Something from the Otherside... [Arc Event]

Vance Holiday was one hell of a demented scientist.  For lack of better terms, he didn't have power like others did.  He was only human.  There were secrets that would have made most Quincy kill him on general principles if it wasn't for how smart he was, just so long as no one was looking.  The rest of the time, Vance looked like he was a great person.  He had a steady job, he smiled and waved to everyone and even defended the weak.  When no one saw, Vance simply let the truth out, he sat behind a desk cackling, a light on the fritz casting a demonic shadow on the wall, the light coming from the workbench almost giving off the look of a forked tongue, if you followed the shadows too closely.

People made deals with devils, and Vance made things.  Today he was making something based on an idea he previously had.  It was a program designed to run his body.  A pilot function for lack of better terms.  It was only part of his current grand scheme.  He laughed but it came out as more of a cackle than anything else.  He looked at the small things and giggled to himself quite a bit.  They had taken him a week to finish.  It was a simple idea, after all Vance's biggest secret was that he had no power.  He just used items to simulate it.

The other thing was currently on the desk next to him, it was a few Hollow baits, he had planned on using to test a theory or two about the humans around this area.  Vance had met two very oddly unstable humans, that had psionic abilities in the past week and a half since he had been here.  Vance had always come under the assumption that most of the stories that people told were about supernatural and inter-dimensional beings.  Gods, giant sea monsters, oracles, demi-gods and heroes were all real.  He was going to send them all into rapid evolution.

Vance had gotten the idea of rapid evolution for spiritual beings from what he knew about shinigami and their swords.  The idea that if there was a good reason to have power, people might spontaneously manifest it.  Plus he was very curious to see what kind of powers psychological beings with extra-sensory powers had.  Just imagine a world covered in super-powered heroes and villains.  Not only that, he would have the first view on all of it.  Which brought up the other item he had made.

The second item was a camera, designed to get the supernatural on video, and he had made a lot of them.  Modifying normal cameras to see inter-dimensional particles the same way-Vance immediately thought of something else, if someone could hear his thoughts, they would have heard a dreadful secret.  He finished modifying the camera and set on the second one.

By the time Vance looked around it had been almost 21 hours, and he decided to go to sleep.  He set an alarm for eight hours later and passed out.  He woke up and got back to work, this time taking the cameras he made and setting them up near the plaza center and the park across from it in Karakura.  It took him a while as he had to test batteries and connects for each one.  After all, he had to make sure they were streaming correctly or something bad could happen.

Then he made sure they were all connected to his phone and laptop and made his way back to the hotel, he needed more sleep and to finish getting everything ready.  That included filling up his tubes and making sure he had his gear entirely set up.  Vance took out his contacts and got so sleep.  He woke up when his alarm went off at noon, he got up and did his usual routine, dressing up in his suit and tie and putting his contacts and his gun and case together.  Then he went through and put a good number of shells into his belt and tubes into his pockets.  He grabbed two baits, put the pilot program pills in his tactical belt and then the last "oh sht" button in his pocket.  

Vance then stretched out and chuckled to himself.  He had definitely was basically ready for a war.  One he was going to cause, all in the name of experiments.  The best part is, this wouldn't be the first time or the last time.  When he was done with all of that he started to head out to his area overlooking the plaza from the mall.  He was going to basically pretend like he was a nobody.  He scoped the place out and made sure everything was ready before heading back to where the edge of the mall, the plaza, and the park all intersected and opened the small pill box.

Vance looked at the small blue pill that was simply reishi repurposed to draw hollow and cackled again.  This was going to be so interesting to watch.   With a flourish, Vance snapped the hollow bait, the reishi trap sprinkling everywhere as he laughed and cackled before realizing that he had to get out of sight, fast.  He bolted quickly across the street then into the mall and up to his perch on the side of the food court just as the first hollow began tearing their way into his reality.

Vance looked out over the park and plaza and kept chuckling under his breath as the first wave of hollow began to appear.  Now, it was time to wait for the pajama samurai and spiritual humans to show up.  Vance knew as long as he didn't force himself to do anything chances of anything targeting him were only those that were randomly attacking anyway.

Hollow began to pour into the area, their screams anointing their arrival in a terrible bellow before a Seikaimon showed up in the distance.  Vance shifted his weight in his chair, and sipped at a milk tea he had gotten from the vending machine.  He did have a few things to do, such as cataloging special hollow and shinigami that showed up.  As well as spiritual humans and potentially any Quincy that thought to mess with his experiment.  After all, Vance wasn't like other Quincy, he was just Vance.

Two hollow that arrived piqued his interest, one that looked like a gecko of some kind, he took a few shots of it as it passed one of his cameras.   The other looked like an enormous gorilla.  Vance took a picture of that one too.  He kept getting the feeling that something would go wrong in time, but he figured it was just the jitters from how happy he was going to be with all this data.  

The other odd thing was the murder of crows.  Vance had never seen birds just randomly appear out of nowhere, maybe a witch or a warlock was going to be present as well.  He noted the timing and used his camera to get a few pictures.  They seemed to be coinciding with the hollow bait which was interesting and slightly confusing.  It warranted looking into and Vance made a note.

---

Feel Free to Join, after a day or two, I'll put in a few high antagonists for those that aren't involved in the fray with each other.

As the Senkaimon split apart the sky a lone wolfish girl stood at the edge. One deep breath was drawn inwards. What she caught prompted her ears to twitch and her tail to swing wildly behind her. Her eye narrowed, fingers gripped tightly upon the sheathe of her weapon.

So it is true. Multiple Hollow. This! This is what I've been waiting for!

With an uncharacteristically gleeful squeak she hopped out, touching down gently upon the ground below. And with that she was off, bolting from one high point to the next on a direct path towards the various disgusting scents. So many foes to do battle against!

First come first serve, after all! Hahahah! Yes! Yes yes yes!

Reiatsu flared, her weapon drawn as she crashed forth right into the back of a large beetle-like Hollow, sending it face first into the ground. Her blade rose up, only to drive straight into her foe's back, puncturing a few inches into the thick shell. She didn't even need to worry about finishing it off too quickly! After all, there were so many others to deal with!

Before she could sink her weapon in any deeper a large fist slammed into her side, sending her tumbling across the ground. Dirt, twigs, and clumps of grass were kicked up. Her zanpakuto finally found purchase, digging into the earth to slow her to a stop. She coughed and hacked, tasted iron in her mouth. Her side throbbed in pain. She looked up in time to see the fist this time, and the Hollow it was attached to.

Almost humanoid. Bipedal. A thickset black body and a white, simple mask. No neck. Much faster than first appearances might suggest. Certainly powerful. It would need to turn it's entire body to keep line of sight.

"There it is!"

In a flash her blade arched forth, diverting the fist off course, although she couldn't cut completely through it. She dashed forth, slipping between its legs, her blade tasting Hollow flesh once more. The wound would slow it enough. But her foe was not alone.

The beetle Hollow had risen again. Four long legs, each ending in a sharp point. Two larger legs, more akin to scythes. Its mask was tucked against the underside. She would have missed had she actually run it through completely. But this one had the same problem as the last: it would find it difficult to track something as small and as quick as she was. Probably.

Once scythe swung in towards her position, and with a quick hop she moved inside of the attack, dirt kicked up behind her from the impact. The second arm swung inwards. This time she clashed blades, halting the attack, although it forced her to dig in her heels.

An ear twitched. The other one was fast approaching. She twisted her body around the scythe she held at bay, turning to face the charging humanoid Hollow. With a roar it collided with the outstretched scythe of her current foe which, in turn, let loose a shrill skittering shriek! One fist slammed into the large bug's center, which prompted it to split open, revealing an enormous maw filled with multiple sets of biting teeth, which immediately proceeded to bite against its fellow Hollow!

"No! Hey! Down here!" shouted the Shinigami, scythe pulled away as her current foe became distracted. Her weapon flashed outwards, cutting deep against the humanoid's knee, prompting another bellowing cry of rage as it slammed its second fist into the beetle's mask, sending the beetle tumbling backwards.

I guess that's what I get for hunting these ones. If I finish them off maybe something better will come along.

Already Yuki was moving forth, dashing around the large Hollow. Its body turned slight from side to side as it searched for its prey, but already the little wolf was leaping up at its back. It turned to face her, having finally picked up on where she might be, only to have its face split in two by her sword.

As she landed she took a few deep breaths, sniffing at the air briefly to make certain there weren't civilians nearby. Then she turned her attention towards the beetle. It was settled upon its back, releasing screeches as it rocked from side to side, doing its very best to get back onto its feet.

"Hah! Sad."

Was she smiling? Grinning. Close enough. Right now she was actually happy. She felt free! Free to hunt! And hunt she would!

With a quick dash she closed the distance between them, sending her foot up against the shell with a kick powerful enough to flip the poor creature over. Only once it was back up onto its feet did she move in for the kill, blade slicing at one of its many scythe-arm joints, sending the entire limb crashing to the ground.

"You still got five! Come on!" she screamed, doing her best to speak up over the Hollow's incessant screeches. The other scythe cut through the air, swinging in towards her body. Her blade met it, stopping it after a brief moment of struggle. Suddenly a stinging sensation in her side. One of the legs had kicked in towards her, cutting open her side. Thankfully not a deep wound, but it was enough to get her blood rushing.

"So you still got a little fight in ya?! Show me!"

Another leg swept inwards. One hand shifted to catch it, pushing her body back a few inches. The leg which had managed to land a hit swung in again, although with a tug she managed to parry it with the one she held. Already the stump arm was beginning to bubble.

Oh yes. Right. Finish it quickly. Move onto something better.

With a hop she finally allowed the scythe freedom to move as it pleased. The force put behind the weapon sent it cleaving at the space once occupied by her chest. She tugged again at the arm she held, using it as further assistance to reach the Hollow's face, and with a quick flourish her blade was spun around and pushed straight through the center of the mask.

She landed upon the beetle as it tumbled onto its back, blood spraying across her front. When it started to disintegrate she fell through the corpse, stumbling slightly upon landing. A moment was taken to look around, to catch her breath. A brief excited giggle escaped from her. There were certainly going to be plenty more Hollows to fight. But she wanted something bigger. Something better.

After drawing in a quick breath the wolf let loose a howl. A challenge!

Michael flickered into sight in an empty alleyway as he approached the source of the disturbance, it wasn’t difficult after all from a local Quincy to sense the amassing of Hollow Spiritual Pressure. The man was dressed in a plain suit with a white shirt and black tie, pretty much what he wore to work every day. The only difference was that he’d opted for contacts instead of his usual glasses and was wearing his hair pulled back as he usually did when hunting.

Not wanting to draw attention to himself he kept his own Spiritual Energy under a tight reign as he peaked up into the sky from the darkened alley he had decided to try and analyze the situation from.

“Shit.” muttered the Quincy under his breath. He could immediately see at least two Hollow from his vantage point but it didn’t take him long to see something that was potentially worse.

A Shinigami.

What else could the little sword wielding girl be? Although she moved nearly animalistically enough to be a Hollow herself.

The fingers of his left hand twitched slightly and he felt the celtic cross under his sleeve shift. His instincts screamed for him to summon his bow and dispatch the beasts, potentially the murderous swordswoman too, but he held himself back. He wasn’t afraid of the Hollow, although he feared they might hurt someone , but he was certainly terrified of coming face to face with any reaper.

Still being a normal mortal had some advantage. Exhibit A - Not having to rely on spiritual power or strange sorcery to get help. Pulling out his mobile phone Michael sent a group text to the handful of Quincy with whom he had the numbers of.


The text was sent to Jessica O’Donovan, Aine Hayes and the newly acquired number of Rubedo Lux Regis. He had no idea if they were available, if they’d see the message or would get here in time but hell it was worth a shot.

Weighing his options he glanced around and saw the Hollow seemed to be currently focused on the Shinigami so at least the ordinary town folk weren’t currently in trouble. With only the Soul Reaper in any danger Michael decided to hold position for now and simply waited. Hopefully nothing worse came along, that strange girl finished the monsters off and then went back to the Soul Society where she belonged.

Her bread was going to turn into the 'chicken heart that ate NYC', but it couldn’t be helped. The text had come in and she was honor bound to drop everything and go running. Food blogging, though in truth she was just the photographer, paid good enough but it was less than prestigious for the photo-journalist fallen on lean times. There was not even a moment’s debate over which took priority. No doubt the dough would have risen and crawled down over the counter and across the floor by the time she made it home to clean up. She never expected not to return home. Some things just didn’t bear consideration.

Was she dressed to go Hollow Hunting? Not in the least, but that was yet another thing that seemed of little to no import as she took out the door dressed in her black converse sneakers and her ’givin’ up on life’ sweat pants of blue. At least the grey T-shirt was standard and she had snagged her leather jacket going out the door, the coat tree tipping and crashing to the floor provided yet another thing she would fix later in the day. One thing she had on her at all times, no matter the day’s chore, was her Quincy Cross. Lashed to her left wrist with a braid of leather cord, a small etching of the sacred heart lay in the center of the white gold cross that was her spiritual foci.

Clutching her iphone, the GPS active and leading her directly to Michael’s location, she could see that this was a very crowded part of the city. While the three Quincy who shared the house, herself, Michael, and Jessica, had come to Karakura Town in order to aid the fight against these Hollow incursions, she hadn’t expected them to just rip apart the veil and drop right into the middle of town during broad daylight. Accidental? Gods she hoped so for the thought that it was planned certainly lead credence to the notion they were now in an all out war.

Hopefully the gloves wouldn’t have to come off, thinking her pun quite clever on the run as she was. They couldn’t afford to have anyone make such a sacrifice. Reality sobered her sense of fleeting humor and she rounded a street corner vaulting over a park bench to cut corners quicker. Losing your powers was nothing compared to laying down your life, but for a Quincy it would amount to near the same thing. Well she was nowhere near to even acquiring a glove let alone unleashing its accumulation of power to the point of extinguishing her abilities. But every time she went on a hunt she was more than aware that laying down her life was very much part of the deal.

Morbidity would do no one any good and when she got close enough to finally sense the spiritual energy, she was tempted to just put her phone away but she couldn’t sense Michael. Was he suppressing his signature? Wisdom she had neglected and she attempted to mute herself hoping it was not too late. For certain he would not have been so lax but more than likely, and she dreaded this to be true the closer she came to the confluence of energies, the spiritual energy of Hollows were drowning out Michael’s spirit from her ability to locate him through sensing.

Aine was nearly to the plaza when she cursed and texted back, 'OMW!!', and then cursed herself for being distracted. Time to act like she knew something, Michael had said a Shinigami was here too and the last thing she wanted was to run smack dab into one of the reapers. Vile creatures. She had been schooled in history, the massacre of her people left to fend for themselves. Executed for the crime of doing the job the reapers refused! Whatever. She couldn't do anything about that and quickly extinguished thoughts concerning if this Reaper had been part of those deaths squads so long ago.

Aine was just so close to Michael's location and thought she caught a glimpse of him but as luck would have it a murder of crows filled the air laying a pall over the scene. She could sense their malevolence and knew it to be of Hollowkind and that was about all the time she got to consider the scene for the crows were killing souls as they funneled through the streets. Michael was more of a match for this threat than these innocents and so she did the only thing she could do. Step in to defend the humans from these killer birds. With every arrow she loosed into the flock she cursed the Reaper who no doubt was much too busy with more important things than the living!

Summoning her bow was like sending up a flare, she knew even as she released the Heilig Pfeil toward a trio of crows hounding a civilian. But what could she do? Play Shinigami and turn a blind eye? Not on her life. And in the distance she saw the murder drop to rest upon the power lines lining the street knowing that she would have to proceed down that gauntlet sooner or later. This beat food blogging any day.

Disgraceful. This was the word that sprouted from his mind. He had heard rumours of something, a component that can be used to herd the hollow in one place - like a bait. No, he found a much better word to sum this up - Twisted.

The Senkaimon slowly slid open in the quiet alleyway a short distance from the heart of manufactured conflict. Bob cut with a short ponytail haired Shinigami of lesser importance stepped foot onto mother earth. It was his second time arriving: His first was when he was a student and the event turned out to be unevental, just a few weak hollows, all of which were slain via ganking of students under the watchful eye of an experienced Shinigami.

His orders were simple: support the shinigami that were already on the field and fighting hollows and keep the hollows from having opportunity to feast. Time is of the essence and picked up the pace. His movement was swift, never wasting any time. Hordes of Hollow is troublesome, even for a small party of experienced shinigami and if he was a betting man, he could see losses on his end. Darkness of the alleyway vanished with a glistering sunlight and the homely town welcomed him as a guest. He could see a flock of birds from afar and a soft rumble. Not good, he thought. Bigger Hollows found a pile of nothing irresistible. It was a few blocks later when he heard a distant joy, his distant wound throbs.

"Of course," he muttered under his breath. He had heard of those noises before. He washed those thoughts at the back of his mind and rushed at her direction, He had gotten closer as he made a comment.

"I'll support you!" He sharply shouted, of course, if it really was her, she doesn't need any support, but still…

Unbeknownst to him, nearby Shimazu wades through Karakura Town in search of the human woman known as Serpent.

“‘Ey Watari, draw me already!” Bezaliel whined in his ear as the Suzumei Head stepped out of a senkaimon overlooking Karakura Town. Always this damnable place, he would have to look into why events always seemed to centre on Karakura later. Either way he’d been giving a missive for immediate dispatch to Karakura as an influx of Hollow had appeared to be tearing themselves through the world from Hueco Mundo. The fourth division report had labelled it as use of Hollow Bait, apparently a criminal offence in the Central 46’s book and immediate termination of whoever used it was required.

However, that wasn’t the problem at hand. Hollows of all shapes and sizes were appearing and wreaking havoc across the sky. The influx of Hollow into the World of the Living was creating a major imbalance in the scales of the universe - or so he was told. So the Sixth Squad had sent Watari. As a recently seated officer of Shinigami law, he was here to prove himself, much to his dismay proving himself seemed to be the only thing people asked of him recently.

His dominant hand twitched for Bezaliel. Watari needed to maintain control, yes there were alot of enemies but he needed to analyze the scene now. Let his Reiatsu Perception scan the area and pick out anybody of note.

Yuki Kameko - “Shit”

A bizarre human spiritual pressure - “Interesting” the signature was nigh unreadable so most likely it was Raphael Laurent hiding in the shadows. To be fair, Watari couldn’t blame him, his employee wasn’t strong enough to deal with something of this magnitude.

And two more Shini- Memnoch? Ah he was somewhere nearby.

CMON SNAP THEIR NECKS.
BREAK THEIR MASKS.
KILL THEM.

The battle fervor rushed through his veins but Watari was determined to control it. The Hollow had begun to notice Watari and were diving towards him.

Composure.

A swing of his Zanpakuto cleaving one's mask in two.

Grace.

Another swing severs an arm from the body sending the creature screaming somewhere towards the ground.

Dignity

A murder of Crows
Vance looked at the young waiter as he got a drink with some kind of fizzy bubbling stuff in it.  He didn't really like sweet things but had decided on something sweet to get the brain working.  His hands danced across his keyboard as he kept changing cameras and angles and adding marks to a map that indicated where either a pajama gate had opened in view of a camera or a hollow emerged.  He made separate marks for each and a third for some weird portal thing that more powerful hollow did that seemed like reality was simply opening up.  After the initial crash of invaders he went back to focusing the cameras on the murder of crows that seemed to be flying around.  He took multiple pictures from a few different cameras and saved them under a file he labeled H-00001, then went into describing it.

Collective Intelligence?  Possible ability to regenerate based on creature vastness?  Potentially the same kind of idea as lore related vampire's turning into bats?  Possibility for reformation and modular physical changes?...  

This Inhuman Beast, it outta be locked up, and never released... Advanced Hollow/ Kameko Yuki
Vance's notes went on and on as he swapped to start making another file and watching the Shinigami that seemed to love talking for the cameras.  Vance wanted to punch this thing instantly, a real life werewolf!  That had to be full on proof of his hypothesis.  Vance kept making notes on her too, after all it was a werewolf.  Another golden example of all of fictional lore potentially being based on reality.   He was going to change the view again as his alert map showed another weird more advanced hollow portal opening, tearing direct rifts downwards in reality.  

Vance swapped to a camera on a building across from it and a few hollow stood looking down just as the werewolf woman howled a guttural challenge.  Vance copied the audio file, he would find a use for it later as he went back to the camera and the five hollow talked among themselves before dropping down to the ground that their portal had opened roughly a few centimetres over.  One of them, a full on giant mastiff looking hollow howled back, its back arching as it screamed straight up.  The camera was in a bad place for Vance to hear what they were saying but he heard that, and marked it for later study.  The mastiff, hulking roughly six feet tall with legs that looked more like tree trunks smashed through a building heading straight for the Werewolf woman.  

The other on Over-watch Michael O’Donovan
Vance pulled up the camera new her as the monster smashed through the building just off to her side and moved to start overpowering the werewolf.  He moved the camera onto one of his other monitors and started taking notes before looking back to the other group and cataloging a picture of the hollow that seemed much more organized.  Like a strike platoon of soldiers rather than the brash idiocy of pajama samurai and Quincy alike.  Which brought Vance to another camera, a Human pulled out a phone and typed something in.  Vance, suddenly looked angry.  That human could see the carnage!  His angry looked changed into a grin as he put a dot on the map representing the human who had texted and was viewing just like he was.  Vance didn't like that, after all, this was his experiment, either get in the evolution, or get away!  

So he was lucky when a hollow slipped into reality and screamed at the human.  This one a simple hollow that you might find anywhere with a generic mask, humanoid look and a tail.  Vance nodded at the screen, served that idiot right.  Trying to not get involved.  He took a picture of the man and labeled it spiritual human while moving it to his third monitor along with the camera that the human and the hollow were on.  He wanted to see what the group of potentially more elite hollow were going to do.  One of them seemed to be doing some form of meditation or something, Vance guessed it was probably something like sensing but couldn't be sure.

File QF~30GL4 (Aine Hayes)
Vance then caught the brilliant blue light out of the corner of his eye on the main screen.  "Tch, Quincy always trying to save the world even if it means they aren't thinking things through." He stated and took a few stills of the woman and her heilig bogun.  "So much for discretion.  A Leiden Hant user already, good for them, too bad they're a moron and honestly that one is horribly made. Should have gotten a Holiday special, I'd say that was made by someone who was blind, but that would be an insult to the blind person." He said out loud taking more notes on the woman.  

In the case of Sabitsura Rei
One of the advanced hollow, a feminine figure with a large bone protruding from her arm looked in the direction of the new shinigami as it arrived.  It stated something to the other hollow and started walking towards the shinigami to intercept him before the being could give backup to the werewolf.  Vance took pictures of the female monster and then the pony tailed shinigami as the grew closer and noted that the bone in the woman's arm looked a lot like a bow.  This could be interesting he thought as he cataloged and moved some screens around as he typed furiously trying to catch all the action.

Nobility Nonsense Advanced Hollow C / Watari
The third of the five advanced hollow, looked more like a bipedal turtle than anything.  It had an aura of being that of an older hollow and it interestingly had a large staff. The moment that it saw a new arrival cleave a meaningless hollow in two it began to take interest.  Stating something to the last two remaining hollow in the group and wandering off towards Watari.  It was slow to arrive, another few hollow probably mercilessly slain by the noble shinigami as Vance's fingers continued slamming down on the keyboard cataloging the two new ones.  He took another sip of his drink as he watched the Hollow approach the dangerous shinigami and wondered if he could find a way to hear what the more advanced hollow were saying.    The issue was by sheer luck they weren't near enough to Vance's oversight.

The moment the hollow got within range of the noble it bowed politely.  "Esteemed shinigami, my colleagues and I would like to know why you drew us to this place.  I would advise answers, or shall I just eat you for them?" It asked politely, though whether or not it was telling the truth, that it could eat someone for answers was another question.  

---

Advanced Hollow STATS
Hollow A (Mastiff) Str Dur Spr Agi (35 35 10 20)     Evo Beginner Cero Beginner  Fer Journeyman Hoho Beginner
Hollow B (Armed Female) Str Dur Spr Agi (20 20 20 20)     Evo Beginner Cero Apprentice Fer Beginner Hoho Beginner
Hollow C (Turtle Dude) Str Dur Spr Agi (10 50 25 15)     Evo Beginner Cero Beginner  Fer Journeyman Hoho Basic
Hollow D (Humanoid Male) Str Dur Spr Agi (10 30 20 40)     Evo Beginner Cero Apprentice Fer Beginner Hoho Apprentice
Hollow E (Leader, Gorilla Like) Str Dur Spr Agi (50 10 50 40)     Evo None Cero None Fer None Hoho None

The wolf paused, left ear twitching. A familiar voice was heard in the distance, prompting her to turn towards it. One of the sixers had arrived. A competent warrior. That did not bode well for her entertainment.

She was about to answer the man when she detected a new set of scents on the air. Hollow, but these were different. Of course she couldn't quite place how they were different, or why they were different, but they were. Could it be a new breed? A more advanced version? Perhaps lesser creatures? Regardless it drew her attention.

A deep howl echoed through the streets. Her call had been answered, and already she could tell that this Hollow was much larger than the others. More powerful? Well, she was about to find out soon enough. Wood cracked, bricks shattered, and metal ripped as the hulking creature charged towards her position.

Be careful.

It'll be fine.

Tremors grew increasingly violent as her foe neared. A building exploded in front of her, blade swiping forth to cut down a chunk of debris. This Hollow was quite large, powerfully built, and honestly looked like some nightmarish bone dog. A hound sent forth to hunt a wolf. She didn't know what to think about that.

"Sixer! I got this one!" shouted the Shinigami, blade raised overhead. Fingers coiled tightly around the hilt of her weapon, fangs flashed in a wild grin. This was the challenge she'd been seeking out, and for once something incredible had answered her call!

With a quick dash forward Yuki threw herself into the fray, prepared to meet her foe head on! A powerful downwards cleave raced towards her foe's snout, tail extended back in anticipation for the creature's momentum. Who was stronger?! There was only one way to find out!

A Hollow dove through the sky towards Watari and he turned and flicked his wrist, Bezaliel slicing the Hollow from head to toe in one long vertical slice. These were small fry, barely breaking the cusp of sanity. So this is what a ‘Hollow Bait’ did? Weird, it almost seemed to be like throwing chum in the water and watching the sharks go mad. But what was the point? Where was the purpose?

Watari’s eyes skipped towards Yuki but she was already in battle fervor, stopping the girl would be like getting between well - a wolf and it’s prey. She would kill and kill until there was nothing left, which he guessed in this scenario was most preferable. Maybe he should begin to do the same?

Another Hollow downed by a puncture to the skull and as Watari inhaled his adrenaline seemed to roar even louder. Maybe he should just let loose? No, he’d get lost in it like Yuki was already was and for once they probably didn’t need to battle-hungry Shinigami terrorizing the skies of Karakura while a Hollow swarm was present.

It was then that Watari observed a peculiar Hollow approaching him, Bezaliel at the ready he slowly began to spin the Zanpakuto as he observed the seemingly elderly turtle-Hollow approach. What was this? A trick? Why was he strangely reminded of Titus? Soul King be damned was this Hollow speaking?

Wait.

Were Hollows sentient?

Well he heard the stories but this one seemed actually capable of reason.

Watari’s compass did a flip as he continued to spin his blade around and around.

“Haven’t met a talking Hollow before, sorry, but you don’t know?”

KILL HIM.
BREAK HIS MASK.
HE’S OLD AND WEAK.

“According to our reports you were driven here by a ‘Hollow Bait. If you are capable of sense and reason I would recommend leaving, to keep the balance we technically have to dispatch you all and I would rather not dispatch a Hollow who seemed to have an awareness of the oddity of the situation”

As if to prove his point a Hollow came hurtling up from below and Watari dodged the attack and spun the Zanpakuto in a slashing motion through the creature's body before dispatching it in a cloud of black smoke.

This Inhuman Beast, it outta be locked up, and never released...
The mastiff hollow barked a sound of challenge at Yuki as it rushed at her before planting it's back feet and bolting to the side to narrowly avoid the downward cleave at it's mask, going straight after the woman's legs with a ferocious bite. The zanpakutou would slam into the armored bone structure of the hound as it growled and bit at the woman's legs in a viscous fashion that showed much less intelligence and more instinct. Much akin to the shinigami it was now fighting.


Nobility Nonsense
Vance watched the conversation between the shinigami and the turtle like hollow. They were closer to a camera so he was able to listen in on them though he would have much rather listened to something like the other two hollow. It brought two main points to Vance's attention even before he started taking a bunch of notes. The bait still felt Quincy, he would have to fix that on his next version. The second was that the higher density did in fact bring sentient hollow. Which was one of Vance's theories. Luckily he was pretty sure normal Quincy couldn't replicate his baits.

Vance took notes on the shinigami first. Mainly due to its erratic behavior and the fact that he wanted to see the what was going to happen. He figured it was only a matter of time before the hollow went off. Hollow seemed to be mostly instinctual, so having something intelligent was rather odd. He shifted and listened.

 "Many of us talk, its youngsters like yourself that refuse to listen." The hollow said as it lifted it's staff and shifted it's weight onto the staff in a different direction. Thinking to itself as it brushed it's mask with it's other hand. A bait, that would be a good thing to tell the people back home. If something like that existed, it meant shinigami could probably do it to the hollow again. That seemed dangerous.  "These baits, where would one acquire such a device?" It asked the shinigami Noble. It seemed to have no problem continuing the conversation if it was able to get information. Plus, there were plenty of humans for it to consume later, and only a few shinigami. It also seemed to carry and aura that seemed to make it think it's experience was more than useful against the shinigami.

 "And one more question Young man, are the shinigami really so ignorant to think we are unintelligent?
That seems rather daft, wouldn't you think?"

It's quick!

Damnit! Watch out!

With surprisingly amounts of agility the massive creature bolted to the side. Her weapon made contact, however not against the mask. Sparks flew as her blade scraped along an armored bony shoulder. Not only was it quick but it was going to be tough to even make a dent in this creature's defenses.

Pushing off to the opposite side Yuki leapt away to gain some distance, however her foe's attacks were just as quick. Pain shot up her right leg as a couple of fangs briefly found purchase against her flesh, tearing a couple of gashes near her hip. Blood splattered across the ground as she slid to a halt, turning to face her foe. All of her attention was now focused upon the foe in front of her.

This is what we wanted!

Through gritted teeth she let loose a feral growl, springing in towards the massive Hollow once more! A flourished swing brought the tip of her blade low, only to spring up again in a diagonally slash aimed for the bone dog's throat. Even so she didn't press in too close, utilizing just the tip of her weapon. She needed to look for an opening.

“You know my friend, I don’t know. Just got a report about it” Watari was having the strangest feeling that this conversation was going to be very short lived. Something about having a sane conversation with a Hollow was slowly putting him on edge. Maybe it was the way that the Hollow was choosing to speak as if it was picking each word with the purpose of extracting information.

Most likely his superiors didn’t want to give the game away about what or who could create Hollow Bait, probably because it was the equivalent of creating a Hollow Nuclear Warhead and setting it off. Probably didn’t want to make that common knowledge which was fair enough, there were people like Watari and whoever the mysterious creator of this Hollow Bait was that would take advantage of such a weapon.

“I mostly police Shinigami so it’s hard to say if many records exist of Hollow that actually wanted to communicate" Watari noticed that the Hollow swarm was thinning but they were still coming, they seemed to be avoiding Watari and his elder turtle comrade however which was fine by Watari as he wasn’t really interested in the small-fry anymore.

“No, you think a civilization that hasn’t had a significant threat from Hollow would think any of them intelligent enough to hold conversation? Welcome to propaganda friend, it’s a kicker” with that, a thought clicked in his head and he glanced in the direction of Yuki who fought another Hollow somewhere in the distance. Validation! He had validation! He was right! Something was coming and that something . . .well this was just the start of it!

"So, you going to leave?"

Michael’s spiritual pressure would have been the tiniest blip on any nearby beings senses but in the middle of all of this chaos he was practically invisible. At the edge of his senses he could detect the familiar energies of someone he knew very well. A second, less hidden, burst of energy felt only vaguely familiar. Considering the small number of spiritually active beings that Michael had met in the Town so far he guessed it was one of the two Quincy from the meeting he had the other day. Well that was good. At least a few of them had seemed to respond to his message.

It had taken him a few moments to realise it, almost embarrassingly so, but now he knew now that this was Hollow Bait. Quincy Tech. What kind of selfish, stupid, crazy, idiotic son of a bitch betrayed the Quincy Code to such a degree that they would cause an incident like this? Putting aside the intense danger the unknown humans of the Town were under, what about the likelihood of the Shinigami discovering the Quincy because of this act? Not only from working out where the bait came from but also the fact that Quincy where active at the scene of this event. They had no real choice after all did they? However the amount of Shinigami energy signals in the area was absolutely terrifying.

“Well time to move.” he murmured.

Stepping back, Quincy began to move when the Hollow tore into the reality of the living nearby, screeching it’s anger. Vaguely humanoid, plain mask and all around generic. In short? Not a threat.

Not wanting to broadcast his position or his power Michael held his left hand out, a very dim light encompassed the cross hanging from his sleeve as a miniature bow materialised in his hand like a small handgun. Letting the Hollow get close he waited until the last moment then whipped his hand up so it came right under the monster’s jaw and, with the slightest movement of his thumb, the tiny weapon loose it’s small arrow straight through the Hollow’s head coming out from the other side of it’s mask.

The Hollow let out a pathetic cry as it’s form broke apart and Michael let the bow vanish.

Already walking down the opposite end of the alley he took his phone out and messaged Aine. “On my way. Hiding presence. Few minutes.” It was a fairly typical message sans the hiding part, that wasn’t something they usually had to concern themselves with. Either way he’d meet up with the younger Quincy soon and see what she thought the best path to take. Personally Michael figured leave it to the Soul Reapers to clean up and get the hell out of dodge but perhaps she’d have a better idea.

"Good grief…" He uttered under his breath. what is it with fifth squad members and their innate desire to fight alone? Doesn't she know that it is safer to fight as a team? At least that is what he first thought, then he remembered: it's all about superiority. Sabitura Rei was about to crash into her parade when a hollow appeared from the corner of his eyes. The sinister black presence with a white mask, a womanly figure was enough to create an air of hesitation for the sixth squad Unseated. His lingering thoughts screamed to assist the Beastly girl, dispatch her opponent and rush to the next one but he let out a scathing, frustrated sigh.

"Don't get beat up, Beast girl!" He loudly quipped, last thing he wanted was to carry her back home.

He darted towards the unknown hollow of womanly presence. He kept his sword sheathed, with his right hand restraining the sword from flailing all over as he made his hasty approach. His eyes flicked over to her flanks, a bone protruding from her arm, solid and shaped like a bow. With his swift observation, he was sure that this hollow will take this opportunity to strike now while he's on transit.

With his open palm raised a foot away from his face, he prepared his response to her impending attack.

This Inhuman Beast, it outta be locked up, and never released...
The mastiff seemed to understand that it couldn't win without a little pain so it maneuvered it's paw in front of Yuki's sword. The sword cut into it before sticking to the bone as the hollow wailed and bit again at Yuki. Using the damage to keep the sword out of immediate striking distance. The issue with this hollow seemed to be the instinct combined with combat experience. It understood that as long as it protected it's mask, it could keep fighting violently. It growled as it struck at the werewolf girl and continued its assault.

Vance made a few notes mainly about the werewolf, mostly on the idea of black robe transformation and potential power congealing for the purposes of body modifications before taking a picture and using his analysis program on it. He was pretty sure that the werewolf was going to win, given enough time. Not because he thought less of the hollow, he just figured she had more tools at her disposal that the hollow did.

Nobility Nonsense
The old turtle chuckled lightly that the shinigami. More out of thought than anything else, shinigami reporting was like writing a note to another hollow on the other side of Hueco Mundo, it would get there, but it would probably take a while. The turtle thought carefully about his words before speaking to the shinigami, as if he was too old to just say things without thinking. "Policing shinigami, probably more of a threat than Hollow." He stated politely before adding. "Oh, my friends say we need something specific before we leave, though this bait seems to have drawn us here a little earlier than we would have liked. But as for fighting you, I am more than happy to continue conversing, I am still delaying your actions, am I not?" The hollow stated.

Vance kept typing furiously, confused as to why the pajama idiot and the turtle weren't killing each other yet. He took a few readings and marked down some notes about the fact that Shinigami apparently have police, and that the hollow was looking for something. He looked back at the camera on the other two hollow and noticed they were gone. "Huh?" He stated puzzled and looked for them on the cameras without finding them.

The other on Over-watch
Vance laughed to himself as he saw the Reishi meter light up and looked towards the camera that it had done so. "Another Quincy, go away, shoo, you're ruining my experiment!" He said to nothing in particular. "Things that don't evolve have no place here. Actually, no go after those two. I command you!" He was talking to a screen, though for no idea why. Maybe the Quincy would do so. It would let him get data on the other specialized hollow The hollow blip that had shown up instantly vanished and he put the man in a file he labeled QM-30H5L.

Vance finished and looked at the indicators to figure out where the powerful hollow had taken off too. They were headed south towards the mall.

In the case of Sabitsura Rei
The shinigami was much smarter than he looked. The bladed bone protrusion was both a melee weapon, much akin to an arm blade, and a bow, that shot, Cero. The sound of hollow energy gathering lashed out in an arrow of energy towards the shinigami and it started beneath the mask at the shinigami for his reaction. It seemed to mainly be testing the waters. Though with that Vance knew from the other hollow's conversation. All the hollow seemed to be delaying. Though Vance was all for studying Cero and took some notes on the condensation reactions of the energy.

Once more her blade found purchase, only not against her intended target. A paw was risen, was used to block her attack. Not only that but she felt her weapon stick into bone. This delay also left her quite vulnerable.

Another bite attack. She wouldn't be quick enough to avoid it! Releasing her grip upon her weapon Yuki moved both hands in, one to brace against the upper jaw and one against the lower jaw. A pained growl escaped from her as teeth dug into her arms, blood spilling out from the wounds. Her entire body shook. This creature was just as strong as she was!

I can't move!

You're dead if you don't do something!

Sandals dug into the earth as she was forced back. Muscles tensed up and teeth gritted together. If she hadn't been fighting just this Hollow then she certainly would have lost. Even she had to admit that. But she was also hoping that this creature wasn't as clever as she was.

Her body twisted to the left slightly. Its mouth was getting closer. If it got a solid hold of her then this fight would be over. She couldn't even move due to the pressure it exerted against her, but in a situation like this she did have an ace up her sleeve: her tail!

The long fuzzy appendage shot forth, curling around the hilt of her weapon. With one solid tug she freed her zanpakuto, swinging it around behind herself, only to twist the point towards her back. She would have only one good shot. Hopefully the beast wouldn't see it coming.

Come on! Hit!

With a solid thrust her zanpakuto pierced through the right side of her robes. A hiss of pain left the wolf as she felt the blade along her side, cutting into her flesh, but she had to conceal the attack as much as she could. It didn't help either that her aim wasn't really perfect in this situation. Even so, her target was large. The sword was pushed forth, aimed to puncture through the upper jaw of the behemoth and right into the Hollow's mask!

“Delaying my actions? You misinterpret them” Watari said tilting his head in the direction of the Wolf Girl fighting in the distance. She was getting way too close in proximity to her foe, was she even playing seriously? He was a bit disgusted that she let herself even get the slightest bit wounded if the sudden jump in spiritual pressure was anything to say about it.

Watari looked back at the elderly turtle Hollow as the Hollow watched him as keenly as Watari seemed to not. That was the funny thing about this intelligence and logic this Hollow displayed, despite itself, it was still just as ignorant as the mindless ones who were now avoiding him.

“Telling you to leave was my Suzumei Mercy. You have already lost” the Head of the Suzumei clan gestured around them. The Hollow were thinning, more and more arrived but even more were being downed by the combatants around him. Shinigami? Human? It didn’t matter, they all knew their role and their purpose and the result of which was all the same to Watari.

“So please, don’t flatter yourself, it’s belittling. I’ll fight when I’m needed and not a moment more” the truth was once Watari got here and had slain a couple, his battle fervor hadn’t even stirred and he wondered if it was because it too was waiting for something like these Hollows were it was in Watari’s opinion as if this was all too convenient. As if, the original reason for him coming here was lurking in the shadows.

So he’d been watching.

And he’d been observing

“No show, sorry” Watari smiled already far aware that the turtle would be misinterpreting who he was talking to.

Dispatching the trio of crows Aine traced a path arcing round the main concentration of spiritual pressures. She was growing frustrated because her sensing of the area gave her conflicting information. This essence that was interlaced with that of the numerous Hollowkind was undoubtedly Quincy. A revelation in itself, but it was off somehow and was not, for lack of a better word, alive. ”What the hell...”, she breathed softly, unable to guess because she was unfamiliar with Hollow Bait save only in literature. ”Could something like a Quincy artifact be responsible for the activity the Ishikawa family had reported?”, she wondered. Sudden buzzing against her side interrupted her thoughts and sent her hand diving into her pocket for her phone.

Seeing Michael’s name, she stopped quickly and read that he was on his way but hiding. They would meet up soon enough and so she took off continuing forward knowing the man would sense her before she did him. What she did sense, however, was more than enough to make her proceed with caution.

There was not one Shinigami out there but at least two if not more. Her imagination supplied the details of several beyond her sensing range having come to earth to quell this large incursion and she knew it was foolish to stick around. She didn’t want to set off in neon lights a signal to say ‘Clean up on aisle seven. You missed a cell of Quincy during the genocide’. But then the investigator in her didn’t want to leave without finding out what that strange essence was about and why so many Hollow seemed to invade right on top of its source.

Finally she saw Michael and with a quick scan of the area closed the distance to join him at his side. ”There’s more than one Shinigami, Michael.”, she said needlessly but unable to stop her reporting of information he no doubt had already gleaned, ”and something Quincy...what the hell’s going on?”

With a flicker of intense speed, Quincy reached his former apprentice’s position with ease as she made her way towards him too. He was keeping his energies under control so that nothing would sense him in this maelstrom of spiritual bullshit.

He glanced up at what was going on in the air above the area and shook his head before turning his attention to Aine. Listening to her question he shrugged slightly “Someone either incompetent or malicious has released Hollow Bait into the area drawing all these beasts around which, unfortunately, has led to a gathering of Quincy and Shinigaimi in the same damn area.” he said, the stress of the situation clear in his voice. Continuing a touch of rage slipped into his voice “Worst of all that means whoever did it is a Quincy themselves.”

Sighing heavily he folded his arms. “I had noticed.” he said with a frown and then shaking his head he sighed. “I’m leaving this place as soon as possible, I won’t be the fool that reveals our entire race’s existence to those Soul Society murderers.” he decided, making his final decision in the moment. “I recommend you do the same.”

Uncrossing his arms he took a step backwards “The Shinigami can handle the Hollow, let them think they have jurisdiction for now. One day the Quincy will be ready to reclaim their place as the sole, true, guardians of our world.”

With that he turned and strode off into the dark alleys, hands in pockets, feigning ignorance of the situation around him. If anyone saw him they’d simply think him an unknowing mortal moving through the area unaware of the danger he was in.

//Exit

”Christ on a Crutch”, she said and let her eyes pierce the darkness as though her eyes could penetrate to the very location of this Hollow Bait. She was incredulous at the blatant disregard for life such a thing indicated. Their whole purpose was to protect humanity from Hollow attack. God knew the Shinigami didn’t give two pounds about human life, their main concern being purification of Hollows. Eternal rest was too good for those ravenous beasts but eternal damnation of souls in the belly of a Hollow? Apparently the Shinigami found that an acceptable sacrifice.

She knew from her studies that bait was used to hunt Hollow, but the proper tactic was to draw them away from human civilization. What kind of lunatic set such a thing loose inside a city? Even as she was coming to terms with the reality that one of their own was responsible, she abruptly set her eyes on Michael’s face to better focus on his words. It was sound advice and she was fortunate he was there to shore up her initial instincts. The reporter in her wanted nothing more than to chase down the story of who this traitor was and what was his objective in creating this mayhem.

”Right.”, she said and yet she did linger but a second or two more before she tucked tail and drifted off into the night. She at least would set their race above personal ambitions, like Quincy should.

//Exit

This Inhuman Beast, it outta be locked up, and never released...
The mastiff like hollow didn't count on an prehensile tail from a shinigami. Then again, who would? Vance immediately made a note of it as the shinigami's zanpakutou slammed into the face and mask of the hollow. He was actually annoyed at that because it wasn't something he wanted to calculate. If things like that existed how the hell were humans supposed to deal with idiots from other dimensions. Werewolf with a prehensile tail that had the strength of an arm? What kind of obnoxious garbage was that? Vance took a few readings on the shinigami as the hollow cried out in pain and backed off immediately, realizing it couldn't win with it's mask cracked like that. It started to open a portal to get away, but Vance was sure that the werewolf would kill it so he focused on something else. That was less climactic than he wanted it to be, but it did give him a ton of readings on shinigami genetic experimentation and the fact that apparently, werewolves were real. Which meant he would have to look at those readings later.

Nobility Nonsense
The turtle was not amused by the shinigami who thought it was better than it was, but it didn't care enough to put a child who claimed it was useful in it's place. The group of hollow had come with a mission and toying with some young man with an overactive imagination was not in the least bit conducive to what they were doing. So, the hollow slunk into it's shell and began rotating quickly before moving away from the shinigami. It was going to rejoin the main group. After all, there were still enough hollow pouring in to get in the way if necessary.

File QF~30GL4 // The other on Over-Watch
Vance watched the Quincy pull out its phone a few times and wondered who it was talking too. That wasn't something he had a device for, he would have to do something about that later. When she made her way to the other Quincy Vance was intrigued but they disappeared out of his range of cameras. That annoyed the hell out of him, and he couldn't hear them either. He rubbed his face as he sat back and sipped at his drink wondering what he was going to do about those two. The hollow abnormal were still going off to get something that he didn't know about. Though to Vance himself, Quincy were more dangerous. He had realized it earlier, he had forgotten to make the bait not feel like it was made by Quincy. While, they had no way of directly finding him or at least he didn't think they did, they still knew. That presented a plethora of issues that could probably be solved later.

A Murder of Crows
Vance's mild annoyance was changed when the crow like hollow returned. He began taking pictures and readings with just about every available camera as much as he could. This thing seemed to fascinate him. He really liked it, but he was running short on time. The bait wasn't going to last forever, and he hadn't actually seen the one thing he had done all of this for- Rapid Evolution. No new powers had spontaneously erupted and that made him really mad.

Vance went back to typing as he brought up the group of Abnormal Hollow in order to figure out what they were after, if nothing else, it was something more to study.

Damnit. Damnit! Stupid!

Yuki breathed heavily, stumbled back a few steps as the massive Hollow disengaged. Teeth were pulled free from her arms, now left to dangle at her sides, blood pouring out from the wounds. Moving them even a little bit hurt. A lot. Still, she clenched her fingers repeatedly, cringing but doing her best to work through the pain. At this rate she was just about finished for the day.

But her prey still stood.

With a quick leap the Shinigami aimed her foot squarely at the center of the creature's back, fully intending to plant it face first into the ground! More importantly her tail swung around, cleaving repeatedly for the beast's head. She just had to crack the mask. If even one of her strikes did the trick then it would be over.

Just! Fucking! DIE!

Of course it was important to keep alert for the other Hollows. She had detected a few different scents before. Were they still around? Had they been dispatched? She really didn't know.