Final Five

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Runa grumbled a bit that the adults had vetoed her plan to fly in with Kyouko, not even allowing them to leave the helicopter once it was near the penthouse. It would have been totally cool to just smash right through one of the windows and be right on top of a pack of goons, and give the other half of the team time to get in during the confusion. Maybe it was reckless, but it would've been way cooler.

She peered up at one of the airships, her eyes focusing on it easily despite the distance and time of day. "Hm...I can probably fly up to one, no problem. First things first, though." They had more pressing concerns than an unusual collection of airships wandering the skies overhead. She moved in with the rest of the team, going first through unfinished sections of the building, and then squeezing with the others into a laundry room not designed to house so many people. "Huh...surprised thy didn't cut the power," she commented.

Tian stripping didn't bother her in the least, and she didn't bother to avert her eyes. The only interesting part was that he made sure to remove his clothes before taking an action that would destroy them, something she considered following. She stripped down to her underwear before any disapproving looks from the other girls got her to stop short of going any further. Still, this is their house, they can wear whatever they want.

Final Red's explosive entrance not only took up most of the hallway, but left her with little to do, once Iphigenia moved in on her own attack. Runa had already forgotten if the new members had been given color coding or not. She made her exit to one side of Tian, sliding out into a low pose of her own. Never mind her state of undress. "Jees, Red, you always claim all the good entrances. And you're way too big to see around." She glanced further ahead for any obvious trouble, ready to spring away from her current spot in a moment.

"Hey, Mr. Ghost, any idea how many we're dealing with," she asked aloud. She didn't have any clue if Ling was actually nearby, but if he was in earshot, it would be good to get a situation report from the guy who had been around the entire time.
 
Kyouko did just NOT get her food, no, for some bizarre reason the idea of flying with Runa was completely denied, or ignored?, too. On top of that was their self-proclaimed leader who, at least in Kyouko's eyes, kinda ignored her as he gave Kyouko's two partners some directions about collecting information about those airships. Sure, with their set of abilities it kinda made sense, but right now, Kyouko did not care about that. It was in this instant that she would, one way or another, also get on one of those airships! ... Maybe she could hijack this old-timer, as much as she disliked those, they were getting transported in. Before the self-proclaimed heroine could get anywhere further with that train of thought however they arrived shortly after in what seemed to be a secret exit. Well, at leat the penthouse had that going for it.

Much like Iphie and Runa, Kyouko had no problem with Tian stripping...maybe it would have been different if he had gone all the way, but just that? No way. Not following the trend of everyone stripping however, Kyouko followed the trio who already dispatched of the enemy. Curses! Well, whatever. Those were probably just some goons anyways, but even goons... Kyouko shook her head in denial, reviving dead people, necromancy....was not something a heroic hero with a red scarf that made her, and only her, eligible to deserve the color 'Red', should be doing.
 
Even in the hall furthest from the entrance to the penthouse, the Final Five, finally gathered again, could nevertheless hear the shuffling of many footsteps at said entrance. Instead of approaching them, however, they seemed to be distancing from the penthouse, exiting into the outside hall. The penthouse soon became quiet for a moment, before the sound of large blades cutting through the air approached. Helicopters, and a lot of them by anyone's guess, seemed to be gathering outside the building.

"Ling! Ling where are you?! Amoix?!" called a voice from inside the penthouse. It was Anfisa's voice, and it sounded distraught and choked. The Final Five found her at the door of her lab, crawling on the ground, a bleeding wound trailing red behind her. She was shot in the leg, and her face seemed to have been bruised. "I can't get up. They shot me in the leg. Th-they..." she winced, "Tian, they took the orb you found earlier today." Amoix appeared quickly, heeding the call from Anfisa. She shrieked at her state and swiftly moved down to aid her. "I'll be okay. Just get me some bandaging for now," Anfisa said to the maid.

Turning up to the Final Five, she continued, voice soft, "In the short time I had to study it, I learned two key things about that orb." She rose a finger after hoisting herself up to lay her back on the doorframe. "One is that it's an energy source, and two..." she narrowed her eyes, "...is that it's not from our time." Suddenly the penthouse rumbled briefly, and the ceiling flaked from the force, raining down a layer of white dust.
 
A crackling in the air caused Tian-Gui to break off from his dramatic entry and turn around, just in time to see Iphie blast out four bolts of lightning, potent enough to turn the men into fried corpses. As the smell of burnt flesh and plastic hit the armored giant, Tian-Gui frowned at her lethal attack. Unlike the monster they had fought, these men were still human, and no matter how much he tried justifying it, they didn't deserve to die. Admonishing her with a light rap on the head, he said, "Iphie, the Final Five are protectors of humanity. Don't kill your own kind when you could have easily just knocked them out."

Looked like being the rich heir of a corporate business had desensitized her ability to empathize with her enemies. A powerful tool for a soldier, but a flaw for someone who was a hero.

He kept those thoughts to himself, however, and Tian-Gui instead addressed Runa next, in a lighter tone, "Well, it's not that much of a problem for you, Runa. Couldn't you just sprout eyes on your tentacles and look around me that way? Or develop echolocation?"

She was the multitool of the group, after all, so while Tian-Gui said it in jest, he wasn't going to be surprised at all if the tanned monster DID do that next time. Would be all sorts of creepy, but…

Tian-Gui reacted first at the sound of the footsteps, dashing down the hallway to the outside hall, with Iphie hot on his trail. Passing by Anfisa on the way, Tian-Gui made a quick, snap decision at the sight of the injured woman, and said amidst the rumbling of the building, "Amoix! Take Anfisa and any other residents that are lagging behind, and get out of the apartment as soon as you can. Runa, Kyouko, I'll take the direct route, so you two use a different path. I'll draw their attention as best as I can, so you two launch a surprise attack if we need it."

Without further ado, he grabbed Iphie, carrying her princess-style once more. That bit about the orb was interesting, but for now, he had to focus on recovering it. "Charge me up," he said, before sprinting outside, just in time to see three familiar faces.

The Thremont Sisters, surrounded by their men as they boarded a gunship. The airspace was full of those choppers, and, narrowing his brilliant eyes, Tian-Gui set Iphie down by the entrance, standing in front of her to protect her from any gunfire. As his crystalline body hardened, gaining a brilliant sheen that flashed as bright halogen lights washed over it, the man shouted, "Thremont sisters, is it? Why the hell are you doing this?!"

In the end, they were still citizens, and part of his reason for blocking Iphie from entering was to prevent her from simply frying them into crisp on sight.
 
Iphigenia had barely finished smiting her enemies when the sound of helicopters began to fill the soundstage around them. The sounds of footsteps became fainter; either the intruders were retreating from their surprise attack, or they'd achieved their mission goal. To Tian, she shrugged with a nonchalant face. Internally, she was rather confused herself; why would he spare the lives of somebody who'd invaded your own home and shot at you and your friends? People have killed for less.

"Castle doctrine," she fired back, this time actively dodging his skinship. "They attacked us. They have guns. It's not exactly a training mission, Tian."

Altogether though, actually reciprocating vengeance and justice on the four men actually had satiated Iphie a bit, and it was not until she and Tian came across a bloodied and wounded Anfisa on the ground did her eyes narrow. The two brief pieces of information that she imparted on the five did much to explain the assault. If that tiny tapioca pearl was an energy source, a core of some kind, from the future, there was no doubt that companies, countries even, would be scrambling to have it. Hell, she'd want it. Standard Electric was an energy company after all. If it were still in their hands, there'd likely even be a conflict of interest if she wanted in on its research. Could it be reverse-engineered, duplicated for use as aircraft and spaceship cores, or maybe as the centerpiece to a power facility, enough to service a large city? There was a potential to even upset her own core business, if it could replace current solutions and somebody was able to get a mass produced version to market. It was not hard to let her imagination run wild about what the future tech could be. But that was now a matter of the past; she'd work it out with the others and deal with that in a more mature manner that didn't involve sending in Fail Team 6, after they recovered the bloody thing.

In the interest of time, it seemed she was going to be carried again by Tian. She could match his pace, but she scrunched her face briefly as he asked her to charge him up for his shield banks and whatnot. Iphie obliged, sending a steady current into the tankish man before they reached the rooftop, where a set of familiar faces awaited the two. Being set down at the entrance, she brushed herself off, glad she hasn't followed in Tian and Runa's example in stripping down to her undergarments. She was very briefly surprised to see the three Thremont sisters on the rooftop of the Final Five penthouse, but she settled down immediately after, giving thought to a course of action. Really, after the initial shock she was not surprised at all given the facts that had been laid out before her. The pieces fell into place. The break-in was not random; somehow, the sisters had gotten wind of their recovery of the orb, realized its potential, and sent men to break into the penthouse and retrieve the damned thing by force.

So when Tian took the time to question their motives, she nearly rolled her eyes. Tian was also making a calculated effort to shield Iphie. While the swarms of Thremont attack helicopters made it obvious it was to protect her, it seemed almost as if it was to hold her back from raining lightning onto her own counterparts, as well. Of course, there was no gain in that. He was not wrong in assuming she would make the first move, however. With a snap of her own finger, the air all around them hummed in high frequency as the space filled with heavy static interference, briefly lifting the hair of everybody involved as she did so. With all the frequencies jammed, sensors scrambled, and fire control systems spoofed, it should make it much more difficult for the Thremont girls' battlewagons to acquire a target if it came down to a fight, and certainly easier for the Final Five to blow them out of the sky if it settled to that, too. She sorely regretted not having pushed for a backdoor kill switch for any equipment that was ever sold for use in Thremont products.

Having finished this, she stepped forward, enough so that it wasn't too hard to tell who she was, but not too far that she didn't have the safety umbrella of Tian's shielding abilities. "Dear sisters," she started, with a flick of her side-tail. "I'm surprised you would all stoop so low for what amounts to a glorified tapioca pearl." She decided to throw out a half-bluff, bringing out her phone as if she intended to execute a kill command of some manner. She wasn't 100% sure if the five of them would be able to smoothly eliminate everything the girls had brought to bear against them before shit went down, but she knew it would definitely get nasty for both sides if the Thremonts called that bluff. "I don't suppose you'd all be kind enough to hand that back over? You have my number, right? It would be a serious shame to lose over a dozen gunships over something we could have chatted about over tea and biscuits at the buffet."
 
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He could hear footsteps beat a quick retreat from the penthouse and Ling sped up to return to the Coffin in suspicion. What had they managed to accomplish? The answer became fairly clear when he dropped out of the ventilation shaft above the lifeless Coffin pieces and immediately noticed Anfisa's condition as she crawled on the floor thanks to her injury. He surged into his physical shell just as Tian and the others arrived, feeling more than slightly vengeful at the moment.

He watched as Tian grabbed Iphie and charged up towards the rooftop, before he clenched his fists together. It was easy as hell to hear that the air around the building was literally filled with helicopters or, more likely, gunships of sorts. The biggest problem would be their numbers unless he was unaware of some anti-magic alloy that had been developed in secret. Not impossible he supposed, but unlikely in his opinion given the sheer destructive capacity he was capable of outputting. If it had been a tank or something more heavily armored, perhaps…

The current position was hardly advantageous to him though… Most of the gunships were hardly visible to him, and if he went to the rooftop then he would be surrounded on all sides without any real way to retreat. If he could just get onto one of the surrounding rooftops then he would be able to get a clear shot at all the aircraft at once. Naturally his attention turned to Runa at the thought before he gestured to the shattered lounge windows. "Runa, can you fly me over to one of the opposite rooftops?" Hopefully the aircraft wouldn't notice them, though he wouldn't mind blasting a few of them from the skies.
 
"Well, I could, but that wouldn't man it's the best option." She answered Tian's suggestion. "Some of that takes a little time." If the killing bothered her, she didn't show it one way or another. She would have preferred to take people alive because it's what Tian's tried to instill into her, and if they kill everyone ,they can't ask anyone questions after the fact.

The group of invaders retreating just seemed completely wrong. Either they'd been scared off, or they had no reason to stay and weren't actually after any of the Five. Neither option was particularly good, and would leave them without any actual means to follow up on things. When they found Anfisa in a poor state, she had a better idea of what was going on, and her cheeks momentarily flushed with anger. Why the hell would these people shoot an unarmed woman? They probably didn't even need to, to get whatever it is they were after. It just seemed so...pointless.

Runa nodded at Ling's request. "I can manage it." She reached one arm out and extended a number of tentacles from it, using them to get a good grip on the coffin and pull it in as close as she could. She extended her other hand toward Kyouko. "Well, want to give flying a chance this time? We missed the last good opportunity." Whether or not Kyouko took her up on the offer, she wouldn't wait long before taking off. There were a few complaints clearly directed at Ling for being too damn heavy and made of rock and a warning to any other passengers to hang on tight, but she eventually got off the ground and made right for one of the shattered windows. No need to follow the rest up the stairs in the first place. She and her passengers exited the penthouse in a small flurry of debris, some of which continued to swirl around ahead of them. A ring of multicolored light formed momentarily and was left behind by the girl as she quickly climbed away to move to one of the nearby buildings. She quickly dropped Ling off, pausing long enough for Kyouko to also get her feet once again on solid ground, even if it was quite exposed and high up.

She then took off again, dipping and coming back up between the gunships circling their penthouse and the rest of the team. She wanted to be close enough to see and hear whatever was going on, but she really didn't like the odds. If their attackers wanted to make a solid threat, they could probably get away fairly easily, particularly if she and the others were to take them down with a minimum of harm to anyone involved. On the other hand, all that firepower could be there less to hold them off and more to just eliminate all witnesses, in which case things would be getting ugly fast.
 
"Did you happen to fry your own brain or something?" Budging into the small dispute Tian and Iphie had going on, the Brunette was clearly stating her own opinion. "Baddies deserve to be punished! But that doesn`t mean you have to outright KILL them!" That was all Kyouko had to say for now. At first the Brunette thought it was unavoidable but after Tian's words of wisdom and the stance Iphie had taken it was just...urk. Hopefully the tech girl would stop doing that or Kyouko had to try that pseudo necromancy for real.

Following the group further they soon found Anfisa who quickly made clear what the true intentions of the break was. "So you keep your super awesome loot in this veeeerrry secure penthouse? Way to go!" Even she could grasp how dumb that was! But whatever. Continuing on Kyouko found herself soon with another opportunity to fly with Runa. And while it wasn't as awesome as she initially thought, it was still cool enough.

Failing to see what the girl was supposed to do on the other building, Kyouko simply decided to hang onto Runa, clearly thinking she could be of some use to her! Maybe testing her newfound powers against something extreme like a gun might have not been one of her smartest ideas... but anything else they would face was probably more powerful anyways.
 
The rooftop was crawling with enemies. At least twelve helicopters and VTOLs were flying around the complex, lights shifting across the roof, most of them focused on Tian and Iphie's positions. Dozens of black-suits stood around the Thremont Sisters, with many more sitting on the edges of the flying vehicles, eyes focused on the Final Five.

One of the sisters held the orb in her hand, turning it over to observe the black, shifting shapes just beneath the surface. Looking up, she didn't seem particularly surprised at Iphigenia's presence, and far less interested in Tian-Gui's. She tossed the sphere over her head and to one of the suits at the landed helicopter behind them.

"I would think that's obvious, mister," Valentine Thremont said, placing her hands over her hips, "We want what you have... had, excuse me." Before she could turn away, Valentine offered Iphie a passing glance. "As your white coat was already well aware, this is no mundane object. We're not so oblivious as to mistake it for a tapioca pearl." She fully faced the girl upon hearing her threat.

"Ha! You think we wouldn't look into the machinations of military hardware we purchase from you? Imagine the United States, circa the twenty-first century. Do you know how many weapons they sold to organizations in the Middle East with absolutely zero kill switches? How they were turned against American soldiers in time? We have our very own military brigade, as I'm sure you are well aware of. Why in the world would we utilize machines from another company that have kill switches in them for our military? After all, that would mean we couldn't sell to organizations with your company as their target, right?" Valentine laughed. She cast a wave behind as she and her two accompanying sisters strode back to the helicopter.

"Waste them."

Suddenly, a burst of air exploded on top of the roof, not strong enough to knock anyone away, but certainly powerful. In the center of the rooftop, the robot that Ling had shooed away appeared, facing the two Final Five on the rooftop. The Thremont Sisters boarded the helicopter which suddenly shimmered and vanished from sight, though the sound of thrumming blades could still be heard.

As it lifted off unseen, a number of the other airships followed suit, save for two VTOLs that lingered by, searchlights trained on Tian-Gui and Iphie. Countless black-suits remained as well. The VTOL guns, however...

The nose-mounted turrets began whirring to life, and soon began a campaign of ceaseless fire upon Runa and Kyouko as they soared around the rooftop. Her speed coupled with her maneuverability, however, spared them from the trail of bullets that nevertheless continued to follow them.
 
They want it, huh? Out of greed? Well, ultimately, it looked like these girls needed some sense beaten into them, before he could get any of their actual motivations out. Guess it was optimistic, thinking that an easy answer would have been gotten from the Thremont Sisters. If they made their case and appealed directly, instead of going for an attack on the penthouse, maybe the Final Five could have worked out a deal with Thremont Industries. As it was, however…

"Waste them."

"FLAMESTONE ERUPTOR!"

Right as Valentine announced her declaration of war, Tian-Gui slammed his hand into the ground, arcane forces racing through the rooftop to form a crystalline pillar that would impale their helicopter and put an end to their escape.

It was in that same instance, however, that a robot materialized from nowhere, its invisible barrier rippling as it seemed to absorb the wall while it was being created, before disappearing in a red flash. Its reappearance, however, was easily caught by Tian-Gui's eyes, and, adjusting his body, the golden giant withstood the mecha's concussive blast, driven back a single step. That distraction, however, was what allowed the Thremont sister to make their escape, and Final Red could only grit his teeth as they vanished from sight, the sounds of their escape vehicle hidden by the din of the VTOLs that escorted the invisible vessel. What remained were two gunships, dozens of fodder, and a mechanical goliath that appeared to absorb magic.

In the background, Runa and Kyouko were flying about, dodging the bullets fired by the gunships that traced them. Ling, as he should be, was firing off his magical artillery to support Runa, destroying one of them and causing the other gunship to swerve out of the way.

"'Waste them', huh?" Tian-Gui mused, before clapping his hands together. The mechanical beast was, indeed, a bit of a problem, but it was also rather clear now, that the enemy was out-gunned. Their mecha couldn't so much as knock him on his ass, and their gunships couldn't even catch Runa when she's carrying deadweight around. They should realize this, shouldn't they?

And if they don't…

"Iphie, might want to plug your ears."

"LISTEN UP," Tian-Gui roared in all-caps, his voice resounding through the open skies, "I'LL GIVE YOU THREE SECONDS TO PUT YOUR GUNS DOWN, AND PUT YOUR HANDS ON YOUR HEAD! THIS IS THE AMOUNT OF MERCY I'M WILLING TO SPARE FOR YOU LOT, BEFORE YOU GET VAPORIZED BY MY SNIPER'S BEAMS OR TURNED TO ASH BY LIGHTNING STRIKES."

"UNFORTUNATELY, OUR TWO STRONGEST MEMBERS DON'T EXACTLY UNDERSTAND WHAT IT MEANS TO 'SET TO STUN', SO FOR YOUR OWN SAKES, JUST GIVE UP!"

"THERE IS NOTHING WORTH DYING FOR HERE! DON'T THROW YOUR LIVES AWAY SO EASILY!"
 
Despite her complaints, the trio made good time to the nearby rooftop, and all without garnering the attention of the aircraft above them. Released from her tendriled grasp, Ling drifted down to the building as Kyouko continued to cling to Runa as she returned towards the others. He spun around to take in the situation on the rooftop, and even if he couldn't tell exactly what had happened the appearance of a familiar robot told him how negotiations had gone. He was a bit surprised when the landed helicopter vanished with a shimmer, somewhat like the robot they had encountered in the sewers.

As the majority of the airfleet began to pull away, Ling clenched shadowy hands and followed the retreating aircraft. He would have tried to shoot them down, blast them from the skies, but the sharp buzz of gunfire forced him to turn towards the two aircraft that had lingered. Bright flashes lit up the VTOLs as their guns tore through the air in an attempt to take down Runa, but it seemed for the moment that they weren't able to properly train their weapons on her nimble form.

They were maybe a few dozen meters apart… Should be close enough for his Exploder to take care of both in one blast. With a swipe of his arm, the crackling projectile streaked through the sky before it detonated with a resounding roar in between the two aircraft. Arcane energy expanded and caught one of the aircraft, smashing it aside and down towards the ground as it lost one of its wings completely. The other aircraft's pilot must have noticed the projectile somehow as it banked sharply and just managed to clear the projectile's area of effect. A scowl would have been appropriate if he could make such an expression, and Ling quickly darted behind the doorway that led to the rooftop.
 
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Iphigenia sighed. The half-bluff failed, with the girls not taking her word for all the wrong reasons. Were they really that daft and dense, to create such an organized penthouse invasion and trip up on basic logic? Well in any case, the overall response was not unexpected. Nonetheless, it was irritating, and Iphie itched to retaliate verbally and perhaps physically. That said, shit was about to go down. Iphie jumped back a full meter or so under Tian's protection right as Valentine shouted her order. In a clash of ripples, his proactive attack to stop the now departing helicopter was met by a brilliant mecha, allowing the three Thremont girls to make their leave. The aircraft quickly disappeared under a cloak, and Iphigenia saw in her peripheral vision that the other gunships were now firing on Runa and Kyouko. The battle looked already pitched, with explosions and tracer rounds filling up the night sky.

She was not about to let the three girls simply leave, however. Defeating the cloak was a simple matter for her. It was not hard to feel out a foreign electromagnetic field that was contained within her own, and she quickly had its bearing, altitude, and a rough estimate on airspeed and coordinates. It was enough for a firing solution for either her or any of the other three if she could communicate with them.

Deciding that she would be particularly petty today, she pulled out her headset and plugged it into her phone. Not bothering to tap away at it, she ran through the relevant aviation frequencies, only briefly removing her attention from this to put on her headphones at Tian's request. Making a wry smile as Tian tried to verbally shock and awe the enemies on the ground into submission, she took this spare time to find the frequency that the Thremont squadrons seemed to be communicating in. As Tian finished, she lit up the frequency with her own talk, first starting with a mic check.

"Hello? Hello? Can you hear me? Ah, there we go." Pausing to let that communication sink in, she adjusted the microphone on the wire for the most optimal position. "Val, I don't remember you being that dense. You'd be daft to think that Standard Electric would ship anything remotely close to a hardware defect. That's bad for business. You say you're not oblivious, but you know my credentials, right? Software engineer? Electronic security? Who says they shipped with a hardware killswitch? And for the record, you're right, the US never used kill switches, but you should look into to the Trans-Siberian pipeline. Oh! And the Iranian nuclear plants too. That was a doozy. I can send you those wiki articles to your onboard computer right now, if you want."

She paused again, taking the time to watch a gunship spiral out of the sky in a shower of flames. "Oh right, before I forget. Your bearing is 270°, altitude 1600ft, and your airspeed looks like it's just shy of 50 knots and increasing. I might be wrong on the last one, but that's semantics." Iphie looked down at her phone, this time moving to dial Kyouko or any of the three that happened to be available before continuing. "Looks like you just passed over Monterey Plaza. So yeah, I have a firing solution, and I don't intend you let you girls pass out of our firing range, so could you be a dear and turn your aircraft around?"

Finding the searchlights from the one remaining VTOL incredibly distracting and annoying, she sent off a low-intensity pulse of electricity at it, knocking out its blinding lights. With that done, she waited for the answers from the goons, Kyouko, and the pleasant Valentine Thremont.
 
Runa didn't have much time to process the situation, beyond the need to keep moving. The gunships' attention was certainly unwanted, and with Kyouko as a passenger, she had to be extra careful. She pulled the other girl closer to her body as she started her evasive maneuvers, dashing around quickly and sharply changing direction at random. The gunships tore through the buildings nearby, but they didn't manage to catch her in her sights yet. Sadly, she couldn't close in while their attention was on her.

Kyouko was treated to the amazing feeling of flying with the occasional sharp jerk of acceleration, freefall, and other ways to be completely shaken around as part of the midair evasive actions. The occasional burst of light twisted into a ring-shaped rainbow by Runa's sharp changes in direction lit up the night. "Damn it," she shouted over the gunfire, although it wasn't likely anyone other than Kyouko could hear her very easily, particularly over Tian's cautionary roaring. "These guys have got to just be a distraction, or there'd be more of them!"

Ling stepping in to take down one of the gunships took some of the pressure off her, although she still focused on dodging rather than go on the offensive. She started angling her movements to get around the gunship, hoping to outpace its ability to turn and track her and make an opening to close in for her own counterattack. She speaks up again, this time actually talking to Kyouko. "Hey, I've got an idea. I'll throw you at the gunship, and you can take out that turret or something. Let me know when you're ready." That is, if she'd even want to be thrown. "Uh, I'll catch you after, too," she added hastily. It wouldn't do to let her ally think she'd be left to plummet to the street below.
 
Tian-Gui's diplomatic approach was met with a variety of responses. Some smirked, others outright laughed, but most were simply unamused. Still, they looked between one another, as if doubting for a moment that everyone else was feeling the same way. They nudged each other's shoulders or kept their pistol sights trained the two Final Five members still on the rooftop, much more afraid the looming titan Tian-Gui than Iphigenia.

Their passiveness quickly shifted however, when the girl took out a VTOL light with a blast of electricity. All gloves were off then. But before they could even open fire alongside their mecha comrade, their own bodies were fired at. Seemingly from nowhere (indeed, the suddenness of it and the uniformity of their clothing made it difficult for either Tian-Gui or Iphigenia to discern the original gunshot) rounds began to fly, though nowhere near the Final Five. Black suits began to fall one by one as they chaotically attempted to understand what had just happened. Within a few seconds, it became clear.

One of the suits went rogue.

The man opened fire with his pistol on the others, using an already bullet-riddled body as cover while he ducked for the nearest ventilation shaft sticking out of the roof. Even with suddenly fewer numbers and a brand new threat, the suits managed to compose themselves enough to direct their attention properly. With cold expressions, they unleashed a hail of bullets at the man behind the vent, Tian-Gui, and Iphigenia equally.
 
Well, there went their chance. They were given orders, and now, it was clear that they were planning on going through with those orders. Tian-Gui began to slow his breathing, an intense aura radiating from his body as he prepared to engage them. Even Iphie's sudden blast of lightning wasn't enough to cause him to flinch, despite the crackle-pop of superheated air that lanced beside his ear. The area was dimmed, and, yet, what he sensed first wasn't an all-out attack by Thremont's goons, but that of one of the enemy going rogue.

Chaos broke out amongst the ranks as the black suits fell, before the 'traitor' ran for cover, retreating to a ventilation cover. And, after all that, the battle began.

Tian-Gui acted before bursts of gunfire shone through the air, his eyes tracing the aim of every individual barrel as the men laid their fingers on the trigger. It was as if time had slowed, his gauntleted hands moving in the most efficient manner to intercept every bullet that was shot towards him and Iphie. Loud pings rang throughout the helipad as smart bullets found their way into the hands of Tian-Gui. Not a single one made it past the golden goliath, as he picked up the pace, catching more and more and more until finally, a small pause was allowed.

He opened up his hands, and dozens of bullets fell down onto the ground.

There was not a single scratch on his armor.

"Iphie," Tian-Gui said lightly, "I'd tell you not to kill them, but…an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, a bullet for a bullet. Would have settled for shooting them in the leg and punching them in the face before, but now, you can do as you wish."

"And don't worry. I'll keep you safe from everything they'll try."
 
Perhaps it was a misguided sense of camaraderie, either from being of the same exclusive social class or from being well enough acquainted with them, that Iphie was exceptionally lenient in her handling of the situation that faced the Final Five. After all, the goons on the roof weren't actively doing anything malicious, and the girls' getaway vehicle was still within a comfortable range to be shot down if they refused to comply.

But all shots were off the second they fired their weapons. Thankfully, Tian was an ace at intercepting the bullets, although she was surprised at the rogue agent in the midst. She didn't immediately fire upon the black suited soldiers, instead very briefly putting her attention on her phone again. While she nodded at the taller man's words, she'd already taken that as a given that that was a response they'd have to give sooner or later.
Keying her mic again, this time on all available frequencies, Iphigenia made her final ultimatum before she would move to fire against the Thremont's cloaked aircraft.

"I'm not sure if you received my earlier transmission… So I'll put it in simple terms. I have you locked, Val. Tell your men to stand down, and turn your bloody airplane around. You have ten seconds to comply and send a transmission on any frequency before I shoot you all out of the sky." With a scowl, she ducked behind Tian as she pulled out her watch, counting down the ten seconds.

If there was no response or ceasefire within this time, Iphie would have stood up at the end, doing her best not to flinch from the smattering of bullets, and focused her attention into the night sky with outstretched hands. With a look of disgust on her face, she would have rapid fired multiple, very short bursts of electricity, almost like a dual anti-air gun at the remaining gunship and the defined location that she perceived the cloaked gunship was occupying. She would continue this until the latter exploded out of the sky or finally reached the limits of her range, letting Tian deal with the point defense for the time being.

If the Thremont triplets did indeed respond, then Iphigenia would still have stood up, with an irritated scowl on her face, to wait for a fully articulated response.
 
"Wooohooo!" It was like some dog fighting simulation, just more real! Getting shaken around, dodging left and right, sometimes even nearly falling of Runa's back. It was the full package! This was so much fun that Kyouko kinda forgot she was in some kind of life and death situation. It wasn't that she particularly trusted Runa a lot or something, no, Kyouko wouldn't even start thinking that she might die here!

As they continued, Runa gave the brunette a great idea. It sounded fool-proof bold, awesome and full of action! Runa's idea was bold, suicidal and full of adrenaline. It was the kind of plan that someone like Kyouko would agree too without hesitation. "Alright, let's do it! I'll give you a sign!" And just taking out the guns? Nah. Kyouko already planned for a way grander display. Something worthy of a heroine like her! Preparing herself for a second she nodded to Runa. "Alright? Ready? I- Waaaahhhh!!!"

The flying girl should have maybe added something like 'I'll count down from 3' earlier...but whatever, now it was too late, Runa already threw her towards the still in the air remaining aircraft. There wasn't too much time to think about anything, Runa apparently had hell of a power to throw her just like that, strong enough that she considered using her own body as a projectile but...that would probably hurt...a lot?

No, instead, Kyouko did something else. Sure, the VTOL was just on some mook-level too, not even worthy of her grandiose attack, but the aircraft just turned into a tool now anyways. Nearly flying past it, Kyouko managed, all anime-esque, one of its wings. "Hyper..." Where was IT? Where was it...? Oh, there it was! That goddamn drone that was apparently not giving too much fucks. "...KYOUKO FINNAAAAAAARUUULLLLL" Just like how Runa used Kyouko, Kyouko now used the VTOL as a throwable object, disregarding the silly laws of physic in favour of her heroic super move, she simply threw the VTOL at the drone that was residing in the middle of the roof.

Or at least, that's what played in Kyouko's head. In reality, Kyouko still managed to grab hold of the VTOLs wing, long and strong enough to give it a jerk towards her real target, to make them both collide. The resulting explosion, which was also destroying a big part of the roof, was enough to take care of most of the black-suits. Only now Kyouko thought about Tian Gui and Iphie...right, they were also on the roof, luckily for her however, they were close enough at the edge that the collapsing roof did not reach them.

Now, all that was left for Kyouko was to get caught by Runa. And in case if not... "I CAN FLLLYYY~~!" At least she could now enjoy the moment of total free fall! Or she thought, Kyouko didn't know for how long, but apparently, her phone vibrated the entire time. Well, now was better than never anyways? Receiving the call she replied. "Sup Iphie? Everything alright?"
 
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The robot, prior to firing again at Tian-Gui, was suddenly engulfed in the flaming wreckage of a fast-descending VTOL husk. Presumably crushed, it wasn't the only thing to be utterly destroyed; many of the black suits were hit by the massive flying (falling) vehicle, and the rooftop itself suffered from the sheer force of the already weighty object. The center of the roof collapsed downwards, undoubtedly crushing countless furniture and architecture in the penthouse below. A second explosion rocked the scene as the VTOL sunk into the hole it created, knocking the rest of the black suits around it to their backs.

The whole rooftop was permeated with smoke, obscuring the vision of those who still stood. Coughs could be heard amidst the crumbling of the rooftop as conscious black suits began trying to get to their feet again, searching for their misplaced pistols and sunglasses. One of them began to cry out in short, increasingly more distressed cries before he fell silent. One of the black suits walked through the scene under the cover of the smoke and found a gun lying on the ground. He checked the bullets remaining in the magazine before firing into the heads of those who still crawled along the ground.

After a few seconds, the black suit in question approached Tian-Gui and Iphiegenia, slinging the pistol into a pocket in his suit. He had dropped the sunglasses the rest of his 'teammates' had worn, revealing older, intense eyes. His facial features were strong and yet worn, like an experienced man, maybe a mercenary.

"I supposed I got my chance after all," he said cryptically, being the only one to understand the context. Another explosion shuddered the ground where they stood, just outside of the open wound in the rooftop. "Who knew the Final Five were going to get involved," he said half to himself again. He brushed a hand across his short black hair and clicked his tongue. "I only wish I knew the significance behind it-" he paused and looked skyward. Though the sky was dark already, the light of the bright, clear moon had illuminated the sky considerably, though suddenly it went dark.

A large black thing seemed to hover over them, or rather, a good portion of the uptown city. It traveled slowly despite its size, and was utterly silent and featureless seen from the bottom. The helicopters and VTOLs that had flown away were masked by the object, presumably now on the upper surface of the mysterious airship. It maintained its slow creep through the air before picking up speed, the engines suddenly audible and incredibly loud. As it distanced from them within seconds, it looked like a wide and flat airship on the horizon, brightened on its top by the moonlight before disappearing to the north.
 
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Runa quickly swooped in to catch Kyouko before she could fall to an untimely end. "Jeez, you didn't have to go do that," she scolded the other girl. "But that was totally hardcore." The damage to the roof was just a bit of a problem, though, what with pretty much breaking the house as a result. She had a good vantage point to survey the wrecked aftermath, as one of the suits down below began efficiently finishing off his former allies. Well, that was another weird thing.

Runa flew in closer to Tian and Iphigenia's position on the building, spiraling around slowly to survey the damage to the roof. It...wasn't good. On the one hand, some heroes they were this time. On the other, at least it was their own roof that got caved in by way of VTOL. "Jeez, just what the hell was all this tonight even...about..." The colossal airship temporarily dominating the sky drew her attention as surely as that of the others on the roof.
 
Looked like Iphie wasn't planning on taking care of the guards and the mecha anyways, and, as she fired off bolts of lightning at the retreating helicopter, Tian-Gui naturally found his attention drawn towards Runa and Kyouko's antics. It was nice to see Kyouko so energetic after all. The girl had guts, and, despite himself, Tian-Gui couldn't help but laugh as Runa launched her at one of the gunships, which then became a projectile weapon that pretty much ended the whole thing with an explosion that decimated much of the rooftop.

Standing firm against the shockwave and the heatwave, the golden giant wondered if the Thremont would be kind enough to at least pay for the damages there…but they probably won't, if they were THIS intent on being enigmatic antagonists with unclear ulterior intentions. Down below, he could see the mecha still feebly flailing with its arm, the protective bubble surrounding it having faded. Countless black suits were also down below, a few crushed, while most appeared to be either groaning from pain or knocked unconscious by the explosions.

Well, serves them right, even if Kyouko did more pointless environmental damage than Ling in this case.

Through the smoke, the rogue black suit appeared, and Tian-Gui turned to him, staring right into his eyes. A smarter person than the others, indeed, and a lucky one at that. It was an inauspicious night, but they had gained a temporary ally amongst all these new enemies, and none of the supporting members of the Final Five were killed. A black tapioca pearl, as Iphie had so aptly called it, could be taken back. But a life could not.

Above, a behemoth of an airship passed, large enough to cast the entire building in shadow as it cradled the retreating helicopter. At such a size, even Ling wouldn't be able to bring it down, not that Tian-Gui would want that the first place. They were still in a residential area, after all. If something like that fell down, the casualties would be horrendous.

"Yeah, that's certainly something, Runa," the man replied dryly, "But it can wait, like pretty much everything else that has just transpired. Mind picking up Ling for me? Damn collateral damage mage never learned how to teleport or fly."

"Iphie, I'll leave the matters with our…guest to you. Kyouko, let's do some hero work, yeah?" With that cheesy thumbs-up, Tian-Gui hopped down into the burning, smoky pit, a heavy thump resounding as his armored body landed. The mecha was no longer a threat, so he ignored it, instead searching for black suits that were still alive. Disregarding their rather pitiful attempts at injuring him, if they even tried that the first place, Tian-Gui casually carried the unconscious individuals on his broad shoulders, before tossing them up back on the helipad.

"I didn't rescue them so you can headshot them," he called out from the lower floor, "But feel free to blast their kneecaps, if they do anything silly."
 
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