System failure (Tenshineko)

In the near empty warehouse Arawn sat gazing at his work station. He had already sent Bryce and Simone home for the day. Rover sat in the corner charging his power cells. It was quiet time. Similar to that time after dinner where everyone tries to relax and let their food settle. For Arawn it had been a less than productive day. The more they worked on Rover the more he thought how impossible it was to complete. When it came to power and ability the droid had enough to spare, but it was prone to going haywire. How many times had it malfunctioned and caused havoc? It's initial purpose had been a guard dog and then assassin. Was his attempt to make it tool for slaying hollows only a pipe dream? He sighed and spun in his chair. Well it wasn't his invention so he shouldn't feel too depressed about his failure. Arawn stopped spinning to look at the other work desk several feet away. Slowly he rose and walked over to station. On the table were his own creations. Before trying to reformat Rover Arawn had actually developed a series of weapons to use in battle. He picked up the first orb on the table. It was solid black except for 3 silver evenly spaced rings along it's length. A stun grenade, but really it was so much more. The weapon created a displacement field. While a work of genius it was blind luck that had led to it's creation. Arawn's hand tightened around the orb. It's creation had also led to the development of another weapon he had created; a disintegration ray. Wielding that weapon he had thought he killed his friend. But once again he had failed, he had created a phase shift device instead. Rather than killing his friend he had instead helped facilitate his escape. Another failure and yet another success. With a grunt Arawn tossed the orb to the counter and raised his hands over his head to stretch. There was a buzzing sound and he looked down. The grenade he had dropped was arching electricity around it. Arawn could only gaze at it bewildered. He didn't recall making the unit that fragile. More sparks jumped from the unit and hit the other unfinished units beside it. The air started to quiver and suddenly there was a blinding flash.

It was either dark or he couldn't see. Arawn found it impossible to tell if he had his eyes open or not. Everything hurt and his whole body felt cold and hot at the same time. What was going on? Why did it feel like he was being pulled through a straw? There was nothing below him it was if he was floating. Had Huang Long dragged him into the inner realm yet again? No this felt different. Suddenly a fiery explosion went off in his chest as he felt himself being turned inside out. Just as quickly as it started the pain stopped and Arawn found himself on solid ground. His eyes were open he could see a pale moon hanging over him. As he shifted his weight trying to sit up he could feel the sand beneath him. Arawn looked at his hand and then the endless desert before him.
"What the hell?"

Ren was in the shelter and a small den to conseal her while she slept. However it wasn't a pleasent sleep she was being haunted by past events that she could not remember.

*Dream*
"Grrrr." The creature sensed a SP of a Shinigami it curled its lips and snarled at him. It rushed at the Shinigami with fangs bared and bit into his shoulder hard. Riseing its tail it slowly took the form of a sythe at the tip and brought it down on the Shinigami.

Jumping back it growled again, "Not. Fault." A red energy was gathering at the creatures mouth when it took form it unleashed the energy at the Shinigami. Quickly it went behind the Shinigami and slashed at his back.

The Sythetail creature lost track of its prey when it felt something about to kick it in the jaw. It bit down on its preys knee and felt something slash its back It let go of the knee and let out a loud raor. Feeling no pain it charged at the Shinigami again. Tears came down its eyes. "Not fault!" it roared.

Sythetail saw the Shinigami charge at it as he preformed sveral stabs with the Zanpaku-to, only to be faint attacks. As it dogded the attacks it tried to defend itsself but, in the end the Shinigami had brought one blade down and the other one going up slashing the Sythetail's mask. The mask fell to the ground shattering. Just then there was a bright light and the Sythetail roared in anger.
*End dream*

Ren woke with a startle, "What-what was that?" she asked herself trying to think about the dream she just had. She slowly crawled out of the den and looked at the black sky as if it could give her some kind of awnser. There was a faint crash near by that made her ears twitch. Ren soon felt the SP of a Shinigami, What's a Shinigami doing here in Huaco Mundo? she thought. Creating her Aura Wings she flew towards the sound; while flying she soon found herself humming a song. She knew not of where it came from but it made her feel calmer then when she awoke.

Ooc: dream: https://thebleachworld.darkbb.com/t3074-ren-s-inner-hollow-enter-the-sythetail-bisha

Song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O4o51I3zhko&feature=related

It didn't take long for him to realize he wasn't dreaming. Everything hurt. Pain wasn't possible in a dream. At least not his dreams. One time he had stubbed his toe in his sleep and had woken up immediately. It was possible it was a vivid dream, but Arawn had his doubts. The question was why was he sore? That question followed quickly by the his first: Where was he? Quickly he tried to recollect what had happened. Last thing he remembered he was in his lab. His head was throbbing as he forced his memories to the surface.
"The grenades!" he said with a snap of his fingers. Arawn now remembered the flash of light. The unstable grenade much have activated the other units. Had they exploded? He had never tested multiple discharges at once. After getting it to work the first few times thought about trying such a thing. The only other experiment he had done had given him the aforementioned phase gun. Was he now out of phase?

Scratching his head Arawn tried to gave as far as he could see in each direction. It looked the same in every direction. He had figured being out of phase would merely make him invisible not take him to a different plane.
"Maybe it's like passing through the gate between worlds." he said aloud to himself. This might be the gap between being seen and not seen. That would explain why there was nothing to see but sand and a dark sky. Still something in the back of his head was bothering him. He couldn't put his finger on what it might be. "This is all fine and good, but how do I get out of here?"

Flying silently through the sky Ren looked down and saw a black speck amongst the grey sand. I was right there is a Shinigami here. But why? she asked herself landing a few yards away from the Soul. What reason would a Shinigami have for being here? What is he planing? she thought as she crept closer to him.

She managed to hear a few words from him but she couldn't make sense of what he was talking about, "The granades", "Maybe it's like passing through the gate between worlds." he said. This guy must be a science nerd Ren thought as she lowered her SP. She had no reason to harm him unless he decided to attack her. Ren rather obbserve her opponants first then to charge into a battle. She was always like that even when she was a human, because of this habit of hers she was labled a freak or strange. She had always kept to herself trying to protect her heart.

The Cheetah like hollow placed her paw above the Hollow hole that was filled with Aura. She didn't want to beleive that her heart was gone, for her the Aura was her heart.

The red haired shinigami paced in the sand. Occasionally he would kick up a cloud or two as he pondered his predicament. The more he thought about it the greater his distress. Arawn finally sat down after walking back and forth fore several minutes.
In his head he tried is best to review all the information he could recall about the phase ray.
When he had first used it the device it had caused his work desk to disappear. It had been a little over month later that the desk had come back. Would it take a month for him to appear back in his lab? It was possible. At the same time when he had used the weapon on Tatsuya and Junko the rock from the ground reappeared in under three weeks. It wasn't very comforting, but 3 weeks was barely better than a month. He sighed and hopped to his feet. He didn't think he could survive 3 weeks let alone a month without some supplies.

Raising his hand over his eyes Arawn tried to look in each direction yet again. The result was the same as before. Wrapping his white lab coat around himself he set off in one of the directions he hoped would lead him to something to eat. He made sure to drag his feet leaving a trail in the sand to find the place he started from.

Ren was about to follow the Shinigami when a familiar scent caught her attention. Turning around she saw a small group of Hollow of different shapes. Mmm, lunch. But which to get the Shinigami or them? the cheetah like creature asked herself licking her lips. She looked back and forth from the lone Shinigami to the Hollow's. i rather have a challange. she thought heading towards the Hollows. She'll deal with the shinigami later.

The small group of Hollow turned to see Ren running after them. They started to laugh thiking of Ren to be foolish to challange them alone, "Get him." the leader said as on of them charged at the feline like hollow. The one charging reminded Ren of some kind of bug, "Disgusting." she muttered giving them a cold stare. She dodged it's tail(Stinger) by sidestepping to the left and bared her fangs catching all of the hollows off gaurd. For one so small she packed power and speed easly killing the bug hollow.

There wasn't much to do while he walked, but think about his predicament. Still those thoughts were disturbed by the constant aching of his body. The shift had really done a number on him. He had taken comfort knowing that his weapon hadn't hurt Tatsuya, but it would seem he had caused him some pain. Arawn could only imagine how the transfer back might feel. As he shuddered with the thought he thought he heard something. He looked back but didn't see anything but white dunes. Still he was sure he heard something. Arawn strained his ears to their limit as his eyes scanned the area. There was a saying that when one of your senses is weak the others are enhanced. Although many disregarded it, there was some truth to the statement. For his bad eyesight Arawn had been granted not only a keen sense of smell, but a somewhat better hearing than most.

It was faint, but he could hear something. He looked down at the line he had made in the sand from this small journey. Once again curiosity took hold. What could possibly exist here between phases? Would it be friendly or hostile? Either way Arawn didn't have a weapon to repel whatever it may be. In addition he had no clue how kido worked in such a place. Despite all that Arawn moved in the direction of the sound and slowly peaked over the dune. What he saw shocked him; hollows. At first he thought he was seeing things, but there was not mistaking the creatures before him. Thankfully they were fighting amongst themselves. What were hollows doing in this place?

Ren had bit down on the bug like hollow's throat and looked up at the other hollows snarling at them. They mildly flinched from the felines stare but quickly regain themselves. They decided to spread out to surround her hoping to catch her off gaurd. It was five-to-one, there was a bird, a snake, a dog, a boar, and a rat. The Rat charged at Ren aiming for her shoulder, she slid to the right but got hit by the Snake as it bit down into her forpaw.

She bit down hard into the snakes neck and pulled him off distite getting some large gashes on her leg. With her being distracted the Boar used his tusks and ramed into her side sending her flying a few feet. The young feline quickly adjusted herself and slid back on her feet trying to stop.

The Bird was above her and dive-bombed towards her extending his talons, Ren quickly pushed herself up onto her back legs and swipped at the bird; clipping his wings. The Bird rashed into the ground he didn't see ren behind him as she snapped his neck.

The hollows were fighting, but what were they fighting for? A sharp pain jolted Arawn's attention away from the scene before him. He rubbed his forearm and the pain lessened. Being out of phase was painful. And if Hollows were here it' was quite dangerous as well.
Wait. he thought to himself. I could understand a hollow somehow got in here, but why would multiple hollows be here? It didn't make sense. Hollows shouldn't be there at all. He had guessed that the phase shift as a world between the worlds. But for so many to enter this unreality was a mathematical impossibility. As Arawn pondered this the battle between the beasts was drawing to a close. The feline creature was making short work of the others. He hollows to work together against single foe other than shinigami.

There were reports of hollows eating other hollows. But from what he could remember those were rare cases. Other souls and spirits were their main diet. Perhaps these hollow were the type of hollows that required to feed from their fellow monsters. If all hollows had such urges things might be somewhat easier for shinigami. But at the same time it could be a disaster. In order to not be eaten the hollows would have to be stronger. Such a thing might result in fewer hollow, but their strength would be tremendous.

Ren had managed to kill Boar, Dog, and Snake; the only on left was Rat she turned to face fim only to see him cowering. "Not so tough with out your friends are you?" she asked glaring at the small hollow. "At first I thought it was one of the other's that was giving to order but seeing that you didn't even lift a "paw" that means that you're the leader." she added walking closer to the Rat. The injeries that she has sustained were starting to bother her a little, she had several bite makes on her body and the gashes from Snake and Boar was starting to sting.

"Starting to feel the pain?" Rat asked in a snide tone, "Just get out of here while I'm showing you some sympathy!" Ren hissed as the Rat flinched and scurried off. Panting and struggleing to stay up she did something that she never thought she would be doing: asking help from a Shinigami. "I don't know how you are or how you came to huaco Mundo, but I'll swallow my pride for now. Can you help me?" she asked seething her teeth before she collasped to the grey sand.

Another pain shot through is leg taking his focus away from the fight yet again. He knew he should be running away, but for some reason he was compelled to stay and watch. It had to be similar to when Bryce watched those academy sparring matches. Arawn reached down to touch his leg and an arc of electricity sparked from his body. His hand jumped back, but the electricity was gone. Had he imagined it? The pain he felt in his leg still remained. Slowly he reached out to touch his leg, nothing happened. He turned back around as last of the hollows squared off. It would seem the fight had drawn to a close so quickly. The lone hollow had managed to over power the group. Much like he theorized the monsters with greater strength would survive and the weak would be devoured.

It was then he witnessed something even more shocking; the other hollow was letting the attacker go. Curiouser and curiouser, what an odd creature. To the victor goes the spoils and yet the winner wanted nothing. Such mercy would not have been returned. Arawn watched the last opponent flee and wondered how long such a creature would survive now that it had lost it's comrades. Now that there was nothing else to fight it was possible the hollow would now target him. Arawn thought it best to take his leave then. Before he could make his hasty escape, the hollow called out to him. He had thought himself hidden, when the beast spoke out he thought it was a mistake. The lone shinigami stood there frozen in his tracks. Talk about a shock to the system. He peeked over at the hollow from his spot on the dune. It would seem while it had been victorious it was far from a perfect victory. The creature didn't look too well. Weakened as it were Arawn would little trouble dispatching it, but it's words struck him. It had claimed that this place was Hueco Mundo. That couldn't be possible. He hadn't fell out of phase of Soul Society, he had jumped dimensions. This was unprecedented event. Somehow he had bridged the gap between the separated worlds. A large jolt of pain raced through his side. And he calmed down. He didn't see it, but another arc of electricity had flared into existence on his body as the seizure hit. If this was Hueco Mundo he wasn't safe here at all. Arawn knew he should run and hide, but where? Every direction he looked he could only see open desert.
With no weapon and his painful state his chances of survival were slim. He looked now at the wounded hollow. It had been strong enough to repel the attackers. With such strength he would be safe until he figured a way back to Soul Society. With a groan he climbed up and over the dune and slowly approached the large cat.
"Uh......hey" he said quietly while keeping his distance. "Are you okay?" There we signs of battle on the beast, but he had no clue what exactly it needed from him. Finally he moved closer and reached down to shake the hollow. "Come on, wake up." he said abit firmly a bolt of electricity jumped from Arawn's body and zapped Ren as he almost touched her.

Ren felt a small shock and quickly shot straight to her feet and growled at what had just attacked her. She winced in pain and looked at the shinigami, "For someone in the science department you don't act very smart. Follow me unless you want to run into other hollow's or worse." she said walking away. She didn't know what else was out here in the dessert but she knew that she wasn't strong enought to face them.

She had heared stories of hollows that are in the form of humans but the posses the power's of hollow. Also they were the most powerful hollows in Hueco Mundo; she wanted to get stronger. In order to do that she needed to train and to absorb more souls including humans. She never went after the weman or kids, she wouldn't be like the other mindless creature that reside here.

Again with the electricity. The jolt had been accompanied by yet another wave of pain. They were connected in some way, but how he could not be sure. Did it have anything to do with his dimension shift? If so why the sudden discharge of electricity? There was no way for him to know what was wrong with him at this point. He would have to take it all in stride. Arawn wished he could get to his lab and figure it out. But there was no time to ponder his situation, the hollow was on the move. He had resigned himself to stick with the beast for now. It needed help as did he. Together they might be better off, but he still didn't trust the monster. At any moment it could decide to null their truce and feast on him. Arawn let the hollow gain some ground and then started to walk behind it. If the hollow did try anything he'd have to keep an eye on it.

"Where are we going exactly?" It seemed a valid question. There was no cover in any direction. Moving somewhere else seemed a good idea, but what was the point if there was no where to go? A pain shot up his leg, but he tried his best to ignore it. He was sure if he looked he would have seen another arc of electricity. They seemed to be increasing in frequency. If things kept up he'd be having spasm every few seconds. Arawn could only imagine how unbearable the pain would be at that point. He really would need medical attention soon. He doubted the hollow knew a good doctor. Did hollows even get sick? For some reason he doubted it. From what he had seen most hollows could regenerate severed limbs when need arose. "Must be nice." Arawn muttered to himself wishing the same recuperative abilities.

Ren was already a few feet away from the Shinigami when she looked to see if he was following. "You want to go home or not?! I don't have all day, I have my own wounds to tend to as well you know." Ren snapped as she opened a Gargenta for the World of the Living. She had a strange feeling that she had to be somewhere different, but she wasn't sure of where.

She looked back as she started to lick her wound from the Snake Hollow, it was starting to sting a bit but a little more pain wouldn't kill her."Hurry up!" she snapped as her pationts was starting to run low.

It would seem she was well on her way to recovery the way she was berating him. Arawn sighed shook his head. Being rebuked by a hollow, this was an odd day indeed. But she did bring up a good point, he did want to get home. Still he didn't know how. It was doubtful that the hollow knew a way to do it. She, at least it sounded like a she, wanted to get moving. As he had thought before; they were pretty much out in the open. There was little chance for them to hide should something along and want to attack them.
"Yes, yes, I'm coming." Arawn said in a monotone voice to the hollow's remarks. She seemed so different from the beast that had asked for help moments ago. Still it was better than nothing. He increased his steps to keep up with the hollow's pace. It was to be expected that a four legged beast could keep ahead of a two legged human.

The silence between them was awkward even more so by the strange circumstance. Arawn tried to let his mind wander as the scenery lacked variety.
Just as he began considering starting a conversation the ground began to rumble.
"I do hope that's normal around here." Arawn said quickly as the vibrations increased. The spot behind them exploded sending sand skyward. By the time gravity returned the sand back to the ground a huge head had emerged from a freshly made hole.

Spoiler:

The head was as wide as a school bus. At first it looked about as if searching for something, and then it found it. The massive head looked directly at Arawn and the hollow beside him. It would seem it was hungry, and the two would do well for a nice snack. It opened it's large maw and a swarm of tentacles reached for the unlikely duo. Arawn dove sideways as the first thick purple tendril rushed at him. It was foot thick and covered with what he hoped was saliva. On his knee he reached for his zanpukto that wasn't there and clicked his tongue. Instead he aimed his hand at the next tentacle coming his way. "Hado #3: Crimson Strike." The burst of red energy flew from his right hand and intercepted the tendril before it could get close. The other tentacles flinched as the monster growled in pain. A second later it was Arawn's turn to howl as electricity arced over his whole body. He clutched his right arm where the pain seemed to most intense. After blinking back the tears of pain he looked down at his arm. The surprise of a lifetime awaited him. His hand and most of his arm had become transparent.

Ren turned to see what was taking the Soul reaper so long, she got her awnser: a wierd looking creature that she had never seen before. "What is that?" she asked herself as she noticed the Soul Reaper was holding his arm. She let out a quiet gasp and saw that his arm was starting to dissapear, Has he staied in Hueco Mundo for too long?, she thought and started running towards the giant Hollow.

She raised her right paw as high as she could and slashed at the creature. She wasn't sure if it was smart or not so she decided to stay close to the Soul Reaper for his own safty.

The creature wasn't too happy with the pain that had been inflicted upon it. It's sudden deep growling was proof of that. At the same time it had noticed that the one that had hurt it had stopped moving. Rage bubbled up in the creature as it sent more of it's feelers toward the shinigami. So focused on the downed prey that it had forgotten about the hollow present. Something that was brought to it's attention as the feline took a swipe at it. The claws cut into tough skin, but it might as well been just a hickey with the size of the beast. It barely felt pain from the beast's attack, but it did take heed to the fact it now had two targets. It's tendrils divided and now took a swipe at Arawn and Ren at the same time. Arawn, too wrapped up in the suddenly disappearing appendage didn't see the tentacles come for him until it was too late. He tried to stand, but was rewarded with more shocks of electricity racing over his body paralyzing him. He could barely raise his arms in defense as they drew closer. The group of tendril swatted him like a fly and tossed him sideways. He flew end over end as he bounced and tumbled across the sand for several feet. With each impact a new grunt of pain. Hitting against the coarse sand was hardly enjoyable nor were the jolts of electricity he felt with each blow. Covered in dust he he tried to stand. Looking down he now say that his leg was now becoming transparent as well. More electricity was sparking up along his body. The pain was growing in intensity by the second.

Ren hissed in frustration, "Arggg! For the love of Pete!" she shouted taking hold of the Soul reaper by the back of his robe and opend a Garganta that lead to the World of the Living. She didn't want to fight against a creture that she knew nothing about, she would rather observe it and learn more about it. The young Hollow leapt for the black portal hoping that there would be no trouble.

Before the cat hollow could even touch Arawn, his body felt like it was on fire. While Arawn's temperature rose his body gave of a strong discharge of electricity. No longer was there random sparks of energy coming off his body, but a constant arching of lightning. To accompany this odd occurrence Arawn was glowing bright blue. He would have found all this interesting if not for the unfathomable pain that shot through every nerve of his body. Each movement increased his suffering and with each wave of pain sent him into convulsions. Thus was the vicious cycle. There was no way for him to keep still with the strange sensations running through him. Stifling his screams was impossible. It was then that the hollow reached him. Rather than touch him she passed right through the shinigami.
The larger creature trying to devour them didn't notice this and tried to grab at Arawn. His attempt resulted in failure, but still he kept trying. The tendrils swiped at the man that wasn't quite there several times. They tried to wrap around him like a rope, but that didn't have any better luck than the other methods. When the tendrils lingered in the area where his body was supposed to be the electricity zapped the feeler. Swiftly the large monster retracted it's tendrils.

This situation was beyond it's normal fight or flight mentality. Arawn wasn't a thread, but at the same time wasn't food. Ren was possible food, but it looked at the scratch it had received just moments ago. It was a creature used to catching it's prey quickly. It rarely faced long drawn out fights. Was it worth the effort? Rather than stay and figured it out, it decided to try for another more suitable prey. The ground trembled around it. Then just as quickly as it had emerged the massive head sunk into the sands. There was barely any sign that the creature had been there at all. Arawn's groans of pain continued even in the monster's absence. Whenever he thought the spasms had subsided they began anew. There was surge and the glow around him began to intensify. Soon he was so bright it was hard to look at him. This light hurt even Arawn's vision so he closed his eyes something welled up within him. There was no sound other than his heart jackhammering in his chest. A loud popping noise could be heard as the light went nova. When the light faded Arawn was gone. There was a scorch mark on the sands where he once was.

Ren was shocked when her mouth went through the soul Reaper's robe. What is going on? she asked herself. Then she looked back at the giant creature and was getting ready to figh when it tried to grab the human but fail on severing atempts. It looked at Ren and went back into the ground. "Guess we were too much for it." ren said to herself. She looked back at the Soul Reaper, only he was gone. What happened to him? Oh well it's not my problem any more. she said and went back to her destination. "Now to find him."

Back in Seireitei

With a groan Arawn rose from the cold floor. The chill of the stone had felt nice against his cheek. Every part of his body was aching. When he opened his eyes everything was fuzzy. He shook his head as if to remove the cobwebs that were clinging to his brain muddling his thoughts. It didn't help things in the slightest. Shaking his head actually made him feel worse. In the end Arawn resigned himself to a sitting position. Everything was still fuzzy. He did his best not to move.
"What happened?" He asked aloud. His own voice caused his temples to throb. It was like being hung over, but he hadn't touched a drop. Trying his best to no make any sudden moved Arawn moved his hand and rubbed his eyes. That felt a little better but not by much. It was then he realized why his vision was blurred. Using his index finger he tapped twice on the small metal band that lay on the bridge of his nose. A few second later his vision cleared like magic. The bio-leech that he had powered off, without it he was horribly nearsighted.

The blobs of color had now become things that he recognized. The computer, the desk, the chair, and even his tools. His work station in the storage warehouse. What had been doing on the floor? The answer came to him as he looked in the far corner area. Against his better judgement Arawn rose to his feet and instantly regretted it. Fighting back the nausea he moved forward to examine the scene before him. The whole area was black and burned as if touched by intense flames. Or perhaps a intense discharge of electricity. He looked down at the cluster of his stun grenades and remembered what had happened. There had been a chain reaction when one of the had suddenly discharged.
"No wonder I was on the floor." Arawn said with a grimace. I'm lucky to be alive, those things could have fried me. Instead of death the jolt had knocked him out. That would explain the strange dream and the intense pain he felt. Walking in a white desert and befriending a hollow. With a deep sigh Arawn turned to leave. Although he had been sleeping he felt it best to get back to his room and get some rest. Perhaps in the morning his aches and pains would subside. When he got up later he'd come and fix up the mess from the accident. Ever so slowly he made his way out of the warehouse. As he left he didn't notice the white debris on the ground where he had been laying.