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Liza Grier     Anito is not exactly pleased about being lifted right off her feet by Wisconsin. She feels the woman get the sole of her shoe against the inside of her arm, and draw a sidearm from her belt, in tremendously short time, but by the point Anita has the gun against the underside of Wisconsin's chin, she realizes that she's being rescued. Old habits die hard, apparently.

    "Even she's telling you that you aren't with her!" Anita yells Remee's way. "Not in her mind! She just told you no, so fucking listen!" Her outfit ostensibly has a lot of pockets that weren't visible at first glance. The way she only uses her legs to stabilize herself while being carried, whilst applying a trauma patch and slamming an autoinjector down with her hands, suggests so.

"I should have known better than to try and talk to you fucking people! The next worst thing to the fucking corps is the Syndicate! You and your blind fucking loyalty to whoever's hands are soaked in the most blood!" She pops over Wisconsin's shoulder to fire a few shots at Berislav, and then one at Petra's gun as she scrambles for it. "Convenient fucking excuses! Preaching 'seeing the light' and when I hold out my hand and say 'sure, let's talk' you don't even know what to do but kill! All you had to do was talk!"

    Rita leaps in the way. Anita turns the gun to her, reaching into her pocket for a magazine while firing the rest. "But she's overruled you! She has a hold of you! You're all sucked into her orbit, hyped up on her energy, scared of crossing her, relived to align with her, and wanting so, so very desperately for her to acknowledge you!" She fumbles the magazine. It clinks and rolls over the floor to Rita's feet while the rest of the shots fire. It isn't a magazine. A wave of toxic gash gushes out in every direction; coincidentally or not, much less deadly to the Concord.

    "I know because I was like that too!"

    Meanwhile, Liza hasn't released the rail. A second sniper shot is fired at her, aimed through Remee based on best estimate. Remee and Petra can see, and Rita can smell, that the shot which should have blown Liza's brains out isn't bleeding. A patch of red is soaked into her white hair, but it's already congealed. The wound hasn't leaked even a bit.

    She pushes herself back off the checkpoint barrier, just as the guards open fire. She staggers back, bumps up against Remee, then gains her feet again. The rattle of bullets on railings and floors are almost as loud as the automatic spray itself, and pings and ricochets even strike at Liza from odd angles. Her top is apparently bulletproofed. The fact that two red circles that open up on her skin don't bleed either is inexplicable.

    An instant later, she has her e-shield is slipped on and flaring up on her arm. She charges straight into the gun-line, blocking the spray of Kukuru's debris and the guards' gunfire on herself with the rapidly red-tinting barrier, and then tackles straight into the guard arguing with her earlier, pinning him against the rail. A swing of her arm decapitates him with the edge of the shield, which collapses as it overheats. Just in time for her to vault over the rail and grab his corpse by the back of his ammo harness, holding him up, in body armour, against the other bullets.

    "Get going! I'll clean up here. These traitors all laid down their guns and fell in with her secforce so they could take a shot at me when the time came! Their petty revenge! I fucking bet they have a whole plan for this; a whole task force insinuated into her fucking 'volunteers'! They'll be here with all that hardware soon!"
Wisconsin     If Wisconsin *minds* having a gun pointed under her chin by her rescue, she doesn't seem to do more than scoff and huff. "Other direction, dearie," she chides Anita, before the woman opens up on the Watch members. There's gunfire and blood and Liza is screaming about traitors in their midst and this is all very unfortunate. "...There didn't have to be bloodshed, ya'll." The words are barely out of her mouth as the Battleship launches a pair of drones into the air, ghostly fairies of light and mist that float out to give the Battleship and her Carrier battlefield intel.
    And that's when Rita tries to spear Anita out of her arms with those tentacles. The Battleship twists in place to try and dodge the woman's sneaky attack and levels her close-in weapons at Rita. "Nope, sorry, can't let you have her. Not in the cards tonight." The point defense guns open up on Rita. They're designed for shooting down missiles and bullets and incoming fire, but this close they'll still hurt plenty.

    In the elevator, though, Yorktown is quickly trying to get to a safe distance. She's not built for close combat, and the woman's rig flares with energy, as seaplanes loaded with bombs fly out off the deck, and start to blast Remee with bursts of energy, trying to force the woman out of the elevator. "A little personal space, Miss Halcyon."
Kukuru Somehow, all the yelling between Anita and Liza seems to be pulling Kukuru's mood down further than the actual people getting shot, decapitated, sprayed with poisonous gunk, and everything in between. "Sisters shouldn't be fighting like this! This isn't how..."

Wait. What does Kukuru know about their parents, anyway? In a rare moment of clarity, she actually stops herself from saying something carelessly well-intentioned, and she instead slides away from Anita as a dark cloud opens up in the floor next to her. Strangely enough, she's not standing in front of the main target for once, but instead keeping her gaze leveled on those aiding Liza.

"It sounds like you two really have a lot of bad blood to work out. Maybe you'll kill each other, maybe you won't. But if you're going to do anything to each other, it'll have to be in a way neither of you are going to regret." She states firmly, glancing over at Wisconsin and Yorktown for only a moment before stepping into/falling through that cloud in the floor.

Moments later, a cloud appears right above Berislav, and Kukuru comes falling through it with her torso-sized claws covering her hands as she tries to catch Berislav in them and slam him facefirst into the ground. She doesn't linger there long, though, as another cloud opens up beneath her landing point, and a fourth launches her sideways straight at Petra like an person-sized body projectile. "And I'm not going to let any of you do something you'll regret either. So please, let's just go home and forget about all this!"
Remee Halcyon > "Even she's telling you that you aren't with her!"

Remee takes a deep breath, unrelated to the sniper bullet that's just shot through her.

"Yeah, you think I don't know that? You think I don't know that so many people I'm trying to align with view me as an outsider, at best? The rich werewolf bitch who never had to worry about anything in her life, trying to fall in with people who have actually had to fight just to stay living? You think I don't know they think I don't belong alongside them?"

"You think I don't agree with them, at least a little bit?"

Whatever else she'd be preparing to say is cut off as Yorktown start blasting at her. She dives and rolls, shifting as she does - from werewolf to wolf and back to werewolf, option-selecting into whichever form makes most sense at that moment of motion.

"Personal space yourself," she says, as she gets back up straight. It's not a great comeback, but she's working with what she has. "Whatever else the rest of the Watch thinks about me, I know what I think about *you* - the Concord and their 'protection'. You and yours are what I'm happy to align myself *against*. What do the facts and the people matter to you, as long as you make your numbers go up!"

Yorktown has her personal space - if only because Remee's falling back with Rita, providing some cover for her so she can focus on the offensive. Remee, for her part, aims again - the oversized werewolf pointing the almost comically small gun, and fires once at one of Wisconsin's legs.

She doesn't need support aircraft, or escorts or bombing runs, or even semi-auto. Typically, one shot's enough.
Rita Ma      "That's... that's not true." Rita's voice is still strained. Her face, glossy-eyed and impassive, still manages a wince at Anita's rebuke. "She cares about me."

     As the grenade goes out, her eyes widen and lose a bit of their sharklike deadness. Rita re-wraps herself in her tentacles, reforming her human disguise, and leaps backwards just in time. She's still visible as a shadow through the haze of the yellow-green gas.

     Wisconsin's guns tear into her silhouette, punching holes straight through to daylight.

     The silhouette collapses into shredded tentacle-flesh, revealing the ruse.

     And Rita tears into Wisconsin from behind.

     A sharp-edged tendril, unwrapped from Rita's forearm, draws across the battleship's neck. Rita's knee is braced against the small of her back to draw the organic garrote tight. When Remee takes the shot at Wisconsin's leg, Rita hooks her free ankle around Wisconsin's other shin, making a concerted effort to bring her to the ground.

     Rita spares a moment to glance back at Liza, engaged in her own struggles- a cruel blue tentacle grabs her satchel of medical supplies and hurls it across the room, in case it could do her any good. Back to Wisconsin, softly grimacing: "You don't get a say in this. I'm sorry."
Petra Soroka     Petra, from her position on the ground, rolls away from the sight of Liza decapitating someone, barely holding back from throwing up. She pushes herself to her feet, facing away from Rita and Liza--and consequently facing away from all the fighting, so a particularly booming gunshot has her squealing and diving to the ground again.

    Gas rushes into the room, and Petra tries to cover her face with her elbow, fishing around in her bomber jacket pocket for her filtering mask. She doubles over coughing, on her hands and knees, but manages to fix it to her face before the encroaching darkness on the edge of her vision makes her black out. She looks practically like a noncombatant, trembling on the ground, if not for the revolver clenched tightly in her hand.

    Petra fights to a kneeling position, calling out to Anita, "Can't it just be as simple as trusting her judgem--" A coughing fit, whistling through the respirator, interrupts Petra's lie. "Or, at least, trusting..." Who, Remee? Berislav? ...Rita?

    Her resolve already broken once during this trip, Petra steals another horrified look at Rita. Longer than she should. The dizziness of watching Rita's uncloaked tentacles keeps her occupied for just long enough for Kukuru to body slam her, knocking her skidding across the floor.

    "Kukuru! Please!" Petra scrambles to her feet, shakily pointing her gun at her. "Can't you just let this happen? I'm--I'm sure Grier knows what she's doing. I don't want to fight. Please."

    It's a sickening realization that Kukuru is probably the one she trusts most here. The revolver shakes, and then Petra aims it backwards over her shoulder, and fires, driving her elbow forwards and down into Kukuru, trying to halt her momentum between clouds.
Father Berislav      "Don't," says Berislav to Annie, coldly. He raises his voice, but only to be heard over the din of gunfire and ricochets. Gas spills out--Berislav coughs, eyes watering. One massive gun is thrown into the air, bounced deliberately on his ankle despite the fact that his svelte appearance should suggest a fracture from the weight of it. Bathed in orange, a syringe appears in his free hand, jabbed into his neck. His breathing relaxes.

     "You didn't 'hold out your hand.'" He snatches the revolver mid-bounce. "Your repentance amounts to shifting responsibility, for fixing problems which *you* caused, onto a body which had no idea what you were doing. This, after so much talk about how valued and important *you* were. The time for talk has come and gone--you're only sorry you were caught."

>Get going! I'll clean up here.

     "God be with you," says Berislav, without turning to face Liza.

     The barrels of his revolvers are easily as long as his forearms, but this scarcely seems to affect the speed or grace with which he uses them. Kukuru, flying in for an overhead, finds this out first hand when the priest glances upwards.

     The right revolver is twirled, barrel parallel with his inner wrist, edge of the butt sticking out from his hand, in the same fluid motion as a backwards dip. He willfully takes her claws across his chest, to cut across her strike with a furious crack of the revolver's butt against her jaw, repositioning with a handspring to make two more attacks with his feet as they swing upwards.

>And I'm not going to let any of you do something you'll regret either.

     "This is holy war," calls Berislav, as he rises and pivots gracefully on a heel, cassock torn at the chest. The right revolver is spun back into place, his arm swinging out along with it. The noise of the hammer striking the primer is like thunder. The bullet, a flat-nosed, fully-jacketed brutish thing, curves harmlessly around Petra to aim for Kukuru's chest. The force is as obscene as the size of the projectile, and two more follow it with alarming rapidity, these aimed for her back. The massive gun scarcely even bumps in Berislav's grip. "I harbor no regrets for destroying a wicked gardener of sin--only that she wallowed in it to the last." He's already speaking of her in the past tense.

     Seven bullets left. Another three dent bulkheads and smash consoles as they set to bouncing between the walls, ceiling and floor, fired with graceful, whiplike swinging of Berislav's arms, minute adjustments of his foot placement and hips. The heavy projectiles tumble end over end, setting up a slow(er) crossfire meant to hem Kukuru in.
Wisconsin     Wisconsin is under assault, and in most cases she would simply be moving to evade and escape and put distance between herself and her attackers, but... she's got Anita in her arms, and she can't simply run away at this point. Though, there IS the matter of getting out of here.
    Those drones are searching for escape routes and plans, trying to link up with the locals for coordination for a measured response and defense plan. Hopefully, there's some response.

    In the meantime, there's the small matter of being choked and shot. Remee blasts a round into the Battleship's thigh, which... spangs off the woman's leg, an audible crunching of metal and the elastic noise of energy shielding coming into place. She LOOKS like flesh and blood, but that's clearly not the case. Remee's eyes can see in the moment of impact, the ship that Wisconsin is, shimmering at the edge of sensations.
    Rita takes the moment to flicker out of her weapons barrage and go for the throat, literally. Wisky gurks and gurgles a moment, before her hulls swing to toss the sea monster off of her body. "Well this is all VERY unfriendly. Unkind and belligerent and to be expected, I suppose." She carefully shifts Anita inside of her shields, and stamps her legs, getting a very solid stance. The sound of her bulkheads fitting themselves back into place is audible, as the stout lady swivels in place, and starts laying down fire from the main guns into the pair of Watch ladies. The big cannons are acting independently, so she can't get off the famous full broadside the Iowa class is known for, but the cannon fire is still big and loud and enough to smash people around if the hits land.
Kukuru After that attempt to surprise Berislav, Kukuru takes a nasty crack across the jaw, and it throws off her collision with Petra. She slides along the ground on all fours, less like someone crawling around and more like something poised to leap ahead from that position. It takes a moment for her to recover with her healing nanites putting the bones in her face back together, and it's only when Petra speaks that she finally stands back up.

"I'm sorry, Petra, but no. If I let Liza do this, she'll hurt herself in a way she can't take back later. And if that happens, then you'll all feel responsible, too, and..." Wiping off some blood from her face, Kukuru sighs softly and shakes her head before approaching Petra again at a steady pace. "She probably knows what she's doing, too, more than any of us. And... She's probably beating herself up, hurting inside more than anything we can imagine. That's why I have to stop this before-"

Several gunshots ring out, and Berislav's hit her first. Kukuru's body twitches slgihtly, as if she's started to try moving out of the way, but she's not nearly fast enough to outrun the bullets hitting her from two sides at once. She staggers, like she's unsure which way she's supposed to be moving after that, and that moment of confusion is enough for Petra to slam her elbow into Kukuru's back when she tries to actually dip forward again.

"Annie's... Made mistakes before, too, I'm sure! But if someone's trying to fix things, then why try and break it when they're getting closer to doing it?" Forced to all fours again, Kukuru grabs for Petra's leg and actually clamps down this time while swinging her towards Berislav, almost as if she's trying to intercept his bullets with sheer body mass. A cloud opens up next to Kukuru, and then she dives into it, this time coming up from...

Actually, she comes in from above Berislav again. "Anyone can turn things around... I'm not giving up on her, even if Liza's telling you to!" This time, she goes for center mass, trying to get a firm enough hold on him that she can swing him at Petra post-release, clearly trying to keep the two together and mitigate that distance advantage they've got on her.
Remee Halcyon "Un-"

"... Un-"

"Un-FRIENDLY?"

"Do you think this is some sort of... social gathering?" Remee drops her pistol, and goes for her gear bag - eating several hits as she does so. The cannon fire blasts away at her, but she's healing just as fast. She's especially determined to hold on here.

"I at least understand how serious all of this is! You know what, I take back that pity party I was just having..."

What she pulls out is no longer some dinky little human-sized firearm... but a massive crossbow that looks a lot more appropriately sized for a 8' werewolf's hands.

"I'd rather have one of me than however many of you!"

The crossbow gets sighted and aimed...
Rita Ma      After being shaken off, Rita skids to a stop in a three-point stance. Her eyes flick to the side, searching for Liza again. They find Petra instead. Petra, who's looking at her.

     Right then, in that instant, Rita looks like an ordinary girl. But it's easy to see her eyes widen and her blood run cold. How long has she been watching? Did I remember to tell her to look away? ... Doesn't she look scared?

     When she turns invisible, it's to dodge Petra's scrutiny more than Wisconsin's barrage.

     Just as it's hard to hit what you can't see, it's near-impossible to defend against it too. Perfectly cloaked, Rita slips in to harry Wisconsin with blows more than capable of cracking a steel hull: an uppercut, a gut-punch, fingernails that somehow rend like claws.

     For some reason, she's not using the tentacles anymore.

     At the climax of Rita's assault, she finally becomes visible again- but only because it'd be impossible to hide the radiant white glow in her right hand anyway. The light builds and builds until it washes out all the features of her arm, like it's the filament for an incandescent lightbulb.

     She hops back and points her open hand at Wisconsin. With soft resignation: "We have things worth being unfriendly for. Don't you?" Then she thinks better of it, and turns to point it at Yorktown instead. Softer target, more than likely.

     When that built-up luminous energy erupts into a wide beam, it crushes and tears the metal of the elevator and the surrounding walls, rather than burning. Under the roar, there's a noise like tinfoil crumpling.
Liza Grier     'That's... that's not true. She cares about me.'

    "You think you're the first?" replies Anita. Wisconsin takes the hit for her. Anita clearly knows that the battleship girl is useful, durable cover, and she's not about to exit it right away. "She shacked up with you for a little while, right? Told you about how you see it differently. How she can accept you if you accept her. She goes out to kill and comes back with everything you want. Doesn't she." She's actually reloaded this time, and fires to cover Wisconsin's back. "How many other girls do you think fell for that?"

    This mostly consists of emptying the remaining half of the magazine in Petra's direction. Anita has a lot more experience in shooting people than Petra does, only spoiled by Wisconsin's movements. "You fucking don't. And you shouldn't. Why are you so fucking eager to stop being the sane one?" The spend sidearm is hurled in Berislav's direction. It tumbles end over end like a throwing knife. "Move the goalposts in Hell, 'father of mercy'! You came at me with that speech, I wanted to work with you, and you drew the gun! God won't buy your bullshit. And he'll send you there before L!"

    She yells at Remee, "I wasn't with them! I didn't throw in! I didn't sign shit! They came here to talk, and we had fifteen fucking minutes before you went and proved them right! Am I supposed to feel guilty that they got in the way of your spray of bullets?! I ask to talk, you fucking shoot me, they try to stop the killing, and you think you have any room to talk about moral allegiance?! You decided it with the barrel of a gun, just now! With a purity test from a pack of murderers!"

    Now she talks directly to Kukuru. "Don't you have some other way out of here?"
Petra Soroka     Petra stands over Kukuru, tensed and panicky, trying to get out all of her words in a single breath before she has to hit Kukuru again.

    "Can you imagine Grier taking back *anything*? Can you imagine her beating herself up inside? She's a *monster*. I can't stop her, you can't stop her, so let's just believe that she's doing what she's doing for the greater good, so no one else has to--"

    Petra shrieks when Kukuru grabs her, struggling in her grip, then shrieks louder when Berislav's bullets whiz by her, piercing enough to cut through the sounds of battle. "K-Kukuru?! Put me down! Are you trying to kill me? Over this?!"

    Panicked by Kukuru's use of her as a meatshield, Petra presses the muzzle of her revolver directly into Kukuru's arm, firing multiple times at point-blank range to break her grip and launch herself out of the grapple. The final teleport disorients her, and her momentum carries her wildly into a wall, thudding off of it and stumbling as she hits the ground.

    "Y-you're immortal, right? O-or, good at healing? I don't want to hurt you. Not over this."
Liza Grier     Liza catches the bag of medical supplies as the fray moves away from the checkpoint. She mashes her wrist-computer furiously while the guard's body is rapidly shredded under fire, and disappears into a blast of teleporter light. It's her hardsuit coming to her, obviously. The first couple of bullets that go all the way through ping off her energy shields. She rummages through the satchel, stuffs something into a bottle, shakes, and hurls it into the guard line. It shatters into a shockingly violent wall of flame and stinging, chemical smoke, cutting her off from Anita, but leaving the Watch in with the concord.

    Muzzle flashes look like dim, wet splotches in the smoke, scattered and moving. Yelling, screaming, more boots pounding down stairs and through the hangar. The red dots of laser sights sweeping through the mist. The green flare of Liza's optics. Rapid, panicked gun-cracks. The scrape of metal on metal. Cracking bone. Wet gore. Horrible shrieking. A flash of ruby red energy, carving through the shadows. Bullet spangs. Steam. Agonizing death gurgles. A floor-shaking explosion, causing the lights to flicker.

    Wisconsin's drone assessment finds that the elevator leading right back up to the executive landing pad is the nearest way out; they can just take the same vehicle, or failing that, send Anita that way and try to hold the Watch off. There are guards still posted there, as there are most places, but the whole cluster that was unloading heavy armament is swarming to Liza's position. There are a score of IFFs already around her, a squad more taking up sniping positions, and dozens more filtering in through all the other exits, giving her no room to disappear into the larger complex.
Father Berislav >God won't buy your bullshit. And he'll send you there before L!

     "A price I'd pay gladly," answers Berislav coldly. "To rid the world of your sinfful ministry."

>Anyone can turn things around...

     "Anyone can," answers Berislav, both pistols are aimed at the floor. Heavy projectiles half the length of a human finger slam into panels, denting them and dropping the priest half an inch, before rapidly tumbling up, grazing his waist to punch into Kukuru as she descends. "Not everyone does."

     The priest is slippery. Kukuru can get her hands around his midsection, but not without a reprisal--a lightning-fast elbow aimed at her temple. He's swung as a blunt instrument.

     Berislav bends at the waist and knees, curling up to drastically reduce damage to himself and the range Kukuru can threaten. "It is a choice *not* to," he asserts, both guns twirled to put the butts forward as he's swung, "...and her actions have consequences," he adds, using the butts of both guns to launch a flurry of rabbit punches aimed at her inner elbow. "Extending far beyond herself and her family."

     His legs shoot into her abdomen like springs, pushing him through her grip and setting her claws to raking across him again as he slips free.

     "What reason does she have to 'turn things around,'" He asks, twisting in midair to land on his back, sliding across the floor. The remaining two bullets fly out almost contiguously, pushing him farther along the ground and flying towards her claws.

     "When she gets a way out and a fistful of money the moment the bill comes due?"

     His fist strikes the ground, launching him into the air. Both cylinders swing open. Ten spent casings and two moon clips fly with superhuman strength at Kukuru. "This is work I would do even by myself--for I answer not to Liza Grier, but to the Holy Spirit."
Wisconsin     "I can tell you, Miss Halcyon... that this is as friendly as I can be." Wisconsin huffs with exertion as she's shifting to simply lean into that crossbow shot, the bolt sinking into her flank hull with a THUNK, and she looks up at the werewolf. "But you were the ones who started this, let it be said." Eyes narrow, and the Battleship has to agree with Anita. "And we will uphold our end of the bargain, now that it's been sealed."

    But then Rita's getting her shots in as well, and Wisky is once again forced to stop wit the chatter and focus on raw defense. The punches and clawings from the invisible monster batter at Wisconsin's hull, scraping and clawing away at her defenses, but still she keeps Anita protected...
    But it's Yorktown that takes the brunt of this. The Carrier is busy getting the elevator operational once more, and she's flatfooted in taking the concussive blast. The carrier sprawls into the corner of the elevator, and Wisconsin simply SHOULDER tackles Remee in an effort to get to her partner's side. "MAKE WAY, MAKE A HOLE." She's backing that up with sudden blasts of missile fire, a sudden barrage of pinpoint cruise weapons targeted to blister and batter at Rita and get her off balance and away from her charge.
Kukuru "Annie, you can't get so worked up like this! We need everyone to calm down! You, too, Liza!" Kukuru shouts through the roar of the multiple fights and all that crossfire going on, using the time-tested technique of shouting at people to calm down to full effect. Before she can get more words out, she releases her grip on Petra too soon when multiple bullets punch right into and through her arm, drawing a pained yelp from her that's making it harder to keep her cool. "I have a way, yep. I can get us home if you can fit in my clouds!"

Or what little cool Kukuru normally has under these kinds of situations, anyway (not a lot). She's probably not explaining the escape plan to Anita all that well with just that, but that's largely because she's still distracted facing off against Berislav and Petra. "I believe in Liza, too. She acts really tough, but... I know there's good in her, too! that's why Rita trusts her. That's why Remee's trusting her, too! Isn't that why you're both here?"

'She's a *monster*.'

"She's a person!" Kukuru snaps, sounding outright upset and almost angry for once/ It doesn't translate into swinging Berislav around any harder, though, or holding onto him for long before he's freed and delivers that flurry of strikes to her arms and torso that have Kukuru reeling again. "And so is Annie! Some people are just slower than-"

Speaking of slow, Kukuru's quite slow in her talking, and she's cut off by those bullets punching right into her with another bloody gurgling noise that her nanites have to work overtime just to keep her standing through. She's certainly lost a lot of blood already, more than a person probably should be able to lose and stay conscious through, undoubtedly kept this way through all that science bullshit pumping through her veins to keep her arms working even after they're bent the wrong way.

"If Annie wanted to... Didn't want to fix things, she wouldn't have asked for the Concord to come at all. She would've asked for dumber people that only care about money." Kukuru answers Berislav, looking and sounding like she genuinely believes what she's saying despite meeting Anita only less than an hour or so ago. Pushing herself back up unsteadily as those clips smash into her claws and knocks one of them right off, Kukuru lets the impact knock her backwards right into another cloud that puts her right in front of Berislav.

"Do you-ow.. Believe that one person more than you believe in everyone else?" Once again, she grabs for Berislav, but with the open hand. She's going for a leg this time, rearing back before aiming her throw downwards and diving in the same direction while flinging her other claw at Petra like a spiky steel cannonball. With herself (and possibly Berislav) hurtling through another inky cloud, Kukuru comes back out from the ceiling and towards the same cloud on the ground again. This goes on two more times before the next cloud opens up beneath Petra with the goal of smashing all three bodies right into each other to try and get the three of them even more tangled up.
Remee Halcyon Remee takes a couple more hits. "I'm pretty sure Anita started this - and yes, actually, talking to you for fifteen minutes was *enough*," she says, the latter directed towards Anita.

"I know enough about business that if you got into a contract you're regretting, it's your own damn fault, also!" She says as she brings up an arm to cover her face, trying to weather more of the assault, and give Rita more space to work with as a result, and doesn't realize that a shoulder tackle is incoming till it's too late and she gets checked out of the way.

"Where do you think you're- the elevator!"

The crossbow is dropped. Remee strides forward. There's likely incoming fire as she does so - she just simply takes it, focusing on advancing over avoiding hits.

"You call yourself Wisconsin, after the ship," she says as she approaches. "You should know, then - that I am the Big Bad Wolf."

She winds up, pulling her arm back.

"And I'll huff, and I'll puff..."

There's no outward sign, in mundane terms. But anyone with any sensitivity to magic could tell that Remee's channeling something.

"And I'll blow..."

She swings - not at Wisconsin. Not at Yorktown. But at the wall next to the elevator door, which cracks easily as her fist impacts it.

"This entire elevator column DOWN!"

She swings again. She's trying to cut off their escape - leaving them sitting ducks for Rita's followup...!
Rita Ma      "How many other girls do you think fell for that?"
     "I'm sorry, Ms. Greene. But I'm not as good as you think I am," Rita says, faux-demurely. It does get under her skin. The smoothness of her voice, at a time like this, can only be a coping mechanism. "She isn't the one who tricked me."

     She's advancing on the fallen Yorktown as Remee topples the elevator, but glances back over her shoulder at Wisconsin, expecting a retaliation. It comes. She's ready. Instead of making way, she charges Wisconsin through the fire.

     The missiles are, simply, too slow. It's hard to perceive the way Rita weaves and rolls around them, just skirting the radius of any proximity fuses and outpacing the expanding fireballs- she's just a blur, somehow never in the way of harm. She flicks back into invisibility again as she gets close, but she hardly needs to.

     There's the barrage of crushing physical blows again, each one ringing against steel like a car crash- they're enough to physically drive Wisconsin back, rumpling the metal floor under Rita's feet as she throws them- but that is, for all its fury, just a feint.

     An invisible tentacle slips over Wisconsin, angles around behind her, and strikes at Anita in her arms through a narrow opening like a viper lunging, gouging metal and flesh on its way in.

     It leaves behind a luminous blue venom that burns like acid, steadily corroding with a sizzling noise. But worse than that- if it finds Anita's flesh, it stabs into her, and then begins to parasitically drink. Something luminescent drains back through what looks like thin air towards Rita.
Father Berislav      "I truly am sorry, Kukuru. She didn't call you to fix anything," says Berislav firmly. "Nothing but her vendetta with Liza, and the storm she invited to her doorstep by cavorting with demons. When she has what she wants from you, expect that she'll begin preparing to destroy you, too."

>Do you believe in that person more than everyone else?

     "More than *anything* else." Grabbed by the leg, Berislav curls into a ball, displaying remarkable physicality to do so in midair. Clearly anticipating contact with the ground, he utters a grunt of surprise when he's brought through empty space.

     The first portal has him hyperextending his limbs, building distance. The second has him swinging, throwing his upper body forward and flexing his grappled leg in an exagerrated pullup, to rain down two elbow strikes on the top of Kukuru's head, before momentum carries him back down for the third.

     Colliding with Petra, he utters a grunt of exertion, rolling laterally with the impact from the moment he feels her, to minimize the force inflicted on the both of them. He makes a brief, ungainly lateral roll in midair upon the come-up, rolling free of the two of them.

     With the momentum from the impact working in his favor, the priest lands on one foot, the second finding its place as empty cylinders again swing open. Rather than create space, Berislav charges back towards her, running along the wall.

     One at a time, his guns twirl, the space in his palms created by twirling grips occupied by new moon clips, rolled elegantly up the rotating grips to snap neatly into place. Click-click.

     Springing off of the wall, Berislav launches a twirling overhead roundhouse, followed by a ribs-aimed snap kick with the left leg upon landing. Checking Kukuru's foot placement with a quick downwards shot, he immediately follows up with a sweep.
Petra Soroka "She's a person!"

    Petra, as a silent, involuntary rebuttal, glances over to the wall of fire separating her from the elevator shaft. She doesn't linger long on it--she can't, because looking in that direction only makes it all feel too real--but the shadowy figure methodically executing guards in the smoke sears its presence into her mind.

    "I--you can't try to be friends to both sides, here, Kukuru. She's already done her thing, with the nuke. It's happening, Anita lost. Grier is unstoppable, all of this fighting is pointless. It's just her slaughtering people." Petra is pleading at this point. She sounds more like a hostage than a Watch member.

    Petra dodges her swung claw, not making any motion to attack in return. She jumps around to avoid each of Kukuru's charges, revolver cylinder emptying to manufacture the maneuverability she needs. When Kukuru successfully collides with her, with Berislav in her arms, Petra braces herself against the ground to stand standing, and jumps back to avoid getting entangled in the pile.

    "And, you know, Rita wants this too." Petra hasn't looked back in Rita's direction since that brief eye contact. "And I--I trust her." The words catch in Petra's throat, but she can't tell whether it's from hesitation or nausea. Nausea at what Grier's doing. How is Rita any better? They're both mon--

    Petra flicks the cylinder of her revolver open, slams six more cartridges in, and twists the balls of her feet into the ground. When she unloads the bullets into Kukuru, she stays rigidly still, recoil kicking up dust around her rather than propelling her.

    "This is the side I'm on."
Liza Grier     "Not to them, Miss Kukuru." Anita says. "And if there's any good left in her, it's incidental. You'll never know unless you can find it, and you'll never find it unless you can talk; and there's no talking with her, because she carved and burnt out all the parts of her that could slow down her fucking crusade. Anything that could tug on her conscience; anything that could slow her down by a millisecond."

    She sighs, reaching for a holdout weapon. "They're all sucked into her wake now. They don't see anyone else here as people. Just 'evil choices' and 'systems'. They have the power to leave behind a heap of bodies and a smoking crater, and nothing good coming of it, and still feel good about themselves. Helping people is hard, and they only want to do easy things. That's why they're dangerous."

    In a short break in the shooting, she looks at Rita, weirdly sadly, and says "You can't trick someone who doesn't even think about you. Not really. Sooner or later you're going to be 'impure' to her too. Tainted and filthy. Like everyone else. And you won't even have time to notice when it happens."

    She screams, when Rita's tentacle burrows into her. Rita feels Anita's hands around the tendril, wrestling with it, gouging it with her fingernails, fighting for life. The woman grits her teeth with an agonized wheeze, hair plastered to her sweating forehead. The holdout gun tumbles from her hand the arm closest to the needle goes limp. Still, she fishes something from inside her shirt. Someone used to the nearness of death. Someone used to fighting monsters. Another autoinjector comes out, and at the last possible instant, she slams it into Rita's skin instead of herself. As if she knows exactly what to do in this situation, tentacles and all.

    Liza had once said something about feeding tentacles. Massive doses of extremely powerful hallucinogenic toxin might be Anita's own insurance, against gribbly flesh-eating space horrors, to try and buy her just a little more time. "Sides are bullshit." Anita raggedly gasps at Petra, pain thick in her voice. "Didn't you hear her? There's no such thing as a line. That means between you and me, either." She coughs violently. "Wisky . . . Kuku . . ."
Wisconsin     Wisconsin yelps as the werewolf tries to get past her and into the elevator herself, but manages to block the path just in time, slamming the side of her hull into Halycon's charge and skid herself backwards into the car itself. Stong legs get up and try to stomp Remee clear of herself, as Wisky's systems are fluttering. She can feel seams cracking in her superstructure, there's leaks forming in places where leaks shouldn't be... Her grip slips from Anita for a moment, and she catches herself-

    And then the tentacle sneaks in and snags Anita, and the Battleship is frantically shifting to try and get clear, get free. The motion drags the acid across her own frame, smearing a smouldering line across her command structures, but the damage is already done. She can't stay here, not like this. Not with Anita like this.

    She sees the needles come out, sees Anita make her own final efforts, but the Battleship slumps to put her charge into a full defensive curl, hugging the woman like a child, and hunkering her whole frame around her. "KUKUKU, WE NEED TO LEAVE!"

    Next to her, Yorktown has roused and is back to her feet. There's oil or blood leaking from cuts in her body, ruptured watertights somewhere in her systems. But still the Carrier persists, another wave of harassing aircraft launching from her decks, this time carrying MUCH heavier payloads. "STAY AWAY!" The words ring out like a foghorn from Yorktown, thundering in the air, rattling the whole of the facility, as she works the controls, and the elevator shudders, moving finally upwards.
Remee Halcyon > "STAY AWAY!"

"NO."

Remee takes yet more hits. She's unsteady on her feet. She did tell Rita to make sure to at least grab her head and get it clear if she dies here, right? ... Did she?

She thought about it really hard, at least.

Rita's a smart girl. She'll figure it out.

And anyway, aside from that 'no', she doesn't have the breath to say anything further - not to Rita, or Anita, or Wisconsin or Yorktown or anyone else. Not that there's much left to say at this point, but even so...

Everything she has right now is going into first priority: hitting the wall as hard as possible to make sure the elevator's entirely inoperable, and second priority: not dying yet.

A bit more. Just a bit more. Stay on your feet, hit harder, and focus on being the big bad wolf.
Kukuru "I... Can't believe that, Beri. Nobody that asks for help does it because they didn't really need it." Kukuru replies with a notable twinge of sadness in her voice, even hesitating  like she's trying to convince herself more than him. "If she was lying to us after all... Then I'll worry about that if she ever does anything with it. Someone needs to believe in her, even if nobody else will. People... Good people don't normally do that sort of thing."

Berislav's midair contortions once again help him escape from the worst of Kukuru's intended body-slamming maneuver, and he even gets several opportunities to work the head with his elbow strikes. By the time the multiple teleport-clouds send them towards Petra, Kukuru's lost enough of her grip that she's put into a worse position to defend from than both Berislav and Petra, forcing her back onto the defensive and scrambling for her claws just to have something to defend herself from the multitude of shots and kicks coming at her.

"Nngh... Why not, Petra? Everyone's doing things they think are right, so... Why not? If we could just get our heads together better, then... Then nobody would have to die, and I wouldn't have to come back to fix them later!" There's a clear frustration in her tone now as she replies to Petra, staying right in place and letting out a shrill noise when Petra's bullets start flying and Berislav comes in with his next flurry. Rather than trying to move past them, Kukuru holds her ground firmly, one claw wrenched from the ground to hold some of Berislav's kicks back while the other comes up to keep Petra's shots from tearing through her (again).

By now, though, it's probably painfully clear with each strike to the head, shot to chest, and kick in the ribs and legs that Kukuru herself isn't supernaturally tough. It's only her freakish healing ability that's keeping her from just passing out from so many concussions or bleeding out from all those bullet wounds that have already closed up from behind her clothes. Even that's getting strained by the constant wounds, though, as the repeated shots to center mass and her legs have Kukuru dropping flat on her ass with her hands on the ground behind her, hissing painfully while she lets her nanites work their way around her again.

It's also clear to even Kukuru that there's not a clean path out of this mess where the Watch leaves while Anita and everyone else here is left alone. That becomes even clearer when she hears Anita screaming suddenly and Wisconsin shouting at her, naturally getting Kukuru to look in her direction at what's going on. "Annie? Wisky...? Ow, ow... I-I'm coming!" Instead of trying to throw herself back into that battle against Petra and Berislav, Kukuru instead just drops right onto her back, opening up yet another portal beneath herself.

This time, her destination is next to Anita, laying there for a moment before sitting up with one hand reaching for Rita's tentacle and the other reaching for Anita's head. "Shh... Sh. Easy, Annie. I'm here. Everything's gonna be okay." She speaks softly, trying to reassure her and Wisconsin. "Stay back, everyone. I didn't want to have to do this, but...!" Kukuru inhales, then holds her hands out as ominous energy clouds spring into existence all around the place. One starts opening up beneath herself, then Wisconsin, then Yorktown, and finally Anita.

For those that have worked with Kukuru before, it's probably clear that the only actual exit from that last set of cloud is going to go anywhere but here. They're opening up far more slowly than usual, though, giving ample time to interrupt the process!
Rita Ma      "Sooner or later you're going to be 'impure' to her too."
     Explosions and shells haven't made Rita flinch, but those words do. "That's- that's not true. It's not. If I were going to be, I would be already."
     "Tainted and filthy. Like everyone else."
     "It's not!! Ms. Grier isn't-"
     "And you won't even have time to notice when it happens."
     Is that... true? She's known Ms. Grier longer than I have. And I don't really deserve Ms. Grier's love, do I? It'd be natural.

     Rita's having a bad day already before she gets injected with Anita's hallucinogens. She looks almost like she might cry. When she feels the needle prick, her eyes go wide; she pulls the cloaked tentacle back, briefly revealed as floating bloodstains before it's re-woven into her human disguise.

     The aircraft sting at her; one knocks her off-balance, too perturbed to proeprly see it coming. The next few that come at her are just clipped out of the air by invisible appendages, though- Rita has point defenses too.

     All the while, she circles Wisconsin warily, like she's trying to find an opening. But the ones she sees, she doesn't take. "It's not like that. It- it just isn't. Please stop... saying things like that, Ms. Greene." It's such a strange position, pleading with someone you're about to kill.

     Even so, when they break for the elevator, something- maybe the fear of failure- makes Rita sprint after them. Remee's certain to make it inoperable, but just being in that confined space with them is ideal for Rita.

     She leaps in, pale and wavery and still on the verge of tears, with a gunshot-fast punch to Yorktown's jaw that's forceful enough to dent the metal of the wall behind her, and designed to throw her away from Kukuru's teleportation cloud. Twisting, she throws a similarly bone-shattering hook at Wisconsin, with the same aim.

     She reaches for Anita, next, grabbing her arm with an unearthly strength to haul her away from the cloud. But Rita looks through her. What is she hallucinating? It's impossible to know, but from her expression of panicked, faltering doubt, one could maybe guess.

     Instead of attacking, Rita reaches up and keys her radio.
Wisconsin     Wisky and Yorktown, as mighty as they once were on the seas, cannot put up with the combined assaults of a pair of trained Watch operatives, it seems.

    Wisconsin, still clutching to Anita to the end, crumples to the floor of the elevator, one of her hulls caved in, a turret spinning limply off its rotors.
    Yorktown's face is likewise smashed, and she's limp against the wall, and her carrier deck vanishes back into digital mist.

    Warning klaxons sound from both girls, and they pop smoke, quite literally, heavy white fog suddenly surrounding the pair from enemy view as their retrieval alerts are engaged.
Petra Soroka     Petra lowers her gun, tears stinging in her smoke-irritated eyes. The battle sounds like it's resolving, in her--in Liza's favor. The growing gaps between the sounds of Liza's victims leaves a perfect moment of quiet for Anita's scream to cut through, and Petra sharply inhales, air rasping loudly through her mask.

    She looks helplessly at Anita, starts to say, "I--" then turns sharply away once she notices Rita.

<J-IC-Scene> Rita Ma says, shakily, "Ms. Grier?"
<J-IC-Scene> Rita Ma says, "Would you-" A little cough. "Would you still love me if I didn't kill her?"


    Petra sighs, sagging in relief. "See? It's over, Kukuru. She doesn't have to die. No one did. She just needs to go, so Grier can feel comfortable with how this co-op is developing."

    Petra's legs give out under her, and she collapses into a sitting position near Kukuru. "I hate this. I hate this so much. But at least--"

<J-IC-Scene> Rita Ma hotmics a godawful crunching, slurping noise.

    Petra rips off her headset and throws it as hard as she can, then buckles over and vomits.
Rita Ma <J-IC-Scene> Rita Ma sniffles quietly.
<J-IC-Scene> Rita Ma says, shakily, "Ms. Grier?"
<J-IC-Scene> Liza Grier says, "On-site."
<J-IC-Scene> Liza Grier says, ". . . What is it?"
<J-IC-Scene> Rita Ma says, "Would you-" A little cough. "Would you still love me if I didn't kill her?"
<J-IC-Scene> Liza Grier says, ". . ."
<J-IC-Scene> Liza Grier says, "I don't think I'd stop."
<J-IC-Scene> Rita Ma makes a little hiccup, the kind that's a quarter of a way to a sob.
<J-IC-Scene> Rita Ma sighs a tiny little sigh. "Okay. Thank you, Ms. Grier."
<J-IC-Scene> Rita Ma hotmics a godawful crunching, slurping noise.

     There are suddenly a half-dozen holes through Anita's head, torso, and limbs. There is no obvious cause, as if they were just made by telekinesis. Each is wide enough to fit your forearm through.

     Her soul leaves through them as glowing blue motes, flowing back towards Rita. Only then is her body allowed to crumple to the floor.

     Coughing and lightly blood-spattered, but human-passing once again, Rita steps out of the smoke-filled elevator and finds a wall to collapse against. She still sniffles, but a little less than before. Soon she'll be ready to be brave again.
Liza Grier     'It's not like that. It- it just isn't. Please stop...'

    "No . . . !" Anita gasps, raggedly, rolling herself from Wisconsin's arms now that she realizes her cover is shredded, slamming something into her thigh to stay on her feet and staggering for Kukuru's portal. "Don't fucking . . . tell me what I can say! You were never going to listen! You were never going to even entertain talking for a second! You came here under her fucking thrall! You decided that things would be this way, decided that I'd get this far just to die, you decided that nobody would get what they fought for, and all the misery and death from here on out is something you decided, for no reason other than you were better at killing, not building, than I was!"

    "Do me the fucking dignity of not . . . of not trying to decide what I think and feel and say while you're fucking killing me! While you rip it all away from us and tell us why we don't deserve it! Do me the fucking decency of not being even worse than the people I fought!"

    Rita keys the radio. Anita looks to Kukuru. Her body sags pitifully on one side. Her fingers are balled into her bloody side. Tears of frustration run down her cheeks. She stifles a hiccup, where Kukuru's hand reaches for her.

    'Everything's gonna be okay.'

    "No. No it's not going to be okay." she says. "I sold my soul to that woman. To that demon called Liza Grier. She was always going to collect one day; I knew that. She reaps every soul that's ever been put in her hands, and I made the mistake of thinking I'd be different." She coughs up blood in saying it. Her tears mingle and blur pink as they reach her chin. "That's what I get for trying to make everyone's dreams come true by bargaining with the Devil. Please. If you care at all. Don't let them get away with it. I know they're stronger, and scarier, and-- they always were. They always were always more powerful than us. But-- I'm begging you, please. Don't let it all be for nothing. Please--"

    Whatever her last words were going to be are lost to so many invisible tentacles she had no possible hope of outrunning. Her body collapses into Kukuru's arms, still warm.
Remee Halcyon Remee sags against the wall she was hitting.

"... Oh, oh good... it's over..."

She shrinks. She's meant to go to one of her upright, bipedal forms, but sheer exhaustion option-select-forces her into the form that takes less effort to stay standing, and which is mildly more socially acceptable to just flop over onto her side with.

"I'm going to just..."

"... take ten here, I think..."

> "Don't let it all be for nothing. Please--"

"... Kukuru, don't-" she says, trying to get back up to her feet, and only somewhat succeeding. "She didn't mean-"

She tries to think of what to say, and comes up blank. This has just been... horrible all around.
Father Berislav      Annie's protests fall on deaf ears--Berislav hears them only because his ears work, but he entertains them not at all. "It is easy for you to talk of destruction, when you spent this entire time preparing for war. Rest assured--the workers will know of what you've done, and what *they* have built will live without you, in spite of you."

     Kukuru's choice would satisfy the priest--if not for the words she used with Petra. 'Come back later and fix them.' "'If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.'" When Rita grabs Annie, Berislav's body is a whirlwind of motion.

     His arms bend and flick like waves, his feet constantly shifting, twisting at the waist. Nine bullets, heavy grain, fully jacketed, form a complex interwoven helix on their way to Kukuru.

     Three curve like uppercuts, skirting at their deepest point into the cloud and curving up to hit her. Three dance angular, erratic trajectories, zipping harmlessly past Rita and Remee to punch into Kukuru. Three trace the most direct path to her.

     Casings and moon clips ping against the battered floor. One solitary bullet rolls up his palm, along the handle, into the cylinder of the left gun. The bullet is lighter, sent straight to her--this one hollow point, meant for stopping power, to knock her flat long enough for Rita to finish it.

     Both massive guns are shoved into subspace, the priest turning and breaking into a run. His palms out, he calls Isaiah, leaping into the air in time for the mech's ribcage-cockpit to swallow him, disappearing into the dimly let red-washed space.

     A proclamation through the loudspeakers follows, as the pilot, inside, jabs himself with an autoinjector. The mech crosses the line of noxious gases.

     "You have been deceived. The money which you worked so hard for was misappropriated by the leader of your council--put towards weapons of war. The rumors you have heard about her involvement with cults and organized crime are true. The former security members in the co-op were not there out of kindness and goodwill, but as insurance against reprisals from someone with your best interests at heart. As insurance for her desire to elevate herself and her family above the rest of you." By now, Liza is probably done with her own work. The heavy footfalls of Isaiah reverberate through the larger room.

     "When this was brought to her attention, Anita claimed that it was her work, above all of yours, which made this possible--and when she was asked to make all of this right, she roundly refused, putting that responsibility upon the very people she moments ago dismissed. We found that to be unacceptable--and put it at issue. She has been removed from your co-op by force. By no means is this a sign that you should lose faith, however."

     "I believe in what *you* built, and so should you. If you believe in that dream, you have nothing to fear--but take heed from her example. As Ananias and his wife Sapphira were struck dead by the Holy Spirit for withholding from the commune of the Disciples, so is the fate of any would-be leader, who would make themselves rich at the expense of their neighbors. Go with God."
Kukuru After everything, Kukuru doesn't have nearly enough power left in her hands to keep Anita from getting yanked away by Rita. With her attempt at a ruse failing spectacularly, the clouds blinks out of existence one after the other, and she slumps back down in a state of utter exhaustion. All she can really manage to do at that point is keep her hand over Anita's face, keeping her jaw clenched tightly to try and give her at least something that looks barely pleasant in her last moments. There's a feeble attempt at stopping those invisible tentacles when she feels them coming by her, and she can only guess at what they are when she feels Anita's life leaving her body.

It's not hard to guess who did it, judging from that look on Rita's face. "It's... Okay. It won't be for..." Even after Anita's passes, Kukuru keeps stroking what's left of her, tears streaking down her face while she keeps that overly forced smile on. Looking over at Petra, she leans over to stroke her back softly while she's still around, managing a slow nod only after she's already started puking. "It... It really does. Y-yeah. But it's... We can still go home after this. She..."

It takes most of her strength just to get back up, ready to head over to where Yorktown and Wisconsin are. Berislav makes that relatively easier for her, though, as his all of bullets keep coming and striking her one after the other. Blood gets drawn again, and there's a sickening arterial spray as the last six beat her back far enough that she's conveniently floored right next to where Wisconsin and Yorktown are.

If nothing else, she can ensure their safety at the end of the day. "You two... D-did good. Don't worry, I remember where..." Reaching over to press her hands against their cheeks, she feeds some of her nanites into their bodies to heal them up however little she can, then closes her eyes as another teleportation cloud opens up beneath the two. It'll take them back to their home where they had that party so long ago!

Kukuru herself, though, stays right there, and no other clouds appear to be forthcoming. She might not actually be conscious after all of that, at least for the time being.
Rita Ma      Rita's human eyes are fake. Those can't cry. But the real eyes beneath the disguise can. Tears ooze through the seams in her morphic tentacle wrappings.

     Father Berislav's announcement brings a little smile to her face, at least. She can try to believe the things he's saying. It's nicer to.

     It's in that spirit that she's able to wave at the collapsed Remee, feebly, and pull her smile a little wider in a silent 'good job'.

     But her real focus is on Kukuru, collapsed in the elevator. Rita snakes a cloaked tentacle out to retrieve her satchel, tossed Liza-ward, and then digs around in it for gauze. Those nanites still work while Kukuru's unconscious, don't they? But bandaging and cleaning her wounds can't be bad.

     It's an expression of care, anyway. Kukuru seemed like she could use one of those.

     There's no obvious evac forthcoming, so Rita scoops the fallen woman up in her arms and starts to tote her to safety, instead. Liza's ship has a teleporter. From there, the Grand Dorado's address is public.

     "You did a good job, too, Ms. Kukuru," Rita murmurs, not knowing if she's being heard. "I'm so sorry."