The Final Hazard

[Terminal]

@Cruallassar@Doc Doctor@Holmishire@mdk@PlatinumSkink@WiseDragonGirl

With a small grunt, Fortune raised his head and simply answered "I am Fortune De Vigny."

@bright_Ops

The male knight simply nodded before lazily aiming his compound crossbow at the fallen knight with the arrow stuck in his visor and pulling the trigger. The bolt tore across the short breadth between the two armored figures before its cylindrical head crumpled and fragmented into pieces upon making contact with the fallen foe's armor, each individual splinter compressing itself like shrapnel flung against concrete and generating a spreading pool of silver metal. The stuff rapidly spread across the fallen figure's armor from each point of contact, the worn plate seemingly restored to a perfect, lustrous sheen as the wave of silver washed across it. Almost as soon as each pool began to spread, dozens of long silvery spines erupted from the armor's surface in every direction. In short order, with barely a sound, the hostile knight was reduced to a thorned statue adhered to the surface of the street - lying on its back, metal-coated arrow still protruding from its visor.

The male pavise knight then turned to face the red-suited man as he launched into his tirade, moving to lazily reload his crossbow by drawing another of the shotgun-esque cylindrical bolts from a secure ring-clutch quiver at his back. His expression was relaxed, his eyelids lowered and his mouth set in a neutral line while his eyebrows were raised ever so faintly.

His expression did not change at all as the levitating sphere discharged its blinding bolt of lightning and turned the rebar-faced man into a floating puddle of slop and cinders.

"What a fucking mess." He drawled. "You've made a lot of work for us Donny boy. If we hadn't been the ones responding to this little circus of yours, you would just be another bit of cheap silverware by now. We were told you were a bit old-fashioned, but we did not anticipate you using antiques." He glanced back at the menagerie of corpses littering the street. "The results seem to speak for themselves though, so to each their own. Hiecro, are all of them here?"

The female pavise knight - apparently called Hiecro - had retrieved her shield and walked back to join her partner where he had been standing over Fortune, now risen. "Yeah. The one with the plate shoulder is Ariett Deveca, and that glim is the biometric pass. The guy you just told to shut up is the doctor that's been roped in. Not sure who the girl or the archer are."

"Well, whatever." The male pavise knight said breezily. "Everyone up, we are taking you directly to the University of New Nemea School of Engineering where the real SNAFU is ongoing." He raised his pavise shield into the air before slamming it back down onto the cobblestone street, and abruptly the ominous humming of the levitating traffic sphere abated. "Platter Aesch is waiting to brief you there. For those of you who are maybe wondering what I'm talking about or thinking that maybe we have the wrong people - you were all heading there anyway before your limousine was intercepted." He glanced at Fortune. "You may be interested to know that the Duke is there. We were told to look out for you especially, sir."

"As for the other three," Hiecro quipped, "we'll be letting the city morgue sort them out." She leveled her crossbow at the fallen unconscious, chainmail-adorned thug Andreas had been tending to and let yet another cylinder-tipped bolt loose without so much as a warning.

[Loksfjoer]

Andy got up from the street again and brushed off his clothes. At least the situation was a little clearer now and the ominous humming stopped, that was definitely a good thing. While he was uncertain what the connection was between the University of New Nemea School of Engineering and Tafans, he was fairly sure he'd discover there. Platter Aesch, the Duke, it all sounded really important. He let out a sigh, he could do without official and formal important stuff.

An obvious look of disapproval appeared on his face when the female knight fired a bolt at the thug. Donny and Hiecro, they both seemed to be fine with just killing people. That was something he could never understand.
"Let's see if we can get to the university without any more deaths," he said with an almost cheerful sound in his voice and he looked at the others. "Anyone want to take bets on that?"

[mdk]

"Let's see if we can get to the university without any more deaths," he said with an almost cheerful sound in his voice and he looked at the others. "Anyone want to take bets on that?"

@WiseDragonGirl

Luca thought of a pithy rejoinder while he was standing up, but his proximity to Donny forced him to keep it mostly internal. There was a soft, mumbled beginning of a word, then a look of suddenly-dawned awareness and abject terror, and the words died in his throat with an awkward squeak. "Ixnay on the okesjay," he muttered, white-faced.

@Holmishire

He needed a distraction, and a metaphorical security blanket between himself and Donny, the newly-arrived-but-equally-violent knights.... all of it. He found all of that in Ariett. Things had slowed down enough that now for the first time her injury was really registering in his mind. Now he also remembered how she'd tried to slow him down during his bullish rush towards suicide-by-redhead, and looking at the metallic scar-pattern on her back, he realized why she'd cried out in pain. It was MY fault, he thought, and then he followed that up with a few self-depreciating internal comments about what an idiot he was. He offered her a hand to get up. "Are you okay?" he asked.

[Holmishire]

He needed a distraction, and a metaphorical security blanket between himself and Donny, the newly-arrived-but-equally-violent knights.... all of it. He found all of that in Ariett. Things had slowed down enough that now for the first time her injury was really registering in his mind. Now he also remembered how she'd tried to slow him down during his bullish rush towards suicide-by-redhead, and looking at the metallic scar-pattern on her back, he realized why she'd cried out in pain. It was MY fault, he thought, and then he followed that up with a few self-depreciating internal comments about what an idiot he was. He offered her a hand to get up. "Are you okay?" he asked.

@mdk

Ariett rolled over and latched onto Luca's arm, wincing as he helped pull her up. "Thanks." Upon seeing the remains of the remaining two 'thugs', she visibly sagged. "I'm fine, I think. A bit sore, I guess, but whatever damage the metal did it promptly sealed right back up." Her gaze lingered on the spear-laden bodies before turning her attention fully to the kid. "You took quite a few tumbles yourself, and you look none the worse for the wear—the advantages of youth, I guess?"

[mdk]

<Snipped quote by mdk>
Ariett rolled over and latched onto Luca's arm, wincing as he helped pull her up. "Thanks." Upon seeing the remains of the remaining two 'thugs', she visibly sagged. "I'm fine, I think. A bit sore, I guess, but whatever damage the metal did it promptly sealed right back up." Her gaze lingered on the spear-laden bodies before turning her attention fully to the kid. "You took quite a few tumbles yourself, and you look none the worse for the wear—the advantages of youth, I guess?"

@Holmishire

Luca didn't even seem to notice the various bumps and scratches he had received until she said something about all that. He shrugged. "...You're teasing, right?" he chuckled. The chuckle grew a little more awkward when it became clear she hadn't been teasing. "That is, I mean.... uh....." he kicked at the ground. It should be so obvious that I'm a clockwork, he thought, struggling to think of a polite way to point that out. He came up dry. "Yeah.... youth......"

[Cruallassar]

@Terminal

Kael rises to his feet, slipping his bow onto his back and looking around at everyone. "Is there a point in all this where we can learn what is going on?" He mutters to nobody in particular. He'd thought he'd seen a lot of strange stuff with his mentor and that nothing could surprise him...ha. Shows what he knew. He'd keep an eye on this "Donny" fellow though...he was waaaaaay too quick to kill everything in sight, and very good at it too.

[Doc Doctor]

@Terminal

Donny rose in a single motion, more akin to the fluid way a cat stands than a man in his late thirties. He jerked a head at the Vector leaning against the wall as he addressed the officers, hands already tucked within the safe confines of his killer coat pockets, a position that seemed perfectly natural for the redhead. "Yuh don' mind if Ah give mah antiques a rest an' check out yah new fangled ironizer, mmm?"

[PlatinumSkink]

… Why would she want to go to the School of Engineering? She’s a magician. What’s the “SNAFU”? Questions which Amelie didn’t know if she dared to ask, yet they swimmed around her mind, right alongside “can police really kill like that without consequences!?”

Amelie would not be the first to rise. In fact, as each person rose, she kept ready to summon a Redirection Orb each time, just in case something happened. First after that was she willing to stand up herself, and then only when she was ready to summon an orb around herself just in case. But, if nothing happened then no orbs were created. It was true that since she hadn’t manifested the orbs she they might not be created fast enough if something did happen, but actually creating them may tip off the police, so she preferred not to.

She listened to the questions the rest had and the answers that would be given, but otherwise Amelie followed the orders of the police assuming it was the expected ones. Like, get in the car, ride with us, such things.

[Terminal]

The bolt Hiecro had fired hit the unconscious thug with the arrow in his knee, the cylindrical tip crumpling and transmuting into dozens of silvery, molten fragments that quickly saw the man's body coated in metal. The gung-ho police knight had already begun to reload when Donny asked his question.

"Yuh don' mind if Ah give mah antiques a rest an' check out yah new fangled ironizer, mmm?"

@Doc Doctor

"You can if you want, though I doubt it's going to help you against Leona. Aesch will tell you more, but all those rumors about her being plate-proof? There's some truth to them. For all we know the antiques might be more effective." The male police knight answered with an explanatory tone as he turned to face Kael in response to the young archer's inquiry, raising his crossbow and taking aim as he finished speaking - his tone of voice still casual and relaxed.

@Cruallassar

"Is there a point in all this where we can learn what is going on?"

@Cruallassar

"Not for you, straggler. Don't let Charon paddle your ass on the way down the Styx." The police knight quipped, pulling the crossbow's trigger. As the cylindrical bolt began its flight through the air, it became immediately apparent that 'the other three' Hiecro had alluded to included some amongst the passengers' number - specifically those who were not accounted for and expected amongst them, which included Kael - who seemed to have been abruptly sentenced to death for having the misfortune to have been at the scene with the others. This made sense after considering that there was nobody else left alive who the knights could possibly be referring to...

@PlatinumSkink
If Amelie raised a redirection orb to deflect the bolt the male police knight had fired at Kael, Hiecro finishes pulling back on the lever for her crossbow and fires another of the deadly, shrapnel-projecting bolts at the young magician.

If Amelie failed to raise a redirection orb to protect Kael, Hiecro turns to her and issues a withering threat. "Start running. I'll give you five steps. I could use the practice."

[PlatinumSkink]

What they were talking about sounded dangerous. Why would something need to help against Leona? Amelie frowned as she kept attention to each person that they were currently talking to, just in case-

Amelie reacted instinctively. What the knight said to Kael just before firing tipped her off and she was able to manifest a Redirection Orb in time. She turned wide-eyed in confusion as she reached forward, making it obvious she was the one creating the Redirection Orb in front of Kael. The orb took the arrow and sent it crashing into an adjacent building. She didn't understand why he had been fired upon, while she didn't trust the two police it still felt like it came out of nowhere. While she had a lot of questions, she did not get any time to ask them.

From the corner of her eye she noted Hiecro turning for her. She didn't have the time to manifest a new Redirection Orb. With no other counter-plan available to her, she'd try to throw herself aside, if she at all got the time to react. If she was hit... then if the impact was magical, it'd go straight through her defensive wards. If the impact was physical, her wards would take a blow but likely save her at least this once, yet any magical effect may still take root. Then she'd likely be screaming and rolling trying to save herself from immediate doom. Likely without it working.

If she was somehow successful in surviving, then she'd spin around to face them and raise a Redirection Orb around herself where she lay, terrified and confused, eyeing the knights while shaking in fright.

[Doc Doctor]

@Terminal

Donny's decision had no basis in morality. He had to meet Platter and find out everything, even if some of these punks had to die. He quickly strode up right next to Hiecro after Amelie had been given a head start. "Hawld it. If yah fiyah, she'll send yah bolt right back at yah. Yah ain't seen how she can send 'em flyin'? Yah went an' lost yah element of sahprise. Lemme show yah how tah take 'em off guard. Yah can't fight what yah can't see."

Donny hoisted the Magnum out of its holster with a deliberate, aching menace. With his left hand still in its pocket, he lifted the broad left flap of his overcoat in front his body. It entirely obscured where he was aiming. Neither Kael nor Amelie could know where the bullet was going to fly in time to stop it, a perfect way to bypass most reaction-based defenses. Donny pulled the trigger. This one was far louder than the other shots he had fired. It was the S&W .460, the only handgun bullet in the world which travels at Mach 2. Most hunters agree that the .44 Magnum is enough to take down any game in North America, including grizzlies. The same hunters know that the .460 can drop any mortal animal in the world. That very bullet was heading straight for the heart of Hiecro's partner, Donny having aimed the revolver across his body, bulletproof vest easily enduring the frightening heat of the chamber flare.
There was a good chance Hiecro's attention would be drawn to her partner for at least a split second, that fractured moment of confusion where a situation is still being deciphered by the mind. A fatal time frame. Donny quickly fired a second time without cocking the hammer. A few more pounds of trigger resistance, but that was the price to pay for a double action revolver. The next bullet had a date with Hiecro's head.

Donny wasn't taking sides, he never did. He was always on his own side. He had his reasons, and they were good ones. Judging by the amount of money deposited in his bank account, Donny estimated he was far, far more valuable to Platter than these buffoons. What did they make, thirty bucks an hour max? That was really highballing it. What's more, he needed Luca's trust. Donny knew that if Luca saw him simply standing by as the others were killed, he'd lose the willing cooperation of the only valuable living resource in town. Oh, and Donny really wanted to try on one of those suits of armor to see if he could do the flying thingy. He wanted to do that so bad. He'd be able to make it back to Platter's if he could figure out the secret to the cops' transportation. Sure they might be pissed that he killed their own, but that was if they found out in the first place. Getting away with murder was his forte, after all.

[Cruallassar]

@Terminal

Kael starts back in surprise when the crossbow bolt is fired at him...and is rather relieved when the redirection orb appears in front of him and deflects the shot. Relief doesn't dull his reflexes though, and in the time between the shot being fired and the orb going away, he has his bow and an arrow out again, and he targets the female knight as the first threat...being the one with a loaded crossbow. A flash and bang suddenly ring out as her partner is shot, but with a little experience with that now...it doesn't affect Kael drawing his arrow and firing it at the female knight's eye between the slit visor, as before. Unlike before however, this time he tries to angle the arrow so the broader end is parallel with the slit, which should let it pass cleanly through...regardless of a second shot from Donny.
Note to self: Perhaps killing everyone not in your party is in fact the safest course of action.

[Bright_Ops]

@Terminal@PlatinumSkink

Fortune had already known that there was something wrong with the world around him, but the presence of the two 'knights' that had come to collect him for the Duke that finally sealed the deal that the Duke wasn't a man to be trusted. The brutal fashion upon which these keepers of the peace distributed their brand of justice was more then a warning sign that they were just as much dishonorable thugs as the men that they were executing, but some of the words that they spoke of betrayed the true nature of the illusion; All humans good or bad in just about anywhere in the Old World would know the name of the god of death Morr.

As the knights turned on his companions, Fortune watched as the first arrow bounced off of a magical shield before the female knight turned to fire a second shot of a crossbow at the witch in question; The woman had been defenseless and had clearly only employed her secretive and dangerous craft to try and protect those she was with harm. Despite his distrust of the witch, he couldn't allow her to come to harm if he could help it. With a roar he charged forward, intent to ram the woman out of the way of the arrow aimed at her to ensure that she got knocked out of the way, praying to the Lady that his armor would deflect the arrow enough to protect him.

[Loksfjoer]

Since no-one really answered his question, except the for the mutter of the ticking boy, Andy looked back at the unconscious thug who soon had a complete metal coating. As much as he disapproved of the event, he couldn't help but admire the efficiency. It was possible this man had a history with the police here and they had acted on that. Not that it made it right what had happened, but the thought did cross his mind.

Then he heard the police knight say something about Charon and the way down the Styx and when he saw the weapon aimed at one of the passengers his jaw dropped. He stared at it in disbelief. What was going on here? Weren't they all supposed to go to the university as the male pavise knight had mentioned?

Everything happened fast after that, the bolt got fired from the crossbow, but deflected and crashed in a building instead. Donny came forward and he fired a gun twice while the archer quickly fired an arrow at the female knight. And the knight in shiny armour rushed forward to what looked like help or save the girl who had deflected the bolt heading towards the archer, if he saw it right.

"Mind if I hang out with you for a bit?" he asked the now metallic thug, knowing very well he wouldn't get an answer. "It doesn't look like I can be of much help now. A shame, an awesome person like me." He paused and narrowed his eyes. "What is going on here?" he muttered, followed by a sigh. "I have no idea who the good guys and bad guys are anymore. And I'm not a single step closer to Tafans."

He pondered about it for a moment, also thinking back to the words the thug had spoken before the cops had arrived, as he let the people suitable for combat and heroics deal with the situation.

[mdk]

With all hell breaking loose yet again, it was hard for Luca to process what the police-knights had said. He had a nagging feeling, growing stronger, that something very significant was just uttered -- something crucial. But he simply didn't have the brainpower to think it through yet. The thought was rattling around in his mind and it would make sense eventually -- the biometric pass -- but not yet.

For now, he was back in instinctual mode. Priority one is to protect human life -- even if it's your own. He was standing near another human, Ariett, and bullets were flying. He grabbed her and pulled her towards some semblance of cover. There wasn't much to speak of -- only the bombed-out Rolls-Royce -- but that would have to do. While they ran, that feeling of something important -- that glim is the biometric pass -- kept getting louder. He couldn't help but think he could figure it out, if everyone would just stop fighting for a second. Stop everyone fighting.... biometric pass..... No. There was no time to think. He put his head down and continued to tug and shove Ariett towards the wreckage.

[Terminal]

Amelie reacted instinctively. What the knight said to Kael just before firing tipped her off and she was able to manifest a Redirection Orb in time. She turned wide-eyed in confusion as she reached forward, making it obvious she was the one creating the Redirection Orb in front of Kael. The orb took the arrow and sent it crashing into an adjacent building. . .

From the corner of her eye she noted Hiecro turning for her. She didn't have the time to manifest a new Redirection Orb. With no other counter-plan available to her, she'd try to throw herself aside, if she at all got the time to react.

@PlatinumSkink

With a roar he charged forward, intent to ram the woman out of the way of the arrow aimed at her to ensure that she got knocked out of the way, praying to the Lady that his armor would deflect the arrow enough to protect him.

@Bright_Ops

@PlatinumSkink@Bright_Ops
The bolt was partially deflected by the armor upon contact - but the cylindrical tip also splintered into a dozen metal shards that then scattered. A few managed to slide right past Fortune's frame like a stream of water, while a good few managed to splatter directly across his left gauntlet and the lower-left side of his chestpiece - and another two somehow managed to strike Amelie regardless. The metallic splinters liquefied harmlessly on impact, strangely carrying no appreciable kinetic stopping power - although that was a faint relief only, as the gleaming, molten shards of silver then began to spread and expand. Amelie's wards did seemingly nothing to halt the spread of the metal, though thankfully having been hit only by two shards they failed to even envelope the full front of her shirt, slowing and stopping at around half a foot in diameter.

...Before the pool of metal then began to sprout the same jagged, eerie spines of metal every other puddle of the spreading metal elsewhere had grown after the strange shift of gravity, resulting in several half-inch long spines jutting straight through her garments and into her chest.

Fortune was in an even less enviable state. As the liquid metal spread rapidly across the surface of his armor, there was a keening, shearing sound of metal crumpling or being rent - just like the sound the crossbowman's large bolt had made while electroplating the limousine.

Thankfully for Fortune, the shards that clung to his chestpiece were relatively few, and did not manage to spread far enough to pose a threat to him. Even when the pool of metal adhered to his chest began to sprout spines, they failed to penetrate through the reliable plate. His gauntlet was a different matter however - the entirety of it was wholly enveloped in gleaming silver in an instant, the metal locking each individual finger in place and completely ruining his chainmail underneath, rendering it more immobile than if it had been thoroughly rusted through. Then the metal spread to his exposed flesh beneath, and his world turned to pain as though he had dipped the whole of his arm into a blacksmith's forge. Even as his arm's surface tissue began to die, muscles and nerves began to scream in his head as his skin was fused to the interior of his armor.

That very bullet was heading straight for the heart of Hiecro's partner, Donny having aimed the revolver across his body, bulletproof vest easily enduring the frightening heat of the chamber flare. . .

Donny quickly fired a second time without cocking the hammer. A few more pounds of trigger resistance, but that was the price to pay for a double action revolver. The next bullet had a date with Hiecro's head.

@Doc Doctor

@Doc Doctor
The bullets both neatly flattened themselves into crumpled studs on impact that then fell harmlessly to the ground.

The bullets both neatly flattered themselves into crumpled studs on impact that then fell harmlessly to the ground.

The lack of any other kind of reaction was so preposterous and comical it was almost unbelievable. Neither of the police knights were even staggered - as if all the kinetic power from the bullets had been somehow completely negated. Hiecro, whom Donny had attempted to shoot in the face through what almost certainly was not a plexiglas visor, did not even appear to have suffered from any whiplash at all. The result defied any kind of explanation. The magnum rounds should have been able to penetrate the armor and have knocked both of the knights flat on their backs three feet back. The magnum rounds should have been able to penetrate three suits of armor in a row.

Hiecro, who had looked very briefly confused, and then shocked, adopted an expression of primal fury. "You're dead!" She barked, and brought the crossguard for her compound crossbow up and around to clobber Donny in the gut with a brutal haymaker from the right, which became all the more worrisome when a long, silvery bayonet sprouted from a port below the guard as the police knight moved to impale Donny on the spot. If he managed to evade the attack, Hiecro would simply proceed to chase after him, raising her pavise in front of her while she pulled her right arm back for another jab. If he somehow deflected the blow, Hiecro would somehow impossibly resist having her momentum redirected beyond her arm being moved and proceed to bowl Donny over by smashing her pavise directly into his body.

Her partner seemed a bit slower on the uptake. "You shot me!" He said, a stunned expression on his face, his eyes as wide as dinner plates.

Kael starts back in surprise when the crossbow bolt is fired at him...and is rather relieved when the redirection orb appears in front of him and deflects the shot.

@Cruallassar

@Cruallassar
In the brief moment between surprise and reaction, Kael's life briefly flashed before his eyes - and he saw another world where there had been no redirection orb - where his body lay, hideously contorted and completely covered in silver, with jagged spines erupting from every scant centimeter of his flesh.

A flash and bang suddenly ring out as her partner is shot, but with a little experience with that now...it doesn't affect Kael drawing his arrow and firing it at the female knight's eye between the slit visor, as before. Unlike before however, this time he tries to angle the arrow so the broader end is parallel with the slit, which should let it pass cleanly through...regardless of a second shot from Donny.

@Cruallassar

The second female pavise knight reeled back in shock and pain, letting out a blood-curdling scream as Kael's arrow tore right through her helmet's exposed slit visor and penetrated her eye as she dropped both her compound crossbow and pavise shield, the implements clattering to the cobblestone street. Unlike the time he had fired at the crossbow knight earlier, this was a perfectly clean shot - the arrow had lodged all the way in the woman's eye, and had doubtlessly pierced her skull. She was already dead - leaving only Hiecro and the male pavise knight to contend with.

Kael felt a faint prickling sensation at the back of his left heel - a harmless prick from one of the spines that was jutting from his twisted, screaming body on the pavement behind him, contorted in agony and shining brilliantly in the morning sun. The cold from the oddly chill sunlight washed over him, as though something had trod over his grave. Where the deceased doppelganger had come from was not apparent, but the flash of that other world leapt to the forefront of his mind.

[mdk]

Once Luca and and Ariett reached cover, the boy had a sudden moment of clarity. I'm the glim. He didn't know what a glim was, but he knew what it meant. "Wait here," he said.

He poked his head out in time to see Fortune and Amelie stricken with the metal. In his mind, based on his experience so far, he assumed they were going to die shortly -- of course, if he were thinking clearly, he would have recognized that Ariett was not at all dead even though she had also been stricken. But his confusion on the matter only served to give him extra motivation. I have to stop this now. I'm the glim. Be the glim.

They need me.

'They,' in this final thought, did not refer to his comrades. It referred to their assailants.

Luca broke cover and ran towards the pavise knights. One of their number had fallen, with an arrow in the visor. He ran at her corpse and slid into it, quickly locating among her armaments an arrow bearing the electroplating compound cylinder. He snatched it up and bolted to his feet.

"HEY!" he shouted, hoping to get everyone's attention -- which admittedly might have been difficult amidst the continuing battle. "HEY!!!"

He held the arrow an inch away from his own throat.

"Knock it off! Or the next one to die is your biometric pass!" Priority one is to protect human life. "I mean it!" He was almost certain that he really did mean it.

[Doc Doctor]

@Terminal

How often is it that Donny is caught off guard in a fight? About as frequently as he watches college football. He has Netflix and prefers sitcoms.

Donny didn't even give Hiecro enough time to speak. He reacted the moment he saw the futile result of his sharpshooting. In a flash Donny twisted his raised left hand so that it protruded from the hole in his coat flap, at the same time compressing the trigger on the compact can of pepper spray he had been hiding. From but a few feet away the knight would find a sudden gout of pure, blinding pain hitting her visor. Were she to swing unseeing at Donny, she'd find that he was no longer occupying the space he had been in. Ghost-like, conservative, his presence was suddenly behind her, his illegally strong stun gun thrusting into the small of her back and boasting a kick badder than an apartment wall socket.

[Cruallassar]

@Terminal

Kael feels the prick behind him, taking half a moment to glance uneasily at what appears to be his own dead body...what? But that mystery could wait. The fallen knight had dropped his gear in falling, and if it could stop the shots that Donna had fired at them, it might be able to stop more than that. More importantly, they had also used the shield to control the lightning globe, and on top of that, they had two friendlies down. Kael dived for the knight's body, passing the other friendly that was now...threatening his own life in exchange for sparing the hostiles? As he grabbed the shield and raised it on his arm to cover himself and screen the two fallen allies, his bow in his other hand, he looks over at the guy with the arrow to his own neck. "Um...hey, I think we are a bit more worried about saving our own necks from them over saving your neck from yourself. I don't even know what a 'biometric pass' is!"

[PlatinumSkink]

Before Amelie had any time to consider her escape-plan, the knight that had been in the limousine with her knocked her aside, causing Amelie to stumble out of the way. The arrow shattered over armor, Amelie wide-eyed seeing this happen, knowing what that did. However, that was far from the highest of her worries as two drops fell and hit the front of her shirt.

‘NO…!’ She cried out, knowing what that could do. Her hands quickly grabbed to the left and right of the round spot on her white shirt and pulled forcefully outwards. Amelie knew she wouldn’t be able to get the clothing off in time, so all she could do would be to distance it from her chest before the spikes came, if she could. The girl completely expected to be thoroughly impaled…

… However, as the spikes thrust out, they were a meager half-inches long. If she had been able to pull on her shirt in time, it was definitely elastic enough to prevent her from being injured, although her shirt now had a very uncomfortable set of spikes on the inside pointing at her chest. Amelie didn’t have anything else to wear, which made this extremely awkward as she had to hold her shirt to prevent the spikes on it from sticking into her, but compared to losing her life it was fairly lenient.

The knight who had saved her, however… Fortune…

He was fine. He was completely fine.

‘Th-thank you…’ Amelie uttered before turning her attention back to the action. It was time to do something good with the life that had been spared. Amelie had to partake in the battle that was going on, and she knew exactly how. She didn’t know what Luca was doing with yelling out about biometric pass or whatever, but she had to bet on that it wasn’t going to work. If it did, good, honestly. If it didn’t…

The male knight that was still stunned after Donny had fired at him. She could prevent him from partaking in the battle. Amelie took steps towards him, keeping her distance from the combat between Donny and Hiecro. As soon as she could, she formed a Redirection Orb, right around him. It would be in place in a second. If she caught him, he’d be Lost. Moving his legs would allow her to redirect them to standing still in place. Moving his arms and the movement energy would be redirected to being held squarely at his sides. No reloading or firing that crossbow. He’d still be able to talk, but any movement of the body would be redirected to standing still and straight as a stick in the middle.

Amelie couldn’t do much, but at least neutralize one opponent. If she managed to catch him, she’d search with her legs to see if she could recover the submachine-gun she had put down earlier, not letting go of the man with her eyes. Her eyes would be the one thing keeping him in place, as she glared with shaking hands holding her shirt with spikes on it stretched before her constantly.

@Cruallassar … In case she had fallen over because there doesn’t appear to be anyone else than Amelie and Fortune that could qualify as “down” or “fallen”, Amelie still would have grabbed her shirt and pulled it to save her chest from impalement and Fortune would still be completely fine, even if he’s fallen over for some reason. Amelie then got up to her feet and done the above described. Stepping by the shield meant to protect her to get in range of the male knight if so needed. Regardless, Amelie and Fortune were not down in any way. It may simply have appeared so to Kael, for whatever reason.