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Kutsuuko Shiratori     The first two steps out of the newly hooked up warpgate are all that is needed to leave the bottoms of the responders' shoes sticky with half-dried blood. The floor is carpeted with a high impact mosaic of glossy red-brown stains across the entire, cavernous room, though the stench of copper is easier to pick up than the colour, as it doesn't seem like the electricity has been turned on in decades. It looks like some sort of gymnasium -- the kind you'd expect to find at a well funded college to host indoor sports -- but judging by the piles of equipment and seating uprooted and piled against the exits, that wasn't how it was used last.

    Now, it seems to be used only to provide space for an artificial warpgate, obviously just recently constructed, seemingly new in make, but wired to what must be a hundred electrical car engines and old diesel generators to stay active, leaving the floor a choking tangle of weathered and corroded cables. It only takes a few moments to adjust to the low light to see who set it up. There are dozens of people clustered around it, staying only far enough to the sides to let people exit, but looking like they're ready to trample over one another to bolt through it at the slightest provocation. It isn't difficult to imagine why. Dressed in clothes re-re-re-spun out of the remains fifty old designer shirts, carrying nothing but a backpack a piece, and half-starved to the point that there isn't a single excess pound of fat between them, these people are not well off, even by a scavenger's standards.

    A panicked looking middle aged man is huddled over a turn of the century radio kludged to the warpgate's wiring, surrounded by a press of nervous bodies and a couple of children anchored to his pant legs, only ceasing the process of mashing the dials as people arrive, and the entire crowd breaks out into something like relieved whimpering, with more than a few visible tears. He doesn't even greet anyone, immediately turning to his headset. "That's it! That's it someone's here! They're here! The Union or the Confederacy or whatever it doesn't matter! They'll save you! Just get back right away! Hide if you need to but these generators are twenty years old; they won't last forever!"
Yuna Kagurazaka Between her Light Suit's boots sticking to the floor and the stench of 'copper,' Yuna almost regrets having come to investigate and assist - but she grimaces and bears with it, stepping clear of the warpgate as Elner, Jiina, Marina, and Erina follow after her - all of the latter three in their armored combat modes, and as such, visibly not human ... but probably a far friendlier sight than, say, the monsters that have likely been reducing the survivors' numbers. "I'm with the Union," Yuna says briefly, then asks, "The distress call mentioned that someone was 'followed' - presumably back to your refuge here. I can help buy you some time for the evacuation if you need it; is anyone already fighting whatever creatures you're escaping from?"

A quick glance among the others emerging from the warpgate brings another, fainter grimace to Yuna's face; they *aren't* all Union. The refugees probably don't care right now whose territory they wind up with, though - anywhere that isn't here, anywhere that's *safe*, will be an improvement, and the Savior of Light can hardly argue with that. "Kyra, are you fighting or medic-ing?" she asks Kyra as she appears; as far as Yuna can tell, both may be necessary, but Yuna's only a fighter and can't help the injured like Kyra can.

And then there's the matter of actually getting the refugees out safely. Yuna looks at her armored companions, then turns to the refugees' 'spokesman'. "I may need Jiina or Erina with me, but Marina can help guide refugees through to the other side, if need be," she states, indicating the androids in turn. She's tempted to switch to Powered Form or something already, but best to wait until she knows what kind of firepower she'll need.
Arthur Lowell     Arthur Lowell blasts through the warpgate like a madman, already flipping off of his ROCKET BROOM and onto his feet dramatically, sliding through cords and cables and skidding over the ground. The blood provokes a sudden flinching reaction as he understands what he's stepped in, but he shoves it out of his mind with a flourishing motion of his broom and a choked noise, before forcing out his aggressive coolkid tone. "CAVALRY'S HERE, BITCHES." He declares, in a way meant both to seem strong and to inspire confidence. "POINT ME where the FOLLOWING was goin' on. You wanna LEAVE TOGETHER, you got ME COVERING YOUR BACKS." The broom flips around into a combat-ready stance and revs aggressively. Arthur normally takes more time to be a little more obnoxious, but these people are on a deadline, it looks like, in more meanings of the word than one.
Lezard Valeth You were expecting rescue.

You got Lezard Valeth. There is a sizzle of light as the Necromancer of Midgard steps into the area, the Manus Catalyst clutched in his hand. He stops two strides in, looking over the bedragged, desperate survivors, the people present, the already arriving Union affiliates carelessly handing out evacuation assitance, and the desperately kludged warpgate.

"Well well." He says, adjusting his glasses. "What fresh hell is this?" He asks no one in particular.

What he also notes, however, is the expression of panic and dismay. "... You're being followed, aren't you." He says aloud, and looks over to his allies arriving through the gate. "Defensive positions, and quickly. We will sort this issue out /properly/." Lezard steps forward, waiting for someone to point out where the enemy forces that are inevitably pursuing are coming from.
Sanary Rondel      Sanary grimaces slightly as she steps out of the warpgate, her armored greaves hitting the ground loudly despite her best attempts at keeping her footsteps quiet. Not because she's not used to seeing blood as a medic, but because of whatever that caused the blood to be on the floor rather than in neatly-arranged bags likely still running amok if that distress call was any indication.

     Thankfully, the healer looks ready to handle a few panicked civilians, and both her armor and shields (a tower shield and kite shield) are more than sturdy enough to withstand scared civilians trying to rush through to the gate itself. "Easy, easy. We can take it from here. We're... Mixed Confederacy and Union. And maybe Syndicate." She looks over at Yuna and Arthur in particular, grinning briefly before turning back to the... Refugees? Whatever they are.

     "What's the situation, anyway? Is there something after you, or...?" As she speaks, she keeps one hand on the gunaxe at her waist while readying her shield and nodding at Lezard. "You have any injured?"
Kyra Hyral     "Both."

    The white mage's response comes from behind Yuna, the red-haired girl loading a number of darts into her long-barreled rifle. Strapped across her back is the GLEAMING GRENADIER'S CURE-ALL, a massive, grenade-launcher looking weapon that is, in fact, a healgun. Those who have been around Kyra long enough will easily recognize the heavy, blinged-out weapon. Kyra doesn't seem to struggle to carry it's weight anymore, though, and it's been quite a while since she's had it. "I don't think I'll need to fight with you and Arthur here but I'm prepared to defend myself if--" she looks down as her feet stick a little too the floor, confirming that familiar smell. Blood, "-if it comes to that." Her eyes narrow as she peers through the gloom, seeing the group of survivors, hearing them.

    "What she said." Kyra speaks up, looking to the age-old barricades. "..what...happened here?" Oh noooo it's Lezard. Kyra gives him one of her mandatory scowls because it's Lezard.
Gudako Ordria     Ah, is that really hell? I expected hell to be more fire and brimstone and less high school gym class with tons of engines hooked to a machine," Gudako says to Lezard, her form appearing not long after his', or roughly around the same time. Caster idles behind her, the blue-robed, pink-haired foxgirl just sort of scanning the area. If there's weird magic about she can probably pick up on it, but otherwise she's more like a guard dog right now.

    Well, a guard fox. Guard jackal.
    Those are probably a thing somewhere.

    A pause, as the magus' eyes spot the... refugees? Hobos? Homeless people? Well, the people in need. Her expression doesn't change from its 8D, but her words are hardly happy. "Are you sure these people can make it worth our while? I bet they're worth more as test subjects than whatever it is they'll pay us for saving them, mister Valeth!"
Raine Arland      Despite being a member of these so called fangs, Raine didn't do a whole lot of good work for it! He had to put in some legwork sometime. That time was now. Stepping out and then immediately descending into a sticky substance, he squinted. "Really?" And the smell of copper. Oh boy. "What fresh hell is putting it kindly if you ask me."

     Sigh. "Alright, we're here already. Better get some work done and call it a day." He stepped out and aside, reinforcing what defensive position was being set up. It didn't seem like Fragarach was here today. Probably had to go babysit a certain spoiled elf. He'd survive. "Right so... We got Union and Feds here. No time for the usual 'Hey you!', I guess. Let's just get this shit over with."

     Gudako gets a look as she mentions the survivors working as test subjects. "Yeaaaah, could you not say that in front of them?" He wasn't denying it though. Hey! People needed test subjects. But there was a time and place!
Lezard Valeth Lezard shakes his head. "Look at the behavior of these people and these surroundings, Magus Gudako. Whatever has afflicted them has drawn a deep and terrible price. Trust me, whatever is chasing them would likely be far better and more useful as study material than people you could find anywhere in the Multiverse." Lezard gestures dismissively.
Yuna Kagurazaka Yuna turns to *GLARE* at Gudako, and just points back at the warpgate.

She doesn't even open her mouth. Just points. Emphatically.

Lezard gets a glower from Yuna as well, but the blonde is far more concerned with protecting the refugees; she'll suffer Lezard's assistance for that sake, but Gudako apparently went over the line.
Gudako Ordria     "Aaah? That's true! I guess it'd be a waste of time capturing hobos when we can get whatever is terrifying them. Good thinking, mister Valeth!" Gudako replies, having taken a moment to get the whole picture here. Then again, she's never been here! So she has no idea what's up. Just that people want help and rigged a shoddy Warp Gate together.

    To Yuna, Gudako justs smiles! Which is her normal expression anyway. 8D
    "You're right! That's where these people should go so they don't get in our way. It's good at least one person is showing them the way, good work!" The worst part is she sounds neither mocking nor sarcastic.
Kyra Hyral     "Oh my goddess you guys, could you quit being the /worst people ever/ for just a few minutes until we figure out what's going on??" Kyra whirls, shouting at the Confederacy Crew. "Seriously?!"
Raine Arland      Raine raised his hands at Kyra's outburst. "Whoa whoa hey hey! We're here to help just like you!" Pause. ...Grin. "...But I can't really be held responsible for the actions of my....uh, peers. That's on them! If Lezard wants to do the thing, or if Gudako wants to do the other thing, you should take it up with them!"

     Truly responsible.
Lezard Valeth "I am hardly the worst person ever." Lezard comments. This might or might not be a horrible lie.
Kutsuuko Shiratori     "What kind of a question is that?!" someone yells frow the crowd at Yuna, followed up by another. "Does it look like there's anyone here who could fight one of those monsters?! That's your job isn't it?!" The man on the radio shoots a dirty look out over the heads of those in front. "Be quiet five more minutes would you?! We spent weeks setting this up, remember?! Don't ruin it now!" It's the kind of snappy tone that belies people who have been stuck together for far too long. "Anything you can do, please!" he says to Yuna instead. "I don't want to send these people through just hoping they wind up somewhere safe, but at this point we're not going to have a choice much longer!"

    The reaction to Arthur blazing through is significantly more startled, with people leaping, tripping and crawling, hands and knees in the blood if need be, to clear the way. "Outside!" "Across the campus!" "My husband's still out there, you have to!" "Go!" is his mingled response as several people try to yell over each other at once. Most of them are all looking fearfully towards the interior doors that lead further into the building, as all the fire escapes seem to have been thoroughly sealed up, clearly expecting 'the others' to come through the long way, as is probably the usual. Someone pats on the radio operator's shoulder, asking "How many of them?" in a barely even tone, to which he replies "I don't know! They said it was only three of them wandering the area before we turned it on, and now they're all over the place!"

    Sanary can answer her own question well enough. There are an alarming number of old bandages, stitches and crutches to go around, seemingly dug up from abandoned clinics and pharmacies along the way, but it seems that if anyone were injured enough to be immobile, they've probably been left behind and/or killed by now. "Yes, but they can wait." the operator says, confirming the obvious. "The others were all . . . yesterday . . . it . . . we're fine alright?"

    Predictably, Caster can't pick up a single magical bone in anyone's body here. It's about as dead boring and mundane as it gets, apparent apocalypse inside. Instead, she registers something . . . similar to magic, but not quite the same, far off on the edge of her range to the north. Her Master however manages to elicit genuine panic, a woman screaming, several men stumbling back over one another, and god forbid someone's little girl just started crying. The general sound of mounting rabble is cut short as Gudako's companions all seem to turn on her for the remark, but nobody's going to be taking their eyes off of her any time soon. Or at least they wouldn't if they didn't abruptly have something better to look at.

    One of the chained and barricaded fire exits explodes inward, showering twisted metal and broken wood all over the court lines as cloudy, amber evening sun streams in, silhouetting a figure the size of a minivan that climbs through the hole. A bipedal creature built something like a raptor, but thick, stocky and powerful; covered in heavy white plates of bone-like armour from its skull to its massive, axe-ended tail, bizarrely styled and engraved like a kabuki theatre oni mask, and layered over a sort of coarse, shaggy hair. It seems like nothing more than a gigantic mouth on legs, multiple rows of shark teeth displayed between massive tusks, spines bristling along its back.

    The mere sight of it instantly turns the crowd into a screaming uproar, and a frantic, crushing press against the warpgate as they all struggle to get through at once. Predictably, the thing at the broken door makes a beeline straight for the mob, an echoing roar drawing the attention of the rest of its pack. Six . . . eight . . . twelve . . . maybe more of them, all begin piling through the breach, smashing it open wider where necessary, magnetically attracted to the sound of human screams.
Yuna Kagurazaka Yuna's glower at Gudako intensifies, but before she can say or do anything further, the REASON for the panic and fear makes itself known.

"LET'S MOVE, PEOPLE!!" Yuna shouts, scrambling aside from the crush of people. Fortunately, the rest of the Matrix of Light can fly rather than having to depend on their feet - and they do indeed go up and over, rather than around, whoever might be in their way. The Matrix Divider appears in Yuna's hands and she opens fire without any further discussion, crackling bolts of concussive light hammering at the incoming monsters. There's only so much she can do like this, though ...

The three androids are already joining the firefight, though. Marina is already launching barrages of minitorpedoes, trying to drive them down the monsters' throats whenever one of them has a mouth open; Erina stays airborne, raining volleys from her pulse blasters on the hungry beasts, while Jiina strafes the monsters with what looks like a high-powered beam rifle. Not as high-powered as it's going to get, though; Yuna calls out, "Jiina, we're combining!" and the green-and-white android ceases fire, instead heading for Yuna with her form going translucent along the way -

And then they combine. Jiina's image disappears, a wireframe appearing around Yuna, and then the wireframe is 'filled in' by the pieces of a large exoskeletal battle frame - one which several of the Confederates have probably seen in the past, but they're allies (however distasteful) for now.

Once the combination is complete, Yuna resumes firing - but now she has the option of Powered Form's beam cannons, and it's an option which Yuna quickly puts to use, opening up on the closest of the monsters as if she intends to either blow them out of existence or push them back through the hole they came in by.

Somebody less involved in combat will probably have to handle calming the refugees and getting them out without tripping over each other ... although a piece of Yuna is hoping that just the sight of somebody fighting to hold the monsters off will be enough to help calm things down a *little*.
Sanary Rondel      Sanary lets out a loooong sigh, then bangs her shield against the ground a few times loudly. "Alright, kids! Don't make me turn this whole thing around and put you all in time out." There's a pointed look at Yuna and Kyra as she says that, although Gudako gets a bit of a look as well. Lezard... Well, he's on the right track. Arthur and Raine seem to have their heads on straight as well, so they get brief nods as well.

     The armored cleric turns back to the crowd of refugees and sighs again at the yelling, although she does make out some of the reactions before her attention turns to the disturbance coming from the fire exits. Her eye widens at the sight of the bone-armored creature, and she whips the gunaxe free from its binding before bracing the shield in front of her to provide at least some free space to maneuver behind her as she trudges through the mob trying to push through.

     "Go around, people! We'll keep you covered. Everyone else, form up!" As she pushing forward, she'll take potshots over the crowd with the gunaxe at the raptor-creatures, firing blasts of ice at them to try and inhibit their advance. And if she can get through the crowd, she'll even start ramming right into the creatures with her massive kite shield!
Lezard Valeth Lezard brings a hand up to his temple, massaging it as things go... pretty par for the course when dealing with a horde of panicked refugees. However, things get back to business when that barrier falls, and Lezard's eyes light up. "Aha, now /that/ is interesting." He says, and strides towards the invading horror, mostly so he doesn't have to shoot through people with his magic to get a direct line on the beast.

"Come come, let us see what we have to deal with!" He calls, taking up Mage Position behind Sanary, and thrusting his staff past the healtank. "DARK SAVIOR!" He calls out, power rippling around him as energies boil up through the Catalyst... And a dozen blades form of incandescent shadow, rippling with Dark as he draws upon the strange and unnatural power of Lordran's distant Abyss to fuel his magic... And the blades rain down in a shower upon the incoming enemies, attempting to carve through those thick armor plates and possibly pin some of them to the ground.
Arthur Lowell     "PLACES, PEOPLE!" Arthur was already faced towards where he was going to need to go, but the party's come to him. "PUSH them BACK! Get that fuckin' breach SHUT THE HELL RIGHT UP! YEAH!" Drawing his broom back, he blasts off, grabbing frenetically onto the haft of the cleaning implement and screaming, "EVERYONE OUT OF THE GODDAMN WAY! I have a GRAVITATIONAL FIELD full of MONSTER SHOVING, a HEAD full of NO IDEA WHAT'S HAPPENING, and a SHITLOAD of TOTALLY MISDIRECTED HEROISM URGES!"

    And there he goes, the rocket-kid and his shouting are rocketing towards the breach. And surrounding him is an INTENSE gravitational field, meant to shove, in a wide area. Swiping his rocket broom around, he's trying to shove the pack back and smash the face of the lead monster simultaneously, which unfortunately puts him in a vulnerable position but hopefully, at the very least, slows or halts the advance. Unfortunately, heavy armor is something that will protect against 90% of the damage potential from him with this specific tactic, for now.
Raine Arland      And then everything goes to hell.

     Raine whistled. "Wow. Check *that* out." He mumbled, taking in the sight of the monsters that broke through the makeshift barricade. Yuna's call to action is met with a withering look. I don't work for you, lady! ...But ehn, they're allies for now. Time to get to work.

     Sweeping out an arm, a spikey black blade forms in his grasp, coated in an aura of crimson red. "Heh, alright then. Let's move." Leaving the support of the civilians to the others, Raine crouched low, and then dove forward. "Hup!" Skidding just short of one of those beasts, the black clad swordsman leapt into the air above. Energy surged around his weapong before he swung it downwards, unleashing a surge of raw, non-elemental magic energy.

     They broke apart into several beams that curved around, raining down upon the horde below and aiming to strike at multiple targets at once.
Gudako Ordria     Unfortunately for Gudako, she lacks whatever part of the human psyche lets someone figure out before they talk whether they're out of line or not. Or, maybe, she simply lacks the ability to think before she speaks. It's probably both, really.

    But it's not like she's bothered by the reactions, either, good or bad. Why waste time on that, anyway? A pack of very large, apparently deadly and definitely not normal raptors have just burst into the large room. The lack of magic (besides the faint, similar but not quite signal) in the area is made up for entirely by the arrival of the hostile-- wildlife? We'll go with wildlife.

    "Ah~. Lucky you guys! I guess we'll be killing these, so, you should probably run and get away while you can. Maybe find a less awful place to live, huh? You can't stay here, this is raptor country."

    Then again, neither can Gudako. These things could chew her up in one bite, it'd be awful, painful, and probably extremely lethal. That's why she has Caster, though!

    "Caster~."
    "Master!"

    The blue-robed fox produces a set of paper talismans, inscribed with a variety of words in ancient Japanese; COLD and PRISON feature prominently. "Juso Hyoten! Curse, Frigid Heaven!"

    The foxgirl throws the paper towards one of the creatures, the slips practically teleporting. On impact, it would trigger a burst of imprisoning ice spells, equally to completely drain heat from the victim, but also to encase them in jagged ice crystals.

    Gudako, for her part, just casually takes a few sidesteps to be behind her Servant when one of the angry oni buff dinosaurs comes looking for a meal.
Kyra Hyral     "You're not the /worst person ever/ no." Kyra asides, "I can name five other people for that if I wanted to."

    The survivors seem pretty angry. Cranky, even, and Kyra can't blame them between being holed up here who knows how long and having to listen to people bounce around ideas about using them for /spare parts/.

    Then everything goes all pear-shaped as some tooth-infested monster bursts through the barricaded door. The refugees scream loud enough to make Kyra jump and hesitate just a little bit. Her immediate reaction is to lift that rifle of hers and wheel to the enroaching creature. Support is left to Sanary for the moment as Kyra promptly empties her entire clip of explosive rounds at the creature, aiming for the mouth, but firing wildly, blowing up chunks of the gymnasium, punching dog-sized holes into the ground, pulverizing the concrete with the concentrated napalm contained in the dart gun's resevoir.
Kutsuuko Shiratori     The gymnasium immediately devolves into chaos, though there wasn't much order to it to begin with. There is only so much that can be expected of terrified, unprepared civilians, without any useful equipment or alternate avenues of escape. People can be heard calling out for one another in the confusion, but it's just about drowned out by the general uproar, and then drowned out even further by the thundering footsteps and bestial roars of a dozen car-sized monsters churning up the faded wood and varnish, amplified by the tangled echoes that sound back from the vacant bleachers.

    Maybe five of them would get through under normal circumstances. Stocky as they are, the aggressors are deceptively fast even for their size, cutting across half the gym floor in moments. They only start to falter in their charge, stumbling and staggering forward rather than sprinting, as Yuna's entourage opens fire, joined by Sanary's gunaxe and Raine's barrage of energy beams. The terrain is a dusty, long abandoned, civilian faculty building, and so less than ideal for dropping that kind of firepower. Immediately, everything is dust, shrapnel, ice shards, wood splinters and spurts of dark, red-black blood mingled in as roars turn to howls and hisses. The leading rank is immediately riddled with holes, burns and craters, the creatures hardly difficult to hit at their size, but they soak up the punishment too well for a pack of animals, thoughtlessly sponging bullets and beams as they buy each step forward with a gallon of blood and bone chips. It isn't until Arthur collides head first with them that they're outright forced back, sent tumbling like a double row of bowling pins as he smashes into the lead.

    The blow from the rocket broom caves in the right half of the creature's face, shattering the bony helmet, erasing one eye and leaving part of its interior mouth exposed, and yet it doesn't quite fall down, staggering back up and lunging for him, chomping down around the handle of his weapon and shaking like an alligator's death roll. That, combined with how quickly the others get back up, is an alarmingly stiff first showing for the first random monsters out of the gate, like fighting zombies more than angry fauna.

    The prompt initial response however, has the intended effect, Blown back and wounded, the others have more time to get out their main guns and start disposing of enemies like the mook trash they are. Shadowy blades rip through the air, slicing through softer scales and gaps in armour, maiming and impaling part of the pack, though even the ones transfixed to the ground don't seem to want to stop thrashing, even as their inky blood pools around them. One of them stops in its tracks completely, frozen into an ice sculpture on the spot, though emanating a faint, ominous kind of hissing that makes the imprisonment somehow seem shakier than it should. Yuna's plus-sized beam rifle vapourizes a couple of them straight through the chest, leaving steaming holes where interior organs should be, and Kyra dumping thirty rounds of HE into the gullet of the one Arthur had smashed open seems to have incapacitated it, leaving a handful of survivors still inexplicably kicking despite their hideous wounds, but otherwise immobilized.
Kutsuuko Shiratori     In the brief 'lull', for all it can be considered, the group can hear the distinct sounds of distant gunshots and explosions, and make out the sight of more survivors rushing towards the hole in the wall, abandoning their positions and outright throwing weapons on the ground to run faster. More of the monsters are behind them, chasing them like wild dogs across what appears to be a campus courtyard, though anything green has long since died and half the facilities have collapsed in on themselves, all bathed a kind of dead, sickly amber by the setting sun and the ceiling of foggy clouds. Black blots can be seen swarming in the air, descending in droves with the sound of odd, rumbling purring, punctuated by one, and then a second human scream of agony, followed wet splattering and ripping that thankfully remains out of sight.

    Caster can sense the presence is closer.
Sanary Rondel      Keeping her hold on that shield steady and her guard firm, Sanary spares a quick glance back at Lezard before directing some of her restorative magic towards him. Even though he hasn't gotten injured yet, he can still (probably) take advantage of that extra magical energy sent his way to power his own spells! "Looks like we're clear in here... Wait. There's more out there."

     Readjusting her hold on the shield, Sanary channels some more energy towards her eye. Using an explosive spell matrix inside the gymnasium probably wouldn't be a good idea, but she's got something else in mind: Break! Not literally breaking, but one meant for turning targets to stone. Turning her gaze to the frozen Aragami, the healer fires off a grayish-brown blast of magic at it from her eye, trying to reinforce the immobilizing ice through outright turning the beast to stone!

     Then it's time to actually head further into the... School? It's looking more and more like a school, what with the courtyard and gymnasium and such. "The hell happened here, anyway...?" She muses to herself before charging into the courtyard, aiming to barrel right into one of the monsters and draw more attention to herself. Between the armor, the shield in front of her and the shield on her back, she should be... Sort of okay, right?
Arthur Lowell     Lots of blood. Arthur keeps his eyes from that by advancing past the spilled splatters. He's immediately keeping his mond on work again. Humans normally have an advantage: They can fit into spaces that minivan-sized enemies can't. Out in the open, that advantage becomes a disadvantage. Arthur works to remedy that. Using his SPACE MAGIC, he flash-summons several GATES in front of the fleeing refugees! "GET in the GATES!" He shouts to the fleeing survivors. The spirographic floating gates are small enough for a human to dive through... but not big enough for an Aragami to shove their way through. He tries to rapidly create shortcuts for the survivors and make sure the enemy can't exploit that.

    But that doesn't last long. There's a heavy flinch when he hears the sound that comes to herald the descending blots. "I'M ALL UP IN that motherfuckin' AIR SUPPORT, yo!" He shouts, designating his own position in this, and taking off on his broomstick. He slams a DANMAKU clip into its internal gun and begins firing wide arrays of heavy, stunning patterns intended to saturate the sky with anti-air fire and bright light. It might draw more attention, but honestly, he has bigger priorities right now than that!! "HEY ASSHOLES!" He shouts, aggressively. "Look who's SUPER GODDAMN HUMAN! MMMMM, DELICIOUS PERSON MEAT, right you DUMB MOTHERFUCKERS?!" Intensifying his ROCKET ACCELERATION, he tries to draw off the crowd of air predators!
Raine Arland      "Tch. Aragami, huh?" Raine mumbled after landing from the energy shower he just unleashed on the first wave. "Alright." These people were pretty much all stronger than he was. No need to go out of his way to take the vanguard. No, instead, he was going to hang back. The gate needed to be defended, right?

     Then he was going to do just that. "Alright peoples, stop screaming like lunatics and get in the damn gate. Nice and orderly now. Those things ain't gonna break through as long as those guys are at it." And saying that, he took up a position in front of the warpgate, shoulder hoisted onto his shoulder. Guess he was going to be the last line of defense here.

     Not that he really thought that the Aragami could break through. ..But then, he didn't really know about these creatures, did he?
Yuna Kagurazaka With the gymnasium more or less clear and the first wave of refugees on their way out, Yuna takes a quick look around, then heads out through one of the larger holes in the wall, with Elner following practically between her thrusters' exhaust. And yes, thrusters are a thing - hover-thrusters, specifically, which both boost Yuna's exo-frame up off the ground a little ways and propel it forward, potentially at very high speed indeed. Erina and Marina stay behind, taking up an airborne position on either side of the warpgate, ready to help cover evacuees on their way through.

Once Yuna is outside, she turns up the speed, aiming to swing around behind one pack of fleeing survivors and cut the pursuing Aragami off from their prey. The beam cannons need time to recharge, but the Matrix Divider - even at high output - has a substantially faster firing cycle ... plus, if push comes to shove, Yuna CAN enshroud the business end of her weapon with radiant power and use it melee-style. Against the Aragami, though, she's much happier sticking to ranged combat; getting close enough to slash means she's also close enough to get bitten, and Elner's data on the Aragami is not terribly encouraging when it comes to preventing their teeth from closing. On that note, though, Elner is also scanning the area to try and single out human life signs - get a head count, as it were, of who's still alive, and try to help direct the Multiversal responders in protecting them more efficiently.
Kyra Hyral     Though no stranger to monsters invading civilization, it's rare for Kyra to see it done to this extent-she HAS had some experiences. It's never anything she got used to so in that brief lull when they have destroyed the monsters trying to breach the gym when she watches the outdoors and sees those black..swarms...she lifts a hand to her mouth. A small squeak of distress escapes her when she hears the distant scream and she turns away. "Go through the gate." Kyra urges, "Go through, you're way safer on the other side. Just go. Trust us. We're Confederacy and Union." she says, giving due credit to /both/ of the parties here, "And Syndicate." she adds due to shouty loud McLoud. "Uh oh, looks like Arthur just aggroed."

    Kyra takes a few steps after Arthur and casts a hand into the air, placing protective magic on him- "WALL!" a bit of a rare spell as far as white magic goes, harder to cast, it confers both magic defense and physical defense on the target.
Gudako Ordria     If requested to help, Caster will lend either Sanary or Lezard a hand, whether it's to make sure the currently immobilized oni raptors can't break free, or to help teleport them away (something she can't do on her own at all). Like Raine says though, containment is pretty important, wouldn't want to come back home to everything having gotten chewed.

    Though she notes the approaching presence, and warns her allies of it, since she can't quite feel what it is, how powerful it is, or even how magical it is, due to being... weirdly different, not quite the same, there's not much she can do about it yet. It's approaching, anyway-- they'll find out sooner or later what it is.

    But she does ready up a few protecting charms.
    Never too careful.

    Gudako herself just sort of hangs about, watching the 'civilians' evacuate. So this world makes supersoldiers to fight these things? That's kind of cool. But where's the supersoldiers? Clearly not doing their job!

    Or busy elsewhere. Or... approaching?
    Huh, maybe that signature is exactly just that.
Lezard Valeth Sanary's magical charging is a wonderful convenience for the Sorceror. As voluminous as his power is, having Sanary on tap means he can conserve for more unpleasant possibilities.

Like those possibilities out there. Lezard doesn't seem to react much to someone getting splattered, but he does look vaguely irritated at the incoming Aragami. "Kill the Aragami. Secure the area. It would be inconvenient to have to seek a natural Warpgate if this one is overrun." He says.

Arthur soon gets supported as bolts of lightning blast past him, the Sorceror of Midgard covering the Afterus god's back as they try to run a violent interrupt.
Kutsuuko Shiratori     It's difficult to tell what's happening the ice. It doesn't look like much, only sound like it. It may actually be hours before anything would happen, if anything at all, but even that small uncertainty is put to rest by Sanary doubling up on it, leaving the Aragami a much more decisively neutralized sculpture. A couple of them snap at her heels on the way out, but can't get up or move far enough to actually bite her, nor can they do anything about Arthur take off from the ground. She manages to crash into one straight out of the breach, having been lurking around the corner. Its fangs sink into her shield the moment it topples under her, biting the defensive implement rather than her head, but unless she pries it loose very quickly, she'll immediately find that her less notable equipment is going to start falling to pieces very, very fast, as if the creature's entire mouth was some kind of unbelievably powerful acid.

    The push into the warpgate starts to sort itself out as Raine takes his place and the man on the radio starts yelling people through by name, quickly dumping people into whatever territory awaits them on the other end, though anywhere has to be better than here right now, especially if they can be retrieved later. Those running for their lives outside don't have the luxury of second guessing the spirographs, they keep running because there's nowhere else to run, tripping and rolling over rumbling engines and wires inside, but dusting themselves off and joining the others quickly enough, sometimes with a quick squeeze on a loved one here and there.

    The spray of danmaku fire has its intended effect alright, that being drawing the attention of everything more than twenty feet from the ground away from anything lower down. The Mage of Space takes off into a minefield of curtain fire, hosing the gathering swarm of aerial blobs that he rapidly closes in on, the odd, echoing purr growing louder as he approaches. The floating creatures are no smaller than those on the ground, and even less pretty, best described as jellyfish-like sacks of black flesh each adorned with the shape of a blind, feminine figure affixed to the front like a mermaid figure to the bow of a ship, lower arms, legs, and the top half of 'her' screaming face absorbed into the inky mass, replaced with a huge, cyclopean eye instead.
Kutsuuko Shiratori     The sight of them is grotesque, but seemingly less dangerous, until one splits from the woman's-waist down and opens up its entire body into a massive, hollow maw, bristling with glistening teeth and dark, pulsating flesh. It lunges for Arthur with vastly accelerated speed, and shortly two more do as well, though the others are thoroughly kept at bay by the waves of light bullets that crash down on them, fencing them back. It doesn't seem to stop them from firing back however, eruptions of what /has/ to be poisonous gas spewing in his wake, making for a very cramped dogfight. A gout of it slams against Kyra's Wall spell, dispersing like a grenade rather than a cloud of vapour, before the offender is blown to charred pieces by Lezard's lightning bolt.

    A couple more humans dive behind Yuna's armoured bulk for the gates left open by Arthur, all too happy to get behind something that looks actually sturdy enough to last more than a split second. Her sensors read that most of the human vital signatures present are behind her, or about to be very soon, staying behind cover and moving quickly, but a handful more are still unfortunately far out. The pack of landbound predators chasing them staggers in the direct path of the Matrix Divider's fire, starting to actually go down faster with her focusing fire on them one at a time, rather than having a group dispersing fire in typical anti-mob tactics. One of them manages to survive long enough to place its tail beneath itself and use it as a springboard to launch itself through the air, crossing thirty feet in the blink of an eye and pouncing like a prehistoric velociraptor.

    It seems like Raine, Gudako and Kyra have the easy job sticking behind, until a shower of meter long spines suddenly flies at them from out of a dark corner of the gym, fired in a shotgun pattern with lethal velocity. Before their eyes, some of the Aragami previously thought dead begin to stagger upright, some previously without heads or chests, but now sporting rapidly healing replacements. Some of them /remain/ dead, starting to dissolve into pools of biological slush right there on the floor, but there seems to be no rhyme or reason as to which have been killed and which are just pretending. One of them even manages to stand up under Lezard's shadow blades, simply shoving it through its entire body inch by painful inch, so dedicated is it to consuming him.

    That presence Caster can sense is much, much closer now, and seemingly speeding up, roughly corresponding to where the airborne blobs flock and circle like vultures following a lion to pick the remains of its kill. It's difficult to get a good handle on just what it is. It doesn't feel like a magic /user/, or even quite a magical creature, but perhaps some kind of . . . old spirit? Some sort of Outside Entity at the closest. In either case, it's starting to feel pretty powerful; not enough to cause panic, but enough for some level of concern. At the same time however, her sensitive ears can pick up on something else. The thrum of rotor blades

    The radio crackles to life, the person on the other end speaking with a voice that would conceivably be smoky and seductive if it didn't also sound so worn out, and just the faintest bit unnerving. "Demiurge has been confirmed in the area. Do not engage, repeat, do not engage. Fenrir special forces on-site. ETA two minutes. Secure any evacuees and shut down the gate ASAP." There's a brief pause. "Base of the throat, between the shoulder blades, and behind the central eye and half a foot down. They're not going to die otherwise."
Raine Arland      Looks like things are going well.

     Right up until some of those things start getting right back up. Missing heads, mouths, arms, whatever. And then came a shotgun volley of spines. "Holy shi-" Not even having time to curse, Raine raised the flat of his blade like a shield. Several of those spines deflected off the blade, failing to strike any vital points. But several others punctured his arms and legs with a wet thunk.

     "Tch-! Damn it! Fucking hell...!" Raine cursed, keeping steady on his feet and just bearing the pain. At that point, a radio transmission. "Eh? Shut *down* the gate?" That was curious. What was more curious was the rather specific set of instructions regarding the weakpoint of these particular brand of Aragami.

     "...I'm not about to complain!" Rearing back with his blade held in reverse. A roiling red energy flared to life over it, and while that happened, Raine took stock of the creatures currently staggering back up. "Base of the throat, between the shoulder blades, and behind the central eye and half a foot down...." One...two...three...four...five...six. "Okay....here goes!"

     Taking one painful step forward, he let loose a forward slash, sending out a forward blast of magical energy, breaking out into six beams, all aimed at roughly the points specified by the voice on radio.
Lezard Valeth It's a hellish situation out there, and the problematic events inside are not much better. The stunning recuperative properties of the Aragami are shocking even to Lezard, but he grimaces, letting things get handled their own way. More important is the word over the radio. He considers the situation for a moment, and then nods. "AWAY FROM THE GATE!" Lezard calls, turning towards it and counting to five. That's the only warning those people get if there's anyone clustered around it.

"FIRE STORM!" Lezard calls out, a seething mass of flame surging beneath the Gate and the jury-rigged systems keeping it open... Before it explodes outwards, engulfing the mechanics and possibly shattering the Gate itself.

What, you thought he'd spend the time to WALK OVER TO IT AND TURN IT OFF? That's inefficient.
Kyra Hyral     Kyra watches out the hole as Arthur disappears to deal with the flying enemies. Very soon they become too far away for her to make out details or for her to continue supporting him with magic or healing. She trust he'd come crashing back down into the gym if he needed more help like that. Just as she starts to turn away to get a better handle on the refugee system, she feels several cold things pierce her body and, looking down, finds three spines stuck all the way through her. "What...?" she coughs, blood leaking out of the corner of her mouth. Groaning, she summons what strength she has to grab one of those spines and violently pull, yanking it out of her body with a scream. Following up, she grasps for the hole and fills it with very /powerful/ white magic, sealing it up immediately on both sides. Two spines remain but she takes a second to move to a more advantageous position nearby Yuna. She gestures at the gate, urging the refugees to flee through it before it's destroyed.

    Then, painfully, she gets to work removing the two other spines jutting through her torso. They're removed fast and healed fast, because otherwise those would have been extremely mortal wounds to her.
Sanary Rondel      Grunting as she struggles with the Aragami underneath her, Sanary jerks her shield upwards quickly to try and expose the creature's neck before burying her gunaxe into it repeatedly, hacking away at it with a fair amount of force behind each swing to dig that icy blade in as much as possible. She's not willing to let it damage her shield more than necessary, after all, and it's definitely better than giving it a chance to get back up later!

     "Between...? That far in?" Well, if that's the order, that's the order. Instead of hacking at it more, though, the cleric jams her gunaxe barrel right against the creature and fires several more ice blasts into it, trying to freeze those vital points instead of trying to carve through everything in the way.

     Once that's taken care of, the cleric hurries back to take a defensive position alongside Raine. He's requested healing, so the healer obliges! Healing magic starts pouring out of her in a green light cloud, directed towards Raine to drastically speed up his natural healing.
Gudako Ordria     Seeing those things just kind of warp their bodies like that is pretty gross. Gudako seems too enthralled by the possibility of chaining one up in her front yard to care, though, but Caster's making meek, grumpy sounds at how disgusting the display against Lezard was. Until, you know, giant spines, impalement danger, etc.

    Caster's mirrors appears, floating in mid-air and acting like a shield. Spines smash into it and bounce off, to whatever other corner or wall they might find. One grazes the Servant's leg, and she loses ground from the impacts against her mirror regardless.

    Surely she would try to get a better look at the 'magical' entity if she weren't under attack by spine-hurling corpse oni raptors right now. These things are full of surprises alright. The sound of rotor blades is harder to ignore, admittedly. And that radio message telling them how to kill those things.

    So if you strike them anywhere else they can't die? That makes them even more valuable! How ARE these things not magical at all?

    With Kyra and Sanary more than capable of handling healing, Gudako remains behind her Caster, and the foxgirl whips another set of talismans out, slamming them to the back of her mirror. FIRE and CHAOS are the two words that feature most prominently, but there's also a set of weakening curses in the mix, DECAY and SAP namely.

    The result is that Caster's mirror bursts into flames, and she lunges forward, directing the floating, flying mirror with her arms. It swings with surprising strength considering her class, and she does her best to aim for the throats and eyes of the reanimated beasts.

    Her swings are consequently fire-elemental, with a mild debuff to them. One that accelerates their decay, and one that drains their physical strength. If they take hold, anyway.
Yuna Kagurazaka Erina and Marina bolt away from the warpgate in opposite directions as Lezard demolishes it. Hopefully the refugees were all out safely by that point - if not through the warpgate proper, then by way of Arthur's smaller gateways.

Yuna is a little too busy at that particular moment to react to the updated situation, though; the Aragami which pounced with its tail is hurtling upwards and towards her, and lining up a shot to take it out of the sky - well, Powered Form has its disadvantages, let's put it that way. But it has advantages as well, and when she can't bring the beam cannons to bear, Yuna settles for balling up the exo-arms' manipulator fists, and attempting to meet the leaping monster with a right hook hard enough to smash bricks - hopefully also hard enough to send it flying laterally, to where she CAN pump several blasts into it from the Matrix Divider. She's also aiming for the location that was transmitted over the radio, if the monster's features - particularly mention of a 'central eye' - match up with what was said. Only when she's run out of Aragami to fight does Yuna take a moment to parse the situation.

Something called a 'Demiurge' is coming in. That can't be good news. 'Fenrir special forces' are mildly better; this world is getting more and more familiar to Yuna ... although the last time she was aware of Fenrir, it was affiliated with the Confederacy. She's privately hoping THAT won't be the case ... but there isn't a whole lot to do about it either way, except make a good impression on the Union's behalf.

"Elner, run another scan," Yuna says to her robo-faerie companion. "Wide area, see if there are warpgates within your scan range, and pick out humans and Aragami for me. If I need to see a map, relay it to my phone."

Elner sets to work on gathering and collating the requested data, while Yuna keeps looking for humans to rescue and Aragami to fight within the range of her own eyes. With the warpgate destroyed, there's much less reason to STAY here except possibly to meet up with Fenrir ... that big monster is likely to be big enough that Elner's sensors will pick it up, even without detecting magical or supernatural forces.
Arthur Lowell     "RRRRRRAAAAAAAGH!" Arthur is shouting a bit more incoherently. Looks like they took the bait, so to speak, but that's much worse for Arthur than it is for them. Also: Horrifying. The women split and start eating him and he feels vaguely wrapped up in some kind of freudian, painful thing, but it's mostly painful. REALLY painful. Teeth sink into his flesh but he doesn't slow, nor does he seem disoriented in his efforts to strain to avoid the gas. His TOXINS meter shows buildup, but not enough cause serious VITALITY GEL VISCOSITY LOSS, whatever the hell that means. Something bad? Probably.

    "HA HA HA! EVERYONE WANTS A TASTE!" Arthur shouts, filling his arms with magical daylight and ramming a hand into the opposite shoulder, where one of those vicious, biting creatures has teeth sunk into him. Good lord he's bleeding everywhere. "COME AND GET A SAMPLE!" He's filling them with his own divine power, now, intending to sear them off of him with magic. He can do little for the poison aside from trying to burn it away from him and swerve around the clouds, but for now, he keeps focusing on keeping the flocks from the ground team. They need to terminate those ground forces before Arthur can really get backup on dealing with the air forces! His priority is drawing a LOT of attention, magically flailing a lot when any latch onto him, and being a tremendous nuisance. Which coincides really well with his emotional development, come to think of it.

    As soon as it looks like there may be only one Aragami remaining on the ground, he'll try to get some cover, mostly by grabbing the nearest awful air-creature and attempting to suplex it directly through the ceiling and subsequently the vicious raptors square between the shoulderblades, hopefully transitioning to the ground and getting some ground cover to deal with the air threat.
Kutsuuko Shiratori     The first set of instructions seems to correspond to the bipedal Aragami alright. The instant several of Raine's beams lance through the indicated point, where the spine behind the heart and esophagus would be on a sensible mammal, the creature abruptly keels over dead on the spot, even without suffering catastrophic damage, its body starting to dissolve around it into pools of ink and clouds of black smog. It's not entirely clear why, but it works at least, and finally makes the task actually feel like killing mooks, even if very tough ones. Sanary experiences roughly the same thing. Hacking and mangling the creature's throat doesn't at all stop it from trashing and chomping underneath her, but once she blasts into that specific point in its chest, it goes limp immediately, crumpling under her much lesser weight.

    Kyra has the right idea about removing the spines however. They burn her hand to the touch, hot like a spent shell casing, but not in a way that feels like heat. They sizzle and burn inside of her until she yanks them out, clattering to the floor. Raine experiences the pain only getting worse the longer he tolerates it, but Sanary comes to his rescue with her own healing, the rapid regeneration of his flesh pushing the spines back out.

    There's a panicked racket as Lezard indicates he's going to shut down the gate, as the last ten or so survivors still close enough to reasonably be able to make it all squeeze through in a hurry rather than standing back, the last of them just managing to make it before the rickety assembly goes up in flames, several diesel generators catching fire and the majority of the salvaged engine blocks shorting out all at once.

    That leaves Caster to clean up the remainder. With multiple talismans stacked on each attack, even swinging a mirror seems to be enough to outright blow their heads off, massively impairing their regeneration with the decaying and sapping characters. On the last kill, she feels something hard crack under her mirror, and shards of some grey-white crystalline object splinter out from the vital wound, clattering to the floor before dissolving like the rest of the corpse. Yuna seems to be cleaning house outside likewise, her powered form specifically built for this kind of heavy combat and general holding the line. With a better view of Arthur's battle, 'central eye' seems to match the second set -- the cyclopean blobs -- and so a few experimental shots confirm that the second set of weakpoint instructions is just as accurate, starting to drop them like flies.
Kutsuuko Shiratori     Arthur doesn't need much direction to take care of them at that range. He has enough cosmic power to more or less vapourize anything that bites into him, horrible dissolving maws or no. With the warpgate abruptly 'shut down', the crowd seems to lose some of its focus, and he can no longer spot any more Aragami arriving from the distance, and so his final dramatic suplex goes unchallenged, cinematically crushing the last remaining ground pounder under the corpse of its floating comrade, the rest of them losing track of him.

    In keeping with Elner's findings, the last few survivors can be seen coming into view with the ground clear of Aragami, save one, and the air buzzing with a steadily dwindling number that won't descend. One man fires an old surplus RPG from the shoulder before he tosses it to the ground with the other salvaged rifles being discarded in haste, only to suddenly freeze solid on the spot before he can even scream. His comrades don't spare a glance behind them, bolting as fast as their legs and adrenaline can carry them. Slow on their heels comes a much, much larger shape than the others, towering over the lower buildings as it comes into focus.

    It's just as bizarre as the others too. A kind of broad, almost tortoise-like quadruped, shaggy like a black bison rather than bearing a shell, and covered in white engravings like Greek architecture. Each of its feet terminate in human toes, nails and all, and its neck stretches upward like a giraffe, allowing a likewise eerily human face to stare down from it, pale and perfect like a mask, and surrounded by a crown of goat's horns. A frosty glow slowly fades from its eyes as it plods along, each of its limbs stretching and distending hideously as it moves, being otherwise so stocky as to be useless. When it reaches the frozen man, its neck bends down, and the human face bites down on his head like an overripe apple. There's no crunching of bone or ripping of flesh. He seems to instead simply burst into a spray of red liquid, as if a balloon filled with blood rather than physically human. It continues to chew away at him like a red human popsicle, simultaneously bizarre and nauseating to watch, as the others escape.

    The last thing Yuna detects however, is the approaching helicopter, and the signature of six humans aboard, and five small but powerful Aragami, though she knows why that registers. The shadow of the flickering rotors passes over, and suddenly the air is filled with the deafening roar of high calibre gunfire and the screech of of hundreds of projectiles whizzing through the air. Streaks of gold, blue and violet sleet down from above, lancing through the monster's flank or exploding against its hide, steadily chewing it to pieces. The massive beast staggers, under the sheer volume of fire, pinned down under its weight, and more importantly, /not/ regenerating the damage, its wounds remaining open and bloody rather than smoking and closing up.
Kutsuuko Shiratori     Three figures simply jump out of the chopper, plummeting through the air in freefall, and then collide with the Aragami in what is obviously a practised aerial attack maneuver, massively oversized close combat weapons ripping through it and smashing it to pieces, likewise bypassing its innate defenses. It barely has a chance to respond before one of the figures, dressed in black and wielding something that burns bright red and gold, manages to decapitate it with a strike that seems almost routine. The remaining two personnel follow the first three to the ground, breaking up and shooting the remaining Aragami out of the air, whilst the first plunges her sword into its corpse. Moments later, the incapacitated Aragami spasms violently, emitting sickening sounds of ripping, crunching and snapping, and then goes still again, beginning the process of dissolving. The chopper remains hovering overhead while the operatives finish cleaning up what little the responders hadn't killed by now.
Sanary Rondel      Even with all that armor on, Sanary's still relatively... No, she's not all that fast on her feet. She's wearing heavy armor and carrying two shields! Still, she's making an effort to get to Kyra as fast as possible when that giant tortoise thing shows up. Taking up a defensive stance in front of her fellow healer, Sanary starts channelling healing magic towards Kyra while preparing for the worst!

     And then just as quickly as the giant Aragami arrives, it's destroyed quickly and efficiently by the newcomers in the helicopter. She stares at them and their weapons blankly for a short while before refocusing her efforts on assisting Kyra, her eye darting around to make sure there isn't anything else coming their way.

     "We got anything else incoming? Don't let your guards down if there's any stragglers left!"
Yuna Kagurazaka Six humans, and five 'Aragami' with them - ? Yuna almost *doesn't* put it together in her head.

... although to be fair, she's also distracted - and terrified - by the BIG Aragami. Just seeing that titan makes her think that she's going to have to call for El-Line ... but the sudden barrage of firepower from that helicopter tells her that no, she won't. It also explains the 'Aragami' signatures - and it's only then that she consciously remembers.

The special anti-Aragami super-soldiers, the 'God Eaters' as they were code-named, actually use 'tame' Aragami for their weapons.

The Savior of Light lets out a deep sigh, and would probably slump to her knees if it weren't for Powered Form's exo-frame surrounding her. Elner does one more scan of the area, and then Yuna dismisses the Matrix Divider, heading towards the God Eaters at a fairly sedate speed. That helicopter probably isn't big enough to carry the whole Multiversal group, but they should at least make contact and try to coordinate so Fenrir knows the Multiversal Elites are here to help.
Raine Arland      Raine sighed in relief once Sanary's healing came through. "Thanks a bunch, Sanary." He muttered, patting down his previous wounds carefully as he observed the melting puddles of biomaterial that were once Aragami. "...Tch. Stubborn ass things." He wasn't particularly interested in further studying them, but he was sure that Lezard and Gudako would want something out of this.

     ...And then Yuna's statement about exactly that comes in. "....Right." He took a step back from the puddles. He was already wary of these things from the description of 'everything-eating' monsters. Nah son. Let the nerds gather their own samples!
Lezard Valeth The gate is closed. There will be no Aragami escape today. For now, the Sorceror of Midgard turns to look at the greater Aragami and the way the operatives leap down, efficiently butchering the creature.

He arches an eyebrow. "Fascinating." He states. As the remains of the enemy forces are cast down, Lezard walks past Raine, clapping the swordsmage on the shoulder. "Good job." He says, smiling to him as he passes, and turns to head towards said operatives, his cape billowing behind him with the wind.
Gudako Ordria     "Oooh, there's the supersoldiers! Look at that!" Gudako says, eyes glued to the show of martial might and coordination against the massive creature. It's very impressive! It's not every day you see modern weaponry quite that powerful. Everything eventually calms though; with the monsters 'dead' or otherwise incapacitated, the refugees safe, and nothing else to distract people, hopefully, they might actually get to carry a pet home!

    The warnings don't exactly fall on deaf ears, but Gudako has the benefit of being able to say 'psht, we have a house with two Casters and also Lezard in it, I bet we can figure something out'. There is a very real chance this is not the case at all and it's going to end in trouble for her, but Gudako didn't get where she is not taking risks.

    Especially risks that have equally high rewards attached!

Worst case they'll have to release that thing back into the wild, right? It's not like it could possibly make Fuyuki more of a mess than it already is. Though... now she wonders what'd happen if one of those things took a bath in the Black Mud.

    Ah well! Gudako orders Caster to help Sanary and Lezard out with whatever they need. They'll figure it out. The magus, personally, whips her cellphone out. Does she get a signal here? She better get a signal here. She's due to spend some AP.
Kyra Hyral     With a yelp, Kyra pulls the last spine free and tosses it to the ground. She hasn't done anyhting about her hands, which are raw and burned from touching the demonic bodyparts. Before she casts her own spell, Sanary beats her to it, giving the the White Mage a much needed break as her body heals. Once she's caught her breath, she casts Protect on herself and turns her attention to the helicopters in the sky, coming for them.

    "Bring 'em on." Kyra murmurs "Anything that helps these things die faster."
Arthur Lowell     Arthur's scrambling onto his feet, but his entire body freezes up as he sees the man being consumed. His eyes go wide and his breath catches in his throat while exposed to the gore. He makes a soft, tense, strained noise. Luckily, he doesn't need to change his focus. He can stay utterly frozen when a trio of death bust the monster. It is vanquished! So, you know, he focuses on looking cool. He makes sure to raise his arms in a pseudo-flex and burn off more of the annihilated flesh of the Aragami assaulting him before. "YEAH!" He declares, aggressively. "FUCK YEAH. ARTHUR UP IN THIS BITCH, what up? YOU GUYS got this COVERED? SHIT, sure LOOKS LIKE. Who the FUCK is ALL THIS?" He's speaking, and also magically broadcasting over radio while he does. "I got NO IDEA WHAT'S THE HAPS HERE, but THANKS for doing all the HUNTING SHIT for me, I think the REST OF THESE DUDES will get HELLA SAFE or something NOW. Hey ALPHA FORCE WHATEVER, we DONE or is it CHATTER TIME?" He's gonna head out and wander over to wherever it might look like the helicopter is going to be landing soon.
Kutsuuko Shiratori     Sanary's in for a long look. Each of the operative's weapons are going to be like nothing she's seen before. They're massive even by the standards of the Wyveria, looking like they each must weigh over ton. On closer inspection, they appear to be made of a number of modular mechanical parts as well, with pieces that seem extraneous to being used as a gun or blade. A couple of small gaps in the casing reveal something black and glossy inside, as well as exposing a golden, faintly glowing orb on the backside of the 'guard', sort of like a featureless eye. It's still not immediately clear why they're so especially lethal to Aragami just by looking at them though.

    Yuna approaching allows Elner to pick up a local tactical network between the operatives, titled "FENRIR FAR EAST BRANCH - SECOND RESERVE UNIT TASK FORCE - FIRST EXTERMINATION UNIT CAPTAIN", with six connections, listed as ODIN-6, presumably for the craft, and then CARUSO, KOENIG, DAIBA, DICKINSON, SHIRATORI. Closer up, she can hear some regular speech going into their radios. "Looks like the stolen setup. Yes. Yes, confirmed destroyed. Don't know, but there's maybe six still here. Yeah, I was wondering that myself. Seven of /those/, plus change. Well we're not returning them. Can we let them use the City of Mercy checkpoint? Alright. Understood. You take care Tsubaki." followed by "Frederico. Kanon. On me. Gina. Annette. Salvage any cores you can find."

    Two of them march off, leaving just a young man in a blue and yellow jacket with a thick headband pulling back his spiky hair, armed with a gargantuan hammer in matching shades, a taller lady in olive green clothes with braided, bright pink hair, wielding what looks like an artillery cannon, and a young lady in between their ages in matte black and grey, equally black hair partly done up, and holding a softly glowing, red and gold, single edged sword. All three of them are new to Lezard and Arthur. One of them is familiar to Yuna, at least partly. It's been a while, after all. She looks older. Taller too. Someone in their 20s instead of a teenager. Dressed slightly more sensibly too.

    "It's been a while since I've seen anyone from outside around here." she says preemptively, obviously the one with the mature but faintly unstable voice. "Especially you." she then continues offhandedly towards Yuna. Where she might expect some kind of bitterness, there is precisely none; a purely conversational tone. "Sorry you had to see this mess, but thanks for your help. They managed to block the Far East Branch's warpgate out of their connection, so we had to come by chopper from another assignment. Active warpgates draw Aragami for miles. Only a desperate idiot would try to set one up right in the middle of the city. Are any others still kicking, or did they all escape?" She sounds faintly hopeful that they might have, looking to Arthur with the slightest of squints, as if wondering 'is this guy for real?'.

    "You charged right in here without any idea where you were going or what was on the other side? Sorry you got the shitty prize. Every so often we pick up survivors from outside the walls, but half the time they don't last long enough for anyone to get to them, or they're anti-Fenrir for one reason or another and try some crazy scheme like this." She rolls her shoulders, resting what must be a supremely heavy weapon across them like a baseball bat. "We should be fine, thanks. With the warpgate off, there shouldn't be any more coming, and we have enough fuel left that we can kick around here to make sure all the Aragami are for-real dead. It's a shame we won't be getting any cores but Demiurge's though. Creepy sonnuvabitch. If you need a ride back, Fenrir has a checkpoint warpgate a few kliks from here. Actually hidden and defended too. It's relatively safe."
Sanary Rondel      "Sterilizing? That... That's not a bad idea." Sanary's needed to clean her gear thoroughly for a while now, anyway. She makes a mental note to do just that before turning to face the soldiers with a broad laugh at Arthur's reaction to them. "Good work, everyone. Well, if we've got all this wrapped up... " She glances around slowly at the aftermath of the rescue operation, then at the soldiers again. Specifically, the leader!

     Those weapons are definitely worth gawking at, at least. The fact that the lady addressing the group seems to recognize Yuna gets a mental note, too. "Sanary Rondel, Captain of the Confederacy and Security for the Murasame Zaibatsu. Good meeting you." After reattaching the gunaxe to her waist, she offers a quick salute before taking another once over of the area. "Looks like all the... Aragami, you said? Area looks clear, but..."

     The cleric glances back at the gymnasium where that one Aragami had been immobilized via ice and stone, then back at the apparent leader of the crew. "What's this about schemes? You got people trying to lure you into fighting these things or something?"
Yuna Kagurazaka It *is* the same world. The fact that Yuna recognizes the young woman - who recognizes Yuna in turn - is confirmation enough, and Yuna can't prevent a relieved smile from crossing her face. "Glad to see you're still alive, I was wondering ... anyway, the refugees who called for help have - I think we saved everyone we could before blowing the warpgate, although we didn't manage to save *all* of them. The Union or the Confederacy or the Syndicate will help them resettle, whoever's territory they ended up in."

Not that the Syndicate has territory, per se. Or does it? She should check on that.

"As for the Aragami, anything that got into our detection range is dead and none of them made it through the warpgate," she continues. "At least, as dead as we could make it without specialized weaponry. You came in at a good time, though, with that giant - the Demiurge?" She gestures at where the big monster was taken down. "I wasn't sure how we'd deal with that one," she slightly-lies; she could have summoned El-Line, probably, but ... it would still have been a much harder fight than the God Eaters had to deal with.

"It really is good to see you again, Kutsuuko," Yuna adds, 'shrugging' the exo-arms out of her way and offering a gauntleted hand to shake with the God Eater. "Wish the circumstances were better than another battlefield meeting, but ... well." The blonde's smile brightens, "At least we can say we're on the same side this time, right?"
Arthur Lowell     "HEY," Arthur says, almost a little indignant at that explanation. "Every second I spend FIGURING SHIT OUT is another sec' I ain't HEROING. Ain't NOBODY got time for me to be NOT HEROIN'!" He plants his hands dramatically on his hips! "'Sides, I get XP for it, s'no BIG DEAL." He says, dismissively waving his hands and demonstratively displaying a little tiers-looking system. THen he pounds a fist into the opposite palm. "BESIDES! I got people like YOU to handle the TELLING ME WHAT'S GOING ON part. Make some ROOM up in that CHOPPER, yo, I'mma bring the PARTY to the AIR." He doesn't need it but he's also not gonna turn down a chance to hang out with people and be just on the border of 'too obnoxious'. Also: Apparently Warpgates draw them, so maybe Arthur shouldn't be using his Gate magic outside combat around here. No telling what might slip through.

    "So what the HELL is any of THIS GARBAGE MONSTER NOISE? Shit's CRAZY CHEMISTRY up in my business, them TEETH got MAD CHEMBURNS." Arthur flexes and a few teeth pop out of his torso dramatically. "FUCK JELLYFISH." He declares, in a definitive tone.
Lezard Valeth Lezard is quiet as he looks over the fighters. Their weapons are effective, but why? Based on comments, he's going to have some research to do on the Confederate archives later. However, in the meantime he has this to deal with. "Well, that explains the assault." Lezard replies glibly. "Everything turned out about as well as it could have. Despite this, we're in contact again." He can figure out context from what's been said. "If you provide coordinates, I can preseve some of your load by teleporting a group to whatever location you may designate." He offers. "Regardless, there seems to be much to catch up on. Much has changed in the Multiverse."
Kutsuuko Shiratori     "A Confederate Captain, hm?" Kutsuuko at the lead says. The two behind her exchange glances, the pink-haired lady biting her lip and the young man looking kind of oblivious instead. "Schemes as in crazy plans to settle somewhere else or get off-world, as if they can do any better than what Fenrir has by now. All of this stuff was stolen even though they barely had any idea of how to put it together and no power in the first place. I don't think any of us need to be /lured/ into killing Aragami. It's our job!" her voice ditches some of that faux-casual punk tone. "And I'd keep doing it even if Fenrir told me not to."

    The two God Eaters behind her are trying to be subtle about stealing glances around her head at Arthur, still not actually speaking up while someone who has actually met multiversals is handling it. Kutsuuko seems torn on whether to laugh or not instead, still trying to make sense of Arthur's attitude; the kind of thing that is utterly non-existent in this world. "Well it looks like it worked. I can't argue with the results. You're obviously the real deal if you're not a red stain after getting bitten by a zygote." She then shakes her head.

    "Worse than chemical burns. That feeling when they sink your teeth into you? That burning like a billion tiny stingers trying to carve you up? That's every cell in their body trying to devour every cell in yours. Normal humans, normal /everything/, dissolves instantly. Every Aragami is a walking cell colony more than an animal. All of their biomass is interchangeable. Any of it can become anything. They'll eat anything, digest it, and grow more of themselves, and sometimes they'll mutate and upgrade themselves if it was something useful. Normally you can't hurt them with anything short of a nuclear bomb either, and even then you can't kill them until you destroy or extract their neural core, and even /then/ the cell colony just disperses and eventually forms another one somewhere else. It's why we absolutely can't tolerate people setting up unauthorized gates."

    Her reaction to Yuna comes much more easily however. "What, you thought I'd drop dead over something like that? Please! I can't die until every single Aragami dies first. I think I might owe you though. Just a little." she hesitates briefly, before reaching out to take the handshake; her left hand with the carbon glove, rather than the right with the armoured crimson bracelet. "Demiurge is a newer one. We all hate it, but moves slowly and reacts even slower, so it's easier to destroy if you can catch it by surprise. Otherwise, the only real weak point is the exposed musculature when it moves its legs, and it'll entropy you to death by staring at you." She shrugs. "In a sense? I'm on anyone's side as long as they're killing Aragami."

    And finally Lezard. "Oh? That'd make things a lot easier on us, I'll admit. Even with all the ammo we burned through earlier, the chopper is still nearly at capacity, and I don't like putting pilots at any more risk than they already signed up for. As for catching up . . . there will be plenty of time later, I'm sure. Anyone who can kill Aragami like that is welcome at our branch.
Yuna Kagurazaka Left hand or right hand, either one is fine with Yuna. She just has to bring the left hand up for the shake instead, and her smile doesn't even waver.

She didn't know Kutsuuko all that well before, but in some ways, they forged a stronger connection than Yuna has had with a number of friends whom she's known longer. It's not an unfamiliar situation for the idol singer turned warrior, though; after all, how many of her friends back home did she meet because they were enemies?
Sanary Rondel      "If the rest of this world is as bad as..." Sanary gestures at the rubble around them, then at the various corpses littering the area. "... This? Eh, can't blame 'em. Although if they're going to attack people that are actually doing their jobs in helping them..." She offers Kutsuuko a respectful grin, only briefly glancing towards her partners in the chopper. "... Well, good to know that you can handle yourselves. You ever need more backup here, give us a call. Or if you're looking for outside opportunities..."

     She gestures at Lezard, Gudako, and Raine with her head. "Also.. Uh. Give us a call. We'll talk." The mention of just what it is that the bites of the Aragami are capable of doing do draw a suppressed shiver from Sanary, however, and she checks her shield just to make sure none of that gunk is still on it.

     She's going to be taking a very thorough shower tonight. Just in case.
Lezard Valeth Lezard nods to the crew, the explanation causing him to wince. "Well, that /is/ problematic." He hears. "It would be rather unfortunate if they escaped off world indeed." With a sigh, he turns to the other Confederates. "We're going to be going to one of their checkpoints to leave anyway. We can spend some time making contacts there for later engagement." He turns back to them all, and nods. "I look forward to working with you all in the future. Especially with such... interesting creatures such as these."
Arthur Lowell     "FUCKING BRUTAL." Arthur declares. "Too bad I'm WAY TOO HOT for these PANSY-ASS MICROBES!" He is not, actually, this is blatantly a lie and you can tell because he is /literally bleeding right as he says it/. "That's some FUCKED UP SHIT, tho'. THERMONUCLEAR gets 'em, you said?" He slams his fist into the opposite palm, again. "I can DO THAT! FUCK THESE OVERGROWN SLIME MOLDS, HAVE SOME CANCER." There's a lot of gesticulation there. "YEAH!" This is a real human being. "Gettin' all BIOLOGICAL about the FIGHTING, I can RUN WITH THAT."

    Then he totally shifts gear for a moment. "So I can't help but notice people are dealing with being refugee as all hell. Heroism's kinda my thing? So I'mma send you my Chumhandle. And Syndie Net's runnin' some humanitarian credit exchange stuff, earn humanitarian aid for your world by goin', do some heroism somewhere else. So hey, hit that up, yeah? And holla at me if there's more of whatever this is." He gestures around at the results of the battle. "Cool? Cool."

    He snaps, which is completely unnecessary, and produces a pair of sunglasses that are now suddenly on his face. That seems to be his signal that behaving almost like a rational adult is over with. "HELICOPTER WHEN, YO."
Kutsuuko Shiratori     "I can't blame them for wanting to go, but I certainly can blame them for risking everyone else to do it." Kutsuuko admits to Sanary. "The city is depressing, but there are places that fared better. A lot of places that look worse though. We have maybe two million people left, total, but the number finally stopped going down after twenty years, so I count that as things improving." She looks towards the other three Confederates over Sanary's shoulder, betraying no particular expression. "I think I will. Thanks."

    "Fenrir is going to be re-opening contact for trade agreements anyways, so I'm sure you can leave your info, especially after helping out here." She says to Lezard, and then Arthur. "Just don't get carried away and start taking on all the Aragami you can find on your own. Paylor's run experiments on what there is from other worlds that can kill them, but there's still a lot you need to know. I have no idea what the Syndicate is though. I think it must be new?"

    A silver haired woman with an eye patch and an oversized anti-tank rifle waves a hand signal from afar, catching Kutsuuko's attention. "I'll send you the coordinates. We have four seats on the chopper. Six if you want to squeeze. I don't advise sitting in anyone's lap though. Against military regulation." She elbows Arthur for seemingly no reason.

    As a final note, up close, Caster will be able to sense the same kind of difficult to place power laying dormant in each of the operative's weapon systems, though in many different flavours. In addition, she can sense one /much/ more powerful, but heavily sealed and suppressed signature from Kutsuuko herself. Otherwise, extraction is uneventful, and everyone gets to go home. Mission rank SS.