[
Bellamy House]
The wall of flame is, in fact, fairly effective at getting Sirena to pause.
Her computer didn't warn her that she'd have to worry about a sudden wall of scorching flame! And, even though Sirena's absolutely confident that she could get through it fine, what about the kid? Toddlers can't survive getting burned up! Sirena glances back to see what kind of awful vigilante would rather
painfully burn a kid to death than let them get kidnapped.
. . .
And she sees that she's very rapidly losing her head-start.
At this rate, her robots that she had out prepared will be too far away to help her!
Um.
Um um um um
um um um um um umumumum umumumum
Sirena types out something really quick, and her watch creates a pink energy shield around Manja to protect her from the fire.
And she's
really got to get going or she'll be caught
and ganged up on. Sure, she still might be able to accomplish her goal of disrupting things, but if that happens she won't be able to see for herself whether or not she was successful!
Sirena closes her eyes, exhales, double-checks Manja's energy shield, and runs through the flame wall, fully expecting to get burned. And is
incredibly dismayed when she immediately discovers it wasn't even capable of burning her
or Manja in the first place.
She got straight-up fooled by some dumb illusory fire!
The kidnapper starts sprinting again, but has completely lost her head-start.
...
Really, it's only a matter of time before someone catches up. Even with her battle form boosting her strength and speed, it's not enough to outrun
everybody especially after stopping for so long in front of the spirit-fire.
As a result of the reaction of everyone else, Harley tries to grab the hologram Manja to...well, she's not exactly sure why.
But, as expected, her arms just go straight through the hologram.
Her brain breaks as she tries to process what's going on.
Manja's not here
How?
Manja's out there
Once it's had time to restart, dozens of thoughts fly through her head, trying to come up with
why and
how and more complex thoughts such as
is this all a distraction and
this is all my fault and
if this is another assassination attempt, what's going to happen next...
Since Rein is chasing after, Harley figures she probably doesn't have to worry. In that case, the new worst case scenario, Harley thinks, is if this was a distraction to draw everyone's attention away from Obriane and Kitsuki's kids.
To follow up on that thought, she checks if the other kids were also illusions (they're not) or if it was just Manja (it was just her), and forcefully tells them,
"Stay together, don't move," at least until both Kitsuki and Obriane are back in here to watch over them.
Gullara wrote: ↑Jan 27, 2023 2:20 am
[Bellamy House]
► SHOW SPOILER
Kitsuki's head whips back around at the sound of the door, and after a (presumed) word from Obriane, she can start connecting some dots. Someone was in their home, she doesn't know what they were doing yet, but she has to assume the worst until she knows. She turns back to the window and spies the figure running away.
She's honestly in no shape to give chase. Being pregnant at all would be enough, let along this burdened. She has one trick up her sleeve, though. With a shout and a flash like a sudden flame, Kitsuki thrusts herself towards the window and simply vanishes. She can be spied through a charred pane of glass, with a melted hole in its middle, an instant later, standing out on the sidewalk.
The chasing problem remains, however, and she did not intercept whoever was in their home. With a sweeping gesture a wall of white flame gouts out of the ground ten feet in front of Sirena. The barrier is accompanied by an amplified voice. "STOP!"
What might not be immediately apparent is that this white flame is spiritual in nature and can't burn living flesh. It sure looks convincing, though. The air even ripples, as though super heated. Hopefully it's convincing enough to slow her down.
Shadowcaller wrote: ↑Jan 29, 2023 1:35 pm
[Bellamy House]
► SHOW SPOILER
Kitty manages to do more than Obriane who isn't nearly fast enough to act when the intruder darts away. She wanted to but she wasn't even sure what she should do. Attack her? Grab her? She had punched a kid her age once and that had caused her father to raise his voice against her for the first and only time that she could ever recall. Something which still stuck with her to this day.
So it would take a moment to even come to terms with that idea. She would start to run after her but it would be far too late to stop her getting away unless she slows down or stops soon.
Reinholdt wrote: ↑Jan 30, 2023 10:19 am
[Bellamy House]
► SHOW SPOILER
"MANJA!" Reinholdt exclaims upon noticing the stranger with his daughter in her arms. He certainly didn't notice that the glass had been melted as he immediately dives through it, prepared for shards and shattering and ultimately dramatic exit with little context. Instead he has to deal with the intense heat of molten glass as he flies at Sirena.
"Owowowohgodowfuckowow." The pain doesn't stop Rein from flying after Sirena in a desperate dad move, but it does prevent him from saying the important things, like all the cool one liners you can make after leaping through a window. He's pretty fast when he's flying though, Sirena won't have a lead for long.