Now welcomed into the hospital room, Aaron held up the two bags of take-out he had procured and made his way over to the bed. "Sorry to drop in uninvited, just thought I'd try to make hospital life a bit easier. And, y'know, mention how screwed we all are." He set the white bags down on the corner of the bed as he pulled a chair over from the side. He brought it up to beside Eris and sat down, seemingly in a good mood. The American reached over and brought the doggy bags over, holding one out to Yuuno and the other coming to rest on the arm of his seat. "So, how's everyone been the last week or so?"

---

Before the uninvited guest to his apartment sat down, Jiro had managed to get his hands on a white apron which now found itself over a black shirt that somehow made his hair stand out even more than usual. He leaned forward on the counter before he shook his head, standing back up straight and moving to the refrigerator. "You're saying you went through half a bottle of shampoo in one shower?" He sighed in an exasperated manner before taking his head out of the cooling device with two beverages in hand. "Hope you like root beer." He set down one of the cans at the corner of the other man's plate before cracking his open and taking a sip from it. A second later, he set it on the surface and stared down the interloper, forming an opinion.

"I never got your name, mystery person." He crossed his arms in wait, expecting the name of the individual in front of him.

---

"Well, I haven't seen anyone else around. I was hopin' you had caught sight of 'er somewhere." She shuffled on the crutches uncomfortably for a second, then it occurred to her where Masae most likely was anyway. "Erm, never mind. Thank you, Thomas." With that, she was off hobbling towards the auditorium, intent on finding the girl that she did not know had moved.

"You don't need to worry, you aren't intruding. We were just talking about... girl things, should I say?" Eris smiled to Yoshino as she attempted to dispel Aaron's embarrassment and avoid talking about their previous topic. She wasn't going to betray the Black King's secret, at least until Yoshino felt like revealing herself to the world.

In fact, Eris couldn't help but feel a bit of excitement in finally cracking that puzzle, she wasn't going to hand her hard earned reward to anyone else so easily. In the end she could could only hope that Yoshino trusted her on this.

"Our weekend?" The intrigued look on Eris' face was a rare sight for anyone not acquainted to her. It wasn't every day that someone asked that kind of question out of Eris. She felt rather unguarded against it, at first. "I can only hope Yoshino's was good. My own was... hectic, perhaps? Not in a bad way, it's just that... you would understand pretty fast if you had a sister like mine. Eins is super doting but she's also quite a handful—" Eris interrupted herself when she noticed a critical flaw of this conversation.

"I'm sorry. Here I'm, talking about myself, but we haven't even been introduced yet. If I'm not wrong," she said, carefully moving a few hair strands that fell over her face. "I'm Eris," Eris smiled politely as she spoke, "though, I guess anyone on the Academy knows that by now, right?" She tried to do some kind of joke, given the tone of her voice. The question was if the others would get it.

"What about you, Mister?" Eris asked Aaron in a somewhat teasing tone.

"By the way, what you meant when you said that we are all screwed? That's quite a roundabout comment. I'm not really sure how to elaborate on that," she said, resting her hands over her lap as she waited for Aaron's replies.

Masae Kanegawa

Her work had been completed, but Masae didn't feel comfortable moving on from where she was while there was that unconscious guy resting in the nearby chair. Even if his method of introduction was a bit lacking, it would be negligent of her to leave him lying around after he had passed out of his own accord and nearly choked on his food. Something was clearly up here.

That gave her plenty of time to fiddle and work on the systems, implementing a few things that she had wanted to do but never really had the time to. Considering what she had to fix, it seemed to be as good a time as any. She had the feeling that no one would appreciate it anyways, but such was the life of a genius such as herself. She didn't mind that much.

She was in the process of working when her gaze was drawn away to the auditorium, and the person walking down thee. It was Aderyn, and it appeared that she was looking for someone. Probably her. If that was the case she had the perfect thing. It was an augmentation to the audio system that allowed you to focus on specific areas, which she predicted would never actually be used. Why did someone have to hit a specific part of the audience in a concert or something?

At least it would be appreciated now. Flipping it on, she focused it on Aderyn so only the girl would hear anything. "Excuse me Miss Aderyn Finch," she said in her most authoritative drawl. "Did you lose a creepy pasta eater in the sound booth?" With that back she sat back with a grin to wait for her girlfriend to arrive.

@Mega Birb@RoflsMazoy

Butterfly may not have landed serious damage with the first two attacks, but he had gained 2 [Zeal] stacks. As he began to press the attack, however, Tiger began to launch a counterattack of her own. Butterfly tried to move back, but was caught in an uncomfortable position and could not avoid the uppercut, resulting in him being launched upward from the force of the blow. He grunted in pain as he landed heavily on his back. A quick glance at his health bar showed that he had lost roughly 12% of his health, give or take 2%. He shrugged off the damage as he got back up and back into a battle stance, rapier pointed at Rampaging Tiger.

"That was a good blow," Butterfly complimented Tiger. "But don't expect a butterfly to hold still in a predator's sight." As Butterfly leaped back, he created three [Bouncer] squares, one behind him and two in the space between the two fighters. Butterfly stomped on the square behind him, launching himself towards the next squares, moving towards Rampaging Tiger in a zig-zag pattern at a breakneck speed. His rapier was raised and extended towards Tiger to pierce her once more.

"My name is Rufus, and judging by the name stiched into the tags of your underwear, yours is Jiro."

He had been considering nicking a few fresh pairs for himself but size differences made that a bit of an issue he wasn't inclined to deal with, so he left them in their drawer. The offered drink was accepted with a nod before he returned to nibbling the fish. "So Jiro, what are you even doing home? I'd always thought rainy days were a good time to go to the movies or get stuck indoors with friends. Kind of sad when its just a bloke in their own apartment, dont'cha know?"
@Mega Birb

---

So the illusion was something Kanbaru was projecting. Interesting to know, and she'd certainly see about learning that trick for future reference. It would certainly be easier to have clandestine meetings of the dubious sort if people perceived her as a random stranger rather then the buxom bluenette she was.

"I'm liking everything I'm hearing so far. The simple pleasure of recycling old tech for new gains, an economical and rewarding venture if there ever was one. So many uses without even needing to pull out my wallet and throw wads of cash to start it up." Kanbaru purred, leaning back to stretch her arms overhead with a luxurious sigh of contentment, her mind firmly set on joining this club properly after the latest excursion into Deep ground. She was rather glad Kanna asked to tag along as her support skills were rather extraordinary and Kanbaru had a feeling she'd be needing them after the last update to the game made her style of vehicular warfare a thing of the past.

A shame really, but it wasn't like they could just drop the game for changing its meta on them.

"As much as I'd love to be on the front line and snatch up the EXP, we can't afford to make the same mistakes as the Bruisers and leave our conquest unprotected. We can fail in attacking the Harley with little cost to us, but having them retake the Blue City would only give our enemies momentum we should hoard for ourselves. And I'm going to take a wild guess and say the Strykers and their Bruiser allies wouldn't be keen on leaving our defenses untested even if it left the Harley's threadbare in their own retaliation. Not like they didn't rebuke the Masks once already."

I'll meet you at the front gates to the city, Mint.

Fitting herself comfortably with the duvet and pillow, the bluenette leaned back into her chair and slipped into the familiar boots of,

---

---

Once again she was amidst the Blue City, bustling with activity, yet lacking in its former industrial splendor. Looting was only to expected and artillery bombardment did a number on the infrastructure, but really it was the presence of Masks as opposed to Bruisers bustling about that clinched it. The war time attitude was likely not what they carried in usual affairs, but Broker had gotten rather endeared to being surrounded by craftsmen whenever she returned the Bruiser's former capital.

"Eh, oh well. The Masks will get industrious once they've conquered to their heart's content. Then I'll have a leg up on being at the Blue Cities ground floor when its time to rebuild." A grin settled on her countenance as Broker emerged from the smashed bank vaults she'd logged out within, her inventory metaphorically heavy with all the loot she could snatch. It was sad to say she couldn't use most of it at the moment, and frankly she'd broke down a lot of what she found for EXP just so could make that leap from level 5 to 7.

Checking the pouch fastened to her outer thigh her fingers brushed against the bronze coin which manifested as her new ability, a welcome addition she'd need to cover up for the deficit of fire power she was left with at the loss of her King Tiger. "Oh yeah, this will do me nicely."

Broker was practically skipping down the street as she headed through the city towards the meeting point she'd chosen, hoping the Masks had at least made some partial repairs to the walls since they'd logged in ahead of her.

@KoL

Yoshino was so out of it that she hadn’t realized someone else had entered their room until Aaron was pulling up a chair and sitting beside Eris. She didn’t know what else to say aside from silence and that she did while Eris did most of the talking. She was confused why Aaron was concerned about the Student President of all people, but she supposed he was doing his duty as a citizen or something. Thinking on that, she blinked as Eris’ words brought her back to the conversation.

“This isn’t right,” she muttered, eyes flicking at Aaron and then at Eris. “I don’t think you realize just how worried people are Eris. My sister has done a number on their minds both in-game and IRL. As to why she’s even doing this war, I don’t know. A million things could be running in Chiyo’s head right now…actually, that reminds me. You belong to the Red Guild, right Aaron? What is Crimson Streak doing about this?”

She only knew a few tidbits from what Yuuno had told her; the Red Guild had held their own but the Blue Guild had fallen, giving Chiyo control of three. Furthermore, Maribel was apparently discussing some plans with Michael but the Vice President had yet to show up herself. And in the middle of all this was Retsu’s absence…frowning, Yoshino glanced at Eris. Was it really right to be saying all this when the White Guild’s top enforcer was sitting right there?

---

As the words left Burning Blossom’s mouth, Reothadh’s grip tightened around his sword. Was this girl for real? Did she really think all men were just sex crazed pigs? At that moment all he wanted he was to wipe the floor with her. Wouldn’t do much to change her mind, but it sure would feel good to shut her up.

Then she offered the bet. Winner gets to make the loser do anything eh? Perfect! Now he had a chance to prove he wasn’t after sex. All he had to do was beat her and request something completely nonsexua despite her implicationsl. Before he could accept, however, Blossom went right ahead and kicked things off, sending a pair of lightning bolts straight at the Tundra knight.

Seeing both bolts coming at either side, Reothadh quickly rolled forward toward the bolts. Just as he hit the ground the bolts soared over his head completely missing him. Stopping on his feet Reothadh brought himself off the ground with an upward slice sending a frost wave straight at Blossom as he yelled, ”Ya know what? DEAL!”

@KoL

@KoL
Cassandra hesitated, and then sighed softly. She glanced away from Eins, ”There are times when I think I have, but sometimes...I don’t think so. Sometimes I think she’s had the most influence on me” She said, listening to Eins moving about. Cassandra bit her lip thoughtfully, not entirely sure what to do in this situation, but then, she didn’t know what to do in most situations and seemed to have done mostly fine. Even if she did make a fool of herself from time to time.

She blinked at the offer for sugar, and shook her head, [color=llightpink]”No, that’s okay, thank you”[/color] She said, her voice soft as she accepted the mug. She shook her head again, ”No, I’m a healer, and while I do have ranged abilities, I mostly need to be in the thick of things in order to be entirely useful” She said, before sighing heavily, ”Not that I’m often useful” She muttered, before looking over to Eins.

She bowed her head again, and sighed once more. ”No, I kept on getting waylaid. And then the people that I caught a ride with played on my sympathies, and I ended up helping them out. I regretted not meeting up with Eris...sometimes I can’t help but think I’m always scrambling to make things make sense” she admitted, before giving a shrug.

Kosuke blearily opened his eyes. When had he fallen asleep? Last thing he'd remembered he was going into Deep Ground, now he was sitting in a chair, somewhere he didn't recognize. He didn't feel too good, and he smelled... Freshly washed surprisingly enough. Usually when this happened he was pretty sure he didn't take a shower, but the things he did in his moments seemed to be getting more normal as time went on. Well, he couldn't really tell whether or not it was though, he was unconscious for them. Hopefully he'd normalize before he figured out how to use his phone though.

Somewhere nearby there was someone talking. Maybe they'd been the one who had put him in the chair. He shakily got to his feet and walked over to where they were.

"Oi, who're you calling a flying spaghetti monster?" He said.

He only heard the last part of what the person had been saying, and maybe he'd heard a few things wrong, but whatever. It'd get the point across.

---

"Go, Christopher!" Arkadian shouted.

The dissolution roared as Christopher darted out from under Arkadian's cloak, or as fast as charging Cosmosis would allow him to, anyway. This was a mid to low size dissolution that was on its last legs already, one more attack would finish it off. Christopher kept moving as as the dissolution reared back its fist. Christopher slowed, the dissolution swung, and Arkadian dashed out to take the blow. He threw his cloak out in front of him, the gaudy faux stars becoming a cosmos, and the creases and folds melded into the darkness of its void.

The dissolution's punch swung through the cloak as if there was nothing there. Cloak of Starlight was an amazing ability. It absorbed all kinds of ranged attacks, and he took half damage from most melee attacks. For both melee attacks and ranged attacks though, there was a limit that he could absorb. The biggest weakness for Arkadian's cloak was multiple quick melee attacks, since his cloak didn't parry them or cancel out a combo of theirs. The first time he'd tried it in melee range, he'd gotten sent to the respawn by a three-hit combo since he still had low health.

The dissolution unleashed a follow-up attack and Arkadian's health took another dip.

"Now!" Arkadian shouted.

There was a flash of light as Christopher blinked in front of him and unleashed Cosmosis. The dissolution was destroyed in a shockwave of cosmic energy, and when it cleared only EXP crystals remained.

Now that he had these abilities, he could finally make up for lost time. Even though Cloak of Starlight was a purely defensive ability, the ability to take more risks combined with Christopher's Astral Shift had given him a large boost in offensive power. Now he could finally make up for lost time.

The stars on his cloak reverted to normal, and it shrank to his shoulders. Christopher jumped up onto his shoulders and Arkadian set his sights to the horizon.

"Alright, Christopher!" He said, setting off. "Let's find some adventure!"

Oh! So the spiky-haired berserker also had the trait of ‘improvised weapons user’! Was he an abusive boyfriend or an angry drunk in real life as well, or was he just table-flipping in DGO because the stress of being in a top-tier academy was too much for him to simply repress.

“So salty!” Mauve Night shouted back, watching his own form approach from the shadow of the concrete mass. “Guess that’s why no one wants to party with you!”

Diving pre-emptively to one side, Mauve Night attained an angle where his cover could no longer protect him as her gun flashed out once again. Another flurry of bullets spiralled through the air towards Blue Nova, but the purple-haired avatar didn’t have time to admire her shots. Her dive transitioned into an awkward roll, before she managed to spring up onto her feet again.

Martial Arts training, sadly, didn’t apply too well to Max Payne maneuvers.
@Lord of Evil

Masae Kanegawa

"Gah!" Masae let out a cry born more of surprise than actual harm as someone else suddenly spoke in the booth, and she braced herself for a possible attack. It might be an irrational response, but after what had happened to Aderyn she was not going to take any chances when it came to strangers. Fool me twice and all that. This war was none of her concern, and she was not going to become a casualty of it.

Turning around in the chair, she relaxed a bit when she found that it was the guy who had passed out before, now awake and giving her sass for helping him out or something. So much for being grateful and not tying him up or something. She knew that she should have gagged him.

"The person who decided to sneak into my sound booth to eat spaghetti and pass out," Masae challenged once she had recovered, glaring at the guy. "Who are you anyway?" At the very least she deserved to know his name, if nothing else. Considering how much he had scared her thus far she would have been justified in doing a lot more. Hopefully his brain still worked.

@RoflsMazoy

"Oh, so you are a Healer as well? I guess I can find a place for you in the battlefield. If you allow me, of course," Eins said to Cassandra. She had a smile on her face, though it was nothing like Eris' soft one. Eins' smile betrayed her inner shrewdness, a characteristic that she was quite proud of. Perhaps more than she should be.

"I guess you should just try to not lose your way, Cassandra," Eins said, laying a hand over one of Cassandra's. "Eris certainly doesn't think badly of you. She's probably just too absorbed in her own world, like always. That girl is really cute, but she's also quite fragile. I assure you that you have made a difference, if not for anyone else, you certainly did so for Eris."

"If you have made up your mind, you shouldn't give up on the path you chose. It may not lead to where you want, but certainly you'll find something at the end of it."



A new set of steps would be heard in the Auditorium not long after Aderyn arrived. At first, their owner which turned to be a girl with a dignified appearance—her pale skin and blue eyes making her look like a porcelain doll—seemed to be unaware of anyone else's presence.

The girl spent her time pacing around the stage with slow and calculated steps, almost as if she were trying to commit its geometry to her memory.

It was only after Masae used the sound system to call Aderyn that the girl turned around. Soundwaves being the funny thing they are, even if directed will still rebound from hard surfaces like the floor. Unless there's something to absorb them, of course.

"A directed sound system, uh? That's something really interesting that you have here," the girl said, hopping off the stage.

"Oh, please forgive me," she said, extending her hand to greet Aderyn. "I'm Haruka Yorimoto. But you may know me better as CiEL. I'll be staying at your school for some time. It's a pleasure meeting you, senpai."



"Uh? That's your idea of a comeback?" Tiger's jaw dropped when she saw Butterfly get ready to counter attack. How could he think that such a telegraphed move would hit anyone, no matter how fast it was?

The blonde waited until the very last moment before sidestepping from the path of Butterfly's blade and trying to grab his arm.

"If ya wanna fly higher, let me give ya a hand, Butterfree!" Tiger yelled, using Butterfly's own speed to throw him toward a derelict car, before following with a jumping axe kick (if her grab maneuver succeeded) or a clothesline followed by a kick once he was on the ground, if Butterfly could somehow change the path of his attack enough to avoid the grab.

"Next time, try an attack where I can't see those squares, Butterfree!" Tiger shouted as she put some closed the distance between the once more, regardless of the outcome from her previous maneuver.

"By the way, aren't ya worried that I'm here just to delay ya? After all, you guys have a city to retake, don'tcha?" the Blonde brawler asked as she tried to keep Butterfly at a range where his weapon would be much less useful than her fists.



"Are quite cool today, right Broker-san?" Mint asked, as deadpan as ever, as her digitalized form approached Broker.

"Is it because you leveled up or something else?" The ice mage stopped when she reached her destination, taking the time to look at the damaged structure of the Cobalt Bruisers' former fortress.

"I like this place. Titania-sama is quite cool as well. I would like to fight her when White Sun gets bored of this war," Mint said as a cold wind blew between them.

"This war is boring... Why is there no one to fight here? Don't they want their city back?"

Was she underestimating him? She was level 3 which was fairly low, although Finn couldn't really say anything in that respect. Regardless, Finn had an opening here, and he wasn't about to let it go to waste.

As the bullets spun towards him, the Nova activated his blue shift. It didn't really matter whether he got hit right now, he was out for blood. He dashed forward, noticing that he hadn't taken any damage, which was odd considering he'd definitely taken the shots. No time to dwell on it, however. He grabbed the rogue by her armour, intent on slamming the rogue down somewhere. He noticed that he was slower than usual. Maybe an ability of hers? Nevermind. Too bad there wasn't a good wall when he needed one.
@ERode

There it was, his instant movement ability that made any attempt to kite trivial!

Right as she recovered, Blue Nova was in her face again, the larger avatar’s hand grabbing onto her collar, movements slowed by the effect of her shots. So it wasn’t teleportation? Even better! Grinning at the close quarters situation she found herself in once more, the purple-haired avatar unloaded another salvo into his chest at point blank, before grabbing his arm as well. Stepping in, she pressed her right foot against his right hip and stepped up. Airborne, the ranger’s left leg swept over Blue Nova’s head, hooking around his neck, before both knees squeezed, locking that arm in place. No doubt, the smarter decision would have been for her to just unleash a full attack and inflict even more debuffs upon her foe, but…

He was neither a speedster nor a mage! He was a brawling fist dude, and that meant he didn’t deserve it!

Mauve Night’s armlock tightened, as she prepared for the next transition.
@Lord of Evil

Alright, so she wasn't as foolish as he'd previously thought - maybe she just had no idea who she was dealing with. He was even slower now, which could be a problem, but he still hadn't taken any damage at all. This was interesting, considering how many times she'd shot him, and how she was still shooting him. Although that just meant that she'd do something later. He reflexively struggled as she grabbed him and noted that he was definitely slower than before. But he couldn't really do anything about that at the moment.

Yes, she had him trapped, and it was certainly disadvantageous for him, but that didn't mean he couldn't attack. Blue Nova tensed his arms and let loose a Nova Burst from his trapped fist.
"I hope you're not getting too comfortable up here..." He said to the rogue.
It didn't do as much damage as his normal strikes but it was enough that it did something, and he could do it a lot. The Nova still wanted his arm free, but if she wasn't running away then he wasn't going to complain. He flexed his arms, trying to free some space to maneuver.
"Because I'm just getting started." He said.
With that he activated another nova burst from his trapped hand. Really, if she stayed like that then he could make this work after all.
@ERode

"That just happens sometimes. Just wrong place, wrong time, this time around." Kosuke muttered, looking down over the sound desk. Normally there wasn't anyone around when this stuff happened, or at least he was pretty sure there wasn't. His trait of liking isolation seemed to carry over a fair amount, maybe he'd been here long before she'd come in. Well, how long was a good question though. Not like he could tell, but his body felt pretty damn stiff. And, oddly enough now in a place where he'd probably thought he'd be alone there were suddenly a robust cast of 4.

There was the geek girl, main-character like, coming in to mess with the sound equipment or something. The famous pop-idol who was unexpectedly here for unknown reasons. The relatively normal looking girl coming in, probably on request by the geek girl. And last of all, the mysterious spaghetti man who may or may not have a hidden agenda he wasn't even aware of.

If he didn't know any better, this was a set-up. But for what, he had no clue. Maybe a body would fall from the ceiling and the crew would get embroiled in a massive conspiracy, uncovering the darkness hidden deep inside the school basement which may or may not actually exist. Maybe they would suddenly get dragged into DGO as part of a secret experiment, unable to escape until a suitable cover story is crafted about the main character being part of a terrorist organization and the world-wide idol sensation CiEL would be their first big target except the experimental device she was using backfired and put her under as well. Then her and her 'compatriots' would be forced on the run, somehow disabling the tracking on the chips everybody has while the idol herself tries to find a way to reveal the truth in her now incredibly dangerous position.

Those situations and many more were making the rounds in his head for most likely outcome. There was a high possibility none of those would occur obviously, but it wouldn't hurt to hedge his bets.

"Name's Kosuke," He said, finally. "The hell were you doing up here?"

---

@Mega Birb@Flamelord@KoL

Masae Kanegawa

Wrong place and wrong time? If that didn't sound like the lamest excuse ever it did sound like a reason to worry for this guy. Wasn't that a bad thing, if you didn't have control over your own body? Or maybe she was just misinterpreting what he was saying, which Masae would admit was a possibility right now. She was still somewhat unclear as to what had happened in the first place.

"Have you seen a doctor about that? It sounds like some kind of medical condition," Masae observed. Her back was turned to the main auditorium at the moment, keeping her from noticing the arrival of the idol CiEL to talk with Aderyn, though she might have found it interesting as well. Once upon a time she had harbored some thoughts of being an electronic sensation, but reality had long since worn down those convictions. The light of stardom didn't shine for everyone, and with the kind of person she was she had the suspicion that she would only ever appeal to a niche audience.

But yeah, she hoped she wasn't coming off as too offensive about the whole thing. It just didn't seem like he had a handle on it if he was passing out in her sound booth while eating food. Then again what did she know? She was just the computer wiz, not a physician.

"Masae Kanegawa, resident tech guru and token transhumanist," she replied as her introduction before gesturing around the booth. "I was just making sure those Ivory Mask bastards didn't do anything to the sound system during their little stunt back in the festival. And I figured I'd take the opportunity to update a few things too." and she was waiting for a friend now, but since he had been awake for it he probably knew that already.

@RoflsMazoy

Thomas stared at the crutch girl as she walked away before turning to face the rain. She'd been somewhat strange, no doubt, and he couldn't really figure out her intentions. Not that he really needed to, though. If it had been important he'd hear about it sooner or later. And if he didn't hear about it, then that was fine too. Secrets are secrets for a reason, after all.

Thomas opened his umbrella and walked out into the rain, quickly losing himself in his thoughts. He was worried about Maribel's position in the student council considering everything that had happened, and he wanted to do something about it. Maybe he wasn't in the best position to do something, and maybe it wasn't his place to do so either, but it's not like he could just sit still and do nothing.

As he walked he noticed that he was passing by a hospital. He didn't usually - he must of missed a turn. He noted with interest that it was the hospital that the student council president had been admitted to. Thomas stood in the rain for a moment, thinking of whether or not to drop in. He had things to discuss with her but he wasn't entirely sure she was in the mood for it. Heck, he wasn't sure he was up for it, but it was something that had to be done one day or another.

Thomas looked up to the white building and sighed.
Better sooner than later.
Not like he had much better to do.

A blue burst erupted in Mauve Night’s face, her vision temporarily shaken by the special ability. In the corner of her eye, her HP bar took a hit, but it wasn’t nearly enough to dissuade her. Some people would have struggled in vain, other people would have tapped out, and a few really weird people would have enjoyed the situation, but Blue Nova was doing work on his own, his restrained fist glowing once more, shining with destructive starlight.

“Wow,” Mauve Night exclaimed, magenta eyes alight excitement, “Shoulda got started when I reached 'zero'!”

Shifting her weight lower, she curled in her legs and twisted her body, bringing the Berserker onto his back and transitioning into an arm bar, twisting his ensnared arm until it threatened to pop out of his shoulder. She could hear small cracks already, but to further drive in her point, her gun, the barrel pressed against his bicep, cracked out another three shots, slowing his body’s responses further.

“Wanna give up, porcupine boy? Or are you gonna keep going?”

---

"Cool, huh? I hadn't thought of it like that. Guess so." Broker said with a shrug of her shoulders as the dimunitive ice mage joined her on the ramparts, clusters of idling Masks dispersed along the battlements in semi-even intervals. "It is a bit dull up here but we can't afford to leave the City without someone to command the defense from the front. For now we can sit tight until someone starts calling for reinforcement or maybe the Harley's get crushed and blitz the last of the Strykers."

"Titania-sama?" The former Bruiser said in surprise, "I don't know if its weirder that you want to duel her or refer to her in the honorific, but I don't see why not. Grand Scale PvP doesn't last long, even with our future fortune's on the line. War may be good for business but it's hell on our infrastructure. Once the Masks cash out I'm looking forward to sinking my teeth into some new markets."

"Real estate sounds good. Then it's an easy jump into agriculture and trade hubs for all those war weary players looking to get away from the big cities..." Broker said with eyes cast beyond the artificial horizon, visions of wealth and splendor bringing an airy timber to her voice. "And ports! Dotted all along the coast line, with ships full of mats from far and wide! Hehe, play our cards right and we'll carve out an economic renaissance from this conflict!"

There may or may not have been laughter which could be called maniacal echoing in her head, but she was certain her actual laugh was far less of a cause for concern.

@KoL