1314/AWftF: The First Dragon Ball

AWftF: The First Dragon Ball
Date of Scene:	11 January 2015
Location:	WMAT Arena - Yunzabit Heights
Synopsis:	The first Dragon Ball is found inside a creepy ruined bunker once belonging to the Red Ribbon Army. A prototype android is encountered, and its power source turns out to be...the Dragon Ball?!
Cast of Characters:	11, 37, 83, 114, 140, 546, Lezard Valeth, 662, 663
Tinyplot:	A Wish for the Future

---

Serori (37) has posed:
Let's get one thing straight -- it's fucking cold up here.

The Yunzabit Heights are about as inhospitable as it gets on Earth-4555. There's a reason why the only signs of human civilization are in ruin, and why nobody's tried to rebuild. The wind howls at all times, the ground is desolate, the snow's more than a hassle, and forget about safe, easy travel. Much like Mount Everest on other Earths, this place is just not meant for anything but the most determined of human life.

It's a perfect place for blowing shit up, though!

So, Serori's here, awaiting everyone else's arrival. Confederates with no easy mode of individual transport might be aboard the vessel she's standing beside, preparing to disembark; anyone else has to be on the way by now, right? The snowflakey wind whipping by prompts her to huddle further into her parka, and to cross her arms more tightly over her chest. Whoever's coming had better /hurry/. Fidget.

The Dragon Radar in her hand pings a strong local signal. So, her report was accurate -- the Dragon Ball must be in the area. As she waits, she continues to glance at the device now and then, as if needing to repeatedly reassure herself that the situation hasn't changed between looks. She's definitely impatient.

Not too far off, there's a single-story building that isn't too big, especially with half of it collapsed inward. It resembles a bunker of some kind, as do most of the other ruins around the area, suggesting this section of Yunzabit is occupied by a former military installation. Some of the buildings are more clearly (and more recently) blasted apart -- thanks, WMAT -- but most have just been eroded by weather and time. Serori keeps squinting at that one particular bunker, though, whenever she's not looking at the Dragon Radar, or looking for the others to show up.

Serori (37) has posed:
YOUR WEATHER FORECAST:

Skies are overcast to the point that sunlight's real weak. Still, if you're a vampire, pack your sunglasses. The sun's low in the west; up here, between so many craggy mountain peaks, that means things are starting to get real dark, real fast. By the time everyone arrives, it'll be a nice, deep twilight. Also, the snow comes and goes in crazy bursts, and the wind cold. Very cold.

Genghis Rex (114) has posed:
Genghis Rex shows up in his personal star cruiser, unable to set his ship down in this environment, he pops the canopy and stands, evaluating the situation. Suddenly a shiver wriggles through him from head to tail and he yanks the canopy closed as fast as he can.

The windows of the vessel fog up from the abrupt climate change, but after a few minutes, the canopy reopens, and the Tyranno King rep-merges, now in a fur lined poncho.

"This is about as inhospitable as it gets, Colonel. Let us finds this trinket of yours and be on our way!"

A cable descends from the underside of the hovering ship, and Rex grabs hold and allows himself to be lowered to the snowy surface.

Dracula Vlad Tepes (83) has posed:
    Dracula is here himself again, though his appearance is much more normal than it was during the last excursion Serori made. His towering form is draped in thick robes of black and crimson, his bloody cape billows in the wind behind him; he prefers to stand on the side of the ship opposite the setting sun, but even then, he cuts an imposing and regal figure among the snowy peaks.

    The cold doesn't seem to bother him, either, for he stands unmoving near Serori with his arms folded over his chest and his burning gaze fixated on the same bunker she's looking at. His only real movement from his ponderous stare is when Rex arrives, and he turns enough to offer the Tyranno King a nod of respectful greeting and a courteous smile. "Genghis Rex. So glad you could join us today."

Vegeta (663) has posed:
The only thing Vegeta brings to protect him from the weather is a simple dark red cloak that he keeps wrapped around himself, hood up. He lands next to Serori, staring up as everyone begins to arrive. Then he looks down at her Dragon Radar. "I still don't know what your second wish is." he notes, but largely doesn't seem to be in a take charge state of mind today. "I almost expect Kakarot to come back from the dead and stop what we're doing here."

Fake Avenger (662) has posed:
     It's without fanfare that Kojirou Sasaki, Avenger-class Servant, arrives on the battlefield. He just sort of appears there near the Confederate lines without warning. One moment there's nothing, the next, there's a blue-haired Japanese man in a lavendar kimono and a purple hakama, covered in writing black scars that shift and shudder into new positions. The kimono is torn in several places, stained with a deep black that looks almost like ink. Part of the hakama has been ripped off and wrapped around his stomach like a bandage.

     Kojirou lightly wanders his way over to the Confederates, a peaceful, distant smile on his face. It's as if the whole world simply passes him by while he stands, as if he's attained some secret knowledge, some hint into a larger hidden joke that other people don't seem to get. Such a placid smile from a man covered in scars, who bears himself like a master swordsman and wears a sword almost as long as he is tall, must seem terribly mismatched. Then again, among the Confederates, there are all sorts, aren't there?

     Kojirou stops just shy of the group, putting voices to faces. Dracula is the first he identifies, then Serori - solely by virtue of her being the mission organizer; Dracula then identifies Genghis Rex for him, and Vegeta...well, who could mistake Vegeta for anyone but Vegeta?

     The swordsman looks up at the sky, watching the wispy clouds flow along. They carry the promise of snow, of a beautiful evening sky, and of a chill that would drive mortal men to seek shelter.

     Fortunately, Kojirou hasn't been a mortal man for over a thousand years.

     His violet eyes slip over towards Serori's. The little black sigils in them seem to dance as he watches her.

     "I truly hope," Kojirou offers, in his quiet, cheerful voice, "That whatever it is you wish for is only everything you desire, and nothing either greater or lesser."

     Then he goes right back to watching the cloud formations, without a care in the world.

Metal Man (11) has posed:
Metal Man had needed some time off of the grunt work he often did, given his being formally in command of an regular fed unit back when he was an Colonel so he sometimes gets dragged into training stuff which he'd bene doing latly, Metal Man isn't alone, Wood Man has come with him eager for a bit of adventure not focused too hard upon the war.

"Humm So let's see what we got here?"

he pauses for a moment.

"The man has a habit of not staying dead on average, Vegeta that is true, good to see your aware of that."

He's not being snarky he's being host.

"Just another thing Serori make sure you want it because there's a saying becareful of what you wish for but there's comfort in the Dragon Balls are not monkey Paws."

Lezard Valeth has posed:
Lezard is never late, nor is he ever early, he arrives precisely when he means t- Oh wait, wrong script. That's got a magic-user with /no ambition/.

The snowy, wind-whipped air is cut with the screech of a harpy, as Lezard Valeth arrives and sets down neear Serori, Dracula, and Rex. He leaps lightly off of the beast and crunches into the snow, looking over the area. He scowls at the wind and snow hitting his glasses, but they clear quickly. What master of magic would he be if such things as the /weather/ inconvenienced him?

"It appears the former occupants and visitors of this area were quite... enthusiastic." Lezard comments. "It is good to see you all."

Nox (546) has posed:
    Wind and cold doesn't especially bother someone made of clockwork parts and raw energy, but Nox has to be on his guard regardless. An operation just yesterday went pear shaped when seven or eight would-be heroes showed up to it, and the majority of them decided to focus on him to the exclusion of all else. Oh sure, he'd gotten everything he'd come for, but stalling for that much time against so many opponents inflicted a lot of damage. His personal energy stores are recharged from the sizable stolen haul, but he's still missing most of his armour after spending the last twenty four hours fixing up internal parts.

    He simply flashes into existence somewhere in the middle of the group, untroubled by the deep snow as long as he remains hovering a couple of feet off the ground as he usually does. "Let's see. Madam Serori, Marshal Dracula, Monsieurs Lezard, Koujirou, Vegeta, and two that I haven't had the pleasure of speaking to yet. This is certainly a well prepared expedition."

Serori (37) has posed:
Serori slants an amused look Vegeta's way. "If Kakarot didn't come back from the dead to stop /you/, I doubt he'll try it now. Thanks for coming, anyway. If he /does/ show up, I wouldn't want to miss the sight of you two fighting. Maybe that's how I'll spend my second wish."

Now smirking, she turns her attention to the rest of the group, and takes the time to look over each person and dino-person in turn. It's a good group, and a capable one; she nods her satisfaction. "Field Marshal, thank you again for taking the time to join us. I am honored to have your presence here, as I'm honored to welcome the rest of you. Rex, Valeth, Metal Man, Kojirou, Vegeta, Nox -- thank you all for coming. Sorry about the weather."

The smirk's gone, replaced by a look of annoyance as she taps the screen of the Dragon Radar. "We know for certain the Dragon Ball is here. As I mentioned in my report, the men I sent to find it never checked in, and given that the Dragon Ball's location has not moved, I think we have to expect the worst -- whatever we find here is probably going to cause us trouble."

The hand doing the poking hooks its thumb toward the nearby bunker to indicate the busted-ass door. The door rattles in the wind. "The Dragon Ball's below ground, in the tunnels connecting this facility. This place used to belong to a military force called the Red Ribbon Army. That's all I can tell you about what's ahead of us for sure; I have no idea what might still be here. Given how remote and treacherous this place is, I doubt it's been well-looted, so be cautious about old equipment and armaments. Don't want to go trapping us beneath hundreds of feet of rubble, do you?"

Tucking the Dragon Radar away into her parka, she proceeds to walk toward the bunker, trusting the rest to follow. She continues to talk as she goes. "At least there's no sign of the Union out here; that means we can focus on our work. So. I want to find out what happened to our soldiers, and I want that Dragon Ball. Everything else is secondary. Ah, aside from our own safety, of course. If any hostiles arrive behind us, we'll be alerted, so keep your eyes ahead."

With one hand, she yanks what's left of the still-functional door off its hinges, tosses it away, and bows the others in ahead of herself. So polite.

Behind the door isn't much more than a foyer to buffer the building interior against the exterior cold. A second door, clearly forced open, leads into the bunker. The short hall ahead is lined by a few doors, but anything to the left is blocked by rubble, and anything to the right is pretty barren of interest. The dark hall terminates in an artificial light source too bright to belong to the original structure. It was probably stuck to the wall by those missing Confederates.

The light shines down the well of a spiral staircase descending into unexplored territory.

Genghis Rex (114) has posed:
Rex nods curtly to Dracula, "Of COURSE, these silly orbs we're hunting for couldn't be in, say, the Bahamas? I'm not interested in becoming a dino-sickle!" Rex rubs at his arms and shoulders, "I should have sent Brachio. He loves this stuff."

Rex's radio chirps with the voice of Ankylo, "Actually, Bossasaur, he nearly froze to death the last time he was in a cold place like that *SNORT*SNORT*"

"Well, which one of you likes cold weather?"

"Umm? ... none of us?"

Rex scowls.

Rex pulls out a handheld device and punches a few buttons, sending his ship up and above the fierce weather.

Rex follows after Serori and company, leaving chicken-foot shaped prints in the snow and occasionally trailing his tail behind him. He glances down the staircase, "Hrmph, well at least it gets us out of this weather ... Who did you send ahead of us? Anyone of note?"

Vegeta (663) has posed:
"Didn't Kakarot have something to do with fighting them? I never did listen to my cultural advisors." Vegeta follows Serori inside, lowering his hood and looking around with some vague interest in the facility. "If you're able to bring Kakarot back with a wish, I'd gladly kill him again. That machine is right, coming back once is often enough."

Nox (546) has posed:
    "Rex and Metal Man is it? A pleasure to make your acquaintances." With that out of the way, Nox stops to listen to the missing briefing. "Hmm, so the dragon radar is able to locate it to within a few miles, but not with total precision. That isn't entirely unexpected. It'd be bordering on miraculous if that machine could lead us directly to the doorstep of the right room. Tell me, how much energy do these dragonballs give off? Do they remain inert until all seven are gathered and activated, or do they release something into their surroundings which might be possible to sense." Nox asks his questions as he follows, sedately floating after the group without so much as twitching a finger, and leaving the snow completely untouched beneath him.

    Upon reaching the interior of the bunker, Nox removes one of his hands from its usual position behind his back, and upturns his palm, seeming to materialize a handful of tiny machines that look like some sort of beetle made of conjoined spheres with four legs and a single eye. They lift off with the faint buzzing of metallic wings, shooting off down the side corridors just to make sure that there is nothing of interest there, and a couple go ahead a short ways to scout for obvious traps.

Dracula Vlad Tepes (83) has posed:
    Other Confederates arrive, and Dracula is sure to greet each one in turn with a respectful nod and a courteous smile. He's not much for chatting this time out, but he still knows the importance of making a good show of himself in his time out.

    Once Serori starts talking about the situation, however, the Field Marshal is focused on the mission. His expression sharp, his mind working, he considers what's to come and the chances that may be ahead of them. There's a great deal that could have happened to this initial scouting party, after all. His tactical mind tells him to be prepared for whatever is possible.

    Once the excursion begins, Dracula strides off, each step taken with surety. It's fortunate that his great height isn't an issue in these halls, or else this would be much more awkward.

    While others pose questions and discuss things, Dracula's attention turns to that spiral staircase. Of course, going down as he is might not be the best idea; he's a large target, not really suited for scouting or avoiding traps. So, instead, he shifts, his form dissolving into a pitch-black fog that sinks low to the ground, then creeps down the staircase to see what's below. Stretching and slinking, he moves further down, extending his mass out briefly if anything of interest comes before the bottom of the staircase to get an idea of just how far down the stairs go and what may come off of them on the way.

Fake Avenger (662) has posed:
     Kojirou's smile doesn't fade. He shrugs gently at the mention of the weather, but doesn't say anything more. Just having weather is nice for Kojirou. He hasn't had the experience of weather in a long time, so being around weather at all was a nice change of pace from the dead sky of the Land of Steel. It was still novel despite the worlds he'd visited already. He inclines his head at Nox and Dracula, acknowledging them with that peaceful, empty smile.

     Look at you. Friends all around! And they're powerful enough to make it troublesome. You're clever, Kojirou-kun. But don't think I can't keep the game going. Just because you've changed the rules...heh heh heh.

     Kojirou follows behind the group, unless they allow him to go ahead. He has no real ranged capabilities to speak of, but nor is he particularly bothered by range; Kojirou is more than capable of adapting to wherever they want him, whether he's behind the vast group of Confederates, or ahead. While he can't see in the dark, precisely, his instincts are without compare - unseen or unforseen dangers likely won't catch him unawares like they might others. He walks down the steps with that same peaceful gait, pausing only to admire the doorway on the way in.

     Maybe he just...likes doorways?

Lezard Valeth has posed:
Lezard gives Nox a florid bow. "A pleasure to see you again as well, Sir Nox." He smiles, always pleasant around his Confederate allies.

Serori lays out the situation and the plan. Lezard nods, and withdraws a ruby-tipped scepter from his cloak, holding it in the cold tightly, then enters the bunker to look over the area with a critical eye. "Hmmmm." He says noncomittally, but doesn't expand on it.

He steps to the side, making sure to give the others plenty of room to scout the stairwell. Lezard is a mage, not a warrior, he knows well the value of having people around you who are more... suited for taking hits.

Like Kojirou. Lezard watches him intently, possible for reasons other than those they were here for. "I am sure this complex will yield up its secrets in time. Those assembled here are many of the most powerful and talented of the Confederacy, and I doubt any security this place has would be prepared to deal with the forces at our command."

Metal Man (11) has posed:
Metal Man looks to Nox for a moment nodding a bit.

"I'm Metal Man and this is Wood Man my brother, you would be Nox, correct?"

Metal Man looks the time mage over and gets a slight chill, the man's clothing and gear reminds me of something he's seen before something that scared him but he chalks it up to a fluke of the multivers and falls in step with the other as they are moving a head.

"Ya, when you been around long enough you start to notice certain patterns."

Serori (37) has posed:
Many of the rooms visited by Nox's 'bugs' are in pretty bad condition. Ransacked by looters or by weather, or taken over at one time or another by animal life, these chambers are so afflicted and decayed as to have no resemblance to their past forms and functions. Bedrooms? Offices? Supply rooms? It's impossible to say for sure. What the 'bugs' do learn is that someone else has been this way -- check out those traces of muddy boot-prints! -- and that there isn't much else to worry about. If there had been traps, they're already sprung.

Dracula's foggy form ghosts down the spiral staircase with ease. He emerges into another small foyer where another bright light source has been stuck to the wall. Revealed here is a metal door with a metal handle that's been propped open with a chunk of rubble dragged down from the upstairs. The doorway itself is virtually untouched by the ravages above, except the paint job's gone to shit over time. Still, Kojirou should find it pretty admirable, if doorways really are his thing.

Doors, doors, doors. How many doors can there be? Now there's only one ahead -- and this one's closed. A security panel is attached to it of the card-reading variety, and next to that is a very thick pane of reinforced glass that's too smudged by dirt to really see through. Someone's tried to rub a clear circle through the layer of dirt, but beyond the glimmer of another light source shining from the next room, there's not much to see.

Serori's in the middle of the pack. From there, she answers Nox: "The Dragon Balls themselves give off a particular energy, but it's not something I can sense. It seems like only this device is capable of tracking that unique signature. Once we have one in hand, we can probably refine our own equipment to sniff the Dragon Balls out with more reliability, but...I'm not sure. This Dragon Radar was made by someone who dedicated her life to the hunt." Serori reaches up to push back her parka's hood. "Still, I'll be happy to let you look at the Radar later. If we can produce more of these, it'll mean we'll find the Dragon Balls that much faster. Aah...as to the rest...as far as I know, they don't do anything until you've got all seven in hand. Then, you can summon Shenron."

She's careful about descending the steps only after Dracula's reported his findings. Or Nox. One of those little 'bug' things Nox has flying around probably finds the same door situation Dracula does.

Genghis Rex (114) has posed:
The Tyranno King flicks his attention to Vegeta for a moment and chides (not overly loud but loud enough for Vegeta to hear), "Somebody has an obsession."

Not awaiting Vegeta's response he turns to Nox and offers a nod in greeting, "Genghis Rex, King of Reptilon and leader of the Tyrannos. Nice to meet you, mechanoid."

The Red king doesn't wait for Nox to respond, instead he, at 12 feet, he is forced to crouch down to make his way through the passageway, following after Dracula and the others. "This place was built for puny mammals! I will be quite irritable if I have a sore back from all of this stooping when we are done!"

Rex pulls out a small orb and cracks it open, a pair of red beams stream out of the orb.

"Begin mapping." Rex says and the orb lifts off his claw and speeds down the staircase ahead of him, flashing its twin beams in full 360 degree arcs as it zooms around. He pulls out a pair of yellow tinted glasses and places them over his eyes, a close look at the glasses reveals readouts and information flashing across his vision, no doubt data sent back from the probe he sent ahead.

Serori (37) has posed:
Rex's orb thingy successfully maps out the rooms that were already passed, and the stairwell, and the little foyer at the bottom of said stairwell, but since it can't open locked doors, it very quickly runs out of places to go.

Fake Avenger (662) has posed:
     Indeed, Kojirou has a particular relationship with gateways of all sort. After all, once upon a time, in the mists of his own history, he stood as little more than a guard dog at a particularly fine gate. It wasn't an important gate on its own - the little temple gateway to a little mountain temple that had stood for years upon years upon years - but then, was anything really important on its own? Did history take its shape because of the shape of history, or did people and places influence it? Was this gate weighted down by the years it had watched, or were they about to force import upon something that had none? Kojirou had his own ideas, but he was always welcome to being shown wrong.

     Perhaps he would meet his younger self one day. Perhaps he would kill him and spare him from this fate, or perhaps he would help him and force him into it. Who knows?

     The gate disperses from his mind as they arrive at the door. Kojirou is not a lockpicker. While the Servant's strength was, well, a Servant's strength, it was limited by the fact that Kojirou wasn't really all that fantastic a Servant to begin with. He wasn't exactly Hercules.

     His hands disappear into the folds of his kimono as he watches the mapping devices. The Liners had similar devices, so his gaze isn't really heavy with any sort of amazement one might expect a swordsman from the Sengoku Jidai to react, but then, it's hard to read Kojirou anyway.

     "Wishes are inconvenient, aren't they?" Kojirou inquires with regards to the limitations of the Dragonballs. He looks off down the corridor. He disliked fighting indoors - a swallow needed room to fly, so it made Tsubame Gaeshi difficult to execute - but he would make do.

     Truth be told, he was hoping for something worth drawing his sword for down here. Even with all these Confederate forces around...well, Kojirou was that sort of person, after all. He had such a simple desire. Even in the middle of world-conquerors, immortal warlords, and master wizards, all Kojirou Sasaki truly wanted was a fight worth his weapon.

Nox (546) has posed:
    Finding nothing of value elsewhere in the bunker, save fuel for some equally poignant and cheesy message on the ravages of time, Nox recalls his noxines from their relatively useless search, since all of the boot prints indicate that the Confederates are going the right way anyways. "Would you prefer if I were to call you Genghis or Rex? That certainly is an interesting device." Nox is always a little fascinated by technology that doesn't use any kind of magic at all, especially when there are non-humans using it. "You are correct! If I may ask however, what patterns do you speak of?" He asks Metal Man. He only makes an ambiguous chuckle at Lezard's assurances that a bunker complex stands no chance against the collective might of everyone gathered inside of it.

    "I'd be delighted to look at it, Madam Serori. Provided some period of study, I'm sure I could arrange something. Energy signatures are something of a specialty for me by now." As the last noxine comes back, Nox pauses for a moment to assimilate the series of snapshots gathered by it. "Your men have definitely been this way, though I'm unsure as to how they proceeded. There is a significant security barrier in the way that hasn't been blasted open, and yet it seems as if they managed to go further in." Once the group actually reaches the door in question, Nox stops to analyze it for a moment, before looking through the window, and experimentally attempting to teleport into the portion of the room he can see.

Vegeta (663) has posed:
"Aren't Earth dragon balls smaller than Namekian dragon balls?" Vegeta suddenly asks, then shakes his head. "Well, you've probably never seen either before. But Namekian dragon balls are the size of basketballs. You could probably beat someone to death with one."

He looks to Serori as she begins to talk about the Dragon Radar. "Bulma is like a dog with a bone. She was a human with absolutely no fighting capabilities and still somehow managed to come back from Namek alive. And this was back when I was actually willing to kill her if I felt like it."

But, he tries to further elaborate on the Dragon Balls, picking up where Serori left off. "The Dragon Balls are basically like fancy crystals. They don't really do anything at all other than look pretty. Once you have them together, you have to call the dragon out. Dende better not have made these Dragon balls require speaking Namekian..."

Metal Man (11) has posed:
Metal Man is not heing out to search just yet he's come in persoin and he looks over at Serorui for a moment listening to her while Woodman Does start his own search maybe Snake Man should have come along, yet? He was busy on other jobs for Wily. Wood Man will start a search pattern calling a few Metools to aid him in his seeking out the ball, while MEtal Man thinks for a moment.

"We got someone protecting Dende right?"

Serori (37) has posed:
Nox finds himself inside a very dark, very dusty room. Consoles and lab tables fill the wide space, as well as various supporting equipment difficult to discern amid so many stark shadows. Several light sources have been tossed throughout the room, but again, these don't do a lot to properly illuminate anything, as they're hardly more than very bright glowsticks, and their radius of efficacy is almost certainly halved by the air's filthy quality.

Barely perceptible beneath the smell of dust is a distinct bite of ozone and smoke. As Nox's eyesight acclimatizes to this apparent laboratory, he'll soon realize that one of the nearest consoles is a scorched ruin, and that the far wall is peppered with holes.

Lezard Valeth has posed:
Lezard shifts his attention from Kojirou to the others, watching how they deal with an unknown area. For his part, he simply seems to be remaining watchful. Too many cooks and all that. "Wishes may be inconvenient, but many seem to feel they are worth the effort. Not anyone can achieve their dreams in other ways." Lezard comments offhand.

"Those who used the location had to have a way through it before, the solution to this puzzle must be available to deduce in some manner."

He waits, conserving his abilities and power for when they're needed.

Nox (546) has posed:
    Once having thoroughly looked around the room, Nox glides back over to the closed security door, testing once to see if it can be opened from the inside, and if it can't, looking into its timeline to see when it was last opened, and then snipping its current position in time, pulling it back, and pasting it back to that moment, initiating a sort of 'rollback' to the door's open state. It's a more efficient use of power than trying to blow it open, and safer to anyone standing behind it. "It looks as if Serori's men encountered some resistance along the way. The battle obviously moved from here, because I see no bodies. Do be on your guard." The noxines go forward again, but only a short distance; enough to check out the next room in sequence and then quickly report back, rather than going scouting way ahead and possibly being destroyed.

Dracula Vlad Tepes (83) has posed:
    The door is opened, and Dracula takes the moment to reconstitute himself. The fog rises up and reassembles, coalescing back into the towering man's form just in time for Nox to time-magic the door open. An interesting tactic, certainly; he'll have to note down the particulars of Nox's abilities, in case he personally needs that sort of thing later.

    "Thank you, Nox," the vampire lord offers, smiling slightly and striding into the dark room. The dim light isn't an issue for one such as he, and he readily moves in as if it were already brightly lit. His first target is those lab tables, where he attempts to discern exactly what sort of items are on them and what their use might have been. If this place held such a central event in the efforts of the earlier scouts, then perhaps noting its purpose would give some clues as to the specifics of what happened here.

Genghis Rex (114) has posed:
Genghis Rex growls as he approaches the propped open door, wraps a claw around the door and forces it off its hinges to make a bigger, better opening for himself and anyone else who are still working their way into the inner chamber, "I will never understand how mammals can work in such crowded accommodations."

He squeezes through the door and kneels down, out of the way. "Metal Man may be our best option. There is no room for me to work in here, Dinovolving would be ... messy ... for everyone."

Serori (37) has posed:
The door has a secondary security panel on the inside, suggesting a need to track both the comings and goings of anyone stationed at this bunker; however, neither the primary panel nor the secondary show much signs of tampering, suggesting Serori's strike team must have had some kind of tech specialist among their number. Fortunately, Nox is able to serve in that capacity, if via means the strike team likely lacked. His time magic cracks the door, and enables everyone else to freely enter.

Yes, the lab is a mess. Dracula's keen eyesight -- not particularly hampered by so much darkness -- can pick up on that truth better than almost anyone else. As the noxites and Rex's orb go about mapping the room's perimeter, the Dark Lord is free to explore at a less frenetic pace. Papers are scattered around the floors. Folders spill out of cabinets. Half-erased notes still stain a few chalkboards. Of greatest interest are the many diagrams of human anatomy stacked up throughout the place, and the computer consoles which are intact. Also, there's something else on the air his unique senses will fixate on at once...

One of the lab tables is populated by a dusty and rusty tangle of human bones with metal grafting.

Serori steps into the lab, and wrinkles her nose at the mingling odors. "I think I smell blood."

Fake Avenger (662) has posed:
     The smell of blood usually means the smell of battle. Kojirou takes it in, revels in it. Though there's no change on his face, no change in his outward demeanor, he nonetheless delights in the scent of fresh blood as he walks through the room. Though he isn't capable of seeing in the dark, as always, sight means very little to Kojirou; his sense of battle is so refined as to compensate for this sort of thing. He walks along beside Dracula at a leisurely pace, and though he can't see anything in the room to make out fine details, he does get the general shape of it and its objects.

     Which includes the bones. Kojirou stops by the table, looking down at the bones for a long moment. A moment later, he hefts up one of the bones and holds it thoughtfully in front of him, as if testing the weight. Then he shoulders it, unhampered by its weight. A human bone means as much to the detached Servant as a human life - that is to say, not at all.

     Serori then points out the table leg over the radio. Kojirou chuckles quietly.

Serori (37) has posed:
As the orb thingy maps the room, it discovers two things: there are three doors leading from the room. One is very, very large, almost like the kind of door you'd see on a bank vault, but lacking the external valves and knobs. One is more normal-sized, but also closed, and marked STORAGE. The other door is positioned by another pane of thick, reinforced glass. This door is open, but the room inside is pitch black, and the mapping returns odd results.

Is that a human body?

The noxites confirm any suspicions there may have been about that spray of holes on the far wall: they've been punctured by bullets. The bullets make no dent whatsoever into the surface of the great big sealed vault-looking door Rex's mapping tool uncovered.

There is a severed hand resting on the floor beside the vault door. The noxites might find that interesting.

Lezard Valeth has posed:
Lezard steps forward through the door and looks around through the newly exposed room. "A battle, indeed..." He pauses, stopping over some of the sighs of battle, but steps forward, carefully staying near the Confederate team.

He is, however, drawn away to examine the lab facilities in more detail. "Interesting... Were they researching the human form here?" He pulls a book with no title from a ripple of space, the tome opening of its own volition and flipping pages as he looks between it and some of the lab notes.

He then turns to the tangle of human bones, examining it intently, "They appear to have been researching the combination of the flesh with steel."

He squints, surprised for a moment as Kojirou decides to use a bone for a weapon.

He shrugs visibly, and simply turns back to his examination.

Serori (37) has posed:
Serori stares after Kojirou as he hefts up the human bone, and slings it over his shoulder as casual as can be. Blinkblink.

Vegeta (663) has posed:
Vegeta's eyes scan around for anything particularly out of place, alert even though he's primarily here to support Serori's endeavour. He looks over at the damaged console, then frowns... more than he's usually frowning. "And this console was damaged with ki." he states as he tenses up a bit, looking around to try and extend his senses throughout their surroundings.

"Red Ribbon... metal grafted to bones... I don't want to jump to conclusions." But he clearly is.

Genghis Rex (114) has posed:
Rex cocks his head and says, "Stop."

He clicks a button on his glasses, which project out a holographic representation of the body the probe found in the other room, "Do we know this person? A confederate footsoldier perhaps?"

Dracula Vlad Tepes (83) has posed:
    Dracula spends a few moments looking over the diagrams and bones, but he's able to get the gist of things easily enough. This was obviously a place of experimentation, though the exact purpose is difficult to make out. Human augmentation isn't an unfamiliar topic, after all.

    When Kojirou steps by and simply picks up a bone for a weapon, Dracula hardly bats an eye. Indeed, he steps aside to allow Kojirou better access. Considering where he lives, this sort of thing must seem commonplace to him by now.

    "It appears so, Lezard," the Lord of Darkness remarks, sidling across the room now that he has some idea of its purpose. There is one more thing that he feels the need to check, however; the scent of blood is powerful to a vampire, even more so than some natural predators. He inhales the scent deeply, trying to tell more about it. Its age, primarily; how freshly it was spilled, and which direction it seems most focused in. Did the bleeding forms leave through somewhere? If there aren't any bodies, they must have left the room /somehow/.

Serori (37) has posed:
That's exactly what Valeth confirms by checking out those books. Detailed and technical notes are presented, most of 'em going far too in-depth into human anatomy and its tolerance of various experiments. Metal grafts are only the beginning of what was being attempted in this laboratory. Organ replacement. Skin replacement. Vascular system enhancement. Replacement of entire body parts with robotic limbs. All through the research notes and folders and books Valeth skims through, one word keeps showing up in the text, over and over and over again.

GERO.

Metal Man (11) has posed:
Metal Man looks to Rex abd will come over to Rex.

"Whatcha need?"

He'll take a look to see if he can go in and look around on behalf of Genghis Rex and will head on in if there's nothing to stop him on heading to Rex and hte locked door which he was going to start to work on after taking a look at it such as the nature of the lock and how it's set up.

Lezard Valeth has posed:
Lezard examines the notes intently, and nods as he sees the responses. He might have some things to pick up himself. He takes some notes, scratching at some paper with a precise, flowing hand.

He does pause at something, however. He looks up at the others, and asks, simply, "Does anyone know who a 'Gero' is? Perhaps it is a name?"

Serori (37) has posed:
The blood is fresh -- no more than a day or so old. In this room, the odor is weak, except where it's been concentrated around the severed hand Nox's noxines find. The stench is also thick in the other room where Metal Man is proceeding to explore, but the greatest odor clings to the vault door itself. An intense permeation of the smell seeps through the minimal cracks surrounding the door, and through whatever mechanism keeps it sealed, as if the room beyond is bathed in the substance.

Vegeta (663) has posed:
"Dr. Gero, the man who created the androids, and turned himself into an android. We fought him years ago." Vegeta answers as he just kind of stares at the place, looking a little tense.

Genghis Rex (114) has posed:
The Tyranno King clicks another button on the side of his glasses, a green light starts flashing.

"Seeing this Styraco?"

A radio voice speaks back, "Yes! Whomever Red Ribbon is ... I sorta like their style."

Rex nods, "I thought you might, take stock of everything you see. If anything interests you, point it out to me and I'll see if I can bring it back for you and Plesio. Don't be shy. I'm not coming back to this place so if you want something later, you can come freeze your tail off and get it yourself."

Rex motions to Metal Man, "Do as Serori requests."

Serori (37) has posed:
Indeed, in the room Metal Man enters with Wood Man, there's a corpse in Confederate uniform. Not only is this guy Very Dead, but he's missing a significant chunk of his torso -- it looks like a hole's been blasted clean through it.

Beyond his body is a shattered tank connected via cables to several computer consoles. Various sensory equipment populates this room, too. The tank is broken in the middle, so some of the fluid contained inside it is still pooled in the bottom.

Ryuko Matoi (140) has posed:
    Maybe by just sheer, dumb luck, Ryuko is in this desolate place. By herself, but wearing Senketsu. Skimpy, sure. But all the blood the Kamui has soaked up and is using keeps her surprisingly warm, despite the fact this place is cold as balls. Why is she even here, though? Well.. She's actually just replaying her WMAT match with Kiyoko over, in her head, thinking about it. Going through the motions of the fight, as much as she can remember them.

She won them all by the skin of her teeth, so she's just.. figuring out what she did wrong. Missteps she made, that she can account for. It's about as introspective and thoughtful as Ryuko can get, so of course, it has something to do with fighting. Imagine her surprise when a ship with Confederate markings shows up, and flies overhead. Neither faction tends to hang around this particular world, to her knowledge.

<<Unusual.>> Senketsu remarks, with Ryuko nodding in agreement. "We're solo, but.. we're not Union, either. Worth lookin' into, you think?"

<<Perhaps. Though, I would not suggest a fight.. We'd certainly be outnumbered.>>

"Oh, well.. when you put it that way!"

Off she goes, leaping from one cliff to the next, following the ship at a distance, enough that hopefully she can approach without being noticed. And following, as others disembark and make their way into.. a building? Way out here? Definitely worth looking into. Especially considering the people she sees doing the disembarking.

Nox (546) has posed:
    Nox's non-verbal reactions are as inscrutable as always with that steel mask fixed over his face, showing nothing but the glowing circles of his eyes as he first surveys the bones Koujiro seems to be interested in, then the journal Lezard digs out, and then finally the dead body discovered by his noxines, and then displayed more thoroughly by Rex's holoprojector. He stops long enough to listen to Vegeta, before speaking up himself. "The console may have been destroyed by an energy blast, but some of this battle damage was not. I doubt Madam Serori's forces would go through the trouble of deliberately destroying decrepit old data terminals when they had better things to do. It seems as if the battle originated in that room-" He gestures to the one with the shattered tank, from which the bullets seem to have originated "-progressed out to here, and then retreated into the vault, where someone was unfortunate enough to have their hand in the way when it closed."

    He tunes into the radio for a moment. "It also seems likely that this was the work of this world's androids. Unfortunate, seeing as it seems the Red Ribbon Army may have been storing the dragonball here deliberately. I doubt the automated defenses here will be in much of a condition to put up more than a token resistance, but this confirms that something powerful went through here very recently. I'll defer to your judgement as to where we should go next."

Metal Man (11) has posed:
Metal Man pauses for a moment to see a dead Confederate soldier? He pauses for a moment checks for any obvious signs of traps and is going to try and grab any DOG tag or equiv there of to ID them and then run a check to see where they went missing, where they were last deployed which could be useful information. He looks abotu the area and he wonders.

"We got a corpse of one of our own in here from the looks of it."

Woodman meanwhile fans out to search the room for more clues.

Serori (37) has posed:
The vessel is crewed. Rather than rely on their own eyeballs to keep the scene secured -- at least, not on their eyeballs alone -- the men aboard are tracking anything unusual via the ship's sensors. So it is that despite Ryuko's sneaky ways, she's still /noticed/. Sort of.

"Movement," one of the crewmen confirms. Both soldiers lean over the panels together to look for a repeat blip. Nothing shows up. "False alarm, you think? Weather could be screwing things up."

The other guy shrugs; then, another blip as Ryuko slips inside the bunker's door and vanishes from view. Again, they're puzzled, but since nothing is visually confirmed, they're willing to let it go. Oh, but these guys aren't stupid. They know better than to let an anomaly go unreported.

Serori cocks her head in response to her radio coming alive. "Ah. Some movement outside, maybe. Something might be coming in behind us..." She turns the other way to frown back at the security door Nox opened. "Or someone. Or it's nothing but an error. Keep alert, in any case."

Ryuko's going to find nothing waiting for her on the first level but a poorly-lit spiral staircase leading down. Dim voices will echo up from below!

Lezard Valeth has posed:
"Then it seems that the research here bore interesting fruit." Lezard responds, tucking away the journal that he found within his cloak. He looks to the others once more and moves to join them. He will investigate into this when he's not on someone else's valuable time.

"Then perhaps the being might be in possession of the Dragon Ball themselves, if it is true." He comments, saying what they're all thinking. He adjusts his glasses when it is mentioned there is some movement outside. "It could not be the Union, surely... They would not have any idea that we are here. Nevertheless, I agree."

He turns, watching the path out while the others work to open the vault.

Dracula Vlad Tepes (83) has posed:
    This is all painting a pretty grim picture. Dracula frowns in thought as the situation is revealed and detailed, piecing together what likely happened here. Experiments gone wrong, ruining the strike team the came to retrieve the dragonball, likely still hanging around here somewhere. A nod is given as Nox analyzes things. "Yes, that sounds about right. Now it seems our two questions are the location of the dragonball after all this and the location of the entity that caused the team's death."

    The news of movement outside draws his attention quickly. His gaze shifts back to the security door, where he leers for some time in attentive watch. "...troublesome," he mutters, though he stays where he is for now. He may be powerful, but he's not going to go rushing in against an enemy he doesn't know much about, especially if they can simply avoid it and get out with what they came here for.

Vegeta (663) has posed:
"Hmph..." Vegeta looks back in the direction that they came from. He's not helping with the science, and he's not exactly an investigator. He's more like one of those backseat drivers, really. "Not simply blowing up the general vacinity of the anomaly. I suppose that's one way to handle it."

Nox (546) has posed:
    Nox hears Serori request the vault door opened over the radio, and then her warning of somebody coming in from behind. Obliging the former, he floats over to the main vault door and places a hand against the metal, sending a faint wave of blue light rippling over its surface, before it quite abruptly opens, or rather, simply /is/ open; the Xelor warping a short distance backwards so as not to be hit by the door. As to the latter, he dispatches his small group of noxines back the way they had come, getting them to attach themselves to the ceiling at various blind corners and sharp angles as a form of early warning system. "If the android was successfully repulsed, it may have gone outside and then come back in upon seeing us land."

Genghis Rex (114) has posed:
Genghis Rex draws his sidearm, eyeing Nox, his tail lashes behind him as he flips the safety off his weapon "OR ... it COULD be waiting for us inside the vault ..."

Fake Avenger (662) has posed:
     "I certainly hope so," Kojirou replies seriously as he moves up to the door, the bone swinging down in his hand. He looks frighteningly relaxed. He certainly doesn't look like someone about to enter a battle, and people proficient with martial arts and swordsmanship might notice that Kojirou is explicitly lacking in 'a stance' of any visible nature. He looks like he's quite open to attack.

     Besides the fact that he's wielding a cyborg's bone as a makeshift sword, of course. "It would be a wonderful surprise."

Serori (37) has posed:
Vegeta won't be a backseat driver for long.

The vault door is slow to open, to Nox's understanding. Its mechanisms are old and damaged by disuse, and the door itself is very heavy. Looking back to yesterday, he'll watch as a sliver of darkness gradually expands into a full circle of pitch black shadows so impenetrable it looks almost like someone's taken a big ol' cookie-cutter and taken up a slice of reality.

To everyone else's eyes, a deep hole of /nothing/ has suddenly opened up in the wall where the vault door used to be.

"Very impressive," Serori murmurs. "So, let's -- "

A soft gasp cuts her words short, and her eyes widen an apprehensive degree. As her nerves bristle and her instincts cry alarm, her voice lowers to a tight, controlled whisper. "Do you hear that?"

The hum of a generator. The stirring of stale air drawn out by the laboratory's fresher atmosphere. Though the generator might be a surprise, the sound of it in operation is not unusual. That can't be what's put Serori on edge, is it?

The sound comes again.

A footstep.

The darkness in the wall is eradicated by a brilliant flash as a ki burst comes charging into the laboratory. Behind it, something humanoid gives chase, no more than a blurring silhouette half-seen in the sudden, blinding brilliance. Anyone immediately near the vault door is in this thing's path.

Genghis Rex (114) has posed:
Even though he is not immediately in front of the vault door, the sudden burst of light overloads his glasses and he howls as he's momentarily blinded. He rips the glasses from his face and hurls them in a random direction. At the same time he fires 3 blind shots into the hole, or at least where he thinks the hole might have been, while clutching at his eyes.

"Wretched mammal trap! AHH! I CANNOT SEE!"

Dracula Vlad Tepes (83) has posed:
    Dracula takes some time before he feels comfortable enough to turn his attention away from the way they came and instead look toward the vault door, but his keen senses help him in the moment that follows. For one thing, he's not near the door, and for another, Serori isn't the only one to hear that noise.

    The Vampire Lord reacts immediately. The flare of light from the ki blast isn't so dazing to him, but his eyesight still suffers; fortunately, he's able to remember the position that blast came from only a moment before. His arm, already thrust toward the door as the shot was being fired, serves as an aim for his immediate counter: a trio of orbs formed from shadow and hellfire, roiling together in barely-contained chaos to slam into the rushing figure as it bursts forth from the darkness.

    He's still not sure /what/ it is, but that's a secondary concern to making sure his fellow Confederates don't suffer the same fate the strike team did.

Fake Avenger (662) has posed:
     It is in fact a wonderful surprise.

     Though he's blinded by the flash of light in the sudden darkness, Kojirou sidesteps the attack mere fractions of a second before it comes pouring out, once again demonstrating that the man lives for nothing but violence and war. He'd probably make a good Saiyan, except for the part where he's so damned calm and collected about everything. The attack grazes by him narrowly as Kojirou abandons his visual senses - currently seared into uselessness - and moves solely on instinct. He can feel the blast tearing at his kimono, ripping off shreds of the ancient purple thing to reveal the bizarre black scars beneath. He can feel it tear off his hakama with pure force, blasting past him in an instant.

     He liked those. Worse, that's opened his wound again. Kojirou rips off his ribbon in an instant, letting his long blue hair fall down his back like a waterfall as he ties it in the span of a second. He can't allow that blood to pour out of him.

     As the thing comes charging forward, he takes another step back. This time, his sleeve is caught by the thing's path and speed, tugging on him gently. For anyone else, it might've taken them off-balance.

     Kojirou hasn't actually been off-balance in centuries. He flows with the strike immediately, using the motion of the attack to fuel his own spin. The bone flows around with a surprising speed, as if it were a living being on its own, aiming to clock the humanoid figure in the back of the head. Kojirou is not a strong Servant, but even a weak Servant is vastly stronger than a person - and more importantly, with the weight of the weapon, the centrifugal force from the opponent's own speed, and Kojirou's swiftness, he really doesn't need to be. The strike is deadly enough all on its own. He swings around with the bone, planting his foot back on the ground to steady himself as the swing completes.

     The bone dangles carelessly at his side. But then, Kojirou isn't the sort of person to need stances, apparently.

Lezard Valeth has posed:
The ambush comes... From the opposite direction Lezard was looking. At the sound of the ki burst, Lezard reflexively turns and throws himself to one side, hitting the cluttered ground in a tumble with a yell. He comes up on one knee, with a bit of garbage stuck to him from the floor. It's not the most dignified position but it's better than being Instant Hell Murdered by the sudden appearance of the Android. "Where are they?" Lezard calls. He was not prepared for this, but give him a moment...

Metal Man (11) has posed:
Metal Man was about to find something to cover the body of the dead confederate soldier, but that's out the window as something else is comming at this point Metal Man however uis now booting up his motion trackers hoping to find it and Wood Man moves in to cover Rex whom is disabled at the moment.

"Looks like things just got hot."

blades are summoned from storage and he's ready as he's going to be.

"Trying to track them now, Lezard!"

Vegeta (663) has posed:
Vegeta tosses his cloak off, then begins to charge blue energy in both hands. "I'll wait for your order before I start blowing up whatever the hell that is!" he shouts over at Serori, at least being cooperative about his rank! But then everyone is jumping around and it he just shrugs his shoulders. "Screw it."

He tosses both energy balls where the ki blast came from, both exploding like two ridiculous grenades if they come into contact with anything.

Nox (546) has posed:
    The metallic shutters built into Nox's mask close almost all the way over the 'eyes' as the ki blast comes flying at him; more of a reflex than anything as the Xelor mainly relies on sensing the energy of attacks rather than visually tracking them. With all the other Confederates getting out of the way, he sees no reason to stay and stop the charge, and so he casually fizzles out of existence a fraction of a second before the blast would hit him, instead passing through a flutter of blue static before likely carrying on to blow the previous security door away completely.

    Precisely jumping to the opposite side of the onrushing figure as Kojirou takes, and a well calculated distance back so that Dracula and Vegeta won't catch him in the blast radius, Nox extends one arm with an audible mechanical clack, timing a percussive pulse of invisible energy through the space the charging figure is just about to run through. Since he doesn't know the nature of his opponent, he skips trying to slow them down and instead opts instead to let relativity to take care of things; temporally dilating the armosphere directly in its path so that it takes a disproportionate amount of energy to move through it at any decent speed.

Genghis Rex (114) has posed:
Rex shakes his head, trying to clear his vision. When the blurry outline of a figure appears in front of him, he reacts like any wounded predator would act. He lashes out with his free claw.

Woodman suddenly finds a massive red claw wrapped around his neck, and it's started to tighten, "I'll teach you to blind ME, fool! I'll pop your wretched head off!"

Serori (37) has posed:
Serori's got two instincts about this -- protect her people, and protect the Dragon Radar.

As soon as the flash appears in the vault doorway, she thrusts both her hands forward and lets loose wild energy of her own, but rather than channeling it into a devastating weapon, she forms a defensive barrier. The energy blast fired by the group's assailant surges through the room almost unchecked. By the time it skims her barrier, Serori's able to withstand the ensuing force, though her barrier drops soon afterward, its endurance quickly sapped.

Standing in a ready half-crouch, she tries to make sense of the chaos, and tries to understand what exactly they are up against. The blinding effect from the ki blast makes it harder for her to track her opponent, a task made even more difficult by her inability to sense him. Or her. Whatever it is.

'Whatever it is' is definitely more IT than WHO. Hellfire and shadow erupts around the half-seen blur and trails from its lean figure as it continues to charge forward despite the devastating impact. Kojirou's improvised weapon connects with the back of its head with a painful-sounding BONG, but it still doesn't slow, making a bee-line for the door. Vegeta's energy balls streak toward it next, and these at least slow the figure down enough for it to be /glimpsed/, but only for so long as it takes for the energy balls to be slapped aside like child's toys.

The glimpse reveals a lean, masculine form. Scorched metal forms half its visible body, and blistering human flesh the rest. Its features can't possibly be described in the instant they're seen, but c'mon, we've ALL seen Terminator by now.

It's got a skull. It has eyes, sort of. It's smirking. It was probably human at one time, but now it's...well. Somewhere in-between man and machine.

The figure continues to make for the exit, but finds itself strangely...bogged down. Forces slow it which it can't understand, and it comes to a stop while its remaining brain cells and robotic programming work together to assess the situation.

Long orange strands of hair stream across its half-ruined face in a messy pattern. Neither emotion nor reason can be found in its blank, lifeless expression.

Its cold calculations complete, the thing -- this android -- straightens up. A yellow-orange flash erupts into a flickering aura around its body, and like a bomb going off, sends papers and shrapnel and debris flying in all directions around it. Then, it seems to blink from view, moving too quick to be seen as it blurs from target to target to attempt a series of deadly attacks.

It tries to drive its fist through Dracula's chest; then, it attempts to disarm Kojirou, almost literally. Its third strike is aimed at Lezard, whose kneeling position could leave him vulnerable to the android's sharp but crushing kick in the ribs. As it whirls from that position, it tries to pin Vegeta down beneath a rapidfire, machine-gun-like emission of ki bursts, which in turn sweep the room to fly at Serori, Metal Man, Wood Man, and Rex. Nox is focused on last of all, with the android drawing back its hands to concentrate a longer-lasting and more dangerous explosive beam cannon at the timesmith's location.

Vegeta (663) has posed:
"Tch, I've had enough androids for one lifetime..." Vegeta says right before rapid ki starts firing into his back, sending him rolling across the floor before he begins attempting to meet those blasts with his own. "Damn..."

He looks around, trying to take note of the fact that this area is full of people, and also very collapsable. That's when instead of holding his hands out, he holds both index fingers toward the android, and starts firing thin, highly concentrated beams of ki at the thing, trying to blast holes into it. "I can do it too, oil breath!"

Fake Avenger (662) has posed:
     Ah. A metal man.

     Not to be confused with Metal Man.

     Though he's still blinded, Kojirou's reaction time is unbelievable. As the thing attempts to disarm him, three things occur almost simultaneously. The first is that Kojirou tosses the bone from his right hand to his left, a casual over-handed toss that looks stunningly graceful. He snags the bone in his left hand as his right arm is...well...

     /Nearly severed/.

     The Heroic Spirit doesn't even pause. His arm falls towards the floor, dangling by a thread from his arm grotesquely. with his own teeth, he tears the cloth of his hakama; he drops the bone for less than an instant, giving it no time to fall as he ties the remains of his hakama into a stopgap to prevent his viscuous, muddy black blood from spilling.

     That is the second thing.

     The third thing that happens defies all logic, all sense, all understanding, because it happens as Kojirou is losing his arm. No, in fact, it happens *because* Kojirou lost his arm. Indeed, if anyone is paying attention, it becomes painfully obvious that Kojirou /sacrificed/ the use of his right arm to hold the android for a mere split second. And in that split second, Kojirou turns the bone into a work of art.

     Sasaki Kojirou is a master of the art of the sword. No, he is someone beyond a 'master'. A 'master' is someone who understands all aspects of something, eminently skilled and capable of teaching others. Kojirou has never been a 'master'.

     For Kojirou, the art of the blade and himself are one. They are indistinguishable. It is for this reason that Kojirou is willing to sacrifice the use of his arm. It is for this reason that Kojirou takes a wound that frankly won't bother him at all, that he juggles the makeshift weapon to his free hand and ties the wound off to prevent himself from breathing in the same space without fear.

     There is no distinction between the entity of 'Sasaki Kojirou' and the concept of 'swordsmanship'. They are one.

     He proves it. As he leans into the attack and his arm is sliced into uselessness, the bone drives forward. It drives forward no less than eight times in the span of a heartbeat - though not eight simultaneous times - each striking for a vital point on the android. Head. Eyes. Jaw. Neck. Heart. Chest cavity. Crotch. Knees. Within the span of an instant, Kojirou Sasaki makes art with his makeshift weapon, exploiting the weight of the blade, the typical human defense reactions, his own speed, and the extra instant bought to him by his wound to deliver crippling, brutal strikes.

     He does not adopt a blocking pose. He does not need one. He just presses the attack.

Lezard Valeth has posed:
Lezard finds himself at the incoming side of an angry Android.

In retrospect, this is probably not the best idea for a long and happy life. The Android smashes into Lezard amidst an explosion of bone fragments. Lezard emits some painful cracking himself as he is thrown across the room, impacting the wall painfully. "ARGH!" He yells, hitting the floor once more as a hulking mass of fused bone crumbles near Lezard's former position, revealing that he had summoned up a wall in order to absorb the blow moments before impact.

At least it didn't put a hole through him.

"Gggh... A worthy foe. In that case, I will have to ensure that I do not underestimate you further." He gestures with the sceptre, unleashing a series of burning trails in the air that curve and home in on the android. "FIRE LANCE!" He calls, attempting to start bombarding the Android and harry it while he prepares something more... permanent.

Dracula Vlad Tepes (83) has posed:
    That assault wasn't nearly as effective as it could have been. Whatever this is, it's a particularly durable beast. Fortunately, that's something he can work with.

    At least he can in circumstances where collateral damage isn't so much of an issue. Here his chaotic powers need to be focused, precise. That...will complicate things.

    He has a moment to regard the android in its brief pause, but rather than escape, it quickly returns to the offensive. Dracula is a towering man, and certainly durable thanks to his vampiric nature, but so too is this android /powerful/. The moment he realizes that it's in front of him and about to strike, he moves...but not quite enough, and not quite in time.

    That fist strikes his chest, but off to the left. Cloth, flesh, and bone are struck through, the impact shattering into his body and blasting out a spray of blood. Dracula's teeth grit against a growl of pain as the strike sends him stumbling back a couple of paces, but he's quick to regain his footing. The wound bleeds freely, but he doesn't pay much attention to it; what's more important is dealing with this /thing/ before it gets out. Or, worse, hits the others even more severely.

    The android has to stop eventually, and when it does, Dracula casts his arm out again; the one not pressing against his gaping wound, at least. What erupts beneath the android a moment later isn't fire or shadow, but a jagged, purple crystal that grows rapidly out of the floor, branching and stretching to not only impale the android from beneath, but also to tangle it inside and outside in its sharp, brittle branches.

Metal Man (11) has posed:
Wood Man gets attacked and flails calling out

"WE ARE ALLIES HANDS OFF!"

He's not about to strike someone that hig up /yet/ Well compared to him. MEtal Man right now is having a bit of a time of it. Metal stars throwing blades at the incomming targets, the material making them up are actually quite energy reitant given it's the same stuff that metool helments and Sniper Joe shields are made from.

Genghis Rex (114) has posed:
As the disoriented Rex leans forward to literally bite Woodman's head off, one of the rapidfire ki blasts strikes him in the face. Someone who doesn't like the Tyrant King might find this particularly funny, but even they might cringe a little as teeth and blood spray from his mouth as he snaps backwards and slams against the wall.
Happily, he did let Woodman go before eating his head though.

Rex claws his way away from the battle, clutching at his face. His vision clears and he rises up, towering over Woodman, flashing him a look of "Oh, I see he got you too", then he roars a primal ear splitting challenge at the Android, sending bits of teeth and an unintentional mist of blood from his battered maw.

Nox (546) has posed:
    The sight of the enemy is more than enough to confirm it as an android (or is it a cyborg?), especially as it collides head on with the bubble of temporal stagnation. Assuming the enemy pinned, Nox moves straight on to a new spell, keeping his arm casually and precisely levelled at the android as his palm crackles with arcs of arcane energy and the room fills with the brief, rising whine of high-powered machinery. A moment after, he launches one of his folded spatial anomalies from his hand, being one of his attack spells with the most focused output; chosen so as not to catch anyone in the way. The scant light passing through the two dimensional plane of hyper compressed space refracts into a dimly glowing arc that slices through the floor, the intervening tables, and then the opposite wall as the android seems to disappear from view.

    Nox is taken completely by surprise by the insane speed of the successive train of blows, teleporting a handful of times to try and keep the android in his sights, but quickly losing him due to his superior speed. The Xelor takes the beam straight to the chest, flying across the room and slamming into the vault door hard enough to make a humanoid dent in the metal, falling to the floor where he catches himself on his hands and knees. A hit like that to his already damaged body is more than he's willing to put up with tonight, and so he skips the preliminary spells and goes straight for something more substantial. Rising off the floor again, he claps both his hands together with a spark of cerulean electricity, then draws them apart just enough that the coruscating bolts flicker between them. The current distorts in the middle, swirling into a tightly compressed sphere, as though captured in the gravity well of a singularity. Finally, jabbing one hand foward, the sphere launches into the center of the room, stops, and then abruptly implodes. Nox has already done enough mental calculations that all of the Confederates have been isolated from the effect, debris, remains, equipment, consoles, tables, and hopefully the android, are all sucked into the spatial rift now devouring the room, whereupon the more mundane items are crushed into a fine powder.

Serori (37) has posed:
Struck by multiple ki blasts, Serori's sent flying. Her body crashes into multiple computer terminals and a few tables, before it comes to a crashing halt against the reinforced glass window. Somehow, her force is spent enough by then that she doesn't break /through/ the glass, though she does leave a cracking crater in its surface.

Standing up from the attack -- smoke rising from her parka -- Serori rolls her shoulder and winces, then lets out a snarling curse, and responds by complementing Vegeta's counter-attack. As he fires those thin ki beams at the android, she sends her own low-powered orbs careening toward it, using miniature shockwaves to corral the android into Vegeta's line of fire.

The android's attack speed is crippled by Kojirou's stunning expertise. Though its flesh and bones are reinforced by the best technology Doctor Gero could pioneer, the unit is older, ill-used, and lacking the refinement found in Seventeen and Eighteen. So it is that Kojirou's instantaneous assault ends up dislocating the android's hip, and punching a hole clean through its ribcage to reveal a rather hollow interior lit by a strange fiery glow. The other strikes leave its metallic jaw hanging by a single pin. Somehow, between the room's shadows and the android's incompleteness, this only ends up making it look more horrifying.

Whatever's making that glow doesn't look to be electronic, but the hue does match the energy still blazing around the android's form.

Its crippling is probably what prevents the android from delivering a more painful strike to Valeth. Bone fragments leftover from the necromancer's barrier pierce its human material throughout, giving half its face an almost spiny appearance. It keeps this look as it continues its assault -- and doesn't even flinch as Nox's anomaly clips its right arm and crushes its hand.

Vegeta's energy beams, coupled with Serori's controlled attacks, drive the android back toward the center of the room. Surrounded on all sides, the creation nevertheless puts up a valiant and effective fight. Some of Vegeta's energy beams are countered by the android's own orbs, resulting in big explosions which rock the entire lab. One of the beams takes the android right through the chest, though -- right where its heart should be.

It keeps moving.

Then, fire and crystal swirl together to transform the middle of the room into a jagged-edged storm; the android is caught in the midst of it. Valeth's lances shoot explode around the android in searing bursts, causing bloody boils to burst along its skin, and melting the last of its jaw right off. More of its chest cavity is revealed as crystalline thorns rip it to shreds. The android's legs are simultaneously cooked and impaled, and as the smoke clears, it's left hanging in the air.

Its left eye socket is completely exposed. It seethes with the same orange light shining through the gaping holes in its chest. There, surrounded by shards of purple crystal and broken metal bones, a five-starred Dragon Ball flickers as it gives power to this monstrosity.

In response to Rex's challenge, the tattered android turns its head. It lifts its remaining hand, cocks its fingers into a mockery of a gun, and begins to collect energy at its fingertip.

The attack meant for the BOSSASAUR is instead turned on the rift in an act of desperation. The android is ripped free of its crystalline prison, sucked upward toward the rift, and though it strains with all its remaining strength, it looks like it's going to be overwhelmed.

With another blinding flash, the android fires its high-powered attack right into the rift, not caring at all if the lab is brought down with it.

Fake Avenger (662) has posed:
     The android survives. Kojirou doesn't blame the tool - he blames his unfamiliarity with the subject. The android was clearly more capable of surviving such heavy blows than a normal human being. That was good! That meant it was probably worth his sword.

     The rest of the Confederates kill the idea of a duel pretty dead. There's little Kojirou can gain from a gang-fight; it's unseemly, it's uninteresting, and there are more important ways he can help the Confederates. Like, for example, that energy blast.

     Kojirou moves with inhuman speed into the path of the blast. He doesn't know what the portal is capable of, but he imagines - with his limited understanding of Magecraft, and his general exposure to explosives and lasers in the Land of Steel - that it is probably a bad thing. So it is that he throws himself in the middle of the attack without a care in the world.

     The final remnants of his kimono are torn apart in an instant. There's a splattering of bizarre black gore, mudlike and viscous, which fades away in a heartbeat. It doesn't smell like blood. Then, there's nothing.

     As the flare of the light dies down, Sasaki Kojirou stands, the upper half of his clothes blown away. More pressing, however, is the fact that his stomach is apparently - and quite literally - opened.

     Or, rather, the entire front of his torso, and the back of his torso, are quite cleanly blown apart. One can see inside him something that looks an awful lot like a rib cage, lungs...and no heart. Similarly, the blood that drips inside his body is that same muddy, viscuous thing.

     Kojirou hurls the heavy bone at the thing's head and taps one of his ribs. He sighs again, a grimace crossing his face.

     Well, he might as well use it. With a wince of pain, Kojirou rips his uppermost rib out of its socket and spins it into his hand like a katana.

     "I am simply uncomfortable," Kojirou observes calmly, though there's pain underneath his voice, "Without a sword in my hand, even if it's makeshift."

Metal Man (11) has posed:
Okay Wood Man's situation improves as he not eten and he's well now. Organic gore covers Wood Man a bit and he's not unhappy he didn't lose his head. He does however gets himnself situated.

Metal Man turns his attention now to the last anfroid and he starst trying to throw baldes at them to stop the attack but it doesn't seem to be much.

"Stop it!"

Then Fake Avenger well moves to tank it with his body and he just watches tjhe man get cutted by the blast. He pauses for a moment staring at what the guy just did. Okay he's hardcore as hell.

Nox (546) has posed:
    Such is the case with these multiversal opponents. You can never predict how much they know, or when they'll attempt to do something patently suicidal. Nox is content to watch the rest of the Confederates rip their target to pieces in retribution, knowing full well that as soon as it loses enough function to cease to be able to fight back, it'll be drawn into the rift and pulverized. What he hadn't expected is that the loose cannon of a cyborg would actually attempt to shoot it at point blank. A powerful enough ki-blast would probably destabilize it, and the resulting decompression of space would blow the whole room out at the seams, possibly causing the bunker to collapse on top of them. That was something that Nox could deal with, but he had no idea if he could say the same about every other person in the room.

    Before he can even act to prevent it however, Kojirou has done something perhaps even more, or at least only slightly less, suicidal; gorily revealing the peculiarities of his internal physiology for everyone to see. Nox would have questions for him at any other time, but at the moment, the android threat is more pressing. With a few flicks of his hand, he maneuvers the gravitational anomaly through the air, guiding it until it is directly above the enemy transfixed on Dracula's spikes. As he clutches his fingers into a fist, the rift explodes outwards in a tightly controlled ring; decompressing in two dimensions rather than all three, in such a way that the shear force rips through the walls, ceiling, floor, and probably the android, without catching anyone else in the way. Assuming he has a clear view of the dragonball after cutting the android open, Nox will attempt to remove it using standard, high powered telekinesis.

Genghis Rex (114) has posed:
Rex growls, "I've had about enough of this nonsense! Have a pleasant time in oblivion, you mechanical menace!"

Rex aims his multi-blaster at the Android and squeezes off pair fo shots at the most central mass of the Android that still exists!

Dracula Vlad Tepes (83) has posed:
    Things suddenly become even /more/ complicated.

    As if it weren't bad enough that the environment was an issue, now the /interior/ of the opponent is at risk, too. This sort of thing is the opposite of Dracula's intended powerset. He isn't /powerless/, however, and while not nearly as refined or graceful as his other methods, he still has a few methods of precision to use.

    Kojirou has the rift protected, and Nox is working to remove the dragonball. The next issue is taking out the android in general, a task which Dracula is quick to try and address. For a moment, his body flickers away, replaced by a swarm of bats that rushes across to where the android is impaled. His form reconstitutes at that same spot, and with hardly another moment, his hands take the android's head in a vice-like grip.

    It's simple, though brutal; another aspect of vampiric nature, it seems. Fangs bared and teeth clenched against a deep-seated growl, Dracula simply attempts to twist and rip the android's head off in his hands. His wound spurts blood, and the effort strains his strength, but neither of those seem to deter him; unless he's outright pulled, knocked, or blasted away, he's going to focus all his power on that graceless coup-de-grace.

Lezard Valeth has posed:
Lezard finds himself unmolested for the moment thanks to the virtue of combined firepower. He makes a mental note to bring his own bodyguards next time regardless.

The magic cycles through him, and he prepares to engage in a cataclysmic strike of his own. A magic circle begins to form beneath him...

And then he throws up an arm, the circle shifting as he sees the light flash towards the rift. LEzard fades out and vanishes...

And then reappears elsewhere in the room. He looks around, surprised to see Kojirou with a new hole and the general area somehow unexploded.

"That will be quite enough!" He calls out towards the Android. He forms a circular ring of luminescent spheres, spinning around his sceptre. "PRISMATIC MISSILE!"

He levels the sceptre, and an array of sizzling beams fire towards the Android, adding his own point to the convoluted concentration of calamitous crushing force.

Serori (37) has posed:
If the android could register surprise, it probably would; after all, what Kojirou just did should have been impossible.

It should have been fatal.

The rift continues to draw in various items (including one or two of Metal Man's blades), but in the backwash of the terrible explosion which leaves Kojirou gutted, the android's propelled out of its pull. The fact that Nox reacts at once to contain the risk also saves the android from the rift's compression, but not entirely in the way it might like -- in Nox's hands, the rift transforms, and becomes a sharp-edged tool for destruction. The android's left arm is severed clean off its torso by the passing ring. Its body staggers back, still somewhat controlled.

Somewhat. Two of Metal Man's blades take it in the back, and drive it down to its crumpling, lifeless knees.

The lab's in ruins. The ceiling is badly-cracked, and by now the whole bunker is kind of groaning. Dust sifts down from the ceiling at every blast and impact, and the cracks spread until whole ceiling tiles are falling like rain.

The Dragon Ball resists Nox's telekinetic pull. It seems to be latched into place by some kind of...mechanism? Whatever system is installed to feed off the Dragon Ball's innate divine power is also keeping it firmly stuck inside the android's chest. Fortunately, Rex is a Damn Fine Shot (and a damn fine dinosaur), and one of his blaster's beams hits the mechanism with surgical precision, sending the Dragon Ball bouncing right out into Nox's loving mental embrace.

Serori is about to move into action to secure the Dragon Ball by finishing off the android, but Dracula beats her to it. His form coalescing right in her path, she almost can't see the beautiful results of his actions. You know how you can kinda flick off a dandelion's head using your thumb? Yeah, that's pretty much what happens, but it's way more gooey and chunky. (It probably looks way more awesome than this, but I'm getting tired, so this is the description you get.)

Valeth's manifestation is pretty much the finishing blow. As Dracula casts away the android's twitching, sparking body -- leaving himself with one fucked-looking paperweight of a half-a-head -- Valeth's magic comes crashing down onto it, pulverizing and incinerating and evaporating its remains into something which can't even be described as 'a smoking ruin'.

There's enough left for Vegeta to spit on, if he wants to do that.

In the immediate aftermath, Serori looks anxiously around the room, then to Nox. "What's our status? The Dragon Ball...?"

Nox (546) has posed:
    "Adequate for the time being, but we really should leave before a crucial support gives out." Nox says, looking upwards towards the steadily cracking ceiling. The dragonball levitates over to him at an unhurried pace, coming to rest under his arm. "Many of us are injured, but not life-threateningly so. First aid, if required, can be done outside, or back at the ship." Raising one hand over his head, Nox fires off one last pulse of energy; washing through the ceiling and up into the floor above. The dust and gravel sifting through the cracks suddenly slows to a crawl, falling as if sinking through water rather than air. "That should hold anything from collapsing for a while. I will meet you at the door, lady and gentlemen." Taking a brief bow, Nox warps out of the room and back towards his original position at the front door of the bunker, politely waiting for the rest of the crew to catch up with him. It makes sense to get the dragonball to a safe location as early as possible.

Fake Avenger (662) has posed:
     As a matter of fact, it *was* fatal. Kojirou most certainly took a fatal wound. He is also most clearly not regenerating - neither his little wound on his arm nor his big gaping missing body parts are slowly pulling themselves back together. When the android is finally dead, Kojirou considers it for a long moment, watching it evaporate into nothingness. Then he shoves his rib back into his ribcage with a grimace of pain and sets about cleaning up any of the black splatters of mud that didn't evaporate after leaving his body with the remains of his hakama. It's slow going, since he has to lean on Monohoshi Zao to walk, but that's alright, he's been in worse situations.

     The black scars along his body wriggle and writhe into new formations. For a moment, it seems as if some of those scars hover over general form his chest used to have, writhing in the air like terrible black serpents. Then they vanish. Or maybe they were never there, and it was just a trick of the light.

     Once Kojirou is satisfied and the Dragonball is retrieved, he lets out a quiet sigh. "That opponent was probably very powerful," he admits quietly. He would've liked to duel it, but...well...

     Well, circumstances sometimes prevented people from getting what they wanted.

     Kojirou starts making his way up the stairs on Monohoshi Zao. If the support's going to give out...well, he'd rather not waste time and have to retrieve his stupid sword.

Vegeta (663) has posed:
"Well, that was one Dragon Ball. But if I know anything about history, that was probably the easiest one." Vegeta reaches over to place a firm hand on Serori's shoulder, then he starts to walk for the exit, after picking up his discarded cloak. He makes a pointed effort to directly step on what's left of the android. "Keep it up."

Dracula Vlad Tepes (83) has posed:
    With that bloody and messy finish out of the way, Dracula is able to relax his posture, still gripping the android's head in his hands. He takes a moment to turn it over in his grasp, then, with a curl of his lip and a mildly annoyed 'tch', he simply tosses it over his shoulder to land on the floor. "And that was good a good robe, too," he mutters, looking at the blasted, bloody hole still in his chest. Yep, there's some more blood from it, still staining his robe. That's going to take forever to get out.

    "Well done, all of you," he remarks, once he's certain everyone else is fine. Or, at least, well enough to get out. "I think that went excellently, all things considered."

    He smiles politely, but one hand has to go back to cover the hole in his chest. That one's going to take some recovery time. Once people start filing out, Dracula follows, trailing behind to ensure that the rest of the Confederates manage to get out safely and without any further harm.

Serori (37) has posed:
Serori isn't the last to leave, but she isn't the first to go, either. Her team is important to her, especially given who comprises it tonight. She's attentive to Kojirou's need for any aid, and of Valeth's, and the Field Marshal's; to that last, she murmurs in appreciation. "You were impressive, hm? Really flexing those muscles." She emphasizes the sentiment by showing off her left bicep. Unfortunately, she's in a parka, so the effect is diminished.

Energized by her victory, she prowls after Vegeta, catching up so she's right behind and then beside him in leaving the bunker.

Genghis Rex (114) has posed:
Genghis Rex gets on the horn and begins organizing the review of the lab. He has all of the Tyrannos come. Brachio to keep the place from falling in on their heads, Styraco and Plesio for data extraction, Terrible Dactyl for Gopher duties and Quackpot for communications review. IN the meantime, the Tyranno leader headsoutside and breaks off an icicle from the entrance and holds it against his swollen mouth.

Metal Man (11) has posed:
Metal Man lowers his arms and moves to recover one of his suriving blades, no need to leave them laying about for someone to weapon copy, because seriously, that's never a good idea to let someone get it. He make s anote to look over the handy work he helped as they did bring down the androids and he smirks. Teamwork it's a hell of a thing he muses, and he starts pondering new anti rock tactice.

"Everyone okay?"

He also stares at Fake Avenger, ya he's not even going to ask given what chain of worlds he is from he's going to accept he can do that.

Lezard Valeth has posed:
@emit And so the android falls and the Dragon Ball is acquired. Lezard looks satisfied with the result, though he stares at the remains for a short time in contemplation. "I concur, this is no longer a safe place to be. I will also meet you at the entrance. Thank you, everyone. This trip has been quite enlightening." With a slowly-forming circle, Lezard vanishes, fading away.

He reappears outside, near Nox, grimacing at the shock of the frigid air once more. "I will have to prepare appropriately for the next steps in this plan." He comments to Nox. "Sheer power will not solve /all/ of our needs..."