World Tree MUSH

    Tokyo, Japan, 21XX.

Getting into this particular Japan isn't the easiest thing; seems they're really tight on controlling who goes in and out. Luckily, those who heeded QUILL's calls get a nice ride through a checkpoint, but others might have wandered in just fine too. As long as you look and feel human, you won't be stopped.

    The target storehouse is located in your standard industrial district, between factories and other storehouses. The area looks like it was under control moments ago. Now it's not.

    Dead Sumeragi troops, the same you'd have seen at cheeckpoints, are here and there around the storehouse, wearing battered and broken green power armor. The way into the storehouse has been shredded open from the inside by claws and acid, the same kind of damage as on the troopers. None of the dead guards or civilian bodies are in direct light at the moment.

    Speaking of civilians, it seems a few bystanders are being heckled by something right now, judging by the screams. Just around the storehouse, for that matter.

    Seems to be a man wearing a labcoat. He's fleeing from three of those Sumeragi troopers, but their movements aren't human. They're leaping about from light to light, on all fours. Their skin is black, with purple glowing veins. Sharp teeth, angry moans. Zombies?

    It's a good thing Cecil is here by invite, because sneaking in with this Edgelord Armor would be kind of difficult otherwise. Unfortunately, he's then confronted with a completely different issue that he is utterly unprepared for, by virtue of being... well, a Dark Knight.

    "Zombies. Why did it have to be zombies?" Cecil mutters, for once losing his 'noble composure' while he sees the incoming man. Still he can't just let the man die. Without even thinking about it, he's charging forward, trying to intercept the pursuers and keep the labcoated man safe with... um... meat shielding. Hopefully someone ELSE can be useful here. Right to the action, Cecil!

    Cecil got the invite. Rydia came along for the ride.
    No seriously, the whole way, she's on her knees on her seat and staring out the window. Yumi's Tokyo was a sight to see, but this futuristic metropolis has the green-haired girl's nose practically glued to the window. Right until she starts seeing the bodies. That gets her sitting down again very fast, looking pale. On getting out of the vehicle she sticks very close to Cecil, peering around from the Dark Knight's hip and keeping a wary ear open for approach. That's when she sees the man in the labcoat.
    That's when she sees what's after him, and for a moment she stares wide-eyed and in muted shock. It's the first time she's ever seen the undead and it's jarring. It's even more jarring when Cecil rushes forward. "Wh- HEY don't just leave me behind!" Rydia blurts.
    "-Whyt!" She calls, and the mist that lingers around her slips foward coalescing into the form of a dragon hatchling. A hatchling that draws breath... And unleashes a cone of radiant cold breath at the closest of the zombies.

    Boy howdy, this place sure does make her home look like the stone age.

    Yumi is not here for a job. Yumi is here because she's snuck out to explore the Tree a bit. It's such a vast place, with so many different things... yeah, she's probably gonna get an earful when she gets back, but harmless exploring is fine, right? It's fine as long as she doesn't get in trouble, right?

    Of course, fate is unable to resist lines of thought like those. So of course, now there are zombies.

    Much as she's done once already this week, the orange-haired schoolgirl hears a scream and immediately starts running /towards/ it. On the way, she starts tugging and yanking at the zipper on the duffel bag she's using for her stuff, pulling it open just enough to reach in and haul out... a bat. A wooden baseball bat. Big, heavy, solid. Whatever's going on, she's clearly going to need to defend herself! Not to mention-

    "...Rydia? Rydia, is that you? What are you doing here?!"

>> SUMMARY[Yumi Tachibana] >> Never fear, Bat Girl has arrived.

    There is no way that Vivian would easily be let through, even working for QUILL. The wings are a dead giveaway. Fortunately she just needs to LOOK human to get out of a checkpoint, doesn't she? So Cecil and Rydia have a tagalong... a young woman with very dark hair, but who otherwise looks COMPLETELY DIFFERENT from Vivian. Her illusion spells aren't foolproof, but as distracted as everyone seems to be, she's not too worried.

    "... are those dead moving?" The pale(not dark) woman nearby asks with some mild surprise. She doesn't actually cast a spell though. She'll see how Cecil and Rydia take it before stepping in and risking her cover. Her magic is kind of distinctive. Instead, she calls up a different spell.... to try to read the Wird flows. If this is magic, then maybe she can learn something.

    Cecil moves in, forgetting he doesn't have Cover yet. It'll work out though. Rydia's freezing mist slows the zombies down, weakening their bodies enough that a punch (or a baseball bat as the case may be) will lop their heads off. Them being frozen also has another benefit: that acidic, corrosive blood of theirs doesn't splash quite as much when they're battered. It still does, but it won't risk melting any arms or armor off you. Yumi's baseball bat may be a casualty, sadly.

    Vivian already knows what she found.

    The man, now with Cecil, fidgets incoherently. "Dead! All dead! Shouldn't have - shouldn't have!!" Judging by his Sumeragi ID badge it's safe to assume he's probably to blame. Also he's probably a bad guy.

    "Have to warn HQ! Not out yet, still time, recapture or... level the entire place!" That last one sounds really nice to him right about now.

    "Don't go in, DON'T GO IN!" he warns.
    It's too bad it's where you have to go. This checks out, though. QUILL did mention whatever was under that storehouse is some kind of top secret lab.

    Well that isn't good at all. The man is panicking, and a young girl is helping beat up the zombies, while Cecil is... useless. Not entirely, but close. He does have his bow, but that's much less effective than a good sword would be.

    "Rydia, do you know this girl?" he asks her, before placing a hand on the man's shoulder. "We'll take it from here. You get to safety." With that reassurance, he sighs, holding his bow at the ready so he can try to do SOMETHING as he forges deeper in. "At least these arrows should keep the blood away."

    Rydia... Opts to not directly get involved with the zombies. Letting Whyt handle them in her stead and letting Cecil finish the job. "L... Looked like it." She says, cluelessly to the woman who is not Vivian. Though perhaps it is a stroke of luck for Vivian that Yumi presents a distraction from Rydia- missing the display of magic when she hears her name called. "Huh?"
    There's a beat of staring at the older girl. "You're..." That's the girl from the unicorn incident. "Tachibana, Yumi." She pulls the name from memory. "I came here with Cecil." She says, motioning for the black armored Dark Knight.

    Holding up her hand, Vivian finishes her spell. "Mn... necromancy is, unfortunately, not something that is well-known in my world. I don't know exactly what to do about these things." That is actually the truth. Vivian's own abilities are near the limit of what necromancy in her world can do, barring divine intervention.

    The digsuised Swan sighs, "My own skills are not that useful here. This could be a difficult trial. I hope you know how to use that bow. I don't relish trying to survive on the wits and skills of two children."

    She nods to Rydia and Yumi, "Brave and talented even if they are."

    "Oh. Well, er..." Yumi scratches the back of her head, looking around. "I don't know what all's going on, but if you're here, I'm willing to help." She carefully shifts the bat up into a two-handed grasp, and... pauses, turning to glance Vivian's way. "I know there's not a lot I can offer, but if I'm here, I'd feel bad just running away. With this, I can at least try not to be a burden, right?" She'll lunge and swing at any zombies that look like they're getting close, but she's not about to go out and try to press an attack.

    Granted, that bat probably won't last more than two zombies anyway, even if she /doesn't/ get herself hurt...

    Words can't describe the zeal with which the scientist runs off when given a chance. As for more zombies outside... thankfully there doesn't seem to be any more. Just those bodies in the shadows here and there.

    Somewhere on Cecil's person, a communicator rings out. It's a simple local band radio he'd have been given by QUILL, nothing impressive. Maybe impressive by the party's technological standards, given the year here.

    <<Yo guys, it's Zeno. Just thought you'd appreciate the warning we're picking up Sumeragi troop deployments towards your location. At least one Spider tank. You've got about ten minutes before things get hot. Pick your battles, yeah?>>

    It cuts like that. Too risky to keep a permanently open line.

    The inside of the storehouse is also devoid of zombies. And lights. It's dark. Lots of crates. In the center of the room a hidden elevator shaft seems to have been totally wrecked by claw marks and acid. That's the way down, but it's even darker down there.

    "Hmm..." Cecil stares at the communicator. "Right, we have something called a Spider tank possibly coming in. That sounds difficult, but maybe I can use my sword against it. The rest of you will have to handle any zombies."

    The knight turns away and motions, heading further in. Finding no zombies he breathes a sigh of relief... then concern as he sees the elevator shaft. "I suppose we'll have to go down there. That might take a lot of rope..."

    "I sort of know her. We met." That's about as far an answer Rydia can give to Cecil on the topic of Yumi. But then she scrunches her nose, shooting Vivian an epic level pout. "My wits are pretty sharp, I'll have you know. And my Whyt is pretty skilled." She retorts, earning a brief puff from the little dragon. She's a little placated by 'brave and talented' though.
    "Ah... If that's all you have maybe you should stay with me." She notes to Yumi. "A club can be effective and all, but it's usually safer behind Cecil."
    She pauses.
    "What's a spider tank?"

    Vivian, without giving her name, peers at the shaft downward with some consternation as well. Glancing back at the other three with her, she weighs her options. They don't know she can use illusion magic, and if she's helping they won't suspect her yet, but...

    Eh, she has a mission, and for now they're useful. "I can guide us downward faster. Just follow me." She gestures, and a wave of nausea might pass over some... but she cast far away from people, so hopefully that won't be noticed. Then she just jumps downward, her fall slowed into a gentle descent by a sudden mystical updraft. "I don't like the idea of waiting around to find out what a spider tank is."

    Cecil gets a nod. "I'll do my best." With that, Yumi is as careful as promised when they proceed; which is to say, she stays near the back, not getting in the way of... well, of their one frontline combatant, nor their one bombardment expert. From here she can at least keep Rydia covered!

    The elevator shaft presents something of a problem, though. She /might/ be able to climb all that way down, but she'll have to leave her bag behind, and she might not be able to do it with the bat...

    ...oh, but the other woman seems to have a way down. A way that involves just jumping in.

    "...well, alright," she murmurs to herself, before bravely (or perhaps unwisely) jumping in after. "Whoa!"

    "Wait-" Cecil starts to say... but Yumi is already moving. That odd twist of unease, he's felt it before. But perhaps the woman is just from Vivian's world? Which means... he's going to need to keep her alive just so he can ask questions about the woman.

    Presuming Yumi 'falls' safely, Cecil looks at Rydia. "I suppose we have little choice..." He'll at least try to slide down the wall juuuuust in case. He is wearing heavier armor.

    The group goes down the shaft. It goes down at least twenty levels, a few of which have had their blast doors torn and molten from the other side, which one would presume (correctly) is where the zombies came from. Having access to that float spell is pretty handy though: they can decide exactly when to enter the underground facility and skip needing to navigate its halls all the way down in a quest for holes and stairs.

    It also informs them the zombie issue spread through the entire complex, and it spread from the deeper levels if one goes by the greater number of damaged doors near the bottom.

    Entering the last floor, it's still as poorly lit as it gets. The emergency lights aren't doing their job. Luckily, there's some light ahead.

    Lasers! A heavy blast door has been torn apart, and has been sealed with lasers instead. It's a complex grid of blue, green and red streaks, and they burn and cut if touched. There's control consoles nearby, one marked red, one blue, one green, and they're all off right now.

    The rest of the room contains large people-sized glass tubes, many broken - the floor is wet, in fact, with what was probably a mix of water and other chemicals in there. The ones that still have test subjects inside contain... not zombies exactly. Humans halfway into the process. Dead, sadly.

    "Hey wait don't just leave me behind!"
    Rydia is the last to hop down the shaft, stomach leaping up into her throat as a result before the slowed fall kicks in. It's still pretty harrowing, but by the time she touches down- after seeing all the destroyed metal doors... She's certain of one thing. In the dim lighting, with the sticky-wet floors, Rydia is not afraid to voice her thoughts.
    "... This place is creepy..." The girl mutters, feeling relieved only when her dragon resumes taking on the form of mist and lingering close to her. Until she looks into a tube anyway. If it were any brighter in the room, there would be no missing how much paler the girl turns.
    "What exactly... Is this place?"

    Sadly, the most Cecil gets is a brief, confused look as Yumi is already starting to fall. She'll probably ask him later!

    It's careful steps that take her into the room, but once she's in sight of the 'lab', the reason for her slow pace becomes entirely different. A very similar one to Rydia's, in fact. "I... I dunno, but... nnn." She's visibly bothered. Her grip tenses on the bat a little. But then she forces herself to let go again, looking around. "Hang on, let me see... there's some computers here, can anybody-"

    Yumi pauses. Looks from Cecil, to Rydia, to MYSTERY WOMAN. "...alright, let me see what I can do." She's going to see about getting the computers on, and shutting the lasers off. It's more high-tech than anything from her home, but if anything that means the interface should be simpler, right? Better technology leads to easier UIs. Right...?

    The consoles appear to control the lights.

    Fidgeting gets some of the emergency lights on. The room is bathed in a dull red light as some of the lights turn on. The red lasers are gone! There's still a grid of blue and green ones though.

    ... and noise. From behind the group, the elevator shaft echoes the angered moans and claw scrapes of the former staff of the facility. Scientists crawl in, their skin black and grey, with the same purple, glowing veins as the ones outside.

    They're fast, too. One leaps straight for Yumi, another for Cecil, another for Vivian. Two remain near the entrance, hurling blobs of purple goop at Rydia. It blinds! And burns. It used to be their blood.

    Having gotten the emergency lights on, and one of the laser sets off, Yumi starts to shift over to another console. The arriving zombies kind of put a damper on that, though. The redhead turns, bringing her bat up at the ready... and her form's actually not half bad, if anyone with a warrior's eye cares to take a look. She's also got fairly good reaction times; as soon as the zombie's leaping for her, she shifts herself to the side and brings that bat around in a hefty SWING.

    Unfortunately, there are downsides here. Sharp as she might be, she's a completely unaugmented human. So if that thing can take more punishment than 'a hefty baseball bat to the skull' can deliver, she's gonna be in big trouble. Further issue - even if she's successful, an impact that solid will jar her arms pretty hard, making another such forceful swing out of the question for the next several moments. So if that thing can move faster than she can, or others come after her, she's kinda hosed.

>> SUMMARY[Yumi Tachibana] >> This seemed like a way better idea before I actually saw the zombies up close!

    That... Doesn't sound too good. Rydia's lips purse when the lights come on and the dead sound... Angry. "Guys...?" She doesn't need to warn anyone though by the time the undead come crawling in.R    Briefly Rydia freezes in instinctive horror at the repulsive sight once again. She gets her arms up just in time.
    It spares her a blinding acid splash to the eyes, but judging from the sharp cry of pain, and how she tries to wipe her arms off, it's still pretty painful for her. Once more though the mists that linger around her slither free and take on dragon hatchling shape, swiping chill-cool claws for the zombie responsible.

    Cecil's body lands with a heavy thud, even with the slowed fall, and he examines the room. "This is concerning," he mutters, "Both the room and... I've felt that magic before. Do you happen to know a-"

    Then he's interrupted by the zombies assaulting him and the others. An arrow is let loose, but it's a little off-center. Cecil has to resort to his gauntleted fists to help out, and he staggers toward the others. "Form up and fight back to back! We don't know how many of them there are!" And it also lets him protect the girls much better, because Rydia is still a child, and Yumi is obviously not a warrior even with those reflexes saying she has the talent.

    "Hmm?" Vivian is letting the others guess what they want... and trying to puzzle out this whole colored network. If only someone like Aloy were here, she seemed good at this. But she doesn't know what to do about this, so she lets Yumi do it.

    And then they're attacked. Vivian's life drain doesn't work very well against zombies, but she does wonder about something else. She steps back in alarm as one rushes her, but rather than trying to blow it back, she reaches out and... drains it. Or attempts to. How well do these things operate if she sucks out their Wird?

    She might end up hurt here, but there are others she can leech off of to heal, right?

    The issue with engaging these zombies in melee is the splatters. That blood of theirs makes it very obvious it's not the greatest idea to wound them in close quarters, although a few drops of acid aren't going to deter most warriors.

    That's what Yumi and Cecil have to deal with when the former shatters the ribcage of her victim, and Cecil lets loose an arrow and then punches to equal effectiveness.

    Rydia fares better, freezing the goop-throwing zombies from afar. With two of the zombies wounded and two frozen, draining the lot of them for magic isn't hard. Vivian feasts - there's not a whole lot in there, but there's some, and once it's sucked out the creatures crumble into dust, no longer animated by... whatever.

    There's still noise coming from the elevator shaft. Even more pressing, a scream is heard past the laser grid, a teenage girl, this time. And more angry zombie noises.

    'N-No! S-Stay back!"

    Per Cecil's advice, Yumi quickly shifts over with the rest of the group, keeping them to her back so that she can focus on what's in front of her.

    Unfortunately, most of what's in front of her is 'a bat that's already cracked and starting to dissolve besides. "...okay, metal next time..." she mutters to herself, before letting it go. And shaking her hands out. And... oh dear. Oh someone's trapped. Yumi looks at the grid, looks back at the door, then yells, "Cover me! I'm going to try and get those lasers shut off!" It's very little warning, sure. But they don't have a lot of time. So she darts over to the consoles immediately, and starts working on that - while silently hoping Cecil, Rydia and Vivian will be able to keep her safe.

    The gauntlet is making a hissing noise. That isn't good. Cecil peels it off and uses it as a decaying bludgeon for now, grunting in annoyance. "My blade is of little use against these things." Probably. He hasn't actually tried it, which is maybe a mistake on his part. "Is everyone all right? We need to cover... Yumi, was it?"

    He is going to move to shield her, and literally take out his shield now. "You," he gestures to Vivian. "How did you defeat the one that attacked you? Can you do that more?"

    As soon as Cecil says to go back to back Rydia slides herself into a place behind him- but out of his way, rummaging through her equipment while wincing the whole while. There's no time to use White Magic on her burns though, and she's more pressed into searching for a weapon.
    She finds one in the form of a rod with a shard of ice dominating the top of the staff. Yumi rushes for the consoles calling for cover. A voice cries out for help beyond the lasers. All in all it's pretty hectic.
    "There's- there's a lot of them!" She states the obvious a little, firing blasts of freezing magic at several zombies as she backs up and... Spies Vivian sapping the un-life from one of the zombies. "Wha...?"
    Interesting.

    "I can only do it to one at a time, Cecil," Vivian says, speaking plainly now. Her illusion doesn't disguise her voice, so the jig is probably up. "Any more and they will overwhelm me. Using my magic in this close quarters would cause more harm to the rest of you than to these things, concentrate on rescuing the girl."

    Vivian is NOT going to cluster with the others, notably, because with Rydia and Cecil there that's just asking for trouble. On the other hand, they also know she can take care of herself, because now she's free to cut loose with a distance attack to slice a wind blade through an oncoming zombie. "They do let me restore the Wird I use for this, though."

    It's not too hard to work out through trial and error that once all the lights are on, all the lasers are off. This also means the facility is now perfectly lit, sadly, and the noises from the upper levels, and the elevator shaft, are multiplying. Zombies that prefer light to darkness? That's new. Guess they traded dark vision for awful goop blood.

    Well, the one that braves entering the room gets cut into halves by Vivian, and that seems to deter them well enough while Yumi works her magic. Then there's the ice, and in a pinch Cecil can just shieldbash one's head off.

    Past the lasers, there's a teenage girl balled up in a corner of the room. Long white hair, purple eyes, wearing what looks like a hospital gown with a prisoner ID on one sleeve. She's crying! There's dust all around her. Dead zombies, probably.

    Vivian won't have any trouble telling she's terrified beyond words. And when she sees the group enter? It flares off even worse.

    "S-Stop! I don't w-want... to go back... leave m-me alone!" She seems to be under the impression you're all with Sumeragi.

     Crocodile tears are wasted on those who have seen their teeth. 

     There are three knocks on the ceiling. Then, there are three more. Then a brief pause. 

     Then the ceiling simply erupts, as *something* comes falling through it. It's one of the zombies - and it's being /ridden/. The zombie, and its rider, land with a loud and noxious *thump* spewing blood and guts all over the place. Several other zombies fall through the hole, raining around the crouched figure that is even now rising from the corpse. 

     It's dressed in white. Red neon streaks illuminate the edges of a hanging hood that covers most of the face. Heavy, high-tech armor hangs on the shoulders, gloves, and feet, lined with similar streaks that throb around the wrists and ankles. A blazing red cross burns against the chest, in imitation of the Templar Crusaders of old. A massive, high-tech shield thrums with power in the figure's left hand. In the figure's right hand is clutched a revolver so massive as to be unnecessary. 

     There's a flash of red and terrible eyes beneath the hood. They are filled with a hatred unparalleled and unrestricted, a hatred not for the zombies, not for the people who have fought through them, but for the girl. 

     The man raises the revolver, slamming a clip into it. 

     "You," he says in a calm, cold, and collected voice tinged with a deep black hatred, "Adept. Witch. Deceiver. Despoiler. Know thou that the judgement of the LORD has come, and that I am His Instrument. I pronounce thee GUILTY. You may speak in your defense." 

     He levels the gun at the girl. "You may plead for your life, until the bullet cleaves your skull. I grant you the mercy of the LORD, and the peace you will find in His arms, cleansed of your Adept sickness." 

     "Go in peace." 

     BANG.

    Aaaaand... down! The last one is down. Yumi lunges away from the console, whirling around to give the other three a brief but grateful look. Whatever subtext there might be going on between the others, she misses it entirely - she's too focused on the girl. A girl who is panicking just at the sight of her. "Hey... hey, it's okay. It's alright," she says in a soothing voice, lowering herself down into a nonthreatening crouch. "We're not taking you back anywhere. Okay? We're here to get you out. We're here to rescue you. It's alright. I'm Yumi. Who-"

    CRASH

    In an instant, Yumi is up on her feet and whirling around, standing protectively in the doorway. "Who's th-" Good grief that's a big gun. And he's babbling about judgment and... oh no. He's headed for the girl. Headed right towards the both of them. She has no idea who or what he is, who or what the girl is, or anything of the sort - but she sees a strange man marching in to kill a girl that's panicked out of her skull.

    Before she even realizes what she's doing, Yumi has squared her feet. Nevermind how badly this is going to go for her if she's the only person between that bullet and its intended target.

>> SUMMARY[Yumi Tachibana] >> This is going to /hurt/.

    With the undead backing off, Rydia is given a slight breather. Though she keeps a wather eye on Yumi in the event she needs any support- even if Rydia knows utterly nothing about the systems she's working on. Or... At least she was keeping an eye on Yumi.
    That voice is so much more familiar now, though. In an instant, jade eyes focus on Vivian. Rydia's eyes widen. Her hands begin to tremble.
    "... You..." Her voice is little more than a strangled whisper as she stares the woman down. Then... She's glaring, fumbling through her equipment again for something other than her ice rod. "You again..."
    There's a dagger in Rydia's hands now.
    But it takes an incredible amount of willpower to not rush Vivian with it. As much as the child's scalding pain resurfaces in entirety at the mere sound of Vivian's voice, she restrains herself. This facility is a death trap. The undead roam the halls freely looking for their next victim. Rydia chooses her battles, and right now tussling with Vivian is not the highest priority. Getting out alive is.
    This is why the dagger is put away and Rydia STORMS into the next room beyond the lasers.
    There is a panicked girl who sounds like she could use someone to turn to right now, and Rydia is following Yumi.
    "Hey, calm down, we're trying to-"
    Whatever she has to say is cut off. The ceiling isn't there anymore in the next instant and Copen drops down like a spectre of impending death. The child halts in her tracks, not quite knowing about the weapon he levels, she can only watch in terrible, mute, fascination.
    The gun goes off.
    The report is loud and jarring. The child flinches reflexively in the same instant the deafening CRACK sounds off.
    Then and only then has it sunk in that Yumi has run ahead into the threat of danger.
    "*No!*"

    "Vivian?!" Cecil shouts with a mixture of disbelief and anger, but... Vivian has WISELY chosen not to stand near him where he can throttle her until she provides some answers. Okay, that would be pretty bad in the long run, but even Cecil's composure has limits, and being a Dark Knight doesn't help.

    Besides, there are other worries. A terrified girl, and he looks like the ancient evil Lord Soth's Apprentice or something. "Easy, we aren't going to hurt-"

    Sigh. And then Copen just appears and throws EVERYTHING even further out of whack. Cecil recognizes what this means when Yumi is already rushing there. "NO! You'll get yourself killed!" He's... going to try the same thing, with shield up and ready to hurl himself in front of the bullet-

    Which is probably not the best idea, because it results in a resounding *SPANG* from the shield, and the shield still isn't enough to stop Cecil from ending up sprawling backward, blood on his shoulder seeping through the plate. His helmet hides the look of shock that something could cut through the armor so easily, shield included. He just isn't ready to face that kind of power yet.

    Cecil's shock, and Rydia's anger, is well-deserved. Vivian knows this and accepts it. And when she is going into the next room right after, she's on her guard. She barely gets to say anything though. "You didn't think I did all that for fun, did you? Right now we're on the same-" A sudden flinch, and she's actually /stunned/ for a moment. Swans are not meant to be doing bad things, and are usually quite delicate... Vivian is amazing to have kept her sanity doing what she does.

    Arguably, she hasn't.

    Regardless, the wall of HATE that slams into her emotions is something she's unprepared for, and it takes her several precious moments to even process what's happened. Then she remembers her mission. "GIRL! We need to get you out of here! Come with us!" Normally she'd try to be a little more gentle, but with all the emotion of hate around her - Copen, Rydia, and so on - and the panic from Elise, her own ability to stay calm is shot.

    Speaking of shot, Vivian's reaction to Copen's attack is to delay him as much as possible while she backs toward the exit. She does this with a sqeep of her arm that sends out a small cyclone, debris and dust kicked up to make it a swirling assault on Copen. It doesn't hurt much, but it is, she hopes, disorienting. The act of doing just that causes a ring of drying, decaying metal to surround her feet, and the very air suddenly feels dead, with even the spiders in the room curling up and shrivelling. There's not a whole lot of life in this area to tap into.

    Two meatshields instead of one.
    Elise looks horrified, more than before, all balled up in that corner like it's her safe space. It kind of is, right now.

    Copen. She has no idea who he is. She just figures he's some Sumeragi goon showing up to clean after their mess and make her disappear. That'd always been a threat, she'd always feared it.

    Vivian's screaming at her.
    Elise devolves into an even worse mess. "I-I don't, I c-can't, t-the emergency elevator has a barrier, I couldn't... can't..." Presumably she's saying she couldn't get through. The barrier is actually pretty weak, but strong enough to have kept the zombies from that particular path at least.

    "W-Wait, I... I have... I r-remember, I was..." She gets up, slowly, trembling. "All the... needles and scalpels and..." Reaches up, towards the ceiling. "Then they gave m-me..."

    A sword. A large, black and purple, triangular sword appears overhead, looking more like a really fancy techno-sheath than a blade, and she grasps the handle. It clicks open, lighting up. A flurry of purple butterflies and wisps leave the blade, surrounding Elise, whose form shifts and divides into two. The sword vanishes.

    One Elise stands straight, a hand on her hip. The other is hunched forward and still crying, knees trembling. Both are armored in bright purple, in a sort of snake-like suit of power armor.

    "IDIOT! I had things under control, why'd you take over?!" the calmer Elise yells, at her counterpart.
    "S-Sorry, I'm sorry..." the meek one whines.

    "Well, thanks for the save I guess," the dominant one mouths off towards Cecil and Yumi, before looking at Vivian. "My turn to help, I hate debts."

    She raises a hand. The entire complex makes a terrible, groaning noise as every zombie, in unison, acquires a new target and starts descending down the elevator shaft - and the hole Copen made in the ceiling.

    Then the dominant Elise shoves the submissive one towards Vivian. "I am NOT carrying you out, start running!"
    "Y-Yes, o-okay, p-please don't yell..."

    When the gunshot goes off, there's an alarmed yelp from behind Cecil. The Dark Knight collapses down in front of her, but despite her wide-eyed look, she stays on her feet. Until, at least, it turns out the girl behind her is... two girls. And capable of defending herself.

    Then the orange-haired girl drops to her knees almost immediately, leaning to fuss over Cecil.

    And doing her best to ignore the growing crimson splotch blossoming on her own shoulder. Boy, she sure is favoring her arm a lot.

     Copen's reaction is almost instantaneous. The second Cecil and Yumi have interposed themselves, he... 

     ...doesn't fire again? 

     His eyes flick left, then right. He seems to be trying to decide something. Weighing something. His lips open and part. He's muttering something under his breath, and it doesn't sound like a curse. It sounds like cold, clinical orders. 

     After less than a second, he... 

     Raises the gun away from Cecil and Yumi? And...seems like he's annoyed at something? 

     "Move," Copen says, in a voice that's calm, controlled, and *terrible* in its darkness. That isn't a supernatural darkness, not possession, not some ringing evil overlord nor almighty darkness possessing some innocent man. That darkness is natural, pure, /hate/ in its purest form, a hate so deep and so black that it twists the soul, that it poisons the existence that lives within it and turns them into something *other*, something barely recognizable as human. "You do not know what you defend. Step aside, or I will move you myself." 

     And then Vivian acts. The whirl of dust and debris comes spinning at him, a tornado of inconvenience. Copen turns into it, smashing into the cyclone with that massive, oversized shield like a windbreaker wall. The cyclone roars around him - doing what it accomplished, at least in terms of delaying him for a moment as she backs away. 

     He mutters something else under his breath. His gun swings up around the shield, and fires one of those murderously massive bullets at Vivian. It can probably punch through the wall. It can /certainly/ punch through a human. 

     "Defiler. Sickness. Your kind is a poison upon this and all worlds. I am the cure, the LORD's merciful weapon. You will not bring more of your evil into this tortured world." 

     The shield sweeps sideways, battering away the cyclone with explosive force. Debris goes flying, smashing into the wall - a few chunks of ceiling beam *embed* themselves in the wall, and several bones from zombies Copen apparently killed on the way down disintegrate into dust. Copen's dark red eyes flash at Rydia. "And you. The girl who rescued the tainted Princess. Come to save another of your ilk? Another sinner?" 

     Elise's sudden shift immediately draws his attention. His eyes flick away from Rydia. As the sword appears, the gun flicks upwards, firing a shot off - but it's too late. 

     Copen's lips twist in a snarl as the zombies begin to fall. Another mutter under his breath. Red light pulls from the cross on his chest, filling the wristbands and hoodie lining with a brilliant blood-red neon blaze. 

     Copen seems to almost jerk *backwards*, slamming up against the wall as if by telekinetic force. In the same instant, his gun swings around faster than a human possibly could; one shot slings under his shield, fired at Rydia. The other, in the same arc of motion, fires at the Elise moving through the room towards Vivian. The third, fired *in the same second* as the second but a mere inch apart, goes spinning in a geometric pattern towards the Elise commanding the zombies. At the end of the arc, his gun is raised, firing one more shot into the horde of zombies. 

     Then, Copen... 

     ...doesn't go for the kill shot on either of them. He reloads his weapon. But in the moment of him reloading, he also casts something at Yumi. 

     It's some kind of bandage. 

     He says nothing about this. The motion is almost too fast to notice; the bandage simply falls at her feet, ricocheted off the wall. 

     Copen clicks his teeth, irritated, and smashes the wall behind him with a single stroke of his elbow. It crumbles slightly, enough for him to step through if needed, as he fires on the oncoming zombies. 

     He might be here a while. Or he might be here for very little time at all. But he's definitely distracted. 

     ...basically...run.

    Too bad Cecil doesn't have any healing magic yet. The Dark Knight groans, sitting up and fumbling for his sword. "How...?" He hasn't encountered many who could hit so hard, but he's able to see that even Vivian's cyclone is more a distraction than lethal. Then again, he reasons, she didn't throw the slicing wind attack. He vaguely wonders which one would win in a fight...

    Until he notices that Vivian is taking off, not staying to find out. That's a bad sign. He looks to Yumi and Rydia. "We need to get out of here." And that's exactly what he plans to do, even if he has to take another bullet for Rydia.

    Rydia can only watch as one bullet is all it takes to slam through the dark knight- and into the girl behind him.
    What sort of terrible weapon is that; to be able to pierce a shield, platemail, and the man inside it- let alone to continue onwards?
    "CECIL!" Rydia's voice rises to a shrill pitch, any of that sensation of her hate for Vivian is gone in a cold flash; replaced with stark fear by leaps and bounds as she starts for the Dark Knight. Seeing the girl split and begin to argue herself is one baffling thing, but when she 'helps' by directing the zombies, the Summoner has decided this terrible situation can't probaly get anyworse. Only to be proven wrong and frozen utterly when Copen's attention turns upon her.
    "Wh...at...?"
    The color instantly drains from the child's face. Puzzle pieces fit together. A weapon held like a crossbow. A man with nothing but hate for those who possess magic.
    And he had *seen* her come to Zelda's aid.
    Fear turns to frigid and bald terror, a thrill of absolute fear slithers down her belly like a wet eel, and for a brief moment, Rydia looks like she's going to throw up from the overload of crushing horror bearing down on her.
    She stares at Copen like a victim of shellshock as he levels that gun at her. She now recognizes the wounds on Cecil and Yumi for what they are.
    "... Demon of God..." The girl whispers.
    The gun goes off.
    And a small, white, dragon formed of Mist SHOVES Rydia aside before returning to gaseous form. Whyt pushing her spares Rydia's life and helps the girl return to her wits as she scrambles to her feet, rushing for Cecil and Yumi.
    "G-Get up!" She bleats, throwing Cecil's arm over her shoulder and starting to pull on him with every fiber of her being. He's going to have to do most of the work on running on his own power though, she's not strong enough for that, but it looks like he won't have to take another bullet if she's this keen on fleeing. And Whyt is just as preoccupied, the miniature Mist Dragon clenching jaws on the collar of Yumi's shirt and beginning to drag her along with them.

>> SUMMARY[Rydia] >> Abort mission. Abort abort abort abort abort abort abort.

    Vivian doesn't actually know if she can stand up to Copen, but has a very good reason not to try. Her shape blurs as she casts her replication spell, forming numerous decoy copies of herself. One of them calls to Elise, "I was sent to get you out of here and to safety. I don't really care what you are, but I can't fight this one here at my full power. The Retribution could collapse the entire installation."

    That's... a good reason not to do it. And she doesn't have a lot to draw on either. She does make short work of one of the zombies, making another one collapse, but says to Elise, "These things don't give me much when I consume them. Follow me, I know a way out."

    Copen is an angry man with a large revolver. Both Elises can clearly see this right now. Lucky for them, they've got a zombie horde here.

    Two of those crawlers leap in front of the bullets meant for them, causing an unholy splatter of acidic purple blood absolutely everywhere as Copen's overcompensating bullets plunge in. One of those bullets still makes it to the dominant Elise, cracking her helmet. If she hadn't weaponized, she'd not have a head anymore.

    "Mind your steps! It'd be troublesome for me if you died right now," the dominant one barks to the submissive one. The weaker Elise half-nods in response as she tries to keep up with Vivian.

    She's not very good at it but those zombies are buying them a lot of time now. AND they're leaving the party alone! Mostly. The occasional zombie tries for a nibble but most are busy swarming Copen in a pile of bodies and corrosive blood. They're trying their hardest!

    "That's more value than they had in life," the dominant Elise laughs. It's not untrue.

    "W-Where... where are we g-going?" the submissive Elise stutters, trying to manage the incredible task of running and talking at the same time.

     As the group retreats, the last sight they see is Copen's hateful red eyes as zombies descend on him. His fingers punch through the skull of one of them and out the back end as if it was paper mache. As he turns to raise his gun towards the fleeing group, another group of zombies blocks his path, and with it, the view of the Adept Slayer.