2022-09-24: The Game Is Afoot
- Cast: Celebro, Shota Hebikura, Jana Cektru
- Where: AEU France - Industrial District
- Date: U.C. 0096 09 24
- Summary: In the aftermath of Akane Shinjo's rather public falling-out with BioNet, the NERV Monster Research Laboratory is investigating the aftermath. But something's wrong...
<Pose Tracker> Celebro has posed.
It is hours after the kaiju attack on Paris. NERV's Monster Research Laboratory has deployed its agents to comb over the city - studying kaiju allows for better combatting them, better using their traits, and simply better understanding of the creatures with which mankind shares its home. It is the former two that mostly motivates today's outings; it is quite well known indeed that Akane Shinjo's creations are no kind of natural beast. But something...happened, this time, that has all the researchers abuzz. What caused Go'yavec's strange transformation? The enormous fireball-spewing kaiju transformed suddenly, shrinking greatly and gaining strange, clothing-like traits. Its fireballs transformed into, of all things, a curious affinity for sound and a music-like warbling, even including light blasts that looked like musical notes. It's no wonder, then, that the researchers are combing the place thoroughly.
One of the researchers is a little weird. Japan's main Monster Research Lab branch isn't here, on account of being stationed on the other side of the planet. With Paris' proximity to a number of BioNet frontlines, to say nothing of nearby GGG Germany, they have their own departments for these kinds of things. Nonetheless, Shinya Kaburagi has shown up to do his duty, working with focus and commitment as he scoops up clay-like residue and fits them into pre-labeled containers.
And, at a moment he's sure he's unobserved...he slips his hand into a crack he isolated earlier, and finds what he came here for.
He holds it in his gloved palm, eyes boring into it. A medal, almost like a child's novelty coin, depicting on its face a girl in profile, with reddish skin and greenish hair and a form-concealing hoody. He slides it into his pouch. Good. Secured. Time to get out of here.
<Pose Tracker> Shota Hebikura has posed.
Cleanup duty had never been Hebikura's favorite activity, but STORAGE had been stretched so thin responding to the aftermath of the Kaiju attacks that all the hands had been put to work - even the pilots and command staff. The Earth was not safe on the ground, at least in the greater Japan area.
So STORAGE was taking volunteers and local expert contractors.
With the rest of the STORAGE Team on analysis and defense missions, Hebikura made do with the expanded government budgets that crisis agencies got. Annoying, but necessary.
Hebikura met Doctor Jana Cektru at the Kaiju site, having remembered the name from the fight with the over-combined Lord Monster several weeks ago.
He works into a briefing at a rise in a crater while the suits work below.
"When you helped us, several weeks ago, the monster that appeared was some sort of new, combined type of Kaiju. Right now, we're still analyzing the details from that engagement, but that's not important. What we know is that we're currently engaging with some entity or force that can 'induce combination' in Kaiju."
The jumpsuited captain slicks back his fallen black bang over his ear and glance over the work below, tisking as he scans the damage visually. Frustration lifts and falls in his shoulders.
"What I'm about to tell you is classified defense information, but seeing as I've already brought you here-" His hands slide into his pockets. "-I'm not exaggerating when I say 'entity or force'. While it's not unheard of for anomalies to create kaiju evolution, it happening so often means it's probably some being manipulating Kaiju."
Rubbing the back of his neck, the captain looks over the Doctor. "What's your field of study? Besides piloting civil defense units."
<Pose Tracker> Jana Cektru has posed.
While Jana wasn't present for that attack, she did take interest in the reports that came of it. A kaiju, in pain, showing strange new abilities... it is not the first time she's heard that story on Earth.
Also, there's a weirdo who may or may not keep snails in his pencil box.
So when Hebikura called her in on this matter, she was quite interested. Her expression at first is impassive, thoughtful as she notes his frustration and his words. What he is telling her...
"I suspected that might be the case. Two makes for the beginnings of a pattern..." A nod.
The Doctor looks back. "I primarily work on materials science for STORAGE," she explains, "But I'm otherwise interdisciplinary."
<Pose Tracker> Celebro has posed.
The devastation is impressive; any sighting of Go'yavec is, with its awesomely massive body simply stomping entire blocks to the ground. Its body was blown in two by GaoGaiGo and the rest of GGG's assistance, leading to a beautifully clean bisection that's left lots of little stones and rocks and the strange STUFF that is in the middle of Shinjo's kaiju. All worth investigating. What's more, the Brave Police and Chasseur are out and about, investigating what they believe will be many BioNet labs in the area now exposed or trashed. Perhaps people who will need help, etc. Those kinds of things also require Research Team assistance.
Shinya Kaburagi, in his dull forest-green coverall, stands up, tucking his samples into the hardsided yellow sample case at his side. That he'll hand off to the site manager. Is the theory, anyway. He picks it up in a gloved hand and walks - trudges, really, a tired-legged slump - across the street, on his way to an intersection, walking past the conversing commanders without a glance. Just a worker. They're not his concern, right?
BBSYS: Post 254, 'Apologies' has been published to BioNet by Alexis Kerib.
<Pose Tracker> Shota Hebikura has posed.
"NERV intelligence on the matter places at least one Kaiju-manipulator within the city at the time: the nemesis of the large humanoid-type alien-" Close enough. "'Gridman'. But she only proves that entities can manipulate kaiju - she wasn't involved with the Super-Combined Lord monster." The captain's arms cross firmly.
As the pair talk, Hebikura has the casual gaze of someone at ease, half-paying-attention to the scientists below. Go'yavec completely transmuting its attack pattern was a very potent reason to show care, and yet... "Material Science may be what we need in this case. You're aware of the phenomenon that took place? The changing of the..." Hebikura looks away, not quite the expert on the topic and frustrated without the word to use.
"Theme? Of the Kaiju. A layering-over? We're looking for clues, and the physical reality of the thing is probably--" His looking-away gaze starts panning enough to turn him at the shoulder, and then all the way around, following Kaburagi's path straight out of the worksite with material in hand. "... Oi."
He turns around, with a casual grin. "Care for a walk, doctor?"
Hebikura immediately heads off in the wake of the alleged 'checking-out materials worker'. As a governmental supervisor, he had a duty to make sure nobody but Yuka was having a better time during Kaiju activity than he was.
<Pose Tracker> Jana Cektru has posed.
"Ah, yes. We've met." Her and this kaiju-manipulator, that is. "Yes, that adds up thus far."
Jana is glancing down as well, but she is 'listening' as well, getting a general feel for the emotional tenor of the area. At the same time, she considers Hebikura's expression and...
"Yes," Dr. Cektru answers. "I remember the phenomenon. The physical..." Hm. Hebikura tuuuuurns, and Jana turns as well, tilting her head to look at what he's looking at.
"I think I could use the exercise," she says with a brisk nod, and will go right along with him.
<Pose Tracker> Celebro has posed.
Spotted. Kaburagi's eyes cut from one to the other. STORAGE, both of them. He remembers the records. And if he's not mistaken, he's even fought them before, when he Rose as the Super Combined Monster. Data, crossed and analyzed. Kaburagi's access really has been quite useful. They won't know any of that, of course.
...it's fine. He doesn't go for the weapon yet. It'll be cleaner if he can just go. He'd rather not lose this identity.
His pace gets a bit more regular, stepping with purpose toward a blind corner that, his excuse will go, heads toward another site.
Of course, someone who's been around the cosmic block might have an awareness that that will also break line of sight with him. And what doors might open if that happens.
<Pose Tracker> Shota Hebikura has posed.
At a brisk walk, Hebikura continues the conversation. The 'worker' remains in view, and while there's an off sense to the man, he's trying to exposit. Distracted - and committed to being seen by another in his invited path about the worksites, the Captain still has observations to share.
"What we have to ask ourselves is, as experts in this field, what the motivation of a kaiju controller could be. They're... mysterious, and powerful." A smirk lingers around the corners of the captain's otherwise collegial expression that he pans between the path (and Kaburagi) and Doctor Cektru.
"But often, they are driven by a specific goal. In another timeline-" Advanced lore already! "-NERV observed-" A useful half-truth. "-the presence of Dark Thunder Energy, which reacted to kaiju in a repeatable way. The issue we're facing is that it's not repeating the same threat - it's not expressing a random force. During a time when our defenses were tender, the powers of five lord monsters were brought to bear against us."
"So. . ."
Kaburagi ducks behind a corner. Hebikura, observed by Jana, can't do what he'd love nothing more to do, and worse, if Kaburagi has similar abilities and is the mysterious individual pulling the strings--
Hebikura pauses his thought to jog to the corner and come around short, hands against the wall as he applies actual tangible effort to the situation rather than sliding around in front of his target.
"A little early for lunch!" He calls down the way, searching as if this poor worker would vanish right out from Jana and Hebikura's plain sight!
His aside follows, to finish his previous thought. "Motive. There has to be a reason. A 'why'. There's always a 'why'. An archaic code, or a malicious point to prove, or a prize to be gained."
<Pose Tracker> Jana Cektru has posed.
Jana doesn't go for her weapon yet either. But she does consider a different kind of weapon. Breaking line of sight...
Well, Shota is still giving her information. So for now they keep walking. The worker is there... And Dr. Cektru keeps her attention on him. He steps with purpose. She listens to advanced lore. Hearing talk of another timeline is not what she expected on this outing. "...They do have goals." I may be obvious, but she considers it anyway; what 'goal' would lead to this situation...? That is indeed the question. Hebikura jogs forward, meanwhile Jana has a different approach. Bringing a hand up to her temple, she regards the worker thoughtfully, and right before he crosses the corner--
-Hmmm.- She reaches out with her mind, projecting her thoughts towards the mind of the man walking there, attempting to 'observe' him even while she cannot see him. What is he thinking...?
"Yes," Dr. Cektru agrees with Hebikura. "But with only two data points it becomes difficult to esablish the pattern. All the same, it's a beginning. Five lord monsters together, and then..."
"Is there a nice picnic spot down there?" she wonders more loudly.
As for him, perhaps he'll be startled by the sense that he's being watched... Perhaps not.
<Pose Tracker> Celebro has posed.
They're talking about...him, he thinks, and he can't suppress a grin. Ah, this is the fun part of the game. It's already starting, is it? Kiete karekareta; what a good feeling. Almost makes him want to stay, but that makes it all the more important that they lose him here.
'In another timeline--'
Now, now, hold up there. Wait a moment. That's not just any seijin alien business, is it? That's...Ultras and stranger things than that. ...definitely time to go.
He rounds the corner, and resolutely does not vanish.
Something. A presence...? That wasn't in his information.
Shinya Kaburagi isn't remotely psychic. Just a man, with a passion and knowledge and the roughly average fortune to have found a career that let him use them.
But that's not what Jana senses. Not a human person with human ambitions of trying the crepery down the block. Not a researcher trying to quickly remember his where he put his French phrasebook. Something...else. Which, because she is seeking human minds, is mostly a blast of alien noise.
But maybe that's a giveaway of its own.
Especially when Hebikura calls after him.
....he stops. Facing away from them, but unmoving.
He reaches for his front pouch, where he keeps the weapon.
He hates the waiting game. But he knows from how that sounded that the shot isn't good.
"Lunch," he says. His body language has...changed. Slumped strangely. He's not interested in pretending. "It is early, isn't it."
<Pose Tracker> Shota Hebikura has posed.
Coming about the corner at a purposeful jog, the Captain of STORAGE pops a big smug grin as he finds his target having stopped up and entered Busted On Duty position. The haste bleeds off of him as he carries on past Jana, the Doctor spending her moments reaching towards their mysterious hungry hazmat with their mind instead of a hand.
Hebikura isn't that kind of sort. He has the physicality of an older brother, and the naturally dominatory sneer of said brother towards the middle child. Reaching out, while Kaburagi messes with his bag, Hebikura trots up and aims to get his arm around the uniformed younger man, looking perilously around the front of Kaburagi's uniform, before he takes a half-step back. "A-ttah, you're still in your site gear. We can't go to lunch like this!"
His voice takes on a 'time for punishment' dark character, put on for some attempt at humor. "So we'll have to walk you back before we can sneak out to expense yakisoba for the site. Can't do government work without food,"
He looks back at Jana, who is getting static blasted with alien gibberish and the extra-innocent Defense Team captain none the wiser. Certainly.
"Mmm?"
<Pose Tracker> Jana Cektru has posed.
She sure doesn't sense any of those things she is looking for. Which, indeed, is its own signal. Jana falls behind a little as she focuses on the mind, and then she frowns as if she's stepped in something unpleasant... which is not entirely unlike what just happened.
She misses part of the pleasant, fun approach, hearing distantly talk of site gear and walking back before she looks up again, lowering her hand.
"Right," Jana says, reasonably confident she agrees with whatever was just said. Then she considers. He looks at her. She looks at him.
Yeah, that's good enough. "You might as well give up. I take my noodles very seriously."
She shakes her head at Hebikura after she gives the response. Maybe that'll be enough of a cue.
She hasn't gone for a weapon herself, yet, but she does start to close, heeled boots click click clicking against the pavement.
<Pose Tracker> Celebro has posed.
On someone else - someone human, someone actually thinking within the prison of language cues and social norms - the approach might work. Maybe they'd find out about his tragically ill granny whose medical bills mean he had to resort to smuggling for BioNet, and help him get out of the helpless hole a man can fall into in this troubled world.
Hebikura gets him over the shoulder, alright. He barely moves. Hebikura steps back, pleasantly asserting they'll all go return his gear and go grab a bite. Jana makes her presence known just a bit more seriously.
Then Kaburagi moves, levels a Space Gun of some description - actually, it looks rather a lot like the pistols the old Vallis Raiders had, back when, less like any weapon forged on Earth and more like a hinged pair of metal ....Pieces....with a light on the end - and then it emits a pulse of bright red light toward Hebikura, a concussive force fit to send him flying. Not deadly - for someone with Hebikura's history, mostly annoying.
But it does mean he's now in no position at all to stop Kaburagi from making a break for it. He half-turns, squeezing off another couple shots to try and stun Jana, too, and then he runs. ...this would go better if his run didn't, like, suck. It's so bad. It's like he's having to figure out how legs work.
But when there's just a moment, when they're both too dazed to find him....he's gone.
<Pose Tracker> Shota Hebikura has posed.
Shota Hebikura -- Jugglus Juggler -- is all too acquainted with the shape, look, and particular hum of the technology used by Gillvalis. It being in the hands of a Kaiju study site worker isn't completely inconceivable - Gillvalis had visited this Earth-line too, and the flotsam of failed attempts at universal re-judgementation would feed space warlords for generations of colorful characters to come.
It was just so annoying to have intuited right, and yet moved so wrong. Failing, ever failing, and now he was about to be--
Zorched where he stands, friendly, the Captain clearly takes a dead-on blast and is sent kinetically back two bodylengths to sprawl out, giving the imposter precious time to abscond. Hitting the ground on shoulder, arm, and elbow, Hebikura emits an annoyed 'ghk' and sits up. Celebro gets a spray of parting shots off, and Hebikura's head snaps up to track Jana - confirming the Doctor's status before panning down the empty path that Kaburagi occupied.
With a radially burned jumpsuit - like a bare lightbulb had been set into the cloth until combustion - just off center-chest, the captain kips up first to knee and then standing, and surveils their botched collaring.
"Ch... Scavengers. But that was genuine gear he was wearing... Doctor, are you alright?"
<Pose Tracker> Jana Cektru has posed.
A miscalculation. But then, of all the things she expected, this was not among them. Having some sort of weapon, sure--but the suddenness of his movements catches her by surprise. She is not accustomed to this particular kind of work.
So Kaburagi moves, and Jana dives out of the way of the gun, sensing outward for Hebikura's presence. The connection she had with that alien noise breaks when a blast nudges close to her arm, close enough to burn even though it isn't close enough to actually impact her.
"...I could ask you the same," she admits, looking him over as she pushes up to her feet. The bad burn is... actually more blue than red. "Tch..."
"I'll be fine, though I'd like to cover this up before we go back."
"...He certainly wasn't human. At least, not in mind. And that was very genuine gear. I take it I wouldn't be wrong to assert that Earth doesn't have that kind of technology..."
<Pose Tracker> Celebro has posed.
He might as well have been gone for hours. It's like he ran full tilt for seconds, at most, and then vanished into thin air.
It's funny, though, how the power to slip through space can work. Sometimes...sometimes its convenience works both ways.
A dozen meters away or so, an ID card on a lanyard lies on the ground, abandoned. The face is the man you've just seen. No mistaking that.
MONSTER RESEARCH LABORATORY
CLASS ▮ ACCESS
SHINYA KABURAGI
<Pose Tracker> Shota Hebikura has posed.
Hebikura looks down at his jumpsuit, pulling at the cloth. The center comes away, burned through to char the undershirt underneath. He makes another annoyed face, plucking at his burned garb again, to try and adjust the visibility of the...
... large radial burn of an energy weapon blooming at point blank against his chest. It drew *sparks*.
He looks back up, deadpan. "I was grazed. Looks worse than it is." He 'admits', looking at the Doctor's wounds with the impassive eyes of someone who was Definitely Not Moved by blood of a different color.
"You're right. Without our guest, we don't have any reason to go straight back. Let's find you a new coat, and maybe those noodles."
The captain walks down a few paces, away from Jana. She has every chance to turn and run, or make some quick change for her own presentability. Shota Hebikura just walks directly to the ID card, gleaming in shiny plastic on the dark asphalt of the path just past where the two people Got Shot and then Got Over Being Shot.
"It's a shame you're not a part of Monster Research. You could return Kaburagi-san's..." He rises, to face Jana with a smirk. "... lost card."
<Pose Tracker> Jana Cektru has posed.
Sparks. Yep, Jana sure does see the large radial burn, and the fact that he was definitely, obviously grazed. The Doctor looks at him, as he looks at her. She makes a quick determination.
"I could go for some noodles," she says. "To take seriously, of course." She is not bad at deadpan either. But the captain walks away, and she does have a chance to turn and disappear. Instead, she takes that opportunity to shrug out of her coat and have a look at her wound.
When he looks back at her, she's already wrapping some bndage around it to conceal the blue in the burn.
"I think I'd very much like to ask him about it," she reflects, and looks over the card in his hand.