The 13th Hour, The Zeroth Hour, of the 17th of Three

[strangerfromthedesert]

Who: Zero & OPEN
Where: Sagittarius Ward, mainly
Summary: Zero tasks himself with defense of the city during the 13th Hour. He wasn't expecting old ghosts to persist in chasing him here so soon, but maybe he should have.
Warnings: Base level of violence dealing with constructs, up to who is there really.

The new phase of the moon shifted into its crescent the other day, removing peaceful nights for the rest of the month. It's Zero's first day of active duty — or night, rather. The night sky became blood-red, matching parts of his armored body. The world felt still for but a moment, engulfed in ruby hues and bloodied twilight.

It was then that what was left darkened black by the shadows of the industrial sector gleaned their own red, this time by the light given off from materialized things. Things not native to Hinoto-Ri. Things that should have stayed back where Zero came from. He readied his working Z-Saber from his holster, turning it on and brandishing its green glow in front of him as he took it with both hands.

If they're going to come that far to take him down, he'll see them to their own end as well.

---

Should you be anywhere around the Sagittarius Ward tonight during the 13th Hour, some new monsters have appeared to assault the city... except they don't seem to be interested in you. They trudge or fly along as if searching for something, or someone. Attacking them will cause a response in kind should you decide to bother them. Otherwise, they move toward an unspecified location that changes through the hour, where they find their eventual target: A lone warrior.


Enemy Roster
LVL 1
Pantheon Guardian x ∞
Pantheon Hunter x ∞
LVL 2
Golem (Head) & (Body) x 1+ depending on player activity. (Mention if you don't want to fight such things, wards have a lot of space in them. At least one WILL eventually find Zero's location in his own section.)

There's a section for characters getting caught up in the battle alongside Zero, and a section for those that want to pre-emptively attack the enemy forces. Have fun!

Comments

[strangerfromthedesert]

Whoever the kid is, he's strong despite himself. Three Pantheon Hunters steady themselves, taking aim with their arm cannons to try and fight from a distance. Two of them get knocked out of commission by the wooden sandals, but another remains standing, firing at the new combatant seemingly assisting Zero.

That won't do. Reaching behind his back, he produces a rectangular-looking gun with his other hand and quickly shoots three plasma shots to give cover fire, one of them hitting the right mark and crashing into the machine's head, making it stumble backward and lose its aim.

[gegege_no_ge]

The kid seems oddly unphased by the fire. In fact, he removes his vest in response. A cocky show of machismo? Actually, as a matter of fact, he's actually blocking the shots with it (isn't that thing made of cloth or something?!) as he moves forward, pulling what seems to be a hair off his head. It rapidly expands into a more sword-like blade, which he subsequently uses to cause his own damage against his assailants.

(Golem Fight eventually Y/N?)

[strangerfromthedesert]

Zero watches with his peripheral vision while the scene unfolds. It's becoming more clear over time that the "kid" is more than a normal human being, doing things that begin to defy logic. The hair-sword in particular defeats the Hunter with ease, and for the moment that's all of the Pantheons immediately nearby, though the distant movement of more can be heard with good hearing.

Holstering back the gun, Zero checks himself over to assess his battle strength, taking a safe swing in the air with his Z-Saber. Why couldn't he push all his power into his attacks? Strange. That's when the glint of crystals catch his eye towards the floor. He picks up one of them, the red of the sky overpowering the natural light blue coloring of its container. Energen. Storing the piece he found, he says with a volume measured to be sure the other party heard him without catching too much attention from the machines.

"They seem to be more after me than anyone. Thanks for the help."

Y

[gegege_no_ge]

"These ones are. The others not so much." He grumbles. "They're all over the place, and they're causing just as much trouble for us as they are for humans." He returns the vest to around his shoulders again -- yep, definitely looks like cloth -- and grumbles. "More outsiders bringing in strange new things, I think."

He waves off the thanks. "It was in the middle of what I was doing tonight anyway. Don't worry about it."

Sorry for the delay, busy day.

[strangerfromthedesert]

The Reploid doesn't visibly react, but more questions appear in his head from the invincible vest and the differentiation between humans and "us". Even if it was a calmer time, he may not have raised them to the boy, but before that could even happen the sound of thrusters announce the entry of another being.

"Look out!" Zero exclaims and braces himself for an immediate attack, knowing what the thing is capable of if unchecked.

The massive hulk of parts and metal flies over to near their location and stopped. It's colored in an alternating set of gray and teal with a heat grate for a body and hoverjets for feet. Sporting two immense hands and a diminutive head comparingly, the Golem clenches a hand and, after quickly judging between its two targets, attempts to grab at the boy with the other.

[gegege_no_ge]

"Tch!" Kitaro dives out of the way of the large hand, pulling another hair off his head and throwing it back at the Golem in retaliation. Such big, metal things would render his regular hair needles useless, which is why he's pulling out the big guns.

Robots versus youkai. This world truly is different.

[strangerfromthedesert]

The Golem finds a shaft of brown stuck in its side. It stalls the giant for a few seconds, and in this time the Reploid in red is attempting something... risky in retrospect.

Is he climbing that building's wall? No — it looks more like he was jumping on it, as if the gravity of the world was on its side just for him. He jumps from it to the building on the other side of the street and continues up that one, bouncing back and forth between them. Finding the right altitude and angle, Zero takes a final leap and aims his lightsaber straight down to land on the Golem with it.

Except... that doesn't work. The Golem recovered too quick and seizes the jumper in its grasp on his way down.

"Aaagh! Damnit..." He cringes from the pressure of the fist closing in on his form. Was he not fast enough?

[gegege_no_ge]

"Tch!" Kitaro kicks his geta up onto his hands and, moving forward, aims towards one of the knee joints, bringing his hands together in a clapping motion. Let's see how you like THAT, you big ugly thing.

[strangerfromthedesert]

The shock-force of the attack jars the hulk enough so that it tilts on one end from a temporary reduction of hover thrust on one leg. During that time, Zero was thrashing about inside its fist, trying his damnedest to wriggle free of the hold, but it stuck fast. "Try its head, it's weak there!"

If that doesn't work, he already has a plan of sorts... though it's more like a last resort. He managed to worm the Buster Shot from his back during his thrashing. A green glow emanates from him, pulsing over his form and illuminating the inside of the hand squeezing him with a rhythmic sound to match.

Meanwhile, the thing's head opens its mouth to reveal a cylinder, one that projects about a half-foot forward, and cranes its neck downward to the ground under its legs, a green glow of its own shining inside the cannon. That doesn't look good...

[gegege_no_ge]

"Right!" He throws his sandals full force at the thing's head, the two seemingly wooden geta flying with the same unbelievable force as before at the thing's head. Meanwhile, the boy whips his vest around at the thing's head, aiming to block the cannon with his vest before it even fires.

[strangerfromthedesert]

A fierce feeling was slowly rising in the crimson reploid. Perhaps it was stress from not being as strong, as fast, as he used to be. Maybe it was the thought that Neo Arcadia followed him here, willing to take anyone else down along with them as collateral. Whatever the reason(s), the next moments felt like minutes compared to seconds, a stretch of time that made the moment longer than it really was.

The vest makes it just in time — a singeing sound can be heard, the laser attempting to scratch the surface of the indestructible fabric. The pair of geta make their mark easily with the Golem being stuck in its current attack, knocking at its sensors and making it release Zero from its high grasp.

With Plan A having worked after all, Zero takes the opportunity to aim his Buster Shot's sights to meet the machine's head with his own attack. Which he would have followed with releasing his charged shot, but...

"Kouha!!"

That sort of sounded familiar, coming from his own mouth. And yet, he knew it was something new he said. Suddenly, blueish lights shot out from the ground under him to collect into a ball of light above with two rainbow rings encircling it, shooting a luminous blast from itself to smack the Golem's face.

Zero lands with barely any balance, a leg knelt and a hand touching the ground, himself looking up in wonder.

We are one... and the very same...
From the depths of your being, I arise...
Together we stand, for endless fight...

He picks himself up, taking a final moment to look upon the being before turning his attention back to the mechaniloid. It still stands, but its face looks badly damaged from the combined assault of wood and light. He urges at Kitaro, "Just a little more and it'll go down. Let's end this!" before aiming his Buster Shot at the Golem's face once more, ready to fire his charge in time with the next attack.

[gegege_no_ge]

Oh boy oh boy, just what Kitaro wanted, another one of those Persona outsiders. He'd sort of suspected, honestly, and that just confirmed it. Oh well, he had to take care of this thing anyway.

He sighs, whipping out another hair saber and moving in for one last good slashing. He's going to need a good nap from all the mental energy he's expending doing this stuff.

[strangerfromthedesert]

The Golem, not going down without one last move, begins to move forward towards the two, but it's already too late.

He caught that sigh, but that'll have to wait. Zero fires his charged blast, a slightly larger shot with more of a glow to it and looking like a miniature comet, and combined with the hair saber blows the head clean off, stopping the Golem immediately. The machine falls apart in different places, first the knee joint attacked earlier, then the bottom half splits from the top, the entirety of the being disassembling in a pile. It all then began to burn in electrical fire. It didn't look like it was going to blow up for the moment, thankfully.

Afterwards, Zero puts away his gun and sword and began to talk after observing the Golem a moment. "This sort of thing happens a lot for you, I take it?"