World Tree MUSH

    Over the past week, Serrah has been formulating the plan. Now, it's right before the appointed time, and Serrah is going over the plan.

    She sets a sheet of printer paper onto a table in Devil May Cry; there are three circles drawn on it in a row in marker, with each of the the outer two connected to the middle one by a line; the leftmost circle is labeled "HARTFORD" in Serrah's scribbly handwriting, the middle one is labeled "GAIA", and the rightmost one is labeled "EARTH?".

    She taps the "EARTH?" circle. "Holly and me wait here," she says. "Alty found it, it's this regular-tech low-magic world, not much to say about it. The most interesting part is that at the moment, the fastest way to get there from Hartford is here." She taps the "GAIA" circle. "The Vines are pretty close together, they're on opposite sides of some ancient arena." She smiles thinly. "Great place for an ambush, is what I'm saying." She shrugs. "And if I sense Vincent about to enter that Earth, I'll stop time so that Holly can summon me." She makes a face. "Or failing that, knock me out. Or knock Vincent out, I'm not picky," she adds. "I'm just keeping all the options open, y'know, 'No plan survives contact with the enemy' and all that."

    She looks around the table. "Any questions or comments?" she says. "Or are we ready to move out?"

    Luke is glancing at the 'diagram' or is it a map? closely from one edge of the table, and sipping a cup of something. "So you want us to... ambush them when they try to find their way to that Earth?... and... beat them up?, destroy them?." asks the boy. Floating right over the map is Pangshi, the small black and white thing just hovering without regard for gravity, or the vantage point of some people. The vampire thing pointing at the 'Gaia' and vocalizing a few times, leaving a tiny smudge, as if asnswering Luke, before Luke reaches and yanks it out of the way. "Sorry, I think he is trying to help.". 
    "What can I... do?, or well, my pokemon at least?, I want to help as much as I can."

"Won't people notice me summoning you if I use magic? Or is that the point so they're distracted while being ambushed?" If Holly manaages to somehow manages to pull this off, they're going to get a lot of attention and fast. "I really hope I can pull this off so I don't have to knock you out!" The witch can feel the magic building up inside of her, but she was unsure if she would have a power surge with her next spell cast. "Or my magic doesn't go off before then!"

    "I got demon blood, pretty sure Vincent can smell that a mile away. Plenty of supernatural figures probably can." Dante chimes in. "So question is, how do we hide that so this ambush isn't for nothing?"

    Alty is... Standing right on the table, just on the edge of the diagram.
    "It seemed like a good a place as any for the plan." she says in regards to Earth(?).
    "I'm as ready as I'll ever be, though." The little Altines says, glancing up and around at the others, "Just tell me what you need me to do."

Chrollo looks excessively pleased with this plan. How can you tell? Well, he's actually smiling. It's a small, sad thing as is his wont, but he is definitely happy about the idea of ambushing Vincent. 

"A simple, effective plan. Vincent isn't smart enough or cautious enough to be prepared for that." 

His brows furrow for a second. "The better question will be, 'is our Hartford benefactor going to clean up the loose ends'. We should keep our eyes out." Paranoia, thy name is Lucilfer. 

He looks to Dante. "Why bother hiding? Challenge him directly if you can't stop yourself from being noticed. Convince him you're alone, then we strike." Suggests Chrollo. 

Dressed in (stolen) clothes from Gaia, he looks ready to blend in for this attack.

    Dante kind of stares at Chrollo for a second, then raises a finger. "THat's...actually not a bad idea. Let ME be the first trap, then the others are the rest. Perfect!" He grins wide. There's also pizza available. Dante's devouring a slice of meat and pineapple right now.

    Serrah nods to Luke. "Correct," she says. "Just ... either permanently kill him, or beat him up enough that he can't use the Blackheart Scepter on me ... or, I mean, uh, just destroy the Scepter. I ... " There's a slight shake in her voice. "... I don't know if it needs to be me who kills him. But. Y'know." She grimaces. "Just, uh ... don't permanently kill Wilhelmina, if she shows up, all right? None of this is her fault."

    She shakes her head to Holly. "We're not part of the ambush," she says. "If Vincent gets into the same Blossom as me while he still has his hands on that Scepter, it won't really matter who sees us, I'll want to dodge his control by any means necessary."

    She shrugs at Dante's question. "We can't smell that kind of thing through a Vine, and I don't think he noticed your blood the first time until you went, uh, Devil Trigger," she says. "But yeah, Crow, that's not a bad plan. The ruins are pretty cluttered, there should be plenty of hiding spots for everyone else."

    She looks over at Alty. "Hmm ... you've already done plenty, frankly," she says. "But you can wait by the Gaia-Earth Vine, relay messages in case that becomes necessary. Keep my movements to a minimum."

"I'm not going to be summon Serrah if I'm too far away though...otherwise I could just warp her out of there the moment Vincent shows up." If that had been possible for Holly it would have made things a lot easier. "Then again I'm not certain if that'll work to begin with. I might have got lucky when it happened with Iota." Plus, it didn't help Serrah had been made this way through magic and she had to fight off Vincent's influence as well.

    Luke just nods when Serrah confirms the plan, "That sounds like something I can do, well, me and my pokemon." he says, "Just wondering if I should help from up close, or a distance, just affraid to get in the way of the others, or hit them by accident." 
    There is another small pause, "Who was Wilhelmina again?"

    "It's my nature to be helpful." Alty notes. "I mean it's literally hard wired into my programming." She points out, rubbing at the back of her neck. But then she nods. "I'll maintain communications between the groups, then, and see where else I can help out." The shinki says as Dante volunteers to challenge Vincent. "Ah... Um. Good luck."

Luckily, Chrollo has worked with people similar to Dante. Distractions are important to banditry! 

He otherwise listens to the others until Serrah mentions the Scepter. Ahh, yes. 'Crow' is suddenly paying a bit more attention here. 

"Don't worry. I intend to make sure Vincent will no longer be able to control you, Miss Delaney." Promises Chrollo rather openly. 

"It won't be an elegant plan, but this job doesn't requite that. Tailor the attack strategy to the opponent. Everyone should stay together on the ambush team aside from Mr. Dante. Protect each other. No one fights alone, and we will be able to beat him." He offers to the group, tone almost fatherly despite his obvious (relative) youth.

    Dante nods. "Let's get to it then." He says, finishing his last slice of pizza for the night.

    Serrah nods to Holly. "That's why we'll be sitting together on this park bench by the Vine in Earth," she says. "And yeah, I'll also be in punching-distance if you can't summon me. I'll have time to stop time for you."

    She chuckles humorlessly in response to Luke's question. "His maid," she says. "The one with the ... creepy smile?" She pauses. "I mean, even other die-hard Hartford vampires think it's creepy."

    She nods at Chrollo's summation. "Couldn't've put it better myself," she says, nodding to Dante.

Later, in Gaia ...

    It's late at night. The arena resembles the Roman Colosseum, but with a wider variety of building materials; nevertheless, it's all cracked and overgrown, and as Serrah promised, it's cluttered with fallen columns and other detritus.

And in Earth(?) ...

    It's late here, too. Serrah sits with her hands folded behind her head next to Holly, stealing glances at the Vine leading to Gaia. "It's kinda weird, y'know," she says. "Just ... I've been on the run for the better part of a year and a half, and ..." She smiles faintly. "If this even goes half as well as it could, it's all gonna be over. Then I'll be able to stop by a clinic ... and be a human again." There's less enthusiasm as she says that particular detail, but that's just because of the concerns she raised before the meeting with "Major Jensen".

    Then she frowns, peering at the Vine. "Wait a second ..."

    LATER, THAT NIGHT.

    Dante is currently strumming Nevan right now, casually singing some bars as he waits in the middle of the Colosseum, to an audience of none.

    "Bless me with the, leaf off of a tree, on it I see, the freedom reign. We are falling, the light is calling. Tears inside me, calm me down. Midnight, calling, mist of resolving, crown me with the, pure green leaf. Praise to my father, blessed by the water, black night, dark sky, the devil's cry... /o~"

"So what do you on planning on doing once your human again? I mean you won't be able to go back to Hartford a while..." Holly smiles but she sounds a bit concerned. "Hopefully, there's no side effects left over if I do summon you..." She's pretty sure she can't conjure humans, but would the spell just wear off once they destroy the scepter? "This is going to be one difficult research paper, I'm going to have to write if this works." After all her professors are going to know what happened.

    Luke is taking this quite seriously, despite not being sure what... he should do, or how to help the others... it is such a mess, getting in a high stakes, high power fighting when you are nervous of accidentally hurting a friend. Pokemon battling is usually limited to 3 versus 3 matches!. The boy seems to like the position in the middle of the arena, the best spot to keep an eye on whatever going around. 

    He is nodding lightly to Dante's musical number, flanked by 3 figures, two fo them taller than him, and the third one about his height, all of them slowly scanning the area around them... Ok, only one of them is keeping guard, the other is fixated on Dante, listening to the song with interest, and the third one seems to be somehow napping, or at least laying down.

    Time to go then.
    When all is said and done, Alty is perched out of sight in the colosseum. Waiting. Watching. Peeking over the edge of a higher ledge in a vantage point to watch over Dante and the vines.

Chrollo has found himself a perch in the 'Crow's' nest of sorts. Or more likely a former Imperial viewing box. He's out of sight, slinking in the darkness. Not that he really expects to hide from a vampire with their sense of smell. 

And yes, he's humming along in his heart to Dante's rather pleasant singing. The idea of this kind of thing, waiting for the right timing on an ambush or heist, makes him miss the Troupe even more. 

But no, he can't wax nostalgic. Eyes open, Nen around his eyes to keep him sharp, he remains waiting.

    Serrah shrugs. "I'm honestly not sure what I'll do," she answers Holly. "Probably more of the same. Just, uh ... less looking over my shoulder, I guess. I'll definitely eat some goddamn garlic bread." She makes a face. "I hope there are no side-effects, but there might be," she says. "Worst case ... well, if I still have some humanity left, the worst case is that I become a creature of darkness called a 'dhampir', which is a lot better, but not as good as ... wait a ..."

    Her voice trails off. "I can sense Vincent moving through the World Tree," she says slowly, "but he's moving further away, he's not coming through Gaia ..."

    She turns around, and looks down the street in the direction they took to get from Dante's world. "... shit, I think I know what he's doing. We've got to move. C'mon!"

    And so Dante's performance is interrupted by the arrival of Serrah and Holly from Earth(?). "Guys!" she says. "Vincent's taking the long route to get here! Either we've been had, or he's doing something smart for once!"

    Dante's singing is pretty good. Musical talents are definitely part of Dante's wheelhouse, it seems. He keeps singing before he's interrupted mid-syllable by Serrah's arrival.

    His stomach drops a bit. "Shit." is all he can say, as he leaps to his feet. "Please tell me you have a backup plan." He adds, swiftly grabbing his guitar case and greatsword, stowing both on his back.

    Annnnd there comes Serrah and Holly through the vine?
    Alty blinks as she tunes her sensors to better overhear what's going on.
    "Wh..."
    This is. Pretty bad isn't it?
    "Should we abort?" She ventures hesitantly.

It all was so well planned. It was so simple and elegant. Of /course/ it won't be that easy. 

Chrollo hops down from his perch, walking swiftly over to Serrah and Holly. He glances about suspiciously. 

"Trying to draw us out into a fight on his terms. Perhaps he won't be alone." 

The man ponders over the issue for a few moments. 

"We need to gauge /what/ he's doing. I say we track him with Miss Delaney. We keep our distance from his approximate location. Advance, see his reaction. Miss Altines? Your particular brand of scouting may come in handy." 

It's too early to give up the chase in Chrollo's opinion.

    Luke quickly rushes to look at Serrah and Holly, "What's wrong?", his pokemon all rushing behind him, the lazier looking ones from earlier seeming suddenly more alert. Dante already asked the question already, but he has to ask, "So... shoudl we find another hiding world?"

"Well, he knows where Serrah is but he doesn't know where the rest of us are right?" Holly figures they might still be able to make this work somehow. "Is there any way we could still surprise him?" The witch isn't a tactician but they might still be able to make this work. "Or is there any way we could get Vincent away from the others?" Maybe there's someway they could pick him off without getting the others attention.

    Serrah shrugs. "I ... genuinely don't know," she says. "The thing is, Holly, that goes both ways. I can sense where he is, but I can't see if anyone's with him ..." She frowns. "I ..."

    She glances between the two Vines. "I'm getting a stronger sense from that Earth than from Hartford, which means he's closer to Earth than Hartford ... oh wow, he's booking it."

    She turns around. "... I'll ... Holly and I ... will go to Hartford." She laughs. "Oh man, that seems like a ridic idea even when I say that, but ... it should be easy enough to stick close to the Vine in case --"

    At that moment, Wilhelmina, the woman in the black and red french maid uniform with the Stepford smile, suddenly arrives from the Hartford Vine. "Good evening, sirs and madams!" she calls out, casually holding two handfuls of kitchen knives. She's not brandishing them or holding them at the ready; still, there seems to be an implied threat.

    "Ghh--!" Serrah jumps, and darts behind Holly. She then places a hand on Holly's shoulder and doesn't let go. "... I think we're officially out of time to do anything," she says. "Holly, get ready to punch me as soon as I stop time!" And then, whispered in Holly's ear, "But try to summon me first," she whispers in Holly's ear.

    "His Grace will be here shortly, Lady Delany," says Wilhelmia. "As you are all no doubt aware."

    "Yeah, shut up," Serrah calls back. Her gaze is fixed on the Vine to Earth.

Well, Holly's taller than Serrah so behind her makes as good of hiding place as any. She gulps as she sees Wilhelmina with the knives, while the witch is more durable than she looks, it's kind of hard to focus on casting spells when someone's stabbing you.

 She has to get this right and does her best to copy what she did before when she was successful. "Well, he's in for a surprise then! Because a mere vampire is no match for the Halloween Witch!" She does her best to sound confident and slams her lollipop staff into the ground and orange sparks begin to surge from her hands.

"Bippity boppity boo, I summon you!" There's an explosion of orange light as the sparks fly onto Serrah's head making the shape of a pumpkin that covers the Blackheart Mark. She lets out a loud gasp at the results of the spell, "I actually did it!"

    The creepy maid seems enough to put Luke's pokemon on edge. The bewear lets out a couple of loud, high pitched growls at Wilhelmina, while the other two begin to look around nervously. Luke tries to get closer to Dante... for tactical reasons.

>> GAME >> Holly Winn spends an Edge for: Summoning magic is difficult

Chrollo does the...rather unthiefly thing by interposing himself between Serrah and Wilhelmina with her kitchen knives. One hand is in his pocket, while the left hand pulls out that overly large knife of his. His entire body soon burns with that purple life aura, the bandit clutching something. 

Bandit's Secret pulses inside of his coat, the man's finger keeping the book ready at a certain page. 

"Miss Wilhelmia, wasn't it? Tell me something. Did you take that mark on yourself by choice, or was it forced on you?" Questions the Spider.

    Drawing his guns, Dante sights down the maid and cocks the hammers. "Hi, Billie." He says, not lowering his guns for a second. "Tell your boss to hurry, my trigger fingers are itchy tonight." He says coldly.

    Luke gets the cold shoulder. It's a bad, BAD idea to be this close to him. "Stick with your teddy bear, kid. This is grownup work." Harsh, but it'll do.

    And there's Wilhelmina.
    Alty grimaces. This already isn't going well.
    "How?" She whispers. "How could they have known?" She mutters, watching from her vantage point quietly.

    Wilhelmina politely chuckles at Dante's rejoinder. "He is already on his way," she says, before she turns her completely empty smile on Chrollo. "It was the work of my --"

    Serrah's body jerks as Holly's spell hits her. She wobbles a bit, then opens and closes her hands a few times, then flits her gaze upward, as if trying to see the orange glow. Then she breaks into a wide grin. "It ... it worked!" she says. She laughs out loud. "Now I ..." Her smile immediately vanishes. "... can't sense where Vincent is anymore. Uh, you might have been a little premature there, Holly ..."

    And then Wilhelmina's smile disappears as well. "-- current ... master's ..." She looks past Chrollo at Serrah, then glances between her and Holly. "... what ...?" She looks not only surprised, but confused and bewildered, as if this turn of events is counter to her entire worldview.

    And that's when Dante gets his wish, as Vincent bursts in from the Earth vine. "What in the world did you do!?" he roars, looking astonished, but angry. He, too, glances between Holly and Serrah. Then, his voice eerily calm, he says, "Mina?" Wilhelmina's Blackheart Mark glows purple as he says this. "Kill."

    Wilhelmina charges towards Holly, gliding a few inches the ground at breakneck speeds; however, her smile still hasn't returned. At the same moment, Vincent makes the same kind of charge at Luke, his face contorted into fury, seemingly ignoring Dante and Chrollo (and apparently not noticing Alty).

    Serrah's grin returns, and she squares her shoulders. "Gimme an order, Holly!"

>> SUMMARY[Serrah Delany] >> The battle begins. Wilhelmina goes after Holly; Vincent goes after Luke.

"Get her off me!" Holly needs to stay focused or she'll lose her control of Serrah. She can't cast any other spells right now so she'll have to physically defend herself from Wilhelmina, "And someone else grab the scepter from Vincent, the sooner we can get it away from him the better!" She's too busy at the moment trying to avoid getting stabbed by the vampire. Hopefully Vincent won't try to vampire her in order to break the witch's grasp on Serrah.

Holly /definitely/ needs some defending, but Chrollo...has other plans for this whole engagement. And seeing Vincent dead is definitely on his list. So rather than defend Holly (or Luke), he goes on the offensive. 

Keeping his book hidden in his coat, but fingers still on the image of Serrah inside of the book, waiting for the right moment. 

Of course Holly openly asks others to grab that Scepter. Chrollo leaps into the air, falling down, aiming a slash for Vincent's face! 

It's a feint though, as he pulls back at the last second, flicking his wrist to fling that knife directly at Vincent's scepter holding hand! His eyes don't leave his prize, ready to snatch it at a moment's notice.

    Luke tries his best to ignore the 'kid' line, but gives Dante a surprised look for a moment, and Bewear looks like it considered for a moment how hard it might be to punch sword boy past the horizon, but knows Dante is still a friend, maybe will punch him after the mess. Instead, seems the pokemon decides to start preparing. 
    Bewear's eyes glow light-blue, and multiple light-blue swords circle around it. The swords stop and point towards Bewear, end first, before disappearing. A red aura then bursts from the ground underneath it, before a lighter-colored red aura goes upwards along its body, engulfing it. 
    The boy manages to walk a fair distance before Vincent seems to make an appearance, and does his best to look calm. "Bewear!." he calms on a slightly uneasy tone as he rushes to take cover behind Agni and Dynamo. The pink, black and white pokemon suddenly moves from it's standing position with a resounding crack, and charges straight at Vincent at a similarly impressive burst of speed, clearly trying to stop the leader from reaching Luke, bringing its right forepaw in an attempt to punch Vincent mid charge.

>> GAME >> Luke Gray spends an Edge for: Bewear buffs attack and speed using Swords Dance in a rather short period of time.

    Dante squares up. As Mina rushes Holly, Dante doesn't waste any time deliberating. He opens fire on the vampire maid to defend Holly, the pistols kicking in his palms as he riddles her with bullets. She's definitely single-minded enough right now that she won't even realize how open she is to attack. Bewear can handle Vincent, for now anyways. Hopefully it just keeps Luke out of the line of fire.

    Nope. This is bad juju.
    Vincent comes rolling on in, looking madder than a bull that's seen red and Wilhelmina is going for Holly... As Chrollow goes for the staff.
    Alty... Leaps from her vantage point.
    There's a small flare of white light as she summons a small red longsword to her hand as she freefalls for a moment.
    Only to take a slash at Vincent's staff-holding wrist on her way down in a sneaky little bastard move of a surprise attack.

    The minute Holly says that command, Serrah charges forward. She stops time, and Holly and Chrollo see her emanate that ripple of light as the world goes still around her; Holly herself is able to move freely, as she's "connected" to Serrah and thus riding Stop the World directly. Serrah throws several baseballs at Wilhelmina, then glides slightly backwards and she resumes time. To everyone else, of course, it looks like she's in a slightly different position and there are baseballs flying.

    Wilhelmina's response is to transform into a liquid shadow; the baseballs harmlessly pass through her. As soon as she reforms, however, she gets filled with bullets. She collapses facedown. "My attempt failed, Your Grace," she croaks out.

    "Whoa, hey!" Serrah looks between Wilhelmina and Dante, and shrugs. "Oh well, whatever," she says uncomfortably. "Uh. Still got that blood, or ...?"

    Vincent, meanwhile, now has both Chrollo and Bewear to deal with. He ducks under the feint, jerks his whole body to the side and receives only a light scratch to his Scepter-hand -- he's taking good care of it, apparently! -- and gets clocked in the face by an angry Bewear, sending him skyward.

    He lands on his feet, leaning heavily against the Scepter. "You are in the way," he growls through clenched teeth. He points the Blackheart Scepter at Bewear. "What if you were ... not?"

    And with that having been telegraphed, due to a vampire's complete inability not to do the most dramatic thing possible, he fires a heart-shaped blast of purple light at Bew-- fires it at Chrollo, points it back to Bewear, then lets out a squawk as he suddenly has an Altines slashing at his hand. He's taken completely by surprise, and it draws blood as he jerks his hand away.

    The Scepter falls from his right hand ... then immediately flies up to his other hand, and he uses it to try to smack Alty away. "You little pest!"

>> GAME >> Serrah Delany uses a Free Edge for: Vincent attempts to use Heart Control on Chrollo AND smack Alty in quick succession.

>> SUMMARY[Serrah Delany] >> Serrah and Dante bring down Wilhelmina; Vincent defends himself (with mixed success)

    Dante grins -wide- at Serrah, reaching for the bottle in his coat. He never got rid of it, hell he was HOPING Serrah would want it. He tosses it at her, before noticing Vincent's doing...A THING.

    That scepter becomes Dante's target as he lets out a barrage of bullets, his magnificent aim hopefully will result in that scepter being destroyed entirely, saving Bewear some serious heartache.

Holly didn't expect Wilhelmina to go down so easily, but now she puts herself in front of Serrah in-case Vincent gets desperate. She figures it's best not attack and provoke him, she already knows that's she's a tempting target for the vampire. It's taking a lot of effort on her part just to keep the spell up.

Chrollo, for all his speed and acrobatics, is no anti-gravity vampire. Vincent has the perfect angle to hit him, and is far too dedicated to protecting that scepter! 

The bolt from that scepter hits him, and a shock goes through the Spider's head. Alarm bells go off. This is a manipulator ability. If he meets Vincent's Conditions, he may as well be dead...or worse. 

Ever quick thinking, as he feels the tendrils of that Scepter's power crawl through his head and that symbol form, the thief backs off. Vincent gets his space. A deep breath, and Chrollo /concentrates/. He grows calm. As calm as a tree in nature. As calm as a buddhist master monk. The man is a picture of serenity bordering on lifeless beyond even that of a vampire. 

His Nen grows tightly around him, and in that aura of pure calm, slowly he works off the power threatening to make him suggestable by Vincent. 

Nen wins out, but the man looks winded for the effort. He leaps back into action, constantly harrowing Vincent warily. This time he leaves enough room to dodge, weave, but /oh so close/ as a threat. He waits, looking for any sign of Vincent's guard dropping.

    The brief success in slashing Vincent's wrist is heartening.
    "Now!" Alty calls out. "Grab the--"
    That success is stripped away as the scepter flits from the ground and right into the vampire duke's other hand.
    "Oh."
    It is the most depressed sound any living being can make as Vincent reels back to swing at her.
    That's just how life works isn't it? It's survival of the fittest; those who have power and can back themselves up with said power will always be victorious. And for a moment, the little shinki is crestfallen.
    But... Alty has strength of her own. And seeing that scepter coming, swinging right at her, it's almost as though time seems to slow down.
    If it's survival of the fittest then... The little robot grits her teeth.
    She's fought.
    She's bled.
    She's shed blood.
    She'll shed blood again for her friends.
    And as that rod comes at her, the little shinki with the heart of a valkyrie shows that when it comes to push and shove--
    She catches the scepter as it hits her dead on, arms clenching around the rod as it slams into her, every thruster on her tiny body screaming in protest as she...
    Stops it dead in its tracks briefly. Before she wrenches- shifting all that weight behind the strike to YANK and not just throw Vincent off balance... But to flip him over completely into the dirt.
    "HYAAAAH!"
    In a battle of the survival of the fittest... Only those who fight dirty will truly succeed.

>> GAME >> Alty spends an Edge for: Raiden! Stop that blade!

>> SUMMARY[Alty] >> RULES OF NATURE

    Luke reached safety!. He keeps hsi attention on Vincent now, he is keenly aware the darn scepter is trouble, and while he trusts Dante's aim to be very good, he will waste no time trying to subdue the vampire. "Bewear!, , we have make him drop that thing, or break it yourself, but don't let Vincent get away! Close Combat!". 

    The bear nods, that blue aura from the previous buff still lingering on it, waiting for the bullet burst to pause, before once again charging ahead so fast it disappears from sight before reappearing in front of Vincent, looming. "Bewear!" the pokemon roars, just as Alty does a very impressive thing. 

    Seems the pokemon decides to change it's course of attack just a bit to take advantage that distraction. And as Vincent is being hopefully both disarmed, and flipped around in the air, the pokemon raises both paws, and begins a series of incredibly fast punches, further slamming the vampire against the ground, hopefully making it release the darn thing, if Alty's gambit didn't succeed, or buying more time to get away if it did. The attack looks very dangerous, but also is clearly leaving the bear quite exposed given how focused it is on the attack.

    Serrah catches the bottle of blood. She heads over to Wilhelmina, kneeling quietly by the fallen vampire maid. "We're ... gonna permanently kill your master," she says hesitantly.

    Wilhelmina manages to reform her smile, although it's very brittle. "Such has happened before," she says. "Do be sure to pick up the Scepter after you have done so ..."

    Vincent smirks at Dante, and transforms into a shadow to avoid his bullets. Almost immediately, he reforms, looking startled and dodging back from Chrollo. "The way you resisted the Heart Control ... what are you!?" He raises the scepter... 

    ... tries to raise the scepter ...

    ... and then stares down at where Alty has caught it. "Huh? WhaWAAAAAAUGH!"

    And then he has a Bewear pounding him further into the ground. The Scepter rolls out of his hand.

    "Jeez ..." Serrah sighs softly -- it's a somewhat artificial sound -- and reaches into her baseball bag.

    She pulls out a wooden stake, sharpened to a point.

>> SUMMARY[Serrah Delany] >> Vincent is down.

Holly frowns a bit as Serrah pulls out the stake, she won't stop her but she's still not big on killing. She knows Vincent will cause more trouble if allowed to live but she certainly doesn't enjoy this. The scepter in Alty's hands does get her attention though. Could it make her magically more powerful? She doesn't like the thought of controlling people against their will, but could its power be used for good? It might be worth studying further.

    Dante is about to try and take another shot at the scepter, and Vincent, but then Alty goes and suplexes him into the ground.

    He doesn't flinch as Serrah pulls out the stake, simply going to blow out Vincent's knees. Just to make sure he stays still, can't have Vincent pulling another disappearing act. "You're done, Duke." He says coldly, and he nods to Serrah.

    He won't stop Serrah, she deserves to do the honors.

Chrollo's eyes go wide as he watches the tiny, tiny little robot stop Vincent's strike with that scepter. How strong /is/ she!? The man is even more interested. And it seems as though, with Vincent grounded by Bewear's punches, well...everyone's attention is on dealing with Vincent. 

Without a word, Chrollo pulls out Bandit's Secret from his pocket. Fully opening it to the page with Serrah's picture on it, the man concentrates. He opens his nen to the power that the vampiress he's helped so much possesses. 

He can't let that scepter be destroyed. He tries to make sure that Serrah herself can't see him, preferably behind her. 

~STOP THE WORLD~ 

Everything goes grey, murky, still. He immediately goes for Alty, who so hard won that Scepter. It's exactly why he goes for her so hard. He walks over to her, almost casually, the speed of a powerwalk. He raises his left hand, pauses. 

Closing Bandit's Secret, it's only as Stop The World ends is Chrollo reaching for that scepter with all his nen-enhanced strength to try to tear it from her unsuspectingly. 

There's a blurr in the world, a skipping as if the fuzziness of vcr tape scratching, and the thief reveals his true colors!

>> SUMMARY[Chrollo Lucilfer] >> ZA WARUDO, for the sudden and inevitable betrayal

    And Vincent is down. Leaving Alty floating in the air, scepter in hand. Even she has to blink at what just happened. But VERY quickly she starts flitting away from Vincent before he can even think about trying to grab for it and starts floating towards the others.
    "I got it! I got-"
    Everything stops.
    And when it all starts again, Chrollo is practically on top of her, reaching for the rod.
    "Wh- AH!" She squeaks as it's prized from her grasp, sending her in a tumble to the ground.

    The Bewear holds Vincent down by the shoulders as he sees the others grab the 'scepter' thing Luke mentioned, growling at Vincent, and gives Dante a squeaky, happy noice of greeting. It lets go of the vampire after the stake breaks those legs, wiping its paws and moving to check on Alty. The boy watches Serrah and Dante for a few moments, and joins the Pink bear, curious about the darn stick, and also not too keen on watching the staking going on. Only to see Chrollo suddenly begin his evil spider treachery! neither is close enough to stop it just now.

    Serrah sets the bottle of Dante-blood next to Wilhelmina. "This is half-demon blood," she says. "Quickest we could get from a donor."

    "... Why?" says Wilhelmina, confusion in her eyes. Her smile is gone once again.

    Serrah shrugs, and starts walking over towards Vincent. "Why not?" she says.

    Vincent glares up at Dante. "N ... no," he says. "You ... you can't ... the Empire will have your heads on silver platters if you -- ARGH!" He twitches under the gunshots, and tries to reach out and grab the Scepter, but he's clearly too injured to concentrate, and Bewear is doing too good of a job keeping him down.

    Serrah sighs softly, and starts walking towards Vincent --

    -- when suddenly, time stops.

    What? she thinks to herself. But she doesn't activate her own timestop power just yet. She waits patiently for Chrollo to resume time.

    And the instant Chrollo makes his intentions clear and snatches the Scepter out of Alty's hands ...

    (... he would feel the power of the Scepter in his hands. And then he would feel its rejection: its old owner still un-lives. He is a mere human, who does not deserve to wield its power. He should drop it, and then become a vampire at the very least. ... Of course, these urges are nothing compared to the Heart Control; they would be easily resisted.)

    ... in the next instant, Serrah stops time on her own power. Again, only Chrollo and Holly can see it, due to Holly's magical connection and the fact that Chrollo possesses her ability. She's gambling that this time-stop power works like hers: it has a cooldown, one which gets "stuck" when someone else stops time around you, and he won't be able to use it again his cooldown runs out after she resumes time. "Man," she says. "If I'd known you could stop time, too, my plans would've been very different." She starts walking up behind him. "I've gotten my ass kicked by people with time-powers before, and I've put a bunch of thought into countering my own stuff. Mind putting that thing down so that we can destroy it?"

    And then she leaps forward, swinging a fist at the back of his head like a freight train. Time, of course, resumes in the middle; she can't strike at someone directly while time is stopped.

    Dante is about to react as time stops, and then he waits. Trying to get caught in all this TIME STOPPERY, Dante waits his turn for once. Instead, he just waits for Serrah to do her thing. And suddenly, he joins with the punching, pistol whipping Chrollo right upside the head.

    "You're not the only person who knows how to fight timestop, motherfucker!"

It looks like Chrollo managed to beat Holly to the scepter, and her head turns back as she sees that Vincent is still unalive. Did they need to destroy the scepter to free Serrah from it? Still, she's limited in what she can do right now. She doesn't feel safe letting Serrah go free as long as Vincent's still around but she can't keep her summoned forever either. She's starting to look a bit fatigued as she burns through her magic.

    Seems Bewear, despite not having timey powers, can easily get the vibe that 'trying to take the special stick' like that is bad. Certainly using weird stop powers to snag it means Chrollo must be a bad guy, right?. Still, Luke points Bewear to keep Vincent down, no need to deal with that vampire. He sends Agni closer to the fallen, wounded vampire, with orders to start a fire if Vincent starts trashing too much.

The upside to this duel of Timestopping? As long as Chrollo has the book open, he can see what Serrah is doing! The fact that time stopping can be 'halted' this way? It's an invaluable lesson. 

"So it's possible to use the Ability that way as well? Miss Delany, I won't presume to be better than an expert like you. You really are fascinating. Just think of what you could accomplish, stopping evil people like myself and Vincent, if you were to give into the darkness inside of you." 

Time unfreezes, and Chrolo has hardly any time to dodge. He ducks to the side, barely in time to avoid his head being smashed in. Even the merest sliding of that fist of Serrah's causes a deep cut to form across his cheek and the Spider to go skidding from the force. 

And then he's being pistol whipped by the Son of Sparda. Defensively the man pulls in his nen as he's hammered for the second time. Infuriatingly, he ducks down just in time to avoid a direct blow, but the bruise that forms on his head is...telling even through the wall of nen that keeps him alive in superhuman combat. 

Sent tumbling backwards, he rolls onto his feet, and spits out a gob of blood. He still can't quite get the Scepter under control. The thing tries to worm its way into his mind. 

He looks at the thing with a glare. He has /problems/. Chrollo needs Skill Hunter open in order to see Serrah's time movements. With the Scepter in one hand, well, he can't exactly use it well against expert combatants like these. 

And so he slips the Scepter's weighted end into his coat, keeping it tight against his body. He starts to rush for the cover of the colloseum's more ruined structures, where he can put distance between himself and his assailants. 

But not before he turns to Luke. The young man seems the meekest of the group. And so Chrollo's Nen spikes once more. A massive Killing Intent flares from him, trying to envelope Luke physically. Should he not get away or resist, it will feel like a wave of emotions comes from 'Crow'. It's cold, heartless, and utterly filled with the desire to end Luke's life. 

He smiles right at the pokemon trainer, whispering to him. 

"It'd be best if you told the others to not go after me. I might be convinced to remove control from her, for the right price. I have no concern for the Empire's politics either. So why not have your companion kill the vampire, end the threat, and let me go?"

>> SUMMARY[Chrollo Lucilfer] >> Damage by Dante and Serrah! Trying to scare Luke into submission via Emotion Emission

    Vincent squirms beneath Bewear, but goes still when he sees Agni approach. "Shit," he mutters. Seems he recognizes Agni from his previous attack on Dante's city.

    Serrah just ignores Chrollo's taunts about her power. "You get the hell away from Luke," she snarls. Seems she can sense that killing-intent, and she does not like where it's aimed. Chrollo might sense killing intent from Serrah, as well -- and, since she's shown no direct sign of Nen-usage aside from her supposed Ability, it might mean it's genuine.

    But then all at once, her killing intent vanishes. Her gaze is suddenly not on Chrollo himself, but on Skill Hunter. "The book," she whispers, grabbing a baseball. "DANTE! Shoot his book!" She's a crack shot with a baseball, but doesn't seriously think she can out-throw a bullet. Nevertheless, she makes a shot at it. This time, she does throw it at a hundred miles per hour.

    Dante is about to lunge for Chrollo, draw his sword and maybe split the bastard in two pieces before anybody can blink. But then Serrah gives him a -better- idea. He grins wide, as he suddenly takes aim at the book and opens fire on it with a double-tape from Ebony and Ivory both. That book might be the most important thing he shoots at, tonight. If Serrah's pointing it out, then it has to be something to break, right?

Holly's a bit confused at this point, but knows that Chrollo did something to Luke, "Leave him alone!" The witch is clearly worn out at this point but know she has to stay awake until this is over with at least. She's going to have a hard time explaining everything that happened at school while she was gone.

She is an absolute /natural/. Feeling that Killing Intent flow over him, Chrollo shudders. His respect for the vampiress only grows, and it takes a force of will to not faint, what with all the damage he's already received to the head today. 

And smart, too. She figures out just how much Skill Hunter means, and bombs that ball for him. Chrollo's left leg responds by kicking the thing as it gets to him in a roundhouse kick. He can feel his bone shudder even through the protective life force he's covered with, and his speed drops by that much of a percentage thanks to the brutal impact. The sound of bone cracking can be heard. 

He felt that! 

And then Dante's aiming the two guns. Chrollo doesn't have the defenses of his tougher Nen user subordinates in the Troupe. He's slowed by just enough to where he doesn't like his odds of dodging those stupidly powerful pistols. 

And so Chrollo twists just in time to bring his coat-pocket up, and bullets impact into it. There's the sound of those bullets slamming into the Scepter, ruining his coat and causing the thing to go flying away. 

His side is bleeding. The Spider is wounded, but he managed to protect his most precious thing. Chrollo feels out Stop The World. 

Finally. "Well done. I won't underestimate you all twice. If any of you decide you need somewhere to go when no one else will take you...well, I'm hiring right now." He almost sounds /warm/ to this group of people that he just tried to steal from. 

And then Serrah can feel him activate his own stolen Time Stop again. With one last smile to her, he leaps amongst the ruins of the colloseum, the bandit making tracks without his ultimate prize! 

"What a disaster. But at least there's still an Empire to plunder." Muses Chrollo, part of the remains of his coat pressed to his head to staunch his bleeding wound.

    Serrah almost collapses. "Jesus, I almost lost control again," she whispers. "Uh. Dante, can you ... Your sword can handle, like, artifacts of doom and stuff, right? I mean, it can kill demons ..." She grimaces, and gets out the stake again, and walks over to Vincent.

    The vampire duke struggles to get to his feet. "Wilhelmina!" he calls out. "K-kill them already!"

    Wilhelmina fumbles with the bottle of blood. She's moving as fast as she can; nevertheless, this is not fast enough. She takes a swig, and grimaces. "Goodness g-gracious ... this has not been stored properly at all ... ugh ..."

    Serrah kneels next to Vincent. She winces, closes her eyes and looks away, and slams the stake into his heart with her vampiric strength.

    Vincent stares up at her. And then his body crumbles into white dust which blows away easily.

    Serrah collapses onto her side. "You can ..." She flops onto her back, emotionally exhausted even if physical exhaustion really doesn't happen to a vampire in the middle of the night. "You can let go now, Holly," she says. She laughs weakly. "Oh my god he's permanently dead now. Jesus."

    Wilhelmina stops in her movements. She manages to sit up; her injuries are starting to heal, and the bullet holes in her clothes repair themselves. "It seems my last order from my last master shall go unfulfilled," she says. She shrugs, as if this has happened before. "Oh well. Shall you be my new master, Lady Delany?"

    Serrah just stares at her.

    Dante stumbles, as Chrollo takes his leave. He thinks about taking a shot at the spider. "...nah." He stows his pistols and just waves the spider off. "Get out of here. I'll kick your ass if I see you again. That's all the chance you get outta me." He says coldly.

    Drawing his sword, Dante watches as Vincent is turned to dust by a well-deserved staking. He watches the dust blow away, before he nods to Serrah. "No problem, just lemme-"

    Then there's a job offer, apparently? Dante looks puzzled at Wilhelmina, and tilts his head. "Uhhh...I mean...why not? Now let's go break this stupid staff so we don't have to deal with it later, yeah?"

    He approaches the staff, and then he winds up. It's a pretty unceremonious but meaty chop as Dante brings Rebellion down on the staff, shattering it into pieces with the same energy as crushing a walnut with a hydraulic press. Surprisingly, there's...not an explosion?

    "Huh, usually this is way more colorful." Dante muses.

Holly takes a deep breath and the orange pumpkin mark fades from Serrah's forehead. She's quite relieved that Wilhelmina isn't going to try and kill any more. "Yeah, we have to go celebrate! Once I get some sleep, that is." The witch yawns and takes one last look at the staff before Dante breaks it apart. She looks a bit disappointed and concerned, "Wilhelmina's going to be okay right? I mean she's been a vampire a lot longer than Serrah."

    Serrah peers at the remains of the Scepter. "... yeah, I guess Hugo D'Ambrosio didn't expect it to be destroyed," she says, as the black mark disappears from her forehead. "Otherwise, yeah, that would've definitely been a lot more dramatic."

    "What," says Wilhelmina as her own Blackheart Mark vanishes. "No, this ... I ..." She furrows her brow. "That ... is ... that cannot be."

    Serrah walks over, and helps Wilhelmina to her feet. "I'll make sure she's fine," Serrah answers Holly. She pauses, and looks over at Wilhelmina. "C'mon, Mina, let's head back to Hartford, so I can get resurrected," she says. "We'll ... we'll figure something out."

    "Of course, mi ..." Wilhelmina stops. "I am not certain how to address you."

    "Just Serrah is fine," says Serrah.

    "That would be ... inappropriately familiar," says Wilhelmina, sounding like she's not only not sure that's correct, she doesn't even know what her place in the universe is.

    Serrah groans. "Again: we'll figure something out."