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Homura Akemi The Paladins' plan was simple.

Through a progressive lowering of security, make the captive Puella Magi SADA ONOUE believe she could escape, and trail her to whatever the Wings of Magius might have that they call a lair. And everything had gone as planned.

Onoue made short work of the guards, even avoiding serious injury. She'd blown a hole straight through a wall with her rocket launcher and made off to the nearest Warp Gate, using rooting shots to slow her pursuit.

The signal tracks to a city near Mitakihara Town, called Kamihama City. Approach is odd - arriving within city limits feels a lot like passing through some kind of barrier, not entirely unlike a Witch's, but there's no signs anything is going on. Nothing is out of place. There're no Familiars, no odd scribbles or artistic enemies. Normies are going on with their days without being chewed out or made suicidal. So, clearly, it must not be a Witch Barrier, but something else. Whatever it is, might have to wait another day to investigate.

In the dead of night, the escaped magical girl withdraws into alleys and dark corners, avoiding the rooftops. It's trivial to navigate around her, and easy not to be noticed. By now, she feels safe. And she feels even moreso safe when another Black Feather approaches her, and the two start talking.

"You're on time," the new Black Feather says.

"Yeah, wasn't easy. Hang on, on time? You mean..." Onoue seems puzzled.

"Huh-uh. She knew you'd be here at this time. You didn't go and tell stuff people they shouldn't know, right?" the Black Feather asks.

"Nah, but one of my partners croaked pretty hard. Anyway, I'm pretty low on juice and I really want to rest, so..." Onoue motions to leave, but...

The Black Feather takes a step to the side, blocking the alley. "Y'know, she doesn't send me out unless she wants a problem taken care of. Well, lots of problems in this case. You get me?"

"I didn't say anything!" Onoue argues.

"Not my problem," the Black Feather says.

Three very long axes with blood red heads, glowing like beam weapons, suddenly come out of each of the Black Feather's sleeves. The way they're arranged, it's almost like she has huge claws.

You've got a second to think fast.
Eryl Fairfax     Eryl is listening in on the reports from the holding centre as he pursues the tracker on Onoue. On-site medics give their diagnosis that the wounded guards will survive, while builders give quotes on what it will take to repair the damaged wall. "I care less about the wall, walls can be fixed. Get it done, whatever it takes."

    Once the tracked meguca's route on her way to Kamihama City became obvious, Eryl arranges his own arrival. The sensation of slipping through a barrier is familiar, and concerning. And yet, people mill about with no apparent Familiars or Witches in sight. Eryl grabs a newspaper and uses it to hide his face as he pursues Onoue, 'accidentally' bumping into the normies a couple of times to make sure they're not Familiars or phantasms of some kind.

    Privately, he is thankful that she sticks to the alleys. If she had gone to the rooftops, he'd have a lot more trouble following her. But eventually, those side paths lead her to a Black Feather. Eryl pins his back to the wall just outside the alley and listens in on the talk. The moment that the words, "...she doesn't send me out unless she wants a problem taken care of," leaves the Black Feather's mouth, Eryl's implants are racing through cost and benefit analyses of letting this play out or not.

    As the axes come out, Eryl's running footsteps echo through the alley. His hand grabs Onoue by the shoulder and pulls her back, squeezing by her to get between she and any attack the Black Feather brings out. With his free hand, he aims to grab the cloaked figure by the throat and hoist her into the air. Should he succeed, he immediately segues into interrogation. "Where is the hideout of the Wings of Magius?!"
Touta Konoe      Arriving into Kamihama is definitely a unique experience when passing through. The sensation of going through a Witch's barrier definitely doesn't make this place feel homey. Seriously, who would want to try and imitate the barrier of a Witch for security? Touta had been included in this tracking operation courteousy of Eryl, and he was grateful for that but at the same time... When things get dicey he's not sure how Eryl would have preferred this sort of situation to go down, but it's not exactly like Touta's a Paladin so he's not...Totally obliged to follow order?

     "50,000 Fold."

     Touta Konoe steps in sword in handHe signed up for this mess because he said he wanted to help the Mahou Shoujo and he meant that. He doesn't know the dynamics of the Wings of Magius, and he never even got to speak with this rocket launcher wielding magus during her time detained, but he still didn't exactly like the idea of just letting her get eighty-six'ed right out the gate. If worse came to worse he could just say he was just some straggling Elite and not one of Eryl's people right? It'd be harder to explain getting through the barriers probably but he could figure something out.

     That said his actions were being taken in a way to preserve life on both sides in this fight so that was...A pretty Paladin thing to do in his opinion. So as Magical Axe-girl attempts her swings, Touta made a quick approach using the flash movement Shundo to move from his hiding spot on the other side of the street and right into the action. Once he was close enough rather than try to cut down this other girl, he rests the back of his blade across the length of her shoulders and uses the gravity magic to see if he can force her to stand down. He doesn't know how strong magical girls can get though so if this worked he'd still need to try and be careful that he doesn't crush the girl instead.
Android 17 The feeling of moving through a barrier was not lost on Seventeen, but as things seemed not to turn into a funhouse of horrors, and everyone seemed normal...then it could wait until something reared itself.  Seventeen being put on call for this got the information and made sure to call in people he could trust not to make a huge mess out of this.  Hopefully, he wasn't wrong in this, but hey...the first step to trust is actually trusting.  

Seventeen thankfully can fly, and this makes getting to the higher ground easier.  He moves from rooftop to rooftop, making sure to stick to cover so that he isn't seen.  Thankful she decides to stick to this path...making following her easier than if she took to the roofs themselves.  He stops, after a moment to kneel down over the meeting.  

Thankfully, his enhanced hearing allows him to make out the entire thing, for a moment he considers if she might be bluffing to draw them out, but dismisses it when Eryl gets the first drop.  Seventeen drops to the ground between the two black feathers, but just behind Eryl, aiming to send a hand to slap the axes from the hand of the aggressor.

"To be fair, she didn't say anything," he says turning his head towards Onoue.  "I would avoid using too much magic then if you're low.  So get behind me."
Riku Riku's been on the outer periphery of this situation, but he seems to be interested in scouring what he can out of it. The Wings of Magius... An interesting name for an interesting enough group. But they're a problem.

Having been moving from shadow to shadow, Riku follows along quietly... and by the time the words 'a problem taken care of' come out, Riku knows what's about to happen.

He sinks into the darkness and vanishes, reappearing moments later as he slashes for one of the Feather's 'arms' in order to encourage her to not attempt to eviscerate Eryl. Or the girl. "Selling her out already? You sure are cold." Riku comments to the Feather.
Staren     Staren follows the group. It feels like there's a barrier, but noone knows what that's about. Hmm. He'll have to come back and measure the perimeter of it, to see if it's around Kamihama City... or if it's everywhere BUT Mitakihara.

    A small drone tracks the girl from the sky. She meets someone. A fight's about to break out, possibly. Staren's... honestly not familiar enough with these two to be sure he should interrupt, and it's unlikely this magical girl is going down in one strike, right? He watches to see what today's employers do...

    Well. So much for secrecy. But that doesn't mean HE can't maintain the element of surprise. He flies onto the roof of a nearby building and listens through his drone.
Rean Schwarzer Rean follows behind everyone, raising an eyebrow at the weird sensation when they enter the city. Was it possible to make a barrier without being a Witch on this world? Either way, once they got to their destination, the Black Feather present attempted to tie up loose ends. Rean drew his sword, stepping in front of Saya to guard her. "Well, that's not very nice," he says to the Black Feather. "But I guess your leader doesn't care about that, does she?"
Homura Akemi     Something is definitely wrong in the alley. Like another one of those barriers. Much thinner, much less... internal world-feeling. It's more like suddenly stepping into a factory, where the air is really thick and movements feel just a bit sluggish.

    The Black Feather looks up - she's got a yellow eye and an eyepatch over the other, with black hair. She's grinning, and not in a sane-person way.

    "Glad the problems are on-time, too!" she says.

    Eryl pulls Onoue to safety - others offer her protection too, to her absolute bewilderment. This might unintentionally win her loyalty over, if she survives the night. But she's in no state to help or fight. The small boost she got from the partial use of a Grief Seed was enough to keep going and escape, not to fight another magical girl.

    But as Onoue is saved, the Black Feather leaps back. She's... absurdly fast. But something is off with her speed. The best of eyes or scanners can't keep track of her movements. It's eerily similar to how Homura just appears and disappears, but on a bit more of a delay, and she's definitely -moving-. Fast enough to avoid getting bodied by Eryl or gravitystomped by Touta, at least.

    Seventeen slaps at her fangs, just as Riku surfaces to slice at her arms. She raises her weapons and they clash, halting the strikes - but being caught between them, it had to have hurt a bit.

    "I'm not telling you anything. She'll get mad, and I couldn't stand that. I'm here to see if you can be useful or not! And maybe give you a little prize if you win. Besides the fact that liability gets to live. So c'mon!"

    She disappears from between 17 and Riku, but a series of nasty slashes still occurs, the Black Feather reappearing in front of Eryl, Rein and Touta. "You're right, it's not about being nice. It's about results. And a bit about fun!"

    She thrusts her arms up, and suddenly produces countless of those axe-fangs. They're chained up together, like strings of black and red blades, thrashing through the entire alley with no regards for where people are - Staren has it a bit easier, still being in cover.
Android 17 She was fast, maybe in the way that Homura was, but Seventeen is physically fast, his body acclimated to actually moving quickly, so when she comes, he is already moving away, trying to avoid the blades.  The swing cuts through his shirt, drawing some blood, but far less more than it should have, as he uses the force of the blow to fly upwards.

Kicking off of the wall of the nearby building, he soars right towards the back of the head of the Feather, aiming to slam his leg right into the back of her head, before using that to kick off of her and soar into the air.  The android readies himself, as power seems to course around him in a strange white aura.

"Huh, is that an eagerness to fight, or kill?  Cuz it's sounding a little of the later and not the former.  If that's the case then we're going to have a real problem getting along.  Now, put your weapons up before you get hurt."
Staren     So much for staying hidden. The axes reach up and cover Staren's armor in scratches on one side.

    "Well."

    Staren steps out onto the edge of the roof. He fires a couple of beam shots at the enemy magical girl, watching how she reacts to high-speed ranged weaponry.

    "So, funny thing about magical girls: You're liches. I don't have to hold back, as long as your soul gem is intact, you survive. So, we can do this the easy way or the hard way. ...You don't have to decide right now. You can see what we're capable of, and stand down at any time. "
Eryl Fairfax     Time seems to drop a few frames before the Black Feather is suddenly out of Eryl's reach. He frowns slightly, and takes up a defensive stance before Onoue, watching as Riku and 17 lunge at her. "So, you're on personal terms with the leader? She must put a lot of faith in you. And you in her, to willingly murder your comrade. For what it's worth, she's telling the truth. She never said a thing to us."

    This Black Feather is clearly spoiling for a fight. "This is your only warning. Stand down, or we will use force." But then she drops the dreaded word. 'Fun.' She wants to have fun fighting them. Eryl rolls his eyes lightly and scoffs. "I am not here for fun. But there is one thing we agree on."

    The fangs dance, and Eryl's suit and torso are carved up. Enough blood to drop a normal person flies from him, staining the alley walls and floor, but his stance remains rock solid, even as a trickle of blood oozes from the corner of his mouth. "It's all about results."

    He hand lashes out, snagging the top of a trash can left in this alley before winging it at the Black Feather. But that was a mere distraction, a gambit to obscure her view of him so he can line up a shot at where her kneecaps should be under those robes. Two slugs erupt from his fingers to strike at them, hopefully limiting that frame-skip movement.
Touta Konoe      "Jeez, You've got some messed up priorities."

     A game plan is put into motion. Eryl's quick to pick up on what needs to be done and the valuable asset that being able to catch this Mahou Shoujo would prove to be. Though, actually stopping her might be a bit tougher than he thought. The moment he tried stepping in, she was already out of his reach. Seems like everyone's got a fancy movement technique! Thankfully when it comes to gimmicks, he's still got a pretty good one as the axe-fangs propel out and about.

     Touta doesn't have a lot of long distance options so he's forced to charge back into range as he tries dodging her maw of axes! He gets caught here and there and cuts start accruing but it's nothing serious as of yet.

     For now, he intends to keep with the plan and trying to follow up on Eryl's attack from the other side. So when he goes for her kneecaps down low, Touta tries to get behind her to try and strike her from above where her guard would be a bit lower, swinging the back of his blade into her head. It'd be blunt but with how heavy his blade was still, it was not going to feel pleasant regardless.

     "Guess we'll need to smack some sense into ya!"
Rean Schwarzer This girl is fast. Rean ducks, trying to not get hit by the scythes bouncing around him, but few still cut into him nonetheless. "Wouldn't quite call this my idea of fun..." He mumbles. He then sheathes his sword, and then dashes forward, aiming a palm strike at her chest.
Riku The attack doesn't get what he's going for, but at the same time, he was expecting the retaliation. The attack comes in slashing around him, only for the Soul Eater to blur back and forth, clashing about as sparks spray forth. "Gggh! Well, I can't disagree." About what?

There is a flash of movement, and Riku rebounds off of a wall to land next to Touta, hearing Eryl's plan. "All right. We'll get this done." He says to nothing in particular. While Touta might not have ranged options, Riku does, and with a flash of black fire, he calls up some of the Darkness within before hurling a quick bolt of it toewards the high-speed opponent. "You can stop any time you want, you know." He says to the murderous girl."
Homura Akemi     "I've killed. That a problem for ya?" the Black Feather asks 17, suddenly whirling about and blocking his kick with her forearms, but still being send back a few feet from the impact.

    To Staren, she just laughs. "Yeah, exactly! You get it. I don't gotta pretend I'm a person. I can just go all out and do what I want!" Her weapons are used to stop some of Staren's shots, but one still sends her crashing into a big green dumpster, caving the metal in. This gives Eryl an opening, the trash can smacking into her (and ending up carved into pieces in retaliation) only for a shot to draw blood under her robes.

    She adjusts her stance, dulls the pain, and deals with it. "Not the leader. Not that I care 'bout the people over her. You got me wrong if you think I'll put her at risk though! Or if you think you can stop me from leaving."

    "Smack sense? You think I'm playing around?" she replies to Touta, just before he smacks her behind the head and sends her tumbling forward. In her defense, she rolls it off pretty well, ending up back on her feet in one fluid movement. "I've got a clear mind! Actually, you're the slow ones here!"

    Slow or not, Rean has no trouble hitting her square in the chest. She oofs, flying back a few feet, but just starts cackling. "You guys don't disappoint! Maybe one of me wasn't enough. I better step up my game!"

    Just as AWFUL DARKNESS FIRE engulfs her. She wails in pain, but gathers up a burst of red-black wind and blows the flames off. Her Black Feather robes took the worst of it, but there's already that hint of regeneration as burnt skin across her face patches itself up.

    "Don't think I'll stop yet, kthx! VAMPIRE FANG!"

    Claws. More claws. She goes from three of those bloody axe-claws in each hand to five. She seems to keep speeding up - it's a mad blur, icnredibly difficult to see, but she lunges for Eryl, slicing with all ten of her weapons, bounces off in an instant, and then slashes at 17, then at Staren - within a few seconds she's had a carve at the lot of them, except for Onoue, who's entirely too safe behind the lot of them right now.

    The alley's feeling more and more sluggish. It seems proportional to how fast she's going. Are your watches lagging behind a bit?
Android 17 "Don't like it myself, but I'm not you.  Your choices are your own...though I am going to have an issue if you start enjoying it," Seventeen says easily enough in return, as the two collide.  The slash cuts through the barrier of the Android, as the green field goes up to try and brace against the attack.  Blood dripping from the wound, but he focusing himself now.

His eyes narrow, as he listens to her mocking them about how she was going to escape.  "Oh yeah, and how is that?  Banking on knowing what's going to happen?  Banking on your little trick distracting us?  I wonder what you got up your sleeve, as you seem so confident in telling us." Seventeen is just casual about the whole thing but is purposely keeping himself from just disappearing with bursts of speed.

He wants to lull her into being overconfident.  As she retreats, he spins and fires an electrified ball of energy towards the woman, aiming to try and blast her good, before peppering her with more, trying to force her down to the ground and pin her there.  

"Because, you know, I might have a trick or two up my sleave as well."
Staren     Staren reflects on his words. "That came out a bit darker than I intended, I'm not gonna /torture/ you or anything, I'm just not gonna hold back." He sighs at her words. "Of course you're a person. You're just not... what's a good word for this? /Mortal/."

    And then his systems start giving him synchronization errors. His system clock is falling behind the drones', and his ship's.

    Uh-oh.

    The axes cut through three of the forcefield emitters. Others cut deep gashes in his armor. His neck is cut into, blood and oil running down his body, tears in his armor sparking and smoking.

    <"Advising you to stay back for a second.">

    "Well."

    Missile racks pop up on his shoulders, and a salvo of pen-sized missiles spread out into the alley and detonate, superheating air and flooding part of the alley with plasma.

    "Let's put these time-bending abilities of yours to the test, shall we?" Staren makes sure to wait until AFTER the attack for the quip.
Eryl Fairfax     Eryl is RIPPED AND TORN by the onslaught of the Black Feather's ten axe fangs. His arms and legs are ripped open to reveal their internal mechanisms, and his bleeding becomes more aggravated still. He stands on one foot for a moment, clearly staggered, but slams the other down, resolute. Within his head, connections are being made. His internal chronometer is out of wack with his perception of time. He cracks a smile.

    "You're not that fast either, are you?" he asks, dusting himself off as is his front wasn't a gored mess. "You're just slowing us down. Still not entirely sure if it's just our perception of time, or if we're actually slower, but I'll figure that out in a moment." He coughs up a bit more blood, before continuing. "You've also admitted that you're more loyal to this one person more than the Wings as a whole. They're not the leader, but at the very least in a position to be giving orders and knowing things. Rest assured, we're going to come down on the Wings, one way or another. If you co-operate, I can offer leniency to you both."

    He lets the offer hang in the air, before cracking a smile. "And as a sign of good faith, I won't even ask that you stop your 'fun.' Think about it. You have the /time/ after all." Shotgun slugs erupt from both his elbows. Not aimed at the Black Feather, but at the walls of the alley. They scatter into ball bearings that bounce off the walls to converge on her. All the while, Eryl is watching. How surprised is she by this? Are his shots slower in general? Or does she need to apply some form of attention to the attack?
Riku "Vampire Fang? Really?" Riku asks moments before everything becomes murderous and hellish. The claws shred through the alleyway, ripping into Riku and biting deep, making him pay for not having his armor on. Before he knows it, he's bleeding all over the place, the ground dark and slick. Riku grates his teeth, stifling his anger and pain as much as he can while he reels. "Guess... I can't... complaing about that one..." There's no way he can tell how time is, his entire perception is warped a bit from the intense pain... And he calls up his armor, the purple suit overlaying his wounds but doing little to close them as it rapidly splotches red.

Finally, however, he powers through the pain, his hand clenching on the weapon. "Okay, enough nice guy." The shadows move then, his Eidolon emerging. The distorted, black, clawed, muscular creature hulks in the magical girl's direction, golden eyes radiating endless hunger as it lunges forward to try to simply pulverize the firl with an axehandle punch. Riku leaps in a moment later, sliding in to cleave past the Black Feather in a black crescent strike.
Rean Schwarzer Rean braces as more scythes fill the air, cutting into him and staining his already-red uniform with blood. He grits his teeth trying to focus his way through the pain. What to do, what to do..?

"Stand back!" Rean shouts. Blue light surrounds him for a moment, before coalescing into a ring of fire on the ground underneath scythe girl.
Touta Konoe      Touta's strike hits its mark and sends her rolling along for Riku to follow up with his black flames. The retaliation she gives though after all is said and done though is...Nasty. Her 'Vampire Fang' gives everyone a run for their money, perhaps it was because of that sluggish sensation but everyone was taking the rough of it. Touta's no exception to this and ends up completely losing an arm in that exchange. While he probably receives one of the more serious wounds, besides gritting his teeth for a moment, there's a smile on his face.

     "Of course I do, and you've totally got a screw loose. What else would I think when I watch some /kid/ going around getting excited and saying it's 'fun' to try and mess people up?" Did he just call someone his age a kid? Rude...

     "And another thing...Even if you're not the same as before, you're still a person. Just a really crappy one right now. But if you keep this up..."

     As Touta continues to talk, the dismembered arm flies off the ground and reattaches itself to his torso before pulling out his hoop. "Even before you turn into a witch you'll become a monster!"

     As the hoop began to spin, dust kicked up and away from the boy. At this point the Touta tries using Shundo once more, but even more than that, he's trying to see if using Magic Cancel on himself was enough to dispell whatever sort of time distortion magic this girl was using. If he was sure he could outpace her, but he had to see it in action first. So he tries charging in with that (usually) blurring speed as he tries going for another smack to the head with his blade. "Take that from someone who actually is a monster would ya?!"
Homura Akemi     "Too late," the Black Feather says to Seventeen. "Already enjoying it. Besides, I wouldn't tell you about it if I thought you could stop me. I'm not bright but I'm not an idiot!"

    She elects to carve through 17's electricity! Although she gets zapped, it still puts him in the path of those nasty claws again, and she's not getting any slower.

    But having chosen to attack through the blast puts her at a disadvantage. She's still a bit disoriented by the time she stops, and Staren's missile storm catches her totally by surprise. Powers are great, but only if you have time to use them!

    She's blasted back, smashing into a wall hard. Almost through it. She hits the ground, landing straight, but her legs are obviously not doing so great.

    "Alright, getting kind of heated up in here, isn't it?" She lobs a trio of those claws straight for Staren. They travel fast enough they might as well be teleporting into his chest.

    Eryl just draws her grin out though. "Kinda obvious when you've got a taste for it, innit? I'm supposed to kill people before they notice, but I knew with you that wasn't gonna happen, even if I said nothing. Sounds like I might have run my mouth off a bit too much about O--" She stops herself. Mostly to raise her claws and slice at the incoming shotgun slugs. It only barely helps, her robes riddled with tiny holes. "Gonna have to pass on that, officer!" She flash steps behind Eryl - the slashes come a moment later.

    From what Eryl can tell, the entire alley's under her effect. But it's fluctuating as she fights. It's clearly maintained, not a fire and forget effect.

    To Riku, she nods. "Yeah! I named it myself. Cool huh? Magical girls should have cool attack names and badass coats. Y'can't see it because it's under these robes, but I bet you'll get to see sometime."

    Then Riku's Eidolon PUNCHES her. Right into the wall again. She grunts, staying in the crater a bit longer this time. "Ow, geez. That's pretty cool. I can do something like that too, but it's too early to show you! If you stay around this town, you'll see it eventually."

    For now, a swipe will suffice. This time, blood red shockwaves fire from her claws - blink and you'll miss them.

    Flames keep her from charging straight for Rean, though - she's forced back by the ring, to consider her options. "'kay, sure. I'll stay right here. Or not!" Or not. Of course. She leaps high up, and then chucks three of her claws down like deadly projectiles towards Rean's skull.

    Something Touta says, though. It makes her burst out laughing. "Wrong! Wroooong! Even when I become a Witch, I'll always know who my friends and enemies are! Because nothing you say can make me falter, and I wouldn't lose to some lame-ass death spell either!" As she surges back down like a comet made of claws, Touta manages to dispel the effect from himself. It's probably a bit jarring, noticing everyone else moving a bit slower. But is it going to be enough to dodge her?
Staren     The knives bury themselves in a forcefield, which shatters completely. "Mm. Just like every other Witch knows who their friends are. Perhaps it's just that you won't /care/."

    It feels like an endurance contest. Outside of the MECC he's seldom taken this much damage. Can she really outlast him?

    Can he really outlast her?

    The next argument pops into his head: About how even if she wins this fight, others will come.

    But that's what she wants, isn't it?

Hetaren pulls what looks like an oversized-bore rifle out of his bag, and fires a minimissile at her, this one explosive!

    "Enjoy this fight, then."
Android 17 This time, he isn't faster.  The field seems to catch him at the worst moment, and the blade cleaves into his chest.  Flying from the shot he bounces off of the all of the nearby building and leaves a nice Seventeen indent into the wall as he slowly slides off and hits the ground with a sickening bounce.  

Battered and hurt, bleeding in more than one way, he looks up at the girl.  The only thing he can think of right now is how sad it is.  That this girl has become a killer before she has even really hit adulthood.  It was, to a degree, a reminder of what he almost became.  In a similar fashion on why he almost went down that path.

"You know it doesn't have to be this way?  Like this, with the killing, with the brutality...with the intense sadness, you're feeling.  I know that anger, that feeling in your chest that makes you angry with the world.  If you are doing this for friendship, then you should really ask yourself if what you are doing is really in their best interests."

Seventeen dives at her, skidding through the ally towards her quickly.  Then with a burst of speed vanishes.  Appearing right in front of her aiming to grab her around the waist, as balls of energy are prepared to detonate on her back.  The goal was to weaken her enough to make up the difference in power.  

However, that wasn't it.  The Android barrier surrounds them, trapping the explosion in with them.  When it concludes, it would have enough force to eject even Seventeen who goes flying and bouncing across the ground until he manages to control himself.  

He speaks again, slowly and in pain, "In the end, only you can make that choice.  The choice to be better, to use your pain, anger, and sadness for something better than yourself."
Eryl Fairfax     "That's a shame," Eryl says. "In that case, I'll have you both punished more severely for resisting arrest. What was her name? Starts with 'O,' yes? I'll be sure to track her down." This is a very transparent bluff to anyone who knows Eryl. But the Blakc Feather herself admitted she's not that bright.

    As she teleports behind him, Eryl jerks his thumb over his shoulder and says, "There," before rolling forward. His back is still split open, but for once he didn't just eat it, and during the roll, he fired a single retaliatory shot at her. Is he getting her patterns of attack down? "You're getting sloppier. I can see now why you prefer assassination to a real fight. You don't have it in you to win when it's fair, don't you?" More jabs, more aggro building. Considering how bad he's been carved up, should he really be asking for more?

    "But ultimately, the real reason is your loose lips. By this point, you've given me enough information that I can find the hideout with or without you. I am a little curious about this 'death spell' though. No matter, I'm sure 'O' will spill the beans." This is ALSO a big bluff, but he is once again leaning into her own admittance that she's not bright. Now she's caught between 'wanting to say nothing' and 'wanting to shout at him for calling her weak and threatening her friend.' The mental load should hopefully trick her into saying more.
Touta Konoe      "...You aren't just a brat, you're a stupid brat too..." A nerve is struck when she says something so blatantly ignorant. "Let me tell you a little story. There was once a Magical Girl who used her powers to help get rid of the Witches. It wasn't because just because she wanted the Grief Seeds, she really wanted to help people and she did. She put helping people before her self...The kind of kid that went to check up her grandparents every now and again... She took being a Magical Girl seriously...But she still ended up becoming a Witch."

     Touta thinks back to his experiences with Witches. The one that had been created by Karin's Soul Gem being corrupted and the one that had been made by the familiar. Touta's expression gets much more aggressive as he speaks now. "Once you become a Witch it's over! Everything you were is..." Gone. If he hadn't seen the history of both of those Witches, he would have never been able to distinguish between which one had once been a person turned monster, and the one that had always been a monster. They were just...Monsters. "If nothing I say's gonna make you falter though, I'm just gonna have to beat my point into ya."

     She surges down and Touta's more serious than ever to meet her attack head on. He might have his speed back but her claws still dig in deep into his body as she lands. But that's fine. He's okay because now she's right where he wants her to be. Right in reach of his fist, a fist that was begin to accrue magic of it's own. Black Miasma began to swell around his arm, giving it the appearence almost of a demonic claw or gauntlet. What she said seriously pissed him off, so he was going to make sure she realized how serious he was now.
Riku "Badass coat..." Riku grunts for a moment. "You're not even taking us seriously, are you? So you have an Eidolon, too?" He isn't gonna lie, a coat might be nice, but...

"But I'm not going anywhere." Even as he says that, however, the shockwaves crash into him and blast him right back across the alleyway, smashing him into the wall and bouncing him off of it to send him crumpling, blood running from his mouth as some ugly damage transmits through his body. "What... What the hell is wrong with me..." He groans... But he staggers back up... And levels his gaze on the girl, Soul Eater coming to the side as he tilts his blade. "It's not over yet." He says. "I'm not done... And I'm nog going to stop until you're down!" He yells, and he lunges forward, hurling himself through a black portal...

And then blasts out of another near he, carving through the air and slashing past before he drops into another portal. The attack repeats again, and again, and again, and again.... Riku abusing gravity slings to move faster and faster while he cleaves through the air... Eventually collapsing back to the ground. But will the magical girl remain intact?
Homura Akemi     "If the others were weak, I'll be strong," the Black Feather reponds to Staren, bringing those claws into an X-shape to stop the missile. It doesn't especially work, because claws aren't a shield, and she ends up on the ground, tumbling, and not getting back up as quickly as before. The wear and tear is getting to her.

    Especially when Seventeen yanks her, locks her in a bubble and forces her to weather nasty explosions. If she was going to reply to him at all, from her comfortable hole in the ground, it's cut short by Eryl's mindgames.

    "You-- don't you start with that shit! I'll tear you apart if you so much as lay a hand on her, you hear me?!" She is an angery girl, apparently. But that works, because he manages to put a bullet right into her shoulder in that moment.

    Which is when Touta gets angry.
    And socks her halfway across the alley and into a pile of trash, where she undoubtedly belongs. When she crawls out of the pile of broken electronics and rotting food, she looks none too pleased, and bloody too. "You talk like you know me. That pisses me off. You think because some stupid wanna-be hero turned into a monster that I will too? You don't even know my NAME, so shut up!"

    A nerve HAS been touched.

    As Riku starts abusing portals to hack and slash madly at her, she begins answering in kind - trying to swipe him as he passes, trying to parry, block or counter. Eryl was right, the whole fair fight thing doesn't seem to be her forte. Riku slices and slices and slices, until the Black Feather is forced to detonate her fangs to clear the area around her to catch a breather.

    "Shit... I forgot to keep an eye on my watch," she angrily notes, and then leaps, with blinding speed, from the alley straight onto a rooftop. The time-slow field is faltering, with her so banged up. It won't last much longer. "It's not that this wasn't fun, and that I don't want to carve your FACE into tiny pieces," she barks at Eryl and Touta very specifically, "But my lift is here. So here's the prize I promised. You ever get a magical girl on the brink of turning? You put this on her and you bring her to this city. You'll love it. In a good way. I promise. You'll get our attention again that way."

    She lobs a pendant at Eryl. It's the same the other Feathers were wearing. A golden staff with wings, more or less.

    On cue, something rains down from the sky. Or multiple somethings. They're fist-sized orbs, a light blue and purple in color with a yellow energy trail. They're pinpoint accurate not for where people are standing, but where they're about to move to avoid them - though the predictions aren't perfect. Quite explosive. They could punch a hole through metal even without exploding.

    But the most important part is that the Black Feather used the sudden orbital bombardment to skedaddle, before her field vanishes completely.
Android 17 Seventeen rises from the ground...his shield coming up again to block the orbital bombardment, trying to shield himself.  Of course, unfortunately, this means that she was going to get away.  With a frown on his face, he releases the barrier, and with a limp slowly walks to the girl they tailed.  

"Well, that went pear-shaped.  You alright?" He asks, with a smile on his face, leaning against the wall.  He probably is more hurt than he looks, which...is saying a lot because he looks pretty hurt.
Touta Konoe      Touta and this Mahou Shoujo have apparently rubbed each other the wrong way enough to piss the other off. That's fine with him for now. When she calls him out he doesn't say anything though. Not because he can't but because she's not entirely wrong. But even if he doesn't know who she is he can still say...

     Before he can even open his mouth again she's already flung the pendant at Eryl and leaped to the rooftops. Touta still not as badly injured as the others was ready to make chase before the orbs fall and detonate. Before he even has a chance to activate Magic Cancel the explosions corrode and destroy the hoop stopping him from even to attempt it from that point on. What happens next is...

     "Damn it! Come on heal already! I can still catch up!" Several parts of Touta are missing. A leg, an arm. There's a couple of holes in his chest and while they are slowly closing up one could definitely tell that even this kind of attack was gonna take some time for the kid to deal with. He probably knew it too but was still trying to chase after the girl. It's only when Eryl and 17 try to talk him down that he forces himself to try and compose himself with a heavy breath in.

     "...I guess...It's just...Ugh, that girl pissed me off. Saying stupid things like that without thinking... Once you turn into a Witch like that, you aren't..." He stops himself again. Not because he can't think of what he wants to say, but because he's not sure if he has any right to say it. He's not a Magical Girl and he wasn't a Witch. He was never going to become either of those things, even if he had experienced what they were like to some degree, so he wasn't sure it was his place to try and describe what a Witch was like inside, or how a Mahou Shoujo would change when it happened... Damn it.
Eryl Fairfax     Eryl stares hard up at the girl as she manages to slip out of their net. At the very least, he's got her good and mad at him. When the time comes, she'll come after Eryl and Touta. Eryl can take it, and Touta can regenerate. Someone this crazed about fighting needs to be locked down so those who are more vulnerable don't get caught up in their frenzies.

    As the pendant is thrown down, Eryl catches it. He is immediately suspicious of it, as anyone would be. 'Hey use this thing it'll be good!' says the antagonist. But still, he slips it into his pocket. "I'll keep it in mind!" he replies, just as the orbs manifest. Eryl staggers to the side, but their path seems to read his movement, as well as everyone else, so he is knocked down by the explosion. Even with that, plus all the damage he took, he still gets right back up, only to see their quarry has fled. "Blast," he curses, before leaning on a wall to catch his breath.

    In his head, he's already composing a plan. Assuming that she is telling the truth, the pendant can be used to lure out with Wings of Magius, but it requires a magical girl to be close to the brink. Onoue would be the best candidate. She's close to the brink, and may want revenge for their assassination attempt. Miura had only just been cleansed, so she's out. Then the thought hits him. "What about Akemi?..." he mutters to himself. He took the Grief seed from their last encounter. Could she be close too?

    He shakes his head. He shouldn't be considering this. To involve the victims in the pursuit of the perpetrators is unconscionable. But curiosity is a dangerous seed to plant sometimes.
Staren     So. Eryl found something she cares about. Interesting...

    Her /watch/? No way she's dumb enough to let that slip out loud, she HAS to be misdirecting... then again, maybe she IS that dumb. Staren doesn't get time to puzzle it out, because instead, orbital magical bombardment. Staren dodges |this close| to one, one more wound scraped into his armor by the glancing impact before it explodes and sends him tumbling away, breaking through the roof to take cover. By the time he re-emerges, the girl is... gone? He tries to at least see which way she went if his drones weren't knocked out.

    He climbs down into the alley. "Pear-shaped indeed."

    He's at a loss for what to say for a long moment. Finally, he settles on:

    "We're still alive, and she's still alive. More possibilities remain than if it were otherwise. Do any of you need immediate repairs?"
Riku Riku's attempts to put an end to it come up short. Thankfully for him, it looks like she isn't going to murder him in response. Not this time, given the situation. She bails out, and Riku looks up. "Get back here!" He yells at her, completely ignoring the intense conversation between Touta, Eryl, and the girl... Only for the massive number of lights in the air to point out that this is not a good place to hang around. Riku drops into another Corridor moments before the blasts come down, only for him to reappear outside the bombardment area...

At which point he collapses to his knees, grunting in pain as his entire body screams at him from the ruthless beating he just took. "Who and what the hell /are/ these people?" He asks the air, trying to just not fall flat on his face... for now.