2507/Radio Mission: Arrest Burner

Radio Mission: Arrest Burner
Date of Scene:	22 June 2015
Location:	Paragon City <CoH>
Synopsis:	An arrest warrant has been put out for Burner of the Hellions! Heroes new and old go to bring him in!
Cast of Characters:	Staren, 346, 560, Reiji Arisu, 769

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Demetrios Vasilikos (769) has posed:
    Galaxy City is a section of Paragon City -- yes, Paragon City is a city so big it can have other cities inside of it. Galaxy is so-named in memorial for one of their fallen heroes. It used to be Paragon Heights, and has only just recently been renamed as the reconstruction efforts following the Rikti invasion are almost complete. Gleaming, futuristic skyscrapers and unusual, almost-alien buildings stand side by side with businesses, homes, and office buildings one would expect to have seen built in the 1930s through 1990s.

    The recent legislation that was passed allows for Union and Confederate Elites to conduct hero work by utilizing their Union and Confederate I.D.s in place of a Paragon City I.D. They are still expected to abide by the same rules as other heroes, and they are still responsible if something bad happens because they didn't know what they were doing, but going through the courses to register as a hero is now optional. Of course, security clearance is also restricted if one doesn't have that PCID...

    For today though, there's no need for high level security, and there shouldn't be anything too complicated about the task at hand. The police have put out an APB notifying not only their officers but also heroes in this part of the city that someone named 'Burner' has a warrant out for his arrest. Some investigation on the street, and looking around for where this group called the 'Hellions' might be found, leads heroes to an abandoned office building of some kind. Just stepping inside, the tiny hairs on the back of the neck might stand up. This is nowhere near the same level of creepy as that cave the Banished Pantheon had been set up in, but there's definitely something off in here. The scent of smoke and brimstone can be readily detected on the air, an acrid burning that stings the nostrils and makes it harder to breathe.

    Whatever is going on inside this building, it may be magical in nature, but there's no washes of foul mana or anything like that. It's just this... Feeling. Like the heroes are being watched. Like the shadows of these halls lit only by small bonfires have eyes. Somewhere in here, Burner waits to be arrested for crimes he can no longer escape.

    But maybe other things lie in wait too.

Reiji Arisu has posed:
    After cutting through swaths of mages and evil spirits, zombies and shamans and the avatars for some very dark gods, this is something of a breather. Reiji steps into the foyer of the building, taking a long draw of the brimstone and ash that seems to choke the supernatural atmosphere of this place. At least he /knows/ that smell.

    It's Hell. Western Demonologists. They don't have too many back home, but the scent seems to be similar no matter where they pop up. He takes a moment to check through his array of weaponry, making sure his clips are topped off and his blades are set firmly in his personal arsenal.

Everything is in order. He knows for sure because he prepared them himself not too long ago- but it never hurts to be too careful.

    "Alright," Reiji says to the others, rolling his head slightly to stretch the muscles in his neck, back and shoulders. There's something ELSE here too, but he can't quite put his finger on it. Shouldn't be too bad, though. He hopes. "Let's make this quick and clean. Find the guy, beat him down and lock him up. If he's got a ritual going, we end it before it goes too far. Sound good?"

Saber (346) has posed:
     There remained a number of things about the modern world which confounded the King of Knights, even as she had largely adapted to it. However, this business about 'licenses' had seemed a little on the peculiar side. Nevertheless, she had been reassured everything was in proper order and she was free to simply render her aid when the request had gone out.

     Though she arrived by way of motorbike and dressed in her modern business attire, it seemed as if she had little need to be overly cautious. What was perhaps stranger to her than the I.D. business personally was how open the city was to nearly all manner of magic and heroes with inhuman strength and so forth. True, there were many other worlds which possessed that same openness, but none which seemed so...otherwise generally mundane. It was quite the paradigm shift for the Servant.

     Saber parked across the street from where the occult-practising villains were currently holed up with their ringleader before dismounting the Yamaha V-Max, pausing before entering the premises. The magic was certainly not of a sort she was used to.

     Before she went much further inside, however, the Servant called up her battle armour and Excalibur -- invisible within the Bounded Field of the Wind King -- before continuing. As flashy as it could be, within the foyer she would likely not attract as much attention as right before confronting the hostiles."Agreed," she simply said with no further ado.

Emiya Shirou (560) has posed:
    When Paragon's Police call, the seemingly mundane and ordinary young man whose alias is simply 'the Smith' sometimes answers.

    No mask, no flashy costume, and what little armor he wears is a fiber-weave vest under his shirt. The redheaded young man of eastern descent stands next to Reiji, amber eyes fixed on the entrance, tennis shoes tapping anxiously against the pavement and nose scrunching up at the stench.

    "How can anyone perform a ritual when it stinks this badly?" Emiya Shirou posits, bewildered at the tastes of these Hellions. "This also makes the what... second time a nasty gang's holed up in plain sight? So they're either really reckless, or think they can hold their own against whatever happens. I'm hoping it's the former."

    When Saber arrives though, his eyes go pretty wide. "Saber?" As if not believing she'd come all the way out here. But the astonishment quickly turns to confidence.

    If Saber's here, he has little to worry about.

    Except for Sir Bedivere, anyways.

    "Trace, on..."

    Black and white light flow from his palms, filling out an invisible mold and solidifying elegantly into the married swords Kanshou and Bakuya, yin-yang motifs on proud display.

Staren has posed:
    Staren heard help was needed with fighting demon cultists. So he joins his fellow heroes at... an office building?

    An office building full of choking fire and brimstone fumes. Staren switches to his armor's internal air supply. He nods to Reiji. "Sounds like a good plan."

    He teleported to the area, wearing his powered armor, and walked up with the other heroes in plain sight. This is a world of metahumans, right, so he doesn't need to hide.

    "Perhaps they have become accustomed to the fumes. Or their ritual area doesn't stink. Or they've been turned into partially-demonic humans, accustomed to this atmosphere." Staren answers Shirou's rhetorical question.

Reiji Arisu has posed:
    "Or," Reiji suggests, shrugging a little bit, "They're idiots who think that hellfire and brimstone are cool, and don't care that it'll probably give them black lung." From what he's read up about these 'Hellions,' they do seem to be the type to live fast and die young and stupid.

Demetrios Vasilikos (769) has posed:
    Beyond the foyer, there's a pair of hallways that go left and right, around some boarded up office in a square that might have once been a reception area or something. They probably meet again on the other side. As the heroes advance through the building, their footsteps are partially muffled by carpets, dust, and ashes, but they should be able to hear other footsteps as well, from a hall going directly north on the other side of this square room thing. Slow, but numerous. Some gangers out on patrol? Catching sight of them will reveal them to be wearing lots of red, orange, and black. Jackets with pentagrams, tattoos of devils and demonic imagery, and the words 'Blood Brothers'. A red bandana over the lower half of their faces serves as their only real attempt at concealing their identities. They don't appear to be expecting company, and if surprised, will take a few moments to react, except to call out, "Heroes on deck!" and draw their weapons. Mostly revolvers and a selection of street weapons like fireman axes and sledgehammers.

Saber (346) has posed:
     The Servant turned her head slightly to regard the magus with a neutral expression. "Greetings, Shirou. I was unaware that you had arrived, as well. I am glad to see that you have maintained seriousness in your training." He'll make a knight yet!

     Jade eyes then flicked to Reiji. "Indeed. Though there are many rituals of a reprehensible nature, I cannot recall any such as this. It is most puzzling."

     What she didn't know was just how right he was: the Hellions didn't have any idea what they were doing. For the gang, it was style over substance, looking tough and cool, without the knowledge of means to be able to pull off the insanity that the Circle of Thorns or even the Tsoo were capable of. They were lucky when they could summon low-tier succubi and imps. However, the fire powers of their higher-ranking members were nothing to scoff at.

     The good thing was that, once they had been spotted, it was the general thugs which would prove little match for the gathered heroes. Bullets were deflected completely off her prana armour, and the Servant simply regarded them flatly before assuming her stance. "I would advise that you lower your weapons and surrender," she warned...not that it was going to do much good. Paragon's gangs weren't generally known for being terribly bright.

Reiji Arisu has posed:
    "I'm betting they're making half of it up as they go along," Reiji replies to the swordswoman as he makes his way deeper into the building. "That's dangerous in and of itself though. Wonder how many times they've screwed up and accidentally summoned something they couldn't properly control?"

Answer: Too many times. Also, most of them are dating succubi, because that is apparently a thing in Paragon City.

    It doesn't take long for the group of intrepid heroes to happen upon their first proper room full of villains, and... Well. It's about as Reiji had assumed. He actually takes a moment to palm his face and sigh. Fortunately Saber is there to take point, likely distracting most of these goons while the inconspicuous exorcist makes his way around the group. He takes steps to conceal his presence, dodging behind a few boxes to remain out of sight while Saber attracts their attention.

When the time comes, however, the gangbanger who seems to be posing the most overt threat would suddenly find himself with an electrified wakizashi's blade pressed up against his neck. "Don't do anything stupid," Reiji would mutter into the man's ear, "And let's have ourselves a bit of a chat, huh?"

Staren has posed:
    There's a gang of thugs now. A missile or a well-placed grenade or fireball should do the trick--

    Wait, what were they here for again? Staren asks for clarification over the radio, and glances back over the help request that brought him here. Ah yes, they want to /arrest/ Burner, meaning they probably want the same for his thugs.

    Something about this seems vaguely stupid, since the thugs are clearly willing to attempt to kill /them/. Guns and hammers are lethal weapons.

    But they're nothing compared to 25th-century powered armor augmented with the technology of many universes. Staren sets his weapons to 'stun', a feature he had Eureka add some time ago based on conceptual reverse-engineering of Federation phaser technology, and then charges in, ignoring bullets and using his weapons to disable thugs as swiftly as possible. The twin beam cannons on his arm, his beam sabers, even an electric taser-shock function in his gauntlets. Once Reiji's grabbed one, there's no reason to leave any others conscious, right?

Emiya Shirou (560) has posed:
    "Making it up as they go along?!" This is DANGEROUS AS HELL by Shirou's knowledge of magic. Well, not that it isn't what he's ended up doing for his training these days.

    Bullets are much more of a problem for Shirou than Saber. If one hits him, that'll be bad. Very bad. So he doesn't give them a chance to strike. "Rho Aias!" Extending a hand out in front of him, the young man projects a thick pink film with ragged edges. It's nowhere near the elegance of Chloe's, but there are four petals spread out and layering. Bullets spang into it without much noticable effect.

    "Serious, definitely. It's taking a while to get any better than this." He has the time to say that while pondering strategy. How to attack while defending?

    Well maybe he won't have to.

    The others are doing that.

Demetrios Vasilikos (769) has posed:
    The good guys shoot first! The Hellions shoot shortly after that and... While individually they may not be much of a threat to a hero, they don't seem to be as ineffective as everyone is assuming they'll be. They have some kind of magic to them. Artifacts of some kind that are making them stronger than average goons. And together like they are, their bullets CAN and DO cause damage if they hit, even to superhuman beings. Of course, NOT getting hit results in no damage at all, whether due to blocking or deflecting the rounds. But just taking them will produce an unpleasant surprise as even simple revolver rounds possess some small amount of infernal aura.

    Of course, by the time that they actually start shooting or charging in with switchblades and axes and so on to show how dangerous they really are, four or five have been reduced to a weakened state or knocked out. The one grabbed doesn't seem inclined to cooperate, and does something stupid. He thrashes even with a blade to his throat, trying to elbow Reiji in the stomach. "Get lost, Reiji!" he yells out. Well, seems Reiji has earned some notoriety among the bad guys with his exploits!

    The Defense of Saber, Shirou, and Staren may allow them to escape unscathed, but with only Staren really attacking, there's still plenty of Hellions left to attack while Reiji tries to interrogate the uncooperative Blood Brother Brawler. None of them seem to be overly strong beyond just being stronger than they SHOULD be. Any one of the heroes here could take a single one of these Hellions out in a one-on-one fight. Even in a group like this, the possibility of making it out of it without being defeated (even if in not-great condition) is on the side of the good guys.

    But as they charge in and start swinging axes, baseball bats, sledgehammers, and knives at Saber, the fact only 1.5 people are on offense is going to mean something sooner rather than later.

Saber (346) has posed:
     Shirou hadn't been slacking, certainly. While she wasn't aware of the full extend of his capabilities, calling up a decent defence like Rho Aias was impressive. Where he learned it from, she didn't know, but it was indispensable, if on the weak side at the moment.

     Her own defences are insane compared to much of what the multiverse could throw at her, though her attack wasn't quite as strong. Still, her general abilities tended to average out quite nicely. Which was why it was puzzling that the thugs were somewhat /stronger/ than they should have been. It made little difference to her defences, but there was some reason that mundane weapons were causing a few nicks in her armour.

     "They are being strengthened, somehow," Saber observed mildly. "I do not believe it is a magus...perhaps a talisman or artefact of some sort."

     And they were still humans even with that extra boost, so killing them -- even when they would use lethal force if they possessed it -- was personally out-of-the-question. Rather than laying into them with her holy sword, Saber swung it forward and released a blast of wind from the Bounded Field around it. Being hit directly with what equated to the force of several hurricanes might knock them out for a while. At least, that was the plan.

Reiji Arisu has posed:
    Well. Of course they're shooting back. If they were capable of being reasonable, then they'd be properly productive members of society. Instead, they're... Morons. All of them.

    The Brawler's elbow meets the clatter of Reiji's weapon rack. He sighs. "You guys really like making this hard on yourselves," Reiji sighs, flipping his Wakizashi around so that its flat drags against the thug's throat. A small, quick zap of electricity rips out from the blade, likely sending the ganger into a brief convulsive fit. The exorcist begins dragging the man back towards the boxes, fighting against infernal strength with a body trained to fight and kill monsters.

    "Every time you try something like that," Reiji hisses in a harsh whisper, "I'm going to discharge a little bit of electricity. Nothing lethal, mind you, but just enough to cause you to lose control over your body. Call it self defense." His eyes narrow, "Now. Let's have that chat."

    "If you could tell me what your boss has got planning, and why this place stinks of something fouler than the usual mix of brimstone, I'd be deeply appreciative." Chirai is pressed up against the man's throat again, ever so slightly deforming his skin. "Failing that, telling me where he is in this complex would be fine. If you weren't aware, you people are tampering with forces that mages years older than any of you have lost control over, often resulting in their death and eternal servitude to some Prince of Hell."

"I would like to prevent this from happening if the risk exists here today. But I will need you to cooperate."

Staren has posed:
    Staren thinks they look like a pushover -- and is surprised when his HUD shows his forcefield taking far more damage than he expected.

    Still, damaging Staren is far from defeating him. He takes about a second to realize what's happening, and then starts actively trying to dodge, zig-zagging towards them. Every four or five bullet or sledgehammer impacts shatters a layer of his forcefield (it becomes visible as a transparent amber sphere, with white cracks appearing like stressed plastic -- pieces or layers broken off crumble to a glittering amber dust and fade away) and overloads one of the emitter discs on his chestplate, but he does have five of those and then the actual armor underneath. He doesn't intend to give them the chance to /get/ to his armor, though -- after his initial beam shots, he tries to dash from one criminal to another and take them down with his stun-mode beam swords and shock-augmented physical attacks (The armor's strength isn't actually superhuman, but it /is/ on the level of an exceptional human, like a strongman. There may be some bruises and broken bones.)

    He lets Reiji handle the talking. Staren talking usually doesn't go so well.

Emiya Shirou (560) has posed:
    One of Rho Aias' layers shattes and with it a petal on the 'first' layer. This after a whole magazine of bullets strikes it. Shirou's eyes go wide indeed. But he still collapses the shield early once the others start their assaults. With fewer bullets flying he can actually go on the offensive!

    He slams Kanshou into a wall and uses the free arm to project a golden spear with a cross-shaped guard of sorts near the tip. It crackles and sizzles ominously with pure electrical power. OODLES of it!

    "This should bring them down without too much harm..."

    All he has to do is AIM IT and thrust and it's like Zeus himself is waltzing through the halls. Big bolts of golden-hued electricity arc and fly one after another from the weapon's tip!

Demetrios Vasilikos (769) has posed:
    The Brawler spasms from the electric shock and is dragged into a side office alongside the crowded hall where there are some boxes to hide behind. He still doesn't seem terribly cooperative. They ritually cut themselves up as part of their initiation, so he's already familiar with pain. But he isn't quite as tough as he thinks he is. He hasn't been fully hardened yet. Just... Twisted. At Reiji's warnings, the man retorts, "Hah! You're threatening a servant of the Devil with demons? I know the score, pal! I didn't carve myself up because I was afraid of pain!" He thrashes again, even if it earns him another shock and says, "I don't know nothing about no plans! Check a directory if you want directions!" Clever guy.

    As Saber's hurricane-force sword blast hurls the remaining patrol down the hall and into the room at the end of it, and then Staren beating down anyone who stands back up, and then Shirou releasing electric bolts down the hall and into the elevator room where the bad guys are gathered... Well, in short order their combined firepower reduces all of these Minion-level enemies to unconsciousness. At which point they seem to lie around for a little while in whatever battered state they're in before sparkling and starting to fade out of existence. Shirou and Reiji should be familiar enough with this phenomenon by now to explain to the others if they're confused.

    But as Brawler dude realizes he's the only one left, he just starts yelling, "Our demon summoning will be like nothing you've ever seen before! We have REAL power coming to us! Hellfire that will burn this whole city to the grond!" He goes on ranting like this about their 'plans' up until he is either knocked out or given the chance to fight back. Reiji probably will not do the latter. This is the closest to plans it seems he's going to get from this doofus.

    Well, it's an office building, with an elevator. It's not like there's many places for Burner to go if he's here. Especially in a building like this, where half of it seems unreachable. How does the elevator even still have power anyway?

Reiji Arisu has posed:
    Yup. That guy's getting a shock to his neck- one powerful enough to knock him unconscious outright. "I swear, these cultists are always the same," Reiji mutters, sliding his wakizashi back into its sheath. "So much for figuring out where their boss is. I guess we'll just have to rely on our noses."

    Quite literally, in fact. Reiji assumes that, whatever they're pulling in, he and anyone with the senses to notice will be able to feel when they get close. And if not, then it's not like there are many other ways to go. I mean, who even takes stairs in an office building? Nobody, that's who.

    Regardless, Reiji is among the first up the elevator shaft. He doesn't seem too concerned about the brawler or his threats- mostly because now they /know/ that the Hellions are trying to summon a demon. Knowing it's a summoning ritual narrows down the possibilities significantly, though it's still a rather broad area. "So," he says to the others as elevator musack plays overhead, "You guys kill many demons?"

    He assumes so- or at least, he'll be genuinely surprised if they haven't. They have a whole new floor ahead of them, too! Which probably means more cultists. Gold and Hollywood haven't been fired even once yet, so Reiji doesn't bother checking their chambers.

Saber (346) has posed:
     Saber merely turned an impassive yet somehow disdainful expression at the ranting Brawler as Reiji had his 'chat' with him. She imagined Shirou, given his past, would not be terribly amused, either. In fact, the boy likely still had some issues when it came to cities in flame. Rather than waste words on the idiot, she simply watched Shirou for any signs he might be getting trapped in nightmarish memories again.

     But in the meantime, she allowed her senses to extend outward, feeling for threads of prana for where they might lead. Not that it seemed to matter much; the only way to go seemed to be the elevator, and one Saber wasn't entirely certain was safe. Unfortunately, it would appear they had little choice.

     She followed Reiji only after making sure that Shirou was all right, turning an almost puzzled expression at the exorcist. "Only a few, I believe...though I have banished some of what I believe are called 'Deep Old Ones' in the past, and one transformation into something of that nature."

     Indeed, Saber has punched out Cthulhu once.

Emiya Shirou (560) has posed:
    Burn the city to the ground?!

    Saber's got it in one. Shirou's breathing STOPS for a few seconds. Stops entirely. When it continues it's hurried.

    He won't allow it. It absolutely will NOT be permitted. Not on his watch.

    Not on his life.

    The boy clenches his teeth hard enough that the rest of him's shaking fiercely.

    With ragged breathing, he hurries on towards the elevator with the others. "These guys have to be stopped, right now!"

    During the ride upwards, his answer to Reiji is, "Some things like them. Hopefully we'll take them down before it comes to that. We've got enough firepower here to do it though."

Staren has posed:
    "Really? All the trouble of taking them alive just so they can rant at us?" Staren sighs and shakes his head.

    When they approach the elevator, Staren notices it still has power. "...Wait. What's powering this?" He's ready to deploy scouting drones, but Reiji's already going up... so, Staren gets in with him (confident he can handle it if something goes... wrong with the elevator.) "Demons? Umm... I don't remember killing any monsters that specifically were demons offhand."

Demetrios Vasilikos (769) has posed:
    The elevator music on the way up is cheerful and relaxed and obnoxious. But there's a sizzling sound underneath it, and the music becomes distorted as they go up one floor... Two floors...

    They may notice that the speaker is burnt out and broken, and probably shouldn't be producing any music at all. And the music is gradually replaced with an inhumanly deep voice speaking or chanting in some demonic-sounding tongue, right before some noxious green fluid starts dripping out of the speaker, destroying it and its sound-generation ability entirely, and making the floor smolder where drops hit. It has that sulfur stench. And in an enclosed area like this, that's probably bad to breathe in.

    But the elevator comes to a stop on 4F and they are free to come piling out of the suddenly-open doors and into the elevator room on THIS floor. A tangle of hallways and switchbacks lie ahead, with a meeting room or two, and then a medium-sized, open room with its original purpose unidentifiable, now that the floor has been turned into a large ritual circle in blood (or red wax, since there's red candles all around the circle's perimeter and scattered around the room. The space inside the circle is altered, with distantly-heard voices whispering and weird, monstrous sounds emanating from thin air, but there's no indication that whatever breach in the fabric of reality the Hellions have created is anywhere close to actually opening and ejecting demons.

    The walls are peeling or bare, and the heroes run into more groups of Hellions, medium and large, some groups with Fallen among them. Fallen wear demon masks and carry heavier ordinance: shotguns and submachine guns. There's something burning inside of them. Hellfire that may actually be detectable to various senses. Not a lot of it, but they don't appear to need artifacts to be tougher than normal, deriving their strength from the foul flames inside of them.

    Unless something major happens to change the method of handling this mission, the heroes should eventually make it to another elevator room. When the elevator opens this time, the interior of the elevator is covered in blood, with flickering lighting, and what seems to be a stained body bag lying inside.

    Well, THAT elevator probably is not taking them anywhere, but there's three other, much cleaner, ones available.

Reiji Arisu has posed:
    That speaker should not be working. It definitely should not be dripping green ooze. Reiji watches it plop to the floor as he listens to the others. "Old Ones huh? We could have used your help the last time- had a few of their priests to deal with. Demons aren't as bad as they are, usually. They prefer to kill you up front instead of driving you insane."

    There's a vaguely demonic 'BONG' as the elevator doors slide open. Reiji steps out, nodding to the others. "Best to keep moving before this stuff gets any worse."

    While Reiji makes his way to the elevator alongside all the others, there is one small bit of business he takes care of before joining them at the next lift.

    Before Reiji departs the room with the ritual circle, he takes a moment to carve the sigil on the ground to shreds with a few swipes of Chirai's electric blade. While he's pretty sure they're going to be fine, the exorcist has seen enough to know not to leave demonic summoning circles just lying around and intact. That's the sort of thing that gets demons summoned at you the moment you turn your backs.

Not exactly something he'd like to deal with, to be perfectly honest.

    They get to the next elevator room, and the... car full of gore. "Hm," the exorcist grunts, "Not sure if that's actually fresh, or if it's part of some Hell-dimension leaking into this one. Let's take one of the others to be sure."

Saber (346) has posed:
     Before they had gotten on the elevator, the King of Knights could easily see how such a promise had effected the young magus, especially knowing she had been part of the reason for it. A gauntlet-covered had rested on his arm lightly before she turned and made for the elevator to Hell.

     Or rather, what the Hellions seemed to tried to make into what they imagined Hell to be. It was far from it, of course, but they had been listening to demons for far too long, and demons tended to lie.

     Sea-green eyes flicked dubiously to the oozing speakers, though she kept her thoughts to herself on the matter. "Oh? I had likely been immersed in matters of Dun Realtai...otherwise, I would have offered my assistance." Even Dagon's priests had been a pain as she recalled.

     Likewise, she cast a critical eye to the summoning circles, ones that looked nothing like proper circles for much of anything that she could surmise. Still, Reiji's precautions were probably a good idea.

     None of these elevators were particularly inviting, but the broken one with the gore drew a grim expression from the Servant. She doubted it would be past them not to have committed murder...and while she had seen far worse, it was nevertheless something she had committed herself to putting an end to.

     Nodding to the exorcist and with a backwards glance to the others, she followed carefully.

Emiya Shirou (560) has posed:
    "You fought a WHAT, Saber?!" The more Shirou hears of Saber's exploits the more he's ending up admiring her. But that's definitely got him just as astonished as her showing up at all.

    The amazement dwindles thanks to the DISTURBING elevator ride though. Bleeegh. He's ended up staring at the speaker... and shivering in fear. Kanshou and Bakuya once again take up residence in his grip courtesy o a flash of prana. He is going NOWHERE now without their protection against magic.

    NOWHERE.

    He's coughing when they finally leave the elevator and have to tear through another horde of minions. And on to another elevator.

    He eyes the body bag and decides to detour to one of the others. "You think the summoning's causing this weird things? Like Hell's... overlapping onto the building like a bad casette splice?"

Staren has posed:
    The speaker starts spewing acid. Staren's not concerned about fumes, at least for himself. He presumes his allies also have defenses. That the elevator might melt out frtom under them is a problem, though... Staren looks around, thinking about how to counter that, when the elevator stops. On a whim, he scans the area to see if any electrically powered circuits are present or if this is all mayic animation or something.

    And hey, hell-summoning room! It is clear that /something/ is going on here -- Staren double-checks, scanning for dimensional distortions.

    Staren's defenses are worn down, but he's had a Multiverse to survive in, and his gear can take a lot of punishment. His forcefield is down and his armor is scraped and dented, though.

    Oh hey, hellevator. "Well, /that/ doesn't look good..." he quips. He scans again to check whether electricity is actually here or not, but either way, people are taking the elevator, so he follows Reiji.

Demetrios Vasilikos (769) has posed:
    The damaging of the summoning circle causes the distant chatter and inhuman wails of... THINGS to stop faintly echoing from some hollow darkness at its center. The weakening of dimensional boundaries is still there, but the distortion wasn't exactly stable to start with. Nothing's coming through there right now. Maybe a Magic hero can come try to repair the weak point fully later. For now, the quartet take the elevator that doesn't have a body bag in it to the next floor. On this final floor, the shadows still seem to have things in them that shouldn't be there: Entire walls of unseen, disembodied eyes that swivel to watch them wherever they go. It's pretty intensely creepy. But at least nothing is crawling out of that darkness towards them.

    Another elevator dings behind them. The one with the bodybag. There's a shuffling, thump-thump-thumping sound as the doors open, like something crawling on its elbows or trying to wriggle its way across the floor, and if they look, that body bag is lying on its side in the elevator now, half-way out of the doors.

    There's still no sign of breathing, or of life. Maybe it just fell over on its own? The red-hued lighting in there and the idea that a dead person might have started trying to follow them when theirs backs were turned are probably enough incentive to get out of this room and get this all over with so an entire army of exorcists can come in and purify this place.

    Assuming people do, infact, keep a move on... They find a hallway that branches off to the north, giving them the option of NOT going down what appears to be a dead end hallway steeped in deep darkness except for a pair of doors in an alcove at the end of the hall, with lights flickering and sparking above them. Almost as if to say, 'Here. Here is something interesting. You may have to run through the darkness to get here, but surely you'll make it. Just run your hardest. What are you afraid of? That clutching hands will seize you just before you reach the light and pull you back in? Surely not for someone as clever and quick as you...'

    But honestly, anyone clever qould ignore the dead end and go down the other hall. The one that ends in a large room with more Hellions visibly present, not some abandoned corridor with gods-know-what between here and what are probably locked doors.

    The room with the Hellions even has a large man in a demon mask visibly overseeing some kind of ritual. Other Hellions setting a ring of red fluid on fire with lighters under his supervision. That's probably Burner.

Reiji Arisu has posed:
    'An army of exorcists?' Maybe. Reiji does make a mental note for Shinra to send some ground pounders through this way to clean up. At the same time, though, it's not anything that he hasn't seen before. This particular exorcist exits the elevator shaft and, spying that the body had followed them up, takes a moment to expend a few slugs into its skull and torso.

There's a certain professionalism that one needs when dealing with these situations.

    Speaking of professionalism, Reiji takes one look down the shadowed hallway and squints long and hard into the inky blackness. He then breathes a long sigh and keeps right on walking. If they want to ambush this group, it seems that Reiji will at least make them get some exercise. It's better for them than what they've been doing thus far, after all.

    His instincts seem to pay off as they come across what one might describe as 'the boss room.' Reiji makes a low, disgruntled sound at what he assumes is a rudimentary summoning circle presently being burnt into the floor. "Saber," Reiji whispers, "You do the honors. I'll see about locking down the man in the mask."

Staren has posed:
    Staren attempts to turn the body bag to ash with repeated beam cannon applications. He's fought real undead plenty of times, so it certainly seems possible there are some here. Turning their back on one would be foolish.

    When faced with a hallway with a room full of cultists at the end, Staren decides they're in ideal 'fireball formation' and the missile launchers on his back rotate into firing position... and then he remembers they're supposed to take them alive. Right. He looks to the others to start this fight, thinking they're more used to nonlethal engagement. He doesn't have any wide-area stun weapons.

    Note to self, he thinks, get wide-area stun weapons.

Emiya Shirou (560) has posed:
    Emiya Shirou is going NOWHERE without his twin blades. Yin and Yang weapons clutched in his hands, the amber-eyed magus is afforded some minor protection against evil creatures and magic. Probably not as significantly as he hopes, but it's better than nothing. the others here, well... they're better at that sort of thing than him, right?

    Hopefully?

    He's jumpy all through the walk and sticking close to Reiji or Saber whenever possible. "This place is the most haunted I've ever SEEN."

Saber (346) has posed:
     "A 'Deep Old One'," Saber reiterated to Shirou, completely deadpan. It was hard to tell if she was joking or not. "Likewise, Caster had transformed into a giant monstrosity in the centre of the city's bay, an avatar of a great demon from the netherworld regions."

     Not that she understood the 'cassette splice' analogy, but the Servant nodded. "It would appear that these...magi have accessed a similar plane as Caster had."

     All the gore and bad freaky wuju didn't go unnoticed by the Servant, though the constant impassive mask hid whatever reactions she might have had. They did, after all, have a job to do if they wanted to prevent even more victims. At least now she had no Holy Grail War to worry about and deception to maintain. Here, dealing with the cultists was her primary objective. As it was, she entered the room first before anyone else. It might have seemed comical to have what looked like for all the world a little girl acting as the tank of the team, but the fact of the matter was that she was capable of enduring an insane amount of damage...and that was only physical. No modern magus -- particularly a gang of wannabes playing at demon-summoning -- could so much as lay a scratch on her when it came to magic.

     "Your reign of terror is at an end," she informed Burner calmly. No dramatic voice, merely a soft command...which happened to carry the authority of the King of Knights. It was, after all, only fair that she give them the honourable opportunity to turn away...not that they would likely accept. "I recommend that you surrender quietly or face the consequences."

Demetrios Vasilikos (769) has posed:
    The dead body doesn't move beyond the impacts of bullets or the vaporization of beam cannons. Maybe it was just a dead body after all! Or maybe not. Either way, it's not coming after them anymore. When Saber addresses the Hellions Boss, she gets a bit reason than might be expected from demon-crazed gangers who hang out in abandoned buildings, starting fires and summoning demons and who knows what else.

    "What!?" Burner calls out in surprise as he looks up to find Saber there. Fallen Gunners raise their sub-machine guns, and a couple of bandana-wearing Blood Brothers draw their own melee weapons. But the Damned yells out, "Wait! This hero has no reason to be interfering with us! Let's not give her one. She should just turn around and walk away. She's got nothing on me. This building's condemned and no one owns it. If we want to set a couple bonfires or play around with paint, what's wrong with that?"

    The other Hellions seem dubious about everything that was just said. They proudly identify themselves as servants of 'the devil', and generally don't bother trying to play by the law. They do what they want, no matter who suffers. But maybe that's why Burner is the leader of this outfit, and hasn't been arrested before now.

    But Burner seems not to know about the warrant out for him either.

Reiji Arisu has posed:
Did...

Did that guy really just say that?

    Reiji resists the urge to press his face into his hands and mourn the foolishness of today's youth. Honestly, what is wrong with these people? Don't they know anything?

F-first of all...

    "You realize that, regardless of whether or not this building is abandoned, its deed defaulted to--" There's a beat as Reiji checks something on his phone. "The Paragon City Banking Corporation. As such, you are presently committing vandalism on private property. Furthermore, you're also violating--" Beep. He checks something else. "At least fourteen different parts of the Paragon City Fire Code."

    "In other words," Reiji nods to the woman with the sword, "Please, by all means, Saber." He glances over his shoulder to the inventor, "Staren, airburst overhead, please. Shirou, follow my lead."

With that, Reiji surges into the crowd- presumably after Saber leads the charge. His target is the man with the mask. His weapon of choice...

A mysterious, barely-visible blade, and a wakizashi wreathed in electric fury.

Staren has posed:
    Airburst overhead? With the lethal weapons?

    Staren hopes Reiji knows what he's doing. With the fight starting, though, there's no time for double-checking.

    He also remembers that, since they're inside a building, he loaded his shoulder launchers with the smaller-area missiles. That's okay, he has other options.

    His hand dips into his bag, and pulls out a device that expands into his magitech staff. He points it forward, and a spark of magic flies into the room, then expands into a massive ball of flame in an instant, at least as much as it can in the confines of the room -- a magical flash-heat rather than something that would set the entire room on fire. Should still hurt though!

Emiya Shirou (560) has posed:
    Well, better than saying 'KILL THE HEROES' like the other guys have, Shirou has to admit. And this after GAWKING at Saber's tale. She killed a WHAT. SERIOUSLY?

    ... THAT EVEN HAPPENED?

    But then Reiji goes charging in. "... Follow your lead?! They haven't even surrendered ye--" He tries to protest, but Reiji is FAST.

    ... Now he's the one who wants to facepalm, except he's really not sure whether to help Reiji or try to STOP him now.

    what he DOES do is ready his mind. Images of various projections fly through his mind, but he's not acting on them yet.

    ... Or is he?

    Power flies from his fingertips and outwards, forming into a variety of weapons held in suspension around him. Six Noble Phantasm swords are held at the ready.

Saber (346) has posed:
     Pale eyebrows lifted slightly; that was certainly unexpected from a dangerous criminal. Saber had, in honesty, been expecting an immediate answer via fireball, or perhaps bullets.

     Well, she was if nothing else properly polite, even to occult-dabbling thugs. Chivalry wasn't something someone could simply pick-and-choose when to follow, after all. "There is, however, a warrant for your arrest," Saber elaborated. "As you have refrained from immediate violence, we would be willing to inform the authorities of your co-operation should you elect to come without incident."

     sea-green eyes flicked to Reiji, and the Servant nodded. She doubted the Damned would simply come quietly, and when the inevitable fight broke out, she was primed to draw their attention. Excalibur was still in her hand, after all.

Demetrios Vasilikos (769) has posed:
    Burner shrugs to Reiji and says. "So what? You need to send heroes to bring me in for that? You need a bunch of vigilante goonsquad to come in here all violent? Give me a citation. Or better yet, let the cops do their job." He squints towards Saber and says, "Fine. Bring me in for trespassing or whatever the warrant's for. My record's clean. First time offense, and the right lawyers, and I'll be right back out on the street in no time. Oh, but I'm sure I'll have learned the error of my ways. Next place we light up will be fire-safe and our own property--" But then Reiji is running at him with a sword, and Staren is shooting a fireball onto a crowd of people who aren't doing anything.

    Wow. What a bunch of heroes/secret agents/random violencers!

    After being set on fire, at least, the Hellions start shooting back. But that's a pretty reasonable reaction, all things considered. Also, a startling fact: Staren's fire attack does... Perhaps not as much as he was expecting it to. The Hellions might stagger under the onslaught of flames, but they seem to be more aggravated by being on fire than actually running around screaming in pain.

    Infernal-energy infused bullets come pelting in towards Staren from a Fallen Gunner and a Fallen Buckshot, while a couple of Blood Brother choppers try to get between the sword-carrying maniac and their leader. For his part, Burner is just as 'pained but not seriously injured' as the other Hellions. Wait. They're demon worshippers with at least some small amount of magical ability. Of COURSE they're fire resistant! That's probably, like, their LEAST vulnerable damage type!

    Burner just yells, "I AM ACTING PURELY IN SELF-DEFENSE! YOU'RE ALL WITNESSES!" Then he breathes in deeply, as his companions move to try to intercept the fast-moving swordsman, and unleashes a flamethrower-breath attack through the mouth-opening of his mask in a wide cone right in front of him. He has ACTUAL magic? These guys aren't totally incompetent? What the hell!

Reiji Arisu has posed:
    "Maybe if it was anyone else, they'd have bought that," Reiji replies as a fireburst explodes overhead. Saber hasn't rushed in- hesitating, that's a problem- but he can make do. Reiji dips low when the heat-bomb goes off, and then surges high when the Fallen goes to turn him into a lit match. "Unfortunately," he continues, "I'm neither so naive, nor so foolish as to let a would-be demon summoner have the luxury of time!"

     He leaps, using the crush of gangsters as stepping stools to reach his target. His skin and clothes sing as heat and infernal flame rake his body- but he seems to take less damage than he aught to, as he brings Chirai about to absorb the Fallen's fire breath.

The blade seems to crackle with delight as it eats the flame. After all, fire creates earth.

    Reiji lands behind the fallen, now towards the rear of the group as his minions had move in to try and intercept his advance. Kuroshio makes no sound as Reiji swings the translucent blade to try and cripple his opponent's shoulder. Chirai follows soon after, aimed at the flank of one leg... And then the other, as he sweeps the blade back out of its sheath like liquid lightning.

Staren has posed:
    Clearly, Reiji knew it wouldn't kill them, and that's why he gave the order!

    That does leave Staren dealing with his share of the cultists, though. Infernal bullets strike him, cracking armor. Under massed fire, parts of plates begin to break. He returns fire with his beam cannons, set on stun, and then sets his forcefield to fire-element to protect more effectively against the fire breath.

    That would work better if his forcefield was still up.

    Realizing this a split-second later, he runs /towards/ Burner, and a little to the side, trying to get out of the cone as quickly as possible.

    This may leave him on fire... and in the midst of the underlings. His free hand draws his stun-beam sword again, and back he goes to the tactics from before, trying to drop them with stunning and shocking melee attacks!

Emiya Shirou (560) has posed:
    It's a GOOD thing that Reiji's up there taking most of the fire to the face. But seeing all of the flames about and not doing very much has him twitching. What DO they all have for hitting lots of foes at once and not bringing the house down?

    "I'm pretty sure shooting first isn't very superhero-style." he mumbles grudgily, but what can he do about it now?

    Well, for now, all he can do is launch some of his swords at the group. Clarent, Kusanagi, and Froberge fire off in succession from his left, leaving only the right group!

Saber (346) has posed:
     To be fair, Reiji wasn't wrong. It hardly demanded Bedivere's level of military genius to figure out these cultists were rotten to the core and they would have found themselves in the middle of battle no matter what.

     "Perhaps," Saber replied evenly, and though she had held back still had little trouble leaping out into the lead again, Excalibur already in mid-swing against their target, winds buffeting against the magical fires. It was certainly advantageous that the Saber class had excellent overall stats to include speed! "But the path of chivalry demands that I exhibit Humanitas to the best of my ability, regardless of whether such acts bear fruit."

     It would have probably worked out better if they had used flamethrowers or their powers were mutation-based, because actual magic seemed to have no effect on the Servant at all. Still, she was mildly surprised that it had been actual magic...at least, on par with a novice magus.

     "Moreover," Saber continued mildly even as she went on the offensive and with a nod to Shirou's observation, "I had anticipated that such would inevitably lead to this confrontation. Nevertheless, a knight must act in accordance with the Eight Virtues."

     Was she really getting into this discussion /now/? Yes...yes, she was.

Demetrios Vasilikos (769) has posed:
    Shirou's magic swords take out the two Lieutenants after they've already suffered (reduced) damage from the fireball. The two Minions are taken out rather readily by Staren's stun weapons. With Saber attacking Burner from the front, and Reiji attacking the Boss from behind, he's disabled fairly quickly. He falls to one knee, not defeated in the 'being teleported out of here and to a prison hospital' sense, but definitely defeated in the 'not fighting any more' sense. He doesn't seem TOO injured, all-told... But with his companions down, and him seemingly believing he can slip the legal noose off of his neck if he can just get brought to less violent authorities.

    "I already gave up, you morons! Are you going to keep beating me while I'm down now too!? Just arrest me already! I'll beat the rap! You'll see! And I'll tell everyone how you handled this!" Burner threatens as he holds his not-disabled arm to the slash across his chest from Exalibur.

    Dun dun DUNNNN... DUN!

    MISSION COMPLETE!

    ...Kind of an unusual ending, but despite Burner's attempts to guilt them, he's wanted for involvement in a lot of crimes. Unless he gets a REALLY good lawyer who can spin the case to be about how the Hellion was arrested rather than what he did, he's probably going to jail no matter what. And it's highly doubtful respected heroes would be punished for doing what's necessary to take out a bunch of demon-worshippers and violent arsonists.

Reiji Arisu has posed:
    For what it's worth, Reiji does let up once the man has properly surrendered. "If I had ten yen for every time someone's told me that," he mutters as he slaps a pair of cuffs on the man- as well as a teleportation patch, "I'd be able to afford a car myself."

    He rises with a huff, looking over towards the others, "You all alright? Nothing important broken?" Reiji glances over at the magic circle briefly, before wandering over to slash it to ribbons. For safety. "I'll call this one in, get some cleanup crews down here to deal with the... miasma."

    Saber gets a slightly longer look as Reiji finally has a chance to properly respond. Which he does... with a slight shrug. "I can't fault someone for behaving honorably. I'm no knight, unfortunately. And I'm inherently wary about letting people like that guy play around with dark magic for too long."

    He sniffs, taking a quick breath of fading brimstone. "An idiot trying to be a dark sorcerer," he says, "Is more dangerous than a proper one any day of the week, you know?"

Staren has posed:
    With his henchmen down, Staren turns to face Burner... but, Reiji's gotten him to surrender. Like, properly surrender, rather than keep trying to summon things while he talks. Staren watches warily as Reiji cuffs him, then finally relaxes somewhat, putting his sword and staff away.

    After Reiji teleports him away, Staren looks at the empty space where Burner was for a moment before saying, "...If you were /really/ an effective dark sorcerer... You would've had the power to put up a fight, instead of cowering while your cronies defended you." He turns to Reiji and nods. "I don't know. I'd say they're different kinds of danger. The fool is less predictable... which, I suppose, does often lead to a more immediate threat than a looming threat hiding behind the scenes, moving pieces into place. So he was summoning some kind of monster, huh..."

Emiya Shirou (560) has posed:
    Shirou can only nod Saber's way. He completely understands. Even if, somewhere in his heart, he totally understands Reiji's approach. ... "Well, the police will sort things out. We were sent in here by them to start with." But the attempt to guil trip him has indeed succeeded in slghtly rattling him. Shirou makes a face. But it quickly passes in favor of a simple statement.

    "Whatever they were working on isn't going any further."

Saber (346) has posed:
     Once Burner had been taken into custody, it seemed that the arrest acted as a trigger to allow her disgust known, albeit subtly. Fortunately, there was little need to purge the building with a purifying blast of holy light once Reiji had taken care of the summoning circles. It reminded her far too much of the Fourth War, the subtle frown said.

     "It is wise to be cautious," she simply said before dismissing the Sword of Promised Victory. "It is simply that I myself must act in accordance with them."

     She turned slightly, studying the remains of whatever bizarre ritual the Hellions had been attempting. "But this day, they were thwarted. Vigilance has indeed been rewarded."