Utilizing her abilities as an Electrogen has become second nature for Kanashima. Despite no formal training, it was still very intuitive to activate her Intrinsic perk, and all of the boons that came with it. Recreating those sensations also came incredibly easy, after all, it was directly tied to one's nervous system. She had gotten used to being able to flood her coils with energy and blast off plasma bolts time and time again from her right hand. There may be a more efficient, less costly way to release her Mark of the Void, but for the time being, it was effective.
This cause and effect action she had grown so used to was consistent and highly dependable. When she relinquished control of the budding charges and opened the floodgates, she expected a spectacular flash of violet light to slam into her opponent's wrinkled forehead. At first, she thought she simply missed the quick action. It was a bolt of electricity that flew at light speed, it wasn't completely unreasonable for her projectile to close the distance in that short of a window. For some reason, his tan skin was still fully intact and just as flawed as before.
Wait, what happened?
His forehead was looking a lot less burnt or hole filled than she would've liked, and his speed didn't slow at all. The entire rest of his body was still as unharmed as before, the only sign of damage the horizontal cut she was able to deliver earlier. She definitely didn't miss her target either, there was no sign of scorching in the immediate surroundings. Unless the materials were proofed with something that could flawlessly withstand Electrogen attacks, there was no way she accidentally hit the ground or one of the shelves. It really made her question whether she actually fired the shot off.
No, I definitely did. The electrons left my battery.
The question Kanashima was left to answer on her own was where it went. She raised her hand and it should've at least gone somewhere in that direction. Positioning her arm in the same way, she outstretched her fingers exactly how she had learned to shoot off her bolts. Running her gaze over the metallic plates on her knuckles, she froze. The new black leather gloves had a rather odd look for the fingertips, and she wasn't sure if they were actually given to her like that.
That's definitely new. I don't know about that, but this is new.
Thin wisps of smoke rose up from the fingertips, stemming specifically from the weird discoloring on the leather. The material itself was definitely scorched in those places, corresponding almost exactly to the locations of her hand's nerve endings. The worst part was it looked exactly how she expected the impact location of her perk to look like. A small grimace came across her concealed face.
Now that she had noticed it, she activated one of the brain's weird, unwritten rules. Most times, the body didn't feel pain it didn't perceive or expect to receive. This sort of experience had been shared by so many other individuals in the past. Science and research had gone into uprooting the cause of this phenomenon, and while there was a wildly accepted idea of how the mind actually registers pain, nobody could answer for sure why it was this way. Her fingertips themselves were singed from her own attack, the skin on the tips flaking off.
These gloves contained it? Damnit, this is really bad.
"What's wrong, Daughter of the Void? Cat got your tongue?"
Okay, what the hell?
There was no reason for him to know the name of her Intrinsic, she never told him, or anyone except for her own boss for that matter. It wasn't out of the question that the Nihility had access to a weird Intrinsic perk that allowed them to see somebody else's information, even though that was a wild breach of privacy. If the megacorporations didn't care about that, then the ALFA virus wouldn't have to either. Still, it didn't explain why her Intrinsic was so significant that the captain himself addressed her in such a manner. Apparently it held some sort of significance to the gang, possibly meaning even more to them than it did the actual wielder.
Balling her right hand into a tight fist, the burnt fingertips hissed in pain. For the meantime, she had to do her best to ignore it, just like she was already ignoring the flesh wound on her foot. She needed to commit to some second form of retaliation, but she was left with only one real option now that her knife was gone and her own combat Intrinsic got shut off. The only problem with punching is that she wasn't strong, nor fast enough to get away with something so obvious. Despite everything, she swung on the superior hand to hand fighter.
Unsurprisingly, he brought his left arm up to block the strike. After absorbing the little amount of force, his body didn't budge even a little bit. His retaliation came almost immediately, rearing back his right arm around waist level and driving it forward. Through her mind's clarity, the intentions were obvious, but there was nothing for her to do now. Just as his bare knuckles were about to connect, the orbiting orange wisps moved to coagulate in between the two bodies.
"Explode."
His punch drove it home, connecting with her ribcage. From the physical force alone, her ribs audibly cracked. Just as she thought the pain couldn't get any worse, the captain's Intrinsic perk went off. With another high pitched whine and his now glowing amber fist, the point of contact combusted into another high pressurized shockwave of air. Similar to the kick that got them here, the concussive force was somehow influenced to be directional. As the result of her rather light frame, the blast carried her far and away from the current battlefield.
That's… unfair. He got a stronger Intrinsic than me.
The impact rocked her entire body, rattling her weak bones and jostling her internal organs quite uncomfortably. Some of them were at least a little affected by the amount of blunt force applied to the ribcage, even with her reinforced coat absorbing a fair amount of shock and awe. One was obviously injured a little bit, making her cough up a decent amount of blood during her air time. Whichever ribs cracked and somehow survived the initial melee blow were now completely broken from the followup.
A few beats into her impromptu flight over the department store products, her vision went completely black. The pummelling she had just received must've rocked her brain too much to keep her conscious. Now her limp body was soaring through the air with no way for her to salvage a decent landing out of it.
"You killed them?"
"You killed us!"
Inverse Pressure must've switched off by now if what she was seeing was anything to go by, responding to her untimely black out. That disapproving, pity look in sharp cerulean eyes pierced her soul all the same again. His downtrodden voice that so rarely appeared out from under the upbeat normal. The frown that spread wide across his bronze face. Kanashima knew it all too well, the disappointed gaze of her own brother.
"How could you? Is that what will bring me back?"
I know it won't. I'm alone because of it, of course I know.
Unfurling from his crossed arms, his left hand opened up to gesture at the cast of people behind himself. Grouped up were several members of the Nihility, a few individuals in standard issue police uniforms and equipment, and a seemingly random and out of place middle aged man. She recognized each one of them, their deceased eyes, their lifeless gaze. Their faces still possessing that same expression of anguish that appeared at their time of death. How could she forget them? They were forever ingrained in her brain, and there was no way she'd simply be able to make them leave. No matter how much she'd like to, especially right now.
"You killed us! We had families!"
"Sisters!"
"Brothers!"
"My kids!"
For me? Just my lonesome?
The entire encounter made her stomach churn, like she was going to be sick all over again. She had to kill them out of necessity, it was the only logical decision in those moments. Even though the only way she could justify her actions in the moment was through reasoning and her artificial clarity, it didn't apply to this dreamlike, unconscious state. No matter how many times she reminded herself that it had to be done, to protect herself, there was nothing she could do to alleviate the guilt settling in the bottom of her stomach.
Morgan, please.
"Are you even my sister?"
Kanashima woke up moments before crash landing into a rack of dowel rods and small metal hooks, unable to brace herself at all. To make matters worse, a purple spark flickered off the top of the display itself. She wasn't sure what Miss Fortune would have in store for her once she landed, but with the way her bug has been working, it couldn't be good. Her back slammed into the frame hard, the wood and her armored jacket absorbing most of the impact.
No matter how well the racks have held up until now, her bug must've marked and directed her to the single weak point in the construction. Crumbling under her body weight, the glued pieces shattered into sharp splinters of various sizes. For a few moments, she laid on the bed of wood and home improvement items, groaning from the whole ordeal.
Propping herself up with her good hand, she didn't even feel the pointy shards through the leather glove. Despite them screwing over her fight, she was quite appreciative of their protective properties, along with her coat.
Dripping onto the ground in front of her was more of her own blood, running from her forehead. Most of it was adhering to her skin or being swallowed up by her hair, forcing the strands to stick together. Additionally, she was also bleeding somewhere on the inside, coughing up even more blood was a clear indicator of that. Through this, her body was suffering from a world of hurt, but she only felt a fraction of it. She still knew it was there, it just wasn't inhibiting her thoughts and actions, almost as if she had something specifically attached to her system to do just that.
Seems like the virus wants me to feel only a little bit of pain. Thank you, Inverse Pressure.
Through the power of what was effectively her own painkiller, she was able to stand on her two feet once again. Through short, labored breaths, she was forced to rest up before walking back towards the fighting. Her ears were ringing, and her vision was beginning to feel inhibited by her bleeding, but she still knew the fighting was in that direction. The voice in her head was as helpful as ever with information.
"Be advised, Lady Kanashima. Active fight, two hundred meters. On your twelve."
Trudging her way through the deserted home improvement floor, she took her time to traverse the two hundred meters to get back to the fight. She really didn't want to agitate any of her injuries, taking her time allowed her to accomplish such a feat. Closing in on the wide open walkway, it seemed Cipher was just barely hanging on against their onslaught, even though she could only count three of the Nihility left. Maybe there was just one out of her line of sight.
She didn't spend much time looking at the actual fight going on. Continuing to survey the empty area, her eyes locked in on what she was actually looking for. Holding eye contact with the Loving Lullaby that had so rudely been stripped out of her grip, a smile widened across her face.
Now that they didn't expect her, she was going to raise hell against the last standing Nihility.