[Plot/DEATH ENABLED] Storm the Base!

Kids were idiots, acting like Hunter wasn't going to rid Remnant of the Rebellious Royal as soon as they approached to liberate her. A final shot and the princess was silenced, The man who killed her releasing her arm and allowing her to plop onto the ground, lifeless. "You could have saved her life. You could have walked away and known that she would have been safe, Returned even." It was clear that The hunters in training had all ignored the capsules across the room, after all, so they could not possibly know what the Hatted man's true intentions were. What his Progress had already been. "She could have been back safe in the castle within the week feeling better than ever, but now we can't have that, can we? Oh well. If anything this makes my job EASIER. Now I've nothing to return to Her Majesty the Queen, because you all killed her!" Hunter kicked Periwinkle's corpse toward the Students. "The best part is, This doesn't even put a dent in my plans! You all wasted your time, and took away the princess'. Bravo! You Lost as soon as you thought a disjointed group of kids like you could stop a genius like me!" His voice rose as his monologue went on. "I hope you are please with yourselves, going through all of this work, only to see it fail so fantastically, when all you had to do was leave me be. War? Power? Do you think I want or need those things? Do you think that The only Ideals are order and chaos? Go back to that pathetic School of yours and learn a little."

IMPORTANT OOC:

((OoC: Marcus isn't suddenly going to stop charging, especially not now. I'd appreciate if that central facet of his character did not suddenly get overwritten in however Hunter godmods his way out of this one. Trapdoor, forcefield, whatever. Anything but having him stand still like a sack of salt.))

He could see it happen. Feath’s bullet actually left a faint contrail in the air. Didn’t connect right. He was so close. The tightening of the muscle, contraction of the trigger, the build up of energy in the gun. Just two more steps.  Every detail of her face etched itself into his memory with bitter clarity, the small hairs of her eyelashes, the glistening wet trail of her tears, the primal fear in her eyes, the way her hand reached out-

NO.

-spasmed-

NO.

-and went limp.

NO.

He built up too much speed in that single desperate charge. Some thing thudded into him, meat and bones and cloth and it just wasn’t her not anymore.

DISTRACTION

Rage gripped his mind with long ice cold talons. He nearly tripped up, awkwardly skipped over the corpDISTRACTION. The stumble slowed his charge for exactly 0.05 of a second, one and a  half step. His gaze whipped up, a quick move that mapped his path. Thin trail of blo slippery, tread heavily, trust the boots to bite down into the floor and grip, push down then forward. Hunt-TARGET said something.

"You could have saved her life.”

Banter, junk data, DISTRACTION. The useless chatter was summarily ignored. Final step, TARGET weapon in grabbing range, possible discharge would result in loss of a hand. DISTRACTION. The irrelevant data shoved aside, he concentrated on what was important: Gallahad was still close enough to assist. Good.

“You could have walked away and known-”

Grab barrel, rotate upwards. TARGET could choose to let go at that point, or Marcus would break his finger with the next step: Grab for the wrist with the other hand, and force it lower. If the finger was still inside the trigger guard, a clean break of the index finger at the third knucklebone. If he let go, well, then Marcus had his pistol. Possibly booby trapped, unknown model, garbage DISTRACTION.

Priorities set, execute. Punch you. Punch you. Punch you. Punch you. Die. Punch you. Punch you. Die. Punch you punchyoupunchyouDIEpunchyoupunchyouDIEpunchyouDIEpunchyoupunchyoupunchyou DIE punchyouDIE punchyouDIE punchyouDIE DIE DIE DIE DIE DIE DIE

Fenrir roared with laughter as he broke the chain, "AND NOW MY FAMILY'S ENSLAVEMENT ENDS!!" He watched their reaction to Periwinkle's death, "it truly is a thing of beauty, seeing another soul being given the eternal peace of oblivion. Now that the contract with the bastard king is ended, Yandere, sweetheart." His cousin walked out of the shadows, a slight bulge in her belly, "you called, my husband?" She smiled sardonically as Fenrir turned to his left, "my brother and master of the Sable Clan Assassins." He kneeled as Ragnarok stepped forth, "and thus begins the new age of Bellmuse. When this island becomes what it once was." There was no denying that Fenrir's brother had the air of regalia about him as he spoke. However, as Ragnarok gloated over the princess' body, he didn't see Fenrir motion to Yan nor her aiming her massive gun at him. The shot sent him splattered against the pods, "sorry brother, but you wouldn't have approved of what comes next." He took a few pictures and them dialed a call, "Your highness....I'm afraid we were too late...yes...Ragnarok and the guards sent with him are all dead....Mr. Rembrandt was killed as well....I'm sending you the evidence as soon as I hang up....you have my condolences." He ended the call and transmitted the pictures, "now that this pleasant business is over, I would greatly appreciate it if you died Mr. Hunter Smith." He walked over to the body and cut a lock of her hair, sniffing it, he put it in one of his pockets. There was no better feeling than the destruction of evil....true evil. He walked back to Yan and kissed her forehead, "you should get back before someone notices."
"Of course." She walked out and was gone as quick as she had shown up Fenrir watched as Marcus tried to beat the ever loving shot out of Hunter, "if you must kill him, please do it outright. He did everyone a favor after all."

Fuyuko stared in horror. She had missed...There was no other way to describe it as she replayed the shot over and over in her head. Then Fenrir spoke and it made sense. He had to have made changes in the air so the bullet wouldn't hit properly. She spun about as he made his grandstanding and then watched his brother get painted all over the pods, "why?...." She aimed at him, "why?!" She didn't want to have to deal with both Hunter and Fenrir at the same time, but he didn't seem interested in fighting them. She swung back to Hunter and fired a three round burst. The bullets flew true and hit exactly where she had aimed around Hunter's foot. She wiped a tear from her eye and ignored the murderer behind her to kill the one in front. Hunter would pay, and she was going to cut his dick off with a rusty knife and shove it down his throat along with some teeth. She couldn't get a bead with Marcus right there. Fuyuko prayed to whatever god was listening for help.

Gallahad had made it five steps before her body hit the ground. He made another three when Fenrir shouted something about freedom. He turned and saw a man get blasted to pieces by the girl next to Fenrir.  "What the hell?" He changed course and slammed the assassin into the wall, "what's the meaning of this? He cast a glance at the other members of the team, "I swear if you don't have a decent explanation,  I'll kill you." The knight was torn between rage, terror and sadness. He threw the man across the room,  "what possible justification can there be for this?" He glared at Hunter,  "and that goes for you as well young man. I'm killing you after him."

Fenrir stood and brushed himself off, "a good reason you say?" He walked towards the group, flicking Hunter's ear as he walked past and kicking Scree towards Marcus, "did you know that these eyes are actually a slave mark? Curious isn't it? We can see so much...we can do almost anything...and yet we are......were, I should say, bound to the invaders of Bellmuse. I hope you don't mind if I tell you a bit of a story, a minor indulgence of mine, I have to explain things or else people get these odd ideas that I want to kill them for no reason. 

A Thousand years ago, Bellmuse was an island nation whose only inhabitants were faunus. There where twelve clans who were most warlike, yet instead of fighting on their beautiful island home, they worked together to protect the natives. Of course, there came a day when humans showed up and while the twelve protectors fought hard, they ultimately lost because the humans had brought grimm with them. There were a number selected to be hidden away as the majority of the survivors gathered and we're forced to create a contract with the usurper king. This they dud, and them promptly committed mass suicide. Their heroic act may have slain over one hundred thousand, but it saved millions more from the king's ambition. The chosen ones formed a new clan and tried to live away from everyone in peace, but the king's son, not knowing the viper in his pocket, invoked the contract. Ever since then, the Sable Clan Assassins had been little more than toys in the hands of fools.

"Thanks to a rather specific condition in the contract, what happened today has finally enabled us to truly fulfill our sacred duty passed to us by our ancestors. The firstborn daughter of the throne was slain in the presence of the second born son of the darkness and his wife and unborn child. It's almost as if the first Sables knew this day would happen." He cooked his head and looked at everyone,  "tell me, who among you truly feels upset because the harlot is dead? Which of you came here out of the goodness of your heart to save a the tyrant who ordered my first wife's execution?" Fenrir had a far away look in his eye, "Hunter Smith, your services are no longer needed. Now please die with quiet dignity."

Intellectually,  Fuyuko could understand where Kei and Fenrir were coming from.  She had been a slave, though not like how Fenrir had been. She also knew that a tactical retreat was in order. She just couldn't accept that people on her team were uncaring as to deny they had even tried to save the poor girl. "How can an eleven year old girl be complicit in the death of an assassin's wife? Wouldn't the king hide the fact he had a literal army waiting for his command?" She honestly wasn't surprised now that she thought of it. People who opposed Victor Mulberry had a nasty habit of being silenced. Usually with a hole where their vital organs were supposed to be. "Death is too easy for the king...you want him to suffer." Fuyuko looked at the monstrous teammate with admiration and revulsion. He had been in the same place as she was, and he had made his own way out. She shook her head, "this doesn't change the fact we need to arrest Hunter." She doubted they could.do that in their current state. Even if they did, Fenrir would most likely kill him the instant they looked away.

Kei's words were like a splash of water on flaming oil. His rage increased, but it was a cold, calculating rage. He glared at Fenrir before turning to fight Hunter,  "Fuyuko, restrict his movements." He drew his blade and extended the handle. Marcus was right, Fenrir could wait until after Hunter was del with. It did seem like this time their purposes ran parallel with his, but it had also looked that way when they tried to rescue Peri. He stretched and rolled his neck, loosening up for the impending beatdown. Even if they had been ordered to bring Hunter in alive, he was going to vent his frustration on the bastard. Gallahad tuned out what Fenrir said and glanced over his shoulder, "Kei, take Amarante and the princess' body out of here if you must leave."

Amarante had no memory of how she ended up in the middle of the group. Her spirit felt drained and she just couldn't find the energy to stand as she limply sat on the floor. Her eyes stared at the empty she'll that had been the princess and she cried. The team seemed as if it were falling apart with Kei and Fenrir blatantly lying about what had happened and Gallahad and Marcus were getting ready to pummeled Hunter. She looked at James and Lapis, "what do we do?" She wanted to wake up from this nightmare. To believe that she hadn't joined with murdering psychotic monsters.....She just wanted to lie on a floating chair in the water....She wanted to scream, punch, kick, anything that would wake her from this...........

The students were shocked, confused, one was even rejoicing. Some turned on each other, some focused their rage on Hunter. While this was not how it was supposed to end, he could still get out of this, leaving all of his hard work behind, as if he couldn't start again. Two less units to build, after all. "As much as I would love to watch you all run around like the headless chickens you seem to be, this is about to be a much redder battlefield." He shot the lock of one of the crates in his lab with one of his laser pistols, and 20 crows came swarming out of it. With a low chuckle, he hopped into the consciousness of one of them. He was a crow now, though it would be impossible to tell which one. His body was gone, his scent, his voice. He was part of the murder, Not a shapeshifter but a possessor. With the group of birds, he went right for the sniper first. There would be no more of that around here. The Birds would swarm around her in a team attack meant to remove her from her weapon. To disarm her if possible. Sure, Hunter could use this animal to get away, but then his cover would be blown and so would his plans.

Hunter Smith:
HP: 400/400
SP: 130/150

(OOC: Like i said last post, I will no longer be ignoring actions from now on. This will be a fair fight. In regards to Hunter's Semblance, I will have a public dice roll, so every time you guys attack a bird ill roll a dice to see if you hit the right one. Lucky Number 7. Normal semblance damage, an attack from a possessed animal or group of animals does an undisputed 20 DMG.)

So is Hunter's body still where we can get at it or is it inside a crow?))

Gallahad reacted before his brain processed what was going on. He threw himself on top of Fuyuko and used himself as a shield. When the crows passed, he lifted his head and gave them a flaming present from his mouth. The five by five cone couldn't possibly miss at such a close range, "we need to disengage. And do it now! James, cover Fuyuko and Amarante. Focus on healing. Amarante,  shield everyone. Kei, Marcus, Fenrir,  crowd control!" He really hoped the assassin would cooperate, since his semblance was best suited for this kind of attack. He waited until they came for Fuyuko again and blasted them with a second cone of flame. At least half of them had to have been in range....hopefully. He risked a look around to see if anyone else was being targeted and to see if they would accept his leadership, if only for the moment.

-Two aoe attacks with Gallahad's semblance for 40 unresisted damage-

Hp: 185
Ap: 60

Fuyuko dropped to the ground and managed to fire off a shot before Gallahad was on top of her. She could hear them crashing against his armor and the roar of his fire breathing attack. She created a HEAP round and loaded it in her rifle. Aiming for the lead bird, she used her implant to compensate for motion and fired. The bullet would create a mini explosion the would riddle the following few birds with shrapnel.  Not exactly fatal unless they took a direct hit, but she had been lucky before and was counting on it now. She waited to fire off two more shots. On at the second bird and one at the center most bird.  Fuyuko noticed Gallahad hadn't given her any orders. She shifter under him, "orders?" She looked around, hoping to find some clue to how they would stop a psychopath scientist.

((I shoot three rounds for 25 damage at birds 1, 2, and 10. I shoot HEAP round at bird one for 20 unresisted.))

Aura recovery : + 5
Hp-100
Ap-185

TARGET was slippery, Marcus freely admitted it. Adrenalin fueled blows failed to connect without the extra reach Skree afforded him. There was a tell tale clatter behind him and the angle grinder skittered into view. Speak of the devil, someone actually kicked Skree towards him.

Excellent. One wide swing, step back, take the moment to kick the grinder up in the air. Arm cocked back, the side grip jumped up into his waiting palm. Magnetic locks engaged and latched on the reinforced tool.

He lashed out weapon in hand. As before the annoying TARGET dodged with confidence. That was a mistake. With the flick of a switch, Skree released it's disc, and the spinning buzzsaw sliced through the air, where TARGET's face was, the workbench behind the man and partway through the bedrock of the cavern.

Now Marcus expected several things. A dodge. The tell tale flash of aura shielding a person from harm. Possibly a red spray, as discs that cut through metal make short work of meat and bone.

For TARGET to straight up vanish however, he was not prepared.

Fake - DISTRACTION - G_______t.

With a stumble he whipped around, trying to reorient himself. What just happened? TARGET fired his gun, but that last shot went far too wide to be aimed at him. So what did TARGET aim at? Did it have anything to do with his disappearance?

A box of crows. Aggressive combat crows at that, not one of them tried to flee like a normal animal. A distraction that came too late, a final gift to annoy them, something else? ... A transfer of consciousness like his own machine empathy? Or a puppet, a remote controlled meat-body?

His gaze shifted away from the crows to the tanks of green fluid that held the rest of the royal... family...

Puppets. Clones. Fakes. Remote control. The complete lack of concern about killing Prin- the one thing that shielded TARGET from a vicious mauling.

He actually laughed as the pieces came together. Hunter had one ____ed up mind. Okay time to get real. Don't think too much, gotta keep moving. Can deal with it later. Yeah right.

"My therapist is gonna be a rich man." he muttered. Priorities, priorities, so the crows appeared to be under some sort of mind control, Hunter was off to f___ knows where, and then there were the clones. Given that the birds were busy with Feath and Paragon to the exclusion of everything else, he chose to deal with the clones while they were defenceless.

"Gallahad one second, I got one thing I need to do."

Marcus had to admit, he could not see any difference between the man in the tank and the man who appeared on live TV earlier mad with grief about his kidnapped daughter. Skree bit into the glass at the top of the container. Once he nearly hacked off the top of the tank, he paused and for a brief moment considered his next step. He could just kill the meatpuppet.

Then again what if this was the actual King and the one in the castle giving orders was a fake? How could he tell?

____ing mindgames.

Careful not to actually damage the king/puppet inside he continued to cut. Once the hole was large enough he reached inside to zip-tie the clone's(?) hands together. They'd figure out who was who and what later.

Fenrir had a look of complete indifference under his mask. He wasn't going to start flinging glyphs around like an idiot since anything that affected the crows would affect Fuyuko's bullets even more. He strolled about, humming to himself as he tried to figure a way to attack without interfering his...colleagues. He walked to the remains of the door and picked it up, setting it in a way so the birds couldn't get out but the people could knock it over if they had to. Fenrir then walked to the group in the middle and took his jacket, vest and shirt off. Revealing arcane glyphs tattooed across his body. When The Contract had been in place, he hadn't been able to use these except for creating small shields or minor boosts in speed. Now, he'd try to create sparrows.  Not homing ones, they required a tracking glyph and the crows weren't exactly being cooperative.  He'd guide the sparrows himself and hopefully draw them away from the sniper and her current protector as well as distracting them from Marcus. Fenrir let his aura flow, roiling like a storm cloud of black and grey as flashes of red arched about him. The glyphs glowed and then bird shaped projectiles flew with startling speed at the murder. Most of the exploded before reaching there, but a handful managed to get in and cause some chaos among the real birds *you're hopeless*
"Who said that?" He looked around. The voice didn't sound like anyone he had met.
*I'm attached to your face dumbass*
Fenrir took the mask off, "who the hell are you?"
*I'm Fenris...The spirit attached to your Hidden....you know 'Fenris Command'*
Fenrir rolled his eyes,  "great,  a demon mask...just what I needed right now." He put it back on, "I don't have time for bullshit so wait until after we finish." He wove three more glyphs and attacked the birds again.

Actions
Aura recovery : + 5 AP Regen
Aura attack × 4: -80 ap for 80 damage aoe

Hp: 50
Ap: 175

The last several moments had been a blur. Crows, shooting, breaking. She heard Fenrir talking to himself and was appalled at his aura. She looked back at Fuyuko and Gallahad and flared her aura. Nine tails of pink flame appeared as she held her hands out and crafted a glyph over the sniper and knight.  Her hands trembled a moment, but she recovered and then focused on her next order of business. James, who appeared to be a cleric supporter, had no abilities that'd let him shield others from what she had seen. Not that it mattered since he couldn't regenerate aura.  So she'd focus on not letting attacks land on anyone. A quick check showed Marcus going for the clones,  Kei off to the side and Fenrir in a flanking sort of position relative to the group. An idea popped into her head but with Hunter somewhere nearby, she couldn't tell anyone without giving away their hand.

Shield glyph on Faeth and Paragon: +2 Def each -20 AP
Aura recovery: + 5 AP

As the man guided the murder of birds toward the sniper girl, she managed to take a shot at them. This successfully hit one crow and scattered the rest, Hunter having no choice but to scatter with them until they came back together to continue their assault. However, before they could reconvene with each other, lizard man had started to breath fire in order to protect the aforementioned sniper girl while she fired off three more (successful) shots, and none of the weaponsmith's avian friends wanted to deal with that. The flames had even caught five of the crows, though it could have been much worse if they weren't all dispersed at the time.

Since Plan A was a no go, the reunited group of birds moved away from the area, and proceeded to attack the boy who had negotiated with Hunter earlier. The possessor man had noticed that he was messing with his units, and while the princess one was no longer needed and injuring the others would not completely thwart his plans, he would like to salvage what he could when this was said and done if at all possible. Less work this way. Of course, as the group dived down, sharp beaks at the ready, the crow in the back got hit with a rocket that seemed to be coming out of nowhere. The man who had seemed the most apathetic was able to get a solid hit in, though none of the birds that had been caught thus far was the right one.

HP: 400/400
SP: 120/150

(OOC: Kei- Bats? Crows. XD)

Now that the king or possibly his clone replacement was tied up for easy transportation, Marcus had started to work on the one with the queen. He revved Skree up with it's tell tale metallic whine that gave the weapon it's name. He vaguely heard the sounds of combat, distant and unimportant. Quick glances here and there confirmed his comrades had the situation in hand, for the moment at least. Sparks flew as he worked, whatever the capsule was made out of was tough. Maybe that new transparent steel from Atlas? Just how rich was Hunter that he could even afford all this stuff?

A flutter of movement caught his eye and he looked up just in time to see the murder descend on him. There was not even enough time to scream before he got buried under a feathery tidal wave of sharp beaks and claws. The first crow hit him in the knee, bounced off the metal plate, and flew off to attack him from behind. A light thump against his chest was the second impact. Third, right in the faceplate. Then Marcus lost count of the number of impacts.

Now, a little digression on biology. While these were definitely combat crows, they were still, in essence, crows. Creatures who sacrifice durability and strength for the ability to fly. For example crow bones are hollow to save weight, even though this makes them really easy to break. Marcus on the other hand was considered beefy and resilient by human standards, so let's take a quick, closer look at humans in general now. A ground-bound pursuit predator that literally outlasts prey, survives the loss of limbs disturbingly easily and can keep trucking with just about half of their blood if need be. Also, intelligent enough to fashion airtight armour for themselves just to make things extra unfair.

Even with Aura enhancing their beaks and claws, he weathered the multitude of tiny hits with aura of his own quite easily.

Hit taken: 20 DMG

Under the pile of angry birds, Marcus shrugged, batted the crow on his face out of the way and resumed cutting open the container of the Queen.

Attack 1: 20 DMG on hit

Another crow pecked at his face, and with an annoyed grunt Marcus reached out, grabbed for it, then smashed it face first into the business end of his angle grinder.

Attack 2: 20 DMG + 10 R1 Weapon = 30 DMG on hit

"Guys, keep me posted if anything dangerous shows up. Can't see a thing with all these feathery ____s all over me. Almost have these clones or whatever they are tied up." he reported calmly. Again he had to pause his cutting to swipe at a particularly annoying crow. You do not peck a man in that place you creepy c___!

Attack 3: 20 DMG + 10 R1 Weapon = 30 DMG on hit

Passive health regen: 5HP

Marcus HP: 105/120

Fuyuko found herself no longer the target of the birds and dashed to the safety of the main group. She set up and aimed for the crows swarming Marcus. Her first shot was aimed at the one around his crotch.....yeah, that was funny shit though not helpful at the time. suppressing her laughter, she fired. There was a couple crows around his helmet, that would be a problem if they didn't do something about that. She fired two more shots and then adjusted her aim for the crow perched on his head. A solid shot towards it finished the day as she did a quick count of her shots fired. twelve bullets fired so far. She pulled another magazine and set it next to her hand for fast reloading when needed. maybe after this she'd try that thing she had seen with two magazines connected for faster reload times, though that seemed unnecessary for her under normal conditions.

Shot crows 4, 6, 12

Aura recovery: + 5 AP

Hp: 100
Ap: 190

Gallahad picked himself up as the crows left. His reaction probably saved their sniper, not to toot his own horn. He made it to the group and took a defensive stance while extending the haft all the way. He watched with wry humor as Fuyuko made some daring shots around Marcus. Part of him wanted to go over and help, but he knew that leaving the support types in a close fight would be an invitation for disaster. He studied the lab, in hopes of gaining insight into Hunter's plot. The doppelgangers....maybe he was going to kill the royal family and replace them with machines/clones. or perhaps they'd be used to discredit the king and Queen. that would be even more insidious since they wouldn't be able to prove who was real then.

+10 hp

Hp: 190
Ap: 60

Sparrows, indoor, bad. He let out a breath as he realized he had launched duds. The buggers, by nature, were unstable and could have killed everyone in here. Fenrir sat down on the ground and stroked his chin as he considered his options. with Marcus being targeted and the others foolishly clustered, he had little choice but to try to restrict the crows. Reaaaaaaaallllllyyyyyy should have held back on the glyphs. whelp....plan A was to weave a solid Glyph and alter it to create an enclosed space but he doubted he could hold it for more than a few seconds and besides, that would burn more aura that he would need later. A cursory glance showed him interesting material that he really had no idea what was what, buuuuuuuuuttt, if he randomly mixed shit together, he might come across something useful. He filled a bowl with water and dropped a piece of metal in it. The ten foot flames almost burned his furry ears right off as he jumped back, "not to worry anyone or anything, but....ah.....I may have started something." damn book smart people leaving dangerous things like this laying around for not book smart people to find.

Actions :
Aura Recovery : + 5 AP

Accidentally started a sodium fire

Hp: 50
Ap: 160

Amarante could feel a migraine coming on. here they were, in a fight for their very lives,  and Fenrir was goofing around. aside from clearly being an entire meal short of a happy meal, he seemed to treat the idea of life and death as if it were optional. maybe for him it was, being an assassin and all, but at the very least, he could come up with a productive idea that didn't risk blowing a crater in the middle of Kompress. She couldn't think of a way to stop the fire with what she could see here. Then it hit her, "this lab represents a major investment for Hunter, find fragile things and break them." that, she believed,  was something Fenrir excelled in. She ended her glyphs and looked at the tubes, "" We can get Marcus enough time, we can find out if those are robots or clones." She looked at the people around her, "we can do this."

+5 AP

50 HP
240 ap