Scene #7636: SORG 3: Parks District

Owner	Pose
Cantio	The next target in undermining the underground city's Mayor has been located: A science lab in the park district. Inhumane tests have been confirmed to be taking place in the lab, and not by anyone here that might actually benefit from them. Once again, a request for assistance has been issued, and Cantio is already waiting outside the freight elevator leading into the parks district. "Thanks for coming! Our mission today is to shut down the lab once we find it, but I wonder if they might have anything useful we can repurpose. Supplies, inventions, research... Our contact should be around here, so I'll be keeping an eye out for them if anyone wants to get a head start on checking things out." The elevator isn't the only way to get there. The more aquatically inclined can still get here from the well that had been created in the industrial zone a few weeks prior that would lead to one of the few lakes here that doesn't have some kind of strange device pouring colorful gunk into it. It's not clear what the water-coloring stuff is, but it does at least help this region smell pretty okay. Said parks district is also rather obviously named. Trees and grass go as far as the eye can see, which might be pretty impressive considering that this whole park is underground and lit up mostly by fires and giant electric lampposts scattered liberally throughout the zone. Barbecue grills can be seen here and there next to conveniently located benches, many even in use to cook up jars of fresh Fud and the occasional contraband cheeseburger. Some people look wary of going near the water, though, likely because of the previously mentioned colorful gunk. It's the poorer looking folks that seem less hesitant about diving in, but poor and wealthy-ish people mingle throughout this region... Sort of. Those with more clothes than rags are pretty obvious about not getting too close to the sack-wearing slum dwellers that have somehow managed to find their way here, and even vendors try to keep them at several arms' length from the merchandise. The only ones that don't seem to mind the slum dwellers are the people that look like vampires. These vampire cosplayers have gone as far as having pale skin, black clothes with blood red corsets or ties, and short capes as though they're really into the classical image for cosplay or something. They're getting along pretty well with the homeless people, at least. The only people nobody seems to be getting along with are the ones in blue overalls. There's something distinctly off about their faces, whether it's the unkempt clothing or the strange odor they emit, and some of them are openly brandishing shotguns and axes as though they're trying to keep people away from the inexplicable hedge mazes and random log cabins they seem to congregate around. The people in blue, however, seem to be side-eyeing another group clad in army green fatigues. The soldier-y looking people are hanging out at what might be generously described as a military outpost complete with barbed wire fences, hastily built barracks and armories, and towers to oversee the area while they pace around with their own pistols and the occasional submachine gun. What might be more telling is that the army nuts are paying particular attention to a rather inconspicuous lab that's just smack dab in the middle of several of these outposts. It's hard to see inside, but there's definitely people with lab coats coming in and out every now and then. A few of them are even wheeling crates of bananas around, but that's probably got nothing to do with the gorillas wandering around the district. Also, there's gorillas wandering around the district. There's not enough trees for them to be swinging through, though, so they're just wandering around while occasionally jumping into the tainted lakes.
Hiromi	Once again, Hiromi has arrived to see to the development (and/or destruction) of civilization. The recreation of the upper areas according to Seilatiya's designs do meet with her approval, though that may, in part, merely be a tolerance borne of her positive disposition concerning the divine empress. It is, in any case, better than it used to be, and she remains there long enough to check on the water conditions, before diving down to return to the lower park district. She's not really aquatically inclined, but she can hold her breath while launching herself with sheer strength, tempered just to avoid damaging anything on the way down. "'Lab.' 'Inventions, research.' For what are these? Why 'research,' here?" she questions Cantio, but it's questionable whether she'll get, adequately understand, or accept any given answer. What is clear to her is that there's something believed to be important, here. "Soldiers guard, stalk this place. To them, something precious. I will discover this." And away she goes, to do exactly that, pausing only long enough to shake the lakewater off her body and onto a nearby picnic. By 'discover,' she meant 'ask, directly.' She stops the first patrol she comes across (or is, equivalently, stopped by them) and speaks with the voice of Authority Undeniable, the tyrant who is to be obeyed, the one above their own command structures by nature. "You," pointing to the one she intuits to be the patrol leader, "explain your orders and charge. Explain the place," gesturing to the lab, "within. If you cannot, find your 'immediate officer.' They answer to me." It is not a disguise in any sense, but a forced assertion of belonging, which is why there's no need to pretend she already knows any of them.
Undivided Queens	"This area is awful. I hate it." "Huh? But why? It's-- well, it's not pretty, but it's waaaay better than the last one, right?" "No. The last district was merely a slum. A miserable place of filth and labour. This place has no sense to it at all." "What's so hard to get? It's a whole level dedicated to parks~ Growing things and running water~ And a science workshop, for some reason? It's pretty ugly. Okay, I'll give you that!" "No. Look around. There are the privileged who belong here. The labourers from before. There are some kind of undead nobles. There are groups of seemingly violent loggers. There are soldiers. There are scientists. There are great apes. There are parks, bazaars, cabins, forts, caves, that research outpost, and more." "Ah, I get it. It's kind of too many themes isn't it?" "Yes." "Yeah, what should we even do actually? I-- . .. " "Seila?" "I'm soooo angry!" "Why?" "They're still eating that 'fud' crap again! After all that work I did!! Unbelievable!!!" Seilatiya now cannot be distracted. The stylishly dressed and faintly glowing Empress is now storming through the barbeque trail. She is so incensed by these idiot peasants ignoring her work before, that she is straight up slapping shitty canned Fud away, kicking over grills full of it, and actually being kind of terrifying, even if the whole way along the Holy Runecipher spins frantically in her wake, leaving behind an almost constant trail of glittering magic particles with the constant effort of setting up actual wood-fired cooking stations with grills and pots and woks, as well as outright dropping fat ceramic jars of rice and vegetables along with paper wrapped steaks and wicker baskets of sweet fruits. Absolutely no no no no no eating crap Fud! She is literally foisting at least the basics of real food on prole and half-prole alike (midway through realizing she needs to leave pots of actual water too, to boil with). She is being a tiny bit steppy about it. Everyone needs to know how great she is for what she replaced the Fud packing district with! Isahane knows better than to interfere, but seems only to be able to tolerate it with immense consternation. She has an objective to take care of, and it doesn't look like any of these slack-jawed morons are exactly threatening, so she'll just go off to the lab and expect to see a statue of Seilatiya by the time she comes back out. All she summons is a long and heavy masakari-style axe, carrying it along in one hand though it is meant for two. She nods at Hiromi along the way, and splits off, since there's no point in two people asking the same people the same question. Instead she finds a camp of those people in blue, around a convenient log cabin slash hedge maze, so she can gesture over at the army outpost and ask, fairly plainly, "What relation do you have with them?"
Cantio	Surprisingly, the water conditions have actually held up pretty well in the well since last time! Perhaps it was luck that brought Hiromi and Seilatiya to that particular lake, but it's one of the few untainted ones left even compared to what Hiromi might have seen the last time she was down here. "Generally? Research is useful to figure out how certain things work. Knowing how different combinations of chemicals or magic might work when applied with one dosage versus a higher or smaller one, or even combined with something else." Cantio replies, glancing around a few times before sending a drone out to scout out the area and try and get a hold of their Resistance contact. "Specifically here? We'll probably be able to find out if we get a hold of one of the researchers here." And then she's off to follow the drone! Wet picnic notwithstanding, Hiromi's presence is actually rather welcomed by the people down here. Seilatiya's and Isahane's, too, although there is some initial annoyance at the Fud grills getting knocked right the hell over until that's all replaced with real goddamn food. Anyone that might have otherwise had a complaint about that shuts up pretty quickly at that, and they don't even seem to mind the initial lack of water! Luckily, there's a few slightly smarter people in that crowd that realize the rice actually needs to be cooked first, so they're not all chewing on solid ass grains of rice with their fruit. Actually getting where they want to isn't all too difficult for... Well, anyone. Hiromi's mental domination manages to get a trio of soldiers stopping to answer her, and the leader of the three even snaps up a hand in a salute. "Sir, yes, ma'am! We're here to defend this facility from the cannibals and a maintain the peaceful stalemate they have going with the wild gorillas! They're conducting research into something involving gorillas, trees, and different chemical compounds in the water!" As if on cue, someone tries taking a dip in one of the purple pools closer to the army camp and disappears. Not in the sinking-to-the-bottom or generally dying sense, but literally disappearing. They can still be heard making surprised noises and splashing in the water that's reacting to said splashing, but that's it. With Isahane splitting off, meanwhile, the people in blue actually have someone coming by that isn't trying to immediately kill them! They do look rather wary, however, when they see that giant axe in hand, and one of them actually approaches her with a skeptical eye (the non-drooping one). "We ain't had no relations with them army folk. We been fightin' 'em for as long as we been down here." He answers with a long drawl in his tone, squinting at one of the soldiers and making vaguely offensive hand gestures once eye contact is made. "Freaks always up to doin' weird stuff in that laboramatory over there, bringin' in all them apes... Why? You gots a problem with 'em? Because maybe we can make it worth in your while..."
Brooklynn Bailey	Why hasn't Brook said anything initially? It is because she has decided to take a calmer approach than last time. Let's see...the gorillas and the vampire-looking things are in conflict. Nobody seems to want to deal with the blue shirts, the various poor people are in various dislike of each other...because of course people like being in stratums. And the military seems to be ok with how things are because they're guarding the coats inside. So far, nothing the coats have been doing has been good for anyone involved. Brook taps into the power that was offered to her by Phoney. The pinpricks of light around her, looking at the various sources... She looks for Gorilla's and 'Vampires' and tries to analyze why they hate each other. And also if there might be a way for them to consider cooperation. She also turns the power on the soldiers, trying to figure out if it was really just a game of keeping people pointed at each other and why. If she can get some answers she will start talking to both Vampires and Gorilla's. Try to see if there are people, or leaders, willing to sit with her and talk.
Note	Note did hear that there was some kind of to-do going on out here. An underground city, a sleazy mayor doing questionable things, and general chaos. However, she got the alert a bit late, while at a buffet (which now slightly regrets her patronage). She's late through the elevator, and misses the immediate meeting point. So, instead of fretting about that, the youth spends a bit of time swooping around the enormous cavern that this underground city exists in. There's not a lot of headspace, but she zips this way and that without being too easily noticed by keeping her aura down, getting a feel for the layout and hunting for the telltale stronger-than-most life forces that will HOPEFULLY lead her to those she's supposed to meet. Unfortunately, the first thing that leads her to is a small pack of bathing gorillas. She landed, asked a few questions, but getting only grunts and splashing at in return, she quickly realized that trying to figure them out will take too long, even though her primate affinity is strangely high. (More monkeys than apes, but...) Abandoning that, the Saiyan girl takes to the air again, swooping near the tops of buildings and eventually landing on the edge of a rooftop near Brooklynn Bailey, tail swishing behind her and legs kicking playfully at the empty air. "Hey, are you with the gathering?"
Hiromi	Hiromi soon understands that there are, and disapproves of the existence of, cannibals. Her issue with the concept may be different than that of most, but it's enough to say that she'll require that practice to stop. Whether it stops with a lot of killing depends on what Brooklynn has promised to find out, so she leaves it be, for now. Instead, she orders the soldiers she's commandeered, "Show me 'research' leader." If they don't know who's actually in charge of the lab, and don't know anyone who does, they can just lead her to the lab, and she'll continue being both intimdatingly large and in charge as she questions the scientists in the same manner, up until she can find someone to explain the lab's purpose to her. Specifically, 'justify your work' is her command. Being of a mind to destroy the place if it can't give a satisfactory answer, and having neither a background in nor respect for their craft, it's likely to be something like the most dangerous of possible investor meetings.
Undivided Queens	With the egregious offense of 'not recognizing how perfect and amazing she is and obsessing over her public works' blunted for the moment, Seilatiya halts her infinite food rampage and meanders back over to the drop from the Industrian District above at a more relaxed pace, creating an elegant cherry-patterned parasol to spin idly over her shoulder despite the fact that there is, and can be, no rain nor sun down here. There is a purpose to her radiant lady walk back down the paths though: with her idol rage subsided, she can properly pay attention to the feelings --the earnest wishes-- of the people in the air all around her, and peer into their hearts with but a glance, to get a feel for this district as opposed to the last. Mostly though, she assumes she knows what the regular people will be feeling, and is especially interested in figuring out these 'vampires' from inside. It's not every day you get to examine the emotional architecture and psychological needs of a nominally dead person in fancy clothes. Isahane is still playing the more active role. Being seven feet of mostly exposed muscle, pale and faded battle-scars, and pretty menacing horns actually, she does not seem even slightly put off by the weird Hapsburg lumberjack making shifty eyes at her. "Then we are agreed that they have no place here." she says, without a hint of agreeable relief in her steely voice at all. "If you really can make me care, then do your best. Afterwards, though . . ." She casually hefts the masakari over her shoulder, tapping the hefty thing like a baseball bat. "You don't have much longer to decide. Aren't your kind as much of a menace? Why should I leave you alone once those men are gone?"
Hibiki Tachibana	After how things went last time, in which Hibiki Tachibana casually visited a convenience store to get some cool mayor facts, this visit to everyone's favorite underground city has her actually catching up on all the changes that happened while she was doing that. For example, Persephone being Persephone towards the entire factory, Hiromi's adventures in clean water, and Seilatiya's--wait, they did what? Things are already thematically chaotic enough in this sector of the city before everyone gets here, and between that and Hibiki spotting Hiromi taking a visit straight to the laboratory that certainly looks like it's serving as their main objective for today, she's very sure whatever is going on in there isn't going to last very long. She probably doesn't need to go over there and throw hands, of which she now mysteriously has two again, and make things more complicated. Given the Archwolf in question is responsible for that, it's only a little bit sad. But this time, she thinks she's better off continuing her streak of actually working in the background almost like an actual Watchman compared to the bigger things - and for that, she's going to be doing investigation into the police boxes that intel have supposedly been popping up across the district. Are there even any policemen here in the park...? Those guys in blue coveralls definitely aren't it. The only thing to do is question the extremely colorful cast of locals - gorillas included, you never know - if they know anything about the phenomenon, and probably about whatever's going on with the water while she's at it, and then locate one of these boxes herself.
Cantio	When Brooklynn goes digging into the power dynamics between the gorillas and cannibals, she'll realize a couple of things! The cannibals are one of the main 'organized' groups on this floor. Their relationship with the gorillas is fairly neutral to favorable, largely owing to their hatred of the soldiers and scientists, respectively. With the soldiers and scientists working together, the cannibals and the gorillas have an uneasy alliance as long as nobody wanders into places they shouldn't. Of course, without being able to actually communicate with each other, it's less of an alliance and more of a prioritization of who to kill first. The gorillas, meanwhile, are very much gorillas. Both Brooklynn and Note will find that they're not really capable of talking to people, but they otherwise seem pretty chill. The only people they go apeshit around are the scientists, probably explaining why said scientists and their muscle have been moving around those crates of bananas. On the way towards/away from the gorillas' homes in the caves, however, they do get a bit of a lucky break. Looking for the gorillas' leader/something else to do takes them towards actually finding Cantio outside one of these caves. Somehow, she's speaking to one of the gorillas. It probably has something to do with the green device in that gorilla's hand. They're about to leave, too, when they notice Brooklynn and Note nearby. Cantio: "Oh! Hi, you're just in time!" Gorilla: "These are your friends, then?" Cantio: "Um... One is! I don't know who the other teenager is, but she's-" Gorilla: "That's fine. Come. We strike." Cantio: "Really? Uh... Right. Just don't break everything! I need at least one of the computers functional if we're going to take any useful data back!" Hiromi, meanwhile, meets with little resistance as she's led to the lab by her squad of obedient soldiers. The thugs in the front of the lab try to stop her and the squad at first, but they relent easily enough thanks to the soldiers giving her convenient access to the interior of the lab. They're certainly not going to contend with people with guns AND someone that's so much more built than they are. As expected, the lab is fairly sterile. Clean glass, sanitized tables all over the place, walls filled with charts and sealed containers of all sorts of weird shit, and monitors scrolling rapidly with all sorts of data that's clearly just recording everything without any regard to actually being readable without someone actually poring through that shit carefully or organizing it first. When she finds the head of the facility, meanwhile, they're actually pretty upfront about what's going on, even eager to explain it all. "We're trying to recreate immortality juice. I know this'll sounds stupid, but someone dropped a corpse in a vat of Fud byproducts a week ago and they just came back out of it alive. The Mayor wants us to try and figure it out before re-election season. Or the next time someone tries to kill the Mayor and pulls it off, either or." They don't elaborate on how that testing is being done, though, or why there's giant plants trying to take bites out of whoever passes by. They also don't explain why there's gorillas behind bars throughout the laboratory.
Cantio	Seilatiya's dig into the inner workings of the people living or visiting the park district comes up with the surprisingly complex web of relationships and motivations that Hiromi and Brooklynn had dug into briefly before: Poor people want to move to Downtown, slightly less poor people want to move to Uptown, gorillas hate scientists and vice versa, same for the military dudes and the cannibals, and the Elites that have been showing up actually have some great PR entirely through word of mouth (and also all their public work efforts). Also, the vampires are actual factual vampires. They're not particularly smart vampires, though, having opted to wear the most stereotypical mid-20th century vampire clothing possible. They don't seem to have a leader, though, mostly just doing their own thing while occasionally creating more of themselves and trying to stay under the radar despite looking the way they do. They're certainly not interested in this underground city's politics, for better or for worse, although trying to appeal to their needs for blood without getting stink-eyed would probably still help to win them over in the long run. They're also pretty fond of doctors for selling them blood bags. Isahane initially gets a grin from the cannibal speaking to her. "Right! See, I knew you were smart the first second I thirded ya. Uh. Saw." He laughs, but his mirth is short lived when the other shoe drops. "Wha? Whadda ya mean? We're servicin' the public! Who else is gonna clean up after someone dies around here? We're just usin' every part of the body, is all! Not like them science nerds know how to bring someone back from the dead." The cannibals are wary. Some of them are already grabbing their shotguns and axes, but they're not attacking just yet. They do look like they're about to, though, and they're likely to do so the moment Isahane turns around. The police boxes are a curious thing. Judging from the disturbed dirt and grass near where they're installed, it's pretty clear that these boxes with the control panels on the sides were put in very recently. There's still a token police presence in the park, but they don't seem to be trying particularly hard at stopping anything more than thieves trying to pickpocket people. They're certainly not getting involved in any fights that are breaking out between the gun-toting soldiers or cannibals. Just as Hibiki is about to go elsewhere, however, she gets to see what those police boxes do. A shootout between a patrolling soldier and cannibal winds up striking the police box, causing it to whir to life! After a brief blast of smoke, a beefy ubermensch of a cop emerges, complete with a visored helmet, a nightstick, and an energy shield. The cannibal and the soldier don't stand a chance even with their guns, and they're quickly beaten into a bloody pulp before the supercop retreats back to that police box to disappear.
Brooklynn Bailey	She is getting a feeling for this, she starts trying to feel out how things work through the eyes of the people here. The gorillas are Gorillas, which is anti-climatic, she was expecting giant gorilla brains. Instead, she got normal, though slightly more intelligent, gorillas. Ok fine, that's...we can work with this. Note interrupts her careful and trying to train up using mental powers, which instead now she gets a bigger monkey. Rubbing her temples for a moment, because she wasn't expecting to walk into a brighter light. Mentally, the question of 'why are you' will ring out from Brooklynn to understand Note. "Yes, I am, I was trying to figure out more about one of the groups," She says, before running into a familiar face. However, she was surprised to find Cantio here. The situation is better explained to her and she muses for a moment. She doesn't let the cat out of the bag on what they are researching on, that is...well something for the Concord to have. "Hello, it is good to meet you I am Brooklynn Bailey," She says with a confident tone, something even Cantio can hear in her voice. "If you are going to attack the lab...then I will aid you, and yours." She raises a hand up and from her fires starts moving around the gathering gorillas, aiming to do more than just be a pretty light show. They will feel their TOUGHNESS increase, their wounds REGENERATE quicker, and their STRENGTH increased even more. Cantio and Note will also get this too because presumably, they're working towards the same goal. Might also give Hiromi's soldiers a bit of a better test...and if the cannibals get in the way well, it's no tears shed from Brook. "There, all I ask is you let us comb through the data and look at their notes...after that, you can do what you want."
Hibiki Tachibana	"So the police /are/ here, but why aren't they dealing with anything serious...?" Hibiki remembers them getting involved into the altercation when they first got here, so she's a little surprised. As surprised as anyone can be in a district this out there at least, even compared to what they've already seen. Where in the world is the police precinct down here, anyway? But these boxes have to serve some kind of purpose. One that she swiftly finds out when she keeps clear of the gunfight, only to watch the most jacked cop she thinks she's seen in her entire life waltz out of the box and do his thing. She's shocked enough at the sudden onset of gigaviolence that she can only watch in slack-jawed awe as it happens and the officer retreats as quickly as he appeared. "...What?" When something down here is making her say that, there's a problem. The first thing she does is go check on the two browbeaten color-coded group members to make sure they're still kicking, and if they're not pummeled unconscious - "What the /hell/ was that supposed to be? Don't tell me the police are leaving you guys to...whatever that just was? Where'd the police even get anything like that?" Only after that does she move back a short distance away to check the box in more detail, starting with the control panels to see if they display anything of note on them. Followed right after by her attempting to throw the door right open and see what's inside for herself.
Hiromi	Unexpectedly, Hiromi not only understands what they're working for, but approves of it. Being the one veritable monster in a building full of nerds, this is good for them. "'Mayor.' A warrior? If not warrior, no need for your efforts. Strength to those who earn it. Lifeblood to the fighter. Health to the pack. Are you understanding? You'll work beneath me. If you live. Some come to kill you, now. A challenge awaits. Victory earns life. Prepare all your strength. If you can fight, come." If there's any sign of the scientists being able to support the military action, Hiromi leads them back out, to talk to the soldiers. Along the way, she asks one of the gorillas, in a voice of growling not-words, what's happened to it here. But that's only idle curiosity. It is, in her view, defeated. The defeated, like prey, have no right of self-determination. Outside, having already arrived by her earlier summons, a half dozen men and women dressed similarly to (if much more heavily than) Hiromi await her, spears at their sides, saluting with an upright, fist to palm stance. Hiromi grunts an acknowledgment to them, then addresses the nearest soldiers, again asserting her authority as necessary. "These," referencing the fur-clad hunter-monks, "are mine. Obey their orders. 'Gorillas' approach. Will they hunt you? Will you be soft prey? Stagnation and laziness are fatal sins. Spread this warning. Fight for your lives. Kill your enemies. Prove your worth." To her own people, Hiromi gives detailed instructions using her sight of the land, knowledge of where the gorillas are coming from, and defensive-focused tactical acumen. They're to go and make sure that the soldiers fight their hardest, but she's not giving them too much help. This is a fight she walked into, not a fight for which she has any responsibility, so she has no obligation to keep any of these people, the ones not of her pack, alive. They then go with the soldiers. Her people lack her own overwhelmingly authoritative presence, but it's not like the soldiers are being told to do anything difficult to understand. Hiromi remains at the laboratory's entrance. She's hoping for a strong enough opponent to catch her personal interest.
Note	"Woohoo! Was worried I'd missed the whole thing!" Note executes a backflip, but strangely this has her moving FORWARD off the building. She sails down easy-as-you-please, landing near Cantio, Brooklynn, and the Gorilla, dusting herself off and quickly stealing a look at her tail to make sure it didn't get any gunk on it from the grimy city rooftops. "Heard the call for help. Came to check out what's going on." She lowers her voice cautiously to add, "Something about an evil king or mayor or something...?" "hmmmm?" The spiritual(?) fires from Brooklynn reach Note and, sensing that they're helpful, Note lets their energy flow into her. "... Oooh. That's a useful trick! I might not even have to power up now, if a fight breaks out. ... But what's uh... what's the actual plan? I'm guessing knock out a few guards and break into one of these buildings? ... what's the story, anyways...? What's going on that's so wrong?"
Brooklynn Bailey	Brook rubs the side of her head for a moment...like she saw something painful for a moment. 'I never knew people could be so reflective...ow gotta watch where I look at her..' she thinks to herself. "To explain a complicated situation in a less complicated way. The lab is bad and does bad experiments on people. Also said experiments are keeping a very bad man in power who uses his power to hurt others and make people live like this.." she shrugs. "The soldiers are helping the lab coats. The gorillas are going to twist the heads off of the soldiers and lab coats and knock over the lab, as we are allied on this." She looks at the talking Gorilla, "Your insight on why might help our friend here," Brook mentions about Note.
Undivided Queens	The answer Isahane gets from the cannibals is different than what she'd expected when she'd heard about them. "The dead, is it?" she asks, rhetorically, with immense, fearsome gravitas. "That explains why you've seemingly been tolerated so far, despite your unfortunate ways." She then begins considering what to do with them, in the way very large and intimidating people do when unfortunately not communicating very well. Personally, she just wants to get rid of them and clean this place up. But what would Seilatiya want? Isahane is not good at thinking like Seilatiya. She struggles through the thought, step by step, envisioning how the conversation would go in her head. Appropriately, she arrives at an incredibly half-baked outcome, without the ability to feel people's hearts; or much else in terms of similarity, really. "Go on then. Prove your worth. And I will give you the opportunity to mend your ways. You will be taught to civilize, and share this place with the others, so you have no need of these paltry weapons." She casually claps that axe away to assert dominance, but otherwise seems to believe the Hapsburg Hillbillies can be socialized in some helpful way so that they stop being beat'em up enemies. But she wants to see their determination first. Seilatiya, meanwhile, is doing the same thing, but the opposite. Returning to the newly created well, she conjures up a much nicer and fancier bench, all white frame and red cushions, to contemplate long and hard on the vampires. They're pretty gross, and she doesn't like them turning more people into vampires at all, but it seems like they're so bizarrely harmless that nobody notices or cares (and they get blood from bags! Weird!). However, she has to think about what Isahane would want. She also isn't very good at it. First, she wants to do what she already planned, and that is to find a high point, with her holy artifact once again glowing like an underground sun (and, in fact, placing another one up there like in the Industrial District), and convert Hiromi's makeshift well into many different streams under complex systems of fancy white marble aquaducts, some then boring into the ground and spreading clear streams around the ground like vines, bridges and stones included, but mostly channeled into the many goo-filled pools all around, which each begin to sprout what appear to be groves of lotus flowers, doing what they do and rapidly draining the unnatural colours out of the water, the floating blooms then taking on those sci-fi glows (rather prettily). No toxic waste! Though she does call Cantio to come tell her to pick some flowers at her leisure, for science! Then, what Isahane would absolutely totally do and not at all something that is her half-assed crackpot idea: Because she went and put a sun down here (even if it's a teeny tiny one), she begins the process of filling up some of those caves with a fucking vampire mansion practically straight out of some trashy goth romance garbage she managed to get from the Multiverse at some point, with an unbelievably stereotypical 'decorative graveyard' and spooky forest' or five. Those impossible, literally divine water channels do their thing and turn to blood where they trickle into the caves, and go into Halloween-grade ominous blood fountains. They can live there now! And come out at '''night''' like real vampires are supposed to! This is totally not racial segregation!
Note	"Twist HEADS off?!" THAT actually sparks some aggravation from Note. Apparently, she's not a fan of needless bloodshed. "That's going pretty far. Everyone here's strong enough to take down soldiers without killing! A few well placed punches, break their weapons..." She halts in her stride, looking a bit torn on whether she wants to help in a fight that might turn into a slaughter... or if turning around and letting that happen would be worse. "If I see any killing in cold blood, I'm going to knock the offender through a wall. Maybe two or three." She finally declares in a 'that is that' tone. Because it's really hard to work with people from other worlds who don't share her conscience.
Cantio	POLICE BOX: When Hibiki checks on the army dude and the cannibal, they're both barely alive and conscious. It'd be hard to stay awake after that beating, after all, but they do both manage short nods to confirm what she's asking. Unfortunately, neither of them are able to verbally answer her questions. What may help answer those questions, however, is looking at the box itself. The control panel on the side of the box doesn't say much aside from having a big senior-friendly button to push that says 'REQUEST SUPERCOP' and a sign that says 'Only for Emergencies' underneath it. The inside of the box, meanwhile, is strangely empty. There's identical panels on the floor and ceiling, however, along with a slightly more complex keypad on the inside of the doors that doesn't seem to do anything unless the little button on the inside part of the door where it closes is pushed in. Only then does the keypad make telephone touch tone noises. The tricky part, then, is whether Hibiki wants to spend time trying to figure out this thing, or turn her attention elsewhere. CANNIBALS: "Well, yeah. What, y'think we's the type to take a bite outta someone when they're still movin' and alive? We're not vampires or whatever." The cannibals look almost offended by that, still wary of Isahane's presence when she does that intimidating looming thing for way too long for anyone to even pretend to look comfortable about. The fact that she and her axe are so much bigger than them are probably the main reasons nobody's started shooting yet, but it's her offer that gets them looking utterly baffled. "Cibilize? We're plenty cibilized without doin' all that... Hoity toity stuff." "Naw, naw, like with the book learnin'!" "Aw, come on! You really gonna say it like that?" The leader exchanges an angry look with another cannibal, and then he turns back to Isahane. "... Fine, but them's military boys are still gonna be a problem no matter how cleaned up we get. You got somethin' for that?" RENOVATIONS: A lot of curious looks are directed towards that underground sun that just pops up out of nowhere again. Its existence might make ambushes in this region more difficult, but nobody seems to mind it too much when it just shows up. Even the vampires seem weirdly okay with it. They just need to pull their hoods up a little higher. They're not burning now, but they don't know if they'll burn later. They do certainly appreciate the trashy goth mansion that's just suddenly there that was not there before, and they let out uncharacteristically dudebro-like 'whoas' at the sight of the blood fountains. Noticing that it's Seilatiya doing it, meanwhile, some of the locals actually start shouting and cheering. "Hey, it's her again!" "You're gonna fix things up down here, too?" "How am I supposed to snatch anything like this?!" One mob beating later, and the locals are back to cheering. They watch in awe as the lakes are purified of whatever strange effects the chemicals in the water might have had, some even moving to drink from the lakes because... Because. Human lizard brain sees pretty thing, must put in mouth immediately. They don't even seem to mind that there's literal blood fountains just on the other end of their shiny new park. All they see is 'wow, two big cool places!'
Cantio	GORILLAS: "Thank you. I've been keeping an eye on things here for so long, but now... We can finally act to free our brethren." The gorilla responds favorably to Brooklynn's aid, lowering the device momentarily to shout at the other gorillas. From further in the cave, more gorillas sound off, and there's soon a force of five gorillas total joining Brooklynn, Cantio, and Note. Five superpowered gorillas, even. Their destination: The laboratory. Another untranslated series of grunts and shouts comes from the lead gorilla, and then they turn the device back on. "Very well. We have no use for their tests, anyway. Their keyboards were not designed for our hands, anyway." The gorilla flexes a meaty hand for emphasis, and the others shout, practically announcing their approach and bolstering their ranks with more (non-super) gorillas joining them from nearby caves while curious onlookers take cover far, FAR away just short of actually staying inside instead of watching an impromptu war break out. "Brooklynn's got the important parts, yes. There's a corrupt mayor that came to power recently, too, so we're working with the Resistance to overthrow them." Cantio explains, holding a hand to her head as she sends her drone off in another direction. It's headed towards the lakes, and it just hovers there for a while as she refocuses on what could very well be an impending bloodbath. LAB: "The mayor? Definitely a warrior. One of the strongest we've seen in a while, even. Just came down here one day like a bat out of hell, beating the crap out of everyone in his way." The sciene lead explains to Hiromi, typing away briefly before giving her a blank stare from behind a thick pair of glasses. "Wait, what? Who's coming to kill us? That's what the soldiers are here to deal with." The captive gorilla, meanwhile, answers in a similar low rumble that they had been ambushed by the scientists' cronies, and that they had put down several more of the weaklings before being subdued. It's the voice of someone that still sounds proud even in defeat, although there is a fatigue in that growling tone. Meanwhile, against (or perhaps with) their better judgment, the science team actually joins Hiromi! They, the goons inside, and the soldiers outside all look somewhat confused as they join up with the Hiromi-dressed folks outside. They exchange confused looks at Hiromi's orders, but even the scientists end up grabbing pistols while the thugs line up with bats like some kind of weird anti-cavalry line. Except in this case, the cavalry are gorillas. The horses are also gorillas. When the gorillas see the scientists outside with the soldiers and suited thugs lined up in front of them, all hell breaks loose rather quickly. Despite the clear numbers difference between the gorillas and the not-cannibal humans, the extra oomph granted to the hyper gorillas is actually helping to even the odds against the actually-armed humans. Whoever might actually win in this situation is anyone's guess, and it seems likely that both sides will just end up terribly dead if left to fight it out without further assistance either way.
Hibiki Tachibana	'REQUEST SUPERCOP'. There is a long moment where Hibiki contemplates simply pressing the button right then and there to speak with said SUPERCOP firsthand, but she might also end up getting a gigaviolent beatdown for that. And while she can probably handle it, nah. Instead, she makes the obstensibly wiser but also much more chaotic decision of investigating further. "Is it like a teleporter, or...?" Stepping inside the box, she idly looks around the inside and glances down and then up, taking note of the panels and the keypad. She squints. And then she goes to pull the door shut to properly prep the pad and and prepare to participate in deep fact-finding. Wait a second. "How am I supposed to know what to hit here, exactly?" She didn't think this far. Maybe she should have hit 'REQUEST SUPERCOP' instead, but she's already in here. "Hmm..." She closes her eyes, thinking back to the last particularly phone-related thing for some inspiration. That would be... 'SHIFT BIKE//RIDER - Mach 555!' Oh yeah, that was it. Hibiki inputs 555 in to the keypad, and waits patiently to see what happens. If it needs more than just three numbers, she continues pressing 5 over and over again until it hits the right amount.
Note	Note... is definitely hoping this doesn't turn into a bloodbath. As more and more Gorillas show up, she again hesitates in her stride for a few moments, before catching up again. "Okay, so... beat up some soldiers, free some gorillas, try not to wreck the place... alright, sounds simple enough!" Probably better not to transform, then. Or use any flashy Ki techniques.... Except... the lab saw them all coming huh, and raised a defensive line. Note's gut sinks. She was imagining a blitz break-in, knocking people on their asses before they knew what hit them. But this... This quickly becomes all-out war before she can even say anything. The youth's jaw drops and she makes a rather nauseous face at some of the faces on display here. Note takes a flying leap and somersaults into the fray after choking down her aghast alarm, with a wild kiai-scream. Given how absolutely face-rippingly chaotic the whole tussle is, whether anyone will be able to distinguish friend from foe remains to be seen. Note is keeping her power largely constrained, but a kick or punch from her in this state is enough to crack a few ribs and knock even a towering gorilla flat on their ass. Given everything going on, who even knows if this outdoor (so to speak, being underground) melee will even retain ideas like friend or foe?
Brooklynn Bailey	With questions answered and things starting to get started Brook wonders about how things might turn out. Hiromi seems bent on conflict, and honestly, Brook's assessment of the situation was that A) The gorillas have a legit grievance and B) their goal was the lab, the stuff in it, and ultimately its destruction. The soldiers wouldn't want to let that happen, so it's probably best for her to just focus on the goal the moment things happen. When the battle is finally joined, Brook uses her flight to get a running jump over the conflict as far as she can go, and makes her way for the inside of the lab. Using her strength to tear through doors and make openings. She's more concerned about the project, or projects, they have to go on here. Also the gorillas. They might have knowledge of what's going on here and might be able to shed more information on the internal lab. If not, then they can escape or join the battle with some aid from Brooklynn. Either way, the goal is simple: Get what they need out of the lab, save the animals, destroy the labs.
Hiromi	Encouraging the people here to fight proved to be easy, after all. That task finished, Hiromi's hunters wield their spears with the sort of consummate skill of mortals approaching the supernatural through years of ascetic training under something very close to a god of strength. That is, they're pretty good at what they do, and the wide blades and wings of their bear-hunting spears are similarly useful against other large and strong animals. So long as the soldiers aren't slacking, they lunge, strike, and harry, maintaining lines and protecting their temporary charges from actually dying. <J-IC-Scene> Hiromi says, "Are these strong ones your challenge? I see. I'll accept this." With an eye toward finding the strongest opponents, it doesn't take very long for Hiromi to notice the supercharged gorillas. She leaps in, herself, crossing the distance all at once, grabbing one of the gorillas and denying its strength simply by lifting it up and off the ground, then swinging it around and into one of its fellows. Simply breaking them would probably be easier, but she goes out of her way to challenge them at what they're probably best at, strength of (natural) arms, only to demonstrate that she is the superior from deltoid to flexor digitorum, not to mention gluteus to soleus, and is more interested in thoroughly proving this fact than in necessarily killing anyone. Taking on five of them at once is only to make it seem like they might have a chance by working together. They don't, and wouldn't even if tearing apart her body didn't feel somewhat like trying to destroy a battleship with a baseball bat, but it's important to get them to try instead of just giving up immediately.
Cantio	POLICE BOX: The first five does nothing. The second five also does nothing. The third five, sadly, doesn't turn Hibiki into a Kamen Rider. She'll have to talk to Cantio about that later. What it does do, however, is prove that this device really is a teleporter! There's a flash of light inside the police box, and once Hibiki opens that door, she finds herself in... A metropolitan area? Indeed, it looks like she's found herself in a rather modern and bustling city, albeit underground because of course it's underground here. There's not a single slum dweller to be seen, as everyone's actually dressed pretty well and looking like they've got more money than sense if all the garish clothing colors are any indications. Police patrol the streets and escort C-list celebrities alongside robots scanning people at random, and wide bouncers with sledgehammers are parked in front of laser-gated communities to make sure the riff raff that somehow got here from higher (but lower class) floors haven't gotten in yet. Thankfully, the elevator going back up is a visibly a short walk away from this police box. Convenient, too, since the Resistance hasn't provided any intel on this floor of the city just yet. It could be risky exploring this place without adequate backup.
Undivided Queens	"No snatching!" Seilatiya yells, though it's only a 'yell' to be heard over the crowd. "You have everything you need now; given freely by yours truly~ So there's no excuse, got it~?" Those last, sugary words are somehow just slightly menacing. Otherwise, she basks in the cheering and praise, even going so far as to raise a tiered stage beneath the grand nexus of magic fluid-exchanging aquaducts, more more picturesque (and photogenic) white and pink trees like above, so she can pose and twirl and throw out-- She's actually prepared elaborate flyers covered with lavish full-covered pictures of her. She didn't bother to put anything more than her name on it, because she does honestly know how generally kind of dumb these people are, but the point is that they know who to vote for come election time! "Yes, yes, that's right~! I, Seilatiya li Gelentia, Holy Empress of the Algywll Empire, will see to every little thing~ Everything will turn out right as long as I'm here~! No prayer will go unanswered~! You don't need anyone else~! So go on; praise me more! Ahahaha!" MEANWHILE: Isahane takes one second to process 'hoity toity', then makes A Face when images of awful vampire cravats come to mind. "No. You will learn to exist in a way that doesn't offend the others you share this land with, so that you might live as one people, without need of weapons, or 'police'." That's as much as she's willing to explain. "The soldiers from afar won't be tolerated for long. For now, to arms, and come with me!" AT THE LAB: Seilatiya has heard of gorillas twisting off heads and decided that is just terrible! Isahane has not, and is attempting to lead a militia of cannibal hicks into the mix. The latter arrives first, and uses that fat axe to just plough right through the fence, the gates, and just go smashing her way through the lab, gleefully bulletproof and ripped, punching out anyone who gets in her way with immense lady lariats and hacking open gorilla cages. She expects the cannibals to prove themselves in glorious, chaotic neutral battle by following her lead! The former arrives later, well into the battle, by forgetting to do anything expedient and just hurrying there on rapid click-clicks of tall wooden sandals she seems incapable of even slightly losing balance on. "Wait! Waiiit! I SAID WAIT!!" She stops at the edge of the battle, huffing and puffing, hair and !kimono shoulder slipped out place, but in an aggravatingly 'dishevelled sexy' way instead of a realistically unappealing consequence of sprinting here. "No no no, this won't do! This won't do in my perfect new vassal state! I can't have everything be resolved by killing here! There are better ways to resolve your differences!"
Undivided Queens	Despite the ostensible self-importance of its phrasing, she sounds like she really means it. Her demands somehow drip with gut-punching pleading sincerity, every word somehow piercing through the chaotic audio-fog of massed beating, and hitting exactly in that special heart place with a combo attack of flowery subtitles. "Even if this place is weird, and stupid, and there are a lot of things wrong with it, and the mayor is evil, what the people are trying to do here isn't wrong! What's going on here is beyond just helping everyone! It matters to you! How long will it be until someone precious to you dies? In twenty years? The next big fight? Today? And what will you do then?! This isn't right at all!" Rather than smoothing out into reasonability, the almost childish, heart-ripping earnestness in her call only intensifies exponentially, making it almost impossible to do anything but stop and listen. "And you! Even if what you're doing could be used for good reasons, following orders is no excuse for the bad things you're doing already! The people here don't want soldiers watching them! They don't want pollution in their precious waters! This place does nothing but scare people and cause violence as it is! And these poor gorillas; all you've done is take family away from them! Is that really okay just because they don't look like you?" Everything about the 'speech' is sloppily improvised and filled with generic statements since she has no useful knowledge of this place or its people, but even then, Seilatiya means, and expects everyone to understand, every word. "This terrible arrangement has to go! But that doesn't mean the good things have to stop! Nobody has to be beaten! Nobody has to lose! You can walk away today, alive and happy! You can all feel better about the way things will be tomorrow! You don't have to solve it all yourselves! I'm here! I can fix all of this! You don't have to hold on to those sad, angry, bitter things!" She then imperiously points to Cantio with absolute authority, and declares "I hereby declare that this facility belongs to Cantio, my new regent overseer of this District! I also declare that all the captive gorillas go free; and the bananas be turned over to their families as compensation! You! Soldiers! Disarm and hand over all your weapons and keys to Isa! We'll move these awful, stuffy barracks away, and you can live in wonderful houses like the people in the District above! No shooting! No getting beaten half to death! And scientists; if you behave, you can continue their research with my beautiful flowers instead of ugly alchemical spills! Everything will go so much faster, and you'll make so much more scientific progress, listening to Cantio, your new boss, and me, your new Empress!" Truly, this is the power that Isahane had alluded to when speaking to Hiromi. The great and terrible power of words backed by the almighty force of divinely guaranteed believable and truthful sincerity and deep empathy.
Cantio	CAMPAIGN TRAIL: Seilatiya gets everything she asks for and then some. She not only hears their praises, but she can practically feel it. See it, even, as people gather to cheer for her, to scream her name, complete with some of the locals that don't know what personal space is to clash with those who don't know what simping is to pull them right back down to make sure their new queen has adequate breathing room. CANNIBAL HOME: "Uhhh... I dunno about not havin' our guns for huntin', but I ain't complainin' if you're gonna do something about the po-lice. Lead the way, big missy!" And so, the cannibals have joined forces with Isahane, still looking utterly confused about not needing weapons while also bringing a shitload of weapons with them on the way to the lab. INSIDE THE LAB: Brooklynn doesn't have to contend with much in trying to get inside the lab between the fighting being the main priority of basically everyone whose survival depends on winning said fight, and also because Isahane just breaks down the the gates with her mighty chad body. The only real '''resistance''' either of them encounter inside the lab is in the form of the carnivorous plants inside. If they gets too close to one, they'll try to take a big nasty bite, but that's all they really can do without having legs or extendable stems to bite anything less than two or three feet away. There's a couple of gorillas they can rescue easily enough, although none of them have translators like the leader did from earlier. Thankfully, the fight hasn't gotten so crazy yet that Brooklynn can't snatch some hard drives and discs without too much trouble, although she'll have to move fast once the cannibals start showing up. There's also some rotten-egg green people behind tempered glass containment areas. They shuffle around inside their room, barely even noticing when they bump into each other, and they only react to Brooklynn's presence by walking into the glass separating them from the outside world.
Cantio	OUTSIDE THE LAB: The battle is pretty quickly becoming a bloodbath, and it's not hard to see how or why. The soldiers and scientists are shooting to kill while the goons are holding the front lines with their baseball bats against gorillas that have enough generalized girth to tank several shots and crack some skulls before going down. Their numbers are bolstered further by a few more gorillas coming from inside the building, and the arrival of the cannibals with them means the gorilla-cannibal forces actually have tough front and rear line throughout. It's all rather gruesome, though, and taking an equal opportunity asskicking stance in the matter just means there's more opportunities for someone to finish the job that Note's trying to do (even if she might not have intended for anyone to double-tap during this whole battle). And that's not even talking about the powered up gorillas. They're just not going down as a general matter, although one of them does take an unlucky syringe shot to the arm that causes said arm to swell up, turn red, and then explode. That sight only serves to enrage the gorillas further, though, as they tear through the ranks of the unpowered humans and wind up colliding with Hiromi's... Hiromi. Unlike her, they don't know what any of those muscle words mean. All they know is bananas and violence, and violence is all Hiromi gets from them even as they fight on relentlessly. Even as they're tossed around, they still find opportunities to aid their unpowered brethren, and they show no signs of wanting to stop until they're dead. At least, until Seilatiya arrives with her blatantly improvised, barely researched, yet completely heartfelt and earnest speech that place an understanding into the heads of the combatants listening to them even if they aren't consciously doing so at first. Skull-cracking strikes become half-hearted punches, double-taps to the face become failures to actually reload, and some of them even start crying in the middle of all this. Even the scientists, soldiers, and thugs seem to be having some trouble, although don't seem to be as wholly receptive to the speechifying as the gorillas and the cannibals. This is definitely not because they're all being mind controlled in any way. Or double-mind-controlled. They're still bleeding pretty badly, and there's definitely some mangled corpses already lying around that the cannibals are looking a little too eager to dig into if not for the fact that things already seem to be shifting slowly from murder-fight to too-conveniently-sappy. "... The what?" Cantio, meanwhile, looks utterly confused when Seilatiya makes that last declaration. It takes her a bit to recompose herself, then pumps her fists confidently. "Y.. Yes, Lady Seilatiya! I'll make you proud!" It seems Cantio's been affected by that wave of not-mind control, too.
Hibiki Tachibana	"Whoa, it actually is one...!?" Sadly, end does not justifaiz the means today, but at least it not only did something (which is more than she honestly would have expected), but it even confirms she had the right guess before. The light dies down and she pushes the door open... Her head peeks out, and her eyes go wide as she takes in the incredibly surprising sight of...an actual proper-looking city? Yeah, she's still underground, a glance up proves that. But this isn't anything like what she was expecting...or had seen anywhere else down here. It's like an entirely different world compared to the slums and the Fud and the gorillas and... "...I shouldn't get ahead of myself," she murmurs, glancing off in the elevator's direction. Rather than taking it though, there's one more thing she wants to confirm before getting out of here the easy way and getting back to where she should be. Hibiki dips back into the box and closes the door to access the keypad again. Where this time, she inputs 333. Man, she sure hopes the police don't catch on to her doing this. Actually, what's stopping anyone from using these boxes...?
Hiromi	Several people try to just go for the lab. Hiromi is busy, and doesn't particularly care about the place. Even if she has come to think of it as somewhat valuable, it's very much a product of this city, and therefore expendable. This extends to Isahane going at it with the cannibals, though Hiromi is aware that they passed by. This is not the same as Seilatiya showing up, making claims, and delivering orders. The wave of earnest believability washes over her without effect, unable to find any purchase in the Archwolf's mind. To her, some of what is said is simple but commendable, believable given what she knows of the runecipher. And to her, some of what's said is horrible, even destructive nonsense. The fight is over. Having made her intentions very clear on this matter, it will take a tremendous force to stop the Archwolf from marching over, picking up Seilatiya, spinning around twice, and launching her to the farthest position in any of the lakes in the district. She does not permit the soldiers to disarm. Instead, she uses her Authority to inform them that one of her hunter-monks is now their immediate superior. Hiromi will allow a degree of softness in dealing with Seila, because she's cute, but she won't allow a philosophy like 'no one needs to fight' to take hold over those who can.
Note	This is ABSOLUTELY too chaotic. Exploding arms and screaming gorillas and guns going off. Enraged and careless warriors moving to finish off downed opponents is setting Note's gut roiling with unmitigated disgust. Never has she SEEN such bloodshed, even amongst some of the nastier conflicts she's lent a hand in. Beyond disgusting her to the point of seeing red, and perhaps on the verge of puking if her twisted-up face is anything to go by... "Stop it... stop killing each other! Are... you people or MONSTERS...?!" There's no refinement to those words. Nothing except simple horror. And they're almost entirely swallowed up by the chaos. When both her feet touch the ground again, the martial artist unleashes a bone-rattling howl and raises her arms. The earth beneath everyone's feet shakes and air twists into a vortex around her. Fury pulses visibly through her whole body, muscles rippling and tightening to be more pronounced, and arcs of electricity fly this way and that in her vicinity. With one drastic explosion of golden light, the top foot of ground beneath her shatters and and craters outwards, matched with a ferocious wind potent enough to knock anyone of unsteady footing flat on their asses. The dust cloud is swiftly dispersed by the pulsating, flame-like aura that now envelops Note. Her hair has turned golden and drawn upwards into an array of violent spikes, and her now golden-furred tail curls snugly 'round her waist. She doesn't speak. Instead, she looks this way and that across the battlefield with now-green eyes narrowed by barely-contained fury. She's bristling with power, teeth clenched and senses alert. Words aren't really needed to convey the intent of her stance though. She has just declared this fight over, because the next person to make a violent move is going to be very much regretting their life choices. Hopefully, between Note's stick and Seilatiya's carrot, that will be the end of that?
Brooklynn Bailey	Brooklynn hears that Seilatiya is about to be thrown into a lake, she attempts to talk things out over the radio. A loud slash is heard, to which she sighs but figures it won't become a huge problem maybe? That'd be bad, and she'd feel slightly bad if three people she looks up to come to blows because she sort of went with the flow. "I really should be more careful with my actions I guess..." She says, to nobody thinking she is by herself. Things outside are exploding or...cooling down? She's not sure anymore but instead decides to continue along as if things are going to eventually catch fire. Taking hard drives and papers as appropriate, while also seeing if she can make sense of anything. She lets the gorilla's out, pointing in a direction that isn't the main fighting. Hopefully, they understand. She'll send a radio to Cantio to let her know. Continuing on, she runs into the green people. She tries to reach out to their minds, trying to figure out what they are, and if they are dangerous. If they are in fact mindless zombie things who are just going to cause problems she'll just set them on fire. Cannibals that enter get a stare from her before she speaks a commanding word, "Leave this place and never return," using her commanding aura on them. She has time, she might as well make full use of it. Like finding other things that the mayor might be up to, or communications. Or honestly, just trying to figure out what the hell they're really doing here.
Cantio	OUTSIDE THE LAB: With the battle allowed to end without everyone dying horribly, things are actually allowed to settle down with so many of the previously-fighting forces now simping hard for Seilatiya regardless of people-eating proclivities or literally being gorillas hearing it all second-hand from another gorilla with a translation device. Even after she gets launched into a now-clean lake, they're still pretty chill about just trying to clean up the mess (or diving in to try and retrieve her). Some of them even protest Hiromi's actions, but others seem weirdly appreciative of her hurling Seilatiya into the lake. It's definitely not because they get to see Seilatiya coming out of a lake. The soldiers (and possibly scientists and suited goons), meanwhile, are still under Hiromi's authority, though, and they accept their new posts with varying levels of militaristic formality and science team fast-talking. Although the fighting has already stopped, they do pause to give Note wary looks at her outburst and ensuing power-display. They seem far more confused than intimidated, though, and they're not putting their weapons down just yet. Instead, they look towards Hiromi's hunter-monk for guidance, only standing down if they're given the go ahead. INSIDE THE LAB: Those green people are very brainless and totally zombies. They don't even feel themselves getting setting on fire in favor of just melting due to being freaking zombies. It's better for everyone that way. The stuff Brooklynn retrieves will undoubtedly be useful once the dust settles and work is allowed to resume under new leadership. It'll take a while longer to actually get everything cleaned up, but the cannibals do leave the place alone (relatively) until then. Without anyone else in there to get in the way, though, Brooklynn finds out a few more interesting things. Testing results from this floor are apparently considered the best of any other floor due to having the fewest potential outside influences. Not as many corpses, not as many unknown chemicals tainting results, not as much trash all over the place. The mayor isn't only looking to test an immortality mixture, but also other mixtures that can result in sudden death, rapid healing, invisibility, insomnia, the list goes on. POLICE BOX: Hibiki takes a risk, and her efforts are well rewarded! Her theory proves to be correct: Entering 333 takes her to the third floor of the underground city: Right back up to the parks district. Although it's not clear at this what district the fifth floor/entering 555 takes her to, it's pretty obvious that there's still another floor between the parks district and where she's just left. Also, there's a sticker inside the police box that says 'FOR POLICE USE ONLY'. Surely nobody would disobey that on purpose, right? Right. Only criminals trying to overthrow the mayor would do such a thing.