The Rescue

[Sem]

“Goodness,” Sorena muttered as she walked through an utterly ruined section of a city. A large section of the street had collapsed into the sewers, and several buildings were completely knocked over. It looked like a tsunami had torn through everything. Sorena suspected that that wasn’t very far off from what actually happened either.

Her sixth sense told her that something was definitely up. It wasn’t because she was a witch that she knew that something was wrong, no, it was because she had been around for forever. She could definitely sense remnants of his presence in the air. He had fought pretty hard – it was strange that he had been outmatched. Sure, they both knew some fairly powerful people, but fortunately none of them were all that malicious towards her or Sem.

The trail met an abrupt halt towards the edge of all the destruction. “Now then… Were you taken from this spot… or perhaps you were airborne…” The woman pursed her lips, darting her eyes to and fro. The area was crawling with rescue personnel, though it seemed as they very few people were at all injured. “Whoever it was was lucky that Sem had to show some restriction,” she muttered, spying a few small pieces of what seemed to be some sort of frozen substance, but it wasn’t water.

From within her sleeve she produced a small charm in the form of a raindrop. It glowed faintly due to Sem’s elemental energy still have some traces in the area around them. She thought to herself for a moment before suddenly vanishing with a wisp.

She reappeared several blocks down the road, which had been left untouched by the fierce battle. Checking the charm again it still glowed faintly, but she could suddenly sense something else. She could sense magic.

A sudden sharp noise caught her ear, bringing her attention to the roof of the building she stood in front of. Another sharp ping sounded followed by laughter. Without a second thought Sorena walked inside of the building, ignoring the several strange looks she got from those inside. It was an apartment building, and all the neighbors were currently talking about what may have happened to the nearby part of town.

Locating some stairs, the witch ascended them to the roof and stepped out onto it. The air was a bit chill, and a group of variously aged children huddled around the center as another swung a pickaxe down towards the ground, producing another loud, sharp noise that rang out.

“What is up with this thing?” one said. “It won’t even chip.”

“I think Joe’s just not as strong as he wants us to think he is,” another snickered. “Here, let me have a try.”

Sorena looked over their heads at the object of their interest, spotting the familiar figure of her friend. She found him. “You could destroy the planet and I promise you that it would still be one… piece…” she began to say before slowing into a slur. “Err…” Indeed, it was Sem’s body. But his head was missing.

Now the children were all busy staring at her. Sorena snapped her head up and met their gazes. They all stood like that for the longest moment. Darting her eyes left and right for a moment, she spoke. “…Hello?”

No response.

“… Lovely day, isn’t it?” she half smiled, raising her brow.

Still no response. She didn’t have patience for this.

“I put a curse on this thing. Now run along before I turn you all into frogs and eat you,” Sorena said quite calmly, causing the children to immediately disperse. “Now then…” she muttered, kneeling down at Sem’s, or rather, his body’s side.

“What nasty trick did they play on you?” she asked no one in particular. She could sense the traces of a charm, a charm that wasn’t hers. It was a bit crudely made she thought, but effective nonetheless, whatever it had done. She could sense something else as well, a sort of energy residue. Completely foreign and quite strange.

A vial rolled out of her sleeve and into her hand. Uncorking it, she waved it around as the container magically gathered the residue. She had a fairly good idea what it was, and she would toy with it later. All she needed to know for now what that Sem had been abducted. It was a kidnapping or perhaps a bounty, she didn’t care. She would get him back, and those responsible would be sorry.

-------

It was a dark and stormy night as Sorena walked down a cobblestoned road on the nondescript outskirts of a nondescript city in a nondescript part of the world. Up ahead was a large, rather symmetrically cube-esque building constructed of red bricks. On the roof was a greenhouse of sorts, though the area itself was abundant with all sorts of plants. A large tree grew out in front of the building. The tree was surrounded by beds of flowers of all kinds, and must have looked simply stunning during the day. Vines and ivy grew up the walls, hiding the red brick beneath. It was quite beautiful, even in the dark.

Sorena walked up a path to the front door and rapped it three times. Lights were on, so she knew that he was inside. When the door opened she stepped inside.
-------

OOC: Right, this took longer to get up than I had intended. For those of you not in the know, this is pretty much a direct sequel to The Hunt. Basically it will involve as the title suggest: saving Sem. Now, it would be a lot easier for you to join if your character knows Sem, but this isn't necessary. You'll just need an even more creative way to insert yourself because this really does allow little room for openings whether a character knows Sem or not.

Not really setting a limit to the number of people that can join, but for right now Chadwyck and I will need to finish our little interaction before any of you guys can join, so I'll let you guys know when that is.

 

[Chadwyck]

"Do you hear that mess out there?" Liam muttered as he nodded toward the window, a flash of lightning illuminated the night sky as if on cue, "I'm not going to get you anything."

"What's the big deal? You can teleport yourself anywhere you want; and I'm not even sure it's limited to this world. All I'm asking is for you to go pick up some Chinese or something, the fridge is empty." Chadwyck complained as he leaned back over the chair he was seated in, causing his worldview to be upside down.

All in all it was turning out to be a typical evening: Chadwyck and Liam were arguing over something that didn't really matter, despite their close friendship they tended to do that a lot, and Serah sat contentedly listening to the conversation as she fiddled with one of her plants; tonight she was growing an exceptionally interesting cross pollination of rose and lily, though she wasn't sure she liked the results. "Maybe there's a reason it's difficult for non-chlorokinetics to cross pollinate these two," she mumbled to herself as she cheerfully kept the flower growing.

It had been this way since the trio met several years prior, Chadwyck had been trying to write some dark wrongs of his past, Liam had been hired to kill him and Serah somehow got dragged into the middle of it all. Through some various encounters and exciting battles, the trio ended up as a bizarre family.

The house in which they lived was fairly unique in the fact that there were no rooms divided up by interior walls; aside from the bathrooms and a few closets, the house was an enormous open space. Sofas and chairs littered the space that they designated as the living room, a large TV hung from the wall. At the back of the room were stairs that led up to the second floor, which was just a raised platform that overlooked the ground floor, and that was where they kept the beds.

Liam waved his hand dismissively, "you're the one who likes the rain, you can go get the food yourself. Rainwater isn't good for my suit." Liam was always dressed in fine, black suits that made him look like either a bank teller or an undertaker, Chadwyck hadn't decided yet; and under his black fedora was vibrant green hair that was as piercing as his eyes that shone behind his black rimmed glasses.

"Yeah, yeah, you and your suits." He stretched and stood up from the chair, nearly grabbing his sword out of instinct, but realized that entering Hong Kong Express with a five foot long blade would severely hinder his Chinese food retrieval. "Serah, you want anything?"

"Anything veggie!" She called back with a grin. The brown haired girl was a vegetarian, Chadwyck found it odd since she loved plants so much; but she explained it as a natural circle, the plants helped her survive and she helped them grow. She loved the color green, so naturally she wanted Liam to dye her hair to match his; he kept insisting his was natural and wouldn't listen.

"And you, mister difficult? Anything?" He asked Liam as he stepped toward the door.

"Well, since you're going out, I'll take some beef and broccoli, maybe some steamed rice."

"Cow killer," Serah mumbled.

"I only regret I cannot slay it myself," Liam replied with a devilish grin.

Serah grimaced, "barbarian," she scoffed.

"All right, you two, don't kill each other while I'm gone." Chadwyck chuckled as he reached for the doorknob; he was caught off guard by the three quick taps at the door. Hesitantly, he opened the door, and an all too familiar face stepped in without being invited. Liam and Serah were about to strike, Chadwyck waved them off; the witch was an old friend.

She wasn't blabbering his ear off, yet, and it seemed as if she were slightly preoccupied. "Sorena," he started, looking at the witch, "what brings you here?"

 

[Sem]

Sorena looked around briefly, noting the two other individuals there. "Girlfriend?" she thought upon seeing Serah. "No, too young." She met Liam's gaze, noting how he was looking at her and jumping to the obvious conclusion as to what he was thinking. "I'm not that old," she snapped.

The witch paced a few steps, walking around the living area aimlessly. "It's about Sem," she said as she walked, taking note of the various items present in the home. "Something's happened to him and I'm not sure what."

Swiping a finger through the air, she seemed to have cut open the air itself as a dark-bluish rip appeared. It was a magical pocket, useful for carrying large items and bodies. Reaching inside she took hold of something and pulled it out, setting it on the floor. It was Sem's decapitated body, still completely frozen.

"You don't recognize him, but this is Sem, or rather, his body," she explained, tapping one of the elemental's icy shoulders. "He's not dead, or so I assume," she continued. "Someone hunted him down and managed to take his head, which is needed in order for him to re-assume an organic form. I have no idea who it was, but I have a way of finding out. Whoever it was knew quite a lot about him, enough to prepare a charm that severely hindered him."

Sorena thought for a moment as she circled the body. "What I'm asking for is your help," she said, not even looking at Chadwyck. "I don't know how well you know him, but he's very dear to me and I consider you a good friend. I would be grateful if you would lend me your help. Your friends would be welcome to help as well," she added, now looking at Liam and Serah. There were an awful amount of flowers and plant-life in and around the building. Sorena expected one of them was responsible, most likely the girl. The plant-life brought back some fond memories for Sorena, though the memories quickly turned sour. With a sharp inhale and a blink of her eyes to clear her thoughts she continued. "It will be dangerous. These louts know how to deal with the likes of us, so I understand if you want to refuse."

Grabbing Sem's body by the arm she quite easily slipped it back into the magical pocket and closed it with another swipe of her finger. The sorceress made her way back around to the front. "If you don't want to go, will you be able to recommend to me someone who would be willing? Even if it's someone I have to pay, I would appreciate it. I will need all the help I can get to teach these bloody fools a lesson."

 

[Chadwyck]

Liam eyed the witch curiously, "Wow, she's really--" as if on cue, the witch cut off his thought, he smiled politely in turn, careful to keep his thoughts free of any age related quips; he wasn't sure if she could read minds at the moment. Chadwyck laughed quietly at the look on Liam's face.

To anyone who didn't deal with the paranormal, super human, and otherwise entirely weird, magical craziness that Chadwyck and his friends dealt with regularly due to their line of work, the witch opening a pocket in the air would have seemed strange and bizarre. The trio present, however, hardly took note of it as she presented a decapitated block of ice that was shaped like a person's body.

Chadwyck was surprised to hear the name Sem, his first observation was that the hydrokinetic was no longer an otterfish. He was going to ask her why, but he realized quickly that it was far from the most pressing issue at hand.

He waited for Sorena to finish and then answered her after a second of consideration; but he needed no time to reach his decision. "Of course I'm coming with you. The waterlogged otterfish, though I notice that's changed, went and got caught up in something nasty. He and I aren't the best of friends, I suppose, but I'd still consider him a pal. And any friend of yours is a friend of mine." He smiled as he stepped over and grabbed his sword, tying the clasp onto his back that would hold it in place.

"Liam, Serah, it's your call whether you want to come or not; I'm not forcing a mission on you while we're on vacation."

"Oh listen to yourself, please," Liam started with a sigh, "like I'm letting you go off into this alone. We're partners, aren't we?" He grinned and grabbed a beaten up, black briefcase and chained it to his wrist, followed by a keyring with several gold keys on it.

"Serah?" Chadwyck asked turning to the last member of their entourage, "you know I don't like putting you in danger."

"Oh please, Chad, I'm a big girl; I can fight with you guys. I'm not letting my big brother go it alone." She smiled as she stepped up to the group. Chadwyck gave a slightly defeated sigh, but it was more for show than actual disappointment.

"Well, Sorena, it looks like you've got yourself some recruits." He stepped up to the door and then quickly turned around to face all of them, an idea apparently sprouting to life in his mind. "And I think I know where we can get another one. Lysis. Let me talk to her, I may be able to convince her to join."

Seeing the lack of recognition on Sorena's face, Liam decided to explain. "He fought her once, it was a pretty even match from my understanding." He paused for a moment and then continued in an amused tone, "and then they went out for drinks."

Chadwyck shrugged, "it was a memorable day, yes. A good brawl, and then drinks with a new found friend. Interesting how it works out, sometimes." He stepped up to Sorena and took her arm, and then latched onto Liam. "He's a teleporter, and a damn good one; he should be able to find her."

With that, there was a sudden pop as air rushed into the space that was occupied by four bodies less than a second prior, and the group was off.

 

[Sem]

Lysis stood in the shower as water poured from the many nozzles situated in the ceiling. It was a monsoon shower, and worked to somewhat recreate a monsoon environment for the bather. Just one of the many luxuries the young woman had in her home.

Turning it off, she stepped out and pulled a fresh white towel off of the nearby rack and wrapped it around herself. It had been a long day, and she was ready for a glass of wine and relaxing on the couch. Wrapping another towel around her head she set about her nightly skin-care routine. As she was about to finish she heard her doorbell ring. Raising an eyebrow in question, she quickly finished and slipped into a red silk robe, now that her body was fairly dry.

She walked out of the bathroom, into and out of her bedroom and down the hall. She passed a wall with water cascading down it, making soft and soothing sounds as it met the small pool at the bottom. The floors were mostly polished concrete, with vine-like carvings along the edges that ran throughout the house. The architecture was very modern, with concrete, steel, and glass making up ninety-percent of the home. She could see someone at the door, which was entirely glass - mostly frosted glass, also with vine-like decorations that were properly clear.

Pulling off the towel and unfurling her long black hair she opened the door. She continued drying her hair as she eyed the strange figure before her. An old bat in a witch getup. Nothing particularly stood out, but the woman's eyes almost seemed to glow.

"You're a little early for Halloween," Lysis said, taking notice of the people standing behind the woman. One face she recognized instantly as Chadwyck. She smiled at him. "You know, babe, guys usually take their girlfriends to meet their mothers - not the other way around." Lysis flashed a grin at Liam and Serah, vaguely recognizing Liam from their brief encounter. "These must be your friends."

Sorena herself was silent, studying the woman. Something about her didn't seem quite right, but if Chadwyck recommended her then she must be all right, though she had hoped he had had better taste in women. "I'm not his mother, I'm just a friend as well," Sorena said.

Lysis shrugged a "whatever". "Well, I wish you would've called before you brought company. Come in," she chimed, leaving the door open and letting her visitors inside.

She led them to her living area. A large room in the back of the house with all walls but one made entirely of glass. The back wall faced the sea, though it was hard to see at night. The living area had a rectangular U-shaped black leather sofa, which seemed to face another plain glass wall. Upon the sofa were several red pillows, and a red rug in the center along with a coffee table.

Sorena studied the house intently, trying to glean as much about the young woman as she could. She seemed to enjoy luxury, that was the most obvious thing. Something else about her though. The way she carried herself, especially in her own environment. She was confident, too confident. Narcissistic maybe? Sorena had many suspicions by this point. Sorena could also sense the psychic energy in the woman. She didn't show it off, but she wasn't hiding it either. She wanted people to be wary of her.

"Sit down," Lysis gestured towards the couch. "Drinks? Anyone?" she asked as she went into the kitchen, which was right next to the living area and seperated by only a breakfast bar.

"We'll skip the drinks," Sorena said, trying to the get to the point. She was rather focused, which was unlike herself.

Lysis crooked an eyebrow as she poured her glass of wine. Walking back out she took her own seat on the sofa, crossing her legs and swirling the liquid in the glass. "Hun," she said to Chadwyck. "from where did you pick this corpse up as a friend? She doesn't seem like someone you'd hang around."

 

[Chadwyck]

Already it seemed that Sorena and Lysis were at odds with one another, it wasn't surprising that they had conflicting personalities. Lysis was into luxury, and as far as Chadwyck knew, Sorena didn't need a lot to get by. And that was only the most basic of differences between them.

"Lysis," Chadwyck said as he stepped in the door, "still as lovely as ever."

She invited them in and offered them drinks, to which Sorena quickly declined. It was understandable, a dear friend of hers was in trouble, Chadwyck would have to be a bit forward with Lysis to get her help and go without wasting too much time.

"Sorena is a lot more than she appears, well except in the fact that she actually is a witch," Chadwyck responded to her question, "we've been through some crazy adventures together: a town where people were disappearing, a dragon, I think we fought once or twice as well, but these things get so fuzzy I can hardly remember. All that matters is that she's a friend, and she needs help."

He hoped that Lysis would pick up on his request before he asked it, he paused for a moment before continuing. "A mutual friend is in trouble, someone very dear to her. Liam, Serah and myself have already volunteered to help her out," he sat down across from her, "and I was hoping that you'd come along too." He smiled as he continued, "we could really use your help."

"Wow," Liam said breaking the silence, "it's not like you to actually accept that you may need some back up."

Chadwyck turned to face Liam, "that's because usually I'm already more than enough for whatever we're up against. But these guys took on Sem, a powerful hydrokinetic, and managed to capture him. I'm not taking any chances when my friends are involved." He turned back towards Lysis, "and of course that includes you too. You don't have to come if you don't want to, you don't know Sem or Sorena, so I'll understand if you decline." Then he grinned and continued jokingly, "but I know you're just dying to see me in action again, babe," he chuckled as he stood up, waiting for her answer.

 

[Sem]

Lysis thought for a moment at what Chadwyck was asking her, which was her aid on an obviously dangerous mission. The idea was attractive, but she would get very little out of it other than the thrill of battle. Of course, she did consider Chad a friend, or something similar.

Sorena waited eagerly for the young woman's answer. She was pretty sure she could figure out the type of motivation necessary to acquire her assistance. Making her an offer would surely secure her help. "I will make it worth your while," she said. "I understand that you like firearms."

Lysis' eyes flashed towards the woman. She was rarely ever in the company of older people - unless she was robbing or offing them. The woman didn't even appear that old, but something about just made one think that she was absolutely ancient. Either way, the woman seemed to be speaking her language now. "You could say that I do, yes," she replied. "What did you have in mind?"

-------

"You honestly want to grab them now, you senile old bat?" Lysis droned, rolling her eyes. The five of them were currently standing in an alley very close to the destruction that had resulted from Sem's conflict with... whoever. They looked perfectly inconspicuous, aside from the fact that they were in an alley and Sorena was there with them. But they were out of sight, and that's what counted.

"They could vanish at any moment," Sorena insisted. Before her was a circular magic glyph of a sapphire blue color. It resembled some sort of elaborate compass, only there were no directions indication north, south, east, or west. Instead there was a simple arrow, which was pointed directly at the individuals ahead of them.

They were all garbed in white, with red crosses on their backs. Workers who were helping out in the area, making sure that people were ok.

"This is bad taste, even for me," Lysis muttered. "Well let's do this before one of them notices that there's a magical arrow pointed at them from a dark alley."

Sorena stood where she was as Lysis advanced towards a worker who was off to the side, away from the others. A pistol was soon in her hand, one of her beloved Strata. Jabbing the weapon into the man's side she held him firm with her other arm and hissed in his ear. "Not a word. Let's calmly walk back to where my friends are, right?" she said, beginning to steer him towards Sorena and Chadwyck. She kept the gun pressed to his side, but hidden from view to any onlookers.

Once they were back with the group Sorena spoke. "Give it to me."

"What are you talking about?" the worker said, obviously distressed, or being very good at faking it at least.

"Your transporter-device," Sorena answered. She had figured out what the residue had belonged to, as it was similar to residue left by other transporter devices she had seen.

The man paused and smirked. "Not on your life, ancient bitch. You wouldn't scare me even if it was Halloween."

Lysis struck the man across the head, knocking him out. "They'll notice he's missing, let's go," she said as she knelt down and searched the man for the device in question.
-------

OOC: Kay, so basically for anyone looking to join this is your chance to get in. Basically you can either catch this whole thing by chance or figure out your own imaginative way in. May the RP officially begin.

 

[Tailon]

An odd man crouched atop a fairly tall building, turning his head back and forth to look over the city he found himself in. The man had dark hair, which he occasionally brushed out of the way of bright green eyes as he looked on, and wore a gray t-shirt and jeans under the long, black, hooded coat with a gold trim flowing behind him in a wind he generated himself for dramatic purposes. Off to his right stood a somewhat annoyed man, adjusting the goggles that pushed his medium-length brown hair down onto his head. This man was dressed more practically, wearing an aviator’s jacket over a white t-shirt, black leather gloves, and a similar pair of jeans, he watched the man watching the city with an expression of raw, undiluted annoyed.
The second man, Scott finally decided to speak up, and said “What exactly is it you’re looking for?”
Without looking at him, the first man, Talon said simply, “I have no idea.”
Scott’s eye twitched a bit, and he opened his mouth to say something, only for both of them to blink a few times and turn in the same general direction. Scott recovered first, and said, “Are you picking that up?”
“Oh yeah,” Talon replied “we’ve got a live one, Scott ol’ buddy. It’s time for some investigation I think.”

Talon stood up and turned completely to face the direction of the reading, and launched himself off the rooftop onto the nearest building, making a dash in the direction of the large magical source that had seemingly popped into existence. The Arcanist drew the cutlass at his belt as he made his way across rooftops, leaping with magically enhanced strength and agility with glee, Scott not too far behind.

---

After a few minutes, the pair found themselves on the roof of a building that formed an alleyway with another building. Below them was a small group of people interrogating a man in what appeared to be a rescue worker’s garb. The group consisted of three women and two men, the men more notable in appearance, one with green hair, and one with a sword across his back. Quite suddenly, one of the women struck the worker, knocking him cold, and began to search the man. Uncertain of any logical motivation, Talon decided to check things more closely, and hopped down onto the ground in front of the group, landing on one knee, with Scott following shortly behind. Talon stood up, his head tilted slightly at this strange sight, looking down at the strangely familiar woman searching the worker.
“I can’t imagine this is a mugging, considering there’s plenty of other workers just over there,” Talon started, “and I don’t see why one would bother with a group anyway.” The Arcanist looked up at the rest of the group, straightening his head. Again, a strange familiarity struck him as he asked them “So, would you mind explaining why you’re seemingly assaulting this person, or will I have to protect him in some way?”

 

[Chadwyck]

"That won't be necessary," Chadwyck said calmly. The men probably thought he was answering their question, but it was really meant for Serah. The girl had began to wrap the men's feet with vines, subtly trapping them on the spot. At Chadwyck's words, however, she made the vines recede into the earth.

"Good thing you stopped her," Liam said nonchalantly, "these men may have grass allergies, heaven forbid." Liam had the ability to annoy his friends without fail, he always knew just what to say to get an irritated reaction; particularly from Serah.

"What is your problem? You know better than anyone what my powers are capable of; or do you need a reminder of when I almost killed your ass?" Now it was her turn to annoy Liam; calling his skill into question was a surefire way to bug him. "Plants almost got the better of you once, all that fatty meat slowing you down?"

"Let's not dwell on the past, young one," Liam said dismissively, changing the topic before she could recount the tale for the entire group. True enough, they had been enemies once when Liam was hunting Chadwyck. Serah had fought to protect him and, while it was close, if it hadn't been for Chadwyck, Liam could have been killed. "Instead, let us focus on these incessant do-gooders who have fallen into our lap."

He stepped up and tapped the unconscious man, "sir, I believe your worries are over, we can't possibly harm you; these fine gentlemen have come to your aid." He waited a few seconds, "wait," he began, tapping his chin, "he's already unconscious. Looks like you're too late, run along now before you get hurt."

"Liam, that's not helping," Chadwyck said thoughtfully. He looked at the men, a sense of familiarity washing over him as he looked at the man in the cloak. "Look guys," he began once he decided how much to tell them, "if you wanna help this guy out that's your choice, but at least hear out our reasons for jumping this guy. You see here," he pointed at the logo on his back, "we're thinking that these guys at this company have taken one of our dear friends, and after a brief conversation with this douchebag, we have no reason to think otherwise."

He stepped forward, "we believe this guy carries a sort of transporter that could get us to this company and our poor kidnapped friend. So, the choice is yours: either you can help this guy out, or you can leave us be and let us carry on with our search."

 

[Sem]

Lysis smirked at Liam's words as she searched through the unconscious rescue worker's suit. She quite liked him so far, forgetting how he had vanished along with her target the first time they met. Chawyck seemed to know how to keep good friends. Though the witch was questionable, and she currently had no opinion on Serah, but the girl was quick to react, which was good, she would need her reflexes.

"I believe I have found it," Lysis announced, holding up the lightly brown, pentagonal object. On it was a strange symbol, but otherwise it seemed perfectly ordinary.

Sorena snatched it from the young woman's hand and beheld it for a moment. Then she returned her gaze to the newcomers. "This is quite perfect timing on your part, Claw," she said to Talon, not realizing she had messed up his name. "Everything is as Chadwyck says. I'm sure you remember Sem? He needs our help. Want to come with? I would like all the assistance I can get on this."

"Answer in the next two seconds though," Lysis said as she stood. "We wanna get moving before the others realize what's going on and warn their organization."

 

[Rex]

It was midday, and the sun shown bright in the sky. A huge building dominated the square, where every so often someone entered or left through portals. The ground was covered in a dusty tan brick, leading up to a large, gray, imposing building. A side branch of the Agency, this building was no where near as large or complex as the main branch was, but was impressive in its own right.

Inside the building was a buzz of activity. Security cameras were a common sight, as were guards. The floors were mainly a red carpet, while the walls and ceiling remained a dull gray steel. Many people were in the building, rushing from place to place. Everyone had a job to do, and it wasn't often people got off. However, at the moment, it was a type of rest for Bounty Hunter Alexander Silver and his small, weasel-like partner, Flynt Incansia.

The two were resting in the lobby, Alexander in his normal gray suit, trench coat, and fedora. His black tie was a bit haphazard, and his equally dark shoes weren't all that shiny. His superior, a man named Thomas Dekker, wouldn't much like the fact that his number one Hunter wasn't looking his best and setting an example, but the man didn't mind. Flynt, as usual, only wore his black jeans, his dark gray fur just barely standing out as being a different color.

After a moment, a man approached the two. According to him, Dekker required the two of them. Expecting as much, after the events of their last hunt, the two quickly made their way to his office. As usual, Tom Dekker was waiting for them there. Brown describe the man about as well as gray described Alex. It was the color of his hair, which was medium-length and well kept. It was also the color of the waistcoat and dress pants he wore. Only his white dress shirt, black shoes, and black tie stood out from the brown.

Another man was there as well, much younger then Dekker or Alex, late teens at the earliest. He was your average Humanoid, a River Otter subspecies. Basic human body, an otter's tail, ears, and muzzle. Brown fur covered most of his body, replaced by cream from the lower half of his muzzle down to below his waist. A pair of black jeans and thick brown goggles with dark gray lens made up his apparel.

"This is Leonard West," Dekker introduced, "The Main Branch sent him here to set up a new portal system, a mechanical one, in the event of a blanket ban on Magic and Magitek. He's also set up the unit that's keeping that head of yours in cold storage."

"Pleasure to meet you both," the otter grinned, holding out his hand for Alexander to shake.

Alex simply nodded, "Keep that thing frozen. It's bad news if it thaws."

After a moment, Leonard lowered his hand, and sighed, "Main Branch wants me to take it back with me, they're really interested in this guy's head. I don't know why, but I presume some of the scientists will want to take a look at it."

"In any case, we've been told to expect the worst while we have the head," Dekker cut in, "I have the guards on alert, and defense systems are just waiting for someone they don't recognize to walk through the doors."

"We'll be sure not to drag someone in then," Alexander smirked, Flynt rolling his eyes at his partner.

"See to it you don't, dismissed."

With that, Alexander, Flynt, and Leonard quickly left the room. Alex and Flynt heading back towards the Lobby, while Leonard started off towards the service elevator, which would take him down to where Sem's head rested.

 

[Blazi]

A shadow launched over buildings, slithered through alleyways and generally sneaked across the city. It's owner was totally silent.

Which was understandable, seeing as he WAS the shadow. It stopped by a streetlight, the figure of a young man clearly visible, though there was no-one actually casting the shadow. A head rose out of the pavement, where the shadow of the head was, and slowly the rest of his body followed suit. If you were to use one word to describe this man, it would be black. His hair was black, his suit was black, his fedora was black, his shoes were black, even his eyes were black. He seemed seventeen, almost eighteen, with a coldness emanating off of him. He was called Callum, but he preferred it if people called him something else, like Shadow. He honestly didn't care though.

His gaze wandered over the buildings, until they settled over an alleyway not too far away. He grinned, then sank back into the pavement, his shadow staying where it was. His shadow ran off in a blur, leaving a lone streetlight to slowly flicker by itself.

The shadow stopped, and took in the scene before it. Men in white with red crosses on the uniform scurried over an area, while behind them a motley assortment of people gathered around a fallen white coat. He ignored the other men, and slowly walked towards the group. Unless a bright light was shining down on them, the shadow would remain unnoticed, while it listened to the group with ease.

Callum realised that the group had some sort of transportation device with them, and if he didn't do something quickly, he would lose them. He decided to shadow-jack - taking the form of another person's shadow and attaching yourself to them, replacing their shadow temporarily. The girl who had just recalled vines surrounding some of the other's feet didn't even bat an eyelid as Callum attached himself to her, her shadow, though invisible currently, disappearing. He stood still and waited for events to progress.

OoC: Hope this is okay. Callum's Shadow-jacked Serah by the way, for those who don't know. Even in shadow-form Callum emits brainwaves and stuff, so Lysis should be able to sense him. As for his reasons for following the group: Curiosity killed the cat, but at least it had fun beforehand.

 

[Sem]

She sensed it almost immediately, and within the frame of a second Lysis stood with her Strata pointed directly at Serah's feet. Something was tickling her psychic senses. Miss Fox did very little with her telepathic abilities, but she knew how to sense minds. "Hey, hag, you sense that?"

"I have a name you know," Sorena quipped, still waiting for Talon's answer to her request. Still, she pulled the side of her mouth back and settled her gaze upon Serah's feet. "...Sahara, my dear," she said after a moment before taking a few steps closer and whispering in the girl's ear. "I don't mean to startle you, but it appears you have a, er, visitor."

"It's in her shadow?" Lysis questioned.

Sorena lowered herself down to the girl's shadow, curiously touching it with her finger. "I don't see where else it would be. Lyra, we need more time please."

"This definitely isn't working out as planned. I'm not very used to this," Lysis droned, holstering her weapon. "I blame you for this, babe," she said, pointing a finger at Chadwyck. "Everything was just fine until I met you." In the twinkling of an eye the young woman vanished.

"Maybe we could just take it with us and deal with it later..." Sorena muttered, still kneeling on the ground. "No, I imagine your friends are worried, aren't they, Serah?" she added, subconsciously getting Serah's name right. "Which means we have to deal with it now..."

Standing, Sorena cracked her neck and knuckles. "I don't have time for this right now," she groaned. "Next time this happens I'm going to need to organize myself a bit more efficiently. Ha," she chuckled. "Organize? Me?" her brief smile quickly turned into a frown. "That's what Sem would've said if he were here."

In an instant a circle of runes appeared on the ground around Serah and her shadow. The circle was intricate, made up of several symbols and glyphs that spun and moved, almost the like the inside of some infinitely complex magical clock. The circle was pure white, and the area was instantly charged with magic so thick you could run your hand through it.

"Whatever you are, you have no idea what you've gotten yourself into. This magic will destroy you if you don't come out in the next five seconds. I haven't seen you, so I won't feel too bad over destroying something I haven't yet seen." She was being entirely serious. Every second wasted was grating on her nerves. "And please give me an answer, Talon, so I know whether or not to leave you behind... or kill you as well if you want to get in my way."

-------

Meanwhile, Lysis was in what was once the sewer, which was now collapsed. She wasn't far away from the workers. Sighing, she shouted, "Help! Someone help!" As she did this she sent a telekinetically enforced punch at a pile of rubble. She let out a scream as she jumped out of the way of the falling debris, distracting the workers from the light show going on in the alley. Before they arrived to where she was she teleported back to said alley.

"They're good and distracted now," Lysis said, pausing for only a second at the scene before her. "I hate working with nonprofessionals..." she muttered. This definitely ranked as the top most poorly executed mission she had ever been apart of. Still, she wasn't going to abandon the mission, not with the new toy that Sorena had given her - or rather, the new multi-toy. Plus, there was always the thrill of battle.

Sorena looked rather pissed and so Lysis waited silently for their current predicament to be resolved. Lysis was for the first time sensing some powerful energy from the woman, energy she didn't want to be on the receiving end of. The witch was much more than met the eye, but then, that was true for everyone present.

 

[Tailon]

"This is quite perfect timing on your part, Claw," she said to Talon, getting his name wrong, though somewhat close, considering, "Everything is as Chadwyck says. I'm sure you remember Sem? He needs our help. Want to come with? I would like all the assistance I can get on this."
The other woman interjected, standing, "Answer in the next two seconds though, we wanna get moving before the others realize what's going on and warn their organization."

Rather suddenly, the two adult women in the group seemed to turn on the girl, and began talking about something to do with the girl’s shadow. Rather suddenly, one of the women disappeared, most likely teleported, as her presence seemed to move away from them in an instant, and the other placed a rune beneath the girl. Without warning, Talon’s sense was blasted with an intense magic that knocked him into a stupor for at least several seconds. Through the magic he heard the witch’s voice.

She was saying, "…And please give me an answer, Talon, so I know whether or not to leave you behind... or kill you as well if you want to get in my way." On hearing his name from her, he was able to put a name to the magic as a spark of recognition hit him. It was the incredibly powerful witch Sorena, he remembered her from a surreal battle long before. The memories of the battle also brought back recognition of the others, Chadwyck, and… Lysis. Well she looked identical to Lysis anyway, though her presence was different.

Still fighting the terrifyingly strong magic, Talon managed to sputter out, “Sem…I remember him, he was a strong warrior,” Talon finally managed to snap himself out of the stupor “I’d be glad to help find him. No need to harm me.”

OoC: Shortpost ;-;

 

[Blazi]

Callum cursed. A psychic and a witch. Of course. He sighed, and rose up out of the ground.

He raised his hands, showing he meant no harm, and stepped away from the girl, who he was sure was a little freaked out. "Don't hurt me, I surrender." He said, his voice smooth and velvety. "Will someone tell me what is going on here? I know powerful magic when I see it, so can you please put that spell away dear?" All the while through this, Callum slowly let his shadow crawl up his legs and make his suit a few shades darker, just in case he needed to fight. Tendrils of his shadow coiled beneath his feet, waiting to strike out at anyone who tried to harm him.

Hopefully it wouldn't be needed.

OoC: Shoooooooooooooooort

 

[Chadwyck]

Chadwyck nearly rushed forward to take Lysis by the throat, his hand briefly encased in flames, when he saw her pull the pistol on Serah. Not because he actually believed she would harm the girl, but his instincts took over when his friends were threatened; especially Serah. When he saw the pistol was actually trained on Serah's shadow, he relaxed momentarily, before he realized what that would entail. "An Umbrakinetic? This is just getting ridiculous."

"Uh," Serah started as Sorena explained what was happening, "whoever's there, you may want to come out now, please?" She asked as sweetly as possible, then she screamed as a bright light burst out of the ground at her feet. "Sorena..." She hesitated as she waited for something to happen.

Liam stepped forward and stood a few feet from Sorena, "I hope this doesn't hurt Serah in any way," he nodded his head toward Chadwyck, who was glaring at the shadow, ready to strike if anything should go wrong, "for your sake." It was a fair warning, Chadwyck lost it when it came to his friends, the three of them were as closely knit as a family, and nothing threatened their family.

A man rose out of the shadow, his arms raised in surrender, but Chadwyck knew better. He drew his sword and held the tip at the man's throat, "if you really mean no harm, then we don't either," he growled, "so I suggest stopping that nonsense going on at your feet, before you give me a reason to kill you."

Liam smiled and shook his head, speaking directly to the man, "we've dealt with, well, things like you before. Also, I suggest doing what he says." He held a pair of high caliber handguns where the shadow man could see them, they weren't quite Desert Eagles, but they were close enough. Curiously enough, his briefcase and keyring were no where to be seen.

"Now then, we don't have time for this stupidity. Good to hear you're coming along, Talon, saves us the trouble of dealing with you." Now Chadwyck was getting angry, it made his fuse shorter and his tolerance level for time wasting decrease. "Now you," he said to the shadow man, "we're going to save a friend of ours, either come and help us or stay out of the way. But we're running short on time and patience." He wouldn't lower his sword until the tendrils of darkness subsided at the man's feet. "Answer quickly."

 

[Blazi]

Callum noticed the sword at his throat, and the guns held by the other, and instantly the tendrils retreated until they were a normal shadow.

"Now then, we don't have time for this stupidity. Good to hear you're coming along Talon, saves us the trouble of daeling with you." The person with the sword addressed the two men, before turning to Callum, "Now you, we're going to save a friend of ours, either come and help us or stay out of the way. But we're running short on time and Patience. Answer quickly."
Without thinking, Callum spoke. "If this 'friend' is powerful enough to make friends with the sorceress over there," Callum motioned his head in the direction of the witch, "Then I would be more than happy to help. But if you don't take that sword away from my throat, and put those guns away, I might have to disappear."

OoC: Short.

 

[Sem]

"We were going to bring you anyway for troubling us so. You want to follow us, then follow us you will." Sorena muttered, deactivating the spell, no doubt much to everyone's, especially Serah's, relief. The spell wouldn't have harmed her, but she supposed she should've taken the time to explain that to her and her friends.

Sorena turned away as the magic in the area began to fade. In her hand she held the teleporter, which seemed fairly simple to use. Sorena wasn't much one for electronics, but she could manage most of the time. "Let's make sure we all hold onto each other somehow," the witch said, taking the hand of the person nearest to her. Lysis hooked arms with Chadwyck and winked.

"Here we go - no turning back after this point," Sorena said as she activated the device. In the blink of an eye the entire group vanished, leaving only the unconscious rescue worker.

-------

The next instant the group of allies were standing in front of a rather enormous building, the biggest some of them had ever seen before. The teleport had gone smoothly, though anyone not used to such methods of transportation may have been a bit shocked.

"They probably already know we're here," Lysis said, looking at the front doors, ready for them to burst open at any moment.

"Right," Sorena said. "I would like for most of you to move inside and locate Sem. I will remain out here, where a few of you may join me. I would like for Serah to remain with me - her abilities will prove more useful out here than inside. Chadwyck can stay and watch after her if he likes, and I think Liam and you, Lysis, will work well together."

The sorceress then turned to Talon. "It's your choice what you and your friend do. Do note that I may be using powerful magic out here, so you might want to not be near me. As for you," Sorena said, turning to Callum. "I don't really care what you do - but turn on any of us and there will be no second chances for you."

"Shall we break then?" Lysis asked, walking over to Liam. She briefly reached into her coat and pulled out several devices, devices that appeared to be earpieces. "It'll be smart to use these to keep in touch," she said, dispensing one to each person. "Good luck to all of you," she grinned, knowing that she was about to enjoy herself.

With that said Lysis turned on her heel and began walking towards the front doors, dual pistols drawn. She was decked out in a pair of black, tight slacks, black high-heeled boots, and a coal-grey trench over a red blouse. The trench went to just behind her knees, and her hair was up in a rather trademark ponytail of hers that reached all the way down to the small of her back. She walked with confidence and assurance, grinning as she drew ever closer to the doors, a slight bounce in her gait.

Sorena remained where she stood, wearing her traditional clothes. She was hoping that the whole mission would go down much easier than she expected, but things were rarely that easy.

 

[Rex]

In the security offices of the build, alerts went off automatically. Cameras pinpointed a group of intruders, one of whom was at the door with weapons drawn. In an instant, the buildings defense systems were primed, and the entirety of the security force was alerted. Someone had taken out an agent to get here, so they could not take them lightly.

The large doors Lysis was approaching flew open, twelve well armed security guards streaming out and taking aim at the woman.

"Drop your weapons!" one shouted.

"On your knees, now!" another added.

Standing in the lobby, behind all the guards, was Alexander Silver and his partner Flynt. The small weasel-like creature had positioned himself in an area he could easily fire at intruders, while staying relatively safe himself. Alexander himself was in the middle of the room, watching with some interest. Everyone else had cleared the room, not wanting to get in the guard's, or Alexander's if it came to it, way.

 

[Tailon]

A bit more confrontational banter later, Sorena took the teleporting machine she had found on the worker and took someone’s hand. Contact was always important with teleportation, and Talon instinctively grabbed Scott’s arm and the arm of whoever was nearest his left hand, not really checking whose arm it was as Sorena engaged the teleporter and launched them through space.

---

The group arrived outside an enormous, almost government looking building. Sorena seemed to be giving the orders, as expected. After giving general orders to the group that had been with her, Sorena turned on Talon and Scott and told them, "It's your choice what you and your friend do. Do note that I may be using powerful magic out here, so you might want to not be near me.” The witch turned away again to say something to the Shadow Man, and Talon considered his options as he tossed his cutlass into a portal at his feet.

Turning to Scott, Talon seemed to make his decision. “Alright, looks like we’re splitting on the one old buddy. If I stay out here Sorena’s magic’ll fry my receptors, so I need you to stay out here for an external assault.”
Scott saluted lazily and gave a “Sir, yes sir,” Absolutely dripping with sarcasm, then smiled, and said, “C’mon, what else do I ever do when we’re attacking giant buildings?”
“How often do we attack giant buildings?” The Arcanist retorted.
“It’s happened!”
“Alright, alright,” Talon grinned, punching Scott lightly in the shoulder, “I think it’s time I head in, you know what to do.

With that, Talon made his way over to the doors, taking a comm. Device from the woman who was not quite Lysis and following her to the doors standing off to her left as they flew open. Talon looked inward and grinned at the mostly normal guards, and summoned Stinger and a fairly large ball of concentrated magical energy. Almost to himself, he said, “Good evening gentlemen, we’ve come to pick something up,” and waited for the first strike.

---

While Talon was joining the internal assault, Scott grabbed a communications device made his way over to where Sorena stood and took a large bag that seemed to just be a folded over piece of cloth roughly stitched together and tore the seams, tossing the now flat sack on the floor. From it, a rather large portal opened, and chunks of machinery began to float out, guided by Scott’s glowing blue gaze, and slowly forming limbs, a torso and head, basic human-shaped mech to start with.
“Say, miss witch,” Scott called to Sorena, “why have you planned this as a two tiered assault exactly?”
As he spoke, the last of the mecha completed itself, taking the form of a tall humanoid, painted red, black, and gold, with a crescent on the helmet. Outside, a large seat floated from the portal and picked Scott up, raising him up into the cockpit in the mecha’s chest, where he linked his communications into the mech, allowing him to hear their radio chatter. Scott looked around, grinning at his handiwork, as the manual controls attached themselves to his gloves, causing the mech’s systems to spring to life, showing him his own, and Talon’s vitals.

On the outside the mech’s optics lit up, giving Scott a view on his monitors, and the mech rose into a standing position from the slouch it had been built in, and began to roll its shoulders and otherwise test all joints as Scott commanded from inside.

 

[Chadwyck]

Chadwyck and Liam both removed their weapons, fulfilling their end of the deal once they noticed that the tendrils had resumed the consistency of a normal shadow. Now that they were all assembled, or at least, anyone who had shown up within the timeframe that the witch's patience would allow, they were ready to depart for their mission. Sorena didn't waste any time hitting the button; or whatever means the device used to work.

Luckily for Chadwyck and Serah, Liam kept them teleporting enough that the sensation that usually left them lightheaded and nauseous were practically gone. Though in the beginning of their partnership they preferred to use other means whenever possible. Chances were most of the group were feeling the effects, but they would pass soon enough.

"Sounds like fun, being partnered with a powerful witch." Serah chimed in after Sorena's breakdown of the groups. The two of them holding off guards on the outside would be, simply put, epic. And it was true, growing plants wouldn't exactly be effective in a concrete deathtrap, so outside would be where she'd do the most damage. She took the headset that Lysis offered her and placed it in her ear.

"No, Sorena, I think I'd be better suited for causing some destruction inside." Chadwyck said, though he did want to make sure Serah was safe, he was also aware she could handle herself; especially with Sorena close by. "I'm leaving her in your care, Sorena. Keep her safe; I'll go find Sem." He started walking toward the building, following behind Liam and Lysis, "if you need me, give me a shout. One of you are welcome to come along," he said to the others, "but don't slow me down, or I'll leave you behind." Once inside he'd split off from the pair and conduct his own search, but cracking through security would work better all together.

Liam looked over Lysis and nodded, "making heads spin with instantaneous spatial transference is already fun when it's only me; two teleporters may just be glorious overkill." He smiled as the pair of them walked toward the double doors. He noticed Lysis draw her pistols and chuckled at their similarities already becoming apparent, "I see you favor handguns. Lovely ones at that, I might add. Firearms are my forte, but in previous line of work I had to be skilled in all manner of remorseless pieces of metal."

He took one of the keys from the ring and fitted it into the lock on the briefcase, when he opened the case it disappeared; being replaced by the dual pistols he had threatened the umbrakinetic with earlier. The chain from the briefcase around his wrist disappeared too, but a light blue energy replaced it momentarily before fading out of sight.

The door opened and they found guards already waiting for them, Liam flicked a small switch just above the grip of each gun with his thumbs. "Start off with normal ammunition, no need to get fancy yet," he muttered to himself. "With your lead, Miss Fox." He turned his head slightly toward Chadwyck, "Watch for your chance to get through."

 

[Sem]

"My, what a gentleman," Lysis said as twelve guards rushed through the doors. The guards seemed well equipped, ready for anything. "Let's test their readiness then," she said to herself as she broke into a sprint towards the guards.

They didn't waste a second in firing their weapons, but with a telekintetically reinforced jump Lysis was suddenly high above their heads. With a flash of her eyes and a smirk she rained bullets down on her opposition as she fell back to earth, taking out three men. Lysis landed in a crouch and swept her leg around, knocking another off of their feet as she rose. She was right in the middle of all of them, which was highly dangerous, but it was somewhere they wouldn't have expected her to bed.

With an upward swat of her left gun she avoided a shot to the head as she released a round from her right pistol into a fourth guard. The guards had a difficult time aiming at her, as a miss could end up injuring or killing one of their own, so instead they ended up dueling with the guns themselves. The clash of metal on metal rang across the courtyard as Lysis met them blow for blow. A solid, reinforced knee to the gut sent another guard to the ground - he wasn't dead, but he was injured and unlikely to rise again. The remaining four standing all charged on her at once with their rifles.

Lysis threw up her pistols, catching two shafts as she twirled out of the way of the other two. She jumped back, putting some distance between them and her before one of them could get a lucky hit. The moment she landed she fired more rounds at the group, taking out a fifth man as the remaining three dove for cover behind pillars. The one who she had knocked over with her leg sweep had also gotten up and was crouching behind a large planter.

There was a cease fire for but a moment as Lysis stood out in the open against four armed men. This was good fun, and they were proving quite competent. But she was sure they weren't ready for this. Suddenly vanishing, she appeared behind the man taking cover at the planter, dispensing a round into his back before teleporting again, to another man that was taking cover and doing the same. She repeated the process for the third, but the fourth had had time to prepare and was ready for her when she appeared behind him, aiming his rifle at her.

Lysis quickly grabbing the barrel of the weapon, pointing it away from herself as she quickly ascended onto the man's shoulders, rifle still in her grasp. Wrenching it away from the man she clubbed his head with the butt of the weapon. Stepping off of him as he crumpled to the floor she one-handedly aimed the rifle at the guard she had kneed and off him as well before throwing the weapon aside and stepping away from the doors.

"Well, that was good," she said to herself as she waited for more guards to pour through. No doubt the next wave will be better prepared for her specific abilities.

Meanwhile, farther back from the building Sorena stood with Serah and Talon's friend, Scott.

“Say, miss witch,” Scott said to her. "why have you planned this as a two tiered assault exactly?”

Sorena shot the man a glance. "Dividing the enemy's efforts is always a good strategy," she answered out of experience. The witch had led several attacks in her time, many many years ago. "And I would rather be out here where I can use my magic freely without bringing down the building."

Sorena returned to gazing at the progress of the ones who went on ahead of her, ready to lend support from afar if needed.

 

[Rex]

There was to be no second wave. Camera's had caught every last second of Lysis killing nine of the twelve guards. And and all security personal was now being redirected away from the lobby area, taking up defensive positions throughout the building. Meanwhile, the computer systems activated their level two defense. Out of the ground rose two turrets, both aiming at Lysis and firing, a constant stream of bullets for as long as they had the woman in their sights.

Turrets also began to rise out of the floor, walls, or ceiling every so often throughout the facility, mainly clustering around doors, though longer halls had several around them as well. They shot to kill, taking down anyone who wasn't recognized by the systems. From within the lobby, Alexander continued to watch, leaning against the far wall so no stray bullets would go his way.

 

[Blazi]

Callum nodded his head to the witch, collected a communication device and followed the girl who he assumed was called Lysis. Being around the witch slightly scared him, and he preferred fighting indoors, where it could be as light and as dark as you like. His ideal environment.

Twelve men were quickly reduced to none as Lysis did her magic. He noticed two turrets rise out of the ground, firing bullet at Lysis, but without warning his shadow lanced forward and sliced the turrets into small pieces, creating an explosion as the circuitry inside was torn apart by shadows. "Lysis, I think we should continue moving, new turrets might appear and I can't split my shadow up too much." With that, Callum walked forward, his shadow climbing up his suit, reinforcing and powering him up. Tendrils again waited to lash out, hoping to dice anything they didn't like into multiple pieces.

OoC: Short.

 

[Chadwyck]

Liam watched with amusement as Lysis reduced nine of the twelve guards with relatively little effort. He had been right, this was going to be great fun. He smiled, three men would be a bit too easy, but he could still toy with them a little.

A loud pop sounded as Liam disappeared, the air rushing to fill the space he had been taking. He appeared in the middle of the group of three; they turned to face him and each other. He disappeared again, behind one of the men, and promptly kicked him in the back of the head. The man went reeling into another in front of him, the pair tripping and falling to the ground as Liam disappeared again.

He appeared beside the third man and leaned on his shoulder, "damn teleporters, am I right?" He held a gun to the man's head and pulled the trigger. He held his guns out toward the pair of guards on the ground and fired. "Well, maybe if there were more of them they may have given me some trouble."

He looked toward the turrets and cracked his neck, but they were promptly destroyed before he could make his move. Liam turned toward the umbrakinetic, "I don't recall you being part of our pairing," Liam said, "go find your own party, you weren't invited to ours." He was only half-joking, Lysis and himself would work better together.

They were still in the lobby, and for a second there was a brief moment of calm, Liam noticed the man leaning by the back wall. "Heads up, we're not alone." He nodded toward the man, then he said to Chadwyck, "if you want to get deeper into the complex, now may be the best chance."

 

[Rex]

Within the Lobby, five turrets had already risen. Two on the east wall defending a door there, and two on the west wall doing the same. The fifth was in the ceiling in the middle of the room, and it already had its sights on the people at the doorway. It began to open fire as the computer systems began to run their level three defense systems. Level three was a blanket magic inhibitor, affecting the entire building. If a person didn't carry The Agency's badge, then any superhuman abilities they had would be weakened by the inhibitor.

It also began a pair of small sub-programs. Aware of the machine outside, the computer had alerted Dekker to the presence of the attackers well before it usually would of, and he had taken the time to prepare one of his own machines. Now, standing high on the roof of the building, Tom snapped his fingers. A hole opened up in the roof, and an elevator let up a large spider-like mech. Black casing, with a white 'face' were the only feature was a pair of red bars, six legs all ending in dangerous blades, and a pair of claw-like arms, all made this thing look like something one didn't want to mess with.

However, Tom wasn't the type to get his hands dirty on the front lines. Slowly at first, but quickly gaining agility, the mech began to move on its own, directed my the man's signals. It took a few steps, then launched itself from the building, landing on the ground surprisingly softly for something so large. Lights flickered on in the two red bars, as the machine began to study its targets of its own accord. Then, with no warning, the red lights focused on the enemies' mech, and the spider-like machine rushed its opponent.

The second sub-program affected the building itself. An Umbrakinetic would not be allowed to wreck havoc inside as easily as this one had destroyed the turrets outside. The coverings of the floors, walls, and ceiling disappeared in select areas, replaced by bright lights. These lights had the effect of filling in every shadow in the building, including those cast by the occupants. While far from making an Umbrakinetic powerless, it removed much of their edge, and forced them to improvise. The Agency had learned this much when it encountered its last Umbrakinetic, and was very keen on showing their knowledge now.

Alexander frowned, still leaning against the wall. He did not enjoy all the bright lights himself. It would make things a bit harder to fight, but at the moment there was no other alternative. Flynt would have a harder time remaining hidden, but hopefully the small weasel wouldn't be spotted. Cutting into his thoughts, the four turrets by the doors got their sights on the people entering, and joined the fifth in attempting to turn them into Swiss cheese.

 

[Tailon]

Talon was unsurprised as not-quite Lysis killed nine guards in an instant, simply chuckling to himself as she and the teleporter went to town on the guards. As the Shadow Man said something while lancing a pair of turrets, possibly stating the obvious about there being turrets, more turrets rose to combat them. One of them gained its target and opened fire first, but Talon quickly silenced it with the saved ball of energy, then dashed past the small group that was already inside. "Race ya!" the Arcanist shouted, slicing through the turrets on the west, then turning to fire blasts of freezing magic into the circuits forming large ice crystals in the circuitry to destroy the poor machines. "That certainly felt off..." he muttered as he turned back to the group, and said, "Alright, what say we deal with the guy?"

---

Outside, Scott's machine squared off against an enormous spider, which had appeared from the roof of the building and charged him. Moving quickly, the Mechanic directed his mech to attempt to catch the spider by its "face" and flip it over its head, then slam it into the ground, and bring its arm down like a hammer. In the cockpit, Scott muttered, "Spiders? I haven't needed that much weight distribution for years..."

OoC: short ;-;

 

[Sem]

Sorena watched coolly as the mechanical arachnid leapt off of the roof and scurried towards them. Scott engaged the creature inside his mech while the witch stood where she was. She was conserving her magic, ready to use it only when directly attacked or in order to support her comrades.

"Don't hesitate to ask me for help," she said to Serah. "Chadwyck has placed you in my care I wouldn't hear the end of it if you died."

Sorena refocused on the building as she felt a fog descend over it. She felt it at the edges of her senses - a sort of inhibitor. Her allies will be weaker inside the building, she knew that immediately. Furrowing her brow, she realized she may need to lend more support than she initially thought. She would wait and see, of course. She was certain that nonetheless they could handle themselves.

Lysis had leapt out of the way of incoming turret fire as they were ripped apart by shadows. She shot a glance at Callum while Liam took care of the remaining guards. The outside threat had seemingly vanished, save for the giant spider behind them. Lysis trusted that the three of them could handle the mech and followed Liam inside the building.

Talon rushed ahead and rather easily took care of the turrets, leaving only a man at the back. However, this wasn't the most pressing thing to Lysis. She very suddenly felt an invisible weight on her. She had felt similar sensations before. Something was blocking her powers.

"Tch," she said, still, it was an interesting turn of events. "C'mon," she said, tugging on Liam towards the west door. "We'll let them handle the guy." Their mission was very clear, and as much as Lysis wanted to stay and exchange blows with a man who was obviously not your average security guard, there were more important things to see to. There would no doubt be further conflicts waiting for them up ahead.

"Have fun," she chimed at Chadwyck, Talon, and Callum as she and Liam left the lobby.

 

[Rex]

The turrets were all once again easily cut down. Two of the group split off, heading through the west door, while three remained behind. Alexander simply smiled, while the systems activated their level four defense. A giant turret, much larger then the seven that had already been destroyed, rose from the floor in the middle of the room. It was a greenish material, and looked incredibly strong. Like the many before it, the giant turret took aim, and opened fire, shooting rounds much larger and far more dangerous then any of the turrets before it.

---

Meanwhile, in the western hallway where Lysis and Liam were now located, a trio of guards had taken defensive positions, and opened fire on the two the moment they got a clear shot. The turrets that were close enough to get a shot without damaging each other or the guards fired next, leading towards a cascade of bullets raining down on the pair's location.

---

Outside, the spider mech stopped suddenly, far enough away from the opposing mech that it wasn't touched by the attempt at flipping it. Hoping to catch the the opponent off guard, Tom directed the machine from the roof to try to grasp onto one of the humanoid mech's arms with its own claws, and tear the limb off. This sort of behavior would have been odd if there was a human in the cockpit controlling the machine, but with Tom far above the action, where he could see everything, it mattered little.

 

[Chadwyck]

"Well, I'll catch you guys later," Chadwyck said to Talon and Callum as he turned his back on the two of them with a wave, "I figure an arcanist and an umbrakinetic can watch each others' backs without my help." He started to walk toward the eastern exit of the lobby. "If we all stay and fight no one will be looking for Sem, and I'd wager that's exactly what they want."

He walked through the doors just as another giant turret rose from the floor of the lobby. "Well, hopefully they can handle it; they can always reach me with the comm."

Liam and Lysis found themselves in a hall filled with terrible things; namely quite a few armed guards and several turrets. Instinctively, Liam grabbed Lysis' hand and at first tried to teleport; it took him far too long to teleport. He didn't have time to wonder what was wrong, instead he pulled Lysis through the first door they passed.

As soon as they passed through the threshold into the next room the turrets in the room sprung to life. "There's just no avoiding these things," Liam sighed as they took cover. He dismissed his pistols as they returned to the form of his briefcase; though it was moving slowly, sluggishly. "Baby's not feeling well," he commented to himself as he fitted another key in the lock. The key seemed to stick, it was difficult to turn, but then it opened and he reached into the case.

As he pulled out the weapon, the case disappeared and in his hands he held a six-chambered, gas propelled grenade launcher. It took longer than usual, and he didn't like that at all. Still, it was time to have some fun with his toy. He flipped around his cover and fired off a round at one of the turrets, blowing it to pieces.

Serah jumped lightly when the mech fell from the sky, and immediately started thinking of how to react. Sorena offered her help, that was good to know. The spider mech tried to grab the man, Scott's, mech, and Serah reacted instantly.

She brought thorn covered vines from the ground that wrapped around the mech's claw as it reached out toward Scott's. The thorns were tough as steel, they'd be able to tear through solid rock, she hoped they'd be enough to slice through the mech's claw.

 

[Sem]

While the new turret was preoccupied with Liam, Lysis herself decided to arm herself with a different weapon. From within her coat she pulled out a charm. It was silver, only it almost seemed to glow, and the charm was in the shape of a butterfly.

This was Lysis' payment for the mission, and she was going to test it out. Thinking of the particular firearm she wanted, the butterfly reacted. After a few moments it flashed and was replaced with a six-chambered, gas propelled grenade launcher. Lysis figured that the charm was acting sluggishly due to the dampener, but she was very happy to see that it actually worked. She held the weapon in her arms, feeling its weight as she actually should - she normally sent a little telekinetic reinforcement into her limbs for when she held a gun.

A blast alerted her that the turret had been destroyed, and she eyed Liam, flashing a smile when she saw his very similar weapon.

"Shall we?" she asked, nodding to the hallway. Dashing out there, she quickly took aim at one turret and fired. ker-schunk. The round flew through the air, meeting its mark and destroying one of the turrets in the hall, alerting the guards that their foes had acquire much more dangerous ammunition. Lysis ducked back into the doorway as the other turrets took aim. She snaked her arm out the door, firing in the general direction of the guards with one of her Strata. The rounds were replicating themselves much more slowly, meaning she had at least a second between shots.

The whole power dampener was beginning to become a real hassle, and they may need to think up a new strategy. She reached up and touched her earpiece. "Hey witch, not sure if you noticed but there's a blanket dampener on powers active in the building. If things start becoming dicey we may need to think up something new. I'll keep in touch."

Concentrating on fire again she leaned out of the door and shot at he guards again, hitting one as he was leaning out to get a better shot.

 

[Yoshimitsu]

Just as the group vanished from the site of destruction, a strange fluidity took over the air. To an outsider, it would seem like the area suddenly emptied but was otherwise unremarkable. A strange unease developed in observers, preventing them approaching the space. Nothing visibly moved, turning the area into a complete wasteland. The braver pedestrians started to approach the area, but at the last moment either remembered they had something else to attend to, or were otherwise so overtaken by fear that they fled the scene.

Inside the space, to the figures that materialised out of nothing, the ground and air had taken a strange pale tinge to it. Nothing blinding or restricting, just an indication that the magic in place was working. Inside the space, anybody still there froze on the spot and closed their eye, regardless of their position. Every individual was asleep, like human statues. A powerful piece of magic, for the purpose of investigation. All investigations were ruined by interruptions. It was especially annoying when non-magical people were trying to understand a supernatural event.

Vincent was the first to completely regain his form. His black hair fell just short of his dark brown eyes, his expression softened and less severe. He had a few new cuts adorning his face, but otherwise he looked well. A casual outfit, a pale t-shirt under a blue jacket and dark jeans falling to black combat boots. In his hand, though, he held his curved sword just in case.

To his left, a girl appeared next. Her forest-green hair shone in the light, falling down to her shoulders with her fringe pushed to the side and out of her face. She wore a simple outfit of a lilac off-the-shoulder t-shirt and slim-fit jeans. She, too, wore boots but her's were clearly more fashion-orientated. Held loosely to her side was her glittering spear, each individual gemstone freshly polished and casting prisms of various coloured light all around. Illiana's expression was much more relaxed, her faith placed in their companion's magic.

The final figure was another man, but one with a more unusual appearence. It was his eyes that set him apart. Where his eyes should have been white, they were black, with blue pupils and no iris to speak of. His hair was ice blonde and effortlessly messy. The white shirt he wore was torn, one sleeve missing completely and various nicks in the fabric. His jeans were similarly unkempt, rips and tears covering them. He was barefoot, his skin naturally enchanted to be several times tougher than a human's. He lowered his hands as he appeared, the teleportation spell a success.

"Looks like a war zone," Illiana commented.

"It looks like Sem put up one hell of a fight," Vincent agreed. Araini, however, shook his head.

"I disagree. Sem has the power to eliminate a city," he stated. "His nature held him back, I imagine."

"Right. Fan out and look for clues," Vincent said. Illiana and Araini both nodded and turned to walk in different directions. Vincent took a moment to look around the area before choosing an area to explore.

It wasn't an easy task.

"There's magic everywhere," Illiana commented, running her fingers over some rubble. "Or... not quite magic, but something. Something unnatural."

"There's nothing we can do about that," Araini called back. "If I try to remove the leftover magic, we risk losing any clues."

Illiana picked up a brick. She could feel it. That slight tingle that was a clear giveaway for something supernatural having occured. This was definitly the place. The sensation was different to straight-up magic, though. This felt more like water was trickling over her fingers. When she had examined Odio's house, however long ago, the magic had just been a tingling feeling, like pins and needles. She didn't know Sem very well, but she knew his powers. Water and ice. The sensation, she knew it could come only from him. She tossed the brick aside, looking again.

There was nothing immediately remarkable, but she had the niggling feeling that the telltale signs were too sporadic for her to find any decent clues in this area. More than likely, she was just looking at debris where different concentrations of attacks had hit. She stood up and turned around, closing her eyes. There had to be something here that was giving off a stronger vibe to everything else. Her investigations during the Odio murder case had given her a strong insight to things hidden from view. The magical qualities of any object always gave off a strong pull. She emptied her mind and trusted her senses to direct her.

There. She could feel it. A little to the right, maybe ten paces away. With her eyes still closed, she followed what she could feel. Two steps, and she could feel it better. Two more, she could pinpoint her location. On the ground, partially obscured by rocks. She reached it, opened her eyes and crouched. Underneath a couple of sizeable stones, she dug out a frozen substance. It wasn't water. She wasn't sure what it was, but it wasn't water. The result of something being hit with ice, repeatedly? No, it couldn't be. The smoothness of the substance was too perfect. She gestured to Araini with the substance. It immediately vanished from her hand and into his.

"It seems Sem's power is greater than we thought, or this substance has at least some water in it," Araini concluded, after a moment's consideration. "If he was forced to fight using more than just his own element, we can conclude that his foe was also a greater threat. Through power or prior knowledge, I don't know."

"Troubling situation," Vincent commented, having paused his search in order to listen in on the conversation. "Anything else, Illiana?"

"I'm not sure. I can feel something around here, but it's not immediately magical," Illiana replied, brushing a few strands of hair from her face.

She closed her eyes again. It was there. It felt remarkably similar to the vial of magic they had found in the Odio's house. A very similar sensation, tingling but not in a malicious way. It felt like it was just outside the time-stop magic. She approached the boundary and reach out her hand. The same tingle.

"I think... someone teleported from here," she said, uncertainly. Araini teleported over and looked at the area Illiana was indicating to. Vincent, too, jogged over. Araini stood very still for a moment, looking directly at the point.

"You're right," Araini agreed. "Through technological means, I would wager. Slightly more difficult to track, but still possible. I need a few minutes."

Vincent and Illiana both nodded and took a few steps away, each looking in different directions in case there were other clues.

"I knew asking you along was a good idea," Vincent said conversationally to Illiana.

"Why's that?" Illiana asked.

"Yoshimitsu said you were better than him at sensing magic," Vincent explained. "If you're better than him, you're better than me too. I wouldn't have picked up on that."

"Araini would have, though," Illiana pointed out.

"True, I guess," Vincent conceeded, rubbing the back of his head. "But still, I don't think he would have noticed it. You picked up on what it was straight away, even with all the magical interference from the time-stop."

"I knew the magic," Illiana admitted.

"Which came in handy," Vincent added. "Besides, as much as Araini's a scholar, you know more about the common uses of magic and how to track them."

"I guess."

Before Vincent could say anything else, the clear, sharp sound of a gunshot cut through the still air. Without looking, he sent a blast of Darkness in Araini's direction, blowing the gunshot from the sky before it could meet it's target. Illiana jumped, then readied her spear as her eyes darted around, looking for the source of the shot.

A figure stepped out from behind a ruined building.

"How come we didn't notice him before?" Illiana asked quietly, watching the black-clad male casually step into the open.

"Low-level perception filter, or maybe we're just thick," Vincent replied, holding his blade at the ready.

"I feel like I should recognise him..."

The man came to a halt in the middle of the space. Illiana noticed the joint in his hand, smoking lightly and glowing orange at the tip. His trousers had too many pockets, she thought, and his shirt was a little creased. As they watched, the man slipped the black ring from his middle finger into the palm of his right hand. He took a drag of his joint, then sighed out the smoke.

"I told him a bullet wouldn't fuckin' work but did he listen to me? Naw," the man said, shrugging. The ring in his hand expanded into a completely black sword. "Never fuckin' does."

"Who are you?" Vincent demanded, his voice authoritative.

"I fuckin' told him that yeh'd stop it," the man continued as though there had been no interruption.

"What do you want?" Vincent demanded.

"An' did he fuckin' listen? He never fuckin' does."

This time, instead of waiting for an answer, Vincent shot forward like a bullet and brought his sword whistling down at the stranger's head. His blade met the stranger's unusual black weapon with a clang.

A second man jumped down from the building. This one had a more colourful appearence, but there was a running theme of purple in his outfit and hair. Illiana's eyes snapped to the three swords hanging at his waist. Three rapiers, each with a uniquely ornamental guard. Illiana's grip on her spear shifted, ready to parry any incoming attacks.

"My apologies, miss," the man said, not sounding apologetic at all. "But we have our orders to stop you."

Illiana's brow furrowed into a frown. It wasn't the statement that bothered her. She had been trying to feel any kind of power emanating from the newcomers. Something to back up their apparent confidence surrounding this confrontation. There was nothing. These two were completely human.

Her thoughts were interrupted when the brightly coloured man unsheathed two of his swords and shot at her.

 

[Tailon]

After he destroyed the original defenses and not-quite Lysis, Liam, and Chadwyck made their way out, a new line of defense came to head for the Arcanist. With little warning, a turret made of a familiar, greenish material rose from the ground. The Shadow Man rambled something about leaving and was immediately gunned down for his lack of attention.

Seeing this, Talon's eyes widened and began glowing blue, and a blue, triangle markings began glowing beneath each eye. As quickly as the turret could turn, the Arcanist moved, dodging around the monstrous mechanical gun as it opened fire. He noticed that he felt more sluggish than usual as he fired blasts of ice into the barrel, attempting to break the system with ice shards again, noting that they were weaker than the ones he had fired only moments before. Already tiring, oddly enough, the young man forced his palm forward, creating a rune in midair which seemed to snap and fire a much more powerful blast of ice, quickly building a wall of incredibly thick, dense ice as he spoke into the communicator. "We've got a man down, guys, the Shadow Man was gunned down by an ultra resistant turret. The material's familiar, so watch out for nigh-indestructible greenish metal, it's almost impossible to crack." Talon reported, before being forced to jump awayas the ice cracked and shattered under the strain. Using a fist this time, the Arcanist broke another rune, sending a swirling blast of fire, ice, and lightning toward the gun's barrel.

---

Outside, Scott heard Talon's report, but barely noted it as the spider grabbed on to his mech's arm. Engaging an extra command, Scott, pulled back on the arm controls, opening a compartment which launched a blade perpendicularly to his arm, toward the enemy, then went to grab the spider from his arm and toss it back into the building.

OoC:HNNNNNG shit post is shit ;-;

 

[Rex]

It was time for Alexander to make his move. The turret easily took the attacks, its barrel blackened but still functional. It continued to fire at the man, as Alexander leaped up onto the top of the turret, where the floor it had risen out of it remained. His opponent now visible, and Alexander not in danger of being struck by a stray bullet, the bounty hunter could have some fun.

Alexander focused, and the ground started to be covered with a sheet of ice. The Bounty Hunter wanted to trip the man, so the gun could make quick work of him. From his cover, Flynt as well took the slowly spreading ice sheet to his advantage, taking a shot at the Arcanist. For the moment, the ice was located mainly around the gun, but within moments it would engulf the entire room.

---

With the Umbrakinetic dead, the lights returned to their covers. There was no point in keeping an unnecessary and power draining system up. Instead, turrets made of the same green material as the one Tailon was fighting rose from the floor in the room Lysis and Liam and the room Chad currently found themselves in, and began to shoot at the intruders.

---

Outside, the spider mech easily cut through the girl's vine, and grabbed onto the other mech's arm. The other mech pulled back, and the spider quickly released it and backed away as a blade jutted out of the arm. The spider backed further as the other mech attempted to grab it and throw it. The spider mech approached again after the attack was done. Its front left leg rose into the air, and the blade on the end extended, attempting to piece the humanoid mech's middle.

 

[Chadwyck]

Talon's report chimed in Liam's earpiece, and no sooner had he heard the news than some of the turrets he spoke of rose into the room he and Lysis had found a short reprieve in. "Well, this is less than ideal." He sighed as he tried to think of what to do; his power being suppressed, his case working sluggishly, and now a turret that looked like the previous set on steroids.

"Lysis, what do you propose we do?" Instead of waiting for an answer he fired three grenades at the turret. The explosions did little in ways of dealing with it. "We need to figure out what's causing this magical blanket and dispose of it," He decided, as he flipped a switch on the grenade launcher, it's self-replicating ammunition began to fade and be replaced by elemental ammunition. Of course, with the power dampener on, it took an ungodly amount of time before the gun would be ready to fire again.

He took to moving from cover to cover, not daring to stay still for more than a few seconds. The turret was firing high caliber rounds, and it wouldn't take many of them to tear through the various things he ducked behind. At long last, the grenade launcher's elemental ammunition was ready to fire. "Gotta be smart about this, the ammunition is replicating much slower than usual." He spoke quietly to himself as he decided where to place his shot.

The turret turned toward him and he leapt out from his cover, shooting a well-aimed grenade into the turret's barrel. Hitting the floor and rolling into the next cover, he flipped around it and fired another two at the turret's base, where it rotated to fire at them. Where the grenades hit were soon huge shards of ice, blankets of it attempting to freeze up the joints so it couldn't turn and block the barrel so it couldn't fire. It was a long shot, but they didn't have much of a choice.

-----------------------

Chadwyck walked through a surprisingly empty hallway and into a side room, he didn't even know where to begin his search in such a huge building, so it wouldn't hurt to just check everywhere he could. Something about the building just didn't feel right, he'd felt it almost immediately after walking through the door. But he couldn't quite place his finger on the problem until Lysis had made the announcement to Sorena about a power dampener. Then it made sense.

His powers felt far away from him, instead of residing right with him as they always did. It would take a great force of will to call them forth, and when they arrived they wouldn't be as powerful as they usually were. "I need to figure out a way around this." He decided as he was just about to leave the room, no sign of Sem, then there wasn't much point to stick around.

As he turned back toward the door a turret rose up out of the ground, the same type that had risen in the lobby, apparently. "And me at a disadvantage. These people don't like to play fair," he shrugged as he hit a column and pressed up against it for cover. The turret was firing, and from the sound of the shots they were big bullets. Chadwyck wasn't a fan of being shot at by big bullets.

"Need to think fast," he drew his sword and bolted to cover a bit closer to the turret. Then again, and again. Slowly making his way toward the turret. "I have no idea what I'm doing," he confided silently as he was now at the last cover before the turret. He sprinted out of the cover and took a heavy swing with his sword; which his the turret and did absolutely nothing. "Well, wishful thinking," he groaned as the turret turned toward him once again. He jumped up on top of it, now it couldn't shoot him for the moment at least.

"Okay, tough as crap turret, weakened abilities, sword pretty much useless." He made a checklist of everything that was currently against him and then touched his earpiece, "we've got to sort out what to do about this power inhibitor thing, because these turrets aren't going to go down easy."

He focused all of his will into summoning fire, which encased his blade. He jumped up and brought the sword down on the turret. Nothing happened. He repeated the process several times, leaving him seriously beat up, his flames flickering out of existence.

 

[Sem]

While Liam was trying not to get killed by the new threat, Lysis was still focused on the old thread. There were still two guards and a couple regular turrets remaining, and it could prove fatal to focus on only the new turret.

Still taking cover in the doorway, she readied her own grenade launcher and summoned the power to teleport. It was an incredible strain, but Lysis managed after a moment. Just as she dissappeared she had half-pulled the trigger, so that when she reappeared on top of the turret her weapon fired instantly. A grenade shot towards another turret, knocking it out. Using her pistol she picked off another guard before she needed to roll out of the way of incoming turret-fire. Rolling off of the green turret she aimed the grenade launcher at the final normal turret and fired, blasting it to pieces.

Now that she was behind the green turret, which was still focused on Liam, Lysis shot down the last guard before turning and facing the turret. Her grenade launcher was now a butterfly charm once more, but only for a few moments as Lysis summoned another weapon.

She took several steps back as the weapon materialized into her hands. Hefting the AT4 onto her shoulder, she took aim at the base of the turret. "Take cover!" she said almost gleefully as she fired the weapon. The resulting explosion shook the hallway, and there was silence as the smoke was clearing. "Quick, disable it!" she yelled, returning the weapon to the butterfly form.

-------

Outside, Sorena continued to watch the battle unfold. She was a bit disturbed by the sudden death of the shadow-fellow. Of course, she wasn't surprised. It was a dangerous thing they were doing. Of course, this changed the situation a bit. Talon was now alone against a rather hardy turret and a man with freezing abilities. Sorena's mind flashed back to the chunks of frozen substance from the scene of the battle, wondering if this man was responsible. Time would tell, right now she would need to help Talon or else they would lose him as well.

A magic circle comprised of runes and glyphs appeared on the ground around the woman's feet. The sapphire blue symbols quickly went electric blue as Sorena wordlessly and effortlessly fired the spell, which manifested itself as an incredibly large bolt of lightning streaking across the courtyard. It was as big as a car at least, and the chance at stopping such a thing would be minimal at the speed it was going, which was pretty fast considering it was lightning. The bolt was aimed for the green turret inside the lobby, and would hopefully disable it and give Talon a more even playing field.

 

[Rex]

The turret Liam and Lysis encountered was completely unaffected by any of the normal grenades past the green material that covered the turret being blackened. However, the ice grenades Liam fired were a different story. The one fired into the turret's barrel was quickly torn apart, completed ineffective.

The two fired at the base of the turret, however, did have an effect. The ice encroached on the gears, locking them in place. The ice was quickly being overwhelmed, and it wouldn't last too long. However, it was long enough, as an anti-tank missile smashed into the side of the turret, noticeably denting the casing, and sending the machine into shut down. After a moment, a red light began to flicker on on the front of the turret, signifying that it was attempting a restart. Now was their best chance to take it out, before it restarted.

---

Alexander noted the lighting bolt in time to jump off his platform on the top of the turret. The electricity hit it hard, and the machine went into an automatic shut down before systems started frying. Just like the one Lysis and Liam were fighting, a red light started to blink on, as the turret began to restart. Taking it down might be now or never.

Alexander, in the mean time, decided that he didn't want another attack like that flying at him. A thick icy wall shot out of the ground, barring the door. It wouldn't hold forever, but it would last long enough. For the moment, Sorena wouldn't be able to get any more attacks in, and none of the people inside the building could flee out the front entrance.

---

The turret Chad was fighting stopped shooting the second the man climbed on top. His repeated bashing of the top cover had all but destroyed the camouflage the turret used to make itself look like part of the floor, and slightly dented the metal casing. The area was also black from the effects of the flames, but it the turret itself was still going strong.

 

[Chadwyck]

Chadwyck was trying to catch his breath. "Damn that dampener," he sighed as he stood atop the turret. Nothing had caused the turret permanent damage, yes the top was a bit scorched and slightly dented, but it still functioned regularly; and that meant that the second Chadwyck moved off of his perch it would pump him full of unpleasant holes.

The turret had, for the moment, stopped firing. And that was definitely a good thing. It gave the warrior a moment to think, but only a moment. If the turret didn't finish the job, he was certain something else would come along sooner or later. Plus, he couldn't just stand on top of a turret for the rest of the mission either. "All right, so you're pretty tough on the outside, I'll give you that." He stood for a moment longer, and then a thought occurred to him. "But what about inside?"

It would have to be fast. If he moved even a second too slow, he'd miss his chance and the turret would kill him. This was the sort of tension that he once lived for; life or death situations, chances to test his skill and strength. That had changed over the last few years. He still enjoyed a good fight, and most of the time his work pitted him against death, but he no longer thrived on it. Shaking his head from his thoughts, he closed his eyes and concentrated.

In his palm, a small, condensed fire formed. It looked like a miniature sun, sitting in the palm of his hand. Infusing the flames with currents of electricity, the ball changed from orange to violet; waves of electricity visibly swirling within. It took much more concentration to create this bomb than he would have liked.

Opening his eyes, he looked down at the barrel of the turret. "Well, here goes nothing." He jumped from his perch, falling right in front of the barrel and tossing the miniature flame inside. Once it reached the back of the barrel, into the innards of the machine, it expanded rapidly; exploding within the casing of the turret.

-------------------------------

Liam watched as the turret fell into a seemingly shut down state. For a second, he let out a heavy breath of relief. Then he noticed the flashing red light. "Uh-oh, that light doesn't look good. Nothing good ever comes from flashing lights." He spoke from experience, having seen more than his fair share of flashing lights that led to doom-bringing things. Like bombs. He didn't much care for bombs.

"If we're going to do something about this godawful turret, we'd better do it now." He walked over calmly as the turret went through rebooting its systems. He stuck the barrel of his grenade launcher into the barrel of the turret.

Focusing his teleportation abilities to the point of near teleport, he prepared to pull the trigger. As he pulled the trigger, and the round expelled from the chamber, Liam teleported away from the machine; safely avoiding the resulting explosion that would hopefully destroy the 'indestructible' turret.

 

[Tailon]

Talon jumped out of the way of the enormous burst of magic he sensed from behind him and instant before he was fried by an enormous bolt of lightning. The Arcanist scrambled back up and saw the turret going into some form of standby mode. Silently thanking Sorena, Talon dashed toward the turret, slashing the air with Stinger, and leaving trails of magic behind him. As he reached the turret, Talon dispelled Stinger and swung his arms around, gathering the fire, ice, and lightning with a mighty effort into a single point over his fist so he could launch a punch into the barrel, stopping so as to not harm his fist. As he stopped, the magic was unleashed, which Talon could only hope would damage the internal systems despite his weakened state. The Arcanist slumped a bit from the drain, but snapped himself out of it, and hopped over the turret, making a run for the door Liam and Lysis had gone through.

The young man crashed through the door, skidding to a stop just in front of the turret that had appeared inside. Out of breath, he managed to gasp, "We'd better move or get ready for a more serious fight, cause that guy from the Lobby is probably right behind me.

---

Outside, the spider mech made a stab for the humanoid mech's torso. Its blade smashed into the metal, puncturing it. The mech keeled over from the pressure on its midsection, the lights in its optics flickering. The machine quickly regained power, eyes lighting up even brighter, as it made a grab for the spider's leg and attempted to force it out of the steel, then tried to spin round and build the momentum to toss the opposing mech. As the machine defended itself, Scott's eyes began to glow green, and two green stripes glowed from beneath his eyes to his chin. On the ground, the portal opened again, and several pieces of steel began floating out, each taking a few moments to reach the mech as Scott attempted to repair the damaged casing and some of the internal machinery before it buckled from the strain.

OoC: ;-;

 

[Rex]

The Arcanist's attacks fried the turret's systems. The red light shut off, signalling the end of the giant thing's rampage. Then the Arcanist took off, Alexander staying behind only long enough to grab Flynt, before pursuing.

---

The turret going up against Chad started firing the second it noticed its prey again. The first bullet connected with the man's attack inside the barrel, setting off the explosion prematurely. The barrel was blackened, but in one piece. The red light flickered on as the turret began its restart.

---

Meanwhile, in the room Liam, Lysis, and now Talon found themselves in, the turret had been overwhelmed by the final attack. The greenish casing held strong, but the insides were fried to the point that the turret shut down. However, the trio would get no reprieve. Alexander soon found himself at the door to the very same room they were located in. He took a moment to allow Flynt to get to the ground, before entering the room proper, clapping.

"My, my. You've all put on quite a show," the man smirked, despite the icy fury present in his voice, "I'm afraid I can't allow you to go any further. You've done far more damage then I should have allowed you to get away with."

Another icy wall sprang up, sealing all the doors but the one that went back, where Flynt had set up his rifle. The temperature in the room dropped, and icy spears erupted from the ground underneath the three invaders, attempting to impale them where they stood.

---

The humanoid mech was cut into by the spider's leg, damaging it enough to temporarily shut down its systems. However, it quickly returned to full power, and grabbed the spider's leg as it attempted to pull out. The mech completed the job, and threw its spider counterpart away. Somehow, the mech righted itself in the air, and landed with little fuss, quite softly.

Sensing an opening, the spider once again rushed its opponent, again attempting to grab and rip off its opponent's arms. From the roof, Tom smirked, looking down at the events. Things were going wonderfully. His precious mech was doing everything he made it. The man was at full power.