Safe at last? (open)

OOC: Cutting off your arm to avoid a double barrel blast? Epic.

From his vantage point Anvil observed the large explosion as it eviscerated many of the buildings. Their mission had been to covertly subdue the targets, but that wasn't going to happen now. It was one thing to cover up the sound of gunfire, quite another to hide the leveling of almost half a city block. After the last "incident" people were on edge. Strange things were always going on, but in most cases the populous ignored it. And those that did react to the odd occurrences were in the minority. If things escalated too far even the dumbest of person would take notice. Nor could anyone hide the raging fire that followed in the wake of the mammoth explosion. The large man had seen his companion expelled into the air after releasing his attack. His own radar showed Claymore as a blip some distance to his right. Smoke billowing up from the blast obscured his view of the target. Nothing could possibly survive such a huge explosion Anvil thought to himself. His companion had released a double attack at point blank range. They would be lucky to find dust afterwards. Still his radar said otherwise. The shinigami's signal had yet to vanish from view. It was movements meant the man was very much alive. It was moving towards the second target; Sly's position.
"Sly, you have incoming." Anvil spoke into the coms system. There was no response. He too moved toward the second target. A single leap sent him fly off the rooftop.

The other end of the alley

The shockwave of the explosion from Claymore and Tatsu was felt like an earthquake. Everything was shaking. Windows broke all around them. A huge gust of wind rushed past them sending dust and debris skyward. All this was background noise to the confrontation between the commando and the shinigami. Sly's weapon hadn't subdued the man as she had anticipated and the bolt from her gun had barely fazed him. At least it seemed he was unfazed as he rose from the ground laughing manically. Had he snapped? And like that he was gone, the man had vanished. The next second the man hand swung his sword with all his might. The metals sparked as they met. Sly's armor took the brunt of the mighty blow, but the razor edge was kept at bay. Instead of splitting the woman in two it pushed her forward face first to the ground. Imagine her surprise to be suddenly falling over. She did her best to get to her feet before he tried a more focused attack. Even as she stood she felt the sting from where the man had struck her. If the man had tried to thrust his blade rather than a slash she would have been skewered. The armor had done it's job in protecting her. With her back to the wall she brought her weapon to bear. Just then the bricks exploded to her right. Too late came Anvil's warning. She saw the radar in her HUD. Now she was sandwiched between two opponents. "Engage cloak" Sly muttered and her suit shifted out of the visible spectrum as Tatsu emerged from the newly made hole. She moved sideways just as his weapon came flying forth.

It was a solid hit, the attack did not seem to have done much damage, but Zanshin did not seem to mind it much, his opponent had hit the ground and was backing away from him "come here now kitty, don't be scared, I am just going to cut you a little" Zanshin walked closer to the woman.
Zanshin had a wicked smile spread across his face, as he moved a finger over his blade, bringing it into a stabbing position, it did not take long however before the woman disappeared from his sight "oh so you want to play hide and seek" Zanshin helt a short pause "Okay this is go---" Zanshin was interrupted as he heard something from behind him, as he quickly turned to see it, a sword was flying at his position, in the nick of time he was able to turn his body so the sword only graced his arm, giving him a lesser cut wound, he was standing a little dazed for a second, he placed his hand on the wound, blood spread out on his fingers, his expresion did not change from his wicked smile, his eyes expanded a little as he looked upon the blood on his hand "blood, look kitty I am bleeding before I got you to bleed, so come out here, so I can cut you a little too"
The shinigami that had threw the sword was upon him now, Zanshin swung out his sword at the shinigami to keep him back, he seemed to be going for him, the intent was not to attack, but more to make him back off a little "Uh another one shows up, but I don't want to play with you mister, I am trying to find Kitty"
Zanshin returned his attention to sensing the womans location, even though he was not himself, his abilities had not disappeared.
He felt the womans presence for a short moment and instantly threw his dagger at her position.

Quickly the third enemy vanished from view as he entered the area. His eyes locked on his target as he shunpo'd to where his sword had landed. Quickly coming back with yet another shunpo the samurai used the broad side of his blade to attempt at crushing him to the ground with sheer strength. The samurai's vision was blurring and he skidded forward with his body failling him slowly but surely. This was his last try before he ran away, he knew the other two would be coming soon and he needed to have strength remaining if he wanted to be able to run away from those. Somewhere deep inside he feared that cloaked enemy, he feared she would strike him from the shadow and that he would faint from the strike. Sending out his energy he tried to pin point the location of the other threats, keeping his inner cool, he kept focus even with this blurry vision. A puddle of blood quickly formed underneath the samurai as he tried to regain his footing.

Without knowing, Tatsu had been sent on a mission that seemed like a suicide errand.

"What's going on down there?" came the voice through Anvil's helmet as he moved across the rooftops. "Can you hear me? Report!" The abnormally large man took a moment to adjust his weapon as he landed on the next roof. The concrete cracked as his feet touched down. He hadn't bothered to activate the anti-gravity boots. While they would prevent him from destroying the buildings they also messed with his balance when running.
"Command we've been unable to capture the target." He said "Claymore engaged and had to deploy full ordinance." Anvil continued as the subjects in question pulled into view in the alley below.
"We didn't give him clearance to fire in a populated area, Anvil." The voice replied "We see his signal, but no reply from his coms. Operation window is closing rapidly. We can't have anymore incidents like the last one. Containment is impossible at this rate. Retreat if possible, destroy otherwise."
"Aye, aye, sir" Anvil said his hands already pulled his weapon back into position.. The cannon was already purring like a kitten in his large hands. He didn't see Sly, but that could mean the other man had defeated her or she was hiding. Since he saw no body he could only assume the latter. "Sly take cover, I'm laying down suppression fire. Find Claymore and meet at rally point." After six brief seconds his finger pulled the trigger. More than enough time for the woman to comply. Anvil's gun roared to life as it spat round after round down into the street below.

In the alley

Sly heard nothing as the first wave of shots came raining down. Her eyes went skyward, but she backed away quickly. She dove into the hole Tatsu had entered from. The attack she had sustained from Zanshin must had damaged her system. Apparently the blast had some effect after all. From the tunnel she gazed out as the shots continued to fall. There was no way she was going back out there. It would seem Anvil was done playing with them.
"Anvil, come in." She spoke into her mic. No response. "Command." Still nothing. She sighed and thought it best she retreated from the scene. If she went out there she'd be torn to shreds. Anvil had either gone berserk or the mission was scrapped. Nothing to do about that. The woman made her way through the trashed building. Maybe she could double back and get to her bike.

The woman had been too fast, his dagger missed its target, a bit disappointing, yet now he was faced with another problem, the shinigami did not seem to let up, but the shinigami was not the one he wanted to cut up, he was already bleeding way too much as it was, so there was no reason to cut him at all.
"Oh you are not saying much shini-san, but do you mind getting out of the way so I can catch the c-" before Zanshin could say more the broad side of the shinigamies sword was swung at him, he had not been ready for the attack, so he only barely managed to parry it, being pushed back a little, the damage was done, while his body was ignoring it for now, the damage was starting to stack up, if he continued like this he was going to collapse, he did not pay that fact any mind, as he was pretty much in a frenzy of sorts right now.
As he staggered back from the blow, quickly trying to regain his footing, bullets soon began raining down upon his location, they were not aimed directly at him, just in his general area, making it hard to predict where the bullets would come at him from, he tried to get out of the way, but two bulled managed to first hit him, once in each shoulder, he then got himself out by using shunpo, into the building right beneath the attacker, following the woman as best he could sense, but he was slowing down, his body was reaching it limits, much more and he would simple pass out on the spot.

Passing out would mean that either the shinigami or the humans was going to get hold of him, neither thing was what he wanted, but sadly he had whipped himself into a frenzy where fight was over flight.

The samurai couldn't spot the agent that had fled, he had planned to take her hostage and attempt at leaving this place with him and his target, but now he didn't know if that would be possible at all. His blow had been parried with skill but he knew he wasn't losing this fight because of the shinigami in front of him, he was a rogue like he was probably scared. ''WILL YOU PLEASE JUST RUN AWAY SOUTH, I'LL COVER YOUR ESCAPE'' If he couldn't have his target, his assailants wouldn't have him either. When the samurai saw the rain of bullets fly towards him he knew he couldn't absorb it all it scattered shots were spread too far apart for him to use his shield..specially with one hand.

''Soul Society, this is Tatsu chirako, Mission is a failure, I repeat, I failed the mission''

In a flash his only arm and body burst into a spining motion, turning his blade in a full large circle above his head. A water circle created before the impact, enabling his attackers to see and understand what his ability was and understand why he survived the blast from claymore. A few hits landed on his shield but most landed everywhere around it. Shrapnel's flew towards him as he dropped to one knee, sword in front of him to attempt at covering him from the blow. He had to buy this guy some time, needed to keep the attention on him. Using his last resort energy to shunpo on the building where the man with the gattling gun was. Lifitng his sword in an horizontal fashion he glanced at the man. A traitor's blow could solve this, but he wasn't no cheap shot. ''You...'' The samurai barely said, his vision was blurry he barely had any strength left. ''Turn around and fight''

The samurai was really in a pitiful state. A mission arm, his suit was drenched in blood, his mouth was wide open gasping for air, his knee's were bent unable to really keep his fighting posture. It was easily guessed that he wouldn't withstand much more pain before he gave in.

On a more subtle side, the samurai was tracking the rogue shinigami with his spiritual energy, one thing was sure the samurai was still able to use his energy at full potential, he just had suffered way too much damage.

Edward Christie had worked for the Sanagu City Police department for nearly ten years. In all that time he had experienced many of strange thing. At most he'd tell himself that such occurrences as nothing more than coincidence. Buildings collapsing that were perfectly fine the day before. dead bodies torn to pieces as if by wild animals, craters in the streets and in walls, sudden scorch marks, so many odd things that he'd nearly gotten used to it all. But then had come the freak storm; the strange tornado that had ravaged the city. After that had all the other incidents seemed to pale in comparison. The official report left much to be desired for the middle-aged man. The parade of scientist explaining how such a storm could appear out of nowhere. He wasn't the brightest of men, but even he wasn't convinced. His "gut" told him there was more going on that the politicians and scientist were letting on. All the strange things he had disregarded flashed through his memory. Logic alone would have been enough, but for a man that spent his light upholding the law and digging for truth the lie seemed obvious. Still he had no proof. The masses were content to have the wool pulled over their eyes. Who was he to take away their piece of mind? He ran his hands through his slowly graying hair. It was time to go home and here he was stressing himself out over such matters. Ed couldn't wait to get home and plop down on the couch. He had recorded the basketball game from yesterday and done his best to avoid any talk about the outcome. After promises to taser anyone that broke said rule, his day had come to an end. His hand fished into his pocket and pulled out the ring of keys as he approached his car. In one smooth motion he opened the door to the vehicle and slid into the seat. The air inside was stale; a mixture of spilled coffee and cigarette smoke. He was quick to roll down the window once the key was in the ignition and the engine roared to life. In seconds he was on his way navigating the familiar path towards home. Ed mind was on auto pilot his hands fumbled the radio dial while his other hand steered. The music battled the static, but he could barely make out the song. His eyes wandered to the broken antenna. He really did need a new car. The green paint was chipping in several places and only had two hubcaps; one on opposite sides. It wasn't pretty, yet it got him from point A to point B. The music lost it's fight with the poor reception and Ed turned the volume down. His hand had barely moved away from the knob when the shockwave his his car. It was odd that the "piece of shit" actually saved his life. It's airbag deployed as it tumbled end over end from the blast. Trash that had been sitting in the back seat was flying every which way as the car continued to roll. Finally the hunk of metal came to a stop. Ed was hanging upside down from his seat. His belt and the bag had kept him safe, but not without some bruising from being banged around inside. He pushed the airbag away and felt around for the seatbelt release. He was released from his confines with a thud as he fell to the car's roof. Ignoring the pain he half crawled and half climbed through the broken driver's side window. The car could be on fire, he had to get away as quickly as possible. Lucky for him the car wasn't on fire, but the rest of  the area wasn't so lucky. Several building were ablaze. Although his vision was blurred he could feel the heat easily enough. He moved as quickly as his shaky legs would carry him. Finally what little strength he had gave out and he collapsed unto the ground. It was only then that he could hear the screams and cries from those also caught in the explosion. He looked about trying to figure out what exactly had happened. He was too shaken to even process it all. "What the hell is going on?" he asked aloud. He knew there would be no answer, but a part of him truly wished there was. For all he knew it could have been an terrorist attack, but something told him it was something more than that.

Claymore suddenly sat up, or at least he tried. His body had landed rather ungracefully over some trashcans after he had slammed into a brick wall. His attempt to rise resulted in him becoming tangled and rolling to the ground. For a second he wasn't sure where he was and what he was doing there. The multitude of aches and pains quickly jogged his memory. There was a fight and he had deployed his weapons. He looked at his arms. The armor and flesh had been stripped from them leaving only the dull metal for all to see. His limbs had long been gone, but he often had phantom pains. Those pains paled in comparison to those of the rest of his body. How fast had he been going when he had struck that wall? The answer; pretty fast. How long he had been out was the next question. That answer was just as easy to figured; too long. Already he heard the sounds of sirens waft through the air. His attack wasn't something the public wouldn't notice. "Anvil, Sly, do you copy?" there was no response to his words. He barely noticed the crack in his helmet's display as he talked. "Guess I kinda overdid things." he said sheepishly. He stood up and tried to better orientate himself. He used the crack in the wall as a means to figure which way he'd come from. Steadying himself against the wall he slowly made his way back towards the fight.

At that time Sly was making here way in the opposite direction. When it came to escaping she had a gift. Well a gift and a cloaking device. A very handy tool for making a hasty exit. After going through the hole made by the shinigami she ran through the adjoining alley. As she scanned the area she saw what he needed; a fire escape. With a quick running start she jumped and kicked off the opposite wall. The force sent her towards the bottom wrung of the ladder. Her hand latched upon it and she pulled herself up. Once on the bottom level she climbed the metal. She moved as swift as a monkey. If anyone had said as much they would have probably caught a bullet in the temple. In a matter of seconds she was up to the top of the building and making her way northeast. The conflict had come to a head, and there operational time had been exceeded thanks to Claymore. She would be sure to give him a thrashing when they got back. Yes a good week in traction should set him straight. Not only had he jeopardized the mission, but also could have caught her up in the explosion as well. Had he even thought if she had been nearby when firing? Chances were that he hadn't even thought even a little bit. In the distance she could see Anvil. Well some of him. The flashes from this gun gave away his position, but not like he needed to hide or anything. Still she took the time to pick her way back to her motorcycle. As soon as she spotted it she jumped down from the roof. A eight story drop and she landed feet first without flinching. The boots absorbed the shock and armor did the rest. The only sound she made was that of the pavement cracking underneath her. Without looking back she hopped on and bike started. There was no need for keys. She walked it motorcycle backwards then revved it. The headlight came on and she zoomed out of the alley onto the chaotic street. Claymore's attack had destroyed the buildings and sent the city into turmoil. Sly had little trouble darting between the now parked cars and panicked people. "Command, I'm moving to point 7 for pick up."

Back in the ruined alley

Anvil continued to fire down upon the shinigami secure in the fact that neither of his allies would be hit. His spread out his shots making any the whole street into a kill box. Imagine his surprise as the scans showed that the targets were still there. In fact one of the signals swelled. Even as the dirt and dust was knocked up by this barrage he could see the glimmer of light from Tatsu's shield. At the same time his visor picked up the odd shape. Rather than hit the target the construct was protecting the man. That would explain how the man had survived Claymore's cannons. It made sense that he had some kind of protection to withstand such an explosion. It didn't matter, he would continue to lay suppression fire to give the others a chance to escape. The last thing he wanted was to deal with authorities. Just a little bit longer and he'd make his own egress. As that thought crossed his mind the target vanished. It wasn't possible that his weapon and torn the man to shreds. At least not that quickly. It only took a moment to detect sudden movement, that and the man himself spoke. Anvil removed his finger from the weapon's trigger. Trying to reposition the barrel while it was spinning would cause unneeded destruction to the building. Instead he would take a more direct approach. Moving with a speed contrary to his size the Anvil spun rushed at the target he swung the butt of his weapon like a club.

He had lost his target, the woman was nowhere to be foun din the building, and his body began to relax, as he was no longer in any immediate danger, the adrenaline in his body slowly stopped flowing, and with that his body got slower, his vision was fading, and his consciousness was returning to his body, he could only barely remember what had happened.
He turned to look around the room, this place was not safe to stay in, he had to find some place where he could hide and regain his strength, if he encountered a hollow or shinigami now, he was as good as dead.
Zanshin looked up at the roof, the shinigami was in a really bad shape, would he really be okay if he left him? Zanshin wanted to just run away, and not look back, but if he did that, would he doom the shinigami, he did not want to be to blame for his death.

Zanshin formed the last courage in his body, got himself pumped up to make a final stand. Zanshin rushed out from the building, and quickly performed a shunpo to get to the roof where the two was was fighting.
Zanshin quickly saw the situation, and ran in, crashing his body into Anvil, to throw of his attack, after that Zanshin backed a bit away, and looked to the shinigami "Get out of here, you are in no condition to fight!" Zanshin was not looking any good either, but unlike the samurai, Zanshin was not bleeding all over the place.
"I will hold him off, you need to retreat back" Zanshin looked to Anvil "I may be a coward, but there is no way I am going to let people die for my actions" Zanshin was only wearing a brave face in the situation, unless Anvil backed off, or Zanshin landed a perfect hit on Anvil, Zanshin was going to lose here.
As soon as the samurai was out of there, Zanshin had plans of making a quick escape as well if he could, and if that was impossible, then he was not going down alone.

The plan of attack had been devised in the mind of the samurai. It was planned to this point until the prey tried to turn hunter in front of a human turned killing machine. ''And here I thought I was the one saving the Ryoka's ass, you should side step, light show's gonna start'' The samurai said acting tough as he barely held on to his balance. He held his sword straight for the human, figuring his aim, he rose his sword to the sky and as he swung it down light words slipped from his mouth. ''Kami no Houfoku''

At that moment the sky would light up as the energy slash crossed the neighborhood. All the massive energy he had gotten from Claymores attack, and all the energy he got from the rapid bursts from Anvil, all swung back in a mere moment, the mere fact of using this ability regressed Tatsu back down to his normal state, losing some of the punch the attack was suposed to have. The stored spiritual energy had been keeping him up.



On the other side of the blade.


Tatsu would be seen swinging down his blade creating a good five foot wide beam of energy that seemed to go on forever.


Knowing the remaining time he had was short, Tatsu tried to shunpo away, hiding a building and supressing his spiritual energy.

The damage caused to the neighboor hood was immense anything touched by the attack was destroyed, the samurai had used way too much power in anger trying to destroy this man.

Claymore had little less trouble finding his way back than he realized. He had only to follow the signs. There was fire, there was smoke, and of course there was broken buildings. The shockwave alone had done this much damage. He knew too well the amount destruction his cannon arms were capable of. In the testing process he had seen them take out a bunker. Foreign countries would love to get their hands on such technology. The power of a nuclear weapon with none of the radiation. How the scientist had come up with such a thing was beyond him. Still he did love the occasions when he fired it.Of course using such a device in an urban setting was asking for trouble. He could already hear his superiors yelling at him. A suspension was no doubt in his future. Claymore tried not to think about as he picked his way through the trashed alley. The light of the fires were close, he was nearly back to where he started. The problem was where were the others? Had Anvil and Sly been successful in apprehending the target? He swallowed as he wondered if they had been caught up in the blast. It was possible. That thought made him shake his head. There was no way he could have hurt Anvil. As for Sly? It only took a moment for him to think that over.

"She was a bitch anyway." he muttered as he looked for hint of what might have happened since he was knocked out. Anything would be nice, but he knew he couldn't hang around for long. Things had gotten noisy, no fault of his own mind you. Who knew when the authorities would show up. Them finding a slightly burnt metal armed man wasn't something his superiors wanted. Even now he thought he heard the clamor of more sirens. "Well you're on your own guys." he said as he took one last look at the area. Nothing he could see other than bullet holes and remnants of the explosion. He turned back the way he came trying to get to his bike. Once he got back to base he'd get an earful, but at least it would be a lot less than if he got captured by civilians. If they had blockaded the streets it would make things difficult. He would think about that afterwards. His head jerked up as he heard what he thought was an explosion. Maybe he was imagining things. Better to move and think about it later. The memory of where he had parked his vehicle was spotty thanks to the wrecked area. Things looked different after the bomb had gone off. Well two bombs to be exact. Even if his comrades were safe he had serious doubts the other man had survived. Either way their mission here was over.

On the roof

The large man continued his rush at the wounded shinigami. He barely felt anything as Zanshin tried to tackle him. Tried and failed. The 8 foot man didn't budge when the shorter man collided with him. Anvil's body was nearly wider than his would be attacker and heavier by far margin Zanshin was better off farting on the man to get a some kind reaction. Maybe a really big fart. From the look that taller man was giving him, even that might have been a waste of time. With the armor and mask on it was impossible to see what kind of expression the titan had. Annoyance perhaps? In truth Anvil's face had a look of surprise. He had expected the target to take the time to flee capture with his unit retreating, instead he had come straight into his hands. Still upon confronting the target things had gotten complicated. He could capture him, but operational time had now come to a close. There was no way he could exit the are with a package. There was barely enough time for him to egress without being seen. There was not much else he could do. Well there was the option of destroying the target, but he hadn't been given such orders. Claymore had almost succeeded in that task after unleashing his cannons. As Anvil mulled over the details he noted the target. He looked like a short and scrawny kid. Almost normal, but the readings he got said otherwise. As for the other he was somewhat taller and in worse condition. It looked that he hadn't come away from Claymore unharmed. Although Anvil didn't like the man's methods, he did stay true to his namesake. A volatile weapon that could take out friend or foe if not used properly. It was then that he say Tatsu point his weapon at him. It was hard to miss the man leveling the large weapon directly at his person. Anvil tensed. It was possible that the man was going to charge him. A reckless plan to say the least, but then he raised his weapon skyward. Something was coming and Anvil shifted his body. He raised his foot barely four inches from the ground and slammed it downward. The rooftop buckled and shattered. Cracks ran through the stone like tiny black rivers. The structure stability the whole roof crumbled. Anvil was the first to fall as being not only the source of the collapse, but more heavy than the other two. As he fell he saw a flash of light, but he paid it no mind. Instead of landing on the floor below he fell straight through that floor and down towards the next. He had already deactivated his boots and gravity was now acting upon his massive frame. Down to the next, and then the next. The 8ft wrecking ball continued on journey straight to the ground floor. With a thunderous crash he finally came to a stop. He had reached his destination. He took only a moment to look a the destruction he had caused. The whole building groaned in pain. Anvil leaned in and rushed towards the wall. He tore through it like tissue paper and continued his rush. After four walls he was outside once again. The building behind him trembled as he rushed along the back street towards the extraction point. They would track the target and try again. There would be other chances. Right now secrecy was more important.

The man was barely affected by his tackle, still it seems to at least catch his attention a little "This was a bad idea" Zanshin said out to himself, and probably anyone would agree with him at the time.
However both shinigami and the man each did something he did not expect, the man crashed trough the roof, by stomping on it, and the shinigami unleashed a devastating strong attack against the man.
Zanshin quickly turned tail and ran, making a jump for the roof of a nearby building, the building was shorter, so it was an easy jump, but he was so beaten, that he could barely keep his balance, upon landing on the roof, he fell to the ground, it did not take long for him to get up again, as the building behind him was collapsing, and would most likely take another with it.
Zanshin jumped another building, making it safely there, but now he had to get out of there without running into anyone, and find a place where he could rest and recover without being found.

Zanshin continued his retreat a few blocks away, it was not very far away, but long enough away, that he would not be too close to the incident anymore.
He found an abandoned building where he could get himself patched up, lucky for him, all he got out of the whole things was a whole lot of bruises, he had not broken anything, so with enough rest, he should be back to full strength in three days time.
He had hoped to find a place to be safe, and instead he had found a city filled with more dangers than the last, and he did not have enough strength to get away from it, all he could hope, was that he would be able to lay low and not be found by anyone or anything for the next few days.

From within the crumbled building Tatsu's sense of time was fading away and his sense of vision giving out, he opened his communicator and spoke in a suffering voice to anybody willing to hear on the other side. ''This is Tatsu Chirako, mission is a total failure, I'm badly wounded, requesting pick up crew'' As he passed out he couldn't hear anything coming back from the radio he didn't know what would happen.

When the samurai reopened his eyes it seemed like much time had passed, and he had been found and brought back to Seireitei he was looking at the ceiling of the fourth division, he knew because he could feel that soothing energy washing over his body somebody was healing him he only hoped that renegade had found a way to get out.