5479/Urban Lungs

Urban Lungs
Date of Scene:	12 September 2017
Location:	The Quilt
Synopsis:	Elites descend into sealed tunnels below the city where the Urban Breath pervades the very air, aiming to rip it's influence out from the roots.
Cast of Characters:	Eryl Fairfax, 707, 1131, Kotone Yamakawa, 1110, 1119, 1084, Staren, 1132

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Eryl Fairfax has posed:
    The Urban Breath pervades the streets now. It can be felt in the very air, which hangs heavy, oily, and stagnant. The street lights flicker on and off, even when all power has been cut to them, flicking rapidly like the eyes of an REM sleeper. Pipes of all kind, from water to gas seem to be flowing on their own, ebbing and flowing at a constant rate, like the slow pulse of something slumbering. But it's been getting faster and faster over the past few days.

    The city is on the verge of awakening. This is the last chance.

    Intensive searching throughout buildings, streets, and subways has eliminated every place in the city save for one. The old sewer tunnels, built early in the city's history and sealed off when a ruptured pipe during a heavy storm flooded them terribly, rendering them unsafe to use. New tunnels had to be developed, and buildings above them carefully collapsed to not put too much strain on the damaged ground.

    That the cultists had shown signs of being able to tunnel through the earth meant that no signs of the sealed tunnels being entered mattered none. Preliminary sonar testing through the walls found little, as some kind of interference preventing the imaging technology from getting anything beyond five feet inside.

    Thankfully, maps of these tunnels exist still, and have been provided. From outside the sealed section, there are 23 possible entrances, and each and every one may need to be checked to succeed.

    

Xiaomu (707) has posed:
Xiaomu's ears are canted back as she eyes her copy of the map, her eyes narrowed; her nose would probably be more visibly scrunched up if it weren't for the mask she's wearing - one of those surgical filter mask things that are so common in Japan during cold season. Those who are magically or spiritually sensitive would be able to pick up that the mask itself is lightly enchanted - or rather, blessed, even sanctified.

"Okay, so we have a cult whose origins go back further than any mortal scheme deserves to perpetuate itself and a catacomb which makes my head hurt if I try to make sense of this map," she concludes, folding the paper up and tucking it into her vest. "I'll take #1 to start with, we should be orderly about this if we can. Anyone who goes in and finds a dead end without any branches, come back out and take another entrance, no fair if you deliberately pick quick dead ends one after the other. Save some of the easy stuff for the rest of us."

She looks about at her allies, hefting her monk staff. "Also, *take notes*. If you find solo cultists, I don't care if you wreck them, but it does us no good to bash their faces in if their dungbrained ritual is set to proceed to completion without additional mortal efforts. Those of you who were at City Hall remember what happened, right?"

She pauses, then reiterates, "I did claim entry #1, right?"

Yumiko Kojima (1131) has posed:
     The job was simple, Crazy cultists in the sewers. Find cultists, remove cultists, save the day, Get the NuYen. Confined spaces weren't exactly Yumi's forte, but they were big enough for her to keep moving, and this /would/ be a great opportunity to test her new Remington Roomsweeper pistol shotguns in case things got hairy and the cultist decide to be immune to her various less-lethal rounds. <<Mokin, Entrance twelve. Setting a screamer in case anyone tries to sneak out the same way I went in.>> She pulls a device from her gear vest and sticks it to the wall a few meters inside, double checking its connection to her HUD. Satisfied she's got her back covered, she double checks her neck seal and helmet filters and turns on the Infrared lights integrated into her helmet before heading inside. The heat signatures of candles show up brilliantly, but aside from those and the occasional rat, nothing yet. She continues on, machine pistols at the ready, each loaded with a magazine of Stick'N'Shock rounds.

Kotone Yamakawa has posed:
This case had disturbed Kotone a lot, given her own nature as osmething that has mostly left the natural world behind. Unlike the cultist though she doesn't /hate/ it nor wants it to go away. Kotone was kitted out for combat wearing somewhat formfitting stelath armor and carying a fairly heavy loadout, at least with concerns to speed and being underground. There were a number of entraces to deal with. R
She gets ona local tack net.

<<Yamakawa here I'm deployed in tunnel seven and cloaking now.>>

She'll also hook up a direct feed to the Paladins. She also deploys a small flying drone to scout out ahead of her. A simple thing with a camera, and she cloaks as she moves in.

Chevalier (1110) has posed:
    "Remember folks, the goal isn't to engage the cultists individually." Chevalier warned the assembled Paladins and mercs before they collectively entered the tunnels. "Spread out, split up, find them. If you find them, call in the rest and we hit them. If you can find them without them realizing they've been found, so much the better. If you have ways of searching for targets without actually being in the same tunnel with them, so much the better." he advises. Yeah, he may be stealing the thunder of the person actually in charge of the mission, but no one's actually briefed the gathered crew so he's doing it. He's done similar things for years, and an unofficial briefing's better than no briefing at all. "Ideally, I'd like to see us eliminate certain passages early so we can group up on the ones more suited for hiding in. But choice is yours. If you want to go for the glory and scout out the big passages solo, try not to get your asses killed."

    He then shakes his head, once on his own. "Seriously who designed this? Probably some damn ritual layout." Assholes to them. He heads for passage #9, short and twisty. Perfect for someone with little fear of rounding corners.

Josuke Higashikata (1119) has posed:
    This place is a maze! Then again, after a quick look at his map, it becomes clear to Josuke that 'get to the center' isn't possible with this layout. So they need to check everything to see if they can find something. Just sort of scour the sewers they can get to. Josuke thinks everyone can handle that.

    This is such a big job, it's no wonder the Paladins got in touch with the Speedwagon Foundation for assistance. And the Speedwagon Foundation may have wanted to know a little more about what are essentially 'city druids', too. So, when there's something unpleasant they want looked at and Jotaro is busy? Yup. Send the new guy.

    At least the Speedwagon Foundation has provided him with protective gear for this. Hipwaders so he doesn't get his shoes dirty -- also so he doesn't walk unprotected through fetid water -- and a small filter mask. He's picking tunnel number sixteen -- it looks like it's longer than just 'peek head around and that's all'. He can't see all the way to the end.

    "I'll take number sixteen," Josuke declares, putting the map in a safe and dry place as he heads into that tunnel. He has a flashlight, but he's not going to use it unless he needs it. He's not a city elemental, though, so it's very possible he's still going to make noise. Particularly if he's having to slog through water. But he can try not to make too much noise or draw attention to himself.

Seras Victoria (1084) has posed:
"The sewers? PLEASE tell me you're pulling my leg. Right...?" Nope, nope. NOPE NOPE NOPE apparently not. Seras, for once, is grateful that she is already dead and thus... has nothing to fear from disease and infection from old, dilapidated sewers.

    This is a mission that she can't refuse though. Not that she wants to. It's just a moment of holding her nose and shaking her head to clear it, standing in front of the 9th entrance.

    "This is Victoria at entrance seven. Good luck, everyone!" She's tense over the radio, but there's earnest well-wishing in the draculina's tone as she steps foot inside. Well. Boots.

    She's not going to get her outfit messier than she has to. Or step in GOD KNOWS WHAT. So she's wearing appropriately thick rubber beats, and carrying a flashlight.

    Not much in the way of weaponry though, just a small semi-auto rifle. This is no place to deploy her heavier weaponry without a clear path to the goal!

    She's also donned a hardhat with a light attached. Because while she can see in the dark, PITCH BLACK is another story. But so long as there's at least a little light to work with she'll leave it turned off...

Staren has posed:
    News of the kidnapping finally makes it to Staren's news agreggator... and soon he finds himself drawn into a tale about an ancient cult trying to bring a city to life, which may or might not be a bad thing on its own, but certainly seems bad for everyone living in said city. Especially if the cult is willing to use kidnapping and violence against others...

    He soon finds that the Paladins are already investigating. And since the goal of rescue is one everyone can agree on, he offers his services...

    So it is that Staren finds himself poised to enter TUNNEL ENTRANCE #21. He's suited up in his powered armor, standard precaution for hostiles, but as they're entering a confined underground space, Staren's offered light vacsuits to anyone else who wants one. He sends a small quadrotor drone just ahead of him to check corners, with another to stand watch whenever he investigates a fork.

    The cultists aren't necessarily in the center, after all, so they may need to check the whole maze...

Kyoko Takada (1132) has posed:
    Alpha-39 is present. Mercenary work. There's some risk involved, but it's a large enough operation, and the Paladins have a good enough reputation, that her concerns are allayed in comparison to some other jobs on the market. Trying new things means learning new things. And it's not like she'll run into anyone here she was shooting at in a prior engagement.
    The stink isn't much a concern. Her mask covers her entire face, with ruby red eyes occasionally catching light. She proceeds in with low-light and infra-red adjustments on, getting a constant stream of tactical information that amounts to little without a plug-in from a team. She's on radio, but audio-only. SMG in hands, rifle slung, knives sheathed, she takes an entrance and starts down, moving with the same, unnatural quiet she always has in these urban environments, feet always knowing where they should go, alert for the smallest changes, the merest hint of intelligent design.

Eryl Fairfax has posed:
Once someone chooses a tunnel, Paladins and city police are on-hand with battering rams to smash through the plaster walls. They begin covering the new opening, tossing out glowsticks to bring some proper light to this place.

    Xiaomu takes ENTRANCE #1. She soon comes to a fork going to the left and right. Ominous chanting echoes from both directions... does she go to HER LEFT or HER RIGHT? #1

    Yumiko takes ENTRANCE #12. The initial fork to her right leads to a dead end, rendering it safe to mark off. The second fork however... chanting is echoing from her left, making it the most obvious place to check. Then, at the third fork, there seems to be chanting right next to her somewhere, but also to her left and right. Does she take the path to HER LEFT (NORTH) or HER RIGHT (SOUTH)?

    Kotone and Seras takes ENTRANCE #7. Immediately, right before them, they can see the silhouette of cultists chanting before her. They're arranged in a circle, around two figures that seem to be hogtied to the ground. Council members!

    Chevalier takes ENTRANCE #9. It leads to an immediate dead end. However, he can hear chaning coming through the eastern walls of the tunnel.

    Staren takes ENTRANCE #21. Immediately, at the left fork, he can hear chanting coming from his left, along the northern route. Cultists are there, with two council members hogtied to the ground, chanting in a circle!

    Josuke takes ENTRANCE #16. It leads to an immediate dead end. However, he can hear chanting coming through the western walls.

    Kyoko takes ENTRANCE #14. It's an immediate dead end. However, she can faintly hear chanting through the eastern and western walls.

Yumiko Kojima (1131) has posed:
Yumiko Kojima tags the dead end, sticking a red chemlight to the wall of its fork. She pauses for a moment at the other fork, trying to judge the levels of the chanting... She updates the map in her HUD as the others check in, before finally deciding on heading to the north, picking up the pace a bit.

Staren has posed:
    Staren gives a friendly nod to the police as he heads in. As the catboy hears chanting ahead, he quickly recalls the drone he sent to check the corner and stuffs it back in his bag. He sneaks up to the corner as quietly as he can and peers around it. Five cultists. He can kill four with energy weapons alone before needing to wait for cooldowns. ...But, he doesn't know if the cultists have merited death yet. He considers nonlethal options... and settles on zap rounds.

    Staren pulls a submachine gun from his bag, and swaps in a different magazine. These high-tech gel bullets discharge electricity on impact. Like a fully automatic taser! After taking a moment to confirm on the radio that he's going in loud and he's going in now... He opens fire, sweeping it across the room as he approaches. They may be nonlethal bullets, but the sound of gunfire fills the tunnels...

Josuke Higashikata (1119) has posed:
    So, it's a dead end. Not surprising. Though that means he doesn't have to start fighting immediately, so that's good. While he's down there, he'll take a few moments to try to fix whatever he can -- cracked or broken walls, pipes, or grates... things like that. Whatever that's down here in his immediate range that could be fixed.

    He does hear that chanting. Though at first he thinks it could be his allies. But then he realizes it -- no, that's far too rhythmic to be regular speech. He quietly places his ear to the east-most wall and listens. He notes over the radio, "Josuke here. I'm hearing chanting to the east of my current location. Anybody want to head that way, or should I go in the easy way?"

    'The easy way', of course, being busting through like a REALLY ANGRY Kool-Aid Man!

Xiaomu (707) has posed:
There is nothing - really *nothing at all* - that could cheer Xiaomu up more than the prospect of bringing the place down on top of all the cultists' heads ... but there are still some sacrificial hostages down here as well, the sage fox reminds herself, so yeah, they have to be methodical and cautious and make sure to take every centimeter of the place apart, no matter how awful it stinks. She's already come to the conclusion that it would take at least a week-long soak in one of the most strongly purifying hot springs she personally knows of before she really FEELS clean of this place and this cult.

Anyway, that's for later. She keeps double-checking her map every so often as she makes her way through the tunnel, glancing around corners and into alcoves as she goes ... and then she reaches that prominent fork, and removes the radio from her ear long enough to try and listen more closely.

Both directions. Why is this never easy?

... because it wouldn't be as satisfying, maybe. For now, she just uses Suiren to make a nice big icy barricade to her left - marking it, as it were, so she knows which way to come back, and also to make sure the cultists don't have a chance to come running if they hear anything. .. Also, y'know, cutting down on how much they might hear. Just a little bit.

Then she progresses along the fork which was to her right.

Chevalier (1110) has posed:
    There's really only one place the chanting can be coming from, Chevalier figures. Somewhere in close, towards the center of the labyrinth. Rather than go out and come back in theough another entrance though, he has another option. He looks around, decides he's alone enough to do this.

    It's not that he's sensitive about his powers exactly, but there are unfriendly elements involved in the operation. Revealing one's most secret abilities is a bad idea when one may end up facing current enemies in a future fight. Splitting up, for Chevalier, was more than simply a tactical option. A quick search finds him what he's looking for: a small chunk of wall, broken off from the rest. He picks it up in a gauntleted hand, placing his other hand on the wall itself between him and chanting. Then he engages his power.

    Given that the broken chunk of wall and the rest of the wall are literally the same material, it's not hard to dimensionally overlay the two. His efforts take little time, costing little effort to establish the link between his hands. Then it's a simple matter of overlaying the dimensions from his left hand to his right. Simple to describe at least. Impossible to see without at least six-dimensional sight. The results are easy enough to see however, as a section of the wall itself shrinks, opening a gap. For now he'll peer through, but he intends to shrink the wall fully if needed, or blast through it if necessary if he has to move quickly and unsubtly such as if cultists decide that gunfire means they should execute hostages.

Seras Victoria (1084) has posed:
This is NOT what Seras was expecting. She's quick to hear the chanting, and this gets her to slow down her approach. Police training so far says that she ought to announce herself and give these cultists a chance to surrender...

    But she's not so sure that she can guarantee the councilmen's safety if she does that. So what's she supposed to do?

    Just open fire?

    That's not an option, exactly...

    Welp. She quietly slings the gun over her shoulder after double-checking the safety's on... whispers a quiet almost-prayer to nothing in particular, and...

    WHOOOOOOOSSSSSSSSSSSSSSHHHHH!!!

    Putting her speed, strength, and training to good use, she dives in to tackle one of the cultists away from the councilmen and bind his arms and legs in a skillful grapple that'll end with her seated on their back and him or her in danger of eating not-exactly-dirt down here, arm around the neck, and her free hand hovering near her pistol with crimson, glowing eyes focused on Kotone's target in a way that just screams, 'just try it!'

    She's not a happy Draculina.

    "Okay! You two can start talking... calmly. I'm new to being a vampire with super strength. Struggle at your peril."

    If she actually accidentally ripped someone's arm off, it would in fact mortify her. But Walter's sense of humor is rubbing off on her a little.

    Her squeaky, young demeanor isn't exactly intimidating, but the pistol sure might be.

Kyoko Takada (1132) has posed:
    "Number fourteen, clear." A-39 speaks into her radio. She checks the map, listening to the sound through the walls. "Advisory, check number twelve, left-south fork." That's the way Yumiko went. At least, it's the entrance Yumiko took. Unfortunately, she took a different fork. Not knowing this, A-39 checks the map again, counting out some low-priority targets, and finding one that might take still take some checking. There's scouting left to do, and no call for badly needing reinforcements, so she's going to scout.
    Backing out the way she came, passing the police along the way, she heads around to try Entrance #11.

Kotone Yamakawa has posed:
Kotone Yamakawa sees the cultist and keeps moving she's already got some freezer foam ready as well. Still she knows lethal force may be a thing and for once? If she has to use it? Kotone will not feel conflicted about doing so. She tips off Seras and she moves away seeing that Seras has the ones nearest to them. She'll also make use of the freezer foam on any of the straggling ones. There would be maybe a ripple in the air then an explosion of foam which would expand and capture the cultists.

"You should start taking. She's the nice one."

She'll make to check up on the councilmen to make sure they are all right as well. She'll also take time to disrupt anything that's obviously related to the ritual as well.

Eryl Fairfax has posed:
    The ceiling of the tunnels seems to shake and rumble in response to more 'forceful' methods of zeroing in on the cultists. No danger for now, just a few plumes of dust. But it probably can't take too much of that.

    Yumiko takes the path to HER LEFT (NORTH). Immediately, she stumbles across a cultist circle, about five gathered around two hogtied councillors. This is just short of the centre of the tunnels, however, and that are to her right, according to the map. They haven't noticed her either, too focussed on whatever ritual they're doing.

    Josuke punches right through the walls through which the chanting comes from! Bricks go flying, smacking several of the hooded figures right in the face! Those that aren't so lucky likely find themselves on the receiving end of that flurry of spiritual fists... although some of the shrapnel likely wounds the councillors too. He'll need to tend to that. There's also sounds of gunfire to the north.

    Staren guns down the cultist with taser rounds! They convulse, before collapsing to the ground. From the south, the catboy hears the sounds of a wall being collapsed via repeated impacts.

    Xiaomu ices up the wall to her left and takes the path to the RIGHT! This one winds around some, but she eventually finds some cultists tucked away in a little dead end! The same as all the others, five in a circle around two hog-tied cultists.

    Chevalier overlaps the dimensions to create a little peeking hole in the western wall. Looking through it, he can see a pack of five cultists around two tied-up cultists, close enough to touch!

    Seras tackles, pins, and secures one of the cultists before he even has a chance to blink. The rest are immediately foamed by Kotone, now stuck to the walls, mouths too obstructed to keep chanting. He's an elderly man with hair on the way out, gray with what's left. He takes a moment to realize what has happened, seemingly in a trance of some sort. But once he comes too, he begins to laugh at the policewoman. "Do you have time to be asking questions, young woman? The ritual is almost complete!"

    Kyoko pulls out from #14 and takes ENTRANCE #11! This one... is also a dead end, with nothing in it. Again, she hears chanting from other parts of the sewer. Namely, the northeast and southwest.

Yumiko Kojima (1131) has posed:
Yumiko Kojima freezes, dropping into a crouch peering around the corner. Circle of standing figures, two bound and on the ground. <<Five cultists, two hostages at my location. Prepping to flash and bang.>> She stows her machine pistols, unslinging the SMG with its compact short-barreled grenade launcher, before pulling a flashbang from its pouch and loading it. She sticks the weapon around the corner, the view from the gun's Smart-Link system appearing on her HUD as she lets the laser rangefinder get a few readings, adjusting the grenade's fuse accordingly so it'll burst in mid-air, in the center of the circle. <<Going hot.>> After one last check to make sure she's got the Stick'N'Shock loaded, she blurs into motion, triggering the grenade launcher as she rounds the corner, flare-compensaition and audio dampers in her eyes and ears protecting her from the effects of the flash-bang. After the grenade detonates, she opens up, triggering a three round burst at each of the cultists' centers of mass.

Seras Victoria (1084) has posed:
Well dang! Seras is a bit wide-eyed at Kotone's display of that gear. If only she had that stuff in...

    No, no, that wouldn't do any good...

    Her attention snaps back to reality at the laughing old man. "You're off your rocker, sir. But you're right about that I suppose!" She chirps a bit too sweetly. "Foam him up, Kotone. Let's drag everyone out of here." With a surprising spat of chipper zeal at having secured their goals, she takes a moment to examine the hostages for any surprises... and work out whether they can be just untied and released or if they're in no condition to move on their own.

Xiaomu (707) has posed:
No time for a battlecry, and Xiaomu's not overly inclined to give them the option of standing down - because giving them time to react is also time in which they can either shoot back, or try to finish their ritual. Xiaomu just charges, firing off a couple of shots - anti-spirit rounds, which she's hoping will ALSO degrade whatever progress they've made on their ritual - but mainly leading with Suiren, trying to clobber the cultists as fast as she can, pouring on the ice magic if she needs to - and she's not above literally icing their faces over so they physically *can't talk*. 'Stop the incantation' is her primary focus, and for all that she'd be happy to rack up a body count, spilling blood may be a factor for the ritual - in which case, the less blood *she* spills, the better for fending things off.

Once the ice-faced cultists are down, she'll go through and make sure they're *unconscious* (and not faking it) before clearing openings for them to breathe again. After that, *then* she focuses on getting the hostages untied, up, and moving. "Head back out along the passage, you should go past an opening that's been sealed off with an ice wall," she tells them. "Run if you can, walk fast if that's your best. Cops'll make sure you're okay. Go!"

Staren has posed:
    Cultists down! Good. Staren rushes over to cut the cultists free with a knife from his bag. "Get out of here! Turn right at the fork." He has a thought, and radios: <"I've stunned five suspects. Police, can you come apprehend them before they recover? Also, two hostages coming your way."> "I'm gonna go check that noise. Go!" He urges the hostages, then runs south to check on the noise, if he can reach it. Using his beam saber to cut a hole if needed.

Josuke Higashikata (1119) has posed:
    Well, with no direction over the radio, Josuke's left to his own devices. Which, well, Josuke's always on the side of 'deal with the problem as soon as possible'. So he turns to the eastern wall. Yup, he's gonna break through. A slight frown and a bare moment of concentration sends the purple aura sparking to life around him, and the pink-and-blue Stand seems to rise from his body.

    From the other side, a rapid, repeated thudding sound might be heard. It won't take long for the force to reach the other side, and a spiderweb of cracks spreads over the other side of the wall, nearest the chanting. A moment's hestation... and the wall will explode inwards, revealing the large muscular figure of Crazy Diamond, punching bits of the wall away, greeting the other side with a loud, "DORARARARAAAAA!"

    That, however, is the problem with not looking before you leap -- or in this case, 'before you summon your Stand and destroy a wall'. You never know what's on the other side. Fortunately it seems to have worked out all right, between shrapnel and fists taking out the group here. Unfortunately he also managed to injure the hostages!

    He winces as he notes this. "Aa! Sorry! I didn't know you guys were so close to the wall!" It shouldn't take him more than a few minutes to heal the wounds he caused with the Crazy Diamond. "There we go." He stands up, helping the hostages to their feet too. Then he points at the hole in the wall. "The way out is that way. C'mon!"

    He'll go with them for a short distance, only long enough to make sure they'll make it out and not end up re-captured. Then he'll double back, using Crazy Diamond to throw himself (and then catch himself so he doesn't splat against a wall) to get back into the maze.

Chevalier (1110) has posed:
    Chevalier checks his map, deciding there's simply no convenient way to come around through tunnels to these cultists he sees. Not in any sort of timely fashion at least. And with explosions going off and gunfire, time is of the essence.

    He has few options as to how to proceed, really. He can't blast the wall or the hostages are likely to be injured or killed as stone sprays from the explosion. He can't open fire; his weapon's relatively slow-firing and he can't reliably kill five of them while they've got hostages.

    That doesn't leave him entirely without choices, however. Chevalier, experienced and flexible, comes quickly to a solution. He raises his cannonblade, pressing it to the opening he created in the wall. Still holding his wall-deforming chunk of stone, he prepares his power. Two uses at once... tricky. Or it WOULD be tricky if one use wasn't the Cannonblade he knows so very well.

    Slamming his shapeshifting power into both the wall and the Cannonblade, Chevalier shrinks the wall as he lengthens the blade. Conceptually tricky, but nothing he can't handle. The gap in the wall widens enough to allow his weapon to pass, then the gap deepens enough so he can stride through it. In the meantime his blade extends, becoming a virtual wall of metal that he extends to shield the hostages. Any cultists between him and the hostages he shields, well, they're going to die on the expanding edge of the cannonblade. He'll take prisoners only from those who were lucky enough to be on the far side.

    With that, Chevalier wedges the blade in place and leaves it behind, wading forward unarmed to engage any surviving cultists in fisticuffs. Well okay, it's not quite as sporting as that may sound. Chevalier can literally hit like a truck, even unarmed. He'll take them alive if at all possible, but that doesn't mean they won't feel like they were run over by several tons of metal. Because, you know, that could literally happen.

Kotone Yamakawa has posed:
Kotone Yamakawa Does what she can to disrupt the ritual here and now looks to the man for a moment. She'll let Seras gt lose of him nad she shakes her head.

"tch."

She gets anotehr freezer foam unit and will restrain this cultist as well.

"Seras we need to get the hostages out."

Kotone will check to make sure the hostages are all right after Seras is done. If they can be untied she might be able to use her drone to lead them out and into the arms of waiting Paladin personel.

"Can you both move? We don't have long and you need to get out of here."

Kyoko Takada (1132) has posed:
    While it sounds like something's coming from #12, that was already checked, supposedly. A-39's not going to deal with double-checking someone else's mess tonight. She bugs back out, announcing the tunnel as clear, and decides against slicing her way through a wall. No, she may as well continue to circle around the system. Next on her list is #8. She moves faster now, gauging a necessary increase in speed over caution, if only for the lack of encountered traps. It doesn't sound like anyone else has encountered any, either. Weird.
    Really weird. Were the cultists not planning to fight back? Why not? Does it not matter to them if they get stopped? From one relayed interrogation, it sounds like they think they've already won, in which case it won't matter how many of them get interrupted, or how many hostages get freed.
    A-39 tries to communicate this concern.
    "Question. Have any enemy forces resisted?"
    After a few moments, after getting over the stunning response, her professional face breaks as she asks, "Fair? The hell you talking about? I'm talking enemy operational behavior." What kind of soldier from any country would give a damn what's fair?
    "Are you even listening--" No, not worth it. Leave 'em. Still got a job to do. Just keep in mind some people are too far gone to save from themselves. "--over. Checking the next tunnel."
    That anyone would even consider the question of fairness in a firefight still boggles her mind. It's un unsolvable mystery.

Eryl Fairfax has posed:
    With a flash and many bangs, Yumiko has cut down the five cultists with pinpoint spray. The only prayers here re what the cultists were offering as they were gunned down. However, around the corner which leads to the middle of the tunnels, an ominous light is starting to bloom...

    Seras and Kotone examines the hostages... oh dear. Each one of them is alive, but there's a sizable stab wound in each of their guts. It's not deep enough to hit any organs, but there is a sizable pool of something seeping out. But it's not blood, she would know. They bleed oil and grease, and as they look at their rescuers, they seem just as horrified as they might be.

    Xiaomu charges in! Those spirit rounds seem to make the air hiss in a way not usual to gunfire. The faces of the cultists freeze over, silencing their chants before they're gunned down. But as she speaks to the councillors while untying them, one of them groans. "I-I can't..." They both have a stab wound to the stomach, and they seem to be bleeding liquid metal, though it's not hot in the slightest.

    Staren, ever fixated on the next thing, might miss what the hostages have to say after he frees them. "Wait, no, I've been stab-" And indeed, they both have that same stab wound in their stomach. They seem to be bleeding... well, analysis would reveal that it is MSG and other types of food preservatives. However, should he leave them for the incoming police, his investigation of the noise would link him up with Josuke, who punched through the wall.

    Speaking of the Stand user, something odd happens as he attempts to use Crazy Diamond to heal the councillors. The scrapes and bruises caused by his bursting through the walls heal fine. But something, some force, tries to repulse the power. For a second, their stab wounds (which bleed antifreeze) spurt natural crimson blood. If the young man stops out of surprise or concern, it immediately reverts back to the chemical.

    Chevalier gets his cannonblade through the wall and widens it. With a sickening 'shunk,' he bisects several of the cultists, causing torsos to topple and blood to gush. The one that was lucky to be out of reach snaps out of his ritual-induced trance, just in time to see the superhero's fist barrelling towards his face. He's down for the count, and the councillors secured. Though, they too seem to be wounded the same as the others, their wounds gushing... coffee?

    Kyoko checks ENTRANCE #8 and finds... nothing again. To the north, she can hear Kotone and Seras. To the south, the sounds of violence perpetrated by Chevalier. Those walls may be a bit strange owing to his dimensional manipulations. The ceiling, t the very least, is slumping down.

Staren has posed:
    Staren IS stopped by that, at least for a moment. He scans them for magic, and pulls something like a roll of bandages with a bulge at one end from his bag. Two of them, one for each hostage. High-tech bandages to help them heal, although in this timeframe they're mostly to stabilize the pair. He's not sure what to do about the weird blood... but for the moment, he stays with the hostages to see if they exhibit other weird symptoms.

    And also to freezer foam the cultists if they come to.

Yumiko Kojima (1131) has posed:
Yumiko Kojima swiftly restrains the downed cultists with zipcuffs, binding them hand and foot before cutting loose the hostages. Crouching down, she examines them for wounds, eyebrows rising as the fluid leaking from their bodies starts to change the color of their clothes. <<Drek. My two are leaking bleach, and the light around the corner's getting brighter. If my map's right, that should be the center. I need immediate medical assistance for these guys, and if there aren't any hostages in the center, I'm using a frag. These slots deserve to die for what they're doing to people.>> She reloads, replacing the Stick'N'Shock magazine with lethal rounds, and slipping a frag grenade into the muzzle of the launcher. She quickly kicks the drek out of anything ritual looking on the floor, claws scoring lines into the brick. This also may include one of the cultists, although she retracts the claws before delivering the punishing kick to the ribs. Mokin slowly advances around the corner, smartgun camera first.

Xiaomu (707) has posed:
With wounds like that, the hostages aren't going much of anywhere without help - and it's help that Xiaomu doesn't think she has time to administer. The best she can do is to find some relatively clean cloth, improvise a pad to help staunch the 'bleeding,' and elevate them out of the sewer-muck on layers of ice.

Then she doubles back to deal with the fork she left walled off behind conjured ice. Hopefully the cultists THERE haven't had a chance to finish their part of the ritual yet ...

Since Xiaomu conjured that ice in the first place, she just reaches out mentally/spiritually and counters the conjuration the same way - and she leads the way with a hail of gunfire, STILL firing anti-spirit rounds, and aiming high enough that she's unlikely to do more than part the cultists' hair.

She actually wants them ALIVE this time, but if her bullets slam the brakes on the ritual? She's going to *use* that. So once she's confirmed her targets, she's aiming for kneecaps and such.

Josuke Higashikata (1119) has posed:
    Yeah, that's going to make Josuke stop. At least he can heal the injuries he caused! They're mostly alive, though, even if he can't fix whatever it was that was done to them. He really doesn't want to try until there are doctors around to help if he messes it up. If they're not able to move, he'll just summon Crazy Diamond and have the Stand grab the hostages, and hotfoot it out! Hopefully there's medical people standing by out there somewhere. Either way, he's getting those hostages out!

    Which means Staren might just see Josuke hotfooting it out, with Crazy Diamond floating along behind him, carrying the hostages. And THEN, once he's back, he'll try to get to the center. Again, he might pass Staren, if he hasn't moved from the spot by the time he comes back in.

    Getting to the center this time, though, Josuke is going to go the direct route. Which means breaking through walls! Though knowing both that this place is unstable AND that his abilities are being actively resisted, he has to be careful. He can't just go smashing through random walls. He'll try to break through one, go through, and then pause and concentrate on fixing it. He's probably going to be rather tired when he reaches the center, but it'll be worth it.

Chevalier (1110) has posed:
    Chevalier looks down at the two hostages he's rescued. With a growl of frustration he turns away from them. He can't save those hostages, not with his power and not with mundane first aid. It's frustrating as hell to leave them behind, but what else can he do? The only way he can think of to help is to break the ritual, which means pushing forward towards the center of the ritual circle and breaking whatever's there. He's far better as a Breaker than a medic anyways, and the pun appeals to him in a very dry way.

    Fortunately for Chevalier, checking his map, he appears to have broken into a section of the maze that leads straight towards the center. Picking up his cannonblade and reverting it to normal size, he begins to run down the hallway towards the center area. It'd take too long to turn back and check out missing spots in the circle of cultists. Hostages might die, and that sucks hard, but the important thing here is to break the ritual. To save all that CAN be saved, and to make sure the assholes don't get away with what they're doing. Two lives lost in following that goal... unfortunate, but acceptable in the end.

    "I'm in position to move in on the center." Chevalier corrects himself over the radio. "Going in. Probably whatever's in the center's the key to stopping the hostages from being killed." he says, picking up the pace and beginning to sprint as he hears Mokin announce she's also moving in on the center. He's willing to be the bigass distraction if need be. It's in his job description. Big ass mountain of moving steel.

Seras Victoria (1084) has posed:
This is PURE BOLLOCKS. Bleeding OIL and grease?! Seras claps a hand almost over her mouth before she remembers where she is... yeah don't want anything near her mouth if it's been in these fumes!

    "That's... that's probably not fatal, we'll get you to medical attention!" She babbles out after a few moments of confusedly trying to regain her composure and focus. Seras uses a simple knife she has on hand to cut their bindings if it's too tricky to untie... and if one hostage can piggyback, she has no trouble just bridal-carrying the other. She's easily got the strength! "It's just some nasty magic.... we have plenty of magical specialists. Nothing to panic about!" She... really doesn't sound convincing, since it has her INCREDIBLY creeped out.

Kyoko Takada (1132) has posed:
    A-39 considers the wall between her and the #12 portion of the max, that includes the center. Two other people are headed there. Some people have already poked holes in walls, and the place is rumbling. She considers the possibility of it collapsing. She considers the further possibility that this operation is a wash. Both seem fairly likely. She has a job to do, whether victory is possible or not, and whether the others nearby deserve to live or not. She's a professional.
    She exits back out, after announcing the cleared area, and moves to #13.

Kotone Yamakawa has posed:
Kotone Yamakawa is not expecting this she looks in horror they are bleeding oil and grease, what has happened to them?What can be done? This is like a nightmare Kotone used to have often after her conversion. She just stares for a moment longer anf shakes her head. Right she's got to focus. Josuke doeswn't get a reply but he's entirely right. She looks to Seras. "Get them out out of here I'll go on ahead.

"Do what you can to stop the beleeding Sera."

Kotone recloaks and goes on ahead to make sure this passage way is entirely cleared out.

Eryl Fairfax has posed:
    Staren does his best to stem the wounds. The bandages go on, and they stop the flow of liquid preservatives. One of them asks Staren, "Are we going to die?" as the police arrive. Examining the wounds more carefully, they seem to be bleeding more and more as time passes...

    Xiaomu rushes back, and is already spraying bullets down the tunnel where she heard the second load of chanting. But she hits nothing but air. The sounds were coming through from a cracked wall, in an adjacent tunnel.

    Seras begins to carry the councillers out. Contrary to concerns, she is able to do just that. But once they're out of the tunnels, whatever magic was at work reverts. The oil becomes blood and begins to gush, pooling as they begin to go pale. Whatever magic was doing it doesn't extend beyond the sealed section. But it's also what was keeping them from actually bleeding out.

    Kotone goes deeper into the tunnel in the meantime... and finds a second lot of cultists with two more councillors (these ones bleed wood pulp, repreentative of paper perhaps?) Beyond the walls, she can hear Xiaomu's gunfire, confirming that these are the ones she heard.

    Kyoko goes into ENTRANCE 13 and finally finds the elusive cultists, surrounding two councillors that are leaking liquid silicon. The chanting seems to have reached a crescendo... she may yet have time to disrupt them, but she'll have to move fast!

    And finally, three venture towards the centre. Josuke links up with Yumiko after punching and fixing walls behind him, while Chevalier makes his way through the opposite end. They reach the centre, shining with a grayish light and bearing etchings upon the wall. There is an open coffin in the centre with a wizened, partially scorched body within. And floating above it is the body's former owner.

    Lance Arbast is here, manifesting as piles of scrap in a vague humanoid silhouette. He speak, his voice booming through the walls. "A H F I N A L L Y. T O O L I T T L E T O O L A T E I M A F R A I D. T H E U R B A N B R E A T H W I L L R I S E W I T H T H I S C I T Y A S I T S A R M O R A N D Y O U W I L L D I E."

Kyoko Takada (1132) has posed:
    Kyoko still doesn't quite trust this "total lack of traps" thing, but at least while moving outside, she can run at full speed. She slows down on entering the tunnel, but this is a short one. There are the hostages. Here is her gun.
    Short, controlled bursts. The sound is loud and harsh, the trigger squeezed without any thought past identifying the targets. Without significant protection, each will take several rounds through the gut as she aims center-of-mass, dropping all but one of the cultists while walking forward in a habitually low posture.
    The last of the figures standing instead gets a flying kick to the gut. One might be useful for questions. She'll find out once they get their breath back.
    "Speak.

Yumiko Kojima (1131) has posed:
Yumiko Kojima grits her teeth, enlarging the AR window containing the gun cam feed. This bastard's going down. NO innocents in the room. She gets the go, and alerting her teammates, she triggers the grenade launcher, quickly pulling it back around the corner. THOOMP. This one's fused to explode right between the floating body and the physical one. As soon as the noise of shrapnel slamming into stone dies away, Yumi rounds the corner again, moving at full speed, SMG stuttering on full auto as she dumps a mag of explosive ammo into what looks like some kind of toxic spirit. Mundane weapons aren't anywhere as effective as Astral attacks, but if she can blow enough chunks out of it to keep it on the defensive....

Chevalier (1110) has posed:
    Dashing in to the center, Chevalier skids to a screeching halt as he sees the scrap pile that is Lance Arbalest. Ugly motherfucker. Loud too, and talks funny. The golden-armored hero waits long enough to let the spirit-villain talk. Monologing, after all, is a time-honored tradition. It's almost part of the unspoken contract, letting a villain do a monolog. Chevy gets to be badass, villain gets to monolog. Fair's fair. Besides, if you let them monolog, it gives you time to set up your next move.

    So Chevalier waits, patiently, for the villain to finish his speech. Then the cape grins behind his visor, a show of teeth that probably doesn't actually show. "Fuck that." he says in simple reply, unlimbering his cannonblade and pointing it at the pile of scrap before pulling the trigger.

    He only shoots once though, before dropping the point of the blade and anchoring it into stone in front of him, expanding the sword into a shield in readiness for Mokin's grenade. His armor, the toughness of literal tons of metal, has nothing to fear from shrapnel. Concussive force is another matter, and he doesn't want to risk an unlucky shrapnel fragment breaching a seam or joint.

    After the explosion Chevalier rises, keeping the cannonblade large, leveling it across his body to continue firing larger shells if there's still anything there to shoot.

Josuke Higashikata (1119) has posed:
    And this is what Josuke was afraid of. Seems he was right; whatever these guys were planning to do with the hostages has already been done. He skids to a stop when he catches sight of the metal monstrosity that (presumably) used to be human. "...Crap," he mutters, looking around.

    Suddenly there's a lot of fire in the air -- Yumiko and Chevalier seem to have the 'Here, Eat Bullet' idea for solving the problem, which Josuke REALLY hopes works. It keeps him well out of melee range, though, since he doesn't want to be perforated, particularly not by friendly fire. But he has another idea.

    Grabbing a piece of debris, he hands it off to Crazy Diamond, who forms it into something sharp. And then, while Yumiko and Chevalier are (hopefully) keeping the metal monstrosity busy, Josuke sets about using his Stand to ruin as many arcane etchings and circles as he can, as fast as he can move with Crazy Diamond.

Kotone Yamakawa has posed:
Kotone is fildld with rage, even with the nature of her body she still feels like her blood isburning as she finds the next two councillors. She's cloaked and she moves now, she moves rapidly her freezer foam is deployed from cloak again on the cultest she also will smash any seeming ritual items she's using. She'll decloak once the last of them is handled. She'll look to the hostages.

"I'm here to get you out."

She'll move to cut their binding but beofre she moves them. She's gong to attempt bind the wounds even if it's using freezer foam to help contain it. Then she will move carry them as best she can to get the hell out of there. She will not waste time she's got to /move/.

<<Seras on my way out I have two more!>>

Staren has posed:
    What the hell? It's not blood, and the bandage isn't doing anything... "I don't know." Staren answers, honestly.

    It always bothers him when heroes in stories say 'You're going to be fine' to someone who dies in like the next scene.

    "It's magical, and I'm not a doctor or a mage." He thinks about this for a moment. Who can cure magical ailments like this? There's Miari, somewhere, but she's not here right now. Maybe the area around the wound could be cut out. What if he cauterized it? But that might just mean filling their body cavity with the strange material. Probably not good.

    Josuke volunteers himself on the radio. "We have someone who might be able to heal you once this ritual is dispelled. Can you move? I'm afraid all I can offer is a last resort, if you want to be uploaded into a computer. ...The effect doesn't seem to be spreading, though. Unless you feel it getting worse, there's probably time to have a doctor look at you. Or a mage. I don't know about magic, but from the medical side, we could at least find out if your condition is getting worse or not... Then we'd know if extreme measures are warranted." Staren's calm, matter-of-fact, rambling bedside manner is probably only comforting to the most curious.

    If the hostages aren't able to move on their own, he'll foam the cultists (if the police aren't there already) and carry the two out. He alerts whatever medical personnel they may have: <"They have magic stab wounds. They're bleeding something weird, and my nanobandages aren't working on it. But the magic doesn't seem to be spreading. I can't tell if they're losing blood to produce the strange material or not.">

Xiaomu (707) has posed:
Vacant dead end.

Xiaomu mutters a curse under her breath; she knows she doesn't have a more direct path to the center without going out and around, and she's had it pretty well beaten into her head by now that wrecking the architecture is NOT a good thing -

And then she hears Kotone dealing with them. Good. She STILL has to hurry though - and unlike some people in the party, she can't do a whole lot to stabilize the architecture on her way through. For that matter, she isn't packing demo charges, either.

Okay, so, time to improvise. She conjures a fresh batch of ice around the already-cracked wall, basically making an archway framing the cracks ... and then fills that crack with ice - more ice than there's physically space for, ideally. It *should* pop the wall open like the way freezing on the roads makes potholes erupt.

If that does the trick, she hurries through; if Kotone seems to need help, the sage fox will linger to see if she can do anything, but otherwise, she's bearing right and checking against her recollection of the map. Fastest route to the center should go through two walls ...

Eryl Fairfax has posed:
    In contrast to the gunfire happening elsewhere in the tunnels, A-39 shoots quick precise bursts, cutting through the midsections of the cultists. They slump immediately, and the last one is viciously kicked before he can react. It takes a long moment for him to find his words, but he only have five. "Glory to the Urban Breath," he says, before spitting blood at the mercenary's face. Seems he bit his tongue.

    Kotone incapacitates the cultists with a flurry of freezer foam and has the hostages secured before they can even blink. Blasting the wounds with more foam to seal them seems a surprisingly effective idea. But once she lugs them outside, it becomes to go crimson from within as the oozings revert to what they should be.

    "Oh god," the councillor with Staren says before breaking into soft sobs. That's probably why the movie heroes say that. They're a little too inconsolable to listen to his offer of transhumanism, but they manage to say, "I can't feel my legs..." So it's up to him to carry them out. The moment he's out of the tunnel, the wounds begin to spurt blood, alarming the medics on scene. They quickly take the two onto stretchers and get them into the medical tents.

    Xiaomu's ice archways make the place rumble slightly with each one, but everything holds together. She had better hurry though, because the sounds emanating from the centre are loud and violent!

    In the central chamber, gunfire and explosive fill the room, echoing through the tunnels. Through it all, the ghostly cult leader just laughs, even as his mummified body is splattered and riddled with bullets. The gunfire, cannonfire, and explosions disrupt the scrap, but don't seem to bother him at all. "F O O L I S H. M E R E L E A D C A N N O T H U R T M E." As Kotone and A-39 bring down the last remaining rituals however, the glow in the room dims. "B A H. U S E L E S S M O R T A L S. N O M A T T E R." And then when Josuke starts carving up the symbols, the cloud of junk starts to wobble. "NO! YOU FOOL!" it screams, words coming clear for once.

    Immediately, the atmosphere in the room becomes harsh, heavy. The ground underfoot seems to be boiling. Something is coming. The centre of the room suddenly erupts, concrete flowing in a way that it shouldn't, even as a liquid. Bending, twisting like flesh as a massive, grotesque mouth of iron gums and plastic teeth snatches up the coffin. "MASTER, PLEASE NO, I DID ALL THAT YOU ASKED!" the spirit screams.

Staren has posed:
    He can't feel his legs? "Don't worry. There's ways to fix that in the Multiverse." Staren replies, in what might be an attempt at sounding reassuring. When he gets them outside and they start bleeding normally, he checks to see if the magic is gone -- seeing it is, he's content to let the medics do their jobs.

    He turns and runs for the center, cutting his way through walls with his beam sabers!

Yumiko Kojima (1131) has posed:
Yumiko Kojima ...Well drek. THe floor's alive. She's not getting paid enough for this, and there's no way she can take all of this on. <<...Frag this. I'm dropping the rest of my grenades and getting out of here. I didn't bring the gear to fight a spirit that's THE ENTIRE FLOOR!>> Letting her SMG hang from its sling, she digs in her grenade pouch and starts chucking. Another frag, two High Explosive, and an incendiary all follow the coffin into the throat of the monster. <<Twenty second fuses. Slot and run, people!>> She spins, grabbing her shotguns to have something still loaded in her hands, and sprints out of the central chamber, bouncing off the wall as she corners. She doesn't slow down until she's back in the comparatively clean air of the outdoors, where she drops into a crouch, pulling off her helmet and panting for breath.

Xiaomu (707) has posed:
Along the way, Xiaomu swaps out her current (mostly depleted) clips for fresh ones, and repeats the pothole maneuver when she has to in order to open holes through the walls ...

And as soon as she lays eyes on that vaguely person-shaped 'cloud' of debris, she starts emptying THOSE clips - fresh loads of anti-spirit rounds - into the shape of Lance Arbast, *and* into the coffin. No 'High Speed Xiaomu,' no flashy maneuvers or martial arts or sage-fox sorcery, just lots of bullets, each one enchanted to wreak hell on things that aren't entirely mortal (but still quite capable of doing to mortal flesh everything that a regular bullet would do).

She's aware of Yumiko setting a twenty-second timer on the grenades, though, and she turns and *RUNS* with about seven seconds left before detonation. That's still cutting it awfully close, probably, but it was long enough for her handguns to both click on empty.

(Which incidentally took rather more trigger-pulls than those clips LOOK like they should hold in terms of bullets.

Josuke Higashikata (1119) has posed:
    Josuke recognizes two things. One, that his ruination of the symbols is having a definite effect. So what does he do? He looks at the wobbly spirit. "Dreams do require sacrifice," he says, almost calmly. "Blood, sweat, and tears. Even I know you have to fight for what you believe in, and that's not always going to leave you unscathed. Sometimes you lose more than you ever wanted to, and you have to wonder if it was worth it."

    Here he scowls. "But YOU were willing to sacrifice others to make your dream come true, and not sacrifice a thing of yourself. Well I've taken that out of your hands. Let's see how YOU like being the one sacrificed!" he spits. And with that? Tuning everything else out, he turns back to the symbols, pushing hard against that force trying to actively prevent his abilities from working.

    But he's not trying to repair the symbols, to put them back like they were. He's trying to ERASE them, to put the walls back the way they were before the etchings were placed. If that can't be done, he'll try to WARP the symbols instead, the way he does when he tries to use his restoration ability and can't draw the concentration to fix it properly.

    The second thing he realizes is something not so good -- something WORSE is probably coming. With any luck, his meddling with the symbols has taken some of the wind out of the sails of whatever it is that's coming through.

Seras Victoria (1084) has posed:
Seras notices the change in what's happening almost instantly. Because her instincts, which didn't care much about grease and oil, suddenly spike into overdrive with a bleeding human in her arms. She briefly staggers but slams down with all of her will to not topple over... and is left gasping uncertainly at this change.

    Because she's half-starved and has been staving off the hunger through copious coffin-sleep. For a few brief moments she gazes down at the living person she holds and all the blood and licks her lips weirdly, despite herself....

    Then, with a wrenching of willpower, she surges back towards the medical sites to drop the wounded off as quickly as possible!

    Though there's some strange panic in her eyes. She has good reason to want to be away from all the warm human blood straight from the source, AS SOON AS POSSIBLE.

    The moment they're in the tents she is OUT of them and dashing back towards the sewers... where she leans against a wall and stares dizzily at her own outfit as though in a trance.

    "Hnnnnnah... no, that's not right!"

Staren has posed:
    ...And then Staren hears over the radio that someone's trying to collapse the tunnel with explosives, and about faces! If the monster(?) survives, he'll fight it from a position of NOT being pinned under rubble!

Kyoko Takada (1132) has posed:
    A-39 doesn't speak further. There's some blood on her now, but it doesn't make the masked gunner look all that different from before. She does react, but only to fire a burst into the cultist's chest. It's best to be sure of these things.
    As soon as the last round is fired, she slings the gun, drops down to the side of the two council members, and starts pulling out the aid kit she never goes anywhere without. Everything in it is ignored for now, except the sterilized bandages, which she wraps firmly around the wounds oozing who-knows-what. If the rescue targets she speak, she'll respond only with "lay still," and "medics are outside." She's already calling for the cops to get in and help carry them. She could probably take the weight, but she's got the height of a teen from a land of short people.

Chevalier (1110) has posed:
    Lead won't hurt him? Well, that remains to be seen. Besides Chevalier's baddest weapon isn't lead, it's steel. Steel plus a few hybrid materials that aren't, strictly speaking, metallurgially possible. But it's not like Chevalier has to actually kill this guy. No, others can take care of that.

    "Lead can't hurt you? Good thing I'm just the distraction, asshole!" the golden-clad cape calls out, seeing Josuke's attack do its work. He grins fiercely, but then staggers as the room begins to erupt in ... well, in bad shit.

    He doesn't have to worry about how to kill the vortex of trash and debris at least. Whether or not his weapons will work on them is kind of irrelevant. Yumiko's grenade belt makes it irrelevant. He could survive the fragmentation, but the concussion would probably kill him. And if it didn't, the sewers collapsing on him would be a really bad thing. He begins his charge, trying to stay behind Josuke and Xioamu as they flee. He can surely survive any explosions better than they can, so he makes the best backstop. Still, no need to be stupid! He's following hot on their heels, and should anyone stumble he's prepared to scoop them up and carry them clear.

Eryl Fairfax has posed:
    Grenades land inside the mouth before the being takes up the coffin and savages it, sending wood and body parts all over the room. The strange feeling in the air fluctuates as Josuke takes Crazy Diamond to the glyphs, warping their definition. The mouth suddenly lunge for the scrap spirit as it screams... only for Xiaomu to barrel in and pump it full of bullets. The anti-spirit ammunition rips the remains of Lance Arbast apart, dispersing him.

    And the mouth is not happy.

    It begins thrashing anew, slamming against every surface of the room in a vain attempt to crush those who dare oppose it. But already, its form is beginning to melt into the floor again. The mouth is the last thing to go, just before the grenades detonate.

    The explosion rocks the tunnels, and thanks to all the weaknesses introduced by damaging the walls, the place begins to come down as everyone makes their escape. Thankfully, the hostages that had been left behind had been secured and removed by the police. The entrances, both those that had been forced open, and those still sealed, crumble and expel massive clouds of dust as the roof collapses, causing the streets above to sink considerably. That's going to be expensive.

    Thankfully, the prognosis from the medics is good. The councillors (and the cultists that had to be substituted for the ones that were rescued) had their wounds cleaned of the other substances and then stitched close. They should pull through, but the ones that were bleeding toxic things will be strictly observed.

    It could have gone much worse. But the Elites managed to secure everyone, and eliminate Lance Arbast. And yet, the Urban Breath lingers. Not on the streets, as the air becomes clean and breathable for the first time in weeks. But there, somewhere...

Kotone Yamakawa has posed:
Kotone Yamakawa leeps moving how with her hostages, to get them to the medical personel that The Paladins have set up she's got to be quick. "I have you, we'll get you to people that are better suited to helping you with this. She's going right for the medical tents as she gets out. She might be going back in but she's needing to get back. Once they are in medical care. She'll tell the medics quickly how to deal with the Foam, then is heading back in at top speed to join the center hopefully she can help with the other s down there.

She skids to a halt so hard she leaves skidmarks in the ground and aborts her attempt to get back inside she calls out on the radio.

She starts to scramble back wards nd shakes her head.

"...what a nightmare. I had dreams about...things like that..."

Xiaomu (707) has posed:
Xiaomu does not actually stop running so much as she tries to angle her momentum in more useful directions. It generally works ... but she doesn't really let her speed taper off until she is, preferably, either above ground and/or at LEAST the equivalent of a block or two away from the now-ruined catacombs.

Then she pulls out her smartphone (what serves, for most purposes, as her radio), and enables the speech-to-text converter for incoming messages. Her ears are ringing hard enough that she doesn't really trust them for communication right now. Hopefully THAT will subside in relatively short order - but it's what she gets for cutting it that close in the vicinity of high explosives.

Only then does she carefully hook a finger inside her mask, tugging it down just enough to sniff cautiously at the air ... and finding it more or less clear, she takes the mask off entirely to work on breathing.

Yumiko Kojima (1131) has posed:
Yumiko Kojima is expecting the muffled *whump* from underground when it comes, sighing with relief as the miasma seemingly dissipates. Her face pales as she realizes that one of the team hasn't evacced with the others... Something untranslatable and obscene in japanese explodes out of her mouth as she turns and tosses a punch into the wall next to her. However... This wall is far sturdier, and unlike her legs, her arms are just flesh and blood. Her face pales, and she cradles her now throbbing hand in the uninjured one. <<...I'm sorry.>>

Staren has posed:
    Staren watches it collapse. With the streets falling like that, he wonders how it can be okay, but... the Paladin field marshal seemed sure of it...

    And then comes the news that one of them didn't make it out.

    Oh, well. More work to be done then.

    He flies up to the street and walks to roughly where the center is, trying to see how far he'll have to dig down... Are beam sabers effective for digging? Oh wait, he has the matter manipulator. Yeah, that'll do.

Josuke Higashikata (1119) has posed:
    Josuke's lack of concentration on the world around him is going to cost him. He doesn't realize the place is coming down until it's too late. When he does realize it, he turns and makes a run for it. And yes, he WILL go through walls -- it's not like NOT being careful at THIS juncture is going to make things worse, after all. But he can only punch through walls so fast. Can he make it? Can he outrun the collapse, even with Crazy Diamond?

    ...As it turns out, no.

    Seems he'd wasted too much time staying behind to warp the symbols to buy himself the time to punch through enough walls to get out. And as the smoke and debris explodes out through the exits to the collapsing underground maze, neither Josuke nor Crazy Diamond make an immediate appearance.

    There's time for things to quiet down a little. For the rumbling to settle slightly. And then there's more rumbling, and it's growing louder by the moment. Suddenly something bursts up out of the wreckage -- it's a familiar pink and blue armored figure, with a loud, "DOURRRAAAAA!" The figure flickers out of existence and Josuke pulls himself out of the wreckage, looking worse for wear and missing his rebreather, but very much not-squished. Which is an improvement over what could have happened to him.

    "Sorry I'm late!" he calls out to the group at large. "Crazy Diamond was fixing the area around me to keep it off me, so I had to wait until the place stopped collapsing before I could get out!"