Jefferson City 3: Charlie - The Ranger

He took a deep breath, much like a person about to dive deep under the water, and in a lot of way it was very similar. He was diving into the unknown at this very moment during this mission and in many ways he was a bit anxious. Yet, he had to keep his wits about him, and after appearing with his squad mates in the middle of the city, Daniel would quickly be on high alert. He tried to stay in the center of the team, trying to make himself be unappealing as a target as possible, and with his low spiritual energy in comparison to his peers it wasn't hard to do. He had his role to fulfill in being a part of this team and he wanted to be as useful as he could, the best way he figured he could do that now was by being as calm as he could. At least on the surface that is.

He supposed that if the weakest link in the group looked at least calm, it would make the others feel more calm themselves. After all, why would they be worried if Daniel wasn't? He was attempting to be a people pleaser, even here on the fields of conflict, and he hoped he was at least making some other people at least a bit more calm in this situation. Even though he was anything but calm at this point. He watched as Liltotto prowled around the perimeter and as she did, Daniel began to check his equipment once again. He needed to be sure he had enough tools to be of use here on the battlefield.

He would not be a liability, he would not slow down the operation, and he would be an asset. He kept reassuring himself of that as he kept doing inventory on his equipment.

As the men moved forward, Kokuto moved with them, making sure to keep an eye on Daniel as they stepped through the ink-colored portal, moving into an eerily quiet parking lot. The only thing he could hear was the footsteps of the other soldiers around him -- as well as the sudden sound of buzzing in his ear as a radio seemingly manifested in the space.

Even though he wasn't a Quincy, he could tell that the energy in the area was dense, ripe with power all around them. As a few other men vanished, Kokuto remained, keeping an eye out in the immediate vicinity. He took a glance at the nearby Daniel, reaching down to gently pat the younger man on the back.

"Stay sharp and stay close, kid. We got a lot of ground to cover."

He didn't really know what he was meant to do in a situation like this -- he was far from anything remotely stealthy, neither his build or powers gave much way for him to do something like that. Nevertheless, he took a deep breath, focusing his power into his Reikaku as he started to move forward. Even if he wasn't built for this kind of work, he still would try and keep an eye out for anything that might be closing in on them.

His scouts reported nothing of interest, simply verifying that there are no enemies as they traveled here and there. Jenkins, however, opened the channels to let everyone know that there's going to be a slight uptick in energy in a second, and on cue, there came that explosive energy that traveled through the sky. Everyone would feel it, and everyone would feel it simply vanish as if it never existed as well. Its specific signature vanished with it, losing any trace that it was Ehefra who had fired into the empty city.

Though, after Ehefra's attack had begun to fade, that's when Lion was given key information.

"Sir, bogey spotted."

Lion stopped, putting a hand to his ear as information streamed into his mind, a recollection of how something had appeared the moment Ehefra's attack had begun to disappear. It lasted for only a second, but it appeared a human figure was seen walking across the street. Its appearance was off, its clothing ragged and the individual seemingly translucent before they simply vanished. There are no traces of foreign energy, no identifying smells in the area. It as almost as if the guy had just saw an illusion.

"Stay alert, men. Something's up," Lion would say, transmitting this information to his squad before relaying this information to the other squads.

Kept close to the bounds of the perimeter they flocked, her footsteps slowed and breathing cool. There wasn't any trouble... But this arena had her perplexed; the Reishi didn't appear to be moving... Much at all, really. Normally ambient Reishi had some form of current but this was just... Still, stagnant. Like a haze over her other senses. Is the stagnation why this is happening? Well, she doubted this stuff just gathered up here on it's own, there has to be something or someone causing it to pool like this-

She was torn from her thoughts when her senses caught something traversing, but she relaxed for a moment when she recognized the scent; It was just Ehefra's energy... Then she stiffened when she realized that energy faded out. It was no different smelling than anything else around her, it might as well have never been an expressed attack.

Then she detected a flourishing.

"Yeah I can't tell what that is from here, but something's definitely engaging Alpha..." It just smelled like everything else, but stronger somehow? At least she wouldn't have to worry about finding entities in this fog.

He had thought he had done a good job not standing out too much and staying close to the 'herd' so to speak to protect himself from being singled out, but apparently he had failed. Miserably. A pat on the back caused Daniel to almost jump, but then recompose himself only for him to shoot a death glare at Kokuto.

"Don't do that!"

He didn't shout, as he hissed at Kokuto in shock, and even more in a bit of embarrassment. He was the odd duck out, he knew that, and he was fine with that, but now he was clearly being singled out by the more powerful members of their team. And not in a good way. There were things he could, he knew that, but being looked after by two people in the squad who were clearly stronger than him was beginning to make him regret signing up for this. Well, not really signing up as he had been volunteered, but he had been fine with it at the time. He had to earn some credibility after all, even if that meant putting his life on the line in agreeing to do this. Looking around at his comrades, he felt the gulf in their power differences, only for his senses to pick up an energy signature. One he had felt before from the office.

"I hope she is alright..."

He murmured under his breath before shaking his head and letting out a groan. Like he had time to worry about his boss, right now? He was in the same location, probably moments away from dealing with something similar, and he needed to be ready. He slapped himself on the cheek and then looked out into the fog, sharpening his senses, and trying his best to pick up anything that could be considered a threat. A futile effort, but something he felt like he needed to try. He heard Liltotto mention something about Alpha engaging something and a small flash of concern crossed his face, but then his focus would return. They could handle it, he believed in his comrades, and that belief in his comrades would give him strength. Right?

Yeesh, all he said was to stay sharp. He was going to make a comment in response, but, then, he heard the notice from Lion. As then continued to look around the perimeter, a crooked sword manifested in Kokuto's hand. He was more concerned about making sure that as many people came back from this as he could make happen. None of them knew how powerful the potential threat was for this mission -- as far as he knew, he could be very well on a death march.

He couldn't sense anything in the immediate vicinity, but there was something in the distance, engaging where the Alpha team had went. Even if it was a decent distance away, that didn't stop him from remaining on guard. There were any number of potential variables for a situation like this. While the information that had received was limited, the order to stay alert meant that either there were multiple opponents, some kind of duplication power or equipment, or that whatever was engaging the Alpha team could be heading their way.

He didn't have the same sensory powers that the Quincy did -- all he could do right now was go off instincts.

"Jenkins? Jessie?" Lion spoke, suddenly being unable to connect with anyone in a distance despite still being able to communicate with those around him.

It seems something had suddenly cut off his ability to send his thoughts out to the other squads. He then tried to connect with the Quincy who was using their ability to give them this long distance communication, but he also got nothing. Something's not right, and the sky exploding was all he needed to know that things are about to get extremely dicey.

The Reishi above broke loose, revealing a massive floating ship. Doors on its side opened before canisters shot from its hull. What appeared to be missiles fell towards the ground, scattering throughout the city, but not all of them landed in the city. Some exploded in the air, sprinkling thick amounts of Reishi onto those below.

Without the ability to communicate with his scouts normally, Lion was forced to pull out his headset, testing it to no avail. Whatever's going on has cut off all long range communication. The thick Reishi that began to rain though, proved auspicious, and just like with Alpha, a sudden torrent of Reishi began to berate the squad from seemingly all directions.

"Charlie!" Lion yelled, but that didn't help as creatures with marred flesh and ghastly visage started to pop up from seemingly nowhere. One could hear buildings creaking and screaming as these remaining canisters that fell crashed into them and onto the streets around them, but that hardly mattered as zombie-esque monsters suddenly started charging into their group.

"Men! Defend ourselves. We need to reestablish contact with the other squads!"

Lion was quick to step to the side of an approaching zombie as the Reishi winds around them died down and raised his hand, his fists suddenly coiled with metal as he smashed his hands down into the creature, smashing it straight into the ground with a bloody crunchy splat.

"Nodo..." She was already uttering the awakening phrase for her power, hand reaching for her mouth as her gaze pressed to the sky as the ship came into view, the darkness pooling out to be grasped, "Touitsu!"

A simple whip of the arm with the substance in hand constituted it's shape into that of a spear, the forming chaos around her entirely disregarded for just a moment. Her senses were what told her of her surroundings, the beings that came into view... They didn't smell alive, in fact they hardly had much of their own scent at all.

A flickering bulb of light and darkness bulged and concentrated at the end of her spear, bubbling in mass yet concentrating down into a tiny sphere as power gathered and bloomed within it, a faint hiss as it's vortex-like movements ripped the air. The concentration of Reishi must be what's causing this; they only appeared after Ehefra sent what she assumed to be an initiative scout, and now this ship appeared bombarding the area.

The ball of swirling features expanded and exploded in movement, an arc large and far enough to swallow a significant portion of the ship's hull burst into the sky and cut through the fog, a swirling of loose Reishi being pulled into the light's destructive field as a loud hiss ripped the air. Though she couldn't move, she ensured the attack had enough into it to at least severely damage the ship should it pierce as expected.

"What the hell?"

Daniel murmured to himself at he watched this plane fly by, dropping some kind of canisters like missiles down to the city below, but a few would open up in the air. He could feel the spike in spiritual energy around them as he looked over to his comrades in confusion. Just what the hell was going on, he wondered, and it was clear he wasn't the only one at least from the appearance of his comrades faces in his general vicinity. That is when their commander began to yell something about defending themselves, as out from the thickened fog zombie-esque creatures shambled out to engage the troops on the ground. Daniel, a man who had never experienced a high level of conflict in his life, should have been panicking, but at that moment he was too focused. This was his first job, his first mission, and while he had said he wasn't much of a fighter, he knew he would need to add his skills to the table for them to get out alive. Even if he felt those skills were lacking.

Taking aim at a cluster of these zombies walking out from a nearby building, he would aim his gauntlet covered hand at it, and began to chant a spell. It was true he didn't have a great deal of destructive force, not like Liltotto, or the same type of skills as Kokuto, but he could try to push the flow of these creatures back. Grabbing another two cylinders from his side, he would launch one from his gauntlet, and throw the other two cylinders with his other hand toward a pack of these things.

"Bang the drums of war and disperse my enemies."

Daniel chanted as he faintly glowed a shade of teal. The three cylinders would get close to the pack of zombies and collide into each other, creating the sound of a rather large drum being banged, and then sending a shock wave of pressurized air at his adversaries in an attempt to knock them back a bit to give the troops more time to react to the threat that they were facing. He knew it wouldn't be super strong, but if he could knock a few back with this spell, then maybe he could give their more range inclined warriors some space, and give the more melee inclined warriors an opportunity to get more ready. After all, they were caught off guard, and had no idea how many of these things there were, or how they functioned. As he cast his spells, one eye darted up toward where Lilttoto had shot her spear, with clear intent to check if any damage had been done, or if the ship was falling on top of their heads.

Hearing the distant sound of moving parts, Kokuto's head immediately turned to the sound, seeing the massive ship and the canisters falling onto the frail buildings. Despite the sudden shift of urgency in their situation, Kokuto still remained calm, barely having a proper reaction to the new information beyond analyzing the distance and potential structure of the ship to determine what his next move was.

On instinct, a flash of red erupted along his body as his Devil Steel activated, fading just as quick as it arrived, and orange flames flickered to life in his free hand. Reaching his hand up toward the ship, Kokuto began to compress the wild flames in his palm into a warm glimmer.

A thin, candle-like stream emitted briefly from his palm, a large wave of heat suddenly washing over everyone and everything in the immediate vicinity. Though, it wasn't long before a wave of silver erupted from his hand at high speeds, akin to a burning Cero as it tore through the sky toward the ship, intent on melting through upon contact and bring the thing crashing down.

Before his head fully moved to face the oncoming threat, Kokuto's body already began moving, a superheated punch crashing against the midsection of one of the zombie-like creatures that had lingered after Daniel's shockwave, tearing through its form with ease, as well as sending it flying from the resounding force. His eyes stole brief glances up to the ship to check on the damage and if it was coming down -- and, more importantly, if there was something else they had in store.