3124/Dead World: Earth 119-610-PB

Dead World: Earth 119-610-PB
Date of Scene:	30 September 2015
Location:	Parallel Worlds <PW>
Synopsis:	Unsynched old content isn't challenging enough.
Cast of Characters:	Tomoe, 108, 607, 754, 756, 760, 789, 803, 884

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Cocoa (884) has posed:
    Coming out of the one active Warp Gate in the sea of loud Earths (there are plenty of other Earths and Warp Gates in the area though!) drops people in the middle of Tokyo, or at least, what certainly used to be Tokyo.

    The sky is covered in dark clouds, purple lightning occasionally arcing between them. The streets are in ruin, the only source of lighting here broken street lights and signs, plus the occasional purple streak in the sky.

    The air is heavy with the smell of smoke, though any fires have long since died out. Larger buildings lay destroyed, shops have been pillaged, and the streets are filled with cars that went nowhere. But some have large piles of belongings on their roofs, indicating people had time to pack their things and try to run.

    Yet, there are no bodies. Plenty of signs of battle; blood, discarded firearms, occasional military vehicles. No signs of the people, though!

    To look at the horizon past Tokyo is to see only darkness. From above, it would look like the planet is slowly being eaten by black and purple energy. To the more magically inclined, it's not being destroyed; it's being relocated to another realm, a bit destructively though. In this world, the barrier between realities doesn't exist. If someone had the ability to hop dimensions here they'd find it INCREDIBLY easy.

    The Warp Gate is pretty much a hole in reality, not a built installation. It's in the middle of the street, surrounded by a variety of stores. One in particular still has functioning TVs, and another has a newspaper stand, though for the most part stores have been thoroughly plundered.

    Only one skyscraper remains a few blocks away, torn down to only a dozen stories high, which is half a dozen more than anything else still has.

    There's only one life sign in the whole of Tokyo, and it's atop that skyscraper. But other places are noisy, too; a nearby mall has loud ruckus going on, as though walls were being demolished. For the most part, the city is completely quiet and muted otherwise.

Sarah Parsle (789) has posed:
Earth is a funny place. Apparently a lot of Afterus is based on it, as well as having a powerful infleunce in pop culture and behavior standards. Apparently the gods of their world even came from it.

So it is that a young, unarmed human female in their early teens pops in through the dimensional hole, looking around with curiosity.

And then she realizes the place is being torn apart. "Ugh. Every time I go to an Earth it's being destroyed. What the hell." Sarah mutters to herself, puttering over to the newspaper stand. Newspapers are a valuable cultural snapshot of an area. She can check it out for any useful information. As she searches for one that is readable, she glances around in case some kind of monsters might arrive to engage in some Strife. YOU NEVER KNOW. STRIFE CAN HAPPEN ANYWHERE.

Sadly, since Sarah is not equipped to detect life signs, she is not going to know there's a living being in the area. So she's focusing on investigation and looting.

Because loot leads to Alchemy materials for later.

Steve (803) has posed:
    A dynamic entry! Or not. It's more of a stroll, really, once heavy boots hit the battered pavement, from out of the wound in space-time that accompanied the unification. The miner-wizard known as Steve takes several paces in, and raises a hand reflexively to his brow to shield the non-existant sun, scanning the scenery - or what's left of it. His purpose for being here is simple enough: The burst of radio traffic sounded absolutely exciting, and he had never gotten to see a freshly unified world that wasn't his own. Certainly, he's seen some of the civilized areas of the multiverse already, but never one quite this run-down, yet.

    "Hmmm," he ponders aloud, further stepping over to an abandoned automobile, "With all that ruckus, I figured there'd be mobs of terrified people." His tone almost sounds disappointed in that fact, but it doesn't distract from his ultimate purpose. Withdrawing a hexagonal implement from his inventory, he immediately begins scanning the automobile through the viewing window in the center of it. Something about this place manages to give him, someone that regularly toys with forces meant to be un-toyed with, the creeps. It's like that feeling when he thinks he sees the robed, hooded guys skulking around his house, but they're never quite there when he actually turns to look.

    He does take note of Sarah, however, and discovers a kindred, looting spirit! "Oh, good. I'm not alone here! That'll be handy if monsters start spawning." There's plenty of crap around to pilfer, he's not *that* selfish.

Tomoe has posed:
Tomoe has often cone to explore the multiverse before when she picks up strange goings on. She does not go out in her well known form of Tomoe the Iron Lily no she foes out as Eisen Blumen though to thoe who knew her or German might have a clue given the name's rough meaning of Iron Flower. The fiarly short aisen woman clad in a high tech body suit/armour of some sort seems to be taking her timne as she arrives at the place she sees so many signs of carnage it makes her frone she's not sure what she can do but she sees a building left intact somewhat.

Still the ruined terrain is in some ways an asset to her as she moves to check out one of the sources of news papers, maybe there's something in the papers or left running on the TVs' that might help.

Shin Tokuyama (756) has posed:
    "Wheeeeeee!" Shin cries as the motorcycle falls out of the Warp Gate, better known as the hole in reality. Of course, as soon as the bike hits the ground and skids a bit, he cries out, "Oh god, my organs!" Before bringing it to a gently skidding stop and coughing a few times. Seems those injuries Shizune put on him last night really are still sticking with him.

    "Woah, this is a pretty..." Shin pauses to wince as he parks his bike and steps off of it. He might have a passenger on the back and her hair might be blue, to note, "... fucked up place. The distress call came from here, though, I guess. So it seems like a good spot to check out."

    "Definitely Tokyo, though. But like... seriously damaged. Maybe a Godzilla came through and fought Rhodan or some crap," Shin muses as he walks along, mostly meandering and possibly looking for a storefront to heroically requisition supplies from.

Serenity (607) has posed:
    Serenity immediately looks upward when she steps out of the Warp Gate, eyes drawn to the sky. She might 'see' things differently, but apparently her vision is close enough to natural that she can pick up the vague wrongness there. It brings a frown to her face, and a hand straying to her blade, but the Maedra's attention doesn't linger.

    Her frown deepens as she notes the ones who have already gotten here, but not that much. A bit of a pragmatist of her own, she can't really be too angry at people looting in this situation, even if she can't approve of it either. "It looks like there will be plenty of time for that later. Excuse me while I look for something that might tell us what happened."

    Serenity ignores any stray newspapers and instead whistles sharply, before murmuring, "Pact Summon: Raptor of the East." A massive bird materializes above her, which immediately wings off to circle above the city and see what it can find and report back.

    "A Tokyo, hm? I didn't recognize it..."

Allenby Beardsley (760) has posed:
    Time for another road trip with Shin for Allenby! Over the past few months she's gotten pretty good at escaping her trainers and sneaking off during time she'd usually reserve for lying around playing video games. That it's been tolerated by the Neo-Sweden military so far is a pleasant surprise though fueled in part by Neo-Sweden secretly not being able to really stop her if physical resistance entered the picture.

    "Wheeee!" There's a big grin on Allenby's face as she clings to Shin's back that doesn't fade all that much once they see the Earth on the other side of the new gate. Her grip tightens on Shin as they land roughly, no doubt worsening his wounds from his fight with Shizune by sheer accident.

    "Huh, looks like this one's in crapsack condition too. I'm thinking mid-apocalypse maybe? Almost post? It looks like it's already reached the point where everyone's dead though I don't see any bodies." Allenby pokes around, gathering up discarded firearms as she passes them. "Might want to grab a gun, I bet it's only a matter of time before zombies show up."

HK-47 (754) has posed:
     Sometimes, it was nice to simply get away from the more taxing locals. Even a droid could understand the logic behind simply leaving the stressors behind and enjoying one's self... though they typically do not get the chance as they are programmed to be inexhaustibly reliable. And so they continue on with their plights, mulling through the hordes of simpering, wasted existences that the meatbags typically were.

    However, for the first time in a long time, HK-47 is able to, perhaps for just once, experience what it means to have a moment of reprieve as he takes in the enticing sights of the devastated cityscape, his memory processors working on overdrive to carefully examine and cherish every millisecond of input from his audio and visual sensors of their war-torn environment.

     "Musing - Ah, yes, that is an oddity" the droid replies in regard to Steve's observation, sharing the latter's disappointment at this bit. "The scene, wonderful example of unrestrained organic extermination that it is, feels incomplete without the sights of maimed or dying meatbags in the streets, laying prone in pools of their own vital fluids as their photoreceptors dull and dim for the last time. Their screams of despair and tortured exclamations of sorrow - complete with the emotion-responsive fluid leaks from their eyes while the looming shadow of their impending non-functionality dawns on them, pleading for the embrace of a well-placed blasters-bolt to the cranium to end their meaningless lives - would serve to break up the monotonous silence of the area rather well."

    The droid then pauses a moment after having made his impassioned speech, as if taking the time to imagine what the area would be like if there were dying people strewn or hobbling around him just begging for him to end their misery. This in turn makes him all the more eager to explore, bringing up his rifle at Allenby's remarks of having a weapon. "Eager Assurance - You need not worry about that. I am /always/ prepared for the event of imminent hostilities."

Winnowill (108) has posed:
Today, Winnowill has decided to show up in her LADY VENEVOL disguise. This means she has rounded ears, as a lovely lady with black hair, of the human persuasion. A flowing green dress decorates her slender body, and she is settled in a small carriage pulled by a cart and a single soldier.

Winnowill steps out of the carriage, brushing her dress off before turning to the soldier. "Stay here until I return, or the peace hounds will be dining extra well tonight."

The man pales, but nods, and Winnowill walks toward where the others appear to be gathering... and walking right past them, including the rambling droid. "If you wish to know what happened, one might think to start with the lone survivor." Naturally the Life Shaper would know where a lifesign is, and she's heading right toward it.

Cocoa (884) has posed:
    The store Sarah robs is your average corner store. A lot of the food is expired, the register's been emptied, and there's not much of interest. This would seem to be just a modern Earth, one where corner stores unfortunately don't sell laser swords. Definitely a point against this place.

    Newspaper all seem to tell the same stories-- in Japanese, since this is Tokyo. 'USA falls to dimensional invader; Russians coin the name 'Phantom'.' 'The last free country in Europe surrenders to Phantom; Asia next?' 'Japan next on Phantom's hit list?' 'No sunlight for a week, panic in the streets. Kumon clan making its final stand.'

    Steve finds much the same as Sarah; this is modern Earth! There's a lot of stuff to loot, but nothing really outstanding. Most of the cars are all fully functional, with keys still in the ignition and turned. They're just out of fuel. You could find tons of things here, but your odds of finding a magical amulet in the loot pile are pretty low.

    Tomoe turns a TV on at the electronics store. It's pretty glitchy, and seems to be playing the same fifteen seconds on repeat. 'Kumon Waka, youngest heir of the Kumon clan, fell in battle against Phantom's forces today, taking with her the last of the Kumon clan's knowledge on fighting the entity called Phantom. We may be on the eve of the world's fall, as--'

    Shin, like others, will find the stores heavily plundered, but to have plenty of things still if he isn't picky. Cars full of luggages are good too.

    Serenity's bird flies over the city, finding a few signs of life that don't actually register as alive. At the base of the skyscraper, businessmen with their heads fully covered by colorful, egg-like masks seem to be fighting... orcs? Those look like orcs. Green, bulky, tribal-looking. The big difference is that their skin and limbs look bug-like, and rather than a face, they have a sort of multicolored stained glass crescent, like a grin, and which VAGUELY makes a mouth and eyes shape, but never actually changes to convey expressions.

    A girl with long purple hair is watching the fight from atop the skyscraper, munching on popcorn.

    Back at the street level, Allenby finds firearms, no problem. There's plenty of them. Police and military rifles and pistols, just scattered here and there, some still loaded.

    The lone skyscraper isn't that far; a block or two, with plenty of shortcuts thanks to destroyed buildings. And those who arrive there do indeed see the fight too (hopefully, having waited long enough for Serenity to warn them). It looks like a pub brawl between businessmen and weird bug-orcs with stained glass motif faces. No weapons here; just fists flying between the two groups.

    There's about twenty on both sides of the conflict.

    The businessmen don't register as alive, and neither do the orcs. For that matter, the orcs decidedly don't even belong in this world. Or, really, any other physical world. Digital entities, not magical.

Serenity (607) has posed:
    It's at this point that Serenity's player realizes she actually has keen hearing as a power on this character, and thus actually can hear the television. She scowls, but keeps her focus on the task at hand, despite the distasteful disposition of the others here. She's keeping an eye on HK especially, though Winnowill gets a long stare. She can tell that the woman isn't human, but other than that she's a puzzle.

    "Hello again, Shin, Sarah," she finally says. "There's someone watching not too far from here. I'll have the Raptor circle above in case we need air support, but it's short enough to walk. The Lady there seems to know where to go."

    Maybe Serenity is just in a hurry to get away from the psychopathic droid. Maybe she just wants to keep near the other Unionite here. She'll gesture for Tomoe to follow and head over, keeping near Winnowill just in case something is up with the strange woman. She doesn't even bother to try to intercede in the brawl though. "Those creatures are not what they seem," she mutters. "I don't believe they belong here." Rather than mess with them - though she won't stop anyone who wants to - she's going to look for a way up the skyscraper. Yes, she has ways to fly, but she'd rather not employ them. Hopefully going through the brawl isn't necessary, but she'll draw her sword just in case.

Steve (803) has posed:
    "Zombies ain't that tough. Unless they're the ones that look really pissed off, and can run fast," comes Steve's off-handed response, not turning to Allenby as he makes it. Instead, he seems to be pointing that hexagonal device at practically everything in his immediate reach. Very briefly, he points it towards that conspicuously-only-half-destroyed building, and could have sworn he saw something other than the default 'no aspects'. Probably just some local magic messing with his thaumic tools, as it sometimes does. He's beginning to get the general idea. Somehow this world is being consumed. Not with any teeth or jaw, but it is definitely going 'somewhere else'. It's likely, the people were also...

    "Well, hopefully whatever it is, it's already too full to eat us," he mumbles aloud, to his own thoughts and completely out of sequence with any other conversations going on around him. He pauses in his studies to regard HK-47; a curious construction, as he recognizes it, as he has not met that many robots or droids, just yet. Accordingly, he frames it in his own terms, "An iron golem, huh?" He whistles appreciatively, at the attention to deadly detail on this model, before continuing, "And quite a mouth on ya! Can't say I dislike what I'm hearing, though. Almost like some really dark poetry." He recomposes himself after a moment, crossing his arms over his chest, "Anyhow, as I was thinkin' a moment ago. Whatever is snacking on this place likely already cleaned its plate."

    Something doesn't feel quite right about it, though, and it's not the ominous sky hanging overhead, or the deathly still and quiet of the rest of this dead world. It's that it might not be as empty as it appears, a sensation he's quite familiar with, from his own world. Mention of a 'lone' survivor captures his attention enough that he thinks back to that earlier scan incident, and not really having much better direction, decides to meander along behind. Not before he withdraws his pickaxe from his side, though, and with a few good swings, separates a curiously precise cubic meter of the abandoned car, right at the corner of the engine compartment, placing it into that nebulous inventory he possesses. That might come in handy, later. Sarah isn't the only one collecting things for alchemy.

    As he approaches, his ears honed from listening for footsteps on countless nights pick up something. "Hmm. Sounds of a battle?" One of his ears might even tweak a bit, as he scratches thoughtfully at his beard stubble. Any warnings, in this case, are heeded but ultimately overridden by intense curiosity. What could have survived in a world like this? "Tsk, they're using fists, like common ruffians. They could at least use swords." He once again raises that scanning device of his toward the combatants, like he's some kind of tourist snapping images of the quirky locals.

Shin Tokuyama (756) has posed:
    "Dude, I'm not using guns!" Shin cries out at Allenby in displeasure, frowning, "Fists all the way, even in a zombie apocalypse. I'll just punch their heads to death," He points out. He doesn't loot much, to his defense, only taking what look like some cans of food and shoving them in his backpack for some future night when he can't afford dinner.

    He's still limping a bit from those injuries and looks slightly dinged up, but is at least moving around and mostly good to go. Doctors somewhere are probably mad he escaped a hospital bed, but he couldn't restrain his wandering nature. When he's called out by name, he looks up, "OH! Hey!" He reaches into his breast pocket and pulls out a small book, flipping through it, "Miss... Serenity, yeah? Nice to see you again. You're looking cougar-y."

    He puts the book away and gets to walking along with her, clearly intending to follow her upon hearing there's someone watching them all. Might be someone in the know about the story of this world, so that's worth checking out. His hands go into his pockets as he limp-strolls along with the group.

Tomoe has posed:
Tomoe has her FRAPs running as she does this it should be able to be useful. So something called Phantom was invading? She looked out this was the nightmare her world's governments feared there were only a handful of elites in the world and most nations were wary of the Union and the Conderates. She does make note of it now she's going to turn about and start making for the mall where she heard sounds of trouble. Shge stops however at Serenity's words. The redhead Asian woman turns about and starts bounding along to catch up with Serenity, she's not pulled a weapon just yet but she calls out to Serenity.

"I hear you, this is the nightmare my own world is terrifed of happening..."

Allenby Beardsley (760) has posed:
    Slowly, Allenby turns to stare a little at HK as he waxes poetic about capping some dying victims. She shifts her angle just a little so at all times she has the clearly homocidal droid in her field of vision. Allowing HK to get behind her just seems like a bad idea. "Well yeah, you're a killer robot. You better be prepared for iminent hostilities. Me, on the other hand, if some zombies roll up I want to take 'em out at range instead of risk getting bitten."

    She shrugs a little at Steve as she slings a rifle over her shoulder and picks up a handgun. Allenby takes a moment to check how many rounds are left. "Definitely not risking getting bitten. But if I do, Shin has dibs on killing zombie-me. Sorry robot guy."

    Shin rejects the guns and Allenby pouts. "Oh come on, haven't you ever played a survival horror game before?" Allenby scoops up a handful of newspapers, marveling at the headlines after she gets her phone to auto-translate it from Japanese. "Oh, I see, this Earth got invaded by an outsider. A thing from another dimension called the Phantom-" she shoves the papers over to Shin. "It sounds like this world's about to lose to it."

Winnowill (108) has posed:
Winnowill doesn't seem to care that Serenity is watching her, but what Shin says has her looking over her shoulder with an arched eyebrow. "She doesn't look like a cougar to me. Not human, perhaps, but certainly more human than feline, if I'm understanding the word correctly." The puzzlement is a minor distraction at best, though. She's examining the battle with some interest.

"She is correct... they are not even alive. Interesting." She'll also look for some stairs or something, but with an idle thought she tests just how near-living the orcs and men are, targeting one of the 'men' with a short, intense burst of telepathic power. Maybe they have brains to melt even if they aren't alive.

Idly, she asks, "What is a zombie, anyway?"

Sarah Parsle (789) has posed:
Sarah packs the PHANTOM NEWSPAPER into her ENIGMA MODUS. It might be handy later. She isn't expecting to find laser swords, everyone knows you find the best stuff in the horrifically dangerous places.

Meanwhile, Sarah doesn't really look twice as Steve shows up. Just a first glance at the guy and what he's up to and then she shrugs at his comment. "Not as handy as you'll think." Sarah says. "People like to make assumptions. Looks safe enough for the moment, though. But if you have some way of keeping an eye out, go for-"

And then Serenity summons a bird. Sarah immediatley YOUTH ROLLS, digging herself under a wrecked vehicle and peering out from under it. This is probably for the best, since HK-47 arrives and immediately starts making Sarah reassess where she wants to be in relation to that robot. Winowill doesn't help matters.

After a moment, she pops back out and shuffles down the road, following the others towards the skyscraper. Serenity greets her, and she nods back. "Sup." Shin's presence, however, causes Saran to look vaguely less grim and gloomy. "Hey, Combat Vagrant." Sarah calls to Shin. "Nice to see you around." He's been proven actually dependable in her assessment of how he operates.

She sighs, though. He's probably going to get horribly killed as soon as it's most inconvenient.

As soon as they reach the area of the disturbance, Sarah is going to.. HAVE ABSOLUTELY NOTHING TO DO WITH IT. She shimmies aside, trying to stay out of sight and stay off the aggro radius of the masseed fighters. "Looks like there's something important in that skyscraper. Anyone have a way to bypass or clear the guys down here?"

HK-47 (754) has posed:
    HK takes note of how several of his companions have regarded him, though the droid takes an interest in the one that responds directly to him, eyes seeming to glow with something akin to appreciation at the praise of his description for the land around them.

    However, when the sounds of combat reach the droid's audio receptors, he eagerly moves forward to scout the area, taking in the sight of the chaos - though not quite the cries of despair he'd hoped for - as another element to make his enjoyment of the scenery feel complete.

    For a short time, the droid observes the fight, taking in sensory data to try and compile a working picture of what could cause this, as it was beyond the scope of anything he knew of that conventional weapons could bring about so quickly - at least not alone.

    After hearing the talk of 'zombies' and about how one could apparently be made into one through a bite, HK rationalized it as being similar to the 'Rakghoul plage' in his own world - a virus that could turn dully-civilized meatbags into flesh-eating creatures that spread their infection by wounding others.

    That in turn meant that he would be at a significant advantage as he was comprised of weak organic components. But then again, that had always been an advantage of his.

    At Sarah's question, HK pulls free his incendiary grenade and, with only a moment's hesitation for giving a statement - "Commentary - You need only ask" - the droid lobs it into the mass of fighting forms.

Cocoa (884) has posed:
    The orcs and businessmen outside are too occupied fighting one another to pick on people looking to climb the skyscraper. Thus, the front door is totally an option. Serenity leads in, and up the stairs! The section of building left is still mostly a building, really. It collapsed to the side, not in on itself. Looks like it was a TV station, judging from the logos and equipment all over. Unfortunately for Serenity, the way isn't safe.

    A dozen technicians, all wielding recording equipment-- two have large cameras, three have microphone perches, one has an old boxy computer minitor and the likes, are waiting on the second floor. Like the businessmen in front, their heads are competely covered by colorful, horned eggs, with assorted face patterns on them, like scary halloween masks. Her sight might not be able to pick up on the finer details though.

    They come swinging at her! With... all the deadliness of very regular human beings wielding sound perches, cameras and a computer monitor like they're melee weapons. Yeah they're picking on someone vastly outside their kill range.

    Not just at her, but at anyone who's actually following her UP THE BUILDING.

    OUTSIDE, Steve scans the fighting creatures. The businessmen seem to be composed in large quantity of air. The head is made out of ????, and also mostly air. And their clothes are made out of clothes. They have a layer of skin, but nothing underneath. The orcs, on the other hand, are composed of data all the way through.

    As one of the businessmen lands a nasty punch on an orc, it falls to the ground and reverts into a human being. A completely normal, healthy human being, still breathing, and suddenly there are two lifesigns here, not one. Looks like a middle-aged man in police clothing, and he's unconscious from the blow.

    Winnowill sends psychic bullets at two of the businessmen. The eggs on their heads suddenly SCREECH in pain, and unwrap from those positions, revealing nothing underneath. The bodies fall to the ground, empty skin and clothes without a head. The parasites, hurt and now angry, looking mostly like colorful horned stingrays, suddenly streak straight for their attacker, trying to hug her face. You know where this is going.

    HK's grenade lands in the cluster of 'zombies' and orcs. The suited men are consumed in flames, while orcs stagger back from the damage, falling to the ground when sufficiently burnt and reverting to living human beings. A few soldiers, another policeman.

    Orcs and businessmen turn upon the group still outside now, ending their feud. There's a dozen of each left, roughly; some of the men produce golf clubs or lead pipes, while the orcs just charge with their clawed hands. These guys aren't a huge threat, but they're not zombie-slow, so their numbers could still be an issue.

HK-47 (754) has posed:
    HK finds himself intrigued by the curious nature of their new opponents as many of them reverted into humans.

    Was this the situation that had been observed by the errant meatbags when they conceived the term "be careful what you wish for?" For HK-47 had longed for there to be at least a few remaining fleshlings to derive and complete his enjoyment of the surroundings with... and no sooner did he indulge his processor core in this wishful desire, he found it fulfilled before his very photoreceptors.

    And just as he had desired... they were rushing towards him as though begging for him to wipe them from existence.

    So who was he to deny them that?

    As the hoard approaches, HK raises his arm, a clicking of steal plates pre-empting the appearance of a nozzle from his forearm-casing that soon starts spewing out a jet of flame before the droid, intending to reduce the offending attackers into ashes that will match and add to the surrounding landscape.

    These opponents were little more then animals - there was no reason to exercise finesse here. Especially when they had a target to reach.

    However, while it sent a slight pulse of remorse through his processor core that he could not take his time with these targets, the sound of the screams he would elect from them as they were incinerated would, for the time being, serve as consolation.

Tomoe has posed:
Tomoe is not having an issue keeping up with Serenity but she was not expecting something ike this at all s they make hteir way through the building things seem to be going well enough. She wan't expecting this but soon they are are uner attack. She's creeped out by it, and she's now being attacked. She moves to not even grab her guns yet she starts weaving and dodging the astike hs'll even attempt to twist them out of the hands of some of the attackers.

"What the heck are these things?!"

She's very glad she did take some /unarmed/ ranks with Eisen after all it helps a lot she'll even attempt to just punch these guys out where she can.

"Ma'me you got any ideas on this?!"

She calls out to Serenity.

Steve (803) has posed:
    "...huh." It's not that often that Steve actually sounds completely perplexed by something, but what he sees through the thaumometer, that golden hexagon he's been holding all this time, prompts the reaction. Air isn't uncommon, but living or even un-living creatures aren't typically a source of it. Are they just clothed sacks of air, then? He seems to resolve this notion, with a quip of, "Interesting! I knew I had a good feeing about coming here." Wasn't he the one a while ago that said it gave him the creeps? So which is it? Regardless, as one of the orcs appears to revert to a 'true' form, he once again scratches at his beard. That is, before he gives a noise of light annoyance, as the attacks on their little melee have not gone unnoticed, "Damn. I wanted to watch them a little longer. Oh well, nothing to be done for it now."

    Withdrawing the gold-capped length of wood from its place at his hip, he takes a moment to twist a silvery-blue bauble onto the end. As the parasites seek a new host, he grunts, "Cripes!" The end of the wand discharges a bolt of electricity at one of them; trusting that Winnowill will be able to finish off any other that gets through. The jolt is sustained however long is necessary, and possibly more than that, in that 'oh god, a bug, kill it kill it' fashion of overkill for panicked safety. As he notices the others beginning to shamble in a threatening manner, he asides, "Now THAT's a zombie, since you were wondering." He does marvel at how efficient at HK-47 is at this killing business, though. "I might have to take some notes. That's a lot better than the dart launchers I've come up with for my own little buddies." He says this, as he aims more arcing electricity at the hoard now approaching. He doesn't seem to care much if they're civilians. Not like they have a world left to wake up to.

Shin Tokuyama (756) has posed:
    "Dude sweet. If you get bitten and I have to kill you, I will totally get some sick advancement in my narrative. You're the best, Allenby," He fistpumps a bit, pretty stoked at the idea of having to dramatically kill Allenby at some future junction. Though moments later, he more seriously says, "Please avoid that, though. It'd suck."

    Following at the side of Serenity, or at least in her general entourage, allows for Shin to come across some interesting things. Various sights, as he walks, are photographed via his phone to be posted on his twitter later, "So there's a...-" He cuts off, looking at VENOVEL.

    "Oh, no, the slang term. Look it up some time. You're pretty cougary too," He notes casually, shooting her a finger-gun before walking along with the group. He continues his thought a moment later.

    "-... strange person left in the city, watching, according to what she said. That means it could be a total villain or a protagonist. It's not clear," Shin muses as he rubs his chin. Of course, technicians are attacking a moment later and he has to actually fight.

    He doesn't put too much effort into it, being fairly tired out. He dashes towards one and lays him out with a huge haymaker punch before bouncign on his feet a bit, "Mook chumps. Not much challenge."

Winnowill (108) has posed:
As it turns out, Winnowill, or Lady Venevol, doesn't seem like any kind of fighter! The parasites that fly toward her smack right into her face, wrapping around to make her stagger and clutch her throat! Oh god, this is terrible! This is awful! They're killing her and going to take over her body and-

Actually, as soon as she recovers her balance, the parasites - both of them - erupt in a spray of fleshy bits. If they have blood, there's a lot of it now, because they apparently just turned themselves inside out when trying to latch onto the woman. She coughs, scowling at the near-miss. "What interesting creatures..." Uh oh. She may have just gotten IDEAS from this.

Cougary huh? She doesn't have time to really respond to that. "Mn, I trust that the metal man here can take care of these." She isn't going up quite yet, she'll catch up later. If she can, she's going to check out the man who fell over, just to see if anything is wrong with him. If there is... well whatever. She isn't going to heal him or anything. He doesn't seem like a useful sort.

Allenby Beardsley (760) has posed:
    Beaming, Allenby gives Shin two big thumbs up, "My death is narratively important! But yeah I do kind of want to avoid that."

    A few minutes later: "Neither of these things are zombies." Allenby observes, flicking the safety on her looted handgun and shoving it into one of the pockets of her magenta vest. "Alright, I won't be needing these then." While it would usually be the thing to wait and see what was /supposed/ to be fight, Allenby doesn't seem to discriminate very much. This is especially the case since both parties seem to be willing to attack them, as evidenced by the masked guys that come after the climbing Serenity.

    Allenby darts in after the orcs, a grin spreading across her face, "Hey Shin! Hey! Look at this! I've been meaning to show this off-!" Dark purple fire suddenly spills down the length of her right arm, immediately saturating the nearby air with a very angry, hateful feeling. The blue-haired girl lets out a yell as she slams the arm forward, fist closed and held perpendicular to the ground, legs shifting into a horse stance for a brief moment. The purple energy masses, then blasts outward in the form of a seething fireball of hate at a knot of orcs.

Serenity (607) has posed:
    Oh... this is... weird. Letting the others handle the group outside if they want, Serenity is confronted with attackers. Her blade is already out, though, and she can see these things are not up to par with typical soldiers. "Useless against normal people, but these troops... I think I see what happened here," she mutters.

    They aren't really a challenge to Elites, it seems. Serenity is FAR from at her peak, but she's skilled enough for a quick slash or two to take care of these things, wary about letting them touch her. If enough rush then they might get grabby enough to cause her to tear herself away, though.

Cocoa (884) has posed:
    OUTSIDE:
    HK starts setting orcs and businessmen alike on fire; there are no screams, likely to the droid's profound sadness, but they do burn quite well. Unusual as it must be to be able to set someone on fire and as a result, cure them of whatever affliction has turned them into buggy orcs. Can HK feel conflict at the fact his genocidal tendencies are currently serving to save lives, not end them? Maybe he can drown the thoughts with repeated .gif loops of businessmen going up in flames.

    One of the two parasites dashing at Winnowill gets blasted by a jolt from Steve, falling to the ground, lifeless again. Slightly scorched. Does someone want a facehugger corpse?

    The other erupts in a spray of fleshy bits indeed, whatever is 'left' of it falling to the ground at Winnowill's feet. She'll find that those orcs that have fallen and reverted are just completely normal human beings. Exhausted from the ordeal, but there's no trace left of whatever transformed them in the first place. Maybe bits and pieces of reality manipulating magic. She's right, though, these guys are useless to her.

    As the last of the mooks fall, the figure atop the skyscraper glances down, discarding her bowl of popcorn. 'Uriel', a girl with long purple hair, edgy dark clothes with a bit of a bat motif to them, what with the wings, lots of bandages, and a very large clawed right hand, grins as she shouts down: "GOOD JOB! YOU GUYS CLEARED THE TRASH TO THE BOSS! Man, I didn't know there were even people left here, besides the ones I caught. I hope you don't mind, these guys are a few content patches behind, but let's start you off on something easy!"

    She waves her big, clawed hand, and the air suddenly warps amidst the group at the base of the building. Two towering figures appear, both humanoid. Their faces, like, the orcs, don't have mouths, or eyes, but they're flat, with fancy stained glass patterns on them that loosely resemble a face. Their limbs are bug-like, with chitin and visible joints.

    One is green, dressed in heavy armor with two swords. The other is purple, dressed in wizard robes with a staff. The two figures are about fifteen foot tall, roughly.

    "BEHOLD! THE TWIN TUTORS! Penultimate bosses of the Quraj Palace! Those guys were total party wipers like four expansions ago, you know?"

Cocoa (884) has posed:
    INSIDE:
    Tomoe punches one of the businessmen! With so much force, it goes right through. There's no splatter of blood, no gore. These guys are hollow, under the skin. The technician collapses, dead. Re-dead, anyway.

    Shin quickly identifies the narrative place of these guys. Browbeating them isn't hard; they can't take much punishment at all.

    Allenby overpowers a number of orcs that had followed them in with her own gush of fire, rivaling HK's in efficiency. The orcs hit collapse, reverting to another batch of policemen and soldiers. It probably catches some of the technicians in the crossfire, too.

    And a few cuts from Serenity finish the last technicians off. The road up is clear! The group climbs ten stories up, and emerge on the-- well, not roof, but the thirteenth floor, which has no more ceiling or wells. Close enough to a roof now. They come out behind the girl, just as she starts screaming down at the others. She seems oblivious to the fact people have snuck up on her.

Sarah Parsle (789) has posed:
Sarah continues to hide under the car, but she does activate her STRIF MODUS, producing...

A JENGA STACK. Sarah's Modus is set to PUZZLEKIND. Being stationary and having a stable flat surface handy, Sarah begins pulling pieces out of the JENGA STACK, whipping them through the air. She doesn't target the orcs or the strange parasite-headed people, instead focusing on trying to run interference for any parasites that get free. Small balsowood blocks sail through the air and strike with a low >pok< noise as she tries to evoke some kind of stunlock mechanic.

Even so, she doesn't do a whole lot of damage. STRIFE MODUS or no, it's still a suboptimal weapon choice even if she /is/ building a STACK COMBO.

Oooooooooor that could happen. "What? Seriously? We're in a boss fight? Who the hell designed this crap?" Sarah queries. "Hey, murderbot. You're actually good at this, can you make that problem go away?" She points at the TWIN TUTORS. "Kill the mage first." She advises. She does not leave cover yet. Someone more heroic will certainly save the unconscious people before they get murdered in collateral damage.

Shin Tokuyama (756) has posed:
    "Damn Allenby!" Shin says when the Gundam pilot opens up a total can of psychopower on the orcs, cutting them down with some pretty intense moves. He plants a foot on the chest of the guy he cold-cocked and remarks, "You have some new tricks. Pretty intense, but we should keep moving," He notes.

    Shin bursts through the door up onto the roof, landing and taking a suitably (to him) cool guy stance. The martial artist looks around, lifting up his hands and striking a karate pose to signal his arrival, as all good protagonists should.

    It is through fortunate narrative timing and pacing that, in accordance with the GM pose, he arrives up on the roof in time for the mysterious girl to be making her speech. Shin listens to it all, his heterochromatic gaze fixed on the mysterious stranger. Abruptly, he shouts...

    "YOU. That outfit, that face, those skills. It could only be one person."

    He points at her as if she were someone he once encountered years ago. He takes a step towards her and continues to hold the finger out, "I thought we'd never meet. A figure that existed only in myths and rumors! I've been looking for you since the day I started my journey, but I thought we'd never actually meet."

    He takes a slow breath and stares at her, reaching up to take off his sunglasses in a dramatic fashion. Could it be possible that Shin knows this strange girl? Is she someone from his past? Is she tied into where he came from somehow?

    He thrusts his finger at her again, shouting across their distance, "And now we meet!"

    A beat pause.

    "The Dark Path Love Interest, finally revealed."

HK-47 (754) has posed:
    As the burning husks collapse... HK-47 finds to his annoyance that his prior feeling of bliss was evaporating rather quickly, the more ironic notion behind the term "be careful what you wish for" now making it's full presence known.

    Instead of turning to ash... his 'kills' were turning into heaps of unconscious meatbags, each one breathing in a form of peaceful unconsciousness as if to mock him with their unawareness of the situation around them.

    He would have rectified that in short order... but he had another issue to attend to. Namely the small, vaguely chiropteran creature that sought to challenge them.

     "Advisory - If your request is to watch us disassemble these organisms to their squishy, fluid-soaked component parts, I believe we shall be all-too-happy to oblige you."

    The droid takes a knee and aims his disruptor rifle - at the weaker opponent, the mage, just as the female noted. However, he does let out an a retort to her "Irritated Statement - I am well aware of which flesh-lined fluid-sac takes priority as a target. I am built for combat. You are not. I would advise staying to a working formula lest one of my shots... make any miscalculated impacts."

    If there is one thing HK-47 dislikes, it is being ordered around by meatbags he does not know.

    An instant later, the first shot is fired, streaking for the 'mage' with lethal accuracy.

Steve (803) has posed:
    The strangely dressed and clawed girl, though many of the others here are strangely dressed to him, finally manages to capture Steve's attention. You know, in between zapping things with lightning a bit more, just to be certain, in a magical version of the tried and true double tap. A lot of what she's saying sounds vaguely familiar to him somehow, almost like he should have remembered something from a deep and unreachable corner of his forgotten past. Though, once again, he gets that sensation around a lot of things. After clearing his head a bit, after a slight pulsing throb passes from just how familiar some of it feels, he spares a moment from zapping to call up, "Eh, it was a nice bit of exercise, and the jumping things are creepy. And, we're not from around here. Anyway, nice place you got! Must have taken forever to build all these towers, and make them look all ruined-looking." Yeah, he definitely doesn't fully grasp how other worlds do things, at times.

    That must mean that these are her play things, in any case, which would explain why she was watching everything go down. Getting the general concept of a boss fight, at least, he rolls up one sleeve of his thaumaturgical robes. "Didn't figure I'd be facing something like this today, else I'd have brought more with me. Like that girl said, though, with this iron golem here, it looks like we've got a whole arsenal." As a potentially ill-advised move, he actually moves one muscled arm to give HK-47 an 'atta boy' pat on a jointed shoulder, having apparently already accepted him the same as any flesh-bearing comrade. Further, in a way that vaguely seems threatening, despite being in a good-natured tone, he adds, "It had better drop something good, too."

    If he notices that others have appeared behind the girl, up on the building, he doesn't pay it any mind. Instead he is focused on the TWIN TUTORS. They're easily as tall as one Enderman standing on another's shoulders! Not that this appears to immediately concern him, his face instead moving into a relishing grin. Of course, as he is a creature of trial and error, he could never guess the correct conclusion in one go. Obviously the one in wizard robes is his RIVAL, so they should have a magical duel, joining in a focus fire with the assassin droid, and adding a bit of status effect to the mix. Replacing the end cap of his wand with one of a far chillier blue than the other, he fires a series of what appear to be snowballs at a glance. What could he hope to achieve with that? A slightly errant one strikes a dented parking meter on its way, flash-freezing into a chunk of ice. Oh, that.

    Also, that there are civilians that might get in the cross fire of magic and bullets does not seem to concern him in the least. Not his world, not his problem.

Allenby Beardsley (760) has posed:
    "I know, right?" Allenby manages a half-smile though strangely nothing more. She also looks a little exhausted by that. As for the re-created humans, she doesn't seem inclined to stick around and help them up or check on them to see if they're okay. In fact, she strides through their prone bodies without giving them so much a look as she trots after the others to ascend the building.

    Several flights of stairs later, they finally reach the roof where some girl is yelling over the edge of the building, "Oh right, that one lady climbed it, didn't she...?" Allenby reasons, nudging Shin a few times, "Hey, listen to her, I think she's genre savvy too-"

    Shin interrupts with a proclamation of DARK PATH LOVE INTEREST to the purple-haired girl. "/What/!?" Allenby seems almost a little too angry about this and reaches over to smack Shin upside the head, "What the hell, Shin, how am /I/ not the 'dark path' love interest? Are you pushing for the love triangle already?" She glowers at him for a few moments before turning away.

    Thoroughly annoyed, Allenby forces herself to wait a few seconds as HK shoots the 'mage' half of the boss duo. When she's sufficiently sure that she won't get hit, she speeds in, launching a sweeping kick upwards, followed by a second kick, then a punch as she tries to air juggle the mage for a good 4-hit combo. There are no more signs of the mysterious purple fire as she does this.

Serenity (607) has posed:
    Serenity comes up just a hair later than the others, as she had to stay behind to briefly check on the unconscious humans. Strange. They revert when killed into normal humans? That's something that is of great concern to her, really. But it doesn't take long to confirm they're okay, so Serenity arrives just in time to hear...

    Dark Path Love Interest.

    "Seriously?" She sighs heavily, then whistles again. She's not going to do anything stupid like leap down a skyscraper, she's sending her giant-ass bird down to screech down toward the 'boss fight' and land heavily behind them. She has no idea of any gimmick yet, so the raptor unfortunately targets the mage with a pair of slicing air-slashes, which have minimal effect.

    Serenity just... takes the fire escape. Extremely FAST, but still the fire escape. Once she's down there she can probably direct her summon a little better.

Winnowill (108) has posed:
Oh no! The boss monsters! And the fighters ENGAGE! Winnowill... uh. Is still just kind of standing around. Instead of engaging the boss monsters with her erstwhile allies, the disguised elf just peers at the strange girl... and starts talking to her.

"So you watched the entire world die, and when a challenge of survivors comes along you provide opponents for them?" The woman smiles, tapping her lip with a single finger. "I will have to remember that one." There's a certain smug appreciation for the girl's style in there.

Tomoe has posed:
Tomoe sees how good Shin is of a fighter and she has to say she's pretty darn impressed then she sees Allenby as well charging in and doing stuff that would be from a VRMMORPG or a movie on her worl it's still something to see and know those are living people dong stuff like that.

"Some sort of infestation is there anything we can do for these people?"

Her punch was bit more than she expected and it seems that they ar eindeed dead and just puppeted corpse to her horror.

"...my world fears stuff like this...happening."

This hits way too close for her, and she's soon got a spaz-12 shotgun out of her inventory as she make ssure it's loaded and she's going to press on with the rest of the group. She pauses as they reach the she hears them screaming about the boss and clearing. She has a sinking feeling she's fallen into yet another death game. Oh why lord, why another death game?! She makes sure her shotgun's ready as she moves to make ready for a possible attack.

"So a death game and let me guess Phantom is the one behind it?"

She's going to check on the people but Serenity is ahead of her and has that handled..

She then seeing that's well in hand she's going after Serenity and just does not say a thing about the love paths /at/ all. She just does not say one thing. She uses her inhuman agility to bound down the building with eace and the moment she gets in range she opens up with the shotgun also on the mage.

Cocoa (884) has posed:
    ROOF:

    Well, if people intended to use the surprise to assault Cocoa, they've let the chance slip! Or rather, Shin has. The purple-haired girl turns to stare, edgy crimson eyes glaring at Shin with no small amounts of confusion. Betraying her looks-- the bloody bandages, the black clothes and all-- her voice is actually kind of high pitched.

    "I'm the what? No! No I'm not! Can't you tell? I'm the bad guy's Dragon! Look at how scary I look! I DID ALL THIS, YOU SHOULD BE AFRAID!" That's not true at all. Phantom did all this. She helped! Like, punched a few key people. But she didn't do all this at all.

    Serenity and Allenby have just pretty much left to go fight the bosses. 'Uriel' points at Tomoe, mostly for Shin's benefit. "SEE? She gets it! Look how pale and pensive she is! Hear the disgust she said the word Phantom with? I'm Uriel, the warrior! I herald Phantom's arrival and the time for worlds to join with the Demonsphere!"

    Cocoa huffs, glancing down towards Winnowill. "I didn't just watch! I helped! Watching would be boring. I ran out of survivors to play with though, so I turned them into monsters and pit them against Phantom's goons to see who'd win. You guys look way more fun, though."

Shin Tokuyama (756) has posed:
    WHACK.

    "Oowwwwwwww..." Shin rubs the side of his head where Allenby smacked him, "No you're not the dark path love interest! You're the 'Good Girl With A Bad Crowd' path! It's totally different!" He shouts at her before she runs off, "It's a different thiiiiiiing!" He insists, rubbing the side of his head and scowling before she runs off to go fight the boss.

    She'll get it later, he hopes.

    "These are not mutually exclusive roles!" Shin shouts back at Uriel, "You can be The Dragon, but then you succumb to 'In Love With The Mark' and pull a 'Heel-Face Turn'. That's the way the tropes line up this time, yo!" Shin points at her and wags his fingers as he explains the setup, "I'm sorry, that's just my narrative right now. If the path goes that way. It's still pretty up in the air on if I'm gonna go down that path. I'm pretty happy with Allenby, I admit," He jerks a thumb to the girl fighting down below.

    "But, you know, I figure it's better to cover the bases and tell you in advance we're going to go for 'Love Redeems' at some point if you stick around."

Cocoa (884) has posed:
    OUTSIDE:

    Down below, the Twin Tutors encounter begins!

    HK is happy to oblige indeed. A single accurate blaster shot nails the MAGE in the chest, scorching a large hole into the chitin. One could see the exact same damage mirroring on the WARRIOR.

    Cocoa shouts down at Steve: "I DIDN'T BUILD THIS PLACE, I WRECKED IT! D-Do you guys not know what bad guys are?! Come on! I'm trying REALLY HARD here! Do I have to go down there and kill all those survivors? I thought they'd be a nice reward if you guys won, but now I'm not sure!"

    She's starting to sound a bit irritated.

    The ice shots from Steve can't seem to freeze the MAGE, but oddly it's the WARRIOR who starts slowing down a tad, as frost starts forming where the MAGE is hit. It does seem to be working though, as damage adds to HK's shots.

    Sarah has her trusty JENGA STACK. Those were useful against the mooks, but now she's just hiding under a car! Or perhaps she's tactically observing the fight. That's much better than hiding.

    Allenby joins the fray herself, laying hit after hit on the MAGE. The wounds mirror on the WARRIOR, as the massive spellcaster is air juggled for a few moments.

    Serenity's shots do seem tanked by some sort of anti-magic aura around the MAGE. It isn't absolute in the slightest and can be overpowered, but maybe it got lucky just this once.

    On her way down, Tomoe engages the MAGE too, knocking it out of Allenby's air-stunlock and into the ground with a loud crash. The wizard robes are bruised like skin, and the massive boss struggles to return to its feet.

    With a booming thundercrack from its staff, the MAGE sends out a massive, arcane shockwave, which uproots trees and blows already weakened building walls away. For those caught in it, it'll do not such thing as tear them apart, so much that it's brute magic force. Sarah will lose the car covering her, most likely, as it's knocked away!

    The WARRIOR, on the other hand, suddenly rushes in likea whirlwind of steel. Its swords spin and flourish wildly, as it attempts to give ALLENBY a piece of its mind for stunlocking the MAGE. Slashslashslashslashslash!

Cocoa (884) has posed:
    "I'm not the love interest! OF ANYONE! I'm the Dragon, and I have a very healthy Villainous Friendship with my Big Bad! I help him eat worlds and boost his forces! Do you know why I did all this? Because It Amused Me! I'm a Complete Monster and I'm way past the Moral Event Horizon, okay?!"

    By now, Cocoa has taken to standing directly in front of Shin, using that big clawed hand to tap him on the chest with each word she puts emphasis on to... well, put more emphasis on them.

    "So get it right! I'm not getting redeemed anytime soon! I MEAN NEVER. I MEAN I AM -NEVER- GETTING REDEEMED. Damnit!"

HK-47 (754) has posed:
    Upon feeling contact with his shoulder-armor casing, the droid glances at the offending meatbag with a calculated gaze.

    Normally he would be disgusted by the idea of a fleshling smearing his armor with the oily-secretions from their skin-sack coverings... however, HK was able to tolerate it only because the meatbag and it's companion was showing the due respect for his capabilities.

     In contrast to their strange opponent's yells, HK actually reacts with excitement at the prospect. "Request - Oh, please do! It is so very hard to maneuver with so many of these fleshy obstructions blocking my path. Supplication - Additionally, if you require any assistance in disposing of these obtuse distractions, I shall be very happy to assist!"

     "Recommendation - also, I must note that, impressive as your work here is, it is far too... empty to truly inspire the sort of disparaging atmosphere that is so purportedly distressing to organic minds. Keeping some of your victims strewn across the area, locked in the last enunciations of a meatbag in the final throws of total systemic component failure, would have been the perfect method to offset the sense of silence, as the anticipation of what may be found drains away when one believes everything has already died." The droid gives this impromptu lecture on the merits of creating a true battlefield dystopia even as he slams down his portable barrier to wither the attack from the shockwave, though it doesn't block it all as he is still sent back several feet when the barrier breaks.

    That, it seemed, was an indicator to stop holding back his heavy ordinance.

    Reaching for a new grenade, the droid pulls his thermal detonator - his strongest explosive - and hurls it at the mage, the droid's intent being to obliterate the target to atoms and catch the warrior in the backblast of the attack.

Winnowill (108) has posed:
Okay. This girl is clearly insane. Talking in strange Capital Letters and Other Words of Importance like she is, it would appear that Shin is the one to communicate with her. This is very strange, but that's fine, as Winnowill has something else to worry about. Her ally, Allenby, is being attacked!

Well, she doesn't actually care, but then most Feds don't care about one another. Like most, she does recognize the need for allies though. As the warrior leaps toward Allenby, she frowns and focuses an intense Black Sending at him, a lancing burst of telepathic damage.

Allenby Beardsley (760) has posed:
    "So I'm not /evil/ enough for the dark path? I don't know how to feel about that. I definitely don't feel like the 'good girl' in this narrative!" Allenby still sounds annoyed and even she herself is surprised by this. Maybe Shin's words actually hurt her on some level..? Or it could be the work of that mysterious purple hate fire.

    "Aw, I was hoping the killer robot would shoot it again. I guess that works though." Allenby sighs as Tomoe spikes the mage into the ground. She starts advancing on him again when the thundercrack shoves her backwards, repelling her from the savaged wizard.

    Knocked onto her back, she rocks onto her shoulders and hands and handsprings herself back onto her feet. No sooner than she does does Allenby find herself with a warrior suddenly in her face. The first few blows catch her off guard, wounding her and drawing blood, but after that her own considerable speed helps her keep up with the rest of the flurry and Allenby turns away and parries the remaining blows before trying to sneak one in there herself.

    Allenby's strike is a two-handed blow that is the physical answer to the mage's spell. She tries not for damage but to force the warrior away from her (and into black magic lance and/or bullet range!)

Steve (803) has posed:
    There's a pause from the miner, Steve, while taking a break from his spell casting, as he scratches at a cheek. "Bad guys, huh? Seems kind of cliche." He has certainly come to understand that his own twisted morality isn't quite considered healthy in the multiverse at large, but there's little changing for him now. "I mean, I engage in what is apparently shady stuff frequently, but I don't think that makes me bad. It's about survival, you kno--" His deeply philosophical moments are cut short, as he recognizes that the demeanor of the bosses have shifted, now that they have absorbed the heroes(*)' opening volleys. Specifically, his magic super rival is beginning to attack with something he has never experienced before. Is this some kind of pressure wave!? Despite the terrain damage, it somehow feels differently as it begins to smack into him.

    While he physically braces, on reflex, it is his silly-looking purple robes atop his clothes that take the brunt of it. It makes an odd sort of sense; magical defense for a magical attack. The force mostly spares Steve, save knocking him on his rear for the moment, but his fancy magic robes are tattered! Wait, they're self-healing? Indeed, the rips are beginning to mend back together in real time. A fact that would seem reassuring to some, but instead, as Steve regains his wits, he begins cursing under his breath, glancing at his wand. "Damn, my vis." The magically astute would realize that the regenerative effect draws from the pool of magical power that is contained, or had been contained, within his wand. It is now utterly tapped, and might be able to make some pretty snowflakes in a pinch. "I hate to have to resort to such crude measures, but..."

    As he picks himself back up to his feet, he withdraws the iron pickaxe, the one he earlier used to extract a piece of car, from its place at his hip, placing his empty wand back in its stead. He gives it a few test swings, then without any grace or subtlety whatsoever, rushes for the (seemingly preoccupied) Warrior, jumping a meter into the air as he closes the gap (gotta aim for that added crit damage) and aims to bury the pointed head of the tool deeply into its body. "Die, and drop your loot," he hisses through clenched teeth!

Shin Tokuyama (756) has posed:
    "HEY!" Shin counters as she pokes him in the chest, puffing it up a bit and staring her down as he argues with her, "It is a narrative FACT that when the- hold on," Shin says as he holds up a finger to her and then turns away for a second. Allenby, upset as she is, takes precedent over his argument with a stranger.

    "No you're not evil! You generally give off the whole..." He wobbles his hand a bit, "Girl trying to find her place in the world and being exploited for narrative ends. That's not evil, it's more of a dark tragic sort. It's a totally different thing! You're searching for where you belong. The Dark Love interest is supposed to question their place in things much, much later in the narrative," He notes to Allenby before turning back to Uriel.

    If nothing else, he's keeping some huge portion of the evil occupied, so it's helping in his own weird way.

    "Right. It is a narrative FACT that if you are going to be a Dragon that also happens to be an attractive female, you are either emotionless and totally subservient or you have emotions that can be appealed to gradually over multiple meetings that eventually build more and more doubt in you," Shin brings his hands up, chopping one of them into his palm as he explains to her, "There's a system. You don't mess with that system. You chose the path of being a Dragon."

    "You and I are going through several Tragic Rose moments, where the only time we can be together is when we're fighting, and you can't admit that's the closest contact you get with normal people. Then it moves your heart and we become friends or love interests depending on narrative framework at the time."

Serenity (607) has posed:
    The explosion of force makes the Raptor screech, sending it hurtling back to thunk against the far wall of a building. It isn't out of commission yet, but it's rattled enough that Serenity herself has to take over.

    As for the Maedra in question, she's already leaping from halfway down, whipping her sword out with apparent intent on like, hitting the ground or something? Whatever her plan was, the force blast shatters it by slamming her against the wall of the building instead, leading to a pained grunt. It's lessened considerably by her blade, somehow, which hums with power now.

    Whatever. It got her down to the ground. As she glances up, she's darting over to replace the car in front of Sarah, commenting offhandedly, "In hindsight, I should have stayed up there and fought her, but I think Shin has it handled in his own way. I have doubts killing her would stop these two, though, so I suppose it doesn't matter."

    She waits carefully for an opening, and decides to attack the mage more directly this time. She doesn't move from where she is, but as soon as she sees a chance where it won't hit any 'allies' nearby, her sword sweeps down and sends out a shockwave toward the mage. It's basically the stored energy from her fall and what she could leech off his own attack, focused into a narrow crescent that plows a furrow along the ground as it tears toward him.

Tomoe has posed:
Tomoe is not holding back today not at all. She hears Cocoa's shouting and pauses. Mentally she shifts some objectiges about and Cocoa has no idea at the moment Tomoe lived through a death game, and got involved with at least one other. Still they can't leave the boss as it is either. She attemps to flips clear. She's caught in the shockeve and lets out a cry she's locked off her feet and forced to come in for a landing which is more than a little styleish, she's very glad she's got some non bugshot loaded in and fires off several solid slugs from th shotgun as she attempts to close with the mage again. She seems to be almost on auto pilot she didn't mean to make things harder for Allenby. Tomoe is not bleeding but there's some crack in her body glowing red, it's kinda creepy really.

"Don't sit still! These guys remind me of an old raid encounter my Dad told me about! Tell me about it I botched that too ma'me! I hate pyschos like that more than Ic an put into words!"

Sarah Parsle (789) has posed:
Sarah twitches as the bot makes a non-too-subtle threat to her. "All right, all right. I get the hint. I didn't think you've be that prickly." Despite the de-escalation attempt, Sarah does scrunch farther under the car.

Yeah, that's right, the car. Which is shielding her from being mulched and giving her a vantage point to be TACTICAL and totally not IN OVER HER HEAD. She looks up as she listens to the extremely shouty Uriel, and frowns. "This isn't going to end well at all." She predicts in her own pessimistic manner. Just as she's about to offer some more tactical advice from under the car, it gets SUPER BLASTED. With a yelp, Sarah's JENGA STACK undergoes a COLLAPSE with a low 'Jenga!', and Sarah herself is bowled over moments after the car is hurled away, causing her to thud into some nearby rubble. "Uuuuugh." Sarah groans as she stares up at the chaotic, terrifying sky. "Why did I even bother doing this. Every time I go poking around in a new world, everything tries to kill me, but I keep doing it anyway." She grouses as she sits up, mussing with her hair and trying to recover enough to try to do something about the RAID BOSSES. Serenity moves to interpose herself and act as a shield for her. "Huh. Didn't think I rated that high." She says as she dutifully moves to makes it easier for Serenity to tank for her. "I think Shin will be Shin at the problem. He'll probably solve it with gratuitous amounts of punching, considering the absurd fight he got into in the WMAT. I'd bet on him, but I'd rather see him win."

Cocoa (884) has posed:
    "Wh..." It would be hard to tell if Shin is so right he's stunning the girl into silence, so wrong it's doing the same thing, or if he's just really pissing her off by arguing back. In truth there's probably something to say about it being all three at once. Cocoa frowns, her left (normal) hand clenching in what is most likely fury.

    "We are NOT going to have tragic love moments! Or heartfelt confessions of any kind! Do you know what we're going to have? I'll tell you what we're going to have. I WILL SHOW YOU WHAT WE'RE GOING TO HAVE."

    There's speed to Cocoa's motions. Undeniable, aggressive speed. Her massive clawed hand suddenly grows, just a bit under Shin's size. The huge fingers try to wrap around him, to squeeze, and to suddenly turn him around towards the edge of the skyscraper.

    "Go play with your friends! We're not love buddies, damnit! We could have been fighting buddies or heated rivals, BUT URIEL IS NO ONE'S LOVE INTEREST!" Assuming she even managed to grab him, her claw hand erupts into flames, and suddenly tries to launch SHIN at ALLENBY, like he's a human cannonball. And likely on fire now.

    (This attack will happen after I resolve the RAID BOSSES, just had to pose it. If Shin even allows it! Wait for his pose first.)

Allenby Beardsley (760) has posed:
    Though she wants to pursue questioning this, Allneby doesn't get the chance to reflect on not being evil in the middle of the fight. In a way, it was good enough for her. After all, maybe sellers were using more fake names.

    "But what if I am questioning myself? What then?" Allenby adds.

Cocoa (884) has posed:
    "That wasn't my call!" Cocoa (presumably freed of her obligations to Shin now) turns to scream down at HK. "Phantom needs the bodies to make soldiers, so he cleaned the place up!" As much as she finds herself agreeing with the droid. Damn, that robot is like, an edgy evil advice dispensor. She should pretty much pay him to give her more advice, sometime.

    The droid's grenade, at any rate, hits the MAGE square in the jaw. It then detonates, which is debatably a fate much worse than getting your jaw bruised by a tiny metal object. Thanks to being MMORPG bosses, neither the MAGE nor WARRIOR are torn into their atomic components by the blast, but there's no room to doubt the attack crippled both of their health bars, leaving them heavily scorched and slowed down as they recover from the blast.

    The telepathic burst from Winnowill causes the WARRIOR to fall to one knee, and keeps it grounded-- it fails to recover at all from the grenade blast, unable to either protect the MAGE or attack right now.

    And then, the WARRIOR is grounded completely by Allenby. Her two-handed strike knocks it straight off its foot and knee and on its rear, with a good strike to its chest armor too.

    The weakened armor is immediatly exploited by Steve, who lodges his pickaxe into the WARRIOR's chest. It spasms, the pain mirrored to the MAGE, whose defenses all suddenly drop.

    Which is good, because in comes Serenity with her charged up sword. The ground-bound crescent cleaves the MAGE's legs, causing it to fall to the ground too. Cocoa thinks, as she watches, maybe she shouldn't have picked these bosses. These guys are obviously at level cap and these two are like, fourty levels behind! The outmatching going on is REAL.

    Tomoe piles up on the downed mage, emptying her shotgun into it. That looks extremely, extremely unpleasant. The damage is what finishes the job, as the shotgun blasts mirror themselves onto the WARRIOR, and both of the bosses suddenly turn gray. Their bodies puff into clouds of currency and XP. That is to say, purple smoke and gold.

    There's also the WARRIOR's twin swords, and the MAGE'S staff. They don't really do anything special, they're just good in general.

Shin Tokuyama (756) has posed:
    Shin is scowling at Cocoa as she clenches her hand at him. Only instead of disagreeing with her, he just shouts right at her, "THIS CONCLUDES OUR INTRODUCTORY CLASH OF IDEALS AND SUBSEQUENT EXPLANATIONS FOR THIS ENCOUNTER. WE WILL CONTINUE THIS AT ANOTHER TIME WHEN WE MEET AG-"

    And then she grabs him. He can't resist or stop her much, because his injuries from last night are still pretty extensive. In fact, even the squeezing causes him to cry out in pain and arch himself a bit in the massive claw's grasp.

    This is made worse by the fact that she then lights him on fire and hurls him right at Allenby. So his wounds are exacerbated, he's lit on fire, and then hurled at his best friend like a comet, "AAAAAAAAAAAAH IF YOU QUESTION YOURSELF YOU NEED TO DECIDE THE SUBSTANTIAL PHILOSOPHICAL IMPLICATION OF WORKING FOR A MORALLY SUSPECT GROUP OF PEOPLE AND HOW THAT ASSOCIATION AFFECTS OR DEFINES YOU IN TERMS OF YOUR PERSONAL, GREATER SENSE OF MORALITY. AAAAAAAAH YOU SHOULD ALSO DODGE!"

    Whether Allenby dodges or not, Shin will hit something. If it's the ground, he'll skid and roll for a bit and then not get up. If it's Allenby intercepts and catches him, he might be fine, if still slightly on fire.

Steve (803) has posed:
    "Oh man, dibs on the staff," quickly and shamelessly blurts Steve, still in mid-fall from where his embedded pickaxe is no longer embedded in anything. He lands a bit more gracefully than he did from the magical tidal wave that struck him and the other boss rushers earlier. "Those things are a *pain in the ass* to make." If left undeterred from this, he will quickly gather it. The gold doesn't seem to hold his interest nearly as much, since he has quite enough of that stuff as it is. Regardless of his success, or whether he'll have to headbutt someone for it, there are still other matters to attend to. Since the snippets he's heard being discussed from on high were all about the paths lives should take, and this Uriel girl wants to be some kind of super villain, it's given him the green light to shamelessly plug.

    "Couldn't help but overhear some of your goings on over all the commotion down here," letting his pickaxe rest against his shoulder, and optionally the staff the opposite one. "You and your boss should consider checking out the Confederacy. At least, they haven't given me any trouble. Honestly, seems like the kind of thing that would be right up your alley." Though, he does give a glance around to the world still being siphoned away for sinister purposes, and gives a thoughtful scratch to the back of his neck, "Though, they're more about holding territory, than destroying it, usually. I think. I'm still a bit of a noob."

Steve (803) has posed:
    After a further moment of grinning and doing his best recruitment poster pose, he breaks out of it to wonder, "Hey, you think your boss would mind if I take some of these building blocks home?"

Sarah Parsle (789) has posed:
The bosses detonate in a cascade of overkill. Such is the fate of what happens when you don't enforce level and gear sync on a raid boss. Sarah starts to relax a little, only to see Shin get thrown helluva far (down is a direction!) by Uriel. "Oh look. It didn't end well. Look. This is my surprised face. Can you see how surprised I am?" Sarah points at her flat, pessimistic expression for a moment. If gloomy-ass rainclouds could spontaneously manifest around her, they probably would. "Is someone going to catch him?" She asks, knowing it is far too late, and if you think she's going to heroically jump to do it herself you aren't paying attention.

When Steve begins trying to recruit, Sarah just folds her arms. "You guys sure move fast." Sarah snarks. "But then, I suppose she's going to need some kind of backup before she gets buried in people wanting to punch her and everything in her general area. Or not. Maybe they like a challenge."

HK-47 (754) has posed:
     "Cautionary - I would recommend ensuring that you face opponents who /do/ care about such paltry concerns as the safety of unwarranted meatbags" HK again chides her, watching with satisfaction as his grenade detonates, then as the 'mage' is finished off by the others. "Advisory - I would also recommend you either improve the quality or the quantity of the opposition you provide, lest it decrease your opponent's opinion even more."

     "Supplication - I would agree with the meatbag" - HK gestures to Steve - "You would stand to gain much as member of the Confederacy. You would also have a higher chance of encountering much more emotionally-pliable meatbags to target and exterminate."

    HK himself regards the evaporation of the enemy bodies somewhat analytically, glancing at the weapons and finding them not to his liking - he preferred ranged combat or silent kills, and he lacked the use of the power known as 'magic' needed to make use of the staff. Thus, with no more targets, the droid turns to regard Cocoa. "Query - Perhaps now you may inform us of what exactly your intention /was/ with this elaborate and tastefully-done setup."

Allenby Beardsley (760) has posed:
    For a few seconds to Allenby, time seems to slow down. Coming at her is Shin, on fire, and being thrown. She sees him coming easily, his words a dead giveaway of his passage. With her reflexes, she could easily dodge him and allow him to come crashing to the ground. But if not...

    Time speeds up and Shin collides with Allenby, who lifts her arms to catch him, for a few moments, knocking her backwards and sending her sliding along the ground. Braced, she does not fall over and manages to hold Shin up with ease with her science-imparted strength. It's only for a few moments before she pushes him so he can do a fancy skid and roll for recovery and enable him to continue looking like a kung fu badass. A little bit of burning from the fire was completely worth that brief bit of contact, frankly.

    "That sounds like a /lot/ of work, Shin!" Allenby finally remarks on his shouted, on-fire words that were directed at her in transit. "ANYWAY LET'S RESUME HITTING HER!"

Cocoa (884) has posed:
    "Join the whatnow? I don't know. That sounds like responsibility and work," Cocoa shouts, from atop her building. This method of conversation is definitely awkward. She resigns in the future to perhaps perch herself a few stories lower.

    "I'll think about it! Anyway, whatever, this Earth is done for anyway. In a couple weeks it'll be fully eaten into the Demonsphere, you know? And those guys at your feet are the last survivors. If I were you I'd get them out of here. I mean, I'm not you, and if I actually WERE you right now I'd like... kill them, actually. So hey! Advice, grain of salt, you guys have fun."

    She decides to answer HK, before she goes. "What intentions? This place was already done. You guys just stumbled in. I thought I'd have some fun, but I totally misjudged you guys' item level. Won't happen again! And yeah, whatever, feel free to loot the place."

    Challenging eyes meet Allenby's, but the edgy dark magical girl just gestures vaguely with her one huge red hand. "Time's up for today, but maybe another time! If you guys are from different places like you said, then it means I'm going to have to start wandering around! Phantom always wants more worlds. Can't blame him, the Demonsphere looks super cool." Mostly because it's all DARK and full of SKULLS and evil motifs.

    "Anyway, I'm out! Smell you later!"

    With a single hope, Cocoa/'Uriel' dashes off the opposide end of the building, falling out of view! And she didn't even ask for any of their names! At least she knows Shin from Allenby chiding him so much.

Steve (803) has posed:
    The message having been received, not that getting permission or not would have vastly affected his decision, one way or the other, he doesn't mind much where Cocoa goes. Or, for that matter, what anyone else does with the bodies, skin bags, or sleeping people in turn. Instead, he gets a big laugh from HK-47's calling him a meatbag. It's not offensive if it's technically true. "I wish my golems were as chatty as you. I'm working on it, though! Think I heard one plotting to kill me the other day, when it thought I wasn't around. It was adorable. ...I mean, I still de-animated it, just in case, but cute." He clears his throat again, giving a glance around, and placing his newfound staff into his inventory. He'll figure out its specific properties later, if any.

    "By the way, the name is Steve. Just Steve, since for some reason people assume I have another name. 'scuse me while I get to work." The building that had been Cocoa's lair is what he has his eyes set on most, as he begins breaking pieces off much like he did to the automobile, earlier, roughly a cubic meter at a time. By all accounts, it's tons of material he's currently plowing through, and stowing...somewhere. He seems to be in his element.

Shin Tokuyama (756) has posed:
    Shin is, thankfully, caught by Allenby and given some momentum dispersal so he could recover himself mid-flight. He collides with her and then is shoved by her strength, sliding forward and then doing a front flip to land on his feet. His hands come up in a proper stance again.

    "Right! Now with the speeches done we do ba-"

    "Oh uh... it's done. Right. Okay,"

    He turns back to Allenby when Cocoa leaves. He looks somewhat lost on what to do next, so he just asks the bluenette, "So uh... wanna go to IHOP? They just got those new Fruit and Streusel Crepes, I hear."

Tomoe has posed:
Tomoe helps bring the mage down and the warrior goes with them. She shakes her head a little bit and starts looking about there's some people she knows of here, some she does not and at least once who still haunts her nightmares at times. HK-47 being here means nothing good will come of that. She slows sown lowers her weapon and now turns her attention to the one at the source of this. She watches the other one bolt.

"...Lovely, this month just got worse...."

Allenby Beardsley (760) has posed:
    Allenby meets those eyes for those brief seconds. She doesn't say anything but in that moment, she feels that maybe the love triangle is /real/. Maybe she really was charmed by the genre-savvy words of Shin and Allenby will need to fight for his affections!

    "Great! We'll catch you later." Allenby gives a casual wave of the hand before turning to Shin.

    "IHOP sounds like a plan." Allenby rests her hands on her hips and looks at Shin. She seems to be in a better mood now. "Let's make it happen."

HK-47 (754) has posed:
    As the fighting dies down and the members of their group disperse one by one, HK-47 continues to survey the destroyed remnants of the planet.

    It was an effective display... though one that needed some fine-tuning.

    However... the idea itself at it's core was not without merit. A soft-test for a larger goal...

    There had only been a few missions the droid had gone on as of late... and perhaps the time for this was ending.

    Perhaps it was time he took a more... direct role in events.

    Proceeding to take his own leave, the droid paused as he believed he recognized the image of a woman clad in purple armor from long ago during his excursion to a virtual reality program.

    Yet now she was projected into the physical world? Or was it because this world could support digital constructs, as the adversaries were?

    Another point of research.... and another contingency to plan around.

    The last to leave as he spends one last, longing moment taking in the sights around him, HK-47 shoulders his weapons and re-enters the gateway, processor buzzing with thoughts... and with plans.