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year 5, quarter 3
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Umbrella considers Vordun, at Caius' remarks. "When I was a kid, there was this pack of street dogs that lived behind the shack I lived in. Mangy little mutts. The bangers would feed them rancid meat, make them fight, sell tickets. Mom told me that animals smell fear."
She makes a few sniffs of the air performatively. Sniiiff sniff sniff.
"Stand your ground, show some respect, and you aren't someone's next meal ticket." Her gang-banging upbringing is really showing through here. For all she's trying to keep the Amy persona, she has too much pride in her 'gang' the Turks.
Well, it won't hurt to bring Caius up to speed a little on technology. Not like he'd know that this is a spec-ops model.
"It's called a cell phone. Did you live in a monastery or something growing up? You can talk to other people, take pictures, even store information and maps if you've got a good model."
Caius does have a point, though. If some cities in this world are in pre-Shinra era technology, she’ll have to make a shopping run. With no Company supplies…The thought is troubling. Funding, expendable soldiers, and no idea where her fellow Turks are…or if they’re even here.
A cold spike of fear hits her right in the heart. Pale blue pools of mercury shiver. Not in anticipation or that predatory mindset, but in actual fear. And something else. Loss. Old memory trying to rip its way to her head’s foggy surface.
Umbrella shudders, nearly stumbles, and reaches for her forehead.
“The dragon. I’ll take the dragon. I need to find a place to stay while I figure out what I need to do. And I need to see if there is anyone I know from home. The faster the better.”
Hmm. “Where do you get a dragon flying license anyway? Did you have to put in hours to get rated? And where’s the eject button on a dragon? Parachutes? Do I get in-flight lizard vodka?”
No matter her practical concerns, she’ll prove a fearless passenger.
Her stomach, though, isn’t rated for dragon flying. It’s probably a good thing there’s no dragon pretzels to eat.
"The only meal tickets where I came from are if you fight daemons for a living and shot whoever tries to take that meal from you after you earned it. Respect had nothing to do with it. But I understand the idea" Caius responded offhandedly to her story as he tried to peek past the horizon in hopes of seeing where they were and where Sonora would be. The woman brought up her camera thing again, called it a cell phone.
"I think I've heard of those, but only the rich folks had them in my world by the time I was old enough to use one" He remarked as he pushed a branch or two out of his way. "By the time I had earned enough of the King's trust to be given one, they didn't have any left. So I've never actually used one or even know what they look like."
Her knowing he once served a king wouldn't hurt anything considering that was an old life. It told nothing of who he was now.
The woman indicated she would rather deal with Vordun if that meant getting there quickly, and he nodded his head to indicate he understood. But he dropped his arm as he felt something rumble. Vordun began to growl as he sensed it first, and while the rumbles started low, Caius knew to be ready as he clenched his fist. The rumbling began to be felt more and more, until it became fully audible.
Out of the lake that Caius had been eyeing in the distance, a massive creature would shoot out, training its sights on them. The thing had four tentacles and a tail, purple in color with six eyes and diamond patterns down its body. For Umbrella, it resembled the Twin Brain creatures from Mt. Nibel, though perhaps nowhere near as large as this thing.
Caius didn't hesitate. Knowing what was coming, he allowed his sword to materialize in a flash of blue light in the hand that had already been outstretched and primed for battle from the moment he had felt the first set of tremors.
"I hope you weren't bluffing about your background" Caius remarked bluntly toward Umbrella. There was a little less wit in his tone this time, for his eyes had dulled and his expression the same. Taking an all business demeanor, Caius lowered his head as he started to sequence his breaths, keeping them low and in rhythm in order to best try and hear if something was coming. The creature suddenly fired a large lightning bolt at the two. Not one that Caius recognized as a Thunder type spell though... Either way, Caius closed his eyes as he was suddenly jerked back without moving his body himself, using his abilities to propel himself backwards as Vordun took to the air to dodge it as well.
"It looks like someone doesn't take kindly to us being in this area" He spoke dryly as he brandished his blade and looked to Vordun. "Vordun, let's move. We charge it directly and flank it."
How offhanded, cruel, and very strange! Thus went Umbrella's thoughts on Caius as he so casually dropped a portion of his own past. She had a dozen questions, not least of which was 'what was a daemon'.
A servant of a King who clearly came from the lowest of the low. It slowly started to cement Umbrella's initial impression: an overly kind man with wits, perceptive and dangerous. He'd even been careful not to give away specifics. While his seeming heroism bothered her, Umbrella started to respect the man in that moment. Could he see through to some semblance of who she really is?
Umbrella wouldn't doubt it. She reminded herself to watch it around Caius, and to keep an eye on the man. Her curiosity was killing her. A slow breath, and she calmed herself down. She had to stay in control, and plan. This man wasn't an enemy...yet, anyway. She'd rather have a contact than trouble before she was established, linked up with the other Turks (the thought that she'd be cut off from them wasn't even a consideration. She couldn't consider it), and paving the way for the Company to rise in this odd place.
Before she could try to pry, however, tremors announced the presence of a massive creature. The black-suited woman's eyes sharpen, her body tenses, and her grip on her namesake lightly rubs along one of several activators on the trick weapon.
"I would never bluff around someone like you Mister Caius." Umbrella lied right through her teeth. Her attention was entirely on the oversized Twin Brain. She remembered a nasty encounter with those things. And this one was /huge/. Mentally she ran through her hardware in a flash. It was mostly the basics, all her good stuff was back at Shinra HQ a dimension away or scuttered away in some slums bolthole for emergencies.
At least it felt like it'd be a good wakeup for the woman. Maybe some good old fashioned violence could make her head less foggy. Inwardly she wished it had been bandits or someone to /really/ tear up. But a monster would do in a pinch now that it had forced the issue.
Besides, Caius' ability to materialize weapons seemingly from nowhere as well as move himself spatially turned Umbrella's respectful wariness into utter fascination.
"...What a wonderful skill." The woman complimented. There might've been a hint of jealousy even.
Umbrella hadn't been idle. She'd been sizing up her opponent, and had already started moving. Even amidst the dead branches and chill moss of the woods, her steps where those of a moving shadow. They simply didn't make sound, not unless she willed it. The Turk was devilishly fast as so many of her Brothers and Sisters were. She couldn't move in the manner Caius did, but she'd already positioned herself well. She was working to get at the creature's back with controlled rushes and agile leaps.
But spells were always annoying to try to dodge. She let the tip of her umbrella point at the portion of the massive bolt while it came for them both. Her end of the shocking conflagration was met by the folds of her umbrella flicking open. When it hit, she leaned back on one heel. Dress shoes slid back as the force pushed her towards a tiny break in the trees.
Good cover. Her umbrella's petals were smoking, but not scoured or ruined. Whatever that thing was made of, it was impressive. And luckily it didn't seem to conduct too much electricity. Part of her coat was singed, but any damage was at least superficial to the woman. A quick spin of the umbrella around the Turk's deft pale hands, and the shock faded. Umbrella herself paused in her movements, and one of the tiny orbs within her weapon lit up.
She'd be a fool to fight something with only vaguely known abilities while /also/ attempting to fool a keen man like Caius. Turk tactics it was. Seize control and debilitate was her aim. And so she pointed, a brown and black rune attempted to take hold as it faded into existence towards the monster.
"Good. I'm sure Army Amy can hold her own just fine then."
He hadn't been asking for his sake, but hers. If she had been bluffing about an extensive combat history, then this thing might just eat her alive. Not that Caius wasn't cautious of the peculiar way she had dropped and worded her backstory, but if this were a trap then he would spring it and deal with it. It wouldn't be the first time. For now though, Caius had this monster to deal with.
After sizing up his opponent, Caius summoned a dagger in his free hand which he tossed to Vordun. The drake caught it in his mouth, and Caius would take a deep breath before suddenly warping forward. Grabbing the weapon from Vordun's jaws, Caius would fling himself up onto the dragon's back as the dagger disappeared. He looked down a moment to try and find Amy, but she was proving to be devilishly difficult to track down. Eventually he caught sight of her from his dragonback perch, noting that her umbrella was now a weapon. An interesting weapon at that.
Taking heed of her warning, suspecting she had dealt with these before in her own world, Caius nodded his head as Vordun would fly over the creature. "Flank" Caius repeated the command to the dragon, before falling back off Vordun and into the air. Closing his eyes in order to heed her warning proper, Caius knew that if he was going to attack the thing head-on, he was going to need to take a risk.
Caius brandished his sword, grabbing at the creature's front as he slid down. He could hear the movements of it's massive eye opening as he neared it, and it stopped, likely in surprise that nothing had happened. Caius responded by stabbing it in the eye.
The creature let out a cry in pain and anger, and spun about to send Caius flying off it before attempting to cast again. But this time, no spells came about, adding further delay. Something that gave Caius time to make a judgement call and toss his sword downward. He gave it a moment before warping forward to the weapon, grabbing it as he opened his eyes - the warp breaking his fall as he landed. Just as Caius had planned, Vordun had taken advantage of the chaos to launch a fireball at the monster's back, damaging it further and sending it into further confusion.
Trying his best to keep his head low and not look into its eyes, Caius held out his blade and took a guess at where he was firing. Pulling the trigger on the mechanism, his gunblade fired a shotgun shell-sized blast of energy toward the monster, dealing damage but just narrowly missing the other eye that he had been aiming for. It had done some damage though...
But the creature was far from happy, and suddenly began to spin rapidly, its tentacles flying about and threatening to mow them down if they didn't get out of the way.
She didn't catch /all/ of Caius' trick with his dagger, but she managed to catch the tail end of things. A whistle forced its way from her lips. For a knight in shining armor, didn't he have some tricks up his sleeve? It was wonderful.
Umbrella felt a fleeting thought of what the man would've been like if he'd fallen in with operatives instead of a King. She couldn't shake the feeling he would have made an excellent Turk if events had unfolded just a little differently, had he been born exactly eight dimensions to the right. He was commanding a dragon, and working with it like clockwork. The assassiness had to take a breath. She was getting too excited. Focus on the target Umbrella, info gather later, she chided herself!
Still at least the pair weren't holding back. It helped to get a good idea of her temporary allies' capabilities. She kept herself as far out of sight of those peepers from the oversized Twin Brain monster. Always circling, hiding, skulking and kept on the move so that she didn't wind up paralyzed. It seemed that she'd at least eliminated the threat of its magic...for the moment. Silence rarely lasted long.
Caius' and Vordun's twin attacks were doing damage, and were taking advantage of the creature's debilitation. Just as she'd hoped. If she had a hat to tip, she'd have been doing it. Instead her pale blue mercury-like eyes rippled with anticipation. Her mind was calm, but a predator's instinct and gangster's cruelty lurked within.
But those tentacles were a problem. As long as they spun and lashed, as the creature used blunt savagery and bulk, even Caius and Vordun might have gotten mauled, never-mind how the Turk couldn't weather such a thing directly without hardware and precautions. A warrior or knight would've ducked in and shoved Caius out of the way. A mage would've had some spell ready to either speed up Caius and his dragon friend or float the pair out of the way.
Umbrella had magic and fighting skills, but it was all dirty. Same with her hardware. It was all meant to hinder, cause confusion, kill at opportune moments and generally ensure that anyone not named Umbrella or under the Turks had a bad time. So she kept behind a tree and waited. Slowed her breathing and with further concentration her heartbeat.
A whispered shadow became a ghost, became a non-entity.
Until she wasn't. A shape crouched, leapt to a branch, and then with a light 'hiss' something went flying to a tree opposite and above the monster that bore down on Caius and Vordun. Umbrella sailed along with her high powered grappling hook and acrobatic body with her coat silently fluttering. Her free hand flicked two things down upon the Twin-Brain with a single motion with only a minor delay between the two.
First was a sticky grease-like substance aimed along what passed for a 'face'. It was, in fact, high-grade industrial hair grease that she used to keep that roguish back-slick to her often unruly hair. It put a small frown on her face to know that she would be out her favorite hair-taming substance for a bit, but what fell down next would hopefully make it worth it.
That would be the hand-sized cylinder she added for her aerial anti-care package she had just mailed to her target. She'd timed it so that hopefully the monster would be too ready to strike down dragon and warrior to really notice. And hopefully /just/ far enough away to not have her 'allies' in the effective range of the military-grade thing.
It wasn't really a bomb, technically. Just a canister with a short release timer and enough contained aerosol to have spread out the contains before the contents within started to oxygenate. As she had found out over many a trial run back home, it was a combination that tended to activate extra quick while remaining attached to the victim for even longer than standard when she'd done it before. True it took a little luck.
Hit or miss, Umbrella belatedly wondered how much of the forest might get torched right as the Turk's hair-grease-enhanced napalm canister went off.
"I'd not be too slow Mr. Vordun, Mr. Caius." Casually dropped Umbrella. Sorry, not sorry Sir Kingsglaive!
Caius kept his composure, taking calming breaths as he moved to keep himself on level. The thing spinning was going to make things a problem, and he hadn't seen their temporary companion anywhere in a bit. So Caius had no clue they had disabled the monster's spellcasting for a bit, and thus he was preparing for another spell at anytime. But then it hit him. If he couldn't hit the thing while it was moving like that... Then he would just have to stop it from moving.
"Blizzara!" Caius called out as he held out a hand, a blast of ice firing from his palm that hit the underside of the creature. When it struck, it created icicles that froze them in place, stopping their spinning.
Just in time for the canister that she had thrown to reach its target. The warning she gave led Caius to look up and see something being thrown. He didn't know what it was, but Caius was able to guess well enough what the intention was. "Vordun!" Caius called to the dragon as he took off, prioritizing Vordun's safety over his own as he launched his dagger to the dragon again, warping forward and catching it in mid-air as he grabbed onto Vordun's claws. Getting Vordun's attention first had opened up for Vordun to move closer at his shout, allowing for Caius to do so. Climbing up, he used the air control capabilities of his abilities that he had adapted for ground use earlier, to dart himself in front of Vordun. Holding out his hands, a red-colored barrier would appear in front of them just as the "bomb" went off.
The creature was engulfed in the blast. Luckily, the lake was just outside the range of the forest and thus didn't raze the Wanderwood to the ground. For those in the vicinity though, the barrier rocked hard when the explosion hit, and Caius had to use Vordun's body as a support to keep himself positioned as the barrier took a great deal of damage in the process. It was true that Caius could have moved away and thus saved himself, but Vordun wouldn't have known right away it was a bomb. Not fast enough to get away.
The barrier held up just barely, breaking at the tail end of the explosion as Caius shouted an order for Vordun to fall back. The damage was negated as much as possible, though they didn't escape entirely unscathed. Growling at the feeling of painful burns, Caius guided Vordun downward until they were able to land.
"Cura" Caius called calmly to Vordun, quickly healing the drake before casting the spell on himself next. With that, he searched for the woman until he found her.
Of course, the monster lay dead. Very dead. And very toasty too.
Now /this/ was her element. The aftermath of a battle spent slinking in the shadows as she took it all in. Her helpful party member had not only comported himself extremely well but actually seemed to take great pains to spare Vordun much of the blast. While Umbrella hadn't been specifically aiming to scorch the dragon, she wasn't exactly about to risk the loss of efficient deathdealing to spare the hardy legendary beast pain.
That Caius had been willing to risk himself for the thing's well being was notable. It ran at odds with Umbrella's biased mental calculus. For a man so hardened shouldn't he have either let the dragon fend for itself or at least prioritized his own safety? Did Caius actually see the draconic killing tool as a companion?
Something about that didn't sit well with the woman. It would be like comparing a Guard Scorpion armor's value to that of her fellow Turks. In the logical side of her mind she knew well that some accountant with access to sensitive information (thoroughly cooked and renamed, of course, given the black ops nature of her and her friends) had very well gone and done a cost benefit analysis just like that. Same with any other Shinra asset.
But in her heart, she had put them all on something more precious. The Turks were a valuable resource to each other. They were /family/ no matter who had been cutting them checks. And Vordun was just like a dog, an animal!
At least the scent of napalm, a light bit of destruction all about, and a very toasty monster made those sour feelings easy to push back into her mind. Just as Caius had begun to look for her she took one final sniff of the air and confidently walked out with her namesake spinning over one finger. Her gaudy purple coat and parts of her Turk suit were a little lightning singed, but she'd managed to keep herself more than presentable.
It had to be noted however that the deflected lightning storm did /NOT/ burn off that oglop musk smell. At least her headache had gotten better. Combat rush would do that to you.
"Coming from the man who just teleported all around and called up weapons from nowhere, that sounds a little like...how'd the exec's always put it?" She smiled just a little. It was still fake-plastic, just a little softer. It had the impression of a tease.
"Damning with faint praise? I'm jealous. Your King friend teach you that? ...Couldn't teach me, huh?" A brow raised. She was already taking out a potion and chugged it. This was then followed by a hip flask, a slightly lesser chug, and finally offered over to Caius.
"Mister Vordun? Try not to worry your partner too much!" Chided Umbrella to the dragon.
Vordun was alright, and the monster was dead. That was what mattered to Caius. Amy seemed to be alright as well, and as she spoke up, Caius seemed satisfied with the affirmation she wasn't dead standing up as he started to walk to the monster's corpse. While it was nice and smokey, there was still a part of it intact that Caius had been eyeing for a little bit now. "Vordun" Caius called to the drake as Vordun would follow behind him. Thank the Astrals it hadn't fallen into the lake. That would make made the trek up a little harder.
"The King gave us the capability. It was our job to learn" He responded curtly to her questions. He gingerly refused her offer to drink from the flask with a wave of his hand. While he was sure it wasn't poisonous since she had just drank from it, he wasn't going to deplete the reserves of someone who just got here. She'd need it in future, he was sure.
Caius drew his sword once more as he climbed onto the monster's corpse, with Vordun standing nearby in case Caius fell.
"I built my weapons. My abilities just allow me to use them at will" He then clarified, though that bit was more to make conversation and not be rude to his temporary companion while he began to work. He plunged the sword into the monster's flesh, and began cutting out one of the ruby things that adorned its chest. It was a good supplemental income, since Caius ran into these kinds of beasties so much. They were huge, and he likely would only be able to fit two in Vordun's saddlebags. That was fine, two would be enough. Once he had finished cutting them out, he would load them into Vordun's saddlebags before hopping down. With that, he motioned for "Amy" to get a move on, and he climbed onto Vordun's back before holding out a hand to her to help her on board.
"Your chariot awaits, madam" He joked dryly. Though as he had a chance to study her more closely, he quirked a curious brow.
"You know... It's quite unusual for a military woman to fight in a suit. I've seen someone fight in a suit just like that one, though..." He trailed off as he looked her dead in the eyes. "What sort of military institution are you from, Army Amy?"
Not that it mattered, considering it was a literal universe away. But something about her behavior, her body language, her expressions. It came off as... Rehearsed, maybe? Almost robotic. And Amy the Army girl?
Perhaps he was just paranoid. But he had every reason to be. He didn't care much if she was lying though, honestly. Sure, he hated liars. Hated the pants off them. But he had a few reasons to ask, even if he doubted he would get an answer. He mainly really only cared about if he could trust her long enough to get her to Sonora without her putting a knife in his back. But that suit was very familiar... Come to think of it, so were a lot of things. The way she talked, that same methodical way of going about things...
Was it survival or curiosity that brought his question about?
Luckily Umbrella proved, perhaps predictably from her cold nature, to have at least an iron stomach...while on the ground at least. Sure, she'd taken survival skills as part of her Turks training, but she was always more of a city murderer rather than your homicidal forest maniac. One foot in front of the other, she casually leaned in. Her head tilted as she observed keenly when Caius got to work butchering the monster.
She shook her head with the lightest of sighs when Caius again turned down alcohol. What a walking contradiction, to Umbrella's mind! She didn't get it. How could such a hardened man become so /sharing/ to a complete stranger? It made sense to team up. It was survival, their odds were better with three.
"Mercenary, butcher /and/ blacksmith. What next? Are you a poet? One of those dandies that enjoy Loveless?" The woman spat on the ground. She absolutely hated that play. And, well, plays in general. All of that upper-society guff she'd had to endure at Shinra parties. She'd mostly spent her time at those on business, booze, carousing or just trying to steal anything not nailed down.
Once a gangster...
Her eyes spied the little gems he'd pried loose. It was good thinking. Caius certainly had a resourceful mind. She could respect that. They reminded her of materia. Reflexively she rubbed one of the many slots on her namesake weapon.
Where /would/ she get materia on this new world anyway? Another point to add to her priority list. It was getting depressingly large. Especially with barely two gil to scrape together!
With Vordun all barding'd up, Umbrella took Caius' hand and was appropriately yoink'd upwards. She settled in carefully. This one definitely didn't have her dragon legs. Umbrella could fly a twin-prop plane...but even that she had to take medicine for to not lose her head at anything over a couple G's. This was a disaster in the making and part of her knew it. The rest didn't dare show weakness in front of her temporary compatriot.
"A gentleman. Well that's new." She smiled. Still with that plastic quality to it. It never quite showed in her cold, dead eyes. Indeed, as Caius suspected, everything from expression to movements were calculated and rehearsed over hundreds of hours over her life. A dedication to self control bordering on the obsessive. It was a bit of a flimsy cover, but just good enough to work. She didn't need Caius to believe her, just not get the urge to push her off the darn dragon once they got into flight.
Not to mention get to where she might find some form of normalcy. She wasn't a robot. Her heart ached for her Boss and her fellow Turks. Brows raised. A genuine look of confusion passed over her face before that too she tamped down.
"I'd better get used to questions like that. Remember those pictures? Well, I'm not from Wutai. That was the only real army left that wasn't the Company. You know, before they lost the war. Rest of them are basically jumped up mercenaries. Or terrorists. Well, basically, I served in a lot of things. Ended up basically as a scout though." /Avalanche/!!!!
She felt no need to lie too much. She did plenty of scouting, in between all the murder, arson, kidnappings, theft, and intel gathering. Umbrella was good at omitting the good stuff.
"...Wait. This person. Describe them. Height. Looks. Name if you have it. Everything." She sounded piqued. And maybe, just maybe if Caius listened hard enough...the lightest edge of hope. These dark suits /meant/ something to this cold woman. Her eyes rippled, and not in that hostile malicious way.
It got a reaction. A genuine reaction. For once her eyes lit up. For once, there was something that seemed real and genuine. Which meant that he had hit something. She seemed to try to amend her story, and it wasn't all that easy to tell if she was being truthful or not now that she was amending it. But that look, and then the questions that followed. She wanted height. Looks. Name. Everything he could get about the person in the suit. That said that he had hit something. And he had his guesses, but he wanted to be sure yet. His gaze hardened as he continued to stare her in the eyes. The fact was, he couldn't trust her entirely. Not yet anyway. And while it was possible with the suits that she was an ally of the person in mind... It was also possible they were an enemy, who might harm the person in question. The person in question had been good to him. She had similar mannerisms at times, but she had proven a stout ally, and she had taken the time to open up in some aspects as well. She, perhaps unlike this one, understood that there was little need to keep these things here. She had been straight up with Caius, as far as he could tell. And had proven a huge asset on the field. As well as someone that he felt he could confidently call a friend. And he refused to endanger her if that possibility lie there.
She could handle herself. But Caius wasn't sending her a threat until he could at least say most likely they were not. He owed her that much.
"You first" He spoke calmly, yet firmly, his gaze never leaving her eyes. His expression was stone, unyieldingly so. "Your possible connection to them. All of it. Info for info. Truth for truth. If the person belongs to this "Company" of yours, I request its actual name."
