Scene #7649: Ninth District: Exosphere

Owner	Pose
Operator	The run on Wario's ugly tower is quiet. The streets are empty. No one is visiting the myriad historical attractions of Old Donk. Jumpman Tower, once a popular tourist attraction, stands parallel to the chrome monstrosity, empty. The only noise barring running footsteps (or knucklesteps, in the case of DK) is that of a helicopter descending from above. Funky Kong's news helicoptor descends as his baritone comes across the radio waves. "Hey folks. Funky Kong here. No groovin' intro today, this is serious. I got our true and rightful mayor Pauline here to explain the situation." The muffled sounds of a headset being handed over follow, then the sound of Mayor Pauline's voice. "Hello New Donk City. I am going to explain what Senator Wario has been doing, but I ask that you all get to a safe place immediately. Somewhere indoors, preferably below ground." The tower entrance is in sight. A pair of automatic doors, adorned with simply 'WARIO TOWER.' "Recently, with the help of Donkey Kong and those who came from worlds beyond to fight Wario, I was able to gain access to his spending records. Pouring through them, I tried to figure out exactly what his aim was. Why approve all the ridiculous requests for his council, and only building a tower for himself? And... I found it." Through the doors is a wide, empty reception area. Wario himself is behind the desk, tapping at a massive console. "The work of his Council was purely bread and circuses. Intended to be ridiculous, to keep you all looking at them, and not him. The construction of his tower is not normal, It's all steel and aluminium. But what really matters is the work he made Treasurer Ashley do. She took all our liquid assets from our banks and trusts and sent them to Old Donk on his behalf. And at the same time, he was buying massive engines and rocket fuel." Wario smirks at you all, and slams his fat fist down on a big red button. "Wario Tower is not a building. It's a rocket ship. A getaway vehicle." The g-forces are immediate and apparent as a thick bulkhead slides down to bar the entrance. Engines roar in defiance of the 9.8m/s^2 that hold us all to the ground as Wario Tower breaks free of the restraints below ground that held it upright until this moment. It ascends, with all the wealth of New Donk City stored in its hold. "Looks like I have a buncha stowaways!" Wario jeers, leaping the console with seemingly no regards for the forces acting on his body. "C'mon then chumps, I'll give you the first shot. Come get me!" He raises his dukes and gestures with a confident smirk.
Gawain	Gawain does not stride through that door smiling. No. As the information comes in, a knight with a red orb in his armor, a dragon-horned face-concealing helmet, anda jagged sword dashes straight through the door, one hand free. As Wario reveals himself and raises his dukes, the Sol Dragon Knight leaps upwards, and slams his fist into the ceiling leading into the next floor. The ceiling begins to crack, if all goes well. And a bunch of support for it goes to fall directly on top of Wario, trying to bury him alive. He won't die from it - that's too easy, and he's too strong. In lieu of a name, there's only a dragon's roar, the only sound that needs to exist as they fly into space. Enough to stagger a powerful foe like Wario just long enough for the blow to trigger.
Forte	"Alright then." Forte glances back at the sealed doors, then forward at Wario. "Ill gotten gains by the man in charge. Please note how much I am shocked," says Forte, flatly, as he floats in place - up until the sudden ascent forces him abruptly to the ground. "And a rocket. Very well. I have something for you-" AUTONAVI SLOT IN! BARLROLLER R - EXECUTE A giant barrel appears in Forte's hands. "A message. From someone you wronged." He pulls his arms back and flings the barrel with giant-ape-like-force towards Wario. "I am quite pleased to deliver it," says Forte, just as flatly as he's said everything else.
Tina Natsumi	After witnessing Cranky Kong's apparent demise, Tina's humor at battling Wario for a second time is all but nonexistent. She lets Godzilla do the running as she checks her guns, cleans the barrels, and tries to keep herself at least a little calm on the way towards the tower. When the doors are opened and everyone starts filtering in, she's already taking aim at Wario and waiting for him to start saying something. Anything. Instead, he hits a button, and she's pulled back into the ground of the apparent rocket headed towards space. It takes a few moments for Tina and Godzilla to peel themselves off the floor of the flying spaceship, and the Persona already starts gathering energy into its glowing mechanical spines while the wielder just starts firing shots rapidly at Wario from her revolver. "Betraying everyone's trust, hoarding all this stuff for yourself, icing the old man... Like hell we're letting you go after all this bullshit!" Tina shouts in genuine anger, reloading her revolver immediately after the sixth shot to slam more bullets in and do it all over again. Like Gawain, she's actually kind of angry about this whole thing.
Liza Grier	Somehow, 'WARIO TOWER' is distantly kind of disappointing. Liza would probably hate another zinger from the top of his list of naming conventions, but the lack just feels somehow hollow. This is all made up for instantly when the door becomes a bulkhead behind them and the perfectly timed exposition from Funky Kong explains exactly the one thing she has ever heard that would have been better off with her waiting about sixty seconds to hear. Well, no, then she wouldn't have made it inside. This entire thing is somehow the capstone of ridiculous bullshit so far, and yet, paradoxically . . . "Big mistake, big man." Liza says, her helmet harshing the audio with static under the sudden acceleration, her EVA boots anchoring her to the ground. "You finally did something that makes sense. So for once, I know exactly what to do with you." That's an eventuality. First she has to avenge the honour of the noble stechkin by quickdrawing and blasting Wario up on his desk like two of his lackeys have comedically avoided so far.
Operator	"Wah?! Who the heck are you?!" Wario exclaims at the sight of the dragon knight. Their brooding, furious silence visibly makes the big man sweat, so he turns his attention to Forte. "Ah, no thank you. No circulars, you know? Maybe I'd accept it if it had some fermented garlic in it! Wahahaha!" He picks his nose dismissively as Tina shouts her head off at him, flicking the booger away. "Oh please. The city will get some fat bailout, they always do. And that old ape was seconds away from death anyway. At least I saved you all the trouble of a burial! Wahaha!" And to Liza, he shakes his head. "Everything I've done makes perfect sense! Cities have lots of money, so they're a good target to steal from! But people don't want you stealing from them, so you distract them! I'm sorry your brain is too small to understand the genius of WARIO! WAHAHAHAHAHAHA!" The roof comes down, barrels and bullets crash into the fat man. But instead of the spray of blood and crack of bone you would expect, there is just a flash of light, the ill-suited man standing there proudly, still grinning that smug grin. The fucking Elect-O barrier is back. "WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! My improved Elect-O barrier draws power from this very rocket! No longer limited to what a puny chair can supply, it's practically indestructible!" He laughs, and laughs, and laughs as Donkey Kong strides forward, looking oddly naked without that tie. "Awww, what's wrong you big ape? Sad that your grandpappy is gone? Well I'll give you a free shot too! Go ahead!" He turns his cheek and pats it invitingly as Donkey Kong cocks a fist back. And punches clean through the barrier, turning it from blue to yellow to red in an instant, his massive fist meeting Wario's cheek and sending him flying back into his chair. He then begins slamming a beat against the rocket floor, denting the steel and making every rivet holding the thing together tremble. His deafening roar fills the limited air, every muscle in his body taut and ready to kill. Every single person in the rocket can immediately tell. DK will tear this whole structure and anyone in it apart if it means Wario dies. There will be no consideration for 'allies.' "Heh... got a bit of your grandpappy in you after all eh?" Wario asks as he pushes his jaw back into place. Leaping over the console again, he flexes, and all the buttons on his suit burst off before the fabric explodes. Previously, it had been noted that he could actually block DK's punches. It's now evident why. Fat as he is, absurdly ripped under that suit, and it's all on display now. "Come on then! Make me work for all this treasure!" Lowering his shoulder, he breaks into a shockingly fast run and shoulder checks DK, sending him flying back to land in a tangle of furious, super-strong ape flailing among the party. Better get clear quick!
Tina Natsumi	"That's not... The only people that get hurt from that kind of thinking is everyone that's not already a rich jackass!" Tina shouts as Wario shows off the return of the Elect-O Barrier, putting a few more rounds into it until Donkey Kong approaches with that massive fist through all of it at once. The bashing of the rocket floor isn't even enough to deter her, and at least for the first few moments... "Good plan, DK! He can't escape us if this thing can't even escape the atmosphere!" With those words of encouragement (and willful ignorance of what sounds like a clear intent to absolutely tear Wario apart), she braces for impact as Wario leaps onto the console and... Flexes his suit off. "Seriously? Goddamn, you're... You're just a dumbass jock with way too much money, aren't you?!" Taking aim again as the shirtless former mayor charges forward, she nearly gets bowled over when Donkey Kong gets knocked right into the group of Elites. She's clipped by a massive hand and shifts into an awkward tumbling roll from the impact, but still manages to land while still facing Wario. That puts him generally between the Persona user and the Persona. With the buildup of energy complete, Godzilla moves into close range to try and grapple with Wario, both to try and hold him still while breathing fire into his face as Tina keeps taking shots at whatever she can get a bead on in the process.
Forte	Forte's frown (hidden by the scarf increases as he listens to Wario go on and on. "That's a terrible reason to steal from cities," he says blandly. "That plan took so many extra steps compared to-" Donkey Kong slams into the party. Forte attempts to dodge, but to no avail, he goes down into a monkey-adjacent pile. But as the great ape slams into him, something else... resonates. Aww - what's the matter? The great prodigy Bass.EXE - abandoned by his own creator? You won't have to worry about it for long - I'm going to enjoy deleting you piece by piece... He shakes his head, trying and failing to disrupt the specter of memory. "You're..." "... The sort that hides, behind words, behind laws, behind authority, behind shields..." Forte gets to his feet, managing enough strength to resume floating despite the g-forces of the rocket. "For one like you... there's only one answer." AUTONAVI SLOT IN AREASTEAL A - EXECUTE! Forte is, suddenly, right up in Wario's grill, and reaching forward with a glowing hand outstretched- COSACK INDUSTRIES - AUTONAVI.SYS GETABILITY.BAT BITBUCKET MODE READY EXECUTE - and he just simply tries to delete the entirety of the Elect-o barrier!
Liza Grier	While Donkey Kong should be --and still is, in the most primal, lizard brain sense-- something abjectly terrifying at the moment, Liza came here with one goal only from the very first day, and if there's one thing you ever learn from that much time in all out war aboard stations and ships in space . . . It's that you always, always, always, feed the crisis. Liza anchors her boots at maximum current, flares up her e-shield, braces her empty hand against the back surface, and deliberately catches the two ton gorilla on it. She feels her joints pop under the immense strain, her ankles hyperextend as her boots are pulled free of the floor anyways, and then shortly after, hears the extended scraping and heat of sparks as her suit grates against it, the integrated shield flickering on the verge of failing from just that, but she manages to re-achor herself again just in time. "Fuck him up." she growls, and then launches DK right back at Wario. First with her muscles, then with the augments, and then as he gains some air, a misplaced purple gleam, liquid and unwholesome, briefly pooling in one of her optics.
Gawain	As DK flails among the party, the Sol Knight is sent flying back. As he rises back, barely injured, he moves to rush the absurdly ripped Wario... And impact a heavy fist straight into his face, strong enough to break through the secretary wall should he go flying backwards. With a snap of his other fingers, a sun appears above his head, boosting his strength immensely. "I believe you know me as 'Sir Loserlot', you filthy piece of rotten garlic?"
Operator	"Not my fault they're not rich already!" the Senator retorts to Tina. "WARIO will not tread lightly to spare the feelings of others! When your ambition is great enough, caring about what others think merely gets in the way!" Wario contends with Godzilla, grappling with the big lizard even as his face is burned by nuclear fire. "Feh! You think YOUR breath is bad?! Get a load of THIS!" And then he just... leaps up and jams Godzilla's whole head in his mouth. Tina gets the psychic backlash of both indestructible, surprisingly well-cared-for teeth, and awful garlic breath. "Eh? I don't know what kind of daddy issues you're projecting on me, but I don't care, and they were probably in the right about you," the fat man says to Forte, before getting his belt destroyed. Yes, in true toku fashion, that's where the source of the Elect-O barrier was. And now that it's gone, Wario's pants fall down, revealing his underwear (boxers, for those who are curious). Undettered, he kicks his leg, throwing the shredded slacks into Forte's face, blinding him for long enough that Wario can close the distance and sink his fist into the program's gut, launching him against the walls of the rocket. "Oh, it's you. I like the helmet, hides your dumb face better! Wahahaha!" Wario takes that punch like a champ, going sliding back but keeping his footing as he spits blood and saliva. "But don't think some fancy plate will save you from the wrath of Wario!" He leaps at Gawain, and once again, the knight of the sun is subjected to Wario's moon as he ground-pounds once again. The stink has not improved. Liza catches DK and launches him back at Wario. The massive ape gives no indication that he heard her words, but his actions certainly fall into the line. With a two-handed hammer blow, Wario is driven through the steel floor with his head poking out, and then DK punches it again and again until that goes all the way through. He then begins tearing up the floor to pursue, but Wario leaps out of the hole to grab him, carrying both into the air. "You like your ape friend so much, keep him to yourself!" Wario barks at Liza, before piledriving the big ape upon the rebel. The force of this blow is enough to make the whole thing give way, everyone falling deeper into the rocket. This would be the 'hold.' A series of catwalks criss-crossing between massive vaults holding the wealth of New Donk city. The sheer weight of it all must have demanded a massive engine to hold it all. Through a window, the sky outside is darkening. They must already be passing through the exosphere of the planet.
Gawain	Gawain gets ground-pounded. As soon as it's coming, he ignites his armor, burning Wario in the blowback if he's lucky, and forcing him down as the floor collapses into the hold. Gawain falls to the ground, but lifts himself up. "Shut up. You killed Cranky Kong. You deserve no quarter." Gawain moves to slam Wario against the cash and gold, and start just beating the shit out of him. His fists, if they impact and start bloodying, begin to harden in armor, as it reinforces itself visibly. "Normally, I'm a man of mercy. But you've had too many chances. This is..." "Vengeance."
Tina Natsumi	"See? That's why people like us are here! Shit, that's why..." Tina doesn't finish that thought, but there is a distinctly disgusted and pained look on her face as she comes to some kind of unspoken realization. It only gets worse when Wario tries to straight up eat Godzilla's head, her only solace being that the Persona gets its hands up just in time to not get chomped on. The terrible crash of overly garlicked breath and the crushing power of Wario's jaws, however, minimize whatever little relief she might have felt at that. "Jesus, hell... You're supposed to eat food with the garlic! How the heck're your wisdom teeth better than mine?!" She's looking for more reasons to get angry, as though Cranky Kong's demise and Wario's wanton thievery isn't enough already. Crashing into the hold of the rocket has both Tina and Godzilla temporarily losing their footing, although the Persona does manage to catch her just before she lands facefirst on the floor below. "Stealing from people's one thing, killing in self-defense is another, but murderin' someone for the hell of it...!" She remains where she is for the time being, trying to get her bearing again, but Tina sends in Godzilla to start clawing away at Wario once more, belching burning (literal) fumes onto him while it tries to tear away at his arms, his legs, anything that it can get a hold of.
Forte	Speaking strictly, Forte does not have a gut (or really, any non-abstracted digestive system) to speak of. He gets punched in the gut equivalent, anyway. "Hrff!" He staggers, and before he can get out of his stun animation, the floor gives way. That turns out not to matter, since - you know, flight. He's left looking down as everyone else plummets down towards the bottom of the rocket. ... Towards the vaults. Towards the stupidly massive vaults. Forte, to not be hypocritical, had been planning on 'liberating' some of it - New Donk City didn't need all of it back, and there's plenty of worthier causes elsewhere. But he had been thinking in terms of... a vault with a few gold bars, or a few suitcases full of bills, not so much that the rocket had to be oversized just to carry it all away. How much gold does it take to finance a comfortable lifestyle? Or a - to be charitable, an extravagant one? How many times over is that number multiplied by to reach... this? More money than could literally be spent in a lifetime? His fists clench. All of this pain and trauma, inflicted on this city, on its people, for... this meaningless pile? His fists clench. Something resonates, again. For a moment, he flinches, something deep inside him activating. -=--=-=CROSSSYSTEM.SYS-=-=-=- -=-COMPILING NEW CROSS FORM=- -=-NEW CROSS FORM ACQUIRED-=- -=-DONKEY CROSS FORM READY-=- Forte drops down, no longer a sullen black with yellow accents, but a familiar dark red with tan bits. -=-DONKEY CROSS FORM ACTIVE-=- "All of this," he says (yells, really). "Don't you just look at this, and think, aren't you tired of being nice? Don't you just want to go APESHIT!" He wrenches one of the vaults open, reaches in, and grabs a double-handful of large gold bars - throwing them two after another at Wario, trying to simply crush him under his own ill-gotten gains!
Liza Grier	"This city only serves to hurt people who aren't rich jackasses." Liza finds time to synth-hiss at Tina. "You think it'll go away once we get rid of him? You think your precious little doe-eyed mayor doesn't have too much money?" She points at Wario. "Look at him. Look at him long and good and soak that into your brain. Because everything he is, it's just a caricature of what you already defend, and you don't like it because it's that obvious when you compress it all down into a single, shitty person." And yet, even if DK shows no signs of understanding her, Liza will not abandon her enraged gorilla friend. If nothing else, a cohort in chaos. Still, it might be ill-advised here to continue trying to support him, because this time she goes straight through the floor, and is under so much angry, muscular weight that she can't use any of her mobility tech to prevent colliding with the floor with such force that it drives the wind of her even through her suit. She can't even 'oof', nor even bounce. A lens in her helmet cracks, and not only does her personal shield sputter and flicker off, but the e-shield overloads and disappears, leaving just the overheated emitter smoking on her arm. Charging back in is not what Liza Grier does; extricating herself, unlimbering her C-20r, and blasting downrange with a hail of sprayed hipfire to keep herself covered while running sidelong back into cover is what Liza Grier does. Catching her breath, reloading the spent magazine, and letting her gear cool and recharge while she plans a next move, is critical here. »» Ten seconds until personal shield recharge starts, thirty seconds to cycle it all the way back to maximum. E-shield won't be usable for twenty, and then it'll overload again if I try to use it dead on; glancing deflections on. Plenty of ammo, but no idea how bulletproof that bizarre bastard is. Ion gun is still spent from last time. Space too enclosed and unstable to use the mauler; would probably collapse the floor again. «« »» Going by the windows, another two minutes before we hit the height I want. Can make do with ninety seconds, maybe. Shoulder dislocated. Setting it again with contracted blood pulse. Flushing slow pain receptors. Yeah, let's fire the adrenal injectors too. Tore something in lower calves, but I can glue that together without much focus. That scumbag's heart is so strong there's no use saving power to try and choke him out. «« "When did you grow a pair when I wasn't looking, huh?" she calls across to Gawain. "No, if all you're angry about is having to look at the murder and see it right in front of your eyes, I guess you haven't changed all that much, have you? You're out for blood now because he made you watch something you didn't want to. He made you personally angry. Nothing more, nothing less. And you talked all that shit to me about the system and proper channels too."
Operator	"Did I kill him?" Wario asks faux-innocently. "My WINNINGFACE was scrap by that point. I had no control over it. Seemed to me more he killed himself by not looking both ways!" He laughs, even as Gawain wails on him with armored fists, his massive head snapping back and forward again and again. Even as Godzilla jumps him and joins the melee, burning and clawing he just keeps laughing. "You're just mad you couldn't save him from his own senility! Trying to make yourselves as righteous as possible! It turns Wario's stomach, and that's no mean feat!" His hands come up to grab Godzilla and Gawain's head and slams them hard against each other before giving each a mighty boot that launches them against the walls of the rocket. Forte goes full monke and begins pelting Wario with gold bars. "Oho! You wanna get into a money fight with Wario?!" He opens up one of the other vaults, reaches in, and somehow pulls out an entire orb of gold coins bigger than he is. And then he hurls the massive, dense pile at Forte, the combined density enough to collapse the catwalk beneath them. Liza takes a moment to recoup, scattering covering fire. One seems to hit him in the head, causing it to snap back. But he comes back up with the bullet caught between his teeth. "Save your breath girlie. People like this think they're hard for going against their norm. They don't get that it just means their normal isn't good enough! But honestly, neither is yours." He spits the bullet back at Liza with enough force to penetrate her cover! DK then grabs Wario's head and begins slamming it against that window again and again, each one causing more and more cracks to spread across it. Wario catches himself and hurls himself against the ape, sending them both falling to the floor of this treasury. Down here, the roar of the engine is most evident. Separated from the fight by inches of steel.
Gawain	"DON'T PLAY INNOCENT!" Gawain roars before his head is slammed into Tina's, rattling him, as they go lower towards the engine. He's actually taking some serious damage, but it's not enough to keep him off his feet. As he roars in pain, he grabs his sword, and this time, he intends to use it. The blunt of the jagged blade is smashed into Wario's face at the first chance he gets, before the sword is ignited, and swung into each of his limbs. Not to chop them off - just to set them on fire, and make a burning man out of Wario. He'll probably live. He'll wish he hadn't.
Forte	Forte feels the crushing weight of greed, in the literal sense. Donkey Cross Forte isn't so easy to beat down, though. He springs back up, and goes for the nearest object - part of the rocket's smashed infrastructure, and takes aim with it. The chunk of steel is several times bigger than he is. Donkey Cross Forte doesn't care. "No, Wario, you should save your breath, you'll need it," he says, and then just simply tries to smash in at Wario's general location till either he's crushed into paste or the structure of the rocket gives way enough to send Wario out into whatever part of the upper atmosphere or just hard vaccuum they're at. (Thus the 'save your breath' line.) Unlike certain other members of the party, Forte is absolutely trying to murder him, full stop.
Tina Natsumi	Liza's words sting Tina quite a bit, arguably even more than having Godzilla's head smashed into Gawain's. She's bleeding visibly now from that impact, even moreso when the whole group is brought further down towards the engine, but her mind is elsewhere even as she wipes the blood out of her eyes. It's not because what Liza and Wario said were wrong, but because so much of it is right. She's seen plenty of that corruption here alone. She's seen it back home. She's seen it at school, in America, all around the world, all around the Multiverse. She had only heard about it with the old way of things in the Multiverse. She's heard of the old factions, the posturing, the moral grandstanding, the appeals to fixing things the 'right' way without bothering the 'wrong' people. Has she really gotten so accustomed to making sure things are done the 'right' way so easily? Is this why Janine joined the Watch? Is this why Ad Coelum happened? She screams, and Godzilla screams back. The Persona starts pulsating as it glows a blinding white, and not just because its spines are gathering energy again. Its entire body shifts, and it soon becomes less solid and more of a glowing thing as it flows right back into Tina while she pushes herself up from that rather painful landing at the bottom of the rocket. Her right arm becomes covered in those same metallic scales that Godzilla had lining its body, glowing white spines go from her elbow to the back of her shoulder and neck, a tail-like thing sticks out of that same shoulder flaring out at the end, and her hair goes from pure blonde to blonde mixed with glowing red streaks throughout. "Then I'll change it. This city... Those rich jackasses. All of that crap that just hurts the people we're supposed to be protecting... I'll change all of it!" Grabbing that scale and spine covered arm with her regular hand, Tina stares at it for several moments before charging at Wario, the flared bit at the end of her shoulder blasting her forward to close the gap between them. Once she gets close, she grabs for Wario's center mass, trying to dig that transformed arm into him and unleashing the atomic flames from her arm directly to him. She's a little too busy to consider whether doing this so close to the engines is actually a bad idea.
Liza Grier	"You're right." Liza relies, garbled but recognizably dry to Wario. "But don't go feeling any kinship over it. Maybe take some pride in the fact that I have to work with these shitheels to make sure to get rid of you first, instead of the other way around. That means you're harder than they are." »» Keep talking. Five, four, three . . . «« Liza drops hard to the floor, the bullet punching right on through where her chest had been and the floor beyond that as well. She unhooks a canister in one hand, and then another, holding them by the index and pinky by their pull rings. She drops the SMG with the other, and takes a shotgun in its place, bracing the stock to her chin so she can hand load a couple of bright orange shells marked with safety stripes. »» Two, one; Now. «« Liza rolls out from behind her apparently useless hard cover, sweeping her hand low and fast across the ground to skip a loud, screaming flashbang into Wario's face. It masks the canister of space lube that spin-slides across the floor between his leg and burblespews behind him. Putting the shotgun to her shoulder, she fires once, twice, three times, with heavy riot control slugs, all force and no penetration, to send Wario straight across the zero-friction patch and juggle him through that cracked window from before. "Take a deep one." she mutters.
Operator	"Oh, I'm no innocent! But at least I'm not fake!" Wario retorts to Gawain. "Look at you, babyface behind a cool helmet, thinking you're a hard man making the hard choice. You have a burning sword; there's nothing hard about what you're doing right now. Hot hot hot!" The fact that he can retort even as he is set aflame says a lot. Gawains blade burns through the floor, and seems to sever something important. The overwhelming stench of rocket fuel begins filling the rocket as the engine begins simmering down, losing propulsion. They're in that spot where they're too far removed from gravity to immediately begin falling, but it's an inevitability. "I've got far more breath than you, faker! Enough to live through all of this! It'll take more than someone who has to mimic stronger people to beat me!" Wario jeers as Forte beats him against the slashed floor, widening the gaps and letting more rocket fuel fumes waft through, choking the hold. "You'll change it? HAH! Give it up girlie. The systems have chewed up bright-eyes optimists like you time and time again. What makes you different, huh? Smarter people than you tried and failed!" Even now he's still talking when being set on fire even more! The flames melt steel and seep through, igniting critical engine components, and all acceleration abruptly ceases, launching everyone on board 'up' from the sudden lack of g-force rooting them in place. It is at this moment that Liza has her chance. Shot against the window, she combos him, pressing his fat ass against it more and more. "WAAAHHHH! Quit it!" He tries to get free, but DK kicks him back against it, letting her combo continue. The glass scratches, strains, doing everything it can to hold out against the near-vacuum of the outer exosphere. But eventually, it caves. Wario is sucked from the rocket, and the air inside rushes out into the void, pulling everyone else with it. DK is first, but not before tearing the gap open even further, saving everyone from potential spaghettification through the narrow gap. The riches go with them as something utterly vital finally sparks in the engine, and the whole rocket explodes. What follows is the chaotic, tumbling fall through the sky. Gold coins, stars and moons and suns join this all on this lethal descent, hurtling through the atmosphere and back down into New Donk City. People below point out of their windows at the glittering sight as Wario grabs at the riches. "NOOOOOOOOOOO! My perfect plan, ruined! Give it back! Give it all back!" In his desperate scrabble, he misses DK hurtling towards him like a hate-guided missile, pulling that fist back one more time... The impact shatters every window in New Donk. It generates such a concussive blast that it cancels the freefall of all the money and the fall of his comrades, allowing them to land safely, if roughly, upon the roof of Jumpman Tower. Wario however, is launched through it, vertically. He crashes through every floor, each impact blasting off the stone facade of the tower, revealing the iconic red girders that adorned all the pictures of Cranky's rampage all that time ago. By the time Wario has landed in the foundations below, the tower is only a framework. One that DK hangs from, and roars his dominance over his foe and this city, as his grandfather did long ago. But exhaustion and sorrow catch up with the ape. His hand slips, and he falls to land atop Wario, and snore deeply. "Waaagh... get off me you stupid monkey!" the fat man groans, struggling to push DK off him, but not able to muster the strength after all the damage he incurred. Senator Wario is, for the moment, arrested.
Gawain	Gawain takes Wario's words strangely to heart, as the shuttle crashes, the money is ejected, and Wario is held down. He deactivates his Sol Dragon Knight, returning to his suit, and approaches Wario and DK. But DK has Wario handled, fully covering him. So instead, Gawain grabs a phone, and dials in a number. "Pauline...no, should I say, Madame Mayor...your city is safe. Please send in the proper forces." There's still anger and pain in his voice, but in a way, Wario was right. And more importantly... Even in his vengeance, he can't kill a man who has been defeated and basically disarmed. Chivalry wouldn't allow that.
Liza Grier	Wario says 'Quit it!', and Liza says "No." Wario says 'Give it all back!', and Liza says "It wasn't yours." She freefalls from orbit, flattening her profile, engaging slow thrusters, and arresting momentum in steps by cycling her 'multi-jump' boosters, exactly as she's done a hundred times before, expecting to see Wario hit the ground before her. Liza is right, but not in the way she expected. The extra airborne time gives her enough to cycle up a hard burn into a lithobrake atop the scaffolding of Jumpman tower, and slam down on three points with a red metal on red metal impact that makes the structure echo like a tuning fork. Standing again, Liza disengages her helmet seal with its characteristic pop-hiss. Flipping the shotgun vertically, she catches and pumps the slide with one hand and a characteristic chik-chak. She drops the helmet, the one cracked optical port flashing warning red instead of green. Gawain says 'Your city is safe. Please send in the proper forces.', and Liza says "Not yet." She unhooks the C-20r from her back with her left hand and points it at Wario. She lifts the bulldog with her other and points it at Gawain.