Scene #6814: Days of Future Blast-2

Owner	Pose
Solomon Lau	Sacred Heart Hospital is a well-respected medical facility in Hong Kong. Catholic-founded, it's very similar to any standard Western hospital, with busy waiting rooms, public health notices on the walls, sick people being moved around the hallways in wheelchairs as well as gurneys speeding patients through. It's noisy, it's busy, and there's a chance of catching a cold here. Last time, a terrorist group calling themselves the SLA, who wished for a new wave of terror to end boredom and order, who had no real ideology, chased an armored van into a brand new community center and killed several people, including four protected inside of the van. The driver, HKPD detective Johnny Zhu, was saved and brought to Sacred Heart. Since the van's inhabitants weren't police officers, and the SLA said that Johnny and his group were heroic do-gooder types called the 'Dragons', he's worth investigating to see what he knows about all this, and what exactly happened. Getting to his room is sort of easy. A Paladins badge just barely does the trick, as does being the person who brought back several of the dead back to life at the community center. Heading upstairs and through the corridors, Room 308 is stark white. Various machines and screens sit around to aid a man who was wavering between life and death, a room with a window leading out to a balcony, TV playing a baseball game. Johnny Zhu, with short black hair and a cigarette he probably shouldn't have, is bandaged up, clearly on pain meds. He doesn't acknowledge you at first. Decide your approach!
Maya	Maya has given Johnny some time to recover after the incident she was still angry about the SLA. She had many questions to ask but she also got the idea Johnny had a connection to the people in the back of the van who were beyond her aid. She knows what it's like to lose companions. She will flash her badge, and honestly, Maya is still wearing something that looks like a modest clubbing outfit. It's about as best as it goes for earth style clothing for her. Better than her looking like someone who wandered off the set of a post-nuclear road rage movie. Maya will take a moment before she makes for the bet. "Johnny Zhu? Do you have a moment to talk? My name is Maya and I am an operative of the Paladins." Her accent is odd nothing think just a bit on the strange side. She also has wild hair then again that could cause no one to bat an eye about here. "I'm also sorry I was unable to do anything for your companions..."
Staren	Staren's labcoat might almost blend in, but the clothes under it are more informal. Also there's the ears and tail, and even if there weren't, his features are western. Staren glances over the machines. Wrinkles his nose at the cigarette. He pulls a drone out of his bag and uses the fans to blow the smoke away from him. "So. Why do all those people want you dead? I mean, they want everybody dead in general and were quite... liberal with the application of bullets into a civilian crowd. But those were targets of opportunity. They chased you down and killed everyone who was with you. Making sure to do it in a way that I couldn't revive them." Staren considers. "Wait a minute. Everybody knows you're here. Why aren't they just blowing up the hospital?" Staren starts sending drones out the window to watch the building, and smaller drones, fly-sized, to spread out through the hallways and get views inside.
Tina Natsumi	Tina's looking considerably more mellow this time around in Hong Kong. It may have something to do with the fact that she's in a hospital or the series of killings that happened the last time she was in this neck of the woods. Whatever the case may be, the streamer is not streaming today, as she's keeping her phone tucked away in a pocket. She even looks relatively normal today in slacks and a simple light blue polo shirt, skipping the whole cowgirl getup she so often wears. She has a messenger bag on, too, undoubtedly carrying her revolver just in case anyone seedy managed to find their way in. She does have her shades on indoors, though. She had forgotten to take it off at the reception desk, and it's a little too awkward to take it off now that she's already at the entrance to Johnny's room. Tina follows in after Maya and Staren, holding up two fingers in a quick peace sign before peering at the TV. "They probably wanna scare the guy. Too bad for them that we're here, yeah?" Tina speaks up in response to Staren, smirking briefly before turning to Johnny. There's a pause, and then she continues in decent Cantonese. "Sorry about your friends. What did you find that they wanted you all dead so badly?"
Lory Thumper	Having been there at the SLA incident, Lory felt she should be here when it was time to question Zhu. She is in her full gear as usual, but also as usual she has put on a trench coat to hide it. It doesn't really help her look less suspicious, but...at least weapons aren't visible. "Maybe with their general attitude of 'kill everyone' they don't think it is important to come after one guy lost his team to them?" she says to Staren, then approaches Johnny. "I'm sorry we couldn't help your friends." she says, bowing her head to them for a moment before looking at Zhu again. "I'm Officer Lory Thumper, MPD and Paladin. What can you tell use about that organization, the SLA? How big is it? And...how did they get you and your team?"
Lilian Rook	"Do all the hospitals here smell like this? It's like . . . plastic pea soup and boiled soap." Yeah, Lilian has never been inside a normal hospital before. Nobody she knows hasn't had enough money to avoid sitting in bed for weeks stuck full of IVs like the plague. Being physically surrounded with sick and injured people getting wheeled back and forth, or else only one room, or even one divider, over, is baffling. Who wants to spend their recovery time around a bunch of other ill or cancerous or car mangled patients? She steps around gourneys far wider than she needs to, and navigates through waiting areas like minefields along the way. "Good to meet you for the first time, detective." she says, gently closing the door behind her. "Really, it's good to meet someone making the right decisions, instead of thugs and triads and terrorists here. I read about the incident. My condolences about your 'team', but the word is a little odd. I have questions about what you were all doing together, why violent anarchists cared about you in particular, and that unfortunate name. 'Dragons'. You know there's a group called the Green Dragons around here, yes?"
Solomon Lau	As people approach, Solomon guarding the hallway, Maya gets the first (and only) look of recognition, Johnny barely remembering her carrying him out. The badge gets a few seconds of recognition, before Johnny stamps out the cigarette, throws it in the trash can, and leans over the bed to his visitors. The others get a brief wrinkle of frustration. "Don't you guys have names? I wasn't expecting any visitors." There's a brief laugh to that, followed by a loud cough, as Johnny tries to sit up. Lory's name gets a nod, her apperance gets a long squint, but no recognition. "Man, you guys sure are nosy." Johnny looks like he's about to say 'police business', but glances at Maya's badge again, and stretches out. "That sure was weird, right? I don't really know what happened, but it sure got bloody. Those guys in my van weren't cops, but they were my brothers and sisters all the same. I got to handle this by myself. You understand." There's a little bit of a cheeky grin as he says it. Some things do get an answer, though. "Well, all I can tell you about the SLA is that it doesn't stand for anything. They're a bunch of nutjob dealers, arms, drugs, you name it. Good thing you dealt with them, yeah?" Lilian gets a glance as well. Johnny seems to be sizing her up, but her mention about the Green Dragons gets some clear distaste. "Yeah, the GDT makes it sound bad, doesn't it? But dragons are part of our culture. They're noble, powerful, and symbolize good luck. A lot of groups use the word, and I like to think the 'Dragons', mononym, are the best of the best." Yet, despite that, Johnny doesn't actually...explain what they are or what they were doing. He reaches for his water, and takes a long sip. "So, the SLA. They say anything interesting?" Staren's drones, meanwhile, pick up nothing strange at the moment. Lots of vehicles outside, and hard to profile them - there's several black vans at various places, so just assuming that isn't enough.
Staren	Staren quirks an eyebrow at Solomon Lau. "How many times do I have to say it? Staren, Hand of the Concord, etc. I don't exactly like having to be a public figure but since I am anyway couldn't you at least-- ah, nevermind. I'm just... here to find out what there is to find out. Bad people specifically targeted YOU. Maybe you're a thorn in their side, maybe you're doing something good, maybe you're not. I'm just following up." Staren glances over his feeds, then back to Johnny. "Nothing interesting, mostly 'death to everybody', do you want a recording?" He produces a tablet and the video of what he saw that day.
Tina Natsumi	"Yeah, it's a hospital thing. Sterilization, shitty food, the works." Tina replies to Lilian, quieting down once questions continue to flow once more. She chuckles lightly when Johnny chides them, turning around to face him properly after a bit of pacing. "Tina Natsumi. Pleased to meetcha. And o' course we're nosy. You think we'd be here if we weren't?" She chuckles lightly and starts pacing around the room idly, pausing by the window to nudge it open a little more and let the smoke out while Staren's got that fan going. "They were definitely nutjobs alright. didn't even sound like some of 'em even know /what/ they wanted." She scoffs, sounding considerably less amused than she had moments earlier. "It's... Yeah, they said some weird stuff. One of 'em said that we can't fight fear." She scratches the back of her head lightly, turning to Johnny after a moment. "That phrase mean anythin' to you? I mean, it's wrong 'cause you can, but is it a thing around these parts?"
Lory Thumper	"We dealt with that group of them, but...was that all of them? They seemed pretty well organized for a group that supposedly doesn't have leaders. At least, that's what one of the prisoners said." Lory says when Johnny asks. "He was one of those disillusioned types. An insurance salesman who felt like his life was pointless, so he wanted to cause some trouble. Their only objective seemed to be to cause terror and mayhem so they could spice up their own lives." She frowns lightly after that. "With all due respect sir, you guys tried to deal with it yourselves and lost some of your brothers and sisters. As a fellow officer and a Paladin, I feel it is my responsibility to help with something like this if I can. They were killing indiscriminantly at that party. Killing is bad enough, but when a group doesn't even care who they kill...they need to be put down. Fast."
Maya	Maya just peers at Staren for a moment with the drones, she opens her mouth to say something. Then stops before she says anything. Staren may be proven right in his caution so she closes it she also gives Tina a look for a brief moment. The then looks to Lilan for a moment. She then keeps her attention from this point onwards she listens to Solomon for a moment and replies "I understand, there is a band of people I'm like that with." She listen some more before she continues. "They mostly spouted about their insanity. If there are more they are an issue that needs to be handled swiftly." SHe notes before giving Johnny a look. "All right then just what sort of group? What did the GDF do exactly?"
Lilian Rook	"I'd appreciate that as well." Lilian says, a little dry and flat, but otherwise noncommittal, towards Staren. "The reporting is less comprehensive than I'd like." She thinks for a moment about which form of address to lean on. "Lilian Rook, Crimson Blade rank Immaculate/Extinguisher. I'd say 'at your service', but given you're being so cagey about what it is you were doing and what it is that you want, that doesn't seem likely does it?" Lilian waves her hand off. "That's fine, I suppose. You can tell us absolutely nothing. Since you're law enforcement in good standing, and the victim of the incident, I can't pressure you to add anything you don't want to. You realize though, this many strangers wouldn't show up in your hospital room, without flowers, if they didn't expect this probably isn't over, right? They might want to finish the job with you. They might want to go after other detectives, or your colleagues, your friends, or just people similar to you and your team. Maybe even your teammates' friends or family." "Plus, the few oddities about the whole incident."
Solomon Lau	Johnny just laughs again (and coughs) at Staren. "Oh, you're one of those guys. We only just 'unified', verser, I don't know all the names and faces!" As Staren offers a recording, Johnny's eyes light up, and he nods, moving to take the tablet. He skims through it, rewinding certain parts and fast-forwarding through others. When he's done, he returns the tablet to Staren. "Sounds like someone trying to make you doubt yourself." Johnny replies to Tina. "They're terrorists. They want to cause fear. I wouldn't think too much of it." Lory gets a dismissive wave. "Well, I'm stuck in a hospital bed, so there's not much I can tell you to do. You want to get involved in this, talk to the police station, see if you can get put on a squad or something." Lilian's full rank gets a raise of an eyebrow, as Johnny glances to the window. "The Green Dragon Triad. One of the worst in the city. Not relevant to the SLA, as far as I know." Johnny responds to Maya. "Good standing, that's nice. They call me a maverick. But, I get where you're coming from. You want to protect people. Believe me, so do I. But, there's a reason I can't share this stuff with you. Maybe later." Though Lilian's last words get a pause. "A few oddities?"
Tina Natsumi	"Is that all that was? Aw. I was hoping for some kinda... Dramatic reveal or somethin'." Tina manages a chuckle at that, pausing after a little bit more pacing to listen more closely to what Johnny tells the group. "Frankly, I don't know if the police here could handle it. That's why we're on this in the first place. But..." Tapping a finger against her chin, she goes back to the window to peer outside. "Might not hurt to see what intel they've got. Just hope they don't got any moles of their own in there to watch what we're up to if we do." It's what Johnny says at the end that piques her interest once again. "I take it you can't tell us those reasons yet... Hmn. Anyone in particular that's a reason for that?"
Maya	more questions get asked, some more answers are given. She makes some more mental notes of this she looks to Johnny. She has an idea what Triads are and get the idea this is something to keep in mind when operating here. She will then reply to Johnny's comment about he can't tell them things right now. "Very well I'll respect that if you have a reason you can't share more information I'll trust you on this. I will trust you to share when it's needed to help keep people safe from whatever is going on here. It seems our help is needed from the state of affair is this terror group can pull an attack like that together they might be able to overwhelm a police force's ability to respond."
Lory Thumper	Lory rubs at the bridge of her short muzzle as Johnny proves less than cooperative. Why are these long wolf detectives always so cagey? He says he has a reason. And he also says he can maybe share that reason later. Lory blinks, then looks around. "Wait...are they watching right now?" she asks in a quiet whisper. Her ears perk, and she tries to listen in on any nearby conversations or activity. She is also curious about the few oddities Lilian mentioned, and goes over the incident in her mind to see if she can determine what they were.
Staren	Staren nods at the bit about not knowing him. "Fair enough. Well. Once you've had some time to get to know us, if there's anything going on that needs our attention, we'll find out." He turns to leave, but also wonders what Lilian has singled out.
Lilian Rook	"It's not the catchiest slogan." Lilian offers to Tina, with an appropriate physical gesture of offering absolutely nothing. "Lunatics say all sorts of things like that. Nothing in the phrase is politically or mystically significant." "Don't get the wrong idea." the says to Johnny. "I intend to notify the police of exactly nothing at this point, never mind work under them. My path, my position, my 'badge', stands head and shoulders above common officers of the law. Someone has to. I appreciate the difficult work you do and all, but this clearly isn't something you can handle. You've still failed to mention what dragons have to do with your merry band, what you were up to if not detective work, how they could possibly relate to the HKPD, what your interest in the anarchists is, or what you were up to with the van in the first place." "Whatever your reasons are, they aren't important. At least, they're not salient enough to matter to me; I won't blame you if you've gotten the impression some of the others are less desirable to have involved. I can tell you the cat has some promise, and probably won't be dissuaded either way, but . . . ." Lilian leans over the hospital bed. Just a little bit. Enough to occlude some of the overhead light and look right into Johnny's eyes. "Whatever trouble you think it is that either you or anyone else would be in, I guarantee you, I'm more trouble than that." "You know about the Jade Wheel, right?"
Solomon Lau	"I just don't know you well enough to trust you." Johnny responds to Tina, frankly but politely. He does add, after a moment. "Besides, I'm working on hunches. Not much I can really give you you'd appreciate." He's hiding /something/, though. Lory doesn't pick up anything suspicious. It seems that Johnny has his reasons to be quiet, but they probably aren't 'because we're getting spied on'. Lilian gets a smile and a stare for most of her speech, up until she leans over, and says a very important noun. Johnny's eyes, briefly, light up in a way of recognition, and his lip curls over, but he moves to deflect again. "Yeah, they're businessmen and Triad bosses - don't tell anyone I said that part - working together in the public eye. You're a smart lady. You're tying them to the Green Dragon Triad, aren't you?" "You're absolutely on the right path. But there's a lot going on there, way above my paygrade. As I told that Jason figure recently, it's a deep dive." Johnny moves to grab another cigarette from his pack, and seems to be done talking. Solomon's outside, so he doesn't quite hear it, so there's no reaction to it. Staren's drones, during all this, suddenly make out a black van pulling up, carefully, to the front of the hospital. Or at least, starting to pull up carefully, until it gets nearly cut off, speeds up, and pulls to a wild stop right in front of the double doors. A second van approaches, The backs spill open, and men and women pour out. And they look a bit different from the traditional SLA, as they kick in the doors, guns firing at patients and workers alike, glass from the partitions in the lobby exploding and flying as shrapnel everywhere as people hide behind benches. First weird thing, their guns are weird. Whether it's an autoloader, a rifle, or a submachine gun, they look far more advanced than anything in a modern Earth. All of the fifteen (including five leader-looking guys) are carrying these guns. Second, the leaders look abnormal. One man has a buzzsaw hand and an auto-loader in his other, the buzzsaw hand being used while screaming and laughing to slice into a woman and rip her apart. This is Buzz Smite-Yer. Another is a woman using military gestures and holding an advanced rifle, appearing to be in charge of the situation. She doesn't take any shots except at the security, and orders Buzz Smite-Yer to curb himself, which he ignores. What makes her special is the fact that she's wearing a rubber ape mask. This is, fittingly, Ape Mask. The Austrian is a lanky man with a submachine gun who stays behind ape Mask. He appears to be her 'second', and the second most mature of the insane rabble of civilian killers. Hammerhead is named that because he has some sort of futuristic helmet he's using to headbutt through security, a red light and a distressing electronic whine firing up right before he uses it each time. He otherwise wields an autoloader. Titanium Tu is a scowling man who's way too big, and is straight up punching through security, a single punch sending them flying. His skin is a mess, and through a scarred patch of his body, metal is clearly visible. All of them are wearing either rags or heavy advanced armor. The mooks lean more towards the 'rags and jackets' group, while Ape Mask has a set of shiny metal armor. They're heading for the stairs, in the direction of Johnny's room. They're going to gun down anyone in their attempt to get there. There's an elevator in the hall where they can be cut off by taking it down, trapping them in the hallways and lobby for a gun battle.
Staren	Lilian mentions she's above the police. He smiles, "How very Concord of you." And then the conversation comes back to the mob. Staren sighs. So the mob here is connected to a group that does mass shootings. Great. And then someone's driving suspiciously. Staren's ears instinctively perk up. As soon as armed soldiers pop out he reaches into his bag, and as they start shooting he starts firing a pistol at the window. Four explosive-tipped gyrojets curve around the hospital, following his drones' sensors to home in on the attackers. He's already pulled out what looks like a futuristic rifle as he assesses the threat. "Time to go, Johnny. The rest of you, take them down and tag any bodies I can revive." He's already sending the tacnet data to anyone who can accept it, including his spare tablets. He's ready to just go out the window. Grappling hook, flight potions, matter manipulator, there are a plethora of options.
Tina Natsumi	"Eh, fair. Can't blame a gal for tryin'." Tina flashes Johnny a quick wink and leaves it at that, raising an eyebrow when Johnny gives a noticeable reaction to that Jade Wheel group. "Sounds like the mob. Not too surprisin' or anything, but that does make the police angle less appealing." She's seen enough movies to know where that would go. Perking up when the sound of doors being kicked in and gunfire comes from further away, Tina heads out abruptly as she whips out her phone. Uncle Sam is summoned moments later (hunched over so as to not ram through the ceiling), and a loudspeaker gets yanked out of the Persona as she starts running towards the stairs. "Everyone, stay in your rooms and keep your heads down!" She shifts into Cantonese once more as she runs along behind her Persona, using it as a giant meatshield as they come across the armed intruders. The loudspeaker extends into a bazooka-like shape, and a sonic boom blasts forward at the incoming SLA!
Lilian Rook	Lilian sees that look of recognition. She caught Johnny exactly by surprise as she wanted to, so it's a little late to try covering it as a sting. "I'm aware of that much already. I have reliable information on the subject. It's a matter of greater resources to call on, partially." She leans back, folding her hands over her knee. "Did you know that Jason left a journal?" It isn't a question she expects him to answer. Then a whole lot of shooting starts. Lilian sighs a deep, irritable slash 'told you so' sigh at both being interrupted and by exactly what she suspected would be the hanging operational risk here. "Look at that. Seems they do want to finish the job." she says, standing up and dusting down her skirt, absolutely not dressed for this. "Just like I said. Try to keep that in mind while you reconsider your options." A moment later. "Ugh, I didn't bring a gun in here with me." Another contemplative pause. "What a pain. It'll be hard to leave survivors without one." Lilian disappears. -----[stop]----- Flashy as it is at both the exit point and the end, Lilian legitimately just takes the stairs. Since she has the opportunity to not stress time too much just yet, she takes it at an ordinary pace, without magic, to arrive at the unfolding situation and get a good look at it --bullets in the air and all. Five obvious bruisers, a score and change of rabble, all of them obviously too well equipped to not have a backer. It'd be an odd one, given Johnny said they unified very recently. She picks a mook, breaks his arm, and takes his submachine gun as it hovers loose of his grip. -----[start]----- Lilian arrives in the middle of the chaos, intentionally avoiding rounding any corners or coming down any halls the aggressors will be looking towards, and inserting herself into it as if a Where's Waldo page. Guessing the leader by her giving commands, Lilian aims for Ape Mask to get her attention, squeezing a triplet of three round bursts through the screen of fodder in the way until a couple of bullets penetrate through enough guts, or slip between bodies, to wing her. Best case, the rest circle the wagons to defend her. Worst case, she keeps their only organization occupied.
Maya	Staren's drones are about to prove to be a very good idea. Maya has worked with Staren, on and off for a very long time. She takes note of his ear twitching for a moment and now gets a bit on edge. It's time for trouble Maya will tap on the hair clip she wears and there's a flash of light, he's now in a mix of leather and metal armour, which does look like it's from a post-nuclear movie. She also has a rifle of her own which looks rather strange in and of itself, also it seems to be solid slug but there's no sign of a magazine for it. Maya's quickly out of the room. With Tina issuing warning Maya will press ahead on the attacking SLA. There's an expression of anger on her face as Maya will level her rifle. It's housing open and fire fires several beam shots into the oncoming ranks. It's far more controlled than say her spaying bullets. "So there are more of you?!"
Lory Thumper	Lory raises a confused eyebrow at the mention of the Jade Wheel. Did she miss something somewhere? That question will have to wait as pandemonium erupts downstairs. Lory's ears lower. "I guess I was wrong." she says to Johnny and Lilian, then pulls her two pistols and races out of the room, ditching her trenchcoat in the process. Elevator would take too long. She heads right for those stairs. Rather than actually taking the stairs though she leaps down the levels quickly, somersaulting in the air to land facing the next set of stairs and repeating until she reaches the bottom or the first set of criminals headed up. When she reaches them, the only warning they get is a quick, "Stop! Police!" before Lory opens fire with her gauss pistols. The magnetically accelerated projectiles seem more like laser shots than bullets, and despite the scrambling civilians her shots are expertly placed to hit a badguy without any risk of hitting an unintended target even if she misses. Her target is the saw-handed guy, and just to try and slow him and his friends down she even throws out some of her riot foam grenades.
Solomon Lau	As the SLA starts up the halls, the group goes out to meet them. Staren's machine pistol hits two goons outside filtering in and takes them out, causing a return of burst fire from the autoloader of Titanium Tu, who soon filters into the building, meaning Staren will need to come down to actually get a return shot off. Johnny, regardless, calls out. "At least toss me a goddamn gun!" Though he's a bit too doped to do any real shooting, he lets Staren take him out. Tina blasts out with her sonic sound, and knocks another goon into a wall, unconscious. The Austrian responds by offloading his submachine gun into the giant robot - but he doesn't seem too surprised by it, unlike the others last time. He also doesn't seem as maniacal as the others, as he takes cover in the process. Lilian focuses on Ape Mask. She penetrates through guts of goons, as Ape Mask is winged in the side by a bullet. The rest of the goons do form around her, as Ape Mask fires off carefully precise shots of that rifle at Lilian, before diving for cover behind a turned-over gurney. With the submachine gun in her own hand, Lilian can actually get a better idea of it - it's definitely futuristic of some sort, but it doesn't seem like any common make from the Multiverse. That's weird. Maya fires beam shots into a few goons, and hits Hammerhead head-on. He charges at her, helmet flashing again, and moves to headbutt her straight in the chest. It's strong enough to send someone flying, a helmet /built/ for ramming. Lory goes for Buzz Smite-Yer. As him and his two goons get stunned and blasted back, he comes at her with the buzzsaw hand, screaming. "HEY THERE, BUNNY RABBIT, WANT TO PLAY A GAME? NAHAHAHAHA!" Nearby, Lilian can hear Ape Mask audibly sigh. This is a person with surprisingly high standards for what they're doing.
Tina Natsumi	That's one down, but it's not enough. There's too many of the goons and their leaders to just pick off one at a time, and the Austrian has his sights set on Tina already. Without breaking her or Uncle Sam's stride, the pair continue charging right at the Austrian even as his submachine gun pelts the American-themed machine all over with hot lead. The Persona holds up admirably against the hail of bullets, losing only a couple of plates while Tina herself doesn't seem to break a sweat just charging through it aside from some sharp red marks appearing on her arms after a few moments. "What's wrong with you people? If you're gonna try finishing someone off, at least wait until he's out of the hospital!" Even as she shouts at the SLA, Tina does manage to notice the Austrian's relative sanity compared to Buzz. It doesn't stop her from charging at the Austrian, of course, but she opts for trying to just slam into him with her Persona to get close rather than engaging in a long-range battle. "Hey! Am I gonna be wasting my time trying to talk sense into you?" She doesn't sound particularly optimistic, but who knows? She's open to being pleasantly surprised.
Lory Thumper	Lory just stands there as Buzz comes for her and smirks lightly at him. "Sure. Let's play." she says, going into a boxer-like stance as he charges. And when he swings his buzzsaw hand at her...she moves with blinding speed to get inside the attack's range. In a flurry of movement she aims several kicks and punches at the psycho, using her strong legs and the grips of her pistols to hit at his belly and sides while she circles him. She spares one last kick for one of his kneecaps, and bounces away from him in the process. She smirks still as she lands, then stands up with one hand on her hip. "Still want to play?"
Maya	Maya has had some experience fighting thing that likes to charge their foes but she can only move so much, the good news is she's able to avoid getting turned into a pancake or sent through a wall. The hit still while glancing hurt and knocks Maya to the side she goes skidding across the hall. She'll take a second to get back up, this time she's got a spell card out this time. She focuses for a half-second there's a burst of blue flame from her body. The card absorbed this in short order and she cast a powerful burst of water. Which is focused right at Hammerhead. She'll try to get on the move but there are a lot of these SLA goons to deal with and Hammerhead is one of the more major ones judging by the fact of how hard his glancing hit, took her for.
Lilian Rook	"There we go." is what Lilian responds with to dropping several crazies to the ground with agonizingly painful organ trauma. They're in a hospital. More importantly, it has Ape Mask shooting back at her, which she is also fine with, despite having picked a fight with the trained military operator. The second the rubber mask turns towards her, she ducks low under a waiting room couch, and then actually flattens herself on her back, knowing full well that rifle bullets will just rip through it; the idea is to conceal herself from accurate shooting. She has a couple of moments to look over the make of the gun. She's unfamiliar with it. Even with the firefight going, she turns it over a couple of times to examine for any markings, check the indicators, find the magazine eject and see what exactly is in the chamber. The enemies are shooting at her anyways, so while she has the time before they flank her, she might as well figure out just what the hell she, and they, have in their hands. Lilian props the SMG over the top edge of the sofa, blindfires the rest of the magazine, and pulls it back under. A reminder that that's where she is and that she isn't dead. Concentrating her energy, she listens for the sound of footsteps to get closer, and the sound of bullets to aim in her direction, anticipating a flanking maneuver, and waiting as long as she can, before- -----[stop]----- Lilian jumps up and vaults over the back of the couch, incidentally knocking a handful of bullets in-flight drifting through the air, spinning to a stop facing other directions. She hops the perforated coffee table, breaks it in the process of kicking off it, leaps high over the gun line, lands behind the firing group, and . . . Hits the eject, flicks her current magazine away, takes one from the belt of one of the goons in front of her, carefully checks it, inserts it, hits the charging bolt, then tosses it upwards, now floating a few feet above her. Instead, she allows her energy to flow into her limbs, concentrates it in her arms, then releases a flurry of snap punches and kicks the squad of mooks, hitting the spine, shoulders, elbows, and knees. Four dozen hits land on the squad's rear flank, leaving a carpet of frozen air ripples, then she snatches her gun back out of the air, aims and fires two rounds down at the back of Ape Mask's legs, then presses the barrel to the back of her head. -----[start]----- Flankers find absolutely nothing. Instead, an explosive roar rushes through the lobby from the opposite end, blowing away magazines and smashing potted plants with the gale that tears through it instead of fire or shrapnel. It may even drown out a whole lot of crunching bone and tearing muscle, but not the pair of gunshots. It's a bit of a gamble, but Lilian doesn't actually pull the trigger on Ape Mask a third time. She's hoping that the bullets take out her legs long enough for her to notice she's being held at gunpoint. "May I politely ask you to call off your 'boys'? I can't guarantee what'll happen to them, or you, if you don't."
Solomon Lau	Tina charges the Austrian, tanking bullets, and moves to engage him in close combat. She batters into him, knocking him backwards, but he holds up an arm to stop the brunt of it, thrusting the submachine gun at her to push her back so he has a chance to reload. When he speaks, his accent is thick - Austrian, obviously. "Ma'am, if you have an offer better than my /current/ one, I'd be surprised to hear it." Lory kicks and punches into Buzz Smite-Yer, who grunts in pain, but still shows a maniacal grin, as he elbows into her and tries to slice the buzzsaw against her waist. "Chop, chop! Hahaha!" Maya fires a burst of water at Hammerhead, blasting him backwards and fucking with his helmet, causing the whine to burst out loudly. He grunts and charges up again, moving to bash her again, this time into the wall and try and take down a wall on top of her. Ape Mask's men are blasted backwards, as two bullets fly into Ape Mask. One impacts one of her legs, crippling it, but she dives before the second can hit her, making her still able to move, barely, in a limp. She hunkers down behind a corner, as she turns to Lilian. "No." Ape Mask, surprisingly, says more than just that. "Hand over Johnny Zhu. There will be no further casualties if you comply." And then, after a few seconds without hearing a 'yes', Ape Mask fires again, peeling around the corner with the gun set into full auto in an attempt to gun Lilian down cold.
Tina Natsumi	He's talking. Good. Tina's not sure where else to go with that, but she's improvised before. Hell, that's part of her regular work! This should be a cinch. "You'r taking offers now? Alright. How's about..." As she thinks it over, she narrowly avoids getting decked right in the face by the Austrian's submachine gun. The blow stil grazes by her head and forces her to stagger back with a nasty bruise and bump just above her eye, but it's not anywhere near as bad as it could have been a few inches lower. Uncle Sam takes up a defensive position in front of her once more, swapping that sonic cannon out for something a little more shotgunny. It's a shotgun. "How about..." Weighing her options, the Persona and the Persona user go in for another charge, firing off a slug into the ground near the Austrian's leg while Tina draws her revolver. She needs to get in close to make her offer without being too obvious! "You take a dive and start givin' us info on your organization. Cut a deal with the Paladins, we might be able to get you some o' that safety while we bring it down. I'm sure you've heard of the Paladins, right? Kind of a big deal all over the place?" As Uncle Sam fires off that slug, Tina herself pulls out her revolver to follow up with some shots of her own at the Austrian's foot directly. She's not sure he'll take the offer, after all. She's hedging her bets here! "The Paladins against the SLT... GDA... Letters. How long do you think a group the size of yours is gonna last against ours? You're a smart guy, so you can figure that out."
Staren	Lillian forgot her gun? "That's--" Staren starts to offer her one but she's gone. Oh well. Since Johnny's up for an extraction, Staren gears him up while the others fight: Healing potions, nanites to start purging other drugs from his system, a force-armor magic potion, and one of his SMGs with the smart 'act like hollow point or armor piercing as needed' bullets and an underbarrel launcher of micromissiles that turn into small riot foam globs (it'd take multiple hits to actually entangle someone, though). Maybe he's not fully ready to fight but it's SOMETHING. However, now there's another problem: The goons' van is right below Johnny's window. As Titanium Tu so helpfully reminds him by shooting at it, rounds fortunately embedding in the ceiling and external wall. There could be more in it, and dropping down would leave them open to fire through the entrance doors. Staren considers this. "Alright, here we go!" He hugs Johnny from behind under the arms, and somewhat clumsily flies out the window, immediately turning right to fly along the wall and start getting away from the entrance. Now he realizes he has another problem: "Uh... you got anywhere to run TO, or do you want to just head for the warpgate?" With his arms around Johnny, Staren can't really aim his gun, but he doesn't need to: This one pneumatically launches a slightly larger missile, so there's not TOO much recoil -- the missile then ignites and flies around, again guided by drone towards Titanium Tu! This one's warhead contains a single-use plasma collimator -- rather than impacting, it 'goes off' a short distance away and fires a narrow plasma beam at him!
Lory Thumper	One bad thing about getting in close to someone like Buzz Smite-Yer is...they have a buzzsaw. Lory can't quite avoid the saw this time, and a sharp yelp escapes her as it manages to slice into her side, and a bit of red appears on her uniform. "I prefer bang bang myself!" she says, kicking off of Buzz again and firing at him as she somersaults backward, somehow putting the shots where they need to go despite spinning through the air. She lands, then shakes her head. "There's no way you are getting Johnny. And the only further casualties will be in your ranks if you don't surrender. I'm just a bunny with some pistols and this goon is having trouble with me. Do you really think you can take out these other...guys?" The pause is due to Lory having no idea what just happened between Lilian, the goons, and Ape Mask.
Maya	Maya sees that Hammerhead has not liked the water very much. She can play off this, as much as she'd like to summon something? Doing so here would not be a good idea. So she'll make do with something else. Then he foes to try and drop a wall on her, this goes badly for her. Maya doesn't dodge in time and is seemingly trapped under the wall as it goes down. At least for a moment, then just as Hammerhead might think she's down for the count? The rubble breaks apart and Maya is pulling herself out. "Better than some who have tried to off me. Still not enough..." Maya's been hurt from the wall which fell on her. She is bleeding in a few places if one takes a second to look. Up comes her rifle and she fires another beam shot at hammerhead followed by a card pull which leads to another blast of water.
Lilian Rook	"Huh? What kind of moronic ultimatum is that?" Lilian replies to Ape Mask, stunned by the sheer ridiculous timing of it. "You just want Zhu, and you're willing to avoid shooting anyone to get him, so to demonstrate that, you run into a hospital guns blazing at patients and staff? That's what you open with you absolute idiot! Not you're getting hammered by resistance! Am I supposed to be convinced by that? You don't have a position to negotiate from anymore, and you can't even control that buzzsaw wielding freak anyways!" The military woman responds without any words, but with a surprise attack on fully automatic. Given they're within thirty meters at the very most, a wilder spray than that would still be menacing. Lilian doesn't try going for cover, being in Ape Mask's ideal firing corridor anyways. She catches sight of the woman again, her eyes flick to her gun, some split second gears turn, she ducks forward and leans aside from the first two bullets, shredding gashes through her blouse and eliciting about half a syllable before- -----[stop]----- "Fuck! Ow! Goddamn- ugh!" Lilian lurches forward on her first couple of steps of the intended sprint, pressing her fingers to her ribs and hissing at them coming away bloody. Jogging towards Ape Mask, she feels her side and winces. "That's what I get for going easy on them while not wearing the suit. Eugh, that's probably not a bone bruise at least. Doesn't feel like it went in, but still." Even with the magic-enhanced physique, getting shot, unarmoured, by a military rifle at close range with super futuristic advancements, is more than Lilian prefers to deal with. It's borderline superficial, but it hurts. "God, people who just walk into these things and grunt it out swinging can go fuck themselves." She curves around Ape Mask. She'd just disappeared right in front of her, instead of hidden behind a couch; she has an element of startlement, though not full surprise, and it'll take one more before she can condition the military woman into setting her up for a read. She sets up at a short distance behind her again, walks slowly backwards while emptying the rest of the SMG, so that the bullets don't hit each other, and forms a dense, solid train of them waiting in the air. -----[start]----- -thirty odd bullets all come from behind Ape Mask to slam into the back of her body armour at the same time, not aimed at any weak spots specifically, but hitting with a combined force of a mid-velocity car crash. Even distributed all over her body by the armour, it represents a horrible amount of blunt trauma to the everything, and easily enough to hurl her to the floor altogether. "That hurt you stupid bitch." Lilian throws the spent weapon to the side.
Solomon Lau	"SLA. Where the hell did you get a G?" The Austrian responds to Tina, but he's heavily weighing over her offer, as the massive slug fires away. A real shot hits him in the foot, tripping him backwards, and when he's down... Well, he doesn't fake his down, not yet, not that easily. He forces himself back up, and fires another burst, this time at Uncle Sam's legs. "I've seen far too much only you portal people would understand to go down that easily. Why don'tcha make a better deal? Cut me free, no more shootings, and I'll tell you a vital piece of information that'll help you win. Sound good?" Staren arms Johnny. Instead of wanting to leave, Johnny makes it clear. "Circle me around the building towards the back. I want to see their leader. Seeing them down there, I have my suspicions..." Johnny fires his submachine gun into the van, only slightly clumsy, taking out their getaway driver. Looks like they don't have an escape. Shots blast into Buzz, who is torn up, but still barely alive. His autoloader is brought up and fired back at Lory, as he charges in one last time with the buzzsaw hand, trying to slice into her neck! More shots hit Hammerhead, who is knocked back, again, and bleeding from his mouth. This time he takes his autoloader and moves to just discharge it into Maya. Lilian calls Ape Mask out. Ape Mask only responds with a whirring red light coming from an eye of her mask. Lilian hurts, and fires everything into the back of Ape Mask's body armor, the sheer impact sending her flying across the floor and her rifle out of her hands. As she falls, she grabs a pistol from a leg sheath, jerks, and points it at Lilian's head with a soldier's prowess. Bang. Bang. Titanium Tu takes a plasma missile. He's sent flying back into the wall, and the wall takes it worse than he does. Titanium skeleton. Hence the name. He moves outside, trying to fire at Staren and Johnny and take them both down!
Tina Natsumi	"SLAG. You know, like the... Metal stuff. Better than SLAW or somethin' vegetable-y, right?" Tina manages to banter at least a little during this fight, her inner performer coming through even with the stress of all the fighting and gunfire going on around her in this hospital. Right. She's still fighting in a hospital. Best to end this quickly, then, even if she's not entirely sure what the Austrian means. Uncle Sam hunkers down ass it slides forward, taking that burst of gunfire to the legs directly while acting as the mighty bulwark Tina needs to get in closer to the Austrian once again. There's a few bloody splotches on Tina's slacks now, but she's close enough that slowing down isn't going to matter quite as much for now! "Alright, no shooting. Better?" As she draws closer, Tina guides Uncle Sam's fist into a straightforward punch at the Austrian's side, then another swing of the robot's entire arm from the other side to try and punch him right down to the ground. "NO shootin', and... You mean cut free from your group or what? Because I don't know if you'd cut it as an agent. But if you got good info, ^I'm sure we can get it all worked out." She does sound mildly confused at that, but still genuine nonetheless.
Staren	Staren sees Titanium Tu come out to fight. He swears and takes evasive action, but it's hard while carrying someone, and Johnny's exposed! The bullets hit the forcefield from the potion instead of Johnny. The force of the impacts still unsteadies Staren, though, and he dives behind a random car for a landing and lets go of Johnny so they can both fight from cover. Staren's idea of fighting from cover is, of course, to hide completely behind it and fire homing missiles into the air that then seek out Tu!
Solomon Lau	"No, cut me free as in, let me walk. Today. Right now." The Austrian responds, as he's pinned and tries to break out of it. "Otherwise, you won't get a word out of me."
Maya	Maya is still dealing with Hammerhead, she does wish to take this guy alive he may know something. Given all the attacks she's sent his way he's not just crumpled. She'll have to give him that, oh and here he comes again shooting at her and it's not the best thing for her. She'll cast a barrier spell, which keeps the damage from being disastrous for her, but even with the barrier lessening the impacts it's still pretty painful and clearly is messing her up some more from it. This time she's going to try to put Hammerhead do. She starts to cast again, but this time she keeps bleeding more and more of the blue fire out. This is far closer to what Maya did during the tests on Lilian's world. The card in hand glows green, as she let loose a torrent of water on Hammerhead hoping to take him out of the fight so she can cuff him and maybe get some damn answers out of him.
Tina Natsumi	"Oh. Ohhh. I'm thinkin' of 'cut loose'." That makes a lot more sense. Nodding to herself, Tina stops herself from remembering too much about movies past and continues struggling with the Austrian, glancing at her side after a moment. "... Gimme a tap right there so your guys don't suspect anything. Go." She's already bracing for a hit to her side, too, trying not to leave it too visibly open. She needs to make sure it looks believable!
Lilian Rook	"Nothing to say?" Lilian yells to Ape Mask as she goes flying across the room. Her eye is drawn to the glowing red light, but without further information, she can only guess at it. "I thought we were negotiating?" she spits. The holdout pistol comes out of the holster in the blink of an eye. Lilian expects it this time. It's about the only remaining move for a soldier refusing to surrender, downed, at this distance, without her primary weapon. She pulls the same disappearing act again this time, teleporting to Ape Mask, but in contrast to the last couple of times, all of a sudden, she's right in front of her. She jerks in an out of existence like reality had just hung up for a second and skipped thirty frames. "I didn't say you had the right to remain silent yet." The air around Lilian's hands subtly ripples and displaces. She reaches out to smash the pistol from Ape Mask's hands, probably breaking it into a million pieces in the purpose. Her foot snaps out and her heel is driven into the woman's midsection to crush her pelvis. Then, she grabs that mask, and instead of pulling it off on the spot, just goes about slamming her head into the wall until the rubber mask tears to shreds or the wall breaks --whichever comes first.
Solomon Lau	As Tina makes the deal with the Austrian, he slugs her where she asks him to, waits a second, and then breaks away and books it past her in a limp. As he does, he says one thing. "Genomic Solutions." As the Austrian escapes, Titanium Tu is /blown apart/ by missiles. His skeleton stays true, but the rest of him doesn't, and Johnny finishes him off with a burst of submachine gun fire. Johnny then starts heading into the hospital. Maya lets loose another torrent of water at Hammerhead, knocking him unconscious as he slams head first into a wall. He's down. Lilian jerks forward towards Ape Mask. Ape Mask's eyes widen as the other woman basically teleports, comes up, destroys her pistol, crushes her pelvis, and then starts slamming Ape Mask into the wall. The mask begins to crumble, as Ape Mask doesn't go unconscious - and it becomes clear immediately. Half of her head is made of metal. That's the side slamming into the wall, showing a red cybernetic eye, as Ape Mask doesn't speak. Or at least, she doesn't speak until Johnny Zhu makes it inside. "Cyborg? Son of a..." Johnny says, before he moves up to try and stop Lilian, shouting at Ape Mask. "Who the hell are you?" Ape Mask's cybernetic eye, now flickering from damage, blinks as she speaks up. She's still maintaining a will of steel. "Sergeant Ape Mask Replicant, New Simian Army, 4-789R98." She says nothing else. "Shit!" Johnny kicks a bullet-soaked tray across the floor, and then grabs his side and leans against a wall, pain kicking back in. "Good job. I trust you enough to work with you, but I can't explain things here. Not without graphs and charts. But I can start clueing you in."
Maya	Maya make sure Hammerhead is down, she'll go to cuff him. Then check him for any weapons to remove those. She thinks again and also will get his legs. She'll also take a moment to check around for injured bystanders after that applying healing where she can, or tagging them for Staren. The revelation though about this group? Someone has to be backing them, there no way a bunch of anarchist nihilists could get hardware like this or cyborgs right? Then there is this New Simian army as well.
Lory Thumper	It seems that Buzz Smite-Yer is down as well. Lory makes sure he is well cuffed, then goes to check on any injured civilians and hospital workers. Those that are still alive she helps onto gurneys while she listens to the conversation. "Cyborgs from the future? This sounds like an old movie I saw once." she says. Once all the survivors are taken care of and Buzz Smite-Yer is secured, she joins the others. "Time travel is real?!" she exclaims when it comes in over the radio. Then she looks at Lilian. "Wait...is that how you did all that stuff? You can manipulate time?" It might not be too uncommon in the Multiverse, but Lory hasn't seen it before and looks kind of awed by it. "And I thought I was fast..."
Staren	Johnny drops some bombs on the radio. TIME TRAVEL. Well, no point freaking out about it. Staren can't plan around it until Johnny explains this world's rules of time travel. Obviously it's not the kind where a new squad of bad guys suddenly appears right on top of them, so they must be safe(?) for the moment. "Do you want us to leave you here, or take you somewhere else?" Then Staren remembers that there are abunch of innocent(?) civilians around full of bullets, and he sighs and runs off to deal with that. Since they're in AN ACTUAL HOSPITAL, he asks any free staff to help with triage, deciding who's taken a bullet to the brain, who needs elite help to save, and who the hospital can handle. When Lory puts forth the suggestion that Lillian can manipulate time, Staren stops long enough to watch her reaction.
Lilian Rook	"Eugh." That's all Lilian has to say on the subject of the cyborg. She lets it go as if it were something mildly disgusting --like she'd picked up a loaf of bread out of the cupboard only to find it going moldy. "That just figures I suppose. Where are the rest of them?" She loses interest in trying to grill the cyborg formerly known as Ape Mask any further, and starts looking around to assess the carnage, and where the other themed thugs have been laid out. Johnny Zhu starts explaining stuff over the radio. She listens through it in silent thoughtfulness, her head gradually tilting side to side like the slowed down motions of a clock pendulum as she tries to decide on how much bullshit he might be spewing versus how much beyond-the-pale secret society stuff she is already convinced is going on. Slowly settling on her left shoulder, she apparently decides to go with it. "Yeah, I can see it." she says. "Jade Wheel Society, right?" Then she looks to Lory with the unique, distinctly curated expression that belongs solely to rich star students, handed down through generations of the collective social gene pool. The one that silently transmits 'why are you talking to me' 'who do you think you are' and 'are you perhaps retarded' in the same, instantly recognizable look. "I'm not from here, genius. Why would I be able to time travel?"
Solomon Lau	The other thugs primarily don't know anything. Buzz Smite-Yer and Hammerhead, as well as all the surviving nameless goons, claim to just be SLA picked up by Ape Mask and one Otmar Schlenk - likely the Austrian, whose name Johnny can corroborate. If and when Tina mentions Genomic Solutions, Johnny can explain a little bit about it. Genomic Solutions was a company that Otmar Schlenk, faceman of the SLA, was interested in /buying/ up, according to the Dragons' investigation. A local medical research company, Johnny had no idea how they could have afforded it, but everything's now coming into play with the time travel. He mentions the New Simian Army as 'it's complicated, but they're exactly what they sound like'. Johnny then retreats, planning to lie low for a week, and then send the group the coordinates of his base once it's time. He plans to take them to an old Dragons hideout - one that predates his group altogether. For now, though, Staren can save quite a few people, though some did get hit in the head. Most casualties are luckily fixable in his own special way, the security guards being the hardest to assist.
Lory Thumper	Lory's wide-eyed curiousity...is summarily crushed by Lilian. "What's your problem?! And how does you not being from here mean in any way that you wouldn't be able to time travel?! This is the Multiverse /Genius/!" she says, adding plenty of sneer to that word. "Lots of worlds share traits. Or did you miss that part in the orientation documents? So excuuuuse me if I just learned time travel was real and thought that perhaps your ability to just...suddenly appear somewhere else after apparently doing things in an instant was some form of time manipulation. But I guess it was really just your ego being so big that everything just got stuck in it for a few moments, huh?" Lory straightens her vest and shines her badge a bit, then looks up at Lilian with a frown that makes it clear whatever awe and respect the little rabbit had for Lilian was completely obliterated in one swoop. She shakes her head, then goes to get some medical attention herself. She did get a gash for her troubles against Buzz. "See you around, Lilian. Unfortunately."