Interception Ate/Hive

Many things were important in order to keep a village up and going. Food, clean water, a strong military force, building materials and people capable of expending their community, followed by others with the ability to provide them weapons and armor to protect themselves from people of ill intentions... But necessity aside, they also needed other things, things capable of providing their collective with a certain sense of relaxation, pleasure and joy. And what better way to provide such than hot springs?

Their mission was a simple one. To convert several inn owners into their hivemind, enabling anyone from their Lunar Collective to go there anytime they see fit without having to spend a dime. The shop owners would be part of them and ultimately shared their opinions and thoughts which, in return, made them serve the collective with no back-thoughts whatsoever. They were now doing their parts. For the greater good of their community.

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The Lunar Duo, having finished with their business down there, were now leaving the Village. Having spent a few hours there themselves after to recover from their travels, both of them were now heading back to their home village. Several activities were taking place and they were required. Namely helping expending their community house for all the extra population that was joining them as well as investigate the perimeter for any spies possibly lurking in the area.

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Both of them were now hours from any civilization, going in a beeline on some dirt path, directed by the Lunar Collective, no need for maps or compass... they knew the way... it was instinctual, a second nature to them. Both of them were perfectly quiet, the knight and alicorn lost into the collective, discussions, thoughts and words of thousands filling their minds as they walked, looking happy and serene. Little did they know, however, that someone would soon be interrupting their peaceful trains of thoughts.

The Hivemind... the stories had been on the news merely as curiosity of late, or as minor curiosity reports on all the military radio-channels. A whole city-state taken over by one chakra-source, interesting to say the least.
Yet, what threat could they possibly pose? Their numbers so few, their power paling in comparison to the combined might of the Five-Nations.

Yet, that was just it, wasn't it. What they couldn't achieve by might (a lot) had to be achieved by subterfuge and who knew how good they were at that without looking and looking hard. This called for... investigation.

So they wanted to embrace the world in one peaceful mind? Look how well that went for the last well-intentioned extremist who tried that.

It was time, Atehameru believed, to see how well this new hive contended against the reborn Gun of Damocles.

In a sudden rush of cut senses the drones were enveloped by a barrier, cutting-off light and sound. The surface of the hidden seal they had just walked upon yanked and pulled against them, simulating a humongous leap in the strength of gravity, in an attempt to bring them to their knees.

An identical chakra signature in two bodies... now that is... intriguing.

This is how it starts, Atehameru - once again you take it upon yourself to be the Arbiter of the world. This is the first villain, the first act, the first running steps into the abyss where heros become hunters, where Fallen Knights become Crusaders.

Ask yourself, Atehameru - after all that you've been through, can you really charge head-long into those shadows again even if it means the deaths of all those around you? Will you become the Grey Knight again?

Yes... a million times over... even if it means i walk alone...

Remember, Crusader: if you gaze for long into an abyss, the abyss gazes also into you.

It had been a while since both of them had been aware of the intruder's presence... however, resolved themselves to play the ignorant's card. Lulu was a sensor type, after all; what she lacked in physical strength she more than made up in other disciplines. The fact that both of them were connected by the hive mind made the need for vocal communication unnecessary, Charon knew where he was hiding, simply waiting for him to make his move... or leave them alone. Perhaps they were simply dealing with someone curious.

When they stepped into the trap, however, it quickly became apparent that this individual had ill intention. As the barrier raised around them, the lunar duo would remain calm... however, when the gravity pull came, it became apparent that they'd have to take immediate action. The alicorn's front legs would give in as she crashed forth, wincing. The horn would glow for an instant as she then dematerialized into a thick mist of lunar chakra.

The knight, literally unfazed by the added gravity, raised his sword, now gleaming with Lunar Chakra and began swinging it around, cutting away as the barriers like it was literally made out of paper. Lulu would seep away and vanish into the woods... as for Charon, he simply took a step forth and delivered a run kick on the barrier, demolishing it as he stepped out of the seal.

His plated helmet would then jerk upward, looking at the assailant's direction.

-What do you want from us? Clarify your intentions.

He'd ask, his voice unusually calm and serene.


((Sidenote, Lunar chakra is five times sharper than lighting/wind chakra. It's their Kekke genkai.))

One job was already done - it was probably a good thing the other drone escaped given the circumstances. It would only prove to be more useful later.
But what of this creature? He wasn't his own man any more, that much was evident, but he seemed more than tough enough to warrant consideration. Slight changes in the kinetic-barriers would have to be made, but the extra chakra would be worth the gain.

Chakra raged like a rushing torrent into the cyborg's right arm, the millions of processors in his brain programming the technique he desired far swifter than any handsigns could - he dropped to the earth like a meteorite, slamming his open palm into the dirt.

Environmental control: Perfect Dark - initialised

A bubble of power enveloped a fifty-metre expanse, a humongous barrier or kinetic-chakra that wrapped both combatants in shadows. Light refused to pass through its surface and gravity warped from a crushing grip to the emptiness of space in an instant, refusing to hold anybody down.
In the same instance the barrier began a whirling acceleration upon its surface while the shield itself span too, negating the vast majority of any impact. Even if this lunar chakra could break through a normal barrier on repeat impacts it simply wouldnt be able to hit this shield directly enough to exact it's full force.

In a second or so the knight was suspended in the emptiness of space with the limited air there was to keep him alive - from suffocation and decompression.

Remember the last person you used this technique on? Would he want you to do all of this all over again?

I think he's dead and it doesn't matter either way...

Both of them were considered the lunar guardians. Those who protected their village and collective. Part of the hivemind, once two individuals and now two extensions which were considered to be nearly sacred. Both of these were responsible for the Lunar Collective's existence, after all. They had started it all. Many times in the past they had defended the weak from mis-lead attackers, many times before they converted the lost into the right way as well as supplying the village with whatever goods they ever needed and so much more. This man... this thing, this machine wouldn't interfere with any of their plans. They held no grudge against anyone... but if they had to resolve to violence in order to protect their peaceful order, the Lunar Collective would do just that.

As the impressive display of chakra took place, the knight would simply raise his shield as he kept himself on defensive, about to charge at him but unable to as he found himself literally lifted from the ground, floating. Everything was dark and vision very limited. Their enemy was still in front of them, chakra so intense they could probably feel it from miles away. The hivemind's connection enabled the Knight to see exactly what was going on from the outside, a large force field was enveloping both of them it would seem, quite a large one at that.

The knight's head would then turn around and look at Ate's general direction, his calmness and serenity apparently still perfectly intact.

-We have no wish to hurt you... but your actions leave us will little to no choice. We must defend ourselves... hopefully you will end this foolishness before it's too late.

And with that, the knight vanished from sight. Literally dissipating into nothingness. No clone, no substitution,l no genjutsu. He had just literally vanished in a blink.

Reappearing on Lulu's back, the knight would then grab one of his jumping Kunai that he had hidden on his mount's plate armor. A precaution they always took and that had just found itself to be extremely useful today. Flying a full mile over their enemy, both of them would look down...

-Pity that we must resolves ourselves using violence yet again...

Lulu would say as he horn began glowing. Firstly she raised a lunar shield around them, a thick one at that, secondly, she concentrated chakra into her horn. An tiny amount that simply grew of his own, her horn literally acting as a chakra multiplying device. The beam was charging more and more, an impressive amount of Lunar chakra compressed into one pinprick location at the tip of her horn. Locking at the mysterious warrior's chakra signature inside that bubble that was flaring like a beacon, the sniper-like shot would release itself with an ear-shattering, high-pitched scream as it traveled through the air with nearly instantaneous speed. The thin beam literally piercing through the bubble like it was made out of butter. This was lunar chakra with as much piercing power one could possibly imagine; a force to be reckoned with.

The endless silent hum of his prosthetic brain still whirred with speed that would turn an unaugmented human into a dribbling wreck, detecting the shift in location with negligable delay. In an instant he dropped the solid-shield and the anti-grav, yet kept the bubble of acceleration in place.
The chakra-bolt passed the vortex and spun off-course, slamming into the dirt and cracking the ground, kicking-up dirt.

analysis - PSI: sufficient - damage projection: high - countermeasures: kinetics, quantum-tunnelling, decoys - retaliation: heavy-type bolt, anti-air pattern.

The cyborg summoned his kinetic barriers on instinct - something he hadn't done for a very long time yet seemed so easy in the heat of the moment. A semi-permeable layer of chakra washed across the surface of his body, primed to retaliate to impact.

[i]You couldn't do this before - at least not since back then. When did you relearn this control?

Perhaps thats all a killer need - the rush of combat and the need to kill again - to remember all the tricks of the trade that were once as simple as breathing.

Just think, how swiftly would that boy have died if you could do all this the first day of your return?[i]

In another blur of chakra Atehameru vanished from the real world, light bending around his body and refusing to hold him.
Huge, slow, near-unseeable chakra-forms flashed from his body like anti-missle flares, mimicking his signature exactly and letting-free more bolts into the sky to hide the real ones.

The cyborg himself strafed outside of sight, fingers extended like pretend guns spamming an almighty machine-gun volley into the skies at his targets in efforts to tear them to shreds... or at least incapacitate them.
The bolts were a happy invention, taking very little chakra to form and fire yet flying quick enough to do mortal damage - bullets without the need for lead. The cyborg assuming the similarities between the lunar-bolts and his kinetic-bolts was coincidence - nobody other than him had developed the technique to nearly such a refined level.

The hivemind had to admit, this individual was very persistent. The moves he was pulling out were like nothing they ever saw. Yet, no way near enough to impress the collective. Not because his skills weren't impressive on their own, but because the Lunars knew their guardian were beyond powerful. Charon had literally toughness, reflexes and chakra pool that would give the now deceased third Raikage himself a run for his money; never before Charon had ran out of chakra, let alone needed to use half of it during a fight. Right now he was merely seeing the full extent of this individual's capacities.

As for Lulu, she was a creation of their goddess herself. Chakra control and distribution like no other; a drop of her pool was literally enough to whip out the deadliest long-range jutsus one would only dream to achieve. Her sense and detection were acute and extremely sharp and her force field tougher than a certain sand barrier many people knew about.

Long story short, this was going to be one heck of a land-scarring battle.

Looking at the display of firework literally heading toward them, Lulu would raise an eyebrow. It was quite the spectacle, that was for certain. If someone didn't had the power to repel all of it, trying to figure out what was what would be night impossible. Even the alicorn couldn't figure out where their opponent was hiding into all of this mess.

Fortunately for them, however, firepower was something they wouldn't be missing anytime soon. Lulu barely needed any chakra to perform her attacks... so what happened when someone with a chakra pool similar to one of a tailed beast was there to back things up? Well, that cyborg was about to find out. This is why they were called the "Lunar Duo" Alone they were still something... but it's when the both of them were together that they would become a near-unstoppable force of nature. It was nothing new, after all. Many ninjas in this world worked in a pair, this was one of them

Putting his right gauntlet at the bas of Lulu's horn, Lulu would begin pulling at what he was giving her... a tsunami of chakra compared to what she was used working up on her own. The orb at the tip of her horn would grow and grow until in was about two feet in size, so much chakra had been pumped in there that her neck was starting to strain, the chakra having actually gained mass.

-Have it your way, then.

The knight would mutter as everything became white. Not a sound could be heard as the buckshot blast on steroids came blasting down on everything. The force would be intense enough to literally uproot the forest with the shockwave alone, leaving the land smooth and barren... and shred to pieces anything that flew away with the thousands upon thousands of lunar projectiles sharp and strong enough to pierce through rock like nothing. The sound would come after, an ear-shattering explosion that would most probably be heard miles from here.

Even after all of this, however, the Lunar Collective was too foreseeing and careful to call it a victory just yet. Using the chaos as a distraction, they'd flew slightly higher as well as position themselves at an other location, trying to sense if he was still alive or ready to surrender arms, Lulu's shield still held up and strong. They had plenty of where that came from, after all. But in all honesty, they'd rather not be fighting like this; such acts were more suited for barbarians... senseless fighting always irked the collective. Why was he after them anyway? Was he hired by someone?

Jump... move now! It's the only way! By all thats holy, you need to evade this and slipspace is the only way.

Delve into those shadows again, race through the darkness between space - how else will you survive this?

The decoys dismissed, fizzling from existence at returning what power they could in a vacuum of power that lasted the tiniest fraction of a second. With a build-up no natural body could ever hope to match a throbbing swell of chakra writhed across Atehameru's entire body, tearing and scratching and clawing at the warp to let him free in that pulse-pounding micro-second.

Analysis - target chakra-level: S+ rank - anti-air fire: ineffective - retalation: kinetic-rifles, god-slayer bolts, omni-barrage pattern

This was a bite the cyborg never realised he would have to chew, the leader of this self-proclaimed hivemind that had enveloped the moon-village. Though, perhaps, this was perfect - cutting away the head of the snake twinned with a final push to remember his old power. Even if they were not captured the information would be invaluable.
The collateral would be huge, but what did it matter? Who would expect anything less between the epitomes of tailless-beasts, one of blood and one of wire.

In a flash of shadows Atehameru retreated into slipspace, the buckshot smashing the ground asunder in a crash like thunder.

Yet, as the tunnel of cascading light threw him through the black between worlds it did not feel so terrifying anymore... it was home again...

Weapons he'd not seen in far too long burst from the dark and settled in his hands, fingers wrapping around the thumb-hole grips of his long chunky kinetic-rifles. Any normal man would have required both hands to hold even one, yet with his cybornetics Ate could carry and aim both.

Quick-as-that they were charged... god-slayer bolts, the almighty railgun blasts that had slain spirits and demons and kage-level ninja flying at 1.6% the speed of light. The impact was enough to tear through an aircraft carrier... and the three behind it. So long it felt since he could fire these weapons, though now he was pushed it seemed so simple...

Ate emerged level with the duo up in the air, fifty-metres out, and fired both guns - their speed so great that the air around them turned to plasma, turning two bullets into blinding white spears of light. The muzzle-flash like the sun, the bark like a pulsating howl... then he vanished.

Again and again he tore from the shadows at a random location around the duo, blasting and blasting and blasting attacks that had killed the kings of the world with just one. From all directions these blasts flew in a cacophony that shook the earth for miles.

Analysis - chakra strain:... do you even care?

For a few seconds, there was a silence, nothing, not even any chakra could be detected... not even residuals. Dead people usually had a certain amount of chakra that lingered in their body even after they had trespassed... had he fled? If so, given his massive chakra, Lulu should still be feeling something... anything. This was beyond strange to say the least, something the hivemind was currently struggling to understand, leaving the Lunar Duo dumbfounded for the time being.

It's only when the man with odd weapons reappeared out of literally nowhere that everything became clear to them; he could teleport! Literally jump between dimension, it would seem... was he a sharingan bearer? The last person ever able to do this was Obito himself, after all.

Either way, this will prove to be... a lot more difficult that they had anticipated. They had firepower in spare for the time being, but wouldn't be very useful considering they really couldn't get a lock on the hostile. At least, Lulu couldn't. Her reflexes weren't as sharp as Charon's.

However, what really caught their attention was these weapons of his... as well as the sheer power of those, literally strong enough to make Lulu's shield, bend, ripple and crack as they were pushed around in the air, struggling to stay stationary. Charon would reach for her horn and give her that extra boost she would be needing to keep them alive for the time being as the shield shined with newfound strength. They had a plan... a risky one at that but something the Lunar Knight could probably pull out. Even Lulu herself would bit her inferior lips as the collective came up with this stratagem... Souvenir of all their time together as simple adventurers resurfacing... the idea of loosing her life long friend was suddenly getting to her. Something the knight immediately felt.

-Fret not.

He'd say from under his helmet. Standing up on Lulu's back, he would then clench his fists as he began pumping up on his own chakra, massive amounts of it would course through his body, enough of it to make a tailed beasts raise eyebrows... but still not enough. Not in his book. Growling, all this chakra would pull out everything else he had left into activation as all of the Lunar energy surrounding his body doubled in thickness, the hair on his helmet standing on end because of it. Now he was as maximum strength... and speed.

This form was inspired by the raikage themselves; using chakra as a mean to create the perfect sword and shield. It boosted strength, speed, toughness and reflexes to a point where it was almost ridiculous. His brain currently hyper-activated, everything literally went in slow motion, the beams that came crashing down upon the shield, the ripple it made, the dispersion, the build up of energy from those strange weapon as well as the traveling of the beam itself; everything became crystal clear.

What he was looking for, however, was for their enemy's teleportation pattern. There was none... however, something would caught the knight's attention. Warping like this seemed to require both an entry and exit point; a ripple could be seen through the air before he'd re-appear, a slight delay present before as well. That was the opening they were looking for. Disappearing once again, patiently, the knight would then keep an eye on his surrounding as he left one of his kunais on Lulu's armor... several seconds taking place in his world before he'd re-appear once again.

Behind them, the ripple would begin to appear. Lulu would give one of her hardest wing flap to give the knight as much momentum as he could get as he propelled himself like a bullet, sending his mount flying back in the process. A necessary act which she'd held no grudge against. Following that, she would then disappear in a thick mist once again, zipping away.

Their enemy finally out of his wormhole... and barely so, would then be greeted by a five foot long mythrillium sword entirely enveloped in lunar chakra swung toward him, now barely an inch or two from him. Not only was the attack beyond quick... but the sheer strength behind it as well as the sharpness and resilience of the blade itself would make this strike, if it were to hit, quite the slice.

(sorry this is taking so long, just don't have the motivation to write atm)

INCOMING - Threat Level: critical - Retaliation: with extreme predjudice

In a collosal surge of panick and violence every last joule of the cyborg's chakra out-put pumped through his body - returning to past heights if just for an insant.
A monomolecular blade flash-forged under the barrel of one kinetic-rifle, laced in burning plasma and seething with chakra.
A collosal white flash exploded from the impact of the blades, the rifle parrying the almighty sword-strike aside as his prosthetic muscles screamed in discontent in his HUD.
The lunar-edge was slow enough by the burst, yet it bit through the bayonet and gashed the underside of the rifle in the ensuing explosion.

Yet, no block is complete without a counter - as Charon's attack was thrown off-side Atehameru used his momentum to ram his other kinetic-rifle into his chest without a hope of a dodge, charged with an attack that he had never before been forced to use.

In a millionth of a second the rifle flash-forged a tiny magnetic ball-bearing, throwing it out of the barrel at a speed quantifiable in fractions of the speed of light.
A collosal plasma-burst like a small nuclear blast enveloped them both, scorching Atehameru's plates as he was thrown back and gamma-rays dosed the environment.
Heat hotter than the sun washed over them for an instant, tearing away layers of the cyborg's outer-plates in a slurry of black dust lost in the light and noise.

As he fell back to the earth he realised just quite the damage he had done to himself - the rifle he'd fired with had split like a flower, the muscles of his right arm similarly ruptured and useless from the recoil... yet... Charon would have gotten far worse than that.

Nothing could stop a projectile that small and that fast - even when it melted under hypervelocity impact the sheer speed would make both bullet and target react as solids. Even though it was only a few millimetres across the exit wound would be far larger, flesh turned to plasma expanding and burning as it cooled.
Scorch and smash and kill... even if he somehow didn't die immediately the thousands of rads from the relativistic-impact would nuke his cells into a cancerous state, something Atehameru was now immune to.

The cyborg righted himself some metres before the ground, right arm hanging limp, but Charon was still lost in the mushroom-cloud some hundred metres away. Behind the dust and fire and ash he saw the thin white trail of projectile whizzing off into space.

WARNING! System integrity: serious - chakra level: serious - recommend: abort, abort, abort!

For a few moments more the ex-samurai ignored the system report, eager to see what he'd just done. Perhaps... by accident... he'd just killed it... though remains would still be useful.

(Okay... so... serious congrats, i've never been pushed like that before - Ate is a kage-level character after all however... i have also never spammed a relativistic-cannon before either. May i suggest that that body of Charon is really really really dead, but as a hivemind he can ressurect into another body? Idk how it all works. Neither of us were really pulling punches there, were we? XD )

((You seem to forget about a little something however. Charon's not dead. In fact, no way near that. Plus! They had one weak spot... an obvious one at that! Aaaand you failed to see it. Sorry! It takes brain far more than brawn to defeat the duo! But even there, no need to panic! I don't kill my adversaries. Let's have a talk instead for a change... I'm getting tired of fists and punches lol. Plus, I could tell them about their weak points OOC if you are to drop arms until the end of this thread! Perhaps it would enlighten you! XD))

This attack had nothing else in mind but pure, raw power and speed. No tactic, no finesse, no real thoughts. It was meant to be straight forward, dishing all of it for sheer speed and strength... if they had to have a chance to hit him, they would put all they had in it and hope it would land a hit. And landed a hit it did. However it had been blocked, parried... they were used to it. His reflexes literally enabled him to see such as the weapon had been brought up to counter his swing. In fact, the blade didn't even connected yet that the collective already knew it would've been parried. No need to retaliate since no defensive measures nor any counters were foreseen in this assault, the knight immediately lifted two of his left fingers, once again, vanishing from sight. His cloak of lunar chakra would stay behind, a solid residual.

Reappearing on Lulu's back, pretty far away... both of them didn't even had time to do anything that, at first, nearly got blind... then deaf... before being literally thrown across the sky by the massive shockwave that followed the detonation. Lulu's shield still being held up mixed with the fact that she had retreated much further away protecting them from whatever harm this thing could bring to either of them. Falling from the sky now, Charon woulds grab Lulu and turn himself in mid-air, using himself as a cushion as he literally tore through a tree and cratered the ground upon landing.

Aside gashes and bruises, the alicorn was alright... this alone brought a smile from his lips... even if he was stuck in the dirt. Getting up, Lulu would giggle as she'd pull him out of there out of habit. Both of them would check themselves for any further injuries... nothing worth alarming themselves about. The mare would then detect the same amount of chakra further away... around two thousand meters up north. He wasn't dead... but apparently this explosion had made quite the number on him.

The both of them would look at each other briefly as they'd fly around the thick cloud of dust, not feeling to get a breath full of it... an action that would later save their lives from deadly radiations, little did they know. And, soon enough, there he was. On the ground... scorched, damaged. He had obviously seen better days. Perhaps this would be their chance now, to talk. Perhaps he'd listen now? Again, putting a kunai on Lulu's plate, he would then drop to the ground as she'd fly away. A simple tactic, really, that saved his life more than once.

Dusting off his armor, he would then plant his sword in the ground two hands over the hilt... not dropping his lunar armor, however, reflexes, speed and strength still very much present.

-Will you speak to us now... or must we push this nonesense any further? Why do you resist us? Why do you attack us?

He would ask, his voice still as calm as before, his green, glowing eyes looking at the cyborg being from through his metal visor.

(Yeah, um... not breathing will change nothing, Gamma rays are going to go straight through you unless you're behind three feet of lead. You haven't dodged that one :L )

"Nonsense... resist... attack..." the huge cyborg spluttered as he stood there, arm trembling.

System integrity: serious - chakra level: serious... climbing...

"You take over a village... you take over people... you rob them of who they are... and you... you want to know what the fuck is wrong with ME?!?!"

L-l-l-l-l1IvI173r... 274g3 4... fetching... found... reinstall... r3l3423

For a reason he had long since forgotton Atehameru's chakra-reserves suddenly expanded, his output skyrocketing. Yet... this was something he'd never been forced to do... something he had never even though of.
Radiation... alpha... beta... gamma... every maddening layer of ionisation, every last way the energy of life could kill a living thing, all of it flooded from his body.

Atehameru's research into chakra was extensive, hundreds of years beyond the rest of the world... it was the bridge between mass and energy, a reknewable source within sentient bodies that can be converted into either then converted back much like the chemical energy of muscles.
Though, as a consequence of this chakra cannot stop radiation - if it acts as a solid it stops beta and alpha, but not gamma. If it acts as energy, it stops gamma, but not the other two.
Without cells to mutate, Atehameru was immune to the metaphorical recoil.

So... in a thin film all across his body he turned his chakra to specks of mass, obliterating them shortly after, turning himself into one massive walking dirty-bomb immune to its own effects... all without any visual or audio cue. Charon and Lulu would be marked for an early grave and they wouldnt even know it... until they started throwing up blood and radiation-sickness set in.
However, this he could do passively.

Actively he went about patching together the ruptures in his muscles, knitting every strand with nanomachines as they stood there. However... there was no way to hide how much his power-level was soaring.

Remember what happened last time you lost, Atehameru? Remember how all your friends died...

"You... you don't get to talk to me about nonsense... and resisting... and attacking... you fucking monsters." he snarled, grass and dirt and stones innately floating from their resting places as physics began to break at his feet.

(( I said I went AROUND it in order not to get a mouthfull of annoying dust, not simply holding their breaths! XD I know what radiations are Ate, I did my science class too, don't worry! Chance had it that they didn't feel like getting their eyes and lugs full of dirt so they went around the thick cloud. This little action saving their lives. Also, don't mix physics with chakra, please. You're bending this fictitious reality with pseudo science to back your own sake. Nothing is concrete here. We're in a universe where lighting can be played around like clinging fire, where water and lighting creates a style that makes lasers... and where lighting can also be wielded as armor. I'm fine with radiation, but right now the amount of protection my characters have will be sufficient for such effects. I don't wish to see anyone dead throughout all this, including you. Beaten up I don't mind, but die later of radiation exposure, no thank you. It's all in good fun. I lost once back to you, I may lose once again here... but it'll be a lot tougher. Especially if you limit yourself only using sheer power and brawn.))


It was a good thing both of them were currently wielding thick amount of chakra around them, proofing themselves from the indiscriminating killer rays. Lulu had a slimmer layer of it, but flew much, much further back. As for Charon? He had chakra of a tailed beast literally covering him. These rays bounced off of him... little did the collective knew, however, that if he was to drop such activation of chakra, that he'd transform himself in a molten, bubbling, burning mass on the ground.

The raise in chakra didn't go unnoticed... starting to get to a certain level where Charon himself was starting to have competition in sheer amount of it. But the thing was, however, that even if he still had superior chakra level, unlike the cyborg... he didn't had any cybernetics. Everything was natural... gifted from birth with physical capabilities that made shinobies drool with envy, he also knew nothing else aside training and fighting... with the bests. Plus, now, the collective gave him information as well as theories at the very tip of his fingers. All were part of the whole now.

-Monster... us?

The knight would the take a look at his surrounding... things starting to levitate around him... but the collective wouldn't make such a fuss about it. From this safe distance he remained on his guard... his reflexes beyond sharp were he to attempt anything else.

-You are in no position to define good from evil, neither are we. Absolutes are nonexistent as they are but simple concepts invented by men.

Lifting his right arm, he would then continue.

-What we offer is cohesion, peace, bliss and prosperity for all, the loss of individuality is not the loss of yourself. Everything that you are, remain... within all of us. It is a transgression toward a greater state of mind, where everything belongs to everyone, where understanding and peace of mind reigns.

The knight would then raise his lunar sword toward the cyborg, pointing at him from where he stood.

-Since we began, between ourselves, poverty, violence, abuses... all of these demons have been erase from our society... even simple misunderstandings and conflicts are things of the pass... we may not define good from evil... but so far, we don't see you offering any better.

He'd finish, lowering and planting his sword down once again.

-Your wish is to bring chaos to order and tranquility... but we understand your acts. Simple individuals such as yourself fear the unknown. Let us enlighten you, everything will make sense then.

"But is what you bring really peace?" he countered, the energies of his soul pulsing and throbbing across his body in a collosal mass of chakra that matched Charon for every joule. In the seething eddies of power he forgot he had his body reknit itself, warning lights screaming within his HUD as his will delved into slipspace.

"A dog in a cage, drugged and docile, may be peaceful... but is it really alive? Is it as much of a canine as the wolf that runs wild and free and strives for it's life every day?"

Shadows pulsed and writhed across his fingers, the remnants of rapid slipspace-ruptures that vomited mass into the world to be moulded into a replacement kinetic-rifle.
Trees and grass began to wilt and blacken and die as the radiation flooded the environment, now without his input, as clumps of earth and stone broke free of gravity. All around them in tiny harmless clumps the foliage reached flash-point, breaking into tiny fires.

"Violence, war, chaos... that is a part of life - the dark parts of existence we can't live without. All you offer... is a god-damn lie!"

The huge cyborg dropped into a fighting stance, white flames pouring from the vents in his weapons.

"That's not peace, that's a delusion! I know i'm not perfect... the best i can do is hunt mad-men like you... and i'm very good at that."

A mirthless laugh, a blast of light - dozens of chakra-form missiles burst from his back alongside wings of flame, curling round to chase and crush and kill their targets as bayonets flash-forged from Ate's rifles.
The sound barrier snapped with a groan at his charge, air pulled with him in a tail-wind that did even more to wreck the environment.

He closed the gap firing rapid blasts like the twin-mothers of all mini-guns, hundreds of chakra-bolts flying past the missiles - a prelude to the real blow.

A hair's breadth from Charon's blade Ate vanished into the shadows, emerging in the same instant behind Lulu.
In a roar of gunfire two five-round cannon-bursts tore free of his rifles, plasma cascading aside from the projectiles as they raced across the two-metre distance between them. One went for the head, the other the heart.

He was fast, that they had to admit. If it weren't for Charon's hyper reflexes and speed, those blow he never would've seen coming. Sure, he had... more than enough defense to cope with such hits, but one wouldn't take the risk to injure himself and become less effective in combat. Especially against such an opponent. Long story short, they'd have to play it safe and resolve to use the Lunar Cloak and Charon's unbelievably resilient hide as very last resort.

Before the mad cyborg could have a chance at blasting off at him with all his might, Charon, even if not the sensor type, saw the build up of chakra and, with the help of his boosted reflexes, performed a single handsign, his armor that he wore underneath his lunar cloak but over his skin becoming reflective like a mirror. This was his technique simply called "Katchink" which enabled him to harden all of his metal equipment up to five time their usual hardness, including his mythrillium sword.

In recap, his cloak gave him a shield which was beyond adamant... but the chakra also hardened the steel underneath... up to who knows how much times... all this to the power of five due to that very technique he had just performed. Those blasts and chakra projectiles would literally ricochet off of him as he lifted his thick wall of steel in front of him, that tower shield on his left arm being with him since the beginning, after all. About to parry the final trust of blade... that's when it happened... again... this distortion, the same one as before! He was about to slip away...

That's when having the though of thousands with you usually came in handy. A struck of genius. Just as the cyborg began warping away, the knight chucked in one of his jumping kunais right at the tear. The metal blade would follow him in his teleportation technique. Of course his speed was on par with his teleportation... but re-appearing literally next to him would give the cyborg quite the surprise and the knight quite the opening.

However, that also meant he'd get a mouthful of whatever that cyborg was about to chuck at the alicorn. Something the collective would be ready risking.

Himself as well as his sword had literally appeared in front of the cyborg. The knight's body and shield blocking his vision and his eventual blast. The sword would come down upon him... so close already and going so fast, even worst than that last time where he had literally leaped toward him.

The shots would come in right after he'd get to swing his sword at him. At this point it was either the cyborg getting sliced and the knight getting blasted away... or him aborting his assault to parry his strike. At this, Lulu would take the opportunity to give a gargantuan flap of her wings, propelling herself high in the air, taking as much distance as possible.

Quite the decisive moment for certain.

(i suck so hard at replying recently, i'm so sorry dude... however... this is going to be nearly insultingly short )

It was a good idea, a stroke of brilliance Atehameru admitted to himself, had it been teleportation and not a slipspace-jump. After all, Ate had no jutsu, only crude chakra-forms manipulated in ways only he would think of.

The infinite flux of the short-cuts across the universe were not a pleasant place to be if one did not have the means to stabilise themselves.
Without the protection of kinetic-chakra such as the cyborg the kunai was immediatelly crushed and dosed by slipspace, smashed to burning subatomic mush by the radiation and expelled as a secondary gamma-burst as he left the portal.

The tele-tag died in an instant and Atehameru emerged as planned behind Lulu, cannons primed, while Charon was left confused and helpless.
The barrels screamed, plasma bellowed from their lips, ten rounds that could punch through aircraft carriers flying 1.6%C raced cross the two-metre gap.

(Decisive enough? i know nobody can die here, but i call 'check')

(( "Without the protection of kinetic-chakra" Are you kidding? Charon has literally the coat of a tailed beast over him, and obviously all that he tosses is also literally soaked in chakra as well, even if he doesn't actually mean it. I guess I'll let this one slip, but only because I had a backup plan. XD ))

All this would've been great, indeed. A perfect plan. However, no one, not even the hivemind could possibly know about the type of teleportation this being was using, let alone the repercussions it could have on objects left unprotected... or rather, not protected enough. It all became evident this plan wouldn't be working when his connection to his jumping kunai had been completely severed. How annoying. This fight was showing itself to be quite the challenge, this was for certain... but their superior teamwork and stratagems would prevail, that they knew for certain.

Plan B it was, then. Grabbing yet an other of his jumping kunais... his fifth this time around, he'd chuck it with all his might in one direction... somewhere... a mean for escape later on, perhaps. Concentrating on the kunai present on Lulu's plating, he would then proceed to teleport himself there... promptly kicking the alicorn out of the way on his arrival as he used her as a stepping stone once again in order to gain momentum. She'd use the opportunity to dissipate in a cloud of chakra and slip away meanwhile.

Throwing himself toward his opponent, the knight would take the full blast right in the face, saving his dear friend but resulting in him crashing down like a damn meteor that would crater the ground over the course of several hundred meters, going through trees, more and more until he'd halt himself against a large boulder. There, trees would crash down on him... he'd remain motionless... for two seconds before he'd punch the three out of the way, demolishing it to splinters. His armor was bent, dented, ripped at some parts here and there. He was cut, bruised... but that was about it. His shield was literally bent out of shape an unusable, however. Throwing it out of the way, he'd jump out of the hole and assume his fighting stance. Yeah, Charon was just that tough.

His chakra was still pumping like never before, seemingly no end to his chakra pool. He'd adopt a defensive position, holding his blade firmly in hands. Lulu was far away now, out of sight, her chakra hidden... all he needed to do was to buy her some time. They had a few more moves planned ahead, as always. His right arm would stretch itself as he'd point toward the cyborg, he'd then taunt him, giving him that classic "cm'here" gesture.

(Its not as simple as just being stronger :L what Atehameru does is punch short-cuts through the bundled dimensions we can't normally move so directly in - Ate doesnt outwardly push against it, that's impossible for anything biological, he manouvres the crush to flow around him as well as the radiation. Added to this, he can manouvre and direct himself through it cos he has the navigation and means to do so, if it wasnt destroyed the kunai would have been thrown off-course and never emerge out the other side anyway. Just figured you didn't want a theoretical physics lesson.)

"This is tedious - how many more of those or worse can you take, do you think? Every time i will chase the beast down, every time you will have to sit in the way of the attack. You might be this tough, but i doubt any of your other minions are.
Leave your dream within your borders, leave the world alone, and i will leave you be. Steal any others into your mass and i will hunt you down and you will be getting worse than a duel. I'll wipe Yuga off the map.
I've only humoured you thus far because i wanted to study you, but if that's not possible i will do worse."
The cyborg chuckled, pumping more and more chakra around his body.
"I have to thank you, though. Without this i wouldn't have been pushed to break the limiters again."

"I have her chakra-signature locked now, i can be within two feet of her wherever she goes in a fraction of a second. I can fire another reletavistic blast and you'd have to take it, one of you would die. What's it going to be? Leave or die?!"

(( As far as I'm concerned real science never made it this far so from this point on it's only pseudo-science, thus could be 100% made up. Like I said, I had a backup plan either way so no biggie.))

The collective wasn't impressed. Yet again, they still had something planned. They were always several steps ahead. Each battle was like a game of chess to them, minds of thousands simply thinking ahead, evaluating the many possibilities and their enemies. Right now Lulu had found that kunai he had thrown in the woods, the thing embedded into a trunk. Charon could re-appear next to her with his space-time jutsu and go on with this battle... he was far from being anywhere near drained, after all. But no. All this battle had made something extremely clear to them... and with that, also raised many questions.

-In her current form, you wouldn't be able to harm her either way, so we're not worried for her sake. If you wish to vent frustration, you'd have a better chance with us rather than hitting a shapeless cloud with whatever manner of explosions you can bring. She survived worst, believe it or not.

His helmet would then look between where he was currently standing and where he himself was.

-At your current distance I could also chop your limbs off in a blink of an eye, so don't get cocky.

Yes, this time around to problem himself forth he wouldn't be using Lulu as a stepping stone... but solid ground. Much more momentum and speed to be gained from this. But all this was beside the point. Lulu would arrive next to him, in her ethereal form, Charon's kunai in her telekenetic grip. He'd take it and store it away. He'd then take his sword and plant it in the ground.

-But enough playing around. Us all have been watching you fight and found your ways of battle to be... quite peculiar indeed, something worth thinking about... and before this battle take even bigger proportions, we would rather put a halt to it and... if you may, discuss things with you. There are things we do not understand that we wish to elucidate, with your help.

He'd pause and tilt his head.

-What are your motives. And most importantly... what is holding you back of accomplishing any of your set goals? Your powers are up to par with the legends of this world. If you so stubbornly see us as evil and wishes to get rid of us, why wait? You could do so in mere "fraction of seconds" as you say. Go in our peaceful town, demolish everything, kill men, women and child, execute great justice and... "good" upon this world by doing so. You know we'd never stop, even if we would've told you otherwise this very instant and gave you our words. You'd be wise enough to realise that for certain... yet, you don't take actions.

Lulu would narrow her eyes, taking her turn to speak.

-You don't seem to be the typical hero type to us, not the slightest, convictions are holding you back from performing great deeds, either evil or good. You seem... lost. Out of place. Confused...

She'd take a step forth, looking at him still.

-As if you do not belong.