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[b]Balibago, Angeles City, Philippines - 10/18/2022, 20:46 UTC+8[/b]

An internal alert was considered, frowned at... and then ignored. Qingshe frowned, as she didn't even bother picking up Noel's message. Why was he hailing her on both her personal and the Task Force Obsidian frequency? Well, either way, it wasn't really her problem, right? After all, she was on mandatory leave. They all were. Noel really shouldn't have been hailing them at all right now, and if anyone asked? Well, she'd just say she had her contacts silenced while on leave. She had that right.

The shrill ringing of alarms joined the rising chorus of chaos, as Qingshe finally came into sight of a three-story building with a functionally nonexistent parking lot. A single green brow rose to her hairline, as Qingshe spied the proud yellow banner with black words declaring the establishment as [url=https://maps.app.goo.gl/GPoaxByAE11aiyvLA]"Maybank"[/url]. It was a piddly, unimpressive thing, practically a hole in the wall convenience store in size that didn't even have a whole building to itself, Qingshe decided, as her feet carried her up to the broken doors, the windows having been clearly bashed open to admit someone.

"On your knee- [i]Arrgh[/i]!" An authoritative voice called out before crying out in alarm, as a scuffle clearly ensued from within.

Eyeing the broken sign on the ground that clearly labeled it as being after-hours, Qingshe dithered on approaching the building, before her shadow briefly boiled up from underneath her shirt to fire paintballs at the rather mediocre security cameras overlooking the area, quickly blinding them after several layers of paint. Feeling more secure in her anonymity, Qingshe strode closer, mostly retracting her shadow, as she leaned her head into the doorway and saw a woman struggling with a pair of security guards, one of whom was nursing a bleeding hand.

The woman was snarling a spitting like an animal, writhing on the ground and swinging a bat she held in one hand wildly, spitting invectives. One of her legs was bleeding from a bullet wound, but despite the growing puddle of crimson beneath her, she seemed to care not a single bit about it. Adrenaline? Rage? Either way, the persistence on display didn't seem natural... but then again, even mundane humans were known to reach some strange heights at times.

Pursing her lips, Qingshe considered the matter. Technically, she was on mandatory leave... on orders to avoid combat even. If word got back to Admiral that she -or any of Task Force Obsidian- were interfering in matters of civilian law jurisdiction like this? Well, she couldn't imagine it would be a pleasant conversation. She was, after all, for her own part, a foreign advisor as much as a member of Task Force Obsidian. Technically speaking, her jurisdiction in matters within the military was already murky, never mind [i]outside[/i] it.

Her shadow snaked around her waist, propelling a capsule at the snarling woman's face. The capsule, designed to be thin-skinned, broke easily and harmlessly on impact, releasing chloroform all over the madwoman's face, and she slumped into unconsciousness in moments. Shaking her head, shadow retracting, Qingshe ducked out of sight and headed back towards the main road, ignoring the cries of surprise and alarm behind her. Her job here was already done, and she was certain the bank security could handle keeping the intruder contained until proper law enforcement could take her.

Well, that had been a short-lived bit of excitement, but it seemed she was now once more be...[i]reft[/i]?

Gunshots. Shouting and screaming.

She hadn't honestly though too much about it before, but now that her detour was over, she was starting to grasp that whatever was going on... was much larger than she'd first assumed. At first, she'd thought that woman -on the surface of it- was an isolated incident... but as she got a glimpse at the distant -yet still encroaching- crowd of rioters currently spreading down the length of the main Manilla N Road, she realized that conclusion was most certainly erroneous.

In the corner of her vision, she heard a gunshot and saw someone in a vividly crimson mask dash burst into some sort of diner across the highway. A frown crossed her lips at the fresh chorus of screams that tickled her ears, as her eyes narrowed at the sight, drifting back and forth between it and the chaotic crowd of fighting people. [color=39b54a][i]Coincidence? Independent interests? Just someone taking advantage of the chaos?[/i][/color] Someone she didn't recognize out of hand was flying through the sky in pursuit, a gun in hand.

Slowly, unconsciously, Qingshe's tongue crept across her lips, as her pupils narrowed ever so slightly.

Sudden chaos, uncertainty and so many [i]delicious[/i] things to investigate.

[color=39b54a]"Where oh [i]where[/i] shall I begin~?"[/color]