Inside Intertwined

Inside Intertwined
Date of Scene:	06 January 2013
Location:	Traverse Town - Outskirts
Synopsis:	The TDA with the help of some pals move to stop VitaTek. Isaac gets angry. And then he gets sad.
Cast of Characters:	Avira, Mercade Alexander, Brooklyn, Skoll Ulfong, Isaac Hanlon, Aerith, Tifa Lockhart, Deidra, Feige Abramson, Goofy, Maximilien
Tinyplot:	Time Is Ticking

---

Pumpkinhead has posed:
Hearts Intertwined is an organization that seems so nice and chipper and does such good work that it's hard to imagine a dark side. However, with the fall of the worlds, background checks are that much harder and if someone can hard their DARK HEART well enough they can readily infiltrate an organization that's meant to do good and misuse their inventory for their own ends. Messed up priorities? Maybe. But they have to be stopped.

Goofy has volunteered to help you out here, feeling awful about the whole Mr. Wheeler fiasco. He is well known as a goody two shoes and can get even the sketchiest of you into the building no problem. SOME OF YOU have already snuck in, namely Max and Mercade, but the rest are coming now. Emi, Umi, Shida, and even Imi of Legion are all preoccupied but Ami and Omi are providing support. What sort of support?

Well for one they've texted TDA members noting that they've disabled the 'security cams' for the top floors. They also note that they can't access the bottom levels and that Max has been able to obtain a card key for the elevator.

Regardless, Goofy has just walked inside the main lobby. The elevators are actually rather nearby--this is, after all, meant to be a front organization and does not scream evil super science lair. Most of these people are innocent--at least as far as you can tell--and are eager to help. It's not very busy--this particular building is on the outskirts of Traverse Town and as such don't get much of the business. A bit of a dangerous area with all the Heartless about.

"Gawrsh..." Goofy is saying. "These fellahs sure seem nice. I hope we can help 'em out!"

Aerith has posed:
Naturally of course, Aerith enters with the newly-acquainted Goofy, since he's several inches taller than she is and has a shield she can hide behind just in case. Though to be honest, she's become more self-assured as far as the ability to defend herself. Still, the materia on her bracelets shine bright at the moment, her staff used once again as a conduit for the resulting magic. "Helping them out is one thing. Finding the bad apple in the bunch is another..." she said under her breath.

Tifa Lockhart has posed:
Tifa Lockhart looks around the area when she 'sneaks' in with Aerith and the others. She hms a bit, looking around "Yeah, you wouldn't think there could be a bad apple in the bunch, considering their work. But that's just to say, there are some good people, and there are some bad ones everywhere, people ready to use the good wll of others to their advantage. I doubt any of those working on this floor are aware of anything bad, or have any ill intentions."

She taps Aerith on the shoulder "Don't attract attention with your bracers now, its not the right time." Just a fair warning to her friend.

Aerith has posed:
Aerith glanced behind her at Tifa with a smile. "For all they know, it's a bunch of gemstones. Besides," she said as she adjusted the sleeves of her jacket, "They're easy to conceal now, remember?"

Isaac Hanlon has posed:
Isaac has decided to give up on subtlety.

And so, this is why the previously-cycling-mad mage and destroyer of causality (or maybe just cyclical events, like life and death) just kind of walks on in through the front door with Goofy, Tifa and Aerith. He's got his tablet in-hand and looks preoccupied. Collared shirt, long coat, glasses -- he could be one of the scientist guys working here, if it weren't for the fact that he isn't nearly that sketchy.

Isaac shoots a quick glance at the others alongside him, lips quirking into a brief smile. He mutters something incomprehensible, and the display of his tablet lights up. He's just going to save them some time and scan the nearest rooms, checking out their contents before they move inward and upward (or maybe downward).

Wizards and clairvoiyance, man. Cheat to live, live to cheat.!

Mercade Alexander has posed:
Mercade Alexander and Max have infiltrated the Hearts Intertwined building easily enough. The key is to look like you belong there. And there's always people who belong somewhere. People who are utterly forgettable and blend into the background. They are as much furniture as the potted plants or the desks, or the decorations on the walls.

Max has abused this fact relentlessly in his work. Mercade hasn't abused this as much but he certainly knows the basics. This is why Mark Alexson (he has an ID card saying so!), sanitations engineer, is mopping the floor. He is wearing a beige jumpsuit and a ratty baseball cap, with a thick pair of glasses and a pair of black sneakers. He's got a WARNING: WET FLOOR sign out and is mopping to one side while keeping an eye out for things. Max is elsewhere, being even more absurdly sneaky and brilliant no doubt.

The rest of those coming, including Goofy, the other TDA members, and their helpful Goug-sourced associates Tifa and Aerith are given internal information gained from the infiltration (sent to Isaac, of course), with floor maps, ID information on a Dr. Nedwick Chambers and a Dr. Abramson. The former is a male medical specialist, while the latter seems to be a female specializing in more... esoteric things. Mercade notes that she's got some 'weird symbols' on the inside of her labcoat. She might be a magic user of some kind.

The group's destination is the elevator systems, which go into a restricted-access basement area that is supposedly home to a computer database dedicated to locating and gathering data on the refugees of Manhattan as well as handling the more medical and psychological research issues that HI runs into. To protect patient confidentiality, it's not technically accessible to most of the personnel present here.

Max has that problem solved, but it's up to him to get the group down there.

Avira has posed:
"Wait uuuuuuup, hold on." Someone else comes 'running in the front' along with the Goofy, Tifa, Aerith, and Isaac crew. It appears to be a very short lady dressed in clothes common to Rabanastre. Tifa and Aerith might recognize her, but it's been a long time since Avira has been seen in her human form.

Hilariously, unless there are people from the Labyrinth Incident here, none of those in Hearts Intertwined will recognize her!

Brooklyn has posed:
Having had an encounter with Will only a few moments ago, Brooklyn was tempted to not come...But the gargoyle had been given a note which told him that he could help investigate Hearts Intertwined, which he was sure had been a group that was being bankrolled by Xanatos. And anything that Xanatos is bankrolling is suspicious to Brooklyn, no matter how righteous the intent may seem.

The gargoyle is still not 100% used to being able to wak in the front door of places, but he does just that here, slowly stepping inside of the building.

Deidra has posed:
So there was a plan they had to get attention she should help doing that, she can totally do that. She can totally not be subtle todnight. It's pretty easy for her to do so I mean just visually she can get attention so here she goes today. Still walking in the front door that's still kinda a novelty really as she follows up Brooklyn.

Maximilien has posed:
When infiltrating an organization, there are few people better to have on your side than an infamous worlds-renowned Phantom Thief. Getting inside a charity organization has to be the least exciting and least interesting thing Maximilien Amadeus Renaud-Sylvianne has done in a very very long time. What he wouldn't give for a beautiful white-haired Judge to show up and challenge him and get in his way, or at least make things *interesting*. But no, alas not. So instead of a fun or interesting infiltration with lots of chaos, it's been a smooth, routine, quiet thing. It's really amazing what being a talented liar can do for you; a wave, a smile, a 'remember me', and soon you're chatting like old friends. He's gotten to know several of the folks at Hearts Intertwined quite well, with just a little of his charm and a lot of fake American accents. Lying was as natural to Maximilien Amadeus Renaud-Sylvianne as breathing, at this point in his life.

Which was great for theft. Dressed as a member of the cleaning staff with a very strong Texan twang for people to focus on, Max had more or less free reign of the building, or at least the public parts. For the less-than-public parts, he'd approprited a keycard quite effortlessly, snagging it from the labcoat of a pretty scientist while he chatted her up. People...well, they didn't really pay attention to a lot of things, do they? So now Max is cheerfully waiting by the elevator, mopping the floor, his hat pulled low over his eyes, little more than a feature of the background, impossible to distinguish from any other member of the staff.

Skoll Ulfang has posed:
Skoll only recently found out that bad stuff was going on with the whole Hearts Intertwined business. Normally, you'd think he'd not care. But with this many people potentially in trouble, a noble heart like him can't help but investigate into this mess. Not to mention, it'll get him away from the watchful eye of the Gaudium Lords he hopes. Thusly, the werewolf is wandering along through Twilight Town, just to see a Dog walking into the building! An... anthromorphic dog.

He's seen weirder.

What catches his eye far more is a girl slipping into the lobby right after him. A girl that actually halts the werewolf outright. He'd seen Avira fairly recently, but she'd still been her Mutate self. Yet here she was, human!? The werewolf waits no longer than a few seconds, before he dashes off towards the same buildings and opens the door behind her, looking at the girl rather frantically; "Avira?"

Seems he just forgot what he came here for.

Pumpkinhead has posed:
"Well hello there, lady!" Goofy says loudly. "We're on secret police business!! Would you like to help?" Goofy is, perhaps...goofy? He offers a big gloved hand for Avira to shake. Nobody seems to recognize her as a furry mutant monster. At least nobody working here. Avira is too adorable looking to be a monster!!!

Of course this being Traverse Town, not even Brooklyn and Skoll get much in the way of weird looks. The lady at the front counter even waves at Brooklyn, smiling blandly at him. They get weird people here. It's not like Manhattan at all.

This is probably the least thrilling infiltration Max has ever done. Charity organizations aren't known for their security and evil organizations that lurk beneath the charity organization tend to rely on that mask hiding their operations more than laser grids requiring capoeria dancing to sneak through. The two people who have any reason to believe anything might be up are down in the lower levels. Dr. Abramson has even lost her keycard somehow (Max)--in a sense this might put a time limit on the operation. If the keycard can't be found or Abramson thinks something's up, security might go up. It's hard to say.

The elevator systems aren't that far away. It might be a bit tricky to get everybody in one for one trip but you could always swipe one elevator with the keycard then hand the keycard to someone else before hitting the down button so they can go down the other elevator simultaneously.

Isaac checks out the contents of the other rooms--mostly just other social workers. A nearby closet is filled with food and medicine--there's a boring looking finance area at the opposite end of the lobby. The interesting stuff must be downstairs.

Goofy looks towards Tifa and Aerith and asides, "I'll help get these nice folks out in an orderly fashion, if that's alright with all y'alls? I wouldn't want nothin' to happen to them, hayuck!"

Aerith has posed:
Aerith giggled. Secret police business was supposed to be, y'know, secret. As in no one talking about it to anyone that might deem it bad for business, so to speak. She glanced toward the elevators for a moment. "You do that. Tifa, come on." If she had time to wave to Avira, she would. Perhaps they'd talk in the elevator.

Tifa Lockhart has posed:
Tifa Lockhart nods to Aerith, watching the elevator door opening. She's looking as nonchalant as she can be, just trying not to rouse suspicious too quickly at least. There should be enough people using that elevator so it doesn't look too odd at first at least. She crosses her arms, stepping in quietly and taking a spot in the back, allowing the rest to enter.

Avira has posed:
Tall, anthropomorphic dog? Totally normal. Avira sees this stuff all around Traverse Town so she hardly bats an eye as she cheerfully shakes hands with Goofy. Gosh she is in such a good mood right now! "Of course I would love to help." she says pleasantly.

Suddenly, someone calls her name! A familiar voice, at that, whom she had been talking to not too long ago today. Today, before the mutation finally...wore off.

Turning, she faces Skoll and nervously waves at him. "Hi." suddenly she sounds a bit more subdued. Perhaps even a little guilty. "Yeah...it's me. I'm back to being human." Though there's something a little different about her human form now. Looking at her long enough will definitely reveal the answer. Avira's skin is, notably, quite a bit more tan.

She motions for Skoll to come over and lowers her voice. "There's some corruption in Hearts Intertwined that's been really getting down an associate of mine. We're here to root it out. You should come." She heads to the elevator and...

...actually, she's going to wait for the next one to come. Whoops.

Skoll Ulfang has posed:
Skoll blinks in surprise. Indeed, just today he'd seen her as a Mutate. And... her skintone. Skoll has a tendency to notice things, but the tan at first goes beyond notice. He's panting a little from that little dash just now. He's not exhausted or anything, just... adrenaline. He leans a bit against the door, hand against the side of it, staring at her. The little 'guilt' is something he figures is just because she'd not called him with the good news.

"Wow..." The youth slowly lets the door fall behind him, and then looks up at Goofy. "Secret police help? Oh!" Skoll quickly puts a finger to his lips, to show he now knows he should be a bit more quiet. The youth then makes his way over to Avira, since she motioned him over.

There, he leans in and lets her whisper in his oversized ears. They twitch a little, and his bushy tail's fur poofs out a little. "Yeah, I heard a bit about that, I think." Skoll comments, before he gets back up and follows her. "So you just... changed?" He pauses, then grins.

"Ah, I know. It must have been the boar-bacon. Apparently it cures transformations."

Brooklyn has posed:
The gargoyle waves back to the receptionist, and then makes his way to the elevator where the others have gathered, "You know, last time I was in one of these, a bunch of people were shooting at me." He muses, as he does his best to try to defuse the fact that he doesn't really like elevators. As he spies Avira, he does blink, "Wait...You found a cure for Sevarius' mutate syrum? That's great! We need to get more for Maggie and the others.." A pause, "If they...Survived Manhattan's fall.."

Isaac Hanlon has posed:
Isaac looks quizzically at the girl who dashes in behind them. He glances at his tablet, then back up at her, and a look of recognition crosses his face. It's the voice that tips him off. "-oh, hey. Avira, right? I'm Isaac. Glad you're alright." Saves him some trouble, though it also means he doesn't get to see what he can do about that particular problem.

With a few quick steps, Isaac walks towards the elevator door. He passes the man with the mop, stepping neatly around him and nearly brushing past him. It doesn't look like much of anything, of course, but that's kind of the idea. There's about a half-second where Definitely Not Max can pass a fairly small object between the two of them without anyone noticing.

"Hey, guys. We're not taking the elevator." He waves people back out of it as they start to open it up and file in.

Aerith has posed:
Aerith blinked for a moment. "We're not?" She peeked out of the elevator doors. "Right... where are we going, then?" She made her way toward Isaac, a brow raised in curiosity.

Deidra has posed:
Deidra looks at Goofy and somedays isn't sure what to think of the dog man but he's generally a good guy just sometimes he is a little what. Either way on they go and she's not really got much notice then again it is tranverse town. She's run into lamia's here and other things she thought were myths. She's just accepted all the myths are likely real and will haunt them someday one wy or another. So in she goes and she's looking about but is wondering just when they should fully get to work. Well she keeps with the others for now.

Avira has posed:
For a while Avira was starting to think that going back to a human again wouldn't be considered 'good' news for Skoll. In fact, his staring makes her think that this might really be the case. Come to think of it, she should probably contact Angantyr about this too since he's been so anxious about it.

He seems to be taking it in stride. Avira grins back. "Bacon solves everything."

Brooklyn seems very excited about the prospect of a cure too and...well, her method WOULD likely work for them too. "...I hope they did. Talon...I bet he was strong enough to make his way through the darkness." That Fang jerk might not be though. "Who is Maggie? They'll have to go to Merlin but I'll be honest...it might not work out for them. What happened to me was a bit different from Sevarius's previous research."

Her gaze darkens a little. She doesn't enjoy being reminded of Sevarius. "...by the way, Brooklyn." she says quietly to the gargoyle, "Sevarius escaped Manhattan's fall. So be careful."

Mercade Alexander has posed:
'Mark' continues to be unobtrusive, mopping his way through the lobby towards the elevators. There's no other way down there (they've checked. No safety exit in case of fire. This is how you /know/ it's evil).

When Avira arrives, 'Mark' glances up with a bored expression... And then he blinks, pausing. It only lasts a moment, however, before he remembers why he's here and gets back to work.

He does keep looking down at the floor, trying to hide the sudden flush on his face as he works. A little too half-boiled to keep everything locked up, one supposed.

Mercade will be with you all shortly. He's already moving into position.

Maximilien has posed:
Doctor Abramson /was/ quite cute, but that didn't really make the investigation less boring - just a slight cheerful upbeat bit to an otherwise terribly tiresome moment. It meant nothing, would mean nothing, never could mean anything. Normal people were just so...so...so /tiresome/.

That half-second is more than enough time for 'Cal Jr.' from Texas to hold up his hand in a cheerful wave at the group, the keycard sliding into Isaac's hand as soon as the wave is complete. Then he steps off to the side a bit, his fingers going up to his face.

WHOOSH.

It's not magic, it's not mystical; a moment later, the mask is off, and somehow, so is the rest of the disguise, vanished into wherever it is Max puts things that are larger than he has any right to be able to hide. He swirls his cape around his neck, fastening it gently before bowing politely to Aerith, Tifa, Avira, and Deidra. "Bonsoir, madamoiselles. Comment allez-vous? You look lovely this evening. I am pleased you could join us, to offer some light to an otherwise dreadfully /dreary/ job, mmm? Truly, you are beautiful stars in a dead and dull black sky."

Max turns to face the elevator, his hand slipping into his tuxedo pocket as his customary smirk grows across his face. "So then, shall we?"

Isaac Hanlon has posed:
"Welllll," Isaac replies, drawing the word out thoughtfully, one hand stuck in a pocket, "not in the sense you're expecting, anyway."

Isaac sticks his hand between the doors and stops them from closing. He sticks his head in, looking at the wall and the panel affixed to it. They don't need the conveyance, but he's checking the destination distance. Pretty good, for a buried secret lab. He glances down at his tablet, throwing his line of sight down there for a second, and then passes his hand -- with a small object in it that wasn't there before -- over a reader inside the elevator. Isaac steps back and clears his throat.

There's some more nonsense words again. It sounds vaguely mystical, of course, and he makes funny little hand gestures. He reaches out and brushes two fingers along the doorframe of the elevator, letting the doors close while he does it. He pauses a second, then utters another word, and presses the call button.

The doors reopen. They do not open to the inside of an elevator, but instead to their destination: the spot they'd be walking into if they'd taken the elevator in the first place. Except... you walk /into/ an elevator to get /out/ of one, without the elevator part in the middle.

Isaac sketches a short bow to Max and the group, sweeping his hands towards the portal almost regally. "We shall. I'll bring up the rear so everyone can get through."

Aerith has posed:
Okay, that was cool.

Flowergirl bowed to Issac for a moment, then Max, before making her way inside. Hopefully this wouldn't take long, as this was the part that was potentially dangerous, and would require a "get in, get the stuff, get out" kind of approach. Whatever was down here, people would probably kill, and die, to protect...

Tifa Lockhart has posed:
Tifa Lockhart left the elevator before Isaac worked up his magic, hmming as she's observing. "That is odd... is that your doing or part of their security, I wonder." She must admit, that's alot more hidden than a room under a pinball machine.

...Not that she knows about any of those, right?

Skoll Ulfang has posed:
Skoll just smiles at Avira in regards to the comment that Bacon solves everything, before adding; "Damn right it does." The youth then looks up at Brooklyn. He remembers him from the battle. He's glad to see he's alright. He'd tell him to go visit Zia - who might be glad to see that there's another Gargoyle still alive and around. But for some reason, he feels it may not be his place to do so. "I'm glad though." He then whispers to Avira, staring away from her. "I mean it."

A glance goes out to 'Mark', and then the youth looks to Isaac who is stating they are not, in fact, using the elevator, and then starts doing... weird... magicky stuff with it. Really, Skoll doesn't get magic that much. He knows he can use magical energies to power his chains and alter them. He even knows that it's magic in which he draws summoned beasts from the 'Ether' as Zia calls it. But true 'magic', or rather, 'sorcery' like this?

That's competely new to him.

And then Maximilian appears out o... no wait, that guy just lost his disguise. Skoll scrunches his nose a little, in disapproval. They're here to investigate into bad going-ons, and he's busy hitting on the girls. Or maybe it's just that...

No, surely not...

Pumpkinhead has posed:
Goofy seems confused. Not take the elevator? Well, Isaac seems like a smart guy. He wears glasses after all!!!

But he does, however otherwise, discreetly start chatting up the receptionist at the front desk.

"Super secret police work." He says, nodding to her. "Once our team moves in, if you could sidle on outta here with your people, that'd be swell. Don't worry, we're not investigating super evil secret scientists--we're after rats! We're worried they've infested your lower levels! Hayuck!"

"Oh..." The receptionist says. "Rats can really be a problem."

Goofy nods. He hopes Mickey will forgive him.

Avira has posed:
Avira notices 'Mark' too, being someone who is very aware of her surroundings, after all, thanks to a certain someone's teaching. That long look from the janitor was...quite suspicious, actually. For a brief second, a smirk creeps upon the small woman's face.

Into the elevator and...out of the elevator right away, without any actual elevator travel happening? Her eyes go to Isaac, a faint question about this vocalized elsewhere. What interesting magic this man had. But she's long since realized that magic definitely came in all shapes and sizes. From Skoll's chains to Merlin's...everything.

Max appears before them, shedding his disguise and donning the little cape she's seen him wear before. A small grin forms upon her face, "Hello again, Max." she offers softly before stepping past him. "I think it is, as we say..."

Her smirk widens, "Go time."

Brooklyn has posed:
Brooklyn would go into detail about who Maggie is, but right now is not the best time. They have bigger things to worry about, it seems. He is mildly impressed by the portal technology to get through to the bottom of the elevator without the annoying, long, clastraphobia inducing ride in the elevator itself. Since Isaac wants to bring up the rear, however, Brooklyn steps through to the other side without a word.

Mercade Alexander has posed:
'Mark' isn't nearly as good at this as Max is. He does, however, approach with the mop and bucket, rolling his way towards the elevator. Timed appropriately, the janitor seems to not really notice that the elevator has been bypassed with super wizard mojo. The janitor waves to Isaac as he rolls in right through with the others. As soon as he's through, He simply rolls to one side to get out of the way as he continues mopping. He gives Isaac a jaunty (and familiar) salute as he moves through.

Deidra has posed:
Deidra will have to ask Brooklyn about Maggie and the other mutates later for now she's going to have to ask him but really it's kinda hrd to diguse. So she just gets ready to move she doesn't seem bothered by the lift as Broogklyn is but she tilts her head at him. "You all right...?"

Maximilien has posed:
Max is a master of disguise. It's a pretty useful talent for a Phantom Thief to possess; he spent a lot of time praciting it, and he had had a natural gift for it from an early age, making it a simple task. Moreover, being a Phantom Thief and a Gentleman Thief besides meant he had plenty of time to do more or less whatever he liked during an investigation like this; whatever was down there, he wasn't terribly worried about it. There's not a lot that Max fears; if it's likely to be in the basement of a charity organization, it's probably not something he was terribly worried about. Max tips his head gently at Avira, a smile crossing his face. "Indeed, so it is. I was right, by the way, madamoiselle; you are most stunningly beautiful, as I suspected all along. Then again, so are all the ladies here, it seems. I really must see who else is in Monsieur Alexander's little black book, mmm?"

Max's cape brushes against the ground as he walks past Isaac, slipping into the portal and vanishing.

Skoll Ulfang has posed:
"Go time." Skoll speaks after Avira, passing by Max and nodding his head to Mercade, before making his way 'through' the Elevator. But not before stopping besides Isaac and tilting his head to him in confusion. "Your magic is strange. I've seen none the like... is this sorcery?" He had to ask. After all, he's come to know to be very much wary of sorcerers. But far more than that, the Gaudium Lords liked to keep track of Sorcerers for their own means just as much as Skoll knew to 'look out' for them.

The young man then raises his hand to his head, as if a small headache was hitting, and moves to wander off and fully through the 'portal' that had been created. That's around the time that his left ear starts twitching as he 'hears' Max's words. He can't really help it, he has too fine a hearing at times. But it's 'Mark' who gets a look as he walks by, as Maximillien mentions a 'little black book', before he glances back to Avira in confusion... and then Max in annoyance. Still, he says nothing. Nope nope.

Tifa Lockhart has posed:
Tifa Lockhart is not in Mercade's little black book. At least, she thinks so. Well she's crossed him a few times, got a project to handle the bartender part of his bulding, but not like he got her in the backpocket or anything.

Makes you wonder if Tifa is interested at all sometimes.

She follows the rest through the newly opened 'elevator', and through the portal there, checking carefully what's on the other side in case of surprises...

Isaac Hanlon has posed:
Stepping into the open elevator door means stepping out of the elevator at the bottom. There isn't a lift or anything. It's like stepping through an open door into another room, except... there's theoretically space between the two doors.

Look, it's magic. Just go through the funny door and don't think about it too hard.

"Sorcery?" Isaac echoes. He gives Skoll a funny look. "Depends on your definition of the word, I suppose. Magic is magic is magic, though the methodology might be different wherever you go." That isn't a yes, and that isn't a no. Of course, Isaac might not know to call it that, either.

When the heroes (and ne'er-do-wells) pass through the magicked doorway, they step into a circular room, sleek and rounded. The center of the room is dominated by a large computer system and some kind of generator, both encircled in some kind of shimmering force field of a peculiar and magical nature with no obvious power source. Boxes are scattered around the room, sealed tight, and the keen-eyed might spot sliding panels set into the lower parts of the walls. There are three exits to the room, equidistant from one another, with grooves in the floor, ceiling and wall for the doors inset in the walls.

There are two other notable things about the room: First, above it is an observatory level constructed like a medical theater, ringing the room and sealed with somewhat slanted glass windows overlooking the circular chamber. Behind the glass is an old man with greying hair wearing a labcoat -- Max and Mercade will immediately recognize him as Dr. Chambers.

The second is that about five seconds after Isaac steps through the portal and lets it close behind him, with everyone else standing in the room, the blast doors in the walls slam shut.

"Oh," says Isaac. "Didn't see that coming."

Pumpkinhead has posed:
The group appears in a room that seems like...well, it contains their target, really, that computer--but it's under some kind of protective field! But other than that...it seems like some sort of...testing ground? It seems like the sort of place you'd rather be behind that observatory glass than in your current location.

"Feige..." Dr. Chambers asks--you can hear him through some sort of speakers. He coughs into his fist a few times and says, "What's the meaning of this? I don't understand. You said they wouldn't find us here..." He frowns. "They could disrupt everything..."

"Aww ye worry too much! I guess this explains my missing keycard though! Heh... what luck, though, I was hoping to test this..." A hidden lift opens up from even further below, carrying a young woman with brown hair, spectacles, and a kind of dowdy appearance. A scientist! In with you... what luck!

"I'm Feige Abramson. Don't worry, you don't have to explain. You're here to stop our experiments... hehe.... but you know... death could be kinder than what's in store for them if you stop this... heheh...."

"Perhaps we can negotiate..." Dr. Chambers says. "They don't understand. They don't understand this is to return us to a world before the Fall! Before Ruin!"

Dr. Abramson smiles lazily and swings a hand to the left. The runes on her labcoat shine briefly before the crates start bursting opens. Bits nad pieces of armor start forming around her body, her arms first, her legs, then finally a helmet settles on her head. Jetpackes form the back of her body and green lines pass through the otherwise red colored armoring of the weapon she summons to her body like it ain't no thing.

Bursting into the air, she laughs heartily. "Aww get off it, Doc! Hehehehe... these are fine specimens too, don't you see? Science doesn't get anywhere without taking a few risks, eheh... We could learn so much... mmmm.... it fills me with so much energy, just thinking about it! HAhahaHA! Wonderful, wonderful! Mm...too bad that 'Seal' didn't come in here... but I suppose I should welcome you...heheh..."

She gestures with both arms. "To our Anti Heartless Weapon Testing Facility! Heheh.... don't you think this is a much better use for all that money instead of food and water? Hehe... ELECTRIFY THE FLOORS!"

Electricity starts shimmering through the ground--she is immune since she's in the air--but she shortly follows through with a spray of machine gun fire from the power armor's chest.

"Damn it, Abramson! Control yourself!" Chambers complains.

Avira has posed:
Still smirking, Avira wiggles her fingers in Max's direction. "I had a feeling you were going to say somnething like that." Such a flirt! Such a tease! Especially when Mercade is arou- 'Monsieur Alexander's little black book'? Avira reddens just a little bit. "Oh not this again!" Even on missions! The TDA teasing was relentless. Not looking back at Max, Avira briskly follows through the portal.

The doors slam behind them. "Oh gee, I guss that they've got us trapped. How horrible." Avira puts a hand on her weapon, "...for them." Aww yeah, that was a /great/ line, she realizes.

Avira's observing the room carefully, taking in every detail and every exit. "I really want to indignantly yell at them for taking advantage of this charity organization. But they took advantage of a charity organization which is the lowest of the low so they clearly give no <goosehonk>-"

Avira stops and whirls around suddenly. Where the hell did that goose come from!?

Throughout the chattering of Dr. Abramson, there is one thing that really sticks out in her mind. Electrify the floors. Avira's quick to dart to one of those boxes scattered throughout the room and leap on top of it. Shortly after, she has to leap to another one to avoid being shot up by the spray of machinegun fire.

"What kind of scientist needs to test bullets on people?! You guys are a disgrace!"

Maximilien has posed:
Max really doesn't like fighting. At all. He's got a wide array of skills and competences, but fighting isn't one he appreciates or enjoys using. He's prided himself on not hurting people on his jobs, and this is technically still a /job/.

Besides-which, he really doesn't want to hurt Dr. Abramson. As soon as she's transforming, Max is already in the air; a little wind magic and a lot of agility, and he's off the floors before they can possibly be electrified. "Tsk, Madamoiselle Feige. Your real face is /much/ less attractive than I had hoped. Ah well...c'est la guerre."

Then he's shot in the arm with a machine gun. Max grunts, darting to the side and hanging off the wall before she can do any more shooting at /him/ specifically, clamping his hand down on his tuxedo to try and staunch the blood. It was already running into his white suit, staining the arm a deep red.

Better not let that happen again.

Max mumbles something under his breath; a little wind whips up around him for a brief instant as he tenses against the wall. He jabs something into the ceiling - an anchoring point - then sticks his gun out and fires, the grappling hook sticking in the other side.

Now he runs, holding to the grappling hook, racing along the wall. Hopefully he'll be able to find the switch to turn off the electric floor; that seemed a great deal more useful than hurting the woman. There were other people far more willing to do that than he.

Even in peril, a gentleman thief is still a gentleman.

Tifa Lockhart has posed:
Well, that sure was a warm welcome. And being used as experiments? No thank you. Yet she doesn't have time to react to the electrified floor, fortunatly her boots are sturdy enough to minimize the shock, and then she gets grazed by bullets, jumping back to avoid most of the onslaught. Well seems at least one person doesn't want them there... or wants them dead/captured. Either way that doesn't work with her right now.

She's not as worried about bullet testing or some scientist shame about it, unlike Avira x.x Only about them hurting. While everyone else seems to be on the defensive, Tifa launches forward toward the offending armored fiend. Even when protected by armors, there's still weak spots. Joints, or poorly designed gratings or panes... maybe even the face of the scientist inside. She's going to find it and tear it peice by piece if need is.

Skoll Ulfang has posed:
Skoll slowly walks into the area, not knowing 'Dr Chambers' in the least, and instead is sticking near to Avira since she's the only one he feels particularly tied to within this crowd. It's kind of one of those moments, where Skoll realizes just how few people he knows; and that he really should try reaching out more! But then, that'd mean putting more people at risk. Being an unwilling villain sucks sometimes.

And then the door goes and SLAMS down around them, and Skoll is quick to grab with one hand for his chain around his belt and stretches the other out in front of Avira in order to show that he's being protective. A bit overprotective perhaps, but his heart is in the right place. Of course, he could potentially flee this place, but that'd draw attention to him and the use of said Portals.

But when Avira goes so far as to show that she's not going to be backing down, so that hand goes right on down again. She can take care of herself! The human-looking young man ducks his body down a little as the woman comes out, and starts... speaking. She reminds him of the strange scientists that work for the Earl Tyrant.

"Just yell at them." Skoll mutters to Avira, while observing a white goose from the corner of his eyes. That electrified floor is going to surely make short work of the little creature. Wait... electrified floor!? Skoll throws his chain to the air stabbing one of the sides into the ceiling just as Avira jumps away towards the boxes, and he himself swings 'away' from her. It takes a bit of work, but he soon has the other side of the chain stabbed into the ceiling as well, and he manages to stand basically in mid-air.

"I don't even want to begin to convey at how many levels you are wrong." He states before using a second chain to try and grab at the woman's legs in order to DRAG her down to the ground! Let's hope Max didn't quite deactivate that switch yet.

Brooklyn has posed:
"No." Comes a simply reply to Deidra when she asks Brooklyn if he is alright. He is not alright. But he will have to worry about his not alrightness later, because blast doors slamming closed is never a good sign, no matter where you are. Then the doctor goes off on her rant, about this being an anti-Heartless proving ground or whatever. As the floor electrifies, Brooklyn jumps up as quickly as he can to the nearby wall, digging his claws in. He's raked with gunfire but manages to weather the storm.

"My turn." He snarls, as he climbs up the wall further, and thrn turns and leaps from it, eyes glowing white as he dives directly at the armor clad doctor, trying to drive a shoulder into her, and bring her to the ground, where she should be easy enough to peel out of that armor with his claws.

Aerith has posed:
Electrified floor.

Didn't see that one coming, did she?

Aerith is stunned momentarily before she has a chance to react, and thus can't exactly make the first move. While everyone else charges in, she can only take a brief second to do something about defending her temporary comrades... some of whom are not so temporary.

Mercade Alexander has posed:
Well damn.

Mercade was planning to possibly work his way around and use his janitorial implements in some CLEVER RUSE, but that is impeded with the fact that the underground secret lair is...

Well, a bit of a secret lab of doom. "This is kind of silly." Mercade says. "Seriously, we..."

Abramson calls out for the floors to be electrified. He leaps up and braces on the sides of the bucket as the floor crackles, and he looks down, blinking. "No, we just wanted to..." He says, before he looks back up at the flying armored mad scientistess, who shoots HELPFUL BULLETS at them. He uses the mop, poling on the floor to avoid the streams of 'help' as he closes in. "WE JUST WANTED TO TALK STRENUOUSLY, DAMN IT!" Mercade says. He looks over at Max, noting that the man is stealing away. With any luck, he will do something amazing to turn the fight in their favor.

Well, uh... 'fight'. "Seriously, come to your senses." Mercade says, as he spins the mop and dips it into the water, bringing it up to begin slapping the wet thing across the armor repeatedly! Maybe that will bring her to her senses!

"Is she /always/ like this?" Mercade asides to Dr. Chambers, who seems to be the reasonable one of the group.

Deidra has posed:
Deidra can understand not liking certain things, and Brooklyn answered her honestlylooks at Feige for a moment tilting her head. The laugh seems to be a bit off putting to Deidra as she tries to dize them up for a moment she doesn't like where this is going with Chambers either. Ya things are going to the bad place at this point she looks as she's now caught in free fire zone. She's not quick enough to get off the floor and is cuaght in it as she's screaming from having that many volts go through her she'x clipped by the machine gunfire and she's going down pretty hard. sjhe's fighting to get back up and she's pretty not happy as she gets back up, she's snarling at this point. No she's not a happy lady right now. She's going to one try to keep from being ground bound as mucha s she can. For now she'll see how the power armor handles dealing with magic as she focus upon it and the pilot attempting to ruin their day by laying a quick chain of curious upon them.

Isaac Hanlon has posed:
Isaac pretty much takes the testing of anti-Heartless weapons in stride. He barely even blinks when Dr. Abramson's rune-covered lab coat turns into an armor-donning spell. Mostly he watches that, actually -- it seems like a useful thing to know. He lifts his tablet slightly and snaps a couple pictures of them while they're glowing.

What he /doesn't/ take in stride is the electrified floor and the abrupt machine-gun fire.

Isaac shouts something, and a circular disc of what looks like fire springs into sight in front of him. It darts this way and that, drawn to the sources of motion, and bullets hammer into the shield instead of the mage. They're stopped in their tracks by the dancing barrier, the forward motion of the bullets turned into a wind that whips up all around him, making his coat billow dramatically.

The electricity is not something that he is prepared for. When he realizes what got said, he bends his knees to jump into the air, other syllables of magic on the tip of his tongue. Half of them get out before his entire body seizes, the rest of the incantation swallowed by the stuttering, choked noises he's started to make. Tongues of electricity flicker over the surface of his tablet, and rows of tiny white runes blaze into sight across the back of it, gradually shifting to a darker tint. The screen goes dark, and Isaac shoots into the air, abruptly released from the electrified grip.

Isaac manages to control his ascent and arrest it just before he would slam into the ceiling. He gasps for breath, wheezing words and clutching his spellpad like a drowning man on driftwood. The screen flickers and glows, words scrolling across the display.

Dynamic
Arcano-
Technological
Archive

EMERGENCY REBOOT IN PROGRESS, PLEASE WAIT_

"Okay," Isaac pants, getting his voice back, "that was totally uncalled for." He swallows, clears his throat. "And so is all of this. You had your chance -- there's no going back to the way things were. Don't you know the old adage, 'those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it'?"

For a second, there's a glimmer of something in Isaac's eyes. He mutters some more syllables, quick and precise and as easy as breathing. Sound fills the room, coming from anything that could possibly be a speaker. The song starts with the sound of drums and picks up quickly, despite there being no apparent device for it to originate from.

Partway through the first few moments of it, Isaac produces a Colt M1911, flicks the safety off, works the slide, and begins opening fire on the armored individual below him. It's all he can do, for now.

BGM CHANGE: http://youtu.be/8Hmv6Qw5fZ4

Pumpkinhead has posed:
Feige grins widely at Max. "I'm sorry!! But the only thing that holds my heart is science! Hahahaha!!! But I mean IF YOU WANT A CASUAL ENCOUNTER, I'll give you my card! Hmm... wait...you already have it? You need to watch where you keep your hands!" She blushes and presses her hands to her cheeks, shaking her head from side to side. OH noooooPumpkinhead (talk)

"But you're too late..." She whispers. "We've already sent off Cronus like the good little guinea pig that he is..." Her smile just gets bigger and bigger like it's threatening to explode out of her face.

Dr. Chambers taps his feet lightly to the new music before he manages to stop himself. He shakes his head quickly. "Tch..." He looks towards Mercade and says, "Mm...yes.... but not usually to this extent... Even so..." He raises his head. "She is correct. As distasteful as the methods were before... There is no choice..." He coughs into his fist again, wheezing faintly. "We have to get home. The HEartless should never have been to our world... it was supposed to be stopped..." He shakes his head rapidly, stepping away from the glass.

"Hahaha! It doesn't matter who wins!" Feige cackles as Brooklyn dives into the armor. "Mm??" He lashes out with his claws, leaving thin indentations where he strikes but one of Feige's armore arms grabs Brooklyn.

"Hahaha! THIS IS INTERESTING! A REAL GARGOYLE! Lets obtain a sample...!!" The hands dig into BRooklyn, threatening to draw blood before flinging him aside. Mercade goes in with a mop, slapping Feige in the face with it. "Hey..." MOP. "HEY!" MOPMOPMOPMOP. "CUT IT OUT!" A chest panel opens up and fires a spray of missiles into Mercade.

Skoll lungs for her legs and Feige tumbles over onto her back. "HEY! HEY! HEY BAD DOG! BAD... OH I can't stay mad at a dog."

She pats Skoll on the head fondly. "There there...Y'misbehaving lil' rascal!" Tifa strikes at one of the joints, managing to dislodge it, but Feige just ends up shooting the arm into Tifa to push her away.

Isaac uses the moment open fire with a gun. This works a lot better on wizards than it does on power armor. The bullets ding off the armor and Feige floats back up into the air...HOWEVER!

"WHAT! HEY...HEY YOU CHANGED THE MUSIC?" She tsks and draws out a small remote into her hands, pushing a button.

BGM CHANGE: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-EzMOAswIYM

Along with the BGM CHANGE the Electrified floor dissipitates, rendering it a NORMAL floor... However, this time pressing the button seems to release TOXIC GAS through the sliding panels (which open up) spewing the gas...

And KNIGHT HEARTLESS that claw up through the vents.

"Like I said! THIS IS AN ANTI HEARTLESS WEAPON TRAINING FACILITY! ENJOY YOUR NEW FRIENDS! THANKS FOR THE FUNDING!!! HA HA HA HA!" Feige cackles. "Haaaaaaaaah, that was nice. I needed that..." She shakes her head a few times. "Humans? What arrogance. There are no humans. There's only progress. Even I am just fodder for Science!"

Perhaps that remote would be good to make a grab for Max--or you could use the opportunity to try and break through the glass and get to Chambers who is clearly a colleague. He might have his own tricks though. What do you do?!

AND WHY IS FEIGE'S BGM REMOTE ALSO THE CONTROLS FOR THE TRAPS?!?!?!?

Nevertheless, along with everything else, she fires out a ray from both hands. It is a peacekeeping ray for the good of mankind, aka: THE DESTRUCTION RAY! HA HA HA!

Maximilien has posed:
"Non, madamoiselle; I am afraid my heart already belongs to another." Max spins along past the ray, the beam sizzling against his cape; he frowns. He would have to replace that...but for the moment, he had more important demands. "Besides-which, I believe I have other concerns at the moment."

Max immediately drops from the wall, snapping his line and bringing it back into his hand as he falls. His feet spring off the wall, sending him spiralling towards the lady scientist; he's got one intention, and only one, as he fires his line back into the air to send him swinging past her. His fingers move right for the one thing he's pretty sure he needs:

That remote sitting right in her hand.

It's all very dynamic and heroic, but it doesn't change the fact that he's also in a great deal of trouble.

Aerith has posed:
And bang.

Aerith was shoved backward by the nice big destructive beam, her magical aura of defense holding out just long enough to stop her from slamming against the wall just behind her. "All right, enough of that..." A pale green light shone from beneath her sleeves as one of her materia lit up. "Time to even the odds."

A flow of shining energy came from the electrified floor, right into Aerith's bracelets, and she channeled the resulting magic through her staff... toward that pesky power armor. Sure, guns didn't seem to cut it quite well against that, but maybe an overload would!

Tifa Lockhart has posed:
Tifa Lockhart isn't pleased with the gas. Even less with the death ray ~_~ What's with these scientists and deathrays anyway, shouldn't try to tkeep their subjects alive instead. She doesn't have the magic like Aerith does, but she still has fists. And she managed to dislodge it once, she can do it again! That's the barmaid's way, ploughing though no matter the resistance. Its not always with fists raised though, but sometimes you don't have a choice either, especially when they are trying to kill you in the process.

She is more thhan signed by the attacks, but that doesn't slow her down either. If she wants to take it to the air, it'll be a pleasure to bring her crashing back down! An uppercut aiming for the under parts of the armor, followedy by a strong, lifting sommersault, and finally the trademark piledriver to send it crashing back down.

Mercade Alexander has posed:
OH GOD MISSILES! SO MANY MISSILES! They rain down around Mercade and explode, blasting him backwards and sending the bucket sliding to impact into the wall, the Detective smouldering.

Well, at least the electric floor is turned off.

Mercade backflips off of the water bucket, ducking away from the TOXIC GAS OF EVIL as Knight Heartless swarm. He spins the mop, laying about as he whaps several incoming Knights with the mop, disorienting them and sending them stumbling back.

It's not what weapon you wield, but the strength of your heart that matters. When the Destruction Ray is fired up, Mercade looks up, blinking. "Wha-oh!" He yells, and he flings his hat into the way of the attack! The ratty hat vaporizes, but it probably gives Mercade the chance to slide out of the way, skidding out of the way. "Come on everyone! Let's knock some sense into her!" He says, before he gets an idea. "I think you need to COOL OFF!" Mercade says, as he reaches down, hoisting up the bucket and simply pouring it out over the woman!

Maybe it will short circuit something.

Brooklyn has posed:
Things are decidedly not going well for Brooklyn, as the armored woman tears into him, and then backs off. This is good for Brooklyn, as he needs time to recoup and allow himself to regain energy. So he moves to the wall again and scales upwards, attempting to use this height advantage to be able to get out of the crazy woman's line of sight for a few moments, and take a breath.

Avira has posed:
Sadly there is nowhere to dodge out of the way of poisonous gas.

"Hah! Very nice!" Avira hops around to another box anyway, coughing out the gas to little effect. Irritation quickly rises within her and she actually...puts her weapon away? Wait, what? Strange, especially when Heartless were being released around them since it was pretty difficult to defeat those bare-handed. (Okay, for certain people.) But from her box, Avira leaps...

...onto one of the Heartless. She actually bounces off of them, getting pretty good airtime for a few seconds before striking off another. She keeps doing this until she's actually gotten close to the jetpack doctor. Then she leaps into the air and grabs onto her lab coat.

Using all of her weight, she yanks downward and tries to pull Feige to the ground. Violently. "Actually I was hoping to knock some teeth OUT of her!" Avira calls to Mercade.

Skoll Ulfang has posed:
Who the heck is Cronus? He doesn't know, and in the moment, he doesn't particularly care. Especially with Feige suddenly making her way over to him and patting him on the head. Skoll growls rather aggressively. "I AM NOT A DOG!" He's a human with a bushy tail and your typical anime-style dog-ears. Because... designers. "STOP IT!" The young man snaps at Feige's hand like a dog. Which probably looks rightly silly.

Indignant Skoll is Indignant. His tail is all poofed up, and one can see how the left side of his eye is twitching a little. The young man is even baring his canines. And when Tifa finally gets rid of the robot-woman, he's rather glad for it. Standing on his chain-swing hanging from the ceiling, Skoll suddenly points at Feige.

"How dare you insult me!? I am an honorable werewolf! I am here to protect my friend!" Friends? Or... friend? "The one dear to me!" Okay... guess it's 'screw you guys' when it comes to the rest. "And those that came here to rightfully stop you!" Ah, there we go.

Of course, while he's standing there, reciting that little thing, gas starts filling the room, and then she starts firing 'peacekeeping' rays. Skoll just happens to jump at her at that moment in an attempt to get a better vantage point, and is hit square in the chest. The beam sears his skin, leaving the beast to roar painfully. But there's just no kinetic force to draw him back... because... PBS decided to run a cartoon?

At least Avira stops the woman from continueing to fire at him, and drags them to the floor. This quickly has the wounded Skoll joining in, lashing his shackles towards her in an attempt to magically get them to wrap around her and slam her once against the ceiling, then as hard as he can down against the floor again! Not moments later, he positions himself between Avira and the heartless - covering her rear. "I've got your back."

Deidra has posed:
Deidra is starting to gain some mastery over some of her abilities such as the proper use of protection spells in this case she's able to cast one quickly enough to save her self from the huge swarm of attacks coming at her. As the barrier takes teh entirty of the attacks thrown her way it's she's able to get clear of the gas and launches into some actualy heavy spell casting this time sending forth a number of jagged shards of ice at the heartless.

"Your insane, why do the sciopaths always get let near the science?! REALLY! WHAT IS UP WITH THAT!"

Isaac Hanlon has posed:
Isaac's tablet makes a power-up noise more suitable to a reactor coming online than a handheld computer being restarted. The screen returns to its bright and cheery glow, old documents restoring themselves. Isaac breathes a sigh of relief and regains control of his altitude control -- just in time to hurtle himself away from a Heartless and bring his barrier up all the way around him.

Dimly, Isaac feels impacts on the fire-wall that surrounds him. He doesn't know what it is. He smells gas, and tries to cover his mouth, but that's hard when you've got to do a lot of speaking to get any of your cool tricks working. Isaac breathes shallowly and goes through focusing exercises and whispered incantations, hovering further from the power armor. He's still trying to untense after getting electrocuted, and he's still waiting for the last of his tablet's curious functions to come back to one hundred percent. Fighting without it is suicidal. He already feels his body rebelling from the poison and the injury.

Being human, Isaac reflects, is a bad thing in this business.

Isaac lets the music continue. It's not bad. He projects his voice by vibrating a grating in the wall near the Good Doctor in the observation section. It's loud enough to hear in the entire area up top, but only dimly filters into the main room. You'd have to have good ears or be near the windows to catch more than the hint of noise.

"'Supposed to.' Supposed to be stopped. Yeah, it was. They weren't supposed to be there, and they /were/. In the end, /they were there, and you were not/." His voice is harsh; angry, even. "We all got screwed, but /you/ got out. And you know what? I've already looked into fixing it, too! Did my research while you were here making /guns/."

"The World Heart wasn't protected, /Doctor/, because the one tied to it tried to save a boy who didn't know how deep in it he was, and now they're both /long dead/." Isaac is furious. It's all he can do not to scream. "They've taken it, and drowned it in darkness, and it isn't coming back."

"So," Isaac continues, grinding his teeth, "why don't you have your attack dog turn off the guns, and come down here and talk to us like /civilized human beings/, before I decide to /come up there/."

Maximilien has posed:
Max swings up to the wall; he lands on it, dangling off it by his hookshot line. His lips quirk upwards in a grin as he holds up the missing remote, his cape flowing around him gently towards the floor. He wiggles it between his fingers for a moment, then spins it around to look down at it. Three buttons...all three with BGM changes, for some reason. It seemed that he only really went for the crazy women, apparently...ah well. That was alright with him.

Max slips the remote into his hand and swings it up to point at Docor Absalom, a smug grin spreading across his face. "Well, madamoiselle Feige...I believe that the power of your weapons - and soon your funding - is about to be cut." And his thumb presses down on the Disable Defenses/BGM change button, and his smile widens.

Pumpkinhead has posed:
"Why are all the sexy french men taken???" Feige laments.

Isaac talks to Dr. Chambers. "I'm trying!" He says. "She's not listening to me! She's never done this before...I...I..." He starts crying. "I just wanted to see my family again..." He sinks to his knees. "I didn't decide they should die. It wasn't me. It's gotta come back...it's gotta... Feige, Feige... please stop... Only four more need to suffer you said, why are you doing this?"

Feige says, "Hey! That's mine!" She shouts as Max thieves it from her hands. "Argghhh how can I control my AMAZING POISON GAS this way??? Why must you stand in the way of Evil Science??"

She manages to jolt out of the way of Avira coming down out of her, just barely. "Yikes!! Scary scarry girl!" Heh heh scary scarry girl. HOWEVER--Avira is able to pull free her labcoat--the magic runes have failed but, hey, free labcoat. There's a wallet in one of the pockets and a couple syringes filled with science in the other.

"Now that's just rude!" Feige complains even as Aerith slams into her with electricity, shorting out the systems considerably long enough for Mercade and Tifa to dive in. Mercade dumps water over Feige, which only makes the shorting out worse. "Ahhnnnn! Now I'm all wet!" And Tifa clobbers her upside the head with her foot. She stumbles to the right, having trouble maintaining its height.

"Yes yes you're a fine specimen..." Feige rolls her eyes at Skoll but he knocks the machine up into the air. YES! And then knocks it into the ground. BOO!

Shards of ice sink into the leg and arm joints of the power armor and Feige has trouble getting back into the air again. "Tch... tch... fine! FINE! I WILL FIRE ALL THE WEAPONS!!"

"Feiiige! No! WHY AREN'T YOU LISTENING?!"

"STOP BEING SO ANNOYING!" Feige shouts back and fires an arm for Dr. Chambers. IT's flying with enough force that it'll easily smash through the glass and crush him. "Your usefulness has come to an end anyway, so sick of your whining and hypocracy anyway!! If you're going to serve science, you gotta serve it all the way! Ha ha, destroying that family because you want to see your own, what a loon! And they say /I'm/ mad! Well I may be mad, but at least I'm consistent, ha!"

"Like I said." She adds, stepping backwards. "It doesn't matter who wins...heheh.... It doesn't maaaaatter..."

The Heartless are dying down but she fires the destructo ray, she fires out her remaining arm, and she fires ze missiles and ze machine guns--intending to destroy everything she can! Except the computer of course, that's important for the experiment!

Max pushes a button. The gas turns off, the electric floor stops, and perhaps most importantly--the target you were sent here to destroy--it's shielding vanishes.

"Hah??" Feige asks as she accidentally obliterates the computer into bits. "Hahhh??? CURSE YOU PHANTOM THIEF MARS!!!!"

Hopefully the rest of you will have better luck!

Maximilien has posed:
% Max never gets tired of hearing that. Both that he was attractive, and the swearing. As she fires off all the missiles and all the weapons ever, Max releases his hookshot and kicks off the wall, flipping down to the gound. He slides his hand over his chest, then bows, tucking the remote into his pocket. "You are too kind, madamoiselle."

Then he goes running right for the door, rather than let her have him as a target. He makes a salute at Mercade as he passes. "Au revoir~."

Tifa Lockhart has posed:
Missiles! Missiles everywhere! And after she had managed to knock it upside the head and even piledriver it, with the accuracy she's had with this recently, she's almost pleased she could piledrive a power armor like that. But that self-sufficient feeling didn't last for long when explosions start bursting all around her. And here she thought she didn't want to break down the entire lab?

The explosions toss the barmaid around, leaving quite the marks on her exposed skin, and even less exposed skin as parts of her suit get burned away as well. When the sharpnel and resulting smoke clears up, the barmaid is left laying on her face, head atop of her arm, and doesn't look good at all.

But a little twinkling light can be seen, and after a few moments the barmaid stirs and shakingly moves up to her feet. Looks like lady luck didn't completly abandon her, as she fell on top of one of her potions she was carying, the liquid still seeping out from the pocket it was placed in. Maybe not the full effect, but at least she's standing, long enough for one last attack. "Okay, that wasn't nice at all... Better put everything I have on this one, might not have another chance to do it."

With what strength she has left, she leans against the wall, and then using her strong legs she kicks herself off it, zooming at the power armored lady. The first move makes her slide down, attemping to hit at a weak point in the feet, so it loses its balance, making the armor fall down on top of her.

But that was part of the plan too. Turning on herself, while laying on the ground, her first is glowing with the energies she gathered there. Another kick up, she meets with the falling armor partway down with the fist, releasing explosive energies right into the back of it, sending it flying upward with it.

Brooklyn has posed:
It seems that Brooklyn's plan to hide up on a wall did not pan out as well as he had hoped, as the weapons fire still manages to reach him. It knocks the whole section of the wall he was clinging to loose, and before he can react, gravity, being the cruel mistress that it is, takes hold of the chunk of metal and stone and drops it, Brooklyn side first, like it was a peice of buttered toast.

Aerith has posed:
"Tifa, no!!" Aerith moved to get her friend back up... and then everything seemed to move in slow motion as the death ray came yet again... along with everything else. Flowergirl gritted her teeth just a moment before the attack landed, as if that would ward off the pain somewhat. Fortunately for her, unconsciousness hit her long before she hit the ground, making her blissfully unaware of what damage her body sustained. Her last though of course was for what they'd said... which of course, made them both guilty as charged.

She just wished she could have done more...

Mercade Alexander has posed:
"It's true, she could probably use a bit of that." Mercade replies to Avira. "She needs some therapy." He pauses. "Seriously?" Mercade says, gesticulating wildly. "YOU'RE EVEN CALLING IT EVIL SCIENCE. GET HELP!"

She decides to FIRE ALL OF THE WEAPONS. The fist crashes for Chambers, and Mercade yells, "ISAAC!" Surely Mister Wizard will have a way to deal with the problem! He just doesn't have the tools for this one.

He also has some other problems. LIKE ALL OF THE WEAPONS. Mercade launches himself through the explosions, tumbling and dodging as everything detonates around him. flames cascade around him, licking after him as he raises a gun, a pearl-handled revolver. Where did he get that gun?

It was under his hat.

"YOU'VE GOT THAT WRONG!" Mercade says, the amusement gone form his voice. "It matters. It always mattered. Because this experiment is coming to an end, RIGHT NOW."

Then the gun fires, Mercade aiming for nonlethal spots on the doctor's body.

Isaac Hanlon has posed:
"You want to see /your/ family?!" Isaac's projected voice roars. The entire upper room vibrates from it. "I've lost /two/ families! Manhattan falling almost made it /three/! And you want to justify all of this with -- with /that/?!" There's a moment of tense silence as the flaming sphere containing the furious sorcerer -- for that is what he is, even if he knows it not -- rises up to face the Doctor. His silhouette becomes visible inside the roiling fires, the tracery of cyan mana playing about his fingers burning through the luminescence of the shield.

And then his fury abates. His shoulders slump, and his eyes become downcast. "No. None of us decided that," Isaac says, voice sad. "We just couldn't stop it in time. We had it all figured out, and then the Heartless..." His voice trails off, and he looks aside. "I'm sorry. It's my fault. It never should've happened."

Feige fires the arm. Isaac turns, spotting the projectile before it's halfway to the target. Part of him just wants to let it go -- to let it crush the poor fool and end it. It'd be so much easier that way. He could just tell Mercade he couldn't do it, and that'd be that.

But that isn't really the part he's taken to listening to these past few years.

"GOT IT!" Isaac throws himself in front of the hurtling mechanical limb without even thinking about it. The arm hammers into the firewall, and the sudden bloom of heat and air from the opposite side of the barrier melts a hole in the glass directly behind him in an instant. Isaac gets forced through it, the remainder of the pane spiderwebbed with cracks and fissures and scattering in the room behind and the test chamber below. He screams a syllable and forces himself to the ground, thrusting his hand forward and physically pushing against the object even as it tests the utter limits of the shield.

Isaac's feet touch the ground. He braces himself, feet skidding along the theater's floor. The back of his shield slams into stadium seating, shattering metal and plastic chairs and sending instantly-superheated bolts shooting to the sides and embedding in the walls and ceiling. His heels touch the upraised step, and he pushes with all his might, funneling magic into his hand and surrounding the huge limb he's pushing against.

The arm stops. Isaac's barrier gutters out and collapses, and the arm launched at the poor scientist hangs in the air.

All this took maybe a couple of seconds. To Isaac, it felt like far, far longer.

The arm suddenly hurtles back out of the observation room. Behind it comes a mass of twisted metal and warped glass, all of it crushed into huge balls of debris. They accelerate like cannonballs, blasted at the mad doctor with the death ray from above and behind. It's like a makeshift meteor shower, called up underground and dropped by a vengeful god.

Isaac looks over his shoulder for just a second at Dr. Chambers. "I'm sorry," he says, one more time, his voice low and pained.

Avira has posed:
There are probably a few people covering Avira's rear at this moment. At least it keeps her from being snuck up on by Heartless, right? Good thing too, because as Avira tries to dance around the room and keep herself alive, she seems to be half-listening to what Isaac has to say with this Feige character. About a world that was destroyed and...wait, this isn't sounding like Manhattan. See, Avira hadn't realized that Isaac wasn't from HER world. Legion, she had an idea that would be the case.

It's not entirely her focus. As missiles fly, she takes note that, unless Skoll moves right the heck now, he's going to get struck.

In that moment, she decides to make that decision for him and shoves him out of the way herself.

Avira takes a missile chest-first and is blasted clear into the 'arena' wall. She sliiiiiides down the wall by her back and plops to the ground, reeling in pain and shrapnel. Even then, even as she discovers that being human means she's no longer as durable or strong, she picks herself back up, drags out the Spine, and keeps going.

"She needs to be stripped of her degree, is what! You go through eight years of schooling and then screw it all up by acting like this?! I will never, ever, ever understand crazy scientsts!"

(Though maybe all that college made them crazy. Avira did not enjoy college herself.)

Ice magic creeps down the length of her sword easily now and the blade glows brightly. With a swipe, she unloads one blast of magic, then a second. There's nothing special about those, but the hird manages to shape itself into the form of a snarling beast that leaps-not to strike with teeth and claws, but goes through the motion of pinning-at least visually.

The end result, however, is that Feige should be plastered to the wall by a thick coating of ice.

Deidra has posed:
Deidra is looking for a way out, a way to do something of use to help her comrades with the distraction. Still the firepower these two insane scientists are bringing t the field is pretyt insane and she's barely able to get a barrier up. She looks at she gets alpha struck at it, she barely acan get a barrier up in time and it's shattered in short order by the amount of gire power being sent her way. She's alive though she's still standing even after all the punnishment hse's taken. the Gargyole's eyes are glowing red as she now stalks towards the power suit and just leaps at them, there's no pretense of magic now she's just going to try to physically disbale the armor with her hands and talons.

Skoll Ulfang has posed:
It seems that this is far more than just an experiment gone wrong. Skoll halts for a moment while Feige is busy being knocked around by the others, and looks Dr. Chambers' way. He just wanted to see his family again. The werewolf bites his lower lip, wondering... wondering just for a moment if he could do the same thing. If his world would have had a way of being returned to him. If his family had needed to be returned to him. Would he have done so? Even now, though Hati may be alive, and their father certainly 'should not' be returned to the land of the living. There's his entire species. His mother...

It's not like he can't feel for the man. But to go so far as to make other suffer for such a foolish venture? As Avira goes dancing through the room, Skoll joins her - keeping her covered, using his chains like whips to keep the heartless back, and letting magic crackle through his fists to punch them to pieces of they get too close. But keeping track of the heartless that are trying to approach Avira means he doesn't take note of the bigger probem.

He feels it. The girl's hands touching against his back suddenly with all that force. "Avi~..." He whispers, looking back as he's forced to the ground, and watches as the girl is slammed into by a missile! "Avira!" He calls out her name, dragging himself up from the floor! Slammed into that wall, he can only imagine how much that hurts. The youth quickly makes it to her side, touching her shoulder and kneeling besides her just after she manages to make for those magical attacks.

It's amazing sometimes, to see that icey magic. But he does momentarily ask her; "Are you alright?" He's worried. But he won't take away her good intention by asking her why she'd done that. Nor is he going to point out that she's no longer as sturdy as she used to be. Instead, he stands up at her side, while noting finally that the tan on her body had changed.

"You're amazing, you know that?... Thank you." Skoll instead comments, and looks off towards the crazy scientist. The others have a handle on this, he sees no further need to try and destroy her. Especially not with the kind of 'magic' Isaac is throwing at her.

Pumpkinhead has posed:
Is saving a world worth fives lives? Six lives? To some this might be a difficult question. However if nothing else, one can take some solace in interrupting this for the following reason: There was no guarantee their plan would even work. Would Cronus even restore Vespertine if he could? Is that something he could one day be capable of? The answers to both, even to the people in charge of this little experiment, is 'who knows?'. Desperation can make anybody into a villain.

Avira freezes Feige's armor to the wall. This makes it an EASY target for the others. Its too damaged to break free, though Feige tries, muttering to herself repeatedly.

"I love all Science!" She shouts. "Evil and Good!" But mostly Evil.

Deidra tears across the armor, which only makes it harder to free herself. "You're no longer being cute about this!" Feige whines. She struggles to free herself. To make matters worse, that Phantom Thief may be LONG GONE. He might already be heading to help out Will and Emi. Or he might be robbing the other rooms blind. It's a great mystery.

Dr. Chambers may be a fool, but he's in one piece thanks to Isaac. He takes the arm himself and is pushed through the glass which is probably not very pleasnat for him. Just doing this basically eradicates the testing area he's in.

Dr. Chambers, practically an inch from being crushed, stares up at Isaac in utter shock. He is trying to say something but it's really too loud to hear him. Utterly defeated, especially with the computer gone, he hangs his head, guilt and pain wretched upon his features. He won't be going anywhere. Right now he'd rather be crushed by a giant robo arm.

The meteors slam into the armor, shredding it to bits, practically fading around her. Mercade fires his pistol, finishing off the joints holding the armor to Feige's body. She drops to the ground, hands and knees first.

She bows her head repeatedly and says, "I'm so sorry! I'm so sorry! Please forgive me!!" She says. She looks up to see if anybody is buying it.

Chances are nobody is. But either way she presses something near her chest and--SUDDENLY--a propeller bursts out of hr back and spins around rapidly above her head.

"EVIL SCIENCE IS IMMORTAL!" She yells before darting out the door, throwing an array of smokebombs to cover her escape. DAMMIT! RECCURING VILLAIN!?!?!?!

Besides, at about htis point Will and Emi start asking for help over the radio. And you have the Mastermind. Once you get out of here, Goofy will help you out with a megalixir that probably belonged to someone with an ever better use for it. This is what you get for letting Goofy use items whomever you are.

MISSION COMPLETE

RANK: PROUD

<to be continued Wednesday?!>

Avira has posed:
"Oh my god, STOP TALKING!!" Avira shouts after Feige, wondering if reaching into this woman's mouth, grabbing her tongue, and using her ice magic on that would be too cruel.

Mercade Alexander has posed:
Mercade looks up as Feige escapes. "What the hell, is she Doctor Wily?" Mercade isn't Mega Man, so he tries to shoot at her as she bails, but smokebombs are bulletproof. This is truth!

The Detective looks back to the others. "Hurry, everyone! We need to save Will and Legion!" He looks to the fallen and picks up Aerith, helping to get her to Goofy so they can be conveniently Megalixired. He's not leaving people behind. Chambers will have to be dealt with later.

"We still have work to do. Let's go!"

Brooklyn has posed:
Brooklyn is still under a big rock. It's not as fun as it sounds.

Tifa Lockhart has posed:
Tifa Lockhart phews as Feige flees. Its okay with her right now, she's just happy to get out of this. She looks around, noticing the rock with some wings sticking out. Well, that's not good. She moves over, using what left of her strength to lift up the rocks, unburying the gargoyle so she can bring it up. Aerith's been taken care of after all, so she's not worried "Up you go now." She lends him a shoulder, even if he's somewhat heavier and bigger than she is. "We'll get those cures once we get out of here."

Aerith has posed:
Aerith gasped, her eyes wide and her body recovering from the sheer shock it'd taken... only to remind her that IT HURT LIKE A MONSTER. She hissed and shut her eyes to stop the room from spinning before she took in a few deep breaths. "Okay... okay, what happened? Who needs to get beat up for that truck they threw at me?"