ZKC - Colliding Universes

At first the men turned toward the two siblings, weapons raised, but when they noticed whom it was they relaxed a bit as one jumped off the roof and landed on the ground. "Shut those dogs up," the man said to his companion on the roof and cautiously approuched the siblings, glancing from side to side at the various destroyed buildings.

"What brings you two out here?" he asked.

Blues nodded, regarding the man as he approached, glad it was someone on their side. The bike's lights stayed off, and Blues' infrared goggled flipped up so he could see the person's face in the low light.

"We came to investigate reports of a library to preserve books, and maybe look into an old military base. On our way here, we saw a plume of smoke rising. What happened over there? We're not under attack or anything, are we?"

"Small raiding group of mages," remarked the guard who looked around, it was obvious he was on alert for anything. "Weak ones too, given how they didn't put up much of a fight."

Sakura just sat and listened, not really getting involved in this discussion.

"They should know better than to attack if they're not strong, and in few numbers...unless they were alone or sent forward as expendable scouts..." Blues said with suspicion. He put his hand on his chin in thought.

"I guess all we can do is proceed and keep our eyes and ears open. Sakura, I think we should keep going for the moment..." He said, looking back at her over his shoulder.

"Eh, since the Orisius don't appear to know about the Haven, they probably just assume the area relatively safe," remarked the guard as he turned to the side and looked over at the siblings.

"I think we should," said Sakura with a nod.

"Then get going, but don't stay out in the night and in the open for to long, don't forget, there are more than just human dangers out here..." the mans voice trailed off as he began to walk away.

Blues nodded, regarding what the man said as he walked away. The infrared goggles slid back over his eyes as the bike started moving again, making for the library. There weren't just things like humans out there. Wild animals and feral dogs also existed, though the rain harmed them too. Many had developed esper-based abilities of their own, or were magically augmented to endure. Esper Animals and Familiars were a noteworthy threat in and of themselves.

The bike rolled toward the library, the young brother and sister seeking to reclaim what they could of the old era without being destroyed by the new.

Night began to roll in, and the sounds of what should've been a peaceful night were punctured by those of wild animals starting to move to hunt for dinner. Lightning erupted overhead, illuminating a sea of tall grass that the siblings were passing through, this grass towered over them nearly twelve feet high but was the only path to the library without taking the long route which would add several hours to their time.. if not more.

Sakura noticed movement out of the corner of her eye. "Bro, faster..." she tapped him on the shoulder while she flexed her hand a bit; it glowed a light red color.

Through the silence of the bikes engine, the two could use the rustling of the tall grass as something moved at an even pace with them. This movement was accompanied by an eerie chittering sound, which occasionally got louder when 'more' of these things responded to one another, before the only thing they could hear again was the sound of the grass moving.

There were very few animals that actually hunted at night during this type of a storm and that made it all the more dangerous. Animals with ESPer-like abilities... lightning once again illuminated the area, Sakura could barely make out a two legged animal darting between the grass, but this animal seemed to be keeping its distance, perhaps bidding its time or looking for an opening to attack.

The bike sped up further, though not solely by the power of its engine. The vehicle moved faster with the power of psychokinesis. After all, Teleporting was more complicated in rain. He worked to move the bike into the air a bit, hopefully outside the reach of the creatures as they moved toward the library. He carefully braced himself to fight retaliatory efforts by these monsters...particularly those which were ability-based.

The speeding up of the bike caused whatever creatures were stalking them to go into action. The chittering got so loud that Sakura had to cover one of her ears, it was a painful sound but it seemed to have served some kind of purpose because seconds later her gravity waved fluctuated and her head snapped to her left in time to see a two legged creatures with a long tail, short stubby 'arms', and an elongated head jump out of the grass.

Sakura watched this creature for a moment, it's feet had four long claws that retracted outward as it was about to come down on the young girl; but she was ready as she brought her hand up and stopped the creature in mid flight. She closed her hand quickly, crushing this creature between multiple gravitic waves, all that was left was a small trace of blood that dropped to the ground.

"I can't attract the lightning since there are to many tall objects in the area," said Sakura as she brought her gravity ability to bare on another one that was running up behind them.

Blues moved the bike to avoid another strike, trying to outpace the monsters. He tried to speak over the painful and loud noise as the offender was chucked into one of its packmates with psychokinesis, "You don't have to. The biology of living things is very sensitive. Even a Level 3 can close the epiglottis of a person and make them choke. Teleport rocks into their bodies. I'm going to a higher altitude, maybe then you'll be able to call down lightning if needed though...but be careful not to attract our enemies. "

With that, Blues moved again faster and higher, using psychokinesis where possible to throw the leaping creatures off target and into each other...that would make it easier for Sakura to do her thing. They had to get to shelter. He looked forward, trying to determine if the structure of the library could protect them against these things. If not, they'd have to divert to the military base...

Sakura was quiet, and held on as her brother brought the bike above the foliage. Once they were high enough, she could see the creatures as they moved through the tall grass, she glanced around to see if there was an area she could 'draw' them to and quickly found one.

She focused her powers near a large, partly dead looking tree in the distance. Small red particles began to appear along the base of it and would climb up the sides, some of the creatures either noticed this or felt it as they moved toward it.

When they were close, Sakura concentrated on creating a streamer that would allow lightning from the cloud to connect to the ground... or rather.. lightning from the ground to connect to the sky, since not all lightning was actually created in the sky but some was also created on the ground.

This was evident when, after a few seconds of concentration, a number of streamers appeared from the tree; connecting with those from the cloud to create a very bright flash of lightning that was followed not even a second later by the loud crackling of thunder.

Due to the distance, they weren't affected by the heat although the loud bang of the thunder left their ears ringing. The creatures below them, however, weren't so fortunant. Several had burnt to a crisp, while the rest had scattered away from the now burning foliage and deeper into the grassy forest.

Sakura shook her head, she couldn't hear anything right now and thus tapped her brother on the shoulder and pointed toward an old beat up apartment complex that had been illuminated by the lightning and that they could see right now thanks to what little light was available.

"Right...best to find shelter there right away, given the situation..." He said, accepting the change of plan.

The bike makes for the apartment complex, landing back on the road and driving after he is sufficiently sure they're safe from the pack. After all, it wouldn't do to have a mage see him in the air. The vehicle pulled up to the apartment building, and Blues put his hand to the ground again...seeing who or what if anything was within. He didn't want to be ambushed again.

As Blue's ability to spread forth into the building, he'd pick on a few bio-signs but they were mostly in the lobby and underground portions, there was no one in the upper levels.

Lightning crisscrossed the sky, illuminating the plains. This illumination revealed something else about this complex, it was almost entirely upright with the exception that the very top part was actually leaning up against another structure. Noticing this, Sakura pointed at an area of the complex that was two floors below the top as a possible place to land, it was wide open from the looks of things and seemed devoid of any life.

"I sense some Normals here..." Blues said as he brought the bike back into the air with psychokinesis at Sakura's prompting. They entered this wide open area, Blues careful to make sure that the top wouldn't collapse or crash to the ground. He looked around himself for a way into the building below, as well as clues about what kind of place this was. The apartment building was interesting...and it seemed that people were still living here.

Despite its beat up appearance, the bottom part of the building did look like it was being well kept by whomever was still living here. But, for whatever reason, no one seemed to venture beyond what would be the third floor and the reason why became apparent when the siblings rounded the side of the building.

The area of the apartment that would typically have a stairway leading 'up' was caved inward by another building which had collasped against the complex. There were signs of makeshift cross-bracing against this building, either to keep it from collapsing any further or to turn whatever was left of it into a safe haven for living.

There were lights though on the ground, but they were 'inside' the bottom floor and not outside, most likely due to the storm right now. Although, faintly, the sibling would notice a faint red laser coming out of a second floor window that was slowly sweeping across the nearby grass forest.

After a bit of time, a suitable landing spot was found, a large hole that took up two floors gave them access to the insides. Sakura patted her brother, and pointed toward this opening; it was the only one they could find, all others were much to small to fit them and the bike through.

"...This should give us shelter for a time. Be careful though, and keep your psychokinetic shield up. I think I saw a Sniper Rifle's laser...we don't want shot by someone just trying to defend themselves before we can explain why we're here..."

Blues turned off the bike and got off of it, starting to explore...in particular noting the crossbracing and touching it to verify with psychometry that it wouldn't yield.

"We'll have to teleport to proceed, if we choose to..."

Sakura blinked; she could see Blue's mouth moving and could only barely makeout a little bit of what he was saying. The jest of though, she got and nodded her head.

She got off the bike and walked over to the edge of the hole and crouched down to peer out over the plains. They weren't that far from the grass forest, but the creatures they encountered weren't known for venturing too far from it mainly because it was one of the only artieries that went south of the ruined city and it just wasn't economical for the few existing trade caravans to go around it as it would cut into their profits.

Sakura glanced over at Blues; his psychometry in effect, the bracing revealed that this bracing wasn't unique to the building but was old military grade from a warship, he could vaguely pick out memories of a warship that was under attack by ESPers during the opening days of the war and how the warship tried valiently to protect a civilian cruise ship but ultimately lost.

Smiling, Toshiro touched his sister's arm and with his psychometric shield around them both, teleported down to the next floor. The contrast was immediately notable, as he saw the place had been more solidly maintained. He started to walk, with Sakura, looking around and trying to find some empty and unclaimed rooms...as well as note the movement of the normals in the structure and their number.

"This place is stable and won't give soon, in spite of the damage. They used warship parts to support it it seems..."

Sakura nodded; and looked around, there was a smell of rain mixed in with another all to common odor. This odor was that of the dead, decaying bodies, people who had either been caught in the structure when it was destroyed or perhaps had gotten trapped inside afterwards and couldn't get out.

Evidence of this was seen in the fragments of bones that littered the hallway, bones of varying shapes and sizes and not just those of humans but also animals as well.

There were old blood stains; with some rooms showing evidence of possibly being places where people could've committed suicide.. or worse, had been murdered in the days following the war or maybe even during it.

Sakura was used to this, having seen in the many expeditions she had taken with her brother to old ruin down libraries but it still didn't stop her from feeling a little sick. How many of these people would still be alive today had the war never started to begin with? It was a question that often plagued her mind, but one she never could find an answer for.

In one room that Sakura stepped into, there was a couch and a bed, both that appeared to be in relatively good condition. By now, her hearing was starting to come back in full, although it still wasn't completely there. "Here?" she asked her brother.

"...Alright, we can rest here."

Blues said, helping the girl to sit down. It was well-defensible at least, and it was unlikely anyone would barge in on them. He was surprised none of these people tried to break a window and climb out on electrical cables yanked out of the walls though. He wondered how long they'd have to stay. He also wondered what might be found up here, in this seven year old resting place...