Scene #7650: Tenth District: Jumpman Tower

Owner	Pose
Operator	At the base of the shattered Jumpman Tower, a tense standoff has begun. Liza Grier has drawn a gun on Wario, presently trapped under the exhausted, sleeping body of Donkey Kong, and Gawain, Warden of the Paladins. Her intent is plain and obvious. She has stated, several times, that sending Wario to prison is pointless, and that he should die for everything he is and everything he has done. And now that she has him trapped, she intends to carry out his execution herself. "Wah?!" Wario exclaims, finally realizing what's going on. "Hey, put that thing away before you hurt someone! Hey you two!" he shouts, addressing Gawain and Tina. "You're Paladins, right? You really gonna let her do this?! I'm trapped and defenceless!" There are sirens in the distance, but the with Old Donk bridge out, it would take them far too long to get here. No, the only thing Liza needs to worry about are the people in her immediate vicinity.
Gawain	Two guns are drawn. One at Wario, one at Gawain. The phone is put away. Gawain does not put his hands up. "Put the guns down. Are you really going to kill a downed man- no, actually, I won't spare any more words for you. You're a psychopath, and you've made that abundantly clear." He barely looks over at Wario. "This fight won't be for you, Wario." He cracks his knuckles, and steps over in front of Wario. He knows he's gonna get shot. He can handle it, as his body begins to knit itself back together from the earlier wounds. "I'd like for you to surrender, Liza Grier. But we both know you're too deep in your madness. So instead...I guess we're gonna get crazy."
Forte	blip "I have no quarrel with you, directly," says Forte, who is suddenly up in Gawain's bubble, behind him and over his shoulder in an especially obnoxious way. "But if you do not allow my ally to do as she wishes with this man, I shall have to intervene." "I'd suggest you stand down, step back, and think of what is about to occur as a sort of justice."
Tina Natsumi	With the adrenaline from the fight against Wario winding down at least somewhat, Tina's arm and hair have cooled down a fair bit. Godzilla is still merged with her, however, and her hair still has those streaks of (a more subdued) red in it while she surveys the damage. She trusts Gawain can take a shot or five. Wario, maybe not so much in this state. She doesn't approach him yet, however, despite the rather blatant threat to his existence in the form of Liza. "I am. And considering all the crap you pulled, I should. Paladins protect the weak, and you're..." She looks over at the napping Donkey Kong, then back at Wario. "You can take care of yourself just fine." Rolling her shoulder, Tina steps besides Gawain and draws her submachine gun with her regular arm, twirling it around her finger several times while eyeing Forte. "But I ain't about to ditch one of my guys, either. So... Tough." Her arm starts to glow faintly after that. "So. We're really doing this now, then?"
Ioanna Langstrom	It's never for the one on the end of the gun. That's what they never get. When they ask for help at the end of a gun, they think what they're doing is exploiting the good nature of the people on the other side. They think they're begging for the better angels to save their worthless skin. But that's not what it is. It's never about them. It's never about saving their lives. In all honesty, no one would mind if Wario got the chop tomorrow. Not one person standing at the base of Jumpman Tower would care. What they care about is upholding that contract. The contract that there are rules in the world that must be followed. That society is held together by those rules, and that if they are to apply equally, they must always apply equally. There are awful people in the world who use those rules as a shield, but that doesn't diminish the purpose of those rules. Ioanna Langstrom believed that even in the days of the Union, when the better angels were drowned out by the petty squabbles of children with more power than gods and less sense than monkeys. She's believed that everyone is entitled to those rules not because she feels they're flawless but because the ideal is important. The ideal that people can be better than anarchy. Than fear. Than terror. Than rage. So she's here. She's here in an unassuming white sundress of the local style. A pair of high heels accentuate her hips. A wide-brimmed white hat with a ribbon on the side sits on her head. Sunglasses under her hat. She hardly looks ready for a fight with a terrorist. Hell, she hardly looked ready to clear out the crowds, but something about a woman with a stern face giving orders quickly gets people to listen. And now that the crowds are away... Now that the crowds are away she's falling in with Gawain and Tina. The sundress swirls around her legs with every step. She doesn't spare a glance at Wario. And she doesn't say anything, either. This is the time when Elites are supposed to make big speeches, right? Big intros? Big...declarations? But her mind's just empty. She can't think of anything to say. Anything convincing. Anything meaningful. There isn't anything. Even 'stand down' has no meaning here. So instead she's silent. Like so few Elites ever are. She's a poor Elite. But she's a good soldier.
Liza Grier	"It's just like I said." Liza growls to Gawain. Without her helmet on, the menacing synth-crackle is gone, and yet somehow her unadulterated voice is just as bad in its own way, simultaneously unhinged and yet betraying someone whose heart rate could be used as a metronome even now. "You storm into his office, screaming about how you'll have vengeance. About how now it's personal. How now you're not above killing him. But once he's down on the ground, and you'd feel bad about ending him, and look good by sparing him, where does it all go? Where's all that blood and thunder, huh?" Five minutes ago I said that you only arbitrarily made that decision because he made you personally angry. Nothing more, nothing less. And how you talked all that shit to me about the system and proper channels too. And look where you are now." "I asked you at the start of all this. Why it's the obligation of the exploited to be considerate to the exploiter, but the exploiter gets his privilege even when he perpetrates violence. Why do harmed have to follow the rules their own enemy wrote for them? You still don't have an answer, do you?" "Say whatever you want, Sir Gawain, famed establishment enforcer. You're fighting for him and even he knows it. You want to protect the man you wanted to kill a moment ago, because that's your privilege. Tell me about madness yesterday, before you became a slavering animal to exact revenge. And you didn't even do it right." She looks at Tina, dead on, exposing her to the ghost of something else behind her eyes. "If you want to be violence against these people you're claiming you're saving, fine by me. Get in line for your bullet." She pulls both triggers simultaneously. Strangely, neither gun seems to recoil. No more security slugs for Tina though, and especially not Gawain. It's real ten gauge buckshot.
Ioanna Langstrom	And there's the sound. The starting gun. It's very literal, too. It nails Ioanna right in the stomach, knocking her backwards from the sheer force of it. She's been shot before, of course, but never like this, never versus an Elite, and never dead-on. If an Elite had shot her before she'd've been toasted. Now it's a testament to the MCM that she doesn't just evaporate - a testament to the durability of suit, and her own stubbornness. Ioanna's very stubborn. But more than that, there were words spoken not seconds ago that drive her into the ground. That as she goes sliding back, her dress flying around her, a little blood rolling down her lips from the force of the impact, have put her stubbornness into a whole new level. She's the worst of the Watch. She's no good at these speeches. They're something expected. God, how many times has she heard this kind of thing? These thunderous declarations of right and wrong guided solely by who was in charge that day? She could do that, too, right? She could put her own convictions into her voice? This isn't like Persephone. Persephone...that wasn't a fight. That was a great Thing putting its hand on her shoulder and telling her to stop, politely. She was running. She had the luxury of running. Now she does not. "Terrorists are all the same." "They always think it's about the man. They're too conceited to imagine anything else. And when they're called to account for their own crimes, suddenly they're 'freedom fighters.'" That's all she says. It's not great. But she's not a great charismatic. She jumps. It's a high jump. Moreover it's a fast one, buoyed by the suit, sending her up into the air and smashing down on Liza's head in a two-footed stomp favored in this part of the Multiverse. It's nothing but a two-footed stomp, intended to take Ioanna over her and onto the other side - and therefore closer to being able to pull Wario free. That's the real objective, after all. But... ...but her hands are shaking so bad with nerves and rage that even if she got into position she might not be able to do it.
Gawain	Liza has solid words. They would hurt Gawain in any other circumstance, make him falter, weaken his resolve. But not today. He is firm in his belief of Liza Grier, and so... "I'm not perfect, and I never will be. I make mistakes. I finally learned how to get angry. But you?" "You've always been angry. Your pure murderous rage puts you below the gutter. You're not just trash, killing whoever you want. You're worse than that." The buckshot blast impacts him, ripping his suit apart, but the shells otherwise bounce off his body. He steps forward. He does not summon his normal armor. "You're scum." A red aura surrounds him, as he shouts out. "SOL DRAGON KNIGHT, ENGAGE!" The draconic armor mashes onto him, red orb in the chest, with a jagged sword appearing in his hand. A miniature sun rises above him, at his will. Two curved back horns rise from his helmet. "You decided to fight, Liza Grier. So don't cry in hell." With a blur of pure superhuman speed, Gawain charges at Liza, igniting his sword in flames. He moves to rake it across Liza's armor, moving upwards to try and slash her face if he gets a chance, and burn her.
Tina Natsumi	Between herself, Gawain, and Ioanna, Tina would normally be looking more confident, possibly even smirking slightly like some kind of overconfident jackass. Instead, however, she just has this perpetual grimace on her face, as if bracing for an attack already with her Godzilla-empowered arm in front of her while propping her submachine gun over her forearm to steady it. "I don't need to save you. People like you've done enough damage already, so they're not the ones I got any responsibility to. But the ones back there, in that city?" Tina flinches slightly as the shotgun rings out, and the buckshot scatters all over her. Her arm takes the brunt of it, little holes peppering the front and side of her jacket, but no blood comes forth. Not yet. If there's any on her face, it's already drying as the red streaks in her hair start to glow faintly like the spines on the back of her arm. "They're the ones that need protectin' from you. And I'm done being a punching bag!" She starts firing that submachine gun in rapid bursts as she circles around Liza while Gawain and Ioanna attack her from two other angles, trying to wear her down first instead of getting close right away.
Liza Grier	"If you're not perfect then admit your fucking mistake you superpowered coward." Liza shoots back to Gawain, as she literally shoots him. "Unlike you, privileged little groomed-up knight-bitch, I wasn't taught violence from the start. I didn't grow up with a sword-shaped whip in my hand. You adopted real anger in a blind tantrum. I learned my anger the hard way." Gawain charges in a lot faster than Liza moves, but she doesn't need to outpace him. She only needs that sudden burst of speed above what her ostensibly fully human frame should allow to lean sharply backwards. Her magboots are anchored to the Jumpman Tower's frame for a moment, and thus allows her to contort way past the point she'd normally lose her balance. The forcefield contoured to her armour visibly flickers with the passing heat, but then she jams the muzzle of the shotgun right up against Gawain's midsection, flips a fire selector, and then empties the better part of a dozen rounds from the drum mag straight into him at point blank. Being anchored to the girders also means that she can't dodge out of the way of Ioanna, who lands on both of her shoulders with force strangely sufficient enough to shake the whole beam, though it feels like stomping on foot thick slipper glass. Landing between Liza and Wario, Ionna is then the subject of the spray of bullets aimed at the Senator. They're not small ones either. Only someone moderately crazy would stuff 10mm rifle ammunition into a submachine gun. It at least means the magazine clicks dry not too shortly after. It's a wonder she didn't just drop the gun with that impact though. "A terrorist is someone trying to affect change through scaring the elite. I don't need fear to do what's right. All I need is to make the problem stop existing, with my own two hands." She growls. "There are three kinds of people, and two of them aren't. That fucker is one of them, but you; you're the worse kind." She tosses the C-20r in the blink of an eye, and reignites the e-shield on the same arm just as fast. Even with Tina circling around her, she doesn't seem to be blind at all. She angles the barrier and takes the automatic spray against it without even looking. It's out of place. "Then be target practice" she says to Tina. Disengaging the magboots, Liza instead fires her jump boosters, and backflip kicks off of Gawain's bulk from a standstill, allowing her to empty the rest of the drum into Tina while upside down in the air, then hurl the shotgun itself at her with enough strength to snap it in half. Before she'd land, she engages a second jump, and leaps up to the level above, where she dials the teleporter on her wrist computer in an instant, spraying a handful of cracked and dull telecrystals like spent brass. Bolts of bloodred light descend in a cascading volley from the sky, splashing all over Jumpan tower and voxelizing as gunmetal grey capsules, each large enough to hold any number of possible kinds of equipment. And yet, instead of going straight to them, Liza looks dead at Gawain, and red lines crawl all over her face, converging towards her eyes. He feels his arms grow numb and heavy, his legs like wobbly concrete. Something is happening to him.
Gawain	"My words won't do anything to change your mind. And besides..." As Gawain is kicked off of, he pushes back, sliding across the building, and prepares his sword again. "I've got nothing further to say to you." Gawain feels his body slowing. He heals fast enough that any actual damage to his vessels is negated, but...he's not going to be able to blur at her any further until his body forces it off. So... A pair of quad-wing vent boosters fold out of his armor, lifting him high into the air haphazardly. The boosters aren't affected by the slowdown, so... He angles himself, ignites his armor, and moves to divebomb Liza sword-first with enough speed and power that he'll either do some actual damage to her, or shake the entire building when he crashes into it, causing a colossal quake.
Tina Natsumi	More buckshot. That's fine for Tina, as she's gotten distressingly used to getting shot at! It doesn't make the impact of the buckshot, the deafening blasts, or getting hit square in the face with the shotgun any easier to deal with, but at least it's something that isn't particularly weird like whatever's being shot at Gawain. Staggering back from the shotgun's impact more than the shots themselves, Tina first grabs for one half of the shotgun before realizing that it's broken. "Tch... Never mind that, then." She tosses that piece aside, then takes aim with her submachine gun. And then Gawain starts flying. Inhaling slowly, Tina nods once before holstering her gun. "Screw it. Just gotta tear her apart...!" Instead of flying after Liza, Tina starts running beneath her and Gawain, leaping up to that second level herself and landing with a heavy thud while her arm crackle with electricity. Tina inhales again, then screams as fire starts pouring out of her mouth, going downwards at first, then upwards when it reaches Liza. It's stupidly hot, but probably not the most subtle or unpredictable attack. Being able to aim it, however, means Tina can sustain it for quite a while!
Ioanna Langstrom	Three kinds of people, and two of them aren't. The shots catch her dead in the head. They drive her backwards, sending her stumbling, scraping against the ground, digging her heels in to try and stop herself from stumbling over. The MCM is the only thing keeping her alive and she's keenly aware of that - her head is ringing from the force of the impact, a high-pitched whine all too familiar in her ears. She can't stop herself from sliding, so she rams her heel into the ground. The pavement cracks. It stops her from falling over just as Liza runs out of bullets. "You think I'm doing this for him?" Ioanna shakes her head. "You're no different than he is." "It's fine for you to do what you want because you're angry? Grow up." She slams her heels down again to keep herself grounded. "The world is full of people like you. You're part of the problem. You give people like this justification. 'Crackdowns.' 'Monitoring.' 'Observation.'" "You think you're making a difference?" Ioanna spits the blood in her mouth out. "You're the excuse that makes it worse. You're the reason the system can't improve." She stands in front of Wario. Then... Then she drags the fat man out from under the monkey, throws him onto her shoulder, and swings her foot outwards to launch a fireball at Liza in a roundhouse. This is the second time she's had to play triage for a potential target in the last two missions. Third and she should get a raise. Blood Chain Monster clause.
Liza Grier	"And you're the crackdown, you stupid piece of shit. If people like you only didn't exist, there'd be no fucking problem. The parasites in charge would get they deserve and there'd be no reprisal. But you're convinced that your violence is 'just', because people like it. Throwing your power around all because you see someone else doing it, and can't let that stand; that's your ego and nothing more. Don't pretend you don't have one, just because you're so small." Liza takes a second look at Ioanna. "Unless all you can think is that someone has to fight and kill for 'the man', so it might as well be you. Pathetic." Despite her professed intent to kill 'Senator' Wario, Liza is still holding to what she'd said on the shuttle; that the only reason she'd sided with the Paladins first is because she assessed Wario as a harder target. If it were the other way around, she'd have sided with him first. But it was always the plan to kill both. With Wario still down, her target priority is firmly the people up and fighting, and Ioanna has her opportunity to get away with the fat man as best she's able. Between fireballs and fire breath, Liza anchoring her boots and sheltering behind her e-shield puts a lot of stress on the emitter; energy isn't the problem, but how long it can go before overheating, and the pale blue screen is already starting to turn warm lilac. EVA thrusters in the side of her back unit blast to full throttle as Gawain descends, accelerating her jump to the side so that the dive bomb narrowly misses her. The necessary momentum carries her all the way into the adjacent pillar with a hefty 'whump', and her reflexes and quick thinking save her from being crushed by the beam above it falling on her by bracing her back and using both legs to kick it away with a mighty heave of exertion. For some reason, her breath fogs pink. "You never had anything to say to me in the first place. Go back to being dead. This isn't your era to police." Realizing that she isn't having the effect she wants on Gawain, Liza uses her free hand to physically clench the air, and making a sound of physical strain, her eyes glow from within, as she moves from constricting circulation to halting it all over, slowing and grinding it backwards against where the heart wants it to go. A normal man would pass out in seconds. Even for Gawain, it's supremely, painfully unpleasant in a fresh and novel way, and makes it much harder to move, as now it feels like he's dragging veins filled with lead. Maintaining that grip, Liza slashes her hand sideways, and is somehow able to send Gawain crashing into Ioanna at high speed. She's been holding this in reserve the entire time. Sandbagging until she could use it on the Paladins. Liza breaks out into a sprint for the nearest pod. The cap blows open on a proximity trigger as she approaches. Reaching out, she yanks the heavy machine gun stored inside through the air and right into her hand, magnetically clipping into her palm. Bolstering behind her shield, she props it through the notch in place of a bipod, and just begins trading fire with Tina, blocking her stream of flame and blasting her with hundreds of high-calibre rounds in return. It's not a winning trade position.
Gawain	Gawain doesn't respond. He already said he had nothing further to say. But as his blood veins seize, and he's thrown into Ioanna. He closes his eyes. Can he do this? Can he really try and do what's necessary here, and kill Liza Grier? He can use a low-test part of his new powers to try and see how effective they are. He has no idea what she's made of. But...her helmet's down. Her mistake. Gawain slowly raises his sword after being thrown, and aims it directly at Liza. His wings force him forward. It's slow. He needs to stagger her. He roars. It's enough to stagger should it affect her, hopefully allowing Gawain to rake that flaming blade across her face! He needs to know if he can break the barrier. He needs to know if she can bleed.
Ioanna Langstrom	"That's right," Ioanna says, "If only all the bad people would die, then no one else would ever be a bad person." "If only everyone could do whatever they want, no one would ever suffer." "Do you listen to yourself? You're a child. This is a child's logic. You're a child throwing a tantrum with nuclear weapons. You don't care who gets between you and him. Every word from your lips is an excuse for your justice." "I'm a soldier. Everything I've ever done is to protect the people on the ground from the fallout of monsters like you. The monsters who have too much power and no restraint. The monsters who say 'it's fine if they don't run. It just means they're in league with the bad people.'" "You're as bad as every Unionite that ever breathed and every Confederate that ever walked the superplanet. Let me guess the next words out of your mouth - 'how many innocent people have you gunned down just following orders'?" Gawain nearly hits her dead-on. In a feat of actually pretty delightful personal skill and more than a little personal spite, Ioanna uses Wario for the deflect, forcing the fat man to absorb most of the impact. She herself eats comparitively less; she slams Wario into the ground, grabs his shoulders, and spins over him. "I hate this." "I hate that I have to do this. That someone has to be here to stop people like you from deciding that the rules don't apply for you because you're somehow more special than everyone else." "But most of all I hate that I have to protect him. That I can't spend my time looking for meaningful ways to stop people like this forever, instead of stopping one man with a bullet and expect that all the others will get scared enough to quit using the rules to their advantage." "The Warden is right. I have nothing more to say to you." Ioanna slides backwards, slinging Wario back over her shoulder. She's making a hasty retreat with fireballs to cover her.
Tina Natsumi	Liza's... Running? Tina starts to give chase, drawing her regular left hand along the surface of her jacked up right arm. "Still plenty of juice... Alright." She mutters to herself while skidding to a stop once she realizes why Liza had gone for the pod: There's a giant freaking machine gun in there. The look in Tina's eyes suggests she might want to get one of those, but also doesn't want to outright say that. She's still rather put off by Liza's... All of her, and she's too busy trying not to die to comment on that at the moment, anyway. Thrusting that arm out, there's a brief flash as Godzilla separates from her. It bellows another screeching roar as it keeps charging at Liza, soaking up that swarm of bullets as every few dozen or so slow it down while leaving countless welts all along Tina's front. Tina herself, meanwhile, stays close behind her Persona, using it as a (sort of) living shield against that hail of bullets. Tina opens her mouth to speak, but Ioanna says it all and then some. Far better than she ever could, even, and that... Actually kind of stings a bit. She keeps moving ahead while recollecting her thoughts, letting Godzilla advance from one side while breaking off from the Persona to approach Liza from the opposite side. "There's nothing left to be said here, anyway. You already hate us this much, so nothing we say's gonna matter. So...!" Tina rushes in first, slipping her revolver out of her holster and rapid-firing all six shots at Liza's heavy machine gun's barrel directly while Godzilla's back spines flare up as it tries to just grab onto Liza and her shield to unload a massive blast of electricity around it. "Do you think anything you say to us will? Do you even want us to listen, or do you just want to yell louder?"
Liza Grier	Liza looks Ioanna dead in the eye. The look in her eyes changes as if by a keyword. Unwholesome, liquid purple flows behind them, before their deep red intensifies even more. She stops for just a second, and says with the peverse sagacity of a Buddha: "The default settings on children indicate that at some point the universe made sense." Tina begins firing, Liza hurls the half-empty machine gun at her, and then thrusts out her hand to accelerate it somehow, smashing into her even harder. Then she draws and ignites her e-sword in a single flash, and, heart rate skyrocketing into lethal levels, parries all of the bullets, vapourizing them in half along the hard-plasma blade. And not only that, when Gawain approaches, Lizas' eyes glint in his direction, hard-seizing up his movements, and then she deflects his sword too, letting it slice clean through the heavy girder beside her. She follows up by smashing his helmet with her shield to stun him, and then ramming the e-sword precisely through the gap between his breastplate and pauldron, looking to skewer his armpit. It's not any swordsmanship he knows, but it is swordsmanship, and targeted, rather than at a vital point the armour is more likely to protect, a mobility point that also bleeds profusely. She does all this while slowly strangling him from the inside. Then, she kicks him, straight to the chest, and fires one rocket booster while the other sole is magnetically anchored, to launch him again. From there, she fires an energy tether from one wrist and reels herself up to the next girder, firing her EVA pack to accelerate her even further, and slam into it with a tremendous knee flex. Vaulting from there, she busts the cap on another pod, and summons a big fat anti-materiel rifle into her hands. Rolling prone, she sights first at Tina, and blasts dead on for center mass with a shell typically used in stationary autocannons. Racking the bolt at top speed, she swivels it down and snaps off another shot at Ioanna, even as she flees. The calibre is dangerous to block with Wario himself; especially when it is revealed to explode on Tina. "But we're not talking about the people on the ground? Are we. You're not standing up to defend any of the people he harmed. I did. You're here for the same reason every other of your kind exists. To be bodyguards for the people who already have all the power." "So, yeah. You are in league with bad people, and they'll keep on existing so long as their pets stand up and defend them. The rules don't apply to any of us. But you'll follow them, because they benefit you. You're a piece of the biggest monster to ever exist." She's already dialing in something else. Teleporter light splashes onto her back. It forms something big and bulky, which begins flashing a red warning light. "I want you to die. And I told you from the start. You were never ready to fight me. You were never capable of stopping me. I'm not the under-manned, under-equipped, under-gunned guerillas you're used to rolling over. I'm Liza fucking Grier and now everyone in the mayoral district has twenty minutes to evacuate. Because you're just business as usual for me." It's definitely a pocket nuke.
Ioanna Langstrom	A nuke. A nuke. A nuclear weapon in her hands. A nuclear weapon in the heart of New Donk City. A nuclear. Fucking. Weapon. Ioanna's eyes go wide behind the sunglasses. She does, as she said, not respond to Liza as the weapon is teleported in. There's no arguing with this thing. With something willing to nuke a fucking district of people to make an argument. To make a point. The bullet that hits Tina explodes. She'd love, just love, to put Wario in the way. Because part of it? Part of what Liza's saying? It's not wrong. And she knows that. And that's why she hates it so much. Because at the end of the day she would personally love to jam a gun in Liza's mouth and say, 'this is the only real rule', and blow her brains out. But she can't. She's not Wario. She's not Liza. She's never, ever, ever been that person. She's lived her life believing in the ideal of a better world because it's something that you have to work for, not something you can kill your way to. In the ideal of a better world where people like Wario can't exist. Not 'can't exist on the pain of death.' 'Can't exist.' But God. She would really, really, really like to use him to block the shot. But she does not. She eats the strike head-on, dead-on, falling backwards in the middle of another shot. Wario winds up rolling away from her, rolling backwards. She has a choice. She has a real, meaningful choice. There's the mission to protect Wario. But... ...the orders, but... ... She stands up, holding her arm. It's probably broken from the sheer force of the explosive shot. But she said something she means, and Ioanna Langstrom has never been someone who does something she doesn't mean. She breaks into a dash. Wario is left behind. She kicks a door off a nearby truck abandoned in the panic. The key turns. The engine sputters. She slams her foot on the accelerator. The truck roars loudly. It swings around towards the entrance of the Mayoral District. Her other hand grabs the truck's horn and starts blaring it furiously. People are, and will always be, more important to her than property, or than a horrible man who probably deserves what's coming to him. The rules don't matter if they aren't used to defend people. So she jacknifes the truck sideways into the entrance of the square to stop oncoming traffic, rolling with it with her own body. It rolls to a stop in front of the street as she slams her feet down through the cabin. As she emerges, bloody, the MCM torn unpleasantly from both the explosion and the crash, she makes her way over to an electric wire and touches the sunglasses to it. Every billboard, every radio, every TV, every signal in the city, for just a few moments, changes image. EVACUATE MAYORAL DISTRICT AND ALL SURROUNDING AREAS PALADINS EXTRACTION POINT IS HERE PLEASE PROCEED IN AN ORDERLY FASHION
Gawain	Gawain seizes up completely. A sword painfully causing him to bleed. But as he bleeds, his armor reinforces and adapts to her blade - maybe the only thing that saves his life. He's strangled, unable to speak, choking, before he's kicked off. The Knight of the Sun goes flying. And flying. He goes over the edge of the building, slamming into the wall of another, going through a window. He's done. He'll be able to rise now that the hemokinesis is likely broken, but not to fight. Ioanna's about to handle the nuke in the only way they can. Gawain needs to get out of there, and grab anyone on the way that he can (including possibly Wario, if he's in the path) and get them to safety before the whole place collapses. Mission failure.
Tina Natsumi	Another thrown gun! Trying to take a cue from Godzilla, Tina calls the Persona back into her as her arm transforms again into that weird semi-Mecha Godzilla-y form just in time for the gun to smash right into her non-plated face. Spitting out some blood and ignoring the growing welt on her face, Tina tries to intercept Liza's next gun-summoning, but she ends up running right into a freaking anti-materiel rifle. Instead of trying to evade it, Tina twists sideways to present her armored arm once again as she braces for impact. The impact knocks her off a foot, but the explosion sends her flying several yards back as it cracks off that plating covering her arm entirely. "Goddamn, how many guns does she have in that thing?! Might as well be carrying a freaking..." She doesn't finish that sentence, because it doesn't need to be finished. Instead, she sees the mini nuke. That's enough to get Tina to shift gears. With Ioanna switching her focus to the evacuation and Gawain going off the side of the building, that leaves Tina face to face with Liza at ~~the top of Millenium~~ a high point of Jumpman Tower. "You really want to see things change for the better? For the people on the ground? Fine... Mark your calendar if you want to." Tina can feel blood pooling in the back of her throat, but she swallows it right back down. I'm going to become the fucking President of the United Kingdom. After that, the United States. I'll fix up their shit, and then I'm putting you out of the job." She backs up towards the edge of the building, then points at Liza's nuke. "And then you won't have any more excuses." She dives off after Gawain, slowing her own descent with a blast of steaming breath, then starts sprinting off to aid more directly in the evacuation. Wario is not included in her evacuation plan.
Operator	As the Paladins make their escape, footsteps come up behind Liza. Two, and then the thunk of a wooden cane. An old, wheezy voice lets out a knowing giggle as it regards the fleeing backs of the knight, the soldier, and the streamer. "You got the whole city holding their breath on you." Cranky Kong moves to stand beside Liza, clutching a briefcase in his hand. He looks remarkably hale for someone who fell off a bridge at terminal velocity. "Maybe you're a little too political for this old man's tastes. But I can't deny you girl; you're pure in what you do. Pure in... whatever you are. You said after the prison that 'game recognises game.' Well, let me reciprocate that. You ain't bad, Liza Grier." Wario lays there on the ground, eyes wide. "Wah?! How are you alive?!" The old ape lets out a scratchy laugh and walks on over. "Because dying would satisfy you too much, you oily fart. Now... this girl has plans to kill you. And I'm strongly considering the same. And no one's gonna protect you. So with that in mind, you had best hold still. Maybe my revenge will be enough to make her reconsider." The suitcase is set down and opened up. Inside is a tattoo gun, and a variety of inks. Cranky sits on Wario's chest, paying no mind to the rasp of broken ribs sliding, and begins to tattoo, quickly and roughly. Once he's done there, he flips the fat man over and begins doing his whole back. The old ape is quite the artist, and the fact he doesn't care two jots about how much pain he's inflicting means he can get it done quick. Once he's done, he reveals it to Liza with a bow. Wario's back now depicts Liza herself, standing strong and bristling with guns, the visors on her mask gleaming. Behind her is a massive atomic explosion, the cloud in the shape of Wario's crying face. And speaking of faces, Wario's actual face now reads, 'ASK ME WHAT'S ON MY BACK.' "You always let one walk away to warn the others, right? Let him be the messenger. Let him show what happens when Liza Grier sets her sight on you. Let them behold the guns and nuclear hellfire that await them." He then picks Wario up by the hair and gestures. "Or finish him off. Maybe I'll flay his back and leather it for my hut. I think I did a pretty good job, don't you?" Another wheezy, sleazy laugh.
Liza Grier	"Run little piggy. Save those people on the ground. Twenty minutes is plenty of time. So show me." Liza calls after Ioanna, but there's no point in shooting her in the back at this time. Twenty minutes is her calling card, and if the Paladins are retreating then she's made a point. More importantly, Ioanna dropped Wario. Liza makes it her policy to let security get a head start if they abandon the captain. "I dare you, kid." she says to Tina, right before she flies off. It doesn't feel clear whether she's implying she's going to kill Tina first, or whether she believes the very idea is impossible and Tina will come back crying. Maybe both. Liza takes a deep breath through her nose, tracing the scent of Gawain's and Tina's blood, and their respective sluggish and elevated heartbeats in her head. When she's convinced they're actually retreating, she slaps down the pocket nuke at the base of the tower, picks up her helmet, and fastens it again so she can begin the process of guarding it. "Hunting the bastards seems amusing, but I can't have one of them running behind my back to disable the bomb." She glances down at it. Her optics are green again, with no uncanny colours. "Only four kilotons on this one. Still itching to use that Teller-Ulam. But I already did the math; any more than this and it'll just wipe out random office buildings." Though she begins marching over to Wario, she slows and then stops when Cranky begins shuffling in with his cane. Clearly astonished, she wheeze-laughs through her vocalizer such that it comes out in menacing gasp-static, though it's still roughly recognizable. "You stubborn old bastard. I was holding out hope y'know. Seemed a little too shitty to be true that a famous old face like you would go out like that. You know, those soft wannabes cried big salty tears over you. The goody two-shoes even went all dark avenger and decided he wanted to kill Wario, up until I almost did. You've got a fucked up kind of charisma." Though he can't see her smile under the helmet, it carries in her tone. "Game recognizes game." she repeats. Out of that respect, she stays her hand while Cranky gets to work, and then bursts out into raucous, mean-spirited laughter when he finishes. "Shit, I'm taking a picture of that. Going to use it as my tag. You've got style. A lot of it. And that's almost as important as being able to terrorize a city." She gives Wario a nasty kick to his boxer shorts dump truck. "Better start running fatty! If you go as fast as you can, you might make it!" She jerks her thumb to DK. "I can take your boy too. After you fell off the bridge, he put up a pretty good performance. There's more of you in him than we realized, so take good care of the big lug." Once all that is taken care of, Liza plans to stick around until literally the last second, before teleporting her and Donky Kong out, just short of the colossal boom. One that'll wipe out all kinds of central bank, police HQ, city hall, court rooms, and every other kind of infrastructure she hates. And with Wario having stolen and lost all that treasure, it won't be rebuilt any time soon. It even begs the question of whether it'll be worth it. She doesn't expect Pauline will be disappearing any time soon, but this is good enough for now.
Operator	Wario does indeed run, dragging his broken body as fast as he can. As he hits the road, a manhole pops up. Greatgullet emerges from the sewers, and pulls the fat man down. The cloaked figure looks at Liza for a moment. And in the light, she sees a long nose, a thin mustache, and a purple cap under it, before they vanish into the bowels of the city. Whoever they are, they have their own business with Wario, but it seems like they want him alive. Cranky looks to his unconscious grandson and nods. "I 'd appreciate it. I don't think I have the strength to carry him out myself." With a slightly tired sigh, he walks over to the slumbering ape and bends down. "I was watching through a telescope. He did me proud up there, but..." He bends down, and wraps something around DK's neck. That red necktie, discarded on the bridge. "I don't think he has it in him to be another me. But that's okay. Dumb as he is, he gets the job done in his own way." Standing up again, he arcs his back and groans. "Well, I'll leave you to it. You can leave him anywhere, he'll find his way home eventually. And find me eating his banana horde. Heh heh heh!" He begins pogo'ing on his staff, and bounces off with a wave. "Good luck to you, Liza Grier. I'll make sure to live long enough to see what you do next. Don't disappoint me now!" He bounces to the edge of the Old Donk strut and falls off the edge. Old bastard just has to go out in the same way he 'died' to rub it in. New Donk City suffers destruction even beyond what Cranky did back in the day. Mercifully, everyone was able to get away, and the fallout was contained. Efforts were made to salvage the surviving gold from the exploding rocket, but only a bare amount is recovered. Several large banks and companies never recover from the hit, with most collapsing or being absorbed. The hydra isn't dead, but it sure did just lose a lot of heads. The city that named a villain, and built their whole identity around them, is shattered by a new, greater breed of antagonist. Whether it will recover remains to be seen.