Scene #9347: Firefly Dam 3: Some Beanpole Creep With Blue Hair

Owner	Pose
Veronica	The power plant at Firefly Dam has no name. Sure, there is some designation in the paperwork, but to anyone who lives in sight of the towering structure it's simply "The Plant", for there is only the one. Built in the carcass of the old Laryngos Corp facility, it still bears the hallmarks of smog-based power generation. Enormous disused smokestacks tower above the large brick building of the plant, alongside a squat, tapered-cylinder cooling tower. On one windowless face of the building is emblazoned a stories-tall "L", although the paint hasn't been touched up in years. A labyrinth of pipeworks sprawls up another side of the building like a parasitic vine, connecting the plant's internals to silos which stored its lifeblood, precious Enkephalin. On the opposite end of the plant stands the electrical substation, a bird's-nest of metal beams and blocky transformers and high-voltage cables. Just downriver is the school, an ugly rectangle of concrete and glass with a meagre yard trampled flat over many a lunchtime recess. Yuri is the first to arrive at the plant, and is already speaking to the EGO-clad masterminds of the recent chaos by the time Veronica (still in Baker and Seventh) and the other Elites arrive. Seeing the van start up, Veronica steps forward, positioning herself between the van and the bridge which could connect it to the road out of town. "We're not letting you leave with that," she broadcasts from her EGO's speakers. "And I'm not gonna warn you twice."
Angela	LAST TIME... Former employees of Lobotomy Corp hired a bunch of ne'erdowells to cause a commotion at Firefly Dam so they could steal some of their PE boxes! Yuri seemed to know them, referring to them by the names Hoheinheim, Alyssa, and Marton. It seemed she originally hailed from the same branch office, and tried to negotiate but their leader, Hoheinheim, rejected her offer. Hoheinheim called upon someone or something called 'Manual' to plot an escape route with their illgotten gains and is already turning his attention to the road as the engine roars to life. 5r''Is that... EGO gear from... ...Lobotomy...'' It DOES look like EGO Gear, though they're decidedly a bit more developed than the average EGO Gear seen at the head office though it's unclear how exactly that was possible--but it's easy to imagine the chief facility falling behind in research relative to the branch offices due to the time loop and the constant redacting of information from prior loops. Or maybe this is a guy who is a specialist of crafting EGO Gear. Maybe they all are, though it's clear who is in charge. ''We're not letting you leave with that. And I'm not gonna warn you twice.'' Hoheinheim looks back to Veronica. "Is that so... is proprietary tech that belongs with Lobotomy Corp--and its inheritors--and I am sure your people know all this already as it was all in the contract. Your land was choked with smoke that mutated, crippled, and killed--and you already have payment for your services in that---" He points towards the Baker and Seventh with an index finger. Then there is a very brief moment of hesitation as he considers Veronica--and the approaching Watch members, and he admits, "But I have a suspicion neither you or your allies are terribly concerned about the legal basis. Very well. Alyssa. Marton. Intimidate them." His two henchmen immediately slide on their own pair glasses simultaneously in perfect synchronicity... And the van starts pulling away. "...It seems he expects us to hold them off." Alyssa says. "Hahh..." THESE TWO NERDS ARE BLOCKING YOUR WAY.
Odette Raskins	Still a little shaken from the encoutner with the punks that nearly left her head fried, Odette is just slightly heistant to get right into trying to intimidate anyone into or out of doing anything again. Sure, she knows there's plenty of Watch members here far more able and (probably) willing to throw down with Hoheinheim's crew, but that doesn't make it any easier for her to actually try and strong-arm any of them into sticking around. "Maybe we can just talk this over first instead! There's some pretty good burgers over there with okay seating, and..." She starts, sounding gradually more anxious as it quickly becomes clear none of the former employees are willing to negotiate, and the van starts to move away rather than towards her. She's only slightly relieved the van isn't moving towards her. "I don't think it's a good idea for you to try that...! Come on, I already used a bunch of meds on those people earlier. Can't you just-" She leans over to glance at the van, then leans the other way so only the two henchmen can see her mouthing "take a dive?" quietly. "We won't tell if you don't." She stage-whispers, waving her hand towards the ground lightly for emphasis. She clearly doesn't want to get into a fight between her shaky hands and tight hold on her case, but it also doesn't seem like she's going to move back anytime soon.
Hibiki Tachibana	Even more advanced EGO equipment than what she's used to seeing...? It's possible that this stuff was looted from a branch office, but on closer inspection as she (quite literally) leaps onto the scene, Hibiki is pretty sure these guys don't look at all like average Backstreets thugs. And even she knows that if they were anybody from an Office or Association or anything like that, they probably wouldn't be recruiting street racers to cause ruckus like this. That'd just be weird. And given Yuri seems to be familiar one way or another, they probably have to be... "Lobotomy Corporation's 'inheritors'...? Is that what he said?" Her metal boots touch down on the road just as Hohenheim is trying to justify what they're doing here... and also, as he sics his two companions on them. She raises both fists up and slides into a ready stance-- just to pause and grimace a little bit when they pull up with perfect glasses-adjustment. "...Seriously...? I'm pretty sure you two don't want to be picking this fight either... yeah, legality doesn't matter to us, but we'd still /talk/." Well, she knows plenty well that EGO gear isn't to be underestimated... ...but if they thought their chances were /that/ good, they would've picked a head-on fight from the start, rather than trying to act from the background. After a moment of thought, Hibiki takes a deep breath in, a deep breath out, and visibly steels herself. Then-- she hunkers low, and sprints forward towards both Alyssa and Martin all of a sudden. Is she rushing them down...!? "Yuri, talk some sense into your friends! Or else--!" Except, she doesn't actually attack these TWO NERDS who are BLOCKING THEIR WAY. In a spiritual repeat of before, she only makes it look like she's going to - before bunkering and springing off the ground at the last second, making an effort to jump right over them to get to the van before it can get too much distance! Unless they stop her before she can, anyway, which is a distinct possibility.
Father Berislav	No sooner does Berislav give Clark his assurances that he'll be back than does he make a running long leap towards the van. His cassock flutters in the rush of air, a terrifying flight from such an otherwise physically unassuming man. He lands expertly, arms held out behind him as counterbalances as he rises from the crouched landing and smooths the front of his priestly habit. Didn't think to warn the rest of us, and you're playing hero now? Berislav frowns--not in the way that he does when he's interrogating someone he expects he'll have to kill. If anything, it's closer to the empathy he showed Clark and the leader of the gang these people hired. "No one ever says that someone else is 'playing the hero' with kind intentions. It's always used to tear down--to say that you can't make a positive change in the world without giving up something of yourself or taking from someone else." "If Yuri can do that and succeed, then it means that you could, too. So to avoid asking why you haven't, you presume that she can't and ask why she'd even try." I have a suspicion neither you or your allies are terribly concerned about the legal basis. "You're quite correct. Get out of the van, please." There's the terseness--the sudden switch into chilling certainty. The warmth and empathy drain from his frown as his eyes stare through Marton and Alyssa. ...It seems he expects us to hold them off. Berislav's hand is like a striking viper as it draws into burning orange space to retrieve one of his large revolvers. They don't really want to. It should be easy to end it quickly, then. "Thank you, Odette." The thunderous bark of the revolver cuts off the end of her name as it leaves her lips. An ephemeral, brilliant flash from the muzzle heralds the flight of a finger-sized bullet. It seems premature, at first, until Alyssa and Marton hear the faint 'zip' following the large gun's roar. His twist draw was also a purposeful alteration on the full-metal jacket bullet's trajectory; it curves around the two would-be interlopers. That should be enough overpenetration for at least one rear tire; with luck, both. "I don't want to hurt you any more than you want to fight us," he says, barrel pointed down and away. "But these people are a stone's throw from the wilderness. I won't allow your employer to rob them, and I don't care which or how many of the City's vipers convinced them to offer up their necks all those years ago." "If you and he really want to help, if you really believe he can build great things, then go over there and help him understand that they can't be built on a foundation of cruelty."
Veronica	"Is that so... is proprietary tech that belongs with Lobotomy Corp--and its inheritors--and I am sure your people know all this already as it was all in the contract." "Inheritors- you spooks are from the company? I don't know if you've seen the news, but your headquarters is a tree now. This Enkephalin belongs to the people. We've paid for it in blood." "Your land was choked with smoke that mutated, crippled, and killed--" Baker and Seventh raises one arm to shoulder height, slowly curling that hand into a fist. "We both know the Wing War wasn't a charity case," Veronica snarls. "You scum just wanted to eat the old Wing's lunch." --and you already have payment for your services in that--- This, however, stops Veronica in her tracks. The tough-girl act falters. "Wh- 'payment'? What do you mean? Did- did you know it was gonna happen like this? If you knew I'd get Baker and Seventh..." A pause. When she resumes she's audibly scowling again. "Then you knew the Dark Days would happen, too! Do you know how many people you killed? Lives you traded away for- for what? You already controlled the Enkephalin supply, you didn't need to collapse the Wing to get ahold of the stuff!" Her attention is fixed on Hohenheim, and she moves to keep pace with the accelerating van, turning her back on Alyssa and Marton.
Tamiel Luxis	It's nothing particularly notable--and that's the point. While Berislav is slamming into the ground from the air with tremendous impact, and Veronica is appearing in Baker in Seventh, taking up half of the road, a thin thread of shadow peeled away from the side of the building. Then, from the rooftops, a spiraling dark shape lurched upward, indistinct black resolving into shard-wings and a long scarf, as Tamiel put herself between the two 'goons,' for lack of a better word, and the van...And, hopefully, from Hibiki. "If you wanted...People follow the laws because they think it will protect them....Or they have not choice. It didn't protect them...And now, they finally have a choice...You wouldn't have bothered hiring those drag racers to distract us..." She makes a flourish, a strand of darkness coiling into a quarterstaff, spinning one in her hand. "I'll try to keep them off your back, Hibiki...!" Keep them busy, keep them distracted...Please... Tamiel adds her prayers to the cloud of suffocating desperation that so plagued this world's noosphere, while that thread of shadow tried to leap up onto the van.
Angela	It is true that they don't really WANT to do this. But that doesn't mean they aren't loyal. Enough loyalty means that you're willing to do something you don't want to do. And that is why, when Odette suggests they take a dive, Marton looks downright disgusted and offended. "Tch...! You're all so confident in how strong you are. Hoheinheim is a great man. His strength is in his mind. And together--" And this might be for Berislav too. "--We ''will'' change the City for the better. We were abandoned, but there is still too much research to do to stop now." He draws out his EGO weapon, a large doubleheaded hammer adorned with the same little 'eyes' as his coat. Bright blue fairies flutter around the head of his hammer and Odette may--or may not--feel a sudden compulsion to attack Marton!--as well as anyone else who is susceptible and looks into that light for too long! Clearly, this is an attempt to deter anyone who might be going after his boss. Yuri seems uncomfortable with the praise but isn't inclined to insist otherwise anyway. She wants to be better so she can at least take in in a sign she's maybe moving in the right direction? But... ''Yuri, talk some sense int oyour friends! Or else--!'' "Um I wouldn't call them friends they were from the Information Team--" Yuri says as if that was reason enough to not be friedns with them. And Alyssa... "If she were our friend she would've tried to warn us before the facility caved down on us." Alyssa adds, looking over to Veronica, "You're an idiot, aren't you. " Saying it more like a statement than a question. "Moron." Marton says. "Dummy." "Ignoramus." "Doesn't even have a pair of glasses." Alyssa adds with a tone of finality. "If you want to know why Lobotomy Corp fell, ask your allies." She activates her own EGO weapon, a kind of long cylinder attached to handle. The cylinder ends in a pair of coils that burst into flame shortly after Alyssa draws the weapon. She's about to say anything else but Hibiki has a unique power of her own. The power... Of Jumping Good. Even as Yuri unleashes a wave of ice to try and pin her down, Alyssa leaps past her range as a pair of burning flames for wings erupt out of her back and she aims to catch Hibiki by the arm and fling her right at Berislav, trying to take advantage of mahou conventions to stall Berislav from just unleashing hell (well, heaven) upon her boss. But neither of them are fast enough to stop Berislav's initial draw and firing of his gun. The bullets should penetrate those wheels. They are tough, but not so tough as to resist Berislav's firepower but... "We are under attack." The Manual's voice says as Hoheinheim swears under his breath and activates his own EGO... An electrical field surrounds the van briefly. The bullets connect with the field before dropping out of the sky and cluttering to the ground as the van struggles to speed away. Hoheinheim is drained from the ffort and slumps over the wheels, slamming his foot on the gas pedal as the van zwips away crookedly and unsteadily. "Fools..." He mutters. "Manual open the back hatch... We'll try deterrant tactic #13..." The van's back door opens up, revealing the stacked crates of enkephalin before Hoheinheim grunts and pushes his EGO--en electrical field flinging a pair of those crates out towards Berislav--one at him, and one at the Baker and Seventh. Seems like he's willing to sacrifice some of what he's stolen to get away with the rest of it. Though Veronica's back is open, the other two are too tied up to take advantage of that right now.
Angela	And unluckily for Hoheinheim, neither of these two science goons can fight shadows. A burst of flame from Alyssa fails to disrupt the shadow as it bounces ontop of the van. What can a shadow do? Hoheinheim is actualy curious to find out and it doesn't seem like swerving around is somehow making the shadow slip off.
Odette Raskins	"yeah, legality doesn't matter to us, but we'd still /talk/." "Get out of the van, please." Odette's stage-whispered "DIVE"s never get any louder, but the look on her face does get steadily more anxious by the second. She doesn't know these two up front that much, but being left behind to stall for time tells her enough to practically be pleading with her face while leaning at an odd angle the entire time. "Thank you, Odette." "Eh? For wh-" Odette's confusion last for only a moment before she instinctively ducks when she hears and sees the shot from Berislav's revolver. Even though she knows that she's not in any immediate danger since he's a friend and aiming it about as far away from her as he could, the startling noise still has her flinching away for a moment. "You're all so confident in how strong you are." "W-well... Yeah? Have you seen them work before?" Raising her voice a little now that she's confident Hoheinheim is too far away to hear her, she can talk a little more earnestly while unwittingly putting herself at greater risk to getting jumped on the spot. "Between the punch explosions and the regular explosions and-" She points at Tamiel and Yuri for emphasis. "-being on the wrong side of an angel and all that ice stuff... I mean, sure, Fixers could be an even fight with some of them, but... You're Fixers, right?" She's totally underestimating them. "Then you knew the Dark Days would happen, too!" Context clues over the past months have given Odette plenty of reason to shiver a little at hearing that name, and her expression darkens a moment later once that initial fear wears off. She opens her mouth while looking at the van, pauses to reconsider her words, then turns to Marton and Alyssa again as the former brings out his EGO weapon. "Are you sure he's really the right person to be following? I... I think you could do better." Really, can they be any dumber about all this? It's infuriating. Infuriating enough that it'd be oh so satisfying to just punch these goons right in their stupid idiot mouths. Overcome with inexplicable rage without realizing where it's coming from, Odette drags her feet a bit while approaching Marton, teeth chattering lightly with only the slightest bit of confusion evident on her face. It's not strong enough to stop her from kicking dirt up at Marton, though, as she tries to blind him before going for the ever-graceful full-body tackle to try and take him right to the ground for an old-fashioned scuffle in the street.
Tamiel Luxis	While the flame doesn't immediately disrupt the shadow, it DOES have an effect. She can't quite stop herself from flinching, as though a had scorched down her side. And maybe, in a way, it had. "Ngh--" She strikes back at Alyssa in reprisal, dissolving one moment, sliding across the ground before she emerges from the ground, behind them now, her staff pulled back--oh, shit. Tamiel makes a sharp sweep, just over the ground, even as Alyssa tries to hurl Hibiki across the street, hoping to trip the ex-employee. "If you think you can make a difference, you don't do it by trying to steal from people trying to make the world better...! You're just stealing, from the same people you've been stealing from...! Your boss' big dreams won't keep them fed and safe...!" The shadow, meanwhile, found an opening--literally--as the van's rear doors flew open. It slid across the side of the car--over the open doors--and into the back. The shadow peeled off of the floor, resolving into the shape of a girl--a shadowy, wingless doppleganger of Tamiel. She gave Veronica and Berislav a silent thumbs up, before trying to close the doors behind her, hoping to prevent any other boxes from being flung out.
Veronica	Baker and Seventh reaches out a hand and releases its cable-whip to coil around and catch the PE box thrown her way. Veronica quickly swaps the box into her free hand, taking care not to crush it, and lashes out toward the van with the now-live whip. Unfortunately, Hohenheim's magnetic field deflects the electrically charged strike, and the whip catches air on her second attempt as the van begins to pull away. Veronica curses under her breath and scrambles to think of a different approach that won't just be vaporized or halted by the electrical field. A moment later her speakers begin to hum, not from her voice but from the power rerouted into them from Baker and Seventh's core. A succession of four staccato notes sound from the speakers, each accompanied by a shockwave directed at the van. With luck the compressed air might flip the van, or at least destabilize it long enough for Tamiel's shadow to make its move...
Hibiki Tachibana	"Thanks, Tamie-- bweeehhhhh--!?" Hibiki gets caught, unexpectedly, and gets whirled right around. She doesn't get the opportunity to fight it off or correct herself before she's flung off, spiraling through open air right towards Berislav. This is far from the first time this has happened, at least, so despite mahou shoujo conventions demanding she get tossed straight into him, he still manages to get his shot off before she-- doesn't slam into him, but brings her body into a spin so she lands beside him instead. "...Ugh. Faster than I thought... or am I slower..." The magical girl mumbles lowly as she picks herself back up, eyes down on the ground before she shakes her head and refocuses on the two blocking their way. "Whether it 'belongs to you' or not, what do you even need this Enkephalin for? That'd you set up this whole big plan to steal it from here? And--" She grits her teeth as she takes her stand completely again. "What the heck is the obsession with glasses!?" Alright, fine. If they won't let her pass that easily, she'll just go through them instead. Hibiki bunkers down and rushes in again-- this time, shoulder first. Nothing complicated, she's just making an unintentional follow-up on Tamiel's attempt to trip up Alyssa... by ramming into the EGO gear user full speed, intending to simply /ram/ into her full blast at the same time her Symphogear's skirt thrusters fire off to propel her ahead. Either she'll get blown out of the way and give her a clear run to Hohenheim's van... or she'll just get taken along for the ride. Either way works for her.
Father Berislav	You're all so confident in how strong you are. "Jesus said, 'It is the Spirit that gives life; the flesh is useless.' I fought for what I believed in when I was weaker than you are now, and I'll be fighting for the same until my last breath." Berislav is unnervingly patient even as Hibiki is hurled his way; he loosens up his posture, steps into her trajectory and prepares to roll around an impact which doesn't come. One small blessing aside, there's still time for him to see the flying Enkephalin and to loose a sigh. His eyes close briefly. When they open, the warmth in those silver pools is a more oppressive kind of heat; a relentless, quiet determination that makes 'steel' seem more apt than 'silver.' "So." The sound of his vertical leap is like a gust of wind striking a house on the plains; a sudden and vehement reminder that what seems peaceful can be anything but in only the blink of an eye. The loosed crate is caught in the crook of his arm, momentum from its flight turning him in the air as it strikes its spot. He falls, and the sky near his knuckles is peeled raw. The burning orange streaks widen in the air; the crate disappears into it, and as Berislav descends, a small brick of plastic explosive falls through the other side of that wound, into his now-empty palm. "I see he could afford to part with two." Landing with his back to Marton and Alyssa, he wheels around with frightening speed and clarity to fix his eyes upon them both. "Did he, or either of you, think to ask these people whether they could?" Despite the distracting insistence of Marton's EGO demanding that he attack to the exclusion of all else, Berislav tracks the passage of the van. It wouldn't be a stretch to assume that plastic explosive is intended for the road ahead, or perhaps for the man driving. "Of course you didn't--because of the legal basis. Your 'inheritance.' If you insist that you're the sons and daughters of that place, then that's how I'll judge you." Berislav's thumbs tap two digits on the keypad, the LCD timer visible only to himself and Hibiki. He primes the small charge, winds up for a throw down the road just long enough to demand intervention, and then changes his direction, throwing it at the pavement between himself, Alyssa and Marton instead. The small, concentrated blast is enough to send up a cloud of pelting debris in front of them; a distraction long enough for him to send three blazing high-explosive incendiary rounds on a collision course for the asphalt in front of the van. Three oppressive potholes suddenly open on the road in front of the struggling vehicle and its flagging driver. The dusty particulate cloud is banished by Berislav's rapid dash through it. "You believe you have the right to condemn these people to a slow and grinding death, because your forebears kept them warm once, out of self-interested convenience." The last three words are punctuated by a low straight kick intended to buckle Marton's footing after the explosion, then a pivot to a side snap kick into his solar plexus and an advancing downward elbow into the temple.
Father Berislav	He circles around to keep Alyssa in his sight, too. "Now that their labor and poverty can't build you a Nest, it isn't convenient for you to deal fairly with them." Berislav makes a false start to goad a swing from Marton's hammer, rocking forward on his body with one fist cocked. "And you know that what you're doing is unfair," he says, further goading with a shift in his foot to put his head within range of the hammer's, "Or else you wouldn't have relied on that theater with those hooligan children." Upon the next hammer swing, Berislav twirls his pistol to form a deflecting surface, rolls around the outer edge of the blow and dashes back in to deflect a second with the barrel of the gun, his fists crashing forward in a brutal one-two. "You also believe that our protection of these people, and others, amounts to a pardon for you; that you can, ultimately, do whatever you like, because we'll be there to glue the lives you shatter back together." The tip of his foot crashes into Marton's wrist. "All this, you believe, and you have the gall to say that you'll make place better, when you're behaving exactly like the pigs who brought the stench of sin here in the first place?" Following the first kick, a second goes for the ribs, and the final shot in the chamber strikes the ground. The hollow point bullet deforms and flies upwards, past Marton and towards Alyssa's wrist, blunted enough from the trajectory to strike more like a particularly precise finger strike than a bullet. "You are not loyal to the people of City. You're loyal to having power over them. Today, I'll stop you. You have until we meet again to reconsider your allegiances. If I see you behaving this way again, I'll send you to your final judgment."
Angela	"Was Jesus a Fixer too?" Marton asks, unknowingly providing Berislav like twenty cool foolowup lines to use to that. Combat priests all across the multiverse dream of that kind of prompt and he doesn't even realize it. But Odette is right. they haven't seen them work before. But they do know one thing--The Watch is dangerous. All Outsiders are. ''You're Fixers, right?'' "We're Lab Assistants. Researchers." Marton says. ''Are you sure he's really the right person to be following? I... I think you could do better.'' "...No. He is a brilliant man. While the fall of Lobotomy Corp has put us on the back foot, all we need is enough Enkephalin to get us started. Then our research can continue. This town will not miss the extra boxes. After all, you just raided a compound for more, didn't you?" But then Odette kicks up some dirt at him. That he doesn't seem to expect, he brings his arm up to protect his face--but the tackle, ahh, that IS what he was expecting. And hoping for. Odette knocks Marton to the ground in an instant, quite successfully. But each blow against his body releases glowing fairies that swarm Odette. They attempt to bite and claw into her moments before Marton retaliates directly by slamming his hammer towards Odette's gut. He doesn't exactly have a lot of MUSCLE behind that weapon but it is still a large hammer. Alyssa is a more general and high mobile threat. Alyssa, being midair, gets knocked in the leg which spins her in a full spin midair as she hisses in pain--she immediately attempts to retaliate herself with a giant sweep of flame, follow by a second one as her blazing moth wings keep her afloat in the air. "Dumbass, do you think we'd happily and knowingly drop the branch office on our own heads. We were dumped too." But her shadow seems to be having more success. It closes the doors before Hoheinheim can chuck more boxes out. The doppleganger can also see a small screen on the van's dashboard showing... Angela's face? But she's still in her Lobotomy Corp uniform. "Manual. Take over driving." Hoheinheim says as he steps out of the driver's seat and approaches Tamiel. He swings out his hand and a segmented metallic centipede like creature extends out from his hand to try and wrap around Tamiel and give her a nasty shock as electricity ripples around the van. "Mm... This is good research too." He says, oblivious to what Veronica is planning-- --but Manual isn't, it seems. The car spins to the side at the very last moment, the sonic blast just barely whiffing the van and ripping off a sideview mirror. "According to the employee handbook, too much investment in one plan can be hazardous to employee safety." Manual says. "It is unlikely that this vehicle can survive a direct strike from the manifestation." ''What the heck is the obsession with glasses!?'' "They're proof of intelligence, rocks for brains." Alyssa says. "We're going to use this enkephalin..." It looks like she's going to reveal their evil plan!!! "To start a small business." They must be stopped! "Obviously that is just the first st--" Hibiki CRASHES into Alyssa bodily. Alyssa is STILL on fire, of course, so it's easy to retaliate by wrapping her wings around Hibiki to burn her with them but this means that they both crash THROUGH the back of the van, melting and smashing the back open as they tumble inside. Alyssa being tackled away the last moment means she avoids the worst of the blast to come.
Angela	But Marton is still tied up with Odette and is blasted off his feet, rolling across the ground as another surge of fairies erupt towards Berislav--this isn't an intentional assault from Marton, this is just how his EGO works and he has about as much control over it as, well, Berislav does. The EGO armor lets him keep his legs. "Of course we thought about that. You all just robbed a bank full of PE boxes, you might be the only people in The District that CAN afford to lose a few boxes! Ghh!" Another kick in the leg and another slew of Fairies are launched at Berislav. They're getting to be a problem. Berislav's threats are evocative and effective. The secret benefit of being a combat priest is that all your threats sound super cool. Alyssa hesitates long enough to get shot in the wrist and she stumbles back before making a decision. "Marton... Fall back behind me." "Why? You want to--wait, no--that's exceptionally dangerous--" "They believe our conviction is for something as cheap as power over The City. I can't abide by that." She steps forward before Berislav and says, "You're right. It's not fair. So what? This town was taken advantage of by two generations of corporations but now it has protectors. More than we've got. We expect you to glue it together? Yeah. That's what you like doing isn't it? You're practically frothing at the mouth for the moral justification to kill." She starts floating in the air again, the heat building up around her in a familiar manner. "You're using them for a pardon too. Even if you think you'll rot in hell, it's pardon enough." r"Alyssa! Don't--Fuck! Don't--" Yuri runs forward, swinging out Frost Splinter up as Alyssa comes crashing down, an explosion of fire meeting an ice wall before Berislav, creating a blindening thick mist in the air. Marton can be heard cursing, briefly, through the mist but the van--at least for those not right no top of it--is quiet--out of sight except for Hibiki and Tamiel. And that electric centipede is being flung hard at them to try and smack 'em out of the van so it can make its getaway.
Veronica	Veronica turns Baker and Seventh around in time to see Alyssa rising into the air, preparing her fire blast. Thinking quickly, and cued by Yuri's tide of ice protecting the closer-up Elites, Veronica raises her left arm, which reconfigures to extrude a large metal pipe from its underside. This pipe, once fully assembled, begins to spray high-pressure water in Alyssa's direction. Baker and Seventh is far enough from Alyssa that the jet loses much of its velocity and disperses substantially, but that's helpful even so as it limits the spread of Alyssa's flames. As Veronica marches her EGO closer to the fight, that jet will only get tighter and more concentrated on Alyssa's position, threatening to douse her flames entirely. Meanwhile, Veronica puts her speakers to good use: "You're starting a business? That's what you need Enkephalin for, just to sell it for quick cash? If you really came here with the intention of advancing your research, you're doing it the damn wrong WAY!" At this last word Baker and Seventh breaks into a run, hoping to barrel into Alyssa, catch her two-handed, and smother her flames under a living mountain of concrete and brick.
Tamiel Luxis	"No..." Tamiel's eyes snapped to Odette, as her attempt to engage rapidly backfired. The sharp points of her wings pointed at where Marton and Odette were tangled...And missed? It seemed like that must have been the case, because all they did was bury themselves into the asphalt around the pair of them. And for a moment, it seemed like that might have been all of it. And then they glowed. It was warm. Gentle. No harm in it. It passed oover Marton harmlessly, but Odette felt the truth of it. Like a bonfire lit inside her bones, it carefully brushed at her wounds--and then they were no more--and the fairies found themselves repelled--just another curse, rebuffed by an angelic blessings. Marton finds himself excluded, but any of Berislav's friends. Her shadowy double, on the other hand, could not speak. But its face was turned to Manual for a second, in silent assessment, before Honeheim steps out of the driver's suit. She draws a staff--it seems that doubled too, and pivoted the swing of the centipede with a swing, slamming into the side of he truck. With her staff outstretched like a spear, she had a great deal of range. But they were both of them greatly limited by the small space... ...The real Tamiel could see everything her shadow could. "There's some electronic mind driving the car itself--" Her eyes find Hibiki, as she carves through the air, toward, the car, eyes wide. It's that extra moment of warning that gives her double the time it needs. With a kick, she sends the backdoor swinging open, leaving an opening for Hibiki to come plummeting through--and when Honeheim makes his swing, Tamiel intercepts. She puts her staff in the way, and when the centipede strikes it, with a sudden twirl, she snares it there, trapped. The shadow spasms as electricity pours through it...And so does the real Tamiel, her eyes growing wide, and her body suddenly overcome with shakes. As her shadow determinedly holds tight, she falls to her knees on the ground, convulsing, in a moment of complete vulnerablity, even as Alyssa's hellfire begins... ...Even as her shadow opens the way for Hibiki to intervene!
Hibiki Tachibana	"If you're so smart, you should know there are better ways to start small businesses--!!" Wait, why did she say that? Even she's not a hundred percent sure; it just sounded like the right thing to say, in the middle of all the chaos of a whole lot of fire and a whole lot of van crashing. Hibiki isn't much different in the tumbling and rolling department, scorched for her trouble, but it's at least not anything that'll have her doing more than groaning and shaking sense back into her skull. "Ugh..." It's not a pleasant thing that first hits her ears, courtesy of Alyssa nearby. What is she doing up there, building up power like that...? Something that even her coworker is telling her is too dangerous...? To try and prove her convict... ion... There's a stomach-turning flashback to herself, several months back at L Corp. "Wait, wait the hell up, you don't need to go that far for this! Stop--!" Hibiki's not fast enough to willingly throw herself out of the van she was working so hard to catch up to, though she'd have done it in a heartbeat; but she's immensely thankful that Yuri was - maybe - able to cool things down. There's no telling what the outcome actually was, with this mist everywhere, but... She's definitely distracted more than adequately that Hohenheim's attempt to bash her would've succeeded without resistance, if it wasn't for Tamiel's (shadow's) sudden save. It's only thanks to that, the sound of the impact and resulting shocks behind her, that she snaps out of her wide-eyed and stunned state and whirls around. Her body moves faster than her mind, boots shifting position and sliding across the floor, upper body twisting, lunging in past the shadow with her fist striking out towards Hohenheim-- --just to stop short before impact with his gut, so suddenly that there's a burst of air pressure that roils through the rear of the van. Her closed fist twitches for a moment, then opens up into a palm and shoves forward the remaining inch or so of distance, attempting to slam into his midriff with still enough force to break the clash with Tamiel's shadow and try to roughly knock him down to the ground. "You've made your point, to me at least, okay--?" Her voice is a little shaky after the fact, and so is her limb. "...This is about more than something like greed. You really believe your research will make the City a better place. ...And you're doing it like this because you 'don't have any protectors', is that it? I still think going through all this trouble is stupid. Really stupid. ...Out of all the ways you could've tried to get this stuff, you had to end up doing it in a way that'd get you fighting with us..." Well, not that they could've expected the Watch to be in town when they did this. "...I don't want to fight you three over this. I don't think Yuri does, either. I'd rather talk and work something out. ...But you better stop this van, or I'll have to do it myself." How nice of her, giving Hohenheim the chance to call Manual off. He might also just take the chance to hit her. Either or.
Odette Raskins	"We're Lab Assistants. Researchers." "You believe you have the right to condemn these people to a slow and grinding death ..." "... it isn't convenient for you to deal fairly with them" Odette's anxiety and concern spike again, but only for a moment. As she listens to Berislav speaking about what Hoheinheim and crew are doing, she finds herself agreeing with basically every part of what he's saying. She feels more of that righteous anger swelling in her chest that is definitely natural to feel about this kind of situation, especially when she's throwing herself at Marton. "How many other people did you send those punks after before now? What kind of better change is that even supposed to bring? How's burning down a restaurant for the people living here supposed to help anyone?!" Some of this anger might even be her own, but it's all mixing together in enough of a way that Odette's still blind to the effects of the EGO weapon on her mind. She doesn't even notice the fairies coming off of him with each strike, either, only realizing they're there when her flesh start feeling damper and hotter from the pain of getting cut up so much and so rapidly. A powerhouse Odette is not, and Marton can feel it when that hammer slams right into her midsection. Gasping breathlessly moments before getting flung onto her back, the EMT writhes in pain for a few seconds while grasping at her carrying case. She's only able to hold in about half of her agonized noises from having her ribs cracked while searching for those pain meds, only to realize... Where's the pain that she needs those meds for? Wasn't she bleeding? That's definitely blood on her clothes, but the pain's fading somehow. Didn't Marton just break her ribs with that EGO hammer? Wasn't something else cutting her up all over? She could just be in shock right now, so she can't be too careful yet. Swallowing lightly and trying to focus on where she had felt that pain, Odette finally notices that glowing warmth washing over her cuts, her bites, her not-broken bones, and she notices that glowing coming from Tamiel's wings. "Oh... Oh, wow. Miss Tamiel, that..." She wants to gush over how cool that was just now, but she can't let herself get too distracted yet. Instead, she inhales lightly and feels a slight sense of relief at still feeling some of that lingering pain instead of all of it all at once, then belts out a loud "Thank you!" to Tamiel and hops back up onto her feet, wincing again as she feels some of the still-wet blood smearing all over her like some kind of horrifying war paint. "Did you ever think to ask us for some of those boxes?" Odette asks Alyssa and Marton bluntly while her hand goes for her sidearm, awkwardly pressing it into the holster rather than drawing the pistol properly. Some of that anger Marton's EGO weapon injected into her still lingers, but she's actually trying to fight off that feeling now rather than just going along with what got her injured so badly in the first place. "We're already setting up something realy good that plenty of people are contributing to now... A-and getting the food and help they need even if they can't! So don't give us all that crap about looking for excuses to... Uh." Odette trails off as Alyssa starts to float and increase the ambient temperature, and she looks over at Yuri just in time for the two to clash with those polar opposites. Covering her head reflexively in case anything explodes at her, the EMT starts heading towards her, but notices Tamiel starting to convulse in a way that definitely doesn't look intentional. Pivoting away from Alyssa and Marton, Odette hurries over to Tamiel to start checking her vitals. "Miss Tamiel, I'm here! Do you need help? Are you conscious?" Odette asks while running through a whole suite of stabilization procedures, trying not to disturb her too much while simultaneously making sure the angel isn't about to swallow her own tongue or something terrible like that.
Father Berislav	Was Jesus a Fixer too? "He might be the original Fixer," says Berislav, drawing another revolver in a twist draw to rid himself of swarming fairies with a precisely aimed ricochet. The bullet is another chosen for its tendency to deform; in this case, the hard cement splits it into fragments like a miniature grenade. Some of them scrape across his hand and cheek, but the fairies take the brunt. "Before there was a word for it. More powerful than the purest Colors, and yet, kinder than the most saintly person you can imagine." After all, you just raided a compound for more, didn't you? "We did--and our first contact with you, rather than asking us for help with your research, or even illuminating us as to its purpose, was to take what you needed from people who you imagined couldn't fight back. Why is that, exactly?" You're practically frothing at the mouth for the moral justification to kill. The mist clears from the explosion, and Berislav is still standing, thanks to Yuri, mostly unscathed. He's bleeding in a few places, from where semi-solid shards of ice struck him at incredible speed. Despite it, he smiles politely, and even chuckles--as if he were told a reasonably amusing joke during a church social. "I assure you, I already have it, Alyssa." "I'm simply choosing not to exercise it right this minute, because I believe in second chances." His eyes flick towards the van, but they find that the mist hasn't cleared totally yet. Hibiki and Tamiel can handle that, anyway. And if for some reason they can't, we've largely made our point. One of them, anyway. "I do understand your anger," he says. "I'm coming in as an outsider, challenging inescapable tenets of reality, treading on your dream for a better future and casting aspersions onto someone you trust and admire. Looking purely at statistics, it's more likely that I'm unwell than it is that the entire system and all of its custodians are wrong. Isn't it?" Both guns is pointed at her, but his fingers rest along the frames for now. Alyssa can see that the left gun got reloaded sometime between now and the explosion--the noses of cartridges number 12 unspoken promises in total. "So if I insist that they are, and use force to apply what I think is right, then I must be a violent outside agitator. A 'terrorist,' 'frothing at the mouth for the moral justification to kill.'" "But I don't think that it's a radical idea that you shouldn't steal from the poor. Or that the poor should be allowed to live. Or that the previously established nature of their abuse doesn't serve as carte blanche for its continuation in perpetuity by an endless parade of new landlords. I think that what passes for normal here is what's radical--radical in its cruelty."
Father Berislav	"What I'm doing is giving you a choice, which is more than you would have given these people if you had your way. I do believe in second chances, and even though you've had dozens of them, every day, since the Wing fell, I'm still giving you another." "Thousands and thousands of people just like you have lost themselves, have been turned around in the darkness, tricked into perpetuating the same cruelty they educated themselves and worked so hard to fight, because they drank the sickly sweet lie that you can change the City using its own machinery. You can't. The bones of many a dead Wing lie as testament to that, for those with the eyes to see them. I hope you start looking, soon. I hope you three start thinking more about your actions and their consequences than than only your intentions." "Because if I have to choose between you three and the people whose blood keeps that machinery running, I'll choose those people every time. I need to know that you understand that. Do you?"
Angela	''You're starting a business?'' Alyssa says, "I said it was the first step! And no, we're not ''selling'' the Enkephalin, we're going to use it to develop EGO so that society is protected from the likes of the Pianist--" She breathes in sharply as she realizes she may have lost her cool there and said something she wasn't supposed to. But she buckles down a moment later and adds, "To say nothing of the Abnormalities that are going to eventually find their way out from where they've been buried. Someone has to clean up after the fall--and someone has to prepare for what's to come. And that's going to be--" "They don't need the full details." Hohenheim says. "But naturally significant capital is required to make progress on this venture beyond what the Watch can provide. Nearly every District relied on enkephalin, as such a Citywide effort will be necessitated." Hohenheim pushes up his glasses. "With in depth Watch support and a recent influx of funding from the bank robbery, and a nature evidence suggested of an uncompromising nature from the Watch, we concluded that distracting you in order to steal a few enkephalin boxes would be the practical approach." He has thought it through even if it's coldly done so--and not strictly with all the available information at his disposal. "Frankly any sort of public association with the Watch would make it difficult for us to appeal to the sort of people we need to in order to develop ''infrsatructure''." Coldly, he turns his attention off of Tamiel even as the shadow grips onto his EGO. He tugs and pries himself free just in time for Hibiki to bust in. "I am the--smartest person in this world." Hohenheim is nothing if not consistent to his bit. "Further evidence would be required before I said the multiverse, of course, since I am a humble researcher." His body tenses as Hibiki's palm doesn't quite hit him--but the resultant strike smashes him all the way back to the front of the car with enough force that the back wheels jump. Unbeknownst to him but Hibiki has 'Alchemist that claims to be fighting for the greater good but is kind of a dick about it' as a favored enemy type and gets bonuses to attack and damage against such enemies. "We paid for a distraction--" Marton manages, as he concerns himself with Alyssa's condition as she's now covered in brick and mortar and ice. He breaks her free with his hammer and starts pulling her away. Alyssa isn't in condition to fight. "Of course we considered it. But you're killers and we're not fighters." ''He might be the original Fixer.'' The description to Marton evokes feelings of legends he's heard about like The Red Sack, Colors from before there were really Colors and simply canonized after the fact. ''Was to take from people you imagined couldn't fight back. Why is that, exactly?'' Marton doesn't have a good answer for that--at least not beyond what was already put forward about their assumptions. But as a researcher he is feeling compelled to reexamine those assumptions. "If our hypothesis was incorrect, it would only be logical to rerun the experiment but--" His eyes slant upward. There's no visible sign of the Eyes of the City present upon them--why would there be for something that is akin to a small skrimish, but the appearance of a Beholder is formality. There is nothing that mandates them to actually appear on the field. Alyssa starts to speak but he covers his mouth and says, "Shh. You're hurt badly. Let me handle this." Alyssa's eyes light with fury but the weakness in her body compels her to listen.
Angela	''But I don't think that it's a radical idea that you shouldn't steal from the poor.'' Marton glances over towards Hohenheim's car. He brings his hand up to his ear and murmurs, "Chief." With the hint of a question on his lips. Hoheinheim in the car brings his hand up to his ear. He takes brief sharp breath and exhales long as he pinches the bridge of his nose in thought. " Manual, what are our odds of being presently Observed." You can practically hear the capital O. "25 percent. We are at L corp which is under increased scrutiny but the present chaos does not warrant active investigation." Hoheinheim takes a moment to weigh whatever risks he's imagining with the situation before them. "...Very well. But I will not engage in prolonged discussion within Observation range. So." He looks to Hibiki. "Grab what you can I will be kicking you out in 3.7 seconds and we will discuss further steps later." Back with Berislav, Marton says, "We can't associate publicly but we can talk the rest out later." softly. "We'll use Yuri as a contact." "W-wait, really? You're considering--" Yuri says, stepping forward but has to jump back to avoid a hammer swing as Marton crouches down and hefts Alyssa up. "Goodbye ignoramuses! You couldn't stop the great Hohenheim." He is clearly trying to shout it out but is the type of person who hasn't shouted in his life, even for show. An electrical field threatens to throw Hibiki out of the car (she has time to grab whatever Enkephalin she can carry) as Marton slams his hammer into the ground, sending a swirl of obscuring fairies as he attempts to run off with Alyssa in his arms.