2023-12-01: Invisible Victory

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<Pose Tracker> Sousuke Sagara has posed.

Half an hour, it seemed like the world ended. A bright possibility of hope - a young lady who shone with an eager smile as she spoke of freedom and peace for the oppressed people of what was once Japan...revealed an equally kind smile as she commanded their execution. The Massacre Princess, a heart too twisted to be imagined...

GUTS escaped, for the most part. Whatever you can fault Sousuke Sagara for, he has been an EXCELLENT source of regular evacuation drilling, and GUTS was down low and out the doors nearly before the bullets were even flying. Still, many of the students from GUTS now find themselves cowering...and wondering where the best leaders among them have gotten off to. Sousuke Sagara is nowhere to be seen, and Kaname Chidori went missing at some point, as well. What to do? Wait here? But they won't just *wait in the field*, they're going to come through the stadium at some point...!

The door of the locker room GUTS is huddling in bursts open. A man in full body armor with an assault rifle peeks around the corner, grunts, and mutters, "Got 'em."

Then as soon as he rounds the corner a girl with bright red hair in an Ashford uniform who had been hiding, uh, s, somewhere!? surges out from the shadows, rising knees him in the chin, and then stabs him in the neck ferociously with a killer's resolve.

The partner he'd been with lasts only the scant few extra seconds it takes her to pull the man off his assault rifle and fill his partner with bullets.

Silence.

"They've found us," the girl says, and straps the gun across her back. "We can't stay here any longer. ...where the hell are those two..." 

<Pose Tracker> Emilia Eschonbach has posed.


       It was not really a battle out there. The Black Knights were trying to buy time for people to escape.

       Most of them hadn't. There were too many bodies strewn throughout- and the majority of them weren't Britannian.

       The minovsky particles had gotten too thick to rely on comms now. But Emilia could tell when she could do no more. As someone covered her as KMFs closed, she disappeared back into the stadium. Where had they gone...? She knew Leina, Kaname and Sousuke would take care of people, but...

       And then she hears the sound of yelling down the halls. She ran, pistol at her hip, a Britannian assault rifle in her hands. She wasn't as good with it as some others- but she was good enough. She'd practiced.

       But she doesn't need to, because as she rounds the door, gun ready, she sees a red-haired girl she doesn't immediately recognize put the two men down for good. She stares, from under her visor. There's a bunch of scared GUTS students. Mostly Japanese, she suspects. The Britannians didn't have to worry about the soldiers.

       She remains still for a second, or two. If she speaks, it gives her away. But... These people were her responsibility.

       If Milly were in her shoes, what would she do, as president?

       But... She'd kept it a secret for so long.

       ...But Milly would put the students first.

       She lowers her gun, and reaches up to the hood of her modified Black Knights uniform. Her lavender hair spills out, as she reaches to remove her visor. Protect the Japanese was her order. She can do that more easily as Emilia than as some random Black Knight.

       "Is e-e-everyone okay?" She asks, grabbing for her phone, eyes still on the redheaded killer. "...H-headcount, now. I-is anyone missing? D-did anyone get left behind?" She doesn't have time to do a full rollcall, numbers will have to do.

       Hurriedly, she sends out a text just in case. >Securing GUTS students. If anyone can assist, SW Locker Room." 


<Pose Tracker> Shari Loom has posed.


Shari Loom should not be here. She should absolutely not be here. And yet, there's a voice that's leading her exactly here, a presence, a sensation of familarity that she has never before felt. She had made it out--she was safe. But...

But hearing that others are still helping emboldened her. And then, as it turns out--

Shari pokes her head out from the other door. "Uh?" She says. And then her eyes widen. "Emmy!" she says.

"Oh, wow, it's great you're here, with... uh... guns? Thosse are definitely guns."

She's holding a strange, white-green crystal orb in one hand. Surely there's a reason for that beside as a bludgeon. 

<Pose Tracker> Seolla Schweizer has posed.

       ...Atrocity done with a smile is nothing too new to Seolla. She's seen it too many times. Maybe a massacre this vast is a scale she's never quite witnessed - but it's not new save for scale, either. Once or twice, she's even been tasked with pulling a trigger to its end.

       Now, what she's tasked with is keeping the GUTS students as safe as one girl with one pistol can. She's their final shield as they wait for Sousuke's reinforcements - stationed just behind the door of the locker room. Waiting. Waiting. Her gun drawn at constant attention. If anyone else shows up before Sousuke can return for them, it's her who has to take care of it.

       ...Seolla had been furtive and evasive the entire time she's attended Jindai - and hardly active in GUTS activities, to boot. This is just one time she happened to be there - one time Sousuke figured it'd be a good idea to have her as backup, just in case. "What a 'just in case' this turned out to be..." Seolla mutters - finding it so much easier to stare incessantly at a door than at the terrified faces of those who barely know her counting on her for protection. A few of them might ask, "Isn't that one of the transfer students from a while back?" or "I think her name's Seolla, right?" - but for the most part, she is some girl who has promised to take on whatever comes knocking first.

       The moment the door is kicked down, Seolla pivots to face the intruder, pistol in both hands, a millisecond's hesitation at his full armor. "Hands up NOW OR I SHOOT-"

       Seolla's first instinct is to aim the gun at the mysterious red-haired interloper when she comes hurtling into view - but her second instinct, that this person's in an Ashford uniform, overrides that, and before she can totally process what's happened - the tension loosens dramatically, and Seolla clutches the doorframe with a long, needed sigh of relief. "...Haaagh...They're at their wits end, but they're...okay. Oh...oh. We really had someone coming for us... Damn it. Damn it. DAMN IT, WHAT THE HELL WENT WRONG!?" Fist balled up against the door, Seolla's shakiness gives way to a firm narrowness in her eyes, darting quickly between Emilia, Shari, and the Mysterious Savior. "Tch. ...I'm Seolla. From Jindai, as you can tell. I'm here to protect everyone here." - Maybe arguable, given Seolla's favored form of the uniform is 'the boys' blazer and the girls' skirt', but definitely Jindai for both. "You, from Ashford - you, from the Black Knghts, and you - with the...with the orb. Why are you here, who do you know, and what are we going to do about this damned disaster? A friend of mine, from Jindai too, went to get help - uhh. Short hair, really serious type, has his head screwed on straight in a crisis, probably pointed a gun at you too. Are you that help?"
Zoltan Akkanen teleports in.
POT: Zoltan Akkanen is now set observer. 

<Pose Tracker> Kallen Kozuki has posed.

It's a good thing that redhead was here, because there's another redhead who is so very much missing. Not without reason, mind. Kallen did send the other Knights a message that she was investigating something suspicious. And that they were to keep protecting people. That said, those Knights are largely still working on escorting the... slim numbers of people they could save.

So as to what she's been doing? Stalking Sousuke Sagara from a distance, mostly. With both a pistol and knife on her person, as she's had to dip out of her KMF for somewhat obvious reasons. She's keeping quiet and out of sight. Watching out for ambushes in a position that would likely bring flashbacks to her current trail. Memories of a blurry, crimson predator amidst the trees.

Though, there's a slight problem, that she lost proper sight of him when she had to shift to on-foot. So she takes a moment to glance at her phone. And respond to Emilia.

>Presently looking for missing students. Will double around, if you can meet me partway. More secure in numbers?

Followed by a location ping from her to Emmy's phone. 

<Pose Tracker> Sousuke Sagara has posed.

The unknown redhead is....in fact, completely unfamiliar. Actually she looks a little like Kallen, in a 'might be mistaken for her from a distance' kind of way. She also specifically does not even blink at Emmy's outfit. "We're missing Jindai students. Sousuke Sagara, Kaname Chidori, Kyoko Tokiwa, Shinji Kazama. A few from the Ashford tennis club, too. I haven't noticed anyone else."

She kicks one of the two men she's killed. "These aren't Britannians," she points out. It's true; that's completely the wrong armament, armor, everything. "...and they were going to open fire without even looking."

Her eyes slide to Seolla and summarily ignore her. "...this isn't just what's going on outside. We have to get the students onto transports out, somehow." She glances to Emilia. "Anything clever from Zero on that front, or are we stealing a bus?"

A voice comes from one of the dead men. His radio. How...can it REMOTELY transmit or receive, underground, in the Invisible Burst, amid massive Minovsky traffic? What?

<<Ceta team, report. Are you at Bravo yet?>>

The redhead grunts, squats down, and plucks up the radio. Then she steps to one side, clears her throat a few times, rubs it as if aligning somethign...

And speaks in a man's deep voice. "Ceta, job's done but some of those kids have moves. Moving to Charlie."

<<Christ, I knew you were drunk at the briefing. Charlie's already clear. Go Echo, you can patch up your boo-boos with the boss at the offices.>>

"Right." Her eyes flick to Seolla, then to Emilia, takes her thumb off the transmitter. "Two other teams," she says.

Then the radio says, <<Who th--CETA, GET OVER HERE! Offices! It's hRRGHK!>>

"One other team," she corrects. "Guess Sagara will be at the parking offices."

For Kallen, she gets a more up-close version of this - as one of the doors i nthe side of the hallway bursts open and a man in body armor tumbles out, eating three rounds to the chest and a fourth to the face before he falls over dead. 

<Pose Tracker> Emilia Eschonbach has posed.


       "...We t-trusted a Britannian p-princess. That's what w-went wrong." Emilia's voice is cold, especially given she is a Britannian herself, to all appearances. She nods at Seolla's name. "...Emilia. I'm th-the Ashford Student Council President as well as..." She shakes her head. "Look, I'm h-here to get e-everyone out safe. That's my j-job twice over."

       She does, however, pause as Seolla mentions someone went to get help. "...You're w-with Sousuke?" Two students working part time security? What is going on in Nouvelle. A frown. "I h-h-haven't seen him."

       She looks across to Shari at the other end of the room. "Shari? I th-thought you were with L-Leina?" A pause. "Wait, where's Leina? Wasn't she here too?"

       She finishes her headcount, and confirms the woman's theory. Six missing...

       Except the mysterious woman asserts they aren't Britannian. "Then... wh-who the hell are they? Who a-are you?"

       Anything clever from Zero...? Emilia shakes her head. "...No. I d-d-don't have contact." ...And then the radio goes off, and Emilia *stares*. Tech like that shouldn't be working, it's only through the Black Knights wireless network they have anything resembling communication at all- and that's short range and unreliable. "Th-the busses we brought the students in on m-m-might still be intact. B-but we have to get there."

       She pauses. "...You're all g-g-gonna get home okay, alright? We'll work it out. For n-now... they think they've cleared th-this point, right? They'll be safe a little wh-while longer?" Trying to escort this many students at once without a clear path will be a nightmare. "...Buddy system of th-threes, everyone. As s-s-soon as the path is clear, w-we'll come get you, okay?"

       She looks to Seolla, Shari and the other woman. "Does th-that sound like a plan?" 

<Pose Tracker> Shari Loom has posed.


Shari looks down, when Emmy says they trusted a Britannian princess. She's sad, about it. But also...

How can she explain what she saw?

But Seolla at least asks questions, Shari says, "I don't know shit, I'm here to help because some jerk made me think I could be all heroic or something, and I'm not working with anybody right now."

"I'm with you," Shari says to Emmy. Then she explains, "No, Leina got out. ...I talked with that... with that girl who got the one family out, and others--and she made me realize maybe I could help. So I came back."

The radio...

Zero.

Okay," Shari says. "That's a plan. I can..." She bites her lip. "I can do something with their machines, if you can get me to them. Or I can..." She hesitates, "This crystal is basically a taser?"

It's also a mind control rock, but after what she saw happen to Euphemia, she's not volunteering that. Or using it for that, if she can help it.

"So I'll go wherever, OK?"

She pauses, and then reaches out to Emmy's arm. "It's okay," she says quietly. "I do weird stuff too." 

<Pose Tracker> Seolla Schweizer has posed.

       The mysterious woman says the important name. "You're with Sousuke!?" Seolla jumps up. "That's who I was talking about - I'm with him. Are you his backup? ...Is part of his backup already dead?!" A pinprick of sweat down Seolla's face. "God, what a nightmare...so it's not just Britannia here we gotta contend with but whoever these people were with too...there's...h...hhh. And we have so many students to protect..." A sinking stone in Seolla's gut, before she shakes it free, carefully stepping into the hallway after their guest makes a new casualty. "...Yeah, we don't have any other choice but to blaze hell through to the parking garages. I can't imagine the garage itself is going to be a walk in the park...maybe if we get there, Sagara's got a means of keeping it under control...shit. If we all move together, we do risk the safety of these kids if someone comes in from behind...who BESIDES the Britannians even wants them dead so bad?!" 

<Pose Tracker> Kaname Chidori has posed.

At the other end of the hallway, Kaname Chidori peeks around a corner next to Sousuke Sagara. She's looking... well, a little pale. Understandably so, given all this, especially the dead soldier in front of her. But she takes a deep breath. "I'll scout ahead."

Trying to listen for activity over her ringing ears, she sweeps the visible portion of the doorway with her eyes... then carefully peeks her head out, blue hair hanging down as she tilts to one side.

Kallen. Someone they can trust, she thinks... she hopes.

No time to ask questions. She gestures for Sousuke to come. "Kallen?" she calls out, her voice just above a whisper. She checks the other direction before stepping out. "We know where the missing students are. Kyoko Tokiwa and Shinji Kazama. They're being held hostage in the boiler room." A look toward Sousuke. "... probably by the people who took over the Toy Box."

And if she's especially unlucky, by a certain Leonard Testarossa in particular.

<Pose Tracker> Kallen Kozuki has posed.

The sight of a man in armor exploding out a door just before his swift death ought to be traumatic. It would be for most girls around the age of nineteen or twenty. Most girls aren't experienced KMF pilots. She nearly shot the man herself, before the bullets struck him. So, when Kaname pokes her head out, Kallen just waves with an empty hand. "I was out rescuing attendees when I spotted Sousuke. Figured I'd break off and follow him in case he needed some help."

She gets close to them, already on defense and watching for signs of anybody approaching. "So, the people that Gauron maniac worked with... and hostages. So they're really out here to put Sousuke in the ground." She can already see how it would go. They use the hostages to put Sagara in a position where he's surrounded and probably disarmed, then gun him down. No doubt they'd just kill the hostages after. "I'm glad I came to back him up... We'll save your friends."

Or she'll die trying. Hopefully it doesn't come to that. 

<Pose Tracker> Sousuke Sagara has posed.

The redhead looks at Seolla like she just threw up in public. "They really didn't teach you a damn thing about operation security, did they?" she says, eyes flitting across the increasingly worried-looking mob of students behind them. ...then she doesn't answer the question again right away, either. She says, "They might be after Sagara. This doesn't make sense...it's like they were planning to take advantage of this...'ceremony'. But not even the Britannians were expecting this." She says it with confidence. Then she scoffs, frustrated. "Not my problem." She does wait, a moment longer, while Emilia explains the plan, and nods. "We don't know what team 3's doing, but they should be on their way to Sagara, at this point. I'm going."

She hikes up the strap on her new gun and--

"Wait."

One of the students stands up. Jindai uniform, with the black winter jacket. Bleached hair...Most here will recognize Sousuke Sagara's friend, Kotaro Onodera. "I'm coming," he says, sharp-eyed. "If that's Tokiwa and Sagara and Chidori and Kazama in trouble...those are my friends. I'm not staying here!" He's scared out of his mind, tense and sweating, but the dedication in his eyes shows he's committed; at the very least, convincing him otherwise is going to take time you don't have. The redhead woman gives him a cold look, then flicks to Seolla. "...don't have time to argue about it. Fine," she says, and marches off.

It's only once they round the corner that she slows just enough to reach Seolla and Emilia's ears, but tries to keep it out of Onodera's. "...I'm with Mithril Intelligence," she affirms. "Codename Wraith. Ask Sagara or Chidori if we survive this." This close up, she does look a little too old for high school.

Meanwhile, at the office they're on the way to, Sousuke is checking and reloading his weapon while Kaname and Kallen connect and converse. "They're called Amalgam," Sousuke volunteers. His face is a mask. In his element - no matter what he thinks of that. He slips his weapon back into a waistband holster, then stands. "...it's more likely they're after Chidori." His eyes flick to her. "...I won't let it come to that. Come on."

They don't get far before they run into each other, and Sousuke whips up his pistol straight at--

....something unspeakable passes through his already tired eyes. "...Emilia," he says.

Several seconds pass. Onodera stares at him over the bodies between them. Sousuke puts his gun away. "Amalgam has the students. Boiler room. Let's go," he says. 

<Pose Tracker> Emilia Eschonbach has posed.


       Emmy nods at Shari's response. "G-good... I'm g-glad she's safe." That's something. She lets Shari fall in with her. "O-okay. I'll try and k-keep you covered." Realistically, she's probably the second or third least combat trained of the actual team. "...We can. T-talk about it a-after, okay?" She responds quietly. This is going to raise so many questions.

       She looks to Seolla and the other woman. "...Wh-what should we call you?" She asks quickly, as the group start moving toward the parking garage. She assumes one of the more trained people will be taking point, as they try to catch up. "And... wh-why would they k-k-kidnap students if th-they were just going to kill these ones?" And ones that are friends of Sousuke and Kaname no less, or of Shari. "...And why now?"

       The woman establishes that they're after Sousuke and she blinks. "What? Wh-why? Sousuke's a weird kid b-but he's not... Who would w-want to take him out?"

       And then Ono-D insists on coming too- and the woman doesn't argue. But...

       They're her friends too. She isn't staying behind.

       "...St-stay close to me." She says, leaving Seolla and Wraith free to actually fight. "If fighting st-starts, hit the ground. If w-we tell you to run, run. Got it?" She looks to Shari. Can she handle 'civilian protecting duty' with Emmy?

       And then they run into someone, and Emmy raises her rifle-

       Only for her green eyes to stare into Sousuke's. "...S-Sousuke..." She lowers her gun. "You're okay... th-thank goodness..." She looks to Kaname and then Kallen too. "You're b-both okay. All the o-other students are accounted for. Th-they're safe, for now." She can breathe a little easier now. "Right. Right. L-let's go."

       Still, she furrows her brow. Who are Amalgam? And what do they want?

<Pose Tracker> Shari Loom has posed.


Shari is pretty observant at the moment. She has to be; she's completely on edge. So the first thing she notices of course is--

"She is," Shari answers Emmy. "...OK," she says. "We can talk later." There's a lot of questions. But this other woman?

"Mithril," Shari whispers back, and maybe no one hears her--maybe. But she heard that, for sure. And it calls to mind one otehr operative she met...

"We can trust her, I think," Shari says to Emmy, when she asks what to call her.

Shari will stay close. But--

"I'll try," she says, "To help. You might see me do some really weird shit. Don't worry about it, okay?"

But--

Amalgam. "...OK," Shari says to Sousuke. "Let's go." 

<Pose Tracker> Kaname Chidori has posed.

When Sousuke when he says it's likely her they're after, Kaname looks away, clearly hating that he's right. But she does give Kallen a small, relieved smile. "Thanks. We... could definitely use the support."

She stays close to the other two, eyes sharp, dropping into an evasive stance when they encounter...

"Emmy?" she asks, vaguely confused. "Ono-D??" she adds afterward, baffled. She doesn't recognize the other two, but... the familiar faces put her at ease, at least, as does their reassurance. "What are you doing here? And who are these two?" she asks, gesturing to Shari and the redhead as they move.

<Pose Tracker> Kallen Kozuki has posed.

Emmy immediately catching up was... not what Kallen expected. But she's happy to see her. Similarly, she's happy to see Seolla, who she knows can handle herself well in a situation like this. "This is more of a counterstrike team than I figured we'd wind up with." She's not going to pretend at all right now, that she's surprised by Emmy in a Black Knights outfit, given Kallen is still in her bright red pilot suit.

Really, Wraith is the one that gets her attention most. That hair and outfit... was she trying to pose as Kallen? She can recognize the 'distant similarity'. It causes her to stare for a moment. "We can all answer questions later... I know there's a whole lot to go around." But right now, they're on a timer. They've got a chance to stop a second tragedy today, but they'll have to be fast. 

<Pose Tracker> Kallen Kozuki has posed.

"Amalgam, and she's... No, no that makes sense. It's related to what all went down before, with the takeover and..." Yeah, she may not know all the details, but she gets enough of it to understand. "Just don't try to take everything on yourself. You've got support right here."

Emmy immediately catching up was... not what Kallen expected. But she's happy to see her. Similarly, she's happy to see Seolla, who she knows can handle herself well in a situation like this. "This is more of a counterstrike team than I figured we'd wind up with." She's not going to pretend at all right now, that she's surprised by Emmy in a Black Knights outfit, given Kallen is still in her bright red pilot suit.

Really, Wraith is the one that gets her attention most. That hair and outfit... was she trying to pose as Kallen? She can recognize the 'distant similarity'. It causes her to stare for a moment. "We can all answer questions later... I know there's a whole lot to go around." But right now, they're on a timer. They've got a chance to stop a second tragedy today, but they'll have to be fast. 

<Pose Tracker> Seolla Schweizer has posed.

       Seolla's nerves are understandably frayed to hell and back, dizzy eyed from Wraith's crabby introduction. "...I...I've had these students' lives in my hands on my own for hours, cut me a break. If I couldn't trust you, me and everyone else here would be dead anyway. And these two showed up and DIDN'T immediately try to kiil me and everyone in this room, and somehow this has gone so completely wrong that it's what I've-!" Wraith is right unfortunately, given that Emilia and Shari aren't trustworthy quantities to either of them, and Seolla has to stop herself before she becomes a volcano in the head.

       Thankfully, it isn't long before they finally run into Sousuke, and Seolla can finally breathe a long sigh confirming they're safe, taking point at the door and looking over her shoulder to assess Kallen again. "Seems we keep running into each other in the worst, most dire straits...damn it, Amalgam's after Kaname again? Don't - don't tell me they engineered THIS much of a slaughter just to go after her? This is all..."

       Despite her very worried disposition - Seolla's not hesitating at all to take point at the front on the way to the boiler room, trusting in her eyes to catch anyone ambushing them along the way... 

<Pose Tracker> Sousuke Sagara has posed.

The redhead looks Kaname in the eye and taps her face, around the right eye.

Where Wraith was shot, when Kaname confronted them on the roof the night they both met Leonard Testarossa. The woman herself says nothing. Their deal doesn't include babysitting. ...in which case, why is she here at all? She doesn't have much more useful information for Emilia, other than, "...Yuri? Sure," she says, with a shrug. Apparently she doesn't usually bother with a disguise name. is she just going for a sound-alike to yurei?

She gives a glance to Kallen...but says nothing.

Ono-D, meanwhile, gives Kaname a very strange, searching look. "They're in danger, right? I'm not just waiting." He looks to Shari. "She's missing some friends too, I guess."

Seolla jumps to the front. Sousuke doesn't stop her. "It's inconceivable," he says to her speculation. "Whatever Amalgam's pull might be, to get a woman like Euphemia appeared to be to make a turn like this...and the guards clearly were shocked. This was not planned by anybody except the woman herself. ...that aside...it seems impossible that they could have been planning to take advantage of it, and yet they were." He grimaces. "...I'm sure Tessa will be having fits, by now," he murmurs, with worry plain in his face and voice.

Soon...

The boiler room is a huge affair - for a stadium this size, it'd have to be, but considering the mechanics of it might take one's breath away. It also means there's plenty of pipes to tie innocent teenaged children to. They're lined up in corners; Tokiwa, Shinji Kazama, Jim and Marcy from the tennis club. They're conscious. They're terrified. And they're unattended. Except...of course, for the bomb - the brick of C4, professionally packaged and wired up neatly - strapped to each of them. Forget killing them; all of these going off would blow out the wall of the stadium and bring the stands crashing down.

Seolla sees first - there's no sign of guards. Sousuke grimaces, looks to Kaname, looks to Emilia and Kallen.

He marches in immediately, heedless of the possible danger. "S, Sagara?" Shinji whispers, looking haggard and afraid.

"Some men came and said they knew Kana-chan..." Tokiwa whimpers.

"They were lying," Sousuke says - blunt, but with something attempting an earnest reassurance, he examines the device.

He unzips his coat and pulls out a multimeter and other tools, remembering lessons Spec had taught him back on Merida.

Wraith makes herself scarce, rather than help. That's Intelligence for you; where'd she even go?

There's other bombs. Anyone feel like trying their luck?

As the work is done, Shinji watches with the palpable fear of a guy who watches action shows, and Tokiwa murmurs with a much more personal fright. "I just don't understand...what's going on? Why...why is any of this happening..." 

<Pose Tracker> Emilia Eschonbach has posed.


       "Yuri, th-then." Still, Ono-D reminds them everyone's in danger. "...th-this should be easier with all of us." Maybe.

       Emmy is silent as Sousuke tries to work out who planned it, but the last statement makes Emmy pause. "Sh-she's probably w-worried about both of y-you." It doesn't occur to her, in the instant, to work out there's more to it than that.

       As they come through, though, Emmy sees them. The four missing students. Bombs. Despite herself, she gasps. "...Th-this is sick..." Ordinance is not her specialty. For the first time she misses the idea of Landmine disposal club.

       "...I'll w-watch our backs. Shari... you said y-you can do stuff with machines, right, c-can you...?" She doesn't know for sure. Emmy's only ever slapped these onto things and run. Disarming them is a whole other factor. "...st-stand back with me," she instructs Ono-D. They can't get him far enough away to escape the explosion. But she can... try and help keep him calm?

       "Everything... is s-s-so messed up today..."

<Pose Tracker> Shari Loom has posed.


Shari doesn't know a lot of details, frankly. But thinking clearly and logically isn't what got her into this mess. But, "Oh no," Shari says, "Opsec is a thing. You totally shouldn't trust me. We work together on this and then we move on." She sounds--very matter-of-fact about that, actually.

"Emmy can trust me, though."

But... They are in danger. And Shari says, "Yeah. Tennis club. If I don't help them who's going to? ...You gotta..."

"Situations like this make you see who you are. And I decided I didn't want to be the person who didn't do anything."

'Yuri' will be fine. But a turn, "...She didn't plan it either," Shari says quietly about Euphemia, but doesn't explain--instead she says, "Anyway, maybe they were just looking for an opportunity and took it?" A pause. "...Tell Tessa Shari said she's thinking about what she said," she says quietly.

Then she moves into the room. No guards, but...

They are conscious and terrified and...

"Oh, shit," Shari says. "That kind of detonator's super fucky."

Sousuke is blunt--but Shari notices Wraith is gone, and--

"It's cool," Shari says, nodding to Emilia. "I do," she says. "I know how these work. If you give me a minute..."

She considers the crystal in her hand. "I can neutralize the other detonators with this."

It absorbs energy. So all she needs is...

She pulls some gems, a toolkit, and her phone--and snaps her phone's casing. "Need some components..."

Shari won't actually need minutes to neutralize some bombs. But she can't talk while she does it, either.

"Yes, yes," she says, "It's like this..."

Well, can't talk to people other than herself. She moves like she's studied machinery for decades.

<Pose Tracker> Kaname Chidori has posed.

Kaname blinks once at Wraith, and grins faintly after a moment's thought. "Yuri. Nice to meet you," she tells her, internally rolling her eyes at the pun. Ono-D gets a frown. "Yeah, but you're not exactly trained for this..." Not to mention he's going to need one hell of a debriefing.

So am I, she thinks, looking at Emmy's uniform.

She sighs. "Right, whatever they've got set up down there..." She nods to her. "Yeah. Thanks, Ono-D."

There's a wince as Sousuke and Emmy remind her of how Tessa must be coping right now... "She definitely is," she murmurs quietly. And... if Amalgam didn't orchestrate this--leaving aside Shari's comment about the perpetrator herself--then how...?

The train of thought is stopped abruptly as she gets a look at exactly what's been set up for them. "What the fuck," she murmurs. She follows close behind Sousuke, kneeling next to her friend. "Kyoko... it's gonna be okay," she reassures them. After what they've all witnessed today, she's not sure about that... but... she grasps the girl's hand gently and gives it a squeeze.

She looks around, frowning as Wraith disappears. She watches Sousuke work on the detonator, and...

"Mm... I think I've got it," she murmurs, before looking over at Shari. She nods a little, watching her work. Something feels... familiar about the way she's working, enough for her to trust that the girl knows what she's doing.

From there, she nods, running over to Marcy and pulling a few tools out of her skirt. The teenager starts working, silent, with the hands of an expert. 

<Pose Tracker> Kallen Kozuki has posed.

It's an unfortunate truth, but Kallen's skillset emphatically does NOT contain knowledge of bomb defusal and disposal. She knows a few things about putting them together for various purposes. But those and this are vastly different things. She knows that at a glance. And her Knightmare Engineering work... doesn't really align with this either. Bluntly, she knows she'd make a mistake and somebody would get blown up, so it's best that the more capable people do that.

So, while Shari, Kaname, and Sousuke handle the bombs, Kallen will work with everyone else. Keeping the area safe. Listening for people approaching. Wary of an ambush... "You're not wrong Seolla. I think the most peaceful circumstances we've met during were that incident with the prom voting slips. Well, that or the shooting range challenge, but..." That city turned into a hell not long after that. It still prods at the edges of her thoughts almost every day.

Her gaze shifts off to the side. She looks jumpy, but in the way that's completely necessary right now. "Emmy... When we're out of here, I want you to go and get the thing I gave you the other day. It should still be where we left it." If things get to the point of escalating beyond an on-foot firefight, Rapunzel's probably not the play to go for. These are the people the Codarls... probably originate from? Gauron had one after all. So it's likely they'll have more, or will have a countermeasure for them. She just can't say that explicitly right now.

And if her best friend is going to be in a fight like that... 

<Pose Tracker> Sousuke Sagara has posed.

"Is this the man from the hijacking?" Tokiwa whispers. "The one who took Kana-chan away then?"

"No," Sousuke says. "...he's dead. He's not a threat anymore."

Shinji cringes at the earnest answer. Onodera watches on with a totally unreadable mask, a whirl of emotions running through what must be every neuron in his body.

"Then why...the princess, and now..."

She stumbles to a stop, and then speaks again, an avalanche of anxiety rushing out of her mouth while Sousuke silently works on a weapon that might kill everyone here. "Someone's after Kana-chan. Right? And they're using us to get to her..."

When she looks at Kaname, it's with...it's not anger, but it might be agony. "I knew...I knew you had some burden, and I asked you again and again...I...weren't we friends? Aren't we? I thought we were, but why wouldn't you tell us something like this?"

Sousuke's hands grow unsteady, and he stops. "T, Tokiwa," he stumbles out. A pain in his chest worse than any knife.

"I don't want to die without knowing anything...I don't want to die at all! Who..." Tokiwa asks, and for a moment, there's a cavernous, unfathomable distance between her and everyone here, a look in her eyes like she's never seen any of them in her life. Not malice, but perhaps accusation, and absolutely sorrow. "Just who am I to you? Am I some outsider!? I can't stand that! I'm not a fool!"

Kazama, who will ALSO explode if Sousuke screws this up...sucks in a quiet breath, and looks away. He can't deny the words. "I," he mumbles, like he wanted to interrupt her spiral and simply can't make himself argue against the words.

"We were all in danger...weren't we? The whole time? Everyone?? It all started when you arrived! Something...something happened that none of us saw, and...I don't understand..."

Sousuke manages to find words. "Kyoko, I...Tokiwa. I--"

She stares him in the eyes, tears running down her cheeks. "Who ARE you?!"

Sousuke's hand stops. He swallows, hard. He opens his mouth to speak. He doesn't get a chance, presumably presaged by Kallen and Seolla getting into position...

Because the ambush has arrived. "Killers," is the answer to Kyoko's question from down the hall. "Every one of them, a murderer."

Several men with guns approach first, so that Kallen and Seolla can't summarily beat the hell out of him, but the man soon stands in the door way. A tall man, strongly built, with short-cut hair. He had a rough five-o'-clock shadow, and peered out at them from behind sunglasses even in this light. His posture was unique, but with the restrained power of a soldier, a hunter or sniper perhaps. He's unarmed, but for...a kill switch punched down in his hand.

Sousuke, unable to move from what he's doing for fear of setting off the bomb he's not done disarming, slowly turns his head to look. "...I didn't know Gauron worked with you, Kurama."

The man, Kurama, chuckles. "The Cub of Majid the Tiger knows me? I'm honored."

"Saw a picture. We were in the same area during Lebanon."

"Hm. Small world in this business," Kurama says, and flicks his attention to the rest of the room. "As you can see, I've gotten more subtle in my methods. But like you, I've changed occupations since then."

But rather than continue to banter with Sousuke, his eyes drill in...on Onodera, then to Shinji, then to Kyoko, then to Jim and Marcy. "He won't tell you, so I'll cut to the chase. This man is a trained killer," he says, nudging his chin at Sousuke. "A mercenary who takes lives for the highest bidder. He lied to you about being a high school student, and entered Jindai High School, and GUTS, with forged documentation."

He finds Emmy. "...your mentor knew that, of course. I wonder if you ever saw it?"

"All of these people are. Your Student Body President, a Black Knight elite. Your class ace, their very strongest warrior. ...and of course..."

His eyes land on Shari. "...the tennis club, harboring an enemy of every living person," he says, with just the faintest amusement. "School has gotten scary, these days."

And then...a voice. "Tokiwa?? Kazama?? It's Yuri!"

Kurama's attention darts to the side as someone wanders around the corner. When did she even get there?

It doesn't matter. You have an opening of seconds to get those guards! 


<Pose Tracker> Emilia Eschonbach has posed.


       Emmy seems to pause at Shari's statement about how they shouldn't trust Shari- but that Emmy can. It makes keeping the secret for this long even worse- but... she's right. Opsec matters.%
       "...What? Wh-what do you mean 'she didn't p-plan it'?" Unfortunately, Emilia is unlikely to get an explenation, once Shari starts on the bombs. It's weird, a little unnerving, even. What's even weirder is that Kaname starts acting in the same way, with the same expert skill. Like they're both bomb disposal experts. She looks to Kallen and Seolla, as if to confirm they're seeing what she is.

       Emmy is caught off guard by Kallen asking her to get 'that thing'. "You m-mean...?" Rapunzel is still back at the hangar anyway... "...Right. G-got it. But o-only once the students are s-safe." It's a weird conflict- her desire to tear into the Britannians vs her desire to protect the students of GUTS... but right now her more level head is prevailing. It's not like she can do much that those out there can't do right now... Hopefully Zero, C.C, Fei Won and the rest are handling it.

       "Miss Tokiwa..." Emmy shakes her head. "P-please, stay calm. We'll get you o-out, but you need to stay c-calm..."

       It's a weak effort, as she looks plaintively to the occupied Kaname. Four bombs, three disarmers.

       -and then a voice coming from behind them. Emilia turns suddenly, gun up- but it's not fast enough. The guards have the draw on her. She frowns, but doesn't otherwise move.

       A trained killer...? Sousuke? ...It must be true, mustn't it? How else would he know all that. But this man, this Kurama is right. They all are... wait, even Shari? Is that what she meant by weird stuff?

       "My m-mentor...?" She pauses. "W-wait, Milly... knew?" She frowns further. Kurama knows alot... but referring to Milly as her mentor... referring to Emmy as a Black Knights elite but not...

       "...Th-that doesn't change a-anything for me." Emmy states, flatly. "Being a k-killer is just... p-part of living f-for people b-born is these times."

       But some of us get a little too much satisfaction out of it.

       When the call comes, Emmy's assault rifle comes up and she opens fire, running for what cover she can get. Not that there's much in the boiler room. She's aiming to kill, without a single mote of hesitation. She's roiling with anger, too. There's no mercy in her eyes- these people are endangering her and hers, with no compunctions about what. They need to die.

       "You d-don't know e-everything going on here, either, you b-bastard!" 

<Pose Tracker> Shari Loom has posed.


Seeing Sousuke's friends ask these questions of him is rough on Shari. She's been keeping secrets too, after all. She tries not to listen, as she works on the bombs instead. She focuses on those--and on Kaname, nodding back to her. She gets it, somehow.

But they were all in danger, and they wonder--

The men with the guns approach. Shari blinks, looking up, crystal beside her. She set it down to work on the detonators.

She frowns sharply at him. The things he's saying--

Until he calls her an 'enemy of every living person', and then her expression turns lopsided, irony poisoning in her eyes. Even as Emmy says that being a killer is normal, for people in these times. That's something to interrogate later.

Because Shari, before she can say more, sees a distraction.

Her instincts kick in. She grabs the crystal and holds it up. "EYES ON ME, ASSHOLES!"

Hopefully, she gets to talk before they can shoot her. Because she does--right on the heels of that shout, she intones:

"Sleep." Her eyes flash green as the energy of the Void reaches out to force the soldiers looking at her to obey her Will. She is not so powerful with this as Elisa--she can be denied.

But it might take some, or distract them long enough for them to be shot.

Shari hits the ground and rolls back as best she can.
Xia Twins have disconnected. 

<Pose Tracker> Kaname Chidori has posed.

"Kyoko..." murmurs Kaname before she moves to take care of the bomb, her breathing shaky. Opsec be damned. She has the right to know. "... You're my friend. My best friend, and you deserve to know. I know exactly how this detonator works. every detail. I know exactly what signals the microchip sends and receives. I know the range on the radio. I know this wire's a dummy. This one, uh..." That one blows up the bomb. She touches her snippers to the next. "This one disarms the bomb. I know all this... but I never learned it. It just..." She trails off as Kyoko starts to break down, and before she can say it, before she cuts the wire, someone answers Kyoko's question.

She looks at Sousuke, then at Kurama. She winces as Kurama reveals the worst facet, in isolation, of Sousuke. Airs everyone else's secrets. An 'enemy of humanity'? Her eyes turn to Shari, but she shakes her head. "... Don't believe him! This isn't the whole truth, it's not who he is... the Sousuke you've seen is the real Sousuke. The man I love."

'Yuri's' voice calls out before she can explain, and she spots their chance.

And then, between Wraith's distraction and Shari's trick, she charges directly at the nearest soldier, knocking him to the ground, skidding his gun across the floor. "Sousuke! Catch!" 

<Pose Tracker> Kallen Kozuki has posed.

The entire situation is beyond tense. A word doesn't exist in the Japanese or Britannian language that appropriately describes it. The hostages are understandably freaking out. And Sousuke, while a relaxing figure to some, isn't what they need emotionally in that moment. But then, who would be that person? As she's suggesting to Emmy what needs doing soon, she hears it. Well, they all do, really.

A number of gunmen. Kallen's eyes track the differences in their postures and gaits. The little changes that would be important. Differences of fractional seconds in reactions. Though, with the numbers present, alongside their leader holding that switch... She can't take the advantage she'd like. "You're a little late on burning my identity." After all, Asciel beat him to that by ACCIDENT. She's just been spending time getting ready for when the word spreads.

Still... that doesn't help everyone else. What does however... When Yuri makes herself known, giving them an instant. Kallen doesn't duck for cover like a sane person. Oh no, she dives directly into their line, moving low in order to grab the chinstrap of one of the guards. Pulling him down, she drives a knife up through the underside of his lower jaw. By the time she removes it from where it had gone through to the brain, he's already bleeding out and done for. Kallen doesn't enjoy killing. But in this situation, it's their lives, or the lives of everyone here.

He hasn't even hit the ground by the time she reaches her second target, slicing a groove through this one's neck to sever vital arteries. Leaving him unable to do more than gurgle and choke on his own blood until the life fades from his eyes.

Most people here are most at home with a gun... But for Kallen, her strongest tool is the far riskier choice. Bringing a knife to this gunfight. And most improbably, even as she weaves through melee contact, not a single one of the bullets her friends send flying through the air so much as touch her. She's unnaturally graceful, even... disturbingly artful in her motion. The way she tears through some of the guards, red still lingering in the air as she glides from one brutally efficient and up-close kill to the next.

She'll understand, if her friends are terrified to be around her later. 

<Pose Tracker> Sousuke Sagara has posed.

Two competing answers, Kyoko receives. One is huge and complicated and means SO MUCH and in her rushed and harried state is just...difficult to absorb.

And one is that she's surrounded by murderers, and has been for some time.

The tension riots through her even with Kaname finishing her work. Sousuke shifts to Shinji, who ALSO doesn't seem to be able to look him in the eye. Kurama, to his limited credit, is letting it happen, which. is probably bad?

But before anything can happen, chaos breaks loose. "Yuri" jumps on Kurama in the second of his split attention, and they disappear behind the door frame, a flash of a knife revealing Wraith's play. The other guards are soon tangled up with Seolla and Kallen, but another rushes around the corner from where he'd apparently been outmaneuvered by Wraith and now doesn't want to shoot his boss. HE does manage to squeeze a few shots off, and then Shari's spell strikes all three. They are strong - one goes woozy, but the other two more just stagger like they took a flash to the face than fully losing their grip on consciousness. That still gives Seolla and Kallen time to deal with them.

Blood pools on the ground, when it's done. Shinji, Kyoko, and Onodera look at it with horror. Kyoko cringes away, both from Kaname and Sousuke and Kallen. Onodera is the one who comes over then, kneeling down next to her, hands up. "Hey," he says, quiet, and that's all. Sousuke...

...Once he's done with Shinji, he stands. He turns...and his eyes widen. "Tokiwa," he says.

Blood pooling on the floor...in several locations. Kyoko already looks a bit anemic. Her blouse is stained.

She's been shot.

"I, don't..." she whimpers, shock of the mental and physical variety stifling her ability to handle this situation the whole way to nothing.

Sousuke looks like a fish drowning, for a moment, utterly lost even in his own element. That lasts until 'Yuri' walks back in...the makeup that made her look bright and youthful quite smudged, her blouse stained with a man blood, and that red wig coming right off her head as she yanks it. Black hair, short. The eye makeup's coming off...Korean, maybe? She punches Sousuke's shoulder to get his attention. "I'll figure something out for her. It's not that bad." Lie. "YOU have a problem outside. That 'buddy' of yours probably has half the army on his ass by now."

"So he did arrive," Sousuke mutters, and sucks in a breath. "Right. ...I'll rendezvous with AL and finish this, then."

But...

"You're going?"

A voice, boiling, cutting through. Onodera. "Now?"

"...I have to," Sousuke says. "You're right. This all started because of me. So I have to go end it. After that..." The words stick in his throat, after the promises he made, the man he promised himself to become, but... "You never have to see me again."

"Don't give me that shit!" Onodera yells, holding the slumping Tokiwa. He turns to the boy he thought was his friend, eyes wild. "Kyoko's hurt, damn you! She's right! Everyone was in danger this whole time so you could play around!? I owe you a whole lot more than one to the face for this! And Tokiwa and Kazuma too!!"

His eyes narrow, tears streaming down his face. "Don't you disappear on us until you get your due, Sagara."

Sousuke's fist slowly balls, tension and pain across his shoulders.

"...roger," he says. "Then...I suppose I won't return until the danger is gone," he says, hovering at the edge of the doorway.

"Yeah, you better god damn not!" sticks in his back like a knife, and he steps through.

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