3548/To Cut Off A Lizard's Tail

To Cut Off A Lizard's Tail
Date of Scene:	19 December 2015
Location:	Dun Realtai
Synopsis:	Yari's past comes back to haunt her.
Cast of Characters:	516, 530, Sir Gawain, 560, 691, Sanary Rondel

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Yari Takane (691) has posed:
It's near to midnight, and Dun Realtai is quiet and peaceful. Nary a servant of the castle, nor revelers at the local tavern remain in the village, all nice and comfy in their beds. One of the many semi-permanent residents of the village is still awake, however. Yari Takane took a shot through the tail on her last mission, and though medical did a good job, there's an annoying phantom pain that like most of the ones she's gathered through the years, is eased by the nice hot baths of the the village. She'd taken a good hour and a half to indulge, slipped on one of her kimonos without even a weapon on her person or armor to cover her.

To her, Dun Realtai is safety, friendship barring one or two, and a place where she can let her guard down. She slips through the castle's interior to the quarters she occasionally calls home, right next to that where her adoptive daughter has taken residence.

But something is odd this night, and Yari has been too blind to see it. Twin shadows have moved amongst the village at this late hour, flashes of horns and tail and silken clothing. It might be enough to spook a villager, maybe even get them to contact one of the Elites here. Yet it's not an unusual occurance: Yari herself fits the description and is the source of a ghost story or two through her stealthy ways.

Odd, that this particular story involves two of those ghosts.

The lizard-ninja pauses just outside her quarters, opening the door to Linh Takane's and she smiles as she spies the young girl sleeping soundly. Closing it gently, the former Centurion then opens her own door without a thought.

Almost immediately, there's a howl of pain and a mechanical sound of gears turning and metal objects in dozens clanging against stone walls and embedding in flesh. The sound of fire and water mix as those with magical senses can sense offensive spells, and the already dim light of the hallway grows dimmer as the inevitable result of fire and water slamming together fills much of the hallway in a dense fog! Sounds of struggle echo down the hallway, and onto the local radio.

Ferham (516) has posed:
     Ferham had been glad to fly out to spend sometime with her friends in the feds, especially Sanary. She just hoped the medic girl could hold her drink a little better than she had before. Of course, she had noticed that Yari had slipped out sometime into it, but figured she needed her space. After drinks though, Ferham would have been heading by Yari's place to talk to her when the /mysterious/ noises and commotion was heard inside one of the houses. This quickly drew her attention and the clattering of the femmebot's heeled boots could be heard, before she came to what she expected to be Yari's house. Trying the door, if locked, she'd attempt to wrench it off the hinges.

Garen (530) has posed:
    Garen had hitched a ride with Sanary with hopes to drop off the artifact they had acquired the night before. Why he kept it, even he didn't know, but he felt it best she have it. So, here he was, waiting for the doors to be opened. Then, he heard the clattering and commotion from Yari's house. He quickly drew one of his blasters, and checked on the sword he kept hidden in the back of his longcoat. He turns to keep Ferham covered while she works on getting the door open, or at least out of the way.

Sanary Rondel has posed:
     Like Yari, Sanary's taken a liking to Dun Realtai. Granted, it didn't have all of the same amenities that her living space in the Zaibatsu's headquarter had nor those of the Citadel, but the lack of technology and fresher air was something she enjoyed from time to time. Tonight is no different, of course, and the cleric's chosen this particular night to have a night out with Ferham and Garen! Friends, co-workers, food, and a small drink while to keep herself from being drunk for too long: Surely nothing could go wrong tonight.

     Well, until things start to go wrong. She jerks up slightly at the sound coming from her comms, a concerned and slightly slurred tone in her voice. "Yari...? What's wrong? Yari!" Gritting her teeth, she practically bolts towards the Au Ra's living quarters in the castle. She grabs a spear off one of the displays and a shield on the way, keeping pace with Ferham and Garen before taking position by the door.

     Just her luck to have come here without her usual weapons.

Emiya Shirou (560) has posed:
    Emiya Shirou's one of Dun Realtai's dedicated defenders. Not a loafer! So when a spooked villager came to the keep... well, they got lucky and caught him practicing archery against some hay bales. Odd thing to be doing at midnight, but he's had a lot on his mind recently.

    So he provided some assurances and set out on patrol. It was uneventful for quite a while. Aside from an unnerving sensation of something being 'wrong' he couldn't find anything but a glimpse at a shadow here or there!

    Well, his Servant may have other findings.

    It's when he's on the way back to the keep that he hears the scream. "NO way... I just left the castle!"

    Emiya Shirou bursts into the old keep in no time at all, cranking as much magical power as possible into his body for extra speed and agility. So he comes swooping into the hallways skidding over the floor, Kanshou and Bakuya already projected!

    "FIRE! WE'VE GOT A FIRE! MAYBE INTRUDERS!" He yells, hoping other keep inhabitants won't be caught unawares by this...

Sir Gawain has posed:
Sir Gawain does not usually patrol this late at night. Therefore, he has been in his room on the fourth floor, above Yari's room. Tonight, he is playing his Gameboy while lying in bed, trying to beat his Tetris score of 100. Until, atleast, he hears the cries for help and feels the tingle of magic in the air. Invasion!

Manifesting his armor and sword, Sir Gawain loudly dashes down the halls, slamming down the stairs towards Yari's room. He passes right by the Confederates as he approaches the door, motioning Ferham away. "Lady Rondel! Check on Linh, you'll be familiar to her! You two, stay to my back, cover me!"

Taking one step back, Sir Gawain then proceeds to slam forward, putting forth his Servant strength in an attempt to kick the door straight down. He'll immediately move into a defensive position afterwards, blade drawn and at ready.

Yari Takane (691) has posed:
Luckily it's easy enough for Ferham, Sanary with her newfound weaponry, and Garen to make their way towards the hall in the Castle where Yari typically resides. One idiot servant left a door lock, but Ferham easily gets the door open! Click! The trio are greeted with smoke filling the hallway that's lowering down into a fog. In the darkness and smoke a trio of shadows strike at each other, two of them focusing on a single target that seems to be inside of Yari's room. From the vague outlines, all are humanoid, but there's tails flailing murderously and even a moment or two of horns smashing into each other.

But Gawain and his Master arrive, and Gawain barrels quite physically into Yari's little quarters. The door that just tried to slam shut behind the intruders slams right down into the pair even as the smoke fades.

Inside of Yari's room, there's easily at least thirty kunai embedded in the walls, a large gun-like machine and a broken wire attached to the door. Near the window looking out, Yari huddles, her right side having taken a good five kunai right towards the ribs, with a sixth bloody spot running through her kimono. Said kunai is in her hand, with more kunai scattered around her, presumably when she knocked them away. Her eyes are wide, adrenaline and now the poison in her veins making her blood run chill.

The two bodies that Gawain slammed into turn out to be another pair of of au'ra. Both are blue-scaled like Yari, having leapt aside. One of them is nursing a broken arm from the Servant's assault. The pair could easily be twins, and glare at the intruding Servant!

"So it looks like you've made some friends, traitor. It doesn't matter, you die this night, Yari Takane!" Comes the sword-wielding ninja! The other ninja, twin kunai in hands, rushes for Gawain in a blurr of motion, trying to stab into the man at the neck! The sword-ninja goes after Yari, and the poisoned ninja has a hard time deflecting her blows!

From the room beside it, the small figure of Linh Takane, a small asian girl, comes tumbling out with alarm on her face!

"Mommy!?"

Garen (530) has posed:
    Garen narrows his eyes as he watches the exchange. "I don't think so." He says towards the sword wielding ninja. A volley of blaster fire explodes forward, while the agent looks over. "Cent-..Takane, you should fall back...Your hurt bad, it looks like." He says, pulling the sword from his back. Normally, Garen would crack a one liner, but the agent was all business this night.

Ferham (516) has posed:
     Ferham had used her Reploid strength to wrench the door right off it's hinges and had tossed it away, and was preparing to push her way in the room when Gawain motioned her away. Her cheeks reddened, and while she might have in other circumstances ignored this order, she is also treating this especially careful--so she nods abruptly and motions for Gawain to go in first. She didn't want to cause anything that might exacerbate the situation and get people hurt, or cause some kind of friendly fire situation.

     When Lihn appears though, Ferham is quick to (gently) snatch her up and hold her, putting one of her metal wings between the doorway and the girl protectively. She'd inspect her for injuries as well, taking stock of her.

Sanary Rondel has posed:
     Fire, too? Great. Just great. Sanary's going to have to move fast, then. Hearing Gawain, she opens her mouth to protest before grunting lightly. As much as she'd hate to admit it, he does have a point. Plus... Why the hell did she pick up a spear? She could've at least gone for a sword or another shield.

     Either way, the door being opened means it's time to head in and scope out the situation! One ninja going after Gawain, another going after Yari, and Linh by the door. She's not too concerned about Gawain being properly armed and not quite injured yet, but...

     She'll just have to trust the others to keep her in check. Ferham has Linh covered, and Garen taking shots at the one attacking Yari gives the healer her opening to actually move for the Au Ra herself. "Keep her safe, Ferham. Everyone else, make sure these two live." Her voice is oddly calm as she speaks, although she does let out low grunt as she hurls that spear right at the sword-using assassin. Afterwards, she takes a defensive position near Yari with that borrowed shield of hers.

     "What did they do to you?" Her voice is oddly calm, yet the rage and anger are quite visible in her eye. Someone's going to live tonight.

Emiya Shirou (560) has posed:
    Shirou comes barreling into the room only for him to get clonked by the remains of a door. OW! He stumbles into the quarters regardless, still armed and undeterred by the danger. It doesn't take him long to figure out who's friend, and who's foe. "YARI!"

    Enemy in one way, ally in another, he points one of his twin weapons at the offending au'ra. "Not in this castle, assassins!" Instead of going on the offensive however, he instead leaps to Yari's side and attempts to intercept the attacker, even hurl them back and away to buy Yari some breathing space!

Yari Takane (691) has posed:
The blaster fire from Garen does much to have the pair of ninja ducking out of the way, or more accurately, getting winged by lasers and leaping from the floor, to the sides of the wall, and then to the ceiling! The pair cling there, taking stock of the situation.

Ferham takes Linh under her wing, and the young girl clings to the red valkyrie-reploid like a rock against a storm. There's tears in her eyes, fear too, but not for herself. She's unharmed, but trembling in shock and terror.

"Is mommy going to be okay!? You and Mister Gawain, and all of your friends are going to save her from the bad people, right?" Comes Linh, looking up to Ferham.

The thrown spear slams against the sword-wielding ninja, who swings her blade and manages to barely deflect it, falling into a corner of Yari's room. The ninja it hit leaps down, flipping behind Gawain and leaping back.

Yari manages to speak up, a hand on her forehead. "They...set a trap. I...I know them! They're strong!" She croaks out, sounding delirious.

The other ninja meets the wrath of Shirou as she attacks Gawain, slammed right back into her partner as the young man similarly barrels into the room! Unfortunately for everyone involved aside from Ferham and Linh, the pair of ninja recover enough to make handseals!

A massive fireball is spat from their mouths, aiming for everyone in the room! Yari manages to get to her feet, and with a few handseals of her own, lets loose with a burst of wind that has the fireball halted right before her friends. She's barely up, however, and the wind is losing out!

Meanwhile, kunai-ninja chucks one of her weapons right at Linh and Ferham, an explosive tag on the weapon! If she doesn't act fast, it'll explode on them both!

Ferham (516) has posed:
     "Of course we are, who is in there? Can you tell me?" Ferham asks the child, keeping her deep feminine voice gentle and a bit more soothing than usual for the child's sake, making sure she's keeping the girl back from where the action was happening, but all the same wishing she could still be in there to try and help Yari, too, if she was still inside. Ferham has no choice but to back down the corridor a bit and raises her free hand, her right which she wasn't cradling Lihn in--and forms a bit of a small blockade of ice against the wall to help shield her and the youngster, kneeling down as she kept her left (dominant) arm around her.

     "Shh, everything's going to be okay now, Sir Gawain is checking the room out now," she looked down, stroking the girl's hair with her gloved hand.

Sanary Rondel has posed:
     Yari was still capable of fighting and speaking. A good sign! Without her usual gear, however, Sanary's not quite in a position to fight back against the fire so much as direct her magic into Yari. Under more ideal circumstances, she'd be able to pull those kunai out before healing her up and giving her magic an extra boost, but here?

     "Sorry, Yari...!" She just has to focus on the immediate threats for now. Using her eye beam isn't an option with so much potential collateral damage, and the shield... She'll just have to hope the shield holds up against anything that comes from behind her. The healer pours quite a lot of energy into the Au Ra at once, both of them practically glowing with that green light as she positions herself in front of Yari as a human shield/mana battery.

Garen (530) has posed:
    Garen growls as he see's the handseals and opts for a more practical response. That is, a concussion grenade launched at the wall. However, seeing the tag on the kunai gives Garen an utterly devious idea, even while he shot at said Kunai to take it out of the equation, and make the ninja think twice about using protectiles. He shoots at the kunai ninja...more specifically at her tags. Again, no words from the Agent, but rather the quiet challenge of someone determined to protect his friend.

Sir Gawain has posed:
As Shirou takes the ninja coming at him, Sir Gawain flinches from the blow, before barreling forward at them. "Ninjas! Watch out, we outnumber them, which makes them infinitely stronger!" Sir Gawain has experienced the internet lately, it would seem. Slashing at their side with his blade, he positions himself in front of Yari, nodding to her as he lifts his blade up defensively. "Lady Takane! Stay behind me, I will not let them hurt you!"

Emiya Shirou (560) has posed:
    "Of course we will! .. How dare these two attack a peaceful castle.... whoever sent you's going to be in SERIOUS trouble!" Shirou barks at the ninj'au'ra. Just in time to get FIREBALLED!

    Shirou swings the weapons down at it, but the flames just ignore this. They're not quite magic enough and so... he's ENGULFED! "Hwagggh!"

    But while his hair and clothing's smoldering, he's still standing despite it all... and he retaliates by HURLING the two weapons at his attacker!

Yari Takane (691) has posed:
The soothing voice, the gentle rub to her hair from the reploid has the young girl's sniffling not evolving into pure cries, and she brave nods her head. There's the slightest of brightening of her eyes.

"I believe in Mister Gawain and Mister Shirou and Miss Sanary and all of mommy's friends!" She finally croaks out! Only to shriek as the weapon is tossed at them!

Then Garen fires, causing one ninja to again catch a shot to the chest, stumbling bck, and then that explosive tag is hit! It explodes, half of the blast slamming into Ferham's ice-shield, and the rest taken by one of the ninjas! She falters, bleeding heavily now, and already begins to stumble towards a window! She's aiming to escape!

"H...handle the rest, sister!"

Gawain's defense and slashing blade slices that fireball neatly in half, or at least the portions that don't end up being face-blocked by Shirou! The remaining blast is sliced out the window by Gawain. Yari ducks down. . She'll owe new curtains to Saber!

Yari's hand goes to Gawain's arm. "...Sanary...Gawain...all of your...I..." She hacks, coughs, and falls to her knees even as magic heals her. Her veins are already looking green. Only Sanary's magic is keeping her from passing out, or maybe even dieing from whatever toxins were shoved into her!

Ferham thankfully manages to get Linh to safety, leaving only the two ninja remaining! One stands poised to leap out the window! The other ninja closes her eyes and grits her teeth.

"This is for Master Saru, Takane! None of you know anything about this traitor! She's an enemy of all of Doma, giving our secrets to that filthy Empire!" She rips open her kimono, revealing the good eight sticks of dynamite attached to her. A flick of her fingers and they're lit as she leaps for the group, sword flashing as she intends to detonate herself and cut through them all to get to Yari!

Thankfully the concussion grenade followed by those tossed weapons of Shirou's embedding in two of the sticks has her flailing in the air as there's a blast of the grenade! Can our heroes stop this crazy kunoichi!?

Garen (530) has posed:
    Garen smirks as he stops the tag, even detonating it with his blaster. Of course, then the dynamite was revealed. He simply narrows those eyes again and aims to drill both of the explosive ninja's kneecaps. The one at the window would find more blaster fire for her. Garen wanted to take at least one alive for intelligence.

Sanary Rondel has posed:
     Sanary grits her teeth as Yari appears to weaken, grasping her by the shoulders and pulling her close to keep her covered as much as possible. "Easy. We're here for you. Just rest up and..." She trails off as she focuses all of her efforts on transferring that healing energy, focusing mostly on boosting the Au Ra's natural healing now to try and help her body fight off that poison.

     Of course, from that angle, she doesn't see the ninja with dynamite. Although she's got that shield draped over her back, there's not a lot she can do about the oncoming ninja! She can, however, see the other ninja heading for the window, and hear the one with the dynamite quite clearly.

     "You can talk more when you come with us. Now shut up!" Lifting her head, she aims an explosive eye beam at the window itself, trying to detonate it ahead of the retreating assassin and cut off her escape!

Emiya Shirou (560) has posed:
    A SUICIDE VEST?! Shirou wastes no time here at all. In the instants between seconds his brain hits overdrive and cranks out a new set of weapons. Kanshou and Bakuya are reforged almost instantly, and in that SAME INSTANT the half-formed weapons are nearly upon the suicide vest. Shirou moved faster than he could possibly have thought anything out.

    Slicing down with both.

    Aiming to cripple that vest. The cuts might be deep enough to hit flesh, but slicing the dynamite sticks apart to render them largely inert. Hopefully. He can only hope.

    If he's thinking at all,r eally.

Sir Gawain has posed:
Well, this is not good. Yari's poisoned, and there's explosives inside the room. Acting instinctively, Gawain grabs Yari and pushes her towards Shirou, before charging at the ninja with the suicide vest. He slices his blade at her leg, before moving to rip off her suicide vest. Once he gets it off, he looks towards the window, before saluting. "If I don't make it back, take care of Florence for me, Shirou!"

And then Sir Gawain uses his Agility to leap straight through Yari's window, diving down all the way to the bottom of the keep. Once he gets back on his feet, he dashes for his bike, riding it faster than should be possible as he attempts to get as far into the unsettled plains as possible.

BOOOOOOM!

Yari Takane (691) has posed:
The kunai ninja ears blaster fire, leaving her stumbling, but her armor is good stuff! She more trips towards the window than leaps towards it, and then eats an explosive to the face! She cries out, grabbing her face, and starts rolling around as she screams and howls.

The explosive ninja's kneecaps are taken out, and she can't move!

Two things happen in the span of seconds. First, Shirou slices down with his rematerialized blades! The ninja in question is swift, leaping back...or tumbling more accurately thaks to her shot-out knees! Four more dynamite sticks are sliced off! And then his Servant rushes in, slicing into the ninja's leg and grabbing the remains of the vest! By now, the ninja's legs are ruined from Shirou, Garen, and Gawain, but she's alive as she falls to her face!

Bu the distraction has let the the now blinded ninja get up, and fall out the window, kicking off desperately in the opposite way from the fleeing heroic Gawain! At least they have one ninja in custody, and another dreadfully wounded!

Off in the plains, can Gawain survive the explosion!? Does he not look at it as he rides off like a baller into the beautiful moonlight!?

By now, Yari has all but curled up into Sanary's arms as she shoves magical healing. For now, she'll live, but she's going to be in dire need of healing and anti-poison treatments very, very soon. Whatever they used, it was an awful concoction.

Garen (530) has posed:
    Garen walks carefully over towards the downed ninja. He makes sure to stay out of range of those kunai, but close enough to stop any retreat. "Save yourself alot of pain and tell us who sent you, and why." He says, voice cold as ice. Even at this range, he had that blaster trained for a headshot. "And you had best tell us what you used to put Takane in the stats she's in."

Sanary Rondel has posed:
     Sanary's finally pacing herself with the healing as she settles down onto the floor with Yari in her arms, not even looking towards the window or the fallen ninja or anything else in the room. With Linh being taken care of, Her number one priority now is keeping a steady flow of energy going into Yari until they can properly get that poison taken care of.

     "Best listen to him there. Otherwise, we might let you live." Although she doesn't turn around to face the ninja, there's a distinctly cold tone in the healer's voice as she addresses the assassin. She does glance up after a moment, however, turning to Shirou and gesturing at Garen and their new captive with her head.

     "Watch her hands, too. Break 'em if you have to. Mine are a little full here." She does raise one hand to direct some healing magic towards Shirou and Garen just in case, focusing some of that energy on a more direct mana and stamina booster just in case.

Emiya Shirou (560) has posed:
    And Gawain seems to be crazy enough to just YOINK the remaining vest and go out the window with it! he gapes, but... does as told and moves to shield Yari and Sanary.

    He winces upon hearing the explosion... but the Command Spells on his hand don't go anywhere. That at least is a relief. Had Gawain died they'd be gone, he knows...

    "That's crazy, even for a Servant..." He murmurs with some warm relief in his tone. But he's still HECKA WORRIED For other reasons. "You two... how bad is it?!"

Sir Gawain has posed:
In the distance, the smoke of the explosion can be seen through the window. Over time, it fades...and a knight riding a bicycle in the direction of the keep can be seen, radiating brightly in the darkness. It would seem Sir Gawain is alive!

Yari Takane (691) has posed:
The remaining kunoichi offers an evil little smirk. "Why not try asking her?" She quips, before falling to the ground unconscious.

Yari, similarly, is out cold by now. Sanary's healing has kept her alive, but she's going to need some anti-toxins. Luckily it seems there's quite a few bits of equipment on the enemy ninja, and a quick search will find an antidote!