2683/The Time Part 1

The Time Part 1
Date of Scene:	26 July 2015
Location:	Tomoeda-865
Synopsis:	The Union enters Death-T, in order to try and reclaim Sakura's card, The Time.
Cast of Characters:	Staren, 172, Theo Morrison, 560, 623, Tomoyo Daidouji, 707

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Seto Kaiba (623) has posed:
     Penguin Park was once one of the most cherished locations in Tomoeda, a popular park for the various children to play. And yet a shocking transformation occured here, overnight. The once beautiful park is no more. In its place is a tall tower. An amazing and wonderous amusement park.

     This tower is incredibly large, taking up a fair amount of the park. It has a strange mixture of gothic and modern architecture. Sleek modern lines, yet various tall columns, pointed arches, and various designs. Statues in the shape of Duel Monsters line various location edges of the different floors, menacing like gargoyles.

     Two parts of the design are most likely to stick out to everyone present, though: On each side, there are massive circular clocks with giant hands. Roman numerals in an elegant font are put in for the hour markers. The pointed roof has three statues facing away from eachother, looking down below. These statues are of the Blue-Eyes White Dragons.

     There are large crowds around the entrance to the building. Long lines mark the starting day, it seems. Not all residents are those of Tomoeda, and some of them aren't even human. There are some notable Tomoeda residents around, though. Holding signs of protests. Of course, they're all off the actual property of Kaiba Land itself, on the edge of the themepark. Some security members of Kaiba Land are near them, making sure they don't get /too/ close.

     A red carpet is rolled out, though. Most people are kept off of it via a velvet rope barrier. A guard at the end of the red carpet is waiting patiently. This man is a tall giant of a man. He wears sunglasses, and brown hair pointed upwards into a singular spike on his front. Next to him is a sign on the red carpet: 'MULTIVERSAL ELITE ENTRANCE'. He'll move aside for any known Elites, letting them walk down the red carpet.

Sakura Kinomoto (172) has posed:
    The crowd of protesters parts like a wave. Through the parted crowd walks one particularly notable resident - Sakura Kinomoto, currently flanked by two older boys. One of them bears a striking resemblance to Sakura herself, although his hair is a darker shade of brown. The other boy is slightly shorter than Sakura's brother, with silvery white hair and somewhat paler skin.

    Sakura is dressed in another of Tomoyo's creations, of course.

    She makes her way up to the red carpet, and then stops. She reaches to her wrists to check... something or other, but makes no move to actually enter. Just yet.

Staren has posed:
Staren walks out from an alley nearby. He might stand out because of his labcoat... and, y'know, the cat ears. He looks over the park balefully. It's not that it's a /bad/ park. It looks like it could be a pretty cool amusement park! But clearly people don't want it /here/. Which means Kaiba didn't do this to make money. He's messing with Sakura for some reason. But why, what does he have against her? Is he pissed that her cards don't work by Duel Monsters rules? Yeah, that sounds about right. He sees the crowd parting and waves, "Hey, Sak--!" but it's already closing around her, so he walks around to where the red carpet entrance is and sighs at the sight of it. As he steps on, he comments 'We're... we're gonna go talk to Kaiba, see if we can resolve this, okay?" to anyone around, and walks up to Sakura. He gives her a smile tempered by the awkwardness of meeting in a 'some jerk from another universe took over part of your town' circumstance. "Hey, Sakura. It's been too long. Sorry we only seem to meet, well, at times like this."

Theo Morrison has posed:
Theo got invited along for seemingly-mundane reasons, like hanging out with a couple friends of his at what, in any other circumstance, would be a totally sweet amusement park. However, several things keep that from being true in this case:

    1) Kaiba clearly has one of Sakura's cards and is being a sassy dick about it.
    2) Kaiba is a sassy dick.
    3) Kaiba.

Nevertheless, he's here, functioning as a sort of ace in the hole against wacky game-related death-challenges. He is very proficient at dealing with those, even if he also wants to punch Kaiba in the nose right after. Theo wonders if this is what it's like having a hated rival.

Theo shoulders his way through the crowd, being the odd foreigner out (and lacking, say, cat ears and a lab coat to get him recognition enough to get through) and having a tough time getting to the carpet. He eventually manages it, stumbling a step and shooting a dirty look at the people behind him. He straightens out his favorite shirt, adjusts his cargo shorts and says, "C'mon," to what appears to be a short and adorable bird robot carrying a much-too-large backpack. This is Japan, so that probably isn't even weird for them.

(He /did/ give Kickotron a baseball cap to blend in, though, for what little good it does.)

"Hey," he greets. "Are we ready for the afternoon of our... weeks?" 'Lives' seems cliche and inaccurate, given the number of times he's fought for-real giant world-ending monsters.

Tomoyo Daidouji has posed:
    Squeezing through the crowd with multiple polite requests and apologies...It's Tomoyo, and she looks uncharacteristically serious as she joins Sakura on the carpet! Today she's wearing a black long-sleeved shirt underneath a light orange dress with short sleeves ending in yellow cuffs and white fur along the neckline. On her legs, she wears black tights and running shoes, the dress the only splash of color on the whole ensemble.

    As for the creation that Sakura has /volunteered/ to wear? Clearly based on the traditional image one thinks of when they picture a 'card sharp.' A black long-sleeved shirt with white pinstripes, along with cheery yellow suspenders that hold up a pair of white trousers with the four suites in a card deck swirling around the legs. The shoes look to be formal black leather shoes, but the soles are cushioned so they work well as running shoes. And to top it all off, a trilby atop her head, the same yellow as the suspenders with a white band. Sticking out from the band are the four aces from a deck of cards, arranged in a fan.

    The dark-haired girl sticks with Sakura, staying a few steps behind as she hangs a small, flat video camera from a lanyard and slips it around her neck, lens facing out. She might need her hands free for what's coming up...

    Looking up at the amusement park, she sighs softly. As good for the town it might be, bringing in tourists... Penguin Park holds a lot of memories, and she already misses it. And that this Kaiba... /person/ is using one of the Cards to open it so quickly? She is outraged! Quietly so, but... also, how did he even manage to use it? All these thoughts swirl around in the tailor's head as she joins up with everyone.

Emiya Shirou (560) has posed:
    About a year ago, Shirou in this position would've just gone barreling through the red carpet.

    Having been stabbed, eviscerated, bowled over, trounced, and otherwise inconvenienced by such activity almost a dozen times, and trained by the cool-headed Bedivere... this time, he doesn't.

    He's wearing his jacket with the hood up, making him hard to recognize in the crowd. Instead of barreling through he takes a calmer route through the crowd. He's AVOIDING the red carpet for the moment because of all those protesters.

    If he steps up there, ALL EYES WILL BE ON HIM.

    That's what he was planning originally, anyways, but then Sakura goes right through the crowd and all eyes are on her... can't leave all that pressure on her.

    So a conscientious Shirou hurries out. "Excuse me, pardon me-" Rustling through the crowd, squeezing past gathered protesters... he finally emerges near Sakura and Staren, looking anxious.

    But the approach wasn't an ENTIRE waste. He's had about a minute to survey the park with reinforced vision for anything weird. Though from only one angle, so that's probably not going to help AT ALL.

Xiaomu (707) has posed:
There are a few reasons which could bring Xiaomu, agent of Shinra, to Tomoeda on a day like today.

There's Tomoyo's boutique, of course, and the sage fox has an order that she really needs to pick up sometime. There are the usual manga and game stores; she seems to pay particularly close attention to Piffle Princess on her way past ...

And then there's ... this. Kaiba Land Tomoeda.

Xiaomu walks along the red carpet, the rings atop her monk staff jingling with each stride; she's clad in her normal black qipao (with silver filigree and massive zippers) and the red vest she normally wears over it, although the idea of doing cosplay for this event DID cross her mind ... well, she can cheat later if needed. She's largely here on business, though - which would explain why she doesn't look like she's having a prticularly good time. She's polite enough, though, nodding and/or bowing to most of the people she recognizes. Staren gets a slightly askance look, but the nod Xiaomu gives him is relatively cordial.

Kaiba won't even get a nod if he happens to show up.

Seto Kaiba (623) has posed:
     As Shirou works the crowds, he'll hear a lot of whispering and muttering. The vast majority of it is about who these people getting special treatment are. A handful of people /are/ talking about how sad it is that Penguin Park is gone. But it's almost certain, looking at this crowd? It's a lot of off worlders, or out of towners. Many of the citizens aren't happy about this.

     As the group gets near the entrance, the door opens for them readily. Inside, they're railed off from the other patrons, the path leading straight forward. Everyone can at least see a bit of the park's interior and attractions, though. A large roller coaster goes through the whole first floor, with various loops and twists. Each cart on it is shaped like a Blue-Eyes White Dragon. Arcade machines line the walls. Other rides are about as well, including spinning teacups, go carts, and whatnot. Some signs point towards events like minigolf and laser tag.

     The group, though? They're guided to the back of the room. A large vault door. A riddle is written upon the door.

This Thing all things devours:
Birds, beasts, trees, flowers;
Gnaws iron, bites steel;
Grinds hard stones to meal;
Slays kings, ruins town,
And beats high mountain down.

     And, a television screen turns on above the vault door. This monitor faces downwards, and makes Kaiba look humongous and intimidating. He smiles down at the group, speaking calmly.

     "Mm. Welcome. Solve the riddle, and then you can step inside. Don't worry. I gave you an /easy/ one to start with."

     A crowd is beginning to gather, watching the party.

     It would be super embarrasing to screw up here in front of everyone, on the first puzzle.

Sakura Kinomoto (172) has posed:
    Sakura gives her friends faint smiles as they approach. Xiaomu... she doesn't really have any idea who Xiaomu is, so she just gets a polite nod. And then, inward they go!

    Sakura remains staring forward all determined-like as they're guided to the vault door. She glowers at Kaiba's face as it appears on the screen.

    Then, she looks at the riddle... and one can almost SEE the question mark appear above her head. Her older brother facepalms.

Theo Morrison has posed:
Theo is thusly ushered. He takes a look around at the interior -- kinda snazzy, he thinks -- but focuses more on the thug and their destination. The fact that there's an enormous vault with a well-known (well... for him) riddle on it gets Kaiba nerd cred points, but doesn't terribly impress him. Outwardly. Doesn't impress him /outwardly/.

He expects Sakura to get it immediately, but doesn't think about the fact that it isn't in Japanese until he's already figured it out. He looks at her, sees the reaction, and narrowly keeps himself from facepalming, too.

"Time. It's -- it's time. Can you even read it?" He looks to the TV screen. "Seriously, dude?"

Staren has posed:
    Staren takes in the park as they pass through it, but... it's not what he's here for, you know? They have business to get to.

    Staren reads the riddle. "...Isn't it Time? I mean... plants and beasts die, metal rusts or is worn away, stone and mountains erode... 'my name is Ozymondias, king of kings' and all that..." He scratches his head. "Although, in the Multiverse we have stuff like forever-living gods that kind of break the pattern. Oh, I guess the answer could also be entropy."

Tomoyo Daidouji has posed:
     Tomoyo looks around as they are ushered in, politely greeting the others with a bow of the head and a smile that doesn't quite reach her eyes. She's too worried about the Card and Sakura to be cheerful right now!

    When they enter, she looks around, turning her whole body so the camera around her neck can get a view of everything. It is a pretty nice park, all things considered... but it'll never be as good as Penguin Park to her. Also, what is with this guy and dragons? Honestly.

    Looking up at the riddle... why is it in English? Sure, Tomoyo can read it pretty okay ('meal' confuses her for a moment, she's never encountered it in this context), but Sakura would have no chance, judging by her grades.

    And yup, there it is. Suppressing a giggle, she just smiles and pats Sakura's shoulder. "It's okay Sakura, I'm sure the next games will be more your speed~" As she listens to the others give their answers, she can't help but roll her eyes. "Time, of course. The card he used, I bet... probably thinks he's being very clever."

    Tomoyo does not have a high opinion of other heirs, clearly. Especially when they mess with Sakura!

Emiya Shirou (560) has posed:
    At first Shirou's wide-eyed (in a negative way) at the GIANT KAIBA MONITOR. Then in a slightly consternated way at the presented riddle. ... Finally, in an 'are you serious?' way at Staren.

    The boy sighs a bit, fidgets, but... "Yeah. Time fits."

    He takes a few minutes to get a BETTER look at the park now that they're in here. Dragon-styled coaster cars... THAT dragon, in particular, really?

    Does Kaiba have NO sense of modesty or humility?

    The enormous waste of money is not going over well with him.

    "You'll have to be better at this if you want to be a magus, Sakura." He gently points out.

Xiaomu (707) has posed:
"I can't say that joke is older than I am," Xiaomu says flatly, "but it really IS pretty old by human standards." She looks at the monitor again, re-reading, translating it mentally once again. "Yeah, time."

She refrains - very carefully - from asking if Kaiba-boy is about done wasting theirs. She also refrains from making a certain well-known insulting gesture.

In her mind, though, she's vigorously flipping the bird to Kaiba's monitor.

Seto Kaiba (623) has posed:
     Kaiba smirks on the moniter. His eyes are focused mostly on Sakura. His hands clasp in front of him, under his chin. And overall, he looks incredibly smug. He doesn't even speak to the others. They know they got it right. This was, mostly, to make a point. To rub it in. In fact, probably the entire clocktower motif on the outside is to rub in that Kaiba has the Time Card.

     Kaiba speaks, his tone full of authority. "Well. I suppose this was to be expected. Your grades in English aren't all that great, are they, Sakura? Perhaps you should study more. And perhaps this will be easier for me to win than I thought."

     ...Did Kaiba just imply that he knows Sakura's grade in English?

     But, there is a smirk on Kaiba's face as he looks towards Sakura's two companions. Her brother, and his friend. "...And. Your brother, and his friend? They can stay behind. The others are welcome. They can simply watch. Kaiba Corp representatives will escort them to a viewing area."

     The vault door begins to open, revealing an incredibly tall stairway just behind it. Time to get walking.

Staren has posed:
    Staren points at the monitor when Kaiba derides Sakura's English skills. "Hey! What business of that is yours? Nobody can be expected to study every frikkin' language in the Multiverse! Do you have /actual/ tests for us, or are you just gonna hand-pick stuff Sakura doesn't know and then act all smug about it?"

    He'll proceed, though. They do need to get that Time card!

Sakura Kinomoto (172) has posed:
    Blink. Blink.

    Sakura turns to Staren, then Theo. "...Hweh?" She looks completely baffled. Then, after a few moments. "...Oh! Oh, I get it." She rubs the back of her head. Aaaand then Kaiba is insinuating he knows her grades. "...Hweh?"

    "What the HELL?!" shouts Toya, glaring balefully up at the screen. "How do you know that, you creepy little stalker?! Be thankful you're not here in front of me or I'd-"

    Yukito puts a hand on his shoulder. "Toya," he says, softly. Apparently, that's all the slightly older boy needs to calm down. He sighs.

    And off they go, Yukito cuddling up to Toya a little consolingly.

    Wait, are they...?

Theo Morrison has posed:
"He's gonna hand-pick things Sakura doesn't know and then act all smug about it," Theo says in a low voice.

"Don't worry about it," Theo adds in a normal tone. He glances back at the pair with Sakura for a second (huh!) and then gestures towards the stairs. "Rogues and fighters first, wizards in the middle, ranger in the back." He waits a second, letting Staren tromp on ahead of him in the event there /are/ traps, and then Kickotron for the exact same reason. /Then/ he starts towards the staircase.

Emiya Shirou (560) has posed:
    THAT triggers Shirou to quietly aside to Staren, "Actually English is taught in school..." Oh well, not like Staren could know that.

    But he IS getting hot under the collar and he ends up facing the big monitor. "What kind of game are you pulling?"

Xiaomu (707) has posed:
Xiaomu looks at the stairs briefly, does some mental number-crunching against the height of the skyscraper from outside ...

Then she gives Touya a reassuring (she hopes) grin. "It's okay, we'll make sure Sakura comes back safe and sound ... or that you have a chance to take restitution out of Kaiba's hide, if the worst happens, but I'm sure it won't come to THAT," she adds with a slightly more mischievous look.

Theo gets stared at briefly after proposing the party order. "Uh, what about multi-class types?" she asks wryly. She's willing to settle on the 'border' between front and middle, though ... unless she's one that Theo was classifying as a 'ranger' ....

Oh, whatever. Those stairs won't climb themselves, but Xiaomu will try and position herself within easy conversation distance of Sakura and Tomoyo. "Don't think we've met face-to-face yet, have we?" she asks Sakura with a more friendly smile (over her shoulder, if need be) as they start up the stairs. "Name's Xiaomu, I'm an operative for Shinra from another version of Tokyo, plus a member of the Union, and I commissioned a costume at Tomoyo's shop. Pleased to make your acquaintance~!" She relaxes into facing forwards again before too long, though ... she doesn't want a crick in her neck by the time we get to the next floor.

That would be one among what are probably going to be many irritations before the day is out ...

Staren has posed:
    Staren nods slightly to Theo, muttering what might be 'Yeah, probably.' Then he blinks. "Wait, which of those am I? I mean, we don't use those classifications on my world. I'm more of an Operator. I guess that makes me a wizard? Do you think he's prepped a dungeon or something?" Beat. "...Yeah, he probably has, hasn't he. Hmm." Staren scratches his chin. "I think I'd prefer to take wizard or ranger" he draws and then holsters his laser pistol "position then. I'm not really tough if we walk into a trap. ...Do you think deploying my armor here would be overkill?"

    For now, he'll stay near the center of the party, though in front of Theo if the Deckmaster prefers.

Tomoyo Daidouji has posed:
    Tomoyo stares up at Kaiba's face on the television, eyes narrowing ever so slightly as her hands clench up, nails biting into her skin. That look of absolute arrogance, that smug attitude... she came to a more public school to get away from jerks like this, and now one is meddling in Tomoeda, into Sakura's life! Throwing around money and influence to learn her grades, to mock her...

    A slow, deep breath through her nostrils, to calm herself. Another. And another. It takes five before she's fully calm. Looking around at everyone, she shakes her head. "Well that's just fine. He can throw out the few things that Sakura is bad at. Because she has us, to pick up the slack!"

    Reaching out, she gives Sakura a reassuring squeeze on the shoulder. "Don't worry Sakura, we can do this. We'll get The Time back, and shut him up!" Looking to the older boys as they leave, she smiles a little knowingly, before nodding to Theo and bringing up the rear!

    "That outfit is ready, by the way~ In case you missed my message," she adds to Xiaomu. "But it's okay if you've been too busy. Elites must have a lot of stuff to deal with~"

Theo Morrison has posed:
"It was like fifty percent a joke," Theo adds sorta-helpfully. "I'm just saying, be prepared for anything."

Kickotron proceeds ahead fearlessly, once Theo has divested him of his pack.

Seto Kaiba (623) has posed:
     At the top of the staircase, the group finds themselves in a long hallway. The walls are covered in cogs and gears. It looks like the inside of a clock. Here and there, the floors are actually covered in oversized cogs, meaning the group will have to walk across or leap over these. Don't move fast enough, and you might end up stuck in the gearwork on the walls. It's not the /hardest/ to avoid traps, though.

     No, the hard to avoid traps will be a series of numbered tiles before the group. A grid of tiles with different numbers, each row a different color, appear before the group. The group is approaching from the south side, and so the various numerals are laid out as follows, with the group starting from the bottom and working up:

6 7 2 1 9 9
5 2 6 8 8 8
6 9 2 2 7 3
2 4 2 3 6 2
5 6 1 4 5 9

     God only knows what happens if one walks on the wrong tile.

Staren has posed:
    "I am /sure/ that is against some kind of safety regulation." Staren pulls a tablet out of his pocket and takes pictures of the exposed cogs. Still, avoiding them isn't hard. When at last he reaches the puzzle, he looks at it for a moment. "Maybe you have to step on the numbers in sequence?" He points, "1 2 3... uh..." his finger wobbles a bit as he looks further ahead at first, then sees it, "4 5 6 7 8 9!"

    He doesn't actually step on the tiles, though. Someone else might have another plausible solution.

Tomoyo Daidouji has posed:
    Tomoyo stares out at the whirring gears and turning cogs, rolling her eyes. Get it, because it's like a clock. Because Time. She won't say it out loud though. Maybe it'll go over Sakura's head and she won't feel bad.

     Looking down at the tiles on the floor... oh come on, this is easy. He's really just throwing childish games at them because he thinks Sakura wouldn't be able to solve them. The dark-haired girl starts chewing on the inside of her cheek out of frustration.

    Following the numbers with her eyes, she nods along with Staren's explanation. "I think that's what it is too." But... she will wait for someone else to go first. Someone less likely to get hurt if it's wrong, maybe.

Sakura Kinomoto (172) has posed:
    Sakura sticks to the middle of the pack! Because she's a wizard. Or, well. Mage. She seems to have ignored Emiya's comment about her needing to be smarter to be a Magus! She's kinda not in the mood to talk about that.

    As she reaches the tile puzzle, she kinda sighs. "Well, we should probably... send the most expendable one here out there. So, Kickotron."

Emiya Shirou (560) has posed:
    ".. Step on them in sequence?" Shirou's vision is good. He can see everything. Moving gears and cogs are easy to dodge, but the floor... "For 'in sequence,' there's only one path across." He points towards the green one, then does a zigzap up and down towards the right, then straight up along the next-to-last row.

Xiaomu (707) has posed:
Having a staff can be handy; Xiaomu occasionally uses it for a mini-pole-vaulting implement if the gaps are big enough to need it, and if it's necessary to stop the machinery for anything (or at least to attempt it), Suiren's ice magic could come in handy. She doesn't want to try messing with the gears if it isn't necessary.

"That would be the obvious solution, yeah," the sage fox agrees with Staren after taking a look at the tiles. She keeps considering them, though - that solution seems just a little bit TOO obvious. But then again, if Kaiba designed this course for an elementary-schooler, he's probably setting the bar extra-low for now. It's kind of a welcome relief from some of the diabolical masterminds and their evil lairs that she's encountered (in fiction and in reality alike).

She glances at Theo, "How expendalble is Kickotron, anyway? I know you had him in the lead for a reason ..."

Theo Morrison has posed:
Kickotron looks up at Sakura with a look of stark shock and betrayal.

Except he doesn't have any expressions, so he just kind of looks up.

Theo looks down at him, and then gestures. "Well, you heard her. Go forth and tile-hop."

The myr turns to look at Theo, and then instead looks at Xiaomu. She looks athletic!

Theo stares at him, frowning. He asides to Xiaomu, looking over at her, "I can summon more of him on command, and they put one another back together. So, it's not so much 'expending' him as temporarily disabling him." He looks back down, tapping his foot.

Kickotron, apparently having exhausted his silent options, starts on the path Staren pointed out. Hop, hop, hop, hop...

After handing Xiaomu his hat.

Xiaomu (707) has posed:
Xiaomu solemnly accepts Kickotron's hat, and watches carefully as the myr hopscotches across the grid. If the obvious pattern is the wrong one, well, we'll find out momentarily.

Seto Kaiba (623) has posed:
     The most expendable party member leads the way. As Kickotron walks across the tiles in the numerical order Staren suggested, there is a click with each step. Loud, heavy sounding clicking noises.

     ...But. Kickotron is now across, and safely at that. It seems he hasn't been expended, just yet!

Xiaomu (707) has posed:
The sage fox goes next, careful NOT to hit any tiles with her staff as she follows the same route. Kickotron probably wants his hat back - and she should thank him for leading the way, too.

Seto Kaiba (623) has posed:
     As Xiaomu steps on the 1 tile? There is a sudden burst of flames from the ceiling, shooting downwards towards her. Anyone else who tries to step on the 1 tile at the moment also gets fire shot at them.

     ...Seems there is something else to this puzzle. Possibly due to Kickotron having already walked across. Also possibly Xiaomu is on fire.

Staren has posed:
    Staren watches Kickotron cross. Well, that's that! He smiles. Others are in a greater hurry to cross than he, though, so he waits his turn.

    Until, suddenly, fire! "Xiaoumu!" He reaches into his bag, pulls out a rod that extends into some kind of magitech-looking staff, the 'head' of which reconfigures into a nozzle as he points it at her. He presses a button. "Hydro Pump!"

    Nothing happens. He shakes it. "Hydro Pump!"

    Nothing. He shakes it some more. "Freaking..."

Emiya Shirou (560) has posed:
    "Tomoyo! Xiaomu!" Shirou panics at the flames, rushing up close. He's not sure WHAT to do exactly, but Xiaomu's more capable than he is. Apparently the 'walk in sequence' wasn't the answer though!

Theo Morrison has posed:
Kickotron, un-exploded, turns back around and observes the tiles. He seems... robotic. As usual.

"Woah!" Theo jerks back away from the fire-jet. Lacking a water gun, he extends one hand. "Healing Salve!" There's a glimmer of white -- and he's got a small round tin of some kind, just in case Xiaomu (who won't be felled by a mere flaming jet, surely) is kind of... singed. "Okay! Uh, okay! There was a clicking, right? Maybe we've got to reset it, or alternate? Reverse order? Something logical..."

Xiaomu (707) has posed:
"DAMMIT KAIBA!!" is the extremely angry screech which rises from the sage fox along with the flames engulfing her; she DOES draw Suiren now and stabs straight up at the flamethrower nozzle, trying to freeze it solid. Chill mist will help douse the flames on her, and the healing salve certainly helps as well.

She attempts to fling Kickotron's hat across the puzzle tiles to the little robot-like critter, then - staying on tile 1, she studies the pattern again. "Not sure what else we CAN do," she comments to her friends. "The 9 doesn't lead to anything, the 2s are all at least one row in ..."

She prods at the 2 in front of her with the butt of her staff, ready to leap back if another flamethrower goes off.

Sakura Kinomoto (172) has posed:
    "Release!" Sakura cries, as she summons her wand in response to the sudden flames! "What the hell! We saw Kickotron... argh!" She fumes. "Should we just trash it? Or fly over it?"

Seto Kaiba (623) has posed:
     As the 2 is pressed by the staff, a column of flames come down yet again. Yes, it seems the path forward doesn't work anymore.

Emiya Shirou (560) has posed:
    "... This is RIDICULOUS..." Shirou's at maximum aggravation now. He bends down near the tiled floor and places his hand at the edge. "Trace...ON."

    Those with enough magical sensitivity might pick up a flow of prana coming from his hand and spreading out through the materials. STRUCTURAL GRASP will show him the mechanisms involved beneath the tiles. If of course they're mostly mechanical and not utterly digital. It will at least show him which panels have FLAMETHROWER RELEASES...

Xiaomu (707) has posed:
Xiaomu promptly jumps back from the second column of flames, and glances at the flamethrower over tile 1 to see if it's trying to burn/melt through the ice. "Hey, Kickotron," she calls out. "Are there any controls on your side? Anything that might turn the flamethrowers off?"

Hopefully the myr is smart enough to investigate that without hand-holding or direct commands. And if that fails, well ... nothing to stop her from freezing all of the flamethrowers, right?

Staren has posed:
    Once Xiaomu's healed, Staren calms down a bit and thinks. "Reverse order? That doesn't work, though. Unless Kickotron has to come back the way it came, and we have someone keep carrying people across ebfore crossing themselves. Maybe you always have to step on a higher number? Or the same? But those paths all die out too..."

Sakura Kinomoto (172) has posed:
    "...Oh! Shirou can do that object sensing thing! I forgot about that!" She practically claps her hands. "Man that is a useful type of magic."

Staren has posed:
    When people look like they might break the puzzle, Staren looks over, "Come on, let's not give him the satisfaction of knowing we couldn't beat his stupid puzzle."

Seto Kaiba (623) has posed:
     As Shirou uses his Trace to scan the mechanisms, he'll find that /every/ single panel has a flamethrower trigger underneath. But, the ones on the numerical path taken prior have extra triggers on them, to temporarily disable the panels. The 9 panel, near Kickotron? It's disabled at the moment.

Xiaomu (707) has posed:
Xiaomu gives Staren a rather seared look, "We aren't cheating if he rigged the thing to kill us in the first place."

Theo Morrison has posed:
Kickotron looks up and over at Xiaomu. He turns and starts to look around, apparently for things that might be like an off switch, or something he can disassemble to disable the flamethrowers' fuel supply. If Shirou points out a spot, he will even follow instructions. Myr Servitors are smart enough to fix one another, and Theo uses them to build all kinds of things, so this is right up their alley.

Seto Kaiba (623) has posed:
     There are no switches on the other side, simply a door to keep moving forward.

Emiya Shirou (560) has posed:
    "It's tricky, but no a trick." Shirou rises again, then points to the first 9 panel. "The flamethrower's disabled for that one. It looks like the path changes each time you step on something. There's probably a pattern."

Staren has posed:
    Staren hmms. "I see. Have Kickotron step on the 9, then scan it again."

Tomoyo Daidouji has posed:
     Tomoyo had been following after Xiaomu to cross the numbers. But as the jet of flames shoots out, she flinches back in surprise! Thankfully, the fox spirit manages to only be singed, rather than cooked alive, and Tomoyo breathes a sigh of relief.

     Looking as the 2 tiles also sets off a flamethrower, she starts to rub her chin and look again. Are there multiple paths? Can only one person go across? Hopefully they haven't messed the whole thing up...

    And Sakura's mild cussing is only making Tomoyo frown! She never used to use language like that... stupid Kaiba. Unfortunately, she can't figure out a new path, but it looks like Shirou is taking care of that!

    Listening to Shirou, she frowns and shakes her head. "What, so he put this here so only one person can advance? Probably thinks he's being smart, forcing us to only let Sakura go forward..."

Sakura Kinomoto (172) has posed:
    Sakura just waves her hand. "...Look, just. I'm going to let the smart people handle this," she says with a grumble. "I'm totally stumped, guys. Sorry. I can help weigh down the tiles if you want, but other than that."

Seto Kaiba (623) has posed:
     The path is revealed the moment Kickotron steps onto the nine. The eight he had stepped on earlier disengages. Should he step on that, the seven disengages. Yes, it is in fact designed so that, /in theory/, only one person can go forward. But, this is an incredibly resourceful group of heroes with plenty of resources.

     Worst case scenario, they can just rid on eachother, piggyback, carrying one person across at a time.

Staren has posed:
    Staren pats Sakura's shoulder. "Hey. You're not dumb. Just not used to puzzles. You invented a new Card once, remember?"

    As soon as Shirou announces the next scan result, Staren pumps a fist in victory. "I knew it! You have to go back and forth over the path. I mean, someone has to carry everyone else across."

    He's sure someone here can manage that, one way or another. For the sake of convenience, he is suddenly a housecat.

Xiaomu (707) has posed:
"Now how are you going to rule the world if you let a few unsolvable problems stop you?" Xiaomu asks Sakura, drawing Suiren again. "Hey Shirou, what's it take for you to copy a sword? Just a good look at it? And what does it take to use those weapons' magics?"
If she has to freeze the flamethrower grid solid herself, she can certainly do that. Splitting the burden would be better, though.

Theo Morrison has posed:
Kickotron turns around and starts walking back on the path in reverse order, now that Staren has posited a solution that sounds plausible.

"Nobody's a scorpion, right," Theo asks lightly.

Sakura Kinomoto (172) has posed:
    "...I'm not going to rule the world," Sakura responds to Xiaomu, peering at her incredulously. Then she shakes her head. "We all need to cross at once...? Okay, sure, that's easy." She pulls out one of her cards. "Everyone, um. Don't jump or anything." She tosses the card into the air, as her magic circle erupts around her. Suddenly, magic energy! Lots of it! "LITTLE!"

    There's a teeny yellow mote of light... which promptly bounces around, bumping into everyone. Aaaand so Sakura goes about gathering up her now-tiny allies, setting them on the brim of her trilby, and heading along the path the Kickotron has helpfully un-dangered for them.

Xiaomu (707) has posed:
"Or we can do it that way," Xiaomu says with a grin as she sees what Sakura's doing. She re-sheathes Suiren, then hops onto Sakura's hand when the cardmistress reaches down to pick her up. Riding Sakura's hat on the way across is apparently pretty fun for the sage fox.

There may or may not be a tiny raspberry blown at the flamethrower grid on the other side, too.

Staren has posed:
    And then there was a tiny cat. "Well, that works." Staren returns to normal form, still tiny. "Woah, this is trippy." And then he's riding on the brim of a trilby of a giant Sakura. Taking it in and trying not to think about how this works.

Tomoyo Daidouji has posed:
     Tomoyo was not expecting that! Suddenly becoming so small and riding around on a normal-sized Sakura? Weird, but also oddly exciting~ She raises her littler camera to film as Sakura carries them all across.

    In addition, she busies herself with checking up on the hat. She's never been this small, so she's never been able to examine her creations from so close! She carefully walks around the brim, making sure the band is tight, the four aces secure~

Theo Morrison has posed:
Theo momentarily wonders at the physics of all this, and then reminds himself that it's magic, and instead wonders at the /duration/. Well, Sakura's pretty much got it handled; this is kind of her thing, after all.

So mostly makes a tiny, "wheeeee" and hopes the flamethrower doesn't cook all of them on the way back. That'd be awkward to explain later.

Emiya Shirou (560) has posed:
    Shirou keeps scanning the mechanisms. Going THAT far is a bit beyond what he's used to and the magic grows thin near the last rows, but... "That's it. Each time he steps on something the mechanisms change. Only one person can be on the grid at a time." Again he stands up, looks over at Xiaomu, glances at her sword...

    "Trace, on!" With his hand outstretched, Shirou focuses. Power gathers in his palm. In a few moments the hilt forms from a cloud of prana. The rest of the blade congeals in sequence until the tip finishes forming, leaving an exact copy of Suiren in Shirou's grasp. "It's not as easy as it looks, but I'm just lucky your sword's not a Noble Phantasm. It's really nice though."

    He manages to twirl the blade around expertly, casting off an aura of frost and dropping the temperatures around him briefly. A few flakes of snow drift away and melt. Yeah, he's got the elemental control, if probably not quite as potent.

    Weirdly enough, Shirou was so focused during the tracing effort that only after he finishes twirling does he realize... oh hey, he's been shrunk. Which ends up with him being grabbed and riding on the hat.

    His expression is a bit deflated and maybe just slightly anxious over the matter. "This got weird fast."

Sakura Kinomoto (172) has posed:
    Sakura chirps: "'This got weird fast' can explain the past six years of my life pretty well."

Seto Kaiba (623) has posed:
     The party has made it across. A spiral staircase is before them. It's a long walk up. Kaiba is simply not kind enough to give you all the luxury of an eleator, it seems. You can add this to the checklist of 'reasons Kaiba is a dick', later.

     Once the staircase is ascended, the group finds themselves in another room. A large room, with various cogs across it. These cogs appear to be stationary platforms, unconnected to eachother. They are arranged in a circle. And, conveniently, there seem to be a cog for each party member. Plus one.

     A strange man stands on one of the cog platforms. He is dressed in an incredibly unusual outfit. It's green, skintight, and looks to have a fair amount of plated bits to it. A pair of large red eyes are upon the helmet, very buglike. Upon his belt, there is a clock like design. Mantis-like blades are on his arms. There is something significantly /more/ disturbing than his near-plagirism lawsuit level outfit. Piles of round black objects surround him, each with clocks on them. The hands on all of them seem broken, though.

     A monitor lowers from the ceiling. Kaiba is upon it, again. He smiles towards the group as a whole. "Welcome to the next game: Time Bomb Hot Potato. The man you see before you chose to remain unidentified... But. He's a man with a particular talent. He crafts bombs. Powerful ones. For a while he went on a bit of a spree with them, in fact. So. Have fun, and he'll explain the rules of the game."

     The masked man poses dramatically, and speaks loudly, "ALRIGHT! So. Take a spot on a pedestal. Then, I throw you a bomb! You can hold onto it as long as you want. THEN, throw it to someone else! And you guys can't just keep throwing them at /me/, alright? Because that's /cheating/. YA READY?!"

     He reaches down, picking up one of his bombs. Waiting for everyone to get in place.

Sakura Kinomoto (172) has posed:
    Sakura is not tired out at all by the climb up the stairs! Because she's a jock. Her more nerdly companions might be complaining by the time they reach the top though.

    She just glowers as Kaiba speaks, but Bomb Thrower gets polite, attentative silence. After his explanation, she raises her hand. "Excuse me! Is it against the rules to pass to you at ALL, or just to focus on you?"

Seto Kaiba (623) has posed:
     The man does a dramatic pose, standing on one leg with his other lifted. His hands make a Y formation.

     "JUST DON'T FOCUS ONLY ON ME. You can pass to me, just not WAAAY more than the others!"

Theo Morrison has posed:
Theo is muttering about the climb, but less so than he would have a year ago. Running away from monsters helps get you used to... well, running away from monsters, mostly.

"How do we... win," Theo asks. "Do you have to get blown up, or what?"

Sakura Kinomoto (172) has posed:
    "Okay!" Sakura promptly hops up onto one of the platforms, and waits for the others to join her. Wait, she's not -seriously- considering agreeing to this game...?

    "Oh! One last thing. What happens if a player falls off?"

Tomoyo Daidouji has posed:
     Tomoyo follows everyone up the stairs! A while back, she would be totally exhausted before reaching halfway, but as she is now? Only slightly out of breath when they reach the next game. Listening to Kaiba's explanation, she gasps. "D-Did he seriously hire a wanted criminal?" Quickly, she checks her camera to make sure it caught that. That borderline admission might come in handy for... things.

    However, back to the game. This is some dangerous stuff! But, Sakura seems to have something in mind... and if she thought of it, it must be a good plan! So, putting all her faith on her best friend, Tomoyo immediately goes to stand on another platform, smiling slightly.

Staren has posed:
    Staren kind of wishes they'd stayed shrunk for the stairs. He does eventually return to cat form and bound-bound-bound-bound up the stairs all at once before changing back. He's still left panting at the top of the stairs for a bit. He considers the problem set before them... bit Theo and Sakura think of important questions before he can catch his breath.

Staren has posed:
    "How many... hah... bombs are in play at once?" Staren immediately thinks of another question.

Seto Kaiba (623) has posed:
     The !Rider maeks another pose, bending his knees and holding his arms to the side. He looks towards Theo first. "You have to knock me out, yes!"

     And then a new pose. It looks like he is ready to do the crane kick as he looks towards Sakura.

     "AND, if a player falls off... You'll SEE!"


     And then, one more pose as he turns to Staren. "AND ONLY ONE AT A TIME!"

Staren has posed:
    Staren looks at Shirou. "Can your mage sight tell when the bomb is about to explode?" And then back at the man. "Is it against the rules to just knock you off without using the bomb?"

Xiaomu (707) has posed:
"You have got to be kidding me," Xiaomu says at LEAST as flatly as her complaint about the old joke at the main door downstairs. Whether she's talking about the costume or about the game isn't immediately clear ... but she does climb up on one of the cogs.

Then a poof of gold-hued smoke surrounds her, and her clothes ... change. Specifically, she's now wearing a skintight costume that bares her arms, shoulders, most of her back and all of her cleavage; the top is blue, turning red from the waist down, plus she's sporting yellow gloves and boots. She looks like a superheroine.

Maybe a FAMILIAR superheroine, at that. She pointedly sticks her tongue out at Cricket Bomber, then plants her staff next to her and gets ready to catch. Or at least that's what it looks like she's doing ... she may have shenanigans up her sleeve. Or would, if she was WEARING sleeves now.

Theo Morrison has posed:
Theo approves of Xiaomu's costume choice. He probably doesn't get the reference, but he approves! "Outfit changes on-demand? That's pretty neat." He grins. And feels kind of under-dressed for the occasion. Who goes into a death-maze and brings /normal/ clothes?

"Uhh, huh. Okay. Kickotron, you're up." Theo, ever the summoner, decides it is in his best interests not to actually endanger himself. He'll play support instead. The myr climbs onto a gear while Theo hums to himself some, and then gestures dramatically. "Myr Servitor!" There's a brief cloud of misty white Aether, and... an identical twin of Kickotron, sans hat, shows up.

And waits.

For the explosions.

Emiya Shirou (560) has posed:
    "... Wait, how do you even win this game..." Shirou sits down but he's looking skeptically at the both the man and Kaiba-monitor. This is, of course, after he's hopefully unshrunken.

    He glances at Staren. "I've never tried that. How would I know?" He also doubts he'd have the TIME to analyze it if they're doing hot potato. Great.

Seto Kaiba (623) has posed:
     The game begins. The !Rider throws the bomb, aiming it straight at Kickotron, to start. The bomb flies through the air, and a gentle ticking sound can be heard from it.

     Kaiba, meanwhile, smirks with approval at Theo Morrison. He didn't know that gamer could be so smart with his minions. Use them, instead of himself. Kaiba approves, whole heartedly.

Sakura Kinomoto (172) has posed:
    Sakura raises her hand out towards the Kickotron. Obviously intending to get the bomb thrown her way! But she doesn't actually, you know, announce it. Because that might be cheating.

Theo Morrison has posed:
Kickotron catches the bomb in a full-body grab, holding it tightly in its little metal robot arms. With a second's pause, the myr turns and throws it towards Sakura, an unerring toss of what is probably a pretty high-yield explosive. But hey, when the mage wants the explosives, the mage gets the explosives.

Theo, meanwhile, has Healing Salve and a robo-mechanic on standby. Juuust in case.

Staren has posed:
    Staren watches. He approves of the idea of having kickotron face off against the bomber... but Sakura's stepping in too? What's she planning? He watches, a little uneasily. A mage as powerful; as she won't be hurt too badly by a bomb, right?

Sakura Kinomoto (172) has posed:
    Sakura catches the bomb! She's... pretty good at ball games, so honestly it's not a big deal for her. She tosses it up into the air twice, to gauge its weight. "...How many people died?" she asks the 'host', in a low voice. Before tossing the bomb back to Kickotron after a second of getting a feel for its weight. "Before Kaiba... hired you. That is."

Theo Morrison has posed:
Kickotron, not wanting to explode into a pile of parts and hats*, catches the bomb and immediately tosses it Xiaomu's way to mix it up. He probably assumes that she'll toss it back to Sakura once she's properly pumped up, or maybe he just picked at random. Who can say?


*may only be the one hat

Seto Kaiba (623) has posed:
     The Rider turns and looks to Sakura. A small chuckle, "Ah, who says I killed anyone? I didn't. Not going to deny it either, though. Will leave your guess up to you. Won't tell you /too/ much on what all I blew up, but. Buildings. Bridges. Stuff like that. Clearing out the useless broken down wastes of society. Gotta get rid of some of those eyesores! Besides... Humanity has /lots/ of crap going on in it. Why should you care if anyone got hurt?"

Xiaomu (707) has posed:
Xiaomu has been waiting and watching, and catches the bomb as it's tossed to her. She doesn't throw it right away, though; instead, she balances the explosive device in her right hand, left hand grasping Suiren ... and a shell of ice forms around the bomb, growing to an inch or so thick. That's going to affect the weight, but it should also help contain the explosion if someone's timing is off.

Three seconds after she caught it, Xiaomu tosses the bomb towards Staren with a quick, "Heads up!" Who knows? Maybe she's figuring that Staren can capitalize somehow on the ice shell, or something.

Sakura Kinomoto (172) has posed:
    "Theo, I trust you," Sakura says completely out of the blue. Huh.

    She takes a card out of her pocket. "Power." Tap! A pinkish aura surrounds her wand and her right hand. She reaches up to take off her hat.

    All this while her allies toss around a LIVE BOMB.

Emiya Shirou (560) has posed:
    RAGE flickers in Shirou's gut at the Bomber's words, but he's staying focused on the task at hand. This just means that if the bomber gets blown up by his own handiwork, Shirou's not going to feel too bad about it. "Staren, you're recording everything being said here, right?!"

Seto Kaiba (623) has posed:
     The shell of ice forms around the bomb. And then suddenly, the entire situation changes. People who are sensitive to it might note a /bit/ of magic in the air around them. But, it only lasts for a second.

     Or more accurately, it only lasts for a split second to everyone's perception. In truth, who knows how long everyone is frozen in time.

     The bomb, though? It is now sitting at Tomoyo's feet. The ice from it is gone. And, the bomb is pulsing.

     There is a massive flash of light as the bomb goes off. A giant burst of flames. When it clears?

     Tomoyo is no longer there.

     Kaiba appears on the monitor again. He smiles, looking at the group. "Toying with the bomb is, of course, against the rules. No attempting to delay how long until it might explode."

Tomoyo Daidouji has posed:
    One moment, Tomoyo is standing ready, in case the bomb comes her way. The next? The bomb is right at her feet. She only has time to say "Eh?" before it goes off!

Staren has posed:
    Staren blinks. "Hey, wait!" So much for the plan to one-on-one the bomber, seems that's completely shot now...

    But he never recieves it. "What?" He looks around when it explodes... "Tomoyo!" He frowns. If she'd actrually been blown up, there'd be... something left. "Where is she?" He turns and glares at the bomber. Definately willing to forget the game and just blast through the park, now that this is a kidnapping. But he's not going to set out alone, either.

Sakura Kinomoto (172) has posed:
    "Tomoyo!" Sakura shouts out in horror - but as the smoke clears... She frowns a little bit. And suddenly she seems -abnormally- calm.

    "...Next round, pass the bomb to me," she says, softly, to her teammates.

Xiaomu (707) has posed:
"Kaaaaaaaaaibaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa .... booooooooooooooooooyyyy ... !!"

There is very nearly an actual battleaura burning around Xiaomu as she glowers at the monitor. "The ice wasn't meant to slow the timer down, you insufferable prick," the sage fox snarls. "And you didn't say anything about what to do or not do with the bomb when we had it, so STOP MAKING UP NEW RULES ON US!!"

She is oh so tempted to draw down and put some bullets into the monitor (never mind that her handguns are NOT in evidence right now), but she stifles that desire. Besides, shooting out the cameras would probably be more effective.

Emiya Shirou (560) has posed:
    "Tomoyo?!" Shirou stands up, but... ends up staring. Where is Tomoyo?! that is NOT how bombs behave. There would be.. blood. Shrapnel. Debris. Something. Instead Tomoyo's simply gone. "... What...?"

    He's seen lots of explosions. That doesn't look right. The boy just sort of stares, but is frozen in place. Unfortunately he's not quite smart enough to analyze it too hard besides 'that just wasn't RIGHT.'

    For now, his mind churns on this, trying to find an explanation.

Theo Morrison has posed:
Theo is sensitive to the particularly subtle forms of magic. Temporal manipulation in particular is something he employs, and has seen used by several other Elites. As a result, he feels a familiar sort of twinge...

Tomoyo appears to be blown to hell. Theo flinches -- but isn't covered in Tomoyo-bits. There's a moment of confusion, and then, significantly less of it. He frowns, staring at the ground, and slowly sinks to a seated position away from the platforms.

Theo slowly draws a deck of cards out of his pocket. He shuffles them up, draws a hand, and plays an idyllic-looking Island. It looks soothing. Maybe he's in shock.

Seto Kaiba (623) has posed:
     The Bomb Rider looks upon the group, he just chuckles a bit. He just looks at the group. He answers none of the questions. Kaiba makes no more responses. He just looks down at the group, smirking, before the monitor turns off. The Bomb Rider then makes another heroic pose.

     "JUSTICE HAS TRIUMPHED ONCE AGAIN! Which villain shall I blow up next?!"

     And, he reaches for a bomb, tossing it to Shirou.

Emiya Shirou (560) has posed:
    Shirou's been TRYING to count how long the bomb lasted, but with all the hullaballoo he lost count. Oops. And suddenly the bomb's landing in his hands, ticking! He...

[Pass it to Sakura?]
[Pass it to the bomber?]
[State how he really feels about Kaiba's game.]

    It's an agonizing single second during which he does the only thing he can through pure gut instinct.

    -> [Pass it to Sakura].

    Because sometimes you just have to trust your allies.

    "Hup!" A light toss and it's sent sailing Sakura's way, but Shirou's looking worried over this choice.

Sakura Kinomoto (172) has posed:
    The bomb is tossed Sakura's way! She pulls a card from her pocket as it's flying through the air. "Power!" Her wand glows with a bright pink light, until she just drops it to the platform. The glow shifts to Sakura's hand, as she catches the bomb!

    She reaches to the back of her neck, and pulls a hood up and over her head. It's a pale pink, with two red lines down either side. The hood has a sort of 'beak', and is long enough that it casts the entire top half of Sakura's face into shadow.

    "...This is for the Brotherhood." She holds the bomb in her glowing hand, turning her body sideways. She lifts up one leg, holding her hand back just like a baseball player...

    And then she tosses the bomb at the Not-Rider with enough force to... Well, enough force to break bone. More than enough, really. She's kinda pissed.

    There may be a sonic boom involved.

Theo Morrison has posed:
Theo, expecting something strange, continues to play. He draws another card, and idly places another Island on the floor. Then, he looks up, and watches, tense as a coiled spring.

What he sees, he doesn't actually completely understand. What he understands is that Sakura is doing something completely against the spirit of the challenge, and that she's his friend. She trusts him, so he has to trust her. That's the way these things work.

What he /knows/, though, is that he has an Arcane Denial in his hand, and that he is waiting for Kaiba to try another magic trick.

Seto Kaiba (623) has posed:
     As the bomb flies forward, the bomber lifts his arms to catch. But, the strength of the force is far more than he can handle. Obviously this is cheating. Obviously it is, once again, Magic toying with the bombs.

     Elsewhere, Kaiba sits watching. Various controls are next to him. He could, with just a flick of a finger, activate the time stopping device again. He can tell that Sakura is planning to do this. He can see the magic.

     But he is /entirely/ willing to let Sakura kill this man. A smirk is on his face as he realizes /exactly/ how far Sakura has been pushed.

     The Rider goes flying against the back wall. His armor is broken, pushed into him. There is a dent in his chest. It's hard to see how much damage he took from the ball, and from the impact against the wall. But as the man slides to the ground, his body is completely limp.

     A small trickle of blood leaks from the man's suit.

     The door to progress further opens.

Emiya Shirou (560) has posed:
    Sometimes you just have to trust your allies, right?

    What unfolds leaves him stupefied. He thought there'd be some TRICK to what Sakura was planning...

    For what might be a reason to others, he rushes over to the crumpled bomber and tries to establish whether he is in fact actually dead or just knocked out and injured!

    WHY is Shirou doing that?!

Staren has posed:
    Staren jumps a little in surprise at Sakura's power throw. Hey, he thinks that was actually a clever solution! She didn't alter the bomb, and she knocked the bomber off the platform /using/ the bomb. This is clearly a legit win!

    After a moment he sees that the bomber sustained serious harm, though. Is that... was that supposed to happen? What game is Kaiba playing, here? Sure, /so far/ he's supposedly been a terrorist bomber, but he would not be surprised if Kaiba later said 'HA! I tricked you into killing an innocent actor!' and confronted them with proof.

    Staren looks at the man. He looks at his bag. Then back at the man. Then back at the bag.

    Staren sighs, pulling out a pair of glasses and looking through them at the bomber. Then after a slight shake of his head, he takes them off and puts them away, waiting to follow Sakura. "...Are you okay?" he asks her.

Seto Kaiba (623) has posed:
     The guy does, in fact, appear to be dead. If taken out of the suit at all, or if his helmet is removed? He actually looks a lot more terrifying than the outfit showed. Tattoos are all across his face. Atop his forehead are numbers, his Prisoner numbers. Variations of the words 'Kill' and 'Murder' appear across his face, in different languages. He seems to have a lot of healed burn wounds as well. Without going into too much detail, odds of fixing him look nil, due to injuries taken by several key organs.

     If anyone searches his prisoner number, they'll eventually be able to find that he is, in fact, a terrorist who originally worked as a demolitions expert. Despite having a prisoner number, they were never actually able to /prove/ it was him, and so he was released. So while there is a /lot/ of evidence that he might be a murderer, it's not confirmed. At the very least, after he was finally let out of prison, he hasn't committed any known crimes while working for Kaiba Corp.

     Aside from possibly blowing up Tomoyo.

Theo Morrison has posed:
Theo looks back down, breathing a sigh. Kickotron hops off the platform, wandering over to the masked bomber. He stares at him for a moment, and then turns back and goes to Theo instead. Theo looks up from the floor at the bird-robot, and reaches out to pat it on the beak. "Good work, Kickotron." There isn't much feeling in it.

He starts to stand up. Kickotron collects the deck and the islands, holding them on a little tray. He's now a waiter-myr.

Theo starts to say something... but stops. He looks up at the monitor. Then, the door.

"We should get going," he finally manages.

Emiya Shirou (560) has posed:
    Shirou pulls himself away from the downed bomber after establishing that the dude was in fact a criminal. All the tattoos are pretty grisly. "... Well, at least we know he really was..." Shirou's not happy, but this is much better than them killing someone who was just 'playing a role' to scare them all.

    "Sakura. ... I don't think Tomoyo's gone. That explosion was weird." He keeps his voice down, hoping to not be overheard by Kaiba's microphones.

    But his tone's awkward. He's really not sure how to address the girl who just flipped out and killed someone.

Xiaomu (707) has posed:
"Just a sec," Xiaomu says, hopping off her cog-platform and poofing back into her normal outfit. She paces over to where Tomoyo was when the bomb apparently took her out, and kneels for a moment before she closes her eyes, and her lips move as she whispers a prayer. Perhaps for the safety of Tomoyo's soul ... you'd need to lip-read Chinese to know what she's saying.

She rises back to her feet after completing her prayer, and looks briefly at Shirou - not saying anything, not visibly agreeing or disagreeing, but if those bombs were powerful enough to obliterate an unprotected human body, there should be FAR more damage to the guy's body, armor or no armor.

On her way towards the door, Xiaomu lingers by Sakura, squeezing the girl's shoulder. "I'm sorry I couldn't protect her too, Sakura," the sage fox says softly. She strictly blames Kaiba for causing Tomoyo's death - whether Xiaomu's "tampering" was the excuse for it or not, it was Kaiba who arranged the death-game, and Kaiba who made the bomb explode with Tomoyo right next to it - but Xiaomu can at least offer a bit of comfort to Sakura, rather than trying to pretend it didn't happen.

Sakura Kinomoto (172) has posed:
    Sakura just kinda stares at the door for a few moments. She responds to Staren: "N-" Crack. Cough. "No." She pauses for a few moments, then sighs. "...Let's get going. Tomoyo might be in danger." She's absolutely convinced Tomoyo isn't dead. Given there are no bits of Tomoyo strewn around, this is PROBABLY a logical call and not at all denial.

    She heads for the door. Everyone else is apparently ignored! How rude.

Seto Kaiba (623) has posed:
     The next room is rather unusual. It looks like a resteraunt. Fake windows are on the walls, and from the looks of things, the interior is set to be right around lunch. Tables are all around, each of them with things like hamburgers and fries on them.

     There are three doorways out. Each one of them has a clock above. To the left, a clock that reads 9:00. Forward, a clock that reads 7:00. To the right, a clock that reads 12:00.

Xiaomu (707) has posed:
Rather than going to a door, Xiaomu checks one of the place settings, just to satisfy her curiosity whether the food is real. Looking, sniffing, and maybe poking lightly with a fingertip are as far as she's going to go in this investigation; she's not hungry enough to pick anything up to bite into it.

Especially not at THIS point in the climb.

She does have a guess as to which door is correct, looking at the door to the right, but she doesn't approach it, instead looking at the others.

Staren has posed:
    Staren puts a hand on Sakura's shoulder, and nods. He hesitates a moment, unsure if he should say anything more... then just follows into the next room.

    "...Hamburgers are a lunch or dinner time food, so it's probably not breakfast. Hmm, no, that doesn't really narrow it down enough though, does it." Staren muses to himself, then checks behind him to see if there's a clock over the door they came in.

Theo Morrison has posed:
Theo slides on into the room. He looks it over, and, with the trained eye of an American nerd, born and raised on beef and fried potatoes, he makes a keen and cunning judgment:

This puzzle is impossible. Every time is hamburger time.

Kickotron has no opinions, since he doesn't eat.

Sakura Kinomoto (172) has posed:
    Sakura barely stops to consider the puzzle. She certainly doesn't stop walking, and just heads straight for the 12:00 door. She is not in a very great mood right now, clearly!

    At least she's listening to her allies' musing out loud though.

Emiya Shirou (560) has posed:
    INto a RESTAURANT NOW? Shirou cannot believe what he's seeing. The boy blinks in wonder, utterly confounded. "Wha... what now?"

Seto Kaiba (623) has posed:
     As Sakura just walks right through the door, it opens readily. Inside, is another room. It's actually a little bit strange, because it looks like Wall Street. There are numerous monitors listing stock prices, set up in various terminals. The American flag is hung from the wall. And, notably, the lights are fairly dim.

     Three doors are in this room. One to the left reading 2:30. One to the front reading 4:30. And finally, one to the right reading 3:30.

Xiaomu (707) has posed:
"Closing time at the stock exchange, huh?" Xiaomu asks (more or less rhetorically) as she surveys the next room. "Staren, Theo, you're closer to American than I am, do you remember when the market closes?"

She's heading towards the 4:30 door in the meantime; if they don't have any ideas one way or the other, and if nobody else stops or pre-empts her, she'll open it.

Theo Morrison has posed:
Theo follows along. He kind of wants a burger now, but he doesn't think he'll be able to get a decent one anywhere in Japan. It's something to think about that isn't so... grim, though.

"I thought it was at four," Theo says, "so... four-thirty door?"

Staren has posed:
    "O-okay... Sakura?" He follows. "We don't have this sort of thing on my world..." Staren replies to Xiaomu. "But I'd guess sometime in the evening? 4:30 sounds most likely, I guess. Unless they close early in the morning instead...?"

Sakura Kinomoto (172) has posed:
    Sakura has absolutely -no- way of getting this, being completely uninterested in finance and also being Japanese. So she just stops in the doorway and listens to the others talk, before heading for the 4:30 door. It seems to be the one they all agree on!

Seto Kaiba (623) has posed:
     As the 4:30 door is opened, the next room is revealed. It's a bar. Specfically, for /some reason/, it is the bar from Cheers. The only addition is that there are three doors in the room that look completely out of place. One on the left that says 5:00, one ahead that says 3:00, and one on the right that reads 1:00.

Staren has posed:
    "A bar?" Staren glances around. "People usually drink at night, right?" He glances out the window to see if it's evening or night. If it's evening, he points to the 5:00 door.

Seto Kaiba (623) has posed:
     Outside the window, it is definitely evening. It looks fairly dark outside, and the bar itself is lit only by its own lighting.

Xiaomu (707) has posed:
"If it's five and the sun's going down," Xiaomu remarks, "it must be winter ..." She looks over at Staren, "Hitting the bar after a day at work, probably? That wouldn't necessarily be as late as after supper."

The 5 o'clock door sounds about right to her, in any case.

Emiya Shirou (560) has posed:
    This one is utterly beyond Shirou. He's not terribly good with puzzles to begin with. Being of only average intelligence (and some might debate that), and completely divested of whatever cultural references are being made here, he can only make a very unhappy face at the whole proceedings. "Sorry. I don't have a CLUE what this puzzle's getting at. Let's be thankful there aren't any bombs involved."

Sakura Kinomoto (172) has posed:
    Sakura, once again, allows her smarter compatriots to do the thinking for her, and then heads for the 5:00 door. She's really glad she didn't have to leave any of them behind.

    She's still trying not to think about what happened earlier.

Seto Kaiba (623) has posed:
     The 5:00 door is, in fact, correct. It opens readily.

     The final room is entirely unlike all of the others in this set of puzzles. Holographic trickery makes the room appear to be outside. The horizon is visible in the distance, some mountains dotting the landscape. The sky looks yellow and cloudy. It actually feels a bit difficult to breath here. The group finds themselves standing amongst the ruins of some vast city. Rubble and destruction is all around, bits of melted steel all over the place. Looking further in the distance, one can see remains of other cities, along with numerous craters. Various remains of atomic bombs dot the landscape as well.

     There are three doors. Each of them just tower in the wasteland. They are made of metal and steel. Elegant designs mark the frames. And, sitting on the top of each door frame is a clock.

     To the left, 6:00. To the right, 9:00. Forward? 12:00.

     There is an intense pressure in this room. It fills the air. Whether or not it is simply the foreboding feeling of realizing the enemy is so close, or an artificial stimulation to mimick that effect? It's hard to tell.

Staren has posed:
    "See, /this/ looks more like my world." Staren comments to Xiaomu. "Hmm. Can't make out the sun's position at all... It's probably not 6AM or 6PM. It might be 9AM or 12 PM."

Theo Morrison has posed:
Theo steps through the door again, and into a wasteland.

He stops. He stares. Holograms? What is this one supposed to be mimicking? The others, the clue was the time of day; this one... well, it isn't quite so obvious.

"This is a little trickier," he mutters.

Xiaomu (707) has posed:
Upon entering the last room - and she hopes it IS the last one - Xiaomu takes two steps to her right, clearing the doorway for the others, and ... reaches up to rub her eyes with her right hand, left hand gripping her staff tightly. "Damn it, Kaiba," she grumbles.

What she's cursing him for is probably not entirely clear, but after a few more seconds, she lowers her hand and looks at the door frames. "Go with twelve o'clock this time," she suggests.

Emiya Shirou (560) has posed:
    Into the 5:00 door everyone goes. Shirou coughs and puts his sleeve over his mouth and nose. "What's THIS supposed to be?!" He doesn't like this room. Doesn't like it at all. Although a few glances around reveal the answers. "... this is just excessive..." Mutter mumble.

    "YOUR WORLD looks like this?" He's looking right at Staren when saying that, hands once again in his jacket pockets.

Sakura Kinomoto (172) has posed:
    Sakura cringes a bit. She's kinda wishing she brought a mask to go with her hood. What kind of Japanese assassin IS she?!

    Regardless, she tries not to waste time, and heads for the 12:00 door like Xiaomu suggested.

Staren has posed:
    "Well... the ruins, yes." Staren replies. "Though not so recently."

Seto Kaiba (623) has posed:
     The 12:00 door is opened. There is a blinding light from behind the door. It soon passes, though. There is along bridge of metal leading ahead. The bridge is blocked by a gate, and a sign: ONLY SAKURA KINOMOTO MAY PASS. A stairway leads off of the bridge, to a seperate area for those that are not Sakura.

     This entire room is a massive stadium. A large amount of stadium seating is all around, and the stairway off the bridge will lead to a reserved area for Sakura's friends and companions. The seats throughout the stadium are quite fine quality, each having trays and drink holders, along with plush cushions.

     The center of the arena is the true draw, though. Two pedestals stand high above it, where everyone in the audience can see them. These connect to bridges. One is, assumedly, for Sakura. The other is certainly for Kaiba. It's elevated /just/ slightly above Sakura's own. Obviously, he has a much higher opinion of himself than he has of her. Were he to be facing Yugi? The pedestals would be level with eachother.

     Below the competitor stands is a wide arena. It is a circle of large white tiles. It's wide enough to be a fine arena for combat. Hanging above this circle is a small metal cage. From where the audience is sitting, they won't be able to see who is in it. But, Sakura can see easily. Most likely, the other Elites can too.

     It's Tomoyo. And underneath on the bottom of the cage is a metal device made of gold. Within it? The Time Card. Various wires go from the cage to the ceiling, connecting to the various inner workings of this tower.

     Before Sakura can have a chance to walk to her stand? Kaiba steps forward. He lifts his right hand, smiling and waving at the audience. And, the audience goes wild with cheering and hollering. After all, he is the child billionaire. The King of Games. He is about to have a match at the game he specializes most in. A game he has only lost at /once/ before.

     His Duel Disk is on his left arm. And he smiles, looking forward towards Sakura. A glimmer of hatred in his eyes.