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Rubi-Kan Vagrants      A request for Watch assistance has been put out by none other than the grandson of Herbalist Gerard.

     It's been about a month since Connor was committed to the deprogramming facility that Phreak mentioned. He's eager to help the Watch's efforts to rescue or otherwise care for all of the missing persons abducted by the now-destroyed Cult of the Three Winds.

     His meeting place is outside the bustling, gleaming city of Old Athen--in the decidedly less pristine Wartorn Valley. He waits for you in a dusty graveyard of bombed-out buildings, blown-apart robots and burned-out vehicles.

     A young man of about 25 years of age, his blonde hair isn't close to the grey of his grandfather, and his green eyes are full of life. Connor can easily be seen for the apparently out-of-place split qipao coat, billowing in the winds as he balances atop a bent girder.

     "...hey," he says dumbly, hopping from the girder. "I had all this stuff I wanted to say to you guys," he offers hoarsely, hands folding nervously in front of you. "A dramatic entrance and everything. I, uhm... I don't know if I can thank you properly for what you did, no matter how much effort I put into it. Before we got into anything else," he says, "I just wanted to get that out of the way."

     His eyes harden. "But I didn't just call you out here for that, even if I'm, uh... glad to see you," he says with sincere, if apprehensive warmth.

     "There were five prodigies studying under Khalum. He called us his Five Deadly Venoms--taught each of us a style based on a poisonous or venemous animal from Rubi-Ka. I was the last pupil he personally took on, and when you guys came... he was training me to do what the others already were; serving as his eyes and ears, bringing people into the fold for him." He takes a deep breath, steeling himself as his eyes briefly close and his fingers grip the long sleeves of his coat.

     "I think I've found one."
Hibiki Tachibana     Connor...to the surprise of no one, Hibiki has been slightly nervous and anxious about hearing news on how he and all of the others rescued from the Temple of Three Winds have been doing now. She couldn't help but worry and wait to hear news back from Gerard or Phreak.

    Thankfully, it looks like she didn't have anything to be concerned about, walking up to meet him now amid the blown-out environment of the valley. Seeing him balancing up there before hopping down, looking just as awkward as she feels, her slightly tense expression immediately lightens up - and she, equally awkwardly, rubs at the back of her neck. "I'm glad to see you too, Connor. I'm glad you look like you're doing good."

    She means it genuinely, and that's all she really can--or has to say about it. And more than that, there's more important things to worry about now. The news gets her going from smiling to frowning in thought.

    "Bringing people into the fold..." She repeats, grimacing. "...So as long as they're around, things aren't really over. Even though we handled Khalum and the Immortal One, it's still..." She trails off, one of her hands clenching at her sides. After a brief glance off to the side, Hibiki shakes her head and looks straight at Connor once again.

    "Tell us about the one you found." She pauses, adding on a moment after. "...Do you think we can save them, like you?"
Ezekiel Gravez      Late to the meeting and garbed in weathered attire, Ezekiel emerges from the ancient wartorn ruins on foot. He takes a mental note of all the arrivals, and offers a polite nod of acknowledgement. He listens to the young man in silence, reading his face and posture to determine how much Connor seems invested in the issue at hand. With a dusty drawl of a Treepine native, he eventually croaks out a single question; "And howz it you come 'nta this information?"
Zephyrman      John Alan James wears his heart on his sleeve. He just always has, and always does. It's probably his best quality - a man who always tries to find the very best in everything no matter what, who wants to inspire the best in people no matter what.

     And where other people see a graveyard of broken robots, John sees possibility.

     So while he's waiting for the others to arrive, because John is very fast ("Zephyrman", after all), he's sitting near the shack building something out of scrap. Scrap is just stuff that hasn't been recycled yet. He has a big, kid-energy smile on his face as he works, putting joints together, grabbing bits of metal, so on.

     When the others arrive, he hops up, taps the thing on the head, and lets the weird little robot scuttle off into the junkyard, possibly to build more robots.

     As Connor talks, he rocks back and forth, listening with an intense stare. Finally,

     "Well, we should try anyway!" He says cheerfully, clapping Hibiki on the shoulder. "No harm in trying."
Karlan Nobles Pramanix: "Worry not, friend. It's our job to help those in danger, after all!"
SilverAsh: "A job we aren't paid for, but a fitting description nonetheless."
Pramanix: "It sounded better before you said all that."

After the rescue/demolition mission commenced so long ago, the siblings from the mountains are looking much better than they did before. They've had time to heal since then, although their wardrobes are still as poofy and not-blending in as ever: SilverAsh with his fancy shirt and tie with the dramatically billowing jacket, and Pramanix with her poofy coat and the tiny hat that doesn't even cover her ears.

SilverAsh: "I do recall more cultists being mentioned the last time we were here."
Pramanix: "Ah, so they've become active once more. Although I'm not a fan of fighting so much, I suppose... Better us than those who can't."
SilverAsh: "If fortune smiles upon us, perhaps they can be saved as Miss Tachibana hopes."
Ezekiel Gravez      Ezekiel tips his hat to those he has just now met. Shortly after, he looks to the edge of the horizon towards the south east with a discerning weather eye. Wild electrical storms were common this far outside of Athens city limit, and he checks his outfit for his PPE.
Rubi-Kan Vagrants      "Potentially, yeah," he says to Hibiki, nodding. His hands wring with worry. It seems he's worried some of them might still be programmed to be loyal to the Temple. "But even if they're not still proselytizing, they might be hurting themselves or other people. It's..." His eyes search for words, spanning an awkward silence. "You know," he says. "Falling into old habits. What's 'comfortable,' instead of 'what's healthy.'"

     When asked if he believes whether the other Venoms can be saved, his response is simple. "I don't know," he says. "But I think we have to try. That's what people are supposed to do, when the people around them are hurting, isn't it?"

     Glancing towards Zeke, Connor looks away, his fingers fidgeting with his sleeves once more. "Well, I know all of their faces from having been... there," he says uncomfortably. "And I know them well enough to recognize them. I ran into one of them in Tir two days ago--hanging around the back--" He pauses, glancing at the off-worlders. "...residential district. She took off as soon as I saw her, but I saw her board a transport for Old Athen. That's why I had you guys meet me here, so we wouldn't spook her."

     "Thank you," he says to Zephyrman--though he does give SilverAsh a funny look.

     "Her name is Xie Jingyi, and she's the master of Bileswarm Style," he says. Procuring a palm-sized camera-looking device, Connor taps a button on the side and displays a hologram. It's not perfect--grainy, old. But it does show enough to get a general idea. She's tall, athletically built, with skin so pale that her veins are visible as faint dark shapes, and invasive cybernetics that've replaced her eyes with two glowing blue screens. Her night-black hair is cut short. "She could be laying low out here, or trying to hole up in town somewhere. I say we start looking here, unless you guys have any better ideas."

     It's certainly possible she's out here, given the humanlike silhouettes occasionally seen in and out of the ruins--and fortunately for Zeke, the skies look clear enough to do some looking without getting blasted by desert winds or fucked around by lightning.
Zephyrman      John nods at Connor with his usual big John smile on his face. He really hasn't changed in all this time. Still a big kid at heart. "It's what I do!"

     He studies the woman intently, staring at the hologram for a long, long minute. Then, he puts two fingers in his mouth and whistles.

     The little scuttling robot with weird misshapen legs and a single lens on top of its head comes clanging back over the junkyard. John sits down in front of it and points at the hologram. The robot stares at the hologram, then chirps.

     John stands up and stretches. "I figure a little help seeing around corners might be useful, so I told Tiny what to look for. He can go a little ahead of us and scout so we don't catch her off-guard or get caught off-guard ourselves!"

     Not...*too* far ahead of them, obviously. No ability to transmit data back, after all. A scrap robot doesn't exactly have that kind of capability.
Ezekiel Gravez      Ezekiel listens to Connor, but also seems to keep a firm look at how he reacts to the others, and how he addresses them. When Connor sort of trails and his words seem to fade, Zeke tilts his head a bit and squints just slightly. "If she's board'n transport, theys maybe cloak'n their ident. Otherwhy not use Whompahs. That way logs yer personal infermation." He scratches the back edge of his mutton chop. "Sound'n like they dun wanna be follow'd. Theys might be serchin fer a safehouse n' whatnot. You 'ave any idea logg'd in yer mental rolladeck where dat might be?"
Karlan Nobles Pramanix: "Comfort can be healthy, too."
SilverAsh: "Sometimes, but I doubt that is what Connor means. Or what you do."
Pramanix: "I'm perfectly healthy, thank you very much."

Connor's answer to the question of saving the other Venoms gets an incredibly neutral look from SilverAsh and a more approving one from Pramanix. There's a clear gulf in what they're looking to actually do once it's time to get started, but only Pramanix actually speaks up on that matter. "It may be easier to save them if we can subdue them first and then bring them..."

Pramanix waves her hands vaguely. "Somewhere? Somewhere quieter, at least, so they can't call for their allies to bust them out. Also, if they're as dangerous as you're making your friend headed for Old Athens sound..." Connor provides an image of their target, and Pramanix pulls her bag up to start poking around in there. "I imagine we'll need better protection than this."

She takes out a pipe. SilverAsh sighs and shakes his head, then looks up as Tenzin (his eagle) comes into view. Without a word, the eagle starts gliding around high in the sky, already starting to keep a lookout for Xie Jingyi.

"If we are truly lucky, then Miss Xie will be somewhere above ground. A roof, even, but I can't imagine our luck being quite that good." SilverAsh guesses, studying the picture a little longer. "Do you know of any places she usually goes to? Restaurants, bars, or even hotels, perhaps?"
Rita Ma      Rita- a very normal, very small blonde girl- arrives late, having failed to change out of the sky-blue apron she'd just been cooking in. It smells like seafood and hot peppers. She's elated to see everyone she recognizes, but is particularly surprised to see John, to whom she delivers a hug at the first available opportunity. "Mister- I mean, John! I'm so glad to see you again! You've been really busy with your doctorate, haven't you?"

     She sits down on a piece of rubble and settles into solemn listening, soon enough, so as not to overly disturb the meeting. But when a lull presents itself, she offers Ezekiel a sunny smile and a hand to shake too. "It's nice to meet you! I'm Rita Ma. How do you know Mr. Bercilak?" That last part's just an assumption, based on him being the point of contact, but a likely one.

     After she's soaked up enough information about the mission, she raises her hand to volunteer a question. "When you say 'save them', do you mean like we helped the other people who'd been taken by the cult? Just killing them so they can come back as an earlier 'them'?"
Hibiki Tachibana     When John gives her a hearty clap on the shoulder, Hibiki glances up at him--between that, SilverAsh, and then Connor's response, some more of the tension leaves her body. She faces him again, looking much more sure of things. "...Yeah, that's exactly right. And if I have anything to say about it, we will."

    She follows Ezekiel's gaze southeasterly-ward for a moment, though Connor is the target of her focus as he begins explaining. She leans in a bit, tilting her head while looking over the holographic display and doing her best to commit it to memory. Well, it'd be hard to miss those kind of cybernetics, or a complexion that pallid.

    "...She ran from you, huh...alright. Let's look around here then, and then look around town if we don't turn up anything." A brief glance is given around the area. Hm. Well, she doesn't have any gadgets, so it seems like any searching will have to be done the old fashioned way. "Have you been here before, Connor? Do you know any of the likely hiding spots?"
Rubi-Kan Vagrants      "I don't even know if I really knew her," Connor apologetically explains to SilverAsh. "If that makes sense. I can say... the her that I *did* know wasn't really the bar going type. She was intense, and quiet, and she mainly kept to herself. A library, or a park, maybe, but not a bar. As for saving them..." He shakes his head.

     "'An earlier them' can cause a lot of problems, mentally, if it's been a long time since they used a public terminal. I know some of them were there for... God, years, before I ever was. So if they're still indoctrinated, subduing them and getting them into therapy is the safest bet."

     Regrettably for Hibiki, Connor doesn't know the first thing about tracking people down, being a dyed-in-the-wool martial artist even before his abduction.

     However, there are a number of factors that'd allow Zeke, with his deductive capability, to guess at the location. First, many of the people that *are* out here (besides, of course, Connor and the Watch) look like the type that either can't or won't live in the city.

     Closer to the towering walls in the distance, there are of course those merchants unable to afford the Vanguard's 'service fees,' and those unable to afford life inside. Such people do tend to draw strength from each other, and so it's not hard to imagine there'd be places for them to lay low when things are especially hard, or when they're on the wrong side of the Vanguard.

     Zeke, Tenzin and Tiny both come to the same conclusion, about Jingyi's possible wherabouts--a partially buried cargo ship, long and wide enough to hold a small community's worth of people. When the city was most recently taken, some seventy years ago, the ship must have been blown from the sky and buried beneath decades of blown sand. Those ships are quite spacious, sealed against the elements, and this one looks like it'd be a great hiding place for easily up to thirty people.

     There don't appear to be any sounds coming from within--but the smell of cooked food does drift outwards, as the wind picks up.
Zephyrman      "I missed you, too, Rita," John says with a big grin. He gives her a quick one-armed hug before they get down to business to go look for Xie Jingyi.

     Tiny is very good at navigating the junkyard, being as John literally assembled it to do so while they were gathering. It scrambles over piles and under overhangs. It scuttles with the same sort of irrepressible energy as its creator, occasionally bouncing over something just to see if it can. A little too-many-legged discus with a big lens on the top.

     When Tiny, Zeke, and Tenzin all come to the same conclusion, John looks down at Tiny and sniffs the air. It smells good.

     He thinks about it for a minute.

     Then, with all of his usual energy and all of his usual lack of any sort of hesitation, John strolls right for the food smell with a big smile and a hand in his pocket. Tiny rounds the corner ahead of him to double-check for danger, but if there isn't any obvious trouble, John just walks around and holds up a hand to announce himself.

     "Hi! I'm John Alan James. Me and my friends smelled the food while we were looking around." Technically true. "Do you mind if we join you? I know *I'm* pretty hungry."
Karlan Nobles "So it was more of a... Co-worker sort of situation? Or passing acquaintances, I suppose." SilverAsh guesses from Connor's answer, trying to figure out what he can based on those types of named places alone. "A loner, studious perhaps, or one that would be more likely to rest with a good book than to visit a theater. And if she did drink..."

While SilverAsh continues theorizing about the type of person Xie might be, Pramanix focuses on starting to search the place. She watches Tenzin's movements up above, squinting as the eagle does a quick lap from where the group is currently looking and towards that cargo ship. With those context clues in place, it's not too hard for her to start heading that way, and she gives Zephyrman a light nudge on the arm in the meantime.

"It's good seeing you again, John. Been a while, hasn't it?" Pramanix greets him with a warm smile. "Come, come. We've got plenty of digging to do while we're out here, and you've got a lot to catch up on."

Once SilverAsh finishes talking to himself, he gets the more apparent clues from Tenzin (somehow), and he starts picking up the pace. Catching the smell, he furrows his brow with what looks like a cautious frown. "How insidious... Using bait to lure in more people that will only serve to hinder our search may make our target more elusive than ever. Remember what she looked like, everyone: Tall, pale skinned, athletic."
Rita Ma      Rita has few ways to widen a search net, but once a location's been found, she's quite good at scouting it out. This has only a little to do with being small and unthreatening, and a lot to do with the fact that she can turn invisible.

     She simply fades out of existence before entering the cargo ship, perceptible only as footprints in the sand and a quiet voice. "It's a nice place to live, even beached like this. Ships are built to last, so... it's good shelter against a lot of things. Even if it doesn't keep out the cold."

     Rita goes quiet as they get even closer, though. If they can locate their quarry, Rita tries to circle around while cloaked to cover any exits, just in case their new acquaintance is too jumpy for her own good.
Ezekiel Gravez      Zeke takes a moment to process the information internally. With a flick of a signal, his Cyberdeck lights up and emits a holographic map of the surrounding Wartorn Valley, which then highlights up a few known wreckages and some hidden spots that could exist in the deep desert. Using his off hand to manipulate the holo-display, he focuses his search pattern through the most likely cantidates given the trajectory of common shuttle flights between Tir and Athens. A few likely cantidates pop up. "Think I know'n where ta start, 't least."
     It doesn't take long to come upon the proper location. Finding an outer porthole, Zeke allows the others to enter the wreckage but he instead opts to check for anything that might be dangerous. Placing his cybernetic hand upon the hull, Zeke's tactical sensor begins scanning the cargo vessel for an outward interface node. Most of them tend to be located near entrance hatches or docking pylons.
     Moments later, he finds one and he sends in his interface livewires into the node. The wires move all by themselves, guided by nanobots into their proper seating. There's a moment when the livewires themselves repair whatever environmental damage may have disabled the internal workings. He searches for a number of possible issues. The first being if there's any power source within, the second being checking for internal damage sensors, reading any blackbox information the onboard AI may be able to divulge. Finally, and if the power is able to be brought back online, using the internal sensors to locate any nanobot clouds that are specifically attuned to the Martial Artist nanoprofession.
Hibiki Tachibana     Hibiki now has a sibling in not-knowing-anything-but-how-to-punch. Connor is a good friend. Truly.

    Fortunately, there are other people who can patch up those holes, and hearing Zeke's theories and then some, she makes her decision--

    To tag along with John, and thus also with SilverAsh, of course. This may or may not be because she also a good eye (or nose) for the smell of food on the wind, and if she were in this sort of situation, old wreckage might be her personal first place to hide away.

    She adds on to the open announcement of entry with a small knock on the exterior hull before poking her head in. "Hello...?" She has SilverAsh's warning in mind, but she's always taken to doing things the straightforward way. Assuming they find the source not too far in, then good.

    If not, she'll just stay a bit behind John as he hones in on the source, so as to make sure he doesn't get given the run-around. Between her and Rita, the bases should be covered.
Rubi-Kan Vagrants      Zeke finds that the ship has power, but many of the conduits have been corroded over time and the reactor simply isn't connected to much of the ship's systems. Getting it repaired causes a cascade of heavy thuds which signal the activation of chemical lights. They must have truly impressive half-lives, if the rust on the ship's exterior is any indication.

     "You haven't eaten," says a voice from inside the hollowed cargo ship, with almost parental chiding. Zeke does detect a martial artist-style cloud inside, and apparently it's active. A sigh. "Come in, then." That's probably aimed at John, but Zeke and everyone else are probably included in that invitation.

     The gradual decline isn't unmanagable, but it's hard to imagine living here, where everything is just slightly-off-kilter and. Before you, sat on a hollowed-out recess in the wall, cooking a savory stew on a small portable stove, is Xie Jingyi. That is to say, she looks like she could be the mother of the woman in the photograph.

     The blue glow in her eyes has dimmed slightly, and slight wrinkles mark the corners thereof. "Take what you need. Then I'll thank you to stand aside, and let me be about my work." Not 'jumpy,' exactly, but not exactly sociable. Rita's idea to cover an exit thankfully finds only one that Jingyi could use--and that'd mean barreling out past everyone.
Ezekiel Gravez      Ezekiel sends a number of interfacing nanobots into the internals of the wreckage via the livewires. Noting various systems pull online, the advantage of surprise is now lost. As fast as he can hack the backend routines within the system, some nanites are specifically reprogrammed to cannibalize non-essential components to repair existing ones related to security. He comes across some familiar code regarding cargo vessels. With a sort of quirky smile, he chuckles to himself as though he had found a peice of history buried in the sand.
     "There be multiple airlocks deeper within the vessel. I gotta map a' internals in my HUD. It'll take a shortscript but'll cut off anything that looks tasty as an exit. If'n she makes'n escape out deeper in, she'll be a twister to catch as she run through halls and hatches. We aim to stoptrack that before she chooses."
Karlan Nobles The invitation to come eat is given, and SilverAsh and Pramanix exchange cautious looks before heading in. SilverAsh keeps an eye on Hibiki (and John by extension) while Pramanix keeps an eye on Rita and Zeke, both willing and able to head in first just in case something goes terribly wrong right away.

Better them than their younger companions and/or tech wizards, at least.

The weird angle isn't too disorienting, at least, although it's probably helped by the fact that the siblings have big poofy tails to help them maintain their balance. When they see Xie, there's a moment where SilverAsh has his hand gripping his cane a little more tightly, but relents once she invites them to get some food.

Pramanix: "Are you Xie Jingyi? It's so good to meet you, friend."
SilverAsh: "We've heard about you. A renowned cook of great heart and greater spirit, lending her skills to aid those who cannot even feed themselves."
Pramanix: "Right, right, I think you've laid it on thick enough."

SilverAsh feigns losing interest as he takes a bowl of the stew and steps away, leaving Pramanix to try and throw out some bait: "Miss Xie... Are you taking students? I've heard quite a bit about the style you use, and I'd like to sign up."
Zephyrman      Since he was invited in, John just goes in with a big smile. "No problem!" He walks over to look at the stew. No reason to assume that she's trying to poison them - not only would that be rude, it'd be weird if she was poisoning her own food. Besides, he trusts in the people around him to be able to fix it. And he did say he was hungry. A hero always does what he says he will.

     He pours himself a bowl, and anyone else who wants any. In the process, he says, "What are you working on?" It's with all the cheerful attitude he always has.
Rita Ma      After making sure there's no other ways out, Rita circles back around to the original entrance, fading back into view as she rounds the doorway as if she'd just now arrived.

     She sits down at a comfortable distance, legs crossed and hands in her lap. The soup visibly tempts her, but- "I'm sorry," she says with a little wince. "You're being really kind, but I can't eat." Even though she looks hungry, huh? But unless she's a very good actor, it's not because she's suspicious of the food.

     "We're sorry to intrude. But what kind of work are you doing?" she asks, while the others eat. "What kind of work is there, out here in a ship like this?"
Hibiki Tachibana     Ah. There she is. You know. Sort of.

    In the sense she looks like she's aged a good bit from what she expected given the hologram. From the tone in her voice more than anything, Hibiki is a bit tentative as she makes her way down the decline and into the presence of Xie Jingyi - and equally apprehensive upon getting a close look at her. To say this is what she might've expected...isn't quite right. Hm. "Falling into old habits, huh..." She quietly, under her breath, repeats Connor's words. This might not be a case of that, or it might actually be. Either way.

    She doesn't take any of the stew. Surprisingly? Surprisingly. Instead, as her companions make themselves at home, she follows the same line of questioning as Rita and John, adding on slowly. "...If you don't mind telling us, anyway. But I think someone like you already figures we didn't just stumble your way on accident."
Rubi-Kan Vagrants      The back hatch of the ship was blown off, or stolen, or just fell off, god knows how long ago. The thing is, as Zeke knows from his own experience, no one would want a frigate that could easily lose tons of cargo to a malfunction like that. These models usually have a forcefield in case of emergencies. It'll draw a lot of power, but that's really not a problem considering the airlocks further in would draw it, too.

     The age of the vessel and its sorry state mean that many of those airlocks are even unresponsive by this point! It presents an effective means for curtailing any kind of circuitous vent-crawling chicanery, by literally denying her access to airlocks.

     "Cleaning," she says coolly to Zephyrman and Rita. Her glowing eyes shift to bore holes through Connor. She takes a moment to glance around, following the movement of something through the ship. "There are five assassins on this planet which must be destroyed for all of time, if it is to escape the shadow of a great evil."

     "When the last of them has died, I will travel to the Shadowlands and let the metawater strip the soul from my body."

     "Um..." Connor clears his throat. "Speaking as the master of Rollerrat Style... uh... no."

     John's concerns about poison weren't unwarranted. In an instant, Jingyi is surrounded by a buzzing, foul-smelling swarm of thumb-sized, biting gadflies. She rises from her seated position with a nimble flipkick that sweeps from John to Rita, then cartwheels backwards. A series of mudras directs the swarm outwards, towards the Karlan twins, Zeke and Hibiki, while her foot, wreathed in a sickly green glow, strikes a closed airlock. Corrosive liquid eats through the door.

     You each have a few seconds to subdue her before she attempts to brute force her way into an escape...
Zephyrman      "Woah, woah, woah! Nobody needs to die!" John says as the flies suddenly erupt around Xie Jingyi. He was sitting, so he's only mildly prepared to catch these feet, and it's really not enough to stop him from getting soup all over his face and knockback against the wall. Thump.

     John groans. "Well, I was half-right, huh?" He says. Man's just irrepressible. Always look on the bright side of life.

     He hops up. The Gale Whistler falls into his hand. He brings it up to his lips and plays out the tune. The wind whips up, whirling around him, and in moments, he's transformed.

     ZEPHYRMAN!

     But he doesn't attack. "Listen, we're not here to hurt you, and you don't need to hurt him! He's fine! He's reformed - and you can, too! You don't need to go marching off to die."

     John pauses.

     "No, scratch that."

     "I won't let you!"

     Zephyrman spins his flute back up to his lips. "Somebody who wants to save the world isn't someone I'm willing to let kill themselves, and I'm really not going to let you kill someone trying to help you! Sorry!"

     Another tune.

     And then the sky turns black, and thunder rolls, and-

     "HURRRRIKAISER!"

     Outside, the huge robot lands, shaking the ground. It crouches down and-

     -just sticks one giant hand in front of the airlock.

     "So please listen to us!"
Karlan Nobles Pramanix: "I wouldn't object to fewer assassins in any world."
SilverAsh: "Neither would I, so long as they're not working for me."
Pramanix: "And if they were?"
SilverAsh: "I would be calling them agents instead."

The talk of metawater has Pramanix raising an eyebrow. She looks towards Zeke and Connor as if expecting some kind of information on what that is, but she doesn't actually ask it outright. She will, however, have to remember to ask them about it later.

Connor's objection, though, has SilverAsh reconsidering what it all might mean. There's not a lot of time to think, though, once Jingyi is surrounded by the swarm of gadflies that likely make up the Bileswarm Style that was mentioned earlier. Keeping his hand on both the handle and the sheath of his cane sword, he bides his time as Pramanix brings out her bell to start a hasty conjuration.

"Cold winds, bind my enemies!" Pramanix shouts as the wind picks up suddenly, blowing in hard from the single closed entrance. It's nearly freezing when it does and just damp enough that merely breathing would be enough to make someone's nostrils and eyelashes freeze over, and it's all directed at Jingyi to try and subdue that swarm of flies.

SilverAsh, guessing that that's his opportunity, sprints forward not long after the misty ice wind passes by. He frees his sword from its sheath as he draws closer to Jingyi, then stabs it downwards to try and put it right through her foot and the ground alike to hold her in place. "If your true desire is to save this world, then listen closely through the pain. Make your choice quickly, before our patience wears too thin!"
Hibiki Tachibana     She speaks on her 'work'--and Hibiki can almost instantly tell that this is probably going to take a turn for the worse. She's not sure if this is just a misunderstanding or more, and as Connor speaks up, she gives him a tentative and worried glance. "Uh..." She didn't understand half of what she was just talking about, but...

    Learning more about assassins and great evils - that sounds sort of familiar - will have to wait a second. What happens next happens real fast. Jingyi flips back up to a stand, and Hibiki is following suit in leaping right to her feet. She was really hoping that this would be the 'tired and exhausted loner' kind of deal. But if she escapes now, and they have to try and track her down again--

    "Balwisyall nescell Gungnir tron...!" She starts forward, /towards/ the swarm - and as she does so, a barrier of shining gold erupts from her pendant and around her. Whatever of the swarm Pramanix can't manage to freeze ahead of her, she simply plows right through on her own bid to get in close with Jingyi. The moment she manages it, the magical barrier disperses.

    --Leaving Hibiki, in her Symphogear, immediately transitioning into attempting to grab her by the arm, spin around behind her, and lock her into a limb-restraining, extra-strength grapple as her contributing to stopping her in her tracks. "Oi, oi...! Just hold on a moment and listen to us! We--Connor didn't come here intending to pick a fight, unless you're going to make it one! Calm down for a second...!"
Ezekiel Gravez      A stream of code emits from the Cyberdeck, indicating a corrosive attack. Having a predictive combat AI does have its benefits, thought it wasn't going to be easy to contain the Nanomage. After taking careful note of the Martial Artist's current damage enhancement program, he opts to brace for a reactive defense. The giant robot's hand that dropped out of the completely took him by surprise. But, Zeke is also jacked into the vessel. Opting for a more pragmatic approach to defense, he simply actives a decompression routine within the vessels security, effectively giving no escape to any and all environmental factors. Barely functional fields are reinforced and brought online to keep air and biological vectors from escaping in every relevant corridor, airlock, and breach that would logically be affected.
Rita Ma      "Five assassins," Rita repeats, slowly connecting the dots. "You mean-" Her breath catches in her throat and her eyes widen when Xie so calmly details her plans for suicide.

     "Ms. Jingyi. I can tell you want the world to be a better place. But you're not tainted forever by what's happened. It's-"

     Then the sweeping kick. It should take her by surprise, but Rita's unnaturally quick. Rather than uncross her legs and stand up- too slow- she leans forwards, plants both her palms on the floor, and shoves herself off the ground explosively to land in a crouch on the ceiling.

     "John!" she calls out in a panic, seeing him slumped against the wall from her upside-down vantage. But the alarm leaves her with a little steadying sigh when he gets back up and transforms.

     He takes the words she would have said out of her mouth. When Rita drops back down and walks up behind Xie slowly, she has to dig deep to find something worth saying.

     "You just got free from the cult's brainwashing all on your own, didn't you? And now, looking back, your past and the person you've become... they seem awful all of a sudden. It feels miserable. Unclean. It's hard to imagine a path forward from this that you could be happy with."

     "But the pain you're feeling is still fresh, Ms. Jingyi. It's new. You can..." She pauses, struggling for words. "You can still become a person you can love. You can still build a life you'd enjoy living. Nobody wants you gone except you. So please, just..."

     "Try? Try to make something you can be happy with. Try to be someone you can be happy with. I promise, it's easier than it feels right now. I really, really promise."
Rubi-Kan Vagrants      Jingyi is nothing if not determined. Her scarred fists hammer against the robot's hand, but even wreathed in corrosive fumes, they can't seem to get through quickly enough. Turning around, in time to hear Pramanix's incantation, she breaks into a dead sprint.

     Connor stops her in her tracks--an outward palm thrust from him sends a spray of acrid red mist that uncomfortably burns the lungs even several feet away. "It's not like you think," he says, vying for control of the space with her through a series of interlocking leg strikes. "There's another way!"

     Jingyi's the more experience fighter, the Bileswarm Style also much more fluid than Connor's. Flowing under his roundhouse, she tosses him over her shoulder into Hurrikaiser's still-present hand, advancing.

     SilverAsh's blade follows an unexpected path--it cleaves right through her ankle, but the nanomage martial artist is acting almost entirely on adrenaline by this point. The biting flies drop in increasing numbers under the cold, and even though she's able to make a vicious one-inch punch aimed at SilverAsh, followed by simply tearing her foot free with a scarlet ribbon, she's slowly losing fight.

WARNING. DECOMPRESSION IN PROGRESS. PLEASE DEFER TO ACTING CAPTAIN [ERROR: CREW MANIFEST NOT FOUND] FOR EVAC PROCEDURE.

     Forcefields meant to contain atmosphere stop the rest of the gadflies from filtering out through the ship, thanks to Zeke's hacking. Unable to escape, Jingyi instead tries to focus the rest of her strength. Sapped already by the cold, her ability to wriggle free of tight engagements gets worse by the minute--

     But even if she could escape Hibiki's grapple, she no longer seems to want to, once Rita's started in.

     Hibiki can feel the moment when Jingyi relents. There isn't any speech--any great outpouring of emotion. Only the quiet of Pramanix's blizzard dying down, the quiet hum of the forcefields and the sound of howling winds outside. Jingyi takes a breath, eyes shut tightly. A tear specked with iridescent blue ekes from the corner of her eye as she exhales.

     "...I'll try."
Zephyrman      When Jingyi relents, Zephyrman untransforms. He sits down, rubbing the mild burn on his face. He'll be fine, don't worry. It's just some hot soup and a kick. He's grinning anyway. He looks over at Pramanix, then SilverAsh.
Ezekiel Gravez      When the group is able to get a handle on the situation, Ezekiel checks the combat AI logic node multiple times, as if in anticipation for whatever unknown fuckery Miss Xie might be capable of. Zeke checks in with the group shortly thereafter, hoping for a positive capture situation. In layers, the protocol truncates it runtime effects and shuts down safely, allowing the party to exit securely. As this de-escalates, he raps on the outer hull with a metallic knuckle in a series of dull thuds. Zeke makes an effort to check in on the group, "Y'all good? Ya need 'n'thing?"
Hibiki Tachibana     Hibiki holds it.

    She holds it, as Rita makes the connection she was only just catching onto herself in the rush of the moment, and speaks on her pain.

    And she holds her grip, until the attempts at struggling slowly die out. Amid a couple of small pants, she begins loosening her hold--until slowly, in the silence, her hands leave Jingyi. She knows. It's okay now. Her own breath finally leaves her in an extended exhale, part relief and part...something else.

    "...No. I think we're fine," Hibiki says quietly up towards Zeke, after a moment of sagged shoulders. It takes her a moment to stand back up fully straight, and when she does, she tugs down at her face-covering scarf to give a small smile towards Connor--and then Rita, with a nod. And then, back towards Jingyi.

    "Rita knows what she's talking about. I'm sure it seems hard to imagine. You...don't have to hate yourself, like that. You still got a whole future ahead of you. And you don't have to face it by yourself." She says that in the sense of someone who also has an idea of what they're talking about - and on the last thing, she glances towards Connor once again.
Rita Ma      Rita breathes out. The tension leaves her body with the air. "Thank you, Ms. Jingyi," she says, in a small and depleted voice. "I know that that's the hardest thing in the whole world. So..." But the thought is never completed. There aren't the words for it.

     She reaches into her little leather satchel and pulls out a thermos: seaweed salad. Is that what she was making before she came here? "You still haven't finished your soup, though. You should have it with this."

     To Zeke: "I'm okay, Mr. Ezekiel! Just a little tired, is all." It is the tone of someone who is very practiced at rejecting help. But this time, it's probably true. "Thanks for your help. You were amazing."

     She walks to the acid-melted door, leans through, and reaches out to touch the mech's hand. "And thank you, too, Hurrikaiser." There's a smile on her face, slightly silly, but completely sincere.