Scene #7563: Seventh District: Senator Wario's Punitive Facility

Owner	Pose
Operator	The prison in which Cranky Kong is being held is freshly constructed, and well separated from the rest of New Donk City. While the rest of the metropolis sits upon towering stilts that raises the city above the clouds, the prison has been built on a much lower stilt, hiding it within the clouds. Logically, the only way to access it is by the service blimp that brings in supplies and prisoners. But Donkey Kong has a different idea. The great ape stands upon one of the bridges that connects the struts, looking down at the black clouds that enshroud the prison. He is, as ever, uncommunicative, but he points with his massive fingers down at the clouds, then reaches around to slaps his own back, as if to say that those not confident in their ability should climb on. And then he jumps off the bridge. It takes only a second for he and those who follow to plunge into the stormcloud. Rain lashes like whips as the pitch black is lit only by the occasional flash of lightning. The clouds seem to form ghoulish faces in the brief light. It's a fall that seems to last forever. But finally, land. DK slams against the prison docks, causing a worrying groan from the metal underfoot. Thankfully, nothing collapses. Before them is the gates of the prison, headlined by a great strobing neon sign that says 'SENATOR WARIO'S PUNITIVE FACILITY' complete with the fat man's face and a little hand that wags its finger at you as the lights pulse. DK walks right up to the massive steel doors and punches them clean off the gate, permitting access. A siren blares somewhere, but surprisingly, no guards or Enfarcers are rolling out to block the way. DK doesn't care, he just advances into the entrance hall and shoves past the metal detectors.
Gawain	Gawain hasn't been here in a while. He's been busy with other missions. So when he reaches the bridge with Donkey Kong, he gives the gorilla a slap on the back, expects one back, and then, when Donkey Kong jumps... "Geronimo!" Gawain goes with him. He doesn't climb on Donkey Kong's back. Instead, he lands with the other gorilla against the prison docks in a hand on the ground crouch, and stands up straight, tightening his suit. It's not sunny, but he's still agile enough for such a fall. "Alright! Let's go in, and find Cranky Kong! Paladins, on me. Natsumi, any details of previous missions I may have missed? Do we have the keys?" He assumes yes, but he's still gonna ask, as he just follows Donkey Kong straight in, humming past the metal detectors. They beep, of course, on his badge.
Ioanna Langstrom	Ioanna Langstrom needs to blow off some steam. She's mad. She's mad at herself. She should've been better. She should've known better. A soldier with eight years' combat experience in the trenches of the Union war should've been smarter, should've let others take the lead. So she does this time. That way, maybe she can do what she does best - be a soldier, instead of an Elite or a hero. Standing there, looking down the bridge, watching a giant ape leap into stormclouds, and hearing Gawain shout 'Geronimo', Ioanna considers once again that this might be above her paygrade. But orders are orders, and missions are missions, and considering that Gawain had to apologize for her on her first mission, she's not about to let something like a giant monkey falling through stormclouds to an illicit secret prison get in the way. On the other hand, she's really not happy that the Alter Gear chose to be a curve-hugging white dress and a broad blue hat with a bright white feather in it. At her side hangs a big old-fashioned radio. Her weapon is nowhere to be seen. Orders are orders. Ioanna jumps. She falls, hands over her dress to keep it from blowing up in the classic Monroe, plummeting towards the ground. She does not land with the sort of force or grace that either gorilla lands with; she has to grab the gate and swing down, carefully sliding to a stop in unpleasant-looking heels. Fortunately, that was just a simulation of the Alter Gear - she didn't actually have to fight in those. Ioanna grabs the radio and just sort of waves it at the metal detector. There's no beep as she strides past. At least she has that going for her - she's a woman confident in her own appearance, even if she's not feeling especially confident about her place on the team.
Tina Natsumi	Tina's appearance has changed a fair bit since the last time she made an appearance in New Donk City. Her cowboy hat is still present, of course, but she's ditched the somewhat impractical leather vest for a much sturdier and pocket-having bomber jacket. She's also ditched the chaps with the flapping ends for some regular freaking pants, but the belt with her gun holsters is still there and still carrying way more guns than someone her age should have. It's only two of them, but still. When DK invites her and the group to climb on, she strokes her chin with a thoughtful hum. "Tempting... Real tempting. But there's something I need to try, and this might as well be the time." She replies with a clap on Donkey Kong's back, then whips out her phone to snap a picture of herself. Instead of shouting out her Persona's name or doing a fancy twirl or anything flashy, though... She just takes a selfie like a normal person for once, but still unmistakably trying to sound cool by sounding nonchalant about it. "It's time... Persona!" There's a flash of light as a bipedal lizard starts to form in front of her, star-shaped spikes lining its back and metallic scales that might just gleam even upon entering the cloud cover. She climbs upon the lizard Persona's back, takes a deep breath, and then it leaps off with Tina in tow. They plummet. Instead of splatting right on the prison dock or crashing through it, however, the lizard starts spewing heated air directly below itself not unlike a rocket burning fuel to slow its descent. It's not a particularly flattering maneuver or even a subtle one, but Tina really wanted to try it out. Better yet, they actually land safely! "... Huh. Actually worked. Aye aye, cap'n. Let's get our guy." She laughs lightly, then rests a hand on her submachine gun as she follows Gawain and Ioanna in, taking the role of the rear guard.
Liza Grier	The minute the practical and sensible idea of stealthily hijacking one of the transport airships to the prison is suggested, Liza enters sustained paroxysms of swearing and insisting on how about no. She does not elaborate why, but it seems she has run out of ability to trust in the charming character of this wonderful place and Senator Wario's brilliant infrastructure specifically. Somehow about drawing the line at an airship adventure. What a pity. "The big guy has the right idea." is all she will elucidate past that. Though, she does not jump on his back. If she could really have it her way, she'd go all the way up into space to acquire a breaching pod to them aim all the way back at the ground and smash through as many prison floors as possible. Unfortunately, she has to settle for prodigious use of all her mobility tech slots. She spends most of the harrowing drop trying to focus on the thing that she even lands doing; that is, carefully sliding double finger-sized shells into a shotgun tube, one at a time, blessing each one with 'I hate this so much' over and over. For a moment, it looks like she's done. She pumps the slide, it sounds like slapping a baseball mitt with a cutlery drawer, and begins walking. Then she stops to blast the big neon Warior's tilting fingerwag on principle, and load one more, with one last blessing of 'hate this'. Then she advances through the smashed doors. Once she's in, the menacing green optics in her helmet light up, using the meson feature to start tracing the wiring through the building, assuming a Kong would have, by Wario's system, an absurdly riced up holding area, and keeping the heat vision on as well because a living being will have a different thermal reading than the enfarcers she now has to wade through.
Operator	With a shower of sparks, the Wario part of the sign is blown off. That smirk flips through the air and becomes a frown for a moment before shattering against the unforgiving ground. DK is wholly focussed on rescuing his grandfather. But he does pause to flash Liza a thumbs-up. The metal detectors do indeed blare in response to Gawain's badge. But once again, no one comes to investigate. There's no guards at all. As Ioanna hacks the prison's security, she gets access to cameras. And indeed, there is no-one. No one in the cells. No one watching the cells. No one in the cafeteria, or the breakroom. The only sign of life she does see is what appears to be a light on in the warden's office based on her view of the hallway outside it. Liza peers at the electrical grid. Which is, for the most part, unused. The lights are off everywhere. However, there is indeed one place sapping a lot of the juice. Many wires converge there, both for cameras and to power some big things. Motors and magnetic locks from the looks of things. That's most likely Cranky's cell. They have all but one key, the last being held by the Warden. Speaking of, the other active wires go up, most likely to their office. With objectives clear, they can examine the prison itself, with what little light they can provide. It sure is a prison. Rows of cells, stacked on each other with catwalks leading to the ones higher up. Though the weird thing is the posters. In between each cell, some cutesy motivational thing. The cat hanging from a branch with 'HANG IN THERE' under it. The kind of thing moms would put up before social media, which replaced such things with bad memes involving one-eyes yellow devils. Also, the cells have figures in them. One contains a mere squire that Gawain found dead on the battlefields against Mordred's army. Another containsa lowly assistant Liza gunned down for desperately swinging at her with a length of pipe. A third contains a Paladin whose name Ioanna and Tina didn't know who was pulled from the wreck of the Ad Coelum. All of them are glaring at them with empty glowing white eyes. Running footsteps echo from the far end of the hall.
Gawain	As they pass through the prison, past the cells, Gawain frowns at the posters. Motivational posters? Like a mother would post. Interesting. And then he spots a figure in a cell. Gawain goes up to it as he makes recognition. "You...how are you here? You're supposed to be..." Camlann. The day Gawain died. As he fought, and fought, the people they had lost were etched into his memory, even if not their names. Gawain suddenly grabs the cell door. "No, this isn't okay. If you're some sort of ghost trapped here..." Suddenly, Gawain moves to use Gorilla Strength to just rip the cell door open. This is probably a mistake. Hell, he knows it's likely a trap. But there's the chance it's not. And even that slim chance is enough to take the risk of getting hurt.
Ioanna Langstrom	This is unnerving. The FluxComm pings the system. Nothing. Nothing at all. A warden's office with a flickering light, no one in the cells, no one in the...anything. As they walk, her lips press tightly together. This is...unnerving. It's like somebody gouged all the important parts of a prison out except the barest minimum, like all the bits that make a prison work have been removed. She's seen her share of prisons from the staff side, after all. She knows how busy this place is supposed to be. And the emptiness...it's disturbing. And the yellow eyes. And then the figure. The Paladin from Ad Coelum. Ioanna steps back in abject shock and horror, her mind reeling through the faces she remembered, the faces she remembered pulling out of the fire, the faces she remembers on the hallways as the ship began to fall, the- -wait. There wasn't anyone whose name she didn't know on Ad Coelum who she would recognize as someone on Ad Coelum. Sure, the staff was huge, but if she knew the person was from Ad Coelum... Illusory. Mental attack. She whirls, and the dress whirls around her. Empty, glowing white eyes. Running footsteps. Ioanna takes off at a run after them, and she is not, by any means, slow. The MCM makes her superhuman. She's still not used to that - such a jump up from the old Union flaks, or the Commonwealth powersuits. It's so different. But somebody just tried to use the Ad Coelum against her. Orders be damned. She's gonna tear this thing apart.
Tina Natsumi	Liza's property destruction has Tina snickering under her breath. She quiets down a moment later, at least, even clearing her throat as to try playing it off (badly) as not being amused. Not at all. Not one bit. Not until the smirk becomes a frown. That has Tina just sputter-laughing for a while. The utter lack of security has her furrowing her brow again, though. "Isn't this place supposed to be all... High security? This looks like anything but." She speaks quietly as she keeps her SMG held close to her side, peering around corners just in case and actually showing good trigger discipline by not having her finger on the trigger. "Who would've figured this last stretch would be so easy?" Tina speaks aloud in an exaggeratedly taunting tone, clearly trying to draw someone out with a fake show of letting her guard down. Unfortunately, when it comes to actually examining the prison, she's caught off guard for real by the figure in the cell. She remembers pulling that one out. Part of it, anyway. It wasn't someone she personally knew, but not being able to identify them made it worse. And yet, they're here. She hears Gawain going for another cell. That's enough of a sign for Tina that there really is someone there. "Hold up.. Hey! You're safe now!" Stepping back from the door, Tina lets Godzilla do the honors as the Persona clamps onto the bars with claws, teeth, and that girthy mechanical tail before backing up steadily to just start ripping those bars off.
Liza Grier	"No robots." Liza begins counting off. "No swinging death traps. No race carts. No mechsuit. No ninjas. This max security prison is somehow even shittier than everything else the Senator built in this city. The shopping mall would have done better, and it was run by four year olds." Despite that scathing criticism of 'every single thing Wario does', for once, there is a note of optimism . . . somewhere, in that messed up low-quality helmet speaker. Maybe this operation will be awful because the prison is awful at being a prison. But . . . "I thought there wasn't supposed to be anyone." she says, somehow evoking wound-up suspicion out of that helmet. She has no idea who two of them are, but the Paladins seem to. "Idiots. We're not here for them. Leave the bars on. Isn't that your job in the first place? Extending the short dick of the law where it doesn't have a place?" Briefly, she considers shooting Gawain in the back while he's busy. It'd be a nice advantage if she used something heavy. On the other hand, Tina would probably just die if she aimed for her instead. The third Paladin is running off; rookie. This is a great chance to-- Wait, she recognizes that one. Does she know his name? Hell no. Why would she even learn it? But she does remember that one, every so often. First drop too. Four teammates. Before she'd figured out the routine. Even back then, it's not like a wrench would have done anything, but all that shit she heard from G. What she'd seen from J. The environment seals on her helmet pop-hiss, but she doesn't remove it. There's a double hiss of air static through her vocalizer. She doesn't smell anything. The eyes are such a dead giveaway if it's meant to trick her, but she needs to know if it isn't. She removes the stechkin from is holster and fires one into the cell, between the bars, through the center of the nameless assistant. "Not like I get credit for not shooting you the second time." she says. The idea is to check how solid --how tangibly threatening-- this creepy thing can be. She's not blundering into the Warden's office not knowing what's going on. That's how you get killed.
Operator	Tina and Gawain rip the cell doors open, releasing the figures inside. Slowly, the squire and the Paladin walk up to them. That accusatory glare never leaving their eyes. Their hands come up and slowly, irresistibly, encircle the pair's necks and press down on their windpipes. Their hands are so cold it saps all strength. Their mouths open and a horse, guttural whisper emerges from their throat. "GET OUT." Liza is a bit more cautious. Raising her gun, she fires between the bars and hits the figure dead on. They slump, and for a single instant, she's back on the station, watching their blood fly and the life leave their eyes, feeling that acidic mix of emotion deep in her gut. But it passes, and their form dissipates like smoke. Ioanna runs ahead after the footsteps, and she's not alone. DK is somersaulting at high speeds beside her, actually keeping pace. They hit the fork and look in the direction they went; nothing. That shouldn't be. At the pace they were moving, compared to the pace of the footsteps, they should at least get a glimpse of their source before they rounded a corner. It's not clear what, if anything, DK is saying, but his nostrils are flared and he's beating his chest in a threatening display. Only to freeze up as an arm, as cold as a window pane on a rainy day, slips around his and Ioanna's shoulders. A head slips in between them, this one being a fresh face. A bobcut, a hollow expression with glowing yellow eyes, and an ID card for the prison hanging around her neck. "GET. OUT." More and more of them are crawling from the posters on the wall. All of them saying the same thing. "GET OUT." "GET OUT!" "get out..." "GET! OUT!" "getoutgetoutgetoutgetoutgetoutgetoutgetoutgetoutgetoutgetout"
Gawain	Cold hands encase Gawain's throat. He starts getting strangled. HE can't speak. Get out- he has no strength. He's gonna die... Wait, that's wrong. A ghost like this couldn't strangle him to death. Is this really a ghost? No...Ioanna said she was going on ahead. Mental attack? Suddenly, Gawain breaks forth, and punches the illusion with pure physical strength, moving to pierce past it. He rushes past the words entering his head, moving to grab Tina forcefully and pull her towards Ioanna and Donkey Kong. "Come on! This must be the Warden's doing! We have to convince them to stop it, immediately!" Gawain's call echoes down the halls. "Ma'am? Please! Just talk to us! We can have a peaceful discussion, if you're willing. We don't need to do mind games!" Yes, Gawain's assuming it's a woman. The posters gave him that vibe.
Ioanna Langstrom	<Tac-Paladins> 4 Ioanna Langstrom says, "Sir, ma'am, I'm going ahead. I apologize, but those aren't real people." <Tac-Paladins> 4 Ioanna Langstrom says, "I can't wait for you to clear your heads for orders." But that was an excuse. Nothing but an excuse. She's angry. She's very, very angry. Ioanna doesn't lose her temper often. But this is too much. Her first mission's frustrations. The weaponization of her biggest scar - physically, at least, and one of the many mental scars still stuffed into her head. She runs alongside the massive gorilla (she's had weirder friends, honestly) at pace. He's huge, and he's pounding his chest threateningly, and that's probably a fear respo- Cold. Now she knows why he's having a fear response. It's cold. It's ghostly. It's a grasp along her shoulder, fingers cold as nothingness, running along her skin. The head leans forward. It's... Well hell. It's fucking terrifying. She bites her lip, hard. You bite your lip. You never scream. Screaming's how they get you. Screaming's how they find you. You don't scream. Then she covers her mouth with her hand, so she definitely doesn't scream, so she definitely doesn't let it out. ID Card. She's scared out of her mind, but, well, that's, again, her day-to-day. Now she's armed for it. Sure, the threats are paying attention to her now, but she's kind of a threat herself, now. Even if she didn't feel like one. So with her free hand she grabs at the ID Card, and with her foot she lightly taps DK on the ankle so he can see her do it and help her out if the ghost tries to grab it back. Her foot makes a light 'doink' sound, and some stars pop out from the impact point, where she taps DK. Oh, that's where the OmniCannon went.
Tina Natsumi	"Short dick of the law my ass, there's someone in there!" Tina snaps back at Liza without looking in her direction nor even snickering immaturely about what she just said. Her attention is fully on the 'person' inside the cell, not even realizing the opportunity Liza otherwise had to just pop her in the back of the head. As that figure approaches, Tina's mind struggles to comprehend what's going on. It'd be simple enough to just shoot the figure when it draws too close, when it grabs her around her throat, when it starts pressing in, but she can't muster up the energy to even do that much. Her Persona isn't quite as limited as herself. At least, not in this moment. Finally recognizing the imminent danger, Tina starts to struggle, but the bulk of the actual effort comes from Godzilla. The giant lizard goes for the jugular, biting down and thrashing madly to pry the ghastly figure off of Tina while Gawain yanks her back to safety. "Jesus, shit balls... G-Gawain? Yeah, let's... I think she went on ahead." She manages to stammer out before breaking into a run herself to catch up with Ioanna, Liza, and Donkey Kong. As she runs, Godzilla follows closely behind her, swinging its chunky spiked tail and dragging the tip along the ground to create a consistent scratching noise just to remind herself what may or may not be real at the moment. "Come on out, Warden! If you make this easier for everyone, we can convince the big guy not to go too hard on you!"
Liza Grier	Too low for her helmet's speakers, Liza whispers a quiet, venomous "Fuck." She clicks the seals back into place. This time the hiss is of air escaping. Clink clonk. Batting the side of her helmet with the heel of her armoured hand. "That doesn't really answer my question. She turns around --and there are the other two. "That does." she decides, darkly. Watching Gawain and Tina wrestling with their strangling phantoms, Liza thanks her own 'maturity', stares for a moment longer, and then moves on. She's chasing after Ionna's footsteps-- no, it'd be more accurate to say that she's following DK; Liza has a strong idea that DK will find his way to Cranky's cell one way or the other. Now that she has no idea what to expect in this creepy-ass detention facility, she doesn't feel like straying far from the big guy and wandering off into the corridors without any backup. It leads her directly into the longest and deepest blockage of new . . . entities. Ghosts? Surely not merely illusions. Cursing again, she comes to complete halt after barely needing to assess the poster-strewn nightmare hall. Behind the Paladin and gorilla pair, misty, echoing bangs echo to their ears from the far corridors, loud and rhythmic, almost like violent footsteps, but causing faint orange light to bounce off the walls as much as the sound does. It's closing in, but slowly. Liza is working the problem as best she can, switching in an open choke and trying to line up as many phantoms as she can before blasting. Even she doesn't want to just try ploughing into a ghost-zombie horde in a cramped and dark prison facility. Steady movement. Steady shots. Trying to plough forward and open up a route one shot at a time.
Operator	The phantoms choking Tina and Gawain are dissipated easily once they begin resisting. Being reinforced by their own guilt doesn't make them any more resistant to being destroyed, in the end. Their calls for the Warden to come out echo against the prison walls, to no reply. As they and Liza rush to catch up to Ioanna and DK, the soldier is reaching to grab that ID badge, nudging DK to catch his attention. His eyes follow her hand as she snags it, the great ape nodding in understanding. He then unleashes the most vicious spinning back fist you've ever seen, keeping his elbow bent so that Ioanna only feels the breeze from it as it caves in the ghost's face. Liza catches up first, firing her gun into the crowd of figures emerging from the posters. Each one causes them to disappate, but another comes crawling out to replace them. They're getting closer and closer, screaming more and more and more. Then the lights come on. With a sharp 'BANG' of some industrial switch being flipped, the prison is cast in light. The figures all vanish as the sound of footsteps on metal stairs echos. "What's going on down here?" a woman's voice calls. Looking up, everyone would see a regular suburban mom. Bow hair cut fairly short and kept out of her eyes with hairclips, a red hoodie with green pants, sensible shoes. If it weren't for those posters, she would be wildly out of place. "Oh! You must be Cranky's boy. Here to visit?" she asks DK, who is looking around with plain and apparent confusion. "Well, I'd be glad to scan you through to see him, once I find my-oh, you have it! Thank you for finding it." She's addressing Ioanna now, who feels the cool plastic of an ID badge in her hand. "I'm Warden 5-Volt by the way. It's not really visiting hours, but I'll make an exception this time. Come along!" Sounding more like a tour guide than a prison official, she begins guiding everyone towards a small dark corridor at the back of the chamber.
Gawain	As they flee through the ghosts, Gawain stops when the lights come on, panting. When the woman comes down...Gawain's theory was correct. A mother. A decent person, who doesn't mean to harm this. "Could this prison itself be psychohazardous?" He asides to Ioanna, before nodding to the Warden. "Yes! We're with him. Sorry for coming in unannounced, no one was manning the front doors." It's half a joke, and half genuine. If they could have done this peacefully from the beginning, he would have! Gawain follows after her, speaking along the way. "What's your opinion on Cranky being in jail, if you have one, ma'am? I know that Senator Wario put you in charge here, but it's crucial to our efforts that Cranky Kong be released."
Ioanna Langstrom	The ghost is gone. The Kong crushed it, and she's got the ID Card. Ioanna's about to break into the lights come on with a loud BANG. The whole area is bathed in light. Suddenly she's thankful for the blue hat. She pulls it down over her eyes so she's not utterly blinded, so that when the strange suburban mom starts walking down the stairs she only has to blink them clear once rather than twelve times. She releases the bit lip. She does not release the ID Card. On the contrary, she tightens her grip on it. Briefly she contemplates storing it somewhere, but she's unwilling to let it go - just in case the ghost can reach forward and grab it from her dress or her hat or something. She doesn't exactly have an extradimensional place to put it. Really have to complain at the techs about that. "I don't think so," Ioanna murmurs to Gawain. "I think it's her. I'm not certain, though." The ID Card is still tight in her grip. Her knuckles are white. She will not let it go. She starts walking towards the tour guide. "Are you the one who brought the phantoms into the cells?" It's stiff, but the cold fear has already doused hot rage. Letting it get the better of her was stupid and amateur. That it paid off...well, that's no excuse. Now it's just a question.
Tina Natsumi	So many of the freaky things in the prison have Tina jumping at shadows. Thankfully, having her Persona making a persistent noise behind her takes some of the edge off, but not enough for her to not get jump scared one more time when the lights blast on. She's sweating, but she's already calming down a little bit when an unfamiliar voice rings out in the lit prison. "... Uh. Yeah, we're here to... 'Visit'." Tina answers in a somewhat stilted tone, owing largely to her utter confusion at what just happened. She looks towards DK, feeling only mildly relieved (and moderately irritated) that he shares that confusion. Looking towards Gawain, she shrugs lightly before following behind 5-Volt, clearing her throat once when she mentions being the warden of this district. She slips her submachine gun back into its holster, then glances over at Liza to semi-subtly signal putting her weapons aside as well. "/You're/ the Warden? That's... Not too surprising, actually." Tina admits after about three seconds of thinking it through. Of course an otherwise pleasant mother-figure would be a Warden in a place like this. It's no weirder than the kids or the disco guy. "Yeah, we've jumped through a lot of hoops to get here. Gathering keys and stuff, you know?" Tina still can't get that unease out of her head, but she's acted on (web)camera enough to sound like she's keeping her cool. Noticing Ioanna's tension, she steps forward to give her a gentle nudge on the shoulder. "Easy, we're with ya... Ah. 5-Volt, right? Name's Tina. You wouldn't happen to know if there's any other hoops we gotta jump through, do we?"
Liza Grier	"There's so goddamn many of them. Where are they all coming from?" Liza mutters to herself as her progress begins slowly, then halts completely. "If they can strangle you, they have to be solid." The shotgun's report fires twice, and then in the brief break, she braces the stock to her chin and thumbs three of the fistful of shells she has into the upturned port. "So they have to have some kind of substance." She drops it again and pumps it one handed, then fires over her shoulder at a ghost sneaking up from behind. "They're starting to come back behind me again too. I'm getting hemmed in." The heavy shotgun comes back up to her shoulder, and small adjustments of aim allow her to clear a cone ahead of her in three shots, lurching into the safe space away from a grab from the side. She swings the weapon butt around and smashes another phantom into mist. "So where's it all coming from? They have to run out eventually." She only has time to load two shells now. Another quick pair of booming shots clear both her flanks for a moment, but that means she's whittled down to four in the internal magazine. "That's basic physics, right?" One comes from her blindspot. She staggers back and draws the stetchkin again, emptying a sustained spray of rounds in that direction to make sure she gets it, and a few behind it. She puts her back to the empty lane to buy more time for reloading. "Shit, maybe it's just fucking magic at this point. They had that girl claiming she was a witch after all." One of the phantoms lunges for the gun and manages to grab the barrel. She winds up and boots it in the stomach, then fires into its head as it lurches back. "I fucking hate magic. Wizards especially." Five more blasts. The math of the previous reload adds out to three left. "I just saw that poster. I'm going backwards huh?" Shouldering the shotgun one-handed, she extends the handgun arm, empties the remainder of the magazine on automatic in a sweepin arc, then ditches it and fires up the e-shield, smashing aside two more with the glowing blue flat to clear space. "Fuck. Nothing for it." Her hand goes to her belt. A grenade canister is removed. In this lighting she can't even see what colour the stripe is, but she has their positions memorized. The lights come back on. Liza looks at 5-Volt. That gun doesn't do anything for a really long time. "Are you . . . sure you're a prison warden?" Liza really has no way to process this.
Operator	"Oh, hmmm." 5-Volt muses on Gawain's question. "It doesn't seem right honestly, all this effort for an old man. But, when Wario offered me the job, he said he would ask someone else if I said no, and it's my son's birthday soon, he wants the newest console and it's really expensive... so I took the job, and did my best to make him comfortable. Even though he really lives up to his name." She looks to Ioanna confused as she talks about phantoms. "In the cells? There's no other prisoners here. I really expected I would be dealing with more, but the job has been really easy. I spend most of my time in my office playing solitaire!" She doesn't seem to be lying, but the fact she actually knows and has fun playing solitaire is another point in favour of her being frightening. "Hoops? Uh... we have one out in the yard, but it's a bit small to jump through." She is confused again, until she realised Tina mentioned keys. "Oh, are you here to let Cranky go? How wonderful!... ah, but I suppose that means my job is done. Oh well, I saved enough money for that console." Taking it like how a duck takes water, she produces a keyring and pulls an ornate one off the metal loop. "Here, my key to Cranky's cuffs." "Quite sure!" she reassures Liza, gesturing at that ID badge that Ioanna refuses to let go of. Indeed, if they were to check the badge, they would see the mother's face on it, identifying her as 'Warden 5-Volt.' Though Liza specifically gets a strange vibe from the woman. The others, being Paladins (lawful do-gooders) don't feel it. But Liza, ever the transgressor, ever the rule-breaker, feels the same vibe from 5-Volt as one would get from a rearing snake, or a field of thorns where no great deeds are commemorated. STAY AWAY. DANGEROUS. Finally, 5-Volt arrives at a great vault door. Many pistons and gears are built into it, and beside it is a fingerprint, retina, and card scanner. 5-Volt hits those first two, causing two of three lights to go green. "Now, just the card left!" She holds a hand out to Ioanna expectantly, but she could just tag it herself if she wanted. Nothing about 5-Volt suggests she could stop the soldier.
Ioanna Langstrom	"Begging your pardon, ma'am, but I'd rather do it myself. I don't think it matters who swipes the card, does it?" Ioanna asks. "Please don't take offense. It's just well-disciplined caution."
Operator	"Hmm... guess not. And I suppose I need to turn my card in if my job is done," 5-Volt says with a smile, stepping aside to give Ioanna free access to the card reader. "Just make it quick, or the system will reset!"
Ioanna Langstrom	Ioanna nods and inserts the card. "Thank you, ma'am. I didn't want to act without your permission."
Gawain	Gawain nods to 5-Volt. "That's so wonderful! I hope he enjoys the new system." He follows forward, and when they reach the great vault, he blinks, and then nods as she hands over the key and moves to open it. Donkey Kong gets the key, in the end. "Thank you for all your help, ma'am." He means it sincerely. Gawain knows that 5-Volt both is very cute, and also very friendly, so he trusts her implicitly.
Tina Natsumi	A discrepancy. Although Tina doesn't show it on her face, there's already a red flag raised in her mind when 5-Volt mentions the lack of prisoners (and the solitaire thing). "You mean like a basketball hoop? I haven't played a round of that in ages." She chuckles pleasantly at that, actually trying to recall the last time she played that game. Too long ago, but it's never been her favorite. "What kinda console are you getting for the kid, anyway? I might be able to scrounge up a deal or two after we're done getting gramps out of here." As she follows 5-Volt to the vault door, she whistles lightly at the sheer size of the door. "Real piece of work right here... You think Cranky could've busted out of this thing even if he wasn't cuffed up?" Tina asks while stepping towards the door, giving it an experimental tap with her knuckles before backing away to let Ioanna get to work. "Heck, you ever see anyone try to bust through this?" Whatever's going on, Tina doesn't seem nearly as worried as before.
Liza Grier	Several thoughts all go through Liza's head all roughly at once. 'Oh, the 'someone has to mulch the babies so it might as well be me' defense.' 'But if she spent all this time trying to pander to Cranky Kong, is that even doing the job?' 'Missed the memo on the point of prisons being to inflict cruelty as a deterrance.' 'Is she an idiot?' 'She's creepy as well.' 'Bad feeling from this one. Go with your gut." 'Wario is even worse at hiring than I thought if he picked this airhead to be his top sec warden.' 'Wario made only one good hiring decision and this was it.' "Yeah. We're here to release him." she finally decides on saying out loud. It's not even slightly wrong. The fact that the suburban mom will probably read into it one way isn't even on Liza's mind. "Cryptographic sequencer, thermal lance, water charge, electromagnetic screws, pneumatic freezer." she rattles off to Tina automatically, before more thoughtfully adding. "Not an old ape though. We could have gone without the keys." She keeps it to herself that she's kind of glad they got the keys anyways. Trying to crack this vault while neck deep in infinity killer ghosts would have been a whole different story. Suicide job. One she'd beam out from and leave the Paladins to the ghouls.
Operator	Ioanna slots in the ID card and the last light goes green. A klaxon blares as the doors begin to open, pistons retracting and gears whirling as layer after layer of resilient metal give way. As this goes on, DK shakes his head negative at Liza. As if to say all of this is absolutely necessary to keep Cranky in one place. 5-Volt tries to talk conversationally with Tina as this occurs. Somewhere in it she mentions the console name, but it's drowned by the alarm. Finally, the door finishes opening, and there he is. The withered gorilla hanging suspended by multiple chains secured with thick locks. Next to him is a wooden cane, also held up by its own chain. DK procures all the keys and slams into the locks one by one and turning. Gradually, the chains falls to the floor and Cranky drops to his feet, catching his cane as it too falls. He's shorter than you would think, but not as wrinkled. Sure he has a white beard, but his body is shockingly lithe under that fading fur. Immediately, he raps DK on the head with the staff. "Took you long enough you big oaf. What were you doing, getting even fatter on bananas?" He pokes his grandson in the gut as if to check. "Back in my day, taking this long on a quest would get you beaten to the punch you know! Someone else would steal the thunder, and oh the hysterics that would result over 'stolen spotlight.' You have it easy these days." Only now does he notice the others the monkey has brought with him. "And you needed HELP?! For shame boy! People aren't going to remember your exploits if you needed to work with others. Wasn't enough memory going around back then for people to remember more than one or two faces, they had more important things going on." He paces in front of the four, looking at each of them in turn. "Too stupid!" he barks, jabbing his cane in Gawain's face. "Too edgy!" he continues, now pointing at Liza. "Too trendy!" he adds at Tina. "And too bland!" finally at Ioanna. "You sure know how to pick 'em boy. Even that chimp with the cap was a better companion." Cranky marches out of the cell, 5-Volt waving him goodbye in passing. The old ape says nothing to her in passing, which is probably the nicest thing he could do. "Well, guess I better clean out my office! Could you all let yourselves out?" she asks the Elites, before toddling off back up the stairs.
Ioanna Langstrom	Ioanna doesn't bother to stay around. She just walks out, heels clicking on the floor, dress swirling after her. It's only not storming because she's too professional and straight-laced to storm. But it's rapid.
Tina Natsumi	"You recognize that many of these things? Damn. All I could understand were the words, never mind the..." Tina doesn't even finish that statement, instead just chuckling lightly at Liza rattling off so many technical terms. Perhaps she should be more worried, but there might just be something to 5-Volt's demeanor that's keeping Tina from getting too concerned about much. 5-Volt, meanwhile, gets some tips on where to look for cheap deals! It wouldn't be the first time Tina's spent extra time chatting up the wardens, after all, and it helps keep her mind off that unidentified person in the cell from before. Until she thinks about it again, anyway, but that can wait for when she tries going to sleep tonight and just sees that face in the window. As Cranky goes right into his complaints, Tina's face remains extremely neutral as she goes from casually friendly smiles to thoroughly forced customer service smiles. "Well! Glad to have you back, then. Let's get out of here before anything else happens." Tina does, of course, remember to say goodbye to 5-Volt before leaving. No reason not to be polite, especially if it means a slightly lower chance of actually having to make small talk with Cranky.