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Ishirou Ishirou can't help himself, the moment he see's S6 sink to her knees, he runs to her side.  He doesn't know what to do, his friend is hurting, he's hurting...this is awful and wrong and terrible.  People are screaming, and angry...and they have every right to be all of these things.  He just wraps an arm around S6, trying to provide her some support.  

"It...it is...I'm...what...is going to happen.." he isn't sure himself, perhaps needing the comfort of his partner as much as she needed him.  The woman in the robot can not move, does not move, does not respond, or even look alive.  She moves when commanded.  Lilian's threat goes unlistened to.  

Lilian and Eggman are coming to an agreement over this forcing Ishirou to break the comforting posture.  "I'll be back, S6, okay?  I have to help stop this.." he says shaking.  He is moving to the panel with Blemishine and Kirishima.  Together they can figure out the machine.  

Tamamo is setting up the ritual, in the long term if this is restarted it will at least grant rest to the previous life, allowing it to move on in peace instead of becoming sludge a being burned as fuel.  Ishirou is focused on his task.  

Then. Eggman. Does. A. Thing.

The woman falls into the sludge of souls.  A fresh soul, unseparated is merged with countless memories, emotions, echos, and karma.  Petra dives over to watch this, as something she can finally latch onto.  She sees this robot lady, slowly sink into the sludge.  Unmoving.

Until it hits her neck, and then she starts thrashing.  She starts to scream, but the scream stops being her own soon.  When she goes under the scream doesn't stop...but gets louder.  There is a reverb, the entire ground shake, and...A monstrous hand reaches out of the pool.  Followed by another.  Slowly it pulls itself out.  Both metallic, but also sludge.  Its features are horrific, covered in brown and black substances.  

Hands that end in claws that stretch far too unnatural spread out, as its massive maul screeches.  When it speaks, it speaks in so many voices that it's hard to understand.  Not that its words mean anything.  It's like the half-memories of a few thousand people speaking all at the same time.

One voice rises above them... "Help...help me.." it says, in a familiar voice.  In Ishirou's voice.  "Kill...kill her...revenge...she killed me..."
Ishirou Ishirou almost immediately speaks up, the real one, "It's...the parts of the dead soul are clinging to the first body they have had access to in years, they're..." he pauses, "Oh god, trying to use her to live again, but there are so many parts at once it's going..."

"It's going to go critical, I think.  If that happens the backlash of all of that energy is going to do a lot of damage!" Ishirou is already transforming into the R.E.S.C.U.E. Unit and taking flight.  Thankfully the cavern is very large, so he runs very little risk of just immediately crashing into the walls.

UNFORTUNATELY, the creature releases a roar, before it speaks again.  Thousands of voices all calling out for vastly different things.  Some for help, some because they're in pain, some because they don't want to die, and some for vengeance.  Its brown and yellow fingers snap out, aiming to smash people against the wall.  

Those who escape this, also have to contain a blast of black and red energy pouring down the middle, which feels like fire.  It leaves the after-effect of melting that doesn't seem to want to go away.  Agony and ash fill the senses, agony for touch, and ash for taste.  Whatever this thing it, it was just as much memetic as it was physical.  
DRYCLEAN-SIGINT DRYCLEAN's bravado in sticking an arm directly into an unknown soul-sludge could easily be taken as either intense stupidity or a complete lack of self-preservation. This is promptly contrasted, then, by the speed with which they back off from the now-occupied pit, stumbling slightly and only barely missing entirely kicking through the magical circle that has been newly applied. A movement is made, though, before they right themselves - hand into shattered monitor.

And then their hands are unoccupied / And then the newly-formed monstrosity requests mercy / And then the group of heroes or otherwise angles their weapons / And then DRYCLEAN is nowhere to be seen.

Some hero.
S6     Comforted by Ishirou, S6 is mostly catatonic, only shifting slightly when he puts his arm around her while she stares into the horror of the process that created them both. She bobs her head slightly when he excuses himself as well.Some might say she's overreacting-- but when the robot sinks in and starts screaming, starts warping and twisting and bursts out of the pit as an avatar of tormented suffering-- someone familiar with the android's deep empathy for others might get a better idea of what she's dealing with, even as she doesn't yet move when the monstrosity erupts forth.

-ALERT-

    The POD's warning prompts, at last, a reaction. An acknowledgement of what fills her vision. S6's eyes widen with a sharp inhale. From her kneeling position, her legs straighten, hurling the android straight up over the sweeping fingertips. Close enough to singe, but not to be smashed to pieces. She casts out her arms, throwing herself into an arc that resolves as a backflip, landing on her feet some six meters behind where she'd started.

    The discarded Virtuous Contract and its partner, the Virtuous Treaty, rattle where they'd fallen to the floor before. Golden runes reignite around their hilts and the weapons reanimate, flipping up and back to her.

    "Pod."
-ACKNOWLEDGED. TACTICAL NETWORK ESTABLISHMENT IN PROGRESS.-

    Her tone has become hard again. The same sort of tone she used when she was suppressing her emotions under the Indus Council's leadership. She plants a foot and twists her body, snapping a hand up. The enormous Treaty sails off her back and launches forward like a spinning disk, trailing gold from its leading edge.
N'Raha     If there's fighting to be done, and it involves fucked up magic and giant robots, N'Raha wasn't going to be far behind, even with an array of Elites here like they are. Even if the place is packed with Paladins, there are some people he knows and remembers and people he's fought beside before.
    The massive swipe and wave of BLACK MAGIC MEMES washes over and past N'Raha, who tanks the hit like a champ, his axe getting up and into the path of the attack. Yes, he's stood in the fire, no he doesn't care. His job is to stand between Bad Things and the Important People. "Sorry I'm late, who's in charge of this shindig?" The evil energy slakes off his body, but the red glow that starts to form is his own as his Ire begins to grow, the damage on his body simply regrowing itself.

    The Catman waits for a good chance, and as the awful creature swings at people again, that axe glows bright and swings down HARD to try and bat it away from the backline. "HEY! NO!"
Eggman      Eggman does a thing, because Eggman is A) Curious, B) a monster, and C) an opportunist. While he might currently own the place and could come back at any time, the fact of the matter is that the heroes will most Assuredly Destroy This Thing, and he's going to agree to it. He's going to go, 'yes, of course,' because in the end it's a sloppy nonsense device processing raw soul-mass into an AI in the most incomprehensibly inefficient manner he could've imagined.

     Magitech. Not even once.

     So with the party firmly distracted Eggman makes his way over to the machine.

     He's going to Study The Hell Out Of It. Who knows? Some bit of it might be useful to him someday.

     But since he is also a walking boss fight, he knows when a boss fight is about to begin. As he's walking over towards the machine he's just picking up scraps of metal and loose bits of machinery. He's *whistling merrily* as he does so, the monster's roar a background thing.

     By the time the monster's done monologuing Eggman's whipped out a wrench. By the time Ishirou is done explaining there's a lumbering skeletal machine stapled together from bits of everything Eggman could find on his way over to the Soul-Goo Machine. It pushes forward, taking the hit from the boss squarely on the chin in Eggman's place.

     One hand transforms into a jackhammer.

     One hand transforms into a pickaxe. The jackhammer meets the fingers before they can crash into the Master of Machines, and though the metal device bends, it does not break despite the rust that claims it should. When the beam of energy comes coursing down the machine lumbers through it, melting, trailing goo behind it as it raises the pickaxe. The fingers are long. They are probably thin.

     The robot begins to jam construction tools into the monster.

     Meanwhile, Eggman has made his way over to the Soul-Goo Machine and is examining it with the academic attitude that will one day lead him to harnessing gods to build amusement parks.

     "Fascinating."
Kirishima The work on the machine is slow, but methodical. A button gets pushed, the result (if any) is observed, and then Kirishima writes it down. A lever gets flipped, same thing. A slider? Also the same, one note for each increment. She gets so absorbed in this work with Ishirou and Blemishine that she doesn't even notice what Eggman's done until after she hears that screaming from farther below, and only then does Kirishima finally look over to see what's going on.

"What..? Now? Of all the things to...!" Tucking those notes away, Kirishima rushes away from the machine towards the roaring creature. So many voices come out of it that she's not even sure which one of it is the 'real voice', and the swarm of hands have the ninja moving into a defensive posture even as she sprints forward.

"Then we shall have to eliminate them here before they can damage..." She trails off there, glancing over at Ishirou first, then at Lilian. Didn't she want this machine destroyed, anyway? Setting those thought aside, she darts from side to side rapidly in her approach, sliding through the waves of arms before launching herself into the air and kicking off one that comes in a little too fast to evade cleanly. Flung into the air now, Kirishima somersaults backwards and flings a pair of kunai towards the mass while upside down, then starts running through multiple hand seals as she comes back to the ground.

"If we can find a weakness in it, then we might be able to destroy it before it can... Get too far!" And then Kirishima sprints forward again, doing that rapid ninja-run while she finishes the handseals. She rears her head back, then 'spits' out a pair of fireballs that hurtle towards the tortured creature before flinging herself into the air again to avoid getting caught up in its return fire herself.
Blemishine     "Doctor...!"

    She actually can't believe he did that. It's too late to do anything. And what crawls out of the muck of countless souls is...raw horror. It's horror even before it opens its mouth, and a voice all of them know comes out. If Blemishine thought she was going to vomit before, it's extremely close to truly happening now, and the urge is only barely suppressed and swallowed back down.

    Partially because of Ishirou's warning, partially because she knows what has to be done, and partially because the danger is very much immediate. The conglomerate monster's oversized fingers come in, and the knight simultaneously ducks and shifts to the side as her shield arm comes up to angle and divert it away. No actual impact to slam her into a wall, but the aftershock...

    It's gross. Painful in a way beyond the physical, making the feelings of 'pity' and 'put it out of its misery' have to fight for space. With a grunt, she breaks contact and dashes in forward at full speed before another attack can be launched. "A weakness..." She repeats after Kirishima, narrowing her eyes. "If the original body is still underneath all of that, then maybe...!"

    It's too early to say. But it's something she'll keep in the back of her mind, brandishing her blade and moving to chop at the thing's extended digits as she closes in. One slash after another, each one giving off glints of light that soothe over the wounds of those nearby, to try and chop it off at several different points. Eggman...he knows they have more important things to deal with now.
Petra Soroka Lilian Rook says, "That . . . all of that down there! That's what people are! That's their everything! Shut off the fucking furnace!"

    Petra steps up to the ledge and peers down into the sludge, ghostly light dancing on her placid face, out of place in the frantic argument. Is it? Is this, the metaphysical soup churning below her, what people are? The most concentrated essence of humanity? A recent memory comes to mind, unbidden, her own words echoing in her head. "Not human, but a person, huh? To some people there's a huge difference between the two. Some people don't distinguish at all."

    Petra's neutral expression tightens, and her grey eyes narrow as she watches the robot sink.

    It's not. Petra knows what a human is. A human is two arms and two legs, someone she can talk to. A human experiences things that makes them feel things and act on those feelings, and this goop is just a poor, degraded record of one part of the human experience. It's nothing, and those orbs being sucked into the maelstrom are nothing too.

Lilian Rook says, "Is she conscious in there? Does she know what's happening? Is there anything left?"
Dr. Eggman says, "Do you want the answer to that, or are you hoping for an answer in particular?"
Lilian Rook says, "I need to know the truth."
Lilian Rook says, "That's all."
Dr. Eggman says, "No, no, and yes, in that order."

    And so is the Consular. Petra finally looks away from her--from it--when it starts screaming, backing away from the pit. The screaming gets louder, and Petra fuzzes with static, a million tiny fragments blinking in and out of existence out of sync, and when the claw comes crashing down on where she's standing, she's already backed up, standing near the machine, between Lilian and Eggman.

    Petra hesitates, her gaze leaving the monster to linger briefly on Lilian's new gun. Then she raises her own, and unloads the cylinder into the monster, digging her feet into the ground as disproportionate recoil kicks up dust, scrap, and loose clothing around her, sending her jacket fluttering but leaving her still.
Tamamo     The swipes come in, and rather than leap away to avoid it, Tamamo sees where it would strike one of the paper talismans she'd placed. She could allow that, but it would disrupt the still-tenuous purification circle. She could rebuild it, but why go to that trouble, if she can defend it?

    Her mirror, the materialization of the Eightfold Blessings, appears in front of her. She moves forward, not back, leans into a dashing motion to the side, and angles that effectively impenetrable protection, an artifact greater in scope than even the years of pain that formed this sludge, and lets the attack rebound away. Being this close actually makes it easier to avoid the spreading arc of the follow-up attack, though she can't entirely avoid its effects as it fills the air. It will work through her protections, eventually, but not before her own work is complete, perhaps.

    Lilian will recognize the maneuver. It's something they'd practiced together, after all. Taking distance, when equipped with a shield, is sometimes the more dangerous tactic, though the fact that Tamamo is standing so close to such a dangerous enemy remains.

    "Do not worry for me! I will complete the ritual. Hold it in place, if you would." That said, the circle's already activated. If slowly, it will continue purifying the area, releasing the trapped and tortured soul mass. If it tires itself out, it will happen all the more quickly, but that can't be counted on as a victory condition. The best thing she can immediately is to reinforce the first circle with a second, speeding up the process to more practical in what, thanks to Eggman, had become a much more time-sensitive process.

    "Tire it, deflect it, and be wary of disrupting the talismans below you," she continues, specifically for N'Raha's benefit. Making a barrier to prevent it from destroying any ritual she sets up is, unfortunately, not likely to be possible in the current situation.

    Of course, Tamamo has no attention to spare for what Eggman's up to in the meantime.
Lilian Rook     The fact that Lilian has agreed to negotiate with Doctor Eggman of all things does not pass her by without consternation. As much as the man is so much more gentlemanly than every adversary she has to deal with to the point that it's almost upsetting, she isn't naive enough to mistake it for decency. Possibly favouritism towards her, maybe, but that isn't something that translates to mercy to the dead. The words of assent fill her gut with sticky, cloying dread. But she has to make it stop.

    And it's not as if she could so easily explain why this matters to her anyways. Why this sight, in amongst all the ones she's seen, is so direly upsetting, where other scenes of horror --some she'd caused herself-- barely register. In lieu of any time to explain, any ability to be understood, any leverage but the admittedly dangerous point of her sword, all she has to her name is her word. For the first time in a long time, she is also quite glad for having stuck doggedly to her Code all those times. Even if it took a supergenius to realize the obvious.

    And yet, when he shoves the Consular into the pit, Lilian hesitates for just a second to save her. Eggman isn't stupid. He'll see the way that her weapon tracks the robiticized woman, and not him. The moment in which she considers doing it herself, to at least get the satisfaction. She can't say the words 'save her' with that kind of confidence, because there is no code that compels that she should, even as it did to speak to the supervillain.

    The monster is almost a relief. But it's an interruption too.

    Lilian henshin is something most here have seen by now. Whether or not it's conveniently narratively near-instant, actually instant, or cheated instant, is irrelevant. Lilian in quasimetal armour that nobody could ever put on or take off, ticking like clockwork instead of clattering like loose steel with her rapid movements. The double handed strike and burning ray are neatly sidestepped. Lilian braces, readies her sword at tail guard position, and then blasts forward from a faint ring of air vapour and black static. She stays low to the ground, denting metal underfoot with deliberate noise and violence, rides her momentum with a sparking slide under the monster's arm, and brings her sword up over and around herself with a glaring red flash, carving it through with type-supereffective violence, before suddenly pivoting and leaping upwards over the ritual bounds.
Ishirou S6's blade strikes true, cutting through the monster where it strikes.  It screeches and rears back, a large cut forming across it's outside which slowly starts to close up.  It's not invincible, but it /is/ terrible.  Raha joins in on this initial hit, his axe finding a place where S6 sword was a moment ago, getting in deeper and adding agony to assault!  Both of its fists rise up, aiming to bring them down on both S6 and Raha.  "How many times..?  How many times..!  Howmanytimeshowmanytimeshowmanytimes HAVE YOU KILLED ME!" It screams.

Various construction machines are stuck into the monster, thanks to Eggman's new robot.  The monster, despite having an Eggman Robot at its core does not understand how this is a thing, it only understands suffering.  The outside of the beast is squishy, giving it some reduction in damage.  It then attempts to pick the robot up and toss it toward the real Eggman.  

Eggman himself is going to need time with the machine.  The interface is not complex, made to be run by the layman, but to make it do more than its intended operation...or get fine-tuned controls.  What he CAN tell is that the various modes of operation are for controlling and stabilizing the main spell, the well itself.  It seems to be drawing power directly from the Mana turbine itself.  

Kirishima's assault faces similar trouble, the fire smashes into the side of the beast, but the first thing it did was to try and make itself resistant to anything that could hurt it...like fire, as it was the thing destroying the parts of the soul in the furnace below.  Despite the seeming lack of phasing of the creature, it does rear back, as if afraid of that fire! When it comes back it slams a shoulder towards Kirishima, attempting to smash her into the nearest wall.

The digits retract the moment Blemishine's weapon reaches for them, now aware enough that people are trying to hurt it!  It screeches, retracting back its arm, and stares down at her.  It speaks with a voice all too familiar, "S-stop!  I'm still in here..!  I'm not dead yet..!" Its voice rings out, aiming to ring inside her head itself.  Trying to share the pain it feels.
Ishirou Petra's weapon repeatedly digs into the creature, bullets riddle it and it screams in pain and terror.  It hurts...it hurts...it /hurts/!  She can feel the pain, the sorrow, the loss...everything being done to it hurts and it hurts so much!  It falls back, its head level with her as it speaks.  The voice of a child.  "I'm...scared...I was cold...and now I'm burning...please help..!" it cries out for her.  Trying to share its pain with her. Trying to share its last moments dying on a hospital bed.  Being dragged here...and now this.

The Purification steps are proceeding.  Honestly, the creature doesn't seem to be resisting its own purification...part of it know that it's good?  Or does it just not see Tamamo?  Its arms and legs swing, attempting to smash into her, it seems not everyone agrees that what she is doing is good for it!  These are the vengeful souls trapped in it, trying to snap out at her and bite into her as they stretch from its sides.  Mouths without eyes, that just stretch out.

Thankfully, Lilian is there to distract most of these heads.  Her weapons cut through to defend her sorceress.  The sword CUTS into one of its arms, but not quite cut all the way through...but it DOES damage the arm severely.  This gets its attention as it bears down on her.  Its mouth directly pointed at her.  "Stoooop hurting me...!" it tries to call out.  In Ishirou's voice.  "Kill...kill the one who did this to me...please!" it tries to stammer out.  Its voice calls out into a shrill ring and attempts to blast her back.

Ishirou keeps on the wing, barreling left and right.  This allows him to avoid both the fists and then the beam down the center, before rising above the creature.  There is a connection between his POD and S6's, as data starts transmitting.  

A second connection forms, directing it towards Raha.  As he doesn't have anything technical on him, it turns into a magical field connection, allowing Ishirou to help with Raha's ability to hit things through a remote connection, providing course correction updates that feel more like natural enhancement of skill than actual direction.

Connections and handshake protocols go out to everyone /but/ Eggman.  For some reason!  It's odd!  Does Ishirou hate Eggman?  It's a mystery!  Regardless, Ishirou soars over the monster as missiles rain out of the creature, aiming to pepper it across its body in response to its aggression!  
Kirishima The screams are impossible for Kirishima to ignore. It screams as though S6 personally did something wrong to it, and as though everyone attacking it is attacking the person inside. "If you really are still alive in there... Then I apologize for what we must do, as we cannot allow you to kill us, either!"

As Kirishima charges forward, she sees the results of her flame. Worse yet, she hears it, even if it doesn't look like it's doing much at all. "Don't let its cries halt your advance... Think about who's counting on you to return home! Those that need you to survive!" She shouts as she leaps right past Tamamo's magic circle, still moving at a rapid pace even as the creature turns its shoulder towards her. With little room to maneuver at that moment, Kirishima instead holds her ground abruptly as she brings a pair of short blades out with one high and one low.

"Style Number 108... Turtle's Fury stance!" She braces as it smashes right into her and pins her against the wall, but that's fully within Kirishima's expectations. Even as she feels it crushing her against the wall, she brings the lower blade upwards to drive it into the grimy thing with its own weight, and she starts thrusting downwards with the higher blade to start slicing away at whatever she can reach from that awkward position (that she totally intended to get stuck in).
N'Raha     That fel red glow continues to build up in N'Raha, as the next SMASH comes in from the front of the group. The catman's motions are... suddenly much more graceful than you'd expect from a Berzerker, Ishirou's combat guidance sliding the Warrior into the correct position to prevent the big mass of souls from busting in at Tamamo's circle. He can follow orders. "OY! What did I say?"
    His gleaming red armor crumples in a crease along his torso, as some of that soul-mass gets a solid connection, but he seems entirely unfazed by the fact that bits of him are being smashed and aetherically wrecked. He'll feel that in the morning, probably.

    The axe comes around again, and the catman moves in step with Blemishine, getting stuck in and prodding the creature back into position for the others. "Nice to meet you in person, finally! I'm Raha!" The jovial greeting is slightly strained, as he shoves a mass of magic through himself to shake off a myriad of Bad Mojos he's experiencing. His red aura expands, and despite the raw energy surrounding the Berzerker, it's helping slake away to raw energy boiling up close to the pair of defenders.
S6     Striker Six falters slightly when it's a child's voice that calls out to her. Once again it is the Pod's alert that snaps her out of it. The monstrosity's flailing limbs just graze her, once more only damaging by proximity and searing heat rather than impact as she skips back.

    The woman flips herself mid-skipping action, planting her feet on the wall behind where she had been standing. Her heels dig in and she ascends the chamber while sharing some quick tactical information with Ishirou. Her eyes snap back to the beast, then ahead of herself.

    The Treaty returns to her at this point, but it's the Contract she pulls forward. One of the metal beams supporting the ceiling is severed in two places and snatched by the swirling golden runes of the VRCS. Gravity takes over. S6 kicks off the wall and drops.

    Hauling back with her left hand, S6 angles the steel beam she's appropriated, then hauls herself forward. The beam shoots forward like a javelin aimed at the soul-slime beast's center of mass. She has a plan, she said as much.
Blemishine     For a moment, the thing stares straight at Maria - and she pauses. Even if you know ahead of time, it's harder than you think to entirely shake off a familiar voice and a plea for help. "Ish--" That's all she gets out without even thinking about it, before it all hits her at once.

    Compared to the glancing blow of all that negativity a moment ago, this is something else. It makes her knees buckle, her teeth clench, and her grip on her sword to be unable to decide if it wants to tighten or loosen. However, it soon enough decides on the former, at the exact moment that a certain someone comes to her aid - it's dramatic enough that she perks up in surprise. "Mister...Raha!? ...Right!" She might not be able to push off the Bad Mojo(tm) that easily...

    But it's enough that she willpowers right through it and steps in, the edge of her weapon going agleam with light. "The feeling is very much mutual! I just wish it could've been under some better circumstances!" Any attempted jovial tone on her part is also very much strained, and the expression on her face doesn't match at all. Ishirou's scans confirm they have a weak point...

    The problem is getting there. But for the moment, she'll be more than happy to take that shining weapon of hers and unleash a flurry of cuts to help clear the air, while covering the catman's blind spots with her shield. It's a good pairing!
Petra Soroka     Petra's's face contorts into a grimace, backstepping and emanating disgust when the creature tries to communicate with her. "Fuck *off*! You're a freak accident made of slime, you're not--it doesn't deserve any kind of, moral consideration." Her voice cuts off mid-sentence, not raising loud enough to actually be addressing the room, seemingly switching the subject of the sentence for the sole reason of not talking to the monster directly.

    Petra takes another step back, her foot clanging against the control panel. Those close enough to her, likely just Eggman and the monster, feel an intangible iciness radiating from Petra. The sensation of sticking your head into a tub of cold, slimy spaghetti. She growls as it pleads with her, shoulders tensing up under her jacket. Despite that child's voice, or Ishirou's, or the desperation in its voice, her expression only becomes harder, even disproportionately angry.

    "Fucking disgusting. Replaying memories that aren't yours won't make me pity you."

    Petra steps forwards, hard, boot stomping against the ground, and then pushes herself upwards, firing two bullets downwards to ping off the floor. Her aerial momentum launches her boot-first into the monster's face, crashing into it and rebounding onto the ground slightly away from Eggman.

    Purposefully or not, she's trying to direct its attacks away from him.
Tamamo     Tamamo remains doggedly where she is, taking only light steps to better position herself to deflect the incoming attacks with her shield-mirror. It is a noticeably different tactic than her usual, but made possible by the blessings she invokes on herself, tearing the ofuda into pieces and letting those pieces burn away, each a small sacrifice of paper, ink, time and effort and magical strength, filling these few moments with the accumulated energy of an evening's labor.

    Her luck is similarly unassailable, or seemingly so. There should be little way to predict the actions of thousands of pained and broken souls, yet she makes not a single misstep. The toll this takes on her is invisible. She maintains calm dignity, even if only outwardly.

    She is not, however, nearly as mobile as some others. "Lilian--catch!"

    The stack of charms tossed up in the air are blessings, but they're for the monstrous mass, rather than her allies. Restful sleep will be just as effective as a blade, if spread out over the multitude that she cannot reach, herself.

    Tamamo can make only little progress on the second stage of her ritual circle, in the meantime, though she finds time to respond (mostly to Petra), "It will continue to draw souls unto itself in every moment it remains, should there be any within its reach." Leaving the mechanism to burn away the lowest layer of the mass isn't a tactic she can stomach. For that matter, she has yet to do anything to cause them pain.
Lilian Rook     'Stoooop hurting me...!'

    Lilian sails high up into the air, rocketing nearly to the ceiling of the chamber on redirected momentum before hanging in space for a second. "I've never listened to those words before. I'm not about to start now."

    A flick of Night Mist sprays scraped ectoplasm against the wall. She brings the sword over her head, poised with both hands ready. Arms tensed. Glints of gold flooding through the armour's seams. Her hangtime extends unnaturally. Her legs come up to brace. The air above her quivers and fizzles with compressed magic. Night Mist's red runes tint 'red'.

    'Kill...kill the one who did this to me...please!'

    "You're her. Remember?" says Lilian. Almost whispering. A deep exhalation expels the rest as starry fog. Her grip clenches. "Cleasanna Lilí Dubha ~ Lann Réalta Reathata!"

    The chamber ceiling flashes, lit up in stark white light and black shadow chiaroscuro. Lilian tel-, no, crashes straight down; a slash of black paint against the searing glare, a splash of white sparks and black petal-motes and a splatter of shattered flooring at its end. Her strike pierces straight down the monster's middle. Head to toe. A single falling cleave that repeats over and over every fractional instant her sword passes through it, spilling incandescent heat and crackling stellar wash.

    It is done with no consideration at all for the Consular being in the way. It could perhaps be a state of distraction. Her sword is lodged straight through warped steel floor, shimmering with heat. She blinks and backstrafes, skimming the ground rather than running. But then the black sidearm is draw from its attachment to her hip, its crackling bark and spell circle muzzle flash steadily hammering out blazing lines of energy from alchemical slugs, and all of them are aimed straight into where the Consular supposedly is.

    She even pivots her glide to swoop past Tamamo, snatching the talismans out of the air, and as she swings forward, cancels the magic and allows her feet to touch the ground again, denting reinforced plate to speed forward, and spread a line of draining talismans right along the creature's striking arm, and yet she still shoots at the Consular. This is this and that is that.
Eggman      Eggman takes note of Petra's helpful nature. Whether it's by accident or on purpose, it's...*useful*. Heartening!

     Exploitable.

     The icy radiation also is filed away in his gargantuan supercomputer of a brain. That, too, may be Useful in some way. What an intriguing little apprentice he's taking on.

     Blemishine and Raha move in. Eggman's poor little machine goes flying right over their heads, smashing down against him. Eggman sighs, rubbing his brow, and crouches down, spinning the wrench out again. "You're doing very well," he says with an almost paternalistic tone, "Very well indeed. Keep going. You were born for this, you know."

     The strange machine stands up. The jackhammer is half-melted but Eggman's adjusted the wrist to swing up and down like a regular hammer, and the melted bits work very well as bumps. Toddling forward the machine goes to work supporting the two tanks - it is not graceful but it *is* durable and it *is* helpful. It smashes and smashes and smashes again, heedless of its own mortality, as if merely the suggestion of it doing well from its parent is enough to please it.

     Meanwhile, Eggman fiddles about. He's just sort of downloading the schematics as he searches for an off switch.

     In the meantime, though, he's pretty sure that if he presses *this* and turns *that*...

     He should be able to make the creature's life a *tad* more unpleasant.
Ishirou Kirishima's counterattack drives a blade into it.  The blade pierces something inside of it as it rears back and lets her go after some extra incentive to do so.  It growls, holding its body for a moment, and opens its mouth at Kirishima...and out flies so many red and black balls at her, literally aiming to change her current situation from a boss fight into a Touhou EX stage.

Raha and Blemishine go back to back, trying to cover each other while also attacking.  Their defensive style prevents any real attacks from getting at them easily, but at the same time their own attacks are slightly stunted, not getting any new ground...but still managing to tear at the creature bit by bit.  If they could hold out forever, it might work...

But the creature decides that they need to be separated.  Its massive claw smashes down, attempting to flat Blemishine, while its maw comes up and over Raha, attempting to eat him.  Inside the creature, all he can hear are the cries of the damned.  Feel each why they died, and how they came to suffer in this pit.  The slow erosion of their will and sanity...before he would be spit back out.

S6 is getting prepared to try and blast at the center, trying to get her plan together to save the person being used as its core.  Again and again, it swipes at her, trying to wither her attempt to fight it.  Ishirou pops on with POD, "S6 watch out! Please...I can't...don't like it to overwhelm you, okay?  I can't lose you like this.."

Then a massive blast drives into it, cutting away so much of that dark and nasty slime.  It roars back, rearing and in pain.  It slumps for a moment, before rising back up and moving its arm in a massive swing, aiming to try and smash S6 into the nearest wall and get it away from its center of mass!
Ishirou Petra denies its existence, denies its pain and suffering.  It turns viciously at her as she jumps up toward its head.  Its malleable form retracts, as the foot connects...but the force is distributed throughout its body instead on a specific point.  Its mouth comes out and aims to snap at her, aiming to chew and crush down on her before spitting her out to the ground.  It screams incoherently at her.

Talismans hit the creature.  Many in the mass are susceptible to her magics, and the body shrinks slightly as they grow dormant.  They want to pass over, they want to stop hurting.  Many more are just consumed with hatred, anger, and /madness/ so strong that not even her talismans could reach them.  

They bud off and fly at her in the shape of heads with weird smiles and jagged teeth.  They aim to try and bite her, aim at her limbs to try and pull her apart.  They snap and bite and scream.  "WE DON'T NEED YOU!  WE DON'T NEED YOUR HELP!  WE'LL MAKE THEM ALL PAY!  ALL OF THEM!  ALLLLLLL OFFFF THEEEEEEM!"

"W...we are..?" it asked confused, responding to Lilian as if talking to someone.  Even as she slashes through it, even as her blade bites into it.  It screams in pain and writhes against her attacks.  Part of it wants to die, part of it is completely insane, and the other part trying to figure itself out.  It's a confusing mess.  It reaches out still, trying to reach for Lilian somehow.

Even as the blade cuts deeply at the core, scoring more of that fluid away and then some.  The core is cracking.  They have done significant damage.  It reaches out again, and while this might hurt its attempts to 'speak' to her.  She can see it.  The man is so much like Ishirou.  He lies with a hole in his chest, blood running down his shirt.  "Him...I sense him...the other me..." it says.  "lEt Me SeE hIm!" it says, trying to draw the memories out.

The Eggbot, beautiful as the day it was born runs back into combat.  Though it's more of a distraction from what Eggman is really doing.  The machine activates, and pain surges through it.  The parts of it activate or deactivate to its whim and it feels like it's being torn apart.  It screams, rearing back as its massive hand swings down right towards Eggman...

AND THE CONTROLS!

Ishirou's bombing run doesn't end up being successful, other than distracting the monster.  Its retaliation is slightly more effective.  The Armor manages to avoid the worst of the strange red balls it fires, but a few manage to pink him, causing internal system damage.  Ishirou banks right, trying to come around again.

This time the armor shifts back into humanoid mode.  "Mode ice!" he calls out as there is a cooling effect around the armor.  He dives in, aiming to punch the ground with a drill arm, which causes ice spikes to shoot up around him, and hopefully start to spread across the creature!  

The moment he rises though, Eggman...reveals some heavy news.  He looks towards the creature...and at the core where he knows his murderer is.  The person who caused him to take this path.  Without even thinking about it, tactical networks update for S6 and Lilian.  What...he...has to confirm what he's saying.  He might just be messing with him..!

So he opens up a connection to try and see if he can biohack the core.  This won't end well at all for anyone involved!
S6     The beast is impaled by a flying girder. Exactly as S6 wanted. Her attention diverts, snatching machinery on the work floor using the VRCS and dragging it violently over until it rests underneath the beam-- creating a fulcrum.

    "I am fine," she assures Ishirou's concerns as she twists her dropping trajectory around the creature's attacks.

    The monster uses Ishirou's voice. Calling out to him, demanding to see him using his own voice. She recoils with a shocked shout. The POD chimes, but this time even the helpful unit is unable to pull her out of it in time. A flailing arm catches her with a wet sound, carries her, and smashes her against one of the chamber's walls amidst machinery and cables.

    With a groan, she lifts her legs and plants them against the wall, hauling herself off of the metal support rods that has pierced her middle and her shoulder, scattering crimson fluid when she pries herself free. The android drops briefly, catching herself on some of the ruined scaffolding she had been smashed through.

    With a grim, bloody frown, S6 leaps off her perch and twists in midair. The runes of the VRCS flash again-- around her own body this time. As she aligns herself into a feet-first fall, she accelerates her own descent with a burst of magic-- right into the projecting end of the girder she had just thrown.

    Fully intent on splitting the monstrosity's gignatic body completely in two and exposing its innards to everyone else.
Eggman      Well.

     The hand rises.

     Eggman's brain carves into three distinct paths. One of the smartest men alive breaks down the potentials of his future courses of action.

     First: He could continue his work and trust in Petra and the others to stop the thing. He could be heroic - put himself in danger - and do a great service to the universe. Or he could just exploit the situation for his own gain, as usual, while looking like he gave a damn.

     Second: He could order his machine to try and deflect the attack. Risky, and distracting. Who knows if it would even work? It didn't have a lot of weight. Could get him killed.

     Option three, then.

     Eggman removes his hands from the controls, puts his knuckles on the ground and stretches outwards. Anyone who has ever seen any sort of track-and-field meet would recognize this as the starting stance for a very fast takeoff indeed.

     Eggman launches himself forward as the hand smashes the controls, and the area he was just in, and goes *running for his life*. It's actually pretty impressive. It really, really does confirm what he keeps claiming: he is in fact an Olympic athlete.

     It's also *really* funny to watch his skinny little legs carry him at gold medalist speeds all the way to the elevator, wherein, quite suddenly, an Old-School Floating Boss Pod/Chair descends. He leaps into it, turns around, strokes his moustache once, and cuts his losses.

     Well, you can't win 'em all.
N'Raha     Okay so there's an issue here. There are a lot of things that N'Raha is set to deal with in life and in combat. Standing his ground and beating monsters in the face with an ax is his primary skill, but he's ALSO good at dealing with HORRIBLE PSYCHIC ATTACKS. Sort of. That kitty brain of his is hardened to this sort of thing. But not that hardened, and not at the same time as he's being chewed on and eaten.

    He is battered and smashed and crumpled inside the maw of the Creature, before being spat out into the fighting area once more, right into the path of Tamamo's magical circle... But at the last moment before smashing into the ritual, the Warrior snaps out a wrist and a glittering golden chain of energy lashes out to wrap around the nearest appendage of the Amalgamation. And in this instant, there is a certain sensation in the air. Either N'Raha is going to fall, or this thing will. There is no answer outside of that. No outcome other than that.
    The Catman's fall is halted short of Tamamo, and he screams. "GODS DAMN YOU, LEAVE THOSE SOULS ALONE, THEY ARE NOT YOURS." And he's immediately swinging himself like a swashbuckler up and into the air, high above the creature, trying to drag its attention in his direction and away from the others, giving them time to hit the damn thing. But his own ax is swinging high, high into that arc, as he twirls in midair, gathers up all of his energy, and then smashes downward to try and cleave the beast's horrible mass apart, to give others a better shot at the core.
Lilian Rook     'WE DON'T NEED YOU! WE DON'T NEED YOUR HELP! WE'LL MAKE THEM ALL PAY! ALL OF THEM! ALLLLLLL OFFFF THEEEEEEM!'

    "Leave that to the living." Lilian is already in the way. Without a sound. Without a trail. Without so much as a breeze. It's Night Mist that shrieks, splitting the air as it darts back and forth, cleaving the twisted abberations formed of decaying ego from the air before they can reach Tamamo. "I don't know if you even understand me, but pull up a seat and stop getting in my way. You're not alone anymore, so let us work."

    Lilian's sword winds back. It extends so far that Tamamo can touch it with ease. Is meant to be. The glowing lines run warm gold, like under her armour, like sunlight. Lilian crouches this time, ducking under Tamamo's field of effect, and then sprinting forward at blistering speed, trailing a streak of light and crashing wind. "Cleasanna Lilí Dubha ~ Fáinne Gréine Óir!"

    The golden sun-streak of her sword brightens to a blinding flare, and swirls through the air. A trick of the heel and knee and a torque of hips and shoulder that paints a full revolution of the blade around her, so fast that it paints a solid ring of light. A second, and a third, in the same moment, overlapping as a certain ancient design, with the core at its collapsing center.
Kirishima "Do not give in to your hate, Miss Soroka! Pity what they have become if you must, but hate will cloud your mind and distract you from our true task here!" Kirishima almost sounds like she's scolding Petra, but it's really a warning as she starts darting around again once she can get her feet moving again. Bringing out a hell of a lot more knives and kunai, she starts flinging them at the creature, only slowing down when it opens its mouth to start blasting her with so many black and red balls that there's barely any space to maneuver around them.

"We can't afford to dawdle or yell at it as though it'll change its mind." Watching the pattern of those orbs, Kirishima uses what she's learned in fighting against other ships and just runs right through them, not even bothering to evade any of them at all. Instead, she heads in a straight line, predicting the best path to take in order to eat the fewest balls. They're singing her flesh and covering her in that acrid, ashy feeling, but the ninja ship still keeps rushing forward as she draws fistfuls of paper talismans* from her bag of stuff.

"As long as it still draws its cursed breath, it will keep drawing in the dead. We must take it down now, and then those lives it claimed may finally know peace!" Torpedoing herself through an opening in the ball volleys, Kirishima runs through several more hand-seals, seemingly speeding up as she sprints, leaps, ducks, and slides under more of those balls in her path while crashing through yet more.

The ninja gets right in front of it, one hand raised to her face with two fingers pointed upwards. "Tiger Style #58: Inferno Crash!" The other hand slams that fistful of paper talismans* right into the creature, and then she backflips roughly ten times before leaping up with several more hand seals, then firing off one more fireball** from her mouth to detonate all of it in a localized explosion.

*fancily decorated C4 bricks
**a regular explosive shell
Petra Soroka <J-IC-Scene> Dr. Eggman says, "Do me a favor and stop that thing from crushing the controls, would you?"

    Petra's heart leaps--that's something she can do! Her adrenaline-blurred mind absorbs the command completely, igniting determination in her chest that drowns out her ambivalent annoyance at the rest of the fight. Her eyes narrow in concentration as she twists around midair, trying to angle her trajectory to optimally place herself on the ground, and when the creature bites at her, she does the natural thing.

    Petra points her revolver at the monster, firing it as both a deterrent and propellant to escape from the attack. The bullet leaves the barrel with a roar and flash of flame, but rather than Petra's whole body being equally thrown back by the recoil, her arm jumps up into the air alone.

    The disjointed momentum causes Petra to flounder, and the jagged teeth rip through her legs, carving a bloody path through her thigh. She *shrieks*, loud enough to pierce through the din of combat. When she collapses onto the ground, her legs give out, accompanied by tight-voiced, squeaky profanities, and she twists her torso to look at the monster without moving her injured legs.

    Stop the monster from breaking the controls. Petra grits her teeth and, with both trembling arms gripping the gun tightly, she fires into the ground to launch herself into the claw targeting the control panel, reloading midair to fire as many bullets into the oncoming arm as possible to deflect it.
Blemishine     "Mister Raha...!" Unfortunately, Blemishine isn't in much of a position to intervene in her current comrade-in-arms taking a brief trip into the jaws of the damned, because she has her own problems to worry about. More mundane problems, but no less dangerous, as the overwhelmingly large shadow of the monster's claw comes bearing straight down on her--

    And she briefly disappears under it herself, cracking shield raised overhead to directly brace against the center of the palm. She's on a knee--make that both knees--and nearly crushed entirely down into the floor of the chamber. Her entire body feels like it's going to give out and crumble.

    "Not yet...!" And then all ato nce, through a great exertion, she heaves it off to one side while combat rolling out the other way, and as its attention is torn away she gets the chance to move back in. There's too many things racing through her mind. Things she wants to say - to Ishirou right now, especially. The decision here that him and S6 will make...

    ...is something she can only give them the chance to make in the first place. "Ishirou, please remember your own warning!" 'Don't let it overwhelm you'. That's the most she can give as he attempts to biohack it. And as for her, Blemishine moves in to engage from an angle, rearing back her weapon in stabbing position as she does so. It comes forward--

    And pushes in to sink in as deeply as possible, before the light glinting along its edge intensifies and bursts out in all directions. A heated explosion from within the creature, to sear away the muck so quickly that it'll be close to painless. That's the least she can do for what's lingering in it.
Tamamo     The pieces that split off to attack Tamamo never reach her at all. She hadn't reacted, as if she'd known ahead of time that they wouldn't.

    She did. She was watching Lilian. She could have done something, otherwise, perhaps, but she wouldn't reject the aid, just as she wishes for Lilian to never reject hers. The moment of Lilian's strike has her aid, again, both obviously and subtly. The subtle effect is a twisting of fate, an exploitation of a perilous moment, drawing that vulnerability to meet the blade coming for it.

    "Please trust in me, though you cannot know what will occur. Rest your grudge, and allow others to take up your duties. This attachment is the karma that demands your suffering. Is that not obvious? Please, allow me to release you from it. This is the duty I have taken on my own shoulders."

    With that opening, the second circle completes, powered by the talismans that fly from Tamamo's hands and mark the circumference of the room. As Lilian ducks, a flash of golden sunlight flashes over her head, impacting the main mass as it rises from the pit, and remaining in the air as an almost-solid ring. The binding tightens, stuck fast by stakes of the same light.

    "Is it too much to ask that you trust that I know that which is best for you? Perhaps so. It is unfair, that such suffering was inflicted on you, and taken to this extent. It is not unfair that you be given no explanation and offered no choice, and yet, it is unreasonable. Still, I will not apologize for what must be done, nor will I apologize on behalf of those who have wronged you. Your only solace will be the knowledge that others continue to live, and that all wrongs may be someday righted, however slowly the wheels of karma turn. This, and what peace I bring by my own hand, is all that I may give you."

    One hand raised, light shines around, behind, and from her, extending in faint, flickering flames, the ghost of a stellar corona. It draws in attention, focusing it against her, just in time for her mirror -- Amaterasu's mirror, to put it another way -- to drop in front of her. The light that pours out is more than what it reflects, washing over everything in front of her with the strength to banish both shadows and night, forcefully stripping away the anchoring ties between spirit and earth.
Ishirou "A-alright S6, just...please be careful!" Ishirou says to his partner.  However, S6 may not be emotionally alright, but physically?  Well, she was less than alright, but she was alright enough to do what came next!  The VRCS had many different forms, from throwing weapons, to other robots, to monsters...

And apparently, herself!  S6 speeds faster than a bullet, more powerful than a locomotive, and leaps from one end of the room to the other and /through the monster, to come out the other side, as much of it was split open from that.

Eggbot proceeds to be smashed by lots of liquid.  It drops into the pit, but nothing happens.  He reaches a single hand out for his running father.

Raha proves that his smol cat brain is too stronk (small) to be effected by psychic attacks like the others.  It's fine, for everyone that isn't the monster though!  The catte spins through the inside of the monster, then out, and then back down again as another massive hole in its mass is opened up!

Kirishima's tricks keep the pressure on, her Talismans* and fireballs** manage to do the job they are needed to do.  That is to take advantage of the open parts of the creature, and then WIDEN them out more.  Bigger and wider, and somehow the creature is somehow standing...it's body nearly split in two but it hangs on!

Petra is mauled, and despite being Just A Girl, she pushes herself farther than she could normally.  Gravity tricks push her into the path of the claw, and shots run out.  So many at this point, assisted by Petra's power tear through the arm as it flies end over end backward, smashing into the ground and splattering into muck.

Blemishine's words reach Ishirou, even if he doesn't immediately respond.  She can tell because he visibly calms down as if someone was trying to shake him apart from the inside, but now he's holding firm.  She dives in, splitting more of the mass from the core, flaying it open like a flounder.  The Core, at this point, is very much exposed!

Lilian stands before the creature.  Despite its state, she reaches out to it instead of the other way around.  The blade strikes, ripping past the small amount of muck left, and RIGHT into the core.  There is a shattering...the core itself is starting to break apart.  This is before it shatters.  Nothing is inside, the core /itself/ was the transformed form of the person.  Even if they took it out...

Well, Ishirou might have done a bad thing today.  

Tamamo looks at the crumbling monster, its body losing coherency as she finishes her spell.  The heads stop moving, and as they're bathed in light, they seem to fade away.  However, she can see them.  The spirits.  The parts of humans that used to be.  Children, adults...men, women, and everything in between.  

Some look confused, and others look relieved.  The ritual completes, and the souls are finally severed.  They are free to pass on, and in small balls of light, they do just that.  Even if they are only part of a soul, they will move on to something.  

They float down, into the earth itself.
Ishirou Ishirou does something that is probably very ill-advised.  The two, the monster in the core and Ishirou are connected.  He tries to sort through those memories, even as the feedback causes pain.  POD attempts to warn him, but he still pushes.

Something else reaches into him...

A large holoscreen deploys.  

"You can't do this," the voice like Ishirou's speaks, older and more mature.  it appears to be the POV for the visual.  The woman in front of him was the robotized woman, quite a bit younger.  She speaks back to him, calmly but with a coldness that pierces the heart.  

"I can do this, I have funding and a way to procure more.  We need a defense against the Nullborn, before we also wink out of existence.  You have done enough research on the godsdamned things, you know they're a threat to our existence more than anymore!"

"We're talking about turning out /dead/ into weapons," he pleads.

"No, I am talking about turning our useless dead into weapons.  Those who won't be missed, those who don't deserve what comes next or to continue living with what INDUS has to continue to offer."

"What...you /can't/ be serious!  Look, even then it doesn't matter!  I can save INDUS already, the turbine needs to be turned off.  If we do that and kill the Nullborn around the city they'll leave us alone.  We can switch back to other means of power, it won't be the same as before..."

At this point he had turned away from her, moving to a window to open up.  The ocean greets his eyes.  "We don't need to do..."

The feed turns around, facing the woman again, who holds a gun in her hands.  It fires before he can even speak again.  "And why should we throw away our comfort?  This planet was made to be bent to our will.  If you can't see that, then you are one of those who don't deserve to continue to live OR be granted what comes next..." she says, holding up a crystal.

The feeling of floating overtakes the visuals, as it rockets into the crystal itself.  "I'll need what you have to make sure INDUS stands as it is now forever.  Goodbye, 'beloved'."

What comes next is terrible.  The soul is drained, brought back, drained, and brought back so many times it's hard to figure out exactly how many.  Again and again...time and time again...as a test and as a soldier.  Every time he seemed to start gaining memories back, a product of being the test subject for the Android Project.  

The woman was truly evil.  Ishirou breaks out of the hacking session...stunned and...just stares.  He doesn't make any moves to stop what is going to come next.

The ground itself...looks healthy.  It's then, now that the foul magic is stopped, now that the souls are gone.  Now that this abomination has stopped...

This is a leyline.  It's weak.  Faint.  It's where the mana turbine was also drawing power from.  It finally starts to green, as if nullborn had been killed.  Something...SOMETHING else is here or could be felt here.  It seemed to be taking the souls away, but not aggressively.  It doesn't feel wrong, it feels...

Like how this is supposed to go.  Into a weakened stream of energy.  Of mana...

Of life.
S6     Striker Six catapults herself away from the beast amidst the tumbling girder she'd used to rip it open. She lands on one extended hand, springing up and back again to alight on her feet, heels sending up sparks as her momentum arrests against the floor. The VRCS runes flare to life again around the discarded girder, floating it up and angling it again aggressively. Just in case.

    Tamamo's ritual completes. Various weapons and techniques batter what's left of the colossal sludge-beast construct. When it at last relents, S6's posture relaxes slightly. Balls of light scatter and, one by one, begin winking out-- returning to where they belong.

    The android girl lets out a sigh. Beside and above her, the VRCS runes fade around the girder and it drops with a colossal noise beside her, denting the reinforced floor in a shower of sparks. The readied swords around her swing back into resting position across her back and she approaches Ishirou with quick steps, heedless of the leaking android fluids spilling out of her injuries.

    And unless anyone stops her, she just kind of-- presses up against his back and wraps her arms around him, eyes squeezed shut. They've both been fairly traumatized today... though from that video, she'll be the first to insist Ishirou's suffered more than she has from what's come to light here.
N'Raha     There's an aggrieved sigh from somewhere in the front of the crowd, as N'Raha peels himself up and off the ground, shedding his armor in a slow shifting of glamour. The cherry red mithril plate vanishes, leaving the Miqo'te in his casuals, carrying the Bravura. "Hnnnnn, and good riddance." He sighs and plops cross legged on the ground, starting to take inventory of himself and what's busted. There's a dull green aura starting to form on his body, as healing magics kick in.

    He looks up and around ot the crowd gathered, nad then gives a thumbs up to people. "...and just like that, the Lifestream. Good. Much better than that.... abomination before." His tail swishes a bit, as he watches the others come to sorts after the fight as well.
Kirishima "Ishirou? He sounds..." Kirishima narrows her eyes as she tries to sort through what it is she's seeing and hearing.  It's Ishirou, but wrong. A different person, perhaps? Or...

No. She's putting more of this together from what's being said, and what she's seen already. They're talking about repurposing the souls of the dead, and about using it to maintain the city's prosperity. The shift in visuals tells her enough of what had happened in that recording, and then she looks over at Ishirou when he remains unmoving. Her gaze goes to where that pile had been when the machine had still been active, and then finally at where the creature's congealed souls sank into the ground.

"They're free now. That's... We've done well here" She stares with a firm nod, keeping her voice restrained for once considering the gravity of what's been revealed. She glances over at Ishirou and approaches him, holding her hand out briefly, stopping and pulling back, reaching over once again, then stepping back when S6 embraces him.

Best not to shove herself into that moment. Instead, Kirishima steps off to the side to check out the machine's workings again, and to see if it's still working. If it is, then she'll get back to what she was doing before this battle started: Trying to figure out how to actually turn it off.
Tamamo     It's done. Just like she knew she had to -- whether or not Eggman would have gotten in the way. Better that it didn't come to that, though she's the feeling she missed something. Will this happen again? Are there more machines like this one?

    Tamamo's broken out of that thought by what Ishirou sees. It's enough to make her pale, even as the halo of light fades, her divinity put back under wraps, hidden away as she prefers it to be. The business of gods isn't meant to extend this far to Earth. Not the sort she knows. While she stands, uncertain what to do, S6 moves to him, and Tamamo feels relieved.

    Lilian and Petra are having some kind of argument, but Tamamo missed exactly what it was about, somewhere between that and hearing N'Raha's angry shouting while the soul-mass tried to eat him. Whatever it is, it's probably fine. Lilian wouldn't say those things about someone if there wasn't a point to her criticism.

    More importantly, this engine of suffering has finally lost its fuel. Tamamo takes her time in reinforcing the circle around it. It'll be difficult for anyone to interfere with its nonfunctionality, once she's done. It might still draw down souls, but won't be able to pull pieces of them into the pit.
N'Raha     N'raha also tosses a thumbs up over at Tamamo. "Good job over there. Top notch ritual-ing." He shifts a bit to watch her finish up, while also rubbing some sensation into his busted ear. "Always vital to keep the mages and sages safe in a fight like this, especially when souls and voidkin are involved."

    If he's being sarcastic, it's extremely hard to tell.
Blemishine     ...All at once, it's over. It's all crumbling away. And, from what she can tell...

    It's natural. This sort of...passing on. She doesn't know all of the details. She doesn't think she has to. But it's a little...beautiful.

    And still sad. Blemishine glances, in Ishirou's direction, and decides that he's best left in the hands of S6 for the moment. There's a long and heavy sigh, and her shoulders sag, exhaustion washing over her. There's still more than a little tension in the air. But for right now...

    She glances off towards the elevator that Eggman made his grand escape from, frowns, and then does the same off towards the controls he smashed as he made his getaway. Silently, she goes to join Kirishima in handling the machinery. They'll be minus Ishirou's help, but it should be fine between the two of them.
Petra Soroka     Petra blasts through the arm, and the controls are saved. She collapses on the ground, gun slipping from her fingers. Blood pulses out of her leg in time with her racing heartbeat, and she presses her hands onto the wound with a subvocalized whine, straining against the meltdown pounding inside her skull.

    Petra uncurls her neck to look at the control panel, then at the space that Eggman disappeared to, and her tension leaves her in a rush of air and a tight smile. She touches a finger to her headset, then pushes herself up, pulling a rag out of one of the many pockets in her overalls to tie around her thigh. The rag seems to have engine grease on it.

    Then, of course, her tentatively victorious mood is ruined by a certain girl. As usual.

<J-IC-Scene> Lilian Rook says, "It's just manners. A social obligation. Nobody wants to hear your answer. Were you raised in a barn?"
<J-IC-Scene> Petra Soroka says, "This is the most pathetic backpedaling, honestly, not everyone is as freakishly two-faced as you."
<J-IC-Scene> Lilian Rook says, "I suppose there some are completely useless instead. You know, the kind that stand around and *watch*, with a gormless idiot stare on their face, inevitably walking right into harm."

    Petra is completely unresponsive to the projected video, its audio blaring over her as she tenses up again, stalking over to Lilian, her knuckles tight around her gun. The rag around her leg is already soaked red, but she petulantly stomps her foot down anyways.

    "Why are you always fucking antagonizing me? We're fighting on the same side! You've got absolutely no reason to single me out like this, other than being a pathetic, vindictive fucking *bitch*!" Her gun arm shakes, eyes narrowed with tears threatening to fall.

    A gunshot rings through the room. Petra startles backwards, horror gripping her chest, automatically connecting the dots in all the wrong ways. It wasn't her. It was the holoscreen.
Ishirou Ishirou lands the R.E.S.C.U.E. Unit, disengaging the components and POD reforms, dropping Ishirou out of form.  He's not sure what to do, or say.  So much happened tonight.  So much trauma was revealed...worse that he got to feel those things.  He's trying to stay strong, trying to not break here where Eggman could see, where his /partner/ could see.  

He feels the comforting hug from S6 and just...finally sinks back into her.  He can't take it anymore and turns into her hug.  He finally gives in and just sobs into her.  It was just all too much for him to bear at this time, and while he was trying to stand up...

He just couldn't anymore.  
Lilian Rook <J-IC-Scene> Lilian Rook says, "Thou shalt never heed the words of that which has consumed the flesh of man. And thou shalt never heed the words of that which begs thy reply."
<J-IC-Scene> S6 says, "--Hmm?"
<J-IC-Scene> Lilian Rook says, "Those who die for the greater good hath their reward. The many outweigh the few. The righteous outweigh the unjust. Stay thy hand not for unnecessary persons."
<J-IC-Scene> Lilian Rook says, "I know you can hear them."
<J-IC-Scene> Lilian Rook says, "This is all her fault. I'm relieved that we can't call her human anymore."
<J-IC-Scene> Dr. Eggman chuckles. "Because the whole society 'ate human flesh,' is it?"
<J-IC-Scene> Dr. Eggman says, "And she its architect."
<J-IC-Scene> Dr. Eggman says, "Poetic!"
<J-IC-Scene> Lilian Rook says, "She was responsible to her people, and devoured their souls instead of protecting them. She used the nullborn to suit her ends instead of rebuking them. She tore down the station of every other human, past even their humanity itself. The first, the thirteenth, the third, condemn her, and the ttenth, the eleventh, and the twelfth compel that I answer."
<J-IC-Scene> Lilian Rook says, "Ishirou can save somebody else."

    As the monstrosity collapses under Lilian's last attack, the woman herself is already past it, and striding towards the elevator, hot on the heels of Eggman's exit, splattered ectoplasm dissolving off her suit with each step. Scanning around, and seeing both no sign of him and the damage to the infrastructure, Lilian makes an irritated noise with her teeth, looks back over her shoulder to say something, and then comes face to face with Petra.

    All her energy is expended, all her care, all her ability to bite her tongue, process, stay focused, by the horror she'd just witnessed and dealt with, and in that dangerous moment of coming down, that habitual sacred ritual wherein Lilian steps away and takes a breath in the aftermath, Petra invades it with bile and anger and aggressive posture.

    Lilian's gaze seems to slide right through her. Looking at her head rather than her face. Beholding no features, but only an interface. A problem. A thing. It is a look that a human being couldn't naturally give someone else if they tried. The gunshot echoes off the walls, and Lilian halfway breathes out, sounding close enough to 'relief' to make the back of Petra's neck tingle.

    Too late, though, because Lilian is already behind her. A single gauntleted hand grips both of her wrists so tightly that it feels as if the bones might break, pinning them behind her back, yet without the slightest tremor of exertion. A hard-plated boot places most of her weight on Petra's uninjured foot. The other foot displaces her bleeding leg, forcing Petra's weight onto the oozing wound. She can feel Lilian's spare hand move to her face, fingertips gliding up her collarbone and neck close enough to scrape, and then gripping her jaw with that same casually overpowering strength, forcing her to stare ahead at the ruined wall, off in the corner together.

    The armour is strangely warm. Like a living body. It's indistinguishable from Lilian's weight, pressed to Petra's back, pinning her standing in place, her chin over her shoulder. Petra realizes that Lilian hasn't even disarmed her, though the gun can only point away at the floor. And then Petra realizes that Lilian's voice, palpable as slight heat on her ear, lacks a certain quality of inherent tension that she only now notices by its absence. It sounds so relaxed, so smoothly free and careless, that it crosses fully over into bone-chilling.
Lilian Rook     "You should have gone home, Soroka. Didn't I tell you that?" says Lilian, exhibiting not the slightest sign she particularly heard anything Petra said. "Now you've gotten all tangled up with bad people. You've been tainted with evil. You watched a woman die. You let it happen. You watched, with a stupid, fascinated grin on your face, and said to all of us 'this is fine'. And in failing to understand anything--" Her hand drifts from Petra's chin, back down her body and to her rent thigh. "Oh my. You've been wounded. What a surprise~ And the best you can do is that rag?"

    "Isn't that just fitting? Doesn't that seem like karma?" Petra can feel Lilian lean in closer without seeing it. "Tell me, Soroka. What do you think would happen if nobody helped you? If I was right, and everything came true, and you died?"

    Lilian's fingers press to the blood-soaked rag. Then a little further, so it hurts more. A hot prickle of energy flushes through her veins, and squeezes her heart. "This could be a fatal wound, you know. You don't know anything about medicine. How deep does this go? Will the bleeding stop soon? It's not as if you're special. Amateurs get hit like this, and bleed out a few minutes later, before their friends arrive. All. The. Time." It's hard to tell if it's just paranoia, elevated heart rate, or entirely real, that the rag is already overflowing crimson, and dribbling down her leg again.

    "How do you think that feels? To go out like that? What would you look like, the moment you realize that it isn't going to stop? What do you think would race through your mind, in those minutes after it's already too late? Panic? Denial? Some vain hope that one of the people who always carries you comes to your rescue again?" No. No it's definitely real. Her thigh is bleeding really, really fast. Enough to make her extremities go cold. "Or would you just shut down? Curl up in a corner and shiver and cry, while the life leaves you, drop by drop? Would you think about your parents at home? Would you curse your stupidity? Would you wish you'd listened to me, instead of throwing that away? Or would you accept your powerlessness, and go bravely to that sad little whimper of an end."

    Lilian is laughing in her ear. It is the easiest, brightest, most sincere and light-hearted laughter Petra has ever heard from her. "No way~ Absolutely not~ You're the type who doesn't understand anything unless it kills them~ No matter how many times you're told, you just won't get it, until it's finally happened to you. You want to be hurt so bad it's just incredible! So why don't we sit down and find out what that's like? That's why you keep provoking me, right?"

    "You want to be hurt, badly, like all the other people I've hurt, don't you? You want to be scarred and changed by what I can do, just like them. That's why you keep chasing after me, demanding I see you like this. You're so coy~ It's kind of adorable, now that I get it~ A genuine slut for trauma." Lilian's finger traces slow, gentle circles around the bleeding wound. It's been barely a minute. "I'll indulge you~ I'll keep this up for three whole minutes. I won't stop, even if you pass out. So, if you live, you'll really get your first, authentic taste of the thing you've been craving~ And if you don't, well, it's not as if anyone but your parents would notice, right? And you already ran away."

    "I'm so glad you want it too, Petra. I've been thinking about what sounds you'll make since--"
Lilian Rook     Off in the distance, Ishirou breaks into sobbing, and the sound reaches all the way over here. The words catch in Lilian's throat. Petra can feel her chest seize against her back at the sound. For the space of four, terrifying breaths, Lilian doesn't make any other sound. Then Petra feels the hot stabbing feeling retreat from her veins, and turn to ice on Lilian's fingertips, scraping roughly down her wound. The bleeding stops. Blood is clotted firmly on the surface.

    Lilian shoves her hard enough to stumble into the wall, and turns back. When she speaks, it sounds like what Petra is used to again. Performatively distant and dissatisfied, calm and aloof by intense, invisible labour. "Don't ask Tamamo to heal you." She begins walking back to Ishirou, and the core. "You don't deserve her help. And she doesn't deserve to see me like this."
Petra Soroka     Lilian is hazy in Petra's tear-clouded vision. Shouting at her with her throat tight and scratchy, heart pounding, words pouring out of her in that familiar, indignant tantrum. That black-gold smudge in front of her utterly, infuriatingly, depressingly untouchable, impenetrable in her dismissal of Petra's every word.

    Even if her sight was crystal clear, even if her heart wasn't racing at twice its usual rate, Petra wouldn't have been able to react to a movement slipped between heart beats. All at once, the black-gold concept she could yell at was gone. Replaced by the grip of warm gauntlets twisting her shoulders back, multiple points of instantaneous contact thrumming through Petra's body like electricity. The wind is knocked out of her, by shock alone, words dying in her throat as a strangled squeal.

    Her head sags forwards and is caught by cruel fingers, the vicious grip on her chin, the twist of her neck, the slight but omnipresent pressure on her windpipe blotting out any other thought, any other feeling. Her own bleeding leg fades into the background of her mind.

    The pressure on her neck is minor, completely incidental to her chin. But still. It's like she can't breathe. Her eyes widen, chest rising and falling barely a millimeter with each erratic, helplessly shallow breath, hyperventilating. Her heartbeat flutters in her chest, in the tiny brush against the artery in her neck. Her whole body rigid in stasis, deer in headlights.

    Like a rabbit held between a wolf's jaws, abruptly aware of how fragile its bones are. So this is what malice feels like.

    The hand tracing down her body carves a bloody psychosomatic trail, each nerve firing in overdrive at Lilian's touch and for long, breathless moments after. Reaching her thigh is just the natural conclusion, drawing a line between two points, peeling open her skin from wound to heart.

    Petra still hasn't said a word. Her first whimper is at the hot throb of pain, electrified by Lilian's fingers pressing into the wound. Her fingers and toes buzz, her mind buzzing too, that cold feeling in her limbs so alien that her extremities don't feel like a part of her anymore. Hot agony running down her deadening leg, Petra buckles, sagging backwards--into Lilian. Seemingly uncaring that this twists her arms further.

    From this perspective, Petra's head lolling on Lilian's shoulder, Lilian can notice that her bleary eyes still have eyeliner. It's barely smudged.

    The blood pulses out of Petra's leg irregularly, held back into a trickle, then sloshing out all at once, out of sync with her heartbeat. It's as though it's being held back by invisible cupped hands, and Lilian's dancing fingers can feel it, that quiet ripple of familiar epicorporeal phenomenon. The faintest, desaturated, dying gasp of something she registers as green, ghostly fingers frantically shoveling blood back inside her veins.

    Despite the stabbing pain, Petra seems on the brink of falling asleep. Her head rolls to the side, Lilian's cooing voice fragmenting into a calming hum, and then all at once--Lilian shoves her away, and the fog is gone instantly, Petra whirls to face her, gun already leveled at her head. The pain rushes back into her body in the same moment that Lilian's magic leaves it, and Petra gags and spits out blood--why? There shouldn't be any blood in her mouth--and staggers.

    "Fu-huck y-you. Lilian. This is what you're really like, if Tamamo can't see you like this, then you'll always just be hiding around her. Some sadistic pervert, reveling in others' pain. You're just a broken degenerate, getting off on having power to hurt people to make up for whatever sick damage your family did to do. Don't *fucking* touch me again."

    The raised gun falls, and Petra limps away, pant leg stained crimson. Her free hand is balled into a fist at her side, and if anyone could see, she has a near-rapturous smile on her face.