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Karlan Nobles OST: https://youtu.be/cShnT2RGKZU

Security is tight around the skyscraper that Mr. X calls home, the towering structure overlooking the sea every bit the stereotypical rich megalomaniac's dream. A grand statue of Mr. X himself stands in the center of a fountain, posed like some kind of defiant hero with one hand pointed outwards and the other wedged in a pocket as though recalling some great event that never actually happened, but would make for a good photo op or statue.

The lobby, visible from the outside through magnificent glass windows, is similarly lavish to suit the syndicate boss' tastes. Cameras track your every move while adding a touch of technological class to the building, small palm trees sit inside little nooks within the support pillars to keep things from looking too man made, and there's even a couple of statues along the walls of the lobby depicting paragons of physical fitness and beauty.

Mr. X already knows you're coming. His troops are gathered inside and outside of the lobby, the halls and even the well-maintained outer grounds littered with all manner of hired muscle and robotic facsimiles of such patrolling the manicured lawns surrounding the building. Men in denim jackets chat up their bald and shirtless compatriots, and women in leather jackets compare notes with suit-wearing bodyguard while exchanging guns and strange vials.

Adam (shades, yellow, ex-cop): "This is it, everyone. No clean way around it. We've got a fight on our hands, so this is your last chance to back out if you've got cold feet."
Blaze (leather jacket, red. cop): "Right. We're not going to hold it against you or judge you badly if you do."
Skate (roller skates, yellow, child): "While you can hear us."
Max (pants only, blue, wrestler): "Skate! It's not polite to say the quiet part out loud"
Zan (robot arms, blue, doctor): "He's not wrong. We'd be in your debt, although there's little we can promise of monetary value."
Axel (ragged clothes, blue, fight hobo): "It'll be a good fight, if you're into that. Whenever you're ready."

Indeed, the vigilantes look ready to come out of their hiding place (a truck). They know there's no room for negotiation here, and even Pramanix (fuzzy coat, blue) has her own hands full making sure her bell is safely attached and easily removable from her belt. All they're waiting for now is the signal to begin.
Yang Xiao Long     <You guys know me, right. Of course I'm down for a fight.> crackles Yang over comms. Her voice nearly drowned out by the rumbling roar of a motorcycle engine. That same roar approaches the highrise, and shows itself as the blonde brawler ramps her bike, Bumblebee, over the perimeter railings and straight through a group of patrolling goons. <That's your signal, by the way.> she wisecracks, as she moves to intercept incoming groups and begin a big, loud brawl to drag as much attention her way as possible.
Nanoha Takamachi     A bright streak of pink rushes through the sky above the city. Its destination is clear as it heads towards the grand skyscraper, owned by an apparent madman who tried to irradiate part of the city. Payment be damned, this is clearly a man who needs to be put into jail. Clear to Nanoha, anyway, who arcs have as she comes in to land, but barely slows down.

    The pink streak that is Nanoha hits the ground hard out the front of the building, putting a large splintering crack into the formerly pristine pavement. The aura fades, Nanoha rising up straight. She glances at her device, "Raising Heart, put me on with everyone." The Device chimes.

    Holoscreens begin to pop up around the building's exterior, as well as the interior. Large ones, hovering in the air. Smaller ones floating near thugs and goons. They all show the firm expression of Nanoha's face as she starts, "This is Captain Nanoha Takamachi of the Time-Space Administrative Bureau. Elite and Chevalier with the Paladins. We are here to take your boss into custody. You have two options: One, lay down your weapons and surrender. I promise you will not be harmed and treated with respect. Or two, oppose us and find out what it feels like to be hit by a semi-truck."

    To emphasize her point, Nanoha levels her staff towards the large statue centered in the fountain. An orb of pink appears beyond it, quickly growing in size until it bursts. A large beam of pink rushes forth towards the statue to explode it into tiny little pieces.
X X places a finger on one of the nodes serving as his 'ears' at each side of his helmet, pressing lightly with his forefinger. "He has to be stopped -- the sooner, the better. There's no way I'm backing out now."

With Bumblebee roaring overhead as it jumps the perimeter, X nods to himself and sinks into the cockpit of his own vehicle for the evening, entering the startup sequence. "Alright ... let's go!"

Moments later, a large blue-and-white form smashes through the front, propelled by two wing binders releasing massive plumes of jet exhaust to drive it foward. It was some kind of mech, roughly three meters in height. Heavily armored, one arm took the form of a multi-range energy weapon, while the other was clenched in a tight robotic fist. Raising the weaponized arm, it ignites in a bright purple flash and swings down a roaring beam saber in an intimidating fashion, warding off any enemies in front of it, before switching firing modes.

The saber peters off as the weapon is thrust out, a bright bullet of energy shooting off like a rocket towards the front doors to blow them off their hinges.

Hopefully, with the display of force shown thus far, some of them will give up and avoid a fight. If not, then they were all more than prepared to meet them head on.
Hibiki Tachibana     Hibiki may not have been on call last time for Non-Punk Robot Related Reasons, but today, she's ready to come and finish the fight. The fight against the mysterious criminal overlord slash mayor - MR. X - who she's determined to not let get away with his endangerment of innocents, production of shiny muscle-bound machinemen, and other terrible things. You'd think he'd try and hire some classier looking goons, at least. Then again, there's not much reason to really try and hide his activities, and these guys don't need to be paid much.

    Well, they're sure not going to be paid enough for this. Again. "Money's not important. Knowing that this guy won't be able to keep causing trouble is plenty enough for me," she replies back towards Zan over communications with a finger to her Symphogear's headset, from her perch on a conveniently placed nearby rooftop. It's only a few stories, very much in the shadow of the opulent seaside skyscraper, but it's enough to get a decent view of the lobby.

    She was holding herself back for the signal as well, but when she sees Yang riding in, she cracks a small smirk underneath the cover of her scarf - and then braces her foot against the edge of the building and launches herself off like a rocket.

    Which will send her crashing into one of the exterior goons like a man-bat descending upon a criminal, only with a lot more violence. After a brief tumble she'll toss him off and spring to her feet, moving to join up with Yang in her efforts to start up an all-out brawl and put the majority of their attention their way. "If I were you, I'd listen to them!" She expects (and hopes) some of the small fry might surrender. But she's ready to beat up any robots that won't.
Warfarin     Not too long, a car comes /screeching/ in, two ladies in the vehicle, one with detached wings and one pale looking girl. "Thanks Exusuai, can drop me off right here, I owe Penguin Logistics something."

    "No problem, we're on call for Rhodes Island~!" Warfarin exits the car with her IV Holder and her medical bag, and Exusuai speeds off. It does, however, seem that Warfarin's behind practically everyone here. "Medical personnel on the scene." she calls out towards at least X, who she knows from voice. She came prepped for something... and with Nanoha's display of might there, she shakes her head, "Well, at least everyone seems raring to go for a fight."

    The silver haired, red eyed girl takes a look around, analyzing the guards... and even everyone around, taking mental note of everyone's current state of health for later. "Alright, I'm here for back up if you need it."
Karlan Nobles The holoscreens popping up all over the place have Mr. X's hired muscle pausing to stare, listen, and consider the multi-pronged ultimatum to surrender. As if on cue, both Nanoha's destruction of the statue and X's destruction of the double doors (mahogany) take the crowd by surprise, and they seem to be considering their options.

And then along comes Yang, bowling through a small crowd on her motorcycle with Hibiki following up and tossing the grunt like a ragdoll, but with bones that he probably wishes were not in so much pain right about now. Adam and Skate laugh, the latter more in excitement and the former more in that distinctly 'oh boy that's a thing' sort of way. Blaze, Max, and Zan look shocked, but not too shocked. Axel just strokes his beard slowly, then shrugs without seeming surprised one bit.

It's almost like he's seen this sort of thing before.

The shock and awe almost seems to work, even, as Warfarin might be able to see that they're already sweating a bit. And then...

"You want your paychecks or not?" A raspy voice bellows out from loudspeakers scattered around the interior and exterior of the building. That's enough to whip the goons into a frenzy, and the battle finally begins in earnest.

With the sheer number of people around, tings devolve into chaos rather quickly just trying to get into the building. Waves upon waves of Mr. X's goons rush the group of vigilantes and the Elites helping them, barraging them with pipes, knives, and all manner of fists and feet. Adam weaves in and out with fancy boxing maneuvers, Axel makes deliberate strikes (and fire) with self-taught martial arts, Blaze tosses people around with judo, Skate zips around to outmaneuver everyone, Max and Zan manhandle anyone that gets too close, and Pramanix calls down mighty winds and ice that batter and weaken people en masse.

It's not long before the robots spring into action, leaping over their fleshy distractions and swinging around spiked balls from chains attached to their shoulder sockets. Anyone trying to keep their distance, meanwhile, will find bullets, explosive concoctions, and poisonous clouds coming their way as well, courtesy of the men in suits and women in leather jackets respectively. Some of the robots even fire bursts of electricity from their faces, making it difficult to find a safe spot in all the chaos.
Yang Xiao Long     Yang jukes, dodges and mantles over goons as they come in from all sides, using her gauntlets recoil to out maneuver the lesser goons frenzied attacks... but gets nailed square on by a bullet from one of the ranged attackers. It staggers her long enough to get swarmed.

    "GET OFF OF ME!" She bellows, exploding out with a kinetic wave, looking roughed up but more angry than anything else. Her gauntlets cycle shells and ratchet back into place, covering the shell rings with the outer strike-plate... she then launches herself on recoil and moves to get closer to the ranged attackers, coming down from on high like a fiery comet. On impact she slams her fist into the ground, firing a volley of four shells at once to pulse a wave out from her, causing shrapnel and broken stone to erupt from the ground into the goons in the area.
X X's hopes started to raise as the various thuggish consorts and guards began looking reticent to engage. At least until their master went and yanked their chain.

Warfarin's arrival is a welcome one -- not just for their allies, but for any of the criminals that got hurt too badly. The mechaniloids they were using he wasn't as concerned about, but the others were ... well, they were fragile, just ordinary people.

And so, as careful as one could be in Ride Armor, he engages the boosters and dashes through the mob; effectively, its the same as getting hit by a particularly tonka tough truck. You'd be lucky not to land in the hospital after such an encounter.

The various lasers and electric shocks bounce off of the Ride Armor, leaving behind not much more than scuff marks as it rapidly closes the distance to a group of the robotic ner-do-wells and raises its weapon arm, engaging Saber Mode to swing down and cleave through them in one swift motion before X yanks back on the controls, causing the Ride Armor to leap into the air and hover briefly with its thrusters.

While the gas was noxious, X himself was unaffected by it due to his physiology protecting him from such elements, but he'd rather not to leave it to chance, especially knowing most of his allies wouldn't have his protection.

Two pauldrons open up on the massive machine and release a flurry of micromissiles to dissuade the leather jacket wearing women, and suit wearing men, from continuing to bombard them.
Nanoha Takamachi     Money trumps self-preservation, apparently. Well, it's not entirely unexpected that many chose not to surrender. Nanoha still wanted to give them the choice though, just in case any of them were smart enough to realize the error of their ways.

    If any are though, it's hard to tell amidst the large furball that quickly picks up. Nanoha sweeps her staff out to the side, a dozen small pink orbs appear floating in the air around her. She then begins walking forwards, heading across the skyscraper's courtyard towards those doors blown open by X.

    Nanoha briefly looks back to their volunteer medic, saying, "I'll keep you covered, so stay behind me." Already thugs are beginning to rush Nanoha though, who returns her focus to them. She meets their swinging pipes with her staff with a CLANG. Spinning the weapon gracefully around her as she counters, smashing the weapon into them to knock them on their asses.

    A sudden bolt of electricity streaks out from amongst the crowded battlefield, rippling across Nanoha. She winces at the pain, dulled as it is by her magical defenses. With a few flicks of her wrist, a couple of the orbs floating around her whip off, flying through the air to home in on the robot thug that fired that electrical blast and explode against it.

    Some more orbs fly off at Nanoha's direction to explode amidst groups of thugs, to leave them battered but still alive as Nanoha attempts to clear a path forward. They could spend all day fighting these goons. Mr. X is the real target.
Hibiki Tachibana     "Can't say we didn't give it a shot," Hibiki says dryly as the veritable army of hired help is pushed into action by the voice she can only assume is the big man up top himself. If Nanoha and X aren't able to threaten these guys into backing off, there's nothing for it but to smack some sense into them and fight through.

    Which suits Hibiki just fine in this case, as while she'd rather not hurt people, they kind of have it coming and she knows how to hold herself back. And if Warfarin's a healer, then they'll be just fine as long as she's careful. Though it's probably herself she should be more worried about with the sheer amount of things all going on at once - the Gungnir girl is forced to duck and weave through the volley of different ranged attacks, evading what she can while swatting bullets aside with her gauntlets and at one point pulling back her gauntlet's pilebunker only to drive it forward at a lightning shock, diverting it aside with the shockwave. But there's a lot of this, and little bits of damage are going to pile up, so she can't stay doing it for long.

    So then she's lunging into the fray herself, knocking humans aside and working to disable them with various sweeping maneuvers and roughhousing to disarm them of their weapons as she keeps moving. It's the machines she's more concerned about, and that she doesn't have any problems going all-out on, leading her to run them down at a dead sprint.

    Hibiki throws herself into one with a sprinting dropkick, but instead of hitting the ground, she plans to use it as a springboard to throw herself at the next one. Weaving through their ranks, she's going to try and end their thunder-shooting ways - and end with kicking one as hard as she can into the blown-open lobby, to bowl over anyone in the way and clear a path to sprint in there herself and start finding a way up.
Warfarin     People will do anything for money and this shows. And well, with Warfarin, she tries to guard all the knives and punches and pipes and uppercuts trying to go her way, deflecting some with her IV pole, though some of it gets through, drawing some blood. With that, though, she holds up the holder and blood starts to flow from it, slowly hitting her allies to patch up some lighter wounds they may have suffered, it doesn't feel bad though, it's a cooling sensation as it happens.

    Though Warfarin looks a bit upset now, taking that same IV Holder and thrusting it back up into the sky as bats start to form out from the blood packs. "Don't worry, I'll be healing you as it progresses!" she calls to her allies as those blood bats start to fly off and crash into not the party, almost acidic like burns would happen if they crashed right into, at least easily patchable burns!

    "THough, I might need some protection." she mutters...
Karlan Nobles The people in the back are having a rough time. While the vigilantes focus on beating the crap out of the thugs right in front of them, several Elites seem hell bent on targeting the squishier targets! Yang dives right into their ranks, finding that they're not nearly as sturdy as their balder and more macho compatriots. A swift punch or two is enough to knock one out, and the exploding shrapnel speeds that process up considerably.

X's Ride Saber cleaves through several of the robotic thug-lookalikes, and Nanoha's flying orbs batter and burst into them that create a chain reaction of shrapnel-launching explosions. That, combined with X's missiles, has a domino effect on the nearby gunners and vial-tossers that puts them down sooner rather than later. Those still standing keep firing upon them, but it's quickly becoming a losing battle with the difference in power and skill becoming all too apparent.

The ones in the front aren't any luckier, either. Hibiki's frontal charge helps to divide their attention in multiple directions as the robots up front actually exhibit something resembling tactics: Forming up to lock their arms together to try and surround her for a robotic curbstomping. Before they can actually get to stepping, however, Warfarin's bats swipe through the robots and mulch their joints, making them easy pickings when the vigilantes come in from behind to take advantage of the attention being directed elsewhere.

The path to the lobby is clear. Stepping over bodies will be easy enough, at least, and the sights are rather nice aside from... Well, all the bodies, the exploded statue, and the moderately obliterated door.

Upon reaching the inside of the lobby, things continue to spiral into a massive brawl on the way towards the giant elevator and staircase surrounding it. Ninja armed with swords and martial artists wind up being the most common foe within the building, utilizing the walls and support pillars around the lavishly-carpeted interior to aid in their acrobatic assault. Said carpet might even make it hard to hear the rapid approach of a massive bald boxer, the moustachioed man moving with deceptive speed as he closes in to start punching the shit out of everyone in his path.
Yang Xiao Long     Yang dusts herself off, stepping over bodies to get inside the lobby proper. She cracks knuckles as the ninjas and martial artists come back again, and the brother,.. cousin? Whatever of the ship captain's here. She grins, and moves to engage the boxer, matching his punches blow for blow, but leaving herself open to passing attacks by the other goons in the area. Her Aura flares with each hit, growing more visible with every impact until it looks like she's glowing.

    She shifts position, and aims an uppercut right under the boxer's guard, letting him get a glancing blow as she dodges around his swing.
X Forcing their way through, the Ride Armor ruins the carpet almost as badly as it mangled the front doors. Between himself and Nanoha, the property damage was probably astronomical.

The forces inside determine to take their pound of flesh for it as the Ride Armor charges ahead, being the bulkiest and toughest of the crew to take the most fire. Ninjas use their ninpou to bomb it from afar while a large, bald man that comes up to the Ride Armor's chest releases a vicious flurry that pushes the massive machine back, beating several sparking dents into it from the force he'd assaulted with. "Hngh..!"

X grits his teeth and struggles to recover its balance.

    "He's tough! Don't get too close..!"

Using the super powered dash function of the Armor to skate around the massive man in a kip, X tries to use his Armor's big, plated fist to knock his lights out with a rocket powered punch and send him sprawling towards Hibiki and Yang before whirling around and trying to blast the various ninjas off the pillars with bursts of energy from the Weapon Arm once it shifted into Cannon Mode.
Hibiki Tachibana     Hibiki is in a bad position. If she were fighting alone, this is the part where she'd be curbstomped--but this is a time she's once again thankful to be working alongside others. "Ah...thanks! I owe you!" Her grateful nod is also marked with a notable amount of awkwardness, but it's genuine all the same towards Warfarin and the vigilante crew. Then she's sprinting back forward to storm the lobby with the others.

    "An elevator again. Though I think this one will be a tighter fit than before..." She mentions offhandedly as if that'd be difficult, right before the chaos resumes all around them. With ninjas and pecs-baring kung fu men storming from all directions, Hibiki has to jump right back to being on her guard. As they sprint at her, she meets one momentum-driven kick with a fierce jab, creating a resounding and dramatic shockwave before she sends the guy flying off with an outward swing of her arm. The next few seconds are a blur of action and traded blows as she re-enacts moves right out of a cheap B-movie and fistfights a group of them at once, using the pillars to her own advantage to stay on the move and do some sick flips.

    One of which she ends with a heavy stomp on the ground, hard enough to not only put some irreversible wrinkles in the fine carpeting but emit a shockwave of force to send the speedy goons flying away in different directions. She's been so caught up in her own little battle over here, she almost didn't hear the biggest of them all stomping his way through them.

    Almost. She's going to follow up on Yang and X's strikes by trying to grab one of his machotastic giant arms, and then completely ignore the difference in size by suplexing him.
Nanoha Takamachi     Nanoha does indeed step over a few bodies as she makes her way into the lobby. She's confident that the more fleshy ones that she's put down are still alive and will recover in time. Thanks to her magic. She can only hope that the others are likewise restraining themselves.

    Arriving within the lobby, Nanoha spots the large elevator clearly displayed ahead of them. Well, that's familiar! Looks like that's their way forward. And probably right to Mr. X. But before they can get there...

    Nanoha quickly raises her staff! She places it in the path of the feet from one of those jump kickers. She strains against the kick, bracing herself against it. Only for another jump kicker to come flying from another direction to catch Nanoha in the back. She stumbles forward, before swinging her staff around to ward the kicker off.

    Raising her staff into the air, Nanoha calls out, "Axel Shooter!" Several orbs appear in the air around Nanoha. She swings her staff down and finishes, "Shoot!" The orbs burst, several pink lasers dancing through the air to smash into the chests of the jump kickers to send them flying before they can get another coordinated hit in.

    Nanoha turns around to find several of the other engaged in a fierce battle with a rather bulky boxer. Meanwhile there are still plenty of other more minor minions in the lobby which threaten the group. While the others fight the boxer, Nanoha focuses on covering them. Shifting her staff over into her left hand, she brings the other up to her chest. A spell circle appears on the ground beneath her. Several similar spell circles appear on surfaces around the lobby.

    Nanoha then whips her hand out and calls, "Chain Bind!"

    Pink chains of light rush out of the various spell circles, streaking towards the cannon fodder and trying to wrap around them, to hold them in place and keep them from interrupting the mid-boss fight.
Warfarin     More healing goes out in waves of blood, the good kind. More blood goes out, the bad kind, towards the mechanoloids... at least it's not a person she's injuring this time. This time...

    She follows along with the rest of the group, "So, can someone fill me in on what's going on?" she questions to the party as they push into the area...

    And there's an elevator. That's never a good sign.

    And then boxers... she moves to try and block those boxers with her iv pole, though, it's not really a good idea when hands move faster than the semi-combat trained medic can't get in position in time... the beating sends her reeling back a bit... before she jumps right, fangs to bare...

    And she chomps right down on the neck of that kung fu guy, trying to drain him for what hes worth. This isn't someone who needs healing... /yet/...
Karlan Nobles A moment of silence for the carpet and all these people that don't appreciate fine decor. Figuratively, anyway, since the Ride Armor going over what's left of the non-carpeted areas (surprisingly few) is not going to be quiet in the slightest. It's probably quieter than the actual fight, though, as multiple people engage practically everyone else in the wild melee.

As Yang engages the boxer, she'll find that this one's actually a fair bit tougher than the one from the ship. Faster, stronger, slightly different colors on his unitard. He even goes for a feint, winding up for another one of those fist-to-fist impacts before suddenly hurling himself into the air to come down like a mighty cannonball!

And then X's rocket-fist comes from on high to deck him right in his lumpy face. It's certainly not what the boxer was expecting, and the ninja nearby are having a rough time trying to aid their beefier brother.  The energy blasts give them scant little room to maneuver when they aren't being shot right off their high-angled perches, and the only place they can maneuver into is occupied by shockwave-producing fists.

They can at least rest easy, knowing that getting their heads punched in by Hibiki looks like a cool action movie instead of a complete beatdown (even if it is a complete beatdown). As the boxer comes down from getting punched right in the face, he's caught off-guard and slammed right into the ground from mid-fall, leaving a weirdly nostalgic crater in the ground.

The martial artists try to get their licks in as well, diving in with flying kicks, but they're intercepted by yet more orb lasersthat slam them right into the ground if they're lucky. The unlucky ones are brought down on top of each other instead, Nanoha's laser shots limiting one of the few advantages the ninja and martial artists even have that would otherwise help them overwhelm their attackers.

"We're toppling a criminal empire. There's..." Pramanix tries to answer Warfarin, but she's interrupted by having to beat someone back with a pipe and a wave of ice that's also considerably red thanks to the waves of blood going around. "... Some more details in there, but I think the others covered it well enough!"

One of the unluckier martial artists, rather than getting his head bashed in or shot by all manner of crazy magic, ends up getting his blood drained. Or perhaps this one of the lucky ones, considering that he could have lost consciousness in a far more violent and head-stomping way.
Karlan Nobles The lobby is finally cleared, and the elevator doors ding as they open wide as if inviting the crowd of Elites into its glassy shell that lets them see just how far it goes up (very). As the elevator opens, however, the muffled sound of cars skidding to a stop around the building can be heard even from the inside. More of Mr. X's thugs can be seen exiting the vehicles, arriving to reinforce those inside. Before they can get inside the building, however, explosions bar the entrance while a hawk screeches from above.

"VCPD! Put your weapons down and your hands behind your head!" A voice blares out from loudspeakers as a police cruiser (bearing the Virtua City Police Department's logos instead of Wood Oak City, even) skids to a stop behind that line of vehicles, a rocket launcher sliding into the back seat while a trio of officers exits the vehicle followed by a white-haired man in a suit with a long cane. Mr. X's underlings, spotting the car, start advancing on it rapidly.

James (blonde): "I told you this wouldn't work, man. What're the odds we get out of this with our teeth intact?"
Michael (brown): "Focus. The group inside has their jobs to do inside, and we have ours out here."
Janet (brunette): "We'll be lucky if we still have them after this. The boss'll want our heads after this stunt."
SilverAsh (white): "The fiercer the battle, the more jubilant victory shall be. Prove yourselves here, and I will handle whatever comes afterwards."

Moments later, a second battle begins outside of Mr. X's skyscraper between his reinforcements and the four new arrivals outside. Inside, however...

Pramanix: "Of course he'd show up now of all times... Well, let's hurry and get up there, then. I doubt even he could last out there forever."
Max: "You heard the lady. We'll keep 'em off your backs, so go give Mr. X hell!"
Skate: "Should you be saying that around...?"

And so, Adam, Max, Skate, and Zan head outside as well to assist the new arrivals. That leaves Axel, Blaze, and Pramanix to join those heading upstairs. The question remaining is how to go up there. The elevator is right there, but they also have the option of taking the stairs surrounding the elevator up. It's enough stairs that a timeskip would be required just to traverse the whole thing for a marginally stealthier entry, though.
Yang Xiao Long     Yang doesn't like the look of the elevator, or the stairwell. So instead, she checks where ledgeholds can be found, and purges the spent shells from her shotgauntlets, a flurry of hollow plastic clatters following a soft blast as they're jettisoned. Yang then pulls new strips of shells from her belt pouches and reloads, tossing them into the air, and slamming her arms into them as they fall.

    The Huntress then sets her feet, and launches herself up with her leg power, firing her gauntlets at intervals to maintain her momentum to get to a ledge. She repeats this, going from grapple point to grapple point until she reaches the top.
X With the mooks all thoroughly dispatched, the group makes plans with eachother on which way they'd split; Hibiki and Yang were heading up the stairwell, while Warfarin and Nanoha would take the elevator alongside the three remaining vigilantes. Nodding, X sees them off while the rest split off back towards the entrance, where a ruckus could be heard getting kicked up. Squaring its shoulders and feet, the Ride Armor angles itself as its wing binders flare into a fully open state to achieve maximum thrust.

Blue exhaust roars out as the Armor lifts off and begins ascending rapidly, visibly struggling to hold its weight in the air for a moment, before X pulls it to the side and has it launch its leg in a powerful kick that gives it some much needed lift, shooting it further up to break through to the next floor and propel itself with another jet kick, continuing to do so when needed to assist in its upwards momentum.

And if there do happen to be any enemies on the way to the top, X was more than happy to stop and dispatch them with the Ride Armor's assorted weaponry.
Nanoha Takamachi     Nanoha walks by the thugs currently held in place by her chains, leaving them in place until such time as the authorities can arrest them. Speaking of...

    Nanoha pauses for a moment, glancing over her shoulder as a voice announces the arrival of the VCPD. Good news! Even if they are going to be a little delayed by the simultaneous arrival of thug reinforcements. But at least the Elite group can focus on Mr. X himself. So, as much as she might want to help, Nanoha steps on into the elevator for the ride up. She'll have to hope the VCPD are up to fighting the thugs off on their own. And with the help of the vigilantes breaking off to assist. She has high hopes!

    As the elevator goes up, Nanoha quietly prepares. KA-CHUNK. The cartridge system on the neck of her staff slides back once, Nanoha taking in a deep breath as the concentrated mana rushes through her body. She then brings her free hand up, a pink orb of light appearing just above her palm. Her fingers flex a little around the orb before she pushes her hand up, the orb lifting up to float near her head. Nanoha then glances at her Device, asking, "How's it looking?"

    Raising Heart chimes in response, <It is ready.>

    Nanoha nods along, "Good... Then let's get this guy." She looks up, calmly waiting for the elevator to reach its destination.
Hibiki Tachibana     With the miniboss suitably toppled through all of their combined efforts, Hibiki shares a nod once more to all of her comrades, and almost starts in the direction of the elevator when reinforcements come from outside. Though she looks perfectly ready to square off with them as well, she won't have to, and lowers her fists with a tilt of her head. "You guys sure got a lot of friends, huh?" She remarks back towards the group of vigilantes and Pramanix over the sound of explosions.

    She waves off those who are headed out to join the fray, looks back to those who are taking the elevator, then looks straight up. A race with Yang, huh? She can do that. Hibiki has always been the kind of person to take the shortest and straightest path to whatever her goal is. It's no different this time. She buckles her knees slightly, pulling back her fist.

    The armor on it immediately transforms into a much bigger and more armored gauntlet, extending straight past her elbow with several thruster vents on the back. Heat begins pouring out, and an exposed section near her wrist revealing a turbine kicks up into a loudly whirring rotation.r
    Then a covering snaps shut over it and a crimson knuckleguard slots itself down over her fist, and Hibiki leaps while the rockets on her gauntlet ignite in flame. When she meets the ceiling, she punches through it. When she reaches the next ceiling, she punches through it. And when she reaches the next ceiling, she punches through that too.

    Next stop: top floor, with a bunch of holes leading from it all the way back down to the lobby. Any bad guys who happen to be lying in wait in any of the rooms above will get a really rude awakening on her way there.
Warfarin     She's going to have so much to heal later... "Make sure no one kills anyone, I still need them alive so I can heal them, so they're ready for interrogation." she calls out, as the others fall. And with that, Warfarin moves into the elevator with Nanoha. With a moment there, she turns towards the magical girl... "It talks?" as she looks towards the weapon, "I've not seen something that portable that speaks..."

    Pramanix's words, and everyone elses, make her tap her foot, "Criminal empires. Pramanix sure gets up to some interesting things." she mutters... this time, just waiting on the elevator...
Karlan Nobles Axel: "They're old friends on the force. Could've sworn they had retired by now, though."
Blaze: "Axel, they're in their twenties. We're in our twenties."
Pramanix: "Really? But he looks so-"
Axel: "Alright, let's keep it moving! And watch your heads while you're inside."

STAIRS TEAM
The stairs are empty. They're just really long, but it's kind of unreasonably long to go up this way. It's probably for the best nobody picked this path, or there'd be a good chance they'd just be exhausted getting all the way up to the top.

ELEVATOR TEAM
The inside of the elevator is actually somewhat cramped despite looking spacious from the outside. It probably has something to do with how many Elites there are already, compounded by the fact that more of Mr. X's minions are dropping in shortly after Axel's warning. Literally, even, as the entire elevator shakes when a massive wrestler dressed similarly to (yet legally distinct from) a certain apex fighter drops in and starts swinging his beefy arms around in an effort to obliterate everyone's face with said arms.

The wrestler is also joined by a wild-looking ninja with massive claws, thankfully without shaking the elevator in favor of leaping from wall. Unfortunately, the ninja also does this while swinging said claws around, aiming to shred everyone to ribbons. As if things weren't cramped enough, however, a third giant-esque person comes in through...

The elevator door. It has to stop briefly to pick him up, but it's another one of those vaguely bartender-looking kicklords! He doesn't seem to want to be here, but he needs to earn his paycheck, and he's the only other one that matches their height that hasn't already gotten beat up yet.

MY WAY
With X and Hibiki crashing through the upper floors while Yang wall jumps her way upwards, it quickly becomes apparent that Mr. X's tower was built to be a nearly self-sustaining entity in itself. Greenhouse floors, warehouse floors, office floors, even gyms and cafeterias that actually look impeccably stocked and cleaned! In an ideal world, this would actually be a great place to work and live, notwithstanding how few ways there are to actually get up and down that aren't the ominous fight elevator and the never-ending fire escape.

With all the noise that's being made, though, it's probably no surprise that they're going to be encountering resistance. Jetpack-wearing ninjas swoop in to try and knock them off on the way up, and bikers in motorcycle helmets with spiked shoulder pads hurl bottles and push heavy copying machines into the holes as improvised projectiles!
Karlan Nobles MEANWHILE
The VCPD, SilverAsh, and the local vigilantes are grossly outnumbered by Mr. X's reinforcements outside. That doesn't seem to matter to them much, though, though the power of GUN VIOLENCE and SWORD VIOLENCE.

Skate has also acquired a sword. He is enjoying using it perhaps a little too much. Max and Zan look concerned while Adam just shrugs at his little brother's enthusiasm.
Nanoha Takamachi     Nanoha patiently waits. And waits. And waits. Oh my, elevator ninja! They're always a pain.

    Nanoha quickly swings her staff around, blocking the ninja's initial strike against her with those claws. But the ninja proves quicker, getting off another strike that cuts through Nanoha's defense. And her Barrier Jacket. Which are technically one and the same.

    The claws cut through Nanoha's dress along her side, drawing a little red forth as they manages to break skin. Nanoha holds in a pained cry, limiting her reaction to the pained expression on her face.

    Wary of the close quarters and the need to NOT destroy the elevator and everyone on it, Nanoha chooses to simply jab her staff at the ninja, trying to ward him off until one of the others more suited for this kind of combat environment can do something about it.
Yang Xiao Long     Yang's not got the raw speed that Literal Rocket Fists give, but she's making decent time at least... that is until she nearly gets crushed by a falling copy machine coming down through a hole. She manages to juke with a recoil blast, catching onto a hanging fixture before launching herself up through the hole to uppercut the perpetrator. "Have a knuckle sandwich, asshole!" she snarls, laying into the biker dude before using him to springboard herself further up to join the otherse at the top.
Warfarin     Seems Warfarin's question either goes unanswered... or the sudden appearance of a ninja, a wrestler and another giant looking person and Warfarin sighs. At the diving, Warfarin dives out of the way, getting caught, but taking some of the blood to recover her own health as she dives into her bag... pulling out a few syringes full of a yellowish liquid. "OKay, this dose should be good enough." the needles are fully loaded... "You might want to duck." she calls out before launching them one after another at the ninja, wrestler and giant.

    Hopefully, that should just knock them down without killing them but... she makes no promises from the others.
X X's temper flared further and further, internally, as they continued passing through after floor. A self-sustaining building that so long as you were on the 'in', it didn't matter what happened to the city outside. It could go straight to hell and this place would be just as lavish. 'Mr. X' really did intend to do whatever he wanted with the city, and stacked the deck ever so precisely that it wouldn't affect him even if he stepped on the livelihood of every single person under his care.

Jetpack wearing ninjas swoop in and attack, focusing on knocking his top-heavy Ride Armor out of the air, but X manages to pilot just skillfully enough to avoid such a catastrophic fate. The Weapon Arm switches to Saber Mode and ignires as he flits about, hounded by the foes and only occasionally striking to destroy their jetpacks, and send them safely falling to a survivable distance, rather than the full way down.

Spinning around, the Ride Armor releases another volley of micro-missiles to clear the path before jetting ahead to resume the journey up top.
Hibiki Tachibana     With the power of EXTREME COLLATERAL DAMAGE, Hibiki is making good time on her way up alongside her good friends Yang and X. She has enough of a chance to appreciate the floors as she shoots past them alongside the Ride Armor, with the thought that comes to mind being how much good someone with as much power as Mr. X could do if he wasn't bent on commiting crime and trying to nuke cities. For how well off the skyscraper is, lack of ways to go up and down aside, it's really surprising that punks of all varieties are the people inhabiting it. He's a real one of a kind criminal.

    Her chance at winning the race despite the speed of rocket boosters is put in jeopardy by more ninjas getting in their way, and improvised (and heavy!) projectiles come streaming down the holes she's starting to punch several floors ahead of herself. "Gh...!" It's really hard to control herself at the moment, leaving her to narrowly be able to swerve around weaponized copying machines that curb her momentum for a moment, and she's mostly relying on her raw speed and durability to force the shinobi aside when they try to block her path.

    So time for a change in tactics. "Out of the WAY!" With a loud shout, she cuts her rockets and funnels all of the power directly into her fist, which is beginning to glow with an awesome power. A golden, crackling glow that almost becomes too bright to look at...before she rears back her fist, only to throw it forward in a punch.

    A spiraling tornado of energy that looks closer to fire than anything else shoots upwards to blow any more ninjas ut of the path and outright incinerate any more projectiles, and do the job of blowing a clear path all the way to the top and probably then some. Having diverted energy away from her rockets, Hibiki makes up for them with her Symphogear's skirt thrusters, which ignite to blast her up on the path of her own attack.
Karlan Nobles In that enclosed elevator, neither side has particularly much room to dodge. That proves to be rather dangerous for the clawed ninja as Nanoha's staff moves catch the ninja off guard, having expected a typical 'caster' type and not someone capable of actually using that thing to bash people. The thrust catches the ninja right in the gut, setting them up for a German suplex courtesy of Blaze that rocks the elevator perhaps a bit too much for comfort.

At least it feels sturdy enough to withstand all the shaking. There's quite a bit of it, too, as Axel takes quite a bit of heat on himself, purposely switching targets rapidly to keep the wrestler's and kicking guy's attention on him while Warfarin prepares her own concoction. They don't even notice right away as the needles sink in, still trying to take swings at the elevator team even as they find their reflexes slowing down enough that it becomes child's play to pound them into submission.

Even Pramanix gets into it a bit with her pipe. Only to knock them out, of course.

Outside the elevator, the fight to the top continues to inflict yet more damage to the building itself. X's saber makes short work of the jetpacks that keep the ninja afloat, and they're just lucky enough that he's aiming to subdue rather than kill as they careen down and smash into the ground or walls only a floor or two below rather than plummeting completely. The missiles also help block off other reinforcements from coming in!

Those that are still left have to contend with the racers finding their own creative ways of ascending the tower. Yang's springboarding has the bikers (who don't even have their bikes in here despite wearing the full getups) reconsidering even trying to throw those copiers down.

Hibiki's erupting burning tornado, meanwhile, has those same bikers grateful that they have anything covering their heads. Although their eyebrows are (probably) intact, their helmets and suits burst into flames, and they're forced to quickly back off and hurl themselves into the sprinkler system so as to not die terribly.

Finally, through elevator or the ever-reliable option of massive property damage, the group has reached Mr. X's room at the top of the skyscraper. Inside, Mr. X himself is sitting on a leather armchair, smoking a cigar and flanked by a pair of hooded figures while a martial artist with longer hair stands by one of the many glass windows lining the room. Mounted deer heads look down upon the room from higher up, almost as though they're watching those coming out of the elevator.

Upon spotting the group of Elites, one of the hooded figures reaches for something inside their robe, but is halted by a raised hand from Mr. X. Instead, the boss snaps his fingers, and the martial artist (Shiva) leaps forward to land near the group while more Mr. X's remaining minions filter in from the sides of the room. A robot that looks like a younger, cleaner, and less bearded version of Axel with red skin also comes out with those minions.

OST: https://youtu.be/i-lc624eNwY

No words are offered by the martial artist. He simply moves in to strike, dashing from person to person to begin his attack. He fights with skillful and rapid maneuvers, launching himself across the room with flying kicks, delivering palm strikes at precise spots that might slow down someone's reaction times on contact, and even twisting around with rapid kicks from the ground that leave flames in their wake. The minions, numerous as they are, continue to rely on their numbers to try and overwhelm the Elites, although they seem to know well enough not to get in Shiva's way.
X Ascending to the top alongside Hibiki and Yang, X hunkers in his Ride Armor's cockpit with an intense stare. The man in charge of it all ... it seemed as though they'd finally come face to face with the mastermind. The group from the elevator, as well, arrives moments later. X opens his mouth, but closes it again with a light crinkling of his eyes as they narrow.

This man wasn't going to come quietly, nor would his associates. The Ride Armor raises both its arm and lets out a mechanical warble as its energy tops out, despite all the stress that had been put on its frame, and flexes its arms.

One fist clenched at the side, and Weapon Arm extended, it beckons the Axel-lookalike to come at them and try it.

The Ride Armor clashes with the kicks, deflecting them with slashes of its Beam Saber, leaving trails of flame blasting behind each impact that threatened to break through the thick stream of megaparticles. But, the daring defense is successful, allowing the Ride Armor to punch out with its fist in an attempt to send the fighter flying, before kipping back and aiming the Weapon Arm, in Cannon Mode.

Energy begins gathering at the end slowly at first, before rapidly accelerating into a loud and ear-grating whine.

Aiming carefully to avoid striking anything made of flesh and blood with a direct hit, X fires the Weapon Arm at full force, a thick stream of energy roaring out for several seconds to blast away the roof, and put down anything unfortunate enough to be caught in it down for the count.
Yang Xiao Long     It's been a long way up, and as she lands, Shiva starts doing his thing. She tries to intercept the strike, but being off-balance means she gets smashed, hard, into a wall and doesn't get back up again. A fizzling sound, and a crackle mark her going down for the count, her Aura breaking and a trickle of blood coming from a nasty looking head wound.

    <Automated Alert. Huntress Aura Broken. Requesting assistance. Repeat...>
Nanoha Takamachi     The thugs inside the elevator finally settle down, thanks to a combination of applied force and good ol' fashioned drugs. It also becomes clear that the elevator will reach its destination soon. So Nanoha takes a moment to straighten out her dress and fix up her hair before the elevator doors open and she steps over the fallen thugs to exit. The glowy orb that had been floating by her head the whole time floats up and away.

    Nanoha takes several steps into the office before stopping. She looks around at those present, before focusing on the man in the chair, "Mr. X, I presume?" Nanoha narrows her eyes at him, "We'd like to have a word..." But first...

    Nanoha glances around as more of those thugs filter in, before being joined by what can probably be called Mr. X's lieutenants. Nanoha lowers her stance, readying herself for their attack. The martial artist is the first to reach her. Nanoha raises her hand, a pink barrier forming beyond it. But the martial artist's kick hits the barrier and breaks right through it, causing it to shatter. The kick continues on, landing a solid blow against Nanoha's chest.

    Nanoha is knocked backwards, skidding along on her feet almost all the way back to the elevator. Only once she stops does she drop to a knee, coughing and gasping for breath after the blow. Her staff chimes out in concern, <Master...>

    Nanoha takes a few moments, but looks up at Raising Heart and offers a smile between coughs, "I-I'm alright..." Nanoha uses her staff to help her stand once more. Initially she looks a little unsteady on her feet, but she manages to steady her resolve as well as her stance.

    Nanoha then raises her staff into the air, calling out, "Axel Shooter..." A dozen orbs of pink appear in the air around her. Then Nanoha continues, "Avalanche Shift..." Another dozen orbs joins the first, then another. Finally Nanoha finishes, "FIRE!"

    The orbs begin to burst, dozens of lasers rushing out and dancing through the air to land amidst the large numbers of minions as Nanoha tries to reduce their numbers.

    After the dust from her lasers has cleared, Nanoha calls out, "Mr. X!" Nanoha takes a step forward, practically demanding, "Why!? When you're supposed to be the mayor of this town, why would you try to destroy it with a nuclear bomb? What about all the people you're supposed to be serving!? And you're own men, they would have died too? Just... Why?"
Hibiki Tachibana     With her tornado petering out after it's smashed open an entrance to the top floor, Hibiki flips out of the hole and onto solid ground to find the man she was looking for--not Mr. K, but Mr. X. She immediately drops into a guarded stance, taking note of how casual the suited man remains despite the chaos both inside and outside the skyscraper this whole time. She looks from him to the mysterious figures flanking him, and finally Shiva with a squint of her eyes.

    "...Whatever you're trying to get out of all of this, it ends here!" She raises her voice in the direction of the big boss, shortly before things get chaotic again. She can tell Shiva is no joke, and others coming in to fight alongside him isn't going to make it any easier. "Even one based off of Axel...!?" Hibiki has a moment to contemplate that before she's forced to fend off hordes and hordes of more goons, taking glancing blows and retaliating with blows meant to force them back.

    It keeps her distracted enough that when Shiva comes around during a lull, his palm blows knock her off her guard, and she's only narrowly able to raise her own armored leg up to block a blazing kick that sends her flying away with a pained shout as it rattles her entire limb. Then Yang goes down next, and Hibiki grits her teeth under her scarf with a burst of anger flashing on her face.

    She uses an unlucky punk's shoulders as a surface to land on and then launch herself back off of, straight towards the long-haired martial artist. "You'll PAY for that!" With some of her usual hesitation towards 'seriously hurting other people' put on halt in the heat of the moment, albeit enough that it's probably necessary to actually hurt someone of his caliber, Hibiki spins herself into a simple but extremely powerful hook to try and knock his lights out in one go, at which point she's probably going to hit a very rough landing on the ground and come out of it with her sights set sharply on Mr. X.
Warfarin     Warfarin's own dodging is no defense against Shiva, trying to move out of the way but the strike sends her flying backwards and right into a wall... using herself for property damage. Was her time anyways.

    She moves to get herself up, groaning in pain... "Unngh, fractured a rib there, I think." she grumbles, looking towards her blood bags... at least until she hears the "huntress down" message over the radio... someone was down and it was on her watch. "Damnit, I didn't..." she shakes her head, rushing towards her bag, grabbing it and rushing towards Yang, meanwhile, the bats start to flow from the blood bags and aim right towards Shiva... "How dare... how dare you incapacitate my charge..." blood-lined 'wings' slowly appear behind the Vampire's back, those red eyes glaring towards Shiva.. there's a point of her IV HOlder and off the bats go...

    ... while she turns back to the bag to fumble around for things to get Yang back up. Or stable..
Karlan Nobles Shiva's skill and power is surprisingly great compared to that of previous hirelings of Mr. X. He doesn't even flinch at fighting fist to armored fist of the Ride Armor, and there's even a confident grin forming on his face when he he leaps off the Ride Armor's fist when it tries to slash him. That grin fades quickly, though, when he gets caught by the follow-up punch. He barely manages to flip around in mid-air to not land on his head, but the impact leaves him wobbling on his feet as he tries to get his bearings straight.

Despite his best efforts, though, there's not enough time to recover as Hibiki turns her sights on him rather than on the cannon fodder. With her temper carried into her fists, he twists arund in a swift flaming kick forward, but his best efforts at halting that punch just results in him being slammed backwards through another pair of goons and into one of the hooded figures.

The hooded figure lifts their leg and punts him forward, drawing only the briefest of offended glares before he realizes that he's being shoved right into a swarm of giant blood-bats. He jerks around and tries to swat them off, but it's to no avail as the mounting damage proves to be too much for him to stay upright or conscious any longer.

Nanoha's massive burst of magic, meanwhile, makes even shorter work of the minions trying to add their numbers to the fray as though they actually mattered any more. One unlucky minion in particular tries to actually run away from the blast, but his path takes him in front of one of the hooded figures, and they grab onto the edge of his jacket just long enough that he ends up being used as a human shield for one of those stray blasts.

The robot Axel (Break), meanwhile, leaps towards X with a mighty flying kick upon his beckoning. It should be too far to reach, but the flying kick is augmented by thrusters coming out of its other leg that launch it forwards at a rapid clip. Said flying kick is then smoothly interrupted by Axel catching it by the leg, pivoting into an almost practiced spin, and then hurling it right through one of the open/destroyed windows.

"Disappointing. Anyway." Mr. X doesn't seem surprised in the least as he rises from his seat, towering over the hooded figures by a solid foot and a half at least.  He glances at the ceiling being all but obliterated by X and Hibiki, barely even looking worried about however much that might cost to repair (a lot). Taking that cigar out of his mouth, he lets out a long puff of smoke as he regards each of the Elites closely. Nanoha's questioning in particular has him raising an eyebrow.

"Right, I don't know what you're talking about. If you're just here to make accusations and attack my employees, then I'll have to ask you to leave. But if you're here for something else..."

He takes out the cigar, tapping it twice to spill some of the ash onto the floor.

"Two million. Each. Turn around, leave your business cards at the door, payment'll be in your accounts by Monday evening, contracts in the mail if you want to make it a long-term deal."

He's bribing everyone. He doesn't even look like he's concerned, speaking with the confidence of someone trying to make a deal rather than someone facing down a whole bunch of people showing up to beat him up. Axel, Blaze, and Pramanix all stare at him incredulously, already looking prepared to fight.
X The confusion in the air turns into an ample and severe look on X's face.

        "Shut up."

The Ride Armor, its Weapon Arm overheated for the moment, reaches out with its plated hand in order to quicky grasp Mr. X in a steely, tight grip. Its enough to hurt, but not enough to harm -- it'd take some elbow grease to get him out, if he gets snatched up.

"There's been more than enough evidence provided for a Paladins intervention; you're under arrest, and no amount of bartering is going to get you out of that much. Whatever excuses you have .. "

The android's eyes narrow, " ...can wait for a judge's ears."

Of course, if he continued to resist his arrest, X couldn't be held responsible for what Hibiki, Pramanix, and the three vigilantes might do to him.
Hibiki Tachibana     Hibiki pushes herself back to a slightly breathless stand as the chaos dies down, briefly looking back at Axel mopping up his robo-copy, then at the fallen Yang, before she focuses back on Mr. X. Her flared up anger over her friend getting hurt might have subsided, but it's just replaced with a different kind seeing how casual the man they've come all this way for is treating this.

    His offer gets her to look just as shocked as some of the others for a brief moment, before she tightens one of the hands at her side into a shaking fist and starts forward. "Who the hell would take a bribe from you...!?" She sounds offended to say the least. And angry.

    Angry enough that despite X trying to go for the arrest, and despite the Mysterious Hooded Figures who caught the flying Shiva so casually still standing right there, Hibiki is still marching in with heavy steps. "You've hurt people, tried to do terrible things, could have hurt innocent people - and you not only don't care, you think we'd turn back now just for some money!?"

    She will, in fact, hop right on the Ride Armor's arm if X successfully does grab him, just so she can try and grab him by the tie herself and glare him in the eye. She can't really do that otherwise because wow he is /tall/ and she's pretty short.

    "You have some serious nerve, you bastard!"
Nanoha Takamachi     Nanoha's eyes widen a little. Is he trying to bribe them?

    X proceeds to go and try to restrain Mr. X. Nanoha prepares a binding spell of her own, but doesn't unleash it just yet, keeping it as a backup in case Mr.X manages to slip out of X's grip.

    In response, Nanoha nods along with X's words, "Right! There's no point in trying to hide it any more. We know what you've done here. Do you really care so little for the people's lives that you think you can put a price on them and expect us to take it?"

    Nanoha shakes her head, "You've bullied them enough... Threatened their lives for the last time. Just what were you hoping to get out of all this!?"
Warfarin     Warfarin moves to stabilize Yang at least... perking as she hears the attempt at a bribe.

    Two million?

    Warfarin's red eyes lock upon Mr. X, a hand moving inside the bag, did she have another syringe? "I'm not interested." she lets her red eyes scan over Mr. X's frame, trying to pick out any interesting details about his physical countenance... "I don't think you could offer me anything.." there's a beat, he beeeg. And doesn't seem to have the same problems... hmm.

    "Part of me is interested in how you're that huge without any medical issues but, I'm afraid that'll have to wait." Warfarin picks up her medical bag and IV Holder... "Was there anything at all or was this just... a game for you? Something you could just, pay to try and win? What would you do if you lose... throw more money at the problem that you're doing right now?"

    Warfarin shakes her head, "You're disgusting."
Karlan Nobles Once it's clear nobody plans to take Mr. X up on his offer, the giant lets out a light sigh while turning to the destroyed windows behind his chair. He rests his hand on the chair and glances over his shoulder when X tries to grab him in the Ride Armor's mighty fist and Hibiki leaps on to grab for him herself, not even flinching or moving to defend himself while sticking the cigar back into his mouth.

The hooded figures handle that for him handily. One brandishes a rapier out of that hooded cloak and slashes upwards at the Ride Armor's wrist and Hibiki in one smooth motion, and the other whips out an uzi to unload a full clip in a wide spray to disrupt Nanoha's focus. Their hoods fall away, revealing that they're both... Somebody? White-hair, considerably younger than Mr. X, but each having the same maniacal glint in their eyes.

Mr. X (big): "What a shame.  Again, I don't know what you're talking about, and if you think you're going to force me to confess to something, give my lawyers a call.... Anyway. If you want to change things, now's your chance."
Ms. Y (rapier): "Yes, father... Prepare yourselves. We won't let you kill our father again!"
Blaze: "'Again'?"
Mr. Y (uzi): "Oh, don't tell me you don't remember, Miss Fielding! You and your scruffy friend there, chasing our father for years..."
Axel: "That hasn't happened yet."
Mr. Y: "... What?"
Pramanix: "What?"
Axel: "You're fourteen years too early."
Blaze: "Is THAT why Adam's so... And you're so-"
Axel: "Yeah."
Blaze: "Wait, so where's the young-"

Clearing his throat loudly, Mr. X actually sounds annoyed as he reaches behind his chair, picking up a tommygun and aiming it towards the group. "Alright, alright, that's enough. If you want to have your exposition, you can have it while you're bleeding out!"