Scene #6438: The Dark Hand of Xemnas

Owner	Pose
Roxas	The Imperial Capital of Gralea is a city tucked into the Ural Mountains. In many ways it is a city like any other, but like all of the cities with supernatural roots on this iteration of Earth, it's a little bit... off. There are skyscrapers and stop lights, convenience stores and gas stations, obnoxiously crowded street parking adjacent to towering parking structures-- all the trappings of any urban sprawl. But everything here feels ten years ahead of the rest of the world. The automobiles are sleek and, in many cases, entirely automated. Air traffic is dominated not by anything resembling conventional airplanes, but by ridged airships that give off an eerie hum as they pass by. The civilian passenger versions of the same airships are a little less menacing, with visible windows and rows of seats within. Larger airships are also present, a few of which have been docked on rooftops or along buildings with cage-like hangars running all up and down each face of the building. Gralea is heavily militarized, not dis-similar to Deling City. The difference is that the enforcers are, on average, a lot creepier. Pairs of soldiers in full face-covering armor lead groups of Samurai-esque machines that look more like dolls than the robots they present as. Mask-like faces with gleaming red eyes peer out from underneath rounded, stylized helmets. They would be more bearable to look at if they weren't designed with such a human silhouette, but as-is they have all the hallmarks of a "person" while very clearly not being one. It might be intentional. The heart of Gralea's government district is an ancient building, thought to be one of the oldest structures in the world. It is a circular building that rises in tiers, with dome-like roofing that rises up into a steeple structure on most of the structure. Lights gleam gently in a multitude of high, arched windows, and numerous satellite towers either rise along the outer edge of the building or are connected to it by stone bridges. Some of these bridges have crumbled away over time, and others yet lead to towers that have long since gone. The uppermost floor hosts an airship dock -- has always hosted an airship dock -- around which the ships of important figures in the Niflheim government can usually be seen. Five are presently docked, which -- if someone present was familiar with the norm -- is a bit of an oddity. There's usually only four. This government building serves as a chokepoint, situated in one of the narrower valleys to the northern section of Gralea, and requiring anyone who travels on foot to pass through it to gain access to the resting place of the Earth Crystal in the west. But the most that the average individual sees of the Earth Crystal's resting place are the vast pipelines that have been run through the mountains, snaking their way down into Gralea proper and delivering the power of the Earth Crystal to a number of vital locations below. The most prominent of these are the main hospitals, though Verstael Besithia's Magitek Research Facility has claimed a number of its own across the last three decades. But today's story takes place far from the Crystal of Earth, and Niflheim Central Command. It takes place miles and miles away, along the very periphery of Gralea, where nobody really wants to live. The buildings are small, old, and run down. The air is filled with a smog -- no, a miasma -- that doesn't seem to exist in most of the rest of the city and, in general, it simply feels off. Like the world itself is watching and waiting to eat you up at a moment's notice. There's a surprising lack of homeless people out here. ROXAS is standing out on a street corner, beneath a flickering lamp. He is, perhaps to the disappointment of some, wearing his black coat with his hood up. All told he fits into the ambience here just fine, which might actually be a conscious choice in this case. The JOB POSTING went up about two hours ago, a repeating radio message / text alert going out offering paid work.
Roxas	It read simply: LFM for smash-and-grab. Payment on delivery. Once the first few people have trickled in, Roxas begins his explanation of the situation, "So, one of the people that I work with said that he needs us to bring back one of the Magitek Infantry from this place. He thinks that Niflheim might have found a way to capture Heartless and force them to do what they want, but he needs to inspect one up close to be sure. I'll be making a lot of noise to lure a patrol in, so all you guys need to do is to get rid of the soldiers minding them and break all but one of the infantry themselves. Um, try not to kill the soldiers, we don't actually have a problem with Niflheim." He lingers in awkward silence for a moment before asking, "So... does anyone have any questions?" Apparently it only just occurred to him that they might. MUSIC: Final Fantasy VI - Slam Shuffle LINK: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ptef8e_ZGic
Axel	There's a taller black coat-wearing hooded figure nearby, leaning against a building not far from Roxas. Axel has been assigned for this mission, and while he doesn't have any questions, he's thinking things through. You see, he's not /usually/ a 'don't kill things' guy, though he's capable of it - it's more the missions he gets assigned than anything else. It turns out fire is actually incredibly lethal, so he's thinking about his plan, while watching those who approach. Those he recognizes gets a light nod from the hooded figure. He'll start talking to people after they've asked their questions.
Aranea Highwind	MUCH EARLIER "I'll be honest, kid, I'm not a fan of those things either. I'm not on-duty, but you'll understand it's not like I can just show up in imperial garb and kick over imperial property for giggles. You're offering to pay, though, so... well, I've got something saved up for rainy days like this. I'm just gonna need your word it's between us. Deal?" Whether she'd been speaking to Roxas, Xion, or both, didn't strictly matter. It was just a matter of keeping certain details under wrap. NOW Among the gathered people who take up the offer for work is a woman in azure armor over black chainmail. The armor almost looks draconic in nature, with edges and spikes like claws and talons around the elbows, knees and shoulders. The four-eyed helmet is even more blatantly shaped like a dragon's head, with only her mouth exposed, her hair pointedly tucked in there. A spear completes the outfit, intricate with a dragon motif before the long point, dragon wings that could be acting like the blades of a halberd if they're even remotely sharp. There's a red, subdued tint to the spearpoint. "Just don't let them sound the alarm. And don't get caught by surprise by those things. Just because half of their body's missing doesn't mean they're down for the count, and they CAN self-destruct."
Xion	Xion is also in her Cultist Clothes again today, as she usually is, but once more wears her boots (because it's not the beach today) instead of bare feet. Loitering under a street lamp gives her time to arrange heavily clinking sacks about as big as a grocery bag with two heads of cabbage in them. "Oh! I've got a question. Why couldn't we just buy one?" Xion wonders, still revelling int he tremendous power of Mad Moneydollars From Nowhere, realizing that it may in fact be 'the best superpower'. It has opened such doors to her, a desirous young woman, who windowshops no longer. "Or is it one of those 'military secrets' things. And who'd put a heartless in a machine, that sounds super weird. And maybe a little cruel?"
Lilian Rook	The nature of what they'd be up to today wasn't exactly clear from the posting. Lilian had mostly shown up because she knows the three and is invested in seeing the three not be edgy hoodie kids forever (and is somewhat interested in their world after the deal in Deling). Arriving in 'work clothes', she's a little glad she did now, with Roxas describing something that sounds distinctly kind of like a criminal smash and grab. Looking at the robed boy (and girl, and young man), her frown is visible. Then she frowns about the stealing thing after that. "Is Niflheim making something useful out of Heartless, like, a problem? We just killed them before, didn't we? What's especially wrong with trying to turn them into something good? Even creepy robot military police are still military police. Order, enforcement, military strength, those are good things." Still, to join the group of faceless delinquents properly, she ties up her hair, then clicks on the black mask with the red optics, getting that Jin-Ro look going in the dark, smoggy street.
Roxas	EARLIER... "Uh, okay I guess." Roxas didn't really seem to get it, but he seemed to understand what was being asked of him well enough. NOW... Roxas blinks over towards Aranea, looking her up and down. Truthfully, if he was going to try to pick her out of a line-up... he's not certain that he draconic armor /really/ makes her much less noticeable, but it's probably just because he already knew she was coming back. "I don't... I don't think they sell them?" Roxas seems uncertain of this. He'd scratch his head if his hood wasn't up, "I don't know why you'd do that, though... it makes /my/ job a whole lot harder, too. Unless Vexen can use this to figure out how to make things /easier/..." He straightens up a bit, clearly brought to attention by Lilian's inquiry. Roxas shakes his head at her, "Not exactly... the problem is that if you bottle Heartless up and /use/ the bottled up Heartless, the Heart inside of them never gets loose again. /That's/ bad. But if Heartless can be reliably contained, it would help /us/ out a lot if we could use that to round them up and set their Hearts free. You see?" "But Niflheim is /really/ tight-fisted about this kind of stuff. I guess they sort of have to be, which is why I don't really want their people to get hurt. If they're doing something bad here, it's probably not on purpose." "That should about cover it," Roxas decides, "I'll lead the next patrol this way." He's gone for about five minutes before the ruckus starts and it becomes plain that they have incoming. Roxas returns by plunging down from a rooftop, rolling through the middle of the street and pushing on down it rapidly. The Magitek Infantry come barreling down an alleyway-- three are following Roxas directly, while another three have spread out and emerge onto the streets from adjacent roads. Two uniformed men with guns are easing their way through the streets behind them, weapons raised tentatively. The cult robes prove to be a mistake. The Magitek Infantry /immediately/ mistake Xion for Roxas, identify Axel as a possible accomplice, and close in around the gathering. They say nothing. They offer no warnings. They go from sighting everyone present in the company of potential POIs to moving straight over and attempting to subdue them -- they go in, against everyone, trying to wrestle their arms behind their back. Their grip is cold, and crushing-- but maybe not as mightily so as some of those gathered here. The Niflheim soldiers following them up lower their firearms a little, uncertain as to whether or not this is correct. Someone attentive might notice several flashes of orange passing through nearby alleyways. That's kind of odd, though. What could it be?
Riku	If one thinks everyone's here for Roxas' alert, one might be surprised when the silver-haired teen leans out from atop another one of the buildings, looking down at the Magitek Infantry. He frowns for a moment, the frown deepening when his eyes lock onto the people present, seeing some now-familiar faces. Or bodies, at least. He pulls back, and looks over at the alleyway where the patrol charged down from, checking to see what those flashes of orange might be. He squints as he looks down at what's going on down there, but then pulls back... Before he leaps off the building, his purple suit flashing over his body moments before impact as he crashes down onto the machine and skids on it, surfing it along the street before he flips off of it. He gives the machine no time as he reaches out and grips, his shadow snapping out and wrapping about the thing as he begins to drag it towards a nearby allyway.
Aranea Highwind	It wasn't a great disguise by any stretch, but she could count on the fact there's other dragoons out there, and this is... for a lack of better terms, ~ceremonial garb~. Garb she doesn't make a point to show people or advertise that she has. It'll do for the next fifteen minutes. She really should have predicted that those things would see Xion and Axel and immediatly lock on. Well, Roxas did lure them along, at any rate. Might not have gone exactly as planned, but... when does anything ever go as planned? The dragoon leaps up, latching onto the windowframe of a building with one hand and foot, while twirling her spear with the other to angle the point down. "If it makes you feel any better about it, they won't miss a handful of these things. They're made by the thousands," she says towards Lilian, before hurling herself off her perch towards one of the machine-men. The spear is angled such as to hit a shoulder, hopefully lopping an arm off before it can fire. With the same motion, she spins, using the spear as a pole, to kick the machine in the face with enough strength to hopefully knock it back a full 180 degrees.
Xion	Waiting for five minutes goes pretty normally. "If you bust a heartless, if they're a stolen Heart, the heart goes free. So, it's like Roxas says. If you don't send them on, then that's bad. But, I guess, you're right - that's pretty smart! I guess the difference is... Like..." Xion raises her hand up like a scale, her black gloved digits weighing on either side. "If you store the heart, and use it, it's stored, it's not a monster going around and trying to chew on people. You can even use it to protect people! But if you set the Heart free, it can go back and do whatever hearts do, and..." "It can..." Xion squints, her bright blue eyes narrowing in a 'nani the fuck' expression. "You know, I never asked why hearts being set free is good. Hearts cause pain but Roxas and I are supposed to fight the Heartless and free hearts, so..." Ah, there's the moment of rationalization. She brightens, like she popped a hard candy into her mouth. "Well, Xemnas told us to do that, so, it's probably really smart. It's like Nifelheim - they've got secret stuff that's really smart too!" Then the COP-BOTS arrive, surrounding Xion (and Axel) with their nefarious COP ARMS to apply COP HOLDS to her slender, damsel-like wrists. Struggling (lightly) against the binding just enough to make it difficult, Xion realizes (in error) exactly who has the Proper And Correct Superpower for this situation. "Lilian! Lilian use your super friendly to law enforcement powers! Show your card and do the thing, with your neck, that sorta--" she does that quick 'i've got this' headflip, which is extremely vague under her hood. "--with your head!" Riku shows up. "Oh it's that guy from the beach! Hello, Beach Hero!" Xion spends time waving at him and smiling, while the COP-BOT is helpless to contain her waving arm due to absurd cartoon physics strength.
Lilian Rook	"It doesn't really. It's the principle of the thing." Lilian grumbles slightly to Aranea, but Roxas' estimation of its potential long-term metaphysiological effects appear to be just good enough of an excuse to go ahead with it. Theoretically trapping people's . . . souls? Emotions? She's still not quite sure what Hearts are, but trapping them indefinitely in robots is pretty clearly something that shouldn't continue. "I imagine the people who had them stolen would like them back." she says to Xion. "If they're already stolen property, someone else shouldn't be keeping them. Even if you intend to do something really important with it, you can't just take someone's car off the street." Yeah okay it's all rationalized in her head now. Roxas being gone only five minutes is a bit of a surprise. "I hadn't realized how adept he is at getting chased by police. What'd he do? Luck into the nearest patrol and throw a brick at someone's head?" she grouses, putting her smartphone-esque holography away from fiddling with day trading. When the magitek infantry just gun straight for her though, by virtue of standing around some people dressed identically to the one they're chasing, she's a little more action and less complaints. A small 'pressure wave' of magic rolls off her body, disturbing the smog and dust even before she whirls around to face the robot after her, stomps her heel into its lead mechanical toe to halt it, snatches both wrists coming in to grab her as it overextends, then twists and hurls it up and over her shoulder, twisting one of its arms behind it on the way so it lands behind its back and immediately slamming her knee into its chest to keep it pinned, holding down the other hand with hers, with her fingers literally gouged into the pavement. She does this so she has her other hand free to gesture at the vaguely hesitant-looking officers, not quite doing what Xion expects, but certainly Using Her Words. "Excuse me, but what exactly are you doing? These are yours aren't they? So why am I being attacked? Would you care to inform me? Do you have an order, warrant, a charge, even a reasonable suspicion?" She sounds exactly as cheesed off as she actually is that a gross uncanny valley mechanical doll tried to touch her, and marginally more self-important than she also actually is. "Am I not safe from being assaulted by minding my own business and walking down the street? Because this is assault you know. I hope to hear that these things are malfunctioning and you had been chasing them here to detain them before this exact thing could happen." It's a little dicey given that two others have instantly responded by smashing them to pieces, but multiple people can be on a street at the same time! Asides, Xion is calling out to her to resolve it with words, and not resisting or causing a scene, putting her on the orderly 'side' of the little mob. Thankfully, nobody has attacked an officer yet.
Axel	Axel glances towards Xion when she offers to just buy a trooper. Roxas responds to Lilian's concern, so Axel doesn't have to. Instead, when Roxas heads off, he waits for the cops to come. And then they're surrounded. As the troopers approach, Axel allows one to come around and try and grab him, and then with superhuman strength, spin the trooper around and try and use it as a shield against as many of the surrounding enemies as possible. One of his hands moves to try and free itself to summon a chakram. He's not sure he'll have immediate reaction time to do it while restraining the soldier, but he plans to throw the chakram to disable an officer at the first opportunity he gets.
Roxas	ONE of SIX Magitek Infantry are abruptly preyed upon by a HORROR MOVIE MONSTER. It was one of two that wasn't attending to anybody in particular because there are more than enough to go around, and it is only at this point that the machines seem to realize that this is not a civil problem but a military one. It's probably a wonder that they have such a distinction in them to begin with, if they are the sort of being that Roxas suspects they are. The MAGITEK INFANTRY that Riku has chosen to engage literally bends an elbow backwards wholesale, its arm splitting open at the wrist and turning into a gun that barks repeatedly as it tracks and fires on Riku from a /truly/ unnatural angle. Even as it does so, a thick miasma akin to the one in the surroundings begins to leak out from underneath the infantryman's chestplate. Well, no matter its ability to keep fighting, the infantryman is isolated now. The rest of them realize their mistake quicker after one of them disappears. ARANEA'S trooper draws its halberd up defensively in reaction to Aranea's spear-throw, managing to stop it from taking its right arm off wholesale but still putting a solid hole through the joint that probably renders it close to useless. Aranea knows that's not a given if the arm is still attached, though. That infantryman is thrown back by her subsequent kick, hitting a wall where it spazzes out for a bit before it manages to start getting to its feet again. This action seems to earn her the attention of the /other/ relatively unassigned Infantrymen, who immediately prioritizes Aranea as a threat. Fortunately for her, she knows how they work. /Un/fortunately for her, this one is one of those obnoxious assassin models. The Magitek Assassin leaps after her, twin blades whistling as it pushes a flurry of strikes in on Aranea. Why is one of these even being used as a city patrol unit??? Verstael has a sick sense of humor. The one attempting to restrain Xion isn't confused, because Magitek Infantry don't seem to have feelings either. On the other hand, restraining her isn't working. It gets jerked around for a bit before it reaches for its belt -- this one is actually appropriately armed for a city patrolman -- and produces a shock baton. Which it proceeds to turn off and attempt to beat her with. The more things change... Lilian responds to robo-judo with actual judo, and much like Riku did rapidly discovers that these things have really /strange/ limbs. This one is a little different from the other-- instead of twisting unnaturally, its arm just wholesale splits open around her hand, a concealed buzzsaw wreathed in a fel red light bursting out from within. One of the soldiers looks at his fellow patrolman in response to Lilian's outburst, and looks back. He's about to respond when a group of three teenagers in orange shirts subdue them-- one to a soldier, while the third strolls up between them. A blonde-haired young -- a little older than Roxas, Riku, and Xion -- strolls out between the subdued soldiers, one hand loosely rested across the hilt of an odd-looking sword at his hip. He looks strong, athletic-- and he has a scar running down the right side of his face, across his eye. Doesn't look like he lost it, though. The young man says, "Sorry 'bout that, Miss. We've got a quest of our own to fulfill. To answer your question though, these aren't defective. But the local soldiers /sure/ don't like how much they're being replaced by them, so go ahead and use that the next time you're in town. For now, we really don't want them calling anything in." "Do you, uh... do you mind if we have one of those?" The young man asks, raising his sword hand to try to pick among the batch-- and choosing the one that Axel has managed to /take hostage/, "How about that one?"
Roxas	Despite his success at subduing the Magitek Trooper, Axel finds that there aren't any to come beat his hostage up for him. The trooper he's holding begins to struggle back, its arm splitting open as Lilian's had-- and it's doing its damnedest to wrestle the barrel of the gun inside to an angle that it can shoot Axel in the head with. In other words, he's stuck in a Quicktime Event.
Axel	Well, this is bad. Axel has it hostage, sure, but death is close if he's not careful, as it moves the barrel. He exhales sharply, and instead of launching that chakram as an officer, it's thrown at an angle to ricochet and deflect the bullet. This is good. What's not good is that the bullet still hits Axel, in the shoulder instead of the head, and causes his grip to briefly lax. The magitek soldier will have a brief few moments to get an attack in on Axel, before the young man moves to retaliate, grabbing that chakram and moving to disable the gun-arm with the grinding blade before trying to grab both arms and force it into a grapple. He's hoping he's stronger, enough to pin it again, and he might be, but this thing's dangerous. If Axel succeeds in re-subduing it, he calls out to his allies. "I've got one, no sweat."
Riku	Riku wrestles with the machine, dragging it some distance off. It's only the noise of the arm splitting open that warns him. The first bullet punches into his armor, gashing him as he grunts in pain. "Careless." He grunts, losing his grip on the machine... But the Soul Eater comes out as he quickly leaps to one side, trying to fake out the tracking on the gun so he can blur in and cleave down on the gun-arm. He doesn't need to chop it off, technically, but he DOES need to make it stop shooting. He's aiming to disable, not destroy. It'll be more useful at it's destination that he has in mind. The arrival of the young man gets a glance from the teen, and he squints. Motivated. He does, however, not get directly involved in that at the moment. Looks like he's something of an ally. "Who are you?" He asks the young man.
Aranea Highwind	Honestly, Aranea doesn't assume Verstael has a sense of humor. Not even an awful, sick one. She assumes if that man finds anything funny at all, it's going to be nowhere near the realm of humor and into the realm of horror. What she does know is that she doesn't much like anything he spins out of his labs. Even without tangible proof, that man is all kinds of... off. And he's interested in all the wrong things. But the assassin model being present isn't what makes Aranea wary. It's the miasma thickening. It's the miasma lingering around these bloody machines. If she didn't have to at least try hiding who she is, she could've had dropships overhead, shining their spotlights down. Maybe she's worried for nothing. The spear goes up, crashing against both of the assassin's blades. One leg takes a step back, sacrificing ground to keep moving despite the strength the machine puts forward. ... machine. Right. Blue lightning arcs across her spear as she suddenly pushes back, trying to strike the assassin's weapons away for just a second to create an opening, and then hit it in the face with the shaft of her spear. And lightning. Delicious, delicious lightning. That should fry its systems without damaging the body or setting it off, hopefully.
Lilian Rook	When the weird battle doll reacts to Lilian judo throwing it by producing a buzzsaw on her, Lilian yells an exasperated "EXCUSE me?!" at the temerity of it producing a weapon on her, and then-- -----[stop]----- Having seen Aranea operate, she knows well enough not to touch anything glowing red while it can explode into spikes or do other horrible reactive things. Her fingers fizzle black as she touches the hilt of Night Mist, withdrawing the sword for its edge more than anything, confident the ludicrously sharp gossamer edge, gorged on supernatural deaths, will outmatch the mass production metals put into these, regardless of fantasy names. With the luxury of twenty seconds or so, she snatches the non-moving (and thus non-threatening) saw blade and carefully skewers through both sides of its rotary axle, then whips the sword back over her shoulder and sheaths it again. -----[start]----- --has the blade in her hand. "Escalation to lethal force on a random, unidentified person, first on the police side? That's unacceptable." she groans, flicking the blade away by the middle. Before it can start producing more crazy ancient ninja trick weapons out of its everything, she wreathes her hand in crackling red-black energy, and punches a three foot hole --more of a narrow crater-- into the sidewalk, then grabs the robot, and through abuse of accelerated time, scoops, it up, hurls it into the air, grabs it by the foot to turn it over, yanks a hand downward, snags it on the way down, and borderline basketball dunks it upside down into the hole. Clearly showing off, but she sees also as about the only safe storage space for something that obnoxiously packed with surprise lethal weapons and reverse joints that she can only guess at for now. She'd rather not keep wrestling with it to try and secure it without damage if it has that level of bullshit going on. When the orange shirts show up, her filter-muffled exhalation is an exquisite new shade in Lilian's diverse panoply of annoyed sounds. "That's understandable; I don't much like them either." she huffs. "You can have one, if you answer who you are, at least vaguely why you're here, and give me a reason to believe nothing will happen to those hapless officers stuck chasing around their mechanical dogs."
Roxas	If the Magitek Infantry was able to express disbelief at the /bullshit/ Axel just pulled off, it would. But it is an emotionless, featureless automaton with a writhing ball of darkness at its core. It rakes clawed fingertips across Axel's chest before the man manages to get it back under control again, but-- he could /really/ use some backup. There's no telling if it'll split its arm open again to re-produce the gun inside. Or if it has a saw in its other arm, like Lilian's seems to. Something about the weapon that Riku summons causes the Magitek Infantryman to pause, which gives him his opening. He cuts through the barrel of the gun and internal workings of the arm, rendering it -- mostly -- useless. The infantryman beneath Riku tries to push itself to its feet with its remaining functional arm, but it's really not moving fast enough to stop him from keeping it down. Probably best to find a way to stop it acting, though, if he wants to haul it off. The young man glances down the alleyway Riku disappeared into. There's a certain cockiness to the way he holds himself that's probably uncomfortably familiar. It might be even a little grating, to anybody else who sees it in him. This is a young man who has survived some Shit, and at the very least /thinks/ he knows what's really going on in the world. No telling whether it's true or not. Aranea meanwhile-- unceremoniously fries one of her two oponents, who despite being the Bigger Badder Model is still hilariously weak to lightning. So hilariously weak that, really, if you just had a grenade full of lightning you could deal with this entire encounter in about three seconds and carry on with your day. You could probably clear several squads of these guys like that. "Luke. Luke Castellan." The young man introduces himself just as Lilian comes out of timestop and finishes /thoroughly trashing/ the infantryman that tried to buzzsaw her to death. Luke draws his strange-looking blade, cutting down the trooper that had been recovering from Aranea's last assault as it attempts to re-enter the battle. The weapon shears about an inch into the thing's back, apparently finding some necessary control mechanism -- maybe just an artificial spinal column -- and causing the trooper to fall limp to the ground after jerking uncontrollably in place for about ten seconds. He sheathes the sword, glancing back at the officers, "Them? Don't worry about them, we don't want to pick a /huge/ fight with Niflheim. Be real trouble for our parents-- isn't that right, Miss Dragoon? Those weapons won't hurt mortals anyway. Hey, you two. Let those guys go, come help these guys sit on their captures." The pair of orangeshirts with him release the soldiers (who immediately get the hell out), and move to Axel and Riku to help SECURE PEOPLE'S CAPTURES. "We're here looking for a body than can house a disembodied spirit," Luke explains, "which is about as much as I can say before we have to get out of here. We've got to jet back to the other side of the planet after this. That good enough for you? /Either/ of you?"
Axel	Clawed fingertipos slice into Axel's chest, but it's not /as bad/ as it could be, even if the thing's strong enough to actually cut into him and make him bleed. Luckily, Axel manages to get his grapple...and needs some help, before he gets overwhelmed. And as everyone else takes out their enemies, some teenagers with attitude come and provide that help! Axel nods to the guy who comes to help sit on his capture, "You gave us a hand, so I'm fine with it. Luke Castellan, eh? Name's Axel. Thanks for the help." Axel doesn't know who this kid is, but he's clearly someone involved in supernatural bullshit, but also he gave them a hand, and, hey, it's Nifilheim's problem, not his. Besides, networking is always worth it.
Aranea Highwind	"Best not to paint a target on your back, yeah," Aranea answers Luke, though she adds: "Not sure this is the greatest thing to put a soul into, though. Well, you do you and all that." It's not exactly her problem. At least it isn't right now. She turns to look at Roxas, the four red eyes on her helmet glowing idly as if to emulate an active stare. "You get what you were looking for?"
Lilian Rook	"What weapons won't won't work on whom?" Lilian suddenly very pointedly asks Castellan. You don't drop the M word into a conversation unless it has to do with big dumb magic shit. She does watch intently when he jabs his sword into a specific point in the infantryman that seems to disable it pretty much right away, though. She doesn't know how they work, but she's quite certain she can imitate that. Lilian takes a stance with an elbow leaning on the leg still sticking out of the tight hole she'd just smashed, seemingly a little more at lease when the extremely unlucky officers run off. "What a coincidence." she replies to his espoused purpose. She doesn't elaborate any further. "Pleased to meet you, I guess? It was a convenient encounter at least. I halfway hadn't expected you to give any answer at all."
Xion	Xion and this Magitek Infantryman have a history. A deep lore. SMASH CUT Xion, blushing cheeked, has her hands surrounded by the strong, metallic actuator-grips of Magitek Infantryman #7781a. They share a deep, soulful look - Xion's vibrant blue eyes and the dead points of light in the uncanny helmet-faceplate of the #7781a. "I'm sorry, Magitek Infantryman Seven-seven-eight-one-a. I didn't know I hurt you. I would never do anything like that, you know..." The Magitek Infantryman leaks miasma and seethes. The moment lingers... IN REALITY Xion is harmbaton'ed with neuron-frying force to the floor where she takes a quick combat nap, fantasizing about a cartoonish romance. It's all a dream, as she's dropped in the distance. She is then half arrested when she wakes up. "Magitek Infantryman, how dare you!" She cries, betrayed, hooking her legs around the seizing magitek asshole cop-bot's neck and flipping him onto the ground, landing straddling its back with both arms pinned. "Wow, I just got... grabbed on the wrist, and then everything went dark. Does that ever happen to anyone else?" Xion it tazed you with enough juice to put down a strapping young protagonist. Castellan is noticed. "Wow! Hey, you're really attractive-looking! Why are you here?"
Riku	The slight pause is noticed... but instead of thinking about what it means, Riku instead ruthlessly exploits it. He cleaves that gun and removes the most dangerous weapon it has at the moment, mainly because now at this point he reaches down and shadow-grips the thing again, this time slamming it into a wall and pinning it there. While keeping one hand up in a Vader Choke, he turns to look at the orange people. "A bodt that can house a disembodied spirit..." Riku says, a strange look on his face as he hears what Luke is looking for. He looks at his captive, and then back to the man. He nods to the orangeshirt that helps him. There is a moment as he considers whether to part with his... But the red-haired man chooses to give his up first, absolving Riku of having to make a decision on that. He nods. "If that's not good enough, I know someone who can help. Go to Luna Nova Academy and ask for Riku. I'll put you in touch." He looks back to the creature on the wall, and he gestures, simply opening up one of those dark holes and pushing the /thing/ right into it. He looks back at the others again, and then follows the machine, hopping in with it in hand. Try to follow at your own risk.
Roxas	CONVENIENTLY, that's around the time that Roxas turns back up again. There's a distant ruckus that /strongly/ suggests he's been giving the run-around to more of these guys. In fact, he's out of breath when he turns back up again. He pauses momentarily to catch his breath and then spits out, "We've gotta go, toss the one that we're taking in here and follow me! Or, uh. Just grab your payment and take your own way out! They're in the little gift bags Xion was working on a bit ago." He gestures one-handed, a swirling hole of darkness opening in the vicinity. "Cura!" Roxas calls, green sparklies dancing around Axel. Then, he vanishes into the Corridor of Darkness. Luke looks a little unnerved by this. He shakes his head, "I'll take my own way out, thanks-- and you don't owe me anything. I've got what I came for." He lifts the trooper he disabled onto his shoulder, which /isn't/ as easy as it looks. "Desperate times, Miss Dragoon. Have you ever heard the phrase, 'It isn't over until it's over.'? Well, would you believe me if I said that the same idea applied to death?" He flashes a roguish grin. To Lilian, he replies, "My family's got a thing for hospitality, and I've got nothing to hide. And /their/ weapons--" Luke points towards his fellow orangeshirts, "Their weapons are made of celestial bronze. It's great on supers, but it just goes right through normal people. Mortals." He swipes a hand through the air, "Whoosh." What Riku says catches Luke's attention immediately. The cockiness bleeds out of his demeanor. Luke's expression is one of utmost seriousness, and it's not hard to imagine that they're in a very similar situation. He nods, "Yeah. I might take you up on that. You ever need a favor, come visit Delphi Strawberry Service at Long Island." Ever-more-serious, Luke replies to Xion, "Buying time." "I get the feeling I'm going to be seeing you." Luke decides, waving over his shoulder as he meanders off. From the sounds of things, there's a LOT more soldiers coming. It's best to grab your PARTY BAG FULL OF CASH (no really, it is stuffed with money) and get out.
Xion	"Buying time..." Xion noodles about this, as Roxas arrives. "You can do that? Buy time? Huh! I'll have to try that sometime." She makes quick work of handing out (or reminding people where the CA$H SACKS are) while the group prepares to Heck Right Off. "Thanks for helping, everyone! Don't get caught by the bad cops!"
Aranea Highwind	THAT sure sounds like it's going to create problems. How typical! Oh well. Problems mean work. And work's usually a pretty good thing. Aranea does make sure to collect her payment, though she's never been paid in a nice party bag before. These kids are something else. And then she just needs to find a phone booth to change in. Or a dark alley. Unlike everyone else, she has the benefit of being allowed to roam these parts if she so pleases, so she isn't in any major hurry to leave so much as find a quiet place to switch armors. Which is a lot easier than it sounds, she just doesn't want to do it in front of the demijerks. Plausible deniability and all that.
Lilian Rook	"Huh." is as articulate as Lilian cares to be when he points to the other weapons. She obviously gets the idea that it implies they wouldn't have been able to hurt the police anyways, but she really does wonder why someone would go through the effort to make swords like that. What possible good is there in making a weapon more limited in what it works on? Possibly just for people that one doesn't trust to use them responsibly. "Good enough for me, I suppose. Maybe we'll see you again." she pauses. "And do be careful with who you give these things to. Niflheim already doesn't have the best idea. Don't go making it worse." That said, grabbing her stuff and going is incredibly easy. Hauling a cut-spine robot out of its hole is the more difficult part of getting her literal money bag, saying goodbye to Xion, and then pop.