04/28/2013, 03:37 AM #177 Front of Recette's Armory - Manhattan - United States
Snake looked the girl that was perched on a stool in front of him. Though he had no immediate objections to the girl that was his hostess coming along, he did have slight worries of her physical body. Snake had been born and raised on the battlefield. Adrenaline was as common as sweat and physical fatigue was as regular as a sleep cycle. Even if shit hit the fan, Snake would be able to handle the situation well physically. The girl? There was no way for Snake to tell.
Letting a small smile through, Snake wondered what he was so worried about. With the syndicate's district being in such a heavily crowded place or at least near one, there was a small chance that they would dare do anything wreckless like start a firefight in the open. Besides, what was there to even worry about? Snake was handling the mission himself with no restraints. He knew how to do his job and he was damn good at it. As long as he hit the enemy before they could react, Recette was in no danger.
*** "Alright. I'll take you along." Snake finally answered, letting his smile grow slightly in size.
Snake just hoped that the situation wouldn't turn for the worst like it had when he had provided sniper cover for Raiden as he had escorted Emma at the plant. Snake shook the thoughts from his head. This was his mission and he was the one handling it personally. Not a green kid who'd only had VR training his entire life. Snake knew what he was doing. Double checking his equipment, Snake tightened his buttonable jogging pants and windbreaker. At least if shit hit the fan, he could shed the extra layer of clothing above his sneaking suit quickly. Snake walked towards the front door and turned around, motioning for Recette to follow.
Somewhere within the Sewerage System - Melun - France
Remilia muffled a cry as she applied antibiotics to her arms.
Not having the energy to regenerate as she normally would have, and to conserve what energy she had left, Remilia had been forced to tend to most of her wounds with backward methods such as disinfectants and bandages. Upon having entered through the stone water duct, Remilia had swum through it until she had surfaced underneath the drainhole of a sewerage system. Wet, cold, and hurt, Remilia had taken a short rest there before exploring. During her exploration, she had come across what had seemed to be some sort of mechanical room where more of the human metal inventions groaned, rumbled, and chugged away at whatever they did. In that room had been a set of medical supplies mounted on the walls. Though she wasn't the most adept at using them, she had remebered watching Eirin and Sakuya use them on occasion for various weaker youkai like the fairy maids or on the humans, who had no regenerative power.
Currently, Remilia sat against the wall in that mechanical room. The nice thing about it was that the metal machines that sat in front of her seemed to generate heat as they worked, warming the room up. Though she was still badly injured and exhausted, at least the heat worked its magic at reviving her. Having finished applying the antibiotics, she wrapped her arms with gauze and slumped against the walls.
Why was this happening to her? What had happened? It was not only a day ago that Remilia had stood unchallenged, terrorizing the weak humans. Suddenly, the tables had seemed to have flipped as she was beaten out of the sky and badly injured. Remilia took a look into the remainder of the medical box. The box seemed to only contain basic supplies and as such, she had just finished using the last bits of antibiotics. Some gauze was left, but she didn't see much use in using it. Sighing, she looked down at herself. What a mess. Her dress was in tatters and some parts had simply been burnt off. Her arms and legs were all wrapped at some point along the limbs. She had a bandage applied to her cheek where one of the humans' small danmaku rifles had shot her earlier, but had not managed to heal completely. Though Remilia was used to the scent and taste of blood, this was the first time in a while that both came from her and not a victim.
Sighing once more, Remilia mustered her strength to push herself off the ground and stand. Since having the Gungnir disintegrate, she had not managed to regain enough energy to summon another one and so currently relied on her danmaku and physical strength. Humans were still no chance against her, but perhaps if she had to face one of their jets, metal boxes or another Character, she wasn't sure how she would fare. Walking out of the warm and comfortable room that she had spent the past half hour in, Remilia looked around. The sewer was non-descript. Small bulbs of light hung from the ceiling at regular intervals along the extent of the sewer, but the light was so weak that the sewer for the most part was black anyway. Looking left and right, Remilia estimated that if she headed left, she would head back into the city whereas heading right would take her underneat the river and farther north of the city. A small fire lit up in Remilia's eye as she turned her head towards the left. Though she may have been weakened, she was still the Scarlet Devil. She couldn't back down from a challenge this easily.
Thinking of it as a challenge, Remilia started down the sewerage. Aside from the sound of the running water, the only other sound was the regularly spaced intervals that was her footsteps. Tap. Tap. Tap. The area was strangely serene in a way. Remilia knew that there were those above ground that wanted her dead and that there lay carnage everywhere in the city, but the sewer system had remained untouched, as if nothing above ground could bother it. Remilia continued walking.
After several minutes of walking in one direction and taking an occasional turn, always trying to readjust at times to head south, Remilia started to hear a low rumble from above her. It was extremely faint and no human would have ever heard it, surely. However due to her hypersensitive senses, Remilia knew that there was some large metal box or a similar device somewhere in the area above her. She couldn't tell exactly how far underground the part of the sewerage system was, but she figured that there must be a level above her. After all, she had entered this system through a duct at the bottom of the Seine river, almost a dozen yards underground. Switching her focus, Remilia started looking for a way to ascend levels. After another several minutes, Remilia finally found what she was looking for. A ladder with rusting rungs was attached to the wall and the sound of running water came from above. Grabbing hold of the old ladder, Remilia climbed. Upon reaching the next level, she noticed the rumbling intensify greatly. In fact, as she set her foot down on the concrete walkway, it seemed like the rumbling was getting louder in sound... As the sound grew more audible, Remilia realized that this was the sound of multiple objects moving somewhere above her. It was also not just the average rumbling... What was that? She thought she could hear a loud stamping stand, almost like a large robot were walking above...
It suddenly hit her. Whatever had fired at her earlier must have originated from some sort of super metal box or a device similar. Though the sound nearing her now obviously betrayed that there were three origins of the rumbling and one large bipedular robot or the like. Unless humans had also created walking robots at this point, Remilia was sure that this was the work of a Character. More than likely, it was the Character that had shot her out of the sky with some form of an energy round. Rage built within Remilia. She felt the anger empowering her. In no way was this a true effect. She knew it was simply her mind getting worked up and going into overdrive, but she knew that she could use this moment to squeeze every bit of energy out of her body. Remilia now ran to find the exact origin of the sound and tried to get directly underneath it. After another several minutes, Remilia was sure that there were two sources of the rumbling directly above her head. She became even more enraged at the thought of the things that had caused so much damage to her being so close.
Yet, Remilia let off a smile. They didn't have the faintest clue that she was there. Now grinning wildly, Remilia amassed what energy she could. Moving directly underneath the rumbling, Remilia shouted,
*** "Scarlet Devil "Scarlet Devil"!!
The ground around her started to crack as her own form of pure energy and willpower materialized. The area around her became red and a haze formed. Suddenly, a giant red cross appeared above her, piercing the roof and road above her, catching two of the ARM's modified tanks in it. Not finished, a whirlpool of red energy formed around her as it started slow, but accelerated to deafening speeds and sound as it lifted the tanks and strew them hundreds of yards away like a child might do with a toy.
Remilia started laughing wildly. At the same time, she wondered what she had just gotten herself into.
Melun Centre - France
The spy continued going around, asking soldiers and any straggling civilians if they had seen the devil anywhere. Though he didn't have the faintest clue on where she was, he knew that she was close. He could feel it. He pulled out his butterfly knife and started twirling it around to make himself calm down. She had to be near. He just knew it.
As if on cue, the moment he thought that, he heard a loud explosion not far off. Looking up into the sky, the Spy was horrified to see a huge red cross appear in the middle of the day with a red whirlpool of magical energy form around it, sending two objects he couldn't quite make out flying across the sky.
The spy started running towards the cross.