In the chaotic field that was Deep Ground’s battlefront, a single churning of harsh noise filled the air wherever its presence brought it. It became louder, more enraged as it approached the Red Guild with a fury matched by no other. A figure riding a motorcycle their had entered the fray, entire Avatar seemed to be glitching out. The vehicle took sporadic hops between space with each flicker.

“Out of the way, out of the way, move out of my fucking way!” said the newly revived Corpse Collector, blowing up any Red player unlucky enough to cross her sights. She wasn’t in the mood to play games, not when that Broker bitch had escaped her grasp. Hissing to herself, shark teeth grinding in place, she fired off her grenade launcher without care to the battlefield, driving in circles in the nearest clearing she could find.

Blah, blah, they had practically won this battle already. The only competent ones seemed to be the Red Guild and look where those ass wipes were ending up. The Black Guild was on its last legs, the Blue Guild had all but been taken over…really, it was a shoe in for White Sun’s victory today. That being said, no one would complain if CC had a little fun on the side.

So, it was to her great surprise and then her amusement to detect a certain twin-tailed coward hiding under some rubble. Well, well, revenge was best served hot and piping after all. Revving up her bike, she skidded around and charged right for Smitten Kitten’s hiding spot, firing at will. “Hey, hey Kitty Kat. Remember me? Better start remembering because I’m going to fuck your shit up you double-crossing shit-faced hack!”

As CC had her fun hunting down her prey, a new force made its arrival in the chaotic state that was the Red Guild. The magma of their environment blasted upwards as if in commandment to the arrival of Crimson Streak himself. The Red King glared, having already punched a few Green and White players through the nearest wall before storming forward.

The taste of Erika’s lips still hung upon his senses and it served as a small reminder that this battle meant more than just defending his Guild. The appearance of a small, magical orb only solidified these thoughts and he grinned to himself in accepting the gift. Seems someone really was watching over him and he had a feeling who that person was.

And so the battle raged. No doubt the appearance of the Red King himself would bolster his Guild’s confidence and it did in the expected manner. Now the Red Players were fighting more aggressively, actually giving the combined might of the two other Guilds a real fight. After all, the Green Guild was designed towards new players and the White focused on PvE; they may have had the numbers, but with the PvP prowess that was the Harleys the battle could have gone either way.

Crimson Streak did as his name implied, leaving behind a trail of his enemies in glorious amounts of red. He was practically a running river of blood, making his presence known to almost everyone on the field, especially Azga who was surveying the battle from down below.

---

"Huh, would you look at that." Paper Moon coolly noted as burning metal was on a fast approach, directly aimed for the columns of War Machines. "Oh, wait a flipping sec- HOLY SHIT EVERYBODY BOB AND WEABOO." The rogue cried over the radio when his grip seemed like it was going to crush the steering wheel after yanking it hard to the side. A number of the APCs went skyward, propelled by the combustion of their engines along with the sheer force behind the rounds, courtesy of Gatling Express. His own vehicle threatened to flip due to how sharp the turn was, but Moon had enough wheelman experience to prevent such a shitshow, not that their current predicament made death any less delectable.

For all intents and purposes the Strykers had lost any semblance of formation. Drivers were far too preoccupied not getting themselves and their cargo blasted to last century to even have such a thought on their minds.

After digesting this fact, Moon didn’t hesitate to reel in his comrades, ”Alright people, seems like somebody forgot the nerf bat back home. No problem for us! Stick close to the buildi-” As if on cue an explosion resounded from above. A declaration of war to all interior designers was issued when plumes of smoke and debris was brusquely shoved from a building midpoint, which soon was renamed a vertex as the skyscraper quickly donned the form of a parabola. In laymen’s terms, the building was fucking falling. Great. Thankfully, Moon didn’t have to worry about his forces being cut into two since the falling structure wasn’t headed for the jagged columns of armored carriers. Instead, the toppled building had developed a crush on Arms’ vehicle and wanted War Machine-senpai to notice it. While Moon anticipated that Arms would drop his speed in tandem with the tanks now dragging behind him, it seemed that their ingenuitive leader had another idea in mind. After stifling the urge to scream out over their comms network, it then dawned on him just what the guy had in mind. All the rogue could do was whistle out of admiration as he kept his own vehicle out of harm’s way.

Buildings continued to crumble throughout the Strykers’ advance. Problems was, the aircraft crew no longer intended to feed Slave’s vehicle any longer. Now the buildings’ formations were being blasted away on certain angles to gradually limit the convoy’s available routes. If they didn’t make a play soon it would be GG, sans rematch. And then like the 105mm howitzer shell that had just leveled another building, it hit him.

”Arms, open up that trunk boi, got a way to swat this fly in mind!” Moon then steered with one hand and held the audio feed close to his lips with the other, ”Chariot Three, we got funds to shoot a vehicle courtship documentary! Get ready to mount Arms’ War Machine on my word!” A piece to the puzzle was still missing. There was no doubt in his mind that the bastards gunning for that bird would catch on and blast the tank before it would even make it to the teleportation bay. Suddenly a figure appeared at his side and slammed her foot against the vehicle’s interior. There wasn’t a single hint of fright in White Noise’s pink irises. Her aim was true, even with her petite form contraposed to the rotary grenade launcher angled upward. All she regarded Moon with was a curt nod before raising the ordinance, ”All War Machines, you should each have a grenade launcher! Grab those puppies and Stryke out the sky! Heh, get it, ‘cause strike… Stryker… ANYWAYS, LET ‘EM RIP! Hey, wait, haven't I seen this in an anim-” White Noise's launcher cut off the chatterbox. Canisters of smoke arced into the sky and exploded, quickly draping a blanket of grey over the avenue, in more consistent volumes towards Arms’ vehicle and the tanks. They only had a scant moment before the airship switched to thermals. ”Now, floor it Three!” The designated tank sped past the others and clambered into the War Machine. ”Oh shit, I think I forgot to renew my subscription to Purple Crown Prime. Here’s to hoping it’s not too many business days.”

@Lucius Cypher@Mega Birb@KoL

---

(WIP)

---

Darting through the ruins Smitten Kitten continued to watch the battle rage on from a safe distance. She thought she was reasonably well hidden until she heard the revving of an engine grow louder, followed by bullets. Before Kitten could react, two bullets ripped through her body. Her health went from 100% down to 20%. Followed by familiar, shrill screeching. ”Corpse Collector…”

Kitten wasted no time evading CC. She jumped from the rubble and ran through the alleyways, making sure to take narrow passages too thin or with turns too sharp for a normal motorcycle to take. However while doing so Kitten quickly got lost in the veritable maze of alleys, and eventually she ended up at a dead end. The buildings were too tall for her her to jump and there weren’t any handholds for her to use. She’d had to turn back, but before she could get the chance she heard the sound of CC’s motorcycle. ”Crap.”

There wasn’t much time left. Kitten didn’t know these streets well enough to turn back and run now, and Corpse Collector was only a few seconds away. She had to think fast when she remembered that Itsuko had given Kitten some gifts before they parted. Because Kitten lacked a strong attack, she needed extra equipment to do big damage. And what she had left was some bombs. These bombs exploded when Kitten pulled the trigger, but they could be disabled by simply attacking them. But if she could hide them around here, then maybe she could lead Corpse Collector into a trap. So quickly Kitten laid all three of her bombs around the wall behind her, hiding them underneath some garbage and debris. As the revving got closer Smitten Kitten turned around and readied herself.

@TheWindel

It was like a dream, you try to move and you're always half a step too slow. You try to talk and the words will not form. This Thomas and Finn didn't seem bad, but he was caught and the world doesn't sit still waiting idly by while you try to sort yourself out. They wanted to know what was going on? So did he. All Alex really knew it that Bel dragged him along and wanted him to choke the girl next to Yoshino.

As he was about to open his mouth and explain what he saw as his own lack of knowledge on the matter, the guy holding him started talking frantically about Guilds and battles and all that. Alex was shocked at what was happening, but not entirely surprised he was out of the loop. Verdant Grin didn't seem to like him all that much, or at least was on the aggressive side of passive aggressive. Hearing him being called out to again by Thomas, Alex finally shook himself 'awake' and back into the current moment.

"All I know is that Bel wanted me to choke the girl next to the Prez. I didn't and then I stopped Bel. She went all odd and ran away before being caught by you where it looked like you were an accomplice to assist her escape. Now you know the jack all that I do." Scratching his head as he leaned over Bel all Alex could do right now is wish he knew first-aid.

"Well, yeah, waking up Bel would be good. I'd like some answers from her... but the only way I can really think of waking someone up is how in the movies you splash water on their face. Do we carry Bel somewhere and dump a bucket on her head?" Alex saw it as rather impractical, but on short notice with limited experience... well it was all he could think of.

"Wanna carry her to the gym's change room and turn on the cold shower or something?"

Thomas contemplated the idea briefly. He didn't really have any better ideas but he thought that it would be a little excessive. The messages he'd received and Finn's urgency indicated that they were rather short on time. And while there were certainly more important things going on, 2 students dragging an unconscious girl who knows where would turn eyes regardless, especially with the teachers, and that would definitely eat up their time.
"Let's not go that far. Not yet anyway." Thomas said. "Just go get some water, from the bathroom or something. "

"All right I guess. If I come back here and you two are gone I'll... I have no idea what I'll do actually. I've never been in this situation oddly enough" dashing out of the room, Alex went to the bathroom but stopped just outside, smacking his head with his hand before rushing back to grab a bucket. Flashing a nervous grin at Thomas, he ran with a bucket in hand, slowly filling it up, suddenly hating that the water pressure from the taps was so low. Once it was mostly full, Alex picked it up and stumbled from the weight. Carrying the water bucket back to Bel and Thomas he was about to dump it on her, but stopped.

"Should we move her somewhere else? I don't want to accidentally spill this on something electrical. That could be far worse than just letting her wake up naturally."

Thomas resisted the urge to palm his face at the amount of water the boy had brought.
"A water bottle would've done, you know." He said. "Just put it down for now. You don't want to drown her, do you? We'll start small."
He was pretty sure that whatever it was that had changed the blue king, whether that be disease, curse or possession, it wouldn't be fixed with just water. But it was worth a shot, and would hopefully at least make her conscious.

That awkward smile plastered over his face, Alex lowered the bucket. To be honest his mind was thinking of the movies scenes where a bucket of water was splashed on the sleeping person, but at Thomas' words and the look on his face, he couldn't bring himself to explain and instead flushed red in embarrassment.

"Yeah, but what if we needed... more?" the halfhearted response was all Alex could manage as he dipped his hands into the bucket and cupped his hands and readied himself to douse Bel.

"You've done such a great job bringing water already, what more could we need?." Thomas replied sarcastically, moving back as he saw the boy prepare to act. "Besides, the bathroom's right there, and Maribel isn't going anywhere anytime soon."

Recognizing the sarcasm, but figuring a verbal sparring match is far from what's needed right now, Alex lifted his hands filled with water and dropped it on Bel's face, trying to avoid her nose and mouth in case she choked, as Thomas said, it's not as it they're going to run out of water. Needless to say, the water did wonders in rousing Bel from her slumber. The Blue King coughed and hacked as if shaken from a bad nightmare, blinking with confused eyes up at the two boys. Her blue locks hung down from the wetness and she shifted in her bonds to test how much freedom she really had.

"Oh...so I've been captured. Oh noooooo," she said plainly, right eye still a distorted red color.

"Umm... well, it worked. You seem kinda... lethargic, Bel." Looking at the entire bucket of unneeded water, still not really believing that a movie cliche worked so well. Still, Alex needed answers.

"So... why'd you want me to choke the girl next to the Prez, Bel? And why were you choking the Prez for that matter?" The soft grind of teeth could be heard, the only sign that Alex felt a bit betrayed by what Bel had asked of him.

This one was going to be trouble. Thomas had only half believed (well, more like a quarter) that the blue haired girl had really tried to kill the president. He didn't actually think that Maribel was possessed or anything either - but here were some sure signs that something not scientifically explainable was happening, unless there was some kind of new disease that resulted in drastic personality shifts and one red eye.

Thomas rested his chin on his fist, contemplating the situation. He supposed this situation could be explained by science, if someone opened up her head, but that would never be an acceptable option. Looks like he had to settle for good old questioning, and there was only one real question to ask right now.

"...Who are you?" The black haired boy asked.

"My, my. Two different questions from two different fools," Bel said in a snickering grin. I'll answer you first Jukey. I wanted you to choke that girl cause she's a real pain in my plans. Retsu Goroshi. That's her name so memorize it good and well for me! And Yoshino Tsugumi? I guess it's because...she needs to die. That's all there is to it. She wants to kill me, so I'll kill her first," Bel said with a wink before turning to Thomas. "And now for Clark Kent over here. I'm you dummy. I'm also him too," she said, nodding to Alex. "I'm every student in this school even! Think on that!"

That was probably the worst response he could've gotten, but it shed some sort of light on the situation. The response itself showed that, as students, they were in way over their heads. It was quickly turning into a murder mystery without bodies, although if left alone, that particular caveat could change. Regardless of whatever-it-was-inside-the-blue-king's intentions, its explanation had given Thomas something to work with. Even though the students of purple crown came from a variety of backgrounds and countries, there was one thing that every single student shared, without fail. But Thomas could think on that later, there was more that needed to be done for the present. He adopted a pokerface and stored the information it'd given him for later.

"...Why are you helping the white guild?" He asked after a pause.

"I need them to act through my will. Especially this one," Bel snickered, her way of phrasing no doubt weird. "It's all to get rid of the President. Duh.-hey, hey, hey!"

Cupping his hands full of water once more, Alex dumped the water on Bel's face, this time being less careful of where he dropped it. Taking his wet hands and running them back through his hair to pull his fringe out of his eyes, Alex's mouth split into a wry grin at the ridiculousness of the situation.

"Really? Retsu Goroshi. I'll probably forget it. I'd probably die of embarrassment if I saw her. I mean, choking a girl I hadn't even met? I don't have that particular kink." dumping another handful of water for good measure, just in case... and Bel was sounding kinda evil. As he listened to Bel's response to Thomas, Alex's mind raced.

"So, if you're me, him, everyone... are you more Bel than other people? Because your words aren't coming out of my mouth. If they were I'd probably feel like puking. So if you can be more Bel than other people, can you be more of someone else as well?"

"Would you quit with the water works Jukey! Geez, I'm trying to kill you and all but this is just rude!" Bel snarled, shifting in her tape binds. The line of his questioning was just as equally annoying and she visibly bristled when confronted with his words."So? Like it really matters. You don't even know "Bel" little man. You barely knew her for a month! Who are you to tell me what's the right and wrong Bel?"

There wasn't much left to ask now. The being had been rather cooperative all things considered, but they probably wouldn't be able to glean anymore than it gave them. Pushing further wouldn't help, because from the way it talked, he was sure that it was pretty much just borrowing Maribel's body. Thomas gestured at Alex to stop talking for a moment before asking another question.

"And why is it that you're aiming for the president? And what does Maribel have to do with your vendetta?" He asked.

"Sorry, I seem to have lost my manners somewhere back when I was told to choke someone. Weird, right? Someone must have been a bad influence. Maybe you can help me find them? This cute girl with blue hair and sucks and DDR probably has them. Let her go and I'll be sure to pick them up. Also? I don't really care. I knew Bel for a month? Correct. Who am I to tell you? Well, I'm Alex Coleman and you're a rather dumb parasite that Blue Screen Of Death'd the second I didn't do what you wanted. Besides, you've already outed yourself as not Bel so it's kinda a moot point isn't it?" Flicking the last drops of water that clung to his fingers onto this other Bel, Alex leaned against a wall and sat down looking at her, letting Thomas ask his question.

Maribel shrugged to Thomas' question, still moving about on her bum. "I told you didn't I? She was in the way. Yoshino Tsugumi is a threat and needs to be eliminated. She threatens me, so I threaten her. She tries to terminate me, and I terminate her-would you stop that!" Bel whirled about to glare at Alex, the last of the drips making her hair stick to her face. She shook her head violently to scatter. For some reason she was getting more and more ticked off with Alex specifically, showing a bit more emotion towards him."That doesn't even make sense! Who's to say the Bel you've spent wasting a month with was the real Bel?"

"Oh? If I didn't know any better, I'd say that you're upset, parasite. Also you can't be the real Bel. The real Bel would have made some joke like, "You're getting me all wet, Jukey~" or something like that by now. Then I'd probably blush and stumble over my words. Since you haven't, you're not her and since you're not her, I'm not going to worry about 'who the real Bel' is by your definition. Why should I talk about reality and realism with a fake? Why don't you just go wish upon a star Pinocchio and get out of her head?" Alex's fingers traced circles in the water bucket, ready to flick more water at Bel on demand.

Thomas resisted the urge to screw his eyes shut and bang his head on the wall as the exchange transpired, instead opting to sigh loudly. He could've continued this line of questioning all day but he was running out of time and patience, for both of the other conscious subjects in the room.

"This is getting out of hand, so let me make this simple." He said, to both Alex and the strange being inside the blue king.

He pulled Alex aside and picked up the bucket, hefting it over his shoulder before crouching down in front of Maribel's prone form.

"I think you're growing tired of our company so I'll give you the choice." Thomas began, his voice low. "Either leave our friend forever willingly, or I use this bucket to wash the stupid out of you."

This was starting to get out of hand. Apart from Alex's stupid line of logic and Thoma's low-key threats, options were running far and between. But something seemed to resonate with Alex's words and Thomas' demand seemed to push this desire to the surface even more. Bel, or whatever it was controlling Bel's body, slowly turned to face both boys, specifically Thomas. And then she slowly grinned, nodding her head in agreement.

"Yeah, alright, fine. Guess you got me. I'll leave this one alone...forever is how you said it, right? Heh, just remember that he said it, not you Jukey," Bel snickered with a parting wink before suddenly fainting in place. As if a dark cloud had been lifted up from the room, the area felt much lighter than a few moments prior. Bel was still unconscious but at least now she wasn't acting like a demon possessed.

Thomas was left with mixed feelings at this change of events, despite achieving his primary aim. He had the distinct feeling that he'd played right into the thing's hands somehow. He felt like he was missing a lot of links that he could use to make sense of it all, and he didn't even know where to start looking.

"Alex." Thomas said, putting the bucket down next to the blue haired girl. "Go wake her up."

With that the black haired boy hunkered down on a nearby box overlooking the bodies of Finn and Maribel, resting his head on his hands. He began to think, trying to fit the puzzle pieces together. Retsu Goroshi, the student council president, the deep ground conflicts and the nature of the being, to try and solve the question that he'd wanted answered: Just what was it that happened to the blue king, and why?

Alex did smile at the thought of this impostor in Bel's head being drenched, but was a bit upset he wasn't doing it. Maybe it was a bit petty, but it just felt right to Alex. This odd feeling was confirmed with the parasites words about Thomas saying them and not him. Frowning at what the implication could be, Alex shook his head and nodded at Thomas' request.

"Sure, no problem" kneeling over Bel, Alex considered the water again, but that seemed more than overdone by now, unsure if it would even have an effect. Instead he opted to lightly slap at Bel's cheek. Feeling he was getting nowhere, Alex changed tactic and shook Bel by the shoulders, taking care to not let Bel's head get rocked around too much in case it hit the ground a bit too hard.

"C'mon Bel, rise and shine and all that."

"....I felt you the first time Jukey," Maribel grumbled, reeling back and forth in his shaking grip. When she blinked open her eyes, they were no longer the strange pigmentation they had been for quite a while. However she did look exhausted, as if she hadn't gotten much sleep in forever. Despite this, she managed a shaky but snarky grin at the two boys."Whoah, whoah, what's this? All tied up and locked in a room with two boys? You weren't trying to get a raise out of the Vice President were you? >;3"

"You don't pay me. You could start paying me if you want though, I wouldn't mind. You can also pay me in trips to the arcade if you feel obliged to~" a relieved smile broke out across Alex's face, Bel didn't seem hurt, just tired. After what had happened, Alex wasn't so sure she would be.

He'd have to put the thinking on hold. It was like trying to put together a jigsaw puzzle with half the pieces and the cover art missing. And besides, there were more important things to get done at the moment. Thomas sighed, and decided to bring the vice president up to speed.

"I can explain it all later, but it was an emergency situation. And as far as I know, it still is." Thomas said. "You might want to go into deep ground. The blue guild is being attacked."

"Deep Ground huh? Looks like some things never change. You lovely boys wouldn't mind untying me while I log on right? ;P" Maribel closed her eyes to connect to whatever server was running and see what the situation was. After all, an attack on the Blue Guild could only mean...wait...why wasn't she...? With confusion, Bel opened her eyes and grinned sheepishly up at the two boys. Though only Alex could tell there was a hint of nervousness in her smile.

"Um, hey guys? So I...don't think I can log on anymore."

Thomas screwed his eyes shut.
"Shit." He said.

“You know what?” Argent Maiden suddenly said when it became clear that the attack at the Blue City’s main gate was all but impossible to stop.

“Huh?” Absinthe Blue, Maiden’s only interlocutor at the moment replied.

“I mean, this thing about holding a hostage just to pay it back to a bully who hurt someone I love, in a ‘game’, is kinda pointless,” Maiden shook her head while taking a better look at the chaos before them, turning back to Absinthe after that. “Actually, I feel bad for you Bruisers, now that I think about it. We may have gone a bit too overboard on this war thing.”

“Oh, you think that only now?” Absinthe made an effort to not yell at the silvery avatar before her. Di— did they only think about this crap after destroying half of the Blue City, seriously? “You destroyed the City Titania-sama— no, that all of us worked so build and now you are saying you think you’ve went too far?”

“Wait, wait, wait,” Maiden interjected before Absinthe could keep on talking, “that was an order of our King, y’know? It’s not like we could disobey it for no good reason. Even if, in hindsight, it was kind of a dumb thing to do. Anyway, I guess this has gone on for long enough and I lost the interest in keeping you as a hostage. Let’s just get done with this. See ya later!”

“You are kidding me, right? You can only be kidding m—” Absinthe didn’t even had time to finish her complaint before Argent Maiden sent her off with a staff blow to the gut, finishing the meager hit points the Blue Fairy still had. That had been a lost cause for the Cobalt Bruisers from the very beginning, given that the Ebony Strykers seemed to be incapable of, or unwilling to paying back their debts, choosing to go to the Red City and haggle for the Scarlet Harleys favor, instead of helping their supposed allies. Yet, to die in such a way… Absinthe, or better, Yuuno couldn’t be help but be very aggravated.


Meanwhile, the supermarket brawl between Eclipse Princess and Stinging Butterfly had to be suddenly interrupted when section of the ceiling they had broken through began to collapse, forcing the two combatants apart. Princess could very well bypass this obstacle, but Eris couldn’t get her mind out of a certain issue that has been plaguing her conscience, making this the better chance to disengage from this fight.

When the dust settled, Stinging Butterfly would be able to see that Princess wasn’t nowhere inside the store. In the blink of an eye she had left, using her teleportation ability while he was blinded by the falling rubble. Now, the Ivory Masks’ Berserker looked over the crumbling store, from over a nearby building, one last time before calling up her interface to send a message:

To: Eins (Enyo Reinhardt)
From: Eris Reinhardt
Subject: I’ll be back later
I’m going to logout and visit Chiyo, Eins. Maybe I’ll try to find what happened to Yoshino as well, if I have some time to spare. If you need me just send a message and I’ll be back faster than you can say blitzkrieg. By the way, if you see a Healer named Nies Hellum around, tell her that I had to leave and that she can visit later if she still wants to talk.

E.R.

PS: I’ll leave a copy of the key over the dresser. Don’t do anything weird while I’m out.

With that done, Eris logged out of Deep Ground and left for Chiyo’s house, after calling for her driver since it was likely going to be easier to go there by car than if she had to wait for a bus.


“The next time I see that silver hair, I’m going to make her see stars. Literally,” Yunno said to herself as she got back to her feet. “Now I guess the only thing I can do is try to find Bel-sama again. Thinking about it, where is Shino? She disappeared just like Bel-sama, and right about the same time. That’s starting to feel very weird, or creepy, I guess?”

Just as she thought about it, Yuuno went back to the search of both the missing President and Vice-President of Purple Crown’s Student Council. Was that some kind of secret conspiracy to upset the power balance at the Academy? It certainly smelled fishy. But, what was happening and why were answers still beyond Yuuno’s ability to rationalize.

“Maybe, if I try sending a message, it’ll work?” The dark-haired schoolgirl thought, before calling on her interface to send to send the following message:

To: Maribel Harper, Yoshino Tsugumi
From: Yuuno Kurogami
Subject: Where are you?
Where are any of you two? I’ve been looking up and down all the Academy.
Please respond, I’m starting to get worried.

Yuuno.

Nies Hellum gave Broker a smile, chuckling to herself. oh, you have no idea she thought to herself, more than a little amused at...herself. She had no idea where this was coming from, but...she’d go with it. For now. Perhaps it was just the situation. She’d settled back, listening as Broker spoke. She sighed and nodded. ”She also holds her own. She’ll be okay” She didn’t know if that was to reassure herself, or just simple fact. Eclipse always seemed to come out on top, one way or another. ”She’s never needed glamour”

She looked down at her hands, thoughtful. ”She’s probably doing it by herself, which wouldn’t surprise me” Her presence there would just throw Eclipse off, not something Nies wanted. It appeared she’d be delayed in finding the answers she needed. Perhaps that was, for now, the best. Listening to Broker still, Nies weighed their words. She could be beneficial to people, but she...had never really been on the front line before. Well. There was that...being she’d helped with, but still. She nodded, ”Alright, then” She said softly, ”I’ll g there, then’ She said, watching Broker. She could sense that there wasn’t...the whole truth here, and Nies Hellum would keep herself wary, at least for the moment.

There were times where Nies Hellum thought she was being pulled along in a tide, and couldn’t do anything about it. Yet she could still try and figure out what was going on, even if she couldn’t do anything about it. She settled back again, keeping her eyes on Broker, glancing at the rumble. She watched what was happening with an almost distant understanding, unemotional as she watched the battle happening.

”We’re all a little Crazy, don’t you think?” She said as she got out of the vehicle, she flashed Broker a smile, ”Well, I always stay low” She said with a chuckle, accepting the explosives, she nodded her head in thanks, shoving it into a pocket of her clothes, gripping her staff as she climbed out. Nies planted her feet, looked about her, and began to get to work, healing those she could, essentially doing what was required to prevent further death, at least to those close to her for the time being, glancing around wildly, for any sight of danger. @Lonewolf685

Rocket Lancer held on. The Barrel roll the attack helicopter was putting him through had much more force than his usual barrel rolls, due to the helicopter's superior weight and horsepower; but he'd been prepared to get shaken off, so he held on tight with both hands and activated his rocket booster. It wouldn't do anything to slow down the helicopter, and it would only help a little to keep him on the windshield. But, he only needed it to hold on for one round.

The big downside of his earlier Fatal Acceleration trick was that, even if he used it for only a second, it would go on cooldown for the minimum amount which was one action.

He gave his lance a bear hug as the helicopter spun, meanwhile the flame on his rocket burner started to change color.

Normally he'd have to hold back his Lance, but the windshield would do it for him. To 'cast' Fatal Acceleration he either had to let it go, or charge it fully into an automatic release. In his situation, there wasn't going to be any letting go unless it built up enough force to shatter the windscreen. Whether or not a Level 3 charge would be enough either wasn't something he could really consider right now. He was out of options.

If he didn't succeed in going through the windscreen, he was dead for sure.

3...
2...
1...
"Fatal Acceleration!"

---

@KoL

Stinging Butterfly had not anticipated getting his blade caught by Eclipse Princess, and his eyes widened with surprise. Try as he might, he could not pull it free from her grip. Her counterattack also caught him off guard, sending him flying backwards again. He did at least manage to land on his feet better than the previous attack, and recovered quickly. There was no doubt that she was strong. At least he knew what he was dealing with now. Butterfly sighed, clearing his thoughts, and said to Princess, "Sorry about that. I guess I got overexcited. It's not every day one gets to fight someone as strong as you."

Stinging Butterfly knew that his abilities were off cooldown now; it was simply a matter of finding a good time to strike. Princess was right that recklessly attacking her would lead to nowhere. She was much too powerful against him for that. For now, he would get into a good defensive position. Right foot forward, left foot back to make an L-shape. Knees slightly bent. Blade pointed towards the opponent's shoulder. He was ready. A small smirk crept up on his face. This level of excitement was nothing like hat he felt from the odd jobs he often got while working as a Cobalt Bruiser. This was a much bigger challenge, and he was confident he could take on that challenge.

Unfortunately, it seemed that fate had other plans when the ceiling began to collapse further. Butterfly leapt back to avoid getting crushed by the falling debris, but when he tried to Find Eclipse Princess again, she was nowhere to be found. After a few seconds of looking around, it was very likely that she was no longer in the building. Disappointed, Stinging Butterfly wondered what he was going to do now. The idea of picking off stragglers in these empty areas no longer felt appealing to him. Then, remembering the tank, Stinging Butterfly decided to go check to see if it still needed aid.

Exiting the building, Butterfly created a [Bouncer] square and used it to launch himself up to another rooftop, then started scanning the area for signs of it. Such a thing wouldn't be hard to miss, surely. Fortunately, it wasn't, but Stinging Butterfly could see that it was no longer allied with the Cobalt Bruisers. Cautious, Butterfly decided to continue following it for now, while staying out of sight. It did help that the tank's loud treads helped mask any sounds he made himself, while following it with [Bouncer] squares was easy enough, but one could not be too cautious.

His concerns proved to be justified as they reached the Blue City gates, at which point the tank began to mercilessly fire at its former comrades. He grimaced; a surprise betrayal at this stage was just putting salt on the wound, judging from the state of the situation now. Continuing to watch from a hidden location behind a particularly large piece of debris, he also saw that two other people emerged from the tank, one of which was the ice mage he had tried to pick off earlier. The other was a healer, who was beginning to get to work healing the wounded and rezzing the dead. Things were not looking good. He contemplated the idea of fighting them off, but dismissed it as a stupid idea. In that 1 v 3 situation, he'd be eliminated with the rest of the Cobalt Bruisers. That healer, Nies Hellum, looked to be a tempting pick off, but she was currently too cautious. Besides, she would undoubtedly call for help, and he was not willing to face a tank's wrath alone, or even Icy Mint's CC. The tank did seem to be leaving, though, so that was probably one less threat to worry about. For now, he would wait for an opportunity to strike, preferably when she would stop looking around and lower her guard.

@Caits@Lonewolf685

Kicking the fight off, Burning Blossom leapt from the broken column and cast a bolt of lightning in their direction. Lacking the agility and light armor of Golden Tiger, Reothadh had no choice but to take the lightning bolt head on. Placing his sword in front of him he attempted to block some of the damage, but electricity and plate armor don’t mix and he still ended up losing about 30% of his health. Great, not only did his opponent have a speed advantage, but she was a fire focused spell caster, literally the perfect counter to an ice warrior such as himself. This was definitely going to be an uphill battle for the knight.

Not letting up on the Rangers, Blossom cast another attack sending a pair of fireballs their direction. This time Reothadh had a way to counter. With a quick swing of his blade he sent a Frost Wave in the fireballs direction. The elements collided in a small explosion of fire and ice doing no damage to either party. He was only able to hit the one, however, leaving Tiger to take care of the other on her own.

”You’ve had your fun. Now I think it’s time we all cooled off!” Reothadh exclaimed bringing his sword to the ground. Just as the tip touched the floor, a circle of ice began expanding. In a flash nearly all surfaces visible were covered in a layer of ice; including the wall which Blossom was running on. Those not aligned with the Rangers would soon learn running or performing any acrobatics on the ice without near perfect balance would result in them falling flat on the their faces and leave them highly vulnerable.

@KoL

Thomas had a burning desire to bang his head on a wall, the only reason he wasn't doing so being that it wouldn't help in his current situation. He'd helped to unwrap the vice president and left her with Alex (after stuffing Finn into a closet) so that he could have a moment to think about the situation at hand, and how royally he'd managed to screw it up.

The signs were all there but he didn't want to believe it. It was inconceivable, from both a logical and realistic point of view. It just didn't really make sense, but there was no denying that as soon as the being had left, Maribel could no longer log in. And there was no denying that Thomas's impatience at least contributed to the current state of affairs. He ran through the scenario in his head. Ge could've worded his demands differently, connected the dots sooner, he could've done any number of things that may have changed the outcome, but the fact remained that he didn't do anything and couldn't do anything to change the situation, and that left only one question. What did he do now?

Thomas though for a moment and decided that this decision wasn't his to make alone. He decided to ask Bel. It was her head, she had the most say about what to do in this situation. After a few false starts he finally sent a brief message to the blue haired girl.

To: Maribel Harper
From: Thomas Green
Subject: Today's events
I promised to tell you everything and while I can't tell you right now, I can tell you that I am at least partially responsible for the results. Before I can fill you in, I need to know something. What do you want to do now?

@TheWindel

Things weren't exactly looking pretty. Arms Slave was aware that the Fanged Rangers employed aircraft but he didn't think they'd send one to block his path. Though considering the Ebony Stryker's current lack of AA, he supposed it only made sense that they'd do that. At least they'd stop shooting at the buildings in front of him and went after the bridges ahead of them instead. Arms Slave debated trying some tricky stunts, perhaps ramping off the rubble to cross the chasm or even driving off the bridge to the other side propelled by the explosion, but all those things required wonky physics that only worked in Arms Slave's head. For now he was going to take advantage of the fact that whatever was shooting at him before wasn't shooting at him right now and called everyone over the local communications.

"Everyone follow me into this rubble and get ready for a rough landing!"

The first to reach him was Paper Moon's tank. He had launched some smokes to block the visual the enemy might have on them, which would be handy since Arms Slave needed none for what he was about to do. He measured coordinates roughly twenty feet above the ground, across the bridge the others would need to cross. Once they got past that bridge it'd be straight shooting to the Red Guild City, even with some harassment from these aircraft and long distance artillery. Only trouble was that none of these vehiciles could make it in time, and even if Arms Slave floored it he alone couldn't save the Red Guild. So it was time to make a tough call, and hope that his allies could take care of themselves without him.

Paper Moon, his crew, and his tank would suddenly find themselves airborn and not over Arms Slave war machine. A second later and they'd hit the ground. The tank's suspension should be able to take the slight fall, it was the crew that might be a bit confused. But regardless there was no time to be shaken and Arms Slave shouted his next orders to them. "There's no time to screw around. Get to the Red City. Avoid all enemies until you get to the Red City and take out the attacking forces there. I'll find my own way around later, now go!" As soon as the others got onto the back of the War Machine Arms Slave would warp them in the general direction of where he dropped off Paper Moon. He'd make sure each one had enough space that they didn't land on each other or any other hazard, but beyond that their survival was in their own hands. Arms Slave focused on this task for now, and would figure out how he'd get to the Red City once everyone else was on their way.

@Mega Birb@RoflsMazoy@Jedly@KoL

---

Dark Wraith watched as Broker of Fortune changed her affiliation to the Ivory Masks. Normally Dark Wraith would be furious, but she also sensed that perhaps there was an ulterior motive behind Broker's actions. While ultimately a contractor who's only loyal to herself, surely Broker of Fortune wouldn't be so foolish to make Dark Wraith an enemy. And considering that moments ago Eclipse Princess was standing before Broker of Fortune, Dark Wraith could understandably consider that Broker made the alliance simply to avoid immediate defeat. Indeed, if Dark Wraith was caught in the same situation she may have done the same. Likely with far less success.

There was still too many questions for Dark Wraith to blow her cover right now. Even if she could attack Broker safely from this distance, she simply lacked the firepower to destroy her in one shot, and that sort of firepower was better to be used against her actual enemies than someone who might be a traitor. Not to mention there were some other strange things going on. The drone picked up that Absinthe Blue had somehow been captured and was being used as a hostage. Dark Wraith considered focusing fire on that and remove the Ivory Mask's hostage, except that shortly after the Ivory Masks killed her anyways. "That simplifies things. Fire on the forces in front of the gates. Pummel them before they can retaliate, and once they take notice we'll move quickly."

Though they were only two tanks, Dark Wraith worked her magic to make it appear that an entire column of tanks had arrived. Using the aim bot to have uncanny accuracy and spawning in air-burst explosives instead of the usual HEAP rounds, the Ivory Masks would be greeted by dark clouds. But upon closer examination, those clouds masked the decent of hundreds of air-burst bombs, which detonated right on top of the attacking Ivory Masks forces. Although Maiden's buffs would allow more survivors than usual, Dark Wraith simply responded with more shots fired. Using her Miasma, she hide the fact that she was multiplying the amount of bombs being fired while in-flight. The explosives would be highly effective against infantry and other avatars who weren't in tanks or heavily armored vehicles, and merely violently shaking any tank that was caught in the blast. Shortly after Dark Wraith gave everyone the order to move elsewhere.

As her crew fired their slavo and moved onto the next position, Dark Wraith sent a message to Broke. Short, sweet, and to the point.

To: Broker of Fortune
From: Dark Wraith
Subject: So you joined the Ivory Masks
Explain yourself.

@Lonewolf685@KoL

---

That Nova was smart enough to try and mask his approach with flung fragmentation grenades was a laudable effort, Broker had to question both his sanity and explosive capacity if he thought to cross 400 feet of ground through the Ivory Mask lines in order to close in on the tank. If the roles were reversed she'd have been using that tactic to retreat rather then advance...though if the roles were reversed, she would actually be defending the gates so none of this could have escalated so far.

If I only went to the damn Festival, this wouldn't have needed to happen. She lamented for all the good it would do, in other words, none.

Yet she would find herself pausing in the act of demolishing what paltry cover Blue Nova sought shelter behind when a startling display of unfathomable pyrotechnics rained down on upon the Ivory Masks that had breached the Blue City's gates. Given her position was off the mark, she had the luxury of watching it pound the earth into a shrapnel laden ruin from a safe distance. The cause of this would likely be a mystery to most of DGO for some time, though the ensuing message Broker of Fortune received dispelled any air of mystery.

To: Dark Wraith
From: Broker of Fortune

You know, if you happened to be omniscient before this point, it really could have come in handy corralling idiots onto their proper battlements -_-

You want an explanation? You really want an explanation? 'Cause I've had one helluva day and so far watching you bomb the Blue City doesn't hold a candle to the resurrection of Corpse Collector or a computer program posing as a player trying to mind rape me like he did Maribel!

That's a tip off, by the way. Mole's in enemy camps tend to provide them, and the first one is free.

Now for the love of god stop bombing the Blue City. I've got to loot what resources I can and it would really help if it wasn't all bombed in non-existence. Eclipse Princess is tied up here and White Sun hasn't logged in yet, according to the guild registry, so maybe bombing the Green army over by the Harley's might prove more useful. Just a thought.

P.S. STAY AWAY FROM BLUE JOKER!

P.P.S. C.C. is reeeaaaaaaaaal pissed off. Might want to tell Moon Rider to watch her neck out there.

The message may have been a bit...passive aggressive, but Broker felt a little entitled to be pissy with people when DGO was getting turned on its head.

"Now to deal with last of the Bruisers here." With a crank of a lever, the King Tiger cycled to an alternate ammunition and was soon aligned with Blue Nova's hiding spot. It fired and released the canister round within, perforating Blue Nova's direction with an expanding cone of ball bearings at high velocity. "Napoleon, eat your heart out!"

@Lucius Cypher@KoL@Lord of Evil

Blue Nova heard the shot before he saw it. A tank cannon shot was fairly unmistakable, but the second noise he heard threw him for a loop. He could practically hear the shell screaming in his direction but before it made contact, the sound... split? He covered his head and rolled to the side as his cover was suddenly turned into Swiss cheese.
Buckshot, eh?
This would be quite the fight indeed.

Despite Finn's quick reactions, he couldn't avoid all of the pellets. 3 balls embedded themselves in his armor, taking a sizeable chunk of his health, before he activated Blue Shift. The world around him stretched as he stepped forward and his vision took on an azure tint as he dashed behind a different, thicker wall. He rolled to a stop and landed on his back, just feeling the pain of the 3 hits he took.
"Damn, that thing packs a punch." Blue Nova said, rising to a sitting position.

He pried the bearings out of his armor, taking one to look at it a little closer.
"And just from three of these, huh?" He muttered.
He tossed it aside and got to his feet, stretching his shoulders.
"Nice try but you're gonna need more than that to catch me!" He yelled, to himself more than anyone.
It would be possible to beat this tank. Even if it shredded his health bar like that, he just had to not get hit. His shield was coming off of cooldown and his dash would come back soon after, so he had the tools he needed to close the distance. Adding to that the ample cover provided by the wreckage, it was possible for him to close the distance. It wouldn't be easy, but Blue Nova never went for the easy way out.

Blue Nova scanned the wreckage ahead, planning his running route, before dashing out of the building.
@Lonewolf685

"...hn?"

Azga looked over from his vantage point, crouched atop a new pillar out of the main bloodshed of the battle at hand below. With the commotion she caused, the blonde mass of chaos herself rumbled to the fray, grenade launcher in hand. Well... if it wasn't for his old road trip buddy. He crosses his arms, his blue and white jewelry swaying in the wind while his eyes narrow through the digital wind.

"Collector..." He murmured, half under his breath. She was back. And it seemed she had some new tricks.

Some familiar new tricks.

It didn't, however, seem she was there for him. He flattened his palm against the stone of the column. No doubt if he stayed here much longer, this high risen piece of stone would become target practice for the machine on her shoulder shuddering with power while it launched bombs at the unsuspecting. Best to make himself scarce from her while he could.

With that in mind, it wasn't the grenades that concerned him. Heh. He smirked.

Before Azga could move somewhere to give ground support for the Harleys, explosions of red from the ground below aside from the ones Corpse Collector was making caught his eye. Crimson Streak was living up to his name and absolutely pulverizing the attackers below.

"Finally..."

Azga's eyes half lidded while he pulled his posture upright, folding his arm over his staff. With the flourish of a showman, Azga tossed his loose white cape behind him, fluttering in the digital breeze as he dropped from his perch and landed once more with the assistance of the briefly appearing wings. He lifted his head, blonde lockes ruffled and his jewelry swaying.

The witch doctor hurried through the crowd, deferring off any battles where he could with the use of well timed force fields while he made his way to Crimson Streak. When he finally became close enough, Azga ducked beneath the flying bodies of green and white guild avatars. After dipping beneath them, he straightened up, running his fingers through his own hair with a smirk pulling at the edges of his lips.

"It's about time you showed up," He chided playfully in his smooth, deep voice. "I was beginning to think I left you too dizzy to go on. But of course," He dips his pose almost formally, one eye closed in a wink up at Crimson Streak. "I'd expect nothing less than a stellar performance for the King of the Scarlet Harleys."

To: Yunno Kurogami
From: Maribel Harper
Subject: Re: Where are you?

Behind the school auditorium with a few others. Can’t log in. Don’t know where Yoshino is. Hurry :(

Not that she wanted to scare her Deputy, but, well, the situation had become serious in the span of a single day. For one thing, Yoshino was not picking up her messages and the longer they waited, the more Bel felt uncomfortable sitting in place. After all, she was directly to blame for the Student President’s current condition, whatever that may be, regardless if she was being controlled or not. She would rather explain it to Yuuno in person anyway.

As she waited with Alex, she received another message. This one was from Thomas, asking about what to do right now. She still felt unsure of how much to say given the circumstances and her own actions from earlier, but right now she needed to do something. Log in or not, she was still the Blue King. So with small hesitation, she opened up her PMs again and typed a message, leaving Alex to his own devices for now.

To: Thomas Green
From: Maribel Harper
Subject: Re: Today’s Events

You’re not a part of any Guild, right? It’d be hard for you to contact any Blue Guild members about why I’m not there on the frontlines. On one hand, I need to let them know I’m not just abandoning them but on the other, I don’t want it being made public knowledge that I can’t log in. I guess for now, just consider yourself a temporary Blue Guild member and scope the layout of the situation for me Thomas dear :p

Yoshino’s whereabouts were currently at Retsu’s apartment where she had been brought. Unfortunately, she was still unconscious with the mark of Bel’s grip plastered along her throat. As for her sister, Chiyo was doing slightly better. She had locked herself in her room, dwelling in her own house away from everyone else. Of course, she was under careful watch; the Boss would ensure that much.

And for those who were still paying attention to her, Dana had since ductaped Rufus to the toilet stall she had locked him. Of course, she was still nearby to make sure nothing too serious happened to his body, but the prospect was fun all the same. Snickering to herself, she wondered when he would come back to the waking world. She could already see his expression.

Back in Deep Ground, Corpse Collector was having the best damn time of her life. Seeing Kitten’s reactions reminded her of all the reasons she hated the Outlaw and she chased her down with engines revving. “Oh wow, great fucking idea Pussy Cat. Way to trick me with your ducks and weaves-oh wait, not really. I have a goddamn grenade launcher you stupid fuck,” CC snarled, launching a shot against any and all rubble in her way.

Seeing Kitten corner herself in a dead end elicited a hellish smirk on CC’s features and she sped up to ram right into the Player. There was no reason for her to shoot, not at this close of a range. No, no, she would make do the deed with her massive bike, unaware of the bombs around her. “Get ready to be roadkill you piece of shit!”

Not too far way, there was starting to become a notably wider gap between Crimson Streak and his enemies. Bodies were indeed being flung back and forth and he spun around to face Azga’s voice as he launched another one five miles back. “Come to play for the winning team?” he asked simply before going right back to fighting. “Hope the landing wasn’t too rough for you. The Green King seems to have brought only his finest for this battle.”

“As if I’d spare any less in kicking your ass,” hissed a snarling voice. The familiar tone of Verdant Grin himself was brought closer and closer. Streak turned to see the Green King waltz right up in the thick of the chaos, eyeing both him and Azga with disdain. “No, no, don’t mind me. Keep flirting or whatever. The chick fight got broken up so I’m stuck watching you two make out. What, is he your boyfriend Streak?” Grin said, to which Streak merely held his usual stoic look.

---

Reodath's timely reaction, dispelling the Fireball that was headed at his direction, may have saved him of the brunt of damage of Burning Blossom's attack. However, the same couldn't be said of Golden Tiger.

The blonde had been hit with the full force of the concussive blast created by Blossom's Pyromania Ability, being awarded an one round stun for her troubles, along with the burn, coming from the Fireball's incendiary after effects. Even with the fact that she had been fighting on the frontlines for longer than most and was a hairsbreadth away from expiring didn't shook Tiger's resolve to nail Blossom for being a massive bitch. As soon as this stun worn off she would do it, for sure.

Meanwhile, Blossom was having troubles to remain steady on her feet, thanks to Reodath's slippery treat. "Hey, you can't do that to me! If you wanna a cool girl you gotta look somewhere else, boy, cuz' I ain't gonna be your typ— pe?" It was easy to imagine the 'Oh crap!' going inside of Blossom's mind as she finally lost her balance falling on the other side of the wall. For a glass cannon as flimsy as Burning Blossom that would be a certain death, were not for her rapid thinking— the fiery sorceress saved her digital ass from being cracked against the ground, by grabbing a fallen beam.

Even so, that was a hard fall for Blossom whose Hit Points were knocked straight to the red zone. Yet, she wasn't going to give up so easily. "Hehehe, take this present from the Harley's, Ice Boy and Kitty Kat!" Blossom laughed as she shot a pair of Lightning Bolts at the wall, causing it to tumble completely and fall over Reodath and Golden Tiger, taking the cohance to seek cover behind a burning truck.



"What!? Where did that came from?" Argent Maiden shouted in confusion as she ordered the remainder of the Ivory Masks forces to push inside the Blue City and search for cover, casting her Heal Pulse to bring those in her Consecrate area back to more a more advantageous position. To say the truth, that barrage coming out of the blue was much more damaging to the Bruiser forces than the Masks who were still protected by the combination of Argent Maiden's Sanctuary and Argent Barrier, which bolstered their defenses considerably. Even so they took a lot of hits, the only sensible action to take was cover before another attack like that one hit them.

Checking the reports, as she took cover inside the Blue Castle, Maiden noticed that there was no register of the attacks at all on the combat logs and not even a cue were they came from, since the Rearguard was still completely inactive. "That's the most blatant use of hacks I've ever seen on Deep Ground. Do those Ebony Strykers think that they can do that and get off scot-free?" Thankfully, Maiden had a plan to deal with it, given that the trajectory of the projectiles made it clear that they could only have originated from somewhere not very far from where the Rearguard was stationed.

With a swipe of her fingers, Maiden summoned her interface and sent a message to the only member of their group who could do what she needed at the moment:

To: Edel Faust
From: Argent Maiden
Subject: I need your help
Faust, I need you to locate the position of the hackers that are firing at us from somewhere close to where you are. When you do that, get some screenshots and videos, if you can. If you need help, send a message to Sis, she can come back in a moment.

A.M.

PS: Don't try to fight them, we just need the evidence.

The message from Maribel wasn't lost on Yuuno. In fact, the Bruisers Deputy paled when she read its contents, unable to decide between sighing in relief or gasping in astonishment. In the end Yuuno decided that no matter what the best answer was, she would only find it once she met her king face to face again.



"Bel-sama, what happened to you?" Yuuno's reaction ended being the gasp when she arrived at the location Maribel mentioned only to find the Blue King with her uniform half-soaked and duct tape marks all over her body. To aggravate it even further, there was the fact that none of the two boys that were close to her was doing nothing about this, at all or may have taken part on this (in fact the nearby bucket was a strong evidence against them).

"What can they be thinking? What's the value of a man that can let something like this happen?" Yuuno though, exasperated, as she took of her coat and placed it around Maribel's shoulders. Yuuno may be a placid girl most of the time, but a set up like this— straight out of the pages of an abusive boyfriend manga — could get even she out of her cool.

"Come with me, to the Council Room, Bel-sama, we can talk more once we are there, but first you need a dry change of clothes and maybe something to drink," Yuuno said as she tried to help Maribel get back to her feet and nudged her towards the Student Council Room, preferring to not pay much mind to what happened here at the moment, lest she call a teacher to look over this very incriminating harassment scenario. And this was only to preserve the Blue King's dignity. The last thing Maribel needed now are malicious rumors about her being spread around the school.

Looks like Thomas had his orders. He supposed that he did want to see what was up in the blue guild currently, but he wasn't exactly in a place where he could feasibly hide his own body while he went in to check on the blue guild. He decided to go home for now. He was sure that Alex could take care of the blue king, despite his questionable actions in regards to her body. Maybe he was a closet sadist or something, he'd seemed awfully keen on dousing the blue king. Thomas supposed that he could say the same thing about himself, with the enthusiasm he used to tie up Maribel. Still, he'd had a good reason for it. If she had been attempting to murder the president, it probably wouldn't have been a good idea to leave her unbound. Still, it would've seemed strange to the girl at the very least, so he'd have to make up for that somehow.

To: Maribel Harper
From: Thomas Green
Subject: Today's events

Alright. Heading home now.

Thomas sent the reply and began walking, before he stopped and thought for a moment.

To: Maribel Harper
From: Thomas Green
Subject: Today's events

Sorry. For a lot of things. Be careful on your way home.

That was the least he owed the blue haired girl. With that done, Thomas walked home and half-hoped that the whole mess would be over by the time he logged in.

@TheWindel

The lance pierced the windshield with a shatter. The Pilot had not seen Rocket Lancer's prep work, so it took a little time to process what he'd done. But by that time, he was already going gray. The damage flashed red to indicate Rocket Lancer had gotten a critical. 100% increased critical damage, and 100% increased base damage; an obscene amount of damage, if he crit. The helicopter continued to spiral, but downwards now, cockpit first.

He threw his Lance aside, and struggled towards the door instead, scooping up the Pilot's EXP crystals on his way. The Lance could probably fit through the door, but in the rapidly turning cockpit there was a chance it would get stuck. He knew that the EXP dropped was roughly enough to level him to level 5 now, but level ups could come later. He wasn't about to try to level up in the middle of escaping a dropping helicopter. He wrenched the door open and started equipping a lance in his other hand.

He timed his jump as the rotors swung away from him, and entered freefall. The ground was quite close, but there was enough time for his Lance to finish materializing before he hit the ground. He flew above the attack helicopter as it crashed into a building and exploded. In the distance, a camera snapped.

Machidai peered through his camera, and then grunted at a job well done.

Today would show no loss for the Black guild.

---

@KoL

---

"Hah! Can't seem to dodge that, now can you?" It was a bit early to gloat, and Broker well knew it. That it only winged him with such a large spread could be chalked up to the randomness of buck shot, but it wouldn't due to assume Blue Nova's speed wasn't in play as well. "I don't have time for this. There is all of the Bruiser's garages to loot through and I'm not going to miss out just because of a speedster with a shield spell. Mint, I need you in the game here."

The hereto silent passenger aboard the tank blinked, surprised that the driver was looking for her services before nodding in assent. She stuffed the gifted bomb into her inventory, as you never know when such a Control oriented spell caster would need a bit of burst damage, and focused upon the streak of blue now breaking cover.

"Icy Lullaby." The mage said, casting her wide area sleep spell upon Blue Nova to render him immobile and defenseless, an easy target for the King Tiger once it cycled back to its HE rounds and fired upon the sleeping Bruisers. Between the guaranteed critical hit provided by Icy Lullaby and Broker's Overhaul conferring 50% bonus damage, both Masks were certain of the outcome.

@Lord of Evil @KoL

Blue Nova was halfway behind cover when the sleeping spell struck, closing the distance between him and the tank. Part of his mind was indignant at the fact that the tank's operator was a mage. Mages typically didn't need any more firepower than what they had, and a mage with sleep operating a tank? That was just overkill. The rest of his head was falling asleep, however.

He fumbled for something in his inventory, anything that could help him out of this. In frustration he pulled out one of his few remaining grenades, preparing to throw it at the tank as a gesture of defiance, but as he pulled the pin out his legs gave way and his throwing arm weakened before it'd even left cover, and he collapsed where he stood, dropping the grenade onto the ground.

He tried vainly to keep his eyes open, crawling a little away from the grenade, even managing to say a few words.
"I... Hate... Mages..." Blue Nova said, before he promptly fell asleep.

With that, the tank shell exploded along with the grenade, reducing the area to a crater, leaving naught but a cluster of exp crystals behind.
@LoneWolf685