Cross Effects 3.0 - October 21, 2015—June 23, 2016

[Kat]

GAROU XIII

Garou was about to answer, but the girl then stated she didn't give a shit, thus he stopped giving one. Instead, he followed the girl quietly and nodded.

"Oi, what's your name?" He asked.

Petra

"Just call me Petra." The woman answered his question without much ado. "Do you fancy Italian food? We could go to some genuine place. How about some pizza?" She doubted he would have now patience to wait too long for an order.

[Kotomine_Rin]

GAROU XIII

As soon as Petra brought up pizza, memories of that incident earlier resurfaced. Garou cringed and shuddered nervously for a second (not that he'd admit to such thing) and a bead of sweat dripped from his forehead.

"Um, no thanks." He said flatly.

[Aiden]

Annabeth

As the odd couple continued along, the Hunter found herself wondering what on earth he was referring to as he went along. ...and was he singing? While she had nothing to say about his singing voice, the odd levity while blindfolded was starting to make Annabeth wonder if he really was that bored already.

Thankfully, it didn't take too long to find a suitable warehouse that Ron didn't warn her away from. Bringing them inside, the Hunter looked around, thankful to find the place fairly clear for a warehouse.

Leading Ron inside, the Hunter pulled the doors shut before looking around, enhancing her eyes with Gyo as she checked for any unwanted guests. To top things off, there weren't any pesky windows letting in moonlight.

"Hmm, this seems safe," Annabeth said at last, "Okay, you can take the blindfold off now."

Ron

The musically inclined shapeshifter quickly pulled at the old shirt draped over his face, frowned under it when he realized the knot in the back was too tight for that to work, and then pulled up on it until it rolled off his head. Ron opened his eyes, pointed down at the floor, with as much caution as he could muster. When he realized there wasn't enough light for the moon to be shining in here he lifted his head up and looked in the direction he heard Annabeth's voice from.

"And, it's off! What next? Who first?"

[SINIB]

Shiro

The small white fox darted around through the streets, searching for morsels to eat. She was rather hungry, and searching for food in the city served a twofold purpose, allowing her to explore her new home and get food at the same time.

It was exciting.

After a short while, she came upon a—delectable smell. Raising her nose in the air, she followed it, quickly tracking down her quarry, a strange woman, very strange indeed. She was not human, not at all. Very strange.

Regardless, she was carrying something nice to eat, and Shiro hopefully would get a part of it. She stealthily snuck up on the woman and…

Jumped in front of her and began to dance around on her hind legs, twirling around and bouncing in circles.

[Panda]

Annabeth

The Hunter watched him for a few seconds, watching for any possible signs of shifting, before relaxing.

"First up will be some free sparring," Annabeth said, "I'd like to get a feel for what you can do, and it's better to start out with this before you get tired out with exercises."

The Hunter walked away from Ron, taking a good ten steps before turning around with a calm look.

"For the sake of fairness, I probably won't use Nen," Annabeth said, "Feel free to try whatever you want to, we're trying to see the extent of your abilities."

With that, the Hunter took a calming breath before releasing it, relaxing as she waited for him.

"Feel free to take the first move," the cowgirl said.

[Aiden]

Ron

red from red lady splattered across his hands

The werewolf fiercely shook his head to dismiss the image, the sudden murderous impulse that accompanied them, and took a deep steadying breath. Keep it together, Ronald. You're not a monster yet.

Besides, Anne could probably kick his ass even without the superpowers. She could probably be Batwoman with how strong she was if he got her into tights, if he was estimating right. Aaand that was an entirely different kind of distracting image he didn't need, so he gently hit himself upside the head.

"Right. Ready."

He started by approaching slowly, not wanting to build up momentum that she could use against him. He could hear his feet echo against the cold hard floor of the warehouse, and he knew if she flipped him down onto it then he would suffer for it. He didn't have much of a reach advantage against her in this shape - his normal shape, he idly reminded himself - and so he would have to move into range of her legs to take a shot at her.

Ron clenched his hands into proper fists, the rest of his body tense with concentration, and suddenly closed the distance with a downward stomp to Annabeth's shin to distract her from his jab toward her chest.

[Panda]

Annabeth

The Hunter cocked an eyebrow at his approach before supposing that she shouldn't have been too surprised he had some impression of how to fight. To his credit, he did well in not rushing her, thus giving her no momentum to turn against him. Furthermore, the attack he launched probably would've worked against most people.

Then again, Hunters weren't most people.

With practiced ease, Annabeth stepped back, moving her foot out of the way of his stomp, one hand gently turning aside the jab. The other hand wasn't quite as gentle, however, an open palm homing in on his sternum in turn.

"Good approach," Annabeth noted, willing to give credit where credit was due.

[Kat]

Shinobu 

It looked like the redhead wasn't distracted by her dissappearing sword act, the vampire however continued on with her attack when she noticed that Rikuyo had started shifting yet again. Her quill like needles were retracted and her skin instead took on a reptilian looking quality nad her mouth sported razor shar teeth. The vampire reached her just as the transformation finished, this time however she fainted an attack to Riku's head before dropping low to get at her legs and disrupt her balance.

Rikuyo

The blonde's manouver worked, as she managed to trip Rikuyo. She was faster, however she wasn't strong enough to stagger her opponent with direct hits, so it was a wise choice. But Rikuyo didn't give up. She knew that now she could casually shrug off many of Shinobu's hits before her harder than iron skin gave up. So she planned to stonewall her, looking for a chance to catch her off guard when she attacked her head on. The redhead fell to the ground and was open to the vampire's attack, but was she really defenseless now?

[Kat]

GAROU XIII

As soon as Petra brought up pizza, memories of that incident earlier resurfaced. Garou cringed and shuddered nervously for a second (not that he'd admit to such thing) and a bead of sweat dripped from his forehead.

"Um, no thanks." He said flatly.

Petra

"You really don't fancy pizza? Maybe some other Italian dish, I will buy you spaghetti or whatever else you like." She proposed. If he didn't like pizza, it was his problem, she'd gladly order a one for herself, as long as it was genuine.

[Aiden]

Ron

Due to the angle of her strike Ron was unable to tilt his body aside and avoid the worst of it. He took the palm where Annabeth intended it, and stumbled back from the force with the air audibly escaping his mouth. He had to gasp for more, and in that time he did his best to turn the stumble into a less clumsy retreat. The momentum she added to him should be enough to get him out of the way of her inevitably follow-up strike.

"Hah... haaah.."

The pain was fading as quickly as he registered it, so he nodded to the bounty hunter and went in with a low tackle this time. He was aiming to take her legs out from under her in the hopes of turning this into a grappling contest rather than a striking. She clearly had him beat on that front, so he would have to revert to his specialty - wrestling. He hoped the collision would knock her down and not the other way around!

Otherwise I'm in for a world of pain

[Umbra of Chaos]

Lumen

Originally she had gone looking for a job but after a little time had passed Lumen found herself distracted by the city once again. The buildings stretched so high into the sky and there were so many people moving around that it was almost dizzying. The Divine Cities were somewhat similar to this but this city was less extravagant and the social classes weren't as prominent. Maybe this was what cities were like before the wars?

The Patchwork had her thinking interrupted by a small white fox that began to perform for her. She raised a brow at the sight and considered that it probably wanted food or something, but she hadn't eaten recently so that means it was probably smelling... Oh. The divine woman just kneeled down and held out her open hand to the fox and said, "Sorry but I don't have anything for you. I just smell really good."

[Panda]

Annabeth

The Hunter watched for a moment as he backed up, deciding to let him take another go. After all, the whole point of this exercise was to see what he was capable of. She already knew the extent of her capabilities. Interestingly, he went in for a low tackle this time, clearly trying to shift this to a grappling contest. He clearly had an idea of range, not leaving her enough room to punish the attempt with a retaliatory kick. Taking that into account, the Hunter simply vaulted over him, legs propelling her up as one hand pushed down on his back as she went over him, Annabeth trying to land herself squarely on his back.

[Panda]

Emily

The Changeling looked at him with interest not borne of whatever brand of allure he'd just hit her with. Her curiosity at the manner his particular gift worked in was put aside for the sake of simple formalities.

"Emily," she said, taking his hand and shaking it, "Pleasure to meet you."

[NinjaQ]

William

<Any ideas?> Coincidence. The thoughts on the matter of the voice were effectively shelved for the time being as action was more necessary at this juncture.

“If you do not mind, you would not happen to have some form of proof as to your claims as a King?” He asked as he finished turning around. Now, he stood up straight, shoulders squared and marginally more professional than just a moment ago. Though it only was meant to defuse the apparently cranky lady that was, by all appearances, ready to blast this newcomer away.

[Aiden]

Ron

He wasn't quite sure where everything started to go wrong. It could have been when she first hit him, or when Ron tried to tackle her, or when he agreed to this idea in the first place. All he knew now was that he suddenly had to support Annabeth's full weight slamming down onto his back.

"Urk!"

He found himself brought down to his hands and knees, and understood he was in trouble. So he reached back to grab her as best he could, and with a surge of strength he didn't know he had attempted to flip their positions so he was the one crushing the bounty hunter under him instead.

The pain from the first strike was gone, for as much as that was worth to him right now.