Scene #6272: P:WtWM - The Hound Queen

Owner	Pose
August Kohler	EVENING ALBERICHSTADT, GERMANY, ABANDONED FACTORY DISTRICT The group has a mission - stop Sascha Lietner, the leader of the Wildekinder gang causing chaos in Alberichstadt. She lives in a house in the abandoned factory district of the city, and that's where the group will meet up, after a brief weapons and gear check in the Black Forest near the warpgate. Coordinates are given, those with very obvious powers such as a flying dragon are requested to be high in the sky until they get to the district, at which case, who cares, no one important goes there anyways, just Wildekinder. Old factory buildings and warehouses litter the district, brick roads underfoot, dust littering the place from disuse, as buildings seem to be falling apart. The destination is a house. There usually aren't houses in factory districts, but this once belonged to the foreman of the biggest factory, until everything got shut down. This house now belongs to Sascha Lietner as her home and base of operations, abandoned. The front door and windows are boarded up, and the area is abandoned - it doesn't seem she keeps guards around here, despite that being strange. Getting through the front door is easy enough, because the Tin Soldier, led by August Kohler kicks it open. There's not a sound through the house when this happens. It's a two-story home, sparsely furnished with whatever a group of thugs could buy or find in the garbage or goodwill, so it's a bit strange, but someone had to have heard that, right? "Spread out through the house. Find her. We'll tear off the roof if we have to. Everyone, remember your preparations. This ends tonight."
Lemeza Kosugi	As much as Lemeza was looking forward to exploring the Mirror Forest, this was not his idea of a mission. Sure, the Wildekinder had been abusing their Forest-granted powers for harm, doing all sorts of nefarious things. And the team was gathered here today to put an end to all that. The kidnappings, the killings, the Shadow replacement. Except... this didn't feel right. For the professor, there had been no buildup. No prior investigations or skirmishes leading up to this moment. Just a group of people gathered here to carry out a grim mission, to kill one Sascha Lietner, at the request of a certain August Kohler. At /Kohler's/ request. Blech. Well, it can't be helped for the time being. After politely greeting the temperamental young adult, Lemeza dutifully takes to the nearest wall, clawing his way up - the house is basically fucked once the fighting starts so who cares about damage - and using his vantage point to scan the surrounding area with greater ease. He's got a whip and pistol with him too, for good measure, and a golden shield on his back, his weapons of choice in battle.
Janine Liberi	Janine is ready. More ready than she thought she'd ever be. She's not scared of Sascha, god no. But for the longest time, the thing inside her was the bane of her existence. And still is too, but now it's less an overwhelming shadow over her life, and more an annoying, infuriating thing she has to deal with. "How are we handling Sascha?" she asks August, giving him a pointed look. "Sure, you'll pop a Changeling in the head, but she's not one as far as I know." Her sabre, freshly polished and sharpened hangs at her side as she examines the building, scuffing the dirty ground with her boots. Once she has her answer, she volunteers to take the second floor. Her sword is drawn, and Biancabella emerges, conjuring a powerful gust of wind that launches her through the air and crashing through a second floor window. August already kicked the door down, no need to be stealthy here.
Orta	Whatever. It's not like Orta wanted to walk. The streets are weird, noisy, crowded, and smell strange. The sidewalks especially are hard for her friend to fit, and the people here are generally terrible. Up in the clouds where the skies are are just the skies, a little smoggy still, but not too dissimilar all the same, that's the most calming place to be, as much as not having to look at the city as vice versa. The two of them land on the hose roof with such a mortar-shaking thud that it'd be impossible to mistake as anything else. Shadows cast over the ground are visible through the windows, half-tinted by semitranslucent wings and broken up by glints of gold spirals. "I'm watching." Orta says through the radio, simple and terse. "If someone runs outside, I will see." The Dragon is actively looking for heat signatures through, scratching and shuffling on the roof as it sweeps its horn from side to side, eyes saccading through the bricks.
Tina Natsumi	For once, Tina isn't streaming an outing! It'd be one thing to stream just some random exploration outing, but this here? This seems a smidge more dicey on the legal front, and she's not quite ready to get her account banned on actual legal grounds just to get some more views. Maybe if there was some kind of streaming service that didn't care about this sort of thing. Oh well. Donning a cowboy duster, a cowboy hat, and a bandana over her face, it's still probably not too hard to tell who's wearing all that. Still, plausible deniability is a thing, and Tina's got that in spades! Kind of. For now. "Got it. We find her, we capture her, and..." Janine raises an important question, but Tina chuckles lightly and waves a hand dismissively. "We'll sort out the rest later. I'm sure ol' Koh-hmmm's got a plan." She gives August a confident thumbs up as she draws a pistol of her own. Good thing they can't see the anxious frown on her face. It'd probably be worse if she could see Lemeza and Orta (and the dragon) right now, but she's already a bit frazzled just getting inside. Tina does a quick sweep of the immediate entranceway, keeping her aim low just in case before heading further in. First things first: Making sure the lower floors is are clear and taking note of any other possible exits downstairs.
Nova Terra	Nova casually walks in through the now kicked-down door, glancing around with rifle in hand as she checks for any immediate signs of enemies. Nothing! Nova raises her rifle up on to her shoulder, listening to August's 'briefing'. She nods along, "Sounds simple enough." This is definitely not her first manhunt. First things first, Nova concentrates as she reaches out with her mind, searching the house for others with relative ease considering the small size and rather out-of-the-way location.
August Kohler	The group splits up. Lemeza Kosugi climbs up a wall and uses the vantage point for scouting, while Orta and her dragon crash on the roof with a powerful thud, enough to damage the old house, with another one like that probably being enough to send the roof tumbling down, her dragon actively heat-seeking. Tina checks the downstairs rooms, and Nova searches for minds. The downstairs are clear, though the kitchen has been used recently, while the streets nearby are empty, and there's a good idea of where to land and use for combat in case this fight breaks outside, which roofs are flat or slanted, which streets can be used for ambushes or escapes. Nova and Orta both find interesting things. Nova finds a single mind inside the master bedroom, while Orta finds that the room is extremely cold, lacking of heat besides the one signature. It's Janine kicking through the boarded up window who finds that the room is full of clear-ish gray smoke, not really obfuscating the vision but cold to the touch, chilling straight to the bone. Inside an old second-hand plush chair in the corner near the door sits their mark, apparently asleep. She has medium-length blonde hair, dyed according to brown roots, and is wearing a thick bomber jacket. A few seconds later, as the smoke seeps into Janine, though, her eyes would open rapidly. They're yellow. Her voice is firm and husky, as Sascha Lietner speaks up. "You're finally here. Ever since that struggle in the streets, I knew you'd come for me. Well, then, let's get this show on the road. You're not going to hold back, are you?" "Then neither will I." The smoke suddenly starts freezing even more, as parts of it turn into small icicles and fly at Janine, moving to try and skewer her lightly. Since others will surely try and filter in, though, Sascha has a cruel plan. The rest of the smoke floats around and clusters, and a massive ice skewer is formed. Sascha, hoping that Janine is held off enough by the skewers, moves to leap out the window... And the massive ice skewer goes upwards, moving to pierce through the roof. It's enough to shatter it, sending it coming collapsing in chunks towards the master bedroom, with Orta and dragon in tow. There's enough room for Janine to dodge if she's rapid and agile, but she might be getting hit by debris regardless. Though, Sascha's not moving for an escape. As she leaps out the window, she rolls onto the street, and shouts her challenge. "Come at me! Let's end this once and for all, you Drachenblatt pigs!" The most worrying part about this, though, possibly, is that she has yet to summon a Persona.
Janine Liberi	Window number one was the right choice. Janine lands, and points her sword at the silhouette in the freezing hold room, her breath hanging as fog to join the smoke. "Yeah. You and that goddamn witch are going down, one way or another." There's really not much more to be said, and it's too cold to get pulled into banter right now anyway. The fight is joined. Ice spears manifest and throw themselves at Janine, her sabre whirling and winds from Biancabella swirling to try and throw them off. But she is so focussed on doing that, the large spike being launched skyward catches her off-guard. The roof begins to cave, and Janine throws up a massive localized cyclone around herself to push the attacks off. However, a heavier chunk of support beam pushes through the wind and clobbers her on the head, making her drop to a knee as blood mats her hair. But she's not out yet. She rises up, and gives a furious smirk at Sascha as blood runs down her face. "Okay bitch. Now it's my turn." Her Persona rises up behind her, and begins choking the room in wilted rose petals, the sour scent choking Sascha's nose and lungs to reduce her potential. But at the same time, Janine bounces around the torn-open room on gusts of wind, surrounding and encircling Sascha at speed as her sword whips out now and again to open cuts on the girl's skin. They're shallow, but there are a lot, enough that blood loss starts becoming a concern fast.
Nova Terra	As the others moved to converge on the target, Nova actually stayed on the ground floor, instead choosing to move to a point on the ground floor below where she was sensing the mind. She was planning to give their target a little surprise. WAS being the operative word. The building starts to fall apart as things in the room above quickly escalate. Nova is forced to dive away as a piece of debris crashes through the ceiling above her and almost squashes her. She hits the ground, quickly rolling away as more of the building starts to collapse. She takes a glancing blow, before scrambling to her feet and running for the exterior wall. Part of the house is blown apart from a blast of telekinetic energy, Nova quickly running out behind it. Once clear of the dangerously unstable structure, Nova takes a moment to breathe, before realizing that their target is also out here. Nova raises her rifle in Sascha's direction, shouting, "Hold it!" She fires off a warning shot, aimed to only cause less-than-lethal damage. It's just a flesh wound. Nova's certainly willing to try and take the woman in, as that seems to be the preferred conclusion.
Orta	Orta is on the roof, and so doesn't see anything about the suspicious fog, the weird yellow eyes on Sascha, and doesn't even hear any of that dramatic monologue. She has her hand on the Dragon's side, staring down along with it, eyes fixated on the same spot, as it makes a low, idling engine noises while Janine climbs in through the window. The gigantic ice spike erupting through the ceiling below is then completely unexpected. Especially under the Dragon's weight, the roof caves in easily, sending the creature clawing at the walls as it scrabbles to climb above the deluge of brick and mortar debris. Orta cries out as she falls into the hole right off, shielding her face with her arms as she is pelted by falling chunks of masonry and bits of tile. Before she hits the spikes left in the room, her fall is abruptly halted by a bubble of blue tinted force rippling into existence around her, catching her with a foot to spare and floating her back up and into the clear, depositing her cleanly on the Dragon's shoulders. Clearly displeased with the treatment of its rider, it lets loose an outright incendiary shriek-hiss, blasting the exposed master bedroom with the downdraft of its wingbeats, and launching into the air after only two, as if it were fired upwards by rockets. Achieving a proper combat altitude, the Dragon banks around under Orta's guidance, one hand pressed down on its right shoulder, the other unholstering her weird, organic-looking relic gun. Hot blue-white light gathers in the Dragon's maw, collecting into a brilliant sphere that rapidly grows in four discrete steps. Keeping in flank position with Sascha's 3 o'clock, not actually turning to face her in an attack dive, the Dragon fires its breath weapon with a deep, pounding, electronic fwoosh, where the glowing ball bursts into a quartet of lasers that artfully curve around towards Sascha at a right angle to where its head is actually pointing. They close in at high speed and from multiple angles, but somehow all arrive simultaneously, each individually hitting with pavement-liquefying flash heat.
Lemeza Kosugi	Clinging to the living-room wall, Lemeza sees nothing but the others scouting the rest of the house for signs of Sascha. That crashing on the roof is a bit concerning, though. As is that smoke. And the ice skewer some of the smoke just coalesced into. Though, if he were a betting man, he'd figure that stuff's coming from where Sascha is. The professor's scanning his eyes around, looking for the source of the smoke, when a couple things happen at once. The ice skewer flies through the roof, demolishing it entirely. The smoke reaches Lemeza, freezing him enough to actually hurt. And -- oh hey, someone's shouting taunts. Best head straight there. He pauses just long enough for the roof to settle, then starts bounding across what remains, toward the source of the woman taunting him and the others. He stops short when Janine summons all manner of pain in melee range of Sascha, and trades the claws he was about to dive in with for his trusty pistol... he's got a plan. He fires several shots into the cyclone, carefully aiming each so that the whirling vortex will accelerate them quite a bit before spitting them out at Sascha.
Tina Natsumi	After scouting the downstairs areas without any hits to speak of, Tina relays the all-clear to her allies. It's right about that moment that she notices something coming through the building, and she starts running for a door right as that massive icicle pierces through the building. More likely than not, that is probably their target. As splinters from those icicles come towards Tina, she whips out her phone and snaps a picture of herself before tucking into a roll. It's a largely unnecessary movement, but it seems to have worked out well enough as she avoids the worst of the icy smoke's effects save for feeling that eerie chill strike at her core despite the jacket and all. It's the debris that turns out to be worse, more shaken than outright bloodied or bruised by the ordeal. "Uncle Sam! It's time to show 'em your stuff!" Stopping her roll finally, Tina hurries out the door as a red, white, and blue robot appears above her. There's about three seconds where the robot blares out music (somewhere in the middle of the Stars and Stripes Forever) before it cuts off abruptly, followed by the machine drawing out a machine gun out of nowhere. "Alright... Let's bring 'er down, boys!" And with that, Uncle Sam starts vomiting bullets up at Sascha. All of the bullets are visibly tracers, of course, because of course they'd all be tracers. It lights things up better that way.
August Kohler	As the group pursues Sascha after the roof collapses, they'll notice the cold smoke continues to fill the air. It's emanating from the woman, her every breath creating more, as she speaks up again. "Come, now, what were you all expecting? A mere thug for you to trample over? Hardly. I have /power/ now. Moreso than I even had from that shitty Woodsman." The wilted rose petals choke up Sascha, weakening here, and allowing Janine to come in with the sword swipes. They create many wounds on Sascha's body...but the cold smoke seeps into them, creating little patchs of ice that stop them from bleeding out. This seems incredibly painful for Sascha to be freezing herself, so it doesn't stop the damage, just the possibility of bleeding out to death, even if Sascha's still a little woozy, clearly. "Going soft. Trying to capture me, I imagine?" Nova shouts at sascha, and the blonde turns towards her, only to get shot in the shoulder. Like before, the wound causes her to grunt out in pain, staggering back, but Sascha doesn't move attack directly. Instead, the frozen smoke shifts around again, and forms into a series of icy swords, one which moves to clash with Janine's before trying to stab into her stomach, and nother launching itself at Nova and trying to skewer her straight on. Orta brings the firepower as the bedroom is further destroyed, and blasts that brilliant sphere which explodes into four lasers, homing in on Sascha's location. As they come forth, the smoke swirls around her and creates a massive ice wall, but the lasers liquefy it into a flood that seeps into storm drains, melting the concrete underfoot and the last laser impacting head on with Sascha, who can barely get an arm up in time to not get hit dead-on. The burning heat sears through her arm, causing what should be third degree burns or even a permanently disabled arm, while bullets fly through the cyclone and hit Sascha's side, while Tina's tracers hit the other. It's such a head-on attack that the girl should be crippled. But she's not. There's something very supernatural about this, as the smoke sheathes itself protectively against the damaged arm, which somehow still moves, and freezes more wounds shut. Three large icicles are built from a hugh exhalation, and each moves to skewer Orta and her dragon, Tina, and Lemeza, trying to pin them to surfaces before the icicles explode into even tinier ones that try and create many little wounds. "Buzz off and die."
Nova Terra	Alright, she's not surrendering. Nova tried. The Ghost ejects the barely used clip from her rifle, stowing it away before pulling out a new one. It only has one bullet in it. She slides the clip into place and chambers the round. This seems like as good a time as any to test this experimental bullet. Nova drops down to one knee, raising her rifle up to sight in on Sascha through her scope. She quickly focuses her aim, barely blinking an eye as a sword of ice streaks towards her. A brief touch from her mind alters the sword's trajectory, the cold blade slicing just past the side of Nova's head before continuing off to embed in whatever's behind it. Nova's counter is simple: She fires once more. The round that strikes is not so simple though. The initial shot is relatively meaningless. It's the deadly toxin that it releases into Sascha's bloodstream that is the real threat.
Tina Natsumi	"Power or not, you got a lotta questions to answer!" Tina calls out to Sascha and readies herself as the ice-wielder bears down on the Elites, climbing onto Uncle Sam's shoulder as it ducks down to let the faux-cowgirl up. "I ain't got any idea what all those might be, but if you wanna get into a scrap? Then you're sure as hell gonna get one, missy!" With that boast issued, Tina crosses her arms defiantly as Uncle Sam fires at those icicles coming down for her to try and knock them out of the sky. When they explode into innummerable fragments, though, Tina turns her head down as those razor sharp bits leave a myriad of small cuts all along her while the Persona takes yet more of those shallow cuts and dents all along its surface. Wait. Why the hell is she even trying to posture? There's nobody watching her out here! Cursing inwardly at her own lack of self-awareness on that part, she grits her teeth as she wipes some of the blood off her face and stands back a bit to let her Persona give her more actual coverage. Sure, it still hurts, but it's still better than getting hit herself. "Come on guys... Step it up! We can take her down, so let's give it all we got!" She shouts towards the gathered Elites, procuring a loudspeaker from Uncle Sam's shoulder for that very purpose. As she does that, the America-themed robot switches its machine gun for something much more cannon-y looking. It shoulders that cannon as a light starts building in the front, almost blindingly bright, and then it fires a massive beam of light at Sascha complete with fireworks going off in its wake! The fireworks don't really do anything except look shiny.
Janine Liberi	This is weird. Sascha is boasting about all the power she has, more than what the Woodsman gave her. But she's slinging ice around, just like the Black Queen, and there's no Persona in sight. Not to mention the yellow eyes... "Cut the shit," Janine shouts as she lands on the remains of the roof. "You're not Sascha. You're the Black Queen or whatever you call yourself. Kind of a step down for you huh? From some big fancy throne to squatting inside some slumdog's body. How embarrassing." She watches, laughing as she tries to tank Orta's energy blast. "Careful. Something like this is what made you run away in the first place. Learn your lessons, you silly bitch." An ice sword is made manifest, and Janine clashes it against her own. She smirks wildly, and begins to display some of that experience as Europe's most promising up-and-coming fencer. Even with her off-hand, she skilfully parries the icicle's onslaught, before knocking it away with a flick of the wrist. "I remember when you were filling the throne room with blizzards, and now you just sling ice-cubes around? Yet another step down." And now, a cyclone manifests around Sascha, coutesy of Biancabella. It's choked with more of those rose petals, dragging Sascha back down. But these ones seem to dull her ice and body, endowing a sense of fragility. And then Janine follows up with a plunging attack, slicing through the whirling winds to score the possessed punk's back!
Lemeza Kosugi	All right, Sascha's still standing after the initial volley. Makes sense. If it's been this much trouble for the others to hunt her down, of course she'd be hard to stop. Lemeza readies himself for the inevitable counterattack, easily predicting that there would be a gigantic icicle lobbed at him. He even gets the trajectory right, and is about to execute that absolutely perfect dodge... ...but he forgot to account for the icy chill still permeating the area -- and its effect on his mobility. The air freezes him up just enough for that icicle to smash into him full force, knocking him off the roof and sending him crashing to the ground. Right, so that's a thing. So then it's plan B: kill the bitch. Simple. Besides, he can just bring her back to life later... probably, anyway. In the middle of this developing chaos, Lemeza hears something that arouses his suspicion: Sascha is going off about "that shitty Woodsman". Yeah -- this is getting suspect. "Okay August, is there ANYTHING you'd like to tell me about your history with this girl?" Lemeza starts shouting angrily, leaving no question that he is PISSED. "That goes for any of you! Wanna explain why she's talking about the Woodsman like that?" That doesn't stop him from continuing the fight, though. This time, his shots are aiming for the head. He empties his pistol several times into Janine's cyclone, once again letting the vortex amplify his bullets' speed before they converge, hopefully, right on the skull that presumably belongs to Sascha.
Orta	With the benefit of being able to see the ice attack coming this time, the Dragon banks hard right when the flying skewer comes, turning into a full barrel roll as Orta twists out of the way of its point atop its back. The lethal icicle thrust skims right past them, stabbing into a warehouse building that had just happened to be in the way. Orta guides the Dragon, upside down, back into a turning dive to close the distance, leveling her gun when they reach a stable arc of descent with uncanny smoothness and too much speed for something with wings and that much drag. The ice explodes behind them, spraying a wall of unexpected frozen shrapnel, which batters the Dragon's exoskeleton and cracks on an oddly loud and solid dome of invisible energy over Orta, but the two aren't dissuaded. Berserk Program: ONSLAUGHT Along with the Dragon, scores upon scores of whirling blades of energy join the descent; pale crescent buzzsaws of warped air and light that keen like vibrating glass. The dragon charges and fires its breath again, blasting Sascha with another four beams, as Orta straightens her arm and pours on a drenching hail of blazing green bolts the size of her target's head. The phantom blades launch in rapid succession, three at a time, like chains of missiles, unerringly homing in on their target and putting her at the center of an omnidirectional storm of slashing force.
August Kohler	Everyone continues to fight, refusing to give up or just die. Another bullet flies for Sascha from Nova's gun, and while it's a trivial wound, the toxin inside isn't. Sascha staggers backwards, spitting up blood. This is followed by the light cannon slamming straight into Sascha's chest, burning her more and knocking her backwards. As Janine mocks her and dulls her power with more rose petals, slicing into her back and drawing blood, Sascha screams out in pain, and those looking at her can briefly see her eyes go...green? before they fluctuate back to yellow. It seems all the damage is doing /something/ to her, as two more attacks happen and almost completely oblierate the bruiser. A bullet speeds up and impacts with Sascha's head, narrowly missing hitting her brain but badly damaging her face through her jaw, drawing quite a bit of blood...but somehow not stopping her from speaking, which looks horrific, and then a massive omnidirectional wave of slashes slices into her, ripping her jacket apart, and drawing many, many cuts across her body, her remaining clothes bloodsoaked. She should be dead, or at least down. But, somehow, she rises, and Sascha speaks. She twists her head almost like an owl, but not inhumanly, towards Janine, talking despite the horribly mangled jaw. Some sort of magic is making it possible to understand her. "Did your mother teach you this behavior, Janine Liberi? I was looking so forward to talking to her Shadow when she was replaced. Perhaps I'll have to make her the first of my new targets after I'm done with you and this shell. After all...she's an intelligent woman, and would do well on my new council. And besides, spite is a powerful motivator." The smoke suddenly explodes out around them, fogging up the entire area. Having taunted Janine, an icicle forms behind Janine. She might be able to deal with it entirely if she's undistracted...but hopefully, she can be pierced straight in the back if the taunt about her mother works. At the same time, Sascha turns her head back to Lemeza. "I thought you were trying to capture me. If you want to kill me..." "You'll have to do better than that. Or you'll just kill poor Sascha Lietner here!" The smoke suddenly all coalesces into frozen chains, dozens of them. They float through the air, around Sascha, before pluging down at terrifying paces in an attempt to skewer everyone in the process. Lemeza gets several of them at once, moving to skewer his limbs and torso, trying to get back at him for the bullet to the head, a powerful show of pure frozen force. The next biggest display is tossed at Janine, followed by Nova, followed by Orta and Tina. Chains move to skewer each of them, trying to pin them down. "Even if you kill Sascha, do you believe it's really that trivial to kill me? I'm more powerful than you think. I'm not a mere Shadow like the Huntsman or the Piper, after all."
Nova Terra	Damn it. She's right. Nova has no problems with killing the host, who from the sounds of it was bad enough as it was. But doing so isn't necessarily going to kill the one inhabiting Sascha's body. In fact, Nova has NO IDEA how to kill such a being. Which means she needs more information! Nova rises from her kneeling position once again, blue light washing over her as her cloaking field activates. The chains sent to skewer her quickly stabbing through empty air where Nova was moments ago. The next sign of Nova is not likely to come until she decloaks right behind Sascha, reaching a hand out to touch the side of the woman's rather messed up head. With the stronger connection that comes from physical contact, Nova attempts to dive into her mind. Not Sascha's mind. The Black Queen's mind. Yes, this may not end well. But it may just provide some insight into the Queen's plans, or a means to kill her once and for all.
Orta	At the sight of Sascha powering through even being shot in the head, listening to the voice that is certainly not hers, Orta's face tightens into something between shock and controlled revulsion, her grip on her weapon clenching to white knuckled tightness. "When she dies, it will be your fault, and I will destroy you too for killing her." she forces out, uncertain, yet definitely vehement. The chains coming from all sides and angles doesn't seem to bother her much. Between her senses and the Dragon's linked together, both points of view, sensitivity to sound, and radar tracking, it comes down to an intense sequence of dives, rolls, wingovers, banks, and sudden brakes to slip through the storm, even flying straight into the side of a warehouse to catch it on all fours posture and then leap off of it with legs and winged arms to make an especially tight hairpin turn. The chains that find their mark do so at glancing angles or at the end of their slack, tapering off to cut the Dragon's skeletal plates and slice into its skin, but finding no solid purchase. The remainder are deftly avoided. Urging the Dragon to significant height, Orta drops another blast of automatic fire on Sascha from above, upside down in the saddle. The Dragon allows the chains to chase it all the way up, before suddenly flipping over and plummeting straight down, causing them to overshoot. As it approaches the ground, the coalescing energy in its mouth goes from brilliant cyan to molten orange. Berserk Program: HOLY SPHERE "Leave nothing left!" It condenses down to a single point, and then causing Sascha's personal space and thirty meters around it to suddenly blossom into a thundering spherical explosion of white hot fire. A perfect orb is cleanly vapourized out of the terrain, oddly low pressure for its lack of substantial shockwave.
Lemeza Kosugi	"Killing Sascha is part of my plan." Lemeza prepares to deal with the Black Queen's counterattack -- yep, that is definitely the Black Queen -- and nimbly evades a few of the frozen chains with expert and practiced precision. Then the next, and the next... and, huh. He's hemmed in, nowhere left to dodge to, and there's one ice chain left to deal with. In desperation, he braces his shield against the final chain, which CRASHES against him with such force that he nearly blacks out. That definitely caused internal bleeding somewhere. Fortunately, that last attack clears out his very brief ice prison. Time for a final shot-- --oi. Nevermind that. While Nova's trying to read the girl's mind, Orta's dragon dumps eleventy billion metric tons of hurt on her, Janine impales her. That's that, Sascha's dead. Oh well! Lemeza holsters his pistol, stands himself up with significant effort, and observes the body, readying his claws for any sudden lashing-out from the Black Queen herself. Who apparently actually WAS possessing Sascha, just like August said. ...he's going to have to apologize to August later for doubting him.
Janine Liberi	That mocking smile on Janine's face freezes as Sascha invokes her mother. But slowly, it melts and shifts, turning into a nasty scowl rendered into a horrifying grimace by all the blood on her face. Janine is so angry that she fails to notice the ice spear that is manifesting behind her. It flies, impaling her to the ground, blood running down the surface. But with a grunt, she pulls herself free, and looks at Sascha with murder in her eyes. Wind from Biancabella pushes her, through the automatic fire that Orta sprays with reckless abandon. She doesn't even notice as Nova tries to get behind her to read her mind. Janine has only one thing in mind, and everything else is secondary. She is going to get right up to Sascha and drive her sabre through the girl's front. She continues to advance, even as the Holy Sphere crashes down, swallowing her in its light as well. When it passes, she too has been knocked down at out. Even among all that, she had clutches her sword in a white-knuckle grip.
August Kohler	Nova avoids the ice skewers with a well-timed cloak, before appearing next to Sascha and poking into...not her mind, but the Black Queen's. What she finds firstly is that the Black Queen's thoughts are entirely tainted with jealousy and envy. Every single thought, every single memory, has a hint of that to it. And as she digs, while she doesn't find a way to directly kill her... She finds a place. A hiding place. It appears to be in the Mirror Forest, but it's a strange and desolate place. An old building, like some sort of very old stone house in the woods, on a graveyard, surrounded by ravens. As she sees the thought, every raven turns to glance in Nova's direction... And then a powerful psychic feedback would knock Nova out of the mind, giving Sascha briefly enough time to notice, move to attack, and then get attacked herself by Orta, allowing Nova to disappear and get out of the blast. Orta's final blast comes at Sascha, and it wipes out everything around her. Concrete and metal is vaporized, parts of the house are destroyed, and Sascha is left a charred corpse, with a massive sword wound in her chest from Janine. Luckily for Lemeza Kosugi, there appears to be enough to resurrect, though Concord medical may be necessary to heal her body and appearance if he can't himself. But as the Black Queen said, it's not that easy. As the smoke clears, what is left is a woman with a 'perfect' physique, one that fits a young warrior, a conventionally attractive tall yet pale woman with braided red hair down to her back, and a black dress with green lacings in the shape of spiderwebs. She looks like basically some sort of viking princess, or a valkyrie, or something, as she opens her eyes, revealing green. And then, she sneers at the group, before the woman suddenly bursts out laughing. It's a howling laughter, filling the area. "Ohohoho! You really killed her. How remarkable." She looks down at her arms, badly scorched, and brings a hand to her face, marred by sheer heat. Blood drips from her chest - while she seems in better shape than most everyone else here, she did not get out of this unscathed. "Ah, my beautiful face, marred. I will have to get a new puppet in the future...I had no interest in showing you my true face, yet here we are. But you're not going to continue to try and fight me, now are you? Weak, tired, wounded. Let us call this..." There's a reflective surface on a nearby building still intact, which with superhuman speed, the sneering queen moves to travel through it. She's not expecting anyone to attack her, though if Lemeza tries to claw her, she doesn't retaliate. "...a draw. In my favor, of course."
Tina Natsumi	Tina's on a roll today! Sure, she isn't personally firing the things that her Persona is, but it might as well be herself. Uncle Sam's taking the hits for her like a champ, too, although the multitude of small cuts and more worrisome chains stabbing into the Persona have the blonde reeling even from behind the cover of that machine-thing. She takes a moment behind cover to recompose herself, mentally preparing to throw something back at Sascha... And then Sascha makes it personal by going after someone's mother. Sure, they might have already done so by going after Sascha with the intent to kill, but... No, that doesn't really make things different, does it? As Tina mulls over that, she peers out from behind Uncle Sam just in time to watch Sascha getting obliterated, impaled, and burnt to a crisp. That's rather horrifying. Is /that/ what that looks like? She doesn't even have a witty quip to throw out or anything, and it's not until the Black Queen appears in all her bloody, scorched glory that she finally snaps out of that horrified daze, and even then, only enough to get a better look at the laughing woman. Still nothing. Tina watches as the Black Queen zips towards another building, then looks back down at Sascha's corpse. There's not really much for her to say about that.
Lemeza Kosugi	Everything's proceeding smoothly in Lemeza's little plan. Surprisingly. The Black Queen's host was rendered unusable (read: Sascha's been killed), and the Black Queen herself decided to leave the fight. So far, so good. The next step was critical: revive Ms. Lietner. Once the dust settles, Lemeza approaches the charred corpse - claws still drawn - and places the back of one of the claws to the body's chest. It's not long before his intent is clear: the amber crystal embedded in that claw glows brightly, then the corpse glows faintly... and stops. Lemeza frowns. "This may take a bit..." He presses the crystal firmly into Sascha's chest, applying a bit of force this time, and finally starts to see some real results. The body's glowing brightly this time, just like the crystal, as the burnt area surrounding where Lemeza is pushing down starts healing into regular skin. The patched of healed skin gradually expands, moving to cover the entire torso, then the limbs and face, even closing the stab wound, until the entire body is as if it wasn't even in combat. Then one final push, like Lemeza is trying to give CPR without the mouth-to-mouth thing. That should do it, if he did it right. Only one way to find out. He pulls the crystal away from Sascha, and starts checking her vitals to see if they exist again. Breathing, pulse. Consciousness, too. "Hey. Sascha Lietner, is it? Can you hear me?" It's only been a couple minutes, so her soul had to have made it back to her body. Too bad Lemeza has no way of detecting souls.
Nova Terra	Nova expected a powerful foe like the Black Queen to have some kind of mental defense. Even so, she underestimated her. Nova looks surprised as she is smacked out of the Queen's mind, her head jerking backwards on reflex. She looks around in confusion for a brief moment, before realizing the dangerous situation she's currently in. Nova cloaks once again, vanishing from view shortly before the dragon's holy explosion engulfs the area she was just at in light. After the large attack has faded, Nova reappears standing on the edge of the crater. Through the last moments of Sascha's life, Nova picks up on the dieing woman's thoughts. She hmphs, "No surprises there." As the Black Queen manifests from the remains of Sascha, Nova quickly raises her rifle to aim at the woman... But then pauses, remembering the clip is empty. She would reload, but doesn't imagine she has the time. Expecting an immediate attack... The Queen makes an immediate retreat. Not exactly what Nova was expecting, but the result is roughly the same. She reloads her rifle, Just In Case, then moves the weapon up onto her shoulder and jumps down into the crater. She walks over to join Lemeza near the corpse, interested to see if he can pull off a miracle. As Nova watches him try, she remarks, "Not sure if it's worth the effort."
August Kohler	As the Black Queen escapes, Lemeza moves to heal Sascha, placing the crystal embedded in his claw against her chest. Skin repairs, burns stop, the stab wound closes, and then, CPR is given. There's a second pause... And then the young woman suddenly breathes again. She must only be a few years older than August, in her early twenties, as she takes a breath of (not really fresh) air. As she looks up at Lemeza, she moves to try and skitter back, but her body's still exhausted from the process of dying and coming back. Regardless, she speaks, cautiously, voice still husky, as she tries to understand. "I'm...I'm alive? You saved me? Why?" "I thought you were trying to kill me, you bastards..." She's clearly cautious, but her affinity towards Lemeza is probably higher than it is to everyone else, since she wasn't in control enough to understand that he shot her in the jaw, and also he was the one who directly resurrected her. He could probably manipulate her, if the archaeologist wanted. August returns from his failed ambush plan soon after, having caught the glimpse of the true form of the Black Queen. He's in too much shock at seeing Sascha revived, and is also too far away to probably stop Lemeza from getting away with her if the guy wanted.
Lemeza Kosugi	Lemeza exhales one hell of a breath of relief. "Oh thank the Philosophers it works." He then flops on the ground. Those battle wounds are gonna take time to heal, and he doesn't have the benefit of adrenaline to keep him going. At least the fighting's done. "Ngh... Sascha, is it? I'm Lemeza Kosugi. A lot's happened. I can explain more in depth, but we need to get out of here. C'mon, come with me." A few moments pass as Lemeza does not help Sascha up. Then he realizes he needs to help himself up. He does that, /then/ moves to help the girl up. "Ow..." His /everything/ hurts after that battle.
Tina Natsumi	Tina's still stunned by everything she's seen in the past few minutes as Sascha appears to be... Fine? Wait, wasn't she dead just a little while ago? No, she's pretty sure there was a burnt husk where Sascha is right now, but... No, none of this seems to make a lot of sense to her at all. "... Eh? Naw, we weren't tryin' to... Well, I wasn't." She laughs an incredibly awkward and forced laugh, the discomfort practically radiating off of her as Uncle Sam disperses. "We gotta ask ya some question's, alright? Not tonight or nothin', but... Down the line. Them and..." She gestures at Janine and August, then coughs once while moving to offer her and Lemeza assistance should they take it. "Get some rest, y'hear? This situation's all... Somethin' else."
Nova Terra	Nova probably looks rather imposing, standing over the Sascha who's on the ground, large rifle in hand. At the mention of trying to kill her, she responds with a serious face, "Some of us were. And we succeeded. Make less stupid choices with your new life, or you're likely to find it happening again." Hopefully that'll scare some better sense into the woman. Though Nova makes no effort to stop her from getting away, with or without Lemeza.
August Kohler	August has to make a choice in the moment, whether to pursue to stop Lemeza from taking Sascha with him or helping Janine. August chooses to move over to Janine and grab her. "Hey, hey, you alright?" Social Links are the most important thing, after all. And that means Sascha goes with Lemeza, with a nod, especially after Nova threatens her, which gets the woman a glare. Scared right into the Concord's side, it seems. That can't go poorly at all!