eswareinmal | BEHOLD, THE EMO CAVE

"Help! Help!" Ryo went scurrying off to find adult assistance, because he hadn't been silly enough to follow Hajime into a cave that was quite obviously putting off bad vibes.

Tachibana paused, setting down his work at the familiar voice. "Ryo?" he called, getting to his feet. "What's happened?"

Being in possession of particularly sharp senses, and having happened to have crept his way closer to town, Jack just so happened to overhear Ryo's panic at some distance. Concerned, he broke into a run and moved towards the source of the ruckus...

...and damn it, the source of the ruckus had to have Tachibana in it, didn't it? He grimaces, looks at the man for only a moment, then turns his eyes to Ryo instead. "What's the matter?" He's not a bad guy. Look at him helping, here.

Ryo was flailing around and bouncing up and down now that he'd found not one, but two grown-ups who could help. "Hajime got swallowed up by big scary cave! Needs help!"

There's a small twitch of annoyance as I-- Jack shows up, and Tachibana does his damndest to not look at the man with Isaka's face and memories, focusing instead on Ryo.

... and then letting out a quiet curse. Goddamnit, Hajime...!

"Where?" he asked, quickly pulling off his work apron and scribbling Sayoko a quick note.

Garren, curious as to the noise, peeked in from the other room before rushing over, seeing everyone's distress.

"A cave?" Jack wants to be doubtful at the danger of this, and he looks doubtful... but he knows that this place is full of tricks and traps and unexpected things. "What's so scary about it?" He's not doubting, he's.. trying to get an answer out of Ryo, that's all.

He's just going to carefully side-step towards Ryo, and away from Tachibana.

"Is scary broody cave! Hajime can't get out and was supposed to go fight something really bad in there!" Ryo hopped over to Garren. "Is very very dark and lot of bad energy coming out of it!"

Garren gasped, putting his hands up over his mask before mimicking his Slammer's transformation pose and nodding empathetically.

Tachibana nodded in agreement, keeping his inner monologue about Hajime's idiotic penchant for charging in headfirst without even letting anyone else know what he was going to do to himself. "We'll get him out, don't worry," he assured. "Show us the way?"

"...alright then." That is terribly unspecific, but what better way to get the specifics than to come along to help haul his cousin on out? He narrows his eyes and adjusts the collar of his cloak. "We'll all get him out. I'm coming, too."

Tachibana glanced over, eyes narrowed. "The hell can you even do?"

It's a pointed, if guarded question.

Tachibana gets himself a pointed look in return. "I can fight, can't I?" He's quite sure that he can. He's even done it a little!

Tachibana was still and silent a long moment, fists clenched tight at his side, before he turned, stalking outside. With a dramatic motion, he transformed into Galen's form. "Ryo, Garren, climb on," he all but ordered, not giving Jack a second glance.

Ryo bounded up onto Tachibana's back as instructed. "We have to hurry! Go fast!"

He waved at Jack. "Is just to the south of here! That way!" He was pointing to the west.

The cave does not simply spit Hajime's rescuers into a nice, normal cave setup. Oh, no. That would be too easy. There are no stalagmites and stalagtites. No bats. No weird blind cave snakes dangling from the ceiling.

There's a ripple of magic, and then there's chaos in every direction.

The cave deposits would-be rescuers into the middle of a ruined city. Skyscrapers have holes in them or have been knocked down completely. Cars have been abandoned. An eighteen-wheeler lies turned over on its side in the middle of the street, long tears and dents all along its body suggesting something did this by force. The pavement is a crumbled mess. Road signs and traffic lights have all been knocked over. A few lampposts look like they've been tied into knots. A tattered "LOCKE CITY WELCOMES YOU" banner dangles from one of said trashed lampposts. There are also pieces of what appear to be spaceship debris among the wreckage. The sky's got an unnatural reddish hue to it, and the air feels heavy, as though it's about to rain. The gray clouds in the red sky, along with the ominous rumble of thunder in the distance, seem to corroborate this.

All this might have been bad enough to contend with if things were quiet, if the rescuers were alone, but they're not. There's fighting in the streets. Big, bipedal cockroach monsters with more than a passing resemblance to Hajime's Joker form are out there in force, their buzzing and growling competing with the thunder being thematically on point with the rumbling in the distance. Said giant roaches are all brawling with armored alien soldiers.

There's also a vague sense of being watched, and sharp-eyed dungeon-goers may spot a strange twisted stone monolith perched on the edge of one of the rooftops. It puts off a definite vague sense of observation and foreboding. Looking at it for too long will start to instill feelings of hopelessness, futility, and despair in the unwary.

At least the roaches and the aliens aren't paying anyone else any attention. They're so focused on fighting each other that they've totally failed to pick up on anyone else present. There is that.

...This was not the first time Tachibana had seen memories of Locke; previous dungeons, both Hajime and Lyall's had given him glimpses.

...but neither of them had been overrun with Darkroaches, and even having encountered a Darkroach that did not behave like a Darkroach, there is a flashback induced panic that wells in Tachibana and he freezes in place, breath catching. The oppressive feeling that the Sealing Stone gives off does nothing to minimize his rush of memories and emotions either...

That neither the Roaches, or what they were fighting were taking notice of him was a mixed blessing. On one hand, he wasn't being attacked in his moment of flashback induced weakness.

... on the other hand, adrenaline was firmly tugging him in the "flight" rather than "fight" direction, leaving the two urges locked in a tug of war that was doing nothing to get him moving....

A wave of nauseating nostalgia hits Jack as he stumbles into the scene a moment after Tachibana. He knows this place, it's home, a home he hasn't seen for far too long... and it's a disaster. Absolute chaos, with enough things pulling at his Undead senses that he brings a hand up to his forehead, flinching at the oppressiveness of it. "Nghh..."

He needs to focus on something else... and Tachibana sure is something else. There's a look of uncomfortable terror on the man's face that is uncomfortably familiar... "Whatever this is, we can handle it!" He snaps the words, just as much trying to encourage himself as the other man. "If Hajime's in this mess, who else is going to come get him!?"

Tachibana tensed, fists tight at his side. "Shut up!" he snapped. The last thing he needed was to hear Isaka's voice in this mess of nightmares...!

Without a damned clue what to do or where to do, but with the overwhelming urge to be anywhere else and away from the man with Isaka's face and voice, he stalked off, reaching for his buckle.

At least the aliens didn't seem to be paying Jack or Tachibana any mind.

The Darkroaches, however, were starting to approach Jack curiously. There was a bit of buzzing from the nearest ones, and this summoned more of them from...somewhere. Some of them were starting to look hostile.

"Hey...!" Jack takes a few steps after Tachibana, but stumbles to a discouraged stop. He really isn't the right person to try and calm him down, is he? But in his coming to a stop, he has to reassess his surroundings, for his head is doing the thing all the more...

...and that's more of those Undead-bugs, isn't it? So many more. He grits his teeth, inhales with a sharp hiss, and tenses, torn between the human impulse to flee and the Undead impulse to fight. Could he take them? He thinks he could take them, but what if he can't take them? What if this is like what Torin told him about....?

The buzzing gives Tachibana pause. And something to focus on. His has his Buckle this time, And he was much stronger than he was after Karasuma had fished him out of the ocean...

Better get the hell out of the way, Jack, because that sound you're hearing in addition to that buzzing is the standby of Tachibana's Belt activating, and he's not going to give you much more of a warning than that and his yelled "Henshin!" before that projection is rushing out, with him following.

He hears the 'henshin!' and his eyes go wide. Moving by pure reflex, he jerks to the side in time to narrowly avoid getting swiped by the projection of energy. But that dodge takes him closer to the approaching, maliciously inquisitive Darkroaches... so he once again acts on reflex and throws his hand out towards it, throwing out a burst of psychic force that ought to knock it off its buggy feet.

He's not going to change, not going to change yet, not until it's absolutely necessary. He hates that form...

As much as it's understandable that Jack is using that power.... Tachibana still hates to see it. "Get the hell out of the way!" he snaps, shooting at the Roaches that Jack was a little too close to.

"What does it look like I'm doing?!" Those shots are way too close. He jerks and dodges once more, moving with a better than human speed... but with less grace than Isaka has been known to exhibit. There's a bit of windmilling of his arms. "Fire at the other ones, you asshole!"

Once he has his footing again, he fires another blast at another roach.

"I'll fire at whatever the hell ones I want to!" Tachibana returned. If that shot was a little closer than Jack would have liked... well. Served him right. "Stop getting in the way!"

"I'm not getting in the way!" He ducks, he leaps, he fires again, he pauses for breath... "They're following me!"

It has yet to occur to him why they'd be following him.

"They're Darkroaches!" Tachibana returned, shooting another pair in rapid succession. "They're drawn to any damned thing that isn't Joker so that they can destroy it!"

"Well you're not the Joker, either! Don't blame me!" That... that can't be it, can it? Surely a man in a Rider system suit is just as important to beat on as another Undead?

...crap, how did that one get in so close! It takes a swipe at him that he only narrowly dodges, tearing his shirt and coat with its claws. "...shit!"

"The Rider System is based on Joker's abilities!" Another blast of fire slams into the one that Jack barely dodged from. "Get behind me if you won't go for cover, you damned idiot!"

He could yell some more, but getting behind someone armored seems like a good life choice right about now. The arm on the side that got clawed is rapidly going numb, and the sensation is spreading down into the leg as well. By the time he's behind Tachibana, he's visibly dragging it.

"The claws've got... some sort of poison...!" And it's a poison that's gotten into Jack's bloodstream, given all the green staining his shirt now.

Tachibana let out a loud curse, shooting another Darkroach back. If he could get a second to concentrate...

With an aggravated sound, he tosses the rouzer into the air, taking a moment to pull his focus together. His form ripples, shifting and growing until it's Galen's intimidating form that catches the Rouzer as it falls back to Earth, letting off another quick round of shots before turning, his rear legs slamming into an encroaching Darkroach and launching it back with an impressive force into the others behind it.

Expression a mask of annoyed concentration, he holds his hand out towards Jack, palm facing the bleeding man before starting to glow with an intense light.

Now that he doesn't have to drag his half-paralyzed ass through a battlefield, Jack can stop and fire another psychic blast at one of the roaches. And another still. But he doesn't manage to pull off a third because Tachibana is doing something absolutely astonishing. Is that... did he... is this suddenly an Old Spice commercial????

He takes in that sudden bit of roach-kicking all slack-jawed, but then Tachibana's attention is on him and he's being aimed at with something glowy. Reflexively trying to flee, he fails and instead falls on his ass with a terrified yelp.

Tachibana doesn't even react to the yelp or the scramble, simply shifting his arm slightly to still aim the strongest of the purifying light to where Jack is bleeding.

Hope you have your sunglasses on, Jack. You're gonna need 'em.

He does indeed have his sunglasses on. They help somewhat. As does his good arm, that comes up to try and protect himself, somehow, from the horror that is to come.

He's very surprised when it turns out that it's just warmth. Healing warmth. Warmth that immediately eases the numbness and uselessness of his limbs. "W... what the...?"

But he's not so much of a stunned idiot that he's going to keep sitting there. This is still a fight, and more roaches are coming.

Tachibana simply smirked, looking obnoxiously smug before he turned, sending another Roach sky high in the process before shifting back to his normal, armored form.

All of this commotion with the Darkroaches has only drawn more Darkroaches to the area, and it's also attracted the aliens, as well. Some of the Darkroaches are still trying to fight the aliens, some of them are still trying to fight Tachibana and Jack, and still others are kind of looking confused about everything. They'd really like to fight the aliens instead, but Tachibana and Jack are just so aggressive, gosh. A couple of them are just irritably buzzing at the two.

The aliens, on the other hand, just start shooting indiscriminately. ~~Not unlike someone else there in the area~~.

They really have added some extra chaos into the existing chaos, haven't they? Steadying himself on his feet, Jack looks around at all of this, and looks at one of the... irritable darkroaches? Yes, that one's irritable. That's a noise of annoyance.

"Look, we're just here to get Hajime out of this place! And you're the ones that started it!"

He is just... going to... ignore the centaur-Tachibana behind him. That is a little too much weirdness for the moment.

~~Hey hey hey, his aim is very purposeful here.~~

Thankfully for Jack's sanity, Tachibana has switched back to the far more familiar armored form, not really wanting to risk finding out how the ichor would respond to whatever poison it was.

...and Jack was arguing with the Roaches. A small snort escapes as Tachibana turns his attention to the aliens. Roaches, he knew, didn't stay down long before new ones took their places, but these things?

Time to see how well they responded to flaming double drop kick....

One of the irritable Darkroaches perks up a bit at Hajime's name, and there's a bit of buzzing and gesturing at a skyscraper a couple of blocks away.

The aliens really don't seem to like the double drop kick much at all, really. They explode rather impressively, leaving nothing behind.

...though the next ones will be considerably more flame-retardant, as though they're adapting...

BEHOLD, THE EMO CAVE

Outside the Emo Cave

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Inside the Emo Cave

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