Quake With Fear [Double Mission w/Kimiko]

[Tsukino Nanami]

[col]

Bonus Chapter: Clash Underground​

A call to duty was given by the locals to get rid of a threat causing earthquakes to occur frequently and with increasing strength. She was told that there have been sightings of something crawling through the tunnels. Regardless of what it was, Nanami and Kimiko were hired to get work done. Nanami didn't have much of a choice in the matter. She needed the money for food and clothing; mainly some underwear, something she's been lacking for the last several months (roughly 6 months, to be more exact). Damn Naikishin and bleeding all over the place. Taking a deep breath, Nanami turned to look at her teammate for this mission named Kimiko. She had only met her briefly prior to this mission with others in tow.

The two of them stood upon a hill looking over the strange mound; the epicenter of all of the seismic activity. The mound looked sickening, being a large bulge in the planet with vein-like tunnels sprouting from it. Nanami's imagination runs wild as she imagines massive, fleshy ants strolling around under the ground. However, her imagination can only be trumped by what lies beyond in reality. Truth is stranger than fiction most of the times. There is no point going into stealth with the stupid implant placed in her arm that pulsates bright red light that goes through her clothing. Turning to look towards Kimiko, she has no idea what this woman is capable of doing and she doesn't seem like the leader-type. A small sigh escapes Nanami's lips.

"Normally, I'd say we go in there and sneak around, but obviously," she stated as she pointed to the implant. "that doesn't seem like a viable option. I don't know what you're capable of, but I need you to follow my lead precisely, understand?" she said to the woman, being bossy due to knowing what she's doing. Certainly she's not used to hunting down unknowns and is generally given better intelligence prior to the mission. "Depending on what's in there, I'll need you to take point," the woman stated. She was never built as the point-man due to her fighting style and capabilities, always being reserved to the support role.

"This is the point-of-no-return, so be sure you are ready," she stated before standing up and smashing her hand into her palm. Currently having her trusty gauntlets named Tristan and Isolde equipped, the woman looks down at Kimiko with a big grin upon her face as her stomach grumbled. The grin instantly changed as her stomach growled out of hunger. She hasn't been able to properly eat thanks to the lack of money and the fact that Sand is going through a terrorist crisis. Looking over the horizon, she noticed a storm brewing; just perfect. The fact that the duo will be underground for most of their adventure is re-assuring. Hopefully someone brought torches.​

|[/col]

 

[Kari]

The job seemed simple enough. While the exact details of the job were left untold until she arrived on location, they did give her a vague rundown: locals have been suffering from frequent tremors in the area, destroying some buildings, damaging others; more than a few people have gotten injured and the productivity has reached an all-time low. The latest series of tremors revealed a cave system which has yet to be unexplored due to claims that there was something within in it. She and some partner would be the first to explore the caverns and check for whatever it was that were in here. If it were the source of the tremors, they'd have to do something about it -- something likely being kill (why else would they hire shinobi (or ex-shinobi, in her case)?) it. Simple? Sure enough. Easy? Depends on what they found.

She met her partner there: it was the girl with the glowing arm, Nanami. They met near the hill -- hardly a thing of one, it was probably more accurately a mound -- not far from one of the towns. It was just the two of them, her and Nanami; there was no leader or informant to give them any kind of information before their field mission; this wasn't a sterile and equipped environment like the only other kinds of mission she had done before. They were going in blind and likely under-equipped for whatever it was they had to do in those caves. But that was why they were being paid so generously for this mission, right? 'Everything should go fine, and as long as Nanami didn't learn this was her first field mission and become demoralized by that, the only thing to worry about was the mission itself' is what Kimiko tried to reassure herself of.

The hill was riddled with openings; each its own tunnel, probably connected to most, if not all the others somewhere inside. It was a wonder the whole system didn't collapse on itself from all the mass it was missing, truly. Each opening was huge: the mouths to each of the tunnels was no less than three meters in diameter; some of them seemed larger -- closer to four or five, not that she could measure for exact sizes. Nanami, who seemed enchanted by the mound as well, finally turned towards her, to which she gave attention.

Nanami wanted to take charge, that was something certainly for the better. She wasn't groomed for leadership nor had any experience with it in any unit. Following orders, though, that was something she could do. "Alright," she responded. She would be in front; she was quick enough on her feet, if something lunged at them from the darkness, she could evade, and probably push Nanami out of the way as well. That was only if, though. They were supposed to go in there with the belief that the source of tremors were entirely natural. This mound, though, sent the imagination reeling; she had never seen nor heard of anything that caused something like this.

She unslung her backpack; it had what little gear she had thought to bring, mostly exploration. Ropes, flashlights -- now useless given how effective her partner's arm was -- and a few toys for fighting and disabling like kunai and poisons and the likes. She could manage to act as the medic for either of them if any injury occurred. She equipped what little was actually needed; she was travelling light, they'd be able to move around faster.

"I'm good with my stuff," her glance returned to the mound before returning to Nanami. "Ready when you are."

WC: 608​

 

[Tsukino Nanami]

Bonus Chapter: Clash Underground<i></i>​

Her partner seemed ready, more ready than she was. As much as Nanami wanted light for entering those mounds, she knew that the annoying red beacon she wore on her arm was perfect enough to work in a situation like this. It may even bring the trouble towards them. "Well, whatever is down there, we gotta stick together. Wouldn't want this to turn out to be like a B-Rated movie, would we?" Nanami mentioned, considering that most people had know idea what something B-Rated is let alone what movies were. They had movies in Water Country, right?

Noticing something out of the corner of her eye, she saw something oozing out of one of the vein-like appendages of the ghastly mount. Reaching for what appeared to be a sword, Nanami took a knee as the sword quickly moved parts around and transformed into a long rifle with a massive scope attached to the top of it. Getting proper eye-relief, Nanami begins to gag and dry heave. This caused her to lower her rifle for a moment before looking back down the scope. What she's seeing looked like the mount was 'giving birth' to something out of one of it's canals. Relatively small white larvae appeared out of the mount and laid on the ground for a moment. The larvae is still big enough to swallow the two of them if they weren't careful.

If Kimiko wanted to see what was down there, Nanami would let her take a glance through the scope. If and after Kimiko decided to look through the scope, Nanami turned her eyes back down the scope only to see it happening down two more of the vein-like appendages. "It looks like it's giving birth. What if that mount is a creature and not even part of the planet?" she asked before taking aim at the eldest of the larvae and lets out a bullet. She adjusted for wind due to the coming storm before plunging a bullet to where she believed the brain of the creature was. They were far enough away that the bag of their rifle would take a few moments. It would arrive much later than the actual assassination.

Pulling the bolt back, the woman squeezed out 2 more rounds at the 2 newly born creatures. Afterward, she reached into her belt pouch and began reloading her rounds into the internal magazine. The weapon could carry 10 rounds easily. After reloading the weapon, she flicked her wrist only to turn it back into a blade. "You ready to go into that thing?" she asked as the storm quickly approaches. Perhaps not killing the larvae would have been to their advantage, but they wouldn't want to accidentally have gotten eaten by it. "It's going to get a little gross in there. I hope you ate lightly," she said before clearing her throat and jumping off of the small hill the two of them were on and began to 'jump good' towards the vein-like appendage/tunnel.

[Sorry for the wait. Kinda forgot this topic existed]​

 

[Kari]

[Is ded. Topic left.]