1628/Painting the town Red

Painting the town Red
Date of Scene:	21 February 2015
Location:	Strait of the Americas
Synopsis:	Kuja decides to swing by the Strait to punish some 1920s Fashion Offenders in a Speakeasy.
Cast of Characters:	Steve Rogers, 428, Blurr, 626, 675, 691, Sanary Rondel, 717

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Kuja (717) has posed:
     Deep in the strait of the americas lies a version of Chicago from the age of tweed jackets and flapper dresses. Indeed, it is a veritable blast from the past, with the year only having reached sometime in the 1920s. Deep in the heart of this city lies a club, the Grinning Flamingo, which has earned Kuja's ire.

     And so, now hovering over it is the giant airship, the invincible! It would be too easy just to turn the massive weapons of such a craft on the establishment and just SMITE it, no, the Angel of Death had to--no, NEEDED to make the inhabitants known of their crimes before he passed judgement.

     In this case, just how awful some of those dresses and jackets really were! Eww.

     In a red cylinder of light, Kuja appears. As if to educate the crowds on their AWFUL FASHION he's decked himself out in a stunning silver opera cape, black leotard and a pair of red stiletto heeled thigh high boots. 5-6 inchers, of course. Next to him appear a handful of Black mages, since it wouldn't do if he needed to walk through something messy in those boots. They were Italian, damnit.

Yari Takane (691) has posed:
With her Legatus' budget, Yari Takane hardly felt the need to hold back. While she certainly has her doubts about this whole mission, she needs to watch this eccentric ally. Her leader's words came back to her.

She has chosen a classy little number, a red silken dress of a single-strap make: mostly due to her missing arm. It clings to her slender figure well, showing her beauty well but not approaching anything less than respectable. Indeed, she gets quite a few looks from those about as she enters. A bit of Confederate enchanting, and she even looks like a human, tail and horns seemingly ignored by the weak-minded around her. She sits at the long bar, with quite the view of the entire place. She immediately orders a drink, and begins assessing the area with her peripheral vision: one front door, a side exit presumably to the kitchen, what appears to be a trap door behind the bar, as well as what might be an emergency exit in the back.

Then, amidst her doubts, she gets her little drink. A single sip...and she grimaces. A frown slowly comes to her face, quickly hidden as she laughs at a joke from one of the bar-goers beside her. It's hollow. A glance, and she counts several waitresses and a duo of bartenders.

Despite the cling of her dress,she's managed quite a few kunai and other assortments, nevermind her red handbag. Faking a sip, she converses over the radio just before the leader of the day enters.

She fakes a gasp of surprise, playing to her role well.

"What...are those!?" She calls out, a bit of fear forced into her voice. She slips over the bar nearer to the bartender next to her. The tall young man rather valiantly puts himself between her and the strange mages, and the most...interestingly dressed person.

Sanary Rondel has posed:
How did she get involved with this mission again? Sanary had no idea what a speakeasy was. Her sense of fashion was horrible at /best/. Really, a fancy white coat with a tunic that looked like a burlap sack and boots that looked like they were made of burnt potatoes from that same burlap sack?

    Well, someone had to keep an eye on Yari. Never mind that the healer had no functioning eyes, but still. As long as the mission to do... Whatever it was in the speakeasy was actually a mission, though, she wouldn't have to worry too much about the Au Ra.

    Getting inside was easy enough with the woman's disguise drawing so much attention. Aside from the coat, Sanary did her best not to draw too much attention to herself and even managed to sit beside Yari without walking into any tables in the process.

    The entrance of the strangely dressed man doesn't grab her attention until her compatriot points it out, the blind girl feigning surprise and turning towards the bar instead of the entrance. "oh! Shit. What's happening?!"

Steve Rogers has posed:
Steve Rogers was actually in the Strait of the Americas on personal business, visiting an iteration of Brooklyn a decade or two over from the '20s-era Chicago which caught Kuja's interest. And while he was doing so in civilian garb, he did have his Captain America uniform with him - and the shield, of course. Bad guys, from criminals to tyrants, can pop up *anywhere* in the Multiverse, and Steve's gotten into the habit of trying to be ready for them.

He just wasn't expecting an airship big enough to see from several cities away. Steve wastes no time in grabbing his battered-looking rucksack and finding a spot to change ... and shortly thereafter, CAPTAIN AMERICA is headed towards the version of Chicago underneath the airship (by way of a couple of convenient warpgates), bringing him out around the corner from the Grinning Flamingo.

Cap brings his motorcycle to a halt and dismounts, sliding his signature shield onto his left arm as he looks about for the source of the anticipated trouble. Naturally enough, Kuja draws Cap's attention almost immediately - but the Star-Spangled Avenger does little more than give Kuja a fairly pointed look of warning. For now.

He's also taking in the others who are showing up: Yari in that dress she's picked out, Sanary's tunicoat and boots ... he's not sure what to make of them, and less sure what to make of the black mages who seem to be accompanying Kuja.

And Cap's right hand moves to grasp the edge of his shield, so he'll already have a grip on it just in case he needs to throw it in a hurry.

Blurr has posed:
    There's someone else in here who stands out like a sore thumb. It -appears- to be a blond, teen-aged kid dressed in very modern or futuristic attire. If Kyra is in here, she'll likely recognize him as that dude who apparently 'abandoned' his vehicle that turned out to be a giant transforming robot in the middle of superbowl traffic at Urbania not long ago.

    He glances up at sudden appearance of even more strangely dressed people, though this is the multiverse so it isn't that much of a shocker. Still, they'd come out of a large (by human standards anyway) aircraft that Blurr is definitely aware of, and from the looks on their faces they must not be up to any good at all.

Kyra Hyral (626) has posed:
    In the case of classmates Cirra and Kyra, the pair hadn't been on the world in particular but in the sector for reasons clear only to the pair. Their choice to respond originates entirely from spying the mysterious airship heading elsewhere. It didn't look like a Galianda airship and initially it hadn't brought that much attention...but then the reports on the airship parking itself over a nightclub and apparently 'starting trouble' started filtering in over the local radio.

    For the purpose of getting here, though...well.

    Turns out that Kyra still has her 'borrowed' mistcycle from her older brother. He apparently hadn't noticed its absence yet so she was taking full advantage of that, even offering Cirra to ride with her. The caveat was she gets to drive.

    The motorcycle-like vehicle looks hilariously out of place in this version of Chicago as it pulls up outside the nightclub, clearly of a very different model of the locals. After a very wild ride thanks to Kyra, they pull up outside, Kyra peering in obviously.

    "Cirra, are you seeing a problem, here? I'm just..uh...it's like a bizzare fashion show I guess?" Luckily for Blurr, Kyra doesn't see him yet.

Cirra Constantine (675) has posed:
    "Yes. I see a problem here." Cirra says as she slides off the back of the motorcycle and gets on to the street. IF anything looks out of place here, it's the woman in silver and brozne platemail armor. She turns and walks towards the nightclub, pausing to look over her shoulder.

    "You don't have a driver's liscense in Galianda."

    The Judge of Ramuh pushe sopen the doors into the club. The increasing bizzarness of the people entering finally causes people to pause and take notice.

Kuja (717) has posed:
     Kuja notices the hard stare from Captain America and simply smiles and blows him a kiss, turning and stalking into the speakeasy in turn with his black mage entourage. The actual club itself was hidden behind a wooden rack in the front of a woodwoorking shop that had a large storage room--which is what had been converted into a nightclub of sorts. The occupants would find the sudden crashing and tearing open of the rack and entrance to be quite a fright!

     "It's a raid!" someone shouts. But Elliot Ness does not walk in, nor any coppers, instead it's someone a bit worse, in this case~

     Kuja's stiletto heels click clack as he brushes his long silvery cape back with a flourish, raising a hand as if to call for silence.

     "You all are in grevious violation of good taste, I Kuja, the Angel of Death, shall now pass sentence!" there is a snap of fingers and suddenly the black mages accompanying Kuja begin to raise their arms, unto which flame and lightning begin to be shot around the club! Oh my.

Yari Takane (691) has posed:
At least Yari has one ally who she trusts here, as the chaos begins. Still playing the role of the damsel, stepping sharply aside as a bolt of fire very nearly takes her head off from a Black Mage's spell, she finds her bartenderly saviour ducking! Smart, however, neither is it for self preservation. Pulling up a dual-barreled shotgun sawed off to an utterly illegal length, he starts to aim it for Kuja's head. With a slight frown as she watches Kuja try to massacre civilians, she makes up her mind.

The wretches who worked here needed to die, and the people who came here needed to be spared her ally's wrath. An arm goes up, grabbing the bartender's gun-arm. A small squeeze, and he drops it. IN the same motion, she catches the man's neck in the crook of her arm before she whispers to him.

"...You have sold poison to innocent people for base greed. Die." A horrid snapping sound fills the air as Yari breaks the man's neck. With the speed of a ninja, she catches the shotgun with her tail even as she takes out her trademark red-and-black long pipe. Having stolen the man's zippo, she lights up.

Then, tossing the shotgun up, she turns to the second bartender even as she keeps an eye out for her ally.

"Die honorless curr!" With that, catching the gun, she pulls one of the triggers. Aiming to shoot the man in the gut, a slow agonizing death if it hits, only one of the many heroes gathered could save the remaining bartender! BLAM!

Steve Rogers has posed:
And that would be why Cap's gut was uneasy, apparently, as he overhears the 'angel of death' sobriquet which Kuja boasts of. He isn't fast enough to stop the magical onslaught, sadly - but he comes in behind Kuja and his allies, and flings his shield, aiming for the immediate threat of the Black Mages. He's at least aiming for two of them to start - nail one in the back of his(?) head and rebound into the face of another; Cap will try to take a third down hard and fast with quick and dirty hand-to-hand, en route to recover his shield from wherever it may land after that pair of rebounds. (Sliding into a chair's legs, perhaps?)

Either way, once Cap's got his shield back, he moves to try and interpose it in front of the other mages' fire (and lightning). The vibranium shield can withstand that kind of elemental abuse, and so can Cap himself to an extent - far more of an extent than the hapless clubgoers.

Blurr has posed:
    As Kyra is arriving outside, she'll probably recognize that 'car' she had 'stolen' earlier parked outside the bar. Suddenly, the one calling himself the 'Angel of Death' and his minions start randomly attacking the patrons for no apparent reason other than 'bad taste'. Hm. Maybe on some planets, that was a horrific crime...

    Well, whatever. They were attacking innocent people, and they needed to stopped. Unfortunately the avatar inside can't really do much of anything substantial aside from threaten or try to convince Kuja to stand down. So it does just that. Abruptly, the blond teen disappears from his seat and re-appears in front of Kuja who appears to be the leader of this weird excursion.

    "Hey! What's the deal fleshy, these people didn't do anything except mind their own business. Stand down or I'll shoot your ship out of the sky!"

    ...he doesn't even look like he has any weapons on him.

Sanary Rondel has posed:
Things seem to be heating up quite quickly, both literally and figuratively at that. Sanary had to question Kuja's motivations for this, but she had to admit that he did have a good nickname to work with. Reaching up to straighten out her eyepatch, the girl takes a moment to just listen to the chaos starting to erupt around her and mutters to herself. "And there's the cue..."

    Rising from her seat, the blind girl turns with purpose and grips the end of a table she had brushed against on the way in. "If you don't work here, move." And with that, she promptly flips the whole thing over with a rather loud clatter as everything that was on the table (mostly booze) is sent onto the ground.

    Recalling other tables is much more difficult, however, and she opts for the easier option of climbing onto the counter instead and... Sitting on it. She steadies her breath as she tries to listen for her allies above all the growing noise, starting to mutter to herself once more as she focuses on channelling the magical energy within her body into her hands. "Two here.. Some of 'em got hit... How many?"

Kyra Hyral (626) has posed:
    Kyra pauses, about to follow Cirra into the bar when she spies THAT CAR parked outside. She makes a face then promptly pretends not to notice it because dangit, she doesn't need this awkwardness on a mission-    "What? No! I do. I totally do. I can show it to you. Later." Kyra sounds flustered: she doesn't have a license. She sure can get a fake one if she really needed to later though!. As she dismounts from the mistcycle, it disappears in a flash of green light. Cheerfully, she follows after the Judge.

    The cheer pretty much immediately disappears as the club appears to be in the process of being SET ON FIRE amongst other chaos. Steve seems to have the black mages handled (but boy are those some weird looking black mages) so Kyra takes a different avenue of focus. "Cirra, I'm going to evacuate people." she informs the judge, slipping inside to swipe a chair to cram the door open.

Cirra Constantine (675) has posed:
    The Judge walks in after Captain America starts dealing with the black mages, but chaos has already begun. Fire, gunshots, more then a few other things going terribly wrong as people panic.

    Cirra turns and quickly rebounds off a wall and on top of the bar to look at Yari. "And your answer is murder?" The horned helmet of the Judge armor looks down at the one armed woman. "I was looking for the master of that airship, but I see more important matters before me."

    The Judge stamps her heel on a serving tray, falipping it up to her hand to snatch it out of the air before diving off the bar at Yari, holding the try up to use it to smash her way through.

Kuja (717) has posed:
     Kuja can hear Blurr from outside, as well as the various threats from the others. With a snap of his fingers, one of the large cannons on the outside of the invincible begins to send large cylinders of light down here and there towards the cybertronian. It's a hot time in the town toniiight o/`

     Some of the paper decorations of the club quickly catch fire and people are running around screaming and trying to all fit through a small exit at once--that is if it hadn't already been chained shut to avoid people stepping out without paying. Course, there would be two ways out of there, in case there really was a raid. Well, there is--but not the sort they were expecting!

     "YOU THERE--blue man! I... don't know what all the red white and blue is supposed to be doing clashing like that, but I can see where you were going with it," Kuja still aims a thundara spell towards him, because well, he did just knock over his black mages with his shield, now.

     People seem to be able to escape with Kyra's help, however, so there at least no loss of life here... YET.

Yari Takane (691) has posed:
Cirra's timely intervention saves the second bartender's life. The interjection throws off Yari's aim, and a trio of liquor bottles end up with bullets rather than the man. The Au Ra ninja is then forced to deal with, of all things, a metal tray. Cirra's swing is swift, catching both that shotgun and ending with a swat to her face hard enough to send her flying back from the far. Nimbly flipping about with a flash of gratuitous leg thanks to her skirt, she lands in a slow slide. She's forced to keep her head down to avoid being hit by incoming mage-fire.

"Correct. Suffering these people to live is a disgrace. They will be eliminated. Please step aside, Miss. There is no need for harm coming to you."

Even so, with a flick of a wrist, a kunai flicks from her dress. Who knews /where/ she was hiding that knife. There's a subtle sheen to it, numbing poison coating the blade.

And then she leaps to the bar, a blurr of motion and flapping dress as she simply seeks to dash /around/ Cirra. But she does offer a kick aimed for the back of the head; an attempt to knock her out rather than kill. It will suck if it hits, thanks to those heels of hers. After that? She'll try to throw that kunai into the second, cowering bartender's neck!

Sanary Rondel has posed:
"Four...? No, five. Six? Hell with it." So... Maybe trying to actually figure out which of her allies need healing isn't going to work. Too much noise, fire making the coat incredibly uncomfortable, interlopers interfering with the mission... If the person shouting at Yari and the person Kuja was shouting at are any indication, then taking her time to aim wouldn't be practical. No, this situation definitely calls for speed over precision.

    The girl in the mismatched coat and tunic claps her hands together overhead, then starts rubbing her hands together while gathering healing energy into them at a steady pace. Moments later, she holds her arms out to her sides and exhales sharply before bringing them together in an almost hug-like motion.

    She's not hugging herself, of course. Instead, her hands emit a faint light that shoots forward in a thin wave towards Yari, curving slightly to actually make contact with her and dissipating shortly after making contact.

Kyra Hyral (626) has posed:
    Quickly, Kyra manages to slip inside the bar as panicking flapper girls flee the place. She edges along the wall, staying very clear of those leaving. In the meantime, she works the front of her hoodie open so she has access to her guns and various materials. Today she selects her needlegun, pulling it from its holster underneath her left arm. Originally the plan was to start shooting the black mages with some of her nastier mixtures to make them "calm down" (or run away screaming in terror). She even selects few darts from her belts, loading them in to the cartridge.

    Then she sees Sanary seemingly directing light energy at the woman that Cirra has engaged with. Suspicious-an enemy healer perhaps? A grin creeps onto Kyra's face. "Ha HA! Not today, multiverse! Not today!" Scrambling over to get a better position around the bar, Kyra takes a shot at Sanary with her gun. Compared to the kinds of things she can load in the resevoirs for her darts, the poison-causing solution in this one is pretty vanilla.

    (No, really, it's actually vanilla. Kyra tried to make her own from a vanilla bean and got it very wrong. Maybe it was too much bourbon.)

Steve Rogers has posed:
Problem: bolt of artificial lightning being slung at Captain America from mere feet away - maybe yards, but not many of those in any case.
Solution: Cap brings his shield up to take the bolt of lightning directly on it.

It seems counterintuitive - that shield is VERY clearly metal, after all, and metal is generally an electrical conductor. However, while the impact of the Thundara spell forces Captain America to take a step back, the lightning fails to rip through him and fry his flesh; in fact, the only concession Cap makes to the requirement of an electrical current to seek a path to ground is to drop to one knee and drive the edge of his shield into the carpeted floor, creating that path to ground.

"I don't know who you really are behind the 'Angel of Death' moniker," Cap snaps at Kuja as he rises back to his feet, "but you're not killing anyone else if I have anything to say about it!" And with that, the shield flies once more, aimed to ricochet among the other standing Black Mages - and Cap launches *himself* at almost the same time, straight for Kuja with a punch flying towards the madman's jaw.

Cirra Constantine (675) has posed:
    Despite wearing a full helm, Cirra brings up one arm in an elbow block of the flying kick. "Suffering your half hearted pettiness would be my disgrace."

    The serving tray is thrown under her own arm, gliding through teh air to be intercepted by the kunai, pinning it to the wall.

    The Judge hops back, proving awfully nimble for someone in such heavy armor. "You are no judge, jury or executioner of this realm." Cirra holds out one hand, and a crystaline blade fomrs within her grip. She swings the bastard sword around and up into both hands. Eyes narrow slightly behidn the ruby red visor of the helmet.

    The Judge takes a step forward, then immediatly toth eside, swingign the crystal blade around in a wide arc. It's remarkably well conotrolled swing for such a weapon, and it seems Cirra intend to keep pressure on Yari.

Blurr has posed:
    Blurr watches as the ship turns its cannons on him. So much for diplomacy. If you could even call what he did diplomacy. He transforms, standing up out of his hoverspeeder form and takes aim with a high-powered electron diffraction beam in an attempt to fry the craft's inner workings and send it to the ground. Hopefully not on top of the bar, either.

Kuja (717) has posed:
     "Hey, stop that--" Kuja realizes the brightly dressed superhero has absorbed the bolts of lightning using his /shield/ somehow, blinking a little in surprise. One might have expected someone wearing armor to have been in danger, but then Kuja doesn't know Captain (F*K YEAH) America. He ducks as he watches that shield fly, his black mages begging knocked around again, the sources of the fire having stopped, but it's not as if it's not already devouring the interior of the club.

     "Look what you did! How about a little fire, scarecrow?" When Cap launches himself at Kuja, the smaller, slighter figure is knocked aside by the large superhero's frame and girth, sent tumbling into a roll and trying to quickly cast a fire spell towards him when he rolls back into a crouch. Hey, it's harder than you think, in the 5-inch heels on those boots.

     Outside, Blurr is causing quite the ruckus with the ship, the laser beams from it pelting the street and buildings all around him, trying to land a hit on the speedster cybertronian, but can't seem to land one, he's just too fast! Meanwhile the ship is taking fire from Blurr himself, impacting with the outer hull of it's armor. Is there damage to it? most likely.

Yari Takane (691) has posed:
A quick glance has Kyra noted in Yari's eyes, as well as Sanary healing her wound. The hug-like gesture ends up with her Cirra-related slap mark fading away. She offers a small smile to Sanary before growing serious. Then there's a weapon being loaded.

"DOWN! GUNNER!" Calls out Yari in warning to the blind woman, her voice still only moderate but managing to carry over the din! Still, she can't directly help her associate as she has a knight to deal with.

A knightess who is swing one heck of a sword at her. Yari has no choice but to throw herself down hard upon the bar to avoid being cut in half. Even then, her dress gets sliced. Much to her irritation. It's a nice dress! And from her new Legatus to boot. Nevermind the horrid gash across her scaley stomach. Rolling backwards, weaponless, she ends with her hand near her handbag. She pulls out the greatest weapon of all ninja.

A submachine gun. Pointing it at the knightess, relying on her training in firearms back home, she pulls the trigger and starts spraying a decently accurate array of bullets at her. Notably, they're aimed for limbs. It's as though she's not trying to kill the knight.

So too does she 'accidentally knock over the bag. Little round balls roll out. Then, with a 'poof', gas begins to fill the room. Ninja smoke bombs! It'll take a few seconds, but Yari did not pack light.

Perhaps enough to give cover to her ally (Sanary) and the civilians while remaining discrete.

"Those titles mean nothing. I am a killer. That is enough. My life may be worth little, but I will not allow those lower even than myself to continue killing these people who simply desire relaxation." Strange words for a woman involved in this assault.

Sanary Rondel has posed:
That's one. Only Kuja and.. Some number of mages to go! The blind girl adjusts her sitting position before breathing in slowly again, both to refresh herself and to start refocusing the energy within her body once more. The second time around proves to be rather difficult, however, as the noise only seems to be growing louder, the heat getting hotter, and Yari shouting at her because of... Gunner?!

    Sanary doesn't need to be told twice after the shotgun incident. Dropping sideways to flatten herself against the counter, she just starts rolling sideways to get off that deathtrap. She winds up tumbling straight off the front of the counter and landing in a small puddle of what she can only hope is just beer. Disoriented, on her back, but thankfully not bleeding too much from the glass, she readies another more potent healing wave and throws her hands out past her head, hoping to keep the Au Ra good and healthy for the fight.

    The healer is facing the wrong direction, however, with her feet pointed towards Yari and Cirra. Instead of healing her intended target, however, the energy veers off and catches one of the fallen mages directly in the face instead.

Kyra Hyral (626) has posed:
    Did she...hit? It's actually hard for Kyra to tell. She thought she might have missed for a moment there but then Sanary goes rolling off the counter onto the floor into a puddle of...um.

    Something. Kyra's not exmaining the puddle too closely. "Gah, stop that." she grouses as she sees the healer still moving from her initial attempt in spotting her. No matter-she edges even closer, careful to work her way around Cirra and Yari's fight, loading another dart into her needlegun. Fortunately, this time it is not a refresh-causing issue.

    Though equally unfortunately, it's some kind of tranquilizer known for knocking the victim out quickly.

Steve Rogers has posed:
Captain America isn't quite as prepared for the fire spell as he was for the lightning, and he winds up burning for a moment. The fact that he actually lets out a yelp of pain is probably somewhat satisfying to Kuja.

He doesn't stay on fire for long, though: the old axiom of 'stop, drop, and roll' is quickly exercised, and in the course of smothering the flames on his chest, shoulder, and upper arm, he also manages to recover his shield. He hasn't even gotten back to his feet when the shield flies again ...

And this time, it's going STRAIGHT at Kuja's face, so that the rebound will bounce it straight back to the Captain's hand.

Blurr has posed:
    Blurr -is- incredibly fast, though in this case his size plays against him. Especially when dealing with things that are on a human-sized scale. Some of the blasts from the ship manage to slam into his outer armor, though they are far from sending him to the ground. He continues firing at the craft while doing his best to dodge what he can, even breaking off the top half of a street lamp and hurling it like a boomerang at the enemy craft. Indeed, this firefight is creating a lot of chaos on the streets outside. Bits of pavement are flying up all over the place as shots are exchanged. The ground's probably shaking like crazy, too. Hopefully most of the area has been evacuated. And what about the bar patrons? Do they need a wall torn down so they can get out more easily?

Cirra Constantine (675) has posed:
    Secret Ninja Technique: Sub-machiengun!

    Cirra dives in a roll across the floor, she's no stranger to firearms. THey have contemporary ones in Galianda. But still, Cirra was in close at the time, a nd the raking fire sprangs off platemail, noticably drawing blood in at least one hit.

    The The Judge rolls behind the far end of the bar with a grunt.

    Strange, she should have taken a hit to her torso in these conditions. Either the enemy's aim is poor, or...

    "I hardly think so. You're either too moral, or too soft to be 'just' a killer."

    "And even if something shadier then a speakeasy was happening here.."

    Something clicks, and the Judge stands up beehind the far end of the bar, brandishing her sworld like a rifle - because it's turned into one. "That doesn't excuse taking the law into your own hands." The weapon fires, the projectile like a tip of a sword streaks through the air to try and cut through the smoke.

Kuja (717) has posed:
     "Seems like there's way too much fire in here," Kuja and judging from all the gunshots, not just the kind that was currently engulfing the interior of the nightclub! As Captain America winds up flaming (pardon) Kuja has time to get back on his feet and put some distance between him and Cap, for when that vibranium shield comes spinning like a discus of death at his face, he has just enough time to erect a magical aegis between him and it.

     Unfortunately, the protect spell only winds up lessening the blow and Kuja is left sprawling, the shield having actually clocked him right off the forehead. He goes down like a sack of potatoes, Zowie!

     Meanwhile, a black mage at the helm of the invincible is directing the beams of fire down at Blurr like a cat and a laser pointer--except this cat is trying to get away from it, and not catch it! It seems rather devoted to it's task, so much so the fact the ship is now banking and heading into the side of a building is somehow lost on it--whoops!

     A janitor in said building is quietly carrying a bucket and broom down through a corridor when CRASH--a part of the wall gives way just behind him. The ship was in fact so quiet that it could hardly be heard until it was already tearing a huge chunk out of it, likely partly due to Blurr's return fire.

Yari Takane (691) has posed:
In more than one way, the kunoichi has been found out by one Cirra Constantine. Her lips tighten momentarily at her words, before softening to that neutral look she's been trying to hold the entire time. A momentary weakness, but perhaps one Cirra might note.

This ninja does not like this mission, at least in part. And to one to close, that little tip of bag might be noted. That movement of ankle was purposeful, in shrouding the area in ever-growing smoke.

Yari can't offer more than a glance to her friend-slash-ally. Down in broken glass and beer. Yari has been there. But for now, she focuses on the good Dame.

Who weathers her merciful bullet-laden assault quite well. Blood is drawn. At least her aim is decent.

"Irrelevant. These people must die." She offers, somewhat weakly as a sword-gun is offered to her.

BLAM! Even Yari's ninja skills can only compensate so much amidst the smokey din. Right through the side, the report ends with her landing on her back hard. The world swims as she blacks out briefly from the impact. Bleeding at her side, only pure pain wakes her up. She smirks. At least there's enough growing cover that lives might be saved.

Gun falling to her side, she raises a hand. She doesn't even bother getting up with their distance. A few hand-seals, and a burst of pure lightning erupts in the air to streak towards Cirra. Only then does she slowly get up, still woozy from the impact of being shot.

Blurr has posed:
    Blurr watches as the craft smashes into a building, hoping lives were not lost. It's hard fighting on human turf without causing too much collateral damage when you're as large as he is. Well as long as the damage is less than what the Feds would have done if he hadn't stopped them, it's all good...right? "Told you I'd break your ship." he remarks, just in case of them is listening.

Steve Rogers has posed:
Well, that seems to eliminate one of the immediate threats, at least for now.

That frees Cap up to try and turn his attention to putting out some of the fires ... which, well, he doesn't really have the right powerset for. What he *CAN* do is bust open some other exits, if there are still civilians trapped, and help get said civilians out to safety.

Hopefully nobody's going to interfere with that.

Sanary Rondel has posed:
The healer pants heavily as spushes herself up from the prone position on the floor, the smell of spilled booze and copper hitting her nose. Grimacing slightly, she wipes her hand off on a nearby table and shifts into a squatting position to at least not be /sitting/ in the stuff.

     "Okay. Which way this time... Kuja." She blinks slowly and shakes her head to shake off the dizziness from all the sudden movements and concentrating, then braces her hands on that nearby table. Concentrating is becoming almost impossible, however, and the stabbing pain in her side isn't helping matters any.

     ... Wait. Stabbing pain? That's not how glass cuts are supposed to feel. Sanary grasps the dart firmly and yanks it out with a wince, wobbling slightly as she staggers to her feet. "Gonna take a lot more than that! To.. To... Shotgun..." Her vision would be getting blurry if there was any vision to speak of, but thinking clearly is definitely becoming an issue, and focusing her energy is literally guaranteed to fail at this point. She still manages to kick the table over in the direction that she had pulled the dart out from, but there isn't as much force behind it as her earlier table-flippings. It's also not enough time to let her get into much cover, either, as she simply starts staggering about unsteadily and barely remaining on her feet.

Kuja (717) has posed:
     Kuja is flat on his back when he comes to, a throbbing pain, likely a concussion--is jackhammering through his skull at the moment. And worst of all... worst of all, he looks down and one of his purple lacquered nails has a huge chip in it. Ugh.

     Kuja looks over as he's apparently been ignored by now, and his two assassin/healers are in rough shape as well. The silver-haired white caped mage has a line of blood running down through one eye from his forehead and winces due to it, he makes great attempts to keep it from getting on his silver cape. Do you know how hard it is to get bloodstains out of anything? Ugh.

     "Alright then, DEJON!" Kuja casts a warp spell, a singularity of black space behind him (and likely his two lovely assistants) to bring them back to their previous location--that being the invincible.

     Of course, upon returning, Kuja is quite rankled by the fact the side of the ship is now buried in a 1920's office building, whoops.

Kyra Hyral (626) has posed:
    With THAT dart finding its mark, Kyra stows her gun and moves quickly, hopefully before Yari takes notice and breaks away from Cirra to interfere. Interfere in what exactly...?

    Kyra slips over to Sanary and gently takes her by the hand. "There there, hold on, we'll get you some fresh air." Kyra consoles, moving to carefully guide Sanary out of the bar so she can't hurt herself (or get hurt by the ongoing brawl). If Sanary happens to straight up pass out, Kyra will quickly cast float on her so she simply has to guide Sanary along instead of trying to drag her away with puny white mage muscles.

    If they make it outside, she'll cast another bit of magic on the incapacitated healer-esuna. This handy little spell eliminates status effects and will start to clear up the effects caused by her own dart. It might be a just a little disorienting either way.

Cirra Constantine (675) has posed:
    Cirra hit, but she can't confirm the kill through the smoke. Yari speaks again and Cirra ducks back down behind the bar, squat-running behind the cover just ahead of the lightning as it strikes into the wodden countertop. The resulting explosion of wood and electricity slams the Judge into the far end of the bar "Hrng!"

    "Irrelevant?" Cirra says more then asks.

    Black smoke seeps out of Cira's armor as she stands slowly from behind the bar, the eyes behind the red visor glowing golden as blood on her armor starts evapourating - but the wounds not healing.

    THe Judge suddenly leaps in a single bound, coming down in the smoke with a swing of her crystal sword, parting the cloud. She lands with a *CRUNCH* of thge floor boards beneath her feet.

    "It is never /IRRELEVANT/ when some dies!"

Blurr has posed:
    With the enemy retreating and the ship apparently incapacitated, Blurr wanders back over to the bar and peers in with his scanners to see if anyone needs any help that he can actually provide without causing even -more- collateral damage. "Everyone okay in there? Anyone need a ride out of here?" That is, anyone who is not Kyra...

Yari Takane (691) has posed:
"...Agreed. No death is irrelevant. One must kill with purpose." States the lizard-tailed woman. Wobbling on her feet, she notes her companion. Cirra leaps at her, and the kunoichi desperately leaps aside. She's caught with a glancing blow, another scarr added to her legs as she ducks into a hard roll before Sanary.

Dropping her kunai, she pulls the woman against her as magic pulls her body from the area. Offering her own back against any further assault against Kyra, she'll try to steal the woman from the healer's grasp with a light kick aimed to Kyra...and quite a bit of blood, given her bullet wound.

Kyra Hyral (626) has posed:
    Kyra's never able to make it out the bar with the other healer before she is interrupted. She finds herself parted from Sanary, staggering forward from a light kick to the back. When she recovers, Yari is already warping out with her ally. "...well...that works too." Kyra notes before approaching Cirra. "How are you doing? Need the heals?"

    Blurr offers a ride and Kyra perks up a little. She still looks pretty sheepish-no doubt the autobot remembered her from last time.

Sanary Rondel has posed:
Sanary doesn't seem to be completely focused on things at the moment. Or at all, even, from the way she wobbles around eratically. A hand there, a pull there, and the something soft near her head, and air suddenly feeling different as if the area had never been on fire in the first place.

    "It'll take more than fresh air to kill a... Purposes." It takes all that the healer can muster just to stay concious, the tranquilizer still working its way through her body and making her movements good and loose. A little too lose, however, and standing on her own definitely doesn't seem possible for the time being. "Kill your death... Porpoise. Shoes."

Cirra Constantine (675) has posed:
    "Tch." Cirra scowls as Yari makes her escape with Sanary.

    The black whisps fade away and Cirra looks around the room, "Just stop the bleeding, please. I'll be fine after that."

Kyra Hyral (626) has posed:
    "Easy peasy, one moment." Kyra makes a dismissive gesture with her hand before stepping up next to the dark knight, her hand already gathering a dim light upon the surface. This time, the magic functions perfectly fine, which is good because Kyra did not have her shiny healing lazer gun on her this day. The wound quickly starts to close, as was par on course for Galianda white magic.

Blurr has posed:
    Okay, okay, Blurr would let Kyra ride as long as -he- was doing the driving this time. Actually the truth is he had just used her as an excuse to get away quickly that one time...and since she thought she was driving, he could then blame her for the damage, because no one would be any wiser as to who was -actually- driving. Very immature, yes, even though he's what, four million Earth years old?

    Not that he's going to tell her that, at least not any time soon. He smirks. "Hey, aren't you that girl who wouldn't leave me alone in Urbania that one time?" The Autobot chuckles and folds back up, his body once again a hovercar instead of a biped. "Well my doors are unlocked if anyone wants in, but I get to drive okay?" he says teasingly.

Juno Eclipse (428) has posed:
Up in the sky! It's a bird! It's a plane!

No, it kinda is a plane. Specifically it's a sleek-looking starship, wholly black in its colouration, with menacing red lights and a slightly lopsided wing arrangement. For people familiar with a certain Sith Inquisitor, it's the Rogue Shadow, a heavily modified Galactic Imperial transport. And it's headed right for the brouhaha below.

The Rogue Shadow's sublight engines whine as the ship descends and pivots around in one smooth movement, coming to hover near the outset of the altercation below; the forward door opens, revealing a ramp that sticks out and light spilling out from the open hatch.

Juno Eclipse's voice is grainy over the ship's exterior loudspeakers.

"Miss Rondel, Miss Takane, I suggest you two hurry up. Anyone else, I strongly suggest you keep your distance, or I'll be firing on your location. I already have the cannon calibrated to your current positions." Bluff or no bluff? Probably better not to test it.

Yari Takane (691) has posed:
It's a bird, it's a plane, it's a 'get out of death free' card in one Yari Takane's mind. Despite the increasingly worrying blood loss she's suffering thanks to Cira, the ninjette bolts out with Sanary over her shoulder even as that teleportation magic sweeps her up.

A sleek starship with lights above her, and she cradles poor Sanary in her arms. Leaping abord the uncovered ramp, she lands with a slide of thin heels upon metal. She's clearly taken Juno's words to heart. There'll likely need to be some cleanup, as the exertion has exhausted equal amounts of energy and blood from the Au Ra. She collapses towards hard metal, twisting to offer her body to cushion the blow for good Sanary. Other than that? She'll simply unconsciously bleed on Juno's ship for her subordinates to take care of.

Kyra Hyral (626) has posed:
    "Yeah, that's me." Kyra says huffily to Blurr, unintimidated by the Autobot's SASS. "Hey, that's what you get for playing up the whole abandoned vehicle thing. You're just lucky it was me and not somebody who would have actually stole you!" Could a human legit steal an autobot though? A mystery.

    "I think today...I'm going to pass on that ride, thanks-" The other ship shows up and starts threatening them with cannons. "...oh come on, we're not interfering with anyone's retreat here."

Sanary Rondel has posed:
The rest of the movement is a blur for the delirious healer. She can feel the impact from the jump and settling into warm scales, but her conciousness is rapidly fading to the point of barely even being able to murmur deliriously. At least it's comfortable wherever she is.

Juno Eclipse (428) has posed:
Fortunately, the ship doesn't seem interested in actually firing, mostly because the ship doesn't look like it's made to be a tactical ship. It's really honestly just a transport. A souped-up transport, sure, but a transport.

The pilot's voice sounds over the loudspeakers again. It's a woman's voice; tones neat, clipped, and precise, with the vaguely British accent of the Core Worlds.

<I'm not going to bother you if you don't bother me. I've already got my cargo, so I'll be going now. Cheerio~>

And with that, the ramp retracts behind Yari and Sanary, and the cargo hatch closes. The ship lifts off smoothly, displacing a cloud of dust as it does. And then, provided nobody takes any potshots at it (and probably even if they do), it smoothly pivots around, taking off with a flash of those blue ion engines.

Blurr has posed:
    A human could steal an Autobot...that is, if you let him do it. Sometimes it was a good way of catching crooks in the act. But then that usually ended with disgusting organic excrement on your interior seating so that was never very pleasant.

    "If they tried to steal me, I'd just take them straight to the police." He replies cheerfully. "And it was a cover, okay? I wasn't supposed to blow it. Tch! Anyway, fine. Suit yourself!" Not everyone always wants a -totally superior ride-.

    He glances momentarily up at the newly arrived ship. Oh come on, he -just- disabled one. The Autobot is half-tempted to screw with Juno just for that arrogant talk (as if he's one to talk himself). But then he thinks better of it. ZOOM. Away he goes at the speed of sound and beyond.