Starring:
Sousa (emitter), Chichi, Seiji
Date: May 1, 2011
Summary:
Explorations of the ancient temple begin. Three guesses what they have to deal with inside, and the first two don't count. ;)
"Dominance - Preparation"
Ruins of an Ancient Temple [Land of Wind]
The night (or rather, day) before explorations into the temple ruins has been spent restlessly. Everyone has reasons to be excited about the prospects. Omoi gets to study the remains of an ancient civilization with rumored bits of advanced technology. Chichi and Seiji are probably looking forward to (or perhaps nervous about) the procedure that is hoped to help Chichi control her 'inner spirit'. Surprisingly, Hitsu seems the most eager of all. He was in favor of starting the search for the special equipment right away, but Omoi insisted that after the first chamber had been thoroughly checked for dangers, they should get some sleep. They had just had a full night's trek punctuated by an attack by giant scorpions, after all, and there was no telling what traps awaited them. Hitsu reluctantly agreed, and spent the first watch pacing around and sneaking looks into the next passage. It's a wonder if anybody gets any proper sleep.
Now, finally, they are making their foray into the ruins. A long, downward-leading passage of stairs is their first avenue, punctuated at irregular intervals by open doorways in the walls. "Please remain very aware of your surroundings and each other," Omoi cautions everyone as they walk by the light of glowsticks. "These civilizations often guarded their sacred places with traps. If you see anything suspicious, please point it out immediately."
Chichi got a little banged up against those scorpions, but that's okay. She's tough, and she heals fast! So after a little bit of rest she's as good as new, and >long< before it's time to set out. She slept pretty soundly too! …That's probably not a good thing in a strange environment, but whatevs. So they are heading down these stairs and she is told to point out anything suspiciou she sees. So, mere moments after receiving these instructions, her head comes up with a stern look of concentration on her face. She stops where she is on the stairs. Then she turns around and looks up, past Omoi, and to Hitsu.
Then she >points< at him! "I find the fact that you have a tendency to walk behind me or stand on elevated terrain near me, as well as the attention you pay to me with your >eyes< to be quite suspicious! In order to ensure you are not a trap that I will have to smash to pieces, I think you should go in front." She crosses her arms over her chest and turns aside, waiting for the bolder twin to go past and lead the way.
Also, he's probably way more qualified for exploring dungeons than Chichi (or 'Sara' as she is calling herself) is. She mostly just punches things and sometimes electroshocks them. Stomping around in caves and temples and tombs!? No way!
The fight with the scorpions was troublesome, but at least the group was able to make through it in one piece which he was happy about. With the first room they came to clear of any danger, the sleep they were able to get was a good comfort. Granted he did wake up to do a watch so that others could continue to sleep. He didn't venture any further then the room they were already in, it would be bad trying to explore alone without anyone to back you up and honestly he felt it foolish to do so on your own.
WHen it was time for the others to a get up and them getting ready to head out, Seiji makes sure rations are given out so that everyone has something to eat and the needed energy they may need for this dangerous journey.
Listening carefully to Omoi he nods his head when asked to point out anything that looks suspicious. "Alright. With you being the man to go to for answers, keep close to us. We can't afford to lose you or any of us here. This area will be our fall back in case we are hurt or become missing or seperated. Come back here." he says to everyone. Granted he is young he isn't too dumb is he?
As they proceed down the stairs, Seiji does look above them to check and make sure there wans't anything creeping down upon them or anything. One thing about caverns is looking above you. And the only reason he knows that is because he read a book about some tomb raiders who didn't look up and one was eating by a hungry spider. His attention is brought around to Chichi as she addresses Hitsu the other twin who did alway stry to make sure he had a good vantage of Chichi. He does move in closer, but keeps quiet for now letting Chichi handle it for now, unless Hitsu decide to question her, then he will step in.
Hitsu snorts. "You think I'm the biggest danger here? I'm on your side, Red. Besides, you oughta be pleased to get attention from a man, 'specially a real one." "Please, Hitsu-kun, couldn't you be agreeable?" Omoi pleads. "Our danger increases if we bicker amongst ourselves." Hitsu pushes past to the lead of the group. "Fine, none of you ninnies are qualified to go first anyway." :P
The trek is uneventful for a while. They take quick peeks into side rooms and passages along the way, but since their main concern is expected to be located deep in the temple, they don't do much more than check for any lurkers that might come up behind them. Eventually, they arrive at a junction. Omoi peers at the murals on the walls. "…I believe I could decode these with a little effort…they may tell us which way to go next." Hitsu shakes his head and heads for the middle passage. "Waste of time, something as important as what we're looking for they're bound to put smack in the middle of everything, am I righ — " *click-SHLANG!!!* Triggered by a floor tile Hitsu stepped on, a set of spikes pops out of the ceiling above and slams down into him! "HITSU-KUN!" Omoi cries, clasping his hands together. *POOF!* Aaaand there's Hitsu again next to Omoi. "Okay, maybe I'm not right," Hitsu growls.
Just then there is a shifting of stone and a swooshing sound, and a torrent of caustic-looking liquid pours down the passage from behind them. Looks like the architects of this place believed in multiple layers of security! "Left!" Hitsu shouts, and yanks Omoi down the left passage. What follows is a mad dash down a corridor of shooting darts, swinging cleavers, and sudden pitfalls! How will our intrepid heroes fare? :o
Walking up to Chichi's side and moving her back, knowing that Chichi is able to handle herself but he is her boyfriend. "You heard her and she does have a man who gives her attention. So again do as she says." Seiji who is going by the name Kai tells Hitsu. "Besides we have work to get done and like your brother stated, we don't have time bickering." he says after Omoi states about the bickering.
The fact that their trek has been pretty uneventful really doesn't detract from being able to see an ancient temple of any kind, so far they've been pretty lucky at not finding any booby traps, and the rooms that they've been able to peek in, granted nothing really exciting was still interesting enough. THinking of the civilization who somehow were able to control Jinnchuriki, but that line of thought leads him to wonder what else they were able to create. Maybe there is something he could learn here as well. "How are you doing Sara-chan?" he asks wondernig how she is doing and what she thought of things as so far right now.
But as he waits Hitsu is the one to step on something that triggers a spike trap of some kind. Reacting quickly he turns only to see Hitsu become impaled, but then a popping sound is heard as Hitsu reappears near Omoi. Shaking his head, "You think!" he shakes his head at the idiot twin.
But then a new sound is heard, looking behind them, Kai sees teh liquid covering the area where they just came from, "We are cut off." As Hitsu begins running and telling them where to go, Seiji takes Chichis hand and begins running, granted if she pulls away he will let her hand go, he cuts left when it's called out to go Left. "FASTER!" he calls as the darts are starting to be fired at them all. Ducking and juking as he run.
Chichi's expression darkens at Hitsu's implications of Seiji/Kai not being a 'real' man. She is not >entirely< sure what he means, but she knows enough to realize the punk-face is being disrespectful and insulting! Good thing that Omoi spoke up when he did, or Chichi probably would have accidentally-on-purpose tripped/pushed Hitsu into the nearest viper pit. However, she is thankfully saved the trouble when Hitsu is impaled by spikes!
Startling, she jerks to a stop. "Whoah! Spikes!" No, duh. When some sort of liquid starts pouring down on them from above-and-behind, Chichi also takes a moment to startle again when she sees it. "Whoah! Wipe-out!" …What? Then, Seiji/Kai is pulling the red-head down a passage after the two brothers, and the best thing she can do is not stumble along like an idiot and actually run under her own power! That way she isn't slowing down Seiji!
Not knowing whether the darts or poisoned or not, but knowing that she'd rather not find out and that she'd rather Seiji not get hit by them, she switches the situation around a little bit, grabbing him by one arm and using her enormous strength to >swing< and >hurl< him ahead of herself, hopefully far enough to catch up with the brothers, since those two had a bit of a headstart. Chichi herself, however… Is left behind!?
She starts running almost immediately after throwing Seiji, but she has to resort to toughening her body with some of her Chakra so that the few darts that strike her will hopefully not penetrate too deeply or perhaps at all. Also, those guillotine-like blades swinging around look kind of really sharp, so she does her best to avoid those too! …She trips over one, but regains her balance quickly. Just in time to notice the pit directly in front of her. She tries to stop at the last second, stumbling and waving her arms, as the others likely already jumped over it (or were carried over, in the case of Omoi).
Coming to a jerking stop on the very edge of the pit, Chichi windmills her arms and goes, "Aa — Ahhh — AAHHH!" before falling into the pit! >OH NOES< …Thankfully she is a ninja and so she just tries to stick to the nearest wall of the pit with Chakra and then hopefully leap off across to the other side! …But are there even >more< traps that may have been triggered already by the others and are now being left for Chichi to deal with!? If all else fails, she can just sort of use her Bijuu Chakra and punch her way through most things in her path, but it would be a lot better if she just catches up to them!
The engineers who built this temple were quite thorough and ingenious in their trap construction. They did not, however, anticipate the need for traps that could cut through jinchuuriki chakra defenses! Darts ping off Chichi's toughened hide as if it were sheet metal. Seiji fares a little worse, unable to evade all of the darts due to their sheer volume, but any poison that they might have been treated with is long since disintegrated. The larger blade traps, while they would be a deadly surprise for normal humans, are easily evaded by trained ninja. Of course, Omoi doesn't happen to be a member of that set. Several times during the flight, Hitsu shoves Omoi out of the way and appears to take a mortal blow, only to poof and reappear again.
Finally, the entire group makes it over the pitfall trap, and there is a pause in the apparent threats. Hitsu glances back and sees the flood of whatever nasty liquid it was pour into the pitfall, and it soon becomes clear that the hole will contain it handily. "Okay, everybody stop! I think we're safe here. Let's rest a moment." Hitsu sets Omoi down with his back to the wall. Despite having been pulled and carried by Hitsu nearly the entire time, Omoi looks as though he just ran a marathon at non-stop top speed. He's gasping uncontrollably, and his hands, though shaking violently, are practically melded together. Hitsu pries them apart. "Gonna make yourself sick," he mutters.
This is a run for your life moment, and even though Chichi fell behind, Seiji did try to hold his position, but when she hurled him ahead of her, all he could do was hope her training took over. The darts hit him hard though he does manage to keep some from hitting him in the face, or eye and such. But continuing to run, and using wall jumps and rolls to skirt past the the sharp guillotine blades. Granted during a leap over a foot size hole, Seiji manages to nearly pull his foot forward as a spike shot up from where that hole appeared.
Rolling along the ground, Seiji trips up along a crack in the ground and nearly face plants along the side of the wall. But turning his body just enough to allow him to bump against the wall pretty rough which did save him from a arrow being shot right behidn him to impale itself in the wall.
Seiji manages to make it catch up with Omoi and Hitsu. Staggering a little, darts still stuck in him, he quickly turns around looking for Chichi, seeing that Omoi is alright as well as Hitsu who did manage to carry his brother though the treacherous hall. Seiji looks and watches as the liquid falls into that large pit which seems to be holding it pretty well at this time. "Come on Sara hurry." he says, a bit worriedly.
Chichi successfully makes it over the pit, landing heavily and then running up the passage until the arrows and darts and swinging blades and who-knows-what-else are no longer an immediate threat. "The return trip is going to suck >so much<," she lets out while breathing heavily. Bending over to rest with her hands on her knees, the rather predictable results occur. But given the adrenaline rush and the fact that they were just threatened with potentially fatal harm of the lethal variety (yes, fatal >and< lethal)… Well, a more reasonable course of action than oggling would be to make sure they are actually safe and maybe identify what route to take for the remainder of their exploratory mission.
Chichi straightens up, clenching her fists on either side of her large chest and nods affirmatively. "Okay! I'm ready to continue!" Omoi probably isn't ready at all, given Chichi/Sara was only resting for ten seconds at the most, but them's the breaks. She takes a moment to look over Seiji, and realizes he has darts sticking out of him. "…Are those poisoned? Those better not be poisoned!" she cries out as she lunges at the Yotsuki youth and starts trying to yank out the offending projectiles before they can do more harm. This may result in more harm being inflicted.
Hitsu actually does pass up the chance to look down Chichi's shirt (or maybe he simply fails to notice). He's focused heavily on Omoi's state, which remains on edge for a while. "Yeah yeah, good for you, Red. If you're so damn perky, why doncha go scout ahead?" Hitsu turns his head slightly. "On second thought, don't go anywhere. Last thing we need is you bringing this place down on our heads." Hitsu looks back to Omoi, whose hands are starting to creep together again. Hitsu swats them apart. "Cut that out! We're safe for now. Sheesh, you're like a scared brat clutching his blanket with that." Omoi whimpers and complies with Hitsu's order, then finds enough breath to speak to Chichi. "It's…all right…poison…would be impotent…by now…" Of course, things like tetanus might still be a worry if it weren't for narrative simplification the advanced rust-immune metallurgy of the ancient civilization. ;)
As it turns out, the issue of scouting is almost moot, because the passageway opens up a short distance straight ahead…and within that chamber sits a complex construct of gears, pistons, and parts even Omoi probably can't identify. The machine which Chichi and Seiji came here to find has been located, and the business of using it can begin…next time. :o
