5846/MISC: Blaster

MISC: Blaster
Date of Scene:	19 May 2018
Location:	The System - Vector
Synopsis:	The mechanized virus criminal, Blaster, has been sighted in Vector. News vlogs supposit his intentions, with most seeming to agree that he's planning some kind of robbery. One in particular focuses on a single photo of him with a blonde program in a white bodysuit, with multiple tabloid-like theories as to who the mystery girl is. An inside contact or informant (Treachary in Vector?!)? A friend (which is immediately dismissed, after all, this is a virus we're talking about)? A kidnapping victim (Could the Four Felons sink even lower!?)? A new Drive Core Controller (Why is she not immediately killing the crap out of a virus?) and many more. What could the Magikon Interdrive Syndicate of Crime be up to this time?
Cast of Characters:	Lexicon, Yang Xiao Long, 6384, 1137, Deelel, Rebecca Chambers, 6258, 6386, 6388, 707

---

Lexicon has posed:
    Welcome to Vector, the Onyx City of Design. A dense, industrial city of factories and pipes and assembly machinery. Broad streets carve through the cityscape, dividing it neatly into blocks with multiple tiers of walkways as well as multiple tiers of streets. The coordinate provided by the Guild quest (set up by Lexicon moments ago) lead to a crossroads plaza with a large statue of some hulking machine at its center. In all directions are factories, with the dull hum of power and the rhythmic noise of machinery in operation.

    One of the assembly plant doors has been forced open, its locks sparking and the frame damaged.

    Pacing near the statue is a young blonde woman in black and red, with a distinctive jagged-shaped hair ribbon and a ... bear, under one arm. The bear seems intent on staring at the door, while the reporter scribbles on a datapad, her unknowable scrawl saving and scrolling up with each line, "Who knows how long I have.." she mutters, "Will I need to use the Key and try to stop it myself?" Lifting her stylus, she chews on the end, "Nnnn, but I'm a crusading journalist. Image aside, I'd get stomped flat in a heartbeat by myself, even with the Key..."

Yang Xiao Long has posed:
    Yang comes off the System Bus... riding her Motorcycle. Somehow she got the wide, heavy thing through the doors to board, and equally magically managed to get it out again. The deep thrum of its Dust engine echos though the Drive as she motors off towards the coordinates, weaving through any traffic and approaching with all the subtlety of a clap of thunder. She pulls up, dismounts her vehicle and sets the helmet in the seat box, before tapping a control on her gauntlet as it deploys. The bike then speeds off to a safe distance, entering a holding pattern as it idly travels the various streets. "Yo, what're we up against?" she asks the journalist, stretching and rolling her joints.

    Yang looks a bit beaten up, some bandages around her arms and midriff, a few medical patches here and there. She looks like she's been in a warzone, which isn't far from the truth.

Orchid (6384) has posed:
     Heading towards those coordinates, skimming several feet above the normal street, is a robot, wearing an armored skirt, and riding a rocket surfboard. As she enters the square she rolls off of the surfboard, returning it to storage on her back, the device folding down to a compact unit. She looks around, noticing the broken lock and the reporter. She approaches the second, as is her wont, to gather more information.

     "So what's going on?" she asks the woman.

Asterios (1137) has posed:
GUILD QUEST. QUESTIN' FOR THE GUILD.

There's a strange journalist-y looking woman on the near of one of their Places of Interest. Under normal circumstances, she might be hard to pinpoint, considering how much of a veritable maze Vector's industrial sector turned out to be. But, therein lies the hitch.

It's a maze.

A labyrinth, in other words.

Also they totally have her address. Hooray!

And so, when a certain blonde woman turns about and paces again in the opposite direction, she might just find herself running face-first into a WALL OF MEAT.

Upon closer inspection, the meat is beef. On account of belonging to the abs of a certain Minotaur.

"Aa," Asterios says down at the blonde lady. "Are you. With the Guild?"

Deelel has posed:
Deelel had the quest that Lexicon issued and was quickly on her way, her Lightcycle seemed to stick out a bit here as he kept on her path to the assembly plant. The strange sound of its engine echoings as Deelel guides her craft towards the plant. When she arrives the bike which she seems almost fused into, will turn into wireframes of light, vanishing all save for the handlebars which change into a rod. Which she slaps on her hips and moves to the young blonde woman and she looks at them for a moment.

"Greetings program, can we be of some assistance? the ID is Deelel!"

She seems friendly enough though she is clad in a body suit which has light emitting circuit lines on it and an odd chakram like disc attached to a mount on her back. She's a bit of a strange one to be sure, but she seems earnest in wanting to help.

ORchid gets a bit of a look and Deelel tries to size the Replpoid up for a moment before Yang also arrives.

"Yang! You look like you need to get some code repaired err see a doctor! Are you all right?"

Rebecca Chambers has posed:
The System is a familiar place for Rebecca, but Vector is a place that she's not entirely familiar with. She relies on coordinates and things of that nature to find her way to where she needs to get to. But when it comes to getting to where she needs to, Rebecca's always an efficient person in that nature, meaning that while it's a new place to her, it takes little time for her to get there. When she arrives, she's not surprised by the way it looks, as it's just as she expected from her time in the System.

Upon arriving, she spots the assembly plant with the broken doors and she realizes that she's definitely in the right place. She draws her Beretta and loads a clip, carefully surveying the general area to make sure that there's no one waiting to ambush her, before spotting the blonde-haired woman with the teddy bear and the ribbon. She holsters her weapon to show that she's not armed in any way and slowly approaches.

Then she spots other people arriving and realizes that they, too, are here for the same reason as she recognizes them as Elites also. Her eyes wander to Yang Xiao Long which causes her eyes to widen a little. "Hey, are you all right? Do you need medical aid?" Rebecca reaches for her medical kit, hoping that it would work in the System.

Lemeza Kosugi (6258) has posed:
Instead of his typical notepad, Lemeza already has his laptop out, and is scanning the immediate area with the built-in webcam. He'd been here even before the Guild message was posted, interested in just what this place was made of, and how architecture even /works/ in a data world. This mission, to chase down a virus, was mainly just an excuse to get a closer look. Though, he did intend to lend his assistance.

And now, with the others arriving, and presumably this journalist investigating as well, he figures it's time to get to work. He actually doesn't put his laptop up, though -- he just shifts it to one hand, closing it to make it easier to carry but otherwise keeping it readily accessible. "Looks like we have a healthy mix of Elites answering Vector's call. All right, what do we know, and where are we headed?" He directs this mainly to the young blonde, though he'd take an answer from anyone who knows.

Note (6386) has posed:
    So earlier, Note heard that this supposed 'System' held tons of monsters just itching to be fought, no strings attached! THAT's the reason that she came flying through a warp gate not too long ago.

    Yes. Flying. Quite literally. A fair-skinned youth on the shorter side of things with smooth black hair, bound in a ponytail by a small red bow, garbed in red and yellow clothes of simple design that bares her midriff, and... was that a monkey tail sticking out of her rear through the pants? Why yes, yes it was.

    But anyone watching the warp gate didn't have much time to see her, because she's wreathed in a transparent-whitish aura of energy and only there for a moment. Yep. She rockets straight up into the skies of Vector!

    It's not long before she notices the gathering of unusual sorts near the great statue... and descends!

    Feet-first, in fact. Note smoothly plummets down to the ground, slowing only at the last second to touch down gently with a hand on her hip and a big, eager grin on her face.

    "YOU guys would /have/ to know where the monsters are!" Her brown-furred tail flicks around freely behind her and out to the side, tip curling and un-curling in obvious excitement!

Grave Matters (6388) has posed:
    A trio of young women arrive in some chic modern Japanese fashion: a gray-haired girl in elegant gothic lolita get-up with a black cat bearing orange stripes on her shoulder; a girl in something approximating a dark-hued school uniform with plaid skirt and a neck tie, accessorized with a purse or satchel of some kind, and fresh new sneakers, all finished out with pink-red hair down to her ankles; and finally a redhead in an ill-fitting tan school uniform that looks like it probably belongs to the pink-red-haired girl, who is also the shortest among the three. She is carrying a cellphone and watching a cat try to fit into various boxes regardless of if they are big enough to support him or not.

    They don't look particularly like Elite reinforcements, except in the sense that with their color palletes and obvious Main Character Hair yes of course they're Elites.

    They also seem relatively lost as they follow the trail of other Elites heading for this statue with the bear-carrying blonde and the minotaur and all these other weirdos.

    The trio stand by silently observing for a few moments (an enormous, miraculous feat for three teenage girls), and then Matsuri (the tiny one) steps in and says in a dull, near-monotone, "Yo. Matsuri Noriyama, leader of Grave Matters. We heard there's something or other going on, and I didn't really understand it, but I guess we're here to help because that's what we do now. Is there something that needs beating up?"

    The gray-haired girl approaches and says, "Shiho Shinozaki." Then the tan-uniformed girl approaches and bumps in front of Shiho. "NOT FAIR! You both introduced yourselves before me! I'm Ruri Tsuguhara, Crown Princess of the Underworld, and you should all repent for not recognizing me without an introduction!" She throws out one hand, fingers spread, as though expecting everyone to bow.

    Matsuri says, "Sure, sure. We repent. So what's the deal?" She eyes the flying girl suspiciously.

    Ruri fumes. "Don't patronize me! I'm very important! Hey, are you listening, Matsuri!?"

Xiaomu (707) has posed:
To judge by her words on the radio, Xiaomu is mostly coming out to help because she's got nothing better to do in terms of gaming.

In actuality? Xiaomu *was* getting settled in for an evening of gaming, but - well, she wasn't kidding about the patches that needed to download. And with Lexicon speaking up that there was a situation with which assistance would be welcome, the sage fox decided it was a better use of her time than sitting around at home in any case. (Plus, Reiji may have given her a particular sort of dirty look while she was grumbling about downloads to wait for.)

Whatever the exact details are to get filed under 'cause,' the effect is the same: one lightcycle ride and a couple of warpgate-hops later, plus a cruise on the System Bus, Xiaomu disembarks and follows the people she more or less recognizes. If she's particularly surprised by any of the arrivals, she doesn't see fit to show it, simply waving to everyone. "Heya Ruri-chan, Shiho, Matsuri, welcome to the field," she greets the Grave Matters trio in particular, simply waving to the others whom she knows on sight.

"So this is where we're looking for our contact, huh ..." Xiaomu looks up at the warehouse, then takes a gander at the crusading journalist. "In the interest of surviving to write the scoop of the cycle, any interesting details you can part with that might help us heroic types?"

Asterios (1137) has posed:
Asterios turns ponderously over towards that trio of girls-- that trifecta of strange, grave-themed ladies. But especially towards the one in tan with the attitude and the squawking and the haughtiness.

Asterios lifts one hand.

...Asterios lets his hand fall.

Asterios pats Ruri's head like an affectionate big brother might do to a precocious little sister. "There. There. You are, very important. Asterios knows. Do not... Worry."

Pat. Pat.

...Pat.

Lexicon has posed:
    Studeo turns away from the damaged doorway and immediately into Asterios. She actually jumps back, snapping her hands up in a martial arts stance for a moment before she realizes the Minotaur isn't a threat-- hands and stuffed bear lowering, "Actually no." Lifting her free hand, she indicates herself with the end of her stylus, "I'm Studeo, chief reporter for the Sytem Log. Though I did alert one of the DCCs about an issue here, so I guess a Guild quest was made referencing me as a point of contact."

    She glances back when Yang rolls up, glancing past Orchid to Deelel's arrival, and Chambers a moment later. She'll let the obvious medic deal with the obviously hurt person (or not, as the case winds up being), and instead squints at Lemeza. He'd been here when she arrived, though she didn't realize he would be interested in the suspicious activity she's investigating.

    Studeo's about to talk when Note drops down asking about monsters, producing a flat-eyed look from the reporter AND the bear she's carrying. This flickers to a more curious look at the trio of witches who've also arrived. The interest peaks as Xiaomu dismounts her lightcycle, "Ah, some of you guys are already kind of heroes around here, cool."

    "As I said, I'm Studeo, with the System Log news feed," she repeats herself with a similar self-indicating gesture, "And I've been tracking one of the Four Felons in Vector for a while, now. He and some female program he's with just broke into this assembly plant." Turning she gestures with her bear, who in turn gestures to the door, "And I've been watching the exit since."

    Turning back, she folds her arms, "I can hold my own in a fight, but we're talking about one of the Four Felons. A virus like Blaster would just bowl over me ike a speedbump. And I have no idea what the girl's capable of."

Yang Xiao Long has posed:
    Yang glances at everyone else arriving, grinning a little at Note in particular. "Man, and I thought /I/ was the bloodthirsty one." she quips, wandering over to give the little monkeytailed girl a dig in the shoulder. "You and me, are gonna be goooooood friends, I can tell... You kinda remind me of Goku a bit..." she then shrugs, and starts heading for the door. "Well, there's plenty more of us now, lets get this show on the road!" she turns from walk, to run, entering the door without listening for any kind of a plan, or warnings about possibly explosive things.

Rebecca Chambers has posed:
Rebecca can't help but smirk a little at the way Xiaomu is asking for information. It just seems so much like how she would do such a thing. It helps bring a slight sense of lightheartedness to the whole thing. Although her smirk disappears when the Studeo leaps into Asterios and she shakes her head a little.

Once Studeo has finished introducing herself, Rebecca adopts a formal attentive stance as she says, "Officer Rebecca Chambers." She salutes briefly before going at ease. "So the felon you speak of is in here with a 'female program' as you put it." She understands what Studeo means, having been in the System many times before. She's also unsurprised by the fact that Studeo's bear is pointing to the door either.

A slight frown is sent in Yang's direction at the mention of being bloodthirsty, but other than that she looks to Studeo again and says, "We don't doubt you at all, but there's no telling what this felon is capable of. It's best if you have backup."

Orchid (6384) has posed:
     It looks like a bunch of other would-be helpers have arrived. Orchid looks around as the crowd forms. She won't debate the hero thing either way, prefering to listen to Studeo. She nods. "So they haven't come out this way, but are there other doors? Can they fly?" she asks. On hearing that the other doors are alarmed, she moves next to the broken door, but not in front of it... Which is when Yang plunges in. She rolls her eyes, and small panels open on her armor, letting out a few score of small robot spiders, each equiped with a camera, that sneak into the factory.

Grave Matters (6388) has posed:
    "Four Felons. Right. Sounds dangerous. So you need them sealed or killed or what? And the lady I guess depends on what her deal is?" Matsuri asks, arms behind her head. She doesn't understand the terminology at all.

    "Wait! 'Virus'? 'Program'!? We're not in some sort of... Virtual Reality MMO are we? Aren't those extremely dangerous!? Are we going to be trapped in some sort of <<Death Game>>!? That's always what happens in these kind of situations!" Ruri protests, aghast. She has consumed much human-world media, it appears.

    Matsuri says, "It's nothing like that." Then she glances away. "Probably."

    "Did you look away just now!?"

    "Not to worry. We'll do all that we can. Is there anything about these viruses we should know about in terms of their capabilities?" Shiho asks. Then she twitches a little as she asks with a calm and refined expression. "Also are they terribly monstrous? Hideous? Do they have some awful and gruesome abilities of some kind? So that I--I mean we can be prepared."

Deelel has posed:
Deelel pauses and just looks at Note arrives she looks at her she looks at the tail and her eyebrow goes up for a moment. She just looks at that tail for a moment and sighs inwardly. "Likely nearby but just charging in recklessly would not be wise."

With that said she looks at the blonde local again.

"You are wise to not go charging in along given the situation. We should be on our guard."

The basic takes a moment to see that Yang and Note very likely are going to take.

"Wait...."

She sighs and is forced to follow Yang right in.

"Users..."

There is no malice in her voice just she long accepted her Gods often follow the logic of Leeroy, but life would be boring with them if they were not so chaotic.

"Xiaomu lets go!"

Xiaomu (707) has posed:
Well, this is going to escalate quickly; while Xiaomu can sympathize with Yang's desire to cut to the 'kicking asses and taking names' part, the fact that the building is a factory for *ammunition* seems kind of relevant, especially when at least one person in the group can shoot things just by punching in their direction. And she's not sure about Note, but between the flying and the monkey tail, she's going to guess 'super-powered martial artist' is somewhere on that girl's resume. Which means ki blasts. Which means 'shoot things by punching in their direction,' or close enough to it to pose a risk of high-explosive collateral damage in any case.

"You know I count as a User too, right?" she jokes to Deelel on the way in. Studeo was at least able to answer a couple of questions on the radio, so hopefully she'll be able to keep providing information while the Elites are on their way in. And Xiaomu's got her staff ready in case she needs to either thwack or slash. If she *does* need to shoot, she's ready to pull Roc's Icebrand ... although she's not entirely confident that ice bullets won't be as hazardous as ISO Standard Hot Jacketed Lead in this particular factory.

Lemeza Kosugi (6258) has posed:
Well, the wrecking crew's all covered. With the warrior-minded Elites covering combat, Lemeza's taking his usual investigative role. "All right, multiple floors, multiple exits, and all sorts of machinery sprinkled about. I'll get the place mapped out, then." He's not waiting for a floor plan, figuring he'd get a more current map by scanning it himself anyway. He flips his laptop back open and heads inside, setting the webcam to work on scanning the interior of the assembly plant. First things first, capturing the actual layout. That'll come in handy both for fighting and for controlling possible escape routes should the quarry try to flee. Second, he's looking for as many stairwells as he can - the central theme here is noting how freely the environment allows for movement. Related, he's also checking for any structural weaknesses in the area that others can exploit.

Grave Matters (6388) has posed:
    A huge hand lands on Ruri's head. The sheer weight of it off-balances her and sends her staggering back to land on her rear. "<<Oh, no!>> This must be what is known as a <<Random Encounter>>! I knew it!" She leaps up and reaches up to her head, where a crown appears.

    Shiho looks off to where some (at least one) person has already ran inside. "I suppose we should get ready in the event trouble appears, but I think this gentleman is on our side, so please refrain from battling him."

    Ruri hesitates. This thing that's the opposite of whatever a cowgirl is, some sort of... Reverse cow girl... Or a MANotaur or something... Is on their side!? SUSPICIOUS.

    She glances over her shoulder at Matsuri, who still has her arms behind her head. Matsuri just smirks at her. "Heh."

    Ruri goes red and lets her crown vanish again. "I've wasted enough time with you! I'm following after that other girl! She seems to know how to get things done!" Then she also goes through the door without waiting for further briefing.

Note (6386) has posed:
    Note sweeps her attention over the other Elites gathered. Asterios and Yang get the most immediate attention, but Xiaomu and the Grave Matters girls get quizzically peered at for a few seconds.

    The girl grins, because she can tell good sparring partners when she sees them!

    Especially when Yang eggs her on. Note's grin widens, turning almsot sweet and innocent with the sheer eagerness! "Dunno who that is, but I'm itching to see what you can do!"

    What she wasn't expecting... is for Yang to just plow ahead like that, without any further discussion. Note blinks a few times. She's being outshone in impulsiveness! That's... a first.

    "H-hey! Wait up!" The martial artist breaks into a run, wrapping her tail around her waist as she chases after Yang!

Asterios (1137) has posed:
Of this there is no doubt, as clear as Asterios is shirtless, this is not merely a minotaur, but some kind of terrifying /manotaur./

Not a holstaur but a hosstaur.

He's very much a man-cow, is what we're trying to say.

"Aaa," Asterios starts, looking every bit to Ruri like he's about to POUNCE AND DEVOUR HER or maybe he's just trying to help her up. "Are you. Okay?" Yep, definitely that last one. "Careful. Don't get hurt. O...kay?"

How strange.

But! Right now, they have something else to do. Asterios waves good-bye to that strange blonde journalist woman and starts of after the others. He... Barely fits in the doorframe! He kind of has to stoop a little bit to make it through. Is he really going to be alright in there?

Probably. It's a factory, so it's bound to be relatively spacious, right?

Lexicon has posed:
    "Building plans aren't available," Studeo admits, "That's the kind of limitation I have as a reporter and not a native Vector program." Bear tucked under one arm, she cradles her chin thoughtfully with the other, "We should be careful. Even if ammunition is supposed to be inert until fired, there could still be a problem. And also I'm not /sure/ on that, it could be a weapons plant, a vehicle manufacturing foundry, or maybe they just make styluses here."

    To the questions posed by the three magical girls, Studeo shakes her head, "Not really. Blaster is scary strong, but he looks like a super robot. There's even a lion face on his chest." An eyebrow quirks at Ruri's protestations, and Matsuri calming the self-claimed royalty down. Eyes closing, she sighs, "You've been watching too much anime, I think."

    To Orchid, the reporter nods, "Good idea, get some intel on what's going on inside. And then the punchy types can go in and clean house. Like myself, this big guy here," Gesturing to Asterios, then to Note, "And the brawler girl, and miss Blondie here--"

    A dotted outline blinks conspiciously where Yang is not.

    "...Huh?" Turning, Studeo glances towards the door, "...Oh jeez, she just ran in?!" Studeo lifts up her bear in one hand, jamming her hand into its mouth. Pulling, the plushie appears to turn itself inside-out, *pop*ing from a yellow stuffie into a golden sword shaped like a fountain pen, "So much for the slow approach..!"

INTERIOR:
    One might expect a claustrophobic environment of industrial, pipe-lined corridors and floor grating. What actually dominates the interior is a single enormous chamber from the ground floor to the roof, encompassing multiple stories with no real floors. Just different levels of wide catwalks designed to support forklift-like machinery. The center consists of a vertical conveyor, mechanical arms affixing parts to a core frame and then passing it up for the next stage of assembly. At this particular level, it's hard to tell if the device is a small vehicle, a mid-sized drone, or a large weapon. The statement about ammunition doesn't seem to be entirely accurate, but then again Studeo did say she wasn't sure about it. The entire facility does seem to be automated, though, with no sign of workers anywhere in sight. Even the forklift, which pauses in front of Asterios, honks, then backs up and tries to find some other way around him like the largest and most confused Roomba ever made.

Orchid (6384) has posed:
     Orchid shakes her head. "Not the first time my allies have gone into danger, no idea of what they'll find," she says to Studeo.

     Inside the building, most of her robot spiders climb onto the walls of the building, going up and maping the place out, giving the information Orchid needs to build a map. Other spiders investigate the assembly line, three jumping on one of the devices being assembled, dancing around to avoid the robotic arms working on the thingy, so Orchid can figure out what it is supposed to be.

     Darkness isn't going to stop the spiders much, as they look from every angle they can get to.

Yang Xiao Long has posed:
    Yang looks at the assembly line, then does a quick glance over the layout. Right, no main floors, just access ramps and catwalks for the dronelifts to scootle along. This'll be interesting. But that's what she's been trained for! Verticality in combat to fight the must larger Grimm, to get to their weakpoints or outmaneuver the more ponderous large monsters. She spots a tiered stack of some crates, and beelines for it, hiking up to the top, then launching herself up to a catwalk with a directed burst of her contact-range shells, using them like a pair of jump boosters. "WHEEHOOOHOO!" She lands on the catwalk, rolls with the momentum then gets back to her feet, running along the track. "Nailed it~!"

    Yang, doesn't really know where she's going, though.

Note (6386) has posed:
    Note does charge in for a good ten seconds! Straight after Yang. But then a message comes over the local bands that has her putting on the brakes, grinding her teeth, and biting back the urge to curse. SHE WANTS TO CHASE AFTER YANG!

    But... someone has a plan.

    And that means... if she goes along with that, she might get to their quarry FIRST!

    Upon realizing that, Note HURRIEDLY backtracks! The moment she reaches the door she KICKS off the ground, erupting with a white aura that blazes like flame... and just ROCKETS for Lemeza, to scoop him up or grab hands or whatever he plans. (Defaulting to just scooping him up if he's not ready!)

    AND WOOOOOOOOSH. Up and off towards the top floor!

    "This plan of yours better work! I wanted to see what the blonde girl could do." She's almost POUTY about this change of plans.

Deelel has posed:
There are no building plans available, but it could be worse. She gets the warning about munitions though. Who knows what's being rezzed inside the plant as Deelel moves she'll look to Xiaomu and just sighs a little bit. "It's very confusing and yes and then we have the whole issue with Users having Users."

Well Gods, but that's how Deelel does put it she seems pretty good as he keeps going along with her longtime friend.

With Orchid running support? That should help the party out quite a bit as they get into the factory> It not how she thinks of such places, given her origins but it's clearly a place for making things. She takes note of the various machinery bit and items under production.

"There's no one here, it's all drones?!"

She'll traverse the factory attempting to get deeper and to a higher floor the harder way.

"So you want me up close or slinging spells when we find these two, Xiaomu?"

Rebecca Chambers has posed:
Even if ammunition isn't actually being fired, it's still most likely volatile. So the odds of an explosion are high if they don't check their fire. Rebecca makes sure that the safety on her gun is off, but keeps it holstered all the same so she doesn't risk blowing anyone up.

When Rebecca looks again and spots the dotted outline, Rebecca sighs. "Just couldn't wait, could she?" She rolls her eyes before making her way in rather carefully, opting to use the standard approach of operatives like those in S.T.A.R.S. instead of Yang's rushing in.

The interior isn't like most assembly plants, but that doesn't bother Rebecca in the least bit. She knows this isn't your usual place, so nothing's as it seems. She's not even fazed by the fact that everything is automated or that the forklift tries to go around Asterios like a Roomba or something. The only thing that matters right here and right now is finding the felon.

Asterios (1137) has posed:
A FORKLIFT DRAWS NEAR!
Command?

                               *Attack *Spell                              
                                 *Run *Item                                
                                  >*Stare                                  

Asterios meets the mysterious roomba-forklift's scruntinizing gaze with one of his own. He makes a sound like the world's most befuddled bovine, a sentiment apparently shared by this meandering piece of machinery. The two agree to go their separate ways.

Unfortunately, silent negotiations aren't worth much in the way of experience points or item drops. So instead, Asterios must be content with simply forging further on ahead. After all, Yang is charging pretty far on her own, and he'd feel guilty leaving her to whatever this place might have in store! Asterios goes after her to provide support!

Lemeza Kosugi (6258) has posed:
"Don't worry, Note! Given the layout of this place, we're almost certain to find what we're looking for this way." Lemeza prepares himself to get scooped up around the waist, gripping his laptop securely in both hands with the monitor facing outward. He's scanning with both technology and his own two eyes: the former catches the various paths in and around the place, and the latter is looking for the Felon and the rogue girl. He's also hoping to locate a more conventional path up the floors for the others to traverse, since Note doesn't seem like the type to ferry others to the fight. "Just drop me off at the very top. I can drop down wherever from there." He's got a plan, and intends to claim the highest possible ground to put it in play.

Xiaomu (707) has posed:
Well, at least there aren't a lot of containers full of volatiles sitting around, which prompts a small sigh of relief from Xiaomu. On the other hand, it also doesn't provide a whole lot of cover - which works both ways, really. They can't find a whole lot of hiding places ... but neither can Blaster or his moll. "I'd say slinging spells," she answers Deelel. "We've got plenty of front-liners as it is ... none of them terribly good at being patient."

Xiaomu restrains herself from busting out her lightcycle, and just goes up the ramps and along the catwalks as quickly as she can scurry on foot. It's not exactly classical 'high speed Xiaomu,' but it should be fast enough.

... and it gives Yang and Note plenty of time to be the first ones to draw attention, if that Blaster guy is actually here to have his attention drawn. Or, again, his putative moll. Or whatever role she plays in this little tokusatsu drama.

Grave Matters (6388) has posed:
    Shiho seems to become a bit more aloof when she hears their target looks like a sentai villain instead of a slasher movie villain. "Oh, I see. Well, I suppose I had best go help since our reckless princess is following the example of the others and giving no thought to stealth or strategy."

    Matsuri follows after. "Yeah, I'm fresh out of phoenix feathers." she adds nonchalantly.

    INSIDE:

    Ruri rushes in, sees people flying, leaping, and having their own random encounters with bulldozers. She stands there, arms and legs akimbo, looking around in confusion. Then says, "Shiho-saaaan~! I don't know where to goooo~!"

    She then decides she's going to follow after Yang since she seems to be having the most fun, grabs that crown out of thin air again, and then seems to let it drop. It falls simultaneously 'through' and 'in front of' her, removing her school uniform and leaving her shrouded in prismatic modesty lights that then resolve into a black and red dress, boots, fingerless gloves, and knee-socks. She bends down to pick up her crown and stick it back on her head, and her magical girl transformation is complete!

    She then goes down in a sprinter's crouch, one leg back, the other braced, fingertips just barely touching the floor, then she takes off running, and runs straight up the nearest support structure, leaping from there to another, to another, in a series of acrobatic leaps, until she's up near Yang.

    "I made it! I mean of course I made it! Now where's this blonde lady we are supposed to interrogate?" She looks over at the other brawler. "Ah! A blonde lady! Who are you and what are you doing here!?"

Lexicon has posed:
    Spiders and Lemeza work together to collect the interior plans and catwalk layout of the assembly plant. As Note and Lemeza ascend, the devices on the assembly racks grow more and more complete-- They appear to be scooters, without wheels. Some kind of repulsorlift or hover bike. But a scooter. So the coolness of the hovering technology is kind of deflated by the fact that this building is mass producing mopeds.

    At some point during the ascent, there's a flash of color. White and blue standing out against the grays and blacks and reds of the assembly plant interior. Drawn by the noise, the shape rears up and glances back-- A large, humanoid machine. Probably about the same size as Asterios himself, with broad wings off its shoulder armor. It turns, displaying a golden lion crest on its chestplate. One hand hefts a lattice crate filled with glowing power cells, while the other reaches up to touch the side of the machine's head.

    We've got company.
    I know! I've found one I want to play with!
    Play? Come on, this is serious. We have to get out of here.
    No biggie!

    The forklift and Asterios reach an accord and go their separate ways. At about the same time Lemeza's scan picks up something moving very fast-- Asterios gets a good look at a yellow streak from further down the complex. This impacts the catwalk right beneath Yang, just as she's leaving that section-- knocking the metal grating off its mountings and throwing it over the side. Light dissipates, revealing a curvaceous woman with wild blonde hair, wearing a white bodysuit, with armored Processors floating around her body. Topaz Soul snaps her claw-tipped gauntlets to either side, "You guys came to play? I'm so happy, let's do this!"

    Amidst the magical girls, sticking to parkour and ninja-style running, Studeo lets out a sigh, "Looks like we found the girl. Access--!" She brings her free hand up, then punches it down. Electricity erupts around her, solidifying into golden armor on her forearms, legs, and forming a headpiece. The pen sword also changes, becoming an axe with a lightning bolt for a blade, "But where's the virus?"

Yang Xiao Long has posed:
    Yang feels the impending doom coming up, and leaps forwards into a dodge roll. She hits the catwalk just after the previous segment explodes upwards, and turns while rolling back to her feet, bleeding off momentum in a three-point crouch. She lifts her eyes to look at the girl, and grins ferally. "Oh yeah, this is what I'm TALKING ABOUT!" She straightens herself, dusts off her jacket, then, with only a cursory dismissive glance at Ruri, brings her fists up in a ready stance. "Name's Yang, y'wanna play? I'll play." she responds, kicking forwards and bringing an overhead punch in towards the floating blonde program. The punch is punctuated with the shotgun-like report of her gauntlet firing just before impact, the recoil sending the brawler into a pirouette, which she then turns into a spinning kick to try and strike at the program's back.

Orchid (6384) has posed:
     So now it's time to do what a spotter does once the fight starts: try and figure out how to disable the foes faster. Orchid's spiders move to get better views of both the big virus and the smaller female, while the reploid goes through available resources to try and find out how to take down Blaster faster.

Rebecca Chambers has posed:
It seems that leaving her gun holstered was a bad mistake. Rebecca hears something very strange within the plant and she looks forward just in time to get a glimpse of what has just happened. Apparently, someone went into the light or something like that. Or rather, the light has come to them. And within the light is...

"You!"

Rebecca points at the woman, scowling. "You must be the one we're after!" She draws her Beretta and aims it. "You might as well give yourself up now! You're completely surrounded!" Although those last words might be futile since someone like Topaz Soul isn't likely to give up even with these uneven odds.

When Yang attacks, Rebecca realizes that there's no other option but to fight. "So much for following procedure," Rebecca says as she moves in closer with her gun drawn but not firing since she doesn't want to risk injuring Yang.

Asterios (1137) has posed:
    Asterios has seen these two before. He's fully aware of just how absurdly strong that weirdo blonde girl is. He also knows that she's more or less just a distraction being employed by the ones who are ACTUALLY doing bad-wrong-things. She's like him! Kind of. Except Asterios' master is nice.

As far as he knows.

The Minotaur ignores the flash of gold, instead charging in the direction she had come from, surging through the factory like some kind of unstoppable bullterring ram to wherever it is that second guy has holed himself up in.

Asterios does not stop when he gets to his destination. He only redirects his momentum to shoulder-check straight into the giant mecha man. "Not--" Asterios growls, his axes materializing in his hands. "So fast. Lion man!"

Lemeza Kosugi (6258) has posed:
Analysis complete. Lemeza notes the locations of both Blaster and Topaz Soul, and decides to focus on the larger, lion-crested target because the fast girl has already picked a target of her own. It looks like fortune has struck, as Lemeza spies some suspiciously glowing things in the crate Blaster's getting ready to haul off. That gives him an idea.

"Note! New plan! Drop me off on the nearest catwalk and CHARGE THE BIG GUY!" He puts on his game-time voice to get Note pumped, motioning toward Blaster's location and preparing to put his laptop up all in one move. With the laptop tucked under one arm, he draws his revolver with the other -- and fires /directly at the power cells/. Multiple shots, just to make sure he sets off as many as he can. They probably won't do much damage, but the disorientation should allow Note enough time to close the gap.

Xiaomu (707) has posed:
*Now* Xiaomu thinks maybe she ought to break out the lightcycle - partly because she does see all the hoverscooters around, basically about ready to steal for a quick getaway. She doesn't quite give in to the temptation, though, because she doesn't even really need to run to catch up with the big lion-chested virobot.

"XIAOMU BLIZZARD!!" the sage fox yells, brandishing her staff; tapping into the ice elemental enchantments on the sword sheathed inside her staff, she projects a wave of that magic at Blaster - mostly trying to freeze his legs so he can't dodge or run as readily, but if she freezes the rest of him, and/or the floor under his big booted feet? Bonus, far as she's concerned; she's just being careful enough not to let the ice spread so far that it'll hinder Asterios, or anyone else who's trying to melee the lionhearted mini-super robot.

Note (6386) has posed:
    "hrrnnnngh!" As COOL as Lemeza's mapping is, Note can only take so much supression of her BURNING NEED to go get a piece of the action! So the moment he says he's fine... she sets him down on one of the catwalks, flashes him a V-sign, and BACKFLIPS off it and down, down, DOWN!

    But she's been watching down below, and the sight of the big lion-crest robot thing has her PUMPED UP!

    So with a small burst of Ki she reorients in the air, flips around, and comes in for a landing off to the side of the Lion-Robot. The moment she has solid footing...

    "The name is NOTE! FIGHT ME, RUSTY!"

    Instantly, she LAUNCHES forward, energy crackling to life around her again, and attempts to knock the thing TEN FEET INTO THE AIR or whatever she can manage with a high kick to its chest!

Deelel has posed:
They keep moving it doesn't take long though as everyone finally is bale to make it deeper into the complex and Deelel seems to be making some good time here. Xiaomu asked her to stay ranged and she's going to hang back and keep to spells. She summons her keyblade in hand and she now starts to focus first up she'll move to join Xiaomu's spell as she shouts out a spell name of her own.

"BLIZZAGA!"

Sending a torrent ice, cold and shards of ice at the enemy trying to keep them down and hopefully do some damage while they are distracted. Thankfully her ice is more the direct attack sort here.

Grave Matters (6388) has posed:
    GROUND LEVEL:

    Shiho and Matsuri pause and look a bit more serious, detecting the incoming enemy moments before it arrives. When the sentai robot appears, and Asterios rushed towards it, they perform their own magical girl transformations.

    Matsuri grabs her necktie and pulls it off quickly, lashing it out to one side. It flutters for a moment before turning black and solid and then narrowing into a long pole. Matsuri swings it skillfully around, and where it passes over her body, in the gaps between cycles, clothing disappears, to be replaced with light, and then with new clothing. When she stops spinning the pole, a huge scythe blade springs out of the top, gleaming ominously, and Matsuri is left in a long scarf, purple sweater, and striped skirt. Her sneakers stay through the whole thing because they're pretty sweet shoes.

    Shiho snaps her fingers above her head, producing a ball of purple light that she throws down, erasing her outfit. She draws her fingers up in a Dracula-like flourish, and the light ball follows them, tracing her silhouette, and then erupting into a burst of black bats when it reaches her upraised hands above her head. In the aftermath, she is adorned in a spider-web pattern black and orange witchy dress, with knee-high boots, a spider-web hairband, and a black parasol with an orange interior. Her cat leaps in from out of nowhere, and lands atop the parasol.

    Now properly transformed, Matsuri says simply, "Let's go."

    Then she flickers and vanishes, leaving a shockwave trail behind her as she heads for the giant robo to back up Asterios by trying to just apply scythe to shoulder and start removing limbs. Unfortunately, with Note trying to knock the robot program virus thing into the air, and ice blasts getting unleashed in melee, she might have to abort her attack in mid-air.

    Shiho says, "Right behind you." Then she lifts off into the air, carried on unfelt magical winds by her parasol, as she tries to get a better view of the battle and see where her efforts would be best directed.

    UP HIGH:

    The catwalk buckles under Yang and Ruri. Ruri's arms wobble wildly as she struggles to keep her balance. "Wah wah wah!" She gets a look at their attacker and yells, "Ah! Another blonde! Who are you and what you doing here--Stop breaking the ground, I was standing on that!" She leaps finally, springing off of walls and support structures, and then yells, "You're clearly evil! In the name of the dark justice of the Underworld, I will protect this moped factory with my fists!" And she pushes off of the metal support hard enough to bend it, trying to dive at Topaz Soul. Unfortunately not really timed well with Yang's own attacks, leaving for the possibility of friendly fire. And given how absurdly strong Ruri is, all appearances aside... That might not be fun for anyone, even if she misses, with this reckless attack!

Lexicon has posed:
    "Whoop--!" Yang leaps right for the airborne Topaz Soul with an overhead attack, and she brings her gauntlets up to protect her head. The impact is solid, fist against metal, and the rogue DCC makes use of it--allowing Yang's blow to shove her downward, clear of the follow-up kick. This misses her head processors by centimeters. A platform of golden Resource lines appears beneath her, which she lands against in a crouch.

    Transformations! Eyes glowing and not just from the Power sigils in her pupils, Topaz Soul clasps her hands together as she watches Matsuri and Shiho transform. Not like she does, but real magical girls..! "So cool..!" And then suddenly Ruri slams into her. Though the impact does knock Topaz Soul sprawling, it still feels like hitting something far more solid than her figure would suggest. With a surprised 'Uwah!' she sails off the catwalk, head-over-heels, and slams into one of the resource pillars. Fasteners spill out like sand, as she shakes her head. Raising a hand, she points, "That was super rude! I was watching the pretty outfits appear!"

    Hauling herself out, Topaz plants her feet against the ruined container, then springs off it. The claws on her gauntlets shine, taking on a sparking electrical aspect as she surges for the two girls currently fighting her on the catwalk level, "VALKYRIE STORM!" Each slash she makes leaves large, electrified after-effects that last several seconds, as she pursues both Ruri and Yang in close combat.

UPPER LEVEL:
    Gunshots hit the crate Blaster is carrying. He quickly shifts to intercept further fire with his more heavily armored body, though the damage is already done. One or two of the power cells, punctured, turn red and begin to shake. The robot glances at his cargo, letting out a flat, "Oh, dear." Turning, he discards it over the railing.

    First on scene is Asterios, who slams into the mechanical Virus from the side. He lets out a shout of surprise, staggering before he plants his feet. Sheets of catwalk begin to distend from the opposition of forces, Viral robot versus legendary minotaur.

    The contest of wills between Asterios and Blaster is interrupted by Xiaomu and Deelel, the first cementing his feet to the grate beneath them and the second showering him with icy shards that dig into his armored exterior. The virus grunts, faltering while unable to shift his footing. All he can do is glance towards Note when she charges him from the side, those red optics widening, "--No!"

    Note's blow doesn't knock Blaster free of the ice. But it does knock him into the air and over the side of the catwalk.

    His legs, up to the knees, still spark in their icy prisons, starting to dissolve into red code.

    In midair, Blaster is intercepted by Matsuri. Her scythe hooks under his arm, wrenching the robot into a spin but not actually successfully dismembering him. With a grunt, he snaps his arm out, wrapping his fingers around the weapon's haft just long enough to right himself, then lets go. His legs jettison with explosive bolts, and a jet of flame erupts from under the armored 'skirt' where his legs had been attached.

    Now Blaster is flying. But he doesn't have any legs.

Lexicon has posed:
    Rightside-up and airborne, the mechanical Virus lifts his hands. His wrists split open, hands swinging back into them while weapons rotate out in their place. A twin-barreled cannon on one arm, and a multiple-barreled rotary vulcan on the other. As he drifts back and away from the catwalk, the machine peppers his attackers with rapid-fire beam shots. He seems to favor the arm Matsuri had scythed, keeping the twin-barrel cannon for backup, "You know that those power cells are going to explode, right? You should be evacuating! That was a 24-case, we're going to experience multiple sympathetic detonations-- This entire structure is going to come down!"

    Lifting the vulcan weapon to allow its barrels to cool, Blaster barks, "You could have just let me leave, you know!"

Yang Xiao Long has posed:
    Yang twirls along the catwalk as she lands, finally ending up just kinda flopping over onto her butt, dizzy from the momentum she was expecting to bleed off with the follow up kick. "Ooo, pretty birdies... uwuwuwuhhwhwuhw..." she shakes her head to resettle all the fluid in her inner ear, just in time to get smacked upside the head by one of those lightning claws. Bright golden light flares at the impact point, and the blonde goes sailing off down the catwalk, landing with more flares of Aura and leaving dents in the framework.

    Yang comes to a stop in an undignified heap, looking out of the action. That is, until she pushes herself up, and begins to chuckle darkly. "Oh man, You /are/ fun... I've never gotten a real chance to just cut loose before... everyone else breaks too easily." She turns, eyes obscured by her hair, though that's beginning to lift and waft like it were underwater, flame-like embers licking out of the golden strands. "C'mon, give me MORE fun, LETS DANCE UNTIL WE BOTH DIE!" she lifts her head, an insane grin spread over her lips and her eyes now a blazing red. "HYYYYYAH!" she stamps one foot, sending the entire catwalk to shaking as if in an earthquake, then launches herself back at Topaz, far faster than before, leaving the segment of catwalk she /was/ on, to buckle and crash to the factory floor. "C'mon, c'mon, c'mon, c'mon!" she begins to chant, swinging wildly, her gauntlets firing as fast as her fists fly, a blur of motion aimed to pummel Topaz down.

Orchid (6384) has posed:
     Okay, lots of action going on inside. Clearly both this Blaster and this Topaz are targets of interest. Orchid, being a bit afraid of battle, is watching with her drones, the reploid herself outside. She's now directing her drones to jump onto the two tagets of interest. Not to attack, but to simply hold on. The idea being able to track them to their lair, or whereever they next want to cause trouble next.

Rebecca Chambers has posed:
Rebecca's initial plan was to take on Topaz Soul, but it seems that Yang has her taken care of, and Rebecca doesn't want to risk hurting Yang by accident. So instead she looks for the nearest set of stairs leading to the upper level where Blaster is. She figures if Yang's got Topaz Soul taken care of, she'll help her colleagues on the upper level.

Once she gets there and spies Blaster, Rebecca knows she has to think fast since Blaster is carrying explosives. She could try shooting but if she misses, they'll all be blown to dust. And while she could use her stun baton, there's a chance the electricity could possibly travel to the power cells and cause an explosion too.

And now Lemeza's fired upon them and Rebecca realizes that she's gone the wrong way entirely. "Oh, hell no!" She exclaims as she turns quickly and runs back towards the stairs and dashes for the exit. "Whoever shot those cells is gonna pay for that big time!" Rebecca yells as she dashes for the exit.

Xiaomu (707) has posed:
"Oh, *come on*!!" Xiaomu snarls as Blaster just *leaves his legs behind* when he gets sent flying off the catwalk - and then literally takes flight under his own power, *rocket thrusters* igniting where his hips should have been (and possibly still technically are). She glances around briefly, wondering if any of the scooters are operational and if it's worth "borrowing" one to try and keep up with ...

Nah. She'd be getting used to how it handles and Blaster probably knows how to fly a lot better than she can. "Dee! Try to -" She stops as she hears Yang going *completely* nuts, on top of Lemeza worrying on-radio about the chance that even without being an *ammunition* factory, the place may still be about to blow up. And for a moment, she's sorely tempted to just swap in 'pray' as the last word of her suggestion to Deelel.

She slings her staff behind her and breaks out her lightcycle again, barreling back down the ramps for a few floors' worth of vertical distance ... then just drives off the ledge, doing the best she can to keep the 'cycle underneath her and bracing for the upcoming impact.

Grave Matters (6388) has posed:
    UP HIGH:

    Thankfully, Ruri is also a lot more solid than she looks, so her hand doesn't break or anything, but it's still clear that this enemy is rough and tough, unlike her soft and squishy and curvy appearance! "I know! Transforming is super cool! You should try it sometime! WHOOOOOOOOOAAAHH!" she yells as she tries to prepare for a follow-up attack. Unfortunately, she gets electrocuted and her hair frizzes out as she clenches her teeth, eyes wide. "OW! THAT IS A NEW KIND OF PAIN!"

    She wipes her mouth with the back of her hand when the electrocution stops, and then says, "Maybe you will be less inclined to fight when you realize the battlefield is completely against you!" She then throws arms down at her sides, and brings them up and over each other in an x-shape, sweeping her hands upwards. Frigid chains appear from the framework of machinery and support structures to try to slam into Topaz Soul from behind, aiming to knock her towards Yang furious fists, while two other lengths of chains extend up from the catwalk to coil around Ruri's legs and body and hold her stable while it rocks and wobbles thanks to Yang's powerful leap.

    DOWN LOW:

    Matsuri lands and skids, hearing the bad guy warning about the explosives that will surely distract the heroes while he gets away. She considers rushing towards the crate, snatching it up, and running for it with all she's got. She's FAST. Like REALLY FAST. But she instead calls out, "Someone get rid of the power cores. I'm going to make sure he doesn't get away. Shiho, barriers all around him, please."

    Then she leaps.

    Shiho, still in the air, thanks to magical flying parasol, says, "Fufufu~. Of course~." Then she drops out of the air, trying to land on top of Blaster, and spins around daintily with her parasol outstreteched, releasing a series of glowing hologram-looking jack-o-lantern force fields. Whether she landed on him or not, she twirls away and out of the kill zone, right as Matsuri leaps alllll the way up, turns upside-down, kicks off the top-most forcefield, and then repeats the process for the others all around, building up momentum and speed, until she is a red blur zipping all around the Virus.

    Then her scythe slashes down at an angle, spooky ghost faces passing over the blade for a moment before she passes by her target, whether she succeeds or fails in cutting through him.

    "Reaper's Cage." she says dully as she lands in a crouch and skids for over a dozen meters .

Note (6386) has posed:
    Hearing this matter about the power cells EXPLODING, Note growls. And slams a fist into an opposing palm. "Some fight this turned into..."

    She REALLY wants to keep fighting this guy. But... he just lost his legs. She has no idea WHAT to expect of any of this, and now...

    Now, Yang's gone COMPLETELY berserk, and the whole place is about to EXPLODE or something?!

    She makes a nervous face, mixed with plenty of agitation, but then...

    "hrn!" ZEEEEEEOOOOOOOOSH!

    A wicked wind erupts as Note moves WAY too fast for most eyes to see, reappearing RIGHT in the path of the crate of power cells and snatching it right out of the air.

    Then?

    Then she points an open palm STRAIGHT up towards the ceiling. INSTANTLY the warehouse is filled with a vivid blue-white flare of light as a 'bullet' of said light flies from her palm and slams into the distant ceiling to blow open a sizable hole. One Asterios could fit through several times over.

    Sure, some debris rains down, but this isn't really of a huge concern to the martial artist. As if this is REALLY no big deal she whirls around and FLINGS the crate with all her might, sending it SOARING up at ludicrous speeds. And to top it off?

    As soon as the crate's cleared the ceiling (and still moving up, though slowing) she brings both hands to her side, palms cupped opposite each other...

    "Kaaaaaaa.... Meeeeeee...... Haaaaaaa..... Meeeeeee...."

    With a sizzling sound, more of the blue-white energy forms, this time a tiny but swiftly growing compressed sphere, roiling between her palms--

    Which she thrusts out in tandem, straight up at the hole--- "HAAAAAAAAAAA!!"

    WHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOSH! A roaring SURGE of white-blue energy screams up for the hole, casting hundreds of feet in searingly brilliant light.

    Straight up the hole. Right into the crate.

    Oddly enough, this blast has plenty of kinetic force, so it actually CARRIES the crate even higher before starting to erode into it and perhaps melt it to bits. This might destroy the Power Cells completely... or perhaps set them off. WAY up there.

Asterios (1137) has posed:
Explosions! Bullets! Ice waves and impending doom! It seems like another ordinary day living in the database.

Asterios emerges from the plume of autocannon shots and energy blasts looking a little worse for wear. If he had walked into this place with a shirt on, it would almost certainly have been reduced to a pile of cinders by now. He steps out of the smoke with smoldering skin and a grim, steady stare for the flying super robot.

Blaster talks sense. He speaks reason. Everything he says is logical.

Well.

Asterios is a berserker.

Rational thought just kind of get chaos dunked right into the nearest garbage can.

There's a deep, bellowing roar as he kicks off the catwalk, steel girders scream as they twist and shear apart. The minotaur surges upwards like some kind of rising meteor, a projectile of meat and bone propelled at cannonball speeds. He roars, thrusting his massive axes at either of the virus' weaponized arms, apparently aiming to catch them on the spike and tip of the twin polearms... Which he would then attempt to drive into the factory floor.

"You're not..." Asterios grunts, "Getting away. This time. Won't let you escape!"

Deelel has posed:
With Xiaomu she has managed to interrupt Blaster as Note now is on him after he went up against Asterios. She sees Blaster get mauled pretty hard and soon he's without his legs? Wait did he just ditch his legs? Yes, yes he just did. He's now flying and he has no legs, that's going to have Deelel change it up, from ice to wind. She's seeing how dog piled the virus is and just can't but wonder. What is his deal here? Also, worse Yang's going full-on Berserker, this is going to get .... messy.

"Oh glitch me!"

Her magical attacks are cut off she's going to follow right after Xiaomu summoning her own light cycle and following her, her own cycle takes shape and she's getting the heck out of here hot on her friend's tail or is that tails?!

Lemeza Kosugi (6258) has posed:
Shit. That was easily the stupidest move he's done since entering the Multiverse. Lemeza had expected a localized explosion from the power cells, stunning Blaster and giving the others a chance to engage. Instead, he's doomed the entire assembly plant, the mopeds contained within, and more importantly himself and his allies. And to compound all that, Blaster himself is flying away! At least he's got some measures to deal with that...

First, defense. He sheathes his revolver - he won't be needing it for a while - and... starts loading a program on his laptop? This is not the time for such things! Although, its purpose soon becomes apparent. After Lemeza types in a few names and clicking an "APPLY BUFFS NOW" button within the program, the various Elites present briefly glow, and will feel a massively potent boost to both striking power and sturdiness. There, that ought to at least keep the explosion from /killing/ anyone.

Next, keeping pace with Blaster. He hastily throws his laptop in his backpack -- won't be needing THAT anymore either -- and exchanges it for a folded-up, and rather sturdy-looking, model airplane. But for right now, he's in a wait-and-see stance, since he sees that Note's fixing his mistake and - hopefully - removing the threat of deathsplosion. That's good. That means his buffs will actually be buffs instead of mistake fixers. In the meantime, he takes his time in unfolding the plane and readying it for flight.

Lexicon has posed:
    Blaster's in trouble. Trouble that begins when Shiho's spell starts penning him in with barriers. These seem to be more for Matsuri's use than hindering the robotic virus, though they do foul his weaponsfire by bouncing beams directed at his less speedy attackers. When Matsuri dashes past with her scythe at the ready and speed on her side, she completely disarms Blaster's vulcan, cleaving the rotating barrels off. He lets out a noise, cycling the destroyed weapon back into his forearm, his hand returning.

    And now there's Asterios to contend with. As Note's beam lights up behind him and rains debris on the fighting robot, he swings his remaining weapon arm down, meeting Asterios' leap with a short-ranged shotgun blast of energy spikes in a dense cone. This weapon, too, is lost to the Labrys of the Abyss, irrepairably damaged as Blaster ascends. He reaches out, producing a long claymore sword.

    Somewhere above the facility, encapsulated in a beam of light, the power cells cook off. One after the other, the entire crate of power cells explodes harmlessly high above Vector.

    I have attracted FAR too much attention!
    You don't want to play anymore?
    I've lost both of my legs and my primary weapons are down. Only my sword and my missiles are functional.
    These girls are a lot of fun, though!
    WE. ARE. LEAVING.

    Topaz Soul laughs when Yang stamps the catwalk, shaking it all. Lifting her claws, she makes a 'come on' gesture with the gauntlet exaggerating the motion. Her feet plant, as well as they can when she's floating, "This is really fun! There's a spark of Resouce power when Yang launches, and Topaz Soul launches herself forward as well, "Ah ha ha~! VALKYRIE CLAW!" Each punch and Dust discharge is met with the rogue DCC's own fists and claws, sending out sparks from mutual impacts and rattling the surrounding machinery. The damaged catwalk begins to buckle, the wild-haired blonde laughing as she meets Yang's strength with her own.

    At least until Ruri interrupts! A heavy chain of ice slams into her from the side, knocking the girl off-balance just enough for Yang's punches to get through. A few solid hits in, and Topaz Soul brings her gauntlets up in a purely defensive measure. She has to wait, now, for an opening to resume the attack. This is when Blaster chimes in her ear, and her eyes glance upward with a curious noise, barely audible over the battering of her defenses.

    Fixing her gaze forward, between the sparks thrown off by her claws, Topaz Soul admits, "I have to help my brother. Sorry! We'll play more next time, for real!"

    Her arms shift, snapping at Yang's own gauntlets to halt the punches. Twirling in midair, she hurls the other blonde in Ruri's direction, then manifests a platform beneath her feet and hurls herself upward.

    Topaz Soul doesn't notice nor particularly care about the spiderbots clinging to her Processors, though further up, Blaster does make a point to smash the first one he spots landing on his armor, all the while trying to keep his distance and maneuver towards the hole Note made in the ceiling of the assembly plant.

Grave Matters (6388) has posed:
    UP HIGH:

    "<<Yes!>> Our combination attack was successful! This almost makes it worth that dreadful lightning thing I suffered!" Ruri cheers on as Yang lands powerful blows. But then Yang is thrown towards her, and her red eyes widen. She tries to leap away but just jerks uselessly as she remains bound in place by the same chains she wrapped herself with to keep from being thrown off the catwalk.

    Then she gets Yanged in the face.

    "Noooo! This is the wrong kind of combination attack~!" she lets out muffledly as she is bent over backwards by the impact, her lower body kept upright by her chains, while her upperbody is turned upside-down until her ponytail pools underneath her head.

    DOWN LOW:

    Matsuri is thinking to herself, .oO(Hm, hm. Yes, that was cool. Now I'll do like a hair flip or something and turn around and give a one-liner. Like, 'You're not half the robot you used to be.' Yeah.) She nods and stands up, flipping her her hair into an impromptu ahoge, pivots on her foot, and swings her scythe out to the side, as she starts to say, "I guess you're not--" Then she opens her eyes and sees that the Virus is leaving and all she did was apparently cut off one of his guns. "Eh? Eeeeehhh!?"

    The scythe thunks to the ground as she stops focusing on supporting it.

    Shiho drifts down to land next to Matsuri. "These enemies are tougher than we're used to, hm?"

    Matsuri scowls. "Not cool. This better not hurt my record."

    Ruri is yelling 'oiiii' over and over in the background as Shiho says "I think due to this being Paladins business and him not being a ghost, you should be fine. THough those explosives were close. Also, have you noticed that we seem to be charged up with some sort of energy?"

    Still ignoring Ruri, Matsuri says, "Yeah, what's up with that? Now I really want to hit something and all the villains are gone."

    Shiho remarks, "I feel like we're forgetting something."

    The two magical girls walk off, leaving Ruri behind.

Lemeza Kosugi (6258) has posed:
Phew! Note's taken care of Lemeza's bad move. Now, for the next step: giving chase to Blaster. He's maybe not in the /best/ situation to do this, but. With his portable single-passenger airplane all set up, and the catwalks falling away, he figures he can manage what follows... although, Orchid on the radio raises a good point. Blaster is one of the /FOUR/ Felons, and he's covered in those tracking spiders Orchid put on him. Yeah, it'd be prudent to let this guy go. He folds the plane back up and hops down to ground level, doing a slight midair hop right before touching down to break momentum and land gently. In any case, he's got his own personal objective complete: a solid structural analysis of Vector architecture. Time to wind down, eh?

Orchid (6384) has posed:
     Those lucky little spiders that Orchid sent does what it can to hide, either in Topaz Soul's processor or in her hair. With luck, their signals will guide Orchid to the lair of the Four Felons.

Yang Xiao Long has posed:
    Yang is tunnelvisioned, her blazing red eyes focussed on just smashing Topaz Soul into a fine powder. The disruption just urges her to strike faster, each punch boosted by the recoil of the last, her Semblance in an infinite spiral, any spiritual senses nearby probably registering her as something akin to a STAR building up to supernova... but then she's parried, and the only thing that manages to get out of her mouth is a strangled sound of confusion, before she's smashing into Ruri. The impact, knocking the girl over, doesn't arrest the last of her speed. She continues on, smashing into a poor forklift roomba drone, smashing it to pieces and embedding those pieces into the wall as she hits /THAT/ too.

    The berserk brawler slowly, almost serenely, falls out of the Yang-shaped dent she put in the wall, and flops limply to the floor, her Scroll screaming a Critical Aura Status to a dead commlink.

Xiaomu (707) has posed:
By the time Xiaomu's lightcycle hits the ground, the fight seems to be more or less over. The bad guys are departing empty-handed, the good guys are alive, the factory is *mostly* intact (minus the hole in the ceiling which prevented them from all getting blown up).

And Xiaomu, for one, is thinking she'd rather cut her losses. Admittedly, she's not the only person on this particular mission, and if Deelel still has enough fight left in her to join in chasing after the baddies, Xiaomu might find it within herself to follow suit.

But for now? She happens to be close enough to where Yang landed to scoot over, pick Yang up off the ground, and drape her (somewhat awkwardly) over the lightcycle. It'll be enough to get her out and to some semblance of safety, anyway ...

Although if anyone here knows where Yang needs to go more accurately than Xiaomu does? She won't argue too much about handing the blonde berserker off.

Rebecca Chambers has posed:
Rebecca would've run to give Yang medical assistance, but as far as she can tell, Xiaomu's got it. At the same time, she's silently cursing Lemeza for blowing things up literally. But she's not in the mood to curse him out or anything like that. Right now she just wants to return to base so she can recover after a mission that could have gone a LOT better...

Asterios (1137) has posed:
Asterios tears free with another shriek of shredding steel, but this time it's also accompanied by the booming rapport of a shotgun discharging and the distinct crackle-pop of dissociating code coming free. The minotaur is blasted back into the wreckage of the steel catwalk, twisting even more of the platform with the collision. He groans, fingering at the massive, bleeding hole in his chest. He stares at his fingers for a moment, then at the hole, then back at the ceiling where Blaster is making his escape.

It's alright. He's lived through worse.

But... Still.

He'll have to make sure, next time, there really is nowhere to run...!

Deelel has posed:
Deelel 's own lightcycle his the gound, just after Xiaomu and with the fight over? It's rather a good time to get moving. She sees Xiamou for Yna,g which is goo. Wioth Yang safely picked up and handed off to Rebecca Deelel will come to a hald here she's seeing others already after the baddies and will trust them to give chase as she gets off her bike now. "Well that was a thing..."

Lexicon has posed:
    Blaster ascends towards the hole, keeping his sword at the ready to foul any attempts at coming after him that his now-destroyed cannons had not. When it seems like the group is at last letting him go, he raises the weapon.

    "Brother~!" That's when Topaz Soul slams into him from below. His code visibly destabilizes from the impact, almost as if his art style had ever-so-briefly changed into something ultra detailed and filled with cross-hatch shading.

    "OOOAAHH--!"

    Topaz Soul proceeds to hook her arms underneath Blaster's, even as the robot's code re-asserts itself back to normal. She laughs, carrying him off into the Vector sky, "You're so weak~!"

    Down in the assembly plant, as all the chaos is finally winding down, Studeo flips out her notepad again and gets to scribbling, "This'll be an excellent article! Multiversal heroes and programs thwart MISC power cell heist in Vector..!"