Arcane Machina: A Broken World

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Ralph dodged the attack after the assailant finally showed himself to the brilliant engineer of Tirnova. Clad in red and dressed in an outlandish fashion, he had to wonder what kind of professional Rose or Hobbs had guarding this large ballroom. Seeing the man climb down, with a notable sash that looked like an anti-gravity tech built, Ralph clicked and realized the error of his assumption.

"What the hell!? You're a human with guns?! Taking on advanced suits and even downing 240's with ease?! Holy shit you're pretty amazing for a small time gun man!" Ralph said as he called the attacker out again, he was angry but at the same time amazed that an armourless gunman was giving him more trouble than Arcanes could ever hope to accomplish. Realizing sending more suits with Elise against him would be meaningless, and the countdown to his doom was at hand at any rate, he decided to amuse himself as well by fighting the assassin in a one on one combat. He will put this assailant in his place, without Hobbs or Rose to lash back at, this poor soul would serve as his punching bag.

"Damn right a dance is in order! Eat this!!" He yelled as his suit fired a barrage of rockets at the attacker, each smart rockets targeted the attacker's surrounding area. With overwhelming amount of rockets also preponed to hit the pillars should the attacker gravity walk unto the walls, using the rockets as a distraction, Ralph charged head on with his boosters and prepared a fist on his left arm and a charged laser on his right hand charged with .1%, enough force to feel like a rubber bullet if it hit at best. His blood was boiling with excitement but even Elise could feel that the man was being arrogant in underestimating the gunman by not sending his suits to overwhelm his opponent.

Ralph sent his fist flying, hoping to knock the man down and for good measure, land a series of burns with his lasers with his right gauntlet. A smirk crept up Ralph's face as the hoard of missiles came like a swarm of deadly hornets followed by him. If the missiles won't hit him, then he sure as hell had him right where he was needed.

With a sigh, Elise refocused on her efforts to aide Argle in guiding him to the laboratories where Shendra and Mari were detained and programming most of the suits outside at the ceiling of the dancehall to pierce through to finally allow them to swarm in and take down their gun man.

=o=o=

East Bridge

The laboratory holding Shen and Mari was kept dark for Ravager to focus on his homing abilities, prior to Heiliana taking off, Hobbs and Rose ordered the crew to disable all forms of light within the fortress for the purpose of maximizing his manipulation of darkness. Out in the open where the sun shines would prove futile, hence why his operations were always conducted at nightfall. After a loud explosion outside he could hear his support teams outside near the east bridge cowering in fear by something big, screams of terror and death erupted as the Arcane of Darkness ignored their pleas for help to keep honing his powers.

Finally, once he felt he was ready and with a new team from Section Sigma ready to take charge outside, Ravager stood up from the large cylinder housing Shenorai Eterna, hopping down and looking at his partner Nocturne near the cylinder containing Korma Weapon 070590, he withdrew a set of firearms from his person, intending to quell the cries of his fallen colleagues.

"I'm going ahead. Follow me if you wish," he said coarsely as he stepped into a darkening void under his feet and vanished from below to an unknown location, but wherever he may reappear, he was ready to take on the menace who dared challenge Korma's authority.
 
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Xotiff & Kyvvy, gray
Though it was impossible to see due to the headband, Xotiff's right eye twitched...
Small time man? He was looking down on him? All words of praise and actually not underestimating the gunman was thrown aside due to that one remark. Xotiff love praise, indeed his ego was the size of a blimp most of the time, but it takes so little to actually piss him off; especially when it's tied together with the praise like that. One of the very few things that could overcome his ego was his greed, but that had to be some sizeable metaphorical carrot.
His grin and smile disappeared, he was no longer enjoying this, all holds for a proper fight was blown away, Small time man, He'll show the tinman a fucking small time man.

"You mock me?" Xotiff muttered, mostly to himself. Kyvvy had long since realized what was going on and what was going to happen. Sneaking past the defences was a no-go, she had to dart out in the last second and do her part for the fight.
"You mock ME?!" he shouted out in anger, this fucker, this fucking man, hiding in his metal armor. He was going to take great pleasure in removing his existence alongside anyone on his side. He was no longer a hired gunman, he was a murderer by profession and he was going to show this child -this unbeliever in his greatness- what this small time gunman was capable of.

"Kyvvy!"A shout lead out, the large fox darted out of her hiding place, most likely triggering every single scout on the way, but she had another mission than attacking someone, she was attacking something.
Her tails burst into vibrant bright flames as she exhaled with a powerful burst, sending out a jet of flame covering a lot of the rockets. The cone was not large enough to cover them all, mainly the ones that looked like they were going to hit her master, collateral damage was out the window at this point anyway.
A huge explosion lit up the room like the sun itself as smaller controlled blasts took out pillars and anything non-metal around the gunman, showering him with debris and secondary hits from the shocks themselves. Though the shockwaves hitting him were not enough to damage him directly, he was far from out of harms way. Some blunt traumas and cuts from flying concrete, as well as being hit with certain shots of the weak lasers, pain was something he was very accustomed to, the last thing an enemy like this was expecting was for him to not dodge.
"I will show you small time gunman" Xotiff muttered to himself during all of this as he planted his sword in the ground besides him, the glow leaving the edges as he let go of the hilt. Reaching in under his coat he pulled out a large black metal object with a handle on it.
He had seconds left before the suited man arrived, it was very clear what the next attack was going to be, planning ahead the pilot's fate was sealed.
Grabbing his sword he threw it at the charging opponent, blade starting to glow with energy as soon as his hand grasped the hilt, not expecting it to land for any damage that was not the meaning behind this attack, it was a feint; all he needed was a split-second of focus away from himself.
Dashing towards the suited man he focused everything he could on dodging, he needed three more seconds and there was not enough in this move. Jumping towards the left, he activated his belt as soon as momentum had kicked in meaning that as soon as he started traveling to the side with no logical way to move, gravity jerked him the opposite way, having him skid along the floor several meters away.
Pulling a small silver-metal object from his belt he pulled a lever on the black steel tube in his other hand, it broke down into a loading-tube. The silver object was put into it as a quick whip movement locked it in-place again like the huge gun it was. As soon as it locked back two metal rings around the tube started spinning with a metal-against-metal sound as it produced a sort of energy field like small blue bands around them.
A small smirk was on Xotiff's lips as he took aim towards his victim, Kyvvy had already retreated off the side of the gunman, standing there with tails in full blaze.
"Be gone!" Xotiff shouted as he pulled the trigger.

An explosion erupted from the barrel of the jet-black tube, enough force behind it to shatter anything glass within the next four rooms but strangely not as ear-deafening as one would expect. Shrapnel was being pushed by this controlled explosion in a wide cone shape, tearing anything and everything it hit or even grazed by into shreds with enough force to tear metal and even steel like it was melting butter. Pillars turned to dust and pebbles in the area of effect and the expanding wall of shrapnel was heading towards the pilot. With the angle this had in this room, the only safe place was on Xotiff's side, this was going to remove any boundaries between this and the next room as well as fill it with enough debris to build a house.



Argle Wargle, purple
A light jog sounding like bi-pedal elephants on the way down the hallway, all sense of stealth had left the mutant and he was following the logical ways and whatever ideas and aids that the female voice in his headset gave him.
Anyone classified as an enemy on the way was quickly thrown aside, with enough force to re-classify them as abstract art, the shots he had taken before had already started healing and should be completely fine in not long, no one managed to properly hit due to his countermeasures so all was well.

Rounding a corner down a hallway there was something strange, the lights were turned off, some shattered or.. shot? whatever it was the only lightsource here was what came in from behind Argle and whatever the automated suits following him were producing.
There was something about this darkness... Like an animal's instinct Argle had a feeling about this, had he not been so focused on needing to go this way he might have avoided the area altogether.
Calming his mind ever so slightly he had to focus on reaction time. Slowing to a walk he made progress down the hallway towards the laboratory.
 
Ralph dodged a sword thrown at him and smiled from beneath the helmet, it was good to see his opponent riled up as well, and for the fact that he was taking Ralph a lot more serious now than playful bantering but could he have gone overboard? He claimed to be mocking the gun man but all this effort to fight him one on one was anything but. He wanted to enjoy the feel of battle, one he hadn't had for sometime since Marigold went on a warpath when she first realized she was no longer human. Looking at the gunman using the gravity device to skid over to the left after a brief daring dive to the right, he was wondering what kind of madness was he planning. No matter, Ralph thought, for he could counter with a quick laser shot before he could turn it over.

Suddenly a burst of flames in a cone had interrupted most of his smart missile fire, what the hell could have done such a thing?! He had no time, another strike unto the man should do it or else this suicidal charge would have gone for naught, his switched his punch to a full charged laser shot from all 10 fingers in hopes of pinning him down and proposing the unexpected of a worthy opponent such as him. Before he could do so, nothing prepared him for what came next.

What followed was a sudden explosion that caught him off guard and sent his vision on a frenzy before realizing a wall of shrapnel came flying at him. He saw the gunman packing a strange looking gun that he had never seen before, beads of sweat dripped from Ralph as he realized he had found himself in a pinch with not one but two opponents. He had failed to account for the creature of flame that had appeared suddenly in their battle. With seconds left to impact, Ralph stopped at his heels and powered his suit down.

"Ragnum core exceed charge!" he commanded his suit to burn up all the 3 articulate cores of his suit's back to create a mock shield of energy to melt those deathly shrapnel before it would tear his flesh apart, noticing the pillars being engulfed by the oncoming shrapnel to have turned to dust and pebbles from the sole impact of those weaponry. Bracing himself, a smile crept up from him. He had been defeated, but the sheer joy of a battle that had unexpectedly turned against him was even funnier.

The three cores of the suit emitted a large barrier of energy around the model 251 as the shrapnel passed through him, however the strength of the gunman's strange weapon even began to melt and fry the 251's hull and the recoil sent Ralph flying, a noted explosion from behind him confirmed that the two suits that were with him would no doubt be completely wiped out. He landed with a large clank as the 251's remains peeled off him, leaving him with his casual clothes and now torn gauntlets.

"Holy shit!" He said in amazement, looking from behind he heard a few more explosions as the shots continued their trajectory towards his intended place as walls and steels crumbled with the sheer strength of the gunman's strange bullet. His two free suits were now in tatters and completely obliterated but fortunately the ceiling was now left free. With swift controls, he pressed his partially cracked eyeglasses to summon a spare 250th model Ragnum to his aide as it landed with a thud next to him along with 6 to 10 more sets of Ragnums ranging from 240 and 250's all armed once again.

"Hahaha! My god you've got balls and skills man! Why don't you work for me?" he said. Before he could do anything he raised his hand. "Don't worry about them; they won't attack unless you shoot me! I'm here to offer you a job! A better one!" He said as he picked his tattered 251 and examined the shrapnel remains now lodged in its broken armour piece, the suit was beyond saving as Ralph gave a sigh of grief before turning his attention to the gunman. "Where'd you get these bullets anyway? If you didn't lead with it at the start of our fight it means you're quite limited with these babies. If you throw your paycheck from President Rose away, I can triple what she's offering as well as mass produce these miracle bullets you got going cos man I wouldn't wanna fight you if you can pop these every minute! I can get healthcare arranged for your fire fox too if you need," Ralph said as he looked into the shredded armour piece and saw that had he not amplified his Ragnum cores at 500% to shield himself, he would have been fresh meat splattered across this ballroom, he quickly scanned the nature of the ammunition as well as the suit's destroyed shell for further analysis and uploaded it to his private server via his eyeglasses. Throwing it aside, he called the gunman out as he suited up with a spare Ragnum 240 wrapping itself around him with ease.

"What do you say? Ready to ditch Rose's pisspoor fee and bag a bigger and better slice of pie?" he asked him, with a hand extended for a shake.


=o=o=o=

Ravager emerged from the darkened shadows a few meters ahead of the giant brute after spending quite sometime observing him before it eventually entered his domain of utter darkness. Utilizing the dark, he conjured 4 sets of shadows as they approached the beast without fear. He stood there as the shades began to open fire with dark matter-like bullets at the beast, with the pitch black halls ahead and his powers to corrupt living matter at hand, it would eventually wear the beast down. He noticed that Ragnum suits accompanying the beast began to fire lasers through their finger tips at his shadow clones, each of them vanishing upon contact with the suit's light.

Ravager then sunk back into the shadows and reappeared at the ceiling. If he was going to emerge victorious here, he would have to wear the brute down before confronting him and with those suits in the way, there would be little chances for him to strike. He had to take down the assets before breaking the unstoppable force heading to wherever it was heading. Body language of the beast implies that it could be heading to where Shenorai Eterna and Korma Weapon 070590 were kept.

He had to stop this beast at all cost, even if it means using methods to wear it down before dealing the killing blow. With a timed strike of his abilities, he lunged a monstrous dark hand at one of the suits and corrupted its circuits through its helmet before it crashed down lifeless next to the beast as its head began to rust.

Ravager sunk back to the darkness and bided his time, it was going to be a gauntlet in the dark and he was using fear to keep the beast on its toes while corrupting or causing its body to slowly feel fear through the touch of his dark powers. He eyed his prey carefully as well as the last suit that was near the beast to take an opportune second to power it down as well.


=o=o=o


This was one of the busiest days for Elise, first was losing contact with Ralph only to find out that he had a grudge match with a powerful gunman and upon re-establishing contact, he was already proposing to an alliance with his adversary. It was a begrudged respect from what she can see in the man's eyes and the value of an ally she saw but the gunman's attitude and strange air of him intimidated her at best. She swarmed any free suits she had near the ballroom of the West bridge to protect Ralph should negotiations fail and suit him up at the soonest.

On the East bridge, she lost contact yet again with one of the suits that was accompanying Argle. Even worse is that he was trekking through a very dark hall that was leading to the laboratories housing Shen, Mari and the experiment called Lyserg. She suspects an Arcane Gifted was in their midst.

"Argle, hold your ground and keep a slow pace. We've lost one suit now to an unknown force, stay near this one at all times or you'll be fighting alone in the dark," she advised the creature via his earpiece as she readied the accompanying suit with lasers and further illuminated her companion.

She diverted her attention to Robin once again as she reformatted her holographic form near her monitor and waved.

"Robin, are we good to go with the hack? I've breached 60% of Heiliana's firewall, the crew are about to man their Ragnum stock now. We need to hijack all of them or we will be under fire. Ralph has already lost 5 suits on the west bridge and we have lost 8 with Argle," Elise said with a focused voice as she was trying to home in on the server to take full control and override the Ragnums kept by the fortress. To her, it was simply taking back what really belonged to them and using it for better purposes so it didn't matter.
 
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Child - Initiate combat protocol, white

The entire fortress exploded into action. Klaxxons blared, warning the staff of the emergency and the entire fortress was in complete darkness. Not that it mattered to Child. The darkness wasn't an issue considering her eyes weren't standard human issue. Quietly, Child sat idly in the corner or the room on top of one of the pipes. The entire fortress could collapse as far as she cared, but she was tasked with keeping these tanks secured. Similarly, Ravager sat just as quiet. The commotion was getting closer and closer as the explosions were becoming louder and louder. The assault wouldn't exactly be called the steathiest approach. It was easy to track the attack, as the support team icons on her HUD were disappearing in sequential order, essentially mapping their attacker's progress.

I'm going ahead. Follow me if you wish,

Not responding, Child stood and launched her hooks into the roof and shot across the room like a spider, slinging from one hook to the next towards the vanishing squads. Within a minute, Child arrived at her destination. It wasnt hard considering the noise the enemy were making. Even without Sieghilde's surveillance support, it wouldn't have been difficult to track. However, Ravager, through some way or another, arrived earlier and had just begun to engage the large being and the suits. Ravager was engaging the large enemy and it didnt make sense to engage the same target, lest they get iin each others way. So instead, still upside down and sticking on the roof, Child let loose with the MN-23 at the support suits behind. Each suit was lit up like a light show through the filters currently activated in her eyes.
 
Xotiff & Kyvvy, gray
The carnage calmed down, the room before Xotiff was torn to shreds and would need a complete rebuild to even be usable again. But to the gunman's surprise his victim was still alive, how... why... He was supposed to be vaporized.. No worries.
Holstering the Ausus the prototype pistols he had acquired setting them on the normal mode Xotiff had just named pellet-mode, shooting out a physical pellet of super-heated plasma, it worked very, very well for fleshy targets. As he walked closer to the defeated pilot the fight replayed in his head, now that he thought about it there was a distinctive strange glow behind the wall of shrapnel, one that is not a part of the Ausus firing. Did this man? He might have, Xotif had some skill in technology and there was a chance that that suit had some last-resort protection mode, or something like this, that he managed to activated just before it was too late. It saved the pilot but the tech was completely shredded, like it should be! Now all that was left was the unprotected pilot. Oh how he was going to enjoy this, starting with his legs and arms, no countermeasure could follow nor could he run away. Several scenes for a long death played in his head, though every idea faded as the timer had expired and the backup suits had arrived.
A quick count made it seem like at least 5, most likely a few more. Had Xotiff had a better vantage point he could have taken them out, but not surrounded like this.
The floor and walls were gone, he could escape if he wanted, Kyvvy could send of a flash-fire which acted like a non-sound based flashbang. Though all his thoughts of escape faded as the pilot stated one sentence.
Work for him? As well as a backup threat, naturally he would have connected to the suits around here and odds were they were his lifeline... He might have thought this through too quickly, Xotiff's arrogance in not killing the pilot right away seemed to be his downfall in this case. He could still kill him and get out, but he would take some damage from this... Not to mention what might happen to Kyvvy.
"None of your buisness" Xotiff answered to the question on where he got the Ausus cartridges. They were a fucking pain to obtain, costing the same as a small house, after all not everyone has the tech to distill so much energy in such a small container, only certain black-market distributors and some of the fucklarge ones had.
Wait... Xotiff's thoughts stopped in their tracks. The pilot was smart enough to realize that Xotiff most likely didn't have many of the shots, which was right.. but.. He could... Mass produce the cartridges for him? And in addition to this he would triple the pay he got from his current employer? A bargain of his life like none other, but this did appeal to Xotiff, quite a lot to be honest.
Another of the suits wrapped itself around the pilot like he was being eaten by it's mid-section. Xotiff's ace was not a secret anymore, although he still had a few shots left he could take out this man with relative ease, a penetrative shot would take care of him, his suit, and most likely hit the moon before it lost most of it's momentum; but he only had one of those left.
It was clear on the assassins face that he was taken back by this offer, in all of his life he had fired off about 7 shots with the Ausus, and this man, this pilot, could mass produce them for him?
"How can I trust that you have the tech to have these made for me? They're not easy to get hold of, and even harder to distill." Xotiff knew the process intimately, just he didn't have the tech to do so as it required nothing less than a high voltage supply and a device the size of a small jeep.. Not really something you carry around. Odds were that Ralph had something like this that could be easily altered at his Ragnum factory, after all the energy cores are sometimes made on a similar principle, though Xotiff didn't know who the pilot was; nor what he had access to.

Both the gunman and the fire fox were ready to leave at a split-seconds notice, all that remained now was the explanation and answer from the pilot.



Argle Wargle, purple
Walking down the hallway the darkness felt stranger the more he entered it, if he didn't want to be here before then he especially didn't want to be here now. Suddenly the suits started failing, he could not see why or what happened but only some sparks signaled to their death as they fell to the floor.
Trying to find out what happened he felt what could best be described as bullets, but they hurt more than normal shots, high calibre? Or perhaps armor piercing? Problem was that there were no muzzle flash nor any firing sound.
There were some shots fired afterwards from a strange location, but they hit the suits accompanying the mutant. As the suits managed to get off some retaliation the condensed light beams light up enough for him to see some shadows being disintegrated, but little more.

Argle was becoming alone, and fast, being attacked by someone with powers and possibly a weapon, or another target, he was not really sure.
Not having any way to see in the pitch black of this room, he either needed to leave or get some light in here.
"Turn on the lights" Argle commanded the light woman, the one that Ralph called by the name Elise. He hoped there were any suits left that could illuminate the room. He planned to lounge at whatever he saw as soon as there were any light at all. If he didn't get any light he had a few backup plans.
 
Ralph chuckled as he turned his back on the gun man to focus on his mission once, he tried at best to talk him down without risking damage to anymore of his suits but he would rather give the gun man a choice. He was a very interesting and resourceful assassin capable of standing up to Ragnum armours, suits that were legendary and could withstand even attacks from Mechanized behemoths. With a thumb raised up to praise his adversary's questioning nature, he gave an assuring tone with an approving voice.

"You don't have to trust me, but even an assassin with skills like yours should have enough intelligence data gathered around me if you're working for Rose. Afterall, my family and I are the original creators of these monstrosities you see before you as well as the Ragnum Cores of Tirnova. Believe me when I say that I can manufacture enough of your magic bullets with just the sheer data I've picked up from the suit you just destroyed; all that's left is to order the materials which shouldn't be that hard, since I make trillions of credits every month. You can easily say making these destructive bullets for you is just a hobby," he said. With time against him now, he had no time to justify why he wanted the gun man to work for him, but he was confident this pitch would be sufficient to sell the assassin and the fox to his side. Heavens only know what other dreaded challenges lies in store for Ralph within the fortress.

Closing the helmet of his armor, Ralph lifted off before glancing back at the gun man.

"Think about it! In the meantime, I'm going to finish what I came to do. It's been fun duking it out with you," Ralph said before directing all his armours with Elise's help to leave the remains of the destroyed ballroom and towards the reactor where the fortress is used to stay afloat at the skies. With the amount of destruction caused by their fight prior, it made things easier for Ralph to simply glide his way around. In all likelihood the whole crew were more focused on Argle, and that's what was needed to mask his hidden agenda before he would regroup with the mutant to help rescue his beloved.

=o=o=o=

"Sorry, Argle. This is my limit…" Elise said as she illuminated the room with the last suit while controlling it to the mutant's side. If they were to take out this last piece then it would limit Ralph's capabilities of battling any retaliation outside of the fortress, hastily she controlled the remaining free suits to flee the scene and control one nearest to Argle with a wide glow.

"We're not far from where the laboratory is housing Mari and Shen. Keep pushing," she advised the large mutant as she directed the illuminated armour to show them the path and keep a lit path open for them both.

=o=o=o=

Ravager grunted as the suit illuminated the path for them. A direct attack from their shadow is outright stupid and he knew as well that Child may not want to directly attack them. With a known fact that he cannot communicate with her while he is within the realm of the dark matter filled void, he quietly spawned from a few meters away from the last lit suit and the giant monster to communicate with Child.

"Prepare formation Alpha, have Plan B and C ready should anything happen. We need to wear him down before they reach our packages, focus on destroying the armour and let me break the monster ," he advised the younger operative in a quiet voice unreachable from the suit and the monster. It pays to have all of their best weapons ready at the moment when the attackers believe they are in clear waters. For now it would be best to poke them until they are exhausted and wait for the inevitable, if only he could instruct Child to destroy the well-lit suit, he can easily dash in via shadow teleportation and hinder the giant with a well cut slash from his knives laced in dark matter.

With that, he stealthily used the shadows to reappear at various points where it wasn't lit, waiting for Child to somehow break the last suit so he can finally move in for the kill. It took timing and patience to finally land the critical strikes needed, and he was merely biding his time.
 
Xotiff & Kyvvy, gray
The certainty the man was speaking with, at least his arrogance was well placed, but there were a lot of good points he mentioned. This man seemed to be very skilled with piloting the suits as well as general control over them, his knowledge of Xotiff's employer and everything around it, as well as to be sharing her blood. Though Xotiff's information network weren't as good as one would think, he did have some vague intel here and there. Everything this man had stated so far, was he Ralph Faiz? The bloody owner of the factories that created these suits?
If that was true, then having him create the cartridges was far from a problem, with his resources and technology he should be able to shit these out in bulk.
Xotiff could do little than stand there and think, letting Ralph and his bots pass the area unhindered, or rather without further delay.

-------------
As the room was cleared, it was only Xotiff and Kyvvy left. The Ausus was still cooling down and the empty cartridge rested in it's barrel.
"What do you say?" he spoke out into the air.
"I don't see why not, most of your pay goes into the cartridges anyway, this way we get more pay and you get those glorified shots of yours." The odd accent came from the Firefox companion.
"So, you're saying we are going to join the technophile?" Xotiff stated with a slight hint of despise, still pissed off from the smalltime-man comment earlier, but this was a lucrative deal...
The fox didn't answer and Xotiff was lost in thought for a minute. Then a grin grew on his face worthy of those needing pills to not claw their own faces off.
"Let's give it a try! If it doesn't work out I'll end what we started here!" Xotiff stated with a slightly happy tone, grabbing his sword in mid stride he sheathed it as as he and started moving towards his new employer.
His companion let out a chuckle as she followed him down the path that their new employer took.




Argle Wargle, purple
OOC: I'm allowed to minorly G-mod Elise like this, discussed over skype.
-----------------------------------
The only suit that she left as she retreated her automations started lighting up the corridor, the darkness actually creeping back slower than light does to normal darkness. Solidifying Argle's suspicion that this was not something natural, there had to be someone with powers here. And perhaps someone else, he didn't have anything but his normal senses so complete darkness was not his friend.
"Woman, show me a map of this place, like you did with him at the house" He didn't really mean to be cryptic for the sake of his enemies, just how he spoke regarding these things. The woman was a strange light tech thing... He didn't understand her the least, but he had seen her being able to show maps or images with light, this was good enough.
Being shown the area they were in, a rough layout map and an expected location for the ones to be saved Argle thought for a second and realized that he had no chance of winning against something he didn't even know where was.
"Fuck this!" he shouted out in anger, at himself but more so at his hidden enemies.

Ignoring all sense of danger he hoped for the best and rushed towards the pods his targets, in a straight line. Using his heavy stomps he could hear the echo nearing as he neared a wall, with a strong body and even stronger arms he tore through the walls with a roar of anger and debris almost exploding everywhere, he kept going this way as he would either find light or the pods in a matter of not long. If all went well, something he didn't expect on, he would have light in the sense of an automated suit following him.
"I'm coming" he whispered for himself, sort of aimed at Marigold.



Dr. Kaj, teal
Off course Kaj had control over what was going on in the fortress, he simply didn't really care. He had his own things to take care of, and now that Hobbs were doing his own things Kaj had no one that were in his way. Glorious experiments, the thrill of finding out how something unknown worked, and even better; replicating the result based on the data! If there were something that got Kaj going it was just that, information about the unknown and putting it into practical usage. Though the practical usage was a bonus side-effect, and though Kaj wanted to know everything ever, being able to use some of it for his own gains was always interesting.
Like the trackers he had placed in some of his subjects, untraceable by any other tech by his own it allowed Kaj to obtain snippets of information into his secure servers, all garbled in an insane encryption should someone get a hold of it.

Walking down a hallway he was moving from one lab to another, and due to the moving nature of his target location he could not just use a portal, though he probably could there was a 34.18% chance of Kaj being damaged, which was too high for the sake of saving minutes.
"Halt!" a voice stated with an authoritative tone.
Kaj was stopped? Someone actually stopped him from entering a secure door.
A twitch could easily be seen on the good doctors right eye. "Move." he commanded, not going to ask twice.
"Identify yourself" he commanded again, the other guards in the area walking over, some taking arms readying themselves in case of something happening.
"Dude... isn't this that doctor dude?" one guard whispered to the one commanding.
"I don't care, if I don't know who he is, I'm not going to let him in without clearance" the soldier stated, and in normal cases he would be right.
"Congratulations!" Kaj started as his robot arms tore the weapon out of his hands, breaking his index finger and spraining his wrist. "You are hereby promoted to test subject."
Steel arms coiled around the soldier as he tried to scream for help.
"Oh god, it is him!" one of the other guards stated, remembering that the only things they had been told about this doctor person was that he had every single clearance, and they weren't even supposed to look at him without good reason. And now... this guard that stopped him and commanded him... Their orders were under the penalty of.. something they weren't told.
No one stopped Kaj as he walked through the door as he initially intended, but with a new subject hanging in the air behind the doctor, one metal arm around him and another covering his mouth to make him shut the fuck up.
The door closed behind him and the soldiers looked between themselves with worrying eyes.
 
There was a faint crackle in Argle's earpiece, sounding like a mere crinkle of plastic rather than a burst of static as a new connection tuned in to the comm-link. A familiar voice quietly spoke in his ear.

"Dot here," Robin spoke, using a codename given to her years ago, "I've got the schematics for you here. Just let me patch this through to - ah, here we are!"

Elise would receive a series of images, each one for the many floors to the lab. Though there were a few pages missing regarding some of the laboratories deeper in the fortress, they were not the rooms that Argle was seeking. The quickest routes from the mutant's location were marked by illuminating the lab, air ducts, hallways, and pointing out guard rotations all with various colors.

"If you're in need of any other information, let me know. I'll send what I can."
 
Within the bowels of the main core at the west bridge, a lone pod containing a prototype from one of Hobbs' artilleries began to slowly activate. Its red lights flared up as the metallic pieces reformatted into a set of sharp claws, transforming into a quadruped within minutes as steam began to erupt. A single red optic began to light up as if it began to scan the area; the prototype mechanical behemoth began to sharpen its claws by scratching the marble walls from where it reformatted. It's mechanical growls and dimmed while orders were beamed down to it via the Korma server; it remained still until its orders were issued.

"Sky Fortress Heiliana has been compromised. Terminate all who opposes the will of Korma. Leave No traces. Priority Beta Registered: Protect the Engine Core Room by any means necessary."

Registering those orders via signals, the code embedded itself into the machine's computers as it continued to the chamber housing the core allowing the gigantic fortress to keep it afloat. It was the primary heart of the fortress, kept guarded by various defence systems from any unwanted guests from accessing it and destroying the core, which would doom the fortress and all within. The mechanical beast leapt to the top of the core's pillar and jumped to the neighbouring pillar to silently await any hostile intruders from arriving and dispatching all under his creator's orders.

=o=o=o=o

"Ralph I've evacuated all our spare suits and diverting them into disabling the weapons on the fortress' exterior. Something is destroying them and I am unable to pin point the exact source," Elise briefed Ralph as he rushed and destroyed various robots that had been deployed to defeat the armour wielding CEO.

He tossed another robot aside and shot another laser at another group that was coming for him he took another pause to catch his breath. Elise summoned another set of suits that was left from the fight with the gun man to battle the rest of the droid swarm that seemed nearly endless in the West bridge in hopes of catching his breath.

"Keep them focused, once we free Mari and Shen, we'll hack Heiliana's server to gain control of its numerous Ragnums," Ralph said as he fired another missile at a large wave of robots.

"Are you certain we won't be traced? We're supposed to not even be identified, they can easily trace our source code," she advised in fear of retaliation via Minister Hobbs and Lord President Rose. At this point, he had to rescue his woman and her friend then think about the hardest part of this spiralling situation later. Ralph nodded behind the facade of a calm minded adventurer, masking his fears and how to prevent further reprisals from his designated enemies.

"Come on Elise, have some faith sister. One thing's for certain," Ralph said as he punched right through a robot drone and tore its innards down to pieces. " he's not gonna find me so easily in a sea of 8 trillion encrypted servers," he concluded with another shot of his lasers at a drone with a higher piercing power than those he would use on people.

"Very well, Dot has uploaded all the various schematics back unto our servers and has granted certain routes that would be more productive for us, best we'd save our energies for any more surprises like that gun man eh?" she advised Ralph as the HUD began directing two points of access towards the core engine room, he decided to take the less tedious route rather than leaving a message for Korma. All that was left is to take charge and bring the fortress down once and for all.

=o=o=o=o

After the beast had charged himself like an unstoppable force away from their sights, Ravager re-emerged from the darkness and communicated via helmet to his colleague who was somewhere in the recesses of the dark. At this rate, the monster who had arrived for an unknown purpose would no doubt be reaching his destination and his instincts dictated that he for certain knew the place.

"Nocturne, abandon Formation Alpha. The target is far more tenacious than anticipated. Plan B is to be executed immediately. Rally all troops and prepare two Modular Mechs for deployment, I repeat: Rally all troops and prepare for a head on confrontation," Ravager said as he began to order a tactical retreat despite the advantage they initially had. He began to send an encoded message throughout the entire fortress to rally their free crew that were not preoccupied battling the random suits outside locked in an aerial warfare. They needed more firepower than usual to combat whatever the hell the creature he encountered was or the owner of these suits.

With a determined look, he sunk back into the shadows and into the unknown, ready to respawn at another location to rally their troops, leaving his colleague in the aftermath of the destruction to rendezvous with him at the meeting point to regroup and capture the creature dead or alive.

=o=o=o=o

At the guest room, the aide that was at the Red Room had arrived and beckoned their guest to follow her to meet The Lord President herself who was now in an intense situation with all of their analysts trying to make contact with their mercenary who went blind almost 10 minutes ago when they made contact with the suits.

"Excuse me, young lady!" she called out to their guest, Rosetta. "The Lord President will now see you, we should be going. We are now on Red Alert and she would like to see you personally," she said.
 
Rosetta the Outcast
  • Rosetta woke with a start. She had thought to people-watch the rest of the day away but dozed off at some point. Even the cacophonous chatter and shuffling about did little to keep her awake. Eventually, even these noise was blocked out and Rosetta slipped off into a dreamscape - revisiting a happier time in Saevitia. Which was why the interruption soured the otherwise pleasant mood; Rosetta scowled at the aide, who was already turned away from her to lead her towards the office.

    On a positive note, at least the Lord President was finally showing her some attention. On a not so positive note, however, this is the Lord President. The manipulative, scheming, cunning, sly and nothing-positive lady ruler of the Humans. Rosetta was undecided about whether to be glad she had finally been called to meet with the Lord President. Stepping through the door, she knew there was only one way to find out.

    "Greetings, Lord President," Rosettta said as she took a seat at the desk. The words of Silvana, the Wild Card of Saevitia, had never truly been lost on her, despite the clear authority that the Lord President wielded. "Be assertive, have a presence," was what Silvana said. Rosetta contemplated placing her legs on the desk but decided against it as she threw the Lord President a sideways glance.

    "So, red alert, was it?"
 
"And that, takes care of the last obstacle," Ralph said with satisfaction as he shot another laser at a control console to release the remaining doors, after evading the army of drones sent against him, he had arrived at a console room that monitored the diagnostic levels of the West bridge of the Sky Fortress. With minimal effort and quick bypassing skills, he managed to reprogram most of the control of the western area to this particular room and released all doors before finally destroying the console that would enable another external entity from accessing it. He reignited his suit and flew into the halls with hasty speed, avoiding and destroying any drones sent to hinder him with ease as all the doors automatically opened, leading him to his intended room where they kept the ship's engine core.

A few minutes of smashing his way in, he finally arrived at the entrance of the engine room, he armed most of his weapons to their maximum level, without doubting the fact that the core and in extension the room will be difficult to destroy. Once the task at hand was done, he would be able to reunite with Argle and free the others who were captured, with a deep breath Ralph took a single step into the engine room.

A single step in made Ralph felt uneasy, he knew that his enemies were a lot more prepared than the gun man at the dance hall, and the drones as well as other robots sent in waves were mere small fry to a Ragnum pilot like him. For them to leave the engine room unsecured brought an air of uncertainty that he may not be alone. As he entered the complex engine room with levels of platforms and a complex grid featuring state of the art wirings, exhausts and various mechanical wonders powering such a massive shitp, he caught sight of the large core at the highest peak of the vast engine room. Taking flight, he approached it cautiously.

A loud growl suddenly echoed around the large room, Ralph quickly turned around to spot what was causing the restless sounds, suddenly a flash of steel and metal grinding caught Ralph's attention above: A large, mechanical creature was aggressively making its way downwards and with each lunge, closed the distance between itself and Ralph. The mechanical creature then jumped with its set of claws ready to pin down and shred the armoured warrior but Ralph quickly flew to the side as the mechanical jaguar landed at the large metallic plat forms below with another unsettling grinding noise before stopping to a halt.

Ralph fired a barrage of missiles from his shoulders, targeting the joints of the creature while it easily took on his suit's missiles with minor dents and scratches suffered after a wave of explosions occurred with it catching his weapons. It let out a fierce roar and Ralph quickly turned his left arm's laser sets on to deliver a critical blow to the unknown creature. It responded by protruding its sharp, steel tail and attempted to target Ralph's quick descent and strike his head with intent to impale it with the sheer force of his sharpened tail. A timed attack between both aggressors sent a shockwave in the air as Ralph's left arm collided with the beast's tail as it attempted to stab the armoured warrior, Ralph as well sent a punch with his knuckles firing a set of lasers unto the beast before the attack destroyed the top portion of the mechanical jaguar's tail and Ralph's left armoured arm was rendered inoperable. Ralph crashed behind the creature and used his quick manoeuvres the regain his footing as he landed roughly to the entrance from where he came.

"Hmph, this is one tough fucker," Ralph said as he programmed a quick repair software to begin self repairing for his left arm to make it useful again. The creature glared back as it sharpened its already metallic claws and sending a taunting roar at Ralph before running towards him. As the beast's thundering feet made its way closer to lay a large beating on Ralph he braced himself for the inevitable assault. He took a deep sigh, this was going to hurt really bad…There was very little he could to escape this charge, his only move was to maximize the armour's toughness and distribute his suit's power supply for a more damaging apprach.
 
Xotiff & Kyvvy, gray

Running down a hallway it was pretty clear where Ralph had already gone, after all the countermeasures had already been activated a while ago, some straggling drones as well as some havoc from the suit pilot made the assassin doubt the approach of his new employer. Doors opened with less than subtlety, a deep sigh left the gunman's lips as he had to pull his guns to make work of the smaller mechanical creatures, some well placed shots took them out, Kyvvy had little problem with the smaller swarms of drones coming at them and all in all this turned into pest control. Damn that Ralph, having Xotiff do this kind of work, and before paying him no less!
It took a while for the duo to retake the distance their target had made, that suit was fast, no doubt about it, and though the mess he seemed to have been effective.
The worst problem he had left behind was that he had closed a door and fucked the control panel, if he had left it be then Xotiff had been given the codes, but nooOOOoo, this fucker had to go fucking smelt the thing into an unusable lump of shit.
"Kyvvy..." Xotiff stated as he stepped aside, the fox waited a few seconds til her master had moved before she let out a concentrated blast of fire. Not at the door itslf, it was far too strong, but at the wall besides it. After a few seconds there was a small hole there, a minute or two was needed to let it cool enough for the two to enter.
Can't find the key, make your own door!

Following the clear signs of the mechanical suit it was not really that hard to make out where he had gone. Based on his calculations and very basic remembrance of the blueprints... was he on his way to the core? Either the core or one of the auxiliary armories. Not that it really mattered at this point, Xotiff was not on the same side he was half an hour ago, an assassin and a mercenary; money speaks.
Clear sounds of metal against metal, explosions and the smell of heat-damaged steel oozed down the hallway signaling that there was something going on in the upcoming area which was not as it should be. It was not before they rounded the last corner he saw what was going on, naturally the core would have a defensive guard. However though a worthy foe they did not count for one thing; Xotiff.

A grin grew on his lips, tongue slightly moisturizing the dry lips almost like a tiger on the prowl. This mechanical beast, stinger-like tail -though slightly damaged itself- looked like it could still tear through steel and armor alike. Between the assassin duo and this mechanical-scorpion-like creature was his new employer, though he'd like nothing more to see the two kill each other; there is no money in that at this point!
Drawing the prototype blade he flicked the switch in the same movement, the single straight edge grew to a dim yellow hue as the material went transparent, leaving only the energy field visible as an edge.
A predefined hand-sign was given to Kyvvy and she darted ahead of her master as the mechanical target on the other side of the pilot. Whipping past Ralph on his side three tails flared into fire as she let out a challenging roar, eyes brimming with the blazing fury of the sun itself.
Though this made a clear target, it was only a decoy. Sending commands to his belt Xotiff altered his own local gravity to project a 5G pull towards the guard in the room, a line of energy shooting past the ragnum suit and it's creamy center was all one could see without enhanced eyes as a spin to the side activated by a counter-command to the belt gave Xotiff the momentum and speed he needed for his attack.
Some well trained movements and commands to the anti-grav sash let the swordsman kick off the wall and fly past the beast yet again, his movement stopped a few meters to Ralph's side as the energy blade had it's own heat-haze from the extreme temperature leaving the energized edges.
At first there was only two lines of heat-damage on the mech's tail as Xotiff got back to his feet and regained natural balance.
"So-" he started as the tail fell off the creature in no less than four parts. "-I think I deserve a raise!" He grinned at the Ragnum tycoon.


Argle Wargle, purple
Argle kept running, tearing through wall after wall, door after door was torn aside with enough force to friction-weld it to the frame. Anything and anyone in his way met an end worthy of a tomato hitting a wall at Mach 1.
It took a short while but Argle managed to tear into a wall thicker than the others, this room was illuminated, though thinking about it so were the three last ones. The main difference was the tubes, containers, wires and equipment in this room. Even to a technologically lacking creature as Argle it became clear that this was the location Mari should be.
Not finding her right away he trashed anything and everything as soon as he got the chance to make sure they were not what he was looking for. After a minute or so he found it... A tube large enough for even him, but inside was what he had been waiting to see for so long; just not in the form he had hoped. His childhood friend.
Had his tear-ducts still been working properly he would have shed a tear in happiness but now was not the time. Though limited he could read the common language and found out another container marked with something akin to that other name he heard before. Hesitating no more than a heartbeat he tore the front-doors of the two containers, letting their suspension fluids exit the tube with great haste. Taking care to capture Marigold, as well as the other woman, as they fell he first now realized that she was lacking limbs... There were smaller storages connected to the main tube where Marigold was inside of but he didn't get to really note them at this time.
Trying to shake them awake, it was all he knew how to do at this point...
"Hey, you awake?" he hoped to get some response from them.

OOC: Yes, that is Shen and Marigold, do your things! ^^
 
"Hah, you get another 2 thousand creds on top of the 10 mil I already just processed. Go buy something nice after this, yeah?" Ralph said, true to his word he flashed a holographic card from his suit's left wrist while keeping his focus on the mechanical creature with said card indicating that there was a virtual cheque to be cashed by Xotiff once this job is over, without a doubt Karen most probably charged the professional for less. He's giving this guy all the cash he needs to get them out without any further hitches.

Using the same wrist, the holographic card vanished as a missile ejected from his arm to barrage the beast infront of them. The mechanical creature hastily dodged it but caught the last three shots in point blank range, falling into the platforms below before recovering and roaring an eerie grinding cry at its two assailants. Ralph reignited his suit's flight power as he nodded at Xotiff.

"Let's end this thing now, We've got company waiting for us on the other side," he said with determination as he fired up his gauntlets to shoot 20% charged laser cutting power from each finger to slice the platforms and outmanoeuvre the mechanical giant cat. Lifting off, he trailed the beast as it fired a set of mortars aiming for Ralph in mid air and the other at Xotiff before its hips reformatted into a pair of aircraft carrying Gatling guns to pierce through both Ralph and Xotiff.

Ralph retaliated by shooting lasers at his left hand at the creature and fired a new barrage of missiles from his right arm as he flew closer to the beast, the bullets from the beast's guns harmlessly bounced off him, a standard reaction to most weapons or machineries that didn't have the piercing power to puncture his suits. The beast quickly lunged from the walls in a desperate attempt to swat Ralph from the air, but Ralph timed another shot for 40% with his right hand's fingers to puncture the hard steel of the mechanical beast's frame.

Sparks dented his suit as a line scratched his helmet's angular frame from the creature's deathly steel claws while he fired a barrage of lasers with strength enough to melt the creature's entire left limbs and the side guns it manifested from its mechanical body, with a critical strike, the entire left side limbs of the beast were sliced off as the creature fell towards Xotiff with no intent of stopping its descent, the lack of limbs on the left side would force it to crash into the abyss of the core room but its sights were set on the gun man and his fox companion. However, the beast's programming forced it to fight to its last breath and readied its last limb with an intent to stab Xotiff with it before going offline, no doubt to activate its self destruct program and take down its assailants with it.

"Finish it!" Ralph ordered as he looked back to see the creature a few meters from crashing unto its next opponent in a desperate bid to kill him. Ralph readied another laser barrage from his right hand should things go sour while the laser tips from his left hand cooled down from the sheer power used to maim the creature.

=o=o=o=

Mari felt a shake that woke her from the forced hibernation that she was given by the scientists, as her eyes open, she could see her saviour: Argle, the mutant who made his residence at the Redwood's lands years ago. Her eyes widened in shock as she shot her rescuer a look of dismay.

"A-A-Argle!? How did you -- What in the world!!? Why…!? I - I told you not to come looking for me, y-you idiot! This place is too dangerous!" she said with a worrying tone of disbelief, she knew how he hated machines and looking at her own state of conversion from the Geno Angel project, she felt shame that Argle was there to see what she had become. She hated having to explain to him why she had to push him and almost everyone out of her life until now.

"How in the world did you get here? On a highly secured fortress such as this?!" she continued to ask in shock while the sedatives were being purged from her body, still in surprise that her old childhood friend had somehow against all odds defied her expectations and actively rescued her and the prisoners she intended to save.

Seeing Shen on her friend's other arm, she nodded in a proud approval of his feats. Even after all this, her old friend whom she cared for with her father had returned and she gave him a faint smile. She wanted to hold his hands but she can't feel her limbs, looking at her body, she could see herself dressed in a white gown and her arms and legs were detached, they were only replaced by stumps sealed by the scientists from activating her built in weapons.

"Argle…if it's all the same to you, can you please help me with these?" she waved her limbless state at him while indicating her detached limbs still sealed within tubes in front of them. She could feel the parasite's aggressive conversion slowing down before it relaxed back as metallic wings slowly sprouted from her back, she winced a little as the natural function took its course while the parasite began to poke its cybernetic components out of the stumps of her limbs, as if looking for the missing arms and legs to re-attach them back unto her body.

She looked to Argle's other arm and she saw Shenorai, somehow heavily altered as the reports claimed. She took deep breaths to awaken herself from the sedatives still forced unto her organic parts while catching Shen's attention.

"Shen! Wake up! come on…" Marigold called out to her old friend, hoping her voice would reach her.
 
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Xotiff & Kyvvy, gray
Xotiff just stood by as his employer had his way with the metal-beast, and he had to say he was sort of glad; this round at least his master had combat experience and knew what it was to be in the heat of battle, he should come with unreasonable requests much less than his previous masters.
As the incoming mortars came Xotiff's way, as Ralph was in his own metal suit he had much less of a problem with things like this, the assassin himself simply tossed his blade into the air and drew his twin pistols. Though it looked like only a few shots had been fired, a wave of super-heated plasma pellets went towards the incoming micro-explosives; either detonating them in the air or damaging the shell forcing them to hit around the gunman rather than the man itself. Holstering his right-hand pistol he caught the sword as it came back down, a full spherical vision aids in seeing where things are without looking at them. Having gun in one hand and sword in the other Xotiff's potential rose to a more versatile level.
The mechanical opponent suddenly sported gatling guns, not something that Xotiff really expected but not really unexpected either.
Flicking a switch on the pistol it made a high pitch whining sound as it charged for something as the six revolving barrels pointed towards the gunman. With a grin and a "Now" from his lips a puff of fire came out of his companions' mouth, obstructing vision as a small muffled explosion sound came from within the obscured area. As the hail of bullets came from the guardian only sound of bullets hitting metal could be heard until the smoke, debris and vision returned. Upright now a metal plate from the floor stood, only explanation was that Xotiff had used the fire to hide as he cut a hole into the floor, firing a charged shot into the hole uprooted a large metal plate. Not pretty but worked like a charm.
The creature, if it could be called so, was still after Ralph. Xotiff toyed with the idea of using one of the two remaining Ausus shots, the incendiary shot should recreate this creature into a slab of metal... But even within the normal Ausus cartridges the elemental ones where a bitch to get hold of.
Not even a minute later Ralph had finally done something good, all the limbs on the beasts' left side had fallen to the floor, lifeless at that, but now it was free-falling towards the man and his pet. Guessing based on logic it might self-destruct it's core after it came into contact with Xotiff. Not something he'd prefer to happen.
In all of these things, the core was in the middle where it was the most protected by metal, gears and whatever these things were made of. Widening his stance his foot touched the edge of the sentinels' tail, the large metal spike. That would do!
In a split second Xotiff managed to set it upright, pointing towards it's main body and shove a small grenade in under it as the pin bounced on the steel floor to the side. Jumping far away a small explosion shook the inside of the room as the tail was propelled upwards, as it's owner fell downwards. Not really hitting perfectly the large beast still fell as an immobile slab of metal, gears and oil as small sparks jumped from the edge of the tail-spike and to anything nearby. Odds were that one of the main conduits from the core had been impaled and severed by the tail.
"Well.... That turned out better than expected!" Xotiff stated with a humored tone as he walked closer to the inert scrap heap.
Picking up the sword and pistol he had to suddenly let go to make it all happen so fast he had to kick the beast one more time, just to make sure. With no movement returned after the kick he felt a bit more satisfied as he sheathed the sword and holstered the gun.
"So.... What did you want to do in here anyway? There isn't anything here but the core, right?" he asked, already sort of expecting the answer.


Argle Wargle, purple
Though a tad spiffed that he was immediately asked what the fuck he was doing here Argle was still happy that she woke, even in this state. Being asked some questions he could do little than answer as he almost wished his tear-ducts worked, this was a time he would like to shed a tear of happiness.
"This place is no more dangerous than me" he stated, not really boasting, if it was one thing that Argle was good at, it was killing. Though he could not stop a single chuckle from slipping through. The follow up question made more sense, and getting here was no simple matter.
"I'm not alone. Your friend.. Rafp.. or something.. managed to get me through the outer wall, then... well.." he simply pointed at the wall which had a large caved in section where Argle had torn himself through like a can-opener with a vengeance. Not really answering the last question he got to getting her limbs from the nearby canisters, as guided by Marigold. The metal construction of the tubes meant little, even when the lid didn't open the universal key known as metal-defying claws aided all he needed. And after a few minutes he returned with all limbs and began to re-attach them to his now rather mechanical field as per her guiding.
Though he sort of disliked technology in some forms, even though his childhood friend now contained more tech than he would ever like to see, it was still her and she seemed fine. Which was all that was important.
As Argle aided with the simple puzzle of his friend he used one of his spare arms to try and nudge some life into the other woman.
 
OOC: @Squee, I've made this a chance for Karen to meet Alexander. Have fun bro. @Mikasa , something for you to enjoy as well! You can describe the Dogma docking bay and its large ass citadel! :))

====

Ralph quietly pressed on towards the central core reactor, hiding his impressed look from the gunman's efficient abilities and as a gesture of polite courtesy between employer and employee he turning back to answer the question he nodded back at his newly hired gunman with his intention. Around them, the whole reactor was buzzing in a high alert phase, signalling that their guard had fallen and that he needed to clear things here fast.

"Well the thing about sky fortresses, every model comes with a flight core to keep it afloat along with a refined magitek build used to power it infinitely; if you ask me that shit is a design flaw, to be left so heavily unattended to, kinda like the heart without a rib cage…Then again we punctured it through and through," he said as he prepared all of his suit's weapon systems and targeted the core as a smile crept up the industrialist.

"Cut the heart out, and the body goes limp followed by death," he said as his entire arsenal erupted in a ricochet of missiles and lasers heading straight for the core, an explosion followed afterwards, engulfing a certain radius of the reactor room and all its electric circuitry fried everything else in its path inwards along with another series of explosions as well as the core's mysterious leaking matter engulfing the gigantic room in flames. He tapped Xotiff's shoulder and indicated the exit from the core room.

"Let's get going, in 10 minutes this whole place is going to crash straight into the ground, while we're in free airspace before arriving in Dogma, I'd like to get my girlfriend and her magical friends to safety," he said as he walked out of the room and along the way, kicked the battered remains of the fallen robot to the exploding abyss below.

"Elise how's the big man's progress?" Ralph asked his AI companion, monitoring Argle Wargle's progress on the East bridge.

"So far so good, Mari has just awoken but the status of Shen and the other experiment still are unknown. Ralph I worry for Argle and Mari's safety, prior to the arrival we had encountered advanced guards that hasn't popped up in Korma's files, ghosts of sort. I fear they're calling for the worst to attack us this very moment," Elise said with an air of distress.

"Nothing to worry sis, we'll be there before you even know it," he said before turning to Xotiff.

"Good man, before we introduce and finalize our contract, would you mind sparing a spare nuke bullet like you've fired prior?" he asked Xotiff before indicating his intended target straight ahead of them by pointing to the metal slab of walls right infront of them, "Over there, my scanners indicate that with a timed shot of your wonder bullets, it can puncture through and punch a hole just right for us to arrive on time," he told Xotiff as the suit powered down and opened up like a can, while he stepped out to reveal his casual clothes as if he had just left for a visit to anything but a war zone and nodded at the gunman, he presse a button on his eye glasses to summon another fully armed suit while the one he just burnt its weapons out for flew out from whence they came. In seconds another Model 240 popped right in as it harmlessly opened to allow him to enter and re-engage.

"Just an update, Ralph, we have complete control over the Ragnums stored within the fortress," Elise advised.

"Perfect, get them ready, let's commence a complete recall from my old customers shall we? No refunds either," he said coldly at the thought of having to sell these to Dogma and Korma in the first place and in return, they think they can have their way with Marigold without paying a price that he's willing to execute against 2 nations.

=o=o=o

Lodema paced in a panicked fashion around the control room, just a few seconds ago the whole fortress was stable and the enemy was on an even ground and now the scales have tipped into their favour. With a bit lip, she desperately accessed her earpiece to contact Ravager and Nocturne to see if the two operatives are still alive after such a commotion. Now with the red alert phase going critical, she was now scared that these attackers may have some organized strategy rather than acting out of pure luck. The greatest of all was a contact from either the Lord Minister or Lord President from both nations, and that was the last thing she wanted right now.

"Ravager…! Nocturne! God damn it what is going on down there?! I thought the situation was taken care of!" she screamed at the two operatives once their line became active.

Ravager gave a disapproving grunt and replied "…Contact me if there is a critical moment, we are working on the situation right now and your screaming isn't helping matters…" Ravager's sharp voice rang against the worrying handler's panic and immediately cut the line.

"Fuck!" she yelled as she threw her communicating device to the table and tried to regain her composure as engineers and officers scrambled around the room to try and regain whatever control was left of the fortress' status.

"Officer Arin! The core has been destroyed! We don't have much time before the fortress crashes unto the freeway below!" one of the engineers said in a high pitched panic as she spotted the recent destruction of the Engine room conducted by whoever launched this insane assault against Korma and Dogma.

"Don't give me that shit! We can't let them take our cargo and lose the fortress or we'll be executed by Lord Minister Hobbs! Find a way to stabilize the fortress! Use any means necessary to get this damn thing afloat!" she yelled at the engineer monitoring the core as they all began to scramble to find a means of performing the impossible. Lodema sighed in grief as she sat at the commanding chair and slouched, only a miracle could save her reputation now.

One of the communications operators rose up and contacted her during her lapse into fear.

"Officer, it's the Lord President on the other line," he said.

Lodema was about to break down mentally at the stress. With a beady sweat, she mustered all her stiff attitude and quietly took the call.

=o=o=o

"Lord President…" Lodema's breaking voice erupted into the Red Room, Karen and her secretary quietly stared at the screen as the impossible was unfolding. She could only sigh at the disgraceful sight of Korma's greatest Sky Fortress now descending into the free way as per their radar.

"Officer Lodema Arin," Karen's voice began, it resonated the Lord President's power right through her godly voice, calling forth the officer's attention.

"I'm terribly sorry for interrupting your work but I take it you are in a pinch right now? How could something as mighty as Lord Minister Hobbs' fortress Heiliana crumble in a matter of hours?" Karen asked her with an authoritative tone.

"…We-we don't know yet ma'am. But believe me we are trying to rectify this at the soonest!" Lodema's voice said in a bleak tone.

"Don't bother, dear. I've already summoned our Mecha fleet. We will deploy them in within four minutes and it would take no more than half an hour to arrive and crush this unsightly insult. What is the status of Ravager and Nocturne as of now?" Karen asked the inferior officer.

"Both operatives have gone dark, ma'am. They haven't revealed yet their location or plan," she said.

"As it should be, our dearest duo no doubt have something that would mean the end of whoever is conducting this rebellion," Karen said coldly.

"My Lord Presdien-"

"Be calm, child. I will speak to Lord Minister Hobbs of your failure to fulfil your duty, I am certain the consequences won't be as dire as you think it might," Karen lied in a very cheery voice. She knew how Hobbs operated, her dearest was a machine, and failure did not sit well for an entity only encoded with logic and precision.

"Maintain your post, dear. Help is on its way…" Karen said with a cold tone before disconnecting the line. She slouched at the Main chair of the Red Room before looking at her guest.

"Dear me, not exactly our finest hour is it?" she said while looking at her guest, Rosetta with a warm smile, masking the fury she was slowly building up.

Karen's secretary then approached and begun to whisper in her ear with Karen listening to her.

"Lord President, our other guest has arrived. Should we bring him in?" she asked.

"Not required. For now, we do not want to expose our embarrassment to the Arcanes, especially to one of the renowned kings of the Arcane kingdoms. I shall depart soon to oversee the Mecha fleet make its way to Heiliana, have him wait there at the hangar bay with our other guests. Treat him well, for he is required for our grand plan," Karen said as she caressed her secretary lovingly before she left with an uncomfortable smile and nod. Karen then turned to Rosetta and beckoned the young Arcane to her.

"Tell me child, do you want to see Dogma's mecha fleet? Surely your leader has yet to see the beauties. Consider this a step towards unity among us and your people," she smiled at Rosetta. The others in the room glanced in discomfort; everyone knew the controversial decision for Karen Rose's campaign to summon Arcane leaders or representatives from all over to be given a chance in peaceful talks. At whatever cost, they must never know that their cargos are an experimented woman turned cybernetic organism, an Arcane of possible royal background and a rare creation from dearest Hobbs' laboratories.

"Now then, shall we leave this dreadful room? I fear our other guest is waiting," Karen said as she once more called Rosetta forward to join her out while her analysts and generals return to monitoring the fortress situation. Karen gracefully rose from her chair and quietly walked out, but everyone knew the cold fury she was emitting right now from the various failures within the fortress and the possibility that her hired mercenary could be a mole that has betrayed her yet again.

=o=o=o

Ravager reappeared through his the shadows at the Mecha docking bay a few floors down from the fortress. A red alert phase has warned that the entire fortress imminent crash landing at the Korma free way. He quickly held up his ear pieces to communicate with his colleagues.

"Nocturne. Ravager here, meet me at the docks. We have the counter measures ready. Contact all armed personnel and have them storm the laboratory while you and I bring the much needed fire power. Over," he said, looking at the large shadowed silhouettes of Korma's Mecha project looming ahead of him. Two pairs parked and awaiting deployment, at this point anything is justifiable for them to utilize these 50 foot monstrosities to tear the ongoing rebellion and theft their cargo a new one.
 
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Child - Tactical Withdrawal, white

There was nothing to it. The fall back order was given so that was what she did. Could she perhaps do more? Maybe, but that was not the order. Child immediately ceased fire and as Ravager pulled back from his attack, Child released the front two hooks and let two rear ones reel her away from their enemy before disappearing into the darkness. Ravager was nowhere in sight, meaning he must have taken some sort of other method of retreating. Whatever it was, it just meant that Child was to make her own way to the rendevous locatin. For that, she chose the vent. Sieghilde popped an overlay map out on Child's hud, with a faint blue outline across the surface of the duct and a white directional trail pointing her in the right direction.
Halfway through crawling, a rather stressed voice came loudly over the comms

"Ravager…! Nocturne! God damn it what is going on down there?! I thought the situation was taken care of!"

Child opted to ignore the operator. She was Ravager's handler, not hers. If the situation tumbled into an irrevocable situation, Sieghilde would be the first to let her know. Evidentally, her "partner" seemed to be not too please with the outburst as well. Shrugging it off, Child continue her crawl.

Nocturne. Ravager here, meet me at the docks. We have the counter measures ready. Contact all armed personnel and have them storm the laboratory while you and I bring the much needed fire power. Over,

In a pitch perfect response, Child spoke to her partner for the first time.

Affirmative. ETA, one minute

Sieghilde was on top of the comms and the situation that was unfolding through the entire base. She did notice that their current conditionw as dire and most likely, extreme force was going to be necessary. So to save time, Sieghilde just pointed Child towards the mecha bay.

Don't worry, i will deal with contacting the other branches. You just meet up with Ravager. All available units, divert to the laboratory immediately. This is a priority one order.

Unceremoniously, Child busted open a vent grate and dropped down into the large bay. A quick scan showed that it was safe. Without hesitation, the cyborg marched straight towards the large mechas that sat in the middle

Is it safe to assume we will be using these to engage the intruders?

Child didnt like the mechs. They were powerful and deadly. That she agreed. But they didn't really suit her preferred method of combat based around stealth, hit and run and speed. Nonetheless, it seems this was necessary in order to bring the situation to heel.
 
Darkness. After so many years of willingly ingesting tranquilizers laced with antipsychotic medication, the sedatives flowing through the veins of the winged woman had sent her subconscious into nothing but black. A dreamless sleep. But now, with the IVs ripped out of her, harsh light penetrated through the shadow, making it disperse. Her eyes seemed to be the first to react to the lack of drugs being forced through her system, followed by her extremities. Fingers curled into fists, despite not having full control of her arms just yet.

"Let me go," she croaked as soon as her lips and tongue were no longer numb. The winged woman was becoming more aware with each passing second, showing clearly in her shimmering feathers slowly standing on end.

At the other end of Argle's earpiece, he'd hear a delighted yet childish squeak. "Thank the gods, Shen's awake too!" was Robin's excited response. She then realized, "We don't have an extra comm-link, do we? ...ah, never mind. Just let her know that 'Dot' is a part of this extraction and she should cooperate. Once you have Mari back together, get the fuck outta there, all of you. Boss will be fine, he can blast his own way out if he needs to."

The harder Shen's heart pounded out of realizing what sort of danger she could be in, the faster she regained control of her limbs. She was already trying to break Argle's grip on her, but she hadn't regained her full strength as of yet. Her weak shoves did little good.
 
Shen's voice alerted Marigold after she assembled her leg before regaining motor functions to all her mechanical parts from legs, arms and briefly flashed her mechanical wings, she quickly stood up and held unto her hand with a worried look.

"Shen! try to relax, he's a friend," she indicated to Argle. She gave him a reassuring smile and patted his arm in gratitude but she couldn't hide the pain from her eyes for what he sees her as now, there was a reason why he isolated himself near their mansion all those years away from technology and robotics. She glanced at the side and caressed Shen's head to prevent her from struggling further before glancing back at Argle.

"Argle, we have one more prisoner to free then we'll be leaving," she said as her right arm auto-morphed into miniaturized cannon, she grimaced in rejection of her modifications, recalling the parasite still turning everything within her into steel until she would be no different from an android or of the many robots in civilization. Concentrating her energy unto the cannon, she directed its aim unto the sealed door where she remembered harboured the other prisoner. With a single shot, her arm cannon fired a kinetic blast of red energy unto the door and caused another explosion that would pave the path for her.

A Ragnum piloted by Elise has arrived from the wreckage caused by Argle prior, it projected Elise's holographic form and approached Mari.

"Thank god you're alive. Dot has briefed us that we should leave immediately, The Boss has currently sought help from one of the hired guns and has told me to evacuate you all at once," she said.

Mari frowned at the idea of her boyfriend hiring a mercenary, had he not learn that these unpredictable monsters were the ones that killed both their families or has he jumped off the deep end and anything went now?

"Alright then, but first I have to get one more person out of here," she said as her arm cannon reformatted back into an arm, she still needed to get used to her new body and its further evolving technology that the parasite would bestow upon her before she went full cybernetic conversion. She nodded at Argle to monitor Shen's status as she began to make her way to the other room in order to free an Experiment called Zephyr.

"Mari, what purpose does freeing one of their dangerous experiments yield for us? We won't do it any favours by releasing it into the wild, it could be mind controlled for all we know," Elise said, this was not a logical thought but a purely speculative banter, for she knew that someone as legendary as the Minister of Korma would resort to such treacherous methods.

"Hobbs made me into this mechanical abomination – never again will I be a toy for him to destroy Arcane life! I won't allow him or Karen to play with anymore lives, not while I'm here to deny them that right," she said stubbornly. Elise sighed as her holographic from sunk back unto Ralph's free Ragnum suit and began to follow her Boss' significant other unto the restricted room.

Mari could see the container holding the experiment, from what she could tell it was no older than a young male in his teens with black flowing hair and black wings that would not seem out of place with Shenorai's new form. Her left arm began to reform into a drill-like weapon with intent to burrow a hole unto the container and shatter the glass.

Elise stopped her and wiggled the suit's fingers. Mari sighed and shot Elise/Ralph's suit an impatient look.

"Tut tut tut! Dear, I know you're overeager in the Arcane Rights at this moment but that is a fatal way to release a prisoner don't you think?" Elise said.

"Eh!? Argle wasn't so gentle!" Mari shot back in protest, noticing the lack of finesse the giant mutant had in freeing her and Shendra prior.

"Argle has no concept of elegance! We should ensure the target doesn't suffer traumas, and for all we know that container might have traps that could kill him and anyone who wants to free him," she advised. Mari stopped in her tracks, she did have a good point in Zephyr's situation. They HAD to keep him in a separate area due to certain incidents, if she was to carelessly break the glass there would no doubt be dire consequences. Relenting, Mari's arm reformatted back into her hand as she gave way to Elise.

"Got any better ideas then?" she asked. Elise used the suit to nod and approached the container, utilizing the suit's processors and hard ware wiring, it plugged unto the container. Utilizing the codes and various hacks that Dot has already provided unto Ralph's suits via their cloud server, she began to download and decrypt all of the container's security measures and programmed it to release the experiment. Slowly, the container began to drain its liquid and unplugged most of the IV injections plugged unto the young boy's body before releasing him entirely.

"You're welcome," Elise smugly turned the suit back at Mari. Mari gave a warm smile at the Ragnum before cautiously approaching the boy while Elise monitored him carefully.

"It's alright, we're here to free you. Nobody's going to hurt you anymore," Mari said quietly, addressing the boy.

=o=o=o=

"I don't know about using these. But I am sure that we'll be using one of our operatives to pilot these things. I hate piloting these, frankly speaking. We're weapons of Korma, so let's act like one instead of using toys," Ravager said as he turned on the lights, revealing two large mechanical robots docked at the bay as soldiers began to assemble behind him and Nocturne.

Ravager smirked for the first time in months, with this fire power and enough of the mechas, they may yet have a chance.

"Sirs! All 40 remaining hands on call, Sirs!" one of the soldiers addressed both Ravager and Nocturne.

"Get one of your men to pilot one of these things, the rest of you follow Nocturne and I to the labs. We've got a gigantic monster to kill and time is of the essence. This is our last stand, move out!" he ordered as one of the men began to approach the gigantic mecha to begin initializing it for piloting. Two of the large panther-like robots Hobbs had deployed prior now began to descend from the top floors to join the troops as one began to encircle around Nocturne and Ravager, awaiting orders from them both.

"Let's go. We have a minute to intercept them while they're at the labs," he addressed Nocturne as the mechanical jaguars began stalking their commanding officer, behind them a loud whirring noise began to emit from the mechanical robot as it resonated around the fortress.

=o=o=o

"I'll be damned. So Hobbs does keep tabs in the Mecha market," Ralph said as the loud noises from the East bridge began to reach them while he, Xotiff and his pet fox began devising a way for the three of them to burst through to the East bridge.

"Mecha?!" Elise said in an alerted voice, the one combatant robot capable of fighting with Ragnums and Ralph's sole competitor in the Super weapons industry other than Korma's various other projects.

"Seems so," Ralph said, still pinpointing and adding computations to where Xotiff was to target his bullets. He would hate to have those pass through and rip Mari and his other distressed folks by accident.

"That's not all, I detected loud volumes of machinery resonating right below the labs! They're going after Mari and the others!" Elise warned.

Ralph remained silent, calm as unexpected of a man in his situation. In an instant, he pointed his finger at the entrance and burnt a laser right through it, glancing at Xotiff he gestured him to fire one of his miracle bullets unto it.

"Alright, your mark is set. Get to work so we can go home and get you paid," he said, implicating that he use his wondrous weapon to burn a hole for them to head to the East bridge with haste rather than work a complex maze of unending halls and robots to get to where his beloved and her friends are.
 
Argle Wargle, purple
Though he was very happy that his old friend was at this level of being awake, if only mentally as the rest of her looked to be mechanics, he appreciated the trust she placed in him with her friend even though he did not care much for that her touch was cold as inanimate metal...
Walking over to the winged woman he squatted down besides her.
"A woman wants me to say that Dot is a part of this, and that you should cooperate..."
Argle was not really one for delicacy, not at all, he was a brute through and through. Not really considering the winged woman's feelings he hoped that his explanation, or rather relaying of information of the woman over the communications thing in his ear would be enough for her to at least trust him now, he simply got back to his feet and picked up the woman. Trying his best not to hurt her he used his normal arms for this, though this brought her closer to his body his fingers on those hands were not razor-sharp blades... Odds were in favor that he should not harm her with this... He planned to let her go if she started struggling, as long as that didn't happen as escape was happening.
Now he had to painstakingly wait for Marigold and the light-woman to do something in the other room before they could escape. This might have been the hardest he had done in this rescue, seeing her leave his sight as he had to wait for her to return.


Xotiff & Kyvvy, gray
Not really caring the least for the details surrounding the other people that were mentioned, they had no value for Xotiff at this moment so if they died or whatever, he could not care less.
After all of this, Xotiff was starting to feel exhaustion creeping in, he had done quite a lot with only his body as of yet and it was starting to catch up on him. He should talk to his source and get some more of those energy pills, they were great.
Being pulled out of his mental check-list there was a mark on the floor as well as a mark on a nearby door, being told to get to work even Xotiff's arrogance barely handled being told to do anything, mainly as this man was now his employer.
"You better not be fucking with me about the cartridges, or you will meet this fate as well." Xotiff threatened, hinting that he had at least one more cartridge after the one he was about to use and that it might or might not be used against Ralph if he were lying.

Taking out the Ausus from it's holster it managed to have a vague glow about it's rings even now, most likely a remnant of the shot he fired earlier in the fight against Ralph. Pulling a lever on the back of it, just under the hammer, the front half broke down like a single-shot grenade launcher. The used cartridge had jumped out a little, not by too much but enough for the gunman to take it with his fingers, placing it in his pocket. Reaching in under his coat he took out another one, this one was not like the shot he had used before, this one had a tapered tip and the bullet itself looked like it was almost on fire, having a lava-like appearance even though it was clearly of some metallic substance. The side of the cartridge itself seemed to have an engraving of a small flame on it.
"You better step back." He warned his employer, Kyvvy had already done so and found herself standing directly behind her master.
In one sharp movement he whipped the gun upwards, forcing the momentum to lift the barrel back into position. The two rings started spinning creating a field, this one not being blue like the scatter-shot he used before, but rather fiery lines that spun around themselves like a stream of liquid fire. Taking up a sideways stance the assassin took aim towards the mark he had been given and cocked the hammer. The field around the rings expanded into a large asymmetrical disk drooping more downwards, almost seeming to create a fire-aligned shield between the the barrel and the wielder.
A slight grin formed as the trigger was pulled, the explosion was almost like a grenade as an orange and red line shot out of the barrel, penetrating the metal like it was not even there. Following the almost laser like line was a torrent of fire coiling around the beam giving off enough heat to noticeably heat the room several degrees. Following the vacuum of the bullet it pulled with great force and molten metal as well as anything and everything within short enough distance was pulled through the molten hole of the wall he was firing at. Creating a large hole of molten slabs and destroyed metal. The initial hole from the beam was no more than a few centimeters at best, through a hundredth of a second later the hole was torn by heat and physical force to create a hole large enough to walk through.
Depending on the materials between the gunman and the path of the shot it might go quite the distance before stopping and the fire being extinguished.
"I hope there weren't anyone over there." Xotiff grinned like if he was slightly insane, his tone clearly indicating that he could not give less fucks if there was indeed people there, almost as if he wished it.
 
Even within the confines of his mental prison, Zephyr was awake. Blind perhaps, paralyzed, but awake. Maybe they intended for it to be like this - to drive him ever closer to the brink of madness. There was no way though... no way that he had survived with his sanity intact. He knew this, if they didn't. Did that truly make him insane or was it just something more of the puzzle? Even he didn't know, had stopped wondering after sleepless days.

He couldn't sleep - his own body betrayed him. The drugs he could feel pouring into his blood, that delicious life force, kept him in a perpetual sleep and his mind... it escaped those ravages into a hell that could not be matched. He was left alone with his own morbid thoughts at the best of times and at the worst the banging and the yelling around him, only magnified by the water and his own sensitive hearing. Even now, they resumed, a cacophany of sounds that made Zephyr want to lash out, to fight against the paralytics but his body was immobile, unable for even a single strand of muscle to twitch.

But he could feel, he could feel the liquid surrounding him, the needles in his flesh, the oxygen mask on his face. And he could see. Not truly see but he got images, blurry, undefined images of where people were and their blood... Beautiful crimson lines that called out to him, begged him to draw them out, to make their parasites suffer. He wanted to make the scientists suffer. He would hunt them down, one by one. Murder their families member by member. Force them to watch as everything they held dear was taken from them from within.

The myriad thoughts of his hand were unstoppable. Reels of bodies imploding in on themselves. Of a full body hemorrhage. Of blood bursting at the joints, crippling them. Watching them crawl on mangled limbs to escape, driven on by brutal kicks. He wanted them to suffer... to wither... and die...

The reverie was broken when a new sensation came, one he had not expected - the levels were going down. It started with his hair, the crisp air running over the sodden mass. Then the needles began to fall away, trailing with them droplets of blood. Already he was getting movement back, his metabolism breaking down the drugs so quick that a constant infusion was required. It was still slow - there was so much. He slumped against the back as soon as his feet hit the ground, his wings shedding fluid. More needles pulled themselves from him and his body slowly became his again.

There was one thing that had always been his though. The prick in his skin that had trickled blood had stopped and the droplets outside of them trailed back up, stretching out into needles. He wasn't going without a fight. As the last drops of fluid drained away, he opened his eyes, the yellow slits casting his gaze on the three before him. He recognized none of them and none looks like scientists and for that reason alone they were spared an instant death. He pushed himself up, unsteady for a second or two as control returned steadily to him.

"You try...." he rasped, "and I'll kill you..."
 
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