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Cantio LAST TIME
There was a lab that looked like it was built by someone without a construction license or any training whatsoever! There was also a rhino-man throwing boulders, an off-brand G*dzilla made of 90% neck, and pterodactyls that thought running into a fight would be more effective than flying.

NOW
With the area around the strange/shitty lab secured, there's a rare moment of peace as the Cheetahmen prepare themselves for the next battle to come. Apollo busies himself with carving a few extra crossbow bolts, Aries tightens the straps on his clubs and flicks them around himself experimentally, and Hercules has his face buried in a white and purple tablet watching some kind of music video.

They're not the only ones here, of course, as Cantio and Jackson are getting their own preparations finished as well. Cantio directs a pair of drones as they hover around the lab slowly, lingering near the darkened windows  while Jackson scrounges the field for bullets and parts to reload and duct-tape to his machine gun.

The lab door is currently closed, towering over the group and a couple of inches higher than the actual ground. The darkened windows looking into the lab are at different heights thanks to inconsistently-sized stone slabs that make up the lab's walls. Said walls also have a gap near the higher part of the lab thanks to the radar dish positioned on a lower roof, creating an awkward gap so that it can presumably turn without breaking anything.

"It's kind of hard to see inside. The lights must be off inside, so they probably know we're here." Cantio comments while calling one of the drones back and sending another one up, flipping the nearby one over to peer at the blurry footage it managed to record. "We'll probably be walking into a trap unless anyone has ideas, so be prepared for anything."
Yang Xiao Long     Yang's reloating too, pulling shells from her belt pouches and slotting them into the clips that go into her gauntlets. These ones are colour-marked with orange 'tips' that bulge out from the main shell case a little, while the ones currently in the feeder are yellow body with not protruding tips.

    "I could probably launch myself onto the roof, see if there's an opening to get inside up there... or I could try knocking." she remarks, finishing sliding the last shell into place and putting the loaded clip into the large box at the small of her back, where she can reach it easily. "I'm runnin' a little low on ammo, only got enough for three more full loads before I'm just straight punchin'." she adds as a status update.
Captain Flint      The Walrus is anchored offshore. Billy Bones has temporary command of the ship while Flint and Silver command a vanguard comprised of a total of five men. They are the taciturn swordsman Joji, the superstitious and paranoid Mr. Turk, the young and easygoing Joshua, the sharpshooter Mr. Beauclerc, and the dour Mr. Carver, also known as 'Old Jim.' Each of the men, even the specialists Beauclerc and Joji, carry duffel bags of equipment and tools.

     The pirates mingle among the Cheetahmen, preparing their own weapons. Joji is presiding over a sour-faced Old Jim, who sharpens the former's sword with a whetstone and polishes it, over and over again, grumbling swears every time Joji motions 'again.' Joji understands the swears. He just doesn't care.

     Mr. Turk, armed with a bullpup configuration PDW, eyes the treeline nervously, as Joshua and Mr. Beauclerc peer over Hercules' shoulder to watch the music video. That just leaves Flint and Silver, who pause in their conversation over a map Flint made to turn their attention towards Cantio. Silver holds up a grey canister with an impish grin. "This might be useful," he says.

     "Smoke," says Flint, clarifying. "We could roll it beneath the door once Yang knocks to draw their fire, if there should be any, then enter in through one of the windows. Mr. Turk could get them loose with a crowbar and a file."
Warfarin     After hearing something through some sort of grapevine, Warfarin's around. The pale Medic's red eyes stare at the building, shuffling a bit around as she hefts her bag. "I'm here to provide medical support, figured it'd be useful." She takes a look at all present briefly, hovering a bit more on Yang. "I'd say be careful, but, I've seen you work." a minor chuckle as she moves towards the yellow punchfriend.

    "Smoke or flashbang to disorient those inside, then storm the castle paramilitary style." she gives a bit of additional commentary towards Flint, "I'm sure that'll work just fine."

    "Ah, if it wouldn't be too much trouble, could someone fill me in on a brief notes issue on what's the story?"
Hibiki Tachibana     Hibiki, for her part, has done her best in trying to get some insight into this really, really weird lab. She's hopped up to join Cantio's drones in trying to spy through the windows, tried to fit a finger into the gaps in the stone 'walls' to see if they'll shut, and also lied down flat just to see if she could see anything underneath the upraised door. And no. No she did not. It's dark. Very dark.

    When all that fails though, she's come to a single conclusion: "This guy can't even put his lab together straight. I'm seriously worried about what he's gonna be like in person." She shakes her head, rubbing the back of her neck before half-turning back to Cantio. "I don't really have any ideas short of going right in, but smoking them out doesn't sound half bad," she says in agreement with Flint. "I'll be happy to help Yang 'knock' though." She raises a fist and pumps it briefly for emphasis.

    That aside though, she looks off towards the trio of Cheetahmen all preparing in their own way, and briefly cocks her head. She looks like she's wondering whether or not to say something, but eventually decides there's no need to. They look ready. And after seeing them in action, she sure knows she can count on them to have their back.
Guzma Guzma is historically a bug-type trainer. That hasn't changed. However, he brought a vehicle to ride around with, since this is some strange island.

That 'vehicle' is a knockoff bull, called a Tauros. He's currently trying to ride it.

"This bad boy will do the job for us. We just bash through all the doors, yo!" The punk leader slaps the Tauros as a gesture, like 'this bad boy can contain so much blank', and then...

It suddenly starts rushing straight for the lab. Guzma tries to yank it back, but it won't listen, so mid-rush, he reaches to grab Silver's smoke concoction, barely not fumbling it. "Windows, roof, do your thing!"

The Tauros is about to impact with the lab door, and it is a charging monster bull, so the door will probably go down. As soon as it impacts, Guzma releases the smoke, even though it blinds him too, as the Tauros moves to just sort of...rampage wildly inside the smoke.
Cantio "Bursting in through the window might help split the attention of whoever's inside and close one potential escape route." Apollo (the crossbow guy) replies to Yang with a slow nod, looking up towards it in turn. "Although you'd be at the mercy of whoever's behind the windows, not to mention the... All the glass. Be careful if you do that."

"Smoke?" Aries (the club guy) repeats, letting out an intrigued noise and moving over to check out the strange canister. "I getcha... Get them lookin' one way, make 'em panic with the smoke, then bust some skulls before they know what hit them. Man, these humans really have this warfare thing sorted out. Right, Herc?"

Hercules (the big guy) misses that entirely. He's too focused on holding the tablet (from below, to make sure Joshua and Mr. Beauclerc can also see) and watching the music video. It's some shlock from Cadenza, featuring someone that bears a passing resemblance to Cantio while clearly not being the person that's actually here. A relative, perhaps.

"That'll be a relief, thanks! Everyone here is pretty..." Cantio starts with a light chuckle towards Warfarin, glancing towards each person afterwards with a thoughtful look on her face. "... Enthusiastic. About... Danger." That's polite, right? Right. "The short version is that we're tracking down some food supplies  from an airship that got shot down over this island. A survivor from the crew might have been brought here, though, and these..."

"Cheetahmen." Jackson (the red-haired human guy) pipes up, giving Cantio an out! "Y-yes. These cheetahmen have some history with the owner of this lab here, and we suspect the survivor and the supplies are inside."

Hibiki can see some vague shapes moving around in the darkness, not quite running, but certainly moving with a fair bit of speed as if things are being moved around. The gaps in the walls are fairly small, but they don't close back in on themselves unless she moves one of them too much to shuffle them around. her assessment certainly seems correct at such a close inspection of the architecture, though, since...

Yeah, this place looks like crap up close. Even from afar, it looks like it was built by apocalypse enthusiasts. The simultaneously sturdy and shoddy construction comes to the forefront, though, when the bull Pokemon, instead of waiting for its trainer's actual signal, charges straight at the doors just from the slap.

To the structure's credit, it's not made of straw or hay or anything weak like that. The stone is actually pretty hardy! The door is made of extremely sturdy iron! The hinges, though, are just nailed through those slabs without any mounting brackets or the like, and the door's jostled enough from that single impact that it (and the connecting slabs) come crashing right down. The smoke canister goes right in afterwards, drawing a cacophany of frightened and startled yells from those inside.

????: "Jesus fucking christ! The hell was that?"
????: "Gaddangit! I just put that thing up! Aw, hell with it. Y'all wanna dance?! Let's dance!"

There's a few ominous beeping noises from inside the lab as a thin laser can be seen coming out of the darkness. It doesn't take long before gunfire can be heard from whoever's inside, all firing through the smoke (from three distinct angles, two at ground level) to try and catch the Elites off guard!
Captain Flint      Unfortunately, Mr. Turk opens his mouth to answer Warfarin before someone less stupid has a chance. Looking over his shoulder at her, "Well, it's like this. You ever *seen* the First? I ain't. She's a reptilian, I tell you--"

     "Shut the fuck up, Turk," says Joseph, who interjects. "Nobody wants to hear that shit." With an apologetic glance towards Warfarin, the Carib pirate offers an actually helpful explanation. "Airship carrying food supplies on its way to Summer got hit from behind, crashed on this island. Him," he says, pointing to Jackson, "Survived the crash. We was helping him track down the ship and we ran into them," he says, pointing a scarred finger over to the Cheetahmen. "Animals here, they're big and mean. Might have something to do with them energy drinks that was on the ship, but that's a question for him," admits Joseph with a nod towards Jackson.

     Old Jim, the eldest of the pirates here, nods sagely. "Jackson don't look it, but he's a man of letters. I'd trust him to know what he's talkin' about more than whoever's in that ramshackle place." A callused thumb is jerked towards the unevenly made lab.

     As Guzma comes striding in, Silver passes off the smoke grenade and pantomimes how to use it for Guzma, giving Apollo a thumbs-up. Meanwhile, Mr. Turk and Joseph hurry over to the windows, hurling netted grapnels to fasten to the lip. Each man scampers hastily up the side, their ascents uneven due to the uneven construction of the place. With Tauros, Hibiki and Yang working their magic, neither of the pirates has to worry about being quiet. The bars which hold the windows in place are hurriedly ground away with metal files until they can be snapped loose. The two then work away at the windows themselves, cutting them with precision instruments that work circular holes into the panes and lift them gently off with suction. Each of them motion for the others to hurry.

     Anyone who doesn't enter through the front door or roof may climb up the netting and through the holes in the windows. Flint and Silver take point with swords and pistols, the latter's crutch not slowing him down in the slightest. After, Turk and Joseph, with their PDWs, followed by Old Jim and Joji, with a shotgun and a sword, respectively. Mr. Beauclerc, with his high-powered rifle, is the last one of the pirates to enter in.

     The front line all drop down, roll forward and kneel, allowing those entering behind them to get clear shots.

     "Cover! Now!" Cries Flint as the laser shines through the smoke. Beauclerc's duffel bag is emptied and two welded-together, undoubtedly stolen riot shields are unfolded, propped up on a thick wooden bipod to make a crude bit of deployable cover. The pirates have to lie it on its side and get prone behind it, as bullets zip angrily past. Old Jim catches a bullet to the shoulder before he can get to the cover, and so does Flint, when he rushes out to drag the man to safety.

     To cover them, Silver hurls a bottle towards the source of that laser. It's got a flaming bit of rag in it, and is filled with black powder, nails, broken glass and sharp stones.
Yang Xiao Long     Yang looks around at the others, grinning at Warfarin with that carefree, lopsided expression. She then blinks as Guzma goes barreling past on the big, bull thing and knocks the door off its hinges. "Hey! I was gonna do that!" she grumps, before bullets start flying at her and catch her full in center mass, knocking her on her ass from the impact. She scrambles out of the line of fire, her Aura flickering briefly as it had to tank all the impact of that hit. "Damn it, ow."

    Once there's a lull in the fire she gets up, launches herself toward the door and rolls in the landing. Once she's stable, she fires to the right, launching herself in a spinning roundhouse haymaker toward the left-side source of fire!
Warfarin     "Re..ptlia.." Warfarin immediately looks slightly confused until someone smarter(?) pops up. The glance is returned with a 'thank god' look.

    "So this is more of a recovery and finding out what the hell happened."... and there's a rampaging bull. With a rider. And a smoke grenade. "Does... this happen often?"

    Not that she hasn't seen some levels of crazy like this.

    Once bullets start flying, Warfarin tries to duck out of the way, getting scraped by some before she takes cover. Thin red lines start to streak out from her blood bags, wounds on everyone, at least the minor ones, start stitching up quickly.. "Whatever happened to not shooting the medic?! God damn war crimes..."

    She raises her IV Pole, blood coalescing from the bags on it into the air as acidic blood bats start to fly out from it and towards at least the /guns/ of those who are shooting!
Hibiki Tachibana     Good on Guzma, taking the initiative to barge in. Now she has to settle for punching in something else with the door gone.

    And it looks like she'll get her wish soon--those vague shapes she barely saw moving around are definitely a lot more than shapes now, and that laser pointer aiming at them has one very likely source she can imagine. Like a gun. Or guns. The moment before the fire starts, Hibiki pushes in through the open doorway herself, rushing in and then darting to the side as bullets rain down. A few she's forced to block - rapid shifts of one of her arms to intercept them, sending them ricocheting off her Symphogear's armor with some minor damage taken, two shots - but she mostly intends to stay out of the way of the length of the barrage. "He was ready...! But...!"

    Once she's strafed a decent way, she suddenly skids to a stop and turns, dropping low and then propelling herself full-force towards one of the sources of gunfire--one of the ones that aren't on the ground floor. It's just a heavy tackle fist-first meant to floor them and put herself right on top of them, but it's sure going to hurt. A lot. But first things first, disabling their attackers and finding out who they are! Though she has a good guess already.
Guzma The door goes down. The smoke goes up. Guzma is blind, as is the Tauros. Shots are fired, blasting into the Tauros' side and causing it to make a loud noise of pain. Guzma ducks on the bull, only taking a grazing wound, before slapping the rear again and jerking the reins towards where the ground level shots came from.

The gunmen get a rushing bull, moving to slam them straight into the nearest wall (and possibly through it). "Yee-haw, yo! Take this, you hillbilly dorks!"
Cantio "You get used to it." Cantio answers Warfarin with a mildly dead-inside tone even as she chuckles at  Turk's theory. "Although I'm pretty sure nobody is a Rep... Uh. I mean, it's not /impossible/, but..."

Alas, Joseph has to make things sensible again.

Thankfully, entry into the laboratory from the windows is far safer than heading in through the front door/wall hole. There's nothing on the outside to actually pull those nets down, nothing to stop the bars from being filed away and broken off, and nobody waiting at the windows to shoot or beat up anyone the moment they go in from that direction. It's not until that bottle is thrown that further fire is even directed towards those decoy shields, and even that stops momentarily when the flaming shrapnel grenade smashes into the beeping gunner.

Or turret, rather, as the smoke starts to clear and reveals what looks like a tripod with a gun on top of it. A bald man with goggles scrambles away from the thing even as it keeps firing wildly at the group, churning out bullets as long as it can before the Tauros smashes into it and the wall until it's little more than scrap and a pile of bullets clattering out of the machine's shell.

After the smoke clears, Jackson aims his machine gun into the busted-open lab. He doesn't fire, though, as he stares dumbfounded at the goggled man in the middle of bashing another tripod with two guns attached to it. "Wha... Hey, we're here to rescue you! Hold your fire!" Jackson shouts to no avail, the goggled man taking a few potshots at the Cheetahmen in between bashes of the turret.

"No can do, sonny! Them there's the varmints that shot me, and the ol' doc here's the one that patched me back up. Get 'em outta here, and I'll think about it!"

"We got one, Doctor Morbis!" A shrill voice calls out, coming from a caricature of a man with a metal arm lined with guns. "We got o-UAUGH!" Alas, the guns don't do much to protect his very human-face as he's launched into the opposite wall by Yang's punch, sending him head over ass a few times in the process. The guns keeps firing even as he comes to a stop, though, holding that metallic arm up to let them keep shooting right until Warfarin's acidic blood bats swarm around the appendage and render it a crumbling pile of steel.

Gunfire keeps coming from other directions, however, as a man in a turquoise jumpsuit and yellow neck-guard zips around in midair in defiance of gravity with an assault rifle in each hand. It doesn't even look like he's concentrating on his movement, either, as the crackling orange and red force field surrounding him seems to be keeping him off the ground entirely! Hibiki's flying charge makes that force field crackle further, even denting the thing with a startled shriek from the man inside it, before the protective bubble rockets backwards as though she had just punched an oversized superball.

On one hand, it keeps him moving erratically even as he keeps firing on the group. On the other hand, aiming is even more of an issue since it doesn't look like he's controlling its movements particularly well in that state. On the third hand, the force field starts glowing more ominously as it connects to the double-gun turret, turning the whole thing red as it starts spewing bulles at an extra-accelerated clip!
Yang Xiao Long     Yang wasn't exactly expecting to connect with the blind hit, but that's why she has the explosive shells in her gauntlets for melee fighting, even a glancing hit causes more damage than one might expect.

    She gets peppered by the turret and the flying rifleman, her Aura crackling as it absorbs, and deflects some of the bullets, though some manage to punch through and get the brawler scrambling again. "You're startin' to PISS ME OFF!" she bellows at the guy working on the turret. "Stop shootin' at us and we'll get them to leave!" she counters, launching herself up to the walkways, then shifting her gauntlets to ranged mode, the shells cycling to bring those orange-tipped ones to the chamber. She fires these, lobbing explosive projectiles at Mister Superball. They have a mild seeking, but won't be able to turn after extreme maneuverse, but they'll explode after a while, like flak shells but pure force, no shrapnel.
Warfarin     Warfarin's bats continue to swarm around, providing support and being a general annoyance now as she moves to reposition herself. "Doctor Morbis?" she mutters, storing that into her mind to ask about later. She moves to try to get closer, some bats covering her while those red strings of blood continue to patch up the small wounds on everyone as bullets whiz by, some cutting right into her only to get patched up a bit more after spitting the bullet out of the wound.

    Hiding behind some more cover... "You guys okay?" she shouts out to those she's with as she conjures up some more of those blood bats... "Who's this Doctor Morbis? I'd like to have a few words with them!" she shouts out as she lets more of those acidic blood bats go to try to melt the shield or the generator for that shield.
Guzma Tauros hits the turret, but the assault rifle from Morbus does enough damage, along with all the other damage from crashing and being shot, that it falls unconscious. Guzma returns the 'borrowed' Tauros to the pokeball...

And rushes for cover, bullets grazing him. He throws out another pokeball. "Vikavolt, Zap Cannon! Disable those guns!"

As the long-mandible flying bug goes out, it begins charging those mandibles with electricity, before sending a charged shot straight at Morbus. At his guns, specifically, trying to use the electricity to render them useless! Or at least, harder to aim.
Hibiki Tachibana     "Got you...!" Sort of. She wasn't expecting the sensation of hitting energy more than a face proper. But at least the way he goes flying is pretty satisfying...still, a human? Here? What's going on exactly? Wait, is that really...?

    She doesn't get long to contemplate it though, because the ping-ponging around makes keeping up with what happens next really hard! Aiming doesn't matter as much when there's this many bullets flying around. Hibiki is forced to hastily defend herself by tucking in both arms and legs to maximize armor coverage as she's sent flying backwards after a leap by a hail of bullets, backing her into a wall until the barrage of shots changes directions towards someone else. "Ngh--well, if it's a machine, no reason to hold back!"

    She'll leave the engi--mechanist to bounce around and be dealt with by the others. This is something she can go all out on, and with that in mind, she braces herself against the weirdly offset wall and uses it to launch herself. She remains close to the roof of the building for most of her jump, nearly catching herself on an uneven portion that's lower than the rest, but actually uses it to catch herself with both hands and realign herself to go straight down! She's planning to come right down on top of the turret, and hopefully outside of its firing arc!

    Where she raises one leg high and nearly parallel to her body, showcasing some serious flexibility - and some serious incoming pain, as the set of pistons on her legs shoot outwards, connected to thick cables. Her boot comes down in an axe kick dead center on the top of the turret, and if that's not enough to stomp it in, the sudden return and inwards slam of the pistons will be enough to make the ground beneath it shatter and a shockwave to ring out!
Captain Flint      The turret is smashed. Flint and his men are used to working with Guzma. The scrap is scarecely spread across the floor before an urging from Flint has the pirates fanning out. "Beauclerc, don't let him repair it! Close range, move in!"

     Old Jim, Turk, Joji, Flint and Silver charge forward, the four of them swarming aaround the flying anti-grav man. Old Jim blasts with his shotgun, a pump-action combat model with a high rate of fire and a lot of stopping power, taking turns with Yang in flinging him across the room. Joji, Flint and Silver attempt to skewer him with swords when the others' attacks bounce him close enough, the latter two taking potshots with pistols elsewise.

     Turk, with that bullpup PDW, is chewing through ammo despite his controlled bursts, but the pirate's getting good mileage out of the little lead laser. He's making suppressive fire towards the man whacking that turret, attempting to distract him.

     Every man hauled ass to get to their current positions, sweat pouring down temples, chests heaving with exertion. The opening created by Hibiki, Warfarin and Tauros has given them all a bit of breathing room, and they're all in up-close range. All except two. Joshua is setting something heavy and metal up.

     Beauclerc's... been moving that cover shield with Joshua, to a better vantage point. The engineer's raised hand is reflected in the rifle's scope as the trigger is squeezed. "Fine," calls Joshua to Warfarin. "Just keep 'em busy! Almost done!"
Cantio "That makes two of us, blondie! Y'all quit knockin' the doc around, and then we can talk. 'til then...!" The Engineer's counter-offer lingers in the air about as long as Doctor Morbis' force field bouncefest does. Yang's explosive shells burst close enough to the protective sphere that he shrieks again at getting launched into a wall and off the ceiling, barely able to keep up with firing his guns at the Elites below and nearby while he goes hurtling all around what's left of the lab.

If not for the fact that he's able to actually keep aiming through even barely, it might look considerably more sad.

"I'm Doctor Morbis! And who the hell do you all think you are, breaking into... Hell, /breaking/ my lab?!" He howls while trying to focus his shots on specific targets rather than blasting bullets indiscriminately, although there's only so much one person can do even with a mighty force field propping him up. As he fires off a burst of bullets from one gun, he can't quite maneuver the shield ball well enough to evade those bats thinning it out and leaving cracks in his (figurative) armor.

"Is that some kind of... Overgrown lightning bug? That could lead to some breakthroughs if...!" The prospect of superpowered animals seems to be grabbing Doctor Morbis' attention rather easily, strangely enough, and he lowers his guard momentarily to make a grand sweeping gesture with his arm towards Guzma. "Join me! I can't pay you right now, but we'd be a force to be reckoned with once I can turn that into a sub-human!"

He doesn't actually say what perks Guzma would get out of it. That distraction is enough to eat through the gun he's wisely swept /through/ the force field, though, turning the gun into slag and causing the force field to flicker dangerously. Doctor Morbis shrieks in pain again as he drops the melted weapon to avoid getting electrocuted further.

The force field continues to crackle from the lingering electricity along with the constant shots from Old Jim keeping Morbis from actually controlling his movements properly, and he actually looks worried as the shield appears to be fading quickly. Sensing the impending danger, Morbis turns his gun towards the ceiling to fire a few bullets off and slow himself down momentarily, yelping when the bubble finally bursts from the pistol shots. He lands with a somewhat clumsy roll, scrambling to avoid getting impaled by the swords even as they cut into his weird suit thing and draw a fair bit of blood just from the brief contact.

'If it's a machine'? Dang, kiddo, ain't you ever watch them AI takeover movies? You can't spit garbage like that!" The Engineer retreats from the turret as Hibiki comes in to smash her leg right into his creation, the turret beeping wildly as it turns upwards just in time for the pistons to crush it and the tiles beneath it. The bald man even gets flung back from the force of the shockwave, although he catches himself on a railing and takes a few potshots at Hibiki from his pistol instead of staying down.

And then the rifleman puts a hole right through that hand. The Engineer lets out a hoarse choking noise as he staggers back, falling back from the battlefield just as guttural growling noises come from outside the laboratory's remaining walls. From out of nowhere (or just around the corner, really), a pair of animal-human hybrids come charging towards the Elites: A vulture in khakis with knives strapped to his legs, and a hyena in red with similar blades on his wrists.

They also seem to actually know what they're doing with their weapons. Instead of just rushing in and using brute force, they actually zip back and forth in the air and on the ground, trying to dance around the Elites and harass them with quick slices instead of committing to dangerous strikes. The Cheetahmen actually appear to be having trouble keeping up with them, Cantio has her hands full hurling healing spells around to keep them on their feet, and Jackson...
Cantio Jackson's screaming. Not from pain, even though he does look somewhat bloodied, but from his body growing visibly on the spot to a size rivaling Hercules. There doesn't appear to be any immediate explanation for it, although it does keep him from succumbing to his wounds as he join the battle with nothing more than his fists. He still can't keep up with the two sub-humans, though, as they keep using their distraction tactics to buy a few more seconds.

The reason for that becomes immediately clear as yet more beeping comes from the remaining darkened corner of the lab, followed by three sets of lasers, two sets of miniguns spraying bullets, and one missile launcher firing explosives like the Engineer's life depends on it.

Which it might, really, as far as they know. Both Doctor Morbis and the Engineer are huddled behind the machine as the former takes a small box off his belt and slams it into the back of the turret, causing the entire thing to crackle with its own red electricity while firing off superpowered bullets and rockets at the Elites!
Yang Xiao Long     The rocket launcher hits the platform Yang's standing on, cracking it and dropping her heavily to the floor, where she's easy pickings for the new mooks to slice up, thier blades piercing her Aura, leaving bloody gashes which seem to only serve to make the brawler even angrier.

    She gets up, slams her fists together, and roars in a way that might even make Jackson look small by the sheer rage in the sound. She leaps, cracking the floor beneath her feet, racking the slides on her gauntlets to load in her melee shells, and brings a haymaker down, into the ground, firing the shells into the floor to cause a kinetic pulse to launch shrapnel all around her, the floor 'rippling' like water from the force of the strike.
Guzma "Shut up! Vikavolt's my pal, and you're not gonna do nothing to 'em!" But Morbus escapes Guzma's wrath, and the turret fires into Vikavolt, sending it spiralling back. Guzma is hit as well, the lightning sending him flying back, but Vikavolt moves to shield most of it. It's injured. Guzma's mad.

"Vikavolt, can you still fight?" It makes a chitter in affirmation, and Guzma nods. "Lightning, everywhere. Make sure they can't dodge! Coordinate with the others on where you strike, so they can hit the weakpoints!"

Vikavolt rises up, and begins sending out big lightning bolts at the turret. They rain down, and a few moments of a chitter and a call out from Guzma is enough to avoid getting hit. Hopefully, Flint's crew and the bruisers can destroy the turret, so they can capture their enemies.
Captain Flint      "Missiles!" shouts Silver.

     It's like a wave passes over the Walrus crew. To a man--even Beauclerc and Joshua in the back--they all hit the deck. The ground is hard and unwelcoming, but it's a damn sight better than missiles. The rounds from the turrets zip angrily over their backs.

     "Guzma's handling the turrets! Joshua! Get rid of them!" calls Flint.

     Joshua has finally finished putting together that contraption. It's a .50 caliber heavy machine gun, mounted on a tripod. "Ey, Jackson, Cheetahmen! Down in front," hollers the pirate, before squeezing the trigger. He cuts a broad arc across the hallway, firing in steady bursts. First, a few towards the genetically modified creatures engaging their allies, to give the scientist and the Cheetamen a bit of breathing room against the aggressive fighters. Then, concentrated streams of fire on the turrets, placing the brunt of the weapon's teeth on those turrets while Vikavolt has them tied up.

     That's precisely the opening Flint, Joji and Silver need to get to their feet and squeeze those hostile beastmen with a pincer attack from behind, trapping them between a three-pirate wall and a joint Cheetahman/Muscle-Scientist alliance.
Hibiki Tachibana     "...Oh. I guess if that did happen, I'd look like a real idiot. My bad." Hibiki, as she flips back to her feet and pauses for a moment, actually seems to take his complaint seriously and feel kind of bad for it, looking off to the side briefly. Then after several seconds, she blinks and shakes her head and refocuses, pretending that just didn't happen. Part of that is because she's getting shot at, forcing her to go back on the defensive until support fire disarms the Engineer. Another part of it is Morbis, who she fires back at. Not literally. Metaphorically. She doesn't even have a gun. "We're here to put a stop to your subhuman experiments!" Is she using subhuman as a noun, or...? It's impossible to tell. "You're also the one responsible for abducting the crewmember from Cantio's ship, aren't you!?" Hibiki says that as if he's not here, then looks back to the turret-erectin', dispenser-creatin' man.. She frowns.

    There's a moment in the middle of the chaos where she actually stops and thinks about what's going on here for a moment, putting a few pieces together, but then things get even more chaotic. Jackson becomes Big. Could he do that the entire time? Also, more guns. They're almost as important.

    Very important, as she gets lit up. There's simply too many bullets to completely avoid, and once the horde of ballistics start coming in, her corner of the lab is practically covered in smoke and debris. For all intents and purposes, it looks like she's going to be out.

    Then, with Guzma's call, a fairly bloody and exploded Hibiki suddenly comes roaring out of the dust cloud. Not on foot. On top of a missile. She's actually hunched over, holding onto it with one hand as if to guide it, somehow having /not/ detonated it to instead turn it around and ride it back towards the superpowered turret keeping them from their two supposed foes! Her free hand's gauntlet triples up in size while she's in flight, rocket thrusters forming out the back and piston replaced with a whirling turbine. "I'm still going to destroy it though! Just without the badmouthing this time!" It builds up a /lot/ of extra acceleration, and enough force in her fist that she starts going unsteady...!

    And then she punches the turret. She punches through the barrage, and then goes on towards it to just punch it. Really hard. Enough to stop her in place for a moment despite all the momentum she's built up. Just long enough of one to pull up on the rocket she's riding to send it into the hole she probably just punched into it, and backflip away before it and all the other attacks make being here a very bad idea.
Warfarin     Even with all the shots going at her, she keeps herself bunkered down. Pinned medic. "I see, we may have to have a chat, doctor to doctor." she shouts out as her IV Bag holder is lifted high. She injects something from her medical bag into the line, the blood turning a sickly green color, puffing up, stretching the bag tautly. "But first, I think we need to... stop those turrets." she mutters under her breath as she peeks out from her cover in time for an acidic, green, large blood bat bursts from the blood bag.

    Warfarin makes a pointing motion and off it goes, towards the hypercharged machine, "Melt it." she commands as the Blood Bat starts on a ramming speed towards it. "What are you even doing in this lab? And what nessecitated the shooting down of that vessel? What did you even need those things for?"
Cantio "Fine! I'll just kill you and add it to my army... Militia later!" There's a brief pang of defeat in Doctor Morbis' tone as he shouts back at Guzma, still managing to sound defiant despite his only weapon being a fairly standard assault rifle compared to everything and everyone else in the room. The lightning bolts strike at everything within reach, blowing up that box that had just been attached to the turret before it can wind up for another volley. Morbis' subhumans, meanwhile, are thoroughly electrocuted by the lightning bug, making it child's play for the rest of the attacks coming their way to hit their mark.

They can't even take a dive to mitigate some of the damage or attempt to get some sympathy, either, as Yang smashes her shells into the ground and turn it into a spiky hellhole. The turret starts teetering from no longer having solid ground to stay on, and the the hyena and vulture are hurled into the air while shrapnel tears through them relentlessly.

As Joshua calls out that warning, the Cheetahmen and Machoman take heed and roll into the few safe-ish spots on the ground, keeping their heads down and thankfully not seeing the machine gun tearing into the subhumans trying in vain to not get shot to pieces. Thankfully, they're sturdy enough from years of genetic modifications that they get to keep all their limbs in the process, but that's of little relief to the ones getting shot up and then caught up in a dogpile of pirate swords, oversized fists, clubs, and crossbow bolts all at once before they go down.

"Abducting the...? Why would I want a /human/ to experiment on? That's just asking to get murdered in my sleep!" Morbis actually denies Hibiki's accusation, and the Engineer even huddles in the corner because he's still reeling from having a hole blown into his hand. The two relatively-less combat-capable of the opposing force seem content to hide in that corner and await the inevitable with only two guns between them as Hibiki dives in to punch the shit out of that turret and feed it its own rocket. That does put her dangerously in shooting range as the turret starts to overload, but...

The Blood Bat stops that from creating a catastrophic (for the Engineer) explosion. With the turret on its last legs, the melting blood substance takes the guns right off, and the remaining bullets burst inside of the turret while the rest of the machine craps out between the constant abuse and running way too hard for way too long.

The battle is over, and Doctor Morbis is slouched against a wall with his gun tossed aside and his hands raised. THe Engineer, though, still seems to have a bit of fight left in him as he keeps his pistol leveled at the Cheetahmen in his one good hand.

Morbis: "Shooting down the... What, that airship? You really think I could shoot down an armored plane with an M16?"
Engineer: "The doc's got a good sense for barriers, but that's all I reckon. But I know your game... Yer just tryin' to clean up loose ends, ain'tcha 'boss'?"
Cantio: "Loose... What? What are you talking about?"
Jackson: "Why am I big?"

Even with the fight seemingly over, tensions are still rather heated right about now. Direction may be needed (or not).
Hibiki Tachibana     "Ugh...why /are/ you big?" Hibiki quizzes Jackson as she picks herself up. Turns out her cool flip away into Cool Girls Don't Look At Explosions was a lot less graceful than it looked in her head, and she ended up on her face and in need of a moment to pick herself up. It's been a long day on the island. That's what she'll say if anything says anything about it. Once she is up though, she gives Jackson a final raise of her eyebrow before she focuses back on Morbis and the Engineer.

    "So wait...you actually weren't responsible for that?" She lifts a finger slightly towards the doctor, looking more confused than anything else as she glances between him and his compatriot. "Then..." She trails off, even more confused at the mention of 'loose ends', and figures there's a lot of explaining in order here.

    That they can't do while guns are pointed at people. For her part in that, Hibiki does the same thing she did with the Cheetahmen earlier - slowly, she walks forward to stand at the halfway point between the two and the trio, her transformation fading in a brief burst of light to return her to her casual clothes as the equivalent of disarming. "Oi, that's enough. The place has already been shot up enough." She looks tersely over towards the Engineer. "What the heck is going on here? If you're not Morbis' prisoner, what's going on here?"

    And then, to the Cheetahmen that the Engineer was aiming down at. "...And who's the 'boss' he's talking about if it's not Morbis?"
Warfarin     Warfarin shrugs, "I've seen guns take out plenty of armored things in my service." she replies back towards Morbis, "Regardless..." she heads over towards the nearest person with her bag, pulling out some spare blood packs and bandages, a quick sniff, a nod and blood starts to flow from one of the packs to patch up the wounds, first on Yang.

    "I, too, would like to know what's going on..." she mutters, looking towards Hibiki, "Ey, be careful, lemme patch you up..." a pause, "And if it gets you guys talking, I'll patch you up too. Does no good to any of us if we're dead, you know."

    Once Yang's taken care of, she lifts herself up, puts the bags back on her holder and strolls towards Bikky, "Well?"
Captain Flint      The pirates are nothing if not pragmatic, their captain especially so. A couple of glances exchanged between the captain and his men is all it takes for them to ease off with the swords and guns, and to start packing the toys away.

     "Billy," says Flint over a radio. "Have the gun crew stand down."

     "Right," comes the boatswain's voice over the radio. Off the shore of the island, the Walrus' cannons are wheeled back into their resting positions, gun ports closing after them.

     "We're really just here because of the cash reward, if that helps clear things up," says Silver to the Engineer. "The airship was shot from behind," he says, his crutch tapping a rhythm into the floor as he approaches. "I don't think an M16 could do it. Maybe one of your turrets, if they get much bigger than what we saw. You wouldn't happen to have any educated guesses, would you?"
Cantio Hibiki standing between the gun-holders does help considerably, mostly with Jackson and Flint's crew lowering theirs first, prompting Apollo to stand down as well before the Engineer finally lowers his after a few agonizingly long seconds. Warfarin's offer of healing also gets a rather favorable reaction from Morbis and the Engineer, largely from the latter and the hole in his hand (although the former is still bleeding a fair bit from getting nearly-skewered).


'Ugh...why /are/ you big?'
Jackson: "Uh...  I don't know. I started feeling weird like after I ate that food and and drank all those energy drinks, but... /Really/ weird. A lot weirder."
Engineer: "Hah! Didn't you read the label, son? Bonk's packed with radiation."
Cantio: "Wait. That wasn't just a marketing slogan?! But then that radiation would have..."

Cantio doesn't finish that sentence. She does, however, look considerably more concerned.


'If you're not Morbis' prisoner, what's going on here?'
Morbis: "My subhumans found him bleeding out halfway down the mountain. Barely even got him up here without those things burning the doors down. If it wasn't for me, your-" Heavy finger quotes "-'prisoner' would've died out there. Probably melted or eaten or whatever."


'And who's the 'boss' he's talking about if it's not Morbis?'
Cantio: "Th... That would be me. Um. I hired these two and a couple of others to deliver the supplies. But what's this about 'loose ends'?"
Engineer: "Well, what else am I supposed to think when y'all came blastin' in here with those yella-belly bastards that shot me? That you're just blastin' water guns and goin' on a safari?"
Apollo: "... I thought you were working with Morbis. You had that strange machine with the gun next to you, and-"
Engineer: "'cause o' those critters runnin' wild outside! Y'all seen 'em out there, right?"
Morbis: "Those didn't used to be here, you know. No, those started showing up /after/ your plane went down. So... You know. Thanks for that. I lost most of my best projects because of those things."


'And if it gets you guys talking, I'll patch you up too.'
Morbis: "What else is there to talk about? You broke my entire lab, blew everything up, nearly killed me and this guy, all because... What? You thought I shot down an airship with a sixty-year-old gun so I could get some snacks and energy drinks?"
Cantio: "... Yes? If it wasn't you, then who did?"
Morbis: "Why don't you go ask those frogs on the beach? They're the ones that have been dragging crates all over the place."


'I don't think an M16 could do it. Maybe one of your turrets, if they get much bigger than what we saw.'
Engineer: "At the right angles, I reckon they could. The firepower and range ain't half bad, but I ain't dumb enough to shoot somethin' down while I'm in it."
Cantio: "No, that would really only make sense if you were running some kind of... Insurance scam? And those rockets looked more like conventional explosives rather than energy weapons."
Engineer: "Yeah... Nah,  that's not my wheelhouse. I know I saw some crazy lookin' shooters on those frog boys down the mountainside, so why don't you get on their case and pick us up when yer done with all that?"
Hibiki Tachibana     Hibiki allows Warfarin to tend to her injuries. Half because, wow bullets and rockets HURT, half because she's kind of just standing there with a totally stupefied expression the more things get explained. The hamster wheel in her head begins turning and processing everything one bit at a time.

    "...So Jackson, and also the monsters, were because of the radiation-infused drinks..."
    "...And Morbis actually saved the engineer's life, instead of abducting him..."
    "...And this is all a terrible misunderstanding."
    "...And these 'frog boys' are the ones actually responsible for shooting the ship down."

    There's a long pause where Hibiki is entirely silent, no matter what Warfarin does while attending to her.

    Then she half-turns to the Cheetahmen and tilts her head some. "So Morbis /is/, like...actually the totally inhumane mad scientist you guys were talking about, right? I'm just making sure nothing else is going to surprise us here."
Cantio '...So Jackson, and also the monsters, were because of the radiation-infused drinks...'
Cantio fidgets uncomfortably. She is not denying this, although she still looks distracted by something, as though she's not entirely convinced herself.

'...And Morbis actually saved the engineer's life, instead of abducting him...'
Morbis' smug aura intensifies.

'...And this is all a terrible misunderstanding.'
Jackson wiggles his hand noncommitally.

'...And these 'frog boys' are the ones actually responsible for shooting the ship down.'
Everyone just shrugs while muttering 'yeah' and 'probably' without any sort of coordination.

'So Morbis /is/, like...actually the totally inhumane mad scientist you guys were talking about, right?'
The Cheetahmen nod, and Morbis shrugs. "They're not going to experiment on themselves."


Finally, Cantio claps her hands together, albeit with some lingering awkwardness after the past several revelations. "So! I think our next step is clear, then? We check out those.. 'frogs'?" She pauses to peer towards the beach indicated by Doctor Morbis, pointing out some moving specks in the distance that look vaguely like bipedal frogs with utility belts. Those with keener eyesight (or binoculars) can see that there's well over a dozen of the frogmen, moving crates and animal carcasses from the forest towards a large, but othewise unassuming wooden ship.

"We'll find our answers there."