The Rescue

[Sem]

This was a less than ideal situation. The three of them at a severely weakened power level versus an unhindered, and obviously powerful opponent, as well as a much smaller enemy providing support. Lysis went on full alert as the temperature plummeted. Leaping, she rolled out of the way of the spears that had so suddenly shot up. Standing and dusting herself off, she glanced at Alexander.

"Glad you enjoyed yourself, but we're not quite through yet," Lysis said with a smirk, despite her situation. Clutching the butterfly, she opened fire on the man with a Strata. The fifty-caliber rounds ensured that any defenses the man through up would all have to be thick enough to withstand the round, or else it would break through.

She fired at him as fast her gun would allow, which was about a shot a second, half of what was the normal rate. As her charm took its sweet time she did her best to assess the situation. There was obviously a reason why the man wasn't hindered, first and foremost. There was also the smaller mammal creature set up in the back and guarding the exit, ready to fire at them at any moment. Obviously the creature wasn't a regular guard. Partner perhaps? How precious was said partner to the man? Lysis would have to see.

Until then both opponents would need to be kept moving to make it more difficult for them to attack. Making them dance was just what Lysis had in mind. Jumping to the door directly opposite of the only open exit, Lysis summoned her baby into existence.

The massive weapon crashed onto the icy floor, cracking the ice and the floor beneath it due to the weight. The weapon was a mounted gatling gun - the type typical found on aircraft such as planes. The weapon had six barrels and the ammunition belt was fed into the weapon from a large, enchanted box on the ground, where the replication took place. She would have a bit before the weapon caught up with the re-materialization rate, and even then she would still fire at a steady pace.

"Cover me?" she asked Liam as she aimed the weapon at Alex and Flynt and let loose, firing one hundred rounds a second and tearing up the room in the process.

-------

Outside Sorena saw the ice wall shoot up, locking her allies inside. Everything would go fine. She had a reliable bunch with her.

 

[Chadwyck]

Chadwyck stood up and dusted himself off. The turret wasn't done, not yet; he could tell by the round he heard fire off within the chamber before his attack could make it fully into the inner workings of the machine. Being severely weakened was terrible. He felt almost normal, aside from the fact that with effort he could still summon his powers. To think that normal people felt like this all the time, only even worse. The poor souls.

"Quick reaction time; really high grade technology. Stupid sodding machine." He scoffed as he noticed the turret was seemingly in a state of recuperation, a little light flashing to signify that it was, indeed, still capable of returning to its assault given the time.

Chadwyck sighed heavily, it took a lot of effort for the smallest exertion of his powers, and that explosion hadn't been something to laugh at. It was no where near his full power, but it should have still been enough to take the turret out. If only that bullet hadn't caught up with it. He cracked his fingers, a few sparks emitting from them as he did so, "at least it proves the inside is weaker than the outside."

He pressed his palm up to the barrel of the turret, it was still hot from the explosion. The young man took a deep breath and shouted as he forced flames to jet into the barrel. Pulling that hand away he pressed his left palm up to the barrel and shot multiple bolts of electricity into the barrel. He wasn't taking any chances, though. He brought both his hands together and rubbed them, creating friction as flames began to build up on his fingertips. He collected the flames into his hands and condensed them together, shoving them into the machine and then letting them expand rapidly inside the hull. "Now just shut down, already." He panted, regaining his composure. The dampener had to go.

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

The temperature dropped as the man stepped into the room. Walls of thick sheets of ice covered all the exits but one. The only natural thing for the attacker to do next was a direct attack. Liam jumped back, landing on one hand briefly and then flipping back onto his feet as a spike launched itself upward from where he had been standing. There was a reason his powers weren't being hindered, and Liam intended to find out what it was. Lysis made the first move, to which he had no objections.

Watching with a grin of pure amusement as Lysis summoned a ridiculously large turret of her own into being, Liam found himself becoming more impressed by the woman. The thing was meant to be mounted on some form of vehicle, and here she was with it in her arsenal. "With every passing minute, I grow more and more glad that Chad didn't manage to kill you." He said half to himself.

Cover was something that he'd be able to do. It was deciding what weaponry to do it with that got him. He just had so many to choose from. "Better leave the Harkonnen for later, it's really the best when my teleportation abilities are at their best." He muttered to himself, already fitting a key into his briefcase and summoning forth his next weapon: an M240 machine gun, complete with self-replicating armor piercing rounds. He held the massive thing with a smile and opened fire on the pair, trying to keep them from gaining any chance to attack Lysis.

 

[Tailon]

Talon jumped back as a spear of pure ice stabbed at him from the ground, landing rather clumsily on the icy floor. The Arcanist managed to right himself as Liam and Lysis began a joint attack, opening fire from two large machine guns. Deciding to help them along, Talon rose to his full height, eyes glowing blue, along with the markings under his eyes, and started to launch fireballs at their opponents, each one circling around Liam and Lysis and homing in. Generating the flames at even a reasonable speed was an impressive strain, and homing them in made it all the more difficult. Talon's assault wouldn't last long, but while it did, it would certainly provide yet more for the two to avoid.

---

In front of the building, the spider once again made for the Scott's mecha's arm. The mecha extended the hidden blade on both arms this time, flipping them entirely forward so they were parallel with the arm, and brought both down onto the spider, attempting to damage its "head".

OoC:shortpost :|

 

[Rex]

The trio attacked, two with guns and the third with a pair of fireballs. Alexander stood his ground, a wall of solid Nitrogen quickly forming between him and the attacks. The many bullets quickly put the wall in a bad state, and when the fireballs hit most of it came cascading down in the form of liquid Nitrogen. The liquid Nitro began to rush towards the three attackers, trying to freeze them in their places.

Meanwhile, Alexander caused a pillar of Ice to shoot up underneath the remains of the adamant turret. The pillar continued to grow, ice moving up the turret's sides to hold it on as it turned upside down. It came down on Lysis' location hard and fast, trying to crush her, or at the very least her minigun. The Bounty Hunter stood behind what was left of his nitrogen wall, slowly building the wall up again. Frozen Nitrogen took a lot of energy, so he shouldn't rely on it too much. However, with bullets raining down, there was no other safe option.

---

There was a small explosion inside the turret. The casing held, but the light shut off, signifying that the turret had been too badly damaged internally to restart. Seeing that its turrets had once again failed, the system began to prep level five defenses. Alarms began to sound throughout the facility, but what they warned of was not to be known yet.

---

The spider deftly leaped to the left, surviving the attack with a few cuts to the side where the blades had managed to strike. This time however, it backed off, as if prepping something. After a moment, the red light in the bars on its face grew harsh, and a bolt of hot plasma shot out, attempting to burn a hole through the mech's knee, in an attempt to limit its movement.

 

[Sem]

Ceasing fire of the gatling gun, Lysis dropped the magazines of both her Strata, putting them away and inserting different ones. Aiming the weapons at the floor, she fired. The bullets hit the floor and exploded into frozen bursts. After several shots there was now a low barricade between them and the liquid nitro, but by then she had an entirely different thing to worry about.

"Shit..." she muttered, seeing the green turret rise up. Tapping her gatling gun to trigger it to return, she put her handguns away and dug into her power. Words could not describe the sheer amount of effort required to summon the amount of power she needed. She needed to find a way around it soon - should wouldn't be able to go on much longer against a powerful foe. Digging into the very core of her power, which felt light-years away, she tapped into all of it.

Her body lit up like a flare, her midnight-blue energy surrounding her like a glove. As the turret flew at her, trying to crush her and her baby, she jumped at it, swinging her leg around and slamming it into the turret. The heavily reinforced kick was more than enough to deflect the turret at the growing nitrogen wall, shattering it.

Landing in a crouch, she sprang through the broken line at Alexander, trying to make the best of her heightened state. It wouldn't last long, but hopefully it would be enough to catch the man off guard. She launched a punch at his head, which would at least send him flying across the room if it connected. The young woman stayed on the man, continuing to attack with a flurry of punches and kicks, each one carrying the same amount of powerful potential. Her larger weapon on the other side of the room finally vanished, returning to her in the form of the butterfly charm.

-------

Outside Sorena stood, still mere feet away from the battle of the mechs. Scott was so far handling himself, so she would wait to intervene. She focused instead on the building itself, ready for any word to come through the ear piece on their progress.

The man inside had barricaded everyone inside, and she wasn't sure if Talon was still fighting him. The sorceress wasn't sure how long the mage would with such a hindering effect cast over the building. Perhaps she should move inside in order to draw out the more powerful foes. Even with the dampener in effect she was confident that she could still hold her own well enough.

"Chadwyck, I'm going inside. Serah's still out here, but I think she can hold her own. The spider is only attacking Scott at the moment."

Nodding to Serah, Sorena set off towards the front of the building.

 

[Yoshimitsu]

Illiana swung the blunt end of hear spear round, then the point, a thrust then a parry as her brightly coloured opponent unleashed strike after strike with all three of his rapiers. He kept on releasing his grip on one just long enough to strike with another and constantly switch between the three while only ever holding two at a time. It was such a complicated fighting style, and so difficult to find any openings in. By the time she had blocked one strike, the next had already been launched and she was forced to stay on the defensive.

Vincent wasn't doing much better, either. The black sword that the other stranger had created kept on shifting to different weapons, a sword, then a staff, a mace, a flail, a whip, an axe, any and every weapon at such a rapid rate. While the black-clad man was no faster than Vincent, his swift changes between weaponry kept Vincent off-balance. He was countering much better than Illiana was, but each attack was blocked by a different kind of weapon each time. A sword would rush overhead as he dodged, he would strike back but instead his blade would meet the flat edge of an axe which the man spun expertly, shifting it into a staff and aim a strike for Vincent's ribs.

Illiana jumped back, just out of range, and pointed her palm at the stranger. A blast of fire, like a cannonball, exploded from her hand. Even though the strange sliced through it easily, she finally found and opening and smacked the side of the man's head with the blunt end of her spear. He staggered, giving her enough time to sweep the man's feet from underneath him. Before she could put an end to the fight, though, a bullet shot past her ear and she instinctively dived out of the way.

"Cheap shot," she said, without meaning to.

"We do what we must," the man replied, rolling to his feet.

Vincent ran his hand over his face, a strange glow taking over some of his features. His fangs lengthened, his eyes turning yellow with differently shaped pupils, a strange glow covering his hands. Ethereal claws extended from his fingers, one of the claws curled tightly around his sword without him having to hold it. His entire posture changed, lower down and almost animalistic. He opened his mouth, and a growl slipped out.

"Now now, fuckin' beast man," the man said, a hint of uncertainty slipping into his tones. "Calm the fuck down."

As a response, Vincent lunged at the man. His spirit-esque claws missed the man's head, but the hilt of his sword sunk into his stomach nicely. As the man staggered back, Vincent fired off a volley of black blasts.

"Since you like black things so much," Vincent said, his voice more of a snarl now. "I'm going to feed you to them."

The brightly coloured stranger appeared, his swords blocking the incoming darkness.

"Vincent, Illiana," Araini called. "I can't focus the field, we're all going."

With a flash, the five completely vanished.

~*~*~

Illiana took a few moments to get used to the sudden shift in reality. She blinked several times, trying to get the bright flash that had teleported them out of her eyes, the light-stains in her vision taking large chunks out of what she could actually see. Quickly, she ran a quick check of herself. Nothing was broken, no cuts or bruises. She was fine, if a little worn out from the fight against the stranger. What was it Araini had said about the field?

As soon as her eyes focused properly, they fell upon the brightly coloured man who had been attacking her barely minutes ago.

"It seems we have a change in circumstance," he said, sheathing his swords again and looking away from the summoner. She followed his gaze, to a building in front of them. A big building, in fact. And a wall of ice was blocking the only visible entrance.

"And how do you figure that?" Another male voice said. Vincent's. Illiana turned her head to see him, wolf claws still out, his voice still more beastlike.

"Because, despite any orders I have, survival is more important right now," the stranger said, checking a handheld device. "I have no way of knowing where we are, which suggests we are no longer in the same dimension. This would pinpoint my location anywhere in the universe, so logic tells us..." He left the sentence trailing.

"And why should we trust you?" Illiana asked.

"Because, in case you hadn't noticed, this is a battlefield," he said, gesturing around the area. Illiana looked around, and saw the dead bodies littering the otherwise unremarkable landscape. The stranger approached one and ran his handheld device over the corpse. After a moment, he pulled something from the body. "This would appear useful, though with a limited range. I advise you both grab one."

"Sorena?" Vincent said suddenly, his attention diverted again. This time, it was to another person in their midst.

 

[Sem]

As the witch made her way to the ice wall a group of people suddenly appeared around her. She stopped at once, her sword flashing into her hand. None of them seemed to notice her, instead speaking amongst themselves. Some of them looked familiar, but it wasn't until she turned to one that had called her name that her memory began to work.

"...Vincent, right?" she asked, in a serious tone that was unusual coming from her. Despite this she was rather surprised to see him. "What are you doing here?"

 

[Yoshimitsu]

"Sorena, it's been a while," Vincent greeted, his claws fading away and his fangs and eyes returning to normal.

It had been a long time since he had seen Sorena. In fact, when he had last seen Sorena, he was trying to kill her. Her lightning prowess, combined with Araini's dangerous spellcasting and Illiana's diverse fighting was almost enough to stop him before all hell broke loose. It was a strange feeling, seeing Sorena now. She was one of the few fighters at that brawl who he had not sought out to apologise. Now, face to face with her, he felt like he could right his past wrongs.

"I'm here because Fratley noticed Sem's situation," he said, keeping his tone light yet serious. "I felt like I owed it to him to lend a hand. It seems we arrived a little too late, though."

"Sorena? It's nice to see you again," Illiana chipped in heartily, her voice optimistic.

"Might I address the issue at hand?" The stranger interjected.

"The issue at hand," Illiana said, marching up to the purple haired boy and jabbing him in the chest with her index finger, "is saving a friend who's in trouble, not what your orders say or your machine-brain is telling you, so shut up and butt out."

 

[Sem]

Sorena raised a brow in surprise. This was certainly unexpected, but she so very grateful nonetheless. "No, it's not too late," she said. "There are four others already inside, along with us three out here," she pointed back at Scott, who was dueling the mechanical arachnid, and Serah.

"I myself was about to head inside," the witch added. "... Are all of you here to help?" she asked, seeing how another three added to their numbers was more than she had hoped for. "You don't have any idea how much this means to me. Despite whatever happened the last time we met, I will owe you for this." Sem meant more to her than anyone realized, perhaps including Sem himself.

 

[Yoshimitsu]

"You wont at all, Sorena," Vincent said dismissively. "I owe you, not the other way round."

"Vincent..."

"Illiana?"

"Where's Araini..?"

Vincent spun on the spot, his gaze taking in all of the details of the scene. It was true. Araini wasn't there. Neither was the man he was fighting. Did the teleport get messed up somehow?

"Give me a moment," the purple haired boy said, taking a few steps from the group. "Felix, come in. ... I see. It seems the fastest way out of here is to aid the three in their endeavour. ... Yes, I know. ... Just do it, I'll supply your next load of carcinogens. ... Okay, Samm out."

The boy returned.

"Your name's Samm?" Illiana asked.

"It is. Why?" Samm responded.

"Not what I expected," she said, shrugging. "Something like a code-name. Maybe Purple Irritator, or Violet Self-Absorbed."

"You slay me, surely," Samm replied in a bored voice. "It seems the first thing we must do is break through the ice, and regroup."

"I agree. Sorena, any ideas?" Vincent asked, though he suspected he knew the answer.

 

[Sem]

"The goal is to retrieve Sem's head," Sorena explained. "They're keeping him somewhere inside, and my friends are looking as we speak while trying not to die. It is very dangerous, and the building along with the people inside have proven quite resilient. There is some sort of magical inhibitor active in the building that, well, inhibits any superhuman traits, be it magic or otherwise. We've already lost one of our own, but so far everyone else seems to be fine."

"I personally don't want to leave those two on their own, so either I stay outside with them or Vincent does," she added. She didn't know much about the other two, but she knew Vincent was powerful enough to defend himself, Scott, and Serah if he needed to.

It was a very simple plan after everything was said and done. Fetch Sem and leave. However, actually executing the plan was the hard part. "What will you do?" Sorena asked.

 

[Yoshimitsu]

"Sorena, you know the situation better than I do," Vincent said quickly, the sense of urgency hitting him. "I'll stay here and fight the spider. You take Illiana and Samm inside."

He turned to Samm.

"Get your companion and Araini to meet up with Sorena and Illiana as soon as possible. Illiana can fight like the best of them, and Araini has enough magic to destroy the sun if he lets loose," he ordered.

He turned to Illiana.

"I trust you, and I know you can help," he said, placing his hands on her shoulders. "And if this Samm guy, or his friend seem like they're acting out of order, stab them in the guts for me. You can do this."

"Be careful, Vincent," Illiana replied. "stay in one Vincent-shaped piece, okay?"

"I've been in worse scrapes than this," Vincent said, flicking his sword. As he did, the blade changed. It was a straight blade, with a flattened chain on the side. The tip had a flattened armoured wolf-head protruding, like a key would. The guard curved round into a circle. He flourished it once, and turned his body towards the spider.

"I believe in you," he said.

"I know. You too," Illiana replied, before turning back to Sorena. "Whats the plan, then? How do we break the ice?"

 

[Sem]

"I don't see any other way besides blasting our way through," Sorena replied as she watched Vincent head off towards the mechanical spider.

The wall looked extraordinary sturdy, even for a block of ice. Looking at it closer now, she was certain the creator of the wall was the one who had taken Sem. The thought was more than enough for her to summon a spell that would help to obliterate it, regardless of how strong it was. Very light colored runes surrounded the woman as stood a ways away from the ice with Illiana and Samm.

Sorena focused on the area as the temperature began to noticeably rise, steadily and steadily until it turned much more severe. The ground turned blacked and everything blurred, as if it was being looked at through a veil of smoke. Sorena had, in a sense, put a magnifying glass over the entrance and was directing heat at it. Lots of heat. As the temperature continued to climb the runes around her multiplied and suddenly turned aqua blue. A torrent of boiling water shot at the wall in the form of a drill, boring its way through the weakening ice and leaving a nice doorway for them to enter.

"I believe that should do it," the witch said as the runes around her faded. Sword drawn, she led the way into the building. Once inside she was surprised to find that Talon and the other man weren't in sight.

She was also surprised to find that the dampener was not affecting her magic. Not that it would have been much bother to her, all things considered, but it was definitely a relief to her to not have to feel that pressure. Of course, why was she spared and everyone else was not?

The witch turned to Illiana and Samm, wondering if they felt the effects. Actually, the witch couldn't sense anything at all from the young man. So either he was powerless already or his power was too subtle or powerfully cloaked for her to notice.

It was then that she sensed a reaction from the teleporter that they had taken from the rescue worker. It was reacting to the magical inhibitor. They cancelled out the effects of the the dampener. "Chadwyck, Lysis, Liam, Talon," the witch said into her earpiece. "Find teleporters like the one we took from the rescue worker. They cancel out the inhibitor's effects. I suspect any enemies that have powers of any sort would be carrying one."

Looking to her right she could hear a struggle, as well as very loud gunfire. Lysis and Liam hadn't made it very far at all, still being in the next room. There were two exits. One, the west exit led to Lysis and Liam. There was also an east exit, which was most likely the direction Chad had chosen.

The smartest decision was to split up. Liam and Lysis had each other, and the witch had no idea where Talon had gone, but judging from the intense fighting in the west room, she judged that Talon must have followed after the gunslinging duo, and the ice-man had probably followed. It was then likely that Chadwyck was alone, which wasn't a terribly good idea. Sorena would have taken a moment to admire that her tactician mind still worked somewhat. It had been so many years ago that she had had to use it. Centuries.

"Here," the witch said, tossing Illiana the badge. "I believe you'll need it more than I do. I think it best if we split up. You go to the west door. There you'll find Lysis and Liam, who should be easy to recognize," Sorena really did want to go in that direction in order to confront the man, but she knew she couldn't lose site over what was more important. Revenge was petty, and if she gave into it she may regret it. "I'll go through the east door and go with Chadwyck."

Sorena felt the fog of the dampener settle on her, now that she had no badge on her person. It really would be annoying to deal with, but she could manage. "I'll do my best to keep a telepathic line open," she said as she put two fingers to Illiana's forehead. It wasn't true telepathy, it was simply magic that mimicked it. "If you need something then tell me. Good luck, and thank you again," Sorena said, forcing a brief smile. With that she turned on her heel and sprinted through the east door.

 

[Tailon]

Talon leapt away from the incoming wave of freezing liquid somewhat sluggishly, and managed to reach a wall, activating some of his weakest magic, a magnetism spell, to attach himself like some form of arachnid man by the hands and feet. The Arcanist was only able to hold on long enough to move behind the ice being, and hop down, firing off a small arc of lightning as he went. Once on the ground, he noted Lysis had launched a more direct assault, gave off the best power boost he could muster under the circumstances, hopefully increasing her power significantly enough to help.

---

The torso of Scott's mech completed its repairs as the magical glow dissipated from his eyes. The battle was beginning to take its toll, and he certainly couldn't have that. The Mechanic reached into his coat pocket, frowned, and then cursed to himself. No potions. He would have to run on his own juice for the moment. Scott realized he'd become distracted a little to long when the spider seemed to stop attacking. Scott looked around, confused, then saw what was happening. Just as the spider came into view on his mech's optics, the spider fired a blast of plasma toward its knee, damaging it severely. The mech fell to one knee, balancing on the damaged thigh, one knee and one hand. Cursing some more, Scott raised the mech's hand to optic level, causing it to open on both sides, revealing small missiles that quickly fired in the direction of the spider, heat detectors on their noses blinking red.

---

Quite a ways away, a large red light engaged inside a room whose walls were covered in computers, and a klaxon began to sound. A redheaded girl covered her ears as she entered the room, a cookie between her teeth. The girl walked up to one of the consoles and tapped a few buttons, turning off the klaxon and bringing up a visual display as she bit off a piece of the cookie and ate it, watching a spider mech attack from the camera's point of view.

The girl swallowed the cookie, and looked a bit exasperated, "Looks like I'm on idiot rescue again," she muttered to herself as she took an enormous scythe from a locker that opened on one wall, and balanced it on her shoulder, then stepped from the room.

 

[Chadwyck]

The wave of liquid nitrogen washed it's way over toward them, and Liam hit a switch, changing his M240 ammo into the ice elemental bullets. However, Lysis had the same idea and managed to execute it more quickly, thanks to her carrying separate clips; the dampener was hindering his weapons too much, they felt much too sluggish.

With the nitrogen taken care of, Liam was free to continue his assault, opting to take a moment to trade out his M240 for something a bit more maneuverable. He returned the machine gun to it's case and traded it out for his pair of pistols, now he'd be able to move and fire much more freely.

While he had been dallying with his case, he noticed Lysis handle herself quite nicely, managing to summon a tremendous force of will to use her telepathic abilities and rush the attackers. The girl handled herself impressively, and while she focused on the freezing man, Liam took the opportunity to attack his compatriot.

Flipping over his cover, he rushed toward the door that the gunner had taken refuge behind; firing several times before hitting cover that was closer to his target. Without freely teleporting, he would have to use his surroundings to his advantage until the right moment. He had to be careful to only teleport when absolutely necessary.

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

"Good to know, Sorena." Chadwyck sighed to himself, not activating the headset to actually speak to the witch. "Really, bloody good to know." He stood up and looked over the destroyed turret, it made him happy to see the destruction he had caused; but it wasn't good enough. He shouldn't be having this much trouble with the security.

He looked to the nearest doors that would lead him further into the complex, that would have to be the next step, and he didn't have the luxury of catching his breath. Sem was in there somewhere, and he needed to find him. He opened the doors and they led into another open room, not much different from the one he had just left.

"Oh dear gods, there better not be another damn turret in here." He said aloud, his voice echoing across the room.

"No, nothing like that." Came a response from the other end of the room. The voice originated from a man, leaning nonchalantly against the far wall. With him was a girl, she held a pair of submachine guns in her hands and was standing a ways of to the man's right. They were both dressed as most of the people he'd noticed thus far were: in suits.

The man wore a horrendous clay-brown suit that was very nearly a dark red; it was complete with matching vest, tie, and even a fedora. It was as if Liam had suddenly taken a strong liking to colors prone to create nausea in others. He had a rather large spear slung behind his neck; holding onto it with his arms draped over the shaft.

The girl was in a reasonable color: gray. It matched her eyes; the pale irises visible even from where Chadwyck was standing. She looked dead inside. Perhaps she was. She sat still without emotion playing across her features once. It was unsettling, the way that she simply stared ahead of her; directly at Chadwyck.

“So what, I take it you aren’t here to give me a tour?” Chadwyck mocked, drawing his sword and holding it at the ready. He wasn’t letting on just how tired he felt, his powers so difficult to summon.

“Afraid not. We’re here to kill you.” The man shrugged, spinning his spear as he stepped away from the wall. “You and your friends have caused enough trouble, and we’re sure going to make sure you don’t get any farther.”

“Good luck with that!” Chadwyck shouted as he rushed forward suddenly, trying not to give them a chance to react. The sooner it was over, the sooner he could move on; he wasn’t interested in a fight today.

He headed straight for the girl with the guns; they’d pose the greater threat in the long run, best to take her out now. She didn’t react beyond raising her weapons toward the warrior, not even attempting to move as he drew nearer.

Then something caught Chadwyck’s feet, he fell forward from being tripped. He looked down and noticed that his feet had sunk into the floor up to his ankles. “What the hell?” He muttered as he heard the woman pulling the trigger. He couldn’t help it, he summoned flames that burst from his legs, tearing the floor up and freeing him to roll aside, out of the line of fire.

Where the bullets hit, there were no holes; only scorch marks. They definitely weren’t using normal ammunition then. He jumped up and ducked behind the nearest column trying to figure out what to do next. His cover’s consistency changed for a brief second before it reached out and tried to grab him. One of them was manipulating the steel in the room. Neither of them had even moved from where they had been standing and already they had him on the run.

Chadwyck jumped back from the pillar, right out into the line of fire again. Immediately the woman opened up and Chadwyck barely managed to raise his sword to deflect the bullets. He was running out of options quickly, and the pair were catching on.

“Difficult to attack when the room tries to swallow you up, eh?” The man taunted.

“Just wait til I get over there, and we’ll see how difficult it is for me to attack.” Chadwyck responded, shooting a blast of fire that hurdled toward the man like a missile. A pillar of steel shot up into the path of the fire, an explosion ringing out as it stopped the attack. A scorch mark and a slight indent were the only noticeable changes to the pillar.

“Oh my, that dampener must be awful for you. Or else you’re already just this weak.” The man laughed as the woman kept firing.

Chadwyck rolled again, this time a bullet caught him in the shoulder. It felt as if he were being electrocuted. It shouldn’t have affected him; electricity normally couldn’t hurt him, but with the dampener in effect his immunity to his own powers was weakened.

“They’ve got powers.” He groaned as he stood up to avoid staying still for too long, his arm still stinging. “That means they’ve got badges.” He inhaled deeply as he rushed toward them again.

 

[Rex]

Tom's mech had hit its target. The man smirked, his favorite puppet was still going strong. His humanoid opponent fired a few missiles at Tom's spider, instantly pulling the man back into the fight. He had the mech flee to the right, only for the missiles to follow.

The man quickly realized that they had locked onto the mech somehow, and extended his abilities onto them as well. After a moment, the missiles took a wide turn, and began to fly at the humanoid that shot them, while the spider mech stayed back, away from the potential explosion.

---

Inside the building, the alarm suddenly stopped. After a moment, shutters made from the same greenish material as the turrets that the group had worked so hard to take down dropped down over every door and window in the building. A small scanner appeared out of the wall next to each shutter, a place where a badge could be scanned to open the door temporarily. Lockdown was in effect, but that wasn't the only defense the system was starting down.

The cameras noticed their new enemies starting to enter the building while Tom was distracted with the other mech. Thus, the systems quickly went up to the level six security level, one rarely seen in the Agency. A second dampener came into effect, weakening non-badge holders further. Things were not going well, survivors of the fight were mainly scrambling around trying to get into positions where they could intercept the attackers, while the computer systems worked tirelessly to examine the attackers, set up turrets, and prepare new defenses.

---

Alexander only smirked at the girl when she rushed him. Pillars of ice sprang up when ever she tried to connect a punch or a kick, slowing the blow down long enough that the Bounty Hunter could dodge away. He could keep this up endlessly, and even managed to block another attacker's electric attack with a dry ice pillar.

However, when a few shots rang out, the Bounty Hunter was distracted. He glanced over to the doorway worriedly, moving far too slowly, and that gave Lysis the time she needed to connect a punch to his side. Alexander was sent flying, crashing against the wall on the other side of the room. He quickly pulled himself to his feet again, cursing under his breath. The attack had knocked his fedora off, so the man quickly retrieved it, and was ready to fight the trio again when Lockdown came into effect. Adamant shutters slid down in front of every door, locking Alexander in with the three, and Flynt outside the room.

"I didn't think your friends would be able to causes this sort of mess," the Bounty Hunter frowned, walking towards Lysis, "But now they're stopped in their tracks."

An icy spear quickly grew from the ceiling, attempting to impale the girl, while similar spears appeared from the wall near Talon, and the floor under Liam.

---

Flynt had to dodge away from the door when one of the attackers shot at him, and was not able to get back into position in time for him to get in before Lockdown went into effect, sealing him away from Alexander. The weasel looked up at the scanner far above his head, and growled. He'd need to wait for more aid to arrive. So he waited by the door, weapon drawn and ready to fire at the first person he didn't recognize.

---

Deep down in the basement of the building, Leonard was surprised when Lockdown came into effect. Sure, he had been told about the intruders, but he hadn't expected things to go on this far. He was in the middle of working on his portal system, with four agents present to defend him just in case someone did come along. The otter had the codes to shut down the mainframe's defense systems, and the ones to get the frozen head out of cold storage. In the eyes of the Agency that made him a high priority target, and he had been ordered to remain in his portal room.

There were two Adamant Turrets in the room he was in, both in the corners on the wall opposite the door. He was also located at the far wall, working at a console. The machine that would contain the portal was finished in the middle of the room, a circular entryway. One of the Agents was leaning against the outside of said doorway. A Meerkat humanoid, a Halfer.

Brown hair hidden under a just as brown bandanna, with holes cut out for his ears. Dusty tan fur covered his body, with a normal brown replacing it on his tail, forearms, and hands. He wore brown pants, and a brown vest. There was an odd looking combat shotgun in his right hand, a Saiga-12K. His name was Kris North, and he was the Alchemist responsible for the greenish material that hampered their attacker's progress. It was his pride and joy, his Adamant. It had taken him a lot of energy to prepare all of these defenses, but now that he had, he was happy he did.

Another one of the Agents was sitting on top of one of the turrets. The sole fact that he was here meant that there was some sort of value from Leonard's portal system. He was a ferret humanoid, differing from the others in the room only by his three finger and a thumb hand and three toed, paw-like feet. He was an assassin of sorts, though he claimed he was a corsair, with a poisoned dagger in a sheath strapped to his belt. His fur was gray, replaced by white from the bottom half of his muzzle down to below his waist. Like Kris, he wore a bandanna on his head, with holes cut for his ears, and a vest, though his were red. He also wore a pair of dark gray three quarter pants. His name was Dodger, or at least he thought it was.

The third Agent was leaning against the wall closest to the doorway. He was a stoat humanoid, with brown fur covering most of his body, replaced by a cream running from the bottom half of his muzzle down his tail, which had a black tip. His outfit consisted of a navy blue long coat and black pants, the latter of which were held by a belt. His weapon of choice, a simple M1903 Springfield. His name was Samuel Cutter, though he still introduced himself as a First Lieutenant out of habit.

The final Agent was sitting on the floor, against the console. A weasel humanoid with crimson fur, though he had black hair and a small goatee on his chin of the same color. He easily had the most muscle of the group, still fairly lean despite it. He wore a pair of black jeans with a brown belt holding them up. His name was Ryder Rainer, though his friends usually called him Blaze. He had a Smith & Wesson Model 29 in his right hand, and was staring right at the door, waiting.

It was their job to keep Leonard out of enemy hands, and they would preform it with gusto. Though only Kris had powers of his own, two dampeners were active, meaning that their opponents would almost be down to normal, if they even made it to the basement at all.

 

[Sem]

OOC: lololololate

BIC:
"That felt good," Lysis muttered to herself as her opponent righted himself. Still, another dampener had just come on, which meant she had even less time with this superpowered state of hers. Thankfully, Talon had decided to give her abilities a boost.

They were shut in now, with doors made of the same green metal that the turret had been. Breaking through would require much more energy than Lysis cared to use.

The sound of growing ice alerted the young woman to the ceiling, allowing her to twirl out of the way of an incoming spire of ice - a spire that still managed to graze her upper arm, slicing through her jacket and skin. The injury stung and Lysis glanced at the blood oozing out of the wound.

Setting her eyes upon Alex again as he walked towards her, she ripped the bottom of her blouse and wrapped it around her injury, shrugging away the pain and giving him a grin, running her tongue under one of her upper canines. "Stuck in a room with me isn't exactly good unless there's drinks and music blaring through some speakers. Then you and me could have a good time," Lysis winked. "Well, hell, we can still have a good time. At least I plan to," she said with narrowing eyes.

Deciding to use what was left of her energy rush to the fullest she resumed her assault, trusting that Liam and Talon would provide support now that there was only one enemy to worry about. She sent out a telepathic pulse in the direction of his mind, one that would confuse and disorient the man if he wasn't prepared for it. In the blink of an eye the woman vanished and in the same instant reappeared next to the man, gun aimed at his head. She pulled the trigger and spun her leg around towards his gut. She continued a complex combination of gunfire and kicks, which started to look more like a dance as she twirled around.

Jumping back, Lysis focused all of her remaining energy into her forearm. With her palm facing the man as she landed, the energy rushed forth through her arm and out of her palm towards in the form of an enormous, midnight-blue colored pulse. That will have had done something to him. That was all the psychic energy she would be able to muster for now until the dampener went away. Hopefully someone was going to work on that.

-------

Sorena quickened her pace as the alarm sounded, running past a ruined green turret. She could spot Chadwyck up ahead in the next room, but the door was closing, a door made of the same material that the turret had been made of. She had seen that the turret she had blasted in the lobby was still intact for the most part, so she knew the material was tough stuff.

"No you don't," she muttered as her form dissolved away into wisps like dye in water. As the door shut she reappeared in the same room as Chadwyck, and spotted the enemies he was facing. A second dampener had just gone into effect, and Sorena could feel its effects. Still, her body retained its modified attributes, and she would use them to her advantage. No one expected a woman that looked about fifty to run at someone at top speed like an olympic runner.

She rushed the man, coming up upon him faster than he would have anticipated and managing to smack him across the face with the flat of her blade, sending him down. Shooting a finger at the woman, lightning burst from the tip towards her.

"Need some help?" she asked Chadwyck. "Serah's safe - there's someone else out there with her and Scott."

 

[Chadwyck]

Liam stood behind his cover, the door had shut and his target was locked out in the hallway. "So much for that," he muttered with a shrug. Now they could focus their dampened powers on the single foe in the room. A foe who he had stupidly taken his attention off of. His adoptive parents would have scolded him for that, if they hadn't tried to kill him to repay their employer all those years ago. Still, their training stuck with him and he had just failed to maintain attention on any and all potential danger. The sound of ice gathering beneath him confirmed his stupidity as he rolled aside.

Not fast enough, the ice spear caught him in the leg; luckily it only managed to tear his slacks and a few layers of skin. It was bleeding, but he would still be able to walk on it. Another second of distraction and he would never have walked anywhere ever again. Now it was time for a counterattack.

Lysis was using the rest of her magic-enhanced power on the man. She would need help as soon as it ran out, so Liam was waiting to provide it. When she built up her powers and fired a pulse toward the man, Liam immediately added fire to it with his pistols. The bullets followed directly behind the pulse, if it managed to hit then there would be a hail of bullets hitting with it.

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

Chadwyck lifted off the ground, sparks flying in the air around him as he did so. It was an enormous pain to focus enough energy for flight, but with the ground trying to eat him, there wasn't much of a choice. He flew across the room at blinding speed, pillars of steel shooting up into his path that he quickly weaved through and around. Then the second dampener went into effect.

Any energy that Chadwyck had summoned for flight suddenly fled from his body; or more accurately, buried itself deeper within his psyche. It would take a great amount more focus to draw forth any display of supernatural ability than it had been. But none of that was on Chadwyck's mind. He was too busy crashing into the floor. Hard. And to make matters worse, he was right in front of the guy with the spear.

The man twirled his weapon in a very "I'm going to enjoy gutting you," sort of way. Chadwyck panted heavily, feeling weaker than he'd ever felt in his life. Helpless. He had vowed never to feel helpless again after that night. Now he was going to die at the hand of some douche in a brown suit. "If I had one of those badges, I'd kick your ass." Chadwyck managed to say as he stared defiantly into the man's eyes.

Something unexpected happened then, the man flew away as if he had been hit by something. No, not flew, he fell several feet away.

The lightning that Sorena had shot at the woman hit its mark perfectly. Unfortunately the sickening smile on her face as electricity coursed through her veins meant that she hadn't felt it. Or she did and she was a masochist. Either way, she didn't go down, or even move for that matter. Instead she opened her mouth in a scream. An eerie, silent scream.

"I'd love some help," Chadwyck said eying the grotesque display from the woman, "especially with that!" He grabbed Sorena and dove to the side, just narrowly avoiding a burst of electricity from the woman's mouth. She was proving to be a strange one.

Her neck cracked as she redirected her aim, never blinking, as she raised her machine guns and kept her mouth open, another round was coming.

Chadwyck rushed forward, which wasn't the brightest idea given the circumstances, but he couldn't let her get that next shot off. He opened his palm and willed his flames to come forth. They did, but they were reluctant. He shot off a blast that was weak by his standards, but if it managed to hit her open mouth it would prove strong enough.

"Focus on the guy in the ugly suit!" He called back to Sorena, taking a deep breath, raising his sword, and reaching deep inside of himself for some power.

 

[Tailon]

Before the missiles could reach their target, something took over his control of them, sending them turning wide, spiraling into his own mech's head, destroying it and the weapons within and near it completely in the ensuing explosion. Scott looked up at the new found gaping hole directly above him, which quickly covered itself with a plate of steel.
Cursing to himself, Scott stood the mech back up as the repairs on its knee completed, then raised the left arm, from which two large machine guns emerged, opening fire on the spider until they went click.

---

Inside, Talon was assaulted by more ice. Deciding to finally put some action in, the Arcanist focused hard, replacing Stinger with his favored pair of gauntlets in a pair of white flashes, notably slower than ever before, while jumping forward to avoid the icy spear to his left.
"Goody, those dampeners even make basic stuff hard," he said to himself as he fought to call up his greaves and boots as well, the last bit of magic he would be doing for a while as a second dampener activated, leaving him with a bare minimum magical boost, and the far inferior mechanical boosts from the armor. He dashed forward, and as Lysis fired a pulse of energy, aimed a hard blow at Alexander's back, then dodged away from Liam's pistol fire.

 

[Rex]

The spider launched to the side, and started to flee the machine gun fire. For all Tom's effort, it wasn't fast enough, the mech took damage, centralized on its left hind legs. Normally, such a blast might have crippled the mech, but Tom wasn't running it normally. As if the holes in its legs unfazed it, the mech turned towards its humanoid opponent, and shot another blast of plasma at it.

---

The woman lashed out at Alexander again, attempting to bombard him with a flurry of punches and kicks. Once again, the Bounty Hunter did his best to outmaneuver her, using ice to slow her blows when he needed to, but he too was caught off guard by the final attack, a blast of pure psychic energy. Alex quickly threw up an ice wall, but it was too little, too late. The wall shattered, and the man was sent flying again, smashing into the far wall. Thankfully, he was propelled away from the bullets and punches his other opponents had sent his way.

Once again, the Bounty Hunter climbed to his feet, now starting to look worse for wear. The smirk on his face look almost psychotic, and his hat had been knocked off again, revealing eyes with a malevolent intent.

"Now it's my turn," Alexander growled.

The temperature in the room dropped even further, as ice froze over almost every available that wasn't covered. Alex's left hand curled into a claw, and a layer of ice froze over it, half way up to his elbow, destroying his sleeve as it went. At the end of his fingers, the ice formed into sharp points that were perfect for cutting. The Bounty Hunter could no longer move his wrist or fingers until the ice melted, but there was no need to.

Laughing, the man rushed Lysis, slashing at her multiple times with his frozen hand. He ended by throwing his non frozen right hand towards her, as shards of ice formed above and rained down on the psychic woman. He stepped down hard on the ice below him, and spikes shot up at the woman, with the intent of keeping her occupied.

Alexander then turned towards Liam. Reaching his right hand into the air, Alex mock slashed at the main, causing ice spears to burst from the ceiling and floor, and attempt to skewer the man between them. Finally, he rushed Talon, slashing at the man's chest with his frozen hand. He then lashed out with a kick, forming an ice spear on the wall behind the Arcanist, and trying knock him into it.

 

[Sem]

Lysis blocked the first strike with her arm and continued to match Alex's slashes, though blocking the ice arm with her bare arms was a bit painful. A slash grazed her midriff, slicing open her blouse and cutting her skin.

"Tch." The cuts hurt, especially with the cold, but she didn't have time to linger on her wounds. The sound of ice forming above her alerted her to the danger and she rolled to the side to avoid the falling shards, but Alex had kept up with her. With a jump that came just in time she avoided yet another impalement. The moment she landed she opened fire on Alexander once more now that he was preoccupied with Liam and the magician.

With perfect precision she aimed at one of Alexander's shoulders and fired in an effort to render that arm useless. Rushing forward she slid across the ice and swung at his legs to knock him down, and as she passed beneath him she aimed a gun up at him and fired again.

-------

Sorena rushed the man who could liquify the ground. He was prepared for her this time and held his spear against her. The witch blocked the spear with her sword and delivered a knee into the man's gut, and then she sent a shock into his system. The man cried out as he was electrocuted and fell to the floor, twitching.

With a growl the man shot his arm towards Sorena and the floor instantly swallowed her up to her waist. Even though she was currently stuck in the floor, she was instead noticing how her legs were freely kicking about. There was an open space below them - a basement. That was good to know.

"Ancient bitch," the man said as he charged her with his spear. The jab at her age snapped Sorena back to the situation at hand, and bent backwards, narrowly avoiding having her head skewered. She waved her hand at the floor beneath the man and it too swallowed him up.

"I can use that trick too, you know," Sorena said as the part of the floor that had enveloped her rose up, lifting her out and resuming its normal state.

"Like it'll help you much," the man replied as the floor let go of him as well. Still, it meant that he didn't know what else Sorena had up her sleeves, which as a lot. Sorena had quite a few simple grey spells that weren't hard to use, even with the double dampener in effect.

Narrowing her eyes, Sorena slowly waved her hand and then suddenly snapped her fingers - a spark of her sapphire blue magic only briefly visible before it fizzled out into the air. The ground around the man instantly morphed into a series of spikes, each deadly enough to kill him if he wasn't careful.

The man jumped-back, wide-eyed, narrowly avoiding what would have been a fatal wound. He too took control of the spikes and elongated them, turning them into whips that lashed out at the witch. Sorena danced around with her sword, cutting up the whips and rendering them useless before spinning on her heel and sending a bolt of lightning straight at the man.

The bolt met its mark and he was again sent to the floor in convulsions. Still, he laughed between spasms and slowly rose to his feet. "Capable of all that even with the dampeners on? I think it'd be my duty to rid the world of someone as powerful as you."

He rushed her with his spear, not willing to let her use another spell. Sorena and the man fought sword against spear, the sounds of their clashing echoing loudly in the room. He forced her up against a wall, which wasn't good. Sorena did her best to concentrate on a spell while still blocking his attacks. Through sheer will she was able to slam her free hand against the wall and activate her spell. That area of the wall shot out in the form of a pillar and hit the man square in the center of his body, sending him flying to directly into the opposite wall.

Sorena mustered the power it took to teleport as the man tried to get air back into his lungs. She reappeared only a short distance in front of him and sprinted forward. The tip of her sword stopped just short of his throat, but he was smirking. Around Sorena, the floor, the wall, the ceiling, had all come to life and produced dozens of spears that had shot at her, stopping only a mere inch or so from her body.

They were all about to stab into her, but she herself was controlling them as well with her magic, and so it was a battle of wills that kept the both of them there in their unmoving positions. Sorena wouldn't let the man continue to get in her way. Her will to retrieve Sem was certainly stronger than his will to kill her and protect his place of employment. She would do whatever it took to get him back - nothing else mattered.

Slowly but surely the quills began to retract and after a moment were gone all together, leaving Sorena's opponent surprised.

"Give it to me," the witch said, her sword still at his throat.

"This?" he asked, showing her his badge. "Not happening - you will just have to kill me for it."

"I can do it right now, in case you haven't noticed," she pointed out.

"Then do it," he said, still grinning. "You want your kid back so much then you'll do anything right?"

"Right," Sorena said with a nod of her head, sending a burst of blue magic from her sword into the man. His laughing soon ceased and his body went limp. Not dead. Merely knocked out. "Kill yourself if you like, but I won't do it if I don't have to," she said to the unconscious man as she plucked the badge from his hand, instantly feeling the weight of the dampeners lifted off of her.

"And he's not my kid," she added.

 

[Chadwyck]

Liam was ready to aid Lysis the moment that Alex was back in the fray, he wasn't an expert marksman for nothing, after all. Even without his teleportation or the ability to freely change his weapon's shape thanks to Pandora's Box, he was agile and his aim never missed. The shards of ice that fell toward Lysis were his targets, and he opened fire with his pistols; emptying both clips. He was forced to wait for the ammo to replicate itself, the dampeners were irritating him to no end. Still, it had been enough for the woman to move out of the way. Now he had to focus on the threat moving toward himself.

Alexander had waved his hand toward him, that was never a good sign when dealing with these special element-y types. He heard the ice forming and went immediately to action. He jumped up, flipping himself as he rose. He kicked off of a spike that was forming from the ceiling and narrowly missed the impaling trap that had been laid for him.

He hit the ice covered floor on his back and used the momentum from his dodge to slide along the ground, twisting his body and firing at Alexander as he slid behind cover and stopped his sliding. He stood and aimed at the man again, waiting for a few more rounds to replicate themselves into his clip before he fired again.

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

No such luck, the fireball was met with another burst of lightning from the woman's mouth; the two projectiles canceled each other out. Chadwyck was in close now, and he swung with his blade. The woman blocked his attack with one of her machine guns, and they began to fight sword against guns.

She blocked an overhead slash from Chadwyck and kicked him in the stomach, knocking him back and quickly opening fire on him again with her electric bullets. Her face never so much as showed a single twitch as they fought, it was like she was an empty shell.

The electricity pellets met the flat of Chadwyck's blade as he rushed forward again, kicking at her knee and causing her to take a step back. He stepped into his kick and brought his sword's hilt up into her throat. He heard her make a sound for the first time since he entered the room; she choked for a second and stepped back.

Chadwyck twisted, bringing his sword along in a slash aimed for her middle. She flipped back, landing on her hands and bounding back up onto her feet. She fired a quick burst that hit Chadwyck in the leg; the pain of being electrocuted coursed through his entire leg as he fell to one knee, the electric charge affecting his muscles. She raised both weapons toward his face.

Chadwyck thrust his palm forward, a bolt of lightning streaking across the small gap and into her body. She did the same thing as when Sorena struck her with electricity. She convulsed for a second and converted the energy to her own means, opening her mouth in the silent scream.

Chadwyck rushed forward and punched her in her open mouth, a small burst of flames met the electricity as he was coming out of her mouth and sent it back into her body. She seemed to overload as her muscles spasmed from the electricity trying to escape her body. She never made a sound as she was tortured from her own ability.

She collapsed to the floor. Chadwyck checked her pulse, she was still alive, though he was surprised she was. Her power over electricity must have saved her. "Bitch," Chadwyck muttered and he opened her suit jacket and produced a badge from within the inner pocket.

Immediately a weight rose from his shoulders, he hadn't even noticed how heavy his own limbs had felt to him without his abilities in easy access. He pinned the badge on the inside of his own coat and was in a significantly better mood. He crossed the room to Sorena.

"Let's go get Sem back." He nodded toward the nearest door and shoved his hands into his pockets as he walked.

 

[Tailon]

The room grew frightfully cold as Alexander continued his assault, the two dampeners taking their toll more and more on Talon's side of the fight. The Cryokinetic had decided to get more physical, using an icy claw to attack Lysis, then striking with more icy spears at her and Liam.

Alexander then turned on Talon, rushing him with a swing from the claw. Twisting, the Arcanist caught te incoming attack, Talon raised his leg in such a way as to block a kick immediately after. He kept a powerful grip as he was forced back by the blow and the slippery ground. Suddenly, Talon felt a stinging sensation, followed by icy cold and excruciating pain. He looked down at the offending spot, and saw a crimson flower spreading forth from the area where the spike had pierced clothing and flesh.

Talon cursed as he pulled himself away from the offending spike, he realized he had managed to retain his grip and, angered, let the adrenaline of the fight take over, dulling the pain slightly and slowing bleeding. Finally deciding to do something, Talon increased his grip on the icy gauntlet in hopes of cracking it, then swung his arm away, aiming for the solar plexus.

---

Outdoors, meanwhile, Scott continued to struggle with his opponent's mech, which seemed unfazed by the damage his machine guns had caused. The spider fired another blast of plasma before Scott could react, severely damaging his mech's arm.

Inside the cockpit, the small display showing the mech's status now showed the arm and head as completely nonoperational. Cursing, Scott activated the right arm's blade fully, extending it between the second and third fingers of its hand. The mech charged, slashing at the spider's legs several times before stopping suddenly at close range, opening its hand to reveal a charging energy weapon in the palm, which fired into the core of the machine.

 

[Rex]

Alexander laughed when Talon found himself impaled on the Bounty Hunter's icy spike. The Bounty Hunter pulled, helping the Arcanist off the spike, and felt the man tighten his grip on his gauntlet, attempting to smash it. Again, Alex laughed, and when the man finally let go, the icy claw was unharmed, keep strong by the Bounty Hunter. "Oh, I'm sorry, did that hurt?" He asked, mockingly, "Honestly, you struggled a bit too much, so I had to go overboard."

The Bounty Hunter dodged around the man's attempted strike to his middle, positioning Talon between himself and his comrades. He now no longer had to worry about projectile attacks from either of them, seeing as how the Arcanist would function as a meat shield of such, soaking up the attacks already sent Alexander's way.

However, he wasn't totally expecting a physical assault from the woman, and was only able to get out of the way of her sweeping kick by nearly setting himself off balance. She fired at him again now that she was close, which he blocked with his frozen arm, the ice once again repelling the attack. However, that was all that was required to set him off balance, and, for a moment, Alex's guard was down. He hit the wall, and started to compose himself again, attempting to distract his opponents with another trio of ice spears.

---

Tom had managed to take out one of the mech's arms, leaving the thing nearly defenseless. When it rushed his spider, sword at the ready, the Telekinetic had his spider block the swings with it's claws, catching every blow it their "palms". The sword disappeared then, telling Tom something was up. He forced the mech into the air, shooting it up, and over the humanoid mech's energy weapon. The spider landed behind its opponent, and grabbed at its right leg, attempting to rip it off.

 

[Sem]

Lysis rolled out of the way of the single ice spear sent her way. One of the three of them was seriously injured now, which was less than ideal and cut down their chances. She didn't want to think of Talon as merely a number in her head, but she couldn't help it and really didn't have the energy to care at this point.

Alex was against the wall so Lysis wasn't about to stop her assault. Springing to her feet, she snapped the ice spike from the ground and held it in her hand, launching herself at Alex as she thrust it at him. Attacking a cryokinetic with ice would prove useless unless the cryo was utterly miserable with their powers, which Alex clearly was not.

Of course, the ice was only meant to be a distraction as she pulled a knife from a sheath in the small of her back and stabbed at his chest.

-------

"Lysis, Liam, Talon, report," Sorena said into her earpiece. She hadn't heard anything from Illiana since they had parted ways, so she would assume that they were fine for now.

"We're still occupied with this Alexander person," Lysis responded.

"Both Chadwyck and myself have collected badges, do you need our assistance?"

"Senile hag, don't you trust us to handle things?" Lysis replied. "Go on ahead - we'll catch up."

"Right," Sorena said, waving for Chadwyck to stop moving towards the door. "Wait," she said. "During that fight with that man I discovered a basement area below us. Something tells me that we should start there. And rather than wander about until we find an entrance to the basement we shall just drop into it from here."

Taking Chadwyck's hand they teleported into the open space below them, finding themselves in one of what was no doubt many rooms that comprised the basement. Wherever it was it was obvious that Sem was not there, and so Sorena moved on, stepping towards the green door. Sensing her badge, it opened just long enough for them to pass through.

OOC: Only taking a shot at how the basement looks, so if I'm wrong let me know. Also assuming that until Rex does something, the turrets and other such security measures won't activate for anyone with a badge.

 

[Chadwyck]

Alexander was off balance, and Liam had been in his fair share of fights to know that an opponent against the wall would start lashing out with anything they had. In this instance it was another spear of ice; only the sound that alerted Liam to where it was forming was muffled thanks to the ice already covering the surfaces of the room.

He knew it'd be focused where he was currently standing, so he dove aside, his leg receiving another gnash for his hesitation. Now it hurt to walk, and fresh blood ran down his leg. He could ignore the pain for awhile at least, he was trained to ignore pain. If he complained about something as tedious as difficulty walking, the Monroe family would have locked him in a dark room with no food for a week. Either that or send him into the forest surrounding the house and make him live off of the land. Either way, he learned early on that pain was necessary and able to be ignored.

So he ignored it and followed the events of the battle, rushing forward along with Lysis, only letting her take the close combat. He would have switched his pistols for a close range weapon, had there not been two dampeners preventing his Box from working properly. So instead he covered the girl, waiting to see if the man would dodge her attack, and if he did Liam would open fire at wherever he dodged to.

 

[Tailon]

Talon's missed punch left him vulnerable to Liam's gunfire, forcing Talon to shift positions and raise his armored hands in order to protect his torso. Talon winced as he felt even more pain radiate from his wound, which would take an incredible amount of time to heal with two dampeners in effect, but at least the cold kept the bloodflow to a minimum, keeping him in the fight for at least a while longer.

The Arcanist checked on the others, and saw that Lysis had attacked head on, leaving Alexander cornered. His ears alerted him to the incoming attack as the ice on the floor cracked, through which another icy spike lashed out. Talon barely managed to force his weight out of the way, rolling across the ice a couple of times before he managed to scramble to his feet, making his way toward Alexander in the swiftest manner possible,not considerable due to the gaping wound in his side, then used his weight slide past Lysis, aiming an open palm with as much force as he could muster toward Alexander's chest.

---

Outside, the spider mech was gaining an even greater upper hand, tearing into the armoring on the right leg in an attempt to tear it off. As soon as it punctured the metal, two small cannons appeared below the knee, firing even as the spider removed the lower leg, thought quickly losing their aim as the massive machine tumbled forward.

Scott knew his time in the mech was nearly over, and he spoke to it as it fell, telling it in a whisper meant more for himself, "C'mon now, I need you to hold up just a little longer, then I can send ya back home," the mech was silent, of course, they always were, but Scott spoke to them more to reassure himself, anyway. The Mechanic then forced his mech over onto its back, where two eye-like openings appeared near the top of the torso, charging up the last of the mech's power into one final attack. Inside the cockpit, a large joystick appeared in front of Scott as he disengaged from the neural interface, grabbing the aiming device and pulling the large trigger on the front. Back outside, a massive flurry of energy blasted forth from the mech, aimed on a pivot by Scott, until the last of the mech's power had run dry.

The machine finally fell, its cockpit opening to allow Scott an exit before it shut down completely. Thee machine quickly disassembled itself, moving through Scott's portal bag as he walked over to pick it up.
"That was one of the stronger ones. Not bad at all," he quipped, as two bright flashes of light summoned a large, strange looking sword and an arm cannon in his hand and on his arm, respectively. As the cannon appeared, he aimed it at the spider, backing up as he charged its attack to its maximum capacity, then cut loose, sending a barrage of energy blasts its way.

---

Nearby, an enormous, octopus-like construct of what appeared to be pure light and darkness appeared between two buildings, upon which a girl sat cross legged, the handle of a massive scythe across her lap. As the octopoid arrived on the scene, one of its arms reached up to gingerly pick her up, placing her on the floor, then giving her her scythe before dissipating back into massless shadow and light.

The young woman walked briskly toward the non giant robot combatants, the scythe balanced on her shoulder. Her name was Zoey, and she noted that, besides Scott, there were two people on the ground; a dark haired man in casual clothing, and a brown haired girl. Zoey's own clothing consisted of a black t-shirt with the words "white text on a black shirt" across the front in, naturally white, a pair of jeans and heavy shoes, her usual battle attire.

Zoey walked up to the dark haired man first, noticing his odd, key-like weapon as she approached, and asked, "Hey there, um, guy. What exactly are we facing down, here," spinning her scythe's blade behind her.

 

[Rex]

The woman rushed Alexander first, attempting to stab him with one of his own ice spears. In an instant, the spear tip dulled, as the whole thing expanded until it grew with the floor ice. It then grew horizontally, blocking both attacks coming for the man. The ice handle Lysis was holding onto then started to grow barbs, trying to stab into her hand. Spears then erupted from the wall, doing their best to impale Lysis and Talon, while Alex stood safe behind his new wall.

---

The spider's right claw was nearly blown to bits after the attack, but it tore the leg off anyway. It tried one final attack, telegraphing it heavily. The spider was flung into the air, once again landing safely away from the attack. Finally, the mech fell, the Pilot getting out and attacking. The spider jumped again, clearing the energy attack and landing back on the roof.

"Alright, I'll get you repaired the second this mess is over," Tom smiled. He then returned his focus to the group down below. The front doors slammed shut, and the ground started to crack and shutter. Huge pieces of ground started to pick themselves up, and throw themselves at Scott and his comrades. Soon the whole courtyard was a cratered mess, and Tom only watched and waited, seeing if anyone survived his barrage of attacks.

---

In the basement, a trio of Adamant turrets greeted Sorena and Chad. An alarm went off, and the room turned red for a moment, before a wall opened up. Out walked a humanoid creature. A gas mask covered its face, and it wore a combat helmet and a black trench coat, along with black boots, gloves and jeans. The creature rushed them as the turrets opened fire on Sorena and Chad.

 

[Sem]

Lysis' attacks were quickly made ineffective as a wall of ice now stood between her and her prey. She instinctively let go of the ice spear as soon as it had begun morphing, but the ice spears caught her off guard as she twirled to the side to avoid yet another impalement. Still, one of the spears grazed her shoulder, just above the wound she had already receiving, causing more pain to erupt in that area of her body.

"At least it wasn't my face," Lysis muttered as she pulled out a Strata and ejected her magical magazine.

It was then that she felt a tremendous psychic presence. It was cloudy and muddled, and too difficult to examine because of the dampeners, but it was strong enough for her to immediately sense. The source was high above, that was all she knew. She wasn't sure who else would sense it, but she knew Sorena would. Still, she couldn't worry about it now.

Reaching inside of her coat she pulled out a different magazine and slid it into her pistol and took aim at the ice wall. The magazine she had inserted was special and she was able to fire at her regular rate, which was a relief. Stepping back, she aimed at the ice wall and began firing, seeming to shoot at random spots.

None of the rounds went through, of course, they weren't meant to. Within moments each of them exploded in a burst of fire, obliterating the wall and hopefully the man inside.

-------

"The turrets!" Sorena told Chadwyck as she focused at the man running towards him. The whole thing really was getting old. Though she didn't suppose that they would simply have given Sem back to her even if she asked. What if he wasn't even alive anymore? No, Sorena couldn't let a thought like that gain much prominence in her mind. She felt that he was alive, and she would get him back.

Right then she felt a sudden powerful presence. It took her less than a second to sense that it wasn't magical, and an entire second to realize that it was psychic in nature. Either someone very powerful had just teleported into the vicinity or had just unveiled themselves. It was coming from the roof, and then it registered with Sorena. The spider-mech that came from the roof, there hadn't been a pilot, which explained its deft movements. The psychic presence had been manipulating the thing like a puppetmaster.

"Heh, one of those types..." she said with the shadow of a grin. Sorena didn't even budge as the man rushed her as a powerful blast of wind blew past her and towards him. It was not the kind of wind that would blow you away, no, it was worse - it was the kind that would go right through you and leave you in pieces.

 

[Chadwyck]

The ice wall prevented Liam from doing much other than wait for the man to come out from behind it. He had been expecting a dodge, and then he would have been able to kept the man pinned. As it was there wasn't a thing to do but wait.

Fortunately, he didn't have to wait long as Lysis pulled out a special clip of ammunition and obliterated the wall of ice with fire bullets. Liam absentmindedly longed for the dampener to be lifted so that his babies would have been able to fire their enchanted ammunition, this whole ordeal was becoming too much of a hassle. Sem wasn't his friend, why should he stick his neck out for him. But Chadwyck was. And wherever Chadwyck was, Liam would follow; they were like brothers. The moment of doubt passed as quickly as it had come: he was here because his friends were here, and he'd fight the forces of Hell themselves to protect them.

As soon as Lysis' fire lowered the wall, Liam sprinted forward, firing both clips of his dual pistols at the spot the man would be assuming he survived the inferno. He wasn't about to lose. Not in a place like this.

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

Serah had felt it inappropriate to interfere with the mech battle. Sure, it appeared that Scott could use the help; after all, the spider was ripping his rig apart like it was made of tinfoil. All the more reason to stay out of it, Serah decided, if Scott's mech goes down, we're going to need all of our strength to back him up. The arrival of the key-sword user and this bizarre, octopus riding, scythe bearing girl were fortuitous. Then the earth started to explode.

Serah knew immediately that this wasn't the work of the spider mech. There had been no indication of it doing anything once it leapt away up into the air, to the roof of the building. If it wasn't the mech, then there was another enemy around somewhere; someone who was keeping themselves well hidden.

She didn't have much time to focus on that, though, as boulders started to do their work; presumably. At least, she assumed that flying through the air to crush them all was what they were intended to do. Unless the ground suddenly became sentient and rather angry with them. Stranger things have happened, she supposed.

She went to work, summoning four creatures made of various vegetation to protect her and do her will. They burst from the ground like an explosion in the middle of a rain forest, a simile that Serah wasn't quite happy with herself for imagining. They were a mess of thick vines and trunks like trees, with the 'heads' of giant venus flytraps. He control of plant life meant that she could create any form of vegetation; even species that didn't exist in this world.

The four of them either batted away boulders or caught them in their huge maws and devoured them. It was quite the sight to behold, really. A boulder that had a nice trajectory flew toward her, and she willed her pets to change, weaving themselves together in a net of vines. The vines caught the boulder like a fish in a net, and they stretched as though made of elastic. The boulder slowed and came within inches of Serah; who smiled as it stopped entirely and then the elastic vines snapped back, hurling the rock upward at the roof of the building.

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

"More turrets? We have badges now, though. That's stupid. Really stupid. These things just go around attacking anything that moves?" Chadwyck sighed and watched as a large man-thing emerged from a moving wall. More goodies for them to deal with. Sorena already set her sights on the humanoid enemy, so Chadwyck decided to flex his now unrestrained powers and focus on the turrets.

He pointed three fingers at the three turrets, large bolts of lightning arced through the room and struck the adamant coated nuisances. "Those have big bullets," he shrugged as his electricity went to work freezing the machinations within them in a stasis, "but it doesn't matter if they can't fire."

He hovered off the ground, well aware that these turrets would only be held at a standstill for seconds, if he was lucky. Still, it felt good to be out from the dampeners' grasp. He felt like a new man. It was exhilarating.

He flew toward the closest of the three turrets, grasping his sword in his hand and encasing it in blue-white flames. He knew that these things' weakness was their barrel, so naturally that was where he was aiming. He needed to use his time wisely, no telling when the turrets would start moving again. He threw his sword into the barrel of one, the flames encasing the blade exploding into the inner workings as he did. Then he placed his palm up to the barrel of the second and began shooting off several fireballs into its barrel. He wasn't concerned with conserving energy, he was just glad to have his full capabilities back. Still, he was more than certain one would have sufficed.

He turned his attention on the third one and waited a moment to see if it had recovered from the lightning strike. These turrets weren't the main problem in the room. When they'd been dampened, the adamant covered turrets were a pain; but now he and Sorena were more than powerful enough to deal with them. No, he needed to get these turrets out of the way quickly, he had a bad feeling about the weird beasty that they were facing.

 

[Tailon]

Talon pushed himself away from the icy wall as Lysis opened fire, avoiding Liam's shots as he slid along the frozen ground. The Arcanist winced as pain shot through him, centralized in the crimson blossom on his clothing. He quickly examined the spot, and saw that skin had barely started to grow back over it, despite his best efforts. He muttered a "Goddammit," to himself, then forced himself back into the fight.

Talon made his way forward; slowly at first, but gaining momentum on the ice, he passed Liam just as his last shots rang out, flicking his wrist as he went to reveal a serrated blade from the top of his gauntlet, and stabbing with his remaining might at Alexander.

---

Outside, the spider disappeared, and boulders began flinging themselves from the earth at Scott and the others. The Mechanic raised his energy weapon, opening fire with a heavy barrage in all directions, shattering many of the boulders. The remaining few he sliced apart with his oversize sword.

It was quite clear now that the spider had not been an actual machine, but a telekinetic puppet. The puppet of an exceptionally powerful telekinetic, as well, considering the power and skill of his control. As he considered these developments, Scot aimed for the roof, firing a barrage of blasts at the center of the telekinetic power.

---

Further behind, Zoey swung her arm around as the boulders attacked her and the dark haired man, creating a thick wall of light, from which tendrils of darkness emitted, catching, and smashing the boulders. She then spun her scythe above her head, gathering the energy onto the blade, which caused it to grow exceptionally large, glowing white. Zoey swung the scythe toward the roof as a massive telekinetic presence revealed itself there, launching a large, slicing wave of white and black energy forward.

 

[Rex]

Sorena's attack hit the strange man, and he crumpled to the ground. He didn't stay there long, however, quickly getting up again. His coat and pants were torn in several areas, showing the skin underneath. The skin looked completely unscratched. The man cracked his neck, then turned away from Sorena, this time rushing Chadwyck. He lashed out with a strong punch just as the third turret came back online and opened fire on the man.

---

When the first wall went down, Alexander was revealed to have already thrown up another. This one was thinner, but it took each of Liam's bullets with barely a crack. Finally, after all the bullets had been expelled, the wall fell, turning into a wave of liquid Nitrogen that washed itself towards Lysis and Liam.

Already, Talon was upon him. The man lashed out with a blade at the end of his gauntlet. Alexander simply threw out his frozen arm, catching the gauntlet. The blade cut into the ice a bit, though not enough to reach Alex's flesh. Now with another opening, the man formed an icicle, grabbing it with his right hand. He jabbed the improvised stake at the man's front, around the area opposite his original wound.

---

Serah's rock stopped in midair. Tom frowned, wondering how they thought they would defeat him with large objects. The rock took Scott's blasts, and crumbled, warning the Telekinetic of his opponent's counterattacks. This time, it was Tom himself that flew into the air, while the rest of the attacks flew under him. The man landed in the center of the destroyed plaza, very softly. Not even taking a moment to introduce himself, Tom blasted energy at people around him, attempting to knock them all away.