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Nathan Hall     A phonecall is received, somewhere, just before the group leaves on their way to the site of operations. On the way out the door, at Amalthea's manse, at Heaven or Hell...

<Confederate-IC> No. 9 says, "--You helped me out that one time--"
*FFWD*
<X-Union-Chatter> Elliana Fairchild says, "I don't understand."
*FFWD*
-<RADIO: 16.03>- Psyber says, "I don't understand."
*RWND*
<X-Union-Chatter> George says, "--I still don't understand bu--"
*FFWD*
<Confederate-IC> No. 9 says, "--You helped me out that one time--"
*RWND*
<J-IC-Moderated> Utsuho Reiuji says, "--but now--"
*FFWD*
<J-IC-Moderated> Psyber says, "--you won't listen t--"
*RWND*
<X-Union-Chatter> George says, "Why--"
*FFWD*
<X-Confed-Chatter> Elliana Fairchild says, "Why--"
*FFWD*
<X-Union-Chatter> [3-RF] Psyber says, "Why--"
*FFWD*
-<RADIO: 35.6>- Psyber says, "--Why NOT?"

    The silent person on the other end of the phonecall becomes especially frustrated, slamming their fist against a table audibly. Cassette tapes rattle in the background, tipping over in audible messy piles.

*RWND*
<Union-IC> Echoing voice, Elliana Fairchild says, "--explain everything."
*RWND*
<X-Union-Chatter> Elliana Fairchild says, "I don't understand."
*FFWD*
-<RADIO: 16.03>- Psyber says, "I don't understand."
*RWND*
<X-Union-Chatter> George says, "--don't understan--"
...

    There's the sound of the silent operator jamming a new plug in aggressively, with an almost insistant aural posture.

<Numbers-Station> A Lady says, "Thank you for holding. We are sorry, but all our lines are currently busy. We thank you for your patience. We remain one hundred percent dedicated to your rewards. Please deliver your proof of candidacy to the following location." *Ding!*
<Numbers-Station> A Gentleman says, "Forty two degrees. Twenty Two minutes. Two seconds. North. Seventy one degrees. Three minutes. Twenty one point four seconds."
And then a short series of chiming musical tones...
http://tinyurl.com/signature-of-sound
...

*CLICK*
Nathan Hall     The line goes dead. One might as well let that one go to voicemail; whoever's cutting this audio together on the other end of the line sure isn't speaking up themselves. Eleanor's gotten enough data to corroborate the discussion of cults; those cassette tapes she retrieved detailed the diary of a man who was, it seems, initially trapped in some sort of temporal disconnection on his boat, and gradually mutated over time, growing increasingly incohernt.

    As for the coordinates they received at the boat, and in the new call, they're both the same, and they continue to be pointing at a historic Boston graveyard. Or rather, it should, according to maps. Instead, something else appears to be here right now. A stout, square building, which seems to be formed in the sort of shape that you'd make if you wanted to make 'a building', but didn't have any idea what it would be used for, who or what would inhabit it, or otherwise had any function in mind. For example, it's utterly windowless, and clearly lacks any kind of infrastructure connections. Like many other products of whatever this group is dealing with, it seems like something trying to immitate human norms... And failing, just a bit. But there are a few entrances. Double doors at the front, a few possible side entrances if one searches.
Setsuko Kaminagi     After having been around yesterday, Setsuko is not going to miss this. Not after seeing what this strange entity or entities known as the 'Eye' did to a man, and especially not knowing what the Eye wants with Nathan. And compared to yesterday, she's in much better shape. Her wounds have recovered; the only blemishes that remain are the usual scars her body has chosen to retain over the years, and she's fresh and well-rested besides.

    She comes down into the city with a calm expression astride her hoverbike, deploying by her 'usual' method for the first time in a little while. But already, more than a mile away from the destination, she can feel her skin crawl. She can sense it, from much further away than before. That twisting, sliding sense of battle, distorting itself from past to future and back again, and this time a much stronger one than before. Quietly, the demigod reaches up to her earpiece and taps it, speaking. "Be prepared for a fight. I'm feeling it just like yesterday, but it's bigger this time."
Guest Psyber     People who are used to Psyber's normal outfit and demeanor are treated to a different version of the half-angel today. Called by both the coordinates, the call set out, and the strange nature of the building, he's dressed far more like a police officer. Black fatigues, a black ball cap, and a tactical vest. He's got a shotgun slung under arms and he's hanging around the front of the building.

    "My basic plan is this," He says, as people start gathering, "We're going to breach the building. Blitz style, we're going to try to go in from all angles at once and take out as much as we can. Try to take prisoners, don't be afraid to use lethal force if you have to. But I want this place cleared today, and I don't want them to h ave time to cover up the answers inside."
Amalthea     There it is again. That weirdass call. Normally it's not unaccurate to say that Amalthea has nerves of steel, but after the events of the prior night... The old knight is a little rattled, and not simply for the barbaric surgery she had taken a part in. No, to be quite frank, the calls themselves were terribly unsettling. No sooner than the last chiming tones begin and the line goes dead, Amalthea hangs up her phone and slinks into her armory.
    Some time later she arrives in Boston, opting to meet with Psyber en route rather than at the location, as he naturally would know his own city better than her. Except apparently when looking at the map she has anyway, this spot is supposed to be a graveyard.
    Instead it's a building.
    "Psyber, I'm pretty sure the local department of construction would have known about this." Remarked offhandedly. The Unicorn is dressed for battle, deep blue surcoat worn over several layers of light plate and chain, one gauntlet-glad hand resting on the pommel of her sword, much more prepared than yesterday's simple attire of 'bomber jacket and tie-dye tank top'.
Eleanor Lamb     Eleanor is here... in her Mom Gear, a tactical turtleneck over the top of her Union-tailored armor suit. She also doesn't have the massive wrnch this time, instead opting for a smaller baton and presumably her plasmids.

    A glance to the others, and she murmurs. "You guys get in there hot, I'm going to try the stealth route. Just... try not to shoot me while I'm shrouded, please." She offers a thumbs up, and then subtly... shifts. She's there, but it takes a pretty good effort to actually look at her, to notice her, to see anything remarkable or neccessary to see.

    She's Someone Else's Problem.
Sakura Haruno     Sakura has tagged along this time, having managed to hassle Psyber into spilling some number of beans on what might be going on. She's dressed slightly more subdued than normal, which mostly means she's wearing a hat to at least hide her hair. Of course, she's still wearing red, so it's of limited help with the stealth thing.

    Fortunately, that doesn't seem to be the way to go. "Okay. Do we have any idea about the sorts of things these people can do, other than putting up buildings really quickly? But I can probably keep myself from seriously hurting anybody beyond the point where they could talk."
Kimiko Shinobu     Psyber specified 'full combat,' so Kimiko has already switched to her armor by the time she arrives. Still, not knowing what to expect, it's lighter than some of her suits--a combniation of visible chain and plate, still with the cloth skirt, a sword at one side and some sort of dagger at the other.

    She looks uneasy, which is an emotion that shows a bit better on her face than most. Looking at the building, "That is... strange." And still worrying. But she nods at her instructions, ready to either fan out toward a side entrance, or charge in the front.
Nathan Hall     Eleanor's stealth mode won't have any problem getting to the entrances, at least. There's no windows in the building, and nobody who seems to be ready to alert the Eyes to patrol the exterior. The side doors are placed seemingly at random, but notably, there's signs that people have been here. It's not a fresh building, and in fact, it seems like it's been there for years, and thoroughly used. In fact, there's even what seems to be a place designated for deliveries, if the boxes of cheap plastic masks and knockoff clothing littering the area around it are anything to go by.

    That's the most apparent stealthy route to enter through, it seems. Far from the front entrance.
Nathan Hall     For the rest: No matter how long the building's staked out, there's no apparent activity, nobody going in or out, despite Eleanor's findings that the area seems old and regularly used and even delivered to. They'll need to pick an approach to get more information.
Kimiko Shinobu     Kimiko watches Eleanor move off for a few moments before she moves, herself. Considering those present, there shouldn't be too much need for her to group with anyone. Instead, she's just going to walk around the building in the opposite direction, find the first side-door--or eventually walk all the way around--and then wait for word to move in.
Guest Psyber     "Uh... not really. They've had access to transmissions from both factions and some weird shit related to eyes. That's all we know," Psyber says to Haruno seriously as he lifts up his shotgun and cocks it, readying himself to go in. He takes a slow and steadying breath as he says, "Alright. I'm taking the front door. Pick your follow-up entrances."

    He gives a call out on radio that he's breaching on the count of three. His voice comes in over the radio with a crisp clarity, "One. Two. Three."

    As soon as he finishes counting, he tries to kick in the front door of the building as hard as he can, in case it's locked or reinforced against entry. Immediately, if he gets it open, he rushes in, "THIS IS A RAID. HANDS UP. YOU ARE UNDER ARREST FOR UNLAWFUL GEOMANTIC REPURPOSING."
Setsuko Kaminagi     Coming down out of the sky makes it fairly easy for Setsuko to take whatever alternative route of ingress she might choose, and for the moment her choice is to land on the roof, leaving her bike hovering not too far above. She takes a few steps, following her superhuman senses and her ability to feel battle to what (she hopes, given the temporal twisting going on) should be a good spot. Then, she draws Zanjintou, keeps it in one hand, and waits...

    ...until Psyber hits 'three' on his count. Then she drives the blade down into the roof, and very quickly spins herself around, carving out a circle beneath herself big enough to go straight through. She'll fall with it until she's inside; if it's a multi-floor building, she'll hit the ground and roll to one side, and if it's a warehouse of some sort, she'll simply float near the ceiling. Both cases involve the demigod ready to evade any initial attacks and release low-power divine cutters in response.
Amalthea     Count of three... Go.
    As soon as Psyber moves, Amalthea is in motion at his side, sword drawn in wordless declaration of battle intent as she surges up front with him in a storm of motion for the direct approach. No sooner than the half-angel's boot makes contact, the unicorn's joins it, the two kicking as one in the burst of the moment, with a force no normal door could hope to survive.
Eleanor Lamb     And then Psyber breaches, and Eleanor... makes entry. She's trying to sneak through the side gates, trying to avoid the Eyes if she can. Though, she's ready if she gets caught out. That baton is held low and fast at her hip, and she's sneaking alongside the Houdini. No sense in being pinched through hubris, and better safe than sorry.

    That said, she gets on her radio, and murmurs as she goes, looking for evidence of more survillance on Nathan and the rest of them.
Nathan Hall     Kimiko can find an alternate back entrance. This one's past the delivery area. It's some kind of locked employee entrance, but it seems to be meant for a building's interior rather than exterior, and made for some kind of corporate building rather than whatever this mess is. Locked with complicated electronic nonsense; she'll probably have to break it open, but it won't be tough to do, since despite the fact that it's out of place, it is just a normal door, and she is a magical girl.

    Or rather, that's how things seem. The first notable unusual property of these people is the disconnection from causality. Whatever Kimiko uses to get the door open, it's going to seem to have no effect, for precisely three seconds. And only then will the door open, as if she'd done her actions on some kind of delay.
Sakura Haruno     Sakura is going to try a different route, slightly, trying to make her way up the side of the building in a hurry, planning on making it to the roof. If she does manage to climb along the side - which she wasn't expecting to have any trouble at all - she's going to look for an entrance on the top.

    If she doesn't find one of those, there will be an attempt to smash a hole through the roof with her foot, followed by more until she manages it or it becomes clearly impossible. Coming in from above is the path she's chosen; she's going to be reluctant to give that up to mere impossibility.
Kimiko Shinobu     On one, Kimiko takes a few steps back. On two, she sets herself. On three, she shoulder-slams the door with enough strength--knowing the impact will disperse over her armor--to break through and carry her fully into the building, assuming it had the strength of an exterior, secured entrance (which it does not appear to be). That this doesn't work gives her pause, and a second later she delivers a solid, far more forceful kick to low-off-center. Still no effect, and another pause while she backs up again, before the door is effectively destroyed.

    That's weird. Really weird. But she still heads in straight away.
Nathan Hall     Psyber gets a reaction similar to Kimiko. Crashing through the front door is easy, because half a second before his foot impacts the door, the door itself swings wide, as if hit too early by his kick. It's a phenomenon similar to what he experienced with the boat.

    The interior is where things get even more weird, though.

    Psyber and Amalthea slam through the door, and find themselves no longer breaching the interior of a building, but kicking out the doors of a building, breaking into a dark, grimey alleyway in Slum Urbania, under a shining night sky that's not the right time of day. There are two men here, seemingly intended to greet them, each wearing what look like a priestly outfit -- the sort George Weissman used to wear, but some sort of offbrand replication knockoff -- and wearing a pair of cheap plastic masks that look like the processing cores of a Device, while their chests suffer the same disgusting growth. There's no sound of any other population, so it's unlikely they're ACTUALLY in Slum Urbania right now, alongside the fact that the walls seem plastered in graffiti eyes of varying kinds, months worth of the stuff.

    Unlike the man they met on the boat, one of them is able to speak, and so he does. He points at Psyber, confusedly, muttering, "help", and "before", and "bring". But they're far more guarded than before. The one that doesn't speak draws a heavy scimitar from a sheath at his back, and those with a good memory will notice it's a near reconstruction of Salty Gale's own. They move between the "front doors" Psyber just broke through, and the exit of the dead-end alleyway.
Priscilla     One can probably find it within their heart to forgive Priscilla for being the last one present. Though officially considered capable of work by Njorun's medical professionals, her appearance makes it pretty obvious that she might not have been having the greatest time so far. The dress is clean by now, but her throat is zigzagged with scars left by enormous teeth, healing with excruciating slowness, matching the jagged lines carved across one cheek and the side of her jaw that abruptly disappear under the bandages still pulled over her left eye. She's already refused to take any sass about her condition though, perhaps in no small part due to wanting to make up for that particular failure.

    For obvious reasons, she'd missed what exactly had happened yesterday, but having been at Heaven or Hell when the most recent message went out, she's had plenty of prompting to develop concern all by herself. Her operational predispositions are already extremely well known among the oldguard assembled here, and so it should be a matter of little surprise when she follows in the same vein as Eleanor. Top tier invisibility doesn't really help diguise the spontaneous opening of a side door, but she might as well not even be there once she's inside, and immediately searching for the faintest traces of another, unfamiliar soul in the area. Psyber's plans are pretty clear, and none of the others are anywhere close to rookies, and so she picks the angle of approach least covered by the other two side entries.
Guest Psyber     Amalthea breaching alongside him at the front door is reassuring, though the fact that the door opens a half-second before he kicks it, solely through temporal distortion, is hard for him to parse. He tries not to let it slow him down, though, relying on a practiced professionalism that betrays he's been doing raids in Boston for decades.

    "WEAPON DOWN. ON THE GROUND. KICK IT TO THE SIDE AND GET DOWN!" He shouts authoritatively at the man with the scimitar. He deliberately ignores the statements regarding helping or bringing from his friend. He's got his gun focused on the one with the heavy scimitar and he shouts again, "I SAID GET DOWN NOW."

    If he doesn't listen, or if he doesn't comply, Psyber is going to have no problem putting a shotgun shell dead in the center of his chest before racking in another shell. He shouts to Amalthea, "Subdue anyone trying to escape! Cover side doors!"
Nathan Hall     Setsuko will find that as soon as she intends to cut an entryway into the rooftop, one's already occurring. She hasn't even drawn her blade before an awful gash is already crashing through the rooftop's floor beneath her, and the floor is giving way. This will be convenient for Haruno, too, since this means there's a fresh entryway, but it's a little bit unsettling.

    No more unsettling than suddenly crashing down through the roof of what seems to be some kind of ornately carved stone temple. It looks like there was previously some kind of challenge here, a pair of stone golems who are crumbled to pieces now. Neither of them were here before, so they likely can't remember what the significance of this place is. However, they can probably see the significance of what they walked in on. There is a man in Hunter gear -- holy dagger and blessed shotgun on the table nearby, coat reinforced for vampire bites, things like that -- tied to a chair here. He seems to have recently received an unhealthy degree of interrogation/beating from the trio of people present. A woman with splotches of awful black feathers growing from her skin, wearing a big chea plastic raven mask. A man with disgusting black malformed 'wings' growing out of his back, with a halloween-esque mask of Psyber's own face. And another woman wearing a plastic mask of Elliana Fairchild's Shajem. All three have unhealthy growths at the base of their ribcage, protruding from the front, just like the man on the boat.

    The raven woman seems to be the first aggressor. She screams, seems to light herself on fire, and ejects a beam of brilliant sunlight from the head of the raven mask towards Setsuko, while the man responds a bit more slowly, but picks up the heavy shotgun from the table and fires it several times directly at Sakura. The third woman seems to be preparing a different attack...
Amalthea     Slamming through the door and into Urbania of all places is just somewhat slightly disorienting. Amalthea had expected something with a roof and four walls when entering a building, rather than the cramped confines but open air of an alley. Then she sees the men- she sees the scimitar- and she sees... Those growths.
    A spasm of revulsion results in the briefest recoil, before Psyber starts to try and shout the sword-drawn cultist down. With Psyber in the doorway, Amalthea goes up- to block the end of the alley, she kicks on a thrust from her jump pack, rebounding one boot off the wall to somersault overheads and try and set herself in the open mouth of the allet and pincer the men between Psyber and herself, to prevent escape.
    "Easy now. Peace, gentlemen. Do what Psyber says, and we'll have a nice long chat about just how fucked this is."
Setsuko Kaminagi     Setsuko finds herself dropping into a completely different place, making a fairly alarmed sound. It takes her a second or two to even realize what the hell she's looking at; and realization brings with it the screaming of her instincts to dodge. And she does just that, through the most simple method she can: releasing her flight entirely and allowing gravity to pull her downward. It's still not fast enough to avoid having her back scorched rather badly, but it gets her out of the way of the worst of it. On the way down, she yells, "Haruno! Watch yourself coming in!"

    But the instant her feet touch the ground, she launches herself forward as if spring-loaded, rapidly closing in not on the raven woman nor the half-formed angel, but on the faux Fairchild, the one who is still preparing. Threat assessment is a simple thing - beams and shotguns can be dealt with, so whatever the third one is preparing, Setsuko intends to shut it down before it comes to fruition by cutting that woman down in the blink of an eye. It's a moment in which she's glad she integrated quick-draw techniques into her style.
Nathan Hall     Kimiko Shinobu hasn't broken into the interior of a building. She seems, rather, to have crashed into what looks like the interior of some kind of deep underground bunker, as if the door was some sort of portal. The chamber she's in looks like it was supposed to have once been a 'final boss fight' room, using a massive circular arrangement around a central vat below, covered by a tremendous grate... But not right now. Right now, it's seemingly occupied by two men wearing knockoffs of masks worn by No. 9. The walls are covered in art dedicated to some sort of raven-themed girl from Gensokyo, as well as No. 9 and his semi-robotic form. Each man draw what looks like an attempt to craft a gunblade, but the weapons seem nonfunctional.

    There's enough chaos elsewhere that they're very alert to the intrusion. They seem intent on rushing close and swinging at Kimiko aggressively, with unpracticed, but thoroughly energized swings, performing a rushing assault of intense violence. Each have that same horrible growth on the ribcage, just at the base, bulging through long coats that look like chinest knockoff-brand versions of Psyber's. They growl, but seem unable to speak.
Nathan Hall     The back entrance takes Priscilla into an exterior rather than an interior. The door seems damaged, as if by some sort of fire. She would probably not know that it's cosmic radiation damage, of a long term sort. When she enters, she finds she's actually invisibly exiting one of the wrecked buildings of some sort of blasted cityscape. A tremendous miniature sun is nearby, burning just a few hundred feet above ground level. It scorches, but despite that, there are still a half-dozen people rambling around through this area.

    Priscilla is searching for an unfamiliar soul, but she is detecting it EVERYWHERE. According to her senses, the 'soul' itself seems to be expressed by way of scenario; what she's looking for seems to actually be a set of circumstances and elements of a situation, instead of a physical shape.

    A large portion of the buildings are taken up by cracked and faded murals made by the cult. More tremendous drawings of eyes, as well as seemingly religious iconography revering Psyber, Elliana Fairchild, and a whole pantheon of others, such as some particularly swashbuckling woman that Priscilla may recognize as Salty Gale, and the more familiar face of Nine, though he has a terrible eye-shaped growth present on his torso in the many sun-blasted murals.

    There's a commotion at the opposite end of the 'room' that makes up this city-scape. If Priscilla heads around the crater she might be able to get to where several of the masked cultists are gathering, the entrance to an alleyway of some sort that seems darker than the rest.
Kimiko Shinobu     Kimiko is not unused to rooms being bigger on the inside than on the outside, and bearing no resemblance whatsoever. On the other hand, this may be the first time she's come across one without the sure knowledge that that was the kind of door she was entering. The confusion is momentary but pronounced, swiftly followed by more subtly expressed revulsion at the afflicted, growling, masked men. She can't be sure they're even men so much as beasts, but she's under orders to find out more.

    Hands fall to her sides, and the sword and dagger are drawn--dagger in the right hand, her dominant. When she's rushed, she gives ground, swinging the sword up to parry with force, trying to push her opponents off-balance while also gauging their strength. The dagger she gives a spin, and in a moment there's a chain trailing the end of it, lengthening in moments as she keeps it twirling. She keeps giving ground, but will have to make a more serious defense if they back her against the door--assuming it's still an open doorway to Boston proper.
Sakura Haruno     "Right!" Flowers will call back to Kaminagi, trying to duck under the shotgun fire. She's not totally successful in avoiding it, but she can ignore the grazing wound for the moment, hopping back to her feet and launching herself at the shotgun wielder. She's not going to pull a weapon or anything for the moment, opening herself up to a bit more risk in exchange for trying to take prisoners.

    Instead, her fist is going to be flying out at his jaw, which if it connects will probably leave him unable to speak anytime soon until some reconstructive work can be done. She should probably have gotten more specific instructions about their objectives. She's not ignoring the others, exactly, so much as trying to narrow down their opposition
Nathan Hall     There is no compliance, but also no attempt to escape. The one with the scimitar rushes in with inhuman speed, not unlike Salty Gale's, and with what looks like a visual attempt to approximate an Infernal Anima Flare. Psyber will put the buckshot into the man's body, and he goes down in one hit. But like before, he shortly seems to "un-die", after about thirty seconds to a minute or so.

    The other man, the one who was wanting to get Psyber's help, "sees" this and attempts to draw a pair of daggers from his side. These are more familiar; they're knockoffs of George Weissman's weapons of choice. He tries to rush Psyber down. Neither of them go after Amalthea, but that doesn't mean she gets out unscathed...
Nathan Hall     Eleanor did not go into some loading area. The delivery dock of sorts leads to... Well, it's plains. Plains, everywhere, oddly. There's a warpgate some distance away, but Eleanor just emerged from a free-standing frame for the loading chamber door. These plains are definitely outside, though, under a fairly clear sun. It looks like it was once the site of a battle, but right now, it's being used for these people to just dump whatever they need stored. It's mostly masks, some offbrand clothes, some awful weaponsmithing equipment.

    Right now, she's getting a nice look at someone trying to cauterize a raven mask to their head. Looks like a fresh member of the group. Whoever guided him here -- presumably that lady in what looks like some sort of Gensokyan fashion -- is heading back to the 'warpgate', which doesn't seem like a real warpgate at all. Neither of them can detect Eleanor.
Nathan Hall     Amalthea lands in the mouth of the alleyway -- and, no, suddenly she's at the mouth of an alleyway in the middle of a sun-scorched city marked with too much graffiti. Someone in a Lord of Nightmares mask and what looks like some kind of cheap attempt to replicate Nine's physical form has run in towards them, followed by a small, similarly motley crowd. They're wielding what looks like some off-world variant of an M1911, the sort Psyber regularly uses, cheaper and less reliable. Reliable enough that many try to plug her with several holy rounds, though. A wider group, a handfull, seem to be approaching from the sun-scorched cityscape behind her. Wow, that sun is CLOSE.

    It is a small sun literally a few hundred feet above the city. This explains why the city is wreched, but not why it seems like nighttime just a few yards closer to the "entrance".
Guest Psyber     Psyber is unhappy when he has to shoot someone in the chest. Psyber is MORE unhappy when that person 'un-dies' a few moments later. The half-angel brings the shotgun up again, holding it by the pistol grip as he says, "I SAID GET DOWN." He repeats, a bit of futility behind it.

    He adjusts his aim, though. Instead of trying to hit them in the center of their chest, he adjusts and recalibrates. He's operating on a theory at the moment, and trying to change tactics on the fly, but it should work in theory. He unloads two shells of buckshot, one into each approaching cultist as he takes a step back. This time, they're aimed at roughly where the growth was on the man they saw yesterday. If they have similar growths, maybe they'll go down if he pops one.
Eleanor Lamb     Well if you wanted to surprise the heck out of Eleanor, you've done it. She nearly lets out a very audible squawk of protest at being displaced like this, but holds it together. Right.

    There's a man without a mask on just yet. Perfect. New blood means less chance of failing to identify someone if they've got one of those masks branded to them. She sprints forward, having to drop the Houdini to make a strike at the man, aiming to kick him forward into the dirt. And so as to not lose the other one, the Not-Utsuho, she lances out with her arm and /yanks/, dragging at the woman with a backwards shove of TK.
Priscilla     Well that's not a good sign. The inside to outside double cross transition has happened to Priscilla only once before, and it wasn't exactly followed by a great experience that time either. This also pretty severely busts up her plans of sweeping through the building in lockstep with the others and converging on a single target whilst tightening the net around them, so Psyber's requested strategy appears to be out the window for the moment too. She'd wish that she could have come back to something a little easier than this, but she already honestly knows she wouldn't have come on this short notice if it hadn't seemed this severe.

    She hadn't been on truly personal terms with Nathan until he had made Lordran his business a year ago, but she's been close enough with his immediate circle to have picked up enough context to swiftly put two and two together at the sight that greets her and the memory of what had only just happened with herself present less than a week ago. Though she'd heard of her, she'd never actually met the hell raven specifically, and so the terrestrial sun is bizarre, abstract, and out of place for her, but the other faces present are more than familiar, and to varying degrees, so is their relevance to the central theme between them.

    She gives the bubbling mass of solar energy a wide berth out of equal parts physical discomfort and general unease, shielding her eye from the glare and taking her time to skirt well around the crater in the knowledge that she won't be noticed by doing so. She eventually places herself behind the gathering; between the cultists and the alley, but not quite actually in their way, pausing to listen to what they're saying, weapon invisibly drawn. The sensation of being 'inside' a soul again is deeply uncomfortable, reminding her of one of her earlier, and most negative experiences in the multiverse.
Nathan Hall     The false Elliana seems to not draw anything, until she has to execute whatever she was about to do halfway. It looks like it was a PSYCHIC BURST! Directed towards Setsuko, the woman tries to blast her mind with a simple brute-force pain assault. Setsuko's been around long enough, though. She probably remembers George Weissman, and the attack FEELS like George, in every way. Sakura Haruno may catch just enough of the splash damage to feel the identity, a mental impulse of "George is here" in some way.

    But it's cut off before it can fully fire as the woman is sliced in half. She's going to die instantly, but Setsuko, with her sense for war, will feel her attack slowly trying to unstick from the timeline, gradually trying to shunt into the future. It'll take a while, though, at least a couple minutes.

    The man with the shotgun is knocked on his ass by Sakura, KO'd. This seems to be something that whatever's is empowering these people isn't able to understand. He keeps twitching, as if whatever's messing with these humans is trying to make him keep attacking, but his body won't respond. His malformed wings do, though. If Sakura gets near those, they'll still try to lash out and strike with bone-snapping brutality.

    This leaves the raven, who is currently screaming more. She screams in rage-filled way, attempting to leap onto Haruno and burn them both to ash.
Amalthea     Amalthea had been preparing to pincer the men in the alley with Psyber. But the sudden arrival of several more men, now intending to gun her down changes that plan. She's going to have to rely on Psyber and trust him to make sure the one's he's dealing with don't decide to just turn around and gut her, because she's forced to whirl around and hunker behind her shield when the gunfire starts, bullets spanging off steel plate and spanging against her armor. One lucky shot punches through chainmail, earning a trickle of glimmering liquid silver, but she takes it with a stoic grunt, swinging her shield out to try and slam the Number 9-alike with it. But how many of these guys are there?
    Nevertheless, Psyber said to apprehend, and this is why Faith lashes out, the flat of the blade swung in vicious strokes aimed to batter and incapacitate rather than cut and cleave.
Setsuko Kaminagi     Hearing Psyber yell 'aim for the eye' over the radio tips Setsuko off to what's starting to happen even before she feels her own contribution to the battle trying to unstick itself. The demigod grimaces, looks briefly in Haruno's direction, and then turns around to the false Elliana. Her head is throbbing just from the 'backblast' of the half-finished psychic assault, but there's no time to stop now. And finding the eye will take more time than she has.

    So Setsuko holds up her hand, curling fingers into a fist and gathering divine energy. More, more, compressing it in, filling her fist with enough divinity to glow blue-white - and then she brings it around and swings her fist downward towards the torso of the fake Elliana, and releases that built-up power all at once. If she can't afford to find the 'eye' on the person's body, she'll just obliterate their entire torso. And then turn around to run to Sakura's aid, if there's still time.
Nathan Hall     Kimiko is able to gauge their strength effectively. The men swing in unpracticed, amateur ways. What Kimiko is able to tell, through this examination is that everything about their movements is a sort of reconstruction. It feels like a collage of combat, so to speak. Each move is 'copypasted' from elsewhere; everything's just a bit off, like they were originally swinging at someone else, and the movements were all sort of just edited together. The more the moves seem disjointed, and unconnected, the more the moves have strength, but it definitely isn't the strength of THESE guys, who seem like they haven't eaten in weeks. Trying to get them off-balance, therefore, seems ineffective, unless it's done with grappling. But Kimiko is, at least, not trapped. The door to Boston's still there!

    She can probably kill these guys effectively, but if she does it's likely as anything that they'll temporally regenerate the way the others did. She'll have enough time to move on if she needs to, though.
Nathan Hall     The growth seems to be the ticket. It's not clear if this has put them down for long -- after all, the man on the boat was wounded on his growth -- but it's going to put them down for as long as Psyber has to spend on watching them. At the very least, that seems to be a functional way of dealing with these awful people temporarily. They're clearly not fully 'dead' in the proper way. Every so often, they flicker and distort, going from one position of being dead to another, as whatever's empowering them tries to yank them into a timeline state where they're not dead. Good enough for now.
Kimiko Shinobu     Kimiko gives up on making an opening for herself by tripping up her opponents, and focuses on just preventing their weapons from reaching her. At this level, she could keep up a defensive fight for a pretty long time, but that's not her goal.

    Once it's long enough, she swings her dagger at the end of its chain, aiming for a simple, horizontal swing that becomes much, much longer as her magic continues to extend the chain as it flies. It's enough to catch both men together, but an unnatural ripple down the chain suddenly frees it from any conventionally pedictable physics as it instead continues to fly, and length, at sharp, fast angles under the magical girl's direction. Over arm, under leg, around, back and through. The concentration it takes leaves her vulnerable enough to have to block a blow directly, feeling the strange strength behind those copied movements driving into her, but her sword doesn't yet break.

    Around, around, and around, and she pulls that chain taut, kicking the dagger as it flies back to her, to drive it with force into the ceiling, only after she's made good her attempt to hopelessly tangle both men.
Sakura Haruno     Sakura catches enough of that impulse to whirl around, distracted by the feeling of a long-lost friend, which has the side benefit of keeping her from getting too close to the wings and thus getting attacked. Though there's a slight downside; she's also being given a warming hug.

    Sakura's response to this - besides being caught aflame, though she's not going to be ash just yet - is twofold. First, she's going to try to throw the woman off with a roar of anger and protest. Second, probably more importantly, she's going to use the one aspect of water ninjutsu she's actually decent at. Namely, pulling large amounts of it out of the air, trying to douse both herself and, less importantly, the raven woman, even as she turns off some of her own nerves to keep the pain of the fire from distracting her from fixing it.
Nathan Hall     Oddly, whatever's empowering these people doesn't seem to have the necessary understanding of how humans work to parse the difference between a disabled person and a capable one, only a dead one. If Amalthea sticks to nonlethal strikes, breaking limbs instead of skulls, they stay down, though seem obsessive about continuing their attacks. Whatever has control of them is dedicated absolutely to fighting the group now. But it just can't make a body go when it won't move, and it doesn't seem to understand that it needs to adjust the timelines now.

    Oh, and Priscilla can see a lot of this now. Despite going around the back way, she's the first to reach the front. For obvious reasons, she, herself, cannot be seen by Amalthea yet. However, that's not all of what Priscilla gets to see and hear.
Guest Psyber     Psyber lets out a sigh of relief as hitting them in the growth seems to put them down permanently. He racks the shotgun again, letting the empty shells fall to the ground as he exhales heavily, trying to catch his breath through the adrenaline and exertion. He turns the shotgun over and slides a couple more shells into underside of it to reload its stock of ammunition.

    With three shells slid in, Psyber aims to take a few moments to actually investigate the room he breached at the front with a careful look. He takes several moments to peer around, assessing the alley they're in. It's only a quick scan to see about what clues might be in the immediate area of interest. It's to occupy his time while he also lets Amalthea finish up.
Nathan Hall     Eleanor manages to acquire the not-gensokyan, as well as stomp the man into the dirt. His heating equipment is slapped together from hastily modified welding gear, and it's BRUTAL on the flesh, but thankfully hasn't gone far. He's pinned into the first by Eleanor's foot, but like the radio operator, tries desperately to get out by way of timeline unsticking, which means it's going to be hard to look at unless Eleanor looks away quick.

    The not-gensokyan seems confused, until she reaches Eleanor, at which point she immediately suicidally lights herself on fire and stops resisting the dragging, trying to rush Eleanor down and tackle her with a combat grapple, while her flesh burns far, far more than fire should burn. She probably won't survive, but if Eleanor can get rid of her without losing the man, the man will. He's clearly newer than the rest. He's at least eaten in the past week.
Eleanor Lamb     And now there is a Girl On Fire running for her, and Eleanor lets out a breath. "Bloody wonderful." She looks away from her trapped foe, produces her baton, and /swats/ at where the side of his head has Conceptually Been On Average, aiming to use Quantum to try and put him back into one waveform.

    And then she's got a burning bird-woman tackling her, and she screams, the fire crisping at her Turtleneck and her armor, before she shoves back at her with a wave of ice and force, howling. "THIS ENDS, WOMAN. How /dare/ you use these... THOUGHTS of his to harm him!" Her face is blistering, a serious burn hitting her before she kicks at the Not-Utsuho again, trying to plant her foot in that Eye and SHOVE.
Nathan Hall     Priscilla is searching for the murmurings between the cultists gathering, but she's going to find very little. They don't seem to communicate to each other. In fact, they seem to act like a hivemind. However, whatever's influencing them has something to say. All their phones, their radios, and even Priscilla's own manage to pick up the influence 'muttering. It does so in clips stolen from the dialogue of a few certain people... Complete with the actual radio authentication codes.

<J-IC-Moderated> Elliana Fairchild says, "--not going to help--."
...
*RWND*
<X-Union-Chatter> George says, "--we need to--"
*FFWD*
<X-Union-Chatter> Elliana Fairchild says, "--give up on it--"
*FFWD*
<X-Union-Chatter> [5-SA] Psyber says, "--won't help--"
There are several tense, frustrated phone noises.

    That's about all the dialogue that gets picked up before Amalthea breaks most of their arms and legs. Whatever's influencing them turns more of its attention elsewhere.
Nathan Hall     Obliterating the entire torso seems to work. Like with Psyber's opposition, the resulting chunks, which will go without written description, seem to be constantly flickering into new arrangements, as whatever's influencing them tries to find a timeline where they're not dead. Setsuko has mostly finished this off, for now.

    The fire is normal fire, thank goodness. It seems at least somewhat magical, but it can be mostly extinguished with a gratuitous application of chakra-infused water. The woman is so focused on grappling Sakura that she will be very vulnerable to whatever Setsuko does next. It'll likely take her out immediately, unless Setsuko's feeling merciful or something.
Amalthea     Amid the gunfire and frantic melee Amalthea is whirling, eating a few gunshots now and again to her armor, and halting only when she's certain the men are too battered to actually continue, regardless of much they- or the force behind them desires it.
    Rubbing some blood from her forehead, the unicorn vents steam.
    "These guys are done, I think."
Setsuko Kaminagi     In a situation like this, Setsuko is not particularly merciful. She is, however, quick and decisive, turning and lunging with that inhuman speed of hers right past Sakura and her attacker; as she passes, Zanjintou lashes out, a simple and precise strike meant to go right through the torso - or, more specifically, right through the spine. Severing that should make it much easier for Haruno to break free, assuming it removes the burning person's ability to control their lower half.
Nathan Hall     Kimiko matches unconventional physics with unconventional physics. The chain catches them together and pins them. Lacking any untangling motions, though, they are going to try to escape in a different way. They're hard at work attempting to yank themselves into timeline-states where they're not entangled, and seeing them do that is not only impossible for the english language to describe, but also impossible for the human mind to actually entirely understand.

    It deals with the problem, though, for now. Kimiko can move on, if she needs to, to keep these people bound to the ceiling. There's a way further in, it seems, going 'backwards' out the 'boss battle arena' where she found herself. Heavy blast doors with powered electrical systems to open them nearby. Should be able to get out before these things recover.
Priscilla     Priscilla frowns invisibly at what her radio picks up. Hearing it cobbled together as a pre-recorded message is one thing, but hearing the same kind of cut and paste mess emerge organically from several figures at once is quite another. More and more, she thinks back to what may as well be ancient history in terms of the multiverse, engaging her own radio to interject into an ongoing discussion. "These . . . individuals art not quite so. They hath been subsumed as aspects of a larger whole, whose existence we currently occupy. The last I felt a soul even slightly similar to this was the Emperor Ascendant, though this is a sequence of events we art experiencing rather than a place we art inhabiting."

    The sound of gunshots momentarily steals her attention as Amalthea bulldozes into what she had assumed to be a private, compartmentalized space, unconnected to anything else. She's not so caught up in the mystery that it prevents her from jumping into action, using the sharply squared, blunt end of the heavy Lifehunt Scythe as a polehammer, mimicking Amalthea on the few cultists closest to her while the mythical knight works through the opposite end. She's heard something about regeneration, but she isn't quite so eager to test the full power of her conceptual weapon on whatever larger entity may be at fault just yet.

    She drops the invisibility as Amalthea comes through, looking back towards the murals pointedly. "Well, at the very least, now we knoweth this place possesses some form of internal consistency and persistence. I wouldnst not wish to wander it at random, however."
Nathan Hall     Psyber scours for CLUES. He locates signage that designate this alleyway's location. It's a specific area in Slum Urbania, one that would have passed over Psyber's desk a long time ago when there were severe interpersonal issues. George and Nathan had an encounter here, where George allegedly betrayed Nathan and tried to have Nathan's mind altered... And allegedly didn't succeed. There are signs of skirmish here from before. It looks like this is after the event, not before.
Sakura Haruno     Flowers manages to push the rest of the person off of herself, and get herself off of fire, sighing as her burnt skin glows green as her chakra works on it. She'll give a glance to Setsuko, speakng up. "Thank you." Once that's done, though, she'll start to look around, trying to figure out how to proceed. "Want to lead us? I'm not quite certain where to go, and you're quicker than I am."

    That may have hurt her to admit, but she's willing to head on in the back lines of this little two-person subparty.
Kimiko Shinobu     Kimiko is fairly thorough in securing the two, but it's hard to look at them and their capabilites are hard to count on, so she can't be certain it /will/ hold. For that matter, her weapons are ephemeral, and getting too far away might cause an immediate release. Still it will have to do.

    The Gensoyo/Hell Crow trappings of this area mean little to her. She presses onward.
Nathan Hall     Eleanor knocks the man out, which is the way the others have successfully managed to stop these people too. He doesn't stop trying to unstick, but he won't do much else besides that. His body is no longer capable of channeling the impulses it was before. The eye, though, is tough. Eleanor needs all her superhuman strength to crush through it, shattering it into shards that jitter and distort as they try to find a timeline where they're not broken. Everything about it is awful. It seems things are about covered there. The two 'cultists' are dealt with for now, in their own way.

    The supplies are still here, but the warpgate is still a good way to head out. It seems like the woman Eleanor stopped was headed somewhere urgently.
Guest Psyber     Psyber takes slow looks around as it starts to dawn on him exactly where he is. He lifts the shotgun again and proceeds to take a few moments to chatter into his radio as he slowly heads over to regroup with Amalthea and Priscilla, "Ladies. Priscilla, good to see you up on your feet again. Sorry it's to drag you out over such a shit gig, but I don't have many people I can call in for this."

    Psyber hoists the shotgun over his shoulder, "At least, many people I can't trust to critically fuck it up at the 11th hour," He pauses, "Whatever IT may be. I admit we're operating dark right now." He looks around a bit at what's left in the alley.

    Meeting up with Priscilla gives Psyber an idea, albeit a farfetched one. He's unsure if all these worlds connect, or Priscilla just wound up in a similar one. Reaching into his coat, he pulls out a flare gun and proceeds to fire it straight up. He's trying to see if the others will see it.
Setsuko Kaminagi     "I... wouldn't know where to start myself," Setsuko admits, returning Zanjintou to her side, and looking around the temple. "I think we should have a look around before we go. See what's here, what exits there are, anything that might give us information." She starts to do that herself, in the most expedient way possible - floating up into the air, and getting a view from above using her inhumanly sharp sight.
Eleanor Lamb     Eleanor growls at the death of the other cultist, and looks down at her knocked out but temporally struggling friend. "Right, you. Come on, we've got exploring to do."

    The Big Sister hauls the man up, looks at his partially burned face, and grumbles. She tosses him over her shoulder like a sack of potatoes, and trudges over to and through the 'warpgate'
Nathan Hall     The cultists are clear of the Solar City. This means Priscilla gets a clear view of the flare Psyber sends up. She sees it... Crossing the sky horizontally, if she sort of looks around the sun. She's certainly not seeing it go up. It looks like this is some form of closed space, like the expansive sky isn't really as big as it seems. The space is all twisted up, economizing as much circumstance into the area as possible, to conduct as much of the soul of the being into this worls as it can.

    Psyber sees his flare disappear. Priscilla gets to see it appear somewhere in the sky above her. It lands... At a familiar set of gates, or at least it's familiar to Amalthea, and, eventually, to Psyber, when he looks at it. The gates to the sealing site of the Lord of Nightmares.

    This means that Setsuko gets to see the flare crash, horizontally, into the room she's in, through the entryway far beyond. That means that the way further inside is the opposite direction.
Nathan Hall     Kimiko emerges... Back in Heaven or Hell? At its lobby? No, that's odd, because there's definitely no blast doors on the right end of the lobby, nor a warpgate on the opposite end. A stone archway marks the entry to the lobby itself, instead of the rather more normal doors, though the rest of Boston is visible through the lobby windows, as is an odd flare that crosses the sky horizontally. Eleanor emerges from the warpgate built into the left end of the lobby as well, and gets the same weird eyeful.

    There is nobody here. However, Kimiko will recognize a half-finished mask resting on the front desk. It's still unpainted, but the shape of it looks FAMILIAR to her, and to certain other observers once they see it.
Kimiko Shinobu     Kimiko sees Eleanor, and is glad that they are only combatting a cult that makes poor, obvious disguises of people she vaguely knows rather than perfect replicas of people with whom she walked here. So far, anyway. She nods, glances with interest at the mask, but instead elects to go and check on the elevator. Elevators being excellent places to place ambushes, she is going to only try calling it, and then seeing whether the top of the car opens up into the shaft.
Eleanor Lamb     Eleanor sighs as she enteres Heaven or Hell. Well. At least this was... safeish.
    She waves to Kimiko with her free hand, and slings her unconcious new temporally wrong friend on a flat surface. "Hello, young lady. I hope you are having a better time of things than I am, because this place is rubbish. I do not like it here and I do not like the idea of this place. Mostly because the /why/ of it still confuses me."
Nathan Hall     The car of the elevator has its top panel opened. Kimiko opens it, and it seems unwilling to open, as if it's blocked. If she forces it with her Magical Strength, it'll open easily. It punches a hole through an exterior facade, and reveals... The street outside. But, sideways, because the panel is 'up' and the opening is horizontal. Additionally, it looks like the hole got punched in the facade several seconds ago. More temporal disconnection for Kimiko.

    No ambushes, though. Thank goodness.
Priscilla     Priscilla puts another experience point towards leaning how to smile. "I am flattered by thine confidence, Lord Psyber, though despite quite obviously knowing thine own life less well than thee, I must admit the same." She glances with a brief moment's noncomprehension at the flare shooting horizontally across the sky before swiftly clicking the pieces into place. "Well, I supposeth a single level of structure wouldst be perhaps too much to expect from such a strange place. At the very least, our coordinates art set and not relative. Unfortunately, I am not certain as to what amongst any of this wouldst most likely hold significance enough to be considered its heart, presuming there exists one. I cannot easily locate much whilst inside of . . . this."
Kimiko Shinobu     "I think there are... many things wrong, on many levels, with what is happening here." is Kimiko's response to Eleanor. "A good reason for doing this to people, probably doesn't exist."

    She looks up, which is now outside, and gives a displeased 'hmph,' before dropping back down into the elevator car. "I'm not sure that this goes anywhere." After another glance around the room for possible other clues, she asks, "Whose mask could that be?"
Guest Psyber     "If you consider how much of this... whatever it is... is related to Nathan's traumas. We've seen where George hurt him, where Utsuho hurt him, now we're here." Psyber waves to the temple as he steps forward towards it, intending to take point so they can meet up with Setsuko (who is presumably inside judging by her reaction to the flare).

    "If ever a betrayal defined Nathan, it was this one. The origin point of a two or three year series of events. This single betrayal..." Psyber exposits to Priscilla as he approaches the temple, "Spawned two of, if not THE TWO, most impactful relationships in Nathan's life. Two people who would cause him relief. Cause him heartache. Cause him pain. Cause him joy. A guardian and a wound. A knife in the back and a hand on his shoulder."

    "Me and Elliana Fairchild. Both of our relationships with Nathan were defined in this very temple." He says the words bitterly, because while Psyber can forgive many people, the one he can't is himself. And lately his own betrayal of Nathan has been thrown in his face repeatedly.

    "We should move forward."
Nathan Hall     Psyber leaves the alleyway, enters the solar city, and moves on through it into the temple. There, he can meet up easily with Setsuko and Sakura Haruno, as they take the familiar path through the temple. Oddly enough, though, as they reach where the sealing chamber ought to be, they instead find Heaven or Hell's lobby... Currently occupied by Kimiko and Eleanor, investigating the lobby itself. There's an odd blast door on the right side, and a strange warpgate on the left. At the back... An elevator. Open, and powered.

    On the desk still lies a mask. It's not completed, but the start of its form is now familiar to Psyber, Amalthea, and Priscilla once she enters.
Eleanor Lamb     Eleanor looks up as everyone starts to pile into the lobby, and she smiles, slapping the man she'd carried in with her on the back. He is still unconcious. "Hallo! I brought you a new friend, Psyber. I'm sure once he wakes up there are plenty of things you can ask him."
    She looks over to the rest of the people filing in, and murmurs. "No one else had any problems, did they? I mean, nothing that wasn't handled right away?"
Setsuko Kaminagi     When the flare comes through the temple, Setsuko is descending from her brief recon-from-the-ceiling. It is a perfect storm of 'oh shit'. She twists in the air, the flare passing just an inch from her face, and allows her flight to cut out entirely again, with the net result that she plummets out of the air and lands in a one-knee crouch, standing back up to brush herself off. That was more than a little unexpected, but at least she saw the flare!

    When Psyber and Priscilla arrive, Setsuko is investigating the temple more thoroughly.
Nathan Hall     Setsuko's view of the room is now illuminated by the flare. From above, she can see how the area has been thoroughly vandalized for murals. Nine images are shown in order around the area, in an almost religious way. The second through the seventh are more familiar, at least mostly. A crow-like woman surrounded by the sun, destroying a city. An anima-saturated woman on windswept plains, holding a pair of scimitars. No. 9, with a tremendous eye fused to his chest, linked with a writhing mass of assorted zombie flesh. George Weissman, confronting Nathan in an alleyway in Slum Urbania, drawn like a hero. Elliana, stabbing Nathan in the sealing chamber, drawn like a saint. Psyber, surrounded by assorted members of Heaven or Hell like Amalthea and Eleanor, grasping a glowing egg, depicted just as saintly. But the eighth image is still incomplete. Some sort of monster? The ninth is far more obvious. A gigantic eye, with a set of fractured glasses laying in front of it on the ground.

    The first os odd, though. A sphere, and some sort of apparatus connected to it. The end and the beginning of the 'timeline' each don't make much sense.
Priscilla     Priscilla makes a vaguely defeated noise. Truthfully, she'd been fairly cognizant of the fact that the incident with the wrathborn, and the way its two major players had come to orbit Nathan's life from then on, had probably left by far the largest scar on his psyche, but she was making the effort of not dropping it right at Psyber's feet; something he seems all too eager to do himself. "Perhaps, but then there is still no guarantee that any of this is accurate. Faithfully reproduced, perhaps, but such doth not always coincide completely with intimately understood."

    She files into the temple shortly behind the others, taking her time laying eyes upon the much storied stage of the Union's most famous betrayal, comparing it with her mental image, and trying to imagine what exactly must have happened. The abrupt drop into Heaven or Hell in the middle of it is both somewhat disappointing and mildly alarming. The old building feels vaguely nostalgic, despite it being only the blink of an eye in her lifespan, but the handful of features that remain out of place unsettle her. "Is this . . . meant to represent anything? Or . . ." she gravitates over to the mask, absently picking it up and turning it over in her hand, wondering why it seems familiar.
Guest Psyber     Psyber doesn't get to spend too much time in the temple, since fast travel becomes a thing very quickly in relation to time and space. He takes a very careful set of steps into the lobby of his own office, not saying much in response to her words. Psyber knew it, even if she wouldn't say it. Psyber was a great source of good in Nathan's life, but also one of no small amount of harm.

    He looks around the lobby of his old office. It's been a very long time since he set foot in the old building, and it feels both like a home and like a memory long made hazy. He furrows his brow a bit, "I don't know. The mask feels familiar, but I can't place why."
Nathan Hall     The elevator buttons are out of order, except for the library.

    Pressing that has the elevator operate exactly as it should, despite 'up' seeming to not be right. It goes up, for a while, until it comes to a stop around when you'd expect, and dings quietly.

    It opens up into an unfamiliar space, with familiar things inside. It's some sort of technological scientific apparatus, a series of massive cords and tubes, snaking between many consoles into a central pedestal, in a chamber many meters tall, bristling with an array of equipment. Every so often, it flickers to the alleyway, to a circular chamber used to seal a certain ancient Shajem, to an empty plain, to an awful city, to Heaven or Hell's own library, or that circular metal combat chamber. But this is the core source of the matter, it seems. Supernatural senses will be able to determine that this is the core of the location, in a sense.

    There is an Oblivion Orb here.

    Well, no. It doesn't seem authentic. And it doesn't look exactly like it should. The real Oblivion Orb didn't have a tremendous iris that stared, unflinchingly, at each inhabitant of the room. Each see it staring right at them, even if they separate. Psyber will likely recognize this as the apparatus used to control the Oblivion Orb during the final moments of the old multiverse. It is an apparatus that was destroyed in a final assault by the Confederacy. It seems to be the core of the structure, in a sense.

    One has to assume that, like the boat before, the eye's connection to things is sustaining the structure. There are an assortment of cords leading away from it, to elsewhere.
Guest Psyber     Psyber's not sure how to take the view before him. There's so much here from a mission he had put out of his mind years ago. It's a creepy, awful sort of nostalgia for him to look around the place and he's trying to quell a feeling in the pit of his stomach. Why this place was so significant to the series of events is beyond him, beyond simply being a major undertaking Nathan took that was a part of his career.

    The half-angel's response is pretty straightforward. He lifts up the shotgun, aims it square at the Oblivion Eye, and lets rip with a point blank spray of the blessed shells he usually packs in the gun. He's banking on it being a half-baked facsimile, but not an accurately durable recreation.
Setsuko Kaminagi     Setsuko has never seen this place, and looking at it draws keen interest. When she first saw the Multiverse at large, it had already been changed, though not for very long. So seeing a place from before has her curiosity, if only briefly.

    That eye, though. She is of the same mind as Psyber about it. As he lifts his weapon, she draws her blade, holding it horizontally in her right hand and running fingers along it with her left, starting a compacted whirl of divine power that compresses down into a potent bolt. "Denkousekka!" Divine energy, with both piercing and impact qualities; adding that to Psyber's shot should ensure the destruction of whatever it is.
Priscilla     Priscilla has never seen the oblivion orb. In fact, the multiverse didn't even exist to her until long after it was destroyed. She doesn't recognize the room, and she doesn't recognize the apparatus, but the moment its name is dropped, she feels she knows much more of what this is about than she previously wanted to. "This is . . . the foci of its soul. Or at least, its present incarnation." she utters hesitantly. "Though it yet remains an event symbolizing a being. A consciousness in continuity." She doesn't like the idea of the potential consequences that destroying it then and there could have, especially after what happened the last time, but there isn't enough time for her to do anything about it before Psyber and Setsuko have at it anyways.
Eleanor Lamb     Elenaor likewise wasn't here for the death of the Multiverse and the Rebirth of it. That said, this feels wrong. An all seeing eye is wrong, this place is awful and evil and there's nothing here she wants more than-

    Psyber and Setsuko breaking it. Unlike them, she had little in the way of 'divinity' or anything like that to use in her favor. But what she does have is the Conviction of Mankind. The young lady reaches out her hand, and hurls a bolt of bio-electric lighting at the thing, as powerful as she cna make it.
Kimiko Shinobu     Kimiko has little and less idea what to make of this place. She doesn't even really know what an Oblivion Orb is, though it sounds monumentally ominous. There's an eye, and that's one more worrying thing on top of a lot of worrying things, but Psyber shoots it and she feels no need to apply more force, herself. She's looking away.
Nathan Hall     The eye stares. It stares as it's shot and bolted, flickering in response. Cords disconnect erratically. The world itself jitters nonsensically. Setsuko's more direct assault brutalizes its connections more directly. Without connections, it seems to be disconnected from the surrounding world. It is the point through which the flow of circumstances directs itself, so destroying it seems to cut off the circumstances that sustain the being's presence here in the first place.

    The building was already quite disconnected from causality. But this disconnects it more. The entire awful twisted space vanishes and jolts the group back out to some form of graveyard. Several things are left behind: The mask that the group kept hold of, which still can't be identified, the half-dead Hunter that the masked hive-cultists had captured for interrogation, a stony inert mass about the size of the original Oblivion Orb itself, and the group itself, plus the rescued man on Eleanor's back.

    The corpses or disabled cultists vanish entirely. They are standing -- or in some cases lying -- in a historic graveyard, which is what this always was, and hasn't ever not been.