RP [Phoenix Team] - Sounds in the Night

Sargasso, Grounds of SMU, South-East
Finch lobbed the artillery shell - all fifteen-odd pounds of warhead, propellant and metal cartridge sailing towards the grounds of the Mage's University. The projectile had pitched forward and landed on its side oblique to the direction of the wrongness. Nevertheless, it rolled over the stony dirt path and over the grass and eventually came to a stop before the treeline whereupon Finch and his cousins could report feeling something looking at it so hard, the mortar had flung itself back and landed warhead first into the dirt a few feet away. Ravnir was pressing forward into the grounds, the heft of every footfall leaving light tremors and imprints in the grass, noises drowned out bypounding rain and the rumble of distant thunder, obscured by towering cumulonimbus.

With the gift given from the inventor, Ravnir could see that many of the trees he could break had their ideal breaking points highlighted in rings around the boughs, tagged as breakable with a solid chop. Something had the time to read and calculate how Ravnir moved and applied their strength, based on live combat data gathered and approximated by the systems around the Raiken: Luca's, Breyja's, Seiren's, maybe Snuffles' had a device too - they all were gathering data, watching, learning and observing movement, communications, intelligence over a digital format familiar to their ilk. Deep slices within a moment to be read there and then, in hindsight, or by the next of kin.

Ravnir's gut was feeling uneasy at the prospect of being catalogued this way, all of the sudden - but did such a thought seem to swoop in from the cold, a sudden negative tangent upon genuine gifts sullied by powers malevolent? Looking up through the bushes, the raiken could sense that he was being watched by someone from afar, and when they looked north, they thought they saw someone sitting on a bench, completely serene and absorbed in a book - occasionally glancing to admire a stopped fountain despite the storm raging around them; Though their back was turned and the ... person seemed completely calm in the storm, Ravnir's intuition felt that this thing in a squishy-person's shape was the source of the wrongness. He just didn't have words for it immediately.

Breyja was upon a vantage point, watching Ravnir's blip head into the forested area, scanning through the footage and aggregated public photography data to map it out, inconsistencies and question marks were appearing when she compared what her data had captured compared to what she was looking at. It was as though the positions of each tree and path gathered by the data points all correlated with each other. But reality for Breyja - or perhaps only her perception - was simply not lining up any more. Then, a message - but even that didn't come through on a known codec - was there technological interference in the air?

On the opposite end of the campus, Snuffles was moving ahead with Sparrow flittering from branch to branch to stay out of the cold. Though Sparrow had more nerve and vinegar than the average ill-tempered and foul-mouthed avian, they couldn't ignore the fundamental 'fuckery' in the air. "Fucken' animals aren't staying in," Sparrow observed dryly as they saw squirrels and raccoons high-tailing it away from the centre of the grounds. As Snuffles pushed ahead, the alien begun seeing what her cousins were - so much overwhelming vision of eyes, dripping from every tree and down the side of each building on campus, all looking, watching, gazing. The walls were being painted with the vestiges of a world of mad dreams, brought to life by the Forgotten Gift's obsessions and psychosis; Splattering in rivulets and spreading like kudzu, to smear the here and now in colours out of visible sight which offended sensibilities in the spectrum of the soul, the concept of the sense of vision.

Just off the western side of SMU, the boldly brachiating Seiren was joined soon as Luca's blip leapt from the southernmost building of the campus, aiming straight for the centre against the wind and rain. Even as eyes watched them both from the dark under-hangs of buildings and in the corners of their vision, the two men were joined by Yttrium landing nearby from a quartet of hydraulic hops and skips lead her bounding along the path. As she approached the campus' forested interior, she saw, and was seen, and lost her nerve in the face of magic she couldn't understand, but could feel. "Lulu! What's going on? There's all this ... interference in the air and - and EYES!" Yttrium suddenly found herself unusually self-conscious as she pointed some out behind Luca.

Luca stopped on a skid, looking ahead towards the position of the woman in the park. "This isn't just a storm, that lady over there-" he indicated, ignoring all eyes on him, likely even hers "-must be a Weird, Elder level at least." At rest, he could feel Ravnir's footfalls in the ground, and figuring that the Raiken had pushed ahead and moved. Suddenly, Luca's communications begun acting up. Notifications begun flooding in and opening themselves, and indeed a cascading effect of unsettling messages begun appearing all over Phoenix Team's communications network.

Luca was watching the sigils on his communications holograms dance and reform before his eyes, and he clicked his tongue in annoyance, deciding not to pry any further now that introductions were made and the tone was set for the encounter. "This much is certain: They are a psionic of a magnitude most powerful, " He surmised to Yttrium and Seiren, "with a very active imagination that's leaking out of control, the ability to mess with sensors and digital systems, and the ability to compel with words - because who else could a champion be, but someone like Driver?" Then, he got his answer as the storm slowly begun to drown out from his perception, an ethereal voice creeping in as he dashed. Was it in those words, or was there something over the hill of bad possibilities, waiting just for him? Aw, shit. Luca realised.

I like your style. The Forgotten Gift said. I should wear it as midnight for my next meeting with the investors, once my Champion strikes you down. Luca slowed down a little to shake his head, grunting from the invasive thought. Temhebu closed her book. I can hear six heartbeats, six lives against this storm, six risks you're willing to take, yourself included am I correct? Luca made a hand signal for the others to slow down as he put his fingers against his forehead: They knew the risks. Temhebu turned around in their seat, now looking over with their singular, piercing eye. Come on, order your group to turn around and leave. You've done enough for Sargasso - I'll even let you keep doing it without a care in the world- Even in the midst of a psionic assault and a forceful proposal, Luca surmised that there'd be a catch -so long as you stay out my way. Do we have a deal, eleventh hour diplomat style, mister hero?

Seiren could see a rivulet of blood starting to drip from Luca's nose, and he took notice quickly. Yttrium also fretted as she saw her supposed ward bleeding, but saw that the woman's singular eye was now - smiling - a mouth full of too many teeth. Luca meanwhile was feeling the sound of rain flooding back in, wind rushing, the humidity all snapped back to here and now, as he found a centre deep in the core of his being that kept him going, challenging, on the edge of dying and coming back for more - it was all for others, for those who put his faith and trust in him, and for them, there'd be no backing down. "No." Luca challenged the Phasma openly, flinging his bloody hand aside to crack his knuckles - Seiren could feel, and his scans were indicating strong psionics from the woman ahead, and some signals from Luca all of the sudden. "Where's your champion, then!"

Not the ideal response, but not outside Temhebu's comprehension, based on their assessment of the other former EAD which caught her interest. That gutsiness killed foolhardy men every day. Temhebu had let men, women, those wronged however glancingly by Temhebu's investments, have a moment in the limelight of her creation before being crushed under heel - there was a difference in this one though was a much more personal connection with her chosen champion - a new angle of dynamics which could serve as the perfect distraction while they made a getaway with their goods. They stood up from their bench and spoke again, mouth of a thousand voices as their illusory skin of a demure woman sloughed away, showing Temhebu - The Forgotten Gift in full. "I'm so glad you asked, because he's familiar to you, and he just finished what he needed to!" She snapped her fingers - Seiren's psionic detections suddenly spiked.

Signals were coming in hot all around Seiren and Yttrium, with just enough clarity to know that something was out there, flung forth from places unseen to here and now, as the . In particular, a familiar cyborg in a racing suit rose from a yawning abyss of shadows behind Temhebu, with a gleaming pylon stone under his arm, handing it to the monstrosity. "Now, I'd love to stick around and watch the sparks between you two myself, but I'm I've an investment to cash in on." Temhebu turned around with the keystone for Stranglehold Omega in tow, dismissive. "I'll let security handle the res-"



A grapnel from Luca had siezed the underside of the keystone, yanking it away from the Phasma and dragging it along the dirt towards him - before the stone disintegrated within the hooks and materialised back in Temhebu's hands. "Cute, but no doughnut today, monkey boy. Have a nice death!" Luca meanwhile cursed his first plan not going forward, and saw Driver's attention levelling upon him, all eight feet of man staring Luca down. This was all but confirmed with this order: "Driver, kill!" Temhebu then appeared to drift away as planned, dropping herself through another place and time.

And for those within Temhebu's favour, they too could be hurled through her nightmares with their consent, immunised from the effect it had on the psyche of ordinary people by desensitising them systematically to the awful truths the existence of such a being as Temhebu pried open by blasting them with brainwashing and just indoctrination. Gruppen Tanhauss had been iterating upon their latest grow-able fighting force, and Temhebu realised that such blooming bodies bereft of soul, empathy and and any trace cognition which didn't serve the company could travel without needing a primer in sleep paralysis.

Thus, the threat of broccoli soldiers had returned, emerging from trees and shrubbery, dressed in the black and green of Tanhauss' premier security force, without enough brains to think for themselves but enough to fire at whatever they were told. Breyja could count dozens of them springing up, maybe even hundreds, depending on how serious Tanhauss was on protecting their interest.

Driver descended quickly and fiercely, trying to open up with a swinging haymaker - Luca dodged as Driver had predicted with his shotgun up, zigging and leaving one of his sides open as Luca left a heavy slug in Driver's chest to no effect - difficult to spot in the moment, but Driver shot in after the dodge and grabbed Luca by the neck, hoisting him up and causing him to drop his shotgun."He's mine." Driver declared, before disappearing with a puff of eyes to fling himself through witching currents. To the others, Luca had just been whisked away, and in his wake were nothing but the broccoli soldiers, shambling and dripping with eyes from their trip through the hell-scape, waiting to apprehend.

Yttrium was the first to freak out and panic at these developments, suddenly launching from an array of launch tubes Luca had grafted into one of her arms, conical mini-missiles snaking out as she spread fire from her fingertips in blind panic at a gaggle of broccoloid men, roasting them with sticky napalm. "Oh-OH GOODNESS! Where'd they take Lulu!?" Yttrium gasped, now mad as hell for what Tanhauss just did to her glom. While many of the Tanhauss broccoli soldiers were armed with simple smallarms, the sound of something heavier engaging and cocking could be heard, and another silhouette outside of everyone's view - similar in stature to Driver, but carried through Temhebu's tides differently - Breyja and Snuffles could recognise the outline of a light machine gun held with one hand - all Yttrium and Seiren saw was a big freaking gun. Ravnir however saw no threat from one squishy using weapons expected for other squishies.

Illuminated by the flash of lightning and punctuated by the rumble of thunder, Driver and Luca's silhouettes could be seen atop the southernmost building of the campus. Suddenly in new surroundings, Luca pulled his pistol from his side and unloaded into Driver's neck - pragmatics causing Driver to drop him down and for Luca to give himself distance, rolling back via grappling hook and coming to his feet. "Dean! Dean Bodala! You've changed!" Luca yelled over the din around him, hoarse, "I figured you'd fall in with corporates for easy money, but what the fuck are toying with now, man?! Where's your sense of self?"

The Driver stood, all eight feet of race-suited, helmeted and cybernetic menace. "Dean is no longer in this vessel." He stoutly declared. "Only Driver lives in this skin now. Die, Phoenix!" He begun running towards Luca, prepared to punch his face through his head, but Luca intercepted the incoming attack with a fist of his own - and the two men collided again, forehead to forehead in white hot anger. Thunder raged through the bays and oceans of Sargasso, as a migration of Sargasso Slime was making its way down the eastern coastline of Barrier Island, skirting the University grounds.

 

ELSEWHERE

~~~
SLIGHTLY LESS ELSEWHERE, NOIR

"Fucking BROCCOLI!" One Jirou Harridan swore behind an overturned desk. The soundstage for Shinka Studios was empty of most of its employees save for him and his co-star, Kaede. Around them, the green-skinned disposable army of Tanhauss advanced, guns in tow.

"E-everybody's already made it down t-to the panic room, it's just us now!" The cat-eared Maidenhand said, cowering behind the suspiciously sturdy desk.

"And they laughed at my expenses! Who's laughing now?!" Decker said, channeling a ball of light before tossing it over their makeshift cover. Sounds of anguish were heard after a brilliant BOOM. "Alright, the Ordinant Hand isn't likely to get involved and we've been jammed so I can't activate any of my teams. . . Time for contingency C. Kaede, I need you to trust me - just like we rehearsed okay? The enchantments will work so long as we stick to the script."

"But those were only made to take stunt explosions!"

"Kaede, Kaede, Kaede. . . No. Now then, it's showtime!"

Decker lobbed a ball of darkness over and the entire studio went black. Moments later, the shroud cleared and the pair stood in the center of the room, standing and posing.

With a start, both Decker and Kaede slapped on toyetic belt buckles and activated them. The soldiers around them opened fire, but as the belts began to jingle the bullets began to deflect off their bodies.

"Transform!"

~~~
HEREWHERE, SARGASSO

"Uh, what the fuck???"

Seiren slammed a foot on the ground and discharged his kinetics, flinging himself backwards to the nearest building to give himself a nice solid wall to stop enemies from surrounding him with. Immediately, the PFWSS of his pistol rang out as he needled the spawning broccoli soldiers.

"What the actual hell is going on?" He spat, crouching behind his shield to continue slamming soldiers with solidified sugar. "Am I gonna have to plan B this?"

 

Galacta Candy, Seiren's Workshop
♫ No More Heroes (Dark Side OST) - N.M.H. (The Outer Rim Remix) ♫

Static blasted through the feeds before April was forced to shut them off. Moments ago readings were spiking hard around Middleton before being overrun by interference, or some form of signal jamming. Grimacing and searching the console for other means of getting back in contact with Phoenix Team, April Zanetti flicked through other public channels - the network itself was still functioning, but the moment anything from the geographic area of Middleton was concerned, nothing came up - so much nothing there had to be something going on.

"There's a localised jam, potentially magical or psionic - and very broad spectrum..." She mused as feed after feed came up empty-handed. She glanced down to Cosmo - the cosmic-coated MBF had a pair of key-sticks in his paws, placing them on the desk next to April. "Huh? What's this?" She felt a tug on the mesh outside of her powered armour, and Cosmo was pointing her towards Seiren's latest creation.

Cosmo was nodding his head enthusiastically, rearing for Zanetti to step into the cockpit of Galacta Custom. Though nothing was said, much was inferred and interpreted by April as could be. "I see - guess I'm pulling a Phoenix now, because we have no idea what to expect going in." Cosmo barked twice as April took one of the key sticks and cricked her shoulders, pacing towards the mecha as the MBF sprinted on all fours to take the co-pilot's seat while April clambered into the pilot's chair.

"Now, is this thing analogue, cyber, immersion, or...?" She figured it out as she went, while Cosmo was taking full control and guiding Galacta Custom toward a pair of geometric, handled containers whirring with computers, sensors, projectors and circuitry configured with the latest updates and hardware for the shield network. "We drop these off, and get our Pylon network back up and running, then." April reiterated as Cosmo typed the instructions out to her HUD. She nodded solemnly and put her hands on the joysticks, getting a feel for the gimballed arms within the cockpit. "Checks are green, all systems nominal! Right, andiamo!"

In the storm battered exterior of Galacta Candy, shutters had been drawn and all moveable materiel had been mothballed in anticipation of monsoon floods. Such was procedure when Sargasso's perennial inclement weather battered the city. A roadway to guide cargo and guests suddenly lowered at an angle, and suddenly over the gates of Galacta Candy, the Galacta Custom made its maiden flight. The street just outside of the property was feeling the lashings of the storm, as high, hot and damp winds battered fronds, lamp posts, sandwich boards, and pedestrians, yet a navy blur with green highlights was flying against it, south-west towards Barrier Island...


Sargasso, SMU, South-West Building and Grounds
The corridors of Sargasso's premier magic university were still, save for the crawling eyes and distortions left as the men and women who stood mind for mind upon each other's shoulders found it all working against them now. Their deep understanding of what made the world weird had left them vulnerable, exposed to knowledges better left unknown by mortal minds.

Many students ran for their lives back to their dormitories - there was no way to brave the storm. Attempts to photograph Temhebu's numerous eyes merely resulted in blanks, corruption, static and interference. No social media could reach outside of these prying eyes - networks were dead. The people in charge of the university were hamstrung - too much mental static in the air and too overwhelming a problem to arise in a critical moment - and only now was it realised that something vital and dangerous had gone missing during the chaos.

Those who were in charge were able to identify each other from their proximity and seniority, but getting in contact with one another was all but impossible. Crone had warned a faculty member she didn't like to get no closer to the growing and watching eyes, to get out of sight and static to escape and regroup - there was nothing they could do otherwise. Now she was staring at the same person's body, but the vacant look in their eyes told Crone there was nobody but the madness of Temhebu left. She cast a spasm upon their colleague and watched them fall to the ground incapacitated, keeping them paralysed by leaving a glyph on their body as they ordered their Perfect Stranger to barricade the door and keep his charge safe.

Crone could hear something on the roof above her, people moving around in the dormitories to get away from this crawling mess. For the moment, things were safe behind wards and guards up in the dorms, but she could hear something else moving which rose above the din of footsteps. Heavy falls which shook the concrete, brick and wood which made up the buildings. She instructed her perfect stranger to look ahead and investigate the source of the additional upset - she didn't need something coming to attack everyone in the dorms from the roof as well.

With sight unseen, Mr. Cordial cast their gaze outside of the building, recognising some of the Phoenix Team's members out in the storm, fighting the broccoli-derived footsoldiers. "Phoenix Team are here, madam." He indicated towards the window heading north. Crone lit up with a broad smile - trustworthy folks were here to try and rectify this with as much force they could muster.

The two largest and most obvious combatants against the green tide were Yttrium and Ravnir, for their sheer size and flair of their respective outputs. The crude had begun darting backwards, kiting and drawing attention away from Ravnir and Seiren, while giving the Raiken additional flame to work with and the inventor covering fire as he retreated up the south-west building.

"These things ... they stink! Overcooked!" Yttrium commenting, having seen her glom refuse to cook his vegetables as boiled and disgusting as Tanhauss army-for-growth had made themselves. Suddenly, a volley of heavier machine gun fire came from the bushes north of Yttrium's position - tracers interspersed with a stream of lead signalling the weapon's fire as Yttrium retreated from view with a hydraulic hop. "Eee! Ravnir! Over there!" She cried out as the raiken charged forward.

Getting up close and personal, Ravnir found that the broccoli-derived soldiers were wearing ill-fitted boiler suits over metal shells which contained their lignin bodies and organs, exoskeletal. The hands seemed to be entirely robotic, with enough fingers to swing the batons, fire the guns and flip the bird. None of this stood for long in the way of Cirul Aira, cleaving and sending heads and bodies away in arcs, and absorbing the impact of machine gun fire.

Over the din of the storm and fire as Ravnir was shifting stance, a whistling noise could be heard from overhead, followed by a warhead striking a squad of armed broccolis with a dull explosion which sent loose tan-bark and dirt spiralling through the air - this must've been the Chelti paying dividends after putting their piece together.

Snuffles was able to sneak and flank while Ravnir, Yttrium, and a cousinly shelling provided an adequate distraction - letting them indicate and light up the source of the light machine gun fire. A hulking human dressed in urban camouflage, possibly cybernetic as Driver was, with their loyalty to Tanhauss pressed chemically into their mind and against their shoulder. There was an opportunity to either mark their position or call Ravnir towards them, as they were strafing to keep away from additional shelling.

Breyja had her eyes on, and her ears back as she lined shots on the south-east building - her personal defence measures were popping off the blocks as wires tripped and sensors discovered unwarranted movement. Her shots to cover Yttrium's retreat hit true, sabots tumbling once they cloft through the exoskeletal metal of the brokkoldat. After several more successful body-shots, the Maidenhand sensed unwanted company clambering the walls to flush her out, Breyja had to move her position or get overrun, fast.

The closest other rooftop to Breyja was the building just west of her - which Seiren happened to be retreating up to, and where Luca and Driver were spotted duking and brawling it out. Last they both saw, Luca was shooting at Driver's legs, tackling from the side and taking the top-heavy man down onto his back and mount - elbow smashing against the back of Driver's helmet, prompting the cyborg stand up and fall backwards, landing on Luca and rolling to the opposite side to peel the man in red off.

Luca reeled himself away and rolled on his back to get on his feet again, while Driver was scrambling on all fours to pursue - Luca had never seen Dean move this way before - there may not have been any 'Dean' in there left, just scrambling jealousy and resentment against the world that worked against them for a few weeks. Driver leapt towards Luca with arms extended, and the man in red met the incoming attack with a knee strike, landing square in Driver's nose and shattering the visor - ghostly flames leaking out and being snuffled by the buffeting storm.

Driver's sheer size and bulk meant that his body kept on barrelling though even though Luca had intercepted them - he landed heavy and limp initially, before scrambling to grips and pinning Luca down to the ground, the two men wrestling for control and dominance. A fist-mark the size of a bear's claw had been left against the ground - Driver trying to crush Luca's head into paste.

Across the sky, a screaming could be seen and heard over the noise of the storm - Seiren just saw his plan B coming in hot overhead. Luca had no time to register that this was part of Phoenix Team's plan - Driver had grabbed onto his right arm, trying to wrench it out of its socket and retrieve the Grapple Stunner as a trophy. The upside to this was that it gave Seiren and Breyja clearer shots at Driver.

 

ELSEWHERE

~~~
HEREWHERE, SARGASSO

Seiren beamed at the sight of the streaks across the sky.

"Well, I didn't get to do my cool BIG ROBOT summoning thing, but I'll take what I can get!" He said, flicking the SucroSpike into its inactive position and reaching behind and grabbing the cylinder that was his collapsed Grav-bat. He activated his gaunlet and placed the bat in the palm, angling it upwards. Then, with a shout, of "HEADS UP LUCA!" He pulsed it straight up through the air, the smooth metal glinting as it sped towards the duel of Luca and Driver.

♪ Mighty Punk Force! 2 - Daft Collision (Daft Punk vs WayForward) ♪

Seiren returned his focus to the encroaching horde of armored vegmen. From behind his shield, he pressed different points on his glove with his thumb - keyed to his helmet like buttons. Multiple warning prompts came up, which he promptly went through.

"Ravnir, I got the horde. You hit the heavies!"

Seiren angled his gauntlet at the crowd and reeled himself in, flicking his pistol back out. He impacted with one kinetic shoe on a suit, absorbing the impact as he rotated and fired several into a neck joint to lead into the next target. His helmet buzzed with notifications and calculations, utilizing the same technology that powered Ravnir's new eyepiece but to a far more significant extent as it burned through its own processors for just a few minutes of tech-assisted badassery.

Seiren dropped to the ground when the soldiers began leveling their guns at him, then grav-grabbed a sidearm only to dump the magazine and fling it at another. He reeled himself towards another soldier and absorbed more shock, then swung about to deliver one of the impacts to another nearby soldier while he spiked his impromptu landing pad at close range.

 

Sargasso, SMU, South-West Building and Grounds
There was a flash of lightning off into road turned-river north-east of the university. Out in the ocean, a cacophonous dance of storms illuminated over the monolithic clouds and their rainfall. Across a rooftop on the southeastern building of the University, an imbued Driver was attempting to twist Luca's right arm off, cackling as he heard the man beneath straining. "Yes! YES!" Driver had his knee against the captain's head - pinning against the rooftop gravel with a manic canter. "I'll have it! I'll have it! Mine!"

Not! Bloody! LIKELY! Luca ruminated as he saw something flying towards him - A grey blur with a blue streak of light trailing, camouflaged by a thunderbolt and heading straight for Driver's head. With his eye obsessively upon his perceived prize, the flying bat struck Driver lengthwise, shattering their black helmet into splinters from the emblem down and rocking his temple - causing him to lose his grip and crumple atop Luca in a brief daze.

The captain took charge immediately, putting all of his strength into his core, shoulders and arm to wrench himself free and push Driver up and away. As he slunk and rolled away, Luca felt the damage Driver had done to the Grapple Stunner, their iron grip had crushed some of the mechanics. Damn - no time to fix this, looks like its the old fashioned way, or...

Luca's train of thought ceased when he got a better look at what Driver had become, ghostly light flowing from their racing suit illuminated a skeletal, inhuman face with sunken eyes - face affixed in a rictus. "All that power and you couldn't have asked for a face while you were getting freebies?" Luca queried, rolling his arm and cricking his neck - the adrenaline was starting to flow, and he felt and looked charged. "I'll show you how much free's worth, Driver!"

♫ Lazerhawk - King of the Streets ♫

Driver's daze gave way to indignation and rage, which Luca met with a swift jab, bending down to grab the bat which had rolled towards his feet and raising it to block a clubbing forearm, twirling it and taking it up in two hands. While not totally at odds with the unintended uses of a baseball bat, Luca found it difficult to keep up with the fury of Driver - but the lumber's evasive, swinging qualities allowed him to launch himself by selective anchoring, avoiding the hulking man's lunges and attacks.

When Luca had an unexpected advantage by swinging himself straight up and coming down bat in hand, Driver managed to juke their trajectory and avoid the falling bat, which struck the roof instead - feeling the impact shoot all the way up his arms. Suddenly, the sound of cracks could be heard beneath both men, and the gravel which made up the thermal cover for the roof could be heard spilling through cracks formed by breaking concrete and steel.

"Oh, shit," Luca cussed at the unfolding predicament which Driver couldn't escape either. The battering rain accelerated the destruction as a section of the roof fell in, a quarter of the structure used for a top floor lecturing and science room had been separated by a hallway through the middle of the building. He and Driver landed partially buried in rubble, both scrambling and lifting themselves out furiously to continue - as far as Luca felt, it was just getting started.


Breyja found herself in a glass-strewn stairwell corridor followed by a rain squall and blazing hot lead, and with a handful of options before her. The hallway was dripping with oozing eyes of unseen sight. In response to the glass breaking, one of the doors opened for a brief moment - Breyja spotted a terrified person's face before they slammed the door shut - one of the civilians who'd no choice but to ride out the whirling storm around them. She could also hear something breaking and shattering further into the university, and screams of terror from the floors above.

There were civilians that needed rescuing - but not all seemed helpless. A large human figure peered from around the corner, wearing a waistcoat and a shirt with rolled up sleeves - and their face was obscured by shadow. Breyja would recognise them as Crone's bodyguard - Cordial, was he. "Miss Sarn, this way." The Perfect Stranger indicated. "Crone would like to speak to you."

In all, the each of the university wings had a ground floor, and 4 storeys, making for a total of twenty floors to clear. Wonderful, not. Meanwhile the broccoli-derived soldiers had begun clambering atop each other, a green tower snaking up the hole Breyja had made in the stairwell clawing to get at her. A few moments later the mass was transformed into a large, green stain splattered several yards in all directions from an epicentre amid the lignin bodies. A timed explosive which Breyja had left in her wake had hit a very true mark.

Finch could hear sirens over the din of Chelti gunfire to cover their heavies, familiar wails to herald what was considered law enforcement around here. Able to deal with simple people's problems in most shapes, but as vans pulled up and riot police started moving out with shields and shotguns, Finch guessed they were here a little too late for the largest fight, or to help the civilians in the building. The gear belayed their purpose.

The chelti watched the men balk at the sight of the unknown - splattered eyes left in the wake of Witchspace couldn't be negotiated with, or bludgeoned into submission, let alone understood. A burly police sergeant, finger as thick as a corncob beneath glove was reciting a battle plan over the wind and rain: break doors down, avoid the weird shit, evacuate civilians, restrain infected, and shoot anything that's hostile human or otherwise. When Finch saw retaliatory bullets heading towards broccoli, he knew they had the right idea.


The grenade with bubbles stencilled onto was difficult to spot over the squalls of rain and violent foliage - the light-machine gun wielding super-soldier was keeping Yttrium and Ravnir from getting close as they laid down suppressing fire to cover the approach of their respective squalls of Broccoli problems. Ravnir was having the least trouble as he carved and cleaved, drawing fire and earth from soil steeped in post-modern magery - but with all he was summoning up, he couldn't ignore the fatigue forever, nor the needles which, with every poke, got just a little deeper.

Beneath the light machine gunner, the soap grenade exploded beneath them with a pop that sounded over their cannon, causing them to pause and look around for the source of the noise - a miss-step which caused his previously firm position to slip. The tracers visible through the night suddenly shot upwards instead of towards Yttrium.

The crude looked up to see what that brute could've been firing at. Rain? Wind? A big eye? Maybe something from the 'forgetting gifts' spooked them? It seemed futile. "He fell over! I'll get him while he's down, Ravnir!" She called out, priming herself for a hydraulic leap. "Here I gooo!" She leapt, leaving a violet stream of light in her wake before colliding hard with the gunner. Her weight almost assuredly disabled the gunman, but Yttrium now had a new problem - she was in a thicket of broccoli men.

"Eee!" She cried out, realising her tactical error before engaging flames as she laid on the ground - twisting her arms and legs around to spray in all directions and turn the broccoli's crowding advantage against them. By now, between Ravnir and Yttrium, over half the broccoloid fighting force had been torn apart, considered unfit for consumption. Another quarter of them had been splattered by Breyja, and there was a mere quarter left, dispersed throughout the buildings on the grounds. Ravnir could at least catch his breath, or find some form of replenishment while he had time on his side.

♫ Streets of Rage 2 - Never Return Alive ♫

Up in the sky against the raging storms behind Seiren, his Galacta Custom was dropping software pods towards the defence grids - the new algorithms and programs had compiled in flight, and four of seven beacons had been covered, and the shimmering shape of a hex-speckled dome had winked into existence for a moment, but the cycle was incomplete - three more remained to encompass the university.

Seiren's scanners were starting to clear up somewhat. Communication was coming back, in a however limited form. In any case, he could hear progress being made as he chased down the stragglers, the broccoli men were getting indicated and chased down and out of cover by Sparrow's helpful observations, eg: "There's a boiled shithead trying to be a bush! WASTE 'EM!" During his search-and-destroy, Seiren could overhear the sound of the roof collapsing - and his gravity bat indicating that Luca had lost a hold on it. The combat data they'd produced was preserved faithfully - thousands of newtons upon a point!

With plan finalised, the riot cops begun storming towards the building stained with splattered broccoli-men, shields, clubs and shotguns at the ready to get staff and students out safely. Breyja could see the police vans and armoured cops entering the building from the hole she'd made in the stairwell glass - whether or not they knew she was a friendly was a different issue altogether. At least she wasn't green and smelled soft boiled, so that much was certain - plus there was a friend inside who could be trusted.

Out in the field, Yttrium slowly raised herself up from landing upon her side, and found the huge man pancaked against the ground and his face crushed by her backside, having been buried in the dark before expiring. "Not a bad way to go, hm~?" Yttrium cooed at the incapacitated man, unaware that most of the damage had been done by the weight of her scavenged power armour limbs, particularly the legs and her soft PVC-exteriored thigh.

She then noticed the police and saw them heading into each of the university's buildings - her postion near the middle and her height let her see all the lights and sense klaxons. "Oh, that's right, we're - ah - not done yet!" She snapped her fingers in a high-pitched, robotic panic, looking for her glom frantically - he was on the roof a moment ago! "We need to save the others! Yes!" She nodded enthusiastically towards Ravnir and Seiren and clapping her hands together. "But where'd Lulu and Driver go?" She asked, hoping the eyes hadn't done anything bad to them.

She took in the scent of the air, and then she wondered something as a familiar scent came across her olfactories and sensors. "I... I can smell slime. Lots of it." The crude said, looking about herself nervously - she wasn't too fond of them given her hydrocarbon body was considered a delicious snack by any sourcian. She leapt up again onto the roof, in the middle and looking around for him.

 

ELSEWHERE

~~~
HEREWHERE, SARGASSO

"Swing and a miss, Luca!" Seiren called out, noticing the collapsing roof from his acrobatic antics. More importantly, he was finally beginning to come back online with the Galacta Custom's arrival and dropping of his emergency, hasty countermeasures to Weird Shit.

Tapping into the police comm frequency mid-GALACTA KICK impact on a particularly unfortunate soldier, he said, "Hello! Be advised, Phoenix team is on the scene and engaging the Weird shit going on! If you see something that looks like a hero, don't shoot! Anything made of broccoli and metal's fair game! And keep an eye out for something that doesn't want you to look at it!"

Whether they obeyed or not, Seiren switched gears on his processors. Thanks to the Galacta Custom, he had more power to work with - and he expanded his search radius as he took cover in a tree, out of sight. By the power of a few hundred communicator signals bouncing in the increasingly finished barrier, he'd triangulate the head Weird. Or so he'd hoped.

 

Sargasso Magical University, South-West Building, Ruined Laboratory
The learning laboratory Luca and Driver had crashed through was exposed to the storm outside. Dust was torn apart by the wind and rain, blowing the glow around Luca away too. He felt his heartbeat calm down and a dull headache crossed through his brow, shivers running up his spine as chills snuck through his outer layers. I think I overdid it - head's ... light. He surmised, psionic flames wicking away from his body, and so too was the warmth of ego. The first reality to set in was that he lost track of Driver in the commotion, second was to drop the hand-to-hand combat and prepare for a close encounter.

Drawing his revolver, he was prepared to put a hole in his colleague; imbued by a deal with a devil or otherwise. "Alright, here's how I see it Dean." He called out, pulling the hammer back and leading his aim as he scanned the room, looking over the workbenches, teaching desks and shelves scattered with arcane objects, measuring equipment and ceiling debris. Driver's silhouette was a distinct target - hard to miss once spotted.

"I can't beat sense into you because you're..." Luca snapped his fingers, working a kink out muscle of his shoulder while he watched his step against the rubble-strewn floor, "Un-cooperative with me, so I'll settle for blasting the hell out of you unless you tell me what your endgame is and who your latest accomplice is, deal?"

Scraping of shoved tables and screeches of chair legs against linoleum broke cut through the rain, causing Luca to swivel towards the exit leading into the corridors of the university. Instincts told him that in such close quarters, being lured towards a doorway would be Driver's ideal mode of attack. On the front foot of the engagement, Luca wise to slow down. He looked for other ways in and out - two doors lead out, and the noise came from the closer door.

A boot scrunching against rubble and gravel rose from the exit further away, and Luca swivelled with a pivot, seeing the tell-tale silhouette through the doorway. Broad-shouldered and capped with a helmet adorned in a smashed visor glinting like fangs against the storm's hues, and dimly illuminated by their dark power, trailing like exhaust in smog. Three shots rung out - flashes and sparks across the laboratory as the burning gunpowder was propelled with the bullet.

Right in the head - but the silhouette was deforming and warping, shattered visor twisting into a grin despite three slugs canoeing the false Driver's cranium. Luca was taken aback by the lack of effect and the throaty laugh the neck-stump produced. "Fool! You want a fair fight? Then face me with my full power soon..." It coughed out. That could only mean that he was getting one of his mecha - and the imagination lent itself to a beast of steel and fire, imbued with Driver's new patron.

Guess he remembers that fair fights are for suckers, so there is that... Luca ruminated as Driver was out of the picture suddenly; The captain could hear something scaling up the side of the university building. Skittering and crawling grassy strands cast onto the building were pulling a different strain of the broccoli-derived soldiers up over the window frames. Oh wonderful, new cultivars.

Heading away from the open ceilings into the roiling sky to go against the wall and ducking down, Luca reached for his carbine with a sigh. "Stupid things in large numbers..." He said, loading a squat drum magazine and seeing the under-barrel launcher was loaded too. He'd effectively turned the compact assault rifle into a light machine gun. "-require large numbers of bullets!" With that, he stood up and strafed edges of the room in covering fire.

His immediate plan from there was to move inside and see if he could utilise anything within the university to get things under control, rescue civvies from the unfolding horrors and broccoli, and rendezvous with anyone else on his team along the way. All they had to do was follow the sounds of machine gun fire...


MEANWHILE...!

Sargasso, The Quiet, Sargasso Graveyard
CFO Ilsa Mout-Battenberg and head of R&D Tobias Lange were witness to an odd ritual, its details imbued into the keystone Driver handed Temhebu. Being a Maidenhand, Ilsa was resistant to the overt magical auras that Temhebu's plan for further, future profits for Tanhauss and control of the magical dealings of Sargasso.

Though there was influence over the Maidenhand she couldn't sense, the woman could feel that some element of this plan had a flaw not immediately apparent, if only for the unknowns it presented to her business model. This has to be a new way to take control around these parts. Never in her wildest dreams would she have imagined making a deal with a literal demon to raze and plunder a university, but there she was. The cost's beyond mere decimals and currencies now.

Accessing the keystone's programming and imbuing it with her own will, she saw the psionic background and underlaying structure of the crystal and started to run its program - tendrils snaking out to each headstone in the area. "I'm going for a small scale test to begin with, nothing big~" Temhebu assured her two stakeholders - watching Lange's tail curl around the headstone he was seated on - they were a biologist, not a necromancer and this stuff was outside his domain. Swift reminders of biological limitations which governed Lange crept up the his back as he heard the voice of the woman of his dreams trickle through his ear from the Phasma, and could only fathom what Ilsa heard in the thing.

Diamond motes rose from the the floating keystone, bathing the area in Unity Blue light laced with the corruption of Temhebu. Each flung themselves into the earth beneath the headstones. Lange looked at Ilsa, agape at the unexplained. Units are capable of harnessing psionics via technology? They wondered, watching patches of soft earth sift and thrash as angular ghosts rose. What other innovations do they keep from us? I never knew the soul could be harnessed this way.

All these souls! Oh my~! Temhebu was contemplating as they spoke with a forked tongue to frightful spectres. "The Sargasso Magical University has been attacked by a group of terrorists!" They said, and far as the Phasma's audience was concerned, Temhebu was a ... fanciful Unit, and that aliens the rising spectres were examining really were that strange and had to be emulated.

"They have deployed a psionic bioweapon to cover the place in psionic fog and eyes" Temhebu lied, dovetailing into the way Units emulated those the people and aliens around them. Just wait till I make an economy of this. "March across the bay and bring them to justice as soon as you can!"

Sowing more confusion with Unit tech, within which, the place will be levelled, we have the keystone, and SMU rebuilt with Tanhauss' money and influence bankrolling it... Ilsa was rationalising the plan at last, or perhaps it had seized upon her out of the instinct to survive. The first and strongest clawhold possible into the magery sector of Sargasso. Dr. Lange was having entirely different and terrified thoughts - confronted for the first time in a long time at what he was seeing.


BACK AT SMU...!

Sargasso Magical University, South-West Building, Southern Side
Breyja was being escorted through a path the Perfect Stranger had created with his hands - the various forms of broccoli soldiers smashed apart by hand as indicated by the green stains on Mr. Cordial's forearms and across his sweater vest. "I can hear and see what's on the other side of the building and I can assure you your leader's doing fine," The man relayed without missing a step.

Breyja was pinpointing the sound of Luca's machine gun fire, which had been echoing throughout the corridors from the opposite end of the building, and steadily moving inwards. She and the Weird were walking down a long main corridor with a tacky carpet, and school achievements written in glass on the walls - all splattered in strange now. They stopped when the corridor had been blocked off by a shimmering magical barrier cloudy in air and runic against the rug.

"But first thing's first, Ms. Sarn-" Mr. Cordial's charge was searching for a new mag and he handed her a fresh one, turning right pushing open a door marked 'Faculty Lounge'. They found themselves in a space originally intended to allow the staff unwind, but it'd become a makeshift fortress within the horrors around the university building.

"The gist of it is we need to get survivors out as soon as possible." Mr. Cordial noted as he looked across the room. In addition to some civilians armed with tool wands and whatever they could scrounge, the Crone was poring over a replica floorplan of the university and marking areas off which were too stricken to consider. "The madam has placed Phoenix Team on the security register."

Crone looked up from her floorplan with a warm smile for the Maidenhand woman. "Ah! Perfect - we were looking for someone to deal with the..." She and Breyja could hear machine gun fire from the main corridor opposite the barrier - sporadically bursts had snaked closer and everyone's heads swivelled, save for the Perfect Stranger's. "Broccoli. I think our mutual friend has it handled, but how do we hold what areas have been taken?" The crone ruminated - there just didn't seem to be a stop to the damned broccoli.


Sargasso Magical University Grounds, Southern Area
The chelti were seeing two different problems arising as they found their artillery piece wasn't so good for rescue operations, and a scenario wherein a use could be found didn't leap into the Chelti imagination immediately. One of the cousins could smell something distinctly minty in the air, and they looked down the eastern highway of Barrier Island.

Traffic had all but vanished save for abandoned cars caught in the storm - and a grotesque lurching form dozens of feet wide was slithering down the street, picking up cars like toys and sweeping them against barriers and off the highway as the rain and wind feathered their passage. It was the slime migration they'd been warned of, and while the Chelti were out of its direct path, it was something to consider if they had to move through the university or down the roads throughout the college.

The lay of the land showed that the whole university was on higher ground, but as that calming fact had time to register, a secondary report was coming in from the bay in the East. An army of hardlight ghosts was marching towards the university - party and motive unknown. Suddenly, the use for heavy artillery had presented themselves in a potential pincer formation.

Up on the roof of the South-West building, Yttrium could see the approaching army and was terrified. She knew ghosts were real - and that they were scary - but a whole army of them terrified the Crude - and the oozing sight of so many simple Sourcian slimes clogging the highway was making her shiver and lose her morale. She looked down to Seiren for some assurance on the matter.

The inventor's sweep through his pylon network was reporting the same things the Chelti were seeing. As for a bead on the Weird responsible for spreading filth throughout the university, scanners concluded that it was outside of the scanning range, but within Sargasso. Signals were still being made and dashed as the network was starting to find ways into the rest of Sargasso, hampered by inclement weather and an incomplete pylon network.

The only tranquil being amid the university's grounds was the Raiken. They knew their limits - perhaps destroying the building with those who needed rescuing would be frowned upon, and they waited and listened to what Seiren's communications network and the Chelti were piping in, all as they inspected themselves for cuts and scratches caused by the Broccoli soldier's weapons.

The moment to breathe let Ravnir feel the tingle of the earth beneath his feet, imbued by the history of study that'd taken place between the four buildings that comprised the university grounds. For Seiren, just one more Pylon needed to be upgraded by the Galacta Custom for a full link back to the rest of the world, and hopefully a bead on the entity responsible for the eye-gouging mess upon Sargasso Magical University.

And for the briefest of moments, all felt calm within the eye of the storm...

 

ELSEWHERE

HEREWHERE, SARGASSO

Seiren saw his network coming online slowly, and quickly crunched the numbers. One left, so the Custom would be there soon. He booked it.

"Hey April! You read me? We need that last pylon up NOW! Weird-er shit INBOUND, and if what you told me about Stranglehold is right, it's online!" Seiren barked into his helmet, grav-slinging himself towards his objective. "Hopefully the modifications hold and keeps Weird things inside inside and the ones outside outside. And Cosmo, I expect my seat to be ready when y'all land! Prepare. . . THE WAWL!"

Up in the Galacta Custom, Cosmo the wonder-MBF received the ping and thumbs-upped the Toymaker as they began flicking toggles and preparing the systems. . . by selecting a track.

 

Sargasso Magical University, South-West Building, Northern Side Corridors
Click click click click. Those were noises Luca wasn't keen on hearing already, but the volume of broccoli soldiers he'd been cutting down and carving paths through had burnt through his supply of rifle ammunition, forcing him to take stock of his options from behind an upturned bank of lockers. He could also feel a break in the rainstorm, cold comfort in the face of more pressing issues. "Hey, everything trying to kill me - be reasonable for just a moment," he asked the insentient broccoli-derived life forms who'd been trying to put a hole in him - all he could do in such accentuating social circumstances was be reciprocal.

He still had his shotgun - it didn't have the output he needed to carve swathes from the throng, but he figured it'd get him from where he was from where he had to be. "I'm calling for a break because we're at least a hundred; And none, to me." He punctuated his statement of intent with a pull of the lever of his piece, checking for a loaded round. The other thing he was waiting for was if these broccoli-derived goons were grown to feel fear, or to follow other's whims first. "Yea? Nay?" Signs were pointing to no - which was perfectly fine with Luca.

The man in red sprung out from behind his cover and made a beeline for the central lounge room, diverting and cutting through the shattered glass walls of a classroom, circling to pepper the crowds of broccoli men with buckshot. Watching his back from behind was Snuffles, who'd just rappelled up the building ahead of the cops, and was getting a view of the man in flight - hurling grenades as he was flip-cocking his shotgun, and traversing the features of the room effortlessly in a concert of violence.

However - it became clear that Luca knew the limits of his supply, and seemed to dart off deeper towards the centre - without realising at all that the Chelti was watching him. Was he that caught up in what he was fighting not to notice Sparrow screaming for him to get his ass over here and say hi instead of running? He always responded to that bird.

A few minutes later and further behind at her own bounding pace, Yttrium was following Luca and the Chelti's trail of destruction - it wasn't difficult to track his path through against the horde - green splatters were concealing the eyes, and it felt like some of it was even being washed away from the wind howling through the halls. Along the way, she could see university students peering out after the gunfire had died down, spotting the Crude. Yttrium figured to point them towards the exits and evacuate. As she was conversing, a phalanx of riot shields and law enforcement personnel were filtering up the stairs and through the halls.

Yttrium, wasn't comfortable with sticking around now that the police had it handled - the Crude decided not to take any more risks with them deciding to call a bogus bounty in for Tanhauss. With naught to talk to as she loped down the hall, she monologued absently through the Phoenix Team radio channel: "So that's the students safe on this side, and the storm's going down. And the eyes? They're fading- Oh!" She noticed the Chelti in the windowsill when their pet bird wolf-whistled at 'hot legs', solidifying her attention. "Snuffles! And the birdy! Have you seen Lulu?" He went that-a-way, miss.


Sargasso Magical University, South-West Building, Central Teacher's Lounge
With the task presented before them from the jelly, Crone was willing to follow along with a headcount, but the proposed means seemed strange as did some of the additional details asked specifically of Phoenix Team. "My clerks? Desks?" she asked in a low voice, looking around the room for either and spotting some of each in limited capacity. Crone then shot Breyja a glance with a furrowed brow "Your financial status?" There was examining a gift merc in the mouth, then there was perusing through their financials - and the average odd-jobber or strong-arm in these parts didn't make a consistent salary, but an interesting one - each paycheck coming with its own little story.

One was unfolding right before the Green bureaucrat's senses as the northern door into the hallways was thrown open and through it came Luca, landing on his back with shotgun in hands, pumping the lever below the handle. Following him was a Brokkoldat with stringy, leafy tendrils wrapped around Luca's leg, another select cultivar. Luca fired at what approximated for a head on the hominid and followed up with getting up on one knee and firing at its forearm to get free, followed up with a boot to the chest back the way they came and slamming the door behind him.

Only now did Luca turn around and find himself amid frightened students, Breyja, and Crone - all he could muster was a dumb grimace and a wave, capped with a pithy "hey everybody, remember to eat your veggies" broken up by the broccoli-thing pounding on the door behind him, "before they eat you!" prompting Luca to put his back into it. The man was covered in splatters across his jacket, pants and boots, smelled of sweat and burnt cordite, and he was tiring out.

"I'll get the door, dear." An unfased Crone cooed, walking over with her cane as she recalled a binding symbol, coming to a stop beside Luca and drawing the concentric triangle pattern between the door and its frame, locking it adamantly shut. The hammering was repulsed by a barrier and delivered back into the broccoli-man manyfold. "Splendid; Now," The old witch smiled, turning around with Luca following, letting his shotgun stay barrel down by his side and a sigh of relief. "Green, this is Luca. He is another head taker rather than a head counter." She introduced him to the Green Slime. Luca straightened up and brushed himself off, now paying more attention to who he was being introduced to.

Luca had picked up his empty shotgun cartridges and pocketed it, and now that he was starting to slow down from the thrill of combat, taking deep breaths and sucking up residual incidental injuries. "Oh, uh, hello." He said, slouching to roll his shoulders "During my meandering rampage I killed at least a hundred and thirty three men made of broccoli give or take twenty, how are- Ow!" He got a pinch on the ear and pulled to one knee by Crone, wiping at his head.

"You got a bit of the eye in ya ears, boy, hold still." She'd noticed that he was a bit off since he came in, and further investigation and sight unseen saw something hitching a free ride on Luca's psyche. "And here, and there on you, doing you no good, come on." She scolded, repairing a mind with a dishrag full of viscous eyesplatter and dragging him by the arm. "And you're starving too, never mind the whipping they've given you." The old woman looked towards Breyja while Luca was looking aside, embarrassed. "Poor thing hasn't noticed the state he's in during all the excitement."

The idea that his perception was being tampered with by being around this stuff made Luca's blood run cold for a moment, a line of questioning quickly derailed when Crone offered him a vitality-suffused biscuit and a warm drink from Mr. Cordial. "Running on fumes like this is nothing new, but..." Luca took the sweet and started snacking immediately. Then he looked out into the bay saw what was coming - if it was Driver's idea, it certainly was an original one. "Uhh... Breyja, quick question; You happen to be any good at mass exorcism?" He asked, half-joking as this new development came calling.


Sargasso Magical University, Central Grounds
The uncanny thing about the division of hardlight ghosts making their way towards was their lack of footprint, no march nor clamour of combat. Gliding silently across the turbulent the bay toward the university; The clade of Chelti and the Raiken watched them make landfall in the distance, filtering through the streets and roads of the city approaching the university. They were mistaken for some new form of Unit - but the lens through which they were cast and how their master's machinations refracted sent civilians and citizens who were already hiding from the storm to fear for whatever uncanny games the Units may or may not have been up to. The well-intentioned strangeness of the Units was unlike the obsession Temhebu wanted to see in reality.

But there were plans, and schemes, and ideas all popping off at different starting guns, some whirling away procedurally and firing at their own tempo, and some who'd prepared well in advance. Seiren Isbala fell into the latter category, with the last of the pylons receiving its update by blunt-force delivery. Its circuit around the grounds of the university was completed and all pylons online formed the bubble around the area. A communications network was alive, information flowed again through the university and into the outside world. Inside, Luca, Breyja and Crone were seeing reports of the incoming ghosts come in from other students. Green meanwhile was thankful for some form of infrastructure with which census could take place.

The Ace Custom with dog and former EAD within started on a landing trajectory, swooping towards a clearing on the grounds, slowing rapidly and slowly coming open. April leapt out as soon as she had clearance, and looked through the barrier at the incoming. "With the new updates and changes to the projection profile," April said to Seiren, speaking fluent inventor, "it'll keep them out with enough time to get everyone evacuated..." She was hoping her changes to the refraction and dispersion calculations was correct.

The contingent of Cah-zins and the Sargasso PD were shielded, as the force-field was giving them the means to regroup and the want to worry about one less incoming problem. Near the entrances to each building of the University grounds, the contained police force was getting people out to the edges - the ordinary evacuation plan that headed towards the middle of the ground wasn't ideal with the combat and storm. The secondary evacuation point was north of the university, in a park on the way to the Spaceport. A question came through from the PD for Seiren: "Can we get people out of the bubble - yes or no?"

Amidst excitement and tactical advantages afforded however, a slice of the slime migration that'd been skirting the perimeter of the university had been cut off from the rest of their colony. The cousins noticed a green lump gliding across the road near their setup at a brisk pace, a streetlight giving away what it was: A cluster of dozens of Sargasso Slimes in the wet road. The cousins were faced with moving and wheeling their gear up. Ravnir saw many of the evacuees getting escorted - college students in their twenties or older adults working as staff, all so squishy, so scared. Even so, a few people stopped to gawk at the Raiken - they could see that he was some manner of caster - incongruent a layman's knowledge of the Raiconian Alliance.

Meanwhile, the phasma responsible for this mayhem had whisked the Tanhauss entourage back to Noir while the demon was content to sit atop a skyscraper with a dainty umbrella, watching their ghosts do work, and snacking on a slime sandwich. Wait, Temhebu doesn't have a mouth, so how? Well, the eye in the middle of their head receded, making way for enormous teeth devouring the thing in one bite, before the eye came back up and the maw disappeared. It just had to watch an investment unfold. Good, bad, it was business. "These people," they said, peering through the barrier to identify each member of Phoenix Team, narrowing in particular at the red one, "these people present an ongoing risk to this business..."