-- Take just him. [A ragged breath.] I can catch up.

[Raidou gives Choso a desperate look, but no one in their right mind would leave this boy behind as well, no matter what he might say.]

[gimu]

All of us!

[ it comes out more animal growl than words; choso's flight here wasn't without effort, even without the battles dragged on until now, and it's run his throat ragged while a tightly-bound panic cinches up the rest of it with the clench of his jaw. even if other outsiders were en route, choso couldn't, wouldn't consider even the possibility of leaving one or the other behind. even if he hadn't sworn to watch over them, there was no leaving anyone behind, not yuji, not the Summoner. not this time. not again while choso's heart still beat.

he would never be able to look any of his brothers in the eye if he let himself be such a man.

the tang of copper in the air intensifies for a moment like a pulse, a single throb that seems to echo all through choso's begrimed body. the marks on his face begin to spread out, points splitting into barbs, and as yuji goes limp, choso is ready to stoop and scoop the teen into one improbable arm, tucked against his side not unlike an over-sized bag of groceries. excellent, but why just the one arm? ]

Forgive me.

[ it's the only warning Raidou gets before choso suddenly scoops him up too, tucked up in the other arm like a counterweight, held up like one would hold up a tired toddler, if said toddler was a young adult with a sword and power in his bones. hup.

choso would undoubtedly pay for this exertion later, but for now it held stable, and that's all he needed to start off again at a decent clip; which is to say, a very determined stomp back toward the glittering ruins of the World Bazaar. ]

[the_fourteenth]

Don't-- [For a second, Raidou tries to resist, still strong despite his exhaustion. But, fine. He'll capitulate, reluctantly. Maybe this way, Choso can drop him off closer to the battlefield, or so he can dream. For now, he hangs on to Choso as best he can't, trying to make himself small enough to not be a hinderance.

Instead, once they arrive back at the rally point, Yuji will immediately carted off by the LILITH medics. Raidou tries to follow after, but he's stopped, since he's clearly in need of medical attention as well. He tries to turn the medics down, it's a fight he's going to lose. He has too many injuries, mostly internal from the electric shocks, and they can't let him back out there again. The largest of the kaiju had been taken down now anyway, and things were blessedly winding down. It was time to rest.

Before he's dragged off to be treated, Raidou turns to Choso.]

You'll wait out here for him?

[He can at least keep an eye on Yuji's vitals through their rings, but if Yuji woke up here, Raidou couldn't stand the idea of him being alone when he did.]

[gimu]

[ even if Raidou hadn't given up the ghost, choso was prepared to hang on for dear life as any good vet tech would: this cat wasn't going anywhere, bud. so it's a relief, when they return to rally, that the medics and techs deem the summoner too fucked to return to the field; his wounds wouldn't be worsening any time soon.

the rest of it is a blur. once yuji has been taken from his grip, choso falls into a fugue where he stands, arms and shoulders sagging, back bowing as the physical strain of the day begins to catch up with him so that they must lead him to sit, to do anything but sway and loom in the middle of this rising buzz of activity.

flowing red scale keeps him burning enough that when he hears Raidou's voice again, choso can still lift his head up to meet the summoner's eye. ]

The only time I will leave him is when I am dead. I will be here, Kuzunoha Raidou.

[the_fourteenth]

[The medics aren't letting this kid go a second longer - he's got to get treated. Over his shoulder, he gives Choso a complicated look, unsure of how he's supposed to feel about everything that just happened. Would they had survived if Choso hadn't intervened? Who were they protecting when reduced to a state like this?

He does manage one last phrase to the curse before he's taken from view, hoarse, barely above a whisper.]

Thank you.