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Steam practically shoots from Aiden's head as his head all but cartoonishly explodes at this sudden twist. She was supposed to fall to her knees, give up, admit defeat! SOMETHING! Not this!
Aiden's eyes are replaced with rapidly spinning spirals as his brain rapidly tries to process a response to this situation, but he has backed himself into a corner. Wait, this is a bluff. That's it. She's calling my bluff with her own bluff. A, a reverse bluff! Well two can play that game, her, three. I just have to bluff her bluffing bluff! The deafening moment of silence fills the entire house as Aiden's faux confidence, hardly masking a VERY panicked and embarrassed lad, finally makes a move. His move. Quick, but not too quick. Get close, but not too close. I have to make her THINK I'm going to kiss her aggressively, forcing her to be the one to back down! THEN IT'S MY WIN!
Certain of his victory Aiden let's out just a few soft words in an attempt at sounding cool and calm, if not for the fact that he face has invented 15 new shades of red and 13 new shades of pink. "You asked for it-" Aiden moves in to close the distance between their lips at a controlled pace, quickly enough to make it seem like he's going to confidently and assertively follow through yet juuuust slow enough for her to turn her head before lip contact can happen. The perfect plan! She'll get too embarrassed and turn away, unable to move away thanks to Aiden's grip on her long hair, letting him save face and win this hormonally charged game of chicken!
At the very last moment of truth Aiden's brain flashes one last bit of information, something he overlooked in all his bravado he's forcing upon himself for masculine pride or...whatever it is he's doing. Wait....what if she.....---
The surge of strength she put behind her blade did surprise Duncan as he did his best to keep his blade steady in this bind after she tried to hit him with a short slash, thus catching him in this situation.
'Jeez, she's really good. My amateur swordsmanship is showing. I'm hanging on with grit and powers here.'
His own thoughts were a blur, pushed aside as all his mental power was needed to just try and survive the back to back situations Kiysa kept pushing him into as she survived his attacks. He was up in a Ox Guard right now as he defends against her flicking strike to slash his upper arm, now she wanted to twist his blade into an unsalvageable spot. He couldn't keep meeting her as a swordsman, he won't win there with his barely week worth of familiarising himself with the Style he was shown.
But he was still strong enough to resist her efforts to push him into a weakened position, even in this precarious guard, he kept his cool and more annoyingly his smile. But even then, where human flesh fails...
Duncan's smile twists with gritted teeth as metal forms along his hands and up his sleeves, this contest of strength was not going to be so easily won. His command of Aura metal was not as good as his sisters, but even this much would be enough to reinforce his guarded stance. She was stepping forward, trying to pressure him and place him into a precarious spot... Time to kick it up a gear! He uses Accel to shift as he steps forward and to her side, letting her strike run down the edge of his blade before bringing his blade back up to try and slash her forearm. Failing that and Kiysa being swift enough to recover before he can slash her, Duncan quickly moves to snap his fingers again. But instead of using Rebellion a sharp flash of blinding light fills the area as Duncan makes use of more and more of the natures he has been neglecting to use.
Hoping that he has a opening, Duncan engages her with a quick flurry of stabs enhanced by Accel and his own desire to faster. Each stabbed as close to centre mass as possible.
Let's not forget about page editing as well. I don't know how to do it, but it's a "very simple thing once you learn how". Makes it very easy to fake any and all messages exchanged on any manner of website.
"No, don't mind at all," Heimrich responds.
"We can probably get everything in one trip then," Adds Alice as she leads the way out of the house.
As they walk and Vance brings up Diego's defeat, Heimrich can't help but smirk at the memory of Diego howling and whining off across the horizon. "Alice kicked his ass so hard, I was seeing stars."
"It wasn't really me though-"
"Sure it was! All I did was close the gap for you. I'm not the one who made a centuries old fighter look like a bumbling idiot."
"Heimrich stop it," Alice pleads, partly turning as they walk through the front door so she can thump his arm. Vance can see her start to turn red and her attempt at a frown unraveling. She certainly likes the praise, and knowing her hard work at swordsmanship has paid off.
He never fails to pull something new out of his sleeve. In this case metal ones. Duncan becomes harder and harder to budge, and swiftly turns this into an even contest as they wrestle for control. Kiysa's mind is in overdrive searching for any opportunity to take over, and any sign of a counterattack from Duncan. It was the only reason she could react to his speed full on doubling. She is forced to retreat, escaping just outside of his sword range- And outside the possibility to stop the snap she sees forming as his sword passes across her field of vision. Vision that turns blinding white.
Kiysa curses as she snaps her eyes shut, forced to rely purely on her other senses as his sword pierces through the light, seeking to pierce her chest. It won't be as effective, but she has to do this in order to recover.
Duncan sees Kiysa twist to her left in order to avoid his swordpoint, leaving her in a difficult position to avoid a follow up thrust. He nearly capitalizes on it, before he notices something off about it. Nothing physical, but in his gut he feels it's wrong.
It's more effective when we share eye contact, but with proper training we can project a fake of sorts, a false intuition for the opponent that we are going to go one way while we go another. A feint that the opponent's own imagination completes for you.
Remembering what Utu had taught him at the last moment, Duncan reels in his focus and sees Kiysa actually avoided his thrust to her right. Even though the flashbang he can see her shock as he fails to fall for the feint and refuses to relent.
How is he doing this?! Kiysa is forced to dodge and barely reflect thrust after thrust as Duncan forces her back, her windows to counter attack are shrinking to nothing as each strike has fewer flaws and become faster and faster. No, stop! Focus! Duncan isn't the only one who has been advancing. The longer the battle goes on the quicker she adapts. Each dodge and each parry are becoming closer and closer, not just from Duncan speeding up, but Kiysa drawing closer to the minimum energy required to avoid the blow. This is a battle of evolution and attrition. Only one will be able to come out on top.
Winter went deep into his thoughts as Chronoa explained that the Time Patrol joined the Tournament Of Power and ended up losing in the future. Now it was up to him and his team to join the Tournament themselves to prevent existence from being erased. Winter listened as Trunks explained they have picked all five them and another man that they selected to join the tournament. All they needed was one more person, the Clansmen began to think more on who they should pick. He didn't know that many people that were on the same level as them except for some of Aylote's family, though considering they saved the timelines from a Revived Demigra they deserved a break from all of this time nonsense.
As Winter continued to think more he heard Kalla speak and volunteer his old friend named Darrius. Unfortunately, Winter thinks there would be too much risk in bringing someone that was outside the Time Patrol. The Clansman trusts Kalla, but bringing in Darrius could possibly lead into too many unknowns.
"Who is this other person you already selected?" Winter asked looking up towards Trunks.
"He's one of the first Future Warriors summoned with the Dragon Balls, back when we still operated out of Tokitoki City," Trunks informs the group. "He is one of our solo operators, but I know he'll be cooperative and willing to work with the team with everything that's on the line."
"I'm not so sure about that," Chronoa mumbles to herself.
Flaz could see that Winter was in a state of deep contemplation. He was right to with this situation... Not knowing how they already lost the TOP in the future will certainly be an issue. Hearing of a solo operative that worked with the team back in Toki Toki city made Flaz quirk an eyebrow. "What..? Do I know them?" Originally Flaz was summoned to Toki Toki city back when they operated out there. But he was summoned alongside some others. A human named Dean, a Saiyan woman named Okora and a Namek named Flute. They were a team for a short while, dealing with distortions in history like other patrollers. Though they each had their own curves of potential... He hasn't seen many of them for a good while now. Mostly due to his own plans taking him away from Conton city. "I doubt it could be Dean or Flute, definitely not Okora either."
As the strange Croc Alien was struggling against the the ever persistent tussle it was having with this bucket of bolts, they didn't have time to try and dodge the sudden barrage of Cybertronian energon fire that landed across their back. Prompting a sudden pained scream as their jaws opened wide. "What the hell?!" His knee buckled first, the pain was enough for the Animal-like AI to gain the upper hand. With the Croc now in a worse state, it opened its mechanical maw again, prompting another orange laser to fire into the croc's face with brutal intensity before their large arms pushed the croc back to the ground and backed off suddenly, firing another beam into the grenades mounted on the Croc's chest harness.
The resulting boom was enough to shake the whole room, even enough to shake up some of the Rhino-aliens and the remaining security frames.
Though their leader was being attacked, and quickly defeated with the turning of the tide, the Rhino-like aliens all turned their attention to Nightlight as she she came barrelling down the corridor towards them. Even with the explosion that just went off and thinning their numbers, they tried to rush her. Though only 3 of them managed to break away to attack her.
-----
The possibility of constructing a space bridge was an interesting one. Though Karn doubted such a construction would begin while he and the Athailian's still resided on this world. Alive. Though time time will tell. "An understandable step." As Shadow-Wind offers to lend her aid to any other outstanding endeavours that are in need of completing, the Superintendent AI respectfully declined. "Oh I couldn't burden you with any more tasks. At least not right now. You've already helped me so much. How could I possibly ask you for anything more so soon? I was hoping that I could offer aid instead."
Not a total lie. While he was waiting on the promised Energon to be delivered to him, he will need to busy himself with something.
Being asked if they had any sort of hideout was understandable. Being trapped in a city like this, normally you would have to live on the move to avoid getting caught by the aliens that had come to invade their world. But Hailey did nod while Bootleg looked to her. "We do. Since you're a newly Arisen, and you seem sane enough, we can let you crash in our place. Right Bootleg?"
"... I'm surprised you'd offer before I had to honestly." Confessed the Ghost.
Hailey's eyes narrowed under the hood. "Because I'm an antisocial recluse."
"Yes."
"... How dare you just agree."
"Where is the lie?"
Hailey grumbled as she looked back to Lilith and Sol. "Just follow us. We're hiding out in one of the collapsed Metro stations." She says as she turns around. With Bootleg continuing on.
"The metro entrance was ruined, so we found a maintenance entrance that we've hidden behind a bus wreckage." He says before he sticks close to Hailey before vanishing since they will soon be going outside. Though they could still hear his voice. "It isn't too far from here. So we shouldn't run into any Fallen."
"Are you ready to go? Any questions?"
The physical and mental strain is building rapidly. Kiysa has seen less and less of the world around them the longer this fight has went on. Now the entire world is gone, a black haze that only contains herself and Duncan. She has become blind to the burning in her lungs and the numbness in her arms and legs. Powered purely on adrenaline and her indomitable spirit. One final thrust she dodges by the slimmest margin, but she sees his hands clench and the muscles in his arms bulge. This thrust will change to become a horizontal swing. In an instant she sees her winning move. She has to instigate a clash. From there she can win. She will win!
Power Duncan has not experienced strikes his blade as Kiysa twists with new vigor and parries his strike, knocking it aside as she goes to cut him down with the same flow. With great power and determination Duncan does the same, bringing his blade back and stopping her return fire. Over and over they trade, standing their ground as they both sense the end. Kiysa's spirit has evolved, refining itself for one final explosive push, burning everything as if there will not be another day. Duncan can feel it, each attack she throws has an intensity even beyond where he is now, forced to block most of them now as they have become dangerous to attempt to parry. But he has to keep up the assault. They both were searching for the same thing. And when both Kiysa and Duncan sense that the other is just a hair out of place, they knew it was time.
Their blades clash. They grind together with one final burst of strength. Still, Duncan is physically stronger. His victory condition is met.
Which meant Kiysa's victory is guaranteed.
With Duncan's focus on the clash, he does not see through Ideal Girl. Duncan met Kiysa's blade in a way where he can still brace to have a hand free to grab Kiysa's arm with his left hand. The shock on Kiysa's face almost hides something from him. And it is from the periphery of his left eye that he senses it. Defeat.
Much like Kiysa, Duncan's world only consisted of the fight before him. Though things like physical stress and mental fatigue were hardly an issue for him now, not that he realised it. He simply forgot about it, he didn't realise he should be tired or even taxed. His mind was consumed with securing victory in the fight right infront of him. Once this fight was over though? He will realise that he isn't tired and will hit himself with a massive amount of whiplash.
Another effect of what he has become thanks to Heimrich.
Though with this small world, his sole concern was securing his ideal future. In this endless clash of countering, clashing, parrying, he couldn't see an end yet he must push forward. He must secure victory. He must have his future away from the darkest timeline. Defeat was not an option.
They meet in a clash of blades, sword edge grinding against sword edge, a test of strength. A futile effort even with Kiysa's efforts evolving as this fight went on. But even with that, it was too late. His victory-
?!
His narrow world erupts as he feels it, his single thread to his ideal future was fraying off to the left of him. Defeat was imminent.
He didn't know why, he didn't know how. He knew he simply must resist. He had one hand free, and an obstacle to his left that threatened his future. It must be crushed.
With his free hand he reached out, motivated fingers wrapping around the throat of Kiysa and shifting his entire stance to throw her into whatever means Kiysa was employing to secure his defeat, his sword arm was now free to counter. To bring about his victory. To complete his rebellion against Kiysa's desire for victory. He swings his blade with all his might and slices deeply through Kiysa's chest.
Ideal Girl is a technique born to take advantage of moments like this. Whereas Duncan's instincts are full in control, Kiysa's mind had never been sharper. Seeing this as what Duncan was aiming for, Kiysa willingly entered the trap. And as he is blinded by his goal, Kiysa was already gone. Her fighting spirit still burned in front of Duncan in the clash, whereas Kiysa herself under Valentine Rain calmly and collected dashes a step back and to the side, before coming back in for one final slash to end this duel. The last two weeks have given her time to perfect the technique, but her own fatigue and Duncan's inhuman instincts allowed him to realize something was wrong. Kiysa sees him grab the throat of Ideal Girl and spin to hurl it into her. She ignores it, and drops a little lower to avoid the sword she sees beginning to move in his other hand. Ideal Girl is her fighting spirit separate from her own body. All that will happen is that Kiysa will pass through it, landing her winning blow across his side before his-
Ideal Girl hits her, knocking them both off balance.
The reality of what occurred does not come to Kiysa immediately. No thoughts do. She can't comprehend that Ideal Girl was Real, a physical clone of her that stops her own attack dead in its tracks. Which means...
Both Kiysa and her fighting spirit in a living, breathing body both are in shock as they see Duncan's sword arm begin to ramp up speed as it enters its swing. There is nothing Kiysa can do. But she can feel it, the tingling sense of danger. And she can see death in Duncan's eyes.
In a flash of jagged red light, Duncan's blade is stopped by the flying sword Jingo, cutting deep into the blade and struggling to slice all the way through the gestalt demon. Ideal Girl rapidly disintegrates as Jingo uses everything Kiysa has left just to keep himself together and to keep Duncan from finishing his swing. Kiysa finishes her fall backwards onto her butt, and for brief, agonizing seconds Duncan continues to try and follow through with what he started, until he realizes Jingo had interfered. That he was cutting through the demon sword. How.
In a sudden change Duncan's blade flies through Jingo with no resistance. Duncan loses his balance and falls as well, his training sword now sporting a thin red line in its blade where its material passed through Jingo. The demon sword clatters to the ground, all of his energy spent.
Neither had landed a hit on the other. But they both knew this duel was over.
It didn't even register in Duncan's mind that it was Jingo that had stopped his blade because his mind still consumed with the fight with Kiysa, defeating Kiysa. He had simply thought that she managed to block, and he was resolute in breaking this block. It was only as he saw that her sword was still in her hand as she fell back did a red flag jog some conscious part of his mind, buried in his desire to focus solely on the world that had become this fight.
'What is she blocking with...?'
Duncan's eyes snapped up, looking to the stubborn demon blade that was protecting its master, preventing his sword from slashing through Kiysa. Wait... How is he clashing with Jingo?
That thought, combined with noticing the rest of the world around him, had broken Duncan's battle trance. The training blade clattered to the ground before him as he fell onto his hands and knees.
'Huh-?!'
Exhaustion hit Duncan, though his motivation was keeping it from overflowing into an instant coma from just how hard he had been fighting. If he wasn't a primal human, he would have needed to still have Vengeance to offset the kind of limits he had broken through with this fight alone. Though with his motivation slowly coming down, he will feel like death before it gets better.
Even with that exhaustion he knew that this match was over. And with his victory.
Though it didn't quite feel like one. Looking up from the ground between sucking lungful's of air through his teeth at the Demon Blade on the ground, the blade compromised by his slice with the training blade... The training blade that should not have sliced into the Demon Blade at all. He had come to realise that he did not understand enough about what he had become. No longer Aetheran or Forgotten. His only theory was that he had become so consumed with the thought of defeating Kiysa, that any sort of nuance to what that meant fell away with the rest of the world... His purpose peeled away to its most base meaning. Defeating her by any means necessary.
He dreaded to think what that kind of primal purpose could do if he were fighting his friends, his family... All the more important that he masters this new power under Master Wabani.
But back to Kiysa and the damaged Jingo. Instead of announcing any form of victory, the first words that left his lips were a worried. "Sorry." Barely uttered through exhausted breaths. Moreso aimed at Jingo.
"Stonehenge may be worth investigating... If we ever find a way out of London," Ezekiel remarks. Hayes ignores them and continues searching for any immediate useful information about this ageless man's powers and any potential weaknesses.
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The Superhero makes no reaction to the poison, as expected, but does turn back to the Mysterious Stranger for a moment. He has no questions, but does make an order. "Follow, but not too close, in case there are more traps. More members of this Cult may return here to investigate." Diamond Eye then begins to descend the staircase, having to take it slowly due to his height and armor. Every now and then part of his suit scratches the wall, carving out small trails in the stairwell's walls.
Alice certainly is surprised by the abilities she unknowingly had while wielding Stelrem, but Heimrich is unbothered. "Hmph. Underestimating the Mentat again? You'll have to break that habit," Heimrich looks at Vance with a smirk before summoning Stelrem. It winks into existence in Heimrich's waiting hand. With their reduced and calmed power levels, Vance can sense quite easily that Stelrem itself is stronger than both himself and Heimrich at the moment. "I may have woken up, but I was so weak I might as well still been in the coma. So Stelrem itself holds the Eyes of Cross," Heimrich explains as he looks at the blade, Vance and Alice can both see his irises change as the Eyes of Cross awaken in him. "And Stelrem takes the strain. Not that it's capable of everything the Eyes of Cross can theoretically do. The Eyes didn't have time to fully mature by the time of the fight, and they're locked at this stage now. And with the power both you and Duncan have..." Heimrich releases Stelrem and it disappears once more, the Eyes of Cross also disappearing. "They would only weaken you. They don't do me any good either, the Mentat's abilities are capable of the same and more. But they'll help Alice."
"So my eyes looked like that too?" Alice asks as the continue walking through the village.
"They did, did they help?"
"Hmm... I think they made deciding what to do easier. It's hard to tell, after you made it possible for me to see you guys moving around at full speed."
"Something we can test later maybe."
Samantha does have some grievances about being so low to the ocean like this, though she doubts any of the drowned or their cousins would be strong enough to even want to fight Heimrich as he is now. Though as Heimrich brings up that her master may know a way to hide his energy better, she couldn't see how... Not unless Heimrich somehow managed to translate spatial magic into the odd brute force style of Aura he uses. Though with Heimrich learning the basics of the Mirror World, maybe there was something he could do.
Samantha could see Spearpoint Isle come into view now, it has been so long ago now since she was last here. Though technically that was only yesterday.
As soon as they made landfall at the beach, Samantha did some big stretches. Being carried was nice though. Before either of them could move up the beach and further inland though, an invitation presented itself. A large doorway-like portal, a large 7ft tall purple and black archway appeared before them, the centre a swirling mass of dark colours before it reacted. Much like how you let a drop of water hit a larger surface of water, the portal rippled and revealed a large throne room beyond its dark and oily membrane.
"Ah, I told you he'd know we were here." She says with a big smile across her face, fearlessly passing through the oddly ornate portal and crossing through to the throne room on the other side.
Once Heimrich steps through the major theme of the immediate area seemed to be gothic in tone, large dark stone archways that clung to the ceiling like they were stepping into the ribcage of an unknowable monster. The throne, sat atop a small flight of stairs flanked by two large Chimera statues with their eyes and maws aflame with purple fire, a lavish red and gold carpet winds down the throne room from the foot of the throne itself. A large and imposing seat made of black crystal. Couldn't be that comfortable to sit on, but to each their own.
And sat upon that throne, with the only massive source of light coming from the large window behind his throne, was the man that seemed to be Samantha's master. A man whose mere presence rivalled that of Sam's. In his steely golden gaze encompassed a wealth of untold millennia's of knowledge that was so far beyond their short lives. yet that was betrayed by the youthful appearance he held. He did not look or seem like a vampire, no. His body was young. At least compared to Sam. Still older than the both of them combined. Yet his souls were ancient.
[Revan: https://imgur.com/8zJttNx]
The man regarded Heimrich for a moment, taking in the odd well of alien power that now stood before him and sensing a similar well within his pupil. "Aura...? I did not believe I would see it upon our shores again, at least so soon." He knew of Aura? It might be better to consider that it would be more odd that he didn't know what it was. Someone as long lived as him. Despite the oddity of HOW he can seemingly be so old yet so young. His golden gaze shifted and seemingly brightened, yet held a tone of sadness within them, as it fell upon Samantha. "My condolences, dear descendant..."
Samantha had bowed to greet her master but looked puzzled for a moment, knowing well what he referred to but more confused at the how. "Master, how did you know? You sent me away yesterday."
With a snap of that man's fingers, a similar oily black and purple portal spat out a small humanoid husk. A forgotten. Bound in cursed blackened chains that radiated of death as it writhed in constant pain, pleading wordlessly for freedom before it was wrenched back into the abyss it had been forced from to demonstrate his source of information. "Some information fell into my lap as soon as a civil war had seemingly stirred in the Schism. Only your brothers death could divide them like this... That, or the rebellion of one of the Harbingers."
Samantha's face twisted with some understanding. Her master's worlds confirming what they already know... The Forgotten are at war with themselves. One side wanting to continue their efforts of corrupting Aetheran, the other wanting their own freedoms and to redeem the evils they have committed. Honestly she didn't care about any of that.
"Now. Introduce yourself young man, who are you to stand so closely to my descendant. Announce your purpose." As if to bridge that gap in context, the man's eyes become a far more ornate and intricate version of Samantha's Eyes of Cross.
How could she not take notice. Lox-aan had been gauging those animalistic eyes of his ever since they locked onto her and drifted to her college as they left to prepare the Salamander meat. She had heard that the Dragneel family in the human kingdom were like beasts thanks to their Bloodline ability, but this was something else. In a different league to what she had been briefed on.
But hopefully she could keep his attention with it and avoid being cast under that animalistic gaze again.
But it was quickly seemingly like she wouldn't get a say in that. She could see the simple clockwork turning in that seemingly empty head of his, he was a hairpins drop away from vaulting over this counter to follow Kobold that just disappeared. The Guild hall was basically empty at this point, only her fellow Guild staff in the building. So she quickly raises her hand in his line of sight and speaking up. "Dragneel." She desperately says aloud, hoping the name will spark something resembling an actual human thought in that head of his so she can get to her real purpose. "You're part of that family right?"
At first Aiden isn't kissing back, caught completely by surprise at Akina's actions as his eyes practically pop out of his head. His grip on the back of her head loosens for just a moment but, as his mind accepts this is actually happening, he leans into the heated moment. He returns her passion in kind, tightening his grip back up on the back of her head though despite his superior strength she is very much the one in control of this situation. Seconds feels hours as the two lock faces with increasingly intense passion, nearly neglecting the need to even breathe. Caught up in the moment Aiden brings his other arm around to hold Akina's waist and pull her in against himself, getting the duo as close as possible. The tension in the air skyrockets with every passing moment as pent up feelings flood out all at once.
Time has blurred, neither one knows how much time has passed, though the moment must come to an end: Aiden had been neglecting to breathe. When his lungs his capacity his slides both of his hands to Akina's shoulders and gently pushes her away just enough to free their lips from each other, but keeps her near enough that he looks down and touches his forehead against hers as he catches his breath in a deep pant.
THAT...was...intense. Holy crap. Was that real? I-
"I could get used to that..."
The small things really pulled Akina into the moment after she pressed her lips to Aiden's. The quickening pace of his heartbeat, the slight increase of strength as he held onto the back of her head, his free arm pulling her close so now he could better feel her heartbeat as she was brought closer to him. She didn't dislike it, and didn't mind that their chests were pressed against each other, al the better for feeling just how quick their heartbeats were. There was so much tension, so much passion in these fleeting moments, it was almost going to her head.
Yet she was pulled back from the bring. Aiden's sudden need for air wrestles a light-hearted laugh from the Oni woman, though she herself had been just as guilty in being caught up in their bout of tonsil tennis too.
As he splutters and starts to calm down, pressing his forehead against her own, her deep yellow eyes stared into his own with a small delighted smile on her face as she hears what he said under his breath, it was frankly impossible NOT to hear it at this distance. "Oh yeah~? A glutton for suffocation huh? You know there are better ways for someone to risk suffocating with someone else right?"
She lets that vague mental image hang in the air, letting Aiden's imagination fill in the gap of just how she could make him risk suffocating in more fun ways before she gives him a small peck on the lips again. "Just so you know, ya doofus, I don't just kiss anyone. There are plenty of strong people in the village. But you are you. I know we practically JUST met. But you're different from anyone I've ever met, and I know you're a good guy." She says as she looks to Chloe, who was still staring at them. "Partly because your voyeur rabbit wouldn't have stuck with you when you first came here. She seems like a decent judge of character."
"We won't get much say where we're going with him chasing us," Ezekiel says in response to Brandon and Clara's brainstorming.
Hayes continues to largely ignore them, though when Clara's worry for her dad starts to overwhelm her he does speak up after Brandon stops. "This place will have a panic room or several somewhere, no doubt. We'll check for any signs of your daddy before we leave."
"Brandon, can you position one of your Guardians near the entrance to watch for our pursuer? I'll send the Faceless Man out of the city as fast as I can. That way we at least have a potential escape route," Ezekiel gesture-poses at the window at the faint haze of the barrier they can see on the skyline. Meanwhile, Hayes continues to go through the files this Foundation member had on Cassian's group. They've known about these guys for a while, if they have this much information on them. Cassian must have made some moves even they didn't expect. Seeing a dossier on Forge as the third member does make him huff in amusement. His face did make a pretty splat in the train terminal. They all have rather odd abilities, though most of them he's seen in some form over his many years. Being able to catch a short video of Cassian and his second in command, unfortunately, did not yield much useful information. In fact, all it did was reinforce his already growing conclusion that he was the only one capable of fighting them. Bar Forge, all of Cassian's officers possess odd abilities and ways of killing their opponents outside of a simple fist fight. The poser is useful for escaping a bad spot, and his ghost thing has power. And the other brat has firepower of his own in his ghosts, but those won't help them if they were made to rot from the inside out, or the air stolen from their lungs. Nevermind what they had seen firsthand from Cassian and what he just saw now. His powers have no definition, he's capable of too much. He can't even tell if the bastard is using magic or not. Worse yet, he's aware of the Doumi.
Hayes has no way of knowing if Cassian was telling the truth about killing a Doumi before, or if it was said to break their resolve, that resistance was hopeless. What he does know, as Hayes' face becomes even grimmer rewatching the video, is its very unlikely that a meeting between Cassian and a Doumi wouldn't end in a fight to the death. "We should get moving," Hayes rather flatly announces as he walks over to Clara and hands her the laptop right after he closes it. "Hold onto this. Might come in handy." After that he takes the lead out of this destroyed office and back into the top floor hallway. Now that he doesn't have to concentrate on driving and keeping an entire APC under his control, Hayes' focus is entirely on his surroundings, making sure Cassian can't sneak up on them again. Ezekiel as a Stand User does not have that kind of spiritual detection, instead focusing on rooms and doors that may lead to some sort of clue of Clara's dad being here. They can only hope they didn't beat him here, and get chased away before he does arrive.
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Once they had descended far enough down the stairwell, the traces of enochian magics within the ruined church grounds stopped interfering with Diamond Eye's ability to detect life. A leading reason why the superhero did not react to the trap at all.
"I appreciate the concern, but it will take more than that to harm me." The hero reassures the captive as he approaches. He barely is standing in front of the metal bars between them before he grabs them and pulls them apart, along with any manacles holding him in place. In case the room was trapped against tampering, the prisoner would be removed from his captivity at much greater haste. But if not, the prisoner will be allowed to leave his confines of his own accord.
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