Skyside 5

[bc56]

The Streets
"As alone as a man can be, in the middle of a war, with the dead and dying all around, but I guarantee my lieutenants won't speak of it." Johnathan laughs. "You can bring anyone you trust, but only dead men truly tell no tales."

[Gullara]

[Fighting KABAL]

Kirk has one moment to reflect on how he's basically a sitting duck before the tire gets shot out. Well, at least they weren't moving. "Sit tight, we'll have your brother in a scrap heap in no time." He slaps his hand on the dash.

He climbs out of the car again, since it's not going anywhere until they get a little free time. He takes aim and fires a burst of laser fire at the drone again. Now if it knocks out two tires they're in a bit more trouble.

[Shadowcaller]

[Fighting KABAL]

As Electra flies towards Anika, the druid turns into a falcon mid-air. She can still catch the falcon if she wants to.

The drone on the other hand is aiming for the other tire when Kirk starts shooting at it, and it appears that the shield is gone as Kirk's lasers are hitting it. However, as it starts going down it fires off a barrage of missiles that going in all sort of directions except towards Kirk and the car they've stolen.
Several of the other cars are hit and chaos ensues as innocent bystanders (as far as anyone in skyside can be 'innocent' at least) suddenly find themselves rocked by explosions.

Anika the falcon stares in shock at the distraction around them as Electra reaches her. That seemed... unnecessary.

The can hear grunts and cries of the wounded and dying around them. Yikes.

[Nova_Eclipse]

[Fighting KABAL]

Electra lands heavily into a kneeling position, forgoing catching Anika in her hawk shape. She screams in frustration and smashes a fist into the pavement, leaving a small crater, before rising and turning back towards Kirk, walking slowly, trying to get a handle on her anger. She's not actually mad at him, more at herself than anything, but that's not going to prevent KABAL from blaming this on them. When she reaches him, her expression still shows anger, but her voice is calm and cold.

"Think we should call the boss now?"

[Gullara]

[Fighting KABAL]

Kirk focus fires on the drone making sure it actually goes down after all that. "Doesn't matter at this point." He says, going to grab the spare tire despite the chaos surely occuring around them. What a mess. This car had better pay off.

[Zefir]

The Streets
"As alone as a man can be, in the middle of a war, with the dead and dying all around, but I guarantee my lieutenants won't speak of it." Johnathan laughs. "You can bring anyone you trust, but only dead men truly tell no tales."

The Streets

"Very well." the bodyguard says "We will see."

Arkant will then continue his work.

[bc56]

The Streets
Johnathan turns to leave. If no one stops him, and Arkant doesn't speak to him, he'll go to the coordinates he gave Arkant.
Perceptive people will notice that two skeletal figures armed with old-fashioned sniper rifles descend from nearby rooftops and follow Johnathan.

[Shadowcaller]

[Fighting KABAL]

Electra lands heavily into a kneeling position, forgoing catching Anika in her hawk shape. She screams in frustration and smashes a fist into the pavement, leaving a small crater, before rising and turning back towards Kirk, walking slowly, trying to get a handle on her anger. She's not actually mad at him, more at herself than anything, but that's not going to prevent KABAL from blaming this on them. When she reaches him, her expression still shows anger, but her voice is calm and cold.

"Think we should call the boss now?"

[Fighting KABAL]

Kirk focus fires on the drone making sure it actually goes down after all that. "Doesn't matter at this point." He says, going to grab the spare tire despite the chaos surely occuring around them. What a mess. This car had better pay off.

[Fighting KABAL]

Kirk and Electra and hear someone swear loudly about "KABAL ****S", and Kirk might recognize the voice as of the woman in the car that gave up her spot in exchange for cash.
She, and her mantis companion, look relatively unharmed. But the same thing can't be said for their ride.

Anika changes into her humanoid form in a swirl of green energies. "Well... I think I need to save some of these people. Can you wait a bit?"
KABAL will likely be down here soon enough though...

[Nova_Eclipse]

[Fighting KABAL]

Electra looks to Anika and nods.

"I'll give you a hand; it doesn't usually take two people to change a tire."

[Gullara]

[Fighting KABAL]

"Go ahead, but we're leaving soon." Kabal has been insistent enough as is, so there's no time to try to help out here past the next few minutes. Cold, but necessary.

[Ashen Lilies]

GIRLS

If Lucretia leaves before the wall bursts down, then Jasper will motion for them to return into the shop, though they may be too far away or have other plans. If so, he'll leave it as long as he can before he triggers the defence mechanism, with heavy shutters falling into place in front of the door and windows. There's a hum as the shutters are electrified.

If they're inside, Jasper will apologise profusely, activate aforementioned defences, and offer to host Lucretia in the house above the shop until the street is pacified again.

EXOTIC

Elithazelle grins as the drorc removes his thick rubber-soled boots and puts them on herself. Her feet change shape slightly to stop the boots wagging too much.

"My name? It's Knaryllk. Orcish for 'strong'." He stands and follows, joined by the grey-skinned shapeshifter, prevented from disguising itself by the enchanted collar snapped about its neck.

There's no aquatic slaves at the moment, but there is a dryad whose tree is kept in a pot. The moment the wall is breached, an alarm goes off and the other slave stores activate their own defences- electrified shutters drop down, magical force-fields snap up and hidden turrets start blasting paralytic magic at any who get too close. Slavers and guards grab their weaponry and rush to the scene, though their tranquilliser guns and net launchers might not be too effective against the escaping slaves from EXOTIC.

The fairies zip off instantly, motes of bright colour disappearing quickly. The centaur are next out the door, galloping through the street and distracting the guards- at least until the ogres, trolls and giants burst onto the street, shrugging off the tranquilliser darts and throwing slavers into walls. The nets at their legs slow them more, but the hagraven forces the slavers to disperse by launching fireballs at them, and the werewolf has transformed into bestial shape, howling and biting as the darts bounce off her skin.

[GIRLS]

Lucretia frowns, looking displeased at the prospect of having to stay under the slave shop's "protection", though she does not raise an objection.
"Very well. You may lead me there."

[EXOTIC - BACK ALLEY]

Geneviève looks for a way out of the alley that isn't directly into the main street and carnage caused by their escape, and will lead Elithazelle and Knaryllk in that direction.

"Did you ever think about what you might do when you got free?" she asks, keeping a perfectly conversational tone as she sets a sedate, casual pace down the alley.

[Shadowcaller]

[Fighting KABAL]

"This won't take long." Anika sits down with her legs crossed near the location the drone crashed, at the very epicenter of the devastation. She closes her eyes and puts her hands together, focusing.
After a few moments silvery energy starts to rain down from the sky around the druid. Anyone touched by the energies will start to heal as their injures are healed. It won't be able to fully heal the most grievous of wounds, those people are likely to have to stay in bed for a few weeks, but at least it will save them from dying at the spot.

After a few moments of this, the rain suddenly stops and Anika gets up with a groan. "Let's get out of here."

[Nova_Eclipse]

[Fighting KABAL]

Electra blinks, and watches as Anika creates a magical healing rain. Well, it's better than nothing, and probably better than the rudimentary battlefield medicine she could have provided, given time they don't have. She offers Anika a hand up when the druid is finished with her spell.

"You okay? Seems that took a lot out of you."

[Earl of Purple]

GIRLS

"I do apologise, milady. Somebody has released the slaves from our sister-shop down the road. It won't be long, I assure you. The Guild's guards and defences are very good; amongst the best in the city. We haven't had trouble on this scale for a very long time." Jasper leads Lucretia and her entourage to the back room, home to an industrial kitchen and massive fridges to feed the shop's wares, and then to a staircase behind a hidden door. Upstairs, it's a pretty modern family home; three bedrooms, a small kitchen and a living area all on one floor, located directly over the shop. It looks like it's just Jasper is the only family member home, however.

Back Alley

"I did not. I rather thought I'd have to seduce a rich nobleman, alter his will to the effect of my release and a modest amount of wealth upon his decease, and then smother him in his sleep. The options here are... Less clear." Although the seduction part is still something Elithazelle is considering. On that note, she concentrates on Genevieve, who may notice slight changes in the half-demon- nothing overt, but she's physically altering herself to match Genevieve's ideal of beauty. She can't remove her horns, or change her colouration too much, but it will affect her gender.

[Gullara]

[Fighting KABAL]

Turns out Kirk is pretty fast at changing tires. How convenient. He comes back around the card after tossing the ruined tire into the spare compartment. "Are you planning on coming back to Merc with us?" Kirk asks, because if she's coming in the car with them, she won't be able to answer later. He's otherwise totally ready to go, though.

[Shadowcaller]

[Fighting KABAL]

Anika accepts the help up, but then shakes her head dismissively. "I'm fine, just been a while. Hard to sit like that too."
She then turns to Kirk. "Actually, didn't you want a word with miss cult-leader? I mean, you could do it at any time as she hopefully isn't going anywhere."

[Nova_Eclipse]

[Fighting KABAL]

"Indeed, we do," Electra says, eyeing Kirk. If they don't go see this cult leader and find out how they managed to channel Dena's gaze, then this whole mess will have been for nothing. Surely he hasn't already forgotten that, right? "Though I do think we should have someone well versed in exorcising demons or other spirits examine this car in a safe location as soon as possible. The thing that tried to possess me was in here before."

[Gullara]

[Fighting KABAL]

"And you want to drive this there? Well stop by the base, pawn the car off on Astrana, and then go."

[Shadowcaller]

[Fighting KABAL]

Anika huffs and puts her hands on her hips. "Well, make up your minds, I support any decision that gets out of here."

[Nova_Eclipse]

[Fighting KABAL]

Electra shakes her head slightly, closing her eyes and exhales through her nose. She's tired, mentally, and they still have work to be done. Besides, she's not the one who wants the car in the first place; it was a means to an end, nothing more. She looks back to Kirk after a moment.

"Fine, whatever. You're driving, though," she says, before plopping back down into the passenger's seat.

[Gullara]

[Fighting KABAL]

Kirk nods and climbs into the car. They can head off immediately.

((I don't think we need to post for the stop by Merc. Kirk doesn't plan on talking with Dipsnig until after the job is totally done, and the results of the chat with Astrana can be hashed out after the fact. As such, I'll leave a Vigil post.))

[Zefir]

[Arkant's Office]

After his meeting with the undead army man, Arkant heads straight back for his base. His body guards watched him a little confused. Normaly Arkant walks with his head up high and his thought reading all the minds around him. Now he appears caught in his thoughts. They follow along until they arrived in the office.

A bit of time passes until the big guy speaks up. "Arkant, ar.."

"..e you OK?" Arkant ends the sentence of his minion. "Yes it is. I just got to think."
He stands up and starts walking around his two minions.
"See, I now got the chance to controll an army of undead soldirs. This heads up some options. I could, for example, lead them here and fight the noble houses. In case they get a win I could lend them a hand and appear as a savior to the people. On the other hand they might wreck my companys and open the lab I hide so well with my magic and something else. There is no other big army that I would like to be reduced, but near every of the big organisations could be a threat. I just don't want to make the wrong step."


He sits back down.

"I don't think I can ask for a miracle to offer me a chance. Thought I do want to test some of the experiments I succed with."

[Shadowcaller]

[Skyside - Nighttime]

In the maintenance tunnels that go through the inner workings of Skyside two figures that probably shouldn't be there are skulking about. "So how are you using that gun of yours with one hand again?" One of them asks as they have to stop in front of a door with a key-reader. Thankfully, the keycards last owner hadn't been too hard to convince to part with it...

[Gullara]

[Skyside - Nighttime]

"I can't say I'm totally up to snuff, but it does the job." Kirk puts his ear against the door, listening for any signs of life on the other side. Assuming he doesn't hear anything, he scans the card and swiftly makes to go inside.

[Shadowcaller]

[Skyside - Nighttime]

Kirk can only hear the wind howling outside, but it does sound pretty strong.
As Kirk opens the door, and he can feel the cold air outside, quite refreshing after going through what essentially is a sewer. Though soon he will feel a strong push as the wind takes a hold of the door.
He's effectively standing in a wind funnel, the wind pushing hard against him and Dena. As he listened first, he will likely be more prepared for the wind, but it does make it difficult to see as the wind is coming right at his eyes.
Dena hands him a pair of goggles and mouths something, though whatever she might have said is drowned in the howling wind.
Putting on the goggles will make it easier to see, and it appears they're where they are supposed to be. Its a small ledge with a railing that goes on in both directions, making it possible to move along the boundary of skysides platform.

Outside the railings, Kirk can only see clouds. They did pick a cloudy day for this to make it more difficult to spot them.

[Gullara]

[Skyside - Nighttime]

Kirk puts the goggles on and steps out into the tunnel. It's not worth bothering with words right now. They know the plan either way. He moves toward the edge fearlessly, though he steadies himself on the wall as he looks out. Where exactly did they come out. Can they get a glimpse of their objective from here?

[Shadowcaller]

[Skyside - Nighttime]

According to Dena's calculations, they should just be a few hundred meters away from the manor.
Indeed, as Kirk looks up, he can see it in in the distance. A black platform that ominously stick out from the darkened clouds around it, held up by what is essentially smaller versions of the engines that hold up Skyside itself.
The problem will be that the manor is above them, which means that they can't let gravity do the work when he's supposed to climb across. Dena apparently had a solution for that however.

She motions to follow her as she skulks along the railing, soon motioning for him to start set up the harness and the contraption.

[Gullara]

[Skyside - Nighttime]

Kirk produces a lengthy rope and finds a very sturdy place to secure it. Once that's done, he looks to watch Dena's progress.

[Shadowcaller]

[Skyside - Nighttime]

Dena spends some time securing the device and the harness.
Normally, she would probably crack at least one joke about securing Kirk in a harness, but he probably wouldn't even be able to hear it due to the wind, so she simply gestures for him to strap it on as she pulls out Violet from her bag.
While dimensional storage was great, it did have its limitations. You still couldn't put a type of golem of Violets size in a pocket. They extra dimension added extra depth, it didn't actually make the opening of the pocket any larger. Kirk would know that Dena's pockets were pretty stretchy, but not enough to fit Violet. Therefore, she had to be kept in a bag instead along with other larger equipment like the contraption that were going to get them across.

As they prepare, Violet starts flying towards the manor above them, soon disappearing among the darkened clouds.

Dena then leans close. "She's across." She manages to say over the howling wind. "When you feel a strong tug at the line, start going, okay?" Giving Kirk the thumbs up, the suddenly disappears in a cloud of sparkling wisps.

[Gullara]

[Skyside - Nighttime]

Kirk waits, and when he feels the tug he checks over his harness one more time. Here goes nothing. He jumps off the edge and hopes that Dena's trick will stop him from being left dangling halfway there.