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A2     It's a sad thing to say, but without the utterly ancient monoliths of crumbling apartment buildings, gradually turning to mere concrete dust as their structural lifespans run out, it's difficult to even peg this place as the same world as before. Even if it was the same, botched radio equipment that reactivated. Even if it probably was the junk that A2 herself had set up, turned on by accident, or fluke, only a couple of miles away, not even that tiny, disintegrating reminder of human civilization remains.

    Despite clearly being between the sheer faces of canyons and mountainous cliffs, sometimes winding and sometimes cavernous, but all worn smooth by wind, the land is still unmistakable for anything but a desert; harsh, bleak, hot and bright. Normally, one would expect to find some valley or riverbed in this kind of topography, but instead it's like the Sahara flooded up from underground and swallowed everything. The only real landmark to follow, is an utterly ancient series of pipelines, probably for gas and oil, that sometimes the dunes shift to uncover, only remotely 'in one piece' (though no longer one continuous length) by the sand having largely kept them cool and dry.

    Even so, arriving through a gate with quite a walk ahead, it looks as if it's about to rain. This place had been brilliantly scorching before, but now the golden sands are a deep, ashen grey, as the overcast clouds blot out the sun almost completely. Distant rumbles of thunder can be heard echoing over the blank horizon, rolling forward from the direction of the signal. Despite the charged and humid atmosphere, however, there's nothing to indicate any thirsty desert critters coming out. Come to think of it, there isn't even a cactus for miles. Just crumbling buildings and . . .

    A pair of tracks.
Reinhardt Wilhelm     Reinhardt emerges through the gate, just in time to get some dust in his faceplate. "Augh! Pfft, so much for a grand entrance." He grumbles, before he makes his way down the pathway. He hears the pitter-patter of rain on his armor, and he glances downward to see two sets of tracks.

    The massive, and I DO MEAN MASSIVE for those who don't know Reinhardt Wilhelm, kneels to inspect them before he begins to follow the path. Maybe Genji will be able to make something of this...
Laura Kinney Laura Kinney steps through the portal, head turning as she scans the landscape. No ambush this time. No sound exccept weather, the slight creak of cooling metal as it radiates the heat it had absorbed from the sun, and the occasional groan of a building shifting. Nothing at all perceptible to even her own enhanced senses except the smell of urban decay. "This world is dead." She crouches down, taking a closer look at the tracks. her nostrils flaring. "Human, or humanoid. Heavy for their size. Fairly recent, or else the wind would have filled up the tracks." She eyes the giant, totally nonplussed.
Deelel This world was chaotic with what order the natives had once enforced upon it, slowly fading away she followd behing hulking German knight who she'd had a growing for fondness for. He reminded her a lot of the old symtem monitors back home and she liked that.

"It seems what order the natives were able to enforce on the chaos of the natural world seems to be fading ... to almost nothing."

She's uneasy from that, a creature of order from a world of order that she is, somethings about meat space will always unerve her. Still she could see wonder in this too even a place like this.

"Well Reinhardt? Not much more to do than follow the path."
Sarracenia      The errant radio signal piques the interest of a certain princess who just happened to be nearby. She emerges just behind Reinhardt, an umbrella held over her head. It was probably meant to block the sun from her fair skin, but it soon comes in handy for keeping rain off of her. Some might recognize the umbrella's motiff: piranha plants. In this case, little chibi piranha plants on a red background.

     She blinks at Reinhardt's size, then looks down at the tracks. "Oooh. A mysterious set of tracks. That always leads to adventure!" she says cheerfully before continuing forward, her strawberry blonde hair and red dress fluttering in the desert wind. "And we should hurry. It would not do for a lady such as myself to be caught outside in a storm." she says, acting as if she simply expects the others to follow after her.
Genji Shimada     After the last time he was here, Genji made a trip back to his world to retrieve a few things. Some old equipment he hadn't needed in quite some time. But if there's going to be any sort of consistent activity in this world, /especially/ if it's going to be in the desert region, he's going to want to have this particular set of gear on hand.

    It would be forgiven if even his towering Overwatch comrade didn't recognize him immediately, of course.

    The blue cloak he's pulled about his shoulders billows as the cyborg ninja crouches down to examine the tracks right beside Laura, absently adjusting the similarly-colored headwrapping as he does so. "Hm. One of this pair is walking with a limp. And much of their weight is being supported by the other." He stands up, then, absently brushing at one of the sand-proof plates of his outer armor. "We will not have much difficulty catching up to them."
A2     Regardless of the quality of the tracks, with little else around to even distract the eye, they're not hard to follow. The sand is slippery and loose, resulting in plenty of slides down steep dunes, and feels like it rolls over itself better than it really should, but the stagnant, oven-like heat wafting off of it into the saturated air, means the wind hasn't stirred it for a while (and that it's the perfect conditions for getting incredibly sweaty). That means the oncoming rain is the time limit. It'll probably disintegrate them instantly.

    For most, it doesn't feel or smell like anything but the thunderstorm tingle in the air and the ozone scent before the clouds start gushing, but X-23's keener nose can pick up the faint copper and smoke on the tracks, as well as an ungodly amount of oil coming from somewhere that isn't the long-dried pipe. The trail continues a disconcerting distance, as if the ones leaving it had been walking non-stop all day at that slow pace, but eventually winds up at some form of landmark, which is good, because the time everyone arrives is when the rain finally breaks, and washes the footprints away.

    There are signs of human civilization, like all others, succumbing to the sand, but of a completely different one altogether. There's nothing so sophisticated as high rises, fire escapes and paved roads to be dug up. It's all stone walls, archways, sand ducts and brick rises, from some exceedingly ancient city; except for the fact that it is all /less/ weathered than the pipeline that runs right through it. With the dark encroaching, it's hard to make out much of the specifics, save for when a thundercrack lights up the sky, and washes everything stark, marble white for a split second, but then the ruins just become a tangle of reaching shadows, and make it even harder to figure out where up or down even is. The rain starts swiftly, and is utterly freezing cold; cruelly appropriate for the terrain that must have once been here. It viciously stings exposed skin, runs glistening down the rocks, and makes the sand even more treacherous than before.
Devola and Popola "Is your leg all right?"
"Well, I doubt I'll be dancing anytime soon, but yeah. It's fine."

     The two red-haired women in nearly identical outfits keep stumbling their way along, trudging through the desert and hurrying along as the thunder crackles above and rain threatens to fall at any moment. Although they're still nowhere to be seen, they can't be that far with the scent of oil growing stronger in the sand along with the scent of rain with each passing moment. Somehow, though, they've managed to keep one step ahead, the landmark showing the same trail going in another direction.

"Hey. What's wrong?"
"... It's nothing. Don't worry about it."

     And as if on cue, the rain falls. It falls hard, and there's not much the twins can do about it but seek shelter in what used to be an apartment complex. There's plenty of them around, but for whatever reason, the twins have decided on this one with its barely-attached fire escape ladder, an archway that's only been nearly eaten away rather than completelly, and a terminal that might be worth poking at once the rain lets up.

     If it lets up.
Sarracenia      It doesn't take long for Sarracenia to start whining about the heat and the sun and the sand and just about anything else there is to whine about. Sweating is so unladylike and undignified, and she pulls a large paper fan from her purse to fan herself as she walks...only to have it blown away by the wind. Which results in MORE whining.

     After a while of walking, Sarracenia actually isn't looking too good. She doesn't have any survival gear, water, and even shade is only semi-helpful in the oven-like conditions. She still tries to whine every now and then, but unsteady steps and a hazy mind makes for ineffective speech. "...great Goombas...are we there yet?" she pants, likely barely keeping up with the others in the group.
Laura Kinney Laura Kinney continues walking along, boots crunching in the sand. The scent is... strange. Not the copper of blood but... different. This whole place has her on edge. She continues on though, at a brisk walk; either the heat isn't bothering her, or she's just really good at being stoic. Possibly the latter considering how she even completely tunes out Sarra. The city though... this is where the back of her neck gets that tingle. "This does not make sense. The If the city was built after the pipeline, its construction would accomadate it bet-" She pauses suddenly, tilting her head to one side. "I hear-" She's cut off by the crash of thunder as something nearby is struck, and then abruptly drenched as the storm rushes down on them. "We should get to high ground. Flash flooding is likely."
Genji Shimada     Genji's steps across the sand are light and easy; when they go down a dune, he doesn't so much stumble as slide on his feet, allowing gravity to do his work for him instead of trying to fight it. It also makes the descent much quicker, allowing him to keep up a steady pace. When Sarracenia speaks, the cyborg replies in a serene tone. "We will never truly be 'there'. For when we have arrived at our destination, it will no longer be 'there', but 'here'. And our current 'here' shall be 'there' instead." Truly, the wisest of Shambali Buddhism's teachings.

    Down comes the rain, though, and Laura makes a good suggestion. "Agreed. It will also be easier to get a look around the city for signs of life from the rooftops. I will scout ahead." And having taken on his usual role, the bedouin cyborg ninja takes a quick dash over to the nearest building, and scampers right up the wall, unhindred by a cloak that's rapidly getting soaked with rain.
Reinhardt Wilhelm     RAIN! It's pretty miserable, but Reinhardt is safe from it as he stomps along, leaving massive footprints in his wake as he jogs along the sand. Following Genji and Laura, he's content to let the professional trackers do their thing while he follows.

    "Oh dear, My lady I didn't notice you there!" Reinhardt glances down at the exhausted princess, before he kneels down and offers a hand to Sarracenia, before plucking her up into his hands and carrying her along princess style.

    "You may be right, I advise we get inside quickly!" He nods to Laura, before he heads toward that shitty apartment complex, or at least the remnants of it.
Deelel Deelel is keeping movng the idea of a thunderstorm doesn't bother her too much it's interesting weather. Shepressed onwards keeping with the German knight for the moment but the pipeline gets her notice as she looks it over but she lowers her hand like she's waiting for somethign to jump them as they move ahead. The rain comes downand it doesn't seem glomy to her.

"Right there could be contimants hazderous to organic life."

Deelel will follow but she'll be the last one in and she looks to Sarraceniait was off how things had panned out, she'd never expected to ... be working with her at all.
Devola and Popola As the group proceeds onwards through the awful shitty no good desert city, it's clear that the rain's just going to keep going for a while. Whatever little respite it might have provided from the scorching sun would likely be forgotten with how cold it's gotten without the sun bearing down on them and the rain pouring down instead. Sand turns to mush, water builds where it had been too soft and slippery moments to even imagine it becoming worse, and both the scent and sight of the copper and oil is getting blocked by...

     Crappy, crappy rain. As Laura suggested, it does seem that going higher would alleviate the risk of getting caught in a flash flood, but the condition of the ruined buildings makes that a risky prospect for anyone particularly (or even moderately) heavy.

     The approach of the group doesn't go unnoticed by the pair at the bottom floor, though, and they... Actually, they're staying firmly inside that bottom floor. The more eagle-eyed or sharper-nosed of the crew might notice that they're actually huddled in what might have been a bathroom or walk-in closet of sorts. The one with the neater hair has her hand hovering near a sword at her hip, and the one with messier hair is bracing herself against the doorway as if watching for if they've been spotted or not.
Laura Kinney Laura Kinney freezes about forty feet from the building, holding up one fist to her side in the hand signal for 'stop here', peering through the dimness into a window, her gaze locking with the messy haired redhead. She lowers her raised hand again, silvery metallic claws slipping out of her knuckles, the sound inaudible against the backdrop of the downpour. She's not advancing further until she's got a good idea what's going on, and she's not going to sit here defenseless. She speaks softly into her radio headset. "Two humanoids, third window from the left. Armed."
Genji Shimada     Fortunately, Genji is suprisingly light for someone whose body is 75% artificial. He moves in a silent and swift path across the rooftops, only slowing when the rest of the group far below does the same. He's content, for the moment, to remain still and scan the ruins, looking for anything that might lead them to whoever was making the tracks. But Laura's superior senses find the duo first, and much closer than the shinobi expected. She calls their location, and he considers for a moment...

    Then takes a series of bouncing, light-footed leaps down the skyscraper and one of its neighbors, until his feet are planted on the soaked sand in front of that ground-floor room. The blue-wrapped cyborg takes precisely enough steps to put himself inside the building... then turns around, pointedly turning his back to the room, and seats himself seiza-style on the ground, looking out at the rest of the group. Or rather, at the ruined city beyond him.

    Then he casually produces three small packages of Pocky from somewhere in his armor, setting two of them out and holding the third. "Ahhh, it has been so long since I have been able to simply sit and relax during a rainstorm." He's speaking very loudly, 'talking to the air' in a way that suggets he knows someone's listening. "I find the rain so soothing and beautiful. It is a pity I must enjoy it alone. And here I have more snacks than I could possibly eat on my own. Whatever shall I do?"
Reinhardt Wilhelm     Reinhardt sets Sarra down as they enter the apartment, or what's left of it, and he carefully, slowly works his way inside. As he sits back, he watches Genji's gambit, keeping his hammer close in hand just to be safe.

    He does wonder what kind of pockets Genji has on his chassis, if he has pocky ready to go.
Sarracenia      Sarra feels somewhat invigorated by the rain, and rather than rush inside with the others she stays just beyond the boundry between rainfall and dry ground and catches a few handfuls to quench her thirst before she heads inside. She folds up her umbrella and slides it into her purse, Mary Poppins style. She then ventures deeper into the first floor, wiping at her arms and dress to try and get some of the dust off. "Ug...I'm going to have to soak for days to get all this sand out of my hair." she grumps, then blinks as she realizes that the others are acting cautiously. She quiets down for the moment, watching Genji with a raised eyebrow. "...what are you doing...?" she asks very quietly.
Devola and Popola Laura's surveillance goes unnoticed by the pair inside the building as huddled as they are in the bathroom closet, maintaining their close watch of Genji and his thoroughly confusing actions. Is that... Food? And he's going to /eat/ it? The twins look at each other with cautious, yet confused expressions, and the curly-haired one even stands up a little straighter despite silent, yet visible protests from the neater-haired one.

"Is he really...?"
"He couldn't. Why would he? That's..."

     The two whisper to each other before shutting up abruptly when Genji starts talking to definitely-not-himself. They give each other more suspicious looks before Neat steps out of the shadows, her hand still clenched firmly onto the blade's handle.

     "You don't need to rub it in. What do you want?" Neat's voice is fairly quiet with the rain, but there's clearly anger bubbling beneath all of it.

"Sis, it's fine." Curly's voice comes out not too long after that, drawing Popola's gaze over as Curly forces a calm smile towards Neat. "We'll leave, alright? We were just getting out of here, anyway."

     For whatever reason, Neat relents. She does continues watching Genji with her hand still clasped around her weapon, though, while Curly steps out of the doorway. She glances over at her sister again, then at Genji and the odd boxes he's brought. Also, the odd everything about him.

     "You... Don't look like you're with the Resistance. Are you from a different region, then?" Although Curly sounds calm, there's some of the same cautious hostility in her voice, and she's even keeping a hand on her own sword as well. Unlike Neat, however, her stance is rather weak with one of her legs visibly bloodied already. Somehow, though, Reinhardt and Sarracenia go unnoticed, perhaps due to their distance, their cover, or the fact that Genji's got those strange boxes with him.
Genji Shimada     "I don't want you to leave," Genji says aloud. "My allies and I were simply investigating a radio signal, and then when we arrived, following an interesting pair of tracks. Whichever one of you is injured," he adds, "It's probably a bad idea to go out in this weather regardless." The shinobi turns his head slightly, so that the duo can get a better look at his face. "We are not from this planet, by the by. And most of us are human." Hey, they've met A2 already. He's got a good idea what they're thinking.

    He has no clue how significant those words might be to the duo, though.
Reinhardt Wilhelm     Reinhardt, very gingerly, tries to find a corner for him to sit. "We come in peace, and only wish to assist you however we can. We have people that can help treat your injuries." He offers in a deep, but warm tone as he removes his helmet, revealing his grandfatherly features and GLORIOUS BEARD.
Laura Kinney Laura Kinney moves forward out of the rain, retracting her claws once it's clear that the pair aren't going to attack. The wounds on her knuckles heal over within moments, leaving her looking like an ordinary teenage human again, the mutant girl crouching down with her back in a corner of her own. She doesn't like it when people could sneak up on her. "I am Talon. We are with the Watch." Hey, she doesn't have the mask yet, or a real hero outfit, but might as well start getting the codename out there.
Deelel Deelel says "We're not here to fight you, we came to help with this world! WE have people can can as my large friend said patch you back up. We're not looking to hurt you."

Deele's far shorter than the huge knight looking almost comical beside him but she seems friendly enough though her clothing is very strange, partially form fitting top and baggy pants all looking machineed witout seams. She's friendly though her voice is a bit odd...
Sarracenia      Sarracenia had missed Laura's initial deployment of those claws, but when she steps forward Sarracenia blinks in surprise at seeing them, and then lets out a yelp of surprise when they retract -right into Laura's hand!-

     "...Talon. I..think I can see why." she says quietly, composing herself quickly and trying to straighten her hair. As the others start talking and introducing themselves, she steps forward as well. "And I am Pr-..." She starts to go into her usual grandios introduction, but realizing she is part of a semi-secret organization that does questionable things that could bring negative attention to her kingdom, Sarracenia realizes she might need an alias. "...Primrose. We were merely curious about an unknown signal, which led us to your footprints. We mean you no harm."

     As she is saying this, Sarracenia pulls a mask from her purse, a red and gold mask that looks like the type a high society woman might wear to a costume party. She fixes it in place on her face, then smiles.
A2     It's difficult to hear in the thunder and the rain, as without windows and doors, the rolling booms that follow the crackling flashes outside, echoes more than it muffles, and the steady hiss of torrential rain pours inwards as much as outwards, where the buildings unfortunately tilt to meet it. Still though, someone or other might pick it up: the steady, whirring little click-click-click of a finely made wind-up toy, chittering and twanging rhythmically in the downpour.


That might make someone wonder what they could have possibly expected, when exactly that is what wanders in. Looking out the entrance they had come in, anyone can see, plain as day, the walking, flat-footed metal doll waddling up to them. It's probably the size of a small child, and built of badly rusted metal, but its clattering paddle feet, comically tiny arms, and head and body so simple as to be little more than a sphere on top of a cylinder, evince the opposite of sophistication. The only remarkable thing about it, is that its two button eyes glow faintly like car headlights, casting some illumination inside as it trudges inwards, wandering around on a totally pointless vector. It feels odd not to see a giant wind-up key in its back.

    It teeters and totters harmlessly through the door, stiffly rotating its head back and forth with the bare minimum of effort to avoid bumping into walls, and then comes to a stop, staring at the collective. After a few seconds of continuous staring, its eye lamps flick from yellow to traffic light red, and it waddles forward at a more enthusiastic pace, so blazingly fast that it could almost catch up to a jogger. It toddles all the way over to Genji, looks up into his visor, and then winds back one tinker toy arm and delivers an adorable looking punch-

    Which coincidentally would break a truck in half.

    Just outside the building, the group can now hear a constant tide of skittering, crunching, and crumbling concrete, followed by a rising cacophony of electric buzzers, and a blaze of flashing red lights.
Genji Shimada     The strange, wind-up robot that comes hopping in is so utterly incongruous that for several long seconds, all Genji can do is stare at it. What in the world? Oh, it seems to have noticed him. And its eyes just turned red. That's an obvious-enough signal that they probably angered it somehow, so the cyborg raises a soothing hand, and says, "Easy, friend. We are not a threa-"

    The memory of something A2 mentioned over the radio dances through his mind. 'Just killing machines'.

    It's fortunate that the blow doesn't take Genji's head off. But only barely. He jerks out of the way with sudden alarm, one hand coming up defensively, and just the /glancing/ hit is enough to throw him across the room. Reflexes kick in and the shinobi turns it into a back somersault and a crouch; by the time he comes up, there's already shuriken in his hand, and he throws them without hesitating. "We are under attack! They are the machines A2 mentioned to us. Be on your guard!"
Laura Kinney Laura Kinney stiffens again as the clockwork ticking and whirring reaches her ears, claws sliding out again as she rises into a crouch, ready to attack. And then it makes a swing and knocks Genji over. She jumps up herself, another blade extending through the toe of her boot as she braces her hands against the wall to kick upwards and impale the robot's head with her foot claw. Assuming its brain is even IN its head.
Reinhardt Wilhelm     Reinhardt offers the two a smile before his attention convinces him to look at the buzzing machine with confusion. "Genji, what is-"

    Welp, there goes the hope of it being safe. He is about to call for Genji to get out of the way, but the ninja has that in hand. He does however hear the sound of skittering and buzzing outside, and the knight begins to shuffle his way outside with hammer in hand. "Alright, alright, who wants some, eh? Come on!"
Devola and Popola "Allies? So there's... More of you, then." Curly speaks, glancing over at Neat. The twins still look rather skeptical about Genji's intentions, not quite moving out of their positions nor retreating further into the bathroom closet. Genji's claim is met with incredulous looks, and Neat's grip on the sword even tightens a little more when everyone starts showingup.

     "Humans? The Watch? that's not..." Curly starts, but goes quiet as Neat places a hand on her shoulder.

"But what if they are? Those constructs..."
"You think so? ...They /are/ kind of weird looking."

     As the twins talk amongst themselves, they keep glancing towards the Elites as they make their presences known. Reinhardt's size gives them pause and reasons to reach for their weapons, but the BEARD discourages that course of action after a moment. Laura and Deelel draw yet more suspicious stares and clenching hands, though, although it's not quite apparent why since the twins seem hesitant to voice their concerns right away. Sarracenia, oddly enough, actually doesn't get any suspicious looks at all. Curious ones, to be sure, but at least they aren't gripping those swords any more.

     When those machines appear, however, the twins waste no time in drawing their weapons. Neat takes up a defensive position by Curly while Curly starts limping towards the opening in the wall, ducking as Genji flies across the room past them. "Crap... The machines are here already? If you really are human, then move your asses and get out of here!" The twins are already starting to move towards the approaching noises, although they're rather slow about it all. Damn limping!
Sarracenia      Sarracenia is only a short distance away from Genji when that little robot approaches. She blinks, then giggles. It's cute in a primative machine sort of way. It looks almost like something she would see on her world.

     Right up until it takes a shot at Genji and sends him flying across the room. "Wh-what the-?!" She pulls her own hammer from her purse quickly and takes a golf swing at that little robot. A hammer with what looks like a solid chunk of steel the size of a 55 gallon drum and a handle as long as the princess is tall is swinging through the air when Laura approaches. Sarra sees her coming and balks, not wanting to hit an ally.

     Instead she dashes after Reinhardt, looking around for more of the machines. "Who makes a cute little robot that can hit that hard?!" she demands as they run. "And why are we running toward more of them?!" It does seem like they are after all, what with all the noises and lights before them. Seeing Curly limping, Sarracenia slows down and offers an arm, then keeps running.
Deelel Deelel can still hear the muffled weather but she doesn't think too much of it, well doe the moment. Then there's a pause as she hears something. Something is heading right after them. "Oh lovely." A strange melee weapon appears out of nowhere into Deelel's hand and she looks at the things that are closing in on all of them. She did think it was cute for a moment but now it's a fall on fight.

"I hear you Genji!"

The ninja's warning was still welcome, she also did get why the twins were wary. They were stranger right? Or she could be totally off base for now she's got her keyblade ready and she comments.

"The machine? Well let's tell them to get glitched."

Deelel certainly looks ready for a fight at the very least as she's moving in to keep with the group with the weapon ready.

"You raise an excellent point Princess!"
A2     The little machine almost falls over from the follow through of punching Genji, wobbling its tiny metal arms to stay upright. For that impressive (in one sense) blow, however, the shuriken slam right into its chassis, and sink almost entirely inside, having a bare minimum of metal to pierce, all of which is badly corroded. It stops moving immediately, and Laura has a free shot to push her foot claw all the way through its head, ripping it off its body completely, which sputters, flails around, and then clonks over the moment the thing's eyes go dark. It's a short-lived encounter, but it doesn't look like the end of it.

    When Reinhardt trudges outside, and Sarracenia follows him, they are met with a whole lot more than just a couple of wind-up toys. There must be at least sixty of them, dropping out from inside adjacent buildings, popping up from under the sand, and crawling up and sliding down dunes and pipes, all unerringly converging on the location of the first.

    More important, are a number of larger brethren, still so simple as to be almost toy-like, with the same blank, spherical heads, but they have more complex, articulated arms and legs, which let them reach human size, and as rusted up as they are, most have gotten their hands on weapons; hefty looking cleavers, swords and axes made of refined metal fragments, bolted together. They've managed to swarm in no time, amassing like an eerily well coordinated zombie horde, and pressing in through the doors and windows to all sides, with a deafening round of rattling and beeping.

    That means the two of them are now stuck being the main bulwark. Easily a score of them converge on Reinhardt alone, where the little ones start taking great, big, flying hops at him, and the more humanoid models storm in from all sides, adeptly climbing the rubble and taking swings at him with their weapons, their eyes blazing red. It seems really, really wrong, given their toy-like appearances and clunky movements, that they'd actually be pretty handy with the weapons as well, pretty easily on par with a human soldier, albeit much jankier, and much stronger.

    One larger models breaks in through the windows where the others are still gathered, or rather, it smashes through the walls around the empty frame, too small to totally let it fit. This one towers over everyone but Reinhardt outside by a good few feet, and aside a giant sword over its shoulder, it seems to have some rusty hunk of junk close enough to an intact gun attached to its arm. It revs up for a second, projecting a red laser sight, and then the barrel, and in place of an actual gunshot, /vomits/ out a roof-to-ceiling wall of energy spheres. They're slow -- probably no faster than an average baseball pitch -- but the crackling black and red pulses are as big as someone's head, and they immediately fill the room with a colossal bulk of curtain fire, leaving almost nowhere to go.
Reinhardt Wilhelm     Oh.

    Oh boy.

    There are a LOT of these guys. They're almost too dopey and cute looking to be a threat until they get their weapons out, then Reinhardt begins to feel a bit more at threat as he evaluates the situation.

    His shield comes out in a flash, as Reinhardt begins to make a phalanx style position, moving close to behind Genji to support the cyber-ninja as needed. "Do your thing, Genji!" he calls out, waiting for whatever his colleague has in store.
Devola and Popola Are these 'humans' going TOWARDS the machines? "H... Hey, get back! We can handle this!" Curly shouts, wincing as she tries to hurry along to overtake everyone with their dumb working legs. Sarracenia's offer of assistance gets a skeptical look, and then both Curly and Neat try to wave her off. "We'll be fine. We can handle machines like these! Just get out of here before..."

     Neat trails off as it looks more and more of the machines are showing up, and the humans are actually handling them without dying like... Well, humans. She instead sighs in frustration while gripping the weapon with both hands, pressing up side to side with Curly with both weapons drawn by the twins. "... Just be careful. If you see an opening, run!"

     And with that, the twins spring into action. Or... Neat breaks into a run at the larger model attacking from inside the apartment, skidding to a stop and swinging her sword in wide, yet calculated slashes to carve a path through those bullets. As she does, Curly hobbles through that opening path, and the twins soon start working together on carving a path through the bullets to try and get to the large machine before Neat breaks off to rush in and flings her sword at it in an unnaturally controlled spin!
Genji Shimada     The trio of flung shuriken are immediately replaced, another set of three deploying from Genji's right forearm into his waiting fingers. "If we survive this, you can investigate our humanity all you like," he calls to the twins. "But for now, don't worry about us. We're all very capable fighters. /We/ will cover your escape." He comes up to his feet-

    -and oh, hello, it's the Kool Aid Machine.

    Genji sweeps around. Genji lunges forward. Genji... is suddenly in front of both Neat and Curly. Facing the source of the bullets. "Try me!" It's a taunt aimed at the machines, spoken in the exact moment that shortblade in his left hand begins to whip around with thoroughly impossible speed. It's a blur of darting, impossibly-precise movement... that begins to turn all those bullets /back at the machine that's firing them/.

    As he turns that curtain of fire back on its originator, the ninja says distractedly, "Would the two of you like to see something really cool?"
Laura Kinney Laura Kinney sees the impending glow, and knows it's time to go. She scrambles up through a hole in the roof, attempting to get the high ground to let her dive down onto her enemies. Aha. There we go. The big one with the ranged weapon that just glassed downstairs. Seems important, and probably serves some coordinating function. THe two new girls seem to be on it though. Time to thin the herd. She launches herself off the roof, an animalistic shriek leaving her throat as she drops into the crowd, claws scything as she flows from enemy to enemy. Slash stab punch kick uppercut *crunch* That sound would probably be half her ribs on her left side giving way under a punch from a drone the size of an Astromech, not that Laura's ever seen Star Wars. She barely notices the pain, although she does let out a grunt and spit a few droplets of blood onto the offending drone before a disembowling strike rips out most of its torso
Sarracenia      Sarracenia's eyes widen at the veritable sea of machines making their way toward Reinhardt and herself. But, she isn't about to back down from a bunch of toys, no matter how cute or dangerous. She reaches into her bag and starts pulling out...explosives! There is a definite little gleam of sadistic delight as the princess starts throwing bomb after bomb, seemingly random in type and size and power.
     C4, missile, dynamite stick, proximity mine, sticky grenade, even cartoonish bombs with fuses. All are thrown into the crowd of machines as Sarracenia backs into the building again slowly. It might be about to crumble, but it offers at least some cover.

     The last bomb that Sarracenia pulls out is a cute little Bob-omb. A shiny black bomb with big, innocent-looking eyes and little tan boots for legs/feet. Sarracenia grins, then throws it like a baseball into the closest gathering of little punch bots. The resulting explosion is intensely powerful though a bit limited in size. And hopefully not too close to Laura. If she is thinking about whether to retreat or not, Sarracenia gives no indication. She seems to be loving the opportunity to just unleash indiscriminate destruction.
Deelel Deelel is keeping with Reinhardt as they star pulling out Sarracenia also is with them as they behold the killer wind up toys, for lack of a better word to lable these machines with. There are more of them some of them are bigger, and there's something almost unsettlingabout how they move and fight to Deelel as her own weapon goes to work, she'll race in putting her keyblade Dual Disc to work in close combat.

"Let's see how glitched up you null units are! Do you even have the game to keep up with me!?"

Okay that's some very starge slang or jargon Deelel's spouting there but most of it likely seems to be an insult of some sort.
A2     After all these years, here's Reinhardt again, hiding someone behind his shield while he faces down a coordinated horde of killer machines. They sure look a lot less high-tech than the omnics, and a lot, /lot/ older, but they do an admirable job of surrounding him anyways, as far as the concrete walls allow them to (which if he is at all sensible, is about the point his shield stops covering him).

    They quickly become a wave of clanking and clattering blades, swirling and chopping from every angle they can reach, working remarkably well to not to hit one another, more like waves of minors swinging picks at a tunnel wall. It's not the kind of assault one sits back and endures for long.

    The same goes for Laura. Individually, the machines are no threat to her whatsoever. In a large, uncoordinated mob, they're a 'target rich environment' that might only get a hit in on her through blind luck. The way they surrounded her, though, indicates anything but. Dozens perform the job of leaping right into her face, swinging at her as if she were wide open, and being ripped in half or torn limb from limb like classical ninja mook trash, but every time she cuts down half a dozen into scrap metal, one or two have a perfectly timed shot at her back. When she turns to face those, others come from her flanks. It's as if all of them can see her from every angle, and so many are all but glad to come to pieces beneath her claws.

    Sarracenia chucking bombs into the fray is something she may eventually want to be thankful for. Even standing atop thirty or forty mechanical corpses, there are no gaps in her surroundings. The chain of explosives provides that opening, taking advantage of the way they closely cluster together to cut off her escape, and so the maximum number are hit by every bomb. A curtain of smoke and fire indicates the point where the lines have been flat out blasted through, though a little bit of the shrapnel may be dangerous.

    Inside, the larger unit may have made the single worst choice possible to launch a bullet hell at. Where Devola and Popola's swords strike the projectiles, they rupture in searing flashes of energy and dissipate into nothing, but where Genji's blade flies between them, they ricochet back by the dozens, pummelling their shooter until bolts and gears and flying out, and its gun breaks down and explodes. 'Neat' gets a straight shot, and her spinning sword slams straight into the intersection of its head and torso, severing something vital, and sending it crashing to its knees.

    Coming from behind Reinhardt, Deelel has the prime position with her keyblade, to hack and slash at the rows gathered on his shield without retaliation, albeit, it might be hard to thread her weapon through the rising and falling rows of theirs. Quickly enough, she can clear a path down, where for several seconds, the only obstacle is so much rain-slicked scrap, but a timely flash of lightning illuminates the street the gang is left to step out to.

    Mercifully, in the opposite direction of the gate, but all too close, the former road is cast into deep, dark shadow, starker than the natural overcast dimness. It flows from what could look like the remains of a collapsed skyscraper -- rubble enough to choke the streets -- save for the fact that the mass is ambulatory, and swimming with red eyes. The longer the fighting goes on, the more the hoard swells, and the louder the creaking and slanking gets as it marches forward.

    Those keen of ear can hear the faint whine of rotor blades as well, and those keen of nose can smell energy discharge much different from the lightning above. Either of them could feel the way the ground rumbles subtly underfoot, as if something very large were walking on it. When the lightning cracks again, the closing mob has nearly doubled in size, and now includes shapes much larger, and much less human, than the ones they've seen so far.
Laura Kinney Laura Kinney feels more than hears the blast behind her, coughing again as the her right side suddenly gains a spattering of red spots that start to drip blood as she's peppered with frags. Tweezing those out later is gonna suck. But for now she continues her blitz although she's generally moving back towards the others. Back to back with Reinhardt, she continues to maim, rip, and tear, reducing a robot to a limbless torso before a kick sends it rolling back and hopefully tripping some people up. "I want to live. What is the plan?"
Reinhardt Wilhelm     Reinhardt gets a stupid idea as he lashes out with a swing of his hammer. "EVERYONE!"

    He points to his back as he looks to the warp gate, engines blazing hot. "Come with me if you want to live." Yes, he does the Arnold voice and everything. Obviously the robots will be trying to flank, and so he picks up Laura, Sarra, Deelel, and everyone else who needs a ride as he places them on his shoulders.

    Once he has everyone, the Knight rockets off towards the warp gate, moving as fast as he can without knocking anybody off from the velocity alone.
Deelel Rampaging machines that look cute, but are hellishly powerful, all things considered. There also seems to be a large number of them. How as they running? This world looks in ruins. It's something to think on but as she has to fight it only remains in her mind for a brief instance as she's leaving a sea of scrap in her wake along ide her allies. AS they seem to press on she can hear the sound of rotor blades. "Sounds like we got compny!" She pauses for a moment and seems amused at Reinhardt's quote she's heard that one some where either way she's making for the gate happy to get the lift, She'll stop fighting and just hang the hell on!
Devola and Popola For humans, they sure are holding out a lot better than the twins had expected. With the large one falling between their and Genji's combined assault, they aren't looking quite as wary about his presence as they were before.

     Maybe still a little, though. "That's one. Now for... The rest of them. Great." 'Curly' mutters with an irritated sigh, partially in frustration at the sheer number of machines and partially at her own leg for not quite being up to snuff for a drawn out brawl like this. Still, if the humans really are willing to help out...

     Maybe it's not as bad of a situation as it could have been. Still, with the growing horde of machines drawing ever closer, the twins find themselves actually relying on their Elites rather than just trying to cover for them. Blades swing, blades swing, and... Actually, all they have are those swords. Still, they're swinging them about quite skiillfully and even managing the occasional impossible-looking feat of spinning the blades in front of them without any contact whatsoever to fend those machines off. Genji's swordplay isn't half bad, either, although 'Neat' seems just a little more receptive to the mentioned 'cool thing' by giving him a light shrug and nod in response.

     The increase in volume doesn't go ignored, though, and 'Neat' looks and sounds just a little more rushed. "There's more coming. Will you just-" 'Neat' starts to shout, but she's cut off as the twins are abruptly hoisted up by the rocket knight. They don't seem to be all too sure about what he's about to do, but...

     Well, better than dying in a shitty one room apartment. It's time to escape!
Genji Shimada     The hail of energy orbs has ceased thanks to Genji's dancing shortblade, and the neat-haired twin has taken the opportunity to end the machine that started it. She receives a brief, approving nod from Genji, who sweeps his attention back to their retreat. Down, out of the building, onto the street, where there is a gate in one direction... and a horde of enemies preventing their escape. They're slow-moving enemies, but at the same time, they're in the way, providing a very real threat...

    But it's also a very tightly-clustered, densely-packed threat. Inside his armor, Genji might just be smiling.

    The shinobi breaks into a dead run, showing utterly zero fear of the oncoming swarm of murderbots. For a brief moment, he moves so quickly that a streamer of green trails behind him, taking the shinobi straight past Reinhardt, right under the man's right arm in a maneuver the two have performed so many times as to render it reflex. In the moments that Reinhardt is still gathering the others to carry off, the ninja turns his head and looks over his shoulder - straight at Devola and Popola - for just the briefest instant.

                         "RYUUJIN NO KEN WO KURAE!!"                          

    A dragon of emerald light erupts into being around Genji Shimada, his longblade drawn from behind his back, and the cyborg dives straight into the army of machines. He slices. He slices again. Again, and again and again and again, swinging his sword while the bright green dragon of the Shimada whirls and dives around him. Every swing is empowered by his ki, every slash easily able to carve apart his enemies, and the reach goes far beyond the length of the sword itself. A perfect weapon for slicing open a path.
Sarracenia      Sarracenia realizes that they might be in trouble after her Bob-omb blast just delays the horde. Seems like there is no end to them! "Nng! There are so many! Who made these things?!" she exclaims just before she is picked up. She stands on Reinhardt's shoulders with the steadfastness of someone used to standing on unsteady surfaces. "Let's go!" she exclaims, pointing toward the distant gate like a confident captain on her ship.

     She looks over at Laura when the mutant girl joins them, then winces. "Geeze...are you alright?" she asks just before...jade dragon! Sarracenia almost falls off Reinhardt when Genji starts throwing those dragon-infused shockwaves around, her eyes sparkling. "...wooooow..."

     With Reinhardt serving as a noble steed, Sarracenia starts tossing bombs around again. She wants to make sure the path ahead is clear, and with the number of little and large robots around even Genji's attacks might not keep it clear for long. Sure, her blasts aren't as impressive, but they are still quite effective, and provide a trail of smoke and fire for the rocket knight and his charges to dramatically ride through.
Laura Kinney Laura Kinney ...damn. Genji's latest move is pretty impressive even for her. It's almost like something Psylocke would do. She hangs onto a flange in the armor from her hands, kicking out to skewer any approaching bots before they're suddenly rapidly receding into the distance. Luckily her handhold wasn't near one of the jets. She glances up to Sarracenia, her gaze impassive. "I am fine. I will just need to pull out the shrapnel when we are safe."
A2     Now is definitely a good time to make a break for it. The machines are clued into the location of live androids (and actual, life humans), and if they're networked in such a way that taking the larger one down didn't scramble them, there's no telling how far that signal may have propagated. Common sense prevailing, they were not built who-knows how long ago with the programming to locate and deal with Warpgates.

    There's also little time to spare before the main horde spills around the side streets and overtakes them from behind. The remainder of the swarm from before, now seeming far less daunting by comparison, is subject to a team effort that involves a massive pile of explosives scattering their ranks, a cyborg super-ninja getting an infinite chain combo in the confusion, zipping ahead of the group in a ribbon of green light that decimates their numbers, and a gigantic rocket knight blitzing through the stragglers. With all the mass of everyone else added on, the smaller machines still in the way are smashed like tin cans, just barely putting him, and his passengers, on the opposite side of the formation, and on a straight breakaway out onto the empty sands, where their pursuers have no real hope of catching up.
Devola and Popola Genji's antics with the green dragon flowing around him and his slashes gets the cyborg ninja a long stare from the twins on Reinhardt's back. 'Neat' is a little more reserved while 'Curly' is a little more wide-eyed, but both of them seem to finally just accept the whole situation. Between the bearded rocket giant, the explosive princess, and the sword-handed teenager?

     It's really just so much easier to accept that they're human in the loosest sense of the word. It's probably telling that the blue one that summoned the weirdly shaped bludgeoning... Thing seems to be the most normal one.

     After they make their escape by the skin of their teeth, the twins finally dismount from Reinhardt's shoulders to get back onto their own feet. 'Curly' lets out a low sigh before rubbing the back of her neck and looking more standoffish than she had before.

"I.. Guess we should thank you, then."
"Come on, Devola. Don't be like that. These... People did help us."

"... Fine. Thanks."

     Devola fidgets uncomfortably while 'Neat' straightens up and even smiles politely at the Elites. "This is Devola. My name is Popola. Thanks again for helping us. We can handle your injuries, but..." Popola glances over at Devola, who gives her a light shrug.

     "You said you were humans, right?"
Sarracenia      'Primrose' hops down from Reinhardt once they are safe, then nods. "Yes. Well...I am. I cannot be sure about the others." she says, looking her four companions over. She then smiles to Devola and Popola before removing her mask. "I am Princess Sarracenia Sundew, Crown Princess of the Sundew Kingdom. Forgive me for the deception, but in my organization it is unwise to reveal your identity needlessly. But, now that we are comrades in arms of sorts, you are welcome to stay in my castle until you are both well and have found a safe place to stay." she says.

     Sarracenia seems to have escaped with little to no actual harm. Guess a prissy princess isn't good at drawing aggro from robots.
Genji Shimada     On the other end of the horde, as the assemblage of passengers on the Rocket Ship Wilhelm blow by, Genji comes to a stop at last. Several sections of his sandproofed armor pop outward, revealing small green cylinders that emit hisses of steam before returning to the sealed state. After that, he simply falls in behind the towering Crusader, until they finally stop to catch their breath.

    "I am Genji Shimada, of the Shimada ninja clan," he responds to their introduction, offering a deep bow. "We will see you to one of our safehouses for the time being. We should at least have the supplies for you to patch up your own injuries as well." A small spark flies from his right hand, and with a chagrined tone, he adds, "...I may require some maintenance, myself. While I still have flesh and blood, much of my body has been replaced with cybernetics. But I will be fine until we're safe."
Deelel She gets out on the German Knight express and does think she owes the big guy one. She's thankful but she hops off and looks to Devol and Popola for a moment.

"Good to meet you both. The ID's Deelel!"

She banishes her keyblade at this point tiling her head.

"I think most of our party are humans o fone stripe or another however I am not. I'm what's called a Basic, but I am a creation of a human if that helps."

There's also a human out there who looks just like her too not that she knows that.

"I'm orginally an multi media program. Art and music mostly. I kinda ... grown since I was made."

She gets a goofy grin on her face and seems to be in a really good mood.
Genji Shimada     Without warning, Genji suddenly lifts his head, pats his body for a moment or two, then turns to look in the direction they just came from and utters a rare curse, in Japanese. "/Shit./"

    "I left the Pocky behind."
Devola and Popola Maybe it's the fatigue, maybe it's the odd situation they've just found themselves in, but the twins seems to take all these eccentric introductions in stride. "A princess, a ninja, and a... Program? Not even a pod or an android or anything?" Devola sounds skeptical about Deelel's introduction. Meanwhile, Popola chuckles politely and glances over at her sister's leg before turning to Sarracenia and Genji.

     "Is that alright? We don't have much in the way of anything to repay you all. We can repair any damage... Erm. Injuries you've taken, but..." Popola pauses, then raises an eyebrow at Genji's abrupt outburst.

     "Pocky...?"