Scene #9740: Hold the Line

Owner	Pose
Regulus	Regulus put out numerous frantic calls earlier in the day, asking for everybody who was not at the Suitcase Rebellion encampment to hurry back to the encampment. When pressed she gave a quick explanation that they 'ran out of time' and she'll give the full story once they're there. Of course, those in The Watch might already know what's going down, and she told Riku herself, but there's still plenty of people in the encampment who need to know what's about to happen. She spent a good while just gathering everyone both lingering within the Suitcase and within the media center itself. Once everybody's gathered she gives everyone the downlow. "So Sonetto got in touch with me. She said that authorization has been passed to invade the campsite and take us in and kick us out. Before, they were just trying to encourage us to give up, but now they don't need us to give up. They can just take us by force." Regulus explains. "But there's some good news too. Sonetto is putting in a subpoena regarding the events of the Storm of 1929, the Chicago Branch, and Vertin that will call us in as witnesses. That ought to prevent them from throwing us out, but we'll likely be in a cell for a while even in the best case scenario. Unfortunately, that subpoena hasn't gone through yet so we have to resist getting captured until a 'messenger' arrives to tell us we've been subpoenaed. Like we have been, we can't go on too hard against them, but the Foundation might be taking their kid gloves off." Regulus looks around, pushing up her sunglasses so she can rub at her eyes. She hasn't been getting the best of sleep due to the prior efforts of the Foundation to break the protest, so she's definitely not at her best to stall this latest attempt of the Foundation to break it. "We ''think'' we got all the fear rocks, but there might still be a stray one here or there but also the Foundation might stumble into them too, so hopefully that doesn't happen but be careful about that too. I know it's been one big ask after another, but if you stuck with us this far--I appreciate it, and if you ever need a rockin' pirate, I'll come rushing over." She exhales. "If you're not up for fighting or taking a hit here and there, I'd suggest holding up in the Suitcase proper. Once everyone who wants to stay in is in, we'll close the Suitcase up so they can't get in. Other than that, I don't know anything about how to defend against a Foundation siege, but we don't gotta win. We just gotta survive." Then her customary grin returns and she adds, "But hey, on the bright side we're making history. I don't know how long the trial's gonna be, but I'll see you all after it's over. I promise." And then it's just a matter of preparing as best one can. The Foundation can move at any moment. Regulus spends the time stuffing her face full of snacks and Dr. Pepper and pregames a picrasma candy.
Timekeeper	Having forewarning as to the movements of the police outside the building coming from Sonetto of all people is a surprise, but one that might end up making the difference today. Without knowing that, the shuffling around of personnel among the white masks surrounding the encampment wouldn't look that far out of the ordinary at all, with their numbers only increasing bit by bit over the course of the day. A clump of twelve people arrive to relieve six, they lounge around in their fortifications and joke with each other in view of the lookout just like normal. It's not until late afternoon that the vibe changes. Gradually, none of them are seen without their gear on anymore, and the chatter dies down. Gripping their white shields with grey diamonds, the guards start to spread out from where they've consolidated near the main path from Rescorla-Wagner to the rest of the campus, to forming a semicircle around the building, defending from any advance towards the Foundation, and leaving their only way out as towards the border wall that marks the edge of the Foundation campus. "If you're not up for fighting or taking a hit here and there, I'd suggest holding up in the Suitcase proper." "Sweetie, we aren't going anywhere." Evie, the older human woman from the Ainsworth office, has been holed up in the building and roughing the occupation as much as any of the locals have been, along with all the rest from the office, helping with cooking and taking duties off of Regulus so that she can get more rest. She looks side to side at the array of other un-powered humans there to confirm, but doesn't really need to. "Now's when it's getting hottest; that's when you need us most of all, isn't it? You can count on us." Bellwhistle, operating the antenna station to spy on the Foundation's comms, has her headset plugged into that device rather than her switchboard to hear more clearly. Deaf to anyone else, she suddenly announces, "Heads up, folks. I'm catching whispers of something that sounds like a weapon they're deploying? They're calling it some sort of code name... 'the bell'?" Margaret, currently on lookout duty, hops down from the upper floor by shuffling along Druvis's branches rather than taking the stairs, dropping down among the gathering breathlessly. "Hey, hey! They've got something batty rolling up out there! Some kind of big covered-up thing on wheels, like one of those cakes with the strippers in 'em! --Oh, and a speaker to yell at us!" The commander at the head of the squadron, and the middle of the arc drawn around the encampment, turns on his megaphone with a squeal. Behind him is exactly what Margaret described, a metal contraption the size of a small car, draped over with a curtain and manned by two masked guards to either side of it, each wearing a weird pair of shiny chrome goggles. "Attention! As of sixteen hundred hours today, August sixth 1999+13, this occupation has been deemed unlawful and found to be warranting armed dispersal! By the order of St. Pavlov Foundation law, exit the building through the front entrance with your hands up now, or we will be forced to remove you ourselves!"
Riku Asakura	Riku came over as soon as he heard the details from Regulus; he was here pretty quickly, thankful that there was a portal inside the suitcase. It's also a really bad time for them to be doing this, because he's lost all but one of his Ultra Capsules. On the other hand, he's got a second capsule from Meresankh that can at least give him some power until he gets his other ones back. Though with this power, he'd have to be very careful. The energy used in it was... well, destructive was a word that might be an understatement. But it does have some other tricks that might actually be useful for this particular engagement. Regulus goes over the finer details as he works currently. Taking out whatever supplies they had to reinforce their fortifications at the only way in. Once he was as done as he could be, he sat down for some snacks and soda, trying to wait out the time. However, he did give a smile at the Ainsworth office girls. "You're all really brave. I'll do my best to make sure no harm comes to anyone here." Of course, their time has come, with the announcement of the guard and Bellwhistle's warning. He pulls out the Fusion Riser and two Ultra Capsules. One with Ultraman Zero on it, and the other with a Necorn's likeness on it. They would likely do whatever they were going to do the moment they told them no. FUSION RISE! ULTRAMAN ZERO NECROS ULTRAMAN GEED ARCH NECROS Riku was gone, and in an instant, after some white and green energy, Ultraman Geed was there, though he didn't grow taller than Riku for the moment. He flew towards one of the higher windows into the courtyard to see if he could get a good sight on things. He also didn't like how things were setting up. He REALLY didn't like the code name of the object they had brought out. "I could try and destroy it with that attack Meresankh told me about... but I'd have to be careful not to hit anyone."
Ein	Druvis III, who had committed to being outside the Suitcase for the entire rebellion to ensure that their plant-based defense would be 'powered' the entire time, was obviously present, almost-weary already lean upon nearby pillar accompanied by wand-holding cross of arms. Smiling thinly, finding something darkly amusing, Druvis' dry tones offer out an observing "Perhaps they read my claim of this land as ours," and a sigh. "And decided that they did not like that at all. Perhaps it played worse than I even feared." A closed eyed moment passes. "Perhaps they simply see fit to act before their window closes." Still, she thinks it is her they act upon and fears that her particular nature as a member of the Manus Vindictae-- Druvis opens eyes at the brave resistance of the humans present, who had raced across the danger to join them. It reminded her of the last day of 1929, but they weren't seeking aid and she was no longer suited to mask-wearing. Everything but 'the enemy' had changed. How terribly ironic. "They might become more cross were I to try and kill them all, as well." Druvis sighs, lamenting it for a moment, and then looks around and grimaces and dips her eyes. Her muttering had let slip personality A for social group B. "So we will not. I'm sure they will take our restraint for granted, despite bringing their battering rams." "They must believe that 'law' shields them, and failing that, righteousness." Meanwhile... Sotheby sits on a crate, wearing a hard-shelled helmet with brim curl like a deep flapper cap with a New Orleans quality red gemstone and peacock iridescent blue-green feathering in wave above and behind, arms deeply gloved to the elbow and hands full of Objets. "Mis-ter Karson, that contraption they're bringing forward -- see there, those men near it!" Sotheby instructs, and the now-jacketless and black suspender-harnessed white shirted butler sights down a pair of binoculars and peers out window-crack. "Tell me, what do they have on?" "Goggles, my lady." Karson replies crisply, sitting himself next to a bale of signal wire and set of small plunger-triggers and toggles. Sotheby nods. "Goggles it is then. Everyone, eye protection! And hearing too, probably, if it's a bell?" Sotheby calls out, before digging in her crate for sets of tinted chemistry goggles, glass and leather and cloth banding rather than fancy plastic ones. They're retro! And each has a different smell, mostly different flavors of acid-sharp and burnt.
Veronica	As the rebellion-turned-siege stretches on, Veronica has made a few brief trips back home to Firefly Dam but is otherwise helping out around the encampment. She was on the lookout shift before Margaret, a position which was until recently mostly a chance to hang out on an upper floor and collect her thoughts. When Margaret reports that something's really happening out there, Veronica's taking an afternoon snack in the suitcase. Hustling up to ground level as word spreads, Veronica briefly ponders how to help. She considers herself to number among 'the muscle', playing the shield to Ultraman Geed's metaphorical sword. This sort of thing is supposed to be her job, so she has to step up instead of sitting around for the Foundation to flood the place with sleep gas or whatever it is they do. On hearing about 'the bell', Veronica manifests Baker and Seventh around her in its smaller form and wonders aloud, "Some kinda sound weapon? I'd think they already know I can do that back at 'em..." As Geed soars up to the top of the media center, Veronica makes her way to the front entrance and Druvis's wall of plants. Internally she's unsure about just busting out, since the Foundation would be able to focus all their fire on her... but on the other hand she may be the best suited to handle that among the rebels. The indecision shows on her EGO's face as the stoplight switches from red to yellow. What makes up her mind is a peek for herself at the concealed device and its attendants. "Maybe it's some weird lamp," she says into her radio. "Those guys have reflective goggles." When Sotheby notices the same and distributes eye protection, Veronica walks her EGO over and one of the many hands of her community reaches out through the brickwork shell to accept a pair. It's kind of uncanny to see. "I could try and destroy it with that attack Meresankh told me about... but I'd have to be careful not to hit anyone." "Mm, just gotta get the people away from it first then, right? Sotheby, Odette, could y'all two cook up some kinda stink-bomb maybe? In the meantime, maybe if I... yeah," she trails off. Focusing her EGO's telekinetic power, Veronica reaches out and... shakes the wall a bunch? She does her best to make a whole lot of vigorous rustling and creaking and visible movement somewhere away from her, but still within the semicircle where the Foundation is prepared to strike. The ruse might get those goggle-clad techs to jump the gun and fire their fancy device off at nobody, giving the rebels a chance to know what they're up against.
Regulus	''That's when you need us most of all, isn't it?'' Regulus is honestly catching some emotions after all that and hurriedly pulls down her shades so she doesn't get a little teary. It'd be a little insulting to give any further warnings so she manages, "Let's give 'em a preview at how tenacious Team Timekeeper can be." She says, throwing up her arm in the sky. Regulus is less surprised that Sonetto is giving them a headsup than she might have been before 1929. Or really, before even like a month ago. But it fills her with a unique kind of confidence and energy. Sometimes when a certain someone is on your side, you feel invincible, like the current is with you. And for Regulus, that person might very well be Sonetto, especially with Vertin themself indisposed. Regulus hurries up and finishes the Dr. Pepper she's been nursing and then shoves the empty bottle into her bag (just tossing it would be littering Druvis's space!). "The bell?" She coughs. "I bet it's real loud." ''Attention!'' Regulus turns on her mic. "Okay let us talk it over!" She says, entirely just to buy some time though at this point the Foundation might be getting a bit wise to her tricks. Of course even in the best case scenario, surely the sound of FUSION RISE ULTRAMAN ZERO NECROS ULTRAMAN GEED ARCH NECROS will make the rebellion's intentions clear but if it buys even a few seconds, then Regulus will consider that a trick well spent. "We don't want to hurt 'em too bad," She tells Riku. "So let me get a good look and see how to best take it out. But if you gotta..." Of course, first things first. She pats Druvis on the arm and says, "Appreciate the sacrifice, but you're probably right." And then rushes over to Sotheby to get goggles and fumbles with some earplugs, which probably won't do much compared to her headphones. "Well done, Sotheby!" She cheers "Three cheers at least." Naturally, the first thing she does after that is turn invisible so she can actually move closer to the contraption and try to get a feel for what it is, how it works, and how to best shut it down. She wishes she ''had'' remembered to bring her headphones from outside the Suitcase but there's nothing for it right now. When Veronica mentions 'stinkbombs' she's worried she's gonna be upset she didn't think to prepare noseplugs either.
James Bond	This is exactly what the rebellion was staged to provoke. It is also the best time for Bond to exfiltrate--being captured here would put the lie to his scheme of creating paranoia over leaks and sympathizers amidst the Foundation. But that exfiltration isn't going to happen before his work is done. Goggles it is then. Everyone, eye protection! And hearing too, probably, if it's a bell? "You're gonna need more than that, kid," says Rogers, the Foundation sympathizer in the rebellion's midst. How does he know that? The advantage afforded by the suitcase means that the members can come and go. So far as anyone here knows, Rogers has only left for things like food, cutlery, and cleaning supplies, and has largely been posted up top when Margaret isn't. In truth, it's afforded Bond the opportunity to head home, ditch his disguise, and attend meetings alongside his fellow Paladins, Lilian and Tamamo. One with Madam Z, one with Chairman Pedra, and one with Chairman Katz, in the name of advancing the bill currently up for debate. He'd neither gone home nor back to the Suitcase following the first, but to his office, to make a few calls and have some research done. How would the Foundation choose to break up the rebellion, when the time comes to do it? Teams of analysts had reached out, as far as they were aware, towards the interest of coordinating a bloodless end. Of course, there were a few options on the table, and specifics were lacking--but that in itself is an answer. It let him draw the conclusion that they were likely polling Laplace for what was available, since they know that matching force for force against people who specialize in that kind of blunt approach would end disastrously for them. That last and most recent meeting saw Bond's departure a little delayed--something about delivering a proposal for a collaborative research and development project between the Paladins and Laplace. He asks for directions once or twice--and why wouldn't he? He's at the Foundation much more often than Laplace. A stop to check his watch here, a gentle side-step to make room for a passing researcher there, an adjustment of his tie over there--a suite of small listening devices are left in his wake. They allow him to say with confidence what the Bell is meant to do. "Your eyes, your ears, your sense of smell, even your skin. My guys on the inside told me all about that thing. It's gonna get worse the longer it goes on. The sooner one of youse can smash it, the better." "I gotta lay low for a while. If they catch me, it puts everybody that helped make this thing happen in danger. So I'm gonna head through that suitcase--but you make sure everybody knows." Today is the last anyone here will see of 'Rogers.' To the rebellion, he'll likely be something different in the eyes of each--it wasn't and isn't monolithic. To the Foundation, or at least, those within it who lie awake worrying about their slipping grip on the organizational reins, he'll be a compelling argument for the appeasement they imagine this bill will be. He heads through the Suitcase, and out the gate inside it.
Odette Raskins	Hearing the plan from Sonetto and Regulus has given Odette just enough motivation to get fired up for one more big push for the Suitcase Rebellion. After this, there won't be any more in-fighting, and work can finally resume in earnest to save people from the Storm! At least, that's what Odette's been telling herself and hasn't quite been corrected on. Does she know there's the possibility of failure? Definitely. Does she think it's likely? Probably not, but it's still high enough that she should be a lot more worried than she's letting on. It's the home stretch, after all, and the lingering doubts about her performance while speaking to Constantine are fresh enough in her mind that she needs to delude herself a little to keep it together. "If they're going to take the kid gloves off, then we'll just have to... Get them back on?" It still feels too odd to think about actively trying to hurt anyone from the Foundation through all of this. She's helping Evie with the cooking, although she never quite sits still in one place so she can keep an eye on entrances and for anything being thrown inside. "I've got the usual stuff on me, so... As long as nobody goes too far out, we should still be okay. You don't think they'd really start shooting at us with.. Like. Actual bullets or anything, do you?" The fact that bullets aren't immediately crossed off the list in her mind makes her a little more worried, although Druvis' presence and muttering actually gets the EMT to visibly relax a little more. "They probably would, and they're not... As bad enough as some other places to deserve that." Regulus talks of survival instead of winning, and that helps recenter ODette's mind on things. "Right, that's.. That's way easier if we don't actually have to beat everyone up or anything. Get them off their feet, maybe knock them out a little, clog up the doors until we get our subpoenas, and... Yeah, we'll see each other right away once it's all done!" And then Bellwhistle and Margaret call out the presence of 'the bell', followed by the commander calling out the Foundation's position to make it clear for everyone. Odette doesn't answer right away as she puts a bowl of something or another down, taking a quick bite out of it before hurrying over to help Sotheby with distribution of protection. "Thanks, Sotheby! So whatever it is... We definitely don't want any of it on us" She replies to Sotheby and Bond, slipping some goggles on under her medical glasses. "If they're going to go that far..." She murmurs after Veronica's suggestion, stroking her chin lightly while digging around in her case with An Idea forming in that head of hers. "We don't have to stop at just smell." Odette starts getting some foaming grenades mixed up, loading them up with an unholy mixture of rotten egg smells, itching agents, slippery gels, and enough foaming agents to spread it all out once she starts throwing them. The question is, where does she throw it? <<"The one I'm tossing on the left is fake. Stay away from the right.">> Odette warns her allies through the radio in a hushed tone, then finally answers the commander with the toss of two loudly beeping grenades. As promised, the one that she flings to the left of the device just keeps beeping incessantly, and the one she hurls to the right of it bursts into a huge spray of translucent gray foam and gel, spreading through the air in a fog that settles onto anything it lands on like a thin layer of foul-smelling and terribly itchy grease.
Timekeeper	"Perhaps they simply see fit to act before their window closes." "All that waiting around, only to pack up and stroll home without doing anything? These army boys could never. I'm sure you said nothing wrong, darling." Evie chatters to Druvis while preparing for the confrontation, in maybe the most direct expression of cameraderie from a local human she's had. "You know how men are. They won't be satisfied without their 'big moment'." "Let's give 'em a preview at how tenacious Team Timekeeper can be." "Yeah! They've got nothin' on us!" Margaret ties a torn scrap of fabric around her face to make a simple bandana, and then a second to pin down her mess of red hair. Properly rebel-ified, she picks up a rock and bounces it in her hand, raring to start throwing things now that it won't get her into more trouble. "Goggles it is then. Everyone, eye protection!" "Oh! Good thinking, Sothes! We'll have that for the gas too!" With the addition of goggles, Margaret's entire face is now shielded by a collection of things, and her voice is a little muffled by the bandana. "Do you have anything to mix up and throw back?" "Okay let us talk it over!" Two months of Regulus can leave anyone with a short temper, much less a hostile armed enforcer with a weapon and small army at their back. The curt, professional tone of the practiced announcement slips into something more personally irritated at the sound of Regulus shouting back at him. "No can do, Regulus. You've had more than enough time already. Come out with your hands up now, or else we will begin dispersal and suppression. You won't get any more warnings." One in four of the soldiers, stationed evenly around the perimeter, pull a ball-like device off of their belts, click a switch, and toss them ahead towards the encampment. A fizzy sparkling mist starts to spew out of dozens of pores in the device, fading to near-invisibility in the air. These 'Glitterscreen Trackers' were developed after Regulus's time, so she wouldn't recognize them, but Sotheby could tell on sight that they're anti-invisibility tech! When Veronica makes the wall shake, some of the closer soldiers shout and swivel to point their LSCC guns towards it, and the sergeant takes it as a sign of aggression and a response. He pulls out a set of those weird chrome headgear things-- seeing it off his head, it's actually more than just goggles, including ear coverings and foam and elastic supports--, and slides it on like sunglasses. His megaphone just barely catches, still holding the trigger while lowering it from his face, him saying "So we're doing this the hard way." Oh god. He thinks he's so cool. At the sergeant's motion, the two soldiers manning the Bell tug the drape off of it, revealing the machine underneath. Pristine white plastic takes the shape of a cloche two meters tall, with a 'dish' of reflective crinkly metal near its head, and large chrome braces anchoring it to its platform. Its back has a whole extended attachment that ends in an oddly playset-simple control panel, oversizes clicky switches and dials and all. Visibly grimacing in preparation, the guard pulls down a heavy lever, and the wash of static electricity coincides with a similar ripple of arcane disruption. The 'bell' covering splits in the middle, lifting up on hydraulics to expose a core of glass ran through with wires and ominous Cherenkov glow, that intensifies over the course of powering on.
Timekeeper	Veronica's hopes of laying out bait for a failed first strike were in vain. The radio dish is angled to aim over the top of the center of the whole building, and with the click of a switch, the core flashes to life, enveloping the entire ground in its effect. At first, there's a distant high-pitched noise, painfully bright lights emanating from the machine, and the cloying smell of ozone on your tongue. Within a couple seconds, the lights in your vision start to stick even when you look away from the Bell, and the sound oscillates between piercingly high and stomach-churningly low, dulled for whoever's wearing protection. Your skin sourcelessly itches, and there's an induced sense of faint vertigo, like stepping onto a dock from a long boat ride. In response, Odette's grenades come flying out, and it's clear that the guards have been drilled on what you've used against them before, and what you're willing to bring against them. Rather than running from the grenades, they all bunker behind their shields, shouting across each other about hostile action and hiding their faces from whatever it produces. Once the one bursts, their K-Tope calibrators are drawn and aimed towards the entrance of the building ready to shoot, as they close in in unison.
Riku Asakura	Warning from Rogers causes Geed to look even more warily at the 'Bell' they have set up. They won't be able to hold up long against their forces with that thing going on. They also don't need to 'beat' them, just outlast them. Of course, in all of this, they can't seriously hurt them either. When Sotheby hands out goggles and earmuffs, the Ultraman looks slightly uncomfortable. He can hear, but doesn't have ears, and his eyes are...well, uncomfortably larger than a pair of goggles could handle. That's not even because he's giant. After all, he's still human-sized; his eyes are just weird. When the device starts, everything goes fuzzy. His skin itches, despite his body never itching before in Ultraman form. His vision goes weird, and his ears hurt from the sound. If this only gets /worse/, then things are looking bleak. He looks back at Regulus from his perch in the upper levels of the area they hold. He gives her a single nod, and then turns back towards the outside. Then he flies right out the window into the courtyard itself. He just needs to get high enough over the device to get a clear shot. This was incredibly unwise, but... again, they just needed to last. He stopped above The Bell, raising his hands above his head, as green energy started to crackle above his head. Charging throughout his body, he started to focus it entirely on his hands before forming his hands in a cross shape. Then a beam of green and white energy fired out from above, aiming to strike the device. "NECROS ANNIHILATION WAVE!" Man this really didn't feel like a heroic power... not at all.
Odette Raskins	"So we're doing this the hard way." Grimacing as she tries not to think about how cool that sounded, Odette, ducks behind a window while she peers out at where she had tossed those grenades. The decoy maneuver doesn't seem to be working nearly as well as it did the first time, and seeing the guards shielding themselves from the fog does mean the itching and stenching components of the grenades probably won't be useful going forward. She still has plenty more grease gel to spread around, though, so that gives her an idea on what to do next. Before that, however, the EMT ducks back under the window again once she sees the guards taking aim at the building, not keen on getting nailed in the face with whatever those things are going to launch her way. "Okay... Looks like aerosols won't do much anymore. We can still jam their path up, though, so-" She winces painfully as she hears that noise coming out of the machine, peeking out again at the machine and wincing again before ducking back down. The earplugs help with the noises, at least, but something else about what she's feeling as the machine powers up gets the hairs on the back of Odette's neck prickling. She's felt these kinds of symptoms before, both during training and in her day to day on various stations. It's the sort of symptoms she'd recognize anywhere from hauling inexperienced engineers back to the medical ward, especially those that had succumed to- "Radiation poisoning. That weapon is... It's radioactive." The color drains from Odette's face as it all clicks together, and the anxiety on her face shifts more towards dejected horror. "B-but they wouldn't... They wouldn't really be using something like that, would they?" It has to be a mistake. The people at the Foundation are supposed to be good, even if they're in disagreement about how to handle this specific matter, right? Against her better judgment, Odette pulls herself up unsteadily from behind the window, looking out towards the guards handling the Bell. "H... Hey! That weapon! Are you trying to give us radiation poisoning? Are you trying to give us all cancer?!" She shouts out in disbelief, desperately hoping she's just imagining things. They're supposed to be better than the Company, right?
Regulus	Regulus grimaces as she hears from Rogers that the bell is going to be more than the name implies. But she doesn't really have time to look for a way to shut off all her senses. She has sunglasses, which might help with sight, she can't really even imagine a way to turn off taste. And frankly, if she turns off all her senses, she wouldn't be able to fight back at all! But at the very least, it seems like the Foundation still would prefer to have them taken in alive since they still have the power of 'gun' at their disposal. She hasn't forgotten Rogers' identity, but she'd never talk anyway. She knows just how much she owes Bond for helping out at all. In a way, he's helping out double! "Take care." She tells him. In a way, it's for two. ''No can do, Regulus.'' Yeah, Regulus expected as much, but she's grateful that the guy at least talks a little while about why she can't have time. You take what you get sometimes. Who knows? Those five seconds might be the difference. ''So we're doing this the hard way.'' She gets a good look at the machine. If it wasn't evil, Regulus would find it beautiful and take her time trying to figure out how it makes it tick. She grimaces as she senses the growing danger even before it actually unleashes it's power. She hears a lot of dismay but she can't really give Riku a nod while she's trying to be sneaky. She isn't going to be able to maintain her invisibility for long, it takes concentration and this thing doesn't do good things for concentration. Her skin starts to itch. Her nose starts to smell things that reach her tongue. Her sunglasses protect against the light and the earplugs provide some temporary relief against the nose, but she still feels suddenly nauseous. Come on, Regulus, she thinks. Don't fall down immediately. ''NECROS ANNIHILATION WAVE'' Oh my god, that's even worse than the Oblivion one. The wires would be tough for her to reach, Regulus thinks, but perhaps she can still do some sabotage to buy time for people wrecking it through more traditional means. She scooches towards the machine, intending to reach the dials and other widgets, trying to sneakily adjust the dials, twisting them down to try and lower the output of the device and buy some time before this thing gets too rough to endure. Of course, if the Foundation officers are paying attention, they might notice the dials adjusting themselves. ''That weapon is... It's radioactive.'' Radiation is a problem for future Regulus, Regulus decides, she's in the multiverse. She'll figure it out.
Veronica	Veronica was expecting some sort of beam weapon, and she curses when the bell 'rings' across the entire building and surrounds. Inside Baker and Seventh is somewhat less unpleasant than outside, but its defenses would be stronger if Veronica could bring out her town's EGO at full size -- not possible while holding a doorway against a whole bunch of guys at once. Too easy for a few to get past and break into the encampment proper, and then everything would go to hell... Veronica grits her teeth, points her EGO squarely at the bell, closes her own eyes to keep from blinding herself, and turns up her soundsystem. It'll be tricky to work around the interference from the bell itself, but she blasts out a directed beam of sonic vibrations, echoing down the length of a telekinetic channel directly into the device. The sound frequency tunes up, and up, and down and up again, searching for the resonant frequency of the bell's glass components like an opera singer with a wine glass - all the while at sufficient volume to do so even against reinforced materials. She just has to hope it works, or helps Geed's attack, quickly enough that she can see again when the soldiers arrive...
Ein	'I'm sure you said nothing wrong, darling.' Druvis smiles, a crack that isn't quite dark humor, and doubts quietly rather than openly. It would be easy, to evoke her doubt on the other woman, but, . . . she's not wrong. . . ? "I have learned how men are." Druvis confirms, unfurling arms and wand dropping into air only to hang before her, coming tautly vibrational at the low point of its fall, just before touching ground. It may seem as the wind answers her, but instead the unsilent rustle of the forest-wrought walls and the beds of kudzu-like vines awakening as sunflower might find the sun at daybreak. "If the moment is not theirs, they will seize it and think it is offering, wanted, theirs." She speaks, and remembers Forget-Me-Not as he was, in the Walden, at the aid camp, the fragments of him left by Matilda's crystals. The men advance, gather, are threatened by Baker and Ultraman, and press forward. Druvis's plants gather defensively about the unshielded and more damaged parts of their domicile, perhaps vain and thin growths of leaf and vine and tightening root, but she cannot truly understand what is levelled upon her. Sotheby, on the other hand, might - does, more or less. "Of course!" Sotheby declares, having popped off her crate. Karson, having traded his binoculars for a rather vicious looking handmade slingshot, starts arranging vials near him like quivers of arrows. "Do you think I've been idle, in the suitcase? All I've done for hun-dreds of years is mix and bubble and burner!" She claims, having lost track of the time several times over and also been cooped up inside a special kind of different for the whole time. "I've just about got the perfect party popper ready from what Vertin showed me! I'm sure she'll be proud!" Sotheby pulls on her own set of goggles and a full respirator setup for her lower face. "Girls, the blue vials are glue vials, and the cloudy purples are sleepy smoke. Make sure you take a sip off my green vials, for energy, before you toss around the cloudy purples! And of course, red's a big party!" Red is a violent version of dragon gall mixed with several de-heating elements to create a kind of phantom St. Elmo's fire that causes something closer to a capsicum reaction that is belligerently unquenchable. There are only a few, yet for some reason Margaret gets handed two directly. "Make sure to hit body with these for best results. They're harmless fun - but perhaps they won't like a little brightness to their bodies for a change! Rude!" She had NOT liked being outside in the shouty brightness times. when the Bell activates, Druvis immediately winces and hangs head, thrown off deeply by the disorientation and having to regulate her power from being hit all at once from every angle. Sotheby, on the other hand, is shielded and braced for chemical warfare. "Regulus! They've got invisibility countermeasures up there! Don't get into the glit-ter!!" Sotheby calls out, before looking to Mr. Karson, who has pulled on his own retro respirator, goggles, and shop gloves.
Ein	"Mister Kar-son!" The butler leans reaches for the plungers. "Number one, if you ple~ase!" Sotheby, a bored child, also thinks she's devilishly cool. "Miss Dru-vis, please, the throwing, if you would!" Mr. Karson, having reviewed and repurposed the materials left by the mysterious butterfly "X", and having sourced some relay wire of his own, had taken a cue from the clever ruse-devices for his lady's genius designs, and had just remotely triggered the timed fuses on a whole batch of Sotheby's enhanced Misty Bubble Balls. Chemicals bubbling away and mixing, it relied on the supernatural assistance of some very well tended-to (and alchemically enhanced!) vines of ivy. With roots held like springs, the cultivated artillery lobs the sleep gas bombs out over no-man's land and walk soporific chemical agents through the area, with one extra complication: It's got the same sugarmix as Chicago, the sugarspin immediately and insufferably gunking up every single thing it gets about with spiderwebs of sugar that aren't exceptionally hard to get through with proper protection... But they are gunky. And well-dreaming woe be to anyone without protection!
Timekeeper	"Radiation poisoning. That weapon is... It's radioactive." Having been braced for some kind of pillar of light or a firestorm or something the fact that the Bell only resulted in a weird discomforting feeling left Margaret aching more from clenching her teeth than anything else. She huddles in with Odette, grabby-handsing for things to throw. "What's that?" Doris is busy stuffing spare cloth into the gaps in the windows and under doors to hopefully try and stem either the Bell's effect or gas if the Foundation deploys any. She looks over her shoulder, activated by the word for whatever reason. "Oh! It's a fancy new health treatment. Some sort of... scientific thing, that heals your body smaller than you can even see. Fills you with energy, keeps you young." "I had a treatment of it once, gift from a friend of mine." Doris shudders a bit, rubbing her wrists with the gross, invasive feeling. "Felt a bit like this, if I'm remembering right." "Are you trying to give us radiation poisoning? Are you trying to give us all cancer?!" The intensification of the Bell starts making its symptoms roil across a wider range of the sensory spectrum. Over the next minutes, a seizure-like halo starts glowing around people in your vision, and the itching transforms into pinpricks of pain. It's almost like a physical crank on your anxiety, for Odette specifically, as if there's a resonant tone it's zeroing in on that pierces through your chest and shakes your heart to accelerate it manually. Odette's response is a pew of a laser pulse aimed wide to her head, smacking the corner of the window and showering her with debris. She can't make eye contact with the guards on account of their masks, but one of them definitely looks right at her, and then equips a matching respirator-type thing that wedges into his lips. Regulus, meanwhile, is a glittery little sparkle-shape creeping through the crowd right up to the sergeant and the Bell itself. Right as she's bending down to get a closer look at it, she's karate chopped-- not in the back of the neck as he'd hoped, just sort of weirdly on her lower spine, so it doesn't actually disable her. Upon making contact, he lets out a grunt of "There you are-!" and swings a punch blindly towards her center mass. "Girls, the blue vials are glue vials, and the cloudy purples are sleepy smoke." "Blue glue, smokey sleepy, I'm on it." Margaret has been slowly scrunching in on herself as the Bell's ringing gets worse, but being handed not one, but two be-spoke party vials rejuvenates her like Christmas morning. Her eyes widen so much that the goggles shift upwards, and she immediately gets to shimmying up Druvis's plants to the second floor. "You're the best, Sothes!" Hitting the upper floor landing running, Margaret raises up one of the vials and shouts. "Ruth, Bellwhistle, watch this! Now, catch this overhand!" 'No man's land' closes pretty quickly. Up close, the little motions of the police betray that they're suffering a bit from the Bell's effects too, even with their shielding, and it gets worse as they trudge towards the building where its effect is centered. Reaching the wall, they wordlessly split off into pairings, where one person maintains the riot shield angled against the various throwables, and one person begins breaking into the encampment. For Druvis's growths, they've come equipped with handheld powersaws, bursting with each pull of the trigger to whirr through vines and branches and open up barricaded points. When faced with Veronica, they arm and drop charges as close to her feet as they dare to get, which crack concrete only at a very short range, forcing her to either retreat or let Baker and Seventh get damaged.
Timekeeper	"NECROS ANNIHILATION WAVE!" Even before Geed starts powering his attack, flying overhead draws the formation's attention immediately. Someone-- he can't tell which of them-- shouts 'GEED!' as a warning, and with an arm-chop, a soldier hidden in the trees behind the closing in formation fires another Laplace device at him. He's struck with a pale yellow ball of goo launched like a small cannon, that begins rapidly expanding, while also becoming heavier to drag him down to earth, unlike foam. Still, the soldiers not directly manning the Bell scatter for cover when he releases the attack. A few take potshots with their concussive K-Tope Calibrators once they're out of his way, but none of them-- or the Foundation-- know his powerset well enough to be comfortable risking it. The glowing cross clears them, and smacks right into the Bell. When the glass cracks from the impact, you can all feel the 'center' of the effect swerve as if it was physically yanked towards the Bell. Like fishhooks passing through your body, it gets suddenly sharply painful and disorienting in a certain direction, and all the soldiers stumble for a moment in the same way. Not being its direct target makes the effect more tolerable and build slower, but it hasn't turned off. Looking at it to try and estimate its status is starting to get difficult even with Sotheby's goggles, looking like it's pouring blobs of light out of its broken side. Then Veronica launches a pillar of vibrations through the air at it, and instead of catching the Bell, it hits one of the people operating it. His headgear shakes clean off, and he staggers-- without it on, Regulus can recognize him as the semi-sympathetic Radiohead guard from before, now subject to the Bell's damaged and unregulated effect at point blank range without protective gear. He drops, covering his eyes and ears with his hands, immobilized on the ground.
Veronica	The sudden shift in the radiation fields shakes Baker and Seventh's balance and her blast of sound goes a little wide, battering and de-helmeting one of the bell's operators. As soon as she opens her eyes again she's weighing the odds of just rushing the thing to smash it, but the Foundation riot-squad is already upon the building. The first charge does indeed go off underfoot, cracking the concrete with a loud sound and forcing Veronica to grab hold of a tree to avoid falling over. Spying Geed getting slimed, she realizes a fight out in the open is precisely what these guards are prepared for-- and chooses to give some ground. Backing into the doorway, Veronica thinks fast and decides to gamble. Her EGO's right fist splits open at the end, revealing a thick metal pipe running the length of the limb. A violent torrent of water rushes forth, battering the guards trying to force their way through the doorway. As they hunker down behind their shields Veronica aims a little higher and increases the pressure, washing over Geed from across the building's front yard. If she can just remove enough of that goop to let Geed fight his way free...
Regulus	''The blue vials are glue vials'' Regulus snags a blue vial on the way out because she always does better with at least one key item in her inventory but later... ''Don't get into the glit-ter!!'' Shit, too late! Regulus was in such a hurry, she didn't dwell too much on the glitter, but at least it isn't perfect and makes it hard to hit her vital areas? Regulus isn't a skillful enough fighter to be pleased by this and is still upset she got clobbered at all. She stumbles from the impact and barely gets her arm up in time to protect her midsection. The strike still hits solidly and Regulus lets out a cry of pain as her arm drops shortly after the block as Regulus finds it difficult to lift it back up. And that's not the worst part of it. Her body is in agony. He hisses through his teeth as a lingering glow starts hovering around the people of her vision. She needs to do something with this guy or she'll be taken down before she can stall any further! She rolls the BLUE POTION down underneath the sergeant's feet, hoping that he's so focused on her he'll end up smashing through the bottle and glueing himself on the spot! But the damage is done. The pain spikes through Regulus's body and the invisibility fades as her her ability to focus on her arcanum is taken away from her. "C'mon...c'mon just a little more..time..." She is forced to abandon her efforts to sabotage the device herself, particularly when Riku's strike goes off, setting it off a little indirectly--but the burst of intensity still makes her heave and hack. Tears are in her eyes. How many more seconds does she need? How will she even see the messenger like this? She blinks tear in her eyes to ease off the impact on her ocular senses, running along semi-blindly in an attempt to buy as much time as she can. Winning wasn't really an option, they had months and months of prep for something like this. She sees a fallen piece of headgear, as she's looking down and she picks it up, not immediately recognizing where it comes from. She starts to put it down on her head but-- --Radiohead. Regulus, despite everything, has a sense of honor. She can't really get a helmet on the guy while his hands are on his face, but she sort of pushes it over to him until it reaches his hands, at least, maybe his head. She's sort of doing her best to aim. But she doesn't linger, trying to keep moving. Every second she buys ... but why did she try to help that guy out despite that? Maybe she is just a silly stupid pirate, she thinks unhappily.
Riku Asakura	Geed, caught off guard by the shot from the cannon, can't move to avoid it; he's already focused on his shot at The Bell. The ball hits the center of mass of Geed, which he initially ignores because he's still firing the shot. When the smoke clears, he grumbles because the disintegration effect wasn't strong enough to take care of The Bell completely; likely it had some defenses of its own. Raising a shield, he protects himself from the concussive shots from the ground, but only then notices the ball starting to drag him down. He tries to fly higher, only to still be sinking. Looking down, he notices the growing ball of goo on his body. Could he grow out of it? He isn't /sure/ because they've seen him get big. Worse, it might make the goo bigger too. His eyes search the ground; if he landed in the middle of that group of people, he'd be overrun. Especially without being able to get big. He racks his brain on how to escape this until he remembers one of the powers instilled in Necro's capsule. One that Meresankh had mentioned casually. The Bell wasn't down completely; it was still firing but not as accurately as before. He also doesn't know Regulus is there either; she's sparkly invisible. He's trying to run ideas through his head, and that's when he notices that he loses his helmet in Veronica's attack. Which means that the helmets are what's keeping them from experiencing the symptoms, or at least muting them. This gives him a plan, but he'll need their attention. So his body starts to vibrate with green energy before he vanishes. He aims to teleport himself OUT of the goo and right on top of the Bell itself.
Odette Raskins	"What's that?" "Radiaton poisoning is-eh? N-no, it's definitely not a healing thing. It's what happens when you're exposed to radioactive particles and..." Odette starts to explain while huddling behind the window again, raising a hand to gesture outside. "... It kills you without you being able to see it avoid it without specialized protective gear. Smaller doses could take years to make you sick and start growing tumors, but bigger doses can kill you just from exposure like..." She jerks a thumb back outside again, grimacing for a moment before handing Margaret and the rest of the Ainsworth crew GEL GRENADES. "Oh, right. These, press the button and then toss it somewhere in front of them. It'll spread a whole bunch of slippery stuff that'll make it harder for them to get any closer without... Er. Slipping." She explains while she mixes together another bottle of oddly-colored chemicals, pausing every now and then to calm the shaking in her hands from the itching. She really shouldn't be itching like that, but what else could it be? She also hands Margaret two pre-made grenades with ominous fire stickers on them. "Napalm. These burn... Er. Maybe I should just keep these, actually." She reconsiders and withdraws those two, but she's not going to fight particularly hard to keep them away if Margaret ends up wanting to take them anyway. Even without the Bell's intensification, Odette's already an anxious mess in these kinds of situations. With it, and with nobody from the Foundation denying her question at all, she's already preparing for the worst. She barely even registers the debris cutting her face next to the realization that the Foundation does just want her dead at this rate. She just keeps huddling behind that window for a while longer, mixing together the concotion and drawing some of it out into an injector to jab herself in the arm for some much needed physical relief from the symptoms. "I-if it's that bad from here, then we can't let that thing get anywhere closer to us. Gotta..." She trails off, not knowing how to actually handle the existence of a machine like that. She's got medicine to treat the worst of the radiation poisoning for those gathered inside Rebellion's staging area for now, at least, and a fast-use injector to get the medicine into them while they're busy tossing things and managing the defenses with plant and potion, but she knows that won't last forever. "Crap. We can't destroy it, or it might blow up and level the entire.. All of this." Before she can work out more of those thoughts, she feels that pull of the Bell's effects moving away from the building. The relief doesn't last long, though, since the damage has already been done mentally, and she only spares a brief moment to peek outside at what's going on with the Bell. The good news is that it's not aimed at the building any more, but the blobs of light are terribly ominous, and the sight of the guard losing his helmet followed by him dropping to the ground give her yet more reasons to be freaking out. "F-Foundation! You have to turn that thing off! That man's gonna die from exposure if you don't!" She yells out, not realizing Regulus is still out there trying to get that helmet back on his head. "A-and that's if it doesn't delaminate from the leak and blow up the entire Foundation first!" She adds with yet more terror in her voice, assuming a bit too much based on what she's seen at home, but with the power of both sincerity and BIG WORD SCARE.
Ein	While none of Druvis, Karson, or Sotheby understand the science behind radiation based weapons, Druvis and Karson do their best while Sotheby continues to find nothing too out-of-scope happening. Blurred vision, irritants and the like - she had proper protective items on! It was just that she hadn't quite Demon Core'd before. The Foundation traitor Rodgers had given her a clue but she had been confident in her peerless little lady's alchemical protective devices, and now she was very much of the mind that she would not be reimbursing the Foundation for breaking their awful, terrible device! Mr. Karson, in a string of windows, aims a pelting of further chemical vials with slingshot down into No Man's land, his aim starting to worsen steadily after the first few fairly accurate shots of glue bombs. Then, with a wrenching twist the radiation spins away and Karson gets out his binoculars again and looks down at the lenses. Would he be concentrating the radiation into his eyes? It was already difficult with the goggles... Disarding the sight aid, he just ducks around danger to peer out and see what's happened. "The light, it's changed direction! Perhaps Riku has done it? Though..." He's not sure. Sotheby, who had been passing out toys and party favors (and hopes Regulus enjoys her glue!), doesn't like the look of the cracked glass, ringing ears and itching skin causing her to start chugging her energetic nutrition potion which had been refined to have the general consistency of a melted jello shot and the flavor of Mountain Dew-oid thick water. It does, however, hit like soda pop and ginger-effect opens the sinuses as vigor is boosted and tapped. "Die of exposure?!" Sotheby gasps, gloves crossing over mouth. "What sort of dangerous device are they operating there? That energy wave... wasn't it some sort of metal arcanum?" Fretting, worrying, Sotheby turns and calls down to Druvis. "Miss Druvis, don't use the vines like we talked about!!" Frantic. "Don't?" Druvis asks, holding temple and feeling incredibly disoriented as she felt the radiological effects of the weapon across all the plants. Those at the fore, being ripped apart, seemed ready to counterattack, to lunge after facemasks and helmets and shields -- then hang back, hesitating like leafy vipers poised and hissing but not striking. "What? Why? Sotheby, they are not coming to be gentle!" Druvis protests, but complies before questioning the little lady. "The Bell, we need to turn it off! And maybe it's the sort of reaction that cannot be! But, can't you do anything? With-- with roots, or vines, or--?" Druvis, grimacing deeper as her moment of hesitation allows for further advance and the rich and young-wet woodmatter she had invested to be sturdy against flame was now being bitten through like rended flesh. There was no surface for it to grow from, mangled and leaking, and so Druvis pivots her approach as she has to bid back distance to saws and cutting blades. "One thing, Sotheby." Druvis returns, tense. "One or the other." She confirms, and does not elaborate. Sotheby weighs this for only a moment as she scampers down from her perch. "Mr. Geed's going for the Bell" So, helping him. "We have to help!" Karson, taking a breather as he sips at one of Sotheby's restorative potions, doesn't want to look at that light any more, feeling nausea, sees Sotheby rabbit and chases after her with a scrabble-up. "Please," Sotheby entreats Druvis, and the Druid brings hands to wand to focus her channeling down to a point.
Ein	Sotheby and Druvis had such plans. Sotheby had such schemes, fanciful catapults to defend Typhon's magic castle from Jupiter's armies, a whole siege plan, kudzu capture and root moat and tunneling. They had planned for fire and smoke! Sotheby had been wrong, but bright lights and throwing vials at people - it was like the riots and not. This time she wasn't cowering, and there was some sort of bomb happening! It all was much more exciting than before. Was this what always happened outside? "Send the third plan further, and then help... smash the Bell?" "Sotheby." Pleads Druvis. "One thing." With Geed going for the top of the Bell, and as primarily energy (and foreign nanomachines!) that was probably fine? Sotheby didn't understand, and Druvis certainly didn't. From behind the no-man's land point of advancement, a prepared surprise of roots emerges ''late'' and reaches for the back line again, crawling towards the Bell's base to consume and remove power cables and trails and assist Riku in encasing or pulling apart the Bell before whatever criticality Odette fears comes to pass. Does this scare off the operators? Maybe! Druvis was not given clear instructions. She can do one thing -- which is try to ensure the maximum number of people live so she doesn't die of whatever radiation does in human jail forever.
Timekeeper	"C'mon...c'mon just a little more..time..." Even as gratified as he is by feeling the physical report of his punch landing on Regulus, the glitter effect isn't clear enough for the Foundation sergeant to get a firm grip on her. Lunging to grab where he thinks her arm is, the crunch of glass underfoot is exactly what Regulus hoped for. Sotheby's glue glorps out when he stomps on it, sealing his grey boot to the ground and anchoring him down even as he pulls against the stretchiness and swears. John Radiohead's hands scrabble for the headgear when Regulus pushes it back towards him, forcing it back on by practiced motions even through the sensory disorientation. It's only after she's sprinted away that he looks up through the goggles and sees her, stunned and still getting his bearings back while struggling up from the ground. "Smaller doses could take years to make you sick and start growing tumors, but bigger doses can kill you just from exposure like..." "Oohhh... that bad, huh...?" Evie doesn't really know the science of what Odette's talking about, but the ashen-faced nausea induced by the Bell makes it easy to believe. "Would they do something like that...?" She steels herself, wiping her face with the back of her hand and grabbing one of Odette's slime grenades. "Well, today we've got today to worry about. No need to add tomorrow to it." She beans the grenade at one of the cut-open windows just as a soldier's trying to clamber through, causing him to slip and fall back outside, which elicits a woozy giggle from her. "A-and that's if it doesn't delaminate from the leak and blow up the entire Foundation first!" Unfortunately, Odette's miscalculated the kind of attitude that's common here. This is a Laplace doohickey, which means it works, but it's bullshit, and most people don't want anything to do with knowing how it works. Using big words to talk about its impact only makes the 'speak English, egghead' vibe radiate even more strongly off of them. "It's perfectly vetted for crowd dispersal," One of the guards hacking away at the building replies through gritted teeth of his own. "Y' want it to stop, you know what to do." Meanwhile, Regulus's running only takes her so far. Before she gets to the treeline, she's tackled-- the sergeant ripped his foot free of his glued-down boot, and hurled his entire body towards Regulus's glittery motion to ensure that she was taken down. Jarred out of invisibility by the fall, he makes quick work of grabbing her wrists and pulling them behind her back, cuffing them together. "There we go, easy now. That's it. You wouldn't happen to be willing to call off your friends, would you? ... Nah, of course not." The Bell is the nexus of all of the others' efforts, reaching and overreaching to try and cut off the pervasive sense of deep-rooted unwellness. With the Bell damaged, the sensation seems to 'wobble' uncontrollably; intensifying and easing off in unsteady rhythm, but sliding greater over time. It's acid at the back of your throat, swimming vision-- looking at yourself, there's no physical sign of any harm coming to you, not even heat radiating off of the machine, but the malaise is so widespread that your brain screams that something must be going permanently wrong with your body.
Timekeeper	Cold water does very little to Geed's foam bubble, but if Veronica switches to hot, it melts away in seconds. Geed's energy form absorbs the brunt of the damage from being right on top of the Bell, but it's still 'leaking', and he's at ground zero of its effect. Even without having a normal biological body, it makes him feel like every organ is in active rebellion against him being this close to it, while Druvis's vines snake past the front line to start yanking at the machine's connections. Pulling at the Bell makes it even more unstable. The cracked side 'spits' out stars that hang in your vision, smelling like vanilla while bathing your tongue in bitterness and intense spice, but as Druvis and Geed are wrestling with it, another person hauls themselves up to the machine. With the turn of a key and the slam of a lever, Radiohead guy depowers the Bell finally. As the deafening tinnitus-sound fades away and the glow dims, Radiohead guy breathes a sigh of relief, and then preemptively defends himself from his superior's disbelieving stare. "H-hey, that wasn't controlled circumstances! The containment was broken; who knows how safe it was to keep using?" Meanwhile, the front lines are still practically a micro war-zone. Sotheby's sleeping glass, deployed by Ruth and Margaret, washes over them, but the guards clutch their (presumably arcane-resistant) respirators to their faces with one hand, and swing batons or shields with the other. It's a constant back and forth with Druvis and Veronica, and even Bellwhistle getting in on it to push them away, losing ground and getting grabbed in return until-- Fweeeeee -- THWIP! An arrow zips overhead and embeds itself in the wall of the Rescorla-Wagner building, shot from behind even the backline of the Foundation soldiers. A teenaged girl with pink hair in a brown uniform, holding a bow, sprints down the road towards the scuffle, waving both of her hands wildly and shouting. Evie, recovering from the Bell turning off, gasps. "Oh! That's Leilani!" "Waaaaaait! Hold ittttt! Yamete! E kü! I've got orders!" Mystified by this turn of events-- but Regulus surely knows what this means-- the sergeant lifts up off of Regulus's back and looks over at her. "Did something change?" Leilani unfolds a piece of printer paper like it's a scroll, reading from it loudly. "Chief Investigator Sonetto has called for everyone involved in this rebellion to present themselves as high priority witnesses in the Timekeeper v. Chicago Branch Office trial! They are now protected under the jurisdiction of the Investigators Office and the Justice Division! Please ceeeease fighting, onegaishimasu!" The smoke around the building slowly clears, as everyone awkwardly comes to a stop. Having half-overran the encampment, several people are already primed for arrest with guards on them, and Regulus is hauled up to her feet by the sergeant. Without any intent to un-cuff any of them, the sergeant hesitants, then sighs, oddly accepting without complaint. "... If that's how it is, that's how it is. Well, your squatting's over regardless, kids. Come with me." Leilani falls behind him, hopping along to stick close. "Ah-! If you don't mind, sir, I'll be sticking around to make sure they're in public holding cells, thank you! Someone's gotta make sure everyone's accounted for."
Regulus	Regulus can hear the sound of glue glorping. One thing Regulus has learned about having the power of Invisibility combined with the power of being able to figure out doohickeys by looking at them means that she ends up running into danger more than she ends up using her arcane skill to escape it. In the end, though, her arcane skill, her working out, her knowledge--none of that is what keeps her going for as long as is needed. The only thing she can really rely on in the end is her heart and her will. That last one is a new trait for Regulus--she never really had something to put her body and future on the line before, but the stakes have been raised and ever since Sonetto reached out to her in the Suitcase on that day, she has finally found other people to fight for. And while it's been turbulent seas, the past few weeks have steadily restored Regulus's sense of hope and comradery. Being believed in makes you want to believe in others and being trusted makes you want to have faith. She has no idea if Odette is correct or not, but it's too late for her to have regrets about the danger. She already lived past the twenty seven club anyway, she attempts to console herself about the super cancer she must have just contracted. She has no idea Radiohead saw her because she can barely see where she's going. Regulus feels a body slam into her. She geoes down. She is several obstacle courses short of avoiding that. The familiar sensation of having her hands cufed behind her occurs. Regulus has her body go slack. Sorry, Sonetto, if only she was a little faster maybe she could have done something. Maybe if she had more stamina she could have lasted a little longer. ... But the sergeant helpfully informs her that her friends aren't out of it yet even if she is. "Sorry, love, you've gotten to know me too well." She forces out, in utter misery as she wiggles to try and scratch the painful itches more than to try and escape. But then... it fades. And she hears Radiohead's voice. Having just been chastizing herself for being stupid for helping a guy helping operate the Make Regulus And Her Friends Suffer Machine, she is now mentally congratulating herself as a charitable genius whose kind and overreaching heart has--well, okay, maybe it didn't save the day but at least she's not in the hell dimension anymore. Once the machine powers down, the wiggling stops. ''Yamete!'' "Guess she did keep a close eye on me..." Regulus mumbles in an obscure callback. But as Leilani continues, it becomes apparent that they managed it. They survived just long enough. Regulus shakes her head to try and wiggle her sunglasses back onto a stable spot on her face as she has no hands and must be shaded. "You're a sight for sore eyes, Leilani. Literally. I've got the world's biggest headache like I've just gone on a bender." And then because she's Regulus she pushes a little too far. "Don't suppose you'd mind uncuffing me now? No? Worth a shot..."
Riku Asakura	Geed's ORIGINAL plan fell apart the moment he was told it was likely radioactive. He almost made things much worse for many people. Their only recourse would be to try to pull the plug on the device, basically. He notices Druvis's attempts to unplug the thing. Worse of all, being at the center of the device was causing so many problems with his own body. The disruption was dire enough to nearly make him throw up. However, thankfully, the Radiohead guy jumped on the issue, defying his leader and turning the thing off. The effects turned down from a hundred to zero, causing Geed to shake off the feeling and recover. He's got a shot at this, but notices that Regulus is being cuffed. They can't take the leader of this moveme-! 'Waaaaaait! Hold ittttt! Yamete! E kü! I've got orders!' Oh thank god, he guesses from his conversation with Regulus who this was. Still staggering from the effects of The Bell, lets himself sigh in relief. They did manage to hold out long enough, despite everything they tried to use against them. He also, for a brief moment, felt the urge to punch the guy in charge. Mostly because of them using a radiation weapon on them, but then lets it go, because it'd likely not help them in the long run. When they start to take them to the public holding cells, Geed releases the transformation, returning into the form of Riku. "Well, hopefully this won't be a long wait for the trial."
Odette Raskins	"wasn't it some sort of metal arcanum?" "I-I don't know how they did it, but I know that feeling. It's usually something I've only felt around accidents, not like this." Odette explains to Sotheby at a rapid clip, forgetting momentarily that she is still a child that probably shouldn't be getting exposed to any of this. With the sheer number of people in the building alone, Odette's already running thin on stuff for treating radiation poisoning, but she's making sure to dose Sotheby and Druvis relatively often compared to herself and everyone else. Sotheby's the only other person she can trust to treat anyone if she faints from this, and Druvis is the only person she knows that's even mentioned the possibility of killing anyone without recoiling at it. "Would they do something like that...?" Evie doesn't get a direct answer from Odette, but the EMT doesn't have it in her to outright say yes or even nod. Her jaw clenches a little and she looks like she's about to cry a little, but- "No need to add tomorrow to it." She does eventually manage a slow nod at that. "R.... Right. One day at a time. We get through this, and then we can... Mhm." She doesn't even want to think about working right now. She just wantes to be done with all this. The longer she's here, the more the nausea hits her., and not entirely from from the radiation poisoning. "Y' want it to stop, you know what to do." She considers the napalm grenades again. "Waaaaaait!" "Please ceeeease fighting, onegaishimasu!" "Come with me." There's a thick haze in Odette's mind long after the machine is finally turned off, and she only barely registers that she can actually focus entirely on treatment now that the fighting has ended. Checking her supplies hastily, she staggers out of the Rescorla-Wagner building that she's gotten far too used to over recent months. She offers the smallest smile of thanks to Leilani even as tired as she is, then hurries to get the last of the radiation meds injected into Regulus and Riku-forma-human. "New clothes, shoes, water, soap. We need to get everyone changed out of these clothes and treated for exposure before anything else happens." Odette states firmly, not even looking at the sergeant or the guards despite talking in their direction. "We need to decontaminate, and I'll need potassium, iodine, silicon, nitrogen, radium, hydrogen. If your medical team doesn't have that, then just get me whatever they do have." She adds, still sounding calm and firmly in her zone of heavy medical focus that Regulus had commented on earlier today. Despite sounding that way, however, being close enough to Riku and Regulus makes it extremely obvious that she's feeling anything but right now.