4356/From The Depths

From The Depths
Date of Scene:	25 July 2016
Location:	Earth-<GITS>
Synopsis:	Drowned Ophelia steals the medical remains of Kotone. This results in the creation of Flesh Doll later.
Cast of Characters:	Kotone Yamakawa, 975, 1008, 972, Yang Xiao Long, 673, Lezard Valeth, Staren, 1023, 1017

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Kotone Yamakawa has posed:
Earth - 2039
Japan
City of New Port

Over a Decade ago? Tokyo was ravaged by nuclear fire, and the city was abandoned to the elements for a time. New Port surged and became a major hub even as the reclaiming and rebuilding of Tokyo continues to this day. It's a high tech place were the majority of the population have brain implants if not more parts of their bodies replaced with Cybernetic's. The city is bright bustling and very laid out as it's less than a half century old free of dealing with layouts from other eras. A light rain is coming down this evening even as people return from work and head out for the night. On the edge of the artificial island is a medical waste processing and storage plant. It also holds certain items for law enforcement that they can't easily store in a standard evidence lock-up.

Kotone is here spending a rare night at her home and garage there in New Port going over some paper work for her bike production business which has got some notice from the recent race she was in.

Also of note on this world wireless signals are /everywhere/ and the Bandwidth you can get is pretty nuts for a society that doesn't have FTL yet.

Drowned Ophelia (975) has posed:
It began - with a sound. A rippling drumbeat that pulses the slick night near the medical waste facility. The storm clouds above begin a slow and lazy spiral, one that might worry storm watches - but who the hell pays attention to the world around when the world within is so much more fascinating? Lightning strikes - and strikes again. And again. A flickering chorus of energy hitting the same spot in the nearest side road over and over, hissing as it grounds itself with faint droplets of molten tar. There it seems to crouch, feeding off a single point of space before it -taints-. Twisting, as the air splits slowly open, the portal framed by a crackling chorus of energy.
CHAOS MAGIC! But something else. Intertwinned, feeding into the chaos is DEATH METAL, a driving drumbeat and a hard thrashing chorus. The portal opens fully, like a threading needle from the nearest gateway, and there reveals - DROWNED OPHELIA! Supporting Wyrdseeker's powers with her own Dead Gods, the wake candles of the Six Stringed Sorrow flaring to blue life, her head drooping forward. Swaying with the music of METAL, beautiful fucking METAL.
"I can't hold it for long!" She cackles madly, as her strings burn white hot, smoke rising from her clawed finger tips.

THEMESONG: 'Only For The Weak', In Flames - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qnLunQEcMn0

Argast Wyrdseeker (1008) has posed:
    Argast laughs softly as the magic and metal combined and tore open a portal to the waste facility. "Ahh....to feel the flow of magic and metal combining...how chaotic. "He says with an evil grin. He steps through and holds the portal open for Ophelia to follow through, as well as his warband of undivided warriors. "I do hope that we meet some...opposition. My magic is not yet exhausted." He muses.

Reimu Hakurei (972) has posed:
     Somewhere in the dark sky, an unidentified flying object is moving through the sky. Wait, make that four unidentified flying objects surrounding one girl wearing red and white. The girl in question could only be Reimu Hakurei, who promptly looks down at the two arrivals before groaning,
     "Ugh, every time I decide to go outside my home, this happens!" She merely shakes her head as she glances at the four red and white orbs surrounding her. She holds her gohei in her left hand and flies directly over to the pair and the four red and white orbs begin to unleash a barrage of glowing red needles directly toward both Drowned Ophelia and Argast Wyrdseeker. As they streak through the air, they leave a red trail in their wake.

Yang Xiao Long has posed:
    Welp... That crazy woman is at it again. "Guess she didn't get the hint last time."

    Yang sits astride her motorcycle, looking through binoculars at the distant thunderstorm rolling in. She had only been passing through, but the distant sound of DETH METAL and the gathering unnatural stormclouds caught the Huntress in training's attention. "Yang to Union... got a problem over in New Port, Earth - 2039. Moving to investigate, requesting backup." She clicks the radio to receive mode, puts her helmet back on then wheelies and guns the engine, roaring down towards the source of the coming storm.

Rory White (673) has posed:
MILITARY RADIO FREQUENCY on Kotone's Earth is one of the few things that will get Rory's immediate attention. The satellite she put in orbit can't tell who's sending what, given the incredibly encryption involved... but it doesn't need to. The onboard AI flags this as a priority alert and relays a signal back to its owner, while simultaneously beginning a torrential flood of connections to other satellites to hijack internet access (it has long since had enough time to sniff such traffic) and link into every data net in the area of the freak thunderstorm. Any webcam, for instance!

    Further out in space, the COGNIZANT ODYSSEY arrives in a ripple-whoosh of Faster Than Light travel. It decelerates into high orbit.

    For now... Rory works on observation. Can't deploy to solve problems if you don't know what those problems are!

Lezard Valeth has posed:
Nearby the chaos, on one of the tall, neon-studded buildings, a circle of light draws itself in the growing storm. with a surge of forgotten magics, a shape fades into view, looking over the brewing conflict in this place of technology with a measuring gaze. Behind him, his cloak flares in the wind, the Necromancer of Midgard seeing the immediate respose they gather. "Hmm hmm." He emits, his glasses reflecting the lash of lightning from the freak thunderstorm brewing. "I wonder how this will resolve..." Besides the magical entrance, however, Lezard seems content to observe Ophelia and Argent encounter the Union resistance forces.

Either he sees this as a test, or he's simply confident that they can handle it.

Kotone Yamakawa has posed:
The Thunderstorm is out of nowhere to be sure, and luckly for most of the staff at the Medical Waste Centre? They are closed and thus there's very few on sight however a security android does take notice of the unatual weather and contacts security. Then comes the portal looking at it.

"Halt, this is private property, please leave or the police will be called."

Though it may be hard ot tell that it's an android it looks like at worse some sort of local cyborg.

Kotone has several programs to watch news feeds for very strange happenings by her world's standards, andone of them pings her. She sighs rises up from her desk. Goes to put on her riding suit, and soon is on her Knight speeding into the night for the center of the strange storm.

Drowned Ophelia (975) has posed:
Drowned Ophelia pulls her smoking clawed hands away from the glowing strings, blowing on them as she grimaces. The Six Stringed Sorrow held loosely by the neck as she 'enters' this world proper, aided by the twisted Sorcerer. A faint, mocking smile plays across her pale blue features as she closes her eyes and turns her face towards the water coming from above. A broken giggle escaping her as she spreads wide her arms, spinning briefly, water plastering her ebon hair against her forehead. "Oh, there'll be plenty. Like drops in the rain.."
Even as her FREAKS begin to exit the port as well, a force to accompany the Unified Chaos. The tangled balls of hair and disembodied heads that are the Fright Wigs looping out long tresses as they climb and clamber like spiders. A Rat Gut, belly swollen with the metamorphesis to courier, giggling and drooling to himself as he rubs his bloated middle. And, of course, a Bride - mist coiling around her ankles as she gingerly steps over the precipe, her ghostly pale form glowing in the night.
And then Reimu's throwing shit. The rain of red needles pierces the Queen of Tears, who hisses in pain as she's drawn from her reverie. Snarling upwards, she points a single blackened claw. ".. Fly, my pretties! Bring the bitch down."
The Fight Wigs -LEAP- into the air, looking to tangle and drag Reimu down!
The Rat Gun, meanwhile, wobbles and giggles to himself as the Android approaches and bespeaks of police. "Police? Oh! Rats.." He burps. Belches. And then blackened hoardes of inky rats pour out of his mouth, tiny crimson eyes and a wave of teeth as they seek to surround - cover - and devour poor fellow.
The Bride, meanwhile, hums a little wedding ditty as the storm grows louder and wilder above her. Lighting flickering all around, grounding against rooftops and walls alike - but focused especially on the door to the Medical Waste facility. Drowned Ophelia flowing forward, her Six Stringed Sorrow still hissing with heat in the rain.

Staren has posed:
    Of course, when people start coming through a LIGHTNING PORTAL, and everyone's eyes can take pictures, it starts blowing up on social media.

    This is exactly the kind of thing the newly formed Daedalus Initiative's AIs watch out for. They may not be widespread yet, but you better believe they'd start with watching their founding members' worlds! So, Staren's quickly alerted, and starts suiting up immediately, making plans with his fellow TDI members. He passes on what Sigrun told him about Ophelia's weakness to silver, for instance.

    Staren teleports onto Rory's ship. It's faster than taking warpgates, and besides, he needs to pick something up -- he grabs a couple of magazines of silver rounds, loading one into an assault rifle. If he sees Rory in her morph, he gives her a friendly nod -- otherwise, he just waves at one of the cameras before he uses her ship's teleporter to deploy.

    A beam of red light shoots down from the sky, landing down the street from the lightning portal and resolving into Staren, suited up in obvious futuristic armor and holding the rifle, which probably attracts its own share of attention. If any civilians are still gawking, he shouts, "Get out of here!" There's already no time for talking. He was planning to shoot Ophelia, but this is a rather... target-rich environment. He raises one arm, firing a couple of beam cannon shots at the fight wigs, then puts his hand back on the trigger and fires a 3-round silver burst Ophelia's way. He can't focus her like he'd like, though -- already, there's a rat swarm to deal with! He moves away from it, one of his shoulder racks popping into position and firing a missile. Instead of a conventional explosion, it superheats the air, trying to turn the rats into charcoal. The android isn't sapient, so it's regrettable but acceptable collateral damage if it turns out it can't take the heat.

Steven Universe (1023) has posed:
Far, far away, on the beach near Beach City, Steven considers musical things. "Maybe some time I'll go to a live concert of that loud music Mom liked..." Lion nudges Steven onto his back, roars and takes off. The roar opens a magical portal to somewhere loud and chaotic, and before Steven can even say, "Wait!" they are through the portal!

The preteen riding a pink Lion appears from a portal in the streets of New Port, in the midst of a chaotic storm echoing loud heavy metal music through the air. Confused but also excited, he looks down at Lion. "Is this a concert? Hey, a laser light show! Wow, let's go find the stage!"

Argast Wyrdseeker (1008) has posed:
    Argast smirks as he hears that and offers his hand towards Ophelia as she walks through the portal. Ever the gentleman, even if he follows Tzeench, the eternal changer and deciever. Though as heroes arrive, the sorceror smiles under his helmet. "So it would seem. Warband, go forth! Spread terror and chaos in your gods names!" He then slams his staff into the ground and calls upon the winds of magic to summon forth flaming geysers from the ground.

Yang Xiao Long has posed:
    Flame Geysers... it just HAD to be Flame Geysers.

    Yang banks hard, weaving through the sudden hazards in her path. She rears her cycle up, using it as a battering ram before slamming the wheels into some poor Chaos Warrior's entire everything, and using him as a ramp to launch herself up and over the melee.

    From there, she jabs a few buttons, giving AI control to the computer, before she backflips off of her ride, rolling in midair as energy seems to flow into the barrel of her right gauntlet. She aims down for Argast, and with a sudden burst of vertical speed, aims to slam her fist into him from above, followed by a shotgun blast of kinetic energy.

Reimu Hakurei (972) has posed:
     The four orbs immediately move behind the young miko and from the sides, they immediately unleash red talismans directly toward the wigs. The talismans appear to be aimed directly toward the disheveled disembodied heads of hair. Considering that they were made to deal away evil spirits, it shouldn't be too difficult to figure out that those would severely harm the heads, or possibly destroy them outright. In the process, Reimu swerves well out of the way of the heads but she doesn't really have time to process this.

     Especially considering that the flame geysers appear to rise out from nowhere and manage to reach high enough in the air to where she has to avoid the giant gushes of flame.

Rory White (673) has posed:
A beam of blue light (why did it change color?) follows the one that disgorges Staren, followed by several white ones. they all spear down about fifty feet away from where Staren appeared. Rory White materializes, loaded into her Flexbot. At first glance, a humanoid robot... but criss-crossed and zigzagged by what seem to be mechanical seams. It has no hair, and a feminine face that would look perfectly human if it wasn't made of metal.

    Four 'DRAGONFLY' model drones beam down next, meter-long shells held aloft by powerful turbofans mounted in its many wings. They do indeed resemble giant dragonflies... except these 'dragonflies' are bearing plenty of weapon mounts. Small missile racks, what look like laser turrets...

    They take off in no time.

    Rory's Muse works at getting in contact with law enforcement and emergency services to give them a feed and all the info they can get. Also probably a warning about how dangerous these monsters are.

Steven Universe (1023) has posed:
Steven watches the pyrotechnics with a sense of awe, excitement filling his eyes. "Wow, no wonder Mom loved this music! It's so exciting!" Hopping off Lion, he ignores the big cat's grumblings, and starts running toward the show as fast as his little legs will take him! Lion, for his part, follows and watches with a deceptively relaxed demeanor.

Drowned Ophelia (975) has posed:
"MY BABIES!"
Screams the Rat Gut as his pretties are burnt to a crisp. He falls to his knees, scrabbling at the ground, the melted remnants of the black rats. There are no charred corpses - just tiny piles of blackened wisp where once they stood. Them and the former android, of course. The flabby bellied freak sobs uncontrollably, weeping in the rain as he tries to scrape the miasma back to his mouth.

"My baby?"
Coos the Bride, as MOTHERFUCKING STEVEN UNIVERSE makes the scene atop a pink lion. The ghostly creature stretching out a skeletal hand in white silk glove, her eyes glowing behind the veil. "Oh, sweetie, where have you been? Come here.. come home.." She -floats-, feet not touching the ground as she glides towards Steven, the storm re-centering about her. A faint, freezing mist rolling from her very person - clinging to all around it. Like ethereal fingers. Sound grows faint, as does sight, and even movement feels slowed and sluggish if one is affected. The curse of the Bride!

Fright Wigs fall and burn, crashing to the ground as tendrils of hair writhe about. To say it's a creepy sight is a bit of an understatement. Drowned Ophelia herself is slammed aside as silver bullets rip through her substant form. Black ichor splatters the wall behind her as she curls in on herself, her hair drooping across her features - before she snaps her gaze up. Eyes wide and white, teeth gritted. ".. You want to play heroes?"
"Fine. Let's see just how many people you can save." She turns her claws once more to the Six Stringed Sorrow, the air growing dark around her. She plays a short, hard, thrashing line
And fog POURS out from around her. It rolls out of the very air, solid as soup. But it's not just fog - it's fog stolen from the swamps of Avatar world, infused with the deceitful nature of that curious creation.
DROWNED DOOM SOLO - VEIL OF DECEIT
The small raid force that remains seemingly multiplies - faint shades that swim in and out of the fog. Some are illusionanl - others are very, very real. And they are all splitting off in different directions, sound and even sense swallowed. Heading to 'keep the heroes' occupied, with the faint crashes of glass and screams of fright.
"Keep the fuckers busy!" Drowned Ophelia calls, as she -melts- .. omething between smoke and liquid - the ectoplasmic Black Tears as they slip around the Rat Gut, and pour into his open mouth as he gurgles in surprise. Belly widens - and MORE rats are expelled. But this time? Controlled by a single will as they scramble towards cracks and crevices in the Medical Waste Building.

Argast Wyrdseeker (1008) has posed:
    Argasts warrior is struck and sent into a nearby building, and buried under some rubble. While effectively taken out of the fight, that just made his fellows angry. Amongst the warriors, badges for the 4 gods of chaos can be seen proudly displayed, and easily picked up by anyone with a camera or smart computer. Of course, that doesn't stop the rampaging warband of chaos undivided going for police, and acting like a screen for the Rat Gut and the Fright Wigs. One slaneesh follower offers a smile towards the Bride, and even steps aside. "After you, my dear." He says.
    Argast himself is struck by both the punch and kinetic discharge, sending him back a fair bit. His armor manages to take the blow, smoke eminating from the impact site. "Not bad. You possess a unique weapon. One I would very much like to know more about. I can accomplish that by removing it from your arms..though it would be such a shameful waste. You have far too much potential..." He muses to Yang, trying to use his natural talents to decieve her into joining him. But just in case that failed, he was focusing magic into his staff again, but not for fire. Rather, he suddenly seemed to be fading into the shadows.

Kotone Yamakawa has posed:
The nan? dioesn't screma but react by pulling his weapon which is a staser of some sort. He tries to take them out butit gets no where werhe and soon he's ripped par but he's not bleeding red, he let out no cries of pain, a strange white flyuid spurts from where one might expect blood, also there is no meat on this man, thebody is naught but metal and other materials.

Asthings are getting insane Kotone can see the pillars of flame and she brings her motorcyle to a halt, she's not /that/ well armed but she's always hid a weapon in her bike she takes into the multiverse. She takes the pistol froms aid comparmntand braenly races in. She has no idea why there's a kid here but lowers the weapon and look at Steven with great concern.

"This ... isn't a concernt you shouldn't be here, it's dangerou."

A chill goes down her spine as well she's concerned about something happening to the boy. This may leave Kotone open to being blind sided by the hostile forces here and there's just this feeling of fear here. She's not sure why but then she take sight of the chaos agent here and worse there's even more otehrs here.

"What the hell?"

Then Drowned Ophelia is trying to lure Steven in.

"... She's bad news and she looks like a relic of the 80s..."

She tries to move to get between her and Steven. No she has no idea that Steven is far more powerful than she is.

Inside the Medical waste faculty one would find that a number of hazmat coninaers labled with scan codes and some with names. One might have the note Kotone Yamakawa and a court case number. There's also a note indicating it's to be disposed of as the trial is over with and it's no longer needed.

Rose Quartz (1017) has posed:
Rose was there to investigate the 'music' and pyrotechnics. She hadn't meant to go there to fight. But unlike Steven, she's had thousands of years of experience, and knows a battle when she sees one. She was about to say something when she saw the Bride reach out towards Steven. She still isn't sure about him being her son, but she knows a skeletal woman reaching for her little boy is bad news. She takes a grand old leap into the air, a quartet of rose-shaped cannons popping into existence around her. She aims down at the bride with a ferocious expression on her face.

"KEEP YOUR HANDS OFF OF MY SON!" she bellows. Four brilliant bolts of rose-colored light spring forth from the laser cannons, exploding into Rose Quartz and Rose Shaped beams, searing down out of the sky.

Reimu Hakurei (972) has posed:
     Reimu manages to get through the pillars of flame, but she immediately turns to where she expects to see Argast and Drowned Ophelia, only for the two to have gotten away. She sighs as she can clearly see the large crowd of shades that are moving through the air. She grins as the four orbs resume their position behind her and continue to unleash homing talismans directly toward the shades that are flying through the air. The talismans also aim for the unseen shades as well, but while she can keep the fog shades busy, everyone else will have to deal with the rats at the bottom. While the homing talismans are great for taking on many things at once, even they have a limit.

Yang Xiao Long has posed:
    "Damn right I have potential, the potential to kick your ass!" replies Yang as she cycles the next shell into place with a practiced setting of her stance. The darkening shadow surrounding the Sorcerer gets a smirk from the brawler. "Too scare to fight me?" she asks, before she punches again... surely she can't hit from that far away? The kinetic blast was a point blank effect!

    Of course she can hit from that far away, as a pair of unstable energy balls fling from the blonde's fists, aimed low to strike the ground. They explode like hand grenades on impact, sending out waves of heat and kinetic force.

Steven Universe (1023) has posed:
Steven finds himself bubbled by his own power, as the concert turns into a battle?! This wasn't what he wanted, people might get hurt! The creepy ghost zombie lady calls out to him and that weird mist spreads, clinging to his bubble like some sort of gross slime, while some woman on a motorcycle yell something he can't hear over the music still screeching through the air. Afraid to unbubble and go help because that mist looks *nasty*, he hesitates until the chaos magnifies with beams of Rose laser he would recognize fill the air in front of him.
"Mom!"

Argast Wyrdseeker (1008) has posed:
    Argast's position is drilled and the explosion kicks up smoke. After it clears, nothing remains, not even shadows. "That has yet to be seen..." He says, stepping from the shadows. Although it was not only one 'Argast' but multiple. "Did you think Fire was all I possessed?" He asks, almost tauntingly. Moments later, the Argasts and his illusions burst forth. Each had drawn their sword and aimed it for Yang, testing her ability to pick the real chaos sorceror out.

Rory White (673) has posed:
Through some combination of luck or just good placement, Rory and her forces go unmolested by the Drowning Doom minions. Which is good.

    IT gives her a chance to observe, and analyze. Up above the battlefield, the DRAGONFLIES are unaffected by the fog. Having no minds of their own, their sensors are not fooled. But they have little firepower to offer, as they can't see INTO the fog too well... those readings are helter-skelter, for the cold nature of the Bride's mist fouls up thermal cameras that could otherwise penetrate the fog.

    Rory would frown intensely, but she has no reason to waste energy on expressions. Instead a silent order is given: FIRE!

    Two of the Dragonflies open fire with a rain of MINI-MISSILES that swoop for the distant Rat Gut based on last known position...

Yang Xiao Long has posed:
    Yang is still only learning how to sense energy levels from those around her, but that sense is just enough to pick out a strong source from weaker ones. The brawler lifts her arms to intercept one blade, letting it clank against the metal and flare her Aura a bright orange-yellow that washes across her body as it spreads the impact like a good quality anti-ballistic vest does to a bullet. "Did you think I couldn't see through your little ruse?" she counters, parrying the blade aside, before aiming a punch at the sorcerer's sword hand. The strike did a lot of damage though, the gauntlets show a fresh scar each from where the blade hit and sank into the frames, but that only seems to have made those blasts of kinetic force /stronger/. Yang's hair is ablaze with licking yellow flames which dance amongst the golden locks, and her eyes have turned a baleful red shade like glowing coals.

Lezard Valeth has posed:
It's chaos and carnage on the streets! Lezard has some appreciation for the way they're going about getting what they want... Even if he can't quite tell /what/ they want.

Oh well.

Either way, there seems to be a steadily increasing flood of undesirables in the area. Lezard can't have that, that would be just... giving up, wouldn't it? And the Confederacy is.... /very/ stubborn.

Just as Staren moves to try to give chase to Ophelia, there is a surge of crackling light that surges and explodes before him, scintillating beams that curve around and towards him in a bombarding strike.

"Well well, if it isn't the young scientist." Another circle appears, and Lezard manifests within, the teleportation magics fading away. "One would advise the course of wisdom in this case, Staren. Depart from here and I will not be required to show you the folly of your ways." A crackling purple flame surges in one hand, lighting his grinning expression from below as he prepares for the inevitable response.

Staren, much like Lezard, can be very stubborn sometimes. He can almost respect that, really.

Staren has posed:
    Staren stumbles back, his forcefield glowing and cracking, parts shattering as the magic bombards it. He hesitates for a second, considering... Then the shoulder rack fires its remaining two missiles. One at Lezard, one at the rat swarm. Staren follows it up with a couple of beam cannon shots at Lezard, then starts running... away from Ophelia. Seems Staren's decided he can't fight both at once.

Argast Wyrdseeker (1008) has posed:
    Argast grimmaces as his sword is knocked from his hand, but the gauntlet holds it's form. The sword is pulled back into the shadows, and Argast emerges, the darkness acting like a cloak. He was about to speak when two things happen. One, he saw the light surge. A smirk emerged on his face. "I see another mage has arrived. How rare to find a kindred soul in these times. I must remember to make their acquaintence." He muses. Two, a follower of Tzeench falls to the ground and screams in a mix of pain and exaltation. His left arm ignites into purple and pink flames and contorts in a horrible display of sheer chaotic power. "YES! I HAVE BEEN CHOSEN!!!YOU HAVE SEEN MY GLORY, LORD TZEENCH!!!" He bellows. He rises up from where he fell, his arm now mutated and changed into that of a flamer daemon of Tzeench. His allowed the warrior to fight now with sword and warpfire. Hoping to capitalize on that moment, he hurls some small fireballs towards Yang, while the mutated warrior charges at the nearest thing in his path. But at the moment, he was nowhere near any elites, but some poor police officers who were about to feel the bite of warpflames unless the warrior was stopped.

BGM=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qv3WvK6Amg4

Rose Quartz (1017) has posed:
Rose continues to bombard the Bride with her laser light cannons, landing amidst a cloud of dust and smoke. Her shield is out, and her sword is in her hand. Looking over to lion, she gives a piercing, two-fingered whistle. Whether he comes over or not is a matter of debate, but she could use a bit more precision mobility right now. Her voice is booming as she lashes out with a blinding series of sword-strokes at the Bride. She'll focus on the rest of the battle after she's taken care of the baby-stealing undead witch.

Kotone Yamakawa has posed:
With Rose dropping in in full Mother mode, and Steven showing he can protect himself with some sort of bubble allows Kotone to focus on some other things. Such as the horrible things that the seemingly Metal Rocker from the 80s who actually has all the powers someone on a Metal Album cover might have. That being The Drowned Ophelia. Kotone does see Staren and Rory. Then Leazrd? She only knows of him by Reputation but he's not one to mess with and the fog is odd she's feeling something strange with it too and she takes a few shots at Ophelia as enough iis enough with this. She's also trying to not think about the follower of Chaos, he's here and he world could get a lot more trouble even from say the Imperium of Man over this, and then she's forced to trun her attention to shoot at Argast trying to keep him at bay but she's now open to Opehlia, yes her day isn't going to be going well.

Yang Xiao Long has posed:
    "COWARD! COME BACK AND FIGHT ME!" shouts Yang in a near rage as Argast vanishes into the shadows... but her focus has to shift. Even though she's in a nearly pure rage state, she knows there are innocents around, and that newly Chosen Warrior has flung fireballs at her! Warpfire is different enough to the regular fire that Yang is so attuned to, that as she guards against it, the flames burn her arms and set light to her jacket.

    Thinking fast, the girl releases some of her Aura, blasting flame, Warpfire and kinetic energy out around her in a dome, before she charges after the Warrior going for those police officers. "GET OUT OF HERE!" roars the blonde berserker, charging with all her might and firing a pair of blasts behind her to leap the charging Tzeench warrior, and block his path with her body, grappling onto him and digging her feet in, causing the ground to crack and furrows to be dug. "GO NOW!" she shouts over her shoulder, before pushing hard back against the Warrior's strength, her entire body glowing with her Aura, and her hair joining in, gaining a brilliant golden glow that likely blinds in the dull half-light of the storm.

Lezard Valeth has posed:
Staren didn't have much to say and got right down to business! That's actually faster than Lezard expected! With a grunt, he thrusts the Manus Catalyst forward as the first missile fires, the munition slamming into an invisible barrier and detonating. The impact rolls over his shield, causing it to crackle before the beams strike next. The follow up crashes through the shield, the sizzling rays shearing into Lezard and leaving long burns on him. "Ggggh! That's very direct of him..." He mutters, giving chase. Ophelia is free to deal with her /other/ multitude of problems, thus.

As Staren rushes away, shearing rains of shadow-forged blades strike down around him, and clusters of bone sikes push up from the walls and floor, trying to block and injure him. A few of them even launch cars in his direction, obstructing his path where they can in an attempt to turn him around back to the Sorceror. "Shoot and run, will you? I will teach you some /respect/!" He calls after the evading scien-cat.

Steven Universe (1023) has posed:
Steven watches Rose Quartz with big starry eyes from within the bubble, then shakes off his confusion and decides to do more than stand around being a target. Since his mom seems to have the Bride in hand, he starts running, rolling his bubble like a hamster ball, trying to escape the fog and try to find some way to help.

Lion, for his part, has been watching Steven with an impassive look but protective intent while simply portaling away from threats on the edge of the battle, turns at the whistle, gives a last glance Steven's direction, and roars mightily before charging to Rose's aid!

Argast Wyrdseeker (1008) has posed:
    Argast emerges again, this time close to where the warrior was grappling with Yang. "You monster...For years he wanted the attention of Tzeench, so he could honor his fathers memory, and you stop him in the midst of his glory." He says, tone mocking again. He laughs deeply and watches the warrior pushes against Yang, his arm spewing forth warpfire to try to burn her face off. Then in his back he feels the shots of Kotone. He turns, and stares a hole through her. "Fine then...I will have to get serious. If you want to increase your allies, I will increase my magic." He muses. More focus goes into his magic, exposing a fatal flaw to Yang. He needed to commit focus to controlling the magics. But this time in the area around him, he falls forth a hellish flaming tornado. "BURN! BURN IN THE FIRES OF CHAOS! FIRST YOU, THEN THE EMPIRE OF SIGMAR!!!" He screams out.

Kotone Yamakawa has posed:
Flames of chaos are bad very bad and Kotone while quick she's not quick enough to get away from him. She fires a few more shots but her clip runs dry. the fire comes she moves again but it's not enough her pausing to shoot was a mistake and she's caught in the tornado of flames. Kotone lets out a cry and drops, when the flames moves on she's smouldering on the ground unmoving.

Rose Quartz (1017) has posed:
Rose, presumably having dealt with the Bride, looks to Steven. In her face is still love and the woman Greg fell in love with, but there's a dangerously cold side to her as she swings up on Lions back. Grabbing Steven THROUGH the ball, she swings him up onto Lion's back.

"Steven, I need you to bubble those flames with me. Keep them bubbled, let them die." she says. Tears stream from her eyes as she watches precious blue Kotone pie fall, burned and smouldering. As Lion runs over in response to the press of her legs, her lacrimal essence pours down her face and trickles down her arms. "Stand, Brave Warrior. Your time is not yet done." she says, holding up her shield to cover them. Even as she's bubbling the fires, she lets her healing tears pour down over Kotone. The girl may remain unconcious, but there's no danger of her dying.

Then she turns to Yang. "YANG, SHIELD!" she yells. Rolling off from Lion, trusting him to protect Steven, she heaves her shield (and sword) towards the grapple, aiming for the guy she's grappling. Then into her hands fall a pair of spiky chain balls. She turns towards Argast with a stare of disdain, chest heaving from the effort of doing so much in such a short time.

Yang Xiao Long has posed:
    'Yang, Shield!'

    The Brawler grunts with effort, her Aura adjusting to cover the majority of the damage from that spitting Warpfire. She's singed, burned in places but she's not giving up. "I. WILL. NOT. LET. YOU. WIN!" roars Yang as she shifts her stance, smacking the unmutated arm aside, before slamming the now free fist into the Warrior's face, hopefully knocking him off balance enough to break the grapple. "ANGLE IT!" she shouts back to Rose, as she turns, fires her gauntlets to leap onto the shield, then gathers down, gritting her teeth before firing AGAIN to fire herself skywards.

    She soars, and for a moment, hangs motionless in mid-air, once more that energy builds in her gauntlet, but this time, it gathers from her hair and the golden glow suffuses the weapon. Then like a meteor, the blonde girl hurtles downwards at the Warrior, this time, the fist is like a sledgehammer, the kinetic blast like a C4 shaped charge, and the impact against the ground, causes a crater and chunks of concrete and rebar to burst forth around her in a circle.

Reimu Hakurei (972) has posed:
     Reimu manages to deal with the all of the shades before they cause too much trouble and she groans upon noticing the giant flaming tornado. It doesn't take long for her to remember who sent out the flames in the first place and soon, the four orbs are aimed directly at Argast Wyrdseeker. The young miko swoops down toward Argast and the four orbs unleash a veritable barrage of needles upon Argast. There was no need for more fire!

Staren has posed:
    Staren's forcefield keeps taking hits, but it's rapidly cracking, layers crushing and shattering as the bones press against it, the forcefield emitter discs on Staren's chestplate popping, sparking, and smoking. He's going to have to get away quickl--

    CAR

    The car slams into Staren's forcefield, but as it breaks, it acts like a perfectly slippery sphere, taking on the car's momentum... and transferring it to Staren as the field shatters into a shower of amber sparkles. Staren's tossed down the street at high speed, armor scraping sparks on the pavement. After about a second of skidding, he manifests his wings and flies up. Since the weapon combination worked well before, the rack on his /other/ shoulder pops up and fires the first of its three missiles, followed by Staren firing the beam cannons. "I wasn't /running away/, I was trying to put you between me and your allies! I respect your power and ambition, just not your goals!"

Steven Universe (1023) has posed:
Steven, still amazed at Rose Quartz's power and skill in battle, nods at her command, bubbling the flames wherever he can reach them, with the intent that they'll die out in the bubbles with no air to feed them. He also summons his own Rose Shield, in case something tries to hit him. "Come on, Lion, let's try and do some good!" With that thought in mind, he hops off Lion next to Kotone's fallen form, protecting her from further attack with the Rose Shield. But it's clear this whole thing is wearing on him, he looks really tired now. Lion stands nearby, guarding them both.

Drowned Ophelia (975) has posed:
The MOTHER BEAMS OF FUCKING ROSE DEATH obliterate the Bride - who, with a faint ghostly cry, disperses into the fog around her. Leaving Steven, for the moment, as a giant hamster ball rolling about the battlefield while his mother does a double-team shield leap-up smash. Because some things are just fucking awesome.
Of course, Steven can't be left alone. That'd be too boring. No, his rolling progress into the fog is briefly copied by another roundish shadow rolling after him. Which is quickly revealed to be a tumbling Fright Wig, disembodied head glaring at him in the few seconds of eye contact between it's revolving progress. No, it's not much of a threat to him - but it sure LOOKS wrong, doesn't it?

Reimu's targeting orbs slip into the deep fog, and but for faint crimson flashes of contact, it's hard to tell how much effect she's having. At least, before Argast takes on every fucking thing like a boss. Helped on by Lezard, of course, but the whole excercise is a time delay. Something to keep the overwhelming response busy -juuuust- long enough-

For Drowned Ophelia. A collection of rats sliding and slipping through the darkened fog, a missile exploding into some of the pack. Which, not like rats at all, splatter like ink balls. The rest keep climbing, into and under. Inside the medical waste, a moving floor of shadow, with hundreds of bright red eyes looking in all directions. At last they find it - the one medical waste chamber. The collective shudders as a black mist rises from them, shrinking even as they form - Ophelia. Wounds opened along her side, leaking the black ichor of her form, but she's smiling brightly. Even as she plunged black claws into the canister - and begins to open it.

"Got your nose~" She whispers, even as she signals completetion to the rest of her 'companions'.

Argast Wyrdseeker (1008) has posed:
    Argast looks up and spots the 4 orbs. "Not this time..." He says. He steps back into his cloak of shadows and is gone for the moment. But from a new location, he launches a fireball for Reimu's back. "I remember your tricks, witch. I happen to like witches, but you...I'll make an exception." He was angry now. Gone was his toying, mocking tone but in it's place a rage of a warrior of chaos, and sorceror.
    The mutated warrior had a split second to contemplate his life before the sheer force alone ended his life. In the end, he died a good death, one worthy of a chaos warrior. But back to Argast, he has had ENOUGH of this. "Red wind, I call on you. Unleash your rage unto my enemies! Burn the flesh from their bones, and their bones to ash! SEND DOWN YOUR FIREY ORB OF RAGE! DEVESTATE THIS LAND!" He screams. In the skies, a red glow eminates, hinting Argast was summoning forth a meteor. But, this left him completely open, as he had to focus EVERYTHING into maintaining the spell.

Yang Xiao Long has posed:
    Yang stands from the Quake, rising in her own aura of red and yellow flame. Her eyes are glowing a baleful red, flames licking at the corners of her eyes. She steps forward once. Her foot smashing a new mini-crater into the already damaged floor, another step and another crushing foot-mark.

    Those eyes? They're locked onto Argast. "Not this time." she growls softly, then with a gathering of her legs beneath her, she surges forwards, Firing once... twice... three times to build up speed. "YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" she kiais ratcheting her right arm back, like the hair trigger hammer of a gun, aiming to smash the Sorcerer square in the face.

    The gauntlet's gunshot is lost in the subsequent explosion emanating from the barrel above the girl's index finger. The burst of yellow energy engulfing the entire area in front of her.

Reimu Hakurei (972) has posed:
Reimu beings to wonder where Argast went only for her to hear the sound of a blazing ball of flame coming from behind. She hastily swerves upward into the air and the hem of her dress is left smoldering black as she turns to find the direction that the flame came from. She turns around to face the sorceror, with rage in her eyes and she whips out a small card. Said card had the pattern of rainbow colored orbs swarming around a poor unsuspecting fairy.

     "Spirit Sign: Fantasy Seal"

     As the card vanishes, several large rainbow colored orbs of light materialize from Reimu's glowing body. The large orbs of light immediately begin to streak directly toward the chaos sorceror, threatening to envelop his body in a string of colorful explosions should even one of them make contact with his form.

Steven Universe (1023) has posed:
As the freaky black and blue head approaches throwing globs of what must certainly be dangerous black crud, he dashes back and forth, catching globs with his shield that might otherwise hit him of the downed Kotone, each one ringing on the shield, each one causing deeper reverberations. Soon the sound becomes disruptive to low-level magical constructs, for what that might be worth. But the glowing fire of the fight happening not far away is momentarily distracting, and a black glob splatters his leg, its corrupting Black Tear nature causing him to cry out and fall to a knee in pain, again focused on warding off black globs. Whatever is happening behind him to cause such bright glow will have to deal with itself, as he bubbles himself and the downed Kotone in the strongest Shield Bubble he can manage without passing out.

Lezard Valeth has posed:
Staren is sent skidding down the street, and Sorcerer stands opposite Technomage on the storm-lashed, burning street. No one sane is present between the pair, anyone with any degree of self-preservation having quit the area.

No interference. No hostages. Just mage and science-cat.

Good.

The missile fires, and Lezard immeiately responds. "Fire Storm!" The blast of flame isn't aimed for Staren, however. It's interposed with the missile, making it fly through the fireblast and detonating it early, showering the street with flame and concussive blasts. The followed beam strikes screech against Lezard's mystic defenses, forcing him back... But they hold this time. "You might need to change up your strategy, Staren." Lezard replies. "I am not so foolish as to not be able to adapt. That said, at least you claim to respect /something/, unlike your theoretical 'allies'."

Lezard tilts his head, smiling as he adjusts his glasses. "I can only imagine the abuse one like you must feel. I acknowledge your genius myself. You possess skills that may even surpass my own in some respects... And yet you continue to shackle yourself like this! How do you stand it! How can you /accept/ the rule of lessers when you have such vision?" His Catalyst outstretches again. "LIGHTNING BOLT!" As if on command, an intense, air-shattering bolt crackles down the street, trying to strike Staren!

Argast Wyrdseeker (1008) has posed:
    With Argasts complete focus on the spell, he never saw the yellow berserker coming. Her impact breaks his focus, and with such a massive spell fizzling a /HUGE/ explosion eminates in combination with the yellow explosion. Once the dust settles, Argast was on the floor with smoke and a risidual heat glow making his black armor glow slightly. But he doesn't move. While the armor took the brunt of the damage, he was human underneath. The sorceror was finally unconscious.

Yang Xiao Long has posed:
    Yang is sent flying back as Argast explodes back at her from the feedback pulse. She skims across the ground, cracking the concrete with each impact she takes. She finally comes to rest, after smashing into, and through a nearby building, the wall collapsing atop her.

    She doesn't move.

Rose Quartz (1017) has posed:
Rose judges the situation carefully. There is a great deal of firepower flying straight for the sorcerer, and that means she's free to turn her attention on Lezard. She heaves one of the spiky chainballs... Right at Staren, and for a moment, it looks like she's changed sides... But then the lightning is drawn to the spiky chain ball. "Fun thing about these. Garnet helped me make them. They magnetize when exposed to electricity!" she says. Then she releases the other one, which streaks straight towards its mate. Lezard is between the large, spiky balls. Thus disarmed, she grabs her laser light cannons again, setting up a barrage of fire to either side. She looks to trap Lezard between laser and spiky chain balls. Leaving him with one route of escape, if he's fast enough... Or more than one, if he's REALLY fast.

Drowned Ophelia (975) has posed:
The signal given to retreat - objective secured - Drowned Ophelia digs in deep, wings springing to existance on her back. The raven wings flap hard, Black Tears pouring around her - somewhere between smoke and liquid, the strange and brutal ectoplasm of pure Sorrow. She heaves, and flies upwards, cackling madly..
Outside, the roof of the Medical Waste building explodes upwards. Because what was an exit without explosions? There, Ophelia can briefly be seen as she clings to one pod in particular - before she gathers herself, and flies further up and off to the night. All this - madness, chaos, misery - for something that was just getting thrown away in the first place?

No one ever claimed Drowned Ophelia was a stable, sane person. Who could be, as an avatar of Death Metal and 'super srs goth so dark guis' emo? She'd be crawling in her skin, but that's the wrong fucking genre.

And it would appear that Staren's initial hypothesis was at least somewhat correct. With the exit of Ophelia, the hiding fog begins to roll back, dispersing into the air. A wobbling Rat Gut hunting the unconscious Argast - to sling him over a shoulder and slip away as well.

They got stomped, pretty fucking hard, but it was never meant to be more than a quick raid to steal whatever the hell it was that Ophelia stole. Steven's bubbles of Black Tears stirring within their confines - slipping between liquid and gaseous, somewhere in between, as they seek some way out. If exposed outside the bubbles, they'll fade away. Much like sorrow itself, they come on strong and depart just as quickly.

Staren has posed:
    Lightning goes pretty fast! Staren can only react to Rose with a quick nod. And he needs to change up his strategy... he elects to shoulder one weapon and draw another, flying to the side of the firestorm to draw a bead on Lezard again. This is a laser rifle with an underbarrel grenade launcher -- Staren just keeps firing, trying to pump as much damage as he can into Lezard's defenses in hopes of overwhelming them.

    Also, is Lezard trying to talk him into switching sides?! "Seriously!? You tried to torture and kill my girlfriend! Fuck off and die." Language, Staren! There's a kid present!

Steven Universe (1023) has posed:
His leg throbbing with pain from whatever that black stuff, worn out from bubbling and shielding and bubbling some more, Steven watches what looks like the last of the enemies leave, that black head thing with them, and lets his shield bubble go. "I think... I'm'a... take a nap." And with that he faints, curled up against Kotone's form. The little bubbles containing fire or Black Tears or whatever was in them, remain, so long as nothing in them puts up any actual fight.

Lezard Valeth has posed:
The murderous response slams into Lezard's barrier. It's powerful, but Staren has some solid firepower of his own. The barrier gets brighter and brighter, a runic bubble of power that repels the strikes until it shatters, blasting into pieces as the next grenade takes him in the chest and detonates!

The Necromancer of Midgard hits a building, shattering the windows as he craters into the wall and slides down. "Hah." Lezard coughs up blood and spits it to the side as one hand reaches up to touch the mass of burns that his chest has become. "A compelling retort. So be it, I will yield the ground to you for now." A new teleportation circle forms under him, and he gestures to the science-cat. "Keep in mind... The only reason you care for that talking horse is that it accepts you. You can do better than that. Why settle?"

With a laugh, Lezard fades away, leaving a thick bloodstain behind where he lay.

Reimu Hakurei (972) has posed:
     Reimu's pupils begin to shrink as soon as the shockwave from the Medical Waste building blows her back. She hurtles through the air directly toward the ground only for her to just barely miss impacting the hard concrete. As she manages to stop herself in midair, she turns around to see the Medical Waste Building on fire and she grits her teeth.

     Out of the corner of her eye, she manages to spot a young boy next to the unconscious body of Kotone and she searches for someone for someone nearby to take care of them. Upon finding everyone occupied, she lowers her head and flies off toward the Medical Waste Center to find any survivors.

Rose Quartz (1017) has posed:
As the battle winds down, Rose makes the rounds of her companions, the sparkling tears that flow from her eyes healing all injuries. Yang is first, taking the healing touch. Staren is next. Even if someone wasn't struck, they still get a dose of lovely healing goodness, with Steven last of all.

Steven Universe (1023) has posed:
Lion stands guard still over Steven and Kotone, if 'curling up with Steven and yawning hugely' can be called standing guard. Still, he watches and listens with his usual impassivity in case Rose needs him again, or something threatens his boy.

Staren has posed:
    Staren's eyes widen. Holy shit, grenade to the chest! Did he get him...?

    No. He's still talking. Staren keeps shooting. "No. You're wrong." It's the kind of statement that might be laced with doubt... but there is none in this case. Someone else said that to Staren four years ago, and he's already answered that question for himself.

Drowned Ophelia (975) has posed:
With the rescue of Argast, the departure of Ophelia, and Lezard's own bloody exit, the storm clouds at last break - what was becoming a lightning filled storm is now a mere drizzle once again. The fog fading away like a bad dream; There are still monsters running about, of course. Rolling Fright Wigs, and other nastiness, but they're alone and seperated from the Drowning Doom. Without the Death Metal to sustain them, they'll quickly wither beneath heroic onslaught.

BRUTAL VICTORY: CURB STOMP EDITION
WINS: Better Rain, Bubbled Black Tears
LOSS: Some medical waste who ****'ing cares, amirite?