The War of Us

"Gotcha." Suddenly Ran was holding a giant bazooka in her arms. She aimed it at Kage. "When do you want me to shoot?"

At that moment, snow started to fall from the sky. "Yay! Snow!" she said happily. She snapped her fingers. "Darn, just remembered.." She raised her left arm and stared at the sky. Suddenly, the clouds started to look more menacing.

"What in the hell?" Kage said, looking up as snow fell, and then it was suddenly cloudy.

"Weather hax? DIE WEATHER!" Kage shot a massive lightning bolt straight upwards.

"There, now'd be a good time," I said, pointing out the opening Kage left while firing off lightning.

I had my two Holy Pistols in hand, and timed my shots so that I fired a barrage of bullets at the same time as Ran-Chan's missile went off.

"And what was THAT?" Kage turned at the sound of gunshots. "Ah shit."

The bullets and missile impacted Kage at the same time, causing a rather large explosion. When the smoke cleared, Kage stumbled out.

"I'm oookay... I think... Ow." Kage looked up and suddenly screamed, shooting as much lightning as he could muster at where he thought the attacks came from, which he was pretty sure was the hospital.

In the pitch-black darkness of his underground lab, Phazon sifted through some junk experiments, scrap metal, and other odds and ends. The sounds of metal sliding on metal and being tossed around would possibly sound scary to some, given that in the darkness the only light source were Phazon's two glowing eyes. "Here it is..." came Phazon's voice, as he found the object he was searching for. "My Active Adaptation module. I should install this into my system if I plan on seeing any of the rest pf the gang soon."

There was a quiet, high-pitched humming sound, followed with several blue lights on Phazon's body lighting up, on his chest and legs. The glow grew brighter for a few minutes, before a strobing effect made it flash rapidly. Then, suddenly, the light show ended, and the only light was the piercing glow of Phazon's red eyes.

"Right..." said Phazon to himself, as he looked at his body and double-checked that everything was in working order. "Everything's ready. Let's go." With that, Phazon climbed out of the hole in the ground that lead to his lab and then exited the building the hole was in. He didn't bother to hid any of it- why would anyone pick, out of all the crumbling, destroyed buildings in the city, his to investigate, and then decide it was a good idea to jump down a hole so dark he couldn't see the bottom? Feeling secure that his hideout wouldn't be found, Phazon looked up as yet another large boom sounded. Menacing clouds were hovering over the area that everyone seemed to be converging at, near the corners of the Insanity District, Boom Town, and the 104 Building.

"Hm... I'll have to give them a bit of a berth. I'm ready in case I get attacked, but I have more important things to do than fight them right now." With that, Phazon headed out of his alleyway and began heading southeast, towards AMX.

"Ow." Tom spoke sarcastically, his monstrous defence and health causing him to feel little pain and take little damage, but his sluggishness causing him to be cut. "Proximity traps are useless at this point, but..." He set his Arse Cannon to sticky mode and fired, "I can still spam!"

Still heading southeast, Phazon left AMX behind and entered into Center Street through, well, Center Street Entrance. 'I'll think of a better name for it later.' He continued his trek from there, heading up Center Street and towards Scramble Crossing. Though there were no cars around and probably not even any working vehicles in the city to speak of, he still looked both ways before crossing the road, at the intersection of course.

Post-apocalyptic, desolate, and crumbling city or not, the traffic laws are there to be obeyed.

Ran fired another missile at Kage before she was hit with the lightning. As she fell over, large pieces of hail started to fall from the sky, pelting the ground and leaving rather large indents in the street.

As Kage saw the missile, he shouted but three words:

"I REGRET NOTHING!"

When the explosion of the missile cleared, the ruined corpse of Kage was all that was left, now being pelted with hail.

Hurrying up Center Street, Phazon soon came to the Scramble Crossing, passing quickly as he headed for the Statue of Hachiko. 'I think I got past them without anyone spotting me...' thought Phazon, still hurrying to get farther from the conflict. He didn't want to be found just yet.

Ran stood up and rubbed her head. "Ouch, that hurt.." She looked down and saw Kage's corpse.

"GHOSTIE!! I'M SO SORRY!!" She moved the hail so that it was falling around Kage, but not on him. She then sat down and started sulking.

"I killed someone.." she continuously mumbled.

I looked at Ran-Chan, and felt kinda bad. She really isn't one of the people who should be in this mess. But, there was unfortunately something else going on.

"Listen, Ran-chan, you get his territory. I've got to go ...well, I have stuff to do," I gave her the best apologetic look I could before dashing off the edge of the Hospital. My agility and speed combined to let me hit the ground running, dashing southeast into the area known as the 104 building.

Claiming it as I passed through, setting up traps as I went so that followers would be in for a surprise, I continued southeast.

Quickly passing by the Statue of Hachiko, Phazon glanced at the dog as he went. 'So loyal. What a good dog.'

'I'm almost there. I think I can slow down now...' Phazon thought, slowing to a walk as he saw the train bridge in the distance.

I was now going past the West Exit Bus Terminal. The train was not that far in the distance.

Assuming how everything went, there was probably someone behind me. I didn't hear any traps go off but I wasn't taking any chances.

I continued to run at full speed, once I got there I would go north and begin claiming everything in that direction. By doing this, I might be able to end this quickly and take over the whole city...

Ran watched him leave and stood up. She let the hail continue to fall. 'It might be funny if the others had to deal with this hail,' she thought mischievously.

She looked over the edge of the hospital roof and gulped. "This shouldn't be too bad, right?" She backed up and then ran towards the edge and jumped, screaming bloody murder as she fell through the air. When she landed, she tumbled forward and then sat up. "That wasn't so hard," she said calmy as she brushed off her clothes.

She stood up and started heading north in the direction of Shibu-Q Heads. Suddenly remembering that she killed Kage, she stopped and looked back. She quickly ran over to his corpse and closed his eyes. "I'm sorry," she said quietly before running back on her path to Shibu-Q Heads. "Next time don't attack a hospital full of invisible sick people," she yelled back at him. "It's not nice. I'm sorry I killed you, though..."

Approaching the bridge that use to support a train, Phazon entered into Station Underpass. "Right, not much fa-" Phazon started, before turning his head to the side at the sound of someone running. He could see David approaching from West Exit Bus Terminal. "Damn." David would spot Phazon before he had a chance to get into hiding, so, knowing that his months-long cover was finally blown, he did the only thing left.

Turning to face David's direction, Phazon crossed his arms over his chest and put on his intimidating face. 'Yeah, pose just like this. It'll make it look like I've been standing here, waiting for someone.' In the proper position, Phazon waited for David to spot him.

I slowed down as I spotted Phazon. "Wha-" He looked like he had been expecting me. That's strange... was I that predictable?

I shrugged off the thought and pulled out my Holy Pistols. I wondered briefly if he'd be able to stop a bullet hell...

"Hey Phazon, long time no see, eh?" I was surprised to see him in fact. I wasn't absolutely certain that he'd got caught up in this whole 'territory' business. But it seemed that not only was he here, but he owned at the least this territory.

I tapped the side of the gun to the top of my head, and smiled, "So Phazon, how many territories do you control?" I wasn't sure if he'd answer, but if we were about to fight on his terms I'd like to know what I'm up against if he were willing to tell me.

Ran whistled as she walked closer to Shibu-Q Heads. 'Almost there..' she thought.

She broke out into a run and entered the territory. "Yay! I have another one!" She jumped up and down and spun around in happiness.

"Just a handful." Phazon said, staring at David and his guns with a watchful eye. 'I was hoping not to be spotted, but I guess there's nothing I can do about it.' Uncrossing my arms, I put one on my waist and motioned in at David with the other. "You look like you're doing well, David. What brings you here?" I asked, before quickly shaking my head. "No, never mind. Don't tell me."

"You're out and about to capture some ground, I can tell." Phazon said, before turning slightly and pointing a thumb to the other side of the Station Underpass. "You want in there, of course. The Trial of the Sinner." he continued.

Turning back to face him, I silently stood in my place for a few moments, making my intent not to move clear. 'No one knows about my Active Adaptation module yet. I'll try to avoid using it if I can.' Taking a close look at the pistols in David's hand, Phazon's robotic eyes scrutinize them. 'Those guns... Could be a problem for me if they get a direct hit...'

Kage's corpse disappeared.

In Spain Hill, a bandit came into existence. Looking around, the bandit faced towards Shibu-Q Heads.

"Wonder if anyone's claimed that one yet." Kage muttered, jumping. He landed atop a building and almost flew towards his destination. There was one person there. Grinning, Kage jumped down and landed on the street gracefully.

"Revenge is a dish best served burning hot, Ranran..." Kage said pointing a dagger at her.

I smiled. At this point in time, Phazon was the only one who's abilities I didn't know ahead of time. He was a cyborg, but that's about all I knew. Maybe some sort of probability analyzers? Meh, whatever.

I pointed both of my pistols, "You hit that right on the bulls-eye, Phazon. It's pretty obvious though, so I'm glad you figured that out," I smiled happily.

"I'll be the one to enter it, because I'll be the one to commit the most sins of murder," I began firing off my holy pistols, bending them to move in all directions, only to turn in and surround Phazon. I knew he'd appreciate the name so I went ahead and shouted it as I began shooting.

"Holy Bullet Hell! Priest's Danmaku!" I shouted out.

(Note that my talking doesn't account for how long it takes the bullets to reach Phazon, but rather I'm making use of a trope where my words and attack somehow coincide even though the attacks should hit him/he should react before I finish the sentence(s). )

Ran turned at the sound of someone's voice. When she saw Kage, she blinked in surprise. "Ghostie? Oh yay! You're alive!" She grinned back at him.

Kage took out his dagger and her smile disappeared. "Oh, frick.." she muttered.

"Frick indeed!~" Kage shouted, before throwing the dagger at her. The dagger turned into twenty daggers as it left his hand. He followed it up with several throwing knives that turned into nearly a hundred throwing knives.

Ran's eyes widened. "Well.. That's a lot of knives.."

She quickly pulled two swords out of her jacket and deflected as many of the knives as she could with them. She was nicked several times on the legs and arms, and a dagger hit her in the shoulder. "Ow!" she said and dropped one of her swords. She reached into her pocket and pulled out three hand grenades. She pulled out the pins with her teeth and then threw them at Kage.

Kage ran around in a wide arc to dodge the grenades, drawing his scimitars. He ran forward, reaching his top speed in an instant, one scimitar held out in an attempt to cut through Ranran's neck as he ran past.

Reacting quickly, Phazon's legs suddenly shoot together, held tight by magnets. Blades sprouted out of the side of the new, single limb. "GO GO DRILL LEGS!" Phazon shouted, though by the time he finished with his words he had already drilled himself a hole into the ground. Raising an arm over his head, a blade quickly shot out of his fore-arm and then expanded into a shield, covering the hole with a metal guard.

Phazon's power system quickly rerouted to supply his defenses with more power. 'David doesn't know my style yet. If I just keep from changing my specs too much from here, then I don't think he'll notice the effects of my Active Adaptation...'

[Stat Spread:

Health: 1
Physical Attack Strength: 14 +6
Physical Defense Strength: 20
Running Speed: 15
Agility: 15
Magical Defense: 0]

A series of plinking sounds rang out as the bullets bounced harmlessly off of Phazon's shield. "Nice try, David. But you'll need something more powerful than bullets to harm me." echoed Phazon's voice from within his hole.

"More powerful than bullets?" I asked, smiling.

I pulled out several sticks of dynamite, all ten of which were tied together, and lit the single fuse before tossing it on top of his metal shield. If nothing else it should blow away all the ground around him...

"Hey, David?" replies Phazon's voice after the dynamite lands on his shield. Quickly, he jumps out of his hole in the ground, swinging his arm so that the shield is facing David. This, of course, tossed the bundle of dynamite that was on his shield back towards David. As Phazon land on the ground right behind his hole, he covers himself with the shield and points at the dynamite with his other hand. A jet of flame shoots out of his wrist as his hand swings down on a hinge, a fireball engulfing the pack of airborne dynamite.

"Nice try."

Ran gasped. She ducked and sprinted away from Kage. "I like having my head attached," she said while rubbing her neck. She pulled a flame thrower out of her jacket and aimed it at Kage.

"Didn't you mention something about 'burning hot' earlier?" She turned it on. 'I really shouldn't keep things like this in my clothes,' she thought as she saw the fire burst out of the weapon.

Kage pushed off the wall of a building and flipped above Ranran, throwing a barrage of throwing knives down at her, before dropping down himself, spinning his scimitars around himself like a saw blade of death.