Iku Quest P?t: A Z-Machine Adventure

[DracoOmega]

>Crest the canopy
>Quickly glance around the skyline: is anyone else visible at the moment?
>Look back down below us for whatever sign of the poltergeist we can see through the trees
>If she doesn't seem to be following, and there's no other people that we can see present, call out: "Surely you're not going to let me slip away that easily, are you?"

[Hello Purvis]

>Crest the canopy
>Quickly glance around the skyline: is anyone else visible at the moment?
>Look back down below us for whatever sign of the poltergeist we can see through the trees
>If she doesn't seem to be following, and there's no other people that we can see present, call out: "Surely you're not going to let me slip away that easily, are you?"

>You fly over the forest canopy, and look around. Far in the distance to the east, you think that you see a small dot in the sky. Possibly a faerie.
>You look back through tree, and can kinda see her through the branches. Unfortunately, you really can't make out what she is doing.
>It does not seem she is following, so you call out. She does not answer, but you hear the branches rustle and snap, giving you a moment's forewarning before numerous bullets fly out at you from below!

>_

[DracoOmega]

>Fly aside from the bullets

[Hello Purvis]

>Fly aside from the bullets

>You dart to the side and let the bullets fly past.

>_

[DracoOmega]

>With maneuvering room, and no shadow worries, her danmaku is essentially trivial to dodge, correct?
>"Not going to join me? The view up here's rather unique, today. But then, I suppose you'd know all about that after your little skyline redecorating."
>Keep an eye on below, and be ready to move aside again

[Hello Purvis]

>With maneuvering room, and no shadow worries, her danmaku is essentially trivial to dodge, correct?
>"Not going to join me? The view up here's rather unique, today. But then, I suppose you'd know all about that after your little skyline redecorating."
>Keep an eye on below, and be ready to move aside again

>As long as you know it's coming, you're pretty sure it shouldn't be too hard to get around her danmaku.
>Another cloud comes at you from below, this time at more of an angle. It's wider, but less dense.

>_

[DracoOmega]

>Move around this one as well
>"Are you just going to sit down there? I could dodge this all day long, you realize."
>How's that charge coming?

[Mr. Sacchi]

I know I'm not even playing this, but I've had a strange thought while reading through. If she changed her shadow to, say, Nitori, wouldn't that affect her Danmaku Capabilities? 

It's just a random thought, but I thought I'd let you guys know.

[DracoOmega]

I know I'm not even playing this, but I've had a strange thought while reading through. If she changed her shadow to, say, Nitori, wouldn't that affect her Danmaku Capabilities? 

It's just a random thought, but I thought I'd let you guys know.

It might very well, although we don't know the extent that her shadow-changing affects her active abilities as opposed to passive ones. But even if it does, I think exchanging her lightning immunity for better danmaku is a tradeoff in our benefit. Normally I would expect an opponent to realize this as well, but she's already given reason to believe she doesn't have the coolest or most strategic head on her shoulders. She pounced on us to silence us before we'd given more than a passing suggestion that we even suspected she was involved. She could easily have led suspicion away from herself, given how very little information we possessed about what happened. Several of her other actions during the fight also suggest that she's probably used to overpowering people quickly through her abilities, and not meeting a great deal of resistance. So I'm hoping that we can essentially cause her to make bad choices.

Of course, who knows what other aces she still has up her sleeve...

[Hello Purvis]

>Move around this one as well
>"Are you just going to sit down there? I could dodge this all day long, you realize."
>How's that charge coming?

>You dodge around this one too. It takes a bit more work, due to being larger.
>She doesn't answer.
>You have quite a good charge now; you may have to worry about blinding yourself if you look at the resulting-AH! You ribs!

>_

[DracoOmega]

>What?
>Isn't our shadow safely along the tops of the trees, some distance away from both us and the poltergeist's position?

[Hello Purvis]

>What?
>Isn't our shadow safely along the tops of the trees, some distance away from both us and the poltergeist's position?

>You feel like you just got punched in the ribs.
>Taking a look, it seems that in dodging around as you have, you've moved somewhat out of the the tree's canopy. As well, being higher up, you cast a larger, if dimmer, shadow. ...Did she plan that?

>_

[DracoOmega]

>Does this mean there are notable breaks in the cover between trees, then?
>Try to shift our shadow away from where the poltergeist is standing. If we can't really see her, estimate from where the bullets last came from

[Hello Purvis]

>Does this mean there are notable breaks in the cover between trees, then?
>Try to shift our shadow away from where the poltergeist is standing. If we can't really see her, estimate from where the bullets last came from

>Yes; the western half of the forest is lighter; and you have been able to back around most of the time without too much trouble. The leaves that have fallen make the canopy that much less complete, as well.
>You try to move your shadow away,  estimating where she is from the last shots. Your shoulder aches fiercely for a moment, but you don't feel any other assault.

>_

[DracoOmega]

Blasted incorrect battlefield visualizations messing up my plans ^^;

>If there's a position we can move to where our shadow will fall on another tree, and the gaps in the canopy will let us peer at where the poltergeist was last, move there
>Otherwise, just continue to shift a little bit more in the direction we just moved in, still keeping an eye out to see if we can tell where she's going
>"You know, this is getting rather tedious. How long are you going to spend running about punching shadows? I could just turn around and fly away, and you'd be too far away to do anything about it until I was long gone. What then?"

[Hello Purvis]

>If there's a position we can move to where our shadow will fall on another tree, and the gaps in the canopy will let us peer at where the poltergeist was last, move there
>Otherwise, just continue to shift a little bit more in the direction we just moved in, still keeping an eye out to see if we can tell where she's going
>"You know, this is getting rather tedious. How long are you going to spend running about punching shadows? I could just turn around and fly away, and you'd be too far away to do anything about it until I was long gone. What then?"
[/quote]

>You shift your position around a bit, and try to look under the tree you were last at, and where you last saw the poltergeist. It seems she has moved on.
>"You'll tire and rest," comes the Poltergeist's voice, a bit to the east of you; and moving southward. "You can't keep it up forever!"

>_

[DracoOmega]

>Is she moving towards us or away from us?
>If towards, double-check that our shadow seems in a safe position, and back away to a better position, if not
>"And if I tire and rest in some distant corner of Gensokyo, you will come and find me?"

[Hello Purvis]

>Is she moving towards us or away from us?
>If towards, double-check that our shadow seems in a safe position, and back away to a better position, if not
>"And if I tire and rest in some distant corner of Gensokyo, you will come and find me?"

>She seems to be moving perpendicular to you. You feel your shadow is relatively safe.
>"It won't come to that," she says. She seems to have stopped.

>_

[DracoOmega]

>"So you are that confident that you can prevent me from simply leaving?"
>Hope that she doesn't have good reason for said confidence...

[Hello Purvis]

>"So you are that confident that you can prevent me from simply leaving?"
>Hope that she doesn't have good reason for said confidence...

>She doesn't answer you. Whether this bolsters or dashes your hopes, you aren't sure.

>_

[Kilgamayan]

> Make a mental note about our current charge level for later, and keep charging.
> Could we drop straight down without getting caught up too much in branches on the way there?

[Hello Purvis]

> Make a mental note about our current charge level for later, and keep charging.
> Could we drop straight down without getting caught up too much in branches on the way there?

>You make a note of this, but you're going to fill up your capacity rather quickly.
>You wouldn't get caught due to the force of your weight, most likely, but you expect it would hurt if you didn't think ahead.

>_

[Kilgamayan]

All right, it's clear she isn't coming up, and I don't trust her to be doing something on the ground while we're not watching her. Combine that with the fact that we're reachable from the ground if we're not always properly positioned...

> Fly back down toward the ground, straight down, keeping our shadow on top of the canopy as long as we can.

[Hello Purvis]

> Fly back down toward the ground, straight down, keeping our shadow on top of the canopy as long as we can.

>You prove your suspicions: It does hurt. Thankfully you favor a long skirt and long sleeves. Still, you take a few swats as you descend down; thankfully you don't hit any large branches and risk wrenching something or worse.
>You land on the ground,  lowering your arms that you were using to protect your face. Motion toward the east catches your attention; you see the poltergeist charging at you, one hand drawn back, from the east. As the sun is to the west, this puts your shadow between you and she; but there is still a second or two to act before she reaches you or it.

>_

[Jana]

>Dodge back before she can punch our shadow.

[Kilgamayan]

Actually, if she's going on this sort of offensive, now would be a good time to release that flash.

[Kilgamayan]

Oh, to hell with it.

> As we're moving backwards, close our eyes.
> Release our electrical energy as a blinding flash, using as much power as was mentally noted earlier.

[Hello Purvis]

>Dodge back before she can punch our shadow.

>You leap back! This doesn't buy as much time as you might have hoped, as she continues to close in.

> As we're moving backwards, close our eyes.
> Release our electrical energy as a blinding flash, using as much power as was mentally noted earlier.

>You close your eyes, throw up your hands and release. It is difficult to release precise amounts of power, you don't really have an internal meter for it. But you try your best to keep it roughly within the region you felt before.
>Everything is dark as you close your eyes. Then everything is white and painful! You hear the poltergeist cry out. It hurts to open your eyes; while you had closed them you were also right in front of the flash. You eyes are swimming pretty badly and tearing up, but you can make out the blurry form of the poltergeist in front of you, hunched over and holding her face.

>_

[Kilgamayan]

> Beeline toward the poltergeist through the air.
> When we're within range, punch her in the gut as hard as we can.

[Hello Purvis]

> Beeline toward the poltergeist through the air.
> When we're within range, punch her in the gut as hard as we can.

>You take to the air and fly toward the poltergeist. This, frankly, is not as graceful as you like. It's still hard to see and difficult to force your eyes open.
>Still, you get within range easily enough, and punch her in the gut with as much force as you can manage. There is a loud grunt from the poltergeist, as she falls to her knees, eyes clenched tightly closed as she throws out her hands to catch herself.

>_