Scene #4388: What's A Greenhouse For?

Owner	Pose
Homura Akemi	It's another day in Mitakihara, and therefore, another day where a call goes out to both members of the Union and Syndicate helpers. But of course, being called here isn't the only way to show up. No, today's little monster is giving off unusually powerful vibes, which can be felt from quite a distance by those who specialize themselves in it. Negative emotions, a tormented soul, countless deaths, whatever your nose picks up on it's more than enough to investigate on your own, if you prefer. Either way, the destination is Mitakihara's botanical garden. Like many other landmarks in the city, it's straight up stolen (well, modeled after) a famous location, in this case the world's oldest botanical garden: http://www.unescosites.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/Orto-botanico.jpg A mostly outdoors construction, occupying several square miles of terrain, with countless small buildings housing more fragile specimens that require a controlled environment, it's certainly a nice place to be, or it would be if you weren't here on business. For reference, in that picture, the entrance is at the top right corner. People who wander nearby would have felt a disturbance as they approached, like they crossed a boundary of some kind. There's no signs of it beyond unease, though. The botanical garden is, to say the least, quiet. There's not a single person here, and even the wind is completely stagnant and heavy. The parking lot outside is full, though; there SHOULD be activity here. Homura waits at the entrance, already transformed and leaning back against one of the archways, onto which 'MITAKIHARA BOTANICAL GARDEN' is etched. There's other ways in, if you're willing to jump over fences and walls.
Guest Psyber	"Look. LOOK. Just..." Psyber sounds frustrated as he steps out of the car, having parked it and killed the engine a moment ago. He's in the middle of a heated debate with one of his passengers. Psyber grumbles, "You're not going to convince me that a muffin is a cake. That's just not happening." He waves his hand a few times in frustration. "Do you need anything out of the trunk?" He asks his co-rider, opening it up and grabbing a shotgun and a machete (because it's a garden) out of the trunk before leaving it open in case Duet needs something, "After this, let's grab some dinner or something," He adds to her, slinging both weapons across his back and heading towards the main entrance. "Yo kid. Any forewarning or insight into what we're gonna deal with today?"
Lloyd Irving	The sparks of Lloyd's forge are typically joyous enough, until he picks up on a call. And the town it's coming from is one he remembers well, even if he hasn't been to it in what seems like years. However, when the call comes this time, he's ready for it. He quenches his forge, drops his armor pieces, and takes up the Material Blades from their resting place. Strapping the belts onto his waist, he also grabs a third belt and slings it in its place, three small spheres resting in special satchels laced into it. Without much fanfare to speak of, and no word to his father Dirk, he dashes out of his home and into the air. His wings beat quickly, propelling him toward the source of the call with all the power he can muster. It's a warp gate later that puts him over Mitakihara Town, eyes scanning before spotting the direct source: the botanical garden. With a few flaps more, he drops into an inconspicuous area and lets his wings vanish, hands resting on his hilts as he steps into view. "Oh man..." he says, shaking his head. "This... this is exactly what I think it is, isn't it?" His attention turns toward Homura, rolling his shoulders.
Eithne Sullivan	Eithne shows up on her bicycle, stopping only to chain it securely to a post before jogging up to the entrance in her red plaid skirt and dark t-shirt, leather boots snug on her feet. "I wish I could put my bike away like my sword," she grumbles quietly to herself, and reaches out to one side to tug her battered greatsword free from Somewhere Else. "All I can feel from in there is death," the black-haired Scion offers, forgetting to do as much as say hello first. "It's like a miasma." As everyone else prepares, she checks on her jewelry. Charm bracelet, check. Anything else... uncheck.
Duet Fortuna	Climbing out of the car, Duet is arguing still. "Look, they both use flour, sugar, baking soda and powder, and pretty much all the same ingredients. Not all cakes are muffins of course... the term is broad and encompasses many that use yeast, while muffins do not. All I'm saying is that muffin is a narrow subset of cake, which has become so well-known most people think they are different things because they don't realize the sheer breadth of cake recipes. Carrot cake, raisin cake, and so on." Oh right, she needs a weapon aside from the pistol. "If you have a rifle, hand me one of those. I'll provide cover fire tonight," she offers. Then she looks toward Homura for instructions. "I've never done one of these, but I know the basics." From... research. Yes, research.
Chat Noir	TODAY... Chat Noir is actually being good(-ish). After receiving an off-world signal that had caught his attention, he'd immediately started buzzing Ladybug to tell her to meet him at the gate. For once, he had in fact waited for her to show up so they could go through together and feel out the situation without things getting too hairy unexpectedly. Don't get used to it, Ladybug. He's not going to keep behaving himself like this. ... But how he gets to places isn't an area that is actually condusive to finding the correct entrance, here. Vaulting along using his baton and scaling rooftops, he finds himself perched atop one of the walls encircling the gardens looking in. The team assembling here like /normal/ people are somewhere over there, at the entrance arch. If Ladybug wants to actually link up with anybody, she'll probably have to drag his dumb butt over there. As things are, Chat Noir has flopped over onto his side along the walls. His head rests against his fist, while his tail dangles off the exterior of the wall behind him. "This place /feels/ spooky, My Lady, but there's not a soul to be found." He asides to his companion, whom he /assumes/ is close at hand, if not catching up. Chat Noir isn't nearly attentive enough to note that the parking lot was plenty full, so the place itself should be, so he's already missing pretty critical information.
Fiora Laurent	Fiora answers said call, especially after gleaning some more information about.. the nature of Mitakihara. She has no bond with Homura or any of the other Puella Magi that some of the other Unionites do. But, her willingness to help is enough. Goodness knows Witches are difficult to deal with. And.. that unease Fiora feels, as she enters the gardens. Is that one of the barriers, that was mentioned in that brief of information she recieved? Either way, it sends an unusual chill down her spine, that Fiora is unused to. She isn't often unsettled by her opponents, but this is.. different.
Anne Blakely	From about the trees, as people are gathering, a faint clicking whrr sounds out. Brass and gleaming metal appears from around one of the shadowed trees, stalking forward. A sleek, canine figure made out of metal and clockwork, moving forward with a simulated growl. "Now now... I told you to stay hidden. I really need to work on your pathing, don't I?" The voice is low and even, feminine and probably familiar to some. Anne steps out into the light, a second 'wolf' beside her, with an annoyed look. She likely didn't intend to reveal herself to all these Unionites.
Ladybug	NOT TOO LONG AGO Tikki, a small red-with-black-spots guardian animal ladybug spirit thing, thrums softly on Marinette Dupain-Cheng's desk, as Marinette catches a nap gracefully on her computer's keyboard, drooling lightly on the keys. Her kwami (said colorful guardian spirit thing) thrums once more, like a pager, before rousing and rubbing a giant eye with a tiny triangle-hand. "Marinette, wake up. Marinette?" The Heroine of Paris remains resolutely asleep, and so Tikki goes and gets her phone out, pages through her music selection, drags a little arm to max out the volume, and sets it next to Marinette's ear. NOW Yawning lightly, Ladybug joins Chat at the Gateway, and then follows the alleycat to the walling where he starts to get his lounge on. "Are... those the people we want? They look... different?" A guy in a jacket, a girl in a school uniform... "Do we have the right place? Chat, you did check the map, right?" Ladybug uncertainly asks, before recalling her yo-yo from her swinging arrival, to switch it to a communicator. Then she dials. Homura's glasses 'ring', potentially shittily and obnoxiously, hope their ringtone wasn't awful! Grabbing Chat by the leather belt-tail, Ladybug hops off the roof. "Come on, they're over there. Let's introduce ourselves rather than laying around." Approaching at a walking pace, Ladybug waves with her yoyophone hand, the device clearly having a 'call out' symbol on it as they approach. "Hey! I'm Ladybug. This is Chat Noir." She indicates her partner. "We got a strange communication you needed help?" A pause. "This isn't another em-em-oh, right?"
Homura Akemi	"No. Actually, I can't locate the Witch at all," Homura answers Psyber, which might be the most worrying thing she could say right now. "I think we're already in the Barrier, but it doesn't look or feel like a Barrier." She motions around the area to make a point. It's, well. Normal! And that makes the point on its own. A glance towards Lloyd and Eithne, and Homura nods. "Yes." She does not get involved in the argument over muffins and cake, but answers Duet briefly: "If Psyber trusts you then I do as well. But I don't have anything else to add. The Witch-- or the Barrier's entrance-- is somewhere here. I would guess, near the center," she theorizes. Said center is almost half a mile of walking past the entrance, a large ring of trees and plants with benches and stone paths. "I'm going to stay here and keep people from coming in," as usual, excluding herself from the fight. Not because she dislikes fighting, but because her powers are uniquely suited to making sure not a living soul enters the area and feeds the Witch. Speaking of souls, Anne appears. Homura frowns, but this is neither the time nor place to attack her. She glances towards Psyber, saying simply: "I'm going to leave her presence up to yo--" She is interrupted, as her glasses do in fact ring. It's not actually obnoxious, it's a very straightforward and simple beep. Ladybug appears before Homura 'picks up the phone' though. "N-- no, this isn't a game. Yes, that's us. Psyber, I'm also dumping responsibility of this on you. Nice to meet you, you two." She might be getting him back for something, for all you know. Either way, Homura promptly disappears, without sound effect or visual cue.
Homura Akemi	Now then, it's time to investigate. There's no mistaking that the botanical garden's area FEELS off, but it doesn't look off. The plants aren't trying to kill anyone, for starters, and that'd probably be the first sign a Witch showed up somewhere heavy in vegetation. From the entrance, there's a number of buildings off to the side in either direction, greenhouses or storehouses. There are plants functionally everywhere, trees and flowers mostly but most walls are home to various kinds of vines and moss. An old-style stone path leads ahead, towards the center of the garden, about fifteen minutes of walking ahead. Off the path, the grass gets progressively taller, with large bushes and flower patches becoming more common as well. There's... something off about their smell and texture, for sure. And the Sun is hitting pretty heavily. It's hot and humid, going in. Nothing like it was outside. Yet, no visitors in sight. A little bit ahead, though, there's a human silhouette in green clothes, hunched over and planting something into the ground. To Ladybug and Chat Noir in particular, the biggest concentration of negative emotions/energy is indeed near the center, but the amount of it in the entire area is only a little bit lower. It's spread out pretty evenly, with only a small increase near there. Someone might also notice that the dew on the plantlife sheens very slightly red. Also there really shouldn't be dew on plants at this time of day, if anyone pays attention to common sense.
Guest Psyber	"I swear, next you're gonna tell me that a crepe is a cake and if you do, I'm gonna just throw you out of the office." Psyber notes, tossing Duet a pretty basic semi-automatic marksman rifle. It's sufficiently high-caliber that she can probably make a decent go of using it to damage a witch or Familiars. Psyber stops to greet Eithne, "Oh hey, you're at another one of these. Good to see you again. I meant to say, you never want to pick up some freelance work, drop by my office some time. I can give you a business card if you want." He grins, "You've certainly got the right skillset." Ladybug is dragging her cat-themed friend over, "Definitely not an MMO. You guys are coming into a pretty dangerous monster situation. I'll give you a quick rundown," He seems practiced at this speech, "Supernatural creature called a Witch. Projects a barrier and reality manipulation powers in a localized sort of fashion. We need to stop it before it endangers the populace. If you find it, watch out for the headache." He snaps his fingers, "Oh right! And I'm Psyber. This is Duet, my aide." He thumbs towards the masked girl next to him, "Nice to meet you, Ladybug and Chat Noir." Switching to a pistol, Psyber draws his handgun and starts to proceed into the garden, "Well. If we're in the Barrier already, watch out. There's usually a gimmick or th-" He pauses, "Right. Garden. Might be a garden theme."
Lloyd Irving	Lloyd's hands tense around his sword hilts, narrowing his eyes. "Very well," he says, nodding toward Homura and Psyber. As the force seems to amass, he glances at unfamiliar people around him and inclines his head. "My name's Lloyd Irving, in case we haven't met. Good to see we have a good force for this." He turns his focus toward the botanical garden, eyes scanning the empty area with a bit of unease. He steps forward, moving toward some nearby plants and examining them. "It doesn't seem overly active," he says, "Shouldn't things be... more chaotic right now, or is my memory faulty?" He keeps a grip on his hilts, tensing his muscles and moving forward a bit more. "I don't like it, but... I don't know what's wrong."
Fiora Laurent	Fiora joins the others, and tilts her head at Lloyd. "Chaotic how? I've heard things, but.." She nods to Psyber, as well as his aide, Duet. "Greetings."
Duet Fortuna	Duet checks over the rifle, not because she doesn't trust Psyber but just because she's doing it out of habit. Then she slings it over her shoulder and smiles, "Chat, Ladybug. Pleasure to see you again. As Psyber said, this isn't a game. It's a battle... or will be. It's my first Witch Hunt, so I guess you'll have to pay more attention to the others." Fiora she recognizes the voice, giving the swordswoman a quick nod hello. Eithne is new to her as anything but a voice on the radio, so she stares curiosly for a moment, before murmuring a hello to her, as well. Lloyd gets a quick smile, "Good to see you in the field." She almost said 'again' but hey. Anne's presence has her frowning briefly. But if Anne isn't attacking she lets her be... for now. It is Psyber's call. But being in the garden... that is an issue. She's not sure what to expect so this is all new, leaving her on edge and a little uncertain. Internally she knows this is unusual, she's actually read many more reports on this than she's letting on, though it IS her first time in person. "Should we maybe... speak to them?" About the shape in the distance. "I thought only Familiars and the Witch would be here."
Eithne Sullivan	There's nothing but death inside. What /should/ be rife with sweet scents and cool breezes feels like nothing but a mass grave. She should love it here. Eithne doesn't like it. But she doesn't really hate it, either. "Wait, 'one of these'?" The girl's accent certainly hasn't faded since the last time Psyber met her. "Yeah, if we make it out've this one please do." She won't say no to extra work!! The sword she's carrying is almost as long as she is tall, and at least six inches wide. She rests the flat on her shoulder as she peers deeper inside the garden. Whoever's behind her may want to duck. "...Why aren't the..." She can /feel/ them even if she can't see them. And there's something wrong with the plants. They look and /feel/ wrong. Eithne strays to the side of the path. "Where are all the bodies? It's like that scene in Alien. The radar's pingin' but..." Maybe they're in the goddamn walls. Eithne drops to a knee beside one of the flowerbeds. "...This isn't dew," she realizes. Eithne rears back just enough to jam her hand downward, through the grass and into the grave beneath. "--Christ, they're already /buried/...!"
Anne Blakely	Ah, everyone is leaving her be. Excellent. "Oh, I won't interfere with... whatever it is you're doing. Probably. I'm almost as clueless as the next person~!" Almost. Either way, the red-headed witch falls into step behind everyone else, her automatons circling her as she walks. True to her word they make no move toward the others, but they also are most definitely guarding her. Which allows her to lazily look around the garden with a fascinated gaze.
Chat Noir	Chat Noir is dragged off of his perch towards the others. He doesn't actually react to this at all, maintaining his lying posture against the ground and permitting Ladybug to simply sort of pull him where she's going. It's not until there are actually other people around that he springs up from his laying position, abandoning his catty laziness and beginning to open his mouth in order to introduce himself. Ladybug does it for him before he can, mostly. "Purr-leased to meet you all, or see you again as the case may be." He offers to everyone around, bowing a little overdramatically for the circumstances. The whole explanation about what's going on is really, really familiar. So is the ominous feeling that surrounds them, and for a moment Chat Noir wonders if they've wandered straight into an akuma's gimmick to begin with. He reaches about to the small of his back and retrieves his baton, giving it a click to extend it to staff length. "To tell you the truth, Buginette and I have been wondering whether or not the things beyond the gate were real until the last time we came through." He asides to Duet and Psyber, scanning the surroundings visually as he does. "The first two outings were very much like the tricks of our own Akuma, and they were both really video game-like situations. But the bad things we were expecting never happened." Not being attentive enough to catch things like the bloody dew, or the implications thereof, Chat Noir casts a confused look at Eithne Sullivan as she examines the plant life and then starts digging into the ground. His train of thought is rapidly disrupted by Eithne's vocal observation, which prompts him to look hesitantly towards Ladybug.
Fiora Laurent	Fiora arches a brow at Eithne, ".. They? Buried? What are you.." She approaches the other woman, her eyes narrowing at the plants. "Blood. There's water, but.. it's most certainly blood." She also does not take kindly to Anne's presence, turning to keep a very.. /very/ close eye on her. "You. You will stay where you are, the entire time you are here. And remain clueless." Her hand rests rather notably on the pommel of her sword, as she says this, the woman shifting her weight a bit as if to ready herself to draw it, at a moment's notice.
Ladybug	Ladybug gives a short nod to Duet, with a smile, though she seems relatively business-like for what appears to be a teenaged superhero. "This whole place doesn't seem right. Smells..." She sniffs the air. "Smells really off too. Normally I love the botanical gardens, but this time..." She scans the environs. "I think I'd pass on this one. It's like... decay, and hurt, all in one? This place gives me the creeps." She murmurs, as she crouches down to poke at the off-colored dew. These are some flowers that Ladybug doesn't want to nibble on. Standing up, she favors Psyber with a look - up, because dang he's tall. "I guess we'll be following your lead, then." The whole place gives her the dang heebie-jeebies. "If this was in Paris, I'm not sure we'd get just one Akuma. How... how does it /get/ this bad?"
Homura Akemi	As Eithne jams her hand into the grass, she would find every blade of grass to sting like sharp teeth. There's a reason for this: the grass feels... bony. It's not grass at all, it's soft green bones. Growing out of the ground...? There's, luckily, no tug. Nothing tries to drag Eithne into the earth. Getting the bodies out manually might be a pain, but at least now you know where all the garden visitors are. Someone wasted no time getting them into the ground, but why? Maybe it has something to do with the blood on the bony grass, the odd smell from the flower patches and bushes, or the strange texture of the trees? The dew, by the way, isn't blood and water. It's blood, pesticide and fertilizer. In the distance, the silhouette continues doing assorted gardening-related tasks. He is joined by four more silhouettes, all in the same green uniform. They are carrying a corpse, and dump it onto an empty patch of earth, where neither grass nor plants are growing yet.
Lloyd Irving	Lloyd turns his attention away from the bloody grass covering, if what Eithne says is true, corpses, and toward the green-clad figures. "What about them? Maybe they don't... know..." As he sees them burying a corpse, he closes his eyes, stepping forward and drawing his swords. "Hey, you over there!" he calls, allowing his wings to flare. "What are you doing with these people?!" He approaches slowly, but steadily, his blades flaring brighter as the fire and ice mana within them grows stronger. He widens his eyes, glancing from side to side while he moves. Radio chatter causes him to quicken his step. 'Bone-grass? What?' he thinks, grimacing. "Stop what you're doing, right now!"
Guest Psyber	"Good call, Blakely. Because if you cock this up, I will..." He internally searches for a good metaphor to use for the woman, "Do to you what Disco did to live bands in the 70s. Fucking KILL YOU." Psyber points at her for emphasis, though admittedly he can't devote all his attention to her and the Witch Barrier, so he can't easily make GOOD on that threat so much as just MAKE a threat. Then to Eithne, "Yeah. These shit shows." Psyber waves around a bit, "I think I ran into you once before." He leaves it at that and leaves her to her investigation for now. He has to address Chat Noir, "I really can assure you that this is a life-or-death situation. So we're not gonna turn away helping hands, but please be careful." He gives the boy a look of clear concern, "And don't be afraid to call out if you need a hand. Because these can get real bad, real fast." As soon as Ladybug speaks, Psyber seems to pay her attention, answering her promptly, "It gets this bad because bad things are like an avalanche. Sometimes a pebble falls and it triggers a landslide. That's when you get something like thi-" Things begin escalating quickly. As Lloyd approaches the strangers, who are carrying corpses, Psyber lifts up his pistol and levels it, "That might be one of the Familiars," It's as much an answer to Duet a moment ago as it is to Lloyd as he approaches the figure, "Stay on guard. Get ready for a fight."
Eithne Sullivan	Nothing reaches up to grab her, pull her under. Eithne didn't /think/ it would, but the crunch and prick of needles into the flesh of her hand isn't a welcome alternative either. "Ow...!" Still, she feels around in the earth, shoving her arm in past the elbow. Only her unnatural strength lets her dig like this, even if the soil is a bit loose. "Where, where..." Her hand touches cold flesh. "<Ardú>," she mutters to the soil, grasping tight. Something shifts underneath the grass, and Eithne leans back, tugging. "Come on...!" A mound forms, bone grass rattling. Eithne falls back on her butt as a woman's corpse climbs the rest of the way out of the flowerbed, red streaks drug up the length of her own arm from the grass needles. "Come on out, then," she tells the dead woman, and gets back to her feet.
Homura Akemi	The dead woman isn't intact; her flesh and bones have grown out into a mess. It's not gory, amazingly, but it functionally looks like her body had been turned into a seed and was starting to grow a tree out of it. The tree's brown and all, it looks like wood (ish), but it's meat to the touch.
Duet Fortuna	Duet narrows her eyes at Blakely, but that's all. Chat and Ladybug she knows are... reasonably competent, if very green to the Multiverse. On that note, "There are a lot of strange situations that you'll encounter. You have to be adaptable." The masked woman lifts the rifle as Lloyd approaches though, and she draws a bead on the silhouettes that are appearing and... holds fire, for now. "Ladybug, your weapon might be particularly effective. I think. Maybe." She does remember something about purification? She never got to see it in action. As Eithne draws the corpse out, Duet frowns... for some reason. She says nothing though.
Chat Noir	Ordinarily Chat Noir would be all over Ladybug's remarks concerning botanical gardens, but after a few minutes in this place most of that has drained out of him. It's a little hard to want to be ultra cheerful and joking when you're standing on a graveyard and people are pulling corpses out of the ground around you. He replies to Psyber, "Just tug on my tail if I get too far ahead. My Lady will probably do it first, but that's what it's there for." He /does/ rush ahead like a moron a lot of the time, but it's not because he doesn't appreciate having help. He just doesn't think that much about things before he does them, unless somebody plants that idea first. Speaking of, if what Psyber was saying wasn't enough to impress the situation upon him, Eithne Sullivan pulling a corpse out of the ground and animating it definitely is. For a moment he stands there with his mouth hanging partway open, very obvious horrified by this. He's seen a lot of /weird/ things, but dead people is usually not among them. "What are you doing that for?" He demands of Eithne, torn between outrage and confusion.
Anne Blakely	Oh, that looks pretty... "Interesting," Anne says aloud. She doesn't chatter at all, but she is staring, looking at the 'grass' and the woman, then over at the silhouettes. The wolf-things settle on either side. "I don't really work with corpses much," she notes. At Psyber's threat, she smiles. "If you wish. You probably could. Of course, whatever is causing that young girl's fascinating 'gem' to darken would doubtless continue if she stayed locked up. I didn't leave the key near her, I'm afraid."
Homura Akemi	Upon approaching the men, their appearance becomes more obvious. They're not human at all; their skin is bark and stone, animated like cheap 3D CG from the early 2000's. The style where you can plainly see they're CG over a green screen. If you were watching a movie it'd probably be really fully how awful the effects are, but seeing it in reality is probably more odd than anything. Possibly disorienting to look at them for too long, either. They mess with depth perception. At least their clothes are real, actual botanical garden caretaker uniforms. Unsurprisingly, the moment Lloyd attempts to chat them up, the five stop what they're doing. Behind them, the corpse is slowly being absorbed into the ground. The Familiars raise their hands! Sharp tree branches shoot out of them like blades, not just at Lloyd but at anyone else who's approached within about twenty meters. Those things have absurd range, the burst of growth covering a large cone in front of them. Sadly, distance won't help. Their feet anchor to the ground, roots bursting out of the ground under the feet of those not in melee range, trying to tie them down. And then, jagged stones and spikes of wood follow suit. Ladybug and Chat Noir can clearly feel something stir. The area has taken notice of them. It's coming from the center, much more clearly than before. And on the bright side, Chat Noir is totally familiar with kicking ass! He can forget about zombies by bashing in some tree-people faces.
Lloyd Irving	As Lloyd approaches, the beings turn on him. Their appearance freezes the swordsman almost completely dead in his tracks, though not enough to dull his reflexes completely. He leaps down and to one side as the branches shoot out, though several catch him around the head and shoulders. He shakes it off a bit, blood trickling from the wounds as he's hit, but he recovers quickly. "Alright. Not the talking sort then, huh?" He smirks, funneling more mana into his blades as he straightens up. "I can deal with that." He swings both his blades out, sending a return wave of ice and fire toward the Familiars. He continues attempting to advance; while he can fight at range with magic and his sword beams, up close is his bread and butter. "Everyone alright?" he calls back over his shoulder, glancing back even as he stumbles forward.
Guest Psyber	"First cat I ever met that asked me to pull on its tail." Psyber considers, watching as the appearance of the men becomes more clear and the area becomes hostile. Immediately realizing two things: 1) The two costumed heroes can be classified as idealistic heroes, and 2) Those are definitively Familiars, Psyber says, "Hey just a heads up, those things aren't people, even if they look like it. They're magical projections." Call it a somewhat pre-emptive heading off of one moral quandry, mostly because Chat Noir is in the middle of a far more severe moral quandry that he has to puzzle through on his own. Sorry, Chat. "Damnit." Roots wrap around Psyber's leg and that machete he pulled out of his car is drawn. Normally, this thing is a total Supernatural Creature killer. Double-sided with a serrated iron edge opposite a standard-blade silver-coated edge. Today, it's just a weed-whacker. "You and I aren't done," Psyber says to Blakely in annoyance, clearly pissed off that she has just enough leverage to keep him from using the machete on her instead of the roots. Sadly, she has a hostage and Psyber's hands are tied until he can get ahold of the final missing girl. So he just shears the roots binding his feet away with a few hard slashes of his blade. "We got anyone with fire here today? I could go for some serious deforestation about now."
Eithne Sullivan	This corpse is... She's never seen anything like this before. It'd be sort of beautiful if it weren't so completely, unmistakeably unnatural. "What happened to yeh...?" Eithne murmurs in dismay. She doesn't even know if the woman /can/ talk. Maybe it's better if she doesn't. "I just wanted to ask her what happened," Eithne tries to explain to the boy in the black catsuit. This kind of reaction is why she doesn't use death boons often! "But she's so messed up by the Witch or... whatever this is, I donno if she can even speak anymore." The Scion glances behind her, watching Lloyd approach what she assume are the Witch's Familiars-- Aw, hell. Eithne gets her sword up in time to block one branch, but two more skid off of her skin, leaving bloody gouges in her shirt. That's well and good enough, but the people behind her are--! Eithne jams the dulled tip of her greatsword into the soil and focuses her traces of her mother's power. She has no idea if it will work or not. If this were a normal garden, she would be certain of every last leaf and bud withering in seconds. But this isn't her garden, and these plants may not be normal. If she's wrong she's left her back open. But if she's right, the roots trying to grasp people will wither and die.
Ladybug	Poking at leaves and grass lightly with a suited finger removes a lot of the 'tactile' feel of things, though the sheer wrongness of things is plain to see, feel, and smell. Ugh, and the /smell/. "An avalanch." She repeats, rolling that thought in her head. "That sounds awful. A mountain of pain just falling down at a slight provocation." She sighs, standing up and following deeper in a bit. "For us, it's one bad day. People are caught up in an awful moment, and that's when... Well, when we have to step in." She relates, blissfully not close enough to see Eithene raising the goshdarned dead. Duet gets a nod, and a little smile. "Maybe? If you see any purple butterflies, let me know." She half-jokes, glancing around furtively and actively trying to spot 'the problem', beyond the awful 'an akuma being created right near her' feeling that's lingering in the air, oozing from the center of the gardens. Chat's call-out gets her to look, though -- And then her horror is headed off by duty. She spins her yo-yo like a whirling red shield to splinter away the branches headed for her from the Familiar's arms, before leaping backwards forcefully, landing her in the second area of effect zone like a particularly unlucky jumping dragoon or bard - out of the line attack, into the fire. Her feet land on seeking roots, tripping her up, as she is reduced to an entirely defensive-focused scamper to stay on top of things. "This is normal to you?! This much... pure awfulness?!" At least the zombies aren't moaning about taking their miraculous. That's a welcome change!
Chat Noir	The hairclip-ears atop Chat Noir's head twitch, and he detects the sub-surface attack coming several instants before it actually does. He snaps his staff into two pieces, plants one end into the ground and triggers its extension function while climbing atop in a crouch. The distance it's instructed to rise isn't too terribly high, but enough to get out of the overlapping cones and the foliage rising up from below-- temporarily, anyway. He calls into the surroundings, "Going up-- grab on quick if you need a ride!" He had to react so fast that his disturbed response to the zombie-raising, while not forgotten, is definitely sidelined. Conversationally he calls towards Duet, "I'm not feline too good about this situation, but flexibility is my forte. It isn't so hard when you take the shape of your container!" A tense nod is offered towards Psyber's explanation of the Familiars. It was probably a good call, because otherwise Chat Noir could only assume that they were people converted by the Witch, rather than artificial constructs. Meanwhile he spots Ladybug fleeing from the animate foliage, and immediately hurls the remaining segment of his staff in-hand towards the pursuing plants. Ill fortune, thy name is Chat Noir. The force of the throw causes the extended segment of his staff to tilt, aaaaand he's falling in the direction of the projectile-spewing Familiars with an alarmed shout. The fall /itself/ isn't the potential problem, but falling into their cones of fire is definitely a concern, and he's well on his way there now.
Duet Fortuna	It... isn't surprising, for Duet, to feel the roots tear out of the ground and wrap around her legs, nor the vicious tearing of wood and stone. It is something she might have tried in their situation, though with less precision. Fortunately, she had the foresight to pack that rifle, and immediately fires a shot at the Familiar nearest her. She's far from a crack shot, but with a rifle like this, at a range like this, she probably doesn't need to be. "i wouldn't call this normal," she replies. "I'm used to awful things, but this is strange for me too." Horror is something she's seen a lot of, but the reality twisting nature of the appearance makes this starkly different from what she's used to. And to escape the vegetation, Duet LEAPS! She jumps far more than than a human should... and it's a great way to put some distance between her and the grasping vines. In theory. She actually ends up losing a shoe, and tumbles rather unimpressively into a heap farther back. "Ow."
Anne Blakely	This is annoying to Anne though. She's not one to work with roots and living things preferring steel and dead wood instead. Zombies smell. This means she's grappled pretty much immediately, and her response is... a collapsable sword, the blade springing out and slicing with a scowl. She's not all that great at this, though, so she's just hacking at the foliage. Her automatons are much better off. Brass and iron ripple with unnaturally powerful movements, and the constructs leap forward. They don't have the smooth motion of some of the constructs people have seen before... these aren't soulbound like others she's made. They are high quality though, and are bolting for the Familiar, making synthetic barking noises. "Fly my pretties. Or somethi- AH!" Oh it looks like a jagged spire actually tore into her calf. So she CAN feel pain after all.
Homura Akemi	Lloyd advances, swinging ice and fire about. As one could expect plantlife is pretty easy to threaten with either element, so both is a bit overkill. His swipes blast one of the five Familiars apart pretty much immediatly, while cutting chunks of the other four's skin and attacks (the giant cone of sharp roots, namely) off, buying the others a bit of respite. Psyber teaches roots not to mess with his boots, almost assuredly in time to avoid the spikes and stones surging out of the ground to hit him. Not that they let up; as he moves, it keeps happening, though now that he expects it it's probably easier to deal with. Sadly for Enya the corpse cannot talk, but she wouldn't know anything anyway, so nothing is lost on that end. Still, Eithne's power courses through the ground. It IS difficult to override the Witch's authority-- this is HER world, after all-- but not impossible. Roots begin dying, and even the Familiars are slowing down under the pressure of Enya's gifts. Ladybug's yo-yo, coupled with Lloyd and Eithne's swipes, provide full coverage against the cone attack. Not to mention the Familiars' arms, two of the four remaining now without arms. Duet's rifle even eliminates one more Familiar. If they couldn't be dealt with with guns, Homura's story would have had a much more abrupt end. This works out in Chat Noir's favor, since when he falls towards the three remaining Familiars, two don't even have arms anymore. The other is thoroughly busy shooting branches at Lloyd to keep the swordsman from reaching him, but is quickly losing ground. So rather than fall into an attack, the cat falls onto one of the disarmed Familiars! It's kind of awkward, at first, until the tree-person sprouts large thorns. Think fast! While one Familiar continues fighting back Lloyd, and one is under Chat Noir, the final one reshapes its body, turning larger and more tree-like. Branches shoot out again, thorny hands large enough to grab a person and crush them. It's aiming at Duet, Eithne, and Anne's familiars (trying to intercept them!), specifically. MEANWHILE... isn't it getting hotter? There's noise, like big, great metallic fans activating; yet, no wind. And then THUDS, like massive footsteps getting closer. The Sun in the sky is hitting harder and harder, and the air reaches maximum humidity, clinging to the skin, hard to breathe. Feels like being locked in a car whose windows you can't open. No A/C, either.
Lloyd Irving	Lloyd nods as one of the Familiars is taken apart under his attack, turning to face another as the room grows hotter. He pants, using the Vorpal Sword-wielding hand to brush sweat out of his face. He channels more mana into the ice blade, trying to cool himself down but realizing he has to keep fighting. He fends the Familiar attacking him off with his flame sword, flaring it to turn up the heat on the plant-based monstrosity. But he has to swing the ice blade as well to keep from being overtaken, and he sends slashes and waves of both elements at the Familiar. He shakes his head, sweat pouring off him like crazy as he exerts himself further, noting the third, unoccupied Familiar growing larger and swiping at the rest of the party. With the heat being turned up, literally, he knows he has to drop his opponent. "Would anyone object to me turning this place into a freezer?" he calls over the sounds of fighting.
Eithne Sullivan	Eithne grimaces at the feeling of resistance, like wriggling worms made of strange energy. She's rarely had to kill plants - something she enjoys even less than killing people - but this is different. They've never fought BACK before! (Plants, that is. People generally do fight back.) The heat's something intense - being a port city, Belfast almost always has wind and a breeze even in the middle of the warmest summers. This dead air... this stifling heat... Yanking her sword free, she turns to face the Familiars and nearly gets swept off her feet for her trouble; only a last-second dive out of the way keeps her from being grabbed up by the long arm of the monster tree. Eithne manages to miss that, but lands hard on her side and nearly on her sword. It's not nearly sharp enough to harm her, but it would've been intensely uncomfortable. Shoving herself back up to her feet, the Scion grabs her greatsword and ... takes off running. At the tree monster. While unleashing a streak of profanity that threatens to turn the air blue around her. "...AND YER MA TOO!" she finishes, swinging that enormous slab of iron in an arc that could fell a normal, non-monster tree.
Guest Psyber	"That's a complex question," Psyber tells Ladybug in a pretty honest tone. She asked, and he's somewhat focused in on listening to her when she asks him something, so he'll reply honestly and quickly, "I've been exposed to a high volume of traumatic experiences, but I wouldn't say it's normalized terrible situations for me so much as given me the ability to internalize my emotions until later, because a lot of people need someone to remain calm under high stress situation." His answer is, if nothing else, genuine. Freeing himself, he hops up and away from the roots that were entangling him, trying to cut roots out from under Ladybug and let her maneuver, "If it helps, I hope you never wind up used to this sort of thing." He offers as a condolence. He lunges and grabs Duet's shoe when she falls, tossing it towards her. "God, we're this bad off and the Witch hasn't even appeared yet. This isn't good. We need to rally." Leaping straight up, Psyber rips a page out of the inside of his jacket. Said leaf of paper magically turns into a separate object, specifically a very large silver-and-cobalt hammer, "Fine." He grumbles, sweat accruing from the suffocating heat of the surroundings, "I'll just make it so the ground can't attack back. "Erinyes! Fall!" Hammer in hand, Psyber descends towards the ground and tries to bring the hammer down hard enough to split the terrain, crack the ground, and impede root growth.
Duet Fortuna	Duet catches the shoe with a loud huff, then yanks it on with a struggle, her rifle laying at her side. "Thanks. Clear out, I do have one trick that might slow her down, but ah... I don't want any of you caught up in it." Psyber and those who were around when she talked about this might recall what it was, but that'll be clear very shortly. Eithne's attempt to subjugate the roots isn't... really something she is aware of. As Duet stands, though, the Scion might get a little help. Edging away from the others, she concentrates... And then is impaled through the shoulder with a wet 'schluck!' Fortunately she's tougher than she looks, but there's still a spatter of blood. "Bah..." A little woozily, she refocuses... and the entropic field spreads out from her, reaching under to attempt to wither the roots by sucking away their life force, and hopefully giving her a bit of the result. You know, to compensate for the blood loss.
Chat Noir	It may be that Chat Noir doesn't fall into the horrible cone sprays that occurred earlier, but it doesn't change the fact that he involuntarily hugs a plant-person that immediately sprouts a bunch of thorns that he is quite sure did their best to skewer him. He is /not/ in time to actually do anything about this, giving a yowl of pain alarm as he disentangles himself from the thorny surface of the Familiar. He reaches back and snags the overextended staff before it hits the ground, drawing it back in to a relatively normal size. A whistle carries on towards him from nearby, as the end of his staff he threw to help Ladybug turns right back around and returns to him. At a glance, he doesn't seem to have suffered punctures. The suit seems to perform the same function as armor, but from that yowl it's probably fair to assume that it's not one hundred percent at absorbing damage. He leaps backwards defensively, putting some distance between himself and the armless, thorned familiars. Green, slitted eyes dart between his familiar and the ones nearby. His ear-clips twitch again as the surroundings hum with the sound of enormous fans. Chat Noir can feel himself beginning to sweat profusely before he's made a single additional move. Giving himself a little bit of extra length with his now-recombined staff, he steps forward and thrusts it towards the familiar that had skewered him. "I didn't think to bring a bathing suit to accommodate such a hot day," He complains aloud, "anybody have any bright ideas?"
Anne Blakely	Anne's constructs are metal, not flesh... but they have joints and clockwork, so the assault of elongating branches tears open plating and yanks sprockets from their places. Of course, as a combat model, both of them have multiple redundancies and are helped along by magic, including her current guidance. While Anne is slashing, the wolves leap! Jaws snap down, as both of them still have those, but one of the two ends up leaving the bottom half of a foreleg behind, and the other one is making a disturbing grinding noise every time it snaps forward. Well, Anne has a couple other tricks up her sleeve. Namely the small vial she's tipping back, taking a break from slashing. "Mn... this is really inconvenient. I think I prefer being OUTSIDE this little pocket." A deep breath, and a stream of flame erupts from her lips, a bit carelessly trying to torch the roots and plants nearby.
Ladybug	Recieving cover from Psyber in the footsies game she was playing with grabing, sawing, crushing plant-tacles, Ladybug flashes him a quick smile of acknowledgement, though she's a bit beyond conversation at this moment. Things are getting... worse! She has a mild discomfort over killing - or even putting down - the familiars, but more than that, things are getting a little heated. Literally! With a total lack of direction and no Akuma out to handle, this seems like a job for Convenient Plot Item Power! Looking at the Oppressively Bright Sun, she squints. It can't be real... it was too late in the day for it to be this summertime sweltering. Throwing her yo-yo in the air, Ladybug calls out, loudly, "Lucky Charm!" as... As she does a weird pose and hearts and stuff flow out of her spinning-in-the-air-for-no-reason-because-magic weapon explodes with a wave of positive energy and Good Luck. And then it ends. And a pair of gaudily red plastic sunglasses - giant aviator frames - with black polka-dots on them drops into her hands. "Wha... that's not enough for...!" She complains, looking around. The Sun. It's definitely not daylight. Chat Noir! Chat Noir's staff! The sunglasses! A plan emerges. "Chat, I've got it! This will sound really really dumb, but..." She throws him the sunglasses. "Catch! Put them on, and then go up and destroy that fake sun! Be quick, don't get burned!"
Homura Akemi	We're going to spare you the details, but those Familiars can't fight off half a dozen Elites suddenly deciding they need to die. It doesn't help that Eithne has them debuffed (and is now fighting back, too), that Lloyd is hitting dual weaknesses with his swords, that Duet goes full entropy on them Witches (proving that Kyubey was right, never did anything wrong, and entropy is awful), Anne and her constructs fight back (with FIRE, to boot, as if Lloyd needed any help with that). RIP, those familiars. Why isn't Psyber being mentioned, though? Oh, that's really simple. As he leaps up with the hammer, Psyber slams into a very, very thick glass ceiling. Thick enough it only cracks a bit from the impact with the half-angel, as a testament to its durability. While it halts his attack, it isn't all negative. What was once invisible is now plain to everyone: about ten or fifteen feet over their heads is a ceiling of glass, reminiscent of a greenhouse. It gets worse. Past that ceiling, a massive shape looms overhead. Like a super robot made of junk and equipment-- fans, water tanks, pest-control hoses and guns, UV lamps, heaters, coolers, gardening tools-- the Witch appears. It is MASSIVE, bigger than the entire botanical garden. The Sun, in the sky? It's no Sun at all, it's a massive lamp, a mono-eye for the Witch's head. The equipment on it clanks loudly and kicks into overdrive. The temperature rises again, this time to oven levels. What a terrible time for there to be a massive wall between you and that Witch! If Chat Noir intends to destroy the Sun, people'll have to work together to destroy the wall. Or he could destroy the wall, and let people have a go at the Witch. Choices! Either way, the Witch says hello. By which we mean it sends a brief psychic attack out, nothing disabling, just a sort of screech that writes its name over reality like subtitles on a TV screen.
Homura Akemi	### ### ## #### ### ####### ####### ############### ####### ####### ### ### ##### ######### ############### ### #### ##### ######### ### ## ################ ## ########### ### #### ################ ## ### ### #### ########### # ########### ## #### #### ########### ## ### ### #### ########### ########### ### #### ########### ## ### ### ### ########### ########### ### ### ########### ## ### ### ###### ########### ### ###### ### ###### ## ### ## ##### #### ##### ### ######## ## ##### ### #### ### ## ##### ## ### ### #### ## ### ## ##### ###### #### ## ##### ## ### ######## ## #### ## ##### ### #### #### ##### ## ## #### ######## ## #### ##### ### #### #### ##### ##### ###### ############ #### ##### ####### #### ##### ##### ##### ########## #### ##### #### ######### #### ### ######## ########## Padua The Greenhouse Witch
Anne Blakely	Anne shakes her hair out a little as she tries to get her bearings, the flame breath effect fading away. Eyes flick over the crack in the ceiling, move across the fans and lights... and then she squints. Her constructs retreat to circling again, and then she finally speaks in something that isn't a taunt. "The crack may look like the weakest point, but don't go for that," Anne suddenly says very clearly and loudly. "Follow it down to the nearest join, and then strike just behind that. The way it's bearing the load should cause its own weight to work with you and clear a way that won't shower us with too much glass."
Lloyd Irving	Lloyd reels back as the Witch says hello, the Familiars breaking apart under the combined assault. He glances upward, seeing the Witch lurching in all of its giant mechanical glory. As the eye ramps up the heat, a casting circle appears beneath him, a light-blue one if anyone was able to see it in the light. He pants a bit, but keeps his focus, all too aware that the heat is reaching beyond dangerous levels. "We need a chance to focus. ABSOLUTE!" If all goes well, a massive spire of ice appears in the center of the room, tendrils of cold spreading across the floor. If the heat is too much... at least there might be a puddle?
Chat Noir	A FEW MONTHS AGO "I didn't understand everything, but oh well, I trust you. In any case, I feel like it's gonna work like this a lot, you and me." Chat Noir natters on as Ladybug finishes delivering an explanation for a plan, and swings off to the top of the Eiffel Tower. NOW Put on these sunglasses, Chat Noir! Go destroy the sun, Chat Noir! Chat Noir only catches onto the fact that Ladybug has used her Lucky Charm at all when she pitches them this incredibly obvious Ladybug-flavored accessory that he knows for a fact she doesn't have normally. For a moment he just kind of stares off into space with a dumb kitty grin. She can see it coming. She can see it coming from miles and miles and miles away. "Ah My Lady, it is just as I said before. The sunniest spot in Paris," he slides the big dumb ladybug shades onto his face and positively beams at her, suddenly very much back inside his comfort zone, "comes to me." These two are incredibly green, as had been observed. More so when it comes to the Multiverse. However, that their trust in one another and team work is top notch is blinding. The cat-themed superhero plants his baton in the ground and prepared to extend it again when... when what is /really/ above them becomes obvious. Chat Noir doesn't have the time to weigh his options because the clock is already ticking for Ladybug. Shifting his foot slightly he triggers his staff to extend and rockets up towards the ceiling. He's gotta count on these other people being able to take care of it once the glass is down. "Cataclysm!" He calls as he rises towards the ceiling, reaching out into the air above him. A sphere of darkness, motes of its substance rolling off into the surroundings, materializes above his palm. Chat Noir closes his fist around it and adjusts his footing on the rising baton, as if grounding himself. A shockwave of that same darkness issues from his feet, racing out into the surroundings harmlessly. Then, he jumps from the tip of the baton, racing towards the glass ceiling.
Duet Fortuna	Duet frets! "Ah... you'll have to handle that without me!" The masked girl doesn't appear to have any powers that help! "I'll gun at the witch when you clear an opening." She DOES have a blessed handgun, after all. Drawing the Colt, she readies it to take some shots when there's a clear opening. She also has some more subtle powers though. Lloyd is cooling down the area, but she has no idea if that will be too much... or too little. And one of her more subtle abilities IS adjusting the immediate temperature. She'll just... tweak it toward being comfortable, if she can, and hope nobody notices that any magical energy is coming from her.
Guest Psyber	KA-THUNK "AUGH." Psyber has hit the glass ceiling, something he never imagined would happen given his particular demographic. The successive traumas of 'smashing head against literal pane of highly reinforced substance' with 'psychic attack searing mind' combine to make Psyber very unhappy for a few moments as he descends and lands. For sake of clarity, 'landing' involves kinda hitting the ground in a heap and tumbling a couple times before rolling to his feet. With a crouch and a leap, he's jumping up again and aiming for one of the support joints of the glass ceiling with his hammer, trying to follow Anne's advice and smash it. The force of Chat Noir's Cataclysm and its subsequent shattering of the ceiling above him cause Psyber to zoom right past that and on a charge for the Witch. Which is also acceptable.
Homura Akemi	A giant glass ceiling isn't the Sun, but it's still a pretty classy way to use that Cataclysm trick. Chat Noir unleashes his power on the roof of the massive greenhouse; there's no rain of shattered glass, no explosion. The ceiling breaks apart, its existence erased from the Witch's reality. This seems incredibly painful to the Witch; the massive robot staggers back, its lamps dimming, its fans jamming. After all, Chat Noir just destroyed a part of the Witch's inner world. It's a lot like having someone stab your spleen from inside your own body. And then Psyber SMASHES THE WITCH IN THE FACE, breaking the mono-eye Sun. Lloyd won't have to cool the area anymore for sure. In this state, the Witch only manages to let one attack off, being stunned and hurt. A number of hoses and guns suddenly whip about, splashing a nasty corrosive liquid everywhere! It's extra-strong pesticide, but not flesh-melting strong, and due to the damage (and destroyed eye), it isn't AIMED at anyone, it's just jets of green liquid shooting in random directions.
Lloyd Irving	Lloyd's spell shatters into nothing as the "Sun" eye is destroyed, hoping not to freeze everyone around him. He peers upward, blades flaring at his sides before he's coated in the pesticide, his clothes smoking as it singes his skin. He hisses out, but keeps his composure, sending another set of fire and ice beams upward toward the massive Witch. Then he takes wing, soaring up and in close to take as many wild rapid slashes as he can at its main body. As he reaches the waist level, he lets his wings vanish, but not before curling himself into a makeshift buzzsaw, somersaulting rapidly downward with his blades out for maximum damage potential. "Falling Tempest!"
Eithne Sullivan	Just because she's experienced a Witch's psychic 'announcement' before doesn't mean Eithne likes them. Bad enough that this one's corrupted a garden and killed scores of people... Is it really going to /eat/ the corpses once they've bloomed? She really, really dislikes Witches. The Familiar dies under her sword and the Witch gets closer, and closer, and it's so /hot/. Sweat threatens to stick her t-shirt to her skin, and Eithne is momentarily /insanely/ glad that she wore a skirt and not pants. There's only glass between them and the Witch, between them and the heat, and then there isn't even that. The black cat boy shatters the barrier and Eithne gets ready, muscles coiling in her thighs as she judges the distance. It's not /that/ far, but she really wishes that one of her mother's gifts to her had been a pair of wings. Psyber shoots upward and Eithne is right on his heels, throwing her big dumb sword like a javelin for the Witch's chest. Pesticide splatters across her face and clothes as she scrabbles for a hold on the monstrous creature, fingers digging in to search for weak spots in its metal body, to tear it apart.
Guest Psyber	In the backlash of his attack, Psyber isn't going to have time to really land, leap, and do another attack. Instead, he's going to supplement someone else's attack. So as Eithne's sword, thrown like a javelin, comes sailing past him? Psyber spins in the air and slams the flat of his hammer into the handle of the sword with a rotating strike, adding an immense amount of force to it. Once he lands, he takes the time to grit his teeth and try to pretend the pesticide splashed all over him isn't incredibly painful and burny.
Ladybug	Ladybug and Chat Noir are excellent at working together, however... Sometimes there are stage hazards that you just don't expect. Usually, the Akuma would just go 'I am yadda, here to blah!' or otherwise annouce their intentions to change things loudly. They don't screech into your head their name, like some sort of memetic visual cue. Utterly unprepared for this, Ladybug turns away, clapping her hands over her ears, much good as that will do to her, which posisbly saves her big dumb cartoon eyes from getting shards of glass into them, as things GET SERIOUS. "CHAT PLEASE!!!" She cries as he GETS SASSY and gets to MAKE HIS AWFUL CRACK AGAIN, THIS IS THE WORST. It's a combination of awful Parisian alleycat-knightisms and just how terrible this entire situation is. "Is there... A core? An item, something key?"
Duet Fortuna	Head still rattling from the psychic echo, Duet blinks as people... vaporize the ceiling. Well, okay. That works. Diving aside so MOST of the fertilizer splatters her arm rather than her body, she whips the Colt up and fires several shots at the Witch, relying on her blessed bullets to pack a punch. Actually she's fairly sure the others have this.
Anne Blakely	The spray splatters Anne... partly. It doesn't seem to be actually hurting her overmuch, though it's clearly very painful from the way she clutches her side and hisses. Toxic though? Apparently not very. It helps, perhaps, that one of her wolves caught the brunt of it, and is now falling apart as the gaskets and seals begin to melt, and the lubrication for the joints fails. It's tearing itself apart by moving now. "Mn..." She doesn't actually participate in attacking though. Instead, she is watching... watching with unnerving focus, at how the others deal with the Witch and its reactions.
Homura Akemi	Lloyd, aiming for the Witch's legs, produces immediate results. His swords cleave through the torn-together junk. Greenhouse equipment? Not designed to be sword-proof, even in industrial quantities and forming a giant robot. One of the two legs is torn off outright, while the other is badly damaged. The Witch falls to one knee as a result, managing barely to remain upright. Though Eithne's sword doesn't have the impact of prior blows, she finds in the chest a core, a number of generators and solar panels badly fused together. Her sword shatters the panels and cracks the generators, and expectedly this makes many of the machines that form the Witch power down. When Psyber hits the sword, it sends a ripple through the Witch's chest, which cracks open the central generator and exposes a glowing gem. It's a mix between the usual appearance of a Soul Gem (fabergé egg) and Grief Seed (a spherical black cage with a long point at its center, like a top), and fairly obviously what Ladybug was looking for. A few blessed shots from Duet for good measure cause a chain reaction of sparks and explosions in one of the Witch's arms, disabling it completely. In the wake of every attack, the Witch is surprisingly still on one knee, not falling over, and still functioning. It starts glowing, in fact! What little power it has left is starting to gather in its chest region, and the metal of the Witch's body is turning hot red and orange as it starts heating up. Self-destruct? Super-mode? Either way it's not surprising-- this Witch just had a very, very large meal. (HOLD POSES FOR LADYBUG.)
Ladybug	Spotting the Core she had been talking about - and lamenting the fact that it was not a purple butterfly, which she now had around a half dozen (plus or minus like a zillion but they were in a huge cloud) experiences with spotting. It's not even in a precious item! Well, OK. To Ladybug, it doesn't look like a precious item. To the Witch? There is no more precious item in the world. Raising her yo-yo to her face, she closes her eyes and focuses. "Ok, Tikki... Please work." She murmurs, before unspooling the yo-yo to just short of the floor before twirling it a few times to build up momentum. "I'm releasing you from evil!" She cries out, as her yo-yo opens up into a bright white disc, like a tiny white hole. She spins it, round and round, and then releases, slinging it into the Soul Gem with an audible, and rather odd-sounding 'omf' or chomping sound as the yo-yo closes around it. Returning the yo-yo to her hand, she calls out. "Gotcha!" Then, with a small glow, she swipes her finger along the side of the yo-yo, opening it up to reveal... A HOPEFULLY PURIFIED SOUL GEM! IT DOESN'T FLY OFF LIKE A BUTTERFLY! Cue a very awkward and embarrased scramble as she tries to catch the soul gem and juggle it into her off hand. With that in-hand, the sunglasses she gave Chat just... Dissappear off his face, and appear in her hand, so she can throw it up in the air (juggling Soul Gem, Yo-Yo, and Glasses for a few moments), before they explode into a giant circle crossed with lines... Made entirely out of magic ladybugs. They start swirling around things, and setting them right! PROBABLY.
Chat Noir	A combination of adrenaline and a Plan had temporarily insulated Chat Noir from the effects of the Witch's psychic assault, but as he falls back towards his baton and hooks one arm around it, it hits him like a ton of bricks directly to his brain. He spins about the baton in his descent, shaking his head furiously and trying to get his bearings again. As he goes through another descending rotation, the pesticide being sprayed about catches him. The stinging of it and the utterly strange sensation of having breathed some of it in causes him to release his staff and tumble to its base in a dazed heap. Without the suit, he's pretty sure that stuff would've killed him on the spot. Gazing blearily up at his own staff, Chat Noir is only really brought out of his daze by the warning beeping that issues from his ring. Wiping at his face and nose to clear as much of the pesticide as he can from it, he takes up the baton and reels it back in to miniature size. "Apawlogies, My Lady. I couldn't resist." Chat Noir presses a button on his baton's interface, opening up the local communications nets. As it happens, he hadn't been ignoring everyone on the radio so far. He just doesn't have a headset at all.
Homura Akemi	Ladybug snatches the Soul Gem/Grief Seed hybrid, and then releases a swarm of magical bugs all over the area. The Witch distorts and breaks apart, while her pocket reality rumbles. Junk falls apart, the robot collapsing. With that, the Witch is no more. The Witch's Barrier fades out; mostly this results in it being late evening again and the area not changing very much. The botanical garden is now filled with people, too! All the victims of the Witch, brought back by Ladybug's power. Unfortunately, where hope is created, an equal amount of despair has to follow. The people, at least the few who are conscious right off the bat, thankfully a minority, start screaming and panicking, remembering a bit too clearly the experience of dying. This is handled swiftly by Homura, whose reappearance coincides with a number of silenced gunshots, and tranquilizer darts in people's necks. More importantly, there's a girl at Ladybug's feet now. She looks no older than fifteen, with dark green hair and some casual clothes (shorts and a t-shirt, it's hot outside, don't judge). She is unconscious, but alive! Whoever moves in to explain Soul Gems to Ladybug will also notice that the gem (which is metallic green) is NOT in critical condition. It's not bright and shiny, but it's not muddy black like it would be either. Still, probably best for Psyber to have a go at scrubbing it, just a bit, but Ladybug's powers seem to have helped it along.