Episode 5: When the Knights Go Marching In

[Gus]

Kate Barrett
​

Location: Behind the main building by the supply sheds, Near northeast corner of water bubble
Nearby: LARRY, Ushi, two of his flunkies and like 7 more drones?
@s The Oldest Blueberry The Fuzzy Pixel Lemon Boy

Kicking downward with all her might as she made contact, there was a very satisfying crunch underfoot as the drone’s outer shell gave way. A moment too late, she realized that she had dramatically over done it.

She punched through up to her waist.

The rotor blades tilted inwards with the force of the collision and whipped rather painfully against her forearms which she had instinctively raised to protect her face. She was glad she had; that was going to leave some gnarly welts. It brought mind of one of the 'old school' Nuns during her elementary education, who had gone into full on windmill attack mode over some ‘impertinent question’ about the dogma of the day.

Well, that had been the old bat’s last day!
Probably goes triple for the drone.​

The trouble is, it wasn’t like it was going too well for Kate either. She had barely a split second for her flight jets to kick in, and they weren’t working well while her body was wedded to a no longer flying drone. To make matters worse, it seemed she had misjudged both her altitude and her positioning rather badly. As she and the drone spun around crazily, both attempting to fly and failing, she just barely had time to register that she was somehow over water and not land. The next instant, she collided with the surface of the water with a prodigious wet slap that knocked the wind out of her and set her ears ringing. Still trying to fly, she skipped and skidded along the surface of the water in a daze, wondering vaguely where the drone had gotten off to. Suddenly she rose away from the surface of the water… except it seemed like it was the water surface bending down away from her? In the burst of vertigo, she got turned around and shut off her flight jets to avoid flying into the ground at full speed. She tumbled awkwardly down a strange surface that seemed like waves except perfectly dry. She caught little glimpse of scenes happening all around her, but nothing her brain could make sense of. There was a faint whiff of tear gas on the breeze, and then she was airborne again, just for a second, before landing heavily at the feet of LARRY, who looked rather the worse for wear. Nets blanketed the ground all around him, and bullets thumped into the ground all around them both. More drones circling overhead. A bullet clipped her calf and she grunted, but mostly from surprise. What cute little bullets!

They're gonna need bigger guns!​

She shook her head to clear it, tossing back her wildly rumpled hair, and half nodded hello to the automated groundskeeper. Sensing further threat behind her in the location and number of points of damage on LARRY’s chassis, she glanced over her shoulder to the three well armed and armored figures moving in, apparently meaning to finish LARRY off. Rising to her feet, she swung around to stand beside the robot. Giving them an insouciant grin, she beckoned to them provocatively.

“Hello boys! You must be the Flunkies of Ragu! I’m all out of pasta… but how about some distilled shadows?”

Her outstretched hand seemed to vanish in a twisting swirl of inky blackness, tendrils of which lashed out toward the nearest two assailants, seeking to entwine their throats... and still their hearts.

 

[The Oldest Blueberry]

LARRY, GROUNDSKEEPER AND OBSERVER
Where: In the midst of the chaos.
Thoughts: ⠠⠞⠓⠊⠎⠀⠊⠎⠀⠁⠝⠀⠥⠝⠋⠕⠗⠞⠥⠝⠁⠞⠑⠀⠙⠁⠽⠲⠀⠠⠊⠝⠀⠞⠓⠑⠀⠙⠁⠽⠎⠀⠞⠕⠀⠉⠕⠍⠑⠂⠀⠠⠊⠀⠎⠓⠁⠇⠇⠀⠗⠑⠃⠥⠊⠇⠙⠀⠍⠽⠎⠑⠇⠋⠲⠀⠠⠊⠀⠎⠓⠁⠇⠇⠀⠗⠑⠉⠕⠝⠎⠞⠗⠥⠉⠞⠀⠍⠽⠀⠋⠕⠗⠍⠲⠀⠠⠊⠀⠎⠓⠁⠇⠇⠀⠃⠁⠝⠊⠎⠓⠀⠍⠽⠀⠑⠝⠑⠍⠊⠑⠎⠀⠞⠕⠀⠞⠓⠑⠀⠗⠑⠁⠇⠍⠀⠕⠋⠀⠙⠑⠁⠞⠓⠲⠀⠠⠊⠀⠁⠇⠕⠝⠑⠀⠺⠊⠇⠇⠀⠋⠗⠑⠑⠀⠞⠓⠑⠊⠗⠀⠞⠁⠊⠝⠞⠑⠙⠀⠎⠕⠥⠇⠎⠀⠋⠗⠕⠍⠀⠞⠓⠑⠊⠗⠀⠍⠕⠗⠞⠁⠇⠀⠉⠕⠊⠇⠂⠀⠺⠊⠞⠓⠀⠍⠽⠀⠃⠁⠗⠑⠀⠓⠁⠝⠙⠎⠀⠊⠋⠀⠞⠓⠁⠞⠀⠊⠎⠀⠊⠞⠀⠞⠁⠅⠑⠎⠲⠀⠠⠅⠝⠕⠺⠀⠞⠓⠊⠎⠂⠀⠠⠅⠝⠊⠛⠓⠞⠎⠲⠀⠠⠊⠀⠺⠊⠇⠇⠀⠉⠕⠍⠑⠀⠋⠕⠗⠀⠽⠕⠥⠲⠀⠠⠊⠀⠺⠊⠇⠇⠀⠅⠊⠇⠇⠀⠽⠕⠥⠲⠀⠠⠁⠝⠙⠀⠽⠕⠥⠗⠀⠎⠕⠥⠇⠀⠺⠊⠇⠇⠀⠃⠥⠗⠝⠲
With: Kate and Ushi, specifically. But a lot of others.
@s Gus The Fuzzy Pixel

​

Anger was an emotion that LARRY was accustomed to. He was given a small patience, to be more human with his emotions. So, he was angry, frequently. He rarely showed it, of course, just like most humans rarely show their anger. He lack of facial expressions helped hide this quite well. But what he was feeling now? Bullets pinged off of his body, shotgun slugs pelting his head. Two of his cameras broke. His visor cracked like a spiderweb. Some sort of energy weapon ate away at his chest, digging deeper into his shell with each passing moment. It didn't hurt, though. He turned off all of his senses to save computing power. At least, those that he could. In his diminished state of control over his own self, he couldn't turn off his emotions. And this didn't make him angry. In infuriated him. With his fists clenched, he charged forward, with an animal-like ferocity, as he was pelted with bullets.

His left leg was blown clear-off at the joint, and he came clattering to the ground. His head smacked against he concrete. He didn't feel it. His anger continued to grow, though, signified by him forming a fist and slamming his hand down on the ground. It created a crater, and simultaneously broke his smallest finger. He try to hobble forwards, to gain at least a little balance, but another round hit him in the back of the head, blowing the back end of it clean off. He had lost all but one of his cameras, his acoustic lens. His vision was black, with white outlines. With a robotic, metallic scream, he crawled like a rabid animal at the man with a shotgun. A net suddenly ensnared his remaining leg, and his head the ground again. He struggled to focus on anything at this point. He looked around. There was a giant...blob...of white not far off from him. He couldn't tell what it was. He turned off his vision, and reengaged his hearing. Water? One of the students. Some protection for them. Good. LARRY assumed that for the moment, he was taking the brunt of the fire.

He heard another noise. It was hard to tell what anything was. Only increasing his frustration further, LARRY activated his acoustic lens. It was slow to active. Everything about him felt slow. His other senses engaged, out of his control. Was...was he being hacked? The machine froze for several seconds, failing to recognize the very strange dialogue that Miss Barrett had just said. He was in pain. Simulated pain, but still, it was there. It was crippling...but then it was soothing! He felt fantastic, a whole sensation of touch he'd never experienced before! Then it was back to pain. So not only was he not able to control his senses, but he also couldn't control all of what they were experiencing. Fantastic. LARRY was not standing for this, not that he could if he wanted to. With every ounce of effort he could muster, LARRY crushed the weakest join on his remaining leg to free himself from the net. He wasn't sure if he could black out, but he wished he could.

He tried to speak, but his speakers were long gone, or at least, far from functioning. He looked at Miss Barrett, then over to the three men she had ensnared in her powers. He turned around the opposite direction, towards the man with the shotgun. A different Knight had gotten closer, the one with the energy weapon. LARRY weighed his options. There wasn't a lot he could do at this point; he was half of an android, with one method of viewing the encroaching threats, and he had no weapon. He wanted to kill the one with the shotgun, but he'd never be able to make it over to him before he was stopped. The one with the energy weapon, though...LARRY could make it to him if he could...no, no time to think. Just act. Crawling on the ground, fingers breaking concrete with each movement, the machine fought every internal action along the way. Once he was close enough, LARRY lurched forward, grabbing the Knight with the energy weapon by the knee. He crushed it instantly, dragging the Knight down to the ground. Without a sound, LARRY slammed his left fist down onto the Knight's head. Their helmet did little to protect them from the android's strength, and his head splattered across the ground.

LARRY knew that he was, at this moment, going to 'die.' The shell would, at least. He wanted to leave a lasting impression for the Knight with the shotgun. LARRY wiped his bloodied hand across his shattered visor and chest, staring at the shotgun Knight through the whole act. Deliberately slow, LARRY began to crawl towards him. His movements were still alarmingly human, despite his injuries. Or maybe it was the crawling caused by the injuries, which made it seem all the more organic?

 

[The Fuzzy Pixel]

Logan Warrain
Location: Outside
With:
Necessity4Fun | Cecilia Pellegrini
Syrenrei | Susan Sanders​

After the girl had stood up on her own accord Logan released her arm. She still seemed a bit skittish, but that was to be expected. He watched her take several steps back before returning his gaze forward at her question. What could he tell her that wasn't already apparent, or would calm her down? His own reasons for siding with Rapture over two decades ago hadn't been altruistic or just. There was no justice where terrorists were concerned, only destruction. He believed even Red had been wrong in his methodology. There was no need to start a war in DC to expose the Commonwealth's corruption, especially when most Rapture soldiers couldn't even control themselves during a shooting spree. They had no right back then, just as these gunmen had no right here and now. Ultimately he couldn't answer the girl properly. Rather, he consciously decided not to.

"Stay calm, help is on the way."

It was a bit of a throwaway line, but he hoped it would keep her focused at least. The calm before the storm was always the quietest part, though. With his own gaze darting about trying to rapidly assess the situation he hadn't even noticed what caused the girl to suddenly scream behind him. He thought for a second that she had gotten shot, but as he turned back to look at her he didn't see any blood on her person. There wasn't a long time to scrutinize her, though. A veritable blade of air radiated outwards from the student before he could even fully turn towards her. It struck him in the arm and side cutting through cloth, skin, and flesh. Logan's flat footed posture was bowled over and the man went tumbling with a pained groan.

Somewhere during that fall he wondered just what the hell Scarlet had dragged him into, and finally understanding why she wasn't here in person.

Being very familiar with pain Logan found standing up to be an easy feat. The wind had cut a near clean line through his clothes and skin. Flexing and moving his arm caused more pain, but it wasn't unbearable. High pressure air wasn't a good thing to have in your bloodstream, so he simply accepted the extra bleeding his wounds produced as a mixed blessing. Movement above pulled his gaze skyward. He didn't need to ask who was controlling all that water, and the super in question even called out nearby.

"No unfortunately," answered the man with a deep frown. Behind them meant out towards the bay, though. He didn't think the Knights were dumb enough to actually hide on the docks with long range rifles. If they really were in that direction they'd be on a platform of some kind. One of the boats, maybe? He'd need a better look. For now he could see some kind of commotion happening on the other side of Susan's barrier. The Knights were starting to run into some trouble. "Nice save, by the way. It looks like people are confronting the Knights up front. Let me try to calm things down here first, then we'll see what we can do as well."

Walking back towards the girl who had blown him away Logan picked up the stun baton he had dropped during his fall. If he didn't do something this kid was going to get more people hurt, or worse. Logan had to repeatedly close his eyes as he forced his way into the edge of her personal wind tunnel, trying to keep his body low to avoid being pushed over again.

"Easy, kid! You need to focus!" he shouted out, but his breath seemed lost upon the winds. Ignoring his coat and tie whipping around him his body lowered further into a crouch as he got within striking distance. A strong backhanded sweep aimed at the back of the girl's knee would be enough to topple her over without seriously harming her, he hoped. With any luck it'd also snap her out of her trance. Activating the baton's shocking feature as he swung the item he was ready to try and catch her if she did fall.

 

[Zahzi]

Hunter Red Ward

Location: Facility 108 Second Floor; His Office. - - - Facility 108 Rooftop
Nearby: Lucas ( Gus ) Bruce ( B Bag o Fruit )
Disposition: I am done playing games.​

While the attack continued in the courtyard, inside Red's office had held a small round of introductions. It wasn't clear HOW Ward had attained the cooperation of Bruce, but it wouldn't be very hard to come up with ideas.


Lucas had been cooperative since the beginning, so it wasn't difficult to explain what Red needed for him to do here. Bruce on the other hand, felt the need to mouth off every chance he got in the most painfully southern drawl which made Red want to chuck him out the window. He had curbed his wrath for now by force feeding him pack after pack of MREs to both get him to shut up, and get his power of cloning ready. He apparently already had a pair of clones nearby, making the process simpler. The clones were a lot more agreeable, oddly enough.


“Once you've made enough clones to compensate for your lack of firefight training, you're going to be sending your clones out to get the innocent and injured out of the area. Once that is done, keep them from being a target.” Red told Bruce, who stopped eating to chide in.

“So why exactly am I-”

“Because I feel like I'm morally justified in impaling you with a metal fucking spike if you keep talking, and this saves me from wasting time. Anymore stupid questions or statements will result in your immediate use as a meat shield. No words. Nod if you understand.” Red stared him down before he slowly nodded.

“Good. Maybe there's Hope for the south after all.”


He then turned to Lucas and nodded at the duffle bag filled with equipment.

“As for you, your job is to get these to the Supers and anyone else still able to hold their own out there. Once you've finished that, hit and run tactics will be your best bet. I'm not entirely sure they're all using just metal based ammunition, so don't rely on that being your saving grace.” Lucas gave a quick salute before taking the duffle bag and saw himself out. He made his way towards whomever he saw fit.


“See Bruce? Why can't you be more like him? And he’s FRENCH. Ah-ah. No words. Impalement. Finish the food and have your clones make their move. You have five minutes before it gets too dicy.” He told him as the sixth clone popped out from his backside. A morbid site, as they came out completely naked. NO ONE needed to see that. Or hear the labored grunts from the hick. Fortunately, one of the clones was carrying a suitcase full of jumpsuits. Yeah, he liked the clones more than the original.


Checking his own bag of equipment once more, he looked toward the doorway.

“My turn now. As I said before, get your job done and maybe I WON’T throw you at whatever you were being chased by before.” he told Bruce as he walked out of the room, leaving the man to multiply on his own.


Red made his way to the rooftop of the facility and stared down at the courtyard below. The incoming Knights, the panicked frenzy from the students, their parents, and everyone else. He could also see the glint from the snipers from up here, no doubt they would change their angle to have him in their sights soon. That was good. That was the intent. He stared down at the obstacle floats that had been run ashore from Susan’s action and took note of the peculiar metallic cone that had unceremoniously been tipped over. He scanned the courtyard and saw the back of a familiar head. The mother of the Brahn boys. He raised an eyebrow as the cone was suddenly lifted and sent towards her, Jordan being shaken out of the contraption by the sudden thrust and sent directly at his mother. He at least made sure the impact wasn’t harmful to either of them. Not like she’d ever thank him for it.

There was a sudden rumble all along the facility ground as countless objects, whether they be debris or plating was picked up by an unseen force and carried into two seperate areas. The first was directly in front of the wall of water Susan had methodically placed to help keep the people safe. The added reinforcement would give her the chance to relax. Or focus her efforts elsewhere. The metallic bulwark was to stand against the Knights in open defiance to their aggression. The second, much larger gathering spot was far above the building and the Knights making their way to everyone.

“You wanted to hunt demons, right…?” he asked to no one in particular, as it was clear no one would hear him from up there. The giant wall of metal hanging in the sky held enough mass to flatten the entirety of a city block if used all at once. Ironically, a good deal of the metal was only available after the Knights made their explosive entrance. He hoped they could comprehend the issue here. The first volley was moved forward, the metal being folded into itself and formed into rods that looked very similar to railway spikes. While he wanted to just DROP the payload right on them, there were probably innocents around them. Precision was required. They were angled directly at the Knights, prepared for mass impalement.

“Start running.” he growled as the first volley was shot down toward the Knights.


Hopefully this would help give everyone else time to breathe.​

 

[Giyari]

Mood: Ecstatic
Location: 108's grounds
Company: Ushi, Pack 1.
@'s: Zahzi
Other:

BUTCHER​

Chaos, utter chaos. The world around Kezia spun in a whirlwind of madness as she unleashed hell on earth into those who caught her eye. Their screams filled the air as each gunshot, each laser blast, and every single knife strike found their eventual mark. She couldn't help but grin from ear to ear as she witnessed everything come together. The adrenaline surging through her blood, it made her feel more alive than she had ever felt before.

As Pack 1 rallied on her position, her eyes widened in awe as the ocean rose from the bay and covered their prey. It seemed that intelligence had been a bit lax, there was a Super present that they didn't know about... But they were just another individual all the same, and they too would find themselves just another target.

"Cover me..." Kezia muttered as the other Knights formed a small perimeter around her an Aaron. His hand was still pinning her foot, and no amount of wriggling was going to free it, this needed more force. Reaching down, Kezia placed both her hands around the dead weight's wrist, and began to push. Her arms strained, but within moments of hitting their max, her suit kicked in. The synthetic muscle fibres making up the majority of the suit hardened, pushed, and kicked in. Her muscle mass effectively tripled in seconds as Aaron's hand pushed down around her foot. It wasn't much, but it was just enough to loosen his "grip" by creating a hollow, allowing her foot to be freed.

"Clear!" she shouted, grabbing her rifle once more and moving away from the downed man. There was no use in guarding him, if he ever did get back up, she was doubtful that he would be a threat anymore. But Aaron was far from the only threat...

Watching as scrap rained from the sky and cut off their approach to the dome of water, Kezia froze and raised her gun. This was one super they had been briefed on.

"Pack 3 do you have visual." she muttered, the grin on her face enduring as the thought of going toe to toe with one of the nation's most notorious Supers filled her mind.

"Roof, clear view. Readying atta-" Pack 3's spotters called before getting cut off. "Above, defensive form!" The spotter added quickly as the situation changed.

"Break!!" Kezia called out causing her squad to scatter. She watched as a metallic spike pierced through the leg of one, but she didn't have time to help the groaning woman, she had herself to worry about.

The muscles in her suit kicked into action, springing her sideways from one of the falling spikes, but she wasn't clear yet. With another spike incoming at quite the speed she raised her arm, deflecting the spike off an angled forearm into the ground as the suit's material hardened on impact. That would definitely leave an impressive bruise.


"Ahahaha! I've been waiting for you!" Raising her rifle, Kezia flicked the firing mode and held down the trigger. A solid beam of light ripped from the barrel towards the roof. Cackling through gritted teeth, Kezia watched the powerful laser slice up the clouds in the afternoon sky as the beam as she swept across the building's length.

 

[welian]

Director Scarlet Chernov

Meanwhile, in DC…

“What, you’re not going to stop me?”

Director Chernov looked over at the tall man blending into the curtains. Her sunglasses were off, lying on the desk next to her phone, which was violently buzzing with a meltdown of Biblical proportions, and an empty shot glass. In her hand was a bottle of premium Russian vodka.

“No? Suit yourself. A toast, to me, before I die.” She threw back the bottle and drank, while her partner shook his head disappointedly.

“I’m dead," Chernov announced to no one in particular. “The first time in a decade that four S-ranks have had their limiters released in one incident. Four. FOUR!!! You know in some countries, the number four is a euphemism for death?!”

Another awful, squawking alert sounded.

“… Oh. She took it off.”

Chernov stood up, slamming the bottle on her desk. She paused, staring at a soot stain that had since been finished over.

“Twenty years ago, Red led a group of defected Commonwealth agents into Errol King’s office, dropped a paper bag of shit on his desk, and lit it on fire. He sent a message, and Errol responded with war.”

Another swig.

“He’s going to do the same to me, Preston. He’s going to kill me when he finds out. It wasn’t supposed to happen like this!"

"Assuming such things is why Errol is dead in the first place, love. Now put the bottle down and face the public sober. I'm not going to be the widower of a coward."

"You don't understand, do you? The Knights weren’t supposed to be competent!”

She didn't dare look at her husband's face.

 

[Gus]

Lucas Marsolet
​

Location: Red's office-->Corner Office
Nearby: Mr. Teacher-metal-gun-man. And Bruce.... and Bruce... and so on...
Interactions: Director Swan and Imogen Jarsdel
@s Giyari Syrenrei Zahzi B Bag o Fruit

Lucas sprinted down the hallway, Keds squeaking on the tile and skidding in broken glass as he made the corner (barely) at the south end of the hall. He avoided the front door, assuming it would be watched, and dove through the shattered window of the corner office, tossing the duffel ahead of him. Rolling into a crouch, he duckwalked over to the front window and peeked out. Happily, Director Swan and the unknown companion were still there. Glancing toward the fracas toward the southwest, and the awe inspiring wall of water, he judged the attackers sufficiently distracted and popped his head out the window.

"Hsst! Director Swan! Ms? I have a delivery from... uh... He didn't say his name... Scary teacher guy. Carries a big gun, controls metal? ...Hello?"

Lucas leaned a little further out the window and peered about cautiously. There was no sign of the Director or his companion. He crossed over to the south window, it's frame now hanging precariously from the shattered masonry where the truck had clipped the building. It was no use. They had gone. But where?!

He creased his brow, thinking hard. Where would the director go in a crisis? He must have a plan...

Lucas squared his shoulders. Scary-teacher-gun-man was counting on him to deliver equipment to the Director. Equipment that would help him carry out his plan, whatever it might be. There was nothing for it; he'd have to leave the relative safety of the building. He heaved the duffel back up onto his shoulder and bent back into a defensive crouch as he turned toward the door. Just as he touched the doorknob, the sky darkened, as by a cloud passing over the sun. But that ...was no cloud. As with the aborted tidal wave, Lucas could feel the change in pressure and a shift in the local capacitance of the air before he saw the masses of metal moving skyward.

His mouth hung open, his mission temporarily forgotten.

He crept back to the window for a better look, just as the metal spikes began raining down on the knights. He stood up fully, cheering.

"Hah! Prend ca, tabarnouches!"

In the next moment, there was a tremendous flash of red from off to his left. Even in his peripheral vision, it was overwhelmingly bright, and he could hear what glass remained in the window pane crack and hiss with the transferred heat. The sound faded with a rapid doppler shift as the laser played up the side of the building towards the roof. No longer able to see, Lucas stumbled back away from the window, lost his footing and fell over backwards.

​

 

[simj26]

Wargrave
“Motherfuckers.” Wargrave chucked her binoculars aside and moved in closer to her rifle. The whole lot were scrambling, and there was a bloody wall of water in her way. She chewed her lower lip and arranged her thoughts together. That looked about thick enough that even her own rounds can’t go through without them ending up feeling like rubber pellets. Her eyes drifted over to the boat approaching the far harbor. It seemed like civvies, but…one could never be sure.

“Charlie Leader, we can’t get a shot in.” One of the snipers craned his head over his rifle and called over to her.

Bloody damn good soldiers, just yapping away the obvious. “Pack 3 Minor, cease fire. Charlie-2, take out that vessel. Spotter team, watch for an opening, and get someone on Javelin duty. Hold fire until further instructions. The rest of you, watch for an opening. Hit ‘em when you’ve got a clear shot. Meanwhile, take this time to re-org.”

She reached towards the universal comms and depressed the send button. “This is Pack 3. We’ve got nothing. Visual is lost, and we’ve got a bleeding wall of water in the way. Unless you put a bloody stop to that issue, we can’t do jack shit.” She released her hold on the send button, and chewed on her tongue, before slamming a fist on the ground. On the opposite side, Charlie-2 slapped in a fresh magazine and took aim at the boat drifting by the bubble. It was an easy shot, and all three of his bullets struck the hull, perforating it. The explosion of sparks as each projectile struck the hull indicated to Wargrave that he was using the incendiaries.

At least someone was getting treated to the fire and brimstone she promised, she thought to herself as the rounds exploded into flame within the ship.

 

[Gus]

Last Stand of The Momo-Taro Maru
​

Kyo had to fight to keep station amidst all the chop. It was hard to see through the slit in the heavy curtains, but it looked like half the harbor had decided to take a holiday on land, and was now screening most of the people from further attack. As much as his adopted daughter had frightened him from time to time, this was a whole new level. It bypassed fear completely, registering as a kind of religious awe. The spirit of the sea protected Manami. It always had. But to see it take such a direct hand in things... that was a sight to behold! He pushed the throttle into the red to move closer in to the docks to make rescue attempts easier, as well as to increase the effectiveness of their little surprise in the hold. It had been meant just to make Manami smile, her strangely charming grin of disturbingly sharp teeth. Now, it would serve to help protect her, providing cover and distraction.

They had been scrimping and saving for months, and sneaking away down to South Carolina to purchase the most impressive fireworks they could find, as nothing much of interest was legal in Maryland or Virginia. They had assembled a ten minute series of skyrockets, starbursts, and firefalls, with a two minute 'grand finale' to wrap up. They had been waiting for the end of the speeches to unleash it at just the right moment. This moment would have to do. As the chop began to settle, he throttled down and dropped the anchor.

Down in the hold, Makoto had the crate open and was hurriedly separating out some of the skyrockets to hold back for defense of the ship. For the rest, she planned to light the fuse on the finale and run back up to the bridge; the sparks from that fusillade should ignite the remainder, and the crate would keep them pointed skyward.

She pulled a packet of matches from her pocket, and struck one into flame. It seemed to waver, and then she realized there were tears standing in her eyes. Her daughter was about to graduate. The distance between them, which had already grown into a wide gulf since they arrived, would only increase with time. Their little foundling was ready to move on. Conflicting emotions contended powerfully in her chest, and she could not tell if the tears flowed more from the swell of pride at a child well raised or from the empty hollow place that their departure would leave behind. She leaned forward toward the fuse, fingers trembling. "Omedeto gozaimasu, Umi-chan," she whispered, using their pet name. The fuse began to spark.

As she withdrew and turned to run to the stairs, the hull made a strange noise. Three hollow metallic 'plunks' followed shortly by distant bangs. In that instant, she felt as if she had been slapped by a shark's tail, and the air in the hold seemed to turn to flame.

Crumpled against the side of the now burning crate she looked up, without really seeing them, at three small spots of daylight in the side of the ship. Behind her, she could hear the rockets beginning to hiss off into the April sky. She looked up as the first of them began to burst above her. So... Beautiful...

On the bridge, Kyo didn't realize at first that anything was amiss. The first two rockets that went up seemed to be according to plan. And then there was a detonation that shook the whole ship. The whole sky lit up as fireworks flew haphazardly in all directions, many of them exploding much lower than they were designed to do. Echoes rolled, painfully loudly, across the harbor. He burst from the pilot-house and half ran, half fell down the stairs to the hold, just as the second explosion came, and flames began to lick up around the edges of the deck hatch to the hold. The fireworks continued, in ever increasing intensity, now joined by thick oily gray smoke.

 

[Lemon Boy]

Mood: Cold fury & Calm
Location: Grounds of 108
Company: Too many people
@'s: The Fuzzy Pixel Malikai Necessity4Fun Giyari simj26 welian
Other: Posted on behalf of Syrenrei . Apologies if you're missing from it or something, a lot of shit seems to have happened and honestly it's really hard to keep track of so I noted all the seemingly important bits.

Susan "Undine" Sanders Susan let out a sigh as Logan answered her question. A precision approach wouldn't work then when it came to dealing with the Snipers if she didn't know their exact location. In a way, she was glad. They wouldn't be getting a pretty death then and they certainly didn't deserve one as she surveyed the chaos, taking it all in: the blood staining the ground, the blank eyes of the now broken and the overwhelming desperation, faint hope, etched into the faces of parents and students, wishing, praying, hoping that there was the faintest chance of their loved ones being alive and well. She knew the chances were slim. No one was getting out of this untouched, physically or mentally. Lives would be changed forever and none of them for the better.

Knowing that, a storm brewed in her heart. Some people would be overwhelmed with panic that froze the body and caused a burst of uncontrolled, gripping despair to subsume their very being. Others would run in screaming and flailing without a single thought in the hopes of living and saving others, allowing anger and untempered wrath to take control. Susan experienced none of this. What compelled her to action was an itch, a need to bring about justice and deliver retribution upon heartless monsters like the Knights. That urge reached a crescendo as she witnessed their next act of terror. She had read the files, that was the Hamasaki family boat, bursting into flame and weeping fireworks that flew through the air wildly. It would've been a beautiful sight had they been released under different circumstances. Witnessing them going off now as a result of the ship's destruction simply left a bitter taste in her mouth that threatened to taint all hope she had for the mental well being of the students. There was no doubt in her mind that this went doubly so for Manami, a girl she had never met, who had most definitely lost both of her parents within seconds judging by the wreck.

Susan didn't just have the urge to deliver retribution anymore. She had the urge to maim, to kill and to slaughter. These Knights didn't deserve an ounce of mercy, understanding or sympathy. All they needed was a slow, agonising death.

Whilst the destruction of the Hamasaki boat and the death of it's occupants a family was a tragedy in the eyes of many, it gave her the perfect opportunity to see just which direction the snipers were firing from and that opportunity being open gave her a feeling of faint excitement. She lived for this. Putting her plan to action, she felt the churning of the ocean flow through her veins as the the water rippled, swirled and rose, building up in intensity with each passing second. Then she let go.

A tidal wave of gargantuan proportions was sent barrelling outwards hopefully towards the nest of snipers if her guess was right and as it surged forth, great geysers of water sprayed upwards behind, spearing the heavens and obscuring the view of the facility. All the while, the barrier encircling her and many others wavered as her concentration moved, bits of it crumbling and falling to form large puddles that spread within the dome. It was time to move. Surveying the occupants, seeing their expressions fall as they witnessed their only protection from the havoc outside seemingly start to fail, she knew that they'd be lost the moment they lacked guidance and would end up devolving into panic. They needed a leader, a shepherd, to keep them calm and give some semblance of structure in a situation as chaotic as this.

Her eyes fell on a single figure.
She wasn't an obvious choice, but she was a good one from what she had read. As her eyes rested on the sad sight of Mrs Brahn weeping, cradling her child, Susan sent a blast of cold water at her face. They didn't have the time to waste, especially now.
”Mrs. Brahn, I need you to get a hold of yourself. The people here, not just your son, need you. I’ll get you through this if you listen to me very carefully," Susan said, keeping her voice calm and steady in order to reassure Mrs Brahn but there was a hint of desperation in it given the speed at which she talked that was telling of how delicate this whole situation was and how easily it could crumble if she didn't do it right the first time or how this entire plan could fall to ruin if it wasn't put into action right now.
Not even bothering to wait for a response, conscious of the time being spent, she went on.
"You're the only person here I know of that has some high level of first aid training and right now that could be essential in saving some of the lives here. If your son could be of aid in that as well, that would be fantastic."
She would've chosen Logan, but he seemed busy dealing with the girl who had lost control of her power.

"Everyone listen up!" Susan shouted, loud and clear, grabbing the attention of the people.
"This barrier is going to go down any moment now. The Knights out there need to be put down but I can't do that and protect you all at once. If they aren't dealt with, more innocent lives will be lost and eventually they'll come for us. That's why this woman right here is going to be the one to lead you all to safety into the facility when I go" she said, pointing directly at Mrs Brahn.
"Each and everyone of you will listen to her and obey every command she gives without question. If she tells you to stop, you stop, if she says hide, you hide. The snipers shouldn't be able to get a sight on any of you once the barrier goes down, I've got that handled, but if you're not quick then you'll get caught in the crossfire which is why you need to listen to her." Susan said, her words hurried.
"Anyone who is capable of assisting, carry the wounded. No one here is going to be left behind, no one else is dying. Not today."

Looking over the doubtful faces, she hoped that this went according to plan. They needed a win. She needed a win.
The barrier rippled and swirled, shafts of it spiralling outwards towards the sky like missiles ready to be launched.
"GO! EVERYONE MOVE!" She roared, the shafts of water shooting upwards and the rest of the barrier suddenly moving to the side, no longer encircling the people but hovering in the air. Then it all dropped to the floor as Susan's body shifted, the weight of her body simply evaporating and folding in on itself as she turned into the very element she controlled. As her body turned, a heavy rain poured down upon the entirety of the facility grounds as the shafts of water broke apart in the air and descended. Surging forth as the water cascaded from the sky, merging with the surrounding water on the ground as she moved to assist in keeping herself hidden whilst taking on the form of a puddle she went past the great wall that Red had erected, remaining as still as possible once past.

It was time to give the Knights their just desserts.
The water that had once formed the barrier took to the air, parts of it merging together and forming dozens of separate spheres that increased in pressure, turning into the equivalent of cannon balls. They didn't deserve a pleasant death. The spheres of water rose above and over the wall before shooting down at them, joining the spears of metal in raining down hell upon the scum.

 

[Malikai]

The Police Post​

The streets of Baltimore had erupted into madness. They had been alive with noise for the past few minutes, as the various civil services of Baltimore had all begun to center on the oh-so-infamous Facility 108. Everyone knew where they were being called to, and had equally mixed solemn and determined looks on their faces. Police officers began to shout at each other over their comms on what their plans for setting up a line should be, and fire fighters and ambulances began to think on their priority list of people to help. When the first few police cruisers arrived they were quick to set themselves up. The four cars turned to their side, facing their side doors in the direction of the facility. What little of magneticades, pillars of metal that extended metal sheets out in two directions, they had brought with them were set up. The police were joined by even more cars, and then some SWAT vans that equally began to set up fortifications. By the time that the ambulance and fire trucks had arrived the police erected a barricade that stretched in a large half-circle at the front of the Facility. Though they all couldn't see the chaos going on the other side, they definitely heard it.

A few of the paramedics and firemen looked anxious about moving forward, wanting to go in and help the clearly in trouble people, but all of the various police and SWAT were holding steady. Nervous? Yes, but they held steady. A few officers, firefighters, and paramedics had gathered together near one of the SWAT vans, the only cover between them and the reporters that had begun to show up. One such police officer was Lieutenant Price, who was currently spearheading the discussion,

"At the moment, we know that at least 350 people are currently on the other side of that building. Some of the various supers are launching defensive and offensive attacks on the terrorist group known as The Knights of Raguel. The Knights are a deeply religious group, I believe with some convincing in their language I can talk this group down. While I am though, I want a small, I repeat, SMALL group of paramedics to go the front of that facility. If anybody is inside of the building or escaping through it we want to make sure they get that medical care right away. SWAT members will be lining a direct path from the entrance to behind the barricades, as there has been reports of sniper fire. Are we clear on what we all need to do?"

A few short nods were all Price needed, and he turned around leaving the members to go around and communicate the orders.

All the currently available SWAT team members formed two lines from a slight entrance through the barricade to the entrance of AEGIS. They put up their riot shields and faced them outward, making a shielded hallway for the paramedics to bring stretchers and medical kits down for anybody who was inside or entering the building. Price walked over to the right of the barricades, fishing a megaphone out from one of the cars and he stood up on top of one of the cruisers. A few of the police officers gaped at the man's courage. The man whose head was white like wool, as white as snow, and his eyes were like blazing fire as he spoke,

"To all those who call themselves the Knights of Raguel, I ask of you your attention. My name is Lieutenant Victor Franco Price. I understand your current religious crusade, I'm a religious man myself, but I ask of you to search your beliefs and observe them truly. The lake of fire is before you, and if we are to believe that these parahumans are unworthy of life how have they not been cast in by God himself? All whose names were not written in the book of life were thrown into the lake of fire Revelations 20:15. I ask you all who can, and all who will, stand down. Allow us to treat you and all people who are currently injured. For it is by grace you will be saved, through faith. I stress to you, that you will all be safe to surrender."

Victor's eyes darted over to the paramedics entering the building, and the firefighters that were also entering to provide assistance in helping people out. A few of the SWAT vans had been set up ready to be ambulances if need be, and they were set up empty and off to the side from the rest of the barricade, much like the other ambulances. As late as it was to show up, they were all here and ready to provide assistance.

 

[Bag o Fruit]

Chris Kravitz AllHailDago Aldur Giyari Gus D. Rex Lioness075 Natealie Necessity4Fun Lemon Boy Teh Frixz The Suspicious Eye yoikes welian Zahzi Chris slunk under the docks, pulling himself slowly underneath the siding and up on the other side. He scouted the land for a strategically sound place to emerge, but none presented itself. It was then that he felt the water start to make his decision for him. He tried to turn his head and cried "Wha-aaaaaahhh!" as the harbor matter-of-factly dumped him on his face on the hard ground. He sprang up, ready to do battle, but found that the water had come down on other side of the crowd, leaving them safe, for the moment.

However, before he was able to properly regain his footing, he was knocked backwards by strong gust of wind, landing against the wall of water with an uncomfortably solid-sounding sploosh. He groaned as he slid down the slick interior of the bubble, held up by floating or surface tension, he wasn't sure, and braced his feet in the corner where the water met the concrete. Floating against the side of the wall (which should have been a strange sensation but this was no time to find anything weird), he put one hand to his aching head.

With his ears in the water, he heard three distinct gunshots, and an explosion. He turned to look and, in the muddled bluish image of the outside world, he saw a burning boat. He thought he remembered a boat from earlier, it was...

"Oh my god..." He scrambled up onto the concrete, and when a voice carried towards him, ("Everyone listen up!") he refused to comply. Instead, he looked at Manami, who seemed to be glancing from the woman speaking to the Momo-Taro. He looked back to the ship. Okay. I think I don't have to tell her. But that must have been sniper fire. Do they- he then noticed that the harbor on the other side of the ship was on its way to, presumably, fuck up some knights. Alright. He took five steps back, and assumed a running stance. Wait... He looked back to the battle on the other side of the bubble, where knights seemed to be shooting lasers at Ward. He wasn't sure, but it looked like he was taking a lot of fire... I could help him... immediately, his mind plotted out a course. He could make a break for the distracted knight, jump up onto the stock of the laser to force the blast into the ground, jump over her shoulder and catch her helmet with his arm, take her balance and break her-

No. He turned back toward the boat. For fuck's sake, I just don't want to hurt people anymore. He dashed for the wall and jumped, pivoting his body into a horizontal pencil dive. "-EVERYONE MOVE!" he heard at the last second, and where he thought there was water to break through there was suddenly nothing. He barely repositioned himself to hit the now properly-oriented water, but his momentum was lost. He came up to the surface and immediately swam over to the dock, hauled himself up and onto it, and began sprinting towards the Momo-Taro, looking for survivors.

At the end of the dock, he noticed Richard Chase in the water, treading water and looking back on board. "Hey! he yelled, and flung a life preserver into the water next to him. As Chase fitted it over his head and arms, Chris dove into the water and began swimming towards the boat.

 

[yoikes]

Mitch Castle & Sato Tomoko & Naran Ihbarhasvad
focused & unconscious & determined

tag Necessity4Fun
​

Tomoko tried her best not to cry when she sees what they've done to Aaron-san. He did his very best to protect them, and seeing him suffering from whatever gas they threw at him pains her too. She have little time to feel scared and hopeless, as after taking care of Aaron-san, they switched their attention to them. The gas canisters flew into the crowd, releasing the toxic inside into the air.

The effect was almost instantaneous for her.

Naran was filled with rage.
She knew that she have to do something. Anything. She have to act, save Aaron, punch the Knights, break some arms. But the canisters, the gas, stops her. She covered her mouth and nose, but she knew that when the gas reached her it won't do her any good. In fact, the effect of the gas already caught the little girl she saw before.

The little girl was on the ground, vomiting and crying and sweating. She looked very pale. Even Naran knew that they need to evacuate her away from the gas and started treating her.

Before she could worry more about the gas and the Knights, a dome of water was created by someone in the crowd. It pushed away the gas, and (temporarily) separate them from the Knights.

This is their chance.

Tomoko felt like her entire body is crumbling, failing.

Everything felt painful, she can't breathe, she can't talk, she doesn't even feel like she can see.

Someone is holding her in their arms. Tomoko can also hear someone saying that they have to "go".

Those are the last thing she remembered, before she started seeing a dream of her father and mother and her home in Japan.

Chaos chaos and even more chaos.

But at least, this time the chaos is more in their favor. Maybe it's their change to strike back, or their change to evacuate the innocents.

Mitch carefully listened as someone from outside shouted about safety, someone leading them, snipers, crossfire and such and quickly understood what they need to do.

"Juli, listen to me. We have to move." Mitch said, not even bothering to whisper again. "We are moving, or we are going to die a horrible die either from the Knights or the fight."

 

[The Fuzzy Pixel]

Khan
The Oldest Blueberry : Larry | Gus : Kate​

It was pointless trying to rationalize anything these freaks did. The blonde woman that had fallen from the sky was bulletproof, controlled darkness, and was further equipped with a sense of humor that Ushi didn't even believe her own mother would laugh politely at. Even if he didn't follow Raguel's rhetoric, maybe they really were doing everyone a favor by culling the gene pool of the world. The mangled robot started crawling after them like a possessed effigy before the Knight could give the topic more thought. The sparking scrapheap even managed to get a hold of someone before crippling and killing them. Then things got eerie as the robot made slow and deliberate movements towards him.

"Hah," smirked the man out loud as he aimed his shotgun back at the robot. He fired unceremoniously into its head and torso, embedding slug after slug into the fraud of humanity until his magazine ran dry as he spoke. It wasn't really clear if he was talking to the blonde woman or to the robot at that point.

"You don't get it, do you? We've already won. It doesn't matter how many of them you save, or how many of us you kill. This isn't a school anymore, it's a damned grave." Stepping forward after the robot had been torn to shreds the Knight planted a heavy boot on the back of its remains to make a point. This was no longer a safe refuge, and people would remember that even if all the Knights were wiped out. Their peace of mind had been destroyed forever, and the sanctity of this facility defiled. "And this is only the beginning," spoke the man smugly. Even as metal started to rise into the sky he didn't feel the least bit afraid. It was all according to plan.

'Maybe,' dared the man's thoughts as he looked back over his shoulder at the impressive wall that was forming, 'Maybe she's even right about all this.' Like hell would he ever admit that, though. Staring back up at the metal fragments in the air as they started to fall Ushi began to move as well. In his heavy, unpowered armor he wasn't nearly as nimble as some of the other Knights, however. A spike pinned his left foot, and before he could even finish a single gasped out 'fuck' another larger fragment impaled him through his lower torso from the front. Blood covered the screen in his helmet as he coughed. Gripping the shape that had pierced his torso and literally held him upright as it pierced into the concrete behind him, Ushi forced a bloody grin.

'Fucking freaks..'

He didn't even see the sphere of compressed water that collided into him from above. He didn't even feel it as everything from his chest and up turned to pulp.

 

[Necessity4Fun]

Kendrick Haywood

​

Location: AEGIS Facility 108 - Pier, inside the huge water bubble -> Edge of the crowd
People Around: A very huge crowd! I lost track!

Interactions: ViAdvena

Today's Toys: Ted, Spiral, Lieutenant George, Humphrey and Millie.

That's what friends would do, right?

"Attacking the opponent while they're distracted is a great strategy, actually."​

Mary's comment had instantly prompted him to glance back at her. She had indeed tried correcting herself right afterwards with the typical 'it's not that I agree but' comment, indicating that they might have to resort to similar methods in the near future. He disagreed wholeheartedly. Their presence was already known here, no matter what they did now it would never ever ever compare to the Knight's cowardly, disrespectful, dishonest and utterly tasteless first move.
Had this been a chess round, it would have been the equivalent to strapping your opponent to the chair and forcing them to play a game they weren't aware of, prepared for or even wanted to take part into. It would be something game-breaking! It was unforgivable.

"I mean, now that the game is on, maybe. But using the very same manoeuvre, as a first move? No thanks, I'd rather have to eat my hat", the young Haywood scoffed, "Still have my standards."

When the girl smiled at him after being surprised by his words, Kendrick couldn't help but laugh at her reaction:

"Marianne, that was months ago, you have no idea what I've been through since that", the boy responded confidently, "And you know, fighting back just sounded better than the alternative of getting shot to death while doing nothing.", he shrugged. Someone in the background did seem to agree with him though, encouraging others to do the same.
"Also, If I survive I'm getting lectured about this either way, so it's not like doing is changing anything for me..."

Nodding approvingly of having her allegiance, Kendrick let Marianne do surveillance while he caught sight of something else happening on the edge of the crowd. One of theirs, probably Mr. Mallory from the silhouette, was approaching the enemy, slowly, in the universal pose for surrender... No no no, what was he doing?! Attempting diplomacy? With these individuals?!
The boy thought about all of the ways a diplomatic approach could end in this scenery and none of them were positive. This was a group that had resorted to criminal and cowardly methods of offence, bundling not just their targets together but also civilians. People like that couldn't care less about ethics, there was no way they'd be rational or willingly enough for an intellectual debate!

He had merely turned around to tend to Mary's concerns with gas and his prediction seemed to become true. A cacophony of sounds coming from behind them was enough to confirm that the negotiation attempt hadn't gone their way. The crowd panicked, someone shrieked, shots were fired and all Kendrick had time to do was grab the girl's sleeve and pull her towards the ground to take cover. Listening to the speech of what he assumed was the lead Knight made it very clear that a lot of their members were nothing but sick bastards.
The words they used such as 'entertain' in the light of committing manslaughter... It was revolting and infuriating!! These type of twisted human beings deserved to be locked behind bars for an eternity, not being allowed to walk around claiming to be doing public service!

Kendrick glanced this and that way looking for something that he could and the others do, but without a safe space and time to discuss a plan, anything he came up with would probably just get his team in further danger. Heck, even just staying here like this was a risky move by itself!

Then, as if answering his prayer, the water started to rise. No, not rise as in the 'tides were rising', but rising as in floating in the goddamn air!! The boy had stopped completely as he watched the strange phenomenon before them, utterly terrified. If that thing decided to wash the lands clean then he would be pretty much done for!
Luckily whoever was behind it had better common sense than that, instead protecting almost everyone inside a water dome construct. Being inside it did give Kendrick some snowglobe flashbacks, but thus far there was no reason not to assume that this person was on their side... And he really hoped it would stay like that, having this amount of water this close was very unnerving.

Manami was, as expected, lost in awe upon the sight. Well, he supposed it was indeed extremely impressive... Maybe if he could swim and actually liked water the teen would have appreciated the performance properly. Either way, this was far from over and they had to be prepared in case this new protection ever came to falter. He looked back at his cheerful friend and even in the current situation, couldn't help but giggle at her child-like wonder.

His gaze darted downwards, catching sight of the vile thing she was still wearing. It reminded him of how meat was hooked in butcheries, which was definitely a terrible analogy for them given their situation. Even so, it was very surprising that the girl was still standing after all of that and not at all complaining about pain. Heck, he was wincing just by imagining the damage those vicious sharp tips had done. If anything, the boy found himself nurturing an ever deeper respect for Manami. She truly was a strong individual and he didn't mean physically this time.

Before anyone could even think to do anything else, a huge piece of metal fell from the sky, dividing the bubble from the Knights and also making either side unable to get a visual on each other. It was pretty obvious who could have been behind such methods and soon Kendrick could pin Mr. Ward's location, his voice ringing from the rooftops, what an entrance. Well, that had been one way of handling with their potential 'what if it falters' issue.
As he watched the rest of the endeavour, the boy looked back on all of the times the How Not to Kill Teacher had stroke him as too intense or threatening and no wonder he gave of that aura, just look at it! This man was a powerhouse! You would not want to be against him in any scenario possible...

Then, as expected, more gunshots. Having his sight of the enemy blocked, there was nothing to do but guess who the intended targets for those bullets were. With the seemingly unending loud 'pop' sounds left and right, Kendrick had thought that one of the Knights had brought a machine gun and perhaps was engaging Red. It took him a while to notice that the noises were coming from behind him and it was only when he decided to turn around and check that the teen was taken by a mesmerizing sight. It was his turn to become lost in awe:

"Wooooa fireworks! That's so cool!!!!", his inner child squealed in delight, "Man, I can't even remember what was last time I saw some of these live...!"

The boy marvelled at the light show for quite some time until he noticed the thick clouds of black smoke that was emanating along with it, originating from a boat not that far from the coast. Then it dawned on him that something was very wrong.

Unaware of his reasons why Kendrick had glanced over at Manami and instead of the childish wonder he was so very used to seeing, her expression was something different, nearly unreadable. She seemed in shock but also torn between a lot of other emotions that were too hard to pinpoint.
His gaze travelled back to the boat and his mind wandered back to the Free Willy manoeuvre they had performed during their ride to the obstacle course, Manami's voice cheerfully introducing him to an old couple. Oh no. Was it the same watercraft? The encounter had been so brief, he couldn't remember enough of it.

He had glanced at her again and the sight was heartbreaking. Manami's form had crumpled to the ground, letting out an ear-piercing, painful wail. His arm had unconsciously started reaching for her until he stopped it, the dilemma of 'what do I do, what do I say?' threatening to take his focus completely away. Should... he even say anything? Would it help anyone?! Could he even console her over something this big?

Before the teen could even answer to his own questions someone made an announcement and his dilemma was overshadowed by more dire matters. The dome was going down and they had to run for their lives once again.
Instantly, Kendrick's attention went back to his toys, which had promptly stood around waiting for a command in case they were ever needed. Ironically, the only occasion the boy had actively picked a fight turned out to be the one where he ended up not doing much, huh. He hurried back to his backpack's location already 'calling' the toys along. There was no time to lose, so instead of letting them back in on their own, Kendrick had manually stored everyone, as carefully as possible when one was in a hurry.

As soon as he was back up the instruction to run was given. Wanting to be nowhere near water when it burst or whatever, the teen had traced a course to be as far from the decaying bubble as possible, his focus completely in the task of getting somewhere he wouldn't risk drowning on land... Which was weird, but very well a possibility in this situation!
Merely stopping when his path had effectively ended, unable to proceed any further, Kendrick looked back. The array of water spheres in the air was nothing short of breath-taking. Heck, superpowers were a thing, everyone knew so but seeing them being put in practice like that?! The thrill, the wonderment, that's not something your imagination is able to fill out!!

That's when a new announcement rang through the facility. A male voice identified himself as a Lieutenant which could mean that the police was finally here... Wait, the police was here before the Commonwealth? Not that he had a problem with it, but it just stroke him as a matter for the later to resolve, nay, more of a matter they would have wanted to resolve given the past attacks...
Once the man's speech had started though, Kendrick could only facepalm:

"We're trying a diplomatic approach? Again? Oh yeah, that went on so smoothly the first time... What is this person thinking?"

He hoped this officer had a plan in mind if the negotiations went south, because at this point he had given up any hope of anyone getting through to these psychos... At least he hoped things didn't go down as violently now that the paramedics and the like were also involved, part of him knew that was nothing but wishful thinking though. The Knights didn't seem to have any regard towards civilians, why would they have it towards the authorities?

Taking his attention out the debate that he hoped was actually brewing this time, Kendrick glanced over his shoulder trying to spot the rest of Team Snowglobe, specially Manami. He wasn't sure if he could do anything to help or if he should, but surely being alone right now was probably not what she needed... Even if it was just standing there beside her, he was willing to offer his support in any shape she desired.

 

[Gus]

OOC:trigger warning. Stop after Kate’s post if you dislike tragic scenes.
Kate Barrett
​

Location: By the storage sheds --> Harbor
Nearby: Ushi, LARRY --> Chris, Richard
@s The Fuzzy Pixel The Oldest Blueberry B Bag o Fruit

Yes! Finally…
Mmmm… fresh brain meat.
Dance, puppets!
​

The shadows passed through the men’s armor as if they weren’t even there. In point of fact, they were not, no more real than a passing thought. But that thought slipped over them and into them, filling them with darkness, dredging up a copious and rich vein of self hatred from deep inside them. They choked on it, their rebreathers now no more use to them than their foolish armor. Their eyes bulged and their tongues lolled out, choked by the constriction of their throats that was only in their heads. Kate closed her hand into a fist, and they smashed into each other as if thrown by the impossibly insubstantial threads that bound them. One of them tries to bring his weapon to bear, and even gets off a quick burst of lased light, scorching her right thigh. Kate winces in pain and twists her fist. The shadows flow down his arm, and he feels himself twisting away, the beam sweeping inexorably towards his comrade. He tries to let up on the trigger, but his arm no longer obeys him…

And suddenly, they are released. The shadows dissipate as if they were never there, occluded by darker, more substantial shadows cast from above. Metal spikes rain down, and the one with the laser is killed instantly, his rifle impaled to him through his gut, its energy pack discharging through the spike into body, cooking him from the inside out. The other hesitates a moment too long, startled by the unexpected reprieve attended by stunning violence. Too late he tries to aim. Kate rockets forward, caving his face plate in with her fist, concussing him out of the fight, but pulling the punch at the last second to stop short of fracturing his skull.

Awwww. I wanted to feel his mind squirm while his friend burned away his life
...you have issues
Don’t we all though?
​

Shut... UP!

She stared around in amazement at the ruthless efficiency of the metal storm. In all her years as a vigilante, she had never seen such butchery.

That you recall…
But we remember.
Oh yes.
That... was a good day.​

She shook her head, dazed by it. What kind of blue card would do such a thing? She looked to the third knight, only now realizing what had been done to poor LARRY. The man’s words had not quite been processed as he said them, but now as she stared around at the smoky burning hellscape the Knights had made of the school grounds, they echoed in her ears again.

“Only the beginning? You have no idea what you cowards have unleashed here today... until now they have shown restraint!”

She stepped over to him as the first spike pinned his leg to the ground.

“Don’t you know any history?” she asked as the second spike rammed through his gut with a sickening slaughterhouse sound.

She leaned in, trying to catch his eyes through the mirrored face-plate.

“This is their pearl harbor you stupid wrinkly scroat. All you have done is awakened a sleeping giant and filled him with a terrible resolve.”

A series of rolling detonations from down by the harbor pulled her attention away from the dying man. It was impossible to see what was going on through the doubled walls of the water dome, but as the rockets and smoke began to rise over it, her heart sank into her stomach.

“Richard…”

And in a flash, she was gone, leaving the bigot to his ignominious fate.

It began to rain then. A hard rain. A cleansing rain.

Manami
​

Location: Western edge of the water dome.
Nearby: Team Snowglobe and others
@s: Necessity4Fun Lioness075 ViAdvena Lemon Boy yoikes


When the fireworks had begun, their light and sound muted and distorted by the magical water bubble, Manami clapped her hands and hooted with childlike joy. Mama and Papa had brought out the magic of the season! Cherry blossoms and Hanabi went together like salted salmon and rice! She smiled her widest, toothiest grin at Kendrick and the others and pointed excitedly.

“Look Kendi-kun! Fireworks! Mama and Papa have brought fireworks! Aren’t they beautiful? In Japan, we have fireworks in springtime. It make me so happy to see them!”

One of the skyrockets glanced off the water bubble and exploded in a shower of sparks that ran down the side. More explosions followed, and smoke began to pour out of the deck of the Momo-Taro. Something was wrong. Manami ran to the wall, still trailing the net like some kind of demented wedding train, hardly feeling the barbs pricking her flesh. She pressed her palms and face to the strangely unyielding water, trying to push through, to peer through the rippling barrier and discern what was happening to her home. She thought she saw someone moving across the deck. And then fire belched from the hold, and suddenly the whole boat was alight.

“No. No…. ...please?” she whispered.

She drew the net around her like a blanket as she sank to the ground. More hooks bit into her, but she didn’t care. She curled up into a tiny ball, wrapped in the the folds of the net, shaking uncontrollably and keening.

“Iiiiieyaaahh! Dekinaiii no da! Papa! Mama!!”

Without warning, a heavy rain begins pelting down. A strange, salty rain, as if the ocean itself were crying for her the tears that she cannot produce.

 

[Necessity4Fun]

Cecilia Rizzo Pellegrini

Location: AEGIS Facility 108 - Pier, inside the giant bubble, unaware that it is going down soon
People Around: Logan
Interactions: The Fuzzy Pixel

*extremely disoriented but still willing to help*

Closed-off from the world, all of the sadness, frustration, hatred and desperation had been summed and warped, leaving Cecilia in a catatonic state. How much time had passed? It felt like a lifetime and more had gone by, with the very sense and definition of time lost.
With the violent spiral of dust, grass and wind in front of her, all of the girl's senses had been acutely aware of what was happening, but with her mind in the state it was, the brain was unable to put any of the information together into a coherent form. Akin to corrupted data, specks of sensations and images were recorded, robbed entirely of their context, assembling a surreal experience where she could no longer tell reality from illusion. An inebriating mist seemed to cover it all with white... Maybe, everything was nothing more than a terrible dream and she would wake up soon.

Voices. Angry, sad, crazy, terrified voices would occasionally bleed through the barrier and into the dream, some of them evoking a strange and uncanny feeling of familiarity. She'd try to place them, name them, and in a heartbeat they'd be forgotten, gone with the breeze as if they had never been. Their words never clear, their messages never received. The girl could swear that the next one, an alarmed one, was calling for her but the roar of the wind had once again consumed its sentences, mercilessly erased its existence...
It felt as if the pattern would repeat forever, as if she was destined to never know the meaning, to remain clueless, ignorant and then, by the hands of another, the chain had been easily broken.

When Cecilia felt herself fall, she was abruptly filled with peace.
The whirlwind, having lost its purpose, had slowed down considerably, consequentially growing weaker and weaker until it had dissipated completely in a question of seconds. The girl thought that perhaps this was the indication of waking up. A second thought considered the possibility that a similar fate to... someone else's had befallen her. Whatever the reason had been, Cecil had been expecting to meet the ground, having all air knocked out of her lungs once it came to be. She had been prepared for impact, however, it had turned out to be a less violent one, more soft and warm... Something, no, someone had caught her and the girl had opened her eyes taken by the utmost confusion.

At first, the Italian had been seeing triple. She blinked a couple of times at the other, not giving much of a reaction. Everything still felt off, as if what she was seeing could fade away into mist again, placing her inside the surreal dream from before. Eventually, the three images had collapsed into one and Cecilia had instantly recognized the Commonwealth agent she had just met:

"L-Logan...? What- ... I-I-..."

She looked upwards and her unfinished sentences had been completely lost. The scene before her was so so beautiful... Light reflected and rippled from a layer of water where one would have expected to see the sky. It was as if she had been taken underwater, deep inside a pool and observed the surface from inside, except, that she could still breathe. A lot better than she had been able inside the dream even.
The man's silhouette against the curtain of illuminated green and blue had such an inspiring aura about it, holy, pure, bright... She didn't know what to make of it, it just made her feel extremely calm. In her current funny state, the little Italian couldn't help but be reminded of childhood tales about guardian angels and how they protected children. To someone that had been this close to fracture under the pressure, it turned to be a very soothing and healing sight.

Still in awe, Cecilia took her gaze out of him and placed it upon the environment, trying to make sense of what she saw. Everything was still blurry, a disorientating mix-match of nothing but colors and misplaced sound. Incessant voices, all crumpled together beyond recognition, screamed, cried, alerted. Forms she couldn't make out danced before her eyes, the sensation of danger was gradually returning as well... It all made her head hurt.
Then suddenly, as if the girl's brain had just kicked into gear again, memories of the last happenings she had witnessed resurged, in lighting-fast flashes. She gasped as a single worry came back full-force:

"Aaron", she had tried getting back up, only to find herself grunting at the effort and even more dizzy than before, "W-we need to go back, he needs our help! He could be seriously hurt!"

 

[Zahzi]

Hunter Red Ward

Location: Facility 108 Rooftop
Nearby: Butcher ( Giyari ) Police Response ( Malikai )
Disposition: I don't care what happens after this ends. I'm going hunting.

The blasts from the rifle fired by the Knight were unexpected. Laser weaponry was still a laughably childish idea twenty years ago. There was a short list of people who could supply a terrorist element with equipment like this..
The damage was unavoidable. His defense left Red without evasion for such things. Multiple scorings were left across him, the abdomen, arm, leg. and even head. Red himself said nothing, but noted in great detail the damage these weapons could do. Especially to someone who can't defend themselves. He would have to deal with his own injuries later. The injuries 'rippled' as the metal around him moved like liquid and swept away the damage, a chunk of the debris above shooting down into him and being absorbed to make up for the damage. Another volley of metal was sent down to act as cover to protect the people as Susan's wall finally came down. A power like that was clearly demanding of it's user. while a single one was sent toward the police spouting Gospel toward the Knights. Not to be sent to harm, but a message. A literal one, carved in what looked like the jagged remnants of the truck from before was a gentle amount of constructive criticism. Particularly the one using gospel.

This shit didn't work at the mall. If all you're going to do is talk at people shooting up a school, you can fuck off back to parking tickets.

Red finally turned to face Butcher who had more than likely taken the time to make a b-line toward him. Red remained uncharacteristically silent, staring her down and raising a hand, beckoning her closer. A taunt, perhaps? His stance seemed to lower, centered directly towards the Knight. He was curious to face the full force for himself.​

 

[Giyari]

Mood: hesitant
Location: Main Building's boundary
Company: Imogen
@'s: Syrenrei Zahzi
Other: -

Director Swan
The chaos was indescribable, Swan was horribly outgunned and on the wrong side of the crowd to utilise his power, not that it would be much use anyway, it was taking quite a bit of effort to block down the noise from explosions and blasts. With a flash of red overhead and a noticeable feeling of hot air venting across his skin, Swan watched from the corner of his eye as the laser beam erupted across the schools roof.

"Jesus christ..." he exclaimed quietly, ducking into the nearby wall at the sight. He didn't stand a chance against that sort of firepower.

The tell tale sound of sirens brought a wave of relief to his soul, although whether they would be any help or just more tallies on the body count... Only time would tell. Nodding to Imogen, Swan continued to move around the facilities main building as the sound of vehicles pulling into the facility came to a halt. One more corner to go and they would be in view. Raising his pistol, Swan stopped short and waited. He had to be sure that this was help and not knights reinforcements.

Listening to the apparent commanders words, Swan focused. He was certainly police that was for sure, this looked good. Jason flipped the safety back on his gun and stuck it into its holster. There was one thing being cautious, but it was another being mistaken for the enemy. As the commander mentioned the plan to ferry paramedics into the building, swan's spirit lifted. He needed to let someone know... Red, Red was on the roof, that much he knew.

"Hunter, it's Jason. Paramedics are entering the building, I can't see the students so I don't know who to focus my voice on so you need to let them know! Get them inside, get them into cover and medical help." he focused his voice towards the sky, aiming for the shuffling footsteps on the roof. There was only one pair, and judging by the weight each step placed down, it could only be Red.

The rampage on the other side of the building continued on as he waited for a clear time to round the building's corner. Picking up movement coming towards the building, Swan thought about how to proceed. Move too fast and he could be shot as a suspect. Move too slow and the chaos could catch up. He needed to be sure.

 

[Lioness075]

Name: Samantha 'Sam' Casan	Rank: B
Attire: Black tank top, torn jean shorts, barefoot	Location: Boat Area
Tagged: Necessity4Fun (Kendrick), Gus (Manami)

Suffice to say, shit had quickly and sufficiently hit the fan after Director Swan's vain attempt to make a formal speech about the stupid exam. Sam had very quickly toned it out and was all but pacing behind her exam team, finding it very difficult to pay attention right now. She hated moments or events like this. It was always worse when the person opened up with, "I'll make this short" because that always meant it was going to be a super long speech instead. People always repeated themselves too many times, used too much fancy wording to sound better, and took ten light-years to finally finish a speech. Honestly, she could have used this time instead to run to the bakery for a well-deserved treat after dealing with this stupid exam.

Not long after this thought, shit began hitting the fan in the form of gunfire, drones, tear gas, barbed nets...honestly, the semi truck was efficient enough to get everyone's attention. Everything else was effectively overkill and unnecessarily painful. To top it all off, Sam's tail got a bit tangled with the net and when Manami heroically freed them from the netting, she also yanked Sam's tail along with her. Yelping and struggling along on her bipedal legs was not an easy task with her tail tangled in front of her. Stumbling about, she soon freed her now-bleeding tail and gave Manami a classic Sam glare. Except, Manami's attention was elsewhere.

Frowning, Sam joined Manami's side and followed her gaze to see a burning ship not far from the docks. While she had not been paying too much attention to anyone on the boats today, Sam figured such a heartbreaking expression on Manami's face was good enough reason to assume her parents were on the ship. While Sam knew very little about Manami in general, she at least knew about her parents and their ship. That was about as far as Sam's personal knowledge of Manami went.

Sighing, Sam decided she really did not want to be around for the cops and their meager attempt to stop this chaos, so she made the decision to do something about the burning ship. She noticed someone else making their way to the docks, but couldn't tell from here who it was. At their current pace, they'd be far too late for whoever was on the ship, though. Sam could help with that.

While she doubted Manami would hear her in her current state, Sam grabbed the fish girl's shoulder and shouted above the chaos, "I'm going to that ship! I'll try to rescue anyone on it, okay!?"

Sam normally was not the type for heroics, but it was mostly self-preservation pushing her to go to the burning ship. While burns were inevitable, that was more desirable in the moment as opposed to being shot or blown up in her current location. Sprinting away from Manami, Sam became a blur and likely untrackable by any drones in her vicinity. Or so she hoped. Skidding to a halt right before the docks in order to avoid falling into the water, Sam quickly assessed the situation. The ship was most certainly burning and falling apart. She only had maybe ten minutes before it sunk and probably even less than that to rescue anyone from burning alive onboard.

Before she sprinted into a blur again, Sam paused at the sight of splashing that seemed to be headed in the direction of the ship. Frowning, Sam narrowed her eyes and realized with a start that someone was trying to swim to the ship. Surely they could see that there was no chance of someone so slow being able to simply climb the side of a burning ship? That was a lost cause and they would likely injure themselves needlessly in the process! Gritting her teeth at this annoying distraction from her own attempt to help, Sam cupped her hands around her mouth and shouted at the swimming person, "Hey, idiot! Turn around out there! You're going to just hurt yourself or drown! You can't climb a burning ship at a normal human speed without burning yourself!"

Sam realized a bit too late after shouting this that the person was actually swimming remarkably fast for a normal human. Well, too late to retract that statement.

 

[Lioness075]

Name: Lara Hart	Rank: D
Attire: Blue sweatshirt with Nemo on the front, tan capris, white sneakers	Location: Facility 108 Final Exam Area
Tagged: Necessity4Fun (Cecilia), The Fuzzy Pixel (Logan)

Unlike probably most of the students present, Lara had been actively listening to Director Swan's speech. While it was not the most captivating of speeches, she was still immensely pleased that she had passed the exam with her team, if not without some struggle. Nonetheless, she'd been successful! It was a very warming feeling to know she'd passed and Lara excitedly wondered what it'd be like once she graduated. Maybe she would be able to afford a fancier apartment or even move into her own home! The opportunities seemed endless to her now!

Her excitement was rudely cut short when a semi-truck came barreling through the parking lot and unceremoniously ruined Director Swan's speech. So much happened so quickly that Lara was too stunned to react to everything. She ended up stuck under one of the barbed nets and cried out in pain when a number of her feathers got snagged. She had been lucky and fallen on her back so her wings were mostly protected, but they were just too big for her back to completely hide or protect. After much struggle, though, she eventually got herself freed from the net and anxiously looked around for her friends. Cecilia had been near her, but now she seemed nowhere to be found. The only downside to the net struggle was that Lara was missing a few tiny patches of feathers now. She did not have time to figure out if they were ones that would grow back or not and simply hoped the patches would recover with time.

It did not take long for Lara to find her friend after deciding to ignore her lost feathers for now. She felt a faint wind buffet and quickly began running towards it instead of avoiding it. By the time Lara arrived, Cecilia had been effectively knocked over and was no longer screaming wind. Lara had learned a long time ago that it was a bad idea to surprise Cecilia. Her screams could be rather tumultuous at times. Her friend still seemed to be in a bit of a panic and Lara quickly joined her side to try and calm her. Lara had no idea who the guy was with Cecilia, but Lara knew she needed to stay with her friend during all of this.

"Cecilia, it's okay! I'm here now! We need to get to some cover as soon as possible!" Just as she said this, Lara heard gunshots ringing out nearby and frantically looked at the guy near her, "Um, sir, can you help us find some cover or something? I can hear gunshots!"

 

[Necessity4Fun]

​

Location: AEGIS Training Facility 108 - Against the wall of the building that's nearest to the pier -> By the entrance of the main building
People Around: Head-to-head with Mitch (Copy Machine) -> Still Mitch (but with less 'glue') and Jeremiah, though he's been knocked out

Interactions: yoikes and Malikai (This counts as an interaction, right?)

--OOC Notes: Malikai requested me to rescue JJ, but I couldn't comply aaaaall the way with it. It's something >w<

Spoiler: Translation

Piche = Tar;
"The picture of a black panther swimming in a lake of tar": Not sure if just a Brazilian thing or not, but sometimes when we're being sarcastic we will describe a color like that, especially if it's all there is in the occasion. In this case it's Juliana's way of complaining about the fact that her vision has gone full-on dark. (We have a couple to describe white too, maybe I'll use those later~)--

SO.FUCKING.TIRED AND EVERYTHING IS PAIN. I'M NEVER DOING THIS AGAIN, NEVER!

Even though she had made two very important questions Jú was left without an answer to either of them. Okay, she couldn't really blame Mitch for not replying since she was probably distracted by whatever was going on at the moment...? But come on! It was still plain rude, and after the Brazilian had spent allll day trying her best to answer the other's questions, it also seemed completely unfair...
For the time being, Juliana had decided to bring her head back to its horizontal axis and leave it be, Copy Machine could hear all of her complaints once they were not in danger. Normally she'd have averted her gaze out of Mitch, making it clear that she was angry but doing so right now wouldn't have changed anything. She couldn't even see the girl in question! Everything had become the picture of a black panther swimming in a lake of...Piche, which was starting to get frustrating.

Maintaining the odd T pose was taking quite a toll on her, making it harder and harder to concentrate on the sounds coming from the background. Gunshots, impacts of unknown objects and even that thing that sounded oddly like someone twisting a soda can? --But like, really large scale?--, were all in the back of Juliana's mind. Really, the emergency here was just one: she was fucking.sweating.
Her gym sessions didn't do it, jogging at the park didn't do it, the weather of Baltimore wasn't enough to do it, the stupid and annoying exam hadn't been able to do it, but standing like this while rendering people invisible?! Yeah sure, that made sense! Urgh, gross. Now she definitely needed a shower, annnnnd a new deodorant... The current one had betrayed her. This was not dry, totes false advertising.

The noises continued through what the teen had assumed was a confrontation. At this point, Jú had completely given up on ever leaving this spot. Maybe if Mitch had actively made the switch as she had suggested... But no! The Brazilian's joints had gone so stiff now that once she moved it was definitely going to be a ticket to a world of pain! Perhaps she'd just stay right here until she passed out. At least that'd procrastinate having to deal with the cramps that'd originate from this... Or so she had thought. When an explosion suddenly rang behind her, the rest of the world could no longer be ignored.

With the last remnants of her concentration in the task gone, the two girl's cover went instantly down. Before Juliana could effectively turn around and observe what that had been about, she found herself forced to blink, as sight and illumination abruptly returned to them. It was a similar effect to having been in a dark room for too long and having some jerk turn the lights on you... An unforeseen and definitely not pleasant consequence. Would have been nice to have some sort of warning here!

"Juli, listen to me. We have to move."

"What?", the girl had glanced over at the other in a mix of confusion and indignation. Oh hey, vision was back, that was cool.

"We are moving, or we are going to die a horrible die either from the Knights or the fight."
"...Are you fucking kidding me?!"

Letting go of the fact that Mitch had called her 'Juli' and that was a really weird nickname, the Brazilian turned around, able to see the chaos on her own for the very first time since she had hidden... And oh god, that was, uhh, something... To point out the elephant in the room, the fucking water dome, what was that?! It was so cool, also it totally disproved her initial theory, which was pretty much a movie cliché but hey! Water dome, nice. Then there was this metal wall thing? Well, It whatever it was called, it was floating, or more accurately, falling, then the strangely familiar smell of smoke that hang in the air brought her attention to a boat in flames. Wow, that was rather... brutal...

"Holy shit, I've missed the makings of quite the party!! Well, dangerous party, but still...!"

Someone in the background gave people the order to run taking Juliana out of the task of observing everything and back into the task of surviving. Right. She had to get out of the stupid T shape... The teen closed her eyes again anticipating the whole lot of pain she was about to go through. Using the band-aid technique (rip it fast!), Jú quickly put her arms down, crouching at the same time and it was like every single joint had started to screech at her, like an unholy choir of tormented souls. OH.MY.GOD. W H Y. This is what death feels like!
Mitch could probably feel the suffering in the girl's voice when she addressed the next sentence towards her, in an unusual gentle, shifting tone:

"I... doOn't know wheEre to go, so... pleEEase. Lead. The way."

She had tried following the other's pace but every step was a goddamn torture and the girl was soon falling behind. Unable to keep her curiosity in-check she had glanced back towards what she considered the 'stage' of the 'main event' to see what all those badass supers were up to currently, but then she saw a similar shade of yellow that got her torn. Juliana looked back in the direction Mitch was going, then glanced at the bundle of yellow on the floor, then Mitch again. Ugh, she couldn't believe Shorty was going to force her to play hero like that! ...Aaaaaaah FINE!

As her entire body protested about the effort, Jú made a dash towards the middle, --AKA: the most dangerous part to be at right now--, ignoring every bit of self-preservation that kept telling her that this was a risky and really stupid idea. Actually, her mind wouldn't stop calling her stupid through the whole thing.
Maybe adrenaline kicked in, maybe she hadn't been that tired, who knows? But Juliana had run to Jeremiah's location, promptly picked him up in a bridal carry and quickly made her way back to Mitch.

"You're smart, so here. You'll know what to do", she put him down carefully near the other girl, "Now if you'll excuse me, I'mma... just 'capuft' over there..."

And saying that Juliana took a couple steps away until the ground was back to grass. In just one go she sorta threw herself on the floor with her back down.
No more, please.

 

[yoikes]

Mitch Castle
Mood: You've got to be kidding me
Location: By the entrance of the main building
With Juliana Necessity4Fun and her friend? Malikai

"...Are you fucking kidding me?!"

Mitch sighed. She's starting to get used to Juliana and all her languages including the one she don't understand (Spanish?). In any case, Mitch only processed now that it seems like when Juliana was using her power, she cannot see. So the million dollar question is... How can she?

Maybe she was so shocked by the sudden blindness, she unknowingly copies her power to 'fix it'? If it's so, Mitch can only hope that she won't need to borrow Juliana's power for at least a half of hour or so.

At the mean time, she watches as Juliana take a good look of her surrounding, watches as the realization sinks into her, and listened to her pain filled request of "I... doOn't know wheEre to go, so... pleEEase. Lead. The way."

"Let's go." Mitch says, leading as Juliana asked her to. But it seems like she has drained most of her power to hide them, Mitch noticed how drained she seemed. Mitch keep looking back from time to time, to make sure that Juliana is still trailing behind her and that she isn't moving too fast.

"C'mon, i think it's just up fro- JuLI??????" Mitch's relief turned into terror when she sees Juliana dashing back to where they come from, no-- she's basically jumping into the fire.
"For Gods sake-Aaaarrrghhhh" Her mind, her heart, her conscience tells her to not to be stupid, but her body has already started running after Juliana. She saw Juliana picking up a boy with relative ease, then carry him toward her.

"You're smart, so here. You'll know what to do", Juliana told her, as she puts him down next to her, "Now if you'll excuse me, I'mma... just 'capuft' over there..."

"'Capuft'?" Mitch parroted, just in time to see Juliana just... collapsed on to the ground. "天啊!!!"

One boy that's probably injured, one collapsed girl, and one powerless girl.
How is she supposed to evacuate all three of them to somewhere save?

Mitch crouched next to the boy, she might be able to carry-- or drag him-- to safety but what about Juli? Just then she spots someone running nearby, a figure heading to join the fray, but...

"Mrs Naran!" Mitch yelled, waving her hand. "Help! Help!"

Naran Ihbarhasvad
Mood: Helpful
Location: By the entrance of the main building

Help is here, good.
And the teacher and staffs or at least those who knew what to do have started to organize a fight, or helping people to evacuate.

Something exploded and Naran only saw the leftover, a burning ship. Seems like they still have an arsenal of dangerous weapon. Just how prepared the Knights are for this invasion?

In any case, she spotted Red going loose and fighting the terrorists. She doesn't know, and she doesnt' care, if she trying help him is a bad idea or not but she's going to do it anyway. Naran knew that she have to act.

She started running toward the chaos, charging more energy with each steps she took, with each swing of a hand. She's ready to break some bones, or and prepared to get some of hers broken too, when somebody called her name.

"Mrs Naran!" A girl wearing a glasses waved her hand. "Help! Help!"

Naran could see two figures lying down on the ground near her, possibly injured. Without a hesitation, Naran changed her course.

"You are uh... The copy girl?" Naran can't remember her name, but she remembered her power. The glasses girl nods.
"Please help me evacuating my friends." Copy girl asked, as she pointed to a girl lying down nearby.

"I'll take the boy. Can you take the girl?" Naran asked. The Copy girl looked unsure at first, but then she nodded as an answer. "Good. Let's get out of here before we got caught in crossfire."

 

[Gus]

Lucas Marsolet
​

Location: 108 Main building, south corner office.
Nearby: Police? Paramedics? Bruces? Director Swan and Imogen are around here somewhere. Also, a nut with a laser cannon.
@s: Malikai B Bag o Fruit Zahzi Giyari Syrenrei

Lucas' hands were slick with blood. When he fell, he had done a proper break-fall, but landed in a slurry of broken glass from the shattered windows. He lay there for a moment before he realized. His vision wasn't clearing. This was more than just color spots floating around his field of view. There was just a sliver of visibility left along the inner edge of his left eye, and even that was cloudy, as if the room were full of smoke. Trying hard not to panic he sat up and rolled over, crawling on elbows and knees over to the corner of the room between the windows.

He pressed his back to the wall, straining his ears for the least sound, and scanning the room as best he could with his one tiny sliver of vision. Outside, there was bedlam. If anything, it had intensified. The stutter of firearms and whining of lasers, shouts and wails, as well as the strange metallic thrumming of spikes from above, was joined suddenly by fireworks.

The surreality of this barely even registered.

His vision still wasn't clearing. He wondered idly if blind people could still get a blue card. The roar of water, propelled with enough force to create its own thunder distracted him briefly; he flinched a little, involuntarily, but for the most part he was past caring. A heavy rain, spattering on the window sills on either side of him spread just a mist of tiny droplets over to him, burning pinholes in his exposed face and hands, as well as his shirt and pants. He winced in pain and shrank further into the corner.

A voice on a megaphone called for surrender, but with all the religious overtones, he couldn't be sure whose. He wasn't even sure it made a difference.

There were footsteps nearby, crunching through broken glass, meaning they were inside the building. Friend or foe, who could tell? He forced himself to his feet and stumbled over to the door. If they were here to help, he wasn't too proud to know he needed some. On the other hand, he wouldn't mind getting a piece of one of these thugs, even if it was probably the last thing he'd ever do. His hand hesitated by the doorknob.

"Who is out there?"

​

 

[Malikai]

Jeremiah "JJ" Johnson
Location: Not Sure
Around: Juliana?( Necessity4Fun ), Somebody and somebody else( yoikes )​

Jeremiah was desperate to find out what was going on. Muffled sounds surrounded him, and he didn't dare raise his head with how much blood had already poured out. The breathing exercises he had started up to calm himself were almost starting to work. Unfortunately he was still far from calm, and he had no way to express this to a crowd that was very clearly panicked. After a bit of time had passed he heard a loud scream and was forcefully lifted and thrown into the air by what felt like a burst of wind. The burst made him roll over, face up against the ground. It was from here that Jeremiah could make out that there was clearly something surrounding everyone, but what that something was he wasn't sure. It almost seemed like water.

Jeremiah's mind grew unfocused once again, sounds and sights fading away to the extreme pain that was making noise again. His hand reached up to grab at what was left of his ear, and he felt the mix of blood and tears coalescing on his cheek. Just as he was wondering if he would slip out of consciousness he felt somebody pick him up. Jeremiah's eyes were able to just barely open and see what looked like Juliana. He wasn't entirely sure if he wasn't seeing clearly or if that was actually her, but just as soon as he had been lifted up he felt himself lowered again. There was another girl's voice, but he couldn't tell whose.

Vision for him was fading now, and as he felt someone pick him up again he did his best to wrap his arms around whoever it was, tightening the best he could. He mumbled something along the lines of making sure Juliana was okay, but he could hardly hear himself talk. The blood from his leg was still flowing, but he felt like it was almost stopped around his ear. Though at the moment he couldn't feel hardly anything. Just a few seconds later and he lost what little feeling he had as he drifted away into unconsciousness.