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Janine Liberi	Drachenblatt Academy has a long history, but nothing compares to what is going on right now as everyone arrives from the woods. The fire alarm wails from the cluster of buildings atop the hill and behind the stately fence. A police car in front of the gates is overturned and on fire. Said iron gates look like they've had a blowtorch taken to the join of them, keeping them shut. The surrounding area has been evacuated, and sirens are getting closer.     Flashes of light mingle with the occasional scream and cry for help coming from the school. A student manages to burst through the front doors and starts running down the path to the gates before someone follows after him. A young man, but wearing ratty jeans and a shirt instead of the school uniform. He produces a shard of glass and looks into it for a moment before a hideous marionette manifests and its nose extends as fast as a bullet, piercing through the fleeing student's shoulder and suspending him in mid-air.     It's a Persona. The school is under attack from Persona users.
William Pauwel	All hell's broke loose, by anybody's reckoning. An engine roars deafeningly. An iron horse blasts up the front steps, ramps off the overturned police car and barrels into the air. Its pilot yells and squeezes a mechanical hand around a hand lever, causing a set of thrusters to erupt from the motorbike's wheels. Bright blue thrust cones scream as the motorcycle accelerates to truly ludicrous speeds-- And ploughs its reinforced front wheel straight into the front gate. William Pauwel, the legendary Sci Fi Cowboy snarls as he presses his bike forward. But. He's not alone. "AUGUST," Will yells, "YER UP!"
August Kohler	On the back of William Pauwel's bike is one August Kohler, dressed in a jacket and jeans with a knife at his side and a mirrored bracelet exposed on his wrist. As the bike forces itself through the gate and August sees exactly what the problem is, the redhead brings the bracelet up to his eyes. "Alright! Let's do it, Tin Soldier!" In a flash of blue energy, the burn-scarred metal soldier manifests in a run, dashing alongside the motorcycle. Instead of joining August and Will in their valiant ride, it rushes straight for the Persona hurting the kid, as August shouts out. "You picked the wrong school to mess with, Pinocchio!" With a shoulder check, it tries to slam him and yank the nose out of the kid's shoulder, trying to force the enemy Persona back with superhuman prowess. As the bike moves forward and probably keeps going, the Tin Soldier will keep moving too, trying to force the enemy Persona to move with it.
Sanary Rondel	It's been some time since Sanary's last appearance anywhere near Drachenblatt, and that last occasion was considerably less on-fire than this time around. With the call for assistance, tohugh, the healer is dressed in a more combat-ready coat (complete with axe and healing staff) rather than her 'disguise' as a weirdo exchange student.      If only she had learned some kind of water magic. Or ice. Or... Anything besides healing, really. Cursing silently to herself, she watches as William and August burst onto the scene with a freaking motorcycle while she runs and runs and runs and... Runs.      Maybe those mounted knights aren't so dumb. "Pino... From that movie with the whale?"      Sanary grunts lightly as she finally spots the front doors, squinting at the sight of the marionette shooting its... Nose? It just shot its nose through someone. That's Pinocchio, alright.      "The hell is going on here?! Oh, whatever. Explain yourself!" She shouts towards the assailant while brandishing her axe, not bothering to stop in her stride and even braeking into a run as she tries embedding her axe right in the one summoning the Persona!
Kotone Yamakawa	Kotone was quick to arrive she'd had to untaked herself from all the cable jacks she'd bene using to work on her ride for the upcomming line race. She'd been forced to get dressed up quick suited up. She was not expecting persona users, what in the name of heaven? Well there goes hiding anything from the world witht his from the looks of things here. She's starging out cloaked and started to move in. Given the natuer of thing she's getting her freezer foam launcher out rather than say her assault rifle.
Orchid	Among those responding to this attack is Orchid, the reploid Spotter/Search and Rescue type. She's got her usual armor on, and her usual spiders are coming out of it as she approaches. She's using her rocket surfboard, and is making a flight around the grounds, dropping off spiders as she does so. Her plan is to send those drones in, figure out where the wounded are, and do some precision search and rescue, all the while hopefully avoiding the fighting itself.
Robert Speedwagon	Speedwagon wasn't lying, either. He's bringing all the firepower (not literally speaking) that he can muster. Which is himself, with sledgehammer and bowler hat, and his two most loyal supporters, Tattoo and Kempo. And as he appears on the scene, he instructs to his followers, "Start on gettin' this fire under control! That's a hazard ter anybody what's comin' in!" And of course, he's going to use everything that's in his arsenal too.     Particularly a more recently-acquired tool...     He's seen the others do this several times. It'll be all right, won't it? Sure, yeah. He'll figure it out.     This is not the first time he's wished he'd bothered to ask someone about this before now. But he'd caused Die Reisende enough trouble with having to go after him that time. He didn't want to then make them sit him down and explain these things in detail. Besides, he'd have felt like a moron.     Reaching into his pocket, the one-time gang leader extracts something small. It's a steel mirror. Which he looks into. Is he supposed to try to 'see' it? He does try to 'look' deeper than his own reflection. "Right then, get out here." Pause. Nothing. "...Mermaid Princess."     Yeah, it'll probably take him a little while. But eventually he'll pry that Persona out. It's a mer...person. Hard to tell its gender, due to a fancy Victorian shirt up top, and pretty much its entire head being covered by an oversized, prismatic top hat that shifts colors. But HEY, it's water-based, so he'll start using it to try to put out the fires on the way.
Gilgamesh	Gilgamesh does not look particularly different from any of the Drachenblatt Academy students. He's a blonde teenager with admittedly red eyes, dressed now in a black coat, white turtleneck, and beige dress pants. He's carrying a cup of coffee, which he learned about in Solty's world - the same place he bought these clothes - and he's watching a video on his cell phone of a bunch of lions singing a song about being king. If it wasn't for that holy aura of divinity, that overwhelming sense that the world does not /accept/ his presence but rather /puts up with it/ because it has no choice, that perfect form designed by the gods at the moment of conception, and that supernatural head-snapping charisma, he could even be mistaken for a regular eighteen-to-nineteen-year-old.      It's pretty much impossible to mistake the King of Heroes for an ordinary teenager unless one is trying very hard to ignore all the signs to the alternative.      He's not even here for any particular reason. He's just wandering. He's taken to wandering, lately, to ease his boredom and displeasure; the discomfort of modernity is eased by drowning himself in its light, and keeping his gaze away from its dark, for short periods. There are nice things to see in the modern world, and even Gilgamesh is not so cold as to feel that there is not.      But the loss of what could have been still aches so dearly.      The fire draws his gaze as he passes along the street. The fire, the screams, the cries for help. In truth Gilgamesh could not care less if these people live or die - there are trillions of them, repulsive maggots crawling on the corpse of what he himself spent so long building, treated as irreplaceable until they are replaced - but he is ever a creature of his own amusements, and fire usually leads to something interesting, even if it's merely something interesting to watch. Fire leaps beautifully.      The King tosses the Box of Y'toob over his shoulder with a shrug and a smile. It vanishes into a ripple in space. His red eyes turn on the flames. They dance in his gaze.      The King slides his hand into his pocket and strolls forward as William's bike ramps off the police car. He watches the bike, and August, go through the gate; he watches Orchid surf over on her rocket.      Gilgamesh takes a more roundabout route. The King cannot be said to make a *mundane* entrance, after all. That would never do.      The wall erupts in a blast of lightning as the King of Heroes arrives. A short-hilted square hammer spins in his hand like an old-timey pocketwatch, crackling with electricity. The sound of thunder rolls with every step as he takes the field.      "Rejoice," the King of Heroes declares, his voice carrying to every inch, "Gilgamesh, King of Heroes, has chosen this evening *your* court of chaos to attend. You may praise me whenever you wish."      "Or," his lips spread in a wide smile as the hammer picks up speed, "You may come and test the strength that is like that of a star from Heaven, and show the King of all that is what power modernity has created in this country of Multi-Vars."
Janine Liberi	The weld on the gates is weak, clearly done in a hurry, so the wheel of Will's bikes causes it to snap apart and render the gates open again. August leaps from the bike and challenges the Persona-user with his own. The Tin Soldier gets a hand on the nose and shoves the being back, with the user looking utterly baffled. Sanary rushes at him, demanding an explanation even as she swipes at him with an axe. He screams as the blade bites in deep and immediately passes out from shock. Hardened soldier he is not, his chin is even studded with acne.     Kotone moves in past them, going through the open front doors to find the place in chaos. Racks of awards, trophies, and commendations have been torn down, as have paintings, tapestries, and statues. Spraypaint has been blasted all over the walls, not making anything legible. It's purely an act of destructions. Students of the school lay on the ground, injured. Some aren't moving at all. A thug in a leather jacket walks past and sneers at Kotone, his words slurred with alcohol. "Cops're here huh? Well, you can't step to this, bitch!" He erupts in red light, and a Persona emerges from his form, some kind of egg-themed knight. He waves his sword, and a barrage of ice flies at Kotone!     As Orchid starts peppering the grounds with her drones, she comes across a big bonfire in the sports fields. Various things are being used to fuel the flames, and students of the school have their backs to the fire, surrounded by the attackers with Persona. They're being threatened; either go into the flames or face their wrath.     As Gilgamesh strides through the whole he made in the wall, a chair flies through a window on the second floor, and Persona users start jumping out to confront him, as well as August, Will, and Sanary. Six in total, all wearing a mish-mash of clothes and bringing their Persona to bear. Various jeers and taunts are thrown in their directions, until one suddenly says, "Hey! Aren't you the ones who argued with Sascha?!" while pointing at August and Will.     Sascha. Leader of the Wilderkinder."     Regardless of answer, everyone comes under attack. Two girls rush at Gilgamesh, one summoning a Persona that wields a large shepherd's crook and shoots lighting from it. The other summons an elven creature that wears a single large boot and tries to stomp on him with it.     August, Will, and Sanary face off, three on three. A boy leers at August as he summons a giant crab that tries to pinch him in giant claws. Sanary confronts a boy who summons a giant with a gaping hole in his chest where his heart would be. Will is confronted by the girl, who sneers at him. "Remember when we fought last time, and you did your dirty shit? Not this time, punk-ass." She summons her persona, a giant hare that she rides upon, and it pivots to try and deliver a kick to Will!
Orchid	Oh FUN. Orchid can't let these guys go through with murder, but she's rather limited in tools to strop them. Still, she does have two tricks that might help for distraction. One trick involves aiming that rocket surfboard at the ring of attacking thugs, then bailing out to leave the rocket acting like a rocket. Meanwhile, under cover of that big loud distraction, her spiders go to work, webbing the attackers at the ankles.
Sanary Rondel	"... Uh. s... Seriously?" Sanary's looking rather surprised when the Persona user faints just from that one (albeit deep) cut, pulling the axe out of him and just staring for a few moments before turning her attention elsewhere.      Namely, all of the other unfamiliar Persona users bursting onto the scene. "How the hell did...? August!" She shoots him an intense stare like that of someone that's suddenly seen something irritating. "Later, I want one, too!"      Or a child envious over someone else's stuff.      With that matter settled (in her mind), the healer turns her attention back to the Persona users coming out to face the imrpomptu rescuers. Berathing in sharply, she draws together magical energy from her body before bursting it outwards towards August and Will, bolstering their overall combat performance! She next turns her attention towards the giant with the chest hole, pointing at her lone eye before pointing at those of the boy controlling it.      "If you don't want to end up like your friend there, tell us what we want to know!" Drawing the bloodied axe back, Sanary lets out an overly-loud and possibly-overcompensating roar before charging towards the giant with a double-handed upwards slash. It's bigger and it's closer, so she might as well go for the the easier target!
Kotone Yamakawa	Kotone is moving in as fast as she can do and she fins the place looks like a ruined part of old Tokyo or the city she's currently working on reclaiming. She looks at the thug for a moment. She enages her cloak as the knight appears, ans she's already on the move, but she's in close quater she's going to get hit, it hurts it does some damage to he, but hte punk will find that he's now being sprayed with some sort of foam which will rapidly harden. "Oh you have a Persona? Cute, do you even know how to use it right?!"
William Pauwel	Who the heck is that weird gold guy? Why's he got some kind of weirdo super important aura to him? Will's eyes narrow instantly, mind racing. Is he some kind of... /boss character/ perhaps? With the way this world works, Gilgamesh's Aura of Importantness marks him in Will's head as some kind of possible Mirror World manifestation. But. He has more important things to worry about, doesn't he? Like a familiar lady punk trying to kick his head off with some kind of giant riding rabbit. Will, utterly unfamiliar with local fairytale legends, doesn't know what the heck is so important about a rabbit, but he does know something of how personas work. Which means. Deep inside this vengeful street tough. ...Is a soft, fluffy bunny rabbit. "You guys!?" Will snarls as the rabbit surges in to deliver a vicious snap kick. "Where the heck did y'all get personas!? No, that can wait. We gotta stop this first!" Reflex causes Will to snap an arm up in defense. If he were still just an ordinary human, he... Probably would be nursing a shattered limb right now. Instead, there's just a screech of metal crumpling that punctuates a rider being thrown from his bike. Will whispers a curse, tucking into a roll to absorb the impact of landing. Steel scrapes against concrete as his wounded left limb extends to arrest his momentum, fingers digging deep into the cement underneath him. "Y'all've gone way too far here," Will growls, momentum carrying him smoothly upright into a backpedalling gait, a tiny star shining bright as the Solano is drawn from its holster. "We all sacrificed too much for a bit of peace fer these folks, and y'all ain't gonna take it away so easy! This time, I ain't got a reason to hold back!" Will readies and aims in one motion, arms tracking his target with mechanical precision. "Come on, bunny girl! Let's see how well y'all can maintain that thing. Judgment!" The artifact weapon's light flickers from blue to violet as it fires, unleashing a wide, rippling blast of electronic chaos straight for the rabbit and its rider...! Speaking of which...! Will's Bike, separated from its rider, skids to a halt nearby. Hopefully August got off before Will was straight up kicked off of it by an angry bunny rabbit.
August Kohler	Not just one Persona user, but multiple. and they're working for...Sascha?! Sascha Leitner, the leader of the Wildekinder gang. August thought she'd been too down-low, and he doesn't respond to the accusation that he argued with her. Soon after, he's attacked by a guy with a crab Persona. How to deal with this without outright killing the kid... The Tin Soldier is pinchered while August is considering, claws cutting into the metal. August grunts in pain, shared damage coming out to him, as he also takes stock of Gilgamesh. Who he thinks, wrongly, is some sort of Thor guy based on his hammer and the fact he's a radiant god-man, so he's gotta be Thor, right? Either way, as the claws grab the Tin Soldier, it suddenly lifts its arms to throw them back, as the gun-leg starts to heat up and August starts speaking. No response to Sanary, who gets a roll of the eyes, but instead, to the kid. "So, you played the Persona game, huh? Got yourself superpowers, a cool 'toy' to go with your switchblades, stronger than a gun, cooler than a gun? Well, I don't think you know shit about what you got yourself into. You're not wielding a toy, but yourself. A Persona's only as strong as the will of the user. And I'm going to break your will with a single tip." The flames heat up even more, as the gun-leg is pointed at the crab. "Being set on fire is the worst experience, and I've had four long years to learn how to do it efficiently." Flames wash out of the Tin Soldier's gun, moving to buffet the crab Persona and set it aflame. August is watching carefully how much fire he sprays - not enough to completely immolate or kill him, based on how strong he knows a Persona can be, but enough to burn the Persona, enough to make the punk /feel/ the heat. The German is making sure that the shared feelings with a Persona is used to his benefit, trying to basically torture the thug with heat. August is unhappy enough to do that, and to make demands. "Where is Sascha Leitner? Tell me!"
Gilgamesh	The whirling hammer comes up into the shepherd's crook before the Persona can even finish forming. The shockwave that erupts around them is deafening, literally thundrous as lightning meets lightning and thunder meets staff, as all the strength of a star from heaven collides with the monster of the mind. The hammer comes down on his shoulder, larger than before, as he stands and admires his good work.      And the boot comes down atop him.      The King of Heroes goes into the ground. He's not crushed; he's not kneeling; he's not bent. The foot comes down, his hand comes up. Two forces meet and the ground pays the price, cracking and splintering and shattering as the King goes down. The Persona user probably even thinks he's won for a brief, shining instant, as the foot grinds against the asphalt.      Right up until the lightning strikes from above, and another blast of thunder erupts, shoving aside the ground like the fist of an angry god as it comes down onto the enemy Persona.      The King emerges, his feet digging into the asphalt to make steps as he rises. Over his shoulder, the hammer has grown even larger, almost as big as his head now. There's blood on his arm, probably from the force of the impact; he may be a demigod but he's still *organic*, skin still *breaks* from a strike that hard.      But his face is a mask of entertainment as he rises, his coat flowing around him like an imperious cape, a cold, cruel laugh on his lips. "Good!"      "Good! Send monsters to fight the King of Heroes! Send your monsters to be slain at my feet! Send your beasts to die at my hand! So many monsters must guard great treasure, must they not? So many monsters! I wonder!"      His cold laugh becomes a cold grin.      "What will I take from behind the wall of your corpses?"      The massive hammer crackles without a word as Gilgamesh walks forward. He swings it casually, lazily, a one-handed strike without concern for the lives of the people before him. They have monsters inside them. He is the King. He kills monsters.      The hammer doesn't even need to hit. In fact, he's not even trying to. As it passes, the burst of lightning that erupts from it is twice as large as the earlier ones, a wave of electricity followed by a wave of sound that threatens to shock both of the students and their personas before flinging them bodily through the wall of the school. As the lightning is discharged, the hammer becomes small, and Gilgamesh resumes spinning it in one hand.      "Show me, monsters! Show me where your treasure lies! I will plunder all that you have, for if it is not mine already, it soon will be mine by right!"
Janine Liberi	WHAM! Orchid's board collides with the Persona users, making them fall over each other. The Personae disperse, and the students take that chance to get away from the fire as Orchid webs them up. Everyone stares at Orchid for a long while. Nothing like her exists in this world, something she probably doesn't realize. Even worse is that this world is ignorant of the Multiverse...     Sanary shouts at the giant Persona-user, who seems freaked out, quite frankly. "Get away from him!" they shout, as the giant matches her swing with its fist, the blade sinking into it and making the user clutch their own hand with a grimace. The giant yanks its hand away, trying to pull the embedded axe with it before going for a stomp! At the same time, the user tries to slip past Sanary and go tend to the one on the ground with the wound.     "Peace?! These assholes don't deserve peace!" Nina (for that is her name) shouts at Will as he grinds to a stop. "They're assholes, rich assholes even! They torment the people around them, and then go off one day to be in a position to hurt anyone they come across! They need to be stopped!" The hare moves incredibly fast, hopping between arcs of lightning to evade Will's attacks, but one jolt hits the hare's leg and makes it spasm, causing it to trip and dismount Nina. She forces herself to her feet and lunges at Will with a switchblade!     The one who has Tin Soldier in his Persona's grip smirks at August. "No game for us. We had a generous benefactor." He clenches a fist, making the crab squeeze down tighter as August lectures him. "Whatever man, you'll be dead soon." Until August drops his important tip, and the Tin Soldier bursts into flame. The claw comes loose as the user yelps and unfurls his hand. The flames spray, coating the crab and making the user frantically roll on the floor, feeling the phantom sensation of burning. "I-Inside the school! She-" He screams.     Meanwhile, Gilgamesh confronts the two users, clashing his hammer with her crook, and taking the giant stomp with his hand, grinning in a way that makes the two girls back off, looking more than a little scared now. "We aren't monsters! The people at this school, they're the real monsters!" "Yeah! If you don't fall in their line, your dead in this town! This place deserves to burn!" They send their Persona forward once more, only to be flung back by the massive discharge of lightning. They go flying back, slamming through the wall and going still. They're groaning though, so still alive thankfully.     Inside the school, Kotone immobilizes the Persona user, making him struggle in the foam. "Used it good enough on the punks here!" he sneers, before a gust of wind suddenly sends him rolling down the corridor. Janine rounds the corner, wearing her uniform and clutching a bloody kitchen knife in one hand. "About fucking time, where's the others?!" she barks at Kotone. "I think the Black Queen is here! We need to get moving!"
Gilgamesh	The girls are alive, but their statement interests the King of Heroes. The hammer whirls in his hand like the rumble of thunder on the distant horizon as he considers this. Monsters within, is it? They struck him, and they received their just reward, but it is true that monsters rarely carry their treasure beyond their lair. If indeed this is the lair of other monsters, then the treasure is inside. If it is the lair of these, and they are liars, then the treasure is inside anyway.      "Hm."      "Well, then. Either way, there is treasure within," Gilgamesh decides. The King steps past them, over their likely-twitching bodies, and into the school.      The hammer will be more of a liability inside. He catches the spinning thing and drops it, letting it fall into a ripple in space, and it vanishes. He holds out his hand to the side, and the cup of coffee from earlier falls into his hand from another, similar ripple, which he raises to his lips with distant curiousity. It hasn't even cooled.      The King walks through the halls with a calm demeanor. "I am willing to indulge the words of the fallen, out of mine own curiousity," Gilgamesh announces to the air, "If you host monsters, then reveal them. If you guard treasures, then reveal them. For I am Gilgamesh, King of all that is, was, and ever shall be, and it is by my authority that I announce myself and my intent."      "It will be by my eyes," the King murmurs over his cup, "That the monsters are judged."      He looks down at the cup.      A mental note, adds the King - next time, buy something finer than this. This simply will not suit the King of Babylon.
Robert Speedwagon	Realizing that there's some issue with the attackers staying alive -- and knowing that at least a few of them needed to remain amongst the living, otherwise they'd get no information -- Speedwagon pauses to look around. If the amount of fire has decreased significantly, he'll feel satisfied that he's done enough to keep the fire from getting completely out of hand. If that's the case, he'll quickly run to where Orchid's webbing up the Persona users, and collect as many of the fallen Persona users on the way as he can -- they're teenagers, so hopefully they're not TOO heavy, so he might be able to drag a fair few of them. Also there's Tattoo and Kempo, and they can probably help out with the 'roundup'.     There's a reason he's doing this -- because he wants to gather as many of the injured as he can -- Persona users or not -- and try to get them all in the same area, before he starts seeing to their wounds. "...Ya little ratbag... don'tcha dare die on me..." he grumbles under his breath. Yes. Even though some of these kids were essentially trying to kill their fellows, he's worried about them dying.     And in accordance with his fervent wish to save some lives... the Mermaid Princess begins to sing. And her song has healing capabilities.
William Pauwel	Nina = Bunny Girl. Data tagged, categorized, saved.     "Everyone deserves peace! Y' crazy, or what? Besides that! Y'all are makin' the assumption that /everyone/ in that there building's rich, or an asshole, or whatever. An' that just ain't right! There might be some bad eggs, but I've seen fer myself just how great some of those people are...!" Will hops back as the hare's rider charges, Judgment flickering from violet to stark, blinding white. Instantly, Will's attention goes to the switchblade. A reflective surface, not necessarily just a weapon-- nor necessarily just a way to summon her persona, either. It needs to go. Judgment fires, discharging in a quick burst, aimed right at the glistening blade and the hand gripping at it. "Yer sayin' that anyone and everyone who ends up in a position of power is worth killin'? Then look in a damn mirror! What else is what yer doin' now but an abuse of power, huh? Not even tryin' to change things for the better, just hurtin' people and breakin' places!" Judgment fires again, this time aimed for the girl's /other/ hand. Then again, for her feet. "Ye're talkin' to someone who's seen exactly the kind of ill wind this kind of shit conjures," Will growls, "Bunch of sound and fury, with no real meanin' just gets everybody angry and does no good fer anyone! But I ain't gonna change yer mind with just words. So I'll just break yer arms and legs an we'll have a nice chat later, how's that sound?"
Sanary Rondel	"From who now?" Sanary doesn't quite get who it is the giant-user's talking about, a slight raise of the eyebrow being the only shift in her expression as she focuses on her fight with the giant Persona. Drawing her weapon back as the giant yanks back, she brings her axe back up to block against that giant's stomp, bracing it with both hands as she feels the ground cracking underneath her      Could she have moved out of the way? Probably. Thor-guy took that big stomp head on, so why can't she? Of course she can! Her version might not look nearly as impressive, but... She's not bleeding as much! Sure, it might involve a bit of cheating with healing magic to keep that blood from coming out even as her body strains to hold the giant's leg in place, but still.      The runner might be an issue, though. As she channels energy to her eye, she prepares to fire a heat blast at the Persona user when she notices that he's running right... Past her? "Oh. That guy. If you tell me who's behind all this shit and show us the way to 'em, I'll fix him up." She offers with a rather calm tone in her voice, although the threat of her using the axe is still visibly there. "Otherwise... You're okay with having one leg for the rest of your life, right? Tell me!" Sanary snaps at the giant's user as she twists the axe under the giant's foot, angling it upwards and starting to push back. She's moving deliberately without digging it in and committing to another attack, however, as she waits for his decision.
Orchid	It may be true that this world doesn't have anything that looks like Orchid. It may also be true that they don't have knowledge of the multiverse.      Then again, this world DOES have horny teenagers, and Orchid DOES look like a very shapely human woman. She's not going to knowingly use this fact, but she is going to put on her mean face. "You people have two options. Surrender now, or things will get messy." Her spiders are moving around the sports field. Robot monster spiders maybe?      The good news, such as can be found, is that the Paladins don't place much value on keeping places ignorant of the multiverse.
August Kohler	Ah, kids. Too confident to realize when they're bested, August thinks. As he gets his information, if not all he wants from it, it's enough to satisfy him to stop the flames. The Tin Soldier lifts its fist and moves to slam it into the Crab Persona's face and hopefully knock it down or out, or at the least, out of the way. As August steps forward towards the school, he's cautious not to get attacked from behind, watching his flank with the Tin Soldier behind him as he approaches the doors. Soon, August is inside the hallways, sprinting sort of fast, trying to find the loudest source of chaos - that's likely where Sascha is, though if Janine calls out that she's found her, August will rush to her side immediately. But as he approaches, August is likely to end up coming across Gilgamesh, and speaks to him. "King of Heroes, was it? If you're looking for their boss, she's a woman just a little older than us." August assumes Gilgamesh is around his age, despite being more radiant than any teenager he's ever met. "Thanks for the assistance, and not killing them. A lot of people are in danger here, but I'm pretty sure these thugs are just a bunch of fools following their boss around." He assumes that Gilgamesh might be a reasonable ally. He has neither met Gilgamesh nor recognizes him from the radio, which contributes to this.
Kotone Yamakawa	So the fight is going on on several fronts and it may be getting more lethal in some of the other fights. The foam should be able to restrain him even she goes rolling she sees Janine is the cause of the wind she looks at her for a moment. "They are outside, dealing with the throng of persona users rampaging. If she's here? We do have to move." Knight guy will be left for now as she'll move to follow Jaine. "Lead the way." She'll move to fall in, there's no time to mess around here. She will follow Jaine where ever she will lead her. If the Queen is here? This may be their big chance to stop her.
Janine Liberi	The teens that Orchid confronts all begin to scatter. Probably more for the fact that they've seen Robocop before, and know messing with robot cops gets you shot in unfortunate places. Meanwhile, Speedwagon assists with evacuation efforts. More police and ambulances are pulling up outside the gates, giving him somewhere to deposit the injured.     Gilgamesh begins to head inside the dragon's layer, in pursuit of monsters and treasure, while the others wrap things up outside. Judgment strikes the cheap switchblade and scorches it, forcing Nina to drop it. Her other hand is struck, making her cry out, followed by her legs. She falls, groaning and crying from the injuries. "FUCK YOU!" she shouts at Will, mustering what bravado she has, but it's clear she's out of the fight.     Sanary gets a disbelieving look from the Persona user, but as she begins to dig the axe into his Persona's leg, he relents. "Fine, fine! Just help him!" The giant demanifests. If the healer is true to her word, he begins to explain. "We got given these powers by someone in a hooded jacket that showed up at our HQ while Sascha was away. When she got back and found out, she decided we should use it to attack the school. We don't know who it was, we never saw their face, but they had this weird, raspy voice."     August knocks out the crab, and the user passes out, making it vanish. Thankfully, this means no more phantom flames burning him. He heads inside the school, joining Janine, Kotone, and Gilgamesh. Janine immediately begins leading them through the school, rambling near-incoherently as she checks the windows on the doors to each classroom, looking out for ambushes. "They just came out of nowhere and began sacking the place. I was in Home Ec at the time, so I got this knife and..." She trails off, but the blood on her says a lot. "When they started using Persona, I had to use mine as well. I think I saw people pull their phones to take pictures... god, fuck all this." She kicks a discarded notebook in frustration.     "But anyway, I was trying to get people away when I saw some weird shit. A bunch of the school alphas gathered around this one nobody. They would just throw themselves at anyone who got close and stamp the shit out of them while the others kept escorting her." She gives August and everyone else a significant look. "Changelings, remember? We kind of forgot about them after we killed the Piper, but there must be some still around. What if they're defending their Queen? Woodsman did say that she escaped into our world. She was possessing a Shadow. What if she leapt into the person the Shadow came from?" She comes to the stairs and begins heading up it. "They went this way. We need to spread out and find them. If that's the Queen, we can end this once and for all. Even if we drive them back into the Forest, that becomes the Woodsman's problem."     The second floor is mostly regular classrooms, according to a map beside the stairwell. They're arranged in an orderly pattern, with the north-south columns being numbered 1 to 4, while the east-west rows are lettered A through D. This creates classroom names such as 1A, 3B, and so on. The group must be in one of the classrooms.
Orchid	And Orchid... Doesn't have anyone call her bluff! Yay! She lets the kids run away, looking around to see if any of those not moving can use her help. Search and Rescue, and her drones are also going into the building, looking around, and sending their findings back to the reploid.
Gilgamesh	Gilgamesh resigns never to give modern food a chance like this again, at least not if it isn't served to him in proper containers. This drink is obnoxious. It stings and it doesn't taste /right/. He's sure he's had this before, at some point in his life, but /this/. It's had all the soul ground out of it. It's like a metaphor for modernity. The more he drinks it, the more unhappy he becomes with it, until, by the time August rounds the corner, Gilgamesh is thoroughly done with the cup. He gave it a chance.      August can see him just toss the cup over his shoulder, letting it fall on the floor, and his hands slide into his pockets. Beautiful red eyes turn on August, staring at him as the two of them walk. He doesn't say anything as the others fall in and as Janine starts leading them; he's sort of just happening to be going their way.      He listens disinterestedly. A queen comes up. He's vaguely interested. People who claim to be queens are always vaguely interesting, at least if they are beautiful, whether in body, face, or will. An ugly woman can still be beautiful if her will is sharp and her soul is strong and her ideals shine through her face.      Not his type, but at least it would be more interesting.      He doesn't directly say anything to August or Janine. There's the sense that the King of Heroes is sort of...tolerating their presence, like, yeah, they're there, OK, he's not particularly interested. When they hit the top floor and it's explained that the people must be on it, though, Gilgamesh walks forward without the rest of the group, into the center of the intersection.      There's a ripple in the air.      "Come forth, o Queen of Black," the King of Heroes states, his divine charisma flooding the halls as blades of every shape and size emerge from the air around him like missiles, "I, King of Heroes, would see you with my own eyes, and judge your beauty with my own eyes. I would see if you are a treasure worthy of my keeping."
Sanary Rondel	Sanary is, if nothing else, a woman of her word. Usually. Resting the axe on her shoulder once the giant disippates, the healer even smirks slightly as she approaches the the pair, holds her hand out with an unearthly green glow, and...      ... Dispenses some healing magic right into the injured one. It's not enough to get him up and fighting again, but her aim is to give him just enough to stem the bleeding and get them moving again. It seems that in this case, that usually is indeed correct in their favor! "See? That wasn't so hard. Now... Uh." She pauses to relay the information of barely-identified hooded person to her allies, then turns back to the two.      "You.. Uh. Might wanna get out of here for now and find us later. I don't think the cops here'll listen, and whoever gave you these powers might come back. So..." Trailing off, Sanary jerks her head towards the gate that had been busted open before breaking into another run towards the school building proper.      It takes some running and dumb luck, but Sanary is soon joining back up with everyone else! She's making sure to give Janine a wider berth just in case, but she still keeps some more healing magic flowing to the group just in case. Gilgamesh and Orchid being unfamiliar get a bit of extra healing as well along with a quick nod and tap of the axe to her forehead. "Hey. If you get beat up, I'll get you fixed up. Good? Good."      It's easier than trying to poke around into random rooms, at least, especially since she's not particularly fond of standing in front of people with guns, magic, sword doors, and lasers. Not yet, anyway.
August Kohler	As Gilgamesh kind of just tolerates him and throws a cup of perfectly good coffee away, August mentally files him away as 'some asshole calling himself the King of Heroes', not worth his time to try and work with more than the minimum. As they get to Janine and she explains the situation, while being (what he thinks is reasonably) paranoid, August nods. "Right...so we're looking for someone being surrounded. I doubt it's Sascha, since she has a Persona...so it must be someone else." As they reach the second floor, and there's places to split up, August stays on the same hallways as Gilgamesh, not really trusting him. However, instead of leg and harass him, August decides to actually investigate. Moving from door to door, he listens for any sort of noise, and cracks the doors open with the Tin Soldier if he hears anything. He does this on rote, being very careful about getting shanked. Hopefully another ally is joining him at his rear, someone he can trust. "I'll take the lead once we find them."
William Pauwel	Nina goes down. Will breathes a long sigh and makes his approach once he's sure she's /actually/ struggling and sprawling and not just, you know, faking it. "I don't like this either, mind. But I can't have y'all runnin' around hurtin' people. You n' me n' August'll have a nice talk later though. For now--" Will unwinds his grappling hook and puts a full childhood of post-apocalyptic ranching to good use by winding her limbs up into a hogtie. "For now, just take a nap fer now, huh? I'll be back." Where's he going, you ask? Well, he promised overwatch! So he's going... To try and get to the second floor of the building opposite from the one August is presently holed up. Judgment unfolds and transforms in his hands, turning from handcannon to some kind of strange high-tech sniper rifle. Of course, chances are good he's... Probably not /entirely/ alone in here.
Kotone Yamakawa	Kotone Yamakawa soon find she's not alone with Jaine as Gilgamesh and August are now close at hand, the Cyborg keeps moving, she's got her riot gear out for the moment, she has heavier weapon ready standby should it be needed and they find the Queen is indeed here. She keeps moving. "We'll deal with damage control later." Oh this was going to be bad but there's better. They take to the stairs and hit the second floor. Kotone looks as they need to check the various room, she'll cloak herself and go to start searching the rooms aiding August in the search also hopefully most of them won't be ready for her being cloaked at least enough to let her get the jump on them. She does wonder what Gil's up to here? She suspects he's looking for something to entertain himself with and has no idea he might actually consider aiding the Queen. As Gill calls out the queen? She makes ready, maybe just maybe they can end this...?
Janine Liberi	The careful search of the floor begins. From the exterior, William and Orchid both begin scanning the windows. They can see some students huddling together in the classrooms, but the angle makes it hard to tell if it's whomever they're looking for, or just people hiding from the chaos. However, they have the perfect position to report about Persona users roaming the halls to the main group so they don't get jumped. Further, Orchid would be able to see the police gearing up to raid the school, while Will would have to contend with a few Persona users on the way in, but none as tough as Nina was.     Everyone begins to explore the halls, Janine sticking with August as they check the classrooms. In some, they find students hiding from it all. Others are seemingly empty. But it's as August is inching open the door to 4C that a sharp point is suddenly thrust at his eye, before the door is shoved open and he and Janine are dogpiled by bodies that punch, kick, stab, shove, and generally try to overwhelm with sheer numbers.     The room is some kind of art room, filled with easels, art supplies, and also mirrors, presumably for self-portraits. Sitting in the corner is a plain girl with lifeless brown hair and hollow eyes., Her head is lolling, and she seems numb from the shock of the attack. Flanking her are two boys built like linebackers who look ready to lunge at anyone who gets to close. "Protect her!" one shouts at the mass that piled on August and Janine. "Protect her with your lives!"
Orchid	Relaying to people the locations of threats is one of the things Orchid is best at, and given that she knows at least a few of the people well enough to know their personal radio frequencies, relaying this information about those stalking the halls is simple enough to need no elaboration.      The police, well, that's another matter. Orchid knows they are unlikely to add much to the fight, and are more likely to either shoot someone they shouldn't, or to get killed for little good. So she heads out front, using her dash boots to cover terrain quickly, standing in front of the police.      "Orchid, with the Paladins," she introduces herself, pulling out a badge. "What's going on in there is mostly under control, and we have some of our best people working to deal with those responsible, and make things safe again." She's acting like she has every right to be here, to say these things, and seemingly no worry about the guns.
August Kohler	There's one lucky thing for August, as that sharp point comes flying forward - using the Tin Soldier to open the door means his eyeball won't literally be gouged out. But that doesn't stop it from impacting, nor stop the temporary blindness, nor the screaming pain as August cries out, a hand moving up to cover an eye. Oh, that does it. Lashing out in pain as he's dogpiled and attacked, the Tin Soldier begins firing actual bullets at the changelings (fire is too dangerous), trying to force them off with strength. August cringes if he hears any die, because they look like people and act like people and bleed like people, but somewhere in his mind he steels himself with the thought that they're not, though he quickly does try to stop actively killing them if he can force them off him, because he's not comfortable. He really needs to have that talk with Empty Tidings, it seems. For now, August tries to use the Tin Soldier's superhuman might to force its way into the room, and towards the girl. If he catches a glimpse of her seeming lifeless and hollow, he's actually confused. "This can't be her - can it?!" He's not actually sure what to do. He doesn't just want to gun her down, not without more information.
Sanary Rondel	Was that really all that was left protecting the Queen? Sanary winces slightly as August recoils, stepping closer with her staff drawn to provide him with more direct healing. Once that's done, she starts advancing on the Queen, slicing and chopping at the swarm while staring down the linebackers.      "Do you even know what you're trying to protect?" As she asks that of the pile and the linebackers, she pauses momentarily to point her axe towards them, gauging their reaction before advancing yet again. She's ready to embed that axehead into the first person/thing to try attacking her, but she's not going to make the first attack this time around. "If you want to live, then get the hell out of our way!"
William Pauwel	Of course there are more Persona-wielding gangbangers. Will fights his way through some kind of gigantic golden egg and tiny accompanying waterfowl, an actual goddamn (mind) bear, and a trio of color-coded goons each sporting a different, colorful, masked bearded man. They had a combination attack! It was great! Also they're all unconscious now. Will mutters a quiet curse, patting at his shoulder where a tiny oilfire still burns on his mechanical limb. "August, I've got sights," Will calls as he takes aim at one of the linebackers. "Hold on. Let me clear things out a bit." He squeezes the trigger. A bolt of crackling electricity races out, streaking from one building to the other to strike one of the massive copy-people through the window...! But he's not about to fire on the melee unfolding around August directly, just at the people ('people') on the fringes. He'd really rather not accidentally hit August or Janine or anything.
Kotone Yamakawa	Kotone Yamakawa has an idea Orchids idea isn't going to go well but it may by them some time, her formost though is to keep the people being caught up in this mess safe. That's what she's got to do as they explore. With August seemingly haviung found trouble it's time to move, she's got to move real fast now. She'll move cloaked to tackle one of the linebacker and unleahs a full burst from her eelware. Hopefully the built in taser system if she can get ahold popf them will be enough for her to put at least one of them out of the fight.
Janine Liberi	Bullets fly as August begins to gun down the assailants, with Will providing supporting fire through the windows. One of the linebackers was starting forward to help, but is immediately dropped into a convulsing mess. The other is also made a convulsing mess as Kotone tases him. Sanary goes at them with an axe, but they seem utterly unconcerned. One actually falls on it, only to pull away once they get a grip on the handle, trying to throw their life away just to disarm her.     Janine forces her way through the mess, and she seems much less conflicted than August. "It's so obvious! A nobody like her, hanging with this lot, at this school?! Only magic can make that happen. Maybe she hit her head or something, maybe she's faking it to trick us! We have to end it!" She's advancing on the comatose girl, knife in hand. However, those looking around would notice something in those mirrors that fill the classroom.     On each one, Spriggins Jack is pounding on the backside of the glass, shouting something inaudible.     Meanwhile, outside, Orchid is approached by two detectives in stabproof vests. One is a blase-looking man with tired eyes, and his partner is a man of Middle-Eastern descent. The former looks at her badge and immediately asks, "Who are the Paladins? What authority do they give you to be here?" He seems sleepy, but he's sharp as a tack.
Orchid	"You could argue that I have no authority here," Orchid replies to the police officer. "But the people who caused this are the sorts with the ability to throw around fire with their minds, and my friends who are trying to contain them could be even more dangerous. Now, I'm not asking for much," she says, trying to show her respect, "But I think the outcome will be much cleaner for all involved if you spend, oh, twenty minutes or so securing the grounds, and bringing those you find to medical care or custody as you deem fit."
Kotone Yamakawa	Kotone Yamakawa gets one of the guys down she looks to be down and the otehr isn't going to nbe doing much she frowns but there's not much about it she can do. She will now decloak and she pauses at Janine. "We don't know what she is yet? If she's another victem of this mess and...." She stops and she takes notice of something reflected in a mirror. She sees Spriggins Jack pounding on the back side of the glass. "Wait Look! Look at anthing like a mirro Spriggins Jack is trying to I think contact us..." She turns to Janine and speaks. "Hold." She'll move maybe foolishingly to get in the way she doesn't wnat to see Janine to end up a murder. She's sticking with August on this. She may end up stabbed for this...too.
Gilgamesh	The King received only silence. The bickering of fools is meaningless to him. There is no applause, no praise, no treasure, and no monsters. There is no beautiful Queen to acquire, nor horrible demon to slaughter.      So he leaves.      The weapons vanish. The golden ripples disappear. The King walks out of the school - literally, just walking off the second story and landing with a graceful flourish behind Orchid.      The King is radiant. The King is holy. The King is perfect. The King is the likeness of a god. The King is *glorious*.      Glory is addictive. It is a seeping, creeping poison, a drug. It is a fix of something primal, something that the sleepy town Drachenblatt is hosted by has never known and never tasted, except in the wild days, the wild days when the forests and the myths and the world was young and untamed, when people wondered if faeries lived in the darkness and when brave men with swords ventured out into the world to see what lay across the hill. To look upon Gilgamesh is to taste all of that, to taste that addictive glory, that moment of realization - I could be someone.      The King is a sweet, delicious thing.      The King stops behind Orchid. He looks over the cops.      The King snaps his fingers. "Your King is tired of this. It is not entertaining. It is not pleasant. Go, guards. Take the wounded to your ministers as a gift of mercy from the King of all that is. Then sleep, and forget this ever happened. This night is a boring dream. If I do not wish to think of it, nor should you."      "So orders the king."
William Pauwel	What's this? Will, deciding to AT THE VERY LAST MOMENT not pull the trigger on someone he's been told is some kind of awful terror-monster incarnate!?!? NO!! Yeah, no. Will's not going to shoot a girl while she's unconscious. He's still busy making sure nothing's about to sneak up and stab August or Janine in the back while they're doing their thing down there. What he finds instead is... ...Some kind of weird movement in the mirrors in the classroom? Hm. That could be a thing. "Hey, August," Will calls, "We've got something weird in the mirrors. You uh, you seein' that too?"
August Kohler	As the brawny changelings start to go down and Janine moves with the knife towards the girl, August gets hesitant. He doesn't usually get hesitant...but everything feels wrong. And then, as Will points it out, and as Kotone points it out, August notices the mirror. Spriggins Jack, the hero. But instead of moving over towards Janine when he notices it, August moves over to put his hands to the mirror, to open it so that Jack may speak. "You have something to say. Say it!"
Sanary Rondel	So much for the diplomatic route. Sanary's not a stranger to killing, though, and she doesn't hesitate to cut the assailants down, then just punching them really hard once they start trying to get her axe out of her hands. If there's one thing she's confident about (compared to her allies), it's her raw physical strength!      For now, anyway. Janine gets a brief shrug from the healer as Sanary tries to strong-arm her way over to the comatose girl as well.      "Really would be easier to just chop her head off here, but... Gah, let's just grab her and get out of here, then!" If the linebackers and other smaller bodies are still trying to stop her, Sanary's focus will be on chopping them up and bashing them away. If there's nothing stopping her, however, she'd attempt to just haul the girl onto her shoulders and act as an impromptu transporter.
Janine Liberi	Janine stands over the girl, knife raised. For all her talk, she's not too hot on the idea of stabbing someone who's not putting up a fight. But she musters the nerve, places the point against the girl's neck, and prepares to stab when August lets Spriggins Jack through the window. Immediately, without a word, he walks over to Janine, draws his wooden sword, and smacks her hand with it to make her drop the knife.     "Hey! What the fu-" she starts to protest, before Jack slaps her across each cheek with the wooden sword. "This is not what heroes do," he says firmly. All whimsy is gone from his voice, and he looks around at everyone. "Heroes don't use an axe on scared, mislead children," he says to Sanary. "Heroes don't break the legs of a girl who can't fight well," he says, looking towards Will through the window. "Heroes don't start firing at random because they're outnumbered," he says to August. "A hero surmounts the odds without compromising themselves. Heroes don't give in to what is easy, what is comforting, what is uncertain. Heroes take the hard path, the selfless path, the true path. You're all better than this."     It's a stern talking too, especially coming from a small elf-looking thing. The room goes quiet as the girl's eyes flutter, her mind returning to her. "W-What's going on?" she asks, looking around at the still forms on the floor. She's scared, worried, and herself. No malevolent entity peers out of those eyes.     Meanwhile, outside. Gilgamesh is bored, and has lost interest, and so declares that everyone else should be as well. Paramedics slump down, officers drop their batons and riot shields. Even the alarms come to a sudden stop, so great is the king's command.     But the bleary-eyed officer remains standing, one arm supporting his sleeping partner, the other pointing a gun at the red-eyed man. "Who are you? I've never met someone like you," he says, eyes narrowed.
Gilgamesh	Gilgamesh looks at the man for all of a moment.      He rolls his eyes.      "Modernity."      And then there's a ripple in the air, and a sword shoots out for the bleary-eyed officer's head with pinpoint precision as another one shoots out to intercept the inevitable bullet.      The King of Heroes snaps his fingers as he walks forward. "Next time," he says to the air, "I expect my orders to be taken seriously, mongrels."
Sanary Rondel	"Hey, they came at us. Kinda." Sanary retorts to Spriggins Jack, possibly misremembering things while grumbling to herself. "Not like I ever called myself a hero or anything..."      Her course of action is set in stone once the girl awakens, however, and she holds a hand up in a vague gesture of reassurance. "Hey, hey. Uh. Everything's fine. We just had to take care of some bad-er. Band... Guys, Your dreams are weird, you know that?"      She clears her throat awkwardly, then turns to August and Janine while gesturing towards a window. "So... Let's get out of here before anything else happens." A glance back at the no-longer-comatose girl, and then she rubs her forehead. "... Should we bring her with us?"
August Kohler	As Jack comes and stops Janine, August sighs...though when he starts scolding them, August mutters under his breath. "They weren't people." Even if they look just like them. As the girl awakens, though, August needs to make a spot judgment. They can't kill her, but they don't know exactly who she is or where she's going to go if they let her go. So, in fact, he sides with Sanary. "Yeah, grab her. Sorry, miss, but it's for the safety of humanity. You need to come up with us." And then, if Sanary grabs the girl, August will help the axewoman escort her out. He suggests taking her to either Sanary's place or the Shack, somewhere away from society. He entirely realizes this is kidnapping. But sometimes, you have to do some /really/ shitty things to save the day.
William Pauwel	Will /really/ didn't want to come away from tonight with guilt pangs, dangit. He stops and grumbles, muttering something about 'just needed to make sure she didn't hurt anyone.' But he knows that's an excuse. Letting anger and fear get the better of him like that-- Really, having someone point it out makes it feel all the worse. They do need to do better. Explaining it away like that... It's a slippery slope, isn't it? Will grunts and then sighs, fussing with the lip of his hat. But-- "Hey," Will calls. "Maybe we can take her back to my place? There's probably pie waitin'." ... 'Take her to Tellus' is honestly probably only /slightly/ less terrible than killing her by most sane reckoning. But uh. Will lives there. So.
Janine Liberi	The King is absolute, as are his orders. Should a man disobey said order, he should be put to death. This is the right and good way of things. A mongrel should live and die as such.     So why does this one, even before the sword is thrown at him, angle his gun away from Gilgamesh and point it up, firing a bullet to intercept the one aimed for his head and deflect it? It means he takes the one intending to block his bullet through the chest, making him fall back, but how did he know it was coming?     The girl does not resist any attempt to 'rescue' her, and getting her out of the school is easy with everyone asleep or stabbed. She seems to have realised that this may as well happen, so she should keep her mouth shut.
Kotone Yamakawa	Gil solves one huge problem and then their Jack friendl gives them one hell of a chewing out, one hell of a huge chewing out. She flinces a bit and now she looks to the girl as she strs to come too. She looks at the girl she sees no malice, just the same sort of fear she herself has shown. "A nightmare which is over... for now. What's your name?" She looks to August. "That line of thinking left tens of millions of people dead in Europe and the Pacific a few generations ago. This is something I painfully know as well." This is one hell of a mess but they need to get answers out of the girl, and she's so going to get her hiney flayed by her superiors later....she bets
August Kohler	August glances back to Kotone as she compares it to real-world war, scowling a little. "No, they're literally not people, they're replacements. Shadows, if anything." And then, August iwll leave, not allowing further retort. He seems to have his mind pretty made up on that. For now, he's going to guard Sanary on the way out.