Scene #8540: Work For An Axe V

Owner	Pose
Zero Kiryu	Bi, Kvaland MUSIC: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sSf1H2urhRM Cities outgrow their walls, and Bi isn't an exception. It outgrew its walls millennia ago, and it was only through careful tending that those walls continued to be an old relic that could be enjoyed at all. Erosion might not have destroyed it entirely by now, but then again it might have anyway, especially as a seat of human inhabitation. You are led through the city streets on foot by Finn Kato, a man dressed like he walked out of a production of a supernatural show set in Japan, who just so happened to be the deity of some obscure shrine. It's a bit of a walk, for an ordinary person, but everybody here is used to something like this... more-or-less. The pace is sedated. Finn goes as far as to produce a pipe and start smoking towards what you could only later judge to be the middle of the trip. It's this period of time where you have a really good chance to get a look at what this world is like. Though the size of it is comparable to a city on an unruined modern world, it has an old world feel to it. There are cars, but the world is made for walking in. The streets are usually brick, or cobbled, and too narrow for a vehicle to pass through without slowing down to a crawl. The strange mix of gas-and-electric lighting yields almost entirely to gas lighting for the street lamps, which flicker and dance, casting shadows that are as curious or amusing as they are creepy and alarming. There's almost no light pollution. The stars are distantly familiar to those who come from an Earth, but Polaris has ceased to be the northern star; Vega has taken its place. There's no great ladel to be found up there, either. The noise of people only rises above the noise of insects and small animals when one drifts near a gathering place; a pub, or a theater, or the like. Otherwise it's quiet, or the sound of wind or the distant ocean is punctuated only by chirps and buzzes and the occasional screech or bark. Take a look upwards, and a speck can be seen drifting across the face of the moon-- some kind of satellite, or station. There are a few moments where Finn stops and listens, not bothering to warn anybody why and carrying on without acknowledging it the first time. The second time it happens, he explains, "It's best not to ignore blips on your radar, but we don't go knocking down doors just because there's a vampire over there. We let the young ones do it a couple of times, to learn when they should keep their noses out of it. Embarrasses the nosiness right out of them." Blowing a ring of smoke, he grins and elaborates, "Plenty of humans decide that it's worth the risk all on their own."
Zero Kiryu	The dark-haired phantom continues to follow the group. From Raziel's perspective, he falls in with Finn in particular. Finn snuffs out his pipe at a broader intersection, putting it away in a sleeve and exhaling twin trails of smoke. He gestures towards the building that is apparently the place. It's small, relatively speaking; there's a curved driveway that goes beneath the next floor of the building, permitting the entrance of an ambulance to an emergency receiving area. Normal reception doors are set into the building a couple yards away, leading into the front waiting area. It is unlit. There is a reception desk, but it is empty. Over 700 kilometers away, a tall woman with an eyepatch depresses a switch that triggers a remote release mechanism. Several square-shaped chambers hiss as they release the individuals within them, glassy-eyed and stumbling. All of them are wearing hospital gowns, or scrubs, or the like; clothes that would just be lying around in a place like this. They don't have sense enough in them to 'look', but they can smell what they want as soon as they hit open air. Slowly, they make their way up towards reception-- by the time anyone thinks to try the door, one of them is rushing down the hallway, having grabbed a surgical saw on their way out of their former prison.
Zero Kiryu	Standing before the clinic, Zero comes to a halt. His attention drifts palpably from his own center of being to elsewhere, and then back again. In an instant, vines spill out from his shoulders that create a momentary curtain that obfuscates both himself and Yuuki. It falls away a moment later. Their outfits have been swapped-- white replaced with black. Taking a cue from Yuuki, he's actually returned to the distinct Cross Academy uniform for the both of them. "I don't feel like cleaning blood on account of possible sloppiness with ghouls," he explains, flatly.
Raziel	Raziel walks with the others, noting the ghostly stranger seems to be following in with their hunter. He's about to ask about them, but... Well, first they arrive and enter. Something seems wrong... a facility like this should have people. Not just running it, but inside. He looks around and a moment too late he can /hear/ something coming. Moments later, they're flooding in, swinging whatever they had nearby at them. Raziel is already moving, his hand moves up, aiming to grab the arm of the ghoul that swings at him, and takes a moment to shift his eyesight to the other side of things. Wanting to confirm these are ghouls before going all out on them. His claws grip the arm before he aims to reverse his momentum and toss him to the ground. Raziel releases the Reaver from his arm, revealing the large spectral blade as he deflects other blows intended for him, before reposting. Aiming to drive the back of the blade across the face of a nearby ghoul, and send it back into the group. He's trying to make a traffic jam in one of the entrances so that they can't all come in at once.
Kukuru	As always, Kukuru is here with the crew heading through the city of Bi, gaze mostly focused forwards to keep her head on the task at hand. She's feeling a lot better than she did a little while ago, too, thanks to what Zero's phantom had told her. Still, she's not going to risk messing up another nice outfit, so she's only taken a brief pause to disappear into a portal, then return less than a minute later with a longer gray jacket that's conveniently long enough to covers up the blood on her blouse and skirt. "What a nice place... It sure would be nice to take a good look around once all our work here is done." She comments idly while trying rater hard not to let her focus drift elsewhere, but... The sky! The ocean! All the ruined architecture! So many potential napping spots, but... No. Need to focus. She'll have time to do all that later when everyone's not counting on her to keep them healthy. The noises around them are the least of her worries, and Finn's reminder has her nodding lightly while suppressing a yawn. "Maybe they're good blips. If they really were dangerous.... There's plenty of us here. It's up to them if they wanna be friendly or not." Heading into the designated building, Kukuru's more than willing to head in as part of the vanguard, relying on her funky senses to point out the strange-looking people inside those chambers. "Do you think they're okay?" The chambers open up, and Kukuru frowns when she sees their eyes. "... They're not okay. Do you wanna help them?" She asks while starting to dispense with those ever-reliable healing nanites, spreading them around to the group as the ghouls close in. When Zero mentions not wanting to clean blood, she giggles softly while stepping into the path of a pair of ghouls to halt their advance with herself and catching them around the waists with her arms. "That's why I changed into this, too. I can just throw it in the washer later!" Ignoring the blows and bites coming down on her back (because healing is cheating), she brings her arms in for a mighty bear hug to just smush the duo against her in a contest of raw strength while keeping them safely away from Yuuki and Zero ('s outfits).
Timespace Riders	Sougo's hands rest in the pockets of his pink cardigan as he and his retainer follow behind Finn. Woz's usual outfit looks like he came in from some apocalyptic world or other, a drab double-breasted greatcoat with sleeves unbuttoned at the shoulders. The sedate pace bothers neither of them, though it might be hard to guess their respective reasons. Sougo learns to stop following behind Finn so closely after the first stop without warning, where he nearly bumps into Finn and Woz bumps into him. Plenty of humans decide that it's worth the risk all on their own. "Indeed," says Woz, sharing in Finn's amusement with a small, catlike smile. He doesn't like 'most people.' But that might be one of the things he does like about 'plenty of people--' the ability to live a little dangerously, a little greedily. With the building indicated, Sougo and Woz enter into the darkened lobby. The Demon King, in particular, takes a confused look around, making sure he's got the right place, pressing his face nice and close against the window... "UWOH!" comes his buffoonish shout of surprise as the door is rushed by a bonesaw-wielding ghoul. He scrambles backwards, making a sloppy deflection with his palm that sees it split open, and tumbles off of the curb in a clumsy retreat. Kukuru's nanites quickly seal the cut, as he and Woz both reach for their transformation belts. Woz transforms first-- Action! Touei! Future Time! Dashing! Durable! Deadly! Futurering Zero! ZERO!! Laid overtop Woz's silver and neon-green bodysuit is a cuirass formed of interwoven, thorny vines. The lens of his helmet bears backlit red katakana reading 'ZERO,' while the 'hands' of the smartwatch-motif Rider antennae are the stems of two roses. Square pauldrons bear white rose cameos on a red background. WHIPPRESSIVE!! A thorny green whip sprouts from a cluster of roses, set atop a touchscreen. Woz flicks it towards the ghoul with an audible crack, sending it racing towards the arm holding the bonesaw. The whip ensnares the offending limb, and Woz yanks hard enough to set the thorns painfully digging into skin. It gives Sougo just enough time to--"Henshin!"-- RIDER TIME! KAMEN RIDEEER.. (RIDER..!) ZI-O--ZI-O!! II! and shoulder-check the ghoul back through the door and down the hallway. Woz's whip tears as it uncoils. Summoning a sword for each hand, Zi-O motions with a nod of his head for Woz to join him. They both charge into the lobby and down the hallway.
Yuuki Kuran	Kuran Yuuki looks a lot more in her natural environment walking the streets at the evening. Besides Zero, they could be a pair of students from a nearby college. Actually, their college is quite far away, but that's the air a school uniform gives. "Wouldn't it be nice for things to be less risky?" Yuuki asks Finn as he smokes and talks of nosiness, looking up and smiling gently-knowingly at the man's bit. She had this one pegged down as a certain type, and the little jousts of attention were just showing fond affection for a certain kind of feline. Entering the clinic for the 'Professor', Yuuki marches right up to the reception desk (empty) with her arms crossed, the picture of a kpop artist strutting right to the front and peering over the dark desk. Her eyes - red-brown and large - gaze forlornly over the abandoned desk, finding a bell to ring twice. 'bding bding!' rings the bell. But service does not come. Instead, it's zombies. Changed into a black jacket and skirt in photonegative of her Cambion Club outfit with the same red ribbon-tie loosely spun about and under the collar tails of her neck, Zero's quick adjustment of her clothes doesn't take her out of the fight - but she does have to spend a second getting ready either way. She starts with a quick nod and a murmur of "Thank you, Zero.", before reaching back over the reception desk and grabbing the bell she rung and fastballing it at an approaching ghoul. Unfortunately for her, she's a key target and has a harder time sensing the ghouls than they do finding her in a hallway. She tries to keep her presence forward in the group, moving with Raziel to help his traffic jam become a clearing area. "I can't use my weapon because it'd just kill them all!" She complains to Sougo and Woz as they charge forward down the hall. "I asked Kuroto to bring me something he was working on in the day. Kuroto, is it done?"
Angela	Nikki and Tennant are taking up the rear this time--while normally they're happy to move ahead and take point, the frequent battle, travel, and battle is starting to wear on Tennant--and Nikki, to a lesser extent. It's more like a campaign than a job and the work is wearing on them. Tennant has been wondering periodically if Nikki's dream is possible while Nikki is tense and gripping her pistols tightly. This means that as the ghouls lunge at our heroes, they are father back enough to react more quickly and deftly avoid getting swiped by the minions. They place their backs to each other and lift up their respective firearms, opening fire on the ghouls--rapidly in hte case of Nikki, but Tennant brings more firepower and accuracy with their rifle. "Er... Is that so?" NIkki asks of Yuuki. "Well, we'll just keep firing until what you're waiting for is ready!"
Kuroto Dan	Kuroto Dan simply frowns at the ambush. Finn told him to stick with them, but unfortunately, he's got other plans. He's still got to keep up appearances, though, so he just finds the easiest way to temporarily remove himself from the scene, positioning himself so that when he's hit, he's immediately sent flying through a window, letting out a pained grunt as he flies into the night and disappears. Time passes, and the Game Dev doesn't return. Instead, a purple and black Kamen Rider just calmly steps through, his head hanging limply and bobbing around with each movement he makes. "Genm... Grade fifty." As he says this, he angrily rips out the gashat already in his driver, replacing it with a thicker one that he had been gripping on to tightly. There's a chunky clicking sound as it locks into the belt buckle, followed by an organ track that plays on loop until he opens and closes a lever on the device. Dual up! Lady of the castle! Bleeding red! Queen! Of! Dracula! Stretching one arm out to his side, a black and red mechanical bat swoops on in to split itself apart and 'bite' Kamen Rider Genm, forming a set of armor as well as a stylishly long cape that is now draped over his arm. Another round with the ghouls, and this time he fairs a lot better, spinning around and basically using his cape like a matador to taunt one of the creatures before following up with a 'punch' with the chainsaw end of his Bugvisor.
Zero Kiryu	//Are these ghouls?// Sort of. When Raziel gets close to one, he finds that it's talking to itself, very very quietly. It's not even really fully audible, but the mouth is moving and some sort of louder-than-usual subvocalizations are happening. Somebody with extra-exceptional hearing could tell that it's muttering what are probably thoughts to itself. In short, these people are a little more conscious of the fact that they're not in control of their bodies than most. They're also wondering what smells so nice. When they get hit they react in a muted sort of way; they don't seem to actually feel the pain their bodies should be experiencing. They go tumbling into one another, recover, and redirect around. At this point it's probably been obvious for a while that anything ghoul-adjacent treats other ghouls as 'friends', and this is an example of that situation. These guys simply don't get in each other's way or squabble. //Do you think they're okay.// No, Zero's voice answers in Kukuru's head, a little more sympathetic than he usually would be. Bottlenecking them works for about three seconds, between Kukuru and Raziel, but this place isn't small enough and the walls aren't thick enough to keep doing that. One immediately goes through the drywall of several patient rooms and emerges behind the attending desk holding an IV stand as a weapon, coming about on Woz's back even as he whips a ghoul back down the hallway. The bottleneck is more or less ruined by the alternate path, through which the ghouls begin to drag themselves. A few of them at the very back figure out that they can climb on the walls and start doing so. The ghoul that had initially been driven back by Raziel recovers, observes that wall-climbing is a thing, and uses that to scrabble over the existing blockade. He drops back down, directly in front of Raziel, and pushes in bare-handed. The motions are clean-- whatever process they went through, they can retain fighting ability. This guy knew how to fight uphill, too. Immediately, Raziel's ghoul tries to take control of his sword and push it back at him. Perhaps he realizes how strategically sensible that is; perhaps he doesn't. In effect, it doesn't really matter the 'why' of it. Kukuru, in the meanwhile, is... doing the thing again. So she's just kind of a convenient, stationary target, grappling with a bunch of guys.
Zero Kiryu	//Wouldn't it be nice for things to be less risky?// "I won't be around to see those days," Finn says, with a loose shrug. "But I don't mind helping set them into motion. But it'll never... be completely safe." Even humans aren't totally trustworthy among other humans, after all. After a moment or two, he raises his tetsubo, and the studs that punctuate the top of it lance outwards and embed themselves in the walls, forming a barrier along the 'ceiling' route and forcing the ghouls to take a somewhat more honest approach. There's still plenty of room for them to drop down from above, it just won't take them all the way to the lobby. The recently-opened side route is also a thing. The approach of Yuuki peels a few of the attackers off of Kukuru, who move in to do absolutely everything in their power to bite Yuuki somewhere exposed. Dan gets pitched out a window. Finn angles in that direction, but immediately feels vampire-themed powers blip into existence, stops, and decides that whatever is about to happen is beneficial to the group. Kamen Rider Genm, who absolutely isn't CEO Kuroto Dan, enters the fray and taunts the "lane" opened in the wall. Surprisingly, he's actually paid attention to this time instead of ignored for being armored-- because he smells like their target right now. A few engage him, get swatted aside, and then a third is caught by the chainsaw, yelping in surprise... while more pour out to pile onto him and try to chew through his armor completely seriously. Nikki and Tennant end up in the easiest position of the party: They are once more in the difficulty zone of dealing with people who actually do not care that there are pieces of them getting torn out... but they also end up advantageously on the peripheries. The ghoulish creatures simply aren't focusing on them directly, they're just getting caught up in the fact that there's a squabble surrounding them.
Raziel	There is a moment where the arm of Raziel is grabbed. The Reaver, deployed, slowly pulled towards Raziel's own body and the moment that it connected caused a painful surge through his body. The feeling of being inside and outside of his body at the same time causes him to seize. This, oddly, gives him a moment of pure adrenaline to force back against the pseudo-ghoul. There is a moment of wild reaction in his eyes, the very structured fighting style, and careful control in his fighting style are gone, as he grabs the creature by the throat. He turns, facing a wall, and releases all of his telekinetic force on the monster at once, aiming to send him into the wall with brutal force. Raziel disregards the Reaver blade, fading back onto energy on his arm, and grabs some of the rebar from the wall. He swings at another group, aiming to send him away. Anyone looking at him can tell he's /not/ okay. His chest is heaving, his eyes are wild, and he's absolutely /terrified/ by what almost happened. He's lost all control in that moment, and has resorted to fighting tooth and claw when he isn't using the rebar he's pulled out of the wall.
Timespace Riders	The symettrical pairs of watch hands over Zi-O's pink katakana lenses move rapidly forward. Visible only to him, a portent of a possible next few seconds plays out. Woz is struck in the back by an IV stand, so hard that he's knocked onto his stomach. The metal breaks in half, forming a sharp spear perfect for stabbing-- "I see it," says the Demon King, charging in to defend his retainer with both swords held in a defensive position. He intercepts the blow and averts the potential future he'd seen. But even with both crossed and in perfect position to block, Zi-O is pushed backwards across the floor of the lobby with an audible screech of boots on tile, struggling under the strength of the ghoul's swing. With a shout of effort, he turns the blow to the side, coutnerattacking with a snap kick aimed at the ribs. Quick on the heels of that strike, Zi-O turns, making two quick lateral slashes, one sword, then the other. Woz, freed up from potentially being floored, vaults the receptionist's counter and pushes himself into the air. The whip snaps downward as he sails over the enclosed receptionist's workstation, latching onto the office chair there. When Woz lands on the other side, he swings sharply downwards. The chair crashes into the ghouls running out to swarm Dan, hard enough to splinter into pieces which fly fast enough to be attacks unto themselves. A flick of his wrist sends the whip darting back towards him as he moves to bar the freshly-opened holes in the wall, made by his would-be ambusher.
Kukuru	Zero's sympathy is noted and draws a pleasant smile from Kukuru even a more of those ghouls come to accost everyone and make everything worse by coming through the walls and behind the group. "Then let's make sure we can help them, just like Yuuki wants. It's okay to beat them up really hard as long as she doesn't need to use her thing!" Once again, though, it's easier said than done when they start biting the hell out of her, giving Kukuru even less room to maneuver in addition to the general pain fromg etting bitten by so many ghouls at once. Whining and wincing at the pain, she shifts her tactics from trying to grapple with them to instead smashing her palms into them and tearing at the backs of the heads when they bite in. "Gh... Hey! Don't you go away!" She shouts at the ghouls heading away from her and scowling as yet more pin her to the ground, squirming a bit before grasping one of the ghouls biting into her sides. Eschewing what little gentleness she was trying to show before, Kukuru just smashes her fists into the offending biters before getting up with two of the ghouls' napes in hand. And then she starts using them as battering rams. Kukuru's still not any faster than she normally is, but hoisting the ghouls and shoving forward really hard with them should help her put some space between the encroaching horde and her companions if she isn't just smashing them outright in the process.
Yuuki Kuran	"You might be around to see them!" Yuuki calls to Finn, expecting and largely getting rushed down. The bottleneck works great, until the porous-to-ghouls hallways and windows of the front of house areas and honest labs create extra lanes of attack. Yuuki, hoping to be guarded by several knights, is still absolutely mobbed by a pile of biting, gnashing aggression. Forward hopping while a gang tries to reach her through a window and rolling to the mysterious Dracula Rider's side on his appearance, Yuuki gathers up all of the ones interested in 'her' by going back to back with the dracula caped rider for a moment, shoving off with her mouthmarked and punctered sleeves and kicking several away. "I'm glad you were inspired, 'Kamen Rider Genm'! Now can I borrow back some of that?" Yuuki asks, reaching behind 'her' back into Kuroto's side holster and drawing -- a spare copy of the Queen of Dracula Gashat! Since she had expected such a thing - and a powerful psychic - she didn't need a tutorial on how to use it. From her post-shove stance, she holds out the plastic brick with her right hand, sweeping her left over the top of the vertical selector so the Dracula black, white, and red half is flipped up. Glowing with digital gamer power, it emits a cheery-spooky report-chirp. Over the sound of rushing bats, Genm's Queen of Dracula theme plays again mixed extremely badly, and then actual voxel-pixelized bats sweep in from the roof to swarm around her presenting hand, keening and screeching with sixteen bits of sound channel. A shape takes form, black along a long and slightly-crooked shaft. At the top are two black batwings with red webbing and underwings, where a plastic greeeble acceptor port is nestled between at the head. Instead of metal, a digital white scythe-edge has a blade defined entirely via pixel ledge-'curve' impression. It even announces itself: Gaschacon Shinigamer! Yuuki's eyes twinkle with idiotic pleasure as she hands over the new toy. Zombies remain at a respectful distance as she hands over the weapon, twirls it about (this keeps the zombies at a respectful distance), and then as several come forward in biting fury begins - starts doing a gleeful hook-and-hurl of three zombies only to release the weapon! The digital gamer scythe sweeps out as a highly colorized boomerang effect, causing multiple <Hit!> and <Critical Hit!> on damaging contact. Bloody-red sprays and not sparks at all digitally spatter in an arc as it returns to Yuuki's hand less any Gamer'ed at ghouls.
Angela	Nikki and Tennant are happy to be in the bck, though Nikki does feel an inclination to protect the unprotectable--who also seem to be the ones least in need of protection. All the same though, their survival instincts are pretty finely honed to looking after each other, then looking after themselves, and then looking after Outsiders. Sometimes that shifts around into other positions--particularly with Nikki and Zero Kiryu and Yuuki--but the problem doesn't seem to be the matter of them being in genuine danger here so much as they are so strong that it's a problem. Kind of makes them think of Gebura when she charges in on an Abnormality and you happen to between her and it. Every so often, Nikki takes a hit from a claw or a swipe or a tackle. She seems intent on taking the blows for Tennant since she's not sure how much her teammate can take whereas she knows that she can just... Endure it, and worse case need time to recover. Tennant going down might be a permanent thing. "Just hang tight." She murmurs between spouts of gunfire. "Your welcome is chatty!" Tennant asides to Yuuki. "THAT isn't too strong right?? Because it sounds strong! It even does critical hits...!!"
Kuroto Dan	Genm Queen of Dracula Gamer Level 50 is doing pretty well until he isn't, as he's immediately swamped by a bunch of ghouls, a behavior they didn't really exhibit until last time. It could be that this gashat is having some additional effects, or it could be that they finally understand his godly talents are actually a threat to their well-being. The Kamen Rider chooses to believe the latter. There's a flurry of sparks that fly off him as he's overwhelmed for a bit, almost utterly buried until he works up the strength to push them off. He lets out a primal roar as he raises his arms up in the air defiantly, pillars of pixelated fire surrounding him and knocking the ghouls back as he regains his posture. Flicking his rustled cape back behind him, Genm snaps his fingers, a massive, plastic scythe appearing in front of him and announcing itself as THE Shinigamer! With zero hesitation, he loads his Dangerous Zombie gashat into the weapon, producing yet another chunky click as it secures into place. "Ha! There is never a moment when inspiration doesn't strike me, Director. Though I hope you can forgive me, the good mood I found myself in the other day seems to have left me. I can't promise these fools will be blessed as painlessly as the last." There's a lingering annoyance in his voice as he speaks, probably still rooted in his anger towards THAT sniper. Hefting the scythe over his shoulder, Genm grasps both firmly on the haft as he puts his all into swinging the blade, and just as he does, he lets go, the weaponized farming instrument now sailing and spinning through the crowds as the Kamen Rider turns his back to it. It's fine, it'll come back.
Zero Kiryu	The savvy ghoul fighting Raziel doesn't actually understand what Soul Reaver is, except 'being very similar to what he once used', but his violent reaction actually reveals that distributing force the way he does -- broadly -- is perhaps a 'safer' way to inflict damage than something more targeted. Savvy ghoul hits the wall, sags, recovers, and pushes in for the reaver again-- only for it to vanish. He's overextended now, and transitions into an awkward punch. The obvious alarm prompts vines to move in and run interference at Raziel's flank, which proves unneeded on account of the rebar swing-- but he'll still have to deal with the savvy ghoul's surprising resilience. Possibilities shift. An IV stand becomes a weapon against Sougo instead of Woz; the struggle is a curious one, because the ghoul is not actually as strong as Kamen Rider Zi-O at all. Rather, the ghoul is much more willing to use the strength of his body; there is no sense of restraint whatsoever, so he can stretch what's there much farther. Someone who moderates themselves, even a little, would naturally have trouble. The kick connects, ribs crack audibly, and the ghoul recovers, bringing the bent IV stand around for another swing-- this time at Sougo. Nearby though, Woz attempts to deter the group swarming Dan-- and although he scatters into the crowd, they're so hyperfixated on what they're doing that they simply live with the pain. They are THOROUGHLY convinced that if they get whatever they need from Dan that you are simply not a threat, and that it's worth the danger of keeping their backs turned. For their hubris, they have every splinter. All of them. It's fairly bloody, though not so gruesome; they simply leave the shrapnel in.
Zero Kiryu	Kukuru resolves to Kukuru mightily at her chunk of the crowd. It's keeping the main hallway from moving very much, except for Raziel's fight on the side and ceiling crawlers, but it is occupying a lot of her attention. Bashing two of them together mightily is painful for them, and they do appear to be able to be knocked out, but they begin stirring awfully quickly. They go from unconscious held-from-the-neck to mumbling and stirring and groaning. If she wants to deal with the situation a little more firmly, she's going to have to be nasty-- significantly so, as she'll learn from the wood splinters being used to defend Dan nearby. Shoving forward begins to carry her down the hallway towards where the ghouls came from. They must have had a holding area, nobody in their right mind would just leave them roaming around. ... But this process still involves bite. Lots of bite. It's a little more timid and reeling than it was before, on account of the fact that she is very stronk. Yuuki collapses on Kamen Rider Genm because she recognizes the stacking mechanic and has a shield symbol next to her role field, causing a sudden scrabble towards the walls and windows that spills out towards the street. It also splits the enemy pile so that Kukuru, Sougo, Raziel, and Woz have more rush to deal with because the flow HAS to go through them. The group that's rushing Dan and Yuuki in the meanwhile is literally scythed into by colorful plastic and not-really-stylized blood, prompting them to spread out and back off as they sustain vicious open wounds-- though not many that are outright fatal that anyone can tell. There is a vague feeling of unease in the air; they're getting hurt enough that they're having second thoughts about the food. When finally they muster the courage to approach it is only for Kamen Rider Genm to brandish a scythe of his own, and the looks on their faces -- as feral and strange as they are compared to an ordinary human -- are positively comical as they're mowed down.
Zero Kiryu	A cluster of ghouls being suppressed by Nikki and Tennant have a couple of them peel off as others are finally shot enough to prevent them from moving steadily. The two focus in on Nikki, though, sniffing at the air around her curiously. They've put together that there's something about her that's a little familiar... The first of the pair gets anxious and lunges at her, teeth -- though not fangs, it seems -- bared. A second follows-- and another, and another. She finds herself beset, and surprisingly perhaps (and then again, perhaps not) finds herself more than equal, but nevertheless something about her has gotten their attention. Simultaneously, Finn retrieves his weapon from the ceiling and slams it against the ground, causing the whole block to quake momentarily. The force of it is seems extremely selective to the ghouls, and puts them all off-balance, giving all of you a footing advantage. Immediately afterwards, a wreath of thorned vines emerges from the ground in a defensive posture-- perhaps in reaction to Nikki's anxiety, Zero has given Tennant a little bit of extra padding in this regard. The shadows around him look strange...
Zero Kiryu	An unsettling chill passes across the field... This battle is effectively won. However... How won? There is an observing presence. You will be attacked anew if you don't finish quickly. Kuroto Dan especially has an ominous feeling.
Angela	NIkki smells good! Nikki smells great! Nikki smells tasty! Nikki smells--wait what are you doing don't come closer?? Nikki gets tackled by two ghouls--as more close in, Tennant says, "Fuck off uglies!" as they clubs one in the head with the butt of their rifle and then fires rapidly into position, portals opening up before the bullets can hit anything and redirecting them towards the heads of her ghoulish targets--but they can't aim for the ones chomping into Nikki because they are too close--and as such shooting bullets in that direction is too dangerous (Tennant is unaware of Nikki's powerup). Nikki says-- AN OBSCENITY --under her breath as she attempts to just rip the ghouls off her body, one arm each, and smash them against one another repeatedly until they stop moving. Or they can't move. You know, until Kukuru gets a good look at them. Her red eyes seem to shine just a bit more under the circumstances and she pants for breath after, swallowing several lungfulls. She doesn't like when 'Abnormalities' get that close. "Fucccck...." She says, this time quite clearly.
Raziel	'An ominous feeling filled the air, I could feel some other presence watching, but what exactly they would do was beyond my ability to figure out at this moment. Other than danger... worse though, was the feeling of dread I had, the resonance of the Reaver rang through me. We needed to stop these things quickly, but the fear of what would happen should the blade be used like that again...' Raziel's eyes look wild for a moment, trying to overcome the horde of enemies slashing and striking at him. Despite everything, he stays ahead enough of them. Fading in and out of reality, getting behind Zero's plants and to try and get a better position... but quickly notices he is losing ground. He closes his eyes, pushing fear away, and growls. He tosses the rebar towards the more intelligent ghoul with enough force to try and impale him into a wall. His hand, the one that normally bears the Reaver is drawn, and the blade is once more back in his hands. He slashes, thrusts, and parries as he makes his way toward the (hopefully) impaled ghoul. This time, the blade turns a slightly yellow color, and bits of earth seem to orbit around it as he increases the density of himself and the blade... and then swings in a whirlwind formation, the blade attempting to strike the area with a massive heavy blow, similar to a great sword, as opposed to the longsword it is. Aiming to both crush and slash at the group in equal measure.
Timespace Riders	Faced down with an opponent sporting an improvised weapon with greater reach, Zi-O combines the shorter blade with the longer one, forming a greatsword. Sparks fly as he blocks wild, reckless swings with the flat of the blade, grunting with effort. Another of his signature buffoonish cries escapes him, as he sees the oncoming horde rushing to barrel -through- him and get to Yuuki. "Woz! Finishers!" Hurriedly, he makes a sweep kick with his leg to ground his opponent. It doesn't have to give him much, just long enough to flip a switch on the greatsword's weird crossguard (it looks exactly like the faceplate of his baseline armor). As Zi-O holds the sword in preparation for a shoulder-hip cut, the blade is washed out in brightly burning golden energy. That energy extends well beyond the point of the sword, until he holds a blade of energy several times larger than the sword itself. Pink katakana form along this blade of light, reading ZI-O RULES! KING GIRIGIRI SLASH! Zi-O shouts and makes the cut, swinging the massive blade through the oncoming horde. It burns as it cuts, cracking and scorcing the ceiling when the far end of the blade collides with it. A split second after the cut, every ghoul he'd burned suffers an intense, localized explosive aftershock. Woz, meanwhile, rapidly opens and closes the green gate mounted on the side of his Beyondriver. BEYOND THE TIME! A flick of his wrist sends the whip twirling dramatically overhead, encircling Woz with a mesmerizing display. As crackling red energy builds up along his leg, he cracks the whip. It creates a haphazard field of roses all along the makeshift hallway from which he's assaulted. As he draws it back, he leaps into the air, and it wraps completely around him, squeezing impossibly and folding into nothing. Zero EXPLOSION! Woz reappears a moment later, rocketing impossibly outwards from the first rose in the field. The force of the kick is so violent that the petals of the roses are ripped off, becoming razorsharp projectiles in his wake.
Kukuru	Trying to handle things 'nicely' clearly isn't working as well as Kukuru would like, even if doing so still involved ramming ghouls into other ghouls without any care given to their limbs in the process. The bites are really starting to wear her down, and her nanites can only help so much with blood loss and pain before it starts wearing her down mentally as well. With Dan thrown out a window and replaced with the mysterious rider Genm, too, she's soon realizing that a more decisive answer will be needed sooner rather than later, especially if Yuuki's forced to use... ... A completely different weapon? Kukuru's pauses for a moment to watch the unfamiliar device in Yuuki's hand announces itself before being swung about with all manner of confusingly entertaining effects. "... Oh, wow! That solves that problem you mentioned before, doesn't it?" Maybe she can relax a... No. She can't relax now. That's the type of thinking that would cause even more problems for her family. Even if one obstacle is cleared, there's still plenty of things that could come up. Best to smash through them now while there's a visible path forward. Joining Nikki in uttering CERTAIN WORDS under her breath (but not quite), grasps the head of a ghoul that's biting into her and wrenches it away, swinging it and herself around to get some breathing room and a little time to get her big dumb claws out and strapped to her hands. Instead of trying to fight them in the almost gentle way she's been opting for, she joins in the call for finishers from Sougo while settling down on a knee as Finn shakes the ground to create an opportunity. She stabs her claws into the ground in front of herself, leans back, then torpedoes herself down the hallway by throwing herself forward for a running start. Kukuru's advance thereon is a little on the clumsy side as she moves faster than she can reasonably control, just swinging her claws around with all her might to try and cleave through everything that needs to come past her, anyway.
Kuroto Dan	Without even turning around to face it, Genm raises his hand up to catch the returning Shinigamer, the weapon making a satisfying rattling plastic sound as he grasps it tightly. There's a problem now, however. Something is wrong, or something is coming. He's not sure, but he should probably finish this quickly. If he were in a slightly better mood, however, he'd have considered just letting whatever was happening go through so he could show how pointless it'd be to try and oppose him. Pushing a button on his gamified scythe, the weapon starts making an extremely abrasive buzzing noise as the blades edges ignite with pixelated purple energy. Kimewaza! DANGEROUS CRITICAL FINISH! Spinning the scythe overhead like a propeller, Genm eventually swings the blade through empty air, causing the surrounding air to tear as a massive, purple skull emerges from it. It lets out a horrible, rancid laugh as it floats in place for a bit, before flying through the battlefield and biting down on any ghoul that is foolish enough to get in its way.
Yuuki Kuran	Yuuki affects the harmless smol or fashionable student council president or visual kei lead singer often because they're images of gentleness, safetly, and approaching-normalcy. They're useful personas to show off, and to Yuuki, some of her favorite selves to be. There's no fun in meetings, no great joy in paranoid familiar-snooping and overwatch. Do you know what there was fun in? Games! Video games. Computer graphics. Bleepbloops! An escape from dull reality, encased in glittering graphical supremacy! GENM Corp had made a game(r Rider) that made scythes fun. And Yuuki swung it around with abandon. Joining Genm in his counterattach with a hooking and scooping, style, Yuuki takes great joy in guiding the group up around her. Working together with Genm, her <Hit!> markers leave voxel-batty lingering status effects on the ghouls that survive to retreat to the edge of the 'tank's' control zone of Dracula-themed destruction. While the Timespace Riders get pressed enough to call out for finishers, Yuuki is right there with them thanks to her new and very videogames weapon. "Alright! I've really wanted to try this, so I--" She leads in, shifting her grip from two-handed carry to left handed hold, right fingers moving to crank the gamer greeble at the top not three times, but twooooo times! Every finisher has to be shown off! The plastic toy reports a loud Kimewaza! Queen Critical Finish! but sort of garbles the word 'slash' in the mixing even worse than normal. Heaving her gamerified weapon up atop her shoulder, she hauls back and swings out, sending the scythe into a tremendous orbiter of extreme speed that leaves a long red gash across the whole field like a carved-open can in a single bloody moment. All the Concord allies - including Finn - remain whole! All the ghouls in proximity are hit by automatically generating bat-keening slashes that propogate out from the lingering strike-marks. Between the awful CGI skull and the screen filling with scythe CGI and bats, it becomes very Castlevania for a moment.
Zero Kiryu	The unsettling chill lingers on the air like the onset of night in a chilly climate. It was a warm enough day out, but the night is cold for anybody who doesn't live up in the mountains to begin with. Those who ARE seen outdoors are wearing coats and gloves, if light ones-- though there aren't many here at the moment, on account of what's going on. That chill watches closely as Nikki is bitten, and Tennant moves to help her. There are a couple of moments where they are under watch through the scope, their relative vulnerability considered, their possibilities evaluated. They know Nikki probably won't die, so they don't pay her much mind as she goes ballistic on them. Raziel is scarcely visible through the broken walls and windows, but he's visible enough. The attention examines him like through a microscope. It realizes he's not quite flesh-and-blood, but doesn't know what to make of it. He's not a good target, either, though-- and he hasn't been softened up enough. The fact that he can swing a "great sword" around like, cleaving open stomachs -- the ghouls are terribly good at positioning themselves so that immediately fatal vitals are missed, interestingly -- and driving enemies away is proof enough of that. Sougo and Woz are an interesting case. The presence of Zi-O is familiar in the way of somebody who is too notable-looking to be forgotten, but wasn't... quite... in the line-of-sight at the time that he'd met him before. Woz flitted about in a strange way, and was ruled out instantly because of that. But there is a moment -- one or two moments, even -- where the scope is on them. Nailing them from behind mid-finisher would provide a predictable movement path. The weapon fire never comes, though a finger hovers over a trigger as the stroke of a fiery blade smites innumerable ghouls and drives them away. The simultaneous strike of Woz means he's never a target-- though the field of roses is given a glance, noted, and catalogued for later. Kukuru is considered as a target because she has tried to keep relatively stationary, a guardian, a gatekeeper. If he was going to pick just one it might be her, because she's fulfilling a role that the group is leaning on heavily. She's even battered enough that he could do it. But... Even as she sweeps claws in a broad arc that spills blood as Raziel had, there is an ablative layer of bodies he would have to punch through. Nokken doesn't feel like taking a shot and having it be imperfect because of chaff. Dan is another priority role-based target, alongside Yuuki. Yuuki is too useful, right now, and not vulnerable enough. Her presence is like a lighthouse, and he could find it farther away than this. The colorful dance of twin scythes hacking their way through hordes, corralling and penning them in, is garish and aggravating through his scope. It was a good opportunity, Nokken thinks, shouldering his rifle and walking away. But not good enough to risk the encounter.
Zero Kiryu	There they are, in the midst of the street, bodies piled all around them. The group has stored "live" implants, the enemy's facility is bare to them, and but for a mess to clean up around them they have the opportunity for a reprieve. The sound of sirens hum and oscillate on the horizon, and at that moment... A white-haired (or perhaps just VERY blonde) young man approaches. He's dressed in a black overcoat, white suit jacket and a matching (but textured) tie, with black-and-white striped button-down shirt. He has a rather jovial demeanor. "Ahh, excuse me!" The young man isn't as polite-sounding as you'd expect based on his appearance. "Re-- sorry, Lady Akiyama bids you welcome, thanks you for dealing with this problem, and would like to extend an invitation for lodgings that are a little more secure. If not, that's fine! That is, you can just visit when you feel inclined." With that, he produces a live ferret from the inside of his coat, sets it down, and watches it scurry between the incapacitated ghouls to mill about near the group. "Just tell him, and follow him. Oh, uh, Re-- er, Lady Akiyama is the noble responsible for the affairs of vampires here." A pause. "So I'm gonna go," he adds, gesturing vaguely towards the way he came. This man did not want to come meet you, but it's not out of any disdain or disinterest. There are just things he'd rather be doing, and you're frightening. Having left what is apparently a familiar behind, he retreats, leaving the group to collect themselves, probably teleport the ghouls into something resembling decent containment, and retire.