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Audrey Basque	WHEN WE LAST LEFT OFF: OUTSIDE THE BUILDING, Kukuru has begun causing a mess. One thug has been shot, in critical condition on the ground; his would-be killer (not quite yet), the guard Kukuru bent the will of, is now frantically arguing with the other guards-- and the four more coming out-- about why it was absolutely necessary to shoot that man and save the reporter. His arguments are paper-thin, the kind you make up on the spot when you don't have a good reason but you have to win the argument.     The crowd has dispersed; the authorities... will not be responding. They know better. They're not equipped; they have guns, against people whose weapons fire lightning bolts, and you know those suits the guards are wearing are bulletproof, among other things.     The guards who have come out, GO FIGURE, seem a lot less inclined to believe the version of events they're being fed. Kukuru pushing with her interview isn't taken well either. Weapons trail on her; the guard she has bent to her will, agitated, standoffs with the other guards.     Lightning bolts go off in every direction. Kukuru's guard is knocked back, but he also nails one of the others. A few arcs even get uncomfortably close to Kukuru!     It's also noisy. Very noisy. Each gun a thunderclap. INSIDE THE AUCTION HOUSE, things were starting to heat up too. Maurice has produced an array of frostfire bolts, not launched at Petra yet, but clearly directed towards her in his little angry fit. Sarracenia and Petra's argument has made the crowd start to break out of the paintings' spell and question their surroundings; the guards are frantically calling for backup.     And then the repeated claps of thunder outside cause the guards to redouble their calls, and the crowd to rise from their seats.     The WOMAN IN GREEN and her entourage of three goons all whip out different weapons; the woman has an ornate black sword hilt in her hand, with a phantom greatsword projecting from it, while her three stooges have revolvers with ornate runes on them.     The MASKED MAN IN BLACK AND PURPLE rumbles, but refuses to get up. His entourage of ten (obviously mind controlled, possibly dead) goons in suits do get up, through, their eyes lighting up with (obviously evil) purple energy.     The VAMPIRIC MAN snarls, his claws extending.     Various lesser members of the crowd all gasp, rise, or produce weapons of their own; there's not a single mundane weapon to be seen here. Even the guards have their guns out now, and the man on the stage, who was conducting the auction, is trying to calm the crowd with the usual "we have everything under control" "please regain your seats and the auction will continue", to no avail. One spark is all that's missing to make this go off.     The hostility, besides Maurice focused on Petra, is more generalized; everyone's wary of each other, which raises a lot of question about the host and his ability to get these people (and surely others) to sit here every week and be civil despite extremely evident tensions and rivalries.
Audrey Basque	IN THE STORAGE AREA, both White and Audrey can plainly see that many of the guards are starting to rush out as they're called either outside or to the stage for assistance. Their own masks eventually transmit calls for all hands on deck, urgent situation both upfront and in the event hall. No one stops to question why the two of them aren't running out, because everyone's too focused on responding to the emergency. Which means, before long...     There's all but half a dozen guards left with White and Audrey, who are still minding their armored, magical crates, or at least preparing to secure the area before leaving. Audrey nods to White, making that the "go ahead!".     She extends her hands out towards three of the guards and then crunches them against the ground. Then the ceiling. Then the ground again. Then the ceiling one last time for good measure. They are unconscious!     If White takes the hint quickly, the other three will probably go down even faster. If she doesn't, they may have time to whip out their lightning guns!
Sarracenia	'I should ask, if you are the type of vile royalty to have that kind of demeaning interest in people that much younger than you, that you keep it to yourself while I'm around, or I'll pull every string I have to get you thrown out in disgrace.'      Sarra comes from a world where human trafficking is unheard of, much less the kind that Petra is implying. Being called a vile royal is bad enough, but when her brain puts together just what Petra is talking about in some part thanks to Petra covering Love's ears, the princess's face reaches a color of red that it may not have ever reached before. "WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU?! WHO WOULD EVEN DO SOMETHING LIKE THAT?!" Sarra screams in outrage at the top of her lungs. In a flash she has her Silver hammer in her hands. "YOU are the most VILE -DISGUSTING- creature that has ever existed!! To even THINK such a thing shows just how degenerate and depraved your mind is!! How does ANYONE think you are worth ANYTHING?!?!"      Sarra raises her hammer, forgetting all about the plan. She just really REALLY wants to smash Petra now. She hesitates a moment because Love is there. Someone worth protecting despite being a monster. She lets out a heated growl at Petra, her hammer raised above her head and trembling with rage barely being held back. "I will SPEAK TO YOU WHENVER I LIKE AND HOWEVER I LIKE TO!! YOU DESERVE NO CONSIDERATION AT ALL FROM ANYONE, MUCH LESS A PRINCESS!!"      Still shaking as she takes in the story of Qin Shi Huang, Sarra reaches into her purse...and tosses a few Bullet Bills into the air. As they fall she leaps upward and into an increasingly speedy spiral. The Bullet Bills are launched like artillery shells at point-blank range. Most end up fired in no particular direction to cause random chaos and destruction as Sarra tries to stick to some semblance of the plan. But at least one is aimed directly at Petra. "SCUUUUUUM!"
Kukuru	It's time to cause more chaos! Or, rather, it's time to reap the results of her chaos sowing, and Kukuru is not too fond of those lightning bolts being shot her way. Although she isn't eager to let her expensive equipment (rented) or her fancy trench coat (purchased) get damaged, she does need to commit to the bit and not let them know she's got powers yet. At most, she can help out the one guard she coerced into helping her against his knowing will. Even though she didn't think much of it before, seeing him flounder like that did tug at her heartstrings enough, and she's determined to keep him safe! Catching the helper when he gets blasted, she props him up for a moment before letting him down gently, pressing her palm against his lightning bolt wound to pump some ever-helpful healing nanites into his system. "Oh dear... Ah, you'll be okay. Thank you for the help, dear. I'll take care of the rest..." She whispers with one more gentle pat on the cheek, then yelps and jumps to her feet when those arcs get closer to where she is. Steeling herself for what may very well be a battle to come, Kukuru does a clumsy roll into the street to evade another lightning arc, then pushes off the ground with her hands and feet to spring over towards a manhole cover. "You shouldn't play with those... That could be really dangerous, you knooow?" She warns, sounding only mildly irritated while yanking a manhole cover out of the ground bare-handed. "Now put those down before you get hurt, or... Um. You'll get hurt." Nailed it. She frisbee-hurls that manhole cover at one of the guards with all of her usual overbearing strength behind it, and leaps forward only to promptly get blasted by several lightning arcs at once, going face down like a smoldering sack of bricks. It's painful as all hell, but she's got... A plan? Some inkling of a plan, but she needs to see if they take the bait first. All she needs to do is play dead, wait for them to get closer, and let the camera keep rolling.
White	White takes Audrey's cue with great relief; no more trying to blend in? Excellent. White senses Audrey's magic gathering and quickly aligns a trio of small violet glyphs beside her left arm, firing mini-sized Black Spears into the other three guards remaining. The normal-sized ones are more like anti-tank rounds, so these are a bit more reasonable to aim at relatively normal guards. With solid center-mass hits, they'll embed with enough force to throw the guards to the floor, and the decaying after-effects will seal the deal within moments. Everyone had made up their minds not to be gentle with these racketeurs beforehand, so it comes easily to her even alongside Audrey's less gruesome choice of method.      Before they're even fully dissolved, White is already stepping toward the vault door, casting her magic eyes around for any sign of remaining special security that might be worth minding, and if the coast is clear she peers through the door into the vault with one eye. The other keeps its focus on the map of the contents that Audrey gave her before, prioritizing teleporting the Star out and onto the ground at Audrey's feet. She takes care to move it along with its container, transferring that chunk of space rather than just the necklace-that-crushes-you on its own. "Check it." she says quietly, then eventually asks to reconfirm, "Where am... I sending... Everything?" The plan nominally included stealing everything else and sending it to Audrey's tower, but it seems she's asking for a particular room. Or, whether the doorstep is fine, maybe?
Audrey Basque	OUTSIDE:     Kukuru takes a moment to heal the guard under her control, which he's as thankful for as the mask allows him to show. (It doesn't very much! He says thank you, but his voice is distorted by the voice changer.)     Since Kukuru urges him to leave it to her, he doesn't contest the decision. And since she's throwing a manhole cover, she's making it obvious she can handle it. That cover slams into one of the guards; his suit dampens the blow, but Kukuru's freakishly strong. Those suits aren't rated for her!     With the wind knocked out of him, that's one less for now; six remain... and four more pour out of the building.     They're starting to organize. Eight of them form a front, and unleash lightning bolts on Kukuru with surprisingly good accuracy, while two remain behind; of those two, one pulls a flashbang out, hurling it over the other guards to try and blind and disorient Kukuru (their masks seem to protect them from this). The other pulls out an arcane crystal, which starts forming a barrier around the lot of them. INSIDE, STORAGE:     White's Black Spears make short work of the guards, and reveal their suits are pretty well made. There's a bit of antimagic in there, it's weaved with weird metal threading-- nothing that'd threaten White, if it's just a few guards, but imagining dozens of people coordinated and wearing these... it probably helps explain how this place operates.     But that wasn't dozens, anymore.     Audrey shuffles over with White towards the Vault, and the moment White brings the Star's container out...     "I, um."     Was it supposed to be in a box...?     "I... cannot open that."     It's all tough, incredibly armored crates, with who knows how many layers of enchantments and weird crystal mechanisms meant to act as... locks? It's locks, right? Audrey frowns under the mask, deciding...     "Let's just... put everything in the room-- remember my observatory? The floor under that. It's empty, so..."     Audrey demonstrates by twisting her hand towards one of the random unopened boxes and causing it to refract and disappear, reappearing in the room she mentioned. White can use that as tracking, probably!     "... I've been improving. You helped a lot. I can target the tower from anywhere now." Mostly just the tower. The Library too.     "Let's just get everything. Petra wants this to look like fraud, so no damage. We'll open them later."     White can at least confirm none of the enchantments on the crates are tracking spells. Go figure that they wouldn't want magical GPS on their shady merchandise. Audrey doesn't know where she'll find a magical locksmith, yet, but that's a problem for Future Audrey.
Petra Soroka	"I will SPEAK TO YOU WHENVER I LIKE AND HOWEVER I LIKE TO!! YOU DESERVE NO CONSIDERATION AT ALL FROM ANYONE, MUCH LESS A PRINCESS!!"     Petra can't help but wince a little bit at Sarracenia's stream of shrieks at her. Like, sure, the princess was a freak about the age of consent, and sure she's very fixated on dating younger people than her, and sure calling Petra 'little one' while looking like she's one beer away from pulling her trenchcoat open is incredibly bad vibes, and sure, Petra is always justified in any insult towards Sarracenia due to being her ontological ideological opposition against whom there is no harm too great, but still. Calling someone a pedophile is a *little* much. It stings Petra's wretched little liberal heart.     But also, she hates her, and it's important to keep up the bit for the plan. Petra languidly stands up from her chair while Sarracenia shouts at her, carefully readjusting the fabric of her mantle over her arm and extending a hand down to Love. While the Bullet Bill slowly rockets up to speed towards her, Petra acts like she doesn't have a care in the world to talk with Love.     "I've got somewhere else to be, so can I trust you to take care of this, Love? Feel free to," Facing away from the crowd, only Love is able to see the goofy conspiratorial little smirk on Petra's face. "Blast away the enemies of Dark Nihil and leave their petty kingdoms in ruin if they threaten you. And stay safe and remember you've got Kukuru's phone number if you get lost. My loyal evil minion."     Then, in front of the Bullet Bill aimed towards Petra, a glassy compression of space shimmers into existence. When the Bullet Bill collides with it, it fractures in a million pearlescent cracks, and the entire missile suddenly reverses velocity and starts speeding back towards Sarracenia. More magical reflective planes glimmer around Petra in response to any attacks from Maurice, or even just passive chaos now that the brawl's truly started, and she makes her way between chairs and stairs away from the auction floor. "You think you crushed *me*? You stole from me, honorless brat!"     "Scream at me all you like. The moment you stepped into my orbit, you were mine to treat however I see fit." While Petra talks, the ratbots she released earlier zip from door to door within the building, floating silently near the ceiling with short electronic pulses to search for computers. A liquid ring of Silver wobbles into orbit around her finger, like she's carelessly spinning a bracelet around.     "You know you can't touch me, because I'm the only one who sees through your facades. All of you. A princess with no sense of dignity or responsibility, more like a wild animal thrashing at any perceived insult than a person; a brat who drapes himself in every piece of jewelry he hasn't gambled away to keep pretending that he's important. What kind of image do you think it presents to be scavenging for scraps of credits while dressed that gaudily? You fucking dog. This place is just another den of leeches and counterfeits."     And with that, Petra blinks away before anyone can actually land a solid hit on her. Once she's out of sight, she drops the kayfabe and hurries through the hallways, looking for the security mechanisms.
Angela	Love would be so happy to learn she's one of the good ones but she won't ever stop thinking that Sarracenia isn't swallowable. Sure, she might be poison but she's a snake! It would be fine if she didn't promise not to eat anybody else any more because if she did Lilian would be upset and Lilian's really scary when she's mad so it's s(hr)imply best to not make her mad. Easy peasy lemon squeezey. ''Eventually drinking a potion of mercury.'' Love has to break character in order to say, "Junior Magical Girls, don't drink mercury. Even if it might seem to be the sweetest of the transition metals but it's still bad for you. And since you're still growing, mercury will affect you even more than grownups..." ''That this place is so far beneath me that I'm sharing it with people I've already crushed under my heel.'' "Wow you're doing great, sis!" Love thinks Petra is doing a great job at being a villain! It's like she was born to play the part! She hears gunfire outside. Malkuth of course points out what's going on outside with Kukuru over the shared tacnet but she's a little chill about it. Love watches the various auctioners stand up and make threatening motions. She is completely oblivious to what was being said while her ears were covered. It doesn't really matter if it was actually inaudible. As a Magical Girl, Love has to respect it when her ears are covered. That's how it works. ''Sarracenia yelling'' "Wow the Princess of Poison's doing great too." Love murmurs to herself. "I really need to step it up as a bad guy today." She doesn't immediately move to protect Sarracenia because she still thinks this is just them playing out the bit. Fortunately, Petra is giving her proper guidance on when to start being a villain. "Got it BOSS!" Love says, immediately shifting to the role of goon because that's the most fun in the moment. It is said, according to some of the stories of The City, that the snake is more powerful than a king for a snake's venom can even topple any monarch. But Love doesn't rely on being a snake in this moment except in one instant and that's the speed of which she suddenly brings her staff forward and unleashes a heart shaped pink beam of light aimed right at the Vampire, whom she felt was the most dangerous because of her knowledge of Blood Fiends. "You don't want to fight as much as I do." Love says happily. "But I finally get to express my meaning of existence. So Dark Kingdom... Don't evaporate too quickly!" She swings her leg back and goes, "Teehee!"
Audrey Basque	INSIDE, AUCTION HOUSE:     And just like that, Sarracenia is the first spark. Bombs go flying in every direction; Maurice uses his frostfire bolts to intercept the ones coming at him, while the man in purple happily has one of his mind controlled goons put his whole body in the way and take the blasts. The vampire, and the woman in green, are both staying clear of the explosions, while background extras are having a terrible night all of a sudden.     And then Love with the steel chair!!     No wait the magical girl beam.     The vampiric man, who had his sights set on Sarracenia, is caught by surprise when Love unleashes her beam of light. He takes it pretty well, all things considered, though his suit gets scorched. It's like he grows as tall as the room, in response, evidently angered.     The attacks start flying; the man in purple raises his hand, causing one of his goons to start emitting a dangerous amount of purple light and to break into a sprint towards Sarracenia! If he reaches her, he'll detonate, and it won't be pleasant!     The woman in green doesn't do anything, but her goons also open fire on Sarracenia with their runed revolvers. There's no bullets! There's no particle effects, or loud bangs. If the princess doesn't move, she'll just have bullet holes manifest out of thin air. No impact, no force, no knockback. Just sudden, gushing wounds, like the guns confer the property 'got shot' to her without ever actually needing to load ammo or put a bullet into her.     The vampiric man, whose size fluctuates, stretches his arms out, in a way that makes him look gigantic. Dozens of the chairs are dragged together impossibly into a ball of crushed wood, metal and velvet, and then he hurls it at Love and anyone unfortunate enough to still be near her.     Petra further winds up Maurice, but then EXITS STAGE LEFT. He snarls like a mad dog, fittingly, and... the room is too chaotic to tell where he's gone, actually. But he's not there anymore! Petra's ratbots, going from office to office upstairs, find quite a few room with computers, but only one that's especially, particularly secure... and decorated, and has a big fancy desk and...     It's really not hard to find REESE DEMONTE's office.     He isn't there, of course.     Heaven forbid the rich entrepreneur be in the same building as flagrant criminals who all carry weapons on them.     Getting in there won't be easy though. It's practically a panic room; reinforced walls, blast doors that are locked with a... crystal? It's not quite a keypad but it looks like it could be one. There's not even vents going into the room!
White	White spends a moment glancing between Audrey and the box when she admits she can't open it. It's a good thing her expression can't get much more blank, or it might feel a little mean. Still, she follows Audrey's lead again and starts warping things away, trying to mindfully place them in neat stacks based on where each previous teleportation arrived... Though without an active line of sight, going just from spatial coordinates, if any furniture has been moved too close to the arrival point it might end up a little messy anyway. Oh well! White can probably help remove things from boxes later, but it's not worth fretting about now... Well, she does take a quick look at the containers to check for built-in mechanical trackers, too. She's not quite *that* uncautious, and the Evil Eye should reveal such things as part of the container's function when examined, most likely. If all is well on that front, then she gets a-warpin'.      In the background of the scene outside, a couple of her scout-spiders are crawling around the auction floor- or rather the auction walls? Mostly to give White a compelling multi-angle view of the fight as it starts breaking out, and especially to see what Love is going to do about it. Like she mused before, she can't just *miss* a real-life magical girl battle, right? Petra and Sarra's argument is of secondary concern compared to that. It was... Close enough to the plan, at least, that she figures Petra is ready when Sarracenia starts including her in the random-fire attacks. At least one of the spiders ends up taking a piggyback ride on a ratbot partway through for a panning shot of the scene too, so they clearly aren't too concerned with being so close to the chaos. If anyone's looking closely, that same spider strikes a pose when Love fires her heart-blast; it can't crook its leg up to match her, but it can gesture like it's firing a beam at least!!
Kukuru	In retrospect, playing dead around guards armed with portable lighting storms probably wasn't the best of ideas. Kukuru's pained yelps are very much coming from actual pain at getting electrocuted so often, and she can only weather them for so long even with her nanites working overtime to keep her from burning up too much. She can't even see where they are with her badly-chosen spot to play dead in, either, what with being face down and not being able to tell which way they're coming from thanks to the sheer volume of those thunder cracks making her head ring each time. Even the flashbangs, despite not looking right at them, still burst with enough noise to daze her for yet more incoming lightning bolts, and it really does look like she's just done with how little she's moving on the ground besides twitching violently. Worst of all, however, is the fact that each zap is probably damaging her expensive coat. Even if it is a Concord-approved business expense, there's still the principle of wasting so much money! Still, just trying to lunge at them from her position on the street while so many guards are blasting away at her is just a losing gambit. That means... Coordinating. She's got Malkuth's tac data coming up for her, and actually taking time to really focus on it means she knows precisely where the guards are even without directly looking at them! <<"OW. Three by... Left side, okay. And another one ov-OWIE. O-o-o-ver th-there, about... O-o-okay, that's not far. If I stretch... I can r-EEEEE. Reach th-that one.">> But first, regrouping. One more cloud opens up below Kukuru, swallowing her up in darkness and depositing her on a nearby roof. She keeps an eye on that location data while hastily getting that trench coat off, then the vest since that was pretty expensive as well. Kukuru snorts back a single tear at seeing all the damage to them that'll surely be expensive to fix up or replace later, and then she opens up another portal right in front of herself. <<"Thanks, M-Malkuth~">> She utters through the radio, then reaches into the cloud. Its counterpart opens up in the ground right beneath the guard creating the barriers. "Helloooo." She calls out from below with her usual carefree tone while her face cracks into her usual carefree smile, all while she looks up unblinkingly at the guard. One hand goes for a leg to grab onto and hold them semi-hostage while she emerges from the portal, and the other goes for the arm holding the crystal. "Hey... Give me that, and you'll be going home safely tonight. Okaaay?" She promises, sliding that hand down that guard's arm towards the crystal rapidly. If nothing else, Kukuru's good about keeping her promises because, if she does get that crystal, she'll actually let that guard go to just try and figure that crystal out on the fly! If they don't relinquish it, however, she'll test the durability of that protective suit by starting to swing that guard around at the closest guard(s) she can reach, crystal barrier and all.
Audrey Basque	INSIDE, STORAGE:     The momentary pause as White stares at Audrey (mask to mask) is still felt by Audrey. She doesn't need an Evil Eye of Telling When People Are Disappointed In You, because she has that innately on at all times.     Because it's always true, lately.     Hushed hush, she feels the need to argue as the two of them work on emptying the room-- though emptying the VAULT is something only White can do blindly, of the two of them, and so that's her domain.     "There were no records of how they seal this stuff! I figured, worst case, we get it to the tower and... I bet someone in the Concord is good at opening safes. Weird arcane safes. At least we got everything. What even IS in all these crates anyway? No way this is all for the auction right...?"     White definitely knows it's not! She got to see the piles of money, the gems and gold and the... huge rocks. And at least one (1) human body (partial). This is definitely not just auction goods!     "... I really hope this isn't making a mess of the tower."     It's a lot of crates. It definitely is! But that, too, can be sorted out later, so it's quite alright.     "By the way... I meant to ask," she inquires, between teleports. "Do you think I'm acting too... I mean, like..." She munches on her words a bit. "Small. Like... this is petty theft, right? Am I aiming too low?"
Sarracenia	'Sarra's Bullet Bill is sent back at her.'      Sarra, still spinning in the air, growls and hammers that Bullet Bill right back. But, hitting it on the tip would make it explode, so she ends up hitting it in the side to send it smashing into one of the walls before she lands. "I do not maintain facades! If I did, my life would be quite a bit easier! I could pretend to be the princess that my world wants me to be and I would have hardly a trouble at all! But, I prefer to be true to myself instead! Unlike you, pretending you actually want people to improve! You want everyone to stay the same so you can justify your pointless hatred of everyone!"      Of course, Sarra is shouting this as Petra leaves, so Petra may not even hear it. The princess hears Love complimenting her even in the midst of what is happening, and some of Sarra's anger melts away with a shake of her head and a slight smile toward Love. "Well, perhaps the Princess of Poison will assist you this day. This Dark Nihil has proven to be quite distasteful."      Sarra finds herself in the middle of an all out brawl. She's more styled after Ultimate, though, so she is a bit faster and has better knockback speed than these challengers.      That glowing purple goon comes for her, and Sarra swings her hammer with enough controlled might to smash him back toward his master. Non-existent bullets perforate the princess, but she bears it with a growl and green light flows over her as the green mushrooms she scarfed down in advance take effect. The bullet wounds heal up noticeably, though not quite completely. The princess's silver dress is soon streaked with a burgundy color much like the metal lotus in her hair.      The princess swings her hammer toward the woman in green and her goons, and a salvo of Silver flechettes is fired toward them. Despite the situation, Sarra aims for their guns and arms instead of center mass. She doesn't like killing, even when it comes to goons. She keeps twirling, sending a steady stream of Silver spikes through the room. As more and more weapons are drawn, Sarra adds explosives to her salvos. Bob-ombs aimed at the ceilings and walls, meant to cause plenty of destruction and encourage people to evacuate instead of continuing to fight. "DO YOU ALL REALIZE WHO I AM?! I AM PRINCESS SARRACENIA SUNDEW!! CROWN PRINCESS OF THE SUNDEW KINGDOM!!" She may not particularly like her reputation, but those who know it know she is crazy and doesn't care much where her explosives land. So, they might see the wisdom in just opting out of the fight.
Audrey Basque	OUTSIDE:     Kukuru vanishes into one of her portals, and the hail of lightning bolts stops. The guards look around, each scanning a different direction. Not quickly enough, as before long she's portaling right back to their backline and seizing the rear guard and his crystal.     His distorted voice can't be made out well but if she had to guess it must have been something like "fuck off!" because that guard uses his spare hand to try and shoot her in the chest, point blank, which also scorches him a tad. This results in his promotion from guard to blunt weapon (improvised).     Kukuru smashes into the guards using one of them, until he's no longer responding and the crystal is hers to take. The barrier is pretty sturdy, and doesn't seem to require any kind of magical skill to activate. Just hold it! She can see this firsthand when more lighting bolts crash into the barrier, and the three guards still standing switch tactics.     Switchblades?     That might seem less threatening but when they charge at Kukuru they're anything but. The switchblades in their hands are causing weird glitching, making them warp about seemingly at random, but always a bit closer, until the three coordinate a triple stab that cuts through the crystal's shield like butter-- and likely anything else in the way too.     Another set of guards rush out the door. Eight, this time! The rest have headed to the main hall, but maybe they should have prioritized the front after all. Malkuth can especially tell these ones are a bit more heavily armed; they had time to get larger rifles.
White	White doesn't particularly acknowledge Audrey's defensiveness, working silently while Audrey argues with effectively nobody but herself. She's not worried about the crates; it's likely she can extricate their contents later if need be anyway, she just thought having the case for transport and storage might be convenient later and isn't willing to admit to the slight goof just yet. The questions, at least, she pays more mind to. "You wanted... The star. They had it." she says, like that fully answers things. But, in the privacy of an isolated storage room with just Audrey, she's eventually able to murmur a little bit more after gathering her thoughts. "... Being able... To do more... Shouldn't mean... You only do... 'More'." She momentarily pauses to summon one of her spider-plushies and wiggle it slightly at Audrey, before banishing it to the spatial pocket again. "It's your power. You shouldn't... Ask me... What you should do... With it." There's another tangible pause, and she adds slightly more quietly, "You shouldn't let... Anyone control you... Like that. Or you'll turn... Into a maid." It simultaneously sounds like aimless nonsense, and a grievous threat that comes from the heart of her own experience...
Angela	"Um Dark Nihil is one of the leaders of the Dark Kingdom, these aren't Dark Nihil these are Major Arcana and the Arcana, you see, they can be good or evil but the Dark Kingdom likes to subvert them to evil ends by striking at their morale and weakening their hearts. There's Minor Arcana too of course but these seem tough enough to be Major Arcana, though you can also use servants of the Dark Kingdom or servants of Dark Nihil if you want, it's just Dark Nihil is the evil jester who possesses people and drains away their hopes and dreams but I'm glad you're taking this seriously." ''I AM PRINCESS SARRACENIA SUNDEW!'' "She's pretending to be Sarracenia Sundew... how evil!!" Love insists on the kayfabe and is doing her best to yes in spite of that. ''Thanks, M-Malkuth~'' "Hey no problem, Miss Kukuru. I do my job after all, I don't turn away from it just because I feel sad about it you know?" Malkuth says while eating potato chips. ''The vampiric man gets big.'' "Yessss.... Get big, get big...!" She lets go of her staff and it floats around in front of her as she holds PERFECTLY STILL while she begins a chant. "]Heed me, thou that are mroe azure than justice and more crimson than love... In the name of those buried in destiny..." Wind starts billowing up around her as she holds her position, bringing her hands in front of her, forming a triangle with her fingertips. " shall make this oath to the light. Mark the hateful beings who stand before us... Vibrant pink purple energy ripples around Love while she's a sitting duck. She isn't exactly defending herself just yet either... "Let your strength merge with mine, so that we may deliver the power of Love to all...!" She's still not done but it sounds like she's prepping something big. Can Sarracenia or whomever keep her from being slaughtered before she finishes the official magical girl chant???
Audrey Basque	INSIDE, STORAGE AREA:     White murders Audrey. It's probably not entirely intentional, but the way Audrey's stance shifts, even with the mask on... it's obvious she might have hit something. Not that the advice was bad; on the contrary, it was really good advice. But 'controlled'. Is she being?     Is she asking to be?     "... yeah. Sorry, that was dumb to ask."     Well... room's empty.     The warehouse has gone from packed to hollow and echoing.     Audrey lifts her mask, to tap her earpiece.     <White and I are done. Once Petra gives the OK-->     There's a SHAKE, as Sarracenia detonates more bombs.     Audrey frowns and taps her earpiece again. <Petra did you find what you wanted? It's sounding a lot like things are already escalating.>     She turns to look at White.     "Can you go make sure the princess doesn't bring the roof down on our heads before we're ready to leave? I'll go check on Malkuth."     Audrey refracts and disappears-- reappearing by Malkuth, without much warning except the crackling sound of her teleportation, like shards of glass.     "How's Kukuru doing?"     She looks down.     "Oh."
Petra Soroka	"Unlike you, pretending you actually want people to improve! You want everyone to stay the same so you can justify your pointless hatred of everyone!"     Somehow, even with Petra gone from the room, Sarracenia suddenly hears her voice emitting from right behind her, as if Petra's teleported around just to stab her in the back...!!     Actually, it's coming from a tinny speaker in a ratbot that happened to be circling around the auction room. One of White's spiders is riding on top of it while the ratbot peacefully coasts for a panoramic view. It'd be adorable, if Petra's voice wasn't coming out of it.     <"You know, princess, isn't there an easier explanation? Maybe the reason why I'm never happy with people changing despite saying it so often, is because they're actually not changing at all. You haven't changed in a decade, so who are you to talk?"> It sounds like she's disinterestedly filing her nails, through the crackly little speaker. Does she really care that little? Maybe she stirred up all this chaos, only to teleport away and sabotage the mission so that the blame falls entirely on Audrey and Sarracenia's shoulder's-- it's not like she hasn't been open about sabotaging Audrey before.     On the other side of the radio connection, Petra is glumly staring at a locked door, while rubbing two useless lockpicks together and making a rasping sound. She's carried them around for so long and almost never had a use for them, and when she *finally* comes across a properly private office that *has* to be locked, it's built like some idiot loser's apocalypse bunker. She sighs and tucks the picks away, back into her mirror.     Well, frankly, that was the best option she had for getting through a door subtly. Petra has no way of knowing whether the guy-- or any guy!-- is inside the room, so she has to quickly consider her options. Even using Audrey's page can't teleport her through since she can't see to the other side, she can't use any kind of magic to interface with the crystal to try and bypass it, and breaking through will be loud, take some time, and probably put her in full view of any more guards that come through this hallway. In the end though, that last one's all she's got-- besides pulling out the Beauty of Ash and just vaporizing the whole thing.     Out of the ruffled sleeve mostly covered by Petra's mantle, a shimmering stream of morphmetal pours and then coalesces into a long, pointed battering ram. It rears back in the air, and then plunges into the metal door as deep as it can, blooming out in every direction to rip the puncture hole apart into something Petra can climb through. Once she does, a rainshower of Silver carpets the interior of the office to trigger any magical traps before Petra stumbles into them, and then she climbs through herself.     Once at the computer, she bombards it with a cloud of cybernetic impulses leaping off of each drop of morphmetal, overloading the computer into digital hyperesthesia to gain access. Her first order of business is to wipe out every electronic record of whose auction won which item, without removing the identifying information of the auctioneers present. Her second is to shut down every camera in the building and any security she can-- though given how much of it is magical rather than digital, it's likely not much-- followed soon by causing the lights to flicker.     The ratbot nearby Sarracenia bzzts to life again, with Petra-- now sounding more like regular old Petra-- coming through again. "Alright, princess. It's your time to shine. Wanna drop your bombs all around this place and then get out of here?"
Kukuru	Unfortunately for the barrier guard, shooting Kukuru with lightning is probably not going to be great for his arm while she's still holding onto him and very much convulsing and squeezing it with her fearsome grip strength. On the plus side, it might prepare him a little for being used as a blunt weapon, or at least dampen the shock from that a smidge. It doesn't stop her from swinging him around, of course, but not having a functional shield proves to only be a brief problem at first when she finally notices that the barrier is stopping those pesky lightning bolts from hitting her again and again. "Oh, how lovely... You have such wonderful toys. Now, won't you behave and call it day before I have to use them on you?" Kukuru 'threatens' as she gives the crystal a little squeeze before slipping it into her blouse's breast pocket for hands-free usage. Seeing them switching to switchblades draws a quiet sigh from Kukuru as she realizes they're not about to relent, and she holds her hands against her hips in apparent disapproval. Also, she just stands there for a moment before she wants to hear Malkuth, and she can't do that if she's talking over her to some other people. <<"Mhm, mhm... I wouldn't mind never feeling sad again, but... It happens, yep. We just gotta make sure to keep pushing through, right? Then everyone we care about can still keep counting on us, even when things are suuuper bleak.">> As the guard glitch-warp closer to her in their rapid approach, Kukuru shakes some of the tension out of her arms, and she draws her trademark oversized claws out of the ground besides her. <<"That's what I always liked about you and Hod. Sometimes, I wish I had that kind oooof..">> She's blanking on the words. Granted, it's due in part to trying not to get stabbed too much as those guards come in, all of them trying to stab her very too much. She's learned better than to try and take such strikes head on, however, and Kukuru actually steps back with the stab, although she's not fast enough to evade them that way normally. She even gets stabbed right in the side by one of the switchblades as she twists herself sideways, falling through another portal that had appeared behind herself. The destination is just a short distance in front of her, but it's right where she wants to be: Beside the guards that had just tried to stab her three times. She exhales softly while swinging both of her clawed hands forward to try and turn the trio into paste between those mighty bladed mitts, all while her nanites get to work once again at mending her chest from that sucking stab wound. <<"What's the word... Um. Discipline? I sure wish I had it way sooner...">> She continues speaking to Malkuth over the comms, not quite noticing the gathering of guards with their guns just yet. Maybe the crystal will keep protecting her from those rifles...?
Audrey Basque	INSIDE, AUCTION HALL:     Sarracenia bats the glowing zombie goon back at his master! The man wearing purple and black, with the obviously sinister blank mask, rises from his seat to catch the minion. It detonates, harming his goons but not him. Not hard to tell he's cross now, because he's the one glowing.     "Child, of all the fights here to pick..."     It might be hard for Sarracenia to hear him, picking a fight as she is with explosives and the woman in green. Her hammer, the Silver darts and the bob-ombs cause plenty of damage-- prompting both an evacuation from the lesser bystanders and thugs, and renewed violence from the woman. While her guards are put out of commission by Sarracenia's whirlwind of blows, she isn't, and she leaps in to try to skewer the princess with her ghostly blade.     It causes no physical damage but it feels like walking into a furnace, if she doesn't avoid it in time.     The man in purple uses this time to extend a hand out towards Sarracenia, like he's putting it on her brain. "You should let her skewer you through," he commands, in what's an extremely, extremely transparent attempt at mind control. Hopefully the princess has the will to say no.     Love begins charging an attack!!!     The lights go out, courtesy of Petra.     This affords the vampiric man more power and movement. He melds into the shadows; glowing red eyes fade back in, behind Love. He's going for a bite, unless someone drops in to stop him! No transformative property. Just blood drain-- the lethal, drinking far too much of it far too quickly kind.
Audrey Basque	INSIDE, REESE'S OFFICE:     Petra enters Reese Demonte's Loser Apocalypse Bunker. The Silver sets off a few minor traps-- the kinds that might have vaporized a normal person, teleported half their limbs away, or even polymorphed them into a chicken. None of it matters to her Silver very much, and once everything's gone off, it just leaves his computer. Messing with the place is easy!     And so's getting his files.     He may not be a criminal, but there's enough blackmail here to keep the people downstairs loyal to him. Years of evidence, in the form of work he's done for them-- laundering money through auctions, getting rid of bodies for them, disguising stolen goods as legitimate ones. Even the mountain of legal paper trails is valuable. All the concrete evidence of certain properties or baubles switching hands when they shouldn't have.     She wanted to ruin his life?     She's got everything she needs.     It'd also make for a KILLER piece of homework for one of her journalism classes.     As Petra is getting ready to leave, though...     Frostfire bolts rain into the room from the demolished door. Maurice, angry, steps in afterwards, pointing at one of his rings smugly. "You think these are for show huh? This one's a Ring of Find Person, and I know your *name*, Petra Soroka!"     He bends forward and slams his hand on the ground.     "And this one's a Ring of Fission!"     The floor starts glowing a blindingly hot white, turning so hot even Petra's shoes would barely protect her feet-- it's only a few seconds before the whole room detonates upwards in magically almost-nuclear flames.
White	White really isn't used to giving advice; some of her friends might say they've gotten really meaningful advice from her, once or twice, but if you really pressed them on it none of them would say it felt good to hear in the moment. Even now, White seems only barely aware of how she's stricken Audrey, and with new instructions given there's far less than enough time to consider whether that's actually something she should take responsibility for. Instead, she just kind of awkwardly nods when Audrey apologizes, which probably doesn't feel good either. But, then Audrey redirects, vanishing and leaving White with a new request... Keeping the building intact? In... Tact. Crap.      White teleports out to the auction floor, using her spiders' points of view to help her arrive without catching a stray shot to the face. Namely, by appearing beside the one riding a ratbot, momentarily sat on its back before she hops down. Given she's still wearing the mask and suit, this probably creates a bit of confusion for everyone involved! As she's ascertaining the situation, she recognizes a handful of different problems all at once, and has to take quite a few simultaneous steps to try and deal with them: Her scythe emerges from pocket-space into one hand, while the other's fingers flex apart and manifest a handful of Black Bullet spellglyphs into the air around Sarracenia, looming like the princess's own evil magic has suddenly manifested to save the day... By hammering the vaguely-gesturing ominous man with repeated salvos of explosive dark magic! The woman with the transparent sword ends up left to Sarracenia to handle mostly-alone though, since White isn't about to let a magical girl get killed by a two-bit bloodsucker; while her Black Bullets suppress the mind-controller (who she currently just assumes has some kind of Mysterious, Evil Power owing to his gesturing and speaking style), she blinks out of view and appears again just behind the vampire!      Rather than directly intercede between him and Love physically, she's using his distraction as a chance to slide that curved scythe-blade up under his chin and yanking to take his head right off. If he's super-durable, the decaying energy the blade spills over with on contact will certainly still leave him worse for wear, and she'll be right on his ass. Double-tasking like this, by fighting the vampire in melee and suppressive-bombing the creepy guy isn't too hard for her... But uh, how's she supposed to keep the building standing like this, again?? Crap. Crap!
Sarracenia	'A voice comes from behind Sarra'      Sarra flinches in surprise and her hammer comes around on reaction. Then...arguably adorable spider and ratbot! Sarra's hammer screeches to a halt with almost cartoon-like motions. "S-spider! What are you doing here?! This is a very dangerous place at the moment!" Sarra may not think spiders are cute, but she doesn't want to hurt one of White's spiders.      Love starts chanting, and Sarra's eyes widen. She says something into her radio only to find out that Love is not on that band. She blinks a few times, then mmphs. "Love! We are surrounded by enemies! This is a terribly inconvenient time to use that sort of magical girl encantation! Mmmph...I will protect you as best I can!"      It is one of an uncomfortably large number of times that Sarra wishes she had Petra's level of control over the Silver. Sarra can't make protective bubbles! ...or can she? She hasn't really tried, now that she thinks about it! Maybe she actually can! "You did not even know me before two years ago! How do you know if I have changed or not over the decade?! I have changed even over the few years you have actually known me!" Sarra argues as she runs to Love. "Love, dear -- I am sorry I do not think I caught your villain name -- anyway please hurry! I am more of an offensive type than a defensive type!" she says, then mmphs and looks for the ratbot. "Do not say anything!"      Once she reaches love, Sarra uses her silver to make...cannons? Yes, cannons mounted on a thick metal pedastal, something a person could easily hide behind. The kind often seen launching Bullet Bills if one were to tour Pipeland. Sarra forms a ring of them around Love, and as she does each one starts firing Bullet Bills.      Of course, Sarra has to leave an area open so that when Love is finished charging she has clear line of sight. Sarra takes up a defensive position there, using herself as the final piece of the barricade even as shark-faced explosive ordinance fires out in a ring behind her every few seconds.      'Child, of all the fights here to pick...'      There is a lull in the explosions just in time for that to be heard, and Sarra huffs. "One hardly has time to consider who one is picking a fight with when one is picking a fight with everyone! And you could have simply left, you know!" Sarra exclaims as she brings her hammer up to try and deflect the ghostly blade. That mental compulsion stalls her for a moment, but unlike with the spend money spell the princess really does NOT like being skewered. The incoming woman in green is met with a shower of Silver skewers when Sarra manages to catch the blade, but she still takes a ghost fire burn to the arm. She yelps, then her eyes widen and another yelp escapes her as that vampire moves in behind Love. "H-hey! Stay away from her!!" Sarra exclaims before pointing a palm at those glowing eyes and unleashing a machine gun's level of Silver arrows at them. Silver is good against undead...right?      'Alright, princess. It's your time to shine. Wanna drop your bombs all around this place and then get out of here?'      "Happily!" Sarra exclaims, but with three villains closing in it will be difficult even for the bomb princess to pull out more bombs while protecting Love!
Angela	Love isn't in a position to dodge! She's busy doing a big dramatic magical girl cast! Attacking her during this is against the rules nine times out of ten! She's really not expecting it and so she's utterly helpless before it. He can get a nice CHOMP down in her throat, which gets her to stumble, though the bones don't feel quite right in there. As a vampire, he'd know what it's like when the bones have been pushed into place to emulate humanity, wouldn't he? For a moment, Love's heart wavers. She thinks about transforming and just BITING the vampire's head off. It's a vampire she reasons so even Lilian shouldn't mind that much. But then. She sees, there, out of the corner of her eye... a spider trying to mimick her movements--No, she tells herself, no! She can't let down the Junior Magical Girls! Before she can retaliate properly against the vampire, White's right on it. Love flashes her a v-sign and then turns to face the young posing spider who is trying to match her. With Sarracenia unleashing the power of artillery around her--which gets her a wink--she makes her way over to the spider and crouches down to her to say. "On the count of three...okay?" She says to her. "We'll do it together...! With the power of love and friendship on our side!" She then stands herself up once more, swinging her staff back around in front of her. She breathes out, heedless of the blood dripping down her neck as, purely for the sake of her spider fan, she says... "Three Two One" And then she shouts, "MAJOR ARCANA SLAVE!!!" An explosion of hot pink energy erupts out through of the magical girl, channeled through her wand, and explodes in, generally, the direction of the bad guys. It's not exactly a targeted strike so much as it is a nuke to--ideally--avoid getting caught up in. The energy blast doesn't subside quickly. It burns through people and the scenery alike, punching through walls until it finally makes it outside where the energy detonates into a giant pillar of brilliant pink light, ripples of plasma (or love if you prefer) spinning up the ginormous pillar. Displaced wind blasts back, viciously ruffling Love's hair around as she promptly v-signs with both fingers and says, "Yatta! Yay!" and blows a kiss to, well, nobody in particular. "Huh ... I don't recognize this place anymore..." She adds, drawing out her cellphone. A sticky note labeled KUKURU with a phone number is there and she dials. "Miss Kukuru can you come pick me up? I'm looooost!"
Audrey Basque	OUTSIDE:     Kukuru turns guards into paste.     It's uh.     It's not pretty.     It's also enough of a display that the new wave of guards coming out hesitate to take another step forward; and that hesitation is enough for Audrey, from her perch, to make the executive decision to Put Them Elsewhere, sundering the space they were occupying and placing them on some other building at the limits of her vision. It's not important! The important part is that she's removed them from Kukuru's threat radius. Which means... a breather?     Audrey taps her earpiece to coordinate a bit, and then she's staring as the MAJOR ARCANA SLAVE punches a hole through the building and ends up illuminating the city around it.     Well okay then.
White	The little spider looks about as thrilled as a spider can be. Its little smiley-adjacent body-marking can't change to other expressions, but everything about the way it stiffens up at attention and wiggles its forelegs back seems excited, and once Love turns away to start the countdown the li'l spido leaps up onto her head with a minimum of scrabbly-climbing, to perch there for the big moment. It strikes a new pose at just the last moment, extending the left foreleg out ahead of the other one, which is crossed over its head like it's copying the V-sign... Well, as best it can without fingers. It then topples backward from the shockwave and has to desperately cling to the back of Love's clothes not to fall to the ground, but it's worth it.      White, herself, does her level best to kick the vampire into the beam with her powerful, powerful legs, but more importantly scrambles to jump away using him as a footstool if necessary. Maybe Petra's platformer impulses would make her proud of White? Or maybe White's just imagining it as a stress response while she has flashbacks to the MA Bomb Incident.
Audrey Basque	INSIDE, AUCTION HALL:     White's entry is dynamic and to the point. The magical blasts knock the masked and ominous man in black and purple off his feet, though to his credit, they don't seem to do much harm to him. White has his full undivided attention, for a moment--     Notably as she decapitates the vampiric man, following him being briefly stunned by Sarracenia's Silver arrows.     The masked man laughs to himself, and melts into a puddle of purple goop, which seeps into the floor and disappears.     He's not picking that fight today.     The woman in green, likewise, is forced to reconsider her standing when she sees the MAJOR ARCANA SLAVE go off. She only barely manages to get out of the way, unlike a good dozen of goons and guards; a few skewers from Sarracenia won't slow her, but seeing the odds turn so quickly...     She reaches into her coat, pulls out a ghostly orb, and crushes it in her hand. Her body turns into mist, and she's gone with the wind.     Anyone still left is more concerned about leaving in one piece than fighting, now. It won't be hard for Love, White and Sarracenia to plant explosives and leave... although, Love's laser certainly started the demolition process pretty damn well. It won't take that much to bring the rest of the place down.
Petra Soroka	While clambering into the office, Petra idly thinks about the fact that the only instance of her ever encountering 'magical traps behind a locked door' that comes to mind is when she busted into Matthew Rook's office with Xion and Angela. If she hadn't done that back then, would she have thought about sending in the Silver first here? Maybe she would've just hopped in and then been instantly vaporized-- it's not like she has any way of preventing that besides foresight, and her psychically-enhanced foresight doesn't help at all with inanimate objects like traps.     Even still, the traps she remotely set off hurt. Sure, her Silver doesn't have any limbs to be removed or meat to be turned into chicken, but she still feels *pain* though it, and coalescing the several motes of extreme burning pain back into the collective puddle makes her whole sensory field sting.     And speaking of Matthew Rook....     "Hehehehe, no fucking *way*. He keeps blackmail in *digital trails*? What a fucking *amateur*, oh my god. Loser loser loser loser loser." Petra giggles to herself while stealing the entire lot, routing the downloads through several (ratbot-based) virtual networks to obscure their final destination on Hydrochoeria. "It's so cathartic to just ruin someone's life sometimes. It's like a little playground. You won't judge me, right, Twopence?"     While Petra fondly chats with the ratbot floating by her shoulder, she presses her hand against a pane of Silver to pull a jerry can of gasoline out of Qetra's hands. She's about to tip it over when a shout from the door causes her to startle, accidentally spilling some on the hem of her pants and shoes.
Petra Soroka	"This one's a Ring of Find Person, and I know your *name*, Petra Soroka!"     "Fuck--" Petra yelps and (responsibly) stuffs the jerry can back into her mirror when something fire-like shoots towards her. Upon seeing who it is, though, and with his short monologue, Petra stumbles her way into a laugh rather than an angry response, one that's too unsteady and energetic to feel entirely sane.     "Ahh, ahahahahaha! Look at you! Look at that! That's a spark of something interesting, isn't it?!" When the floor starts heating up, Petra is forced to get her gas-drenched shoes off of it immediately or face *terrible* consequences, leading to her jumping on top of the office desk. This suddenly makes it much harder for her to actually navigate towards the door, as the room gets closer to bursting into flames.     But at least for the moment, she can pretend like getting height on Maurice was part of her villainous posturing. "Damn though, you got me. I totally did just think they were for show! You should've told me before I melted your last batch of them down for scrap! Though, sorry, I don't have much respect for *parlor magician* tricks like that anyways. I told you; I don't *stoop* to your level." "Mark the hateful beings who stand before us..."     Petra doesn't even bother trying to stop Maurice from channeling his Fission, folding her arms and smugly sneering at him from her perch. In reality, she can't touch the ground safely anymore, and she's desperately sweating to try and come up with a solution where she doesn't get turned to ash. Kukuru can't help her if she gets turned to ash!! But, back against the wall, she continues to Post as if her safety is completely assured.     "Really, though. If you knew my *name*, then how *dare* you step up to me? I'm a Concord Partner. I'm a supervillain who's wiped out nations and saved others from an apocalypse. I've killed people who you couldn't even kiss the boot of." "Let your strength merge with mine. . ."     "Aren't you just some washed-up nepo baby desperate for attention? I hardly even looked in your direction, worm. If I'm the worst thing that's ever come into your life, then the world has done an injustice. At first, I thought that kicking you down the stairs *once* would've been enough to fix it, but since you've come back for seconds, I guess I'll oblige. Because, you know, you never could have touched me." "MAJOR ARCANA SLAVE!!!"     Petra crosses her arms and looks insufferably smug. "Because I've got the power of god *and* anime on my side."     The moment the room detonates and Love's Arcana Slave rips through the building, Petra frantically pulls out Audrey's Page and draws it into herself, temporarily swapping into the starry-black Nova Heliosanctus outfit. When a patch of daylight becomes visible through the ruination of the Arcana Slave, Petra immediately teleports as high up into the air as she can, as a desperate last-ditch attempt at not getting vaporized. If the Sundew Sovereign's arrived, she ends up landing on it and detransforming back into her supervillain outfit, but either way, she coasts back down to the ground where Audrey and the others are waiting on rails made of Silver.     Petra looks significantly more frazzled than she was before, but counterintuitively, in a much better mood. The afterglow of adrenaline makes her breath heavily, and she pushes her hair out of her face with a soot-stained glove. Her pants from the knees down are completely burnt away, and her shoes are gone.     "That went alright."
Sarracenia	'MAJOR ARCANA SLAVE!!!'      Being not a magical girl or a villain, Sarracenia does her best to just not get caught in the blast. It leaves her hair frazzled and her dress a bit tattered, but once it passes Sarra blinks a few times at the devastation before pulling out her own phone. "Captain, bring the ship in. I am ready to leave"      The Sundew Sovereign was not far away, certainly close enough to be teleported to, and it takes it less than a minute to arrive. But, as the people cleared out after White's show of force, Sarra has another idea of how she wants to bring the place down. "Thank you for your help, Miss White. I could probably have handled them, but...thank you." she says. Then, she starts walking around fairly casually pulling out an explosive she doesn't use often. Generous blocks of C-4 with a remote detonator. Sarra wants the pleasure of personally hitting the button on this building. She plants one on any beam that seems like it is load bearing, then just tosses more of the blocks out haphazardly as she makes her way out of the building. Once outside, she steps onto a lowered rope ladder and is steadily pulled upward as the ship's Banzai Bill launcher is lowered.      Anyone who wishes to come aboard with her is allowed to...even Petra...then once all the artifacts and allies are clear of the building, Sarra holds up a remote with a big red button on it and hits it. The C-4 goes off in a wave of destruction, then just for good measure Sarra has a Banzai Bill fired into the rubble. They are completely gratuitous explosions after the Major Arcana Slave, but Sarra came here to blow something up and she is going to get her explosions. The Banzai Bill's series of explosions subsides with a mushroom cloud left behind, and Sarra smiles with satisfaction as the wind from the explosion washes over her, causing her hair and her dress to flutter as she hangs from that rope ladder a few stories off the ground. "Lovely~"
White	In the aftermath of Love's big blast, White takes a moment to double-check the surroundings, making absolutely sure the other two notables have actually left the scene before she lets her shoulders relax. She goes from holding the scythe in one hand like a big icepick, to holding it in both like a rolled up umbrella she's trying not to drop. The glyphs over Sarracenia fold together like cards and fade out, and White reverts to her noncombat (I.e: smaller, quieter) stride. She probably has a splatter of vampire-blood on her stolen mask, and while she's probably recognizable enough for the others it's still kind of strange seeing someone dressed like one of those goons moving around at a demure little jog, at fastest. The spider Love has clinging to her starts climbing back up to her shoulder like a parrot, 'wipes' its forehead with a leg, and starts pointing her in the direction of Audrey and Kukuru out front. Since she said she was lost, of course!      In the meantime, White seems to be peeping through walls to figure out where Petra even *is*, since she's the one White didn't have an active view on... It still kind of hurts to look right at her with the Evil Eye, y'know? In fact, being able to check most of the building and *not* have a headache inflicted on her is a good sign for Petra's non-presence. Once her agents' double-check is finished, White returns to the front and walks out with Love (and presumably Sarracenia), trying to wipe dust and maybe a bit of blood off of her new suit, and discarding the mask back into the building. She can finally let her hair out properly, so she does; the thick white braid trails low enough to touch the ground just a little bit. Once the ship's rope comes down, she just... Teleports anyone from ground level who's about to grab it up to the ship's deck! There's a couple inches of drop upon reappearance (to allow for the positional sway of the ship to not intercede with their bodies' destinations) but if anyone stumbles she's close enough to gently grab an arm or so. Then, she steps to the side of the deck and looks over to watch the blast, murmuring vaguely Petra-ward, "Did you find... What you hoped for?"
Kukuru	Thanks to Audrey's space-shifting powers, Kukuru doesn't have to worry about the guards that had come out with all their rifles! She had caught a glimpse of them following her pasting maneuver, but seeing them just disappearing from her sight means there's nothing to worry about. "Thank you, Audrey! Ah, what a thoughtful girl..." She coos softly with a fond little giggle, placing one bloody claw to her cheek as though it wasn't covered in grossness. "Or was that White's...? Hmm. Ah, I'll just make sure to thank both of them later." Giggling softly to herself, Kukuru takes full advantage of that guard-free time to breathe, and just in time to see Sarracenia's bombs explosions quickly culminating in Love's laser pillar swirling through the sky. "Aaah... It looks like everything went perfectly~" She chimes with a victorious little pump of her fists and a more genuinely pleased smile than the one she had while facing off against the guards. As the adrenaline starts to wear off, Kukuru lets out a long exhale, then takes a seat on the floor besides that guard that had helped her earlier while checking her phone once she gets that call from an unknown number.   Luckily for Love and unfortunately for Kukuru, she hasn't learned not to pick up calls from unknown numbers yet. "Hello, hellooo.. Oh? Love, is that you? Of course, dear! Ah, let me juuust..." She's especially glad for Malkuth's tac data now, even though she had heard Love shouting moments ago. Looking over at that guard, she gives him one more (bloody) pat on the head before taking a business card gingerly out of the same pocket she had slipped that crystal into and placing it into his hand. "Feel free to call me there if you need somewhere safer to work, okaaay? The Grand Dorado always more good people, and..." Kukuru covers her mouth for a loud yawn that shows off all those shark teeth, and then she opens up a portal while smiling sweetly at him. "You did a good deed today. Oh, or you can come with me now. Either works~" She offers, even holding that portal open for a bit longer while heading on through to go and pick up Love and White's Spider alike. Her camera is still on that street, recording everything. Her jacket and vest are still on that rooftop where she left them, too.
Angela	Between a spider pointing the way and Kukuru answering the phone, it isn't too hard for Love to find her way to Kukruu. She makes her way towards the portal that has opened up, yawning as well though it doesn't show off many sharp fangs. Her pupils are briefly snake-like slits before after blinking they're back to normal. She steps into the portal, petting the spider on the head, and once she's through she's going to look for a nice place to nap. It's been a long adventurous day and Love is feeling eepy. "Today's moral is that you shouldn't bite a magical girl without permission or White will decapitate you with a scythe." Love says. "I'm not sure if that's useful for a lot of situations but sometimes important lessons aren't for situations that come up all that often."
White	White nods twice, very sagely. Her eyes are closed again, but that's incidental. She is an ally to magical girls, even fake ones like the Demon Lord. Well... Maybe someday Ariel will be a proper Magical Girl, but until she can actually fire beams and not just Breath Weapons, White is going to withhold approval on that. It's still funny that Ariel hasn't figured out how to change her multiversal screen-name, though.
Audrey Basque	Petra makes a daunting escape following the world's luckiest and best-timed monologue she's likely to ever give. The last thing she can see of the building is Maurice being engulfed in the explosion as Sarracenia goes to town, the angry little mage not even having the time to bark back at her over any of it. Though, given all the rings on his fingers... there's a non-zero chance he had an answer for this. On the plus side, she probably has the best seat to watch the explosion from, considering she's airborne.     That, too, is a treat.     Regrouping is trivial, whether through the numerous means of teleportation the party has, the airship, or otherwise. Audrey is of course immensely thankful, and a bit stressed, and tired, and fretting about the state Petra is in, in no particular order of importance.     "Once we have the crates open... anything you want in the lot is yours. I only want the Star, so everything else is a bonus on top. I'll try to find an expert in arcane wards to open the crates, but if I can't, White, I'll have to count on you one more time, I apologize."
Kukuru	"If it helps even one person stay safe, it's a good moral and an important lesson." Kukuru nods slowly in firm agreement with Love, eyes closed just like White's as though she's doing so from a place of intelligence as well! Or... She's feeling pretty tired, too. Not all of that blood on Kukuru is her own, after all. Post-regrouping, Kukuru is still a little groggy, but just as eager to get her healing nanites outt o treat everyone's wounds as she is to take a nap. "If anyone's hungry, just say.. Sooomething."