Difference between revisions of "Logs: Thoradad Begins"

Latest revision as of 01:34, 7 October 2012

The SEBEC building is a dangerous labyrinth outside the beaten path, owing to dimensional instabilities, strange entities, and some of the more eccentric and impressive staff members. Tonight we focus in on one of those associates. An erudite, somewhat attractive forty-something who vanished from public life and - let's say the rumours of his death were greatly exaggerated.

This man stands in a top-floor research laboratory, behind a rare vaulted door. Normally it is next to the guard's quarters, but they've been given the night off save basic security. Tonight, a man waits by the front door as well, a dapper man, no labcoat to be seen.

His dark suit rustles in a rising breeze. He'd conveyed the message to Kobayashi, he was tour guide tonight, sworn to noninterference so long as things didn't become a real threat to the building, or to he himself. She was here to see a man.

The sword by Kandori's side clicks against the wall behind him as he fidgets in the brisk night air, smoking a rare cigarette and spending time scanning the horizon. He looks small next to the looming building, and his hair blows into an untidy halo around his head while he occasionally passes the cigarette from hand to hand and takes a drag. A fine mist rises and dapples his skin - the CEO taking a deep breath of idle mist and smoke and blowing them both out in a protracted cloud.

Behind him on the wall, the grisly half-nightmare face of the Haunter watches, a beacon in the spotter-field of Persona senses - but also able to sense approaches of powered individuals with eerie accuracy.

Lights are on throughout the building, the lurking behemoth in Lunarvale never really sleeps, though attempts to breach it have slackened in recent days.

And the Guido waits.

If Kandori thought Thora would come alone...he would be wrong. The temptation was strong to hare off on her own without telling anyone but events from weeks past introduced her to the idea of disappearing for days without anyone noticing. By the time they did...it would be too late. Aside from that, she did know a handful of people that might have vested interests in this.

So she sent out warnings. Slightly vague but given Thora's general trend of behavior, the message was going to be clear. Out loud it was 'I'm going to see my father.' unsaid but clearly a given was the added: '...and I'm going to kill him.'

She stands outside the SEBEC building, awaiting the arrival of anyone that dared to join her tonight to serve as a much needed moral compass. Her massive warhammer remains slung over her shoulder, making it quite obvious that tonight Thora has planned for some ultraviolence.

Like she even had to ask. Even though he was quietly questioning their future together (she /did/ try to kill one of his friends), Shirou was there already, waiting with her, his spear stabbed down into the ground, arms folded in front of his chest. "...Gods I could go for a cigarette or a drink right now. And I don't even smoke. I think you've become a bad influence on me, Thora." He snarks just a bit, trying to break up the tension in the air. A gentle rub to the back of his head as he waits...

Kandori quietly offers the pack to Shirou, clicking it against his palm to push the end of one fresh cigarette beyond the package edge.

"I never dreamt you would come alone, Kobayashi. But did you invite the entire short bus, or just the drivers?"

Shinjiro had read the missive from Thora with no small amount of concern and a perfect understanding of the subtext beneath her curt and perfunctory warning. 'End as badly as people think,' when it comes to Thora, means 'I'm probably going to kill someone.' Shinjiro could not permit that. --Well, under most circumstances, anyway. There was one critical exception to his refusal to ever take another person's life. Ever since he took an interest in Thora's rehabilitation nearly one long year ago, the girl having reminded him forcefully of Ken (save much larger and uh... much angrier), he had tried to prevent her from backsliding into that part of herself that saw killing as a solution to everything. Thus it is that he sent her a short message informing her he would be present, and spent the time up until the appointed meeting brooding over the coming evening. He shows up in silence, acknowledging Thora with a look. He keeps to himself, though should he be addressed directly he would likely respond. Kandori has to do with this? he thinks. That's not a good sign.

Yukiko Amagi did have a vested interest in this: she had known Thora Kobayashi for some time, and considered her one of her friends. She wasn't sure how she felt about Thora hurting her father, as the less-than-subtle vibes she was getting off of the Oni of Inaba was indicating, but, for a change, Yukiko could back Thora up, and why would she miss an opprotunity like that?

Oh, and Chie would probably be there too.

Yukiko had managed to make a temporary escape from Inaba - through nefarious means indeed. Means that will also go unmentioned at the moment. Regardless, Yukiko steps up outside of the SEBEC building, nearly missing Kandori at first - although the motion of his to offer a cigarette draws her attention that way, her eyes widening in surprise. Just that - she didn't think he was going to kill everyone here or anything.

"Is... um... everything alright?" she asks, somewhat tentatively, drawing a hand up to brush her long hair over her shoulder, as her eyes flicker back towards Kandori. "And hi, Thora-san."

Chie was there the night Thora discovered the horrible truth. She promised that night to be a better friend to Thora - and fight at her side when the time came. Chie has been bad about keeping promises, lately, but this one, she intends to keep. She knows what's in Thora's head because Thora is not really a very /subtle/ person when it comes to murderous intent, but she...well, she's not sure what her plan is. She's geared up for a fight; that's all she feels she could do. She shows up in her usual - green coat and short skirt with bike shorts beneath, sporty socks and a pair of brand new Rad Sneaks squeeking as she walks. "Hey," she says, quietly, with a certain worry on her face. "...I'm here." She grins at Thora, with more energy than the occasion perhaps calls for. "I told you I would be, right?" Kandori, she thinks, spying the man awaiting them. He's unpredictable. He's probably got something planned. Eyes linger on him for a second, before assessing the party she's got to work with. This is a pretty good party, she decides. Now will it be enough for what /happens/, she has no idea.

"Some of us walk." Yuuka Chiba steps out of the shadows, her quarterstaff slung over her shoulders.

The small teen sighs and rubs the bridge of her nose behind her glasses, brushing back her hair behind one ear. "Thora-san. Shiro-- Aragaki-senpai...!" Yuuka didn't expect that, but somehow, she... isn't really that honestly surprised. And there are more KDAites. Phew.

Yuuka was afraid they weren't going to pull an Ocean's 11 here.

With great hesitation, Shirou takes the cigarette from Kandori, like it was both an olive branch... and a venemous viper about to strike him. "...Thanks."

For Tohya, coming to the SEBEC building is a very dangerous idea. That's not that important, though--she received Thora's message, and she's not about to let her go without backup--not when she's already left her alone in KNOWS.

But, as she's actually approached--she can sense the extra people, as well as the familiar, looming aura of the building that she knows so well. The smoke reaches her nose, causes a small, irritated twitch. She quit those. And... Kandori is here. She hasn't really spoken to him in a while. So, the tall young woman actually... keeps her eyes mostly on him, for the moment. "Thora-san" she says simply, and notices the presence of a number of other people--including Yukiko, who she's never seen in this kind of situation--and... Shinjiro.

"It's bad for you," she mutters to Shirou. Kandori's comment about the bus is ignored.

One more to join the party. Minagi walks towards the front of the building, her wooden sword held over on shoulder. There were many reasons for her to be here, but she had a debt to pay, and though Thora and she got along very poorly, she wouldn't let a thing like that stop it. Kandori was another reason...the man that had fundimentally destroyed her life...so whatever Thora had planned, Minagi would help. This wasn't her time to make him pay, but it would go towards making that conflict happen someday. She spars Thora a glance, giving her a fangy smile before turning her eyes towards Kandori, focused on him. There were a lot of people here...some she knew, some she did not. However, Minagi came with a goal in mind. The sword left her shoulder and came down, being held in both hands with it's tip into the ground. "So."

"Don't thank me. Someone has to do the saving tonight Sekigawa, or this doesn't work. And you can't just save the one you love." He flicks the pack back into his jacket pocket and takes another long drag on his own cigarette. "Sleeping well, Sekigawa?"

Kandori wasn't looking at Shirou during this, his eyes pin to Tohya's as well.

"You did give these up." They shared a moment over that, some time ago, after Tohya had wandered through her own life, and seen that.

Kandori asks a question with a lot of variables behind it, his eyes still on Tohya's: "Your mother thrives?"

What he means is perhaps hard to read, since the question could as easily mean "we know where she lives" as "see, I still kept my word", but Kandori isn't the first to blink, surveying the approaching spotter. He heaps a second question: "And for whom have you come? For the Oni or for the man?" His smirk isn't unkind, it's the same smile that almost always occupies him. With Tohya near, he ceases noticing the cold for a time, and the Haunter vanishes from the wall, letting oppressive senses dull and vanish. He's not worried about anything sneaking up with Kidzuki there, for now.

Minagi he senses in the same animal non-magic way she usually senses him, and he places one hand loosely on his sword hilt, though his posture doesn't change and he doesn't miss a drag.

"So, you few. When you're ready, say the word, any questions, ask them now. There will NOT be time at the top. And we can perhaps wait a little longer for any more of the number who may be coming."

Here a darted glance to Tohya, Kandori flicking his cigarette end, finally killed, into a nearby garbage can.

OH BOY! MURDER! Maki, having incidentally killed people plenty of times (if perhaps rarely 'directly') ((and if perhaps many of those times being shadows of herself rather than her actual being)), is probably not the best person to dissuade Thora from taking out the guy who has been ruining her life for the lulz. But she can provide muscle, especially when so many of her friends are going on this assault as well. The Maki that shows up is wearing a compact, so it's probably the Ideal one (if you know about such things). The others, at present, have yet to make an appearance. "Hey guys!" She says as she draws up, already winding up a bow. "Glad I could make it, I was worried I'd be late." HEY SHE HAD VIDEO GAMES SHE HAD TO PLAY. VERY IMPORTANT VIDEO GAMES. "So uh... are we all actually here for the same reason or are we all here for different reasons? I didn't hear about any actual plans so--" She asks. She doesn't really have any questions for Kandoris.

"Hrmph." Thora snorts at Kandori's smug snarking. "I let people decide if they wanted to come."

Turning away from the CEO she gives Shirou a weak smile. It hadn't gone lost on her that he hadn't said much to her in the past few days. Not since monday after she went off on Reki. His presence is a little bit of a surprise since he has no small amount of hate for Kandori. Maybe that's why he was here though. Maybe he wanted to sneak a shot in at Kandori during this mess, an underhanded strategy that Thora could appreciate.

Shinjiro's presence is actually no small comfort in addition to being a bit of an annoyance. With him here, she was pretty much guarenteed that she's get stern senpai browbeating if she actually tried to kill anyone tonight. When it came to this upcoming encoutner, which she had been anticipating for nearly a week, she knew what her reaction would be and she knew that at some point she might not be able to control herself. She'd need him. She'd need all these people.

Chie and Yukiko especially since they know the extent of her situation extremely well, being the first to hear about it after the truth was harshly broken to the large teenager. She visibly untenses at Chie's cheer especially. "Hi Chie-chan, Yukiko-chan."

What is especially surprising is Yuuka and Tohya's presences. Tohya extremely so given her current standing with the rest of the NWO. Coming here could mean certain death for her. "W...what are you doing here?" she asks, bristling all over again in a completely different flavor of agitation. "...uh, you too." Thora points at Minagi. Maybe she was stalking Kandori? She kept showing up...

Back to Kandori, Thora narrows her eyes. "Let's go. Take us to the top."

Shirou shrugs at Kandori, pocketting the cigarette since he has no lighter for himself. "Same as always. You have good nights and bad nights." And frankly he hasn't had a good night in a while. He was here for /her/, because somewhere in that hidden heart of his he did care deeply for her. But this could be it, a lot was going to happen tonight. Sometimes you only had to face destiny head on. "I'm just here for her, Kandori. The hows and whys aren't particularly important. Just our actions, right?"

"Hello, Thora-chan," Yukiko says, her voice audibly warming at the greeting that Thora gives her. But like the big Oni of Inaba, Yukiko was surprised to see, "T-Tohya-san? What are you doi..." she nearly repeats Thora's question, until she processes that Tohya was already asked that. Bringing up a hand to wind her hair around a finger, her eyes flicker from Chie to Tohya. "It is good to see you here - I am... um... glad that you decided to help Kobayashi-san out," Yukiko says, drifting a bit towards Chie as she does so.

At least until she takes notice of Maki, "Ah, Sonomura-san, good evening," Yukiko says to her, a little smile touching her lips, "I am just here to help Kobayashi-san - I will imagine that she um... may need our help, one way or another, by night's end," Yukiko says, her voice nearing somewhere close to a serene pleasantness. Beyond the stuttering.

Yuuka gives Thora a complacent look. Senpai is here, and Shirou is, and Thora is, so of course Yuuka is.

She stays quiet though, grip tight on her quarterstaff as she waits. No questions here... for once.

Minagi would follow, but she doesn't act. She had to use her brain, and she was going to do exactly that. This included not jumping the gun and ruining everything forever. Minagi had an...understanding what was going on, but not specifics. This may have her at an disadvantage, but something she could roll with. Looking over towards some of the others. Not a lot of people she knows...Shinjiro is ignored, because that would cause just a big ration of shit, and she wasn't here for that.

Yuuka gets a wave, while Thora gets a shrug. "I'm super mysterious, that's why." She says, with a cat like grin. But Maki gets a wave, she sorta knows Maki...though Aki is going to get a stick to the head the next time Minagi sees her.

"Neither," she replies about why she's come. "I came for my friend." It's true, though--she's all too familiar wih playing 'spotter' for Kandori, and for a group in general. She looks fairly well, in any case, though tired at a few edges.

Maki's presence is a surpise. Tohya glances her way--must be Ideal. "That's on her," she says, glancing to Thora, and then turning to face her properly. She hears the agitation, anyway, and replies with an actual hint of affection, if muted, "I'm not going to leave you alone if I can help it," very simply.

To Yukiko, she nods pleasantly. "Likewise you. I'll do my best to watch you're back while we're here together." She doesn't use many names--habit, maybe. "The whys are /very/ important, Sekigawa-san." Except his.

In addition to all the normal humans assembled, there's a darker Resonance that's skulking nearer and nearer... For ~some~ reason, Kyrie became aware of this little party happening--certainly he couldn't have possibly read about it on the SEES board or something silly like that--and since it involves Thora, he thought he ought to come by and watch the festivities. He doesn't announce himself as he lurks behind walls out of easy sight, but those with strong detection skills should be able to notice him. Maybe. Kyrie has a Resonance of a wild vortex with an eerily calm eye, but he's also good at sneaking up and keeping his presence hidden when he wants. He probably won't cause any trouble tonight--probably--so for now, from closeby to where the party is gathering, the Shadow-man narrows his eyes and observes. How, when he's on the other side of the wall? ...Don't ask silly questions.

Thora's sure drawn up a huge party, though. Kyrie wonders how many of them are here because of her, or because they've got a beef with Kandori. Either way, that's quite a few people over there... Even Tohya. Kyrie doesn't care much about her one way or another, but he does wonder if she came *because* there was a crowd, and so she might be able to throw some meat shields in front of her if anyone remembers she's supposed to be assassinated.

Chie has certain concerns. Why now, why here (well why here is kind of obvious actually), what's he planning, what traps are in store, what is the average party level the designers had in mind for this particular adventure, but...she doesn't know what Thora knows, for this one - if anything. She knows things'll be tough. She knows Thora called out to her friends and a lot of them answered. And she knows they're not alone. She gives Thora a grin, nodding firmly. "Yo!" she chirps. She'll be the tough one, because she's good at that! Yeah! Eyes track to Yukiko and Tohya while the talking goes on; she dips a nod at Tohya, saying, "Yo," again with less energy to it. They haven't really talked much since that...thing, but they're at least on good enough terms to do that much. She grins a bit at Yukiko sticking close, nodding at her reassuringly. They'll be OK. ...probably. And if not, Chie will fight for goodness! Blink as Maki shows up, wiggling her fingers. "Oh, Maki," she adds, nodding. A little surprised she's here, to be honest, but it's Ideal so maybe she couldn't help herself. It's nice to have her around, at any rate.

Shirou gets a response - "Actions are part of the how, but I'll give you that actions are louder and more interesting. But without the why you're an animal. And yes, you two." Eyes dart between Thora and Shirou, Kandori remarking: "Words aren't so important. Maybe sometimes it's whose father you show up to kill that matters when you're taking account at the end of the day."

"Very well, Subject LP2." quips Kandori, turning at the girl's command but leaving space for any further talking on the way to the executive elevator. Spacious, capable of moving whole meeting groups, it opens at a lengthy password and a long-laid hand on a pad which causes the door to open with a whooshing pneumatic noise. What arrives looks like a room-sized microwave. Guido steps inside without hesitation, beckoning others after. "We are going to a section of the top of the building which may not necessarily be in this dimension. There may be some queasiness. Please keep your arms and legs inside the cabin at all times and respect the personal space of those around you." he says in his best calm elevator voice, perversely pleased at the entire endeavor to judge by his smirk. As he waits for entrances or objections.

"Oh hey Kyrie!" Maki smiles and waves to him for some god damn reason. Maybe she figures if freakin' kandori can chill and hang with everyone, why not Kyrie? She expects there to be a big protaganist fight soon enough, assuming Thora's dad doesn't have some sort of ridiculous superpower. Which he probably does. They always do. Some sort of super experiment. But Maki did say she'd help Thora. After all, they're both SEBEC girls. The presence of an Ideal Maki does not mean the others aren't present--waiting to decide exactly what to do.

Minagi waves at her. This confuses Maki but she says, "Kan-cho." to her, just feeling that urge for no readily apparent (Aki) reason. she does not ACTUALLY move to Kancho. This time. "How's it like getting back to school?" Maki asks of Yukiko and Chie, smiling more. "Don't worry, Sassdori!" She cheers, "They've had plenty of experience ripping through the fabric of space and time!" Minagi glares right at Maki. She doesn't think it was funny in the least. She doesn't act on the impulse, because that would be wrong, but BOY the rays of hate radiate off her almost physically.

"You didn't just call /me/ that." Thora growls at Kandori in a voice so deeply nonplussed that it could sink a battleship. The name really doesn't have much meaning to her aside from being disgustingly dehumanizing, which is actually more than enough to stir up Thora's aggression again. It isn't the same intensity that Shirou felt days ago when Thora was attacking Reki...but it's approaching it gradually.

The announcement that Kyrie is apparently in the area makes her stiffen suddenly and that resonance of hers goes up a notch. She can't sense Kyrie, being a Shadow and out of the kind of power that Garm held. The possibility of his presence is intensely worrisome because he could very well be here to watch, which begged the question 'how did he find out'? Maybe he just stalked someone here though, it wasn't as if he didn't have it out for the members of the KDA.

Impatiently, she strides right into that elevator and turns around, putting her back to the other side so she has full view of Kandori for ample glaring opportunities.

Not to mention ample staring-at-Tohya opportunities. That is actually the first time Tohya's admitted to being her friend, in front of a big ol' group of people no less. ...a group of people that probably still had some issues with Tohya following the last DVA mess, Maki included most likely.

"Shirou.." she murmurs quietly. Of course, it wasn't for Kandori, it was for her. Should she really expect less out of the guy that broke reality for her?

Kyrie pauses when Maki greets him, then shrugs. He should've figured she'd notice her, and why not? There are a lot of people who hate him here, and it'll be funny to see how they react to him-- So he sticks his head and upper torso out, through the wall, right next to Chie and Yukiko; Minagi may be nearby as well. "Hey, Maki," he greets her pleasantly enough, wiggling clawed fingers her way. Then he leers over at Yukiko. "Hey to you too, babe," he greets her cavalierly, invading her personal space to flick a few strands of hair out of her face before saluting over at the now-tense Thora and then moving to sink back into the wall. Well, looks like Maki was right!!

Glancing to Chie, she nods right back, in a pretty normal way, and lets that be the end of it. Tohya is a bit more focused at the moment on ensuring that nothing too unexpected happens, on whatever it is that Maki has to say, and of course, on the people gathered here--Kandori for a few reasons, and Thora for more obvious reasons. As she's started towards, she actually looks right back, evenly, not... particularly afraid. She's the type to go for action over words anyway--so say something? Or actually come to help? It's a clear choice. However.. Tohya hates elevators. For the record. As she steps towards it--she doesn't point out the resonance she feels because she may not have actually ever /met/ Kyrie--she ends up stepping not that far from Kandori, almost as if they were still on good terms. Almost--she still keeps an eye on him. All the same, in a slightly sardonic tone, she adds, "Feels like old times." Pause. "Don't worry, switching dimensions doesn't hurt," for the benefit of the others who haven't been here, "Much." What, is her former KNOWS status a secret? That said, Maki's addition brings a little look her way, and then an honest sort of nod to Kandori. "She's right." A lot of experience. And... Kyrie Tohya watches the way he interacts with the others, and frowns. "...Looks like your HR department has seriously gone downhill here at SEBEC," she comments.

Shinjiro takes a glance around at who else has shown up. Shirou was an obvious factor. Chie and Yukiko were doubtless present for similar 'moral support' reasons. Yuuka Shinjiro acknowledges with a glance, before his grey eyes stray to Tohya. He watches her curiously, if neutrally, perhaps interested in her interactions with Kandori and how she'll hold up being back here. He says nothing to Maki's questions, though he does regard her with the same sort of curiosity he gave Tohya. He bristles slightly at Kandori's manner of referring to Thora, but continues to hold his silence. That is, up until Maki shouts about Kyrie. "Kyrie...?" he echoes. He doesn't seem happy that that ass of a Shadow is skulking around, and it's with a much more tense air that he follows-- very warily-- into the elevator. He remains close to Thora; he is possibly the only person present capable of physically restraining her if she flies off the handle. And then, said Kyrie decides to pop his head through the wall. Shinjiro's gaze -swivels- around at the sudden movement, and it's not until it seems obvious he's not -attacking- that Shinjiro relaxes. Enough to send Kyrie off with an irritable, "Fuck off."

Shirou has taken his spear back up, following along with everyone else, just eyeing Kandori as he goes. He hears Thora's murmer, and instinctively reaches over to take her hand or wrist, whichever he can get away with right now. "Perhaps I should have spoken more clearly. /His/ whys and hows do not mean much to mean. He is a man that dissapeared from her life and seems to enjoy lording that fact over her head. Perhaps he has his reasons, perhaps it's no more then 'because I felt like it.' What's done is done now... all is left is the ending that leads to a new start." He speaks calmly, but he 'pulses' his resonance at the end, that rolling of pure potential filling up the elevator before they leave, just to puncuate: people can change, fundimentally and deeply.

"Thrilled to see you too, Aragaki~" Kyrie's warped voice drawls from out of nowhere.

"Huh." Yuuka says, somewhat startled by Yukiko suddenly getting Kyrie'd. "I wonder..." Does he still have Naotos' hat?

Wait, that isn't the topic at hand.

"Hat-thief." She idly mumbles to herself as she gives Shinjiro a bit of a quirky smile. Shirou gets a bit of a uneasy look.

Minagi blinks.. "Kyrie? The hell is a Kyrie. And someone better answer me, because the last time I asked a question about what the heck a Baofu is, nobody answe-ACK!" Then the universe decides to answer instead of making another running gag last longer. Minagi is forced to jump back, litterally caught off guard by the shadow creeping out of the wall. Her sword comes down, defensively...ready to smack the shadow away...but he is gone before she can move again. She huffs, sticking her tongue out at the shadow as it runs. YEAH! It is Minagi who as the big trousers. She looks away and grumps a little. Goddamn Kandori and his goddamn demons/shadows. Except for Sailor Murder's demon. That dude was cool. In an old man sorta way.

Yukiko cannot help but smile at Tohya's response. The lack of name-using did not even strike her as odd - Yukiko, perhaps, used names excessively. It just made everything more clear, particularly in such a large group as this. But, perhaps, Yukiko had less reason than Tohya to beware using names. "A team, then," Yukiko says, the smile on her lips very real as she glances towards Chie for confirmation. She had known that there was some bad blood between them at some point - she was hoping that things had been all cleared up.

Yukiko viewed Maki's actions, on the other hand, as bizarre. With Kyrie on the opposite side of a wall, and with naught but a feeling of dread in the back of her mind to warn her of his presence, Yukiko just looks towards Maki as she seemingly... well, waves at nothing. Now, Yukiko adored Maki, but there was something... off about that girl. It was more polite to just ignore it, perhaps with a smile and a nod. And then change subjects. "Sonomura-san, school has been very well," Yukiko says, turning towards the entrance as she starts a steady walk towards the door, "I appreciate your asking - may I ask how school has been for y--..." At least, that was how Yukiko was starting out. Right until a shadow bursts through the wall before her. Eyes widening, Yukiko does tense up, her hand dropping down to clutch at the hilt of her fan as Kyrie then brushes a few wayward strands of her long dark hair from her eyes, Yukiko managing a "I... um... good evening," with the sort of voice that one may use when greeting a police officer at the door, not long after murdering someone.

Noticeably relaxing when it sinks back into the wall, Yukiko sidesteps away from it, giving the wall a rather suspicious look as she moves closer to Chie, "Was um... that a demon? A Kyrie demon?" she inquires, biting on her lower lip as she glances back towards the wall. "Maybe a Persona?" she was... well... hustling inside rather quickly, now.

"No, we still think of humans as resources." Kandori activates the elevator when everyone's piled inside, smiling. Kyrie the Shadow Man is always good value for money. "To kill a man, Shirou Sekigawa? For shame. Have you no respect for the sanctity of life?" Kandori's weapon whispers in its sheath, his grip on the hilt adjusting as he acknowledges Tohya's point. "We should probably stop tearing it, or at leas them it a little, but we're working on it."

Belphegor is indeed the most pimped out demon of them all. Word.

"I'll let you off at the labs, then my job is done for the evening, save to report to the security booth where I have chocolate fondue and melted cheese on the boil along with an assortment of dippables. Those who prefer dippables over murder may accompany me."

Guido only then deigns to look at Tohya and respond: "I think it's more like new times, which are not necessarily worse. How is your young intended, still pearls-before-swine? Suzuno is doing well for herself" The idle code seems slightly muffled in intent as elevator music lilts them all gently onto the highest floor, the elevator pinging, sometimes slowing, sometimes peeding, edges slightly fuzzy as some bizarre interface passes mostly harmlessly over it.

Chie does not give Kyrie much thought, partly for sheerest value of Chie's resonance detection abilities being only slightly more powerful than a moldy lemon; partly because she is preoccupied with mentally choreographing all the awesome thing she's going to say to people today, it'll be wicked sweet, just watch, though she has to hope she doesn't get to use most of them because some of them are kind of dark and "WHAAA" CHie squawks when Kyrie bursts out of the walls!! ANd then she just scowls at him, especially the part where he hits on Yukiko. It's a little hard to feel threatened by him after a stunt like that, admittedly; but then, he's tried to kill her in the streets, so she braces herself for an impromptu fight, only to just...watch him sink back into the walls. ...frown. God, screw that guy, seriously. She looks back at Maki, shaken. "Uh. ...it's...OK," she says, slowly. "Kinda...nice to get back into the groove, uhm, what /is/ that guy's deal? Seriously?"

Shinjiro watches Tohya and Kandori speak, eyes faintly narrowed. It's difficult to quantify the relationship there, though there is certainly a thought-provoking amount of familiarity in the way she addresses him. Especially considering this is Japan, where the young do not typically address their elders as equals. ...Not that Shinjiro is much good at that himself. But we're not talking about Shinjiro here, are we? He waits for the elevator to get where it's going, quietly serenaded by elevator music, and trying not to think about the fact that Kandori's talk of what he has on the stove is piquing his interest.

What? Thora has to choose between murder and chocolate? That's just too cruel. Fortunately, she can override her compulsion to accept whatever food's offered to her in deference to the impending meeting. Of the crowd here, she expects most people to do the same...except for Minagi and maybe Maki. Minagi strikes her as the kind of person that would randomly decide to eat something while other stuff happens around her.

Kyrie APPEARS through the wall and for some reason, even Thora doesn't get hostile at him. In fact, she seems kind of wary and bothered by his presence. Shinjiro's reaction to him does a lot to calm her though. The way he just brazenly tells him to fuck off with little hesitation. "Kyrie's a shadow, Yukiko-chan." Thora explains.

Shirou capture's Thora's free hand. For now. Quietly, she squeezes it, quite unbothered by the ill he speaks of her father. It's far /kinder/ than anything she'd have to say right now.

"Kandori, don't tease." Maki says, looking over to Chie, "What? Kyrie's? I don't know." She frowns faintly, "But he seems complicated." Uh oh. When Maki says someone seems complicated, that's never a good sign. Mm, chocolate. but murder! But chocolate! No! Don't be tempted! Kandori's chocolate has BABY TEARS as an ingredient, don't taste it! Other aspects continue to be nonpresent. Maki is pretty 'off', though. "I'm not sure what to think of him," Maki admits, glancing to the mysterious wall again before looking back to Yukiko, "Uh, well, school's pretty fine! I'm actually trying to get a new job. I mean, I like working with Hinata and Itsuka but it's not really getting me closer to where I want to be in the future." She realizes she's talking about this to someone whose job is pretty set in stone. "I hope to spend some time with some friends tommorow. I'm glad you two are well. Maybe we can meet up again soon too. You know, for nonmurder activities?"

Minagi would NOT! Ok, she would, but not ALL the time, and certainly not now in THIS place...and the fact that the chocolate could be poison. Minagi frowns...chocolate! It was so tempting! What does he have to make her take hard choices...the monster. She however, perserveres, and moves with Thora instead of going with Kandori. Minagi could turn down food! See! Minagi really wishes she would have brought something to chew on now.

Shirou Sekigawa just shrugs a bit when Kandori talks to him. "Never directly said I was going to kill him. But as for the sanctity of life? You and I both know that that's a crock of bull: life is only what you put into it... you reap what you sow and all that." He squeezes her hand back. He was going to try and save her, of course. If that could be done without killing her father, then great. But death could be a powerful catharsis. So... so long as she didn't become shadow possessed, this night will win out in his favor.

Chocolate. Dammit, Kandori. Yuuka continues trailing Shinjiro, not lookign like shes' leaving senpais' side anytime soon. Quack.

"Hey, Kandori," Kyrie's voice resounds suddenly, this time from above the group--they *are* on an elevator, there's a handy little ceiling right there, "how good is the emergency safety system on the elevators in this building in case something just *awful* like, oh, the cables snapping were to happen?"

Kyrie's voice comes out, Kandori answers, calmly: "Yes, it's called leaping to freedom and relying on my resistance to physical harm to save me. The parachute system was messy." But he says it with good humour. When, in time, the elevator fortunately DOES NOT go down (but it makes you think) Kandori steps to the fore as the elevator door snaps open, revealing a long white-walled corridor with a few SEBEC guards in their standard black suits. Thora and Tohya have seen what they can do, but right now they stand with the protracted posture of a guard who has decided, for your convenience, to refrain from killing you just yet and would appreciate it if you'd respect that.

Kandori himself gives them a nod, which is returned, and motions to allow departure from the elevator. "The door at the end of the hall leads to the observation room around the Modification Lab. Do not enter any of the other rooms."

The Lord and Master of SEBEC lets his eyes dart to Thora and Shirou's hand-holding, and he smiles for inscrutable reasons.

"Ah, but where's the line? Would you kill a man to save a thousand? Would you kill a man if he cut you off in traffic? What about a child molester? He didn't kill anyone. But that is a talk for another day... ah."

Kandori looks to Kidzuki, "Try not to get killed. You're still one of our more useful assets." And he tries to convey something more, perhaps only Tohya would understand that emotion CAN be behind that chilly disregard. An eloquent hand, unless deflected, takes the ex-KNOWSite by the shoulder as he attempts to share a private grin with her - in total violation of all social mores.

Something snickers in the darkness...

And the long fluorescent-lined hallway stretches out before.

"Great to hear, great to hear," Kyrie's voice, rolling with black humor, sounds. "It'd be a damn shame to see you die so easily along with all the other Scoobies." Once the elevator stops, his vague presence disappears from overhead...

Shinjiro is right--there is a certain familiarity between Tohya and Kandori, surreal as it might be. She came, and should have (did she?) expected to actually speak with him. His retort about humans as resources is one that she lets go, since--well, she opened herself up for that one. She comments then, "I'm sure you could go easier on reality if you chose," intending the word to be pointed. Still, she's not as certain about... "No, thanks," she replies to his generous offer of nice things to eat. Oh, he's a fine cook in these matters, sure--but she's here for a reason. Murder is not it. New times. She'll accept that. She responds only vaguely, "She's quite well." She does not, perhaps actually address the whole set of questions. Still, there have been no threats of violence on her part, and her tone has remained strangely conversational. It's a little weird. To Yukiko, though, she nods. "A team," she agrees, and is acually fairly happy about that note. ....Kyrie's idea about cutting the cord, however.... She will respect that fact that the guards have chosen not to kill her at this time. She is quite fine with not being killed--living is one of her favorie things. She does add, "Kandori-san's got a point--even if you want to go snooping, it's easy to get lost in this building. You leave the group and you probably won't make it back," to anyone. And--She misses Kandori's further words to Shirou in favor of what he says to her, looking right back. Her face tightens slightly, meanwhile, a mask--but she does know that there's more to him than what is seen. She won't block his arm. He grins, and... Sure. "I'll do my best," she says, a wry tone in her voice that is still rather guarded. A pause, then glancing to Thora. "...The Shadow ass is gone. You called him Kyrie?" She does not... like him. At all. That elevator crack was /not/ funny.

Thora looks up at Kyrie and scowls a little. He wouldn't, right? He's just trolling them with the thought, not if he was serious about what he said to her a few weeks ago... "That's Kyrie." Thora confirms, not explaining him any further. She didn't really need to share that the KDA thought he was Souji's shadow in front of all these people.

Glancing down the hall, she quietly counts the guards but makes no plans to inflict violence on any of them. They're not the objective, after all. Instructions on where to go are given and right away, Thora is off, shouldering her way to the front so she can practically /run/ down the hall, breaking contact with Shirou in the process.

It's no secret that she's extremely impatient now. Before going, she gives one final glare in Kandori's direction, offering up a low-voiced, "She's not one of your assets anymore, Kandori." Thora tears down the hall, ignoring the guards and other doors. That final door is practically broken down as Thora shoves it open.

Shinjiro bites his tongue at talk of 'sanctity of life' being bullshit, at the rhetorical questioning of where the line should be drawn. Ideally, in Shinjiro's opinion, only those who have themselves killed-- like himself-- would ever be executed. And lately, he's even begun to question if that kind of eye-for-an-eye vengeance ever really solves anything in the end. He is fairly certain killing scars the spirit more than it salves old wounds. You're still one of our more useful assets, Kandori says, before laying that paternal hand on Tohya's shoulder. As the words die in the air, Tohya would feel Shinjiro's penetrating regard boring into her back. It seems likely that, for all Shinjiro is aware of Tohya's other merits and her current guardedness with Kandori, pure caution will ensure she does not gain the fastness of SEES as easily as Naomi Suzuno. For the time being, he puts it from his mind. It helps that Thora vouches for her, insisting Kandori can't use Tohya any further. ...It also helps that the moment they arrive, Thora pelts off. Shinjiro opens his stride, following her as closely as possible without also breaking into a run.

"...Another night. I do not presume to think that you owe me anything, but perhaps we'll speak." And perhaps he'll just shove a spear-head into his eye-socket. Either or. He takes off after her, his spear held tightly in his hand as he goes. All the others, even his other friends like Yuuka and Chie and Yukiko are ignored. He's got a blonde to watch out for...

Minagi looks to the side at Tohya...then back at Kandori. Minagi isn't sure what to think of that...either disgust or pitty. Thora speaks up though, and Minagi shrugs her shoulders. "Whatever. I'll be back after this is done Kandori. We have a score to settle." She says, calmly and steps off. Kyrie's threat are not ignored, just not responded to. She was sure that Kandori had a fail safe for just an event...or that she was bluffing. Or something. Minagi didn't think that line of logic out too far. "I made a promise to Minato-san." she says simply on the question of the sancity of life. Then she moves forward, relaxed but ready...she doesn't open any doors, because they probably all lead to the NEGAVERSE.

"Didn't you say you were going away?" Maki asks, a bit more irritably, "I'm sure when we need spiritual solace we'll find someone with room to talk on the matter. I know this guy who was gonna cleanse Junes of demons, I bet he's a great one to talk to." She doesn't go a scoutin' for different reasons--ie: she can just...come by herself if she really wanted to be sneaky. She assumes that if the elevator kills everyone she'll just have to blip out herself before it hits bottom. She notices Shinjiro's sketchy looks towards Tohya but she doesn't really want to explain this current condition. So instead she slinks towards him and murmurs something to him, quietly before stepping aside. What did she say to Shinjiro!? IT IS A MYSTERY.

The last time in Yukiko's memory that they all had gone to SEBEC? Well, that ended up with her in Mikage-cho. A little smile is returned to Tohya, but she was starting to feel a bit of nervousness flutter through her. A shadow had already appeared to taunt her, one the others seemed to know. It cannot... get much worse than this, yes?

Yukiko rather hoped it did not.

More concerning to her was the way that Kandori treated Tohya - the patronly air, other things - where Shinjiro grew suspicious of Tohya, or so it seemed, Yukiko felt a great spike of sympathy in her heart. From what she had heard of the many stories told of Kandori - few were those who followed him willingly. And some of what Tohya had told her in Sumaru was becoming much more clear.

The talking of Maki almost went unnoticed, so fervent was her gaze on Tohya and Kandori, Yukiko's voice rich with distraction as she says, "It is good to have goals - better to have a job. I um... nonmurder?" Yukiko glances towards Maki, blinking her eyes twice, "Oh, of course. You have my mobile, right? Just give me a call, um... later," she says, her attention turning forward again as she follows the group through the halls.

"Perhaps I'm one of her assets now? I never made Tohya Kidzuki do anything she didn't want to. Why try? Who has?" Kandori offers as the door closes, choosing to address Shirou with an infuriating smile while using words aimed at Thora, and to a lesser extent Tohya. If Kandori has his way, there will be a night where Shirou will find closure, and order in chaos - but that's for another midnight. And it will be midnight. A black wind may blow.

Thora's strides quickwise distance her from the elevator, her thudding steps echoing in hallways with very heavily shielded and insulated walls. Doors flash by like the windows of a passing subway car, mostly frosted, a few clear looking on rooms full of fel liquids or energy fields and well locked with vaults or cardpads or in one case... a paper seal with symbols marked out in geometric figures bounded by red ink. Ink?

And then the door at the end. It says "Observation Gallery" like the lettering on an office door over frosted glass. A vaulted room sits beyond, with the high gallery overlooking a man at a desk with a computer. The glare of the computer makes his body one huge shadow, and he is huge, a large, broad man - blond hair throwing back glare and light. His fingers type quickly and he is clearly wearing a pair of thin, small glasses on a large face.

This is probably the second thing everyone notices. The first is probably the young man in the giant tube full of stereotypical green liquid, floating, with tubes and tastefully placed metal bands covering his body. The young man has a strong resemblance to a certain young lady and Thora would be the first to see him. Glass covers the gallery to shield it from the area below. There are chairs to sit on. And a single-person elevator - two people if they're close - allows transport down to the floor below with the suspension tubes and the lone typing man in the labcoat at his desk. From above, everything looks small, as the elevator goes down two floors like some kind of mall of zombies were waiting below for whoever comes down.

Only typing rings in that room, at least until Thora bursts in.

The only ones who should kill are those who are prepared to be killed! Chie saw that in an anime once. It's a weighty topic to be sure, but...for Chie, also a fairly direct one. The KDA fights against a murderer; being one is probably not an acceptable way to do business. But she doesn't weigh in, just lets things go - keeps an eye on Kandori and a more direct one on Thora, while she hangs next to Yukiko to make sure she doesn't fall down any pit traps or have to be saved from the bellies of carnivorous plants or something. None of that happens; Chie follows. It's an eerie place, a strange place. Chie wants to call it blasphemous but doesn't know that word so she just thinks it's /bad/. And then Thora blasts through the door, and Chie sets herself, readying herself mentally for combat. Instead, she receives a young man in a glass jar, which has Chie muttering, "Oh, man," with a sort of grim understanding. Jackpot of badness. And the real bad guy is the one below, isn't it? And the elevator, and...this is way too...can the plan really be what she thinks it's going to be?

Tohya is a private person--if someone feels like she needs to answer for talking politely to Kandori in his own stronghold, then they can take it up with her later, as far as she's concerned. ...But Thora's defense of her is something she can appreciate, and Tohya quietly follows after her, feet impacting the ground softly--much more softly than they used to, back in the KNOWS castle. "It's true," she says. "I make my own choices, better or worse." And that's all she'll say in response to Kandori's words for the moment. But what was it that she claimed to be 'true'? Now, that--that, she isn't saying, not here, not now. In this new room, she doesn't rely on her eyes--that's about the worst thing to do in /this/ building, of all places. No, she senses, feeling out what's here, and then looks down towards the man at the computer... and then to the man in the tubes. Her expression remains neutral, but there's an edge to her eyes. "..." She doesn't move towards any of those chairs--instead, she takes up a position near Thora. Her presence, at least, says something. She doesn't know about the whispers--but she's trying to stay focused. "...Remember," she says quietly. "You are who you are--not just what Kandori tells you."

Shinjiro's tall frame turns slightly as Maki slips towards him; she seems to want to whisper him something, and his head tilts down towards her accordingly. The quiet words are registered, and the sharpness of his gaze lessens. He seems to drop the matter for the moment, content to await later explanation. He really would like to give Tohya the benefit of the doubt. From all he has seen, she is simply a young woman repeatedly caught in unfortunate circumstances. For the time being, however, he returns his focus to Thora. Shinjiro arrives on the scene a little after Thora; his eyes go first to the young man in the glass, and then to the man below. The resemblance is too strong to mistake, and for a moment Shinjiro simply stands and processes the inevitable and natural conclusion that Thora's origins trace back to SEBEC. It's a lot for HIM to take in, much less for Thora; Tohya says it all, for the moment, and so he simply remains close by. His presence will have to speak for him.

Yuuka maintains her position as the party caboose. She therefore, can't see very much, but that doesn't matter for much of anything considering shes' mostly here to make sure there isn't a near party wipe(like with Shadow Teddie) and to make sure that if anyone needs a hug, shes' there for them.

Given Thora's height, keeping up with her takes effort when it comes to matching her stride. Of course, the likes of Shinjiro, Shirou, and Tohya can accomplish this with much less effort. Yuuka...well, she's shit out of luck. Better run fast, shorty.

Immediately, Thora is mugging the glass of the vaulted room to peer down. She presess her face and hands against it, smudging it with her heavy breath. Her fingers squeak against the glass as they slowly slide down.

Eyes first fall upon the guy in the tube, his presence is actually a little bit of a surprise. She knew he still lived thanks to some well-phrased questions, but she hadn't expected to see him too tonight. "Sigvard.." she mutters, her eyes finally narrowing upon the older man. One hand clenches into a fist and pounds against the glass, thankfully not hard enough to break it.

A strange scent is barely smelt on the edge of her senses, one unknown to her previously and immediately she attaches it to her brother. All the Itohs had a persona. All the Endas had a persona. Clearly if one sibling had the power, then the other must too, right? "That's him, Maki." Thora finally says through gritted teeth, "That one. Has to be my brother."

Putting her mouth in a straight line, she pushes away from the window and turns to look at Tohya. "...yeah." she says quietly, "I remember."

Shifting her grip on her hammer, she heads for that elevator, "Time to say hi to dad." Her tone has an...unsettling cheerfulness to it that should make the likes of Shinjiro-or hell, everyone here, worry a little. Slinging her hammer over her shoulder so it's as vertical as possible, she steps inside.

The elevator snaps shut behind Thora at the same moment that the giant robot punches aside a wall panel and walks into the gallery.

"...Once. Just /once/ I'd like to come to this buidling without /something horrible happening/" Shirou watches Thora go in without even letting him wedge up against her to go down with her. That's probably what erked him the most. He turns his attention to the machine, sighing just a bit. "Please tell me you're here to serve beer and wine, and not attack us. 'cause seriously, I think my girlfriend is about to commit murder. I /really/ don't need this right now." He pleads, leaning a bit on the glass of the observitory, glancing down towards Thora and her 'brother'... Gods, was Thora created like this?

Minagi followed, it wasn't that hard for her...after all, she was small and fast. It gave her an advantage in these small halls. However, the end of the hall ended with Minagi watching... This was horrible...and it became even worse when Minagi realized what was going on. Thora's brother was in the tube? She had a brother? This was news to her...and it might explain somethings...she shook her head, frowning. If that man was her dad... Minagi's eyes just narrow...this was horrible. Why? It was just unforgivable. Minagi takes a breath...and cocks her head up. So a robot huh? Minagi steps forward, and looks back at Thora. "Do what you need to do. I think a few of us can handle this."

The elevator containing Thora slowly moves downward and reaches the bottom, allowing her to step out. The man is still typing at his computer when the elevator dings to let her out. Unless she hits the Emergency Stop or Hold buttons, it goes back up to let someone else get on. Or she can head back up.

Meanwhile, the robot rolls and trundles forward, legs pumping, hydraulics working, shadowy energy gathering around its weaponry and then exploding in some kind of hellish non-elemental attack straight out of a Final Fantasy game. It is lucky it is some kind of terrible robot or it might feel intimidated.

Or else it might feel sad Thora didn't want to play.

"This building is designed for horrible things, Sekigawa-san," Yukiko says, a little frown touching her lips. The slender form of Yukiko turns towards Thora, the girl unable to keep her eyes from the suspended canister of... whatever that was, in the air. Another person? It looked an awful lot like Thora... goodness, was Thora's brother being experimented upon? "We should rescue him," Yukiko confides quietly in Chie and Tohya, biting on her lower lip as she draws her fan from her belt.

With a practised flick of her wrist, the fan snaps open, Yukiko taking a stern step forward to follow after Thora - when the door snaps shut, and worse - a robot appears?! "It's a trap?!" Yukiko squawks, the colourful fan lifted as she backpedals rather hastily from the direction that the robot was stomping from. Especially when it starts to attack like that, "Look out!"

Maki is ready to be killed at any moment. It might be a bullet from a far off sniper or her brain suddenly deciding to stop working because of the eldricht surgeries upon her psyche. She likely didn't join the KDA to catch a single murderer. She would think of that as an inefficient use of her time. But to find the truth? Certainly. Is that worth killing over? Probably not. But if she has to kill a bitch to stop them from torturing, killing, or doing worse to others? It's unlikely that she'd hesitate. Arrows are kind of not something she'd be using otherwise. "I think that might be her brother." Maki says, regarding the floating individual. "I'd like to try and save him."Shirou and Minagi are being nuked, Maki doesn't immediately intercede on their behalf. She manages to say this almost precisely the same time Yukiko brings it up. She gives Yukiko an odd look before smiling. "right." She adds. "Some of us can deal with the robot, rest of us go down to help him?"

It should be disturbing that Tohya is not as fazed as some others, to see the way of making people, to see the glass tubes, the resemblence... but Tohya knows all too well what SEBEC is willing to do to people to get what it wants--to accomplish its goals. She won't speak for Thora, but she sensed the same--the power here. She's delivered her caution to Thora, and that's what she can do, for now. Except--that cheer in her voice, to visit her father. Tohya moves to follow Thora, but the elevator snaps shut in front of the former Daybreak leader, leaving her back here--and Thora to face her father. She does her best to get the elevator to open--but nothing happens. Instead... She turns, to face the robot. ...? A rescue--Tohya slides her eyes to Yukiko, then. Maybe they should. She says to Maki, "Let's." Is this Thora's business? Maybe. But Tohya's no automaton--she has her own ideas about what to do in a situation like this... and she won't see any more Maki Sonomuras. "I'll run support to take care of this while you work on him, Maki-chan," she says more loudly, and sets off against the robot. Power--that's just fine. She steps back, taking in a deep breath as Persephone appears from behind her--crowned this time not simply in iron, but iron and leaves, a springtime moment. She sets up the resonance... and green circles converge on the robot. "Commencing analysis..." she says for the first time in a good while.

"Damnit!" Thora swears as she sees that Shadow show up seconds before the doors close. Her hand strays towards the emergency stop button but hesitates as she realizes just how close she is to her goal. And if she went out there without the rest of them, nobody would be able to hold her back. On the other hand, that would completely defeat the purpose of warning them of tonight. She hesitates all the way to the bottom and she decides against an emergency stop as that would disable the elevator completely.

Then how the hell was anyone else supposed to get down. She steps out of the small chamber and, after glancing behind her, hits the "up" button on the outside to send it /back/, undamaged and in full working order.

She lingers near the door for a few seconds before steping forward, considering her various options of getting the man's attention. Eventually she opts for a loud throat-clearing followed by a "Hey /old man/."

Shirou seems to dodgeroll to the side just before he gets 'nuked' by that stranger blast of unelemental energy. One moment he's leaning on the wall, and the next he's on his knee a partialy few feet away, wincing as he feels the arcane energies explode next to him. "Fine, whatever, I do /not/ have time for this. Whoever can help Thora, do so. I got this." He says with uncharacterstic anger and determination, a dark aura eminating out of him as he once more calls Charon out, the ghostly ferryman reaching out with a skeletal hand, trying to wrap the machine in darkness.

Minagi gets a face full of NUKLEAR POWER! It burns like hygeen to a nerd. Slowly, she gets up, growling with annoyance as other people start to move in. Shaking her head, she eyes the large machine...so it wanted to play rough eh? Minagi's hand pulls the blade while Shirou steps up his attack. "Don't have time to deal with you...so lets make this quick and painful." She says to the robot. However... She sucks in a breath...her Persona appears...the large wolf seems to also take a sharp breath in before... A very lout HOWL escapes both her and her persona, litterally pelting the robot with the force of her voice. The primal energy coursing through them both, as the two worked in coordination to cause the machine to have random malfunctions.

"I'm going with Senpai." Meaning, where Shinjiro goes, Yuuka will follow.

This is the number one way to make sure Mitsuru knows she didn't do something stupid again and this is the number one way to make sure Mitsuru knows SEES does use the (not-offical) buddy system and the number one way Mitsuru knows if she wants to be nosy with anyone other than Shinjiro, Yuuka is there. It saves Yuuka from getting glared at too. (By everyone.)

"Oh, lovely." She states as Shirou dodges and Minagi gets hit. "Right. Senpai?" She inquires, even as Unicorn appears over her head, the Persona casting a strange glow around the robot temporarily.

"Wh--" Chie squawks, turning as THora cheerfully walks into a situation that seems to have THIS IS A TRAP, THORAS VERY WELCOME hanging over it in bright neon. "Hey, don't go in there! At least not alone, that's why we're here! That's, that's /such/ a--" CLANG. "...trap! God DAMN that girl has yogurt for brains!!" She stomps on the ground, halfway hoping her frustration will reveal the floor is actually fragile enough for them to break through. She's pretty sure she can break through if she REALLY WANTS, but they'd need time, time they do not have because AHHH KILLER ROBOT. "They have killer robots!?" Chie demands, incredulous. Yukiko makes the call, Chie looks upa t the brother, murmuring, "OK," with a nod. "...but remember, this is...their turf. Everything here has been set up. It...probably wouldn't be smart to just assume they left an innocent guy hanging there for us to save." It's more likely they stuck him with Black Attraction and then he'll wake up and tear out Chie's organs. :( Friggin' Kurumi. Seriously, screw her. "Ok, uhhh..." She sets her feet, checks around, and...Tomoe's Evoker Card descends, Chie snapping a kick through it! The Persona arises, whipping its Naginata before engulfing Chie in a burst of strength! "OK! Let's rock!" she says. And then turns and stares as the elevator comes back up, muttering, "Huh. I...totally did not expect that to actually happen."

Shinjiro knows that tone of voice. He knows Thora is likely to do something highly inadvisable to the integrity of her immortal soul. As such, he moves immediately towards the elevator as she steps in, perhaps expecting to go down once it returns. Her brother, she said. So she has a brother, one who looks like some kind of engineered entity. Was Thora made this way...? Shinjiro's thoughts are rather rudely interrupted by the appearance of that guardbot. His hand moves instantly towards his weapon, but it hesitates as he notes-- in his peripheral vision-- Thora approaching her father. He casts an eye over the situation, considering Maki's proposed plan of 'some stay with the robot, some go down to help,' before making a rapid decision. He turns back towards that elevator. As everyone else seems prepared to take care of the robot, it doesn't bother him that the elevator only fits one person; he steps into it immediately as it returns, intent on joining Thora below. "You help with the robot up here," he orders as Yuuka expresses a desire to follow him, before the doors shut. Stepping out at the bottom, long strides take him after Thora, though he does not yet speak or come too close to this bitter family reunion. There's no guarantee, after all, that Thora won't be attacked by something /below/. Best if she has some backup down there as well.

The door in snaps open on the top floor shortly after, allowing someone else to make the trip down to help/stop Thora and to fight among themselves for that purpose. On the floor below, the man stands and turns to confront her.

He rises like a mountain having a sudden notion that it might like a glass of milk. First he runs one hand through his mane of blond hair, then he shrugs a little and shuffles in his chair. Then he rises, slowly, and turns to face the girl with the hammer. "Ah, yes, I'd gotten a memo." comes his deep, resounding voice, and his broad shoulders blot out the light from the monitor, leaving the two in the sickly green cast generated by the tube and its contents.

"What is it?" He says, sounding impatient and slowly removing his reading glasses before clipping them to a hook on his labcoat's pocket protector.

The air around him sizzles with some kind of energy as he seems to be inspecting Thora with an active, incisive curiosity. "Hmm, yes, not prepared yet, the sample hasn't reached mass." He seems to be manipulating a lattice of light in front of his body using his fingertips, inspecting it here, touching it there, aiming to tease out some vital information.

"Very well, let's have it." And he spreads his arms wide, shrugging his shoulders and leaving his body completely open for a hammerblow.

Above, someone might notice something.

Of course, that is, if they have time between analyzing the machine to weaken it and Shirou's darkened hellbomb which rips through it and leaves significant parts of it (barely in this world in the first place) fighting to stay corporeal. The injuries to the mechanism reveal that its parts might be a little too fluid or organic to be truly machine. SEBEC might not have this kind of technology... perhaps only in its dreams? Or in everyone's nightmares.

Minagi's creature's howl leaves the beastly machine nonplussed. Then the scything knives begin to fly. You KNOW it had them somewhere. Yuuka's unicorn sends out a wave which is narrowly dodged by the shadowy wundermech.

It switches attack priorities. HEALER DETECTED?!? Also it may have a programming bool to cause it to go for Minagi.

Okay maybe Kandori has a joystick, guy. Maybe he's our there mastering it in the security booth.

If he attacks them after they rescue him, they can deal with that later. Meanwhile, Tohya /is/ focused, but it only takes a little focus to begin the analysis--and with Persephone summoned, her resonance sense is in overdrive. She can feel nearly everything here, notice the beginnings of power before attacks are made, sense the warped reality of this building and the fact that SEBEC can do all kinds of terrible things. She keeps her eyes closed, senses Shinjiro move down--the best choice, she thinks--and people calling out about a trap, about something going on... The attacks she ignores, in the meantime, as her eyes snap open. She stands, stock-still, for a moment, and... to all accounts, does nothing at all, not so much as looking down below to what's going on with the young woman that she came here to support in the first place. Yet--she offers no further attack this round. "Hit it with all you have!" she shouts to the group, instead.

The knives rain down into Minagi...at this rate she wasn't going to stay up forever. Blood from yet more injuries runs down her arms and chest...but she ignores it. She can worry about being hurt later...with a sudden viciousness to her moves, she dives in at the robot, litterally aiming to flip up onto it's back and jump off... Hopefully this distracted it enough for her persona to come in right behind it, trying to knock the machine to the ground and attempt to rip off a piece of it. If the persona manages to at least do that, it drops a piece of the machine at her feet, which Minagi really wishes she could give it a persona treat... Maybe she'll find a Emperor to go social link with later as a treat.

Thora inspects this man for a second, sussing out what she can of his appearance given the horrible lighting that this area provides. He's tall, blonde...very un-Japanese. She could envision this man as her father. She seems almost curious as she edges forward, back hunched and persona snarling. It's not hard to sense it now, Thora never really being capable of hiding it from others. His insolent impatient tone does little to help her restraint.

snap

"Not prepared? NOT PREPARED?! WHO THE HELL DO YOU THINK I AM!?" Thora roars with sudden anger, her body in motion, persona tearing into existance as it runs alongside her at the man with outstretched hands.

A foreign /thought/ invades her mind and the sender suddenly finds a strange, primal thing pushing back in addition to the anger swarming through the girl's mind. Tohya's words sound so far away and a small part of her does comprehend them. No. A trap. Resonance shift.

But as she's already in motion, it's now far too late, her eyes sliding into that harsh and tiny state signifiying her berserker rage.

When Shinjiro arrives at the bottom, he'll be treated to the scene of Thora just about to strike her father with persona and weapon alike.

Yuuka blinks at Shinjiro, especially as senpai wanders off. "But /senpai/, Kirijo-senpai will-" The elevator doors snapped shut and Yuuka snaps her own mouth shut, noticing the tempest slashes just a moment too late, her future words coming out in a large 'gurk' of noise, staggering into the nearest wall. She takes her time recovering, then finds the nearest security camera, if possible, and--

Flips it off. "Fuck you and the horse you rode in on, Kandori. You knew this was waiting." She considers the group, then shakes her head quietly, ignoring the machine and peering downstairs. "Senpai... Thora..."

"I'm not taking the elevator like a normal person!" Maki protests, "That is totally NOT dynamic." Maki may not be the most ethical person around, but she has some dramatic standards here She walks up to the safety glass and, because she is master of ice and water, summons Matsu silently. "Freeze." She says, allowing Shinjiro to be a normal person god he's totally not dramatic at all!! But regardless of her feelings regarding Shinjiro's lack of dramatic whimsy, the window is frozen solid within a few sharp moments. And then Maki launches several arrows at it, shattering the frozen window into tiny frozen glass bits. It's totally dramatic! If perhaps going to be a bit of trouble. "It might be! But we can't just give up because it's probably a trap! Matsu! Once more--frozen slide!" A wave of water pours from above, solidifying into ice as it nears the edge of the fall, spiraling down to the ground. Carefully, Maki gets on this suicidal slide and swoops down it at a clip. She's sure the others will be fine because they're badass!

"I dunno," calls a warped, cracked voice from out of nowhere as Thora screams at her father. Thora prooooooobably doesn't even register it before she starts running and screaming to attack her dad, but Kyrie melts out of the wall, golden eyes narrowed. "It doesn't seem like you learned anything since *I* saw you last, anyway." Because isn't it strange that Keldan's just *standing* there, inviting Thora to strike him down? He has to know what kind of power Thora wields. He's got a powerful hunch that Thora's about to get her ass handed to her, all because she flew off the handle and attacked without thinking. Then again, maybe Keldan's overestimating his ability to tank her. Or maybe his imminent gruesome death would be /just as planned/!! Who knows? Kyrie doesn't--and that's why he's here in the first place. When Shinjiro steps out of the elevator, Kyrie snaps his head over his way, then steps out of the wall completely to join the party. There's really no time to say or do anything; the Shadow man simply gives the SEES senior a sharp look before he stares back at the father-daughter reunion without making any motion to interfere.

Shirou grins, satisfied that his hellbomb does /something/ to the machine. Well, if that's the case... He clenches a fist, his body almost wreathed in black/purple energy, his resonance spiraling and colessing somewhere in his being, as he glares at the machine. Thora just about to kill that man that she calls father is lost on him. Right now he's rather tunnel-visioned on something to break. He sees that card manifest for Charon once more, and he swipes at it with his yari, more darkness crashing down upon the machine.

Abhorrence leaks into Shinjiro's demeanor more and more as father speaks to daughter as if taking notes over a petri dish. Some part of him, the uglier part which was beaten back months ago but still lies dormant in his mind, tells him not to stop Thora. Her father deserves every inch of the painful blow coming his way. He abandoned her-- by all indications, he has used her all her life. His lack of regard for life, embodied in the still figure of Thora's brother in that tube, is chilling-- --but mostly, in looking at that indifferent face, those measuring eyes, that total lack of paternal care, Shinjiro-- for one brief moment-- thinks about the father that left HIM behind. For one moment, Shinjiro is forced to consider the possibility that his father, just like Thora's, abandoned him voluntarily. It makes him a little slow on the uptake. By the time he remembers himself, Thora is rushing at Keldan. The hammer swings. Shinjiro may or may not be able to stop that blow before he bodily seizes Thora's arm and applies all his strength to holding her back. Garm, however, is more potentially lethal, and Shinjiro makes certain to stop -him-; Castor charges into being from nowhere, trying its level best to blindside the wolf and throw it off its killing course. "If you kill him right now," he says, breath short with exertion, "you won't get any answers."

When Thora comes in range, Keldan moves. It's a deceptively nimble movement for such a large man. Both hands strike forward, knife-edge held and with the tips aimed right for Thora's abdomen and - somehow - for Garm's chest. A shadowy figure rises from the body of the large un-Japanese man and it follows his arm motion with one of its own aimed for the dog persona. But Castor pushes it aside when it saves Garm. The persona and the man, following the strike, let Thora and her hammer pass right on by along with Shinjiro, Castor, and Garm - the moves, to those versed in style, are distinctively judo-derivative, allowing Thora's momentum to carry her OVER his hand and into the force of her own dash even as she tries to compensate. And then he stands to one side, feeling glass shards come down in a frozen shower from Maki's Dynamic Slide. (The new dance craze haunting the Melbourne scene) as Shinjiro and Thora regroup.

Above him hangs a figure, a shadowy laughing trickster face dressed in green.

"LOKI!" cries Keldan, apparently to no purpose, then a dark wearying wind surrounds Thora and hangs there.

Up on the walkway, the storm of elements has ripped most of the armor off of the Vanishing Machine. The mecha lets loose with a more focused strike at Shirou. The darkness really seems to be eating away at it, but so too is everything else. Shirou gets the full breadth of its focus in the form of an extremely sharp and powerful weapon stab.

Keldan laughs, and the laugh is short and bark-like.

"I have to say, the experimental group has been a disappointment! Your progress is nowhere close to that of the Control." Here Thora's father gestures to the tube, and the sleeping figure within.

Briefly, Tohya flinches, at something she's sensed--she shakes her head, though, and attempts to refocus. That's that, then. Even as... Maki.. is... That's /definitely/ iMaki. Meanwhile, the robot's still here and the real important matter is going on /down there/. The elevator probably isn't back, but that's fine. Tohya tries to split her attention and finds... this is a losing proposition, at least while this robot is here. /She's/ fine up here. Everyone else...? "I don't have time for this" she mutters. "Persephone!" Persephone lifts her head, and lets out an unearthly wail, the force of which is visible in the air as it seeks out the Shadow before her (has she mentioned that it's one of those? Sure hasn't. It should be impossible for it to be here.) She glances, then, to Maki, headed down.

Minagi notices the machine is starting to wear down...alright...good. If they can just take it down quickly, they can get down to the lab below...or whatev-holy shit did Maki just explode the observation window? That was kinda cool. Minagi! Eyes on the prize! She turned to look at the monster...the Persona hovering around her as she thought... "Lets do this!" She says, swinging the fist forward and aiming to punch the machine... However, the Persona fueled the punch, before litterally forcing itself out of Minagi's hand and attempt to litterally RIP through the machine in a horrible horrible fassion...and with nore of it's important pieces in it's mouth. They are dropped at Minagi's feet.

Between the boy in the test tube and Keldan's dispassionate way of speaking to Thora, it's not like Kyrie is all that crazy about him either. But this is also, at least in part, business, and Kyrie saw him being a Persona-User coming from a million miles away. He watches as Shinjiro and his Persona all but tackle Keldan down, cocking his head to one side-- And wonders, given Shinjiro's /own/ abandonment issues, how long he's going to espouse a no-kill philosophy in front of a jackass this big. "How long've you been a Persona-User?" he asks Keldan pensively from over in his corner. "At least as long as your kids have been in the works, I'm assuming?"

"Aragherahnahgh!" Thora tries to vocalize in her berserk state, trying to convey what she had learned from Tohya seconds before it's actually demonstrated. But right now, she's a little too enraged to properly employ the speech centers of her brain at this second. Any other time, someone would hear that odd vocalization and laugh. Right now though...

Shinjiro grabs her and starts to yank her backwards. Her hammer meets air as the large man that is her father manages to just slide out of its way and jam a pointed hand into her stomach. "HOOF-"

Garm manages to evade getting struck himself as Castor shoves it aside, though with no small amount of irritation from the doglike persona. The dog scrabbles around on the lab floor and tries to scramble around to flank Keldan.

Thora doubles over, her back end nearly running into Shinjiro. Her golden eyes pop open when she sees the ghostly figure looming over her father. "-what?!" So that smell earlier wasn't her brother after all. Tohya was right. "You assfuck!" Thora snarls, struggling to pull herself free of Shinjiro. "I'll kill you!" As the sickening wind swirls around her, the struggle lessens a little.

It's now that Garm finally attacks, leaping in at Keldan's flank. It's mouth droops open, drool and spittle spewing forth as it tries to sink his teeth into Keldan's torso.

The world certainly went terrible in a hurry. Out of the corner of Yukiko's eye, she spies Shinjiro stepping into the elevator leading down below - but whatever he might have shouted is ignored in favour of clutching her ears at the horrible wail coming from Tohya's persona, Yukiko's attention snapping back to the present - to the here and now.

A small shake of her head, and Yukiko lifts her fan, held parellel to the ground as she stares across the way towards the robot, that has mercifully ignored her thus far. Jaw clenching, she closes her eyes, and calls upon the strength hidden inside of herself. Konohana Sakuya answers.

"Come!" she calls, eyes snapping open as she narrows them like lasers upon the robot. "Konohana Sakuya!" And as she crushes the tarot card associated with the dancing giant, the towering form of the persona comes and goes, leaving petals of flame hopefully decorating the 'robot'.

Yuuka stares blankly down at what shes' watching. "Oh No..." She dodges around the group. They have Yukiko, they have a dedicated healer. Thora and Shinjiro do not, and frankly, uhhh, Yuuka would rather get bitched at later for intruding rather than risk staying up there and letting the two walk into something that could get them both killed.

Not like they both can't just throw Keldan through a wall anyways, knowing Shinjiro and Thora.

She ducks for the elevator and attempts to gtf down there.

Shirou effortlessly steps aside, avoiding the machine's attack with just a little fancy footwork. Maybe if he trains up his agility, he'll be flash-stepping all over the place. But his ire is up, as he snarls. "Will you just /break down/ already, so I can stop all this?" He raises up a hand, ignoring right now the fact that Yuuka's heading for the elevator. Maybe all that blood-knighness of his friends is infecting him. "DIE" he screams, more opressing darkness tearing into the machine, runes appearing then dissapearing in puffs of dark smoke.

So far so good, Maki thinks as she finally drops down to the ground, leaping the rest of the way rather than take the time to slide all the way down. Ideal Maki is a bit more physically adept than Maki really is. She is really pissed off at Keldan too but she isn't letting it affect her demeanor. Thora's brother is counting on her to figure out this computer system. Hell with everybody raging out--someone needs to be the sensible rational one! Of course, Maki is crazy so her definitions of these things may defer than the expected. Regardless, she trusts Shinjiro kill a parent properly and doesn't think she needs to help destroy Thora's father herself. First things first, anyway. She steps by the computer and examines it for a few moments. She lookat at its sides and around and looks up to Tohya. "Tohya-Chan!" She shouts, "I can't find the place to plug in my brain!" She looks back at the computer again. "Well--maybe I can try it normally." she frowns, examining the technology in front of her.

"Since before, yes." Keldan answers dispassionately. "They are mine." What Keldan is talking about might not be clear, until Loki swats Garm's assault aside as if hitting a butterfly with a mallet. Keldan isn't even looking at his daughter, exploring Kyrie with his eyes instead. Seeming to sidestep very quickly at the moment Loki does his work.

That ball of light appears between the man's massive hands as the labcoated Persona user "scans" the shadow man. His face light up, marvelling. "But there's no data!" Fog spangles across the web of light he's wielding at about the same time iMaki hits the ground running.

On the upper walkway, Minagi punches the machine backward as flames pool at its feet and move up, melting parts of it and putting heat to the electrical contacts and circuitry that is imagined as being part of the device. Not realistic, but neither is metal catching fire and keeping on burning like that - yet it does!

It still has enough presence to evade Shirou's darkness and make a final intense effort at doing harm.

On the ground, Keldan yells "GET AWAY FROM THERE!" at Maki, but he hasn't yet taken his eyes off the shadow man. Priorities? Well, what Persona father knows what /priorities/ are.

Shock jolts through Shinjiro's system when Keldan reveals not only that he is quite adept at hand to hand-- but also, that he has a Persona. But, he thinks blankly, even as Castor wheels and snorts out a breath, its hooves clacking loudly on the barren floor, I should have sensed it. Shinjiro may not have much ability to sense Resonance, but he's had his Persona for so many long years it's trivial for him to sense other /Persona-users/. Or at least, it should be. So Keldan managed to hide that too. It certainly doesn't help that Keldan continues to refer to Thora so disparagingly. It's becoming harder and harder for Shinjiro to remember his purpose here, to remember that patricide would bring Thora over the lip of some dark cliff. To have a father abandon you, only to return to your life in such a cold and inhuman fashion... Shinjiro's jaw hardens. But ultimately, Kyrie doesn't give him and the fervor of his no-kill philosophy enough credit. Shinjiro's no-kill isn't espoused because he doesn't feel the people in question deserve death. His philosophy would have long since crumbled if that were the reason. It's espoused because he feels the victims, who would become murderers in the pursuit of their vengeance, deserve to have their hands remain clean. He knows what it feels like when you can no longer claim clean hands. And so, consciously, he does not want Thora to kill her father. To that end, Shinjiro TRIES to command Castor to intercept Garm. But some deep, visceral part of him just does not want to do it-- some part of him WANTS to see Keldan punished for what he's done-- and is still doing-- even if only a little. The horse balks, disobeying Shinjiro for the first time in weeks, and Shinjiro's ensuing fear deteriorates his command over the Persona even further. He still keeps ahold of Thora, however, his low voice contemptuous and carrying: "Hurt him all you want. But don't kill him. We might still need him to figure out this shit down here..."

It's SEBEC. The world always goes terrible in a hurry--on the other hand, being here, where reality is thin, gives Tohya an /advantage/... And a liability. She clamps down on something in her mind, and the reason she's been fairly quiet is /not/ apparent. She glances to Yukiko then-- "Good job! Keep going!" She looks to the machine, still up... not much longer, though. She lifts her hand, and fires off a bolt of sickly green energy, Persephone's hand moving in time to deliver the essence of death to the creature. Whether it works or not, she shouts back down to Maki, "Just go the normal way! And watch your back!" She eyes Keldan, from what she can see here. She doesn't have time not to anymore--she lets her Persona fade, and heads to the window, staring down...

Backhanded like an insect, Garm's form suddenly goes completely incorpreal, reduced to a red mist that disperses on the air and vanishes. At this, Thora doubles over again, eyes widening, one hand clutching her head. "What the hell!" Her mind still burns with fury, especially when her father doesn't even seem to be paying attention to her right now in favor of analyzing Kyrie.

Analysis powers. /Shit/. That meant he really did know entirely what she was capable of and wasn't just being arrogant for the sake of being arrogant. Despite this, Thora growls and pushes herself back up again, trying to wiggle free of Shinjiro. "Fine." she says in a low, pained voice. "Just let me hurt him..."

Her hands tighten around her weapon again and she tears free, eyes reverting to that feral state once more. She doesn't call out Garm, she only calls out herself in that familiar wild state. At least maybe she could surprise him with this one violent rage as she brings her hammer down repeatedly until she loses her grip upon it.

And after that, she'll follow up with continuous pummeling until her knuckles bleed, if she gets that far. Speaking of blood, a thin stream begins to drip from her left nostril.

The blade came to cut Minagi in half... Minagi, however, was now moving faster than the damaged machine was. Leaping back, Minagi quickly dug her heel into the ground and came forward, litterally trying to run up the blade of the larger robot and flip into the air. The Wolf Of Gubbio appeared once more... "GO!" she shouted as both persona and human aimed to land ontop of the monster...the Wolf, however, aiming to send both claws and it's fangs into the robot...ripping and shreading as Minagi aimed to send her sword into damaged places... Both leap off...before landing like master and large wolf behind it... Hopefully EXPLOSIONS follow.

A brief smile touches Yukiko's lips at Tohya's call, her lips held tightly together. Yukiko herself falling into a dance reminiscent of Konohana Sakuya as the fan snaps open, and she weaves it before herself. Turning her attention to the machine, she bites her lower lip... right when it explodes like that after Minagi takes care of it, her eyes narrowing softly as she senses the machine basically give up the ghost.

Whatever that could mean in a place like this.

So as opposed to calling on Konohana Sakuya for destruction, Yukiko calls upon her for restoration, a long sigh leaving her as the persona appears, a brief whirling dance sending light to blossom upon many of those here. "Good job!" Yukiko calls, breathing out another sigh as she twists the fan in her hand and uses it to buffet air towards her face. "But, um... where's Thora-san?"

Ding ding to Hel.

...

Yuuka Chiba slips out of the elevator quietly, quarterstaff still held in a tight one-handed grip as she creeps towards the side, to watch. She's got no right to talk lately.

"Uh, right, normal... Normal, I've used computers normally before..." Maki murmurs to herself before looking back to Keldan. Maki says, "Uh, no?" to him. She looks back to the screen and gives it a once over, and then a second over. World-world style persona? She isn't sure what that means offhand. Read, read. This doesn't look good for a rescue team, not at all. She's not sure they CAN save him while he's in this condition. She saves the logfile that's on the screen detailing Bro's condition, copies it to the flash drive and (properly) ejects the drive, stuffing it in her pocket. This might be the best she can do in this condition, especially if he's under the influence of Lib. "Thora!" She calls out to her, "He's been feeding your brother Lib, he's comatose--on life support!--I don't know if I can get him out without hurting him, what should I do?!" It's her bro, so her call really. Though daddy was using Lib? Might be how Dr. Raito Ohki knew him, anyway. Another mystery solved?!

Shinjiro is opposed to killing. He is not opposed to violence, harsh corrective measures, or well-deserved pummeling. He applied all three to anyone who crossed or sassed him in the back alleys of Port Island, after all. He thinks Keldan probably deserves some of it now. Just let me hurt him, Thora asks. Shinjiro is silent a moment, before-- his eyes rife with dislike-- he glares at the father who abandoned his daughter. He says nothing, but lets her go. Castor stills, standing by not far away, its red eyes watchful. He stands nearby, just in case Thora needs assistance; his eyes turn to Maki as she delivers that update on Sigvard.

Oh good, that thing is defeated now. Shirou takes a sigh of relief, as he /sprints/ towards the broken glass, and makes his /own/ dynamic entrance into the area, rolling as he lands, trusting in the enhanced stamina that Charon affords him to tank the blow... he /does/ feel his shoulder crack and more then likely pop out of place. He rubs it, trying to crack it into place as he growls. "Okay... what did I miss..."

Behind her, Minagi finishes the thing off--and Tohya is already looking down to see what she can see, what she can sense--because 'vision' isn't her strong point--she left the glasses, for this particular outing. Yukiko's healing washes over her, though, and she replies, "Down there. If you can get there, go for it. But I'd like somebody to watch my back up here," she admits. After all... as a spotter, she doesn't have to be in the action to help, right? The problem is--does he have analysis abilities himself? And then--Tohya blinks again, shaking her head, as that same presence rushes up against her mind. Persephone manifests again, and Tohya relies on her, instead of her mundane senses--blood, from Thora. Thora's... She can't leave her alone down there. She closes her eyes, and focuses just on her former guard, current friend. She can't do much directly from here, but... Her senses shift to Keldan. "Tell me your secrets," she murmurs to herself. "Show me..." But what Maki's shouting about the brother's condition--disturbing. Very, very disturbing.

Yuuka Chiba says quietly, "The elevator /was/ working you guys." Shirou Sekigawa glares at Yuuka. "That was /faster/"

That's right, Yuuka. No one wants to hear you talk anyway! "Figured," Kyrie muses, before cocking his head the other direction when Keldan starts to analyze him. He chuckles nastily when Keldan finds him impossible to decipher--trial and error within distant human sensations, a space without time or dimensions--thanks to that fog. "You're a scientist in the realm of the supernatural. You didn't think you could figure just *anything* out, did you? Life is boring without a few mysteries to spice it up." He gestures expansively at himself. "Consider me the embodiment of that." But no, Shinjiro wouldn't /immediately/ go 'yeah let's kill the fucker'; his guilt complex is *far* too powerful for that. But Kyrie can hear the contempt in his voice, and--he staggers briefly, his link on the other side having just walked into a door frame, god dammit--and then suddenly people start pouring down. "Damn, it's a party in here now," he mutters, though he does perk up when Maki starts revealing the truth about Thora's brother. Kyrie only knew so far about what had been going on here, so this ought to be damn interesting.

"I also made a slide," Maki adds, "You know, if you didn't want to jump two stories." Shinjiro notices Yuuka arriving a lot sooner than her companions. His eyes narrow. "I told you to help up there," he says shortly, before his eyes move to Kyrie with blatant dislike. Shirou closes his eyes. "Please, save all critiques of my heroic performance till /after/, thank you..." Kyrie wiggles his clawed fingers at Shinjiro jauntily, like saying hello to his bestest friend in the whole wide world, which, technically speaking, he very nearly is. Yuuka Chiba points at the window. "I just beat them down here, senpai." She says, eyes widening. Don't be mad.

Death strikes, but the being carries on, perhaps able to fudge the definition of "alive" enough to carry on in the face of Persephone's wrath. Then death comes in a crueler, paler form. On the walkway above, Minagi's blade rips the shadow in half, and it explodes in a puff of smoke when the pieces hit the floor. A dramatic explosion does blossom, but perhaps that is because shadows are psychotrophic and know what is expected of them. The flaming red light burns the air with a hellish glare behind Minagi.

The upper walkway is a bit trashed from fallout in the fight.

On the ground, Keldan watches Thora come. His little globe of light turns its focus from Kyrie - letting the shadow man do as he will - to Thora.

Keldan sees the blows coming. He sees Thora's being, and her persona, as the core of a a spiralling ball of light. Energy, call it chakra, flows through her to points on her body as her muscles tense. Her father sees it all in slow motion, sees the glow intensify. World Revolution.

He raises both hands, palms outward, and deflects.

His body yields like a willow bending, each blow from Thora striking the flat of his palm as Loki and Keldan essentially play pat-a-cake. Using exactly the minimum amount of explosive force to reverse Thora's attack and effect a World Stabilization. Keldan's technique puts the pieces back together, reversing the damage Thora would do before it can happen, touching a web of light in just the right places to convince it not to hurt him.

And when all's done, Loki fades.

"Pathetic."

He spits at Thora, as a calm descends and his labcoat stops fluttering with his sudden hand-slaps against Thora's blows, the hand seeming to simply stop her immense force and neutralize it as if she were hitting air, but she's not, because the motion of her strikes arrests itself like a brick wall were in the way, while he seems not to move an inch.

"Who do you think INVENTED that technique? Buried it in your psyche?" And his laugh is surprisingly high and screechy for such a large man, too.

Then the cavalcade arrives and Keldan shouts: "You can't wake the control sample, not only would it be fatal, it would ruin the data!"

Minagi looks around for her sunglasses.. Goddamn it. Well, screw it. Minagi turns to look at Yukiko and smiles. She loves healing, because goddamn, the blood was starting to make holding her weapons hard. She moves by her to stand next to Tohya...she stayed there, knowing that the spotter would need someone to basicly stay there in case there were more shadows... Or more guys in black suits... Or I don't know, the goddamn Batman.

It's not often that Thora attacks something that doesn't give against her fury, save for when she misses the mark completely. This time she knows she isn't missing, she's feeling her blows land but not do anything. They don't even rebound, then energy absorbed completely by the opposite number of her usual rage. When she finally tires out, she remains, one hand still lifted up as a fist, pushing against a green disc of energy.

With a frustrated snarl, she pushes off, panting. His laughter is like anathema. Nails raked across her mind that only stir up her anger again, but not enough to summon another berserker strike against him. Why bother when she'd be met with the same results. "What did you do to Sigvard?" Maki's words finally are processed by the girl, Thora quickly recalling the promise that she made.

Tohya calls out to her once again and Thora frowns a little as she smears sweat off her forehead. "...what is it, Kidzuki? What happened?" Something pushes back inside of her and wincing, she sinks to her knees, using her hammer for support. Even in spite of this, she struggles and calls Garm forth again, incensed by the way Keldan keeps referring to her brother. Garm hangs back, unwilling to approach Keldan.

Garm resorts to spitting icicles at him. The doglike persona also looks a bit more noncorpreal than usual. Misty even. Much like his master, he seems exhausted.

"Oh my god!" Maki exclaims at Keldan, "We get it! You're a totally unethical science guy who sees his kids as experiments!" Yeah she has her own issues regarding parents who are like that. Hilariously, she's totally wrong about her mother! But what can you do? Teenagers. You give them an inch and they persona all over you. But she doesn't release. "I need a call 'f some sort, s--Thora." She says, opening up minesweeper in the background as she checks out the security systems. Maybe she can't release Sigvard yet but maybe there's some other shit she can break~.

Yuuka puts her bo staff on the ground, leaning on it like a cane.

She is... oddly, strangly, quiet.

Tohya might not have had many interactions with Minagi, outside rumors, but... well, somebody ostensibly on their side watching her back helps. She doesn't know her, so she's not completely at ease, but it's a start. Meanwhile, Tohya can see somehting of him, now, senses alive with the nature of this area and with... what she senses from Keldan. As he looks right back up at her, she stares in return, coldly. She's not going to let him get away with all this. She knows what could be done--but it's not something she /can/ do. Insead, she looks to Thora again, and, silently, replies. (I don't know what happened--I can't tell, not here, in the middle of this.) Still, she doesn't dismiss her Persona, instead, thinking--how can she work ahead, how can she move forward...? Not much. Just answers. Still, she can see Maki--.... "He's powerful," she says then, to the group. "You won't be able to take him head-on! ...But you won't have to."

Shirou is rather at a loss of what to do right now, now that the monster is down... and the /real/ monster seems to be able to stop Thora cold. Okay, so, murder is probably out of the question now. So... yeah. He rolls his shoulder, popping it back into place as he approaches Sigvard. "Loki... Garm... so /you/ must have The World Serpent, huh..." He says, quietly, the connections to the myths of Ragnarok not lost on the well-studied boy... He rests a hand on the containment glass. "Yeah, Thora... if he's comatose and doped up... that's probably not /him/ in there anymore. Just something he created." Shirou has his own abandonment issues, sure, but he's trying to keep going for THora's sake. "Depriving him of what he /wants/ is probably the best course of action here... that's my opinion though."

Chie Satonaka was slightly busy. Don't ask what, it was complicated and there were zombies. The point is: Chie is here now, and she seems vaguely annoyed the robot exploded before she finished with that fiendishly fiendish puzzle. She sees everyone moseying down the slide and swings into gear to follow, skidding down on her Rad Sneaks and flipping into the room...just in time to watch Thora and Keldan lock horns in a truly ridiculous display. She sets her feet, bracing for either combat or just to try and get a feel for what the /hell/ is going on. She frowns, though. This whole thing has been.../entirely/ too easy. He can't have had a weakness like that just...just hanging out there, can he!? A trap like this...God, she's not sure what she's expecting, and it's frustrating as hell. "I'm, uh, back," she announces. For what it's worth. She starts edging to the front - not sure what good she can do but planning to do it anyway. Hopefully something will happen that gives her some ideas.

Ever since Thora attacked, Keldan's been bunching his fists at his sides. All that energy Thora used, it had to go somewhere. He took it, he accepted it, his muscles are creaking with the effort of not letting it escape. He waits. It can only be ditched in reaction. When the first icicle touches his skin, it explodes, and a wave of hot white energy - pure force - flows back along the path it took straight for Garm's face. The next repeats the process, every strike from Garm provoking Keldan to shed a bit of energy at Thora's persona.

"The control group is being used to determine if environmental factors speed the process or hinder it. This will enable us to duplicate the process more easily." Thora's father explains, continuing to use distancing language when discussing his son.

Maki finds that there are several systems made to cleanse the entire section, including soporific gas, activation of laser tripwires, and something that says "Rapid Evacuation for Compromise Cases" and has a picture of a big red arrow.

Keldan is backing away from Thora, but he's beckoning her toward him with one hand as he approaches a hallway behind him, away from the group as a whole. "I have all I need from the experimental group, I know what state you're at, it is not entirely unimpressive."

Shinjiro nearly bares teeth at the language Keldan uses to refer to his children. As it is, his lip curls. He doesn't understand the scientific terms; but he does know how demeaning and distance-creating they are. As he begins to beckon Thora towards him, however, Shinjiro grasps at Thora's shoulder in a warning gesture.

"THORA!" Minagi shouts from the top of the observation. "KICK HIS ASS!" she says, pumping a fist into the air. "Don't let him give you crap! You're not some experiment. Your Goddamn Thora Kobayashi! Not some pet!" Minagi cheers from the sidelines...because she understands that right now only she could do this. Nobody else could do what Thora needed to do. "I got like...two hundred yen on you!" Minagi says, trying to cheer the Oni up. Or at least encourage her. It may or may not work because they aren't exactly friendly.

Garm takes a blow to the face. Then another, then another before vanishing again in a smattering of red mist. This time it amost seems like its form explodes before disappearing. At this point, Thora looks all around furious and pretty demoralized. Why wasn't anything working?!

"...keep him in there, Maki." Thora says through gritted teeth. "I don't want to go through the trouble of breaking him out of that if he's just going to die." Thora looks over her shoulder, golden eyes sliding to watch Maki as she seems to br browsing through the files there. Well if she pulls off something /useful/. It's ironic too, breaking him out with reckless abandon would be the plan Thora usually goes for but both her and Maki know it probably wouldn't work. The DVA system was a damn good example of that.

Reaching up, Thora grabs onto Shinjiro's coat so she can pull herself to her feet, using the taller teen as leverage to do so. She seems like she wants to follow but he pulls her back.

Tohya will feel a ripple of that sensation again. Thora puts a hand on top of the one Shinjiro has on her shoulder. "...come with me." she says in her low voice before breaking away, passing next to Shirou as he epouses some Norse mythology allusions. Thora walks to the glass tube enclosing her brother and puts a hand against it so she can stare up at him wistfully.

Thora takes a moment to sneak in a dirty look at Kyrie too, wherever he may be. Having /him/ watching all of this happen felt kind of...violating.

Minagi screeches at her. Thora grows furious again and pain surges through her head as she makes an attempt to call on her battered persona again. Something else ripples.

She doesn't follow her father, drawing herself up. "What /now/?" she sneers up at him.

Yukiko would prefer to use other forms of descent than ice slides made by Maki. She was certain it was a perfectly lovely ice slide, but going two stories down one was not her idea of a good way to spend an evening. Particularly in the sorts of shoes that she was wearing. But oop! There goes Chie down it!

Tossing her hair over her shoulder, she snaps her fan shut as she frowns, leaping up unto the ice slide and skidding down it with only a minimum of squeaking at accelerated speed/turns. Landing gracefully on her feet nonetheless, Yukiko frowns, her eyes sliding over the gathering thus far. Things... did not look like they were going well.

Kyrie is still more or less where he was before, though right now he's leaning against the wall, arms folded over his chest. His golden eyes are pointed over towards Maki, but when Thora shoots him that dirty glare, he returns his regard over to her coolly, before eyeballing Keldan again as he continues to talk about his kids like science experiments, and then finally to the son in the test tube himself. Huh. He seems almost... reserved, right now. What's up with that?

Well, Maki thinks, if Tohya says it's okay then it must be okay. She pushes a button to activate the laser tripwires, intending to catch Keldan. After all, there is a rapid evacuation button too. It should all be good. Okay maybe there's a reason she thinks Yosuke is pretty cool. "Well I just turned on the security system." Maki says. "But then you were like not following him after all so maybe that wasn't the best idea." She glances over to Kyrie again. "So uh. Thanks again for before. Do you want to try the super escape evacuation route button too? It seems fun--"

Shirou is on 'stand-by', casting a bit of magic onto Thora, getting her ready for the -okay who set up the security system? Shirou manages to get Diamai out before what is likely all hell breaking out.

Chie watches that absorption and release of power, eyes widening. "He's...can you do that!?" she demands, not so much of Keldan (who clearly can) but of the universe, as if questioning the divine ruling that let him pull off this malarkey. Freakin' Stand tricks!! She has little else to assert for this; this is a little outside her realm, though she does try to approach Thora. She promised to stand by the large girl, and if anyone can take any stupid tricks to the face, it's Chie, provided those tricks don't involve flame. But she has no real ideas for what to /say/, what to /do/, still trying to piece together the information she's got into some coherent whole that is more relevant than 'this guy is a whacko dick', which everyone here has already handily decided. Thora holds herself back from pursuing Keldan, so all Chie can do is look up to her...and then look up at him, awaiting the response.

"Sure, no problem," Kyrie remarks over to Maki. He pauses at her question, and gives the boy in the test tube another considering look. Somewhere miles away, a man takes a 100 yen coin out of his pocket, flips it high into the hair, catches it on the back of his palm and removes his hand-- COINFLIPSYS: Akatsuki Enda flips a coin and it lands on tails! "That sounds like fun," Kyrie concludes, snaking over to join Maki. "Lemme at it."

Maki Sonomura, for some damn reason, steps aside to let Kyrie have a shot at the shiny thing.

atsuki Enda says, "yup" The former KNOWS leader is still up near the higher area, for the moment--her feelings about Keldan are being shunted to the side right now. He's not what matters to her, really--that he'd talk that way... maybe she was with SEBEC too long, that the outrage she feels is muted in contrast to the need to act. But then... her bigges priority right now is Thora. She steps back, blinking, and Persephone winks out of exisence as she finishes staring at the test tube. She eyes the slide, and.... There goes Maki's plan. Still, she's counting on Kobayashi, and Kobayashi is... acting nothing like the mindless brute she claimed to be, even in the face of a guy who's really, really apparently good at pissing people off. "She's right," she adds. "Don't wake him up." She'd--wait, is Maki seriously working with /Kyrie/ on this one? Not that Tohya knows much about Kyrie, but this strikes high on her 'bad idea' list. A ripple....She shakes her head, and--ugh. "Hey--" This to Thora. "...You'll still have time." And then, she finally addresses Keldan, "What's your angle here, anyway?"

The laser security grid flicks on. Keldan crosses it on his way out of the room, but as it's intended to lock up the lab from incoming people, this results in shutters slamming down around the upper gallery and over the doors with him outside. An alarm does sound. He shouts back to Tohya "ANSWERS" on his way out the door, loath to leave a question unanswered, but he laughs and guffaws when leaving the room as the shutters slam behind him and he uses the back hallways to head for a surface elevator.

In the room itself, things are peaceful, almost quiet. The elevator still works, but the main door up top has closed over to keep everyone in the room in reaction to Maki's button manipulation.

Then Kyrie takes the controls.

The world seems to hold its breath. Sigvard's tank gives a "gloop".

..."Oh fuck" is all Shirou can think to say.

Shirou rouses himself up from his stupor and /launches/ himself at the Shadow thing, spear-point first, trying to get him away from the controls. To be true, he's hoping he doesn't go /through/ Kyrie, but...

That laughter...

Thora snaps all over again, in spite of her exhaustion. "WHAT DO YOU MEAN ANSWERS?!" She roars post being invigorated by Shirou's healing touch. Maybe that's all she really needed at this point to renew her struggle to make her father feel some kind of pain. A change in tactics is mentioned, especially as this 'laser defense grid' activates and shuts the hallway between her and her father. "I gotta do this, Shinjiro, or he'll disappear again." she grunts at her senpai and focuses on a less tired, less battered persona to help her out. "OUMITSUNU!"

So while other people do the smart thing and prevent Kyrie from messing EVERYTHING up, Thora commands the giant robot stone samurai that hangs around her brain to punch through the hallway shutter her father disappeared behind like it was the goddamn Gaogaigar.

Okay, she's not going to let Kyrie hit that button if she can help it--she's not sure what it's going to do. But what can she do from wo stories away...? She can at least hear Keldan's answer, and--...well. That's actually... Yeah, she's pretty annoyed that her first thought is 'oh, okay' when he's doing horrible things to someone she cares about and someone she doesn't know but who's /stuck/ here. That makes her angry. And anger... Maybe... "Maki! Don't let him touch it!" And then, she switches the presence in her mind, drawing on a strength she got from someone close to her--and summons it forth. "MITHRA!" The Persona appears, lion-faced and all, and from is opening mouth jets a beam of solid light. "Fucking--WHEN THE CREEPY SHADOW ASKS TO TOUCH SOMETHING, YOU SAY NO!" Hopefully Thora can handle herself over there.

Shinjiro holds as steady as a rock as Thora seizes his coat to lever herself back to her feet. He doesn't waver in holding her back from following her father, and he doesn't waver when she uses him for support. Her touch over his does surprise him, though, and he shoots her a look when she asks him to come with her. He does so in silence. They regard Sigvard for a few moments, action lulled-- before everything goes to hell again. He releases Thora as she declares she has to do this-- if it is a matter of her father escaping, she's probably right. "Catch him, but don't let him catch you," he tells her quietly, before he lets her go and turns to Kyrie. Castor would move a lot faster than Shinjiro himself, and so it's the Persona Shinjiro sends in an attempt to simply bodily knock the Shadow away from that button-- in what looks to be a concerted effort from pretty much everyone.

Maki doesn't seem to think Kyrie is here to be a jerk (well okay he's here to be a jerk but a LOWER LEVEL kind of jerk, she thinks). This might be because her sense of him is screwed up because of how helpful he was pretty recently. Regardless, she doesn't get in his way. However, she doesn't seem surprised that Shirou is jumping in to try and stab him but this might be less because she thinks Kyrie is here to be malevolent and more because it's Shirou, stabbing expensive machinery with his spear is what he does. "Well," She admits to Tohya, "I guess--we didn't stop him from leaving with that." She exmaines the closing shutters. "But we might be able to escape to Mikage-Cho if the secret evac button doesn't work." Pause, as Tohya freaks out about the creepy shadow guy. "Wha--but, I don't think he's here to HURT the kid--" Maki blusters, a ilttle too surprised to try and stop Adachi from doing what she let him do in the first place.

Minagi blinks... "Geeze!" Minagi says. moving from Tohya. "I'm on it!" Minagi says, quickly jumping through the window and down the slide. MInagi, dispite the seriousness of the situation shouts 'Wheee!' before coming to the end and scittering towards the Shadow. "NO! BAD SHADOW!" Minagi shouts, aiming to try and smack it across the head with the Wooden Sword.

As the door is struck by Thora's persona, it prises open, revealing a hallway beyond full of visible red lasers. On the other side, Keldan can be seen picking his leisurely way down a hallway full of doors. He keeps walking, taking a PDA out of his pocket and fiddling with the data. Meanwhile, the computer prompt, if hit, is asking if you're REALLY SURE.

"MAKI!" Thora calls out, "TURN THE LASERS OFF!"

Chie isn't really sure what to do about this one!! She wants to stay with Thora, because she left Thora alone before, and now she's VERY certain that isolating Thora is /exactly/ what this guy wants and Thora's /just/ heated enough to give it to him, even though to the outside observer it is abundantly clear that in a straight fight Keldan is going to kick Thora's ass and turn her into a pretzel and then dip her in cheese. Maki turns on the tripwires; Chie curses a little but it's not like there's much to do about that. ...and then she hands the reins over to /Kyrie/, and Chie says, "Wh--no, not that guy!" with some frustration. MAKI, SERIOUSLY!! "He tries to knife people in the streets and stuff!!" Chie sees Thora, Chie sees Kyrie, Chie has to make a call, and Chie decides to do what she's good at: Break stuff! "I think pushing buttons is a bad idea!!" she announces, and Tomoe bursts out of her, charging in with Naginata bared - flitting around the desk to try and slot her naginata handle under Kyrie's chin and just slam him up against the nearest wall. "So, uhm, can we turn the lasers off, please!? I bet the evacuation button is like a big stupid water slide or something, he'll get away!"

Kyrie completely ignores Shirou when he vaults at him spear-first, and the poor guy... just runs straight through him to the other side. Shinjiro, Tohya and Chie he takes rather more seriously, snapping to the side, forward, and around to avoid the strikes of their respective Personas, and coincidentally landing himself close to where Maki is and messing with the buttons, getting himself to the 'ARE YOU REALLY, REALLY SURE??' screen on the emergency evaculation. "Damn, the more you people don't want me to push this button... the more I *really, really* wanna push it," he drawls to the crowd. "Besides, I didn't *ask* to push it, Maki *invited* me to, didn't you, Maki?" Hell if he actually knows what it *does*, though it seems to imply that it'd let Thora's brother out of his cell, and wouldn't that be a good thing? And so, in the time that it takes Minagi to slide down two floors to make her attack on him, Kyrie is free to do what might well turn out to be a damned foolish thing, and push that button for the last time. *boop* And then Minagi brings down her bokken on Kyrie's head. It cracks in that instant that he's hit the button, sadly too late to prevent him from doing anything--and then slides through like water, and Kyrie leaps backward, possibly vaulting straight through Maki on the way. If so, it conveniently puts her in between him and Minagi and, strictly speaking, most of the rest of the room. He stands up and shrugs expansively then. "Man, do you people even pay attention to what actually happens? Or is it just that, since *I* was doing it, suddenly it was bad?" He begins to sink into the floor. "Whatever, though. Maki, you really should turn off the lasers; Keldan's getting away."

Klaxons sound. The lasers go out on their own. Klaxons sound again through the whole wing. There is a shuddering and a grinding, Thora can pursue Keldan more closely. But then Sigvard's tube starts to drop out of sight, slowly sliding into the floor as a massive platform lowers and then - foam. SO MUCH FOAM.

There are nozzles planted in floors and walls. What begins gushing out is basically fire extinguisher foam or shaving cream - it is quite cold and it expands then hardens within a few minutes to immobilize anything caught in it like a giant ball of stale candy floss. And it is spilling out at a rate which will leave many outfits needing a good wash (the material is fortunately water-soluble.) a calm voice booms: "Neutralization beginning. Evacuate the area now. If you are sane enough to understand this message, you are not who we are aiming at. Neutralization beginning. Do not ingest."

Keldan cackles, spinning to face oncoming Thora.

"Well, /that/ was a complete waste of time..." Shirou complains, loudly, as he gets back up, dusting himself off.

Well, at least this time he didn't spear anything important.

And then he gets a /facefull of foam/. Yeah, the Universe is screwing with him, he's sure. He tries to push through all the spray and hardening substance, trailing after Thora as best he can. Keeping his mouth /shut/, of course.

"...or that could happen," Kyrie adds when the klaxons go out and foam starts spraying down and a cool female voice calls for an evacuation, just before he sinks out of sight entirely.

Somewhere, this is being recorded. The fondue pots are mostly empty.

It is /slightly/ possible Kandori can aim some of those foam nozzles.

Pacing in front of the laser hallway like a restless tiger, Thora looks back to see everyone converging on Kyrie (and basically all managing to not deter him) as he pushes another one of those buttons on the console. She had, admittedly, not been paying that much attention to what had been happening over there but as alarms start going off, she kind of wishes she /had/.

"C'MON THIS WAY!" Thora calls out, ducking down the hallway. While it may look like she's trying to not get stuck in foam, she's really just trying to chase her dad down. It was only a matter of time before the foam got in the hallway too though.

Keldan spins in place, facing down the approaching Thora with his hands ready. He doesn't look like he really wants to put away the PDA though, he just got an email - from the Chairman, no less!

So, glaring at Thora, her father simply declares "PLAY DEAD."

The Jedi are gonna feel this one. What happens happens on some deep psychological level tied to Garm's very nature. Hopefully Tohya's not in Thora's mind when that happens, Loki making an admonishment sound and a slapping motion as if to strike an animal.

And in the wake of what happens, Keldan goes on his way forward...

Tohya knows pretty well that when Thora is spoken to like an animal, it tends to /really/ piss her off. Right this second is no different and another blast of rage threatens to emerge for a split second.

Then Thora abruptly faceplants into the ground mid-stride.

Chie scowls and stomps her foot. Friggin'...fast guys!! "Crap!" she yells, and starts RUNNING, not even sure where she's going - she looks back over her shoulder, checking on Yukiko, which is why she is wholly unprepared for FOAM as it spurts up right under her, slips her MEGAFEET out from beneath her, and she just...sliiiiides helplessly.

"THIS SUCKS!" Chie declares.

Maki says, "Well, he was nice every time I hung out with him! He was trying to help Inohiko! Fo'rizzle! Come on Kyrie, tell 'em that deep down you have a heart of gold--well okay maybe bronze I--" Kyrie vamooshes.

Covered in foam, well, see--Ideal Maki is a little reckless, and for good reason! Because...she's a Shadow transplanted into existence by Maki's mind. And the SEBEC building is sitting in a place where the space-time fabric is particularly weak. DVA is in an unpleasant state, but in a location like this it has just enough power to do what it needs to.

Of course, she hasn't done this before, hopefully she won't leave anybody behind oh ho ho.

Reappearing up by Tohya she looks to her and says, "Sorry, I thought it was like an escape route button! But he only pushed what I said he could, so--I think this one's just my fault, okay?" She doesn't feel like Kyrie, for all his crimes, should be blamed for her idea. "Um, anyway. I'll try and get us out...a one. A two... and..."

TWIST.

The team hopefully spaceshifts to outside the Haunted House, eastside, allowing for a more or less safe escape. Well they almost went the whole night without doign something silly, so it's still a new record.