Somehow, it felt as though only a moment had passed, and also 16 days had passed. Samuel was doing his best to ensure his teammates could do their best. A machine was a lot less likely to run smoothly if even one cog could no longer turn. If he could serve better greasing those gears, Sam had no problem doing so. He continued along until, after a certain incident with one of their freelancers, he was privately contacted by Binky, requesting that he keep a watchful eye on their (thankfully) poor Dick Cheney impersonator.

"I understand," Samuel agreed, though Binky's instruction wasn't exactly necessary. Threats to the whole were always going to be Samuel's focus if nothing else was supposed to take priority.

With the arrival of new foes, some of whom had names and cut-ins, Samuel had to take a more conservative approach. Shotguns and riot shields were actually quite effective against a man with weapons that sound like they were named by goblins. He allowed the others to be productive for those moments, with the armored freelancer providing a much-needed barricade between them and bullets intending on wiping them out and Apollo managing to shoot at things that were not considered friendly. Samuel did not mimic this behavior simply because he wasn't sure how wieldy a gun like that would be in this demonic form of his. He abstained, ultimately.

Assistance then came from Klava, who rejoined them and helped them push to the stairs, their armored freelancer still leading the charge. It was here, however, Samuel was forced to witness conduct he did not approve of, but he remained quiet about it. There is an argument that ignoring these sorts of problems is a problem itself, but Samuel had a sneaking suspicion these thugs weren't the sort to take five so that they could all watch his company's training video on sexual harassment in the workplace. Suppose that meant there was another reason to get rid of these thugs.

As Protector made short work of the men on the stairs, Sam received another call from Binky.

"Acknowledged," Samuel spoke into his receiver, listening to a loud, thunderous roar coming from above them as Binky informed him of Cobra's position. He took this slight moment, still following behind, addressing the freelancer group. "As expected, our objective is higher up, on the fourth floor. If we can continue to use this momentum to push through these optimists and sever the head from the snake, I suspect the rest of it will go limp," his ghastly voice added an ominous feeling to that statement.

It was then that they began their ascent, following Protector's lead and in pursuit of the shotgun-wielding gangster. The suit managed to snatch away the weapons from a number of their foes, and Apollo continued to rain fire on them. Until they were in a more open space, all rushing past their defense would do would hasten Sam's date with the devil, so he instead relied on his spells, which he was a bit more confident in if the truth were to be told.

Silhouette extended his arm out towards one of the disarmed grunts, who, when confronted with what appeared to be a literal demon glaring and pointing right at him, swallowed a lump in his throat. In the confusion with being relieved of his weapon and startled by Silhouette, he wasn't able to notice in time the swirling mass of shadow forming beneath him. One of his 'friends' attempted to warn him, but to no avail as in but a split second the shadow formed into a hand similar to Silhouette's own, erupting from the ground and grasping the man tightly. He began to panic when it then started to apply pressure, futilely trying to pry himself out of it with his bare hands. The gunfire prevalent in the building drowned out the crack of his bones as it shut tight, crushing him in a gruesome manner that left no doubt to those nearby that he had perished.

The boss informed them they’d be left without support fire as Valkyrie engaged the boss. “Noted,” Jacqueline affirmed curtly.
Thankfully, Breacher had listened to her suggestion, and distracted the chain-wielder while she readied her melody. Unfortunately, despite being rooted to the spot due to Breacher’s work, another man appeared, saving the chain-wielder from death. “Tch,” Jacqueline complained, directing an ire filled gaze at the newcomer.

Rottweiler. And he’d immediately known they were espers – so, he had experience fighting them. “Me neither,” she agreed grimly with Breacher’s assessment. “We’ll have to be careful, can’t rely on overpowering them easily,” she noted. She was sure Breacher knew that already, but honestly, she could use the reminder. Because now, these gangsters were upgraded in her mind from ‘trash’ to ‘worth consideration’.

Jacqueline followed after Breacher, using her shield as a cover while they descended downstairs. In the basement were the prisoners – potential hostages or even enemies, depending on whether the mobsters would let them loose. If she knew that any of these would be willing to assist them in exchange for some money…No, she still wouldn’t do it, because that was definitely something she needed authorization for. Her inspection lingered slightly on the businessman – partially because he seemed the calmest, partially because of the suit.

She didn’t really get much time to contemplate whether and how she’d have to protect the jailed people. Two other men were acting here as backup while Rottweiler did who knew what – possibly contact some other people via his radio.

A man with knives taped to his wrists charged at her, which was all sorts of ridiculous. Jacqueline swung at him, the greater reach of her weapon allowing her to do so without worry. However, she managed to clip him at best, bruising his backside while he evaded, getting close to her with that move. As fast as he was crazy, then. She got slashed across her thigh in exchanged.

She whirled around to face the man, shifting her hold on the war pick. It was now parallel to the floor, held similarly to the spear. Leroux then drove the weapon forward, thumping into the man with the top part. The weapon wasn’t designed to be particularly damaging that way, but it hit the guy in the stomach, and winded him briefly.

While she readied for another hit, he recovered enough to charge her again. Tired of this game, Jacqueline sidestepped him just in time to dodge, and stuck a foot out to trip him. The knife-guy stumbled, but this time, she didn’t give him a chance for another charge. She turned quickly, using the movement to swing her weapon at him. Finally, it was a direct hit to the face. The man had been quick enough to raise his knives, and scratch up her left forearm, but not so swift to properly block. Thus, he was knocked out, his face rather messier for it.

All in all, the fight hadn’t been long. Still, Jacqueline knew that just as the two of them were finished with theirs, all other sorts of things could have happened in the meanwhile. Which is why she quickly faced where the remaining enemies had been previously, assessing the situation.

---

---

_{@Izurich@Crusader Lord}

”Understood, proceed with caution.” Fritzi sounded a bit more professional than she had earlier. Less jovial. ”I’ll notify the other squad about the military weaponry.”

Merry may have covered her mouth and lungs, but the concentrated coal mixture found in tear gas was a natural irritant to one’s eyes. No amount of holding her breath or shielding her mucus membrane would clear her vision. But before momentary blindness set in, she managed to get off a single shot. Practiced hands ensured it went straight through the machine gunner’s head. The armor did little to slow the round down. Nor the barriers that were behind him, and certainly not the people hiding behind those barriers. Good thing most of the locals had fled the area, otherwise someone four blocks down would be getting a very rude wake up call. Once Merry moved to fresh air, her sight started to clear up. It seemed they weren’t using military grade tear gas. That was a relief at least.

But as short lived as her blindness was, it masked a subtle bit of movement at the other end of the building. Someone had stuck their hand out the window, pointed towards the apartment complex and then just vanished!

What Merry did notice was how the bullets entering the apartment building seemed to stop. The gangsters backed away from the windows and headed further down the hall. The grenadier dropped a smoke grenade to block their exit. No one could accurately fire at Merry, nor could she fire at them. What was going on?

But on the same floor as her was a helmetless individual wearing a gas mask, sporting neon hair and an impressive bomb suit. They had an empty shotgun, but opted to leave it by the fire escape before entering the building. Now was the time for Viper’s knives, their fangs, a pair of twin ka-bars.She spun the knives while keeping herself out of sight. Their prey had run into the hallway, not too far away from their current position. They wouldn’t need a gun at this range.

Viper tied a bandana around her head before listening for Merry’s footsteps or her breathing. She had just run away from a slew of bullets, and there was no reason for her to think that now wasn’t a good time to catch her breath.

Viper didn’t wait for their prey to move. Viper shuffled up to Merry and wrapped her arm around the barrel of her gun. This was to prevent her from trying to fire at them. Merry might have been able to wrestle the gun free, but would she be able to do it before Viper’s other knife wound up in her chest?

---

_{@SilverPaw@TheGMbby}

Shortly after the gun brute emptied his entire clip into Su’s shield, he charged her. They whipped the empty gun at her face, but it just harmlessly bounced off her shield. Once the brute closed the distance, he grabbed Su’s shield and managed to pull it out of her grasp. He was strong, but he stumbled backwards as the shield was pulled clean out of her hand. This gave Su a clear shot at his legs, which she capitalized on. A single shot shattered his tibia, dropping him to one knee. Most thugs would have called it quits after taking a shot like that. But these convicts had seen a lot of fighting, and had fought through more grievous wounds than that. With his good leg, the thug lunged towards Su.

”Gah!”

He nearly flattened her under her own shield, giving her a concussion from the impact. He was going to make use of her state of vertigo to climb over her and drive his fist through her face. But Su wasn’t one to stay down for long. She used her knees and elbows to lift her shield and dump the thug onto the floor. Su rose to her feet as soon as she was free. The brute grabbed Su’s leg, and the agent retaliated by dropping her metal shield on the thug’s arms. He roared in pain as both of his forearms were crushed under the force of the blow. He was no longer a threat to anyone. Her ears were still ringing when she stumbled towards her partner. ”Still okay?” There was a hint of concern in her voice when she examined Jacqueline’s wound. It was nothing serious, but it was like a mother to worry about such things, even if the children in question were not her own.

Jacqueline’s assessment of Rottweiler’s plan was pretty much on the mark. He hadn’t radioed for backup, but the brutes they fought were there to stall for time. Rottweiler had made it to the other end of the jail where he kneeled before a beautiful, if unkempt woman. She had a round face with mature features, and golden strands of hair that tumbled down the full length of her back. She wore no clothes, save for a tattered robe that was due for a trip to the washing machine, if not the furnace. She dragged a thin blade along the former police officer’s palm and clasped her hands in prayer. A red circle appeared around the woman, which shot rays of light upwards. The entire cell was basked in a red glow, and her robe looked like it was getting swept up in some sort of wind storm. The light dimmed seconds later, leaving Rottweiler with an eerie glow. The woman turned to the chain brute, who had just limped over. She held her hands together in prayer, and again, the red light and localized wind storm returned. When it expired, he too was given a red aura. The gash on his chest was no longer bleeding, and had scarred over.

”The hell is going on here?”

Of course the situation was plainly evident to the Gemini Agents. The woman in the cell had to be a blood magi: one who practices the taboo art of blood magic. Magi were relics of the past when there wasn’t enough mana in the air to make espers viable. Rather than being conduits of mana via grimoires, Magi relied on artifacts designed exclusively for the art of casting spells. They did not enjoy the types of enhancements espers did, and casting spells took more concentration and time. When that wasn’t the case, there was usually some other cost. Blood magic was infamous for its potency as well as requiring blood to activate its spells. There were stories of people being sacrificed by the hundreds to summon cataclysmic events.

”You’ll be free soon, Lada.” Rottweiler stood back up and turned towards the espers. ”You know, it’s been one hell of a week. One minute I’m a mild mannered martial arts instructor, the next I’m some coward who cohorts with gang members to save his own skin.” He chuckled as he walked closer to the espers. The prisoners didn’t stop screaming for blood, but they had quieted down after Rottweiler received his dark blessing. ”Ten years of service, and in just a few days my biggest fans have all lost faith in me. Man, people sure can be fickle, huh?” He shook his head with a smile. ”I don’t think I need to tell you guys there’s a hidden government complex around here, right? That’s probably why you guys are here. They take magically gifted convicts down there for research. I had Cobra Gang move Lada up here for me. But even they don’t like the idea of her walking around freely.” He sighed. ”We don’t have to fight, I just want to get Lada out of here. I don’t really care what happens to the gang.”

Su fret her brow and leveled her pistol with Rottweiler’s head. ”Alliance or not, experiment or not, I only imagine what blood magi was convicted of.” She shook her head. ”She can’t be free.”

”Hah! I guess that’s fair.”

The chain thug Took a deep breath and charged Su with refound determination and power. She managed to fire a round into his shoulder, but his only reaction was for his shoulder to swing back like it had been shoved. There wasn’t any indication that the bullet penetrated his flesh. Su raised her shield and fired several more rounds before he slammed into her shield with his other shoulder, knocking her back. All of the gunfire had shredded the shoulder of his jump suit, revealing a cluster of bruises. Whatever the magic did to them, it made them incredibly durable. While gunfire wasn’t too effective, did that mean a giant war pick would be just as ineffective, or even their melodies?

”I feel like a mountain!” The convict cheered.

Rottweiler had a pistol and billy club in his holster, but drew his hand held metal detector instead. ”Let’s have some fun.” He brought his detector across his chest and sprinted for Jacqueline. He dropped his radio with his other hand and reached towards her weapon. It was too early to tell if he was going for a disarm, or was going to attempt pushing the weapon out of the way. But it was clear she was going to have a master martial artist on top of her if she didn’t act soon.

---

_{@FamishedPants@OwO@mantou@ERode}

With the second floor in chaos, and the guards on the stairwell trapped, there was little barring the advance of the freelancer team. Aria spear headed the team in the metaphorical and literal sense, plunging her weapon through the opposition before hurrying upstairs. She kept moving forward before unleashing the strongest pull melody she could muster. Though regrettably, it still had to conform to the nature of the notes she cast it with. The range on an AoE note was only five feet in all directions around Aria. Her magic also had no way to distinguish between a gun and a person. Aria’s power came from drawing in the flows of mana, which was something inherently in the air rather than something found in metal. Her magic was more akin to a gravitational force than a magnetic one. But there were loads of guns from the divine explosion Apollo unleashed earlier, and many of those guns were drawn to her feet. So if Apollo wished to swap his pistol for one of the many AK-47’s strewn about Protector’s feet, that was viable. Another, perhaps unintentional effect of her melody was that she could hear some people fumbling in the stairwell above her. Were the stairs not in the way, they may have fallen directly on top of Aria. The older waiter and the cronies beside him were unaffected as they were just too far away.

But not out of range of Samuel’s magic.

"Master Wade!" The old crow waved his hand at one of the gunman. "Move your feet! Something bad is about to-"

As Wade would soon learn, talking isn’t always a free action. Silhouette's horrific melody triggered just moments later, but by the time the shadow enveloped the poor bastard, it was already too late. Many of them opened fire on Samuel’s melody, which cracked the shadow and revealed what remained of poor Wade. He didn’t even look like a human anymore. Just a sack of meat with his bones and organs scrambled about, filled with bullet holes from his companions. Cobra Gang was largely made up of criminals who preyed on people they perceived as weaker than themselves. It made them feel powerful to steal, rape, and murder as a group. Their friendship was based on how strong they made each other feel, and watching one of their own get crushed by a shadow did not reinforce that image. A fair fight wasn’t worth picking, these espers were so far above them they were little more than roadblocks to them. Many wore a look of terror on their faces and fled at the sight. They ran to the opposite end of the building to escape out the windows. They would try their luck with the drop rather than face something that could do that to them. Plenty of the fleeing thugs fell to Apollo first.

During all that, Fritzi’s voice came over the freelancer’s earpieces. ”Military arments have been spotted on the upper floors. Expect heavy resistance moving forward.”

But with all the chaos afoot, nobody noticed Viper was no longer present. One does not simply watch their prey jump out of a window and stand by idly as they rally their friends. Viper had entered one of the offices before the freelance squad made their way up the stairs. Once they were alone, they spoke into their intercom.

”Hey hun, got some espers in here, wanna swap?”

After receiving a reply, Viper stuck their hand out the office window, pointed it at a distant building and just...vanished! Some yellow powder soaked into the floor, and there was no trace she had even been there.

Though their exchange here was about to make things much more interesting for the freelance team.

It looked like the freelancer group had cleared the second floor pretty well, with just the butler and two other cronies that were too stubborn to flee. The old man had two of his fingers pressed against his temple when he suddenly smiled.

"Very well. If a group of low-brow rabble wishes to dance, what am I to do but oblige?" The waiter pointed his hand down the hall at the freelancer team, still keeping his fingers pressed together. "Servant Sofron, at your services!" At that moment it all clicked. The funny outfit, the eccentric personality… Sofron was an esper. Maybe he was a new addition to the gang Fritzi didn’t know about, or maybe he was a hire for extra muscle, but there would be time to think about that later.

A burning, screaming skull flew out of his fingertips. Most projectile melodies travel at the speed of a stone throw, and can usually be dodged if you see them coming. But this one was moving quickly. Its disembodied scream grew louder before diving into the floor and filling a zone of the hallway with burning ash. The effects weren’t obvious to start, but Aria, Apollo, and Samuel could feel the heat baking them. Their mana felt like it was being limited, and their bodies were starting to catch fire! They only had a few seconds to clear out before they were fully engulfed. That wasn’t even accounting for the bullets that would fill the hallway once the gang opened fire again. And that would resume shortly judging by how they were looking down their sights.

But that was not where the freelance team’s troubles ended. The “men” on the stairs turned out to be a single man clad head to toe in black armor. Visually they looked similar to viper, save for “Mamba” had a different name sprayed across their chest, and they had an orange cattle prod in place of a shotgun. ”Smells like dinner’s cookin’!” They sprint down the stairs after Apollo. It wasn’t hard to imagine someone wanting to shock someone like that.

Klava seemed to be relatively safe. She was still on the stairs, and there wasn’t enough room at the top for her to squeeze in. Not that she’d willingly enter a hallway filled with fire and bullets anyway. (Unless?) But that didn’t mean the stairs weren’t going to get exciting. She could hear some people moving around on the first floor.

”See? I told you those zip lines would come in handy! Just rappel down from the offices and-”

”Save it, Adder. Just be prepared to shoot anything that comes through.”

A tear gas grenade was thrown into the stairwell, filling the staircase between the second and first floor with smoke. This was followed by the sound of gunfire filling the staircase.

---

_{@The World@Hammerman}

A daring escape prevented Regina from being fatally skewered, as the Huntress slipped out from the brawler-ape’s grapple and blinked herself away, landing in relative safety near the warehouse’s entrance...until the mangled corpse of a rat struck her face. Looking through the entrance, she was greeted by the surreal sight of Billy Black being clothed in carnivorous rats, while a squadron of chefs with very tall hats sat down and patted their duck fat.

”Ya gotta be five finger fuckin’ me!” Billy turned to face Huntress, not too pleased to be doing battle with so many rats at once. Though he also seemed to be in good condition, all things considered. ”Get your- I say get your ass back in there and do what I’m paying you for!” He looked to the sky as a caldron filled with a murky green liquid was launched into the air off of a catapult. ”Hell’s bells!” He quickly nudged Regina aside, causing her to stumble through the illusionary field and avoiding a bath in rat broth.

Insane as that was, however, her escape was only temporary, and the two apes continued to follow her doggedly, rushing her down with the spear-ape now taking the front while the brawler-ape lagged from behind. The poison still slowed him down, but in time, the effects of that magical affliction would fade, and if Regina didn’t find a sniping position soon, she’d undoubtedly find herself back in a two-on-one melee.

Of course, compared to Marrie, Regina had it easy. Suddenly incredibly vulnerable due to the loss of her Esper form, the depowered girl sprung into action, morals forgotten as the situation became much more dire than expected. With desperate force, her kick landed right between the legs of the longsword-ape, pummeling something soft and inexplicably moist. He let out a gasp in response, doubling over in agony and giving Marrie just enough time to dive for her instrument. The shark tooth necklace vibrated within her grasp, and in the next moment, she reclaimed her superpowered form! Blood soaked her left arm, but her right was strong, and with her opponent still shaking, the Apex Predator lunged for a killing blow!

Only for her right foot to be yanked backwards by the whip-ape’s accurate strikes, and for her chin to strike the ground in a skull-shaking impact. Of course. In a fight between multiple opponents, to ignore the one with the longer range was to leave yourself exposed at any time.

And while the world around her blurred and loosened, swirled and ached, Marrie could see the longsword-ape stand up once more, raising his sword to thrust into her back before she could recover. A miserable end, to a life that had seemed so full of promise. But as death neared, a strange smell bloomed in the area. A smell of mold, of old sweat, of high school locker rooms. The smell…of old socks! A wave of decay burst outwards near Marrie, driving both monkeys and bees back before the finishing blow could be delivered. And, standing before her was Tetrad, in that moment smelling both weirdly sweet and also incredibly repugnant. Both espers now had time to recover, and the menace of Tetrad’s newly-acquired hammer caused the apes to reflect on their plan of attack…though it certainly didn’t stop the bees from rushing T at all. With an angry buzz, they swarmed for the only sweet-smelling individual in the vicinity, ready to lay stingers on Tetrad and dedicate their hearts to the cause.

Meanwhile, the Queen of Bees, still basically untouched and still basically having not drawn any aggro this entire time, strutted forward menacingly as her subs pumped up the honey water within their Super Soakers once more. Those Neanderthals, not knowing that the true threat laid with her and her Hyper Larva Growth magics! Those peons, fit only to massage her feet with their pitifully soft and weak hands! To think that their brains were so underdeveloped that they chose to fight each other rather than group up on the mightiest threat in this warehouse!

“Take aim!” She shouted, her minions lining up their guns once more. “Fire!”

KABOOM!

An explosion sounded behind the Queen, completely drowning out her yelp of surprise as a wrecking ball smashed through the entire back wall of the warehouse. Chunks of rubble flew out, pasting one of the subs as the light of day pierced through the storm of dust. The music could be heard loud and clear now, accentuated by the rumbling of behemothian engines. Two bulldozers flanked a tall crane, all their lights pointed in one direction to backlight the squat businessman who strode into the room like a true American psychopath. He wore a yellow hard hat that didn’t match his custom-tailored Italian shoes, and the grin he had on his face was undoubtedly one of a man who had more money than sense. Pulling out his megaphone, he let it crackle annoyingly, then called out.

“Alright, ya freaks and sheeps! Time to clear the fuck out. This shitty little warehouse has been blotting the cityscape for far too long. Pax Septimus Holdings has just cleared demolition for this here building, so clear the hell out and find some other warehouse to squat in!”

He sneered, supremely arrogant of his position and also totally unaware of what was going on at the other side of the warehouse.

“Maybe if y’all worked as hard as I did, you’d be able to afford to lease one of the rooms for the mega-apartment I’ll be building up after this!”

---

_{@Majoras End}

Children are little more than adults in training. Be they six, twelve, or even eight-teen, they are still learning how to behave like someone who can handle responsibilities. One of the more difficult lessons children must learn is the appropriate amount of force to use in a given situation. It’s a tricky one to learn, one that many adults haven’t mastered.

As an example, when Mary saw Betty in zir seat, ze could have asked her to move before resorting to magic. That could have made Mary seem reasonable in the eyes of others. Instead, Fable was filled with fear, notably so as ze drew closer. Though much like zirself, Fable was also a child. Throwing a hot cup of coffee into someone’s face was a perfectly reasonable thing to do if they made him feel uncomfortable.

Maybe the coffee had cooled for a few seconds, maybe a minute, but hot coffee was still hot coffee. Mary’s scream could pierce glass, but it didn’t stop Fable from running off. As he disappeared out the door, Mary fell to zir knees, still screaming as the coffee trickled down zir elaborate shirt. Denny stuck out his big tongue and tried to clean as much off it as he could. Mary eventually calmed down enough to where ze could reach into their blouse and retrieve a handkerchief to clean zirself off with. They cleaned up most of it, though ze still looked miserable. Zir dress was wet with coffee, and ze couldn’t stop themselves from crying. Mary’s cheeks were bright red, and zir nose was running all over the place.

"Mastress! This won’t do!" Denny shook Mary. "It’s my fault! I shouldn’t have tried to hook you two up! But after seeing how bad things have been going-" But Deny went silent as soon as Mary decided zir skills as a ventriloquist wasn’t going to cheer them up. It was depressing, really. Pretending to be a puppet to overcome zir crippling social anxiety.

But while ze was content to just sulk, someone else wasn’t going to let zir do that.

“Ahhh...” A gloved hand slid under Mary’s chin and lifted it up. Ze immediately stopped zir crying when ze was able to see who the hand belonged to. It was a slender man with short blond hair and some of the most regal clothes ze had ever seen. He looked like he had just stepped out of a castle in Transylvania. Ze couldn’t see his eyes because they were closed, but that didn’t stop him from “looking” at zir. “What a beautiful flower I’ve come across. But why, her pedals are stained with coffee, and her eyes run over with tears.” The man offered zir a handkerchief, which ze took and blew zir nose into. “What is your name, madam?”

"M-Mary." Ze fret zir brow. "And it’s ze! I’m a demiboy!"

“Ahh, I apologize.” He bowed. “I am Justin. You may refer to me as a ‘he,’ if that is acceptable?”

Mary’s face broke into a smile. "I don’t see a problem with that, Justin."

”I see you’ve had a little mishap with your cup. Would you like me to get you another one?”

"T-this was not a mishap!" Ze folded zir arms. "B-but yes, I would like some coffee. I haven’t had any luck getting a waiter over this way, and some guy just threw ‘this’ one at my face!"

Justin was taken back by this news. ”My condolences, Mary. I knew Pax Septimus was a rough place, but any neanderthal who would do such a thing to a flower as beautiful as yourself is truly depraved. Do you know anything about him?”

Ze sighed. "I saw his face."

”That may be enough.” He looked back towards the counter and raised two fingers. The shop owner gave a nod before disappearing behind the counter. ”Perhaps you can help me out, Mary. It would mean a lot to me. I’m looking for a girl. She has silver hair, pale skin, and she was playing the violin a few minutes ago. I was going to leave, but I simply must have her autograph.” Justin smiled. ”You wouldn’t happen to know where she is, would you?”

---

Fable ran. He ran and ran and ran. There was no destination in mind, just the desire to escape. Unfortunately for Fable, it is not possible for an Esper to run away from trouble. Without a location in mind, an esper will always be drawn to places where other espers or monsters reside. And since Fable was avoiding the former, it was just a matter of time before he encountered the ladder.

And boy did he encounter one!

He didn’t see anything at first, but he heard it. The ground quaked with every step the monster took. Before he could even consider running away again, he caught a glimpse of it as it barreled through the streets. At a distance, it looked like nothing more than a giant crab. One that was several stories tall maybe, but there wasn’t anything especially unique about its construction. Though he did notice lots of small cracks running all over its body, and it’s shell seemed to… move? It shifted, punched, and skidded about as it drew closer to Fable. But as it did, Fable would soon realize it wasn’t a giant crab, but thousands of normal sized crabs locked together. Swinging their pincers and dancing about.

Below the creature was a green haired woman with the longest legs he had ever seen. She was wearing a doctor’s coat and had all manner of doctor’s equipment hooked up to four metal arms mounted on her back. Bone saws, an oversized injection gun, and various other implements that were too big and cumbersome to be used to heal anyone. There was even an overhead light rigged up to shine on whatever she was looking at. Despite the bulk of her equipment, she moved with the grace of an ice skater, twirling through the air as the crab swung it’s claws at her.

”This would be a lot easier if our teams were the same size.” Despite the doctor’s quip, it was clear that it was taking everything she had to not get flattened under the monstrosity’s claws.

Then, Fable’s phone would blip with a notification from the Shimr app.



Richter? That street ran right past the Great Escape!

The crabs on the behemoth’s head shifted apart, and two clusters of crabs were blasted out of it. as they flew through the air, they scurried around each other until they looked like two smaller versions of the behemoth they spawned from. They landed on their “feet” a few meters away from Fable’s position and started to close in on him. One rolled onto its head and started to spin, breakdancing towards the wee lad.

Crabs to his back, a giant crab to his front, and walls on either side of him. Would Fable attempt to continue his daring escape, or would he stand and fight?

"Got it." Marrie managed to say as she dove for her instrument. Though just as soon as she was standing again she wasn't, and was back on the floor with a major headache. Deal with threats as they come. Okay then. While the apes were wary, she cast a quick melody.

Warm - Bronze Self - Heal.

As she was healing, she jumped up and ran at the ape with the whip, ready and focused to dodge any attacks from it. Cover me! she shouted behind her as she bolted up her target. She wasn't going for a stab, she flipped Apex Predator over to its toothed side, ready to slit the ape's throat with its gouging protrusions. Though she kept an eye on the bees, prepared to put the ape in between herself and them, going so far as to use his corpse as a shield if possible.

---

"Guilt's a bitch ain't it."
Current Location: Running to...

He ran.

Call him paranoid, call him stupid even. But he ran, no destination in mind but just, anywhere but there. And yet, a tinge of guilt gnawed at his mind. Was...he wrong to assume? Mary had looked to him for comfort, one kid to another, and he pulled a stunt like that?? What was he thinking? No, of course it was okay for him to be sca- suspicious of them! Who the hell waltzes up and portals someone to timbuktu in the middle of their conversation?!

His eyes widened. Oh god, he forgot about Betty!

His running speed started to slow down as he thought of what to do next. He frowned. Is it too late to apologize to Mary? Can he still find out where Betty dissapeared to?? He finally stopped in his tracks. Maybe it wasn't too late! Come on you idiot, run back while you still-

His choice would've been interrupted regardless. He felt the ground shake, causing him to tense up again. Fable looked around to find the source. The source in question being a giant-ass crab of crabs 100 meters from his location and rapidly aproaching, and he appeared to be caught in it's crosshairs! And the smaller parts that made up the Behemoth were...dancing?? Okay not the weirdest thing he's seen but still probs deadly.

Though what surprised him more was someone else trying to fend it off by themselves, narrowly dodging the crab's attacks with grace. He would've thought that was cool if common sense didn't say soloing a boss was a gamble and a deathwish all the same. And what do you do when a boss gives you trouble? You call for support.

Thus Fable received a notification from Shimr. He quickly grabbed his phone to check. Damn, he even forgot the two other factions had put out bounties earlier. He read through the recent one from GEMINI. Crab Rave, Behemoth, Richter Street. The boy gulped down any fears he had. In time to see the behemoth start blasting groups of crabs at his direction. With a yelp, he ducked on instinct. The blasts landed behind him creating smaller constructs of the monster itself that still had the same ill intent as it's original. He was cornered.

Backing away from the minion behemoths behind him, Fable sobered up his thoughts.

Enough running.

Grimore in hand, he reeled his arm in. And once he opened the pocket watch, he casted his arm back out, a flash of light transforming both it and himself instantly.


"Player Two has arrived!"
Current Location: Richter Street
|Objective: Defeat Crab Rave! Make sure to prevent any civilian casualties!|

Now that he had finally transformed, he felt...a little bit better. Standing in place of the meek boy, the Timekeeper took a battle stance. As much as he wanted to go help the doctor lady with the main event, he had to clear through these two idiots first. Who knows, maybe cutting out the pieces will help!

Steady your breathing. Start out small.

Let's hope my aim doesn't suck! He thought, ribbons of electricity flowing across his arm. The mechanical boy then fired a bolt in between the smaller Crab Raves, intenting to catch them both in the attack. Once the projectile hit, the area around them would act akin to a pool of water conducting electricity. Not really as high voltage, but still pretty painful.

If the monsters weren't stalled long, the Timekeeper would follow up, slashing at them with his rapier.

"Cough! Mmmgh!" Tears ran down her eyes as Valkyrie trusted her legs to carry her to wherever it'd be safe from the lachrymal assault. With not even a second to spare for observation, she could only hope that her lightning bolt of a melody did something against those bastards. A moment later, she found herself inside one of the apartment rooms far away from her previous spot, the air here freed from any irritating white smoke. "Haaa..." While her wincing eyes were still bloodshot and tearing up, she could at least get some fresh air and apparently, whether it was due to her esper form enhanced physique or the tear gas' subpar potency or both, her ocular faculty cleared up faster than she thought it'd be.

This allowed the brunette to clear her mind and focus back on the mission at hand. She made a few grunts as she stood back up, went to the doorway, then peeked out into the hallway before turning her gaze toward the Precinct across the street. "Huh...?" It was at this point that she noticed the mobsters who had been shooting at her suddenly stopped, they couldn't even be seen as a plume of opaque smoke blocked the window. It could mean many things, but the one prevailing theory would be that her lightning bolt snagged a few of them, then they realized that cover meant nothing against her so they decided to retreat out of sight, yep, makes sense.

"Heh~" She was doing quite well considering her odds, that lifted her spirits a little. Although... where's Wukong? Didn't Veronica say that she'll be assisting her? Shit... the monkey didn't get into trouble on the way here, right?

Valkyrie was about to report the situation when her gut warned her that something was up, that inexplicable sixth sense humans have when an impending danger is near. "...?!" However, it still wasn't enough as by the time she whipped about, there was an 80s reject psycho with a gas mask clad in a stolen EOD suit all up in her face. Merry's red-orange pupils constricted in immediate fight or flight instinct and judging by the movement of her trigger finger, it's firmly in the former. However, the hostile was restraining Teslic Gauss' barrel with her arm, then the ominous glint of a combat knife was caught by her peripheral vision-

-Merry didn't think, her body moved on its own as vein-patterned lightning surged down her free left arm, her electrified hand splayed open-

"Kom deg vekk fra meg!!"

BAM!!

A violent boom shook the air akin to a localized lightning strike as Valkyrie slammed said left palm into Viper's chest, the melody cast upon her via touch. If the move was successful, it should result in Viper's torso being paralyzed as her frame was thrown about ten feet back, then Valkyrie would aim the freed railgun and let loose as many sabots as she could at the neon-haired gangster, professionally aimed at her vitals.

If that failed through one way or another, well, getting stabbed was always an option.

---

---

Her arrival on the roof seemed timely enough, but right below a hail of gunfire erupted. Lilliah spun around as she watched the scene from her position, seeing the tear gas grenade and the bullets fly in like hail. Military grade stuff. Grenade launcher, machine gun suppressing fire, and then all of a sudden the flash of a shot from her ally and then smoke emanating from below as the hail of bullets stopped. Was the enemy retreating farther in? Crap. But her ally had seemingly still driven them back somewhat, thought it reeked of suspiciousness, and instead of hopping down that sketchy fire escape the staff-wielder decided that it would be wiser to go in ASAP to check on her teammate. It was better safe than sorry in this case, though the temptation to sneak in from up top to find a good spot from the apartment to look from was outweighed by the feeling she needed to check in on things more directly.

Swinging down into the hole in the building below her and using her momentum to break into a full sprint into the hallway, it only took Lilliah glimpsing a second figure grabbing Valkyrie's gun from behind that the simian-like esper didn't skip a beat. She sent herself flying at the assailant's exposed back, and cast a particular melody for once she made contact. Top speed, and a swift strike with a touch-based spell into the target's mid-back would count as the 'touch' needed, right? Though if her ally's moves had any success, she'd be hitting Viper from behind as Valkyrie sent them flying Wukong's way anywho. Regardless, Wukong's aim was to strike Viper no matter how things were, hoping that her melody would be able to restrain the foe for a moment at least if not more so.

Enough for her to follow up with more strikes from her staff at the very least, she hoped.

Yet Wukong had no idea of her ally's attempted actions, simply reacting to the situation with immediate action on her own part to try to assist a teammate. No thought of being caught in the crossfire, no thought of if her ally could free herself or would start firing in the enemy/Wukong's own direction, etc. Even so, at the back of her mind the younger woman wondered just how a bunch of thugs could get such higher-grade equipment? And how in the world was there some sneaky assassin skulking around for them? Sure in this city there were always surprises, but once this mission was completed she had a number of questions that hopefully would be able to be answered. Maybe.

For now, it was just the job and trying to help an ally not outright die that mattered. Also herself not dying would be great as well.

@Izurich@BrokenPromise

_{@The World@Hammerman@ERode}

Bees, beasts, and businessmen, oh my!

Things just kept getting crazier for the Mavericks. The scent of foul socks still lingered in the air when part of the warehouse got its shit pushed in. The foreman looked normal enough, but anyone who showed up at seven O’clock to prattle on about finances was not a normal person. They had monkeys, they had bees, might as well add some lizards to the mix.

As eager as Luna was to slay the queen and get her drones on her side, it seemed Marrie still wanted to play with the monkeys. This wasn’t an ideal choice for Luna. The main target was the queen and her church of honey. Not only that, but those construction workers could end up covering the entrance to the Bastion, forcing them to find another way in. There was also the matter of the bees that were really into her. In Luna’s eyes, they were attacking the wrong threat. But she understood Marrie’s reasoning. They were the closer threat, and Huntress was probably too proud to admit she needed the help anyway. Once they got the monkeys off their back, they could take on the big fish. Big bee? Big lizard? Whatever.

Luna dropped the hammer on the ground. She might come back for it, but Pit Boss was her weapon of choice for this arrangement. Her first few shots were aimed at the swarm of bees that had been closing in on her. Pit Boss’s projectiles had a shrapnel effect that should make short work of tiny endangered species like them.

With Marrie closing in on the whip ape, that left Luna to make sure the long sword ape was kept in check. And for that, she’d have to make sure he didn’t get too close to Marrie. That called for a melody that could hold someone in place. Her hoop spun up as she charged a beam to fire. Faster and faster, It glowed with power as it hovered between her hands. Before long, she fired at the ape. Her melody manifested itself as a firework that zoomed towards her target, only instead of firing sparks, it fired blue glitter.

POOF!

Now Luna smelled of moldy socks, honey, and she was covered head to toe in fine blue particulate. Provided her melody landed, the sword ape would be lifted off their feet, suspended in a swirling mass of glitter.

”I hope they have running water nearby!”

Tetrad moved closer to the sword ape while she fired. She wanted to be nearby should Marrie or Regina need a hand.

The panicked reaction exhibited by the gangsters in response to their friend suffering a gruesome end was excellent and the desired outcome. Samuel hoped to make the most use of their foes' inexperience with Espers, though this much could likely be gathered by his approach up to this point. But he couldn't blame these men for wanting to flee from the unknown, not when he did very much the same that fateful night. He didn't consider fighting that monster until there was nowhere left for him to run.

So the fact that two goons and what appeared to be a butler were able to regain their composure and stand firm against their advance was, well, somewhat admirable by Samuel's standards. At least, it would be if it wasn't simply a suicide option. Because this merely meant they were still obstacles in the way of Samuel's objective, and they weren't likely to be very hard to mov---

A butler?

A mistake.

Samuel made a stupid, dumb, arrogant mistake. Obstacle? Obstacle? This butler? No, unless they happened to take a detour by an asylum before conquering this station, this gang was unlikely to be attended by a willing butler. And an unwilling one would've fled the moment they had the chance!

"This is Silhouette," he spoke through comms to the other G.E.M.I.N.I agents while keeping an eye on the strange butler before them. "I have eyes on a potent--"

"Servant Sofron, at your services!"

As a consequence of his incompetence, Samuel and the rest of them received a melody in the form of a flaming skull that rocketed at them, leaving little room for them to avoid its effects. "CONFIRMED Esper sighting! We are engaged!" he alerted the rest of G.E.M.I.N.I agents mainly to reduce the risk of them getting blindsided if there were more Esper surprises, but that was all the attention he could afford to give the other team.

Samuel's arcane resistance gave him room to work with, although it wasn't very much, and it felt like even less since the remaining two thugs began suppressing fire. That wasn't even mentioning the dampening effect he was subject to the courtesy of this butler's tainted melody. It felt less like his mana was being stolen from him and more like the connection between Samuel and his mana had become vague, like a magical haze. It was still there, it was just much harder to grasp. He wondered if this was what it felt like to people suffering from his own magics. Although such a question would have to wait for another time, as the situation went from bad to worse.

They were now being confronted by the people who had been above them. Well, the singular man, 'Mamba', who rushed Apollo. If that wasn't enough, they were now being pincered by what seemed to be the very same men from before, judging by their words. Their retreat was now cut off, and Samuel wasn't able to utilize the entirety of his mana to do anything about it. He felt a hand grip his heart and attempt to crush it with hopelessness and despair.

Such irony... I'm not a fan of it.

Sam didn't let it smother him.

Calm in heart and mind.

The increasing heat told Samuel he only had a couple of seconds remaining before the butler's spell would engulf him, so he stood tall and whipped his arm out towards one of the grunts shooting at them, and let loose a melody, aimed at one of his arms as he retreated just enough to not be burnt to a crisp. The intent was to potentially cause the man to twist and maybe even spray the butler or other gangster by accident with his gun. Or at the very least, if he missed the arm but still hit the thug, he might just pull the man into this magical fire the butler started.

Either way, Samuel paid the price for becoming a bigger target while people were spraying bullets. One nailed him just below the shoulder on his right side, sending a jolt of pain throughout his demonic body, nearly sending him tumbling down the stairs, which likely would've been fatal given the blind fire being thrown into it. He managed to avoid that much, though.

Samuel hoped his allies could get them out of this mess they were in. He simply wasn't strong enough to do it himself.

Between the gunfire of the remaining cronies and the grandstanding of the Esper (who would’ve thought? Should’ve stabbed the fellow before he transformed), it was almost a miracle that Klava was untouched. It was the benefit, perhaps, of being the last to enter the staircase, and that same benefit was what keened her ears to the conversation of two others.

“The Cobra Gang truly is made up of snakes, huh?” she murmured.

An enclosed staircase was the bane of any Blinker, while the voices of two didn’t mean that there wouldn’t be more out there with them. If it was just Adder and Smarter-Dude? Klava figured her chances were good enough if she acted quick. But Adder, Smarter-Dude, and a bunch of quiet fellows? Yeah, she wasn’t Protector, and she wasn’t really into getting molested by Apollo either. So when the tear gas grenade bounced up, Klava, with athletic grace and reactions sparked by nights watching action movies where the heroes always responded in time to toss a grenade away, whipped off one of the sashes of her outfit and flung her other hand back, a ball of snow shooting out over the heads of the clashing Protector and Mamba. In the instant before she was yoinked back by her own Blink spell, she caught the tear gas dispenser in her sash and brought it with her.

The fiery heat surged up against the protective charms of her ritual vestments, granting her only four seconds to act, but that was nothing compared to having to react to a tennis serve. Rotating her hips and whipping out her sash, she slung the tear gas grenade at Sofron, a trail of chemical irritants in its wake. That same momentum was what jump-started Klava's own dash through the flaming zone, clearing it with time to spare as she sought to engage the more experienced esper in hand-to-hand, knife-to-man. Sure, if things kept up for more than a couple seconds, both of them would be choking on tear gas, but Klava had one clear advantage in that regard.

Her leitmotif provided free eye washes.

"On your own this time." He yelled to the Protector. He wasn't going to be shocked again. That shit sucked. So long as that armoured person wasn't also an esper, it would probably be fine to let the spear user take care of it on their own. She was definitely after him. Maybe that'd give the protector a free cheap shot if they were so distracted with him.

With his skin roasting, Apollo certainly made a choice. As an esper, he was certainly fast enough to dash through the hot zone. It didn't seem too large of an area. Plus, it wasn't like there was some large magical impediment like they had all been doing. With his own body becoming covered by a saintly glow, he sprinted down the hall. However, he only had done so for a brief period of time. He made a quick turn as he suddenly aimed for a window instead. With a great crash, he leapt out. This window wasn't chosen at random, of course. No, he was originally going to run straight at the fire man. A little wire caught his eye, however. Once through the window, he grabbed the wire with his open hand. He swung like a fictional character with a great kick off the wall. Then, as he approached a window closer and adjacent to the servant, he crashed through that window like a bat out of hell.

Sure, his body was covered in cuts, scratches, and a little bit of blood from that escapade. He'd recover, though. With the masked man shooting one of the mooks, the esper being assailed by the boss grindset bitch, and the protector hopefully dealing with Cattle McProd, Apollo ran at the final mook with his man catcher extended. This would probably stop a get down Mr. President moment. With the full force of his sprint, he collided the catch with the man's neck and refused to stop. The only thing that would stop this charge was the wall.

---

“I'll be fine when these bastards are down,” Jacqueline quipped in response to Breacher’s worried question. As expected, the gun and knife guys were there to stall for time. Rather than backup from more gangers, though, Rottweiler had managed to unearth an actual damned blood mage. Then, the man started spouting off about the mage, how he wanted to free her, and turned to crime because of it, yadda yadda yadda. “Yeah, I don’t think so,” Jacqueline denied the request to let a criminal blood mage, same as Breacher had.

When Rottweiler charged her with a metal detector of all things. Jacqueline did notice his other weapons, but didn’t have the time to worry about whether he was going to use them later on or not. She swung her war pick, aiming to get it tangled with the lover-boy’s unconventional weapon. She was more than aware that whether she disarmed him fast enough or not, she’d have to get out of range of his no doubt superior techniques swiftly. Preparing to do so, she lifted a finger from her weapon mid-swing, aiming a melody at Rottweiler’s chest. Flecks of rust gathered around her finger, then shot in a straight line towards her enemy.

---

---

_{@Izurich@Crusader Lord}

Things were moving fast, almost too fast. If it wasn’t for the adrenaline running through their systems, they wouldn't been able to process it all.

Merry was running on pure instinct, ultra instinct some would say, and prepared to drive her palm into the approaching hostile. At the same time, Viper was thrusting her dagger towards her prey's chest. Viper's speed gave her an advantage in this situation, and the full length of her ka-bar meant she could connect that much faster with her target. The blade sunk into Silmeria's flesh, just off center to her sternum. Five millimeters, ten millimeters, and then Viper bent her elbow which prevented the blade from entering deeper. The wound did not go deep enough to reach her heart, but she did risk bleeding out if she moved around too much.

Why Viper hesitated would be a mystery to Merry, but it was because Wukong showed up just in time to thrust her staff into Viper’s back. The upper half of Viper’s bomber suit blew apart, throwing Kevlar and polymer substances everywhere. Even the trauma plate on the front of her suit shredded and fell to the floor in a heap. Now her torso was clad in some tight fitting top that didn’t leave much to the imagination. Not long after, vines made out ki wrapped around her shoulders, preventing her from resuming her attack. Lillia’s presence hadn’t registered to Merry when her palm connected, blowing Viper backwards.

It was luck that Lillia managed to come through the window late enough that Viper didn’t see her and early enough to stop Merry’s assassination. But there is only so much luck in the world, and Lillia had depleted all of hers. Before she could get off an extra swing, Viper flew backwards, causing her to slam into the monkey woman. This both staggered Lillia and caused Viper to not slide as far as Merry might have liked. The total distance was about a single meter.

Merry and Lillia’s coms cracked to life with Veronica’s voice. ”The opposition has hired some espers. Be on your guard, agents!”

Lillia had fewer opportunities to counter attack given that Viper’s back was pressed up against her. There wasn’t much room to swing a staff at such close range, especially in a narrow hallway. Viper on the other hand didn’t need much room to drag her knife along Lillia’s outer thigh. It wasn't deep, but a laceration like that was going to make running very painful.

Merry had not noticed Lillia’s position, so there was little stopping her from attempting to put her next few shots into Viper’s heart. Though Viper’s close proximity meant that she just had to step forward and roundhouse kick the front of the barrel, sending Merry’s next shot off the the side. Viper already had her next melody prepared. Her hand was glowing like a yellow ball of radiation. She pointed her finger in Merry’s direction and… Vanished.

It might have taken Merry a moment to realize what had happened. But Lillia could see Viper had blinked to the other end of the hall. It wasn’t possible to hear at their distance, but without her armor, it was clear she was having difficulty breathing. Normally a paralysis attack to the torso could cause someone to momentarily suffocate, but Viper’s resistance to magic enabled her to breathe with great difficulty. Perhaps that was why she decided to retreat instead of attempt to continue fighting. She raised her hand to her head before stepping around the corner.

”You didn't, say, there were, two!”

Viper’s breathing would return to normal shortly, but before it did, more guards appeared by the windows in the police station. Unlike last time, they were not stacked “deep” into the building. The top three windows each had a guard in it. One had a military issue anti-material rifle, another had a rocket launcher, and the armored grenadier had returned as well. They hadn’t fired yet, but that would change shortly, as they didn’t waste time getting ready.

---

_{@SilverPaw@TheGMbby}

Su was not going to last very long if she just stood there and took blow after blow from the raging brute. Even without magical enhancements, his chain wasn't something she could easily block. She decided to bring the full might of her magic to bear with the most offensive melody she could think of. As he continued to bulldog her with charges, a rock manifested in Su’s hand and she tossed at one of his legs. The stone expanded on contact, transforming into a small stone claw. It dug into his shin, and the newly formed wrist fused with the floor and pulled his leg until he fell onto his back. The claw didn’t disappear either. It was going to hold his leg in the air until something broke it.

”Witchcraft!”

Despite the spell’s damage being on the low side, it drew some blood. It wasn’t common for melodies to grant powerful physical resistances, but other types of magic did not hold up to the same rules. Especially ones as cursed as blood magic.

Jacqueline fought Rottweiler cautiously, though not to the point where she was just waiting for him to slip up. As soon as it looked like she was committed to her swing, Rottweiler brought up his metal detector to catch the pick just behind the head of the weapon. It made an electric squeal as it detected the presence of metal. The intent was clear, he was going to step in close where he wouldn’t have to worry about getting hit from her pole weapon. But Jacqueline had anticipated this, and was not only stepping backwards, but was preparing a melody as well.

Beam attacks fired instantly, and are subtle enough that a magic user needs to be paying attention to spot them. Rottweiler might not have been that, but he did understand how magic worked and was able to see what was going on. He stepped off to the side, escaping just as a stream of rust flakes cut him along his rib cage. He hopped backwards before Jacqueline could drive her pick into his head.

”I guess you won that exchange.” He drew his pistol. ”I wouldn’t mind sparring with you some time, but alas...” He aimed his pistol at Jacqueline, before swinging his arm over and firing several rounds into the cages to his right. Two convicts collapsed as the shots ripped through their cranium. The next cell had a businessman, who Rottweiler skipped in favor of the two convicts in the next few cells. The businessman looked shaken, but was unhurt.

Lada’s head shot up when she saw the spray of crimson in the four other cells. Her hands remained clasped together, and again, her cell lit up with eerie red hues. The corpses of the four men dehydrated as red strings of vermillion crept out of their bodies. In just a few seconds, they were little more than powder and bone. She was chanting words from a long forgotten language, and the blood strings shot out to every corner of the jail, filling the air with a red mist.

Jacqueline and Su could feel its effects. This was a spell designed to enthrall those in an endless rage. The espers and those who had been blessed by blood would not feel the effects much, but the inmates? Those already giving into their hatred? They fell victim immediately.

Then Rottweiler gave a single command.

”Open the gates.”

The cell doors all swung open, and the room was about to be flooded with pissed off inmates. Rottweiler stood in front of Lada’s cell with his baton drawn, seemingly prepared for whatever Jacqueline would try next.

---

_{@FamishedPants@OwO@mantou@ERode}

Fires! Butlers! Guns! Oh my! Nobody wanted to stand in the center of Sofron’s spell, and no one would blame them. Sofron himself just looked on with mild disinterest as the espers scurried around.

Samuel stood his ground a bit longer than the rest. He pulled one of sofron's goons, causing him to spray the other goon with a few bullets. Maybe he died, maybe he was still alive, but it was clear he was out of the fight. Sofron aimed his machine gun at the esper and fired. The spray of bullets was inaccurate, but he managed to hit Samuel with a bullet before he retreated to cover.

"Try to aim straight, master Kent?"

Aria stepped into the staircase with Samuel. She prepared a melody to give Apollo a bit more time to escape. As soon as Mamba got to the last step of the stairs, she went into action. The flows of mana twisted around them, locking their entire body in place. As strong as Aria tried to make her melody, it shouldn’t have had such a potent effect on an esper or magi. So Mamba likely did not have any kind of arcane resistances.

”Why you-!”

But wait a second, the hallway was on fire…

Didn’t Protector drag a bunch of guns that way?

POP! POW! RAKKA-TAKKA!

The guns pulled to the foot of the staircase started to go off. Protector’s shield would be able to take some of the damage, but they would need to retreat further down the stairs to avoid becoming bullet cushions.

Fortunately there would be little problem with that since Klava had blinked into the hallway with the tear gas. She flung it Sofron’s way before charging him head on. As mighty as an esper could be, most physical forms of harm were difficult for them to deal with. That included the smokey substance found in tear gas. Certainly shooting through a smoke screen at anyone on the other side would prove to be tricky as well. Nothing would impede Apollo as he swung out the office window to a better vantage point.

"Back up, master Kent!"

Master Kent did as he was instructed. He aimed his weapon where he thought Klava would be, prepared to fire, only for some huge faceless douchebag to fly out of the smoke. Apollo caught him with his man catcher and kept charging, carrying Kent all the way to the opposing wall. Kent was likely suffocating and had a broken neck, but Apollo didn’t stop running until he got to the window and Kent was thrown out of it, falling to the pavement shortly afterwards. He didn’t even scream as he fell. Sofron turned his head towards Apollo, then looked back at the smoke where Klava was emerging. He could shoot, but Klava was a swift esper and he wasn’t guaranteed a hit. His position had been surrounded. Yet he didn't look deterred.

"Fools, to take me on you must fight like a bear!" He picked up the light machine gun and kicked the catering cart into Klava to slow her down a bit. Then he balled his hand into a fist and drove it into the ground. "Balewulf!"

The distorted howl of a wolf echoed through the building before a pair of jaws popped out of the floor. They were the width of the hallway and swift to close, which didn’t directly hurt anyone but made the air quite warm. In the wolf's place were floating bits of burning coal that filled a portion of the hallway. Klava could feel her skin drying out and peeling in a matter of seconds. Though worse than that were the burns that spread across her skin. Eyewash was not enough to keep her eyes moisturized, and if she lingered here for too long, she’d have second degree burns all over her body.

Despite this, Sofron himself seemed to be impervious to the melody’s effects. He raised his gun to block Klava’s next strike before throwing his shoulder into her. If Klava was betting his instrument glamor was weaker than his genre, her hunch would prove to be correct. The tear gas would overtake them soon, but it seemed he was willing to wager his melody would have her out of the fight before it mattered.

Meanwhile back at the staircase, Aria and Samuel could hear more chatter.

”Did the tear gas go off?”

”Why don’t you take a look, Adder?”

On the platform below them, another individual in bomb disposal armor appeared. He was holding a light machine gun and was starting to turn the corner. Just behind him was King Cobra, who was much faster to notice the espers in the stairway.

”You imbecile, get back!”

Cobra pulled backwards on Adder before dropping a grenade at their feet and hurrying down the stairs. It looked like a tear gas grenade, but it sprayed a distinctly yellow colored gas into the air. The espers had a few seconds before the smoke reached them.

Though behind them, Solfron’s spell had gone out, but it still managed to set fire to the second floor. The sprinkler system hadn’t kicked on yet, but a disgruntled Mamba managed to free themselves. Judging by the bullet holes in the front of their trauma plate, they were hit by a few stray rounds.

”The barbecue… It started!”

With a laugh, he charged down the stairs with his cattle prod leading his attack.

---

_{@The World@TheGMbby}

If it was a three v one, the Ape Gang could take on any rookie esper, any time of the day. Even in a two v one, their chances were pretty good, with a combination of monkey-tactics and their superhuman strength. But in a one v one? All the strength in the world did not make up for the fact that magic was bullshit, and Instruments were even more bullshit.

The bees that shot towards Tetrad were mere distractions with the surge of shrapnel that shredded them to bits, and though the longsword-ape tried to close the distance in that moment, a blast of blue glitter sent him floating upwards instead, feet kicking against the air like a cartoon character. There was nothing so cartoonish about what happened afterwards though. At only E-rank damage, it took a sustained, bloody burst of Pit Boss to turn a hunk of meat into a hunk of less attractive meat. The spell ended, and so did the furry’s life, his sword clattering onto the ground.

The whip ape fared no better against Marrie’s own advance, her healing magic stitching together the wound of her arm as she sprinted towards him. Though the maximum speed of a whip exceeded that of sound, the whip had no versatility either, dependent solely on linear strikes. All it took was for Apex Predator to meet one of those whip strikes with its own blade, and the whip was cut in half. The throat was opened up with steel teeth soon afterwards, a spray of hot blood baptizing Marrie as the whip-ape gurgled out a last “return…to…monk-”.

But as for the last two apes?

“Bullshit.”

Regina had had enough of this. This job didn’t pay nearly enough for the amount of bullshit that was continuing to be heaped upon them, and thankfully for her, she didn’t have much of a reputation as an freelancer to worry about anyways. With another Blink spell, she teleported out of the warehouse, then out to another building, and gracefully made her exit…leaving the brawler-ape and the spear-ape to set their sights on the remaining two espers. Hooting and hollering, and yet weirdly not sounding all that vengeful or sorrowful, they made the long trip back towards the dynamic duo.

Meanwhile, the Queen Bee, her subs’ volley of honeyed water going wide due to the wrecking ball that smashed apart a wall, was truly incensed now. Not only were there property developers here, but the primitives seemed to think that it was totally ok just to ignore her! She was a threat too! She had tons of crazy magic at her disposal! And yet these peons, these Neanderthals, these pissants thought they could ignore her! Well, not if she had anything to say about it!

“C’mon ya crazy bitch,” the businessman said, tapping his fist against his hard hat, “get goin’ already. This ain’t ro- BURLGHDGBURLBUGHHHH!”

A pressurized blast of honey water shut him up as the Queen hoisted the super soaker of one of her fallen men, one of her eyes glowing a brilliant blue. Just as soon after, a fresh crowd of bees surged out, each one of them angry and validating their Queen’s own anger. Seeing this, the man paled and ran, his custom-tailored Italian shoes slapping against the ground hard as he started doing laps around the perimeter of the warehouse. “Fuck shippity fuck! I only eat organic you psycho! Damian! Bring this place down!”

From the cockpit of the wrecking-ball crane, a gloved hand extended out from the side and flashed a thumbs up. With a renewed roar, the bulldozers surged forwards, one towards the Church of the Hive and the other towards the Esper-Ape melee, while the wrecking ball swung into a devastating uppercut, smashing into the lights and beams of the building and sending all that deadly debris raining down on those below.

---

_{@Majoras End}

The lightning arced about, easily catching both of the smaller crab raves in its blast. While an attack that had roughly the same punch as a damage note might not be lethal to a human, that was not the case for the much smaller crabs, and not when applied all over their bodies. Their tiny little eyes fried into cinders, and their shells cooked under the moderate force of Fable’s attack. Both of the mini raves totally lost their legs, and their larger forms fell to earth. While Fable’s spell did hit a decent sized area, it didn’t penetrate deep enough to shock all of the crabs. But they shouldn’t have been a match for Fable’s rapier once he closed the distance.

But these were not two legless crabs, these were hundreds of crabs pretending to be two legless crabs. When fable thrust his sword, he did manage to kabob five of them. But then no less then twenty small pincers bit into his sword. The two damaged grab raves merged to become whole, and Fable soon found his weapon held in the grasp of a massive shelled terror! It gave the boy’s sword a sharp tug to force him to stumble forward. Then it attempted to take him out with a savage right hook. And on that right hook were no less than ten crabs with their claws pulled back ready to deliver an uppercut.

Meanwhile, the doctor continued their dance of evasions. The Crab Rave was getting closer. Forty meters, thirty meters, they would be a problem for Fable before long.

”Try this!”

The doctor swung her massive saw blade at the Crab Rave and it cut through! All the way through, separating it into two halves and- Oh, there were two smaller-yet-comparatively-massive crab raves now.

”You’ve gotta have a weakness somewhere...”

"Anyone up for a seafood boil after this??"
Current Location: Richter Street

His melody managed a hit! "Hahah!!" The boy let out a hyped up cackle, watching the groups of crabs literally loose their footing as they were cooked alive. But it didn't hit all of them, that's when he stepped in. The Timekeeper stabbed through one of the constructs, the weight on his sword signifying that he got several of the crabs. But before he could do anything else, the mini behemoth he attacked grabbed at Aeterna, fusing together with the other into a singular enemy. Great, now he's stuck playing tug-o-war with this thing?!

Fable tried his hardest to pull his weapon back from the behemoth, but compared to the hivemind before him, he was nothing short of a fly. The Crab Rave easily tugged the boy forward. His eyes widened as it prepared to strike!

But then, the boy realized something. He had an idea. But he'd have to act fast, and hope he wouldn't get knocked to the wall too...

The Timekeeper focused on conducting electricity through him and to his weapon, with the full intent of frying the Crab Rave from inside out whilst keeping it in place. If it wasn't enough to stop it from striking him, he'll tighten his grip on his sword and take the hit.

_*Without losing focus on his target, he called out to the doctor. "There has to be a mastermind keeping these things in sync!" He'd theorize. Enemies like this usually had an oddball as leader AND weakpoint. "Keep going, I'll be over to help as soon as I can!!"

_{*...Well, that's only if the wind didn't get knocked out of him.}

Miliseconds felt like minutes and seconds felt like hours during that excruciatingly intense moment where even a split-second would be the difference between who lived and died, there was no time for higher forms of thought, only muscle memories would do as Valkyrie favored her spine over her brain.

What happened next was all a blur of adrenaline-fueled fury, she felt the sharp pain of cold metal sinking into her flesh, and the only thing she could count on was her electrified palm... or so it would seem.

Suddenly, the snake bitch went rigid as if something hard had struck her back, her balance fell as she stumbled, turning her elbow into an awkward angle, preventing her from properly wielding her edged weapon. This was immediately followed by the destruction of her torso armor, revealing the tender flesh within, now only clad in mundane fabric. After all these, even if she possessed enough agility to correct the blade and finish the job, supernatural vines made sure it wouldn't be possible.

Those combined allowed even the noticeably slower Valkyrie to slam her electromagnetic palm into the gangster's chest, throwing her backwards and partially paralyzing her torso, causing shortness of breaths as if the rainbow-haired mob was asthmatic.

"The opposition has hired some espers. Be on your guard, agents!"

Veronica's warning was well-received, but Valkyrie had no time to reply, not now at least.

(Un)fortunately, Merry's follow-up maneuver to put sabots into her center mass was redirected with a roundhouse kick, causing the shot to go wide, sending the bullet to pierce through a featureless apartment wall. On the other hand, perhaps it was for the best since Liliah was directly stacked underneath Viper so their hearts were aligned by causation, killing this one random gangster wasn't worth sacrificing Wukong for.

"..." When Viper's hand was glowing yellow, Merry's arms were already surging with orange electricity in return, boosting her speed and reflexes to prevent her from being blindsided by this swift sneaky snake again. The adrenaline flowing in her system prevented Valkyrie from being flinched by the burning pain on her chest as she went eerily silent, the focused death stare of a sniper ready to take the shot. She noticed Liliah's presence, but made no verbal acknowledgments, pleasantries could be exchanged later.

The markswoman's reddish-orange irises quickly scanned the hallway, ears focused on the slightest bit of shuffling on the otherwise-empty corridor, then when she finally heard the shuffle of feet followed by the frantic voice of a woman from the end of the hallway, Merry didn't hesitate.

Using the increased speed of her electrically-surged limbs, she quick-aimed Teslic Gauss' barrel to the direction of Viper's voice as if apartment walls weren't there... then fired, and fired, and fired. A tri-burst of sabots puncturing through the concrete like hot knife through butter, continuing their way to rip through the rainbow-haired bitch's torso, hopefully her heart.

Of course, in her coldblooded tranquil fury to end Viper's existence, she didn't notice that more gangsters were manning the windows of the precinct across the street as after all, Valkyrie's back was facing them.

@Crusader Lord

---

Marrie looked back to the other two monkeys. Honestly? They wouldn't be much of a problem with Tetrad's help. So she focused her attention towards the queen. If she was willing to let bees eat a person alive, she deserved what was coming. So Marrie fired a melody at her, before turning around and faking towards the apes.

Cold - Silver Projectile - Storm - Blink

When the whirling mass of air hit the queen, Marrie would be on her like her bees were on Tetrad, and she'd take a nice stab at her heart. And since she was turned away from Marrie...

---

_{@The World@ERode}

There were a lot of things Luna didn’t care for about her situation. She didn’t like that there were two ape men. Gunning for her. She didn’t like that bulldozers and a wrecking ball were trying to level the place, and she didn’t like that some honey obsessed cultists had coated her in honey and were trying to sting her to death. But more than all of that, she hated that she was forced to team up with freelancers. If they weren’t the type to blink away from a dangerous mission, they threw themselves into situations with a child like recklessness. Did the mist girl think Luna would fair better against the ape men than she did? Did she think she could take on the church of the hive’s elite by herself? This would have been so much easier if- you know what? It didn’t matter. Tetrad just had to do her best to help the rookie without getting herself killed in the process. At least this one didn’t flee.

Luna really needed a moment to think, but she wasn’t going to get one. As soon as the apes came running, she picked up the hammer and ran in the opposite direction. Fighting the ape gang two to one was not a good idea. That was one option she could cross off her list.

Giving the mist girl backup would be a good idea. But she knew from experience that Pit Boss would have a difficult time hitting something at that range. A wind storm had kicked up on that side of the warehouse too, and she didn't expect her meager projectiles to land on target. They would just get blown off course, or worse, hit the mist girl. There wasn’t anything she could do to help her in this situation. Luna's mana reserves were draining, and she was being chased by two apes. Not to mention she was still covered in honey. If that queen bee got off another shot, or the hard hat guy ran in her direction, well, it wouldn’t be good. Fighting close or afar wasn't an option here.

Which left the construction workers, who were causing it to rain metal and debris on everyone. Actually, yea, if Luna could find shelter somewhere, she didn’t have to worry about a light fixture coming down and crushing her like a packet of ketchup. Hell, the bulldozers cruising around the place would work just fine.

”Alright you S-O-B, you’re mine!”

She didn’t know if the construction workers were monsters, humans, aliens, or some other type of freak. Ultimately they were bringing down a building with her and the mist girl still inside. She wasn't going to stop them out of heroism or because she was brave, they were just in the way.

Tetrad was going to hit the driver with a melody, but that was going to be kind of hard with the windshield in place. Even if it was just some polycarbonate, it would stop her melody from reaching the intended target. ”NGYA!” She hurled the hammer at the windshield before charging up her next melody. There was really no reason why she couldn’t have taken Pit Boss and just blown through it, but keeping the hammer away from the apes seemed like it was in her best interest, and the hammer would likely go through the windshield easier than Pit boss would have. As soon as the hammer hit, the glow at the end of her finger intensified before a firework flew from her fingertip and into the driver when-

EXPERIENCING TECHNICAL DIFFICULTIES, PLEASE STAND BY!

Some sort of error message was projected over her finger with a short timer.

”Now? NOW!”

In a panic Tetrad looked back between the approaching monkey men and then over her head. If she could avoid getting crushed in the next few seconds, she would swap places with the bulldozer driver. She hadn’t driven construction equipment before, but it shouldn’t be too hard to steer a bulldozer around. All they could do was move their treads and raise and lower their “bucket.” The reinforced roof would protect her from falling debris as she drove towards the mist girl’s position. Though that would only happen if she could dodge the collapsing building long enough for her melody to activate, and before the apes fed Luna her own arms.

Though if the glass hadn't shattered that changed little. She's just swap places with that instead and do her best to commandeer the bulldozer by getting the driver out of it.

_{ON-SITE: G.E.M.I.N.I. Assignment - Stairs+Landing w/ @FamishedPants@BrokenPromise}

---

Klava vaulted over the spinning cart with the eloquence of a parkour artist, both legs swinging up in the air as one hand planted upon the top of the cart. In that instant of contact, an arcane sigil engraved itself upon the rolling object, before it continued its path, crossing through a burning hallway and crashed to a stop beside the broken window that had been her entrance and exit mere moments ago. A way out, if need be. But even in flames, even in fog, she had her eyes on the prize. Moya-no-Yume scraped against the ground before swinging upwards, its lethal trajectory blocked by gunsteel. With the invocation of Balewulf, burning coal filled the air, its caster audacious regardless of circumstances.

“I’m not a bear,” Klava replied, her dried lips cracking as she broke into a ferocious smile. “I’m the fucking storm.”

And just as quickly as she said it, a wave of embarrassment rushed upwards, coloring her cheeks more brightly than the hot coals ever could. Thankfully, Sofron didn’t respond to that and opted to go for a shoulder slam instead. To create distance, no doubt. A blow to stall for time as his magic ate her away. Thank god for Apollo then; Klava could go all-out without worry about having to get out afterwards. Dropping her own center of gravity down, Klava slammed her massive heels into the shin of the tackling Esper while bumping hips with him as well, using the curve of her own body to flip Sofron over herself and slam him back-first into the ground.

An improvised shoulder throw.

And with him on the ground, his face pinned down by her knee, Klava didn’t even need to see to know where the rest of his body was. Both hands on her dagger, she drove the blade down, in hopes of piercing his right lung and granting him both a mortal wound as well as a chance to save himself via de-transformation.

It was still uncertain, after all, whether or not Sofron was just a freelancer hired by the gang or a tried and tested member of the Cobra Gang. But if he was the former? Well, what comes around goes around. And old folks ought to die in a bed surrounded by loved ones, or at least in a place with a better view than fucking Pax Septimus Precinct Seven.