@FamishedPants@BrokenPromise@The World@TaintedMushroom

Well, that was one way to open a door, Dead Head must have some kind of vendetta against doors with the amount of force and physicality he had put behind it. But Sovereign didn’t have much time to linger on that thought as an unfamiliar Gemini Agent emerged with guns drawn. If it hadn’t been for the presence of Cerberus with her, Sovereign may have thought she had been linked to Oros.

Pulling her arm free from around the shoulder of Noble Spark, she turned her attention towards Mika. A faint glimmer in her golden eyes as she kept her gaze locked on her for a wordless moment. Having heard her question and even the unique way she had pronounced her name. Without a second thought, she marched right over to Mika and leaned her head in close to her, tilting aside as she did so. Golden eyes widened with a fiery intensity behind them.

“What did you say just now?.......” Her voice quiet, her expression and emotions difficult to read with the mask hiding most of her face. An aura of sternness and coldness radiating from her. Letting her words hang in the air with utter silence.

Her golden eyes lit up with a flicker behind them, breaking the silence with a laugh. “I knew you would warm up to me eventually, you already came up with a nickname for me, that is a sign of endearment don’cha know Puddy!” Quickly wrapping her arms around Cerberus and bringing her in for what was likely a very unwilling embrace.

She didn’t hold it for long, before pulling away with a final pat on each of Mika’s shoulders. Bringing her right hand back to her face, index finger up and resting against her cheek. Eyes shifting up towards the upper right as she pondered what to do.

“Ya’know….she never did mention a specific place, though I figure she is already aware of our arrival so that should solve itself, but we need to take care of something far more important first Puddy….I owe you something in return” Grabbing the hat from atop her head, she spun it around her left index finger. Letting it fly off and land atop Mika’s head. She held up her hands forming a box with her index fingers and thumbs like a picture frame, leaning back as closed her left eye. “Not bad, not bad….a hat suits you pretty well Puddy, not only that but that hat is a limited edition one, so it does have some value…now before you ask, if you want this fine coat of mine, you are going to have to work way harder” Placing her hands on her hips as she took a good look around.

“Now…as for Oros, you need not worry about her Puddy, I may be greedy, but I do still value things that aren’t just monetary in nature, like your new form of endearment towards me, so you have earned some currency in that department, so I’ll do whatever I can to ensure your safety so that you can return home and sleep away with those little sweet dreams of yours” Even with most of her face hidden, it was obvious that she had a big ole grin plastered across her face. Even with Oro’s expected arrival, Sovereign didn’t feel any anxiety or stress about the situation. She felt anticipation about what Oros would do next, what she wanted from Mika, what she could potentially give to Sovereign. So many unknown possibilities, so little time.

---

As the door flew open, sending burnt timber flying, Asher let out a slight whoop as he pumped his arm in excitement. "See that!" he exclaimed loudly to no one in particular. Judging by the reactions of the two girls on the other side, they had. The first one had momentarily pointed her gun at him, assuming him to potentially be a threat. The second gave him a disinterested and almost bored look before asking what the door had done to earn his ire. Judging by positioning and their reactions Asher assumed the smaller one in the back was who they were contracted to protect. Good thing no miscellaneous door parts had flown her way.

"As a matter of fact it did look at me funny, I don't take kindly to funny looks or the things it said about my mother either." he said, throwing who he assumed to be Cerberus a sarcastic smirk. "Can't help it, I've got a need for fiery entrances that just needs fillin, now who's gonna fill me in on why we're meeting in the creepy run down church?" Asher asked, casually strolling on deeper past Cerberus and the other girl as he began taking in the church in all it's aged grandeur.

Before Asher could circle back with more questions Sovereign strolled up to Cerberus and at first Asher thought that perhaps she was upset judging by her tone. This was quickly debunked when she suddenly embraced the other girl. Asher made a mental note to keep an eye on Sovereign, hopefully he wouldn't have to explain his aversion to being touched but wouldn't be a bad idea to keep on his toes. With nothing else to do but wait Asher crossed his arms and looked towards the first two occupants of the room expectantly.

@The World@Nakushita@TaintedMushroom@FamishedPants

Maybe it was her tone of voice, maybe they were too occupied with each other, but no one engaged Mika when she asked what everyone wanted to do. Save for Himiko, who walked up to her and started teasing her like an old friend.

"Soh-vern is your name!" Mika growled before shaking out of Himiko’s embrace. "I can’t help that you chose something that’s hard to say!" Mika didn’t bother saying anything else. Even when Himiko went on to play dress up with her, she simply contained her thinly veiled frustration as Himiko continued to blab.

"Oh wow! That hat looks cute on you, Nails!" Angel giggled.

But they wouldn’t be able to screw around for long.While no one came to greet the freelancers at the front door, someone had heard them knock and they were already on the move.

One of the side doors in the entryway swung open with violent force. It was as if someone had kicked it, but there was no one to be seen. Not with everyone out of the room at least. Then a tail of gray smoke flew out of the doorway and crashed into the ground.

*Woof*

The entryway was filled with rolling smoke. It was thick and dense, and smelled like a well used ashtray.

The boarded up windows burst open. Pieces of finely sliced timber rained down on the freelancer’s below. What stood in front of the open windows was eight men armed with military grade machine guns.They were dressed like blue collar workers. Overalls, fluorescent jackets, jeans, hardhats. They were construction workers. But there was something off about the glasses they were wearing. They were long and tubular, but didn’t seem like they’d offer an edge in combat. Yet at the same time, this felt familiar to Marrie. Has she seen something like this before? It didn’t matter. They were leveling their guns at the freelancers.

But there was someone else among their numbers. There was a girl dressed up as a nun with bunny ears. And while that would have been enough to clearly mark her as an esper, she was also smoking a cigar and dual wielding a flamethrower and mace.

"How’s this for a fiery entrance, bitch?!"

The nun started to spray napalm as the gunman took turns shooting. Fire and brass rained above the freelancers, and cover was limited.



Himiko, Angelie, and Mika were on the other side of the smoke wall. While they couldn’t see what was happening, they could hear it.

"Okay Mika!" Angelie pointed her gun into the smoke. ”Just stay here, I’ve got a-."

I a flash of black light, Angelie had been replaced by a familiar figure. At least, one that the Gemini agents had been told about.

"Lenore…"

"The Sister of Sacrilege." The one-eyed nun finished with a grin. She twirled her blade before pointing it at Himiko. "So I understand Oros wanted you to bring this little bird all the way here." She shrugged her shoulders. "Seems to me like you did your job. She’s here in one piece." She tipped her head. "Since you’re done with that, how would you like to help me out? I assure you, my employer can pay far better than they can." As if to demonstrate this, Lenore pulled a stack of hundred dollar bills out of her cleavage for Himiko to see. "All you need to do is help me capture Cerberus."

Mika’s eyes turned towards the wall of smoke, as something had tumbled out of it. It was roughly the size of a basketball, but it was covered in smoke. The cat girl jumped backwards out of instinct. It could very easily be a melody. But as the smoke rose off the object, it turned out to be something far worse than a melody.

"...Angel?"

It was her decapitated head, with fresh smoke rising out of her neck. Her eyes darted between Lenore and Himiko.

If there was one thing Noble Spark learned from the failed attempt at a joint hunt with GEMINI, it was that Espers really did come in all shapes and sizes. Like goblin-sized, for example. So he wasn't too disappointed or surprised to hear this metallic man was yet another Esper like them.

Noble Spark returned a bout of laughter after hearing Dead Head's name. "I suppose I'll have to settle for only being half right. A pleasure to meet you, my fashionable ally. I am Noble Spark, an ally for justice!" he puffed his chest out, proudly. "Knock away! You will hear no objections from me."

His chest deflated just a little when Sovereign appeared and he felt a hand on his shoulder. "I'm afraid I don't have it on me," he softly shook his head. "The smallest bit of damage can affect the price, and ridealongs during Freelance work is not how you keep a comic in pristine condition!" he placed a heavy emphasis on the word 'smallest', having learned at an early age just how miniscule damage had to be to influence the value of a comic.

Whether that was agreeable or not, Dead Head proceeded to 'knock', causing the door the fly open and a gun to be pointed at them. Noble Spark quickly turned his attention to the red-headed being and took a defensive stance only for them to be the exact opposite of a threat to be defeated.

"Ah," his shoulders relaxed a bit when it was clear they were on the same side. "Suppose a 'knock' as loud as that would startle anyone. But now we can focus on our charge, who makes a great point!" Noble Spark did not seem to dwell on the close call they had with 'friendly' fire, instead opting to be satisfied that they'd grouped up with Cerberus.

Is there a more heroic task than defending another? I think not!

Noble Spark was more than eager to engage in an escort quest, unlike many, so now that they'd been united this mission was finally beginning to for real. It was also why he didn't speak up, though he desperately hoped his constant smirk helped hide his rather immature excitement. But he might not have even needed to worry: the atmosphere of the group seemed pretty laid back, watching Sovereign greet Cerberus. He'd only had two interactions with the lady, but there were a lot fewer mentions of payment and favors (less, not absence) than his interactions, so he mentally made a note his gold-obsessed companion might have a soft spot for children.

You know it's moments like these wh--

Noble Spark's rather meta internal monologue was interrupted by exactly what he was thinking about. As a side door burst open and smoke and wooden debris started flying through the air, the previously relaxed atmosphere became tense for a moment, with armed construction workers wearing what might've been some kind of thermal goggles and a Nun doing their best impressions of the S.W.A.T members.

He raised his gloved hands to defend against the rain of splinters, hoping both his eyes and the glasses that rested on them would make it through unscathed. Then they postured to begin firing immediately, leaving them scarcely little time to think of their reactions.

Thankfully, Noble Spark already knew what he needed to do. His impulse was to ensure Cerberus wasn't harmed, and so quickly flung his arm her way intending to cast a defensive melody, only to remember she was somewhat crowded and there was now a wall of smoke concealing her. He had no means to see her through the smoke, but having been watching Sovereign and her interact, unless they immediately repositioned, he figured he could still hit one of them by casting it where he last remembered seeing them, and so he zapped a bouncing projectile their way and hope it worked out.

"Doubt they're intending on aiming much, take cover not concealment!" he warned the rest of the Freelancers, hoping they understood what he meant by it as he most certainly didn't have the time to elaborate right now.

Then, he scrambled to take duck behind the frame of the church doors himself as a hail of gunfire and flames descended their way, which he hopefully wasn't hit by. He knew he wasn't exactly following his own advice, but it was the best he could do on the spot. For the time being, he was oblivious to the gruesome scene that had unfolded on the other end of the smoke as the cacophony of small arms fire drowned out any conversations over there.

"Maybe you should've emailed him first?" was Estelle's only suggestion to Finn before things got really, really bad.

First, of course, was the fact that two monstrous biker gangs decided to start throwing hands over something that even elementary school children wouldn't lose their minds over these days. Second, though, was that Ashley followed up by dropping a whole arcane blast at them all. It was understandable, sure, and the Witch Hunter could understand at a glance that it was a less-than-lethal Melody...but geez. An Esper attacking both gangs at the same time? Just because the shotgun was filled with plastic pellets rather than metal ones didn't mean it would hurt less.

Her own form changed in the chaos and brewing violence, and as Ashley drew attention, Estelle swung up and over the bar counter, her heels clicking against the hard floor as she nodded towards Dante and used the counter itself as a barrier against the violence. Ducking low as bottles and glasses began to be flung, she charged the length of counter, used the other end of the counter as a vaulting horse, and practically leapt the distance to the corner of the diner. Her blue hair glowed with an aquamarine hue as sacred prayer spilled through her lips like snow on a summer's day, before protective sigils expanded outwards from her body, granting the high schoolers and herself a ward against physical and monstrous violence.

"You should leave now. Dante's orders. Before any of them start getting the idea of pulling out a gun." Or a fireball. With the alcohol that she had spied beneath the counter, a fireball would probably be worse.

@Ponn@Majoraa@ERode

Perhaps it was inevitable that the two biker gangs would get into a tussle. But what happened next would be on the Gemini agents.

The Knight of Tomorrow sent a crackling blast of green energy towards a group of cowboys. The burst knocked a few cowboys on their ass. One fell backwards onto a table, only for it to tip over and drop him on his head. Their outfits had been lightly scorched, and the hair on their arms had been burned off where it was exposed to the emerald energy beam.

”Wut n’ tarnation?” One of the cowboys said as she stood back up. Though far less impressed were the dryads that witnessed the attack.

”Esperssssss…” The humanity left their voice as they hissed the word. The once lively drinking fae creatures started to grow out vines and extra fingers.

Dante just seethed as things grew more chaotic. Estelle jumped right past him and knocked over a few drinks on her way to the teenagers. It seemed Ashley’s attempt to clear out a path hadn’t been entirely necessary. Once Estelle arrived, she tried to convince the girls to leave. It didn’t seem like she was going to get any complaints. However…

”B-but there’s no way out!” Estelle might have been able to nimbly jump the length of the room, but these were just highschool girls. Something Estelle could confirm with her ability to sense things of a chaotic nature. ”They’re everywhere!” Despite their protests, most of the girls were getting ready to leave their seats.

Most, because one was standing next to the jukebox with her arms folded. ”I’m not leaving without seeing Amanda.” She pouted. ”That’s like, the only reason we came here.”

Estelle’s presence may have given the teenagers some relief, but a nearby dryad was not as pleased. She hissed when they noticed the insignia on Estelle’s uniform. ”Gemini!”

The word caused the dryads to convulse. The bark on their bodies snapped and crackled as new forms tried to emerge. Their faces split open to reveal they were only masks. What lay behind was woodland-like creatures. Fae with the faces of bunnies, weasels, a skunk, all piloting trees that tried to imitate humans.

The duel between the Cowboy Gang and Dryad Gang would go on, but now they had bigger fish to fry.

The dryad that spotted Estelle stomped on the ground. The weak tile floor gave way under her foot roots enveloped her foot. Sensing a potential easy target, many of the cowboys rushed Estelle with chairs and beer steins in hand. One of them decided to take a swing and hit the girl by the jukebox. To both their surprise, the attack had no effect on her. She swiftly countered by driving her foot into the man’s crotch, which dropped him immediately.

”Debbi!” He wined before rolling over.

Back at the front of the diner, things weren’t looking any less frantic. The dryads and cowboys near Ashley and Finn had pretty much witnessed everything they did. Even in their drunken state, they knew who the biggest threat was. The nearby druids called roots up to ensnare Ashley while the nearby cowboys rushed her. Most of them were armed with beer bottles or a stein, but one towards the back had pulled a swag light off the ceiling to use as a flail. He spun it like a lasso while yelling ”Yeeeeeeeehawwwwwwww!”

And as all this happened around Dante, he kept his eyes fixed on the source of it all. The boy that was first to enter, the first to transform, and the one giving out orders. The one that caused all of this to start in the first place.



”Tell me, Finn.“ Dante reached inside his chest and took hold of something inside his body. With a tug, his shirt started to tear as a long steel handle was pulled out of his stomach. Not only did his shirt fall off, but the massive gut he had started to grow smaller. Where there was once heaps of lard was now rippling muscle. With one final tug, a warhammer sprung free. ”Do you try to fuck things up this bad, or does it come naturally to you?“

Finn’s eyes widened in fear once he realized Dante was pulling out a weapon of his own, and instinctively began to step backwards, away from the sandman. Though the question struck a different nerve than the inevitability of a fight. How many times did something like this happen, to the point where the boy was growing further jaded by his streak of bad luck? How many times was he the one painted at fault for what he couldn’t help, and demonized as a result of his actions?

A monster in his own right?

”Even if I said it’s just shitty luck, my answer won’t make a difference, right!?” The Witch Hunter was busy protecting the highschoolers on one end, and Orion was swarmed on the other. He was stuck facing Dante himself. His grip on Atropos tightened with a dry laugh. ”Everything I try to do to be a good person backfires on me and it’s never going to stop, is it!?”

”It’s those attempts to better yourself that endeared me to you, boy.“ Dante bared his teeth. ”But now you’ve made it personal, and you’re so much more dangerous than you are interesting.“

In a flash, Dante’s form turned to sand, and he sifted straight through the counter to appear before Finn. His hammer was already raised high above his head, and it came down without a moment’s notice.

So be it.

The hammer collided with the roaring teeth of the Timekeeper’s chainsaw, the smaller boy pushing back against it to keep himself from getting struck.

Then Fritzi’s voice poured into everyone’s earpiece. ”Good news everyone! I got some last minute backup if you need it.” Just by her tone of voice, everyone could tell she was tickled by this. ”We had a dream shaping esper named Violet help with a test program a while back. She won’t be of much use if a fight breaks out, but if Finn starts to doze off, she should be able to jump into his dreams if a succubus tries to mess with him. Or any of you, really. He just seems the most likely to fall asleep on the job. So! Did you find anything yet?”

---

@Vertigo

There were a lot of things that made dealing with monsters difficult. They didn’t think like humans, they didn’t want what humans wanted, and their abilities were often more varied than an esper’s. It made it difficult to predict how a new monster would behave in a given situation, or even what that behavior ment.

Other times, it was pretty cut and dry.

Not a lot was known about the golden dragon, other than he was very flighty and could transform into a full dragon. Ciri would need to be careful if she wanted to avoid spooking it. And she was. She made sure to call her summon in a shadow where it would be the least visible. She even did the hard thing and indirectly cast her melody to reduce the chance of the dragon noticing anything.

Yet he did.

The dragon man was looking straight at where the gorilla minion had been summoned. Perhaps his ability to work with alchemy allowed him to detect the presence of magic? No one could say. He didn’t move a muscle. One might mistaken him for a dress mannequin rather than a living breathing creature. But he was only still until Ciri revealed her location. He spun around and ducked as if Ciri’s voice sent shrapnel flying over his head. And then he froze. Again. He gave the purple oni girl a long hard stare.

”Imp Scare!” The words came out of his mouth in a hushed whisper.

The dragon man turned around to run. That was when the freaky featureless gorilla stepped out of the shadow to block his way. They were in a narrow back ally and had him surrounded. The space above the dragon was open, but there was no way he could transform in such a narrow space. If one were to think about it logically, the dragon only had three options.

#1: Confront Ciri, who just gave a line that could oddly serve as an intimidating greeting or a really bad pick up line.

#2: Try to force his way past a shadow creature.

#3: scale the walls to reach the roof or climb above the ones that had surrounded him.

Those were the logical choices. The problem was that they were dealing with a monster. A scared monster at that. They weren’t logical creatures on their best day.

The dragon man charged into one of the walls,crashing through the brick and mortar wall like the kool aid man. That was the issue with trying to trap monsters. Physical structures were more like a suggestion to a monster, and short of the sturdiest materials on earth or something of suitable thickness, they could just brute force their way through it.

The dragon tumbled through the debris and landed in a hallway. It was nothing fancy, just a shortcut to let the hotel staff move between rooms without disturbing guests. One end led to the lobby, and the other went to a staircase, which was where the dragon was heading to.

Ciri could feel her partner’s presence stir at her side, waiting for orders.

To Ashley’s considerable disappointment (but regrettably, not to her surprise), the situation in the diner rapidly went from bad to much, much worse. Initially, she had assumed that, once she’d cleared a path, Finn would apply a speedster melody on himself and race over to the trapped girls, before breaking open a window and covering the opening with his jacket to provide them a safe and swift passage out of the establishment. However, much to the Knight of Tomorrow’s shock, it was Estelle who, in a burst of agility Ashley didn’t even know the young woman was capable of, leapt across the room and landed by the imperiled schoolgirls. Whether she would choose to have them escape via the nearest window was a question whose answer would have to wait, as a far more pressing problem reared its ugly head. The monsters had recognized them as G.E.M.I.N.I. agents…

Naturally, they were none-too-pleased by this, and promptly put aside their initial dispute in favor of teaming up against a common foe. Ashely had to trust that Estelle could take care of herself, as thick roots burst from the floor to ensnare her legs, while several burly cowboys rushed towards her, wielding an array of makeshift weapons. Nor could she do anything to help Finn, who now seemed to be in the midst of a duel with Dante himself…

Why do these missions always keep going to hell…? Ashley sighted mentally, even as she raised her shield to block the worst of the incoming blows, while simultaneously blasting the roots with her techno wand and sheathing her body in an aura of green protective energy.

And then, as if everything occurring around her wasn’t bad enough, the Knight of Tomorrow heard Director Moller’s painfully chipper voice through her ear piece. Apparently, they had backup in the form of a freelance esper with dream manipulation abilities. She was useless in a fight (because of course she was), but would be helpful in defending against any dream-related attacks, which, the high-tech heroine hated to say, wouldn’t really do them much good in their current situation. Yet, she still had enough composure left to keep from mentioning that little point when the doctor asked if they had found anything yet.

“A bar fight,” Ashley replied curtly. “Witch Hunter is trying to rescue some schoolgirls and Timekeeper’s being attacked by Dante,” she added, quickly noting the most important details. “I’ll do my best to link up with him, but I’m currently surrounded and cut off. Are you certain this backup can’t just put everyone in the diner to sleep?” the Knight of Tomorrow inquired as she barely dodged one of the cowboys’ blows.

Ashley knew it was a long shot, but with how bad things had gotten, she figured she might as well ask…

---

Amanda?

Who was Amanda?

Ah, did it even matter, when things were clearly going all the way down the shitter?

“I’m not looking for trouble here.” Estelle called out to the dryads. “This is strictly community safety work!”

Which was all nice to say, but GEMINI reputation was pretty bad, especially when Finn was now having a proper duel of fates with the bartender, his chainsaw rip-roaring to add to the cacophony of a violent brawl. Only one thing to do then.

From her belt, she snapped out her collapsible baton, tossing it over to the jukebox-leaner who had just lost her Shield. At the same time, her Melody resounded, bright light emanating from her foot to blast away the roots that bound her there, just in time for Estelle to be in a position to counter the first cowboy that rushed at her. In the swirl of chaos, the bottle-wielding man was as mundane as his brothers and her hand chopped out. The blow was strong enough to send the bottle flying out of his grasp, and the Witch Hunter followed through by striking that bottle with the flat of her sheathed Dai-Katana.

With just enough force that it wouldn’t shatter, the spinning bottle was redirected towards the other mundane biker close to the jukebox, smacking him in the shoulder and hopefully distracting him long enough that…

“Get to the kitchen you girls! You can’t find Amanda if you’re caught up in this mess!”

…the teenagers could get out before her boons wore off.

As for the Witch Hunter though?

She would stand her ground, serving as a rear guard until the last of the girls made it to the back of the kitchen. Hopefully even through the emergency exit.

"Oh, fuck, OFF!" Marrie shouted to no-one in particular and everyone all at once. How she managed to not run into any group this heavily armed before, she didn't know. As soon as the rabbit-woman's voice rang out, she cast a melody.

{Cold: Silver Self - Flight - Storm}

With the tempest around her hopefully deflecting the bullets from reaching her, she flew straight through the smoke to the inside of the church, getting below the firing squad on the left of the entryway, where she took a second to catch her breath. The winds whipping around her helped to clear the smoke, and soon she could see her objective, namely Cerberus, and an unknown... Esper, presumably. She couldn't see a whole lot else through the twisting smoke, but she saw enough. She found herself taking the last few moments of flight to go towards the three girls inside the church proper.

Landing just a few feet away from the unknown woman, she drew Apexer from her sleeve, just in case. Maybe this would be the first enemy she could successfully parley with to prevent a fight? She doubted it. A glance over her shoulder made her worry for the male Freelancers, but she could only hope they would be able to handle themselves, since leaving Cerberus alone with a potential enemy wasn't going to happen.

"Hey, Nun lady!" She leveled her Instrument to point towards the woman's neck. "Friend or foe?"

@FamishedPants@BrokenPromise@The World@TaintedMushroom

Disappointed when her short reunion with Mika was interrupted. The surrounding area around her soon engulfed in the chaotic violence and the smoke that quickly took over the nearby area. Himiko let out a sigh as the sounds of gunfire rang out, the heat of the flames being hot enough that she could feel it from where she stood.She was grateful that she wore a mask that helped alleviate some of the smell of the smoke, and kept it from hindering her breathing too much. Giving a small shake of her head, she turned her head towards the sound of a voice speaking to her.

Golden eyes locking onto the one eyed nun that stood before her. Watching her blade twirling before its sharp point came to a stop in her direction. Her eyes soon moved from the blade to the stack of cash that the nun displayed for her. Before she could make a reply, her attention was soon brought towards the object that had come tumbling out from the smoke.

Her eyes narrowed, watching the fresh smoke rising from the freshly severed neck of the decapitated head. Himiko stared at it for a moment, mulling over her thoughts quietly. Slowly turning her head away from the sight as her eyes came to rest on Mika. She opened her long white flowing coat revealing her revolvers in their holsters. Her silence remained for a moment longer as she took a few short steps in Mika’s direction before pausing.

“I wouldn’t call her a little bird, I would think Puddy would prefer hunting little birds, now as for helping you capture lil ole Puddy…I would like to go with her, and I would like to know what the Mad intends to do with her. If that can be arranged, then I don’t mind assisting you in your endeavor” Glancing over her shoulder in Lenore direction. Wanting to find out the purpose for Oros the Mad’s desire to get her hands on Mika. Her own curiosity piqued by the situation, her own desire to stay near Puddy if at all possible.

After all, she had made a promise to Puddy, a promise that she intended to keep one way or another. Mika’s safety is still factoring into Himiko’s thought process. Even with her greedy little heart desiring something to sate her hunger for profit. Himiko wanted the best of both worlds. After all, why not let her greed run wild and try to get everything she possibly could.

Before she could do anything else, both Noble Spark and Marrie had went into action, with Noble Spark's melody being the first to come through the smoke. Followed shortly after by Marrie herself who came flying through, a gust of wind dissipating the smoke along her path. Coming to a stop a few feet away with her instrument quickly pointed towards the one eyed nuns neck.

Himiko’s smile was hidden by her mask as she couldn’t keep her amusement of the situation in check. The way things had been playing out so far as not far off from what she had anticipated. She knew that someone like Oros the Mad wouldn’t go about this in the most calm or easy of fashions. Neither would Gemini or the freelancers currently hired on by them for this operation.

“So nice of you to join us Marrie, though I’d recommend you proceed with caution, or you may find yourself missing your head like our little Gemini friend” Gesturing towards the decapitated head nearby with a small sigh. Cross her arms over each other as she reached into her jacket, pulling free her two Revolvers from the holsters as she held them at the ready. Keeping the barrels pointed up, keeping her cards hidden from both sides. Himiko had her own intentions on her brain, ones that she wished to keep to herself until the right moment.

---

---

In the end no one decided to fill Asher in with the details of their meeting. That was okay though, someone else was happy to fill him in with bullets, although Asher himself didn’t quite find that okay. The moment bullets and fire started flying through the air Asher dove low for a row of pews, crashing to the ground shoulder first as he slid between the row. Taking a moment to breathe, Asher was sure he’d achieved some sort of safety momentarily, but certainly didn’t plan on hiding out for long. Fishing in his pocket for his phone Asher quickly started swiping through the interface.

A storm of fire and bullets required the ultimate soundtrack, and Asher had just the one in mind. Conveniently Asher had never removed his earbuds and as he tapped play the music quickly began drowning out the sounds of the chaos around him, at least partially. For the most part Asher could still hear what was going on, he just had a sick ass soundtrack to go along with it all. With a grin Asher took a moment to focus, hardening the carbon shell that made up his outer body, perks of being a metallic mega badass. Hopefully no one had noticed him ducking down behind the pews, if not this next part would be sick.

Lunging to his feet and hopping atop the pew Asher quickly brandished Hatred in his hands. Taking a moment to survey his surroundings Asher quickly decided on a plan of action. The girl from outside as well as the Sovereign girl were both near their package, as well as a newcomer. Entrusting the three to handle themselves in a three versus one situation Asher quickly decided that bunny girl and her band of tube eyed goons were the biggest threat. Letting loose a battle cry that would make the denizens of Valhalla pause, Asher began leaping from pew to pew before lunging into the air and blasting Hatred’s Dragon’s Breath directly behind him towards the pews he’d just left behind.

With luck the blast would send him clear into the closest clump of tubular goons, let carnage ensue.

---

@Ponn@Majoraa@ERode

What could you do with chaos but wait it out?

Ashley’s shield would hold up against any drunken rioter, But add enough of them and things became dicy. The surface area of her shield was only so big, and attacks were coming from all sides. She could dodge here and there, but the Knight of Tomorrow would run out of stamina before her attackers would. Something needed to be done about their assault.

”Well that’s not good.” Fritzi said with a nervous chuckle. ”Did Finn just walk up to Dante? Never mind, Violet’s contracted to help us, so I’m sure she can provide assistance. I’ll page her through shortly, but I want to make one thing clear.” Fritzi’s force became stern. ”If your cover got blown, any one of those creatures could go running to the Hand and expose who you are. If this is the case, I suggest eliminating all hostiles with extreme prejudice, preferably after you’ve extracted the children. That said, the three of you coming out of this alive is what’s most important.” Then Fritzi went silent. With a crack of static, a new voice joined the call.

"Owo?” Came a cautious, yet youthful voice. “Um, Pwink Pwowndah isn’t so good about fwendwy fwire, or pwutting pweople to sweep. So he wiw stay back. But if yowo can open a windowo, I can hewp."

If Ashley could afford to look outside, she might spot the pink and violet colored duo. As a friend of Samuel, she likely heard stories about how protective the big pink fellow was. The windows by the front door didn’t look like they could be opened the conventional way, but was Ashley willing to invite them into the fight?

Estelle’s baton flew over the jukebox only to get snatched out of the air by the cowboy on the other side. He then proceeded to “drink” from it, only to discover it wasn’t actually a bottle. ”Wut n’ tarnation?” In a display of poetic irony, the second object to fly towards the cowboy was a bottle, but he would not catch it. It smacked into his shoulder before falling to the ground and shattering. The cowboy sunk to his knees and started to paw through what remained of the bottle.

”Oh yea! Maybe Amanda is out back?” The stubborn girl pushed herself off the wall. ”Come on guys! Let’s go find Amanda!” But the other four didn’t need any encouragement. They were power walking towards the counter, maneuvering around the cowboys that had been distracted, or decommissioned.

Finn was only half listening to what Dr. Moller was telling everyone through coms. Kind of hard to pay full attention when he was focused more on not getting his ass knocked down by a giant hammer. He did, however, grit his teeth in response to Fritzi’s unintentional(?) jab at his recklessness. Right! Okay! He got it the last several times already! Thank you very much! If he’s so dangerous why shouldn’t he just-

As if the boss already knew what he was thinking, Fritzi had given the go ahead to kill. The Timekeeper discarded the pointless notion of minimizing casualties at that moment. None of these bastards are making it out alive. The next moment Dante prepared to swing again, he fired a beam of lightning square at his chest.

_{[Silver Beam][Damage X] = - 108
642 MP remaining}

The beam collided with Dante’s well defined chest. Rather than blowing a watermelon-sized hole in him, it caused a fistfull of sand to scatter in all directions. Afterwards, the hole collapsed shut. Most monsters would have been reeling from such a blow, but Dante seemed to be more resilient than your average monster. Finn had used an opening in Dante’s defenses to land a clean blow, but now it was Finn who was open to attack. Dante did not cease his swing. Finn had just enough time to bring up his blade for defense. But it was a mighty blow, and the boy was stumbling backwards. That was when Dante hopped forward and drove his foot into Finn’s chest. He flew straight into the arms of a waiting Dryad, who wrapped her vines around his arms and legs.

”Gah-!? Let go of me!!”

The rabbit hiding behind the dryad’s mask hissed as the cowboys closed in around Finn.

But that was of little concern for Dante. He looked to the bar counter and noticed the school girls were approaching it. He moved like the wind, his body becoming a sea of floating sand particles. He moved through the counter and assembled himself in front of the far end of the counter.

”You can’t use the back exit.” He pointed at the door. ”You leave the way you came in!”

”Through that mess?” One of the girls shot back, but Dante didn’t budge. However, that didn’t stop one of the teenagers from trying her luck anyway. Maybe it was bravery or fear, but she lunged over the counter. But her advance was stopped by a swift swing of Dante’s hammer. Anyone looking on might have braced for what was sure to be a gruesome sight, but the blow didn’t dislodge her head. It didn’t even break the skin on her face. Instead, she fell backwards into her friends arms as sand poured out of mouth and ears.

”Meg!”

Dante spun his hammer. ”Next one’s not going to get it so easy.”

One of the cowboys behind the girls stood up and looked them up and down. He pulled back his fist for a wild haymaker, but was intercepted by a ball of flying sand. He sank to the floor screaming, scratching his arms as he rolled in the broken glass.

Estelle wanted to be the rear guard, and she certainly gained the attention she wanted. The cowboys were content to march into her and get dealt with as they came, but the dryads were more shrewd. They bound across the table and circled around Estelle, trapping her between themselves and the cowboys. Their long, flail-like arms let them beat on her without standing directly in front of her sword. Estelle had nigh impenetrable defenses, but she’d need a plan if she wanted to survive an attack on all sides.

---

@Vertigo

It was always risky to let your mark leave your sight, especially one as slippery as the golden dragon. That said, Ciri had faith in it, and would likely be able to hear the dragon man’s screams when he realized what was pursuing him.

The more difficult part of her plan was figuring out where to jump him. This wasn’t exactly a five star hotel. The roof didn’t have any interesting vistas as was likely off limits to the public. By that logic, the staircase wasn’t going to go straight to the roof. Moreover, there were no windows to let those outside know who was using the staircase. Unless someone wanted room service, they wanted as little interaction with the maid staff as possible. Guests were weird like that. The fire escape was not on this side of the building, which meant Ciri was going to have to enter through someone’s room.

The most ideal window was already open. Ciri and her shadowy gorilla ally hurried in as quickly as they could. Who they happened upon was not a “rich fuck,” or at least not what not came to mind when thinking of one. It was a skinny teenager wearing a black shirt with a kanji on it. The wallpaper on his laptop depicted a scantily clad oni brandishing a katana in front of a raging waterfall. He looked over his shoulder at Ciri, but said nothing as she left the room.

The hallway was clear. It seemed like the dragon hadn’t gotten to the top of the stairs yet. That would give Ciri just enough time to find a hiding place and wait.

Then the door to the room beside Ciri’s opened up, the one further away from the staircase. What stepped out might have been a member of some bomb disposal unit. The gear was all present and correct, from the thick padding that covered their entire body to the diving suit looking helmet they wore. But there was something off about it. All of their armor had been stitched back together, sometimes with bits of kevlar sticking out of the seams. They had also spray painted the words “Viper” across their chest, and were holding a shotgun. Specifically, a SPAS, the one that found its way into all those video games because of its iconic folding shoulder brace.

”I’ve got the dragon under control. You can go back underground if you’d like.”

This wasn’t a member of Maverick Alternative, but their suggestion sounded more like an order than anything else.

---

@The World@Nakushita@TaintedMushroom@FamishedPants

Cast a melody and pray. That was really all Justin could do.

The frame of the church door didn’t leave much room for hiding. The smoke in the entryway was noxious, which meant that he’d have to “hide” just outside the doorway. But with the gunmen on the second story, it was awkward to aim down the side of the building. Not only that, but everyone was either inside or running inside. There was no reason to assume Justin was still hanging outside. Or at least, that was how it seemed when the gunfire stopped and the gunmen shifted to new positions. The ground ahead of the church was covered in bullet holes and napalm, without a single hit landing on Justin or Marrie.

Before Justin could get too comfortable (if that was even possible in his position) a ball of ash smacked into the side of his head. It felt a bit like getting hit with a very large snowball, only it burned his skin. Once he stumbled away from the doorframe, a voice called out.

”Bobo! Here’s one!”

The cigar chomping nun poked her head out the window and spotted Justin.Much to his dismay, this villain didn’t have as much as a single one liner to throw at him. She simply pointed her gun out the window and fired. But rather than shooting burning napalm, it fired a spray of black oil at Justin’s feet. The ground became slick where he stood, but more concerning was that Bobo resumed shooting napalm, this time directly at Justin.

Meanwhile inside, Asher made a totally badass slide between the rows of seats. While he had hoped that he hadn’t been spotted, the ensuing gunfire over his head let him know that they might have had an approximation of his position. That didn’t stop him from finding his choice of music, even as splinters rained down on his head. When they stopped shooting at his position, stood up and let everyone know they hadn’t killed him yet. Then his shotgun clicked, and dragonfire erupted from hatred like the bass in his playlist.

Though Asher hadn’t generated as much lift as he needed. The second story of the church was effectively a short balcony at the very front of the building, and it was almost ten feet in the air. Short of using a melody, it was unrealistic to expect his gun’s kickback to make the distance. But asher had managed to set some Pews on fire, and his rapid acceleration towards the gunmen made them run like mad. So if his goal was to sew chaos in their ranks, his mission was successful.

Now about the landing…

It wasn’t a problem. There were some old pews that weren’t quite able to take someone jumping on them as aggressively as Asher was, but his hardened outer body sustained no damage from the landing. He was also under the balcony now, which meant they couldn’t retaliate if they wanted to.

But the construction workers were moving now. Two dropped down in front of Asher while another two hopped off of closer to the congregation of espers. They were totally unbothered by the drop, and already had their weapons drawn. There wouldn’t be much time to react.



This was going to be a mess regardless of what Himiko said. Of course she was going to be open to pawning off Mika if it meant more money, but it seemed like that was only something she was willing to do after they met with Oros. Mika had never met the mad esper, but she did know that Lenore was trouble, and she couldn’t picture the two of them working together. She couldn’t really picture GEMINI working with Sovereign either, but here we were. Was the money grubbing esper just bad at reading the room, trying to protect Mika in her own way, or looking for greater riches? It wasn’t a question that Mika could answer, and it bothered her.

Her gaze returned to Angelie’s severed head. It was unfortunate that so much was going on. It wasn’t normal to look at something like this and just shrug it off, was it? Yet at the same time, it seemed so natural for something like this to happen. They had all come here on Himiko’s say so, why should she expect anyone to get out of this alive? But as much as Mika could rationalize it, it still felt unfortunate. It wasn’t something she could work through here though. Whatever this nagging feeling was, she had to keep it down until she was out of here. And if she didn’t get out of here, then it wouldn’t matter anyway. Pax was filled with corpses.

"That’s a bit of a shame, because I’d prefer to leave with her now." Lenore shrugged her shoulders before shoving her money back down her blouse. "But I’d be lying if I didn’t say I had planned on-" Lenore was interrupted when Marrie asked if she was friend or foe. That was when Sovereign, ever the talkative one, told Marrie to proceed with caution. That caused Lenore’s lips to curl into a smile. "We prefer to sell children. Isn’t that right, Nova?"

A jet of smoke launched out of the hallway and struck Marrie in the back, covering her with smoke. The smoke cleared out seconds later, revealing a third nun. Like the others, she looked rather outlandish. She wasn’t holding a sword or wielding a flamethrower, but her face was covered in piercings and bandages. Not to mention the spiked leather harness she wore along with her gown. There was also a cigarette nestled between her fingers, but it didn’t stop her from holding Marrie’s shoulders. When she exhaled, thick gray smoke rolled out of her mouth.

"Yeaaaaa" The nun exhaled the words. Her voice was deep, and she smelled like tobacco. "Kids go for a fair price if you can find the right buyerrrrr." But Nova hadn’t just teleported into Marrie. Mika could tell that there was something else in that melody too. Her movements had become sluggish, and it couldn’t have been easy to breathe with that smoke stack hanging around her.

"See what I mean? But you look a little old, so-" And with that, Lenore took a swing. There was little Himiko could do in her situation, but the melody Justin had cast earlier prevented her from losing an arm. Lenore followed up by kicking the money loving esper into Mika, which sent them tumbling across the floor.

There were a lot of things Mika wanted to do in her situation, but couldn’t. Either because it was out of her ability or Himiko was laying on top of her. But she felt like she could buy Asher a few extra seconds. A ball of spirit energy gathered in her hand, and she flung it between the two gunmen aiming at Asher. As soon as it contacted the floor, a big fat cat sprung up in its place. Maybe asher could use it as cover, or to scale to the second floor. Either way, she hoped Himiko would do something before Lenore struck again.

Ashley gritted her teeth as she continued to be battered by the diner’s various pissed off patrons, and while her defenses were holding, she knew it would only be a matter of time before her adversaries eventually overwhelmed her, at least, if she just stood around and did nothing. Fortunately, she had been able to blast free of the roots ensnaring her legs, but even if she retreated out the nearby door, that still left the rest of her team at the mercy of a hoard of belligerent brawlers, to say nothing of the schoolgirls Finn had wanted them to protect. Ashley couldn’t make out their, or Estelle’s, current condition amidst the chaotic scrum, but she could see that Finn was in a rather perilous situation that demanded swift action, action Director Moller had just given approval for. Yet, as the director had also stated, she couldn’t really begin a counteroffensive until the schoolgirls were out of harm’s way, quite the predicament, to be sure. However, it was then that the childish voice of one of their freelancer allies sounded in the Knight of Tomorrow’s ear and swiftly gained her full attention.

I-Is she a toddler…? Ashley couldn’t help but wonder after hearing the sound of the girl’s weirdly infantile speech.

A quick glance outside indicated that the owner of the voice was a teen girl in a pastel outfit standing beside a far larger armored knight. Obviously they were Magical Dream Princess and The Pink Pounder, respectively. Indeed, they matched the descriptions Samuel had provided after his own bout with them far too perfectly for them to be anyone else. Yet, despite the strangeness of their appearance, and of MDP’s voice, Ashley would take whatever help she could get, especially if all it required was an open window.

Turning slightly, she snapped off a quick energy blast from her techno-wand, aiming the shot at the nearest window, and angling it to shoot on an upwards trajectory, so that if it managed to shatter the glass and still maintain its potency, it wouldn’t hit anyone who might be outside.

“Window’s open!” the Knight of Tomorrow called over her headset, as if the sight and sound of the glass shattering apart didn’t make that fact painfully obvious.

Refreshing her form-fitting protective energy field, the high-tech heroine braced herself for another round of attacks, hoping that, with MDP’s help, it would be the last one…

---

Marrie stood still, ready to attack the nun if she moved. At least, that was the plan until she caught Cerberus looking towards the ground where-

Fuck. Uh... espers could survive losing a limb in esper form, maybe she'd be okay? That was the only thing she could hold onto to stop the sickness. She nearly puked anyway, before she was engulfed in smoke and found another apparent esper holding her by the shoulders.

Alright dumbass, time to get moving. The wind wielder tried to move, but she felt... off. Her muscles were weak. Something was wrong, the smoke? They're going to kill you, Marrie! Get moving! It was about then that the nuns said something about selling children.

Right. She'd only tested it once, but now was the time to try it. Pulling her Melody together, she felt herself fade away into the wind, forcing her Instrument's chain to grow to its full length and throwing it over the head of the nun behind her and running forward as she did.

{Tempest: Silver Touch - Damage X}

The instant she re-materialized 8 feet away from where she previously stood, she channeled her Damage X note through her Instrument as she stabbed towards the eye-patched Sister. In the same moment, her chain would materialize around the back of the other nun, and she retracted it to pull her forwards, hoping to either pull her off balance or hit her with the Damage X, were it able to flow through her chain, or ideally both.

"Please just die or run away, I'm sick of people like you!"

One of the girls fell.

Finn had been unable to stop Dante, and the backdoors exit was off limits.

Fritzi’s commands sounded in Estelle’s ears. Support was coming, and a call for killing everyone inside sounded as well. The flux of chaos both mundane and monstrous swelled up further.

This was a lot. But she still had to act!

Her Divine Domain alerted her to the movements on the dryads on her flank, but they had cast no spells to root her, so the Witch Hunter advanced outwards instead. Holding her Dai-Katana more like a staff than a sword, the Esper dove inwards towards the mass of drunk bikers, swinging upwards with her Instrument to parry the blow of the one who struck at her with a raised stool. A bell chimed and the ward flashed, before his entire body was knocked upwards by her Strong Parry, his jacket catching on the rotating fans above before he was dislodged and summarily fell towards the dryads behind her. The fan itself crashed moments later, Estelle sliding underneath it as its blades forced the other bikers to back away.

But she wasn’t done yet. There was a clear void now. A diagonal path from where the high schoolers were to where the Dante-approved exit was.

“Take your friend and run!” A switch to comms. “Knight, clear out the entrance, the girls are coming through!”

Two dryads and a mage-biker stood unoccupied, but their hostile intent would no doubt be stoked simply by her emergence from that moshpit of biker and dryad. She didn’t wait for them strike first, instead knocking over the table and chairs in her path to serve as an obstacle for the ones directly behind her, before sprinting towards the mage-biker with a fist full of Sacred Prohibition.

One that would hopefully catch the dryads in its radiant burst as well.

It was a tense few seconds as the gunfire rained down from the windows above, Noble Spark hugging the wall as tight as he could while his ability to conduct melodies was refreshing. He was beginning to wish he had invested in, well, a vest to protect him from firearms. But for now, all he had were the heroic staples of hoping he didn't get filled with holes.

When he heard the shuffling of footsteps above him on the second floor, he quietly sighed in relief before quickly patting himself to check for injuries. Upon finding none, he thought about his next move. It may be risky, but getting up close and personal with the guys with guns might be his best move. But that was assuming they cared about friendly fire. If they didn't, well, things could get difficult.

Of course, just as Noble Spark began to settle on the plan he felt something hit him in the head with enough force to cause him to stumble a little, his cheek burning from what seemed to be ash. He hurriedly wiped it off his face, glaring upward just in time to see that Bobo had spotted him.

"Straight to the point without even an introduction? My heroic visage must've left you shocked!" he laughed confidently. But on the inside, he knew such a foe was far more difficult to deal with.

Noble Spark was, in fact, dismayed at the lack of a quip of any sort before she started spewing oil onto him, though. It was almost like he was robbed of something important. But it also convinced him she was probably more of a post-mortem quipper, and he didn't want to end up like Batman when you got a game over in his video games. And maybe more than that he didn't want to die a painful fiery death.

Either way, he was motivated to act fast yet again before she could make her obvious follow-up with napalm. A few ideas flashed through his mind, like swapping places with the nun via a melody, but against a foe with unknown defenses, it was a bigger gamble than he'd like. Failure would just lead to him being torched and he was no Johnny Storm, so he opted for something slightly more likely to at least go off.

As he had done a few times before, his arm surged with power that traced up his arm and out of his hand, escaping as a quick bolt of blue lightning that seemingly had been aimed at the Nun, only to narrowly miss and hit the top of the window she was firing out of. If he had angled the melody correctly, it would then bounce back towards the Nun, landing somewhere on the floor near her where he intended to go on the offensive. If not, well, he couldn't imagine the melody putting him somewhere worse than on the oil about to be ignited by the flames she was beginning to shoot his way. Hopefully.

---

So maybe Asher’s idea hadn’t quite panned out the way he thought it would, but that was okay, Asher wasn’t known for thinking. What Asher was known for was high octane action, non-stop adrenaline, horrendous manners, wild partying, and a need to look absolutely badass while doing all of it. Asher wasn’t stuck dealing with two dudes with guns, they were left dealing with him, and he could be one scary ass mutha fucka.

Even so, it would have been sick if that initial move had panned out the way he’d envisioned in his head. Oh well, he didn’t have much time to concern himself with failure as two party crashers quickly sprang down from overhead to ruin his fun. Or at least that was their goal. Little did they know they’d just opened a mystery can packed full of whoop ass courtesy of one Dead Head.

Asher’s voice seemed to take on an even deeper more metallic reverberation as he let loose a howl quite nearly as loud as a fog horn. The carbon frame that was his body took on a deeper darker sheen as he hardened it even further than before. Small bumps and rivets that had been present before transformed into short hardened spikes. Smoke seemed to puff from his ears as flames and intense heat seemed to radiate from his mouth and nose. The red glow from his eye grew deeper and brighter, almost striking out like the beam from a lighthouse. But this light in the dark wasn’t leading to any sort of safety.

Rather conveniently, a spirit cat sprung into existence between Asher and his two assailants. Choosing that moment to snap into action Asher lunged at the first man whilst firing off two shots from Hatred in the direction of the other. Although he’d hoped one might find purchase he’d not been too bothered about aiming, mostly using it as a means of forcing the other man to take cover so he could close the gap and tear his partner to shreds. Asher focused back to the first man as he closed the gap, relying on his carbon to resist any stray shots he might get off. Asher gripped Hatred with both hands and swung it out in a high arc with the goal of knocking the gunman over the head.

---