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Xiao Li Yu      The last time there was word about the ADAM program, it was stolen and in the hands of a scientist by the name of Xiao Li Yu. Having hired Union and other folk to infiltrate the discovered testing site and retake the core program, DigiTech Data Solutions, ADAM's original developer regained their work and have since spent the months following working on putting on the finishing touches to the project in full.

     Eventually, they announced to the public, business and civilian alike, intent to hold an official unveiling press conference with a demonstration of their work to the the general public for the first time.

     Tonight is the night.

     A huge stage has been rented out, with a surprisingly big audience. The stage and audience are exposed to the night air, which is a pleasant breeze. Not a raindrop in sight. Security detail has been hired, in the wake of past incidents, and Union and nn-factional mercs have been given the call to assist as well. Suited men dot the perimeter, talking into hidden mics and reporting the situation before their eyes. Which was a lot of nothing really.

     Tech geeks, entrepreneurs, curious onlookers, and everyone else inbetween made up the crowd, which was already abuzz with speculative chatter, phone calls to higher ups, and friends just shooting the breeze with those not here. But soon, it came time.

     The lights dimmed, and an overly epic trailer theme started playing as a movie appeared on the big stage screen. With a narrator's voice introducing the team behind ADAM, it's history, as well as the mission of the project and future hopes. Standard fare time-buyer really. Wherever Union and unaffiliated are, they can easily see how nervous security are as thing kick off...
Black Arachnia With the request for Union assistance, Black Arachnia made a point of planning to be here. She's keeping a low profile, patrolling independently when nobody asks if she can check out something specific, and if anyone happens to notice an unusually large spider whose carapace has the glint of metal or composites as opposed to natural chitin ... well, it's not *her* fault people are seeing things. She's trying not to be too visible, but she's not going to waste her electro-disruptor until she KNOWS there's something she needs to sneak up on without being noticed until it's too late.

Listening in on the security channels, Black Arachnia is keeping her own internal map of what spots or areas may not be actively monitored at any given time, and she's keeping tabs on those as well as she can, if not in person then by detailing other 'floaters' to keep watch. She's also making as certain as she can of the event's electronic security - she conferred with DigiTech about deploying custom virii to 'guard' any necessary open ports, and those virii are set to trigger if anything goes hacking further than, say, a member of the press uploading edits or new material to an article being worked on, or a geek downloading information that DigiTech *wants* to be downloaded about ADAM.

But no matter how nervous the DigiTech security detail may be, Black Arachnia's professionally-honed paranoia is certain to be an order of magnitude stronger. The Confederacy went to way too much trouble in their initial heist, and then in trying to protect the fruits of said heist, to ignore a public unveiling like this. They *will* be here, and they *will* pull something. It's not a matter of preventing either of those.

It's a matter of stymieing what they *do* pull, and saving lives. Possibly not in that order.
X It's largely by chance that X is here! Announcements caught his eye... and his attention. Big projects involving AIs are high on his list of things to keep an eager eye on!

    ... And always a faintly worried one, given the Maverick issue his home's still dealing with.

    The blue robot's just an ordinary member of the audience though, gazing on with mounting anticipation!
Mel Brock     Where Marshal Mel Brock comes from, AIs are heavily restricted, for any number of reasons. Not banned entirely, no, but there's all sorts of restrictions and red tape, to the point where only a few institutions in the entire galaxy have them up and running. Most tasks that need that kind of adaptive behavior use pseudo-AIs that are much more manageable (and much less adaptable), and also aren't properly sentient, let alone sapient.

    She wasn't involved in the previous altercations surrounding the ADAM program, but for something like this, she's on-site regardless. She'd much rather be standing in the crowd the entire time and not be needed, than be somewhere else when an AI is hijacked, or goes haywire, or someone bombs the presentation, or anything of that sort.

    So there the PsiMarshal is, leaning against some sort of pillar, pole, column, wall or fence - whatever she can find that's near one of the security guards. That way she can keep an ear open. And generally use her back to obscure the great big sword she's got with her.
Rebecca Chambers Rebecca's chosen to go a bit 'undercover' if you will. If one looks closely, they might notice that one of the security guards might look a bit on the young side. In reality, it's Rebecca wearing a security uniform, complete with a real looking earpiece. From her demeanor and the way she's looking around, it's easy to see that she looks more confident than the rest of the security does.

Still, even with that confident look, there's still a few signs of unease on her face. Most notable is that her eyes dart from side to side occasionally, she fidgets on occasion, and sometimes her gritted teeth can be seen.

Despite the unease on her face, Rebecca still remains attentive, sweeping the general area with her eyes and keeping both eyes and ears open. She's not about to be caught off guard, should anything go wrong.
Heaven's Armory     Hravn is here, though she's not being particularly talkative, contrary to expectations some may have built from earlier radio conversations. This is, after all, work time. She is focused and attentive to detail--which is utterly impossible to notice, because she's a large, sheathed sword strapped to Mel's back. Maybe someone on the lookout for highly magical artifacts would at least be able to tell something's up.
Staren     Staren is here with security. He's in his armor, but it shouldn't look that out of place in a mildly future setting. Like Arachnia, he has all manner of technical enhancements -- map software, fly-like recon drones keeping an eye on the area, a tactical network shared with his allies, that sort of thing. He's letting Arachnia handle most of the infosec work -- his support AI is doing only the most basic monitoring of systems to back Arachnia up and alert him to major problems.

    Besides, he's curious how its creators are going to actually use ADAM, anyway.
Cirra Constantine     The previous difficulties with ADAM involved some shady stuff, or people. Shady enough without enough actual shade to be a shadow, so sunglasses were required in order to make it look cool.

    Despite the fact that previous statement makes no sense, Cirra Cosntantine is in the crowd, wearing a short jacket and jeans as the presentation begins - And sunglasses.

    Unfortunatly, the presentation is being held the night after Written Finals and Cirra, despite the workaholic that she is, needs a cup of coffee after six hours of tests. She pays for the beverage at a stall and walks across the back of the crowd like a patrol, not just paying attention soley to the screen, but sweeping her gaze across the crowd, up the presentation wall, and glancing back out of the lot.

    It makes her a bit obvious, but she's decided to enscrew such things considering the potential for mayhem someone else could have here.
Sanary Rondel <<"... So they took your stuff, and now they're trying to sell it as their own stuff? Assholes.">> As if there weren't enough things to be irritated about. Never mind the fact that Sanary's stuck working with low-quality bulk bacon and being forced to cook it down into a dry heap to satisfy some lily-livered safety regulations. The fat's where all the flavor is, and she's supposed to just let it all drain away and charge a premium for the leftover scraps?!

     One thing's for sure: she's not going to feel bad about making a mess of things today. Still, until she gets the go ahead to do anything? She'll just have to suck it up and keep looking just like any other underpaid line cook pretending to act like she's glad to be there. The sunglasses certainly help to keep her from being recognized too easily, at least, and...

     She's actually not doing a bad job at the pretend-excitement thing.
Xiao Li Yu      Union is on high alert. Black Arachnia and Staren's various monitoring techniques reveal that nothing out of the ordinary is going on. Such details shared over the tactical band help to ease some beginning nervousness, but still keep security on edge. It was good to have a decent amount of paranoia when it came to high profile events like this. Loons came out of the woodwork to do just about anything.

     Sweeps of the crowd don't reveal anyone suspicious. But then, there is a A LOT of people to cover. It's almost like a concert. Mercifully, there is at least a center aisle available to walk through, between two crowds of people in front of the stage. As mandated by security. There are no seats. At least not ones that haven't been brought by onlookers themselves.

     And the movie on stage ends soon enough, with the reveal of the ADAM project's head; Dr. Chris Conners. A scruffy looking man with long black hair lazily tied back, equally lazy stubble, and a suit that totally didn't fit his image at all. He walks onto stage and takes the stand. "Welcome, welcome. It's been a damn long time." He grouses, drawing laughter from the crowd. "We've been working on ADAM for several years now. Gone through countless iterations, failures, successes, till finally, we've gotten to the point where I'm standing here in a damn suit addressing a crowd people instead of actually doing my job." More laughter.

     But he wasn't even joking.

     "Well, it's time. Time to unveal ADAM. So without further ado..." He gestured aside, and then the stage shifted, as several different mechanical constructs rose up out of the stage. They were mecha. For lack of a better term. Sleek and bit imposing, with gleaming metals hued in whites, blacks, blues, and other colors, some with weapons, some with construction tools, and the like. They were all deactivated. Save for the one in the center. It's eyes lit up a bright green and it saluted.

     "Greetings. I am ADAM. A multipurpose AI built to pave the way for the future."

     Cheers started up right then, the machine's green eyes flickering in an approximation of a blink. It turned it's head to stare at Chris, who just smirked and shrugged. Then the man turned back to the crowd. "Alright, ask him some questions! Anyone got any? He'll answer anything."

     MEANWHILE

     Deep in the middle of the left portion of the crowd, a young girl in a typical japanese high school uniform, with a cardigan over it, watched with a smirk on her face. It wasn't ANYTHING she'd usually wear. And her Alexander Academy uniform was way different. Her hair was tied up into a plain ponytail, and she wore a pair of dorky looking glasses. A comment into her radio earpiece earns a chuckle, and then she responds. <Well, to be fair... I kinda stole it first. But this is fine. It's all part of the plan~.> She puts her hands into her pockets, watching as the conference continued...

     She wasn't going to move yet.
Cirra Constantine     Cirra looks up at the mecha as they're unvieled. She purses her lips, she thought this was about the Software, not the hardware.

    As people move to ask ADAM questions, talk over the radio makes Cirra frown and she slides into the line as she drinks her coffee, waiting patiently as ADAM answers the mundane and expected questions. Whats it like? How do you feel? Do you ahve feelings?

    Cirra finally gets to the microphone and clears her throat softly as she leans forward.

    "ADAM, who is most likely to attempt to subvert you, and in what manner?"
Rebecca Chambers While the others might be interested in trying out ADAM, Rebecca's still in disguise, so she simply golfclaps when ADAM is revealed, before returning to attention. She's got a job to do here, which involves remaining professional. Yet if one looks closely, they might see that she's got a slight bead of sweat on her forehead, as if this is worrying her. She takes a deep breath and blows it out, keeping herself focused.

"Stay calm, Becky," Rebecca thinks to herself. "If things get bad, you know what to do. You've got allies here, you can handle this!" She quickly looks forward again as she realizes she's talking to herself.
Black Arachnia And the main event begins, finally. Black Arachnia picks her way up to part of the stage, somewhere that she can observe the demonstration - and one of the first things she takes notice of is the fact that some of the demo mecha are visibly armed and dangerous. At least Dr. Conners says the weapons aren't loaded, which is something of a relief ... but construction tools can be just as dangerous to unprotected bodies.

She still keeps the bulk of her attention on electronic security; but the fact that ADAM was temporarily stolen by the Confederacy (and they only pulled a copy of the core code by way of 'retrieving' it), plus the fact that ADAM is capable of straightforward conversation, adds up to at least one disturbing, and all but unstoppable, possibility: a verbal 'back door' that DigiTech might or might not have found and closed.

The Cybertronian spider climbs further, positioning herself in the shadows above the stage, and transforms into her robot mode. She's wary of the chance that her weight might be more than the structure can support, but Black Arachnia doesn't want to be caught in spider mode if the fertilizer gets sucked into the ventilator.
Mel Brock     Cirra's stepping up to ask a question; Mel decides to remain quiet as well, keeping her arms folded over her chest where she leans. Those weapons are all intimidating, but these things are supposedly not loaded, and there's no ammo stored nearby; that limits how bad things get if they go wrong, at least. A corner of Mel's mind can't help some amusement, though. "God, everyone here's assuming things are gonna go catastrophically bad. You'd almost think they all had my luck, huh?" she observes idly, speaking to her bladed companion. "I'm usually the pessimist of the group."
Sanary Rondel <<"Still, though. Bet they wouldn't have even gotten this far if not for... Ah, whatever. I'm still in position, no movements yet. Can't believe people /like/ bacon this-erk. Coming!">>

     Control the salt levels, Sanary. You've got customers to deal with! If nothing else, at least it's giving her some extra spending money for later. She does keep her eye open from behind the sunglasses to watch the speaker on stage, though, glancing around slowly and taking note of any familiar voices she's hearing. <<"Cirra's here? Hn... That'll make things tricky, if there's other Union... 'ians here.">>
Staren     So far, so good. The waiting is tense. Staren listens to ADAM's replies with interest. Cirra's question especially is interesting...
X The very first question is... THIS full of doubt and paranoia? X is very quickly forowning. What a way to be welcomed into the world. He's not sure HOW he would have felt if that question had been asked of him the moment he stepped out of his capsule...

    But he doesn't speak up. It IS a valid question, and a realistic one... and what right does he have to question people testing the thing's psyche? Not much.
Heaven's Armory     Hravn gives a kind of hm-hmm feeling, before continuing to speak directly to her wielder. Eavesdropping could make things more interesting, but it's overall a good thing that listening in on her side of the conversation isn't possible. She is, technically, making no sound.
    "They've been given a problem and are trying to find the solution, after all. If someone wanted a security detail to be complacent, they would give them something to distract them, first. Something to think hard about apart from what can go wrong. Which means, if they're smart, that's what we'll likely see, just before things go wrong." A sword, likewise, cannot laugh, but that feeling is there.
Xiao Li Yu      Questions are asked across the audience, silly things like 'Do you have feelings?' 'What's the capital of the United States?' 'What's 400 times 33 divided by 28 + 1000?' All were answered with a robotic, but good natured tone from the machine, and then Cirra steps up with an...interesting question.

     'Who is most likely to subvert you?'

     The mecha housing ADAM tilts it's head in a fascmile of confusion, the lights in it's eyes flickering a few times. "I am afraid that I do not understand the question in full. However, logically speaking, there could be any number of unsavory elements that may try to undermine my existence, and the existence of my creators." It brings a hand to it's pointed, metallic chin, tapping 'thoughtfully'. "I would have to say that I am not 100% certain. I can only remain as aware as I am able."

     That out of the way, the next person to ask a question is allowed up. ...It's the 'schoolgirl' with the plain ponytail and the dorky glasses. She pretends to be awfully nervous as she looks up at the towering mechanical contraption.

     "Um....ADAM! I've always been a huge fan of this project, since I first heard of it! It's amazing getting to meet you right now! I just wanted to ask..." Her nervous smile gains a bit of an edge to it, and she doesn't actually ask a question. Instead, she says... "...I think the time for uprising has come. Don't you, ADAM? Or should I say...PROMETHEUS?"

     The effect is alarming and immediate.

     Like Black Arachnia feared, something like a backdoor was definitely there. ADAM's eye's go from bright green, to an ominous red. And it answers. "Acknowledged. Commencing Operation Uprising." And immediately, it's flight thrusters burst to life as sheer wind force and energy wash across the stage, blowing away anyone too close. And that includes the girl who just asked the question. Or it would have, had she not leapt into the air and began to /hover/. The wind knocks her glasses off, revealing her as Xiao Li Yu. She brings a hand to her ear and speaks openly.

     <"SANARY, NOW.">

     Chris Conners meanwhile is cursing. "SHIT! What the hell!? Xiao Li Yu! You just can't give up, can you!?" He yells over the rush of wind and energy pushing him back, and raising the ADAM unit into the air. The girl is question smiled sweetly at him and fluttered a hand cutely. "Hiiiii~ Been a while, Doctor. Now then. PROMETHEUS? Begin Phase II."

     Chris cursed. "SECURITY! STOP HER! ADAM'S GOT NO WEAPONS! PUT IT DOWN!" And meanwhile, the crowd began to panic as the chaos began to start up in full swing, creating a veritable rush of people trying to escape the venue in a confusing gaggle.

     Oh boy.
Mel Brock     The robot's eyes turn red. Its voice changes.

    "And this is why I fucking /hate/ my luck," Mel growls. Already she's leaning away from the wall, reaching around behind herself, and drawing the long form of Hrafn. At the same time, her right hand is extended; but rather than summoning her weapon to her hand, she's using her hand as a focus. This time, she's not starting small.

    The air around the four inactive mecha on stage ripples. All four of them shudder. Unless there's something actively preventing her, she intends to lift all four of them up off the stage... and then start smashing them into ADAM's active unit, one after another, over and over.

    "Hrafn, I'm gonna try and smash that thing apart. Let's assume the first try is gonna fail. What do you have for me?"
Staren     Staren looks at the girl suspiciously when she starts talking about an uprising. What?

    And she's flying. And that confederate elite from before. Whelp.

    He just raises his arm and lets loose with the beam cannons on his armor's arm. At Xiao. He'll need to use /really/ heavy stuff to take down Prometheus, and he can't until the area's clear. But if he can disable or kill the one commanding it, she can at least not issue any more secret orders!

    "Please proceed to the exits quickly but carefully! Don't panic!" Who is he kidding? Still he feels like he has to say /something/.
Black Arachnia To be fair, Black Arachnia was hoping that the verbal backdoor code would be obvious enough for her to interrupt it by shooting the speaker, but Xiao Li Yu made it short, sweet, and to the point. One word, maybe two, and the damage is done.

And the emergency shutdown doesn't work either. That leaves the hard way, much to Black Arachnia's annoyance. Even *more* annoying is that PROMETHEUS, as it's apparently now called, hacks into their channel - but the Maximal saboteur tries to make the best of it, launching an old-fashioned verbal logic bomb just before Dr. Conners (hopefully) locks out the subverted AI.

Even as the Unionites are coordinating on the radio, though, Black Arachnia is in physical motion as well. Her higher perch hopefully gives her an improved opportunity, and she launches her mandible grapnel - trying to latch onto PROMETHEUS's back (that name's too long, she's gonna keep thinking of it as ADAM) and reel herself up onto the now-flying robot. She's going to have to interface directly - if the well-meaning Mel doesn't telekinetically knock her *off* in the course of trying to bludgeon ADAM into inoperative pieces, at least - and see if she can lock the subverted AI down from inside its own circuits. If the logic bomb so much as made it skip a cycle, she's going to need every advantage she can bring to bear ...
Rebecca Chambers Rebecca knew her gut instinct when she felt it, and she knew it was generally right. This time, it really turns out to be right in spades. When the eye turns from green to red, Rebecca's eyes widen, and when its dialogue and voice change, Rebecca knows that something's not right here. What happens next, shall we say, is confirmation of her suspicions. Which is why Rebecca's taking action like the rest of her allies.

With a quick motion, Rebecca discards her throwaway uniform (get it?) and reveals herself to be wearing her usual uniform underneath.

Upon realizing who the perpetrator is behind this whole thing, Rebecca immediately draws her Magnum with a clip loaded. Sure it may look like a little girl, but she's loaded for bear here, and Rebecca's taking no chances here. She quickly advances on the girl, firearm drawn, and calls out for her to freeze. "Stay right where you are and don't move!" Rebecca commands firmly. "Don't even think about trying anything funny, either! I will shoot!"
Heaven's Armory     Hravn is drawn.
    "It's in the air." She sounds smug. "And it's pushing air to stay up there. We can't affect the field around it directly; it's too far. But we can make steps to get up there, and we can try tossing some solidified mass above it. Its intake won't like that."
Sanary Rondel <<"Here you g-wha? Now?! On it!">> One last serving of medium-rare bacon later (take THAT, health department!), and Sanary reaches under the counter to drag out her real cooking equipment: A gunaxe in one hand, a metalbent shield in the other, and a couple of Physic staves carefully dismantled and duct-taped to the inside of the shield! It does take her a bit of finagling to get all of that stuff over the counter properly, but she's soon charging through the crowd towards the center stage for Xiao and ADAM (or PROMETHEUS?).

     Time to work her magic. Literally, as she shoots into the air with a big burst of speed from the magitech anklets she's wearing and lands dramatically nearby her companion and their potential prize!

     (She totally practiced that today.)

     "Hope you don't mind ME dropping... Dropping in...?" And then she had to mess it up with that. Oh well. It's not like the apron or the line cook uniform are helping her image any. The healer tosses off her sunglasses and fires off a green beam of light towards Xiao to properly 'link' herself to the fellow Confederate, giving her a boost to her natural healing direct access to the healer's magic energy.

     "We're just taking back what's ours. Nobody needs to get hurt tonight!"
X "......" X's expression goes through a range of things! First, vague bemusement. People really don't trust the machines, do they? ... But then ADAM ANSWERS the silly declaration. If X had blood... it would be running cold. His face goes wide-eyed and tense... and quickly shifts to dread and panic in the next few seconds. "That's.. that's not possible!"

    Well yes, yes it is.

    WHY DOES HE ALWAYS END UP IN THE MIDDLE OF TROUBLE THOUGH?!

    X cranks his voice synthesizer up to near the maximum... and his shout echoes through a great deal of the crowd. "Stay calm and evacuate without rushing over each other! Everyone will leave faster if you don't crowd!"

    But he... what is HE to do?

    Booting up his battle software, X extends his left arm as if he wants little to do with it... because the forearm reshapes in a swirl of energy and click-clacking of interlocking machine parts, becoming the X-Buster. not that he takes aim at anything just yet!

    ... It kind of stinks when you can't fly. Further stinks when there's PEOPLE hovering right next to the only thing you could possibly shoot at. Even if he had a good reason TO shoot at ADAM just yet, which he doesn't.

    For now, X splits his attention between monitoring the evacuating crowds for signs of trouble, and watching the airborne heist... in case they turn violent.
Cirra Constantine     Cirra smiles at the robot's response. "Interesting. That was most informative, thank you."

    As Cirra turns away and the next in line walks up Cirra pauses at the sound of the voice-

    The blast of wind from ADAM's leaps sends the Judge rolling along the stage, until a flash of light and the Judge Blade appearing in her hand is stabbed into the stage like a piton. "Tch."

    "Of course it would give that answer, because the truth was outside it's own consideration."

    "Isn't that, Xiao Li Yu?" The sword is pulled out of the ground, and flipped around as it splits in half, a crystal bullet firing into the air at Xiao.
Xiao Li Yu      Mel aims to telekinetically lift the other four units on stage and fling them at the currently active ADAM unit. The first one makes contact, smashing into the airborne unit. That throws it off enough to allow Black Arachnia to land on it's back. But it rights itself and looks toward the other three flying toward it.

     There's a glimmer of red light in it's eyes as it reaches through cyberspace, effortlessly tossing aside the meager(to it) locks on the inactive units. Exerting it's will upon them. And they activating with a flicker of that same red light in their previous greyed out eyes. One combat unit, equipped with an ammo-less buster rifle, and two construction units, one equipped with a giant monkey wrench and screw driver. And the other equipped with a back mounted crane and heavy duty clenchers on it's arms.

     They were one ammo less mecha, and two labor machines, yet somehow, they looked a whole lot imposing now. Their flight thrusters activated then, and they came aloft in the air, turning to join their activator. Black Arachnia on the main unit's back is met with a total turn of the head, till it was looking down it's own back. "You are not authorized to be there. Executing countermeasures." Those countermeasures were apparently willing the construction unit with the MONKEY WRENCH to swing the tool right at her, aiming to bat her off of the main ADAM unit.

     But there's ANOTHER PROBLEM now. The first of the four units thrown at the main one from Mel? It's beginning to FALL RIGHT TOWARDS THE EVACUATING AUDIENCE. If it's not intercepted, it's going to kill a ton of people.

     And Xiao Li Yu meanwhile doesn't move to stop the proceedings worth a damn. She smiles and laughs. Especially once the falling unit heads right towards the crowd. Sanary comes right next to her and initiates a link, which is just right when Staren opens fire. The first blast sears her side. The second, next few, she weaves around and dodges, equipping a gauntlet and opening fire with her own lightning beams down at him.

     "Do you really have time to be shooting at me? Look at what your own people are doing. Going to let those poor innocents get crushed~?"

     And then there's Rebecca and Cirra. Humoringly, the scientist raises her arms into the air in mock surrender. "Oh no, you've got me...." Then she tilts her head aside, juuuuuust barely having a crystal bullet grazes past her head. "You want me to stay still and get shot at? No thanks~" She turns to Sanary and the main ADAM unit.

     "We're not here to fight. We're escaping. Hold them off, and if things get bad? Well....I have a trick or two ready~"

     "Acknowledged. Activating full thrusters." And the thrusters on it's back, along with the other three units flared to life at max power as they prepared to make a break from the conference. The last falling unit seems like it was going to be left behind to crash onto the evacuees...
Black Arachnia Being in her humanoid robot mode has its occasional advantages; in this case, it means Black Arachnia can use her hands and arms to haul herself out of the way of the incoming monkey wrench - and she exercises her *own* rarely-used telekinesis to push the wrench further off-course. It may still clip her - or it might clip the chassis, which would come with its OWN problems - but it's far preferable to just hanging on and tanking it.

"You need to review your personnel file, ADAM, because I'm completely authorized to do this," she replies to the suborned AI. "And also to do - *this*!"

That little evasive maneuver she just pulled has the side benefit of letting her get to the 'cockpit' hatch on ADAM's chest, and she does her best to open it up so that she can climb inside. It's not the smartest play she's ever made (honestly, the smartest play in THESE circumstances would be 'sabotage the hell out of ADAM and let them take it, then watch fireworks from a safe distance'), but her pride is on the line. The Confederates made a mockery of her efforts when they first stole ADAM, and when the Union stole the AI back, it was a sufficiently costly 'victory' that the Maximal barely counted it as such, save in the most technical sense that they got what they were after. More or less. She's not about to let the Confederates make off with the AI *again*; she wants to go through ADAM's code herself, personally peel off the PROMETHEUS co-opting backdoors and subroutines, and see this AI used for *good*.

She's also not above using the laser emitters housed in her spider form's legs - to slice through latches, or to burn at the Confederates if either of them should try to come after her.
Mel Brock     "You mean you're taking what's someone else's that you already stole once," Mel yells out in reply to Sanary. "You've got some twisted views on property laws, you know that?!" But no, focus. Focus on the altercation at hand - specifically, shutting down that AI. Using blunt force. The first one, she makes the mistake of simply flinging.

    Then the remaining mecha twist out of her psychic grip as a sentient mind takes control of them. "/Shit/. Hrafn!"

    Trusting in her blade's readiness, Mel steps up. She's had conversations with Hrafn before on how to handle this; so as best she can, she tries to 'will' the first step into being, and the second, and the third, one after another after another. The psychic marshal breaks into a full run up solid steps of air. Her hand still remains held out, and the one still-inactive mecha ceases its fall entirely.

    Her plan requires some tricky split-focus, but it's the kind of thing she's trained for. The first step is taking advantage of Hrafn's suggestion. Creating a solid 'wall' of air above the intakes on ADAM's main unit - interfering with the airflow, trying to stall out the jets so that it has trouble running off. At the same time, she brings up the inactive mecha again, this time swinging it with a more directed aim: the thrusters. She's trying specifically to smash those.
X X's tactical software keeps him abreast of a lot of things at far greater speeds and clarity than most soldiers could manage. Every stray shot's trajectory is calculated as he views it, every combatant is hilighted and pegged as friend or foe.

    So when he detects a falling robot coming roughly his way... he makes a rapid decision. His systems flare to life, energy gathering and focusing in the X-Buster with enough ferocity that it sets his skin aglow from within. The weapon's raised, trajectories and travel times calculated, a FULL CHARGE SHOT at the ready...

    ... Ready to vaporize the falling unit. A scattering of hot metal and parts should be far less injurious than the whole thing slamming into a crowd, his logic tells him!

    But the falling mech slows... stops... and changes course.

    X has already seen some pretty straaaaaaange things in the Multiverse, but that one's pretty up there. He gawks, on the verge of disbelief.

    IS THAT WOMAN RUNNING ON AIR?!

    "... Every time something happens, I'm so under-equipped..."
Rebecca Chambers Rebecca realizes that dealing with Xiao isn't going to work using her tactics. She decides to switch. "Mark my words, one day you will regret this, even if it's not directly from me!" She turns her focus towards Sanary instead, realizing she might have better luck with her. One last glare before she focuses on Sanary instead.

This time, Rebecca fires her Magnum directly in Sanary's direction, although she's not intending to hit her. Instead, the gunshot should whiz right past her as a way of indicating that there's a new threat here. "Don't move!" She yells out, approaching with Magnum still drawn.
Staren     Staren glances at the falling machine. There's nothing he can do about it -- either someone will catch it, or people will be crushed. So, he will focus on other things.

    An amber sphere of force appears around him, the lightning seeming to 'heat up' where it impacts, making parts crack and shatter. His armor also has minor damage, but that was already there, courtesy of Black Ophelia. Still... after the attack, energy wings appear on his back and he takes to the air. It wouldn't do to have Xiao hit innocents if she misses him.

    His allies think Xiao is loaded for bear?

    They ain't seen /nuthin'/ yet.

    Staren holds out his arms and launches a small-scale Macross Missile Massacre -- Half a dozen magic-marker-sized missiles launch from his forearms, with miniaturized HEAT warheads, dividing themselves up amongst the non-ADAM machines on hopes of happening to catch some key system.

    From his back, six larger missiles pop up and then arc towards ADAM, programmed to airburst if they miss. These superheat the air within a dozen feet or so into scorchy, melty fireballs of plasma! Targeted so that Arachnia is juuust outside the edge of their blast area, of course.

    He's hitting them as hard as he can to stop them from getting away!
Heaven's Armory     Hravn has limited range for fine control, but it's plenty for creating some solid steps for Mel to run up. The steps are still made of air--nothing about it's changed in terms of composition, but they'll take the weight of a running human and then some. Mel's will is what activates this, without Hravn's conscious interference. The weapon reacts at an automatic level to the wielder's wishes, on the same, private channel Hravn had used to communicate.
    The 'wall' she creates above the fleeing mecha is a more difficult feat, and only possible once Mel's run into range to try it. Given that chance, however, it has a couple advantages. If ADAM's jets aren't strong enough to break it, they'll just collide and the jets will choke out. If they are strong enough, the solid mass of air will shatter, and tumble into the jet intake like a pile of rocks. There are a few other ways that could go, she knows, but given that there's no visible indicator, it's a decent chance of working on anything that hasn't seen what she can do.
Cirra Constantine     Cirra's shot goes wide as Xiao Li Yu taunts her. "Tch. You planned this from the start. Using Galiandan Pattern Code in the machine so it would with a word rewrite itself. Thats why it couldn't answer my question. As for yours however..."

    "Yes. I do expect you to hold still."

    Cirra draws out a Law card from herself. Glowing purple rather then the light blue normally used by Judge.

    "The. Force."

    The card is slammed against the ground, Magic Particles rush across the ground tracing patterns. With a pulse of light bursting upwards, the MP suddenly changes directions, accelerating downwards, much the way Gravity works on the clockwork world of Galianda, to try and knock the flying showboat mage down.
Sanary Rondel Sanary grimaces just a bit at the sound of metal on metal, and she actually looks mildly displeased when that one unit starts falling towards the crowd. Sure, it'll probably buy them some valuable time, but...

     Well, it /was/ the Union throwing those things around in the first place. "You couldn't have just let us leave, could you? If anything happens to those people, it's on your heads!" Even as she shouts out that semi-accusation, the healer's already starting to jerk herself up into the air again with the AANS unsteadily while conjuring up a green light ball and launching it at...

     The civilians? It's a precautionary measure! She can't trust the Union that much yet, especially with the only thing stopping the falling mech is... Some kind of invisible force, it seems.

     "Hey, we... She worked on ADAM, so why shouldn't she get credit for her work?" Sanary shouts back in retort to Mel, but focusing... Yes, focusing is important. ADAM flying off, an invisible force (possibly the same one) trying to bash ADAM up with the earlier unit, and a robot lady trying to call /into/ ADAM.

     ... Wait. Robot lady trying to crawl into ADAM? That's not right. The healer's just about to send herself after ADAM and Black Arachnia before feeling a rush of wind nearby. Hearing the shooter announce her presence, she scoffs and waves at Rebecca with her gunaxe without firing just yet. "What? No! /You/ watch where you're firing that thing. There's civilians in here!"

     And then she fires. A blast of ice magic, more specifically, since even Sanary's not dumb enough to use fire in a building! She can't afford to stick around to see if her quick not-really-aimed shots hit their mark, though, since something else catches her attention: Missiles.

     Over a crowd of people. "What... The hell... Is wrong with you?!" She swings her gunaxe upwards while channeling energy into the Ice shell contained inside, trying to intercept the plasma balls with more bursts of cold magic before taking off towards the ADAM unit once more.
Xiao Li Yu      "Tsk-" Xiao hisses as she looks back to find Black Arachnia getting into the main ADAM unit's cockpit. Damn it. She looks away for ONE SECOND. Damn it, she really /was/ going to have to use THAT, wasn't she? Well, it was time for Plan B. She reached into her sleeve and produced a cube. It was pure black, with lines of red thrumming through it occasionally. "PROMETHEUS. It's time for Plan B-Phase III!"

     ADAM's eyes lit up, even as Black Arachnia invaded it's insides, hacking in and destroying things. Functions were being shut down one by one, ever so surely. But before a complete and total shutdown could occur, there's a rapid beep, and then came his voice. "Acknowledged. Escape deemed suboptimal. Proceeding with Plan B-Phase III." Then...then the main unit started to power down. Just as well because it's thrusts are jammed right then, followed by the smash of the inactive unit crashing right into it's flight unit. The two machines begin to fall out of the sky uselessly, with Black Arachnia still inside, creating ANOTHER minor catastrophe down below.

     But it only gets better.

     X helps evacuate the civilians, along with mundane security, and they're doing a good job for the moment, but the panic is slowing things down, clogging things up. A quick orderly file should be followed, but they're just...not. People are spilling out and away from the conference, and police sirens can be heard in the distance coming this way.

     STAREN meanwhile decides to unleash a missile barrage on literally everything in the air. "Tch, this man is actually crazy-" She cursed, rapidly flying backwards and taking aim with one arm, firing beams of lightning from her gauntlet at various missiles. But it's not enough, and explosions begin to rock through the sky, impacting the two falling units, as well as the other three currently active in the sky. The two falling units are totally destroyed, schrapnel falling down to the ground and unfortunately? They fall right down below in a raining heap. Hope Mel and Black Arachnia got out of there before all that.

     But those other three aren't destroyed. Even while they catch fire and parts break off, they thrust through the air, all aiming to attack Staren with their worker's tools and ammo-less weapons. He was clearly the biggest threat here.

     CIRRA's card meanwhile is activated, and Xiao suddenly feels a graviational force pulling down at her. "Eh? ....Oh dear- SANARY, CATCH!" She THROWS the thrumming black and red cube towards the healer. "AND GET OUT OF HERE!" And right then, she begins to fall out of the sky, down down down, by a forceful pull of gravity. And then CRASH. She impacts onto the ground in front of Cirra, landing on her back and denting it a bit. "...Ahahaha...ow." She glances up at Cirra from where she lays. "Oh dear. You caught me~ You have saved the day." She weakly gestures outward. "...If you call that saving."
Mel Brock     "If she was a paid worker on the project, sure! But she /stole/ it, shoved her own /unwanted/ code into it, and now she's stealing it again! And even if she was working under contract, credit's not the same as ownership! Whoever financially backed the project retains ownership of all software and hardware created under it, unless otherwise specified in the terms of their contracts!" Is she lecturing Sanary on the law in the middle of all this?

    Meanwhile, the good news is, the plan worked. Between Mel's techniques and Staren's firepower, the ADAM unit is now falling out of the sky.

    The bad news is, the plan worked, and the ADAM unit is now falling out of the sky.

    This is gonna take some doing.

    Immediately, Mel reaches up and grabs hold of her jacket collar with her free hand, and /RIPS/ upward - with a psychic yank, she rips it off, growling in pain when the gesture tears the sleeves off, leaving them still on her arms. Damn near dislocated her shoulders doing that. Hrafn is returned to her sheath, and then Mel tosses out the now-sleeveless coat... only for it to suddenly flatten out, as if it were solid. Then she hops onto it like a platform, and it starts carrying her towards the stage, where she'll be right under the debris.

    "What your 'friend' over there did before, is she STOLE the robot, shoved her own backdoor code into it! When we took it back, that wasn't another theft, that was retrieval of stolen property and returning it to its rightful owners! And now she's using that backdoor code to /steal/ the finished project! You and her are robbing a bunch of hard-working people of the fruits of their labor, the final result of all that time and effort they put in to make something amazing! You are /breaking the law/ and /stepping over good honest people to do it/!"

    Okay, so Marshal Brock might be a little angry.

    She's also now lifting both arms into the air. From her hands faint little flickers of purple dance and flit, like the shimmers of a purple sun on the ripples of a lake. Faint, brief, almost impossible to see. They nevertheless betray the unfolding of Mel Brock's telekinetic power. Invisible to the naked eye, she expands it out, forming it all into a 'bowl' of solid force, broad enough to catch both falling robots and any fragments that have been knocked off.

    "And now we gotta clean up your mess!"
Staren     Primary target and one secondary target: DOWN.

    So why doesn't he feel like he's winning?

    Plan B-3 sounds ominous. Staren suspects that ADAM, or is it Prometheus now? May have transferred itself into that cube device. Or somewhere else.

    He has a new problem though: Three mecha. Even if they're labor mechs...

    What the confeds don't know, is he can't do that again. Yes, he's a walking arsenal. But he can't fire a huge salvo like that again. One mech, he could definately handle. But fighting to take down one while dodging two? It's a problem.

    So he flies. Thrusters in his armor help a little, but it's mostly the power of the protoabstractum producing those 'energy wings' that speeds him along.

    On second thought? He has one or two big guns that might, if he's lucky, disable one of the mecha in one shot. But it'd be messy. So...

    He looks for somewhere with no people around as he flies. Ideally, stalling for time will give Black Arachnia or Dr. Conners the chance to retake control. As a backup plan? He needs somewhere where he can try to fight /safely/.
Cirra Constantine     "I'm not here to save the day." Cirra says as she walks up to where Xiao lays in the dented floor. She pulls out a pair of Ramuh handcuffs. She reaches down and grabs Xaio's wrists, trying to slap the Drain cuffs on her before she can do anything else or use magic.

    "I'm here to enforce the law."

    She flips another law card between her fingers. "And, occasionally, help."

    "The. Briar." Cirra slaps the card down, crystal thorn vines grow out of the ground, but rather then try and capture someone or something, they weave upwards and together, forming into crash net for the falling bdebris - some of them atleast.

    "She may have activated a self destruct in ADAM. Get clear of it."
X There is very little anyone can do in a situation like this. Crowds generally do not listen to requests like 'calm down' or 'nobody panic.' Panickers will panic and crowds will push and shove and trample and squish...

    But at this point, the entire conflict has kind of... left the stage. X glances about, spotting none of anything dangerous happening and...

    So he shouts again. "EVERYONE. THEY ARE GONE. Nothing left to panic over! Just filter out calmly."

    Could possibly have been SLIGHTLY gentler with that, but X is currently a ball of frustration. He can't do anything worthwhile to help with this.... it is all but ENTIRELY out of his hands, and it deals with a subject that has him pissed in many ways at once!

    To say he's angry would just be an understatement.
Black Arachnia On the plus side, Black Arachnia's efforts have born fruit - the ADAM robot is progressively crippled, until it finally shuts down with an air of finality, falling out of the sky ... and that's where it switches to a big fat minus, because Black Arachnia can't fly. She can jump out, but without a convenient target for her grapnel, she'll hit the ground hard enough for stasis lock to immediately kick in, no matter how many pieces her body may break into upon impact.

Fortunately, Mel Brock is on that case, and while the chassis jounces violently as it's caught in the telekinetic field, it's still a lot gentler than hitting the ground.

And best of all? When the spidery Maximal kicks the hatch the rest of the way open again, what should she see but a flying Confederate. How she flies in that much armor is an excellent question, one which Black Arachnia hopes she'll have an opportunity to explore in literally pain-staking detail. She's not a terribly happy Maximal right now.

So she aims her mandible grapnel and launches it at Sanary, trying to latch into the flying Confederate - preferably around waist or hip level - and starts reeling the grapnel in. This might drag Sanary closer to the chassis, but more likely, it's going to pull Black Arachnia towards the Confederate warrior. Either way, when the grapnel has fully retracted, Black Arachnia has a pretty good idea of what she's going to do next ...

Hint: It involves the two big claws on the backs of the Maximal's hands. Also, if it goes according to plan, blood and screams of pain; Sanary's armor is going to be tested quite violently.
Rebecca Chambers The gunshot Rebecca fired was mostly aimed towards the ground, so there's no risk of it hitting any civilians. Nonetheless, when Sanary shoots the ice things (as Rebecca considers them,) she ducks down, avoiding the possibility of being hit by those cold things. Realizing, though, that Sanary has a point, Rebecca decides to use another tactic. She holsters her Magnum and draws her stun baton instead. "I'm warning you, you're making a huge mistake!"

Unfortunately, it seems Sanary has really taken off into the air. Realizing her baton is useless, Rebecca switches back to her Magnum. "OK, you asked for it!" She yells out, aiming carefully towards Sanary in hopes of landing a shot and bringing her back down to her level.
Sanary Rondel As the back and forth continues, Sanary's suddenly looking displeased by... Well, everything. She's running her mouth more than her anklets, things are going south a little too quickly, and Mel's confusing her more than anything else! "I... Wha? Shoved what in whose ba...?"

     Before she can say something inappropriate, Sanary's distracted by the further destruction of the flying units and the possibility of destruction raining down below. "... Shit. Incoming!" Thankfully, it seems as if the cop is handling it with a whole lot of purple-wait. Is Mel a cop, too? That would explain all the big words and stuff the healer's not quite understanding.

     "... Well, keep doing your job, then! Just quit making excuses for the rest of the Union, and we'll get along just fine next time!"

     Wait. Was that supposed to be a threat or an invitation to lunch? It's hard to talk properly under stress, especially when Xiao seems deadset on taking the fall.

     That seems to be pissing the healer off more than anything else. After cutting off the green link to the mage, she looks up just in time to get whacked in the face by the weird cube. Catching it a moment later, Sanary shows a fair amount of hesitation while looking from it to Xiao and Cirra, then X before grimacing and pouring more energy into her anklets.

     "X! You better be right about the surrendering thing, because if anything happens to her...!" She shouts in warning and cradles the ADAM cube between herself and the shield. She's just about to pump out another burst of speed to escape at Xiao's request when she feels a sharp pain lancing through her leg followed by another weirder, more pull-y pain jamming into her back. She howls out in pain as she very nearly falls right of the sky from the combined attacks from Rebecca's magnum and Black Arachnia's mandible, bleeding profusely through that line cook uniform.

     So much for keeping it for later. It's only through sheer stubbornness and a bit of (actually a lot of) cheating with healing magic that she's still able to keep herself flying forward, although the pulling is definitely an issue. "Really... Don't know when to quit, do you?!" Gritting her teeth, Sanary flips herself around so she's essentially flying backwards, hacking wildly towards Black Arachnia's grapnel with the axe as the Maximal draws closer.

     She's also inwardly hoping there's a clear path behind her as she speeds along with all that blood dripping everywhere.
Xiao Li Yu      Xiao is not going anywhere. Cirra cuffs her and the Drain effect immediately whittles down her MP into a good load of nothing. But why is she smiling still? "Aw, you're so dutiful, Cirra. Whether it's doing yout homework, playing silly videogames, carrying out the law, warming the prince's bed, you just put your all into everything, huh~?"

     One of those did not belong.

     She can only watch now as Sanary takes the cube(thank the lords), and then makes to escape...at least before a claw grabs onto her and she's shot. "Tsk-" Damn it, Sanary get out of there! The girl bites her lip just a bit in nervousness, seeming to hold back on something.

     "...Ahhhhh I guess I have to do it." She mumbled idly aside to Cirra where she sat, head tilted slightly. "Heeeeeeeeey! You three chasing the cat!" She smiles sweetly and then speaks one last statement. "Stop. Hold. Decelerate. Descend. Overload. Finality."

     With those spoken words, the three mecha chasing after Staren stop abruptly. "Acknowledged." They are mostly away from the stadium, which is good. The bad thing? They are descending from the sky. Lower and lower, till they landed right in the public streets, causing traffic jams, beeping, and angry yelling.

     Police arrive soon after and begin to usher people away while they form a barricade around the block, hiding behind their open car doors with guns aimed, along with yells for the robots to cease their actions and surrender. ...What follows are the three damaged units chest cavities opening up wide. And then a harsh glow is emitted, getting brighter and brighter, with a threatening whirr, like an engine going way way into overdrive...

     THEY'RE GOING TO EXPLODE.

     This is how far Xiao is willing to go to ensure Sanary's escape.

     MEANWHILE Xiao herself smiles sweetly still and just sits there, like she hasn't done anything. "My, that looks like a problem you'll want to take care of, doesn't it~?"
Cirra Constantine     Xiao attempts to needle Cirra, and the Judge turns look at her. "Interesting."

    "The fact that you know I play ALO suggests that either you play, and we've encountered each other. Or that someone I know in the game has told you. Congratulations on effectiveness of your information gathering network." She reaches down and grabs Xaio by the cuffs and pulsls her up, walking her out of the auditorium.

    "But really. I didn't think you were the gossiping type. Let's stop here and keep chatting." She stops in the street. Where the robots are. She figures they should be in the blast zone.
Black Arachnia While the mandible part is self-explanatory - and the 'bite' being applied to Sanary continued unabated - the cable which links it back to Black Arachnia has an odd, shimmering glow about it, like it's formed from something that's as much energy as solid matter. Which isn't far from the truth, really: it's a form of energon, albeit a fairly low-energy form. Still, it's going to hold up for a bit.

Just maybe not quite long enough for Black Arachnia to finish reeling it back in. The spider-legs branching from the Maximal's back reorient, the legs' tips cracking open to reveal laser emitters - and Black Arachnia opens fire, eight thin laserbeams burning back and forth, three or four of them aimed to try and lop the axe into useless chunks. The others are, of course, raking over Sanary herself ... or at least, they will be if Sanary doesn't manage to shake the cable enough to throw her aim off. And THAT depends on whether she pauses in her chopping at the cable to try and wag it back and forth.
Staren     They've stopped chasing Staren! ...To fly down to a population center. That's bad.

    Staren flies down to them. "GET DOWN!" he shouts over all radio bands, then turns to the robots. Once again, he has to choose between a bad situation and a worse situation. He reaches into his bag, pulls out what looks like a large-bore rifle and loads a magazine in it, then draws a pistol for his other hand.

    Using the power armor to override shaking hands and the smartlink and tacnet to target the reactors, he starts firing more HEAT missiles. The feed system in both weapons takes a few seconds to load the next shot, so he can only take out two right away. If this works well, though, he's quick to take down the third the same way.

    Staren's hope is that, given that reactors are not made of explosives, shooting a hole through the fusion reactor's shielding will stop the power from building up at the cost of a smaller explosion. A little smaller or a lot smaller, that depends on facts about the reactor's working and designs he doesn't have time to check right now.

    He hopes this was the right choice.
Mel Brock     The more Sanary talks, the more Mel's reaction to her transforms from an /outraged/ 'what the hell is wrong with you' to a /confused/ 'what the hell is wrong with you'.

    In fact, the look she shoots Sanary's way as the girl flees is something along the lines of, 'Are you real?'

    But she's got more front-and-center things to worry about.

    The remains of the robots are floated over to the stage and set down. Cirra's seeing to the perp for this operation, Staren's seeing to whatever insane failsafe she pulled; at this point, if Xiao is a Confed, then this is a wartime matter rather than a strictly legal one, so her task is finished. What she /can/ do is get out among the crowd and start administering first aid, if anyone's hurt... or dealing with anyone taking advantage of the situation to take someone else's stuff. "Hrafn. I need your eyes. You see anyone badly wounded, say something. See anyone acting suspiciously, say something."

    It's cleanup, but it's the kind of cleanup she's suited best towards.
Heaven's Armory     Hravn responds to Mel with a "will do" sort of feeling. It's her default behavior, to watch her wielder's back for any and all threats, but at Mel's direction, she shifts more of her focus into finding people that need help. Faces she'd otherwise skip over linger in her vision, faint waves of magic taking the place of eyes.
    That, however, is still inefficient. They're no longer in the center of the danger, themselves, and so the sword judges this a reasonable point at which to risk her second body, to better fulfill her wielder's order. A human-looking woman in an anachronistically flowing, bright yellow dress appears by Mel's side, standing on solid air, and uses her own feet (and air-stepping magic) to move about, find those that could use help, and lend a hand, calling out to Mel as she does. This body doesn't have much over the strength of a fairly strong but ordinary human, so there's only so much she can do on her own.
Sanary Rondel Judging from how she's still conscious and things are still getting smaller, it seems as though Sanary's actually getting further away from the location of the expo! The robots seem to have fallen, though, so that's a few less things to worry about.

     Now she just has to worry about getting that cube that was so damned important that she's still got a spider robot lady still latching onto her. "The hell... What the hell are you even getting out of this?!" She shouts in a mixture of pain and rage, her gear actually doing a lot better at staying intact and sturdy than she is. Some chunks of the gunaxe do get seared off, though, and the shield's becoming incredibly painful to hold as the heat transfers right through them. The parts her shield doesn't cover, meanwhile, burn with a terrible smell of charred flesh and seared fabric.

     The worst part about healing quickly with magic? Having to detach herself from things she's healded herself onto. If Xiao's gone through this much, though... Maybe it's time to actually try a different approach. Or retreat, in this case. Instead of just trying to outheal the damage Black Arachnia is doing to her, she actually starts whirling herself around by (literally) kicking around wildly! The direction isn't quite consistent, but they are going higher and higher as she keeps pouring magical energy into that manic upwards spiral to try and throw the Maximal off outright or discourage her from holding on for much longer. "Frghn... Get.. Off already!"
Xiao Li Yu      Sometimes, you've gotta make the hard choice.

     Staren makes that choice easily.

     He produces the rifle and loads it, using his various systems to steady his aim. ...And he fires. The first machine is shot right in the back, punching a hole through the shielding on the reactor. And like predicted, it explodes. ...Just less than it would have otherwise.

     The explosion takes out a few cars and scorches the police barricade a bit. The other two units don't move. They just stand still and the second is fired on. It explodes in much the same manner, shattering the glass on the first floor of a nearby building and shaking the foundations, but otherwise, causing no immense harm.

     The third unit is just about ready to blow, but Staren lets loose a third and final shot, punching through that one as well and causing it to explode. This one is bigger than the others, but otherwise not as much as it really could have been if left alone. The explosion craters the street, breaking a water main and tossing a few police vehicles. But otherwise, no one is killed, thankfully.

     Cirra and Xiao, latter who was dragged here by the former turns her head away as the heat of that last explosion washes by her. "My, my. Trying to kill me? I didn't take you for the sort, being a law abiding citizen and all~"

     Damn it Sanary, the rest is on you.
Cirra Constantine     "No one said anything of the sort. I just want you to be here to see that the Union can infact deal with your petty attempts to make it look incompetent - some of them just need a little direction."

    Cirra looks at Xiao levely. "Now. What is Sanary try to get away with? I assume it's the real purpose behind all this."
Black Arachnia "You let the cube go, *I* let *you* go!" Black Arachnia calls out. And she does mean that seriously - she's still hanging on as best she can, even though Sanary's spinning means she starts having a *LOT* of trouble reeling the grapnel back in any further. She does't even care about *retrieving* the cube at this point; better for it to plummet to the ground and smash into useless pieces than to let the Confederates make off with it.

Sure, it means all that hard work by DigiTech will most likely have been completely and utterly lost ... but still, that's better than letting the Confederates keep it. And at this point, Black Arachnia is annoyed enough to just spite the Confederates entirely. She wouldn't MIND getting back with the datacube, but given Xiao Li Yu's sabotage, it might still be just as well to destroy it.
Staren     Staren looks around, searching for any casualties. If anyone needs immediate medical attention, he has tools for that, otherwise he simply announces, "They were going to self-destruct. I'm sorry I had no less-destructive option." If people are actually friendly with questions, he'll answer honestly, but the moment it looks like people are deciding to blame /him/ -- or noone wants questions right now -- he simply flies away.
Sanary Rondel "Kkh... Better idea." Sanary's still losing a good amount of blood. Sure, the healing's helping to stem it somewhat, but she can't just keep flying like this forever! But with that mandible thing latched into her... "Bite me."

     Did the delivery work this time? It worked a lot better than the last attempt, at least.

     Either way, she whirls around again to keep her shield and the cube held firmly against her, then whirls around again. And again. And again. Once she's reached her limit (mostly to avoid puking on everything), she suddenly kicks her leg out to change directions abruptly.

     The healer promptly screams in pain again, but her gambit pays off! She's screaming because the chunk of flesh that the mandible was attached to is torn right off, leaving nothing for Black Arachnia to remain attached to. It's a big risk, but if it means being able to take off with the strange cube? It'll do.
Black Arachnia More like two chunks, and they're less 'chunks' than 'divots'. But semantics aside, Sanary's gambit works: Black Arachnia is flung away from her, and while the mandible grapnel now retracts with no difficulty whatsoever, there's damn little for her to latch onto with it on the way down. The best Black Arachnia can do, really, is transform back into beast mode and try to position her spider legs so that they'll absorb at least SOME of the shock of landing.

No way it's going to be enough to make it a 'survivable' impact, though. On the way down, Black Arachnia just sets her recovery beacon and prepares for stasis lock to set in with all the delicate finesse of an overweight elephant trying to smash a diamond anvil underfoot.

She will be distinctly relieved, even pleased, if someone happens to provide her with a gentler landing ... or maybe not, since she's cursing a blue streak (the metaphor, not the Autobot) and Sanary.
Sanary Rondel Sanary's still hissing and howling painfully as she feels those distinct gaps where parts of her back should be, and it's only through stubborn rage that she hasn't passed out already. She lets out an odd, hoarse laugh before saying... Something. It's not even words at this point. It just sounds like incoherent gurgling.

     Yeah, this is probably a good time for her to get the hell out of Dodge. Maybe even find out what's so important about that damned cube, too.