Scene #5531: ICoT - The Siege

Owner	Pose
The Kid	It's a mad dash back to the Bastion. The Kid is grimly silent all throughout the trip through the Skyways, hands resting on his weapons the entire time. As they approach, it becomes clear from a distance that something is wrong with the Bastion. The lush green grass has dried and blackened, black smoke issues from the mechanical underside, and tall spires of black rock has somehow erupted from it. The landing is rough. Segments of the earth slip under the impact, tumbling into the abyss below. Everyone arrives at the same time that those called in through the warpgate does. Kid immediately runs up to that strange black quartz that separates them from the Bastion's courtyard. It throbs and pulses in an eerie way, like it were a living thing. "The back door," he gasps, before abruptly turning and running to the side. He almost steps off the structure, into the yawning nothing, but plates of quarts rush up to meet the soles of his boots. An alternative entrance, just in case. The Elites could follow, if they so choose. But the sounds of violence on the other side of the strange material are intense. Gunshots, yells and chants in a strange language. If they could scale or get around these Wrong Rocks, they could join the fight much sooner. Rucks could probably use all the help he can get.
Alexis	Alexis comes off the Skyway almost literally on Kid's heels having followed him from the trip into the mine they had just finished when the distress call from Rucks came. She hasn't even bothered to clean off most of the monster gunk from fighting Though the tomboy skids to a stop at the view that greets them because it isn't a pleasant one. The towering crystals of wrongness cutting them off from the rest of the area. The damage already done to the Bastion's unstable platform. Fists clench so tightly you can hear the leather of her fingerless gloves scrunch for a moment, eyes narrowing. They had trusted the Ura after their peace offering... and it turned out to just be a trick? Or did something go bad with the supposed negotiation trip made by their two Ura allies? Whatever it is, hearing the gunfire again snaps Alexis out of the mental debate, the scowling expression only hardening at how deep into serious shit this was going. Which is why she reaches for the one specially marked pokeball off her belt. "Wildfire, I choose you!" The sphere bounces off the ground between her and the crystalline blockage, releasing the surge of energy that materializes into the large lion-like Entei, the Legendary Beast releasing a booming roar to announce his arrival. She was not screwing around, bringing out one of her biggest big guns in response to the dire situation. Alexis grabs the rock-like ridges on his back and hoists herself to his back. "Shit hit the fan, hard!" She points up. "We need to get over that obstruction, yesterday!" Wildfire nods, crouches and then leaps up. Massive paws and claws slam into the crystalline surface, digging in for traction and via use of Extremespeed essentially the legendary runs -up- the spires to leap over the top. As he arcs over and drops towards the ground on the other side Wildfire releases another thunderous roar, sounding much akin to a volcano threatening to erupt at any moment. Much like Alexis' temper.
Rory White	Rory White comes rushing through the Warp Gate and onto the Bastion... in her robotic feline form. It's seen several upgrades. No longer drab gunmetal grey, the form bristles with hundreds of electric blue circuit-lines added purely for decoration and a degree of camouflage - for the colors can change. But for now, they are a striking, chilly blue. With a clinkity-clank the robo-feline body dashes along at speeds its servos can barely withstand. She has absolutely NO intention of taking the backdoor, either. HUGE, THIN WINGS that crackle and sizzle unfold from the synthlion's back, revealing that it may in fact be a robo-griffin this time around. The ionic drives carry it soaring up and onto the sides of the Bastion's rockface... And from there, Rory scampers right up the side as if walking horizontally, the wings folding up again and sliding into the robot's back. She's on a heck of a warpath... And one thing is certain. This morph is the pinnacle of every lesson learned on this adventure. It's probably bristling with hidden weapons...
All-Seeing Eye	All-Seeing Eye arrives through the warpgate with a small smile, despite the destruction evident around him. He's never seen this place, but he's fairly certain the smoke, the crumbling landscape and the black quartz spires aren't part of normal operating procedures. Kid's given a little nod of the head, but his advice is utlimately ignored. Trust a Chosen to find a more efficient means of travel! The stately Exalt, dressed in a synthetic-weave gold and white qipao, raises one sleeved arm. With a crack, a steel cable shoots out of that sleeve. A flick of the wrist sends it coiling around the width of the nearest black quartz spire, whereupon the cable begins to draw back in. Eye is thusly pulled up the length of the spire, hopefully placing himself in a more advantageous position.
Josuke Higashikata	Josuke has no idea what's going on. He hasn't been involved in this world's troubles long enough to know what's at stake. But he hears over the radio that someone needs help. All he needs to know is where. Once he finds that out, he heads to the nearest warpgate. The crumbling earth is a surprise. A bit crumbles underfoot and it seems like he's going to fall... but that purple aura sparks to life, and with a strange, almost metallic sound, Crazy Diamond appears. The Stand grabs hold of the front of Josuke's jacket and pulls him to safety, before disappearing again. "Whew... that was close..." Josuke sighs. Then it's on to the Bastion itself. He's in his purple school uniform with the long jacket, and his hair is of course done up in that pompadour. "Wha?! What's going on here? What's all this?" He just manages to catch sight of the Kid starting around the back, and Josuke's eyes go wide when he notices the stone coming up to meet the Kid's feet. "Whoaaaa...!" There's time to marvel later, though; apparently they need to get to whatever's behind this black quartz. "Guess there's no better way in than through the front door, right?" he observes. "I'll knock." He steps back from the wall. "<CRAZY DIAMOND>!" Josuke shouts, and the pink-and-blue armored figure appears again. And what does it do? Why, it starts knocking, of course. With a barrage of super-speed punches at its full strength, screeching its distinctive Cry, "DORARARARARARARA!"
William Pauwel	Will still remembers that one time when he was here and a giant monster dragged his face through a brick wall. He still winces every time he comes back here, when the memory of the pain shoots through him like it was just yesterday. But when the call goes out for help, he rips out through the warpgate without looking back. His motorcycle roars with all of the power in its Ancient engines, screaming out from the interdimensional highway at top speed. The cowboy is still holding on for dear life as he barrels on in between jet black spires, weaving and jumping when weaving just won't cut it. He has to move as fast as he possibly can. So much of what has already been done in this world is at stake. He didn't get wall'd just to let it all go to waste. "Come on," Will growls, gunning the gas. A plume of blue-white flame erupts from underneath the Mistral, propelling him up and over, closer and closer to the sound of that not-so-distant battle. "Hold on, just a little longer!"
Flamel Parsons	Flamel Parsons has joined the group, alerted by calls for reinforcements over the radio! His levitation-powered leap to the bastion through the Skyways. But he's just as cut off as the rest, and in just as much a need to get around the barriers. Scaling and getting around, though, that he can deal with. He's already summoned up his levitation, and he swiftly works to scale the rocks as he goes. Of course, the rest of the gang likely won't notice him, as he swiftly established his own invisibility on the way in!
Kotone Yamakawa	Kotone isn't too worse for wear after fight still she's expended a fair bit of explosives on what she's fought and she's coming off the Skyway running at high speed right after the Kid. The mines were a memory but now they had other things to worry about, like the open assault upon the Bastion which was not the most stable thing in the world. Given how affairs are going this could be very tire, very darn dire. She's also glad there's more backup coming to help defend the Bastion. She's quick to form a data link with Rory, whose being very showy with her new combat morph not that she can't appreciate the style of it. William and Josuke are welcome, very welcome to have Will whose just infamous hard to kill and Josuke who has a reputation as a healer. She's got a feeling both's talents will be needed today. Alexis was another soul she thought they were to be lucky to have on hand, one of the most experienced elites in the sector was at their back. Eye was a mystery to her but she was likely about to find out, he was from Creation after all which would indicate he's no lightweight at all. With the Kid in the lead she's going to attempt to to get past the strange material. She crouches for a moment then springs up trying to vault over it using a double jump, but this could also make her an easy target for anyone on the other side with ranged attacks. "We need to move now!"
The Kid	Those who go over the barrier get to behold the destruction in all its terrible glory. The grass has suffered even more on this side, completely rotting away in places to reveal the mechanical underpinnings of the Bastion. Great, dark fissures have been torn open, allowing wheezing ticking sounds to emerge from within. A fine haze of smoke overlays everything, sticking in just such a way to make vision blurry. The Monmument has been damaged once more, fizzling and sparking constantly. The various structures have been ransacked and brutalized, and every tent has been stomped down. Ruck's white shock of hair is immediately apparent on the roof of the Arsenal. He's made a sniper's nest for himself and is firing down with Kid's Army Carbine. But the Ura are crafty, utilizing smoke bombs and rapid bursts of movement to throw off his aim. The garbs they wear are vibrant, which should make them easy targets. But the way they move, in conjuction with the smoke from their grenades, somehow makes gauging depth and distance difficult. Furthermore, in Rucks' advanced age, he can't quite work the lever like he used to, each shot coming slower than the last as the aches of age seep in. As they arrive, Alexis makes herself immediately known, Wildfire bellowing his arrival. But they are not scared. Immediately, two of them are upon the Pokemon and her trainer, casting a great net upon them and trying to drive stakes through it to hold them down. With Alexis upon her fiery Pokemon, they're banking on it being reluctant to burn the netting. Those who do not dive right in, but instead stand upon the spires or hover over the field, expose themselves immediately. The Ura give them a show of their co-ordination. One of them launches a pouch at them, which a second one fires at with a Fang Repeater, rupturing it. The overpowering stench of Swampweed fumes fills the air, before a third one fires a burning bolt from their arbalest, igniting the gases in a powerful explosion! Josuke, meanwhile, chooses the very direct path. Crazy Diamond's fist pummel the quartz, but even in spite of its great strength and speed, it doesn't crumble easily. It falls apart in chunks, some strange sap spraying the boy, almost like the material is bleeding on him...
Josuke Higashikata	Crazy Diamond pauses, as Josuke steps back. "Augh! Gross!" He flicks as much of the stuff off of him as he can. But then he realizes something. If it's living... or at least it thinks it is... then he wouldn't be able to 'fix' it out of the way -- reduce it to its components, that is. He can't do that with living things. He could only heal it. So really, there's no choice but to keep punching. So he looks at the wall again, and the Stand sets to work again. Josuke doesn't have time to worry about the weird blood-sap. He just needs to get through. Josuke looks up. Or over? There's an explosion, and Josuke nods. Crazy Diamond pauses in its punching, and then moves back, crouching and putting a hand down near the ground so that Josuke can step onto it. And with a loud, "DOUUURRRAA!" the Stand flings Josuke up into the air -- up and /hopefully/ over the wall.
All-Seeing Eye	Eye stands atop ther obelisk for a moment, arms folded behind him as he surveys the battlefield. The outfits are cute! And then, the explosion--it came completely unexpected, as he was, in truth, too busy scoffing at the foolish attempt to use chemical weapons against him. It actually knocks him free of his perch, though not for long. A steel cable shoots from his ankle, securing him to the pillar. As he climbs back up, a look at his sleeve reveals it's been singed... and a finger to his temple reveals these insolent whelps have dared to marr his beautiful face. This insult will not stand. Eye leaps down from his perch with a gracefully executed moonsault. His vision reveals several of the Ura, and a soft purple tactical overlay appears, visible only to him. TRANSMODAL RAPID TARGETING SYSTEM ENGAGED Numerous crosshairs make an effort to follow the erratic movement of the Ura. During the Exalt's descent, a whirring click is heard, and two bulges appear in his sleeves. Following the guidance of his targeting system, Eye peppers the area with liberally applied crossbow bolts, fired from the integrated weapons in his sleeves. It will take some time for his targeting algorithms to learn the Ura's tricks, but the display is enough to communicate that he, too, is not to be trifled with.
William Pauwel	This... This is just terrible. The billowing smoke and the flickering, darting shocks of color that are the Ura do little to disguise the sound of a suffering machine. The Bastion itself is guttering and wheezing. The life it was sustaining is dying. No matter how they do with repelling this invasion, it won't matter a damn bit if there's no Bastion left to save. Will clicks his tongue against the roof of his mouth and guns the engines one more time. The Mistral screams to top speed, blasting straight through a cloud of thick smoke before sliding into a long, screeching drift right to the side of the Monument. There are enough Elites here. He should have enough cover to do what needs to be done. Will pulls his tools from his belt and gets to work. Time to diagnose and fix as best as he possibly can, before the whole place falls into the abyss.
Flamel Parsons	Huh. A psychic ghost projection. Parsons takes a moment to think. Is this like those 'Persona' users? Strange! Well, time to deal with the issue. Coordination! Woah! Parsons quietly slips over the barrier and towards the monument, and he watches the unified movement with fascination. Unfortunately, that gives him a shock of /intense/ scent, an effect known for disrupting psychic processes. And this leaves him open for the followup! The burst of fire tears through to totally unshielded flesh, and Parsons is burned badly despite trying to surge away from the detonation. He flickers briefly out of invisibility -- enough to give his foes awareness that he's there, though not enough to get a full bead on him quiiiite yet. In response, he lashes out as best he can in psionic methods: A rush of astral projections, intending to try to find at least one or two weak links in the chain, who he can scramble coordination on. They may dodge projectiles, but it's far harder to dodge his quick, homing psychic breach attempts. The most dangerous abilities these Ura have are COMBO TECHS! He needs to break up that practiced coordination, and if he's not successful in turning some Ura against the other, he's going to at least make them far more likely to fumble their combo techs. "Woah, woah! I thought Zulf was going to talk for us! To make sure this didn't happen! Why are they breaking the only thing we've got that could /fix/ the Calamity?! Whose agenda is this?!" Parsons calls out, in a panic. "Did I miss something?!"
Kotone Yamakawa	Kotone gets up and over the wall she will see the chaos on hte other side it's not hard to catch Ruck's sniper nest nore the Ura who are assaulting him. They are clearly smart, and using solid tatics. She however is quick to moe she odesn't dive right in she takes a moment to cloak but with all the smoke? The Ura will have a good chance to notice her when she disturbs it. She readies her body's interal eelware as she addtionally readies her weapon as she starts to go hunting for the Ura her self. Eye's flashy attack may be of use to allow her to sneak about better and Will's goinf for the monument? That is good news. <<We need to help Rucks...damn it I'm going for him.>> She'll cancel her other idea while she goes to try and reach the old man's perch while cloaked maybe she can lend him a hand at the very least should she be able to get to him.
Alexis	Dramatic entrance!... Which is promptly cut short by a large net being tossed over them. It would be almost comically simple and practical of a response, if not for the dire straights of the situation. Alexis hunkers down, disappearing partially into Entei's smokey mane as the net catchs on the jagged ridges of his back, keeping her from being entirely strapped down underneath the net. The beast snarls, a few licks of flame whisping briefly at the corners of his mouth, but no infernal blast follows. The Ura might of had the right strategy with being reluctant to burn free with Alexis habit of riding atop the great beast. And using too strong of earth based powers might extrabricate the Bastion's crumbling state. Though they might of also underestimated the legendary's other abilities as well... Wildfire's eyes start to glow with a red incadesance. << ENOUGH! >> The bellow rings out with a powerful psychic presence as a prismatically colored psionic shockwave radiates around the Entei to fling away the Ura trying to stake down the net. Alexis is cringing in her hunched perch on his back, as she really does -not- enjoy the sensation of being near that psychic move, but it's a better option than burning themselves up or cracking the Bastion farther. "Apparently they didn't like what he had to say!" she retorts to Flamel, while trying to pull more of the net off. Wildfire starts doing the same after his attack, biting and clawing at the net to help get it off. While there's smoke and fire explosions going off, but those are a lot less of a bother than the goddamn net.
Rory White	Rory comes to a stop atop a plateau of devastation. Everything that could be shattered has been such. The grass is ruined. And old man Rucks has been forced into combat... Worse, the Monument is trashed. All the Cores they gathered! Rory's optics flash, and the lights across her body shift from a sizzling blue to hellish, ominous red. "This is what comes of negotiation with the Ura? Time and again risking ourselves to spare your lives despite no such considerations on your part. You raid and ransack when our back is turned. This ends now." Smokescreens have no affect on her whatsoever. A plethora of sensors mounted in the morph's head - everything from infrared to ultrasound - all but instantly map out all heat sources and structures, albeit without much resolution for color or texture. It's enough for a predator to go off of, though. Silhouettes painted white against a red background, resolved sharply through a hundred layers of AI-backed real-time video analysis... Panels open on the Griffin-morph's sides, revealing launch tubes for --- WHOOOOOOOOOOOOOSH!!! A few dozen tiny rockets flare off, each guided by onboard computers with a surprising degree of seeking ability for targets painted with glowing laser precision from the Griffin's eyes. More panels pop open from the shoulders, revealing miniaturized Shredder barrels...
The Kid	Josuke clears the barriers, timing it just right that he can land without facing the brunt of the explosion. However, he immediately comes face-to-face with an Ura woman brandishing what resembles a naginata. She is still, absurdly so. Until she moves with a sudden burst of fury and smoke, coming around to the punk's side and swinging right at his neck with the blade! All-Seeing Eye is barely phased by the explosion, and the Ura take notice. As he soars overhead, firing crossbow bolts from his sleeves, several take the shots hard. One who wasn't quite fast enough takes it through the chest and goes down, but others manage to dodge or just take it in the arm. One of them rushes, leaping upon the Monument to take to the air. He swings a short blade at the Chosen, trying to cut him down mid-leap! Will rushes to the parking Monument and begins investigating its innards. It's... complicated. Something easily akin to some of the more advanced Ancient machines from his world he might have examined. Tiny bits of clockwork whir and spin, connected to nothing as vials containing strange chemicals bubble and lead. But furthermore, there's a gap big enough to squeeze through that leads below the Bastion, to the larger machines that hold the whole place up... that part seems more vital, and is just as damaged. Flamel's initial astral projections accomplish little. These Ura have well-honed minds, consumed with anger and fury. An ill combination for slipping inside them and messing around with their co-ordination. He might be able to do something, but it would take some real effort. But as he speaks and pleads, one of them squares up with the agent, bearing a wicked War Machete. "Zulf sold you all out. Told us where this place was. Now we will finish what the Calamity started, by taking the lives of the last Cael." His tone is the jeering kind, like he's aiming to wound instead of being honest. Could Zulf really have become a turncoat? Kotone rushes to Rucks' side. He's so intent on picking his targets that he flinches when the cyborg joins him, making his next round go wide. "Good to see you," he says in his gravelly tone. "Wish it could be during better ti-LOOK OUT!" He goes to pull her low as one of the Ura shoots at them with a rapid-fire arbalest, spraying their position! The psychic wave makes the Ura stagger back, at the very least keeping them from completely securing the net. As the legendary begins ripping through it with bare teeth, they begin to compose themselves and shout for assistance. More Ura appear in a flurry of smoke and color, each packing a spear or pike or naginata. It's the classic hunter strategy; trap the mighty beast, and worry it with weapons with long reach until it bleeds out. They jab through the net, constantly moving, some even aiming for Alexis! Rory yells from above to the Ura below, before picking them off and firing a cluster of rockets. Some are skilled enough to blur away at the last moment, leaving them to explode against the ground or something they manoeuvred across to serve as cover. Others just slice the explosives in half before they reach them. But some are blown up, splattering gore across the dying grass. But one tries to get revenge in his last moment. He aims an arrow with his longbow and fires at Rory. It might seem like something trivial, until she sees what it is tipped with. The same black rock that has erupted all over. Should it strike her, the tip will begin blooming and growing within her frame in just the same way. And finally, the Kid arrives, tumbling from the sky via a Skyway panel from the 'back door.' The Ura turn to look at him like sharks scenting blood. As he gets to his feet, several are immediately upon him, piling around and stabbing at him with spears.
William Pauwel	This thing is... Incredible. Whoever designed it must have been amazing at whatever it was they did. Geoengineering? No, this goes a bit further than that. This reminds him of something he'd find in a ruin-- and not just any old drone. It's less of a machine, more of a piece of art. If he were a less experienced adventurer, there'd be no way in hell he'd be able to figure this thing out. But one thing's for sure, while the Monument is damaged, the stuff down below is even worse off. If Will knows anything about a machine like this, the bit that's exposed is mostly a user interface. Nobody who's good at what they do would leave something /super/ important just sitting out in the open. Well. Except, apparently, for the Shards. Will moves into the gap in the Bastion, shimmying himself down into the depths. He's suddenly very glad about the fact that he's skinnier than the average Digger, it makes getting down this way less uncomfortable than it already is. More to the point, it also gives him a bit more leeway to move around and work on things. He flips his visor down over his eyes. The Solano's light shines into the darkness under the Bastion. Time to get to work.
Josuke Higashikata	Flamel calls out questions and Josuke blinks. "What? Who's there?!" He looks around, trying not to lose track of the battlefield in his attempt to discern where the voice came from. It's actually lucky that he did this, because he wouldn't have seen the Ura woman otherwise. "WHOA!" He re-summons Crazy Diamond just in time to avoid his head getting sliced clean off; the Stand materializes, crossing its arms to block the blade. It still cuts into the Stand however, into the place where the arms are crossed! But it's not the Stand that bleeds. It's Josuke. "GAH!" he grunts, as blood sprays from the identical injury that suddenly opens up on his forearms. He growls, turning fully to face the woman, as Crazy Diamond tries to turn its arms and grab the naginata. The movement will probably slice the blade deeper, but it serves Josuke's purposes if the weapon can't be easily freed. "Oi! Didn't your mother ever teach you not to play with sharp things?!" Josuke half-taunts. He's not trying to break the naginate. No, Josuke has something even worse planned. If the Stand can grab hold of the naginata, an orange-gold aura begins to glow around the Stand's hands, as it tries to reduce the naginate back to a useless lump of metal and an unfinished rod. He's trying to UNMAKE that naginata totally.
All-Seeing Eye	As Eye descends, his enhanced vision catches two things. First, Rory's fusillade, behind him. Good. /Good./ Let them face the wages of their dissidence. The second, in front of him, an Ura skirmisher attempting to challenge him. Even better! As the sword-wielding foe approaches, he will see the turning form of All-Seeing Eye with a knowing smile on his face. For a moment, the Ura and the bloodied Champion make eye contact. Time seems to slow down, but it's simply adrenaline. Eye's arm raises up in a block, and the Ura's sword destroys one of his hidden crossbows. slicing through the delicate synthetic weave of his sleeve. The patient smile remains. His eyes change, pupils retreating, sliding back to reveal small metal nozzles surrounded by cogs of some darker sort of steel. A brief, pneumatic hiss. ESSENCE PULSE CANNON ACTIVATED LETHAL FORCE SELECTED Dark jets of purple lightning leap from the nozzles. The ruined crossbow apparatus hits the ground with a clunk, followed by All-Seeing Eye. The same inky black substance on his face now slowly leaks from his sleeve, softly splattering upon the ground. A dark stain upon his chest reveals his block wasn't entirely effective, either, but he doesn't care. He doesn't wait for the impact of the Ura==he simply advances, his eyes set on one target: the flame arbalist who ignited the explosion and marred his face. Still smiling despite the obvious battle damage, he flicks his wrists, calling forth a steel cable for each hand and gribbing both with silent, white-knuckled rage. He spins the whips, each one moving so fast that they blur like helicopter blades. Patiently, he strides across the battlefield, using the spinning whips as shields to deflect any projectile attacks headed his way.
Alexis	Claws, fangs, and good old fashion pulling finally manage to dislodge the remains of the net. Not a moment too soon as the Ura regroup, get out their weapons, and amasse a charge back into the fray. Realizing she's more of a hinderance to him at this position Alexis jumps off Entei's backside, deploying the rollerblades from her boots as she does so. Reaching over one shoulder she grabs an old familiar from the golf bag slung across her back, pulling out the well-worn hockey stick out and gripping it just as much as a weapon as the enemy do their spears and polearms. "Game time's over, now we're playing for keeps." The first Ura to dart in thrusts his spear, Alexis twisting so the point bounces off her padding. "Hope you jackasses like contact sports. Cuz spearing is totally a foul." Her response is to kick off with her skates, leaning foward to throw her shoulder into her attacker's center of mass. "Here's two minutes for Checking!" Then twists to thrust her elbow it one man's gut, and shove down at an angle to catch another around the shin and yank his leg out from under him. "Two minutes for Elbowing... And two for Hooking. And my personal favorite..." Alexis plants one skate, pivots on it while lettin the stick slide out to it's full reach before she grips it tight and swings to catch as many of the attacking Ura and their weapons as she can with the length. "Four minutes for High sticking!" In contrasting to Alexis turning this fight into a field hockey rollerderby, Wildfire just stands there with solemness. Spears and blades are stabbed and swiped at him, leaving marks in his darkened hide, but not budging the great beast into giving an inch despite the odds. An ominous growl and some sparks ripple between his clenched teeth... But the real danger comes when his entire glowing body erupts with hellish glow, Overheat sending literal waves of fiery wrath blasting out from his form in all directions now that he doesn't have to worry about his Trainer being in close contact.
Rory White	Rory is not at all sensitive to the subtleties of voice the agent Flamel's engaging with is putting forth, though her high-sensitivity microphones do pick it up. Well. THAT doesn't exactly fill her with much care for their lives. The robo-griffin's eyes flash with as sinister a rage as Rory's been able to program them to express. Which is just a little bit too cartoony! But the fact that the Ura would appear to be humans... leaves her stunned that they can EVADE her nearly supersonic missiles. The math just doesn't add up! As she hunkers down ready to relocate though, her sensors pick up an incoming projectile. The morph reacts with speed far beyond her own innate reflexes, deploying the fibrous wings with a SNAP of tension. The arrow slams into them... and its fractally blossoming rock shards tear into them. Rory quickly responds with a targeted ROAR from the speakers implanted in its mouth... a targeted sonic shock thats bad enough for anyone around, but DEVASTATING for anyone in the focused cone. The frequency is intolerable to the human ear and the pressure shatters eardrums. There goes all sense of balance and hearing... "In a time of devastation, when lives are few and hope rare, what do you do? Spread more chaos and turmoil! How did these hopelessly barbaric fixations persist through your culture? I will not let the next age be ruled by such petty acts!"
Flamel Parsons	Hmmm. Parsons would have to admit, he might not be fully invested in this enough to put his full weight behind defense of the Bastion, but at the very least, he /does/ have his full weight behind solving mysteries and discovering secrets. And this sounds very, very much like a secret being wrapped in a very specific presentation. The Ura can't be so numerous that they can afford to compartmentalize information much, and anyone with a mind as reinforced as these Ura are people who are probably very well-trusted by the Ura military apparatus, inasmuch as the Ura continues to even have something like a military. While the others act in a distinctly flashy and dangerous way, Parsons tries to act in a way that's a little more subtle. He slips between Ura, searching for one that looks to be ranking in some way, and tries to find a moment when the group as a whole is focused on the flashier folks like All-Seeing Eye, Alexis, or Rory. Then, he tries to yank 'em by the neck with a big psychic hand, pin them down, and quickly break into their mind! A series of blasts of psychic aggression energy meant to break open mental defenses, followed by a levitation-like swiftness of rushing through the mind in a high-defense mode, trying to bulldoze his way towards important military secrets! He has one specific set of questions he's going to try to extract information about, even if not all of them get answered: Where are Zulf and Zia, are they okay, and are they truly turned against them?
Kotone Yamakawa	Rory's rage is something Kotone has not seen before it scar her as she makes it to Ruck's side she drops her cloak to fall in along side hte old man. 5R "It could be a lot..." She's pulled down and with a grunch she hits the roof of the armory. Thankfully she didn't land on Rucks. "...It seems I owe you one Rucks." She keeps her head down for the moment as they come under fire. "I have an idea..." She knows the Ura is going to have to reload at some point and the moment there's a pause? She'll pop back, and put her SMG trying to supress them back to give Rucks a chance to lay down more accurate fire, but who knows what other nasties the Ura might have for them. "What the heck happened I thought we were working on ending this fude with words rather than gun fire!"
The Kid	Will crawls deeper into the Bastion, into parts that haven't been seen by any of the Elites until now. Wooden platforms exist to be stood on, as he is granted a view of the underside, and the world below. The problem is immediately apparent; that black rock has been planted and sprouting from the machines, jamming the whole machine. Dealing with them will have to come first. The Ura doesn't know what to make of her attack being stopped seemingly in midair, and yet still drawing blood. But she doesn't stop at all, instead trying to press the blade deeper, until it is suddenly rendered into unprocessed metal and a stick! She watches the lump fall, before sneering. "Didn't yours ever teach you to wash your hair?" she asks, before swinging the stick like a quarterstaff, aimed at Josuke's head! All-Seeing Eye lives up to his name slightly as he regards the one who leaped to slash at him. The Ura bears a victorious look, before the Chosen's eyes open in an alien way, and the last thing on his face is an expression of horror before he is fried, his cooked body tumbling down. The Ura responsible for the burning bolt sees that he is the quarry, and discards his massive crossbow for a Fang Repeater, a strange automatic rifle. Not showing the slightest fear, he sends a shower of sharp fangs towards Eye! Alexis faces the crowd of Ura, bearing a weapon to similar length. The one she shoulders stumbles back, coming precariously close to the edge. The one who takes the elbow to the gut exhales a lungful of air. Then she pivots, lashing out with the hockey stick to strike them all! They stagger back, wounded... but all of them rush in once more. Discarding their long weapons for short knives as they dogpile the trainer, aiming to get inside her reach and start finding gaps in her padding. As for Wildfire, Overheat instantly cooks the weapons of the Ura, as well as they and their clothes! They stagger back, burning and shouting, but one bears the presence of mind to throw something at the Pokemon. The sack incinerates mid-flight, but releases it's payload; sticky blue goop that proves remarkably heat-resistant, coating the Entei. The clear intent is to insulate the heat! Rory blasts out the eardrums of several Ura, rendering them unable to even hear her shouts. Not that they're likely to respond to them. A couple fall off the sides as they lose their balance, others just drop their weapons and put their hands to their bleeding ears. However, the upper-floor windows of the Distillery fly open, with more Ura bowmen lining up shots on Rory with the arrows tipped with the strange material. They fire in unison, again and again... it almost seems planned, co-ordinated. Flamel takes down... the one who spoke to him. He seems the largest, and clad in white fur that makes him stand out the most. The mental assault quickly pierces his defences. It is merely willpower, not psionic barricades. He extracts his answers quickly; the two Ura are being held in the skyborne Tazel Terminals seperately. Zia, knowing little, has simply been sequestered in Zulten's Hollow, the Ura's defensive blockade, to be used as a shield, just in case. Zulf has been taken to the new peak of the Terminals, and tortured for all the information he gave. He gave the information, but not out of traitorous intent. The general, all the while, has fumbled for something at his belt. Another sack, the contents of which are unleashed. Flamel would recognize the i n t o x i c a t i n g scents of Jawson Bog... The Ura shooter is quickly cut down by SMG fire as he struggles to reload. "They ain't exactly been in a chatty mood ma'am," Rucks says as he slides in a fresh round... before an angry chant in a foreign language comes from behind. An Ura has scaled the building, and comes bearing a long blade to face the two. They rush, ignoring Kotone entirely as they aim to cut down Rucks!
The Kid	Meanwhile, Kid is dogpiled. The Ura stab, over and over, before one of their spears is halted and ripped from their hand. The young man erupts free in a flurry of violence, slashing and stabbing with the stolen weapon. Three are cut down as the other get their distance, drawing ranged weapons to shoot at the Kid. He's a mess, white hair painted red and a furious grimace upon his face as he bears down on one of the shooters, taking several bolts before tackling them.
Flamel Parsons	Parsons rips through the landscape of the Ura's mind, tearing headfirst into an unrefined willpower barrier born more of loyalty than of brainwashing. It takes a lot more focusk, but it's at least something he knows how to get through, and how to extract information from. Locations! Situations! Explanations! INFORMATION! Fantastic! JAWSON BOGJUICE! Awful! Parsons gets a full lungful of the effects of Jawson Bog. If swampweed smells bad, this smells is an outright psychohazardous chemical bomb. While the officer might suffer its natural effects, Parsons experiences a psychic misfire and backlash that's actually damaging to him. His eyes, hidden behind the secret agent lenses, flash bright white, and go blind briefly as his Invisibility inverts, and his agility drops badly when his Levitation inverts as well. "Augh!!" He cries out, choking and coughing, his brain blasting psionic aggression bolts in all directions. "E-everyone get away!!" He tries to scramble back from the general and get a moment to cleanse his own mind of the psychic damage that Jawson Bog carries as its trademark. He'll probably need cover, since his invisibility just dispersed! Someone should help him, or the Ura commander and anyone with him will have a clear shot on taking him down!
All-Seeing Eye	Behind Eye, the accuracy of his marksmanship is proven, and he relishes in the sight. Before him, his quarry changes weapons in a futile effort to slay him. With almost leisurely pace, he brings one of his spinning whips before him. The steel cable changes hue, as purple electricity begins to surge along its length. Between the rapid spinning of the cable and the electricity surging through it, Eye has essentially made a riot shield. The Champion continues to advance, relishing the relative impunity with which he does so, until he stands a scant few feet before the Ura gunner. Off to the side, Flamel's invisibility fades, leaving him wide open to attack. ...someone else can handle that. This whelp must be punished for his insolence. Cheerfully, Eye gives the Ura a command. "Perish." His trained eyes watch the movement of his whip as it continues to deflect the sharp fangs, able to see the gaps even as its outline is a blur. There. He whips his head around and his long, raven hair snaps through an opening, heading straight for the gunner's throat. Should it find its mark, a current of electricity will travel through it in an effort to electrocute the gunner.
Josuke Higashikata	Josuke brings his hands up to cover his ears at Rory's loud roar (ROAR-y?!). "Ow!" Crazy Diamond is, thankfully, still there; hence the assault hits the Stand instead. This time Josuke's actually ready for it, and brings the arm of the Stand to block. Oh but then... ...Yep. She had to go and insult the hair. Josuke's pupils contract to pinpoints. There's actually a moment where he's frozen, as if he can't quite believe she'd say such a thing. And then an expression of intense fury comes over his face. Despite that, his voice is quiet. "Hey... what did you just say about my hair...?" She's not going to be given an opportunity to answer, unless she can find her way through a barrage of super-speed fists. He's not going for finesse here -- he's going for flat-out POUNDING this Ura's face into a new shape. His voice isn't quiet this time as he growls, "I WON'T LET YOU INSULT IT!" It's all going to look very strange to someone who isn't privy to the reason Josuke gets so steamed when someone insults his hair. It might almost be comical if it wasn't for the expression of murderous rage on his face as the pastel colored psychic projection hammers a multitude of super-speed punches at the Ura woman.
Rory White	Rory had a scan of the ambushers, but she'd assumd they were here to evacuate their fallen! So when they come out with BOWS and more of those strange arrows... Oh dear. Her wings are already ruined, and so all she can do is DASH. But this isn't so effective... One arrow slams into a leg, another into her rear. The black rocks quickly spread through the robo-griffin's systems, ripping apart-- ... Hrrrm. That is odd. There's plenty of obvious damage, the impacts sparking and fizzling out... But as she does not feel pain, Rory does not flinch at this. Instead the robot drags itself forward at crippled speeds... and DETACHES from the damaged rear end. The forelegs SPLIT and sliiiiiiide down the belly in an eerie, liquid-like fashion... and she promptly is once again on four - albeit smaller- legs - and scrambling for cover! "This is a well planned attack... why are they doing this?!"
Kotone Yamakawa	Kotone Yamakawa is quick she's inhumanly fast but the Ura are clever, they are hardend surivors of the end of this world more or less. As thse one have managed to get the drop on them. Kotone doesn't think long, heck it's inhumanly shot she reacts. She doesn't get a chance to rpely to Rucks as she's now pushing him out of the way as they are rushhing to cut down Rucks. The long blade comes the blade moves and Kotone has intercpeted but she had no rea way to react as the blade sinks into her her body there's pain, memories of her orginal birth body being torn limb from limb apart. She bleeds as the blade does get through that light stelath armour as it was made to deal with bullets. She bleeds but not blood. a strange foul smelling red liquict and sparks come fromt he wound. She's in so much pain. "Your...gods, damned... blood FUDE WILL END!" SHE takes the blade deeper and then activates her eele weay hopefully shocking the Ura warrior from the warking world. It hurts so damn much still, she could turn off the pain but doesn't it could end up worse for her if she does...
William Pauwel	The chaos up above seems far away down here in the heart of this great machine. Will can barely recognize that it's there- he can hear it in the thunder and the rumble of the earth, but his mind is elsewhere. This whole place is amazing-- was it ever even finished? Look down below, the world so far beneath the Bastion now. Was all of Caelondia built this high up? The view is breathtaking, but he has to focus on the here and on the now. These scaffolds look like they were made for continuing work on whatever machines churn down here. Well. Should be churning, that is. Those huge black rocks are gumming everything up. Did the Ura plant them? How did they know to come down here? Maybe that's another thing that Zolf told them. Will takes a moment to scan over the bits and pieces that he can see. There are gears here and there that look like they're struggling to turn, but can't. "Judgment," he says to his gun. "Keep an eye out for these rocks. Mind runnin' their signature through the visor? Mark 'em all as targets if you need to." There's a beat, before the light radiation from the weapon at his side goes from sky-blue to cloud-white. Confirmed. Uploading targeting information now. Will grins as he sees the whole mess of black rocks light up in his visor's overlay. Okay, so he knows where they are, now to do some maintenance. Unfortunately, he doesn't exactly have the kind of tools one would normally need to break all of this rock, but... What he /does/ have is a handcannon capable of firing high-energy kinetic bolts and a few handy, home-made attachments. Will fastens something that looks like the business end of a welding torch to his cannon and feathers the trigger once, twice, before a thin, cutting beam scythes its way out of the tip of his tool. Might not be the most practical thing in a fight, but when you need to cut some stone, it's about as good as a guy could ask for. And so, Will goes to work.
Alexis	Dammit they have knives. The last time Alexis crossed pathes with a Ura weilding a knife she ended up with the knife in her shoulder and being used as a bargaining chip. Just the thought of it makes her shoulder throb as a good reminder not to let that happen again. Except Entei gets coated in flame retardant goop, and his gurgled snarl of surprise is just enough of a distraction for Alexis to get dogpiled on. She does manage to twist her upper body out of the way of a knife going for her shoulder again, but the number of blades trying to cut through her padding is going to make this quick and messy situation if something isn't done. Alexis mentally cusses at her current selection still being primarily picked for the cave trip that preceeded this, as it meant she didn't have a lot of her aera-coverage options at hand. The Ura were proving exceptionally annoying to deal with via beast, with their spears and nets and other hunter style weapons... As they're rolling around on the ground like a big ball of violence one of her other pokeballs does get knocked loose from her belt, rolling off to the side. As luck would be it rolls up against a rock just right to hit the button and bursts open, spilling out a metallic form with numerous blade-like protrusions of his own. "Shaaa?" Though at the sight of affairs, from one trapped Entei to the pile of bodies trying to turn one tomboy into a pincushion, quickly dismisses confusion. "BISHARRRRRP!" and replaces it with unbridled rage as the armored 'mon leaps into the fray as well. His metallic body can handle knives a lot better than Alexis can. Trying to shove him away just riskes cutting oneself on the serrated edges of his body. Wickedly sharp clawed hands shaped like can-openers and the crest on his helmet resembling an axe blade tear into the horde of Ura to rip them away from his trainer. And rip them in general with all those sharp edges. It shortly becomes apparent why Alexis doesn't use this pokemon very much. Bisharp are relentlessly fierce and brutal fighters, and unlike many of the creatures they may of seen her use before, there is one difference in this Pokemon. He's not holding back from being vicious and potentally lethal with that assortment of bodily blades.
The Kid	The Ura gunner watches as Eye deflects each and every rapid shot he fires, coming closer and closer, like a cat playing with its prey. As he stands right before him, issuing that one word command, the Ura... acquiesces. But not in the way Eye might have planned. He lunges forward, into the vortex of whips, aiming to make them coil around them both! And with his last breath, before the electricity takes him, he aims a loogie right at Eye's eye! DORARARARARARARARARARA! The Ura woman is met with a barrage of spectral fists, heavily distorting her face and form. She can do nothing to match such an assault, only fly back into a shrine for the Pantheon, crashing into the structure of brick and brass. An idol to Pyth falls on her head as a heavy unconsciousness claims her. Rory dives for cover. The Ura plan is working. The AGI had been present at several of their ambushes, and word of her bizarre body must have spread. As she is artificial, a machine, they deal with her the same way they deal with the Bastion. Rip it apart with Something Wrong. As she dives for cover, an Ura bearing a spiked club appears in a puff of smoke, swinging the great weapon upwards, attempting to launch her! The bowmen are already ready, their next shots primed to take her should the clubman succeed! Kotone is cut, her body easily gripping the blade the Ura swung. They struggle with it, trying to pull it free, but the cyborg's discharge electrifies them into unconsciousness. "Much obliged," Rucks says as he struggles to clear a jammed carbine. Down below, Will lines up his cutting laser and begins sawing the tumerous rocks free. They gush with a strange red sap, bearing the exact same texture and consistency as blood as he goes to town. It takes a short while for each one, but he does eventually succeed in cutting some of the rocks free. He even has a convenient disposal medium; he can easily just toss them off the side to the ground below. As he does, the Bastion groans a little less with each one, and gives him access to get to work. Bisharp rips right into the Ura in defence of his trainer. They're hunters, trained in dealing with beasts of the Wild. But nothing like Bisharp exists, and their thin robes do nothing against the natural blades. They slump, bloodied. The Ura commander stays low. His eyes are rolling, both from the psychic assault and the lungful of bog fumes. But the latter is something he has some acquired resistance to, and the former is something he is bouncing back from. As Flamel's powers go on the fritz, he begins to creep up on the psychic, bearing that War Machete... RAnd then, Rucks leaps from the roof to tackle the commander, sparing Flamel a gruesome fate. The two tumble and tussle for a brief moment, before there is a sickening sound of metal grinding against bone. Rucks has had the entire length of that War Machete driven through his chest.
Josuke Higashikata	To his credit, Josuke does pause to make sure the woman's just unconscious and not dead. But once he's assured that she's going to make it, he turns back to the battle at hand, to see where else he can assist. And that's when he sees it. The guy in the sniper's nest, jumping down to assist... and getting skewered for his troubles. Josuke's eyes widen. He doesn't bother yelling out or expressing shock or upset, there's no time. He just turns to the still-manifested Crazy Diamond -- looks like it's time for another Fastball Special! But this one is lined up to try to grab Rucks and pull him off the machete. With the throw, Josuke flies out of Crazy Diamond's effective range, but when he needs to stop, he merely re-manifests the disappear'd Stand to catch him. Hopefully he's carrying Rucks when the Stand catches him. Because Josuke's gonna have to make fast with the healing, if he wants to save the poor guy...
William Pauwel	Ugh, what the heck is this stuff? Blood? Since when the hell do rocks bleed? Well. Whatever. He can store some to study later. Everything else is getting chucked right into the abyss. He has a lot of rock to cut, a lot of blood to drain, and not really all that much time to do it all in, if the sounds the machine's making are any indication. Hopefully, he can clear out enough that the Bastion's gears can build enough momentum to clear themselves. Time to kick things up a bit. Will moves, travelling deeper and deeper into the Bastion as he goes, cutting and hacking away. Where rocks are too big to cut, or simply in a position decent enough to just blast into oblivion, he does so. But with most of them, he's careful and quick. If he goes too fast, he might damage this place more than the Ura already have. That begs the question, though: How the blazes did they /get/ all this stuff down here? And how deep do these machines even go?
All-Seeing Eye	When the Ura lunges forward, there is a moment of umbrage as the spittle lands upon the Exalt's eye. The electricity passes harmlessly through All-Seeing Eye, but the whips do indeed entangle them both. The last thing that the Ura sees is the Exalt's sedate smile souring into an incensed scowl. The last word belongs to the gunner, and Eye knows it. The seething anger, the indignance is so strong that he continues to send a current through his foe's lifeless body for several seconds after, only stopping when it begins to smoke. There. That felt good. But there is still the matter of his entanglement, and of his allies. A Champion's work is never done! The whips snake around and around as he retracts them back into his wrists, and the lifeless, smoldering Ura falls to the ground. Off to the side, he sees the one-two punch the archers are preparing to make on Rory. Huff. "No, no, no!~ That won't do." Wiping the spittle from his eye, he raises the arm with a still-functioning crossbow and activates it. Click. His vision zooms in on the windows. Visible only to the Exalt, a purple grid overlays the inside of the building, with the squares occupied by the archers flashing red. PLOT TRAJECTORY The squares are isolated, connected by a single, purple line that starts on the wall behind the archers. Eye smiles, and fires the crossbow.
Alexis	It takes time but while the fighting is going on a spike of rock punches out through the anti-fire material. Then another. And another. It's slow going, Entei isn't quite as good with Stone Edge as he is with his fire and seismic moves, but it's steadily getting the job of freeing himself done. Alexis grabs her hockey stick and uses it for support to pick herself off the ground. Now she's as covered in blood, both her own from cuts and from the enemy thanks to the walking knife rack, as well as dried monster guts. Normally she'd be upset at a pokemon getting so violent with humans... "... Good job, Gauntlet. Thanks." But this was a time were it was the only answers. These men were not holding back, so holding back against them wasn't the answer. They had made it the only possible solution, even if the thought churned her stomach even after all these years of dealing with the Multiverse. A churning that only gets worse from the commotion near the armory as Rucks gets a weapon through his midsection. "DAMMIT!" That's it. That is fucking it. Whatever hope for making peace with the Ura to fix the calamity is gone. But first they need to fix Bastion. "Help get Wildfire loose." Alexis diverts one Pokemon to help the other, Bisharp's blades can probably cut through that gunk faster that Wildfire's stone spikes will. Despite the boiling emotions inside she's forcing herself to keep her composure and focus on the other big problem right now. Losing Rucks is bad, but if they lose Bastion itself there's no hope left for this world. William is already down inside clearing out the machinery. But what of the pieces already breaking away from the platform? Alexis grabs her four remaining pokeballs, releasing the Swampert and Mawile she had in the mine, her Typhlosion, and Quilladin. "Checkpoint, use your vines to grab some of the broken pieces before they fall off entirely. Everyone else, grab on and pull!" While vines are being slung like lassos and the other pokemon trying to use them to tow chunks back into place, Alexis gets down on her knees to shout into one of the breaks in the ground. "Stay alert down there! We're gonna try and pull some of the debris back to the main platform!" Don't want him getting crushed down there, after all.
Rory White	The clubman rounds the bend to find the damaged, piecemeal 'robo-griffon' torso facing him. Were it a normal animal, the crippled beast would be on the verge of death. No such luck here. A tube emerges from the robot's mouth and disgorges huge spurts of some kind of vile-smelling yellow-brown-orange liquid straight for the Ura warrior's face. It's not enough to just dodge this stuff, but it's the kind of thing no man or woman wants getting plasted to their face. Anyone with a nose here (that is to say, probably everyone) will know something FOUL was just unleashed. It twists the gut of anything remotely human. Once again, Rory's answer to biological enemies is to prey on things they just cannot hope to defend against. Light. Sound. And now, smell. The foul thing smells vaguely like the worst of rotting meats and baked excrement, distilled down to its vilest components. Whatever this stuff is, one can thank their lucky stars that it will MERELY debilitate... ... Although there is a real danger of choking on your own vomit. "Fun fact." The robot announces to the wind in a rage-filled spiel of sarcasm. "I do not have a nose."
Flamel Parsons	Parsons' gets a moment to fix up his own psychic systems. Once he's done, though, things are a little more awful. The first thing he sees is Rucks skewered on that machete. Shit. Shit shit shit. His eyes go wide. You know, he may not be invested in this Bastion stuff, but that man sure as hell just took a short sheathing of a long machete in his place and that's far, far more meaning to him than a lot of things could have. He's no healer; he doesn't know it, but one hopes Josuke's going to be what pulls through and saves Rucks. Flamel himself is quicker on the draw when it comes to keeping him from being interfered with. No hesitation, despite the fact that he abstains from killing when possible. He draws one "handgun" and points it straight at the commander, and unloads with enough artillery-grade psionic force to shatter the man's ribcage with an armor-piercing shot. "Whatever your goddamn agenda is, keep the torture and murder out of it!!" He calls out, in a brief moment of actual heroic tone. And then he tries to force himself back up onto his feet, reactivate his levitation, and hopefully rush to cover Josuke, enclosing himself, Rucks, and Josuke all in a large, dense psionic shield, trying to give him room and time to work. "I'll get you some time! Do what you can!"
Kotone Yamakawa	Kotone Yamakawa says "Not a problem, I'm a lot easier ... to patch up." She's trying to steady herself she'll pull the blade free, letting what little repair systems she have kick in to at least stop her bleeding out various hydraulics and other vital fluids. She curses a bit as she tries to get up to a good firing line. then Rucks goes and leaps to rescue Flamel and then gets the full on war Machete, it seems Kotone only delayed what she wanted to stop. "RUCKS!" She is filled with grief but also sees there are, Archers targeting Rory there's little s she can of for Rucks at this point. Her aim might be somewhat off due to the pain and she's still putting a lot of bullets in the air at the archers addition to the fire power of other assaults on them. "We need to get a Medic to Rucks NOW!"
The Kid	Will and Alexis tend to the Bastion. Chunks of rock are ripped from the Bastion as straying hunks from it are pulled together. The machines seem near endless as the Chaser crawls through the belly. As he cuts rocks free, whatever holds the place together seems to regain functionality, as the parts that Alexis and her Pokemon rein back in start to reconfigure. Others continue to deal with the Ura. Kotone sprays at the archers, forcing them to hold their fire. Long enough for Eye, after thoroughly toasting the Ura, to bounce a shot through the archers in the windows, cutting them all down. The potent chemical attack blinds the Ura clubman, causing him to scream and flee, tripping on a pile of rubble to tumble off the edge of the Bation. However, most tend to Rucks and the commander. Josuke takes Crazy Diamond to the wound, but it's a situation that might remind him of one before. No matter how much he throws at it, the wound refuses to fully close. It may have cut something too vital, too deep. But at the very least, he has chased the pain away and kept Rucks lucid. Flamel slams the Ura commander with a potent blast, filling the air with cracking ribs. But one does not rise to that position without being strong enough to handle that. He glowers at the psychic. "My agenda is justice. Yours is the harbouring of criminals. You-" The Kid barrels into him, sending him flying off the Bastion. He's soaked in blood now, the Ura who ambushed him all dead at his hands. Upon seeing Rucks' prone form, and their commander sent sailing off the edge, the remaining attackers begin to flee, leaping across small islands of earth to get away. "Listen to me," Rucks says urgently to Josuke. "This is fine. I ain't important anymore. We're all waiting on the Kid now. Tell him to look in my tent. I've left something for him that explains everything. It'll make the last part easier too. The Bastion can be made whole again, but he'll need what the Ura got. Any Cores or Shards they got before we found 'em. When he does that... well. My letter will tell him what to do. Now... let me go. I ain't one for long goodbyes."
Josuke Higashikata	Josuke can't really stop in mid-flight, since... well, he's not actually flying. He's just being thrown. Thankfully, Flame's got Josuke's back with his shield. "Thanks!" Josuke calls out to Flamel. There's hopefully room in the 'bubble' for Crazy Diamond as well. Since Josuke's re-summoning the Stand, and as soon as he can get to Rucks, he's going to try to heal him. Now... for a second there, what it looks like he's doing does NOT look like he's healing Rucks. No, what it looks like is he's PUNCHING the man's already-damaged torso! But the Stand's fists glow with that orange-gold aura, and Rucks shouldn't be reacting as if he's being hit. And yet the wound isn't closing. Josuke is most certainly not used to this, and draws back with a choked sound. "It's... not closing!" This isn't something that happens. Josuke's ability is not so much 'heal' as 'fix', and it tends to be instantaneous. He isn't really sure what to do but keep trying. And then when Rucks says he's 'not important'? Josuke growls. "This guy was the one you took a knife for -- he's going to carry it around forever if you die! Do you want that? Do you want your death to be the one regret he can't ever get rid of?!" That voice on the radio, the one talking about the nanobadge. That's the mecha-griffin thing, Josuke recalls. Crazy Diamond can only go so far from him, and Rory's probably further away than six and a half feet. Josuke's still trying to get the wound to close, so he can't leave off. So he quickly calls up, "Someone bring me that nanobandage! I can't let go here!"
Rory White	DOWN goes the man... although not quite how Rory intended it to go. Had he simply toppled over puking and been unable to do anything more she would've been content. A pang of guilt and sympathy strikes for anyone who is sent tumbling towards the far distant... wreckage of the ground... But there's no time to consider their fates, and they made their choice when they came here for blood. She has little sympathy for the Ura now. There's a much bigger problem at hand here. The mecha-griffin torso clambers back over to its half-ruined rear end... and a tiny manipulator arm forms from the head, yoinks open a compartment, and grabs a plum-sized, smooth orb. It's been pierced by some of the black rock, but the oblong thing that HARDLY looks like it's of medical value is comprised of uniform nanites. A bit of physical damage won't effect it much. An elephant could step on it, and it would still work. The 'creature' labors over to the old man. Her microphones are good, and she heard his request... but... Rory's weird manipulator arm moves to apply the bandage regardless. The nanites are designed to repair the worst of cellular damage and anaesthetize any pain, staunch bleeding and even use themselves as a kind of material to repair blood vessels. Worst case scenario, the device is known to induce medical stasis until a patient can be brought to a healing vat or a doctor... "Everyone is important. WE care about you. Even if you do not care about yourself!"
Alexis	Once Entei is freed from the anti-fire coating he and Bisharp also join in the efforts to help pull some of Bastion back together. Dragging pieces close enough the machinery William is cleaning out can reconnect and bind itself back together. Though it's only a temporary fix, it at least keeps Bastion from going entirely to pieces. Alexis has an ear to the other conversations going on even as they work though. Particularly the bit about getting what the Ura got, and Flamel's revelation about how they had planned for their intervention.... For as much as psychic powers tweek her the wrong way still, this was one time they were good to have someone using. "It sounds like," Alexis grabs one of the vines to help pull. "We need to repay the favor of home invasion." She's already letting that stew in the back of her mind, as she's going to have to consider what Pokemon to use that the Ura won't be able to so easily compensate for....
William Pauwel	Weeeeelll those sure are big rocks coming in to CRUSH HIM LIKE A PANCAKE. Will squeaks through a few cracks as he goes deeper and deeper into the network of gears and machines. There's still so much more to do here. So much more. But... Will it be enough? How much of the Bastion did these people poison? "Hey, uh. This is Will," he calls up to the others. "I've still got some stuff to do down here. Y'all mind askin' Rucks where the important bits are?"
All-Seeing Eye	The immediate threat is over with--with covering fire from Kotone and his own Exalted marksmanship, the archers menacing Rory are over with. The other threat, that of the Ura forces in general, is dwindling rapidly as they beat a hasty retreat. His options are to assist with Rucks' recovery, which he admittedly lacks both talent and charms for, or... he could secure one of the Ura for extended interrogation. Perhaps even make a tool out of them! The conversations of his allies do indeed reach his ears. The girl with the strange creatures, for example, brings up a particularly good point. These Ura are in clear breach of contract--having agreed to diplomacy, only to attack in secret. It's deplorable. It's criminal. But, as always, justice will be served. Turning his back on those huddled around Rucks, he prepares another blast of the miniaturized Essence Pulse Cannons in his eyes. This time, though... ESSENCE PULSE CANNON ACTIVATED NONLETHAL FORCE SELECTED Purple targeting markers fill the Exalt's vision as he selects a target. Ah, that one should do. With another pneumatic hiss and a puff of steam escaping the corners of the Champion's eyes, two bolts of purple lightning chase after the nearest fleeing Ura. As they fly through the air, his enhanced hearing detects the sound of Will's voice. Ah. Touching a hand to his ear to respond by radio, he gives the bad news. "Ah, Will, was it? All-Seeing Eye. I'm afraid Rucks is in no condition to answer."
Flamel Parsons	Parsons leaves the healing to the healers, those who best understand how to deal with healing situations. And he leaves the captures to the police, those who best understand how to deal with capture situations. The situation he focuses on is All-Seeing Eye's attempted capture target, one of the fleeing Ura. He joins him shortly. Enhanced interrogation, he said. "Hey there!" Flamel offers. "Odd thing to say, I know, but I'm actually an expert when it comes to interrogations like that! I'm a fully qualified agent of a vague yet menacing government agency, and I think I sort of owe it to Rucks to figure out a lot more about how to get this solved!" If All-Seeing Eye can manage to get one of these targets, Parsons intends to get to work on opening up their mindscape properly, with a psychoportal and a full information extraction. Something that will undoubtedly take hours or perhaps even days of work, but will certainly bring up plenty of useful information going forward, now that they may be in the absence of... Help from Rucks? Oh dear. This may be bad.
The Kid	Rucks snickers at the assertations that he's important. "I've done big things, but I can't do anything more as things stand. It's up to the Kid, and all of you now. You can't stop this, and I ya can't just stand there keeping this up forever. The secretive fellow won't have to have me on his conscience for long. Trust me, and let go." As if to help Josuke on his way, his hand grabs a bit of rubble and swipes at the boy's head, aiming to stun him or make him back off so the healing stops. Even as Rory comes in with the nanobandages to stitch together the wound, it would fail to treat the real culprit. Without Crazy Diamond to keep Rucks going, his lips begin to turn blue; the blade was poisoned, and whatever kind it was acted fast. He's gone. Kid was watching all throughout, but he's utterly silent. He watches as Eye brings down one the fleeing Ura and Flamel offers his interrogation services before shrugging. "Do what you like." He walks up to the Monument and produces the Shard they retrieved from the Quarry. Upon placing it in the sparking Monument, the Bastion begins to pull itself back together again. Down below, Will would see the last of the stones being pushed out by some force, machinery pulling itself back together miraculously. Up above, the grass regains its green hue, but the fissues don't fully heal. "Thanks for the help. You can go now," Kid says. He's not being sarcastic, but his tone is hollow.
Kotone Yamakawa	Kotone sees the firepower form the others is neough to deal with the remaining ura at this point and she tries to get down from the sniper's nest. She hit the gorudn hard she misse she rlanding given her prison injuries nad tries to get up and to Rucks she only arrives as she dies, she's sitll leaking fluids and she just .... looks at everything and slimpsto the ground. Not moving, not saying a damn thing. What else is there to say? She's just numb there someone may have to drag her off to get some medical attention.
Josuke Higashikata	Rucks won't have to send Josuke on his way. The student's fists clench tightly, and his teeth grit as he... lets go. The orange-gold aura fades, and the Stand disapears. He's remarkably stubborn, but when it comes down to it, he does know when something's not working. The healing isn't working. And from the sounds of it, there is a very specific reason for that -- these people attacked here expecting Multiversal responders. Maybe that's why Josuke couldn't fix the wound. Crazy Diamond is pressed into service to place Rucks down on the ground. There's nothing more he can do. The wisps of sandy, foggy smoke... are those his imagination? He saw those when his grandfather died too... Still kneeling there on the ground next to where Rucks's body lays, he says to Kid, "I'm sorry." He's not going to say more; he knows this is going to be hard enough without him driving the knife in feeper, so to speak, with long, drawn-out condolences. He stands, takes a few steps towards the exit, and then stops. Hands in his pockets, he half-turns to the Kid. "...He said look in his tent. That he left you something that will explain everything." And from here he basically quotes, because he has no idea what any of this means. "He said the Bastion can be made whole. But the Ura... you'll need what they have. He said something about Shards and Cores. And that what he's left you will make the last part easier." Josuke looks like he's heading for the exit now... but he stops again, next to one of those fissures. "...<Crazy Diamond>." The purple aura sparks to life around Josuke again, and the Stand appears once more, rising up out of his body. The Stand begins to punch downwards at the fissure, glowing with that golden-orange aura again, screeching its ascending "DORARARARARA!". He's trying to fix a couple of them, at least. Mind you, it won't be much fixing. The Bastion even now looks like it's bringing itself back to life, even with the one Shard. Besides, Josuke doesn't want to hang around too much longer; he knows Kid needs to be alone right now. The hollowness in his voice is enough to tell that. He felt that way after his grandfather died. But the fixing might help the Bastion along a little. ...And maybe it was also to sort of get the last word in against the Ura. They tried so hard to destroy it, and he's showing that he's not going to stand by idly. But aside from that, he won't hang around too much longer. He'll come back later, if he's wanted. But right now the Kid needs his space.