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Priscilla     It had taken a long time to get down this far. Not just from the days of navigating the bizarre, decaying death trap the one great tree and home of the Union had become, and mapping out its hazards one by one, but from weeks of planning, analysis of whatever could be brought back, reconstructing data, and just exploring as far as the passage that even leads to the deep, dark, underground vaults at all. Of course, those were already far underground and difficult to find and enter in the first place. That was the point.

    It seems that the Concord has messed with trying to repair or reinstall proper transport, as it does claim a lot of former Union technical expertise, but whoever shows up to the staging zone, thankfully including a prefab warpgate to skip the hellscape of molten rock and glassed tree fragments outside, will find that the fixes to the rail system they had tensely used last time have reversed almost immediately, and a couple of new cars installed have already succumbed to the same, nonsense rotting or waxing effects that seem to strike tech at random. Oddly, they look in worse off shape than the transport that had survived the original impact. There are the remains of half a dozen half-finished teleportation circles off to the side, abandoned for pretty obvious reasons.

    At least with so much advanced notice, and a somewhat cleared route in that is less likely to swallow teams alive, a team of nondescript, low level Elites brought in has had time to set up a bit of a rat's nest of temporary terminals, generators, quarters, and supply pallets, which seem to be keeping stable, all lumped together for the time being. It's also given plenty of time for some heavy duty work to be done on the security systems; thankfully, getting them running again just long enough to use them is vastly easier than trying to breach a functioning set would ever have been.

    That leaves just the titanic, downward sloping shaft at the fore, yawning open like a subway tunnel of impossible size. It had probably been a cargo lift, before the whole tree-continent had tilted out of the ground, but the incline is now enough to walk down. The remains of stripped railings can be seen on the floor, walls, and ceiling, as well of plenty of debris, and sections of wall armour that have split open as Njorun grew out from under it, then died again instantly, but there's enough former lift structure to attach a tram to. Of course none of the technicians are going down. Waaaay above their pay grade. They've only gone so far as attaching a light source to it, and going on standby as Priscilla watches.
Kazusa Ujikane     After having such a rough time last week, it might be questionable whether Kazusa should even be here. Indeed, she's still looking a bit roughed up, though the worst of it has been dealt with. But quite the contrary, the girl's decided that getting out and Doing Something(tm) is probably the best thing for her right now. After all, not all her wounds were physical. Sometimes you need a distraction.

    Still, it's probably noticeable that the nerd is looking downcast, and she's definitely much quieter than usual, even accounting for the somber mood Njorun's ruins put her in. Priscilla, at least, will probably notice something's up when the bookworm comes to a stop next to her, and... well, says nothing. At all.
Kushiko The notion of 'are we there yet' might arise if Ordis had an active comm at some point. Mercifully, he doesn't.

In the meantime, Kushiko has once more deployed her Nova warframe, the ruthenium-gilded (her own modifications) technorganic suit having shown so far a particular suitability to dealing with troubles that arose here. And just in case, she's also having an Archwing unit prepared in case of Weird Spatial Bullshit on the way to, or at the Vault itself.

Presently, she's monitoring what some of the techs are doing, while Helios, her sentinel of a drone, the u-shaped twitchy thing is basically oscillating it's central eye rapidly, sometimes zooming and focusing on something because of the way the tree itself is. There always seems to be something altered and the like. Nova-Kushiko herself is 'juggling' bit of wispy energy, something meditative if one were to watch her for any length of time.

As disturbing as the wrecked terrain is, she's intent on staying focused, and studying it for places she can open portals to, or simply navigate herself if something happens with the expected transport.
Captain Flint Captain Flint was told to expect a long journey. He'd brought along a canteen, and that proved to be a good idea. The past few days have turned in his favor, but it never hurts to have insurance. Scoring something from the ruins of the famous Njorun Station would be a hefty policy, indeed--a nice consolation prize for the crew in case of unexpected circumstances.

     When the party finally arrives at the rat's nest, Flint pauses to survey the depth of the tunnel below. It looks incredibly steep, which causes rhe captain to furrow his brow in thought. Reaching behind him, he paws at the length of rope he'd brought from the Walrus--he sorely underestimated the size of rhe station, it seems. Taking a drink from his canteen, he wipes his mouth and peers at Priscilla.
Haguro A certain heavy cruiser has arrived at the meeting location with an actual backpack today, a camera around her neck, and thermoses full of fuel on each side pocket. After the last foray with energy being sapped, Haguro's ready for it this time around!

     She's also looking apprehensive while she approaches the tram, taking a few pictures of the already-rotting additions on the outside of the station. "That... Do you think this would happen to anyone who stayed here? Or... Anyone who remained?"
Metal Man R E A D Y!

here they were again uin the ruins iof the old Union HQ again and here he was he wasn't alone todya no, he's brought Crash Man aloner the exploves using robot master might be of use on this mission. Also he'd always wanted to get a look inside this place too. So the pair were in formation with eeryone else. The two are looking about keeping wtch for the moment.

"This is damn creepy, I don't like it."

"I don't either brother."

The two seem to be keeping in formation and Metal look to Kazusa and tilts his head a bit at her.

"You got any idea about this sector of the old base?"

He also then gives a look to Captain Flint and Priscilla, also several grabby Copters are now hovering with the group not to fight but to give people lifts over hazards if it's needed. Metal has sworn they won't drop people into any pits.
Priscilla     "I cannot entirely deny the possibility." Priscilla remarks to Haguro, though somewhat offhandedly. She's been staring at the people she'd brought in to do all this work for a while. "Such is part of why we hath brought means of immediate transit shouldst the worst come to pass, but thusfar, our little island of progress hath yet to be touched, for reasons I can only vaguely suspect." Kushiko, or rather, Helios, will find about what one would expect. Most of the work going apace is a combination of plotting and designing, for potential ways faster inward, and analyzing what went wrong with the last attempts. It's nothing particularly valuable to the Sentinel's owner, unless she intends to stay here for a long time.

    Otherwise, Priscilla has a lot of silent staring happening around her. When Captain Flint shows up, she looks mildly pleased, attempting a half-smile, and "Well Met, Captain Flint of the Walrus. I had not expected to see thee here. I am gladdened thou found our assistance so satisfactory." For Kazusa, though, she just silently puts her hand atop the girl's head.

    One of the technicians speaks up, having been entrenched here long enough to not feel formal enough for a salute or anything. "Ma'am. We thing we have current running through the rails again. I can't promise for how long, but we've nailed down the timing on the phases where the steel turns from superconductor to insulator. You should have a good window of opportunity." Priscilla merely nods towards him, taking a while to follow up with. "Very well. Remaineth here, save for case of emergency. There is no reason to believeth radio contact shalt be severed going forth from here." Someone's grown into giving orders easily over the past year and a half.

    Unfortunately, the way down is still a shitty, beat up rail car, but this one is at least fairly large, and they've picked out the least shitty and beat up one they could find, with the luxury of time. It's dented and loud, the interior echoes as if it's all made of tin, and the interior lights flicker, but it hasn't been ravaged by the reality warping going on everywhere else, and the mounted lights are bright and clear. It seems the stuff that works best is the blindingly mundane; nothing but common LEDs you could make in any world with a cordial relationship with standard physics.

    Priscilla seems oddly reserved with Metal Man though, only speaking to him whilst looking ahead into the dark. "Somewhat. There is an entire realm before us, where the Union stored its mass conquests, both of war with the Confederacy, the saving of many worlds, and . . . the 'saving' of many worlds. It is an underworld filled with unique, priceless, and oft dangerous oddities, gathered together in a vast hoard, thought best kept under the close eye of such a massive entity. I wouldst think the Confederacy possessed of similar, or else more foolish than I had believed. For now, at least, there is one amongst them I wouldst wish to visit in particular. Pray, bear with me."
Kazusa Ujikane     Kazusa is addressed by Metal Man. It causes her to jump a little with surprise. "-eh?! O-oh, ah..." She looks around for a few moments, considering. "A little. The, uh. The layout's a little different now that it's in ruins, though."

    Having Priscilla of all people lightly pat her on the head does seem to bolter her mood, just a little.

    On the rail car over, the card user withdraws four of her five cards from her purse, looking at everyone around her thoughtfully. Anyone of keen eye may also note something here; namely, that her cards have reset. All of them are blank and ready.
Kushiko Hmm. New people--in the case of Crash and Captain Flint. Hm. This could prove to be interesting. The faceless Warframe inclined her head absently towards not just Captain Flint but Metal Man's additional comrade here. <"At the risk of sounding cynical, I am hoping that with what we've seen so far, the Vault's contents haven't been appropriated and somehow integrated into some freakish abomination."> She almost sounds like she's joking, but she really isn't.

Still, the projected voice continues, <"We are as up to date on all security protocols in case codes from before are inoperable."> Kushiko offers. Hopefully it might not be necessary, though she does bob her head a little, <"Hey Kazusa."> Ah, the strangeness of greetings and being social sometimes, though she can fill the spaces in between with data review. The funnels of antimatter energy on her back and head glower a little more brightly as she settles onto the rail car, though not without tugging loose an elegant-looking twinbarreled shotgun. If a gun could cut, that was this one; such is the Tenno aesthetic when it came to many of their weapons, and the Tigris variant she wielded was no different.
Kazusa Ujikane     Being greeted tugs Kazusa's attention towards Kushiko; there's a short, surprised blink, but then a nod, and the ghost of a smile. "Heya."
Captain Flint Flint undergoes a subtle change in demeanor upon being addressed by Priscilla, turning and leveling an analytical gaze at her. "Lady Priscilla," he says, with the air of someone used to the graces of high society, rather than the pirate he appears to be. "I may have need of your services again soon," he says. "A need closer to soldiering than intelligence. I thought the best appraisal of your forces was to see them in action."

     Upon hearing the nature of the haul, Flint's mood doesn't necessarily brighten. But it does reflect a shade of surprise. He enters the railcar, scoffing at the suggestion of the Warframe. "That's my hope as well," rumbles the captain. A monstrosity implies something he'd prefer cannons to deal with.
Metal Man Metal Man was never close to Priscilla before, he gets that, the fact her very infamous melee wepaon has not be swung at him is more than enough for him honestly. He nods, thinking back on the history of things as Priscilla recounts what might be down here for a moment.

"It did, have vaults."

He thinks back to the data core he and flash man bolted with when the Feds went down, maybe they can find something in that to help the Concord out and poke the old HQ. Either way that's for another time.

Kazusa gets a nod as she gives him an answer.

"If you recall anything let us know."

he Also gives the Tenno a bit of a look Kushiko for a moment with an honestly troubled look on his face.

"There was a vault breach once a long time ago for both the feds and the union. That sort of thing happened."

He's not looking pleased but he had to bring it up Crash and him are fairly chill as they form up and get ready for a ride. Metal Man looks to Captain Flint and sizes him up and seems to like what he sees.

Crash Meanwhile is pretty is keeping over-watch on the whole group and seems friendly enough for a combat robot though his mind seems focused upon the mission.
Haguro That doesn't sound... W-well, perhaps it's best we don't find out." Haguro frowns slightly, but straightens back up and peers at Captain Flint curiously when Priscilla addresses him. He's an unfamiliar face, but he does get a polite smile from the cruiser. "Welcome, Captain. If you need a ship substitute while we're out here, I... Um. I can help with that!"

     Smooth introduction. Thankfully, there's not so much time to overthink how she screwed up because one of the technicians comes over. Haguro remains silent for a short while, listening in to the various conversations going on. Her gaze does eventually go towards the guns carried by the Warframe and Crash's hands, apparently trying to discern their abilities without actually asking anything.
Priscilla     Priscilla lets out a long sigh at Kushuko, adopting a look that is both helplessly amused and tiredly embittered. "Such is oft too much to hope anywhere, is it not? This does seem as if it wouldst involve an encounter with some giant beast or another." She shakes her head faintly as the last few board the best arrangement of transportation there really is to rely on at this point. "I hath heard of such a breach, but such was a year or more before mine time here. Most likely, at the least. I knoweth not how long I hath been /present/ in the Multiverse, in a sense."

    Still, there's no point delaying it on that account; not with a ticking clock. Priscilla gives the signal, the switches are thrown (with some really impressive sparks), and the car starts accelerating at a steady pace, rapidly building up to a smooth but extremely high speed. It doesn't rattle and jolt like the last one (at least, not as much), and with enough light to actually see the dilapidated, fortified walls rushing by, the descent, is thankfully, much less tense. Priscilla has her communicator wired to the nest up above, giving her a little bit of an overview of a rough mission clock, and of course, the holo-map everyone had downloaded from the transit station before.

    Without any fancy magic or supertech, the long acceleration and deceleration periods from the top and arriving at the bottom are uniquely stomach turning, even if not severely, probably leading to a little wobbliness as the car bottoms out at a floor slanted upwards at forty five degrees, sturdy enough to have kept a right angle with the wall.

    There's little need to scale it, however, because there's a small mountain of clutter filling up the gap. Everything from metal detector-style security booths, ID checking terminals, ticket kiosks, queue ropes, pylons, renovation tools, posters, lamps, and personal luggage has slid down the incline and packed tightly enough to make steady, if uneven flooring.

    Stepping off, Priscilla assures Flint "If it is soldiering thou wish for, thou shalt find few else as accomplished." before picking her way over to where the tilted floor can no longer support its own weight, and the entire sub-level has cracked down the middle the everything ahead of them having come to a flat rest, with a gap of cavernous darkness between them. Across from it, three, identical, heavily sealed doors are visible, still marked with faded and blistering paint as '442, 443, 444', even after all the multilingual light displays had ran out of electricity or mana. Past that, is yet another abyss, and a section of the same floor that has crumbled steeply into the one below.
Kazusa Ujikane     When Priscilla says the word 'beast', there is a subtle cringe on Kazusa's part. It's gone almost as soon as it's there.

    In her usual health, the card-user might be more or less fine when she got off the tram, but as she is now, she's visibly kind of shaky, and it takes her a few moments of breathing for her to properly recover. This is the same girl who, in their last foray, snapped back like a rubber band from energy drain, and now she's winded just from the rickety tram's acceleration. But once she recovers, she's fine to keep going, seemingly; she sticks near the front of the group, a hand on her purse, peering out into the darkness once they hit the gap in the floor.

    "Man, I've only been down here a few times... funny enough, first time was when I joined. They wanted to take a look at my cards, see what they could figure out." She adjusts her glasses. "I don't think I know what they have down here at all, though."
Kushiko If it were convienent, she'd project her own little smile, but right now that's neither here nor there. Still, it could be felt in her 'voice', that odd little projection of hers, sound without presence. <"Hopefully none of you will have the pleasure of encountering Lephantis or one of the clones."> Or Jordas. Nonetheless, she's listening to the others, those who have had far more personal experience with the Union and Confederacy's inner workings than she did.

Metal Man's words in part are something that makes her be a little more prepatory to some degree. <"Well, that sounds about right. Hope for the best, prepare for the worst, and pack enough firepower for it."> She gestures, a sweeping motion with her hand, and the light brightens on her suit, allowing about nine individual orbs of solid energy to begin orbiting her like a star. Never know. At some point she's actually tempted to find a place to make some kind of portal--the orientation doesn't bother the ninja as much as it might others, but it's still a little disquieting.

Once they've actually gotten there, it's another matter, and she 'looks' over to Kazusa. <"You going to be okay?"> It's a fair question all told, before catching Haguro's eyes on her shotgun. <"Curious?"> She shrugs. <"Got this from New Loka a long time ago. I'll spare you the details but it's called the Sancti Tigris."> A brief flick of a finger, and she demonstrates it being a breech loaded gun, before snapping it closed. And while demonstrating excellent trigger discipline. <"Heavily modified. I had to take something of a guess for what we may end up dealing with. Corrosive and high heat and boosting it's ability to slash and shred.">

Yeah, this particular shotgun is a monster for more than a few reasons. Hopefully she guessed right, otherwise she'll have to default to her sidearms or her melee, which she hasn't demonstrated yet. In either event, as they finish stepping off she begins to head in the direction of the abyss, though not without pausing by the sealed doors. She's projecting additional light aside from the orbiting light sources, making a slight 'hn' noise, as Helios seems to be scanning wildly, though perhaps fruitlessly. <"We know anything about these, or forge ahead?">
Captain Flint Flint rests his hand on his goatee, stroking it thoughtfully. It's good that Priscilla is so confident in her employees, because this is a little outside his usual fare. Still, Flint doesn't do things by half. If he's going to cut his teeth on the Multiverse, he's going to see the worst it has to throw at him first.

     He holds onto the railing, used to much worse turbulence than the tram can offer.
Haguro The smoother ride this time around compared to the last one actually has Haguro relaxing once she takes her seat, and she even musters up enough willpower to take some drive-by pictures of... Blurs.

     Just because she brought a digital camera along doesn't mean she brought a GOOD digital camera along.

     Disembarking a little more quickly once the car actually comes to a stop, the cruiser keeps the camera readied in one hand while her other fiddles with the backpack straps to make sure they're on properly. She's keeping her distance from the hole in the ground, instead circling towards the sealed and numbered doors. "I can't say I've been down here either, Miss Ujikane. It's all so new to me even if it's..."

     Old and destroyed? Depressing and foreboding? "... In need of repairs." Fighting back a shiver, Haguro turns her attention instead to Kushiko again as she explains her weapon's capabilities. "I see... Hopefully, we won't need it, but it is relieving to know that everyone's prepared. Although..." She pauses, then shakes her head lightly with an awkward attempt at a reassuring smile. "I doubt we'll run into anything like in that arena."

     She's really hoping they won't. Still, Haguro has her shoulder turrets adjusting just in case.
Metal Man Metal Man is keeping pretty chill here and he nods to the Tenno.

"A good way to operate and stay alive."

he hasbeen settling into working with the Concord very well most of the axes he had to grind were with people that had not signed up with them. At the very least. Either way he and his brother keep with the group for the moment. Metal and Crash both take in the place that was once such a focus of their lives. Mainly to take it out, it went out like this? Metal is troubled at how both the Union and Feds went down at once at the same time. Could it have been something of a fluke? No, he can't find a logical way for that to have happened. To him something pulled the trigger.

"humm might be able to leap it on my end."

He notes as he regards the gap.
Priscilla     The chasm straight across from the tram is something nobody wants to fall down, but isn't /too/ difficult to get across, provided one has prepared. Priscilla hops the distance, with the kind of disregard for gravity that bosses tend to do once they get to the late game, but Flint should be able to manage just fine with the rope he wisely brought; especially as a way back up. It's also well within range for Nova's portals, or for the Wilybots to carry someone across.

    Due to the tilt of the station, everything that could pose an obstacle past that, at the nexus of three doors, is either piled against the elevator, or at the bottom of that crevasse. Furthermore, anyone that might have stood guard here was teleported out by Njorun when it blew apart. That leaves a lot of clear floor space for such an important area. The Confederate leadership would be frothing at the mouth at seeing this, were such a thing still extant.

    None of them exactly look safe to enter though. Even with emergency procedures making manual opening plausible, 442's way in pulses with a bright, fiery orange glow, and the door is unreasonably warm to the touch. The floor next to it cracks and crumbles as one steps on it, like it was made of crystallized sugar. 443 meanwhile seems to have washed out to a pallid monochrome, where approaching it causes sounds to halt dead, save a subtle ringing of bells. 444 is almost impossible to see. Bringing light near it does not dispell the dark, only conjure nonsensical whispers to one's ears. Njorun's growths have tangled themselves all over the door, as if trying to bar entry, but are utterly fossilized.
Kazusa Ujikane     "-hweh?" Kazusa doesn't seem to have expected Kushiko to address her, so it takes a second. "Oh, uh... yeah, yeah, I'm fine. Just a little... I had kind of a bad fight last week, so I'm still recovering a bit. I'll be alright." That might explain the mood, too, possibly.

    She gives Haguro kind of a sad smile. "...yeah, it's kinda trashed, isn't it."

    She's gonna need help over to the other side, though; she would even in perfect health. But once over, Kazusa briefly considers her options... then saunters right up to 443, pausing only when that weird effect happens. She steps into the range of sound dampening, then back out. In, then back out. Stomps a foot in, stomps a foot out.

    Then she steps right up to the door and starts thumping on it like a set of bongos.
Captain Flint Flint eyes the chasm, then nods, jaw settling. Reaching behind him, he removes the rope from his belt, unraveling it. With a glance to the pile up of detritus, he affixes a hook to the end of the rope, twirling it around. Standing at an angle, he tosses the grappling hook upwards and outwards. With a loud clang, it strikes true, and the captain gives it a brief tug to ensure it's taut.

     Flint takes a running leap, then swings across the chasm, touching down on the other side. With a flick of the wrist, Flint sends a wave up the length of the rope, dislodging the hook from its place and sending it to the ground with a clatter. Winding the rope up and tucking it back under his belt.

     He takes a moment to investigate each doorway before him, frowning as Kazusa experiments with 443. He, meanwhile, approaches 442, drawing his saber. Standing clear of the door proper, Flint thrusts the blade into the ground to see just how tenuous the footing is.
Kushiko Portals? Gonna be some portals here. She gestures, a chaotic energy vortex panel showing up before she herself simply launches herself across the chasm in a spiralling bullet jump. After all, those portals of her have a set number of uses, before they expend the energy.

<"Go ahead and use that if you don't like the jump."> It's a slight pulsation that's felt as much as heard for whoever goes through the portal, but as they arrive at the vaults themselves, well. Now they've got a choice to make, don't they--oh, hey, Kazusa is gonna make a choice. Cool. Excellent. Hmm. Maybe 'one at a time' is the better question.

<"442's a bit on the hot side,"> she deadpans slightly, an audible frown in her voice with 444's condition. 443 as Kazusa's discerning, well. She's taking a wait and see approach for the moment, noticing that well. 444 seems to do things with the light in a weird way. Maybe she'll have to do something with her own 'light'. Nothing would ever go wrong with the Void energy of hers right?

<"We may have something to try beyond trying to just cut at these growths, but it's devouring the light and we think we hear something.">
Haguro "It.. Is, yes." Haguro returns that same sort of smile to Kazusa, feeling oddly relieved about not being the only person feeling that way. She can't stand around and mope for too long, however, and finally stops dawdling long enough to approach the chasm. Haguro even manages to makes her way over it without too much difficulty (aside from tearing up, panting, and swearing to just bring a rope or take the portal next time). Once the cruiser has her bearings straight, she steps around the numbered doors to take note of their differences. She nearly jumps back from 442, but 443 and 444 both get curious stares and snaps from her camera.

     "443 might be the safest option. If we keep tabs on each other visually, then... We may not have to deal with the heat or the blindness." She suggests, taking another breath and stepping towards 444 to test the flash of her camera in it.

     Or the lack of flashing, and the boat nearly jumps out of her combat boots at the sudden whispering. She does not seem to like door 444.
Priscilla     Banging on the door has astonishingly little effect. When Kazusa slaps down on it, she can't actually even feel the vibration, like she'd just bonked a wall so colossal that she can't even make it reverberate. Also, as she approaches it, her hands take on the same monochrome hue as the area surrounding it, though it doesn't seem harmful. A broken display nearby the emergency release says something about "--in case of--evil--".

    Flint stabbing his sabre into the ground looks very impressive. The ground looks, and acts, perfectly fine, save for its impossible fragility. A foot or so down, he hits much more solid tree-bedrock, but for a second, it looks like he'd just driven his sword effortlessly through twelve inches of armour plating. It should at least be safe to walk on. There's a clock next to it, frozen in the middle of some countdown, at 4 months, 26 days, 18 hours, 30 minutes.

    The dark surrounding 444 swallows Haguro's camera flash utterly. The light of the Void, by contrast, seems to almost bleed into it, mixing hazily like ink swirled in with water, dimming it considerably almost as a side effect. The tree branches enwrapping the door don't just look dead and rotting like the rest of the station, they look like they've been there for millions of years, like what someone would chisel out of amber.
Kazusa Ujikane     Well, for once, nobody seems too opposed to 'just push the button'. So Kazusa heads right up to the emergency release and attempts to... activate it? Engage it? DISengage it? Whatever the proper verbage is.
Captain Flint Squinting at the fragile footing before him, the captain retrieves his saber and holds it before him, gaze shifting to the edge of the blade. He gives it a short, testing tap just to get an idea of the temperature. In truth, though, he's already made up his mind.

     "You're right," he says to Haguro. "I don't like our chances over here." He steps away from the door to peer at Kazusa curiously. What happens next is going to depend both on the device's definition of 'evil' and whatever words are missing from the advisory. Oh--and how the decay has effected its systems.
Metal Man The chasm is certainly a thing here but he thinks he can handle it, right? So can Crash who isn't quite as agile but is still a good leaper when you get own to it. He looks down and lets out a whistle. That is some crazy stuff down there, either way he's going to make use of carrying someone over if it's needed. Once they get across he's going to be looking at the doors.

"So door number one? Door number two? Or door number three?"

He holds back while Crash Man looks at the door for a moment and debates.

"I could try cracking them with explosives but? Given the nature of this place it may not be the most wise idea."



"Oh hell is that a light of the Dawn Vault?!"

Metal man exclaims with, an look of shock on his face at the discovery Kazusa has made.
Kushiko "That's so not fair," That voice, further away and unhearable to the group here, is Kushiko the child's voice in the solitude of the Orbiter at the result her Void Light seems to have. She may have to try something /proper/ later, but she makes note of how the roots actually are--not dead so much as /really old/ and probably still dead.

Not much to be doing here--except look quizzical at Metal Man's question. She steps away a bit, and adjusts the grip on her Sancti Tigris, looking over Kazusa. <"We're going to leave a portal behind you for you to fall back into."> Indeed, they do just that, maintaining this one so it'll collapse as soon as Kazusa goes through it. If she needs to into probably Haguro's waiting arms to secure her.
Haguro Haguro blinks slowly at the curious interaction between camera and 444, stepping back after a few moments. "How odd... THe flash won't work there at all." She still makes sure to take another picture with the flash on just to see how it'll work with the camera itself, then swats at the air around her head as if trying to fend off an invisible noise.

     And the it's time to get ready for... THE BUTTON. Haguro keeps her turrets primed, and then she hunkers down in a more defensive crouching stance. "I'm ready. If this turns out okay, maybe..." She glances towards 442 and 444, then steps into position by Kushiko's portal should Kazusa need that catch. Flint gets a nod as well! "We'll see how this one goes. Hopefully, we'll be in good enough shape to explore the other two paths after whatever this button does."
Priscilla     Kazusa hitting the door release meets with a spectacular lack of immediate reprecussions. In fact, it meets with a spectacular lack of anything, for a while. It takes a moment to notice that the door is crawling open very slowly, outright stopping if she moves back, but speeding up if she tries to interact with it.

    When it does, finally, silently roll open, settling into its slot with a muted puff of dust, it's difficult to recognize the room beyond as having once been a vault. All the trappings of high security are gone, as if the cameras, restraints, and potential traps have all just disappeared into the wind. The entire room is bathed in that filter of grey that reduces every noise to the faintest echo, as if the air itself is too hallowed to disturb. It takes a minute to recognize that the floor looks the way it is not because of the monochrome effect, but because the armoured tiles have been replaced with checkered, black and white stone. It looks as if they've spread outwards from inside, overtaking the natural texture of the unstable, rotting halls around them, but stopped dead at the door.

    There isn't much else, save the at center of the room, where a heavy sort of containment case has cracked open, as the bottom turned to polished marble, and a series of complex magic seals drawn around it have worn away to faint smudges. Seated in the middle, now stuck half-embedded in stone, is a simple, silver sword, with an angular, geometric blue hilt and crossguard, from which dangle a number of now useless cables.

    On closer inspection, however, the cables are not actually dangling. They are paused mid-air, suspended amidst a constellation of fine glass fragments from the broken half of the case up above, as if preserved in photograph. Only the most faded text can still be worn into the wall, saying "Iteration -6, single registered user, former-Union affiliation."
Kazusa Ujikane     Needless to say, Kazusa does in fact step back. And then move forward. And then back, and then forward, then back. And then, just as an experiment, she puts one foot forward.

    Only once her curiosity has been sated does she actually stay near the door, trying to get it to open as fast as it's able, and then step in after, adjusting her glasses... and starting in silence at the inside of the vault. She looks on in quiet awe, at least until she spots the sword. Then she goes from 'awe' to 'ooh'. There's a quick turn, a soundless attempt to talk, followed by her remembering and leaning out of the bubble of silence. "There's a sword in here! I'm gonna go take a look."

    Of course, she's not stupid! As she goes into the vault, she reaches into her purse, where she's got a notepad - one sheet is torn off, then she crumples it up and tosses it forward, watching to see if it sets off any traps or dangerous effects. She'll keep doing this, sending crumpled paper balls ahead, until she reaches the sword.

    Then she chucks a ball of paper at it, just to be safe.
Captain Flint The captain gives Kazusa a terse nod, then watches as she enters the room. Her strategy is quite clever, and he can't hide an impressed arch of his eyebrow as she essentially looses a series of miners' canaries into the room. Deciding to enter one of the doors himself, he latches his grappling hook onto one of the sturdier roots beneath door 442's way in, looping it around for good measure. The other end is wrapped around his waist.

     His face hardening with determination, he approaches the door and looks for some way to open it. If it's too hot, or if the footing is too unstable, he hopes to be able to simply pull himself back to his tethered point. "I'm going to investigate 442," he advises the group.
Metal Man Metal Man feels a chill as he looks a what is bfore Kazusa and he and Crash move to back her up.

<<What is this?>>

<<I have no idea bro.>>

the tow keeps alert, Crash Man's hands morph into bomb launcher mode to be on the safe side and Metal has a blade in hand as he moves forward. Then he sees the sword for a moment.

"Right we'll back you up."

He scans the blade for any active signatures maybe he'll find something maybe not this placeis broken and then Kazusa does something very wise she tests the object before grabbing it.
Priscilla     Indeed, there is a sword. Kazusa's paper ball flies into the room easily enough . . . except when it starts to slow down . . . and slooow down . . . and sloooooow down. By the time it's halfway to the sword, it seems to have stopped completely; as grey, washed out, and utterly silent as the rest of the room, like someone had just happened to throw a wad of paper at the exact same time Njorun had overloaded. In fact, Metal Man's scan doesn't come back at /all/. Like a bat screeching into empty air, the wavelength of his equipment projects out into the room, and just doesn't return; no doubt frozen in time as well.

    Flint, meanwhile, finds that 442's door opens the exact same way. Actually, it opens much more easily. It's /hot/ to the touch, but not quite enough to burn him; like scalding water rather than a running stove top. The ground crunches and fractures beneath his feet, as if he is some sort of giant monster whose steps carry the power of a million tons, but he only really sinks down to a superficially shallow degree.

    Twisting that release open reveals a room that has been equally wiped clear, where the security systems have vanished, and the flesh and equipment of the tree, once seamlessly blended only to decay now like rejected organs, have been replaced with a hollow cave of brittle, beige rock, whittled into complex cracks and cubes instead of worn smooth. Settled in a divot in the middle of the cave, is a series of head-sized, orange glass spheres, that blaze like miniature stars, casting the room in an intense golden aura and send prickles of electricity leaping along the walls and floor. The countdown clock is still visible from inside, though, with no indication what the timer was tracking.
Haguro Haguro bites back a giggle at Kazusa's testing of the SILENCE ZONE, then takes her camera out once it looks like there's no immediate danger. It's time to take pictures of goddamn everything again! Yes, even of the paper balls and the sword. She heads inside as well after a few more moments, following the trail of paper balls and scanning the rest of the room. The faded text doesn't hold her attention as much as the cables, though, and Haguro's attention gets the better of her. She reaches for one of the cables, trying to nudge it out of place and even take it if it doesn't zap or immolate her or something beforehand.
Kushiko Well, that seemed... to not really work the way she was expecting. Less things to worry about than most.

<"Well, I'm going to see about getting her into 444. Somehow. Maybe."> Time to take a more pratical approach while Kazusa and Metal Man look into the current vault, and Kushiko herself switches tracks: sliding the Sancti Tigris behind her, which causes it to seemingly disappear.

At her side, lilac energy manifests in the shape of a katana-like sheathe. <"Maybe..."> If she could breathe, she'd take a deep breath here. And then when she unsheathes the dragon nikana from it's scabbard, she begins to glow--the blade itself taken with roiling energy on the outside, pulsating at key points up and down her body.

Why not try a channeling approach, hmm? That's when she sheathes it once again and then lashes out--and forward. The unsheathing action bearing a high resemblance to iajutsu as she attempts to use the energy offset to allow her to sever her way into the root system barring the way forward.
Captain Flint Opening the door is a little uncomfortable, but the promise of what might be behind it proves a better motivator. He steps through the threshold as soon as he's able, hand resting tensely on the hilt of his saber. When those doors reveal their secrets, he takes a moment to scrutinize his surroundings. The environment seems somewhat volcanic, and he'd wager those spheres have something to do with it. "I've found something," he says into the radio. "Some sort of jewels."

     Carefully, he inches towards them, boots kicking aside handfuls of disintegrated ground with each step he takes. Each step is made at a glacial pace, the captain pausing to assess the temperature of the room and the certainty of the footing beneath him. As the one hand rests on his saber, another reaches for a burlap sack tucked under a sash beneath his coat.

     In the absence of blistering heat, sudden drops, or grievous bodily hard, Flint checks the area around the brightly glowing spheres for any sort of sentry or alarm--at least, so far as 1715's technology is concerned.
Kazusa Ujikane     When Kazusa realizes what's happening with her wadded-up paper trap-checkers, she immediately lunges to grab Haguro and pull her back. She /tries/ to say "W-wait, no, nononono-!" but it's entirely possible the silent zone will be muffling her.
Priscilla     Kazusa is right to guess as much. As Haguro trots merrily on into the room, her footsteps, and oddly just her footsteps, echo grandiosely off the stone tiles, as if the small vault room was, in fact, a cavernous temple, but her words fail to reach her. Subjected to the same, quadratically increasing temporal distortion as the test paper, the shipgirl begins to rapidly slow to a crawl, and from her perspective, it isn't even happening. As she turns greyer and greyer, and moves closer and closer to a full stop, it just looks like Kazusa has lunged out with impossible speed and yanked her backwards in the blink of an eye.

    Meanwhile, Flint is in for less overt danger. Despite the extremely fragile cave he finds himself inside being uncomfortably hot, the heat does not increase past merely painful. Instead, as he approaches, it's a wall of pulsing, overpowering pressure, that flares up like a living thing to dramatically blow him back as he tries to reach the source. Getting closer into the blazing, golden aura, he can see each glass orb has a number of iconographic stars suspended inside of them, though just barely. Four months ago, this clock stopped. If he's aware of the Reality Quakes at all, the timing means that the clock should have reached zero a day ago.

    Kushiko is last through her respective door, and the dragon nikana has ultimately little trouble with cutting through the gnarled, deadened foliage, but compared to the ease of chopping through rotting wood she should expect, the branches feel as dense, solid stone, like they'd never been alive in the first place. Where her blade strikes, flashes of void energy are siphoned off into the dark, which briefly surges into muttering unintelligible nothings into her link. Pushing the door open meets a room beyond, much larger than the other two, only even darker, but for the split second the door moves, it had seemed that there had been more than a few pairs of white, pinprick eyes gathered around the entrance.
Haguro Haguro doesn't notice the slowing of time at first, just heading for the cables as if nothing was going on. By the time she notices the papers slowing down from the corner of her vision, though, she's already getting yanked back at an impossible-to-perceive speed by the more wary Kazusa. Looking utterly confused and moderately terrified, the ship girl turns her head slowly and murmurs a shaky "thank you".

     Her voice might not actually be audible depending on how far Kazusa pulled her back, though. Still, that'll teach her not to just step right in!
Kushiko Somehow, she expected it, though as to what it means for the Void-derived light to be siphoned off, she can only guess. Except obviously probably bad, what with those... mutterings. She staves off the channeling for now, though it's already been done enough, perhaps. The fact the tree roots felt more like stone or heavy armor would earn a sardonic noise through the link--yeah, /that/ was expected. She didn't think she would cut through easily, so she prepared accordingly.

Tension from her radiates rather palpably. She saw it. Well, felt it, even if came and went like nothing else. This is about when she goes on high alert--and perhaps only the slight funnels of energy on her back and the pinpricks of lilac on her suit might yet be the only things visible as she warily proceeds forward--but shifting her stance slightly. Her 'eyes' may not do her any good here she suspects, so she ends up reversing the grip on her Nikana as she sheathes it in preparation.

She still had one trump card, but she was uncertain as to how that would react--two reality-twisting things don't necessarily mix.
Kazusa Ujikane     All the way back. Kazusa is sharp enough to get poor Haguro completely out of it - not just for the danger to Haguro, but for the danger to /her/ too! It's a pretty mad, panicked scramble, though, so as soon as she's released Haguro, the girl bends over and plants her palms on her knees, panting. "'s... 's no prob. Eheh." She looks up into the vault again, and frowns. "It's... time. Slow. Stop. Something. Not... really sure. What... the heck's that sword...?"
Priscilla     Hints as to the sword's origin are not especially forthcoming, save that worn away notice about something something evil. Being stuck in time, however, appears to be a property of its own, rather than that of the station. As the glue that holds so many components of so many disparate worlds together has rotted and fallen away, leading to the deranged, decaying slurry of form, function and reason that Njorun has become, there is nothing left in these vaults that could possibly assert such an effect. The artifacts in of themselves feel like islands of primal stability in this area, exuding aspects of their being on the station around them that has become so mutable.

    Save for one, which is where Kushiko lurks. As she steps into the dark, the bleed (as bleeding seems to be the right word, as a wounded swimmer) of her voidlight gives her at least some idea of the space she's in. By contrast to the other two rooms, this one appears to be mostly the same as the rest of the station; organic, disintegrating, and logically defunct. This would appear to be, however, because the vault is empty.

    Not literally, though. Though she can find no artifact worthy of containing inside a heavily sealed vault, there is plenty to see. The room is choked full of massive, twisting, splitting and spreading roots, but now that she gets a look at them, they /aren't/ Njorun's. The petrified, never-living plant matter has ruptured through the walls, or rather, burst out of an enormous, rectangular space mounted on the far wall, and crawled out into the room. The original tree still visible in the interior seems to have stabilized into a fully, one-hundred-percent-dead state in their proximity. Further into the room, she finds Nova's ankles wading in what feels like thick, cold water, but looking down, there is nothing to be seen, leaving her wading into invisible depths. The whispering intensifies in volume the further she goes towards the greater dark at the far end of the chamber, intelligible now as a deep, haunting hum, almost verging on song, that many voices compete to speak over in the barest murmurs.
Kushiko There would be the deepest of frowns if her Warframe could mime it. For now, the far flung look of displeasure on her face as Kushiko squints amidst the Void mists surrounding her on the Orbiter would have to do.

It feels... odd, in ways she doesn't necessarily /like/ because there's a vague sense of familiarity woven into unfamiliar, prodding at memories that she cannot lift the veil of.

There's no doubt Helios is trying to take as much imagery as it could, but it'll probably end up being for naught.

Maybe it's not a relic like the other, but something that went rampant, losing containment or something? Either way, she's studying the root system in passing. The pinpricks of the eyes, the moment in passing still has her wary and expectant. The fact that things are /stable/ here in terms of say, death, is something modestly reassuring that it isn't... something else. She does her best to still the tide of energy flowing out of her with a moment to focus inwardly. It probably won't work as much as she wants it to, but that huge rectangular space seems to be the best point to head towards--if roundedly. She won't take a direct path so much as circle her way towards it at a brisk pace. Considering that whatever here was seeming to feed, minimizing what she put out would have to be the best plan until she could discern more.

/Then/ make a beeline out of here, if it proved as malign as she felt it did.
Metal Man Metal Man is on his guard as he's making his way to cover Kazusa he's still very proud of the young lady for having the sense to throw something at the weapon rather than just grabbing it. He's not quite sure what's going on he's actually having trouble registering it. He does seem to be concerned though.

"Kazusa?! Are you all right?!"
Haguro "I wonder... Would that be the sword's power, or the room itself?" Haguro takes a deep breath as she rests back on her rear with Kazusa, eventually managing to pick herself back up. She holds an arm out to assist Kazusa should she need the physical support, trying to look calmer than she is (and doing pretty badly at it). "I-it should be safe to leave it there for now, but if that effect spreads..."

     Shivering again, the ship girl looks around slowly before taking a few pictures of the sword and cables in question with the flash on. "Does anyone have a... Oh, I should have brought a cane. I'm sorry!"

     Haguro freezes up right after she belts that out, drawing back for a moment, then looking towards Kazusa and Metal Man. "... Okay. If we form a chain with someone all the way out here, do you think we could try and move it safely?"
Kazusa Ujikane     "'m fine," Kazusa replies to Metal Man, finally standing herself up. It was only a brief exertion, so she's able to catch her breath without /too/ much trouble. Though she might take that offer of support for a moment. "Not sure. I... /think/ it's probably the sword, with this place powered down and those cables disconnected, but..." Her brow furrows. She turns to look around at everyone, hand resting absently on her purse. "I'm not sure that'd work, the people in close would just slow down and stop anyway, I think..." What could they do here? No one with superhuman speed, no one... well, Nova's portals might work to get someone to the sword, but if they slow down before they can pull it, or if the aura persists after it's pulled...
Metal Man Metal Man looks to Crash Man, whose foramr lose the bomb launches and regain their hands. While he joins hi brother heading to Haguro and Kazusa. He sees Kazusa is all right and takes her word for it. he'llmovein to help with the plan if they go to do it. Metal Man grunts

"If Flash Man hadn't been recalled by the Doctor for bodyguard duty. We'd be able to pull this off a bet but humm so I do have a few mechanloiods maybe I could send one in and see what it does to the grabby copter?"
Priscilla     The root system is nonsense. It's sprawled out through the wall and perforated every surface around as if an entire circulatory system of stone only chiselled to look like wood had grown here. Its fractal offshoots weave dense curtains of grasping filaments, more like the flagella of some deep sea critter than twigs. It's a pain to navigate around, and frequently Kushiko can swear that she hears splashing, whenever she stops paying attention to her footsteps. The invisible water gets up to her knees quickly, and as it does, what dim light remains coming from nova no longer penetrates beneath them, leaving her standing in impenetrable black.

    The closer she gets to the far wall, the more it looks like something was once attached there, or mounted on it, and then was removed, and all of this has somehow leaked from its shadow, in the same way the other artifacts have 'leaked' their associated attributes.

    It's essentially by surprise that she stumbles into a tiny island of light in the middle of it all. The glow is so artificially contained by the pressing shadows that entering the hemispherical, lit area feels like pushing through black curtains into a small, dome shaped room. In the middle of all this, immersed in that phantom lake beneath her feet, a tiny shoot of Njorun can be seen poking out from the rotted bark.

    It's such a small thing, barely more than a young grass shoot, standing defiantly green against the backdrop of the station's decay with almost pitiable lonesomeness. Even so, it is unmistakably alive, and from a budding twig, dangles a strange, glittering green seed of strangely whorled and woven filaments, from which the white light, that stoically repulses such a tiny section of the dark, shines within. The ice cold, phantasmal water that is up to Nova's thighs by this point, seems briefly and locally tangible near where the outgrowth breaches it; murky, hazy, stagnant and grey, save for the few centimeters around where it would directly touch, whence it becomes a steady, crystal clear ripple.

    The stubborn seedling exudes a kind of feeling that approaches transcendent mysticism, just to look at, as if contained therein were answers to questions that everyone should have, but never asks. More than that, however, it radiates, at least in the incredibly small clearing, a kind of warm and charming stoicism.
Haguro With the discussion over the radio giving the group at 443 a fairly decent plan to test the sword, Haguro opts to try something a little different herself. Swapping to a blank round, she takes aim at the far far end of the room, then fires one shot there and one at the paper balls. She needs to see the limits of the slowing field, and she even stares at the cables again.

     "... Those cables. Do you think it'd be worth trying to shoot those down?"
Kazusa Ujikane     Kazusa takes a step or two back, giving Haguro some distance so the cannons aren't too loud. At the same time, she considers the question put to her by Haguro. "Well, they're already kinda unhooked, so I dunno..." But Kushiko says something on the radio. A tiny island of light holding the darkness at bay. A seedling.

    Just the simple thought that there /might/ be some tiny fragment of Njorun still alive is enough to get Kazusa running at full speed, at least until she reaches the dark vault that Kushiko's inside. She's probably going to be banging her shins a lot. And falling on her face. And eventually just carefully picking her way through, /trying/ to find Kushiko. The only light source she has is a smartphone. This ain't gonna be fun.
Kushiko What on earth could this be? Not that those were the /exact/ words in Kushiko's head but that was pretty damn close. The complex nonsense that is the root system is something she eventually dismisses once she comes to the conclusion of what it is. The control surfaces twitch slightly whenever there is a noise she's pretty certain she can hear, leading her to tighten the grip on her Nikana's handle.

At least she can verify what she suspects--the point on the wall was the origin point, but the discovery of that tiny island of light and the seedling relative to it /does/. Stumbling upon the island is a welcome relief even more, given the all encompassing pitch that had threatened to be her constant companion so far in this phantom lake. Can't be this too easy. It /shouldn't/ be this easy.

After a few moments of caution, of listening, she begins to move again--and given what Kazusa is asking for, well. There's two things she can do here in terms of the light itself and more. And she weighs it, carefully, given where her body it; it may be a phantasmal lake, but a lake all the same. Given what this... feeling is, she can only try.

That's when she steadies herself on her approach to the shoot, within the hemisphere of light itself. "RRRAAAAAAHHHH!!" The sound itself resonates, the voice of the child, the Tenno as Nova Prime slumps downward to her knees like a puppet with her strings cut. Kushiko herself bleeds through the focal point of her Warframe, stretching through and expanding like light through a prism. And speaking of light, that's when she unleashes energy and light overflowing. Zenurik. The pulse of the Void itself as the girl's arms go to her side, a ribbon, ephermal curtain of golden light billowing wildly behind her.

Well, a beacon was asked for. And maybe, just maybe the surge of her own Void light might trigger something as she directs it--cautious not to bear down the island /too/ much.
Metal Man Metal Man will go with the plan. He calls in one of his low hovering drones and he'll let them set up the plan to put a cable on it or rope. but ither way he'll see how this is going to go.He hooks into the drone and make ready to sent it in but it all comes to a halt when the Realization comes that some of the tree might still be alive.

He watches her head off and he moves to sigh he'll follow after her, teamates even former enemies are worth more than loot is to the Master generally. By wily Kaz is on the team he'll see she gets out alive. Still who knows what chaos or suffering he might be charging into now!
Priscilla     Haguro's cannon shots meet with roughly predictable results. Now, in addition to someone callously tossing wads of paper around at the precise moment of Njorun's demise, someone had also simultaneously been firing off naval cannons! A thing of note, when it comes to their arcing trajectory, however: the time sealing effect ramps up extremely fast as they approach the sword, and less so in any other direction. Rather than the room, the sword itself is the center of a dilation effect; much like trying to reach the speed of light, trying to hit it becomes infinitely more difficult as one approaches it.

    Kazusa approaching Kushiko is difficult, but by comparison, not nearly so. She wades heedlessly into a lake of ghosts and nothing, where carved imitations of arboreal life scratch and claw at her skin, but the tiny, comforting, almost childishly stubborn glow of Njorun's life force is unmistakable. How odd, that it would find a tiny little crevice able to support it, here, in this grim vault in particular, than anywhere else more thematically fitting.

    Metal Man arrives in time to benefit from Kushiko's outburst of the refined essense of the void, through the somatic link of her Warframe, and that means he is just in time to see the water below her hovering avatar's feet burst open, and for something to reach out from beneath, and snap hold of her ankle. Grasping from the very edge of the seedling's light, completely invisible below the 'water's surface', seemingly appearing from liquid nothing, a patch of the dark bearing grave human resemblance sinks its hazy fingers into Kushiko's suit and skin. Whatever it is, it's more like a hole in the world that merely suggests human shape as the eye rebels against looking directly at it, but the white eyes cannot be missed, and they stare upward towards the operator with only bottomless, asphyxiating urgency; the look of a desperate mother trying to silence her bawling baby as she hides from a killer.
Kazusa Ujikane     Kazusa is just a tad desperate right now. Metal Man and Haguro both get to see a look on her face that's so desperate and so NOT happy-go-lucky that it's more than a smidge worrying. But she's not exactly leaving much time to ask any questions, the way she's charging on ahead with scraped limbs and drenched legs. She's just stumbling onto 'land' when something rises up in response to Kushiko's light - and without a second thought, or indeed without a /first/, she lunges at it, attempting to batter it into letting go. With bare, unmodified, untransformed hands. "HEY, HEY LET GO! NO, LET GO OF HER!"
Haguro It doesn't seem like Haguro's going to make much progress in trying to move the sword at this rate. No, without something long or capable of breaking /time/, she's already way in over head. Instead, the ship girl turns to follow Kazusa and Metal Man to room 444, slowing down to feel her way around as the light fades and things start getting... Damp? Dark? Confusing?

     Very confusing. With only the light from the seedling to work with, the ship girl pulls out her camera again to try and take more pictures. Considering that the thing still works on light, though, she's not even sure that'll do much with or without the flash!
Kushiko Well, this may--or may not help. Normally speaking when Kushiko does this she can't actually /stay/ outside it very long, sortof a threshold and under normal circumstances, it's pretty difficult to properly affect her.

Which means that it's perfectly ripe to have an entirely abnormal situation.

It's... frankly a panicked sound; at first there was the howl but as she had mainted her Void Pulse of Zenurik, it gave way to her solemnly staring. "You shouldn't be able to--wh--" The avatar is not solely the avatar, for whatever reason. She's able to still stay floating, but she can't quite retreat back into herself, into her Warframe. She wavers in the air, the golden 'cloak' of ephemeral light radiating from her back seeming to wick into nothingness.

Cognitively, she recognizes in the back of her head that Kazusa and Metal Man are here. The light dies, at least for the time being. Kazusa and Metal Man, upon closing would witness something that, without any preamble is simply /horror/ like none other on the young girl's face as she shrieks, lilac light flaring then quickly vanishing as the operator seems to twist about in agony.

"LetmegoletmegoletmegoLETMEGO!" She's trying to pull herself back into her Warframe, the Void energy drained through her but something she felt, something she heard has her at a full panic and not just from the pain itself, screaming in pain as words simply fail her.
Metal Man Thankfully Kushiko's outburst of power is able to help him out a bit. He's glad to have people he's working with he actually could come to care about and don't make his skin crawl to use a human expression. Sure no one's saints but no one's nomming on babies so far and that's a huge bonus for the old android. There's hopefully something he can do here. With Haguro following along hopefully between them they can help.

"Oh slag! Hey you THE HELL YOUR HAVING HER!"

Metal Man moves into action and in perhaps a bold and stupid move he's going to try to directly attack the strange humanoid with glowing white eyes.

He impacts or attempt to he'll even try to engage it in melee using his blades. He's going to suffer for this he knows it and does not care at the moment.

He moves he'll attack but once he makes contact what the hell is going to happen to him? He has no damn idea other than likely pain, a whole lot of pain likely for him. Rock might be surprised about Metal doing this if he ever found out.
Priscilla     Despite what ails, or perhaps attacks, Kushiko, Kazusa charges face first into the fray. Whilst the thing's grasp feels as if it is pouring the black, impenetrable nothingness of the bottom of the ocean, directly into Kushiko's body, smothering and extinguishing her powers, her life force, and her own thoughts, Kazusa throws herself into it and winds up borderline tackling it with her face. What a gal.

    Luckily, just crashing into it with her physical, pathetically mortal being, seems to do a fine job of dispersing its arm into a loud, inky splatter of viscous, biting dredge, which splashes into the invisible water, and dissipates as clouds of ink. The moment next, a blade of serrated metal comes slashing through the creature's, loosely put, 'form', and it fully collapses into seething, blue-black nothingness.

    When the support Kazusa might have been expecting gives out, she instead finds herself just thumping down on cold, hard, gross-smelling wood and broken metal. In fact Metal Man isn't even feeling the phantom lake sensation at all. The warm glow of the tiny, precious seed seems to pulse brighter, almost cheerily; almost consciously, even. There sounds out a noise like dry, crackling hay, as the stalk it is attached to nigh-instantly withers, and the bright green and glittering seed drops off of it, bouncing and rolling on the floor with remarkable heaviness, before it spins to a stop before Kazusa's face.
Kazusa Ujikane     Kazusa flops to the ground, and for several seconds, all she can do is breathe hard, having utterly exhausted her already-battered body just getting here. It's worse than her sudden lunge for Haguro was; even that brightening glow from the seed doesn't get her to do more than turn her head and look.

    And watch, with slowly widening eyes.

    And track that rolling seed, watching it move until it stops right before her. Her expression looks for a moment as if she's afraid to believe what she's seeing... and then she immediately reaches up to grab the seed, clutching it close to her chest.

    After a few seconds, it becomes clear she's crying, just faintly.
Kushiko A myriad set of weird things happen. When Kazusa charges through, and breaks the grip the /thing/ has on Kushiko's leg, the avatar-operator seems to careen backward into the water, before light begins to panel across her suit, a whimper of pain before she fades into nothing, her form seeming to be drawin into a single point.

That single point seems to be it, before Nova herself seems to shakily rise from the phantom lake. Just in time, perhaps, to see that serrated blade cut through the night, even if she herself was ready to do just the same with her Dragon Nikana. Fear and shock and pain and confusion gave way to the discipline once more, even if a little late. She gestures, a holographic panel being produced by a newly extended palm to properly address Kazusa this time. Metal probably also getting a first-ish proper look. There's some kind weirdass greenish worldscape around the purple-haired youth. <"Is... is that what we think it is?">

Fair question, she feels.
Kushiko Though the more pressing concern is now realized, <"Actually, don't answer that. It's obvious. Let's get out of here for now, return when we're able. Kazusa, we're going to take you to the Dorado Metropolis to recover, and if you want to, to stay. We need to get everything secured."> Her face falls a little, a quiet look.

<"Given what that represents and what that may yet become, we can assure you it will be protected, and not mistreated. But we should all get out of here and swiftly."> On that, she gestures, opening a wormhole.
Metal Man Metal Man make sure Kushiko is still all right? Well as all right you cna be after something like that befor ehe turns to see Kazusa for a long moment she's crying. The girl was Union, proud of it so far as he was aware. She's basically come to her ruined home and for once he's silent to leave her bit. He does however open a comm to Kush.

<<I'll help with the guard duty if she needs it.>>