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Deviation Actions
Literature Text
For the first time since unification, Adalinda has managed to get her Witch Prediction Program to successfully do as its name implies it can do and predict the appearance of a Witch before it actually happens. She used to need the help of at least one Puella Magi who would use her Soul Gem to 'share' its resonance to Witches with Adalinda's laptop. With a combination of Union technology upgrades, a sensor device attuned to magical energy (that Adalinda had merely considered some form of unknown radioactivity before she unified), data gathered from previous Witch Encounters, and a refinement of her program via being afforded access to one of the Union's super computers, it seems that prediction without a Soul Gem is now fully functional. This should hopefully save many lives. Sadly, the prediction effect only seems to apply to this one world presently.
It is enough, however. Adalinda notified the union five hours in advance that she knew where a Witch would be appearing. Its egg had not yet hatched, and she knew what country, province, and city it would appear in. Where WITHIN that city was another matter, but since at least one of the responders has a Soul Gem, tracking might be relatively easy. That's what the German girl is hoping, at least, as she finishes deploying to Seville, Spain, alongside the other five Union Elites. It would be really unfortunate if Wraiths/Demons are all that Kimiko's Soul Gem can detect. But it would still be possible to locate the egg the same way Adalinda has been locating Witches before now.
Hopefully.
As for Seville itself? It is an amazing city, with many great sights to see. (OOC: Here are some examples. upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia…) But the location the Unioners should be making their way towards is not near any of these. It is, instead, a back-alley barber shop of no particular note. It's not a bad place at all. It's clean, services many people daily... It's just a bit tucked away is all.
And also where an abomination against reality itself is about to manifest and start killing people.
<1X-Supplemental> Kimiko Shinobu says, "This is Shinobu, to those responding to Miss Blumenkrantz' request. I have narrowed the location. Broadcasting."
<1X-Supplemental> Tendou Souji says, "En route now."
<1X-Supplemental> Altea Saito and Specio say, "Unison In"
Tony Stark has been to Seville before, he's sure... some conference or another that he was too drunk to really remember properly. Apart from any interest in revisiting it to spark old memories, all of this talk of using technology to track what otherwise seems to be a pretty damn magical phenomena has really piqued his interest. So much so that when the alert came in, he immediately signed onto the response team. Gotta earn that Union paycheck, anyway.
He takes his own ride in, as it were, but he comes through the warpgate at almost the same time as Adalinda. Which makes it very easy to put down beside her and immediately make an irreverent remark, "So we gals with the glowy things need to stick together."
When you need to cover a larger area than you can patrol on foot, a motorcycle is the best thing - better speed than a human can walk or run at, able to maintain such speeds for longer, and capable of taking alleys and narrow roads that a full-sized car can't manage.
With those facts in mind, plus the fact that he was visiting Seville anyway (Italian cooking is justifiably famous), Tendou Souji has brought the Kabuto Extender along on his visit. And when Kimiko puts out the word that she's narrowed the location down, it's easy enough to swing around, pick up Altea, and head for the back alley where the barber shop in question is located; his motorcycle is parked in such a position that to an ordinary passer-by, it would appear to just be somewhat in the way - enough of an obstacle to keep anyone from trying to take a casual short-cut, but not so much of one as to keep the others who are here to fight the Witch from making their way in.
The Kabuto Buckle is visible around his waist, under his jacket, as he saunters towards the others; the little red beetle-like Kabuto Zecter is buzzing around as if looking at the others who are here. It seems to harbor a degree of mildly aggressive curiosity about Tony (Iron Man?) but it doesn't linger near him for long.
Seville--Spain again. Probably a coincidence. Witches have been showing up everywhere. Even off-world--but thinking about that mess can wait for later. Shinobu Kimiko has made her way into the city and begun her search. It would be a little flashier than she prefers to spend her time flying over people, no matter how quiet her engines, so she's performed her search on foot. Jumping from one tall building to another is flashy in its own way, but people have a tendency not to look up. And why would they? It's an unthinkable method of travel. Also very convenient.
Soul Gem in hand, its clouded silver light showing her the way, she quarters the city, stops and thinks, triangulates, narrows the area, crosses again... this is something she's used to, so it doesn't take long. Half an hour, and then she's found the place, or at least the single-lot area it should be in. That's when she signals her location. "...Broadcasting."
Then she sits down on the opposite roof, waits a minute, thinks better of it and jumps down into the alley. Her Soul Gem is still in her hands, the little jeweled device telling her just how close the enemy is.
Altea Saito arrives with Tendou and is already mostly prepared for a fight, Unison has happened but her Knight Clothing is not yet cast and Gungnir is still in Earring mode, so she looks like some kind of military brat rather than a magical girl.
Staren has _heard_ of the Puella Magi and the Witches, and even talked to them, briefly, but has never actually been involved in fighting them -- at the time, he was in the tail end of his long period of withdrawal from and apathy towards the Multiverse at large.
But now he's been drawn into multiversal affairs, and if anything sounds like an evil that has to be stopped regardless of the war, it's these Witches. Staren searches the city, having hidden his power armor nearby so he can call it when needed. (Besides, it's the smaller, 'basically body armor with strength-enhancing equipment' variety of power armor rather than the 'hulking 10' tall war machine' variety). Unfortunately, without sensors attuned to witches he's not sure just what to look for...
...But then Kimiko finds it, ending the search. A moment later, Staren teleports in beside her, now clad in the white armor. He jumps off the roof after her. "So, this is my first witch hunt. What exactly are we looking for? A dimensional disturbance? An item?"
Adalinda gives Tony a bit of a confused look. "Er," she offers. She thought Tony was a guy. Maybe he was joking when he said, 'we gals'? American humor! So weird! "...Quite so." she responds hesitantly. Then she starts looking at her laptop, watching some sort of countdown with apprehension.
Adalinda is herself a civlian non-combatant without any particular special means of transportation. But once Kimiko locates the right spot, she makes her way there by whatever means are available, whether it be on-foot, riding along with someone else, being carried, or what-have-you. The exact method is unimportant next to the fact that everyone makes it where they need to be. Which is a barbershop located near an alleyway. Kimiko is already down there and sending coordinates on her position, so everyone should be there reasonably quickly if they haven't already teleported there. Maybe they arrive quickly enough that they can just destroy the egg and avoid a battle completely.
That'd be a swell change of pace, wouldn't it?
But by the time everyone is on-site, the exact location of the egg is still unclear. It hasn't hatched yet, hasn't even opened its labyrinth. But the best that can be determined is that it's in the barbershop itself somewhere and seems to be moving around within a limited area. A mobile egg that isn't actually 'migrating' to some other location? That's... Unusual to say the least. There are still people IN the barber shop too. They give people like Ironman and Mr. Teleportating-Indiscretely odd looks but just assume the circus is in town.
It looks like going inside will be necessary at some point... Possibly sooner rather than later. "These are... Unusual readings. I don't think we have much time left, but if we locate the egg fast, we should be able to eliminate it before it can hatch. Also, er, it would be best to not openly use magic or foreign technology unless we need to. This is not a world that knows magic exists, and we do not really have power armor. If asked, it would be best to explain it as a costume of some kind or... A safety suit? Anything other than being obviously off-world."
"Publicity stunt," Tendou suggests as if this is the kind of thing he has to figure out all the time. He's certainly nonchalant enough about having a mechanical red beetle flitting around in his vicinity. "Maybe advertising for an upcoming movie or television series."
He remains casual about stepping into the barbershop, looking over the price list and asking a couple of idle questions ... in Spanish. Granted that his Spanish isn't as good as his English, but he knows a couple of useful phrases, and the Multiverse makes sure he understands the answers. Mostly it's 'How's business?' and 'Is there a long wait?' followed by 'Have you seen anything especially unusual today?'
<1X-Supplemental> Adalinda says, "We do not have much time left. It took a while to coordinate everything and then find the location... But we should have long enough to safely dispose of the egg if we find it quickly. It has not even manifested its labyrinth yet, as far as I can tell."
Iron Man is used to being looked at. He enjoys it, in fact, and so all he does in response to the odd looks is wave, and shift up his facemask so that they can see him grinning. But then he picks up Adalinda's caution, and quickly stops hamming it up in favor of business mode. "Hi folks," he announces to those nearest him in conversationally fluent Spanish. He has holdings all over the world; it is only natural he'd need to pick up the local languages. "I'm here from the gas company. We got a report of a possible leak. Anyone seen anything odd? Minor visual and auditory hallucinations are a common side effect. There... /shouldn't/ be any severe danger," he doesn't want a panic, "but if I can ask everyone to clear the area, please, just in case..."
Altea Saito joins Iron Man's statements, holding a radio to her ears and saying, "Please clear the area as a safety precaution, we are sure nothing will happen but we can't take any risks." She's totally having Specio translate her words as she speaks, "Please leave in an orderly manner so we can do our job without taking any risks."
"As stated, we are searching for a seed--that is, an egg." Kimiko answers. "If we find it quickly enough, we can dispose of it with no trouble. It's... roughly the same size as this, probably." With a note of reluctance, she holds up the silver-encased, egg-shaped gem that is known, to those who have access to those reports, to be the vessel of a Puella Magi's soul. Hers seems to be filled with shifting smoke surrounding a soft light source. "If we are not in time, we will enter the Labyrinth and destroy the enemy within it." She pauses. "This is not a good area. The people here will be drawn in."
Without another word, she pulls a disappearing trick with her gem and pushes her way into the shop. If things are as close as Adalinda thinks, and she has no reason to doubt it, then there is literally no time to waste. She's not asking any questions--even if people would be able to understand her, that sort of investigation isn't her thing. She's simply looking for the Witch's seed, and if people consider her a rude tourist then so be it.
<1X-Supplemental> Altea Saito says, "I hope they'll listen to me telling them to evacuate."
<1X-Supplemental> Staren says, "A gas leak? Why is someone from the gas company cosplaying? Someone else should announce that!"
<1X-Supplemental> Adalinda says, "It's fine."
<1X-Supplemental> Adalinda says, "He is passing it off as a work suit of some kind. Protection against gas fumes. It's not important what they think as long as we do what we came here for and don't cause problems."
<1X-Supplemental> Tony Stark says, "Who said anything about cosplay? This is my work suit!"
<1X-Supplemental> Staren says, "Oh. ...Kinda flashy for a work suit. I can work with that, though, if they'll buy it."
<1X-Supplemental> Adalinda says, "Revealing the existence of magic would cause problems. Looking weird is acceptable."
<1X-Supplemental> Adalinda says, "...No offense, Mister Stark."
<1X-Supplemental> Kimiko Shinobu says, "People are very resistant to the idea of magic. So long as we do not leave solid evidence they will likely choose to believe that anything that occurs is staged. More importantly, the more people we can remove from here, the fewer people we will need to rescue if it hatches."
Staren gives Adalinda a curious look. "Okay, I guess I jumped the gun. But _last_ time I went to a world where this stuff wasn't known the masquerade was brought crashing down by a giant crocodile." He pauses. "...Still, I'll keep that in mind and try to be more careful in the future. Sorry. I only put it on when Kimiko called. I figured better safe than sorry." He looks down at his armor, raising a gauntleted forearm for inspection. "It's just cosplay, clearly." He points up at the ear-protrusions in his helmet, "and I'm a furry."
Staren is ready to help Tony ham it up, but then Tony switches his story, prompting a question over the radio. <<A gas leak? Why is someone from the gas company cosplaying?!>> He shrugs, and turns to the crowd. "Yeah, we've got a gas leak to find. _We_" he taps his helmet for emphasis as his visor comes down and covers his face, "have proper safety gear and _you_ don't, so it'd be best to leave handling this dangerous situation to us! No need to panic, just leave in a calm and orderly fashion..."
<1X-Supplemental> Tony Stark says, "None taken. I know I look awesome. I'm sorry if Staren can't handle it."
"It's coming along," an older man responds to the first inquiry from Tendou as he snips away at the hair of someone sitting in a barber's chair. "Not too long," he responds, to the second question, indicating that only two others are sitting in a row of seats along the wall, reading magazines. "Would be faster if my daughter would finish up in back and come out to help." At the third question, the man pauses, looks thoughtful, then leans around his current customer to peer out through the wall-length window at the people out in the alley, including at least two individuals in 'cosplay armor'. Then he looks back towards Tendou and arches an eyebrow as he asks, "'Especially unusual'? I suppose you could say that, senor."
As Ironman and Altea start clearing the area and asking more questions of those passing by, one old woman who looks like she's someone great grandma stops to smile up at Tony and say, "No hallucinations, though I almost thought you were a dream." Haaa... Getting hit on by 90-year old women. That Tony. Haha... Ha.
Adalinda chews her lip, half wanting to run into the shop herself and half thinking it might be safer if she just stays where she is and keeps looking at her computer screen. These readings are... Really weird. They're LIKE a Witch's egg, but... Almost like there's something else mixed with it. Then her thinking stops. Backtracks. Recalls what the barber said. His daughter is in back. In back, where Kimiko should be able to detect a Witch's egg without the subtle nuances of 'unusual energy' that Adalinda's computer is. "Oh, no." she mutters. Then she talks into her radio quickly, notifying the others. "I think I know where the egg is. We need to get into the back rooms of this shop!"
For anyone who does as suggested or does so on their own due to being in possession of a Soul Gem, they'd find a rather pretty young woman with long, beautiful black hair. Her good looks are diminished by the fact that she appears rather miserable, makeup running down her face as though she has been crying. She is moving things around at a rather sluggish pace and barely takes notice of anyone who enters the room with her.
Tony is handed the old woman's phone number hastily written on a scrap of paper before she joins the others in evacuating. The customers in the shop are likewise getting up and deciding maybe they can go another day without a haircut, and the barbershop owner is just finishing with his current customer, getting paid, and putting away his tools of barbering.
"First I lose my youngest daughter and now this. I wonder if this gas leak may have been responsible for her passing. Maria!" he calls out, presumably to his eldest daughter. Though... If the youngest is already gone... And there's a Witch egg in the shop... What if the youngest...
...Was a Puella Magi?
But Kimiko's Soul Gem would be indicating the Witch's egg is moving around consistently with anywhere Maria moves. What could that mean? Is it ON her somewhere!?
<1X-Supplemental> Adalinda says, "I think I know where the egg is. We need to get into the back rooms of this shop!"
<1X-Supplemental> Kimiko Shinobu says, "Already moving."
<1X-Supplemental> Tendou Souji says, "The gas leak is probably the better cover story at the moment, then. Stark, Shinobu, lead the way."
Since no one's stopped her (not that she's about to let anyone stop her) Kimiko finishes scanning the front room and makes for the far door. It should be in this direction, so if isn't here it has to be just a bit further...
She's moving quickly, invading the no-customers-allowed area without a thought, but once she comes face to face with Maria she freezes. Uh.
"Hello." That's always a good way to start. Demanding she turn over her jewelry would probably not be a wise second move. "Uh."
Tony takes being hit on by a 90 year old woman with studied aplomb, and smiles brilliantly, as well as reassuringly at her as he takes the scrap of paper and ushers her out with the others.
Then, it's back to business as he takes his cue from the radio and heads directly into the back room. Aww, a sad young woman? Time to put on the charm again. "Hi, I'm Tony," he greets her in a friendly tone. No mention of what he's doing here; he just acts like he belongs. "Listen, I'm really sorry to bother you, but do you think you could help me out with something?" Giving her a QUEST might be just the thing to get her mind off whatever's bugging her. "I'm looking for a little doohickey about this big," he holds up thumb and forefinger to indicate. "You seen anything strange lying around today?"
Once Tony and Kimiko have led the way into the back, Tendou strolls in behind them as casually as though it's *his* barber shop, the Kabuto Zecter buzzing in past his shoulder and starting to investigate the nooks and crannies that a human won't be able to look into as conveniently. Tendou himself isn't nearly as openly nosy as his Zecter, but his gaze sweeps around the back room, casually picking up on quite a lot of possible details ... like, for instance, a Soul Gem (or Grief Seed) that's not quite hidden by whatever might be piled in front of it.
After nearly making a scene, Staren decides to stay quiet for a bit and let the experts handle finding the gem. He can lend his expertise when it's needed.
He follows Tony into the back room, to go look for that 'gas leak'.
Altea Saito stays back briefly, trying to clear more people before heading in herself. She grows quiet once there, preparing for the witch. It'll be her fourth, and that itself means she knows how bad these can be, but she isn't the veteran Kimiko is.
Maria sees Kimiko, barely manages to drag her gaze up to make eye-contact, and then dully responds, "Good afternoon." The barber shop owner is not exactly happy with people barging in and heading for the back room, but he is a stoic individual and just calmly makes his way in there after everyone else. "Maria, there may be a gas leak. We have to close up the shop and leave for now."
Adalinda is actually the LAST one into the room, not being the sort to push past others or trespass (under normal circumstances). She is looking at the unusual readings. According to the countdown timer, the egg should have hatched several minutes ago. But then new data and calculations add more time, as though the expected hatching is fluctuating for some reason. Like something is staving it off?
When Tony holds up his fingers and asks about an item of approximately that size and shape, Maria's eyes widen slightly in realization. Then she looks at Adalinda, Staren, Altea, Tendou, Tony, her father, and then Kimiko all in turn and her expression is suddenly one of deep sadness. Deep sadness, with a smile. Then she reaches into her dress, and pulls up a gem on a necklace that was hanging out of sight. A gem that changes to appear as a Soul Gem that is almost completely black, save for some horrible glowing-red light flickering around at the center.
There is a moment of silence, and then Maria says, "My sister was one too."
Then there is a horrible wet noise. The broom in one hand falls to the ground, the Soul Gem in the other drops from the young woman's fingers, and everyone can see it. Her eyes are gone, blood running from them down her cheeks. Then she falls to her knees. Thump. Falls forwards. Thump. Her Soul Gem cracks beneath her as she falls directly on top of it. On the back of her head is an ugly black thing that looks half-organic, half-crystalline.
Then it finishes its transformation. The egg becomes a Grief Seed. There was no more hope in Maria for her younger sister to feed off of. A shockwave erupts outwards, possibly taking many of those present to the floor or thrown against a wall, and yet the force doesn't seem to impact anything other than people.
When the blast of force has stopped echoing through the surroundings, reality itself starts to warble and ripple and change, until everyone is standing in some vast room where the walls, floor, and ceiling are all made up of black and white tiles. A checkerboard pattern? A barbershop's floor? It doesn't really matter what it looks like. Because they're in a Witch's labyrinth.
Even predicting it would happen didn't let them prevent it. As Adalinda coughs from the pain in her ribs and drags herself to her feet, she can't help cursing herself for not being better prepared. "We--*COUGH*--I should have realized s-sooner. *COUGHCOUGH*"
The mere *sight* of the Soul Gem is Tendou's cue, and his right hand lashes out, grasping the Kabuto Zecter straight out of the air. "Henshin!" He latches it onto the 'buckle' plate of the high-tech belt around his waist ..
/HENSHIN/
And transforms, an armored battlesuit beginning to materialize around him, his lower body clad in patterned leather and some light plates of armor; his upper body - torso, arms, and head - are more heavily armored, with the 'sleeves' appearing segmented, his face covered and hidden completely by a faceted blue visor set into his helmet.
This does sort of explain the beetle motif on his motorcycle ... a little bit, anyway. If anyone was wondering.
It's beside the point for now, though. A stylized-looking pistol is in Kamen Rider Kabuto's hand now, and he's looking around for any sign of either the Witch or the expected Familiars.
Altea Saito knows what that means and is only a moment late to summon her knight clothing, blasted back she's already hurt when the hunt starts in earnest, but that doesn't stop Altea from entering her own transformation sequence with her own actions, "Gungnir." The the earring pings, <INITIALISIERT> (Initalizes) and transforms into a spear while Altea's magical girl armor appears, she coughs, "Sorry for doing this late."
Stark's faceplate snaps down automatically in response to the blast, thus hiding his look of astonished confusion; his hands reflexively snap outward and fire a controlled repulsor burst to counteract the concussive force that would otherwise have knocked him flat. "Jarvis--"
"I am aware, sir. Unfortunately I am unable to make much sense of exterior readings. Please stand by."
"Not the best time to put me on hold, buddy," Tony remarks dryly, turning in a slow circle where he stands to try and get some kind of bearing on his sudden change of surroundings. His HUD picks out the glowing life signals of everyone around him, at least. Which reminds him, there is still at least one civilian present. His gaze snaps around to locate the girl's father, and presuming he finds him still in one piece, he'll go over to try and protect the man. "Gonna need you to stay down, and behind me sir," he'd instruct, still in Spanish. "This is no ordinary gas leak."
Staren aims his plasma cannon at the blackened soul gem, but doesn't fire -- Is he supposed to?
Something slams him into the wall -- he stumbles to his feet with a groan. "Her sister's... the witch... and now... there's two?" He looks around the labyrinth. "Great. We're in a chess board..." He looks to Kimiko and Adalinda. "You're the experts. Where do we go from here...?" He continues to look around with interest. So this is a closed space...
Kimiko does not react quickly enough. She has about enough time to slightly move her arms before the shock wave hits her. But her magic is faster than thought--in a flash, gleaming silver armor covers her body, from visored helmet (snapping shut on its own with a clang), to widened mail skirt, to sabatons for her feet. Her armor takes the shock, but without having braced, it still knocks her off her feet. She touches the floor and rights herself, springing back up before taking the time to look around.
She's very tempted to curse. Tempted. But she just takes off her helmet, presses her lips into a thin line, and slowly frowns. And stays silent.
"Now, we hunt." She glances back at Staren. "Her Gem broke. We should only need to deal with the Witch that hatched from the Seed. Just one. If I did correctly see her Gem break." She turns the other way and mentally notes the barber's position, but leaves that to Tony. Then, eyes forward.
"Be ready for anything. That can't be overstated. And do not--Do. Not. Attack anything until you are sure it is attacking you. Not until we find the Witch."
<1X-Supplemental> Kimiko Shinobu says, "We are likely to encounter Familiars."
<1X-Supplemental> Kimiko Shinobu says, "Attacking them is certain to anger the Witch. It is best to avoid angering it until we are in a position to destroy it."
<1X-Supplemental> Kimiko Shinobu says, "This is not always possible."
Staren looks to the barber. "Oh. Here. This is an antidote. It will take awhile to work, but... the sooner you drink it, the better." It's actually a potion that will protect him with a force field in case of attacks by... whatever lives here. He hands over a vial from his bag.
<1X-Supplemental> Staren says, "That potion should protect our noncombatant... at least against dirct attacks."
<1X-Supplemental> Staren says, "Don't startle the witch, got it."
<1X-Supplemental> Altea Saito says, "I've been through this before, but it's never been the same yet. Be on your guard."
<1X-Supplemental> Tendou Souji says, "It's not my first Witch either."
The barber is down, and semi-conscious, though seemingly in pain or at least disoriented. He keeps groaning but doesn't seem to really be certain what's going on. He even asks, "What is... Happening...?" before he passes out. Adalinda feels like an idiot. She feels useless. She had all the information right there. She should have figured it out. She should have done better. Now another girl has lost her life because of her. How many more? Why can't she just...
...Why can't she just die?
Maybe that would be best. If she dies, then the Incubators will no longer have any reason to keep trying to pressure her into making a contract. They'll have lost their precious resource. She's not really precious anyway. After all, look at how she hasn't been able to save a single person. Adalinda just slumps to her knees on the ground and stares at the tile floor and shakes all over.
The German girl herself can't see it, but anyone who looks at her can. Right on the center of her forehead is a black mark like a crown, with spikes protruding from it in multiple directions. A Witch's 'kiss'. A mark that appears on a human targetted by a Witch. That is has appeared already, so quickly after hatching... This may well be a rather powerful Witch. Or perhaps just a highly unusual one. Adalinda seems to be more or less useless at the moment.
The checker-board patterned room is not really a room so much as a vast non-euclidean cavern of sorts. Looking closer and moving around should reveal that much. There are bridges and walk ways that aren't readily apparent due to blending in with everything else. No one and nothing in here has a shadow, as though there's some omnipresent flourescent lighting that emanates from everywhere and nowhere. It makes perceiving where one is and where other things are really tricky. Perhaps enough that stumbling off the edge of a miles-deep ravine is fully viable. Stairs, bridges, towers, walls that might be walked into, floors that might not actually be there, ceilings that may be near or far...
It's a real hell to navigate without the aid of a Soul Gem or a laptop that is equipped with a sensor device specifically for this sort of thing. And given Adalinda's current state, if anyone notices... It doesn't seem she's going to be helping with her computer.
<1X-Supplemental> Adalinda says, "I should have known... Should have figured it out sooner... Why can't I ever save anyone? Why am I always too late? Why am I so... Useless? Why can't I just..."
<1X-Supplemental> Adalinda says, "...Why can't I just die?"
<1X-Supplemental> Tendou Souji says, "Adalinda. You are the reason we're *here* to confront the Witch - we may not have stopped it from hatching but we *will* keep it from claiming any victims."
<1X-Supplemental> Altea Saito says, "... what is that mark on your forehead, Adalinda?"
<1X-Supplemental> Tendou Souji says, "Hold fast to that, and trust in our strength, just as we've trusted you to guide us to this battle. Together, we'll win."
<1X-Supplemental> Staren says, "We all fail sometimes... but if we give up... We'll never help anyone, either."
<1X-Supplemental> Kimiko Shinobu says, "Miss Blumenkrantz--mark? What--oh."
<1X-Supplemental> Adalinda says, "It doesn't matter. None of it does. I'd be better off dead. All these people are getting hurt because of me. Nothing I've done has saved anyone."
<1X-Supplemental> Kimiko Shinobu quietly, "Oh." A moment, and she continues, "Does anyone have a sedative?"
<1X-Supplemental> Staren says, "...Oh god DAMNIT I am SICK of things screwing with people's HEADS!"
<1X-Supplemental> Altea Saito says, "My magic is nonlethal and incapable of permanent harm, should I knock her out?"
<1X-Supplemental> Kimiko Shinobu says, "Can you do that gently?"
<1X-Supplemental> Staren says, "Is there a cure for this?"
<1X-Supplemental> Staren says, "Or do we have to kill the witch and hope it goes away?"
<1X-Supplemental> Kimiko Shinobu says, "A cure? Yes. We just need to destroy the Witch. Anyone afflicted will recover."
<1X-Supplemental> Altea Saito says, "Probably not, but she'll recover from it without harm."
<1X-Supplemental> Staren says, "...I dunno about you but this place looks like one giant optical illusion to me, can you see clearly?"
<1X-Supplemental> Kimiko Shinobu says, "If we have no alternatives, then. I'm afraid we can't leave her like this."
<1X-Supplemental> Altea Saito says, "Unless anyone has a better solution, and I don't feel like waiting too long, no-one else?"
<1X-Supplemental> Tendou Souji says, "Adalinda, can you loan your computer to Stark?"
<1X-Supplemental> Adalinda says, "I am sure he would make better use of it than me. Anyone would. Do whatever you want."
Tony looks around quickly for something to help hide the barber's position, if he's gonna be all unconscious about this. He settles for a patchwork representation of what might be a barber's gown, and drapes it over him, and gives the man a pat for good measure. "Okay man, you just rest." Just in case he can hear him. "Take that medicine Staren gave you if you feel sick."
Then, feeling rather helpless, he stands up and tries to make sense of the non-Euclidean physics nightmare around him. Hearing his name on the radio band, he has Jarvis replay the last few transmissions to him for context, and he perks up. "Yeah," he agrees. "Listen, Adalinda, we're gonna kill this thing, and we're gonna save all the people it would've eaten up in the future. If you don't want to help, let me see that thing..."
Altea Saito listens to radio chatter and knowing what she must do doesn't make it any more pleasant, "I'm sorry, Adalinda." She says softly as she points Gungnir in her direction, the magic triangle appears and so does an aiming ring. The staff pings, <BOMBENBLITZ> and three energy balls appear, fly towards Adalinda and explode nonlethally. The terrain has no such luck. It's probably just after Adalinda handed over the computer.
Rather than futzing around trying to type or mouse with his fingers encased in armor, Stark takes the more direct route of producing a USB uplink from somewhere, and plugging the suit directly into the laptop. "Open wide, Jarvis; got some data for you to crunch. Find me that Witch."
Staren looks around. _great_. This place is a disorienting _nightmare_. he tries cycling through the EM spectrum, and even ultrasonic sensors.
And now Adalinda's depressed. He starts to comfort her-- "We all fail sometimes... but if we give up... We'll never help anyone, either." And then he realizes it's the witch's doing.
The mental image of Twilight, bewitched by Discord, believing she has no friends and unable to accept any evidence to the contrary, flashes through his head. "...Oh god DAMNIT I am SICK of things screwing with people's HEADS!" He stomps his foot on the ground.
Staren looks at the laptop. He could help, too, but... it seems Tony's got it. He shrugs. "Can I get a link to any map data Jarvis is putting together?"
Kimiko gives a startled look back at Adalinda when Altea mentions a mark. There it is, just as she feared--a Witch's Kiss. Usually, elites are immune. Or... resistant, it would seem. There are too many unusual things happening here to say exactly why Adalinda was affected despite being an elite, so Kimiko gives up any fruitless speculation before she starts.
"It would be simplest to say that Witches cause madness that leads to death. Though it's not always like this, the result is the same." She says to no one in particular. Then, with metallic, ringing footsteps, she starts to walk. Not far. She doesn't yet know where the Witch is. But her senses give her distance more than direction, so if she doesn't move, she'll never learn anything.
Kamen Rider Kabuto is just staying at the ready; he doesn't want to go haring off in the wrong direction. He does, however, look at Kimiko. "Your Soul Gem can guide us as well, right?" And as she begins walking, he follows, weapon still in hand. He's keeping an eye on everyone else, though, for good measure - letting the group get separated by too much would be bad.
Stark nods briskly in response to Staren's request as the data scrolls blindingly fast in one section of his heads-up display. "Soon as I have a fix on something..."
<1X-Supplemental> Staren says, "...Does Jarvis require assistance?"
<1X-Supplemental> Tony Stark says, "Just give him a minute. It's a foreign operating system and there's a lot of data to crunch."
<1X-Supplemental> Kimiko Shinobu says, "Even after talking to her about it I'm still amazed that such a thing was able to work."
<1X-Supplemental> Tony Stark says, "I'm not sure how all the algorithms fall in, myself. But knowing it's a tracking program, I should at least be able to analyze the output..."
<1X-Supplemental> Staren says, "What thing? How she tracks witches from her computer?"
<1X-Supplemental> Kimiko Shinobu says, "Yes."
After Tony gets the computer and starts having Jarvis look through it, they'd find that there's... A rather interestingly complex program running on it, along with several parallel processes that are probably way more advanced than a teenage girl would ordinarily be writing herself in most iterations of Earth in the year 2009. Really, astronomical figures, mathematics that the world's best physicists in many worlds would be hard-pressed to duplicate, and code that is just plain STRANGE and yet seems to work just fine for what it was made to do.
Finding distortions in reality itself and reliably predicting the future (at least as it pertains to said distortions). With the aid of both Kimiko's Soul Gem and this program, navigating this labyrinth is almost assured. As long as no one falls off the floor and into an abyss that looks the same as everything else on the way there.
Adalinda remembers something momentarily as she feels a lump in her pocket. "...Oh, I remember now. I have that taser Homura lent me. Military-grade. I wonder if it would be enough to..." She starts to pull it out, and aims it at herself. It was strong enough to kill a familiar with one shock. It still has one charge left. Then Altea blasts Adalinda and the weapon goes flying from Adalinda's hand, skittering across the tiles and falling... Through the floor? No, wait. That's one of those ravines. It's only a few feet away and looked exactly the same as everything else. It is silent for several seconds afterwards as Adalinda, unconcious and somewhat blasted-looking but definitely still alive. The floor she is lying on, however... Seems to have falled away in several places. Tiles clattering down into the ravine that the floor here seems to be suspended over. As the echoes of the blowing-up die down, the sound of the taser hitting bottom and breaking finally arrive. That is a long fall.
Proooobably best to drag Adalinda away from the edge and then move on. At least she's not going to be trying to zap herself to death in the future, being all unconscious and all.
-Continued-
The tracking proceeds with a few problems along the way, such as walking into walls for some people, close calls while crossing a bridge that is barely distinguishable from the canyons below that are nearly impossible to get a depth-reading on and don't appear to be any further away than one's arm, and so on. Special spectrum vision seems to be as effective as normal vision in a place like this. The tiles have no heat to them, no special energy... Special vision may actually be WORSE because everything looks the same. Like a big wall of the same color, with only the people in it distinguishable as different.
Eventually, however, people reach the center of the labyrinth without having seen a single Familiar. How do people know they're in the right place? Because suddenly lines of black start streaking out everywhere from an upraised platform (if it's even a platform) slightly above and ahead of the group. The lines criss-cross each other, forming into an enormous 'web' of black threads. Red color suddenly seem to splatter in 2-D in various places on the floor, walls, and ceiling, finally giving definition to where everything is. Kind of.
Crawling over the edge of the platform, is a vaguely humanoid female figure seemingly made up of a mess of black lines, with numerous thick and thin black tendrils of a similar inky nature squirming off her head or head-equivalent.
Runes suddenly imprint themselves on the minds of all.
OOC: www.youtube.com/watch?v=LsLorz…
It is enough, however. Adalinda notified the union five hours in advance that she knew where a Witch would be appearing. Its egg had not yet hatched, and she knew what country, province, and city it would appear in. Where WITHIN that city was another matter, but since at least one of the responders has a Soul Gem, tracking might be relatively easy. That's what the German girl is hoping, at least, as she finishes deploying to Seville, Spain, alongside the other five Union Elites. It would be really unfortunate if Wraiths/Demons are all that Kimiko's Soul Gem can detect. But it would still be possible to locate the egg the same way Adalinda has been locating Witches before now.
Hopefully.
As for Seville itself? It is an amazing city, with many great sights to see. (OOC: Here are some examples. upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia…) But the location the Unioners should be making their way towards is not near any of these. It is, instead, a back-alley barber shop of no particular note. It's not a bad place at all. It's clean, services many people daily... It's just a bit tucked away is all.
And also where an abomination against reality itself is about to manifest and start killing people.
<1X-Supplemental> Kimiko Shinobu says, "This is Shinobu, to those responding to Miss Blumenkrantz' request. I have narrowed the location. Broadcasting."
<1X-Supplemental> Tendou Souji says, "En route now."
<1X-Supplemental> Altea Saito and Specio say, "Unison In"
Tony Stark has been to Seville before, he's sure... some conference or another that he was too drunk to really remember properly. Apart from any interest in revisiting it to spark old memories, all of this talk of using technology to track what otherwise seems to be a pretty damn magical phenomena has really piqued his interest. So much so that when the alert came in, he immediately signed onto the response team. Gotta earn that Union paycheck, anyway.
He takes his own ride in, as it were, but he comes through the warpgate at almost the same time as Adalinda. Which makes it very easy to put down beside her and immediately make an irreverent remark, "So we gals with the glowy things need to stick together."
When you need to cover a larger area than you can patrol on foot, a motorcycle is the best thing - better speed than a human can walk or run at, able to maintain such speeds for longer, and capable of taking alleys and narrow roads that a full-sized car can't manage.
With those facts in mind, plus the fact that he was visiting Seville anyway (Italian cooking is justifiably famous), Tendou Souji has brought the Kabuto Extender along on his visit. And when Kimiko puts out the word that she's narrowed the location down, it's easy enough to swing around, pick up Altea, and head for the back alley where the barber shop in question is located; his motorcycle is parked in such a position that to an ordinary passer-by, it would appear to just be somewhat in the way - enough of an obstacle to keep anyone from trying to take a casual short-cut, but not so much of one as to keep the others who are here to fight the Witch from making their way in.
The Kabuto Buckle is visible around his waist, under his jacket, as he saunters towards the others; the little red beetle-like Kabuto Zecter is buzzing around as if looking at the others who are here. It seems to harbor a degree of mildly aggressive curiosity about Tony (Iron Man?) but it doesn't linger near him for long.
Seville--Spain again. Probably a coincidence. Witches have been showing up everywhere. Even off-world--but thinking about that mess can wait for later. Shinobu Kimiko has made her way into the city and begun her search. It would be a little flashier than she prefers to spend her time flying over people, no matter how quiet her engines, so she's performed her search on foot. Jumping from one tall building to another is flashy in its own way, but people have a tendency not to look up. And why would they? It's an unthinkable method of travel. Also very convenient.
Soul Gem in hand, its clouded silver light showing her the way, she quarters the city, stops and thinks, triangulates, narrows the area, crosses again... this is something she's used to, so it doesn't take long. Half an hour, and then she's found the place, or at least the single-lot area it should be in. That's when she signals her location. "...Broadcasting."
Then she sits down on the opposite roof, waits a minute, thinks better of it and jumps down into the alley. Her Soul Gem is still in her hands, the little jeweled device telling her just how close the enemy is.
Altea Saito arrives with Tendou and is already mostly prepared for a fight, Unison has happened but her Knight Clothing is not yet cast and Gungnir is still in Earring mode, so she looks like some kind of military brat rather than a magical girl.
Staren has _heard_ of the Puella Magi and the Witches, and even talked to them, briefly, but has never actually been involved in fighting them -- at the time, he was in the tail end of his long period of withdrawal from and apathy towards the Multiverse at large.
But now he's been drawn into multiversal affairs, and if anything sounds like an evil that has to be stopped regardless of the war, it's these Witches. Staren searches the city, having hidden his power armor nearby so he can call it when needed. (Besides, it's the smaller, 'basically body armor with strength-enhancing equipment' variety of power armor rather than the 'hulking 10' tall war machine' variety). Unfortunately, without sensors attuned to witches he's not sure just what to look for...
...But then Kimiko finds it, ending the search. A moment later, Staren teleports in beside her, now clad in the white armor. He jumps off the roof after her. "So, this is my first witch hunt. What exactly are we looking for? A dimensional disturbance? An item?"
Adalinda gives Tony a bit of a confused look. "Er," she offers. She thought Tony was a guy. Maybe he was joking when he said, 'we gals'? American humor! So weird! "...Quite so." she responds hesitantly. Then she starts looking at her laptop, watching some sort of countdown with apprehension.
Adalinda is herself a civlian non-combatant without any particular special means of transportation. But once Kimiko locates the right spot, she makes her way there by whatever means are available, whether it be on-foot, riding along with someone else, being carried, or what-have-you. The exact method is unimportant next to the fact that everyone makes it where they need to be. Which is a barbershop located near an alleyway. Kimiko is already down there and sending coordinates on her position, so everyone should be there reasonably quickly if they haven't already teleported there. Maybe they arrive quickly enough that they can just destroy the egg and avoid a battle completely.
That'd be a swell change of pace, wouldn't it?
But by the time everyone is on-site, the exact location of the egg is still unclear. It hasn't hatched yet, hasn't even opened its labyrinth. But the best that can be determined is that it's in the barbershop itself somewhere and seems to be moving around within a limited area. A mobile egg that isn't actually 'migrating' to some other location? That's... Unusual to say the least. There are still people IN the barber shop too. They give people like Ironman and Mr. Teleportating-Indiscretely odd looks but just assume the circus is in town.
It looks like going inside will be necessary at some point... Possibly sooner rather than later. "These are... Unusual readings. I don't think we have much time left, but if we locate the egg fast, we should be able to eliminate it before it can hatch. Also, er, it would be best to not openly use magic or foreign technology unless we need to. This is not a world that knows magic exists, and we do not really have power armor. If asked, it would be best to explain it as a costume of some kind or... A safety suit? Anything other than being obviously off-world."
"Publicity stunt," Tendou suggests as if this is the kind of thing he has to figure out all the time. He's certainly nonchalant enough about having a mechanical red beetle flitting around in his vicinity. "Maybe advertising for an upcoming movie or television series."
He remains casual about stepping into the barbershop, looking over the price list and asking a couple of idle questions ... in Spanish. Granted that his Spanish isn't as good as his English, but he knows a couple of useful phrases, and the Multiverse makes sure he understands the answers. Mostly it's 'How's business?' and 'Is there a long wait?' followed by 'Have you seen anything especially unusual today?'
<1X-Supplemental> Adalinda says, "We do not have much time left. It took a while to coordinate everything and then find the location... But we should have long enough to safely dispose of the egg if we find it quickly. It has not even manifested its labyrinth yet, as far as I can tell."
Iron Man is used to being looked at. He enjoys it, in fact, and so all he does in response to the odd looks is wave, and shift up his facemask so that they can see him grinning. But then he picks up Adalinda's caution, and quickly stops hamming it up in favor of business mode. "Hi folks," he announces to those nearest him in conversationally fluent Spanish. He has holdings all over the world; it is only natural he'd need to pick up the local languages. "I'm here from the gas company. We got a report of a possible leak. Anyone seen anything odd? Minor visual and auditory hallucinations are a common side effect. There... /shouldn't/ be any severe danger," he doesn't want a panic, "but if I can ask everyone to clear the area, please, just in case..."
Altea Saito joins Iron Man's statements, holding a radio to her ears and saying, "Please clear the area as a safety precaution, we are sure nothing will happen but we can't take any risks." She's totally having Specio translate her words as she speaks, "Please leave in an orderly manner so we can do our job without taking any risks."
"As stated, we are searching for a seed--that is, an egg." Kimiko answers. "If we find it quickly enough, we can dispose of it with no trouble. It's... roughly the same size as this, probably." With a note of reluctance, she holds up the silver-encased, egg-shaped gem that is known, to those who have access to those reports, to be the vessel of a Puella Magi's soul. Hers seems to be filled with shifting smoke surrounding a soft light source. "If we are not in time, we will enter the Labyrinth and destroy the enemy within it." She pauses. "This is not a good area. The people here will be drawn in."
Without another word, she pulls a disappearing trick with her gem and pushes her way into the shop. If things are as close as Adalinda thinks, and she has no reason to doubt it, then there is literally no time to waste. She's not asking any questions--even if people would be able to understand her, that sort of investigation isn't her thing. She's simply looking for the Witch's seed, and if people consider her a rude tourist then so be it.
<1X-Supplemental> Altea Saito says, "I hope they'll listen to me telling them to evacuate."
<1X-Supplemental> Staren says, "A gas leak? Why is someone from the gas company cosplaying? Someone else should announce that!"
<1X-Supplemental> Adalinda says, "It's fine."
<1X-Supplemental> Adalinda says, "He is passing it off as a work suit of some kind. Protection against gas fumes. It's not important what they think as long as we do what we came here for and don't cause problems."
<1X-Supplemental> Tony Stark says, "Who said anything about cosplay? This is my work suit!"
<1X-Supplemental> Staren says, "Oh. ...Kinda flashy for a work suit. I can work with that, though, if they'll buy it."
<1X-Supplemental> Adalinda says, "Revealing the existence of magic would cause problems. Looking weird is acceptable."
<1X-Supplemental> Adalinda says, "...No offense, Mister Stark."
<1X-Supplemental> Kimiko Shinobu says, "People are very resistant to the idea of magic. So long as we do not leave solid evidence they will likely choose to believe that anything that occurs is staged. More importantly, the more people we can remove from here, the fewer people we will need to rescue if it hatches."
Staren gives Adalinda a curious look. "Okay, I guess I jumped the gun. But _last_ time I went to a world where this stuff wasn't known the masquerade was brought crashing down by a giant crocodile." He pauses. "...Still, I'll keep that in mind and try to be more careful in the future. Sorry. I only put it on when Kimiko called. I figured better safe than sorry." He looks down at his armor, raising a gauntleted forearm for inspection. "It's just cosplay, clearly." He points up at the ear-protrusions in his helmet, "and I'm a furry."
Staren is ready to help Tony ham it up, but then Tony switches his story, prompting a question over the radio. <<A gas leak? Why is someone from the gas company cosplaying?!>> He shrugs, and turns to the crowd. "Yeah, we've got a gas leak to find. _We_" he taps his helmet for emphasis as his visor comes down and covers his face, "have proper safety gear and _you_ don't, so it'd be best to leave handling this dangerous situation to us! No need to panic, just leave in a calm and orderly fashion..."
<1X-Supplemental> Tony Stark says, "None taken. I know I look awesome. I'm sorry if Staren can't handle it."
"It's coming along," an older man responds to the first inquiry from Tendou as he snips away at the hair of someone sitting in a barber's chair. "Not too long," he responds, to the second question, indicating that only two others are sitting in a row of seats along the wall, reading magazines. "Would be faster if my daughter would finish up in back and come out to help." At the third question, the man pauses, looks thoughtful, then leans around his current customer to peer out through the wall-length window at the people out in the alley, including at least two individuals in 'cosplay armor'. Then he looks back towards Tendou and arches an eyebrow as he asks, "'Especially unusual'? I suppose you could say that, senor."
As Ironman and Altea start clearing the area and asking more questions of those passing by, one old woman who looks like she's someone great grandma stops to smile up at Tony and say, "No hallucinations, though I almost thought you were a dream." Haaa... Getting hit on by 90-year old women. That Tony. Haha... Ha.
Adalinda chews her lip, half wanting to run into the shop herself and half thinking it might be safer if she just stays where she is and keeps looking at her computer screen. These readings are... Really weird. They're LIKE a Witch's egg, but... Almost like there's something else mixed with it. Then her thinking stops. Backtracks. Recalls what the barber said. His daughter is in back. In back, where Kimiko should be able to detect a Witch's egg without the subtle nuances of 'unusual energy' that Adalinda's computer is. "Oh, no." she mutters. Then she talks into her radio quickly, notifying the others. "I think I know where the egg is. We need to get into the back rooms of this shop!"
For anyone who does as suggested or does so on their own due to being in possession of a Soul Gem, they'd find a rather pretty young woman with long, beautiful black hair. Her good looks are diminished by the fact that she appears rather miserable, makeup running down her face as though she has been crying. She is moving things around at a rather sluggish pace and barely takes notice of anyone who enters the room with her.
Tony is handed the old woman's phone number hastily written on a scrap of paper before she joins the others in evacuating. The customers in the shop are likewise getting up and deciding maybe they can go another day without a haircut, and the barbershop owner is just finishing with his current customer, getting paid, and putting away his tools of barbering.
"First I lose my youngest daughter and now this. I wonder if this gas leak may have been responsible for her passing. Maria!" he calls out, presumably to his eldest daughter. Though... If the youngest is already gone... And there's a Witch egg in the shop... What if the youngest...
...Was a Puella Magi?
But Kimiko's Soul Gem would be indicating the Witch's egg is moving around consistently with anywhere Maria moves. What could that mean? Is it ON her somewhere!?
<1X-Supplemental> Adalinda says, "I think I know where the egg is. We need to get into the back rooms of this shop!"
<1X-Supplemental> Kimiko Shinobu says, "Already moving."
<1X-Supplemental> Tendou Souji says, "The gas leak is probably the better cover story at the moment, then. Stark, Shinobu, lead the way."
Since no one's stopped her (not that she's about to let anyone stop her) Kimiko finishes scanning the front room and makes for the far door. It should be in this direction, so if isn't here it has to be just a bit further...
She's moving quickly, invading the no-customers-allowed area without a thought, but once she comes face to face with Maria she freezes. Uh.
"Hello." That's always a good way to start. Demanding she turn over her jewelry would probably not be a wise second move. "Uh."
Tony takes being hit on by a 90 year old woman with studied aplomb, and smiles brilliantly, as well as reassuringly at her as he takes the scrap of paper and ushers her out with the others.
Then, it's back to business as he takes his cue from the radio and heads directly into the back room. Aww, a sad young woman? Time to put on the charm again. "Hi, I'm Tony," he greets her in a friendly tone. No mention of what he's doing here; he just acts like he belongs. "Listen, I'm really sorry to bother you, but do you think you could help me out with something?" Giving her a QUEST might be just the thing to get her mind off whatever's bugging her. "I'm looking for a little doohickey about this big," he holds up thumb and forefinger to indicate. "You seen anything strange lying around today?"
Once Tony and Kimiko have led the way into the back, Tendou strolls in behind them as casually as though it's *his* barber shop, the Kabuto Zecter buzzing in past his shoulder and starting to investigate the nooks and crannies that a human won't be able to look into as conveniently. Tendou himself isn't nearly as openly nosy as his Zecter, but his gaze sweeps around the back room, casually picking up on quite a lot of possible details ... like, for instance, a Soul Gem (or Grief Seed) that's not quite hidden by whatever might be piled in front of it.
After nearly making a scene, Staren decides to stay quiet for a bit and let the experts handle finding the gem. He can lend his expertise when it's needed.
He follows Tony into the back room, to go look for that 'gas leak'.
Altea Saito stays back briefly, trying to clear more people before heading in herself. She grows quiet once there, preparing for the witch. It'll be her fourth, and that itself means she knows how bad these can be, but she isn't the veteran Kimiko is.
Maria sees Kimiko, barely manages to drag her gaze up to make eye-contact, and then dully responds, "Good afternoon." The barber shop owner is not exactly happy with people barging in and heading for the back room, but he is a stoic individual and just calmly makes his way in there after everyone else. "Maria, there may be a gas leak. We have to close up the shop and leave for now."
Adalinda is actually the LAST one into the room, not being the sort to push past others or trespass (under normal circumstances). She is looking at the unusual readings. According to the countdown timer, the egg should have hatched several minutes ago. But then new data and calculations add more time, as though the expected hatching is fluctuating for some reason. Like something is staving it off?
When Tony holds up his fingers and asks about an item of approximately that size and shape, Maria's eyes widen slightly in realization. Then she looks at Adalinda, Staren, Altea, Tendou, Tony, her father, and then Kimiko all in turn and her expression is suddenly one of deep sadness. Deep sadness, with a smile. Then she reaches into her dress, and pulls up a gem on a necklace that was hanging out of sight. A gem that changes to appear as a Soul Gem that is almost completely black, save for some horrible glowing-red light flickering around at the center.
There is a moment of silence, and then Maria says, "My sister was one too."
Then there is a horrible wet noise. The broom in one hand falls to the ground, the Soul Gem in the other drops from the young woman's fingers, and everyone can see it. Her eyes are gone, blood running from them down her cheeks. Then she falls to her knees. Thump. Falls forwards. Thump. Her Soul Gem cracks beneath her as she falls directly on top of it. On the back of her head is an ugly black thing that looks half-organic, half-crystalline.
Then it finishes its transformation. The egg becomes a Grief Seed. There was no more hope in Maria for her younger sister to feed off of. A shockwave erupts outwards, possibly taking many of those present to the floor or thrown against a wall, and yet the force doesn't seem to impact anything other than people.
When the blast of force has stopped echoing through the surroundings, reality itself starts to warble and ripple and change, until everyone is standing in some vast room where the walls, floor, and ceiling are all made up of black and white tiles. A checkerboard pattern? A barbershop's floor? It doesn't really matter what it looks like. Because they're in a Witch's labyrinth.
Even predicting it would happen didn't let them prevent it. As Adalinda coughs from the pain in her ribs and drags herself to her feet, she can't help cursing herself for not being better prepared. "We--*COUGH*--I should have realized s-sooner. *COUGHCOUGH*"
The mere *sight* of the Soul Gem is Tendou's cue, and his right hand lashes out, grasping the Kabuto Zecter straight out of the air. "Henshin!" He latches it onto the 'buckle' plate of the high-tech belt around his waist ..
/HENSHIN/
And transforms, an armored battlesuit beginning to materialize around him, his lower body clad in patterned leather and some light plates of armor; his upper body - torso, arms, and head - are more heavily armored, with the 'sleeves' appearing segmented, his face covered and hidden completely by a faceted blue visor set into his helmet.
This does sort of explain the beetle motif on his motorcycle ... a little bit, anyway. If anyone was wondering.
It's beside the point for now, though. A stylized-looking pistol is in Kamen Rider Kabuto's hand now, and he's looking around for any sign of either the Witch or the expected Familiars.
Altea Saito knows what that means and is only a moment late to summon her knight clothing, blasted back she's already hurt when the hunt starts in earnest, but that doesn't stop Altea from entering her own transformation sequence with her own actions, "Gungnir." The the earring pings, <INITIALISIERT> (Initalizes) and transforms into a spear while Altea's magical girl armor appears, she coughs, "Sorry for doing this late."
Stark's faceplate snaps down automatically in response to the blast, thus hiding his look of astonished confusion; his hands reflexively snap outward and fire a controlled repulsor burst to counteract the concussive force that would otherwise have knocked him flat. "Jarvis--"
"I am aware, sir. Unfortunately I am unable to make much sense of exterior readings. Please stand by."
"Not the best time to put me on hold, buddy," Tony remarks dryly, turning in a slow circle where he stands to try and get some kind of bearing on his sudden change of surroundings. His HUD picks out the glowing life signals of everyone around him, at least. Which reminds him, there is still at least one civilian present. His gaze snaps around to locate the girl's father, and presuming he finds him still in one piece, he'll go over to try and protect the man. "Gonna need you to stay down, and behind me sir," he'd instruct, still in Spanish. "This is no ordinary gas leak."
Staren aims his plasma cannon at the blackened soul gem, but doesn't fire -- Is he supposed to?
Something slams him into the wall -- he stumbles to his feet with a groan. "Her sister's... the witch... and now... there's two?" He looks around the labyrinth. "Great. We're in a chess board..." He looks to Kimiko and Adalinda. "You're the experts. Where do we go from here...?" He continues to look around with interest. So this is a closed space...
Kimiko does not react quickly enough. She has about enough time to slightly move her arms before the shock wave hits her. But her magic is faster than thought--in a flash, gleaming silver armor covers her body, from visored helmet (snapping shut on its own with a clang), to widened mail skirt, to sabatons for her feet. Her armor takes the shock, but without having braced, it still knocks her off her feet. She touches the floor and rights herself, springing back up before taking the time to look around.
She's very tempted to curse. Tempted. But she just takes off her helmet, presses her lips into a thin line, and slowly frowns. And stays silent.
"Now, we hunt." She glances back at Staren. "Her Gem broke. We should only need to deal with the Witch that hatched from the Seed. Just one. If I did correctly see her Gem break." She turns the other way and mentally notes the barber's position, but leaves that to Tony. Then, eyes forward.
"Be ready for anything. That can't be overstated. And do not--Do. Not. Attack anything until you are sure it is attacking you. Not until we find the Witch."
<1X-Supplemental> Kimiko Shinobu says, "We are likely to encounter Familiars."
<1X-Supplemental> Kimiko Shinobu says, "Attacking them is certain to anger the Witch. It is best to avoid angering it until we are in a position to destroy it."
<1X-Supplemental> Kimiko Shinobu says, "This is not always possible."
Staren looks to the barber. "Oh. Here. This is an antidote. It will take awhile to work, but... the sooner you drink it, the better." It's actually a potion that will protect him with a force field in case of attacks by... whatever lives here. He hands over a vial from his bag.
<1X-Supplemental> Staren says, "That potion should protect our noncombatant... at least against dirct attacks."
<1X-Supplemental> Staren says, "Don't startle the witch, got it."
<1X-Supplemental> Altea Saito says, "I've been through this before, but it's never been the same yet. Be on your guard."
<1X-Supplemental> Tendou Souji says, "It's not my first Witch either."
The barber is down, and semi-conscious, though seemingly in pain or at least disoriented. He keeps groaning but doesn't seem to really be certain what's going on. He even asks, "What is... Happening...?" before he passes out. Adalinda feels like an idiot. She feels useless. She had all the information right there. She should have figured it out. She should have done better. Now another girl has lost her life because of her. How many more? Why can't she just...
...Why can't she just die?
Maybe that would be best. If she dies, then the Incubators will no longer have any reason to keep trying to pressure her into making a contract. They'll have lost their precious resource. She's not really precious anyway. After all, look at how she hasn't been able to save a single person. Adalinda just slumps to her knees on the ground and stares at the tile floor and shakes all over.
The German girl herself can't see it, but anyone who looks at her can. Right on the center of her forehead is a black mark like a crown, with spikes protruding from it in multiple directions. A Witch's 'kiss'. A mark that appears on a human targetted by a Witch. That is has appeared already, so quickly after hatching... This may well be a rather powerful Witch. Or perhaps just a highly unusual one. Adalinda seems to be more or less useless at the moment.
The checker-board patterned room is not really a room so much as a vast non-euclidean cavern of sorts. Looking closer and moving around should reveal that much. There are bridges and walk ways that aren't readily apparent due to blending in with everything else. No one and nothing in here has a shadow, as though there's some omnipresent flourescent lighting that emanates from everywhere and nowhere. It makes perceiving where one is and where other things are really tricky. Perhaps enough that stumbling off the edge of a miles-deep ravine is fully viable. Stairs, bridges, towers, walls that might be walked into, floors that might not actually be there, ceilings that may be near or far...
It's a real hell to navigate without the aid of a Soul Gem or a laptop that is equipped with a sensor device specifically for this sort of thing. And given Adalinda's current state, if anyone notices... It doesn't seem she's going to be helping with her computer.
<1X-Supplemental> Adalinda says, "I should have known... Should have figured it out sooner... Why can't I ever save anyone? Why am I always too late? Why am I so... Useless? Why can't I just..."
<1X-Supplemental> Adalinda says, "...Why can't I just die?"
<1X-Supplemental> Tendou Souji says, "Adalinda. You are the reason we're *here* to confront the Witch - we may not have stopped it from hatching but we *will* keep it from claiming any victims."
<1X-Supplemental> Altea Saito says, "... what is that mark on your forehead, Adalinda?"
<1X-Supplemental> Tendou Souji says, "Hold fast to that, and trust in our strength, just as we've trusted you to guide us to this battle. Together, we'll win."
<1X-Supplemental> Staren says, "We all fail sometimes... but if we give up... We'll never help anyone, either."
<1X-Supplemental> Kimiko Shinobu says, "Miss Blumenkrantz--mark? What--oh."
<1X-Supplemental> Adalinda says, "It doesn't matter. None of it does. I'd be better off dead. All these people are getting hurt because of me. Nothing I've done has saved anyone."
<1X-Supplemental> Kimiko Shinobu quietly, "Oh." A moment, and she continues, "Does anyone have a sedative?"
<1X-Supplemental> Staren says, "...Oh god DAMNIT I am SICK of things screwing with people's HEADS!"
<1X-Supplemental> Altea Saito says, "My magic is nonlethal and incapable of permanent harm, should I knock her out?"
<1X-Supplemental> Kimiko Shinobu says, "Can you do that gently?"
<1X-Supplemental> Staren says, "Is there a cure for this?"
<1X-Supplemental> Staren says, "Or do we have to kill the witch and hope it goes away?"
<1X-Supplemental> Kimiko Shinobu says, "A cure? Yes. We just need to destroy the Witch. Anyone afflicted will recover."
<1X-Supplemental> Altea Saito says, "Probably not, but she'll recover from it without harm."
<1X-Supplemental> Staren says, "...I dunno about you but this place looks like one giant optical illusion to me, can you see clearly?"
<1X-Supplemental> Kimiko Shinobu says, "If we have no alternatives, then. I'm afraid we can't leave her like this."
<1X-Supplemental> Altea Saito says, "Unless anyone has a better solution, and I don't feel like waiting too long, no-one else?"
<1X-Supplemental> Tendou Souji says, "Adalinda, can you loan your computer to Stark?"
<1X-Supplemental> Adalinda says, "I am sure he would make better use of it than me. Anyone would. Do whatever you want."
Tony looks around quickly for something to help hide the barber's position, if he's gonna be all unconscious about this. He settles for a patchwork representation of what might be a barber's gown, and drapes it over him, and gives the man a pat for good measure. "Okay man, you just rest." Just in case he can hear him. "Take that medicine Staren gave you if you feel sick."
Then, feeling rather helpless, he stands up and tries to make sense of the non-Euclidean physics nightmare around him. Hearing his name on the radio band, he has Jarvis replay the last few transmissions to him for context, and he perks up. "Yeah," he agrees. "Listen, Adalinda, we're gonna kill this thing, and we're gonna save all the people it would've eaten up in the future. If you don't want to help, let me see that thing..."
Altea Saito listens to radio chatter and knowing what she must do doesn't make it any more pleasant, "I'm sorry, Adalinda." She says softly as she points Gungnir in her direction, the magic triangle appears and so does an aiming ring. The staff pings, <BOMBENBLITZ> and three energy balls appear, fly towards Adalinda and explode nonlethally. The terrain has no such luck. It's probably just after Adalinda handed over the computer.
Rather than futzing around trying to type or mouse with his fingers encased in armor, Stark takes the more direct route of producing a USB uplink from somewhere, and plugging the suit directly into the laptop. "Open wide, Jarvis; got some data for you to crunch. Find me that Witch."
Staren looks around. _great_. This place is a disorienting _nightmare_. he tries cycling through the EM spectrum, and even ultrasonic sensors.
And now Adalinda's depressed. He starts to comfort her-- "We all fail sometimes... but if we give up... We'll never help anyone, either." And then he realizes it's the witch's doing.
The mental image of Twilight, bewitched by Discord, believing she has no friends and unable to accept any evidence to the contrary, flashes through his head. "...Oh god DAMNIT I am SICK of things screwing with people's HEADS!" He stomps his foot on the ground.
Staren looks at the laptop. He could help, too, but... it seems Tony's got it. He shrugs. "Can I get a link to any map data Jarvis is putting together?"
Kimiko gives a startled look back at Adalinda when Altea mentions a mark. There it is, just as she feared--a Witch's Kiss. Usually, elites are immune. Or... resistant, it would seem. There are too many unusual things happening here to say exactly why Adalinda was affected despite being an elite, so Kimiko gives up any fruitless speculation before she starts.
"It would be simplest to say that Witches cause madness that leads to death. Though it's not always like this, the result is the same." She says to no one in particular. Then, with metallic, ringing footsteps, she starts to walk. Not far. She doesn't yet know where the Witch is. But her senses give her distance more than direction, so if she doesn't move, she'll never learn anything.
Kamen Rider Kabuto is just staying at the ready; he doesn't want to go haring off in the wrong direction. He does, however, look at Kimiko. "Your Soul Gem can guide us as well, right?" And as she begins walking, he follows, weapon still in hand. He's keeping an eye on everyone else, though, for good measure - letting the group get separated by too much would be bad.
Stark nods briskly in response to Staren's request as the data scrolls blindingly fast in one section of his heads-up display. "Soon as I have a fix on something..."
<1X-Supplemental> Staren says, "...Does Jarvis require assistance?"
<1X-Supplemental> Tony Stark says, "Just give him a minute. It's a foreign operating system and there's a lot of data to crunch."
<1X-Supplemental> Kimiko Shinobu says, "Even after talking to her about it I'm still amazed that such a thing was able to work."
<1X-Supplemental> Tony Stark says, "I'm not sure how all the algorithms fall in, myself. But knowing it's a tracking program, I should at least be able to analyze the output..."
<1X-Supplemental> Staren says, "What thing? How she tracks witches from her computer?"
<1X-Supplemental> Kimiko Shinobu says, "Yes."
After Tony gets the computer and starts having Jarvis look through it, they'd find that there's... A rather interestingly complex program running on it, along with several parallel processes that are probably way more advanced than a teenage girl would ordinarily be writing herself in most iterations of Earth in the year 2009. Really, astronomical figures, mathematics that the world's best physicists in many worlds would be hard-pressed to duplicate, and code that is just plain STRANGE and yet seems to work just fine for what it was made to do.
Finding distortions in reality itself and reliably predicting the future (at least as it pertains to said distortions). With the aid of both Kimiko's Soul Gem and this program, navigating this labyrinth is almost assured. As long as no one falls off the floor and into an abyss that looks the same as everything else on the way there.
Adalinda remembers something momentarily as she feels a lump in her pocket. "...Oh, I remember now. I have that taser Homura lent me. Military-grade. I wonder if it would be enough to..." She starts to pull it out, and aims it at herself. It was strong enough to kill a familiar with one shock. It still has one charge left. Then Altea blasts Adalinda and the weapon goes flying from Adalinda's hand, skittering across the tiles and falling... Through the floor? No, wait. That's one of those ravines. It's only a few feet away and looked exactly the same as everything else. It is silent for several seconds afterwards as Adalinda, unconcious and somewhat blasted-looking but definitely still alive. The floor she is lying on, however... Seems to have falled away in several places. Tiles clattering down into the ravine that the floor here seems to be suspended over. As the echoes of the blowing-up die down, the sound of the taser hitting bottom and breaking finally arrive. That is a long fall.
Proooobably best to drag Adalinda away from the edge and then move on. At least she's not going to be trying to zap herself to death in the future, being all unconscious and all.
-Continued-
The tracking proceeds with a few problems along the way, such as walking into walls for some people, close calls while crossing a bridge that is barely distinguishable from the canyons below that are nearly impossible to get a depth-reading on and don't appear to be any further away than one's arm, and so on. Special spectrum vision seems to be as effective as normal vision in a place like this. The tiles have no heat to them, no special energy... Special vision may actually be WORSE because everything looks the same. Like a big wall of the same color, with only the people in it distinguishable as different.
Eventually, however, people reach the center of the labyrinth without having seen a single Familiar. How do people know they're in the right place? Because suddenly lines of black start streaking out everywhere from an upraised platform (if it's even a platform) slightly above and ahead of the group. The lines criss-cross each other, forming into an enormous 'web' of black threads. Red color suddenly seem to splatter in 2-D in various places on the floor, walls, and ceiling, finally giving definition to where everything is. Kind of.
Crawling over the edge of the platform, is a vaguely humanoid female figure seemingly made up of a mess of black lines, with numerous thick and thin black tendrils of a similar inky nature squirming off her head or head-equivalent.
Runes suddenly imprint themselves on the minds of all.
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Gorgi
The Tangled Witch
OOC: www.youtube.com/watch?v=LsLorz…
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Part one of the Witch-Hunt log for Gorgi. 6 Union personnel, counting Adalinda, deploy to Seville, Spain, to try to catch a Witch before her egg can Hatch.
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