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Bliss West Creel, the nation that is currently debating its membership, is pretty well-defended. A series of large interconnected islands, numerous bridges of grand design linking them. The technology here is a bit of a hodgepodge, with a lack of aerial vehicles but an excess of computers and such. It's a pretty odd situation!

Senator Tepes is the one who is actually gathering some support for swinging toward the Union, but it is still fairly Fed-friendly territory. The Union isn't exactly unwelcome, but they are not the sort who can get easy support here. Then again, the Feds can't make the assassination TOO obvious, either.

Senator Tepes is currently visiting a friend, a retired general of the navy(that is not a typo). He's not stupid, though, and knows that he's made some enemies, so he has a collection of bodyguards along with him... including at least one Elite. Currently, the house is approachable by two roads, the main driveway and a service road. It's a large, fancy pllace in the side of a mountain on one of the larger islands.
Shin Tokuyama     "Duuuude, this place is nice. Do you take kickbacks, or do Senators just get a fancy house by default," Comes a curious voice following Senator Tepes around in the big house that he's visiting. That would be, of course, the voice of his hired bodyguard and professional Combat Vagrant, fourth place in the WMAT A Bracket, Shin Tokuyama. He's looking around curiously, wearing his usual suit and sunglasses outfit that just so happens to vaguely fit in for this job.

    "Hey what's the difference between a Senator and a Congressman? Or a Governer?" He asks curiously, milling around. His hands are thrust deep into his pockets and he's keeping a somewhat bored stance as he trails the guy from room to room, making sure to keep his client in eyeline at all times, "Oh! Or a Governer and a House Representative? That's a good one too."

    "What's the difference between a bill and a law? Do you guys have any of those fancy little crab cakes here or is this sort of a casual get together?"
Bahamut      After hearing of the situation here, Bahamut volunteered to both act as a body guard and a diplomat for Tepes's campaign. He doesn't know yet what kind of man the senator is, but he is certain that the Confederacy needs no more support. As he is rather large, he is standing outside of the General's home, making sure he is easily visible so that any who might get ideas about assassinating the senator or the general might think twice.

     Of course, he knows that enemy agents are unlikely to stop just because they might face opposition. So, he is standing like a bird of prey, ready to pounce on anything that might be troublesome. A large bird of prey with metal scales and large, vibrantly colored wings as well as a piercing gaze. And he is staying in communication via radio, of course, just in case someone gets inside without him noticing.
Black Arachnia How many ways can this go wrong?

The house is perched on the side of an island mountain, which probably makes it a terribly easy target if somebody is unsubtle enough to lob missiles at it. It's actually very fortunate that such a blatant display of firepower would PROBABLY be ruled out by the bad guys - and Black Arachnia has to hope that they know it. That should leave the main driveway and the service road.

The spidery Maximal has mostly been staking out the service road - and as usual, has been doing so in such a way that you'd have to know EXACTLY where she's camping out. Most likely she's found a convenient hollow in the ground near the road (or maybe in the rock overhanging it, depending on how the landscape's arranged and is hidden as thoroughly as possible. Camouflage netting could be handy here.

She's staying alert on Union channels, though, plus listening in on whatever non-aligned frequency is being shared by the Senator's hired help (since they aren't all Union).
Nagisa Shiota     There's no boy here.

    Seriously, it would be hard to find Nagisa. He was just told to keep an eye on the Senator, so he's been doing just that. Keeping an eye on him. This means some pretty steady tailing, in various outfits. Of course, even Nagisa can't just walk into a private party no matter how inconsequential he seems, so he's currently perched above the roof, on the mountainside. The camoflage he's wearing blends in with the rock perfectly, letting him just sit there and watch from afar with surprising patience for a teenager.

    "Let me know when you've gotten into the network, Ritsu," he says to the phone in his pocket. The little AI inside is going to attempt to attach into the network and keep an eye on things through the household systems, especially any cameras.
Nathan Hall     Nathan Hall is here. Since he's not only a military commander for the Union, but also one of its most successful diplomats, it makes sense that he fairly consistently makes the rounds with the Union. The senator is visiting the retired general at his house, and of course, Nathan may well have come along as well. He is, after all, both a statesman and a military leader himself, so the ongoing political sway-game is something he's going to participate in. He'll either be in or around the house itself, or perhaps somewhere in a nearby district, if this is a bit more of a personal visit. He doesn't have a lot of non-Elite military subordinates on-site, for obvious reasons. The most he's got is someone here to handle his emergency adventuring gear, since he's starting to refuse to go out without it accessible in some way.

    Just the usual unassuming librarian thing. A little more formal in wear than usual, of course, and for once with his nose unburied from a book. It might be rude right now, after all!
Guest Madeline     Along the service road, one of the standard delivery trucks is coming along. Whistling as he passes through the security checkpoint, he flashes his badge, waits for it to be scanned, and makes small talk with the guard for a minute or two before the truck saunters on up the road, toward the house.

    After passing the checkpoint, Madeline peeks out from the back. "That took a while. Friendly with that one?"

    "Oh yes, M'lady," the guard replies. "Nice guy. Pretty sad we'll both be out of a job, I don't suppose I could put a word in for him at your place?"

    "I'll think about it," Madeline replies, sliding into the front seat with a pleasant smile. She has no worries about the man's loyalty to her instead of his longtime employer~
HK-47     One of the many advantages of an isolated locale such as this; it could give one time to get integrated away from prying eyes. Especially if one's strikingly-efficant visage was becoming more recognizable to Union-Elite personnel.

    Another advantage to an isolated locale - there was relatively little terrain to scout out, thus one could easily ascertain vital choke-points.

    And under the guise of being a maintenance droid, HK-47 had ample opportunity to do exactly that.

    Painted in the colors of a service unit, HK had relative freedom in learning about and interfacing with the house's automated systems... and exploiting that to his advantage.

    The first of these was, of course, to 'improve' the lock-outs on the security and electronic systems... and by 'improve', that meant making himself the only one that could access them.

    Or at least that was what the security lockouts were /supposed/ to do. Given Mutiversal opposition, there was never any guarantee that the assassin-droid's upgrades to the security-lockouts would be impenetrable if one tried long or hard enough or simply had more sophisticated software then the lockouts could block.

    So at best he would be the one exclusively holding full access to the house's automated systems - lights, lungs, door-locks, alarm networks and the electronic grid in general At worst... he'd have that executive status over the systems as the first card to play before it was eventually undermined and liberated from his control.

    Best to make the first shot, metaphorically speaking in this case, count.

    It wasn't perfect though - he was just a maintenance unit, not a security unit. As such, his access to the cameras and communications systems were not something he was meant to have... however, his utilitarian status let him be close enough to the hardware that he thus far was able to tap it without suspicion. As well as the wire-based phone-lines and intercom system - either to cut them off... or falsify information off of using his vocoder's vocal mimicry functions.

    Observing the network security - and keeping tabs on what seemed to be in invasive AI already attempting to attach itself into the network - HK-47 observes the first attempt at negotiations, if only to try and attain for himself a sample of the voices to add to his databanks.

     After all, being able to replicate the voice of what was regarded as a top Union diplomat could prove exceedingly useful... if he could get enough of a working sample.

    So for the moment, HK-47 observes... and, upon seeing another individual he identifies as being Confederate personnel, he checks through his internal creative simulation matrix and gets to work on planning his first move on the Dejarik board.

     This was a very prolific mission. It would not do to simply offer up meager work.
Bliss Senator Tepes is... not answering Shin's questions. Instead, one of the local bodyguards is talking to him, explaining things with growing irritation at all the questions, and amusement of the other guards. It's kind of a cushy job because there are a ton of other guards around right now, though they seem pretty dated. Well-trained, just kind of... past their prime. The Senator is chatting with the General and with General Hall, as well. We'll get to their dialogue later. As a note, they do have crab thingees.

Bahamut of course is... standing guard. Unfortunately it looks like most of the Feds are sneaking in(ish), so there's not much to see right now but an airshow in the distance. This also means Nagisa doesn't have much to detect, though Ritsu can probably tell someone is futzing with the computers. Maybe. The important thing to note is that several people are converging on the house at the same time... and some are already there.

SHIN is amongst the bodyguards, being a pest.

NATHAN is chatting with the General and Senator Tepes.

And... said Senator is pointing out that... "Yes, we've been very friendly with the Confederacy, though I don't really think it's in our best interest. Still, they do sometimes visit."

The General interrupts, "In fact, we have one here now, somewhere. Where did she... ah, there we go."

Dressed a little more normally than usual in a sharp blue suit, the teenage-looking fairy trudges out of the guest room with a flutter of wings. She is barefoot, with her hair still wild, but otherwise all cleaned up. The suit doesn't have sleeves, though, leaving the mechanical arm free. The arm she waves, "Oh, hello again, Senator Tepes... oh! Hi, General Lunch!"

That last one was to Nathan.
Shin Tokuyama     To his credit, Shin is accepting and professing the answers he's being given. He just always seems to have one more question that he needs to ask. For instance, his latest is, "Why is it called a Bill of Rights? Did someone get charged for it, or what?" Which is immediately followed by, "If you guys wrote a sequel to the Constitution, would you call it The Fortitude?"

    He looks over at the other bodyguard as he asks this question. It doesn't surprise him that a lot of these guys look past their prime. He knows that guarding government officials is a cushy gig that rarely sees much retirement. It's like the career equivalent of a golden goose or a victory lap. It's why he's only here on a temp gig to get some money.

    Christmas is coming up and he has a few people to get presents for.

    He does wave to Nathan, "Dude yo! I know that voice! Did you ever yell at that douche-tool dragon girl for me?"
Black Arachnia Boredom is always the greatest danger to a guard. Boredom is the hazard which leaves guards vulnerable to OTHER dangers, like somebody sneaking past while you're not paying enough attention.

Black Arachnia takes note of the truck passing along the service road, wondering idly what was supposed to get delivered and why the guards didn't see fit - oh right. She didn't really tell the guards to keep her in the loop, did she? Well, it's not like there's a clear and present and immediate threat against anyone.

There is, however, a security network across the grounds. She tries to access that, if it can be done wirelessly ... and if it can't, well, she'll just have to look for a way to tap into the wires. Letting her comrades on security know about her intention is probably in order, though - and letting the Senator know might also be a good idea. Technically it's probably the General who has to approve (or disapprove), but she'll let the others handle bouncing her question in the proper direction.
Bahamut      When that delivery truck makes its way through the gate, Bahamut watches it approach. It seems normal enough, but just in case Bahamut radios inside. "There is some sort of delivery truck making its way through the gate. It seems to have passed the security check."

     Since he is not a hacker, and has no special abilities as far as detection, Bahamut can do little more than watch and wait. He stretches his wings out as he waits, then turns to look inside the house to check on the three possible targets within. Then, he reaches out a talon and taps on the window to the room in which the senator and the others are gathered. He motions for them to open the window, be it a guard or someone else. When they do, he rumbles softly. "Black Arachnia is requesting access to the security systems. She is a Union agent." he says, then he goes back to watching the grounds. But, he looks inside fairly often. Having a Union general and a Confederate in the same room with possible Confederate sympathizers seems like a recipe for trouble.
Guest Madeline     Madeline isn't really trying to hide, she's just using a low-level stealth Charm to make people look the other way. It isn't perfect, though. The delivery truck does check out, but nobody seems to care that when the man gets out and starts unloading the supplies, there's a woman helping him out. Well, almost nobody. Shin will probably be able to pick up on Madeline being there from knowing who she is, and the other Unionites, if they look that way, are probably suspicious enough to 'notice' Madeline, especially if they have any mental discipline at all.

    She's not making a move, though. Not yet. Too many Unionites around to do so hastily.
Nathan Hall     Nathan is nodding, pleasantly here, albeit in the usual robotic way he tends to. "I understand being friendly with the Confederacy. By no means do I disrespect them, or advise being needlessly hostile. It is important to act in a way that is practical, especially for leaders, given how much is often at stake." He makes a plaintive gesture. "It is what it must be. I host many visits from them myself. In the end, while I cannot abide their broader political goals, nothing is lost by treating them like decent human beings."

    His reaction to Bliss is completely deadpan. He doesn't miss a single goddamn beat, that guy. "Ms. Gourmand. How rarely a pleasure." He says, in a completely stoic tone. This is an intense attempt to cover up his surprise and nervousness at Bliss' presence here, of course! But the key thing here is, as always, 'never let them see you sweat'. Nathan then turns to Shin and regards him blankly. "...The relevant draconic individual was spoken to about their behavior." His voice is flat and he's doing his best to avoid expletives, of course.
HK-47     And so HK's on-site 'Master' begins her negotiations with the Senator and General... and in turn focus attention away from happenstances outside the conversation.

     At the very least, he obtained more then an adequate audio sample from the bodyguard to use in future encounters if need be.

    However, the true concern comes when, observing from the cameras, a rather familiar presence becomes known as the draconic entity makes a request for security access - or rather, makes a request on behalf of an opponent encountered at the DigiTech Facility some time ago.

    Black Arachnia. A mechanoid shape-changer similar to the entity known as 'Blurr', though with a confoundingly more organic design to it's alternate form.

     ...

    As a result, an opportunity presented itself. Albeit one that would quickly set events in motion.

    Taking note of the benign presence trying to probe through the system, the droid quickly works at the system - and has a flag placed on the observing intelligence... and in turn uses this as the excuse to start the first part of ensuring their uninterrupted efforts; locking down the system.

     A short alert of - 'Warning - Network Intrusion Detected. System Lock-Out Commencing. System Lockout Commencing' - plays on all connected computer screens in the building; a hint that someone intruded on the system.

    And at first glance, it will look like someone from the Union was the culprit. That would give HK the time he needed - provided the arachnid mechanoid was not overtly skilled with decryption.

    If she was, HK suspected he would soon be hard-pressed for time. If all else failed, he could try to black out the generator so as to prevent the systems from coming under Union control - but that would also most certainly be evidence of there having been obvious sabotage.

    Either way though, the cogs were in motion - from here on out, the droid would have to make it up as he went along.

    With the excuse of an intruder active, HK enacted his more risky move - setting the system's firewalls to recognize /any/ outside queries outside his own as being an intrusive presence. Something that would most definitely raise suspicion from the arachnid construct as the IFF should identify her as allied due to her request for access - and there was only so much the claim of 'faulty security program' would justify.

     Especially since a 'system lockout' wasn't likely going to justify the house's full lockdown - perhaps it could justify why the doorlocks flipped on if a faulty security system thought there were intruders... but the phone lines and intercom going dead was another matter altogether. Saying the 'faulty security system' was influencing the communication system by mistake or misinterpretation was a lie that no concrete investigatior was going to believe - let alone someone likely as veteran to assassination attempts as Nathan Hall.

    Time to get moving.
Bliss "A draaagon?" Bliss flutters a bit, peeking over curiously, then holds out her artificial hand to Shin. "Hello, Ensign Bliss of the Confederacy! It's nice to meet you. Senator Tepes and I don't really get along well, I'm afraid. I think he doesn't like fairies~" Her tone is more teasing than anything else, though she does have a malicious smirk.

Oh. It looks like the phones are going dead. The guards are starting to look around and draw their guns as one of the guards points out, "The lines are dead." Naturally a few look at Bliss, but she's standing right there in the middle of the room! Probably.

"Nnn... that's a little worrisome, isn't it?"
Shin Tokuyama     "Shin Tokuyama, Combat Vagrant! Nice to meetcha," Shin says, taking the artificial hand and shaking it firmly, "How ya doin? I'm sorta..." He makes a hand-wobbling gesture, "... at these sorts of high society things." He admits to them both before giving Nathan a thumbs up at the dragon remark.

    Of course, as phones go down and men start drawing guns, Shin rolls his neck and pops it, "Aw man, I thought this was a total cush job. Looks like shit might be goin down." He looks to Tepes, "Someone tries to get you, put me between you and them." He then looks at Nathan, "You too, poindexter, though I'm billin' the Union if I gotta protect you."
Guest Madeline     Wow, it would be a coup to capture or kill the Union General as well as the mission objective! What a stroke of luck! And with herself inside, Madeline can /hopefully/ avoid the dragon outside. Without her Exalt, she'd prefer to avoid that confrontation, and she doesn't know about Black Arachnia or Nagisa. As far as she knows, she's in a good position. Maybe that's why the driver with her turns around and suddenly opens fire with what looks like some kind of dart gun, shooting tranquilizers into the nearby guards.

    Madeline herself with politely murmur, "Excuse me, sir..." Then the vague 'someone else's problem' field will be dispelled pretty quickly, as she moves in a few quick jabs to take down some of the guards near her. Again, she isn't using fatal strikes... but her training is pretty limited in 'nonlethal attacks' so the best way to disable them is going to be strikes to shatter vertebrae and paralyze or cripple limbs.
Black Arachnia 'Worrisome' is an understatement, thinks Black Arachnia. 'Suspicious' is more like it - and she's not going to wait for something to happen a second or third time; there's no such thing as 'happenstance' or 'circumstance' except when you can explicitly eliminate hostile action as a cause.

Besides, she just ASKED for access, there shouldn't have been anything wrong with the access codes provided for her. Time to get cracking, then.

Literally. She sets to work attempting to crack the system - analyzing the 'access denied' error message and trying to decipher a bypass protocol. There has to be some way for an administrator or superuser to get in and clear the lockout, right?

Besides, unless THESE computers are a lot more sophisticated than those of her native Cybertron, she shouldn't have too much trouble finding a way in ... but at this point, getting into the system is just a first step.
Nagisa Shiota     "Nagisa, I'm shut out of the computers," Ritsu says from the boy's pocket. He frowns lightly, but then the chatter over the radio announces that something is up. That's not good.

    "I guess it's time to see what's going on down there," Nagisa notes to his pocket computer. The boy's hood is tugged, lowering a translucent visor down it to protect his face. Jumping downward, he starts bounding down the side of the mountain at... a disturbingly high speed toward the house. Specifically one of the skylights, which gets a quick flash to blast... the lock.

    What? He's not going to shatter all that glass!

    He'll drop in after things are a bit more of a mess down there.
Nathan Hall     "Very worrying, yes." Nathan says to Bliss without an ounce of suspicion on his voice, raising an eyebrow and looking around at several of the screens and their displays. He narrows his eyes and then raises an eyebrow at the guards. He's going to let them do their thing for now... He's going a bit silent. He looks completely stoic, but the silence right now is mostly a way of hiding the incredible fear he has in any potential assassination situation. That's why he's completely wordless when he responds to Shin with a quick "OK" gesture.

    Madeline Vance is attacking. It takes at least three seconds for Nathan to fully react. He hasn't quite recognized her yet, meaning he's not sure that this is a Confederate attack, but he's not taking a lot of chances! "Senator. General. I believe it is prudent at this time to leave the premises, for your safety, as they will shortly be very dangerous." He says in a dull monotone. Bliss on one side, Madeline elsewhere... Nathan stands very calmly, politely attempting to grasp the Senator's arm and begin pulling him off to the side. There's several Unionites outside, just need to get into a larger space... Nathan's going to attempt to move past Bliss very quickly -- good lord what a scary thought -- and over towards the nearest exterior wall, which he will, without hesitation, place one palm on, and chant something briefly. The Violent Opening of Closed Portals goes off, if he can, opening a hole to the outside. Gotta get to an escape vehicle, keeping VIPs near critical elites is a BAD IDEA! Of course, the General is fine to come along too, but Nathan is prioritizing grabbing the Senator and getting the HELL out, because this is way too deadly for him.
Bahamut      Being inside the house might seem like it would protect one from a dragon outside. It would be pretty logical, really. Inside is human-sized. Bahamut is a bit larger.

     But, when the area starts to lock down and the guards start to draw their weapons, Bahamut growls menacingly. "I suppose this means that negotiations have broken down." he says, then looks inside the house again. Guards are being darted and disabled and Nathan is trying to make his escape with the senator.

     Just in case Nathan's attempt doesn't work, Bahamut spreads his wings, then leaps forward and with a flap sends himself spraling through the air, right through the side of the building into the meeting room. He stays on all fours so he won't smash the roofing and supports, then uses himself as a barricade between whatever badguys might be coming and their targets. He could also be used as an escape vehicle himself, but only if the others suggest it. Bahamut is a warrior, not some kind of agent or commander. His first instinct is not to flee. It is fight.

     Once he has established himself as a living wall, he roars into the house to ensure that anyone not already aware of it is warned that if they wish to get to Nathan and the others, they will have to go through him.
HK-47     Perhaps to Black Arachnia's surprise, the codes seem to have in fact been upgraded... far beyond what a conventional earth-bound system ought to have for an anti-intrusion program... and with many code-strings that are obviously non of human programming make.

    A hint to what is already becoming patently obvious; whatever software was installed to direct the security system's priorities, it's not only /not/ the software it was packaged with but is utterly alien to the world in general.

    As a result, the security system - while comparatively inferior to her - proceeds to try pushing back against her requests... which is another sign this program is more advanced then it should be since it shouldn't even be able to decipher advanced cybertronian code, let alone recognize it as an attempt to access the system.

Hist the very least though, it's still of lesser quality then cybertronian code, so forcing it to release it's hold on the doorlocks should be easy... if not requiring a more direct method of tearing the firewall down by force.

    The fact that the security system also begins shutting off the lights and cameras only adds to the fact that this system is obviously not just malfunctioning but is tied into way more systems then it should be - though that same bootleg into the security might allow Black Arachnia to get a bypass by physically tapping - or biting into - one of the camera wires and trying a backtrace on the signal keeping them down.

     Regardless, HK-47 knows that he's effectively only left a stopping gap measure on a cracking dam - and at this rate, as he climbs the stairs into the building under cover of dead lights and offline cameras to reach the chamber.

    Of course, the draconic entity complicates matters... but there are workarounds for such a thing.

    One of those is a small sphere being tossed forward out of the darkness, rolling forward at the dragon's feet... and detonating in a spray of blue-white glue - the trademark effects of an adhesive grenade meant to trap targets and subdue them for at least thirty seconds or so.

    Granted, a creature this size wasn't something it was tested on, but at the very least the assassin droid is trying to ensure that the dragon, along with Nathan and the Senator, are kept still long enough for Madeline to try and get close.

    After all, the droid is all-too-willing to drop the pleasantries - as if there was a choice at this point.
Bliss Surprisingly, both Shin and Nathan can move right past Bliss without any trouble whatsoever! And it really is her, because Shin got a firm handshake(that didn't try to eat him, thankfully) rather than an illusory touch.

The Violent Opening spell will explode the doors and also the skylight, blasting them open and outward to give plenty of ways to get out. Plus one wall crumbles rapidly. Unfortunately, most of the guards are already down, because Madeline and her ensorcelled companion are nothing if not efficient.

The computers being locked out means that there's no way to call for help... or to call for an evac. Which means, untill Arachnia can get them online, the Union has to keep the Senator safe. He's running, thankfully, and the General with him, shouting, "What is going on? I didn't think they'd be bold enough for this!"

He doesn't sound THAT surprised, though.

Some of the guards from the other side of the house are on their way, but the dragon is going to need taken care of. Bliss herself 'pops' out of existence, and pops back into view in front of Bahamut. "Hey. Stop that." On the upside, the General doesn't seem to care that his house has a huge hole in it, in light of people trying to kill or capture him. On the downside, Bliss does seem to care, and brings forth a brilliant strobe of light to go with the grenade of glue that HK tossed.
Shin Tokuyama     When Nathan makes to flee, it's Shin following after him, obviously. He wants to go join into the huge brawl goin on, but he's actually here to protect someone instead of participate in this royal rumble as a freelancer. That means that he's sticking close to Tepes and Nathan, moving along with them where he can to try to shield Tepes with his body where necessary.

    He does call to Bliss as they move, "Hey! You seem nice! Look me up some time, always lookin' for work!"

    But that doesn't stop Shin from being Shin. Because as they're moving and the many various parties are aligning themselves for fights and confrontations, Shin does spot someone he knows. And he blurts out to Madeline as he goes:

    "DUDE IT'S THAT GILF! HEY! HI!" He waves to her.
Bahamut      When that grenade comes rolling in, Bahamut tries to block the bulk of the explosions with his bulk. And instead he is covered in sticky glue. Between that and the strobe, Bahamut is temporarily disabled. He roars as stars explode in his vision, making it hard to see as he tries to fight free of the glue. He swings one of his huge, taloned hands toward where the fairy was before he was blinded, then casts a Blizzard spell on the glue. Once it is frozen, the pulls with all his might until he breaks free.

     Between the blindness and fighting through the glue, Bahamut is little better than a wall of solid metal with corded muscle beneath. "I will try to hold them off!" Bahamut calls to Nathan and the others.
Black Arachnia The more direct method would also likely be more time-consuming, and by this point, Black Arachnia is aware that the confrontation is no longer merely virtual. The 'security system' is apparently more of a barrier to protecting Senator Tepes (and possibly the General himself); if the doors are all locked then escape from the mansion is FAR more difficult, if not outright impossible, and the inability to call out for help is a pretty dire issue as well.

Black Arachnia settles for one of her less elegant tactics: she attempts to inject a program of her own into the computer system that'll use the network to help take itself down. She's too far away at the moment to help her allies deal with the physical battle; she's just hoping she can clear the computers fast enough for the Union to make some use out of them, if there's any use to be had, or to remove the obstacles to successfully defending the local authorities from whomever's skulduggery is afoot.
Nathan Hall     "Book, please." Nathan has glue on him. Much of it has been halted by Bahamut, but he needs to keep it But he calls out to the unnamed assistant he's brought for his book, and has it tossed to him; he catches it and opens in a single clean motion, getting right to the correct page without any delay. And then, another terse phrase, uttered with absolute stoicism. Madeline Vance is mere feet away from him and she could take him apart. Bliss is only barely blocked off by the bulk of a dragon. Shin is an unfamiliar layer of protection. This is absolutely, completely terrifying, but despite a racing heartbeat, Nathan speaks with utter tranquillity.

    "Byakhee, please." The winged eldritch creature, looking like some sort of horrible leathery emaciated, skeletal, mutant dragonoid, tears its way out of the ground. "Solvent, please." Another tense one-word order. With a spray of gross fluid from its mouth, Nathan and the Senator will be freed from the stray glue, in less than a few seconds. He has to put distance between him and Madeline /right now/. She's the biggest immediate threat to Nathan's remaing ability and life, as well as that of the VIP. He does call out an explanation to the General. "I do not know. We need to get away immediately." The massive horrific mutant lizardbeast drips horrible fluids disturbingly at the two VIPs. Nathan gestures to it and speaks in a calm, albeit just slightly urging tone, adjusting his glasses with a free hand.

    "Please get on my byakhee so the cyborg fairy vampire can't kill you."
Guest Madeline     Her target is escaping, but Madeline isn't /that/ worried. She can go through the guards easily enough, and Bliss said she'd take care of the dragon. That's good, because uh... as stated before, Madeline is in no hurry to fight that beast on foot.

    But she has an obstacle! Shin. Calling her a GMILF.

    "Not how I wanted to end up fighting you, but I'm afraid I do have a task," the woman says with a faint smile. She doesn't hesitate in moving in and trying for a crippling strike toward Shin's leg, snapping a quick kick toward the kneecap and starting a flurry of jabs right after. She doesn't expect him to go down easily though. Small comfort: she isn't aiming to kill him, either.
Nagisa Shiota     While trying to break in, Nagisa gets an opening pretty uh... directly. The skylight explodes outward, but fortunately his clothing is also armored, so he avoids any minor scratches. The strobe of light isn't aimed at him, but it does leave spots in his vision, prompting a /very/ slight delay from the young boy.

    The delay isn't long before he's dropping into the house. He's wearing a pair of nightvision goggles to see, but... well, up close he's still a frail-looking boy of about fourteen years, hardly the imposing fighter. And... he's probably going to end up dealing with HK, isn't he?
Shin Tokuyama     "Go!"

    Shin shouts this to Nathan, Tepes, and the General. He then turns around and is dashing in towards Madeline eagerly, "Eh, take em where you can get em. Show me that sweet style of yours, yeah?" He grins widely.

    The kick to his kneecap hits cleanly. An ironically painful strike considering the advice he was giving Sanary just earlier today. He lets out a grunt of pain, but aims to dash back and away from the Exalt, limping a but as he favors his good leg.

    He steps in towards Madeline right after this, aiming a right hook towards her jawline. His leg being injured means he has less momentum to pivot with, but he can still throw a decent hook at her.
Bliss It looks like the glue is being handled, which is less than what Bliss hoped, but more than she'd feared. And... the target is getting away! There's a bit more interference here than thought, but as far as Bliss knows, she has plenty of time because she doesn't know that Black Arachnia is fixing the computers. "There's nowhere to run to, you know."

Aaaand claw out of nowhere! Bahamut being blind helps keep her from getting clawed apart, but even with her prosthetic blocking the swipe, Bliss is pretty tiny and is sent hurtling into the wall, smashing through it with a crumbling of drywall and a cracking of timbers. Ouch!

The *snick-pop* of something from her arm is the only warning Bahamut will get though. Silvery bolts of moonfire blast through the hole in the wall, streaking toward Bahamut's side. She wasn't kidding when she said she'd handle the dragon. Those things pack a punch.
Bahamut      Bahamut grins as he feels his attack connect, and then rolls a bit closer to Nathan and the others to try and cover their retreat. But, he is still barely able to see. So when those moonfire blasts come sailing through that hole, they impact powerfully against Bahamut's armored hide. He is tough, so he is able to weather the attack, but where the blasts hit him they leave terrible burns in his metallic scutes and cause a bit of blood to flow down his hide.

     The dragon roars as he is hit, then raises a talon and twirls it a few times. A darkness appears around Bliss before it explodes outward in a dark orb which, forces everything inside it downard with several times the strength of normal gravity. "There will be plenty of time to run when you are defeated!" Bahamut growls at the cyborg.
Bliss The Senator balks for a moment, especially when the General points out, "These aren't our allies." But, after a second of thought and seeing the battle going on behind them, the Senator says, "They aren't our enemies either. Certain death remains here, or capture. If they can't get the comms back up..."

So they're going to start climbing on... carefully. About this time the other guards come around and open fire, though they're unlikely to be a threat to any of the Elites here.
Guest Madeline     "You're interested in learning Dark Messiah?" Madeline says it almost conversationally, probably because she knows Shin isn't a permanent enemy. That might also be why she isn't going for a fatal strike! She's starting to move around toward the enemy Senator when Shin is driven back but... she isn't that surprised that he comes back at her swinging.

    She blocks the hook... or, well, partly blocks it. The fist still connects with a hard THUNK and staggers her back as her head snaps backward, but a jerk to the side and a quick lunge thrusts her elbow in toward him. It's a much closer look at the deadly style, aiming for nerves and joints as she is. "You should watch carefully," is all she says. She's perfectly aware that this might teach Shin a few things.
HK-47      As it turns out, the system isn't really strong enough to withstand concentrated cybertronian warfare programs... though obviously it's priorities have been overwritten immensely as lights and general power are the systems it first surrenders in order to try and delay communications being re-established.

    Which it should not be doing since it wasn't supposed to have access to those systems in the first place. However, the firewalls slowly start lowering, though they're not going down without a fight.
    Subtly went into the trash compactor the moment the dragon smashed through the wall... however, if worse came to worse, it could be proclaimed that the Union instigated excessively hostile action - something most meatbags actually seemed to believe was true for reason HK couldn't even begin to comprehend.

    When was there ever such a thing as excessive hostility?

    As their effective 'Master', along with the adhesive, keeps the draconic entity occupied, HK loops around while it is initially distracted and temporarily incapacitated to give chance after his prey out the hole in the building's side, closing until he is at a suitable distance to lob another grenade.

    This time though, he goes for something that has as good a chance of debilitation as it does of termination, lobbing a spear that, upon reaching the end of it's thrown arc, explodes... into a thick cloud of viridian-tinged smog.

% Cyanogen gas. A lethal, gaseous cyanide that attacked both the skin and the lungs - skin-contact with the vapors was just as harmful as breathing it in.

    And so much as a whiff of it was enough to start causing the lungs to seize up and promise death in thirty minutes or less to any that breathed it in. Being caught in it outright was fatal in /seconds/ for the average human meatbag.

    Of course, HK-47 had been surprised before... but he was in fact wondering if, even if they did have a counter, they would enact it in time - after all, if the senator is caught in it... it is unlikely they would have any medical equipment needed to save him before the seizures from systemic organ failure brought about his end.

    Another 'tragic' casulaty of Union/Confederate infighting... and after all, what better way to blame his death then to label it the fault of Nathan Hall for having come out and made himself a convenient target?

    After all... meatbags were so incredibly petty that it wouldn't even be an unheard of reason for one to expire from.
Bliss Bliss is just flying out of the hole in the wall when the orb slams into her, causing her to thud to the ground on one knee with her hand on the floor. It starts to creak ominously, the arm fatigued by the strain on its clockwork components... and she gasps in real pain, her other hand clutching at her chest. "Nng..."

Hurt... but not out of the fight. A burst of magic pops her out of sight again. The teleport is, again, short range... popping in behind Bahamut to do a short, swift punch with her arm. It probably won't hurt at all, at least physically... but the faerie's arm does the sensation Nathan is used to, attempting to grasp a piece of life force and YANK it out of the dragon.

She isn't sure if it'll work on him, though.
Shin Tokuyama     "I wouldn't mind. It mostly looks like an off-shoot of Eagle Claw style, but a bit more ruthless," Shin comments as he steps back from his punch, bringing his hands up defensively and squaring off with Madeline. He, of course, has a bit of a lowered defense as he says this and she gets in really good, nailing him in the the side of his body with a few good strikes that hit some nasty pressure points.

    He keels a bit and then stamps a foot down to keep himself from going over, "Oh, I'm watching. But if you teach me something, I'll teach you something. That kind of style has flaws." He notes as he lunges in towards her again. Only his fighting style seems different.

    He's sticking close in on her, trying to give her no more than inches to move and crowd her space as he aims to hook an arm under hers and put pressure on her shoulder, "You need leverage and space to move. The right attack angles. You should avoid getting crowded in on."

    He is, to Madeline's advantage, momentarily distracted as someone throws a lethal gas grenade and air-bursts it, "Fuck. I hope the nerdlord can handle that, otherwise my resume is gonna go to shit." Pause, "Also I guess that might kill me."
Nagisa Shiota     Nagisa is... ignored by the killbot.

    This is actually pretty normal for him, really.

    Now that the room is getting gassed, Nagisa decides that the logical thing to do is to rush the murderbot. This makes no sense to some, but it /does/ mean that he's not going to be in the gas... and even if he is, his outfit covers most of his body already.

    Abruptly, the 'harmless' aura he puts off shifts into that of a deadly viper, as Nagisa suddenly has a knife in his hand, aiming to disable the grenade launcher with a swift, accurate stab-twist toward HK's elbow joint.

    He'll hold his breath... /just/ in case.
Bahamut      Bahamut is caught off guard when Bliss teleports right behind him. He doesn't realize where she has gone until he feels something pierce him inlike anything he has felt before. He isn't sure what just happened to him, but it hurt as badly as anything he has experienced before. He roars from the pain, and barely a moment later he sweeps with his tail to try and trip Bliss as he spins around. Next to come after her is one of his large hands, the long talons bared toward her.

     He sees that gas cloud when he turns, but he can't really ignore someone who seems as dangerous as Bliss. And inside the house his movements are restricted. So, after slashing at Bliss, he rolls out of the hole in the wall. This allows him to stand tall finally, which allows him to spread his wings wide. He starts flapping, attempting to blow away the gas cloud. Of course, he is keeping an eye on Bliss, talons ready.
Nathan Hall     "Whether or not you choose to ally with the Union is your decision." Nathan says, charging his body with essence to make the leap up over the Senator and onto his Byakhee. "However, it is my decision to interfere with a confederate assassination attempt. You may take the assistance or reject it; that is also your choice."

    And then in comes a grenade. Nathan is not prepared, but he IS alert. He doesn't actually expect a gas grenade, actually. He was expecting an explosive! Which is why he shoves both arms out and casts one more spell. IMPERVIUS SPHERE OF WATER! A sphere of water blasts out of his body, creating a solid sphere of breathable water... Which the grenade goes off outside of! Since it had no physical force, it DEFINITELY won't pierce! Dangerous, though!

    And then, he disperses it! "Oh." He says, "It did not explode. Thank goodness." The wet byakhee is now trying to take off! Oh god it's a fucking mess and everything is wet, and he's trying to get away from the still-dispersing gas cloud before it closes back around him!
Guest Madeline     "Pretty good," Madeline admits as Shin charges in, forcing her to try backing up. She doesn't seem too worried, though. Sure, she can't do her martial arts attacks as easy, but she has other tricks... and a different objective. "But you forget what I am."

    Shin will get a warning. A warning of a bright circle of gold appearing on Madeline's forehead, along with a golden flash of light from her hand. It wasn't there before, but it is now... and it fires a single shot, right next to Shin with a deafening roar, sending the bullet out at an impossible range toward Hall and the targets. She only gets one shot, and it's a bad angle, so she has no idea if it will actually land... but it isn't even her main goal.

    She's hoping the deafening blast of the firearm so close to unprepared ears will startle Shin enough for her to thrust her knee upward, into his midsection, to slam him hard. Hard enough to hurl him away... and perhaps not coincidentally, away from the gas.
Bliss The tail swipe from Bahamut is dodged easily by the agile fairy, but Bliss... isn't so luck against the claw. This one tears open her side, as well as forcing her to bounce hard against the ground and tumble with a screech of pain. Fury in her eyes, she drags herself up, bleeding a silvery blood... but she doesn't get a chance to counterattack.

Right then, the lights come on as the computer systems come back online. It's an instant sign that things are now against the Confeds. Technically, Madeline outranks Bliss, but the Union doesn't know that... so she makes a call. "Time's up, we gotta go!"

Bliss can pop away far enough to flee pretty easily. She'll leave the retreat up to the others, otherwise.
Shin Tokuyama     "Psh, oh sure, if you're gonna use super powers," Shin comments as she fires off the gun. He frowns and says, "You know narratively, pulling out a gun means you automatically lose the kung fu fight. I'm just sayin', yeah?" He commens before she gets him clean with a knee to the gut.

    He's sent flying backwards from the force of it. Thankfully, he's thrown clear of the gas cloud and sent tumbling backwards over himself as he rolls through the grass of the lawn. He eventually comes back up to his feet and points at Madeline, "I'm still counting this as 1-0 in my favor for our kung fu battles! You pulled a gun! DQ!"
Nathan Hall     Nathan is getting shot at! Oh christ! Well, now Nathan has to get the hell out of the suppressed gas cloud, while dodging the shot from Madeline Vance. "Please go, please move, do the flapping thing. Yes, thank you, quickly." He mutters to his giant horrorbeast. "Please now thank--" One win is up and wetly flapping when the blast lances through it, striking Nathan in the chest. It blunts the impact of the strike, thankfully, to a nonlethal level, but it wounds the Byakhee and nearly knocks Nathan out from the pain and damage to his torso. Only his enchanted ring makes him capable of continuing to move through the pain, and it pulses magic through him to make it possible for him to stay in command of his summon.

    "Elsewhere. Now. /Please/." The wounded, lopsidedly-flapping creature desperately, only barely manages to take off away from the poisonous cloud, before it encases Nathan again. Good thing too, the pain and wound through his ballistic vest has him panting desperately. "Need to go. Hhhhh. Please hold on, no time to stabilize."
Guest Madeline     That is... a rule Madeline hasn't heard before. Ah well, the moment is gone now, and she must away. Technically, she's pretty sure the Union will be able to identify her, but she agrees with Bliss's assessment. "I need to go. I suppose /technically/ you have a point... even if I didn't shoot you."

    Madeline holsters the weapon and walks through the gas without worry, using it as cover. There are advantages to being a Zenith, as it turns out. "See you around. HK, let's go."
HK-47      A burst of water? Inventive. Unconventional. But, ultimately, it would not save him.

    The HK droid had ignored any other combatant in the interests of eliminating his target... however, the meatbag trying to rush him tries to assert itself as an imminent threat with a knife to the droid's weapon-arm.

     ... pitiful. As if it was going to do anything to him.
     HK's shell could withstand lightsaber strikes. And while his joints were more fragile, all he had to do was simply strike back - and in doing so, the blade would glance off his armored limb, if not break entirely due to it's fragile nature.

    So the droid moves, anatomy library accurately predicting the fleshling's trajectory and swinging his limo up to perfectly catch the tip against his forearm, grabbing the meatbag's wrist and proceeding to start crushing it like a twig-

     *shunk*

     ...

     ...

     Many things could be considered 'impossible.' HK-47 had witnessed them himself.

     It defined this moment as well... as instead of the blade being shattered or deflected... it had slid through the seam in his forearm where the armor slid back to expose his internalized weapons.

    It knew. Just seeing him attack /one time/ - from seeing the plates slide open during the grenade-launch - it had been enough to memorize the exact location on his arm where the seams of his armor slid open for his first-weapons to emerge.

     It was statistically impossible. No human meatbag outside of a Jedi was meant to have that kind of perception.

    And this blasted fleshbag could not have been a Jedi.

     ... and yet... it's perceptive speed matched one. As proven when, with decision-making speed equal to a droid, the meatbag threw his knee up and slammed it down into the pommel of his knife, driving the blade deep through the seem and puncturing through several of the internal weapons... including the core of HK's Multi-Spectral Emitter.

     The result a swift and abrupt implosion of HK-47's right arm.
    The immediate area is filled with the snap-crackling sound of shorted-out circuits and sprays of several different pressurized fluids - oily black jets, runny green spurts, thick coming grey and translucent blue streams - seep and pour out from the droid's punctured limb.

    If any of these virulent mixes drip on Nagisa, it will likely sting badly - though as an assassin, he ought to recognize the smell of cyanide enough to know to avoid the green fluid by any means necessary.

    Then sparks fly - and the droid's arm starts convulsing as miniature implosions rock the frame, the many chemicals and fluids from the ruptured internal weapons dissolve precious motivators and servos or ignite semiconductor valves, slagging the limb's interior.

    The digits of the hand, still wrapped around his attacker's limb, lock up as power is cut from the interior of his arm being cored, preventing HK from completing his action of snapping the infuriating meatbag's hand off at the wrist - for all intents and purposes, the thing is stuck on him.

    This is all punctuated by a grating metallic shrieking issuing out from the assassin droid's vocoder as multiple sensory receptors overload and go dead in the arm, assailed by multiple warnings of severe damage to his limbic-sensory system.
HK-47     This, in the end, is counterbalanced by the droid's opposing arm snapping out and drawing his own blade, slashing at meatbag's outer layer with the intent to spill it's internal components.

    If Nagisa tries, he'd find he could pull free from HK's paralyzed grip, albeit at the cost of several scrapes from the droid's metal fingers being left on his hand.

     HK in turn was staring now with wha couldn't be called anything else but absolute hate for the meatbag that had driven a knife through his arm's internal components. It damaged him.

    This meatbag had the gall to try and /assassinate/ him. Assassinate /him/.

     It was beyond insulting. Beyond unforgivable.

     If he were so inclined to use the term, blaspheme what he would regard it as.

    In fact... the only thing that stops the droid encroaching on the opposing - and hopefully bleeding-out - meatbag... is the disturbance on his audio sensors that would normally accompany the tapping of arachnid legs.

     The mechanoid. It had to have breached the security systems.

     At this point, the assassin droid feels a new emotion start seeping through him as the other Confederates started pulling away - emotional charges deeper even then anger.

     Disappointment. Failure. Disgust.

     The Confederacy mirrored the Sith all too well - when one fled, the rest fled as well... while the Union remained steadfast.

    It reinforced a choice the droid had made already a long time ago; namely that they were never going to get anywhere unless they actually started drawing blood again.

     ... of course... the answer to that was all too simple. And it started again tomorrow.

    Once again, despair intertwined with fury as the droid realized that, if he did not pull back now, he would never have a chance of being repaired in time by the morrow... and with the fall-back of the others, he would be alone against the other meatbags and the draconic creature.

    It would be a demise worthy of him - perhaps even if he succeeded in killing Nathan Hall if no-one else.

     ... and yet... his Master's directives.

    Torn between his pre-existing and his current objectives, HK-47's optics flicker like red embers as the droid's smoldering gaze settles on the meatbag that attacked him even as he hears the others start to converge on him... and his vocoder lets out one last, almost hissing remark.

     "Threat - Enjoy it while you can. There has never been a trick that works on me twice... or a mistake that /ever/ repeat."

     The cyanogen gas has largely dissipated by now, the mercenary bodyguard now free to approach the assassin droid as well... and in turn the HK unit pulls it's fragmentation grenade and throws it into the wall, the resulting explosion of shattered concrete and plaster masking the fleeing droid's escape, as well as likely leaving mounds of rubble to block the path behind him.

    ... and every moment of it is spent vowing that his efforts would only redouble from this point on.