World Tree MUSH

    It took a little work and a lot of exploring and mapping out Tokyo's underground before a path big enough could be found for humans and others in that size range to navigate. But it had been done. An old, abandoned, subway line on the outskirts of the city, not too far from the illegal warehouse arena has an access door that leads right onto the unused tracks, and from there a path to the sewers should be easy enough to find.
    Alty stands at the entrance, peering into the dark gloom of the abandoned station, fidgeting slightly. Most would assume it to be the outwardly cowardly shinki's fraidy-cat nature, but those who truly know the Angel of Death would know it's anticipation and nerves as she clutches a long case in both hands.
    "Bravette." She says holding up said case after a beat.
    "I want you to hold this for me. You'll know when I need it the most."
    With that out of the way the little Altines summons her armor from Slipway storage, testing the new right arm with a few flexes before she straps a small shield to the larger left arm while brandishing a pair of crimson longswords in both of her right arms.
    "The last time Bravette and I were down here we were met with a lot of... Local resistance." She mutters. "I don't know if they have anything in place to keep out larger outsiders, but it's possible, so please try to avoide getting hurt." You know. By traps and the like, she means.
    "Hyouka did you get what I asked you for?" She does aside while everyone gears up to head down into the old subway platform.

    "Of course," Hyouka replies. She's dressed in some more rugged clothes overall, although her upper-body outfit is sleeveless; tough camo pants and boots, and a sleeveless T-shirt covered by a thick denim vest. Long sleeves would just get half-destroyed by the FISTEAU units, and she couldn't easily find a short-sleeve denim jacket, so vest it is. And one of those vest pockets contains, as it turns out, a small flash drive, which she pulls out and hands over to the little Altines.

    "I forgot to ask how big you needed, so I, er. I just bought the biggest one they had," she explains.

    After handing it over, though, the cyborg slams her fists together and declares, "Fisto, ON!" Swiftly, her forearms are replaced by her signature massive gauntlet-arms, the lines along each one lighting up in a soft, almost minty-green light. Lightning would be a little too dangerous for electronic beings, even in small doses. So wind it is.

    This was a situation that Roberta had alerted him to, one that she'd really wanted to check out. But of course Josuke wasn't going to leave her to do it alone, so he went along with her! It's fortunate that a large enough passage could be found. Though knowing Josuke, he'd have crawled on his hands and knees to get there if need be.

    And so, here he is, Roberta already armored up and flying beside him. Josuke himself is dressed in a slightly more casual way than normal, in that outfit he wears when he expects the elements aren't going to be kind -- the brown V-neck sweater and pants and the lime green turtleneck.

    Josuke inquires of the group at large, "So what's going on? What are we trying to do?" He's not privy to the details of the social constructs of their world, so he's a little confused on what's actually wrong here. Aside from Shinki having to live down here in the first place and not on the surface.

    Uni and Bravette arrive, the latter blinking a little before taking the case with a simple nod. It's latched onto her back, and the Zelnogrard locks her visor into place as she lifts off of her Master's shoulder. The Goddess, meanwhile steps through the doorway, giving Alty a reassuring smile. "Don't worry, we know how to handle ourselves.

    Bravette then speaks up. "lease be mindful of tripwires at ankle level. Shinki are naturally physically weak compared to humans due to our size difference. A few traps made from debris can level the field to their advantage. I will scout ahead."

    With that, the little gunshinki flies off down the tunnel, leaving lights off and relying on her visor sensors to guide her. She does leave little markers in her wake, tiny flares that light the path, and are marked in different colours if she spots a trap.

Part of Alex was, how shall one say, a bit apologetic at least inwardly given the need to find a path for his considerable size, which is why he spent time in Tokyo's mapping systems that were available, as well as personally scouting and checking out different avenues of approach for himself and others. 

He had arrived fairly early and had been keeping his proverbial ear to the ground. And by that, we mean monitoring electronic traffic in the area, for beter or for worse until everyone arrived. "Copy that." Alex replies, easing his standby position of his head quite literally being on a swivel, to more 'active'. The slight pneumatic thrum preceding his movements as his gaze briefly sweeps Alty, then Hyouka. The mental state assessed being much in line with that it's act. That he might need to keep an eye out for her does pass across his processors. 

"I'll stay on my toes." he offers lightly, a faint smirk as two things happen: one, that the faceshield unfolds from behind his head to cover his face except for that small window of his mouth, and armor unfolding and covering his flesh and blood hand. The other? A secondary unfolding at his right hip, the NI-408 as he pulls that free and stands ready. "The shinki that escaped before decided to carve out a kingdom for herself underground here, with Tanaka out of the picture. For better or for worse, we're going to bring her in." Alex offers when Josuke inquires as to what they're here to do, giving Alty a visored look, a pulseline of red sweeping across the black slit, as he swaps to a tactical analysis mode without even thinking to be scanning for traps and even evaluating potential conflict areas once they're underway. 

    Serrah is here, looking much more alive than she did the last time most people here last saw her. Her eyes are still red, though, and she still has fangs, though they're shorter and blunter.

    "Can't believe we're finally actually doing this," she says. She smirks faintly towards Alty. "Of course, that's what I said last time, too," she adds. "Hmm ..."

    She looks curiously at the flash drive as Hyouka hands it to Alty, but shrugs. She lets Alex answer Josuke. "Lemme join you, Bravette," she says. Her body and clothing turns pitch-black until she's just a silhouette with only her eyes visible. She takes half a step forward, and immediately trips forward and falls flat on her face. "Ow, fuck ..."

    She changes back to her human-looking form, laughing weakly. "Okay, jeez, right, no more transforming into shadow. No more ... Liquid ... Serrah."

    "Yep. We're finally doing this." Alty murmurs, shoulders rising and falling deeply in approximation of a steeling breath, even if she doesn't have actual lungs, the action is somewhat calming.
    To Josuke, she gives the reader's digest of the situation: "There's a shinki city in the sewers here. One of many. It's where homeless and masterless shinki tend to migrate to to keep from being caught and refurbished. There's a shinki down there that's forcibly taken things over that needs to be stopped." A pause. "She's also my sister-unit." Muttered a little quieter as she takes the flash drive from Hyouka and slots it into her armor with a tiny click. "Th... This is actually perfect, thanks Hyouka."
    Bravette and Serrah start scouting ahead, checking for traps. It's a good thing they do, because as soon as they clear the stairs onto the platform things are a little problematic.
    Heavy chains hang from the ceiling at intervals, along with strings with lots of cans on them. How adorable right? It's a rudimentary alarm system, knock a chain or a string and they'll rattle enough to warn of anyone coming this way.
    The door to the sewers can be seen partway past the entrance to the tracks themselves, but getting there is a hassle thanks to the alarms, the tripwires at ankle level-- that Bravette WARNED people about, and a particularly vicious little trap... One of the floor tiles splits in half revealing a hollowed out hole beneath it, with a variety of nails and sharp objects waiting at the bottom. It's not as lethal as an actual punji pit but probably at least crippling and highly deterring of exploration for anyone it might have caught.
    It's a hassle just getting to the damned tracks let alone reaching that door.
    "Ah... What a warzone, be careful everyone." Alty mumbles.

    "I'm not thinking of this as an arrest," Hyouka says with a glance in Alex's direction. "We're rescuing someone, from herself." She's following Alty's lead in this, above all else. "DARGN, if we have to swing punches at shinki, help me stop my hits a little short. Just the burst of wind, if we can help it." The AI is unusually businesslike in its reply. "Understood. I'll shift some power output from artificial muscle to mana production, which should help."

    She's careful about the hanging chains and cans; even someone like Hyouka can figure out what they're for. And knowing the tripwires are there makes her much more cautious about where she puts her feet... which is probably a good thing. Usually, she's very much not. If just reaching their destination were the only issue, she and Alex both could probably just bullrush through everything, shinki punji pit included. But they don't want to alert the shinki of the city ahead.

Where Alex can, he'll disarm traps by way of either perhaps snipping a wire where it looks cutting said wire might make them safe, but not always since sometimes a trap disarmed means someone else knows. In those other cases? He simply moves with the full robotic nature allows him to for extremely precise movements while his systems keep scanning ahead to complement the what Bravette is doing. 

At least in theory. He can definitely provide a closer means of motion and heat detection as he's in full threat mode with his system. "No discrimination--keep the hell out, that's for sure." Alex mutters half to himself as he does to others. As to the notion of an arrest from Hyouka, Alex glances for a moment, before a slight grunt comes from him, his voice sounding a bit more resonant in this mode. "Yeah. I'm just hoping we actually can." A bit of clarification, since arresting wasn't in mind. 

No, it's more of the concern that Alty's sister-unit would fight back against those who are trying to help her. This path was anything but the easy one, after all. No, the one responsible was already well in hand.

    Serrah winces slightly at the recap. "I need to apologize to her, too," she says quietly. "I give it fifty-fifty odds I might've destroyed her, if Alty hadn't called out to me." And then she quickly heads on forward.

    Even if she can't turn into a liquid shadow anymore, Serrah can still fly and stop time, and she uses these in conjunction to carefully wend her way through the traps.

    "I feel like we're walkin' on eggshells," she says in hushed tones. "Potentially hazardous eggshells." She peers at one of the wires Alex just cut. "Hey, Josuke, it just occurred to me, can you re-set these traps behind us?" She pauses. "Or ... are we gonna need to leave the way open for our way out?"

    Josuke's kind of coming into this without a whole lot of foreknowledge, so he isn't really sure what's going on. And so he blinks a little at Alex's answer, and a thoughtful pout happens. "I guess she's been doing something to hurt others down here?" he asks.

    Alty's explanation clears it up, and he nods. "Okay, that makes more sense," he agrees. Truth be told, he wasn't completely behind 'bring in the illegal shinki because she's illegal' anyway, but this is more sensical.

    "Yeah," Roberta replies, crossing her arms. "That's the part we can't let happen -- the shinki who live here aren't hers to rule."

    Josuke agrees, "Yeah, that's definitely not okay." He seems a lot more on board now that he knows this isn't a situation of 'you aren't upposed to be here so you're under arrest'. Because no, he doesn't care about the law where this is concerned -- he wouldn't want to be 'reformatted' either.

    As they head down to the city, Josuke winces at all these traps. "Geez..." he mutters. Serrah's question about the traps gets a nod. "I was gonna just un-make them, or at least un-ready them, whichever Alty thinks is best. It'll be one less problem on the way out, whether we need to make a quick exit or not."

    And yes, along the way he'll actually stop to try and disable any traps his Stand can lay hands on safely, in whichever fashion Alty thinks is the best idea. Though notably his Stand's presence is going to create some weird electromagnetic energy, so anybody with electronic scanners may get some static, or possibly mild glitching, if they're standing close to him.

    Uni steps down in about the middle of the group, squinting red eyes in the dark. She's careful in movement, skirting around the can alarms with the grace of a cat. That's a goddess for you.

    Bravette moves ahead. Doing her best to keep ahead of Serrah. The dhampir is good, but the shinki has the sensors and is feeding info to those who can recieve it, dropping little flare markers for the others. She eventually vanishes around a corner.

    The traps are dealt with; select few un-made by Crazy Diamond, others left in place and simply skirted around rather than surgically defusing them. The group finally makes it to the access door.
    On the other side is a hallway of pipes and access ways leading deeper underground, before the party finally arrives at an unused section of sewer. Unused means that it, thankfully, is sludge free, there's almost no smell, and that constant rains have mostly sluiced the place clean. If there's any power that would make it the perfect environment for a shinki city, which means the group is probably already close.
    Close enough that the local guards take offense.
    A few streaks of light suddenly lance out from eaves, alcoves, and holes in the walls. Laser weapons fire. Though not strong enough to be lethal to a human it's not going to be pleasant to get hit anyway, because that sure will leave a welt.
    Alty grunts as a beam spangs off her armor, sending her reeling for a beat, but the fire isn't concentrated enough to cause damage.
    And judging from the panicked squeals and sounds of scrabbling feet, the little guerilla guards are already abandoning their posts to take cover somewhere else and lay another ambush.
    "Well. We're close at least."

    Uni brings up her arms as laser fire starts lancing out. Most of it spangs off of a transluscent bubble of hexagonal barrier shells, not strong enough to pierce, through some shots manage to find openings between those shells and strike home, causing nasty looking cracks in the slender CPU's body.

    Bravette counter ambushes one of the guards, dropping from above and pinning her prone with an SMG behind her CMS. "Stop Moving." she states in monotone, her visor not showing any emotion on her face.

    Normal humans don't have skin that can bounce low-caliber bullets. Hyouka might need to patch her current clothes up a bit (or not; she did come expecting her clothes to take a beating), but the repeated shinki lasers do little more than draw a few irritated grunts from the cyborg. "...they're certainly spirited, but I don't think they were really expecting human-scale interlopers to get this far," DARGN observes. After a few moments, Hyouka calls out, "Look, please just save your battery power, there's no point wasting any of it, and I'd rather none of you ran out on my account."

A slight grunt as the officer shifts his weight--he might have incredible amounts of resilience, but that's no reason to take harm if he doesn't have to, twisting and flattening himself near a wall as bolts of energy zip past him, before he immediately seems to blindly fire at one of them. 

Or was he? The shot he fires is angled in such a way that the ricochet manages to hook and get one of the tazing, stunning rounds into one of the guerillas if they're not quick enough to get out of the way. "Not sure if the force we represent is what they were expecting, or that it was already planned to engage and fall back regardless if we weren't subdued by the first ambush." Alex says aloud as his systems run a few predictive scenarios. "Let's try and keep the pressure up and not give them a chance to warn the others." 

    Serrah stops time to avoid taking a hit from the lasers; the stray shinki would probably detect her as suddenly somewhere else with no time in between, as if she was a video that skipped ahead.

    She sighs softly; it's a slightly exaggerated sound -- she still hasn't fully gotten used to breathing again. "So much for showing up unannounced," she mutters. She lets Hyouka do the talking; Serrah knows she isn't the most diplomatic person here.

    She frowns, and looks over to Alty. "Hey, Alty, you doin' okay?" she says quietly. Alty went through something quite similar to what Serrah herself went through, and so did Leene. She isn't sure if she knows the right way to talk about this, but ... it can't hurt to at least check up on her.

    Josuke finds himself coming within inches of getting an impromptu nosejob by one of the lasers. Between Roberta's call of, "Watch out!" and manifesting his Stand between himself and the laser, he suffers little bit a rather painful-looking burn on his neck.

    He's a little bit more ready for the second laser that comes his way, and Crazy Diamond's orange-glowing fist swings at the tiny blast, with a loud, "DOURRRA!" Of course, the fist is glowing orange, so he's not just punching it away. He's trying to literally send the laser back where it came from! Which, if successful, could prove a nasty surprise for the one who fired it.

    He sighs once the firing stops. Alty's words get a nods. "Seems like it, yeah. And I'm betting the one we're looking for has plenty of forward notice we're coming now." Alex's words draw his attention then, and he notes, "They're likely using electronic communication, but keeping the <pressure> on isn't a bad idea."

    And of course he's going to ask, "Anyone need healing or repair before we head in any further?" Because they don't know what's waiting for them further on, and it'd probably help to be fully 'topped up'.

    That was little more than a surprise ambush, meant to briefly hold off invaders with the elements of surprise and confusion before falling back to a more defensive line rather than to actually do much damage. Even still it doesn't go so well for the little defenders when they can't so much as scratch Hyouka or Alex's armor, and Crazy Diamond sends a laser bolt right where it came from earning a tiny cry of confusion and dismay from the little Werkestra that drops as a result.
    "I'm..." Alty falters when Serrah asks how she's doing. Nerves and anxiousness almost get the better of her but she shakes her head slowly. "I'm fine. ... I mean I'll be fine. I'm okay, just nervous, really. Thank you, Serrah." She replies as a small squad of tiny guerillas cry out, Alex's taser shot rebounding to land right in their midst and going off with stunning force that drops several more, while the rest heed Hyouka's request and bail as fast as they can rather than continue the fight.
    It's when Bravette catches her quarry that everything goes so wrong.
    There's little warning. Just a familiar voice that simply replies...
    "No. You stop moving."
    Right before a deep blue colored longsword is brought down with enough force to shatter the blade against the Zelnogrard's back. Broken sword discarded carelessly another blade starts pounding into the Firearms Type with vicious abandon as Seraph lays into Bravette with a brutality that borders on heinously cruel.
    With one last careless kick she punts Bravette aside and leans her weight on her blade.
    "Did you really think I'd just sit here and let you come and get me after what you pulled at the arena? I should have won that match! It should have been me. The Angel of Death should be scrap and all shinki should be fearing me, not that coward." She snarls, waving her blade.
    The tunnel's lights kick on, revealing a shanty town of several hundred little shacks and hastily constructed tiny domiciles made from junk, scrap, and debris. It's a big little shinki city, and judging from the amount of armed shinki that come emerging half-heartedly from their homes, they're too cowed by Seraph to go against her as they take aim at the group.
    "..." Alty is silent for a long moment, lips tugging into a scowl behind her visor, fingers curling tightly around the longswords in her grasp, tense and looking half ready to leap in already if not for the withering amount of a tiny arsenal aimed at her as she kneels by Bravette's side, more concerned for her friend than the challenge clearly being issued.

    Bravette's proximity sensor trips, and she starts to turn, too late to intercept or even react properly to the threat. She takes it fully, trying to bring her weapons up and retaliate. However she's overmatched and outside of her element and eventually gets smashed against the wall from a well placed and savage upward swipe, slicing half of her visor and dislocating one arm from the impact, leaving it limp at her side as her system goes into emergency reboot mode. Anyone receiving telemetry from her will find the feed suddenly cuts.

    Uni watches in horror as Seraph lays into her Shinki, summoning a weapon... only to come up short as so many other Shinki emerge and take aim at the group.

Internally, Alex can't help but grimace a bit as his 'threats' number starts going up--and keeps going up. There's various little points where some threats are not as /overt/ as others, but a weapon is a weapon, and be it by fear of Seraph that they act, they act nonetheless. 

Nonlethality may not be an option here.

"Josuke, Uni! Bravette's feed is cut!" Which means it's time for him to provide telemetry, that in an insert image in the lower part of his view comes a wireframe overlay of those already bringing weapons. But the point of saying /that/, was to alert Uni first to Bravette's condition--obvious though it may be--and to signal to Josuke that what that young man does to help heal, it'd be a very good idea to go and check now, perhaps, near as much as he can tell. 

From the left hip, the plates unfold and extend a second holster, his M2 Battle Rifle as he takes it up and starts, frankly, painting targets. His body is more of a tank than some of the others as he prepares to open fire as he steps forward unflinchingly. But not in the way some might be expecting. 

Namely by leading off with a single warning shot from the taser pistol towards the nearest, as he amplifies his voice. <<"Put down your weapons and you will not be brought in. I don't think any of you want anything else but to be left alone.">> 

>> SUMMARY[Alex Murphy] >> Single warning shot + that one chance. A threat's a threat, after all.

    Serrah shakes her head at Josuke. "I'm good," she says. "Erk --!"

    Seraph makes herself known. "Hey!" Serrah exclaims. Just like Uni, she takes a step forward to join in the fray. But when that entire crowd of shinki is revealed, she takes half a step back and slowly raises her hands.

    She sighs. "Good grief," she says, anger and disappointment in her voice. "Are we really doing this? Do you really want to be feared, little miss Seraph?" She stops time, walks up beside the frozen Altlene, carefully reaches forward with both hands ...

    And then for a brief instant, Seraph would see a world frozen in time, tinted purple and with muted colors, as Serrah attempts to pull the blade out of the shinki's hand -- time abruptly resumes in the middle of this -- and grab her with the other. "I've been feared," she says. "It ain't all it's cracked up to be."

    Bravette's owner isn't the only one looking on in horror. The sheer brutality from Seraph is a shock to Hyouka, who finds herself caught off-guard enough that by the time she thinks to do anything, it's over.

    They cyborg's teeth tense into a tight grimace.

    When the other shinki are all revealed, Hyouka's eyes narrow softly, a mix of wariness and pity settling on her face. "...don't even think about it," she calls out, slowly raising one gauntlet, and curling her massive fingers into a fist that's bigger than any one of them. "We're here to get her out of your hair, you know? We're not here to take any of you away. We just want to get the Angel of Death out of here safely, before someone can track her down and kill her. And you can all go back to living your life down here without problems." The lines along it start to glow a brighter green. "But even if I feel bad for all of you, if you try and get between Alty and her sister...? I'm gonna have to give all of you one hell of a spanking, alright?"

    Hopefully, between that threat, and all the visible spots where shinki lasers have damaged her clothing but not her body, the bystanders will fall silent.

>> SUMMARY[Serrah Delany] >> Serrah goes to timestop-grab Seraph.

>> SUMMARY[Hyouka Kiyama] >> Onee-san is angry. Do not taunt the onee-san.

    And things go... well, just about as Josuke expected them to. The advance ambush was indeed exactly what he figured it was -- just there to warn the shinki they're looking for that they're down here.

    He sees the situation Bravette's in, but doesn't move to attend her just yet -- there are too many weapons pointed at them now. He might be able to tank through a few, but the sheer amount would take him down pretty fast. And then the others would get caught in the blast too.

    He stops Roberta when she makes to go to Bravette's side as well. "Not yet," he says quietly enough that only she can hear. "If you move right now, they'll shoot you."

    Of course then the Seraph has to go and say that. Which of course brings a scowl from Josuke. "There shouldn't be anything that these shinki should be afraid of," the teen protests. "Especially not one of their own. And least of all not you."

    Alex's signal gets a nod. "Right, as soon as it's safe, I don't want anyone shot because I did something stupid," he promises. He's never been particularly stupid where getting others in trouble is concerned.

    However, Serrah's timestop and attempt to disarm Seraph could prove to be his opportunity, though. As soon as he's aware that Serrah's doing that, he notes, "Roberta, now!" And then he makes a run for Bravette, protecting Roberta with his own body if need be, to get them both there.

    It's looking pretty grim, for a moment, with all the dirty, half-charged, beleagured shinki pointing their weapons at the group. But in the end that's all they are. A mass of homeless, mostly helpless, and unwilling participants in all this.
    It's way too easy for Alex and Hyouka to cow them even more than their current cruel little master; the warning shot combined with the very sternly worded threatening promise of a spanking that makes a lot of them lower their weapons in hesitant fear-- if they haven't already bolted back into hiding already.
    "N-no way, I don't wanna be taken in!"
    "I don't wanna be refurb'd!"
    "I don't even want her here any more get rid of her!"
    "Sh-she's worse than the Angel of Death!"
    "She's a monster!" Tons of tiny voices cry out.
    Which leaves an opening for the others to get to Bravette's side just as Alty slowly rises to stand herself up to her full height.
    "What the hell?!" Seraph shrieks as everything freezes for her and Serrah plucks her blade right out of her hand with her inhuman strength, just as time resumes. There's a subtle flash of white and the Altlene's armor vanishes into Slipway space, causing her to just drop roughly to the floor and scramble away.
    --In time for Alty to go off like a gunshot.
    "You want fear, Leene?" She says just as she brings her blade down, the other shinki bringing both hands up just barely in time to stop a fierce overhead slash.
    "I'll show you how I earned the name Angel of Death. Even if it means ripping you apart to your core and bringing only that home, you're coming with me."

    It's probably a good thing that the other shinki have all retreated.

    Because hearing Alty talk like that is shocking enough to Hyouka that she'd have been wide open if they all went on the attack. Maybe not much danger to herself, but she wouldn't be able to cover the others.

    For the moment, all the cyborg can do is quietly stare.

    As Josuke comes to Bravette's side, Roberta would be able to access a diagnostic screen. It's showing a count down timer and gives a rundown on all damaged systems... it's horrific Primary core bus is disconnected. Secondary shunt matrix is cracked and battery has ruptured and is leaking. Armour interfact has been shattered and armory slipway bus is shot. It's amazing she stayed in one piece instead of shattering into a thousand.

    Josuke's ability does repair the damage, somewhat.. but most of it will require time in 'dry dock' as it were. With the damage repaired to the extent that Josuke can manage it, the timer has dropped from 36 hours, to 10 minutes.

    Uni comes to Bravette's side as well, watching the teenaged Stand-user work. She makes sure her friend is out of danger before turning her attention to Alty and Leene's fight.

Arguably, that's part of what two things told Alex--the system software, and instincts from years of being a cop. Even in their tiny faces, he could see it. He also recognizes the tyranny of someone like Seraph had become. 

It was all the more disappointing to see them take that path, the sound and burst of motion from Alty being enough of a sign to shift his attention. But not without giving one last heads up of a warning--advice, really. 

<<"Get inside and stay inside!">> There's a moment of resyncing timestamped indicies here and what observational records are probably showing elsewhere due to the timestop happening /here/ but not how Alex is linked to other systems elsewhere, but it'll probably be chalked up to World Tree things. 

Probably. 

With the remaining shinki suitably cowed, the M2 Battle Rifle is holstered after his systems predict his need for it diminishing rather sharply. Not the NI-408, keeping the weapon in his right hand just in case, and... frankly, watching. 

Watching Alty almost more than he is Seraph, and analyzing the two's perceptible mental states. Something doesn't feel quite right, given the words she just uttered. 

    And Seraph gets out of Serrah's grasp. Well, that was inevitable. She jumps backwards out of the way of the group. Okay, good, Josuke is handling Bravette; Serrah shoots the cowering shinki a sympathetic look. She raises her hands in a conciliatory gesture. "It's okay!" she says, in a contrast to Alex's tone. "It's ... it's okay. You're ... you're all gonna be okay. All right?" This is hitting her way too close to home.

    And then Alty is acting like that.

    Serrah throws her hands in the air. "Oh for crying out god damn it Alty will you please not do the exact thing you stopped me from doing at the raid," she snaps in an exhausted, exasperated tone of voice. "Am I gonna need to physically pull both of you apart? Jesus ughhhhh."

>> SUMMARY[Serrah Delany] >> Snapped out of her concern for the other shinki by angrish.

    It will take a joint effort to stabilize Bravette; Roberta's the one with access to the diagnostic screen, so she needs to point Josuke's repair efforts in the right place. This isn't something Crazy Diamond can just 'healfix k' by randomly exerting power. It requires joint effort.

    Once the repairs are done, Roberta nods. "I think we've done about all we can for now," she notes. "Right now, the best thing for her is recharging and rest."

    Josuke nods, breathing a sigh of relief. "Good. As long as she'll be okay."

    "I'll keep monitoring her until we get out, just to make sure," Roberta replies. Looking to Uni, "With your permission, of course."

    Meanwhile Josuke is watching Alty just go absolute BEAST MODE on Seraph! And he frowns. He's glad that Alty seems to have the upper hand, sure... but that sudden attitude switch... It's concerning. He just hopes they don't have to stop her too...

    Already Alty and Seraph are in a wild tumble of violence. Red blades flashing, Alty swings again only to lose one as Seraph bodily tosses the black armored shinki and disarms her of one sword, white armor flashing back into place, the get caught in a bladelock, eye to eye, snarling and scowling.
    Alex's sensors will be able to tell, Alty isn't in her proper mental state. Agitated. Furious. Wild. Out of control. But the oddest thing Murphy will pick up...?
    Alty has already cranked her pain suppression systems to maximum.
    Which she is going to need when the blade lock ends and the two start railing into each other. Every blow sends hunks of white and black armor flying, swords start to chip as they smash into one another kicking up sparks. But Alty doesn't have the upper hand for very long before she's launched back-- toward Serrah in fact, who will probably have to catch her considering the blade now embedded in her stomach.
    "A-ah... ... Sorry... I think I lost control there for a minute..." She mumbles.
    This is a problem though, considering the sword in her hand is looking very broken, and the one in Seraph's hand is looking very sharp.
    And Seraph is coming right at her.
    "I'll burn before you bury me, Angel of Death!" Seraph snarls.
    "--Oh shit." Alty squeaks.

    Just watching the duo clash so furiously has Hyouka as tense as a mother watching her kid in danger. Huge fists curl tightly, and she has to fight the constant, gnawing urge to take part. One thing, however, draws her attention away, briefly - the exclamations from Serrah. "Have some faith in her!" is all she yells... at least, until Seraph starts charging in again. "-Alty, look out!"

    With everyone watching the fight, noone's watchiing Bravette. Roberta would probably note a sudden REBOOT COMPLETE message before the diagnostic screen shuts.

    Bravette has woken up, and climbed up on a high perch overlooking the two Angels.

    "Alty." comes a scratchy, distorted voice.

    "Beginning Playback."
    The Zelnogrard activates a loudspeaker as she unhooks the case she was given. Alty's voice comes from the speaker. <"He said if I kept fighting I could see my sister again... I didn't have a name, but she called me Alty. I didn't want to fight, I didn't like hurting those other shinki.">

    Bravette opens the case, revealing a curved sword in a black scabbard. "When I met Alty, I did not know what to think. Data sets were inconclusive aon how to categorize her." She staggers a little, stepping to the edge of the perch. "That has now changed. Even when outmatched. Even when she was terrified of the consequences. She fought. She fought to protect those who couldn't protect themselves."

    She then launches the blade and scabbard toward Alty.

>> SUMMARY[Uni] >> I was not designed to fear termination.

    Serrah winces at Hyouka's comments. "Damn it, sorry," she says, clearly affected by her words. Alty's berserk state, once again, clearly reminded Serrah of herself.

    But then Alty goes flying, and Serrah gulps and hurriedly catches her. "Damn it, not again," she mutters. "Josuke, uh ... oh, 'oh shit' is right."

    There's a rampaging Altlene who is effectively charging at Serrah.

    So Serrah stops time again. This time, due to the physical contact, Alty can see the ripple of light emanating outward and the world change color. She sidesteps away from the charge, and turns to Josuke. "Can you take her off my hands?" Serrah tells Josuke hurriedly. "I'm gonna try to keep Seraph away --"

    Bravette calls out.

    Serrah stops, and turns to face Bravette while still holding Alty. The Altines seems like she can still stand, which ... doesn't seem right with that sword in her stomach? Serrah doesn't have Alex's benefit of being able to detect that Alty's pain is turned off.

    Josuke sees Alty be thrown back and makes a surprised sound. He stands then, instructing the Bright Feather, "Roberta, stay with Bravette."

    "Right!" she chirps.

    He barely hears it, he's already running. He's not about to underestimate Seraph, small size or not. Besides, he's seen the damage she's done to Bravette, and now to Alty!

    Roberta too had been watching the fight, figuring Bravette was going to be down for the count, and counting on the diagnostic screen to warn her if something was amiss. But then suddenly...

                              REBOOT COMPLETE                               

    "...Wha--?!" Roberta looks back to Bravette, only to find her having climbed up onto that high perch. "Ah! Be careful, Bravette!" she cautions when Bravette staggers, but doesn't move to stop her. It's more she moves to 'catch' her, in case she falls in her state.

    Josuke hears the goings-on, but trusts Roberta to handle the situation. Besides that, there's a situation with Alty! He nods, and offers to help take Alty for Serrah 'till the shinki can get her bearings. Also he may need to do some quick repairs for Alty, if she's amenable to it.

    Other than that, he's placed himself in Seraph's way -- Stand leading his own placement, since it can take more abuse -- but not in Serrah's way, though. He's out of the way enough, in fact, that he can go heroic speech-ing!

    "Roberta, Bravette... and the rest of us too -- we're all here willing to help Alty," he states. "We're willing to go through whatever you throw at us! And it's because we care about her. Not because we're afraid of her! This is how you get others to stand with you. Not by making them fear you! By letting them care about you!"

>> SUMMARY[Josuke Higashikata] >> Josuke uses "Heroic Speech"! +3 Morale Bonus!

The sudden attitude change is very, very concerning. So much that he subtly pings Hyouka while he's standing there and watching the various pickups his system--and his own experiences--are putting together. And what does he send over, precisely? 

Everything, starting with the fact she's acting wild and crazy. And the way she turned off her pain suppression. The pain suppression to maximum is... something the cyborg actually understand since he himself has that kind of thing in some ways. 

Well, it's hard to have pain in parts that don't actually send pain signals, phantom limb syndrome besides. 

Ahem.

Regardless, the combination of the two--going wild and crazy /while also/ hammering the suppression is... not even any remotely a good thing, and it's part of what already has him on the ready to intervene, even before the tables begin to turn--the 'whrr' of moving limbs as he suddenly lunges towards the charging Seraph to throw them off their chosen path and maybe just maybe, send her flying. 

Pain suppression or no, what is being played by Bravette or no, it might do some good to have /some/ degree of breathing room for Alty, and he has to trust that Hyouka can further address what he shared with her. 

    Hyouka picks up the data as sent, and mentally parses it as quickly as she can; there's a moment of tension, a brief instant where her worry deepens - but she comes to a decision quickly, and sends only a single, brief reply. 'Please, trust her.' It's the first time Alty's thrown herself so wholeheartedly into a fight since they met. She's going to choose to believe in the little shinki, even if her fighting style was a bit... worrying, for a moment there.

    It's not the first time Serrah has stopped time with Alty in tow, so the Altines isn't caught too surprised as the world shifts in color all around her. For a beat, the little Altines looks stunned. Even with pain suppression running at max, she paws at the sword embedded in her stomach. It's probably punctured her battery again considering the tiny sparks fizzling around the weapon.
    Breathing room is something the Altines could use right about now as she tries to stand herself in Serrah's arms and prepare for the oncoming bull charge of her own sister as Alex bodily imposes himself on Seraph and knocks her reeling off course and Crazy Diamond AND Josuke stand in her way.
    "Not again!" Seraph snarls. "You're all interfering! Again! I'd crush her in a fair fight!"
    But this isn't a fair fight, as Josuke points out. Because Alty has something that Seraph doesn't.
    She has friends.
    They don't fear her. They're not here because she coerced them. They're here because they care about her and it's as simple as that. It's a sobering fact that cools the Altines' fury completely as--
    Alty's attention is snatched upwards, watching near doe-eyed as Bravette, hearkens her back to her own words.
    How she never wanted to hurt anyone else. How her sister gave her her very name.
    The scabbarded blade sails end over end through the air, finding its way neatly into the Altines' upturned hand as she reaches for it, staring at the inscription on the scabbard for a beat.
    'You are the Master of your own fate.'.
    "Serrah. Josuke. Stand aside." Is all she says as she hops to the ground and takes a readied stance; new sword held at her waist with one hand, the other resting on the hilt as she stares Seraph down.
    And Seraph comes, wild and steaming, her own sword held aloft to hack Alty to bits. But that doesn't happen.
    In an instant, quicker than the human eye can percieve, faster than a flash of lightning, the littlest Altines with the heart of a Valkyrie draws her sword and cuts all in one smooth motion, as easy and quick as pulling the blade from the sheath. There's a flash of red as, in the next beat she's behind the stricken Altlene.
    Seraph's blade snaps in half. Her armor splits down the middle.
    "What-"
    It's the perfect opportunity for Alty to ram--...
    The flash drive she had tucked away in her armor right into the port at Seraph's back.
    Alex and Hyouka should be able to tell what's going on as the forcible data upload begins. Streams of photos, images, and videos. ... All taken from Alty's memories of her sister before the abuse began pour into Seraph's processors, causing her to drop to her knees.

    Bravette, for all the damage, manages to stand her ground. "A savvy warrior uses all the tools at her disposal. Even the strongest lion can be felled by his pride if they all turn on him... Your rule here is fragile, easily broken, while Alty's friends are cast in a much sterner mold." she says to Seraph. Then her system falters and she falls into Roberta's arms... the diagnostic screen popping back up: Critical Fault. Safemode activated.

    Uni rushes over to Roberta and Bravette, cradling the latter as she catches the slash. The goddess can only smile at the smallest Valkyrie.

    Hyouka had half expected the thumb drive to be for making a backup of Seraph - but when Alty jams it in the other shinki's back, her eyes light up, realization almost instant. "...oh. Oh." It might not be the same as Seraph's original memories, but it's the next best thing.

    She glances at Bravette, then nods softly, before returning her attention to the tiny sisters and adding, "...and besides. If you're Alty's sister, then that makes you my family too, right? Of course we're gonna do everything we can to save family. Even if it's yourself we're saving you from."

Alex trusts, he does. But he also wasn't going to leave everything to chance--otherwise, if he didn't trust her, that pistol or even the rifle would've been brought to bear. As it stands now, he watches--not solely with his human eyes but the augmented systems. 

The faint 'whrrr' as he adjusts and brings himself up to full height. His face shield is pulled back as he watches. Watches, and waits, and hopes that it might have the effect that Alty was hoping for. The tension is slow to drain, but with the way Bravette, Uni and Hyouka are acting, he has at least some hope the situation might have a happier ending than he expected. 

    Serrah looks at Roberta, then Bravette, then at Alty. Her shoulders slump slightly when Josuke gives his heroic speech. "Yeah," she says. "I ..."

    She wishes she had the right words to talk to Leene.

    She grimaces at Alty's insistence on going back into the fight. "Okay, I'm getting outta your way," she says, "but you ... really need to get that looked at ... ay-sap." She steps back, heart thudding in her chest as Alty runs into the fight.

    And then ends it, using the flash drive.

    "Jesus," she mutters. "Is ...?" She looks between Hyouka and Alex questioningly. She isn't even sure what to ask at this point. Though she does mutter, "I wish I could slow down time so I could've actually seen that."

    A slight pause. "Is now a good time for Josuke to repair you, Alty?" she asks weakly. She runs a hand through her hair. "Jesus, with my humanity back, this is somehow even more exhausting than that Behemoth."

    It's Alty's voice sounding relatively calm that has Josuke looking to her here. And he nods. He lets his Stand fade from view, and moves aside so that he's no longer blocking Alty's path to Seraph. The teen is trusting her with both her own fate AND his, it seems, since his Stand is no longer protecting him. He's trusting her to end this fight, in whatever way she deems best.

    Uni's Bravette seems to have exhausted her second wind, so Roberta's there trying to make sure that didn't break anything vital -- or if it did, to keep whatever it might have done under control. "Aaaa, I hope you didn't damage yourself worse..." she mutters quietly, worriedly... and kind of rhetorically, honestly.

    For his part, Josuke is watching carefully the goings-on with the battle between Seraph and Alty. It's hard for him to follow, too; the small fighting robots are moving faster than his eyes can follow. Crazy Diamond can help a little, and he re-manifests the Stand just to try to follow the action. It's still hard to see, though. Ah, if only Crazy Diamond had Star Platinum's visual precision!

    Alty's choice of the flash drive to finish the fight is one that actually prompts a sigh of relief from Josuke, even if he has no idea what's on it. As much as Seraph had done wrong, he really didn't want to see her destroyed.

    Hyouka's words get a nod, and the teen agrees, "Yeah. I don't think any of us really wanted to hurt you, just get you to stop. Hey, I'll even fix you up right now if you promise you'll stop." Yeah, he's kind of a sap, delinquent nature aside.

    Ah, Serrah has a point! "Yeah, I can probably fix Alty's damage, too," he agrees. "Alty's not in as bad of shape as Bravette was." He pauses here and looks back to Bravette... and winces a little when he sees where things are now. He's glad Roberta's there, hopefully she can keep things stable.

    Just like that, the battle is over. Alty stands poised for a beat longer with blade in hand, ensuring the fight is out of Seraph, before she slowly sheathes the red-bladed sword back into the scabbard in an almost reverent manner.
    It's a long few beats of silence before Seraph actually looks up. And shows just how emotional shinki can get, tiny tears welling in her eyes.
    "... What have I done?" She asks in a mewl. "What did I become?"
    Alty wobbles where she stands for a moment before deciding this would be a good time to shuffle over to submit herself to Josuke for repairs, heaving an exhausted sigh.
    "Now is a good time, yes please. I never want to fight like that again." She replies to both Serrah and the delinquent at once, pulling the blade from her stomach with a grunt. "... H-how's Bravette?" She does ask worriedly over the sound of a quietly sobbing Seraph.
    "She'll... Be fine." She says in regards to the Altlene. "I uploaded my memories of her before we were made to fight." She explains. "... I think she's done fighting now, too." Mumbled as she rubs at her scarred eye.
    "... Master. I'm tired. Can we go home now?"
    That. That was to Hyouka.

    That tiny little murmur of horror nearly breaks Hyouka's heart. "You... you didn't do anything that was your fault. You didn't choose to become this. That asshole made you this." She bites her lip, fighting the urge to run over and scoop up Seraph- no, Leene. Instead, the cyborg bustles her way over to Josuke right behind Alty, silently fretting over the shinki's condition until repairs have been completed. And when Alty asks to go home, Hyouka nods her head energetically. "Of course. It's been-"

    Her brain catches up to her mouth. Her entire thought process stops for a second as she re-parses what she just heard, and it sinks in.

    "...ah."

    Sniff.

    "...yeah. Let's go home, Alty."

    Bravette for all the damage, for all the system errors, manages to speak. It's robotic, not the normal monotone but literally a System Voice. "Unit Damage: Extensive. Core Systems: Safe. Estimated recovery time on automated systems: 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9."

    Uni replies more eloquently. "I'll make sure she's back in fighting shape. You did amazingly Alty... Everyone, in fact." The goddess gently headpats Roberta, before shifting over to Leene, Kneeling nearby and offering a hand out. "It's over now. Let's all go home." She smiles at Leene, then at Alty, and Hyouka. Josuke and Alex, and Serrah. "Lets all go home."

    Serrah frowns at Bravette's condition, but there's not much she can do to help her. She nods to Alty and Josuke, and with Hyouka holding herself back, Serrah walks up to Leene and kneels in front of her.

    "I know what it's like to be under someone's control," she says quietly. "To ... belong to someone who doesn't have your best interests in mind. Who just wants to use you to destroy and destroy and destroy. Who isn't even that good at using you to your full potential ..." She shakes her head. "And a few weeks ago ... Alty ... your sister ... helped rescue me from him. I was this close to losing my heart for good. But she saved me in time." She gently holds out a hand to Leene. "So ... you're in good hands now. We're all good at helping each other out.

    And then Alty says ... that.

    Serrah's face goes through several changes, before settling on something nearly unreadable. "I ... yeah, let's go home," she says. "And ... speaking of ... of home ... I'm, uh ..." She grimaces. "I'm gonna want to head back to Hartford for a bit, if anyone wants to join me. Because I ... am really suddenly feeling the need to check up on a certain someone who was in a worse position than me." She opens and closes her mouth a few times, and rubs her eyes. "Her ... her name's Mina Nocturne."

    Josuke is clearly relieved, and will go to fix Alty's damage when she asks. "There we go," he says quietly, as much to try to help calm her down a little as to announce when he's done.

    And he's totally serious about what he said earlier, too; he'll go and help the other shinki when it's clear that she's not going to attack him, and when he's done helping Alty (first come, first serve).

    A lot of unpleasant things about him, most notably his temper, are things that he comes by honestly. Ultimately it all stems from his biological father's just being so very emotional. And so is Josuke.

    So as he attempts to assist Leene with her damage too? Yes, he's crying. He's not hiding it either, only bothering to wipe away the tears when they impede his vision and make it difficult to see to help her.

    And with everyone else moving to head back, Josuke will follow, silently. It's been a trying day for a lot of people.

Following along as well as he can, the officer looks back to the makeshift shinki city. And one of the things he does do is ensure that the record of this location isn't going to be put towards the local police department. A strict and exacting interpretation of his assistance. 

And frankly, even if it comes up later, he will ensure that local authorities are reminded that it's people like Tanaka who caused these kinds of issues and then some. His holster unfolds and extends, allowing him to slot the weapon back into the leg holster, glancing over but not putting any of them on the spot, as it were by his gaze. 

His thoughts do drift briefly towards his wife and son, but elects not to let it show on his face beyond the quiet relief. "Let's get going then." He'll do his part to make sure the trip back is as safe as possible. Yeah, he's gonna go see his kiddo and wife after this for sure.