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Active The Sharpest of Teeth

Terra She

New Member
thunk!


The Kendo stick landed solidly against the top of Terra She’s head, and the young man shook the stars out of his eyes.


“You’re slow today.” An older man , dressed in Dragon Imago patterns, minus the shirt, said. His accent carried a faint Australian hint to it. His face was still handsome, despite, or perhaps because of, the age lines across his rugged features, and his bared chest showed that he took great care of his body. Various, intricate tattoos covered the exposed torso and arms, stopping just at the wrists.


He swatted at the side of Terra’s head with the stick once more.


thunk!


“Get your head into it.” He spoke calmly, but it was a command.


“Subotai…” Terra growled, rubbing where the stick had struck. The older man sighed, and rested the wooden sword at his side, slipping it into his yellow sash.


“Speak your mind, Terra.” Subotai said, resting his hands at his hips. Terra looked out over the Dojang’s training area, before casting his golden eyes back upon his friend.


“You’ve seen it. Do you think that’s the right thing to do?” Terra finally asked, his own kendo stick resting idly in his left hand, dragging at the floor.


“I have no idea what you are speaking of.” Subotai answered. “Ready your blade. Work it out of your mind.”


“You know exactly what I’m speaking of. Especially with your position.” Terra countered, narrowing his eyes. Subotai held rank as an Echo. Not all agents have time to speak to the Voice of the Dragon, and neither does the Voice have time for all agents, at all times. The Head does not always issue commands, and this is where the Echoes came in.


“Terra…” Subotai sighed. “If this is another of your questions about what’s right, or wrong...looking for guidance bullshit...I’d rather we just skip ahead and go with real blades today.” The Echo replied, running a hand through his greying, but still mostly dark, hair.


“What’s your opinion on him?” Terra asked then, not raising his blade.


“He’s loyal, sometimes a bit reckless in his methods, but he gets the job done and does a good job of it. He thinks he needs to do this, he does it. My loyalty is to Seoul, to this area. To this Dojang. Until we pack up and move someplace else, my loyalty is to the Dragon, as it stands.” Subotai didn’t bother trying to hint towards furthering the sparring session. He stepped aside, resting his stance.


“I meant Kiyota.” Terra says, after considering the wording the Echo had given him.


“He’s out for himself. He will use anyone and anything to get what he wants. While that might make him a force and propel him to his current position when stationed in a blown-out district with a bunch of fanatic gangsters, a snake’s bite will never outmatch a dragon’s fire.” Subotai pauses, crossing his arms over his chest.


Terra, who had been working out in simply jeans and his boots, took a towel to wrap about his shoulders, and placed his stick back on the wall with the other training weapons..


“That said…” Subotai continued, “There are some who welcome his brand of chaos. His blend of madness and reason. He connects well with both many of the Teeth, as well as the agents of other factions. Some believe that his presence is a positive thing. Time will tell. Despite what the Eye would have you believe, they are not the only ones who watch. Daimon Kiyota is being observed, rest assured. The real question that will help here is; What do YOU think of him?”


“I think he’s a villain.” Terra answers without pause. “I think that he’s a serpent in a nice suit, and he will use his wit and words to deceive those who buy in. He has spoken to me. He even tweeted me personally, to congratulate me on my engagement. I wonder, though...the horrible thing that happened...was it what needed to happen in order to stop Orochi’s plans in the city? Of all people...I’ve no love for the Orochi, but the price was too high. The innocents lost…”


“And yet...because of that, it kickstarted events that triggered Gaia to usher more bees into the world, so that we have the power to take on what rests within the Tower, as well as in other places around the world.” Subotai offered as advice.


“There is no black or white to this, is there?” Terra asks, furrowing his brow.


“There rarely is when it comes to the truly important decisions, Terra. You should know this by now.” He lifted the kendo stick with a lightning flick of his wrist, and smacked Terra in the side of the head once more.


thunk!


“Ow!” The young Dragon growled, and glared at the older man. “What was that for?”


“Sometimes...I feel that it speeds up the mixing process in that blender of a brain you have.” Subotai said with a grin. “Did you trust Bong Cha? The things that are happening now...have always happened, Terra. The Dragon sent agents to murder innocent students at the House of Light during the ordeal that lead to you joining full-time. Kiyota was not involved in that. The Dragon is a necessary force, not a ‘good’ one. We are whatever we need to be, and in these days...we have done what has been needed. Perhaps this uprising is what’s needed to restore the balance? Perhaps it’ll fade in a few months. Perhaps Kiyota will be the villain that some paint him as, and perhaps he had the best of intentions coiled within his deceit. None of you will know the answer until it happens, I can assure you of that.”


“I’ve been asked to head to Mount Parnassus after I handled my personal affairs in Lhasa involving Vali. I plan to speak with a friend soon for advice on this.” Terra responds, as the hand that had rubbed at stick’s mark now pushed through his shaggy black head of hair. “I believe in this society...that through it, I can do the most good. When we set things right...we will not rule. We will disappear. That’s how it should be. I don’t trust Kiyota, but given that we don’t have the answers, I feel that there’s another way. Another path to take.”


“You do what you feel that you need to, Terra. You have proven yourself to the Dragon. To your friends. To me. Now prove yourself to yourself.” Echo Subotai eyed the young man, and Terra met his gaze, and nodded. The kendo stick came up once more, and Terra’s strong hand caught the stick an inch from his face


thwap!


He broke it over his knee.


crunch!


The bamboo and binding splintered and he dropped it to the floor as it rattled.


“Be safe, Subotai.” Terra said, offering a wave as he turned towards the door, hands at the ends of the towel wrapped about his neck. The old Dragon just grinned, and couldn’t help but chuckle to himself.


“Don’t drown, kid.” He muttered aloud.
 
OP
Terra She

Terra She

New Member
As the Songshi Quan stepped out of the Agarthan portal, he cast those golden eyes around him in a sweeping motion. The scents of the Cherry Blossom were so strong here, but underlying with that poisonous Filthy taint in the nearby waters.

He spotted a young woman dancing with Ricky Pagan; her aura about her shined bright and he smiled a bit. His eyes then fell towards the representatives from Venice, bartering with two young Illuminati agents, a pale young man and a dark-skinned woman, over the price of an adapter or...something. Terra couldn’t quite make it out from this distance. He was here on business, though. He looked down to the piece of paper in his hand, and in Japanese and English, it said simply “Nomad Trash”. He let out a small growl and shook his head, and he was off. He was in a hurry tonight. He wanted to make it to Medrina’s show, like he’d promised. And it was already starting. He stopped in the road for a moment, and reached into the inner pocket of his brown leather jacket, and slipped some earbuds in, while his phone tuned in to the show.

Eyes on fire
Your spine is ablaze
Felling any foe with my gaze


The song played, and he grinned a bit about the thought of “Eyes on Fire”, especially given how his own almost danced with fiery anima at times. It was one of the rare times that Terra ran past a few, scattered infected. He was in a hurry, after all.

He ran, his boots clicking against the paved streets all the way, and in the distance, he could make out the golden glow of his destination, and that’s when he paused.

“Asymmetrical balls?” He blinked at the poem being read now, and as he stood there, trying to figure out what the DJ was reciting, he saw the telltale flash of gunfire in the dark. Tugging the buds from his ears, and looking down the dark avenue, he saw several infected swarming a single figure, and so Terra ran towards the battle.

As he got closer, he saw the uniform was that of the Illuminati, but what did a uniform matter when they were fighting monsters like these? Not bothering to draw his blade, he instead unsheathed the claws from his gauntlets. Six long, slightly curved silver bladed erupted from his knuckles, and with a single slice through the air, he downed one Infected soldier. A loud bark signaled his arrival, and it startled the young Illuminati agent, while simultaneously drawing the attention of the Filth monsters. They turned on him, and kicked the toe of his boot into one’s stomach, and as it bent, he drove his claws through its face, before kicking it away.

He spun about and sliced the hands away from another’s body, and in the moment of chaos, the Illuminati fired both of her pistols into the last monster’s face, dropping it to the concrete.

“Thanks.” A woman’s voice sounded, as she unclasped her gas mask, and let it hang. It was the same young woman from the park, sans the pale young man.

“You okay?” Terra asked in his rough voice.

“Yeah. They just surprised me, and my partner went home. Something about his girlfriend. I dunno. I’m pretty new to this place...just got assigned here..” She sounded unsure, and almost nervous to Terra. He looked to her for a moment, studying her. Her aura was strong, but flickered with dark patches. He picked up her scent. She used lavender shampoo. She was nervous. He could tell she wasn’t being totally truthful with him.

“What’s your mission here?” He asked, again cutting to the chase. He didn’t have time to be a conversationalist tonight.

“I was sent out here to recover something. An item. An SD card, really. It’s in an office near Susanoo’s.” She replied, almost caught off-guard by his detached questions. She wasn’t lying. She was starting to get nervous, though. “Are you one of us?” She asked quietly.

“No.” He replied, and turned about. “Be careful out here. It’s dangerous, and you might want to wait on your friend so you can watch one another’s back.” He moved to walk off.

“I’m with the Eye, you know.” She called after him. “Those eyes...are you a bee?”

“I gathered.” Terra replied. “And no, I’m not.” He kept walking.

“I told you my mission. You’re not one of us. I feel like I messed up doing that.” She called out.

“It’s alright. I really have more important things to do than worry about an SD ca-” His words were interrupted by a gunshot, and a bullet piercing his hamstring and knee from behind. He fell to his knees, palms to the pavement, as he ground his teeth and let out a roar of pain.

“I can’t risk you sabotaging it! I need this! I’m sorry!” She shouted, darting away through an alley as he fell to the street. He pushed himself up, and stood, leaning heavily on his uninjured leg. He knew he wouldn’t catch her with her headstart. She moved fast.

“I told you that I wasn’t a bee…” He said, with disbelieving anger. He began his slow, hobbling walk towards his destination once more, and he could already feel the painful process in his leg begin to take effect. No, he wasn’t a bee, but the process that went into creating him, and his siblings in the Wu Xing Project, afforded the five of them special abilities. He wouldn’t reform like a bee might, but he would heal from his injuries. Vali had made sure of that. What good would agents be, if they didn’t have the durability of bees?

The muscles in his leg; the hamstring in particular, began to resew themselves. They begin to slowly right themselves. The veins began repairing themselves.

“These were my favorite pair of jeans…” He growled, noting the large exit hole on the knee of the pants. He slipped the buds back in his ears.

I look and stare so deep in your eyes
I touch on you more and more every time
When you leave I'm begging you not to go
Call your name two or three times in a row
Such a funny thing for me to try to explain
How I'm feeling and my pride is the one to blame
And I still don't understand
Just how your love could do what no one else can


That made him smile a bit, and he slipped his phone from his pocket. He found Maja on his contacts list.

Hey, pixie. You’re probably asleep, but you’re on my mind. Work is a pain tonight. I love you.

He sent the text, and pocketed the phone. He could hear, and feel, the kneecap mending itself, along with the chipped bone itself and the pain made him want to shout into the dark, but he instead just kept grinding his teeth to counter it.

When the Songshi Quan finally stepped into the Pachinko Parlor, he was not smiling, and he was not pleasant. With every rattle of the spurs on his boots, another eye turned towards him. Some were grinning, others seemed curious. It’s as if he’d walked into a den of playful cats.

He approached the counter, and slid the note forward to the Harajuku Nurse with what he recognized as green and black hair behind it. She set her knives she was sharpening down, and looked to the note, and then to him. She grinned, and Terra took note of her filed teeth. She skipped away, and soon a slim young man in a green and yellow bike outfit came down. His jacket had racing stripes down the sleeves and read “Nomad” and the back said “Trash”, with a skull with exes for eyes underneath it. Guns rested on either hip, and he carried a bike helmet under one arm that simply read “Toxic” across the visor and was painted like a radiation logo.

“My new partner.” The young man shouted happily as he offered a hand out to Terra, who studied him in return before taking the hand and shaking it. The young man’s aura was a swirling vortex of green shadow, but his eyes, they were a silver beacon.

“Nomad Trash, I take it?” Terra asked with a tilt of his head.

“Hai, mate.” Nomad said with a grin. “Appreciate the hand. Couple of my squad got dusted, hit hard by other agents. Or maybe rogue Dragon? You hear that’s a thing? Good thing the Korinto-Kai have a voice in affairs now, eh?”

“Sorry to hear that, but I’m in a bit of a hurry. I got a show I promised I’d be at tonight.” Terra said, turning and putting a dollar into a drink machine.

“Ooh, get the sour one. So good. Keeps you tight. Alert. Wild-eyed, man.” Nomad set off for the door.

“I don’t like sour drinks.” Terra replied, as he popped the top on his fruit juice, and took a long sip.

“I’m surprised. You seem to be a big sour puss.” Nomad grinned as he slipped his bike helmet on. “No offense..”

“Yeah, I’m not usually. Just in a hurry, like I said.” Terra asked, and he moved his right leg a bit, testing the joint. It was healed, but the pain wasn’t gone just yet. Nomad flipped his visor up.

“What kind of show are you missing?” Nomad Trash asked with a canting of his hips. His gun-belt tilted just enough as the tight jeans shifted to accommodate it.

“A DJ show in London that a friend hosts.” Terra said simply. “What are we working on tonight, exactly?”

“DJ shows, man...ain’t no DJ gonna save my soul. I sold it long ago for rock ‘n roll!” Nomad replied with a loud laugh, and slipped his pistols free of their holsters. Each one was painted like a dragon so that its head was the barrel and it spit bullets. “And tonight, you’re in luck. We just have to go after an SD card that some careless Illuminati agent dropped. Big firefight. We dropped four of them, they got two of us...I barely made it out. Going back for the spoils now that the shadows probably ate the survivor. Dig, brother?” The visor dropped. Toxic.

“Yeah. I dig.” Terra said, slipping the earbuds back in. He clenched his fists, then, and all he could hear was the Beatles.

Living is easy with eyes closed
Misunderstanding all you see
It's getting hard to be someone but it all works out
 
OP
Terra She

Terra She

New Member
“You ever seen Breakfast at Tiffany’s?” Nomad Trash asked Terra as the two strode through the streets of Kaidan. The young man looked over towards his partner.

“Can’t say that I have.” Terra says, not returning the glance, but keeping his gaze straight ahead.

“Oh, man. Great movie. I was watching it earlier.” Nomad’s Tokyo accent was thick, but his English was top-notch. “Audrey Hepburn. Someday? I’m going to have a girl like that. Long black dress. Slim enough so that I don’t feel like I need to bulk up. Beautiful.” He grinned, as he slid the “TOXIC” visor up on the motorcycle helmet.

“How long have you been with the Korinto-Kai?” Terra asked then, with a narrowing of his eyes. The warrior and his companion had neared a tall building, and so he pressed flat to it. Above them, rakshasa climbed on the balconies. Terra stared up at them, but realized that the demons hadn’t noticed the duo.

“A few years? I was sixteen when I joined up. I knew these streets, though. Traded in my black leather for green, never looked back.” There’s silence for a moment, as the two continue on their way. “You got a girl, right? Saw your Twitter. She’s cute.” Terra’s senses went to full-alert at that. He had never met this man before. How could he know anything about him? But...Twitter was public, after all.

“Yeah. She is.” He offered in return. “How much further is this place?”

“Couple blocks.” Nomad says offhand. “I know you’re wondering. They gave me a file on you before this mission. Seen a lot of stuff on you. You got a thing for redheads, huh?” That same, mischievous grin came back to the man’s face.

“Not everyone I’ve dated has been a redhead, you know..” Terra says, with a hint of irritation in his voice. He saw an infected Orochi agent shambling towards the pair of them, but he said nothing for now. He just stared back at Nomad.

“Nah. True, I guess. But..they do all have..” Nomad’s hands mimed an almost-pear-shaped body in the air. “Clearly got it going on down there.” He hopped forward at that with his smiling face on Terra, legs spread as he began thrusting into the space that his hands had previously painted in the air. “Strong, child-bearing hips! Babies pop right out! Pop goes the weasel, ‘cause the weasel goes…” He pulled a pistol off of his thigh, twirling it about with a flourish, and firing off a shot over his shoulder into the head of the Infected behind him. “Pop.” He finishes, twirling the Dragon-painted pistol about once more, and holstering it.

“That’s enough!” Terra growled, his voice rising. His own stance seemed to tower for a moment as he loomed over the slimmer man. Terra wasn’t much taller than him, but he was thick. Built stocky, with well-defined and trained muscles.

“Hey, you’re my brother!” Nomad’s hands came up defensively. “I admire that, aitsu. I know that I would be the anko in this relationship.” Terra didn’t know the slang words he was using, but he didn’t take them to be offensive. He knew that he could snap Nomad Trash in half with his bare hands, if he wanted.

“Just leave my personal life out of it, alright? I don’t know you like that.” Terra rolled his shoulders to relax and headed off down the alleyway, to cut through it to the next block.

“No problem. I don’t want to see the claws, Kuzuri.” There’s a slight grin that never fades as he speaks. “I’m a good shot. Not so strong. Besides, there wasn’t a lot of interesting stuff in there. Gardening. Bakeries. A lot of darkity-dark last year. Oni bounty on your head, though. They ever give you trouble when you’re here?”

“Yeah.” Terra kept walking, picking up the pace.

“Should be careful then. You might not make it home, and maybe Maja will have to find a new dog to keep the bed warm, you know what I mean?” There’s almost a testing hint of venom in the young man’s words with this. He didn’t receive the response he expected though.

Terra swung about, and his hand found Nomad Trash’s throat as he lifted the man off the ground and slammed his body into the brick wall of the alley.

“Disrespect her again and I will fucking end you.” Terra growled the threat out at the man. A low, calm, and dark promise as his teeth are bared. The sharp, canine fangs that protrude just enough to show how deadly they could be. Nomad’s breath was held. His fingertips played at the holsters to his pistols.

“Go ahead, Trash. Skin those smokewagons, and see what happens.” The golden eyes focused like a Hawk’s upon the young man’s face, and then the body went limp.

“Apology. I’m sorry.” Nomad strained the words, with the strong hand about his neck. Terra released him, and kept walking.

“I’m in a hurry. Let’s go.” Terra added, and with a nod from Nomad, the two were off again.

True to his word, the building was only a couple of blocks further away, and as they approached, they both drew their weapons; Terra his black, wootz-steel blade, set with ten sapphires on the hilt, and Nomad Trash his Dragon-decal pistols.

“Right inside...but expect Filth, you know? Maybe something more by now.” He offered as caution to the Songshi Quan, and Terra nodded, as a strong-heeled boot kicked open the door, and his sword was readied, held out before him, and steadied against his opposite palm.

The scent of death, and decay almost overwhelmed his heightened senses, and he buried his face in his bicep for a moment, to recover and adjust. Nomad dropped the visor on his motorcycle helmet, and a light atop it illuminated the dark inside.

The first thing they noticed was the bodies of infected, littering the lobby of the office. Seven total, men and women. Each taken out by gunshot.

“I think I know who’s here. A girl I bumped into on the street.” Terra whispered to him.

“Friend of yours?” Nomad asked.

“Nah. Just an Illuminati agent.” Terra replied, and absently bent his right knee a bit at the thought.

“Babydoll!” Nomad Trash called out. “We’re heeeeere!”

“The hell are you doing?!” Terra spat the question at him.

“Might as well get her out here, let her know we’re here. No fun being here longer than I have to. Bad memories.” Nomad’s words actually carried a hint of regret in them.

“Just put your weapons down, let me get out of here, and nobody gets hurt.” A woman’s voice called out to the pair. The same voice Terra had heard earlier from the woman who shot him in the leg. And then she stepped into view. Gas-mask pulled down, and with her pistol pressed to the side of the head of a small girl, no more than eight years old, who looked as if she’d been living in the building on her own.

“Oldest trick in the book.” Nomad laughed. “Nobody gonna shoot a kid. Besides? You shoot her, we kill you. Easy-peasy, dig?” Terra just watched the woman. Both hands wrapped about the hilt of the black blade.

He’d made the blade a year prior, in a Temple of Shaitaan in India. A very, very powerful blade in his war against darkness, but the blessing of Kali upon it made it so that when it was drawn, it demanded blood before being re-sheathed, or it's influence over him would grow each day, until he gave it blood. That was its curse. And when he engaged in battle, Kali sang to him, urging him to succumb to a bloodlusting berserking frenzy.

The woman maneuvered about the room, keeping her back to the wall. Her forearm was wrapped about the kid’s neck, and the girl looked absolutely terrified.

“I got what I need. Once I’m safely out of here? I let her go. You don’t follow me. I don’t want to hurt her, but I will. If I don’t make it back? They detonate what’s embedded in my spine, and I die. I don’t want to die. Now put your weapons down.” She said to them.

“This isn’t right.” Terra said, trying to speak evenly, but the words were a growl as he clenched his jaw. His hands came out to his sides, palms open, with only a thumb about the pommel of his sword as he lowered it to the ground. He heard Kali scream in anger at him within his mind. “Let her go. Nobody has to die.”

“Psh. Fuck that logic.” Nomad said, though he mimicked Terra’s actions, placing his pistols out at his sides. He moved to lower them to the ground, when the one in his right hand flew into the air, twirling like a spinning maelstrom, as green smoke swirled about the handgun. A thin arm grabbed it and he rushed forward in a blur, propelled by chaos magic, as he pressed the barrel to the woman’s head, all in the span of a breath.

“Wha….” She blinked, too scared to move. Her gun shook in her hand. The young girl looked to Terra. She was terrified, he knew. Nomad grinned.

“Nomad.” Terra cautioned. “The girl.”

The Illuminati jerked her pistol towards Nomad’s stomach, and pulled the trigger.

Click! Click! Clickclickclick!

He smiled and dangled the gun’s magazine in front of her face. Then he pulled his trigger. The little girl screamed. Terra’s eyes went wide. The woman fell back against the wall, crumpling against it. Dead.

“Ooh, cherry pie. My favorite.” Nomad Trash said, observing the fresh carnage on the wall behind where the woman had stood. “Beat it kid.” He said to the little girl, as he moved for the woman’s belt, to recover the SD card.

Terra moved to wrap his arms around the girl.

“It’s okay. We’ll get you out of here.” He whispered to her. “You’re safe.” She was still scared, but nodded to him.

“Mission accomplished! Achievement Granted!” Nomad shouted, pulling the SD card free of a pouch. “Let’s return to base, partner.” The young Korinto-Kai said with a huge smile, doing his best (Horrible) John Wayne impression when he said “Partner”.

“She was unarmed. You could have handled that in ten different ways.” Terra said quietly, staring at the man.

“Yeah, but she’s the enemy, man. More than ever now. You think she wouldn’t have shot you, if she had the chance? I say, one less to worry about.”

“You don’t do that!” Terra said, ushering the girl to stand behind him. He kicked his heel at the pommel of his blade on the floor, and it sprang up into the air. He caught it in his hand.

“Oh, what? Is this the big showdown? We have different ideals, so we must fight to the death? That’s silly, man. Just take a victory. Go back home to your little red head. Squeeze those hips and pound it to work it out of your system, amigo.” And as the young man said that, Terra sent a strong, fast punch to Nomad’s face that sent him spiraling to the ground. His jaw audibly broke as teeth and blood flew from his mouth.

“That should shut you the hell up.” Terra said, looking down on the unconscious man, before slipping the SD card into his own pocket. He spent the next few minutes tearing a large tapestry from the wall, and wrapping the Illuminati’s body in it, and by the time he stepped out of the building, he had Nomad over one shoulder, still unconscious, and the dead agent over the other, while the small girl walked at his side. He went to Susanoo’s first, and he informed the Samurai there that the woman had worked with the Illuminati, and that he wanted her body to be given to another agent that came through, to return to New York.

He left the girl, who gave her name as Gracie, there, as well, when she was recognized by a man at the diner who she identified as her father. They’d both thought the other to be dead, and thanked Terra profusely for reuniting them.

“You could leave the city, maybe. I could help find a way out for you.” Terra offered.

“This is our home, and it will return to normal soon. And if it does not? I still would need to find my wife before leaving. I’d thought all hope was gone, until I saw Gracie as your side.”

Terra knew that there was no arguing with him after that, and he went on his way.

He carried Nomad Trash back to the Pachinko Parlor, and dropped his body on the counter, with the SD card atop it.

“Mission accomplished. Achievement granted.” Terra said simply, before turning to leave. “When he wakes up, tell him that I said “Pop goes the weasel.”.” Terra said, exiting the parlor. He checked his phone, and sighed. The show was over. The events of the day had left him a bit drained, though, so he decided to just head home. He wanted a shower, and to slip into bed beside his girl.
 
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