[IC] A Certain Fairy's Waltz

[ERode]

In order to not lose my way, in order to not be sad,
There's things left behind, aren't there?
...Even now...
...In this unreasonable world...

Unpleasant memories and pleasant recollections passed through the youth's mind as he strode through School District 10. It nearing winter, chilly breezes passing through the naturally windy place that was Academy City. It wouldn't ever snow here, of course, but it appeared that he was prepared for any type of extreme weather, wearing a rust red scarf. The garment was wrapped many times around his neck, yet even then, it was long enough that it reached down to his waist. The ends seemed to be weighted down thought, with bits of metal that insured the scarf didn't float upwards whenever he picked up his pace. It still fluttered around though, as another breeze picked up through the streets. It was a school day for the students of Academy City, 2PM, only a few delinquents and university students on the roads. Barely anyone walking on the streets.

That was fine with him.

Readjusting his scarf, he took a look at the sun once more. A clear day. No umbrellas or hoodies today, it seemed. In a world of science, even weather predictions were godlessly accurate. He smiled then, before turning to corner, and finally stopping.

Down the road, he could see it. The infamous Reformatory of Academy City, the only place in the world that could safely hold a large group of criminal espers without 'technically' breaching human rights. The facility had no fences, which made sense, considering fences were pretty much useless. Instead, it was primarily an underground prison, the majority of its residents kept below sea level. There was only one floor above ground, and as such, it was guarded heavily by security forces. Yet, it was also the ONLY floor that was specifically guarded.

That also made sense though. The number of espers who would risk teleporting underground with no clear idea of where they'd materialize numbered to zero. Powered suits, automated drones, and a variety of lock-down sequences. If he recalled correctly, the prison warden should have a master key, but at the same time, that key was one of those fingerprint-locked ones. He'd have to borrow the person's thumb then.

The boy slipped a hand into the deep pockets of his winter coat. Pressing against his fingers was the handle of a simple, plastic knife. It would have to do. He doubted that the city of science would still arm their soldiers with something as barbaric as a military knife.

2:05PM.

His partner was late.

It seemed that the decision to go individually, through different routes, into Academy City had been a bad decision. It lowered the chance of them being detected, of course, but it didn't help at all when it came starting the mission in time.

“Shoulda know that the artillery would be late.”

But Zeal smiled regardless.

If she was still carefree enough to be late, then there should be nothing to worry about.

[Skyswimsky]

The Reformatory
Day 2354 XXXX

How long was she imprisoned? Would she ever be free? Why not just kill herself? Are there even other people outside? Is she even alive? Maybe she is just dreaming? Maybe her body decayed since long and her mind just refuses to accept her death? Was she a normal human? Are there humans other than herself? Maybe the outside world was attacked by a superior alien race and she is now kept as a pet? Questions, questions she stopped asking herself since long ago as they progressively started to make less and less sense. Though she broke long ago, Maki just continued to function.

There was no one besides the green-haired girl in this room, while it looked like people actually cared about her while she spent her time sleeping, she had never seen or heard anyone, it was just her and her alone. But if you don't have anyone, you could just make friends up, right? After all, there must have been more to the padded walls than just preventing to damage yourself, as you could easily bite off your tongue. Not to mention her current appearance was just a shadow of her past, skinny, weak, messy long hair and god knows about her body odor.

So all what Maki did for who knows how long was lying on her rather comfortable bed, occasionally standing up to get the meal that was always taken care off while she was sleeping. She couldn't even tell if the food tasted good because it was always the same, but the joy of taste was just one of many small things that she was robbed off; for example, working out was one of the first things she stopped doing after her will was broken and she abandoned all hope.

Thus, the only thing that was left to Maki were the conversations with herself, she couldn't even say if she was just thinking or actually talking out loud, but she knew they were many different Maki's in herself and most likely every one of them had a screw lose, all except herself of course.

[Anderiel]

"Centocinquanta
la pecora canta
canta il gallo
risponde la gallina
Madama Colombina
s'affaccia alla finestra
con tre colombe in testa
Passan tre fanti
su tre cavalli bianchi~
bianca la sella,
bianca la donzella,
addio mammina bella."

"Two-'o five.." Marzia yawned as she sat up from against the wall, stretching small pale arms into the air. Where was she supposed to meet him again? Maybe she should just wander this pretty town until she found him. What made her decide to rest in the first place though, in such a public place any passing men would easily be able to ogle without much effort.

Ah, now she remembered- The Reformatory. Somewhere near that place right? Marzia was already late so what was the point of rushing, and additionally she had just woken up so there's no way she had enough energy to run all the way there. The streets were fairly empty by now, that's good, she began her even pace towards the destination her partner had decided upon. Marzia vaguely remembered that it was near that place so maybe if she wandered around near it she would bump into him. But if she didn't that would be okay too, the school uniforms are pretty cute here, and she wouldn't mind wearing one everyday.

She checked her watch again "Two-ten." the girl whispered to herself. She was now five minutes late, punctuality was never her strong point. But worrying her partner any further would probably be more of a problem than taking any more time, so she enjoyed the view of the pretty city one last time before sprinting towards his direction. The few people that were near her in this stunt merely watched as the girl vanished in a instant. Wasting no time to get where she needed to be she probably 'overdid it' seeing as they weren't supposed to draw much attention themselves. Strengthening this point the Reformatory wasn't that far from where she took a nap, so the sudden burst of speed only saved the two or three minutes that it would have taken her to meet up with her partner.

But she was there now, no need to worry about such petty things.

She tapped the shoulder of.. what was his name again?

"O'neil.. I'm here."

[ERode]

A tap on his shoulder and a lazy, demotivating voice brought Zeal around, even though the owner of the voice had gotten his name wrong for the....fifth time? Sounded right. They've only encountered each other for five or so times prior to this. That German boss girl said their magic complimented each other, but the youth was pretty sure that the only thing that matched well was the fact that he can tolerate her laziness and forgetfullness and general inadequacy.

Taking a glance at the sun once more, he sighed. 2:10 PM. In fifty minutes, students would be out of school, free to roam around. He'd like to have started earlier, but it seemed like being forever-late was part of that pink-haired girl's modus operandi. Next time, he'll set the starting time ten minutes early. Maybe that'll work.

"You're late, Marzia. Or was it Maria? Shall we start now, or would you rather take another afternoon nap?"

Just light teasing, really. He was a masochist, not a sadist.

The tall figure seemed to take his time responding to her, whether or not it was intentional wasn't worth the effort deducting so she simply waited. Then he couldn't remember her name, but he got it right on his first attempt- an E for effort which let the small girl give off a sly smirk. In a moment's notice she realized that this generous person offered to let her sleep before the operation was started.

"Really?.. Well I did see a nice alley with a mattress. I thought it looked a little shabby but it would do, there's room for two if you want to join me."

Marzia seemed completely serious as she responded whole heartedly to her partner, tilting her head idley to the left as she awaited for his response.

An alley with a mattress? Sounded like a Venus Fly Trap for girls like her. Bringing his fingers under his scarf to scratch an itchy spot on his neck, Zeal shook his head, the ends of his muffler swaying from side to side. "I was thinking that a better place might be on the first floor of the Reformatory, actually. I mean, the 24/7 staff would probably have some nice rooms to sleep in. Of course, that would require clearing out the first floor first, but it's not like that's hard for you, right?"

All this indifferent verbal crap was getting annoying, but considering what Marzia liked to do, Zeal only hoped that those implications would get her to do her part of the job at a moderately faster pace.

Something along the lines of setting everyone on the first floor on fire, so he can go underground and retrieve the subject without any armed interference.

"A nice room?.."

Marzia pondered the situation, yes it would be easy for her to clear a single floor of people but what's the rush if you can do it as quickly as her? But a nice room with a bed did sound nice, and if she could accomplish this at an even faster pace than the more time she'd have to sleep.

"That does sound nice.. Okay, when are we leaving?"

She had already forgotten the time of which the operation was supposed to take place, such petty things didn't sit well in her head. Didn't she make it to the checkpoint on time, or just a little late? There was still some spare time to relax. No wait, there wasn't.

"Oh yeah, I was late.. Okay, when are we leaving?"

"We are leaving...eleven minutes ago."

He smiled once more at his own joke, before tucking his hands into his pockets, feeling a certain sharpness press against his index finger. Picking up his pace and praying to god that the girl didn't move at the speed of a sloth, Zeal marched through the streets towards the Reformatory.

Along the way, he said, words matching his strides, “There should be remote-controlled drones as well, so you better roll a good object to take them all out with...wait, actually, can you even target specific people, or is it based off area alone?”

"Drones aren't people right?"

"...your knowledge of science is pitiful. How can something made of metal and synthethic fibers be considered human in any way?"

"The same way that magic can be logically proven, but, I assume drones aren't people then."

Marzia tapped her temples in thought, closing her eyes and scrunching up her face as she struggled to think of a solution to this problem.

"If they don't see me, they can't hurt me right?"

Magic? Logically proven? All Zeal knew was that magic worked on a different concept than science, and that was pretty much it. Wasn't science the thing that was logically proven, with magic being the thing that made no sense at all? But still...her point....shit, he should have thought of that...

Slowing down, he replied, “It'd be a pretty bad facility if they didn't have cameras covering every blind spot...”

"Well... If I can manage to find a way to get a few of the guards near one of the cameras before using my magic. I could probably make one. I'm sure that a fire that big would cause the camera to overheat.. That's how it works in movies right?"

"...if it's hot enough to melt plastic...wait, you realize that I'll be walking through the first floor after you chase them all out, right?"

"I would hope that you're wearing the pin I gave you. The fire shouldn't harm you if so, since you'll be deemed innocent. Think of it as the gods themselves keeping you safe from the heat of the flames around you. Oh... But there's also the problem if other guards from seperate floors come down. Wouldn't it be bad if it gets too hot on the first floor- cause like, explosions and stuff?"

"Well, if your flames are so magical, why do they even have heat? Shouldn't they just 'burn' the sinners, instead of...actually, nevermind. We've just lost another two minutes because of this. God, Maria, that's why you ANSWER my phone calls. So we can talk about this beforehand."

Indeed, it seemed like they had just spent the past thirty seconds in front of the Reformatory, discussing the foreign concepts of 'magical logic' in the city of science.

"My name is Marzia, Mr. O'neil. And my magical flames generate heat to anything with villainous intent, meaning everything that isn't me or my friends. And you didn't answer my question about the pin, hell, if you get my name wrong again I might just accidently take mine off me."

"Oh, you're Marzia? Then I'm Zeal. Another thing that we might have discussed earlier if you k- wait, you know how to use a phone, right? Like, unlocking it and such? And your question wasn't a question, it was a statement. Mind doing your thing now? Cause standing here, in front of the place we're raiding isn't going to do us any favors."

Waving his hands towards one of the cameras peering by the entrance, he said, "You know, I heard you planned to hide?"

Marzia began to march towards the building, pulling the pin from her vest and tossing it to the concrete as she pressed by.

"I'm going in the front door!" She yelled in an irritated tone.

Grimacing as she threw away the pin that might have been his lifeline, Zeal scooped it up as he followed behind the irritated pink blob, rolling his eyes before calling out (even though he could totally be a smartass about it), "Look, I'm sorry, alright? Guess I'm just really nervous about this whole thing, and...yeah..."

Goddammit, why couldn't she have learnt a less random spell? Actually, why the hell hasn't there been a single guard popping up and questioning us yet?

Marzia stopped as her partner apologized, the doors a few feet in front of her and nearly in range to open. Though she turned to the man who gave his reasoning for being such a inconsiderate douchebag, the poor soul was nervous about this operation, oh such a shame. Nonetheless she turned to take the pin back from 'Zeal' who looked more aggrivated than she meant to make him. Pressing it back into her vest with the rabbit-head symbol faced out.

"No reason to be so worried. If you get too scared I'll simply knock you out and carry you to the objective."

"That'd be kind of you, but it'd be hard for you to sleep that way, wouldn't it?"

Zeal was smiling again, as he made a note to himself to never talk about magic with Marzia ever again.

"Like I said before beds can usually hold more than one person."

Marzia continued towards her goal, the entrance of the Reformatory. This door.. there was something about it.. block, blocking her way, to the room, it was slowing down the rate in which she would be able to nap. Unacceptable, Marzia patted her clothes for a moment- why this was done, who knows? Soon after she took a step back from the barricade, the air intensified around her for a moment and as that moment passed she sprinted towards the iron doors of the Reformatory driving both her legs into the metal crumpling it inwards and sending it into the opposing wall that faced the entrance door.

She regained her footing quickly after, yawning at this act and looking around the area of the first floor to see if anyone would respond to the violent act. Nothing?

"Cool, no one's around to scold me." She said to herself as she beckoned for Zeal to enter the building behind her, waving a right arm lazily in no particular direction.

No one...there? Stepping inside the first floor of the Reformatory, Zeal looked around for anything that might have been suspicious, but found nothing. Just an empty first floor with no one inside, yet all the machines still functioning. Weird. Annoying. He walked towards the computer terminals and noticed that they hadn't been logged out yet. With a few keyswipes, he disabled the cameras and electronically locked doors that segmented the sections of the underground prison. Too easy, and six different types of suspicious, but he shouldn't complain about it right now.

Just take advantage of this oppurtunity, get to Subject A, and get out.

"Well, then, guess we should go down..."

"Down?.. But, the bed?"

"Well, you didn't do your thing yet, so you can sleep after you do your part."

"But how do I know when that is. Also, which one must I do first? My thing, or my part?"

"...just go with me. I have no idea where the guards are, so it'd be nice if we didn't get separated and sniped one by one."

"How nice, my partner is already asking me to go with him. Am I supposed to blush and put my arms around you?"

"Being my meatshield is good enough. Unlike you, I'm not a gorilla who can carry adult males while running around AC."

"You first said I was a meatshield, but then that I was a gorilla. Which one is it, indecisive is a good adjective that would describe you Mr. O'neil."

"Gorillas have meat, thus, they can be meatshields, Maria." And with that, he opened the door to the stairwell, having decided elevators were too risky for this expedition into the unknown.

"Ladies first."

Marzia began to make her way to the stairwell with a slow, overly hesitant pace. Just before placing her foot onto the first step she leaned over the railing to look down, scaling the drop's distance with a estimation of less than professional calculation.

"Why not just jump?"

Going in after her, hands in his pockets once more, Zeal looked down the railing with her, before immediately regretting that choice and grasping onto the cold rail for support, vertigo overtaking his sense for just a moment.

"Be my guest. I don't like walking with broken legs."

He waved, and walked down, one step at a time.

She shrugged to Zeal, who clearly was less of a man than her. Climbing onto the railing and giving a little leap from the stair's side into the dark below. The rushing sound of her clothes fraying in the wind could be heard as she shot down the clearing between the stairwell like a torpedo. Falling a great length and having time to ponder she regretted not taking Zeal with her, since she would now have to wait for the coward to climb down those many, many steps. But before she could change her falling momentum to stop herself she had already reached the bottom, in the moment her feet touched the ground she vaulted forward breaking the force from her feat and sending her forward at a high speed. Regaining stability she stopped herself, gripping the tile flooring with her fingertips and pressing the rubber of her shoes forcefully to the ground.

The moment she stopped, Marzia let out a heavy exhale as that was enough effort for a few days. Walking slowly back towards the stairwell to shout towards the upper tier.

"Waiting!" This was again in the similar irritated tone that was both lazy and bothered.

"This goddamned gorilla woman," Zeal muttered under his breath, before running down the steps, three at a time.

By the time he got down to the superhuman's level, he was fairly out of breath, and, hands on his knees, he looked up with an irritated glare of his own, asking, "W-well...agh...then...guess this is the...hooo...floor...lead the way, why doncha?"

"Where?"

Dammit, she was right. He was the one who knew the way after all. Inhaling deeply, his hands support his back, Zeal took a few more seconds to catch his breath, before kicking open the ONLY DOOR on the bottom floor of the stairwell.

Still no guards. Only a long, long corridor with dim, fluorescent lighting, leading to a single, small door fifty meters away. He didn't like this type of position. No way to find cover in a corridor that had no side entrances.

"There."

Marzia sighed as this poor man struggled to breathe, age had clearly taken ahold of his innards and caused him to be frail and weak. This was pathetic, to say the least. Though he did know where they were going, realizing she was too lazy to notice the door blatantly in front of them- she picked up Zeal 'a man notably taller than herself' placing his forebody over her left shoulder and his posterior over her right.

"I shall carry you, Mr. O'neil.. No that's not a befitting name. I'll call you Nonno from now on."

Stomping heavily down the corridor, echoing through the walls and towards the single door at the end. She carefully inspected her surroundings making her way towards the clear objective at the end of the path. Nothing seemed to be of any harm though, maybe Nonno would have some advice on this matter.

"Anything look suspicious Nonno?"

She was carrying him. She was actually, seriously, totally carrying him. Wow. If it wasn't for the fact that he didn't actually care, he should probably feel embarrassed. Heck, he should feel embarrassed about the new name he was bestowed, but he didn't know Italian, and thus, simply let it go. He was getting used to it, Marzia's completely lazy, utterly carefree behavior. Kicking the heavy stairway door closed as they started walking off, just so there would be some type of obstacle if anyone tried to approach from behind, Zeal looked around, saw nothing, and then realized how stupid he was to do that.

"It's a single-lane corridor. Let's just get to the door and open it up, cause we aren't going to have any safespots just dawdling around here, Mario."

"Maria is a prettier name than Mario, nor is the gender correct. Please do try get my name correct, or I will remove my pin and hold your life hostage. And when that happens I will have you call me your queen, and then you'd be my second servant.. That is not a fate I wish upon you Nonno, we have only just met."

After the small rant Marzia reached the door, reaching with a free hand to turn it's handle the door would not budge,

"Opa, uhm.. Nonno.. Or.... Grandfather... The door is locked."

"Go break it open with your fists or something, Mar-illa."

"Si."

In one fluid motion Marzia swung Zeal into her arms, one holding his abdomen and the other near his legs. His head would be facing the door now, the girl's soft hands gripping onto his coat and pants with great strength. Taking a few careful steps back she positioned herself properly holding him low before sprinting towards the door with all of her might. In that instant she released Zeal to fire towards the door face first, if his weight did not break open the door- she would use her own strength to do so like before.

He was flying.

No, she actually frickin' threw him.

The gorilla woman was using him as a human torpedo.

In that moment, the esper-honed brain of Zeal slowed his perception of time for just an instant.

The target of his Gemstone ability, Double Ipeisity, will be the door in front of him. The target of his Three Little Men in the Woods will be Marzia. With a single-line incantation spoken so fast that it sounded like a chipmunk, he cast out his voodooism spell, pushing the magical backlash onto the door and sharing his own pain with his partner.

The next moment, his head smashed into the door, the door seemed to crumble open as if it was disintegrating from inside out, and he fell into a heap.

The next moment, the most wonderfully 'live' feeling descended into his head, as a hammering pain blossomed from his crown all the way down his spine. A swaying, drunken chill that burned yet froze, causing him to have the oddest, strangest shudder.

Ah, that felt good.

Rubbing his head as he picked himself back up, still a little unsteady on his feet, the youth readjusted his scarf, and then did a small bow to the girl in the room.

"Good afternoon, Subject A. The calvary have arrived."

"On second thought, you will not be my subject. You will die right where you stand, why does my head hurt, why are there strange sensations travelling down my body, why am I dizzy, why did you say an incantation when you hit the door, who is that girl, why?"

Marzia rubbed her head with a pout on her face, unable to really make any decisions or speak anymore than she just did. Abruptly the girl sat down, holding the top of her head with both hands and watching the new addition to the room a seemingly green-haired girl.

"Why is her hair green?"

"Probably because of the genetically modified veggies. Never trusted those things."

[Skyswimsky]

With the sound-proof walls, Maki couldn't even guess that gorilla and human torpedo came to her rescue, heck, she didn't even knew that all the guards magically disappeared nor that a whole floor was dedicated just for herself. Maybe the theory about alien's wasn't that wrong after all. Chilling on her bed she slowly tilted her head towards the door, or what was left of it, which was pretty much nothing. "...?" The first thing Maki did was closing her eyes, the sudden change of light took a toll on her eyes as she slowly realized that another human beings were standing there, or maybe aliens in disguise. She slowly changed her body position to actually sit on her bed now and, after her eyes finally gotten used to the change, blinked a few times.

Did they...came to her rescue? And if not, was that a chance for escape? Was she hoping she could finally get out of this hell-hole? Tears started flowing down her bony cheeks, as her inner-self was unbelievable happy about the realistic chance to get out of here, her sanity, however, told her otherwise. The long-haired girl shook her head and opened her mouth, wanting to speak, but no words came out; looks like most of the talking to herself played in her mind after all. Trying, and failing, again she stood up and slowly walked towards the human torpedo, trying to touch his cheek with her own, skinny hand.

[ERode]

Ah, she was crying. Seemed like she was in there for too long of a time for any sane person, huh? A gentle smile creased his features as Zeal lifted up a part of his scarf to wipe away her tears. She looked like a skeleton, a gaunt girl with a green wig. What did she even eat? Sighing, he took Subject A's skinny hand into his own. Too cold for a healthy human. It felt like paper mache, supported by stick-like bones. Yet, considering the power she supposedly have, it would make sense that Academy City would artificially create a physical disadvantage in her.

“Don't worry. It's fine now, princess.”

Turning back to his partner, Zeal asked, “Oi, Marzia, you want to carry her? I'll go in front, cause I doubt we'll have anything come from behind us at this point. Feel like we should hurry. Nutrition shots don't add much to body mass, I think”

[Anderiel]

"Well, you did get my name right."

With her crude response, she approached the two who seemed to be having some sentimental moment. Grabbing the girl by the arm opposite to the hand Zeal was holding, the grip felt firm and strong, but not painfully so do the position she was grabbing and the speed in which green-haired girl was suddenly flung over her shoulder.

"She's lighter than you..." Marzia shot this comment to Zeal with careless eyes, seeming to again attempt to pester him.

Afterwards she'd pat the woman's posterior, a woman would likely be put into shock from suddenly being handled how she was. But there wasn't time to waste, their objective was complete and now they would have to escape. All that was left is to see why those guards weren't here to make it easy on us. Even the thickheaded Marzia could tell that something was up, it was quiet, too quiet.

"Let's go Nonno, no time to wheeze like an elder on the way up."

[Skyswimsky]

As the girls hope changed into reality, the scarf proved as a ineffecent against the ever flowing tears of the girl. She opened her mouth several times now, able to spout out a few random noises. "Ma ... gi ... my ... na..." before she could really introduce herself however, the girl of the duo suddenly groped carried Maki's entire body. Why? Why would she do that? The Esper would agree on her body being rather weak right now, still, she finally had the chance to move around more than just in her cell and that freedom was already robbed again? Right, why would they even free her? Surely not for the reason of leading a happy live afterwards, she knew her Binary Reality was something strong and dangerous, it was the reason she was in that hell hole after all.

Still, wanting to move herself, she tried to oppose the girl called Marzia but obviously her body was most likely weaker than some kindergarten brat.

[ERode]

"Of course she's lighter than me," Zeal shot back, "She probably hasn't eaten physical food for a few years."

Ignoring the rest of his partner's verbal jabs, the Gemstone walked on ahead of the two, ascending the stairs and making a very, very obvious point about arriving at the first floor first. Unless Marzia started to do super leaps as well, there should be no way for that magician to exceed him in speed. After all, this time, they were fighting against gravity, not with it. Three stairsteps at a time, taking advantage of his longer strides due to his longer legs, the magician reached the door to the first floor, and then waited for his partner and the subject.

[Anderiel]

Marzia quickly darted up the steps behind Zeal. Apparently simple pestering had pushed the man to competition, so childish for an elderly person. Carefully, she watched her feet as they swiftly tracked from one step to another- there'd be no time for tripping or accidents so this more of to insure she didn't miss a step and twist her ankle or some other freak incident. Finally she made it to the top a few moments after Zeal, the fatigue was finally starting to kick in, small beads of sweat visibly forming at her forehead and cheeks. Lightly she let the green-haired girl back onto the floor, breathing in once heavily and then exhaling a soft sigh.

"What next? I need to nap soon."

[Skyswimsky]

Getting carried around, Maki didn't have much of a choice and quickly gave up on freeing herself as she was carried up the stairs, instead, she worked on regaining her voice. Just because she hadn't spoken for such a long time didn't mean she forgot how to speak after all, and as the gorilla-strength girl finally decided to put her down she took a few weak steps away, opening her mouth again."My name is Maki." Was the first thing she said, rather weak and dry, but sense-making stuff nonetheless. "Thanks...for setting me free." With those words, refreshing her initial feelings upon stepping out of the cell again, tears quelled up inside her eyes a second time. Unsure how to proceed, as she had a lot of questions, she continued with her biggest concern."A-Are you aliens in disguise that conquered earth and look for any human survivors?!" While she asked that another feeling inside her dwelled up, if that was not the case, then seriously, where were all the guards?! She was outside of that annoying thing that disabled her power, so she wanted to return at least a bit of the pain she had gone through before leaving; a small sadistic smile came over her broken face.

[ERode]

Good. She was tired. So he wasn't keeping the company of a Saint after all. Wait, no, that was actually a bad thing. If Marzia was a Saint, everything about this mission would be so much easier. They could just brute force through the whole thing. Watching as she let Subject A back onto the ground and rolling his eyes when she asked what was next, Zeal replied, hand on the knob, “Well, obviously, we're going to go get out of Academy City now. Unless you'd like to enroll into their elementary schools after breaking out one of their valued prisoners, Maria?”

Seemed that being indoors for so long had made their target, Maki, a little more than just crazy though. As he opened the door, Zeal said, waving off her concerns, “We're not aliens, Maki. We're magicians...at least, m-”

In that moment, as the door to the first floor opened fully, a bullet from a coil was fired from five hundred meters away, piercing the glass window of the building and subsequently drilling through Zeal's torso, before burying itself in the wall behind him.

[Anderiel]

Tugged Maki and Zeal simultaneously by their wrists to duck from the gunfire after her partner had been shot through his chest. Reaching to close the door shut while staying low, another bullet was fire at her hand, grazing her knuckles as she quickly drew it back from the pain. Wincing from the pain she looked towards the other two with a flustered expression.

"What now?"

She had not yet closed the door, only pulled the two and herself from the doorway after the initial shot. To be honest, she was scared to peek on their assailant after her knuckles got injured. So in the meantime, the girl laid calmly with her back against the wall awaiting orders.

[Skyswimsky]

"...!" Maki took a step back upon witnessing the destruction of one of her saviours, of course it wouldn't have been so easy as they maybe initially thought. Furthermore, she was pretty sure they had something against her ESPer-power; which would also mean she could be abused as a human shield? To her own surprise she felt rather indifferent towards Zeal's current state, apart from the initial shock. Since the people who assaulted them didn't seem to care the slightest bit, she had no problems closing the door as well getting a good look at the outside. "There are multiple powered suits outside...I can't see more." The sunlight took an even heavier toll on her than she had expected thus not able to make out more. "Is...is he all right? They won't shoot me or else they would die, so I could serve as a human shield...or we could free the other prisoners?"

All this talking made her really thirsty.

[ERode]

That hurt.

The bullet that passed right through him hurt, probably a pain on the same level of being hit by a battering ram powered by a tank. There was a white hot point of pain from the entry point, and around that injury, his body burned with an invigorating sensation part way between pain and pleasure. It warmed him from head to toe, sending shivers down his spine, and for a moment, as Marzia dragged him to safety, the boy was in rapture, between heaven and hell. Then, the reality of the situation hit, and Zeal grimaced, unzipping his coat to take a look at his injury. The hole was clean, but it was still enough to get his undershirt bloodied. His teeth chattering in a sudden spasm as he peeled up his shirt, Zeal sighed, then regreted the torso movement that came along with such an action, hissing as another bolt of pain burst from within him.

Bring out a piece of bread from his pocket and taking a bite of the stale piece, the Gemstone forced himself to chew as he murmured another line from a certain fairy tale, directing the backlash onto the railing of the staircase. As his injuries closed and the railing disintegrated, he poked the newly closed hole, before saying, as if the whole 'getting shot' thing wasn't much of a big deal, “Well, Mary, what do you think?
We COULD just use our half dead skeleton as a meatshield, or we COULD jailbreak a gang of angry delinquent espers ...or you can get off your lazy ass and do your magic thing.”

With a quick check on his watch, Zeal smiled. “It's 2:41PM. No students should be out on the streets yet.”

[Anderiel]

"You could have said please."

Marzia wiped her wounded knuckle with her fingers, smearing small amounts of blood from the skin. Reaching into her pocket and pulling out another rabbit-shaped pin, she handed it to Maki with a concerned expression. It would be at random, and this girl was not equipped similarly to herself or Zeal. But like her partner said, now wasn't the time to be lazy- so it was time to take chances.

"If she gets caught up in the conflagration, I'm calling it off. Then we can go with that delinquent plan and I'll just turn them into charcoal after they've been used up."

She then stood, quickly glancing down into the room and sighing to herself. "Et verba mea, ut percutiat judicium super malos, quod positum est in conspectu meo. Ardet et mittite in operibus adsuetum, innocentes opprimens, et vitae sint, quae passus est, ut satisfaceret pro peccatis sit maleficus.". Marzia muttered quietly before a yellow-orange glow emitted from her pin and pocket. The pin had coincidentally been chosen, and within seconds the hallway would begin to glow red and heat would already visibly be felt even outside the hallway as the assailants began to burn, even those in protective clothing having the plastics and hardened fibers melt shut and mold to their skin.

[Skyswimsky]

"A Esper-power?" Maki asked confused while checking out the pin. "It looks cute." with a wide smile, which most likely looked kind of creepy given the fact that this girl had long green hair and was more skin and bones than meat. The thought about getting "caught up in the conflagration" didn't sound too nice...then again she wasn't really scared with having Binary Reality on her side.

As Maki kept waiting for the other two to bail them out, she couldn't do much herself after all, it didn't take Marzia long to continue with her magic show, forcing Subject A to tilt her head. "Do we need to say fancy pants chants to use our powers now? How impractical." She was considering to take another look outside but decided against it and instead played around with the pin in her hand. "Sooo...you can just heal yourself while you can set the world on fire?" She asked each of them respectively, her brain started to work a bit quicker now and knowing what each of her saviours was capable of would surely help out in split-second decisions.

[ERode]

“Oh, so heartless, Marzia. Try not to kill anyone, yeah? All things considered, they're just the police force,” Zeal said, even though a police force that shoots without warning sounds rather suspicious. But really, he didn't want to give TOO much reason for Academy City to want to hunt them down and destroy them. Really, he felt like a criminal in this situation, despite his 'knightly' actions, and simply sighed as his partner did her thing and promptly set the whole first floor ablaze. Interestingly enough, Zeal had expect it to be more of a spontaneous combustion type of spell, where human 'sinners' were set ablaze. But this was fine too. Slipping out and hiding behind a support beam, Zeal did his best to ignore the blazing bodies outside and instead focused on the vehicles. It was a shame that all the power armors nearby was reduced into a melted slab of synthetic materials, but whatever. Now that he could see the situation, that of an encirclement of Anti-Skill vehicles and the glint of snipers from away, he could counter it. Bringing out that stale piece of bread once more, he took a bite of it as an offering, redirected the backlash onto the door of the military vehicle, and then cast another blessing upon himself, this time making him appear as one of the Anti-Skill.

With that, he made a break for truck with the disintegrated door, and jumped in. The key was already in the ignition, and with a quick twist of his wrist, the engine of that vehicle roared to life. A stomp on the acceleration pedal sent that truck wheeling towards the entrance of the prison.

”Get in, yeah? I want to get to a safe spot before they start sending in Terminators after us.”

[Anderiel]

As her partner made a break for it, burning infantry could be seen charring near the entrance of the first floor. Some of the men fell to the floor and struggled to pull off their equipment, while others ran from the building hoping the velocity of their body rushing against the wind would somehow miraculously extinguish them. Though gawking at her magnificent magic wasn't something she should be doing right at this moment, so she took Maki by her hips grabbing the girl and place her into the carrying position over Marzia's shoulder once again.

"Hold on tight."

In a quick act, Marzia burst towards the first floor's open area and towards a window at the face of the building, crashing through the glass as she leaped through feet first and clumsily landing on her knees scraping them across the concrete. The truck was a few feet ahead, as the distance of her magic changed with that of her movement some screaming to be heard far off, likely some soldiers that had fled after seeing the smoke coming from the area. In conclusion, Marzia made it to the truck offering the girl over her shoulders towards the door and looking through the window to see her partner.

"Thought you left us."

[Skyswimsky]

Maybe it was because all her feelings got dulled over the years, but Maki didn't really feel any kind of thrill or danger in this moment. Of course she hoped to be free, but even if that didn't happen, would anything change? No, she was just a living corpse waiting for judgement. So, why did they ignore her? Were they really in such a dangerous situation? Probably, she wouldn't know, she was just some kind of object that definitly shouldn't be hurt, heck, she couldn't even go offensive or anything.

"Huh? I- I can move myself." Again she was getting grabbed and carried across the room, opposing Marzia would most likely only create more problems for them so she just let herself get treated like an useless piece of junk; the sight of people burning to death didn't change her current apathy.

Getting kind of thrown into the stolen truck actually hurt her fragile body a lot. That was something she actually cared about, pain, pain that stopped her from getting into an upright position.