Final -V- IC

Jin-Sun, or "Jong Sungwoo", as his uniform's tag read, made his way to the robotics section from his stop on the monorail. Whatever the sisters' announcement was, it worried him. That Ling Ling girl had speculated they were working on some kind of giant robot down here, and Jin-Sun honestly wouldn't put it past the sisters to construct such a thing.

The disguised cyborg walked through the halls of the robotics labs, stopping by a receptionist's desk. "Hey, uh...management sent me down to check the electrical systems for the big announcement today? They want a final check done to make sure nothing goes wrong later. Any chance you can point me to which lab that's in?"
 
"Oh, a really big robot?" Tian-Gui remarked, temporarily removing his professional façade, "Shit, that sounds super cool. Hopefully they make the big reveal today, eh?"

With that, he waved at Ling-Ling, glad of the information she dispensed. The possibility of an announcement today, as well as the possibility of the Thremonts popping up in an office building…so many possibilities, so many leads. Jin-Sun had already gone off to do his solo infiltrations, leaving Tian-Gui with the girls once more. Scratching his chin, he said, "Well then, might as well give you two a tour of the office buildings. Melinda, if you could lead the way?"

That machine has to do with the Abyssal orb. We need to get the Thremonts before they reveal or activate whatever they're making.
 
"You think they're really building some giant robot," Runa asked the others. "Man, that's so freakin' cool." Never mind that they'd probably have to fight it or something. That would just be even more badass. "We should, like, totally see if there's some sort of announcement and crash it, just to see if that is what they're up to."

Part of her wanted to just rush right for whatever secret basement labs they had, but she instead bounced along with the rest of the group. "Yay, tours!"
 
"Robots, is it?"

Iphigenia finished the rest of her train of thought in the secure communication channel. "To be honest, if that's true, I'm surprised they got such an undertaking without any of our organizations noticing."

She gave a shrug and a wry smile at Tian-Gui. Lumbering up some offices wasn't her idea of fun, but splitting off, especially after Jin-Sun had already gone far ahead, was not a good idea in the present scenario. "Boo. It's not like I spend too much time in them each week already."

The purple-haired girl acquiesced, however, and after consulting a nearby campus map and directory, found some interesting destinations. Office buildings were not difficult to identify; they were all mostly uniform, glass, metal, and about 20 stories each in height. What was more useful however, was that the directory had identified the personal offices of the three Thremont girls quite openly. It was now easy to know where they could find each sister, but they were quite spread apart, occupying different floors and buildings.

"Looks like the youngest is in Building 3-B, which is the closest to us. How about it?"

Without waiting for answers, Iphigenia already started trotting off towards the glass structure, striding into the building's quiet lobby with purpose, before immediately taking out her phone and making herself at home on an empty lobby couch. Instead of speaking into her phone, she spoke to the earpiece.

"Look casual. I want to see how secure they keep these buildings."
 
"A giant robot? I wonder if it's possible to pilot it! I wanna pilot it." Kyouko proclaimed as they were left to each other again. She had seen enough movies and read enough comics to know that surely, they would face this machine sooner or later again, making it just a little bit easier to keep her urge in check to rush off and follow the Tincan.

Instead, the girl played her given role and continued to cling onto the 'Doctor', who in turn followed Melinda together with Runa. "Do you think Ling Ling will be okay?" Kyouko now simply asked, giving Iphie the 'casual conversation' she had sought for the sake of looking casual.
 
The receptionist, located far to the side of the building where the Final Five had entered, seemed mildly puzzled by Jin-Sun's question, but wasn't about to question a dude in a lab coat. She said nothing at first, merely turning to the monitor before her, tapping in something, before speaking aside to the disguised hero.

"I assume you mean the main floor? They're setting up a jumbo-tron or something there, yea?" she half-asked half-said. The receptionist didn't seem to give Jin-Sun any indicator of where said jumbo-tron might be, but given the factory floor was readily apparent so long as he followed the prolific signposts guiding the way. Said factory floor was a sprawling warehouse of machinery and compact cubicle space living side by side. Both tests, experiments, and actual construction of parts were occurring simultaneously as scientists and engineers moved about. The sheer amount of stuff going on was almost overwhelming, but it was quickly clear what the receptionist was speaking about. Hanging from a catwalk overseeing the entirety of the factory floor was a jumbo-tron, apparently already set up and ready to go.

Whatever electronics were needed to broadcast the announcement had clearly already been managed. From his vantage point, at the edge of the floor and above, Jin-Sun could make out several key items; namely a podium where the announcement would undoubtedly take place, the partitioned section labeled 'Robotics' and a descending staircase blocked at the bottom by a large, bulkhead door.

---

Meanwhile in the office building Iphie had scoped out...

Runa, Kyouko, Iphie, and Tian-Gui, for the moment, enjoyed the comfort of a contemporary and wealthy office lobby. Besides the pristine couches they had to rest on, a small nook offered machine-heated coffee from a dispenser, along with the other common amenities that came with the drink. A plate, covered in crumbs, was likely the site of many bagels before it was ravaged by early-morning employees.

Those that had come and gone from the office were clad in business casual or business wear, and offered the Final Five a few confused, cursory glances as they passed by and on to the elevators behind the receptionist counter. Silence dominated their brief 'casual conversation' before something had caught Iphigenia's eyes... perhaps all too late.

A wall-mounted camera, obviously pointed at their position on the couches. A quick glance further below and she could see the receptionist suddenly ducking beneath the countertop. At the entrance to the office, a troop of black-armored soldiers rushed for the glass doors, quickly opening them up to let a stream of themselves into the lobby. Their guns were held at the ready, trained upon the Final Five in a sudden bout of metallic clicks as their safeties were unlocked. They held their ground, clearly ordered to capture them instead of outright kill them. A young voice spoke out through a loudspeaker.

"Ahem. Afternoon, heroes of Shanhu," Valentine Thremont said sarcastically, "I didn't think you'd be so bold as to actually try and infiltrate a place like this. I'll admit. It's clearly very easy to get inside. I'll have to rectify that soon." There was silence for a moment, before she spoke up again. "I'm afraid I don't have the time to watch you fight. I have an important announcement to make in a few minutes. I hope you can understand my feelings, and that I'd rather not miss a battle in my lobby. So if you could, just surrender and leave the premises with these men here so I don't have to miss anything interesting?"
 
Iphigenia had just began relaxing and getting comfortable in the Thremonts' rather expensive looking seats when something struck her as odd. She had, for the lack of better words, chosen poorly in going to the offices. Had she worn her usual, she would not have looked a moment out of place in the offices, but from the looks of employees and guests, the four of them stood out like a sore thumb. But it wasn't the hushed conversation or raised eyebrows that concerned her.
A slight movement on the walls; a simple, cheap, closed-circuit camera had rotated on its mount to stare down at the purple-haired girl. She only had a moment to tilt her head at it quizzically before she knew what was it, but it was too late. The glass doors of the lobby crashed open to reveal a flood of armor-clad soldiers that wasted no time in surrounding and cutting off any means of escape. Their positioning and demeanor told her that they did not intend to fight, and on cue, a familiar voice rang out on loudspeaker: Valentine Thremont.

"Shite," was her first comment through their secured comms, followed by an immediately "I'll try to stall her, you chaps do what you need to do to prepare to get us out of here."

Standing up in full view of the soldiers, she casually walked over to the coffee table, silently taking four cups. On the way, she had already compromised and taken over the wireless speaker system that played soothing elevator music in and outside the lobby. Attuning herself to its wavelength, she cranked the volume and began speaking as she poured coffee.

"Good afternoon, Val," she cooed, speaking to the youngest sister as if she were still an old friend. "That really isn't very nice, treating your guests like criminals. We just wanted to experience the vaunted Thremont hospitality." She returned to the group, placing cups of coffee in front of them before mixing hers into the remainder of her tea. "After all, I came here to make a business proposition, seeing how we all go way back."

She translated her thoughts from the 'embedded' chip to her earpiece. "Are you ready?"
 
What a comfortable place for a stakeout. Sipping on hot tea and enjoying just how plush the seats were, Tian-Gui watched as men and women in suits passed by, a few of them obviously curious about why researchers weren't researching. He smiled at a few, nodded at a few others, and ultimately, just waited for something to happen. Sooner or later, the Thremonts were going to show up, right?

Thought Iphie had caught the slight movement of a wall-mounted camera, Tian-Gui was standing up before the black soldiers, almost like giant cockroaches, busted in from all angles, guns at the ready. No bullets yet, but it was clear what their intentions were. The Thremonts had sent them, and whatever the Cerberus trio had planned did not require the presence of the Final Five. Well, that was fine by Tian-Gui. He really was getting tired of the whole 'stealthing' thing anyways.

Removing his phony glasses and placing them down onto the glass table, the raven-haired youth grinned at the super electrical girl's banter, before contacting Jin-Sun. Surprisingly, contact hadn't been blacked out or whatever, but perhaps the sisters simply weren't aware of it yet.

"Yo, Jin-Sun, did a Thremont visit you yet?"

"No. I heard Iphigenia over the comms, though. You've been made?"

"Pretty much. I knew we should have gotten color-coordinated costumes whenever we went out and about, but, well, whatever. They're doing something in three minutes. We'll make a big splash, so get shit done, yeah?"

"I'm looking over the podium they're going to hold the speech at now. The robotics section and some staircase leading into a restricted area are right next to it, though. Either I hold position and get ready to ambush them here, or I could see what the deal with their big announcement is. Ideas?"

"They wouldn't be stupid enough to walk around without an entourage. See to the big announcement, and figure out what they're doing with the Abyssal Orb if possible. We'll make it over sooner or later."

"Fine by me. I'll head for the restricted section then. Good hunting. Jin-Sun out."

"May justice guide your sword, Shifting Blade. Sun Shield out."

"...Really?"

"Come on, we can't call ourselves Final Red or Final Black forever. Gotta get cooler shit!"

"No, Final Black sounds better than that. I'm closing the channel now."

"Fine, color-coordinated costumes it is."

That smile turned into a small frown as he let go of the 'Sun Shield' moniker he thought was so cool, before Tian-Gui nodded slightly at Iphie. It was indeed time for them to get started. He took a deep breath, considered the position of his fellow Final Five members, before saying, "And here's our proposition! You give us back that orb and apologize for ruining the penthouse, and we won't forcefully take back the orb and ruin your new surprise."

And then, his eyes burned blue.

The ground ruptured as three golden walls burst outwards, blocking off the onslaught of bullets from three directions. Immediately afterwards, the thousand staccaco beats of high-caliber assault rifles rang through the air, the stench of gunpowder pervading the room as the guards not blocked off by the Flamestone walls opened fire, each bullet trained upon one of the four.

It may have almost been a problem, if Tian-Gui wasn't standing in front.

Instead of metal hitting flesh, each bullet was deflected as Flamestone gauntlets burst out of his skin, tearing his sleeves into shreds. Moving on instinct that bordered on precognition, Tian-Gui deflected dozens of bullets, slapping them out of the air as his hands became golden blurs.

And all the while, his presence grew bigger and bigger, as his armor continued to expand. The greaves. The breastplate. The shoulder pads. The mask. Before the soldiers' very eyes, Tian-Gui became a golden goliath, a proud white mane swaying behind him.

There had not been a single bullet that made it past him.

"Final FIVE!"

The walls rumbled at his roar.

"MOVE OUT!"
 
Sighing under his breath as he closed the comm channel with Tian-Gui, Jin-Sun made for the staircase he'd seen, stopping in front of the bulkhead door that barred any further intrusion. If he recalled correctly, this was the entrance to the lower levels John had mentioned. If the Thremont sisters weren't holding the Abyssal orb themselves, then it would likely be down here. The cyborg ninja considered his options for a moment. Cutting through the massive door with his high-vibration sword would take too long; too much risk of someone coming across him, never mind any hidden surveillance cameras. His best bet was to pray and hope that his stolen ID card work.

A swipe later, and Jin-Sun's fears were assuaged as the door slid open. As he began to descend into the lower levels of the compound, he noted how much darker, how much more claustrophobic his surroundings were than upstairs. So much like the laboratory he'd once been imprisoned in...

Jin-Sun paused at a corner, peeking around it to see two armed guards facing away from him, watching a glass door. They were too closely positioned, and the hallway too narrow to sneak around. It was a good thing they were facing the wrong way, then. The cyborg engaged his Stealth Cloak, fading into invisibility as he simultaneously disengaged the hologram that had been disguising him. There'd be no point in framing an innocent man now that he'd gotten this far. He crept up on the duo of guards, being mindful to keep silent even as his active camouflage hid him from sight, and reached up to bash their heads together. As the two crumpled to the ground, he noticed how high-quality their guns and body armor were. Top of the line stuff. Certainly better than the crap he'd been issued during his short stint as a PMC.

As it turned out, the soldiers had been guarding a tram, which he promptly boarded as the automated doors opened. It took fifteen minutes to reach the tram's destination, but the train's speed was ridiculously quick. The still-cloaked Jin-Sun quietly stepped off of the tram, noting the four guards at the end of the terminal, as well as what seemed to be a humanoid-shaped robotic sentry flanking them. He paused for a moment, searching for a way to sneak past them, but his plans were dashed as the sentry's eyes glowed when they passed over his cloaked form.

"Active camouflage detected." It rumbled as it raised its rifle, a warning alarm blaring in the terminal as the human guards next to it quickly raised their rifles as well.

"Fuck!" Jin-Sun hissed under his breath. He should have known that the Thremonts would have countermeasures to stealth systems in a facility as secret as this one! The cyborg rolled to the side, narrowly evading the stream of massive bullets flying from the robot's rifle. He wasn't going to risk his blade parrying rounds that large. As the sentry stopped to reload, Jin-Sun found himself encircled by the human guards that rushed to surround him. The robot leveled its rifle at him again, and Jin-Sun smirked beneath his faceplate. Time to test how sophisticated this thing's IFF systems were. Four times Jin-Sun dashed in front of a guard, only to dive away as the robot fired, and four times the robot killed its own allies in a hail of bullets. With the rest dead, Jin-Sun unsheathed his sword as he leapt at the robot, cleaving it in half with a vertical strike.

"Godawful IFF system. Thremonts need to fire whoever programmed that." Jin-Sun quipped under his breath as he reengaged his Stealth Cloak and headed further into the facility. Beyond the tram, he could hear very little beyond the running of pipes and distant clanging of metal parts on occasion. The halls were empty save for a few engineers passing by obliviously. As Jin-Sun nears what appears to be another factory floor, he became aware of what it was that was being built.

The facility was a veritable dry dock, with several dreadnought and carrier-class airships on the factory floor. There were still individuals walking about, probably making last-minute inspections or marveling at their work. Given the number of other floors Jin-Sun could see on directional signboards, there were many, many more of these.

Jin-Sun quickly reopened the comm channel.

"Jin-Sun here. I've breached the lower levels, but...it's not the orb."

"They're building an air fleet down here. And it looks just about finished."
 
Runa sat down with the others to wait. Fancy place, the office building. Real nice, comfy couches with leather upholstery and everything. It was easy for the mostly-human teenager to get comfortable. Not that it lasted too long before the the usual staring and hushed whispers directed her way turned to something else. Quite a number of security guards had surrounded the group, quite overtly at that. Not to say they weren't trespassing.

There wasn't much she'd need to do to prepare, although she did shrug out of the lab coat. And at least try the coffee when Iphigenia retrieved it. It elicited a disgusted face and sticking her tongue out, briefly. Do adults actually like this stuff, she wondered. Before forcing herself to drink the rest of it anyway. She had to agree, outside of breaking in, was it really that big a deal? Like, none of this would even be a problem if the Thremonts just asked nicely to begin with.

Tian threw up a more than adequate defense to the initial assault, and it was clear they wouldn't be playing nice or coming quietly. Run threw her lab coat into the air from behind Tian's colossal form, likely eliciting a few more gunshots foiling her attempt to preserve the garment. The rest of her clothes were destroyed by her own actions. Runa's flesh began to change, hardening into red and white armor, tearing through any clothing that didn't cooperate and expand to fit her new form. Not that she was concerned with what happened to her outfit at this point.

Runa ducked down, coiling herself up for a great effort, and made a gravity-powered leap high into the air. The quick burst of force lifted any stray papers, coffee cups, and skirt hems briefly upwards as she sailed over Tian's head to firmly plant both feet in a dropkick on the chest of one of the guards directly in front of the Final Five (or four, as the case might be). Now in the middle of a different group, she hoped she wouldn't have to worry as much about being shot, where the crossfire would be too big a risk. She lashed out at anyone nearby with arms, legs, and additional limbs just grown when she needed them, doing her best to get a real brawl going just by herself.

"So, we fighting or running," she asked the others over their comms. "I'm probably okay either way, but i guess we're the diversion or something?" Her fight would be so much easier if she could just kill them. She knew she couldn't just do that, and the guards began to close in around her. She'd hit a limit where she couldn't just keep on against every opponent at once, no matter how hard she tried.
 
Of course, cameras. A giant complex like that obviously had security cameras that could easily recognize them. How stupid could they have been? How stupid could she have been? At least the brunette had the excuse of still being a teenager unlike her Senpai and the wannabe-smart Iphie. Now, however, it was too late, and there was nothing she could change about the past anyways... yet.

Instead, Kyouko looked forward, adding her own few words as well - whatever one of the sisters could hear her or not. "Listen you snobby capitalist assholes! We can do this the hard way or the easy way! You know Justice always prevails, so better give us back what you have stolen!"

Unlike for Tian and Runa, those guns were still lethal for her, and while a way to defend herself came to mind, given her inexperience the brunette was glad for Tian shielding the entire group. Regardless of that however, they had to get out of here, and with Runa and Tian doing a great job, Kyouko felt kinda useless. Right now she was probably more of a medic or something rather than a fighter, which really sucked in her head-canon. Though, this time around, she could actually try to use her power on a fresh dead body, unless Runa was holding herself back, which she somehow doubted. For now, however, all the girl could do was wait and take a sip of Iphie's serving.
 
A thin smoke rose from behind Tian-Gui's golden walls as orders were barked to move to each end. Boots clamored as the guarded soldiers moved steadily while the rest were summarily mopped up. Those soldiers that already had a chance at felling the Final Five were met with an equally copious storm of fleshy limbs as Runa joined the fray. They were knocked aside, to the ground, and into the air, falling upon the dense flooring with a sharp crack. Some were incapacitated, while others rolled in grievous pain with broken limbs or ribs. Others still mustered the will to crawl for their disarmed weapons.

Then the reinforcements came. From around the stone wall came another burst of concentrated fire, but between the defenses of the final five, be it Tian-Gui's impenetrable body, Runa's flurry of expendable organic limbs, Iphie's white-hot lightning, or Kyouko's unperturbed coffee-drinking, they were left unharmed.

"Your resistance only tells me to send in bigger guns," Valentine quipped over the intercom. A quick check of the electrical signal offered Iphigenia a glimpse into the position of the sister. Towards the top floors, emanating from a simple phone. While she could trace the location of the unit, Iphie was left blind as to the actual contents of the room, much less what surrounded the room. At the very least, she was certainly still in the building. The fact that she wasn't rushing to leave didn't sit well with her, however.

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

Meanwhile at the series of drydocks, Jin-Sun was met with a persistent rumble beneath him, concrete vibrating as the entire complex began to be doused with light. Enormous bulkhead doors above the ships began to open up. Water flooded at its edges, but was channeled into the space between. Massive clamps holding the ships released, and they began to simultaneously rise. From below, those ships that he could see in the drydocks disappeared into the sky, obscured by the ceiling. Others still he could see further on the horizon, along with a ship far more disturbing.

Even with a mere fraction of its bulk visible, he could immediately tell this particular "ship" was no mere dreadnought. The word was too pitiful for what he could see. It was like watching a never-ending column of steel lift from the ground. As the minutes passed, he could no longer guess just how large it was, definable only with adjectives and imagination.

Before there was even a sound, there was a system error in Jin-Sun's visor. Error. Damage to right arm. Output decreased by 46%. Then came the sharp sound of a gunshot. There was a sparking hole in his right arm, just below the shoulder. As he tested it, it could still function, though its reaction speed was very obviously diminished. A quick check around the area eventually pointed him to a distant catwalk, nearly a mile away. A shadowed figure darted aside, becoming obscured by an empty ship clamp.
 
"Nice timing," was Iphie's short response to Tian's actions. In return, she opened up the soldiers as well; unlike Kyouko, who was being utterly useless and had inadvertently insulted Iphie, she could have as many sips of her caffeinated beverage as she wanted as she slung magnificent arcs of supercharged electricity over Tian-gui's rock barrier.

The arcs of her electricity went for the paths of least resistance, which happened to be the soldiers' metal guns. The deadpan expression on the coffee sipping girl's face betrayed the magnitude of the implications; it had the simultaneous effect of electrocuting and disarming the soldiers that were hit, and cooking off their ammunition. The extra pops of exploding gunpowder caused a din on their side of the field, and finally prompted another response from Valentine over the intercom much to Iphigenia's delight.

She wasted no moment in tracing the girl's faint audio signal. She visualized and traced the path of the signal, following it up the building's labyrinthine wiring before tracking it to a general location on the upper floors of their building. While she couldn't recall from memory the location of Val's office on the directory, she surmised as much that it was there. The simple fact that she remained bottled up in the office came off as unsettling, however. Either she was overconfident in her safety, or there was actually something more potent in the way that could potentially dispatch the four of them. They needed to proceed cautiously.

"Tian, Runa. Valentine's still in the building, probably her office. We can likely secure a path upwards via the fire escape stairwells, but we need to be careful. There's no reason for her to stay unless she's hiding something."
 
An entire airship fleet? What, were the Thremonts planning on conquering the world or something?

Despite the absurdity of such a statement from Jin-Sun, Tian-Gui couldn't help but grin incredulously at the scenario at hand. Were they planning on powering that fleet with the Abyssal Orb then? This…this was going to be fucking glorious! Runa became a one-girl army, unperturbed by bullets as she whirled around with an endless supply of limbs. Iphie became a natural disaster incarnate, bolts of lightning crackling over his own barriers and knocking out countless guards.

Kyouko was drinking coffee, and Tian-Gui spared a single frown at her, disappointed that she would be slacking off during all this.

As Valentine's voice sounded from the intercom, however, the unofficial leader of the Final Five had a plan. Gritting his teeth, he forced his walls to grow higher, reaching the ceiling, before more walls were erected to close off the Final Five from the guards outside. Blue eyes glimmering in the dim lighting, Tian-Gui turned to Iphie. "Hey, super electric girl, mind just pointing me in the direction of Val's office?"

A snarky one-liner and a pointed direction afterwards, Tian-Gui brought his hands together and said, "Alright, Runa, time to gattai! Grab the other girls, then hold onto me, and we'll pierce through all these annoying floors and take the express elevator to Val's office!"

They had to do this fast. Get to Val, get some answers, and then give Jin-Sun some help with destroying an entire fleet. And thus…

"FINAL!"

A massive lance formed out from his gauntlets.

"FIVE!"

Slits appeared within his armor, fiery energy piling up.

"ROCKET SHIP!!!!"
 
"Ow...oww....goddamnit, getting shot hurts," Runa complained to the others as she pulled back to rejoin them. She wasn't really bleeding anymore, and whatever pseudopodia weren't completely cut or torn off were just retracting in to smooth, armored flesh. but they all had to have actual nerves, just the same.

"Eh? Wha? Okaaaa~y!" She responded pretty well to Tian's crazy plans, and skipped over to wrap her arms around the armored giant. "Hang on, everyone!" She didn't really bother asking if she could invade their personal space as she extended more tentacles to wrap around the other members of the team, gently and firmly giving them something secure to hang onto as a sort of living cargo netting.

"Uh..." she added, once Tian's plan was obvious, "I can fly on my own, you know."
 
Jin-Sun weaves under and over the struts and beams that once held the dreadnought, attempting to diminish the distance between himself and the unknown assailant. The enemy nevertheless keeps the chase elongated, continually breaking from line of sight to find cover before distancing, over and over.

The sniper takes quick, inhuman shots at the cyborg as he breaks into motion. Were it not for the extreme processors in his cybernetic flesh, the incoming bullets would have easily stricken him again. They were going far faster than conventional ballistics, arriving in minute time before the sound of the shot could even reach his senses. There would only be quick flashes of metal before the shot screamed past his body narrowly.

Jin-Sun shifts his blade to his left hand, but doesn't try to unnecessarily deflect any bullets not aimed at him. Considering their speed and the size of the hole in his right arm, he doubted his high-frequency blade would survive cutting a sniper round unscathed.

He changes tactics, taking a moment to dive behind cover before engaging his Illusion Drive. A holographic replica of Jin-Sun burst out from behind cover, trying to attract the sniper's fire. Meanwhile, Jin-Sun engaged his active camoflague and waited for the sniper to reveal himself. Once the sniper fired, Jin-Sun would start quickly moving from cover to cover to close in while the hologram distracted him.

The hologram dashed to the side and almost immediately began to be fired upon. One shot. Two. Three. There was no fourth, even as the hologram continued unscathed. The sniper was no longer interested in it, but the short three seconds had given Jin-Sun enough time to deduce their location and dash for a spot the maximized his ability to track the individual.

They were initially hiding up on top of a catwalk, crouched behind the solid railing. As soon as Jin-Sun had moved towards them, however, the sniper took immediate notice, despite his active camoflauge. He had but a split second to get a look at them before they broke for cover once again. A small ish figure, with white hair and red eyes.

He continued his pursuit, noting the diminished number of escape routes the sniper had after his manuevering. They ducked into a rampart descending beneath the bottom floor of the dry dock, disappearing from view.

The hallway that it led to had multiple nooks at its sides, containing steel crates and loose construction equipment. A red glow from lights at the ceiling cast upon the area.

Jin-Sun leapt up, deploying both Wire Spears in his arms into the doorway at the end of the hallway before reeling himself in at high speeds, aiming for a dropkick at the sniper
.
Seeing no other option, the assailant turned on Jin-Sun as he reeled in, with a single hand they struck out at the soles of his feet, impacting them with a surprising force. His legs bent to absorb the impact, leaving him unharmed but shocked. The wires broke from their attach point, twisting back into his arms as they let go.

As he landed he became aware of the identity of the enemy; a red-eyed girl in a mixture of body armor and civilian clothing. Her hands were mechanical, colored a gunmetal grey. Her legs appeared, at a glance, to be mechanical as well.

She holstered her gun at her back and unsheathed a blade, appearing ready for close quarters combat.

Jin-Sun cursed under his breath as he shifted into a guard stance, taking a moment to reach up to tap his earpiece with his right hand.

"Enemy cyborg encountered. Be warned, has a high-calibre sniper rifle." He muttered before taking the initiative, dashing in and taking advantage of his longer blade to strike outside her reach with a thrust.

The cyborg leaned to the side, narrowly dodging the blade. Though it was clearly of non-Aurorum make, the force behind her swings made her own weapon seem nevertheless formidable. It cut through the air with an audible gust, narrowly missing him as well. She quickly followed up with a spinning hop into a backkick, impacting his chest and sending him skidding on his feet a few paces backwards.

The cyborg gave Jin-Sun a long stare before simply dropping the blade. It clamored on the ground as she took a wide stance, arms locked into a martial-like stance. There was a hiss, and then a rumble as a thin, green smoke burst from her joints. As she spread her stance to appear more readied, the lines and grooves of her mechanical parts emitted a green glow.

With nary a further pause, the cyborg dashed for Jin-Sin in a sudden feat of incredible speed. Her delivered punch brought a burst of air with it, straight for his chest.

Jin-Sun was taken off guard, and the female cyborg's punch slammed into his chest with ridiculous force, sending him flying into the wall. Fortunately, his armor plating held, but the power behind the punch still had him sucking in air behind his faceplate. He pried himself out of the crater his impact had left in the wall, taking his blade into both hands before conducting a quick evaluation of the situation.

Right arm was drastically slowed. Enemy cyborg was clearly faster and stronger than he was. He'd have to fight smarter.

Jin-Sun kept his blade at the ready, waiting for the woman to advance on him again.

The cyborg's face never ceased to maintain its cold, calculating stare, seemingly incapable of expressing anything else. Clenching her fists, she stepped forward before launching off of the cement. A burst of green energy at her feet, propelled her through the air like a rocket, arm held back in preparation for a wide swing.

This time, Jin-Sun rolled to the side, ducking under the cyborg's fist before righting himself as she passed, firing Wire Spears from his wrists to try to impale them in her before taking the wires by hand to whirl around and slam her into the floor.

Missing Jin-Sun, her fist slammed into the crater he had already left behind, crumbling it even further. As her feet touched down, his tethers caught hold of their mark, and she was thrown haphazardly to the wayside. Her body hit the wall at the other side of the hall, cracking it slightly. She lsumped upon the ground for a brief second when a phone ringtone began to call out. The cyborg stood up, reaching into her hoodie's pocket to pull out a cell phone.

She kept her sight on Jin-Sin as she spoke in a dull tone to whoever was on the other line. There were a few affirmations before she tossed the phone to Jin-Sun.

Jin-Sun caught the phone with his right hand, keeping his blade leveled at the cyborg with his left even as he raised the phone to his head.

"So, Valentine. Who'd you kidnap to make the Mark 2? Really wish you would have thought of that propulsion system while hacking me apart, by the way. It's pretty impressive."

"Valentine? This is Carrie you dolt," came another feminine voice. The middle sister of the Thremont's, as he recalled. "While my sister was fiddling with making independent soldiers I set my sights on utterly obedient ones. For good reason too, I mean... you're here after all." There was a pause before she continued. "Anyways the propulsion system is far too new to have been worked into you, I'm happy to say. I like to call her the 'Model Lost'. You know, because you couldn't save them unlike that one girl in Russia? It seemed fitting. And now I can get rid of you too. I'm sure Valentine would love me for doing that."

"Uh-huh. That's very nice." He said mockingly, his eyes still set on the cyborg in front of him the whole time. "So why are you calling, then? Just taking time out of your busy schedule to taunt me?"

"I just thought you'd like to hear about it. Since you're busy dying though, I won't hold you back. Have fun." The line dropped.

Jin-Sun wordlessly hurled the phone at the Model Lost as Carrie hung up before grappling up to the ceiling and retracting his Wire Spears to drop down on her with a powerful overhead slash.

Catching it passively, she quickly dropped into a guarded stance as Jin-Sun continued the assault. Dropping her shoulder over and back, she revved up a knifehand swing for his sword, catching the side of it just in time to knock its slash into the wall at her side. The curve of her body readied her other arm like cocking a spring, and it jetted out to catch his neck.

As easily as with a stuffed animal, she threw him to the ground before her and lifted her left leg into an axe kick propelled by the same green energy.

Jin-Sun quickly rolled out of the way of the kick, firing Wire Spears from both of his shoulders as he righted himself. As they dug into her, he reeled himself in at high speeds, flipping forward to catch her in a headscissors before using the momentum to slam her to the ground with his flip.

The grapple tossed her shoulder onto the ground, incapacitating her for a short second before she retaliated with a grip of her own. Her clawed hand grasped around Jin-Sun's thigh and squeezed with enough force that the armor began to dent and crack, showing no signs of being able to stop the inhuman vice.

Jin-Sun hissed in pain at the pressure she was exerting, but simply raised his sword and cut off her clawed hand, freeing himself. As the Model Lost tried to rise, he fired a Wire Spear from his injured arm and took the carbon nanofiber with both hands, heaving as he hurled her into the air. The line became taut again, and he reeled himself in, hurtling up towards her before retracting the Wire Spear at the last second. He grabbed her in midair with his free hand and hurled her down into the floor before firing another pair of Wire Spears from his hips, shooting down towards the Model Lost before he plunged his sword through her skull.

Jin-Sun stayed in that position for a moment, simply panting for air from both exertion and pain. He reached up to tap his earpiece.

"...Enemy cyborg eliminated. Be warned, there may be more. Enemy cyborgs have better physical specs than I do and some kind of propulsion system to enhance their strikes."

Switching the comms off, he took a moment to gaze down at the rapidly-cooling corpse, shaking his head sadly. "Could've been me, if I hadn't gotten lucky."
 
Urgh... sitting around like that really sucked. Kyouko needed a minute or two to finally get a plan of doing something useful. Surely, throwing one of Tian's crystalline structures into the air just to split it into a rain of death via a strong kick wouldn't kill any of the soldiers, right? Just about to do something and not let Runa and Tian take all of the spotlight, their self-proclaimed leader was yelling new orders.

"Fine, whatever." The brunette responded with her hands held up in defeat, keeping her head-canon just for herself. Just about to hug Runa from behind, the tentacle girl also took the initiative, sending rather unpleasant goosebumps down her spine. "Thank God she's on my side... ." Kyouko whispered before pointing upwards, commanding Runa. "Up we go!"
 
Ceilings and floors, in the hellpath that was Tian-Gui and co's rise, were but cardboard sheets. They broke in an crumbled with every intermittent smack of rock against mundane cement. Each floor they passed earned them the shrieks of employees as they dove away from the drill. Papers and office supplies plastered onto the Final Five's faces as they went. Fortunately, sight wasn't needed when all you were doing was going up.

A few gunshots rang out just beneath them as they carved through each floor, indicating there were indeed more pockets of defense the higher they went, though they clearly expected the Final Five to have been civil and use the elevators or stairs. Completely bypassing them, Tian-Gui's lance finally hit the numerical floor they were after. Disengaging, they lifted through the hole into a rectangular office, knocking aside a grouping of black leather chairs.

A long, laminated desk ran along the length of the room, and at its end stood a surprised Valentine Thremont, eyes wide with amazement.

"I'll admit. I assumed you would use the stairs," she said with her characteristic tone. Her lingering expression betrayed her coolness. She stood up straight, putting her hands on her hips. "Regardless of your ability to blindside me, you should know now that it was pointless even coming here to me. I don't have the orb, and it's now long gone past your ability to reach." She crossed her arms as if in satisfaction, and twinkles of light began to appear around her person.

"Perhaps you should have followed Jin-Sun to the docks, rather than after any one of us." The lights grew brighter, and began to circle around her. Spheres of energy formed as they spun, and her smile grew wider. A twang of something formed in Tian-Gui's head, pulling his gaze to the row of windows at the side of the meeting room. Something was coming.

In a flash, Valentine Thremont disappeared from the office building, along with a small dome of the floor where she once stood. Then, there was another flash outside in the distance, faint, but apparent. A bright but small light blazed on the horizon, and it was getting closer fast.
 
"Sorry!" "Excuse me!" "Coming through!" "Don't worry, insurance covers that!"

The floors really were made of nothing…special, huh. As the Final Four rocketed from floor to floor, the golden titan couldn't help but wonder what Valentine's special measures were. It clearly wasn't a barrier, and if her only line of defense were groups of poor, overworked, outgunned guards, well, that was a bit of a mistake.

Striking the final floor, Tian-Gui landed alongside the others, a hot wind blowing as his flames dissipated. The Flamestone drill reddened and blew away as his white mane majestically billowed. "End of the line, Valentine," he said, taking a step forward, "Dunno why it's pointless, us having a chat, but, hey, you know, if you want to gloat and reveal your masterful plans of world domination now, that'd be awesome. Like, airship fleet? More cyborgs? Some ex-"

死​

He felt it before he saw it. A deathly chill ran up his spine, even as his armor still smouldered from the flames that once emanated from it. For an instant, the giant faltered, and it was in that instant that Valentine made her escape, teleporting away from whatever was coming.

A light. No, not a light. A projectile. Massive. Enough that he instinctively knew that he couldn't block it. Railgun shell? They had a second, maybe two. They needed to run!

But his eyes drifted back down to the hole, to the many floors, to the people who didn't have any chance at all to evacuate. The Flamestone Armor could withstand tank shells with ease, and had even stood up against the beam of an Abyssal recently. Whatever was coming, however, was easily going to surpass that.

What would happen if such a weapon struck the building?

The flames were igniting once more, as the remains of the magical energy that he had gathered collected into his right hand. Walking up to the window, towards the incarnation of death, Tian-Gui stared it into the face and clenched his fist.

"Runa. Kyouko. Iphie. Get out."

If the Idol of Destruction was here, this would be so much more reassuring, but, well…

It didn't matter. He'll block this bullet even if he couldn't.
 
"Gettin' out," Runa replied, and simply jumped back down the hole. The quickest way out was, of course, back down. She sped her fall with her own ability to fly. there wasn't much time to worry about things beyond that whatever that was not being big enough to take down the whole building, or they were all doomed anyway.
 
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