CLOSED MAIN STORY The Evrensel Conflict: Prologue -- The Only Easy Day Was Yesterday -- UTOPIA (OLD)

[Wade Von Doom]

My friend, you would not tell with such high zest
To children ardent for some desperate glory,
The old Lie:

Dulce et decorum est
Pro patria mori.
-Wilfred Owen​

One minute, you're home. Perhaps you are doing something of great importance, like saving the world from a great evil, or stopping some super-villain from destroying it, or even catching a robber before they can escape justice. Or maybe you have finished your quest, finally finding peace from just a long journey and preparing to kick up your feet. Maybe you are on the verge of death, avenging the loss of a loved one to some vicious brute or sadist. Maybe you are beginning that journey that will forever change you. Whatever your tale is, or was, it will now become forever altered.

For in the next minute, the sound of thunder can be heard. The air around you suddenly feels strange, and your body is covered in static electricity. Your skin begins to tingle, while your feet no longer feel planted firmly against the ground, as though gravity is beginning to lighten. And before you can do anything to stop it, a flash of light blinds you. Any onlookers who saw what happened would see a bolt of lightning strike where you stood, leaving no trace of yourself besides burn marks against the ground.

You feel like you're falling through the air; so fast you can't even open your eyes without them stinging by both the g-force of your flight and blinding lights around you. Whatever you can see is faint, but you can just about notice the passing of stars, planets, supernovas, even black holes. Space is passing you by at the speed of light, but why is a mystery. Your center of gravity is completely gone, and all you can do is be thrown around by the incredible force that flings you across the galaxy.

All of reality blasts by you, and when it feels like your body is about to be ripped apart… darkness. You don't know what happened after. But you feel a sense of euphoria. Peace and comfort like you're asleep on a puffy cloud in the sky. Your mind becomes filled with happy dreams, or memories of better times. It's a calm and warmth you never thought possible. Unaware of where you actually are. Until,

'Wake up,'

a voice echoes around you. You feel it try to pull you from the dream. Free you from the euphoric trance you're stuck in.

'Wake up,'

it says again louder. It's a voice you don't recognize, but it's giving you clarity of the world around you.

'WAKE UP,'

it says one more time, shattering the dream and pulling your mind back to reality. From here, your journey begins.

---

​

Those awoken by the voice would find themselves strapped into machines as their hazy minds slowly returned to consciousness. Some were trapped inside large pods filled with bluish liquid, which felt as thick as jello to move around in, yet somehow could breath in the stuff like it was air. Others were locked into operating tables, either floating motionless in the air by thanks of anti-gravity, or locked into place by specific limbs with large mechanical arms waiting to cut into their skin like they were cattle in a slaughter house. All of them were stripped down to just underwear, with no sign of who was speaking to them, or where all their things were.

DOUGLAS RAMSEY -- CYPHER
Played by @Gawwyt

The mutant omnilinguist, upon being awoken by the voice, would find himself face down on an operating table of some kind. His head, arms and feet were locked in place, yet he felt a strange numbness across his entire back and neck like he was injected with anesthetic. He would feel more hazy upon waking up than the others, as whatever drug was inside his body hadn't worn off yet. More worryingly, there were mechanical operating arms moving around him like they were scanning where to begin their insertion of tools into his skin. But, someone was looing out for him, as he would feel his restrains unlock around his entire body. He was free to move before they could cut him up.

OLIVER
Played by @BazusoTheGrey

The Fifth Grade Fixer was in a similar situation as Ramsey. Except for him, he was facing upwards to the ceiling on his operating table, and could see exactly the mechanical operating arms were analzying his cybernetic body to pull apart and dismantle to study him further. Like Ramsey, his restraints were unlocked too before they could start pulling out his screws.

DAVID CADDEL -- CHICAGO
Played by @PolyesterH

The heister awoke in one of the pods, floating in the bluish goo with several needles attached to tubes stuck in his skin across his legs, arms, chest and neck. With the voice awakening him, his pod would slowly moved down to the floor and begin draining all the fluids inside; the latch opening once completely empty. While the fluid wouldn't drown him, as it somehow felt like breathing air while stuck inside the pod, he would unfortunately start vomiting up the stuff once he could actually breath air again.

EDWARD ELRIC
Played by @Raffia Kiryuin

Ed would find himself trapped inside a rotating gyro device, with his head held in place by a body brace. Needles were poking out of his human arm and leg, but whoever kidnapped him was more interested in his automail limbs. Small mechanical arms were trying to dismantle them carefully, starting at were his arm and leg met his actual humab body to detatch them safely. Ed would wake up before the arms could do that, but they were already starting to undo several screws. There was also no sign of Al. He could see the others as they began to be freed from their confines, but whether his brother was taken or not remained a mystery. The latches connecting him to the gyro was opened, allowing him to break free before the arms could mess with his automail further.

NATANAEL HERRERA
Played by @Valkan

The young priest was also trapped inside a gyro like Edward, but his perdicament was different. Two machines that looked like giant speakers were in front and behind him. They glowed a soft yellow color against his skin, and he could feel they were doing something to him. His strength and spiritual power felt weakened, like his soul was trying to be pushed out of his body. The machines were syphoning his energy, leaving him unable to channel his flow. Yet, like Ed, his hands and legs were freed so he could make his escape.

XIVESTIAL LAHN
Played by @LenxKaitoYaoi

Like with David, Ziv would find himself awoken inside a pod, along with needles stuck into his skin. His pod would be opened next to David.

SEVESTRE ALBRIGHT
Played by @Otomos

Like Nat, Sevestre had machine arms with large speakers both front of and behind his body, syphoning his magical capabilities away with a yellow glow that encapsulated his body. Yet, once more, his body was freed to escape.

HAO ZHAN
Played by @GensokyoDreams

Yet again, Hao was stuck inside a gyro with his spirutal energy being syphoned away. He was stuck between Nat and Sev, yet unlike those two, he was the first be to noticed by whatever controlled these machines. The speakers behind and in front of his body increased their power to keep him trapped and weakened, while two more lowered down with needles to stick into his body. Anesthetic to put him back to sleep before he could escape.​

 

[Wade Von Doom]

~~GM~~

Cypher's quick thinking worked, as the doorway opened once his commands went through. The whole wall parted from the center like a theater stage curtain would, with the gas quickly spreading out of the room, giving the group some air to breath. The doorway led to a narrow corridor, with light shining at the end of it far off in the distance.

Reaching it, however, offered a new problem.

Where to go from here. They wouldn't have long to decide, as the squid robots in the room with them were quick to recapture Oliver and overwhelm Hao.​

 

[Valkan]

Natanael Herrera

Nat and Hao's cordial chat had been cut short. As chaos ensued, Hao's words resonated with him. Abandoning him, and the robotic abomination would leave him ridden to the core with guilt. Speaking briefly and rapidly, in order to reduce the strain on his respiratory system. "Allow me to help, then."

As he finished his sentence, Nat braced himself to enhance his body as well. With swift barrages of punches, kicks, and throws flowed from one to the next, the Venator impacted the mechanical vermin one at a time. He decided to call to the fellow fighters "Fall back. Let's cover each other on our way out!"

 

[GensokyoDreams]

Natanael Herrera

Nat and Hao's cordial chat had been cut short. As chaos ensued, Hao's words resonated with him. Abandoning him, and the robotic abomination would leave him ridden to the core with guilt. Speaking briefly and rapidly, in order to reduce the strain on his respiratory system. "Allow me to help, then."

As he finished his sentence, Nat braced himself to enhance his body as well. With swift barrages of punches, kicks, and throws flowed from one to the next, the Venator impacted the mechanical vermin one at a time. He decided to call to the fellow fighters "Fall back. Let's cover each other on our way out!"

Hao Zhan could only look around to see that the situation has began to reach a point where it was not feasible to continue resisting. As much as he wanted to help that mechanical man, it would do no good, and he believed that the man himself was capable enough to make his own escape.

As for Natanael... He had the right idea. Neither of them seemed to have any intention of leaving the other behind, and that was something that Hao Zhan could understand and accept.

"Very well. I'll cover your behind, Natanael." Hao Zhan proposed, before he then round-housed a nearby automation right into several others that were approaching the duo, knocking them back momentarily enough to buy some time.

 

[BazusoTheGrey]

Fifth Grade Fixer, Oliver

He decided to call to the fellow fighters "Fall back. Let's cover each other on our way out!"

Well thank fuck for some help, this thing is really not holding together too well.
Glancing quickly down to the mangled looking squid in his hands, Oliver elects to toss the thing into the mass of other, less mangled squids while booking it over to the two other guys that he didn't manage to grab and bring to the door.
Not that we needed to it looks like, these guys definitely know what they're doing.
So it would seem. We will likely not need to use the Ronin Suite again with their assistance. Preferable, considering its effects.
Dropkicking another squid coming to pounce on the new guys, Oliver scrambles up to his feet before dropping into a brawler's stance. Despite the trouble surrounding them however, he speaks casually, "Ay shit, wasn't expecting help. I'm Oliver by the way, Fixer, Fifth Grade."

 

[Otomos]

Hoping for an answer was foolish to begin with. No one seemed to know, so no one even attempted to answer. Even if they attempted to guess, apparently any sort of discussion would be delayed in lieu of escaping the metallic creatures trying to capture them. Sevestre, not trusting that he had enough time to cast a spell normally, elected to retreat for a moment until he was sure trying anything to slow or stop them wouldn't risk the possibility of capture.

When he noticed that some of the others had already begun fighting the creatures, he forced himself to stop in a less ideal position. He moved his arm as if to control his Star Globe, only to realize that it and all the cards he had were missing. He could not influence their fates without a divining deck.

Fortunately, he still could use other magic. He had to act quickly, so he had to use the swiftcast technique. Without needing to focus or incant, he performed the Gravity spell in an attempt to pull the metal creatures into one spot, or damage them if that failed.

 

[Camleen]

Wake up
Wake up
Wake up

Nezuko-chan… it's time for ups…


A loud gasp, and the young woman pinned to the table is awake.

A moment of confusion… and then fear… and then rage!

The table is cold and unforgiving, the feeling of a metal like substance against her bare skin. She tries to get up, but finds she is restrained. At her waist, at her ankles, at her wrists. Her head snaps left to right to see the restraints, and she tugs desperately at them. They give nothing. She is a Japanese woman, and looks to be in perhaps her late teens or early 20's. Her hair dark at the start, and then going to a fire orange/red towards the tips. Her eyes have a gentle pink hue to them. And she is mostly naked. Save for her undergarments… which are little more than pieces of robes fastened securely (fundoshi) at her hips and tightened bandages at her breasts.

She pulls furiously at the restraints, but she isn't going anywhere. Her eyes are wide as she glares at the metal trappings… but then she would look around her slowly. She was in a dark room… despite how dark it was she could see as if it were lit better. There are all sorts of… metal things… around her.

Windows… but she can't see outside.
Tree branches made of metal.
Thick pieces of odd looking threads.
Shiny stones that glow and blink.

At least that's how young Nezuko recognizes the things around her. In reality…
Console screens.
Robotic arms.
Wiring.
Console buttons.

No one is around, and she has to get out. She has to find the others. Looking towards her right wrist she looks… and her body suddenly begins to shrink in size. Now normally this could work. Her body gets smaller and she slips out of the restraints. But.. the restraints change size to prevent escape. Realizing this isn't going to work, her body grows to it's 'default' size as she lets out a loud and angry hiss. Staring at her arm now… she actually wonders if she could reach it with her mouth and literally chew her arm off to get free.

Fortunately she doesn't have to find out.

She lets out a yelp as the table suddenly shifts up and goes vertical in position, her restraints released. With a loud grunt she lands on the cold deck on all fours, growling viciously as she looks back towards the table. She.. was free. For some reason. Somehow. Slowly now she pushes herself to her feet, but is startled by the sound of movement coming from one of the adjoining doorways. One of the inhuman squid like mechanical being. And then another. Nezuko takes a step back as she grits her teeth, her clawed hands flexing as the machines close in on her.


And now is when she intersects with the other prisoners. From another angle to where the group is… they would hear an odd clanking sound. The mechanical squids obscure their view, as she is behind some of them. But then she is seen, making quite the racket. And should they (Douglas, Oliver, David, Edward, Nat, Xiv, Sevestre and Hao) look towards the odd noise, they would see a mostly naked Japanese woman sprinting towards them with an angry scowl on her features. She moves very fast, despite what she is holding. In her left hand one of the mechanical squid heads (her claws embedded inside of it to hold it) and in the other a tentacle from another of the creatures. Now… she is no genius. Not by any stretch of the imagination. But she can tell what an enemy is (in this case) and what isn't. With a loud and angry hiss/snarl she throws the squid head at one of the machines closing in on the group, using the tentacle to start to smash through them. She makes her way towards the group, the mechanical beings now realizing they are facing subjects on 2 differing fronts. And those fronts are about to become one group instead of 2.

 

[Wade Von Doom]

~~GM~~

It wasn't just this group that were being freed. Once all of them reached the skyway, the squids seemed to fall back, and more people began piling out into the open. They walked across the large wires that connected the walls together, crawled down the sides using whatever leverage they could between the metal panels, some even jumped onto the large floating drones that hovering between the open space. They seemed to be doing mindless repairs on the structure, unbothered by the freed masses of these kidnapped people.

Dozens kept running out into the skyway from the now opened narrow passages, and without a clue as to where to go. Tieflings, Orcs, Qunari, Twi'leks, Zabraks, Turians, Asari, Cyborgs, Albinaurics, Oni, Ghouls, Aumauas, there was even a couple Lego people weirdly, It was a sight to behold as now hundreds of 'scattered' peoples and races from across all these different worlds gathered together in one place. Even if all of them didn't have a clue as to what the hell was going on.

They wouldn't have much time to talk amongst themselves, either.

'SYSTEM WIDE FAILURE. ALL SUBJECTS FREED. REQUESTING IMMINENT SUPPORT.'
​

"We need to go down!" Shouted a voice across the archway. It was a human male, dressed in only his underwear like the rest, but noticeably had a large bandage covering his eyes. He was closest to Nezuko, but tried getting the attention of as many people as possible. "I can sense it! A small site of grace at the bottom of this place! If we can all reach it, we can surely find a means of escape--" A sword was then pierced through the man's throat from behind. He gargled blood from his mouth while still trying to speak, as more sprayed from the open wound down his body and across the floor. The sword then began to illuminate a soft blue, before erupting into a fiery blast; beheading the poor man completely.

His skin across his shoulder and chest had become charred and burned, with blue flames dancing around the wound. The corpse fell first onto its knees, then collapsed to its left. When the smoke cleared, they could see the swordsman properly; thrusting his sword to the side to shake off whatever blood hadn't burned away.

It stared down Nezuko, unfazed as the other 'scattered' watched on in horror at what just happened. The whole skyway went quiet from the blast of fire that echoed throughout the space, as everyone wondered what the machine was going to do next. If it was going to attack again, most agreed to just run for it and hope they weren't in the crosshairs.

'Commence containment procedure: Sterling. High priority targets only.'
​

With the order given, turrets popped out the walls. They were quick to aim at groups massed together, and it only took a second before they started firing upon them with lethal rounds. The hundreds of 'scattered' began running in total fear, trying to climb down further or find pathways that lead down. But most were shot down; their bodies falling into the nothingness below. Only the main group wasn't fired upon, as they were given special attention by the main machine commander, and a new type of robot joining him from above.

They were dropped down from above through the walls, landing on their feet with a loud thud. There were about seven so far that surrounded the team, with the main robot itself remaining completely still from where he killed the unfortunate monk.

"Surrender," the commanding machine finally spoke, raising his sword up to shoulder-length while keeping it pointed to its right. Its voice was calm, yet threatening,

"and I shall be kind."​

 

[BazusoTheGrey]

"Surrender," the commanding machine finally spoke, raising his sword up to shoulder-length while keeping it pointed to its right. Its voice was calm, yet threatening,

"and I shall be kind."

Fifth Grade Fixer, Oliver

Oh look, a dipshit trying to flex. Cool, very cool.
Indeed, it is very annoying. However it is understandable. The odds are very heavily put in his favor. You would likely gloat as well.
THUS IT BEGINS BLOOD AND GLORY UNDER THE SKIN RIP IT OPEN SPLAY IT FOR THE WINGS SOUND THE CLARION CALL THE FIRST STEPPING STONE CALLS
Hold on, hold on. We can definitely kill this guy and MAYBE even get out alive after doing this, but what about the others?
Oliver quickly looked at the other capturies that got singled out by the dipshit (Must we refer to him as such? Yep.). Lightning kid, Gravity Guy (previously white hair), the two he was standing with and the feral looking chick all seemed combat capable, despite the lack of equipment. Oliver hadn't seen Annoyed Man, Blonde Hair and David doing much though, so their capabilities were up in the air.
Those robots accompanying the, 'dipshit', are armed with swords. Perhaps we can arm ourselves with one whilst using the Ronin Suite. Actually that is rather odd. Artificial Intelligence is outlawed by The Head. Are we perhaps in the Outskirts?
Best to think about that later, gotta focus on the fight and the other guys.
Oliver turns toward the others, reducing the volume of his voice module so the others could just about hear him clearly. Hopefully it was low enough that dipshit couldn't hear him.

"Soooooooo, you guys got a plan for dealing with this? I was thinking I grab a sword off one of those other guys and holding the main dipshit's attention for the rest of you to do... whatever. My Office specializes in shitty situations like these, so don't worry about me."

 

[Gawwyt]

"Surrender," the commanding machine finally spoke, raising his sword up to shoulder-length while keeping it pointed to its right. Its voice was calm, yet threatening,

"and I shall be kind."​

Fifth Grade Fixer, Oliver

"Soooooooo, you guys got a plan for dealing with this? I was thinking I grab a sword off one of those other guys and holding the main dipshit's attention for the rest of you to do... whatever. My Office specializes in shitty situations like these, so don't worry about me."

'Blond Hair' appraises the situation, wincing at the automated slaughter and backs up close to Oliver for safety, taking a defensive stance with his hands up.

"Oliver was it? I'm Cypher, buy me 30 seconds to have a conversation with these turrets about what a 'high priority target' is." Cypher murmurs as quietly as he can hoping the fully automated turret fire would prevent his words from carrying across to the robots.

With that Cypher starts listening out for the real communications between the turret systems, he highly doubted they exclusively used verbal communications. They had to be using a centralized list of priority targets somewhere, and that meant they would be querying it for each target. If he could tell them he was the targeting server and to ignore the old one he could swap them to shooting at the robots. He had worked with very sophisticated IFF systems on sentinel platforms and the danger room before and had pulled similar tricks.

The thought that each blam was another dead soul motivated him to work faster than ever before.

 

[PolyesterH]

David drops to the ground as the hail of bullets starts gunning down swathes of people. What was once a large prison riot a second ago was now a field of corpses, one he found himself instinctively clinking onto. All he was sure about was that they had some kind of white fur and was a bout his size. He didn't care enough to take the time and get a good look. He had a meat shield, which was more than he had a moment ago. If he could break open a body, he could probably grab somethings femur to use as a bludgeon. Against a machine army with guns and swords though, it was pathetic by comparison. 30 seconds was a long time, it was way too long. There was no way the body would hold up. He mutters a quiet, "I need a gun," while more presently useful people discuss what to do.

 

[LenxKaitoYaoi]

Once they got out of that room, in a large part thanks to Oliver, Ziv took in their new surroundings. At least briefly, since they were being chased it seemed. Damn, they didn't have much choice. He was actually thankful he was struggling to focus on those around when a great many people started coming from all around. Just how many people were held here?

With someone calling for them to go down, he was inclined to follow, up until the man was inhumanly cut down, cringing as his head was more or less blown off. It wasn't just this man, as much to his displeasure, most of them were gunned down. Even if they weren't being fired at, they weren't any safer either. This was one hell of a situation they were in. They hadn't found their clothes or belongings yet, which meant he didn't have his sword— or any weapon to fight with. Sevestre was probably the only one here that showed any true sign of magic ability, but as far as he could tell, it was a magic he couldn't quite use. Which meant he couldn't help in this fight… he was a liability to the group right now.

As Oliver spoke up he tsked. "I'm a swordsman, but without a sword I'm afraid there's little I can do to help. If you can get one for me, too, I'll be more than happy to fight with you." That or a magic that might do some damage, but that seemed unlikely here. Not unless he got a hold of something fire or electric maybe.

 

[Camleen]

Gritting her teeth, the young woman stands ready to continue to fight. She holds the torn off tentacle in her hand, as if ready to use it to club someone over the head. Her eyes are wide, a bright pink color. But then… the squid like machines begin to pull back. Nezuko stands there and stares, her eyes narrowed. Her nostrils flare then, and she looks towards the other beings that were encroaching upon this place. People… so many… but she can't sense any demons. At least… not what she understands demons are. The man with hidden eyes catches her attention, of course, and her gaze flicks towards him. He mentions going towards the 'bottom' of this place… but she looks back to him just in time to see him get mercilessly slaughtered. She lets out a loud "NRRAAH!" and darts towards him, but skids to a stop when she sees the swordsman. Her eyes are wide, and she is practically panting. Odd veins bulge now along her face, a look of rage upon those tender features.

She is about to engage the being holding the sword… but a scent fills her nostrils.

Human blood. Human flesh, torn asunder.

She seems hardly aware of the turrets cutting more and more down, nor does she seem to be aware of the group of 'scattered' she was trying so hard to get to. She starts to breathe heavily as around herself she slowly looks, and drool starts to fall from her open lips. She lets out a loud whining, then a growl. Her trembling hands grasp the machine's tentacle, to the point it begins to break apart under the immense pressure of her grip. And indeed… she tears it into pieces in a rage letting out a loud cry of anguish. Her eyes would seem to almost burn with rage, and she looks towards the swordsman once more. She brings the remnants of the tentacle to her lips, and she bites down on it horizontally. Her fangs dig into the metal, as if it were soft clay. Drool still draws from her lips as she bites down on the tentacle.. using it as a replacement for the bamboo 'muzzle' she always seems to wear.

Her head whips side to side, and her body seems to.. grow in mass just a little. Her under garments seeming to get just slightly tighter. And then she charges at the swordsman, her body leaning forward and her clawed hands held out at her sides. She moves incredibly fast, covering the distance between herself and that cursed machine in nearly a fast a time as it would take a normal being to notice she has even moved.

The group she was trying to get to before.. she keeps them in the back of her mind. She hopes they have survived the onslaught. And if they haven't... she will murder every single being in this unholy place.

 

[BazusoTheGrey]

Fifth Grade Fixer, Oliver

"Oliver was it? I'm Cypher, buy me 30 seconds to have a conversation with these turrets about what a 'high priority target' is."

Oliver nods to blonde guy Cypher, "Thirty seconds? Sounds easy enough. Just don't get shot while I'm grabbing myself a blade."

"I'm a swordsman, but without a sword I'm afraid there's little I can do to help. If you can get one for me, too, I'll be more than happy to fight with you."

"Will do. Be 'ware though, I'm fast, but with this distance between us and the dipshits, I'll probably need to huck a sword at you to stay in the fight and keep momentum."
Thirty seconds. Five of which will be spent for the opening assault, the rest for cycling the Ronin Suite and taking out the targets. By all accounts it is a clear cut plan.
TOO EASY TOO EASY BAD BAD BAD
Indeed. Be wary, if the main one is gloating then he likely has augments for reflexes and speed. It is best to always be cautious. Incapacitate the help, then move onto the main target with the others. If the worst case scenario occurs, the extra bodies will be useful in taking his blows.
Cold, but true. It's best if we get the other guys on the dipshit.

She tears it into pieces in a rage letting out a loud cry of anguish.

Oliver raises one of his metaphorical eyebrows at the kid that he just so happened to have been ignoring apparently (considering that she suddenly got to the rest of the group earlier and he decided to just not notice). Who was also losing her shit for... reasons?
She either knew the guy who got murked, or she's that empathetic. Would be nice if it's the last one.
Then she's off, moving at a very respectable speed toward the enemy.
IT'S TIME
Oliver shrugs to himself, "Welp, guess we're in it now. Don't die, boys." Finishing his preamble, he sprints toward the enemy, trailing behind the Feral Girl.
Time to ride the lightning.
His augs cycle, the sound barrier breaks, and Oliver disappears.

 

[GensokyoDreams]

And now is when she intersects with the other prisoners. From another angle to where the group is… they would hear an odd clanking sound. The mechanical squids obscure their view, as she is behind some of them. But then she is seen, making quite the racket. And should they (Douglas, Oliver, David, Edward, Nat, Xiv, Sevestre and Hao) look towards the odd noise, they would see a mostly naked Japanese woman sprinting towards them with an angry scowl on her features. She moves very fast, despite what she is holding. In her left hand one of the mechanical squid heads (her claws embedded inside of it to hold it) and in the other a tentacle from another of the creatures. Now… she is no genius. Not by any stretch of the imagination. But she can tell what an enemy is (in this case) and what isn't. With a loud and angry hiss/snarl she throws the squid head at one of the machines closing in on the group, using the tentacle to start to smash through them. She makes her way towards the group, the mechanical beings now realizing they are facing subjects on 2 differing fronts. And those fronts are about to become one group instead of 2.

She seems hardly aware of the turrets cutting more and more down, nor does she seem to be aware of the group of 'scattered' she was trying so hard to get to. She starts to breathe heavily as around herself she slowly looks, and drool starts to fall from her open lips. She lets out a loud whining, then a growl. Her trembling hands grasp the machine's tentacle, to the point it begins to break apart under the immense pressure of her grip. And indeed… she tears it into pieces in a rage letting out a loud cry of anguish. Her eyes would seem to almost burn with rage, and she looks towards the swordsman once more. She brings the remnants of the tentacle to her lips, and she bites down on it horizontally. Her fangs dig into the metal, as if it were soft clay. Drool still draws from her lips as she bites down on the tentacle.. using it as a replacement for the bamboo 'muzzle' she always seems to wear.

Her head whips side to side, and her body seems to.. grow in mass just a little. Her under garments seeming to get just slightly tighter. And then she charges at the swordsman, her body leaning forward and her clawed hands held out at her sides. She moves incredibly fast, covering the distance between herself and that cursed machine in nearly a fast a time as it would take a normal being to notice she has even moved.

The group she was trying to get to before.. she keeps them in the back of her mind. She hopes they have survived the onslaught. And if they haven't... she will murder every single being in this unholy place.

Hao Zhan could only look at the strange girl that stood before him. A girl that seemed to be barely around his own age, who looked like that while her body remained almost human at first glance, her mannerisms, as well as her own nature seemed to be quite beastly. Had Hao Zhan not known that there was no possible way that a Spirit Beast could possibly have a discordant combination of a feral nature and a almost human body, he would have believed her to be one.

But even then... What's the point of knowing this? Human, demon, beast, whatever she may be, she is in the same situation as they all are. It would be folly to condescend upon her, especially when she acted like a animal ousted from its natural habitat. He would rather stay in good terms with the young girl, not demon, even if she may have some traits belonging to such things. She is strong, and that is a slight relief to him, considering that the idealistic part of his heart did not want to leave a defenceless and lost girl like her to face this cruelty unaided.

"Soooooooo, you guys got a plan for dealing with this? I was thinking I grab a sword off one of those other guys and holding the main dipshit's attention for the rest of you to do... whatever. My Office specializes in shitty situations like these, so don't worry about me."

"Oliver was it? I'm Cypher, buy me 30 seconds to have a conversation with these turrets about what a 'high priority target' is."

"I need a gun,"

"I'm a swordsman, but without a sword I'm afraid there's little I can do to help. If you can get one for me, too, I'll be more than happy to fight with you."

As Hao Zhan pieced together the conversation that occurred when they had to deal with their current, dire, situation, he began to look around, as another part of his own heart fumed at the fact that these automations, and their leader, would so callously slaughter countless individuals. While he had no clue on how many were sinners, and how many were innocents who had no clue of their predicament, it irked him that the judgement enacted upon them was indiscriminate. Had this been in the Douluo Continent, it would certainly attract the ire of countless Douluos who walked the path of law and order.

But this isn't the Douluo Continent. He was certain of that the moment he saw the multitude of captives that came forth. All of different races, all of different cultures. He will not suddenly find himself aided by the likes of Gui Mei, Yue Guan, or even Lordiala or Tuoba Xi, to save them at this time of need.

But if he had to rely upon them to handle this situation, what face would he have to carry the future of Spirit Hall on his shoulders with comrades in the future? It may seem hopeless right now, but he held belief that as long as he carefully manuevered through the situation, there might still be a chance to find escape. All he had to do was keep his enemy distracted from any thought of execution for the time being.

And so, he let his mind recall the words spoken to him by their leader:

"Surrender,"

"and I shall be kind."​

Surrender, huh? That's easy to say because they had the power over this situation. But that also implies something. Something that Hao Zhan will take advantage of.

"If your kindness is for us to be imprisoned once more, any rational person would accept with grace, after seeing this bloodbath." He stated, before he steeled his gaze towards the leader, not betraying any hint of fear, knowing that weakness would only make it easier for them to take advantage. "However, I do believe that what I have seen speak a different picture."

He then took a moment to take note of the numbers, trying to ensure that he will not be taken by surprise should hostilies commence.

"Considering the fact that I have noted that there are certain unique traits that each of us have, I do believe that you intend to experiment on us." Hao Zhan remarked. "After all, it would explain why you have suppresssed my power so strongly. Somehow, you seem to have some difficulty understanding it. Maybe it's because there is a component that you do not have a greater grasping of. But I digress. The point is that you need us alive. Or more logically, you prefer us alive."

Hao Zhan let those words sink in for a moment, before he then continued.

"Considering the fact that you literally slaughtered around about... 90-95% of the captives that we just saw, I assume that they had little value to you alive, and are just autopsy material for you. The fact that you did not order the same fate upon us, is because you see us with a value that is greater than us alive, which returns to my earlier point about needing us alive." Hao Zhan declared. "...And I doubt that if we just up and surrendered, you would just simply lock us back up, and gently experiment on us. No, I do believe that by the time you are done, we'll be begging for death."

"So knowing that, leader of the automations... with a choice between dying on your feet, or experimented to the point of the agony being worse than death, what reason do we have to surrender? Why waste your breath, when the truth is bared so bluntly before us?"

 

[Otomos]

Sevestre was first and foremost a scholar of Sharlayan. That is to say, though he has the power necessary to hold his own in battle, he is not a fan of using said power, and definitely did not appreciate being forced into random battles. Likewise, he had no concrete plan of his own to answer a question that one of the others had asked. Luckily the group seemed to understand that they would need to work together, and started on trying to figure out how to turn things around without their usual equipment. The Sharlayan scholar did not bother to tell them about the star globe and cards. Though it would no doubt be a boon here, there's no way to get such items at the moment. Besides, he did not need them to cast simple magics for healing and combat, and he did not wish to explain how influencing fate works to either them or the mechanical soldiers.

Speaking of which, the leading mechanical warrior seemed to have been trying to appeal to their fear of being imprisoned again. Unfortunately for it, the treatment they were being given while imprisoned the first time would push away any notion of having a lighter punishment for escaping. In fact, another member of this group decided to explain exactly why no one was going to do as it says. Sevestre's expression would not change as everyone prepared for the next move. As for him, he only had this to say,

"I would have loved nothing more than to end this with words rather than bloodshed, but considering what I've seen of your facilities thus far, you have only proven that there is no peaceful solution available."

 

[Wade Von Doom]

~~GM~~

It seemed they all made their choice. Zhan and Sevestre replied with detestation in their words, while Nezuko and Oliver made their quick charge at him. The machine processed the information before him, and the data he had on each of the individuals. Each of them were hand-selected for different tasks, different reasons, and were extensively documented for their backgrounds and powers and usefulness to their cause. They knew their weaknesses, their faults to exploit in battle, even the current calculations for success were about seventy-five percent in the robot's favor. The outcome was determined before the first punch was thrown. How did they expect to win in such a no-win situation like this?

Well... this would help

All information about the group was suddenly corrupted. The data was now nothing but broken code that played the song. Then, it began playing across the station through any available speaker. Like some sort of virus, it caused the lighting to go haywire as if they were now a part of a light show, and the encryption protecting the turrets IFF to weaken enough that Cypher could gain access to them. They even stopped firing due to the confusion happening in their programming, while the squids were momentarily stopped in their tracks, some falling off the walls as they stopped mid-movement

Even the robot had a momentary glitch. What the hell was going on? The machine was befuddled. Whoever woke them up was causing even more havoc. His movement came back to him just in time to deflect Nezuko and Oliver by throwing both of them up in the air when they were inches away. The robot's hand turned to a purple color, and raising it in the air caused gravity to freeze. Both the demon-woman and cyborg would fly up several feet in the air, then be thrown back down onto the bridge with enough force to break it.

Snapping in half, the bridge then collapsed.

 

[BazusoTheGrey]

Fifth Grade Fixer, Oliver

Five seconds. Let us begin.
Oliver breaks off the feral kid's trail towards the two bots closest to the group.
They're a bit spaced out ain't they? Probably gonna be off the suite when we finally start charging toward king shit over there, yeah?
Likely. Again, be on your guard.
Reaching the first bot, Olivr Immediately works towards stealing its sword. He and the other guy were more effective with weaponry, and an enemy without a weapon was generally much easier to kill. Win-win.
BREAK ITS WRISTS TWIST THE BONES
Oliver does so, wrenching its wrist backward and applying his elbow to the joint until it breaks off. Sword now acquired, he rushes toward the next one.
That took two seconds, it will take one second to reach the second one.
CUT AND BUTCHER AND FLAY AND CHOP AND SLICE AND CUT AND-
Swinging his sword, Oliver cuts through the robot's hand on his rush forward, before twisting around and bringing it down again on its neck, mostly on muscle memory. He doesn't stop there, however. Using the motion of his second swing, Oliver immediately ducks down toward the other sword, then chucks it towards Annoyed guy Sword guy who requested it earlier. He then grabs his sword and proceeds to charge toward the dipshit in charge from the side. With one second left in his augments, he leaps towards his target.
SHIT BAD BAD SHIT BULLSHIT FUCK SHIT DAMMIT
The world returned to its regular speed, and Oliver was forcibly stopped mid-jump. Looking down, Oliver glanced down at his body, before looking back at the Dipshit, its hand now upraised, glowing with a faint purple light.

"Well now that's just bullshi-" Oliver is cut short by the robot in front of him suddenly raising its hand, throwing both him and the feral kid high into the sky, before being suddenly launched straight down through the bridge he and the girl were previously on.

 

[Otomos]

Sevestre did not expect the bridge to collapse. He was prepared to engage in combat, but not for the enemies to suddenly malfunction and their leader to go so far as to recklessly destroy the bridge in a moment of recovery. Now, it seemed that all of them were falling. How were they going to survive the impact once they hit the ground? Sevestre did not know. How were they going to deal with the enemy leader in what was now an airborne battle? Sevestre did not know. How will they deal with the other enemies if they recover as well? Once again, Sevestre did not know. What he did know was that the leader was essentially alone, and they still had a long fall before they had to deal with a landing strategy, the physical combatants likely had more of an advantage in this situation, and only one of said combatants was missing a weapon.

There were precious few things Sevestre could to contribute at the moment. He could assist in taking down the leader directly, but he'd risk his combative spells missing or being canceled out from an unfinished cast. He could use Lightspeed to take care of the casting problem, but it would be a temporary fix. He could attempt casting Gravity again, but that would likely just make the battle more chaotic, and the malfunctioning bodies of their enemies would likely swirl around and become a hindrance.He had tothink fast... The downed enemies! Some of them had already been dealt with by the first two fighters to charge in, but there were still others.

Sevestre went dragged one of them close to himself with the Rescue spell. It wasn't meant for this purpose, but he had no time to care. He focused a Combust spell into the wrist joint of the sword arm to melt it off, took the weapon and made his way over to the man known as Ziv

"You there! Take this, and fight!"

He attempted to reach the sword handle over to Ziv by holding onto the blade.

 

[Gawwyt]

Cypher watches the machine throw the cyborg and demon looking people through the bridge, to his utter disbelief it starts to collapse under their weight. He quickly finishes the command to the turrets setting the robots to the highest priority target, as he starts to fall they dutifully swivel and start firing upon them.

With reaction honed through many years of training in the danger room Cypher grabs the broken end of the bridge as he falls past it, using its falling arc to swing him back to the floor below. He trusts that the others that are falling can take care of themselves, he suspected they were all much more agile than him anyway. As he swings many questions flow through his head, chief among them being why such high tech robots would build a bridge out of a material weaker than flesh, and why they would construct it to completely fail so easily. Maybe it was a controlled failure and there were explosive bolts that had been triggered to collapse the bridge on command, a strange tactic but far more likely than advanced robots engaging in shoddy architecture.

As he lands on the catwalk of the floor below with a practiced roll he checks for more of those combat bots, they must have been called in for them specifically as he couldn't see any. He quickly checks the bottom of the bridge for any sign of controlled demolition, more out of curiosity than anything. Then using the remnants of the bridge above as cover from the robots above, Cypher searches for a duct or vent or passage he can use to get away from this hotspot.

 

[PolyesterH]

David startles slightly as the bridge makes a creak, which given its subsequent breakage doesn't bode well at all. He was falling now. Fantastic, this was going great, what an awesome day he was having. He was still holding onto the dead cat person thing. He does, however, spot the cat walk that Cypher was gunning for. Leveraging the cat, he twists himself around and kicks the debris he's falling on. Throwing the cat for more momentum and to free his hands, he barely catches onto the cat walks guard rails and keeps his grip. He pulls himself up and over, rolling onto his back next to Cypher. Still weaponless. He takes a deep breath and gets onto his feet.