Scene #7565: The Lodge: Toad Orphenoch

Owner	Pose
Go Shijima	February 27, 1989 Twin Peaks, WA The Roadhouse 10:47AM The Roadhouse isn't open yet. Jacques Renault, a fat man dressed like a casino croupier sans the vest, idly leans on a broom and fumbles with his bow tie. His beady eyes flit this way and that, pondering the solution to a noisome problem. Horne had told him the Briggs boy wasn't dead--he chuckles darkly. "Funny." Little shits like him--they always bite when you least expect it. In another life, maybe the kid could have been one of his movers. But he knows too much, he's scared, and to the right people, he'll talk. Like that FBI agent. Jacques resumes sweeping, but stops when he hears a familiar V8 rumble. A wolfish grin appears on his face, and he puts the broom away. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HnfsRIMoM1Q Outside, a metallic green muscle car from the mid-seventies is parked askew. The driver is shaking with fear and adrenaline. The same as that night in the woods. He fumbles in the glove compartment for a revolver. "What the hell's the matter with you?!" Bobby Brigs hurls at Jacques, storming into the bar with a loaded gun that shakes in his grasp. "Your guy came with baby powder and a loaded gun!" Jacques laughs. "Didn't like that, did you? Well, I don't like being out five grand, boy, but now we got a bigger problem." He steps out from across the bar. "Stay back! I'll shoot!" Jacques holds his hands up, grinning. They made it clear last time not to kill him 'the new way.' Him, if he got back up... he'd be even more trouble than he is now. Bobby's standing right near the exit. One jump, and he could get there. Just have to wait for the door to close. No witnesses... Then, he'll have somebody from out of town come and pick up the car. Come up with an alibi... "What's that look for?! Start talking or I start shooting! On your knees!" "Oh, sure. Sure." Jacques kneels down. Low to the ground. But it isn't to comply with Bobby's demand. It's getting into position for a leap. Jacques flies across the room, retrieving a switchblade from his pocket. A single shot is all Bobby has time to make, before the blade is in his stomach, pressed into it with a dirty rag to keep him from bleeding everywhere. The revolver clatters to the ground as Jacque presses forward, keeping the blade in until Bobby goes slack... 11:20 AM Bobby is upstairs, wrapped in sheets from one of the girls' rooms. Stuffed into a trunk, locked tight. He's already got someone on the way to handle the car, and a cleaner on his way to sweep for GSR and pick up the body. The light bulb Bobby broke was the only other detail besides the knife (easily disposed of) and the revolver. It's a nice little piece. He might just have to hold onto it. Like a trophy. Jacques laughs, and makes another call on the old rotary telephone in his office. Handling business bright and early, are we? Seems I'm a good influence. "It's done. No muss, no fuss." There, you see? When you handle these things with tact, there's no need to panic. "You, uh... speak with the girl at the hospital? They say she's up and walking now." No. But we'll take care of her next. "Sure. Then that'll be the last mess of his we gotta clean up, and we can start looking at some new talent. Even the odds a little." Good. And just to be clear, you didn't use your... 'new talents' to handle him? "Nope. Old-fashioned," says Jacques with a grin. Good. Good! Sometimes the old-fashioned way really is the best. I'll see you soon.
Go Shijima	1:00PM Maybe he got pinched. Maybe he got tied up on another job. Hell, maybe that psychopath got him on his way into town. But the cleaner isn't here, and at this point it doesn't look like he's coming. He's going to have to do it himself. Jacques Renault hates doing things for himself. Sweat mats his hair to his head from the obsessive cleaning he's done. From the anxiety. And now... now two strangers are here. One of them mentioned the little puke by name. !!EVENT - Jacques Renault!! Kamen Rider Tetra and Kamen Rider Delta square off with an Orphenoch. His somewhat bloated body is covered in organic, slimy grey armor plates, and he is apparently very good at making long and tall leaps. By the time you arrive, the fight has just started, and the Orphenoch is on the offensive! Jacques leaps between everyone in erratic, unpredictable motions, seemingly able to spring off of the exterior of the Roadhouse, the gravel parking lot, the solitary tree which grows in that lot, and -all of you- with equally nimble ease. His feet and elbows strike out with alarming speed and brute strength--yet his grunting laughter implies he's only getting warmed up!
Tamamo	'...no one seems to have even a vestigial sense of the reality that developing old ground brings humans into conflict with things that aren't.' "Is this the purpose, in this case? It is not ignorance, but a move made with purpose. Something..." But Tamamo is missing what that 'something' is, to fully explain the situation. "And as for its age, it does seem a spirit lacking in maturity, in speaking of the opponent of whom we know. Perhaps, yet, there are others to consider. We shall see, upon close inspection." 'I'm . . . Not sure how safe it'd be for anyone else to be there. Being able to check the stones for who else might have passed through would be a huge boon to our investigation, but Tomari had it bad enough...' "Oh, are you so worried for myself? Have I not the same cause for concern, for your own safety? If it is a matter of boundaries and hidden domains, of places with old spirits and jealous territory, I am well versed in these things, you may recall." 'But it's said that if you confront the Black Lodge with imperfect courage, it will utterly annihilate your soul. "Could this fear be why it remains, I wonder?" 'Um, Dame Rook, uh, Ms. Tamamo? Mr. Keitarou's on line one...' "Oh, dear."
Hellwarming Trio	Rin is hard at work doing... Nothing! She's being careful not to make a sound, rather, as she lingers inside Horne's office. Perhaps it was just a stroke of good luck that she had slipped in without visibly alerting him earlier, but she's in a good position to try and catch any other interesting tidbits should he decide to make any more phone calls. It's a good thing Utsuho didn't blow her cover, too, considering that disturbance conveniently taking the crow out of that office to go see what's going on with that. Although she can't quite show it, there's some pride swelling in her over how far the raven's come in making such decisions on the fly. Something to mention back home, to be sure. MEANWHILE As Utsuho soars through the skies towards the Roadhouse, multiple thoughts run through her mind. What is Horne up to? Why did his daughter leave that key for her to meet him in the first place? Could these two people and the land development thing really be connected to all this single murder mystery? No, there has to be something more than just this one person's death. There's too many questions, not enough answers, and nobody to bounce those ideas off of. She glances around in mid-flight, furrowing her brow and thinking as she speeds towards the scene of the Orphenoch's appearance: Where the heck did Rin go off to? She'll find out later. Spotting the slimy bloated thing, the youkai bellows out dramatically as she lands with a loud crash in a three-point landing, galaxy-textured cape and stupidly long hair billowing behind her before they settle down. "There you are. I was in an important meeting, you know! Now, are you going to settle down, or am I going to have to burn you to ashes first?" Utsuho stomps down once with her concrete slab boot for emphasis, leaning against it while propping her control rod on her shoulder. Hearing of Strawberry's plight, she chuckles briefly before breaking out into ominous laughter, pointing her rod to the sky. "Don't worry... I got this!" And out comes a giant sun ball. It's not the size of the real sun, of course, but it's relatively large and terribly bright for something that's within super-jumping height. "Heh... You can work with that, right? Right." Confident in her contribution of some vague manner, Utsuho's wings spread out behind her as they push her forwards right into one of the Orphenoch's bounding strikes and let her eat that elbow right to the gut. An unpleasant retching noise and grunt comes from her on that contact, but she bites back the pain to move on to phase... SOMETHING of her plan! She seems to actually want the transformed Jacques' in close range, though, as her body grows uncomfortably hot at first, then outright searing as she tries to latch onto his outstretched limbs to burn them right off!
Shinnosuke Tomari	The Tridoron, Tomari's red supercar, speeds through the streets of the quiet Twin Peaks. It arrives outside the Roadhouse, with Tomari grabbing the Drive Driver and his little 'toy cars'. He turns towards his passenger. "Agent Cooper. I need you to trust me, and in the Tridoron. Get in the drivers seat, put on your buckle, and when I say go, you go. Got it?" Tomari leaps out, doing his whole transformation pose and shift. "Henshin!" DRIVE! Type -- Speed! As the Tridoron locks and goes into safety mode, Kamen Rider Drive, with his red and black suit and his tire across his chest, turns to the Toad Orphenoch. "Jacques Renault! You're under arrest for attempted murder, drug trafficking, conspiracy to commit murder..." The Toad Orphenoch is bouncing. It's hard to block or dodge, and hits Drive head-on, slamming him backwards and knocking the wind briefly out of him. "And assault of an officer!" Kamen Rider Drive starts dashing forward, moving to slam his fist straight into the Toad Orphenoch's slimy armor, over and over, trying to see if he can find purchase. "Please, turn yourself in! If you help us in our investigation...!" He doesn't know Bobby's dead yet. He wants to hope he isn't.
Muramasa	Having had to re-group at Jacques', the various Elites all put the peddle to the metal to get there as quickly as they could to figure out what happened to Bobby Briggs. Ultimately, this breaks out into a fight with the slimy toad, that in his defense, scrambles to launch an offensive ... 12:00 "That oughta' do it .. whew." Muramasa groans with a smile, wiping his brow. The toilet of his room at the lodge had been transformed into a smithy with his peculiar Territory Creation skill, and with that, he'd been putting his prior inspiration to work; a pair of swords that could be used to fly in the sky. It became especially apparent how he might do it with how Strawberry had explained flight to Ronette, as well as having seen the two fly high that day. And so the idea settled in his skull and became more and more appealing, after all, wouldn't it be convenient if he could just get up and fly wherever he needed to go? Polishing the two oddly shaped blades, he could see the gleam of his grin in the shine of the bulbous curves. NOW: "Uoooooooh!!" As it turned out, flying wasn't easy! Even once he was in the air, putting Strawberry Princess' advice for controlling yourself to practice was really hard. He was used to walking on the ground, with his legs, after all .. this was a totally new experience. Not to mention if he lost his grip on one of the swords, he'd be in for a bad fall. It was exihilirating too -- it was just too bad that his fun day out was ruined by such an unfortunate situation. Which brings him to his current predicament, smashing into the Orphenoch like a kamikaze fighter jet from above, and shattering the roof of his crib in the process. "Guh huh ... I made it ... "
Hamada Haru	Jacques transforms into an Orphenoch and has a run at Kamen Rider Tetra. The blow lands against his chest, eliciting a burst of sparks that trail out across the parking lot, fading away into the air shortly afterwards. The kick has a strange sensation to it, as if it wasn't striking as much mass as it should have, even though it landed dead on. In spite of that however-- he's still standing strong. He straightens up from the uncomfortable posture that the kick put him in. His body splits-- or perhaps more accurately, a second Kamen Rider Tetra emerges from his form. The second Kamen Rider Tetra goes completely transparent and strides past the toad orphenoch towards the roadhouse. He passes through its walls and simply... has a look around. Tetra Prime stares at Jacques. His mask makes it impossible to read his expression. From out of nowhere he draws a tonfa and spins it about, adopting the posture of aiming a gun and firing several bolts of energy towards the orphenoch. "You're... a shame," Haru decides, after firing. "Kaijin. Your powers could be put to better use than this. Do you comprehend what a petty existence you lead?"
Tamamo	Tamamo has some concerns about Utsuho's ability to show the precise control required to turn the energy of 'manifesting the Sun' into 'useful power that will energize, and not kill, a human.' She is, fortunately, very well equipped to turn this into a complete technique. After the miniature solar orb appears, Tamamo-- --takes an Orphenoch's kick right into her mirror, making an indignant noise as she's pushed back. That was close! But the opponent is already bounding off somewhere else, so she-- --tosses her mirror, with a flick of her arm that doesn't involve physically touching the artifact, toward the tiny sun. Streams of flame are pulled out of it and into the mirror, and Tamamo herself glows with the same light. Her opposite hand flicks a paper talisman in Strawberry Princess's direction, completing the circuit to safely transfer that readily available energy from sun to wand, properly transformed by foxy medium. It's so easy, in fact, that she still has her own energy to spare. Rapid, low, ominous murmuring and a peculiar hand gesture is all the warning Jacques will have before her curse reaches out for him like a faint, dark mist, pursuing and interfering with his safely jumpable directions, giving him the choice between being struck by dark magic or herded into some other fighter's strike.
Lilian Rook	Station: "Interesting." Lilian replies, indeed sounding interested, in a sort of guardedly academic way. "And certainly not something that random people should be approaching." She responds to Truman, and nods at Tamamo's surmisal. "It sounds as I've suspected though. That investor almost certainly has knowledge of the Grove. They're up to something, and Horne is their dupe-- no, their catspaw." Further continuing to address Tamamo's concerns, she adds "Detective Tomari was hit pretty hard in his mental faculties. Specifically, in the way that 'Immune' is contextualized by. Of course, I wouldn't at all mind your consulting and assistance with the domain itself, but the threat's particular nature is--" And then she's interrupted by Lucy, of course. "Oh that piece of shit. I thought Hamada had him handled. I suppose I could leave it to the Riders; this is their specific job, after all. But . . ." Strawberry wants to be there. She's asked for assistance. Her wand is juiced. "Excuse me gentlemen. My assistance is required." Lilian does an extremely proper little half-curtsy, and then disappears. Roadhouse: Lilian appears with Tamamo and Strawberry, flanking her and by hand to shoulder touch, like a proper group teleporter. The orphenoc Jacques is of course unsurprising; being told about him is literally why she's here. Lilian moves forward into the combat area in full strut, tall and slim boot heels crunching gravel, skirt swishing briefly as she unholsters the officer sidearm at her thigh, one hand briefly busy with her top blouse button, like a more feminine equivalent to straightening out a tie. "By authority of the Paladins under crisis response and civil peacekeeping articles, you are hereby orders to cease--" Lilian's step halts. Her eyes widen. She gingerly touches the side of her head with her fingertips, lips turning into a disgusted scowl. She wobbles slightly forward, then back again, looking back at the orphenoc with scornful, putrid contempt. She's seen something. She throws the gun into the dirt. She tears at the iron pendant around her neck. The sword pin ignites into an eruption of black fog and scarlet cinders. Night Mist swings upwards into a formal dueling stance; or maybe that of an execution. "Thirteen: Thou shalt not heed the words of that which has consumed the flesh of man. Three: Only when man seeks to tear down the station of another is he then without value. Eleven: Thou shalt kill without hesitation. Doubt proves thou art not fit either to take life nor offer it." The tonal change is guttingly instantaneous. Her sword swipes to her side. "Come at me, filth. A subhuman like you can't begin to imagine the gulf between us." The orphenoc's superhuman flying knee comes at her. Lilian-- -----[stop]----- --stares at the armoured, slime-caked joint in casual indifference. Inches from her face. She resists the urge to spit. Instead, she begins pacing the circle around it. One, two, three, four, five, six steps. Just behind. Dangerously close. Her hand extends, two fingers raised to aim by. Her anchor foot slides out. Her sword arm draws back and level. The blade lies straight and parallel, point at the center of her vision. The air compresses and 'thwumps' with the speed of her thrust. -----[start]----- It rockets through empty air. She's not there. Not even a swish of wind glides past. Instead, a black blade of red runes comes through the back as if shot from a gun. Lilian stands behind Jacques, arm casually extended in sideways posture.
Xion	The town's energy, the air, its heart, wept quietly. The sobs rattled in gusts through the trees. The anguish of anxiety, of being predated on. Points of light, of hope, shone within the darkness, but the clouds that hung over the city were thick and choking. Lumping grief upon grief until the damage became shared and normal. There was a way to save the whole - the diseased part needed to be cut out. Stepping out from behind a camera angle blind spot as Jacques engages Tetra and Delta, Xion moves around the periphery. The sun shines brightly in the air, but her scowl is deep and bang-shaded. "Sometimes, I hate my chest, which twists around and won't tell me why it hurts... But right now, I think I appreciate knowing. I had to make sure, because I didn't know. If everyone really really needs help. I grappled with it, because I didn't know if you had to help the Heartless too. Even if I fight 'evil', I also need to be everyone's hero. That's why I had to find out... That you've just got a person shape. There's just more evil under the evil. There's nothing to arrest, Tomari! He's not even a Roidmude!" Xion raises her hand, a fistful of medallions presenting between her knuckles. "You can reset a heart. You can habilitate a person. But you can't compromise against evil." Throwing the two medals out with an extension of her hand, the gold backings twist into a shining plane that washes over Xion as she runs past Tomari, a large white shield with a visor in her left hand, and a red-black-purple armored bodysuit with one eye covered, and the other not. She seethes with a vocal fry from a three-voiced mechanical overlay. "Since Mashin Chaser isn't here I'll send you off myself!" Joining Lilian's blade of runes to the back is a triple instant-charged shot blast from a pkoom pkoom pkoom chunky arm-GUN.
Strawberry Princess	Strawberry flashes Lilian a tense but smile as she arrives, taking just a fraction of a second to orient herself. She knows better than to stop and make small talk- already she's breaking for the Tridoron, trying to dive behind cover. The fact that she's presently out of magic due to training with Ronnette just hours before is at the forefront of her mind. Utsuho and Tamamo have promised to do something, but- -not fast enough to stop Jacques' elbow. Out of magic and out of costume, Strawberry Princess's body betrays her. It tries to spread magical wings that aren't there to lunge away from the blow; tries to tense a Shimmer Aura that can't materialize- an amputee still haunted by missing phantom limbs. Finally it realizes no defense is possible, reaches towards her holster, pulls out her Glock, and empties a half-dozen rounds into Jacques as his blow slams into her. Her conscious mind knows better, but by the time it grabs the steering wheel away from those misfiring neurons, her back is hitting the asphalt and her side feels like it's on fire. The only glittering is in the corners of her eyes. Map out how bad it is. Anything broken? Bleeding? No. Then get back up. While Jacques bounds elsewhere, Strawberry stands back up with wavering determination, holsters her gun (with a little flinch from the bruised muscles), reaches out for Tamamo's talisman, and slaps it onto the side of her wand- that's what she's supposed to do, right? It looks like a sticker, so she just assumes. Regardless, it works- her wand grinds to life, and its timer flickers on with an anomalous display. 99:99 A flash of pink, a flare of sparkling wings, and Strawberry takes to the sky at harrowing speeds, hiding behind Utsuho's huge looming sun while she reorients herself.
Go Shijima	Twin Peaks, WA The Great Northern Hotel 1:00PM Rin's careful nature has earned her much, in the time she's spent eavesdropping. He hasn't made any more calls. But that's not to say nothing has happened. Quite the opposite. "Send Audrey in," says Horne, buzzing his secretary. A few minutes later Audrey comes sauntering in, looking like the cat that ate the canary--an expression of knowingly feigned innocence on her face. "Hi, dad. What's the matter?" "I had unexpected guests today. Yesterday, I saw someone spilled coffee all over the zoning forms for Ghostwood. Then I got a call from my department store about a brand new shipment of perfumes falling from the back of a parked truck. Audrey, when are you going to stop punishing me for grieving the loss of a good person?" asks Ben, leaning forwards in his chair with a stern expression, hands steepled on his desk. A behind him, a photo of a forest rests on the wall, like a portal to a different world. Audrey brushes her hair aside. "I don't know what you mean, dad." She's able to discretely reach down and scritch behind Rin's ears without Ben seeing. "I don't understand why you never liked Laura. But your jealousy--" His even tone does nothing to prevent Audrey from interrupting him. "Gee, why would I be jealous of a girl my father treated better than his own daughter? You own half the town," she bitterly smiles. "You're only 'grieving' because you couldn't own her, too." Ben removes his glasses. "Get out." Audrey does so, looking pleased with herself--Ben fumes silently in his chair. When he smashes his fist against the desk, Rin can hear wood splintering. He gets up. "I'm going out on business," he says into his intercom. "I don't know when I'll be back."
Go Shijima	Twin Peaks, WA The Roadhouse 1:03PM Even when Jacques is on the ground, he's a tough one to crack. Strawberry's blasts pelt him, leaving dark welts but only rarely penetrating the skin to reveal purple ichor. That hide of his seems to turn away most blows with a combination of its elasticity and texture, and he doesn't want for brute strength. When Utsuho clings onto his arm, it's like trying to hold onto a slimy log in a swamp. Her fire burns badly, and he shouts in equal parts irritation and pain, as the leathery skin between those plates sizzles and pops--but that mucus covering his armor plates suddenly becomes much thicker, allowing him to pry his arm free! Jacques makes a short vertical leap, both legs justting forward to push her away, springing off to make a backflip over that burning sun, in an effort to foul up Tomari's read for an approach. "Give 'im hell, Shinnosuke!" cries Cooper from the driver's seat of the Tridoron, firmly clicking his seatbelt with a fervent thumbs-up. Tomari absolutely has the skill to beat him, and the speed to outrun him. But Type-Speed is ill-suited to the Toad Orphenoch. Expertly-placed blows slip and slide across bloated flesh with a core of iron. "You brought a knife to a gunfight, cop," says Jacques with a belly-laugh, as he makes a leap-assisted shoulder-check, attempting to knock Tomari over! He leaps into the air to follow-up with a stomp--only for Tetra and Delta's blasters, firing in tandem, to blast him off-course. Even those can't topple him, however. His feet impact the ground hard enough to stomp a crater into the gravel parking lot, sending up a hail of stones! The second Tetra hears a bump from something upstairs. "Shame? Chappie, pretty soon there's gonna be some rules around here--and I'm gonna be on top. You're on the wrong side of history! Hahaha!" He leaps forward, low and long, showing just the kind of control he has over his ability--to kick up a second, more directed spray right at Tetra Prime! He then attempts to capitalize on his momentum by making a leap towards Tamamo-- But her dark mist clouds his vision and sends him colliding with the low branch of a tree. Growling a curse of the more mundane variety, he is then evenloped by the mist, robbed of his usual finesse and forced to clumsily throw a the fallen limb her way in an effort to stop the spell. Tamamo gets tremednous value from the mist--because not only is it confounding his attempts to attack, but it leaves him wide open for Lilian's precision bladework. He leaps overhead to eascape, purple ichor oozing from the wound. "Ugh," he says, getting to his feet. "I can't imagine, you're right. Can't see that far down!" A grey, slimy tongue extends with alarming speed, racing... right past Lilian. It snags up the branch he'd tosses at Tamamo, yanking it rapidly back to club her from behind. Jacques releases it just as it's about to strike, willingly putting himself through more magical torment from Tamamo to fly... straight through Xion's blasters. He lands, immediately dipping forward into an agile frontflip, attempting to bring a heel down on her shoulder. "I ain't even warmed up yet!" But there's an edge to it. "You--" Muramasa crashes into him, and that really seems to piss him off. "GET OFF!" The two crash into the front of house, a raised deck shattering to splinters around them. Jacques aims a flurry of furious jackhammering kicks at Muramasa's midsection, before slipping free to aim a stomp-shockwave towards the sun, and Strawberry!
Shinnosuke Tomari	Kamen Rider Drive can't find purchase, even if he can do damage. He's getting angry, though, especially once he learns Bobby's dead. He has a form perfect for this, as he's shoulder-checked backwards, staggered again. "I'm hopping mad. Type-Wild, help me out!" He moves to grab the dune buggy Shift Car, but his hands are soaked in slime. It slips right out and onto the ground. Luckily, it's too durable to be easily crushed by stepping on it. Like a Hot Wheel Lego. "That's...! Okay! Let's try this again!" Drive moves for another punch, but this is an uppercut to Toad's jaw. Hopefully, the slime is less effective there! Meanwhile, he's just waiting for the signal towards Dale... "Cooper, gun it!" He finally shouts, right as his fist moves to impact. He's going to roll out of the way as the Tridoron hopefully rams Jacques straight into the Roadhouse!
Tamamo	Though she'd spared some effort, in the midst of everything else, for defending herself, after Tamamo dodges to the side to get greater clearance from the incoming monster-tongue, she doesn't quite notice the branch coming back with it. Her prepared ward appears in the air, a complex magical circle that shatters into a thousand pieces, blunting the blow as she's pushed forward, this time, not yet bleeding but unbalanced by the force that carried through to her head. "My, my, that is enough of that, I think." She'll be more careful from this point on, but that's assuming there's still much of this to go. With this many opponents, with her magic already on the field, with Lilian that determined to kill the Orphenoch (which she dearly hopes happens before Tomari can get the cuffs out), it can't be that much longer... can it? It truly is a slippery opponent. Right up until it touched her mist, at least. This isn't a new spell, but a twisting manipulation of what was already there. A curse in the form of mist isn't just something that fouls sight. It coats the body, grasping like a living, malevolent force, seeping inward. It's not precisely pleasant to experience, would certainly be fatal in the span of minutes, but for now is more potently a source of distracting pain and failing muscle. In a fight like this, any moment of inattention could prove decisive. Tamamo frowns, rubbing the back of her head.
Lilian Rook	Lilian doesn't seethe inwardly with disgust and anger at Jacques. She openly exudes cold rage from her unblinking daggerlike stare, and with every hard, deliberate step. There is a call to arrest Jacques. To take him in like a criminal. But another question is asked of Lilian, and she answers first. "Yes. I judge him, definitively, the Other. He's crossed the boundary." And to the rest . . . "Bobby is dead." She knows. It's Jacque's filthy little secret and the odor of dark secrets inside black-hearted men is one that the blood of the Winter Court prickles and dances at. "You've made me a liar. So I'll make you an example." Lilian continues. The tricky tongue rebound comes at her, and yet, she flickers out of the way with automatic ease. Like she isn't even the one doing it. As if the motion itself displaced her. "I know everything you're thinking you hopeless piece of shit. You should be begging your negligent god for mercy." She's already slipped into what sounds like Gaelic, without elaboration. When the orphenoc comes flying past, the air suddenly darkens around Lilian in a vivid, nauseating pulse, like most of the light had been sucked in by a heartbeat and let back out again. Her eyes flash the unnatural red of Night Mist's blade runes. A piercing, saw-edged hammerblow strikes Jacques directly in the mind, burying itself like an arrow into the core of those awful, depraved, malicious secrets, and then dragging itself back out, flesh hooks tearing out memories for her cold, contemptuous perusal. Lilian suddenly steps into the way, sword held high and across. Power flows down its etched vines and flowers and infinite knots, pulsing along its spine and flowing back down its edges in scarlet highlight, vibrating with a ghostly keening sound. One word. "Cleasa." The space around her flickers and strobes again, just like that, pulsing with equally obscuring dark and light. Inky mists roll outwards across the ground in all directions. Lacerating arcs of scarlet flash in circles around her in what seem like simultaneous orbits. The discrete motions of her sword from grip to grip are invisible, like a machine gun flurry of superhuman iai cuts without a scabbard to draw from. The hemispherical zone of death in Jacques' way slices through even the air; a sound like naked knives tumbling into a glass bowl. Her final rebuttal to the raging clash of principles at the same time. "You've sorely mistaken my character. I will kill a monster in cuffs."
Hamada Haru	Kamen Rider Tetra Beta ascends through the ceiling and seeks out the thumping sound. That's exactly the sort of distressed noise that he was looking for-- and not expecting to actually find. A spray of rocks from the Jacques's leap collides with Tetra Prime, once again drawing out a multitude of sparks. This time he's fully solid, without the strange half-formed physical response. He doesn't have to straighten up this time. The blow, however seemingly successful, however direct, simply did not shake him that much. Then, suddenly, he's gone. This is a simple enough trick, he drops through the earth and begins to move through it intangible, and in spite of his tendency to not dodge, he's quite FAST. When he emerges again he rises out of the ground as if climbing an invisible staircase, right beside Jacques. Right at his shoulder, where he can murmur audibly into the orphenoch's ear. "There was once a man who was taken in the night," Haru begins, stepping in and reaching through Jacques's torso, solidifying his hand on the other side and trying to bring it about to grab Jacques by the face, using the strange movements he's capable of with semi-intangibility to throw him in no particular direction. "... And given power like yours, by an organization much like yours," he continues, folding his arms over his chest. "That was the first Kamen Rider. I don't doubt that you're enjoying your power over this place," Haru glances over his shoulder towards the Roadhouse, where his doppelganger resides. "But your form is regrettably appropriate. The only flaw in it is that you won't even be the top frog in the well. And because you think that way..." Kamen Rider Tetra points accusingly at Jacques. "Because you think that way, you can't possibly have the grit necessary to struggle through a hard time. That IS a shame, because a jump to the sky can be a powerful thing." But yours never will be.
Hellwarming Trio	BEN'S OFFICE Part of Rin wonders if she made the right choice lingering in that office. It's not as though it hasn't been relaxing, but it was kind of rough sitting around for so long without necessarily being able to just stretch out and relax. Even getting into a fight would have been fun! When she hears Ben speaking, though, she remains stock still and watches the door closely as that familiar lady comes right on in. She hears some rather interesting stuff, too. And feels, even, as she leans into the scritching without realizing (until after the fact) that she's been seen. Still, with Ben being someone that apparently wanted to 'own' Laura and grieving over her death... That certainly makes for some interesting info to relay once the coast is clear. She'll wait until he leaves before checking out Ben's desk (especially the damaged part just to see how hard an angry human can punch), then bailing and repeating what she's heard once she's safely in the sky again. THE ROADHOUSE Things have gotten extremely complicated rather quickly. The fight against Orphenoch Jacques is relatively simple compared to the moral quandaries raised by Shinnosuke and Lilian, and it's made only more complex when everyone seems to have wildly conflicting takes on it. One step at a time. Tamamo does something with her sun that she's not quite sure how to process, but it seems to work well enough for powering Strawberry up to a state of being able to get right back into the fight. "When'd you even use up your juice? Ah... Whatever. Don't hold back now, because I want to see more of that power of yours!" Power's something easy enough for Utsuho to understand. Following that power would make this situation easy, too. Beat up the Orphenoch, see what happens when it comes to killing or not killing Jacques afterwards, get info either way. It should be as simple as Tetra says, but... "... Guh, now it's gotten even more confusing!" Shouting in frustration, Utsuho staggers forward as she loses her grip on the froggy fiend, and she tries to follow him with her eyes as she concentrates more energy into that glowing sun behind her. It lifts further into the air steadily, the heat growing greater and the light becoming more irritating by the moment in an effort to simply dry out that slimy surface as Utsuho continues advancing with a sort of combat hover/flight. When it comes forward with that mighty kick forward, she once again just grins and bears it. She's a little more prepared to get kicked in the chest this time, though, even as it knocks her back several feet with a resoundingly loud smack right against that giant orange eye. She nearly topples right over, even, halting herself with another flap of the wings before charging right back into the fray. "You've got pretty strong hits in that form, don't you? But how long can you last against all of us, anyway? You really think you'll survive against...? Hmn. Unless... No, that's..." Utsuho trails off, her thought wandering again to more complex matters that kind of hurt to think about. Shaking it off with an annoyed grimace, she drags the tip of her control rod against the ground to draw up some sparks before thrusting it upwards at the Orphenoch with a 'small' explosion at the end to give her strike some extra emphasis on blasting a hole right into it.
Xion	Xion doesn't strafe so much as blink around the area, appearing in a silhouette with raised Proto-buster and shield across her back to fire snapshots of opportunity or crouching and covered behind the shield-wall and sighting over the rim of the top. "You don't even have the self preservation to see all of us and try to save yourself! I know you're not really a person, because you'd rather cause harm than exist!" A driving knee impacts her shield and the earth crunches under her reinforced boots. Her masked face comes up, single eye flaring in the right socket. "Not--" The confidence that his wickedness made violently manifest wouldn't be enough to get through her guard is proven suddenly wrong right as it is voiced, hit-confirming into plus-on-block flash kick. The energy blasts through Xion's armored form, sending her air-launched and staggered, the purple heavy aspects of her armor shredding off in a spray of machine parts and leaving the lit Joe yellow eye in her right eye, and a startled bright blue in her revealed left from the shattering of the frame of her mask as the well-loved Mashin Chaser power shatters off of her - expended. The remaining suit-and-armor from the Break Gear remains, and she skirts with debris as she's knocked back; a motorcycle wreck scattered across the fighting grounds. "That's right." Xion hisses, the snarling maturity of Break Man rising over her own voice. "Ones like you don't deserve the Reaper's mercy. I know the power you need." Xion's hand re-emerges from the muzzle of her buster-brace, two medals in her hand once more. "Selene. Maverick Hunter X. I'm ringing the bell - and ending this fight." The medals burst into a sphere of power - a black-red frame of Dark Lucha Energy crackling and popping. From the sky, a beam of bright blue-green light zaps down into the center, and the whole sphere peels away from Xion. Now clad in a side-split mixture of Break Man's red-and-black and X's Ultimate Armor blue-and-silvers, Xion's buster compresses the power of the Dark Lucha C H A R G E S H O T. "Hyper-Illegal Move: Rudos Diffusion Destroyer." The ball implodes, and a single buster-beam flashes out like a space-time tear, center of mass, to the Orphenoch. Without the power of Mashin Chaser: It's extra lethal. A monster-slaying move.
Strawberry Princess	Strawberry bears the Toad Orphenoch's shockwave with gritted teeth- the Shimmer Aura is poor at defending against already-diffuse attacks, so it strikes her body nearly unmitigated. She briefly drops, then steadies herself and soars back into the sky. Play through the pain. Play through the sore feeling in your throat and the knot in your chest. Lilian knows what she's doing. Because what would Strawberry Princess do? She would trust her friends. The magical girl zooms backwards, getting a good thousand feet of distance between herself and the battlefield. Even from that far, what comes next is obvious: her wand is squealing as it ramps up towards an unbearable crescendo. Utsuho's sun flickers ominously, shifting colors towards deep red with the strain of powering the Annihilator Beam's demands. "Three," she mouths out of habit, inaudible to anything but augmented hearing over the din of battle. She hasn't given the order to anyone to duck and cover. She hasn't told them to back off. She said that she wouldn't kill Jacques herself, even if she can't stop Lilian from finishing the job- what is she thinking? "Two." Strawberry is wreathed in an ominous Cherenkov-blue glow. That glow shines out of the tip of her wand, a flashlight beam to illuminate the zone of total lethality, but it isn't aimed anywhere in particular: she isn't sighting down it like a rifle, but holding it ready in a different way. "O-" Her countdown is drowned out by a noise like thunder, drawn out into a prolonged and literally deafening roar. Unbearable light floods the area, prickling skin, burning retinas, and bleaching every color and shadow to unearthly white. The Annihilator Beam, though only the most fortified eyes can see it, doesn't fire in a beam- its energy held in a roiling, impossibly condensed triangular 'blade' projected from the tip of Strawberry's wand. She swoops in at neckbreaking speeds while the Toad Orphenoch is still blinded. Disembodied pink limbs grasp at it, pinning it briefly in place. With a V-shaped cut, Strawberry Princess aims to ash through both its legs in the passing swoop, then raises the Annihilator Beam to the sky and discharges its hideous energy straight up before her wand is destroyed by the strain of containing it. Then she collapses on her hands and knees a hundred feet away, heart hammering from adrenaline and physical strain. Her wand is burning the grass where she dropped it. Trees are broken from the incidental shockwave of the spaceward discharge. I think... I think that's the best I can do. It's yours now, Lilian.
Muramasa	Ra-ta-ta-ta-ta-ta-ta-ta! The jackhammering of blows rain against the leaf-shaped swords, held broad, as Muramasa attempts to stand his ground, digging his shoes into the floorboards. But, these swords weren't meant to withstand such a blistering assault, having been made out of ultra-lightweight material and reinforced with magecraft to be able to function. It's not a surprising result when they shatter under the brunt of the overwhelming flurry of blows, and Muramasa is sent hurtling back into the wall, cracking the plaster in a criss-cross zigging-zag of fractures. "Gh!" This guy is living trash. But .. even so, I feel like just giving into the urge to kill him would make everything I've fought for and believed in until now, meaningless. ... That's right. I'm starting to remember I don't want to. ... she had not been saved that day because a young man and a cruel priest both embraced the swelling heat in their hearts and beat eachother to the point of death. Maybe, he couldn't save anyone this time, either. But, the idea of repeating that mistake made him want to vomit so badly it almost takes him out of the fight -- Muramasa's hand scrapes against the wall. "Hah.." Dry heaving once and slapping his cheeks to get his head back on straight, Muramasa stands up and gives the matter at hand some thought. They needed to subdue this Orphenoch without killing him, but, as well, he'd need to be able to repel Lilian if she tried to kill him while he was down. In other words, he couldn't just pour it all into one attack and hope for the best. He'd need to keep the lion's share in reserve, to also stop Lilian. He was under no illusion that he'd be at a serious disadvantage, even if Tomari helped him, if that's what it came down to. Strawberry too .. ...No, I know. What I'm best at isn't fighting, I'm not a swordsman. I'm a blacksmith, someone who forges. He breathes in, "Trace on." Commence Projection. The light gathering in his hands crackles as it takes on a grid-like pattern. The seven steps to Gradation Air, as he'd understood them, are .. ~O~ Judging the concept of creation. Hypothesizing the basic structure. Duplicating the composition material. Imitating the skill of its making. Sympathizing with the experience of its growth. Reproducing the accumulated years. Excelling every manufacturing process. ~O~ To perform this, he had to extapolate this information with Structural Analysis ... at least, if it wasn't some kind of weapon. As long as it was an armament, especially a blade, then he intuitively understood it. Because it, the moment he laid eyes on it, was reproduced perfectly and flawlessly inside of his soul. But sometimes, there were aberrations too -- even though he was projecting what he had seen in Xion's hands -- what comes out isn't quite right. It's a long and simple key, with a golden hilt with a black tang, and an iconic mouse's emblem gleaming from a silver chain hanging off of the butt of the keyblade. Muramasa breathes out as he grasps it tightly in his hand, a light sweat on his brow, "Alright .. !" But he wasn't done projecting yet. He still had to do more, but, these wouldn't be quite so tough on him to bring out of his inner world. More blades begin to materialize around him, and, a moment later, the hail of swords fire all around Jacques to pin him down, in conjunction with Strawberry Princess' all out assault. He didn't have much time left. "Now..!" Clenching his outstretched hand, he performed Alteration as he got closer. The blades all begin meshing together, forming an interlocking grid that closes in on Jacques. Muramasa kicks off like a bullet, "Even if it's an Orphenoch, I can still shut you away like this..!" Jabbing the key into the opening, he twists it, and as if a magician had snapped his finger -- The Jail of Swords is Locked.
Go Shijima	"Get... OUT!" There's a sound like a bolt as he makes another long, low jump, attempting to crash his shoulder into Lilian's stomach. He attempts to get away with a leap-- But is snatched midair by Tamamo's choking, malevolent modification to her earlier spell. He falls, his great bulk splintering to shreds the last standing remnants of that solitary oak. Furious, he drops to all fours and rapidly kicks sharp wooden fragments her way, only to be faced with Tomari. https://youtu.be/gSJlLtkS3S4 Tomari's uppercut lands. Accurately. Of course, it seems to have upset Jacques--who leaps backwards, his sticky tongue shooting towards the Rider in an effort to pick him up and slam him-- >Cooper: GUN IT Cooper knows his way around a stick shift. Gravel kicks up as he pulls a perfect peel-out, the Tridoron's engine roaring like a woken lion-- Delta lifts his blaster to his faceplate. "3821!" "Now this is a car with some get-up-and-go!" yells Cooper from the driver's seat of Tridoron, pulling an artful Scandi flick to bat Jacques towards the Roadhouse. A robotic voice plays from Delta's blaster. Van Cleaner Come Closer And that's all the warning Jacques gets. Panels on the Kikuchi cleaning van pop open like fins, revealing chemical thrusters that fire with a deafening, chest-pounding rumble. The van rockets over to Jacques and rams him a second time, throwing him hard sideways and splitting the lone tree with the force of his impact. The deck of the Roadhouse collapses, the staircase seeming spindly and anemic without the facade the deck presents. Tables and chairs shatter and split against the gravel. Tomari is hurled--but not nearly so violently as Jacques would have liked. He's startled, when Tetra Prime appears beside him, after several clumsy, angry punches fail to snatch him from that intangibility. "Big talk, from a dinosaur lookin' at the meteor!" But it's complete bravado and projection. Utsuho is right. Xion is right. This is a slimeball who would rather use his strengths to hurt than to escape, and who is sorely outnumbered no matter how strong he might be. His tongue rockets out and yanks the driver's side door of Bobby's car free. With a whip of his head, he makes of his tongue a highly long-range flail, attempting to crush Xion, Utsuho, Tetra, Strawberry and Muramasa! But it's not enough. "Check!" cries Delta, the white lines of his suit glowing as power is transferred, tracing along the shoulder to his blaster. A shot of white light is fired at Jacques, piercing into his chest, widening into an enormous conical lance. Delta leaps into the air. Xion's CHARGE SHOT envelops Jacques completely, his howl of rage washed away in blinding light, Delta's energy-lance still holding him in place. When the light fades he is somehow still standing but blackened like a tree stuck by lightning-- A tree with no roots, thanks to Strawberry, hovering in place only by Muramasa's ring of swords, and Delta's strange attack. Delta extends his feet, bright white triangles burning at the soles of his boots. Jacques strains against the energy and the swords, the highly mobile Orphenoch now pinned like a fly to the wall. "YAAAAAH!" Delta's glowing soles make contact with the edge of his energy-lance, his entire body glowing a blinding white as he shields his eyes from Strawberry's vertical beam with a forearm. He vanishes into the lance, which drills into Jacques, closes up and vanishes--Delta erupts from the other side, cooking the Orphenoch from within, the energy discharge causing an audible -chime- and an unusual symbol as Delta's feet touch the ground...
Go Shijima	------------/\------------ -----------/..\----------- ----------/....\---------- ---------/......\--------- --------/........\-------- --------------------------
Go Shijima	Who did he work with? Jacques is--was--one who believed his mind was his castle, that so long as he smiled and nodded, no one would ever truly know what he thinks. No one was as smart as Jacques Renault, according to Jacques Renault. For every person in his life, a caricature. The Gladhander. The Survivor. The Wimp. The Demon. Blue Rose, they're called. Something foul conceals their faces from her, but she knows well enough what they are without knowing their names or faces. Knows enough the touch of BOB. A group of Orphenochs, working to overwhelm and supplant humanity as the dominant species, assisted by none other than the Demon. BOB. There is one who is not shrouded. Not yet an Orphenoch, and thus, beneath the notice of whatever mental meddling has occurred here. The Animal, a regular human, a complete brute who would have been Jacques' first choice for forced evolution, once 'The Demon's' mess had been cleaned up. Leo, he's called. The same Leo she saw in Shelly's anxious background thoughts, in the Double R Diner. That could be their ticket to catching another one of these.
Go Shijima	The Great Northern 1:20PM Ben's desk is orderly, for the most part. Excepting the place where his fist drove through four inches of solid wood, without even breaking the skin. There's one other thing of interest--inside one of the drawers is a ledger. Now that he's left, she could take it, or, using his legal pad, copy some of the information down. It looks like the sort of thing he'd notice, were it to go missing--but then again, Audrey seems to sabotage him often. Inside, there's a mention of revenue from 'O.E.J.' It seems to bring in a considerable amount of money, compared to the Great Northern and Horne's Department Store, matched only by what appears to be dividends from his stock portfolio.
Hamada Haru	"You can kill me," Kamen Rider Tetra cedes to Jacques. "But not even an asteroid can kill Kamen Rider. Flesh is not what binds us here." There is an instant, amidst all the chaos and force, in which Jacques goes from a living thing to an inert thing-- or at the very least, a dying and crumbling thing. In this moment, Tetra Prime's belt suddenly whirrs open. Inside, there is nothing. An eerie darkness, like a hole in the world. A gentle enough absence at first, but things change shortly afterwards. Haru looks down at his belt in surprise. It yawns open, and drags the ghost of Jacques Renault from his ruined body. Whether it could be called his SOUL is uncertain, but certainly there is a phantasmal thing that is seized from what remains of the Orphenoch. No sound comes from it; no sound, one suspects, could possibly come from it. It is drawn inwards, a silhouette like the man himself at first, but it is pulled away like vapor drifting towards some suction effect. When his "feet" reach the dark spot in space the spirit compresses down to a single coherent point of light and is dragged in, disappearing like a single brilliant thread of light being yanked on at impossible speeds. The belt snaps shut and the empty spot vanishes, leaving Kamen Rider Tetra standing there in a daze.
Lilian Rook	Jacques is dead. And good riddance. Lilian flicks the blood from her blade, turns from the ashed corpse, and lets down her stance. "May you burn in hell." she says, ostensibly to the dead man, as if his ghost would hang around for a few minutes longer before it would be dragged down to where she hopes it'll go; and then it does, disappearing into the void that she has just learned Hamada carries around, somehow, which she hopes is a thoroughly unpleasant place. Brushing back her hair, she consciously switches back to English, with that 'proper' accent. "At least we have a couple of Riders on the ball here." She begins striding back to the edge of the Roadhouse lot, not yet disarming herself. With her free hand, she gestures down her body. Untouched. "Do you still want to fight over your ideals?" Lilian asks the especially opposed part of the crowd. "I won't begrudge you for it, but I will use everything in my power short of certain kill techniques to show you where you stand. The monsters that slip through the cracks. That prey on children and rot communities from the inside out like this. Those are my job. And sorry to say, but you're not in my league." Adding further, she continues on to say "Bringing him in would be a waste of time regardless. I already got everything we need to know from him in the process. Pulled straight from his rotten mind. Simple as that. His accomplices; his nasty little clubhouse; the Blue Rose. And their contract with BOB. I don't want to hear any complaints. Those of you who still care about this case --who care about what Bobby Briggs died for-- I'll speak with you on where we're going next. Otherwise, you can figure it out yourselves."
Go Shijima	The Roadhouse 1:20PM Outside, the sounds of fighting finally die out, and the windows are no longer portals to a realm of limitless light, as Xion's beam and Strawberry's energy discharge both dissipate at last. But still, there's that thumping. It's coming from one of the private rooms the place supposedly rents out for people to sleep off particularly wild nights. The thumping increases until Tetra Beta approaches the door. It swings wide open, and there's Bobby, clutching his abdomen. There's a glazed-over look in his eyes that burns away immediately upon seeing Beta, replaced with a very awake, alive fear. He stumbles forward in a clumsy attempt to run past-- And ends up collapsing on Beta. He is burning up. Not in the sense of having a fever. In the sense that no human body should be this temperature. Blue flames wreath him a moment later, his eyes flaring a brilliant sapphire. Beta knows this: Bobby Briggs is an Original Orphenoch. He shouts as the energy overwhelms him, his cry penetrating the walls of the bar. https://youtu.be/65vBUwDn8lY
Hellwarming Trio	BEN'S OFFICE "Whoa... Good arms on that guy. Now lessee what we got here..." Rin murmurs to herself as she hops onto the desk to poke through all that stuff, being careful not to disturb things too much more than the punch already did. Spotting that ledger, she transforms back into her humanoid form to start flipping through it, squinting as though that might make the arrays of numbers easier for her to understand. It doesn't, but it helps her feel smarter. She relays some information about those numbers and the names without comprehending the bulk of it, and after being given the suggestion to snag it... She does! She's about to head right out the window, too, but she stops when she realizes something... If he comes back and notices that the ledger's missing, there could be repercussions. Investigations. Punishments, even! But how's Rin supposed to get away with such vital information without him or anyone realizing that she's the culprit? Step 1. Leave with the ledger. Step 2. Bring her wheelbarrow full of zombie-dressed fairies back. Step 3. Load everything inside the desk into the wheelbarrow. Step 4. Get the hell out of there and bring all that stuff back to Cooper and Shinnosuke.
Hellwarming Trio	THE ROADHOUSE With the fight ending faster than expected, Utsuho exhales slowly as she raises her control rod towards the giant burning ball, drawing what's left of it back into herself and ensuring that the pileup of explosions and special effects are all visible to whoever might be watching here or off a recording somewhere else. She'd be more excited over seeing all this, but... <J-IC-Scene> Tamamo answers Utsuho, "Whether it is a man and a murderer, or a cannibal, or a monster that preys upon humankind, it is a matter for humans to decide. This man has... offended myself, but those are small matters. Mine is not the decision for his fate, unless, and until, others yield it." <J-IC-Scene> Hellwarming Duo \| Utsuho says, "... Hmm. I think I get it. That sounds easier than trying to pick a side, at least." <J-IC-Scene> Hellwarming Duo \| Utsuho says, "Dunno if I like it." It doesn't answer those lingering questions in her mind, and it's fairly obvious even from the look on her face that Utsuho is still mulling all of that over. "That ended pretty quick... Hm. Well, Rin can still interrogate the guy once she gets here. And then-" And then Haru snatches the ghost of Jacques Renault. She goes wide-eyed at first, but not from fear. Instead, it's one of excitement as she hurries over to the dazed Kamen Rider. "Whoa! I didn't know you were like us. Where're you from, anyway? Who's your master? Or are you your own? Is anyone paying you to do this stuff?" Her incessant questions cease, thankfully, between Lilian's questions towards the anti-kill group and the pounding noises from inside the Roadhouse. "Real confident about yourself, huh? That should make things way more interesting, then..." She chuckles mischievously as she looks from Lilian to Shinnosuke and Muramasa, watching them both for a moment before turning her attention back to Bobby as he comes back out, shouting from all the burning. "Pass him over. Where're we headed?" For once, she's actually play the medevac! "If it's just fire, I can take it. Just make sure there's somewhere to put him that won't turn to ash when I get there!"
Muramasa	In the end, he still couldn't save anyone. Looking away, his eyes rest on the Kingdom Key in his hands. It's a beautiful thing, if an odd one ... looking at it reminds him of something, but he isn't sure of what. Softly glowing as motes of light begin to burn around it, it shatters, the image is lost in his hand, but it still remains. In the world inside his soul. It was frustrating. It was very frustrating, to keep failing over and over and over again like this. But ... But he did not make the same mistake, and for that much, he was happy. BB had brought it up before, the reason he'd become like he was now ... yes, what he'd remembered was from that time. At the very end. He'd thought to himself, 'I don't want things to end this way, having failed every single person in my reach'. From the bottom of his heart, he'd made a wish -- "That's pretty arrogant of you, Lilian Rook." Muramasa says. His inflection is calm, but it's like a cold veneer, the kind of calmness you force on yourself to bite down something hot flooding your chest that makes you say or do things you'd regret. He'd gotten somewhat better at restraining himself, he thinks. " 'A waste of time', but .. no, it's a pointless argument to have. You already know where I stand." His fists clench, "Drawing my blade on you, what purpose would it serve except to spill even more blood here? Something meaningless like that," he hated it, " ... but I'm not like Tomari. I'm not just capitulating to you." His glare hardens into two molten pools, and a tense moment reigns supreme in its silence. Until -- Bobby Briggs is an Original Orphenoch. He shouts as the energy overwhelms him, his cry penetrating the walls of the bar. " -- what..?!"
Hamada Haru	Kamen Rider Tetra is praised for doing things the right way. "I didn't do anything," he says, and this is the truth. Are you like us, who's your master, or are you alone, is anyone paying you... "No," he answers to the first question, and ignores all the others. Pass him over. "No." There is a roar as his motorcycle rises up through the ground. Tetra Beta lifts Bobby wholesale and puts him in the sidecar, climbing on-- and then they're both ghostly, intangible, as is the machine. To the extent that it matters, Tetra Alpha gets in the way while Beta makes certain that Bobby isn't caught up in the police net that's bound to pass here. He's also doing something else. Haru is thinking, hard, in Lilian's direction. Flashes of images, of directions. Where Bobby will be, instead of in police custody. It's local-- the hiding place they'd been meeting before. It's incorrect to say that he trusts her in particular, but since Lilian turned ironbound when it came to Bobby, he apparently trusts her at least to act in his best interests. But Xion can probably pick up on it too-- Haru's not a telepath, he can't shield his thoughts at all, much less the ones he's trying to cast out towards another. After a moment or two Tetra Alpha folds his arms across his chest, becoming ghostly as well... and slips quietly beneath the earth.