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Solomon Lau It's time to visit Genomic Solutions, the research facility that is the New Simian Army's target. Located on a modern campus on the more nature-y side of the Clear Water Bay Peninsula in Hong Kong's New Territories, not too far from the hong Koing University of Science and Technology, initial prep grants some information. The facility researches cures to neurological conditions using special proprietary compounds, using apes as their chief test subject. They claim possible advances in the treatment of cerebral palsy, epilepsy, Parkinson's, and for the rehabilitation of stroke victims. The project's chief researcher is one Dr. Phyllis Koo.

The facility is several large modern white buildings, with quite a big parking lot, full of various cars and a few trucks. Nobody suspicious is present outside, currently.

Johnny Zhu, who's dressed in his nice detective suit and armed with a revolver, is present with you, as is Solomon Lau. Zhu says he can get you inside, but he's not sure for how long - Koo is probably extremely busy. He does not suspect her of working with the Simians, at minimum, but she may be in danger.

What is your plan of attack?
Lilian Rook     As promised, Lilian has kept coming to these. This time, she at least wore the stripped down battlesuit without the ceramics under her day clothes, because it turns out that getting shot really really hurts. Who knew? She also looks, for once, like she didn't quite get enough sleep or something. It's such a mundane change of cast --such subtle human alterations to posture and alertness-- that it actually kind of stands out more.

    As long as the brief planning session lasts, she indicates she doesn't have the faintest concern about getting inside, and plans to track down his exact whereabouts by engaging with the staff legitimately, confident she can swing that instead of needing heat-seeking drones or something. Without any idea of where the enemy might show up, her first concern is moving him to somewhere actually defensible first, instead of hovering around a bunch of windows and courtyards waiting for crazies to come shoot up interns again.
Tina Natsumi With their next destination decided on, Tina is looking surprisingly subtle today compared to her usual cowgirl attire. It had taken a bit of shopping around, but she arrives at Genomic Solutions in a stark white lab coat with a black vest on underneath to make her look slimmer and mask the pistols hidden in her coat. She's even brought goggles with her!

"Alright, pardners. Let's get in there and check out this doc. Maybe find out how much she knows, get her somewhere safe before all the monkey business starts." Nodding towards Johnny and Solomon, she waits for them to work their magic before heading inside and pretending to be a lost intern assigned to the good doctor.

It's not like she really knows anything about all this research and whatnot. She's banking on the clueless route rather than trying to fake knowledge she doesn't have.
Maya So it's all come down to this, time to check out Genomic Solutions. The research that Genomic Solutions seems to be into? Is quite worthy to her as a healer. Maya would have pitched to Solomon and Johnny that he being a healer could get her foot in the door, given her healing abilities could be of aid to the research going on here. So if the group goes with her suggestion or at least lets Maya operate on that? That could at least get her close enough to protect Dr. Koo. At least that was her idea? Lilian changes her mind to focus on being fully on the level and she will join the team in securing the Doctor and keeping them safe from any possible attack from the SLA or anyone else.

So Maya is heading inside to find Dr. Koo and make sure they remain safe. If it turns out to be a false alarm somehow she'll talk to them about legit medical work or at least set up the means to do so. The work the doctor was into? Did have her intrest but that's a side thing in the end. For now? Maya's keeping an eye out for trouble, or anything that seems to be off. As she's learned trouble could come from just about any angle here.
Lory Thumper      Lory greets Zhu and Lau as she arrives, then watches those that head inside before looking for a good place to hole up. A nice big shrub or a maybe a bus stop or something. She has brought a makeshift detective outfit of her own, trying to hide her appearance from distant eyes. A rough-looking fedora and a long trench coat, both dark blue in color. It still sticks out a bit but at least it hides her bunny appearance and her equipment for the most part.

     Once she finds a good spot, she sends out a surveilance drone to help her keep track of the area. "Alright, I'll watch the perimeter while you guys head inside." she says to the others. "If there's trouble I'll be right there."
Staren     Genomic Solutions isn't evil, as far as Staren knows. Whether they're secretly uplifting apes to experiment on is pretty up in the air -- the existence of simians like a century in the future doesn't mean anything about today, but as weird things go in the Multiverse, someone pulling off mutant animals at this tech level is certainly /plausible/. So, going in in his street clothes and asking for a meeting based on his name and being That Guy Who Goes Around Reviving The Dead seems appropriate, BUT he also has to be ready to get out the big guns. Well, big guns aren't so much a problem as big armor.

    Eventually, he settles for piloting a security golem to the lot -- with the guns covered, it's clearly exotic but not clearly a weapon -- and having a couple squads of human-size constructs hiding nearby to provide backup. Staren personally is wearing a forcefield emitter array on a harness under his coat. Together, these are pretty much the same comprimise he used to affect being a mad scientist under Dark Lady Tomoe, except this time he's not mussing up his hair first or using long gloves or reflective goggles or a howie-style labcoat. His regular labcoat is closed for once, though.

    In the planning session, Staren lets the others know about his preparations, provides AR glasses with tacnet access and the ability to call in missile strikes.

    Once it's go time though, Staren just walks right up to the building. He's e-mailled and called ahead, too, but whether or not he successfully scheduled a meeting, he's here in person now.
Solomon Lau As several head inside, the smell hits their nose immediately. It's like a zoo. Which is fitting, because as they enter the reception area, they can see them through the glass. Apes. They're in a zoo-like habitat to the sides of the reception area, while walls bridged by animal noises. Unlike more rowdy places, they're perfectly tranquil, engaging in play and with little puzzle boxes that likely have rewards inside.

Lilian approaches to enter, and a lady at the front desk (as well as a few security guards) stand in the way. The reception lady tells anyone asking for Dr. Phyllis Koo that she's 'very busy', but a Paladins badge, Detective Zhu's badge if people ask, or similar get them inside, reluctantly, especially for the Paladins badge - the Paladins aren't official around here, yet, but they're heard of. Zhu's been here before, so the receptionist does recognize him, and seems confused why he'd return.

Tina gets a hard time. The receptionist stops her as the rest head inside, asking her for her name and personnel number so she can check the roster. They take espionage /very/ seriously, so she'll be delayed and have to figure that out.

Staren called ahead! He is told there'll be a small delay while Dr. Koo finishes up a 'spot emergency', but then he'll be allowed right in. If he shows any signs he's with the others, the receptionist squints, but then lets him pass as well. He can get a good eye on the apes - they don't look like they're mutant apes, at least, but again, they seem pretty calm and tranquil.

Dr. Phyllis Koo's office is on the third floor, visible from the reception area via walkways. Taking the stairs or the elevator with a security guard, they're led straight to the good doctor.

With black hair so shiny it could be out of a shampoo commercial, broad-rimmed glasses, and a labcoat, Dr. Phyllis Koo is working on her computer when they enter. She frowns briefly at the interruption, until she recognizes Johnny Zhu. "Detective Zhu. I didn't expect you to come again. I'm a very busy woman - why are you here?" Johnny only says that it's 'very important business', and then uses a hand to wave towards the Paladins, especially Lilian, who'd likely want to take point.

Those surveying see nothing at the moment. It's all quiet and clear.
Staren     "Dr. Koo! Good to meet you." Staren extends a hand to shake, and smiles. "The Multiverse offers so much that could aid your research. Brain scanners from the 22nd century. Already-discovered genetic markers for degenerative neurological conditions. The Daedalus Initiative will happily share everything that's been shared with us. But the more pressing reason we're here is that you're being targeted for attack by cybernetic ape-people from the future."

    If she DOESN'T take that seriously, he'll show video of the one they encountered last time, with the tone of one showing their grandparents that yes, people can watch videos on their phones now.

    "We'd like to get you to a safe location and increase security here until we've determined the extent of the threat. I'm sure we can work out a solution suitable to your needs, from remoting into your computer system and security robots, to hiring more... local security guards and teleoperating a robot made to look exactly like you."
Tina Natsumi Dammit, thinking too much! Tina wasn't expecting that pretending to be dumb would actually make things harder than just being upfront with things, and she quickly backpedals on that. Gesturing at the other Paladins that got in by just flashing their badges, she brings out her own badge and offers it along with an apology for the deception.

Really, she wasn't expecting it to be /that/ easy.

If she isn't escorted out by security by that point, she'll stick around to ask some questions instead of joining the others inside. Namely, she'll ask if anyone else has tried harebrained schemes to get inside, if there's any other companies or groups in particular that would be likely culprits of said schemes, and if the gorillas had exhibited any noticeably weird behavior in recent days.

What better people to ask than the ones stuck hanging out with them at the reception desk all day?
Maya Maya looks like the place is almost like a zoo, she can see the apes in habitats and they seem to be chilling out and all right. It's clear the people here have given them things to do and keep themselves entertained. She'll follow alongside Lilian and Johnny as they enter and make for the desc. It takes a bit to get to Dr. Koo's office but that's not unexpected to Maya. They did come crashing in on them. Maya takes not of just how shiny the doctor's hair is and sem to approve.

Maya thinks for a moment her own political experience tended to end with everything catching fire.

As she arrives in the office? Maya takes a quick look around for anything odd or out of place, at least that looks that way to her. Someone could have snuck something.

Then Staren gets in on the action and Maya speaks up.

"Hello Doctor, I am Maya of the Paladins and I can back up his claims. About the threat you and your staff could be facing at the moment having encountered it myself as well. We wish to keep you and your staff safe."
Lory Thumper      It's quiet outside. Too quiet. At least, that's what a cop with a suspicious mind thinks.

     Lory pilots her little drone around to the back of the hospital just to be safe, keeping one eye on the front at the same time. She gives it a few more minutes before she makes her way toward the entrance as well. She keeps the drone outside as she makes her way inside, and shows her Paladin badge before ditching her disquise. It probably wouldn't do any good in here anyway. She stays near the entrance for now as she keeps her drone circling the area. "Looks clear...maybe we beat them to a location for once?" she says softly into her comm.
Lilian Rook     "Eugh, really? Isn't this supposed to be a lab?" says Lilian, pinching the bridge of her nose as she walks past the apes. She doesn't give them any sort of glower or anything. They're minding their own business. It's the front desk staff that get the 'why haven't you fixed this issue yet?' look.

    She is actually fairly reluctant to lean back on the Paladins badge for this. It feels . . . cop-like. "I'd expected you'd all do your own . . . thing like usual." she admits. "Being followed in is . . . ugh never mind." The entourage actually makes her plans more difficult. Especially since she can't play Staren off as a subordinate or random nobody.

    "Christ you really have *no idea* how to softball it in, do you?" she then exasperates to him when he throws out the whole 'ape people from the future' angle right at the start. "Unfortunately, there is actually a credible threat posed to you and your researching, and by extension everyone in this building, by a known radical terrorist organization. Regardless of what you'd like to think, we have actionable intelligence that you number amongst one of their priority targets. The ones that shot up Sacred Heart, if you've watched the news recently."

    "I'm sure your work *is* very important, but it presents and unacceptable risk to every other employee and project in the facilities to keep it here. Please designate everything that is *project critical* at the moment for transport."

    After a few moments, the professional clip subsides somewhat, and slips into a more 'familiar' tone, as Lilian's eyes wander over to her computer screen. "Knowing what it *is* that you're working on would go a long ways towards understanding what they hope to achieve, and better plan countermeasures."
Solomon Lau Staren is eager and energetic. What he finds in Dr. Koo is a bit of a humorless woman, who /does/ shake his hand, but treats him with skepticism. Especially when he talks about cybernetic apes from the future. "Excuse me?" She says, pausing. "I'm sorry, but I can't just believe 'cybernetic apes'." She looks at the footage, though. While Ape Mask isn't quite an ape, she's clearly cybernetic, and that causes Dr. Koo to pause and take them a bit more seriously. Their badges help, too.

She doesn't respond to Staren about his research opportunities just yet. Lilian takes command, and also doesn't keep hammering on about ape people. Lilian does get a small apology from Solomon (who decides to wait outside with the security guard) under his breath about the entourage thing, while Zhu just smirks a little.

Lilian's demands get /some/ indignation from Dr. Koo. "Excuse me? I can't just wrap everything up here that quickly. This is proprietary research, it's-" But then, she calms down, thinking it through rationally. "The Sacred Heart attack, you say. That 'SLA' group is after us? Very well. I'm not going to risk everything we've worked for, not when we're this close to a breakthrough."

She begins writing down a list of things to designate - the apes themselves, a bunch of research files, and something in the freezer facility - the compound itself. She then begins explaining. "The compound that we're working on here derives insights from scientific research into our genes that build and repair brain tissue. So far, they've proven safe, and they promise for a wide variety of neurological maladies." A pause, as she waves out the window towards the ape enclosure.

"The apes receiving these treatments have shown calmer tendencies, and respond with greater interest to puzzles and environmental challenges. Why, you could even imagine they're getting a little smarter."

A few vehicles pull up as Lory spies out. A couple vans of various colors, and a large delivery truck. They go to different locations around the parking lot.
Solomon Lau The receptionist squints at Tina's badge, but it's legit like the others, so she just sighs and admonishes Tina. Regarding the information...there hadn't been anything weird since that guy from FuturePath (who Tina would know as the Austrian) came to buy the company and got rejected, and the gorillas are hard to tell - they don't act quite like normal gorillas in the first place. The receptionist thinks they're much smarter and more refined than those she's seen at the zoo! They've been sort of huddling together at times, but that's it.
Staren     Staren looks slightly surprised at the description of the drug's effects. "So over time, this might actually lead to intelligent apes. Huh. Are you expecting any deliveries today?" Staren makes his way over to a window and opens it just enough to toss a handful of spy drones out, then closes any curtains/blinds. Then he motions for Dr. Koo to not stand near the window and adjusts his coat, which reforms so that the harness and forcefield emitter are on the outside. "If that's NOT a scheduled delivery outside, I guess we'll have to defend the lab first and move things after."
Maya It is quickly found out that Koo is a humourless sort and it's not the biggest shock in the world. Lilian's taken the lead. Maya's not idle she's thinking about what Dr. Koo is working on. The medical tech seems to be promising it could do a lot of good, for a lot of people. This might be the sort of thing that could get a market in the multiverse as a whole. Then she catches something about the regeneration. She takes a look at the apes who are just chilling out. Then there's talk about them getting smarter? Maya knows Terran apes are /very/ smart and something clicks.

She sens a short radio message to the team as a whole. She does not say what she's thinking in front of the doctor at the talk about a delivery. She tenses getting ready to move, from the sounds of it things may be about to hit the fan.
Tina Natsumi Tina shrinks back a smidge at the admonishment while wearing that light-hearted grin of hers. She might have botched that initial impression up, but at least it's memorable even if it's not particularly good!

Knowing that someone had come to buy the company does put a few things in perspective. Crossing her arms, she listens to the receptionist closely to try and sort out what else she can based on that info.

The huddling behavior is somewhat suspicious, but there's not enough to go on with that. After relaying that and FuturePath's name to her allies, she turns her attention to the entrance when Lory calls out the vans outside. She nearly jumps out of her skin when her phone starts ringing, and she holds it up to her ear while moving to the selfie camera by memory.

"... Heads down, take cover, stick behind me if you gotta. We got company." She warns the receptionist and the security guards before taking a shot of herself to summon Uncle Sam in front of the reception desk. Instead of making a big show of it, though, the Persona just lays down by the entrance, providing a nice chunky blockage right at the door and some extra waist-high cover to duck behind.

<<"Folks? We got company.">> She repeats for allies over the radio, drawing a pair of handguns and biding her time while ducking behind the garishly-colored robot Persona.
Lilian Rook     "Oh good. You're not *that* type." Lilian replies to Koo. "It's always a gamble with scientists whether they'll be nerdy prima donnas and insist on having it their way. I'm glad to see that you're a rational woman who is conscious of the fact that she dislikes being shot." she continues, surprisingly without sarcasm. She even lets off a relieved little puff at the end of it. This is easier than-

    "They have a bomb."

    Without thinking about it, Lilian has already said it out loud. She stops even herself there, chewing her thumbnail for a second, a dozen layers deep in thought that she plunges into and up from in the blink of an eye, and then decides to continue. "Huge. Tin beachball. You won't miss it."

    In a similar quick, brisk, automatic tone, but without quite the trancelike lack of subject, she says, while snatching up a random USB key, "Bring up the files right now then get down the stairs. Away from the windows." She hits her comms next. "Whoever feels like defending the sample monkeys --apes-- get down to the first floor right now. The freezer is the most fortified target and they won't get at it that easily. I'll handle it if it comes down to it. Suffice to say that they don't just plan to smash and grab this time."

    Once Koo has the directory open and no password concerns, Lilian stays behind just long enough to plug in an external drive, and then sit with the computer for only a matter of seconds. The hum of the fan rises to a quiet, jet turbine whine, the crackle of the disk to a sizzling thrum, and it becomes alarmingly hot to the touch, but she'll have the whole project downloaded before anyone is even fully down the stairs.
Lory Thumper      No one emerges from the vans, which in itself is a bit suspicious to Lory. She keeps her eye in the sky on the vans and truck and starts for the door. But, Uncle Sam blocks the way and the bunny gives Tina a questioning look. "...who was that?" she asks, noticing the phone call. Whoever it was, apparently they gave some kind of warning. Lory takes up a spot at a window, her ears folded back to try and minimize her profile and avoid being seen by whoever is outside. She pulls her two pistols as well, then...

     Lilian says they have a bomb. Lory frowns before she quickly slips past Uncle Sam and heads outside again. A bunny in a police outfit would usually stand out, but Lory is an expert at minimizing her profile and moving out of the line of sight. She stays low, keeping cars between herself and the vans and truck. She uses her sharp ears to try and hear if anyone gets out of the vans as she heads toward the closest one. When she gets close she rolls her way under a nearby vehicle then waits, ready to ambush if they really are from the New Simians, or to get started on the bomb if there are signs of it.
Solomon Lau "Deliveries? Why do you ask?" Koo's response sounds like a 'no', as she follows Staren's instructions. Downstairs, the receptionist freaks out as Tina says there's a problem, and doubly at the giant robot, but the robot doesn't attack anyone, so the security don't shoot it - they're smart enough to respect the person with the badge and start moving to reinforce.

And then Lilian lets out that they have a bomb. Koo's eyes widen, and she immediately moves to bring up the files before exiting away from the window and moving to escape, allowing Lilian to back them up.

Lory isn't noticed, but as they finish parking, she notices them. They burst out of the vans - over a dozen men and women with revolvers and clothing that seems like it's straight out of a Mad Max movie for how dirty and mismatched it is, along with three leaders - The Austrian, who doesn't seem to be happy to be here, dressed in a business suit and a bullet proof vest and carrying an SMG; Green-Eye, a woman with nightvision goggles /welded/ to her skull carrying an SMG, and the man who must be the leader of the entire operation.

Thrill Kill Mandrill. He bursts forward, covered by the ruin runners, and as he sees Tina's robot blocking the front door, he pulls out a grenade and just primes it and chucks it, as the ruin runners start shooting through any security in the way. Thrill Kill Mandrill is exactly what his name sounds like - an upright talking mandrill carrying a whole lot of guns, especially a futuristic rifle, dressed in a military uniform, complete with cap. As he moves to push through Tina's robot and get inside, with the Austrian at his side, he starts shouting. "Alright, you hairless apes! Be quiet and your deaths will be nice and peaceful-like. Otherwise, I'll blow you away! Thrill Kill Mandrill is in charge here! You absolutely useless, naked sacks of skin, should just lie down and accept your fates like the mewling little rats you are!"

Green-Eye and her goons move to roll a tin beach ball out of the large truck and take it to the supports of the building, moving to set it up. They guard it furiously, as they start a timer. Fifteen minutes, according to a very small LED screen.

Solomon moves to start getting people out of the way instead of fight, while Johnny Zhu draws his gun. "That must be their boss. We take him out and get that bomb, the operation's over." He moves to slide down a stair railing and get straight to the fight!
Staren     Staren hands Koo a potion. "This will protect you, but not make you invincible." Then he does two things:

    1: As soon as there's a visual on the bomb, he calls down missile strikes on all groups/vans besides the bomb one.

    2: He jumps out the window and takes flight, trying to get to his walker before the enemy can get situated. That works... less-well. Massed fire rips into his forcefield, drills through it, and hits him directly, making him lose concentration on his fight and fall to the ground, crying out in pain. They didn't pierce his labcoat, but bullet impacts still hurt!
Tina Natsumi As expected. Without anywhere else to come in, the invaders make their way towards the entrance and unload right at the get go. Tina's already prepared for that opening salvo when Thrill Kill Mandrill makes his explosive introduction, falling back while Uncle Sam bears the brunt of the explosion with the power of being BIG AND CHUNKY. The explosion leaves the front of the robot staggering back and Tina doubling over for a few moments with some similar scorches covering her front.

"Tch... Hey! Drill Bill! That's way too long for an intro! We ain't got all day!" She shouts at him, clearly trying to rile the mandrill up even more while she tucks her phone into an outer pocket to get some streaming footage going. "Like.. Maybe half of that!" She takes a potshot at him from behind the robot, then ducks her head down while turning to the security and the receptionist.

Tina points upwards, then makes little wiggling motions with her fingers. She may be trying to signal for them to go upstairs. Afterwards, she takes a few more potshots at Thrill Kill Mandrill, then lets Uncle Sam takeover with his own volley of bullets from an ALL AMERICAN TOMMY GUN.

A few of those bullets are also aimed at/near the Austrian, but that's more of a suppressing fire thing compared to the Mandrill. She's not foolish enough to leave him alone and get eyebrows raised his way, after all.
Lilian Rook     The files out of the way, Lilian leaves behind the lab computer on the verge of overheating, takes one glance out the window to confirm that feeling, and then exits the building.

    She doesn't meet anyone on the stairs of course. The stairs are for plebes.

    Lilian blinks in before the gun-laden primate, apparently agreeing with Johnny, given that it could hardly be more obvious. Fifteen minutes on the bomb is plenty of time for now, so long as nobody hits it or tries and fails to disarm it. "Hey." she calls out, walking through the lobby towards the sentient mandrill, cracking her knuckles through the textured black gloves. "You're not human, right? You think of us humans as completely different beings than you, right? So does that mean it's not unethical if I kill you?"

                -----[stop]-----
    Lilian rushes through the rifle's kill corridor and into its inside range, stomping a hair short of Thrill Kill Mandrill to arrest and swing her momentum forward, and hit him with a single, magically overcharged punch to dead center that causes the air, frozen in that moment, to become like a bowl of blown glass. Stepping forward a second time, she hits him with a left arm palm thrust to compound on his momentum, and then a third right jab, pushing him along until several heavy blows are stacked up, with the intent of flinging him right back out the building, instead of having a second lobby shootout. With a second to spare, she herself rushes out into the parking lot to await him.
                -----[start]-----

    A number of potholes are torn out of the floor right in front of him, as if a series of anti-materiel shells had dropped through the roof and punctured the ground, and then a wave of force batters blasts forward into Mandrill, smashing the front windows and tearing the door out. Lilian is already in the parking lot, somehow.
Lory Thumper      She may not have been spotted when they exited the vehicle, but as soon as she emerges Lory finds herself under fire. She pulls her riot shield off her back quickly and takes off in a sprint. Most of the bullets hit the shield, but one catches her in the lower leg. The kevlar there gets shredded a bit and she yelps as she goes down. She rolls quickly and is back on her feet in an instant, but is favoring that leg a bit now.

     Lory leaps behind another car and pulls a number of yellow discs from her belt. She throws these at Green-Eye and her goons, and they explode to release a quick drying and tough foam that threatens to lock them in place or at least slow them down some. Then she pulls her twin pistols. Using the car for cover she takes careful aim and tries to snipe the guards. Several well-aimed gauss rounds rip through the air, carefully placed to hit the terrorists without hitting the bomb if they do happen to miss their marks.
Maya Maya brings up her thought about there being a connection to the Apes. There's no time to worry about that, as the delivery van is not something the Doctor was expecting. With Lory's discovery, she knows it's go time. She's not sure about the nature of the bomb, they need to stop this. She'll look to Lilian and then to the doctor. Who gets her file and is moving to get out. She looks to Lilian getting ready.

She will make ready pulling 0out a deck of cards from a pocket. She readies them knowing things are hitting the fan now.

Then comes Thrill Kill Mandril and she sees Solomon getting people clear and she'll intend to get cover she will depart the officer only to end up under fire from the apes.

She gets hit, it's not exactly fun she's already bleeding, but she's got a chance to counter-attack and she lets rip with the magic.

Today the name of the game is lightning she casts rapidly letting a bolt of electrical-based magic into the attacking Ape forces.

"You get points... for the creative insults but really? Do you really want to keep doing this? Fine."
Solomon Lau Koo nervously drinks the potion Staren hands her, as he flies out the window, gets shot, and also has a missile strike come down. The missile strike is the most efficient part - it takes out several of the goons, takes out the vehicles, and batters the Austrian. But Thrill Kill Mandrill is only lightly damaged - it seems he's wearing some sort of electronic attentuation barrier that reduces the damage from the explosions, allowing him to survive.

Tina fires both the tommy gun and her pistol at Thrill Kill Mandrill, as well as some shots at the Austrian. The Austrian is hit, battered and bloodied, as is Thrill Kill, but that barrier continues to defend him. His goons fire back on her, as the receptionist is escorted out by a security guard who returns fire, while another security guard is gunned down attempting to aid Tina. They go for head shots.

They /know/ to go for head shots, now.

Lilian speaks up to Thrill Kill Mandrill, threatening him. "Listen here, you ugly runt. My /grandmother/ is prettier than you are, and she's-"

Thrill Kill Mandrill's shield, while protecting him from the outright damage, isn't enough to protect him from being sent blasted through the door, shattering behind him, the mandrill screaming in pain. He ends up in the parking lot, rifle dropped, as he rises and grabs a submachine gun from his collection of guns, focusing it on Lilian.

Johnny Zhu comes out to help, firing another shot at Mandrill, but the barrier blocks it, making it nothing more than a glancing hit. "That's a scroungetech forcefield. If we can disable it..."

Lory throws foam-expanding discs. Green Eye rolls out of the way, only getting barely caught in it, while a few goons are stuck tight. The gauss pistol blasts take out a few as well, while Green Eye is impacted, and responds with a burst of submachine gun fire. "The boss promoted me! The SLA is dead - long live the New Simian Army! Ehehehe!"

Maya electrocutes a whole bunch of goons, killing them instantly. One rises back up, electrical wires pulsing in his skin and his eyes blank, as he rushes at her with clawing nails and heavy punches.

Another rises back up, moving to rush at Staren outside, and start slamming into him as well. It surges powerful electricity, the electro-zombie an actual threat despite fighting bare-handed.

And as these zombies rise, the shield weakens, a little, but not fully. Thrill Kill Mandrill's charge might be connected to these zombies?
Tina Natsumi Spotting Lilian, Tina's expression brightens as she pulls a loudspeaker out of Uncle Sam's back. "Atta gal, Lilian! Show that overgrown mo..." A brief pause to think that over, and then she continues. "... Furball just who he's messin' with!" As that happens, Uncle Sam boosts the sound of her yelling even further, providing Lilian with an extra boost to her combat capabilities!

Tina's got guns, anyway. It's not like she can shoot a bullet harder. She can just shoot more of them!

Unfortunately for her, so can Thrill Kill, the Austrian, and their men. She grimaces as those bullets take out one of the guards coming to help her, biting back that lump in her throat.

Best to end this sooner rather than later. Advancing with Uncle Sam, Tina and her Persona don't even attempt to evade those incoming shots as they charge out as a single unit. The bullets keep battering the surface of Uncle Sam and a few even manage to graze against Tina's existing wounds, and she has to slow down a bit to use the Persona to stay on her feet.

"Sure are a lot of you boys here... But how long can ya fight with holes in your legs?!" She returns fire with both of Uncle Sam's hands carrying guns now, though, a shotgun in one and the same tommygun in the other spraying bullets at those goons and at the Mandrill to not only keep his attention divided, but to try and draw more fire her way. Tina herself, meanwhile, takes a few shots at the Austrian to keep up appearances, but her shots are nowhere near as numerous as her Persona's.
Lory Thumper      Bullets hit all around the car and Lory, but none of them seem to hit their mark thanks to the cover. Lory moves along the car to the back tire, keeping herself as covered as possible. "Promoted to head meat shield? That -is- an honor." she calls back to Green-Eye. "If I were you, I'd surrender. Keep yourself alive and those of your men." she says before leaping from cover and closing the distance quickly. "But, whether you do that or not that bomb won't be going off, and you'll be heading to prison!"

     Lory tries to knock that SMG from Green-Eye's hands with a kick to each hand, then she delivers several more quicks in quick succession. "These New Simian guys don't even care about you! Did you hear what that big monkey said? They're just using you to carry out their dirty work! They are going to get all of you killed!"

     She hops back in surprise when Mandrill comes flying through the door, then blinks before looking at Green-Eye again. "Besides, it doesn't even look like you are going to win here."
Maya Maya is now in the middle of a firefight, wait where's the doctor? Son of a. there's no time to worry about it, she's got the SLA to deal with and some of the goons are not done. Nope one of them somehow has taken it the spell and kept going. Now locked in close combat with the NSA. She's caught up close punched over and over again and clawed up pretty bad and she's not looking good at all here. She cries out as one of the punches catch her in the gut and she's forced back, she's trying to look up now and figure out what to do. She's left Runner behind so no dice there, she's going to just have to improvise now with her attacks.

She manages to get another card ready and cast another spell causing a chunk of the ground to tear-free. Her intent is to smash the NSA fighter before they can finish hammering Maya into the pavement.
Staren     As Staren struggles to his feet, one of the golems waiting runs in front of him. The cyborg's fists crack and crumble the golem, not quite oneshotting it but leaving it frail and barely intact. It's still ten feet tall and made of stone though, and spins around, swinging its metal kanobo at the cyborg while Staren climbs into his machine!
Lilian Rook     "Yeah? So *how* do we disable it?!" Lilian calls back to the detective. "Until you tell me, I'm just going to keep hitting him until that happens, or he boils alive, whichever comes first!"

    The submachine gun is aimed her way. After last time, she's neither particularly keen on getting shot again, nor unready for it. The second Mandrill has the sights leveled out and his finger on the trigger, Lilian moves, suddenly blurring sideways and leaving only a puff of ground tarmac behind. She leaps to one end of the lot, lengthwise with Mandrill, so that she is behind multiple cars. She's familiar with the fact that modern cars don't stop modern bullets very well, so she weaves in and out of them as well, forcing him to snap aim at split second windows and spray blind into auto bodies that crunch and spark and bounce rounds through them wildly.

    Once the magazine runs dry, she vaults up to the hood of one and snaps her fingers out in Mandrill's direction, causing a glowing red ember to zip from her hand, corkscrew into his gun hand, and detonate into an eruption of corrosive dark flame. Though it probably hits the forcefield too, it's detonating inches from his fingers, and the heat and blast wave is aimed pretty squarely at his gun.
Solomon Lau As Tina fires minor shots at the Austrian, he shares a sympathetic nod with her, clear he doesn't Actually Want To Be Doing This. He hasn't shot any security guards, just Tina, knowing she's tough enough to handle it. Two more of the goons are gunned down, and because of the sheer power, they're slain. They then start to rise back up, becoming more electro-zombies, and charge at Tina and Uncle Sam separately, a two-prong attack to beat through them.

The electro-zombie Maya is fighting is slammed by ground chunks. But despite suddenly losing a chunk of shoulder, the zombie keeps going, clawing into her and trying to tear her in half.

Staren's golem fights another electro-zombie, smashing into it with a kanobo. It certainly hurts it, smashing it backwards, but it moves to do a kill-strike on the golem, trying to smash whatever is powering it and destroy it.

"You talk too much, copper." Green-Eye responds to Lory with a laugh, before a kick knocks the SMG out of her hand, and another few comes into her stomach. She's knocked back, forced to grab a pistol and fire back at Lory. And then, Green-Eye, in a maddened state, gets an idea.

She bursts over to the bomb, her remaining goons getting in Lory's way and charging her, as Green-Eye moves to tap at the LED. Fifteen minutes turns into five.

The bomb is going to detonate if they're not fast enough. Green-Eye laughs as she does it.

Johnny responds to Lilian with a shout. "I'm not a scientist, how the hell would I know?!"

Lilian dodges out of the way, weaving between cars, as Mandrill eventually runs out of bullets. She responds with a burst of fire, as he screams as he sees it. "SORCERER!" And then, the fire slags his gun, sets his fur slightly ablaze, and injures him. The barrier breaks at this point, from a mixture of force and all the electro-zombies taking up power, and the blastback causes him to scream inarticulately. He draws his final gun - a futuristic pistol - and points it, taking a shot at Lilian. And then another point.

Straight at Johnny, who if the Mandrill wasn't too frustrated to do anything but scream, would probably get a monologue about how he's been a thorn in their side for too long.

Bang, bang. Two shots straight to the chest, and then an angle for a third to the head, if someone doesn't move to stop it. Johnny, for his part, takes at least one of those bullets to the chest, coughing up blood. He starts to collapse, muttering to no one in particular. "Shit...guess I'll see you guys soon."
Staren     The golem is powered by magic, and so has no visible power source or distinguishable weak points. Freaking magic bullshit.

    However, pounding its torso until it breaks in two seems to do the job -- the remaining pieces fall to the ground, immobile.

    And then Staren opens up with dual machineguns from his walker, first at the zombie, then aiming to interrupt Mandrill's attack on Johnny with a hail of high-caliber lead.
Tina Natsumi It's okay. They're bad people. They're trying to kill the researchers, the guards, and the Elites here just to get at whatever information the place has. Tina just has to keep reminding herself of that even as she accidentally ends up shooting two of the attackers dead.

Besides, they're getting back up. They're fine. It's just... Wait,w what? She doesn't quite know how to react to that at first as the electro-zombies rush right at her and Uncle Sam. It's not until the Austrian's bullets put a few more dents in Uncle Sam's armor with loud pings that she finally snaps out of it, and the zombies are already on her and the Persona at that point.

"What in tarnation...? We got some one-piece Frankensteins out here!" Shouting to nobody in particular and more than likely to just distract herself from all the death going on, Tina drops back as one zombie grabs onto her and the other digs into the Persona. She takes a nasty bump from the landing, then shoves the barrel of her gun in his face and starts unloading rapidly while ignoring the welt in the back of her head and the fuzziness in her vision. Uncle Sam, meanwhile, wrestles with the electro-zombie on him, eventually dispensing with the formalities in favor of opening up his chest to reveal a big glowing star.

Said glowing star then blasts forward with a big beam of AMERICAN JUST-it's a laser cannon. It's a particularly potent laser cannon, too, designed to absolutely obliterate whatever's in front of it! ^To make matters worse for anyone in front of Uncle Sam that laser keeps going as Uncle Sam starts sweeping it towards the Mandrill to try buying Johnny some time for help to arrive.
Lory Thumper      Lory's eyes widen as Green-Eye goes for the bomb. "Hey! Get back here!" she exclaims, giving chase. She bounces back and forth to avoid those bullets and weaves her way through the goons, but not quickly enough. The number changes, and Lory frowns. She accelerates quickly and goes into a flying kick, aiming one of those bunny feet right at Green-Eye's head. She is about to follow up when her ears perk.

     "Zhu!" she exclaims. Using her contact with Green-Eye she leaps into the air and pulls both her guns. What must be a dozen of those near light speed rounds follow, aiming to at the very least incapacitate the Mandrill. If they do something worse than that, well...she's alright with that.
Maya Maya isn't sure if this is electro-zombie is alive due to cybernetic to is a legit tech zombie, brought by the hardware? She just doesn't know and she does not care as it keeps trying to tear her apart. She's able to keep from being a direct hit but it's not going to entirely save her from the fury about here.

"Get ... in your grave."

Maya manages to get out as the zombie is just keeping her on the ropes for the moment.

There's nothing she can do for Johnny, she's stuck inside and the zombie, however, is going to get at taste of her fury.

She'll pull a card out. She bleeds blue fire into her and she'll unleashes the point black lighting based magic spell on the techno zombie, hopefully with enough force to take him out and any other remaining goons who might somehow be up still. So she can get to her comrades.
Lilian Rook     "Then what was the point of even saying it?!" Lilian bounces back to Johnny. It's far from tactically useful at this point, but at least keeping communication going lets her keep track of who is still in the fight and where. She actually needs him for this. Besides, it'd be pretty messed up if she saved him in the hospital only to stop paying attention and let him bite it here.

    Shit.

    It takes her just a little too late to realize that Mandrill is only aiming her way to shoot past her. With his forcefield down, she was already closing in for the finisher, easily ducking the shot briefly aimed her way, before a bullet went whizzing right past her --not in a failed attempt to fend her off, but as a gesture of spite by hitting the main behind her.

    Still accelerated, Lilian turns her head to trace the first shot, rapidly searching eyes both aghast and furious, without the time for words. Abandoning any kind of communique or heads up, Lilian jerkily halts her advance on her downed foe, turns fully around on her toe --jarringly lacking in any usual grace-- and turns her back to Mandrill. In a moment of blind impulse, awkward and tottering, like her body had just briefly tried to fight itself, she gives up her advantage and exposes her back, to-

                -----[stop]-----
    Lilian sprints over to Johny. The bullet's already in flight. It'd be too late for anyone to do anything about it, were they not her. She spots it again, mid-spin, feet away from Johnny's heart. In the second it takes her to pound asphalt there, some preoccupied and spontaneous little part of her brain suddenly replays a little snippet of an argument. Someone's voice saying 'Never before has anyone else been given so much power to just have everything their way all the time'.

    She skids to a stop ahead of Detective Zhu, her panting turning to stress breathing once she starts thinking how she's supposed to get between him and the bullet, and then slapping her head with the heel of her palm when she remembers that she doesn't have to and doesn't want to. "What kind of weird- . . ." she starts asking herself, eyeballing the futuristic slug and then sharply kicking it sideways, pushing it off course rather than taking on its forward inertia.

    "Must have been that whole day watching movies. Ugh." she concludes. She's only halfway satisfied with that answer, but trying to think about it further already causes her to wince and recoil. Off her game. Gilgamesh was right. She should have stuck to vacation. It's too late now to change her mind and go finish off Mandrill instead.

                -----[start]-----

    -get herself in front of Johnny somehow, the wind whipping up where her displacing herself in sends a shot flashing into the building and shattering the concrete instead. She remains there, resigned to her ridiculous choice, for the next two shots, coming out too quickly to haul the Detective anywhere, but traveling through the air too fast for them to all be neatly suspended at the same time. Motions too fast to see deflect the both of them away from her own center mass, easier than Johnny's to cover, but she's seen clenching her fist around blood oozing from a palm with a shallow hiss, just before disappearing with Johnny this time.

    From inside, she crouches, brings back her arm, forms a knife hand, and then spears it through the tiles and into the ground with a crack of magically accelerated motion. A dull, earth-shaking roar follows, and then continues rumbling for several seconds of nothing, easily missed in all the gunfire outside. The effects are only felt when the parking lot starts turning orange and molten in several places, cars listing and sliding into each other as the ground starts turning into a sinking swamp of blindingly hot asphalt and metal. More importantly: a quagmire of burning oil, liquid asphalt, and molten iron that will engulf the zombiebots, and Mandrill, up to the knees, then the waist.
Solomon Lau Electro-zombies are torn apart by laser cannon, heavy machine gun, black lightning, torn into nothing. Green-Eye is kicked in the head, stumbling her enough while Lory fires her gun elsewhere that Lory can arrest her afterwards.

Thrill Kill Mandrill refuses to lose without a sacrifice. Everyone fires at him, attempting to kill him. Machine gun fire tears into him, as do pistol rounds, as do an All-American Laserbeam. But Johnny's fate still hangs in the balance.

But Johnny Zhu does not die. He's heavily injured, and might honestly need a body replacement at this rate, but either way, he'll live. As Lilian grabs him, he mutters to her. "You saved me. I owe you one..." before he completely collapses.

The ground quakes. The floor is practically lava as it becomes burning oil, liquid asphalt, and molten iron, and the zombiebots are encased. Mandrill is encased up to his chest, imprisoning him.

He spits, heavily in pain, but he laughs. Defiant until the end. "Furious George and the New Simian Army will rule this world. It's for your own good, you must understand! Man has botched his supremacy over the earth, with his greed and cruelty. /Our/ rule, ape rule, will bring benevolence and prosperity. And /we/ alphas will enjoy the greatest fruits...but all will prosper!"

"They can't imprison me here. They don't have any idea what to do with me. If you're gonna kill me, just do it now. The New Simian Army will live on!"

In response to some questions Solomon has when he returns, he reveals that everything was his plan. Forming the SLA, trying to buy up Genomic, even the bomb. The New Simian Army are heroes. Sure, there was that part where they split up from the Jammers, due to Furious George and Battlechimp Potemkin's differences, and sure, they accidentally killed 97% of the population, but they are the future of civilization.

The apes nearby watch this, carefully, listening the best they can. They might even be drawing conclusions.
Lilian Rook     "Yes, you do." Lilian says to Johnny, unable to help possessing a strained, frustrated growl. She'd just resolved not to touch anymore bullets too. She'd even promised she'd stay at home.

    He passes out from the injury though, which certainly can't be a good sign. Before even bothering with Mandrill out in the scorched and blasted lot, Lilian runs inside to find a medical professional, assuming that a biotech research firm experimenting on primates must have someone who can stitch up bullet holes and transfuse blood. Failing anything better than first aid, she'll call an ambulance herself, this time on the Paladins proprietary line, so he doesn't get taken to another local hospital and become a target a second time. She has credits to spare.

    Presumably, someone will be on disarming the bomb, but if that can't be handled either, Lilian will heave it up onto her shoulder, struggle to keep her balance beneath it with being so much smaller than it is, and then disappear off with it somewhere, returning a minute later.

    The long checklist of tasks outside of 'shoot the robots' finally resolved one way or the other, she comes back to the horrendously burnt mandrill stuck chest deep in cooling asphalt, listens to about a third of his manifesto, then kicks him sharply in the side of the head, telling him to shut up and get to the point. A harder one follows each time he derails into going on about the supremacy of the New Simian Army and being a product of higher evolution, and then if he feels the need to be rebellious about that, it comes down to burning his upper half with branding iron-like points of fire until she's heard all they need to hear about the plot.

    At some point, the words "Come now, I wouldn't give you the privilege of dying young and defiant. If you're so proud of that ridiculous monkey body, I'll give you plen~ty of time to experience being hideous and weak and slow and frail as you seem to think we are. Then you can croak as a worthless, inferior life form that didn't accomplish anything.", without any elaboration. Ultimately, she (physically if need be) denies any attempts to execute him, because "That's what he's negotiating for, and I don't negotiate with terrorists."

    Briefly, she replays another bit of conversation in her mind, intrusive and unbidden.

    'Well it's too late now. Accept that it's going to happen, and move on. Be a big girl.'
    'Too late? How come it's too late? Or even too soon? That doesn't matter to me.'
Solomon Lau If Lory moves to defuse the bomb, it's a horrible mess of wires and scraps tied to explosives, but she should be able to take care of it.

Lilian beats and threatens Mandrill, and gets everything out of him after a bit. He's still defiant, but he happily goes into everything, self-assured they'll win. They wanted the research here, to increase their armies and their own research, and to use any other technology they had as well. Furious George is the name of their leader - the almighty commander of the New Simian Army, and Thrill Kill says that he'll 'destroy them'. And he sounds like he truly fears and respects the big chimp.
Lory Thumper      Lilian handles Mandrill and Johnny. The least Lory can do is handle the bomb. She said she would, and there's no way she would let Lilian run off with it unless it became clear she couldn't do it. Luckily for her pride, she manages it thanks to her knowledge of explosives and electronic systems. It's a mess of a bomb, but no secondary switches or boobytraps means she can handle it. She wipes at her brow once it is done, then moves to join Lilian in front of Mandrill.

     She would assist Lilian if anyone tried to execute the big monkey. "What was even your goal here? Did I miss that among all the gunfire? Why were you even going to blow this place up? Between the research being done here and the futuristic nature of your organization, I'd have thought you would want places like this preserved. Something like this place could be key to the future you keep talking about."
Maya Maya intention it to take Mandril in if only for intel purposes. However, she's very badly messed up, herself from the beating she's taken from the cyber zombies. She would haul her wounded self to rejoin the others.

"I have heard that before."

She says she's intending to take him alive at let for the intel at the very least she looks to Lilian for a moment nodding once to her about it.

She'll move to tend to the wounded and then herself, though seriously healer? Heal they self.
Staren     Staren slaps a nanobandage (and a business card with contact info for the Concord's medical facilities) on Johnny and mostly rolls his eyes at Mandrill's manifesto. "If you could do a better job you'd just DO it. All the easier in the future where almost everyone's dead, apparently. You could gather the survivors and start leading. No, you just want to kill some more. It's all you're good at. But it turns out /we're better/." Staren says the last two words with as much menace as he can manage. When Lilian quips about not negotiating with terrorists, Staren points and smiles, "Good line!"

    And then it's time to see what can be recovered from the remains of the vehicles and electro-zombies. Maybe there's some intact computer bits with data on them!