Scene #6118: Case 2: On Her Deathbed

Owner	Pose
Ryouma Sakamoto	EARLIER: The constant beeping of the heart rate monitor next to Akari Ekirei's body is the only sound in the room. No TV, closed window, biohazard-sealed door. The weakened old woman, sickly green and covered in yellow bulbs, is essentially waiting for her death, at the hands of her own magical plague no less. The door opens, finally - but it's no doctor that comes through. A man in an elegant white suit, with slick black hair and briefcase comes in, not concerned in the slightest by contagion risks. He sets the briefcase down on the table next to Akari's bed, and opens it. "As discussed with your relatives. In exchange for your Magic Crest, the means to remain alive, should you prove strong enough to control it," the salesman says, with an honest smile. "Get on with it. I don't have long," she answers. "Consent has been ascertained," he nods. Five more men come in, dressed like surgeons. They all carry their own briefcases, though when they open, it becomes immediatly obvious their tools are magical in some way. NOW: The TOKYO MEDICAL UNIVERSITY HOSPITAL isn't doing so hot. Magical readings are through the roof - but luckily, the commotion hasn't attracted the authorities yet. Through a contact or another, or just keeping tabs on Tokyo after the last incident, it's possible to be here, however. Arrival near the building immediatly makes one sick. The air is heavy, almost green. A Bounded Field - a magical barrier - surrounds the entire building, containing, for the time being, this strange green-ish air. But the way readings are going up, it may not last. The Bounded Field might burst - or more likely, it's an incubation chamber. Its purpose is to replicate the conditions inside it until it has enough to just... explode. There's no security to speak of, and people in the lobby seem... totally out of it. Blank, barely on their feet. Almost unconscious. Calling them zombies wouldn't be too far off, but they're neither groaning nor seeking brains.
Haguro	The first attempt at bringing gifts to the detectives didn't work so well. Gangsters showed up, there was a fight, and Haguro's gift got smashed in the process. This time, though? This time, she's prepared: Buns are much harder to wreck with a single bad hit thanks to being a solid, and they won't be ruined even if they're a little flattened or cut! Striding confidently through the streets of Tokyo, the shipgirl does a quick inventory check while giving a passing glance to the strangely green hospital. Two dozen should be more than enough. She slows down to straighten out the little ribbon holding the box closed, then does a double take upon realizing that the hospital is VERY GREEN. Haguro lets out a low sigh, then sets the box on a bench before heading inside to investigate! She notices the messed up air immediately, of course. A spirit like herself normally wouldn't be able to get sick, but the oppressive atmosphere has her taking more careful steps, maneuvering around the people in the lobby carefully while looking for someone or something that isn't so nearly-zombie-like.
Cu Chulainn	Felt Haddask and the Lancer Cu Chulainn came as soon as they got word of the incident. After the raid on the Association base, they're planning on making it up by solving this case and finding whoever is dealing these fragments of Magic. They're dressed in black suits, both of them wearing face masks to try and avoid catching whatever's in the air, though they'd much prefer gas masks, because these face masks aren't going to be as effective as they'd like. Cu's already summoned his red spear, Gae Bolg, once they're inside. Felt glances at the 'zombies', muttering. "Well, at least there won't be witnesses." Haguro gets a glance from Cu, the spearman recognizing her, so his guard is a little down as he approaches her. "Hey, little lady. What are you doing in a place like this? It's not too safe in here, you know."
Maya	Maya arrived and didn't have time to change into something a bit more Earthish in terms of fashion. Hopefully, at worst she might be taken for an odd person with an odd fashion sense. Or maybe a cosplayer, either way, she's here. She's also a blazing fount of mana to anyone or anything that can see magic, worse for her she's not feeling too well here. "This is about as bad as Draxx's lair....back home." Maya notes referring to the now hopefully destroyed creator of necromancy on her world. "Felt, Lancer...This is not good do you have any more information on what's going on here?" She too looks to Harguo for a moment. She looks ot Harguro for a moment she feels like she's seen her somewhere before, but the old elite can't place it right now.
Archer EMIYA	A single black-dressed man arrives on the scene, having picked up wind of the whole mess through the Paladins. A magical incident that could risk the rest of the city? Where has he heard this before? Well, it doesn't matter, there's no time to sort through his mess of a memory. Ignoring the sick feeling in his stomach, Archer makes his way through the hospital lobby, ignoring the zombie-like victims and whoever else was brave enough to enter as he tries to piece together what exactly could have caused this.
Staren	Trouble at a hospital with magic? Hmm. Staren's available, though, so he beams down, armored up as usual -- because who knows, maybe a monster of some sort is behind this -- and for once, going anywhere dangerous with an environmentally-sealed suit is especially helpful -- whatever that green miasma is, it's not getting through while he's got internal air. Staren's concerned when he sees the patients shambling around. "Hey! You there! Can you understand me?" he hails one, trying to gauge their condition. If they're nonresponsive, though... well, working out if there's a way to save them comes after dealing with whatever is causing all this. Who knows, with magic the whole problem might go away once the source is stopped. Magic is sometimes funny that way. He does call for some robots to beam down and start setting up decontamination equipment for after, though. Staren sees the group that's assembled. "Maya! Long time no see!" And he sees the people wearing masks. "You know, if you're not infected yet, I keep spare suits onhand. Want some? Hopefully you're not already infected... do any of you have any idea what's going on here, by the way?"
Ryouma Sakamoto	The people in the lobby never react to the new entries. Normally, something like Lancer producing his spear would probably be enough to cause some panic, and Staren would get some sort of answer, but it doesn't look like any of these people can think or react right now. On the bright side they're alive, so it's probably not too late. But there is... something here. There's more magic upstairs than downstairs. Third floor, maybe? And something else. Only Archer picks up on it. A tug. A feeling. The Counter Force is nudging him in the right direction - he's just been drafted, apparently. Whatever's upstairs is the birth of a situation the likes of which he'd normally have to clean up after it goes to Hell. Mercifully, he's being given a chance to stop this one before it comes to that. So, whatever it is... it's offensive enough to the World that it deems act pre-emptively where it normally wouldn't. From janitor to detective, it's quite the promotion. Sadly... both the staircases, and the elevators, have been smashed through by countless sickly green spikes of earth, blocking entry (and in the elevators' case, the entire shafts). And the sickness, slowly, starts taking its toll. For those without protection, it feels as though their blood is hardening, making movements just a bit sluggish. Nothing bad yet.
Haguro	Hearing a familiar voice from nearby, Haguro turns to Felt and Cu with a friendly wave. Unlike last time, she's more visibly armed and armored with wrist turrets and armored plates in various parts of her body! Once was enough to convince her to keep her gear on at all times while she's in this Tokyo. "Hello again, sirs. I was in the neighborhood and noticed the strange air around this hospital." Keeping her turret arm lowered, her gaze goes from the Master Servant pair to Maya. "I take it you're investigating this as well? That should make it easier to split up if we need to, then. Is he...?" Her gaze shifts from Maya to Archer, watching him for a few moments before her attention turns to Staren next. "Ah! Mister Staren. If we're here, we may be infected already." A beat. "... But I will gladly take one if that's alright. Extra protection won't hurt to have." Offering him a friendly wave as well, Haguro will put on one of those suits if provided one. She probably should be asking more about how they're all being stored, but... Detail details. There's more important things to worry about! "That's what we're here to find out, I believe." She starts moving once more, shivering uncomfortably upon spotting the odd spikes. Whipping out a camera, Haguro takes a few pictures of the spikes blocking the stairs, then brings up her turret-bearing arm. "A smaller payload shouldn't damage the architecture too much..." She murmurs to herself while taking aim at the spikes, then fires on them with small explosives to try and free up the stairs.
Cu Chulainn	Lancer and Felt have their guards up as more people show upo...but it seems everyone here is just investigating as well. Haguro gets a smile and a nod from the lancer Cu Chulainn, as he starts to feel a little sluggish, but he speaks up anyways. "Well, keep in contact if you split up. Don't want you getting hurt." He might be flirting with her, slightly. Felt, meanwhile, speaks to Staren as he offers the suits. "I'm already starting to feel some side effects...but it might be prolonged exposure, not an infection. If that's the case, it wouldn't hurt to wear a suit." If Staren hands them over, the two will put them on as quickly as they can. "At the least, we know this is highly magical. There's a bounded field, a sort of barrier, keeping it centered around this area, but if it bursts, and it might...that could be bad." And then, the spikes. As Haguro moves to fire them, Lancer, once he has a suit if still offered, will move to try and smash into one with his spear and see if they break. If so, perhaps he and Haguro can help clear through them.
Archer EMIYA	Archer grunts, clearly annoyed. This was a bigger mess than he had initially thought. Of course the sickness isn't improving his mood, but there's not much he could do about that. "Alright. Everyone be quiet and listen to me for a minute. The cause of this mess is somewhere upstairs, so unless you want to waste time I suggest we avoid detours." There's a complete and utter lack of explanation as to why Archer knows this, but given the current situation he assumes nobody's gonna waste time asking him how and why. "now hand me one of those suits and..." Archer takes a suit without hesitation, not knowing if it'll help, but anything to potentially extend his operation time is welcomed. He also joins Haguro in removing the strange green-spiked obstacle, drawing a bow from thin air and loading it with a strange spiral-shaped arrow. Unlike Haguro though, he clearly doesn't care about any damage he does to the building, as the arrow he fires explodes rather violently on impact. "Caladbolg..."
Maya	Maya didn't expect to see Staren and it has bene a long time. "If you are offering the suits I'll take it." She's just not feeling good from being near this place she'll take the suit and puts it on, thankfully it set up does not need her to use the hairclip she's wearing though she's taken off her jacket and shinguards first, both of those vanishing. To Haguro she nods. "yes we are." Once they are stored away in her hairclip she'll follow the others into the hospital and keeps on the move looking quite concerned. She does not like this. <<If this is some Magus Experiment....>> Maya's veyr glad she got the suit for the moment given how things look. <<So clear the path or find another way up?>>
Staren	"Magus experiment?" They come to... blocked up stairways. "You know, we could just go up the side of the building. I can fly and I've got ropes." And he'll totally just break a window and bring them straight to their desired floor if preferred. If everyone wants to use the stairs, though, he'll try to cut up the green stuff with the matter manipulator.
Ryouma Sakamoto	The earthen obstacles aren't nearly hard enough to withstand explosives and a magical spear. They might've stopped a policeman or even a firefighter, but they buckle easily under the power brought to bear. Staren even acquires blocks of CONTAGION DIRT. It's dirt! It's contagious! Don't ask how! And then there's Archer. The stairs are definitely clear. Also, there are no more stairs. The hospital now has a large, dome-shaped chunk missing out of it, going several levels up and around the stairs. He PROBABLY didn't vaporize any patients (they don't tend to put rooms near staircaises) but he might have gotten several supply closets, janitorial closets and the likes. On the bright side, going up isn't going to be an issue now. It'll be a bit more complicated than going up stairs, but there's plenty enough rubble to just kind of... make your way up, one way or another. The third floor is kind of a mess. The air is thicker here, the sickness closer to its source. Earthen spikes are jutting out of the ground and walls everywhere - some have patients impaled (and dead), others are just blocking the doorways. There are patients in the walls - stiff as stone, parts of their body hardened, other parts rotting. And there's an old woman. Like the patients strewn about, parts of her body have been replaced by stone, but unlike them, she's moving despite the fact. And like them, she looks sickly, almost rotting away, yet this doesn't seem to slow her down. She's producing that green mist, and something is spreading from her neck. Purple, circuit-like lines, glowing, going down onto her chest and both of her shoulders. "NO... WITNESSES..." It's mage law. She raises her hand, and a volley of earthen spikes gush out of the walls and floors, trying to impale the party. Archer can feel the Counter Force nudge him again. That's his mark. That is an Enemy of Humanity and cannot be allowed to exist.
Haguro	"I-I'll be fine, don't worry." Haguro chuckles lightly and just a bit awkwardly in response to Cu, the potential flirting not going unnoticed. Or is she just imagining it? Best not to let herself get too distracted there. No, there's spikes to remove, and Archer seems to know what's going on more than he's revealing. The general consensus seems to be clearing the spikes, though, so she's not too worried until there's a noticeably larger explosion that is /definitely/ not one of her own. "Th... That may have been a bit much, sir. This /is/ a hospital." Her tone is equal parts scolding and anxious. On one hand, he does have information she doesn't have, but on the other hand... It's a hospital! She'll just make a mental note of it for now. Ignoring the hole where the stairs used to be, Haguro starts scaling the rubble with a combination of BIG JUMPS and CLAWING FRANTICALLY AT THE GROUND to finally reach the third floor where things seem to be getting even worse. Luckily, Staren's extra suit helps her to not pass out or vomit things she didn't know she had onto the floor, but it's quite tempting to do so as she comes face to face with a whole bunch of corpses and people embedded in the walls. "What kind of magic could do this?" The question is directed at nobody in particular as Haguro keeps her wrist turret ready, doing quick sweeps from side to side as she advances. Spotting actual movement from the old woman, Haguro draws her turret towards her before lowering it. "M... Ma'am? Are you alri-" And then there's spikes hurtling out from everywhere. Yelping as some of those spikes graze against her unarmored sections and some slam right into the armor, Haguro flings herself sideways while switching to less explosive and more ballistic ordinance. "Stand down, or we'll have to escalate past warning shots!" As she says that, she fires a few 'warning shots' directly at the old magus. She can take it, right?
Cu Chulainn	As Archer blows a hole in the stairs, Cu Chulainn tsks. "Do you really gotta blow the place up?" Regardless, he moves to grab Felt, and then leaps upwards, kicking off the rubble and landing on the third floor. Felt is dizzied and not entirely prepared for this, but quickly gets his bearings after the wild ride. And then...there's a woman. An old woman with purple circuit-like lines. Felt shouts to the others. "Shit...she's probably using Magic! Take her out, we'll try and salvage the body." He seems unsure about if that's possible, but his gloves start crackling with electricity as he opens a palm and strikes forward, a sphere of lightning moving to blast straight into the old woman and try and stun her and incapacitate her for as long as possible, even as the spikes almost batter into him, while Cu spins his spear around in his hand. "Sorry, granny, but you've gone too far. Gotta clean up. That's the way it works, right?" Cu speaks up, before moving to slam into Felt and push him out of the way of the spikes. They slide into Cu's arms and side, his speed allowing him to react fast enough to not get fully impaled, as he grunts out in pain. "Agh!" Blood trickles from his wounds, as the Lancer moves to use his strength to force his way out of the spikes and try and rush forward so he can gut the old woman with his spear. Hopefully she's not as durable as the last one.
Maya	Thanks to the others they get past the strange stone and earth, and Maya's pushing ahead to the third floor at this point she sees some people are impaled and dead, and she feels ill. She's seen stuff like this from her time with an association magus hunter. Men? Women? Children? None were spared the like of this. She looks at the old woman she's giving off the glow. Maya knows what they are going to have to do here. Felt takes Maya off the leash with the clearance to take her out. As the spikes come Maya moves and there's a bit of a change on the look on her face. "Your end comes now." She shifts forcing herself to leap clear of the attacks and she'll open fire, normally she'd use napalm but given some of the victims might yet be saved? She's not going to risk that, she does, however, fire a freaking focused laser beam from the underside of her rifle at the old woman of a Magus. Her aim's not the best though from that dodge she just pulled.
Staren	Staren just flies up then. He starts to mark the location of the bodies for pickup, but then sees their rotted state. The brains will be too deteriorated... And then there's someone who could not be more clearly connected to all this if she had a neon sign over her body. "No witnesses?! Lady, you are--AGH!" A spike hits his armor, fails to go through it, and flings him down the hall with a dent and a set of spiderweb cracks in his chestplate. Fortunately, there's more to the sealing than that! The wind is knocked out of him, but that's okay, his computer can synthesize his voice perfectly and put it out over his armor's speakers: "You're really bad at this! A whole hospital full of shamblers? A big visible cloud of green miasma? Not to mention any patients who had PHONES when you did this?" As the voice speaks, he pulls himself to his feet, and starts tossing out quadrotors -- one stays in the hall to watch the lady, but the others fly out to get footage of the hospital from various angles. "Smile for the cameras, idiot! And welcome to the twenty-first century!" Staren's support AI, meanwhile, forks itself and sends one copy to set up a livestream and another to check for any videos that might've been posted by patients of the event in progress. He's so busy taunting her he actually forgets to shoot, though. Seems he REALLY has a problem with people covering up the truth. The synthesized voice switches to an imitation of a newscaster's tone: "We're coming to you live from Tokyo Medical University Hospital, where some kind of glowy rock monster is destroying property and turning people into zombies. Miss glowy rock monster, do you have anything to say to the viewers at home?"
Archer EMIYA	Archer let's out a low whistle at the amount of damage he caused. Perhaps he should have held back more? Nah. If he had actually cared at all he'd have taken a different approach to begin with. Haguro's scoldings fall on deaf ears, as the Servant doesn't even give the boat girl a response. He just makes his way up their now unobstructed path, the only thing giving him a bit of trouble is the additional bulk of the environmental suit. "Pffft... Just lovely." Archer seems equally as unthrilled with the upstairs just as much as he was with the downstairs. Magecraft really was more trouble than it's worth. It's a good thing the art is all but dead where he's from. Sucks for the people here though. The old woman? No, abomination is probably a better word... Whatever it is, it shows up, and Archer knows. Knows it needs to be removed, and probably removed fast. There's no time for banter, as it takes every bit of concentration the spirit has to avoid most of the oncoming spikes. The exposed pieces of the suit Staren provided take the brunt of attack, to the point where it's probably no longer operational. That's ok though, he doesn't plan on staying much longer anyway. "Trace on..." The bow in Archer's hand disappears, now replaced with an overly ornate sword. The sword of a king. "Consider this an honor." Two hands firmly grip the sword's hilt as the blade glows a faint yellow hue. EXCALIBUR IMAGE! With a shout, Archer slams the holy sword down into the creature, filling the room with a flash of golden yellow.
Ryouma Sakamoto	The answer is yes and no. The truth is, magi aren't... typically superhuman. Nothing about the woman's movements indicate superhumanity, for that matter. One shot tears into her shoulder, proving the point. A few others lodge themselves into her stony parts. So not superhuman, but armored. Felt's lightning smashes into the old woman, but it doesn't manage to travel through her body - those hardened, rocky parts aren't conducting it at all. She's scorched, but not blasted as hoped. Lancer's spear, on the other hand, goes through like her body is made of gel. But just like last time, regeneration kicks in. The circuits coming down from her neck grow and spread further as earth replaces missing chunks of her body. Maya's laser blast takes a one of the woman's arms clean off. It regrows, made of stone, with those purple circuit lines spreading across all of it. She starts shaking, quaking. "SO MUCH... ETHER...!" Mist starts being produced faster. Faster. Staren finds, luckily, that this hasn't gone out yet. In fact, the Bounded Field has largely kept people outside from noticing the explosions. But, well... it's going to be a pain to explain the damage, after the fact. She does talk to him though. "I... YES... TELL THE ASSOCIATION... SOMEONE BEAT THEM TO MAGIC!" Magic, capital M. She's shouting, so it's less obvious. Does she mean herself? Does she mean her supplier? It's unclear. We may never find out, sadly. Archer flings a slash of golden, brilliant light through the hallway. Hopefully Lancer has time to move aside, but Akari does not. The old woman is engulfed in the holy beam, and vaporized on the spot. Along with her, huge parts of the hallway, and whatever power she was using. This time there's no arm left - or neck, in her case. No piece of the Magic Crest to retrieve and study. No corpse. The Bounded Field outside is shattered by Excalibur's blast, too. The green mist starts escaping, dissipating, as the golden light trails off into the sky and eventually disappears. Staren will pick up a LOT of radio activity on police channels as a very obvious result.
Staren	Staren finds himself drawn into an argument over something that's always been kind of a sore spot to him, especially since August's world. He just came here to investigate a hospital, not to shatter the masquerade of an entire world... but Morg dammit, HE'S RIGHT and he's not gonna back down just because some nebulous organization wants to keep people in the dark. That's what the scared young man who's afraid the Union will turn on him and eat him at the slightest provocation would do. But there is no more Union, and he doesn't have to act like there's one. And how would it look, if the newly-promoted Hand of the Concord took orders from some people who clearly don't understand the Multiverse? He's so busy arguing, desperately trying to stay on top and not look a fool to the Multiversal stage he's just put himself on without thinking, he doesn't have time to fight. Fortunately, since he doesn't actually have to use his voice, he's free to run around and dodge and such and not even seem out of breath to the viewers at home. Even more fortunately, someone else just kinda vaporizes the threat, and in so doing alerts everyone for miles around. Yeah, the locals are SO good at keeping this Masquerade. Memory magic seems to have made them sloppy. Staren keeps an eye on Felt and Lancer, though. They just might be dumb enough to try to shut him up the hard way.
Haguro	Haguro isn't quite sure what to make of the crazed senior's last words. She's heard the Association mentioned a few times already, but... Is there somes ort of hidden significance in what the old lady said? Maybe, but she's not about to find out from what used to be a person. Asking the Mages themselves would probably be more appropriate, but for now, there's some collateral damage and publicity issues to deal with. She's still mildly horrified at seeing an old lady getting wiped out, of course, but to be fair? Haguro did kind of contribute to it a little herself. She'll just have to try not to think too much about it for now. "G... Good work, everyone. Now let's..." She trails off, not quite sure what to do besides being a little preoccupied listening to the discussion over the radio. The least she can do is check on the other people in the hospital that havne't been impaled or turned into corpses just yet. She'll even try breaking some out of the walls if they're alive-looking enough!
Maya	Maya knows she has a lot of what her world would call Core Energy, or others might call PPE, Mana, and the like, she has no way to hide this and it looks like the magus here has noticed her. Well she cna use this to keep said attention on her. She keeps moving for a moment. It doesn't last long as Archer just freaking does not hold back and takes the Magus out with all the fury she'd expect from a weapon of the like he produced. She will take a moment to lower her weapon now for the moment and look about. "I am a healer...I'll see what I can do for any of the victems who yet live." She shoots Staren a look for a moment, now is not the time to contiune the dispuse there are people here who might yet be saved and she's going to get to work on that. Maya's here she knows this is a bad situation with Staren, yet aruguing would mean people on the lower floors may die while the argument contiunes. She will have to trust in others on that as this isn't her world and she'll get to healing as she heads to the lower floors.
Staren	Once the argument is over... Staren's heart is pounding. He's never been an orator. He has no idea how the hell he managed to keep control of that conversation and not look like a dumbass. Well, this Mages Association probably thinks he's a dumbass, but that's because they're closeminded. They probably didn't even see that the Multiverse was happening whether they liked it or not, thought they were in control of that too, he tells himself. But he feels like he just wrestled a snake for several minutes. Or flew the Star Hawk through a network of narrow canyons. He's not sure how, but SOMEHOW he made it through. His muse reminds him about the others. He starts searching for those in need of assistance, and those recently-dead. Those whose brains are in good enough condition may yet be saved.
Cu Chulainn	As the blast of light comes out, Cu Chulainn bursts away with his speed, barely avoiding it. He's coughing up blood from the injury...but looking at Archer in awe. But there's a bigger problem. Staren's set up the cameras. As they stream and Felt argues over the radio, the magus at one point considers having Lancer try and attack him. But...this situation is bigger, and he probably has allies, and it'd cause a huge clusterfuck and make things more of a mess. The Mages' Association will have to clean up where they can. For now, Lancer and Felt move to find any witnesses of the blast outside and get to work on what will probably be a long night. Staren's definitely going to be remembered by Felt, though.
Archer EMIYA	Not long for this world, the replica Excalibur shatters into glowing particles after use. Thankfully that's all Archer needed, as the old-woman now ceases to be in the world of the living. "Good riddance." The Counter Guardian lets out a heavy sigh, removing the damaged remains of Staren's suit and tossing them on the ground. "There shouldn't be anymore problems. So, unless you need something, I'm just gonna leave you to your pointless bickering, yeah?" Archer casually stuffs his hands into his coat pockets, primed to leave at a moment's notice.
Ryouma Sakamoto	The patients on the third floor have all succumbed to the malady. Analysis will reveal the plague was transmuting and producing earth in victims' bodies, but without prolonged exposure it can heal on its own as the body restores its elemental integrity. In other words - the woman's Element was Earth, and her Origin was Contagion. Her elemental affinity was being propagated like a plague, and what was no doubt another Magic Crest containing the First Magic was producing endless amounts of it. The people on the nearby floors will need some care and healing, which Maya can easily provide. The ones in the lobby and higher floors are going to be fine in a matter of hours for the most part. It's even possible for Haguro to find and rescue a few that seemed, at first glance, either dead or too far gone, but turn out to be salvageable, given enough healing or surgery. The only problem is that the authorities are on their way in pretty large numbers, so that'll need addressed in one fashion or another.