Scene #7755: SORG 6: Uptown

Owner	Pose
Cantio	Uptown is, as would be expected of the rich asshole zone, a practical metropolis buried deep within the earth and beneath the confusingly named Downtown. Like downtown, there's little actual dirt that can be seen beyond distinct tree wells lining the somewhat cramped streets, and buildings stretch out as far as the eye can see. The streets and walkways are covered in paved bricks or smooth-ish stones, and neatly trimmed plants can be seen next to fashionably boxy houses within gated communities guarded by suited bodyguards far bulkier than those that would be seen in the upper floors. Cops wander the streets in well pressed uniforms that strain against their unnatural bulk, clearly a step up from the more mundane fare in those same upper floors. Their bulk might even be familiar to those that have seen the roided out cops from downtown, complete with the same rounded helmets and actual combat gear instead of just wearing more standard shirts and pants. They can occasionally be seen flanking weird gray robots emitting cones of light from their eyes, undoubtedly to scan everyone they come across. Despite the increased security, however, the locals look as relaxed as ever. They're far better dressed than anyone seen in the upper and crappier districts, likely due to actually being able to afford to stay in this district with all the shops and hangout locations scattered everywhere. Small time celebrities are traield by their own squad of bodyguards, and stout men in multi-colored suits scurry about as if they're looking to make the next big deal somewhere. Minimalls are more common than individual stores, providing ample space to let people buy all sorts of tacky crap and designer 'supplements' alike (after a quick run through the metal detectors). Bars here aren't just the regular fare with dark lighting interrupted by ceiling fixtures and arcade machines, but entire productions in themselves with stages for aspiring musicians and washed up comedians alike to make it to the big time: local radio DJ. Only one objective has been identified today: Neutralizing the police. Whether it's done through violence, bribery, or otherwise is up to everyone here. The mob, as promised, has their people waiting in the wings should their assistance be called upon. Some of them are waiting in the Downtown district, ready to pop in at a moment's notice through the police boxes used by the supercops to teleport from floor to floor. Others are just relaxing in public baths with their bodyguards, guns, and phones close by enough to respond from throughout Uptown. Cantio is here as well, providing support on the tech side of things should rudimentary hacking be needed somewhere. They've made their own preferences clear enough: they want to bust some skulls open. Considering the beating Mr. Big got last time and the lenience shown by Hibiki in allowing him to retain his position, however, they've agreed to let the Elites from the outside call the shots in how to actually proceed. As usual with this entire underground city, Uptown has plenty of other potential objectives and diversions to pursue. Aside from the previously mentioned clubs and minimalls to visit, there's also plenty of armories and storage facilities to ransack for equipment, skating rinks to lose cops in, offices to ransack of valuable (?) documents, and satellite dishes and radio towers inexplicably functioning underground inside of such offices. Posters advertising various mayoral election hopefuls are scattered around the walls of the district as well, featuring crude illustrations that bear vague resemblances to Seilatiya, Hiromi, Brooklynn, and Hibiki, and Persephone.
Hiromi	One might expect that Hiromi, having any knowledge of what she's like, would favor accomplishing this latest mission by rounding up all the cops and supercops and defense robots at once to to single-handedly fight them for seven days and nights until her opponents exhausted their will and lives. This is only partially correct. She does want to fight each of those, and test their strength, but, as she says aloud, "Fighting every warrior is wasteful. Best to find their leaders. Dominate them. Make their strength yours." That's the more sensible and merciful path, as she prefers, when dealing with people. (As opposed to not-people, like those scanning bots.) "Cantio. You've been here, yes?" She's not sure if that's true, but assumes that Cantio is invested enough in this place to have spent more time investigating. "Soldiers, their orders, where from?" Hacking might find them a central target for a decapitation strike, though Hiromi doesn't know nearly enough about technology to recognize the communication devices on the offices for what they are.
Brooklynn Bailey	Brooklynn had spent a great deal of time here in this city learning more about herself, and about the awful reach of the old world. People in her world reached towards the past, but the more she learned about it the less she liked it. The more she was learning that those ideas even affected her, someone not born in it. The world she was from was already burned to ash, she did not need to restart it...only end the suffering of people there and bring a new age. She had a few ideas on where to start there. Though Hiromi's plan was a sound one. Finding the police department and headquarters would be a good start. So when one of the robots got too close to her, she kicked it into a wall and held it up towards Cantio. "I think she just needs it to be mostly functional, then she can get inside of it and find out things for us," Brooklynn helps try and explain to Hiromi. "The people likely running the police are probably not doing it for the right reasons...and if they are not then they should be turned into ash."
Hibiki Tachibana	LAST TIME, ON SORG: Hey, you know, the mafia is actually pretty cool. THIS TIME, ON SORG: Back in Uptown. And one way or another, it's time to do something about the police. Last time, she was going to try and learn a bit more from the Downtown police base before Hiromi whisked her away, but alls well that ends well, and whatever they did up there probably wouldn't have done anything down here in Uptown anyway. This is where they'll have to resolve things, and hopefully open up a path to finally doing something about the mayor. Though she's not entirely sure of what she's going to do about it (she never actually is, have you seen this girl try to make a plan), her initial course of action isn't actually that different from Hiromi's. At this point, rather than fooling around with cops on the streets, she thinks they'll get a lot more done by getting to the heart of things. "Dealing with whoever runs the cops one way or another...probably won't be as simple as up in Uptown, but if we can do it, we should be home free." For her part, she's on call to karate chop the bot that Brooklyn retrieved if it even looks like it's gonna do anything funny. She's seen those booths and the supercops, she's not taking chances with what the police cook up here. "They have to have a chief or something that reports to the Mayor, right, Cantio? Is there anything publically known about them? ...Or less publically known?"
Undivided Queens	"Hey Isa?" "Yes?" "Why's it called Uptown when we're deeper underground?"". . ." "Also, if everyone here is rich and has everything they need, why are there so many bodyguards and police?" ". . ." "Like, waaaay more than in the place with the vampires and cannibals. And how come the police are so big?" ". . ." "Isaaaaa?" "This is just how things are, in places like this." "Oh, okay." ". . ." "Soooo . . ." "All the wealth is probably stolen, yes." The only thing Seilatiya has to trip any kind of detection is a lot of Jewelry. Isahane, much less so. The former poses for the robots with an "Oh my~" and the latter shoves them out of the way. They travel with Hiromi, for as long as it takes to get near the radio stations. "I hear there is usually a 'chief of police'. One who resides in their central keep. Defeating him may cow the rest. If not, then we will control their fortress anyways." "Isa . . . Is it really okay to fight the police like this? Are we the bad guys?" "We're going to be rid of them at the end anyways, are we not?" "Oh! True, true~" However, the pair's plan is thus. While Isahane will continue to travel to the source of supercops to beat up, Seilatiya trots off on her own to reach the biggest, tallest, fanciest broadcasting station in town, and begin the process of figuring out how to insinuate herself into the booth. Her goal: to spread love and compassion and imperial propaganda over the airwaves. Soon(tm)
Cantio	"A few times! I mean, not this floor specifically, but I've done a bit more digging after the last time we were here." Cantio replies to Hiromi as she swipes and taps at her floating tablet, pulling up a more detailed map of the area. Exploring Uptown would reveal it anyway, but the map makes it clearer from a glance that this area is actually super packed in with buildings with comparably less open space than the other floors. For sturdier fighters, this might be a boon, as it it means there's lots of built-in chokepoints to fight from. "There's a couple of smaller police stations on the way, but the main one is... Uh. It's not super far, but there's a bit of a hike to get there." She points at a central-ish point on the map, and the inconvenience becomes a little easier to illustrate with the flashing dot on the bottom edge of the map showing where Cantio's currently standing. Brooklynn's abrupt dispatch of one of the robots, thankfully, doesn't sound off any alarms. It's still twitching and crackling slightly as she holds it up, but thankfully hasn't been so damaged that it's actually inoperable. "Ah, good plan! Let's see, then..." She digs out a small usb dongle out of her pocket as she approaches the disabled cop bot, sticking it right into the side of the machine's head while pulling a wire from it and shoving it into her tablet. It takes a few moments as she taps in a few more commands, but the map soon starts to repopulate with more details about what each building is and the robot's patrol routes. "It looks like they have some... Deportation centers on the way? Huh. I guess it's better than just killing the citizens here like they... Er. Already do to each other. I guess they really don't want people from the upper levels coming down here, though." "And... Oh! Um. We're in Uptown now. We were in Downtown last time when we were... Wait." Cantio starts to correct Hibiki, but stops as a confused expression crosses her voice around the same time Seilatiya asks about the confusing naming structure. "We're below Downtown ,but they... The. Nghuh. A-anyway." She inhales slowly, clearly trying to save some of those damaged brain cells from utter failure before continuing. "Yeah, the Chief reports to the Mayor. There should be some stuff I can dig up on them, so let's see!" She does some more digging, aided by the data she's pulling from the captive cop bot, and she looks over briefly when another moving head appears on the map smack dab in the center of the square indicating POLICE HQ. "... Ah, there he is. Sounds like he's been in this line of work for a while, but he only recently got transferred here after..." Cantio squints at the text scrolling by. "Huh. He used to be the commissioner of another police department before coming here. Something about ethical disputes, but I'm not getting any clearer info than that." She lets out a troubled noise, then chuckles at Isahane's reassurance of Seilatiya. "That's right. We can't fix the problem without breaking a few things in the process, but we can at least fix it after the fact once we're in a better position to."
Cantio	Reaching the police HQ is either incredibly easy or frustrating, depending on the approach Isahane (and whomever else heads that way) takes. A stealthier approach would take quite some time, largely from evading the robot patrols as they're actively scanning for people without local citizen status in order to root out who should and shouldn't be sent right to a deportation center. Evading the patrols will probably be more tedious than actually getting around the robots, as watching them for a while will even reveal safe times to cross given enough patience to do so. A straightforward approach with ultraviolence permitted, meanwhile, will actually be rather quick aside from actually having to fight the roided out freakmen. Physically, they're pretty decently strong and sturdy on their own even at a glance, but their bullshit energy shields combined with so many chokepoints means such an approach would still take quite some time while also reducing how many actual patrols need to be dealth with later. Naturally, the mob is in favor of this method, but they'll still defer to the people here. Heading towards the broadcasting station, meanwhile, actually gets Seilatiya (and anyone else going there) quite a bit of attention. People in town recognize her and everyone else even with those vaguely similar illustrations, and they're starting to trail behind Seilatiya as she heads into THE BIG BROADCASTING BUILDING. Several different radio personalities, working from different booths, even get into arguments with each other on which booth and channel should get the privilege of aiding a potential FUTURE MAYOR. They inadvertently wind up leaving their own booths blank, so it's not that hard to spread her message to the masses! Well, the masses on this floor and the next one. Still, listener numbers are up, and people are flocking to it as a welcome change from the Mayor's apparent methods of using the cops to beat the shit out of his detractors. It's not just human listeners, either, but Seilatiya can even see the giant satellite dish in the center of the building (yes, it's an indoor underground satellite dish) starting to crackle ominously. The message might be able to go even further than this place, but is she willing to take the risk?
Hiromi	"Ah, maps." Seeing that Cantio has a map of the place, Hiromi looks over it, glancing between it and the buildings, judging distances, direction, and position. Finally, she nods. "Earth, how far below? I'll find." Her meaning becomes more clear in a moment, as she steps off the main path, and drives first her fist into the ground, hard enough to pulverize a fist-shaped path into it, and then extends her claws to tear and dig up everything around it. With so little natural earth, she has to direct overwhelming force to dig up a path, wrecking anything she finds in the process, but she expects she'll find stone, earth, or some kind of cave system once she goes down far enough. From there, she only needs to follow the map in a straight line toward the police headquarters, and then dig straight up again. Assuming she does find anything expected, Hiromi will call out to anyone who wants to join her on the stealthy underground eruption route, as well as call in the mafia goons to add muscle for the inevitable fight that will break out the moment they burst into the target building.
Brooklynn Bailey	Hiromi has a plan, though her plan was going to brute force away in to let others get around her, Brook accepts that her way might be better. In fact, is probably a LOT better than her plan. She holds a hand up to the archwolf and heats the metal where she is digging. The idea is to soften it up and weaken it so that Hiromi and Hibiki can pound metal. Brooklynn also uses this time to share her powers with others. Resistance for those who don't have it already, strength for those who don't have it, regeneration, resistance against toxins and other things that might poison the body, and defenses for the mind. Right now it's the best he can do.
Hibiki Tachibana	"...Why the heck /is/ this Uptown if it's below...?" Hibiki squints and echoes exactly what Seilatiya was saying, before trailing off and shaking her head. She liked when they were numbered better. Listening closely to Cantio's information dump, there's a frown on her face at the mention of deportation centers - she shouldn't be surprised after everything they've seen honestly, but still. There's a further frown at what she hears about the current Chief. "...Ethical disputes." She glances at the nearest Supercop Booth(TM). "Yeah, somehow I'm not surprised." Hiromi's idea is to dig; Hibiki very much remembers the Archwolf's control over earth and also the one time she thought about following her into a hole and instinctually thought better of it. This time, thankfully, is nothing like that. And if it means not needing to take forever to stealth around or fight a legion of police in the way, she's for it. "Oh, yeah...that's actually a good idea. Hold on, I'll help too. Balwisyall nescell Gungnir tron..." Ten seconds and one off-screened mahou shoujo transformation later, Hibiki is joining Hiromi and Brooklyn. She kind of wishes they managed with less collateral damage, but she can help minimize that by lending a hand. Her arm comes back, and her gauntlet begins shifting around--into what looks like the usual rocket punching alternate form at first, but the portions that would serve as boosters instead slide forward in front of her fist like prongs. "Hah!" They kick up into a rapid spin, swiftly becoming a very literal drill of metal and swirling wind pressure that she promptly drives down into the heated material to assist in plowing a way down. If they find actual earth, Hiromi is much better equipped to take over leading the way. If they're left with only concrete and manmade material...well, drills are pretty good at forging a path forward, depending on how hard the stuff this place is made of is.
Undivided Queens	Is Seilatiya willing to take the risk? This is something she thinks to herself. Though she spends the entire time being trailed in a luxurious bath of attention, creating and throwing out flowers, jewels, fancy bottles of fancy things, and little toys for the children, like an inappropriately materialistic Jesus Christ, actually getting to the booth itself gives her reason to pause. What will actually happen when she starts talking? Do these people really want to hear what she has to say? Is she really right to try and solve the problems of these people who already seem to have it made? What would Isahane do? What would Isahane do . . . Seilatiya figures: Probably kick in the door, grab a mic, and start yelling. She herself lacks the physique to do any measure of door kicking, but since everyone left them open anyways, she does her best 'hiiiya!' at an already partially opened door, and picks one up at random. Wow! Easy! Isahane is so smart, she thinks. She takes a deep breath, and musters her best Charisma A+ genki voice, to declare to the world using the overpowered satellite: "Attention everyone! You're listening to Empress Seilatiya li Gelentia, leader of the Algwyll-Ilenjeh Empire! I'm so happy to finally be able to speak with all of you like this, even if I can't see your wonderful faces~! I'm here to talk to you about the upcoming election, but more than that, I'm here to talk to you about the future! Your futures, and your children's futures!" "Of course, I should start by saying that, along my way to be here today, I've seen all kinds of sad things, regrettable things, unfair things, that are happening right now, to the other people who were forced underground here, just like you. Things that, even if they don't affect you, still don't have to exist! People who don't have to be sad, poor, scared, hungry, unhappy, and who don't need you to sacrifice a thing to change that! But even in this lovely town, where you have so many things, I don't think it's perfect either." "You're permitted to live in big houses, shop at big stores, work in big offices, and play at big attractions, but why is it that you're shadowed at every turn? Why is it that your every move is watched by machines, and regulated by scary, violent men? What do you live in fear of? Why should you be afraid? Where is it that you'll go when you can't pay to live here? And why is it that there are criminals at all? Why is a place this pretty so much scarier than those dirty and dangerous places above? The places your mayor is just waiting to send you, if you displease him! What does he really want from you? Why is he so scared of an election, huh?" "Even if things could be worse --if you could live closer to the surface-- shouldn't you not be thinking 'I'm lucky to have what I have', but thinking 'why is it that I could have so little instead'? Basically, what I'm saying is: You need to ignore him, and let me fix everything~! I've seen everything, and I can tell you, confidently, that nothing here is impossible to fix~! I can make all of this better~! I know how; I can do it; all you have to do is let me~!" She continues a radio speech as long as she is able, exuding powerful waves of super charisma and extraordinary, confident, totally open sincerity, to back up her words with immense believability and sweetly caring earnestness.
Undivided Queens	"I can only think that his ethics were those in the wrong." Isahane replies to Hibiki. "The people of the surface are wrong in many ways, but they are not so brutal, I am sure." Seeing the map, Isahane agrees with the approach that Hiromi decides to take at this point. Whether or not it involves the mob's preferences however, her intent is to follow along and tackle the patrols that cross the wake of wreckage head to head. She's been itching for a fight long enough since getting here, and now she has a guarantee it won't just be an exercise in wandering the city picking fights until dubiously finite enemies finally run out. She says something about 'We don't want to find out passage cut off from behind, and filled with a ride of reinforcements.', and also something like 'Ahh, I should have known better and brought soldiers.', but her dissatisfactions are few. Isahane toku armours up, and gets out a great big fucking person-sized axe, with that Japanese hook style to grab and wrench shields away or split their emitters, and enough reach to cheese out supercops from beyond their baton range. If she can clear civilians out by yelling really loud, she'll deal with guns by blasting streets with torrents of heavy supercooled gas, from her mouth, like breathing out compressed liquid nitrogen into the room temperature air.
Cantio	Hiromi starts busting up the ground, and it's difficult at first, but only in the context of manmade materials being tougher than natural earth to push through. Whoever built this undergroundc ity certainly intended for it to run deep and long, but there's enough distance between each level and those giant elevators that reaching natural earth again doesn't take too long. It's just a little boring after a while because there still needs to be enough of that natural earth and stone around to keep all this city content from sinking or falling apart, especially if there's another floor below this one. The supporting structure beneath this floor, however, is considerably denser than that of the upper floors. It probably has to do with how large the buildings are here compared to anywhere else that's been seen before, and especially with how packed together these buildings and their necessary pipes and wiring are. Hiromi also gets quite a few confused looks from people passing by. Some of them pause to watch, especially as Brooklynn and Hibiki join her in that hole, and doubly so when the mobsters go in as well. None of the locals passing by are too keen on stopping any of them, however, nor do they even report all this to the police. Clearly, all the Elites' efforts in the past couple of floors are paying off, as the other visitors to Uptown start to slow down their walking and crowd around the hole, providing some visual cover and keeping patrolling supercops from noticing the gap in the ground. The mafia members, all too eager to get their own licks in against the cops as well, wisely keep some distance between themselves and the Elites. With so much dirt, stone, and metal getting sheared through between Hiromi's earth-shaping powers, Brooklynn's fire softening the metal into a far easier state to just push through, and Hibiki's drill fisting grinding through the concrete... It's actually a bit of a hit to the mobsters' ego that they can't really help out here. Still, they're acting every bit the cheer squad for them, whooping and hollering in that semi-whispery way when people want to be loud while still not making too much noise for concerns of waking up their upstairs neighbors. Even the occasionally basement is easy enough to punch through, and pipes are easy enough to spot and avoid. Thankfully, any basements that are broken into don't have much in the way of security. Who would expect anyone to bust through the walls of a freaking basement, anyway? On the way to the police HQ, they even run into what looks like a small armory underneath one of the many police stations, so it's a good opportunity to arm the mob members if such a detour is taken. Between the extra gear and those boosts to their general physical capabilities and self healing, the mobsters alone might even be a match for those musclebound cops once/if fighting starts.
Cantio	Outside of that tunnel, Seilatiya's voice reaches far and wide, hitting the ears of however many hundreds or thousands of people might be living in this underground city. There's no corner of the city that broadcast doesn't reach after she's so bravely kicked that opened door open, and even the cops are starting to notice the disturbances around the radio building and that southern point where the tunnel was started. Something about that message strikes a chord within the people living here, however, as they consider what it is Seilatiya's saying, what the Elites have been doing for them since they arrived in the Slums district so long ago, and what the newest Mayor's been doing. Instead of letting the cops hurry along to try and find the source of all this... People start acting in the only way they can in the face of roid-monster cops: They get in the way. With such narrow streets, it'd be rather inconvenient if they started having loud conversations while walking shoulder to shoulder and blocking the cops from moving ahead. And yet, that's exactly what they do, making it harder for the cops to get to the broadcasting station and that hole. It's only when they see Isahane coming through in her armor that the locals finally give her a wide berth to start wrecking face and blasting gas, stopping short of actually joining her in the fighting because... Well. The locals aren't filled with drug cocktails to make them resistant to pain. The cops are, but there's only a dubiously finite number of them that's even more finite with how much they're being slowed down around Uptown. Eventually, the tunneling group bursts into the police HQ with all the fanfare of a bunch of sweaty punchlords breaking through solid tile right in the middle of a police station. The crew gets plenty of odd stares from the police inside the building and the support staff manning the telephones and computers as the former slowly start donning their helmets, and then... "Jesus Christ, what the hell is all this? All that noise outside, and all this racket in... Gh. What." An older-looking man built like a brick shithouse (or the average supercop) mutters as he opens a door from across the large office floor, taking a moment to pour something definitely non-alcoholic from a flask into a mug of lukewarm coffee. He takes a long sip, pinches his temples between his thumb and index finger, then tosses the empty mug forward at the group. Based on the smell, he was totally spiking his drink with booze. "Okay. Alright. Screw it. Take them all in. We can sort them out later!" The Commissioner shouts as he and the beefcops converge on the group of Elites and mobsters, beginning what's sure to be a sick ass fight scene* filled with explosions and skin-of-your-teeth bullet dodging maneuevers!
Hiromi	Hiromi relaxes somewhat when they reach earth. Rather than having to carry all the wreckage back out of the hole to make space to keep digging -- as leaving it directly behind her would block up the tunnel without anyone being able to follow -- she can simply command the earth to melt away. It's not clear where it goes, apart from that it's simply gone, giving more space for her group to move. She shifts to a horizontal path from there, but soon runs into more trouble, and it's with Brooklynn's and Hibiki's help that she busts through walls, to keep up their rapid pace. "Underground den," Hiromi names the first basement, followed by more obstalces, "Metal pipes." And then, again, "Another den." With how tall the buildings were, she had expected these uptowners were more fond of living high up. "Building tall, also deep?" The thought processes of city architects elude her. In one basement, they come across something that looks at least possibly useful. To the mafia, she directs, "These, take them. Be armored." She doesn't slow the pace, but with the path clear behind them, it's just a matter of catching up again. If needed, they can wait a few moments before busting up through the floor (or basement) of the headquarters building. She honestly doesn't mind if they weren't useful for more than cheering on the way over. Surviving a war is the most important thing, and that's why it's best for as much of your group to be as meaty-tanky as possible. She might not think of it in exactly those words, but she doesn't really think in words, in the first place. Nor need to think much, once an empty mug is thrown at her.
Brooklynn Bailey	Brook follows behind Hiromi, stepping out until the OLD COMMISSIONER, who is likely perpetually THREE DAYS FROM RETIREMENT gives them the boss intro. Which is to say, he is likely a drunk, likely corrupt or tired, and willing to send minions where he should be fighting. A spear of fire forms in her hands as she narrows her eyes towards the charging police. She slides under the first, aiming to kick the man into the air, before skipping him and moving to the next. She's struck across the chest, but her resilience is shown pretty quickly. It's like hitting steel, and she follows up with her own headbutt towards his head. She releases a barrage of heat around her, trying to set everything unfriendly on fire. At this point, the flames around her start forming, and her features turn from natural human-looking ones to inhuman and alien ones. She's uncomfortable with this, but at this point using her power for good is more important than being uncomfortable. She can do a lot of good, she knows, and she has got to overcome these feelings. The flames wash over people, aiming to do what fire does to fleshy things that are not immune to fire.
Hibiki Tachibana	In between earth and the occasional basement (they'll go back to fix those eventually, TM) getting shorn through by the Underground Gang, Hibiki flashes thumb ups back at the mafia members following with them. The moral support is still appreciated, especially since it's still going to take a hot minute to get where they need to go. She does wish she could do something for them like Brooklyn's enhancements, but... Actually, the armory they come across is perfect. "Better us using it than them. Actually, I hope they don't peek down here and see we came through..." She idly glances up at the roof, where the actual police station is overhead. Eh. It'll be fine. Probably. By the time they reach their destination, she's very much happy to give her arm a break. Not for very long, with the officers slowly gearing up and the rather awkward silence that comes with a sudden underground entrance, but still. It's also not very long because a man she can only imagine is the Chief makes his entrance. And throws a mug at them. Which is more of a boss fight starter than siccing the mooks on them, really. They can sort everything out after the fight. "Sorry, that's our line! Anyone who's not a cop, get out of here!" Beat. "Anyone who's not a supercop, get out of here!" After shouting for the support staff to get out of dodge, she takes on the first comer by using her smaller size to her advantage, weaving between blows and potentially even right between legs only to come springing back up with a spinning kick that packs far more force than should be reasonable - enough to send even the roided out peacekeepers here tumbling through booths and over desks. And as anyone who knows her can attest, it's not like she can't take what she dishes out. Actually, she's more than happy to get into a slugfest with them. Shockwaves will burst, fists will fly, and teeth that aren't Hibiki's will likely be evicted from mouths. As ever, she's still fighting nonlethally; sending officers flying every which way and possibly even outside the building is extremely painful but won't kill them. At least one is definitely going to be sent flying in the Chief's direction, to blow by close enough to whip around the hair on his head before crashing into his office. Asshole.
Hiromi	One wouldn't think an office environment a natural fighting arena for a wolf. In some respects, that's true. There isn't any natural earth or stone for her to call on, and there isn't enough space for her larger form, the one Hibiki had first seen her in, some time ago. To look at her here, dressed in fur, most of a gi and twine, towering over the support staff, hair long and wild and claws extended, eyes wide and lips drawing taut to expose slightly too many much too sharp teeth, she could hardly be more out of place. And yet, her unhesitating actions say otherwise. She catches the mug, crushes it in her hand, keeping a long shard between each finger, and tosses them at a cop on the other side of the room who's raised his gun. Two shards strike him in the neck with the force of anti-materiel rounds. Without looking at the result, she kicks up the nearest desk, twisting her raised leg at knee and ankle to send it into the path of the next three opponents to look her way, and leaving its previous worker/owner collapsed on the floor. Hiromi takes the cubicle walls next, tearing one rectangle out of its attachment with the rest and, briefly conferring to it the power to upgrade from the fun kind of indestructible scenery to the kind of thing liable to read <Immortal Object> when struck, she invites and subsequently deflects, unharmed, a hail of bullets she's no need to dodge. Only in that moment to breath does she shout, with a great breath and great volume, a roar of immediately understandable non-words. "Challenge! Those who bow low will be allowed to live. Come at me, those who will never submit. I bring your death." 'There are no weapons.' 'Every thing that exists is a weapon.' These are the same sentiment under Hiromi's shizendo. With every step she takes, her claws flash into those foolish enough to enter her range with poor timing, spilling blood that splashes far across the room only for great force of the blow that pulled it from its owner. The truly clumsy are instead grabbed, and used as bludgeoning weapons against their fellows. With every third step, a table is kicked up, its legs torn off into clubs that hit like sledgehammers, and its body an impassable barrier, until a few critical moments after Hiromi's stopped touching it. Pens drawn from mugs on desks and, in one case, from the front pocket of a frightened office worker, find new use in being embedded in guts, pushed in from the side to avoid the thicker body armor, and faces. Someone with slightly better taste has their tea stolen and finished off by the Archwolf, who makes a displeased face at the results of instant tea bags while catching a baton in the mug's handle. She twists the rod out of its owner's hand by breaking said owner's wrist, and bats him away with his own weapon. Bullets strike her, the work of those quick and lucky enough to avoid both her furniture shields and office supply projectiles, but she doesn't appear to even notice. What lucky strikes break her skin are pushed back out again as her flesh regrows, bloody and flattened rounds dropping to the floor as she moves. Whatever is unfortunate enough to get in her way, every step brings Hiromi closer to the commissioner. The one in charge is the one she's challenged. She'd let Hibiki take the last boss, in hopes of turning her into one, and though that wasn't quite what happened, she was still pleased with the results. Now, however, isn't the time for that. She's going for his head. The bestial roar is at once exactly that, and her introduction. "I am Hiromi," it says, and it's the same as if she'd said The Archwolf, the Beautiful Tyrant, the Empress of Wolves. She doesn't need to say 'I'm coming for your head.' It's clear in the way she lunges.
Undivided Queens	Seilatiya's speech continues! It continues up until a natural off-ramp anyways, because even she can pay enough attention to tell when shit is going down. There, she transitions to the tune of "Thank you, everyone! Your trust means everything to me; I mean it! Let's all work together to change this! You don't have to fight for me, get hurt for me, give up your livelihoods for me, or anything like that! You can make the difference we need just with little things! As long as everyone tries --as long as everyone believes-- I can make your wishes come true! Just like I did for the people above!" And then, the showboat that she is, Seilatiya does her 'people of Earth, give me your energy!' moment, and with braided red thread and golden tips, plugs the Runecipher into her mic stand, which now glows with powerful pink energy! Not too dissimilar to what she did with a certain oni-ravaged city before, Seilatiya intends to hijack the broadcast tower and satellite dishes to project her demi-divine decree out into the city as a magical sound, with the power to both disorient and demoralize big tough cop and bodyguard men, bring encouragement to the people, and cause election posters of any non-Multiversal candidate to burn up off the very walls! Plus, make hers a full glossy photo print, like the ones she'd handed out before! Isahane is doing something very different though; when the supercops come her way, the line of enemies she holds at the passage soon sends her into fits of ecstatic laughter, raising up barriers of earth and simple guerilla fortifications from silver motes herself, and turning the chosen intersection into an RPG battle field. Bullets and batons spark off her glittering girth, while her massive weapon disarms shields like the many times she'd fought rival tribes in the highlands, and sends even beefy boys flying off their feet. The more battered and banged up, the more excited she gets, and the faster and stronger her movements are. She blasts a gas main with fire breath for the AoE explosion, then summons a huge pre-industrial gun to blast grapeshot into the crowd with, then flies up and comes down for a shockwave-inducing axe strike, and headbutts a lower ranking combat cop into the ranks behind, roaring next a stream of shrieking lightning that leaps around the square as if alive, shorting out lights and road barriers to give her an advantage, which she uses to trade blows with her enemies by using the backside of her axe like a wrecking ball. Only once she's run out of enemies, or the field just becomes overwhelmingly hot, does she retreat into the tunnel itself, and seal the entrance with six feet of solid rock!
Cantio	With the mobsters armed and armored from earlier, the greater numbers of the supercops mean even less than they did before. Each one of them is a match for a cop, and what had been a ten to one situation is now more of a three to one. Their hats and suits probably won't escape the battle unscathed, though, as the cops form up and advance with their frontal energy shields, electrified batons, and some even taking aim with high-powered pistols. Not that that helps them all too much with so much close-range combat going on. Brooklynn launches one cop in the way of another's firing line, preventing him from firing on her allies, and her headbutt cracks through another cop's helmet with a rather sickening sounding crunch. Thankfully, it's only the helmet that crunches, so it does just enough to save that one guy from a future of intermittent memory loss, if not necessarily saving him from a concussion he'll have to deal with over the next several days. The fire, as expected of fire, spreads quickly through the police station, forcing most of the support staff to flee due to their natural tendencies against being set on fire. Thankfully, Hibiki has enough sense to call for non-combatants to escape, and the support staff are apparently well-prepared enough to NOT get in the way of their fightier co-workers as they quickly vacate the premises. Sure, they're met by a far less forgiving crowd outside the HQ, but... They're alive! That's something. While Brooklynn withstands the cops' strikes head on, Hibiki slips right past them as they struggle to keep up with her swift movements. As she knocks them over furniture that spills paperwork of all sorts into the flames, they find that their helmets are mostly good for keeping their eyes in their heads and their jaws mostly in place, but not necessarily their teeth in their mouths. It's a good thing they've got a dental plan! Somehow. Yes, even the underground city has dental coverage. Alas, that's probably not going to help a lot of these cops when Hiromi starts launching all sorts of improvised projectiles their way. The helmet's open mouth gaps, while providing just enough face-viewing to confirm that the wearers are indeed human, also has the unfortunate side effect of making it really easy to launch mug shards and pens right through them. There might be some small comfort knowing that their comrades aren't screaming terribly in their death throes, but the gurgling from choking on blood probably doesn't reassure them all that much, either.
Cantio	Or getting bullets deflected back into their arms. Or getting torn apart as easily as if they didn't have any armor at all. That is also a distinctly terrible feeling to have, and the combined fear tactics being employed by Hiromi and Brooklynn, along with the chance to just leave, means that the police's numbers are quickly dwindling even as the police chief just pinches his temples again with exasperation coming through in his tired groaning noises. Seeing the whole of the police force (at least the ones in here) getting their asses beat or torn off by like ten people total really isn't helping morale much, especially when one of them is messing around with a floating tablet instead of actually fighting anyone. He takes out a handkerchief to wipe some of the booze'd coffee off his moustache, then cracks his knuckles before rushing forward to finally join the fight. One mobster gets grabbed by the head and hurled into a wall, and another throws a haymaker at him before getting his arm grabbed in mid-strike, bashed from underneath, and then flipped right over onto his back. "Really should've just taken the deal last year..." The police chief mutters in mildly intoxicated irritation as he pulls his hand away, looking up just in time for Hiromi to launch herself right at him. Despite being visibly older than probably everyone here, he still meets her claws head on, ramming one open palm right at her face while the other catches a claw right in his hand to keep it away from his more valuable organ-holding parts. Should that slow her down enough, he brings up a leg to try and punt her at Hibiki and Brooklynn to get some space, if not necessarily being strong enough to do any real damage to the lot of them without an extreme string of luck. "What the hell do you people even want here? It's not bad enough you're causing a mess down here, you want to throw this whole damn city into chaos?!"
Cantio	Seilatiya's speech wins over the hearts of many today, including those that weren't already won over by previous efforts at campaigning and general uplifting of those within the underground city. Despite not knowing exactly how she intends to do any of the things she's saying, the people lap it all up, and their fervor grows both in their cheers and in slowing down whatever cops are still trying to get to the police station. There aren't as many now as there were before, however, as even their ranks have quite a few cops that haven't fully committed themselves to the vague cause compared to just being in it for the paycheck beyond merely affording burgers. Those that are still trying, though, are also being slowed down by Isahane kicking the shit out of them. Their shields, although designed to stop frontal attacks, aren't really meant for getting yanked right out of their hands while they're yanked right off their feet. That's not to say they aren't trying to put her down with all sorts of electric strikes from hardened sticks or even running drop kicks to try something different, but trying isn't quite the same as doing. She can at least see and feel them trying, though, but they're held at bay even before she starts blowing up gas mains and bringing up yet more inexplicably massive weapons. The lucky ones just go down after getting shocked or shot and bashed once. The unlucky ones get into slugmatches for as long as they can, but it's still not long enough. Isahane's eventually able to head into the tunnels with no pursuers behind her, just a mountain of bodies that won't be joining the battle at the police HQ anytime soon. Or at all. As Seilatiya finishes her touches on the photo-quality posters, she's approached by another fan! It's not a local fan, however, and she can hear an eerie noise coming from nearby as the satellite dish in the center of that broadcasting station shorts out. There's a brief burst of light that reveals the shape of a lanky and tall figure, and that figure approaches her after letting out several confused noises. It's an alien. Gray skin, big funky looking head, and no clothes whatsoever. They stare at Seilatiya, making some sort of inhuman noise at her briefly before continuing to stare and possibly follow her if she doesn't shoo them away.
Brooklynn Bailey	"What order?" Brooklynn says, putting down the last of the Police near her. "You call this city and how it is built order? It's controlled chaos. It's keeping people at each other's throats so that they aren't at yours. It's poisoning your own people to keep them docile, or experimenting on them for the benefit of others." Flaming wings on either side of her form, and she swings them forward. Balls of heat try to form around the old man, before collapsing on him to try and cremate him. She does not hold back, because right now she is very unhappy, and worse accused of being the source of chaos. Maybe, a bit ago she might have been weak-willed enough to have accepted the words. But not after what she's seen. Again and again, she blasts him, putting her collective focus into the flames. "You're a failure of a protector because what you have done isn't protected these people, but protected /some/ of your people at the expense of all the others."
Hiromi	Hiromi had been clear enough in her challenge, but probably wouldn't have any pangs of conscience, regardless, over the bodies left in her wake. Those who flee might live. Those who surrender won't be killed by her. If anyone else is unable to survive bits of oddly sturdy, throat-piercing plastic, then death is the natural result of choosing to fight. Likewise, the chief's appeal to order and, possibly, to reason falls on ears that, while perfectly capable of hearing, carry no sympathy. She's caught by surprise enough by his ability to hold back the quick swipe of her claw, what would have been a lethal blow, enough to take a palm to the face while she's turned to look at his other hand with the day's first note of interest. The kick she's ready for, transferring the force into tearing up the floor rather than be thrown back, and sparing Hibiki the need to tank that blow. One claw comes down to the floor, laying flat rather than piercing it, the sharp bones retracting back into her skin. The other follows, and she lifts and spins her whole body around on her hands, aiming first with her heel, then with equally-sharp claws suddenly extending from her other foot. A complete forward flip brings the same heel down from above to crash into her opponent or the floor, her back leg flexes, then leaps forward in a kick. They're testing blows, to an extent, checking for reactions, inviting her opponent to show what he's capable of, but they're also traps. Grabbing or pushing aside any kick won't result in her losing her balance, but in a shift from striking to grappling. That Brooklynn is simulatneously trying to burn the man doesn't seem to considerably slow Hiromi down. What, then, of order? What of chaos? What of justifying violence, whether her own, or another's? "Worthless." She doesn't need him to live to take his authority her herself. She doesn't even need agreement from his men. People just tend to agree with Hiromi when she confidently states that she's in charge, now. She has that kind of commanding aura, that even gets through the haze of terror she sometimes causes. And Cantio can probably help her use the building's tech to get out her message of a change in authority.
Hibiki Tachibana	Hibiki is simultaneously awed and slightly slack-jacked by how well Hiromi can turn just about anything into a lethal weapon. Despite her own preference for not killing, she only really has time to worry about herself in all the chaos that has sprung up, especially with things getting quite literally very hot. Cops are boxed with, disarmed, and tossed around in ways that probably maybe won't leave them extra crispy on her way forward, helping out the mobsters where can manage it and occasionally managing to painfully batter a cop out of what would have been a lethal finisher from someone else. And the mafia tagalongs will probably need the assistance, what with the Chief stepping into the fray himself now. Hiromi avoids getting thrown her way, meaning there's no need to stop and dodge, but even so Hibiki takes an unorthodox approach; she gets away from all the mess by leaping straight up. "We're not gonna be able to fix anything at all down here until the police aren't covering for the Mayor! If that means a little bit of chaos to open up the way...!" Office spaces usually don't have very high ceilings, but it'll be enough for her to jam a fist into it to get some leverage to swing forward and leap across the rest of the room to close in one the mustached man. The guy is definitely a scumbag with a lack of ethics. And he probably won't be missed one bit even by his underlings if anyone takes him out. Plus he kind of denied them the ability to talk things out himself. Even so, she can't bring herself to go for the same as them - all her momentum is reinforced by her Gear's thrusters igniting, sending her flying down in a simple heel-first kick with extreme force behind it. "Oi, hold on, you two...!" Extreme force coming from a big fat metal boot. Which may or may not send him flying hard enough to escape becoming a human torch or escape the Archwolf's death grip, but it sure has some power packed into it either way!
Undivided Queens	Seilatiya . . . has no idea what an alien is! She mostly responds in the vein of 'Wow!' and 'You look so neat!', and then taking a touristy selfie with her new alien friend using a pink camera phone with a custom case she picked up. A double handed shake and a 'Thank you for your support!' are necessary, because she seems to believe the alien must be the owner or founder of the broadcasting station and has generously allowed her to borrow it. After all, he's the tallest here. That's how it works. Isahane, meanwhile, is pounding dirt through the tunnels to catch up. Rather, halfway she switches to a grounded gliding pattern, like an overly fancy walk to sprint transition animation in a character action game. Someone paying close attention can hear her battle cry approaching through the tunnel at doppler effect speed, reaching its full 'haaaaaAAAAAH!' a mere split second before her armoured bulk crashes through several railings and desks, and quintuple spinning back kicks the chief from the side with much more speed and power than grace or precision. The Isahane pulls her visor up, and spits a little blood from earlier, but somehow manages to crack her knuckles through her gauntlets, and yell "Good fighting, Archwolf! No foes remain to hound our backs! It's only this left between us and victory!"
Cantio	"There's always going to be somebody aiming for someone else's throat. At least we're keeping problems being aimed at everyone at once!" The chief snaps back at Brooklynn as he slams his palms into his sides, calling up a pair of those energy shields to give himself at least a few more seconds of much needed time and protection from getting obliterated. He brings those shields up towards Hiromi's oncoming leg to stop her spiked foot from ramming that claw through his skull, but that's really only good enough for stopping the stabbing part and not the putting him into the ground part. Even with the rest of the officers going down summarily as Hibiki and the rest of the mob punch the rest of them into the dirt, however, the chief puts up the best fight he can. With Hiromi's forward kick bringing him back up to his feet by force, he has to divide his efforts between keeping more of her strikes from tearing him in half and from keeping Brooklynn's oncoming flames from burning him to a crisp. He attempts the more logical strategy of using one shield on each side to stop both clawed-feet and fireballs from engulfing him, and it might even work if it had been conventional fireballs and conventional spiked limbs, but... They're not. The shields shatter on impact, and it's only Hibiki's massive heel kick that prevent him from being turned into a thoroughly charred corpse. He's still burned all over the place from Brooklynn's flames flowing right over him, he gets his sides and arms cut up rather terribly by Hiromi's clawed feet tearing right into him with little in the way of defenses, and getting kicked four times from the same direction within the span of the same second by Isahane isn't pleasant in the slightest when he can taste both kidneys at once, but... Yeah, today really, REALLY sucks for the police chief. As if all that physical trauma wasn't enough, the crater he had been standing in is made even bigger from kicked downwards into it AGAIN, but if nothing else? He's still alive. For now. Probably. He's not getting up anytime soon. Not all of the hearts being claimed are even from locals at this rate. That alien seems to be rather taken with Seilatiya, and they pose with her while not quite being able to communicate in anything resembling a human language. They're stupidly tall, at least, and even does that spread-leg thing to make it a little easier to shake hands and remain at similar head heights for the pictures. Once that's all done, though, they produce a similar pink thing from... This alien has no pockets, but they give Seilatiya what looks like a pink ray gun in return. It's the same pink as her phone, and it shrinks stuff! They seem to want to reciprocate with something similar to what she already has, apparently, before shifting hears and disappearing into the darker corners of the city where they might be able to learn more about the ways of humans.
Cantio	Cantio, for her part, is all too ready to project that message from Hiromi claiming her authority over the police force through conquest and physical might. With nobody remaining in Uptown to challenge her or Seilatiya in claiming dominion of the area and hearts of the people, it's rather apparent that the objective of neutralizing the police and Uptown has been thoroughly completed. "Good work, everyone! That was... Um. Kind of messy, but we've done our part here." Cantio announces proudly, drawing some tired cheers from the mafia members. "Now that the police are out of our way, we should be able to get to the Mayor's district easily enough. Get some rest, because we'll have to strike fast before he can recover from this loss. And..." She looks towards the very unconscious and very injured police commissioner. "Maybe the Resistance can take him in for questioning. Otherwise, the..." She glances towards the mobsters, looking a little uncertain about suggesting anything near them. "... Maybe I can take him in and figure something out. Er. A-anyway! It sounds pretty lively out there. Who wants to get something to eat before we go?" She hasn't put her tablet away yet. Cantio might still be up to something, but it's probably fine.
Hiromi	Unfortunately, Hiromi's commanding presence doesn't work nearly as well remotely. Just maybe, it's because no one can see via camera just how big she is, which is the most obvious way by which all living things establish hierarchies. She directs, with an immediate and eerily convincing effect, that all those survivors she meets understand her new position as 'chief of police,' tacked on top, or maybe onto the side, of all her existing positions, and that they'll receive a new commander to take direct charge of them, soon. That new commander would be one of the people from her world, one of her spear- and bow-wielding hunters, who will show up later. Authority being transitive, she can skip all the steps of getting people to accept the handover as legit, despite the obvious cultural differences, and despite her people only understanding the concept of policing from something closer to a feudal villager's conceptions of community defense and wilderness safety. With a lot of ordering people around, Hiromi can get all the ones who ran away to be brought back and pressed back into service under their new management. "Gathering scattered pups," she confides to Isahane while handling all of this, "nuisance." The former chief she leaves alive, having been satisfied with the fight up to that point.
Hibiki Tachibana	Having made that maneuver just a little bit hastily (and also making sure she didn't double-kick the wrong way with Isahane), Hibiki hits the ground in a skid and then a slight stumble. There's a slight grimace on her face as she rises up and leans over to peer down into the crater the police chief has been left in, but if nothing else, he's still breathing...she thinks. No, he is. That draws an exhausted sigh out of Hibiki, who takes a moment to then glance outside the windows of the building at everything going on outside. "Messy, but it worked," she agrees with Cantio, looking over to her after a moment. "Direct is my style, but that was still pretty..." She trails off, her eyes going around the mess that the police HQ has been left in. "...Well, maybe it wasn't gonna go any other way." She says that, but there's still a part of her that wonders... Even though it's way too late for that. With everything said and done, and a second more relieved sigh for whatever reason, she's going to help make sure the former chief (and also former comissioner) get stable, and then she just might take Cantio up on that. With some suspicious glancing at her tablet, but no more than that.
Brooklynn Bailey	Those words...everyone is always going to be aiming at someone else's throat cause her pause. Not because she was put off guard by them, or because she felt there was some truth in them. How could someone go so wrong that they thought that? That they /believed that/. It was...sad. Her desire to kill this man subsides because she realizes that perhaps he was hurt in some way, in some way that he could never recover, and that could never truly come to terms with. Instead, he created this view of the world. One that was manipulated by the current mayor. She sighs, "Honestly, the more I see, the more I simply want to end this Mayor and help set this place right.."