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War Witch     After entering a medical supply warehouse and confronting masked lunatics in surgical gear in the search for evidence of who is making these zombie-robots, the Elites have crashed down into the basement of the building thanks to Reinhardt's ferocious battle stomps as he took on a lot of crazy medical personnel. And now they have discovered a large room filled with table after table of human bodies, all of them surgically modified in some form, and many of them showing clear signs of implantatio and replacement of body parts with cybernetics and prosthetics. It's essentially a flesh-golem manufacturing facility.

    There have been pronouncements of disgust. Oaths of vengeance. Disbelief and staring.

    War Witch stares in surprise and horror, and says, "There must be a hundred of them. At LEAST a hundred."

    The golden-armored Horus recognizes the type of technology being used and remarks in a state of similar revulsion and awe, "This is all state of the art equipment too. Must've cost millions."

    Apex has no words for what he's seeing.

    But those with keen or special senses may detect that there is more noise in the area than just the settling of the rubble from the floor/ceiling. And they may be able to alert the others that the frantic battle they just engaged in isn't over, as a huge flesh-golem at least as tall as Reinhardt himself comes barreling in from behind, scattering any heroes to slow or too unaware to move with a single powerful blow. While the giant has considerable bulk, there is strength beyond even the muscle it possesses within that frame.

    And the Abomination isn't alone. More of those surgeons with in masks and wearing partial-skulls as helmets fight alongside it, wielding cleavers, long knives, and bone saws.

    Those promising justice and revenge are going to get to try to fulfill their oaths sooner rather than later it seems.
X "--!" X has been shocked, horrified into silence. Robots don't get nauseated, but he's the closest thing to it in spirit. Has been since the group ARRIVED here. He's only stepped forward, committing this horrible sight to memory.

    What horrible things people do...

    But he's among the first to notice the danger about to befall them all. Highly sensitive microphones pick up the first signs of disturbance and distant... HEAVY footsteps. Ones that are quickly growing closer. "... SCATTER! SCATTER NOW!" Exclaims the blue bot. X dives aside and rolls under and past one of the grisly tables. the moment he's past it he plants his hands on the ground and springs upwards... and comes back down atop one of the tables, standing above the corpse. It's a grisly location to claim but it's also the high ground.

    It gives him a great view.

    ... Of things he'd really rather not see. "THIS many people are a part of the mad project?!" The robot hero blurts, disbelieving that people could be THIS crazy... or if they can, that there'd be THIS MANY of them all equally crazy, in the same time and place.

    It's sufficient information for his hyper-advanced cognition to conclude something any decently insightful person would.

    "Someone's LEADING and SPREADING this madness! Who would even THINK of it?!"

    What X sees though... is troubling in a way that others likely care little about. His H.U.D. tactical software has already identified every newcomer APART from the freaky monster as human.

    He's suddenly glad to not be alone... but in the next moment he flinches. Should he be glad? Now his allies need to somehow...

    X grits his teeth, forcing himself to focus. His attention turns immediately to the Golem. "Where are you charging off to?! Your opponent's over here!" The X-Buster's brought to bear instantly. X opens fire with a rain of hot plasma towards the creature's back the instant his hand finishes reconfiguring into it!
Athela Valemore While the specific uses of the equipment is far beyond any amount of understanding Athela could have, its purpose you do not need to be a genius to realize. Though the explainations of awe and disgust from her companions certainly helps to make the point clear. This... bastardization of Life for lack of a better means to express it, a terrible and horrid thing to see.

Xerneas would never stand for this. The Stag of Life may not be the primary diety she follows, but it is the master of the pantheon that the Swords of Justice serve, why they are tasked with the safety and justice of the world. This affont to the blessings of lifekin could not go unpunished.

The young woman is busy stewing mentally to keep the surge of digusted emotions simmered down. Her pokemon remain alert to the surroundings though, an expression of digust curling Eevee's face at the familiar undead lingerance returning to the air. "Vee vee vee!" she yelps loudly in warning from Athela's shoulder.

"Hu--?" The young knight only gets to turn partway before seeing the massive form charging into the basement leading a new horde of undead.

Then gets shoved out of the way by one of her own, Timburr butting Athela out of the way and holding up his namesake length of wood as an impromptu shield with Wide Guard. The titanic golem's rampgage simply plows through, impact throwing the much smaller humanoid across the basement and knocking over one of the tables. Even if the move negates most damage, being hit that hard by something that huge was still enough force to knock anyone over with the momentum.

"Mizzen!" Athela growls as she gets onto one knee. "Sprite, assist him." The small fox-mon nods and hops off her shoulder, scampering over to make sure the other Pokemon isn't seriously hurt. Then grabs her sword from the ground and gets fully to her feet, gauntlet joints creaking slightly with how tightly she grips the holy weapon.

"These travesties shall be ended, now and forthwith! Justice's tide shall cleanse the land of it!" And no, the water reference is not some fancy figurative speech. Not when Athela can send a stream of water cutting like a riptide into the horde of madmen following the behemoth with one swing of her aquaphilic sword.
Reinhardt Wilhelm     Horror is all that can be used to describe what Reinhardt is feeling at these abominations. These are things he's seen before, horror stories about omnics being butchered to provide cybernetic limbs in the outback and such.

    When the bad guys begin to show their ugly faces, Reinhardt goes from zero to ten quickly, as he lets out a roar of fury. "FACE ME, BUTCHERS! JUSTICE HAS COME FOR YOU, ON ACCOUNT OF THOSE YOU HAVE TORTURED AND CUT APART FOR YOUR BARBARISM!"

    His rocket engines kick in, and he chases after the giant golem directly, hammer swinging at the enormous monster at full force. Reiny's fighting mad, alright.
Revan Revan had no words of outrage, or disbelief, or disgust, or horror, or vengeance. No words could properly convey the true depth of depravity. She had seen a great many things in her time, though not all of it she could remember. She had indirectly witnessed genocide. She had been brutally tortured, even more than once. She had seen the worst that sentient beings had to offer, and had once been a Dark Lord herself. There was no end to the depravity of the Sith, and perhaps what was laid before them could have just as easily been on Korriban, given the right circumstances.

     In her galaxy, this would have been assuredly Dark Side, the likes of which she had only seen rarely. Over the years, the blonde had learned to wisely control her emotions to a certain extent and temper her sense of justice better, but the Jedi couldn't say she was above it all, or had become desensitised to the things they were now seeing. It was truly horrifying in ways the normally sharp-tongued Guardian couldn't express.

% Not that she had much time to dwell on it. It was just as well that she could keep her wits about her even as she had visibly paled at the sight. Her Force senses were not things she could simply turn off, though thee were occasions where Lowri had needed concentration to pinpoint the source and nature of what the Force was trying to tell her. She had no need of that level of concentration at present, not when her danger senses spiked.

     "More company, huh?" she asked rhetorically of no one in particular even as her lightsabers re-ignited, already striking out at the Abomination. "Looks like it's time for a little housecleaning."
Maya Maya aka the Blue Witch has a decent history in Paragon helping where she can and she might be known as a defener there due to her healing abilities. She was quite serious today, given whatever was behind these mechanical undead? It was of the same thought line of an infamous figure on her own world who made generations of suffering simply to cheat his own death.

"I can think of the sort of people who would sadly X. Those who fear death or see death as something that must be over come no matter the cost."

She looks to Recan and Wilhelm for a moment and nods as she pulls out a card of some sort and start focuysing on support warding her allies. She oddly doesn't say anything, but there's a simering look on her face, it may be good that there's people like, X, War Witch, Wilhelm, Revan and Athela there... or maya might become more unrestained than one might expect on the likes of these.
Dorian Pavus     It's blood magic, that's what it is.

    Or at least, it might as well be. It's just as repugnant. But before anybody can think about destroying it all? There is a distraction. A very LARGE distraction! Still, it's only X's warning that draws Dorian's attention quickly enough to avoid becoming a very magical greasy spot on the floor. He reaches out to the Fade and draws it around him like a cloak, his body glowing blue as the he half runs, half sort of 'rides' the magic out of the immediate path of danger.

    When he turn to the battle again the first thing he notes is that there's a lot of enemies. LOTS. So the first thing he's going to try to do is lock down some of these bad guys. He aims a hand into the air and a cloudy orb of lightning appears in the sky, connected to his hand by a tether of lightning. He makes a motion as if he's pulling something down to him and the tether breaks. And as it does, a clear line of electric sparks seems to form on the ground in a circle he's aiming at the crowd of bad guys, hoping to get as many of them in the circle as possible.

    Now, the lightning shouldn't intially hurt. But those he's managed to catch in that lightning circle should be advised to stay there. Because once they cross over the line, they should start getting shocked by the lightning. Hopefully this will keep some of these foes in place while the others bash and smash!
Cirra Constantine     Cirra stares at the dismembered and sewen back together corpses. Murderd, defiled, dessecrated. A complete denial of a person's right to bodily autonomoy. These are th things that pass through the Judge's mind. It's hard to help it when her entire training is about Law and it's ability to protect other people.

    When shuffling comes she looks up sharply, just in time for the huge zombie to burst through. "Cover!" She shouts as she dives for a piece of the debris from upstairs.

    Lifting her sword up in it's rail-rifle form she begins firing at the surgeons in masks as they storm around the much larger vanguard. "Supress the large one's movements. Everyone not doing that, defend against the others!"
War Witch     X's buster shot strikes the huge monster in the back scouring its stitched flesh, but ironically his attempts to draw its attention turns it directly towards War Witch who has just recovered from being sent sprawling. She blasts the monster directly in the face with ice, since these things still seem to rely on vision for whatever reason. It can't see what it's doing or even who it's attacking, and sends of one if its allies flying with a backhand punch.

    Apex ducks under the attack and calls out, "Watch where you swing that thing. Someone could get HURT."

    Horus is kept from landing a green-energy encased punch to the Abomination's head by one of the surgeons slashing him in the leg as he hovers in the air, but Athela's stream of water takes down others before they can capitalize upon the opening.

    Horus does turn to the surgeon who attacked him, wearing one of those skull-helmets, and delivers an energized punch to the face as he grits out, "Hands off the LEG, doc!" through the pain of his injury.

    Blinded by ice (even if rapidly melting because it's magic ice and doesn't last long), the Abomination doesn't see Reinhardt come barreling through at all, and with its back turned to him thanks to X's initial assault. To help augment Reinhardt's assault, War Witch freeze the monster's feet to the floor to immobilize it.

    Apex wisely leaps out of the way when he sees the armored hero incoming, and evades a second lunging strike in the process. "A SWING and a MISS! Strike two!"

    Because it's being locked in place, it can't stumble aside or anything, and the rocket-powered charge smashes it full-force, and sends it tumbling through the darkened basement floor... The only lights being the overhead ones illuminating the tables.

    Its staggered attempt at getting back to its feet despite some of its limbs being bent the wrong way is ended promptly by Revan's lightsabers cutting through its joints.

    Horus calls out, "Aaaand he's OUT!" as he sees the team work of this impromptu group working out quite well. His injury isn't even that bad thanks to Maya's defensive buffs.

    Apex grumbles, "Hey, that was MY line." And then tacks on as he sees the jumble of robo-zombie parts left behind by the coordinated one-two maneuver from Reinhardt and Revan, "Good hit though..."

    Meanwhile, Dorian's crowd control effects keep their living adversaries from working together properly by electrocuting them and constraining their movements. They aren't mindless, unlike their creations, but there's only so much that a bunch of mad doctors can do against the array of powers these heroes have brought to bear. And with their movements restricted as they are, Cirra's firing upon them with her rail-rifle takes out individuals and groups in equal measure, eliminating the threat they pose and keeping them from swarming the heroes or anything. Apex uses his martial arts kills to agilely defeat any who manage to escape the electrified cages or attempt to sneak around in the darkness, and soon enough, it looks like the bad guys are down for the count.
War Witch     Holding her arm with fire sword still blazing in her grip, and limping a little, War Witch grumbles, "I really do hate these things." She's not in as bad condition as she could have been thanks to Maya's spell cards. Just a bit sore. The force behind that large zombie's strikes was like something a super would have. Disproportionate to its actual muscle mass. And that's saying something considering how big it was.

    Apex looks around to make sure not only all his allies are okay but also that all the enemies are really down. "How can something that BIG sneak up on us like that? For the SECOND TIME even! If it wasn't for the senses that you all have, we could have been hurt a lot worse."

    Horus, leaning down to hold his knife-carved leg glances over at one of the fallen Reapers. "...Hold on a second... Wait just a second here. I don't BELIEVE this!" The tech-hero limps over to the fallen enemy and says, "I know this guy... This CRAZY, knife-wielding, zombie-making MANIAC. I know him!"

    Horus kneels down to make sure he's seeing right through the lenses of his golden helmet. "This guy was my DOCTOR. Doctor Henderson! He performed five back surgeries on me! If it weren't for him, I'd still be in TRACTION or a wheelchair!"

    Apex puts a hand to his head, having trouble processing this. "Really? That's so... I mean, that is so screwed up. Are you SURE it's him?"

    War Witch is standing over a table with a woman lying on it. Looking down at the blonde lady in her patient's gown, she says, "We'll worry about your doctor later. Right now it's his patients I'm worried about. Apex, Cirra, Athela, Reinhardt, please come here!" She turns and gestures to the unconscious woman, whose right arm has the skin of her forearm peeled open and held that way with surgical tools, a bloody scalpel on the sheets she lies upon. "Isn't this that woman we saved from the dumpster the other morning?" The one who the zombies wanted the arms of...

    Apex recognizes her immediately, given how much attention he paid her. "Oh GOD, you're right! It's her. I can't believe this." Filled with regret and guilt and worry, he says, "I should have escorted her home... I should have made sure she was safe." as he checks her vitals. "She's still alive. Her heart's still beating. We've got to get her out of here!"
Athela Valemore Athela Valemore glances in the direction of Horus' outburst, frowning a bit at his revelation. "Even the best meaning of men can succumb to corruption."

A few bits of broken table clatter as Timburr is back on his feet, no worse for wear other than being tossed around the room a bit. Eevee gives his leg a nudge before scampering back to Athela. "There's too many possible ways to count."

Then War Witch yells from the other direction, and Athela walks over. "By the heavens..." She huffs softly, keeping her disgust in check even as these affairs get more and more vile. "Someone who knows better, please take those... things off her arm. But yes, we need to get her back to safety."
X DOWN go all the baddies... though X is a flinching some at how the surgeon-swarm was stopped... really though? "Just need to be glad we stopped that without losses on our side at least..." Though, that's a hard thing for him to be happy about. It's not enough!

    But with one being identified his expression turns grim and eyes fill with concern. "WHAT? ... then what drove them to... I mean, these doctors came straight at us ready to kill! Even though they don't stand a chance against a group like ours! None of it makes any sense..."
Maya Maya seems to have found far more worth these days in supporting others than being a direct combant it's funny how that goes she muses but she keeps moing she knows these things re not true undead? So certain tactics she'd normally be able to use? Just wouldn't do a thing against these animted corpses. Still she's got other abilities she cna put to use. Maya sees War Witche's condtion and focues upon a healing spell it should help a good deal even as the battle comes to an end. She'll turn her healing abilities on her other allies.

"This gets more and more troubling. Almost all the tatics I use to combat the undead are usless agains these things."
Reinhardt Wilhelm     TEAMWORK has struck again, defeating this enormous monster. "Serves you right!" says Reinhardt, slinging his hammer across his shoulder before he turns his head to Horus. "None are above corruption, my friend. We must be forever vigilant in the search for wherever it might turn up." He wanders over to help Tmburr to his feet, giving the Pokemon a pat. "Up we get, good fellow. Nothing like getting thrown about a bit, yes? Gets the blood flowing!

    He recognizes the woman alright, and he tilts his head with a disturbed look on his face. "Unbelievable, what lengths some will go for the sake of sciences." Grunt. He looks to the girl. "Will she be alright, Apex?" He asks the hero, concern registered even through his helmet.
Cirra Constantine     As the melee dies down Cirra comes out from her impromptu cover and moves over to the table War Witch and the other two local heroes are looking over. She frowns behind her helemt, and glances at Horus and his doctor. One of these gangers was his surgeon? Then...

    Cirra looks down at the woman on the table "Do you remember the name of her doctor? She mentioned it after we rescued her."
Dorian Pavus     Crowd control is go! Damage to the mindless ones too stupid not to cross the borders and get shocked, holding the ones that ARE smart enough to avoid the shock so others can take them out. Once the bad guys are taken down, Dorian dispels the static cage with a wave of a hand. He shakes his head. "This lot should meet some of the Venatori-- they have similar aims. I bet they'd be so excited they'd all kill each other," he all but sing-songs. Yes, of course he's kidding. But he doesn't have much love for either the Venatori or these people here that are making these flesh golems, so he places them in the same category.

    The recognition of people that some of the native heroes here know gets a frown. It's Reinhardt's comment about the lengths people would go for science. "It's not the science, I can practically guarantee. It's the power that comes along with it," he asserts firmly. He shakes his head. "None of these people responsible care a bloody thing about 'science', or 'knowledge', or whatever asinine thing they use to justify this." As he says 'this', he indicates the victims.

    It's... rare to see Dorian this passionate about something. But the ones responsible for this, they remind him far too much of the Venatori, of the blood mages in Tevinter, those willing to sacrifice anything to get ahead-- the very things he's been trying so hard to get rid of in Tevinter. So this is... slightly personal.
Revan Once their foes were dispatched, Lowri shut down her lightsabers and returned the hilts to her belt just as quickly as they were drawn. Yet, she didn't appear to relax, particularly following the hideous revelations.

     The odd-eyed Jedi did not like where this was going at all. "I suppose we'll have to pry a fuller picture out of thesedoctors after they've come to," she admitted ruefully. Prying the information out of their minds was still off-limits as far as she was concerned, so she could only hope they'd be willing. "Surely there's some reason behind"she gestured helplessly to the one who had once been Apex's trusted physician, "This. Insanity has to have some root cause."

     Mismatched eyes flicked to Dorian. "You're definitely not wrong, there. Though people don't tend to start as power-mad conquerorsthey're usually seeking power as a means to and end for some purpose, only to forget what that purpose was along the way." She might have been speaking from experience there. And an attempt to conquer deathsomething nagged at the edges of her memory, but it remained frustratingly elusive. What was it that she was overlooking?

     But their immediate concern was the injured woman. "Is there a way to use the medical teleporter to get her to the nearest hospital?"
War Witch     Horus reiterates what basically everyone here is thinking. "This is SO screwed up. You know this woman?"

    War Witch latches onto what Cirra said, realizing what she's getting at. "You're right! Horus, you said your doctor over there was named Henderson, right?"

    Horus nods his head and frowns, still distressed by that realization. "Yeah, Dr. Jacob Henderson. He's like, one of the best surgeons in the city. He's famous..."

    War Witch says, "And he was also our friend here's doctor! Cirra reminded me of it! She was on her way to see him when the ZOMBIES jumped her, and we saved her."

    Horus is completely aghast. "No... That CAN'T be right..." Then it really sinks in, and a new feeling of dread washes over him, like a curtain of ice that begins to sink into his brain. "Oh God... What if he put zombie parts in ME...?" The talk of corruption he still doesn't want to believe. After all Dr. Henderson did for him... "Obviously this Henderson guy is in on making these zombies, but he's also not the head honcho. He's just a masked MOOK like the rest of these guys we beat up. We have to figure out who's behind this. Who could make a famous surgeon dress up like a mad doctor and create zombies?"

    War Witch seems to be in agreement with what the others have said, at least somewhat, as she says, "It can't be blackmail - these guys fight like they really believe in what they're doing. It's like Dorian said. They're ZEALOTS. X is right. They were trying to kill us. There was no reluctance in their attacks." As her wounds are healed, and those of Horus and Apex and everyone else, at least the physical trauma of this excursion may be fading away. But the rest will take much more to scrub out the horror from their souls.
War Witch     Apex picks the woman up in his arms after removing the tools holding her arm open, and answers the taller man with, "I know anatomy, but I'm not a physician." He shakes his head towards Revan. "My mediporter is registered to me only. It won't recognize anyone else's vitals. It's a security measure after some bad guys hijacked a mediporter prototype to bypass a hospital's defenses last year." He looks down at the woman in his arms and then looks up with an expression equal parts determination and fear. "We'll figure out what's going on later. We've got to get her to a doctor. A REAL doctor. A non-zombie making FREAKIN' doctor!"

    War Witch looks around the big basement area and asks, "What about the others? There might be more of them alive. We have to get them out of here too - maybe one of them knows who's doing this. Can any of you sense more living among them--?"

    The sound of shifting weight and cloth on fabric might be heard by the sensitive among them yet again. Though this time, Horus is staring in the right direction when it happens. "Uh, guys." the Tech Hero says as he bares his teeth in fear and gathers glowing energy around his fists. "Look behind you. I think the other patients might be past saving."

    Over a hundred Cadavers and Abominations are either in the process of getting up off their operating tables or already on their feet and headed towards the heroes.

    "Well, this BITES." Apex offers as an understatement as he turns to his allies.

    Horus says, "Yep."
War Witch     War Witch raises her fire sword and says, "Agreed."

    The zombies encircle the heroes from all sides, male and female, young and old, large and small and all sizes inbetween. Exposed brains and chest cavities, visible cybernetics and those more firmly... Entrenched.

    War Witch thinks fast and says, "We need to find another way out of here or we're all going to wake up walking dead in the morning."

    Horus looks around as he floats up into the air, and says, "There's a door on the other side of the room... It might lead back upstairs."

    Apex can't really fight while holding the victim of these mad men so he says, "Ok, let's go for it. But we've got to hurry... This woman is still breathing, but just barely."

    War Witch looks to the others to make sure they're all prepared to force their way through. "There's a whole room full of reason to hurry."

    Then she begins firing ice beams and slashing with her fire sword as she calls out, "THIS WAY!"

    She can only help everyone is following her because she can't afford to look back.
Reinhardt Wilhelm     "Go!" Reinhardt doesn't hesitate to assume PROTECTION MODE, his shield going up to guard the others while he stands in front of them. "Stay ahead of me, I will assist in keeping the horde back!"

    He'll occasionally swipe his hammer at the zombies, trying to knock them away while focusing on getting the hell out of dodge along with the others. THere's no way he'd win a straight up fight, so GTFO is a much better idea even for him.
X X is unlucky enough to be standing RIGHT ON TOP OF ONE OF THE OPERATING TABLES, with a 'cadaver' right beneath him. It grabs his leg, but... "Rrrraaaah!"

    Well. Strength somewhat augmented or not, it doesn't really WEIGH much more than it did alive. This 125lb robot effortlessly SOCCER KICKS the zombie beneath him into its fellows almost the instant he looks DOWN!

    ... It may be leaving an arm behind. But the main body's going FLYING into two or three of its fellows with enough strength to bowl over a few gorillas. Sadly, that's the limit of X's strength at present.

    Way stronger than a human. But not Guts Man strong.

    "You're kidding me... why did they activate NOW and not earlier?!" He's been quiet because everyone else had plenty of things to say that got him thinking, but now it's crunch time again. UGH.

    X's color scheme shifts as he takes a martial arts stance, the X-Buster growing a weird slide-cowling and (*CLANK CLANK CLANK*!) armoring itself up to look more like an... impact weapon? He now stands atop the table wrought in Yellow and Brown... and leaps towards a group of zombies.

    "They were READY for an intrusion!" He concludes angrily, just as his fist meets a zombie's face. CHK-BOOM! Was that a shotgun going off? Whatever it was, X does something kind of weird for a robot as the zombie flies into its fellows. He takes a basic martial arts stance... and leaps in with a display of carefully calculated swerves, elbows into guts, SHOTGUNIMPACT skullpunches and leg sweeps that trip zombies and expose them for more SHOTGUNFISTING. At one point he even SPINKICKS one zombie into a few more, then switches back to the X-Buster and unleashes a semi-Charge Shot at the grouping! "Grrr... it always comes down to a fight! Why can't anyone be reasonable?!"
Maya Maya fisnihes up with her healing now and looks to the woman for a moment and she doesn't seem hostile but much like Revan she's mostly trying to figure out just what's going on here.

"Power croupts in the end as the saying goes..."

It's something that honestly keeps Maya awake at night and she thinks while she'll kneel down get a look at teh woman she'll move to heal them enough to stablize them nem now. In the back of her mind she keeps wondering will people Like Staren lose it and go down a path like this? Driven by their fear of death?

"I'll do what I can but yes proper medical aid is needed."

She only gets a minor spell off as hello the walking dead are getting up, they are dealing with mass murders here and she feels sick she knows Earth Doctors tended to take oaths one which was almost universal to do no harm. This was anything but that as the undead rise? She channels blue fire into her hand and then comes the /fire/ controled bursts of flame, then followed by lighting bolts as a thought strikes het that that might fry the technology animating the corpes, but she keeps moving as they go.
Dorian Pavus     Dorian nods at Revan's statement. "The ends begin to justify ever more horrendous means," he supplies. And this also can be aimed at War Witch's statement too, regarding blackmail versus being a zealot. "The career of a doctor isn't the most kind," he acknowledges. "Seeing enough people die... it's not surprising that some would fall to this sort of thing. It doesn't make it right. But I can see it. It's hard to kill what's already dead."

    The warning, though, draws Dorian's attention. He looks up, turning to see the... well, the rising of the dead basically. And he frowns. "...''Venhedis kaffan vas''," he swears, lightning sparking to life between the three heads of his serpent-dragon staff. He places himself between whoever is carrying the one woman who might be saved and as many of the walking dead as possible. Though it might be noted that he's staying closer to the horde than might be strictly a good idea. Why is this? Because he raises a wall of fire between himself and the zombies.

    Oh but that's not all. He'll have to wait until the others are out, and he will try to arrange it so he's the last one up the stairs. to better facilitate this, he calls out to the group at large, "Everyone go, quickly! I'll leave a nasty little surprise for this lot!" If he can manage this Dorian concentrates on an area of the floor just in front of the staircase-- an area where the dead will have to bottleneck. He primes a Fire Mine... and then turns and runs!
Athela Valemore Timburr brushes himself off, slings his board over a shoulder and gives Reinhardt a thumbs up with the other hand... Unfortunately the moment is short-lived at best. The other 'patients' prove to not be so dead, and quite willing to pick up the fight where their makers left off at.

It's just one thing after another in this city, isn't it?

The movement behind them causes her to whirl around, instinctively kicking over the table next to her when she sees the form rising from it. "Is there no end to this madness?!" No time to mull over how deeply into this mess they have gotten. Instantly the holy sword is back in her hands. "Looks like there is only one way through this... Quickly, surround Apex. Nothing touchs him or the woman." Her pokemon take up the sides of the martial artist while Athela leads, ensuring the man and their charge make it through this madness. Resolute Blade slashes before her, tearing into any unliving that get in their way without restraint. There was no holding back against the abominations that were already not-quite-dead. If anything, it's putting them out of their misery. Timburr uses his large beam like a club, the strength of his stout form heaving the wooden weapon with the same crushing impact of any forged hammer. Eevee doesn't get directly into the fight, instead tossing out Sand-Attacks and Charms to blind and bewilder the walking cadavers, leaving them more vulnerable for others to deal with.
Revan Dorian's words triggered the elusive passing memory that Revan had been trying to pinpoint. "RightI have, well, a rather bad feeling that we know someone who would be drawn to the Dark Side from losing patients." Or one patient in particular. But she had no proof to link the two, and it might have very well been that the doctor she had respected and even admired had fallen to a different fate. Still, the disappearance was more than a little concerning.

     Not that she had a lot of time to dwell on it. With ignited lightsabers back in her hands, Lowri frowned. The horror of what had been discovered would have to be put on hold to make sure they didn't end up as even more victims. Taking down this many heroes and Elites might have been a tall order, but if there was one thing she had learned, it was to never be overly confident. And when dealing with a mass murderer, one could hardly be too careful.

     Quickly, she buried her rapidly-building righteous anger even as she ran after War Witch. It was almost the Cathari massacre all over again. Belying her turmoil was the slight smirk on her face as she drew on the Force enough to infuse herself and her allies with a small measure of Force protection before giving the leading edge of zombies a good shove through the Force. "They're a lot faster than you'd expect," she quipped ruefully.
Cirra Constantine     Cirra ponders this strange turn of events, why would a professional doctor commit such heinous acts? She kneels down and removes the mask of another man and frowns. Nothing there to really tell her anything, but she has a hunch.

    "A cult possibly. Someone that could offer someone like a Doctor something they wanted. But not Money, most Doctors are wealthy. So what would a Doctor want, that would make them go to such attrotious extremes?" The shuffling and Horus draws her attention.

    Cirra looks at the reanimated dead and draws her Judge Blade back out placing her back to Apex to form a defense for the woman he's carrying.

    "Eternal Life." She says with a grimm tone.

    The Judge draws a card out from her side and tosses it into the air, sstabbing it into the ground, "The Rampart!"

    Barrier sof crystal spikes suddenly grow out of the ground at places where Cirra hopes to stem the flow of undead bodies. I can only slow this many down, not stop them. Move quickly!"
War Witch     Reinhardt's shield keeps the fleeing heroes safe from projectile vomit attacks, while his hammer takes out those who rush them. X's shotgun blasts take out enemies at close range and pelt those a bit further out, and uses robot-fu against those who get too close to aim at. Maya's healing stabilizes the victim enough to buy her rescuers some time, and then unleashes fire upon the zombies, who feel no pain but are as susceptible to harm as any other foe. More flame rises up in blazing walls thanks to Dorian, and Revan's force wave smashes those before them, allowing Apex to get to the metal stairs leading up to the door without having to get involved in the combat himself.

    "Everyone, come on! Hurry!" Apex calls out, nearly to the top of the flight of stairs.

    War Witch, lagging behind with Reinhardt, Dorian, and Reinhardt, slashing in a circle with her fire sword, calls out, "Little bit... Busy... Here!" Then she yells in pain as she is tackled, one of the zombies biting her on the arm, and another knocking her legs out from under her.

    Thankfully, Athela's attacks take down those latched onto War Witch and keep more from piling on, and her Eevee blinds others to prevent coordinating further attacks. This creates a space for Cirra to launch her own defense, forming walls of crystal to restrict the flow of bodies. Horus unleashes a brilliantly glowing energy punch into the enemies that have begun to spill back into the path that Revan cleared, yelling, "Get OFF my FRIENDS you pile of SPARE PARTS!"

    As an Abomination closes in on War Witch after she gets back up, she just reiterates Horus's words, "He told you to get off of me!" she calls out as she spins in a circle, ice-blasting everything in range.

    Meanwhile, Apex reaches the door and manages to get it open only to find another zombie on the other side coming right at him. "Oh, crap..." He drops to the floor and trip-kicks the zombie over the railing. "Door's clear! Let's move!"
War Witch     Once everyone is up the stairs and through the door, sans Dorian who leaves behind explosive fire mines, Apex lays the victim down on the floor to check how she's doing. "Blue Witch helped a lot, but she still needs to a see a doctor right away."

    Horus crouches down with him and says, "Yeah, but now we know it was her doctor - who used to be MY doctor by the way - turning people into ZOMBOTS. Who knows how many OTHER docs are in on this thing?"

    War Witch waits by the door until Dorian is through, then slams it shut with the zombies on the other side eating fire mines, and starts freezing the door in place.

    Apex looks around at everyone. "Well, we could take her back to see your friend Anne-Marie. She'll know someone we can trust to, you know, not cut her arms off."

    Horus remarks ruefully, "Something I always look for in a doctor."

    Now that they're outside in an alleyway, War Witch turns from the door and says, "That should hold the door for a few minutes, but we NEED to move. They might have another exit." She heard what Revan said before, and plans to follow up with her on it, but first thing's first.

    Apex updates War Witch on what's going on, and the latter says, "That makes sense. In the meantime, Horus, I want you to go and start doing some research. Get online and find otu whatever you can about this Dr. Henderson and any other disappearances." Like the mass disappearance of an entire medical staff after a recent disaster... For now, though, they should probably regroup and recover. This looks like it's not a problem that's going to be resolved quickly.
Cirra Constantine     Cirra had to duck down as Apex tripped the zombot at the top of the stairs, letting it go straight over her and down to the floor below.

    Once outside she agrees with the assement of Apex and War Witch. "Make sure she isn't left unattended. Just in case."
Athela Valemore It's nights like this that Athela is very glad she opted for a fighting style that doesn't require heavier armor. That can't be easy for Reinhardt to lug around, even with the hydrolics and rocket boosters to help him along.

But they made it out, and the woman has a chance to recover once they get her to a real, preferably non-psychotic physician. They don't have long, but she takes a moment to catch her breath anyways. "Is it just me, or for every answer we hath found tonight, a dozen more questions replace it?"

But moving on. After a breather her and her pokemon are good to keep going. "Let us return to your friend's place, get this woman some help, and recoup from there."
Revan In spite of everything else, the Jedi had to call this one a success. Everyone got out alive, they managed to rescue at least one victim, and discovered some vital information about this twisted case. While they had no leads into the identity of the mastermind -- or masterminds -- behind these series of gristly murders and reanimated jigsaw corpses, at the very least they now knew what was going on. As terrible as the truth was, it was better that they knew; perhaps this way they could prevent more victims.

     "I'm just glad things didn't get worse," she admitted. "We're all alive...that's something, at least."

     Now they just had to put an end to this sick cult...or whatever it was.
Reinhardt Wilhelm     Sometimes, discretion is the better part of valor. Thus, Reinhardt agrees with this decision as he bails. "That tends to be common, in my experience. Every discovery is just another rung in the web of lies out there." He comments.

    He'll probably do his best to barricade the door from the outside once everybody is clear, not wanting to take any chances while the undead are down here. "Tch, damned monsters...they deserve a more merciful fate than this." Reinhardt comments, shaking his head. It feels wrong leaving them, uneuthenized at least anyways.

    But then, ending this spring of experiments is a much better goal, for the moment.
Dorian Pavus     Dorian can actually also use ice, though it's not his forte. So when War Witch starts icing the door over, he assists her. Condensation rises from his hands as he bangs the end of his staff against the ground, and another layer of ice should cover the door where War Witch just iced the door. Once that door's iced shut behind everyone, Dorian breathes a sigh of relief. He knows they're not completely out of this, but there's at least a little bit of breathing room.

    Dorian agrees with Cirra's assessment, giving a nod and commenting, "We don't know how deep this conspiracy goes. And while I'm not suggesting your friend is one of THEM--" He looks back at the iced door "--if she DOES have some connection and is left unattended, saving this woman's life will have been for naught." Revan's admission gets a nod. "There is that," he agrees. Reinhardt also gets a nod. "We just need to find the spider spinning it, and throw the book at them." That analogy works on a couple of levels, and he's probably aware of it, given the smirk. Though he's never going to admit that he's far less confident about that than he appears...
Maya Maya :does not seem to lack for magical power and she's not really olding back thankfully she doesn't have to press her self harderthanshe is given the calibur of her allies. She seems unhappy to put it midly but they have to focus on the living. She does call it a success for the most part.

"This group needs to be put down, like the animals they have become."