1511/1500 Feet And Falling Fast

1500 Feet And Falling Fast
Date of Scene:	16 April 2016
Location:	Plot Room 2
Synopsis:	In April 2016, there was a story of a boy that survived a fall from a plane flying at 3000 feet. The boy claimed he was caught by a flying girl and he too would fly someday - the true story was far more dark.
Cast of Characters:	Tsubasa Yuunagi, Kyouka Inai, Fuyuko Yuuhi

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Tsubasa Yuunagi has posed:
Late April 2016. It's the waning days of the Cherry Blossoms being in bloom across Japan. Rainfall has washed away most of it, but there is still plenty of tiny petals left that it gives the streets the appearance that a small child had dipped a brush in pink paint and spread it across the whole of Tokyo. The weather has cleared up, leading to a pleasant and clear day. It's a great day for flying, which several pilots are taking advantage of.

Among those at one of the small ancillary airports around Tokyo is a private Cessna Skyline with two passengers, the soon to be six-year old Tsubasa Yuunagi and his father, taking off on what was an early birthday present for the boy who has an interest in planes and flight. Settled into their seats, Tsubasa is pressed against one of the windows, looking down on the city, eyes wide and bright as he takes it all in.

But it is not just people enjoying the weather that have made an appearance in this late day sun, as from one of the abandoned hangars that had been taped off for repairs, creatures start to appear. Chitinous and bug-like, the nearly nine foot tall creatures are starting to venture out, preparing to begin their own hunting for the night, to feed on the unwary and unprepared, the dredges of society as well as those that are high society but too unaware to protect themselves. Even those known as mahou, especially those that are new to their powers and unknowing of their abilities are considered especially prime targets.

They are monstrous and alien creatures of opportunity, willing to take all that is offered to them and so much more if just given the chance as they chitter and kk-tch in their unknown language to communicate as they attempt to stay to the shadows, their claws clattering across the concrete and asphalt as they scurry along the ground, the occasional screech of alien scale against metal as they hunt - unaware that they are perhaps being stalked themselves.

Kyouka Inai has posed:
    It's been a rough couple of weeks. For the city in general, that is- not particularly for Stellar. These bug-things, these Chitterlings as the mahou had started calling them for lack of any real name for them, had been popping up everywhere. Especially concentrated around the area of Tokyo Bay, but managing to infiltrate far into the city. Exactly what they want or where they come from is a mystery, but it's clear they're out to hurt people. Humans are prey to them, and Tokyo is a ripe feeding ground for creatures like these, which is perhaps why they have begun appearing in such numbers.

    Luckily for Tokyo, whilst the Chitterlings consider humans their prey, there are those among the humans who feel the same way about them.

    As the Chitterlings are about to cross the last stretch of tarmac separating them from the busier terminal of the airport, there's a faint rumble of thunder which echoes across he sky- strange, because the sky is clear this evening. Not a cloud in sight.

    Suddenly, a massive bolt of golden-yellow lightning arcs down from that clear sky, striking the ground just in front of the Chitterlings, sending them scurrying backwards. When the afterflow fades, a girl is standing in the scorched patch of asphalt, whisps of smoke curling up from the ground. She has a white-and-gold long coat and a short shock of bright red hair, and she's grinning as she swings a long, bone-white naginata over her arm to rest across her shoulders, looping her arms around it.

    "Guess Aurora was right.. I'd love to know how he knows where you guys are going to show up." She says, addressing the bug things even though there's no indication they understand her. "Buuuut I'm glad he does. I was just thinking I could use a workout tonight."

Fuyuko Yuuhi has posed:
It's April 2016 and the Chitterlings might be a problem for some, but not all. Powerful, hungry, and ever gathered in a pack, they've proven eager to spread throughout Tokyo to satisfy their hunger, willing to target anything and anyone: the weak, the strong, the rich, and the poor.

What they aren't used to, despite experiencing it time and again, is being hunted back. After all: they're only a problem for some.

The shadows of the airport hanger deepen, becoming something more than shadow, more than darkness. There's a cessation of sound, as emptiness flows, flows, flows into existence, spreading across the ground, and the chitterlings still escaping screech as their legs simply - vanish, where the darkness catches them.

A girl rises from the spreading void, the broadening nothing, black-haired and pale-faced, her black dress swirling as near liquid darkness poured from and around her hands, pale glimpses of light winking from the flood just as purple-and-white flash from her leggings.

"She always has to make such a show," the girl says, as though her own spreading darkness were any less dramatic. "Now are you bugs going to entertain me or what?"

Tsubasa Yuunagi has posed:
Just as they were ready to start to head into the alleys and dark places that are best for the hunt, the Chitterlings are caught out in the open. They only have a moment to notice that the electricity that dances over their skin, if they had hair, it would have stood on end when the lightning strike slams home into the ground. A pair of alien bugs that were close together were at the epicenter of the strike and were vaporized in the blast, the smell of their burnt carcasses rising in the air as several others are knocked to the ground, stunned by the electrical shock.

What had once been nearly a dozen is fewer, but now they had a target. And with the trademark chittering that has given them their nicknames, they are doubling back, heading towards Stellar, a single hive-mind like thought process - overwhelm her with numbers. There are more of them than there are of her - and all it takes is one of them getting in a lucky strike with their bladed arms to bring her down to be overwhelmed.

It would have been a good idea had it not been for the arrival of the second one. Because instead of being able to fully regroup, the opening of that void that is as much void as it is a devouring darkness, the screechs and cries of the creatures rise in the air. More of them are injured, but there are just as many that are on their feet and whole. And they attack. They rush at the pair, mandibles gnashing, screeches of apparent anger or just calling to each other as there's a swipe of claws at Stellar, while another of the creatures prepares to barrel-over Lacuna in an attempt to knock her to the ground to be overwhelmed.

Up above, the Cessna is just start to approach the area, supposedly to land at the airport as it passes over the battle. The boy in the seat sees... something - mainly the strike of lightning as it dissipates and he pushes himself up, loosening his seat belt as Tsubasa leans into the window. "Papa! Did you see that?!" he asks in wonderment, trying to see the ground, to find where the lightning struck.

"Careful, Tsu." comes his father's warning. "You remember what the pilot said, remain in your seat at all times." But clearly, he did not see the attack, either from inattentiveness or because of the veil.

Kyouka Inai has posed:
    Stellar watches Lacuna's arrival with a lopsided smirk on her face. "Nowhere to run, bugs," She taunts, as if the things ever had any intention of running- though they shriek and gnash, in none of the encounters with the beasts have they ever shown any inclination towards retreat.

    With Stellar before them and Lacuna behind, there's naught to do but attack and so they do. Chitinous claws, sharp as razors, dart with blinding speed towards Stellar's face, but she ducks smoothly to the side, whirling her polearm around, lightning crackling along its edge. Where it passes, it slices through exoskeleton as smoothly as the air, and the Chitterling pulls back an arm with a few less claws on it. "Now it's time for the fun part." She hisses, as she leaps upwards, the jump carrying her higher than any mortal bound should be able to manage, using the naginata as extra leverage. At the apex of the jump, she pulls the weapon up, spinning it vertically around the axis of her body. The blade leaves a glowing arc of golden light through the air as it sings through its traversal, Stellar reversing her own position with that of the blade to bring it down with the kinetic energy of her leap.

    Slicing straight through the creature, its smoking halves falling to either side, where the blade hits the ground glowing snakes of crackling light burst out in all directions, hunting down and writhing around creatures, cutting short their scattering motion. There's an echoing boom at the detonation of her naginata hitting the pavement, though she's running before it even has time to echo, leaping towards the next monster.

    "If I get more than you tonight, you're paying for ramen!" She shouts over the creature's clacking cries to Lacuna, her voice full of frenetic energy. She's completely ignorant of the small plane overhead, circling closer as it prepares to land.

Fuyuko Yuuhi has posed:
There's something about the fight that brings Lacuna alive, like nearly nothing else, and a grin spreads across her pale, doll-like face as the Chitterlings screech in pain and anger, gnashing their mandibles futilely. Where Stellar is all loud brightness and explosions of sound, Lacuna is silence itself, the devouring emptiness.

The Chitterling after he tries to barrel her over and Lacuna's grin widens as she flips back, spreading her arms wide. Darkness flows up like a splash of liquid, and the Chitterling dives right in.

It's rear-half slides across the ground, so neatly severed that there's no trace of a cut - it's as if the front half of the creature had simply never existed at all. The hindlegs kick and shiver in dying motions, and Lacuna thrusts an arm forward, darkness launched up and out, stealing away whole pieces of the enemy - and the tarmac.

"Oh, is that what we're plauing for? Fine then, I'll be sure to order extra tonight!"

Tsubasa Yuunagi has posed:
There was never going to be an intention to retreat. There's no reasoning with these creatures. They only know to attack and overwhelm. And even when they are faced with what is a guaranteed death, these alien creatures still continues to advance. One, even when sliced in twain by Stellar's polearm, it's upper half falling away from its lower, attempts one last swipe at the girl's side with it's dying twitches.

If Lacuna was looking not to pay for the ramen, she will have some catching up to do, because Stellar is already up a couple from her first strike upon the creatures. But it also seems that Lacuna has the advantage that because her attacks are not as flashy, more of the bugs are aimed towards her. Which leads to her tearing them apart, rending them and just wjole bits of them vanishing into the darkness to be devoured by whatever it is that awaits them within.

Another of the chitterlings is attempting to climb over the bodies of it's fallen comrades, furthering it's attack to try to use the dead and dying as a shield so that it can strike at her, Stellar's song interrupted only by the screech of the eternally wretched that attacks, their alien blood staining the ground in a steady pool as the two magical girls herd them closer together.

"Look! I see them!" Tsubasa calls, bouncing in his seat as he watches the electricity from Stellar's attacks dance around like a show from the ground. They are close enough now that he can see figures, even if he can't make out things such as faces and all - he'd probably be horrified if he realized exactly the destruction the two girls, barely less than a decade older than him were doing below.

The Cessna is just about to pass overhead on it's way past the airport to circle around and come in for a landing, father and pilot both unaware of what is happening below, even as Tsubasa's father is warning him. "We're about to land, you should sit down."

"Okay!" Tsubasa replies, reluctant. He can get in a couple of more seconds of watching before he has to sit, right?

Kyouka Inai has posed:
    This is too easy. It always is- that's the curse of the powerful. At least those that crave challenge. It's always too easy. And when it's easy, people like Stellar start to look for ways to make things more interesting.

    "These guys are no fun!" She calls to Lacuna as she brutally impales one of the creatures that fruitlessly attempts to slice at her with its claws, her naginata piercings its body and slamming effortlessly into the tarmac underneath, before she whips it free up and through the monster's body, cleaving it like a hot knife through butter, the blade of her weapon leaving that tell-tale glowing golden afterimage tracing the arc of its movement.

    Just then, she spots another group of the creatures scurrying by some distance away. To say they are fleeing the girls is incorrect, but it does appear this group of around six of the Chitterlings has decided seeking less violent prey is more attractive, and rather than join the battle they come upon they attempt to skirt around it and head out onto the streets without being noticed.

    This has failed though, as Stellar's grey eyes find them just as they pass underneath the wing of a very expensive-looking private jet. It is dark and obviously empty, parked in the shadow of a hangar perhaps for a slight in the morning. A sudden grin growing on her face, Stellar calls across to Lacuna, "On the left, Lac-chan! Watch this!"

    She spins her spear upwards, twirling it in a glittering arc over her head, her whole body rotating like a skilled javelin thrower. "Back me up, catch any that get away!" She calls as she comes out of the spin and hurls the spear towards the plane. As it leaves her grip there's another crack of thunder, the windows of the buildings nearby rattling in their casings. The naginata melts in flight into a molten bolt of lightning, flashing across the distance in a moment to impact the side of the jet... which explodes.

    A massive fireball erupts as the jet detonates, consuming the group of Chitterlings and sending debris and pieces of pavement flying in all directions. Thankfully the plane was outside and far enough away from any other buildings or vehicles to prevent anything else going up as well, but the explosion is impressive enough regardless. Some millionaire is going to be annoyed tomorrow when they find their plane reduced to a smoking pile of scrap on the airfield.

    She's still completely unaware of the Cessna... which is passing just overhead as the plane beneath explodes. High enough not to get caught in the fireball, but to be directly in the path of the sudden blast of wind and turbulence the explosion causes.

Fuyuko Yuuhi has posed:
It's incredibly easy, and that's why it doesn't have any challenge - Lacuna swings and leaps and devours with constructs of her liquid darkness, sometimes leaving them alive for longer than she has to, not out of malice, but the casual cruelty of children who don't care about the fate of roaches underfoot.

"There's hardly anything actually fun for us," she calls back to Stellar, kicking one of the creatures in the mandible before separating head from body by simply devouring the mid-section with he darkness. "That's why we've got to make our own fun. How many have you killed?"

Another kick, this time launching the head at one of the Chitterlings with enough force to impale the living creature on the dead one's mandibles. It screeches, and Lacuna laughs a little, pleased with her own strength - and there's Stellar yelling for her to look, so she does -

"Oh, fuck yeah, that was expensive," Lacuna laughs, throwing back her head in delight as the flames of the explosion roar. There are screams from farther along the tarmac, where employees are beginning to take note of the something very wrong that's happening nearby.

"But you're not going to win that easily!"

Exploding another jet is possible, but why would she? It's not original to be a copy cat. Instead, Lacuna throws her hands up, fingers spread like talons, and flies out ten long tendrils, vanishing vital segments of four separate chitterlings, and the legs and hindquarters of several more.

Tsubasa Yuunagi has posed:
Stellar's going for a high score and as many kills as she can cause in one blow and make sure that Lacuna is the one that has to pay for the ramen tonight. She was right though. The plane was fully fueled and prepped for an early morning departure to an overseas destination. The explosion it causes is impressive, illuminating the area, sending up and out a shockwave of flame, shrapnel and turbulence as it tears through the chitterlings on the ground.

As Lacuna is whipping through the chitterlings that somehow survived the explosion of the aircraft, they are sliced and dismembered, leaving bits of them scattered all over the place to be devoured by the burning jet fuel that is being spilled from the wreck of an executive jet.

The roiling superheated wave hits the Cessna above. It's rattled, the whole plane vibrating as the pilot fights to maintain control. "HOLD ON!" the pilot yells as he keys the microphone. "Novemeber Seven Alpha Eight Three declaring an emergency." he calls to the tower.

The two passengers are jostled around. Tsubasa's father grabs his seat to hold on tightly as he's tossed upwards.

Tsubasa, on the other hand, grabbed the door he was leaning against to watch the action below. The rattling of the blast loosens the door and suddenly it flies open, and Tsubasa is sucked out into the gathering darkness. "PAPA!" he screams in terror as he starts to plummet towards the ground, the boy tumbling about as the wind continues to buffet him.

"TSUBASA!" comes the father's pained and panicked yell, reaching to grab the air where the boy was, and his scream is terrible and filled with the absolute terror and fear that his only child is now free-falling towards the tarmac.

Kyouka Inai has posed:
    It seems like things are more or less cleaned up here- not for the airport workers, who no doubt have a long night of firefighting and debris cleanup ahead of them, but for the mahou at least. This particular infestation of Chitterlings has been dismembered, cleaved, and exploded leaving nothing but ashes and severed pieces scattered around the tarmac of the airport.

    Her red hair lit an even brighter orange by the flames of the fire she caused behind her, Stellar grins as she turns back to face Lacuna, her naginata back in her hand despite the fact that she just threw it and caused that massive explosion. "I think that was like, thirty five for me easily." She lies with blatant disrespect for the other girl's basic counting ability.

    It's just about this time that the faint sound catches her attention- not the sound of the plane engines, which are ubiquitous in a place like Tokyo, especially near an airport. Its the scream of a child. She might be a lightning-powered killing machine, but she is still ostensibly a hero, and if there's one thing sure to draw her focus it's the sound of a young kid in danger.

    It takes just a moment for her to realize the sound is coming from above her and look upwards, and only a moment more to process what she is seeing. The plane is tottering off, veering wildly but does not seem to be in danger of crashing itself, but there's a small silhouette plummeting out of the sky from beneath it.

    "Oh shit, Fuyuko, I think that's a kid!" She gasps, pointing, and already moving towards where the boy's arc of descent will take him.. her grin replaced with laserlike focus.

    Well, she wanted some real danger, and here it is- just not to her.

Fuyuko Yuuhi has posed:
"Oh come on, you can count better than that," Lacuna digs meanly, smiling with the casual friendly-malice of one asshole talking to another, knowing like recognizes like and no one will be especially bothered by it -

And then there's a scream, from high above, and the slaughter might be over but unless they do something, the gore won't be. Lacuna takes in the sight of the plummeting kid and swears, because it's not like they can just catch him out of nowhere, he'll break all his bones! She saw that Spider-Man movie!

"Fuck. We've got to get him, but we can't just catch him when he falls, fuck!"

She does not have an idea. Well, she has the idea of throwing Stellar, but how strong is super strong?

Tsubasa Yuunagi has posed:
As both of the teens are clued in to their actions, the boy is continuing his plummet to Earth. Fortunately, it seems all of the chitterlings are dead or unable to move and will be dead soon, so at least they don't have to worry about whatever plan that they decide to come up with.

Which they will need to come up with quickly, because Tsubasa is still falling - he's not tumbling anyone, having balanced out, but he's facing upwards, looking up and seeing the flickering red and green lights of the plane that he fell out of, and the stars that are just starting to show in the night sky, having cut through the glow of Tokyo's light pollution and what was left of the sunlight.

The door is still with the plane, thankfully, so all they have to worry about is the boy, and not the door falling and hitting anyone, even as said plane is being cleared to make an emergency landing, which between that and the explosion of the plane - is drawing all the emergency vehicles.

Kyouka Inai has posed:
    Stellar isn't the type to wait for ideas. She's the type to spring into action, plan be damned, and trust that it'll somehow work out.

    "Feedback boost, Lacuna!" She shouts, trusting the other girl will know what she means. She waits for Lacuna to summon a pool of her darkness, preferably facing upwards, then leaps up herself, bringing her naginata around, light crackling along its length, and plunging it directly into the void summoned by her counterpart.

    When the two opposites meet, light and dark, they self-annihilate in a howling, crackling maelstrom of energy that seems to blurr and distort the air around the point of contact... but more than that, it creates an outward force, like the wrong poles of two magnets pressed together.

    The end result is Stellar is launched upwards by the expulsion of force, letting go of her spear and letting it vanish, ending the uncomfortable contact of opposite powers but leaving her shot upwards like a missile.

    She doesn't aim or calculate, she just seems to know how to angle her body so that the arc of her rapid ascent crosses the descending path of the boy. She actually slams into him with an 'oof', hard enough to send them both spinning in the air as the arc reverses and they head back towards the ground.

    "-now catch us!" She shouts, sudden alarm in her voice. A fall like this would be unlikely to kill her, but it would hurt a lot. And even with her arms wrapped around him, there's no guarantee the boy would come through it uninjured either.

Fuyuko Yuuhi has posed:
Sometimes, Lacuna thinks too much. Perfect balance is the fact that Stellar doesn't always think at all - so when Stellar gives the command, she reacts instantly, putting it into effect - a pool of darkness rising up to meet the naginata, polar opposites consuming each other, the light of creation and the shadow of destruction, an endless loop of self-annhilation that crackles and propels Stellar rocketing up to the boy.

And Lacuna? and Lacuna is racing after her, underneath, looking for the arc of their fall, trying to understand exactly where they'll head because her other half didn't think and now she has too -

"Oh, shut up, I've got you -"

Darkness, thrust beneath her, pushing her up even as more of the darkness begins to devour the tarmac and she opens her arms to catch Stellar and the boy -

She's only a good eight feet up, which means they fall and they hit hard, but she breaks their momentum first, before the ground does.

They land, Lacuna on her back, Stellar with the kid on top.

Tsubasa Yuunagi has posed:
Propelled upwards, Stellar's flight and angle is true as she slams into Tsubasa in mid-air. For a moment, the boy gives a yelp of pure panic, as he assumed he had just hit the ground, instead, he finds himself in the arms of the red-haired girl that was fighting earlier. His arms fly up to wrap around her as he koalas to her, his red eyes bright with fear, falling too fast for tears to had formed. But now, he's in this teen girl's arms... not just a mahou. The way she's falling, with the electricity crackling off of her, from his angle, all Tsubasa sees are wings as his eyes widen and sparkle with surprise.

They're falling, he's aware of that - but at the same time, he has complete faith that this unknown girl, this flying girl is going to save him, like all of the cartoons he'd seen with a man in a blue suit and red tights flying around catching people.

Then comes the other girl, the one made of darkness, as she fields them both out of nowhere, and in the grass that is just off of the tarmac, obscured by the night so that people don't see, Lacuna lands first. Then Stellar. And finally Tsubasa. Who thankfully is a small thing and is very light as he continues to cling to Stellar, shaking with fear and relief. "You flew!" he exclaims. "That was amazing!"

Kyouka Inai has posed:
    Stellar lands on top of Lacuna, the three of them hitting the grass in a tumble that doesn't keep her there for long- spilling her and her burden off into the grass to roll a few feet before coming to a stop. A bit breathless perhaps, but otherwise intact. She springs to her feet instantly, grinning again, tossing her head so her bright red hair whips back from her eyes. "Nice catch, Lac-chan." She enthuses, reaching down to grab her partner's arm and haul her back to her feet. "I didn't crush anything vital did I?"

    Her grey eyes turn to the kid then, as he exclaims over her 'flight', and she can't help but feign a little humility, brushing off her coat as she shrugs her shoulders. "More like 'projectiled' but I guess if you want to call it flying I'm not going to stop you. You alright?" She looks the kid over, though he seems fine to her. "You were in that little plane?" She doesn't know enough about planes to assign it any sort of name.

    "They probably landed by now." She squints over towards where she can see the lights of emergency vehicles in the distance. "You should probably get over there so they know you're, y'know. Alive."

Fuyuko Yuuhi has posed:
They roll across the ground, grass torn under them, and Lacuna tries to take the brunt, not because she thinks Stellar can't handle it - she can - but because there's the kid, and he's in her arms. When it finally ends, and Stellar holds out her, grinning and bright, she barks out a laugh.

"Yeah, yeah, of course it was a great catch. You'd have gone splat if I didn't. And I'd say my dignity, but that died when you managed to kill one more monster than me."

This is as much of a show of emotion as they'll get out of her - because she might have been worried about Stellar, but like hell will she show it, especially when they fucking won.

"Yeah, if you think that's flight, you'll end up a skydiver. But it was pretty good, she's alright." A little smirk, tossed at Stellar over the kid's head. "Come on, don't tell me you're going to let him walk? Least we can do is drop him off in style."

Tsubasa Yuunagi has posed:
"Mmmhmm!" Tsubasa says, turning his attention from Stellar - and finally letting her go instead of being a koala, and glances towards where the plane is landing. "My birthday is soon and I'm turning six!" he says with a grin, a very short memory - he'll have nightmares later, but for now, adrenaline and a new friend have him distracted. "I'm okay. But I want to learn to fly! Like you!" He's practically vibrating with excitement.

Then Lacuna is speaking up and his attention turns back to the pair of girls. "Nope. Just watch. I'm going to fly too!" he promises the pair, before it seems like he's ready to run off on his own unless Stellar decides to go with Lacuna's plan, whatever that may be!

Kyouka Inai has posed:
    "Fine, fine." Stellar sighs, but is grinning as she says it.

    So it is that in the middle of the crowd of emergency vehicles and the landed plane, as people crowd around to help the pilot and Tsubasa's father down, a white-and-gold motorcycle drives down the runway, skidding to a halt just outside the group. Stellar is driving, with Lacuna behind her, and behind her.. the boy.

    He is deposited safely on the ground, where he will no doubt shortly be noticed, his survival declared a miracle. As for the two 'heroes' of the hour..

    "C'mon. You owe me ramen." Stellar laughs, before gunning the engine and peeling out to drive back down the long, straight expanse of the runway at extremely unsafe speeds.