Scene #5557: ICoT: To The Stars

Owner	Pose
The Kid	Urzendra's Gate could not be more different from what those from the Multiverse have experienced here until now. Unlike the stately ruins of Caelondia and the lush wilderness of the Wilds, Urzendra's Gate is frigid. Crisp snow crunches underfoot as they emerge from the designated warpgate. Around it, someone had constructed great lumps of snow and ice, before placing a stone door at the front. Obviously, an attempt to keep anyone from using it to launch an attack, but the door has been left open for now, allowing them passage to the upward slope. What confronts them the moment they step out is a pair of ashen statues. They are Ura, it is clear by the robes they wear, the patterns and details remaining in spite of whatever befell them. Their faces are frozen in an expression of raw fear and utter horror, looking over their shoulders at whatever was after them. Their fleeing footprints remain in the white blanket that coats the ground, astride to a third pair. This pair continues past them, and paints a different profile from what the Ura left. Rather than wide, running gaps, they are close together, measured. They are also far deeper, indicating that whoever left them was far heavier, less-inclined towards stealth, or both. The steps lead up the slope, to a crystalline manmade structure, an outpost of sorts. From within comes the sounds of conflict, of gunfire and screaming, occasionally overpowered by a single, harsh sound that is unlike anything from this world.
Kotone Yamakawa	Kotone is very wary as she arrives, given the history she has with the Ura she has let along what's happened with the few people left in the Bastion? Thoughts of Rucks enter her mind for a moment as sh pusehs thoruhg her own foot prints being far deeper than they should given her build she sees more comming. She looks to the Ura and points to the gate. "Go to the gate, take the route to Afterus you'll be safe there." With that she cloaks vanishing from view and sprints for the outpost there is a chance not all the Ura surirors are unified and who knows what's going after them though a niggling thing is in the back of hermind of what it could be, and she hopes she's wrong. She'll also leave her network ports open for any allies whom she could network with as she went.
Flamel Parsons	Parsons has some suspicions about what's going on. Of course, Parsons always has suspicions about what's going on, since everything that goes on in the whole multiverse gets ascribed to the machinations of strange and mysterious conspiracies acting on hidden agendas. But this time there's something more concrete, and something far, far more personal. Parsons arrives, adjusts his sunglasses and his unsteady bearings at the sight of the corpses, and swallows down his disgust before he gets to work. "Alright! I don't wanna walk into this blind. I think I might know what's going on here, and if my guess is right, it's a hell of a psychohazard going hard here. But I think we can pull through this and get it figured out!" Parsons says, in his usual tone of cheery optimism. "Just give me a moment to confirm..." And he kneels down, pulsing his Clairvoyance into the site of the battling. He's going to get some insight into how these people died, but he's also searching for one thing specifically: A specific psychic signature from a person he knows, and a feeling of vengeful rage. And whatever he finds, he'll surge towards the sounds of battle, taking off with levitation, moving fast and hard with his head already emitting a trail of misty white smoke as Parsons warms up his mind.
Alexis	Let it go down being said that, after what happened with the Bastion itself, Alexis doesn't trust this one bit when it comes to the Ura. On the other hand though, she's been in enough situations where a bigger threat can make allies out of enemies to not just dismiss this situation out of hand. A small part of her maybe would still rather convince the Ura to cooperate to save what remains of Caelondia. As far as Trainer heroics go, that's enough to at least get her to poke her nose into matters. Two crunching steps out of the gateway and immeadiately Alexis grabs her hoodie closed and zip it up. "Uh, I don't think they can hear you, Kotone," she murmurs to the cyborg somberly. Followed by the faintest of twitchs when Flamel also shows up, but she quickly shoves her discomfort around psychics aside for the sake of greater needs. Instead she plucks a pokeball from her belt and flicks it forward "Howlinger, I choose you!" The sphere clicking open with it's usual surge of energy release a large Dobermon like canine, but with several boney ridges and the spaded tail and horns like a demon. Then Alexis points at the third path of footprints. "Follow this." "Hou," growls the Houndoom in response, putting his nose to the snow and then bounding off towards the structure and the sounds of conflict with the tomboy not far behind him. The devil dog was a Fire type as well as Dark, the cold wouldn't bother him much.
Rory White	More of those Ashen statues. Rory's ornately detailed robo-lioness form sweeps its head back and forth at the statues, herself stepping rather lightly on the snow. Despite being a robot and laden with gear, she seems to be a very lightweight robot indeed - no heavier than a normal animal of the size would be, if not a little lighter. Such is fine metamaterial construction. "... The calamity. It struck here. They were caught in it." She states rather sadly upon performing a spectral analysis of the ash that makes up the statues. She wastes little time analyzing the footprints. Her HUD lights up as pattern analysis detects the impressions and hilights them in her vision. She barrels along at a speedy mechanical stride towards the distant noise!
Robert Speedwagon	Robert E.O. Speedwagon's 'talking box' (as one of his gang called it) picked up a distress call. It was in Speedwagon's nature to poke his nose into things, particularly when it looked like someone needed help. And so, 'The Interfering Speedwagon' pointed his gang at the direction of the distress call! He doesn't have any context for any of this, and the suspicious note in some of the voices of the people who'd replied on the channel. All he wanted to know was 'where'. So it is that there's a trio on the path to the stars. One is an Asian man with long black hair, in a loose pair of pants and a Chinese-styled jacket. The other is dressed in what almost looks like a native American fringed jacket and pants, but he's visibly NOT native American -- he's Caucasian, and there's a strange blue tattoo across his eyes. Something like a Rorschach test image? And of course, leading them is Robert Speedwagon himself, dressed in his dark blue frock coat and matching breeches, purple vest, magenta tie, and black riding boots. He and the tattooed man are armed -- the former with a sledgehammer, the latter with a wickedly curved dagger. There's little subtlety about their approach; it doesn't sound like there's TIME for that, if the clashing of battle is any indication. Speedwagon even announces their presence with a loud, piercing whistle to his allies. And then the three of them can be seen all but charging up the path. "Keep your eyes peeled, boys!" he calls out to his compatriots. "This ain't London! Get ready for weird 'appenin's!" He pauses at the statues though, his companions stopping as well. "What the...?" He looks at the statues, looks at the ground. And then he notices the footsteps. "Bloody 'ell, THESE WAS ''PEOPLE''!" he realizes, backing away from the statues. Tattoo and Kempo seem to share his eagerness to not be close to the ashen Ura, for fear of the same fate befalling them. Speedwagon looks fearfully towards where the sounds of battle are emanating. Of course he thinks that whatever did this to these people is in there. But... it's also doing it to others, too. This realization has him scowling, and he looks to his companions. "C'mon!" he orders quietly. He's heading into the place where the battle sounds are coming from. Tattoo and Kempo hesitate, looking at each other. Speedwagon paused, realizing they're not following. "Well?! Ya want more 'f these people ter end up like THAT?!" He points at the statues. There's more hesitation... but finally his two companions follow. So finally the trio head into where the battle is happening...
William Pauwel	It seems like every time Will comes to what was once Caelondia and its surrounding region, something goes terribly awry. Whether it's an accident on a boat, or the collapse of a society of intelligent animals, or something even more terrible, this place always seems to make him bleed. But there are people there, people he might not particularly like much, these days. But they're still people, and they're calling for help. What kind of Watchman would he be if he didn't respond? The Ura that brave the field probably know the roar of his motorcycle well enough already by this point. That unusual roar of those incredibly advanced engines is as striking as the blue-white blaze of the Solano's light. But even that seems muted and pedestrian against that horrible, unnatural noise coming from up those steps. The Mistral screams up those steps, a pair of thrusters erupting from underneath it to keep it steady as it traverses this treacherous, snowy terrain. His eyes go wide as he passes by what used to be Ura. What are no longer Ura. Mere statues, now. Did the Calamity claim them? No. No there's something else. These people were running /away/ from something. "Damnit, what the hell is this?" Will mutters as he guns it, fast as he can possibly go, up those steps. "A walking calamity? Can't be. What's goin' on here?"
Priscilla	Compared to the horrid jungles and volcanic slopes of the last several times Priscilla has answered the call to the Bastion, the snow should be relaxing. Walking barefoot through the frigid ice of the mountains is something that reminds her of home, even though these are far more natural and origin, and the cold is more real than suggested. The chilling air and crunching drifts are something that would put her in a good mood, normally. Instead, Priscilla walks in leaden silence through the gate, not looking towards the others, greeting no one, and not even responding to Flamel's cheery banter as usual. The crossbreed stops before one the statues, and turns her head slowly to look at it with quiet, smouldering eyes. A moment later, her sleeve flutters in the wind and the back of her hand smashes into the petrified Ura's head with all the force of the 20 foot giant she is currently pretending not to be, sending it flying over the edge, if not pulverizing it instantly. "No, they were not." she replies glacially to Robert. "They were animals in the shape of men." From there, she abruptly vanishes from sight, just leaving surprisingly shallow footprints in the snow as she marches up to the sounds of conflict.
The Kid	In scanning the Ura statues with his mind, Flamel's only source for what killed them is a brilliant flash of orange light, then nothing. It seems that the Ura did not have reference for what did them in. Sadly, before he gets a chance to try and delve deeper, Priscilla smashes them, the single jolt making the dissolve into nothing. But in searching for that familiar psychic signature, he finds it up the path and in that building. Not as angry as he would expect though. The anger is there, filled with self-righteousness, but it's all being kept in check by an ice-cold sense of duty. Those that investigate the building find it is not made of ice, as one would expect by its blue colour, but from a mix of crystalline tiles and rock. Those who could feel such impressions would get a feeling similar to Cores and Shards from those tiles, but on a far smaller scale. It seems the Ura were not as ignorant about those rocks as Caelondia would have you believe. Within the building, two are locked in combat. One is an Ura, brandishing a pike, while the other has his back to the door. His shock of white hair is highly familiar, but the large barrel strapped across his back is new. He is pressing the shaft of his Brusher's Pike against the Ura's own, both struggling to shove the other's weapon out of the way. Ultimately, the man with white hair succeeds, using the opening to shoulder barge the Ura onto his back, before savagely shoving the tip of his spear into his foe's throat. Blood pools against the crystal floor, when one of the doors within the building flies open, another Ura screaming in rage and horror as they brandish a short blade. In response, that barrel is swiftly raised upon the man's shoulder, pointed at the Ura, and after a short moment of humming, fired. A flare of orange light erupts from within, striking the Ura just as they began to charge. There is a shockwave upon impact, and once the light clears, another ashen statue has taken their place, face locked in an expression of fury and shock forevermore. The man does not turn to the entrance, only marching deeper into the building.
Alexis	As they get closer to the structure Howlinger picks up on a familiar scent ahead to go with the sounds, snapping his head up with a yelp and lashing his tail. "... Really?", Alexis looks slightly surprised, but at the same time, it would explain why he didn't respond to the distress signal. Unfortunately that's not very reassuring. "-Now- I have a bad feeling about this..." As if she didn't before. It's a quick hustle up to the doorway. "Ki--" Which is cut short as Alexis stops and whips up an arm to shield her face from the abrupt burst of light. By the time her vision clears there's only an anguished statue left, and the white-haired figure disappearing farther into the chambers. "What the hell was that?! Com'n Howl." Trainer and pokemon give chase farther into the building. Something was really not right about this...
Robert Speedwagon	Addressed by Priscilla, Speedwagon looks to her. And his eyes go a bit wide. But he did mention weird happenings, so... well. He recovers before long. But not before the statue is destroyed. He backs away again, to avoid any bits. "What d'yer mean?" he asks Priscilla. "All I 'eard was someone askin' for help!" It's hard to get a bead on any of these people. But the woman who addressed him... her words seem to indicate that she... might not be here to help. Should he attack now? Or hold? He doesn't know these people, but it seems like a few of them know whoever's responsible for this, if Alexis's shouting to someone up ahead (presumably the one responsible) is any indication. Speedwagon bares teeth, and heads in further with the rest of the group. "C'mon!" he barks to Tattoo and Kempo. He doesn't know what's going on, but he's never let that stop him!
William Pauwel	With how fast Will is gunning it, it's a good thing that the this place is made out of something that /isn't/ ice. The Mistral crests the steps, launches into the air and hits the ground with a shriek of rubber meeting tires. Its rider can see... something. Some/one/ up ahead. There's only one person that could be. Only one white-haired man wields a pike like that around these parts. "KIIIIIIIID!" Will yells, transitioning his forward momentum into a skidding, sliding, screeching stop. A pair of long track-marks stretch from where he hit the breaks to where he's finally come to a halt. This... This is... The gallery of statues. The trail of bodies. The cataclysm that walks, it's all led right here to this white-haired man. Him, and the terrible weapon strapped to his back. "Kid..." Will murmurs, his breath hollow. His shooting hand hovers tensely over his holster. "Kid, what did you /do/ to this place? To... to these /people?/"
Priscilla	"Thou art a friend of Sir Joestar, yes?" Priscilla makes just enough time to respond to Robert first, seeing as he replies directly to her offhanded remark. "He is an honourable man. See that thou dost not fall in with thieving, traitorous beasts that simply ask for it." Poof. What lies inside the crystalline hall is not quite what Priscilla had expected. At exactly the same time, it fills her heart concern for the already traumatized Kid, shock at the revealed weapon, and an overwhelming sense of cathartic satisfaction, knowing that where the Calamity couldn't reach, the Kid simply brought it to them. In a karmic sense, he is giving back the gift they had made sure fired on Caelondia's shores, so very deserved. It's a very dark feeling. One that stems from a lengthy line of attempted murders, thefts, betrayals, revealed plots, and finally, the loss of an elderly gentleman she had liked a great deal. Presuming she can find the Kid before he buries himself in another firefight, she catches herself just before making the mistake of putting her hand on his shoulder while he's undoubtedly twitchy. Instead, she tracks after him until he's within range to hear: "Thou knowest it is impolite to charge of on thine own without notice, Sir Kid, as well as dangerous."
Rory White	After the vicious attack upon the Bastion and the loss of Rucks, Rory White was close to declaring 'no mercy' on the Ura. But now that she reaches the top of the hill and sees what the Kid is wielding... A few moments pass. Her optics gleam with understanding. "... Rucks must have left him that weapon." She concludes. Her form cannot shiver and has little in the way of expression, but her tone suggests... nothing in particular either, really. She's just that deep in thought and uncertainty that she can't show emotions. Too many conflicted ones to process. She bounds down to the battlefield, but remains at the edges of it and gingerly approaches. "... was this necessary...?" Is all she asks him.
Kotone Yamakawa	Things are going very bad, very god damn bad here. She can understand kid's pain, she also knows the horror of what her world might havebeen? Would Rucks have wanted genoicde in retation for his death? She does not know but what she's knew of him she does not think he'd lean that way. There's little time to waste as even Rory's comment echos but fruiends do not let frinds comeit Genocide os so Kotone things and there's likely Ura who had nothing to do with those who were still fighting. She's moving on ahead she has a plans there could be children where wholy innocent of anthing would Kid stop at them? She certain Priscilla is in such a state of mind she's bathe in the blood of the Ura. Several peices of information click, Rucks was involved what weapon? Could that be why the Ura targeted him? The man who made the thing that ended the world? She's going to catch up the Kid now along side with Will she decloaks and calls out. "Kid wait!" Will's put it best so far, right? She doesn't have much to add for the moment there is also the fear of a Good Queen's wrath here...she's never seen Priscilla like this before.
Flamel Parsons	Parsons feels uneasy about this. On one hand, his morality is far, far more flexible than it'd need to be to really mourn the Ura after what they did, trying to kill him with a psychohazardous material and then stabbing an old man to death when he tried to save him. On the other hand, Parsons of all people knows a great deal about how damaging it is to sustain this sort of trauma and how it can feed on the rush of psychic energy from this sort of thing. Parsons doesn't ask the Kid to stop, slow down, or otherwise abort this. He knows better than to present that kind of confrontation in a mood and a mode like that. He pushes forward. "Kid!" He calls out. "Hey! Here to hit back? You should have called us! You've got the most reason to be angry out of anyone here, but that doesn't mean you're the only one! These guys have pissed off a damn lot of people." He needs to take this light, take this easy. He also needs to take it cautiously and be ready for battle; his psionic shielding covers his body with a hum, and he's drawn his "hand-gun" psionic arrangement, ready to fire psychic aggression out of his fingertips as they move into the building, two fingers planted on his temples.
The Kid	Those that pursue the man and call for him bring him to a stop in a chamber with a balcony overlooking them from the second story. Will skids before him, his hand dipping to a holster. This inspires the man to do the same, gripping at a revolver he carries. Normally, he restricts himself to two weapons at a time, but for this mission, it seems he has overpacked. Priscilla placing a hand on his shoulder does indeed inspire that kind of response she was concerned about. With an almighty motion, he goes to shove her hand away before spinning about, drawing that pistol and pointing it. The Kid looks downright awful. His eyes are haggard and bloodshot, and his leather armour is covered in punctures and cuts that expose scabbing wounds. His boots like they have been worn down to nothing... did he actually hike all this way? He's covered in blood, and only some is his own. "Took 'em out, with the old man's last gift," he replies blearily to Will, patting the large bazooka. "Calamity Cannon." Looking to Priscilla, he says, "Sorry ma'am." Then answering she and Flamel both, he adds, "But he left this last thing to me. Gotta do it. Can't refuse a dyin' man. Besides, I want to." He overhears Rory whispering to herself and snarls. "Yeah, it was. They weren't exactly gonna let me march in, take back Zia, Zulf, 'n the Cores 'n Shards without a fight." Suddenly, a clatter from upstairs. Ura leap out from behind the balcony railings, each packing an arbelest which they use to shower everyone on the first floor with bolts! The majority are aimed at the Kid, but he just... stands there, taking them with sharp winces as he opens up a panel on the Cannon. A cheat sheet flops out from it, which he consults as he begins adjusting knobs and valves.
Robert Speedwagon	Priscilla's statement, that of 'thieving, traitorous beasts', hits a chord. But she's gone before Robert can do much more than sputter. But then he hears the radio conversation -- these people destroyed something important to that kid with the white hair. And then there's mention of an old man 'leaving' the kid a weapon? And now he's torn. Because Jonathan is much the same. Dio -- who should have by rights been his brother! -- took everything from him. There wasn't a trace of remorse in Dio, either; Speedwagon could tell that immediately. And here... what's he expect the kid to do? Jonathan's only choice was to stop Dio... isn't the Kid just doing what he has to do? No, Speedwagon realizes. The Kid isn't here to right a wrong. He's here to wipe out every man, woman, and child. "...This isn't justice. It's not even revenge! It's murder! Maybe it needs done, maybe it don't. But someone that focused on killin'... all the blood on his hands'll stain his soul forever!" It's not his place to talk to the Kid, though. He doesn't know what the Kid's been through. He has friends here. Hopefully they can stop him before it's too late. If it isn't already. "Stay back, boys," Speedwagon notes to Tattoo and Kempo. "This ain't our fight. But stand close, just in case." Speaking of which, there is the case! Tattoo screeches as bolt lodges in his arm, Kempo grunts quietly as one strikes his shoulder. Speedwagon gets one in the side, and yelps in surprise. Is there any cover? The Ogre Street gang finds cover, if possible. "Oi!" he calls to the Kid. "Get be'ind somethin', ya daft boy!" Whether the Kid does or not, Speedwagon's not about to let his own injury go unchallenged. He reaches up to flick at the brim of his hat, and the brim just... pops away harmlessly in sections, falling to the ground. What's left are very sharp, curved blades attached to the hat, where the brim of the hat should be. But when he removes the hat and throws it, he's aiming not for the shooters. He's instead aiming for the projectiles themselves. It's a big hat, and it's spinning pretty fast, so it should take some of those bolts out of the air. That should give everyone else a bigger window to attack the shooters.
Alexis	Alexis starts to say something, something deep and insightful about going too far... but only gets as far as opening her mouth as the Kid mentions Zia and Zulf. So instead it's just a sharp "They're here?!" Suddenly this own situation has taken on a different meaning, and while she's still debating if the method isn't a little too far, that it's a rescue mission is shedding some light on it. Light that is quickly interrupted by more Ura attackers and a shower of sharp projectiles. "Shit!" the tomboy curses as she ducks and rolls off to the side, several of the bolts jabbing into the ground on her heels. "If ya'd found where they are ya shoulda said something!", she snaps at Kid afterwards, though she sounds more mad that he didn't let them in on the rescue than the method he was using. Especially if it was Rucks' intention. Her Houndoom on the other hand just stands there, even as a few jab his dark hide or clatter off the bony protrusions ribbing it. A growl emits from the depths of the demonic canine, eyes narrowing to slits like glowing embers as he raises his head. "HounDOOOOOOOOOOOM!" The howl blasts from the beast in shadowy energy as he unleashes a Dark Pulse at the ambushers.
Flamel Parsons	Parsons takes a heavy shot on his psychic barrier, slammed back by one of those bolts, before he shifts into invisibility. "Augh! Shit! Kid-- Hey! Kid!" He's calling out, before he jogs over, trying to keep out of the main firing lines. "Here, let me-- Just let me do something really quick, okay? Relax the mind just a /moment/. Operating machinery made by vast and inscrutable conspiracies is tough business! I can make it a bit more second-nature." He rushes in, projects a thicker barrier around them both to give them some breathing room, reaches out a telekinetic hand to grab the cheatsheet, and then attempts to not-so-subtly astral-project himself -- and a copy of it -- into the Kid's mindscape. He's going to attempt a very rapid establishment of a second-nature operation for this thing, something he hopes will keep the Kid from having to /stand there and get hurt a lot/. He's also going to double-check the rough state of the mind. Is it looking grim and broken? Is it on fire? Burned out? Destabilized but okay? He isn't too concerned with the details of the Kid's mental landscape and its presumably quite distinctive nuances, he's more focused on trying to keep him alive and trying to understand things. Whether it works, he says in an assuring tone, "Oh, believe me, I know what you mean! The dead stay with us, but that doesn't much mean any peace for them if we refused a last request! Knowing he took a knife for me and that these guys are willing to use psychohazards in war is enough for me to wanna come along." Alright, right now he can't afford to do proper /therapy/ on this Kid. He needs to focus, and to focus on getting the Kid on a mental space that's less likely to be self-destructive. With his best supportive, optimist friend voice, he says, "Okay, so, what's the objective here? Where do you need to go? I know Zia's in Zulten's Hollow, and Zulf's at the peak, what's the objective here? Is it a bottleneck?" Be supportive, be helpful, don't confront -- but make sure to do everything possible to focus the Kid on his goals and objectives, and not on the self-destructive aspect of all this.
William Pauwel	This... This is... "Kid," Will pleads, his hand already curled tight around that legacy weapon at his hip. The Calamity Cannon? Carrying around a weapon like that-- CREATING a weapon like that... It's like the Solano, except not; if he wanted to, if he had the rage, the angst to do it, would his light do the same? Perhaps it could. If he let it. If he... let it. "Kid, this ain't even a fight anymore. This... What this is yer doin', it ain't right. Listen t' the guy in the fancy hat. This ain't right. I seen that look in yer eyes before, it's the kind've anger that just... It don't go away 'til it burns itself out. 'Til it burns you out. Look-- LOOK at yerself, kid. Yer killin' yerself doin' this, nevermind all the dead. I--" Bolts slam into the Kid's chest. Will's eyes go wide as his gun comes out of its holster. Instinct triumphs over hesitation. Three gleaming bolts stream up into the sky, white-hot spheres of plasma that incinerate the projectiles on approach. More come, but he's already on the move. ...To shove the Kid out of the way of more of those bolts. "Damnit," Will hisses as an arrow buries itself into his offhand shoulder. The others catch on Flamel's barrier before they get to puncture a lung. It's fine. He only needs one hand to shoot. The Solano's light fades, dissolving into an invisible ripple of energy. He pulls the trigger, firing pulses of stunning energy into the rafters. "Kid! Come on, this is just stupid! I know losin' Rucks hurt y'all real hard, but killin' yerself won't do nothin' but add bodies to the pile! This ain't what he would've wanted!"
Rory White	Seeing the Kid having gone on a rampage like this... Rory cannot quite understand it. But her Muse definitely is picking up on how upset he is. It's enough to cow her into submission and backing away a few paces... "Much has happened so far, Mr. Speedwagon. His rage is justified. But the Ura--" Whatever she was going to say is swallowed up by the sudden clatter of battle! She picks up heat signatures and gazes up just in time to vault backwards and activate weapons systems. Strangely-shaped barrels emerge through what seems to be liquid-metal and her tail snap-crackles with electricity - probably just for effect. "HAVE ENOUGH PEOPLE DIED YET?! DOES MORE BLOODSHED SOLVE ANYTHING?!" She booms out rather loudly, cranking up her speakers to inhumanly loud levels.
Kotone Yamakawa	The fact Kid still cares about Zulf and Zia is faint ray of hope in this blood soaked nightmare. Stillthe carnage here is telling to her, she does not condem the kid for his ratge and grief and while he has no love for the Ura? She has to wonder about the price this will cost the Kid. Also Priscilla terrifes her deeply with her reaction to thing she's never seen her like this. Then the fire comes she catches one with her off hand throwing it away and looks up. She's trying to not get caught up in the fire. Will has said some serious thing and likely better than her given how close he is to the kid vs herself. FLamel being here is good maybe he cna hel and she'll let an freezer foam grenade fly into the rafters as well. "Your going to gut yourself out and leave you hollow inside...and you'll have nothing left....of you? This blood fude is going to destory /you/. I don't want to see that happened We lost too many already."
Priscilla	Priscilla had expected the Kid to look pretty bad after making it all the way here. She is intimately familiar with all sorts of wretches winding up at her metaphorical doorstep after the last and longest journeys of their lives. Still, somehow, seeing this particular young man that way, mildly shell-shocked and heavily intoxicated as he usually is, feels a step worse. "Sir Rucks wished that it be done, not that thou wouldst do so alone. He was not the sort of man to demand something so unreasonable of thee were there another choice. Acting alone and in blind anger provides the greatest opportunity for thou to fail him, and I am certain thou fear failing him more than thou do harm to thineself." For not being Parsons, it's certainly a little bit of psychological exploitation, but there's nobody in the Multiverse in the moment who could actually believe Priscilla intends to dissuade him. She sighs at Robert. Not a sigh of exasperation or frustration or condescension. Just a long, heavy, meaningless exhalation that suddenly takes her from so tense she practically vibrates, to shouldering such a deep, crushing sense of tiredness that it weighs on her almost visibly. "Perhaps it is best that others with less of themselves yet to lose do so in his place, yes. However, regret may oft be worse for one's soul than blood, and I cannot in good conscience demand that he turn about at this moment." That unbelievable, smothering, suffocating gravity of utter exhaustion evaporates like so much smoke when Will opens his mouth. Priscilla had been growing steadily more impatient with his rhetoric as of late, and when he seriously makes the move of standing in the Kid's way and holding his weapon, shouting him down about his morals, threatening /her/ charge, that feeling visibly expressing itself on her shoulders instantly turns to white-hot fury. The Ura have impeccable timing, all said. They both make her case for her, and present an immediate crisis too important to ignore for the sake of argument. "THEN SHALL I, IF THOU SHALT NOT!" she . . . actually yells. For once. It doesn't sound natural at all, like her voice wasn't made for being loud, and that loss of control is all kinds of wrong. Where others are concerned with mostly defending themselves, though, Priscilla eats a crossbow bolt straight through the heart (shouldn't that be fatal?) with little more than a gasp, before charging straight through it on a surge of adrenaline, her massive scythe suddenly in had, and laying about left and right in a rage, slashing off arms, heads, legs; whatever she can most easily reach, venting that moment of deeply irrational spite in bloody butchery.
The Kid	Flamel imparts the information on the sheet directly into the Kid's mind. In his haggard state, he has no means of pushing the Psychonaut back out, so he encounters no resistance. Immediately, his tuning of the Cannon becomes more fluid, the machine giving of a single, sustained hum as the overrides are shut off. However, Will tackles him to the ground before he can let loose that shot. "Get offa me!" he barks, aiming a punch right for Will's jaw to dislodge him. Some are more focussed on defence, like Speedwagon and Rory. The whirling hat certainly does give the archers pause as it knocks bolts from the air, while the loud shouting disrupts their concentration and throws off their aim. But the combined Dark Pulse and energy blasts from Howl and Will send them flying back, slamming against the walls. The unlucky few who were against windows have a long fall between them and their end. Others, like Kotone, are focussed more on incapacitation, her freezer foam grenades pinning some of the Ura to the ground. However, this just makes them easy prey as Priscilla goes on a rampage. The one that got her in the heart only has an expression of horror as the sure-kill shot does nothing to keep his head from flying off. In only a few moments, the room is quiet once more. Kid takes his feet and undoes whatever he did to the weapon. "Figured I didn't need to bother ya. With this thing, can handle it myself," he says as he puts the Cannon across his back once more. He looks to Kotone and Speedwagon as they claim his acts will stain his soul and shrugs. "Fine by me. Won't matter in the end anyway." To Will, he just offers a single, hollow laugh. "The old man wanted the Ura gone more'n you know, so don't throw that at me. It's untrue." He heads up the stairs to the second floor... and in a room, there floats a Shard. Immediately, Kid abandons all caution and rushes straight to it, grabbing for it. Only for an Ura, clad in dirtied finery and bristling with weapons himself, to emerge from seemingly nowhere and sink a fist into the Kid's gut. The exhaustion, drinks he used to keep going, and wounds all catch up to him at once, making him slump to a knee. The Ura takes the Shard and vanishes into a cloud of smoke, as the structure suddenly begins to shake. Hissing squawks fill the air from all over the building. "Rattletails," Kid gasps as he struggles to catch his breath. "Ura train 'em to dig out cave-ins... and collapse tunnels." He tries to take his feet again, but stumbles. "Stop 'em," he says to everyone, a pleading look in his eye.
Priscilla	Somehow, when the last Ura falls, Priscilla feels as if it wasn't enough. They'd folded too easily for her to begin to vent the depths of her full anger on them, and had died before they had known how much she hated them. It's an especially unpleasant feeling; one that she hasn't felt in several years now, like something scratching at a hollow in her chest. Oh right, there's a crossbow bolt lodged there too. The blood is already starting to stain her white dress. Priscilla grits her teeth, grabs the shaft as close to the head as possible, and grimaces as she has to wrench it out of her perfect, pale skin, thankful that bolts can't be designed to be hard to pull out as arrows can. She lets it clatter to the floor, adding its underwhelming pool of red to the rest, oozing out of eviscerated corpses and draining off her scythe, far more than there really should be even from that level of butchery; it's everywhere. Despite the ostensibly fatal shot, though, she looks like it was a painful flesh wound, and stops bleeding herself very quickly. The Kid sees a crystal. Apparently, old reflex takes over. He goes for it. This seems like a bad idea. "Halt! What of Zulf and Lady Zia and-" The rest happens all too quick for her to really do much. Priscilla has only just drawn a knife when the cliche of the smoke bomb happens (or perhaps something less mundane), and then all she can do is rush over to his side and prop him up. "What, praytell, is a Rattletail, and where art we supposed to find them?"
Robert Speedwagon	Priscilla's words bring to mind another time, when he was told the same thing. Another person, who said that to him. Speedwagon's heart is on his sleeve most of the time, and the stricken look is as clear as if she had physically struck him. Mainly it's that one phrase -- 'those with less to lose'. His expression turns back to that scowl from before, one he's likely had to perfect from years living in the worst part of London, a hard look that makes him look as though his face was carved of stone. Very ANGRY stone! "Ma'am, yer ain't the first ta say that I got less to lose than others in somethin'," he says. "But others got plenty t' loose 'ere. They might lose 'im!" His gaze fastens on the Kid. "But I didn't back down then, and I'm not about ta start now!" There's surprisingly no real reaction as some of the Ura fall to their deaths and others are destroyed by the others, either directly or indirectly. In the meanwhile Speedwagon, Tattoo, and Kempo had ALL been working free the bolts from their respective persons. Robert's quick to check on the two mentioned associates. "You boys both all right?" Tatoo is the first to speak, with the same sort of accent that Speedwagon himself has. "Ha! Gonna take more'n throwin' fancy hat pins ta take ME down!" Kempo says little, but offers an affirmative sound. His Chinese-accented voice is barely heard over the ruckus, "We have all been damaged worse." "Right you are," Speedwagon replies, with a grin. "C'mon lads, this ain't over yet!" The Kid's beyond being reasoned with at this point. All they can do is follow him now, and make sure he doesn't kill himself. So he retrieves his bladed hat, dropping it back onto his head, then heads up with Kid and the rest of the people here. He sees the Shard, sees Kid run for it... and then the Ura in the fancy outfit make a grab for it. He tosses his hat at the Ura with the Shard, but misses, the hat only spreading the smoke from the disappearance. Speedwagon catches his hat as it arcs back to him, somehow managing to do this without losing fingers. "Blast it! He's disappeared!" But there isn't much time to deal with that, as the room is shaking. As the shaking begins, the Ogre Street gang make a circle, back-to-back, just in case that shaking is the herald for a bigger problem. "Right-o, mate! Jus' tell us what yer need done!" He gives a reassuring grin to the Kid. He can't help but get uncomfortable at seeing Priscilla just yank that bolt from her body in what should hav ebeen a fatal wound. Reminds him too much of... No, that's neither here nor there. Focus, Speedwagon!
Rory White	"That is an obvious--" trap, Rory is trying to say, but the Kid goes for the shard WAY too quickly. And gets clobbered quite well for it. But she finds it strange... The Ura brought the Kid to his knees, has him helpless... and then, the shaking. ... "... They'd rather use a trap than simply kill you?" This is also pretty confounding. But she reacts quickly with pulses of her full-spectrum sensors to map out the rattletail locations below... and dash off to start go blasting them with her shredder guns! (Which fire lots of sharp metal in spread patterns. At ludicrous speeds.)
William Pauwel	The Kid's fist smashes right into Will's jaw with a wet pop. The gunslinger staggers, falling back onto his back end. For a moment, he's seeing stars, his brain knocking back and forth against the inside of his head. If he wasn't made of as tough stuff as he is, he'd probably be a pile of useless weight right about now. Not that he's making himself particularly any more useful than that at the moment, all things considered. But then... "That's not what I meant and you know it," Will snaps back once he regains his bearings- and his balance. "He wouldn't want you to be damn near dying to do this. You know why we're even here? It's 'cause /they/ came onto the radio beggin' fer help against /you./ What kind of messed up is that? Y'all disappear and the next we hear of you, it's this?" Will wipes his mouth, spitting a lump of blood and shredded cheek onto the crystalline pavement. "I mean, damnit Kid, yer fallin' apart. There were folks worried about you, y' moron." "'Sides, so what iff'n he wanted them all dead," he mutters, "That mean they all deserve it?" Well, the Ura sure aren't helping their case, that's for sure. One sucker-punches the Kid. Others unleash their horrible tunneling birds. Only problem is that they're birds, and Will's /right here./ Shooting angry wildlife is kind of his /thing./ He takes aim and starts opening fire, moving fluidly from one target to the next. You don't need higher brain functions to shoot a bunch of birds, right? Right.
Alexis	By this point, in this world, Alexis is entirely use to things from going to bad to worst really really fast. Enough so that she just slaps a palm to her face for a moment. "Of course. OF FRICKIN COURSE." But that at least means monsters, and monsters is something she's damn well good at dealing with. Particularly digging ones. "Howlinger, return." She recalls the Houndoom who can't do much against tunneling targets, opting for something more suitable. "Go, Skypion!" And releasing a Gliscor instead. "Digging target. You know what to do." The purple bat-scorpion chrees in response and takes to the air. He circles once, until he spots the cracks forming where one of the Rattle-Tails is digging. "Gliiii!" With a screech he dives towards the spot, aiming to drive one of his claws into the cracks, grab the Rattle-Tail and yank it out of the ground before it can do more damage.
Kotone Yamakawa	Priscilla is a thing of horror, Kotone is not able to act and acting now would likely result in her own death, and it's just plain too fast even for her to deal with. Still it will be given the way her mind works now as a cyborg? Something she can not unsee without doing bad thing to her mind and then the Kid ends up in worse trouble she's bothered by his commnt about none of this mattering. "What? Do you mean it won't matter in the end?!" Has the Kid gone full on Nihilist? She has no idea but the comment about Rucks does shake her .... abit about her perceptions of the man but how much is true, yet what did he find? then comes the Rattletails? Ambush? No delaying action Kotone suspects for the Ura who might remain to flee and now she's under and she's looking for more trouble she's got her weapon out and sshe's cloaking also some might see her looking at Pris with a good deal of fear. "We need to get ready an .... get Kid help."
Flamel Parsons	Ah shit, that guy just got away! And dammit, Parsons may have invisibility of his own, but when pressed, he sure can't pierce /someone else's/ stealth that well. The sudden bamf of an escape means he's not able to get after that one who just got away. "Oh! Oh, it's some kind of resonant adaptation? Oh wow, the ecosystem around here is amazing!" He seems utterly fascinated by all this, before snapping to his senses and focusing on the situation at hand. "Wait! Right, okay. Stop them, stop them..." Parsons thinks hard. What can he do? Well, he can focus on the materials. He doesn't have the same beast mastery or more murder-focused supernatural abilities, but he can work on helping in a different way: Telekinetic reinforcement! Planting a pair of fingers on each temple, his brain lights up and his head emits a surging trail of white smoke as he begins to summon an array of telekinetic hands, as big as he can make them (which is pretty big), and begins to stack them up on supports wherever he can find them, stabilizing them enough to hopefully draw the creatures in to do their work more visibly, or to buy time for the others to complete their own purge of the awful creatures, and as he does, he attempts to continue his therapy. "See what I mean? I mean, I'm not going to say you can't handle yourself, but I'm saying you don't /have/ to, and it's a good idea to think about why you'd /want/ to. I know you're not much of a talking type and he's the one who usually brought in help for you, but we're still here to help /you/. Do you think it'd help to pick another liason, or-- No no, sorry. I'll focus on this right now! But, think about it, okay? I think it's worth the pondering! We can chat it out later." God, why is he so /positive/ and /supportive/ right now? This is the worst time, when literally everything is falling apart.
The Kid	"Rattletails're like... chickens? Turkeys? Birds that walk on two legs, but they got these big rattlin' tails," he says to Priscilla and Speedwagon. Others meanwhile get right to work in seeking out and destroying the dangerous critters. As annoying as the things are, with their tendency to burrow underground to avoid danger, but also dig up and hurl rocks with their tail at aggressors, there is little they can do against dedicated predators who can pursue or attack them underground. Rory's shredder guns plow into their holes and render them their graves. The Solano can bore right through the ground to cook them. The Skypion can burrow right after them and drag them out. Thankfully, with Flamel there to help support the structure, everyone manages to save the place. It won't be hosting any big parties in the near future, but it'll remain in the air for now. Kid finally manages to find his breath and look around. "I'm stayin'. Gotta establish a beachhead against them. Keep pushin' forward so they don't slip past me to attack the Bastion. No one there to protect it now." He's quiet for a long moment before adding. "I'll let y'all know before I move out. Ya said they had Zia at Zulten Hollow?" he asks Flamel. "That's next. Their border fortress. Terminals come after, 'ccording to the map the old man left." He finds a place to sit and tend to himself.
Alexis	After its all said and done, Skypion finds himself a spot to perch, rattling one of the Rattle-tail tails like a toy. Alexis rolls her eyes at the playing, but leaves him out in case any more of those critters pop up. While she walks over to the Kid and, despite wanting to pat his shoulder, doesn't want to aggrivate his wounds and just squats down besides him instead. "Fortress, huh? So we get to repay their seige with one of our own. I love ironic retribution."
Robert Speedwagon	These things are a little easier for Speedwagon and his gang. The guy with the tattoo on his face has a knife and is quick as a whip. And the guy in the traditional Chinese jacket is using martial arts, and his fists are like getting smacked in the face with a matured ham. Not to mention Speedwagon's still got his sledgehammer -- not only is he precise enough to throw that hat so it flies back to him at the end of its flight path, but he's strong enough to wield that sledgehammer one-handed. OK, so it's still in the realm of human possibility. But he's still strong. Between the three of them, they should make a good enough dent in them. Particularly with everyone else knocing their clucking blocks off. Once everything's more or less calmed down, Speedwagon and his group stand guard. No, they probably aren't a match for these Ura one-on-one, but they'd be good lookouts. There's surely someone in the group who'd be a better Florence Nightingale to the Kid than any of them anyway. "Tattoo! Kempo! Spread out! Watch for any more trouble!" he request. He and the other two of his gang will take up positions so they can see as large an area as possible, and cover as many directions as possible.
Flamel Parsons	"That's right! I got the intel from an Ura commander right before he disappeared under mysterious circumstances! That's the best kind of intel." Parsons says, seeming like he's... Hoooooping he's made progress. He hoists the place only as long as he has to, before he lets his brain fizzle and spark with the release of that swarm of a dozen telekinetic hands. "Ooof. Jeeze. Well, thanks for the promise. And for our part, I promise we'll help you finish the old man's wishes!" He gives a thumbs-up, and his sunglasses gleam with strange light. "We'll be here for you, promise. I know you're not gonna need us to talk to, or even to help fight, but it sure can't hurt! This is why global conspiracies in service of strange and ill-defined agendas for new world orders are so effective. No matter what losses happen, every part of them stays open to the help and support of the people who care about what they're doing!" Parsons' psychology logic might be a little circuitous, but it makes sense. The rage and self-destructiveness of grief, especially in vulnerable times like this, can be damaging, but it can never be natural and normal; a human being is not meant to sustain that state for long, and the only reason they'll stay there is because they're being denied support and kindness from the world. And someone as quiet as the Kid isn't going to talk about it, so the best he can do is give him the utmost confidence that all these people will help him out.
Kotone Yamakawa	Kotone Yamakawa is left chilled and afraid the comments of Kid on the radio bringing her little to no comfort at all she tries to think about wht to do next, the distress call plays in her mind though they actually sent it across a global channel ot the multiverse at large that didn't strike her like the Ura she'd been dealing with is there, another faction? She does not know and wonders what to do next. Such hate she has a hard time understanding and she just makes a brief call to Rory on personal comms. "Right..." She notes to Mr. Speedwagon as she readiesn her weapon again and starts to watch for more things that might come after all of them.
Priscilla	Robert's reaction is frankly a little unexpected for Priscilla. Torn between emotional extremes as she already is, such vehement indignation --that which can only be rooted in past experience and strong ideals both-- is more than she had anticipated from the brand new face she had only been tangentially aware of. For apparently closely knowing one another, Speedwagon is clearly a lot less reserved about his feelings than Jonathan in polite company; or does this really even count as polite company anymore? That thought catches her at a brief standstill, where finally she is clearly and visibly, albeit temporarily, caught off guard. Her brow tenses and her tail twitches in impatience at being stopped by such a thought, when suddenly caught wondering whether the situation is truly so dire and absurd that it warranted such a vehement response from a brand new face. She wonders this why holding the Kid's battered and bleeding body with an arm over her shoulder, oblivious to the intense irony of her frustrated thoughtfulness next to him. The others seem to have these 'Rattletails' handled after getting a brief description, and so Priscilla spends a minute basically holing the Kid down and forcing him to drink a tiny, gilded bottle of something that promises to be alcohol, but really just tastes like surprisingly sweet water, before he gets to go anywhere. "Listen to thineself babble on, Sir Kid. Thou art already surrounded by others more than capable of protecting the Bastion, as well as saving thine place here. What dost thou taketh us for? If thou art truly adamant in remaining present thineself, thou shalt do it with supervision, and an expedient method of return." Finally, it seems like her sense of responsibility, or at least self-consciousness, has overtaken her anger.
William Pauwel	The last of those damn digging birds finally gives up the ghost. Will sighs and slides the Solano back into its holster. Sure, everything's dealt with, but... Didn't the Ura call for help? If they were worried about the Kid mauling them all, then why did they put in the call and then turn right around to fill everyone else full of holes? It just... doesn't quite make sense. "Y'all ain't stayin' out here alone," Will says, patting his holster. "I won't be able to stay forever, but I'll keep y'all company for a while at least. T'ween other things, when there's time. Someone's gotta come 'round and make sure y'all eat proper and don't forget to dodge when yer s'posed to."
The Kid	Kid splutters and coughs as the Divine Blessing slips down his throat, but it clearly does its work. His eyes refocus, his open wounds begin to close, and his breathing eases. "It's my duty. I'm the..." His words catch in his throat, before he continues. "The last son of Caelondia." He seems spoiling to fight the matter, but Priscilla and Flamel both dogpiling their concern on him is enough to quash that for now. "Fine, fine... if ya check the Bastion, bring some meat for Sapling. I left him a bunch, but he might have gone through it already." He rises from his seat and spends a long moment removing all his gear before stretching. "I ain' leavin' though. Just in case they do try somethin', I want eyes on them." He fixes Will with a long, hard stare. "I ain't starvin' myself. But if ya want to stay around and take first watch so I can nap, I'd 'ppreciate it, I guess." He looks around at everyone, and disguises it as a short coughing fit, but there are words of thanks in there.