Scene #3809: Blueshift

Owner	Pose
Scarlet Everille	A fourth venture out into the general public. A repeat visit to what is sure to become a common sight for the near future. The streets of London after almost a hundred years of overpopulation, declining population, construction, reconstruction, and historical protection. The cookie cutter prefab buildings everywhere, built on top of the old with thirty extra floors, trying to hide the panels where they're supposed to be 'upscale', mixed in with the weathered old classic architecture that'll likely never go out until nostalgia ceases to exist, left for 'cultural history' while the streets opposite are made practical. The solar roadways with digital signage cutting right up to the flagstone sidewalks the city hasn't dug up yet, and the AR projectors embedded into old, wrought iron lamp posts and road signs. It's a sight that takes some getting used to; especially being one that long ago transitioned to cater to someone permanently glued to a smart device of some sort picking up visual indicators from the ubiquitous cloud. The sole familiarity of the government being run by old people and old people hating change is sadly little present today, having no reason to be around the part of the capital still full of chiselled letters and fluted pillars wearing away in the rain little by little each year. After the last two fiascos downtown, people seem to be considering it a hot area until a few more weeks go by without rocks being thrown at police, and so it seems that people not being paid of the federal dollar are spending their time elsewhere, in the 'artsy' modern distincts. It's an enormous hassle to go through just to check up on some random name in Eli's contacts list those few months ago, though it shouldn't be. At this point, it might just be that after all the effort Scarlet has put in having everyone be 'certified private investigators', she's well into the realm of the sunk cost fallacy. After all, she's only mentioned the name twice, and even then only in passing. Simon Arklese? Has anyone even heard what he does? What his involvement is with some timid dinosaur trying to play in the big leagues with petty theft is? It's not exactly as if the first incident Heaven or Hell was called in for passed very far beyond the domestic crimes threshold. It's a little bit of a wonder why she even bothers to still pursue a barely-potential accomplice for such a minor slight. And yet she's paying a bucketload for it. On Valentines day nonetheless. Out of pocket. Can't argue with the paycheque. Best not to ask it questions either, even if it is almost a little bit strange to see her dressed in urban spring fashion outside a coffee shop set up on the corner of a plaza where people with five figure income go. Despite it being right on time, she looks like she's been waiting there for a while, and perhaps a little bit impatient. Even out of the uniform though, she still manages to stick out in the hefty, pseudo-holiday crowd pressing all around, perhaps due to it largely consisting of couples dragging each other shopping. That might be it; the reason for that little hint of a scowl. "Sorry for dragging you out here of all places on today of all days, but everyone leaving work early makes it easier to pin down a recently divorced man and 'bump into' him 'by accident'. I gave up after the sixteenth reply letter in the chain and deleted the thread." She accesses a picture of a man in glasses (nobody else here seems to be wearing them?) who feels as if he should be eighty by looks but manages to appear fourty five, like some kind of severe librarian who never got out of his mid life crisis. "You're looking for him. I don't really expect he'll be lingerie shopping after he dumped his wife last year, but I know he comes here on the weekends. Try the park maybe. Call me over when you find him and please don't all rush him at once. It may sound strange to repeat, but most of you /are/ actually armed and dangerous. We're here to grill him, not corner him and break his knees."
Nozomi Houken	Nozomi Houken is not the most socially sharp of people. Whether or not the man is worth what lengths Scarlet is going to, she doesn't know; she might not even realize just how deep in the red, both metaphorically and literally, the mage is going. She only knows that she's back here to help, after their last intervention turned into an outright riot due to people being so flashy and overt that even she realized it was a bad idea. Needless to say, she's more than a little nervous. She's going to be sticking close to Psyber quite a bit today, in no small part because she's absolutely convinced they'll recognize her. Taiga is, once again, taking the overhead path. "Ah, r-right..." You don't have to tell Nozomi twice to be good and call Scarlet before leaping in. Hell, you probably don't even have to tell her once. She's the sort to spot the man from about ten meters away and then call Scarlet in a panic going 'what do I do what do I do oh god I am not equipped for this', at least if she's alone. So it's probably all good. ...Wait. This will require her to actually look at people, won't it? Oh crap.
Maya	Maya has never quite seen an interation of London quite like this obne before. It clewarly was London but reminded her a good dela of a old frien's home over in Japan. She did take in the place with a good dela of intest here. Maya does not mind being here on Valentine's day working more or less, it's not something that is a thing on her world and the contex brings up very bad memories for her. SO having a focus on something else has actually made the blue haired woman chipper. "It's fine, I'm happy to help and keep my mind off this day to be honestt. Don't worry I don't plan to break any of his legs. I'll make for the park then." She seems ready as it is she's even wearing clothing tht wouldn't stand out too much here, and at least on a world like this her hair can be written off as hair dye. She's got the man's face memories and now it's time to go hunting for him.
Guest Psyber	"You don't really owe me an apology so much as the throngs of womenfolk that are having premium Psyber time stolen from them," Psyber says in a voice that absolutely drenches and drips in pure sarcasm, showing that he really does not mind coming out on Valentine's Day. If he really did, he'd have shunted it off to any number of his subordinates and taken the day to himself, "Let's just wrap up before dinner. I have a second mission that I need to handle today." He takes a pack of cigarettes out of his jacket and taps them against his hand before dispensing one and shoving it in his mouth, "So we're looking for that guy. Alright, let's do this." Psyber lights the cigarette and then promptly says, "Got me out of the shit Boston cold anyway." When he realizes that Nozomi is sticking close to him, he gives her a confident thumbs up, "Just stick with me. Having you around will help disarm people. Say you're separated and looking for your dad."
Riva Banari	Valentine's Day is one of of Riva's favorite holidays. Sweets and getting fawned on by a cute guy? What's not to like? Except in her case, her chosen quarry is the White Stag of romantic entanglements. So like a knight of yore, she sets forth once more on her gallant quest to capture the Questing Beast and attain glory. And maybe some more chocolate. This year, Riva hasn't gone as outre as last time, but she /did/ make more homemade chocolate on the same theme as last time, using Ayako's healing water as an ingredient. As she stops by Scarlet, she drops off a little box, smiling to her. Inside are a small array of milk chocolate hearts and diamonds. "Here, for you." She offers to the sorceress. "The hearts will heal minor wounds, while the diamonds will perk you up." Nevertheless, she looks over the briefing and listens intently. "So... If we're grilling him, do we have plans on what we can do to make him talk without doing anything stupid?" Oh yes, she definately remembers the protest. She looks out over the streets of this new London, frowning for a moment as she contemplates the environment while waiting for an answer.
Kyra Hyral	Normally Kyra would be opposed to working on Valentine's Day too since she actually does celebrate it! Not only that, she has someone to celebrate it with. On the other hand, cold hard CASH money is very, very tempting. Especially... "All we have to do is find a guy? That can't be that hard." Kyra says, studying the picture that Scarlet has called up. "Splitting up seems acceptable here too, right? C'mon Riva, let's split up TOGETHER!"
Theo Morrison	Theo's here. It's not like /he/ has plans for Valentines. (Kickotron isn't. He has plans for Valentines.) "This is a perfectly okay day for dragging us out here," Theo says firmly. He gives Psyber a glance and a quiet snort, rolling his eyes and crossing his arms. He's got his Ecto on one, worn like a bracer sort of (super) smartphone in its current configuration. Given how amazingly connected this world is, it feels like it's going to make him blend in more instead of stand out for a change. He glances at it for a second. "Do we know if he and his wife came down here with any kind of regularity," Theo asks. "We could stake out old haunts, see if he shows up looking depressed at them." He doesn't charge off immediately, but he /is/ pulling up a map of the area.
Arthur Lowell	Arthur has abandoned materialism, of course. He's a god! What does he need with money? Well, he's also saving up to prestiege back into mortality. By which I mean, he really likes seeing numbers go up and bothering Scarlet, so he's here to do at least one of those things. So he's out here with Scarlet! "HEYA PRINCESS, WHAT UP? Man, this guy sounds SMART, I ever TELL YOU about how shit's all HELLA DANGEROUS when it comes to THAT STUFF?" Please don't get him started. "MAN, we doin' some WHERE'S WALDO shit? Fuck, I can get ALL UP IN THAT." Are people going in split-up groups? Arthur might go off on his own, but then that'd be a massive inconvenience to the abstraction of narrative control. Instead, he picks... Riva Banari! Of course. Riva and Kyra appear to be linking up, so he's going to get right up in there. "YO RIVS! How's it HANGIN'! Awwww shit, bringin' the SWEETNESS, that's RAD. I remember LAST YEAR'S, that was TOP ACE!" And Kyra! "Yo Kyyyyyra, holla, what's haps? You been doing GOOD these days? Jeeze, haven't HEARD FROM YOU in a WHILE!" As for Arthur? Well, he's going to follow Riva, but he knows a narrative hint when he sees one. His computer-specs are on his face and he's already looking around less for physical stuff, and more for this Simon Arklese's SOCIAL MEDIA FOOTPRINT. What sort of clues can he find there? Surely Scarlet already looked into this, so he's expecting something a bit more summarized, but one never knows what happens when you suddenly use a bunch of much lower quality search engines.
Scarlet Everille	People are still extremely bad at looking up, as they have been for hundreds of thousands of years, from the savannah all the way to the city. Taiga is in for a nice break today though in that he can't detect any more magic in the immediate vicinity than Scarlet herself. Though that isn't saying /too/ much seeing how prone people are to disguising it here, it's a break from the last few times. He can tell where the park is though, on the opposite side of the H shaped mall of some sort that cradles the plaza in its eastward wing; all obviously artificial as all get out, but still pleasant to look at. The infamous English weather isn't known to be kind to anything that is both green and pretty. Scarlet rolls her eyes at Psyber despite the little piece of a smile that creeps onto her face, standing up out of her chair at his arrival. "I know you're joking, but we both know it's halfway true, and so you should know that I don't apologize to competition~" She stops to look at Riva as she sets down an extremely suspicious box of chocolates however, clearly blanking as she waits to hear out the explanation for this one before reacting, followed by a little bit of relaxation at the reassurance that the gift is purely practical, or at least, more about distributing it as much as possible. "Normally I'm against Valentines chocolate, but I'll have to try those out." She says. "As for Arklese, don't worry about it. Don't drop any hammy hints about romance and let me get started, and my lead should be obvious to follow." Well, she is usually good at talking to people. That seems fair. "Not together, no." she replies to Theo. "The both of them are Rank Seven. This is basically the ghetto for the Mrs. especially. Consider this his jogging path to come and sit on a bench and wear an ugly hoodie around. He'll get over it once he remarries, but Lord knows when that will be. They didn't have kids and that bloodline is pretty small." She glances over to Arthur with that kind of look that indicates he might be hitting closer to the bullseye then he realizes. "No, but I'll agree that he did the smart thing. I'll tell you about it later. It's not really my business to air the man's dirty laundry before we have the chance to annoy some details out of his little mardy. I'll reserve any real dislike of him for the occasion that it turns out he has anything to do with anything." Splitting up would seem like the ideal state of affairs, what with the throng of chatty post-teens and old couples tottering about and trying to find too many places to sit, making it difficult for even someone as tall as Psyber to see more than a dozen heads distant at a time. The configuration and the pace at which people do so, however, doesn't seem like it'll matter today. A few seconds after the majority of the group gravitates away from Scarlet, leaving her for a moment to pick up the box Riva had left on her table, everyone in the square startles all at once at the ear-stinging crack characteristic of a chunk of metal being propelled through the air at several times the speed of sound, and the bizarre, sizzling whine that accompanies the brilliant strobe of diamond light that flashes two feet from the back of Scarlet's head, spraying shattered fragments of molten tungsten all over the wall in front of her at the same moment one of her non-euclidian, orbiting crystal familiars materializes.
Scarlet Everille	The sound of the actual gunshot sound follows a split second later, though not far enough to mean that it was very distant. As the magus wheels around to face it however, the eyes, and resultant screams, largely aren't in response to someone shooting into a public crowd, but at the sight of the magic that had responded to it. A second later, it seems that nobody can move away from her fast enough, shoving and tripping over each other to all head back inside, with a couple of people instantly on their phones; everyone save for a pair of men who look to be Egyptian or Iranian, shouldering the opposite way of the crowd as they pull their own pieces from their jackets, one of them managing to scream "BLUEBLOODED BITCH!" in perfect English before aiming.
Guest Psyber	Scarlet just got shot. Psyber takes a few moments, in the span of a second, to parse how to react as instinct takes over. Thankfully, because of his career choice, auto-pilot gives him plenty of time to think as his body reflexively plants a hand on the shoulder of Nozomi and simultaneously shoves her behind his larger body-mass to shield her from any further shots (unless she resists or moves) as his other hand reaches to his coat to draw his own gun. In the span of this time, he manages to come up with an appropriate Romance/Valentine's/Deadly People mixed pun, "Man, I'm gonna start callin' you Dan Gallagher. Looks like they've got a Fatal Attraction," Psyber remarks pithely, bringing his own handgun up. There's a flash in his red eyes as he naturally and reflexively calculates appropriate angles for follow-through and shouts, "SIS! Agent Stelhard! Everyone hit the ground! We've got a spot of trouble here!" Assuming people are smart enough to begin ducking, he cracks off a couple shots at one of the men.
Arthur Lowell	A gunshot hits Arthur's ears on his way out of here. This isn't Nathan Hall you're dealing with; this is someone who dealt with a gunshot-filled battleground for a year and a half with no breaks. "TAIGA TAKE LEFT!!" He's not using a stupid nickname? Oh shit. He's calling in the drop, it sounds like, since Taiga will only instantly disable ONE, not BOTH. "KYRA, HASTE! PSYBER, KEEP 'EM FROM SCARLET!" Taiga can get one, but probably not both. He has to get a combatant to the other one before too many shots get off. Psyber, he hopes, will cover Scarlet. Riva's likely more distant from the attackers at this point; Arthur, with a sweeping gesture, attempts to generate a STRONG GRAVITATIONAL FIELD on what he hopes is a Hasted Riva, giving her an INCREDIBLE running start. She can take the Gs, right? The gravitational force, I mean. He's going to attempt the fastest possible launch of a Riva Gun ever performed; at this distance, and if this goes right, he can probably get Riva in close enough to resolve some of this simultaneously with Taiga in the span of a second and a half or so.
Maya	Maya takes note of of what ewlse that Scarlet has to say on the man they are looking for, and his ex wife. She does however carry on now hoping to see what she can do to finf the man however just as she's staring to head off? She hears the sound of a bullet and that gets her attention. She's also diviung for cover. Maya is getting back up on her feet, she's not moving in to fight. No she's listen as arther barks some orders, the god does have a good head for small tactics but Maya's doing something else she's starting to channel magic of her own in the card she's just palmed out of the folds of her clothing. "Warding." The attackers would see a strange blue fire leech out of blue haired woman's body, followed by a second card to get the same treatment, one glows red, the other blue. Then the warding starts as the part would find glowing runes appearing under thier feet. It would last a faint golden glow from the spell. Maya's also making for cover at this point as well as she didn't bring her rifle with her, she really needs to find a way to better transport that weapon. For nwo though she's far from harmless she's also trying to gind just where the attacks came from, but as one of the attackers yells out his insult? Maya's got a pretty good idea. "Scarlet?! How much restraint do you want me to show?" There's a good reason for this, Maya's magic can cause a lot of collertal damage after all, and ius very hard to miss.
Nozomi Houken	Disarm them? For a moment Nozomi is worried that Psyber wants her to demonstrate some nonexistent martial arts training. But no, he just means that people will find her personality disarming. Okay that's... less scary. "...I'm not a very good liar, though." She's not, it's true. But she can at least stick with Psyber and be nonthreatening. Standing next to Psyber makes the Japanese girl somehow seem even smaller, and that's probably not a bad thing. The gunshot, however, is very bad. Very, very bad. Nozomi has let out a yelp of surprise and dropped to the ground before she even realizes she's doing it. She's gotten entirely too used to being in dangerous situations. Psyber will have no trouble shielding her from danger until she can crawl somewhere safer. Taiga, meanwhile, has some entirely different reflexes. His response is to immediately assess direction of shot, other present threats, locasion of his user and other friendlies, and react accordingly. Arthur knows him quite well; were circumstances different, he'd be doing exactly what the god of caps lock just suggested. Probably before the suggestion even happened. However, there's another priority target for him. "I cannot come to your aid immediately," he transmits over the local radio. "I have a third assailant to handle." A few seconds later, said third assailant will hear from behind himself a simple, "Hello." Followed immediately by a quarter ton of robotic tiger slamming into him at full force, intending to crack bones, cause pain, and if at all possible /tackle him right off the roof/.
Kyra Hyral	"Oh yeah, I'm doing good." Kyra says without a trace of awkwardness, grinning a winning smile at Arthur, "I'm doing lots of good." Though she doesn't see it fit to make mention of her cash flow issues that she's hinted at on the radio channels. She tries to put any of that business out of her mind so she can focus fully on this job of finding Scarlet's target. Then all hell breaks loose as a bunch of jerks actually try to shoot Scarlet in the head! Kyra's quick to move closer to Scarlet, getting out of dodge as the rest of the crowd starts fleeing in terror. She reaches into her hoodie and grabs something off of one of the bandoliers strapped across her chest. She's not sure exactly who Arthur wants a haste on so she just defaults to /him/. Reaching forward, she jabs the syringe into Arthur's arm, injecting the haste mixture into the loudmouth.
Riva Banari	Riva gestures. "Yeah, I know it's not for everyone, but you never know when something with some useful function might come in handy, no matter the appearance, right?" She chuckles for a moment. Things promptly heat up as the bullet strikes. Riva stands there in shock as she sees how the bullet splatters... And not Scarlet's head, thankfully. That little point might be more important later, however, because right now, there's CRAP TO SOLVE. Immediately, her mind breaks down into action mode, instinctively hanging with Arthur and Kyra. Asshole gunmen, not even giving her a chance to foise more chocolate on her quarry! The NERVE! But before she can get worked up into a romcom rage, Wrthur fires the RIVAGUN. Already accelerating from her position with a burst of Anima, the application of sudden G-forces sends her ripping through the air towards the pair, heading for the one Taiga isn't going for. She doesn't get her hammer out, instead just holding open her arms as she prepares to clothesline a bitch into the ground. She wants this guy /alive/.
Theo Morrison	"Huh." Theo doesn't get the rank thing, but he understands the idea of slumming it. He adds 'look for someone who stands out for trying not to stand out' to his list of things to do. Theo gets a short distance from the group when the actual shot happens. He ducks down, alarmed, and tries to find the shooter while putting himself against a wall. Unlike the majority of the crowd, he isn't scrambling for the doors, and unlike the more heroic types in the group, he isn't trying to throw himself at them, either (though the idea of putting goons between him and them is attractive). Instead, Theo scans the rest of the street, looking for more people walking towards the scene with purpose, or cars zooming in or something. Extremism is one thing, but they can't really have thought /that/ would work, can they?
Scarlet Everille	Either the average IQ has gone up over a few decades, or this occurrence is more common than it should be, because the moment Psyber is loud enough to take command, the vast majority of the crowd does the smart thing and gets down right away, though a few still try to squeeze through the automatic doors all at the same time. Straight shooting sinks three bullets in the first man's chest and one in his shoulder, but only the last one draws blood, the trio of holes punched into his jacket revealing cheap but briefly serviceable body armour stuffed under it in place of a shirt. He stumbles awkwardly at the equivalent of three nasty punches to the chest, aiming haphazardly and letting off with a kind of machine pistol that only a gangster or a tank crewman would consider using, mostly smashing the window behind Psyber, but making a few rounds ping off the ward Maya sets up around him, meaning that he really can't hurt the half-angel either. Seeing several other 'civilians' joining the fight rather than fleeing, and worse, springing to his target's rescue, the second man on the ground briefly falters, then lowers the gun to tug what looks to be a black market grenade out of his inner pocket, hooking his finger into an old fashioned mechanical pin, before being abruptly smashed against the pavement by the Riva train, both weapons clattering away as the wind is momentarily driven out of him. Another shot from the rooftop goes straight for her, surprisingly accurate despite the speed she's moving at, but the third never comes as Taiga happens upon the shooter hidden prone beneath a heat vent, much like the first two but clean shaven, clutching some horrible bastardization of a WA2000 with a string of rosary beads wrapped through the thumb hole stock of all things. He seems significantly better trained than the other two, abandoning the rifle and unholstering a military knife with some kind of cable plugged into the hilt, rolling over to stab at Taiga as he pounces, but only manages to wedge the blade deep enough into a joint to be annoying rather than cause damage before being hurled from the roof and smashing to the ground under several hundred pounds of cat. Theo instead catches sight of a car zooming /off/. At first it looks like it might have been the escape driver, but the duffel bag tumbling out of the back seat before the door closes behind it says it might just be plan B.
Guest Psyber	It's a simple psychological trick that most cops learn very early: If you shout something with enough authority, people just do it. They're malleable like that. When he puts three into the chest of one man and he finds that it hits armor, the half-angel scowls. Rather than follow-up, Psyber instead lowers his gun. A few thoughts go through his head. These guys... would know that they couldn't actually kill a skilled mage, or even an above-average mage, much less someone on Scarlet's level with her Familiars. The most they could do is be an annoyance, something that distracted her for a few moments and were summarily dealt wi- A distraction. Psyber turns and bolts off, saying to Nozomi, "Stay here. Stay behind the barrier. Call for Riva if you need her." If he can, Psyber is going to try to dash out towards the street rather than stay and deal with these guys. As he moves, the magazine drops from his gun and he slams in another one, slide clicking forward as he tries to pre-empt something he expects is going to be in-progress: The man they're after fleeing the scene.
Arthur Lowell	"RRRRRRRRRRRRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH!" Arthur takes a moment to charge his Shounen Blood-Boil; a very visible bar goes from half-full (default state) to exploding (the other default state) in about a second, as brilliant white light blasts around him. Alright, time to take a few critical actions. Riva's got the other guy; now HASTE-POWERED, Arthur blasts off with rocket force, and actually KICKS the grenade -- those things are actually kind of dense and heavy! -- with enough force to SLAM it against the second gunman's hand. His intent is to shatter his wrist with a brutal as shit impact. "EVERYONE POINT A GUN AT ME! I'M SIX WIZARDBEARDS WORTH OF MAGICAL ASSKICKING IN A HUNDRED AND THIRTY POUNDS OF SCREAMING MAGICAL MANGRIT! OUT OF THE WAY MOTHERFUCKERS, I'VE GOT A BROOM FULL OF ROCKETS, A BANK FULL OF PAYDAY, AND A HEAD FULL OF DESPERATE NEED TO HEAR KNEES SNAPPING! WHO WANTS A PIECE?!" Yep, there he goes. He's trying to slam his tremendous steel rocket-broom -- oh, that's suddenly in his hands -- into the man's knee and SHATTER IT VIOLENTLY, ideally running a Bash Bros sort of double-assault with Riva.
Maya	Maya with ant reply to her question lost in the din of the fight, Maya will chose restraint. They will need to question at lest one of these attackers. If she cut lose it would be unlikely. Given how much power here higher end spells could unleash. SO she's going to keep playing a support role now, with the wards up? Maya turns to see the downed attackers. She'll handled restrianiung them. Maya can be quite creative from her days in the Heratic war. She moves keeping low to get the downed attackers. She pulls a card fiest to curse and weaken theri response times making things slower, so she can handle them more easily while restraining them. Maya thankfully has hidden supply pouches into her outfit and goes to take a very useful thing Rick Stradler taught her years ago. The wonderful uses of zip ties, and she'll move to restrain them.
Theo Morrison	Theo, one of the people who got down and out of the way of the gunfight, actually has his attentiveness pay off. He raises one hand, pointing down the street as the duffel bag hits the ground. He realizes that the spell he has in mind actually /isn't/ going to do it -- that's not actually a /creature/, and he's sometimes bound to frustratingly-specific rules. "Oh, fuck me." He half-stands, in a partial crouch, focusing. "Myr Servitor! Myr Servitor!" There's a flicker of hazy light and a wisp of some kind of mist. A pair of three-foot birdlike robots appear out of thin air in the street. Theo whistles sharply and points, one hand at the bag and another at elsewhere on the side of the road. The machines look at him for the span of a half-second, and then half-run, half-hop to the bag, lifting it up in perfect sync and rushing it over to the other spot further from the crowd. One holds onto it, and the other levers open one of the many ubiquitous manhole covers in the city streets. The two myr promptly dump it down. One jumps in after it, physically pushing the bag to the bottom and out of the direct line of sight of the way up, while the other closes and seals the cover with swift motions from some kind of tool built into its hands. Theo is really hoping this was the smart play. He's already cringing and covering his head.
Nozomi Houken	Nozomi, once again, does not need to be told twice. She's staying right there behind the barrier, though with Psyber's instructions given, she starts looking around for Riva. Riva has been designated as Secondary Safe Person(tm), and if Nozomi needs to rush to her side ASAP, she wants to know where to look. Taiga, meanwhile, is rather concerned about that duffel bag now that his target has been downed. There's still a knife stuck in one of his joints, but it's small enough annoyance that he doesn't bother trying to work it out just yet. That could be some kind of explosive, and- oh. Oh the weird bird robots have it. Okay. That means, next down the list - the fleeing vehicle. Up Taiga leaps, claws digging into whatever building material comprises the buildings around the plaza; he intends to clamber up onto the rooftops, then use a mix of 'superhuman speed' and 'the ability to travel in straight-ish lines via rooftops' to catch up to the same target Psyber's pursuing.
Kyra Hyral	Meanwhile, Kyra hunkers down next to Scarlet, having judiciously deployed Haste to Arthur. "You're all okay, right Scarlet?" she asks, keeping an eye out in case there were any more accomplices trying to make attempts on Scarlet's life. Kyra pays close attention to any person that dares come near them that doesn't look like a cowering bystander. Such a thing would be highly suspicious after all. All the meanwhile, Kyra quietly loads darts into the dartgun she usually keeps concealed on her, stacking up the tranquilizers in case she needed to go on the offensive-defensive.
Riva Banari	Riva is currently manhandling assailants, getting in their face much like Arthur. While he's taunting with his mouth, she's taunting with her actions, each swipe of that hammer making her look dangerous and imposing as she, too, goes for kneecaps in a very Arthur-style strike. She flips past the guy and kicks his remaining leg out from under him, turning to give Arthur RESPEC KNUX as they pass by each other. And then she elbow drops the asshole before breaking out some zip-ties to secure the fallen gunman. Don't worry Nozomi. Riva's here to tank for everyone. She is friend to all children.
Scarlet Everille	Actually primed or not, having a dense, metal-coated, several pound object smashed into an ordinary man's hand is usually enough to render fine motor tasks like firing a gun at least temporarily impossible. There's a nasty kind of crack as the grenade knocks the pistol straight out of the second gunman's grasp, followed by a scream as a pair of knees do something they're absolutely not supposed to, flooring the second to go with the first and third. The one knocked from the roof appears to be actually unconscious as he is left by Taiga, but the other two immediately look to the van, only for one of them to swear as the Myrs appear and drag the bag off into the sewer system. A wireless signal goes out from the escaping car too late, causing the ground to rattle underneath the wheels, the vehicle bouncing on the road at the same moment a quarter ton of robot slams down on top of it like a fleeing mouse, and rolls it onto its side in a shower of sparks and a screech of skidding metal. The airbags go off abruptly as if to dispel any notions of an action movie script, before two more men, both of them obviously locals, crawl out of the mangled lower door and hold their hands up, neither of them actually armed, in front of Psyber. In under a minute, a pleasant Valentines day jaunt for a few hundred people has turned into a chaotic gun battle, and then immediately been resolved with not only over the top force, but zero actual casualties; an extreme rarity for anything like this. Having several joints broken, being thrown off a roof, and being clotheslined and then elbow dropped are not great positions to avoid being captured from, and so Riva has an easy enough time temporarily restraining the assailants until the real police are sure to arrive and demand to see the badges that they luckily actually have. One of them is still rolling around on the ground and uttering a stream of curses directed towards Arthur, whilst the other conscious and previously armed man is eerily silent and resolute, somehow quieter than the KOed sniper, and the two pallid and terrified looking drivers; the only people Psyber will find even searching at gunpoint. No mages are to be seen. Only a handful of organized bombers and gunmen not even playing in his league. It seems Kyra shouldn't have to ask however. Despite her initial startlement, Scarlet doesn't seem much more than mildly bewildered at how fast the others have wrapped everything up. In fact, she actually ignores the white mage, save to gently shove the box of chocolates into her arms, walking towards the relatively undamaged criminal Riva has tied down, and leaning over just far enough to cast him into her shadow, still being just out of reach as the wild eyed man tries to spit at her.
Scarlet Everille	"Do you think I'm some kind of idiot?" are the first words out of her mouth after just being shot at. "Is this the kind of penny ante garbage that actually works overseas? Did it just not occur to you that using regular weapons to hide from magic is common knowledge that anyone can prepare for, or did some prophet in a cave sell you those bullets telling you that they were made with nails from Christ on the cross?" From the looks sported by the people starting to pick themselves off the ground, the completely unarmed young woman seems to be the center of the stage to them, rather than the cast and crew who had just spent the past thirty seconds frantically brutalizing each other, but then it seems like they hadn't taken their eyes off of her except to watch for stray shots to begin with. They're paying far too much attention to the one person who hasn't actually done anything, and far too little to the actual multiversal superheroes who had likely saved them, as if somehow the sight were a scandal far more interesting than an act of terrorism. "I have nothing to say to a witch in training and her harem of servants." is the man's reply, no longer using his accent-less English. "They can burn in hell along with you for becoming the thralls of a devil that even the rest of your nest vipers cannot tolerate. I will watch from beside God's throne without regrets." It doesn't sound like particularly specific religious dogma, or even more than a transparent veil for mercenary, or perhaps vigilante, action, but the suicide vest moment comes next regardless. Not with any manner of explosive. That would have been to obvious and too easy to foil. The last card he seems willing to play is instead unique familiar to a few present in the most disturbing way. The man's chest abruptly explodes outward, torn apart from within by an escaping force that rips his body in half down the middle, killing in instantly and showering the surrounding pavement in his blood. Where there had been zero magical presence before, suddenly it is everywhere, exuding from the seething violet shadow that pulses from the fatal wound like waves of heat. It solidifies into what is instantly recognizable as a Nobody, and a fairly large one at that; a faceless, worm-like, Precambrian mass of too many legs and flagella affixed to a nonsensical arrangement of trilobite plates and feelers, like something out of a paleontologist's indistinct fever nightmare. It doesn't seem that it had been incubating inside of the dead man, so much as if part of him and simply forced its way free, so much as that part of him had violently /become/ it. The specifics abruptly become irrelevant though. Scarlet takes two lightning fast steps backwards, seeming actually, genuinely surprised, before a stream of hissing lightning slashes against her previously invisible wards, bubbling as if shot through a crushing depth of water as it rapidly strips away several layers of protection. The corpse rolls and jerks along the ground behind it like a broken puppet still rooted to its tail as it goes into a frenzy, its shot at Scarlet apparently only random, as it turns that death ray on everything in the immediate vicinity. The unconscious sniper is charred to a skeleton before he can even scream. The man with the broken legs is skewered in several places and torn to ribbons by the thing's flailing legs and hooks. The main portion of the coffee shop implodes as it is fired into, and the car is next, turned to dust as if thrown into a belt sander. People panic, get up, and begin running again, only agitating it more, causing the thing to turn towards the greater mass of civilians and begin scuttling across the ground after them at an alarming speed, painting the ground red behind it with the attached body.
Guest Psyber	To his credit, like any good detective, Psyber does keep handcuffs on himself at most times. At least a few pairs, anyway. He stomps his way over to the surrendering men and tosses them the handcuffs. There's a mixture of annoyance and confusion on his face as he cuffs their hands behind their backs, but to eachother with their arms intertwined just to hinder any lockpicking they might try to do, "Be lucky I'm merciful and it's the sabbath. Otherwise I'd be finishing my job with you two," Psyber warns them. He then abruptly whirls around when the magic kicks in, narrowing his eyes and staring. He's unable to really figure out WHAT he's seeing at first with those glowing eyes of his, but he slowly realizes he's seen a weaker version of that aura before in the basement of their assessment exams. He scowls and starts sprinting back over to meet up with every one. Hopefully the others can handle it before he gets there, though.
Nozomi Houken	Once again, despite his inability to emote, Taiga somehow manages to look smug. He is quite happy to stand by and let Psyber actually deal with the men; perhaps idly sharpening his claws on the side of the overturned vehicle while he waits for- Sensors go nuts. Taiga is looking that way in a heartbeat, and in the next, he's off at full speed. Nozomi is now /very much/ in danger. In fact, she's doing something that might be ill-advised, and peeking out from behind her hiding place, with slowly-mounting horror. That thing... it's just incinerated those men without a second thought. And obliterated that storefront. And it's... it's going after those people. Those people. Those people are going to be killed. "...n-no... that can't... I can't..." Quietly, she toggles on her radio. "Taiga. T-Taiga, we need... we need to transform." The noise Taiga makes as he skids to a stop next to her is more than a little surprised. But he doesn't question it. "Disengaging Independent Mode. Rerouting Gensou Engine power to motive and combat systems." "Rampart Mode engaged." The transformed Nozomi explodes from cover into a full-speed charge, lifting her left gauntlet up to unload several quick energy shots at the Nobody. That's only a cover for her to get in close, though. Those cold eyes are locked on an extermination target, and as soon as she's in reach she hefts up the EM Zanbatou in both hands and starts swinging.
Riva Banari	Riva was just feeling /pretty good/ about this. Everything got wrapped up nice and clean, and only the assholes at fault were getting wrecked. That's basically optimum in her book. Sadly, then we're reminded that we can't have nice things. "Wait, this is a religion thing?" Riva says, arching an eyebrow as she sees how this goes down... And then ther's a scream as the man just /erupts/ in a horrific way. It's that shock that keeps her from reacting immediately. The damage begins to be done, and Riva is lashed at by that death ray, part of her arm vaporizing with a scream of pain as she tries to dodgeroll out of it. The hammer goes skidding across the pavement, trailing blood, and she staggers back to her feet, gritting her teeth. "Son of a /bitch/." She hisses. "TAKE THE NOBODY DOWN! MOVE!" She calls, and pulls a more suitable weapon: A fine rapier, slim with Celtic workings through the handguard. With a seething cry, she lunges with a eye-searing stroke of red-gold light as she pierces the blade for what looks head-ish on the beast, trying to skewer it in a single strike of Anima-augmented murder.
Kyra Hyral	Kyra knows religiously motivated intolerance when she sees it. "Ugh." Kyra spits in digust, "Of all the small-minded-" she never gets to finish her thought as the man explodes gruesomely into a hideous-looking Nobody that starts massacring the prisoners. "Arthur! Riva!" Kyra screams out, pulling up her dartgun and firing wildly into the raging familiar. She doesn't know and doesn't care of tranquilizers have any sort of effect on it-assuming not really since those things weren't truly biological-but she tries anyway. She empties her entire 'clip' into the creature before quickly resorting to another tactic via her mixtures. Specifically, Kyra starts pulling flasks off of her belt containing extremely sticky chemicals-adhesives somewhat similar to superglue that activate when exposed to air for a certain amount of time. She hurls these mixtures at the Nobody, hoping to ensnare it and at least slow down its frantic scuttle towards the civilians.
Maya	Maya has attackers zipped tied. She looks at them for a moment and she folds her arms a little bit. "So we're going to have to do this the isnt..." then the suicide switch but it wasn't what she expected. Maya has seen a lot but something like this? A method of killing one's self /like this/? This was new she's covered in blood spatter an she's left stunned at this horror before her and everyone else. Maya snaps out of it as her surival drives kick in and she's already trying to make ready. She is not going to mess about here. With Kyra's spamming status effect potions and Riva going all out as well, as Nozomi transforms. Maya's gathering magical power, she has summoned on this world before but that was just Kyra. Now she summons something else. She pulls several cards out they fly up into the air glowing brightly as blue fire leeches from her body 9into them and that's when Maya seems to go out of phase, but something else is coming. A creature of the living earth pulls itself out of the ground, is it a portal? It's hard to tell but the elemental lord of Earth Humbaba has arrive the hulking creature of living rock, with a single massive gem for an eye looks at the thing. It knows why one of the creator's children has called on it's power. It wastes no time moving in and actually taking care to not drike any bystander or ally of Maya's will bring down it's massive fists upon the Nobody when it's got it's first change to do so.
Arthur Lowell	Riva received her knux. They came with several complimentary bonus daps. Arthur keeps his grin on in order to hide a contempt and disgust that is intense and deep. The seething loathing for pseudo-religious zealouts is one thing, but worse... is the comment about being a harem. Arthur Lowell will not kill a human, or even a human-like thing. However, an exploding mass of horrible creature bursting out of someone's chest? That trips Arthur's Monster Assessment immediately. No more nonlethality. But then-- Kyra! Once she's emptied her clip, he's already in place in front of her, making sure he's between the Nobody and the white mage. "KYRA! I GOTCHA!" He calls out in a panic. "C'MON! YOU FAT WORMY FUCK, LET'S DO THIS! I'LL RIP YOUR SHIT--" He shouts, aggressively at the worm, but then! More attacks. He also makes sure to shove Kyra out of the way when his vidya-like attack forewarning goes off, tanking a good deal of damage. The heavy implosion effect creates a sick cracking noise as he tumbles painfully, slamming into the ground and off of splintering tables and chairs. "FUCK! AUGH! SHIIIIIT!" He's calling out, tumbling around and slamming off of the opposite wall... And right back between the worm and Kyra, albeit bleeding and heavily bruised, avoiding putting too much weight on one leg. "THAT THING'S OUT OF SHOTS! Fuck, I HOPE it is. SHUT THIS THING DOWN like an UPPITY LAPTOP." Gotta make this thing STOP, and FAST! Arthur doesn't strike it directly, but he does a heavy overhand BROOM-SWEEP with both hands, and the result is an intense GRAVITATIONAL FIELD that slams down over the area the Nobody is currently in! He's trying to pin it down, and while the field of that suddenness and intensity might not last forever, hopefully it'll last long enough!
Theo Morrison	Theo feels the ground shake a little. The connection to one of the myr vanishes, the summoned creature destroyed. The one on the surface seems fine, though. He exhales in quiet relief, lowering himself into a low crouch again. The Nobody happens. Theo's momentary reprieve turns into a look of horror. He gets up and breaks into a run, ducking behind a corner into a narrow alley to get out of the line of fire. His hand goes for a pocket, but he stops himself, listening instead to the carnage and choosing to stay out of sight and out of the line of fire. He's got an extremely mundane firearm on him, and he does not have time to do anything more impressive. Given who is closer to that... /thing/... Theo stays firmly planted behind a very solid building. Discretion and valor.
Scarlet Everille	Thanks to Arthur, it seems that nobody who hasn't sort of signed on for it will be getting killed today. The thing only gets those few shots off before a gravitic ton of broom smashes it against the pavement so hard that the cement cracks against its pseudo-chitin, briefly pinning down until Kyra's barrage which then holds it straight to its crater. Unable to properly twist around to shoot back, it is swiftly eviscerated by the EM Zanbatou and the Celtic Anima rapier, the magical weapons ripping the creature to pieces before it can fully emerge from its (perhaps failed) corporeal cocoon, and thus smashed under Humbaba's giant fist. Its body cracks open like a petrified sponge, oozing blood from millions of porous capillaries rather than any real circulatory system, leading to a kind of grotesque, smashed bug look, but just as before, the summoned creature doesn't disappear into a puff of smoke or a flash of light. It stays right there, and stays dead. A mess for someone else to clean up. Scarlet takes a few moments to step up from her own piece of cover, a faintly revolted look on her face as she tries to look at the dead monster rather than the human carnage. "I shouldn't need to tell you that none of these people were mages." she starts. "Not an ounce of magical talent, which means they had an arrangement with one. It also doesn't look like he was willing to expend much to support them either, since it wasn't even properly bound. A random attack to make as big of a scene as possible, and as it seems, kill all of the potential sources of information." She shakes her head. "What I do have to tell you is that this one has the same magical fingerprint as the one in the basement from last time, and the translocation circle in Eli's workshop that we never traced. I'd assumed that transmuting Nobodies into physical objects was his research, and he hadn't gotten any further than implanting small ones into embryonic plants, but if this keeps coming up over and over long after he's been arrested, I think we're forced to conclude that it wasn't an original idea of his. Someone much more talented lent that little trick out to him. Probably so he could take credit if his own research wasn't going anywhere, in return for whatever favour he failed to make good on judging by how fast Eli was thrown under the bus, and the fact they've duped some Ptolmey nutjobs in his place." She finally gives up and turns away from the scene. "That was the only piece of information I expect you wouldn't have access to. I'm sure you're smart enough to figure out why the talons are only coming out now. I especially don't like whatever he's managed to do here. I've never heard of being able to totally hide a familiar's presence inside of a mundane object."
Nozomi Houken	Only when the thing seems to be unmoving does Nozomi's assault let up. She floats back a meter or two on her thrusters, holding her oversized blade at the ready, before finally allowing herself to believe it's dead. Her boots touch down on the ground, the weapon is swung up to rest on her shoulder, and she turns - looking right at Riva, with a gaze that is probably unsettlingly cold and clinical on Nozomi's face. But if one looks carefully, there's concern under that gaze. Silent concern for the person who was intended to protect her, and got hurt pretty badly. Scarlet's talking, though, and so the cold yellow eyes turn on her next. But the concern is gone from them. Instead, she is simply listening, and giving Scarlet that chilly look the entire time. Only when Scarlet has finished does the silent, armored girl march over, resting a hand on her shoulder to get her attention. As soon as she's looking Nozomi reaches up to tap one of the 'ornaments' on her head. At the same time, a holographic readout appears in front of those yellow irises, displaying a veritable deluge of information. The message is clear enough - 'I have sensor data'.
Kyra Hyral	The combined efforts slow down the Nobody enough that nobody else finds themselves eviscerated by the feral beast. Arthur seems to get very injured in the process as Kyra observes. She's quick to stand, directing a plam Arthur's way. Although she does get the nagging feeling of imbalance, she casts regardless. A soft white glow overcomes Kyra's palm, flickering an ominous yellow for a few seconds before re-stabilizing to white. Healing energy follows, dumped right into the injured Arthur before he reaches his damage limit, "Cure!" Quietly, she listens to Scarlette talk, reaching for her phone so she can either record that or take some notes on this reasoning-especially as Scarlet drops a piece of information they didn't know prior to their arrival here.
Maya	Maya is a bit shaken she's seen some thinga she's seen fanatics but the whole bit with the Nobody Bomb? She shudders, were they fanatics? Was it on remote? Or were people connected to them to pay with thier lives if they had been taken alive? It's unlikely that they will know the truth any time soon, if ever. She listens to Scarlet and seems to shudder a bit at it. "Suidide summoning bombs, which someone without magic can make use of." Several alternate uses for those things pop into maya's mind and she shudders. "Weh got a lot more work to do.. I'll see if any bystanders need healing."
Arthur Lowell	"HA HA HA! Ahhhh man, there's some-- WOW! Okay! There we go, there's the MEAT STICKS back under me." Arthur chatters while Kyra gets him sorted out. He's breathing heavily, but his HEALTH VIAL is slipping more into his DEFENSE GEL, whatever the hell that means. Is it good? It seems to be good, he's looking more healthy. "THANKS KYRA! Hwuh, that was a WORKOUT." But his bravado belies a certain degree of seriousness. "So Eli's a front for some other stuff. Not liking the sound of that. Got their fingers in too many pies for one guy. But everything they're doing's all slapdash rigged-up shit. We're lookin' at someone who knows what they're doing, got some smarts on their shoulders, but doesn't have the raw genetics backing it." He breathes heavily. "Which is kinda fucked. Here's hoping the VIP didn't manage kicking it too far, going to ground. If it's him or not, they know we're onto 'em. Don't like it. Sucks shit. Wish I could get 'em on the horn to yell at 'em at least once." He stares at the viscera of the monster before looking sick, briefly. He swears, softly, under his breath, turning away and wandering off. "Heya RIVS! You need-- Haha, you need a HAND there? EH?" He tries to joke about that while avoiding looking at the arm, wincing a bit. "Hey, you're not OUT YET, right? You gonna be GOOD TO GO? Let's get you SOMEWHERE ELSE that can get you FIXED." He seems quite worried, even if she's immortal. Must be painful! Arthur's lost his own arm once, you know. He's already working on whipping up a gate for her, trying to urge her through.
Riva Banari	Everything ends in a burst of noise and pain and general nastiness. The Templar is not in a position to analyze the aftermath, however, as she slumps to the ground, cradling the bleeding arm. She looks up at Nozomi, smiling wanly. "I'll be fine." She says to Nozomi consolingly. At least, she says she will be, though the way her jaw is clenched says that 'fine' is relative. She nods to Arthur, getting up to retrieved her dropped weapon and send it back to Agartha, shaking slightly before she waves to the others. "I'll catch up with you all later. Thanks." She waves to Kyra too, specifically, giving her a wink before she heads through the Gate without further messiness.