Scene #9080: Hunter X Hunter X Monster

Owner	Pose
Angela	Not so long ago, Solace asked Madeleine if she wanted to go on a hunt together. This was unusual since Solace rarely ever asks anyone to go on her jobs with her. It is even more unusual because she asked Rita Ma to come along as well, someone who is... well, arguably you can call her a Monster Hunter, sure! She gives no reason, she simply asked her along for the job and doesn't explain, as usual. The mission comes from a mine near the outskirts of X Corp that contracts to L Corp and X Corp. Apparently the successful mission at Lobcorp Land is resulting in some bigger jobs for the Trideag Association. The miners themselves are contract workers struggling to make ends meet and recently, according to their employers of the day, monsters have been infesting the lower levels of the mines and attacking and killing miners. They were able to flee without losing too many people thanks to assistance from the Spearnet Office, but if something isn't done about the monsters soon they'll likely lose their jobs. A warpgate has opened nearby so Solace is electing to use that method to arrive rather than waste money on a train ticket. Solace hasn't explained her frugality but considering she has two dependents, it isn't too tough to figure out. She pops a lozenge in her mouth, expecting to need to talk more than usual but she still speaks in a very soft voice, "I already paid a visit. They'll meet us up front but once we get into the mines it should be abandoned." She looks to Rita for a long moment with that dead-eye stare of hers before turning to Madeleine. "These ones are called 'Gnomes'. They typically attack factories, mines, and villages. No psionic or telepathic power, but they've plenty of brute strength." She draws out a sketch that Soothe made and offers it to Madeleine, then to Rita. It looks a bit like: https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/limbuscompany/images/7/76/Blackgnome.png/revision/latest?cb=20240528212011 but without the festive garb. "Get much bigger than this, attack in packs. If you've any questions..." She'll listen to whatever questions Madeleine and Rita have, and answer as best she can but either way once they are through the Warp Gate...
Angela	Despite being called 'The City', it isn't entirely urban. As common as such environments are, there's plenty of rural areas even within the city limits and this area is no exception. Rather than a large metropolis, there's only a few smattering of buildings from where you step out of the warpgate and plenty of trees. There's some warehouses, what looks like a residential dorm for the workers, a tool shed, and a few other buildings scattered about. A pair of trucks idle near the dorm and a few miners are idling by near them. One of them sees the trio and approaches, a large man with a doughy belly and thick arms and is wearing a dark stained tanktop with bandages all across his left arm which are wholly obscuring the injuries there, as well as having a gauze pad across his left eye. The other workers seem to be various levels of 'banged up' but the person meeting up with you seems the worst of it. He has dark red hair and gray eyes. "Hey. Name's Beom Seok. You here for the job?" "Mm. Is it just us?" "Ah...yeah. We already couldn't afford Spearnet so we thought we'd try the new Association." Beom Seok says before taking a good look at Madeleine. "Ain't seen eyes like that before..." He then glances to Rita and swallows nervously, not even hiding it. "Ah...ma'am... So you came..." "You asked." Solace says simply enough. The temperature is rather chilly, though it isn't snowing nor is it cold enough to require special wear--just enough to be uncomfortable for someone like Solace who shakes out her Trideag uniform to try and shake off the lingering chill. She doesn't seem to have any other questions so Beom Seok takes a breath and looks to Madeleine. "Any other...questions? I can show you to where the mine is. We parked a tractor out front so they wouldn't get to the surface but they haven't made a move to."
Madeleine Cadrasteia	Madeleine arrives with a backpack literally overflowing with hunting tools both mundane and esoteric. She's got a geiger counter, a bear trap, spare flashlights, you name it - even a canary in a little cage hanging off one side of the pack (because she heard she'd be going into a mine). "Hey Rita! Feels like it's been a bit. How're things on the island?" When Solace shows off the drawing a note of concern sneaks onto Madeleine's face, but her rapid-fire questions betray some underlying excitement. "That weapon it's holding... is tool use common among Gnomes? Are they smart enough to set traps? And what can you tell us about why or when they show up someplace? Do they just go wherever there's food?" "Ain't seen eyes like that before..." Madeleine bounces her eyebrows up and down. "It's supposed to be a bad omen. Let's hope it's bad for the gnomes specifically, heh. Name's Madeleine," she says, holding out her left hand for a shake. After a moment she notices all the bandages again and quickly switches to offer her right instead. "Any other...questions?" Madeleine raises a hand. How polite! "You've blocked them in with a tractor - is it just big and bulky enough to cover the entrance, or are they scared of lights and noises or something?" She rubs her gloved palms together, slowly. "'Side from that I'd like to get in there and have a look myself, really."
Rita Ma	Rita shows up in a cute short-sleeved jacket-shirt-skirt combo with sneakers, her recent go-to for signalling I'm here to work hard! Not that outfit practicality matters when it's all tentacles, but sending the message is important. "Hi, Ms. Solace! Are the kids doing okay?" The way her little hands ball up shows she's trying so hard not to hug Solace immediately. "Aww. I love Soothe's drawings... he hasn't seen one himself, has he? That'd be sort of scary." "Oh! And hi, Ms. Madeleine! Hi, bird! She's a little anxious, but she can still push out a smile. "Things on the island... everything's pretty perfect! We're finding out how the big tree feels about winter, and getting everybody's homes insulated. People say it might even snow." "They'll meet us up front but once we get into the mines it should be abandoned." "Mmmm! I'll unravel inside, then." 'Unravel', not 'transform'. Questions...? Rita doesn't want to tax Solace's throat too much, so she keeps it short: "How fast are they? It doesn't look like they have a lot of reach, so..." If they aren't zippy, Rita (of the thirty-foot blender aura) might have an easy time. - - - - "It's nice to meet you, Mr. Beom. I'm Rita Ma, star of the city," she says to someone who definitely knows who she is, with less than her usual perkiness. She'd go for a handshake normally, but it doesn't look like he'd take that well, so instead she shallowly waist-bows politely. "Did you ask for me specifically? I'm sorry to hear you've been having a hard time." Don't look at his wounded arm. Don't. Rita, expecting small hints of dried blood, does her best not to breathe through her nose... but then it tantalizes her tongue instead, and she has to swallow drool, and-- "Um, can you give us a map of the mine, so we can be sure we've cleared everything?" After that, she carries on along, and- "hup!"- lifts up the rear end of the tractor with one hand to scoot it aside, when they come to it.
Angela	''Is tool use common amongst Gnomes? Are they smart enough to set traps?'' Solace has answers for all of these questions. "Mm. They'll grab whatever they can find or make their own. Same with traps. Nothing too fancy, they stick to primitive stuff but can be pretty effective anyway." She is a little slower to answer the other question, like she hadn't really had to stop and think about their motivation before. After taking just that little extra moment she huffs out a quick breath, rolling her shoulders back and saying, "Far as I could tell, just liked killing humans. They'll eat the bodies but they'll eat anything." She wrinkles her nose and adds, "Don't know if they engage the City differently, but in the Outskirts they'll just go after you for existing." ''He hasn't seen one himself, has he?'' These are easier answers for Solace too. She gives Rita a nod, then kind of gives her another look once her outfit gets past her Hunting Brain into her actual brain. "Ah." Solace takes a moment to remember what she was goin to say. "Cheer snuck out. Grounded now. Says 'What's different than not being grounded?'. Tough." Solace sighs. "...Soothe's seen them." Her grip on her axe tightens slightly but after rubbing at her throat she adds, "Varied. Small ones quick. Big ones slow but tough." She quiets down a bit after that. A lozenge only does so much. - - - Beom Seok shakes Madeleine's hand, if a bit hesitantly--no doubt thanks to her answer about her eyes--but he says, "Well it isn't perfect, but we've got some crossbows and it blocks most of it. If I knew how to fight 'em, I wouldn't hire Fixers--" He hesitates and then admits, "I'd hire Fixers anyway. I'm no Hunter." He nods and intends to lead them on. Along the way, he does seem willing to communicate with Rita at least, though he doesn't go for a handshake and is staying closer to Solace than either Madeleine or Rita. "Mr. Beom...?" He murmurs, then more loudly. "Rita. Like Pearl..." He slows to bow to her, though it's a hasty one, reaching into his pocket to offer Rita a folded up map of the mine. "Little out of date, we've done more digging--" ''Did you ask for me specifically?'' He freezes entirely, doesn't answer for a moment and then after swallowing manages to say, "R..right... I think, um, X Corp wanted to see how you'd work as a Fixer..." quietly. He is about to get into the tractor to move it but Rita beats him to it. His jaw drops open and he just stares all while she moves it out of the way. He puts the keys to the tractor back in his pocket. "Y..yeah... You can go right on through there..." His voice is hoarser than Solace's. "Don't worry, she's a bright star." Solace asides to the miner but this doesn't seem to help, ducking her way in.
Angela	The mine itself is quiet. There isn't any trouble near the entrance, at least, but Solace is moving slowly, scanning around ever corner and keeping her weapon out in front of her. She even pauses to look at Madeleine to see if she's giving the go-ahead before moving along as well. She doesn't seem worried--why would she be? She's a capable Huntress and so is Madeleine and Rita moved a tractor with one hand. There's numerous paths to take but Rita's map has a few spots marked with an X to indicate where monster attacks happened and there's a skull marker deep down below and to the leftmost of the map with the word 'gas' written on it. The air is cool. Light is provided by little lamps dotting the cavern walls. Once you get out of entranceways, you start to see extensive networks with catwalks bridging various portions of the mine. There's many places an ambush can come from. Rita mostly smells little speckles of dried blood here and there. Not much more than what was on the miner's arm (though there was plenty more inside of him). Madeleine can see some discarded pickaxes, drills, and other assorted equipment. A dead gnome is still lying on one of the catwalks, numerous amateurish wounds dotting its hide but there's only one this far up. "Probably killed by the miners when they were fleeing." Solace can only guess.
Madeleine Cadrasteia	"They just like killing humans, huh..." Madeleine taps her chin as she walks into the mine with the other Fixers. "You know, that's not as common as you'd think, at least not on most worlds. If they don't see people as a food source, then they might see us as competition. That means they're only showing up because they're being flushed out from somewhere else... We should keep an eye out for possible food sources, get a sense of what - if anything - these gnomes eat." She walks next to Rita, shining one of her flashlights on the map to get a clearer view of the scrawlings than her night-vision would allow. "There's bound to be a pattern to these attack sites. Either they're centered around some central gnome point - a gnode or a gnexus, if you will - or they're on the move in a certain direction. That might just be 'up' but even that's useful info." As the huntress prowls the mine corridors, she spies a dead gnome up on a catwalk. "I'll be right back, gonna check that out," she says, pointing up to the corpse. If she can't find a ladder or stairs, she'll muster her strength for a high jump and try not to bash her head on the tunnel ceiling. Once she's up by the body, she pulls out her hunting knife and calls out to the Fixers below, "Hey, uh, might wanna hold your nose. I don't know what these smell like inside." It may not be exactly fresh, but if the innards haven't been plundered by scavenging beasts there may still be something in there she can use. She cuts diligently and carefully, first looking for anything resembling a liver for her divinations and then poking holes in organs until she finds the stomach. She's after two things - whatever this gnome's last meal consisted of, and any lingering memories in the thing's guts. If these gnomes came from somewhere, one of them's bound to know where that was, whether some kind of nest or a longer migration route.
Rita Ma	"Mmmm..." Rita says ponderously, tilting her head away to jostle more thoughts loose as she walks. "How's the babysitter been working out for Cheer and Soothe? Ms. Rook assigned them one, right? It's made me really happy to see them around Apple Tree Island! I--" Beat. Right, the throat. She tilts her head back in and smiles sheepishly. "... Sorry. We can text about it later!" - - - - The miner baffles her twice in a row. "Mr. Beom...?" "What's wrong? Did they switch where the family name goes?" "Rita. Like Pearl..." "Huh? Who's Pearl?" She holds in a single-syllable laugh and smiles at him, arms crossed behind her back, a second later. "I don't plan on 'doing fixer work'. That's just a way to turn money into violence, right? But I'm happy to help people like you." But soon they're heading in. "See you soon, Mister... Seok?" she guesses blindly, and scoots the tractor back after herself, sealing the mine behind the party. The poor kindly miner is privileged to hear a barely-muffled slllrrrkk, glrsh, whip-crack from the other side of the tractor. Maddie and Solace's eyes are liable to adjust to the dimmer cave-light in time to see the girl-in-the-white-fused-dress, subtly-dark-veined and unsubtly-sharp-toothed. The tentacles that arc-swish lazily around them are only gradually un-pretending to be Rita's old skin, clothes, hair. The human girl's eyes stare dully from a strip of flesh before they revert to jelly-blue meat. And look! There's a dead gnome right there! That's perfect for her powers! She could-- "I'm not eating that. I don't know how old it is," Rita says apologetically. She takes a moment to head-tilt-think, blonde hair spilling over her a dress-fused collarbone. Even like this, her body language and voice are unchanged. "We ought to go to where the miners have been attacked, I think. That's a good first step. Once I get one, I can probably help us find the others." And barring Maddie giving a better idea, she's off towards the nearest X, tentacles float-swaying along behind her!
Angela	''Huh? Who's Pearl?'' Beom says, regarding his name. "Ah nothing. Not just used to being referred to like that. As for Pearl--it's short for margaritari, which means Pearl, right? ... uh, sorry. It's just a hobby of mine." He looks a glittle guilty when Rita says she's happy to help people like him. Terribly guilty. ''You know, that's not as common as you'd think, at least not on most worlds.'' Solace shrugs. "If they've other reasons ... don't know them." Solace had a hard enough time growing as comfortable with Rita as she is now, it's going to be a long time before she is too concerned about the personhood of the creature that routinely terrorized her home. There IS a ladder, but it's bent and partially mishapen. The superjump seems like a safer bet. Despite Solace not being too concerned about the personhood of gnomes, she is not so unconcerned that the idea of tearing open a corpse of one fails to make her grimace. Reading the entrails shows a history of rage and hate that has fueled this creature its whole life, passed down from Manager Gnome to Worker Gnome. These are creatures that mimic the work of humanity but nonetheless loathe them severely. There's plenty of stories in the guts. Of men who step outside of their City to infringe on their territory. And so it is only fair to do the same. Of villages that are an affront to the world that humanity left behind. This gnome is young. It does not know the specifics of what happened in those days, but the hate has been passed down from as far back as an ancient war between mankind and monsters. It has been passed down. It has learned well. There's a memory of warpgate out from the Outskirts. An opportunity to kill those nasty humans and make them think twice about pushing out from their so called safe haven. It seems like it took a warp gate out from the Outskirts then used another one to get in through here. As did others. There's memories of at least twenty. As they head towards the nearest X, the smell of blood becomes more pronounced. Human. Monster. Was there more of a fight than the miners initially suggested? The air is thick enough with it and the hints of gas that it's tough to get a clearer read. Getting closer. Madeleine's canary seems fine. Not quite woozy, but it seems agitated. The geiger counter is silent. Solace gestures for one of the spare flashlights. There's a few ambush points MAdeleine can see that it might be a good place to drop a bear trap if she'd like,she can count three entrances on the map she's looking at, assuming it's accurate. Rita also catches a faint whiff of smoke. Solace tensely holds her axe in front of her with one hand and the flashlight with the other. Rita sees and a small group of gnomes, huddling together in the dark in the center of the cave. There's some gleaming rock jutting out of the walls and bits and pieces of other metal just jutting out of walls at irregular angles. There's a lot of ambush points and blindspots amongst the rock here, especially from up about twenty feet up where there's more catwalks and jutting rock. The air is thick with the variety of scents, there's a lot more monster and human blood up above, though pinpointing precisely where is tough.
Madeleine Cadrasteia	"Okay, so," Madeleine calls down from the gantry, "this is the part where you might think I'd say I have good news and bad news. I'm afraid that what I've got is bad news and worse." She hops down from the catwalk and begins following the other two deeper into the mine. "First the bad: hese things got here by taking warpgates twice. Which means they... know how to use warpgates. That's not so good. What's worse, there's some kind of ancient grudge deal going on. A cultural feud, generational enmity passed down a hierarchy. Which means these things are organized, too. This isn't a territorial dispute between people and animals." She pauses, sniffs. "This is a war." Madeleine falls silent as the party enters gnome-attack territory. She holds up a finger when she spots the huddle of gnomes in the center of the cavern, a silent call for a pause. "That's bait," she whispers. "They want us out in the open. If we want to get anywhere with the things we have to put on a strong first impression, can't let them think we're weak or easy to fool. I think we should try to get up above," she says, pointing to the upper-level gantries. "I'll see if there's a ladder I could lower down. Or, Solace, would you be alright with Rita giving you a lift? I'd offer but you're bigger than me and I don't want to drop you." Without really waiting for an answer, Madeleine kicks off the ground, her eyes sparkling in the dim light. She floats directly upward until she reaches one of the catwalks, then grabs the railing, hauls herself over the top, and gently allows gravity to reassert its hold on her. Drawing her spear, she begins to search for a way to let the other two join her up above in case Rita isn't able to reach that high with her tentacles.
Rita Ma	"'Margaritari'"... Rita murmurs under her breath, while navigating the tunnels. The word enchants her a little. "Is that what mom was thinking?" Then she remembers things about her mother, shivers in a way the mine's coolness can't explain, and decides to stop thinking about that. "I don't like this," she says a little later, hugging herself with two tentacles. "There's a lot more human blood down here. The miners didn't mention anyone dying, did they...? But I feel like there's more than they could've lost..." Her pupils are a little too dilated, but she still moves gently. Four of her tentacles fan out like feelers to hedge against any sudden ambushes; one more wraps around Solace's arm and squeezes tenderly to reassure her, as if Rita had forgotten that the clammy tendril wasn't a hand. "That is bad, Ms. Madeleine. We ought to go back and hunt them at the source sometime. Or at least clog up this Warpgate..." A moment later: "Mmm. Well, if it's a war, I know whose side I'm on." "I think we should try to get up above..." "Mmmm! That sounds like a good idea. Ms. Solace, can I carry you?" Rita offers a princess-carry to the Fixer, and then (hopefully with Solace in tow!) easily makes the however-many-feet hop up to the catwalks above with barely a noise of effort. From there, if there aren't any immediately pressing threats on the catwalks, she can probably just slam the Gnomes clustered below with a concussive hand-beam of light from dead above that, unless they're quite tough, is liable to pulverize them into smoothie consistency. It feels almost dismissively mean.
Angela	''Okay, so.'' Solace listens carefully to Madeleine but for all the horror that fills her heart when thinking of monsters using warpgates to get into the City, she cannot help but ask, "You got all that from guts...?" with a mix of disbelief and awe. But she doesn't argue with the conclusion. Especially not the last one. She frowns at Madeleine's conclusion that this seems to be an attempt to lure them out in the open but nods her agreement to let Rita carry her up. ''Well, if it's a war, I know whose side I'm on.'' Solace takes a long look at Rita on that. A bright star, she had said, but she's not sure she'll ever understand why it comes so easily for her. How many times would she have to fight for the people of this City before they recognize her as more than a Star to fell? The people of the City aren't entirely unreasonable but she knows there's Fixers out there that would consider glory enough reason to kill her. If it wasn't for Soothe and Cheer, Solace suspects she'd be one of them. Once all three of them get on the catwalk, various blindspots become no longer blindspots. If Rita wants, she can readily blast those Gnomes to bits with a single kamehameha but... There is trouble up there. The smoke is thicker up there but more to the point, the source of all that extra human and monster blood is made immediately apparent. About six Fixers, geared up with spearguns and strange looking cannons are up there hiding in the blindspots, some are on the catwalks themselves, others are hanging against the rock face. They WERE looking down, but when the trio get up there, their attention is immediately diverted. And that's not the only one, there's six more Fixers up above, weapons pointed down toward the trio. And that smoke trail leads off to another corner. A tall woman--6'3--smoking a pipe and wearing a black jacket and a vibrant purple shirt, purple tattoos visible across her wrist and neck. Her pants are a simple darker brown and she has black boots on as well. Her dark brown hair trails behind her back and a golden chain is around her neck and there's a second around her waist. She blows smoke out and the Fixers immediately open fire. Three spears, an electrified net, and two brightly colored paint globules are launched towards Rita. Solaces bats away one of the spears with her axe. Her expression is one of confused stoicism. Madeleine isn't left alone. Several spears are launched towards her as well, including another electrified net. "Tonight A Star Shall Fall!" One of the Spearnet Fixers shouts, just to prove this isn't some kind of mistake.
Angela	"So that's the lady that gave Diego trouble huh? ... The Book of Vengeance calls for three corpses." The tall woman in purple says, stepping out onto the catwalk. "So much for ambushing them from above." And in a sudden burst of movement, she darts towards Solace and gets her in the gut with a punch while she's distracted, knocking her into the edge of the catwalk's safety railing-- --and off it when it snaps from the force. "Commend your loyalty to your teammate. Most people would be mad at a Monster Hunter for teaming up with a Monster, but personally that's their business. Me? I'm here cause you took out some of our guys. I'm egalitarian like that. Name's Tanya." She slides off her shades, showing a pair of yellow eyes. "Big Sister of the Middle. Take your punishment like good girls, won'tcha?" __________________________________________________________ \|ARNING-WARNING-WARNING-WARNING-WARNING-WARNING-WARNING W\| ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯\|=\|THE MIDDLE\|=\|¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯ ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯ BIG SISTER __________________________________________________________ \|ING-WARNING-WARNING-WARNING-WARNING-WARNING-WARNING-WARN\| ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯ BGM: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9qnDuPGsLCQ A purple aura crackles dangerously around her as she continues pushing forward towards Madeleine, intent on disposing of Rita's 'backup' first.
Rita Ma	Oh! More Fixers here to help! Rita takes a step forward. Then she notices a spear pointed at her. Her gut drops, eyes widening. Beom's guilty look a minute ago- Clark Miller's spear through her chest ten months ago- the fearful stares of a crowd years ago- all cut through her again, rooting her to the spot with her blood run cold. 'Monster, monster'. And they're right. How could I fight back? What right do I have? One spear pierces through a drifting tentacle; another stabs her shoulder, seeping slightly off-color blood. It's hard to tell how much the electric net impairs her, but that wraps around her arms, and the two paint-globs both hit her body. She ought to cry out in pain, but instead there's just a little "ah-!!" that, in its soft surprise, already contains fatalistic acceptance. Most of her tentacles are idly, dazedly limp, sprawled out across the catwalks like a great flower. Her head's swimming, but she does notice Solace out of the corner of her eye; one draping tentacle, steered by a glimmer of clarity, wraps around Solace's waist mid-plummet and sets her gently down on her feet on the ground. "The... the 'book of vengeance'? The net still crackles around her forearms, and from where she's half-collapsed on the catwalk, Rita's glance upwards at Tanya is innocently and almost sleepily dazed. "I-- I don't get it. Please, stop it. Why... why are you hurting them?" Go! Run! Attack them! Something, anything! part of her screams at the rest. But the sinking weight in her gut is heavy enough to pin her in place.
Madeleine Cadrasteia	The electrified net falls over Madeleine's form, and three spears intersect a moment later. The first sign that something is wrong is that she doesn't fall over, doesn't make a sound. The second sign is the spray of blood as she impales one of the Spearnet fixers on the lower gantries through the back. "You'll have to try harder than that," she sneers as she wrenches the weapon free. "I smelled a trap the moment I walked in here. You think that intuition's the only way I have you outclassed?" She bats another spear from the air with Drogrung's haft, and pounces on the fixer who fired it while he's reloading. Instead of going for another spear strike she grabs him by the neck and whirls around, catching two spears from above in the man's back. He gurgles and coughs blood as she tosses him at another fixer on the same level. Half-pinned under a corpse-to-be is not a fortunate position to find oneself in against a cornered Huntress. "You're probably expecting a speech about how you're the real monsters, or something," she calls out as she clashes spear to spear with another of the lower-level fixers, rushing in close enough that his allies hesitate to shoot. "You're not getting one. You're animals to me. 'Monster' is too good for you. Lay a finger on her and you'll die like pigs in Hell. I'm not the only one who'd guarantee that." Something - the whole job being a setup? Tanya's patronizing remarks? - has pushed Madeleine over the edge. The huntress fights like a demon, leaving a trail of wounded fixers and shattered decoys behind her. One of the larger fixers tries to grab her by the shoulder and she bites his wrist hard enough to draw blood before kicking high to send him over the railing, tumbling dozens of feet down to the stone below. When she can find a moment here or there she looks for a way to the upper gantries, and if there isn't one she pounces up and across, briefly releasing herself from gravity's hold to carry her up to the 'Big Sister's' level. "Let's fucking dance," she rasps, nearly out of breath. But there's still a fixer or two in fighting shape on the level below, and if Madeleine's even noticed Rita's condition it hasn't consciously registered yet...
Angela	The paint globs are incredibly bright and vastly contrasting colorwise from one another. It's designed to make natural camoflauge quite difficult...and it's drippy, threatening to leave a trail wherever Rita goes from here. ''I-- I don't get it. Please, stop it. Why... why are you hurting them?'' "...Oh yeah, you're an Outsider." Tanya is perfectly willing to communicate this. "The Middle's not like the other Fingers. We're a true Family. Hurt one of us, and we'll hurt you three times as bad. Only true way to thrive in a City like this." She seems to be assuming the monsters down below will deal with Solace and she doesn't chase after her. In short order, Madeleine flat out takes out two Fixers on the lower level before pinning a third beneath a corpse, and tearing out the wrist of a fourth which is enough to get him to stumble away and focus on wrapping the wound before he bleeds out, while the pinned one works on throwing off the corpse off him and towards the monsters below, saying, "Shit...!" Since he didn't think about that in his panic. The body drops onto Solace, knocking her back down to the floor. Connections form in Solace's head. Rita was asked for so she could be put in this trap. The man outside wasn't nervous because of Rita Ma being a 'Monster', he was scared because he made this request on behalf of the Middle and these Hunters. Maybe he was a friend of the Family or maybe he was just threatened into compliance. That guilty look. He knew. There used dried monster blood and their own to hide their presence. These are professionals but they didn't anticipate Madeleine's own expertise in Hunting--and underestimated her own. No, maybe they simply overestimated her own bloodlust. Solace's eyes look into the eyes of the monsters below. Solaces slowly pushes the body off of her and stands up. Rita's got this, she knows what she's capable of but-- --something's wrong. She looks up towards Rita. Represent the Association with the Dignity your comrades deserve. Excuse no one who seeks to degrade you in turn, and spare no thought to their station. Respect the Association more. A Fixer of the Thirteenth is a warrior and not a servant. Dispatch evil without hesitation. Confuse no law for virtue, and no unlawfulness for evil. The City's responsibility is to the many; your responsibility is to those it does not choose. ...Show no consideration for that which preys on the innocent. "...Second, Third, Fourth, Eleventh, Twelfth, Thirteenth." Solace says, loud enough one might forget she has a throat injury.
Angela	Solace remembers two things most about Rita Ma. She is someone she can be trusted with her children, and... She told her, not long ago at all, that she wanted to trust her but couldn't. ...But in this moment, as Rita had undoubtedly saved her from a spinal injury just now if not a broken neck, she wonders what she had done to earn Rita's trust. She hears her pleading. Her confusion. And not unlike Madeleine, a monstrous rage rises up within her. She crouches and runs up the catwalks in a hurry. Meanwhile Madeleine looks for a way up and she finds a shattered metal staircase that can lead up to that area but Tanya moves to block her path. "Can't have you killing all of them." Tanya says. " Another punch explodes out towards MAdeleine, but there's no shockwave this time like there was with Solace, it's a faint so she can grab Madeleine, heft her up and fling her against the wall. The other Fixers are experinced monster hunters but Tanya's augments and simple battle strategy means all she has to do to win most fights is take more than what otherp eople can take and hit harder than them too. It's simple, but it works. Another set of spears are launched towards Rita from above but Solace intersperses herself between the spears, twirling her axe around and sending the spears flying away except for two more that stab into her. She's just a little too slow. She unleashes a soft roar as she throws her spear into one of the spearchuckers from above and then kicks the wrist-injured man off the catwalk and towards the ground below. "Hahhnn.... Haaahhnn..."
Madeleine Cadrasteia	Tanya intercedes on behalf of her soldiers. Madeleine hisses like a cat and lunges up the stairs, juking sideways as best she can to avoid the punch... but Tanya catches her in a grab and slams her against the wall. She feels something break (a rib? hopefully a rib) as the much larger woman throws her around like a ragdoll. Her spear falls from her hands, clattering onto the catwalk. Madeleine has strength and speed, enough to match the augmented Big Sister if she pushed herself, but what she lacks is mass and reach. She claws futilely at Tanya's shoulder as she's shoved into the wall again with a horrid crunch. Madeleine's legs give out briefly, dropping her to her knees on the gantry. Tanya stands over Madeleine, triumphant, perhaps readying a killing blow, when Drogrung, fallen to the catwalk's floor, manifests its immense tail and lashes at the walkway's supports. With a great metallic screeching an entire section of the lower walkway tears free from the stone walls, rivets giving out and welds snapping, and plummets to the floor of the mine. One thing Madeleine has over Tanya is, the world tends to forget that she's injured. So she's back on her feet first, staggering toward the Big Sister as her injuries fade and her spine straightens out. "Do I look," she snarls, "like a 'good girl'?" She accents the last two words with shaky air-quotes before spitting a wad of mostly-blood in Tanya's direction. "Get the fuck out of here. I'm letting you live because if I don't I'll have to see three of you bastards next time." She's also letting Tanya live because she doesn't know if she has the strength to keep fighting.
Rita Ma	"We're a true Family. Hurt one of us, and we'll hurt you three times as bad." "Oh. Okay," Rita says inanely, still much-too-out-of-it. "So they didn't know..." No, of course Ms. Solace and Ms. Madeleine wouldn't bring me here to die. Don't be stupid. But Rita doesn't need to trust that her friends would never do something bad to her. She only needs to trust that she'd deserve it. She's still pinned in place by her own frozen blood for long long moments. The spears falling towards her barely register in her vision. They'll hurt, but that's okay. So when Solace takes the hits instead, that jolts Rita to her feet- suddenly, something that does matter. "Oh. Ms. Solace, you're hurt," she murmurs, neverminding the two spears still sticking out of her body. That's enough of a jolt to break the spell. Rita staggers to her feet, tries to reach out to Solace, remembers there's still a net binding her arms, and breaks it with a little lazy flex. "Here. I'll..." A glowing hand pressed to Solace's shoulder fills her with light, which pushes out the spears and fills in Solace's wounds with new flesh. Rita smiles dreamily, totally forgetting that she's in mortal peril. And, dreamily looking past Solace at Madeleine- who seems to be recovering on her own- Rita gradually remembers that they're under attack, and that being under attack is a bad thing, and that there are people who want very much for her to be alive, and who might miss her if she dies, and... The past melts away. Her blood thaws. This isn't then or then or then. It's only now, and here, with people who want to do bad things to her for bad reasons. "Right," Rita says, and her eyes as she looks past Solace at the Middle's goons slide smoothly from one kind of dissociation to another. They blink-blink and slowly dilate. "Um. I don't think we're letting any of them live, actually. Okay, Ms. Madeleine?" One of her tentacles reaches down and bisects a Gnome casually, leaving its two halves festering with pink goop. Soon it'll gloop to life as a gooey minion and assimilate its fellows, along with the corpses scattered all around. Another tentacle... hands Maddie the map?? All the others snap to life in bristling sharp-tips-forward position, menacing the Middle to ward them away from Solace, still half-embraced in front of her. "I'm sorry. But... I think there's some people I can't let down by dying. Okay?"
Angela	"They?" Tanya asks, distracted, but not so distracted as to stop wrecking Madeleine. Maybe Madeleine can match Tanya, but Tanya made sure to make this fight as unfair as possible outside of bringing her own gang in, but she was just cautious enough to not risk her people on a mission like this. Not after the stories she heard from Diego. The Big Sisters and Brothers of the Middle are efficient. It's better to kill one than injure three. She is about to kick the weapon off the catwalk when the weapon beats her to it. Drogrung wreckes the supports in an instant, sending her and Madeleine (and Drogrung) tumbling to the ground. She gets up slower than Madeleine but, maddeningly, not much so. That fall is the worst hit she took for the day. She spits some blood out of her mouth and onto Madeleine's shoe. Madeleine, in turn, spits her own blood on Tanya's face. They might have some similarities in their personalities at least as far as blood projectiles go. ''Do I look like a 'good girl'?'' "Yeah, pretty much." Tanya says. "A dog that barks and growls but eager to wag a tail." But she seems strangely pleased that Madeleine has learned how the Middle operates, even if she's still going to have to crush her skull--professionally speaking. Rita snaps the net easily. That's unnerving to the remaining Spearhunt Office Fixers. She can even heal Solace a little, but Solace isn't looking directly at Rita. She is analyzing her own route to the Fixers above. One of the reasons Lilian looked for the people beneath the City's heel, people like Solace and even Pete and Knifty--is that she was looking for the next Gebura. Someone she could have on her team that could be a legendary Fixer in their own right. Solace is only a Grade 8. But is she really? Solace was willing to kill them all so Rita wouldn't have to. But Rita seems to have snapped out of it. But Solace has plenty of reasons to kill these people already. Once she's healed up, the more significant wounds sealing shut--she has that little energy boost and along with the adrenaline that's running her right now. She steps away from Rita and readies her axe--and flings it into a wall hard enoguh to embed it into the wall. "Heh! Have you lost your mind...!" A Fixer says before seeing Rita's tentacles and screaming in alarm. The Fixers prepare more nets, more spears... But Solace runs and leaps on top of the axe embedded in the wall and draws out her Trideag Association blade, the one she's been practicing with all this time, and bounces off the axe's shaft to get up to the top catwalk. There's a faint gleam in her eye, something beyond rage. Just someone who sees the path to what she wants and what she needs to do to get there. She slices a man in half, then stabs another and kicks them so they tumble to the ground below. There's two more up there. One tries to run but sees their path broken due to Madeleine's 'destroy the catwalk' strategy. They're sliced off the platform and the last just leaps off in a hail mary, screaming about a monster. And for once, it's not about Rita they're screaming about.
Angela	Meanwhile, the globs below start forming together and eating the old corpses and also the new ones and also maybe that one person who might not actually be dead yet. Melting Love is DANGEROUS even by City standards. Tanya, distracted by what this weird shit is, looks away from Madeleine which gives HER an opportunity to smash the pipes shut, which is another strange thing. Tanya isn't sure she understands the strategy because she doesn't know how this pink goop works. But she does know that it won't be good if she gets caught by it. And with very few Spearhunt Fixers still alive, Tanya is running some real quick calculations in her head. "Tch..." Tanya spits, this time to the side. "Should've brought my crew instead of trusting amateurs. Alright, you win. But every Star falls someday." She hefts up one of the fallen spears and flings it hard towards Solace, hard enough to impale--but this is less a serious attempt to harm her and more something to keep Rita busy... As Tanya turns tail and rushes away from the battle and towards the exit. She has no intention of seeing what those globules are going to do. As it stands, someone has to update the Middle with what she learned here. The Middle knows there's always next time. Solace, meanwhile, still woozy from bloodloss--sags against the catwalk, breathing heavily. "No... This star... Will shine." She struggles. "Rita. 'm sorry. Should've... Seen it. Just wanted...to change... City."
Rita Ma	Smashing the water drainage pipes is step one of 'kill every member of the Middle here'. Step two: flood the mine. Rita makes a little twisting gesture with her hand, calling on a balaur's magic from Lilian's world: outside, dark stormclouds swirl, and torrential rain starts to pound down. Little rivulets of water already trickle into the mine. Step three: while the lovelets keep them busy, wedge that tractor into the entrance so none of them can escape while it floods. She doesn't know the limits of Tanya's superhuman ability, and doesn't want to test, but she's pretty sure a Big Sister can't hold her breath long enough to dig up through fifty feet of rock. It's simple. It's clean. It's obvious. It's-- "Ms. Solace!!" Rita's savvy detachment vanishes in the instant that spear leaves Tanya's hand. There are a hundred smart things she could do. She picks the dumb one. "You're alright. Thank goodness," Rita says, with another spear protruding from her chest, and a little blood dribbling from her lips. For once it's her own. But she smiles as sunnily as if it weren't. "Let's get you out of here, okay?" Rita's glowy-healy touch can mend wounds, but it won't fix exhaustion. Still as if in a trance, she walks up and out of the flooding mine after Tanya, casting a glance back to make sure Madeleine is following. Her lovelets make sure nobody else can. Back at the entrance, Rita slips out- presumably Tanya dislodged the tractor on her own- and lays Solace down somewhere comfortable-looking and sheltered. Rita's own wounds start to heal, steaming with metabolic heat in the rain, and the spears fall from her body to clatter on the ground one by one. "It's alright, Ms. Solace. Don't... don't say sorry, for wanting the world to be a better place. Thank you for saving me. You were amazing. Just rest, and I'll get you back to Trideag, okay?" "... Mr. Beom?" she calls out after encouraging Solace to rest, unsure if he's still there. Her voice is gently heartbroken. "Why did you do that? Did they make you?" A body floats to the water's surface as the mine fills. She'll get around to eating it later.
Angela	Tanya probably can't smash through fifty feet of rock while holding her breath while also being absorbed by pink slime. Her augments make her superhuman. but she's not a Powerpuff Girl. Solace is unable to stay standing--let alone give Rita's wound the proper care it deserves. She murmurs, "We should... probably try to get hit by spears less." Solace manages in spite of Rita already healing her own wound. It's the closest thing Solace has ever said to a joke but you can't blame her because she's exhausted (emotionally and physically) and hurt (physically). The mine is, well, it's going to be unuseable for a while. If it's ever going to be usable ever again. Certainly it would take bigger chops than these miners have. They don't even have a tractor anymore. Because Tanya hit it hard enough that it's now lying on its back. 'Mr. Beom' is alive, as are his team. Tanya doesn't like to fight weaklings and isn't one to take revenge out on people who aren't responsible for her bad vibes. Not every member of the Middle's that kind which isn't a great mark on the Organization as a whole. But Mr. Beom is also hiding behind that tractor. He doesn't poke his head out when Rita speaks because it would be totally expected for Fixers--and certainly Stars--to execute him for the betrayal. "What could I do...?" He whispers. "Offend the MIddle and they'll chase you and your loved ones to the ends of the City. The more you resist, the greater their wrath." He doesn't apologize, but there's fear, regret, and guilt in his tone. He's already preparing to die. Shajo, a former member of the Middle, certainly engaged in this behavior. And he certainly grew tired of it. ANd because he grew tired of endless wrath--he had to flee somewhere the Middle could not reach. Lobotomy Corp. The Middle may take time to reconsider its approach but it will not rest until the Book of Vengeance is satisfied--or they cannot chase anymore.
Rita Ma	Rita sighs, and rests her head on Solace's unwounded shoulder- the driving rain is helping to keep the smell of blood from reaching her nose- and shuts her eyes. "We should get hit with spears less," she echoes sagely, and Solace can feel Rita's shy little smile against the skin of her neck. A long, blue-pallid tendril snakes over towards Mr. Beom, sharp-tipped and menacing. It hovers near him for a moment, and then... wraps around the tractor, and sets it back upright. "You could've told us," Rita tells him, though she's too tired to sound scolding. "Told Trideag. We'd help you. ... But I can't really be mad." "I'll be back tomorrow to help drain the mine, and get rid of the bodies. Okay?" She sighs that out. It won't be today, because she's just too tired. "Otherwise you'd starve." If something good can come of this, on balance, then maybe Solace won't feel so bad. Maybe she'll keep trying to help people.
Angela	Mr. Beom, predictably, flinches as the tendril reaches towards him. And then when it actually goes over and straightens the tractor and... rights it... There's only confusion on his face. Well, that and still plenty of fear. There's a lot to be afraid of--enough that you come to anticipate reasons you should be afraid. "Wh...what?" He stammers. "But we led you into a trap..." Olivier said that Stars of the City are the freest beings of the City, that few laws bind them--for good or ill. And it is no surprise to Solace, at least, that frequently that means for ill. By City Law, it is time for Rita to take vengeance. Instead, she offers to repair the damage. Solace can't help but smile, even through the exhaustion. It's a weak one from multiple injuries and it's not a choice that she would've made if she had a number of tentacles. But there's still something ... soothing about someone who will show mercy and seek true justice in a place like this. In its absence, the flickers of its existence are ever more starkly revealed. "It's what you hired us to do. Next time a Syndicate threatens you... You know they can't stop us." She says. Of course she thinks highly of the place that protects her children or, as she's grown to think of it, her village. Beom stammers his thanks and apologies and bows his head, tears running freely down his face. It's a little traumatic to feel a star's shine for the first time in a long long while, after all.