An average patrol...(Stratus)

Junko was sitting on a park bench, she was in her normal gigai, her new one being constructed for quite awhile... She noticed the glint of water fountain, and the birds as they took off, the overcast morning cast a dreary look over it all. She was in a courtyard, a brick courtyard, as the morning wore on people wove too and fro between eachother, all seemlessly meshing together. Junko relaxed, it was a good morning, and she would relish it, for as long as she could.

Opposite the courtyard

Stratus hated the sunlight, he felt exposed. Even though he was invisible to the masses below him, the light made it seem too easy. But the fear on their faces was enough to make up for the early hunting. The night day before he had been traveling endlessly. His pursuers were shinigami, but somehow he had lost them. Instead of hunting that night he had slept and hid. Now his hunger was at it's peak. He needed to feed. Without another thought he dropped into the street below, his landing caused the sidewalk to shatter. As a man walked over to examine the stranger occurrence, his head disappeared. The lifeless body fell to the ground as geyser of blood poured from his stump. The crimson rain showered a nearby woman, too shocked to scream. But then that chance was lost as she was torn in half in the next second. The moment of amazement turned to horror quickly and screams filled the air. Panic, chaos, and disorder. All these were present as Stratus worked his way through the small riot of people.

Junko watched as the seamless order became disorderly panic... everyone running too and fro, clearly not knowing what was wrong. and then it hit her, "Damnit, how did i not notice", A spiritual pressure had popped out of nowhere... and that was never good...

Junko spirinted from a sitting position, launching herself forward with her arms and pumping her legs to get a good start. As she sprinted, she tried to fish out her Soul Pill, which slowed her down, but as she was running through a paniced crowed, she was already moving rather slow.

With a soul pill in her right hand she put it in her mouth, under her tongue, not prepared to swallow it until she had confirmation of a hollow...

Confirmation she got, her now white hair got in her eyes as she stopped, stunned by this hollows, Junko swallowed her soul pill, and her shinigami form ejected from her gigai, Junko now had her soul form to contend with, the bulk and coolness of the chainmail, and the weight over her platemail. It conforted her against this clear brutatliy unfolding in front of her...

Junko drew her broadsword and yelled, "Hado 3 Crimson Strike", she yelled, shooting this at the hollow, hoping to draw its attention away from eating people...

His face was wet with blood as he chewed another unfortunate person. So much panic, they didn't know where to run. One man fell down only to be trampled. He screamed, but was killed almost instantly. As his soul rose up, Stratus grabbed it bit into the newly formed Plus soul. He laughed. So engrossed in this activity he didn't notice the signal that had arrived. There was a yell behind him and he turned just in time to see a bright red light. On reflex he pulled a human from the crowd to shield himself from the incoming blast. The right light burned the human and scorched Stratus' arm. He flinched in pain, but located the source of the attack. Was this a shinigami? So far they all had been in black robes. He tossed the still smoking remains of the human at the armored adversary. His hand now empty he fired a shot of slime at the warrior.

Junko saw the charred remains flying at her, the body had a few hours till it entered rigor, so now it was ragdolling at her... Junko braced her self, and caught the man, right as the slime hit... the slime splattered against teh corpse, that reaked of burning flesh... Junko tossed him away, as it reminded her too much of her burns on her back, which were almost healed... and she yelled again, Hado 4 White Lightning! aiming such an attack at the hollow's head.

The blast of energy caught the hollow squarely in the chest. As she had fire he had attempted to jump to a higher vantage point. The shot knocked him off his feet and through a parked bus and into a wall on the other side. A few unfortunate souls had taken refuge inside, they were crushed instantly while the survivors were trapped in the wreckage. Stratus hadn't expected such a blast from a shinigami. The last time he faced such an attack was from a human. He coughed and spat on the ground. There was a large scorch mark on his chest from being hit. Very painful, but somehow he didn't have a hole instead of a burn. He needed to get closer, this distance wasn't his best range. He growled and jumped atop the bus and fired a barrage baseball sized slime from his hands at his target.

Junko swore, the hollow didn't die from that attack, and that was a problem...

She approached the wreakage of the bus, seeing souls pop up around the wreckage she felt a pang of guilt, she had killed a few humans in a failed attack, her mind wandered, and her guard dropped, just for a moment, the wrong moment in fact...

Almost as in another mind she watched the hollow, throw a large amount of small projectiles, more than she could ever expect to block, or avoid, guessing by the trail of itself left behind, and viscoisty of the projectile, the appeared to made of semi liquid material, and they would spatter... Junko tried something she had been working on, and it probably wouldn't work, She gathered her reiastu at teh bottom of her feet and pushed, augmenting her speed, not much, but enough to get mostly clear of the slimeballs.

Mostly, Junko's right leg, one that was recovered from the burns, was hit, on the plate, but hit none the less... She thought nothing of it at the time, but it spun her in mid air, flipping her around, and the goo slipped until it was near her ankle and foot joint on her boot...

Junko landed on her knee, the sharp grind of her armor's knee plate as she slid for a moment before popping up to her feet, her zanpaktou clenched in her right hand... "Hado 7 Black Thunder" she swept her left arm, sending the wave of deep black reiatsu at her enemy.

"Blast it, another attack." Stratus muttered to himself. He released slime from his forearms and crystallized it. He used his newly armored limbs to guard his face and body as the black wave hit him. Again the hollow was knocked backwards the roar filling his ears. Stratus picked himself up from the ground. His head and body were fine, his lower body was slightly damaged from the dark attack. He noticed now that each ranged attack the warrior used was different. The first one was red and had burned him slightly. The white one was by far the most powerful, he looked at the burn on his chest. The last one, the black one, was very noisy. But the timing for them all the same. There was no way of knowing which one was coming until she fired one. Shattering the crystal off his arms he fired more orbs of slime from his right hand at the shinigami. This time she wasn't his true target, he was targeting the area around her. With his left he fired a strand of slime and whipped it at her from the left trying to force her into the glue trap.

Junko dodge the ones that came near her, until she relized that the intent was not to hit her but to trap her in that slime... Junko would be forced to use the same ablity, but to a lesser extent, and quickly relized she had incoming.. a strand of slime was incoming, and it was goign to force her in the air, or in the slime... Junko quickly crouched, and jumped, as high as she could, she slime strand catchign on teh cloak that she wore and yanking it away, and as seh fell, she gathered her reiastu at her feet, giving her a platform which to stand upon, and Jumped forward, at the hollow, and stabbed...

He had thought to have trapped her, but had overlooked the vertical plane; she could jump. Even more startling was that she stood on the air with ease rather than fall back to the ground. She can fly too? This wasn't going to be an easy fight. So captivated by the spectacle that he failed to notice she was now charging him. Too late to fire another blitz of slime he moved his arms to cover his mask. The blade went lower and stabbed into his stomach. As painful as it was he quickly released his slime and hardened it into crystal. The blade was stuck in him, and the wound sealed.
"Looks like you got me, but I now I got you!" He brings his claws down upon her from both sides.

The hollow's talons dug into the shinigami's armor as the spell ignited. The pain flooded his body as the fire burned him from the inside out. Stratus screamed and directed his fury at his opponent. The armor had resisted his first strike only denting slightly, but with his enraged pressure his claws pierced the metal shell. But even then he couldn't touch the fragile flesh beneath it; his nails only grazing her. The second wave of pain robbed him of the enhanced strength. Quickly he released his crystal holding the shinigami and pulled her free, and tossed her at the closest car. He stared down at his stomach, burnt and horribly scarred from the attack. He spit up blood as he realized how much damage he had truly taken. His regeneration could only heal him so much.

Junko gripped and all she did was become dead weight the initial grasp dented her armor, she could feel the pressure of it, and suddenly the claws were through, the pressure giving way and the abrasive claw making contact with her skin, and the armor, it had given way and formed jagged, and the chainmail had aparently made no ripping like paper under the claws.

And suddenly as her kido activated, she was tossed and she closed her eyes. she flew making contact with something hard, and that givign way... She opened her eyes and put her hands where the claws had struck their way through. There was liquid, and pain, and everytime Junko breathed, she felt the jagged edges of her breastplate digging into her chest, she felt it rubbing on her ribs, but perservering, she got up, she had hit an automobile, and it crumpled as she had hit it broadside.

Junko stood, blood falling out of the multiple pierce holes in her chest from the armor, Junko's left hand started fumbling with teh straps on her breastplate, trying to unfasten it, she was wearing a thin black robe underneath but it wouldn't have shown.

Junko had gotten the top straps off on her breastplate, holding it on from the waist straps, and it also released the backplate the same way... junko released the chainmail top straps, and it all fell away down to her feet... the thin black robe now showing, and Junko stepped out of it, and Used hado 2 reel to recover her zanpaktou, blood still pouring out of the wounds, and the wet cloth discoloring the robe...

Junko stood, waiting to see what teh hollow would do...

While the pain had subsided somewhat his rage did not. The wound was still open and he was bleeding. Once again he covered the opening with slime and crystallized it. The pain didn't stop, but the bleeding did. He did the same with the would in his back. He looked over to where he had tossed the shinigami. She had shed her armor and was bleeding. The sight filled him with glee; more pain, more blood. He formed a crystal in each hand and swung the the sword length weapons in his claws checking the balance. He gave a grin and dashed forward. When he was less than 4 feet from the warrior he tossed both weapons, they spun end over end horizontally one high and the other low. Stratus had already formed new ones. And came up behind the thrown attack with a double vertical slash.

Junko was ready for the charge by the hollow, when he spawned blades she was abit suprised, and it showed, aJunko let him close, and a horizontal attack followed by a vertical one left an opening, a box infact, but this box was to small to captialize herself... Junko used a foot to lift the armor, a feat in itself, and blocked the low thrown on with the armor and she blocked the second with her blade, and jumped backward, yelling out and leaving her arm trailing, aiming really, "Hado 4 White Lightning" this aiming at the chest wound, or the relative area of it, and the jumping back allowed her to dodge teh vertical strike...

The shinigami seemed faster without the armor. Not to mention crafty. She deflected the first attack with her discarded armor easy enough, still he pressed forward just as a blast of energy shot from her hand. Once more he was cast backwards by the attack, but this time not so much. As he was knocked away he threw his blades once more. Lucky for him this attack had managed to hit him squarely; most of the energy flying through the hole in his chest. It hurt, but he was well enough to fight. While he couldn't seem to get the timing of her casting he did notice that each of these energy blasts involved a pointing motion. He had to watch the hands, any kind of pointing could be at attempt to aim and attack. But he could use that to his advantage. He aimed his own hands and starting firing a hail of slime at the shinigami.

Junko kept dodging backwards, into the courtyard, where a water piece stood behind her, 15 feet high and still running magestically. It seemed that he was not interested in engaging in dodging, and apparently could take quite a beating.

Junko yelled, reaching above her head, closing her eyes for a moment, "Bakuto 5 Senko", Junko knew that the bright light would come and blind everyone around for a few seconds... As she resolved the kido, she incanted, "Let the swallow chirp at its finest and emit its power", She took aim, and yelled, "Hado 3 Crimson Strike"

Stratus kept firing, he hadn't retaliated in any way. He might be able to trap her after all. He couldn't contain his glee as she hop backwards right into the courtyard. Now she was making it too easy. It was then she shouted and raised her hand. Too intent on capturing her, he didn't think before it's too late. There was a blinding flash of light, and Stratus screamed as he was blinded. He could hear her speaking and felt her presence, but he couldn't aim properly without seeing her. He fired blindly. Suddenly her chant stopped and she shouted "Hado_" Although blinded his eyes went wide, "hado" was what she shouted the last time she fired something. Stratus dove to the sideways to the right into a roll, he felt a rush of heat on his left side. What ever it had been, he was happy it hadn't hit him.

Junko was concentrating on her Kido, so much so that when the randomly fired slime had hit her, she had no idea that it was even heading her way, It had come in an indirect arc and landed with more inertia than if it had come on a direct fire arc. It splattered on her right forearm first, the strand connecting with her chest, and wrapping around her back, down to her waist, she had exhaled when it hit, and it was now constricting her chest. She struggled to get her arm with her zanpaktou free, but it was hopeless, so she quickly switched hands, to her free left hand.

She struggled and it seemed hopeless, the thick tendrils binding her like tires, the constriction of her chest making it difficult to breath, but her blood was flowing onto the slime, and gradually it would weaken but in the mean time Junko was stuck with one arm, her left arm was weaker than her right, so junko would have to immoblize that hollow, "Hado 10 Rain of Pain!" Junko yelled, content with keeping the hollow at bay. As the sky darkened above her, and the rain started to fall, she said to herself, Hado 6 acid splash, and with ehr right hand she broke the acid orb on the slime between her chest and forearm, and felt it free, and she could breath abit better, but the acid traveled to down her side, burning through the side seam of her thin robe and singing the skin underneath.

Still blinded the hollow stood up and opened his senses. He could feel the shinigami nearby, but she hadn't moved from that spot. Had she given up that easily. He opened his eyes and blinked, it seemed the effects of the light were wearing off. Suddenly he felt something touch his skin and a burning sensation. Somehow he knew it was the shinigami's doing. It was everywhere and it hit him all over. Stratus could only scream and run from where he sensed the shinigami from. The ran into a parked car, and kept moving. He kept running into other vehicles, lamp posts, and tripping over pieces of corpses left from his feeding. He cursed the shinigami under his breath. The pain finally stopped and the shinigami was getting further away. His vision was returning, he shot slime and grabbed a building ledge. With a leap he took swung into the air. He had eaten his fill, the shinigami had been too late. He took solace in that, and quickly moved away.

Junko freed herself from the rest of the slime, and surveyed the terrain, the hollow was fleeing, and Junko didn't persue... Junko walked over to her armor, and shouldered it, she would have to mend it in soul society, it was time for a break, and she had some vacation to take...

(best ever)...