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Hibiki Tachibana	NOT ALL THAT LONG AGO:     One thing Hibiki doesn't do that often is straight up ask for help with a problem. So it probably says something when she actually does for once, rather than someone else offering first or toxic gamers taking greebles. A combination of 'asking nicely', 'asking plainly', and 'talking about it in general' gets the request out, more or less.     The long of it: The Special Disaster Response Team, the branch of the Japanese government responsible for management of Noise attacks, has been at an impasse for the last while. While the public-facing First Division has been business-as-usual with their duty of evacuations, relief efforts, and otherwise in the wake of normal incursions...     ...The secret Symphogear-using Second Division that (among other things) deals with them head-on has put a considerable amount of effort over time into unearthing the truth behind a very dramatic assault a long while back that, quite frankly, showed coordination that mindless murder creatures who show up out of thin air shouldn't possess.     Two days back, the Minister of Defense - in charge of overseeing the branch as a whole - received a bundle of data and an encoded series of coordinates from an undetermined sender, and a plain message to pass them onto the Second 'for doing their best for so long'. Attempts to determine a source have met zero success thus far, not for a lack of trying.     But when collaborated with their own internal record of local Noise appearances, it was something like a puzzle piece clicking in, showing an unexpected point of centralization that had gone entirely under the radar until now. A singular spot to find potential answers.     The short, straight, direct, punchgirl brain friendly version of it: Weird mystery benefactor has slid the exact thing the monster-fighting mahou shoujo squad might need into their lap. It's extremely weird and suspicious. Potentially a trap.     But there's also not much choice at the moment but to follow the clue and see what turns up.
Hibiki Tachibana	RIGHT NOW:     "I had already known well - but the number of friends willing to come to your aid still pleasantly surprises me, Tachibana."     The sun set a short while ago, enough that the stars are peeking out little by little. They're more clear than they would be in the city proper, as far out into the fringes of it as they are. What was once an imposing multi-story manufacturing plant and the complex surrounding it is now nothing more than a dilapidated and abandoned ghost site that seems to have been untouched for years now; high windows lie broken and unrepaired, concrete is cracked and material crumbles away, and ambient sound is almost non-existent beyond the occasional cricket. They're a fair way out from any main roads, and nature has noticeably reclaimed a bit of the area.     Waiting in front of the primary building is not only the expected sight of Hibiki, but a tall blue-haired girl that will be a fresh face for some and a bit of a familiar one for others, from certain previous events: Tsubasa Kazanari. One of Japan's top idols and, as evident from the sleek azure-black-white undersuit and armor pieces she's clad in, another Symphogear wielder.     The only other, if one had to wonder why there was no immediate support on site besides two (magical) girls. "If you already knew, did you really have to point it out?" Hibiki responds back with something a bit like the embarrassment you'd have introducing your school friends to your parents, adjusting her scarf.     "I did, especially remembering the past. I said it was a pleasant one, did I not?" The older girl replies with obvious amusement. It gives the impression this sort of back and forth isn't rare between them, before her expression shifts towards the starkly serious, as does her tone.     "But let us focus on the present. Thank you all for coming. Though such a gathering may seem excessive, Tachibana's argument to command prior to enlisting your assistance was a sound one. In dealing with the unknown, we cannot afford to be underprepared, for combat or otherwise."     Her mouth turns down in the smallest of frowns. "As painful as it may be to admit, merely the two of us are no unflappable army. And Multiversal aid is something we owe our thanks to in the first place...as opposed to it as some have proven to be."     Glossing over detailed elaboration of that, it's Hibiki who pitches in after. "So what we're doing today is investigating...and fighting, if we have to. We don't really got much to go off of when it comes to expecting anything, and trying to scan ahead before we came had some pretty weird interference." She glances over her shoulder at the entrance, then back.     "I know I probably didn't explain things the best either...so if there's any questions before we move in, go ahead."
Ishirou	Ishirou is here!   Right now Ishirou is in a comfy sweater and jorts. Also, apparently letting his hair grow out a bit.  It's slightly longer than normal, instead of the short bowl cut he normally has.  Why?  You'd have to ask him or have the ability to get into his mind.   "Hello!  Oh hey, it's the idol!  Wait are you..." a pause, "I'm kidding, I know.  Nice to officially meet you, though!" he says upbeat to Tsubasa.  "Any trouble with the Roidmule after that incident?" he asks, assuming not directly in the bad way but maybe in the annoying otaku way.   People are talking about the building, about the likelihood of it being an ambush as to why Hibiki called them all here.  So while everyone is getting up he looked over towards POD, who is a flying box with arms flying near him.   The two then start using their various suite of scanners and tools to try and see what was around they could identify.  Starting with mapping out the building, then looking for things that shouldn't be there, anything that might be monster related or adjacent, and of course magical sources.  "I mean, I figure if you brought me it's the figure out where the ambush is coming from, not the actual fighting it off."
Cantio	"Good people get good help. It's the natural way of things." Cantio addresses Tsubasa with a light laugh, recognizing her easily from the past few times she's been out in Hibiki's neck of the Multiverse. Cantio might have been a little less prepared for combat those last times, but she's really decked out in her best today... Relatively. Her translucent sword is already assembled and resting on her shoulder while the Concord-branded case she usually keeps its pieces in is hanging off her other hand, and she alrady has a pair of drones floating behind her with their creepy vacant stares. Cantio herself, of course, is dressed in her usual white and purple jacket dress thing. "They're dangerous enough to warrant such preparations, yes... Even if it turns out to be nothing, better that we're overprepared than for things to go spiraling out of control if we weren't. Or you weren't." After affirming that decision, Cantio turns to Hibiki again once she mentions what their actual goal is today. "What's the area we're going to be investigating like? We might be able to identify some ambush points like Ishirou mentioned and close them off before annything can try to swarm in on us from there." A pause, and then she taps her chin. "Or we could even make use of them ourselves... Maybe? Unless it's a residential area or something we'd need to avoid causing collateral damage to."
Stanley Padgett	Stanley is out of his world, and out of his element. That's not to say he's coming into this ENTIRELY blind, but the 'research' he's been able to do has amounted to the PR done on the Noise on the MultiWeb, and in the vlogs and blogs of the REAL Multiverse FANS back home. It's a bit... stilted.     The young man is here in his fencing garb, a brand new sword at his hip. Someone has gotten the young man a rapier, a proper one, and not a training foil.     He also raises his hand, and waits to be called on.
Petra Soroka	The Ekanamsha's touchdown outside the factory is an assault on every sense. Its flight is accompanied by the roar of its jets, white-hot light reflecting off the shiny exterior; when it thuds onto the ground it kicks up a spray of dust as the acrid smell of diesel stings in bystanders' throats.     Petra hops onto the ground, kicking up more dust than the softness of her landing would seem to. She's wearing a subtly glittering dark green triangle scarf, along with her bomber jacket, almost completely concealing her torso, though it's apparent that she isn't wearing her typical overalls by the lack of flower pattern on her legs.     She waves enthusiastically to Hibiki, then more reservedly to Tsubasa. "Hey Hibiki! And hi, I'm Petra."     "So, what exactly are we expecting to find in here, by investigating? What sorts of records do the Noise leave, before and after appearing? Like, is this a complete unknown? Noise lying in wait to ambush us, or something else?"     Petra looks at Ishirou, and a frown flashes across her face. She takes a couple hesitant steps towards him, then pauses, and her expression shifts through a number of other emotions before settling on "pensive".     She taps him on the shoulder, and softly calls out, "Hey, Ishirou?". Implicitly, she's asking to talk to him privately.
DRYCLEAN-SIGINT	Ambient sound is almost non-existent, beyond the occasional cricket. This rapidly changes; gentle white noise filters through devices, anticipatory. A dark shape suddenly shoots down from the sky, a small plume of smoke from an impact nearby, and - oh, for fuck's sake, it's just a robot. DRYCLEAN strides out as the dust clears, moving with that ever-present confidence, fully repaired and without a scratch to speak of. It's back to their standard jacket and jumpsuit, now, utilitarian and shoddy in equal measures. They walk right up to Tsubasa and extend an uncomfortably long arm for a handshake.     "Evening, folks. Heard we had an ambush t'walk into, had t'be there, ha ha. Glad t'see everyone else agrees." They're already working overtime. Ishirou's active scanning is supplemented by an ever-present low-spectrum sweep for signals nearby - if a conspirator happened to have kept a cellphone on them and stayed within a mile, they'll hear. Not that they're expecting anything, of course. Aliens or whatnot tend to opt against radio, for some reason.     "I'll take y'up on that question, ha ha. What're we fightin'? I ain't talkin' the jargon the dossiers are filled with, I'm talkin' opinion from the ground. Will we do anythin' to them? Otherwise, I'll just hang on the sidelines, ha ha." Far above, a vessel hangs. It assists with the sweep, but otherwise remains dormant. The song has not begun yet.
Candy	The tenor buzz of a four-stroke engine gradually fades into the background noise of the city. The motorcycle is the great great grandfather of what might conceivably be found here, every element of its profile and design alien for its archaic nature yet revealing the long iterative processes that its descendants have benefitted from. Its tires are slim, its handlebars short and oddly angled (more like a bicycle's)--the seat is spartan, to put it generously, and when Candy parks, the kickstand is rectangular, housed around and pulled beneath the rear wheel.      He unbuttons his longcoat, slips off his gloves, and slides his motoring goggles down, where they rest against a cozy-looking red motorist's scarf. It's a splash of bold color amidst his otherwise earth-tone outfit, going well with the grey newsie cap he doffs and waves in greeting. "Hey, Tsubasa! Hey, Bikki!" The sight of Ishirou draws a particular smile, which shifts into a grin. Thumbing his brown suspenders, Candy strides up. "And hey, papito."      "Happy to help," he says to Tsubasa. "You have any more trouble with the uniforms and the polished table people and their tiny little brains, you know who to come to, ah?" He winks, then turns to face Hibiki, settling in beside Ishirou.      "No questions from me, Miss Battering Ram. I picked up a few new tricks from some stuck-up silver space lady with a pigsticker," he says, pantomiming a spear thrust, "So when we go in to take a look, I am happy up front with you or in the back."      He is happy to share experience with DRYCLEAN, as well: "The last time I fought 'em, it was like..." He gestures vaguely, index finger circling as if to stir up the words. "You can hit 'em, but it's hard to do it. They go all..." He waves his hands unhelpfully, makes a vocal approximation of radio static. "And you can't hit 'em when they're like that, I think."
Hibiki Tachibana	"It's been going rather well actually," Tsubasa replies to Ishirou with a wry smile, momentarily breaking away from the mission-focused stoicness. "Hachi's antics are refreshing, compared to the usual. And I agree - it's indeed nice to finally get the chance to greet one another properly, after the concert. I do believe you'd be able to scan the area better than we ever could."     His initial attempt at scanning meets some of that strange interference that had been mentioned - but it's only debatably electronic in nature. He can get a map perfectly fine actually, and he can detect several 'somethings' scattered throughout the building. But it's like viewing it through a lens of dense static, and said 'somethings' as far as he can tell seem to be small and innocuous rather than anything as large as Noise. It also seems to register as...magical?     Hibiki leans in towards Cantio. "Me and Tsubasa already did a once-over of the complex out here and haven't found anything, so that mostly leaves the inside of the actual factory itself here. There shouldn't be any collateral damage to worry about, since this area is pretty much abandoned...but it'd probably be good if we didn't level the place." Beat. "Probably. We were planning to go in through a cargo bay entrance; a lot wider and more open in case anything goes wrong."     Petra gets a wave, and then a nod. "Probably," Hibiki admits. "If Noise have been around, there should be piles of raw carbon lying around...whether it's from them, or people they've...yeah." She grimaces a bit. "Though we didn't find any out here. If you ask me, it's pretty obviously some kinda trap, but Noise shouldn't be able to spring that. On their own, anyway..."     Stanley, when he raises his hand, gets Tsubasa giving him a point. Polite. She likes it. And she's also listening.
Stanley Padgett	The 'raw carbon' is mentioned, and Stanley blinks a bit. "Are we going to have to worry about being dusted and stuff? I can only uh... assume that'll be harder for us or so, but... uh."     He coughs. "The stuff I got to see on the net at home made it sound like these things were very lethal." He doesn't seem scared about this so much as resolute in what he's got to do here.
Rita Ma	Rita arrives in what she thinks is a casual outfit: cute jacket, white button-up, dark skirt. It's not, really, but she thinks it is.      Petra's dusty landing ruffles her hair all up, but once she's gotten herself straightened out again, she waves cheerfully at her anyway. "Hi, Ms. Petra! Um, do you think you could land a little further away next time? I'd appreciate it a lot."      Hibiki gets a familiar wave, too, but Tsubasa receives a slightly more formal head-bow from Rita instead. "It's nice to meet you, Ms. Tsubasa! Ms. Hibiki has a lot of good friends out here. She's just a really likeable person, isn't she? I'm really happy to meet one of her coworkers!"      "Any questions..." Rita tilts her head to the side and looks off at the sunset, as if that could jostle some thoughts free. "There's a chance we'll be fighting some Noise here, right? I know they're monsters, but what makes them dangerous?" She gives a side-nod to Stanley as he poses something similar.      Rita is certainly asking for threat assessment reasons, and no other.
Hiromi	"Hello, Ms. Tachibana! I'm looking forward to fighting with you again." It's a miko of some kind, notable for brown hair, wolf-like ears and bushy tail in similar colors, carrying an unstrung bow and a pair of heavy, white-bronze gauntlets at her waist.     "Hello, Ms. Kazanari. My name is Hisako." She bows, formally. She was already pretty short before doing that. Certainly nothing like the height of a certain wolf-woman, though there is some spark of resemblance that would be hard to miss, and more attuned senses only see more clearly. It's a spiritual scent. And yet, just a spark. This girl is, according to most detailed analysis and judgment, 'technically human.'
Ishirou	Ishirou seems to break his concentration to consider Petra for a moment, but just sort of motions for his ear as if to say to speak to him via radio.  It's less dismissal and more trying to easily process multiple things at once.  Also, Candy was here.   He turns to give Candy a hug.  He buries his face in his chest for a bit, before pulling away, "Hey Candy...sorry I haven't been in contact much but uh...things..." he admits, and Candy likely already knows what happened in Indus.  Despite his cheery mood, he does seem more stressed out than normal, but he's keeping himself together. He /does/ smile back at Tsubasa, "I'm glad to hear you two are getting along.  Yeah, that's my job and specialty...haha.." a breath, "I'm happy to hear about Hachi.  Oh yeah, I picked up your newest CD.  I liked it!" he says, apparently a fan.   He squints, he can get a map, but something is interfering with his detection.  "We got interference.  I...sense two magical sources in there, but I can't give you more than that.  Not Noise, but magical.  That's about all I can determine without getting closer...which means getting into the thick of things." Ishirou is sure only to push forward if people are coming with him.  Candy or Lilian (or both!)
Hibiki Tachibana	Stanley's question is a good one. As is Rita's follow-up. Tsubasa folds her arms, has a grim expression for a moment, then shakes her head.      "...Prolonged contact will result in organic matter being reduced to raw carbon. Their victims thus be left behind as nothing but ashes - and the Noise, in the process of doing so, also are reduced to their base components themselves. Brief contact is still very dangerous, but not nearly as much so. And as you surmise, those such as yourselves are less at risk than ordinary civilians."     "So long as you're not overwhelmed, there should be no truly lasting damage - Tachibana and I's presence should not only make them easier to harm, but reduce the harm you suffer as well." A glance is given towards Rita.     "...Beyond that, they lack truly defined forms, and are capable of both morphing their shapes and 'phasing out' of this plane to shift through solid matter...though they cannot harm anything in ours as long as they're doing so. It's rather difficult to describe their abilities in their entirety, as some are very much beyond the norm; though those traits, at least, are consistent."     Hisako's politeness gets both a casual wave from Hibiki and a reserved bow from Tsubasa; the formality certainly seems to fit. Her wolfish traits get only a cursory glance over, and then nothing else, beyond a small smile.     "Hisako...Tachibana has told me a bit about you as well...and a certain other wolf. Kazanari Tsubasa. It's a pleasure to meet you."
Lilian Rook	All things considered, Lilian could almost fit in with those two, if her own suit were more styled more like mecha and less like outrageously finely articulated platemail. Or so she thinks to herself, standing out in the middle of spooky abandoned industrial nowhere under the night sky, watching the two girls talk to each other. Perhaps it's excessively flattering, given one of them is an idol, and several years younger than her, but as long as she thinks it silently enough, it doesn't matter. Mostly, it's just nice to be here again. Gathered up with Hibiki's friends, and not . . .     Lilian stops that thought to pinch the bridge of her nose at the roar of the Ekanashma's engines. Moment ruined. The rest of the sentence goes 'exactly like that'.     Lilian sighs, runs her hand back through her hair, and then motions Ishirou for a direct uplink, saying "Having two information specialists on-site was absolutely the right call." whilst making it abundantly clear which she trusts more. "Without surveillance, raids like this have perhaps a ten percent success rate with two members."     She spares a moment to smile at Hibiki. It was meant to be half-hearted, but it reaches the scar under her eye anyways. "It's good to see them all in one place though, isn't it? You've come a long way since that Featherman club business." And then back to Tsubasa. "It's a pleasure to meet you too, Kazanari. Dame Commander Lilian Rook, on the likely chance that Tachibana hasn't said anything about me before." Another fidget is smoothly disguised as a perfectionist hairflip. "I hope I can trust you to keep him safe." 'Him' being implicit. "He has an enthusiasm for poking his nose into dangerous things like these." The sword slung onto her shoulder in historical style is excuse enough to make a social bow very shallow. "I hear you're plenty capable at looking out for Tachibana as well."     Once the talking gets to the factory complex, Lilian paces a little further out of place at the front, tilts her head upwards to its higher windows, and closes her eyes. Breathing in the smell of night and concrete and soaking up the sound of crickets and rustling grass, she blinks them open again a few seconds later to say, "I wonder if it might be haunted? That would be nice." A beat. "We should start from the-- gh!"     This time the surprise --one that makes Lilian's shoulders bunch up and her posture almost jump to her toes-- is Hisako's voice. "Rita! H-hisako! It's great to see you two here as well!" She looks at the former a whole lot more than the latter. "Ah, it sounds very intimidating, but don't worry. As always, I already have something in mind." she says. "Both experience, and a plan if you intend to try what I'm thinking."     Starting to look agitated, she yells in Ishirou's direction (with perfect Timing) "List of anomalous locations, sorted by intensity and then sorted again by distance. Let's all be on the same page and coordinate our approach. Break up and target them in groups. At least one with you and one with Dryclean." She only seems to look at Petra when she can stare at the back of her head.
DRYCLEAN-SIGINT	As the side conversation wraps up, DRYCLEAN has apparently approached behind Petra, and proceeds to clap a hand on her shoulder.     "Good talk, ha ha. Pressin' question - what's your plan for gettin' that ol' thing-" -a gesture with the other hand- "-in through those doors? Unless you just landed right outside for transportin' and nothin' else, ha ha." They sweep away without waiting for an answer. A finger is idly pointed between Cantio, Ishirou, Petra, Hisako, Hibiki, before being raised to adjust a dial on their primary monitor.     "Deja-vu, ha ha. Reckon this'll be easier, then, seein' how I know how you folks-" They pause, and the static shifting through all the devices spikes slightly before cutting out, and they completely stop what they were doing and walk off out of the lot.     "Somethin' more important just came up, folks. Data's sent t'Ishirou and Cantio. Keep me informed, ha ha." Their vessel descends quietly, and the cargo door slides open only for a moment to admit them before it promptly ascends - folding into a higher dimension - and disappearing completely. This is the second time, then, as three present would note.
Hiromi	Hisako looks at the large but seemingly ordinary manufacturing complex with wide eyes. She has to crane her neck. "What a strange place this is."     Having not fought any Noise, she listens carefully to Candy's unclear explanation, though her remaining confusion is evident by the way her head (and ears) tilt, afterward. Hibiki following up helps. Tsuabasa's detail helps more, though after the ritual, "It's a pleasure to meet you," she has to ask, "Please excuse me... what is carbon?"     Considering the explanation of the enemy, she says, "I don't think my ability is very special." 'Ability,' rather than 'weapons.'     Lilian notices Hisako's presence. The reverse occurs immediately after. "Oh, Lilian! It's good to see you here, too."     She's interrupted to look after DRYCLEAN, entirely without comprehension of their actions. "Oh...? Take care." There was surely some reason for that, but she can't figure it out. Well, they'd said it was 'somethin'.' It must be something she doesn't need to know.
Candy	Candy rests a palm on Ishirou's head and runs it briefly through his hair, giving a brief but friendly smile to Hisako before putting his full attention back on Ishirou. "Things, yeah," he says softly. "I heard. More and more of them, from what I hear." His eyes meet Ishirou's when he pulls away, and Candy wrinkles his nose playfully, giving a light shove. "Still, you could call." There is a brief, sideways glance at Petra.      "I'll go with Ishirou," says Candy to Lilian, probably of little surprise. "Oh, but DRYCLEAN--" They're gone. Candy sighs and stuffs a playing card into his back pocket.      From nowhere, a breech-loading, pump action shotgun with a wooden stock appears in Candy's hands. Working with guidance from Ishirou, he gladly takes point. Moreover, through the use of hand signals (or hoarse whispers, for those not accustomed) he keeps everyone apprised of sight lines, away from detritus that might by its disturbance give them away, and generally moving from place to place in such a way as to keep the lowest profile on his group's approach.
Rita Ma	"Hi, Ms. Rook!" Rita is unrestrained with her good cheer, even lifting up onto her tiptoes with the wave. Then, rocking back on her heels, she betrays a little confusion. "Are you alright? We didn't sneak up on you, did we? You just seemed really..."      She looks over at Hisako, sparing the wolf-miko a familiar smile and a waist-height wave too. "I don't know. Uncomposed?"      Rita nods along soberly with Tsubasa's explanation, then presses her lips together in thought. "Keep away from them, but short touches are okay. If I were to punch them, or something, that'd be okay. And probably stay away from walls, too, right? So they can't ambush me through those. Is that right, Ms. Tsubasa? Thanks for explaining!"      She gives Lilian a little wink, unexpectedly confident. "And I trust your plan, Ms. Rook. Thank you bunches."
Stanley Padgett	Now that Stanley knows he's not about to die horribly nad his BODY MADE MOSTLY OF WATER wasn't immediately at risk here, he's able to get to important things. Trying to make friends.     Petra and Lilian are straight out, even if he's still... He'll figure Lilian out some day. Today was not that day.     Hisako gets a wave at least, as does Candy. But they're both chatting with others, which leaves Hibiki and Rita... who are ALSO busy. He wilts a bit, and sighs, and then decides to not be so damn polite. More over Lilian's stepping away, which gives him an opening to slide over to Rita and smile. "Hello! It's nice to see you again, Rita! And..." He takes a breath and holds out a hand to Hisako. "Stanley Padgett, I'm from Lampport, it's nice to meet you!"     It is the most earnest, honest thing. It really is.
Lilian Rook	"Ash." Lilian says to Hisako, helpfully, without making more than a split second of eye contact. "They turn flesh to ash. You brought your bow, didn't you?" Equally helpfully, she does her very best to airily laugh off Rita's concerns, and say "It's no problem. I was just in the middle of figuring something out, and you know how quietly Hisako can move without realizing it. I'll be fine once we actually get to work, trust me."     Candy's arrival is an easier positive to swallow; the little eyeroll when he claims Ishirou is all in good fun. "If that's the case, I'll try to leave him in your usually capable hands." she says, just as always, before walking in. And as they cross paths, she lowers her voice and whispers something else to him.
Petra Soroka	<J-IC-Scene> Ishirou sighs, "It's alright Petra. I forgive you, just...please be aware that your words and actions affect others, alright?" <J-IC-Scene> Petra Soroka sighs in relief, "Yeah. I'll do better. Thanks for being patient with me, Ishirou. Friends, still?" <J-IC-Scene> Ishirou says, "Of course!"     It's a good feeling to reconcile with a friend. An even better feeling when it fuels the psychotic sapphic rivalry gaslighting plot that you cooked up with a supervillain that you just lied to that friend about hating.     Petra smiles. Not a Grin, not at this point.     "A-ah, sorry Rita, I'm just planning on getting right back in." She's doing a lot of apologizing today!     Petra is very, very careful to greet Lilian with the exact same body language that she does for all the other newcomers, and then nods to Hibiki.     "Is it even possible for a person to work with the Noise? I thought I remember you saying they were like, mindless."     Before climbing into her mech, she glances back at Candy, eyes narrowing slightly. She clangs the hatch shut, and a few seconds later, the engines of the Kana hum to life, kicking up a new blast of dust--but then Petra remembers, and cuts the engines lower, opting to walk to the cargo bay doors instead.     If the doors don't push open with the mech's prodigious size, then a small side cannon extends out of a hatch in the Kana's turret, and fires a briefly visible flash of staticky white that impacts the door, disintegrating a circular hole big enough for the mech to climb through.
Cantio	"If it's just the interior of the factory, then that should make our jobs a little easier." Cantio nods slowly at Hibiki, considering the worst case scenario and pulling in one of her drones to tweak it a little. "Not leveling it would definitely be a lot cheaper. Worst case scenario..." She gestures vaguely with her hands, then shakes her head. "Er. Maybe it's better not to worry about that." She laughs, but it's still mildly concerned. "I'm sure it'll be fine, though. There's plenty of us here to help, and we should be alright as long as we're careful around the Noise when they show up. Just maybe... Better to fight at range than to get too close." She suggests, more for Rita's and Stanley's benefit when they ask about the Noise. "Candy's right, though. they can be pretty slippery, so you'll want to be careful not to expose yourself too much if you're concerned about not being able to withstand a bit of... Melting?" She shrugs, and then she strokes her chin. "And if someone's manipulating them... That might also be an angle we can work with, actually, so it might not all be bad. We might even be able to figure out some motives, or other uses!" Cantio doesn't elaborate on how, exactly, but there's probably thoughts about how to do it already. Lilian mentions something that catches her attention, though, and Cantio glances between her and Hibiki a few times. "Feather...?" She asks in a curious tone, but she doesn't press it further than just giving Hibiki a slight eyebrow raise as though she's wondering what's up with that. Cantio also has that same look on her face when she notices Lilian staring at the back of Petra's head, but she doesn't say anything about that, either. After taking DRYCLEAN's offered data, Cantio takes a look at her drone as its face flickers a few times before settling back down to show her THE STUFF. "Stay safe out... Er. Up there. We'll keep things under control here!"
Hiromi	"Oh, it's a pleasure to meet you, Mr. Padgett." Hisako bows to to Stanley. She doesn't take his hand, nor does she spend long looking at it. She assumes that extending it's part of how his culture greets people. "I'm--"     She restarts with slightly more formal language, though her physical form can't puff up much beyond her naturally modest stature, in any case. "I am one of the miko of the Archwolf. I've been instructed to join you as part of my training."     Hisako nods to Lilian, and takes out her bow, bracing it against one leg to string it. Strung, it's bent into a wholly different shape, though there's not much that looks special about either it or the quiver of arrows at her hip. "I'll follow behind you."     And she does do that, letting others take the fore. She's not sure that what Rita said about being okay just to punch them applies to her, though she'll probably think about it again in a bit. If it were her gauntlets touching something, after all... her gauntlets are more 'special.'
Hibiki Tachibana	"And I, you, Dame Commander." 'Commander' rolls off of Tsubasa's tongue easily, as if she's used to saying it, but her handshake is exceedingly earnest. "She's mentioned a few things, actually, but you'll be pleased to know they tend to be compliments." A knowing glance is given in the direction of a certain 'him', followed by a nod. "You have my word. Given those experiences with Tachibana, I think I can say in confidence he'll be in good hands."     Hibiki goes from her own small smile flashed back to Lilian, to needing to hold back a snicker at her reaction to Hisako. She offers back to both Petra and Cantio, "...They are mindless, and as far as we know, nobody should be able to control them. I mean, how do you even do that? If we /could/ somehow figure it out here, that'd be great..."     Speaking of Ishirou, he's correct that closing distance will mean better reception. As Hibiki had said, the chosen point of entry is the gateway leading into what used to be a cargo bay, and Petra's giant robot is pretty much the perfect thing to force the aged metal apart enough to fit inside.     As one might expect, the interior is no better off than the exterior. Worse, maybe. Even just upon entering into what might've once been a tall and wide space where shipments were loaded and then sent off elsewhere, it's clear as day. As clear as the musty air can be, anyway. Conveyor belts for movement of materials are worn away with the inner machinery rusted over and halted, and large shipping containers stacked over one another are covered in thick layers of dirt and detritus. It looks as if it's all been undisturbed since the day it was left.     Although some of the more visually perceptive among the group might see something out of place; the same is not entirely true of the ground. There are small signs of disturbance ranging from faint strips in the coating of old dust, as if something had been dragged through some time ago, to what seem to be the imprint of boots. Both older and fresher. They all seem to vaguely lead ahead to the other side of the bay, towards a wide gateway leading deeper into the facility.
Hibiki Tachibana	Once they're inside, Ishirou can now tell - beyond the map layout he had gotten before, there also seems to be more of that annoying 'static' concealing something...below? Deeper inside the complex, in the vague shape of something that wouldn't be on any normal building plans. Some sort basement, maybe? He can also narrow down more of the strange sorcerous signatures. It's difficult to pinpoint any real details there, but there's definitely some coming from down there.     And also now, where they certainly weren't before, all around them. As if waiting for their cue, everyone can see the shapes beginning to emerge out from various spots; from within towering cargo crates, through the walls sectioning the bay off from the rest of the factory, even from below the floor and dropping above from the roof. Phasing through as if physical matter was like dense water rather than an obstacle.     Inhuman creatures in shapes and sizes ranging from humanoid, to blobs, to grotesque-looking worms - all of them lacking faces so much as soundwave-like grids for faces, and all of them in the washed-out gray static that Candy had described.     "Noise...!"     Most definitely. But as Ishirou will detect, and anyone else who doesn't have all their attention on the monsters might also see or sense, is a split second where what look like an array of magical circles abruptly form beneath their feet, from the ones in the front to those taking up the rear guard...and also all around them. Shining bright crimson, intoned with a symbol of flame, and flashing brightly.     Before going up in a series of violent explosions, filling the area with intense heat and force to send them all scattering in every direction.     The Noise weren't just the ambush, but also apparently the bait for something else.
Rita Ma	Rita is tense while entering the factory, but not obviously prepared. She draws no weapon and readies no fighting stance; her hands are folded in front of her waist expectantly instead.      When the Noise appear, though her eyes widen and a little gasp catches in her throat, that doesn't change much. Her feet adjust, her arms hang by her sides, but she warily awaits their approach. "Ms. Rook-!" she starts to say. But her next words are drowned out by the boom. And when the shockwave reaches her, she already isn't there.      It takes Rita a moment to process the fact that she's now crouched on the ceiling, dug in with finger- and toeholds. Flames and shrapnel hem her in. A drop of sweat rolls up her cheek and falls to the floor below.      "Operator Dryclean, what was that??" Wait, do they even know things about magic? "Or Mr. Ishirou?"      She drops back down to the ground right next to Lilian, naturally assuming a position guarding her flank. Her posture is defensive, but she doesn't give Noise that approach her the dignity (and danger) of physical contact. Instead, they're trimmed back by bolts of fluorescent acid that seem to fire from the empty space 'around' her.      "Ms. Rook. Can you still help me?" They have their understanding.
Cantio	"That's what research is for! Well, if we can get a hold of one alive, anyway. Easier said than done, though, since I'm going to guess the science teams here have already tried that." Cantio laughs again, and it'll be her last one for a bit as she puts her game face on. The sword is gripped firmly in both hands while one of her drones holds that briefcase, letting her advance with the group instead of fumbling with her stuff later. "It's... Abandoned. A perfect hiding place." She comments quietly while moving along slowly, not noticing the subtler signs of recent movements as she walks right past them. Instead, her attention goes right towards the more obvious signs of immediate movement as Noise emerge, and she brandishes her weapon with a wide flourish before holding it at shoulder height with the tip pointed straight ahead. "Here they come.  On your guards, every-" Her attention is stolen briefly by spotting a section of something appearing underneath her, and Cantio only has that moment to brace herself before she get exploded upon quite violently. It launches her upwards, but she maintains her height by standing on her drones with only modest singeing of her outfit. "Where did that explosion...?" Sounding more irritated than anything else, Cantio leaps off her drones right at the Noise, sword readied as she starts rushing right at them to take the fight directly to the ambushers. "Ah, worry about that later. Ishirou, can you get an ID on them?" As she shouts, she sends out her drones to start flying about the factory, relaying visual data to her as they float above the battlefield to check out the most obvious hiding places first for hiding observers. Instead of trying to cut any one of Noise down at a time, meanwhile, Cantio opts for broad swings to try and cleave through whole swaths at them each time, igniting the edges of her weapon with lasers to add both slashing power and a bit of a light show to make things look that much more impressive. When a Noise gets too close, meanwhile, Cantio fires lasers at them from the underside of her weapon before smashing the pommel into them and then trying to batter them with a broad follow-up swing aimed at hurling them away.
Petra Soroka	The explosions detonate across the entire floor, and the Kana doesn't even lunge to dodge them. Trying to move this brick that quickly would be more likely to hurt allies, than dodge damage.     So Petra winces and flinches as the viewscreens go up in flames, moving nothing but the turret. Maybe she should've tried to defend some of the others? She scans the screens flooding data, seeing if any of them can trace the source of the magic, but even if they can--she won't say anything, she'll let Ishirou do it.     From the outside, the Kana's surface shimmers and glows red with heat, but seems otherwise unaffected by the direct hit. The turret swivels and locks onto a cluster of Noise that Ishirou points out to her, then fires with a deafening boom that echoes off the high-vaulted metal walls. The Noise are immediately swallowed up by an explosion that isn't allied to them, vaporizing the industrial detritus and rattling teeth hard enough to taste iron.     The inside of the cockpit, though, is just as comfortable as ever. Unburnt and unrattled. One entire viewscreen is dedicated to Lilian, though Petra isn't looking directly at it.
Ishirou	Ishirou looks at Lilian sideways, "Geeze make it sound like I'm a burden why don't you?" he says with a bratty little smile.  He's only messing with her, not actually serious.  He goes with Candy and Tsubaka, and as they enter his eyes search.  Well, his 'eyes' search, but his actual sensor suite is a bit more complicated than that. In reality, Ishirou 'sees' at a three hundred-and-sixty-degree angle around him.  Not all of it is visual data, but other telemetry data that comes in, and is boosted by POD.  It's why he's able to notice the fire circles when they appear even though the NOISE is there.  "POD!  TO THE RESCUE!" he shouts out and POD immediately disappears.  The R.E.S.C.U.E. armor appears around Ishirou.   Without any attachments, it's like black armor.  His helmet is similar to a larger version of POD's head, with a backpack with small arms.  The rest is similar to recon body armor.  With the space being tight he can't effectively use the full flight unit.  That's fine, he can use something else for a limited flight in here. He floats, electromagnetic power trailing off of him as he rises, and tries to get a better view of the whole warehouse.  He also fires two 'Options' toward Rita and one toward Petra.  They have around them, providing either firing support or attaching to their weapons for more OOMPH to them.   Ishirou tries to trace the magic back to its source.  That kind of attack couldn't have been cheap, and it should have traces...even if the battlefield is set up like it is.  With him being inside their trap now he should have an easier time finding it.  He jumps up, releasing a barrage of missiles, which fly in every direction.  Some aim for noise if they can't get a target, the rest look for magic sources that are NOT friendly.
Lilian Rook	"What an odd question." Lilian says to Hibiki. "The most mindless thing in existence is a robot, and they're also the most controllable." she says. "The runner up, is of course, suburbanite consumers, close behind in both categories." Lilian snorts. Even in her armour and undersuit, hair down in a relatively simple way, she looks exactly like the kind of person who would ooze politely rephrased deniable classism. "They go hand in hand; they aren't antonyms."     Of course, this is an investigation, and so Lilian is quick to follow Ishirou's signal inside. The whole point of bringing an entire cohort of Elites was to guarantee that the investigative data specialists they'd brought along could do their work without being ambushed or surrounded. She moves at the front of the pack, accompanied by a swarm of will-o'wisp lights summoned with the bare snap of a finger. Carefully slicing her walk around each blind corner, checking the far ends of each room and corridor before proceeding, the posture of her sword over her shoulder given evident utility by how easy it would be to bring down at a moment's notice.     "Why in God's name has the city not demolished this dump yet?" Lilian opines under her breath at the sight of so much dust and rust. "The space here is just rotting. Don't they know this is how you get squatters and criminals?" she adds, as if terrorism were a thing that happens when your ugly building score gets too high. She crouches down to the signs of scuffs and drags, scowling with the look of someone who believes she's already been proven right. "See what I mean? This place is obviously being used as a stockpile and shipping base for a cartel or something." She stands up and looks to Ishirou. "Can you determine the nature of the interference? It's very unusual that anyone hiding out at a dump like this would have access to that sort of technology. Are they unrelated? I can't get a good feeling for magic in the area either."     And then the part about being ambushed and surrounded happens anyways. Lilian brings Night Mist down into her grip proper, scanning around the slowly emerging noise as Rita calls out to her, replying "Don't worry. They're slowed down quite a bit more than usual by this environment. We'll punch a hole through them back the way we came and funnel them to us. Just--" A spike of magical energy grabs her attention. Lilian glances down. "Sulfur?" Kaboom.     Lilian, is fifteen feet off the intended target point, oh so helpfully colour coded with glowing floorbad she had lots of time to see coming. She raises her sword to a pendulum guard and brings in her shoulder just to absorb the backwash of heat and debris on her armour. Her recognition of Rita landing beside her is measured by the precison clicking of her suit from the settling of her posture. "In just a moment, then." she says to the girl at her rear flank. The sword twists level. Red light fills along its flat.     Dusty air chaotically buffets Rita from all sides. Lilian briefly seems to be everywhere at once. Dirt, grime, and the surface of the concrete floor, is scraped away in a scattershot pattern of heavy footfalls, pivots, and slides, like stepwork instructions pressure blasted into the cement. The boneless sound of Night Mist severing limbs that should rightly be intangible follows shortly in the wake of its glowing trail and each burst of black mist. The circle of Noise is trimmed back around the two of them, by force and bane, but not in accordance to the strategy Lilian suggested.     Given a moment, a heap of semi-corporeal bodyparts tumbles into a different magic circle, marked in ink and mercury and blood, next to Rita.
Hiromi	Hisako is alert and ready -- though not, in particular, for what happens. When 'something' appears below her, she reacts with unthinking reflex, without bothering to identify it. The light has barely reached her eyes from the magic circle before she's kicking off and away.     This saves her from taking the worst of it, but the size of the flames is still enough to reach her. Her red hakama are burning, and she stops to loudly yelp and roll around on the ground. Being dry concrete and not wet earth, it's not as effective as it could be.     The fact that she'd leaped out of the building, from the rear of the group, is what saves her from being molested by Noise in the meantime, but she still looks embarrassed at the delay (and her clothing is still smoldering) when she picks her bow back up and sights inside. "I'm--I'm here! I'm okay!"     The twang of the string is more like a metallic snap. One sleeve falls away to reveal biceps almost out of place on that small frame, but in keeping with what one should expect of that wolf's disciple. The arrows, their heads wide and jagged to better maim their targets, arrive at their targets with cannon-like force.
Candy	Candy doesn't show any outward signs of reacting to Lilian's private statement--save a few words in response that guarantee he surely heard it.      Through the gate to the former cargo bay, following Petra's mech forcing it open, Candy does a quick visual sweep with the shotgun, eyes narrowed in concentration. At first check, everything seems fine--so he waves an all-clear to anyone who might've been waiting, not particularly acute of vision as someone like Ishirou might be.      He takes a finger off the gun to drag it across a dusty conveyor belt, rubbing his fingers together to clear it off afterwards. When the group's attention shifts to the tracks on the floor, he follows, further and deeper, until... >Noise...!      Candy trains the shotgun on a staticky shape emerging from behind a long-disused motor for the conveyor belt--only for his vision to suddenly be full of red. Time stops. Candy stands three feet from his previous position, shotgun leveled on his shoulder as he eyes the explosive blast with the annoyed squint of a workman faced with a particularly petulant tool. Flames are frozen on the sleeve of his longcoat, which he sheds with an irritated frown. Another Candy stands in his place--the hair isn't quite right-- when he turns away. *I never seen Noise do that. So let's have a look around.* All around, explosions from similar circles hang frozen in various states, from just beginning to full burn, some smoldering into smoke. A quick sweep, to make sure everyone's okay: Rita, midair and on her way up to the ceiling. Candy smiles. Cantio, regaining her balance atop two drones as dying flames cling weakly to her. The Kana, standing strong smolderingly, despite the bombardment. He doesn't even bother checking on Lilian, knowing about her wish. Hisako, frozen in backwards flight, clothes and hair in motionless relief against unmoving currents of air. Ishirou, armored up, hovering up in the air. Candy conjures a playing card from nothing, and a marker. A crudely drawn waterfall is put upon the back, before he tosses it into the air, freezing in place before Ishirou's face. Patrolling through the cargo bay, Candy searches for anyone unfamiliar. The shotgun is pointed at several un-staticked Noise along the way, trigger pulled and pump worked to no immediate effect.     Time resumes. -A longcoat flaps briefly in the air where Candy stood. -*A* Candy takes to running for cover, shotgun blasting. -Ishirou finds a card fluttering in the air before him, depicting a waterfall--an extra offensive measure. -A second shotgun--the real one--empties its six-round chamber, to wildly different effect. -Seeming to appear from nowhere, blasts of pellets fly out in wide spreads, each one enchanted with an explosive spell of Candy's own; his attempt to mitigate the Noise's troublesome intermittent intangibility by simple brute force saturation.      The real Candy appears atop a conveyor belt, hurriedly loading more of that explosive shot into the breech. "Yeah," says this Candy to Lilian, "Would be fucked up if somebody other than some idiot in a suit got some use out of something, ah?" As if that someone weren't demonstrably trying to kill them right now. "This room's clear! Let's fight our way down--Ishirou, you see anybody further in?"
Stanley Padgett	Stanley is in the middle of the pack to the start of his nonsense. Yes, he's aware that everyone is expecting them to be ambushed. Yes, he knows that there are going to be attacks coming at him. And yes... that's definitely Stanley Padgett, caught in a firey explosion, his body evaporated into dust and ash never to be seen-     Wait, no, he's up in the rafters, panting slightly as one of his after images cooks away in what was... a very close call. He stammers a bit, and then spots the Noise closing in around the group, moving to start taking swipes at people. Well that's just not going to do.     The Fool yells out. "MERCUTIO! MASAMUKAJA!" The ghostly image of the giant fencer flares into being, and all of the allies in the party will feel themselves getting an extra spring in their step, the feeling that they can take on the world. A little bit more Drive to FIGHT.     And then the Fool yells loudly, that rapier coming around, and coating itself in toxic green pixel mist, as he plunges from the roof to one of the nearby cargo containers, looking to start swatting down the Noise as they manifest around people. "Let's GO!"
Hibiki Tachibana	"They don't know how to do that /at all/! What the hell!?" Hibiki shouts back up towards Rita, coughing as she skids out of the blast zone a little more scorched for wear. It'd be easy to miss the call, though, as her partner is one of the ones who managed to jump clear of the radius in time, and she's a little loud about it. "The first sword, like lightning, faster than the swiftest wind... The second sword, like a forest, as silent as a clear mind..."     Music fills the air. All at once, as it spreads to fill the room, the dour and static-hazed Noise begin converting into a bright and vibrant multitude of colors. Even the ones still in the process of phasing take on this quality, becoming decidedly more real. When she said that her and Hibiki would make it easier than last time, she meant it.     Which allows the shower of ranged attacks coming in to not have their effectiveness hampered. Rita's tangy blasts rip into several of them, and begin searing through their 'flesh'. Inside are no organs or blood, but simply more of the same mass, burnt black and half-crumbling half-melting away. Petra's heavy-duty explosion rocks the room and disturbs masses of dust, but swallows up a considerable amount of Noise to reduce them to nothing, while Hisako's arrows and Candy's blasts leave massive holes in several. What ones aren't obliterated begin slowly regenerating.     And the lot of them immediately are subjected to several of the smaller Noise contorting their bodies, thinning out into elongated (in)human spears that launch off the ground and towards them! Even Petra won't be entirely safe; the impacts are heavy, even as they violently splatter into carbon as they do so.     Stanley, Cantio, and Lilian carve a swathe into their ranks, what Lilian doesn't store away in her circle going flying through air and being reduced to ashes as it goes. Being in the thick of things is certainly where it's most dangerous, and the risk of being swarmed is everpresent. And swarmed they are, with Noise of various shapes replacing the fallen in attempts to bodily smash into the lot of them with the effect you can expect. Almost as if they're...trying to keep them busy and slow them down.     And finally, Ishirou's missiles add into the chaos, and the ones that don't strike Noise and are intent to trace down the source - end up flying through the gateway leading into the next room, which the map records as a packing room adjacent to this loading bay. As they fly, however, more magical circles apparate into the air to intercept them with another series of explosions, before shooting a series of actual fireballs up towards him! Focused sensing will detect not these same magical signatures, but /movement/ out of sight, beyond the doorway.     And luckily for him, Tsubasa is on call to guard against a few of those fire blasts down with a single-edged greatsword, skipping over lyrics to voice her agreement. "It seems we'll indeed need to fight our way deeper to find the truth here! I'll cover you!"
Ishirou	One option continues to stay with Rita, providing targeting information and continuing to support her attacks in combat, trying to give her the edge needed.  The other is ripped off, and flies towards Candy, aiming to circle around him.  It'll attach to weapons, or bolster his power in other ways if it can.   The explosion brushes up against him, and being partially protected helps somewhat, but that damage does still burn him quite a bit.  He calls out in pain.  He'll waive off help though, "I'm fine," he says, as Candy's waterfall card comes to him.  He uses it immediately, and the lingering fire effects disappear.   "Thanks for that.." Ishirou says for Candy, but as the missiles follow, so does he.  With Tsubaka and Candy supporting him, he flies out.  He aims to keep his senses ahead, but this time he waits for another magic spell.  Firing a spell of his own at it.  The magic he uses attempts to hack the magic, tracing its way back to the source... And attempts to fry the user, attempting to overcharge their magic reserves and cause a huge explosion to reveal where they are.
Lilian Rook	When the Noise charge, Lilian maneuvers herself right back in front of her circle, backhopping in a rapid zigzag pattern through the warehouse, clutter, weaving around obstacles without actually looking. Weighty flicks of her sword dismember the Noise that flow around the obstructions to charge her, flashing up through arms and tendrils only for the gleaming arc to mirror right back down and cleave shoulder to hip.     Those that take the slow way through solid matter fall behind, and are systematically shot with Lilian's brand new sidearm, with black-gold muzzle flashes of layered circles punching alchemically powered death through each exposed target, and glittering gold shells ejected with each rock of the slide, quickly chewing through half her ammo stack.     She remains there even when reinforcements close in, holding her greatsword in a mid-hilt one-handed grip so that she can slash and shoot at the same time in different directions at once, swivelling and killing with the precision of two ticking hands of a clock.     The purpose of remaining right by the circle becomes clear by degrees. The heap of Noise viscera that hasn't turned to ash is bathed in successive glows of white, red, yellow, and black, as the circle alters in design and increases in intensity every few seconds of hard fighting. For thirty seconds of combat, fifteen minutes of complex alchemy pass, cycling the reactive carbon elements away from the prima materia, until--     "Rita!"
Cantio	With Candy's inepxlicable shotgun blasts revealing the Noise, Cantio finds it easier to direct her attacks as she thrusts her oversized blade into another one of strange beings. The structure of the Noise is still confusing as ever when she pulls it out only to find there's no blood to speak off, but the crumbling mass... There's not enough for her to draw conclusions on just from that. Punting the halved mass away, she finds her weapon easier to swing swiftly, too, thanks to Stanley's magic, and she keeps carving her way through the Noise. Her supernatural durability and healing magic help her weather the worst of their attacks, to, and the music coming through the air keeps her somewhat distracted from those injuries as she fights along to the beat. One of the spear-like Noise manages to ram itself into Cantio's side, drawing a sharp hiss from her briefly before she slices into it and unloads several quick bursts of light magic into it at point blank. Naturally, that means each burst is timed with the music. "We can't stay here fending them off, or we'll just be fighting these all day... Let's break through once we get that door open!" Flinging another Noise away as more of them are forced to materialize, Cantio sweeps her sword around herself to clear a bit more space around herself before forcing a burst of light magic into the weapon, causing the blade to explode and send fragments into the air. They glimmer brightly in the air as they float instead of falling to the ground, shining more as Cantio keeps building it up rapidly, if not necessarily efficiently. "Supporting fire incoming!" That's about all the warning she gives before firing off a whole array of lasers through those fragments, sending them out seemingly at random all about the factory interior. The only hint that they're not actually being fired at random, though, is how they actually seem to be aimed at and home in on the Noise while curving around her allies. Once the offensive magic finishes blasting out, Cantio closes her eyes. It might be risky if there's still Noise around to pounce on her, but it's plenty of time for Rita to do what she needs to.
Stanley Padgett	If it's never quite hit Stanley before just what he's actually capable of, it's now, in the midst of others, being bolstered by and bolstering them. The Noise come in, and there's simply.... no. No, he's not going to let these things touch him. And he's got a plan.     Be fast, and be smart.     A bulbous pustule tries to beat him around the face? He's twisting to let one of Hisako's arrows pin it to a nearby crate and a finishing blow from the rapier.     A body check from a big guy? Nope. That's the wrong Stanley you've got. A flash of smoke and a copy is smashed into digital haze and that rapier finds its home in the back of the beast as the REAL Stanley comes back around.     Candy's getting boxed in? Stanley's there to bat some of the Noise away with a quick "GARU!" And a blast of wind from the massive Mercutio.     He's over to swat some Noise away from Lilian as she does her thing, though he misses the actual spell being cast.     The Fencer skips through the incoming fire from Cantio, and he even manages to look away from Rita as she Definitely Does Normal Human Things.     And the MUSIC. Oh, the MUSIC. The neon lights and streaks of Stanley's dance among the Noise move to the beat of the Symphogear, Tsubasa's music the tempo that Stanley's matching. "KEEP IT UP, EVERYONE!"     That's definitely a record sale, Tsubasa.
Hiromi	A bit disturbed by the lack of guts spilling forth from their wounds, Hisako pulls out a different sort of arrow from her quiver. A less imposing head, but it's the paper tightly wound about the shaft that matters. She moves to cover Stanley's position, watching from opponents behind him and firing into them, but her own position comes under fire just as quickly.     "Urk?!" She's grazed. No, she got away, almost. It didn't touch her body, missing her stomach as she moved to the side. Disemboweling avoided, it glanced off her bronze gauntlets. The metal is fine, unmarked, but the impact spun her around and around, hopping between her feet while landing, until she hits a wall.     The paper-covered arrow is held between two fingers while she loads another of those jagged-headed arrows to strike the spear-like Noise that had struck her before it can return for another pass. She moves on, then, scans the ceiling and walls, dashes forward, stops again to check, and draws the string back to her ear.     The snap of the string is the same. The impact is less, the hollow point having only a fraction of the penetrating power of the previous. That's intentional, of course. As the shaft behind it breaks, the paper is crushed against the target, the talisman unrolling and activating in an instant.     Other magic of this kind calls forth curses of fiery and frigid hells, or of stormy and thundery heavens. The magic curses Hisako carries are simpler. There's a secondary impact, much louder than the first, like an unseen, angry god had slapped both hands around the Noise, crushing it inward around the remains of the arrow, which is, naturally, reduced to dust.     She can't afford to close her eyes, nor to purposefully look away from Rita, but as soon as she has a moment, Hisako crouches low to the ground around some of those disturbed traces of movement that were in the abandoned factory before the arrival of the elites.     She's sniffing to pick up a trail, and to figure out what was here, if it wasn't just one of these ash-made barely-real monsters.
Candy	The music makes it considerably more easier--which makes Candy's exploding shotshell that much more effective. He grins at Tsubasa, giving a brief thumbs-up. The speed from Stanley is direly needed, with the smalelr Noise thinning themselves out like that.      It's everything he can do to stay ahead of the spear-shaped Noise, leaning on the extra speed to try and keep away, but finding himself forced to use every magical trick he can think of: illusions to draw fire away from him, skewered and dissipated into constituent motes. Scenery, scrambled over and vaulted, skewered through. Ishirou's option adds extra punch to a conjured, enchanted machete, as Candy angrily attempts to turn the spear-shaped Noise aside with the weapon itself or with the crescents of pressurized water it conjures.      For every multicolored spear he turns aside, another two come dangerously close, force him to cede ground, or knock the weapon from his grasp, necessitating another. With sweat pouring down his face, he reaches his limit.      "FUCK IT!"      Stanley's blast of wind puts him clear of the crowd menacing him, for just long enough to call forth a suit of armor. He gives Stanley a nod of thanks, shortly before it appears. Looking fresh from the pages of an early-century science fiction magazine, it is a jumpsuit in dull grey--overlaid with thick, riveted armored plates in art-deco bronze finish. A heavy, bulky-looking jetpack rests on his back, as an aerodynamic finned helmet rests in place of his newsie cap.      Wielding an obsidian tipped spear, he begins fighting back, turning aside the Noise with strokes of the weapon's metal haft. Arcs of violent flame follow in its wake, the strength of each blow assisted by motors loudly whining from within the flight suit.      The fireballs flying towards Ishirou all but confirm his suspicions. "Thanks, Tsubasa," he calls, sweeping the tip of his spear in a counterattack, before the turbine on his jetpack spins up and he's rocketed forward, following the same trajectory as Ishirou's missiles had, intending to plow straight through. A drum-barreled submachine gun bucks wildly in one hand while the spear is angled forward in the other, a reckless breach intended to ensure his passage through to the next area.
Rita Ma	"So that means someone really is controlling them," Rita says. "They'd have to be really close to cast magic here, right?" She appraises Hibiki's state with a bit of worry, but doesn't insist on care. It's Hibiki, and she's still standing, so...      The fireballs directed at Ishirou a moment later betray where, exactly. But Rita's eyes aren't on those. They linger on the growing pile of body parts in the magic circle. Her efficacy doesn't seem to suffer much for that distraction.      Lilian's sweeping arms make for the hour- and minute-hand, and with Rita staying glued to her friend's six throughout, the regular patter of acid bolts that emanate out from Rita make a fine second-hand by extension.      Waiting is hard. But Rita's a good girl. Any moment. Any moment... <J-IC-Scene> Lilian Rook says, "Now!"      Rita's eyes light up. The air around her whispers as strips of her jacket sleeve unravel, 'boil off' into nothing. <J-IC-Scene> Rita Ma says, "Ms. Petra. I need you to look away for just a moment. Can you do that?" <J-IC-Scene> Rita Ma says, "And anyone else who can... afford to not look." <J-IC-Scene> Petra Soroka says, "Yeah, I'll just--" <J-IC-Scene> Petra Soroka says, "Be over here instead." <J-IC-Scene> (NPC) Hisako says, "Oh, I--I don't think I can close my eyes right now, Ms. Rita." <J-IC-Scene> Rita Ma says, "Thanks, Ms. Petra." <J-IC-Scene> Rita Ma says, a little mournfully, "That's okay. It won't be too bad."      A half-dozen holes, each at least as thick as a forearm, skewer through the pile of dead-and-rendered Noise with no apparent cause. Their remaining vital force is extracted in a current of blue bubbles, draining back towards Rita along a half-dozen invisible pipelines.      When the flow trickles to a stop, the air whispers again, Rita's jacket sleeves re-materialize out of nothing, and a faint blue glow pulses in her chest before disappearing.      Then she raises her hand towards the remaining Noise. Her expression is flat and imperious, but a trace of a smile tugs at her lips. 'Mindless', Hibiki had said- but they answered to someone else, and so they'll answer to her, now.      Stop. I am your Queen. Obey me.      She points towards the loading bay, the source of the fireballs.      The mage. Go there, and attack.      "Thanks, Ms. Rook," she murmurs. And then, a little louder, to everyone who'd averted their eyes: "You can look now."
Petra Soroka	A second side gun folds out of the Kana's turret again, and swivels to face the Noise-spears launching in its direction. Automatically, without Petra's direction, the gun fires white burred pellets to intercept the incoming attacks, which stick into the spears and slow them down considerably. The ones that are hit splash harmlessly against the Kana's armor, though one or two still get through and rock it back on its legs.     Petra frowns at the computer panels, danger indicators popping up and being resolved by the Kana's systems within moments of each other. It's more than she would've been able to do, but it still feels bad. Her finger hovers over the manual override, but... wouldn't it be worse to look incompetent?     Instead, she ponderously forces the mech a few steps forwards, enough to get it out of view of whatever Rita's about to do. <J-IC-Scene> Rita Ma says, a little mournfully, "That's okay. It won't be too bad."     A shiver runs down Petra's spine. She turns off the backside viewscreens too, for good measure.     The Noise crowding around the legs of the Kana are making it hard to move, so she kicks her way close to a wall, and then conjures the matter annihilator side gun and points it at the wall near herself.     When it fires, a huge hole is carved in the wall, and the residual energy blasts out in both directions to disintegrate some of the swarming Noise. The Kana hunkers down, bracing itself.
Hibiki Tachibana	"Fearing the onslaught of countless demons Is but the water's reflection of my own immaturity Who will do it if I do not?" Awaken...azure slayer of evil, matched by none!"     Cantio's sword fragments fill the air, and despite any ulterior motives they're being directed towards, the Noise seemingly aren't intelligent enough to understand a super attack being charged - beams fly everywhere, and Noise after Noise is lanced through. Between her, Lilian, and Petra, the creatures are blasted, chopped, shot full of holes, crunched in (thanks, Hisako!) and quite literally annihilated from existence to the point that even ashes aren't left over. Stanley is an utter speed demon, moving to the beat, always where he needs to be. It's thanks to him that so many of them are able to do what they're doing so easily.     Though it also means he and the others are the victims of what Noise have survived the storm of attacks, many of them going for what seems to be a hail mary. Several of them begin morphing their form once again and smashing into /each other/, growing in mass and congealing together like slime. After some especially gross-looking bubbling and shapeshifting, the towering form of a massive slug-like beast becomes evident - and attempts to use raw mass to crush the lot of them as it writhes and roars. It's definitely large enough to contend with the Kana.     Until Rita, who may or may not be caught in that briefly, manages to reign it and whatever stragglers remain under her grip. Perhaps they don't need to think to be able to be controlled - as all of them, even the largest, turn on command and begin charging. The slug even helpfully (and destructively) batters a great portion of the wall standing in the way down completely, bypassing the need for the gate completely.     Which means Ishirou, Tsubasa, Candy, and Hisako, if she so chooses to follow the trail into here, can enter just fine. The wolf can smell it; humans. The scent of flesh and blood humans, here long enough to settle into the air.     This packing bay is entirely dilipidated like the last room, and should otherwise be abandoned. But the shadows on the far end, beyond broken-down forklifts and rusted-over conveyors, shift. Someone's running deeper inside. Away. And as they go, they almost panickedly throw an arm behind them, another of those flame-inspired circles appearing in front of their palm...until it's hacked and explodes, flooring them.     Only for two more shadow-shrouded individuals to sprint in from the doorway behind them, throwing their own arms wide. These circles, bright green rather than flaming red, visibly gather wind before unleashing them in twin, horizontal tornadoes meant to tear through the room, send heavy machinery flying around as projectiles, and halt their pursuers in their tracks in an attempt to retreat. Voices might be heard over the roars of air and metal. "We weren't able to put up adequate defenses in time...!"     "Just stop them here until we're finished scouring the records!"     For an ambush, it nearly sounds like they were the ones caught with their pants down.
Ishirou	Ishirou tries to block the incoming wind attack, but it was /far/ stronger than he was expecting.  He loses control and smashes down to the ground rolling.  He's bruised and bleeding after that, but he forces himself up again.  Shaking the dizzyness off he tries again.  He's got a plan already and he snaps a finger.  The two POD Bits surge with energy and start going into hyperactive mode.   What does this mean?  Bigger boost. Hisako said she's going forward.  "Tsubaka, Candy.  I'll stay out of sight, you support Hisako.  I can provide support from here, so don't worry about me," he says, roughed up but now ready to give up.  Ishirou throws up an electromagnetic field and grabs something large to throw in front of himself. Once ducked behind it he peaks a head out.  His hands glow as he waits.  The Red one mentioned something about documents, and he can't detect a computer...he's forced to assume it's physical.  He fires a bolt, aiming to initiate a biohack on them.  Trying to draw in on who they are, what they're burning, what's important on the docs, and so forth.  Anything he can get is important...while also trying to cause system shock from the damage they already put on them. If anything they can capture them.
Cantio	Taking a few steps back to regain her footing, Cantio holds her sword's handle in front of her as she recalls the pieces of the blade to reform the blade, glancing around rapidly to see if there's any Noise still remaining in the immediate area. There still are, unfortunately, and merging into an even larger form that makes Cantio feel just a little more anxious about keeping her eyes closed for so long. Even after putting her weapon back to together, she can hear the slug-like thing roaring and charging, and she braces for impact just before it starts rolling right over her, forcing Cantio to start shoving back just to keep it from crushing her under its weight. Luckily, Rita manages to get it under control, and that weight is soon off of Cantio before the joint pain can get far worse than it already is. She gives the okay for everyone to open their eyes, too, and Cantio finally does so, looking rather impressed when she sees the slug blasting through the door instead of rushing at them. "Good work! Uh... Hm. I wonder if that's how they...?" She looks from the slug to Rita to Hibiki, then shrugs lightly and files that away for later consideration. Right now, it's time to charge into the packing bay where there's shadows doing... Something! She can't quite tell what they're doing aside from casting some kind of magic, but the machinery getting hurled around is easy enough to understand. "Heads up! Er. Down!" Cantio shouts in warning as she brings up her sword again and again to slice apart or otherwise deflect machinery coming right at her, getting winged every now and then and staggering back several steps before pushing onwards through the storm. As she advances, the sword in her hand keeps glowing a brighter and brighter yellow, like she's about to fire something off that's vaguely recognizable as someone else's signature attack. Instead, she drops to the ground, then slides the weapon forward. It skids several yards before thrusters in the handle blast it forwards the remaining towards the shrouded individual, slipping in underneath all those flying materials. It stops abruptly upon reaching them, and then it unleashes a thoroughly unpleasant and bone-rattling bassy noise, bursting apart in the process only for the pieces to start flying at those shadowy figures to barrage them with that horrible noise from point-blank range.
Rita Ma	Rita directs the Noise without a word or gesture. Even so, it's obvious she's the one doing it. She stands so comfortably in their midst, looking a little distracted by the effort of command, and exerting herself so little beyond keeping pace with them and marking targets with her eyes.      She even sounds a little distant when she says: "How they what, Ms. Cantio?"      When the tornadoes rip through the room, Rita flickers ghostly translucent purple. Her body lifts off the ground by an inch, and her hair and clothes begin to 'swim' as if in zero gravity. She kicks off the floor sideways, phasing through the wall.      Follow me through the wall. Flank around and cut them off.      Rita emerges behind them like a ghost. Magnetically drawn towards one of the mages, she drifts into hugging range and sticks her intangible hand into their chest. The ethereal touch induces an immediate sense of fatigue and weakness, escalating rapidly towards unconsciousness.      The swarm of Noise who pour out of the wall a second later might not be so gentle.
Petra Soroka	The Kana body checks through the remaining scraps of wall, pushing into the packing bay. Metal screeches and bends under its legs, deafeningly loud.     Inside the cockpit, it's easy for Petra to become dissociated from the battle. Noise suppression, gyroscopic suspension, and atmosphere control, viewing the battle through screens, Petra can't keep her adrenaline pumping as hard as she would in the heat of things.     So when she enters the packing bay, with all its industrial equipment and machinery, she gets distracted, realizing that she hadn't actually known what a factory looked like before, and it's actually pretty neat. There's something so pleasantly tactile about a line of forklifts, imagining what they would look like scampering around with activity, rather than being hurled by wind magic directly into your mech's front port.     Metal booms and crunches, bassy from the sheer size of the impact. The Kana skids backwards, scraping against the ground, then teeters and buckles into a kneeling position.     "Who are these guys! Why do they have magic?" Petra yells out, annoyed, despite it already being established that no one knows.     The Kana's aiming systems temporarily fritzing from the blow, Petra opts to shift out ammunition, spewing white phosphorus all over a collection of barrels and crates nearby. She then twists the turret to the side, winding up for a swing, and slams it into the debris, scattering burning material all around towards the wizards. She's hoping to cut them off from the doorway they came in from, rather than hitting them directly, but she's not that precise.
Hiromi	Hisako slings her bow, and pulls on her gauntlets, after identifying the scent. "The trails here... humans? Further in."     She can hear them, now, too. Just faintly. They're escaping, and the Noise are less of an issue thanks to all of them running in the other direction (why are they doing that?), which means Hisako only really has to deal with the mysterious magic. Picking up wind is fine. It's something she can understand, and the incoming equipment is something she can see. "I... I can reach them! I'm going!"     The gauntlets oversized things, not just armor, but extending her reach as well as would claws. They slide and click into place, extending well up her forearms, apparently decorative lines faintly shining as she testingly moves each finger.     When the wind reaches her, she's already running into it, and stabs her fingers into the floor of the building to tear up handholds to climb up through it. Machinery rushes at her, and she sets her feet into the torn handholds, strains to flex against the storm, uppercuts an incoming crate, crating and knocking it flying off to the side. Her rush forward is far too straightforward, yet still rapid, eyes intent on the dangerous path in front of her. Through that combination of horizontal climbing and wrecking ball hand maneuvers, she bulldozes her way straight through the tornadoes and leaps to bring down the nearest mage in a pounce.     "Got you!"     Her teeth aren't nearly big enough for the same menace as Hiromi, but she she has 'pin someone's neck to the ground with one giant hand' down to rote reflex.
Stanley Padgett	Being fast and being scandalously stylish can only take you so far, and the Neon Fencer's luck runs out, just as that BIG NOISE forms up and starts to throw its weight around. Stanley's skipping and skidding through the battlefield, trying to harry the creature.     Until it goes dormant and docile towards the group, and lumbers into the wall, to bust over...     And there's just some dudes. Some dudes with Magic, but just... some dudes. Stanley's sword dips a moment, but he's still bouncing on his heels to the beat of the Symphogear's Battle Song. "...Seriously? These guys?" He calls out to the pair of wizards. "YOU'RE NOT EVEN DANCING WHAT IS THIS?" Oh and then the Wizards Are Throwing the Room at them.     "The man that hath no music in himself!" A hand cart smashes into a Stanley, only for a second to take its place. "Is fit for treasons, stratagems, and spoils!" A hand cart crashes into Stanley's torso, and that too explodes in a cloud of pixels, as a third keeps moving in. The neon streak of the Fencer gets ever and ever closer. "And his affections dark as Erebus!" This time Actual Stanley takes a pallet to the knee, flips and spins on his approach, but still skids to a stop, drawing his flintlock pistol, and placing it directly at a Wizard's chest. "...Lorenzo was right, this is a bore. TOXICRON." The flintlock goes off with a sickening blast of debilitating toxic gas, to incapacitate the RUDE WIZARD.
Lilian Rook	Lilian elects not to watch Rita without being told. Even though she's seen it, even though she wasn't asked, even though this was her idea in the first place, she knows how the girl feels about it, and she has better things to worry about anyways. She remains in place, feet apart, sword ready, head on a steady swivel, lashing out and cutting down anything that approaches through her entire frontal arc, crumbling Noise to ash as Night Mist strips the otherworldly essentia from their base components.     The brief calm bought by the Noise regrouping to combine is where Lilian flicks a release on the heavy-looking black handgun and exposes the naked gold gearwork where it splits down its center axis, venting glittering violet-black steam. Like loading a shotgun, she casually thumbs another half-dozen of those hexagonal metallic rods into the stack, and snaps it closed, and draws a bead on the gigantic slug monster just starting to move. One, two, three, four stacked magical circles overlay ahead of the muzzle, the glow illuminating the gold rifling within. Despite its old-fashioned look, something inside of it is whining like a mechanical battery.     But Rita is on time, and Lilian lowers the barrel by ten degrees. Only so she can watch where it turns and charges-- right through the wall to their real target.     Lilian reacts faster than they do. As the green spells are released, Lilian has already acquired, aimed, and fired. A slug buzzes through the gale like an angry hornet, painting a trail of flickering embers, punctures the concrete floor in the midst of the group, and then explodes into an enormous blossom of roiling alchemical flame, targeting no one enemy in particular, but drowning them in in fire and noise and choking sulfurous smoke (possibly igniting Stanley's toxic attack) at the same time as Cantio's distraction.     And then Lilian moves faster than them too. A section of smoke displaces itself separate from the rest. The woman in her armoured suit noiselessly appears before her arbitrarily chosen target (separate from Hisako's), sword on her back, and colliding with them through a shockingly well-practised low body tackle, aimed at the waist, that transitions into an agile lift, full spin, and takedown slam into the ground, positioning Lilian on top.
Candy	Candy trusts that Rita can handle any monster-shaped situations, especially big ones, and held that trust firmly from the moment he began his charge. He makes it through--but pays for his reckless charge dearly. "HEY!" It's all he has time to shout, before the mages summon the tornadoes. Stubbornly, Candy tries to thread the needle between them.      He is caught up in the winds, his swearing washed out by the howl of the two tornadoes and the roar of his jetpack. His body is tangled up in a brief and chaotic moment, before he's thrown into a broken-down forklift. Motors whine, and he wrenches himself free from beneath the hurled, dented machine, reaching for his spear and leaving the SMG behind. "Got it, thanks, Ishirou."      Drawing upon the extra power, Candy pours energy into the conjuration of more heat--building up for a massive delayed explosion at the tip of his spear. "Dunno!" He shouts back to Petra. "But we got our share, too!" His jetpack erupts again, carrying him after the fleeing mages--and with the augmented strength from the suit, he hurls it like a javelin ahead of them as Cantio's sonic assault begins. His aim and strength have it poised to land in their way--      A massive, fiery explosion erupts from the point of impact, away from the Kana and towards the mages. It's not so much aimed *directly* at them, as intended to hem their escape alongside the Kana for the valuable moments it takes him to catch up. As he gains on them, he swivels in midair around Hisako and Stanley to conserve speed whilst they take down their targets, then pivots to put his feet parallel to the ground.      Landing, he lets momentum carry him to the last mage and makes a series of rapid forward blinks through space to stretch that momentum out, swiping with the haft of a newly made replacement spear at their legs as he skids, metal boots striking up a stream of sparks.      A sudden surprise shift of his hips and shoulders mid-slide brings the butt up to crack across the temple, followed by a strength-enhanced sweep at the shins with his armored leg, and a clothesline with the spear. The aim is to ground them, as Hisako had hers--and menace them from above with the very sharp obsidian point.
Hibiki Tachibana	"They're too strong...! What does she expect us to do against--"     One of the three individuals (who upon closing in, are dressed in somewhat ornate and matching crimson robes, down to hoods that obscure their faces) is immediately cut off by Hisako unexpectedly barreling right through and flooring him right on the spot, leading to a brief writhing struggle as he just barely manages to slip free of an unbreakable hold. He barely stumbles back to his feet before Cantio unleashes her sonic assault, catching the poor guy while he's still recovering and throwing him further off kilter - totally vulnerable for Stanley to step in, and the magician to give a delirious look down at his weapon before the burst of gas knocks him to the ground.     The other newcomer who had come with him takes an understandable step back. This does not help when Candy comes in, striking low and then high, and the only reason he isn't brought low is a timely gout of wind to reposition himself. This, too, does not help when Lilian is an eternal step ahead, smashing into his physically frail-looking frame and then entirely pinning him, with a spear at his neck for good measure.     And the last of them, the one who was initially put down by the magic hack, is left to stagger back to his feet and attempt to simply run. Just to be met with not only Petra's flaming ammo being scattered over the exit, but Rita stepping out of thin air clean through the shower of fire, with a horde of Noise on her heel. "...A-Ah..." Though his eyes are shadowed by his hood, his trembling jaw drops and he takes several slow steps back before the hand enters his torso, and he goes entirely limp.     It's the second of these mystery mages, the only one still actually conscious, that Ishirou manages to easily hack into. One short minigame later, he's privvy to what's racing through his target's racing-a-mile-a-minute mind - before the shock sends him into dreamland as well.     It's at this point that Tsubasa steps forward as the situation is handled, giving the Rita-controlled Noise a tenuous glance before holding her weapon out sideways in a 'halt' motion. "...Not one, but three mysterious individuals who have much to answer for. This is...unexpected. We'll need to take them all in for extensive questioning. They mentioned records...?"     She gazes in the direction that they had attempted to flee in - but beyond just the fiery barrier that the Kana had created, there's the undeniable smell of smoke and flame from somewhere deeper within the factory.     If Ishirou collaborated that to his map, he'd be able to tell that's exactly where the mystery basement that really shouldn't be there had been detected. It looks like they managed to buy just enough time while they were all being assaulted - though maybe having prisoners to interrogate themselves is an even better outcome.
Rita Ma	Rita flicks back into solidity when the man drops. Gravity takes hold of her again; her hair and clothes settle down, and her feet get reacquainted with the floor. She grabs the limp mage's wrist and pulls him away from the white phosphorus fire, just for safety's sake.      "You did great, Ms. Hisako! I told you that you would," she says; her cheer is more muted than usual, but still sincere. She flashes a smile up at the fencer through the flames: "You too, Mr. Stanley. You're just as good outside your world, I think."      Tsubasa's implicit question gets a slight grimace out of her, but then it subsides. "They're under control," Rita says, tilting her head back at the Noise behind her. A bittersweet smile rests on her face again, though there's still that sense that she's somehow distracted. "Did you have a use for them? Research, or anything?"      If the answer is no: Kill each other. Only then does she seem fully focused again. <J-IC-Scene> Ishirou says, "Basement, I detect a fire there!"      Rita startles, glancing back further into the factory with her eyes wide. But she doesn't even know exactly where that room is. Who can get there in a hurry? "Ah- Ms. Rook?"
Ishirou	Ishirou has something, and uses his in to draw as much out of the hackee as he can reasonably do in the time he has...which is surprisingly a lot!  Thoughts are a lot faster than people give them credit for. "Alright...these guys are the Bavarian Illuminati.  Apparently founded by Adam Weishaupt.  They're local, and alchemists...which...is weird because their alchemy works similar enough to the magic in the symphogears to make it register as that.  We'll workshop that theory after I get some more analysis in." "The records they were burning were records from their operation here and some trade secrets.  This has been a workshop for them, so that explains why it wasn't bulldozed as Lilian wanted, it was privately owned.  I think that's where the basement comes into play."  Ishirou pauses, "Ooo alchemical basement." "Let's see..." he says, trying to go through the data he gets.  It's searching through memories, surface thoughts and emotions, other bits of everyday information, their fifth-grade science fair project...oh there we go!  "Uh-huh.  The data was on...us.  The elites who showed up about a year ago...which means, combined with what we saw here..." "They were responsible for the attack.  ...This doesn't explain the tip, but it does mean it wasn't a trap.  They were trying to burn the place and run, which means they may have been tipped off that we know that they knew...so either they have an insider who's playing both sides, or there is an insider and we have a traitor.." Ishirou's still looking through stuff.  "Something about a Master Yliaster...a lady...I...think she is the one that can control the noise.." he says, frowning.  He's trying to get more but he can't.   The connection breaks, and a hand goes to his head.  "Ow ow..." he says groaning.  "Over did it a little I think.."
Hiromi	Hisako is getting to her feet to grab the slippery mage, but Cantio and Stanley get in first. She starts edging, instinctively, away from the fire, while looking right and left, slowly tensing and untensing her massive gauntlet fingers. She gives the gathered Noise a look, but has managed to put the pieces together by this point.     'You did great, Ms. Hisako! I told you that you would.'     "Oh! Thank you, Ms. Rita."     Despite the muted tone diminishing the effect, her tail still wags.
Candy	Right when Candy dismisses the armor and jetpack, to utter a relieved sigh, Ishirou gives his warning. With a sharp huff, he gazes contemptuously down at the mage Lilian pinned. "Are you fucking kidding me?" He turns, then, to Ishirou. "Point me to it and I'll put it out," he says, handing the spear to Tsubasa. "Here, hold this."      Ishirou shares the map data, and Candy smiles, patting him on the head. "Thanks, papito. Take it easy, ah?" A brass cyclinder with elaborate labeling, a rubber hose and a manual pump atop it appears in his empty hands. He is then abruptly Gone, in search of the fire.
Stanley Padgett	Stanley is fluttering around a bit as he comes down from his battle high, finding a nice place to sit, decompress, and also drink one of those weird horrible energy drinks the Persona Kids tend to walk around with. "Haaaaaah. Okay, that went... welll. I think that went well."
Hibiki Tachibana	Rita's slight grimace does not go unnoticed, but Tsubasa doesn't shift from her straightforward stare. "I'm not doubting that they are...nor am I doubting you, Rita." Despite that, the tone she speaks in is a gentle one, and the weapon is slowly lowered. A shake of her head is the answer to her question, and she only sideglances at the sight of the creatures reducing one another to their base carbon components.     Candy jets off ahead of the rest, and he will thankfully find that the rest of the place seems to be devoid of any more trouble, whether Noise or human. The map that Ishirou provides leads into the heart of the building, what might've once been a place for heavy industry manufacturing - and with the metal flooring dead center of the room parted to either side in a clearly unnatural manner, revealing a stairwell going down into the earth below the factory.     That's definitely not standard construction.     And whatever lies beneath the story or so it goes underground is currently such a fiery mess that the flames are beating out of it all the way up here. They were seemingly as thorough as could be, which is short for 'torch it all as hard as possible without caring' - though enough effort will definitely still calm it down, eventually, though how much survives will be debatable.