Meet the Landers: Tri Edge

Schneider has gathered a few allies to act as lookouts and backup for when he combines enimga pieces. He was warned that bad people might show up when he does this, so he has prepared. In an excess of caution, he has chosen to perform his planned task in the Tower, on the fifth floor, a bit outside Karliun. He has also chosen to do this in an airship, since previous experiments have demonstrated that airship travel inside the Tower is safe, at least from the outside-of-the-Tower monsters. Of course there's parachutes for all his non-winged allies as well, he's as prepared as he can be, he feels.

Well, apart from the fish who's been biting down on his ass /all damned week/. Schneider grumbles when he thinks about that. He's got his regeneration cranked up to max to deal with it, but he hasn't been able to get it removed, and it's been a painful week. His usual go-to cooks just haven't been around. He'd camped out at Hifumi's for two days, and visited Gwen twice as well, no luck. And this enigma piece thing had been arranged previously with his allies, so he wasn't going to back out of it now, so he's sitting here in the flying longboat at a couple hundred feet in the air with a damned fish on his ass, slowly sucking out HP. Every now and again, he takes a deep breath and channels holy energy, bumping his HP back up.

Hopefully the flying or being in the Tower will make combining this at least a little inconvenient for the visitor they'd been warned about, but he looks around to check, "Everyone ready?" When they agree, he will do the thing. He's honestly not sure /what/ to expect.

Well probably part of the reason he's had trouble finding Gwen is Gwen has been getting a certain Salamander started on her pursuit of the culinary arts proper. Which meant visiting the Marina and some other places to stock up ingredients.

And Gwen -insisting- she has 'the proper attire' for the venture.

The results of which can be visible as Vertina stands there, arms crossed. "This better be important, considering I didn't even get a chance to change beforehand." At least black isn't a bad color on her. But the frills. Ugh. Her tomboy sensibilities are annoyed to no end.... but the training has been slowly producing results, so she's... dealing with it. "If you'd said something sooner we could of gotten that fish off your ass."

IS this important? Perhaps so! Perhaps there is something to be learned. Perhaps they will all find out that a certain someone is somehow forbidden from entering the Tower by some bizarre trick of programming or otherwise. Perhaps. . .

But Prophylaxis is honestly not going to count on it. Instead he is standing nearby, from a safe distance, with his staff at the ready and an expression that can only be described as 'vague disapproval' on his face. "For the record," he says, checking that his parachute is nice and secure, "I still think this is an awful idea. Tri-Edge is not something to be trifled with."

But Schneider is probably going to go through with it anyway, and he's not going to /order/ him not to, so...

Schneider stares down at the 'spikes' that make up the Enigma pieces. Her might recall hearing through the grapevine, that these somehow need to be put together. One spike into the other. Have a hammer. After all, the Data Drain enigma piece, thanks to Arashi, are technically a 'solved mystery'. Of course, he will actually have to succeed at doing so.

And then the question is, what will it do to him? Does it depend on how he hits it? Perhaps he recalls seeing Arashi or Proteus, and the way their arms look now. They are not longer normal. What will this do to him? Is he really safe from Tri-Edge up here in the air?

Schneider arches a brow to Vertina as she mentions that /she/ could remove the fish. "Now I know," he says wearily. Obviously it will have to wait for after this current happening. He looks over to Proph and his frown, but he's got to do this, it's the whole point of what he's been doing for the last six months or so.

So he'll plce the two pieces together, point to point, and push them together. He can try different points, maybe there's a pair that are designed to mate up? He's winging this.

"Hey even I find it a little weird that's the way to remove that status effect... but hey, we get fish sticks out of the deal." Vertina rubs her chin with one hand. "Maybe next time try beer battering them too."

But her thoughts don't drift too far from what's going on just yet, as Schneider messes with the two pieces of mcguffinry. "So... just what is he doing, anyways?" She hasn't kept up on this whole thing with weird meta concepts and enigma pieces business.

'Winging this' consists of Schneider raising his hands over his head, one piece in each hand, one over the other, and the points held together. Schneider takes careful aim and brings them down together on the gunwhale, pounding the one into the other like a hammer.

"He's poking a sleeping tiger and hoping that it doesn't know how to fly," Prophylaxis deadpans at Vertina. He doesn't get paid enough for this nonsense. Will System Protection even stop Tri-Edge? Prophylaxis is pretty sure it won't!!

Down the bite of the stake goes. The 'railspike' looking thing stabs into the other through Schneider's enhanced force. He manages to push with such force, that it slides into the 'butt' of the other stake. And the moment he does, there's a sudden PULSE of light across his body that ripples up along his form. His body suddenly stiffens, holding still right there in that moment...

As his hair begins to erode. Green light sparkling from the bottom of his platinum-blonde hair, slowly /erasing/ it, leaving almost what looks like a wave of red light in its wake. It's as if he's being damaged. His heart dropping a bit (though it may be that fish).

A pulse pushes through his body, and suddenly he, and only hears this ear-searing song that starts to fill him with an intense feeling of DREAD. Or chains being bound to him. His hair being pulled on as if someone just yanked on it!

As, at the same time, a light tears across the ground beneath him. A single red line...

Then a second one.

    Well. Seems that Schneider figured out his solved puzzle. Now, however? "Hey, are you alright? Your hair's kinda.." hand motion. "Going weird. Are you doing that thing from that tv show?" Taiyo asks, curious, before something sends a chill rippling all up and own her spine. "No... no no no wait, what in the world are you even doing?" Then the red tears. "... We -have a problem-."

Vertina gestures vagely at Proph. "That doesn't even make any sense!" Then pauses. "Oh, is that the point..." Why can no one just say things simply.

There's other more weird things to worry about, anyways. "The heck? Forget hair-raising, this just got hair-erasing!" Really Vertina? Now of all times you're going to make cracks like that?

Though being dressed up in a maid outfit from her cooking lessons doesn't stop her from clenching her fists and getting ready to have to fight. Even if there isn't anything obvious to fight. "And you people say I'm the reckless one..."

Prophylaxis winces at the sight of... /whatever/ that is happening to Schneider. First hands, then arms, now... hair? What is even the link here...?

Suddenly, he puts his hand to the side of his head, then swipes a finger through the air, a tell-tale sign of an opening chimlink. His eyes widen, then widen /further./

"Someone get to the helm!" Prophylaxis shouts, "Steer us out of here ASAP! Tri-Edge's mark has been spotted directly below the ship!"

Schneider's body stiffens, holding the pose he used to strike the pieces together. Hair eroding, green light, then red glowing hair, which is kind of cool, if he was watching it happen on TV or something. He's not really in a position to appreciate it properly just at the moment. The pulse that fills his boduy fills him wth cool, if disturbing, music, and he just listens at first. The feelings of savage dread and binding with chains and his hair pulled out, and in this situation, he doesn't even notice the red line across the landscape below. A crewman yanks the tiller over to steer the airship away even as Proph gives the order.

As the airbaloon starts being moved, the tiller moving, and Air Magic having to be used to actually 'move' the Balloon with some measure of difficulty, the group begins to move away by the time the third slash is opened. Rising from it, as if walking along a different axis, is Tri Edge. Rounding around until he is standing on the ground, staring up at them. Unmoving at first, before he starts to wander. Calmly following beneath the balloon as it moves across the landscape. Simply following it. As if a magnet was drawing him there, but glass was preventing the piece of metal from actually reaching the Magnet.

It seems like they are safe for the moment.

However, Schneider remains taut in his body. Unable to proper move. His hair being torn assunder. Shattering behind him, only that red light of damage showing. Someone is going to need to throw a healing spell on him soon as this continues...

Before a pure /white/ substance begins to bubble up from his scalp. It's as if someone started to pour out a strange white cement. Forming alien strands that bind and coil around, along the length of that crimson 'damage' field!

    With Schneider's transformation continuing, and the law-sensitive magician clutching her head with one hand, trying to push that pain and some strange beat out of her head, Taiyo drops to a knee, trying to get her bearings. When Proph calls out, and Tri-Edge's name is mentioned, she manages to draw some energy before thrusting both palms down at the airship to deploy a shield, and a big one, in hopes to pre-emptively stop an attack should it come to it. "I hope this helps.." she manages, a barrier manifesting below the vessel.

So apparently Schneider has become some kind of terrifying medusa thing, but his grotesque transformation is somewhat secondary to the fact that his health bar is depleting at incredible speed. Fortunately, they have a doctor. "Hold still," he says, despite what must be an /excruciating/ experience for his patient. The doctor plunges a syringe into the other man's shoulder, injecting a potent healing potion directly into his system. All the while, though...

His heart is hammering at a million miles a minute. Tri-Edge is /there/ and he's just... wandering ominously at a distance. Somehow, that's almost as bad as the alternative, but...

If Schneider can get through this before Tri-Edge begins to give chase, they might at least have a head start...?

Vertina stares for a few moments... and then the nagging at the back of her mind actually starts to sting. Ow, ow, something weird and wrong really was going on here.

She can't do much about Schneider, and the Doctor is already on that matter. A glance in the other direction and she sees the relative newcomer down on her knees as well. She shifts over in that direction, putting a hand on Taiyo's shoulder to try and steady her. "I take it you feel that eerie sense of wrongtivity too..."

Schneider is going through some pretty radical changes. This is definitely not what he signed up for when this plan was hatched, but he's still not clear on which parts are good and which are bad. So, the hair melting away into special effects lighting might be a problem, and the substance bubbling up from his scalp seems like a problem, but luckily Proph seems to have a handle on the damage he's taking. He doesn't have a choice /but/ holding still, for the moment, but he feels tremendous relief when the healing injection takes place.

Stalks of white continue to writhe out of Schneider's head, before the thick stalks turn into threads as thin as his previous hair. A whole 'wave' of hair as that song in his mind gets louder and louder, a painful cacophany. Almost as if someone were making a loud promise to him. Only for it to then finally... fade. To quiet away, as his hair stops shining red...

And where once was natural platinum blonde, now lies a very STARK white. Not the kind of white one gets when one bleaches. No, it's as if someone went on a computer and set his haircolor to #FFFFFF. The pain seeps away from Schneider's body, and he's released from that hold.

As that sense of the law being broken fades.

    "Yes. I .. think it is fading .. now?" The pounding is subsiding, the chill in her spine is thawing, but she's going to keep that barrier right where it is. "Thank you," Gratitude for Vert checking on the newbie. Though Taiyo's concern is elsewhere, "How is Schneider?" she asks as she glances over at that -white- hair. ".. Well. That isn't like the show I was thinking about at all." She stands, wanders over, then glances at everyone and then again at Schneider, "Is everyone okay? Especially you. Cause, well, I haven't see anything like that before. .. Anywhere. And I've been looking for a lot of things!"

Schneider finally comes back to himself as he recovers, the strange sensation perhaps not as bad as it seemed. He's an athlete, or was before he joined this game, he's used to a bit of hardship and soreness and even pain when doing certain things. New excercises, for one. This is a kind of extreme case of that, but as control comes back to him, he speaks up. "I ... I think I'm okay. But ... what the hell just happened? That was beyond freaky." And the ship's not going the same direction. "We turned around?" He may need an update. And is the figure on the ground below us still there?

Vertina grunts. "Yeah, it is." Seems Taiyo is a bit more sensative to it. Or Vertina is more stubborn to let such things bother her. Could be both. "But that's not the only weird thing going on..." Shneidner has enough people concerning over him, so Vertina walks over to the edge of the deck and peers at the ground below. "How the hell would that guy even know to come all the way up the Tower," she wonders out loud.

White hair. Hair as pure as driven snow, but somehow even /more/ white. Prophylaxis' lips draw tight with concern as he performs a Medical Inspection on the recently transformed Schneider. "Tri-Edge is following us below," Prophylaxis explains, gaze flickering to the railings of the deck as if expecting Tri-Edge to make an appearance at any moment. "...You alright? It seems that the operation was a success..."

But with the Law of Alba being broken... What /are/ these enigma pieces, really...?

Tri-Edge is definitely following them from below. Patiently waiting for them to come below. After all, there is only 'so long' that Baloon can remain in the air. Of course, they can outrun him to some extend. But eventually, he'll catch up. Untiring. Unceasingly moving with them. Unrelenting chase, like a prehistoric human chasing a wounded animal. Patiently waiting.

"We won't last up here for long..." Prophylaxis muses thoughtfully, then: "...Each floor is another 'world,' and adventurers can cross those more easily than other things... Helmsman, set a course for the transition point to the sixth floor! We'll disembark and rush up the stairs as quickly as possible!"

Vertina walks back from the edge. "He's still down there. Barely visible, but he's there." Prophylaxis seems to have the right idea. Get to a different area. A different floor even. "Yeah, I don't think I want to even fuss with those things now, that was just weird."

As the helm sets sail for the stairs up, and the sails fill with all the wind the Air mages can put behind us, Schneider looks down at our pursuer, the fiendish Tri-Edge, who it seems cannot fly. He's feeling out the new sensations and capabilities he's found, it's all new to him. But it's kind of like what he thought it might be, the ability to burn away corruption. So the question is, can he detect corruption that might be burned away in the figure pursuing us?

    "I ... sure yeah why not. Lets give that a shot. Anything is better than having Tri-Edge CHASING US.." muttergrumble. Taiyo didn't realize this was a LAW BREAKING ordeal. At least the headache is gone... and the barrier is there. For now. It didn't seem to be as important as she thought. "Lets just get to the stairs and get out of here... I hope that's enough.."

As the sails fill up with wind, the group begins to 'burn rubber' towards the Tower. With Tri-Edge following them. Tri-Edge doesn't increase speed. He doesn't seem to jump, or try to strike into the air. He just follows. The group manages to make it to the Tower by Prophylaxis' suggestion, and disengage from the Balloon - or at least, a core team along with Schneider, getting him up the stairs. Running up the stairs is a long affair...

But according to the reports, the moment they reach a certain Treshold, Tri-Edge seems to have stopped following them. And after a while, they stop hearing reports of Tri-Edge all-together.