Scene #2126: Sakura and Tomoyo's Voice

Owner	Pose
Sakura Kinomoto	Tomoeda is a little... different today. Which is to say, right where Penguin Park -should- be is a massive purple tower reaching up almost to the clouds. It resembles a European castle, vaguely, although if it's made of stone bricks they've been plastered over to give the outside a uniform (and purple) surface. The first two levels of the tower have been completely -trashed-. A couple of mages in purple robes can be seen on the floor, groaning. There are half-dismantled spell circles, drawn in chalk, all over the place, as well as various debris from all sorts of offensive spells. Sakura is on the -third- floor, currently glaring at a shimmering wall of energy that bisects the entire level. Each level is made up of a single room, about two dozen yards in diameter. So far they don't seem to be used for anything - this isn't a living space. Atop the tower is a glowing pink... something. It's hard to make out from the ground, and there's an anti-flight spell around the tower that prevents ascending any way but through the building!
Jazz	Something strange is going down and Jazz is bored, along with in the area. This means at the odd sight a sleek white sports car pulls out and pulls as close as he can to the location. There is a reason for this, though not a reason that is very obvious unless you know some tech involved. What does step out from the driver side, is a young half Caucasian, half African American man, with his deadlock hair pulled back in a pony tail, fixing his jacket, and deep blue-mirror shades gently being lifted up to rest on top of the scarf over his head with a low whistle of being impressed by the massive tower. Also perhaps some concern slowly setting in if he can get to the top of that tower, but again-- tech reasons. With the jacket fixed, he then reaches into the back to pull out a handgun of some kind, though it looks more sophisticated then your normal types, placing that in a holster, before also taking a combat survival knife along as well. Neither he hopes he'll need, but better safe then sorry. When Jazz goes to step inside, he does so carefully, as if concerned about something for a moment. His striking blue eyes scan over the mages who are down and he eventually makes his way to the third floor where Sakura is. There is a gentle smile on his face, but concern in his eyes, "Do I wanna ask wha' happened... also hope ya dun mind a stranger lendin' a hand."
Ainsley	Ainsley arrives to this... very, very tall tower with an anti-flight spell. She grumpily frowns at the spell because it is geared to suppress something she does as a matter of reflex, and when she arrives at the same level as Sakura, presumably with the rest of the party, she is frowning at the wall as soon as she sees it. "I will work on dispelling this," she tells Sakura, and begins looking for anything like a magical circle or other force that might be maintaining the magic wall. She is particularly good at spotting these, actually, and might be able to scribble in just the right word with a piece of charcoal from a pocket to break the spell. It's just a matter of finding it first. If there's nothing like that, she'll have trouble. "These mages, how much trouble are we looking at here?" she asks, while she searches.
Auron	Next to the sports car, someone pulls up on a motorcycle. It's an older man with a long scar across his left eye, sealing that eye closed. In his typical attire, he might perhaps look out of place in the city. And that sword on his back is definitely not something one sees in most modern cities. At least the motorcycle is familiar. Anti-flight spells aren't going to bother Auron. He's not a flyer anyway. He heads in as well, pausing at the sight of the mages. Though he'll only pause just long enough to make sure they're not in danger before moving on. He's read enoguh reports to know to be careful of the mages wearing purple. Once he arrives where Sakura and Jazz are, he observes with a hint of snark, "...Seems I'm a little late to the party." Just gentle snarking at the moment. He doesn't snark too hard at his allies. Most of the time. Unfortunately, Auron isn't a mage. Too bad he didn't bring Lulu; she might have had better luck. But for the time being he just keeps his eye and ears open for trouble while Ainsley begins inspecting the area.
Tomoyo Daidouji	A black car with tinted windows drives up to what /should/ be Penguin Park, backed up by a white van, each of which finds a park. From the back door of the car emerges Tomoyo, with her bodyguards emerging from the front of the car and from the van also. Tomoyo, naturally, has her camera out and recording. Right off the bat, she gets a slow upward panning shot of the purple tower, while her bodyguards stand in pairs on each side of her. "Ma'am. This is not safe," one of them says, with long sandy blonde hair. Tomoyo still cannot speak, so she simply takes her eye from the eyepiece of her camera and gives her a stern look before marching towards the tower! The bodyguards maintain their professional demeanour, of course, but they all look a little worried as they follow her. As they pass by the scenes of devastation on the first two floors, Tomoyo's own face starts to mirror the concerned looks of her bodyguards. Although her concerns are not for her own safety. Who could have done this? Surely not Sakura... But, when they reach the third floor, it's clear that it could have only been the Cardcaptor. Tomoyo's expression tips into full-on worry, but she takes a deep, totally silent breath to soothe herself, slowly walking around Sakura to get a shot of her face, while smiling and waving at her, bodyguards sticking close.
Emiya Shirou	"Where did this thing come from?" Shirou's baffled. Where did a TOWER come from? Right in the middle of a city? That just doesn't make any sense whatsoever. He arrives a little late to the call but when he does make it to third floor he's got his favored Yin-Yang blades in hand. "SAKURA!" ZOOOM! He dashes right over to her, but upon noticing she's alright... just grinds to a halt and looks around. "... So this is what happens when people give up keeping magic secret?"
Sakura Kinomoto	Sakura continues to stare at the energy wall as people begin to show up! She has a rather annoyed expression on her face right now. "Of course I don't mind..." she mumbles to Jazz, but she barely even glances at him! Then everyone else is showing up. Sakura looks over to Ainsley and gives a weak smile. "They're... mostly weaklings, really. Probably everyone here is more powerful than they are individually..." she glances up at Jazz. She's not entirely sure about -him- because she doesn't know him, but. "Although they're using a lot of magic apparently designed to shut -me- down so I'm not sure how much help I'm going to be here. I used a ton of magic just getting this far..." Sakura jumps in surprise as Tomoyo is suddenly filming her face! "T-Tomoyo! I... I was going to call you... once I got to the top..." she mumbles a bit, and rubs the back of her head. She takes a few steps back. "...Yeah. This is... I guess what happens when mages stop bothering to keep their stuff secret, huh?" She winces. "...Shirou, Auron. Keep your blades ready. I can't tell what's next, the barrier's blocking me completely." Ainsley finds spell circles keeping the barrier in place! Many of them. Half of them are on the OTHER side of the barrier, but disrupting the ones on this side should be enough to take the barrier down. It might take a few minutes though.
Kaede	Kaede remains perched on Sakura's shoulder, looking pensive as she watches her Master struggling. As others show up, she looks around at them, then reaches out to touch Sakura's cheek. "We'll help you, Master." she offers softly, before she stands up and summons her equipment. "Just tell me what to do!"
Tomoyo Daidouji	Tomoyo tilts her head. Why would Sakura feel the need to call her upon reaching the top? Lowering her camera (gasp!), she digs out a notebook and pen, quickly scrawling something down before showing it to Sakura. It reads, "Well, I'm here now~ But why did you want to call me? What's up there?" Meanwhile, in the background, her bodyguards seem to be doing an equipment check, making sure that extendable batons extend and tasers have darts and enough charge in them to work.
Ainsley	Once Ainsley tracks down the magical circles, she quickly sets out to disrupt them. Her work is not particularly well-refined, but it's better than trying to brute-force through a magical barrier with sheer arcane strength. She carefully corrupts the magical circles by overwriting some of the symbols and phrases she finds on them, working to nullify them. She is very careful with her handwriting, as sloppy handwriting could spell disaster when it comes to magic. "With everyone's contribution, we should be able to conquer this place by the end of the day," she says, with a strange confidence.
Emiya Shirou	Hearing of what terrible messes Sakura's facing, Shirou makes a rather angry face and gets closer to stand guard, weapns at the ready. "I won't let anything close! ... Is there a way to shut down their countermeasures?"
Auron	Tomoyo's appearance gets a nod of greeting, both to her and her bodyguards. He pauses to take stock of their possible abilities, visible weapons, and overall physical condition. They're obviously guarding Tomoyo, he needs to know if he will need to guard THEM too. He takes note of the batons and tasers as they check their equipment. It's Shirou's yell that catches his attention, and he turns to look, tensing a bit as Shirou comes barrelling up to the third floor. Sakura mentions having used a great deal of magic, and Auron inquires, "Do you need to 'recharge'? I have an Ether." Not literally ether, as in the chemical. But 'Ether', whatever it is in Spira, seems to restore mana reserves. They're rare, but knowing Lulu personally he can get hold of a limited supply. Sakura mentions keeping his weapon at the ready, and Auron nods. "Good idea." He pulls the blade from his back and places the point on the ground in front of him. Both conserving his energy in carrying it for when he'll need it, and allowing the blade to serve as something of a shield. He's standing like someone expecting to tank something unpleasant. And he also nods to Kaede's statement. "That's why we're here," he confirms. Ainsley's words get a nod as well, but he doesn't reply, for fear of disturbing her concentration. Shirou's question draws Auron's gaze, but again he doesn't speak up, as the question has been asked. Nonetheless he looks at Sakura for her reply.
Sakura Kinomoto	"All of their magic comes from spell circles as far as I can tell. Not many of them can actually use magic without them... So I guess we just need to find the circles powering the countermeasures and shut them down?" Speaking of which, Ainsley's work begins to have an effect! Just before she reaches the final circle on this side of the barrier, the barrier fizzles and flickers, before vanishing completely. The spell circles on the other side fade a little bit, losing their barely-perceptible glow. Sakura holds her breath for a moment... but nothing seems to happen. "I, um. I appreciate the help, guys." She then waits for Auron, Shirou or one of Tomoyo's bodyguards to head for the stairs, then follows after. The stairs are quite short, spiraling around the wall in a quarter turn, before they come to the next floor. There's two mages in purple robes up there. One of them stares for a moment, then turns tail and flees. The other one smirks under his hood. "So you brought reinforcements, eh? No matter. They won't be able to match our combined power!" THree spell circles in the middle of the floor begin to glow orange...
Kaede	Kaede follows the group, and when they're confronted with the mages. She grips her fists tightly around her curved blades, her eyes narrowing as her visor clicks down over her eyes. "Noone hurts my Master." Her voice is low, barely even loud enough for Sakura to hear, and Kaede's floating right next to her head. She shifts her position, and flares her jetpack to life, charging right for the mage that stayed behind with the glowing circles. Once she's closed to melee, she starts hacking, slashing with razor sharp scalpel blades at face, hands, anything she can get to. "Noone."
Jazz	Jazz can't do much about spells or magic, but he can do something about, but when he hears movement above, he peers upward to see someone trying to make a run for it. His blue eyes flicker a bit, "As much as I /hate/ bein' a show off and breakin' tha immersion of bein' human..." Jazz cants his head slightly. "I dun think we want him tellin' others and blowin' up our cover, huh?" As soon has the Black man says this his body distorts and seems to vanish, which the jackets, glasses, weapon, and knife drops to the ground. Right in front of the fleeing made, the African American figures appears, as the six foot one human(?) is suddenly in front of the mage, just now missing his jacket. His hand extends out and unless to mage is quick enough he may get a small jolt of electrical current to the chest by Jazz's finger tips-- only enough to knock him down out for the count. Those blue eyes though going to the other mage as he just smiles in an almost creepy fashion. "Wha' now?"
Ainsley	Ainsley does a little fistpump when the barrier goes down! Huzzah! She gathers up her materials and follows the rest of the party, but not near the front of the group because she'd just crumple like a house of cards if someone hit her with a particularly powerful spell. The next floor is arrived at, and Ainsley focuses on the magic circles instead, and quickly scrambles up to them to give them a lookover, pulling out a big piece of white chalk from one of her pockets and frowning with determination at the circles as if daring them to get set off while she's disarming them. She tries to disarm them with more interfering magic words, one at a time, but she's not particularly GOOD at doing this, she just knows how based off of her language skills. Anything that requires more that writing something down is probably going to blow up in her face.
Auron	Since the danger appears to be coming from the front, Auron picks up his sword and moves towards the front of the group as the barrier comes down. Once they continue on, and he catches sight of the mages, he frowns and makes himself into a wall, hoping to be able to 'tank' whatever the mage is about to throw at them. But he doesn't leave it at that. The mage who is casting is the greater threat, between that one and the one who's retreating. So he looks to the mage casting. Draws his chi up, into his throat. And GROWLS out, "You don't want to move!" There is a deep vibration under his words, not heard, but felt. Infrasound, like a tiger's roar.
Tomoyo Daidouji	The bodyguards catch Auron staring, and all four stare right back. It's hard to tell what they're thinking behind their dark glasses, but they certainly handle their weapons without looking well enough. Tomoyo meanwhile, has taken her camera back up, frowning slightly. For Sakura to have ignored her question, and all the destruction downstairs... something serious must have happened. When the barrier comes down, one of the bodyguards come up to her. "Miss, you should stay back." Unfortunately, Tomoyo is already progressing, pointedly ignoring them. Quickly, they all gather up, surrounding the heiress on all sides, keeping her covered. Upon encountering the two mages, Tomoyo nudges the one in front of her aside so she can get a shot of Kaede becoming a flying blender and Jazz teleporting somehow to zap one! Since the mages are already being dealt with, the bodyguards just stick close to Tomoyo, ready to protect her from whatever comes out of the circles.
Emiya Shirou	"Stop! Don't make us fight over this. You guys don't know anything about what you're dealing with!" Shirou's pleading with the two mages, but... doesn't really expect them to listen. Which is why he's still standing guard over Sakura! ... Though with others going in to attack he just sort of frowns. nothing doing, huh?
Sakura Kinomoto	The mage that ran off is rather startled as Jazz appears right in front of him. His eyes go wide, and he reaches for a patch of wall right next to Jazz's head. A spell circle glows to life there, the mage just about to reach it... And then lightning to the face. The mage crumples and probably tumbles back down the stairs unless Jazz catches him. Meanwhile, the mage in the center of the room laughs at Shirou's pronouncement. "We know more of what we're dealing with than- AUGHOHGODWHY-!" And then he has a Shinki to the face. He flails his arms wildly, but then Auron does... -something-. And then he just freezes in place, slowly tipping over like a tree. The three magic circles continue to glow, though. Beasts, strange crosses between cats and wolves, materialise within them, surrounded by flames! ... Although the one from the circle Ainsley is tampering with is MISSING ITS HEAD and flickers a efw times like a bad TV signal before vanishing again. The two remaining beasts roar and attack, one heading for Auron and Shirou, while the other heads for Tomoyo's bodyguards! Sakura shouts to Jazz "We keep going up!" in response to his question. Juuust as soon as the two beasts are dealt with. They're tough! But the combined might of the Elites present will likely make short work of them...
Kaede	Kaede is in a bit of a blind rage... but as soon as the mage topples over, she snaps out of it, and 'takes a breath'. Her forearms and covered in splashes of blood, as are her blades, with a few flecks across her visor and one on her cheek. The roar of those flame beasts causes the Shinki to wheel around, dismissing her blades instead for her heavy rifle. Auron and Shirou can handle themselves, they're Elites... Tomoyo's bodyguards are just normal people, so she aims for the beast bearing down on them. The barrel shifts outward, begins to spin rapidly as she holds the trigger down, then with a hollow KATHUMP, she releases the trigger, and a large orange pulse of laser energy lances out. It might not one-shot the monster, but might make it easier to manage by crippling it.
Jazz	Jazz catches the mage before he falls down the steps, because he could be useful right? Might know something. After all the might-be-human, was once a cop and Jazz himself isn't Special Operations Officer for nothing. For now Jazz heaves the guy easily over his shoulder, taking note of where the man was reaching for and then watches as beasts come to life, glancing over to Sakura. "Got'cha." The six foot one man easily makes his way for his gun on the ground as the beasts are distracted and then takes aim with it. "Yo..." Jazz says over to Tomoyo, "Your body guards there got handcuffs? We might be able ta cuff this guy and get some questions when he wakes up." Meanwhile Jazz keeps his aim steady and if her bodyguards or Auron has trouble, that trigger will be pulled, but he is pretty sure they got this... right?
Auron	Suddenly there are beasts! And they're ON FIRE! Auron turns his attention to the one heading for Shirou and him, and hefts his sword before him, the flat of the single-edge zweihander facing the beast, and plants his feet shoulder-width apart. That's his 'Sentinel' posture, and he's braced to take damage. As such, Shirou now has effective cover from which to engage the beast if he so chooses.
Ainsley	One out of three! Ainsley is partially triumphant in her mood, having done at least half-good at dealing with these magic circles. She stands up and quickly draws a dagger for self-defense purposes, turning to regard the terrible beasts as they manifest. She spares only a momentary glance at the mage that got interrupted mid-smug and promptly dispatched, and retreats away from the battle, not really willing to get between heroes and their swording targets. "Right," she says, with an almost regal tilt upward of her head. "Onward." She turns and moves to the staircase to wait for the others. She's not gonna run off on her own. She does, however, crane her neck to try and get a look up to the next floor, brows perking with her bright curiosity.
Tomoyo Daidouji	Tomoyo records Kaede and Jazz, turning the camera to catch Auron's awe-inspiring, pant-filling threat and Ainsley's magic interference. If she could, she would be calling out encouragement and praise at their amazing feats. But the best she can do right now is giving everyone a thumbs-up, should they look in her direction. But suddenly, flaming CatWolfs! Tomoyo's bodyguards move in practiced unison, the two on Tomoyo's left and right moving forward, slowly at first before breaking into a run, charging the summoned beast on each side. When they get close, out come the extendable batons, which they both swing in unison, sweeping low to strike at its legs, aiming to make it trip or stagger (something that Kaede's shot may help with)! If it works, the bodyguard in front of Tomoyo steps in during that instant, taser drawn and stabbed towards the beast's neck, aiming to pass an incapacitating shock through its body! The final bodyguard that was behind Tomoyo meanwhile, glances towards Jazz and shakes her head. "We are bodyguards, not police officers. We do not carry handcuffs as a matter of order." But, Tomoyo gives Jazz a thumbs-up! She then fishes something out of her bag. It seems to be a half-completed scarf! She also takes out a pair of cloth scissors, which she uses to cut the scarf up into strips! The bodyguard takes them, and uses them to deftly bind the hands of the mages behind their backs. Should the taser work on the CatWolf, the bodyguards regroup around Tomoyo (who gets on tiptoes to pat them all on the shoulders) before moving on with the others.
Emiya Shirou	"... No, you really don't..." Seeing everything going on Shirou's tempted to just shake his head, but then things actually get pretty serious. He steps forth and hoists both weapons into a ready stance. "Whatever happened to talking about problems?!" Instead of letting the beast arrive he hurls both weapons straight for his aggressor and projects replacements moments later!
Sakura Kinomoto	"We've tried talking," Sakura says, quietly. "These jerks just don't seem to want to listen." She sounds... kinda agressive when she says that, though! Kaede's blast hits one of the CatWolves (Felupines?) in the back, causing it to stagger just enough for Tomoyo's bodyguards to sweep it off its feet. The taser to the neck has a rather surprising effect - it doesn't just incapacitate it. It causes it to EXPLODE. Harmlessly. In fact, the -fire- didn't seem to do anything either... Shirou's target takes two blades to the face and -also- explodes before even reaching the solid wall of Auronite. Sakura can't help but clap at how quickly her companions managed to take them out. "Okay! Onward!" Ainsley can't really see much from her vantage point. She can see a window, though - which... seems to be much higher up the tower than the fourth floor really should be. Once the group reaches the fourth floor, they're greeted by another pair of mages, although they're currently safe behind another of those energy walls. The floor on the side the heroes are on is -covered- with spell circles. Oh my. The first time one of them is crossed, it explodes with a blast of electricity. The blast isn't particularly large, though.
Jazz	When Tomoyo's Bodyguard explains they don't have gloves but Tomoyo has an answer, Jazz watches as they tie up the mage's hand. This guy will have to come in useful later, right? Though Jazz does gather up his things and goes to back carrying the guy like a light bag of potatoes. Its when they step on the fourth floor and Jazz glances around does it bother him a bit. Those circles everywhere and two more mages. He looks over to Shirou, "I dun think any of 'em are interested in talkin' and even if this guy wakes up...I ain't sure he'll talk either." Jazz then looks ahead once more shifting his weight softly. He'll let the magic experts deal with this.
Kaede	Kaede flicks her visor up, and offers a smile to the bodyguards... which might seem a little demented with the blood caking her outer frame. The rifle vanishes with a flash of slipway light, and she turns to fall into formation with Sakura again, hovering close to the girl protectively. She peers at the mages behind their barrier, then the veritable minefield, which she maps out with her visor sensors. A smirk crosses her face, as she flies forwards, slipping between the spell circles while summoning her Blaster, the smaller one-handed pulse gun materializing in her right hand, as she slowly snakes her way through towards the barrier.
Ainsley	Ainsley gets up to the next floor with the others, and pulls out her chalk to try and interfere with the next circle-- BZZZZRT! Ainsley lets out a squeal that's more out of surprise than out of pain, recoiling from the blast because she senses the effects before they occur. Then she grumpily looks at the rest of the circles, and places her chalk in her pocket. "Fine," she complains, "Let's do it this way." She holds out a hand, electricity crackles along her arm, and she tries, with some precision, to BURN letters into the magic circles around them to deactivate them using bolts of bright lightning, arcing it through the air with a strange ease. She can't be nearly as precise as before. "Once I get through this, I am going to stab one of you," she tells the mages, "Unless you surrender. Then maybe one of these fine allies here can deal with you instead. Me, I don't have that much patience. You don't have long, figure it out while you wait." Smile~ Oh jeez why is she in such a good mood and why does it manifest as HOMICIDAL MENACE.
Sakura Kinomoto	The two mages glance at each other and visibly gulp. Meanwhile, Ainsley hasn't made any more circles explode! So that's good.
Auron	Once they go up to the next level Auron notices the spell circles on the floor. Okay nope, he's not messing with that. But the mages are behind the barrier. And he has a feeling they're going to be throwing spells from behind that barrier. So as before, he plants himself as a wall. And waits. He sees the effect Ainsley's words have on the mages, and adds his own two cents in -- "...Once that barrier is down, there's going to be pain. The more effort we have to put into dropping it, the more pain there's going to be." In contrast to Ainsley's bright mood, Auron's tone is flat and dangerous.
Tomoyo Daidouji	Noticing the obvious aggression in Sakura's voice, Tomoyo reaches out past her bodyguard barrier to pat the girl on the shoulder, both as an affectionate gesture, and to get her attention. Should the girl look over, Tomoyo lowers the camera again and offers a kind smile, reaching out with her free hand to push the corners of Sakura's mouth up slightly with index and middle fingers. A very obtuse way of saying 'cheer up!' but the best she can do in these circumstances. When they arrive on the next floor, well. Her bodyguards have a bit of a dilemma, don't they? Can't maintain a tight huddle when a wrong step sets something off! As such, they decide to leave this to the others... while tightening the huddle to keep Tomoyo from slipping out. Much to her chagrin.
Emiya Shirou	Shirou makes a disgruntled face, but he's satisfied that Sakura's not hurt at least. "They just don't know when to quit." Sheesh. On to the fourth floor-- Where Shirou suddenly gets zapped upon entrance. "AGH!" The young magus is brought to his knees with a surge of pain, flesh sizzling.. but while most would be downd by that, he just struggles back up to his feet. "They just don't let up... if we've no choie but to cut through..." Well he doesn't want to kill anyone. "I'd listen to her!" He warns the group regarding Ainsley. The Yin-Yang blades quickly vanish, only to be replaced with Kusanagi. A single swing of the blade sends a typhoon gale across the distance - he hopes to just bowl over all the mages and buy the others a moment of opportunity!
Sakura Kinomoto	Shirou's magical attack approaches the barrier! The energy barrier shines brightly and... it... just blows straight through? ...What? The two mages promptly get bowled off their feet. Ainsley manages to clear a path through the 'mines', and Kaede probably discovers that... she can pass right through the barrier, as well. In fact, EVERYONE can! Except for Sakura, anyway. She's still stuck. The two mages on the floor look very worried about the situation they're suddenly in. Sakura jumps a bit as Tomoyo puts her hand on her shoulder, looking around at her friend. And then... forced to smile! She peers at Tomoyo in confusion, then breaks down into a fit of giggles.
Jazz	Jazz watches as everyone deals with the problem at hand, but for him. He has another idea. They need answers right and by now, mister bag of potato-mage should have recovered enough to /give/ some answers. At least that is the hop. The Aferican American rests the man on his feet, holding him up by his cloak and keeping him away from any walls. Then with any /slap/ across the face Jazz goes to wake him up. "Yo. Sleepy head. Wake up, I got some questions for ya an' I'm not in a real charitable mood." The man's tone sounded serious and the look on his face matched the voice.
Sakura Kinomoto	The Mage in Jazz's possession wakes up groggily... and then stares up at the Scary Black Man holding onto him. Gulp.
Kaede	Kaede manages to weather Shirous sudden little storm, then grins as she passes right through that barrier. "Well. Well. Well. Weren't expecting Master to have /friends/ were you?" she asks in a sing song little voice, eyes hidden behind her visor as she /beams/ pleasantly enough. She lands on one of the mage's chests, and levels her blaster at his face. "I might look small, but I can tell you /right now/ that you do not want me to become angry." she states hopping up onto his chin, then his nose, perching there with her jetpack traversed to the sides, with her blades attached, like deformed claw-tipped wings. The blood is still on that one pair she used, and she's still caked in it from her little blender routine from before too. "One of your friends found out what it's like to make me angry." She leans in. "He didn't like me when I got angry."
Tomoyo Daidouji	Tomoyo beams as Sakura breaks into a fit of giggles. That expression suits her much better. But, then she lifts her camera in time to see everyone just... walk through the barrier, no problem. Except Sakura. Did they seriously create an anti-Sakura barrier, not accounting for the possibility of others? Since that is literally The Worst Barrier, Tomoyo urges her bodyguards forward, walking across the circles that Ainsley deactivated. When they get past the barrier, her camera is at the ready to film the clumsy mages either get beaten or run away. Perfect blackmail material for later~
Auron	Oh? What's this? Kaede seems to pass through the barrier unharmed. As does Shirou's attack. And when Auron tries it -- after picking his way through the 'mines', of course -- it doesn't seem much of a barrier to him either. "It's set to your energy specifically?" he asks, looking in Sakura's direction. He pauses. Thinks a moment. He does have an attack that makes mages' magic weaker. Will it work here? No way to know until he tries, right? So, while the others question (read: scare the hell out of) the mages, Auron does something else. He draws his chi into his sword, a purple gleam sliding down the sharp edge of the blade, and the strikes at the area the barrier is in. Nothing ventured, nothing gained, right?
Jazz	Jazz stares right into the other guys eyes, while who knows what is going on for those two other purple mages that everyone else is after and focused on. His eyes narrow sharply as a cold smile plays on his face. "Good morin' sunshine. So let me ask ya, why is this tower here an' how do we deactivate whatever spells y'all got that is messin' with my friend over there or gettin' our way?" His thumb jabs over at Sakura, "..an' ya better give me some answers or I'm gonna let one of these tough guys rough ya up... if I dun do it myself personally."
Ainsley	"Absolutely amateur work," Ainsley points out to the mages as most of the party just walks through the barrier as if it weren't even there. She makes most of her attention focused on deactivating anything that could harm the party, until she reaches the circles that would block Sakura out... but halts when Auron has an idea, and instead just walks by the barrier casually and holds up that dagger lazily in her off hand with two fingers, as if she's contemplating just throwing it at one of them. "You look like you'll be busy enough," she remarks to the mages, and moves to stand near the next stairway, prepared to continue the ascent. "Who are these clowns?" the lizard woman remarks rhetorically and unhappily, because she cannot fathom why they thought this was a good idea, or what justification they could possibly have to do this against Sakura.
Emiya Shirou	"..." Siiiigh. SHirou just rubs his forehead at the screwups he's witnessing. "They didn't plan on anything but Sakura's magic from what I can see. They won't stand a chance... aren't the higher floors paying attention to anything down here?!" He sure would. This is just getting silly...
Sakura Kinomoto	A Mage has a tiny, blood-caked KILLER ROBOT on his chest. He just stares up at her, white-faced, pupils absolutely tiny. The Mage next to him stammers something about 'spells designed for one person being more powerful than more general spells'. Sakura crosses her arms. "They're the Order of the Purple Pentacle. They think I'm, like. Some massive threat or something." She shakes her head a bit. "They're kinda... amateurish. Their leader's pretty strong thou-" Then Auron performs his Magic Break. It works! The barrier sputters out and shatters. And it also makes a... large gash in the floor. And the opposite wall. That... shouldn't happen. And then the tower promptly begins to VANISH AROUND THEM oh Jesus The Mage Jazz is questioning starts to babble about how Sakura is a huge threat due to being too irresponsible with the power that was just HANDED to her and stuff. And also, after a bit of threatening, says that just deactivating any spell circles they come across should work. There's a room near the top of the tower that contains the spell circles keeping the tower together so they should be careful in that roo- And then he notices the tower is vanishing.
Jazz	Jazz gets the information he is after then his eye brow raises as he starts to notice something very /wrong/. "You gottta be slaggin' kiddin me." Yeah, this about the time the poor mage realizes it too. Jazz then whistles to one of Tomoyo guards, "Make sure he doesn't run off anywhere!" Then hurls him toward one of them or-- anyone who wants to play 'keep the prisoner' and does so with inhuman strength. Then the African American actually /leaps/ out one of the openings. It wont be long till suddenly a grappling hook is flung up there to where they are and takes hold, before a very similar voice to the man is heard, only a bit more robotic. If someone was to look down they would find that sleek white sports car? Yeah-- That was the Autobot known as Jazz. "I suggest ya people move it by zippin' down that line! I have no idea how long its goin' hold with this place vanishin'!" Jazz comments with some haste in his voice, because seriously. This was /bad/ news.
Ainsley	Ainsley's disapproval is replaced with an impressed look when Auron's Magic Break attack shatters the ENTIRE TOWER. Her head turns to look at the gouge in the tower, and the implication she realizes is that this ENTIRE TOWER was engineered from magic. The though makes her start to grin a big crazy grin for a second, happy that they are DECEPTIVE about the level of power they can display. Then the tower starts to fade. "Oh." Ainsley is less excited about this. "I hope someone can catch us, I don't think I can fly yet." She thinks for a second. "Wind magic might not be a good idea, either, it might hurt more than just landing." Ainsley turns to look out at the zipline. She sheathes the dagger, and starts to run, pulling the scabbard of her longsword off her belt. Then she leaps and uses the scabbard to slide down the zipline, using her tail to maintain her balance and holding her legs out in front of her. She might've trained in how to do this!
Kaede	Kaede blinkblinks behind her visor as her sensors start going haywire as energy just starts going in all directions. "What th--" Then the floor under the Mage she's perched on vanishes, and her perch drops. She catches herself with a flare of jetpack, then wheels around quickly. "MASTER! RUN!" she calls out quickly. If Sakura's power is still being restrained, well she's just a normal girl, under it all... and the Shinki is very protective. She can't carry anyone out, because of her tiny size, but she can at least get people moving, if they aren't already.
Tomoyo Daidouji	Tomoyo giggles at the sight of a man being held up by a tiny robot. She also makes sure to catch Auron's barrier-breaking swing on camera. It's sure to be amazing! But the result, with the tower fading away? Less so. One of the bodyguards goes to pick Tomoyo up, actually prepared to cushion her fall with her own body. But thankfully, Jazz to the rescue! Another one of the bodyguards takes the bound mage, carrying him in a fireman's carry. The one that picked up Tomoyo carries her to the zipline. "You go first Miss. We'll be right behind you." The tailor looks a little scared, but nods! She uses her bag to hook on and slide down to Jazz! Her dismount is not exactly graceful though, as she hits the road and tumbles to a stop. The bodyguards follow her, using their batons to hook on. Two of them carry the Purple Pentagram mage down the line by wrapping their legs around him and going down at the same time. Though, they unceremoniously dump him when they're close to the ground to dismount properly. They then immediately go to Tomoyo's aid, lifting her to her feet and checking for injury.
Emiya Shirou	"Weeeee... better get out of here!! QUICK!" Shirou does realize that the tower's vanishing only a few seconds before the babbling mage does. But he does this by projecting Vruasa's AERODYNAMIC ROCKET SHOCKSPEAR and mounting it. If he has to catch anyone this'll be way easier than being bumbling around on stairs!
Auron	Auron notices the shift in the air. It's subtle, a shift in the environment around him. And then Auron notices why the shift in energy around him. BECAUSE THE TOWER IS DISAPPEARING. "..." There are so many appropriate words for this sort of situation. Appropriate for the situation, not for mixed company. Instead he says to the group at large, "...That was... unintentional." There will be time for more complete apologies later though. Like, when they're not in danger of being dropped hundreds of feet to the ground below. There's a zipline suddenly. Auron isn't going to question. He just puts his sword on his back again and starts making sure as many people as possible get to the zipline. Yes, including the mages on this floor, if they'll go. If not he'll just grab one of them on HIS way out. They might be pains in the butt, but they don't deserve to die. And they ARE pretty high up. Auron is perhaps unnecessarily showy in getting down the zipline. He's (hopefully) carrying a mage and can't use his sword to slide down like this. So, failing using the mage as a slide (which would be funny but kind of rude, and probably rather painful), he uses another method. He actually hops onto the line itself, standing on it. He hooks the instep of his boot, just in front of the heel, on the line and literally 'surfs' down the line. Thankfully his balance is really good. He jumps off the line at the end before he hits anything and lands in a roll.
Sakura Kinomoto	Sakura darts for the zipline as it appears. She still can't use her magic very effectively - in fact, her wand has VANISHED in the meantime. Instead, she reaches behind her, under her bag... and produces an empty scabbard, with the symbol of the Assassin Brotherhood printed on it. Huh. She zips down the zipline about halfway, before she starts her wand unsealing incantation, finishing with a "RELEASE!" once she hits the bottom. No time to make sure everyone's okay - they left quite a few people in that tower! "FLOAT!" And now there's a bunch of jerks floating down lazily towards Penguin Park. Which, apparently, has been finished since the last time anyone saw it! Well that's good at least. As the dust settles, it seems that everyone is fine... Also, the tower has completely vanished by now. Yes.
Jazz	The Autobot was actually knelt down so when people do dismount it wasn't to far from the ground given the grappling line was attached to his arm. Once everyone is down, he forces the line free and it retracts back into his arm pretty as she pleases, before his black hand extends back out. That blue visor of his flickers for a moment before he smirks faintly. "Well now. Tha' was a bit of an adventure for tha day." Then his tone gets a bit more serious. "Is everyone all righ'?" Though he hasn't forgotten about mister mage who he then scopes up in his black hand, before giving the man a long look. "...An' I think ya owe these people an apology, dun ya think?" Then he sets the man back down, looming over him--- and almost everyone easily as he stays knelt down.
Kaede	Kaede floats down towards the group, and lands daintily on Sakura's shoulder, perching like a loyal raptor. She looks around at the various mages floating down from the tower, and just frowns a little. "What did they hope to accomplish?" she asks softly, dismissing her helmet to Slipway. "I mean... all this, just to keep Master away from one of her Cards?"
Tomoyo Daidouji	Tomoyo returns to her feet! Thankfully, her clumsy dismount didn't hurt her too bad, just some small scrapes and bruises. And her camera actually managed to survive too, bonus! She goes to thank Jazz, looking up at him with the camera in amazement! But, she gets over it, and bows to him in thanks, with her bodyguards doing the same behind her. She then points the camera towards where the tower once stood, filming the mages slowly drifting back to Earth. She smiles at Sakura, patting her on the shoulder again, as if to say, 'That's a good thing you did.' She also gives everyone a thumbs up for making it out okay! Auron gets a particularly enthusiastic one for having rescued a couple of the mages on his way out.
Auron	There hadn't been time to see to the rest of the mages, or to get a good look at Jazz until landing. Though once Auron stands up again, he offers a nod to the Autobot. "Thank you." He's seen Autobots before; he knew one incarnation of Optimus Prime, in fact. Though Jazz is one Autobot he hasn't seen before. He gives a half-smile in return to Tomoyo's thumbs-up. "Thank you." Then, looking to Sakura, he speaks up, "I apologize. I had no idea that would destabilize the entire tower." He looks up, watching the mages floating down. "How badly is the situation fouled up?" he asks. Unspoken translation: 'What and how much exactly did I screw this up?'.
Emiya Shirou	Shirou's ride down is kind of bumpy, given the weird ROCKET SPEAR he's using, but he manages to land in a heap next to Sakura and dust himself off. "I'm not sure if that was even a success. They'll just try somethin again... are you alright?"
Ainsley	Once Ainsley has landed and is staring up at where the tower USED to be, she frowns up at it for a while. She keeps frowning, putting her weapons away. Then she puts her hands on her hips, and looks over to Auron, brows lifting. "It was an accident," she tells Auron, brushing it off completely with a wave of her hand. "So now what?" she asks, turning to look at Sakura.
Sakura Kinomoto	"...Now I guess... I'll fly up there and seal the Voice so Tomoyo can get her voice back?" Sakura says, a little uncertain. She looks around, then nods her head, pulling out a card. "FL-!" There's a loud -snap- and crackle, along with a flash of purple light, and suddenly there's a man standing right in front of the group. He's wearing purple robes, but without a hood. He looks to be in his mid forties, with cropped black hair and a tidy beard. He's holding a staff with one hand and is making absolutely no hostile motions. Next to him is the physical body of the Voice card - a small, pink harpy-ish girl. She's looking exhausted and has flopped to the ground.
Kaede	Kaede's on battle alert as soon as that -snap- sounds out, helmet on, Big Rifle out, and aimed down sights at the new arrival. She's still perched on Sakura's shoulder, so she can likely stave off the Shinki getting aggressive.
Jazz	Jazz gives a nod to everyone until the portal shows itself, which is when Jazz stands up and looks /down/ at the man. He could probably crush the man under foot, but that wouldn't be right. Instead the Autobot rests one hand on his hip and just observes for now. After all, the guy isn't taking any hostile action, so there was no reason to show aggression just yet.
Tomoyo Daidouji	At the sudden appearance of anther mage, Tomoyo's bodyguards spring into action! They draw tasers and point them at the mage, forming a wall between he and Tomoyo. The tailor continues recording as best she can, zooming in on his face, and also getting a shot of the injured Voice. She's in two minds now. On one hand, Voice stole her voice, and the past couple of weeks have been pretty hard. But on the other hand, no one deserves that... Her free hand dips into her bag and wraps around the handle of a jade hand mirror, squeezing it tightly.
Ainsley	Ainsley looks away from Sakura and to the mage that appears before them. Her gaze fixates on him, and then turns to look at the Voice, who seems utterly exhausted. The lizard woman then reaches to draw the longsword out of its scabbard, and steps forward enough to make her intent clear. "I suggest fleeing or surrendering," she tells the man, "Because, and I am going to be blunt, what you have done is theft at best, and kidnapping and assault at worst. Look at her." She points with the sword at the Voice. "By all means, try to justify it. I can't wait to poke holes in your reasoning." Her face is blank and looking the man in the face. Long gone is anything approaching Ainsley's innocence, and all that's left is a lot of bitter anger that she is gladly directing toward someone that actually deserves it. It's not clear if she means to poke holes in HIM with the sword as well.
Auron	Auron nods to Ainsley's words. "That's true," he admits. But always there's the qualifier. "Though maybe I should have been more careful." He hadn't realized EVERYTHING was made of magic in there. A smirk. "At least you have an effective means of threatening them if they try this again." The threat 'I'll make your magical fortress disappear' probably would have quite an effect on an order of mages... Suddenly there's loud noises, and Auron winces. But he also makes to defend from anything that might be coming at themm. The bearded man appears, and Auron narrows his remaining eye. But when the man who just appeared seems to not be hostile towards them, Auron too relaxes. A little. He's ready to defend, but not readying for an attack yet. When Ainsley steps forward, Auron shifts so that she can run back behind him if the mage chooses to bring to bear a large amount of power. "None of us want to fight you," he says evenly. "Only to help a young lady get her voice back. That's all."
Emiya Shirou	When the man appears, Shirou once again summons his favored weapons and gives the man a hard look. "Are you the one responsible for all this trouble?!" He's furious for Sakura and Tomoyo's sake and looks VERY MUCH like he wants to give this guy a piece of his mind. But he also looks worriedly at the figure who just got dumped there on the ground... frowns... then glares more at the guy.
Sakura Kinomoto	"I have little patience for aliens, lizard. Don't try it further." Well he's just a -jerk-. He bows. "Miss Kinomoto. Miss Daidouji. Ladies. My name is Jean Estella." He's... yeah he's totally ignoring everyone who's not a native. Jesus. "We have misunderestimated the amount of power required to keep one of Reed's creations in its active form for prolonged periods. While normally we would have no problem simply allowing it to disappear, to do such in this case would be to permanently disfigure an innocent girl with no magical ability." He turns his back. "You have won. Do not think you are not still a threat to this world." ZAP-crackle. And he's gone. ... Along with the hostages DAMNIT. Sakura stares for a moment, then rushes to the Voice's side. The pink harpy-girl reaches up to touch Sakura's cheek, smiling faintly. The ground below her can be seen through her body... Sakura wraps her arms around the Voice. There's a blue glow... and she's hugging a card. A green mote of light floats from the card, up into the air. It bobs along through the air to Tomoyo, then presses against her throat. It then promptly melts into her throat, spreads out along her neck, and then fades.
Jazz	Jazz 'tsks' softly at the man's words, but doesn't show much reaction beyond that. He shifts his weight slightly and then observes as the man vanishes, leaving behind the 'Card' they have been searching for. Including taking note as the magic energy restores back into Tomoyo. Once everything seems peaceful, the Autobot turns away from the group, before he looks back at Sakura, "If he ever gives you any more trouble, either of ya..." He motions to her and then to Tomoyo. "Feel free ta contact me, which by tha way..." He says with a smirk. "Tha name is Jazz." Then with a transformation and a burning of tires, the sports car is off! After all, everything is golden, a girl got her voice back, and seems like the day has been won! Now really much else he can do here for now and he has some other things while in the area to check out.
Kaede	Kaede tchs, and dismisses her rifle again, huffing a little, before looking at her blood caked arms. "Aww man, this'll take hours to scrub off... then I'll need to get repainted." she grouses, then plucks one of the blood soaked blades from her jetpack. Siiiiigh.
Emiya Shirou	EWWWW. Shirou makes a disugsted face at this proceeding - he only doesn't start yelling because the guy's gone so quickly and the Card's been relinquished... "Who does that guy think he is? Sakura, is this--" He watches the little bit of power fly to Tomoyo, blinking. "... WHAT is this...?"
Tomoyo Daidouji	Tomoyo is frowning intensely as Jean proceeds to be terribly rude to everyone, and tries to play the 'you didn't win' card by handing The Voice over himself. No sir, she doesn't like him. But then, her voice returns to her, sinking into her throat! As it does, her breaths suddenly become audible, their sudden presence making their prior absence more noticeable. Clearing her throat, she starts to harmonize, notes getting higher pitched until she stops with a satisfied nod. Her bodyguards maintain their demeanour, but it's still quite easy to tell how relieved they are. "Everything seems to be in order~" she says, before giving Sakura a tight hug! "See, I told you! Everything would turn out all right~" She also gives Ainsley a hug, and shakes the hand of Auron and Shioru (Jazz, she just shakes the finger of). And then she gasps, a look of utter horror on her face. "Oh no... oh no!" Placing her hands to her cheeks, she starts to sniffle. "I had an outfit for Sakura prepared for this, but we didn't have time to dress her!"
Ainsley	Ainsley stares at the man silently until he leaves. Her tail lashes a few times once he's gone. "Yes. She is a dangerous person. Which is why the obvious course of action, instead of reasoning with her to create measures to deal with potential abuses of power, you should steal her possessions, which are living elementals, abuse them to the point of exhaustion, then act like a spectacular, self-important racist magician when people quite understandably want to hurt you for it." Ainsley's eye twitches. "I hate that man intensely." She sheathes the sword, and turns to give Sakura a hug, and then depart wordlessly, her contribution here completed.
Auron	"...There's a singularly amiable one," Auron replies as the man disappears, his voice thick with sarcasm. He frowns. Though it could have gone worse. Looking between Sakura and Tomoyo, he observes Sakura has a card, and that mote of magic heading to Tomoyo. He looks to the latter and asks, "Are you all right now? Is everything back to normal?" He does indeed shake Tomoyo's hand. "Glad to see you're back to normal." Though he pauses when she begins to fret. But when he realizes it's about an outfit, he chuckles. Ainsley's words get a smirk. "I don't much care for him either. But at least he didn't leave Tomoyo without her voice for good in the name of whatever it is he thinks he's doing by being such a grand idiot."
Sakura Kinomoto	Sakura rubs her head a bit at Tomoyo's fretting. "...Eheh. Glad you're okay, Tomoyo..."