Clinch River: Come Across with Good Attendance

Clinch River Valley, West Side.

It was quite easy for a single Lux Orior operative to be moved through America without anyone noticing their presence. After all, Lux was still doing humanitarian work throughout the country, and that was to say nothing of the simple fact that most of America was still so empty that a vast majority of the land was rather easy to move through. Even moreso when his natural ability for surveillance allowed him to keep an eye on anyone that might have interfered.

Now, on the western side of the river valley, Hannah stood alone, in a place that would normally be considered an overlook. Of course, that was rather irrelevant for someone like her, but the bird Valentine had kept at her shoulder could at least take in the view. Little had changed, and it was still a relatively empty place. Well, apart from the paramilitary force in the midst of the land, which had only further established itself in the area with barricades and a proper perimeter around the tunnel they had dug into the ground.

The area was so overgrown and ruined that every possible point of entry was hardly covered, of course, and Valentine's birds had come across a small shaft that appeared to either be ventilation or, perhaps more tellingly, a long-buried escape hatch. The unknown energy pulsing from the hole could be felt in far lesser scope from said hatch, but any indication of what it might have been was still quite absent.

All that was to be done now was to move forward.

"Deliver me, O Lord, from death eternal on that fearful day, when the heavens and the earth shall be moved, when thou shalt come to judge the world by fire.
I am made to tremble, and I fear, till the judgment be upon us, and the coming wrath, when the heavens and the earth shall be moved. That day, day of wrath, calamity and misery, day of great and exceeding bitterness. Bakudo 98, Adamant Kiss"

Hannah's first act upon arriving would be to wrap herself and her bird friend in a defensive barrier. She was fragile enough that precautions had to be taken, triply so in situations like this. While she was good at Hoho, pride came before your head getting exploded by something you thought you could dodge. That done, she would step forward and approach the Paramilitary forces. She was hard to miss, with the subtle pressure that wrapped around a person as she approached. Her energy was out wide, to prevent herself from getting blindsided by something too far away, so there was plenty of warning of her approach.

"Good day. I am Hannah Chiza, representative of Lux Orior, here to investigate the ongoing spiritual crisis"

Naturally, the first thing done upon noticing a foreign presence was an immediate tightening of security. The perimeter closed a good bit, every squad closing closer to the main tunnel, and orders were quickly barked out over their communications, though anyone making an effort to listen into them would find the channel scrambled with some manner of encryption.

A single figure, only distinguished from the other military figures by a single stripe on his helmet, stepped forward to 'greet' Hannah as she approached, raising a hand in both greeting and as a warning to not step further forward.

"This is a classified matter. Not under Lux Orior jurisdiction."

His tone was remarkably calm, given the obvious gulf in spiritual power between himself and Hannah. Of course, he wasn't being openly hostile toward her, either, so he had no reason to expect immediate retaliation. He was simply laying out the facts for her. Even the tightened security did not openly train anything on Hannah. They were ready for her, of course, but there was still a perimeter to be maintained. Clearly, they were professionals.

"Correction; it was a classified matter not under Lux Orior jurisdiction. And then you decided to smash open an unmarked Blast Door in the middle of nowhere and release a potentially cataclysmic energy signature that the entire world noticed" Hannah replied, giving him as good of a stare as a blind woman could give. She didn't seem to at all bother about the perimeter being tightened around her, though the people running for the main tunnel was somewhat of a worry. Anyone going near that place was a worry.

"At the very least, this place should have a Spatial Dislocation Barrier covering five square miles. A Temporal Dislocation Barrier would not go amiss either, until we find out what caused that energy spike and what it does to the biology of humans and animals" she told him. Not having her staff or Zanpaktou anymore, she couldn't flourish anything, so just had to stay still.

"So, are you going to keep putting your men at risk and potentially be known as the man who heralded the return of the Outer Gods, or are you going to take the offered support of a specialist?"

"We wouldn't be here if we didn't have a plan."

Even with Hannah's obvious intention of taking control of the situation, this particular individual clearly had no intention of allowing her to take charge simply on account of her degree of power. As far as he was concerned, it wasn't even a question.

"I'm not concerned with where things go when we finish this operation. That's not my business."

Cold, to the point. He might have continued to tell her to be on her way, were it not for the faint, low moaning sound that slowly began to echo from the half-unburied blast door. It was, frankly, the sort of sound one wouldn't expect to ever hear at such a volume, like a gentle hum one might produce when putting up laundry or some other trivial task.

"Fuck, another one?"

Anything the leader of this operation might have said to Hannah was rather unceremoniously cut off, as he turned toward the blast tunnel with what could only be described as annoyance more than anything else. If this was new to him, he certainly wasn't showing it. He barked out a few commands, and the moment there was any movement, a hail of bullets flew toward the tunnel.

But the humming only got far louder, and before long, a head poked upward, with a sort of energy that one could only ever call childlike, curious.



It was too large to ever be mistaken for human, with a mouth half as wide as the average man. But of course, the size was not the only issue. Its head was canted far to its left, and from the neck simply grew a body that could only be described as wormlike, more and more of that very same face growing, melding into one another, all of it half-formed. Perhaps such a terrible existence might well have been the worst part of all, to most, but for Hannah there would certainly be one aspect of the creature every bit as repulsive as its appearance, if not far moreso.

As it stepped into the open air, the spiritual energy which touched it became twisted, black, unknowable. But, above all, it became hungry. It devoured the energy that it touched, as if simply by merit of its presence. And it continued to hum, even as bullets riddled its pale white body, sinking into the flesh with all the efficacy of a sponge. Perhaps it was impossible to judge such a thing, but there did not seem to be any hostility from it.

Not even as its head simply stretched from its body, the neck elongating at speeds far beyond what most might call "normal" or even "remotely feasible," and chomped down upon the nearest member of the perimeter.

"I didn't say you didn't have a plan. I said it was a terrible plan. I am concerned with where these things go after your operation, so get used to my presence" Hannah replied. Though, before anything could be said, fucking Junji Ito decided to start sending people out of the underground. By spiritual sense it was pretty terrifying and horrific - hopefully Valantine wasn't too shocked upon seeing it - and it was eating the surrounding spiritual energy as well. Kido was a risky technique to use against it, but she had tricks.

"Split the World Aside and Asunder, remove thine self from all that walks, and talks. Hachigyo Sogai" The twofold dislocation barrier should, in theory, survive. It split space at the seems and didn't technically exist on the same level as normal energy. There was however, only one way to find out if Kido would work.

Taking a deep breath and beginning her Shadow Casting, she'd point her fingers at the elongated neck and speak.

"Byakurai"

"Then that's your problem, lady."

The leader of the squad barked out a few more orders, far more concerned about the fact that a jeep had just zoomed past and into the compound than anything regarding the actual looming threat itself. Well, now they'd just have all sorts of fucking trouble, wouldn't they?

The barrier established by Hachigo Sogai did seem to remain stable, though it was quite clear that even the faintest wisps of the foreign energy leaking from below were already seeming to move toward it, an almost sentient sort of hunger trying to absorb the split in space. It did not seem particularly effective, but given the nature of the situation, making any assumptions might well be a bit risky.

As the Byakurai left Hannah's fingers, the bolt of lightning itself was met with deterioration even as it flew clean through the neck of the large creature's neck. It had certainly lost some potency, but not nearly enough to matter, and the humming that filled the air only grew louder as the head turned to face Hannah, its eyes seeming to stare through her rather than at her. They were empty, glazed over, seeming one step away from those of a corpse.

But the creature simply lumbered slowly toward her, seeming unconcerned with the brown sludge that had begun to ooze from its neck, accompanied by far more of the unknown, hungry energy.

Well, Kido worked at least. Carrying on the assault on the creature now lumbering towards her, she'd focus energy to her fingers and then shoot out Belior Goldoreza, pushing the Anima Mea's path of Light into a condensed beam. Like a giant magnifying glass on a sunny day, a blinding flash shot from her fingers and was directed to slice the beast in two. The original condensation of the beam was with Hannah's spiritual energy, but the light itself was no different from the natural light around them, so had a different impact on the spiritual plane than her Kido did. She wondered if it would change anything. But that was the nature of experimentation.

"So! Are we still in a bad mood, or are we going to work together to not die?!" Hannah asked the leader. She had a few ideas for helping the guys out if they would play ball with her. But couldn't force a horse to drink.

Hannah's kido certainly handled the matter without terribly much issue, the creature's size not particularly indicative of any overwhelming threat. Cut in two, it simply fell apart onto the ground, its body rather rapidly decomposing into the same brown sludge that had leaked from the first wound in its body. Of course, that very same unknown energy was quite rapidly coming from the corpse, as well, and several of the paramilitary forces moved to contain it, seeming fairly adept at the matter already.

"Listen lady, we're here on business. This isn't some humanitarian mission. You want to head in? Be my guest, we sure as hell can't stop you. But I'm not breaking contract by chatting it up with someone that's not part of the deal. You got me?"

His professional demeanor was, despite its general hostile wording, rather clear in its deeper meaning. Whether or not he might have considered it a particularly good idea to actually help the woman out, or accept her assistance, his hands were tied on that matter for business reasons.

"We're here for one thing, and we're leaving when we get it. Long as you don't get in our way, you can blow this whole place right to hell for all I care. I'll tell the teams down there you're fine to let through. That en-"

But, before he could finish speaking, a crackling came from a few old, worn-looking speakers that sat near the half-buried blast door. By all accounts, they didn't even look as if they should work, but to be fair, the sound of the broadcast coming from them sounded as though they likely weren't working well. After a few moments of quiet crackling, a male voice came through. Confident, authoritative, and above all, very Texan.



"Seems we've got some guests. I hate to tell ya, but we don't take kindly to guests here. We're runnin' a lab here, not some little sideshow for y'all to come on in and see the sights. Get out, or you ain't ever leavin'."

And just like that, the message cut off. It wasn't especially clear to what degree the message had echoed through the place, how aware of the situation the source of the voice was. But whatever the answer to that particular question, the squad leader speaking with Hannah seemed remarkably unperturbed. Maybe it was just the blank-faced helmet.

"...Yeah. Anyway. That enough for you?

Was this guy a Quincy? He seemed to have the same psycho self-destructive vibe as them. One of his men had no more throat because some fucking horror movie had come in and bitten it off. And still they stuck to the grumpy military style of conversation. Hell, even some guy explicitly stating this was no accident made him hold to his horses. Maybe these guys were security for the lab? Huh...she'd never thought about the fact that these might be entirely related to this whole thing.

"Indeed. It is enough for me. Hakufuku" Hannah would cast the Kido over the entire area with a snap, sending purple blossoms down from the sky. They would instantly knock out a normal person, and even spiritual beings needed exceptional power not to be hit like they had been up for eighty straight hours.

Should the aggressive military people get taken to slumber town, Hannah would turn to her bird. One way conversation wasn't great. She needed to put some time aside to make Net Of Five Thoughts... So, Solidifying her Reiryoku, she would draw symbols on her arms and then cast Tenteikura.

"The situation has escaladed, Valentine. I don't think it would be wise to bring these monsters to Karakura, reinforced underground holding cell or no. The energy they put out defies casual examination, but it is hostile to Reishi at the very least. I don't want to say what might happen going in, but I am definitely ill equipped to deal with a force that is eating spiritual energy"