((Serious)) Pheonix Squad Chronicles: The return of the Red Sun threat ((Open to everyone, but especially Pheonix squad members))

The lone figure at the island's center, sitting atop a corpse as if he'd not a care in the world, drew closer by the second. Just as the leading end of Vince's Walk of Death reached the man, he conjured a tiger of some red liquid - based on Simo's earlier report, likely his own blood - and drained the body beneath him of all fluids. The cyborg hopped off of the terminated venom rail and stood on the ground some thirty yards away, lifeless black eye-disk fixed on his foe.

"You would be the captain, I presume," Vince grated, his gravelly voice level and emotionless. "I am rear admiral Vince Kalamity of The Phoenix Squadron."

As he spoke, Vince drew the double-bladed sword from his right side, his other three weapons already held by the four black, artificial venom arms. Taking a wide stance, but not initiating any hostilities, the demi-human marine tightened his jaw in what would be a mocking, forced smile. His coat and sarong charred and shredded, his shiny blue carapace covered in ash, the rear admiral looked more a demon than a cyborg.

"My duty, as a marine, is to bring you to justice. However," added Vince, raising his real arm and pointing accusingly at Gerard, "I am not here to do my duty as a marine. I am here to take your life, and every life you've ever stolen with it. But first..."

Finally, Vince shifted his posture to a more aggressive stance. All four of his swords were held at the ready, black venom dripping from his right side. Just as he seemed wound up and ready to attack, he spoke one quick, final statement.

"First, you're going to pay."

Rather than attack, the cyborg marine stepped to the side quickly. He'd known she wasn't far behind him, had heard her approaching fast as a bullet behind him. The talking had all been for the single purpose of distracting their foe, and he'd positioned himself to block line of site. Vince's sensors told him the timing was perfect, so he moved aside.

Just behind where he had stood would be a charging Talitha, who would have a direct and clear line of sight to the man responsible for Tero's death. Crazy as he might be, Kalamity knew better than to start the combat himself. This was truly her fight, and it was she that demanded to be paid for the loss. Vince was only there to make sure she'd live to deliver the price back to Nishki in person.

Even without the stink emerging from the corpse that damn pirate was using as a source of... energy or whatever, Talitha wouldn't have gotten lost, her nose telling her to simply follow the most uninviting smell on the island not far ahead of her. Really, if she was ever, for one reason or another, to chase freakie cyborg man, she'd have it easy....
It didn't take long until she could see his back in front of her. He was talking to someone, but she didn't pay attention to the words as a much more important smell reached her nose. This was their man allright! The dead sure combination of smoke, gunpowder, blood and a hint of seawater was a giveaway for pirate. As soon as that information got through to her brain, she felt the rage, somewhat cooled down on the way here, well up again, even stronger than before, until it replaced every sense of mercy or hesistation she had left. She wanted only one thing: to dug her claws into his damn flesh, to rip his heart out and pound it to a bloody pulp. See how much good his bloodcontrol would do him then!
Even freakie cyborg seemed to realise how bad it'd be to deny her that wish, and stepped aside just in time to let her through. Talitha had thought about jumping over him, but if he was moving for her, even better. Showed that he did have some sort of intelligence in there, after all.
Without ever wavering in her path, she dashed further towards the pirate she could now see. She noticed how there was a bloody tiger in front of him, but who cared for a tiger, she wanted the man! Then again, if that thing got in her way, then it'd go down like its master would!
Right now though, for once, her size was a big advantage for her as she simply kept closer to the ground and ran right through its legs. It was a pretty big tiger, she noticed....
As soon as she had left it behind her, she pushed herself off the ground and towards the pirate, aiming to take him down. Once he was down, he was done for. At least that's what she estimated...

Sun jumped in front of the huge shock wave blocking it with the large metal arm that was made from an assortment of weapons. The shock wave pushed him back about 10 feet steel and destroyed all of the weapons he was using. He was breathing hard now and he was scared. Vice admiral Drexus was a legend. His martial arts ability were second to none and now he was back starring down the young marine who had little to no experience.

Sun shook his head and slowed his breathing, and stopped shaking. He looked at his opponent and realized he couldn't be afraid he had to make sure that nobody else died here. He had to prove his worth to the Admiral. He smiled and brought more metal towards him. His right arm was twice as big as it was last time. "I'm ready whenever you are vice-admiral."

[[Gerald vs Talitha and Vince]]
Gerald was shocked as he saw the woman bulleting towards him, with an instant he flicked his wrist, the blood tiger turned and created a wall in front of Gerald blocking the path to him. Since the girl was on the other side of the wall, he created two scythes of blood from the wall , aimed at slicing her. Gerald didnt forget the cyborg, but he needed a high blood uptake to keep this sort of battle up.

[[Zombie Vice admiral Drexus vs Sun, Light, Simo, Jack and others]]

Drexus stood firm, there was still nothing on his face in terms of emotions. It was void and aimed at creating pain and punishment. Drexus then raised his hand back and launched it foward "Thousand furious fists" He aimed a barrage of punches at Sun.

Trying to block the attack was impossible it ripped through the metal and knocked him back. After skidding across the ground he rolled and landed on to his feet with his hand on the ground supporting him. He was breathing hard and was at a loss as to what he should do. I might as well try this he said before he lifted all of the weapons in the area and launched them at the zombie. If he didn't get backup soon he was sure to die.

Light was standing by and watched the single action Sun took to attack the man. 'The man' was in fact a legendary vice-admiral and beyond everything a legend, to think the irony between an old marine having to battle another on the side of Pirates. Light was still unable to use most of his Shigan abilities, but there was still a chance he could attack with his others techniques.. if not there was still his recent ability.

Light watched as the Marine destroyed Suns Bigger metal Arm, it only took a barrage of fists to completely destroy the metal arm. His strength and skill was apparent, his speed was almost unbelievable.. it would take much more then Light to take care of it, luckily Sun was there to help.

"Rankyaku Barrage"

Light jumped up and swung his legs forward continuously, sending Rankyaku after Rankyaku towards the enemy, the air blades were mixed in with the weapons creating a barrage of both the air blades and the weapons being thrown by Sun.

"Hmph.. when Talitha said we were supposed to Kill Pirates, I doubt she was talking about a long since dead marine.. but I'll go with my instincts on this one and say she wants you dead... Vice-admiral."

Light was doing what he did with Talitha, without his fingers Long range was the best thing he could do.

The second the wall came up in front of her, Talitha stopped in her tracks, though her former speed caused her to slide towards it for a few more inches,just enough to get her directly into the range of the blades now aiming for her.
The smell of blood was intense, even more intense to her animal nose than the stink that came from mister freakie cyborg, and it was driving the lynx inside her insane. And in the current state her human form was in, it wouldn't be able to keep the much needed balance between insane bloodlust and human sanity for long. No, Talitha agreed fully with what her animal side felt, she was more in agreeance with herself than ever.
The only thing that kept her from giving in to that anger, no, that madness was the simple fact that if she didn't do something quick, the blades would hit her abdomen, and for some reason, the fear the animal inside her felt for that to happen was even bigger, even more prominent in her head than the smell of blood or the need for revenge.
Almost automatically, without having planned for it, she changed into hybrid form and threw herself backwards, slinging her arms around her abdomen to protect it, even though it was well out of range now.
In fact, she should have been more worried about her head, which the blades barely missed...
She landed next to Vince, in a kneeling position, arms still shielding her midst, until she realised what she was doing, and stood up again, drawing her saber instead and turning to the cyborg. The stench was, as always, overwhelming....
"Make yourself useful, why don't you?!"
She hissed. It was just another way of saying: I won't go near that wall again, it was aiming for a part of my body that has been injured in former battles, but for some reason I really don't want it to today.

Their foe was fast to react. Vince had watched the blur that was Talitha streak by him and past the blood tiger, his sensors had clocked the wind left in her wake at hundreds of miles an hour. She was a living projectile, an avatar of primordial wrath given form and flesh. That their enemy had the reflexes to turn his offensive bloodbeast into a wall was astounding. Even moreso, he managed to use his defensive structure to attack and drive the furious marine woman back.

"I will focus on opening the way," stated Vince plainly, his two uppermost venom arms drawing back, "and I will cover your back. Worry yourself with nothing but the man himself."

It was a poor choice on Gerald's part to put up a wall. Vince was well equipped for breaking walls; even in the unlikely event that the pirate could some how make the wall too strong for him to break, the marine would simply destroy the earth around it. That was the power of his largest, man-sized greatsword, the Great World Breaker.

"Faulty Tower!" shouted Vince, lunging forward. His other three blades intercepted the bloody scythes, allowing his last arm to swing the six foot mercurial blade.

The sword's unique design meant that, combined with his strength, it could shatter rock and even damage steel. Hopefully, the pirate on the other side of the barrier would not be expecting his foes to have a siege weapon like Great World Breaker. Putting every bit of force that he could manage into the swing, Kalamity had only one goal:

Tear down the wall!

Technique:

[[Zombie Vice admiral Drexus vs Light, Sun , Jack, Simo and others ]]

Drexus saw the barrage and then held steady "TEKKAI!!!!" the blows hit him and he was pushed back, he then held steady. He was slightly cut here and there, but as a zombie he felt no pain. He then held his hands up and his body was emitting aura as if he had lightning emitting from his hands "Strike like lightning...." He dashed and moved towards Light this time, aiming shi strike at Light, this attack if hit, would sure cause major damage.((Killua Dojimas martial art))

[[Talitha and Vince vs Gerald]]
Gerald felt a huge shock from Vinces attack. He felt the blood wall being hit drastically. Gerald couldnt waste too much blood, it wasnt good for him. He withdrew the blood and for the first time today, in all the battles he fought, this was the first one which had made him leave his seat and had destroyed the seat. Gerald picked up a nearby body and absorbed the blood from it making it his own "I see, so you two are really very good, both of you have demonstrated amazing strength, ill make you pay for destroying my chair...." Gerald surged his blood above in the sky, it was taking everything he had to hold it. He then grinned as he dropped his hand, some of his blood formed into javelins. "Bloody rain...." The javelins began raining down on Vince and Talitha.

Light witnessed the man heading towards him in a very fast manner, his fist was soon covered in lightning and attempted to punch Light with a very powerful blow. He stood form and planted both feet on the ground, his chest maintaining its posture.

"Tekkai"

With this his body became hard, but light severely underestimated the man. The punch not only sent light flying, but the shock from it sent Light hurling towards the wall that was dozens of feet from Light, the impact left cracks on the wall and smoke covering the ground from the impact sending dust particles in the wind. Lighting edged across Lights body doing further damage then the punch alone.

Light fell to the ground after being planted on the wall by the force of the impact, his body lay motionless surrounded by Dust, His face covered his hair. He was not killed, but the wind was definitely knocked out of him.. or so it seemed.

Vince could feel the bloody wall cracking beneath his blow. Just a bit more force, the cyborg thought, and it'd be crushed completely. Then...

Before he could finish breaking through, their foe made an unexpected choice. The wall disappeared, drawn back into the pirate. He hopped away, sucking yet another corpse dry of it's lifeblood. It was a disturbing thought, but Kalamity began to realize that their opponent was as strong as the number of corpses he had access to...and there were countless corpses.

"Bloody rain..." drawled the vicious pirate. A moment later, the red stuff above them rained down in a fierce barrage of bloody lances.

Since his assimilation into the marines, Vince had never once been pressed to try the full limits of either his modifications or his devil fruit. He knew well from training and simulation that he was an efficient being; both his cybernetics and his cursed ability were top notch. Combined with the latent skills in swordsmanship he possessed, there had been not a single challenge (apart from his spar with Talitha) that had even begun to test his ultimate limits. Somehow, though, the demihuman knew that now was the time to press them.

"Epic of Gilgamesh!"

It was a move he'd only used in simulations. Poison oozed from every inch of Vince's ruined cyborg body. His artificial arms swelled with a new surge of poison, thickening and doubling in length. That wasn't all, though; his real limbs, the remaining arm and both legs, doubles in length as well. Kalamity's actual body was lost in the swelling mass of pitch black poison. Soon, ever last scrap of metal, cloth, and scorched skin was hidden beneath the very same venom. Two stories tall, a spindly horror born from nightmare, the rear admiral loomed above his petite commander.

"Blythe-shosho," rasped the toxic behemoth, leaning forward. "Not even one...don't waste a single second dodging!"

The spindly, lumbering form of the poison-clad cyborg leaned forward. Raising all four swords to the sky, looming over the combatants below, Vince put himself between Talitha and the rain of bladed death. He could feel the powerful, needle-sharp spears of blood slam into his swords, into his poison, and into his body. Still, though, he would not move. As the deadly downpour tore into his poison, dented his armour and tore his flesh, Kalamity gave not a single inch of ground.

Beneath him, Talitha wouldn't see even a single drop of that viciously deadly blood. There would be no offense to slow or stop her. If it cost Vince his life, he would make sure that not one of the vile pirate's attacks reached her.

She would be the blade of the Phoenix Squad's vengeance. Vince, to his dying breath, would be her shield.

[[Drexus vs Sun, light, Jack,simo and others]]

Drexus stood over. He grunted and looked at the marines on the battlefield. He walked slowly , his huge body lumbering over to Light . The marine grunts were shouting "HOW THE HELL DO WE BEAT HIM!!!!!!????"

Talitha was, well, slightly impressed... She hadn't thought that the cyborg would actually be able to handle the challenge she had to draw back from... Everyone had their strenght, she guessed....
She narrowed her eyes as she watched the pirate fill up his resources with the help of a corpse... Disgusting creep. That guy dared to violate the corpses of people who were alive bare hours ago. No respect for the souls, for Talitha definitely believed in souls, they had once held. Granted, he wouldn't be able to do anything right in her eyes, not as long as he was a pirate, and especially not today, but it wasn't like he was exactly trying either.
Then, the downpour began. Talithas first impulse was to go for a sprint and dodge whichever javelin came too close, but then, a stench even stronger than before burned in her nose.
She turned to the freakie cyborg man, and regret her decision a moment later, when the stench hit her up front, together with the unpleasant image of.... whatever that abomination was called....
She flinched when it bowed over her, half expecting an attack. But then she realised: Freakie wasn't attacking. He was shielding her!
He told her to go, and it sounded like an order. Talitha grabbed her saber tighter. She wouldn't be as fast as in lynx form, but this hybrid form was more flexible in its attack pattern. She gritted her teeth.
"Just try not to die while I kill that criminal madman!"
She hissed and spun around, sprinting straight towards Gerald as she had before, only now she knew there'd be no walls between them. She had actually wanted to make a witty comeback. something along the lines of 'fine, just keep your mouth shut from now', but it hadn't seemed appropriate or necessary. There was no time for snappy remarks right now.
Not while freakie was bleeding for her. she wouldn't have that! No one suffered because of her if she could prevent it!
But she damn well wouldn't touch that cyborg, now even less than before. So, the easiest way to cut out his pain was to take out the source. Which was, coincidentally, just what she wanted.
She continued running, never dodging or even looking back, that would cost time, precious time she didn't have.
The last feet, she closed with a leap, made her saber come down on the pirates head while the claws of her free hand slashed at his face. Had worked before, hadn't it?

[[Talitha and Vince vs Gerald]]

Gerald was cursing, the cyborg protected her? Those blood javelins were slamming against him. Gerald didnt believe he had used his energy on that attack. He didnt forsee that defence on the part of the cyborg. He then made a sabre from his hands out of blood and clashed with Talitha, but his face was cut, and he threw himself back. Gerald coughed badly, he had consumed too many times, his body was weakening badly. He spoke slowly, "I pushed it this far... i defiled so many people..... you people keep pushing me till i have nothing, why the anger girl?" Gerald was refering to Talitha, "Are you angry? Did you lose a love one? Did i kill someones important? Now you know how it feels then... to lose a loved one, but to climb that gulf between the superhumans like you two, i had to claw and kill to reach here.. and now ,when im going to the new world, the last obstacle is all of you, ill kill you all right here."

"You can justify any act at all," grated Vince, the mere act of speaking taking far more effort than it should.

The cyborg's voice was as raspy and charred as ever, but it sounded somehow even more inhuman than usual. There was a metalic wheezing to it, an echoing sound of grinding metal and sparks. When the deadly barrage of blood had ceased, he began to wind back down to normal size.

"You can justify stealing...you can even justify murder," the cacophonic voice continued, "but ultimately, it's o-o-o-o-"

Kalamity's words became more and more mechanical sounding with each passing moment. After skipping on a single vowel sound, with all the hissing and popping of a broken record, he began to collapse. A foamy white liquid began to spray from the undersize of his body; Talitha's nose would recognize it as champagne, the cyborg's power source and the one vaguely pleasant smelling thing contained in his entire demihuman carcass.

"...Only a m-m-matter of-f-f-f-f timeeeeeee..."

The cyborg's mind was still very much aware of the situation. His damaged instruments estimated he had only a few seconds left before the automated life support system kicked in and his brain was forced into hybernation to conserve energy. He could no longer shield Talitha; Vince's only hope was that his reckless interference would at least give her the edge in what battled remained.

"...B-B-Blythe Sh-Shooooooooooo-"

All mechanical parts had shut down. The only movement left to the rear admiral was his mental command over his poison. Focusing his mind entirely on one of his four venom arms, Vince launched his poison-coated trench knife, Bloodkindle, straight down at Gerald. Moments later, his body began falling to the side, the poison pulling away to avoid landing on the marine woman below him.

"Sssssshhhhhhoooooooo-"

The rear admiral knew that his time was up. He gave a silent curse to the marine scientists that had programmed him to shut down so easily. It would preserve his life, but he'd be useless in exchange. If they weren't so paranoid about protecting "their investment" he'd be able to fight for minutes longer. Each one of those minutes that the Science Division had stolen from him in their overzealous protection was a precious lifetime.

Vince wished Talitha good luck, but the words never made it through his ruined mouth. With all the grandeur and aplomb of a DenDen set being turned off, the world disappeared in a final flicker of white. The cyborg entered sleep mode.

A sudden Burst of light appeared around the marine captain, White glowing wings appeared behind Lights Glowing body and the number '777' tattooed at his right arm appeared from nothing... Light had taken the form of an Angel. By this stage small bits of light were enveloping his index fingertips, though for what reason it was not known.

"Damn.. you are the first person to have made me use this.. I can't let it be for show only."

The wings from his back propelled Light to the air, it's speed being equivalent to soru levels across the skies. While moving in this speed Light started swinging his legs continuously.

"Rankyaku Barrage.."

Many Rankyaku were fired from Lights legs, each aimed at the opponent ahead of him, hopefully one would hit the Zombie opponent they were facing.. but something told Light it would not be over so easily, the man was renown as a Fighter back when he was alive.. he doubted a few Rankyaku would be enough to kill him.

Talitha was sick and tired of listening, and sick and tired especially of listening to this madmans ramblings.
"Shut up!"
She almost yelled. Her whole body was shaking with anger. What did he know?! Who did he even think he was?!
"It's scum like you who makes the world so detestable! You want what you don't deserve and destroy what you can't have, you desecrate the name of sailors, and of humanity itself. Because of you, people have to be afraid to live near the coast, because of you, young men going out on sea with illusional hopes and dreams that will get them nothing but a grave at the ground of the ocean, no one to remember or cry at their final resting place. You're the reason for bringing out the worst in people, the people who join you and the people who set out to stand against you!"
She pointed behind her, at the cyborg who, despite her never showing anything but spite towards him, was giving his life to protect her, then at the corpses, then gestured towards the sounds of the battles she could still hear in the distance. She wasn't even thinking anymore, just blurting out the things she had been feeling all along.
"This, this and this.... this is all your fault! And you think you can just blame me, blame us for whatever happened to you? This was your choice, your goddamn choice, so don't go trying to make excuses! You little...."
She was interrupted in her speech when she heard an unsettling noise from behind her. At first, she just wanted to go on, too much on a roll to stop, but then she realised it was freakie cy... no, Vinces voice.
She turned to him and worse than the smell was the realization just how bad things were looking for him.
She only listened to his words halfway, twitching instead with every creak, every hiss, and absentmindedly registering the smell of champange in the air....
Dull thoughts went through her head. Vince wasn't feeling so hot right now.... He was hurt.... because of her.... because he had wanted to protect her.... He might even be......
she was hoping, intently hoping that somehow, it wasn't as bad as it looked. The twitching stopped, gave way to a completely unnatural numbness. She didn't move a muscle, not even as the poison drew back... not even as the cyborgs knife missed her by inches and flew, instead, towards the pirate... not even as Vince fell down.
She was simply, for a few seconds, silent, as if as comatous as the cyborg. Her ears detected no sounds from him.... Even less than normally...
And then, a long, tormented howl came from her mouth, but it wasn't her own voice doing this. The last thing Talitha recognised as her own action was dropping to her knees, the lst sensation that of changing into something that felt like her lynx form, but bigger, and definitely angrier, angrier than ever before. she knew what it was. And if she hadn't been feeling so absolutely numb in all her emotions, she would most likely have greeted it with open arms.

The lynx continued howling, even when it was fully transformed. A howl that turned from a tantalized scream into a bloodcurdling call for mindless and quick justice, or what Talitha would have called justice in this situation...But talitha wasn't there, and as the lynx' yellow eyes fixed on the only living beind around, the pirate, it's teeth bared, it was completely clear it didn't have any grip on the meaning of the word 'justice' or even 'revenge'. It did, however, have a very clear understanding of the word 'pain', as pain was all around it, and what its instincts told him was both what it came from, and its only true calling.
It planned to follow said calling without further ado, as it leaped towards the human smelling of blood, raedy to sink its teeth into whatever part of him he was foolish enough to leave in its reach.

[[Gerald vs Talitha]]

The beast had formed and Gerald was about to begin his defense. He did not see the sword hurdling towards him as he laid his blood wall up. Gerald had exchanged too much blood with others, his body was feeling woozy. The knife had found the weak spot in the wall and had impaled his arm sending Gerald flying back. Gerald then saw the beast coming, It was roaring and angry. Geralds eyes widen as he sent his blood tiger out with his other hand to face Talithas beast form and block it form moving.

[[Drexus vs Light and others]]

The rankyaku barrage at close range had sent Drexus dropping to his knees at least. It wasnt from pain, it was from the fact that his zombie body wasnt able to properly defend against all those attacks.He got up and attempted to blast Light with a shockwave attack. From above the sky there was a flame flickering in the sky. It was the pheonix, this time not possesing anything in his arms. He landed sstraight between Drexus and Light, smashing into the ground. Nishki looked up at Light as he used his hand to hold Drexus's arm "Hey.....your name is Light right? Let me help you as well......I promised not to interfere in Talithas fight, but for this one, i made no such promise..."