Skyside 7: The Big Pizza in the Sky

[Shadowcaller]

[Searching for Truth]

"Hmm... three... four at most. After that it stops being... personal. And I," Bellana says drawing a finger up to her chest and pushing into it. "Like the personal touch."

She tilts her head a bit. The dancer doesn't have silver on her to glow, but the silver nanites in her system give her plenty warning that demons are coming. "We'd better hurry before the fun police say my moves are for Tellysandra only," Bellana suggests, hoping this goblin would forget reason to get his hurry on and secret her away. Honestly though, she suspects it's already too late and their opportunity has been lost.

[Searching for Truth]

Thankfully just as the imp starts to fly closer they're ambushed by what seems to be a bureaucrat who seemingly want them to sign something.

The goblin ascends his gaze from the depths of her cleavage for a moment and too seem to notice the 'fun-police'. "...right." He then gestures for her to follow without another word.
However, several of the other mercenaries doesn't seem to have taken the clue and are following along too. Perhaps they can lose some of them as they walk? The goblin does seem to lead her towards a smaller side door in the manor. Its nearly invisible as its the same color as its grey exterior.
It looks like it might be too small to fit Bellana's saber though...

[Ironsmith]

[SSGTV]

"...So... is that it, then?" Hana asks quietly. "You get word around that Abbi's good at giving massages, and the guys in charge decide not to risk losing her and don't schedule her for matches? Something like that?" She doubted Selene could just snap her fingers and keep Abbi from the ring. As she said, she's still a slave here. But she's a successful one and likely still has some pull around here, right?

[Black Abyss Body Shop]

Small shocks, coming up! Sai complies, charging himself with lightning and resulting in the aforementioned deterrents. However, he can plainly tell that his being a short-ranged cattle prod isn't as effective as Mina might have hoped. Let's see how she's learning.

Bigger shocks? Sai prompts.

[Trust-Worthy Hotel]

"...Dat doesn't sound like a plan." Hazel says worriedly. "Dat sounds like graspin ad... wait..." Hazel stops and looks at the maid. Did she just look right at her? Can she see her? That might be a problem. Or it might be a coincidence.

Hazel goes back and steps back and forth in front of the maid, to see if her gaze follows her.

[Earl of Purple]

Trust-Worthy Hotel

The maid looks up at Sandals, and frowns a little, backing away a little as he enters the room. She doesn't protest against Sandal's entrance, either. She stops what she's doing, and her eyes are wide and she gulps.

The more serpentine maid separates from the guards, who are continuing to go upstairs, and her eyes do follow Hazel a bit- though not too much, like she's trying to keep an eye on the ghost without letting the ghost know. Especially when it seems Hazel's testing her ability to see ghosts.

SSGTV

"Nearly. Not quite. Fighting is voluntary, nobody has to do it. But it's the only way to get tokens from the keyholders, and tokens are... Well, they're the only way to not eat gruel, get blankets for when it's cold, get more comfortable clothing, and... Well, you're new. You've not been to the shops yet, but I bought everything here for tokens. The bed, the comics, my spear, the buckler, all of it. You have to hand in a weapon if you buy a new one, though. You can't build up a stockpile that way. There are some who go around providing services- such as massages- for tokens, but we're all in the same barracks, here. No travel from here to one of the others, for example, so most of the entertainment can get old." And it means none of the girls can socialise with boys without one trying to beat the other with a weapon.

[Ironsmith]

[SSGTV]

"...I see. So to stay out of the ring, all we need to do is... well, all Abbi needs to do is just not volunteer?" Hana prompts. Then what was the point of all of this?

She looks down at the tokens in Abbi's hand and comes to the obvious conclusion. This way, Abbi can work toward her freedom without having to rely on any handouts from Hana. That'll get them both out of here faster.

That's... that's not bad.

That's not bad at all.

Hana quietly checks to see how much Selene paid Abbi. She might still split her winnings if Abbi's earnings are paltry enough, but at least it's not necessity now.

In either case, she concludes Abbi is safe for the moment, and that neither of them want to spend seven years here. She'll give Selene a little nod of gratitude, then make her way back out to find a keyholder and schedule her next match.

[Earl of Purple]

SSGTV

"She should volunteer occasionally. For one, if another barracks gets some really good fighters, we might hit a losing streak. If that happens, we'll get less tokens coming in, and people won't be interested in a massage. Losing streaks don't tend to last long, but if they do they'll start sending us in to death matches more often, to clear space for better fighters. Abbi should spend some time training, even if she only goes into the ring once a week. The keyholders don't like it if nobody fights, and if they notice somebody hasn't been fighting there might be consequences. I... don't know, it's not something I've seen, but I heard when I first started that the keyholders weren't above giving some gladiators food poisoning so they go see the medics, who then dose them up with something and send them out as berserkers in a death match. I have been in a few death matches, against a sabre-toothed tiger, a cyclops, and a small herd of zombies. They're mostly weighted in our favour, and we aren't always expected to kill our opponent, whatever it may be, but... It's much harder for a four metre tall one-eyed giant to not kill the human it's fighting with a razorwire baseball bat. If you find yourself against something like that, go for the ankles. It worked against Achilles, it works against giants." Which is one reason Hana should be glad she fought the fox-bloke.

Abbi has eight tokens, though three of those are possibly from arriving. Seline gave Hana three, after all, so five is her payment. Given that everyone's going to be saving their tokens for things, working as a masseuse for the gladiators is likely to be a slower way out than fighting, if possibly a bit more consistent.

There's a keyholder nearby, as it happens. Abbi's going to head over to the shop, see what she can find. The keyholder smiles at Hana under his eyepatch. "Ah, miss. Do you still wish to face the orc with the hammer? For if so, you are in luck. He's waiting to enter the arena. My counterpart has told him there's someone who wishes to face him for his victory against the tailed lass, but if you wish to back out there is no shame- though you may face him in the future any way. He's not lost any of his last eight battles." Which might not be reassuring, although at least one of those was against Abbi.

[Reinholdt]

[Searching for Truth]

All cats are made from condensed liquid. This is just a science fact.

Bellana lets her saber go first just in case Anika needs a push from this side. Then she lets the goblin in, followed by "One... two... three," mercs. She forcibly gets between the door and the rest of the mercenaries, stepping back into the doorway. "Sorry boys, no means no. The rest of you can get in touch with Juril to get a dancing girl for your own party if you want."

Just to make herself clear, she goes to shut the door in their faces. Sometimes you have to be overt to get things through thick skulls. Just in case they take exceptional offense to this, might be a good idea to lock the door too if that's an option.

[Ironsmith]

[SSGTV]

"Of course I still want to fight him." Hana replies, hefting her bat. She's not quite as urgently furious that the orc needed to have his brains bashed in lest he harm Abbi again, but he did still clobber her and Hana's not about to let that go unpunished. That's just not how things are done. Besides, she's got a flawless win/loss record in the arena, too.

[Deathkeeper]

Black Abyss Body Shop

Mina might have had some training in fighting but not much in tactics. She has no idea what to do in this situation. Somewhere in her brain her heritage takes over. Lowering her head Mina charges into the crowd of zombies, bellowing. If she breaks through their line she’ll follow up with a massive haymaker (heh) to the nearest zombie’s face.

[Vahnavoi]

[Trust-Worthy Hotel]

The bandaged man listens as the security stomps past, then turns to face the maid in the room with him. "Hey, you wouldn't know what happened in the master's suite lately?" he asks with a quiet, conversational tone. "Would save us both a lot of trouble if you do."

[Ironsmith]

[Trust-Worthy Hotel]

Hazel can still follow the maid's eyes, and therefore tell when she's being watched. That was either very good news or very bad, depending on whether she was as uncooperative as Aiden had been.

"Hey, lady." Hazel greets, stopping in front of the maid. "Ya can see me, cantcha? My friend an' I heae ahe lookin' for someone. You seen heh?" She reaches into her jacket pocket and produces a photo of her and Hana; a selfie, it looks like, with the camera in Hazel's hand. The two are making goofy faces back at the camera; Hana's sticking her tongue out and Hazel's eyes are crossed. "If ya have, tell us whatcha saw an' we can be outta ya haih."

[Reinholdt]

[Black Abyss Body Shop]

Ah-hah! The Mecha-zombies ultimate strategy of lure Mina in worked- hey! Yikes! She's bowling two of them over and punching a third in the face. That's hardly fair. Well the fourth one is just going to have to retaliate and get a solid swing in at her back with his heavy metal weapon as she charges by.

[Earl of Purple]

SSGTV

The orc doesn't have an unbeaten record, just a run of eight wins on the bounce.

The keyholder will lead Hana to another door down the stairs, leading to another arena. It's not the same as before; this one is smaller, with chains hanging from the ceiling, from which weights swing. They're pendulums, and a female keyholder is running around to push them and get them swinging before she runs off through another door. The orc steps in through that door; he's huge. Easily seven feet tall, he has dark green skin, no hair and tusks in his lower jaw, one of which is broken halfway up. He wears a yellow loincloth and a bronze breastplate, though it only covers his upper chest- not his arms or belly, and a matching helmet with a spike in the top. He carries a large blacksmith's hammer, which he twirls easily as though it were practically weightless. He leans over to listen as another keyholder whispers something in his ear; he gently pats her on the head after and shoos her off.

Trust-Worthy Hotel

As Sandals starts to talk to her, the human maid moves around the bed so that her back is to the wall; if he looks, there's a camera mounted on the wall, pointed at the bed. If he's just inside the door, it won't get a good view. She shakes her head, but the disagreement isn't with her voice. It's for show, if somebody reviews the footage or watches it. "I heard someone stayed last night, paying with fake gems. Security took them to reclaim the hotel's loss. Two new maids started last night, a hob and a bald lizard-lady, so the slavers came by. Can't say for sure they were sold, whoever they were. Might be they just came by for Abbi, she's gone now."

Outside, the bald woman looks confused at Hana before heading into the cleaning cupboard and putting the linen down. "I can ssee you, dead woman. I can't hear you. You wanna talk a-me, come in front, sspeak sslowly an' maybe I can read your lips. I know the other woman. Ssaw her lasst night. She wass naked with a mousse girl, fighting the ssecurity. The mousse bit. Why do you want to know?" She's a little cautious, not sure why the ghost wants to know.

[Ironsmith]

[Black Abyss Body Shop]

If Sai were physically capable of cringing, he probably would. Even with Mina's extra bulk, he can't help but regard charging into a crowd of opponents as a bold but somewhat tactically unsound move. She had the benefit of them all being in the same direction before; now she's going to get herself surrounded and likely clobbered.

He should probably do something about that.

...

Nah, she won't learn if he does. He should let her realize it's a bad idea, then intervene. He'll have the requisite whirlwind ready to go when that happens.

[SSGTV]

Oh, great. He's being nice to the other staff. Now Hana's got to worry about clobbering a potentially nice guy because he impersonally handed Abbi her head earlier. And if that wasn't bad enough, some jerk decided "hey, the fight we've scheduled between the angry Terahn and a seven-foot orc isn't exciting enough, let's throw in some pendulums!".

Lovely.

Hana slowly walks toward the center of the arena, stepping out of the way of any pendulums on the way up there. She doesn't want to open this match by getting clobbered; that'd be just embarrassing.

[Trust-Worthy Hotel]

Hazel complies, stepping in front of the snake-lady so she can get a proper look at her mouth when she talks. Realizing that may not be quite enough, she's also going to sign out each of her words, though her skill at sign language is limited to flashing basic letters in sequence, which won't be especially helpful if the snake-maid doesn't know the language and/or can't spell.

"She's my wife." Hazel explains, tapping the ring on her finger for emphasis. "Heh name is Hana. Hana Jane Reevehman. I've been tryin' ta find heh afteh we got sepahated by da police." She frowns and lets the woman have a moment to process that before responding to the new information. "Dey must've come afteh heh when she was sleepin. Damn. Do ya have any idea whehe dey took heh?"

[Deathkeeper]

Black Abyss Body Shop

Mina finds the present turn of events puzzling. Namely she has just been smashed in the back by a metal instrument. It should hurt, which it does. Terribly, even. But there’s a surprising lack of her being on the floor in a crumpled heap right now. This is likely because she has not sustained an injury since becoming a minotaur and is not at all used to having any amount of endurance.
So once she finishes instinctively spinning around to clock that zombie in the face too, she’s quite puzzled to only be looking at a nasty bruise later.

[Vahnavoi]

[Trust-Worthy Hotel]

The bandaged man suspected Hazel's wife might have been taken captive and sold as a slave earlier. Now he's almost sure. "Hmmm. In case they were sold as slaves, do you have any idea who might've bought them?"

[Deathkeeper]

LaRouge Library
"She's happy; I don't think I want to mess with her and risk ruining that." Jason understands not to chance making things worse if they're currently okay. "Again, no offense, but I don't think I can trust a wish to solve my problems without making anything worse." Really, he's jealous of how happy Jade is even despite all the weirdness. How does she manage that?

LaRouge Library

Anri nods.
”It wasn’t a serious offer. If you wanted it to happen you would have asked for it already.” She wouldn’t have been able to refuse either but she doesn’t say that.

[bc56]

LaRouge Library
"There is one thing, now that I think about it." Jason has a bit of a mischievous look on his face. "I wish I could have some romance. A cute girl who's smart, kind to strangers, who knows about power and how not to use it..." This seems like it's leading somewhere... "Want to go get dinner sometime?" Ah, there it is.

[Reinholdt]

[Black Abyss Body Shop]

Mecha zombies are still zombies at heart, even if that heart no longer beats. Their head remains their weak point. They need those brains more than most! So the second zombie she clocks stops moving like the first.

The two that Mina bowled over however don't seem to have too much trouble lunging themselves at Mina's legs from their close position trying to sink their teeth into her calves and try a piece of the steak. The upside to these mechanically functioning zombies is that they're not contagious. The downside is they're still pretty gross and Mina would definitely want to get any bite wounds disinfected.

[Ironsmith]

[Black Abyss Body Shop]

Well, it looks like Mina's going to survive this part without Sai's help; she'll get bitten, yeah, but that won't be fatal. He'll wait and let her handle this, then help clean her injuries afterwards. Unless these zombies pull out some unexpected trick, that is... but they don't seem to be clever enough for that.

[Deathkeeper]

Black Abyss Body Shop

The zombies' teeth might have some amount of trouble getting through Mina's magic(?) uniform, coat of hair, and hide.
...unless their jaws and/or teeth are mechanically reinforced which is entirely possible.
Either way, Mina lets out an embarrassingly bovine yelp regardless of the bites' depth and goes for an overhead smash of the zombies with her oversized arms, followed by as many stomps as it takes to get them to stop moving. Isaac Clarke would be proud.

[Reinholdt]

[Black Abyss Body Shop]

The whole point of mecha zombies is to mechanically reinforce everything! That includes teeth, unfortunately for Mina.

But Mina's pounding counter is very effective at smashing them apart until none of the four are moving. If any of them were waiting to do something clever, they most certainly waited too long.

Exits are to the North and a door leading further in is to the South.

[Ironsmith]

[Black Abyss Body Shop]

Sai lets out a low whistle as Mina pulps the zombies, calling her attention back to him once she's finished. "Well done. However, I'm sure you noticed your performance wasn't perfect. A warrior is always learning from her battles; what did this one teach you?"

As he speaks, a trickle of water will run down from the tip of his longest prong, trailing down Mina's torso and to the bites on her leg; the magical-in-origin but otherwise mundane fabric won't have done anything to stop the zombies, so he has two germ-ridden wounds to clean out.

[Deathkeeper]

Black Abyss Body Shop

Mina begins trudging towards the heart of the lair, limping slightly.
”Fighting multiple guys is hard and risky and requires planning and spacing.” she grumbled at Sai’s question .

[Lord Magtok]

Aimless Drifting

Sirena blinks as she stares at the frog that suddenly appeared.
And the other frogs she can see out of the corners of her eyes.
She didn't really expect it to happen this way. But, considering this person managed to instantaneously age a robot to death and teleport, it puts it into perspective.

"Oh. Um." She thinks. "Well, frogs have permeable skin, right? I need to know how that works and how it's different from normal skin," she says. "And the way their organs are situated, if there's anything unusual about it." Also something to do with eggs, but that's something she's only comfortable talking about while teasing someone, not during a serious conversation. Sadly, Sirena hasn't had the opportunity to start a teasing, so far.

She waits to see if that's something Tetra can answer or not.

And, "Probably doesn't count. I doubt a junkyard has the most important parts I need." Might have a couple tools she needs, though. And some parts.

Tetra prods at the frog with a finger. Hm, I guess it's not that permeable. If her fingernail was a little sharper maybe she could pierce through, but that would defeat the whole purpose and put undue stress upon the poor little amphibian, wouldn't it? Plus Sirena never asked to see a frog get carved open like that. Hmm...

"Anything else you need to know about the organs?" Tetra asks, rubbing two fingers together until a magical flame glows between them, which she harmlessly pushes through the slimy frog's skin and into its belly, illuminating its innards like some sort of macabre, supernatural shadow-puppet show.

[Earl of Purple]

SSGTV

The orc will stride forward to meet Hana, where he'll put his hammer down and raise a hand for a moment. "Sorry about your friend. I tried to go gentle." Probably true, as he broke her cheekbone with a blow to the head; he could possibly have killed her, using this hammer. He'll pick his hammer up, after, and gets into a combat stance, though he'll wait for Hana to make the first move.

Trust-Worthy Hotel

"Slaver's Guild took 'em. They might turn up on the Street of Slavers, if they're young and attractive enough. Abi probably will. Otherwise, no idea. And there's a waiting period, a few days to a week in a warehouse whilst the Guild assesses everyone for health and skills to figure out how to make the most profit. Otherwise... Everyone's buying slaves in this city. Hotels, gangs, nobles, factories, television studios..." The maid tries to meet Sandals' eyes at 'hotels'.

The bald maid ignores the sign language, not recognising it as such. "The Sslaver'ss Guild warehousse, at a guesss. Couldn't ssay why, wass too sscared to pay attention when they weren't talking about me. Look for Alecto Gildssdottir or Jassper Myrmillo, they led the sslave caravan. Alecto drove the cart I wass in, sso your wife would have gone in that one. There wass another, a sscary massked man I did not know. Avoid him, he iss colder than the otherss. Alecto iss black haired, human, young. Green eyess. Jassper hass brown hair. Both are young, in their twentiess or sso, low enough to find, high enough assking will raisse attention." She nervously licks her lips, with a forked though humanoid tongue. "What'ss a wife?"

[Shadowcaller]

[Searching for Truth]

All cats are made from condensed liquid. This is just a science fact.

Bellana lets her saber go first just in case Anika needs a push from this side. Then she lets the goblin in, followed by "One... two... three," mercs. She forcibly gets between the door and the rest of the mercenaries, stepping back into the doorway. "Sorry boys, no means no. The rest of you can get in touch with Juril to get a dancing girl for your own party if you want."

Just to make herself clear, she goes to shut the door in their faces. Sometimes you have to be overt to get things through thick skulls. Just in case they take exceptional offense to this, might be a good idea to lock the door too if that's an option.

[Searching for Truth]

"Hey!"
"What- I got all my stuff in there!"
The mercenaries that had the door closed on them call out. Since what they arrive in seems to be where the mercenaries tuck in for the night. There are lines upon lines of barrack beds lined up in what seems to once have been some kind of memorial hall. There are portraits of people, all with the Tusumi name, that are hanging along both walls in a long and fairly wide corridor which ends with a staircase that's leading both up and down.
Why someone would have the family portraits and the mercenaries share space is anyone's guess but the maintenance drones she saw outside are here too. Slightly different but with the same general purpose, cleaning and maintaining the manor.

As soon as they enter the drones all stop and turn to face them and start to glow a threatening red. "Yeah, yeah, yeah, just passing through!" The goblin declares with a dismissive gesture.
Still, the way the drones seem to follow every move they take seem to be enough for the mercenaries to make haste to their intended location. A door in the middle of the corridor leading into a smaller side-room that seems to have been used as a break room. One can tell as its a complete mess. "Here we are. Hope those drones didn't mind all that-" He glances at the saber. "-cat-fur. Hair. Whatever." He gestures at a glass table which have seen better days judging by how parts of it have been reattached by glue. "So have a seat. You think that table is good enough to dance on?"

[Vahnavoi]

[Trust-Wortht Hotel]

"Hmmm." The bandaged man pulls out the master key and twirls it around his fingers as he thinks. "Say, purely hypothetically... if some disaster struck this hotel - a fire, for example - what would happen to all of you people? Does this place have an evacuation policy? Would you all gather at the same spot for a headcount?"

[Reinholdt]

[Black Abyss Body Shop]

Going through the door to the heart of the lair, there's a light bang! Mina might be unhappy to have been shot, but every villain pulls at least one cheap move against the hero for the hero to overcome. In this particular case, Raven is waiting in this next room atop her palanquin, specifically for the moment that Mina tried to go through that door. These doors aren't Nexus friendly so Mina no doubt has to duck and squirm a little to get through which means her entire mass is in the frame for at least a moment. That's when Raven fires, personally of the belief that Mina can't avoid getting hit.

That's not to say Raven's a crack shot. She's not even close. So if anything vital does get hit, it was just a matter of chance. Not to mention Raven's umbrella gun isn't exactly the highest of calibers. Mina's thick and an elephant gun may have been a better option. Still, Raven sits smugly upon her throne, the umbrella held out and still smoking at its tip. "Nyahaha! I'm impressed you've made it this far hero. Surrender now and I shall spare your friend."

This room is quite a bit larger than the last and clearly makes up the bulk of the 'body shop'. It has largely been cleared out for their dramatic fight, though some of the clearing just means pushing tables and parts to the side wall. There's an open shutter towards the back that light filters through, a large body transporting truck sitting just outside. Within is the door back the way Mina came, another leading to stairs up, and a third for some sort of drug and chemical closet, no doubt used a lot in this garage. Raven is towards the back wall held up by four Mecha-zombie palanquin bearers and in between Raven and Mina are two Mecha-zombies prepared to fight. The one of the left sports a hachimaki and is holding a katana at the ready, while the one of the right is dressed in black ninja garb and has a pair of Sais.

[Searching for Truth]

Oops, well. Those mercs will sort it out soon enough, Bellana's sure. But she's not going to help them. She will look at the portraits a fair bit. Was Tellysandra's last name Tusumi? She never really cared to check before.

"What are those?" Bellana 'naively' asks the goblin about the drones, moving up closer to him and placing her hand on his shoulder as if he could protect her from those things that look mad.

Bellana looks at the break room skeptically. Ugh. "Yeah, not a chance," Bellana says, shaking her head and going to move the table to one side or out in the hall if need be. Just to give her some space. The floor will suffice for her dance. "You're the one who should be sitting down..." Bellana says, her voice moving back to a more seductive key.

[Deathkeeper]

LaRouge Library
"There is one thing, now that I think about it." Jason has a bit of a mischievous look on his face. "I wish I could have some romance. A cute girl who's smart, kind to strangers, who knows about power and how not to use it..." This seems like it's leading somewhere... "Want to go get dinner sometime?" Ah, there it is.

LaRouge Library

Anri hiccups. Jason will find himself the owner of several romance visual novels back at his own home.
"Maybe sometime. I'm on my shift at the moment." Anri says with some amusement in her voice.

[Ironsmith]

SSGTV

The orc will stride forward to meet Hana, where he'll put his hammer down and raise a hand for a moment. "Sorry about your friend. I tried to go gentle." Probably true, as he broke her cheekbone with a blow to the head; he could possibly have killed her, using this hammer. He'll pick his hammer up, after, and gets into a combat stance, though he'll wait for Hana to make the first move.

[SSGTV]

Hana sighs quietly to herself. Somehow, she knew he was going to say that.

"As much as I'd like to not hold it against you..." She begins, in a transparently false tone, "...you still hurt her. Badly. So I hope you like the idea of eating out of a tube."

Hana twirls her bat, pacing back and forth in time with the pendulum between them, waiting briefly for him to make the first move. When it becomes clear that he's not going to, she takes that as a sign that he might actually know what he's doing, unlike the fox-man. She doesn't dare approach him without putting him off-balance first.

Fortunately, the organizers provided her with a means to do just that.

Hana swings her bat, bringing it up against the side of one of the pendulums, altering its momentum so it swings in a wide circle; a way of attacking the orc without risking getting within reach of his hammer.

Trust-Worthy Hotel

"Slaver's Guild took 'em. They might turn up on the Street of Slavers, if they're young and attractive enough. Abi probably will. Otherwise, no idea. And there's a waiting period, a few days to a week in a warehouse whilst the Guild assesses everyone for health and skills to figure out how to make the most profit. Otherwise... Everyone's buying slaves in this city. Hotels, gangs, nobles, factories, television studios..." The maid tries to meet Sandals' eyes at 'hotels'.

The bald maid ignores the sign language, not recognising it as such. "The Sslaver'ss Guild warehousse, at a guesss. Couldn't ssay why, wass too sscared to pay attention when they weren't talking about me. Look for Alecto Gildssdottir or Jassper Myrmillo, they led the sslave caravan. Alecto drove the cart I wass in, sso your wife would have gone in that one. There wass another, a sscary massked man I did not know. Avoid him, he iss colder than the otherss. Alecto iss black haired, human, young. Green eyess. Jassper hass brown hair. Both are young, in their twentiess or sso, low enough to find, high enough assking will raisse attention." She nervously licks her lips, with a forked though humanoid tongue. "What'ss a wife?"

[Trust-Wortht Hotel]

"Hmmm." The bandaged man pulls out the master key and twirls it around his fingers as he thinks. "Say, purely hypothetically... if some disaster struck this hotel - a fire, for example - what would happen to all of you people? Does this place have an evacuation policy? Would you all gather at the same spot for a headcount?"

[Trust-Worthy Hotel]

"...You saw dis happen? Youhe cehtain?" Hazel asks quietly. She suspected she already knew the answer.

"...Damn." She growls under her breath. "Damn, damn, DAMN IT, DAMN IT TA HELL!" She gives off an inhuman shriek, tearing the room's door off its hinges and hurling it aside in a fit of rage. The outburst is short-lived, though; she soon finds herself leaning against the wall, her face buried in her arms. "...It's not supposed ta be like dis..." She sniffles. "Hana's da luva my life. We wehe supposed ta meet up when I got out. Everythin was goin ta be all right. Now she's- dey took her. Dey'e not even involved and dey took her."

It's just not fair.

It's just not fair at all.

Hazel pounds her fist against the wall, leaving a sizable dent in the plaster despite her incorporeal nature. She turns back to the bald maid. "Where's da soon-ta-be-cohpse a' da guy dat runs dis place?" She demands. She's got words for him.

Black Abyss Body Shop

Mina begins trudging towards the heart of the lair, limping slightly.
”Fighting multiple guys is hard and risky and requires planning and spacing.” she grumbled at Sai’s question .

[Black Abyss Body Shop]

Going through the door to the heart of the lair, there's a light bang! Mina might be unhappy to have been shot, but every villain pulls at least one cheap move against the hero for the hero to overcome. In this particular case, Raven is waiting in this next room atop her palanquin, specifically for the moment that Mina tried to go through that door. These doors aren't Nexus friendly so Mina no doubt has to duck and squirm a little to get through which means her entire mass is in the frame for at least a moment. That's when Raven fires, personally of the belief that Mina can't avoid getting hit.

That's not to say Raven's a crack shot. She's not even close. So if anything vital does get hit, it was just a matter of chance. Not to mention Raven's umbrella gun isn't exactly the highest of calibers. Mina's thick and an elephant gun may have been a better option. Still, Raven sits smugly upon her throne, the umbrella held out and still smoking at its tip. "Nyahaha! I'm impressed you've made it this far hero. Surrender now and I shall spare your friend."

This room is quite a bit larger than the last and clearly makes up the bulk of the 'body shop'. It has largely been cleared out for their dramatic fight, though some of the clearing just means pushing tables and parts to the side wall. There's an open shutter towards the back that light filters through, a large body transporting truck sitting just outside. Within is the door back the way Mina came, another leading to stairs up, and a third for some sort of drug and chemical closet, no doubt used a lot in this garage. Raven is towards the back wall held up by four Mecha-zombie palanquin bearers and in between Raven and Mina are two Mecha-zombies prepared to fight. The one of the left sports a hachimaki and is holding a katana at the ready, while the one of the right is dressed in black ninja garb and has a pair of Sais.

[Black Abyss Body Shop]

Wow. Two sais? Those aren't a common choice of weapon. Sai would call Raven a copycat, but he's pretty sure that's a slur.

"Okay, so, I bet that hurt." Sai begins, lightning crackling around his prongs in anticipation. "But don't let it distract you. She got a cheap shot in, that's all. Keep a clear head, focus. You've got this."