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Zero Kiryu	AFTER BRUNCH, IN THE AFTERNOON... It is only a few hours after the Concord party has retired (or gone back out to attend to whatever strikes their fancy in Bi) that something begins to stir. Gudrun has been returned to her room, where she's having not-the-greatest time, but it's under control and she's sleeping at the moment. Yuuki Kuran and Zero Kiryu had gone back to bed because 11:30 in the morning was the middle of the "night" for them, and they're not actually diurnal. In order to ward off crankiness, further sleep was required. But anyone who has laid back down to catch a few extra z's or mi's finds themselves once again abruptly roused. This time it is by Maria Kurenai, who walks down the length of the Concord's rented floor and bangs on the walls with the head of her sword-cane. "We're about to be attacked, hurry and get ready. Get outside if you can." There is an odd feeling of presence surrounding the inn, but it's not coming from any attackers. It's birds. There are a lot of birds hanging around. Some of them are closer than others, and it's mostly crows. One caws loudly from nearby, splitting the exterior silence for a moment. But the silence lingers, because the enemy that's coming is a quiet sort. The sunny day has become overcast, and that's the only reason they're out at this hour. That, and because a certain someone's blood was shed here some while ago. Even with the danger of it, they can't resist the temptation to pursue that-- and that there are others who are still perfectly good food is a bonus. The empty stretch of land around the inn, one of the features for which Zero had chosen it, provides clean lines of sight throughout the area. The problem is that there's rather a lot of them, lurking in the peripheries, cleaning to the sides of buildings and hanging from eaves and chimneys. The look of these ... creatures, is strange. They certainly have a human form, and in passing you might not think much of them. But all have taken at least small pains to cover their heads and gain better refuge from the sun; not because it kills them, but because it is simply uncomfortable for them. Some have hoods, others hats, a rare few crude masks that give them the look of a halloween store serial killer. Their features are not bodily distorted, but they're using strange muscle groups and smiling strange smiles. It gives them the look of aggressive apes, more than vampires-- though the fangs give them away if you're looking closely enough. Some invisible signal pushes them forward, and when the first raggedy ghoul leaps forward on all fours the rest leap and run and crawl and amble their way across the lawn. At the very, very back some move more purposefully, slowly, clearly able to delay gratification in exchange for not being the first to get turned into a smear.
Shadow	Shadow isn't here. He's somewhere else. Brooding. This is a thing he does, he hangs out somewhere isolated and just broods. Isolated, but not isolated enough. "You need," says Rouge as she glides in. "To get out of the house." "I *am* out of the house," says Shadow, not looking at her. "It's a figure of speech, Shadow. I mean doing something besides your usual thing. Go and... here, go help the Concord group in the Director's world. I think they said they were taking a break, just go familiarize yourself with the situation, help them out a bit, then you can stop brooding." "Hmmmf... fine." Shadow gets up from the rock he's leaning against, and after a moment's focus, teleports away. --- Shadow does not teleport right into the middle of the inn. That's rude (Gerald raised him better) and also a good way to end up the victim of friendly fire from an itchy trigger finger. Instead, he appears in the empty stretch of land, from where he'll walk in normally. That's the plan, anyway. Appearing right in the middle of a swarm of ghouls isn't part of the plan. Shadow gets jumped. He barely gets clear of the attack, going to spin-kick the ghoul away and then dash into the inn. If anyone inside mistakes him for an attacker, well, at that point he's taking his chances with his speed. "And here I thought this would be boring," he remarks as he gets to a safe spot. "Do you care about being able to ask questions later?" he says next, as he goes to knock away any ghouls who tried to follow him inside.
Angela	Nikki and Tennant, with their respective EGOs, are largely centered around ranged assault. They both use guns and Nikki is carting that COFFIN around like it's nothing. Tennant camps out on the roof, laying on their belly as they aim with their rifle and takes aim at a ghoul. They pop off a shot and a portal opens up behind the ghoul and a bullet flies straight out of it towards the back of the monster(?)'s head! Pow! Tennant is wielding two pistols. Each time she fires off a blast of that gun, butterflies burst out of the wounds she inflicts. She backpedals quickly as Tiphereth, on the pad, acts as their superior office despite only being in charge of Nikki's team. "What the heck is this," Nikki says, having never gotten around to finish reading those files. "Ghouls, like in the movies!" Tennant, who did, shouts back regardless. Neither of them seem to think twice of gunning down humanlike entities but, to be fair, they are quite horrifying and neither of these two have entirely lost their survival instincts. Nikki takes the brunt swiping and clawing as she backpedals away, not quite relying on Zero Kiryu's gifts just yet.
Raziel	Raziel steps out of the hotel, frowning. Once more his rest has been disturbed, but this time it was by the vile parts of the city. Feral vampires, vampires who have not been properly guided, or their blood too weak... `I am not unfamiliar with this kind of vampire. Though rarer in the height of the empire, during its collapse and throughout my journey through the destroyed remains of Nosgoth, I too often ran into these feral ghouls. Fortunately, I held the ability to terminate and put down these creatures... like during my journey through the ruins of the Empire.' The initial attack caught the Vampire off guard, but not so much that it got more than a solid hit, as opposed to something with more purchase. The Reaver comes up, aiming to slap away the creature as he sends a bolt of telekinetic force at the group around him. After a moment, he's drawing the Reaver. The blade pulses, throbbing, and fills everyone around him with the sense that it's /hungry/. The blade, ravenous and deranged, sees the immortal souls near it and pulses with energy. It knows it's going to get a meal, and it so desperately wants to feed on some 'immortal' souls. Raziel seems to disappear for a moment, before appearing again. There is a flash, a flurry of strikes and blades will tear through a few of the creatures, aiming to strike through them as he lowers the blade. "Come, ghouls, I will end your suffering."
Kukuru	Unlike last time, Kukuru's nap is not rudely interrupted by the arrival of another set of attackers. She actually had the sense to take a nap early following their brunch, giving herself some time to digest all that food and get some much needed (?) sleep in preparation for what would probably be an evening full of activity. She's still half-asleep when Maria wakes her with all that wall banging, but she's not nearly as groggy and even manages to get out of bed without landing on her face! She's even dressed properly in a looser, sleeveless version of her usual white blouse and green skirt combo, and she's wearing sandals to really take advantage of the warmer weather. Peering out a window at the big empty nothing, Kukuru squints slightly as she starts to catch glimpses of the approaching creatures before issuing a warning to her companions. "Whoever's coming... I think they don't like the sun." She announces the obvious, then opens up a teleportation portal to the outside in order to begin intercepting the approaching... Vampires? Serial killers? Apes? She can't really tell, but it's probably not too important yet if they're attacking without demanding anything. The first ones to collide with Kukuru actually manages to draw some blood as a claw from one catches on her arm while another bowls her right over. Rather than trying to scramble out from under them, though, she starts closing her arms and legs around the pair, pitting her brute strength against theirs to see if she can't just compress both assailants into a single combined smear.
Yuuki Kuran	Yuuki Kuran, Director of the Concord and immortal vampire queen leaves brunch with smiles after drifting off into her champagne glass. Assisted out of her seat by Woz and handed over to Zero to retire to the inn, the eepy queen gets right back to her honkshoe mimimi respite, falling face-forward into her very normal large bed, and... ...LATER ON... She is once again woken the heck up. Angry, at the interruption, angry, at her lack of foresight to clean up after herself. She was always so furtively careful outside of her world, but here she was a bit more relaxed into routine. And so she let her blood spill, and now she was getting roused in the day a second time to clean up. She is petulant many times over, but she can't get mad at *Maria*. So she spends a moment getting dressed before exiting the inn, a wide-brimmed black hat with equally Halloween width, a black collared shirt and skirt under a white-cream coat that is trimmed in black that she wears open. Around the coat's collar is an untied red ribbon, two trails falling forward across her, while her long brown hair flows behind her. In one hand is a silver baton. In the other is her phone, which she is using to text someone. > Kuroto? > I spoke with you about the matter of Level E's in the past, during our interviews. > If you'd like to encounter some now, please join me. Sliding her phone into her jacket pocket, Yuuki advances to behind Kukuru as the healer applies incredible strength. "I hadn't thought to... We'll try to revive them later!" She announces to Kukuru, and also slides away her baton-weapon as well. "I have some specific help coming." From around the inn, black shapes prowl from shadows, the shade the feral vampires using for their own cover providing plenty of dark spots for four-legged and long-tailed bodies to dash from. While Knight and Kukuru receive the first wave, oddly-black wolf-dog familiars made of fuzz and shadowstuff lunge and run down the more reluctant second staggered advance, dragging down and gnash-biting at legs and ankles.
Kuroto Dan	MOMENTS BEFORE... A personal request from the Director for help? It's something he never expected, but it's also not surprising. His talents even among the most gifted within the Concord can't be replicated, so it'd only makes sense that there'd be need of them.      He doesn't open the message right away, instead choosing to bask in what he deems an accomplishment a bit longer, before finally reading its content. His devilish grin immediately fades away into a serious frown, and he swivels back and forth in his chair as if contemplating something...      Not that there's much to contemplate, it's the perfect chance to show off his genius, even if accepting it inches ever closer to completely destroying his kayfabe. Like a lot of things in his schemes, though, that was always disposable.      THE PRESENT... It's not Kuroto Dan, but Kamen Rider Genm that shows up to answer the call for help, surprising probably all but a few. Without a word, he simply walks past one of the ghouls, slightly shoving it aside and onto the ground as he raises his hands in front of him, a golden Gashat in one and his Bugvisor in the other.      "Normally, such trash would be beneath me. But I'm in a rather good mood today, so just this once, I'll help you out. Consider it a gift from a King... No, from God himself."      From the get go, Genm already sounds completely deranged, and his movements match as he just slams the Gashat straight into his Gamer Driver, the confirmation sound playing as he closes the Driver up and then opens it again.      Gachan! LEVEL UP!      Mighty Jump! Mighty Kick! Miiighty Actiooon X!      THE FINEST! THE FINEST! THE SMARTEST! THE GREATEST GOD!      A golden mascot that looks suspiciously like Ohma Zi-O flies in, splitting open to chomp down on Genm as it then splits apart to become a suit of golden armor.      Armor, that once again, invokes the image of the tyrant Sougo, what with its giant pauldrons and wrist strap sash. There are crackles of energy that pour off from the new form, and Genm momentarily buckles before simply brushing it off.      "Genm, Grade O."      The Rider can barely contain his laughter as he turns to the ghoul he had previously pushed down, picking them up by the shoulder as points the barrel end of his Bugvisor into the creature's gut.      "Rejoice, as through my blessing, you'll get to live forever."      With a pull of the weapon's trigger, he fires a dark blast directly into its gut, not even bothering to look at it as it flies off from the impact.
Zero Kiryu	No one will blame you for turning these to dust, but there are things to be gained from not doing so, Zero Kiryu's voice answers Shadow's question in his mind. He's not actually anywhere immediately around that can be observed, more than likely. This isn't strictly true, a lot of the plant life is him, but it's not particularly obvious. They aren't, and cannot be, in their right minds. While we are working on reversing this sort of degeneration, they are effectively trapped in their bodies on autopilot. It is not really necessary to enter the inn to fight; it's probably better to fight outside, but actually getting inside isn't really hard. It's just doors and windows of a completely normal variety. Kicking the ghoul away isn't too difficult once he's clear of its hands-- it has normal mass and weight for what it is, which is a somewhat emaciated human in most regards. //What the heck is this?// In order to create a vampire, Zero explains in her mind, certain subspecies of vampires must bite a human. This process is unstable, and is only completed if the parent vampire feeds their would-be thrall their blood to stabilize them. Otherwise, they experience a form of body-mind degeneration that locks them into the passenger seat of their own body. Essentially, they are vampires with a terminal degenerative disease that makes them attack without reservation.
Zero Kiryu	A group of ghouls DO try to follow Shadow inside, being repelled by presumably some fancy spin-dash that sends them tumbling end-over-end across the lawn. They're pretty durable to this sort of beating, though, it seems like-- they flip back onto their feet and prowl to one side, trying to get a bead on a good approach vector. They don't seem bothered by the sun in a particularly immediate sense, so it's confirmed they just don't like it. Gunfire works better; shooting one in the back of the head causes it to turn to dust, which scatters across the lawn. They care a lot less about any wound that doesn't hit them in what would be instantly and irrevocably fatal to a human, though-- a limb lost or a weird butterfly wound anywhere but heart-or-head just causes stagger and recovery, followed by a violent leap to try to catch up to their attackers-- and they can leap pretty far. A couple hit the roof and go after Tennant with elongated claws, slashing wildly. They're not very coordinated, but they are strong. Raziel, though he closes in and starts to slash at the feral vampires, finds that they don't really have souls as such. A glimpse into the spirit world reveals the abomination for what it really is-- there's a person there, but it's more that there's a signal being bounced from this world to the next. For practical purposes they're already dead, but they can't go anywhere while their body's still alive. It's not like an ordinary undead vampire; there's no control, just a kind of brutal, imprisoning sympathy. Gudrun isn't nearly this far gone yet, even though her condition is "like" this one. On the upside, these are vastly less immortal vampires than some, and Raziel is well-equipped to kill them besides. It only takes one well-placed stab to dust them. Their danger seems to be in numbers, though-- there's quite a few of them out here, and when he dives through two there's a third to try to bite him, not actually knowing that he doesn't have real blood. The blood that is shed from Kukuru immediately re-orients a significant majority of the ghouls towards her, though; a good dozen of them crawl out of the woodworks from every direction to try to pile onto her. The two that she grabs and hydraulic presses turn to dust after mere moments, but the remaining ten are still troublesome-- and bitey. Yuuki's swarm of familiars simplifies things substantially however-- the ghouls don't usually want or need to go after animals, so they don't even react to them defensively when they're on the approach. A great number of them end up gummed up, grounded, and wounded on the ground, beginning to kick wildly and claw at the soil to try to drag themselves up and away to nearly no avail.
Zero Kiryu	Zero Kiryu is already awake because he doesn't sleep as easily as Yuuki does to begin with. He doesn't actually go anywhere though, sitting up in bed and observing through a multitude of his plants while Yuuki dresses. His attention swivels off of the "Level E" vampires outside to Yuuki as he notices what she's wearing. "Eventually, I'll be able to predict what you intend to wear," he says. He insists on not reading her mind for this sort of thing. Maria Kurenai falls in beside Yuuki, and simultaneously the birds outside quiet. When everyone begins engaging, the birds descend upon the battlefield in a screeching mass, harassing the ghouls from above-- they're very careful not to ENDANGER themselves however. They're very opportunistic and clever crows. The crowd of feral vampires is only a little thinned, though. There might be more of the damn things than you know to be hunters in the whole city, and a small contingent of them literally scrabble over the top of their familiar-grounded fellows to try to tackle-jump Yuuki and Maria. The ghoul that Dan is handling... reacts with utter bafflement, because it is the rough equivalent of a luchadore bursting through the wall, pushing you to the floor, and then shooting you with a toy gun that is legally required to have an orange cap on the end. It just has absolutely no idea how to parse this, its mouth hanging open in horrified wonderment as it is shot and sent flying. Thankfully, gutshots are only fatal sometimes, and 'sometimes' is good enough not to dust this guy, but he skips along the ground like a smooth stone thrown across calm waters until he hits a wall. In response to this, one of the ghouls at the back that had diverted attention to Yuuki and Maria -- and one of the few wielding a WEAPON -- swings a streetsign at Dan's head.
Kukuru	'I hadn't thought to... We'll try to revive them later!' "Mhm! So we just need to make sure not to pulverize them too bad, or throw them into the ocean or whatever." Kukuru affirms to Yuuki with a confident noise. Hearing that there's more specific help coming certainly gets her attention, and she doesn't even have to wait long before she hears who it is that Yuuki's talking about it. It's... "... Oh! I remember you. You were there to help Sougo and Woz!" Sounding pleasantly... Surprised? No, just pleased in general, Kukuru turns away from the ghouls dusted in her grip for a moment to wave at Genm cheerfully. She looks confused when she can't seem to find those first two anymore, but she won't fret about that now when there's even more ghouls coming to pile onto her. Considering that Kukuru was already fighting from the ground in the first place, this proves to be a pretty bad position to be in. It might even look like the end for her at first as the group of ten swarm her, but... For once, Kukuru's got a plan! If she's meant to try taking them alive, then simply applying her brute force to these ghouls might not be the best idea. Zero's previous subdual of Gudrun clues her in on what she can do with the powers he's granted, though, and she starts to produce that powdery soporific substance all over herself at a rapid-ish pace. Said plan still involves letting the ghouls start biting her, and that's awful, but it does also mean she can gamble on the substance kicking in before her healing stops being able to keep up with all that biting. "Easy, easy... You'll feel better soon, so just keep breathing and settle down...!"
Raziel	Raziel discusses the creatures on the tactical band. He's learning a little, about the differences between his vampires and these. The reason Dan is really here, and the benefits he wishes to test. He pauses, though, finally seeing clearly enough into the spirit world. To see what is happening. 'What is left behind is worse than what we experienced at home. At home, we still remained ourselves... there was no need to complete a cycle. When you became a vampire, you were a vampire. What I see here, are souls trapped as prisoners. These creatures are mindless and soulless... but clever enough to fit 'just enough' to survive in society. Kuroto would save who he could... but I would free the rest.' Raziel is careful with his blade. Though he would willingly dust a ghoul, he would avoid their chained soul. Willingly avoiding the reaver from feeding, and likely frustrating the blade. This, however, unrestricted him a great deal. They swing, coming at him as he moves. One step ahead of each strike, each blow... even though that sheer number means that the occasional scratch gets through. He looks at each person's soul, talking through the veil at them. "Take heart, today you will be free to choose to live or to pass on today. Hold onto any hope you can find." Once more, he moves, as if shifting from tangible to intangible. Eventually, however, he brings the sword up and releases a burst of elemental wind to force them back. This is followed by a strike from three different directions on each one. Two aiming for the head, and one for the heart.
Shadow	"So these things were made when a creature of the night turned a human... but didn't close the circle. Didn't offer any of their power back." "How very selfish. The one thing those in power fear, is losing any of it." <Tac-Concord> [4] Genm says, "You are free to clean up the ones I've already personally blessed... I mean the ones I've hit, if that wasn't clear." "So they need to be 'blessed' first... let's see if we can speed this up." Shadow grasps the green gem he's got with him. "Chaos-" And then he's gone. Where he's gone and what he's doing aren't clear at first, until the sound of a revved-up engine, along with Johnny Cash blaring at top volume, both rapidly approach. Someone taking a joyride? Across the middle of a battlefield? And then pickup truck bursts into the open area from a side street, with Shadow in the driver's seat. He turn the wheel sharply - the truck's tires dig into the grass and dirt, leaving deep ruts that are only slightly less unsightly than the ghouls, and the truck drifts across the area as it cuts through the mass of ghouls, driving over some but knocking most of those it hits up into the air, where they land unneatly in the open bed of the truck. The truck goes from drifting to spinning out, seemingly uncontrollably flying towards Genm's location - right until it comes to a screeching halt mere feet away from him, and with the truck's bed pointed roughly towards the Rider. Shadow, entirely casually, leans out of the truck's open window, shouting to be heard over Ring of Fire. "Hurry up and bless these, then," he calls.
Angela	While Nikki and Tennant are happy to not kill people if given the opportunity, they will absolutely dust someone if it means the difference between their well being and their demises. While they can bank on Kukuru to ressurect them if it is convenient for her, it isn't something that always happens and employees are instructed not to rely on Kukuru's miracles--or anyone else's. Happy accidents, not part of standard operating procedure. Still, the idea that these people are essentially slaves to the power within them is not something lost on the two of them. "Don't like it." Tennant says. "Well they're only slowing down to anything but a killshot. What are we supposed to do?" Nikki counters. They mention the possibility of reviving them later and that helps them relax a little. If they can be revived--if that's hte plan--they just need to not, you know, murder them too hard? Tnenant takes a thick clawed swipe across the face that thankfully misses their eyes and they stumble back firing wildly with their rifle resulting in several bullets appearing through portals and closing in directly on the ghoul on them. "Thankfully we don't have to worry about running out of bullets," Tennant mutters. Nikki tries to focus on the wounded vampires, gunning for their legs so they are prevented from leaping and lunging--or at least heavily discouraged from doign so. If they don't have to kill them--she won't.
Yuuki Kuran	Yuuki understands how effective applying a whole bunch of familiars to a problem is, and there's no actual points or score to be won for using 'fair' attacks. And when her instinct is instead to either continually wave her hands and make atrocious ground attacks and psychokinetic explosions to sweep away problems, or, to become an anime punch-kick idiot with a power pole... for feral vampires, she mostly wants to dismiss them with her mind and get back to what she was doing. In this case, sleeping. Instead, with Maria at her side, and feeling well-surrounded by friends and allies, she lets her familiars do their unfair-attack work. It's devastatingly effective, and why not? The familiars aren't food, and aren't shaped like food, and it's just one more reason why the highest class of Vampire in this world was not even really on 'need to negotiate' terms with the lower tiers. Everything was very tilted, one-sided, unfair. Yuuki was mad enough to want to change that. Those ghouls that properly react to her ground mire of wolves and leap over to her and Maria land cleanly and dramatically, bearing Yuuki down, as beneath her active notice individually as her familiars were to them. The momentarily unthinkable effectiveness of the fercious ghoul is stymied only by the knee she snaps up between her and the oncoming body, bracing the scrabbling, biting, thrashing ghoul in tasting range of her blood on the chest. Jacket ripped and scratched, shirt beneath opened and her skin dragged with razor-lines of weeping red, it takes her a moment just to get her leverage and react, emotional in the heartbeats of her pouncing. She goes back to a memory, a field of snow and a black-wooded forest, and--is so much stronger now than before. She hears the thoughts, senses the movements of her allies around her, pushing off and away with her braced leg to gain a breathing-space from the ghoul that had spooked her. Her eyes, cardinal red, shine from beneath her face-fallen bangs. Shadow has the right idea, why not use it? And she knows just how to phrase it to one knight. Kipping up with an agile hop from ground to crouch and then standing, Yuuki raises her voice. "Tennant, Nikki - guide them to Genm! And Raziel? It's a block puzzle." Lunging at the ghoul that had pinned her and carrying forward her momentum, Yuuki rolls with the ghoul one more time at full-force speed to throw out the ghoul towards the GAMER GOD of plastic luchadores, Kamen Rider Genm. "Let us all give thanks to God," Kami-sama comes easily to her bastard Sweede-Japanese, but hits a bit like 'saymuh'. Such is the cost of her using a title to goose her chosen ally a little more. He enjoys it so much, and she can tell. "-for his great blessings making this pain easier!"
Kuroto Dan	Genm takes a moment to look over his Bugvisor as he hears the approach of a ghoul approaching him. He's completely disinterested, however, even as the street sign approaches ever so slightly closer to his head.      Right when it's about to, however, time seemingly stops around him and then corrects itself, though the head of sign is now caught between the two fingers of the Rider's free hand. The purple and gold rider just clicks his tongue multiple times in a chiding manner, before placing the barrel of his weapon squarely against the monster's gut and pulls the trigger, letting out yet another stream of dark, condensed energy that sends them reeling as he then tosses the captured signpost back at the ghoul.      "Aaahahahahaha! That's right, praise me! Worship me! Today's bad ending will be subverted through my loving embrace!"      He's eating every bit of praise up. And why shouldn't he? He's either prim and proper or cold and nasty, so it's only natural to revel in showing off a side of him that rarely gets to be seen. A side that should be seen more, but unfortunately, the world is not yet ready for.      As Shadow and the rest line up more targets, Genm simply lets out another dry, throaty laugh that turns into a cough halfway, before simply sweeping his gun and firing a hail of beams across the crowd of failed vampires in a manner similar to a music conductor. As he finishes, he simply turns his back towards the group, now bowing to an invisible audience as he soaks up the imaginary applause.
Zero Kiryu	Since she can hear the ongoing plans to save the level Es, Maria Kurenai actually recedes from proper combat and scoops the strange crystalline dust that's left behind when they actually get fatally injured. She's not sure it'll actually help, but she knows well enough to know that Yuuki has a habit of spinning impossibilities into improbabilities. Kukuru lets herself be bitten. The actual experience of the bite isn't as painful as you would expect; there's probably some sort of injection-point numbing effect going on here. However, the feeling of having blood sucked -- especially from so many different ravenous creatures -- isn't great. Thankfully, they are plenty susceptible to being poisoned from the tap, and the ones that are biting her blink and withdraw, falling backwards onto the ground and just sort of zoning out. ... But the ones right behind them don't seem to recognize the danger. "They're asleep," says a soul that is already passed, striding through the carnage and pausing a few yards away from Raziel. "The ones that aren't can pretend to be people, for a while. That's when they're most dangerous. The worst are the ones who were already predatory in life, and who simply have their already lacking restraints lifted the rest of the way. They don't even realize they can't not do what they're doing until they start eating somebody who was an exception to them before." This guy looks familiar... Ferals are cut down around him. The souls seem partially roused by this, closed 'eyes' beginning to open, but they're not lucid at once. One of the strangely cautious rear-guard guys... cocks a gun and shoots at Raziel? What the hell? "He's a feral, even though he doesn't look like it. Be careful." //How very selfish. The one thing those in power fear, is losing any of it.// There is no loss. The selfishness runs deeper than that, Zero's psychic presence answers. As it happens, the whole 'mass is still a problem for these' thing applies to trucks, and Shadow's maneuver is plenty enough to stagger a good dozen of the ferals and pile them into the back of the truck. The actual available music is weird, though. Very j-pop, but the lyrics only make sense if he's leaning on the translation effect, because the language only uses Japanese syllables and not the actual language overall. Another of the "rear guard" ferals pulls a shotgun out of his coat and fires it towards the cab of Shadow's truck.
Zero Kiryu	What is preferable is what is preferable, Zero's psychic presence answers Nikki and Tennant, but we do not expect you to die for our ideal outcome. Preserve your own lives first. Not that Nikki actually has a problem there, but Zero half-assumes that she doesn't want anybody to know that yet. Tennant thankfully guns down the ghoul right in front of him, and not that many have gone for the roof at all-- but shortly after a ghoul with a rifle appears at the peripheries and opens fire on the roof, clearly trying to SUPPRESS the two, even as Nikki successfully downs vampires that weren't already having trouble and keeps down others that were on account of bites from Yuuki's familiars. Yuuki artfully yeets her attacker into the back of a pick-up truck. This is a reasonable world, so the pick-up truck is actually a normal-sized utility truck that fits on a sane city's streets. That is to say, the vampires are going to start overflowing from this thing soon. Dan should probably tag them all if he wants to digitize them. A little bit of gothic catch-and-release. From the outfield, yet another suspiciously lucid tool-using feral sprints across the backs of pinned ferals with something in his hand. It's a goddamn pipe bomb. If Raziel takes a look at these 'weirdly lucid' ferals, they seem to be in about the state that the phantom just described: The soul's checked in, but it doesn't have a say in what's going on, so the body can still leech something like sapience out of them but it's "fake". Kamen Rider Genm is having a good time styling on ghouls, who on top of everything else do not have an incentive to actually attack him because he does not appear to be food. After the one with the signpost is blasted with energy, it is KOed with the signpost, and just lies on the grass, insensate while Dan tags all of the vampires that had been collected by Shadow and a few others beside. A heavy CRACK rings out from what must be at least a mile away, an anti-material round barreling down at Dan's chest. The nearby ferals are actually avoiding him on account of him not being food.
Zero Kiryu	MEANWHILE... One single scratch has been put on Yuuki, and Zero has had about enough of that happening for the last couple of days. Immediately after the smallest droplet of blood hits the air (and consequently, his range of smell, because he's just inside) the veritable garden of vines that have spread throughout the grounds across the last two days becomes... active, and thorned. They rise in undulating masses, moving in concert with each individual on the battlefield and striking simultaneously with their next aggressive motions.
Shadow	The music is... weird, yes. Shadow hasn't really taken the time to learn how to work the radio, so he just let it be. Now feels like a great time to stop and fiddle with it, though .A zombie pulls out a shotgun! And Shadow's not paying attention. He's focused on the radio, trying to find a station that sounds more appropriate. It's reflexive, when the shotgun goes off, suddenly Shadow just isn't there. The truck isn't, either. He returns, a few moments later, popping in next to Kukuru, and reaching through the surrounding ghouls to tap her on the shoulder. "You're going to want to move over a bit," he says, before taking a jump back himself. The answer to *why* people should get out of the way comes when the truck comes falling down from the sky, crashing towards the cluster of zombies on the lawn. Unfortunately, Shadow did not manage to find more appropriate music for this, either.
Angela	Fuck! A Scratch on Yuuki!? Nikki is displeased too. Nikki's immortality is something she feels in her body but doesn't quite feel 'real' to her yet. Either way, she's not planning on testing it. You never know when something is the exception. But she feels Zero's presence in her mind and--well--old habits die hard regardless. And that's to say nothing of Tennant. Nikki might be able to take a few murderings here and there but Tennant's only got the one! A rifle shot blasts Nikki in the arm and she hisses, pulling back and shoving Tennant's head down so they don't get blasted in the head. Her red eyes narrow as they track the ghoul's movements. "Stay down." Nikki says. Tennant can shoot anywhere on the field with their particular EGO weapon so they might normally be the better fit but Tennant can take precisely one shot to the head. Best to handle this herself. Nikki growls as a vine wraps around the inn's chimney and she jumps off it, using it as a spiderman style swing so she can flip herself back up into the air above the ghoul with the shotgun and take several blasts at them from above with her EGO Weapon, dropping down in a 3 point landing after. "You fuckers want her? You fuckers willing to DUST for her?!" She shouts as that aggression gets rolling again.
Raziel	Raziel is rather good at this, he's dangerous in melee which the ferals appear to be only capable of.  A familiar-looking person is talking to him, explaining them.  He does not pause, but he does take the time to look at the person who is addressing him.  "Who might you be, sir..?" he asks, right before... 'And Raziel?  It's a block puzzle.' Raziel sucks in a breath, messing up his tempo at this moment, eyes looking over towards Yuuki.  She's not wrong he's good at these, but it still annoys the fuck out of him.  The moment passes, he turns his head back, and then... BAM BAM BAM. He looks down to see some new holes in his chest, which are already clearing up.  Blue blood ran down from where he was shot, and his eyes narrowed.  Alright.   The sword fades for a moment, as both hands come up.  He grips onto nearby cars.  He moves them, similar to Shadow's movements, aiming to create a controlled battlefield.  It takes him just a little bit but... He also reaches out to the gun-wielding and bomb-throwing Ghouls.  They are launched, aiming to be tossed at nearby poles, aimed at spikey bits, or aimed at cars being moved.
Kukuru	'Today's bad ending will be subverted through my loving embrace!' Kukuru always knew Kuroto was a good one. It puts a smile on her face for however briefly she's distracted from getting bitten all over the place, but it's also rather hard to ignore getting bitten all over the place. Her nanites do quite a solid job of patching up the wounds as the first wave of ghouls that fell for the trap fall off, but the gamble really did suck in the figurative sense as well as the literal. Best not to try that again. Plus, she still needs to back up her own family members here, so lying down and just waiting for the ghouls all to tucker themselves out won't do for this. Instead of waiting around for the next group to come in and start biting, Kukuru starts being more proactive once again! First step: Blasting out her healing nanites towards her allies. They'll need to healing more than she does for now, anyway, and she needs to get her head together as she starts going on the offensive! She pauses to look over at Shadow when he taps her, though, nodding quickly and scampering away with a startled yelp when the truck crashes down behind her. "Where'd that...? That wasn't expensive, was it?" She asks while scrambling around to start aiming her destructive force (mostly) at their legs, cracking shins and blowing out kneecaps where possible with heavy kicks. Like Nikki and Zero, though, she's not exactly happy about Yuuki getting scratched, either. Perhaps that's why she's also opting to start throwing the ghouls around after the first few kicks, aiming them at the ground, at each other, or even biting and tearing at a few that get a little too close to her face for comfort.
Kuroto Dan	Time temporarily stops around Genm once again as the bullet that aims for his chest instead grazes harshly against his shoulder, causing the Rider to finally take a step back as sparks fly off his golden armor.      His mood is ruined, and his whimsical tone is instead replaced with a corase screech as he loads a white gashat into the Bugvisor and aims the barrels of the weird game pad weapon directly at the ghoul's head.      "A should wipe an ungrateful gnat like you off the face of this world, but instead you'll experience a excruciating death before being sent to Heaven!      Genm pulls the trigger and fires a twin burst of deathly black beams at the sniper, though this time it's more than just a standard blast. No, it's an attack meant to send the infidel directly to Gamer Heaven itself as painfully as possible.
Yuuki Kuran	Yuuki cleanly executes her mighty YEET into the pickup truck. Kami-sama Gamer Genm tags all of the ghouls with his blast of plastic luchadore power, and then off and away the musical truck goes, guided by Shadow off. . . and back to the ground in an enormous dusting-detonation that turns the outside of the inn into quite clearly a now-cratered battlefield at least in direct pyrotechnic effect. Popping back up in ground recovery from her throw in another crouch-to-stand, Yuuki is side-on to the explosion and her hair is snapped all to one side as she remains standing entirely on telekinetic attachment to the ground, frowning. "That sounded very cool, but, very expensive. I think. Do we have someone for that? Landscaping? Zero?" She asks the violent plants that spring up in angry defiance. One of her favorite things is being defended and supported, and Nikki is winning points in her sudden anger on her sake. Unfortunately... Even if Zero's vines ward off the pipe bomb ghoul, Yuuki still isn't thinking, and her familiars snap and bite but are tied down tying down the ghouls in the mire of wolf-shapes for Genm's blasting. Speared through the chest anyway upon getting close enough to explode on her by Zero's thorny overwatch, the bomb still goes off, shattering the air again much closer to her and sending her sprawling out, scuffed and scraped but no more effectively wounded thanks to Kukuru's interventions. But still. Instead of rolling to a stop and ground recovering, Yuuki drops a clawed hand into the outside ground and plants her fingers into the street, arresting her momentum and getting both legs folded under her. Cracking the ground further in a divot-spray behind her, she launches herself towards the big pile of ghouls and transitions from three-limbed scamper to jogging. "Kami-saymuh!" She calls, expecting Kuroto to be free and clear of distress to finish blessing the pile of ghouls. Instead-- He is loading his stinkiest beam into his glitchblaster and firing a lucha beam at someone far and away. Yuuki can still use this! Taking command of the fuzzy mire of teeth and shadow now at her feet, Yuuki's own shadow reverses its direction and her big hat's shadow is suddenly cast over the entire pile, which rises up in a yet larger and yet more detailed and yet more sort-of-indistinct wolf-dog, holding the whole pile in its all-black jaws. Shin God Gamer Kami-Saymuh's beam attack's crackling energy is shoved into by the lunge of the extended 'neck', a dog pushing its full mouth into the spray of the garden hose and Buggling Up the whole load of ghouls left locked down. Then, quite firmly, the jaws snap shut to dust the whole lot and commit them to Dan Kuroto's mad dream - an impossible hope for the hopeless.
Zero Kiryu	There is a truck falling from the sky, out of which numerous vampires have been previously deposited. This will be important in a moment. There is an upset Nikki pursuing an enemy too tactically-minded to be ordinary, who takes several shotgun blasts and remains standing. He begins to re-orient, bringing his rifle to bear on the middle of her mass-- even as he does so, the very edges of his body are beginning to crystallize, not quite the ashing that should be happening. For all his relative lucidity though, he has nothing to say. He simply pulls the trigger while his body comes apart, even as telekinetic force pushes him into the air. The truck crashes down, dusting some and scattering others. This is in fact, expensive, as landscaping goes. But it's fixable. Or you can just make people remember that hole as always being there; what difference does it make? Well... one option suggests wealth better than the other. Kukuru's strength is also enough to dust the feral ghouls-- the other ones are keeping their distance. They know the relative strength of using their equipment. So do their enemies, now. Raziel aids Shadow with putting them in peril, slamming them into solid and jagged things, and like the ones that face Nikki they survive it all-- barely, but barely is still enough. Kamen Rider Genm aims to the horizon. His target is an old soldier; he moved before the bullet was even audible. He knows that a straight fight with these people is bad for him. He might not even have been a part of the initial attack, but it's hard to say. The beam blazes across the horizon and makes contact with... something. No, not a person, some kind of camouflaged look-out tower...? The air shimmers around it as what was keeping it invisible fails, and it topples to the ground with a crash. An unusual piece of high-tech gear, for this place... "We have someone for everyone," says Yuuki's personal set of vines, before she sweeps up the majority of the remaining field in the vast jaws of a great shadow dog, destined for digital storage. Except... Each of the "soldier" ghouls, tossed about, wounded, or having a stand-off, make their move. The ones on the ground rise and reach into their jackets -- they're all wearing green jackets, it must be some kind of makeshift uniform because it doesn't correspond to anything TOO well known here -- bringing out a pipe bomb each. The only one that stands and fights is Nikki's, who sprays bullets at her and then sweeps his gun towards the greater group as the other soldier ghouls rush to get members of the group in the area-of-effect of their bombs. The hands of one of them crumbles to dust just before his bomb goes off and renders his imminent death moot. The rest die, more-or-less, when they intended to... And Nikki's opponent holds together just long enough for his magazine to empty. He turns to dust and blows away in the middle of going through the motions to reload. An eerie quiet settles in...
Zero Kiryu	The bombs go off, and the silence follows. Who are you, Raziel asks the ghost. "A Cambion, once, not long ago," the dark-haired ghost says, once he thinks that the idea of 'hearing' is plausible. "I followed my brother here, to see what he would do."
Kukuru	As the ghouls' numbers start to drop, Kukuru's able to breathe a little easier in the figurative sense. In the literal sense, she just had one of them get dusted while biting them, forcing her to rely on her gag reflex to get it all out. "Blech... Eh?" Looking up and over as Genm's beam hits something in the far distance, Kukuru spits a few times before gawking at the tower as it falls right over. She'll have to keep a mental note of where that tower is for now instead of heading over there immediately, though, as the soldier ghouls prepare for their last stand. Quick, what does Kukuru have on hand to deal with that? Nothing, actually. This empty field was chosen for visibility rather than cover, so all she can rely on is her own healing power and impeccable timing if she wants to get away unscathed. Unfortunately, by the time she's done thinking about how to get away from the explosive-wielding ghouls coming towards her, they're already up close and exploding right at her. The blasts take her right off her feet, of course, and she tumbles back a few times before lying flat on her back. Kukuru winces as she lays there for a few moments, letting the healing nanites run their course and push bits of shrapnel out of her. She finally picks her head up, looking over at her companions while holding a hand up. "Is everyone okay? Ow. Uh. If you need a hand... Can you come over here? I can still see that weird thing that fell down from here. Did anyone else see it?"
Yuuki Kuran	Racing up to join her power to her familiar's shadow-mass gives Yuuki lots to do and move to, and she quite honestly prefers to handle things with the personal touch-- But the personal touch means she's right there when a whole lot of pipe bombs go off. It's so unusual for these tactics to be used - the kind of advancements in using degenerated thralls of particular character as disposable shock and suicide soldiers runs counter to Kuran Yuuki's entire worldview and developmental thrust. The large shape of her ash-mouthed fuzzy houndshadow shifts its bulk to interpose towards some of the blast, but otherwise she just takes it, as the field is covered in the misted landscape of the surrounds that scuffs up in the fog of 'war'. And it is war, a uniformed soldier's war. Against her. The air around her clears with an atmospheric bomb-shift, a suppressive downswell of air that flattens the misted air to ash and dust on the ground. At the center, familiar-less, is Yuuki, her outer coat missing but for tatters of sleeve, and a red ribbon around the collar of her black shirt. Preturbed, but only superficially wounded thanks to the intervention of many efforts, she looks about. "I'm fine, Kukuru." She announces, still approaching the waving Kukuru. "Is everyone else well? Nikki? Tennant?" The L-Corp members and their penchant for fielding those that'd need special revival efforts weighed on Yuuki. A little ache in forever. Even if she had a Kukuru.
Angela	Nikki and Tennant are alive but battered--Nikki took the brunt of the dammage and she has Zero Kiryu's power protecting her. She's panting for breath, bloodied and exhausted--but alive. Tennant is still milling about on the rooftop and says, "I'm okay!" exactly like Orangusnake from the Mao Mao TV Series, the best TV Series that was unfairly canceled by HBO. That series. "I'll leave." Nikki says, making her way back to lean against the inn wall and just slump down it. Flop. "...Are you okay, Director?" She asks quietly.
Shadow	There's one last attempt made. Shadow gets winged - he'll have to get attention for it later. For now, he's not about to let the pain slow him down. Also: there's a giant wreck on the lawn. Was this intentional? Does Shadow care? "I'm fine," says Shadow. "And that was..." "... Well, you've got someone's attention, I mean. I should stick around in case they decide to give you more of it."
Zero Kiryu	Maria Kurenai finishes scooping up ash, even though she probably doesn't have to for most of these. She has a carry-on bag full of ash. Distinguishing all those piles is gonna be impossible without some weirdo who can, hypothetically, go back in time and associate the dust with the person. Assuming even that much was necessary, of course. Her face is a little soot-blackened by the bombs going off nearby, and she looks towards some piles of feathers with a certain amount of distant melancholy. But there's only so much you can do, and she doesn't have time to linger on her missing bird friends. She retreats back into the inn, because she has some memory modifications to be getting on with after all that. Landscaping aside, it was a fairly clean battle. Zero Kiryu steps out of a vine and swaps Yuuki's tattered coat for a fresh one. She's already stealing his clothes in abrupt outfit swaps anyway, might as well lean into it. Sensing a part of her anxiety, he informs her telepathically: Nikki will not die in these circumstances. The other is your point-of-concern. "More assistance would not go amiss. Kukuru, I believe that Shadow could use your attention," he inclines his head towards the hedgehog.
Kuroto Dan	There's one last attempt from the ghouls to take everyone out, and while he can't fully block an explosion, he can mitigate a good chunk of it.      There's a lot of stopping and going as time constantly fluctuates around Genm, pieces of pipe bomb shrapnel either grazing or harmlessly flying past as he 'parries' through it. When the explosion finally subsides, the Rider simply reaches for the golden gashat inside his driver, causing the device to shout the words Gashun! as his magnificent golden armor fades away to reveal the base purple and black suit underneath.      "I'll give them credit, for a bunch of feral dogs, they're more organized than I initially thought they'd be."      The way Genm speaks those words, it almost sounds like he's going to spit after saying that. But for obvious reasons, he can't, and instead he simply begins walking away from the scene.      "If you need updates, you know how to reach me, Director."      He pauses, pulling out a new gashat that he slots into a holster on his belt, causing a purple bicycle to appear in front of him that he immediately mounts.      There's no motor, no way for it to self propel itself. Instead, it just has pedals. Pedals that Genm immediately puts to use as he rides away at surprisingly fast speeds for what is essentially just a BMX bike.      As he disappears off into the distance, you swear you hear the sound of a bike bell being hammered.
Kukuru	"Oh, but your clothes are..." Pouting slightly as she notices Yuuki's tattered coat and shirt, Kukuru purses her lips for a little while longer before brushing her back off gently. "Sorry, Yuuki. I'll put something together for you after we get back home, okay?" It'll probably take her a while to get it together, but the promise has been made! The fact thatZero swaps it out for a new one doesn't get her to take it back, either! While Yuuki's close enough, Kukuru also has an easier time doing her healing shtick, although her attention keeps drifting back to that strange tower from before. "I wonder what that big thing was all about... Hmm. Should we check it out later?" Nikki and Tenant get some healing attention, too, along with a bit of hand patting to try and reassure them with a gesture and a smile. "You're doing great. Just make sure not to get too hurt, okay?" Shadow, too, gets some attention from Kukuru once Zero directs her attention his way. She's actually pretty adamant on checking for injuries to heal up, too, along with digging out shrapnel if need be. She's actually started picking up some things on the way! By the time she finishes, she's about to start doing the same for Genm. Sadly, the black and purple rider pedals away, and Kukuru's too tired to even attempt to chase after him. "Take care! Ah... He didn't even stay to eat with us."
Zero Kiryu	"A meal isn't in order at the moment anyway," Zero says, his expression and tone more than passingly irritable. "I'll call someone to clean this up. Rest as you can." And with that, he retreats back towards the inn, the mass of vines that had presented themselves receding back into more manageable and subtle presences.