If You Want to See Some Action [Open]

In the sky above the City of Lights, a descorrer opened. A single figure stepped out, and the moment that he did, the city's sirens began to blare. They were sirens tested regularly, but never before used legitimately. It was not simply a warning that the City was under attack, but rather, it was a far more damning alarm for the vast majority of the citizens who lived in this artificial island metropolis. Evacuation procedures were immediately put underway, and the city was at its highest possible defense to protect the citizenry.

A high-level Hollow presence had arrived, uncontained and with the full force of his energy simply radiating out.

Ichigo brought himself down to the city below, and his empty stare simply moved toward one of the central buildings in the city. He could sense it. That same energy he recognized from the Ring of the Dead that they already had. He wasn't concerned with the emergency measures currently underway, and anyone who fled from his presence wasn't even chased. If they didn't get in his way, Ichigo had no reason to fight them, did he?

He walked slowly, his sword dragging across the ground with a dull scraping noise. He hoped no one tried to stop him, but he wouldn't hold back if they did.

It was no laughing matter, but Solomon could only muse wryly at the irony of being involved within another emergency mission involving an Arrancar. A strong one, much like the last. Were they getting bored of Hueco Mundo? This one was closer to their base of operations.

No transportation was required, nor did he need to do much to prepare himself. It was time to act. Perhaps, he could've easily chose to handle crowd control and help assure the inhabitants of the city that no harm would come to them, but that would frankly, leave something of a sour taste in his mouth. He needed to prove to himself that, he too, could stand in the face of a great threat.

It was his duty as a sternritter to face this danger head on. The hollow energy was immense, comparable to what he had felt before in Las Vegas. When he stepped onto the scene, he could already feel the presence of another Vandenreich member - a fellow member of the Sternritter division in Giselle Gewelle.

From his perspective, he could certainly tell that she was laying down the ground rules of why this arrancar couldn't freely roam in this city, considering how much of a disturbance he was making with his presence alone. Stepping beside her, Solomon manifested his spirit weapon, Keraunos, within his hand. Electrified reishi danced around the edges of the blade as he gazed at him, speaking his own opinion on the matter.

"Your presence is causing an uproar in the city. Would you mind providing us with a reason as to why you've decided to come here of all places?"

His sword was held at his side in the event that action might take place. There was no need to attack first, let alone throw himself into the jaws of death if he could avoid it. He clearly knew he was the weaker of the two here, but he would fight until his last breath if it came to it. If nothing else, he didn't have to go at it alone, and Giselle was an ideal partner in case things escalated.

As the first responders finally made their way to stand in Ichigo's path, he simply lifted his sword up just enough that it no longer scraped against the street below. It wasn't much, but even that made it clear he was perfectly ready to fight now. His eyes didn't even move to either of the Quincy for more than a brief moment, before they returned to the direction he'd been walking. His energy certainly wasn't reined in, but the truth was that wasn't really a matter of his trying or not. At this point in his life, there was no controlling it. It went where it wished, and for a man like him, who had energy reserves most could scarcely imagine, trying to control it would have been far too much trouble.

"You have something I want. Get out of my way, and I'll leave when I have it."

That was all the explanation he was going to give to either of them. He didn't have any business with them, and he wasn't going to start a fight if they didn't attack him first. But he also knew perfectly well that they probably would, and he'd already tensed his whole body to react.

It didn't take much thought to understand what Giselle was implying with her instruction. She was certainly way more equipped than him to engage him. She could take the hits that he couldn't adapt to at all, and he could use his electricity - or "razzle dazzle' as Giselle flamboyantly put it - to help support her from a distance.

She could be reckless and he could be diligent. It was the best tag-team approach he could ask for in a situation like this. He took a deep breath as he watched Ichigo raise his blade. This individual wasn't going to leave until he had what he wanted, and unfortunately, neither him nor Giselle would allow that. The time of battle was near.

A single nod of his head would be offered to the woman as he watched her soar in and attack him head on, ruminating on where he ought to strike to throw him off while she soared in for an attack, signaling the start of this battle. Solomon admittedly preferred close-quarter combat, though he valued life well enough to know that wasn't gonna fly with an opponent like this.

Gathering reishi around his hand, Solomon would generate a javelin composed of electrified reishi as he utilized Hirenkyaku to soar around from the rear, launching the electric projectile at Ichigo's back.

Whether or not it landed, Solomon would dart around, remaining far enough out of his direct range, consciously maintaining a distance between himself and those two. He had yet to witness this man's abilities in action nor did he expect him to remain motionless, either.

Depending on how Giselle applied pressure, he could perhaps pull more from his repertoire, but he wasn't gonna press his luck until something truly opened up. Acting as an element Ichigo had to be aware of was the best plan of action.

Ichigo had no particular interest in fighting these two, and there was no particular sense that he wanted to engage the two of them. As soon as their assault began, however, all of those tensed muscles suddenly sprang to life. They were slow. Pitifully slow, compared to Ichigo, and when combined with sonido, it wasn't difficult at all to avoid their approach, or the attacks that followed. The girl was clearly the more dangerous of the two, but she was also the one coming to meet him. Better to handle the blonde annoyance first, then, especially if he was likely to be a simple problem to deal with. That was basic instinct in a fight.

That was why, as he took a single step masked by sonido, he reappeared dangerously close to Solomon, his empty hand held forward with a blood red orb of energy coalesced at one fingertip.

"Cero Plenilunio."

To utilize Cero in more abstract ways wasn't terribly difficult for Ichigo. In fact, it came more or less as second nature to him. The beam that fired from his hand was filled with more than enough energy to nearly disintegrate an average human on impact, but the same couldn't be said of its effect on the surrounding environment. The Full Moon Cero simply reflected off of the world around it, rather than destroying it, and in an urban environment such as the City of Lights, that meant it quickly found numerous points from which it could bounce around. Ichigo simply wanted this through with quickly. He didn't care for the thrill of a fight.

No matter how much focus was dedicated during his movement, it clearly paled in comparison to this arrancar who only needed a single step to appear dangerously close towards him. Solomon expected that. It was an approach any veteran fighter would take when faced with more than one opponent.

Did he expect a single step to be so fast? Of course not. He was outclassed and he hadn't expected anything less; his speed was considerably superior to anything Solomon could currently achieve, even with his utilization of Hirenkyaku. Even so, Solomon had to keep on moving. He knew that much.

Bringing the utmost extent of his electrified reishi to bear in his Hirenkyaku-induced movement, Solomon burst forward like a bolt of lightning, barely evading Ichigo's cero. He could not let any one attack land on him, even if he wore his body down and was carted off to a hospital. Remaining in constant motion without pause was all he could do to create even a bare distance, and that cero was still pinballing around. Not even a few moments had passed, and Solomon felt a significant spike of energy surging where Giselle was---Vollstandig. That was enough to tell him Gigi's intent.

He wanted to clash with Ichigo and assert his will in this battle, too, but he was nowhere near this arrancar's level to even humor the idea, even if he delved into Letz Stil. He'd get tossed like an ant. Solomon could tell this battle was dangerous for someone like him. The speed advantage clearly tilted in Ichigo's favor. Anything to close the gap had to be brought out.

Well aware of what that the blood spraying around the immediate area could do, Solomon pressed on, forcing his body to move further outwards out of the range of these superior combatants, so that he wouldn't be caught within the crossfire.

For now, it appeared as if he was moving far enough to at least try to give Ichigo the illusion that he was running away. He knew Giselle might understand the intent. As the man said, he came here for something. He didn't feel as if this man had a true aim to attack or kill them if they let him go by, but they couldn't do that.

Maybe he could just play the role of the rookie who was in over his head and ran away. At the very least, to get far away enough to let Giselle do her work. He wanted to land one on that stoic asshole who just waltzed in out of nowhere, but he had to listen to the woman who could at least manage better than he could.

Using blut to enhance his eyesight, Solomon would remain in motion enough to keep his eyes peeled in case Ichigo didn't bite and came after him again, taking deep breaths to regain his stamina. He would bet on Giselle to engage and force this man to keep his focus on her. That was the only gamble he could wager right now.

Even now, in his emptied and aimless state, Ichigo's ability to keep track of a battle was exceptional, and despite the hollow look in his eyes, they darted around the battlefield with a profound awareness of the situation. The younger one looked to be leaving. Ichigo wouldn't be terribly surprised if he came back, but chasing him down would have been too much work.

Besides, this trash behind him was becoming more of an annoyance by the second.

Fingers tightening around the hilt of his zanpakuto, Ichigo more properly exerted his energy outward, into both his hierro and into his weapon as blood-red energy began coalescing around the blade. The hierro absorbed the X-shaped cut, chipping only slightly courtesy of the sheer amount of energy at Ichigo's disposal. He certainly imagined that the blood raining down would be a problem, but he only further exerted his overwhelming spiritual reserves, willing to simply destroy what he could before it touched him, and deal with what little bit was left afterward.

"Getsuga Tenshou."

All at once, he then whipped around, with a speed that seemed strikingly at odds with his lethargic demeanor, his hand swinging Zangetsu in a lethal horizontal arc. Just the force of that swing created a shockwave that would have sent most reeling, and even killed lesser men, but it wasn't close to the full intention of this swing. The energy he'd coalesced around it flew toward Giselle, a crimson arc of energy that shot forward with killing intent. Even if Giselle avoided it, there was no question that it would cause massive collateral damage to whatever else it struck.