afti.

i hate bringing up hours old dramas, but i can assure everyone that the two muses were blocked, and will not interact with any of my muses again

A fierce, determined energy crackled through her. She could feel it now, a tangible pull towards their goal.

The end of the mission was close, a finish line they were carving through the enemy ranks with every step.

>> @lunarinvitation.bsky.social <<

On the move, her hands worked independently, a spent magazine clattered to the ground, a fresh one loaded with pine green rounds was slammed in, and the slide was racked with a sharp clack.

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Without a second look, Ran fell back into rhythm with Denji and the others, a well oiled machine clearing a path through the horde.

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The point blank shot blasted the creature backwards. It slammed into a stone wall with a sickening crunch, pinning it there momentarily before it slid to the ground, its own transformation already beginning.

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A heavy claw clamped down on her shoulder from behind. She didn't startle, she pivoted.

Her gaze was a flare of pure, cold frustration as she met the creature's eyes.

In the same motion, she pressed the barrel of the Glock hard against its forehead.

BANG.

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Five creatures staggered, their monstrous forms shuddering and collapsing as the Orchidite worked its magic, forcing their bodies to revert to human shapes upon the dusty ground.

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Ran moved like a storm, a blur of calculated motion amidst the chaos.

She sprinted, dropped into a shoulder roll across the cracked concrete, and came up firing.

One, two, three, four, five shots rang out.

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afti.

"...where the fuck is my gun?"

Ran blew the smoke from the pistol's barrel and turned to the others, her expression all business.

"One's down! Let's move!"

Kurt was still handling the others above. The real fight was just beginning, and Ran was finally ready to take control.

>> @lunarinvitation.bsky.social <<

The shot echoed. The radioactive copper casing emitted a paralyzing pulse upon firing, scrambling the creature's nervous system.

The mutant froze, shuddered violently, and then began to shrink, its monstrous form dissolving as it collapsed forward onto its stomach with a ground shaking thud.

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She shouldered her bag and leaped from behind the pillar as it crumbled under a falling rock.

Her eyes scanned the battlefield and locked onto the largest mutant, its roar shaking the air.

Ran raised the Glock, closed one eye, and aimed for center mass.

BANG! CLING!

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Her search then yielded a second prize: Akemi's Glock.

A smirk tugged at her lips.

"Good thing I stole this from Akemi."

She ejected the magazine, loaded it with the Orchidite rounds, and racked the slide.

The chamber was loaded. It was ready.

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It forcibly reversed mutation induced cellular damage, triggering a rapid reversion to the original human form.

The side effects—nausea, vertigo, temporary paralysis—were a small price to pay for a life restored.

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It was Chymeri's greatest mistake.

A miscalculation of Thallium had inverted Orchidine's properties, creating this antidote.

Upon entering the bloodstream, Orchidite didn't destroy, it rewrote.

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She held one up to the sun, watching the strange, oily fluid shift sluggishly inside its ampule.

"Orchidite. The bullet of life!"

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"Right!" She put the bag onto the concrete and rummaged through its contents."

"Please tell me I have them..." Her hand closed around a ziploc bag filled with bullets. They were identical to her Orchidine round in every way but one: the liquid in the glass core shimmered with a pine green hue.

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"Damn it...!" She screamed, Kurt's "no kill" order echoing frustratingly in her mind.

"Think Ran.... Think!!!"

Her fingers pressed hard against her temples, and then it clicked.

There was a way.

A non lethal neutralization, buried in her bag of tricks.

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As Kurt teleported through the chaos, a whirlwind of motion hurling mutants into the terrain, the very mountain began to fracture.

Massive boulders and sharp stone debris rained down, forcing Ran to dive behind a cracked pillar for cover.

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