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A2     The way the Watch spreads isn't always straightforward. In fact, it rarely is. A people's movement, from the grassroots up, wouldn't be one without reliance on a viral spread of word of mouth and willingness to stick necks out on risky propositions, as opposed to just opening up a recruiting rally. This is one of those situations where one of the Watch's most ubiquitous scouts (assuming they aren't somehow the same guy) has found something he likes, and has been willing put a limb out for a second meeting; this time with proper members, to hopefully do some convincing.

    The world in question must be a brand new unification, because the warpgate is still slightly unsteady on the network, and dumps people out a little less comfortably than they'd like. The area around suggests that nobody has discovered it either . . . or lives here . . . or has lived here in a very long time.

    Anyone arriving, immediately sinks an inch into a thick layer of fine, grey-gold sand beneath them, at the peak of one of numerous, rolling dunes all around them, stirred to great height by the wind, as they seem trapped in a broad sort of canyon of towering rock formations in the middle distance, like western badlands and the Saraha desert had crashed together.

    Behind the warpgate, the desert disappears into what can only be the remains of a very large, very dense city block, comprised of countless numbers of what look to be apartment buildings, at least 20 storeys tall, and packed extremely close together. They've all sunk partially into the sand, and tilted badly on their foundations. Walls have long crumbled away, exposing bare interiors, with little more than rusted fire escape stairs still intact. The variegated remains of a road can be occasionally glimpsed where the sand is thin, but no cars or street lamps or anything mechanical, unless one counts the giant pipeline, raised above the stand on stilts, that leads in from afar, completely empty and dry.

    Despite all that, the sky is crystal clear blue, the air is fresh and hot, and it otherwise seems like a beautiful day outside. One can even spot a herd of large, migratory animals far away, through the heat shimmer. There's no radiation or sun-blocking ash around anywhere. The only remotely sketchy thing is who they're here to meet, who has chosen to do so anonymously in the most low-tech way possible: wrapping themselves in enough dark cloth that they should be sweating to death, for not getting the memo you wear white in the desert.
Reinhardt Wilhelm     "INCOMINNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN-" WOOMF.

    Reinhardt lands feet first into the sand, sinking more than an inch as he leaves sand flying around him. Seems he -jumped- through the portal, like the crazy person he is, just to make a fancy entrance and everything. He stares out at the city ahead of them, before he promptly runs off towards it. He runs like a rhino in full sprint, causing small tremors with every step he takes.

    It's not until he reaches the city streets that he slows down, and only to take in the scenery. "What happened here...?" He wonders aloud, thanking his suit for being air-conditioned given the intense heat. Reminds him of Gibraltar, or the times he and Ana were serving in the Middle East for that matter, the intensely hot and long days and endless dunes.

    He notices the figures ahead of him, and begins to trek in that direction, raising a hand high to get their attention.
And he deep down, /really/ misses having Ana looking after the squad on missions like these.
Yuna Kagurazaka At least Yuna happens to be wearing white. Along with some dark blue and a few spots of gold.

She'd probably be happier if she wasn't showing so much skin in the desert, but the Light Suit has protected her against a wide variety of less-than-friendly climates before, from the vacuum of space to glacial cold to sweltering heat and humidity. Of course, Elner just keeps right on hovering, and the robo-faerie doesn't even seem to react when Yuna yelps and drops a couple of inches on her way out of the warpgate.

"Glad I'm not alone out here," Yuna grouses mildly as she squints against the sun, raises a hand to help shade her eyes, and takes a look around. Reinhardt's heavily armored form is a welcome sight, for a start - and Yuna's pretty sure there'll be others. It's in the process of looking around that her brain starts shifting into 'work' mode - evaluating her surroundings more consciously, taking in the situation as a whole. Her first thought is of Fenrir Earth ... which doesn't really work - the Aragami would have eaten most of the ruins by now, most likely. Also, there wouldn't be anyone standing around all casual-like.

Yuna starts jogging, figuring out how to minimize her footsteps sinking into the sand, and heads towards that dark-clad figure. Reinhardt's probably going to get there first, but Yuna doesn't see much point to just waiting around; she'll miss all the fun that way.

And while Yuna's still trying to figure this world out? Elner flits along next to her, actively scanning the area around them and starting to build up an internal map for reference. Detailed analysis can come later.
Genji Shimada     Needless to say, in a place like this, with so many hiding places and nooks and crannies and tall things and rocks and blowing sand and that sort of thing, a cyborg ninja could have an absolute field day. And he is. There's a fluttering hint of... something, just briefly, up on the tilted rooftops and from one ruined skyscraper to the next. Other than that, there is nothing visible of the scion of the Shimada clan. But there is something audible, of course. A phrase long since memorized by at least one person present, transmitted over local radio so that even their contact can pick it up.

    <Genji is with you.>
William Pauwel Well.

This is... Vaguely familiar.

To say that Will is old hat around vaguely obliterated ruins of ancient civilizations is a bit of an understatement. His world is full of them. But it's also full of... people. People who have usually repurposed a place like this one into a new settlement by now. The fact that this broken city is still so pristine, that the air is so crisp and clean, and that the natural world around them seems so undisturbed is strange when you consider that there are barely any signs of habitation.

Will arrives in his explorationin' clothes, his poncho billowing in the hot, dry air. Already at the ready, his trusty companion and sure-shooting supergun issues a high, keening whine as light builds in its barrel. "This sure is a pretty place, though," Will muses, craning his behatted head up to peer into the windows of a half-shattered building. "Wish there was less sand, but of that I can't complain too overmuch. Uh."

He squints as he catches sight of a dark figure in the distance. "...Hold on. Looks like we've got some company. S'at who sent out that signal?"
Yang Xiao Long     Crrrnch. Yang's boots crunch on the sand. She's... not wearing much of anything really. Her regular outfit is browns oranges and yellows with lots of skin showing. If the ozone layer is compromised, her Aura should protect her from the worst of it. She follows not far after Reinhardt, and falls in beside Yuna. "Must be putting some massive risk in if they're doing this all oldschool, right?" she asks of the other blonde, then lifts her arms and folds them behind her head, walking like some delinquent with that big cocky attitude of hers. "I mean, this place looks like the aftermath of a Grimm attack on a settlement outside of the Kingdoms... you saw that video, right, of that burnt out village? Only.. this looks like, a thousand times worse."

    Yang sighs, and starts walking backward, looking at Yuna curiously. "I guess we can ask 'em when we find 'em, right?"
A2     Though it is uncomfortably hot, as evidenced by the ripples in the air that rise from the sand out in the direct sunlight, there appears to be precious little else worth mentioning. Even going around with a lot of exposed skin, there is no need to fear poison or radiation or curses or apparently even zombies or monsters, as would usually be responsible for the claustrophobic, walled wreck ahead. The most dangerous thing around is how slippery the sand is, easy to start sliding down the side of a dune with the slightest misstep, though not dangerously so. It almost seems like the complex was just abandoned . . . forever and a half ago.

    It would seem that their contact is straightforward enough as well. Looking around, it would be difficult to imagine any kind of complex setup or proxy arrangement, or even really a trap, aside from others managing to hide in the thoroughly exposed hives of apartment rooms, though Genji, from his vantage point, can immediately tell that's not the case.

    That also, by the way, makes the Watch the only ones around as well. Even without the shimmering gate, almost masked by the heat haze, and their outlandish attire, it'd be impossible to mistake them for locals of any description. The whole place was probably chosen for that reason. The 'talent scout', as he liked to be called, apparently, indicated the client was cagey.

    Not so cagey that they avoid the group, however. Once enough people duck into the shadows cast by the broken buildings (instantly dropping the temperature by several degrees), their only obvious contact moves up to meet them. The occasional bout of clicking on exposed, crumbling concrete, draws attention to the fact that they're walking on sand dunes in four inch heels. That makes a tired, feminine voice, that transcends the audible spectrum of cynicism to the almost palpable, less surprising. The minute she opens her mouth, it sounds as if she's prepared to tell everyone to get lost.

    "The smiley bastard said someone would show up today, but five of you?" Up close, it becomes obvious she doesn't have any kind of real cloak, but has just scavenged together a lot of crappy black tarp. "So, what do you want?" It's clear she's also pretty bad at taking conversational initiative, with a lot of long pauses. "You're supposed to be some kind of Resistance, right? Who's your leader?"
Reinhardt Wilhelm     Reinhardt is pretty glad to have backup on this one. Yuna, Genji, Yang, and William are all good people to have by one's side, which is might help his mood some given the situation.

    Reinhardt looks more like a machine titan than a man, which is why he stops approaching eventually when he notices the cagey attitude. Removing his helmet, Reinhardt's grayed hair, blinded eye, and scared features are more than apparent. "Well met. I am Reinhardt Wilhelm, of the Watch. We are here to help, yes. What is the situation?"

    Technically Reinhardt's not the ranking officer here, but he does seem to feel a need to take charge regardless.
Yang Xiao Long     Grk, footsteps, voice.

    Yang pratfalls onto her ass as the contact makes her presence known. She scrambles to get back to her feet, dusting herself off and offering a wave with a dopey grin. "Uh, h-hey there. Um..." woooow, Yang, your Ruby's showing a bit there.
Yuna Kagurazaka "I'm not sure I'd call us 'Resistance,' per se," Yuna admits. "My name's Yuna Kagurazaka, I help the Watch out as well. Do you have a name?" she asks, offering a friendly smile to the woman. (She's wearing high heels, her voice sounds female, Yuna's willing to guess that this is a 'woman'. She can be corrected if necessary.)

Reinhardt's mentioning (or at least asking about) the 'situation' makes Yuna glance around again, her smile ebbing a bit. "*Is* there an ongoing 'situation'? This looks like a big war happened ..." She glances at Elner as well, as if to 'ask' whether Elner's picking up on anything.

Of course, if there were a war going on in the area, they'd PROBABLY be able to hear something besides the wind.
William Pauwel ...

Heels?

Will stares at the heels. Heels. On sand dunes. What the devil kind of post-apocalyptic red light district did they walk int--

Wait, hold on, gotta do proper business first.

"Oh uh, hi!" Will says from the back of the group. He's... Arguably the least impressive member of this little entourage. Or at least the most normal looking, compared to 'a magical girl' and 'a giant space knight' and 'literal robot ninja.' The only thing that really sets him apart is the weird, glowing piece he's waving around, as if gesticulating with a lethal weapon is just kind of a thing people do casually where he's from.

(It is, among a certain subset of Tellurians.)

"We got word from one of the scouts that they'd found somethin' interestin' here? Newly integrated place, they said, looks like they were right! Reminds me a lot of home, actually!" Will pauses, popping his hat off his head to briefly fan the sweat from his face, only to IMMEDIATELY REGRET IT and put it right back on. He wisely sidesteps right into the shade of a nearby building before continuing. "Hi. I'm Will Pauwel! I'm an explorer. We're all here members of The Watch. I'm uh... I guess the local coordinator? One of them? People ask me to fix things. Nice to meet you! Have you heard much about us yet?"
Genji Shimada     Things seem safe enough. And of course, by now, Reinhardt is probably quite used to Genji simply... being there, back-to-back. It might be a bit of a surprise to others when his voice suddenly issues from behind the German, though. "Genji Shimada. We are friends to any who stand against unjust tyranny."

    He finally steps around, and offers the woman a casual wave. "Or good cooks. We are friends to them, as well."
A2     When Reinhardt pops his helmet, the 'cloaked' figure takes a second to look him up and down, though only visible by the inclination of her head. There's an awkward silence between his greeting and her reply, as if she'd expected him to keep talking, leave, or attack. ". . . weird design." she finally comments. Does she mean the armour? She's kind of looking at his face. Her gaze is immediately draw to the gun William starts gesturing with, though, as if magnetically drawn. The subtle tilt of her head is eerily precise with it.

    "Watch." she reiterates. "That's the name he used." she seems to debate internally for a bit, before finally removing her own hood, to go with everyone else tossing their obscuring headgear. Pulling back the hood, Will is probably further mislead by the fact she looks like a supermodel, with the classical beauty mark and all, practically way too pretty to be real. That is, if one looks past the dirt and abrasions across her face and neck, anyways. That, and the fact that she looks at him with an utterly inscrutable expression, like her resting face is that of some kind of tired, distant pity.

    "Maintenance professional. That's good. Most of these have guns and nothing else." That look of intense, dark-eyed exhaustion only amplifies looking to Yuna. "You could call it that. I don't care. The war is still going, and it's never going to end. The 'situation' is pointless. Forget about it, and show me off this rock instead. There's nothing for you here." Then, a longer pause. "No." is her response to a request for a name.

    Genji can detect a certain level of tension in her as he appears in line of sight, especially drawn to his mask though Reinhard had already shown a human appearance underneath. "That's more than I heard before." she says to Genji, but ostensibly replies to Will. "Tyranny . . . that's like control, isn't it?" she drifts off very briefly. "I heard you need fighters. Is there something you hate, too? Someone you're fighting against."

    Faintly, mostly carried by the hot breeze, a distant, dull whine can be heard, picking up volume ever so slowly, vaguely from the north west.
Genji Shimada     "The control of authority, unjustly or cruelly applied to those who fall under it," Genji replies. "The king who grows fat while his subjects starve, the dictator who keeps his populace under strict observation for the slightest toe out of line. And..."

    A shinobi is all about observation. About catching the details others miss. About being aware of their situation at all times, reading body language, gathering information from the tiniest scrap of-

    Genji is watching the woman like a hawk, okay. And catching her reaction to Reinhardt, and the way she moves, he puts two and two together.

    "You are a synthetic life-form," he observes without preamble or tact. "I think that you should be aware that we are all human." Then he turns his head slightly, and adds, "And I think that we may have company coming."
Reinhardt Wilhelm     Reinhardt looks...confused. This feels a bit backwards. "Well, yes, we are always looking for assistance and new allies." He replies with a shrug. He definitely looks human, which is why he's so confused by this woman's robotic attitude.

    "I suppose they're the same thing in a way." The knight concedes, before he cocks an eyebrow. "What war do you speak of, anyways? I thought..." Thought what, Reinhardt?

    Turns out, he also hears that whine, before he tightens the grip on his hammer and dons his helmet again, adopting a fighting stance as he looks to the distance. "We may be in trouble after all."
William Pauwel "Ahahaha, yeah, it's a pretty catchy name, isn't i--" Will freezes. For a split second, the Chaser's body seems to go stock still; motionless, except for the crackling hum of his weapon's held charge. Why?

Well, an astute observer might have noticed that he only stopped... When their contact dropped her hood.

Why?

Well.

Uh.

Will's history with this sort of thing is well documented.

"W-wow you're pret-- uh." The Chaser coughs, breaking right out of this TOTALLY NOT FACE-INDUCED REVERIE. His heart is only beating so fast to keep his blood cool. HIS NECK IS ONLY RED 'CAUSE OF THE SUN. "P-pretty unlucky to not have anyone 'round here to fix things! Ahahahahahaha! Hahaha. Ha. Haaaa."

Will inhales.

Will exhales.

    "Okay. Well, I don't know anything about... hating anything," he shakes his head, gazing meaningfully into the horizon and for no other discernable reason at all. "We fight 'cause there are people who're suffering. Injustice that other folks can't see or won't fight. Hatred's not really got anything to do with it, for me. Some of the guys, maybe, but I do it 'cause it's the right thing, you know?"

"A-anyway. If you want off-world, we can do that, but..." He blinks back over at the cloaked woman. Kind of. The rim of his hat is covering much of his field of view for the sake of dramatic atmospherics and no other reasons. "...Is the situation that bad here? Ain't there people who could use our help 'round these parts? You mentioned 'most of these,' right? Are there... Others?"
Yang Xiao Long     Yang just watches the woman they came here to meet. The way she's acting, it's like some of the older Hunters Dad told her about... The blonde really doesn't have much to offer to the conversation as is, so her attention begins to wander, looking out across the dunes.

    Keen senses, sharpened by Aura let her hear the soft whining sound on the wind, picking it out from the background noise after a few seconds of listening. "Uh... guys? I can hear something... sounds like..." Her brow furrows, and she deploys her gauntlets with the mechanical unfolding ratchet covering her forearms with the bulky weapons.
Yuna Kagurazaka "I try not to hate anyone," Yuna admits in answer to the white-haired woman. "Although ... I guess you could say I hate people - or anything, really - who hurt others for their own amusement, or to satisfy their greed. I don't like hating individuals just to hate them, though - I'd rather make them stop being cruel or greedy, and make friends with them instead."

The sound of something big and probably-nasty approaching has gotten both Yuna's and Elner's attention by now, and the robo-faerie flits skyward in search of a better view of whatever's approaching. Yuna herself mostly winces, wishing the rest of the Matrix of Light were here ... Elner might be calling for them, but that doesn't mean they'll make it to this world in time.

"Do you at least have something we can call you?" she asks the white-haired woman. "Something besides 'hey you' or 'robotic beauty'?" Yes, she noticed the same thing Will did, she's just a bit more tactful about expressing or showing it.
A2     The woman watches Genji with the same, dark expression, but a clear sense of invested comprehension. "The commander who gets to send their soldiers out to tie, sit back, watch and take notes, right?" she finishes his list for him. When he makes the remarkably astute observation, though, her look is pretty much just blank. "Don't lie to me." she finally comes out with. "I can tell just by looking at you. You're more metal than any of us." Well, she's technically not wrong. How that translates into believing that nobody else here could possibly be human is anyone's guess though.

    "I don't even know. Do I have to give it a name?" she asks Reinhardt instead. "I lost track of which one it is. War thirteen? Fifteen? It doesn't matter." she shakes her head, with a whole lot of white hair spilling out of her hood. Catching a good look of her eyes, they're pure violet, with translucent pupils, so Genji probably isn't off the mark. Still, it's a very convincing face, down to extremely subtle skin moisture.

    "I told you, there's nothing here for you." she reiterates to William. "I don't know any other deserters, and the rest are still swallowing 'glory to mankind'. They'll just suck you into their vortex. Forget it." She does delay on that last part, however. "Luck doesn't have anything to do with it." Yuna, at least, provokes some faintly unpleasant contortion of her expression. "Nobody /likes/ hating something. Sometimes, it's just impossible not to." She seems to be deliberating on giving a pseudonym, but . . .

    Yang is correct. Their contact had been pretty absorbed in analyzing everyone, and by extension, their words, and so it's only a few seconds of straining one's hearing after the observation is made, that the noise really becomes audible. Once it does, it very rapidly increases in volume, accelerating its pace, until the unmistakable roar of jet exhaust can be heard with it too. The woman's visible fatigue disappears instantly. "Hurry up. Show me the way you came here. They probably picked up your signal, so-"

    She doesn't really get to finish. Elner has just reached an adequate height to pick up four extremely hot signatures coming in, before a trio of sleek, jet black craft, one one white, blasts over the street clearing, whipping up sand into a stinging curtain. Instead of taking a long circle to pass back around, they stop almost instantly, flashing arcs of electricity and flares of exhaust as they come apart and reconfigure into mecha-like shapes (albeit, headless, extremely unfriendly ones) that turn on a dime and hover. They aren't exactly huge, as they visibly support human shapes inside of them, locked into the frame like a wearable exoskeleton, though all of them are wearing heavy flight helmets with an unfortunate SS resemblance.

    The white machine turns on its speakers, as the squad lowers to a hovering burn perhaps ten meters off the ground, close enough to make eye contact, but high enough to look down imperiously. A firm, no-nonsense woman's voice echoes between the narrow alleys. "All of you, halt! This unit is YoRHa Attacker Model No.2, a known fugitive! By consorting with her, you are aiding and abetting the escape of a wanted deserter! Step back /now/ and submit to temporary detainment!" A fifth craft appears a little later, though from the direction of the warpgate. "Captain! I've located the source of the strange signal."
Genji Shimada     "I am more metal, yes", Genji replies, a hint of amusement in his voice. "But not all metal."

    There is a hiss at the sides of his visor. The components pop outward, lifting up. He doesn't remove the lower faceplate; but it is enough to allow a glimpse inside thanks to the light of the desert. A glimpse of striking eyes surrounded by scars, but filled with mirth. More than anything, he seems amused at her declaration.

    Of course, it stays that way only for a moment or two before locking back into place. The green visor lights up, and he turns to look in the direction of the machines on approach. "I will do as I do," he says, more to Reinhardt than anyone else.

    And for a second time, he vanishes into the ruins, darting and dashing and hiding himself away. If this turns into a fight, which he's almost certain it will, having the advantages of height and surprise will be crucial against airborne enemies.
Reinhardt Wilhelm     Reinhardt stares at those helmets and just...frowns. An unfortunate reminder of his nation's past in the twentieth century, a past his people have worked overtime just to put behind them.

    It's also a pretty good excuse for him to not be too terribly quick to listen to these people. "What is the unit guilty for? I suggest that you either back down /now/, or there -will- be casualties." The knight says, in no-uncertain terms. That hammer of his isn't just for show, and Reinhardt's height helps with intimidation.

    Bringing up his shield, Reinhardt couldn't be more ready for a fight if he said 'come at me bro' out loud, as he steps between the YoRHa soldiers and A2.
Yang Xiao Long     CHUK-CHAK!

    "If you want her, you'll have to take her by force. And that won't end well for you. Back down, and provide some proof." Yang snarls, bringing her arms up in a boxers stance.
William Pauwel Will's eyes flicker ever so slightly as all that white hair goes absolutely everywhere and settles down around those purple eyes and OH NO SHE'S EVEN HOTTER.

AUGH.

"G-glory to-- What's that all about?" Will doesn't have much time to wait for an answer, because his train of thought is abruptly terminated by the unmistakable sound of jet engines screaming through the atmosphere. Will cusses softly, dropping a pair of vaguely electronic goggles down over his eyes. "The heck is--"

...

......

M-more robot ladies??

In totally sweet aircraft, at that!

But more importantly, they seem to be after... A certain somebody. YoRHa Attacker Model No.2, is it? Will glances around-- people are... getting ready to fight. But hold on. Wait. Is it really so wise to be tipping one's hand so soon? "Hey! Hey wait!" Will calls, holding both hands up. "Hey. I don't know what y'all are on about with this criminal nonsense, but y'all should be able to look at me and tell I'm human, right? How about y'all just let us walk away with our friend here, and we'll all be able to get out of this mess without any trouble."
Yuna Kagurazaka Four attack craft - make that five. Against one woman who happens to be a robot, and happens to be *alive* in a post-apocalyptic wasteland. And the machines have pilots.

'Submit' isn't any more of an option for Yuna than it is for YoRHa, or any of the other Elites here. But that doesn't mean Yuna's going to fight - not under these circumstances. Sure, she can control the damage output of her weapons, but that only means so much against the pilots; disable a fighter in mid-air and the pilot's still likely doomed.

"SHUGOSEIHEKI!!!"

With Yuna's shout, a large kite shield, enameled in the same white, dark blue, and gold as her Light Suit, materializes on her left forearm - and Yuna deliberately moves to interpose herself in front of YoRHa, her eyes darting back and forth over the shield's top edge to make sure of where the threats are. "If you punish desertion by the death penalty, I will not allow you to destroy her," Yuna calls out. "If you will accept exile as her punishment, then she will leave this world with us, never to return to trouble you."

She probably ought to have asked YoRHa about that before she said it, but the white-haired woman *said* she wanted to leave this world and not come back, right?
A2     'Attacker Model No.2' stares deep into Genji's visor slit whilst she has the chance. For some reason, his eyes seem to strike her as something troubling. Within moments however, he's been made to dash into the nearby buildings, Reinhardt has thrown up his shield, Yuna produced combat equipment, and Yang has issued an explicit threat.

    The 'pilot' of the lead craft barely even /looks/ at William before responding. Whilst the Watch contact had taken a while to scrutinize and frown at the claim, the captain outright talks over him into her radio. "Five additional units confirmed, unknown make and origin. They appear to be cooperating with the fugitive unit. Requesting additional ground support from the 16th descent forces and orbital imaging. Ready laser strike if necessary." Then, locally: "B16, circle around and cut off the runner's escape! B42, B60, surround and detain the fugitive! D4, hold the perimeter until reinforcements arrive!" She is met with nothing but an immediate round of enthusiastic confirmations, and the formation breaks up. One speeds off after Genji, one lingers in the way of the Warpgate, and the other three split up around Reinhardt's shield, so he can only defend from two at a time. "This is your final warning! Surrender now or-"

    The cloaked woman gets to take about two steps towards making a break for it, before all talk of surrender and detainment is dropped, and the flight units open fire on her without a moment's hesitation. Three, twin-linked streams of gatling fire rain down on the street in an instant, spraying Yuna and Reinhardt with hundreds of fist-sized rounds for the sole purpose of trying to slip a few past them. Rapidly circling around to improve their angle, Will and Yang instantly wind up in the line of fire, which they just walk across them without a second thought.

    Genji is alone with a high speed mecha careening after him, staying above the buildings to try and catch whatever glimpse it can. Given the faintest indication on its motion tracker, it saturates the area with fire, easily punching through the crumbling concrete and rusted rebar. Its turning and tracking ability is annoyingly impressive, in its humanoid configuration.

    Still, despite all that, 'the fugitive' doesn't actually stop, or even slow down. She vaults over the top of Reinhardt's bulk and starts sprinting the moment her feet hit the ground. Even running on high heels and deep sand, she casually breaks well past the barrier of a top Olympic sprinter. This gives Reinhardt, and then Yuna, a second to put down their shields, as the gunfire swivels to chase her instead, which she delays briefly by throwing her cloak off and into the line of sight, which is shredded instantaneously.
Reinhardt Wilhelm     Deep down, Reinhardt is deeply amused how Yang can make shotgun noises by throwing up her fists like that. That's just how she rolls.

    However, more important things are at hand. Like battle. Reinhardt tries to intercept fire from the flight units. "STAY BEHIND ME!" he bellows to A2, shield raised to deflect enemy fire. That may not be necessary, but the sentiment is nice right?

    That is proven as A2 leaps over him effortlessly, and /runs/. Jeez, she's fast.

    In any case, Reinhardt takes the chance to use his thrusters to fling himself towards the hovercraft firing at A2, using his hammer to smash it out of the air with a mighty roar.
Genji Shimada     There is no escape to cut off. If B16 was expecting him to try to escape, she will be waiting a long time. Genji fully intends to circle around and come back in at the YoRHa troops, but first he will have to try and distract his pursuer.

    The motion tracker gets a brief, fast burst of motion followed by a large burst of it... and a lot of noise. A trio of thrown shuriken, hurled with a flick of the wrist at a chunk of skyscraper that looks particularly unstable. It poses no threat. It probably won't even distract B16 for more than a heartbeat, but that's just about all he needs.

    Because he's leaping out of a high window to drop down on the 'commander' and her flight unit from above, sword-first. And B16 wouldn't shoot at her own commander, right?
Yuna Kagurazaka The situation refuses to play out in anything even VAGUELY like the manner that Yuna was hoping it would.

The only part which goes 'according to plan,' or anything close to it, is that Yuna comes under fire - and even that constitutes a far more robust bombardment than Yuna was expecting; she can hide her whole body behind Shugoseiheki without too much trouble, and the Light Suit's protective aura extends to the kite shield, reinforcing it even further against damage .... but the Light Suit has its limits, and the basic armor WAS NOT designed around standing up to anti-war-robot weaponry.

Meanwhile, the white-haired woman is running. Which ... wasn't part of Yuna's unspoken plan, but sort of works. If she can make it to the warpgate and out, that's the goal here, right?

So it's an all-out fight now, which Yuna was desperately hoping to avoid, and getting out without returning fire looks pretty close to impossible. There's just one big problem with the idea of shooting back, at least for Yuna. Disable any of the machines .... and if they crash, what happens to their pilots? *That* is Yuna's big mental sticking point here - she may physically be capable of fighting back, but if she does, her enemies are going to get hurt, maybe killed. And that is something she *can't* accept.

With Powered Form, she could outrun them, maybe stand her ground and tank the firepower more effectively. With Flight Form, she could dodge even more effectively, and pepper them with low-powered pulse blasts that wouldn't risk doing as much damage as her other weapons. Even Marine Form would be a little more helpful - less suited to fighting on (extra) dry land, but a little more protection, some more firepower. But none of that worries Yuna so much as the possibility of killing an enemy pilot who's ultimately just doing his (or her) job.

With no other options readily available to her, Yuna just hefts Shugoseiheki and heads towards the warpgate at the best speed she can manage. The Light Suit is still crackling intermittently from its prior near-overload, reserves about halfway depleted by Yuna's half-hearted (and half-assed) estimate, but hopefully she can make good her own escape. And until then - well, there's still a piece of her which would rather SHE be shot at than someone who DOESN'T have protection such as the Light Suit, or defense like Shugoseiheki, to keep them safe from injury.
Yang Xiao Long     Aaaand that went about as well as expected. Yang shifts, and tears off towards the unit that's taken up position at the gate. She's not exactly as fast as the Attacker Unit, but for a Human she's blistering in her speed... helped by the periodic shotgun blasts she fires behind her to propel her forwards even faster. "You wanna move, cuz I'm not stoppin'!" she yells, leaping up and hooking her right arm back.

    It looks like she's planning on smashing her fist into the flying robot-suit's center of mass.... though her approach and attack pattern are super predictable.
William Pauwel Welp. Negotiations have failed. Guns are being fired. The situation has just gone from 'wow that is a pretty girl' to 'holy shit flying machinegun death machines.' It now reminds Will ever so slightly more like home. "Awwwwwwwww---" Will groans as everything promptly goes about as tits up as they're probably (hopefully) going to get today. "Crackers."

Unfortunately, the fact is that Will, for all he goes around shooting robots and monsters in the face, doesn't really have it in him to peg what may or may not be people in the center of mass with steaming slugs of superheated plasma. That sort of thing tends to be relatively lethal.

What he does do is hide behind Reinhardt.

...

No that's not everything! No Pauwel gets called a coward!

    The Chaser takes the advantage of the momentary cover to reconfigure the particular brand of energy surging through his weapon of choice. "Alright," Will mutters, electricity and invisible currents of magnetic madness surging suddenly around the Solano's barrel. "Y'all had a chance. Sorry--"

He takes aim at the two machines firing into and over Reinhardt's barrier. Their thrusters and weapons are fair game, even if their bodies may not be. "This is gonna sting!" He pulls the trigger. Coruscating pulses of electromagnetic force race out from the handcannon, surging up at the fightercraft above. Perhaps it won't do much to a human, but to the machines they're wearing...
A2     Staying behind Reinhardt doesn't seem to be something A2 plans to do. 'Group tactics' may or may not even be in her vocabulary. Still, his rocket thrusters afford him a moment of surprise in keeping with his acceleration, especially at his massive size, as one of the flight units is suddenly beset by an enormous, heavily armoured target, flying at her face much quicker than the anticipated. She has time to squeeze off only a split second salvo of shots at him, before the hammer connects, and spikes her out of the air like a volleyball.

    The pilot screams as she crashes to earth, letting up plumes of fire and smoke, but the sand prevents it from being a fatal crash. The machine staggers jerkily up to its feet, thrusters broken, turning to face Reinhardt again. One of the guns clicks uselessly, but the other seems to function well enough to keep shooting at him. The pilot's badly smashed helmet reveals a quarter of a blonde-haired, blue-eyed woman's face, staring at him in the same manner as he may have once looked at Omnics. Advancing under her own hail of fire, her machine picks up its stride, and seems about to close into melee combat, before Will nails it dead on with an EMP shot, and blows out its remaining functional electronics, causing it to slump face first into the sand.

    His other target appears far more elusive, however, engaging in tight, agile rolls and flips to dodge his shots. One clips its gun arm, causing it to short out, which prompts it to turn and dive after A2 instead, swooping over A2 and Yang, rather than dueling with the gun toting teen, perhaps sensing a disadvantage.

    D4, in the way of Yang, quickly adopts a defensive pose, seemingly intent on body blocking her way. "I'm not going anywhere!" she yells back through her speakers, sounding surprisingly young. As Yang jumps, a spherical screen of translucent, hexagonal energy plates flashes to life around the blocking unit, and walls out her fist, slamming her in the face as she completes punch. Considering what Ember Celica does, however, the Dust blast that goes off on impact carries right through the screen, and impacts D4 straight in the chest of her flight harness, blowing her free of the craft with a startled yelp, where both fall out of the sky.

    B16 can't seem to get a bead on Genji either. She is certainly quick, and vigilant, but she falls for the distraction immediately, blasting the shuriken out of the air before she even realizes that they're just throwing stars. She turns in time to yell "Captain, look out!", but Genji is already mid-plunge, and the pilot of the white craft has no appreciable forewarning.

    Apparently, the Captain gets the white paint job for a reason, and is a grade above the rest, though. She reacts just in time to avoid the blade, or rather, Genji's strike is right on the mark, and lands true, but the flight mecha fades away to some sort of ghostly image, and flashes sideways, such that his sword passes /through/ it. Performing the emergency, life-saving maneuver in such tight quarters causes the flight unit to crash into a nearby building, however, putting it through the fragile wall of a corner apartment, and badly damaging its lift system. The Captain still seems to have enough time to dump a swarm of miniature missiles into the air on the way down, which all swarm in on Genji's position at once.

    Lastly, the unit chasing A2 finally overtakes Yuna. It can't fire with her shield in the way, and getting past her makes it too /close/ to shoot accurately, but it enters a steep dive anyways. One of its gun arms folds back, and a massive blade of blazing energy ignites from its hand instead, which comes down in a huge, sweeping strike, that glasses the sand for several meters all around.
A2     A2 doesn't turn to look, or even glance over her shoulder. The hiss of the blade's ignition is her prompt to hop backwards, and clear the entire swing with almost casual ease, landing with a pair of loud clangs her feet on the mecha frame's shoulders. Precariously balancing on the flight unit's shoulders. Apparently, she'd hidden an especially nasty-looking sword under that cloak, because she proceeds to stab downward between her legs, and drive it completely through the pilot's head without blinking. Crimson blood paints the back of the flight harness, and the machine crashes.

    Jumping back off the machine without her cloak, A2's entire body is visibly covered in intense signs of wear and tear, with scuffs, abrasions, eroded artificial skin, and exposed armour seams everywhere, covered up by very little remaining clothing. She still has the gall to yell: "Hurry it up! However you got here, get out! Do you want them to fire an orbital strike or something?!"
Reinhardt Wilhelm     Reinhardt has been destroying robots for years, but they never looked so...human.

    God, is he glad Torbjorn isn't here. This is gonna be kind of ugly if the Swedish engineer ever gets wind of this race of -eerily- human looking robots.
R
    It's uncomfortable seeing a humanoid visage staring at him like that, so much so he's glad William is able to take it out with that EMP shot. He nods to the Chaser, before the time comes to take off. Might be better to leave now while the getting is good. Reinhardt brings up his shield, trying to stay between the robots and his friends like a vanguard. "Go, now!" He orders, before focusing on defending against hostile fire.
Yang Xiao Long     The reactive shield strikes back at the blonde, knocking her back even as the Dust shell blasts the unit as well, sending them careening away in a mirrored arc.

    Yang strikes the sandy ground, bounces, then kips herself up with a fling of her legs and a punch into the sandy ground, sending her up in a shallow arc, before staggering a little to her feet. "That all you got? I've got plenty more where that came from!" she snarls, racking the mechanism in her right gauntlet, and ejecting the spent shell. The orange bodied shell clatters to the sand, and a fresh slug is chambered... this one red bodied with a golden tip. "So c'mon. Get up and fight me like a girl!"
Genji Shimada     "-!"

    Genji is impressed by the phantom dodge.

    Two seconds later, he is... grudgingly impressed by the micromissile that explodes close enough to tear at his left side. "Gh... alright, then come at me...!" The shinobi turns in the air. He whips his blade around in his right hand. His arm begins to move with a blur of speed, swinging and swiping so fast that it nearly becomes a blur. He may have taken one hit, but all the rest of the missiles coming his way? He turns them right around, sending them straight back at the Captain.

    Then he hits the desert floor, and there's another blur of green as the cyborg begins to run. He's aiming to meet up with A2, and calling out to her en route. "You will have to forgive us, but we do not know what you or your pursuers are capable of! We are not from this world. Follow me, I will lead you to our exit!"
William Pauwel This would be a bad time for an orbital strike, Will decides. Whatever that is, it sounds vaguely like they might be hitting them with a satellite, and that would probably be lethal, even if there's a halfway decent chance that Reinhardt would just golf it right back into the sky.

...Well.

Retreat would be good.

"Let's go," Will calls to the others. "We got what we came for! No use keeping this up if we've got a straight shot to safety!" He turns, he doesn't look back. The less he needs to see of those distressingly... human machines, the better. He doesn't need more weighing on his conscience today.

"Hey! Miss Attacker Model! Head to the big shiny circle fast as you can get there, we're getting you out of here!" Will yells mid-sprint. "Yang! Get over here too, unless you want to get left behind!"
Yuna Kagurazaka Attacker No. 2 is a robot that looks human. Yuna isn't sure whether the transforming fighters' pilots are humans or robots, but the difference seems minuscule enough for her not to care. Besides, she has friends who are robots or androids already (and 'android' is probably the right word, but never mind that for now).

And first blood has been drawn. Elner warns Yuna to jump before the sand underneath her feet can get glassed by the descending beam sword - and the pilot who did it gets impaled by the girl whom Yuna and her friends are trying to rescue. Fortunately, Yuna herself doesn't seem to have caught sight of that - she heard the crash, but as long as she doesn't see the amount of blood that's been spilled ...

Well. That's a hell of a big 'if' to hang one girl's emotional state on. Yuna is mostly concerned with getting herself to safety, and secondarily with getting the girl who called them to this world out through the warpgate with them. The girl is ahead of her, the warpgate is past her, and she's not fast enough with Shugoseiheki on her arm. Easy enough to deal with that, though - Yuna just wills the kite shield to disappear, and pours her remaining strength into her legs. "Attacker, go limp!" Yuna calls out, picking up speed - especially thanks to the now-glassy surface of the sand. "And the landing may be rough, I apologize!"

She wasn't sure how much strength she had left, but 'save lives' plus a surge of adrenaline give Yuna an added boost of speed. A2 isn't so far from the warpgate that Yuna can't try to grab her and leap for the gate.
A2     With three units down, one pilot injured and one dead, B16 can't afford to be chasing after stragglers. She converts her unit back to its jet mode, and flicks on afterburners, rocketing back into the battlefield at a speed nobody is going to be outrunning. Going it for guns, the sand dances under the heavy impact of high calibre gunfire, which Reinhardt is only just in time to intercept. The gatling guns strain his shield even further, giving it no time to recharge as hundreds of bullets incesstantly pummel against it.

    Once again, he has to serve as a stepping stone, where at the exact instant the jet swoops over him, A2 leaps on to his back, then off his massive shoulders, ambushing it from behind his giant frame. Her sword flashes to and fro as she swats aside the handful of bullets the pilot has time to fire in desperation, before the blade snaps forward, and ruthlessly buries itself in her chest, punching right through the harness and out the back of the craft. B16 screams in agony, and spirals into the sand, smashing her unity to pieces, and tumbling free, down the side of the dune, leaving a lake of red in her wake.

    A2 makes her three point landing a second later, flicking the blood off her sword. "Shiny what?" she shoots back at Will with a blank, uncomprehending expression. She stands up, turns to look Yuna's way, and starts to hesitantly move in her direction, before being practically body tackled by the smaller girl. Standing on sloped glass isn't the best purchase, before factoring in footwear, and so she goes sliding on through, such that she only has time for half of a foul word before disappearing through the warpgate along with the Saviour. Reinhardt and Will pounding ground right behind have their shot to dive through as well, whilst Genji and Yang hold up the remainder.

    Genji won't be occupied for much longer, though. Probably two dozen mini-missiles streak in at him from his entire frontal hemisphere, but the shinobi's sword flashes between all of them anyways, hurling them away, and some straight back. They explode against the white frame, and detonate its fuel supply in a colossal fireball, hurling the Captain out of the blast zone, where she lies scorched and bleeding, slowly trying to crawl upright. The heavy armour is doing them a lot of favours.

    D4 gets to her feet first, being comparatively unscathered. She looks to Yang, and then to her fellows, and cries out "B16! B42! Captain! I can't believe . . ." Then, she turns back to the Huntress, drawing a techy-looking, square-tipped katana from a polyceramic scabbard at her waist. "I won't forgive you for this!" she yells, before charging down the side of the dune at Yang. She isn't as fast as A2, but still plenty quick enough to give the Huntress a run for her money, and for a pilot, she certainly knows how to use a sword. Motivated by anger, she goes for vicious, overhead slashes, lunging thrusts, and sweeping chops.
Yang Xiao Long     Yang's expression would normally be eager at the sheer rage on display... but three people have died today. Instead, her face it set into a stoney expression as she stares down the incoming pilot.

    She takes the strikes, parrying with the backs of her gauntlets, turning the blade aside with flashes of sparks, rope-a-doping the rage-fueled surge. "We gave you a chance to explain, it didn't have to end like this." she says between strikes, then plants her back foot, and surges under the raised guard of another attack, and slams her right fist into the pilot's midsection, and fires the bolt shell point blank, using the projectile to give herself some space... and probably putting the pilot out of her misery. "... I'm sorry."

    Yang doesn't hang around though. They were calling for reinforcements and what might have been an orbital strike... she she turns and beats feet towards the gate as the others make for it. "Genji, lets get outta here. Package is secure!"
Genji Shimada     "Agreed," Genji replies.

    He's already on his way out, and Yuna kindly showed A2 the door, so there's not much to do but dash on through.
Reinhardt Wilhelm     Yeah, team's fine.

    Reinhardt feels his shields fail on him as the gatling doesn't let up. He gets sick of this, raising his hammer and dropping it onto the ground.

    "HAMMER, DOWN!" The rest comes naturally, as a tremor drops the still fighting droid.

    Then, he takes off, using his own armor as mobile cover for his squishier friends as they go for the portal.
William Pauwel Run run run run run, into the portal. Reinhardt's shields won't last forever--

Reinhardt's shields just failed.

"Ah, dangit big guy!" Will grunts, zipping back to leap and land on the enormous mechaknight's shoulders. "Keep going! I'll lay down some suppressing fire!" And so he does, this time not with invisible electromagnetics, but with very visible, very bright and very /hot/ spheres of metal-vaporising plasma. "Go! Let's move!"
A2     Yang's opponent is fast and skilled, but also blinded my anger, and not fighting tactically. Her powerful onslaught of blows is turned aside, only increasing her frustration and making her rely more and more on simple power moves, until the shotgun fist catches her right in the stomach and sends her flying backwards into unforgiving sand, smashing against the side of the dune. Electrical sparks fly from the twitching armour, though a lack of blood may simply be due to the explosive heat.

    Regardless, with Reinhardt quaking the earth beneath his hammer, and Will putting holes through anything through the remaining units that could feasibly be restarted, with both machines and pilots down, the last obstructions to the warpgate are cleared, and the last members of the Watch make their escape. It's probably good timing too. If someone really /is/ watching from orbit, finding the entire team struck down would be a great time for heavy artillery. In and out fast is what the Watch does, leaving nothing behind to strike at but their shadows.