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Audrey Basque	The New Old Neo-British Museum is a peculiar CRATER in the center of a town stuck on the fringes of three different worlds, patchworked together as the Multiverse often likes to do. An odd and quaint little city-to-be radiating imperialist vibes that reached for a bit more than it should have, Multishire (pronounced Mooltsher, of course) as they'd called it was supposed to be this nice little cultural hot spot rich tourists would love to visit. Three worlds, all at once! The city's even divided in third, like a pie chart, proudly owning the fact it sits on those boundaries.     The museum curators, you see, had been mountain expeditions to those three worlds to recover all manners of display pieces to stock the shelves. It was a matter of time before someone took interest and liberated all of its relics, which is precisely what happened.     Of course none of that matters particularly. Audrey has already done the paperwork and the research to fill you in; though the Warpgate is located just outside Multishire, you're headed out to one of the three worlds, where the would-be thieves set up a camp about a hour away from the town; they hadn't fled, even though they had the means to (reported abilities from town witnesses included flight, teleportation, energy beams, and one of them swung a sword so hard it left a scar dividing the town center in half).     Which meant they were confident they didn't need to flee, and perhaps were even inviting people to come take their toys back.     The town having no means to negotiate with, or fight, the three individuals responsible, it's really the team's say what they return (if anything) and what they keep, if they succeed. Among the prizes the armillary sphere known as the Pole Star, but also a stash of strange magical relics, most of which are only appraised at the surface level by critically underqualified museum staff.     After a quick gather up at the Warpgate, the Sun starting its slow descent towards the horizon, Audrey points west, away from the town. You would be excused for thinking she's not doing well, considering she's got a brand new set of band-aids-- on her hands, neck, and the fact she's wearing her school uniform means, oh look, her legs too, under the white hosery. But worry not, she's all smiles and pumped for this.     "Reportedly, the three suspects have set up a kind of makeshift camp at an old cave that used to be a well for the town until they got proper plumbing installed. They've aggressed people who pass by, but usually just leave them beaten to near-death and not the whole way. So we probably won't need to go cave crawling for this. On the other hand, I'm not sure what we have that they might want, so negotiating might be hard. Force is the most likely outcome."     But she certainly won't complain if people manage to handle it through words, somehow. "A-Ah, also... I... have a test, very early tomorrow morning, so..." She scratches the back of her head awkwardly. "If we could expedite this, I'd appreciate it." Somehow that feels like the most ridiculous thing she's ever had to ask anyone. "If possible. Obviously."     The land west is mostly rust-orange colored, rolling stony plains not unlike a desert, with occasional bushes. There's an old style dirt road, easy to walk on, and it'll be about a hour's walk to reach the camp, though Audrey offers to speed it up somewhat by setting up a cracked region of space that'll take you to the furthest bend of the road you can see from the Warpgate, and then again a few times for good measure, unless there's a better idea.
Kukuru	Joining Audrey and friends in the mission to take the ill-gotten toys back is one green-haired healer, dressed for what could very well end up in roughhousing of the most violent sort! That's why, instead of wearing her usual white and green blouse and frilly dress, Kukuru's wearing a more sturdy jacket over shorts and boots, but she's added a bit of class to it with a tie around her neck even though the collar comes from a shirt with no sleeves and barely looks like a dress shirt at all. Someone in Grand Dorado probably convinced her it would look when she bought it ages ago. Squinting at the sunset ahead, she takes a deep breath before remembering not to fry her eyes and brain so she can instead fuss over Audrey's bandages. She doesn't need to take them off just to dispense some healing nanites, after all, but Kukuru's still careful not to touch them just in case. "They sound preeeetty rude, huh? What a shame... If they could gather intel to find out about these aaand the skills to take them in the first place, it couldn't hurt to try and bring them into our family, riiight?" Kukuru chuckles softly, taking a moment to offer Audrey a few extra bandages from her pocket just in case. They're dark blue with a night/star motif. "But if they don't want to join, theeeen... Don't worry. You'll be able to get to bed nice and early for your test tomorrow, and I'll take care of the laundry while you're out." Kukuru further offers with a gentle chuckle, clapping once for emphasis like that's meant to reassure instead of confuse or horrify Audrey instead.
White	White shows up in her own combat gear... Which is to say the exact same dress as usual, with her knee-high boots. She contemplates the information about the incident, and spends a little while having a complaining fit all to herself. 'Flying? Beams? Come on, I'm not an anime protagonist, give me a break!' and so on, and so forth. It's mostly a way for her to entertain herself while she's waiting for the gang to get together admittedly. The idea of keeping something or other from the reclaimed haul at least sticks in her brain to consider later. Audrey points westward, White follows her finger visually, and softly sighs at the sight of open desert.      She files away her bad memories of yet another form of natural terrain, and admittedly her best way of 'expediting' things is extremely similar in effect to Audrey's. Rather than warping space, it would be group teleportation to the end of her (admittedly quite extended) line of sight, a few times over. Hearing Kukuru talk about doing Audrey's laundry, of all things, draws her open-eyed attention. Isn't that weird? Well, she's not going to say anything. Maybe Audrey really is from a rom-com world. Instead, she turns to Audrey and simply notes, "You seem confident." in a soft murmur-mumble. It might be praise, or it might be teasing, but her tone would never tell.
Sarracenia	Although it was painful to go gather the last artifact from the nanobot lake, Sarra hadn't been able to just go on a normal adventure in a long time. So, she was looking forward to another!      A town that is three worlds in one is a novel concept, and Sarra spends some time looking around and doing a bit of shopping before they head out of town. Although the name draws a snicker from her along with a headshake. "...New Old Neo...? Why are so many places and people named such ridiculous things on these normal adventures?"      The princess is wearing her new usual outfit, the black dress with silver accents and black gloves. Audrey's band-aids draw a concerned look from Sarra. Also, a bit of a frown because the only other people she knows who end up in bandages all the time are Petra and Hibiki, and that is because one of them gets willingly abused and the other pushes herself too hard. Which means that while they are being briefed Sarra pulls out a green mushroom and hands it to Audrey. "You must be working and training hard, I take it?"      The request to expedite things draws a bit of a smirk from Sarracenia. "It sounds like they are nothing too special. I am sure we can end this quickly."      White and Kukuru both get a friendly wave in greeting from the princess. Kukuru suggests they try to add the thieves to the family. Sarra raises an eyebrow at this. "...I...suppose if they do come peacefully and return the items..." she says, though she sounds doubtful. White mentions confidence and Sarra shrugs. "Why should we not be confident? I have no doubt any one of us alone could handle them, much less all of us."      With no better idea for travelling, Sarra will go through the cracked regions to the camp.
Petra Soroka	Petra is here! She's come here after a class that feels like it got her brain working on 'academic' stuff for the first time properly in forever-- so much that she started babbling about literary analysis in the radio for a while, zero-handedly having her morphmetal carry her pencil across the page like a personal stenographer while pacing around the room and gesticulating to work her thoughts out. It's fun! She kind of, a little bit, *enjoys* learning. It's still... weird, in a lot of ways, that Petra is in college now, but for the purely educational parts of it, she's thriving.     She's even got a new piece of school spiritwear on, which she bought because she's been sorely missing her bomber jacket. A black and gold letterman jacket, with the CMU logo on one breast, effortlessly replaces her need for a bulky jacket to shove her hands into, and it's even especially appropriate for a Concord mission-- not to mention, it matches the collar around her neck. Petra is visibly in high spirits when coming out of the warpgate, idly humming to herself and getting ready to do violence to some more strangers for the purpose of acquiring material wealth to place into the evil wizard tower of her castle so that the evil wizard who lives there can exert more control over space.     On the town: "Oh, it's like the Four Corners in the U.S. But instead of, uh, New Mexico, Colorado, Utah, and, um... Arizona, it's Britain, Britain, and Britain. Neat." As a novelty, it's the kind of place that would show up in fifteenth place on a generic Yelp page for someone googling "places to go when visiting the multiverse", so it's a bit below Petra's standards. "On the other hand, I'm not sure what we have that they might want, so negotiating might be hard. Force is the most likely outcome."     "Well, there's a few ways to think about that. If we start from right off the bat saying we need the Pole Star, the price will be high, and I don't think any of us even... care, to pay it? On the other hand, if we talk in a more roundabout way, like we're *trying* to get all of it back, but we could *settle* for just the Pole Star because we *only* have 'this much' to offer them, it's a lot more likely to work."
Petra Soroka	"A-Ah, also... I... have a test, very early tomorrow morning, so..."     Normally, Petra would be all about just beating up these people and carrying everything away. Or, at least, she'd consider this operation low stakes enough that she wouldn't care to do anything else, and would instead trace the shortest, straightest line from a desire to an outcome, that inevitably leads through the people in her way. This would be great for Audrey! However....     "Well, what's the problem, skater girl?" Petra smirks while walking, hands behind her head, scuffing up little puffs of dust with her boots along the road. "You're representing the school as a Partner, aren't you? I feel like they'd be way more disappointed if you rushed through and failed to do everything right, just for something as trivial as a test."     "Anyways," Petra holds a finger up. "I mean, the museum might be wiped out, but it sets a pretty bad precedent to me to just take that as an opportunity to fill our arms with as much loot as we can carry and walk away. Like, that's just stealing for no reason; none of us *need* all of that, and even worse, it's a *local museum*. I'd feel bad about just straight up robbing artifacts with historical value from a fucking museum." "If they could gather intel to find out about these aaand the skills to take them in the first place, it couldn't hurt to try and bring them into our family, riiight?"     Petra twists her lips momentarily when looking at Kukuru, upset by something abstract besides what she said. After thinking for a minute longer, she decides to agree with her. "I mean, it couldn't hurt, yeah. That level of destruction around the city center's something, at least, so even if they say no, it'd be good to get tabs on them."
Angela	Blowing up a museum is just unconscionable to Angela but stealing from one is not. But because this presumably involves people who know how to actually fight, this means Angela more or less has Roland and whatever Agents she can muster to send. But in this case it's just gonna be Roland. He has a pad for Angela too, but Angela is actually leaning back and reading at her desk. The book she is reading is Library of the Unwritten and she seems moderately invested in it. "If they left a crater like that I do have some concerned this may be beyond any of my Librarians." Barring Gebura should she ever wake her up in the first place. "I don't know, shock and awe is one thing but doing this kind of damage is impressive, sure, but I dunno if I'd say it's the best way to subdue an opponent." Roland then smiles. "'Sides, maybe we can win 'em over with our charming personalities." He says it just sincerely enough that Angela squints but she does aside to Audrey, "They do not seem like the wordy types." She says, honestly. "At least not the solve things with words types. But I suppose we'll see how it goes. We have a Kukuru and all." Roland does take a moment to eyeball the new injuries on Audrey but he's not about to bring it up in front of everyone, even if he's a little surprised Kukuru hasn't offered to fix Audrey up yet. "We'll get you back in time, and if you need a quiet place to study, the Library's got plenty of places like that." Roland adds. On the screen, Harriet the Spyder waddles in and out of frame on the Angelapad, pushing books around with her body. Angela is about to speak up when Petra teases Audrey for worrying about a test but ultimately keeps her mouth shut about that. "Yes. We are after something specific after all and I doubt they left what we needed behind, as convenient as that would be." She takes a moment and studies Petra's jacket. "...It looks good on you, Eonni."
Audrey Basque	KUKURU heals Audrey, though Audrey very pointedly denies her access to the wounds, so it's done from a safe distance! This... does not seem to reassure or please her entirely, and she makes no attempt to remove the band-aids even after the nanites are done working. She does, however, accept the extra supplies and pockets them.     "Ah, thank you, Kukuru. And yes. If we could... talk them out of this, or recruit them, it really would be ideal. A-And, please, don't trouble yourself with... I do my laundry almost every day, you know, it's important to keep everything tidy."     WHITE will get to shorten the trip more than Audrey could, thanks to enhanced eyesight, which is great. She even talks to Audrey! Which of course has her beaming with a nod. "Perhaps less in myself than in my company. I trust pretty much everyone here to be able to handle themselves, so if those people can't be reasoned with, I feel I already know the outcome. ... ah. But do try not to damage the area too much. We don't know how fragile all those relics they stole might be."     SARRACENIA hands Audrey a large mushroom. She eyes it suspiciously, though ends up taken a bit aback by the question. "Occupational hazards, yes," she finally settles on. She pockets the mushroom, unclear on its nature, but also knowing better than to discard what might actually be useful. "T-Thank you. What does it do?" Meaning, the mushroom, obviously.     PETRA earns a flat stare from Audrey when she calls her 'skater girl', though she ultimately can't find a counterargument to what she has to say. "W-Well, of course, we should... explore every possible venue, and... be careful, and... I suppose... return some of the museum's stock, yes." She had no interest in anything but the Pole Star, so it wasn't particularly important to her if they walked away with a bag of magic items or not. She does find some strength to object, though. "Finals, not some regular old test. Most of them are papers to hand in but not this one." Not just some test!! Very important distinction.     ANGELA earns a nod from Audrey. "They don't seem the type to talk, but it'd be silly not to at least try. And of course, Roland is right. With a personality as charming as his', anything is possible." She's not biting him with sarcasm, she mostly means it!
White	White shakes her head calmly when Sarracenia responds to her question with another. She has to brush her hair back out of her face and tuck it behind her ear afterward. Maybe it translates into 'That's not what I meant', since there isn't much else to assume. It's either that or she's claiming everyone here would be murked by some randos she's never met, so...      Petra's jacket gets a look-over too, along the way. It almost looks like White wants to ask something, but instead of that she ends up mumbling something about "Cubed Britain" when Petra observes on the town's gimmick. One of her minds is thinking about cubed hashbrowns now, but that's an inside-thought. More conversationally relevant is the topic of stealing from the museum, and while White doesn't feel strongly either way she nods along with Petra's impression. She wouldn't feel bad if she stole, say, a gizmo that extends someone's lifespan, or that specifically puts magical creatures into a little box, or perhaps a sphere. But those are the exceptions, honest! She's the least British person she knows!      Harriet's arachnid antics, meanwhile, remind White of something when she notices out of the (proverbial) corner of her eye. She reaches into her sleeve for a moment, and in the next Angela finds the Head Spider of the Library wearing a crinkly little plastic bag of red cinnamon gummy-bears as a hat. White did say she was going to send snacks over at some point, and while she said 'weird', maybe it's a little too early to be really subjecting Angela to the true torments that gimmicky food can offer.      To Roland, she mostly offers a small head-tilt, a panning glance around at present company, then a noncommital shrug. The warning not to go overboard sees her eyes narrowing for a moment, a small violet glyph forming over her palm which she then scrunches down from its usual CD-ish size to something maybe about as wide as a cookie before it fades. It's inconvenient, but she gets the idea. Given teleportation is on the table for the enemy side too, she'll just have to put some priority on not letting one of the more stabbable people in the group get ambushed when the fight breaks out. To Roland, then, she suggests, "If one of them vanishes..." then pauses, like she's waiting for him to fill in the blank. She's actually just slow to finish with, "Check your back."
Audrey Basque	Through WHITE's teleportation tricks, reaching the camp is a lot faster than if the group had walked. Like a LOT faster. Five minutes instead of a hour? That's a steal.     It's also very difficult to miss where you're going.     Scattered around the road near a few shacks that don't seem like they belong, and an obvious cave entrance behind them, are the remains of carts, cars, trucks and chariots, accumulated there over the course of the last couple of weeks. No bodies, plenty of signs of violence-- small craters, scorch marks, slashes into the earth. This is a very transparent ambush spot, and not one they're bothering to hide.     That's because they don't want to.     Gravity suddenly warps, threatening to crush everyone present. It's not just a BIT, either; it's a blast, coming from the center of the camp, suddenly multiplying gravity by ten.     Audrey is not quite fast enough and ends up grounded hard, whining something about 'oh that's how it feels' between yelps. There's a counter-flicker, pushing the field back and reducing the effect somewhat, but even as Audrey rises you'd still be subjected to twice the normal gravity. She's holding her hands up, like this isn't something she can just turn off and disable. Her hands are tied for now, metaphorically.     "I-I think that's the Pole Star! Dang, it's... I can't just force it off, that might damage it! Is everyone okay like this?"     It, of course, does not matter what you say.     A man with a large curved sword, styled suspiciously like a flintlock rifle, steps into view from the camp; he's wearing mostly brown and beige leathers, with some armored black wristguards and boots. He's got long, spiked up brown hair and a bit too much of a shit-eating grin on his face. GALE WAYFINDER taps his sword on his shoulders, like a taunt. "Damn, look what the wind brought us. Tsuyoshi, get over here before Amara does if you want a piece!"     Behind the group, opposite Gale, a crack of lightning blasts the ground open as another young man teleports in. Dressed in a mostly black and silver school uniform, worn as sloppily as Petra wears her uniforms, TSUYOSHI KONGO slicks his spiky dark red hair back a bit, before putting his hands in his pockets. "Cool. You lot strong, then?"
White	White doesn't have a *lot* of experience fighting under the Heavy status effect, admittedly, but 'not a lot' is still more than zero, and her body is tough enough to handle x2 gravity with very little fanfare. Ten times as much would've thrown her off a fair bit, even without hurting her, but fortunately there's no such issue. Audrey gets no verbal confirmation, just the sight of White pushing herself from half-way-to-knelt back to upright. She doesn't really have a natural fighting stance to take, so it doesn't look like she's doing anything at all initially when confronted by the anime-powered bandits. Her eyes glint as she meets the gaze of Gale, in front, and simultaneously uses the Evil Eye of Analysis and the Evil Eye of Heaviness; she wants an accurate idea of what to expect from the enemy, of course, and retaliating by amplifying the weight on their backs a few times over in return should help smooth out any agility-gap as long as she can keep a line of sight on him. The problem of course is that she can't keep the new arrivals all in the same visual cone at once... Her scythe falls out of her sleeve, the amplified weight making the sound of it striking the ground a little bit more dramatic while she takes up the haft. She has to be careful with how she swings that, too, or risk damaging the star by mistake with the Rot attribute... But she'd like to at least parry some of the attacks and conceal her regenerative abilities a little longer, until it's useful to reveal them.      For now, she's on defense. She can move more or less fine, and appear beside anyone who's completely immobilized to defend them in the moments before they can get upright, and she's hoping that her allies *can* actually do so quickly enough that she won't need to mother-hen around the group for long. If she buys time by hindering the rifle-sword guy and confusing him as a result, all the better for her.
Petra Soroka	"You must be working and training hard, I take it?"     Overlapping with Audrey's explanation, Petra butts in to say, "We've been going to the Shrine sometimes. Since the guests at the Library are getting more powerful, and stuff." Petra is, notable, as un-wounded as she's been in a while, though that still means she's got some scattered bruises and scars where her skin's visible. "If they left a crater like that I do have some concerned this may be beyond any of my Librarians."     "But *Roland* would be fine, of course. Since he's such an illustrious Grade 9." Petra smiles aside at Angela in the pad, happy both to have her company and to see that she's reading rather than solely focusing on the mission. She doesn't really need to, after all, so she deserves to relax! "I'll make sure to bring the pieces back for you to put him back together if he does die." "...It looks good on you, Eonni."     "Oh-- the jacket?" Petra takes a half step back from the camera, spreading her arms out a bit with her hands in the jacket pockets so that Angela can get a better look. "Yeah, I picked it up from the school last week, since I've been feeling weird without a big jacket. Glad it suits me." "Cubed Britain"     Like Lilian has been, Petra assigns more weight to the things White says than probably she should. 'Cubed Britain' is a koan that Petra meditates on for a few minutes, before developing something thoughtful to say about it.     "It's interesting, right? I've been kind of stuck on it, since I was talking about it earlier in the radio-- that idea of authorship as, uh, selection from a broad dictionary of both words and cultural features, and how that applies to things that you wouldn't typically think of as 'text' too. The museum itself is a kind of text too, isn't it? Who owns it, what things from the three different worlds they choose to put in it, what they write about them. How they organize the exhibits in a pamphelet too. The way that they trim down three entire worlds into a single museum says a lot about what they value in the end product." "T-Thank you. What does it do?"     "It's drugs. She found it on the floor of a jungle. It's like hard narcotics." Petra adds, when Sarracenia gives Audrey a mushroom. It's a *mushroom* that grows naturally in a jungle and heals wounds! That's some Schedule 1 type shit! "Finals, not some regular old test. Most of them are papers to hand in but not this one."     "*Surely* the star student and Concord representative of Nova Heliosanctus would be able to ask for a redo, if your very important mission ran late, though. I mean, what else are they going to do? Punish you for having a job on the side, that they wanted you to take?"     When they get to the camp, Petra is moderately well-practiced in suddenly having gravity increase by ten times around her. Gravity, and its manipulation and intensity, is something she's very familiar with both as an Elite and before, so it's almost without question that she widens her stance and slighly bends her knees to keep them from locking up with the sudden increase in weight. In a fluid motion, she flips the cap of her morphmetal and starts drawing it out, but it doesn't get any further than coiling around her arm and fingers before she remembers that she wanted to talk to them.
Petra Soroka	"Is everyone okay like this?"     "I'm alright," Petra asides, straightening up. 19.6m/s^2 is dragging, but easily manageable for Petra, and once Audrey's got it under control, Petra tries to make sure it isn't even affecting her at all. "Cool. You lot strong, then?"     Petra lifts up a hand in greeting, trying to appear unbothered by the display of trapping and encircling them. Internally, her psionic escape instinct is taut and quivering with tension, ready to fire in flighty response the moment they aggress on her, but emotionally she's fairly calm, given the situation.     "Hey! Pretty strong, I guess. Is that what you're looking for, or what you're afraid of? Considering how you didn't even bother to go that far from the city, my guess is either that you're baiting people to come after you to fight them, or you're interested in trading. Either way, you don't really want these artifacts for what they *are*, but what you can get from having them, right?"     "I'm Petra, by the way." She extends a hand, with fractal veins of morphmetal thinly spreading across it. She doesn't actually think this will work, but losing an hour from being able to teleport all the way here means she needs to do everything possible to slow the mission down now. It's like a game! "I heard your name earlier, so it's only fair."
Angela	''Since he's such an illustrious Grade 9'' Angela gives Roland a long look before adding, "That'd be appreciated." She asides to Petra. "Make sure he does not combust." She smiles when Petra shows off the jacket, Roland catching sight of it out of the corner of her eye but Angela obscures her smile once she realizes Roland's glancing at her. "It really does. Have you made any friends at the school?" ''It'd be silly not to at least try.'' Angela immediately thinks of several scenarios where trying to talk first would actually be quite silly but she pushes down the thought so it doesn't show on her face. "Well, perhaps optimism will win out. Who am I to protest?" It turns out Roland's wrong about Kukuru not immediately healing Audrey, now that he's taking a second look, but he's still vaguely anxious about it. He says, "Aha... Well... I'll put on my most winning smiles." Roland says with a smile that looks like a grimace spun upside down. *crinkle* Angela's head jerks up. She glances around the room to see what's different before she finally notices what's on Harriet's head. Truly, an impressive spyder. Angela collects the bag carefully and studies it thoughtfully before popping the bag open and offering one to Harriet first before taking one out of the bag and studying it. She then reaches into one of her desk drawers and pulls out a plate and a pair of utensils. She sets the gummy bear on the planet starts using a knife and fork to cut a small piece of the gummy bear off and then places that piece, with the fork, into her mouth. She then sits back and reflects on the taste. Roland doesn't have any extrasensory abilities but when the gravity starts to warp, he reacts immediately like someone who is never really too far from getting a fight dumped on them--even one with strange abilities getting involved. He jumps away from his current position--reaching out with a hand towards her but missing an opportunity to pull her out of the way. He hits the ground rough, rolling across the ground before pushing back up to his feet, still quick. "Audrey!" Roland says. "You're... Hah... the air feels dense--like I'm trying to swim through this." Lets see, it'd be ideal to get rid of this effect--but he hasn't fought shonen battlers before, he might be out of his depth! This doesn't stop him from Atelier Logic appearing into his hand, summoned from his suit through Audrey's enchantment, as he takes aim at GALE and just shoots at him. And then shoots at him a second time! "Strong? Nahh... I'm just a Grade Nine Fixer." Roland says. "Just a down on his luck merc in the wrong place at the wrong time. But we still really need that Pole Star, wouldja mind handing it over?" Then he notices that Petra hasn't opened fire or attacked or anything. "--Are we still trying chatting even after ''that''?" He shoots a third time though just in case.
Kukuru	"You seem confident." "She should be. She's got aaaall of us here to help, you know?" Kukuru return-murmurs, looking over at White with a soft smile. If it's weird, Kukuru certainly doesn't appear to think so! "...I...suppose if they do come peacefully and return the items..." Although Kukuru can hear the doubt in Sarracenia's tone, she doesn't let that discourage her one bit. "We'll have this all wrapped up before bedtime, anyway. It's just up to them how we do that, but we won't let it interrupt Audrey's test." "it'd be good to get tabs on them." "If we could... talk them out of this, or recruit them, it really would be ideal." "Lovely jacket... Ah. Yeeeah, someone doing this kind of damage in three different worlds is bound to get the wrong kind of attention sooner or later. It'd better if they got the right sort from us instead, but it's still their choice..." Kukuru admits with a light slump of her shoulders, then purses her lips as she looks straight up and forward at the sun again. "Or would that give us l.. Levers? No, not that. Leverage? To recruit them, maybe?" "We have a Kukuru and all." Angela says just the thing to get Kukuru giggling lightly and cupping her cheek. "Aw, Ange... Hehe. Don't worry, I'll make sure Roland gets home in time, too. If words don't work, we'll just have to go straight to plan B! I still have to finish cooking dinner for tonight, actually..." Kukuru's sweating a little once she remembers that. Did she remember to move the meat from the freezer? "I do my laundry almost every day, you know, it's important to keep everything tidy." For once, Kukuru's actually caught off guard by how tidy Audrey is. "EVERY day? Wow... How do you have enough time to do all your cooking and studying and school things? I usually do laundry every few days, and work and cooking takes up the rest..." Kukuru fails to mention how often she naps, too, but that just slips her mind entirely. No reason to think about breathing. She does, luckily, give Audrey plenty of space instead of getting all up in her face. She's learned! GRAVITY WELL Kukuru finds her legs scrunching up into themselves as the initial burst of force hits her dead on, and she lets out a strained gurgling noise while the rest of her body crumples under that pressure. Those nanites certainly help to get her body back into proper shape once the effects are reduced, at least, but she doesn't get up right away while she's busy spreading that healing effect to the rest of the Concord present. Inhaling lightly as she tilts her head up to see who the three... Two? Culprits are, Kukuru reaches up to tug a crick out of her neck while getting a better look at the pair that emerge to face the Concord. "Strong? Hmm... Yeeep, we're real strong alright." Kukuru calls out in her usual languid tone, groaning wearily as she gets back up with great strain from the doubled gravity. "We aaaare from the Concord! My name's Kukuru." She introduces herself, pausing as she often does. "That's Ku-ku-ru. And you have some stuff from that little museum way back over..." Which way was it again? She could teleport back and look, but instead Kukuru just gestures vaguely behind herself. "Either way, you don't really want these artifacts for what they *are*, but what you can get from having them, right?" Nodding towards Petra, Kukuru claps her hands together with her usual cheerful smile on her face again. "Right? It's pretty neat that you were able to snatch them up like that all on your own... But not everyone thinks like that, you know? That's whyyy... It's a good thing you ran into us first, then. The Concord's a good place for clever kids like you, and we're always looking for more people to join our family. What do you say?"
Sarracenia	'T-Thank you. What does it do?'      Sarra shakes her head in an amused way when Audrey pockets the mushroom instead of using it. Her amusement turns to surprise though when Audrey asks what it does. "Oh! It is a healing mushroom. It may sound odd, but think of it like mushroom cotton candy as far as eating it. It will dissolve almost instantly!"      'Occupational hazards, yes.'      'We've been going to the Shrine sometimes. Since the guests at the Library are getting more powerful, and stuff.'      Sarra lets out an annoyed mmph. "I see. I used to visit the shrine quite a lot. Then CERTAIN people decided it 'was not fun if there was no real danger'." She looks between Audrey and Petra. "...I thought the Shrine left no injuries?"      People suggest keeping the loot or negotiating, and Sarra crosses her arms with a hmph. "We are on a heroic mission to both assist Audrey and recover the stolen items. We cannot 'pocket' them at all! We must return them to the town! How else will contradictory Britain restore its tourist trade? Not to mention that they have attacked innocent people and are quite proud of it! They deserve only the barest of mercy."      Sarra is more inclined to think White means the second thing than the first with that headshake. "...you do not think we can handle them?" Sarra says, edging toward insulted but also aware that White has some crazy power.      White might be right though. When they reach the ambush area and that gravity power hits, Sarra is forced to the ground almost as quickly as Audrey. The princess does have some strength to her, but still ends up on a knee and struggling to keep from falling over. The princess's teeth clench and her one good eye locks on to Gale when he appears. She manages to turn her head enough to look behind her when Kongo appears.      The princess slowly gets back to her feet though, and with a touch to her metal lotus hairpin she gains silver arm-length gloves. She stands with a palm pointed toward each assailant. "We are quite strong. Though, that is an odd thing for thieves to ask. Are you looking for a fight and not merely a payday."      Despite the gravity, Sarra curtseys to the pair (albeit slowly to ensure she doesn't lose her balance). "I am Princess Sarracenia Sundew, Crown Princess of the Sundew Kingdom and Aspiring Heroine. And you have attacked a town and innocent people. Surrender peacefully and return the items and I am sure we can work something out. We could even have an honorable test of strength. Refuse...and you will find out how the people you have targeted so far felt."
Audrey Basque	WHITE peeks at Gale's stat sheet! This man is the most JRPG protagonist-rival coded person she may have ever seen. He's got high stats across the board, swordsmanship, the whole gamut of elemental magicks, something called "Flintblade Imbuying" and "Flintblade Release", high resistance to most status effects, and an ominous ability called "For Fate Doth Waver". The Heavy debuff does land, and he flinches just a bit, but his grin widens as a result. "Cheeky!" He swings his sword a few times, through air, gauging his new speed and adjusting his stance accordingly. "Good thing we use that thing to train or that might screw me over." The sword tip is lowered, as he flicks a colorful red bullet into the back of the sword and then returns it to his shoulder. "So you and me, girl, whatcha say?"     PETRA engages with Tsuyoshi, who immediately clicks his tongue in annoyance as he notices the whole party is women except the generic guy in a suit. "Ugh, come on, why do I gotta explain how this works? Yeah, yeah, it's a trap, yeah, we want a fight, nah, we don't really care about any of that junk, except the big ball thing. Amara really wanted THAT for some reason. Says it's better to train under high gravity. Makes it more interesting." He shifts his hand, pulling a hand out of his pocket and snapping his fingers. Three large rocks break off the ground behind him, floating up over him. "Happy, Pet? Can we go at it now?"     ROLAND doesn't waste any time and shoots at Gale! Three times! Gale, obligated to show off, pulls the big sword forward in a flash, the first two shots crashing into the blade, and then third sliced as he suddenly flicks the blade sideways and slashes. He whistles, hopping off his perch to approach. "Not bad! A merc down on his luck? LOVE IT! I can shoot too you know? RED IMBUEMENT - WAR GOD!"     Gale pulls the trigger on his ridiculous Flintblade, the red bullet he inserted earlier audibly crunched inside the mechanism and bleeding out an ominous red glow that coats him. He raises the blade, pointing it at Roland. "Catch!" A few shots fly out! They're just cool red energy shots. Non-elemental, but quite hot. High attack power, raw power sort of deal.     KUKURU makes Tsuyoshi roll his eyes, like he's trying SO HARD and losing SO MUCH by listening to these people. "Concord, Concord... why's it feel like I heard that name before?" He ponders. He looks over Petra and Kururu's shoulders, to see Gale picking a fight with Roland and possibly White already. "What, you really want to keep yapping while your friends're getting attacked like that? Cold. And Gale! Damn, we said we start fights at the same time to keep it fair. Lame."     SARRACENIA also elects for words, meaning she finds more purchase with Tsuyoshi than the already attacking Gale. "Innocent? You never seen a British Museum in your whole life, have you?" He asks, half-annoyed, but then giving a bit of a cocky grin. "None of that stuff was theirs anyway. But sure, sure, sure. Honorable. Come on then. Bring it. Nobody's gonna say the King of Tetsubara hit a bunch of women first, so take your best swing."
White	White wonders if clicking her tongue in that moment would make her look cool or cringey. She really doesn't care for fighting 'duels', let alone against people with protagonist energy. She was traumatized by a protagonist last year, okay? It was awful! But... A gun-sword user huh? Clearly trying to keep him from hitting the others with his shots would be harder than just playing along so he isn't aiming in that direction at all. She lashes her scythe out to full extension to swat through the path of the most-centered shot aimed in Roland's direction (she's not quite good enough to go intercepting all of them though), then tucks her hair behind her ear one more time before settling both hands on her weapon.      She doesn't declare agreement or warn the man before moving. She keeps her cards close to her chest at first, opting for a forward dash rather than teleportation. She doesn't have a lot of technical skill with her weapon, but the sheer speed she can move and adjust it at is enough to fool the uninitiated to think otherwise. She swipes shallowly, intentionally letting Gale retreat out of range at first, only for him to find a ridge of Earth Magic-manipulated stone protruding out of the ground behind his feet to stumble him. That's the first test of his awareness and agility, and the next one comes when her second slash sweeps in from the other side. She's reaching far in, seemingly planning to strike him with the haft instead of the blade, but a scythe is dangerous when you're inside its reach because of the placement of its edge. So, she expects him to leap, and if he does she's ready to fire off a three shot burst of Black Bullets to chase him into the air.      The secret, extra-layered ploy is that when the Black Bullets collide and burst, the dust kicked up would be a tempting visual shield for a plucky protagonist to try and use to counterattack. She, of course, can see through it, but she won't know if he'll actually fall into every trap in sequence until it's played out. All the while, she hopes, the others will pull themselves together and take advantage of one of the enemies being diverted, and if this drags on too long she figures at least *someone* is going to shoot this dingus in the back at some point. She wouldn't complain! Seriously! Any time!!
Petra Soroka	"--Are we still trying chatting even after ''that''?"     Petra shrugs. "Why not? It's not a muscle I work out very often, so I might as well." "EVERY day?"     What surprises Kukuru surprises Petra too, though for different reasons. She turns to Audrey with a disbelieving look on her face. "Wait, why *do* you do your own laundry? I don't see why you'd ever really need to in real life. Is that just something they force on you in the dorms?" "...I thought the Shrine left no injuries?"     "You've never messed with the options? There's tons of them. I mean, surface level scrapes and bruises after getting attacked at full force basically *is* 'no injuries', but you can customize it a lot if you ask. *Especially* with the Partner roons-- I had no idea those existed until recently, and I'm honestly, like, kind of interested in learning about the tech behind it all. They've got options for *two* hundred percent pain, not that I've tested it." "Says it's better to train under high gravity. Makes it more interesting."     Petra crosses her arms at Tsuyoshi, pouting. "That's bullshit, by the way. Except for muscular training, but you can do that just by wearing a weighted vest or whatever. Unless you're *really* skilled, getting used to high gravity isn't going to make you *faster* when you're in normal gravity, it's just going to make you less aware of the weight and momentum of your body. It's not like you're suddenly going on easy mode, like it's a fucking video game; the goal of training is repetitive movements that you can copy in practice, it's not to randomly overexert yourself."     Petra doesn't dignify 'Pet' with a direct answer, but she does click her tongue very loudly and tilt her chin up, looking completely unthreatened even after the rocks float up. "Typical. I guess I should've known better than to try talking to the stupid one of the group. You're just the mad dog that tags along with them hoping for a fight, aren't you? And you're using gravity magic, but you're *still* too stupid to call it anything but 'the big ball thing'? Embarrassing."     Now Petra's honestly just having fun. These people are like toys who she can throw around and shake between her teeth without any cost, and more importantly than fighting them, that means bullying them and seeing how far she can get in humiliating them before she really has to fight seriously. With her precognition so primed to fire, Tsuyoshi's first attack can't possibly hit her when he eventually throws one, and with the morphmetal in her palm, she draws out her own gunblade in response to it to block it on the edge, and squeezes the trigger to fire an explosive close-range blast that could shatter a rock. "What, you really want to keep yapping while your friends're getting attacked like that?"     "I can talk as long as I want. I mean, unlike you, I'm not going to run out of words I know how to pronounce. Hey!" She raises her voice to call out to Gale instead. "If you're interested in high intensity training, the Concord's actually got *way* better options than this old thing. Gravity manipulation's baby shit compared to, like, the speed of time, or specific handicaps or types of stronger enemies, or dangerous environments, and all of that."
Sarracenia	'Innocent? You never seen a British Museum in your whole life, have you? None of that stuff was theirs anyway. But sure, sure, sure. Honorable. Come on then. Bring it. Nobody's gonna say the King of Tetsubara hit a bunch of women first, so take your best swing.'      "My, how polite of you~" Sarra says, then hees. "Sadly, my best shots that did impress kings before are both out of the question right now. My apologies. But, perhaps my second best shot will do?"      Sarra reaches into her purse even as morphmetal flows around her hands. She pulls out the iron-bound staff that is the remains of her DK Hammer and the morphmetal once again forms into the missing hammerhead. With gravity still doubled she can't quite charge at Tsuyoshi. So, which she fast walks toward him she starts pulling out bob-ombs. Even in 2x gravity she can make them land where she wants, but the flight time is a little longer thanks to the arc she has to make.      The explosions might give her enough cover and distraction to cover the distance to the king. At which point the giant silver hammer breaks through the smoke from the explosions, aimed at him. "So, if the items do not belong to them are you claiming they belong to you? Items found in ruins or abandoned places are agreed upon by most everyone to belong to those who re-discovered them! And, if you do not mind me asking, where is Tetsubara?"      'You've never messed with the options? There's tons of them.'      Sarra looks a bit confused by this. "...options? It works just like I like it without options. I suppose I never had reason to look into any options other than battlefield locations."
Angela	Three gunshots from Roland! That's way tougher to avoid than one gunshot, but Gale manages it! Roland is accustomed to bullets being deflected away for mysterious reasons, but Roland flicks his rifle up and blows the smoke out of the tip of it as he stares across the barrel towards Gale. He's also quick on his feet, jumping away from the first couple energy blasts, but he is unusually a little slower for the third shot which slices across his shoulder. He hisses through the pain and glances at Kukuru for a moment. MEANWHILE, Angela slices another piece of gummy bear off and has a second bite. She mulls on it thoughtfully before finishing off the rest with a single fork chomp. "White." She says, despite her being in mid action sequence. "The taste of this..." She checks the packaging. "Cinnamon flavored gummed bear is delicious and less chewy than expected. Thank you for this treat." She sets down her fork and knife. "More filling than I expected." She adds. ''Why not? It's not a muscle I work out very often, so I might as well.'')] Roland seems confused like he doesn't quite get it but he's now getting shot at. He decides he'll do better moving in close even though he's sure he's a capable sword fighter as well. "We don't care about most of it, we just want the Pole Star. It'd make a friend real happy. Willing to negotiate but--" He dashes forward, closing the distance as he points the rifle at Gale with his rifle like he's going for a headshot, trying to bait a block from his sword only-- --the rifle is gone in an instant, replaced with a sword appearing in Roland's offhand which takes a swipe at Gale's side. He isn't going to fight fair and is all too happy to use cheap tricks. "Concord's got plenty more strong people than we've got here. You want to fight forever? You can fight people who'll make you need to train under, I dunno, ten times this gravity you're using right now just to avoid kneeling in their presence. Would be happy to say more as part of the trade."
Kukuru	Unfortunately, it doesn't look like the attempts at recruiting the... Wait, weren't there supposed to be three of these people? They did mention a third name, though, so Kukuru can't discount the possibility that the missing one will show up sooner or later. Oh, right. The recruitment. Kukuru sighs lightly as it sounds like Gale's more interested in fighting than negotiation, and Tsuyoshi sounds as though he might be on the same page, too. Still, if he's unfamiliar with the Concord... "Oh, I've got juuust the thing for that. He-" "What, you really want to keep yapping while your friends're getting attacked like that? Cold." "-eeere? Oh, they'll be okaaay. They're so much stronger than they look, you know?" Kukuru boasts, smiling proudly and still cupping her cheek as she looks over towards where Gale's fighting with Roland and White. "... Well, I've only seen them fight a few times, buuut~ White's super conscien... Consin... She's very attentive to her friends, and he's the toughest grade 9 fixer I know." She adds with the utmost confidence. Roland might also be the only grade 9 fixer Kukuru knows, but that's beside the point. "Besides, if anyone in my family does get hurt bad, I can fix them riiiight up later." Kukuru adds while turning back to Tsuyoshi, holding a hand up and giving him a brief display of glowing green nanites flowing out of it. She waves a hand unnecessarily towards Roland before sending them off his way to give him a healthy dose of healing tech-glow! There's actually a faint glow to all of Kukuru at the moment, too, as she's still keeping the healing going to counteract that initial burst of gravity from before. "... Ah. We can't play around that long, though. You three don't have someone that can fix you up, right?" Kukuru pauses, like she's expecting that Amara to show up any second now, then turns back to Tsuyoshi. "And Audrey still needs to get to bed early for her test tomorrow, and I need to finish preparing stuff for dinner. So..." Kukuru takes out some recruitment pamphlets and holds them up, waving them lightly towards Tsuyoshi and seemingly/actually keeping her guard down the entire time like a conventionally harmless healer would. "Won't you three come back with us? Then you could all fight together as muuuch as you'd like instead of us having to rush through this."
Audrey Basque	WHITE would, in fact, look so much cooler to Gale if she had clicked her tongue just then. But with a big scythe, she's already got his attention, even if Roland shot first. There's no obstacle to blocking his shots; if her scythe can withstand them, they're just strong energy blasts! And then she comes charging, meeting the young man head-on. When she swipes, though-- she miscalculated slightly. He rushes in, not out, intentionally putting himself into the disadvantageous position and letting the scythe gash his chest, whether she intended for that or not. She follows through with a haft strike, and he locks his blade against her scythe, staying fully within its range and trying to make White commit to a contest of weapons.     FOR FATE DOTH WAVER- Gale's stats begin increasing abnormally. A reversal of fortune, favoring the fighter in the worst tactical position.     "Come on, you think I won't fight you head on? Only a loser pulls back! If I can't crash through, then I'm not trying hard enough!" He pushes against White's scythe, trying to pull an X-slash off with overflowing red energy!     AUDREY responds to matters of LAUNDRY while she struggles to stay out of the fight and also keeps struggling against the gravity. "I-Is this really the time f-for-- aaah! I just like everything being clean! IT'S NOT THAT ODD!!" It's a bit odd, but it's true, Petra's definitely had more than enough chances to notice Audrey is very, very tidy.     She also squints nervously when Petra starts talking about Shrine options to increase pain. She was measurably happier before learning about this.     PETRA continues engaging Tsuyoshi, who, under the incredibly strain of NOT BEING ATTACKED, just continues standing there with rocks floating ominously over him. "Gravity magic? Girlie, this is all me. Anyway that's stupid, we've been using it to train and it's great. You know I could probably just twist your head off with a thought. It's Force." It's transparent she's getting under his skin. He was, however, NOT going to attack... until SARRACENIA did, and gave him the excuse.     He throws the rocks-- it really is raw force, not gravity. It also barely matters, because Petra blocks and breaks one of the rocks, and Sarracenia's on him, after some explosions, too fast. The hammer smacks him hard, causing him to turn into a bolt of lightning and blast off, reappearing standing a safe dozen meters away and wiping blood off his face.     "Tetsubara's my school," he says, and then claps his hands together. "And I didn't get to the top for nothing!"     The ground under both PETRA and SARRACENIA rises, a huge chunk of rock shooting up with them, suddenly splitting open so they fall through, and then crunching itself back together with raw force.     Both ROLAND and Petra have Gale's attention, talking about fights and the Shrine and how cool it all sounds. Roland even makes a point to join the melee, which Gale responds to by continuing to push into White with ever-increasing stats to maneuver her such that all three of their weapons clang into a weaponlock, at the cost of Roland nicking Gale's arm with the blade a bit first.     "Daaaamn, really? Tell me more, sweethearts! Can I just go there and fight, all day? Anybody gonna yell at me if I do that?"     Since KUKURU hasn't engaged Tsuyoshi yet, he turns to look at her, from his new perch. "You make it sound too easy. It's GOT to be a trap. You're offering up some place with like, arenas, and HEALING? For some stupid trash we stole?" Well it IS tempting to check it out... "Prove it. Show me."
Audrey Basque	"WHAT ARE YOU FUCKERS DOING?!"     It's a third voice, you see, and it's blasting from the camp. AMARA blasts skyward from the camp. She's a woman in blue and white, gratuitously Saiyan armor, complete with a tail wrapped around her waist like a belt. Her hair's pitch black and as spiky as her two compatriots, though her build is a lot more pronounced.     "PICKING A FIGHT WITHOUT ME? AGAIN?!?"     Oh she's charging up an energy attack from above the camp.     Gale and Tsuyoshi, from their respective fights, shoot each other a glare like they know they fucked up but it's too late to fix it. Both of them break off their engagements once their own strikes resolve, leaving the group to deal with Amara (unless they desperately want to pursue them). They're not going FAR, just, out of the blast radius.     For Gale, especially, it's a bit awkward to just duck out of the triple weaponlock, so it might leave White and Roland a bit off balance, but able to nick him with on his way out if they want to.
Petra Soroka	"I suppose I never had reason to look into any options other than battlefield locations."     "Boring," Petra declares, at Sarracenia's unwillingness to get into the fucked up Shrine contraption that can double the amount of pain she experiences. "There's *so* many buttons to fuck with. You know, there were a lot of people who put a lot of work into designing all of that. It's *rude* to not even check. You're literally the demographic it's for! And the tech is really cool!" "Anyway that's stupid, we've been using it to train and it's great."     "Oh, yeah, I bet you have a *real* easy time with all your hardcore training, picking off bottom of the barrel mercenaries hired by a fucking nonprofit museum. Do you know how embarrassing that is? Claiming you've got this cool magic training area set up, when you're really just playing around with some trailer trash garbage you jury-rigged out of stuff you don't understand, so you can kick around the work-for-volunteer type loser heroes who didn't have anything better to do besides charity. Does that make you feel strong, big guy?"     Petra is intensely annoyed at being called 'girlie', but it's the kind of annoyance that enriches her, when it's paired with combat. The shattered fragments of the rock she explodes in front of her face pelt her hard enough to draw blood in several locations, and she wipes a smear of it across her cheek with the back of her hand and scowls at Tsuyoshi. She levels her gunblade at him, about to keep Posting more, when she's launched up into the air and drops down through the crevice in the rock pillar below her. Instinctively, she slows her fall by digging the blade of her weapon into one side of the wall, and bracing her boots against the other, but when she feels the entire structure start to shift, she has to take much more immediate measures than clambering back out of the top.     Dropping down the chasm with Petra, Sarracenia can feel a momentary ripple of psychic energy, like a bubble popping and the space it inhabited being rapidly flooded with something else. A second later, when the rock walls shudder and crunch inwards around them, they collide with pearlescent barriers of translucent light and throw out magical sparks, right before the force of the compression is reversed and turned against the walls, exploding them outwards away from Petra and Sarracenia. Audrey's borrowed magic flickers a few times more, sending collapsing shrapnel of rock riccocheting away from Petra instead of falling on her head, as she pushes her way out of the rubble to go post at Tsuyoshi and Gale more. "Tell me more, sweethearts!"     "Actually, I've changed my mind. I don't want these guys anymore."     This is both a sincere reaction to them both being snotty misogynists and her realization that she wouldn't be able to murder them if they were Partners, and also a sales tactic. Now that they're interested, even Tsuyoshi would get annoyed and completely flip his tune once he's *not* allowed into the cool club with the magical fight dome where you can train as much as you want.     "The Shrine's got a lot of options, but something it's missing is a way to turn down how *annoyed* I get from losers like these talking to me. So I'd hate to accidentally bump into them when I'm doing *real* training in there; my time's worth more than that."
Kukuru	"I just like everything being clean! IT'S NOT THAT ODD!!" "No, that's normal... Hmm. But you could probably put it off for a week or two if it's just your clothes. Even mine can get through threeee days?" Kukuru taps her chin lightly, nodding after she gets through the mental math faster than she often does. "And that's with whoever else's I throw in... Then I'm not using so much water or detergent, you knooow?" Paid as well as she is by the Concord, Kukuru was still raised the way she was. "Anyway that's stupid, we've been using it to train and it's great." "Gravity? Oh, that's clever... Audreeeey. We should try that some time." Now Kukuru's sounding a little fired up, complete with excited pumping of her fists at her sides like she's just heard of a great new exercise routine on Facebook or something. "We could get more fit and stronger, and it'd even be a nice little bonding exerciiiise if we don't have to move too much~" "You're offering up some place with like, arenas, and HEALING? For some stupid trash we stole?" "Mhm, mhm! The Concord has recruiting... Uuum. Procedures, but getting sponsored by someone makes it waaay easier, you know? And if you've been able to do this much without us, just imagine how much better you could become with us while we're making things better for everyone." Kukuru replies to Tsuyoshi with that ever-serene smile of someone who truly believes everything she's saying. When Tsuyoshi asks for a demonstration, Kukuru holds a hand to the side as an evil-coded cloud appears besides her, and she's waves at him briefly before she hears an unfamiliar voicce shouting from above. Looking up at the Saiyan armored woman, Kukuru squints a bit and holds her hand below her eyes so she can see Amara up there a little better. Oh. That does look dangerous. Breathing in lightly, Kukuru readjusts the exit point of her teleportation cloud. Rather than opening a path to the Shrine of Two Hundred Percent Pain, Kukuru instead opens it up about a foot above the energy-charging Saiyan. She steps through it to fall towards Amara from right in front of her, one hand clenched in a tight fist. "Amara, riiight? Let's settle this fast and then we can start the tour and Audrey can get home before bedtime!" Kukuru calls out in a direct challenge right to the Saiyan's face. Although she can't fly like the Saiyan does, she's still coming forward from just high enough that she can take one big swing at Amara before falling, demonstrating all the subtlety of someone trying to punch another person really hard while bracing to get punched herself.
White	White seems to smile just a little bit despite being unable to hear Angela herself; Harriet is conveying the food review to her, you see. The spider does have a tiny mouth to indulge with when Angela shares her treat, but it's the positive reception that seems to make her do a little bounce and twirl on the desktop.      However, her expectations being denied takes the tiny smile away again as she focuses in. While she might have mis-predicted, Gale has miscalculated a little too; taking a gash from her blade willingly causes the Rot attribute to start to gnaw at the wound. It's minor given both the size of the wound and the fact she was restraining that particular effect, but she's admitted before that she can't fully stop her scythe from trying to dismantle whatever she swings it at. Given his status-effect resistances though, it'll probably smolder off before reaching anything critical, but the *emotional experience* of feeling your skin decay is probably pretty awful.      With the Evil Eye of Analysis still fixed on Gale, she notices immediately when that special ability of his activates, too. Discerning its effects, she wants to throw a fit. She knew it! He's a protagonist freak with a protagonist power gimmick! Gaaaah!! Of course, other than a jaw-clenched frown she doesn't have the means to act on such a tantrum yet. Pressing back with her scythe and fixing her footing with webs sprouting from her boots to compensate for the ground crunching up under the pressure he's putting against her, White runs the analyzed description of his ability through her head a couple of times.      She then seemingly shoulder-checks Roland, shoving both of them sideways out of the immediate path of the X-slash energy waves and- Wait, he's running? Oh, that one in the air is *that* bad, huh? Well, if she's just... Hovering there... Charging up her attack, then..?      Oh, no, Kukuru's had a similar thought. Well... While she has a moment, and while keeping her attention on Gale with her all-directional sight so he doesn't pull a heel move and shoot Roland or something, White lays her scythe over her shoulder and taps her boot on the ground. Terrain Spear is cast, rapidly raising a flat-ended column of stone underneath Kukuru's falling arc, giving her somewhere to plant her feet for a followup swing or the like. She alters her Evil Eye too, ascertaining as best she can what to expect from the attack being charged, and then switching Analysis to Jinx and beginning to siphon energy off to slow down the attack's preparation.      What kind of Protagonist Killer would she be if she didn't have some kind of countermeasures for a big dramatic charged up finishing attack, after all? In any case, if the beam looks like it's still going off after Kukuru puts a dent in their noggin and their energy is drained off by her Evil Eye, she'll relocate anyone she can out from beneath the attack in a hurry.
Angela	Roland is probably the toughest grade 9 Fixer, all told, though there's only like one Elite Grade 9 right now and he has boosted his toolset thanks to Audrey, lately, to say nothing of the Punishing Bird EGO Weapon he has hidden away in there too, but even though he intuitively immediately knows how to use that weapon, it doesn't feel quite right in his hand relative to the old faithfuls. He nearly instinctively jumps AWAY from the healing but remembers it's Kukuru at the last moment. The wound in his shoulder fades away and he flashes Kukuru a brief grin before turning his attention back to Gale. Roland is increasingly aiming for less murderous strikes as he is getting a kind of vibe from Gale. ''Can I just go there and fight, all day?'' "Potentially." Roland says. "But I don't know if your body can really take that. How fast do you actually heal?" Roland quips back. "But I don't think anybody'd yell at you for doing what you love." It doesn't really seem like that kind of place. From what he recalls from Zero Kiryu, it seems like butting heads is normal so long as they don't get all murdery and these guys don't seem like ... they're especially determined to MURDER so much as get into fights. That's why Roland's going less for killshots now and fighting more ... Well it's not really CASUALLY but his demeanor is decidedly more relaxed than it was in the opening moments of the fight. ''WHAT ARE YOU FUCKERS DOING?!'' Roland looks up at the giant energy ball in the air. Roland doesn't try to knick Gale with a weapon, but he does stick his leg out in an attempt to trip him instead before running off himself. "Petra!! What about that Amara lady?! Maybe she's got what it takes!" Roland shouts over to her as he tries to avoid ending the fate of all assassins and mercenaries in Dragonball. "She seems annoyed for legitimate reasons!" Seems like he's intent on teaming up with her style of sales pitch too. Angela is startled by Harriet's little bounce and twirl and she immediately hugs the spider, looks towards her screen, sees that Roland is too busy to look at her and then quietly turns her camera away. You'd still be able to hear Angela cooing over the Spyder if it wasn't for all the shonen happening where you are. Roland being helpfully shoulder tackled to make him even less likely to notice the spider gushing. Not expecting this from White, he rolls across the ground roughly and is STAGGERED on the floor. All resistances change to fatal for a moment! Angela dances with the forearms of Harriet happily where nobody can see her.
Sarracenia	'Tetsubara's my school, And I didn't get to the top for nothing!'      Sarra hmphs in that haughty way only a snobby royal can, nose slightly upturned and a small frown on her face. "You did if what you consider the best use of your time is this dishonorable, pathetic display. A 'king' of anything, much less a king of a martial arts school should have much more honor and nobility to him. But, what are you doing?" Sarra shakes her head and laughs snidely. "You are blowing up museums and ambushing those that come to reclaim the stolen items! Perhaps you did not want training at all and instead wanted to bully those weaker than you? Despicable."      Sarra is scowling, at least until a large section of the ground just...floats upward with her and Petra atop it. "W-what the...?" It splits, and Sarra falls. She pulls out a metal cap ready to try and mitigate the damage...only to watch wide-eyed as Petra counters and demolishes the rock walls.      'Actually, I've changed my mind. I don't want these guys anymore.'      Sarra's amazement gives way to annoyance at being protected by Petra. Still, she nods at what Petra is saying. "I am surprised any of you wanted them in the first place. They were obviously low-class ruffians from the beginning. Having them intruding on such a prestigious training ground would be downright insulting to those that built the place."      Sarra pulls out a Bullet Bill. The power-up version. "I think this 'king' needs to be dethroned." She squeezes the power-up...and is engulfed in an explosion. From that explosion a car-sized Bullet Bill rockets out toward Tsuyoshi. It tracks him almost like someone is steering it, and when it catches him it explodes again. The blast and shrapnel engulf him...and Sarra comes spiraling out of the explosion aiming her hammer at him once again.      It is only after that that Sarra really takes note of the Saiyan. She remembers saiyans. Very destructive. And tauntable. "You are complaining about being left out of the fight and then just floating up there charging something? Ha! Come down here and fight if it is a fight you want!"
Audrey Basque	"HUH?!"     KUKURU is on Amara before she knows what's going on. Her stance disrupted by suddenly being punched, means that she stops gathering up energy; and what energy she did manage to gather, WHITE has begun draining, while being able to analyse that she is, also, superhuman across the board, and has skills like 'punch good' 'punch gooder' 'shoot ki blasts' and something about a giant monkey transformation? That one's not coming into play at least, it seems to have a requirement of 'full moon' and what are the odds?     With the raised platform and all, it's quite trivial for Kukuru to give Amara the time of day. She slams down, hard, and this is when Kukuru might notice the Saiyan is already covered in injuries, sores, bruises, and looks severely exhausted. She MIGHT have been training, nonstop, under the increased gravity. Like a sane, normal person.     And so Kukuru... knocks her out cold.     Thanks to White, there's not even a danger of her releasing all that stored energy or anything like that!! But this also means she can't really reply to anyone. This dork exhausted herself near-dead and gave herself no recovery.     Gale trips and tumbles, his escape cut off by ROLAND.     While Tsuyoshi is continuing to have to contend with the deadly point of Petra's posting, from the safety of her copied Audrey magic. He rumbles at Sarracenia, but he's also very visibly disarmed by the fact Gale got tripped up and Amara got totalled in a second flat.     "Now you listen here, I'm HONORABLE. I didn't hit any of you until you tried hitting me. Capiche? The King has a reputation to uphold, and he doesn't hit below the belt."     He huffs, a bit grumpily, a bit angrily, a bit annoyed.     "Ugh, whatever. Gale, get your sorry ass over here. Let's talk," Tsuyoshi demands, and Gale complies with what approximates to a grunt so half-hearted it's almost a whine. His rival coolness has been totally disarmed by being TRIPPED, and he's starting to shrivel visibly (metaphorically).     Tsuyoshi rebukes Petra, so he can get that off his mind. "So first of all, you're rude, I don't like you, and some of those mercs were like... almost decent. Almost." He then sighs, putting his hands in his pockets. "But. Not as decent as this Shrine place. So, how about, you take all this trash you came for, you give us the address, and we're going to pretend this never happened. Cool? Kind of a win-win. We didn't even kill anyone."     The dorks did, in fact, not kill anyone.     Might have broken some bones for sure though.
Audrey Basque	Audrey, meanwhile, still holding the gravity field back and now under the increased stress of BEING LAUNDRYSHAMED, finding out there's extra pain settings in the Shrine, and increasingly concerned about everything there is left to do to sort this out, including getting the Pole Star to Hydrochoeria, meekly stammers: "U-Um, could you start by turning the thing off? M-Maybe...?"     Tsuyoshi laughs. "Amara was the one who knew how it worked, and only because she spent hours getting crushed by it until she figured the controls out. I got no clue how it works. She had it set to trap mode while she napped, you tripped it. Have at it though."     Audrey gives her best "Okaaaaaaay..." while she wobbles and makes her way towards the camp.
White	White looks upon the sight of a promptly-handled potential threat, and exhales with a hand on her chest in tangible relief. She's *really* not accustomed to things resolving that quickly! Once she's sure the saiyan isn't getting back up to be a nuisance, White walks over to offer Roland a hand up. Throwing someone on the floor isn't very nice when they're helping you, even if it might have been justified! So, she gives him a little silk cloth to wipe his face with after he's upright, and then concludes by forcing a little high-five on his weapon-gripping fist and mumbling the most dead-spirited encouraging "Nice fight." imaginable. She's... Trying. She's not going to go out of her way to point out that Roland was giving Gale a stat boost, at least.      Then, she starts to drop the Terrain Spear back into the ground so Kukuru doesn't have to teleport back down, if she hasn't done that already. Kukuru, too, gets a little high-five, but it might be delivered to her shoulder if neither of her hands are up. This must just be something White is trying on for fit right now. While she's at it, and once the situation seems safe to walk away from, she stuffs her scythe back down her sleeve and trot-steps over alongside Audrey to help the wobblier woman manage to trudge through the gravitic field, with a bit of support from her shoulder. And hey, if her Evil Eye can sus out how to operate the star and save Audrey some misery, that's something to brag about later! Well, if she were the type to brag. Maybe it's more like 'hoping for praise about'.
Kukuru	Thanks to White, Kukuru doesn't have to worry about plummeting and turning herself into a pancake after delivering that punch! She even gets proper footing to do it, although she still manages to wobble and nearly fall off that platform before righting herself atop it. A quick process of elimination and remembering who's done what in previous missions makes it easy for her to conclude that White's behind this convenient platform, but she can't thank the helpful user of the Evil Eye just yet. First,s he needs to take care of Amara! Who's... actually in far worse condition than Kukuru expected, and she moves relatively quickly to pull her closer so she doesn't land on her head or something. That'd be dangerous no matter how strong she is! She could almost become worse. "There there... I've got you, dear. Let's get you and the others all fixed up, okaaay?" Kukuru murmurs softly even though she's not sure Amara can hear her, but that's okay. Looking off that raised platform towards white with a beaming smile, Kukuru waves lightly towards her before jolting a bit when the Terrain Spear starts moving back down. She giggles softly at the pleasant surprise, then picks Amara up in a traditional princess carry back to the others once she's back on normal ground. With a little body juggling (mostly putting Amara over her shoulder for a second), White absolutely gets that high-five along with a gleaming-eyed smile from Kukuru. It's progress! It's camaraderie! "Nice work, White~ That extra foothold really does a lot for punching good. And I've even got the poor girl with me here." Kukuru re-carriers Amara properly, then looks over at Tsuyoshi when he reveals that she's also the only person that knows how to turn the Pole Star off. "Is she? Oh dear... Then how do we turn it off? I don't suppoooose... Any of you would have a way to wake her up sooner, would you?" Kukuru looks over at Audrey, then back down at Amara in her arms, then sighs lightly while following after her. If nothing else, she might at last be able to speed up her awakening with proper use of healing nanites to the head, or a subconscious bribe with the scents of home cooked meals in a storebought container. Everyone else here will get treated, too, and a bit more quickly than usual since Kukuru hasn't forgotten about Audrey's test. She has, however, forgotten about defrosting her meat.
Sarracenia	'Now you listen here, I'm HONORABLE. I didn't hit any of you until you tried hitting me. Capiche? The King has a reputation to uphold, and he doesn't hit below the belt.'      Sarra, back on the ground by now, just hmphs again. "There is much more to honor than not striking first. If you had wanted to be truly honorable you simply could have issued challenges. The Multiverse is full of people who would have answered such a call. I for instance would likely have answered. Luring people into a fight under false pretenses is dishonorable as well. Not to mention, all of those people who were hurt trying to bring you to justice could have become valuable allies and training partners. Now, you will have to do the honorable thing and make it up to them. Perhaps help build a new museum."      Sarra sighs after that. "However...I do commend you on not killing anyone." she says, then offers a light smile. "There may be an honorable hero hiding in there somewhere, King of Tetsubara."      The Saiyan being taken care of so quickly and decisively without Sarra even getting to fight them is a bit upsetting. But, seeing the condition that Amara is in makes it clear that wasn't really in the cards. Sarra goes to join the others.      'I don't suppoooose... Any of you would have a way to wake her up sooner, would you?'      Sarra ponders a moment. "I heard a rumor about Saiyans a few years ago when some were wandering the Multiverse. Supposedly...if they have a tail, that is a good way to get their attention." If Amara does indeed have a monkey tail, and if Kukuru's healing doesn't do the trick...then Sarra gives it a firm squeeze.
Petra Soroka	Petra, frankly, feels no stake in any of these people at the moment, so the fact that Roland and Sarracenia join up behind her in antagonizing them energizes her. It doesn't really matter that Roland's a little off-topic in terms of what Petra was aiming for, the scattered suppressive fire of bullying enriches her and accomplishes her goals, which mostly consist of being mean and drawing out the time this mission takes. Now that Amara is out of commission, Petra comfortably remains purely on the defensive, precognitively skipping out of the way of any attacks, flickering to lean on the hilt of her gunblade with the point buried in the ground. "Now you listen here, I'm HONORABLE. I didn't hit any of you until you tried hitting me."     "Don't worry, I'm not accusing you of anything when it comes to *us*, besides being a bit stupid. Still you have to admit that your little plan didn't really bait out the highest quality mercs the multiverse has to offer, did it? It'd be a lot more intense to have stolen an artifact by somewhere that was actually *defended* in the first place, 'cause then you know there's a certain caliber of person who'll be coming after you to get it back. You kicked down a sandcastle and sat around for the fucking Coast Guard to show up. It smells like... desperation? Immaturity? Either way, I'm a million years ahead of you." Funny Angela joke! "Cool? Kind of a win-win. We didn't even kill anyone."     Well... Petra has no complaints about that, actually. And Tsuyoshi didn't even lose his mind about getting mocked by a girl, unlike what Petra expected, which takes the wind out of her sails a little bit. He hardly got worked up at all, and that stone column attack was pretty cool, actually-- and the little playground stakes of it all, with the insistence that they didn't kill anyone, strikes a bit of a chord with her.     She sighs, and slings her gunblade over her back, with rippling cords of morphmetal coiling into a belt to keep it there. She puts a hand in her jacket pocket, mirroring the delinquent-esque pose, and pulls out a cigarette to take a post-battle drag on it.     "Well... yeah, no problem. You're not really being unreasonable at all. But honestly, it bothers me a little to see people trying to get stronger acting so... directionlessly? You're so desperate to be taken seriously that it makes you look stupid."     Petra takes out one of her frequently-necessary business cards, and flips it over to scribble the address and warpgate navigation to the Shrine. "So I can do you one better. You guys and I can have a fight in the Shrine, I get you through without a reservation and show you how it works, and you show me some of your tricks and I show you mine. Maybe I know a few endless robot armies you could punch until your arms give out. Who knows."     Petra sighs again. Curse Lilian for inflicting her with the burden of continual prosocial intentions even when she's being cruel; it's one of Lilian's greatest charm points and also one of her greatest burden. Then, so too must it be Petra's. "U-Um, could you start by turning the thing off? M-Maybe...?"     "Oh, Audrey--" Petra calls out to her while she's slinking away. "Remember to be careful moving it if you can't turn it off. Really, it's probably safer to figure out how to disable it entirely before moving it, and *especially* before teleporting it at all. Then after that we can swing by the museum to return the other artifacts too!"