5300/Tainting the Taint

Tainting the Taint
Date of Scene:	08 June 2017
Location:	The Quilt
Synopsis:	A splinter cell of Taint artists seek the Watch's help in disabling one of OMNI's server farms. But Yang has already informed the government of their intended actions. A clash between punks and public security begins here!
Cast of Characters:	Tomoyo Daidouji, August Kohler, 215, Staren, Yang Xiao Long, Sanary Rondel, 1108

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Tomoyo Daidouji has posed:
    Night has fallen upon this city. And though it is quiet, it is not empty, On every corner, atop every street light, dangling from the sides of buildings are cameras. Near every inch of the city is under the gaze of an electronic eye. But tonight, that's all going to change.

    At least, that was the plan.

    In the Market District, contrasting with the uniform buildings, all straight and with reflective glass, there is a gray slab of concrete masquerading as a building. Its only door is iron and sealed with an electronic lock. And right now, it is protected by security forces for the entire surrounding block.

    "Fucking shit!" spits a young man peeking out from a manhole in the alley opposite the entrance to the concrete structure. He is the picture of 'cyberpunk rebel.' His neon red hair has been gelled into spikes that hang down to cover the left side of his face, and he wears cracked black leather everything that looks a size too big on him.

    He looks down the ladder he's standing on to his comrades in the sewers. When you're a subversive movement in a city watched by an AI, your options for moving around are limited. "The pigs have a full-on pen up there. Dammit, I bet Bill squealed, the shit..." he grumbles, sliding down the rungs to look at everyone.

    "Right, you dregs of society! I was hoping to only go loud on the way out, but it's all loud tonight. We're gonna rush the door! If you're gonna bitch out, now's the time! But keep this in mind; we got some outside help!" He makes a broad gesture at those who have arrived to assist. "These guys are real badasses. Just stick close and pick your punches. They're here to do the heavy lifting." The crowd of teenaged ruffians and older discontents all chant, "Yes D-BASE!"

    The punk looks to the helping Elites. "I'll leave this part to you. I'm an anarchist, strategy isn't my thing.

    =Meanwhile, topside=

    "Stay vigilant," Field Commander Hook breathes over the public security radio. As they were forewarned the day previous of an attack on OMNI's external servers, every available body was rolled out to protect them. And if those are not sufficient, outside help was negotiated for. Each server has at least one of them protecting it, with multiple covering the ones in low-security areas.

    As it happens, the Market District is such a low-security area...

August Kohler has posed:
August is dressed differently than usual: his hoodie is /down/ instead of up. The redheaded German is standing a bit away from the manhole to let people climb out, a gun at his side next to a piece of sharp glass and a weird CD. August has yet to replace the smartgun, and needs to find a new one somewhere. Turning towards the boss, he seems apologetic. "Don't blame this Bill guy. Turns out one of our own was already in talks with OMNI, they heard our planning and spilled. One of the governors is going to be there, trying to talk you out of this, because apparently they don't agree with OMNI either. What do you want to do?" There's little judgement coming from the teenager, surprisingly - he wants to know what the rebels will do next so he can follow accordingly. He's probably more supportive of 'sticking it to them' in the longrun, but can understand them not wanting to do so.

August then turns to the rest of the group, straightening his shoulders. "Seeing how many there are, leave most of the security to us. You guys can probably rush the door and smash everything. It's not going to be worth it if you all die and don't get a chance to freely express yourselves, will it?" Drawing and readying his gun in one hand and the mirror in the other, August starts towards the center. "Those who are stealthier can probably get in and gank the security. I'd prefer non-lethal, /personally/. I'll go in with the anarchists and back them up. Any other suggestions to the plan?"

Iria (215) has posed:
Taking a few moments to adjust her cape, Iria nonetheless pays attention to what is being said before nodding to August Kohler. "Yeah, I'm pretty good with stealth so if you need me to go ahead and take out a few guards, that's fine with me." She smooths her cape a little more before continuing. "I agree, non-lethal takedowns would be advisable. We don't need to be leaving a trail of bodies for them to follow to us." She flips her hair beads and smiles.

"Of course, if it does come to that, I'll be ready. I've got some toys to play with if things get too harsh!" Her smile fades. "But let's just hope it doesn't go that far, OK?"

Staren has posed:
    Staren doesn't agree with OMNI. It has yet to reply to his rebuttal to its fears that people might be moved to death by dangerous self-expression: That people die in car and plane crashes too but that doesn't make cars and planes on the whole bad. But, it said it would consider what the elites had to say. It has not refused yet... and doesn't seem cunning enough to be stalling for time, though if there really IS an attack coming today, he may have to start trying to get in touch with OMNI again.

    Staren fears that a successful attack before OMNI has had enough time to think and research can only hurt chances of peaceful resolution in the future, so when he hears word of a suspected attack on the servers, he gives his aid to the city, though his feelings are mixed.

    Staren's in his armor, because of course he is. It's a bit much, but he doesn't take chances. Observant foes might notice he's carrying some sort of assault rifle rather than the usual laser or RAISER rifle, but there's no way anyone but a member of Daedalus would know he's packing zap rounds rather than lethal bullets.

    He looks at one of the local guards, making conversation: "So, from outside this all seems pretty stifling, and we talked to OMNI, but I never did ask a local: What do /you/ think about self-expression being outlawed? Does it... never bother you at all?"

Yang Xiao Long has posed:
    Yang's here, perched in the shadows atop one of the shorter nearby towers. She's not wearing her usual outfit, instead opting for something a bit more form fitting and less flashy, in browns and blacks. Knee boots, a pair of black cycling shorts, a tight jacket and black full hand gloves. The only colour she's showing are the bright golden bracelets of Ember Celica, and the giant mane of blone hair billowing in the window at this altitude. "Please let this work." her lilac eyes track to the faint movement of a manhole being pushed up. "They're here..."

    She keeps radio silent. She's here to make sure the Chancellor has a chance to say his piece, that's it.

Sanary Rondel has posed:
Since the last two meetings, Sanary's been of two minds regarding the whole art thing. On one hand, it's not as if there's no merit to art. On the other hand, the methods involved in trying to fight back against the oppressive AI...

     The last encounter was promising. The first one, not so much. She's not quite willing to bank on it going all one way or the other, but at least from inside the compound, she'll be able to keep an eye on things. Thus, the healer's standing nearby one of the servers in question, her trusty oversized gunaxe slung over her back and a riot shield held in her right hand. The healer's in a fairly flashy outfit, too, wearing her usual white coat along with a wide-brimmed hat for... Some reason. She's not really doing anything but listening to Commander Hook over the radio and watching the immediate area for the time being.

     "<<Looking clear over here, but... Hm. You think this'll be enough with... However many Elites show up?>>" Of course they'd show up. The only question would be how many.

A2 (1108) has posed:
    A2 might have once felt guilty for her initial thoughts, at the reveal of the security forces, being that Yang sold them out rather than more likely a random street rebel, but August only seconding her assumption has her skip any and all doubt or introspection on the topic. Her fingers curl into a fist by her side, but the audible creaking is due to old, stressed motives and damaged subdermal armour. Nothing about her shakes or shivers.

    It's also unfortunate that she lost Genji's cloak to last time, considering how badly she stands out in every sense, but she had advocated the straightforward approach from the start. She has to shut off her radio, as the planning and bickering gets on her frayed nerves, becoming an annoying buzzing rather than an instructive pulse of information. Instead, she shoulders through the couple of rebels at the front of the crowd, and yanks D-Base off the ladder to clear some space.

    Wordlessly, she launches herself from the bottom rung, all the way up to the top at once, catching it only with her hand, to sharply catch her ascent, and acrobatically flip dismount at the top. A2 begins walking dead on at the security guards, right across the road, without cover. Her tired, unflinching eyes practically stare past them, as if she barely acknowledges their existence. "Move it." is the only thing she has to say, fixated on the concrete building instead.

Tomoyo Daidouji has posed:
    Up above, the local security looks to Staren and says, "Well... my ma always wanted to be an artist, join the Art Guild back when that was a thing. Except she lost out on a place, because someone else's son got the spot even though he didn't actually submit any art for consideration. So frankly, I don't mind having a computer make the decisions if they're good ones. We've shown that we can't be trusted to be nice about art."

    Over the radio, Hook responds to Sanary. "<You will make it enough. That is what we are paying you for.>" Wow, harsh. But it also betrays a bit of belief in the girl. After all, she was here during the Taint and did a good job. Hook must just be that kind of guy.

    =Meanwhile, in the sewers=

    "You got a snitch in the ranks? Oh bro, Watch punishment must be harsh as shit!" D-BASE jeers as August explains the situation. "Express ourselves? Man, this whole thing IS expressing ourselves! Yeah maybe with you guys we could be like ghosts and leave them none the wiser, but what's the fucking point in that?! We WANT them to know it was us! We want them to see it in our eyes how mad we are! Right?!" "RIGHT!" comes the furious chorus from the rest of the splinter group.

    A girl in the splinter group (she has a patch on her demin jacket identifying her as #EM) says to everyone in response to Iria "Yeah, don't kill them! Like, I don't care about those guys up there all that much? But my dad is stationed elsewhere and I don't want to pretend to be sad when he comes home upset when one of his cop buddies dies. So like, let 'em breath."

    But now A2 is leaping into action, smoothly ascending to the street above. Her smooth ascent draws a few whistles and cheers from the group. Just for that, surely. As she strides up to security, weapons are raised. "Stop right there!" the guard Staren was talking to barks.

    "Right let's get ready you trash!" D-BASE calls. Wrenches, chains, hammers and all manner of scrounged weapons are brought to bear as one by one, they begin to ascend!

    And elsewhere, a signal is sent out. A car smoothly glides from the Council Building, automatically making its way to the Market District. The Grand Chancellor has heard the call.

Staren has posed:
    Staren moves to scratch his head, but it doesn't work very well through the helmet. "Art... guild. Right. It's so strange. On other worlds, you just buy or borrow or download some tools and... make art. I mean there's art schools to learn techniques and get better, but it's not like you need an art license..."

    And then the crazy lady from before is there. "Oh, great. You again." He leans towards the guard there with him, and advises softly, "Get ready to run dude." He's not letting some poor gumby fight someone crazy enough to attack the Warp Iris.

    He steps forward and adresses A2. "Don't do this. People are suffering, but the city depends on OMNI. People depend on it. How many will be hurt in the chaos if you damage critical city systems? Also, these people ASKED for OMNI's help. Destroying it won't change this society's laws, just make it enforced by police instead of a computer."

August Kohler has posed:
As they move forward, August glances at his radio, and turns to his allies. "Yang Xiao Long's incoming, or already here. She sent coordinates nearby." With a sigh, he raises the mirror up to eye level, and speaks into it. "Persona!" In a spark of blue energy, a burnscarred mechanical soldier with a gun for a leg appears in front of August, moving forward with him as the rebels advance. It takes the front of the line, and fires its gun into the air once, casting an endurance buff on a big group of the rebels.

As they get closer to the door, August spots Staren and frowns. The Tin Soldier raises its gun at him, as August speaks. "Staren, are you seriously supporting the police state AI? The one that banned freedom of expression? That has eyes everywhere? Get out of our way, since you're in that armor, I won't think twice about setting you aflame." There's a growl. August actually seems almost sort of shocked that Staren is taking this stance, for some reason.

Sanary Rondel has posed:
"<<... Hmm. Fair enough.">> There's audible amusement in Sanary's voice as she steps starts heading up towards the increasingly loud noise coming from above. There's probably a few familiar faces up there, but the sheer number of people around makes it hard to tell who's actually... Well, THERE.

     In retrospect, it might have been a better idea to start from the outside and fall back to the server if things started looking bad. She blinks slowly as an oddly-dressed white-haired woman strides up to the guards, glancing over at Staren when he addresses A2.

     "You... Uh. Know each other, then?" She gives the two a brief glance back and forth, then shrugs and raises the gunaxe slightly so it's braced against her shoulder and looking EXTRA INTIMIDATING or EXTRA COOL to the nearby guards.

     Not that she cares what it makes her look like or anything. "He's right. Just call out if you see anyone else dressed in weird stuff. Focus on the locals, we'll handle the heavy hitters." Sanary swings her axe up and over her head, slamming it into the ground for emphasis before glaring towards the rest of the crowd.

     "Alright, listen up! If you don't want to get hurt, then go home! I can't heal anyone who's already dead!" There's a crunching noise along the ground as she drags her axe back towards her, spinning it once overhead before bringing it back to her shoulder. August gets a squint from the healer, and then she unshoudlers the axe AGAIN just to point it at him dramatically. "We already had that meeting last time, remember? This'll get sorted out, but not if everyone just charges in smashing things up. Understand?"

     Secretly, she's also hoping that one-handed axe-posturing is doing something. It is incredibly difficult to hold something that size outstretched like that.

A2 (1108) has posed:
    Art isn't something that A2 gets. In fact, it's something she's only barely been exposed to. YoRHa had an eye for aesthetics, but her time with them was brief, and long ago. What greets her at street level though, ranks of practically identical soldiers, armed and clad in matching armour, marching under the order of some distant, callous, pseudo-political overlord and blindly obeying the commands that come through the computer; that she is all too familiar with. A deep, weary sigh escapes her lips as she advances across the asphalt towards the gun line, the click of her heels not breaking tempo.

    "You again." A2 mirrors right back at Staren. Golden fireflies swarm around her right hand, letting off a deep, electronic thrumming as they solidify into that gargantuan 'buster blade', which she seems fine with carrying one-handed as she walks. "Depending on anything like this was a mistake. You expect me to sympathize with people who do everything a /machine/ tells them to? They made their choice. They're on the wrong side. So are you."

    The clicking on the asphalt stops. A2 flashes forward like a lucid nightmare, crossing the 20 meters left without touching the ground. Her second hand falls on the enormous executioner's sword, twisting its blunt edge around at the last second where she swings at Staren with enough force for a shockwave of pressure to blast the guards through him.

Iria (215) has posed:
Iria nods to the girl and says, "I'm not going to kill anyone, don't worry. I'm just trying to deal with the threats temporarily." She scowls. "We don't leave trails of bodies." Her scowl increases as A2 goes up to the street and the guard calls out to her. "Oh swell, she's done it again!" She shrugs. "Either way, it's time to slip in!"

While the others are going directly ahead, Iria slips through the sewers, attempting to find her way in. Supposedly there's a chance there may be another entrance somewhere here in the sewer, and Iria wants to find it. Hopefully while the others are distracted, Iria can slip in from behind and take out the remaining security forces. Or at least put them out for awhile. "No need to kill anyone unnecessarily here." She thinks as she looks around for the entrance.

Tomoyo Daidouji has posed:
    The battle is joined!

    While it's true that the splinter group is outnumbered, August's endurance buff helps a lot. For an Elite, it might be a drop in the sea, but these rebels have never felt more alive. D-BASE takes a baton right to the temple, but he just whoops and kicks the offending officer right between the legs before barrelling on. Such is the story for everyone who tastes riot suppression techniques.

    Their path is immediately cleared by the actions of A2 though. While they also get caught up in the shockwave of that swing, they get back up immediately and push on, emboldened by seeing what their ally can do. Ergo, it is not long before the door Sanary is guarding looks more like a mosh pit than anything. "Out of the way bitch!" #EM shouts as she shoves at the girl with the big axe. She is joined by more and more, the collective mass pushing against the healer!

    Meanwhile, back in the sewers, Iria looks for a smarter way through. Luckily, there actually a lot of maps set up down here, and there is a conspicuous blank space that takes up a large section. Most likely where the bunker is. Exploring around it, the girl soon finds a massive vent that is billowing a lot of heat out. This makes this part of the sewer particularly odious, but the heat is likely from the server farm they're looking for. A grille is over the fan through, so it might take some doing to disassemble the thing.

    The wonders of automated cars means that the Chancellor arrives on the seen shortly, though. The car stops, and the fatherly bearded man emerges from it. He starts to stride towards the crowd. "Peace everyone, peace!" he calls out. "Fuck you, old man!" a voice replies, a brick travelling towards his head!

Yang Xiao Long has posed:
    Yang sees the battle joined, eyes closing as she recalls the recountings of the battles during the war... A fist clenches, and then the sound of the car pulls her back. "Show time." Sunglasses come out, and she leaps off the edge of the building, firing a couple of kinetic blasts to slow her descent, before she lands in front of the Chancellor, and snags the brick out of the air, crushing it in one gauntleted hand. "How about you calm down and listen to what he's got to say?" she retorts, her eyes glowing a baleful red at the offending thrower.

    She then steps just a little aside, letting the Grand Chancellor have free projection of his voice, but remains there to guard him from further harm.

Sanary Rondel has posed:
That didn't scare them off at all! Well, plan B. "You're really..? Well, I warned you." Sighing once, Sanary buckles down as the crowd starts shoving up against her. What's one relatively short girl to do against a horde?

     Take advantage of being really strong, for one. Swinging around that gunaxe and riot shield isn't just for show, and the axe cleric twists her axe and shield around before swinging them both in a wide sweeping motion. She's moving slowly enough that it's probably not going to actually smash anyone, but she's not counting on that. No, she's counting on just throwing the crowd back wholesale instead!

     With a bit of cheating and magic to augment her strength, of course.

Iria (215) has posed:
The stench is bad enough in the sewers, but when Iria reaches that vent that's got heat coming out of it (and making the stench even worse,) Iria holds her nose and waves. "Phew! This is worse than the time Fujikuro messed up dinner! Thank heavens Kei was on hand to fix things, but oh hell..." It's then that she realizes that she's gotta get that vent open. She reaches under her cape and produces her katana, attempting to work it into the vent.

"Maybe a little elbow grease will work here," She mutters to herself as she tries to pry open the grate with her sword.

Staren has posed:
    Staren tries to dodge, but he's not ready for A2's speed -- She misses him, barely, but it's still close enough to whack his forcefield, the heavy impact sending spiderwebbed cracks across the suddenly-visible sphere, at least one layer disintigrating into fading amber sparkles as the discs on his chest start to spark and smoke.

    Staren skids across the floor, almost stumbling off his feet -- looks like the forcefield transfers impacts. For the moment, he tries to stay between her and the guard, not sure how to attack her without making things very dangerous for the crowd around them. "I don't agree with them either, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't care about their lives! If everyone who disagrees with you doesn't matter, then how the hell are you able to work together with a bunch of anarchists, anyway?!"

    "If you're just in a hurry to do SOMETHING because you can't stand it, you could have snuck the people who don't like it out of here to someplace freer, you know. Or are you just on some sort of anti-AI kick? What's your deal, anyway?"

    He sees the chancellor, and then the brick. He's not fast enough... fortunately, Yang is.

August Kohler has posed:
"'Oh, most people are okay with an AI that took away basic rights, and are okay with the basic right being gone, so screw the people who are against it! They should just leave their home instead of standing up for themselves!' Jesus christ, do you actually think that way? People who are restricting the freedoms of others /don't/ matter right now, no." August reorts to Staren, watching as his buffs work well on the anarchists, and is about to move for him before he spots Sanary trying to push the crowd back.

Sliding backwards on his feet, the redhead sends the Tin Soldier forward, the robot charging forward to headbutt her from behind, gunleg swinging forward and firing at her shield in an attempt to damage it. "This has nothing to do with the AI. It has to do with freedom and people being able to stand up for themselves. These guys are trying to fight for their freedom, I'm not going to leave them behind." His eyes then swivel at Yang as she arrives and blocks the brick. "Hey, Yang, /thanks/ for increasing the police on us. I really appreciate you making things potentially more dangerous for everyone."

A2 (1108) has posed:
    "Because they don't get in my way." is what A2 practically spits out when Staren goes spinning away from her like a glowing bowling ball, ending her swing in a poised, low-crouching pose. "Some of them are stupid, but they haven't given their lives up to a radio barking orders. Someone who who trusts something like that, and lets it run their lives, is only going to be thrown away."

    She's not paying attention to the chancellor at all, and barely even to the mob. Staren has her full focus now. The massive blade backflips adroitly in her grip, and then grinds through the concrete as she lunges into a forward sprint, spraying gravel, dust and sparks as she brings the sharp end into his forcefield this time with enough force to launch him skyward. The sword continues wide over her head, and as she twists to resume stance, A2 throws out her left arm, and a second, narrower blade materializes out of thin air, sweeping much faster at a blind angle to Staren, and more importantly, without her actually /holding/ it. After the two part attack is done, it even flies back to her of its own accord, positioning itself over her shoulder.

Staren has posed:
    Oh, August's there too! Staren replies, "They weren't conquered by outsiders. They aren't being opressed by the upper class. The people CHOSE this, because of things that happened to them in the past. The implementation needs a little work, and we're trying to improve things for your pals here, but don't the people who voted for these laws have some right to live the way THEY want? Or is opression only okay when YOU do it?"

    "This society built the 'home' your friends grew up in. You tear everything down, whatever you build in its place won't be the same. The 'home' where they're free doesn't exist, any more than the 'home' where I get to have friends and family but also everyone acts logically and reasonably!"

    "When it comes down to it, if you won't wait for them to comprimise and you won't leave, SOMEBODY is opressing SOMEBODY here! If you won't give coexistance a chance, you kinda HAVE to live seperately, yeah!"

    It helps that Staren can think up the speech in a moment, and then his computers can synthesize his shouting voice while he fights. He's ready for A2's attack now -- wings appear on his back and give the added speed he needs to dodge out of the way of the first strike, but he doesn't expect the flying blade. It takes a chunk out of the forcefield like an ice pick. While the speech continues, Staren fights A2 in earnest now: The right arm of his armor mounts a pair of beam cannons, which he fires when he can get a shot that doesn't have humans right behind her.

Tomoyo Daidouji has posed:
    Sanary puts up a valiant efforts at the door. But every time she swings to knock down some punks, the ones behind them swarm forward to shove her anew! The ones being trampled don't even mind that, crawling forward to grab at her ankles and try to yank her off-balance!

    Meanwhile, A2 is tearing up the street with her attacks, prompting a cry from a solider. "Bring out the hoses!" A large truck with a mounted pressure blaster is boarded, and the security takes aim at the android, blasting at her with highly pressurized water!

    "PEACE!" the Chancellor bellows into a megaphone, emboldened by Yang's sudden appearance. The loud, discordant tone startles some of the rioters. "OMNI did not take away your rights," he begins, addressing August. "We did. Humans obeying a machine's cold logic to avert tragedies of the past. OMNI is merely a tool of your oppression, not the instigator. And yes, let me make it clear. What we are doing is oppression, and it's not fair. But most of you here were not around back then. There was panic in the streets, no one could trust anyone. The Art Guild had been handed too much power over our lives and culture, and it was thought that the best way to deal with it was to tear the source of that power out by the roots. Times have changed, things have changed, but OMNI has only recently begun to. Lashing out like this will only convince it that humans really can't be trusted with themselves!"

    Meanwhile, Iria's blade shudders as the fan clangs against it. Luckily, it's the kind that stops when it senses an obstruction, giving her time to pry the whole thing apart. Before her is a ladder up a narrow vent, which leads into a tight horizontal squeeze capped by another grille. It's baking hot... beyond it must be the servers.

Iria (215) has posed:
The blade of Iria's sword is hit by the fan, but then the fan stops, giving Iria the chance to pry the vent open. Almost immediately, she spots the ladder and says, "Well, up we go!" She slides in, glad that she has such a thin figure, allowing her to squeeze into narrow spots with little difficulty, before climbing up the ladder with the greatest of ease.

As she gets closer to that horizontal squeeze, she senses the heat and whoas. "Hotter than hell. I think I found the server room." She crawls towards the grille, feet first, attempting to dislodge the grill with a couple of well placed kicks.

Sanary Rondel has posed:
With so many bodies around, Sanary's finding it hard to really move from where she's standing. That suits her just fine, of course, considering how she's mostly power and very little technique, but it's already becoming a chore hurling people left and right. With that many distractions, it's also laughably easy for the Tin Soldier to ram into her from behind, drawing a pained grimace while she tastes just a hint of kidney. Blasting her shield throws her off-balance as well, but it's surprisingly sturdy and only getting warped from the shot rather than breaking.

     And if any of the street punks try to actually steal her stuff? That's when she'll actually get a lot more rough and resort to flat-out bashing them instead. Holding back to buy some time is one thing, but that's /HER STUFF/.

     "Tch... That so? So you and the rest of..." How many were there again? She can see August and A2, Staren over there, and... Is that Yang /defending/ the old man? Today really is full of surprises. Gritting her teeth, Sanary swings back at the Tin Soldier once with the flat of her axe before drawing her shield back and slamming the bottom against the ground again.

     "If you really believe what you're fighting for is the right way to do things around here... Fine, then! Show us your resolve! How far you're willing to go for that freedom!" It's not quite clear whether Sanary's shouting at August or the crowd, and... Is that even the right speech to be giving? It sounded cool enough in her head, though, and her back /is/ to the wall.

     Or door. Sanary can't really get pushed back any further than she already is, but she can still swing back just as hard as she's been. She's being careful not to use the sharp end of her weapon or the corners of her shield, at least!

A2 (1108) has posed:
    A2 watches as Staren takes to the sky, craning her head back with an obviously calculating stare. It's clear, however, she hadn't expected the beam weapon from the ostensibly unarmed suit, because it catches her totally by surprise. The twin particle beams blast straight through her chest, causing her to stagger back on her heels with a wet gasp of breathless pain. Bright red blood spatters from the wounds, painting the asphalt before sizzling away in moments from the intense heat. Her hand presses to the dual wounds, through and through where lungs would be.

    A couple of seconds later, her body flickers with lines of white static, and particles of what must be vapourized metal light up the same way, scattered into the air around her like a cloud of stars. They spiral back in towards her, collecting into the punctures in her chest, and within moments, the white glow fades, and only the faintest 'scars' remain on her torso.

    "Oppression?" she coughs out, before swiftly regaining her voice. "Are you joking? Do you know anything about what oppression really is?" Her cracked, cynical tone sounds on the verge of a very dangerous laugh. A2 splits her attention only for the moment the security team calls out the cavalry, unfortunately audibly, reacting in the barest fraction of a second to face the oncoming riot control truck, and then with a mighty heave of her heavy blade, and a crackle of golden energy along her arm, an equally massive arc of light hurls itself down the water stream, splitting the pressure blast neatly in half, and cleaving through the armoured vehicle with almost casual disinterest.

    The sword disappears, and then reappears at her back. A2 takes hold of the light blade, pointing it towards Staren. "I'm here to kill OMNI. That's all there is too it." Then, she disappears. Sort of. A long, narrow trench is carved in the asphalt where she stood, splitting directly beneath Staren. By taking flight, he has opened a route beneath him. If any security guards remain in the way, a rippling aura of shadows and red light surrounds A2, blasting aside anyone who comes within arm's reach of her. She's headed straight for the doors, practically flying over the pavement.

Staren has posed:
    Staren looks rather alarmed as he shoots THROUGH A2. Wow. He was sure she must be tougher than that.

    But apparently she's fine. "This is a complex situation! There's no easy answer!"

    When she states that 'she's here to kill OMNI and that's all there is to it', he replies, "Yeah, that's what I thought." As she takes flight, he backs away and prepares to fire again-- but he can't draw a bead, and she flies UNDER him. Too late, he realizes what she's doing. "Hey!" He turns around and aims the beam cannons, but... No, that'll just blow a hole in the door for her. He tries the rifle instead. It fires shocking gel bullets. May as well find out if they do anything to her!

August Kohler has posed:
Sanary takes the Tin Soldier's blow, and returns it with a swing of the flat of her axe. It smashes into the Tin Soldier's face, denting it slightly and knocking it bcak. August clutches his face briefly, staggering, which allows Sanary to retreat into a defensive position. Shaking it off, he sees an opening as she speaks. A chance for the crowd to decide what they want. "What will you all do for your freedom? What is your response to the governor? Decide! I'll back you no matter what you choose." Even if he dislikes it. August chose to gave them his aid, after all.

And with another gunshot into the air, a strength buff is applied to the anarchists. What they use this strength for is up to them. A2 and Iria are already dealing with the servers.

Tomoyo Daidouji has posed:
    BANG! CLANG! The grille is kicked out, and Iria is now in the server room. Towers of computing power stand in neat rows and columns. It's like a sauna in here, even with the cooling systems. OMNI needs some serious hardware to do what it does. But the place is totally empty, no defences in sight. Nothing to stop her.

    Meanwhile, topside, the clash of ideologies is heating up. Sanary bellows her stance and stands firm in the face of the crushing crowd. Her defiance actually gives them pause, their moshing slowing down. Meanwhile, A2 slices through the stream of water, and the truck behind it. The gunner thankfully throws himself clear as the vehicle splits cleanly, spilling all manner of fluids all over.

    But around the Chancellor is a pregnant pause. His speech has extinguished the flames of rebellion in a lot of hearts. Many punks are just standing around, unsure of what to do. But D-BASE is here to put a stop to that. "FUCK HIM UP!" he yells, both at the crowd and in response to August. Immediately, some shout their fury at the man, which urges the others to do the same. The mob is closing in...

Yang Xiao Long has posed:
    "... I'm sorry, Chancellor. I guess words weren't enough this time... get out of here, I'll hold 'em off." says Yang, her voice a cold, nearly emotionless void as she puts her sunglasses back on, and meaningfully racks the slides on her shotgauntlets.

    She steps between the Chancellor and the mob, standing to her full height. The baleful glow of her eyes can still be seen behind the aviators, and her hair flickers with Auric Flame. "To get him, you'll have to go through me. And I /won't/ be gentle. I made a vow as a Huntress to protect him while he came out here to speak to the people he governs, the people HE LOVES, and I won't back down from that vow."

    She slams her fists together, releasing the rage that's been boiling inside of her since this all began. "So go ahead, if you think you're tough enough."

Iria (215) has posed:
There's the server room, and there's no one else here. Not that Iria doesn't think there might be booby traps or something, but she doesn't want to linger here for too long. Instead, she pulls out her assault rifle and smiles evilly. "Sometimes, you just gotta do things the hard way!" She says as she opens fire with her assault rifle, hoping to turn the servers into scrap metal or something similar!

Sanary Rondel has posed:
That breather from both August and the crowd gives Sanary a chance to regather herself and shake off the soreness from swinging her arms and the stuff held by her arms around so much. She might not recognize what it is the Tin Soldier's doing, but if she's not feeling any ill effects? It's probably nothing to worry about yet.

     She should probably be more worried about A2, but... Well, she's just going to hope the angry lady with the sword doesn't turn away from Staren and towards herself for now.

     "That's better, but... If you're not ready to clean up after yourselves, then you shouldn't be making a mess in the first place!" The healer shouts with another threatening shout and twirl of her gunaxe overhead, rearing back and looking ready to start using it as a people-tosser once more.

     "But if you're truly ready to charge forward with or without that plan..." She eyes August and Yang for a moment, then tilts her head back to let loose a heat laser into the sky and detonate it a few yards above her. It's not so much intended to harm anyone as it is to test the crowd's mettle. Their resolve. Their dedication to the cause that would drive them towards someone with exploding eye beams!

     "... Then come on! I don't have all day!"

A2 (1108) has posed:
    Just looking at A2, it's probably no wonder Staren's beam cannon blasted straight through her. She's so worn down and broken that the android armour that's supposed to be protecting most of her under the skin is visibly missing (as well as half of said skin). The fact that she continues to move like that is basically a miracle, as so much of her inner frame is only covered by the black insulating sheath, difficult to tell apart from the few pieces of black clothing she still has, for all their dirt, burns and scoring.

    "Good, then you can shut up." A2 shoots back at Staren, leaving the tense silence behind her at breakneck speed. The wave of energy around her seems to warp and intensify into a burning haze, and then blows the heavy shutters to pieces without touching them while, skimming over the ground like a ghost.

    She can hear the gunshots behind her. Her functioning anti-ballistic software comes online, kicking her reflexes and awareness into overdrive, such that only a single lavender eye glinting over her shoulder can pick out their trajectories. Gel shockers don't seem to impress her. The sword in her hand disappears again, and then apparates right in their way, vertically helicoptering in midair where it can chop and splatter the less-than-penetrative slugs into charged splatter. Because she isn't holding the sword either, it handily doesn't give Staren any knowledge of their effect on her.

    He'll have to follow her into the server room to keep fighting, and as brusque and single-minded as A2 appears, she clearly knows that would put him at a big disadvantage. For supposedly being a killing machine, she's been thinking very tactically. She's even bought herself a short time to scout out the layout of the farm.

August Kohler has posed:
As the anarchists make their choice, they choose to fight the governor. August sighs, but he's made his stand, and turns towards Yang. "Sorry, Yang. We're going to have to fight. I've called in for medical to get set up." He pretty clearly doesn't /want/ to fight, but is because it's the stand he's chosen, which he believes is the same as Yang. The Tin Soldier, meanwhile, dashes forward at the blonde, pointing its gun at her. It begins flickering with flame, a warning that he's going to set her on fire, before it shoots out a flamethrower burst, aiming for her chest. The flicker was on purpose, giving her the time to prepare 'don't burn to death' defenses or move out of the way.

"The alternative was bullets, so. Let's decide this."

Staren has posed:
    That one spiky-haired kid rallies the mob, but... Yang's handling it, as well as it CAN be handled, anyway.

    A2 cuts down the bullets. "Nice trick." Staren flies after her, slinging the rifle over his back and unclipping a small cylinder from his hip, charging her from behind. If he can get close enough... At the last half-second, it turns out to be the hilt for an energy blade which he tries to stab her with, then follows up with slashes, just trying to do damage.

Yang Xiao Long has posed:
    Yang doesn't really do the whole 'dodging' thing. Besides, the Chancellor isn't exactly a spry man, so if she did move, he'd be in the way of the flames... so she does what she always does.

    Tanks it with her face.

    This results in the expected scorching and smoking, but not the horrific burning or actual setting on fire one might expect, once the jet dies down. Yang stands there, gauntleted arms crossed in front of her in a pretty typical defensive stance, her bright golden aura flaring brightly, like the first pinprick of dawn over the horizon.

     Yang drops her arms to her sides, her bangs covering her eyes... the red points glowing in the shadow as they lock onto the Tinman. "Yeah. Lets decide this." She rears back, slamming her fists together again... and for a brief instant, all the colour washes out of the world around her. Her back foot digs into the ground, and she surges forwards with a bestial howl, letting out ALL the rage and anger, and hurt feelings she's been holding in. Every last ounce of it pouring into her Semblance for one decisive strike.

    Yang ducks under the Tinman's raised flamethrower leg, and bunches her muscles. Flame pours off her gauntlets, as she focusses her Aura into her fists, and uncoils like a spring, aiming a twirling uppercut through the Tinman. At the apex of the leap, her momentum redirects, and she aims to slam her fist back down into the Persona, and through that, slam it into the ground under the strike.

August Kohler has posed:
Yang's durable enough to take fire. August is actually glad, because he prefers that over 'charbroiled ally'. Sadly, it also surprises him long enough for Yang to duck under the Tin Soldier's leg, a flaming energy punch smashing into the Tin Soldier's head and knocking it off balance. And that's all Yang needs.

The fist comes back down, and the Tin Soldier silently makes a very pained face as it's slammed into the ground, fire melting through its face and making the prior dent even worse. August grabs his head, before collapsing to his knees. "Shiiiii..." is all he can get out before he passes out from the pain, the Persona disappearing.

A2 (1108) has posed:
    Looking around, A2 can very quickly assess that Iria has shot the place up pretty good. For once, she can say someone else had the same idea, and reliably followed up on the simple plan. The giant blade goes swinging left and right, smashing into the sever farms that aren't quite swiss-cheesed to her standards, crashing to and fro across the aisled, until Staren catches up, and as A2 turns around to see no real weapons and prepares for a grapple, stabs her with a white hot blade of plasma

    That one obviously hurts, given her wide eyes, gritted teeth and tense hiss, where she grabs his sword hand with both of hers until her backwards skid can arrest his forward flight. There isn't even blood this time, just smoke and a lot of sparks. When he goes to follow up with further slashes, however, A2 throws his arm aside as hard as she can, and then in twin blazes, both Type-40 swords flash into her hands.

    "Big mistake." she retorts.

    As the prototype YoRHa attacker model, A2's design was an experiment in mixed specialization squads. With no ranged weapons, or even ballistic software, every last bit of her combat memory is dedicated to close range fighting. Charging in with a beam sword is a handy way to reduce collateral damage, but enters right into her arena of dominance.

    The reply to Staren's attack is swift, brutal, and utterly relentless, like an whirling avalanche of magically reinforced steel. The light blade comes out in a blinding series of lightning quick slashes, before launching out of her hand as a spinning buzzsaw, whizzing around Staren to attack from multiple angles. The heavy blade follows up in a briefly dual-wielded string of almost dance-like slashes, punctuating swift diagonals with crushing overheads and bisecting horizontals. When the light blade reappears in her hand, the heavy one only launches itself forward, whirling around her of its own accord to cut off routes to dodge, and letting her pressure him with a sequence of thrusts and cuts that are a blur more than anything. When the heavy comes back around, she smashes that into him, and then pulls a strigger in its hilt, which lets off a heavily damaging blast of electro-magical energy.

    Her footwork is a relentless, complex advance, even on those unfitting high heels. Every swing is a shockwave of force. Her maneuvers are confident, forceful, and completely unpredictable, as both swords alternate between her hands, fighting on their own, and teleporting to and fro. Furthermore, damage dealt to his forcefield generators and armour only seems to spew off more of those white sparks, as some strange system in her body repurposes the shed metal and energy to repairing the damage caused by his beam saber.

Yang Xiao Long has posed:
    Panting, Aura depleted, Yang half falls to a knee, as she watches the Persona vanish, and August collapse. She reaches into her jacket, pulling out her Scroll and calling it in. She then hauls herself back to her feet, and walks over to the collapsed teen, hoisting him up in a princess carry, before turning away from whatever fighting is still going on. "I just hope this was worth it..."

Tomoyo Daidouji has posed:
    The splinter group is more than a little intimidated by Yang, but August stepping up to take charge of his subordinate. They rally behind him, brandishing their weapons and cheering him on.

    And then Yang shouts, charges through his flames and floors him with a single punch.

    The silence is even more deafening than what the Chancellor (who has thankfully gotten back into his car) caused. The punks stare at the golden girl in shock, before breaking and scattering into the alleys nearby. Even the security who is still on their feet is baffled.

    But sadly, their efforts are for naught. For all of Sanary's hard work in holding the door and keeping punks at bay with mettle and intimidation, Iria's sneakiness and A2's brutish power has reduced the servers to scrap. All across the Market District, OMNI speaks.

"CATACLYSMIC DAMAGE DETECTED IN MARKET DISTRICT SERVER FARM. I NOW HAVE INSUFFICENT RESOURCES TO CONTINUE ACTIVE MONITORING OF THIS REGION. PLEASE STAY IN YOUR HOME AND LOCK YOUR DOORS."

    Those who remain, including D-BASE, all cheer and make a break for it. A few are grabbed by the security that still stands, but they laugh even as they're arrested. It's been a crazy night, but they're definitively blackened OMNI's eye. Their crusade is visible to all now. Only time will tell how it pans out.

Iria (215) has posed:
Meanwhile, Iria's gotten the hell out of dodge, heading back into the sewers as quickly as she can once her job has been done. She does hear the announcement and she scowls. "Well, that's your problem, buddy, not mine! I'm just doing my job!" She hmmmphs and adjusts her cape a little. "Now to meet up with the others and get outta here!"

Sanary Rondel has posed:
Sanary's bravado remains even as Yang brings August down, although the surprise is rather evident on her face. If not for the sudden announcement of OMNI's damage, she'd even be playing up that show of power!

     Alas, the announcement means... Sanary's job here is done, isn't it? She doesn't give chase when the still-standing punks make their escape, instead doing a complete 180 on her objectives. With the server destroyed, that leaves the healer to focus on... Healing!

     She's counting how many she heals, too.

Staren has posed:
    Staren looks rather alarmed when she GRABS HIM, desperately trying to pull away.

    He's not a natural flier. When he's thrown, he arrests his movement, THEN turns to face her. She easily smashes through the rest of his forcefield... but as he sees the OMNI servers are finished, he's now just looking for an opportunity to escape. She cuts into the armor, but it's pretty tough. She's clearly winning this fight, but he's not trying to win anymore, just get away. If she tries to keep him from escaping the building, he deploys more and more countermeasures -- dazzlers that detect her eyes and try to blind her with bright light, smoke grenades... The assault rifle's underbarrel launcher fires grenades that explode into some sort of sticky, fast-expanding and hardening foam that she can cut pretty quickly, but he just needs seconds...

    Once he makes it outside, if she KEEPS chasing him, she starts having to deal with missiles too. Once he's far away, she can make out the telltale beam of red light of his teleporter.

    The most frustrating thing about all this, is he remembers telling off the Union for acting too slow. But he got concerned when people were DYING. Here, as with the Warp Iris, they were so close to progress, and August and A2 are the ones ruining it all...