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Evangeline McDowell     The Old Capital Convention Center, which is named after its home city of Old Capital, which is blind-idiot translated from its name in its original language, which means Old Capital - look, these people aren't exactly the most imaginative when it comes to naming things, unlike the geniuses who named the planet 'Earth'. Anyways. The Old Capital Convention Center has seen much freer days, when there wasn't a little knot of black-suited, hard-looking dudes every ten meters.
    Every single one of these obviously-some-kind-of-criminal-stereotype was wearing a red flower pinned to the left lapel of their expensive-and-tailored-yet-lazily-worn suits. The rest of the city was much the same, with nervous looks and whispers thrown between residents and the outsiders. Some outsiders were even foreigners, speaking a different language entirely and looking like they might complain about the lightly-seasoned cuisine of this area.
    Every hotel in the city was booked out, with their balconies frequented by more hard-looking men brooding over the city and maybe smoking a cigarette while they're at it. The big day, or so they told each other, was in two days, after which everything will be most excellent and nothing will be a problem ever again.
Staren     Some years ago, Staren had to deal with a multiversal /incident/. On Kotone's world, an organized crime group was abducting girls and ghost-dubbing them -- making copies of their personalities and memories, for use as sex slaves. Staren did not know how to outmanipulate them. He just wanted to kill all the bad guys until the bad things stopped. Friends barely talked him out of it.

    Now, here, criminals doing all sorts of things are gathering in ONE PLACE. It almost seems like it would be so simple to just bomb the place and remove a lot of evil from the world...

    Two days to the event, Staren is scouting. He's in a robot body (that looks human) but otherwise wearing normal clothes and trying to look like a tourist. Already, he's learned that, infernally, tourists and locals ARE mixed up in the area rather than only the mafia, so there goes the bomb plan. Now he's got a joint to case, trying to pick up overheard conversation about how the wedding's going to go so he can put together some kind of tiemtable to work with.
Evangeline McDowell     Of course a wedding is a religious event, and that means there'll be the reception ceremony in the convention center and the actual wedding ceremony at the nearby shrine/temple/tourist-attraction. The web site for the shrine has already announced that they'll be closed to visitors for a private event, in two days, and it seems that the procession will go from the shrine to the convention center sometime in the afternoon, after the noon ceremony (which apparently takes two or three hours).
    Staren doesn't find his stay welcome or even well-tolerated, as his wandering near knots of 'lookouts' immediately marks him as perhaps a target. Four guys spread out to block his way down the sidewalk, "Hey, foreigner, this way's closed. Go around." one of them says, quite clearly ignoring the total lack of construction or debris behind him.
Staren     "Oh. Sah-ree. Where is. The BATH room?" Staren asks, speaking the local language somewhat brokenly and awkwardly like a tourist who's traveling for the first time since unification happened and isn't used to the translation effect. If they tell him, he does go there and take an appropriate amount of time inside, flushing before leaving.

    And also taking the opportunity to disperse some tiny, insect-size spy drones into the vents to start exploring the building.
Evangeline McDowell     Staren draws stares, then a disgusted spit (aimed at the ground). The group seems to have gotten no fun at all out of redirecting tourism - or at least not as much fun as they had wanted - and ignores Staren as he manages to get right up next to the convention center. It's not really a 'perimeter', after all. Perhaps it'll be different and impassable in a day or two, but today there's still ongoing business.
    Staren's drones enter the giant ventilation louvres on the outside of the building and immediately encounter a grate, which is apparently supposed to keep out rats and snakes. It is effective at that - given the couple of corpses next to it - but the drones have little problem passing between the grate. The big, slow fan inside was little problem to navigation, as well, and now Staren has full access to the sparsely-attended last day of some kind of National Tofu and Tofu Products Industry Convention. All he ever wanted to know about tofu and how it's made and where the beans come from, right there at his fingertips.
    Yet there are also men in suits wearing red flowers here. Not in the convention, no. In the backstages and in the side-hallways, obviously provided with staff passes and keys. They seem to be attaching stick-on cameras at certain spots, sometimes right under the existing security cameras, and checking clipboard with floorplans on them.
Staren     Well, that's... something. Maybe he'll learn something to pass to Xiaomu, but Staren doesn't REALLY care about tofu. He looks for opportunities to get drones into the other buildings too.

    Damn, this is kinda... he doesn't know what he's doing. He really should recruit some other heroes before the actual day.
Evangeline McDowell     The Day Of

        The Wedding

    The convention hall has been wrapped in as much security as a head of state visit, and the big deal kind of state, not like... Monaco or something. Traffic detours were set up at all points one block out from the convention center, each one manned by a handful of men and women in immaculately tailored suits and freshly coiffed hair. Now and then, a darkened car would pull up to one of these, the window would roll down, and eventually it'll get the (flimsy) metal barriers moved aside to allow the car through.
    Nova Terra has kidnapped her way through a basketball team's worth of guards at this point, each one stashed in a different basement or closet, and learned how the entire security layout is split between the not-Yakuza side and the not-Triad side, the two of them apparently still not having come up with a joint security plan. A few mezzanine-level rooms of the convention center has been converted to security centers, with multiple, thankfully unecrypted, walkie-talkie channels opened and each checkpoint reporting in. More importantly, though, she's heard that a crack team of private security from Basler Group is on site somewhere, with their own setup.
    With invitations in hand, Staren and Mortimer still face both the minor challenge of the security checkpoint (which pats down for nothing, apparently, since weapons were totally allowed - just be classy about it) and the major challenge of dressing suitably. No whites, obviously. Reds and blacks preferred. And how to get a ride into it- it wouldn't do to be seen /walking/ in and the Uber driver would probably get dragged away by thugs on sight.
    Touta, also invited to the wedding out of courtesy of being a member of a powerful Legitimate Business Organization who happens to be in town, faces much the same challenge, plus the problem of finding a plus one. Dating - the ultimate challenge...
Muramasa Among the tourists was a Japanese teen with deeply colored red hair. Tall for his heritage, he stood out like a sore thumb, especially among all the men in black suits wandering about. But unless stopped directly, he paid them no mind on his way to appreciate the local flavors. Truthfully, he really wanted to see that shrine the wedding would be held at, but it seemed he was forbidden from entering. .... At least, not usually.

Unlike the other professionals who were finding their way into the city, he was taking no steps in preperation. Rather, it looked like he was flying by the seat of his pants, if anything. And that's how he finds himself in the position he is currently in.

Which is to say, he's manning the bar. "Good evening, esteemed customers. What can this old man provide you?"
Nova Terra     Thankfully Nova did not need to go through the trouble of finding a nice suit to wear to this occasion. She already has one. One far superior to any that might otherwise be seen here today. Complete with an ultimate privacy mode, in the form of a cloaking device, and built in air conditioning!

    Taking out several of the security hadn't been that hard. Most of them didn't want to speak about what they knew. None of them realised they didn't need to as Nova just pulled it from their minds without even the courtesy of asking their permission. It provided useful information about the security arrangements. Most of which shouldn't be hard to bypass. Though the discovery of an expert team of security professionals could cause some problems. Nova will have to keep an eye out for them.

    Stalking through the more isolated and empty parts of the convention hall, invisible of course to avoid both security and their cameras, Nova searches for a good vantage point for what will be the grand moment of this event. The actual wedding ceremony. She has plans for a little interruption, involving one of the rifles currently stowed on the back of her suit.
Staren     Somewhere, the prince of Monaco suddenly feels sad and doesn't know why.

    Staren has recruited help in the form of Mortimer! He's also supplied a magic item to deal with Mortimer's appearance -- a clear magic bead which, as long as it's on his person, makes him look human and any gear he's carrying look appropriate for the world (although not necessarily the event -- power armor would still be obviously military armor, for instance). Touching the bead and willing the effect on/off is enough to toggle it. As for Staren himself, he's in a robot body made to look human and his clothes have reshaped into a suit, simple enough. His bag has been slipped inside a leather briefcase.

    Getting them in... Staren may have to wait in the bushes a little ways away with Mort and then GTA some poor mobster on the way to the meeting.

    There is the question, though, of what to do once inside.

    "What do you think, Mort? I mean, we COULD just kill as many of them as possible, but I wonder if that's REALLY the way to do the most damage to their organization. You're good with money and stuff, do you have any ideas?"
Touta Konoe      Touta doesn't really see the big deal of having a date for this wedding. Even if it was a big deal, he's already got a plus one. Kurobo, the magical talking sword which apparently no one has an issue with him walking around with because of this open weapon policy. That's pretty convenient. As for how he arrives on the scene, well he was part of a rather powerful 'legitimate' business organization that did happen to be in town, which had come to pass after having to explain a butt-load of things to his boss to make happen.

     Touta arrives like many of the VIPs that were traversing through in darkened cars, he'd present his invitation and get his permissions to pass through. From there was probably the inspection check-point.

     While Touta's accustomed to dressing down for work, he's usually the one serving the fancy looking guests, not actually being one. That said, Touta did take the time to dress appropriately. Instead of his black gakuran and red t-shirt, he upgraded to a red button-down shirt and a nice black sport-jacket. It is entertaining though that the thing that makes him stand out is less his katana and more his age. He definitely didn't fail to see the irony there. He passes the inspection rather easily, since there's nothing really out of the ordinary about his appearence except for his...Appearence. The only thing that takes a bit of time for them to check out is a present that is wrapped up rather nicely that Touta claimed was for couple, but rather than hand it over to the group he insists to keep it on him. He'd argue about letting them open it cause it was wrapped fairly nice, but upon any sort of metal detection there's nothing really metal about what's inside so he's hoping that won't be an issue.

     Should he get in, he'd do what he came here to do. Not enjoy festivities with a bunch of possible Yakuza and the like, not get buddy-buddy with the person who had invited him possible as a representative of his 'business'. He was looking for someone. Someone who like him, in this sort of crowd should stick out like a blonde-thumb. So he'll take his time coming through the crowds his unsheathed katana resting on his shoulder.

     "Alright, Side-stick if you see her walking around. You know what to do."

     He probably sounds like he's just talking to himself right now though...
Mortimer Balman      Mortimer will, briefly, make use of Staren's bead- if only for the catboy's own sake. He cuts quite the dashing figure as a human. Still seven feet tall, with a dark bronze skin tone (natural, not Kardashian) and bright red hair cut into a neat high and tight. He'd probably look devilishly handsome were it not for all the scars etched into his flesh. "Well I assumed that *tonight* Staren, we were going to 'prune' the proverbial trees of as many of these people as we could. This will absolutely cause short-term chaos and probably destroy more than a few of their enterprises.. But it will also leave a dangerous power vacuum that could be filled by anyone from anywhere. If you want to ruin them at the organizational level then you need to dismantle them where it hurts the most- their pocketbooks. Expose their operations to the greater public by way of bribed media officials, find federal law agents who aren't in their pockets and point them at their plainly illegal businesses. Hostile takeovers of their legitimate business fronts, exposure of banking arrangements, all that sort of thing."

     Mort scratches his chin a bit while puffing slowly on his pipe. "Killing a bunch of them though, cripples all activities in the short-term.. Perhaps moreso if I can steal their wallets, purses, black books, and whatnot to nick their identities for some massively fradulent acts. That can lead to long-term gains for the Law. Of course, this would be horrendously illegal and they would target us just as readily.. ...But eh. It wouldn't be the first time I've done some criminal shit to make life easier for hard-working cops." He smiles a bit.
Evangeline McDowell     In a place where the baijiu and the sake flow like water, yet nobody dared get too drunk for fear of saying something that they could regret, it results in a LOT of orders for either water, or a cup of strong alcohol which they will then carry around and not drink out of, raising it only to clink it into another cup of alcohol not being drunk out of. So Sengo remains busy pour water over and over again into intricate crystal goblets shipped here from secret warehouses all over the country, interspersed with a new visitor's shot of decorative liquor.
    Nova finds absolutely no difficulty with locating a spot with a vantage point - the lighting gantries and rafters were chock full of them, all with a grand view of the great big convention hall below set up to seat thousands. The aisle in the middle has what seems like one Afghanistan's worth of red flower petals scattered around it already, and by the early sitters it's not hard to tell which side was the groom's (notTriad) side and which was the bride's (notYakuza's) side. Still, both of the participants, as well as their immediate family, are still holding vigil or getting re-costumed prior to the ceremony. Which, according to the schedule stolen from someone's head, is in less than an hour.
    If only the lighting gantries didn't also have thirty-odd people hurriedly putting together the boxes of flower petals and the cameras and the light rigs and the streamers and confetti and every form of replicating manga background patterns.

    Staren and Mort watch another car pass the checkpoint, the mobsters moving the barriers back once it's through. The guards are rotating themselves, taking bathroom breaks or drinks, smoking out in public. There's an occasional police cruiser that passes by, which simply keeps going after a stern glare from the checkpoint of "apparently" unarmed suits.
    Touta immediately gets a charming young lady sicced on him, ten steps past the reception hall. She's carrying two decorative liquor glasses, and offers one to Touta immediately, age bedamned. "Good day, Mr. Konoe. We are very honored to have you here. My name is Sigi Tuncai, and I'll be your guide, if you'll allow me. Did you find everything to your satisfaction for your arrival? We are sorry that the invitation was very short-notice." Something in her pleasant, smiling voice says that the 'if you'll allow' wasn't exactly asking for permission.
Muramasa With his pleasant and serene demeanor, Muramasa served everything exactly as requested. Well, thought he wouldn't admit it, he was somewhat disappointed by the orders. That said, it didn't surprise him, either. These men and women all carried themselves as if this were a meeting to decide the fate of their country, as if the war council's drums were beating in the background. That probably wasn't too far from the truth. Even one of them stepping out of line could ignite hostilities and make this whole place go up like a powder keg.

Enjoy your evening, esteemed customer."

That boy with the pitch black tachi had his interest. ... It'd be more accurate to say, rather, that the sword itself intrigued him. Sapient swords were rather rare, after all. Muramasa decides to keep an eye on him in the meantime, as he continues servicing the guests.

The others rummaging around here worried him just a little bit, but he supposed he'd just wait for now, and see how things played out.
Staren     "I admit I feel a little bad. I don't know exactly what any given individual here has done. And they have families. But so do the people they've ground under their heel. I bet /Septette/ wouldn't have a problem with it, though. Sometimes you have to do what you know is right... Besides. No doubt that very same reticence is just one more tool they're using to oppress the world. I wonder how many other vigilantes have come this far and faltered..."

    He looks for somewhere to get their Grand Theft Auto on, preferably past the checkpoint if there's anywhere without surveillance. If not, they'll have to jack a car before the checkpoint and hope they're let through.

    When it comes to actual carjacking... "Wait. Is this plan stupid? So what if it's suspicious if we walk in? We're planning to kill a bunch of people anyway, what's it matter if they try to stop us at the gate and we have to start the massacre there?"
Touta Konoe      "Huh, a guide? For me? That's a bit surprising to hear."

     It was, he knows he's part of a rather well known organization apparently, but he himself wasn't all that important in those sorts of operations. So it was a bit astonishing to hear that they were going out of the way to treat him as such. Though, if these guys were related to the people from before maybe they knew better than to treat him poorly perhaps? Who knows? Not Touta.

     While he'd much rather go off on his own to see if he could find his person of interest the way he wants, but apparently he's not getting much of a choice. He ends up taking the glass from Sigi not really sure what to do with it. Could he even get drunk?! Well that'll be something to consider another time. For now, he'll just keep scanning the room as he tries chatting up Sigi. He's very charismatic after all.

     "So, are you a friend of bride or groom? Famil- ..."

     Touta stops mid-sentence as he recognizes someone. It's not the person he's looking for. In fact that person was already looking at him.

     "Archer?"

     He blurts out the name unintentionally, as he looks at the Bartender. He hasn't seen a familiarity this close since that time he met Scathach and then that Aoko woman. He could compare Yukihime and Kitty but that seems a bit unfair. Either way, he stops in his tracks as he looks at the bartender in the distance before coming to the conclusion that the two just appear similar. To which he just gives a smile and a nod to the bartender before continuing to follow Sigi. He's got to stay focused.
Mortimer Balman      Mort places a hand on Staren's shoulder. "I'll follow your lead on this, son- I trust you and your judgment. Don't second guess yourself too much. But I am nonetheless pleased that you think so much about it. It speaks highly to your character.. And it's why I'm following you into this." The old 'man' adjusts the short katana hooked to his belt. He makes a very imposing thug bodyguard indeed. "If we can sneak inside first we can cause a panic. Panic is good and bad. Good in that it means maximizing casualties. Bad in that we will likely catch working slobs who have nothing to do with this in the crossfire. If you want to just walk in 'guns blazing' as you Terrans are fond of saying, we should start our attack at the parking lot. They won't get very far on foot.."
Staren     "Thanks, Mort. It's... stupid. It is, clearly, something wrong with my mind. They're all armed. They may as well be /soldiers/ who have all knowingly pledged their lives to fight in support of a corrupt regime. Any that didn't have had ample time to flee into the multiverse... and if they tell themselves they stayed to protect their families... then they've just been pushing innocent people towards the same life."

    "...D'you think any of their children will show up in like twenty years all 'You killed my father prepare to die'? Then again, anyone with the potential to grow into a real threat... how much worse would they have been ALSO working in organized crime? Sometimes the world just sucks."

    Some distance ahead of the checkpoint, out of sight of it, Staren runs out in front of a car. Maybe they hit him, maybe they stop, it doesn't really matter. He hesitates briefly. And then he pulls out a gun and shoots. If that all goes right, he can pull the car onto a side road to dump the body and give nanites a few minutes to fix the holes and clean the mess.

    Then they can sneak in!
Evangeline McDowell     Sigi follows on Touta's left, half a step behind him, either out of protocol or perhaps to make sure that she can keep an eye on him at all times as he moves. "I'm here on the groom's side, and I'm here to make sure that you have a good time, Mr. Konoe. If there's /anything/ that you want, please don't hesitate to let me know." She goes silent while Touta has a was-it-or-wasn't-it moment with the bartender, then picks up as if she hadn't seen anything at all. "What brings you here to the city, Mr. Konoe? Business? Pleasure? Both?"

    An actual motorcade arrives at the checkpoint near Mortimer and Staren, each car with a red wreathe decorating the hood. There are seven cars in all, each one identical to the next, and they all stop as the first car apparently presents credentials, just as the others had. At the same time, though, a look further down the street reveals another motorcade, identicial in appearance, stopping at another checkpoint a few hundred meters away - perhaps there's a third motorcade at the third checkpoint, around the other side of the convention center cordon?
Nova Terra     Yes. This will work nicely. At least it would, if it weren't for all the people currently up here. Too many for Nova to deal with right now without raising suspicion. But, they're still setting up. And there's still some time before the event. Maybe there will be fewer people when the time comes.

    Of course, Nova is not so amatuerish as to simply hope that'll be the case and bank everything on it. So with the time she has left before the ceremony starts, she begins working out a Plan B.

    Although Plan B is not very original. It's a variation of Plan A. So it is more like Plan A2. Nova starts scouting out additional firing spots, this time with a focus on outside the convention center. Preferably towards the street, where fleeing patrons are most likely to run or drive out of here. It won't have the same desired impact, but that's why they call it Plan B. Or Plan A2.
Muramasa Saber's pleasant expression begins to crack. The agitation can't be hidden. Innocuous as it might seem, there's only one 'Archer' he could be mistaken for. Somewhere, deep in his chest, he felt shame. He shouldn't be getting so annoyed at something like that, but ... no, it just couldn't be helped. He could already hear that irritating person's voice in his head, with that insufferable look on his face.

Still, he did his best to give Touta a small nod of greeting, as if to say that it was alright.

Serving a rare goblet of sake, he glances away from his patrons and out to the guests at large. In another life, he could remember that not all Yakuza were bad people. He felt torn between those memories and his belief in the law; even if you took two nearly compatible puzzle pieces and fit them together, those tiny inconsistencies would always be apparent. This was one of them.

"And this is such a nice evening, too. It's something of a shame, isn't it ... ?" he murmurs to himself. He felt like it wouldn't be long now, before things took an unfortunate turn.
Evangeline McDowell     The thing with Staren's plan is that the car does stop because nobody wants to drive into a wedding reception with a Staren crumpled over the fenders. The shooting even goes off without a hitch, getting both the driver and the passenger before they had a chance to look surprised. THEN the driver slumps over, smushes the accelerator, and rams the car straight at Staren. While leaning on the horn with his face.
    Nearby, the guards the the checkpoint look up at the noise of the long horn blast from nearby, even as they return the ID to the motorcade driver and start letting them through.
Staren     Crunch. "Because I thought ripping the door off would damage the car too much!" Staren answers the question before Mort can ask, and lifts up the front of the car. Hopefully it's frontwheel drive. "Hold this!" After passing the car to Mort, he goes to use a tool to get the door unlocked and move the body off the accelerator and horn. "Alright, get in." THEN he drives onto a side road to get the car superficially repaired.
Evangeline McDowell     Other than the lighting rig, there's also the mezzanine - which has several hundred people milling about on it forming little cliques and occasionally having a glare-off with each other - and the huge projector screen which is currently showing sappy computer animated, flowery scenes to go with the music. The projector screen and its rigging is, fortunately, totally unpopulated. On the other hand, it would soon have several thousand people staring at it, and also has a huge bright light shining towards it. Maybe Nova can handle the shininess?
Mortimer Balman      Mort blinks a few times, watching blankly. "Cool. What do we do about the blood? I guess I'm driving either way, I'm obviously your jackbooted thug here, but.." He starts stripping the bodies for things of use- wallets, notebooks, invitations if there are any, shit like that. Good thing he knows how to drive Earth cars, as absurdly dangerous as he sees them.
Staren     "Just give it a few minutes." Once he's pulled over, Staren's sprayed the glass and the seat and everything with some sort of spray, and they slowly knit together and clean themselves a little too slow to notice by watching. Staren bends out the worst dents in the front with robot strength and uses the same stuff to fix the paint.

    After Mort's looted the body, Staren uses the matter manipulator to bury it in a hole by the side of the side-road. "Alright. If they notice the dents we just glare at them."
Evangeline McDowell     Mortimer and Staren finds a single invitation (for two) addressed to someone on the notYakuza side - if the notJapanese on the envelope is anything to go by - and sealed with a QR code in red on a pink flowery background. There's a few pieces of paper neatly folded up in the pocket of the passenger, apparently the names and positions of several of his underlings, underscored word _DISCREPANCY_ around two columns of figures.
Touta Konoe      It's a little weird to have someone follow you like a shadow. Plus he doesn't really think anyone else is getting this sort of treatment so it makes him feel like he's special or something. Just not in the ways you'd really want to feel special.

     "Well, I got invited for the wedding so I guess it's mostly business right? Though...If I do get a chance I wouldn't mind checking out the town, it does seem pretty lively. I was only really planning to stay for the night than head back but I might have to reconsider."

     Of course he's not bringing up the real reason he's here. At least not yet. Still...Why hasn't he found her yet? He can't imagine it'd be this hard to find a small little blonde-haired girl. Especially one missing an arm. But that said he can still chat it up a bit.

     "So Sigi, how come the groom's side has you guiding me? It looks like there's way more important people here than a kid like me. Not that I'm complaining." He could though, but he's not.
Evangeline McDowell     "Hey, new guy," Sengo gets a poke on his shoulder from one of the 'senior' bartenders, if by senior one means 'was shipped here from some other nightclub to make sure trusted people are mixing drinks at such an event', "Last calls for now. The motorcade is arriving. We need to start making the ceremonial wine." The special reddish wine, bottled in the year of the bride's birth, to be opened and drunk only on the day of her marriage. It's all being stored in a side room, along with literally thousands of hurriedly-ordered little faux-porcelain memorial shot cups to serve it all in.
Evangeline McDowell     Of course Touta is special. He's an Elite in a big crowd of non-Elites. Or possibly he's cute in an idiotic way. Sigi's smile is completely unwavering as she listens with the most attentive expression, "I would be happy to be your guide to the town for however long you'd like, Mr. Konoe. It is only right that this much hospitality be extended to you in this town. You are a very important person, amongst many of the senior members of our group. If it is fine with you, there is a private mee-"

    The rest of what Sigi's saying fades into the background as the camera representing Touta's attention crash-zooms in onto a brilliant golden spot of blonde up on the mezzanine level. Sitting at the railing to one side, surveying the whole meeting, surrounded by a perimeter of absolutely terrified-looking bodyguards is Yukihime ... Alter. She's in a black dress with a single splash of dark crimson right down the front, like she had spilled something while drinking. Her eyes are looking towards the assembly hall and the aisle, apparently unaware of Touta's presence.
Muramasa "I see," he nods. "I'll finish up here then, Senpai."

Though Sengo considered himself an old man, at least for the purposes of this employment, the other man was his senior. Besides, with how young his body looked, he'd be considered rude for not addressing him that way.

Giving out the last handful of drinks he was able to, mostly water, Muramasa retires from the bar to aide in the preparation of the special wine. At least in the real Japan, darkly colored spirits were a rarity. Depending on the era and place you were in, it could even be considered something of a taboo, so he was admitedly fascinated by the choice of liqour. "Ceremonies like this are interesting, aren't they? Hm ... well, it means the marriage should be put off as long as possible ... that's why it's like this. If you marry early, then the spirits will taste bad, and everyone will take it as a bad omen. I wonder how well it's all aged?"

He makes small talk with his coworkers as he fills the various shot-cups. While there's no need for him to put on a show, he appears surprisingly deft with the speed and grace he's able to fill them with, spilling not even a drop, even though he was chattering along.
Mortimer Balman      Mortimer will, once Staren's gotten it all cleaned up, patiently wait for a good opportunity to slip the car back into the motorcade and drive like he's supposed to be there. Yep. He'll also tell Staren to memorize all the paperwork they've got, all he needs to do is memorize what his name is supposed to be.
Touta Konoe      Sigi's words falter upon Touta's ears as his senses all converge to recognize a single point. A child who perhaps looks no older than Touta, maybe even younger. Brilliant golden hair that reaches below the girl's shoulders and blue eyes as clear as the sky. Yeah, this was definitely the person he was looking for. And while finding this person should make him happy, when he looks upon her he sees something that brings concern to his face.

     It almost looks as though that dress was stained, with wine perhaps? Maybe, but he's seen that shade of red on Evan before and if he was right...He turns back towards Sigi, "Stay here."

     It's a very brief command, but the tone in his voice makes it sound like it's for her own well-being. Without another word he's looks in the direction that Kitty was staring. He has a feeling something's about to happen, and if it is, he needs to know if he can just run up the stairs to catch up to her, or if he's going to need to take the express route...
Staren     Memorize everything? "Ugh. Good thing I've got a computer brain at the moment." He need only glance at all the paperwork. He also has nanites change any pictures to look like the two of them.

    He just wants to silently gruff his way in already and find a place to start this grisly business. Organized crime on this world will be disrupted, dammit!

    Perhaps he can look at this as important practice in heading ops. Usually he doesn't have to think about how they're getting in, he's just following someone else and taking out pre-designated targets.
Evangeline McDowell     With the place being a convention center, there is plenty of stairs and elevators everywhere to make Touta's trip up short. He watches as Kitty moves to brush a strand of hair out of her face... sees the nub of her arm rise up and fail to address the hair issue entirely... feels her fingers move in his pocket and then clench in irritation... sees her other hand come up and brush the hair aside. Then Kitty goes back to that half-slouched sitting again, obviously bored and rather that she's not here - not waiting to eat someone.
Nova Terra     Nova scouts out the mezzanine... Too many people. Also wow, some of them really don't like some of the others. Well, that'll just make this easier.

    Nova scouts out the projector rigging... Too exposed. Although she could bring the whole thing down on the bridal party... Nah, not the right message.

    Light rigging it is!

    Returning to the light rigging, Nova considers her options for dealing with those people setting up. She could kill them all. But there's too much risk of a body being discovered early. Or falling off the rigging to the hall below. That would definitely be noticed.

    Closing her eyes for a moment as she concentrates, Nova listens. Not with her ears, but her mind, as she opens up to all the inner voices echoing from the people around her. Something, anything that she can use... Really? You're sleeping with that asshole? But all he can think about is the hottie at the bar... Ugh, people suck.

    Wait. Nova opens her eyes again as she picks up on something. Moving to just before the entrance leading to the rigging, where she can't be seen but still heard, Nova calls out to the people setting up, "Hey, they need help preparing the ceremonial wine. Finish up and get down there to give them a hand."
Evangeline McDowell     Slipping back into a motorcade that's actively moving through a security checkpoint is ... not one of those things that works all that well. Mortimer and Staren's car could only find room at the very end of the line of cars, and even then gets stopped while the rest of the cars move on towards the convention center. Their attempt had been noticed, and the guard is all-business as he leans towards the window and raps a knuckle against it (who's driving, anyway?)
Staren     Staren waits for the guard to ask whatever, planning to play off trying to get into the motorcade as just being in a hurry.
Mortimer Balman      Mortimer will roll down his window look patiently at the muscleboy they have watching the front entrance. He'll pass their invitation along as needed, but he won't talk much if indeed at all. His accent is VERY weird so he would have told Staren to just say yeah my dude here doesn't talk, I do the talking.
Touta Konoe      Truthfully, he doesn't. He can't feel the hand in his pocket because it's not in his pocket. If it had been, security would have found it on his person while he was being checked and that probably would have raised some alarms as to why he had a living hand in there. But even if he can't feel it in his pocket he can still tell...How you might ask?

     He makes his way to the mezzanine level until he reaches where the guards looking over Kitty are. He could bust through to try and get to her, he could try to call to her to get her attention. Instead...

     Kitty would hear the sound of a thud on the table she was slouching on, as she look at the source she'd see a present on the table. Someone had literally flung a present over the heads of her guards and onto the table. There's not even a question of what it is. She should be able to feel it, when its this close...

     And if that wrapped present had /that/ inside of it, it meant that /he/ must have been here.
Evangeline McDowell     After Staren does the talking and Mortimer doesn't, or possibly the other way around, the two of them are sent through the checkpoint without any additional bullets lodged into them. There's a large parking log in front of the convention center, with cars parked in neat clusters as if individual gangs or cliques all consorted to move together - they probably did, actually. The two motorcades, though, don't stop to park. They pull up to separate entrances to the convention center - by now Mort and Staren's care are simply thought to be part of the motorcade - and line up at the kerb to discharge their passengers.
Evangeline McDowell     One point one seconds after Kitty's present went thump on her table, and five hundred milliseconds after Touta suddenly had five large men surround him, Kitty stands up and grabs her package on the way towards Touta.
    "Miss McDowell, do-"
    "I DON'T KNOW HIM." Kitty proclaims, with a lot of emphasis. She stops just short of the defensive line of defensive linesmen-shaped guards and says, "Let him through. He looks-" A pause, "- he looks like he's too stupid to be troublesome. And he had a present."
Staren     Now they're mistaken for part of the motorcade! Good!

    But that means they have to seperate as Mort follows to wherever the motorcade is parking. Bad! Staren just wanted to remove a bunch of bad people from the universe, WHY DOES EVERYTHING HAVE TO BE SO COMPLICATED.

    Staren can keep in touch with Mort by radio, though, and expects there will be ample time for Mort to make it back before they get started. For now, he heads to wherever the most people seem to be clumping. He figures the best time to go loud is when everyone's seated, but in case he has to start things early he's keeping to the most target-rich environment possible.
Touta Konoe      There's a question on what would have occurred should those five larger men had all tried to come at him. The answer is probably that it would not have turned out well for them funnily enough. But with that matter out of the way upon her declaration to let him through he'll go right through them to sit next to her.

     "Guess I kinda deserve that after what happened last time, hehehe." He lasts awkwardly for a moment as he recalls how she ended up with that stub of a hand in the first place. It was because he was being stupid, so he can't really argue it.

     Still, as the laughing subsides he takes the opportunity to look this girl over. The way she spoke, the way she looked. There was no doubt about it.

     "You really are Kitty, aren't you?"

     Even if she was from another timeline or universe, there was no way that he could mistake her for anyone else. It wasn't like with Archer and the Bartender. He could tell even from just a glance it was the real article.

     He looks for a moment and he wonders if she can even tell who he even was till he sat down. After all, she had forgotten about him after about 200 years the last time they met. For Eva now it would have been about 500. Double that! He couldn't be sure if she would...

     "Kitty...Do you remember who I am?"
Evangeline McDowell     Kitty had sat back down at her table and is struggling a bit with opening her present. It's not exactly the easiest thing to do right now, and one gets the idea that she's really, really not wanting to look Touta in the face or answer any of the questions he's just asked. Eventually, she gets the thing open and stare at the delicate hand inside, the fingers slowly twitching in anticipation. And eventually, the hand goes back onto that stump of an arm.

    Followed by an open-palmed slap directed right at Touta's cheek, using the newly-reattached hand.

    "OF COURSE I remember who you are, idiot! Do you think I'd just forget the person who ripped my hand off, boy?" Eva's red-faced, but not angry, tirade spills over Touta in a super-familiar way. A second slap arrives, "And d-d-don't CALL me that!"

    "Is everything alright, Ms. McDow-"
    "MIND YOUR OWN BUSINESS!"
Mortimer Balman      Mortimer will, after dropping off Staren, look for wherever he can park. He's on the guest list after all, and his 'boss' needs his bodyguard. Can't be without your bodyguard within reasonable reach. If he can get access to the main party area he'll largely hang out around the bar. Just another mook who kills people on command. If not.. Well, the mooks need to hang out SOMEWHERE, don't they? He'll hang out wherever they hang out if he absolutely must.
Evangeline McDowell     Physically violent reunion aside, there is also the matter of a short announcement over the convention center's intercom, asking everyone to please take their seats. Sigi briefly tries to come up to fetch Touta to /his/ special seat over, but is glared down. Well over a thousand people take their spots in the padded folding chairs. The lights dim slightly, and spotlights turn on and begin limbering up.
    Sengo, who had finished helping several bartenders with pouring the red marriage wine, is given a nudge and a big tray of shotcups. "Go, remember, you have the last rows on the groom's side." He might be able to get all two hundred odd glasses out before the whole ceremony finishes, and he had better not accidentally get into the spotlight. Simultaneously, the other staff are sent out, to start equipping the toast-vessels to the attendees.
    Staren finds himself as part of the bride's procession, with the parents of the bride and their personal entourage (secretary, accountant, guards, etc). A few more moving hugs and words are exchanged, then they separate - the bride's family to take their seats, and the father and daughter to stand alone together behind their entrance doorway for their cue... along with Staren and two other guards - who are giving Staren quizzical looks like "who's this clown?"
    Mortimer is ushered into his seat on the groom's side, towards the back - he probably isn't taking the place of a particularly important underboss, given this location. He's amongst the last to be seated, and his neighbor gives him a whispered, "Greetings. What clique are you with? The seating arrangements are so crazy, no?"
    And then it's time for Sengo to make his pass through Mortimer's aisle with the wine.
    Up high, Nova finds herself almost entirely alone, with one person growing increasingly panicked about a final box of rose petals not fitting into its motorized bracket. Everyone else had trooped off, their work completed and the rest to be handled by computer. It's peaceful here, if one discounts the booming voice of the highly-paid and very charismatic wedding host walking on-stage and starting by welcoming everyone to such a romantic and timeless event, working the crowd to start them cheering.
Muramasa The redheaded teen nods along, a small smile on his face. Sent on his way, he hands out the cups skillfully, making sure to keep in his 'place'. It doesn't take long for him to come across another red-haired man, another one of the groom's men chatting quietly to him. Yet, there was something about him -- a contradiction of some kind. He couldn't put his finger on it, but it felt like he was looking at one of those magic eye pictures.

Even so, he presents the two with their drinks. "Good evening, esteemed guests."

In the meantime, an oddity has appeared at the bar. One of the ice bins seems to have become a wooden cooling barrel full of crystal clear, icy cold water! It happened so subtly, it's hard to tell how long it's been like that.
Staren     There's the announcement. He hasn't seen Mortimer again yet. This is it...

    Soon he's standing just out of a room where just over a thousand criminals are sitting, scrunched together in neat little rows.

    In what some people know as 'fireball formation.'

    It's now or never.

    Staren offers the guards a handshake. If they take it, he shocks them (it's set on nonlethal, still.) If they don't, he shocks them anyway. If the bride and father do anything but run or stare, he'll try to shock them too... But whatever weapons they have on them, he expects he can tank for a few seconds if that doesn't work...

    He pulls what looks like a large-bore rifle out of his briefcase that was clearly too small to hold it, and points it into the room.

    Foomp. Foomp. Foomp. Covered by the noise of the crowd, the explosives launch and land amongst them. It will probably take seconds for anyone to realize what they are. Seconds that allow him to fire more into the crowd.

    When Staren sees people starting to move, he detonates them. Rather than high explosive, they're constructed to dump so much heat into the air that it's turned to plasma -- possibly turning large swathes of the crowd to ash in an instant and horribly burning those farther away from the grenades. The stage is spared with merely 'just opened a hot oven' level heat, since Staren's focused on the people in seats. That host may want to run.
Mortimer Balman      Mort will, before he's around too many people, murmur quietly into his radio to Staren. "Won't be able to talk. Give signal to attack or do whatever. Say 'speech' as part of signal to include dramatic speech before fireworks start. Over and out." The hard part is avoiding talking really, when he does so love to talk. Chances are good, if Staren wants to go ahead with the violence part, he'll get to say a lot before he starts burning it all down.

     And then Staren starts the party off early. Well, okay. Mort will just move to set the main doors on fire and keep people trapped inside. Most people will not pay attention to a 'human' breathing fire right now when there's plasma superheating everything.
Nova Terra     Even while invisible, Nova keeps herself hidden around a corner while the workers file out from the rigging walkways. No need to risk an accidental bump. Once the trickle thins, Nova can sense there's still one inside... Good. Excellent in fact. Nova can work with that.

    Nova quietly creeps along a walkway onto the rigging. She's careful to avoid getting noticed by the sole working still fretting over some flowers. Oh how silly they're going to feel about that shortly. If they're feeling anything at all shortly.

    Nova sets up. Slowly, to avoid notice. Though that shouldn't be much of a problem with everyone focused on the ceremony. She retrieves the rifle from her back. One of them, anyway. She has her normal Canister Rifle. But that's not what she's reaching for. The one she moves into her hands is far more conventional of a sniper rifle. Obtained relatively locally. It's a lot less unique and identifying, which Nova needs for this mission.

    Nova begins lining up the shot, looking through the scope of the rifle as she sweeps it across the crowd. She spots the bride coming in, focusing the sights on her.

    Wait. What the fuck? Is that Staren!? Oh shit!

    Nova can only watch as he starts firing the charges into the crowd. And soon enough heat washes over her. She's not caught in any of the actual immediate blasts, being high enough up. But she can still feel it, thankfully saved from any serious burns by her suit.

    "Fuck fuck fuck." All pretenses of stealth are gone at this point as Nova swears at this turn of events. This really screws with her plan.

    As the events play out below, Nova tries to think of a way to take advantage of this. But the explosions and the heat are making it rather difficult to think.
Muramasa --- there's a ruckus up front. Straightening his posture as one of the guards go down, Muramasa sucks in a deep breath, launching the tray of wine shots into the air so that he could properly grasp his sword's sheath. With the attacker firing directly into the crowd, he'd be caught in the crossfire, too.

But if that were it, with his keen eyes and superhuman abilities, he'd surely be able to avoid the worst of it to defend himself. The fact of the matter was that his first instinct was to protect the people in front of him, and that wasn't a decision he could regret. Even if these people were criminals, even if he might have to kill them himself soon, that would be then. This was now.

It was just the abnormality of his thought process. Muramasa draws his sword in a quick, upward slash. The technique is delicate, and what he cuts is the air itself. When the projectiles begin to activate, that heat isn't given a chance to change its state of matter. It's all sucked into the vaccum of his windblade.

... but, even so, people die. The people on the bride's side. The people in the middle and front rows that couldn't be protected by his wind-cutting arts.

The wine tray clatters to the ground, spilling the liquid all over the floor, staining it with ugly red splatters. " .... "

    Muramasa breathes in the smell of smoke and ash.
Staren     <"What the hell was that? They've got elites on their side, watch out!"> Staren warns Mortimer, when he sees some of the explosions sucked away, somehow.
Evangeline McDowell     Sengo's blade perfectly captures the heat from the initiating charges, but he is just one man, and that is just one blade. The fireball-formation crowd was too large to begin with, and at least three other charges do exactly what they were meant to do.
    The explosions are particularly loud. The screaming tends to be, as is the sound of quite a bit of ammunition starting to cook off in people's pants. Fire engulfs the auditorium. The fireballs from the ... all the fires... meld into a roiling red-and-orange-and-black wave of fire as it chars and melts everything in its wake, leaving flailing, flaming skeletons who haven't quite realized that they should fall down now. The confines of the auditorium walls keep the fireballs from dispersing, and together they rise upwards, as hot gasses do.
    Towards the entire lighting gantry.
    Nova can't even count on the latticework metal for any sort of cover as the only-slightly-cooler firestorm engulfs her on its way towards the ceiling. The roar of firey winds can't drown out the extremely distinctive hiss and popping noises starting up all around her, and it doesn't take a look to realize that 30 men's worth of pyrotechnics had just initiated.
    The only-singed part of the crowd surges for the doors, promptly tripping over all the chairs in their panic and forming a struggling mass of indistinguishable suited figures, struggling like a black-and-red, smoldering sea, arms reaching out now and again from the teeming shores towards, perhaps, salvation.
    The two guards near Staren had crumpled without much resistance, and the bride had too - after her father pulled her in front of the shock meat for him. As she sags in his arm, the bride's father shouts an order and a location - his own - into his phone.
Staren     Staren hears gunshots and crouches behind the doorway. It's seconds before he realizes it was /ammo cooking off/. That's just perfect!

    Now he's got a sea of people and the father of the bride to deal with. He'd like to put the people out of their misery... but this guy is clearly a priority target. He may have crippled the organization in the past several seconds, but he needs to cut the head off the snake.

    Staren drops the missile launcher (it won't work for anyone else anyway) and tries to grab him. Grappling is usually bad for Staren, but against a regular human when he's a super-strong robot? He figures he just needs a good grip and then he can crush whatever body parts he can reach until they stop working.

    As for the daughter... since the last thing she'll remember is her own father sacrificing her, he /might/ spare her and talk to her. It can be a wedding present. He'll play that by ear depending on how things go, however.
Nova Terra     ... There were fireworks too? Not good.

    Nova ditches the rifle in her hands, having no use for it now. She barely has enough time to pull her mask out of her suit and over her head as the firestorm reaches up and engulfs the rigging around her.

    The firestorm hits and Nova is sent flying. She crashes down on another part of the rigging, managing to reach out and grab hold of it before falling off. She dangles there for several moments, feeling the heat beginning to rise even with the temperature control of her hostile environment suit.

    Nova soon pulls herself up and starts running across the rigging. She tries to be wary of the warping of the metal frame as she moves for the exit back into the adjacent hall. But she has to move quick if she wants to avoid being blown to hell by all those recreational explosives!
Mortimer Balman      Unfortunately for most of the people fleeing.. Mortimer is the one near the main doors. And anyone who's near him, well.. They'll simply be incinerated to ashes by ambient heat coming off of him. The illusion fades and a very tall, burning *monstrosity* of a Pokemorph is standing there. His hair is now a flaming wreath that has an eerie wraithly tinge to its color, faces can sometimes be seen floating up out of it- screaming in agony. A veritable scene from Hell, especially as the flames grow larger and lick at the floors and doors despite Muramasa's trick.

     "Very cute indeed." He exhales a plume of smoke from his pipe and calmly puts it into a pocket. The old badger-man starts walking forward, slowly burning up everything around him into so much greasy smoke and powdery ash. His hands are folded behind his back while he approaches Muramasa. "Does this mean you want daddy's belt first?"
Muramasa It feels like an eternity, one where he's not where he is right now. But somewhere very similar. The smell of hot death in the air, the screaming, the charred black skeletons flailing -- yes, this vision of Hell dragged him into the memories of another life. They're his memories, but they're not. The little boy discarding pieces of his self as he trudges along through burning black mud in the flame contaminated city was not him.

The disappearance of his ego was -- not him. That was another life.

Ignoring the cries for salvation around him. Ignoring the curses of the dying around him. That ... wasn't him.

It's not. But it is. Does this mean you want daddy's belt first?

Muramasa narrows his eyes, drinking in Mortimer's image. In his mind, he already considered him a demon; what else could someone think looking at the burning badger-man at this instance?

Muramasa's lips part, briefly, before pausing again. And then he raises his sword into position, drawing his elbow pack and pointing the tip at his fiery foe. "Trace ... on."

With those words of power, the gauntlet was thrown.
Evangeline McDowell     The entire lighting rig detonates, scattering millions of burnt rose petals and in all directions, accompanied by an overwhelmingly cloying smell of perfume, from ruptured perfume tanks, mixed with the bitter charred odor. All overhead lighting cuts out as the shorts in the electrical wiring bring down most of the building's breaker panel, leaving the whole scene lit only by firelight, cell phone screens, and Mortimer.
    Staren has little trouble grabbing the bride's father, but at the same moment, the stairway door opposite breaks open and five really heavily-equipped men burst in, their movements consummately smooth and professional. Two shotguns and a rifle are unwaveringly pointed at Staren, while the fourth man sweeps and covers the other exit.
    "Drop. The. Hostage." Staren can see a finger move to select a different setting, and a deeply blue glow starts at the bottom of the barrels facing him. The sound of pounding boots announces that a second team is about to emerge behind the first.
    Burnt rose petals drift down in the smoke-filled air as twenty tons of overhead rigging collapses, freed from its twisted supports, down towards Mortimer and Sengo's duel. It might be free of Ghosts... but if an invisible ghost falls, who would notice the difference?
Touta Konoe      "Eeee, tatata. Owww. Hey come on, I know I messed up but you don't have to hit me! Besides, I told you I'd be right back but you vanished out all of a sudden before I could give that back to you. If I knew you were gonna slap me the first chance you had with it I would have held off."

     Touta rubs the cheek he was just blatantly slapped across, even if that would heal up, that'll still hurt like hell. But it's not like he isn't use to a blonde-woman smacking him around every now and again. He's just not use to it occurring in the Multiverse.

     The tone changes swiftly though...Something catches his eye. Someone was throwing something into the seats. That was weird, was that suppose to be part of the wedding. Upon closer examination from above though he sees that whatever was shot were definitely not something for a wedding and a cold sweat goes down his forehead. He gets up from his seat and shouts.

     "LOOK OU-" Before he even can finish his statement someone already springs into action amongst the masses, There was no way that he was just some normal bartender, but whoever he was it was not enough to stop what would end up being a true massacre.

     There's so many questions racing in his head as he watches the events unravel below him. What happened? Who did this? Why do it at a wedding? Even if these people were bad...To kill them at a wedding was just...Just...Only a true monster could do that.

     He wants to find out who's done this but the heat is slowly beginning to accrue even in the mezzanine level.

     He looks down at the blade wielding bartender, clearly seeing the look of a distraught man on his face. One couldn't blame him but there was no time. He shouts to him from above as he sees the man prepare for combat,

     "HEY! There's still people up here!"

     It was true this person could maybe take down the ones who did this, that he could stop the villains that caused this but at the same time...He would be forsaking everyone else that he had the ability to save up above. It was clear that the boy would only be able to do so much on his own. Either way...He'll need to do what he can.

     He looks towards Eva and the others upstairs. Going down below into the fight was a huge HELL NO. If that was the case they'd have to jump down from a window or something.

     Touta flings his sword through the first window he can find and scoops up Sigi immediately. He turns towards Eva his eyes more focused than ever.

     "Kitty, throw everyone you can out the window when I land!"

     There's no explanation. There's no elaboration. He just runs through the window grabbing Sigi and another civilian upstairs before leaping through the window.

     What he was asking sounded crazy, and in fact it was crazy. It was one thing to grab people and jump out the building to just stick the landing for them, but throwing them out...They'd just land on the concrete. Even if he tried with just catching them with his hands he wouldn't be able to catch all of them if she through them so quickly. They'd either be too many thrown out at once or they'd die from the heat before getting flung. And yet he told her those words. He trusted her to do this...
Staren     Staren crushes the mob boss's neck and throws the body at them. "Not a hostage." He runs for cover, pulling out a pistol that shoots miniature anti-tank rockets to pierce their armor and firing at the security squad. "Your boss is dead now. Sure you wanna continue this line of work?"
Mortimer Balman      Mortimer grins a bit at Sengo's reply. It's a predatory grin full of bright, sharp teeth; but it doesn't come off as a threat display so much as an eagerness for a fight. The old badger's sclera turns pitch black and his irises start glowing a bloody shade of red. One hand comes to rest on the hilt of his own sword. It's not a masterful work like Sengo's is. It's just some common soldier's blade. "I insist- beauty before age."

     It's hard to tell if Mortimer is taunting Sengo, or just inviting him to take the first swing. There's no real /malevolence/ coming off of him. Malice, certainly, but not hatred or sadism.
Evangeline McDowell     "Wh-" Evangeline does a LOT of shouting for someone of her frame, once she stops questioning Touta and starts deciding to throw people. Barely two seconds after Touta lands on the pavement outside, he can see the heads of Evangeline's personal goon squad appear at the broken window and Heave. A round, white, six-foot ball of something sails out the window (not very quickly) and plummets towards Touta - one tablecloth wrapped and tied around a ball of maybe six or seven people. With an big, easy-catch handle of a knot up top.
    Evangeline is apparently /really/ good with knots.

    Staren immediately faces return fire, even before he started throwing the mob boss. These weren't just bullets. They were BLUE bullets. That glowed. And smelled strongly of ozone and sounded like thunderclaps. The first shot cored straight through the boss's body like it was so much paper mache - definitely anti-materiel rated stuff. There's not a single word back from the squad facing him, just grim, dedicated shooting, stepping in front of the first fallen shot by Staren, and making way for the second squad of ten to pour into the breach.
Muramasa Saber winces. The sword in his hand, his Tsumugari Muramasa, was practically snarling. While the swordsman himself was absent of malevolence or battle-thirst, the sword was releasing an awful and ferocious killing intent. It was a demon sword that desired blood, and surely, someone with a weak persaonlity would become a mindless demon themselves if they wielded it.

Even so, he would use this sword as a tool of justice.

Using 'Structural Analysis' on Mortimer's sword, Sengo ascertains its properties and gains a loose idea of how Mortimer would fight. With that foreknowledge, he could --

Touta interrupts him with a cry. But, as he looked up towards where his voice had rung out, he became aware of the collapsing rig that was about to come down ontop of both himself and the burning pokemorph he was fighting. Breaking stance and lunging, Sengo attempts to clear the falling debris with brisk movements, leaping off of the ground to use the wreckage as stepping stones as it fell to try and work his way up. If there were people he could save, he would, but -- this was a way to save them, too. That demon would kill anyone he could get his hands on.

Unsure if he would even hear him, Sengo yells back to Touta. "I'll buy you time ... so, do your best, youngin' !"
Staren     "Ugh--!" Staren grunts when the first shot slams into him. There's a hole in his clothes and underneath it, metal -- burned partway through but not breached.

    It's enough for him to take them seriously though, focusing on evading for the moment. His forcefield comes up (a weaker one than he usually uses -- a couple of shots from his own weapons would break it) and he suddenly has energy wings on his back and thrusters in his feet and is flying for cover.

    Even if he has to run now, he's dealt organized crime here quite a blow. He'd like to at least take out some more of the security squad and show that a few high-tech guns won't take him out, though.

    <"Mort, how are you holding up? Look out for the security squads, they have real firepower from the Multiverse.">
Nova Terra     Nova leaps at the last second, hand reaching out towards the edge of the flooring leading away from the rigging.

    She misses.

    Nova plummets down, quickly hitting the floor of the mezzanine. The impact is jarring, enough to cause her cloak to fail. The Ghost reappears amidst a wash of blue light. She groans quietly, picking herself up off the floor. Realizing she's now visible again, Nova looks at the nearby Evangeline.

    Pause. "Hi."

    Screw this situation, Nova's getting out! She starts running, quickly reaching and diving out the window that Touta and a bundle of people have previously already exited through.

    This time in a controlled plummet, Nova lands on her feet, her suit absorbing much of the impact and keeping her from breaking anything. Once more in fresh air, Nova pulls her mask up to take in a few thankful breaths of not plasma, "Too hot in there." She glances around, spotting Touta nearby, "Oh, I remember you. What are you doing here?"
Touta Konoe      Touta can only hear as he jumps down the last words spoken by Not Gan Jiang. He can only hope this guy gets out of their alright...

     Back at the check-in area there was one thing that Touta had been questioned about actually, it wasn't technically a weapon but it was metal. Even if it was it didn't seem threatening so he had been allowed to enter into the wedding area with it no worries with it, and now it seemed like that piece of metal was going to come into play.

     As soon as he lands he drops Sigi and the other person he had ended up pulling out of the building and pulls a small ring out of his pocket which expands quickly. It was a hula-hoop and before anyone has time to question he he's already got in around his hips spinning like a madman. Why does that matter though?

     Because now, Touta could use his full power.Revolution. A technique that allowed him to rotate the blood and ki in his body like a centrifuge would. AGAIN WHY DID THAT MATTER???

     Because when he used Revolution, he can spin his blood so fast that he could even end up causing things around him to rotate like they had been caught in a tornado or in the orbit of a planet. His plan was simple, use this orbital levitation to catch multiple people as they fell towards him and it's a good thing he does as Eva throws him a literal cloth filled with people. And a Nova?!

     She probably gets caught in his mini-hurricane spin-cycle as well. But instead of being so calm as she was he immediately looks to the Elite for answers. "What the Hell happened in there?!"
Mortimer Balman      Mortimer takes a step back, his eyes darting down to Sengo's weapon. "....Are you alright, chief?" His voice carries genuine concern, despite.. Well, EVERYTHING. Something about that blade, it worries him. There's an evil in it and he can /taste/ it. A brow lifts. "Who are you buying time for? ....Not Touta, surely?" Obviously the old man recognized Touta's voice and presence, but then it occurred to Mort that Sengo wouldn't know that, obviously.

     He makes no move to follow Sengo up.. He just stands there, occasionally looking at people and.. Well, incinerating them. But! Sengo will notice something important, as the numbers of survivors dwindle. The 'working stiffs'- the people who are just here for a job, that have no affiliation with the criminals- aren't being incinerated by Mortimer, or even by Staren's initial plasma blast. The ones who are obviously just workers, at least. Bartenders like Sengo was pretending to be, waiters, janitorial, those people have been being given a wide berth by the heat, though some are probably injured from incidental things like 'the damn building collapsing' which he can't control. The Typhlosionmorph is manipulating the flames away from them. "You do realize who my targets are, right? All you being up there does is gives me more time to focus on them."

     If one of the pseudo-SWAT persons shows up, Mortimer will exhale a massive stream of flames onto them until polymer vests are melted to bone. "Yeah, thanks Staren. I've got things under control."
Muramasa The redhead wasn't sure if he should be touched by the concern or not. Rather than respond meaningfully, he instead prepares himself, knowing that if he was going to stop him he would have to take initiative. "I won't let you!"

Sengo kicks off, diving at Mortimer with a thrust. His hand was bleeding already, Tsumugari Muramasa deciding that in its impatience to use him as an appetizer for the real kill it wanted. But he was used to that. This wicked sword would even kill its wielder if given the opportunity.

His blood dripped towards the edge and turned into red vapor.
Nova Terra     Quick. Make something up.

    "Not entirely sure. I was scouting the place out after hearing a rumour about someone planning to wreak havoc at this wedding. Then I spot Staren and he's firing plasma grenades everywhere and everything started burning."

    Yes. That works! With her nice, neat plan in shambles, Nova figures it's best to just try and get out of this without too much trouble.

    "Need a hand?" As Evangeline continues throwing people out the window, Nova assists by using her telekinesis to slow their fall. Reducing some of the strain on Touta. Failed plan and now a headache. Today has not gone well.
Muramasa     LAST TIME:

Sengo kicks off, diving at Mortimer with a thrust. His hand was bleeding already, Tsumugari Muramasa deciding that in its impatience to use him as an appetizer for the real kill it wanted. But he was used to that. This wicked sword would even kill its wielder if given the opportunity.

His blood dripped towards the edge and turned into red vapor.

        NOW:

Sengo's soaring stab might or might not strike true, but it was a maneuver more for closing the gap and forcing Mortimer to respond than it was a decisive blow. Bringing the hilt up so that the blade was perpendicular to the ground, the redheaded swordsmith followed his stab with a triad of flowing slashes in a z-formation, sweat soaking his body from the heat of the roaring inferno around them.
Mortimer Balman      Mort grimaces when that evil blood-thirsty blade sinks into his flesh. "Nngh.. You won't let me, or that wicked edge of yours won't?" He narrows his eyes at Sengo. "So be it, then..." He's not grinning anymore. He had thought this would be a lovely little duel.. But this kid has some kind of unholy bloodfeasting blade and he's not hesitating to use it. So much for a good day!

     In a single swift action he draws his own blade and looks to cut across Sengo's chest with it, a swift but not particularly flashy strike. Dramatic tricks are for crowds.
Muramasa Sengo frowns, the simple blade biting into his exposed chest and drawing a gash across it despite his best efforts to deflect the attack with a parrying motion with his own weapon. Drawing back two steps, he swipes twice at Mortimer in the process, having switched to a one handed stance. The first was aimed to knock the pokemorph's weapon aside with a horizontal attack, and the second was a diagnal cut aimed at his shoulder. "This sword does not control me."

Whatever blood that had been on its edge was being turned into that red vapor that had been seen moments prior. Sengo swtiches his stance into the two-handed one he'd been using before, holding the blade perendicular with the hilt resting near his cheek.
Mortimer Balman      Further cuts appear across Mortimer's body after his blade is knocked away. He barely seems to care about them, though- not deep enough, not biting enough. The fact that the sword is drinking it however, clearly disturbs him. "Hmph." A short hop backwards and he starts intoning some sort of spell. "Bereft of Sight, remember childhood terrors: Blind Silence Requiem!"

     Dark energies appear and swirl throughout the air, forming geometric symbols that.. Bleed, and are accompanied by the sound of distant screaming. Wraithly hands appear to claw up from the ground, grasping at Sengo, clawing like iron nails despite their lack of substance, while twisted visages of dead men and women fill his vision, threatening to smother him in their desperation to feel the warmth of Life once again.
Muramasa The incantation puts the pseudo-servant on guard, as a formless terror begins to take shape. But the hands of the dead find no purchase, and the supernatural phenomenon is largely repelled, like through a combination of Sengo's own character and the Magic Resistance of the Saber class, an ability that as its name would imply, granted some ability to endure magical maladies.

Taking his chance, Sengo dashes forward. The burning terrain continued to grow worse around them as he fired off a small number of quick thrusts with his sword, all aimed for the center of mass. While the curve of a Japanese tachi isn't typically suited for thrusting attacks, there were techniques that creatively was able to make use of them, which Sengo used now to try and skewer Mortimer where he stood.

"You won't put that evil on me, demon!"
Mortimer Balman      Mortimer coughs up a bit of blood when the sword goes straight into his stomach. Sengo will find it's.. Quite difficult to pull the sword /out/ of the old man, for some reason, now. "Got you.." He reaches down to grab the much shorter, younger man by the hair, even as he's chanting another spell.

     "Kiss the feet of Shaymin and rejoice with Trembling at the Dawn of Spring, lest Thou perish along the way, when His wrath is kindled but a little!" Another set of symbols begins to form, these ones however.. They crackle with electricity and thunder, and it's becoming very bright and static-y in here all of a sudden! "Cursed Iron Forest: Southern Monsoon Winds!" And then lighting just flat out explodes around them like some kind of Tesla tower light show. Most of it is trying to go into Sengo, though.
Muramasa With his sword planted inside of Mortimer's gut, Sengo's brief pause at trying to tug his sword out gives his opponent time to grasp onto him and begin chanting. "Ngh..!"

The lightning blasts attacked him viciously, bringing a scream of pain from him. His haori is incinerated, leaving his upper body completely exposed bar the holy shroud on his left arm.

But, he wasn't down for the count. Sengo breathes in deeply.

        "Trace On!"

The pattern of blue-green light runs across his body as he performs a Full-Body Reinforcement spell in preperation to deliver a palm thrust to Mortimer's face to try and free himself from his grip, so that he can grab his sword and with newfound strength, pull it from his foe's body and retaliate with an upwards, semi-circular slash. While quickly executed, though, there was a certain, for lack of a better word, technique on display. "Hidden Sword!"

The air itself is cut in his attempt to cleave Mortimer in two, from waist to shoulder.
Mortimer Balman      The attack is quite devastating but.. Perhaps not as much as Sengo would have liked. Mortimer loses a couple of teeth to that palm-smash, and the sword is now free of his gullet! But.. It didn't quite cut as much as Sengo probably wanted it to. Mort is, for example, still in one whole piece and his intestines aren't even spilling out of the hole which is.. Oh it cauterized itself, by the looks of his flesh. "Tch..!" He coughs up a big mouthful of boiling hot blood that hisses as it hits the ground and ashes, that caused a LOT of internal damage. He's lucky it didn't hit his lungs.

     He's muttering a new spell as he stumbles backwards, away from Sengo. "Praise the Wisdom of the Blade, for it knows no prejudice; strip away all craven impurities and behold the Truth." Ghostly energies permeate the air around Mortimer and the sword he wields. For a few moments there is so much of it that he seems to be consumed by shadowflames, leaving nothing but the glint of steel and two bright glowing points of red.

     "To wield a Sword is a Curse." The spell is oddly somber and carries in its words a strange sort of hardness. "Sacred Truths of War: Guillotine Saint's Wrath!" The inferno of shadows, fire, and steel surges forward with inhuman speed and force, blanketing the room in a very dark space that carries memories of War.

     The phantasmal force ensconces the two fighters for just a brief moment in a blanket of boiling shadows, threatening to overwhelm Sengo with an assault that is as much psychological as it is physical. The images that Mortimer is conjuring have no substance nor sound but they are very real memories of the endless conflicts that the old badger has seen- endless slide shows of all the horrors of war he's witnessed and endured. And, when accompanied by the heat of his flames and the hammerblow of his sword.. It would be easy to belive that the badger has- if only for a moment- brought Sengo into a dimension where Pain is God and Mortimer is Pope.
Muramasa It really wasn't cutting as deep as he'd have liked, but he didn't let that discourage him. It just meant the next stroke of his sword would have to be truly decisive and claim the badger's head. Or at least wound him badly enough to force him to retreat. Readying himself for retaliation, he's surprised when rather than an immediate counter, his opponent immediately begins chanting again.

The effect is immediate. The burning building they were in, falling to pieces and littered with charred remains, becomes an even more tangible hellscape. War. Death. Disease. Suffering.

It brings him back to another time in another life, when that boy had discarded everything. Others. His own memories, just to keep walking a little further. The heat and darkness nearly overwhelms Sengo then and there.

But the part of him that was still Shirou Emiya remembered what happened at the very end, when he'd finally fell down, unable to keep going. He remembered that man's smile.

It was like a light shining in the darkness.

        Sparks fly.

Mortimer's sword, rather than cleaving straight into him, is blocked by Sengo's tachi. Mortimer's blood dripped from the blade from their previous exchange, as the sword's rate of 'drinking' was rather slow. Sengo struggles with it, pushed down to one knee from a blow he'd barely been able to respond to.

Putting all his strength into it, Sengo pushes to the side to try and redirect Mortimer's blade off-course, before delivering a well placed kick to try and send him tumbling into the wrecked rigging that had fallen.
Mortimer Balman      And, after having one of his ultimate attacks completely tossed aside and rendered ineffectual, Mortimer is further slashed up and ends up being slammed into some of the rigging. "Well.. ...Damn.. Haa.. ...Good parry, there.." He's bleeding a LOT, though most of it seems to be getting sucked in to the sword. "Welp.. You win, then, young man." His pipe is calmly pulled out of its pocket while the shadows all fade away from whence they came, along with all the screams and images and everything else. Now it's just a beat up old man laying against burning wreckage. He lights the pipe and starts smoking it, apparently.. Having surrendered?
Muramasa Muramasa plants his sword tip into the ground, balancing his hand on the pommel. Their surroundings had faded back from the horrid scenery to the more ordinary blazing hellscape they'd fought in prior. With Mortimer seeming to surrender, it felt wrong to continue pursuing hostilities, even as his blade demanded his life. It was relatively quiet in the burning building, now, he realizes.

That meant that whoever was left alive had gotten out, most likely. "I suppose so. Your ally either got out or was apprehended, it looks like ... well, I'm not really in the shape to arrest you either, so .... I guess it can't be helped if you get away, or mysteriously disappear in the inferno."

Ordinarily he wouldn't want to let a terrorist get away with what they were doing. But at the same time, even if their acts were terrible and lawless, both he and that other man had come with the intention of stopping the criminal organizations when they were able to get as many as they could.

In other words, while he didn't really agree with their methods, he felt like Mortimer probably wasn't an actual demon from hell. .... Maybe. His mind was too tired to want to give it much more thought right now.
Mortimer Balman      "Huhn.. Liar." Mortimer coughed up more blood, laughing. "You're not going to kill me, then? I guess the sword really doesn't control you.. ..I can feel it, you know. As surely as I can hear the dead.. That weapon wants my life. But if you aren't killing me, you're not with these scumbags and their empires of filth. Who the Hell are you?"
Muramasa The redhead rubs the back of his neck at being called a liar. "So you can feel its intentions, huh ... I see. You're right, this sword is evil. It possesses an instinct to kill indiscriminately. As for who I am, that is -- complicated."

Sengo pauses, as if deciding how to answer. "I am Servant Saber. I actually came here to investigate the two groups present. You'll have to forgive me if I'm being too vague."
Mortimer Balman      A large plume of apple-scented smoke leaves Mort's mouth. "A Saber.. Okay, that explains /that/, then.. The sword's prolly part of you then, I guess.." His breathing is pretty labored but he still smokes anyway. "Nah yeah, man. No worries. I understand the whole 'legends' and 'secrecy' thing by now." A bloody grin comes to his face as Sengo says 'investigate'. "Shit, man. If you'd said that first, we coulda skipped the cutting each other up part... Though, the survivors are gonna have a hell of a story about the heroic red-haired angel who saved them from the horrific "demon" of flames and screaming. Guwahahahaaa...haaa.." Kaff, kaff, splut, spit.

     He pulls a book out of his pocket, and throws it to Sengo. "Here. This is some mob boss's little black book of names and illegal activities. You should be able to figure out why such a violent act of naked vigilantism could occur, looking in that book.."
Muramasa Nodding, he's glad he doesn't have to go into any further details. Mortimer was closer in his estimation than he thought in regards to his sword, too, although given his perceptve nature thus far that perhaps, isn't too surprising.

The book is caught with his left hand, and tucked close to his side for safekeeping. If what was said about its contents is true, then he could also use it to have official action taken to the remnants of the organization, hopefully dispatching it within the confines of the law. "I see ... I'll make sure to read it thoroughly. I'm not sure if you're really a demon or not, but ... I think I feel a little better about leaving things like this after speaking to you. If we meet again, here's to hoping for the circumstances to be better."

Flicking his sword harshly to rid the remaining blood from its edge before it could be taken in by whatever supernatural means it used to absorb it, Muramasa turned and sprinted into a jump, heading towards the floor above where Touta had been evacuating the survivors.
Mortimer Balman      Mortimer lets out a laugh, gruff and a bit gurgly from the blood. "Sorry chief, I'm not actually a demon. I'm what's called a Pokemorph... My species co-evolved alongside Humanity on a world far removed from this 'Earth' place. Heh. I am, admittedly, much more monstrous than I used to be.. ...But that's a story for another time. I'm gonna go grab my little friend and get outta here.." Slowly getting to his feet and vomiting up another cup or two of boiling blood- hopefully the last one- Mortimer starts to limp away. "You can call me Mortimer, Mr. Saber, I'll see you around.."
Evangeline McDowell     LAST TIME... on The Bride Wears Crimson

    Sengo punched Mortimer in his dumb face. Also the convention center is totally on fire. Also there's a whole bunch of mobsters around the building all being confused, and there's a not-quite-elite private security team somewhere? It's all Mortimer's fault, really. Touta is doing hula-hoops as Eva throws bags of people out the mezzanine window!

    AND NOW.... on The Bride Wears Crimson....
Touta Konoe      Touta was indeed still twirling that hula-hoop and because of it he was basically creating a small cyclone to grab any individuals that fell from the window without fear of any non-elites falling to their deaths. It sucked that he couldn't have done more but at the very least he was able to help out some of the people inside. Though the look on Touta's face gave the impression that may have not been how he felt about it. Especially as Nova elaborated on what she had seen so far.

     "Staren? This isn't Concord territory! Even if these guys are bad news what kind of asshole creates a massacre in a wedding?!"

     He wants to go back inside and help with anymore people that were still struggling within, but at the moment there were still people on the Mezzanine level that were being dropped down by Eva. For now, he was /needed/ where he was.

     "Next time I see that guy, I'm gonna..."
Nova Terra     Nova helps where she can, using her telekinesis to slow the fall of the bags of people. There's not much point in trying to kill any of them now. At least from her perspective. So might as well look good by helping.

    "I'm not really surprised, given who he works for. Don't trust those guys. There's something really not right about them."
Evangeline McDowell     Evangeline is briefly visible in the window as she rolls a big ball of people, wrapped in tablecloth, to her gang of mooks, who promptly heave the people overboard at Touta. Eva shouts something - which nobody important hears, and vanishes back in to go round up more people by shouting at them and also maybe some violence.
Staren     "Touta? What are YOU doing here?" Staren blinks as, fleeing from the security team, he ends up near Touta apparently. He starts fishing drones out of his bag and setting them loose, tiny hoppers and fly-size flyers. Staren hopes some of them can get in view of the team and then stay still before getting shot.

    "Like any hero cares if they have /jurisdiction/. And I ask you in turn: What kind of asshole overlooks the slavery, the drug pushing, the destroyed lives that these people have created?" Staren points at himself with his thumb. "Not this guy."

    If the security team hasn't destroyed them all or given chase (in which case he runs,) Staren starts firing more armor-piercing micromissiles with the drones spotting for them.
Muramasa After dueling with Mortimer, the pseudo-servant had made his way upwards. Along the way, he found a handful of stragglers that he helped make it out of their precarious situations. This led to their ultimate fate of being found by Evangeline, along with his own self.

"Huh? You look like a little girl, but ... I'm gettin' the kind of vibe from you that you're pretty tough. So you know the way out?"
Touta Konoe      "Hero?! You think that killing people at a wedding makes you a hero?! These people might be shitty but don't you dare think you can take the high road on this one! You just massacred all of them while their pants were down! You're an Elite! You could have beaten these guys down even if they were ready for you, but instead you decide to trap them!"

     Touta can't attest to the wholesomeness of the people he was saving, but he at least believed that they didn't deserve to die like trapped rats. Even if they created atrocities stooping to their level to punish them was no good in his mind.

     If Staren really did try to shoot off anymore rounds into the people who were escaping the fires of the wedding hall, Touta without warning would try slapping down the bullets with his blade or take the bullet if he had to. Of course...That meant the cyclone he was using was no longer in play in helping those that Eva was throwing down. Nova was probably gonna have to pick-up his slack with the telekinesis then.

     "You already killed most of them, Staren. We can capture the rest and bring them into custody! There's no need to go further than that! Cut the crap!"
Evangeline McDowell     Evangeline points towards the big, broken window that other people are jumping through, without letting her eyes leave Sengo, all while wearing a 'are you an idiot?' expression on her face. And then she accidentally kicks him in the shin on the way past while she goes back to rounding up the increasingly scarcer people trying to leave.
Muramasa The kick to his shin actually stings, but he takes it in stride. Little girls will be little girls, after all. .... with really, really powerful legs!

When leaning over the edge and realizing how precarious the drop really could be, he offers to take on a couple of escapees to carry with him on his way down, leaping from the broken window and making an easy landing onto the concrete. Even if he weren't caught via telekinesis, his constitution as a Servant would be more than enough to allow him to make the fall, leaning down onto a knee so that the men and women clinging to him could get off.
Nova Terra     Nova keeps out of the discussion of heroics, for a number of reasons. She's got no ground to stand on, considering her plan in coming her. She doesn't believe in the idea of heroes anyway. But mainly, she doesn't participate because she suddenly finds herself the main means of keeping these people being flung out a window from breaking their necks.

    That would be messy.

    Nova grunts a little as she begins taking the full weight of the groups. Thankfully she can handle it, even as she feels her head beginning to throb. Hopefully Evangeline doesn't try to increase the numbers too much though.
Staren     "Hey, I didn't trap them, THEY clustered together! I was going to make it quick but it turns out they have people fighting for them!" He's not shooting at the people trying to escape, he's shooting the security forces who were clearly ready for him.

    "Sooo. You're gonna round up all these people and take them to who, exactly?"
Touta Konoe      Even if he's shooting at the security forces, Touta still steps in trying to deflect a few of the bullets, but lets one pierce through. It's not because he missed it. He wants the security force to see what kind of heat an Elite like Staren is packing. Which probably is going to leave a nasty hole somewhere on Touta for a moment before it heals up.

     "Back off!" He would shout giving them a warning that sounded more like he was gonna smack them around if Staren didn't. He'd turn his attention back to Staren, to try and respond to his question. "The authorities, the people who are suppose to be dealing with this. And before you give me the whole 'They won't do anything' line, it's still better then just having them burned to death by you. At least if they're alive we can try getting them to talk..."

     At this point he raises his blade up at Staren. He's not in a fighting stance at least, but clearly it was a warning, "But if you got a problem with that approach then you can either get gone or deal with me."
Evangeline McDowell     Further down the street, at the other main entrance to the convention center, the doors burst open and a six-team of the same sort that had shot at Staren (with effect!) earlier sweep out, taking up positions momentarily before forming an escort around a group of - it's the groom's family, it seems. A young, feckless-looking man is dragged along, still struggling slightly, by one of the guards. Most of the rest are on their cell phones, making angry phone calls and occasionally looking backwards at the smoke billowing from where they had just left.
Staren     Fortunately for Touta, it turns out the Bride's security force ran -- Staren's drones don't provide him with a target, so after a tense moment he puts the rocket pistol away.

    "It's NOT better. It just makes you FEEL better, because you've decided something else is MORE important..." Staren points at the burning building "...than the lives everyone in there was going to ruin. Is that what makes a 'hero', then? That if you don't SEE the atrocities being commited, aren't personally confronted with the victims, you don't have to do anything about it? Disgusting. That's exactly the kind of thinking that held the Union back from REALLY making the Multiverse a better place. Yeah, I coulda hunted down a few of these people one on one, fought through whatever security they had. But then they'd get wise. How many more people would I NOT save, because I pried a few scales off the snake and let it slither away instead of cutting off its head?"

    Staren crosses his arms. "Or maybe it's not that. Maybe you're upset because you see it as the place of heroes to capture monsters and bring them before 'authorities' and what happens after isn't your business. Well GUESS WHAT. Sometimes there's no proper authorities and you have to STEP UP and make a decision that affects lives. Maybe you won't always make the perfect call... but it'll be better than noone making it at all. Are you worried that your ethics, your sense of right and wrong, aren't... /right/ enough to base a serious decision on? Then you shouldn't be out here interfering with worlds anyway."

    Beat.

    "Wait, WHAT are you doing here? You didn't come to kill the mob and you didn't come to save them, so... what the hell?"

    Meanwhile, because he doesn't actually have to talk to use his radio, Staren radios Mortimer, <"Looks like the security force ran away with the bride, and now we've got do-gooders trying to save these folk's lives for some reason. I don't think we'll accomplish much more here, are you ready to go? Just get outside and give me a clear signal to lock onto you and beam you up.">
Muramasa After he is free of passengers, Sengo approaches Touta and Staren. His hand rests easily on the hilt of his sword, strapped to his side. "And you'd suppose you know better, right, mister? I can sympathize with a sense of personal justice. But you won't own up to all the hard stuff when this is all said and done. Take the property damage, for example. This temple-site has gone up in smoke, it'll have to be rebuilt from the foundations."

Pointedly, in other words, he accuses Staren of being a terrorist himself. "To say nothing of the dishonorable way of how you killed these people." he continues. While he could believe Staren and Mortimer's reasons for doing this were in an agreeable place, the cold, calculated brutality of it all didn't sit with him. Rather, it was the kind of thing he couldn't accept, no matter what. A hero of justice would save everyone in front of them, after all.
Touta Konoe      "Maybe."

     Touta's blunt when he's accused to of doing this to make himself feel better. "You wouldn't be wrong. There's a bit of me that's happy that these people aren't dead. But that's not why..."

     He looks back up to the mezzanine level where Eva is.

     "'The lives everyone in there was going to ruin...' Staren, when did you learn to see the future? Who says that every person in there was going to do anymore harm? What if this was the wedding that made someone turn over a new leaf? That made them re-think their lives? What if someone in that very moment had decided that they were going to quit all this?! Well it doesn't matter now because you killed them. You took that option away. You decided that /all/ of them! No exceptions, weren't worth giving some sort of chance!"

     Touta's voice seems to grow louder as Staren crosses his arms. "I don't care about being some sort of superhero, if I was I'd have joined the Paladins or the Watch or those guys right now, but I know that people can change. My life was saved by someone who changed. Someone who was just like these people! Someone who killed, and hurt others...Someone who's probably killed more than all of these guys combined... But that person was still able to save someone like me, and so could any of the people who were here today! They could have done better. You can say I did this to make myself feel better, but you're the damn same! It's just it makes you feel better if you can label everyone the same so you don't have to think about anything but just killing them off!"

     "If everyone who did evil was killed without getting a chance to do better, than I wouldn't be here right now. And by the way...Even if you are right that we have to make a choice if there's no authorities, this isn't one of them you prick! Now get the hell out of here before I decide to smack you up so bad you'll be wearing that tin-can to hide the bruises!"

     As for why he was here, he doesn't answer. It's none of Staren's damn business.
Staren     Staren looks at Sengo. "IF I don't find evidence that this place was owned by one of the families, I'll rebuild it." He waves a hand.

    And then: Touta. He rolls his eyes. "Oh, SURE. The day the two biggest crime families in this world joined to consolidate their power so that noone else could stand up to them ever again, THAT was the day they were going to turn over a new leaf. Uh-huh." he shrugs. "They had their chance. They had thousands of chances. Every time they chose to hurt people."

    Staren shrugs. "I'm sure they were REAL choked up about all the people THEY took chances away from when they killed or enslaved them. They were all" Staren mimes wiping tears away with a fist, "'Boo fucking hoo why do I keep ruining lives?" He drops his arm to his side again. "Oh wait no," Staren waves a hand at the burning building, "they were here fucking celebrating their victory."

    Staren shrugs. "Sure. People who've done wrong... mmh, 'deserve' might be a strong word, but I'd certainly prefer to give them a chance. Sometimes it's just not practical though. Remember, warning some of them would have let the whole snake get away. And if you can come up with a better plan, a way I could have saved them AND their victims... then part of me will feel bad every time I think of it. I'll regret that I wasn't as smart as you... But at least I /tried/ to make the world better. For all your talk..." Staren points at Touta. "I don't see what YOU did to fix this world."

    Staren folds his arms as he beams up. Another streak of light can be seen flying up into the sky from wherever Mortimer's exited the building.
Touta Konoe      Touta watches as Staren leaves, his last words somewhat resonate. 'I don't see what YOU did to fix this world.' A feeling of discontempt easily shows on his face. Staren wasn't wrong in most capacities and there were probably plenty of people who would have agreed with him. That just killing off all these thugs, that these people who were celebrating with this wedding would be better off gone and dead already.

     With that said his face changes to that of a smile as he tries to help up a few of those who had escaped starting with Sigi. "Hey, you guys alright?"

     Maybe it was the most practical way, but even if this method allowed the 'snake' to get away...That snake was still just people, and people were more complex than just a head and tail. That said, he wasn't wrong. Touta hadn't really done anything to fix this world. Neither of them did though. Maybe Staren had dealt with a gang through a 'practical' method, but it was gonna take a hell of a lot more than that to fix a world. More than what could be done in a single night.

     "Hey bartender, you alright over there? You look like you got a bit beat up too?"
Muramasa Staren leaves before a rebuttal can be made. With something of a small scoff, Sengo shakes his head. Turning, he gives Touta a small smile. "I'm fine. Just a little overdone, that's all."

His haori had been burned away, leaving his upper body riddle with cuts and burns. He had a black, leatherbound notebook in hand. "Using this, it'll be pretty easy to incriminate the rest of these people through their connections to the Yakuza and Triad," he makes the comparisons easily. While they were 'not' those organizations, his mind had made the connection and let out a Freudian slip. "Don't let what he said get to you. I have no doubt in my heart that what happened here was wrong -- no matter how much he might believe in it, this is still terrorism."