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Zwei     Even with much less useful coordinates, the destination Zwei has in mind wouldn't be hard to find. Approaching what was formerly the municipality of Kirkel some hundreds of years ago, in what is surprisingly still called Germany, one can hear the uproar from miles away. Though the countryside itself has become an overgrown sea of dark and earthy greens, trees untouched by human hands for centuries, the skyline flickers with pulses of searing light and the echoing crack of gunfire punctuating the misty rumble of explosions. There is a battle well underway, and the leaves shudder in the forest with its sudden intensity.

    The specific angle of approach is specifically advised, and for good reason. It takes arrivals in at a sideways angle to the swiftly advancing battle lines of the NGR's Heer corps and their opponents; the heretofore unseen gargoyles, not from directly behind German lines, and not straight from where the shots are flying. The city itself wasn't all that impressive to begin with by the looks of it, probably once pretty and idyllic, but now little more than a crumbling graveyard of abandoned buildings, rarely over five storeys tall. The only things that inhabit it now are presumably the shapes launching from the rooftops like flocks of disturbed carrion crows, abandoning their twisted jungle gym of concrete, brick and rebar perches and taking to the air in great, fluttering swarms; surging eastwards towards the source of a withering, non-stop hail of missiles and energy beams, filling the sky with so much smoke and light that it's hard to see the sun.

    From a distance, it's hard to see more than the aerial charge, though it's obvious that these gargoyles have weapons of their own, returning fire from on high even as the distant, bat-winged shadows drop in scores, only to be replaced by dozens more. Approaching the hotzone though, fighting can be heard from building to building, plumes of fire erupting on the cityscape only blocks away, momentarily drowning out the tromp of boots and the thump and whine of robotic movement. Massive grey shapes can be see plunging through the forest that has sprouted up through the rotted flagstones, crushing the overgrowth in their way as sporadic furballs of crunching steel and bestial howling chaotically spring up haphazardly all around. The air reeks of sulphur and ozone, and the ground shakes constantly. It's a deafening, lightning fast clusterfuck, and not at all pleasant to drop in the middle of. Zwei seems to have been here for some time however, both Weiss and Asche, camped outside the steps of a broken down church, a handful of bloody smears arranged in the parking lot outside, and a scattering of holes riddled through the front wall around them.
Zephyr Windstar     Zephyr is teleporting in at a reasonable distance, waiting obviously for the others to turn up. She's standing atop a glowing purple diamond-shaped spell seal which lazily rotates under her feet, the glyphs and sigils shifting at seemingly random within the confines of the seal.

    The face on the teen is pensive, and she physically winces as a plume of flame erupts from within the ruined city. "War..." she begins, then shakes her head. "This reminds me too much of Home... Divine Wind, Drive Ignition."

    <YES! DRIVE IGNITION! BARRIER JACKET. BREEZE MODE. DEVICE SET. MISTRAL FORM!> The girl is encased in a short lived bubble of purple mana which, once dissipated, reveals her in full battle garb. Her heavier Barrier Jacket covering her body, and the short hand-axe of Mistral Form in her left hand. Two little spinning 'fans' orbit lazily around her, forming the Bits that accompany the Device.
Shin Tokuyama Shin's here to help. Kinda. In his own way. What appears to be a 2011 Honda Civic pops out of a warp gate and stops about a mile or so away from the fighting. A nervous looking college student is sitting in the driver's seat as Shin browses on his cell phone with one hand and holds a half-eaten stuffed crepe in the other, "Er... we're here, bro."

"Oh cool. Alright. M-Uber should auto-pay you, right?" Shin asks. The guy nods, "Yeah bro. But it seems like a rough neighborhood so I'm gonna book on out, yeah?"

Shin gives him a wave and sends him off with a 5-star Driver Review and a modest tip. The Combat Vagrant then sets out to take the rest of the walk into the city on foot. It'll take him about fifteen or twenty minutes of walking to cover the last mile or so to the location, observing the fighting that seems to be happening all around him, but not really doing much about it. His hands are, after all, occupied by the crepe and taking pictures with his cell phone.

"Wow. Bit and Byte weren't kidding. This is some cray shit goin' down."
Terry McGinnis     Flying to this....location was the Batmobile, piloted by Terry McGinnis aka Batman. As the Batmobile flew at Mach 1 speeds, Terry looked as his suit was linked to the Bbatmobile. "Sounds like trouble," he states simply as the Batmobile disappeared from view and cloaked as Terry moved the craft low and slows as he sees Zephyr and hovers over her as there is an opening in the bottom of it and a red circle is seen.

    Dropping out of that circle is Batman and he lands not far from her, "Zephyr I take it?" he states as he looks at her and then around the area. As he stands there, he looks at the others who arrive and the red circle above him disappears as the Batmobile hovers over Terry's location, cloaked as he walks forward Towards Zephyr and stops at the seals.
Maya Maya has a history with this world, it was rift with magic and in that respect? It felt like home, she however was not in a good mood. It wasn't about the NGR, no it was about what they were dealing with. Maya was here to deal with demons. Maya's rifle was in hand and she seemd ready for a fight as she heads towards the ruined Church, she ponders for a moment at the carnage. the NGR was certainly giving the demons a heck of a fight, and she intend to fight. She didn't look like much a woman clad in leather, with bits of metal armor. A rifle, long blue hair and some cvisable tatoos under the arm wrapss.

"We shouldn't be wasting much time, there's demons to deal with unless there's something else afoot here?"
Lezard Valeth Oh look, a siege. Problematic, but not so much that it keeps Lezard Valeth out. The situation unfolding here is something that is unusual to the Sorceror of Midgard. He knows little of this world and less about the conflicts between the nonhumans and the mechanized aggressors.

But in the unknown lies opportunity, and Lezard is not one to pass up opportunity.

"Well well. This is quite the situation." This is the second thing that Zwei notices, after a distinctive warping of space near them that soon resolves into the gleaming circle of Lezard's teleportation magic. He appears next to the pair, looking over the area with a quiet shrug. "It seems to be a fairly straightforward battle here." He comments idly. "Is there something unusual occurring here that has attracted your attention?" He asks the binary unit. While hw awaits an answer to that, he looks over the others arriving, humming for a moment as he considers them each in turn. What is he thinking?
Staren     "Ah geeze." Staren says as he hears the battle upon coming through the warpgate. He's riding in a... bipedal construct made of some sort of striped wood. Where one might expect an upper torso and head, however, has been replaced with something like the inside of a car -- places for a few people to sit, and a control panel in front of the driver -- the shape of this 'cockpit' exposes the upper bodies of the occupants, in this case Staren, which is probably why he's still wearing armor. Two arms hang down from the 'body'. In truth, this is an experiment of Staren's to use golemancy to make a transport capable of quickly moving over any terrain without the expense or power requirements of a hovercar or robot vehicle. All in all it's maybe 9½ feet tall, 11 if you count the exposed part of its occupant.

    When they come into sight of the gargoyles, Staren clicks his tongue. "Damn it." He drives the construct over to Zwei and has it crouch to bring him down to her level. "Why aren't you helping? I mean... unless you're just waiting for us all to jump in together?" He looks up at the smokey sky. "I've never fought gargoyles before. Still, it looks like guns and missiles work, or the army wouldn't be using so many."
Valentha Summers     Valentha doesn't find reaching the Church terribly difficult. After all, she can teleport. She's invisible. Weiss and Asche might pick her up with their myriad of scanners pretty trivially though. But like a chamelon changing skin colors she glimmer-shimmers back into normal view and hops over to the steps herself.

    "It's hell out there." The dragon in disguise exclaims sorrowfully.

    Just how many lives are being claimed in a battle this vicious?

    Valentha Summers is dressed as usual but she's also carrying a plain sack. It clinks and clunks as she moves about.

    At several points she telepots a mile straight up in the air, once again invisible, and uses the vantage point to survey the battlefield. But she's quick to reappear near the run-down church upon spotting Shin down there!

    And the perky girl lazily tosses the sack his way!

    Inside are bracers, anklets, and a belt. Made of metal but nicely padded. Tiny jewels sparkle within their tight sockets. They do look fairly durable, but what do they do?

    "Try THOSE on for size if you like. Channel some of your spirit, ki, chi, whatever you call it... right into it. You'll like the results!"
Starbound Flotilla     The STARBOUND FLOTILLA are here. They've jumped into space nearby, and beam down quickly. They're not armored up, but Matter Manipulators at their side make it clear that they're not going to stay that way for long. Biteblade, in particular, is quite excited as soon as they finish teleporting to somewhere just near the safe zone Zwei has established. "Floran hear fight! Big metal, big meat! We go? Tell Floran." She says, eagerly. The rest seem impacted, of course, emotionally, by the harshness of the war going on, but Biteblade seems all the more chipper for it.

    Albert gives a more rational greeting. "Zwei unit. Understand the issue now. Report any other relevant intel. Otherwise," He's already loading up a heavy weapon of his. "Best strategy to learn more about NGR is to get in their good graces by helping."
Alexis Maaka     War never does change, despite how the years pass by. The destruction is way beyond even the warzones in parts of Alexis Maaka's own world, and she can only look on somberly as she teleports onto the scene from her ship. The cyborg's helmed visage looks towards the sounds of battle, before suddenly spotting the Dark Knight himself, or at least /a/ Dark Knight, arriving on scene. Batman is...shorter than she expected Gotham's protector would be, but definitely no less striking a presence. "Nice suit." She comments with a modulated tone, inspecting Batman's highly advanced bodysuit. Chances are it'd make a fair match for her own STALKER armor.

    She hefts her EM GASH coilgun, a battle rifle firing high-velocity rounds fitted with scope, a drum mag of sorts, and an angled forward grip. It helps sell the hyper advanced techno operator thing well, given Maaka's current surroundings.

    She's frosty when she sees Lezard arrive, but she's not entirely all-scowls behind the mask. The cyborg tips a nonexistent hat to her comrades of the Flotilla, as well as Maya and Zephyr in familiar greeting, and she wanders over to Shin to give the Hero of Fists a friendly fistbump. "Hey guys, gang's all here it looks like." She says, nodding to Staren and Valentha when they get there. "Maya's right, we'd better be off ASAP. Where we headed, Zwei?" She asks the binary unit.
Staren     Staren nods in acknowledgement to the others, then leans out of his 'cab' to look at the items tossed to Shin. He gives an impressed "Ooooooooh." while waiting to see what happens when Shin activates them, curiously.
Terry McGinnis     Batman looks at everyone, "so, lets get going," he states simply as he walks over and there is a slight bit of dust and the Batmobile appears as it opens with a red interior and he climbs in and looks. "So, are we going?" he asks as he looks at them. "And since I do not use weapons, I'll help with scouting and protecting people."
Zephyr Windstar     Zephyr chatters silently through her telepathic link to the Radio net... then nodes down to Batman. "That's me." She then hops upwards, taking flight on four purple 'pixie wings' that flash into existence between her shoulder blades. "I'll take the High Road, you take the Low Road. Lets kill some demons." she says, then heads straight upwards, getting a better view of the whole battlefield and processing that information through the TacNet to the others. "Blitz on station, mark your targets and I'll drop the Lance on 'em." Code Zeus, 'Lance Upon High' codeword in many worlds with Orbital Strike facilities to call in such a bombardment. Though Zephyr isn't an Orbital Laser, she's pretty darn close.
Shin Tokuyama It takes some finagling for Shin, but he does eventually manage to put on the stuff Valentha gave him without having to put down his coveted and half-eaten stuffed crepe. Anklets first, then belt, then bracers. They flicker with an activation.

+ Superhuman Speed
+ Superhuman Stamina
+ Armor of Ithan
+ Superhuman Strength

"Neat!" He says, bouncing up and down on his feet, "Though it feels like it won't last that long," Shin admits to her as he moves around a bit to test it. The fist-bump from Maaka is returned and he then resumes eating his crepe.

The crepe is very important to him.
Terry McGinnis     Terry nods and the hatch closes on the Batmobile as it disappears and cloaks. Lifting off the ground, he speaks over the radio, "So if I approach be ready to be shot and I will call points. If they cannot spot me, I am good. And I doubt they can travel at mach speeds," he states as he looks at the others. "So, lets go, people are getting hurt."
Zwei     Weiss is sat on the front steps, one leg folded over the other, hands clasped on her knee as if she's sitting at the right end of the desk in the middle of a business interview, armoured up save for her head in matte black carbon that matches the chassis of the hulking anti-army Armiger standing at the base of the stairs, sleek and unnaturally featureless, without any sort of panel lines or obvious method to take it off.

    "Oh, don't worry about the war. There's no two sides about it. The Germans are exterminating a race of aggressive sub-demons that have conquered and infested Europe at large, killing and consuming almost the entire previous population. It's as black and white as can be. Feel free to kill any living thing you see over seven feet tall!" she immediately says to Zephyr, as chipper as ever despite the bullet holes centimetres from her head in the bricks at her back. "No, the problem is- oh, hold on a minute. Nuclear missiles incoming. Cover your ears." A quartet of scaled down mushroom clouds immediately erupt on the horizon, and a wave of skin-prickling heat follows, loose debris swirling past as the pressure wave blows out. Asche continues as the noise dies down, answering Lezard.

    "The issue is not the gargoyles. They will fight tooth and claw for this irrelevant perch, but the New German Republic has won before even beginning. This is a skirmish at best. A blitzkrieg and mop-up of an infested town along a former road, simply because it is in the way of the larger force moving along it. They will be resupplied within days, and so feel no issue with expending maximum ordnance to minimize casualties." As if to prove his point, two wings of supersonic jets come screaming over the horizon, diving straight into the furball and scything through ranks of gargoyles in their way in a blaze of linked lasers and railguns.

    Weiss picks up. "Well, be careful of them I guess. These are mostly layabouts, without Zerstrung's actual forces here, but even without power armour and heavy weapons, gargoyles are all natural born killers, and they have one of those stupid warrior cultures. They'll rip you to pieces if you doze off. The point is though that the Germans have something they shouldn't, and I don't want anyone tipping them off about it. You'll see what I mean when we get in closer. They have four infantry brigades moving into the city now that the gargoyles have been bombed out of their perches and the airforce is making mincemeat out of them. All their jaeger robots will be at the front to tackle the flightless subspecies, but they aren't the subject of today's field trip."

    Straight up in the air, the situation is fairly obvious. The inner city has been blown to smithereens by emplacements kilometers away, and the choking flock is banding together into a disorganized cloud rather than adhering to any tactical acumen, meaning they're being cut apart by long-distance fire from tanks, snipers and mecha from the trees. The city itself is just being stormed in three blocks, massive robots painted in blue and white leading the charge in surprising numbers, backed up and surrounded by tight squares of infantry in carapaced power armour of the same colours, distinctive for their cyclopean optical array. The streets crawl with hulking grey-green figures, vaguely reptilian, and completely hideous, with beak-like faces, flattened noses, crocodile eyes, pointed ears, and toothy snarls, easily big enough to pick up a man in each hand, though most seem to be wielding a motley array of exotic looking melee weapons; crystal tipped spears, glowing plasma swords, electrical whips, and plain old spikes and blades, save for the odd energy rifle or heavy machine gun here and there. For the most part, they beeline straight for the noise, which means that the advancing lines can cut them down with overpowering fire before they get close, save for here and there where forward squads are overwhelmed and butchered in nuauseating displays of violence that are sadly all too common on this world.

    The gargoyle
Zwei     The gargoyles themselves seem to soak up slugs and beams like sponges, being shot dozens of times or hit with entire volleys of rockets before going down, but the number of guns ready on them means that for every man that goes down, ten gargoyles bite the dust, and thirty for every robot. The butchery does the German name for brutally efficient and well organized military tactics proud. The point of interest however, is immediately obvious. A smaller block of infantry clad in coal black, all on their own and milling about with far less discipline than the regular troops, and yet straight on the hottest part of the frontline, besieged on every side. A straight path to them means either going from street to street with the wingless gladiators swarming like a zombie horde, or flying through the maelstrom of weapons fire up above.
Staren     Staren listens to Zwei's briefing. He can't tell if her comments on the morality of the situation are snarky or not. He doesn't seem more concerned than Zwei is, though slightly surprised, at the tac nukes being deployed. Then again, he knows she doesn't mean /strategic/ nukes. His armor muffles sound for him. "....Minimalizing casualties sounds good."

    Starem hmphs. "'Something they shouldn't.' Again with the cageyness. I swear, if you're just tracking down some cool artifact or something and brought us here to steal it from them... Look, unless you can prove it's, like, evil rune weapons that corrupt their wielders or something, I'm really not so sure I wanna take it away from them. People are /dying/ out there. Despite their... whelming might, they need all the help they can get." Staren crosses his arms.
Valentha Summers     MINI-NUKES going off is a rather worrisome event to say the last. Valentha CRINGES at the distant flashes of impossibly brilliant energy. Some people could be blinded by those, but she just rubs her face instead. The scalding winds of war and screeching noises don't seem to faze her anymore, not after decades, maybe centuries of being in a situation like this.

    But ugly situations are ugly situations. She grimaces nevertheless.

    A somewhat impish grin's cast Shin's way as Valentha senses the magic taking hold. "They'll help when you need it most!" Is her answer to that complaint. "... sorry, still a prototype!"

    And this is when she faces Weiss. "You'd better give us some kind of explanation. This is a warzone you're asking us to run through."
Terry McGinnis     Terry McGinnis looks, "So, take them out before they take you out...." he comments simply. "If only I had some dust......" and he thinks for a moment as he looks at the flash and covers his eyes, "You need cover Val?" he asks her as he loosk at her and then Maya, "Maya, got anything to give us added protection?" he asks her.
Zephyr Windstar     Zephyr frowns a bit. She's mapping out the front line, marking NGR units on the TacNet so the others can clearly see where the 'friendlies' are. The planes get tagged too as they come into range. Zwei's net lighting up slowly as each unit is marked and added to network... Then she spots the more cagey, less 'structured' unit all on its own.

    "Hey, guys? Possible eyes on a SpecOp unit moving through the Gargoyle side of the front. Marking them Yellow for priority. Enemy units are Red, NGR in Blue on the TacNet." she calls through the radio. "I'll keep the SpecOp unit under survailance... doesn't look like I've been spotted by either side yet... that'll change once I engage."
Maya Maya takes a moment as Zwei gives them the run down, it sounds like the Germans here have been backed into a corner all things said. She listens on for a moment and pauses at the nukes? That shows how serious it is. Maya ducks and covers a bit as the battle contiuens, she might need soem rad away after this? But for now she's got to focus on the figtht. It's a smaller part in a larger war but it does matter to the NGR troops on the ground, but it also sound like thier CO wants victorys' price to be in ammo and not his or her troop's blood. She takes a moment to grab her amulet and blue energy wings flare out as she mutters a short spell. She contiunes to listen as they are getting ready to move out.

She pulls a pair of cards, magic visably bleeds out of her body into them, they rise out of her hands, glowing and anyone in range who doesn't fight off the effecvt would find they are warded with a spell that would reduce the amount of damage they take from attacks for a time.

"We're going to get an idea of just what the NGR has got it's hands on and who it came from. Someone could be trying to use the NGR for something else and this could be a lead up. We should get moving."

She looks to Batman nodding.

"It will only last a short time, don't rely on the spell entirely."
Shin Tokuyama Shin is totally willing to help out here, to the extent that it doesn't require him to put down the crepe. He does take a moment to bitch about the nuclear weapons, "You know, honestly, you can't hug your friends with nuclear arms. Leave it to the Western world to still glorify such things, solely because you didn't have two dropped on you," He muses, bringing a hand up to shield his crepe from flying debris.

He looks over to Zwei, "Cool. Go over there, kill gargoyles, take thing from those guys, bring it back to you. Sounds good." He flatly agrees with the two. And then, thanks to the magical items, he's gone in something of a flicker.

He reappears in a burst of superspeed near the less disciplined group of soldiers, "Yooooo. You guys look kinda up shit creek. Woah," Shin hops back, roundhouse kicking a swooping Gargoyle and briefly appreciating the small burst of superstrength that lets him crack its skull like a walnut.

"Hey are you Nazis? Or like regular German soldiers?"
Lezard Valeth The extensive explanation from Zwei is appreciated by the Necromancer. He nods, the distant nuclear explosion causing Lezard, too, to raise a hand to protect his eyes. Even at this distance, there is a faint crackle of something around him as invisible particles seethe against a near-invisible magical barrier around the Alchemist. "I see. The detail does you credit, Zwei." He rubs his chin for a moment, glancing in Staren's direction with a flash of irritation at the radio conversation... Before a small smile spreads across his features. "Very well. Let us proceed as indicated. Manipulating this conflict would mean that someone has something to gain from it."

Wasting no more time, Lezard steps forward, another teleportation circle appearing as he begins to fade out....

And he appears in the middle of the warzone, on top of a building. He looks down upon the masses of gladiators as they fight, the Manus Catalyst coalescing in his hand. Bullets and canon fire rages around him, but much of what gets near him diverts from an invisible barrier, the air warping around him slightly.

He doesn't waste time. "LIGHTNING BOLT!" He calls, beginning to bombard the Gargoyle gladiators with crackling blasts of lightning that arc therough their packed formations. Lezard continues this repeatedly, striking at both the ground forces and enemy air units with reckless abandon.

It seems like he's trying to clear some breathing room to proceed.
Alexis Maaka     Alexis spends several moments using her IFF to scan the birds eye view on the battlefield according to how Zephyr lines them up. She also listens to Zwei's briefing, "OKay so we're fighting demons that want to eat all the things. Gotcha." She sums it up qui-Oh shit nukes.

    She doubletakes seeing NUCLEAR BLASTS echoing in the distance before she averts her eyes in time to avoid being blinded. Hearing that be used so casually by the Germans definitely catches her off-guard. "...holy fuck." She mutters, staring out in discomboulated awe. She's seen nukes go off, but in historical footage of Nagasaki, Hiroshima, and the Slav-border conflicts.

    Alexis is still staring, not even moving as the giger counter in her suit goes nuts for a moment and remains looking on when the clicking stops. "So...that happened."


    She's still pretty pre-occupied with the fact nukes were used at the drop of a hat even as she begins to head off into the field. Her cloaking tech kicks in as she nimbly maneuvers across the post-apocalyptic landscape, only stopping to join up with the NGR forces Shin is bothering. "They're not Nazis, I think we're fine." She says calmly from a perch she begins taking potshots with her GASH, aiming for nearby Gargoyles as she fires from a bombed out three-story building, probably an apartment.
Terry McGinnis     Terry McGinnis listens to the radio and he blinks, "And this is the future of Earth..... Powers would love this if he was here," he says to himself as he thinks, "Maya, can I get a weapon?" he asks her and for the first time is using a waepon as he thinks things trough. "I hate to ask, as I do not use weapons...ever, but this might require one," he adds as he looks at those here. "I doubt the batarangs I have will do anything to them." he mentions.
Zwei     "Oh come on, you people run through warzones like every week. Don't get all whiney about it now! Why so greedy? You don't like surprises?" Weiss retorts to Valentha, absolutely unwilling to part with any more information that could possibly colour initial impressions. "I'll clarify a little though. It's not something I want you to grab and bring back to me, and it's probably a good idea that you don't try." She pauses ever so briefly as Zephyr finishes up her additions to the local tacnet framework. "Looks like the TSAB officer is earning her commission. I suggest listening to her advice." The infiltration Armiger gets to her feet, simultaneous with the combat unit starting into a jog, which at his size and physical performance, is fast enough to require a vehicle to follow.

    As it seems, the best way is through. It's less than minutes before those on the ground are running into gargoyles, or more specifically, the wingless gurgoyle branch-off. They appear suddenly in groups of six to two-dozen, dropping from high buildings or bursting out from around blind corners, when they aren't simply caught in the middle of the street and decide to change targets. They dwarf just about everyone present, which seems patently unfair for how many of them there are, but respond uniformly with guttural war-cries and massed charges, churning up pavement as they barrel into the lines with physical and energy weapons ready, occasionally firing bolts of magic from enchanted arms or electro blasts from technological ones. They have a uniform 'superman physique' amongst them; lean, athletic and heavily muscled, like a roman gladiator, and they're heavy enough that it's a wonder those perches can support them. Their mind for tactics isn't anything special, but each and every one of them is clearly an expert at handling their weapon of choice, making it slow and bloody going down the streets.

    Asche seems to restrict himself to physical blows, though it's hardly fair to begin with anyways with his interdiction field active; flurries of strikes rending them limb from limb one at a time without any thought to defense. Every so often the group runs into clusters of corpses, broken bodies in blue and white stained with read, thrown about like abandoned toys, often torn limb from limb or impaled on various wreckage, invariably amidst a carpet of spent energy clips and sabots. Every gurgoyle corpse to match is riddled with dozens of holes each, even through the heart and lungs, some even missing multiple limbs around the burning wrecks of robots, where even the pilot can be found skewered on something nearby with his holdout sidearm empty.
Zwei     Up high, Zephyr is left unbothered, having no vehicular heat signature and also being too small to register as a gargoyle. This corresponds to a clear line of sight on the ground team, and a clear line of fire to boot. Lezard claims a similar advantage by teleporting straight up. Until he casts his first spell, nothing has any idea he's there, as there seem to be no talented mages among the numbers of either sides. A barrage of lightning bolts slams into the pavement below, torching and maiming ranks of warriors in their haste to join the bloodbath. Limbs fly, heads explode, and yet here and there, some of them actually survive the alpha strike, picking themselves off the carbonized asphalt as their wounds begin to heal in fast forward, and turning their attention towards the sorcerer. The air fills with the whine of slugs as a pair with bandoliers of railgun ammo and last-decade machine guns start hosing the tower, having no chance of hitting without their sheer volume of fire. A dozen more launch straight for him, clambering up the steel jungle at remarkable speed.

    Maaka and Shin manage to slip past the rest by refusing to engage. When they arrive however, the team before them hardly seems like SpecOps. The soldiers arrayed at a short distance seem to be taking whatever random pieces of cover they can find, and peeking out far too often, taking abnormally long to move up as they constantly triple check for stragglers in a classic herd mentality. They look like they've just been shipped out of boot camp rather than hardened veterans. Oddly, no NGR markings can be seen on their armour, but the inhuman carcasses all around them attest that they are on the same side. A couple of them level weapons at the two as Shin pipes up, though it's difficult to tell what they are, seemingly just black, rifle-shaped blocks. Before they can reply however, something crashes through three layers of building above them and smashes into the alleyway ahead, cutting them off. A gargoyle five feet taller than the rest, who seems to have literally turned to craggy stone, cracking the sidewalk where he steps. He doesn't even appear to be armed, but the walls cave in like stacks of jenga bricks as he bulldozes right through them towards the pair, throwing himself into a bodyslam wide enough to catch them both.
Shin Tokuyama Shin immediately throws himself skyward to avoid the tackle using the Superhuman Speed that his anklets are granting him. Unfortunately, this results in him funneling too much Ki into them and there's a loud CRACKing noise as they overload and promptly break, being left as bits of metal and gemstone on the ground.

"Woah. That guy seems angry." Shin comments, landing down near the soldiers again. He really doesn't wanna punch a giant stone monster with his bare hands, so he just sort of hip-checks one of the soldiers and tries to take his block-rifle thing, "I'mma borrow this, kay? Kay."

    He then, if he can successfully acquire the strange rifle-thing, tries to just point it, wave it like a want, order it to fire, or generally command it to kill the rampaging Gargoyle before it breaks more of his magic items.
Terry McGinnis     Terry McGinnis looks as the gragoyles arrive and he sighs as he goes forward adn punches one. The nice thing about the batsuit, it increases Terry's strength by ten and he can lift up to 1700 pounds with it. Thinking, he grabs the one he just punched and tosses it towards another one. As he stands, he looks at the gun, "Sorry," he says to one of them as he fires two batarangs at it. one for the gun, one for the gargoyle. If they hit, they will explode as those are the exploding ones.

    However, in doing so, left him open and a few jump him and he goes down. He gets punched a few times, and punches some back as well as kick. Thinking, he pushes one up as the other two punch him, "You are really making me mad," he states as he puts his feet into the stomach of the one on top and pushes back as he forces the Gargoyle off him. His elboes moves and hits or trys to hit one int he face as his other hand is in a fist and punches the third. "So, how do we stop them, short of a slugfest?" he asks.
Alexis Maaka     Oh boy. Alexis notes the Gargoyle lord after the big guy makes his presence known. Taking a few shots from up high, she opts to call in backup from above.

    "Calling in Zeus, my target." she lazes the Gargoyle Lord for him to light up in bright red for Zephyr to blitz, before immediately leaping out the window. She throws a grapple line to climb to the roof with, before bounding from across alleyways to get in closer. Her rifle adjusts output levels for a much higher level of firepower, before she takes aim from the roof. Her scope zooms into the eyes of the Gargoyle, and she fires twice to blind him and soften him up for her allies.
Staren     Staren leaves his vehicle parked behind the church -- if anyone questions this, he explains that it's not armored and the gargoyles will just break it. He manifests wings, briefly, to keep up, but once the fighting begins he can keep pace easily. His laser rifle is missing -- he sticks to using his forearm beam cannons, occasionally adding missiles when the situation gets too hot or to hit approaching groups, then asking allies to help him load new missiles in before proceeding. Once he's out of extra missiles (He only has a couple of reloads for the big ones and not even that for the little ones -- he wasn't expecting an extended engagement,) he breaks out the RAISER weapons for the same role.

    His shots aren't as precise today, his dodging and reactions are sometimes slow -- he seems a little out of it. His forcefield is worn down by the fighting and he takes some hits to armor as well -- when he gets /grappled/, he has to shout to allies for help. Stupid grappling.

    The sight of what's left of NGR's finest just gives him a dull sad feeling at this point. He can't help them... He has to move on.
Maya Maya pauses for a moment and pulls several grenades she pases to Batman.

"That's all I have on me which you'd be able to get much milage out of." She's also pretty certain if whe recalls right batman isn't a gun sort and he couldn't use most of the features on her rifle.

"Staren might have more."

That's all she can honestly do for Batman right now she does however seem ready to go after she takes flight, not planning to get in Zephyr's way, but to travel sooner, she also casts a cloaking spell to hide her approahc she's waiting for a good chance to move in and get closer to the spec ops team.
Zephyr Windstar     Zephyr receives the call, and plants her feet on a new 'platform' of purple mana. This likely makes her stand out REALLY WELL, as the seal begins to rotate in place. "Gear Second. Set for Bombardment Mode."

    <SHIFT TO BOMBARDMENT MODE.> chimes the Device, as Zephyr pulls the handle out, and aims downwards. A third Bit joins the other two, and the trio form up around the head of the axe, spinning slowly.

    <ALL MANA CHANNELS CONNECTED. ANCHOR POINTS AND RECOIL DAMPERS LOCKED.> Additional seals spring up, and lash out ribbons of energy, wrapping around Zephyr's body and legs, anchoring her in place, while the purple 'pixie wings' expand out into two great green spans, shedding 'feathers' of mana. <LINKER CORE PRESSURE RISING NORMALLY. STORM RING HAS STARTED REVOLVING.> power begins to expand out of the gemstone at the head of her axe, and the three Bits begin to speed their revolution, becoming a solid ring to an outside observer. <READY TO FIRE.>

    "Target locked on. Reap the Whirlwind! MAELSTROM BREAKER FIRE!" The command from the Mage, causes a torrent of mana to pour out of her Device. The spinning Bits firing a series of smaller beams, which merge into the near liquid energy, solidifying it into a beam which falls down onto the Gargoyle Lord like a laser. It remains focussed on the beast for a whole 12 seconds, before it peters out. <CANCEL BOMBARDMENT MODE.>
Lezard Valeth The fact that some actually survive that makes Lezard... Pleased. He is, however, intelligent enough to not stand there in the open as they return fire, the volume of counterattack enough to overwhelm even his defenses on some level. There is no need to take unnecessary damage here.

It's when the gladiators climb up the building that they find a surprise: Gleaming, hulking golems of blue crystal that finish fading into existence, each larger than the gladiators themselves. This detail will be important in a moment.

Lezard, meanwhile, smiles as the first gladiator hurls itself over the edge, only to feel the Manus Catalyst planting itself into the beast's chest. Lezard is a bitch about edge-guarding. The strike pushes the gargoyle up, twisting him through the air as it slams him into the roof with crushing power. "Stay still for a moment, would you?" Lezard comments, as one of the golems reaches down and grapples with the fallen gargoyle. As it does so, the crystals shift and begin to surge up and around the beast, attempting to engulf the Gargoyle and take it into the golem's body to seal it inside, alive.

Oh. That's why.

As the others arrive, Lezard falls back, letting his remaining golems take the lead as he hurls spheres of Dark at them, trying to knock them down and off balance so the Golems can continue to collect live samples.
Valentha Summers     Gurgoyles aren't that threatening to Valentha. She enters battle wreathed in protective spells (more to protect her precious, expensive STREETWOLF outfit than her flesh), giving her just enough force to dive through hails of fire at the Gurgoyles who prefer melee... and engages those with a blade of CRACKLING THUNDER that extrudes from a small gadget she's grasping. Not unlike a BEAM SABER, except the blade's made of ELEMENTAL MAGIC.

    She wields it crudely, but... rather effectively. You don't NEED a l ot of technique when that weapon's effectively made of plasma and SHOCKS its way through armor. Suffice to say, she's slowed down by the Gurgoyles...

    And ONE of them is in for a surprise when her little arm turns out capable of STOPPING ITS PUNCH. Oh it's strong.

    But it's got nothing on her species. She wastes little time SWINGING the unfortunate creature at one of its fellows!

    "If you know what's good for you... you'll CLEAR OUT of here and never come back. Learn to live WITH this world's inhabitants! Or else." Are her words to them, spoken in Elven.

    If any surive and actually flee, well. She won't chase. But she doubts any will.

    But she doesn't -stay- there in the conflict. Instead... she teleports, flicker-whoosh, all the way over to... well, atop a two-story building overlooking Shin's location.

    This is where she starts really pitching in, pulling out a REVOLVER and pulling the trigger again and again. RIPPLES pass throught he air instead of bullets... tiny ripples. They're silent. Almost impossible to perceive. There's no muzzle flash...

    But the Gargoyle she's aiming at is in danger of LETHAL PERFORATION nonetheless!

    "Need some help?!"
Zwei     Terry slugging it out with the gargoyles will find out the ugly truth that RIFTS Earth has been dealing with for a century: even the kind of sub-demon you'll find in swarms is so much physically superior to a human that it's not even funny. Being eight to fifteen feet tall and built like Heracles should already tell someone that they're strong, but the way they hit is disproportionate to even that; the kind of blow that can crush a tiger tank like a tin can. Still, Terry has his own augmented strength, and lifetime of martial arts and street fighting gives him an edge over the monsters that mostly either duel for sport, kill for fun, or need a rare, intelligent commander not to resort to human (gargoyle) wave tactics.

    Staren's gear is top shelf itself, nearly on par with the NGR's newest and most expensive toys, but even then he's still using nearly a clip per target with his smudged aim and slowed reflexes, and the gargoyles and gurgoyles both are faster than him whilst he lags from fatigue and his extremities scream from any sort of g-force. He can take targets out quickly if he over-expends ammunition, but he has to make up the difference with hits to the face, though granted, hits the men in T-11 armour wish they could take, steadily amassing a trail of smoking corpses one by one with the group's advance.

    Valentha is fresher out of the box by comparison, and the gargoyles are in a position on the food chain where usually they're taking orders from evil aligned dragons rather than fighting them. This does however mean that after she mows through the first dozen with extremely obvious magic, then overwhelms one with physical strength and abruptly teleports, they clue in pretty quickly. Shrieks of 'dragon' can be heard percolating through the immediate vicinity, and may very well have been into radios, because a squad breaks off from flying to join the flock above and whirls down on her, all four actually clad in body armour and sporting hefty slug guns.

    Her TK gun joins in with Alexis in riddling the gargoyle lord's hardened exterior with holes, blasting off the living rock that appears to have taken the place of its skin and quite literally drawing blood from stone, with the cyborg putting out both his eyes with lethal hypervelocity marksmanship. He roars in blind anger, swinging wide and shattering the building Alexis has taken perch on, but ultimately failing to find her. Given a minute he might grow those eyes right back, but Zephyr won't really let him have that, which is good, because when Shin leaps out of the fray to grab hold of a mook's rifle, he finds that no amount of trigger jamming, button pushing, slapping or yelling will get it to fire even once. There doesn't even appear to be a safety on it.

    The thing is goddamn heavy too, like a block of solid iron, and doesn't seem to have been put together in a factory judging by its utterly seamless exterior, like a piece of minimalist abstract art. In fact, the same aesthetic keeps to the person in environmentally sealed armour who yells "Give that back!" in a surprisingly panicked voice that literally bubbles as if sounded underwater, before trying to wrestle it out of his hands again. The others stir at the commotion, training weapons on him without leaving the safety of cover.
Zwei     The gargoyle lord melts under the twelve second barrage from Zephyr anyways though, crushed to his hands and knees as the sheer force of the beam pins him underneath it and slowly fries him from back to front, spreading his wings to shield himself only lasting for a couple of seconds before they vapourize in the way. The final flash leaves nothing but some discarded pieces of petrified flesh oozing blood into the dented scorchmark on the road, which is significantly less of a sample than Lezard is getting. The gurgoyles meet the crystal golems head on as if they were any other enemy, whirling blades, spiked fists and lashing whips shattering one, two, then three at the forefront, before the indefatigable automatons overwhelm them and consume them live like an insect in amber, taking their technomagical weapons as well.

    A second wave of explosions rips through the city as the surprisingly stubborn central mob is hit with a repeat nuclear live-firing, this time airbursted. The forest has been burnt to the ground or splintered to pieces for miles, leaving behind a handful of human dead and destroyed vehicles, but largely the winged monstrosities litter the ground, clearly fighting a losing battle as the path clears for the rest.
Terry McGinnis     Terry McGinnis is fighting pretty good and grabs the grenades from Maya an dactivates them as he is piled upon again. "This is gonna hurt," he says simply as they go off a few seconds later. The blast probably forces them off of him and Terry slowly stands as he looks at the Gargoyles and he pushes a button on his belt, cloaking himself as he moves off. "Owww....." he says simply as flies up and lands on a building. "That hurt," he says as he checks his suits systems, "I'm ok, gonna be bruised...more than I was after Jasper got a hold of me," he adds as he looks around. "Thanks for the grenades Maya..." he comments to her.
Shin Tokuyama "No! It's mine! Be less shit at your job!" Shin retorts, trying to duck and keep out of the way while balancing his mostly-eaten crepe in one hand and his rifle in the other. If he's forced to choose one, he'll keep the crepe, sorry Zwei. But if he isn't forced to choose, his solution is as simple as it is elegant.

The only reason he can even lift the heavy rifle is because he's got two magic items from Valentha giving him stamina and strength. But he can use that to his advantage, "Leggo, jerk!" Shin cries, swinging the heavy rifle in a downward motion like a club.

If it's not going to be a gun, it's at least heavy enough to be a bludgeon which he wields to try to beat the everloving shit out of the guy threatening his crepe (and by proxy the rifle, I guess).
Valentha Summers     Upon hearing a few yammers of 'dragon' in Gobbley, Elven, or maybe even Gargoyle - whatever language they're using - 'Valentha Summers' grins. Sheepishly.

    "Oops." Looks like she overdid it! They're onto her.

    She hears them before she sees them. But doesn't quite react quickly enough. She's PELTED AGAIN AND AGAIN by slugs. They slam through her Armor of Ithan in no time at all, perforate her armor-weave Northern Gun clothing, and slam into what looks like human flesh, blood, and bone. The blonde flails ineffectually under the barrage, frothing and lightly cussing... but not apparently afraid for her life.

    Yet.

    "Well. Commendable bravery, Gargoyles. But picking a fight with ME is a mistake! Perhaps you'd be better off... fleeing."

    Gone's her casual, goofy American lingo. Instead the bearing changes to ferocious, confident Elven - the native Dragonese dialect, in fact.

    Just like that, all effort at hiding her power are out the window. Even as slugs slam into her body and draw blood she spreads her arms, entire body wreathing in a burning, wispy aura of purest blue light.

    This kind of tactic SHOULD be suicide for a mage. Just TANKING all of the slugs, making no attempt to dodge?

    The TK gun and TW blade are dropped, yet remain suspended in the air by some power. She gestures a few times whilst chanting at great speeds and close to two dozen furious orbs of burning power, each the size of a volleyball, fly from her outstretched hands. They open up like a viper ready to strke, an open net about to ensnare, then display SWERVING HOMING ABILITIES. Each is like a little grenade, and they pack a punch.

    Probably not lethal though. Not just one volley.

    She'd rather intimidate them and give them ONE CHANCE to flee. Even if that means being very sore later, or disadvantaging herself for whatever's coming next.
Zephyr Windstar     Well, that light show caught some attention, and the Mage has to tank a few slugs to hastily erected and quickly overwhelmed shields as the Anchors disengage, and her flight spell resets to Flgiht Mode instead of Damper mode. Once she's mobile again, she starts 'dogfighting' with the swarming Gargoyles that come after her.

    She proves why her title is the WindDancer of March, juking through heavy slashes from various weapons, and skirting slug-thrower bursts with sparks raising from rapid shield deployments. The three Bits form up around the teenaged TSAB mage, firing thin, highly consentrated beams of purple magic to slice and pierce through the enemies that surround her. "I'm off station." a rocket explodes nearby, forcing her to roll out of the blast range, trailing smoke from a singed right arm. "Engaged with multiple hostiles."

    She doesn't let her Bits have all the fun though. Getting in close, and using mana-infused slashes to bisect or at least deeply wound multiple enemies as she swoops and pirouettes through the melee. She's not a tanky mage like Vita or Nanoha, so she has to use her speed to keep moving, avoiding most of the incoming attacks while using what she can to put out damage. Motes of light, thusly, begin to form around her, as she channels a spell while maintaining momentum. <IMPULSE CASCADE!> chimes Divine Wind, before a wide area fusillade lashes out, explosive plasma bullets firing in all directions to try and clear the sky around her a bit.
Maya Maya is able to slip past everyone so far, she's not been seen yet. Valentha does her thing and does get Maya's attention. She howewver thinks it's about an good idea. It's time to stop sneaking about she starts to channel magic, she knows her cloak will fail once she unleahses her spell, but that is fine with her, She has cards in hand nd she makes ready it's time to join the battle. A summon would be too much, but she thinks fire, might work again the monster. Maya appears now hovering there like a angel and then comes the blue fire into her cards, they hover there as bolts of lightning go everywhere, trying to seek out every Gargyole, regardless of breed in range, she's trying to mass clear the house and there's a whole lot of power behind this massive spell too, her cloak gave time for her to build up a fair bit of power.
Lezard Valeth Ah, good. Samples collected, Lezard has the successful Crystal Collectors teleported back to his domain. He walks on as they fade out, the constructs will keep the captives and their gear trapped until he gets back to do some... research.

In the meantime, there's still a matter of more of these beasts... And a nuclear airburst. Lezard throws up his cape, shielding his face from the detonation as another wash of flame and death rolls past, his own shields shimmering as they repel force and possible radiation as it washes around him. "This place is terrible." He mutters grimly. "Other people wielding such weapons can be... inconvenient."

Samples gathered and with a lack of direct aggression to deal with, Lezard begins teleporting over closer to where Shin and the others are, near the anomalous group. He does not, however, appear /at/ them. He wants to observe... and possibly see if another opportunity arises.
Staren     Staren, unlike some might think, isn't the sort of great innovator who figures out the most hidden secrets of physics and, through testing and experimentation, discovers how to make a laser gun twice as destructive while using half as much power. What Staren does is get a wide knowledge of what's available and take the best, reverse-engineering it if he has to. He started with the technology his father found in his own interdimensional travels -- plans for a mecha, working portable 'plasma swords', alien forcefields entirely unlike what the Naruni or Triax make, and so on, and since then he's expanded throughout the Multiverse, collecting. His forearm beam cannons are a Coalition design that was leaked to the black market. His armor plating, reverse-engineered from a Northern Gun design that was used on suits seen as cheap and substandard only because they didn't include a nuclear power supply. His forcefields... okay, still the same alien ones his father found. His missiles, a combination of local and multiversal technology. And of course, his protoabstractum and magic bag of tricks letting him do things like fly or elementally align his weapons... Staren's gear is top shelf because he pillages every top shelf he sees.

    And it's a good thing he does, too, or he wouldn't be ready for days like today. E-Clips aren't a concern, the FIWS cannons run off his armor's reactor, but Staren is /alarmed/ when, even firing as often as he can without melting the cannons from overheating, they take so long to die... and Germany fights /armies/ of these? He goes through his missiles more quickly than he'd like, and has to hope that the RAISER rifle's power source holds out... Staren winces and curses every time he misses a shot. The fighting all sort of blurs together, but with his allies' help, he's able to make it through on weary reflexes...

    When Terry asks for a weapon, Staren can only shake his head. "My spare weapons could /hurt/ them, but not /kill/ them at any reasonable rate..."

    Dragon! Oh great, they know about Valentha. When Staren sees what are clearly special, elite troops coming to fight a dragon, he turns his weapon to the skies, expending what's left of the RAISER rifle's power in a handful of shots aimed at the gargoyles.

    Everyone fighting by his side today has both seen why Staren jokingly refers to his equipment as 'a walking armory', and /why/ he carries so much, because one day he might have to do this. RAISER rifle goes in the bag, RAISER pistol comes out.

    At least they've finally made it to troops in special gear. Could this be what Zwei was on about? ...And /who/ oh /why/ is Shin fighting them? "Hey! What was it... COMBAT VAGRANT! Stop fighting him, he's on-- I mean, /WE'RE/ supposed to be on /THEIR/ side! What are you /doing/?!"
Staren     When Shin claims 'he started it' Staren wearily starts to raise his weapons on the one Shin's fighting, then notices all the allies taking up firing positions. "Take cover you idiot!" He dives behind cover himself, then shouts, "I know we have magic and the gargoyles are shouting 'dragon', but we're on /your/ side. Stop fighting my ally!"
Zwei     A recurring theme with Maaka, Maya, and now Terry, is that the gargoyles aren't very good at detecting hidden enemies. Their vision is like a hawk's, but they don't seem to have the equipment or magical talent to deal with more more than someone hiding behind things or in the dark. Terry extricates himself from the fray, leaving a handful of wounded gargoyles to slink off and let their wounds regenerate and another handful of dead ones at their feet, left there to rot, or likely be torched by the NGR cleanup squad that comes after, if they aren't butchered and used for infiltration cyborgs.

    The armoured gargoyles seem to feel the same way about Valentha after they dump their entire ammo belts into her and then take return fire before they can even reload, the chain firebolts ripping off their body armour and scorching the flesh underneath, chasing them off to find reinforcements, only to arrive at the scene of the /same/ eight jet fighters having made bloody ribbons of an impossibly huge number of their kin. The way they move is utterly ridiculous, executing pinpoint loops, flips and turns that no human should be able to survive, never mind execute, and gunning the enemy down in scores with pinpoint accuracy whilst threading a needle thin course through the hailstorm of weapons fire.

    Zephyr is doing a pretty decent job of imitating the outcome on her own however. Supernatural as they may be, gargoyles are creatures that fly with wings, and so can't hope to match the agility of a TSAB aerial mage. One after another they're gunned down under her shooting arts, until their numbers dwindle to a point where they finally see sense and decide on self preservation instead of glory and honour, booking it with the rest. Even those however are swiftly scythed down by Maya's surprise attack from stealth, a second airborne human slashing a dozen wounded enemies out of the sky with a single arc of electricity, crushing broken roofs and shattering eroded pavement a mile down below.

    Staren catches a break a couple of times as he stumbles upon some soldiers that have been killed by surprise, with charged (or at least partially so) clips or standard mini-missiles still in reserve, coasting him through even as the raiser's power runs low, providing a temporary respite as the advanced weapon's targeting makes blowing the gargoyles to pieces much easier, but the firing guzzles weapon juice like crazy. In short order though, the group meanders over to where Shin is currently locked in a petty wrestling match with a temporarily unarmed soldier, and his still-armed squad.

    "You idiot! That thing won't even work for you! You have no idea what you're doing with- cut it out!" the burbling fellow yells out as Shin begins clubbing him with his own gun, letting out loud clangs and thumps as it strikes his alarmingly hard exosuit, causing him to raise his arms over his head. It doesn't really look like he's going to beat him to a pulp inside whatever the hell he's wearing, but the poor guy is obviously not a martial artist, and so he mostly just tries to shield himself from the smackdown.
Zwei     The rude event is abruptly interrupted as a second troupe follows down in search of the dragon, this time twelve in number, with heavier gear, possibly even field commanders. They only just barely close to the range one can make out their equipment before the brigade on the ground opens fire, obviously on a tense and near-panicked hair trigger. Pinpoint streaks of colourless white light fly upwards, and the first salvo completely obliterates the wave of heavily armoured enemies. The bolts punch straight through their armour plating and turn the wearer into red mist in two or three shots, melting the corners of the nearest buildings with the radiant heat that escapes the bloody clouds they become. Even more jarringly, every single shot finds its target. It's like an equally sized mass of combat robots had opened fire rather than green-as-grass footpounders. This makes it a little more intimidating when they aim back at shin and one of them yells at him to stand down.

    It's excruciatingly obvious that this is not their tech. It's obvious to a few just whose it is.
Terry McGinnis     Batman hears the words from Val and flies for her as he takes off, not worried about the ones he was fighting as he looks at Staren, "That's ok, I have an idea," he states simply as he moves and sees the Gargoyales on her and thinks as he also sees the balls of energy and thinks as he flies up and decloaks, the wings on the batsuit out and then the sky fills up with light as the next round disappear. Terry blinks as he moves to avoid getting hit and felt the heat of the shots, even through the Batsuit, "The hell...." he states as he looks. "When did they get snipers?" he asks outloud as this is the first time he saw them actually hit and not miss.

    As he drops to the ground, he looks as he lands near Valentha and loosk at her, "Did I miss something?" he asks as he makes a reference to the newly fired and blood stained bodies. "When did the troops learn to hit the target?" he asks as he looks at Val then to the others as he waits to see if more Gargoyales arrive. He does see what is going on with shin and he comments, "Uh Shin, give the weapon up. They just hit everything in the sky." and he loosk at the others.

    What the hell happened for the soldiers to change and become good shots?
Zephyr Windstar     It's with a bit of gratitude that the Gargoyles finally start to break and flee. Zephyr would not have been able to keep that dance up for much longer. So now, battered, bruised and sporting scratches and a few deep cuts from near misses that broke through her defenses, the Mage resumes her holding pattern above the city, watching what's going down from afar. "Lost Logia?" she murmurs to herself. "Whatever it is, not local at least..." she shakes her head, standing on a platform of mana once more. She's ready to drop a bombardment on the guys with the super tech, if need be, damned all the consequences.

    But she holds her fire for now.
Staren     Staren raises his own weapon and fires his own streaks of light up at the gargoyles...

    His second shot /misses/, because there's nothing left to /hit/.

    And then he realizes what he just saw, and slumps against the cover he was behind with a long groan and one hand slapping his visor.

    After a moment, he sighs, and slowly gets to his feet, keeping his weapon down. "Alright, where'd you get those guns? And that armor too, I bet... We want to help fight the gargoyles, and we can see what a help that tech is..."

    Staren may be bad at deception, but his true motives aren't really /antagonistic/ to the group. On the one hand, if they somehow got the information to /make/ these, that would be helpful. On the other hand, maybe they were given just these, as gifts for some reason, but in either case, there's the question of who might be manipulating them, and Staren's a bit wary of what any armiger might be up to.

    Especially one less stingy than Zwei. He had to promise useful information (that he would have given freely, admittedly) to get two pieces... what could this crowd possibly have offered someone? No, it must be manipulation. Or one seriously weird Armiger.
Valentha Summers     A glance down below and Valentha sees that she is TOO CLOSE to these troops to risk being too strongly associated with her group members. The NGR may not exactly like the display of power she's putting on. So she leaps further away from the group and instead focuses wholly on the gargoyles... or rather, the intricate aerial acrobatics going on up in the sky.

    Her sharp eyes see it easily.

    "What... are those?" Naruni tech, perhaps? Some of their rumored freakiest inventions? Or something else entirely?

    She can only frown when, instead of STAYING TURNED TAIL, the troops she chased off - at considerable cost of blood and pain - swoop back with triple the firepower. Her wounds are already stinging fiercely enough that she'll be sore for a day... but they just INSIST ON COMING BACK!

    It gets her grinding her teeth. And inhaling slowly, matching their approach. Even in human form, well...

    But she doesn't get a chance to engulf them with flame breath! Other weapons tear them to ribbons faster than she thought ANYTHING could manage!

    And a flicker of FEAR finally hits her in the gut. Cold and nauseating.

    These weapons could seriously threaten HER TOO, in the NGR's hands... will they be hostile to her if she displays magic? With all of those things flying around in the sky above, will they turn on her next?

    Although the aura of power she'd been letting loose with dies down instantly, she remains on edge, ready to teleport away and change her approach.

    "Whatever weapons they've got," She answers Batman, "They're NOT normal. Naruni tech, maybe? Or this might be what our contact spoke of! In either case, you shouldn't be seen with me near guys with this tech. I might be a target if the people in those planes are watching closely!" She seems genuinely worried for the caped hero's safety. There's a desperate URGING in the gaze she sends his way next!
Terry McGinnis     Terry McGinnis looks at Valentha and blinks, "I am not worried about them," he says. "And if they try to get me, it will be hard, as I can just disappear," he says simply and he looks around. "Plus, right now they are focusing on Shin, who they see as more of a threat than you or I," he mentions and then he points at him, "And I looks like a walking bat, so to them, I would be a monster as well," he comments as he points to the ears. "So, lets just keep all eye son them, and get ready to move fast if we have too," and one of his hands hovers over his belt buckle to activate the cloaking that he has which lets him stay hidden, unless there is UV light, then he sticks out liek a sore thumb...
Shin Tokuyama By this point it is honestly less that Shin wants the rifle and more that people have been so infuriating to him over this whole situation that he obstinantly refuses to compromise his current position as a narrative of human nature in a fit of pique. He slams his foot down hard on the ground, even as volleys of shots begin to puncture literally everything in the sky.

Shin glares at the guy across from him, "No. I refuse to give this thing back now," He snarls and looks around at the firing line, "We have enough people here to kill you, so make your choice, the one rifle or all your lives in exchange for killing me over the rifle?" He's pretty sure if they turn this violent, even as scary as the weapons are, they won't survive the ensuing skirmish with Elites.

So he stands obstinate and defiant over the whole rifle situation. He really wants to bring it back to Asche and Weiss and complete the job they gave him.
Shin Tokuyama At the urging or affirmation from Zwei, Shin will reluctantly lower his hackles a bit and hold out the rifle back towards the soldier he was beating before backing off of the entire situation to let Staren negotiate as a native.

Under his breath, though, he may be complaining about loot being promised to him.
Maya Maya is able to get in close thanks to her magic and has unloaded a good deal of mgical attacks. She is not cruel but she has no mercy for the things as she keeps on he magical rampage. She is aware on the band it may very well be a case of someone using the NGR. Maya hasn't seen this tech before realy but she does keep tabs on her allie's reactions. For now she gets her rifle out, the thing is a creation of magic and scince and the housing opens out as it generates small missiles which will seek out more gargyoles and explode hopefully thining out those that remains.
Zwei     The gargoyles finally seem to be turning tail at large. Over two thirds of them have been completely wiped out; an utterly stupid number considering how outmatched they were from the beginning. By comparison, the NGR has lost a couple hundred in exchange for ten thousand of their enemy. The city is a shattered wasteland of a wreck, but then that basically means it's exactly the same as before but on fire.

    This means the NGR is pretty free to march on forward, which means the blue and white can be seen filtering from the treeline and splitting up into seek and destroy mode; the precursor to hours of rooting around buildings, gunning down anything dumb enough to stick around, and executing anything that doesn't look like it's dying fast enough. This could cause problems for Shin's mercenary attitude. Even though he's probably right, the last thing that Zwei wants is its Elite contacts getting on the NGR's shit list and thus immediately becoming no-gos for future tasks. Where Weiss and Asche have gone to is a question, though perhaps an understandable one since they'll stand out as obviously a related manufacturer to what the troops here are wielding and wearing, but the former contacts him over the radio regardless.

    "I appreciate it Shin, but I did actually ask you not to try and take anything from them just yet. The NGR works with hired guns sometimes. I wanted you guys here to see exactly what I mean, and then decide whether you want to work with me on this. Drop it for the moment and you can grab whatever shiny doodads you want from the stiffs littered all over the place, and then probably spin it around and get paid by the commander in charge on top of it. We'll be dealing with how they got ahold of these later." The unfortunate fellow accosted by Shin walks off in a salty huff with his weapon, only for another trooper to step forward, removing his headgear and revealing a tentacled, rubbery-skinned face that explains the somewhat odd shape of the helmet. "That's classified information. This is experimental NGR technology developed by Triax, so it's a corporate secret on top of a military one. These are assigned to D-Bee company 06 and I'd probably be court-martialed and executed if I let anyone loan it out. Now are you on payroll or just butting in where you don't belong?" It's an awfully official tone for a D-Bee associated with the NGR of all people to be taking.
Shin Tokuyama By the time Shin has gotten a few steps, both the stamina booster and the strength bracelets have shorted out from heavy exertion with the rifle, so they're pretty much useless to him. He sighs and rubs the back of his head as Weiss contacts him on a private band. He knows she's right, but still.

"Well, not gonna lie to you, Byte," He says to Zwei over the radio, making a shrugging gesture that he's unsure whether or not she can see, "I dunno how much use I can really be on something like this. I was helping out around here before mostly because that Cougar wanted me along. I'm basically useless on your spaceman shit, I think." He admits to 'her', rubbing the back of his head.
Staren     Staren /gasps/ when the helmet comes off and IT'S A D-BEE.

    And if they believe what they're saying, it may well be that an Armiger has infiltrated Triax and /convinced them to give amazing new gear /to D-Bees//. And here he thought it was progress when he heard rumors that Black Marketeers Definately Not Affiliated With Northern Gun Wink Wink Nudge Nudge had developed a variant of the Thunder Hound armor for D-Bees.

    If this is the direction things are going, Staren's not so sure it's a bad thing.

    He puts the RAISER pistol in his bag and pulls off his helmet in response, showing the ears and flicking them deliberately for emphasis. "The latter. I'm sorry... I've seen weapons like that before, on another world, so I didn't think they were Triax. But maybe they fell through a rift, or were stolen, or Triax has developed weapons that use similar principles to what I saw." He looks over the man. "...We're just here to help against the Gargoyles. When you say 'On the payroll'... is the Republic hiring mercenaries as well," he sounds somewhat interested in the idea, "or are you asking if we're military?"
Terry McGinnis     Batman looks on as he listens to the radio and the talk as he stands next to Val. He puts a hand ot his ear, "Max you on?" he asks to no one. "Ready the gate and set it to someplace neutral and not in either Union or Fed territory," he adds as he talks to her. "Just a feeling, but I hope it si not needed," he responds as he looks at Val.

    "An exit plan that might be needed," he says to her simply as he crosses his arms over his chest and waits on what is going on, as he is not one with any rank in the Union here....Plus, he is thinking of the paper he needs to work on for class at Beacon....

    Terry is not a merc, he is a defender of people who are in trouble, so he will not join the payroll to this fight, although if his help is needed, he will help out. But he is not one to do this for money or fame, he does the right thing and the good thing cause no one else will. And hopefully those within the Union will keep quiet as to who is under the cowl of the Batman, since Hoshi told everyone on the Union chatter channel who he was....... Which makes it hard for him, especially if any of the union is captured, the info on him will be harmful to those close to him. The one thing the fears the most.....
Maya Maya is coming in for a landing now the Gargyoles have been decimated pretty hard. She lands with the others and pauses seeing the trooper is a Deebee. That gets one blue eyebrow shooting up fast. She looks to the Deebee nodding to him for a moment. She gets it's time to no press on things she'll banish her wings and getting ready to head out, she knows it's very much time to get going. She doesn't want to get on the NGR's bad side to be honest.
Zwei     The flurry of radio activity is to be expected. Zwei has a significant amount of news to catch a large number of people up on. About the Collective, about Vert, about the last time this happened, and most importantly, about how this has nothing to do with science and everything to do with screwing her over before she gets her way. Of course there's no way that dropping that infobomb on the troopers themselves could possibly go well in the long term.

    The D-Bee seems to relax somewhat once he sees Staren's ears, put at ease by dealing with a group that is obviously okay with having D-Bees around; a rarity in Germany. "If you have information regarding the theft of Triax company secrets, you'd best report it right away. You might even get paid for it. That's why you're here, isn't it? The bounty on gargoyle heads. You must be completely nuts or really tough to come to a city for it, even a small one like this. Sorry you got caught up in the blitzkrieg, but obviously the army can't go publicizing its timetable. The gargoyles know how to get radio transmissions, and there are a lot of unfriendly mages and shifters around these parts who'd sell it to them by word of mouth. Try to excuse my company. This is their first real battle."
Staren     Staren looks away for a moment, thinking, when the man suggests reporting where he got his guns, then gives an understanding nod at the apology for getting caught in the blitz. His eyes widen a bit at the comment that the rest of the squad are green openly admitted, though he kind of suspected it.

    "Thinking about it... The one I have was a gift from an alien robot -- an AI I mean -- and I watched her assemble it, although I didn't understand the processes involved. So it's most likely that Triax has independently figured out the same principles." (lie) "I sure don't know how it works, and I think the weird alien power source she used might explode or something if I try to take it apart. ...Maybe it's a natural next step in technological progress across civilizations...?" Staren shrugs. Still, it should at least be a plausible lie. Other worlds have lasers and plasma guns that were independantly invented, right?

    He gives a somewhat sad smile. "We didn't know about the bounty explicitly, we really are here to help..." he smiles a bit more, "But payment is certainly something we're interested in. And, uh... wow. Their first real battle and they accomplished /this/." He sweeps a hand to gesture at the nearby destruction, and then again at the air to indicate the vaporised gargoyles. "Armor that can let a green soldier do /that/? I've never seen anything like it!" he shakes his head. "I hope that you'll have Germany free of Gargoyles in no time! But, what really gladdens me here is to see that they entrusted a D-Bee with their revolutionary technology. Perhaps acceptance is coming far faster than I'd heard in town."

    Staren holds a couple of fingers to his ear. "My mage friend says she sees more troops on the way. If we need to get out of here to avoid any... unfortunate confusion, where could we go to talk to the Republic's military about these bounties and where we can best help?"