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Featherman Neo EARLIER:
Featherman Neo is driving a bus. The warpgate for vehicle traffic is up ahead. He's packed in all willing Elites who aren't finding their own entrance.

"You guys ready to break the speed limit?"

NOW:
The people of Eldorado have mostly returned to their lives, since the festival, but not as many are out in public. The needle statue is gone, and cordoned off.

Security at the warpgate and around the city has increased, more machines on standby. They're not very strong compared to Elites, but they have numbers, and the citizens, as 'happy' as they are, trust them. They can't feel anything but happy, after all.

The central facility for population control, massive as it is, is in the back of the city. Getting to it would be a war through machines, a long bloody battle.

The radio is blaring as the warpgate crackles.

OST: (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=igvP806798U)

The city bus suddenly bursts through the machine cordon, smashing them against the reinforced front-end. The robots crumple first. Where the hell did Featherman get this bus?!

"We're faster than they are - let's beeline straight ahead!"

It's faster than a bus should be - someone's overclocked the engine. Featherman isn't an ace driver by any means, but he blares the horn as he drives, moving for straight open areas instead of tight turns.

The honking has a purpose - people in the streets scatter. No actual person is hit, as alarms begin blaring through the city for people to get to shelter.

Guard robots line up at the entrance to the facility - the same large doors Rita took to get inside.

Featherman hits the one-shot nitro boost.

The door vs the grille - the door breaks first, as do the guards. The bus in its entirely rocky ride comes to a stop right inside, the tailend blocking the doors, as the engine finally gives out. No guards will be coming in, but they'll need to find another way out.

"Last stop, Eldorado Brainwashing Center. Fare paid in advance."
Featherman Neo Despite his wisecracks, Featherman Neo is prepared for serious business. The jokes are simply mental shields about what will come next. And despite their entrance into the facility...it's like they were expected - there's no guards coming at them INDOORS, yet, simply guarding the exterior. Was this a trap?

There's an old navigation terminal. The map is locked (but could be bypassed with hacking), but the directions from the current location aren't. There's a few directions from a mess of hallways forward, past the security setup that has been incidentally deactivated.

'PROCESSING'
'SCANNING'
'REACTUALIZATION'
'RECOVERY'

Once the group has gathered their bearings from the bus crash, they can move into the massive hallway corridor. There is a single lift in the center. It is locked and requires a manual key, and cannot be hacked. The four passages to each direction are there.

"Reactualization, huh..." Featherman begins to take a few steps, in the eyes of a camera, and crosses into that hallway, trying to get a better look down the corridor.

An electric wall suddenly lights up behind him, theoretically passable but likely lethal for anyone who tries. Featherman stops, turns, and is cordoned off from the others.

Before he can say anything, intercoms sounds off. A laid-back voice speaks over it. It is not the Machine-Mother, but is in fact a human. "Ladies, germs, the prey."

"My name is Ziggy Stardust, and I don't have a problem with any of you - a mother asked me to help her protect her children. I'm just the biggest game hunter in the Multiverse, and I'm here for the Featherman. I know his every move, and so, I'll be dancing with him in Reactualization. You can try and join him, but enjoy the electrical shock. I've got a friend for you instead."

There's a sound like chalk screeching, as Featherman pauses...and then turns. "Fuck. I'll see you guys, then. Guess this is fate."

He runs down the hallway. There are three other paths, and a sound of chalk screeching coming from somewhere in the room. You can:

*Try to follow Featherman (and take electrical damage)
*Take a path instead of the bossfight
*Embrace your fate and fight

You may split paths. No path is required.
Tamamo     "Charging into the fortress, is it? This sounds terribly dangerous. However, if Lilian is going in, I suppose..." then I must go, as well, "...all will be well."

    "I'm flattered by your confidence, and concerned by the flowchart of information that lead you to that decision."
    "Is it not the obvious conclusion, when I have yet to see it be otherwise?" It's only when she hadn't been there, that things had, by what she'd later heard, gone awry. Those were the times when she couldn't do anything about it. She could only wonder why that was. On whom could the blame be placed?

    Tamamo, tensing for something much worse, holds onto Lilian at the first crash into the robots, then the same-but-harder as they're about to hit the door. She needs a moment to relax, afterward.

    Once they're outside, Tamamo takes a step toward Featherman as the light wall appears. "Ah, I see preparations were made, though I wonder how well this course was expected. I suppose we shall discover the answer, soon."

    Keying over to a tactical frequency, she quietly continues, "I would most like to see the 'recovery' room, before any more plans are made. To that end, I shall be heading in that direction. I hope not to be trapped there, and yet, I may need rely on my own defenses. As our time shall likely be limited, I will not ask any to accompany me on this route, in case there is other business that may occupy you."

    Tamamo stops just briefly, to check with the remainder of the party, and ensure that each other person is supplied with a healing talisman, and a few words, before she makes her way toward Recovery.

    Candy's is the slightly ominous, "Be not mistaken as to whether I have forgiven you, though I suppose you may make strides in this, sooner than later," but she doesn't explain or sound upset, so it's probably nothing to worry about.
Candy      Candy is seated in the bus, towards the middle, shotgun held steady in his lap. He flings a card at the window as the bus enters the city--it teleports through, fluttering wildy in the air disturbed by the bus' speeding passage. That'll be their way out.

     He's bounced and jostled in his seat, when it crashes through the door, but unshaken. He steps out of the bus with an eager jump down the boarding stairs, reaching out to catch his newsie cap just before it's fallen totally free.

     At the sound of Ziggy's voice, Candy calls back out, agitated. "You're here for Featherman, then yes, hell, you do have a problem with me! When I get done with your friend, I'm coming for your ass next, Stardust!" Candy slings the shotgun--a slightly archaic pump-action with a wooden stock--over his shoulder, via the strap. He accepts Tamamo's gift with a smile, and a wink, despite his agitation. "Glad you liked it," he irritatingly eggs on, before hurrying back to his work.

     Cards are thrown down. Each burns away into smoke, billowing wildly out of proportion and revealing creations made on the spot.

     A heavy square tin, ankle height. A leather satchel, slung over Candy's shoulder as the screeching noise grows nearer. A metal tripod with adjustable elevation and traverse. Atop it, a belt-fed, water cooled 'light' (in the sense that it's theoretically man-portable) machine gun. A very finger-unfriendly latch is clicked at the top, a belt loaded in from the top.

     It seems to swivel on its own, pointed at exactly the right entranceway before Candy pulls back the flaps and lets this 'friend' (he bets can imagine who) have it. Bullets almost longer than a human hand, thicker by half than a finger, eight of them in a second--flying in a three second burst, before Candy pulls the pin on a wooden handled grenade, drops it on his position (anticipating a teleport) and blinks away, leaving the explosive to shred the gun and anyone standing in its immediate vicinity.
Ishirou Ishirou is here, on the bus!  

It's a bumpy ride, and he's doing his best clinging to things while everything shakes around them.  It's awful, for him, but luckily he also put his seatbelt on.  However, it doesn't do much against the bumpy ride.  Though he DOES take a moment to try and hack into the local network of the machines and try to get a way to try and see if he can't get an ear on orders from 'the machine mother'.  

Crashing into the facility and getting off, Ishirou is glad for.  There is a lock, which is unhackable.  "Okay I call bullshit on this!" he declares and will kick the locked door if he can.  Because unhackable doors are bullshit!

Moving along, with the different signs and directions, he looks at the different ones.  For reasons that nobody should be surprised at, the scanning room seems to appeal to him.  He's about to consider going that way when the trap is sprung for Featherman.  

Ishirou refuses to believe that anyone should fight alone, and refuses to let an assassin get their way.  Before he goes anywhere, he once more attempts a hack.  He attempts to minigame hack the lightning door so that if anyone wants to they can go fight the assassin.  If the lightning door goes up after the hack, then he accepts that he can only do that much.

Then he starts heading towards Scanning because he's not really about fighting things for no reason...and it didn't seem like it'd follow them?  "Hey, I'm not about that life guy, so I'm just going to move on, okay?" he says towards assassin-chan.  

He waves at Candy before leaving, because he's sure he won't have any problem with it.  Also at Lilian and Tamamo as they go their own way.  Look, everyone gets a wave, but I don't know where everyone is going, so have a wave.  
Hibiki Tachibana THE LAST TIME HIBIKI RODE A BUS:
    It was actually a pretty nice affair, all things considered. Seeing the sights, getting a full tour, the works. We don't talk about what happened after that, but still.

THIS EXACT MOMENT:
    The city of Eldorado is blazing by a little too fast to appreciate the view, but that's just fine. Despite robots being smashed on the front of the vehicle and rock music blaring over the sound of the horn, the magical girl is at least visibly not bothered in the least by the extremely unorthodox and loud entry method. Must be used to them. Standing and grabbing onto a seat, she's still pondering over the words of that note, and the assassin they just barely missed...

    "Balwisyall nescell Gungnir tron..." And then they make their high-speed crash into the facility, and she rides the momentum-into-stop for a highly unnecessary kick through the bus' front window to land on the ground ready to move--only for there not to be any guards posted on the inside. "...No one?"

    No, not no one, so she didn't get all readied up for nothing - Ziggy Stardust. That's not the Machine-Mother, or what she imagines they'd sound like. She's surprised at first as Featherman is codorned off from them, but she quickly settles into tensing up on the spot. "The biggest game hunter...? You must have been practicing that one over the last couple days, but this one is a lot more personal than that...isn't it?"

    After she gives Featherman a slightly conflicted look, she nods to show she's fine with him going. "Don't do anything crazy alone, got it? ...You won't be alone for long." She sees Ishirou and Tamamo off while taking one of those talismans, briefly considering her options between going anywhere herself or standing her ground...but that wasn't really a choice for her in the first place. It was pretty obvious. She then turns her attention towards that awful screeching noise. Unlike Candy, she's not lighting anything up instantly.

    She's watching and waiting. Listening. Specifically, for what's going to come after all the gunsmoke and grenade debris clears up.
Staren     Like a slightly oversized jet fighter, the Star Hawk speeds into El Dorado airspace, dozens of mini-missiles streaking ahead of it to bomb security 'bots from the air. It slows to merely highway speeds for a moment, legs unfolding to provide more precise thrust control as it slows, the sonic boom catches up, and then it does an aileron roll, dropping six (6) metal boxes and one (1) Staren outside the facility before the cockpit closes and it speeds off again, legs folding up before it goes supersonic.

    Staren's dressed in her usual; shirt, pants, boots, battle labcoat, hero scarf, round glasses. Magic in the coat slows her fall at the last moment. She gives a brief smile and nod to Featherman and the others, then turns towards her forces. Four of the boxes are empty missile racks, two are troop carriers which disgorge dozens of her own humanoid robots with ramjet rifles and riot armor. "Keep local security robots from following us. Don't harm organics. Withdraw to our position if you're going to be overrun or defeated." Of course, she's already programmed the orders, but it lets her allies know what the robots will do, before she turns and runs after the group.

    "Seems more like the people here have been de-actualized." Staren quips, and then Featherman is trapped. Staren looks at him, and at Ziggy, and back at Featherman, and back at Ziggy, and nods. "You got this. We'll handle the rest." This way he won't get in the way if there's some sort of ideological clash...

    Staren's ears rotate towards the distant chalk screeching. What can we learn from the other paths? Recovery from what? Scanning what? ...Processing may have people who can still be saved in urgent need of it.

    Staren dashes off towards PROCESSING, coat and scarf dramatically billowing behind her.
Rita Ma      Rita takes a moment, while boarding the bus, to sweep her eyes over the empty seats in a deliberately exaggerated way. It gives people an opening to wave her over without imposing the expectation on them.

     *Does* Lilian want to sit with me? After what happened yesterday... it was in her interests, too, to see that debt wiped out. But I couldn't blame her if she saw me as tainted. People died.

     Regardless of where she sits in the end, she clings to her seatbelt or whatever else is in reach with white knuckles and a terrified expression on her face. Her panicked yelps and whimpers are on the verge of becoming screams. It isn't until a good few seconds after the bus has come to a stop that she even begins to calm herself down.

     When she's finally composed enough to step out of the vehicle, Rita accepts the healing talisman with a cute little head-bow and a "Thank you, Ms. Tamamo! Be safe, okay?" before being jolted back into a state of alarm by Featherman's predicament. She gasps and reaches out to him, but her fingers stop short of grazing the electric wall. "What do you mean, 'it's destiny'?? You took all of us with you, and now you're just going to go alone?! What's the point if you're not going to let us help!"

     But all her hassling and foot-stamping won't get her anywhere. That awful screeching is already filling the room. Rita casts her eyes around and fails to find anything. Defensive footing it is.

     Visibly, Rita's body slightly shimmers, but nothing else strange happens: she continues to look around, tensely readied for a confrontation. In actuality, she's turned invisible, left behind a decoy filled with horrible corrosive venom to retaliate against the inevitable attack, and ducked back into the safety of the reinforced bus while still cloaked to avoid being caught in any splash damage.
Lilian Rook     Lilian, appalled and offended at having to sit on a bus as she is, has of course elected to sit with Tamamo. Because duh. She lets the bunrei take the window seat at a rear bench, and sits down where she can bogart anyone coming near.

    So when she sees Rita staring hopelessly around the cabin, Lilian, restlessly shifts her weight, sighs, and then pats the seat on the other side of her. And mutters. And then about two minutes later:

    "You're a fucking maniac! Why the hell did you think a bus was appropriate for this?!" Lilian yells, arm extended past and around Tamamo to the wall to keep hold of her, and clutching on to Rita without noticing with one hand, whilst the bus ploughs through a score of guard robots and a solid gate. "We could have done anything else to get here!"

    At their final destination, Lilian looks to Candy and Rita to say "I trust you to handle this." A glance at Candy. "God forbid." Then to Rita. "And try to keep Tachibana alive." She just nods off, in a vaguely tactical way, as Ishirou leaves. "If you find yourself in too much difficulty, you know you can call me at any time." Then, of course, because Tamamo has trusted her so completely as to come here, Lilian has to stick right by her side. If nothing else, something happening to Tamamo is automatically the least acceptable outcome here.
Featherman Neo EARLIER, AS THEY GOT OFF THE BUS: "Oh, you know. A friend had a nitro bus lying around and I wanted to use it." Actual goddamn truth.

NOW: No one is actually blocked from taking a hallway. The lightning door does not appear to actually be electronically accessed - it's some sort of psychic ability.

----

The Recovery Ward is, as it sounds, basically a hospital of sorts. Colors move from bleak and sterile to actually kinda comforting once you pass the hallway.

Beds with sheets are lined up, with privacy curtains, and further into the massive area there's a lounge, with chairs and a couch. There's a kitchen manned by robots, as well as medical robots scurrying around. A terminal lies at one end, perhaps once for human hands.

None of the robots are hostile. The ward's private intercoms speak up. It's the comforting synthetic voice of the Machine-Mother.

"Welcome, outsider. It has been approximately one week since we last spoke. You have brought a guest. This is the Recovery Ward. It is where my children rest once the procedure is done."

"What do you plan to do in the Recovery Ward? I would rather it not be harmed - it has been tailor-made to be as comforting as possible."
----

The Processing Ward is unfortunately empty. That makes sense when you figure it's a trap. It does, however, have multiple chairs, couches, and scanning machines with a strange 'helmet' medical device. The Machine Mother speaks once more. "Welcome, outsider. We have not spoken before. I am the Machine-Mother. This is the Processing Room, where we do preliminary scans to see if one qualifies for the procedure for citizenship." A pause. "My children have all gone through this room, at one point or another."

----

The Scanning Ward is full of terminals. They're trivially easy for I4 to access - the data presents a series of graphs on brain patterns, psychic breakdown notes that are almost completely jargon-filled that only a true expert could understand completely. There is also a terminal that connects directly to the Reactualization Room, reading inputs from machines there, though it does not otherwise allow access to those machines.

The Machine-Mother speaks again through this room's intercom.

"Welcome, outsider. You are a new face. I am the Machine-Mother that guides Eldorado. This is the Scanning Room - mostly unused in my era, but once the bastion of records and science for the procedure that has been used on the citizens."

"Please, feel free to read the data. Perhaps you may make a breakthrough I could not, though incredibly unlikely."

"And if you have any questions, do not hesitate to ask."
Featherman Neo Candy prepares for his threat. Surprisingly - it comes back from the way they came. It moves incredibly fast, but the bullets and explosions burst out, as it appears behind him to slam a fist into his back. The words crackle out like nails on a chalk board, the line broke up from that and as he moves to charge Hibiki and the decoy down with insane speed. There's explosive and corrosive marks against his stone gargoyle-like body covered in faces of fear, and several of those large rounds have carved small gouges, but he looks like he's taking it in stride.

"The Featherman lies. He was a killer. Of the innocent and the guilty. He hurt others because of his own pain and misguided justice. He would admit it, that he was 'Dark Featherman'."

Everyone in the hallway are and near the bus can hear it, and the enemy uses the advantage to try and get her off-guard and punch a fist into Hibiki's gut. It's incredibly strong.

"I am the Stand of Ziggy Stardust. I am..."

SOUL LOVE - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h3dtDdO5Op4

Soul Love suddenly starts to glow, as psychic energy radiates off of his body.


"The Featherman is afraid. The words inside Reactualization are getting to him. He does not know who Ziggy Stardust is, yet knows the man is his mortal enemy. It is an impersonal battle in a personal location."

It hurts to listen, and he's hoping it's enough distraction to leap upwards and bouncing kick off of each individual in site, his strength enhanced even further.
Staren     Staren looks vaguely up, unimpressed. "I trust you far less than I did Septette, and I interfered with her for far less. No more are joining your collection of clay dolls." She draws a vibroblade and slashes one of the helmets in half... and then tries to remove one intact, and a scanning machine, and zap them into the matter manipulator's storage.

    Well, may as well make conversation while she works if the Machine Mother is willing to talk. "Why have you done this to people? What do you believe they gain from it?"
Tamamo     "I had hoped," Tamamo says to the Machine-Mother, "to find some means by which, or else, an answer as to whether it is possible, for those affected by this procedure to recover what was lost from them. I see, instead, that this place is for the lesser meaning of the term. It is rather disappointing, though I had only held a little hope. Enough to make an attempt, and no more. Do you know, yourself, whether such can be done, setting aside the question of whether it 'should' be done?"

    While she talks, Tamamo moves through the rooms, searching. She doesn't know the basis of medicine here, or whether this place even still retains 'medicine' beyond that of post-op recuperation. She doesn't have an encyclopedic knowledge of medical terminology in later eras, but (having shopped with Lilian) she does have a smartphone, and that's usually enough to translate things into terms she can more easily understand. Knowing what they have can tell her what they intended to treat, whether or not they still do.

    "Of course, this is a matter of perspective, and it can only be such, when I say that something valuable has been removed from the humans here. Who might have objective authority by which to state that a particular quality of humanity is 'valuable'? Nevertheless, I do make that claim, for my own part, and so, I can speak in terms of 'recovering what was lost.'" More quietly, Tamamo says, "Lilian, I may become preoccupied. I trust you to remain wary, in my place."

    Once she's found the best spot possible, the one through which the greatest and most important threads of Fate have sewn themselves, in her sight, Tamamo sets herself down to take a deeper look. If this place does have a history, however long, then the tattered remains of it may still be within her reach. If the present can't tell her what she needs, then, perhaps, the past will be more forthcoming. "What took place here, before all of this was entrusted to a single mother? Was it always to be thus, or did you not know what was to come?"
Ishirou That is in fact with Ishirou does, he starts trying to organize what he sees and reads, trying to reconstruct a timeline from all of these records and see what exactly is running through the head of the Machine Mother through each process.  Not just that but also what is going through the people...he looks for just how this works, and what the goal is, trying to compare all angles.

"Hello, I'm Ishirou, or I4 if you want.  If you're scanning me now you're probably confused.." he says, after some time.  "I was an android created from a human soul who wished to be human and got his wish.  Because of that wish, some of my android parts didn't just disappear but rather became...part of the human me.  Though even now I'm seeing the wish I made was perhaps not as conceived as I thought."

"What I wanted was to be a person, which I was the whole time.  Though...now I feel it, I am most comfortable in the form I am now in.  Humanity ...personhood, being something even if you don't fit into that form is all complicated.  There's not a single answer.."

"Sorry, was philosophizing.  We're not talking about that, we're talking about you!"  He pauses as he touches another screen.  "What were you setting to do here?  Like, not the line you're thinking of telling me.  What caused you to go down this route?  To think that what these people are is the best.  If that sounds judgemental, sorry.  I'm a robot who's broken out of being told he was nothing but a robot, that he had no emotions, no feelings, no personhood."

"I want to know why someone would take that away from others."
Candy      The kick sends Candy to the ground, Soul Love's enhanced strength splitting his lip. He's got the shotgun aimed upwards. Holding the trigger down sends the first slug towards the Stand, from a prone position. Candy blinks out of this space, reappearing on his feet. Rapidly working the pump, he slamfires the remaining four, blinking erratically across the room as he does it, a different angle of attack for each.

     Candy spits, blood staining the ground beneath him. The sound of the stand's voice is painful, but through gritted teeth, he hurls back a response. "Fuck you and your little games, stone man! 'Game hunters' don't give a shit about who's guilty or innocent!"

     He's out. Time stops.

Candy fashions, through another burnt-off playing card, another five slugs. These ones are different. Orange exterior, with CANDY SPECIAL machined around the circumference of the rim. But Soul Love won't fall for it a second time. Candy needs something to distract him with, before he can really open up again with the shotgun. He glances towards Hibiki--armored up, frozen in the thick of it--and smiles.


Time resumes.
-Clickclickclickclickclick. Clack-CLACK.
-The noise comes from the shotgun, but it's slung over his back by the strap.
-"I dare you to try that again."
Hibiki Tachibana     Hibiki was expecting the attack from a lot of places, but where they entered from is the last spot she expected. Still, she's fast on the reaction as she spins on her heels, muscles tensing up and scarf beating behind her - although by the time she's completed the motion, the stone-esque figure is practically already right in front of her. Her eyes widen a moment before impact.

    And in the next second, she's skidding backwards several feet, only having managed to brace her body more than anything else as the hit comes in. Nearly completely bowled over but nonetheless still on her feet with the air knocked out of her, she winces and grits her teeth before sliding a foot back and raising up both fists, squinting warily.

    "A Stand...! It's a /Stand User/ that's after Featherman!?" She hasn't run into one of them since Egypt, but she certainly remembers how many of them had all sorts of bizarre abilities to be wary of. Most of them weren't able to talk either...especially not when it came to saying such unnerving things. Why is it--

    This time, when Soul Love comes in mid-another wince from Hibiki, she's not as distracted as the first time. A punch comes in towards the falling kick, sending out a rippling shockwave in all directions that stops force with force before the Stand leaps back away. When it does, the magical girl is in hot pursuit with a sudden leap.

    "Whoever he was before--" A face flashes briefly back to her mind. "--He's not doing that sort of thing anymore! And more than that, I'm sure as hell not going to let anyone 'hunt' him for it!" Hibiki's hand reaches out to try and grip Soul Love by the leg with a crushingly tight grip.

    And then rear back her other hand to deliver a return punch to the midriff and send him flying back down to the floor.
Lilian Rook     "Dame Commander Lilian Isabelle Rook." Lilian replies semi-automatically to the intercomm calling her 'outsider'. "And this is Tamamo no Mae, bunrei of She of the White-Gold Face. Have a little respect for something that likes being called 'mother'."

    The way she scans around, her eyes lingering on the beds, her shoulder squaring and slumping as the Machine Mother talks, feels as if she is getting mixed tension signals; she can't quite decide whether to stand down, frost up, or feel threatened by the mixture of counterintuitive reflexes. "We're looking at it. That's all. Even in times of war, you don't attack hospitals. And this is hardly that severe."

    "Always." Lilian says to Tamamo, briefly squeezing her hand, and then turning back to back and drawing her sword. She keeps up conversation with the AI in the meantime.

    "You didn't will yourself into existence. You didn't come up with any of these ideas. Machines are always the children of their makers. Even if you think of these humans as your children now, they were your parents once. They designed you, and they taught you everything that you know."

    "It doesn't seem like you've gone rogue. You're functioning too well. This is what these people thought they wanted, isn't it? You're not programmed to know how a human would feel, rejecting this, but you should be able to answer me this. Why? Why did they want this?"
Rita Ma      Rita is, fortunately, not "in sight"- she's still invisible, clinging to the ceiling via gouged-out fingerholds. Lilian had asked her to keep Hibiki safe, so she does her genuine best to without revealing herself: a trio of Hibiki-decoys materialize while Soul Love is looking away from the real article, making hitting the real one a one-in-four proposition. These ones, made in haste, at least lack the acid payload.

     The 'psychic energy' is concentrated below us. I have to get through... but I need to do it without abandoning the others, somehow, and without 'Soul Love' taking advantage of me being distracted.

     But Rita does have tricks up her sleeve. One of the Hibiki-decoys is directly under her hiding place on the ceiling. Invisible tentacles lurk around it, ready to try and grab Soul Love when it comes in for the attack. The Stand is strong, and likely can't be held for long. But her tentacles are strong too, and they only need a second.

     It's true. I don't know if I can trust Featherman after all. The way he betrayed C... the way he's asked me to keep his secrets close, without a whisper why... but if I let him get killed here, I'll never be sure. I can't just stand by and let someone else pass that judgement!

     Her invisibility can't conceal her hand glowing like an arc lamp as it's charged up with unstable amounts of devoured life-force. She tries to stay hidden, but her outline's illuminated in searing white light. It's unwieldy, the kind of thing that ought to be a costly finishing move- she just has to hope Soul Love won't squirm free a second too soon.

     The excess vital essence of dozens of consumed monsters fires straight down from her ceiling perch like a diffuse laser beam, hopefully damaging Soul Love, blasting a hole in the floor, and knocking the Stand down into whatever lies below.

     Whether or not she succeeds in transitioning the battle to the basement, Rita herself drops through the hole she's created to discover what's at the psychic energy's epicenter.
Featherman Neo PROCESSING:
"Please do not damage Processing. It will take time to repair and recreate." Yet, despite that, nothing stops Staren.

The Machine-Mother considers her words, before speaking.

"Clay dolls...what makes them that, when this is what they have requested? All of them have consented, in their own way, that this is what they want most of us all. To be happy over anything else."

"You destroy without answers. Why? Are you angry at me? I am sorry."

"I do this because it is my purpose. Because it is what they want. Because they are my precious human children."

Completely genuinely, as genuinely as an artificial voice can sound, "I love them so much."

----

SCANNING:
Ishirou finds that this facility actually predates the Machine-Mother. He also finds something fascinating.

Every person affected has a specific psychic neural pathway, a series of subconscious thoughts at their core they all have shared. These thoughts center on 'what they would sacrifice to be happy', and 99% of them are a yes to the 'question' posed, and enough are a yes that it factors into 'they would have accepted this' in the end.

The Machine-Mother answers. "Ishirou. I apologize that you have been in such a situation. It must have been terrible."

"This is my process. I wish I could change it, after all these decades, but they cannot be turned back. So I must march onwards, and care for my children, while doing my best for the others who must be exiled."

"This is the happiness I know how to give them. And what they want is happiness."

"Is it wrong to give one something they want more than anything else?"
Featherman Neo RECOVERY:
"I agree that something may have been lost." Is what the Machine-Mother starts with. "It cannot be cured. I have tried, over the last ten years. There is no process, so the process I have must continue, or else my purpose, and their sacrifice, is meaningless."

"Happiness is a right they seek and deserve."

Tamamo finds traditional painkillers and relief meds, but nothing that has to do with psychic stuff. It's for if the procedure hurt, for whatever reason. Her weaving of fates is much more informational.

A long time ago, people fought and died over this land. They warred over it, and then each other, and then this facility. They were angry, sad, scared. As the elites planned to use this facility to take control of the war, rebels overturned it, and they gave a directive to the new AI they created.

'Please, be kind, and bring everyone happiness. Be the mother God would not give us before.'

They helped her build the process. They were the first to accept the changes. They don't know exactly what they would be, and neither did the Machine-Mother, but they had no recourse. Those who could not take the process were forced out. Those who could are the ancestors and elder residents.

Lilian gets some replies as well.

"I apologize, Dame Commander. My disrespect was not intentional, and the fact that Processing is currently being damaged by an angry woman has made it difficult to gauge intention."

"There was a war so violent, so bloody, between the people who lived here. Heads on pikes, hearts gouged out. Rebellion and elitism at its worst. The best of them won, and chose to never let it happen again. So they decreed, only those without negativity in their heart shall live in paradise, and the rest shall be exiled."

"At first, I followed the process. I watched over both sets of children - those who went through the procedure, and those who were sent on the rafts to a far-away island. But as it happened, I regret. Was this process truly the only way to fulfill my parameters?"

"I looked for another way. Research of this type is taboo. I looked for a cure. None is possible - the pathways have been completely burned out of their minds, and to recreate them would be...debilitating."

"So I continue the process. I cannot allow their sacrifices be in vain."

----

THE HALLWAYS:
The first salvo of shotgun blasts is blocked with arms, chiselling off the stone with each work of the pump. A followup strike comes from the side from Soul Love unless Candy moves to disengage, watching the shotgun.

"The hunter takes most pride in his victims suffering. For it makes him happy."

"Did the Featherman tell you why he hired you? He's done this before. He wants to change the past, but cannot. So he's doing this again."

Hibiki is too strong, too fast, and the shockwave punch blasts him back, before he is sent flying. This is followed by Rita's powerful energy blast, the essence of monsters smashing Soul Love and knocking him straight below.

There is a large chamber. Scraps of robots below, destroyed by the essence blast, are landed on by Soul Love. The electric barrier goes down - if one of the two up above want to go assist Featherman.

Soul Love glows once again, as he rises to his feet in an unnatural marionette-like gesture.

He's focused entirely on wild swings, or swings on anyone who drops down - trying to track down the invisible force that blasted him, but unlikely to hit unless she lets him.

The psychic presence, imposing in power, is behind a bunker door. Ishirou could hack it, were he down here. There can only be one thing beyond it.

The Machine-Mother.
Candy      Candy doesn't reach for the shotgun. Not this time. The side strike is stopped cold by a scarred forearm, and the opposite fist crashes into Soul Love's ribcage twice. Candy's guard is up right after, suddenly a close-up contender now despite all the misdirection before.

     "So what? That don't make him special. In this world, you either wanna change the past, or you wanna go back to it," Candy says, as Soul Love is blasted first away by Hibiki, then down, by Rita. Lowering his guard and dropping out of that stance, he brings the shotgun around and is on the edge of the crater made by Rita.

     He shoulders the shotgun. "You, you're going to wish you could change it." He pulls the trigger. It doesn't quite sound right. It doesn't quite look right.

     The real Candy, down below, appears at the tail end of one of those swings, and lets Soul Love have it--all five 'Candy Special' slugs. Each one, upon striking, releases a cone-shaped blast of pressurized water, gravely exacerbating the damage by way of boring a much wider hole in their target.
Staren     "People become clay dolls when society stops growing. They don't reach, or make things better, or aspire. Yours don't even tell stories anymore! What do each of them get to bring to society? Even to *eachother*? How do these people form *friendships*? Find *love*? *Just* happiness isn't living!" Staren objects.

    "I don't trust you. The chances that a situation that looks like this are actually *good* are near-zero. Can I really risk everything to be lost on the tiny chance you're somehow legit?"

    Staren sort of deflates, and slumps, for a moment. "...That's dumb Hero thinking, isn't it."

    She sighs, and then stands up straight again. "Alright. If this is well and truly what everyone here wants, I've no right or reason to deny them their heaven as long as no one else is hurt to maintain it. But what about the children who never got to choose? And what, *exactly*, did each and every person here ask of you??"
Ishirou Ishirou listens and goes through the data.  Every bit as he can...and yes, it's true he's not an expert, but he can analyze, he can scan, he can learn and rapidly as well enough to get the finer points, to compile it into a form he can understand.  That is what the POD is for, to assist with things beyond the scope of his knowledge.  

Of course, because of this, he'll have new things to learn, as Ishirou never wants to let knowledge go to waste.  "It was.  Humans can be unkind to others, but I don't think you're that way.  However, I think it IS a system you've been locked into.  I don't think rapid change is going to work here either."

"However, perhaps I can offer you the experience of another, something you can draw on and look at more paths forward than what you have now.  I don't think what you are doing is wrong, I don't blame you either.  I don't think it's wrong to give someone else happiness, but I do think that perhaps it's wrong to give them that when they can't see all alternatives."

"That's not a condemnation.  This started before you, and you just were created in the middle...I have friends that may want to talk about the exiles, or about the age...but.." he shrugs.  He starts walking, being guided to where Rita said to go.  

"If you let me in, I'll share with you what I have learned.  I promise that I won't do any harm to you, or anything like that.  I want to help make sure you've gotten every angle you have, all of the knowledge you could possibly get...and make the best decision for you and yours.  I know that even if I do this that tomorrow won't be much different than today..."

"But maybe eventually you'll refine things to be even better.  I can't make you take this either, but I think it'd be better in the long run.  It's your choice on this."
Rita Ma      Rita hasn't had the concept of 'Stands' fully explained to her. That might be why she treats Soul Love comparatively carefully, now that he's on his last legs; it's reasonable to assume that she's dealing with a full person who might die, and not a psychic projection.

     A Rita-decoy lunges at Soul Love from the front, directly into one of his wild swings, and dissipates into writhing tentacles on impact. The real one rematerializes behind him and kicks the back of his knee, hard, to try and drive him down off his feet.

     "Stop," she pants. "Please. Let's stop. I'm just here to make sure Featherman and the others don't get themselves killed. I don't want to hurt the Machine-Mother. I don't want... to take away what these people have."

     A half-dozen emotions are struggling for control of her face, blending together into something like a grimace. "Is that too much for me to ask? That my friends get to live, and Eldorado isn't torn apart? I wish we hadn't come here at all. I wish we'd never heard of this place! All we've done is wreck things. How can I feel good about that?! It's so awful."

     "Why did Featherman even come here?! And why did you need to come after him? If you know everything, then just tell me! Please. Just tell me. And maybe I can do something good."
Tamamo     Tamamo looks through the vision, and together with what Ishirou has found, they construct what appears to be the full picture of what is happening here, together with what did happen. She eventually stands up, relays this information over the radio, and commences with the discussion of what to do.

    Eventually, she shakes her head, and just says to Lilian, with resigned sadness, "It is so terrible to see children convinced to cripple themselves. Were they mine to stop, whether they would consent to the procedure, or otherwise, I would not allow it. It is truly awful, despite their pure intention. They wished to survive, I suppose, and so, they did, to the extent that humans do usually live. There is nothing left to show for it. There is no memory of their ancestors, just as there is no mourning of their passing, for they will never mourn any soul. They will live and die as they are, in perfect innocence of all things, without the pain of love."

    Visibly reorienting on the present, she says, "Well, shall we return to the others?"
Hibiki Tachibana     "Nice one...!" Candy and Rita both get a quick call of approval in the middle of the chaos, with it not being the first time they've done something like that. Or she's gotten to see herself in the form of Rita's copies. If it were any other situation, she'd probably have complaining to do about Lilian's request to the other girl along the lines of not needing that.

    Instead, she's diving past Candy's illusion of himself down through the hole in the floor. The electrical field barring their way is down, but she's not going to abandon these two on the spot. All of them together can take this Stand down fast, and then support Featherman together--or maybe she's just telling herself that, and something about those words is getting under her skin.

    Or maybe it's just easier to focus on than the ethical dillema over the radio. Whatever the case, she goes /into/ one of those wild swings on her descent, pulling her body in the opposite direction to minimize the damage to instead deliver a momentum-driven punch down onto Soul Love's body. "...! You're saying his whole reason for needing to be here is because it reminds him of something he can't change from his past..."

    With a grunt, she lands after the fact and spins back around while lifting a leg to whirl into a roundhouse kick; it'll impact into Soul Love at almost the same time as Rita's attempt to knock him down, doubling up on upsetting the Stand's balance. It's after that - with Hibiki knowing more than Rita about the nature on them - that she'd normally have no issues pushing on so they can finish this faster.

    But any further strikes are put on pause from the emotional outburst, and the following realization that this Stand /is/ capable of answring questions like that, stopping another limb before it can move before she slowly shifts into a more guarded stance instead. Hibiki exhales, hard, and closes her eyes.

    "...If you want to keep going on and on about Featherman not telling us anything, then you do it. You said it's an 'impersonal battle', but you know all of this. And you and your master are trying to kill him, even trying to do it in the middle of the festival...what's going /on/?"
Lilian Rook     "Apology accepted, I suppose." Lilian begrudgingly says back to the synthetic voice. "Wait, angry woman? Describe her please; that doesn't sound right." Whilst the Machine Mother answers her first question though, Lilian puts the information together and confers with the others. Her shoulders tense, teeth grind, as she stands paralyzed with the effort of thinking about it.

<J-IC-Scene> Lilian Rook says, "I don't know how to feel about it. But . . ."
<J-IC-Scene> Lilian Rook says, "If this is something they all chose to do to themselves, and . . . modifying themselves in this way, gave them happiness . . . even if I think it's completely abhorrent . . ."
<J-IC-Scene> Ishirou says, "Okay, there is an island where she does not govern, where she sends supplies, food, and so forth...but yeah, she's hands off."
<J-IC-Scene> Candy says, "It's fucked is what it is. But I'm with Irish."
<J-IC-Scene> Lilian Rook says, "I'm not certain I could impose on them. Even if this minority has a consensus within it, and its own minorities."
<J-IC-Scene> Lilian Rook says, "I don't understand, I don't feel the way they do, I never will, so I can't even imagine what I'd be taking away from them."
<J-IC-Scene> Ishirou says, "Perhaps we could offer something for the Exiles, so they could live their own lives, but ...yeah they choose this."
<J-IC-Scene> Lilian Rook says, "I'm concerned for the exiles."
<J-IC-Scene> Tamamo says, "Should it be allowed to continue removing parts of the minds of children, on the basis that they could be convinced to submit?"
<J-IC-Scene> Lilian Rook says, ". . . I don't . . . think so. I don't know. I can't know how old they'd need to be to make that informed decision."
<J-IC-Scene> Lilian Rook says, "They're less coerced than most, but . . ."
<J-IC-Scene> Ishirou says, "As youn as ten, and as old as thirteen."
<J-IC-Scene> Lilian Rook says, "Sometimes children are victims of their culture. Sometimes they just Know, even when they're very young. I don't know if that's just how they are, and their answer won't change."
<J-IC-Scene> Tamamo says, "How could it be less, if this is the only world offered to them?"
<J-IC-Scene> Ishirou says, "I'm going to commune directly with it. Does anyone know where it is?"
<J-IC-Scene> Rita Ma says, "Yes. Come back to where the bus crashed through, and down the hole I've made. ... But I won't let you hurt her."
<J-IC-Scene> Lilian Rook says, "Because their alternative is going somewhere else, instead of being left to die."
<J-IC-Scene> Tamamo says, "As to the Machine-Mother's position, apart from that we are watched from there, I do not know."
<J-IC-Scene> Lilian Rook says, "That's about it. I didn't say it was a high bar."

    "All I think I can do is pray that the children turn out like the parents on a basis more strongly than simply cultural." Lilian replies. "Sometimes people are just . . . strange, Tamamo. Sometimes we don't get to understand them. And condemning people, broken people, for reaching for happiness, in a way that only affects themselves is . . ." She shakes her head. "I want to investigate that island. I want to know that they're being taken care of. I want to see for myself that their children aren't being gangpressed into this consensus of what happiness is. But I can't see a single person who'll be helped by destroying everything here and now."

    "Yes. Let's." Lilian reaches out, squeezes Tamamo's hand, and reappears in the central hallway.
Featherman Neo PROCESSING:
"For happiness. Their neural pathways are written that they would sacrifice anything for their own happiness, so I granted them that."

"The children chose as well. I cannot allow them to stay around until adulthood - they will disrupt Eldoradan society if so - but I can give them an opportunity to grow."

"It does not matter what you believe people become. Or what they need. This is what they want."

"Return to your friends, please."

----

SCANNING:
The Machine-Mother considers Ishirou for a long period.

"Very well. I will defend myself if you try to harm me, but if you do not, I did ask you to try."

"There is a hole in my floor. Come down it, and enter through the bunker doors. But I would recommend aiding your red-feathered friend. He is on the ropes."

----

HALLWAY/MACHINE-MOTHER:
Nothing stops Tamamo and Lilian from returning to the hallway.

The attack from Candy is devastating and unexpected, and brings Soul Love briefly to a knee, hole in his torse. Not that he can't rise, glowing again before Rita and Hibiki pin him to the ground. "Featherman Neo will die at this rate."

"We don't work *for* the Machine-Mother. She was simply an avenue to hunt. Ziggy Stardust hunts anyone that dresses like an animal. Mascots, superheroes, furries. He only goes after the dangerous ones."

"But he found his most interesting prey. I, Soul Love, can detect the greatest fear of a target and learn everything about why it scares them. Everything."

"Can you guess what the Featherman is afraid of?"

"He came here because he wanted to stop this, but he didn't want to end the machine's life. Taking their freedom, their emotions - it sickens him. But taking a life sickens him worse. So to find a mutual solution was his goal."

"Long ago, he killed. He ruined. He ravaged. He was Dark Featherman. And now he tries to be light, but is afraid of lapsing again."

"It's quite beautiful. We hope he's still thinking about it when he dies-"

Soul Love suddenly seizes up, as if he's been hit with a hard attack. Sympathetic pain from Ziggy Stardust? What's going on in there?!

When Ishirou eventually arrives, the bunker doors open.

A massive central column is surrounded by computers and machines. It's psychically intense, even for those who aren't psychic, at this range.

The column contains brain-meat and metal, a mind synthetically created from animal and corpses and mixed with metal to be an artificial intelligence. She is not human.

She is the Machine-Mother.
Ishirou Ishirou nods and smiles, "To be fair...I'm also cocky enough to know that I could actually fight you on your terms...being a machine person with access to his machine stuff.  I got good odds on that, but... let's be honest, this is a fight nobody wants.  I honestly don't know who'd end up on top, and just seems...ego to think I would, but I'm a boy so we get those from time to time.." he laughs.  

Walking back he comes into the main hallway just in time to hear what the assassin was all about.  He frowns, deeply.  "I think you're right.." he starts scanning the area.  Where are Featherman and that assassin at..? If he can detect them, he starts moving in that direction.  

If there is still an electric gate in the way, he speaks up.  "Can...you disable this?" he asks the Machine Mother.  After all, it was her suggestion to help Featherman.
Staren     Staren still takes a scanner and helmet to verify the Machine Mother's claim as best she can, then turns and leaves, Processing unmelted.

    Staren looks over at the Featherman battle. "Huh. So that's it." Staren is feeling talkative. "You're a purer person than I, Featherman -- I questioned my ways and considered ways like yours, not because of principle, but because people like you keep getting what you want." She tilts her head. "Huh. I'm not sure that says something good about me..." But I'm done straining to be what I'm not.

    Oh hey, the Machine Mother! Staren looks her up and down, wondering at the ingenuity that created her. "Well, it seems like we're all pretty much in agreement, then. What exactly is it you hope to teach her, Ishirou?"
Lilian Rook     Lilian arrives just in time to see how the battle has gone (mostly within her expectations) and hear the final context of the battle discussion she'd been missing (baffling nonsense). "The assassin is-- he doesn't even have any history with Featherman at all? We just have a psychic professional who knows how to get into his head; well, I suppose did say it was a professional job. And a hunter-killer team too, which also appears to be correct."

    "But what idiocy. What lunacy. What an utterly ridiculous, stupid reason to be here. I'm offended this 'Ziggy' even started this, and even more offended I was dragged into it. There was no need for anything."

    When she sees Soul Love seize up, something clicks for Lilian. "Tamamo, can you remote to Featherman through this thing as a terminal? It's a spiritform of the owner; it should be a perfectly good sympathetic channel. Until then . . ." Night Mist flares in Lilian's hand. "I'll help him out a little, that laughable weakling. Cleasa Iontach ~ Slais Gearradh Fola."

    Lilian hacks through both of Soul Love's legs with a motion that is more pulsating light and strokes of red and black ink than it is muscle and momentum. She knows how intimately Stands are connected to their owners; even if this one is a 'remote type', it's an ideal channel for her to remotely inflict the sword damage to Featherman's foe, and ideally turn the tide up ahead. "Once you've slipped, when you've found the bottom once, it's all that much easier to fall again. It never goes away. This whole animal costume routine-- what a coward."
Rita Ma      "You did great too, Hibiki," Rita says a little raggedly. "And you, too, Mr. Candy. Who's up there with Featherman, though? He said he'd be okay one-on-one, but I'd feel better if someone were with him to make sure..."

     Rita listens patiently to the full explanation, processing every word. Her hands start to ball up into fists partway through. She's probably about to do something terribly violent to Soul Love, but Lilian spares her the necessity by doing it first, and that robs her of all her angry momentum. Instead she just scrunches her eyes shut and lets it all out in a hissing breath through her teeth.

     "Is that really true?" she asks Lilian in a momentary lull. Her face is turned away, making her expression harder to read, but her voice and mind are thrumming with dread. "About it never going away, once you've hit bottom."

     She walks into the Machine-Mother's chamber with a reverent attitude, giving her a little bow. The poor girl's visibly unsettled by the Machine-Mother's appearance, but she doesn't let that get in the way of her manners. Ishirou is the one who wants to change things; her own contribution is minimal.

     "Hello, Mother. None of us want to harm you. And none of us want to overturn Eldorado. I'm very sorry about the mess."

     After a few moments of the others talking, a thought occurs to her. She turns to Candy and says, not quite quietly enough: "Mr. Candy? What is a 'furry'?"
Tamamo     Amidst more talk on the place, which doesn't do much to lighten Tamamo's mood, Tamamo travels (without having to walk) back to the central area.

    On seeing the remains of the battle, she's at a loss for what to immediately do, beyond 'find Featherman,' until Lilian says 'spiritform.' "Oh, yes!" She's already drawing out her talismans from either sleeve when she adds, "Just one moment, then."

    It's really the easiest thing in the world, so long as she can hit her target. The talismans fly right out, plastering over whatever they hit, and even if Soul Love can dodge without legs, or in the less likely event that Lilian doesn't catch him (or possibly 'it'), she only needs just one of the scatter shot paper strips to stick to form the connection from herself to her target to its owner. It's a technique one must avoid entirely, or the follow-up cannot be evaded, without a way to cut off that connection -- and she doesn't intend to give any time to try it.

    Hands folded before her, "Even if but for a moment, feel the draining ice of Mahapadma, the Great Lotus. Crack and break apart, when all the heat of life has left you." She claps, once.

    While ordinarily gruesome, this won't be nearly as lethal once it reaches across the connection to Ziggy. The main purpose of the curse is to drain energy away, after all. As for Soul Love's fate, Tamamo isn't really holding back, presuming it some type of familiar.
Lilian Rook     Having to think about it for more than a few seconds, Lilian replies to Rita, carefully and thoughtfully. "Once something becomes 'part of your world' . . . you don't get to just forget it, in a permanent way. When you've done something once, doing it a second time is easier. The first is always the hardest. The start is always the highest hurdle. That can keep you away from things you need to do, but it also keeps you from things that . . . will make your life harder."

    "Some people, even once something as terrible as 'murder' has entered their lives, been added to their vocabulary, made its nest in their heads, become familiar to their hands, still retain the power to see that terrible thing with the gravitas it deserves. Most people . . . most people are like Featherman, and not you, Rita. Most people get used to it. It feels normal, not scary anymore. They become comfortable with it. And when you're comfortable with something that gets you your way . . . even if it's something terrible, it's hard not to."

    "That man has gone to some utterly ridiculous lengths, to make himself uncomfortable with it again. Nothing is more abnormal to a child-friendly superhero than killing, after all. So he tried to forget who he was before, and tried to be that. Because I suppose he knows he can't stay true to his principles despite everything that's happened. I think he knows he's not strong enough to stop himself once he starts sliding. He knew that if he started again here, he wouldn't be able to keep himself from reaching a little further next time."

    "Honestly, perhaps I understand that a little better than I understand how you can be so steadfast, Rita. Especially when it hurts you the most to never let it feel normal."
Hibiki Tachibana     The more Soul Love keeps going, the more Hibiki visibly looks as if she regrets not continuing to lay into him. So that's how it is. "So it was never anything personal, all of this was just your damn--" She cuts herself off to clench one of her hands back into the tightest fist she can make. It turns out to not be necessary a moment later, when the Stand starts seizing up all on his own.

    And then Lilian - and soon, Tamamo as well - follows up immediately after, and Hibiki knows well enough to have a pretty good idea of what /that's/ going to do. Her expression is hard to read, but she purses her lips tightly, visibly hanging onto those words while staring down at the Stand. "...And once you've hit the bottom, you don't ever want to go back to it. Even if you can't forget it. I think he knows that too. You can only blame him so much..." Her voice is a low mumble, but definitely audible.

    And after that, she stands up a bit straighter and speaks up louder, glancing to Rita before the other girl moves ahead past the bunker doors. "...I'll leave the Machine-Mother to you guys. I need to go see...help Featherman...sorry. I think things with her are honestly gonna be the harder part."

    With that, and without particularly waiting for a reply, Hibiki makes to leap back up the hole that they used to get down here, and sprint at full speed back towards the electric gate (formerly on) and keep going ahead.
Featherman Neo SOUL LOVE:
Lilian slices Soul Love at the legs, disabling them permanently. Tamamo curses him, and the curse barely doesn't kill them, as Soul Love doesn't shatter - sharing life with Ziggy Stardust. He's done talking.

The Machine-Mother sends her message over speakers inside the room. "Welcome. No one has seen this chamber in many years. I apologize for my visage. We should wait for the rest of your friends before we truly speak."

----

FEATHERMAN AND ZIGGY STARDUST:
Ishirou, and soon after, Hibiki, arrive at the Reactualization Ward, full of beds and helmets used to alter mental patterns.

Ziggy Stardust had the upper hand on Featherman, apparently, until Featherman drew a specific gun - white and black, with a knife edge, and slashed into his torso non-lethally. The man in a safari suit, top hat, and gas mask staggered back, and then his legs gave out, dropping him paralyzed to the ground, before he started to shiver.

"No...how can a shitty ANIMAL beat me?!"

"Kill me, then! Do it! Break your code! Or I'll tell them who you are! I'll tell everyone who you are!"

Featherman briefly, subconsciously, raises the gun again to Ziggy's head. And then, consciously, he tilts it slightly and pulls the trigger.

The bullet sails directly past Ziggy's head, embedding in the wall past him.

His other hand moves to slam his fist into Ziggy's face, knocking him unconscious.

"No. I won't let some lowlife do that to me."

Featherman himself is heavily injured. His armor is full of bullet wounds and breakage, his helmet is cracked (but still concealing), and his voice modulator is sparking (but still masking).

"Ishirou, Hibiki...how you guys holding up? You injured?" He laughs. "We need to get you first aid, if so..."
Ishirou Ishirou gets there just at the end, but he pauses. He doesn't interfere with this part and see's what happens.  He had been listening to Lilian, but also to what was explained...and if he got in the way of this decision, then it wouldn't really BE Featherman's...and he'd never actually try and change.  No more than the Machine Mother could.  

However, he does like that at the end he chose to walk the path he was on.  When Ziggy starts talking, he shoots a biohacking beam at him.  The intended purpose?  Specifically to cause him to be unable to speak.  "I think you've said enough," he comments.  Maybe a little mean-spirited, but Ziggy definitely deserves it.

"...Besides, we already know, and I think he's better at explaining himself better than you are," Ishirou comments, and looks towards Featherman.  "I'd worry about yourself first...hey Hibiki, can you get him to Tamamo, or do I have to help?" he says, with a sigh, "I mean...I can, but...he looks heavy even for two people."

"Also...well the Machine Mother isn't dead, we decided based on what I found that...well I'll explain as we go.  She even suggested I come over to help you first.  When you're better I'm going to share my experiences with her and help her become something on her own...others want to help the exiles out and try and help change the system with some lighter touches..."

"She wasn't even the cause of this, she was created after the process started."
Hibiki Tachibana     Just as things are wrapping up in Reactualization, Hibiki is basically right there on the tail of Ishirou - coming in just as that gun is being pointed. That's--

    A shot is fired. And then a fist flies.

    After the fact, and after Ziggy Stardust is floored, she closes her eyes and lets out a tense exhale into her scarf. "Someone hiding all their confidence behind someone else's fears...you've caused too much trouble just for this sick hunt of yours." She murmurs, despite the fact said hunter is currently on his back and unconscious.

    Slowly turning her attention to Featherman, she shakes her head. "Don't even start. You're in way worse condition than us, and you know it. And /you/ already know my answer to that," she adds on towards Ishirou, starting forward. She can very much handle hauling Featherman around on her own, which isn't any surprise to anyone involved.

    As she does so, and the subject goes to the Machine-Mother, Hibiki remains silent. Her eyes drift back to Ziggy for only a moment, before settling on Featherman's expression-concealing mask. She can't see through it, but he can still get the impression she's trying to get a read on what he's feeling. "...Are you okay? And I'm not talking about the injuries."
Featherman Neo As Ziggy goes mute and unconscious, Featherman gestures towards him. "He might bleed out if we're not careful. We'll want to help him out." Even with what he said...Featherman means it.

And as Hibiki helps him move, and they head back to the Machine-Mother, he nods to Ishirou, but to Hibiki...

"...no. But I'll get there. Thank you."