eswareinmal | BEHOLD, THE EMO CAVE

BEHOLD, THE EMO CAVE

So it wasn't unheard of for the Cursed Knight to go out ~~looking for trouble~~ questing for new challenges to overcome. Several of the townspeople had figured this out. And why, when one of them mentioned that there was a cave with the strongest enemy Hajime could or would ever face, Hajime went charging off in there...

...and then got stuck because turns out the cave fed off of dark emotions and was some sort of test, and it's not like Hajime was great at dealing with that by himself.

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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...

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BEHOLD, THE EMO CAVE

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