553/Distressing Beacon

Distressing Beacon
Date of Scene:	07 September 2014
Location:	Planetary Plains
Synopsis:	A TSAB outpost sends a distress signal out.
Cast of Characters:	15, 96, 282, 320, 381, 401, 430, 548, 558, 560
Tinyplot:	Power Games

---

Yagami Hayate (558) has posed:
Regardless of how people arrive at the outpost, it will have a few important details to be concerned about! First and foremost: it's eerily quiet at first. Anyone who can tap into the local sensor network will notice that the local sensors have been disabled and put into the classic 'loop' method of keeping any recording from hitting memory.

It is a smallish outpost, but did have an interim unit of Ground Forces stationed here... which is probably why they managed to get any signal off at all. The outpost consists of one large building with a comms array, and two smaller ones, all arranged in the grassy field of the area. Pretty remote. A single VTOL craft is sitting not far off, untouched. Someone has strung their laundry out between two of the buildings.

Those arriving will only have a few moments to encounter the various parties here before the door to one of the side buildings bursts open, a panicked Ground Mage leaping out of it and slamming it behind him. This actually seems to be a /bad/ maneuver, because a sharp blade pierces the door when he pushes on it... and jabs into the man's chest. "HRK!" He spasms, and the bright gleaming orange of his Linker Core erupts from his chest, starting to trickle down into the blade impaling him.

Flint Hawke (320) has posed:
'Multiversal Galactic Catering. Our Food is Stellar in More Ways Than One!'

The Spaceship equivalent of one of those mobile food trucks is currently streaking through space at as fast as the rickety engines will carry the failing tugboat of a vehicle. Which, as it turns out, is pretty fast when you don't care about things like 'the hull shuddering apart' or 'massive decompression' or 'G-Forces at a cataclysmic level'. Zoom zoom, right?

Flint is sitting in the food preparation area in the back, working on the grill, which is currently floating around while he attempts to get something to cook on its surface. Eventually, as the outpost is approached, the ship zips in through atmosphere like a comet and slams into the ground with a buckling force. Debris flies everywhere as the Pirate Captain crawls his way out of the crater.

"Burger's done! And it seems that gentlemen is in quite a pickle." He adds as a secondary note, watching the murder happen while the wounds on his face and body heal up mysteriously. He takes a big bite of his burger.

Material-L (15) has posed:
    Material-L is among the Confederate arrivals-- no doubt, transported here by Testarossa Fate's Dimensional Transfers, because you really don't want Levi at the helm when urgency is important.

    Her Barrier Jacket appears to have been ever slightly changed-- rather than a leotard, skirt and thigh-highs, she has a tuxedo on, black with blue and white streaks just as her normal outfit would. Her poofy cape is worn over it as normal, as well as her armored bracers and black gloves.

    She has a nametag saying 'Buddygard'.
    Credit for almost getting it right.

    Vulnificus idles in one of her hands, already in scythe configuration. First everything looks safe, so she motions for her 'clients', the good Nanoha and Fate, to move forward, putting a finger on a toy bodyguard earplug she is wearing. "Clear! Go go go~!"

    And then it is NOT clear.
    A man from the TSAB, getting cut through a door.
    Levi frowns.

    "DON'T WORRY, I AM ALSO A DOCTOR!"
    She rips the Buddygard nametag off, revealing a Doktor one.

    Vulnificus' scythe blade flares to life, a bright cyan blade of mana projecting itself from it. She suddenly surges towards the door and the man, and attempts to slice in half across the chest! ... but her blade is set on nonlethal. Wow, she can remember to do that sometimes.

    The slash is actually trying to extract the man's Linker Core in a single stroke, and knock the blade back through the door. This thief is evidently a jerk and she's calling dibs on the meal.

Xau'ra Tayuun (548) has posed:
Xau'ra Tayuun was kicking back when he heard something-- pretty bad get transmitted over the live broadcast out in the Multiverse. He flipped up to his feet and quickly grabbed his things. Placed on his red lens goggles encase the light there would be to bright for his eyes.

With his bow strong to his back with his quiver and the two swords at his his hip, the male Miqo'te was off to see what he could do to assist. After all as it was pointed out to him by one of the Alliance officers-- they gave him this chance to clear his name-- and he in turn was to make good with the Union so when the Garlean Empire started to move again, they would have the needed aid.

..and like seven hells he was going to stand by to let the Garlean Empire have there way! So, time to make allies!%rOnce Xau'ra arrives on location, he is already getting a cold chill really. Places with a great deal of man-made materials like most modern cities cause him to have trouble sensing the elements. His his hand is ready to go for his bow at the littlest of things and when people arrive, he almost does just that.

His cat-like ears move just faintly, but they tuck back a bit as he visual shows that he doesn't like how things feel. His tail doesn't even twitch or move much, it just stays down low with the tip of it barely touching the ground and only that is slightly curled up so it doesn't drag.

As he moves across the payment, his steps are quiet with the boot he wears. He is a hunter after all and including a bandit/thief. Silence is something he knows how to be. It is when the man comes out from the door, does his eyes go wide behind the goggles. Before he can even speak though he watches the man get impaled, "Seven hells!" Xau'ra barks out and goes to actually run over to where the man has fallen.

Though as he does get closer he draws out one of his swords, just encase whatever it was comes rushing at and though he moved to close in the gap-- caution kicks in and he starts to move far closer to the now dead man. He may need to get tapped on the head to remember he isn't alone here and its a bright idea he works with a team.

Though it seems someone else, or perhaps several may be already a step ahead of him when it comes to the charge and perhaps even dealing with the problem on a more aggressive level.

Caro Ru Lushe (96) has posed:
    Caro will arrive via cheaty Dimensional Transferring, along with anyone else who happened to need a lift and was close. She's already in her barrier jacket, though Friedrich is still in his sealed form, flying along behind her.

    She manages to arrive in time to see the man getting struck down. She's unable to resist the urge to go and help out right away, moving forward to try to pull the man off the sword before he can get completely drained, giving Flint a look that on anyone else would seem neutral but is actually close to as disapproving as Caro gets.

    Her attempts to help are interrupted by the much faster Levi, though, who gets what actually IS as disapproving as Caro gets. "Levi! You shouldn't..."

Fate Testarossa (282) has posed:
    Fate(the Union one) and anyone Union-side who needs a lift will arrive with the sudden splitting of the air tearing open, a Dimensional Shift opening up a gate to let people through. The dark-cloaked Fate is already taking off from there, a streak of yellow in the sky, heading for the outpost with some <span class=" bold_fg_y bg_n ++ oncern.

    chy"><SIR. SENSOR NETWORK HAS BEEN COMPROMISED.></span> Bardiche reports in that stern voice. She halts in midair, her Device snapping into Scythe mode, and stares down at what is going on.

    "Wait! Don't get too close!" Who is Fate calling to? Levi, or her allies?

Takamachi Nanoha (381) has posed:
This trip, Nanoha is letting her Fate handle the Transport. She is, like last time, bringing Vesta... but not in warkitten form. No, Vesta is in her humanoid form, because Nanoha herself is still stinging from where Vita managed to slam her in the ground last time.

This is why Vesta is using a cloak and they're approaching cautiously. Only, Nanoha is startled by Levi's action and ruins the cloak by crying out, "Levi, don't! You could kill him!" At least it doesn't look good for the guy.

Testarossa Fate (401) has posed:
    Indeed a crackling ripple of static hums in the air, before a clap of thunder heralds the arrival of the Confederates, the last vestiges of a runic circle of gold light slowly fading away as Fate lets the processes and calculations of the Dimensional Shift spell die down.

    As ever, she was cautious. Excessively so, with multiple seemingly random jump points, actually letting Levi pick coordinates three times, and then re-taking control of setting coordinates, before finally arriving at the outpost. The result is a 98 percent certainty that Fate, Nanoha, Arf, Levi, Satsuki and the Elite Four will be untraceable from whence they came, without a goodly amount of effort.

    [DESTINATION REACHED.] Bardiche announces as the dour girl in black completes the task of ferrying her allies. A small squeeze of Nanoha's hand and she releases, as the commotion is already underway and BODYGUARD LEVI sallies forth. Briefly, scarlet eyes widen as the TSAB agent is stabbed but...

    "... She's not a real doctor, is she." Arf says scratching the back of her head.

    Fate says nothing. Not while her gaze is turned towards the arriving Unionites and older iteration of herself, which seems to earn a slightly tighter grip on the shaft of her Devi<span style="color:e.

    c#ffec8b">[SIR?]</span>

    "Mn..."

Satsuki Kiryuin (430) has posed:
    Where last time the Queen of Honnouji came with just one underling for support, this time she has arrived in force. Flanked in a four-corners formation, Satsuki Kiryuin stands with her hands on the pommel of her sword, looking out upon the outpost - and Levi's antics - from between the iron wall that is Ira Gamagoori and the coiled spring of kendo that is Uzu Sanageyama. Behind her, Houka Inumuta taps away at his own datapad while Nonon Jakuzure folds her arms and snorts. "If she's a real doctor I think even the underachiever's father would be horrified."

    Sanageyama, however, is giving the arriving Union a suspicious stare, much the same as Fate is. "Oi, we got company." Satsuki closes her eyes. "Pay them no heed unless they become a threat. Something is amiss. Having seen Signum's devotion... I believe something else is at play." Better not to pick fights they don't need to fight.

Yagami Hayate (558) has posed:
Of all the people in the area, it is FLINT, CARO, XAU'RA, the ELITE FOUR and UNION FATE who have the clearest view of what happens next.

Levi's scythe passes through the mage with a cry of pain from him, and she manages to catch hold of the Linker Core for /herself/ instead as the blade slides free of the man. Unfortunately it just draws back, and as he falls backward, the door bursts open to reveal a strange, swaying and masked female form with one arm replaced by a blade. The next slash is aimed at Levi, and despite the strange lurching motion the creature is /fast/ on its feet.

More immediately of concern to all those involved is that the main building's door opens next. Another masked figure is coming through the door, dragging a dead body behind her. She looks identical to the other one... a masked female figure. Only this one's arm shifts into what appears to be a cannon, and fires off several blasts at Levi as well. These are mass-based projectiles, not magical bullets, as well.

Flint Hawke (320) has posed:
In response to the disapproving look, Flint gives Caro a tip of his big fancy hat, "Little miss," He says cordially, finishing off the burger in his hands as he watches things begin to unfold, "How mysterious. Sultry sisters seeking sensual snacks of sordid savoryness." Flint briefly alliterates, wiggling his fingers boredly.

Of course, he's not here merely to watch. The tiniest Nanoha has asked him to help out in these incidents, and so he dusts crumbs from his hands and briefly starts to jog over, "Excuse me, ladies!" He pauses as one takes the chance to shoot at Levi while the other slashes, "Excuse me!"

Might as well try to have a friendly chat with the murderers, "Do you think we can resolve this without the fighting and the unpleasantness?"

Xau'ra Tayuun (548) has posed:
Xau'ra hears someone say 'don't attack' but when the creature comes out he readies his sword to fight. His tail tip twitches gently as he takes a few steps back, then only to hear the sound of the cannon fire from another one that has shown up.

He snarls his fanged teeth, before he glares over at Satsuki as she says to ignore them. He doesn't recognize her as one of the Union members and then stares back at the monsters. He decides to ask on the union band before just rushing in. Better safe then sorry, right?

"What in the twelve are those things.." He mutters to himself as he goes to take another step back. Then he watches as some guy goes running up there asking for 'peace' instead of 'war'. Which Xau'ra calls over to him. "If that works, I am buying you a pint!"

Material-L (15) has posed:
    "Omnomnom!" Levi goes, as she snatches the Linker Core and clenches her free hand around it, as if crushing it. The orange-colored mana sweeps up her arm and dissipates into her body, resulting in a small and temporary boost around her. For the more sensitive it is fairly obvious she just ate that guy's magic.

    Unfortunately she does not get time to rest and/or enjoy it, as the woman bursts through the door, and another from a second building. "Ooh! I don't know you. Hi!" Oh, sword. Levi barely manages to sidestep the first few slashes-- ending up with cuts across her Barrier Jacket, somewhat less protective in its current modified, fancy form. She reaches down to grab the drained man, and with surprising force hurls him towards Caro.

    Before she gets blasted by the second woman!

    Fortunately this one's a spell, so as she dramatically covers herself with her cape and gets engulfed in numerous explosions, and the light and smoke finally clear, she appears to mostly be intact, with huge chunks of her cape missing.

    "H-Hey! That's not fair, ganging up! Nanoha, Fate, who're these meanies?!" She seems annoyed! Nevermind the fact she picked this fight.

Satsuki Kiryuin (430) has posed:
    Upon the appearance of the strange masked women, Gamagoori and Sanageyama immediately take a step to the fore, and even Inumuta and Jakuzure step out from behind Satsuki so that they're in a better position to defend. They don't, however, go on the attack; they are here as bodyguards for Satsuki, so unless she orders them into the fray, they will simply stand guard.

    Satsuki herself, however, is watching intently.

Caro Ru Lushe (96) has posed:
    "That.. What is that?" Caro says, confused for a moment. With a drain going on, she'd rather expected this to be the Wolkenritter, after all! Decidedly not people with swords for arms and al...

    In midthought, she's struck by injuredmandoken, the force enough to knock Caro off her feet. She's not a fully-fledged medic, but she's close enough to kneel down next to him, starting to make certain he's at least stable and all of that. Given where she is, this is slightly hazardous if the masked people decide to go for her, but Friedrich should at least provide the summoner with a warning if that occurs.

Takamachi Nanoha (381) has posed:
Nanoha is confused now. She has no idea what these things are, and now they're attacking Levi? Well, Levi was pretty violent, there, but... she's pretty sure these things are worse, since they're stabbing people. Lethally.

"Vesta... help," she says quickly, taking to the air.

Vesta gets into a fighting pose, "You got it, Mistress!"

'DIVINE SHOOTER PHANTOM SHIFT,' Raising Heart pings, sending a stream of pink bolts out in a huge blizzard of shots toward the one shooting at Levi. Most of them are illusions, and it's mainly meant for suppression fire.

"Captain! I... I don't know if they're willing to talk right now, be careful!" Nanoha is kind of panicking at the moment.

Fate Testarossa (282) has posed:
    Aaand things turn out to be worse than she feared. Fate(the Union one) is frowning and starting to move when Levi just hurls the man to Caro. Well, maybe the guy isn't dead. That's good. This leaves Caro exposed. "Be careful!" she calls to Xua'ra, and in a flash of yellow she's blitzing over next to Caro now, scythe at the ready in case someone tries to use Caro's distraction to take advantage.

    "Bardiche, send out an Area Search to look for any more survivors," Fate says.

    <YES, SIR.> Two shimmering yellow orbs split off from the scythe, darting toward the buildings to start a sweep of the area while she protects Caro.

Testarossa Fate (401) has posed:
    It's a confusing turn of events, that much is for certain, but despite the slew of internal conflicts and struggles to figure out just what exactly is going on, when Levi acquires the Linkre Core and the doors burst open for a new pair of figures that become immediately hostile.

    While Levi may be kind of a scary, happy-go-lucky murderbeast at times, she is STILL one of the small and select few that Fate and Nanoha can call a friend. And this means Fate slides into quick and decisive action.

    When Nanoha engages in suppressive fire, Fate wordlessly opts to join Nanoha and Levi for a more direct assault, a quick wave of Bardiche signalling the Device into action with a silent choice in spell.

    [NIGHT BIND.]

    The resulting bands of not gold, but sickly purple light that attempt to form around one of the female figures seek to bind the body constrictingly, crackling with visible arcs of purple and golden electric light in a torturous squeeze that's more than just a bind, but a crushing application of force and searing voltaic plasma.

Yagami Hayate (558) has posed:
A friendly chat? Well, Flint is probably aware enough to SEE the results, but he still has to deal with the remaining masked female. Yes, there are THREE here, and a third bursts from hiding on the VTOL, blade extended to slice toward the pirate Captain. It looks like he's made himself a target... possibly because of that yummy Pure in his chest registering as some kind of power source. The Mariage aren't sure if they an drain it... but are going to try. Besides, they can always use the body.

Here's the problem, though. That cover fire against the Mariage in the doorway is surprisingly effective. That is, the 'zombie' ducks back into cover, rather than just tank the hits. This means they're using some strategy. Uh oh.

Levi will get some energy from a Linker Core! Sadly, he doesn't have any particularly compelling spells. Awwww. He is kind of a third-stringer, as mages go. These things don't seem /that/ tough, so he obviously isn't anything special.

Speaking of 'these things,' Fate's spell crackles and wraps around the one attacking Levi, causing it to jolt upright and arch. It doesn't seem to be feeling pain, that's just the result of electricity coursing through its body.

And no, none of them are speaking.

Satsuki and the Elite Four are being utterly ignored, but Xua'ra will have a few shots going that way. Might be a mistake though.

Flint Hawke (320) has posed:
"Woah there, sorry, ladies. I don't go for penetration on the first date. I'm a gentleman~," Flint wags a finger cautiously, jumping back and away from the slicing blade. Boots skid across the ground after his reflexive hop backwards, and while he dodged a nasty hit, there's still a line across his collarbone that bleeds lightly.

As if sensing that it has been targeted, the Pure itself takes a more aggressive sort of action. Veins along Flint's face, hands, and neck seem to show a black substance flowing through them as he looks to Nanoha, sighing, "Honestly, it is so hard to meet women that don't try to kill me these days."

And then he turns back towards the Mariage that assaulted him. He counterattacks quickly, trying to clap his hands on either side of her head and twist it in a neck-snapping movement with remarkable strength that he shouldn't normally have. Hopefully it works.

Emiya Shirou (560) has posed:
    Arriving via Union Fate's help, Emiya SHirou is a little disoriented by the spatial transfer and stumbles down to his knees following it. So much magic at work here! More than he's used to dealing with.

    This becomes IMMEDIATELY apparent as spells start flying, people are stabbed, masked women are going hogwild and wow is almost every combatant a girl?!

    Shirou makes a few panicked, stammery sounds. Yeah, almost everyone is a girl for some inexplicable reason. Except those few guys. And the one really BIG guy.

    He's gonna need a weapon.

    "Trace, on." Switching on his Magic Circuits now is just a matter of switching mental states, not a laborious and life-threatening process, and that helps a LOT.

    Golden light streams from his hands, quickly forming a pair of daggers. The weapons are made according to a mayan-esque aesthetic and bear some kind of noticeable enchantment - one that's, coincidentally, greater than the power used to make them. Weird.

    "They're not interested in talking at all! What are they after?!" And where should he go first?

Xau'ra Tayuun (548) has posed:
When the bullets come for the Male Miqo'te the charm on the necklace for a moment seems to glow with some type of light. Those gold eyes behind the red lens goggles looks in that direction as the bullets come flying in.

Xau'ra quickly draws out his other blade and uses his two swords to deflect the bullets away from him. The metal against metal causes sparks to fly in the air, though as one bullet does get in. He misses it with his sword and it grazes him along the arm, cutting through the leather he wears as armor.

The Miqo'te narrows his eyes and twirls his two swords before he then goes to charge up one of the light poles. He sheaths his swords as he does so and then uses a good push off to reach for the top and flip himself over. Once he gets up there he uses the high point to pull out his bow, get an arrow from his quiver and then leap off in a flip, before firing the arrow and two more for the ranged masked female.

The arrows themselves don't seem like anything special, but these have been laced with a type of herb, which may cause the victim, if it gets into the skin or blood-- to maybe lose sight for a temporary time. An effective non-killing poison that others may be able to use to buy themselves time.. but.. that is if it even works-- even Xau'ra was /really/ unsure how effective that was going to be-- but worth a shot!

Get it? Shot-- ... moving on!

Caro Ru Lushe (96) has posed:
    Caro finishes up, glancing up at the Fate that's being helpful. "I think he's going to be okay. Eventually." Either way, she can't exactly get him up and moving for the moment, and so she's compelled to just go and join the fight now.

    Which mostly, for the moment, means letting her Dragon actually be ready to join the fight. He's not good at indoors fights for obvious reasons, but the masked people will have to come out eventually.

    There's a big flare of pink energy, and then instead of a tiny white housecat flying around Caro, there's a full fledge dragon overhead. That may draw their attention for multiple reasons; the summoning itself is a big flare of magic from Caro herself, and there's also a big obvious dragon overhead.

Yagami Hayate (558) has posed:
Fate's scan reveals no survivors, but it also is not picking up any more Mariage. Hopefully that means these three is all there are here.

Takamachi Nanoha (381) has posed:
"I... I don't think these are..." Nanoha mumbles. Whatever her thoughts on the matter, they are put aside by the idea that she has. "Get the man to safety and let's..." This is sort of weird for her, which is why she's reluctant. "Let's... get out of here."

She calls out, "LEVI! I think we should let the TSAB take care of this, they may hurt you if you stay here and there's no point in fighting them!" Much as these things are frightening, there's too much she doesn't know, so she's going to suggest /getting the fuck out of here/ rather than sticking around.

The only exception is Flint. Since Flint is helping out, they don't want to bail on him! So she's going to send a few quick bolts toward the Mariage attacking the Captain, trying to slam it from behind so that Flint can esca-

Or snap its neck, that works too.

Material-L (15) has posed:
    With some cover, Levi is able to break back out of melee-- avoiding the business end of those blades. She zooms backwards, suddenly streaking to a halt a foot above the ground next to Xau'ra.

    "Ooh! Catboy! Nyaaaaa!"

    Nudge nudge. The nine years old, blue-haired girl is completely distracted from the battle and starts poking at his ears, even as he is busying himself trying to arrow one of the Mariages. Nope, no she has no sense of boundaries. Or priorities.

    "Oh yeah! Evil killer ladies."

    <PROCESSING SPELLS.> her Device pings, in a smooth, male, English butler sort of voice, perfect in its tone.
    "He was boring," Levi warns her Device, before mentally doing the math. She needs to burn as much of that mana as possible and only leave the strict minimum the Book is going to request out of it, soooo...

    "I know, I know! Pew pew~!"
    <SHOOT BARRET. CHAIN NET.>

    A bright orange Mid-Childan circle draws itself in front of the Material, as she draws upon the mana of the Linker Core she just tapped. Half a dozen bright orange projectiles about the size of a fist form, and fire wildly at the same Mariage that Xau'ra is trying to put an arrow into. Using that as a distraction, a series of weak chains burst out of the circle, trying to grab and immobilize the potentially too busy to dodge Ancient Belkan magitech zombie terminator.

    The spells're pretty low-grade though. Basic TSAB trainee stuff. Whether or not Levi's the one casting them doesn't matter too much when the spells themselves are low-tier.

Fate Testarossa (282) has posed:
    "I'm not picking up any more survivors," Fate says softly. The Confederate Nanoha is giging up on suppression fire, and the other Fate... the other Fate is using Mother's spells. Fate stares at her Confederate version for a long moment, then snaps her head around. The twintailed mage focuses on the restrained one, instead.

    <LIGHTNING BIND,> Bardiceh announces, an addition to the Night Bind snapping restraints all around the Mariage to reinforce the other Fate's spell. Capturing one of them alive might be the best idea.

Satsuki Kiryuin (430) has posed:
    For now, Satsuki and her Elite Four merely stand watching, prepared to take the field under Satsuki's orders if need be.

    But Inumuta is doing some rapid-fire analysis, centered largely on the physical movements and battlefield tactics of these enemies. His primary goal is to assess their intelligence - whether they are acting as simple machines, advanced AI, or full intelligences; as well as whether they act as individuals, or move as if guided by a single force.

Testarossa Fate (401) has posed:
    Focusing on her bind while the others throw down with the Mariage, Fate runs through the various calculations and spellwork in her head at a blitz pace. Yes, she is clearly using one of Precia's spells. But the layering of another bind on top of her own results in a frigid glare at the other twin-tailed blonde.

    While his Master is already formulating the coordinates for a jump whenever the others are ready, at Nanoha's behest to get out of Dodge, Bardiche holds the bind. But it would seem she's not so keen on aid from the other Testarossa present.

    "Arf."

    It's a simple command, one that gets the red-haired wolf woman stepping up, "Right right, let me get in on that.~" She pipes, an orange spell circle forming beneath her feet, chains of reddish-yellow light streaking to further tie down the figure already ensorcelled in the double-Testarossa bind. And with a flaring CRACK of thunder, where there was a woman that could best be described as tall, busty, and busty, there is now an absolutely gigantic red wolf, bounding over in leaps and and a loping sprint...

    To try and scruff the zombie-like woman in her massive jaws, if not stopped.

Yagami Hayate (558) has posed:
Rapid fire pins down the Mariage with the arm cannon, and Xua'ra manages to strike it in the shoulder. The woman plucks the arrow out without any apparent inhibition from the poison... though the arrow itself mauled the shoulder just as it should have. Immune to poison, yes. Unstoppable? No. A few more shots zip out toward the melee outside... then the body she is dragging is yanked further in, as she dashes to the other end of the building and crashes through the far door. A gate in spacetime rips open, shimmering as an escape route. Someone VERY FAST might be able to intercept, or someone who has some ability to bypass the building like say a giant dragon.

With the bolts slamming into the one attacking Flint, it staggers and Flint can grab and snap her neck without too much trouble, thanks to Nanoha's support. This... /does/ seem to work, causing it to go limp and immeditately begin to disintegrate into a viscous, black goo puddling on the ground.

The one doubly-bound by the two Fates jerks and twitches, trying to bring its weapons about again. It seems fairly dumb in how it does this, but the moment the one with the cannon makes a break for it, the bound one goes stiff... and also begins to melt into a thick black sludge, starting to ooze out of the bind and also making an awful taste in Arf's mouth.

Xau'ra Tayuun (548) has posed:
When he lands down on the ground and gets ready to make his next move, suddenly Levi is there, "H-hey!" He protests slightly as she messes with his ears, "Some of us are trying to--" Then she fires off magic projectiles, "--fight.. ok.. that was neat."

Then Xau'ra takes notice as they start to turn into goo pools, which causes him to stick his tongue out in disgust-- but he notices the one he was firing at is getting away-- including the fact poison.. probably of any kind.. doesn't work.

"Get back 'ere!" The Male Miqo'te barks out as he then jumps up on the VTOL and goes to run along the clothing line with amazing balance (blame the tail). As he does so, he readies another arrow and lets it fly, hoping to hit the one running away in the back of the knee.

Though he wouldn't be surprised if it misses-- or doesn't do the attended effect. He also doesn't fully chase after as he could, instead he balances on that line which sways under him. But yet he stands there. His tail moving side to side to aid in keeping the balance as he stands there.

Flint Hawke (320) has posed:
Flint dusts off his hands after snapping the neck of the being, looking pretty bummed out as it starts to turn into viscous goo. He wanted to steal one of those spiffy swords for his collection. Or for selling to people later as a valuable research tool. It sucks when he winds up doing things SOLELY out of the goodness of his heart.

He looks over towards Nanoha and gives her a thumbs up for her support, "Next time you call me out, try to make sure there's more lovely ladies with a less murderous bent." He requests idly.

Caro Ru Lushe (96) has posed:
    "Fried!" Caro calls out to her dragon as she sees one of the creatures attempting to make its way into an escape. She won't try to catch it; she's not as fast as that, after all. But Friedrich? He certainly can cheat at it, flying over the building, attempting to intercept the creature with a great blast of fire.

    Caro will, meanwhile, examine one of the melting ones. This is from a distance, because she had always been warned as a small child not to get too close to melting people. Fate had occasionally specific and oddly relevent advice for Caro in her younger days.

    "...I'm going to have to send samples of that to somebody." She fusses.

Satsuki Kiryuin (430) has posed:
    Houka Inumuta is just beginning to take steps forward, intending to help subdue the captive... when said captive abruptly melts under the pressure.

    Unfortunate, that. But ah well. He got the important part.

    "We'll have to see if we can find a way to prevent that self-destruct," the Elite Four's information specialist says, looking over his datapad's findings. "The blade-armed ones were drones. Their behavior was very simplistic and artificial. However, it appears they were following direction from the one armed with a cannon."

    Nonon shoots him a glare. "That joke was terrible, even for you." Inumuta gives her an arched eyebrow, but continues. "The cannon-user appeared to move much more intelligently. Next time we should probably work on capturing the 'leader' type."

Material-L (15) has posed:
    Aww, the Miqo'te runs off.
    Levi pouts, and hovers towards Satsuki and the Elite Four, finally landing on the ground again. The fight is still sorta going on but she's gotten bored of it already.

    "I bet they have something inside them that can store magic! I should try draining one next time. Maybe if they're dried out they won't have the energy to self-destruct." Or maybe it'll trigger it. She's not sure! That's if they can even be drained, although if they have the ability to drain Linker Cores themselves then they have to have something or another to target to return the favor.

    On the other hand it could be a bad idea, you never know with things like that. Might as well be an unknown Lost Logia at this point.

Takamachi Nanoha (381) has posed:
Nanoha umns, "Sorry, Captain. I didn't know that's how it was going to be. But it looks like this could be a dangerous thing..." She makes a face. "I mean... can you imagine if one of those got loose on your ship? Where do they come from?" She's not fast enough to try to chase after the other one, either.

Testarossa Fate (401) has posed:
    Not only does Arf's attempt at capture fail but she suffers for it.

    The gigantig red wolf is whining, both paws set atop her snout while her tongue lolls out, looking generally displeased.

    "AUGH THIS TASTES HORRIBLE, WHY?!"

    This results in a gentle pat on the Familiar's head.

    "Nanoha. Levi, Satsuki. Captain Hawke." Fate murmurs softly, just a subtle nudge to say she can Dimensional Shift out whenever the others are ready. With even a ride for Flint since he orbital dropped his food truck.

Fate Testarossa (282) has posed:
    Fate is going to zip off and tackle down the one fleeing... but it looks like Caro has that under control. Instead she lands lightly next to the injured man and just tries to reassure him. "I don't know if you can hear me, but everything will be fine. We have you now. The TSAB, I mean."

    She looks up at her other self again, the younger Fate there. She can tell they're about to Shift out, but she just sighs and gives a nod, looking away so they can 'leave' whenever.

Emiya Shirou (560) has posed:
    The fight's over and done with before Shirou even has a chance to do anything. In a way, that's good - it means he doesn't have to fight enemies that looked maybe stronger than he was. On the other... everyonelse did it instead, so he wasn't able to do anything to help. "...." The redhead's teeth are clenched and grinding a little.

    Other people doing this is -awful- if they are getting hurt and he did nothing! ... At least nobody seems too terribly hurt on a glance...

    "These came out of nowhere and attacked the place to steal magic? Then they're probably working for omething else. Where would they take it?" How did they ARRIVE for that matter?

    A further investigation's needed!

Flint Hawke (320) has posed:
Flint smiles at Nanoha cheerfully, "It's okay, I'm just going to hold you to next time. Bringing me more ladies like the Arf or that lovely kitty of yours~!" He croons boredly, before adding on a more serious note, "I couldn't imagine where they came from, but they will eventually run afoul of those other ones gathering pages."

Yagami Hayate (558) has posed:
The Miqo'te lets fly with an arrow that does, in fact, jab right through the back of the knee! The Mariage... doesn't seem to feel pain, but it does have the problem of no working joint. It's forced to drop the corpse - why was it dragging it? - and stagger toward the rift alone.

Not that it reaches, as the rift and the zombie both are engulfed in Fried's flame, blasting over it and forcing it to fall forward. With the arrow to the knee, it was no longer adventurous enough to reach the rift before Fried could fry it. The Mariage begins melting like the others.

This is really important, because all those puddles of black goo? The combust into flames with a small explosion, blasting outward with a billowing cloud of flame. They aren't actually super-powerful, unlikely to do much damage to the people that are around. But a normal person might lose some fingers or a hand if they aren't careful, and of course it does mean there's... nothing left to analyze.

That is probably the point.

Xau'ra Tayuun (548) has posed:
Xau'ra watches the fire works from his safe perch on the cloths line. Though when he sees the zombie had dropped the corpse. He waits for the dragon to be a dragon, before he flips off the cloths line and makes his way toward the corpse.

He does make sure in the process that he is careful, as he is not sure if that was truly the end of it all. Once there though, he lifts up the corpse-- at least to the best that his five-nine frame will let him and starts to carry or drag it back depending on how heavy and tall the individual was.

At least this was something he could to make sure that the person would get a proper burial, instead of being left out there to the maggots.

Though while he does take back this person, his quick feat of hands does try and search any pockets or things that may provide clues to who this guy was and /why/ a bunch of undead would want them.