Inside

[Keeper]

More Like Hunger Busting

Sirius waits very patiently. Could a dog do that? Probably.
"Okay so we paid so where do we eat em?" he asks her.
Because obviously they need napkins and a table and stuff. They're not animals.

[Shadowcaller]

[Planar Introductions]

Thariza nods.

"Alright. If it starts getting stormy outside, I'll discreetly let you know. Mentioning the weather in a conversation is normal."

[Planar Introductions]

Ambrosia takes a deep breath. "Alright..."
And with that word she starts to getting up from the closed toilet she had been sitting on. "I think I'm ready to go back then and hope that I don't get buried in my own thoughts again." She reaches forward to give Thariza a hug.

"Thank you, Thariza. I'm frankly not sure what I would have done without you. Probably lock myself in here for the rest of the day..."

[Morty]

[Planar Introductions]

"You'd lock yourself up in here and bring a tornado down on the building," Thariza says as she hugs Ambrosia. "Thankfully I'm here with moral support. Let's go back to the others."

[Rebonack]

[Hunger Busting]

Yes a dog could do that. Haven't you seen those videos of people stacking treats on a dog's nose?

Regardless, Khannie will carry the food outside to a nearby garden that has some nice picnic tables! A perfect spot for snacking on a nice day.

"Can you even hold a fork?" Khannie asks as she passes Sirius some utensils.

A deeply important question.

And hopefully one that can be answered!

For Khannie has made a GRAVE MISTAKE!

This isn't a garden at all.

This is a PARK!

Hopefully their lunch doesn't get interrupted by nonsense.

[Gullara]

Planar Introductions

"Oh, yes. Not only does the wiring have to connect to the nervous system, aetheric resonance has to be accomplished perfectly with your body's natural aura or they wouldn't stay in place." The crystals that make up Embralat's wings aren't even touching so that does doubtlessly require intense magical tuning. They probably don't have to float like that but where's the pizazz in that?

[Planar Introductions]

"The details of aetheric resonance and the body's natural aura are likely outside my expertise, but I'd be curious to hear more about how it functions." Utayo replies.

[Hraithre]

[Arkham Street - Mansion]

Hoshiki Senshi has been busy. He finally fixed the front door he himself kicked to pieces. He's also been cleaning, though it is a bit much for one man. He is starting to regret not taking Banael with him - that boy, with his supernatural powers of construction, would have been a tremendous help.

Now, he is sitting in the secret workroom of his house, staring at the apparently empty papers on it - a mystery left behind by the mansion's previous owner, one he's yet to solve.

He takes a sip of water and munches on some stale crackers. No word yet from the pawnshop - no-one's contacted him from VIGIL, either. Maybe he should contact them himself - but how? His mansion has electricity, but as far as he can tell, no phone - and even if it did, he realizes he does not know VIGIL's number.

All this he thinks as he turns the papers around and rearranges them in piles on his desk, as if merely shuffling them around would reveal their secrets.

But then, an ill premonition hits him. Someone - or rather, something - is at his door.

He gets up, leaves the secret room and goes to look out of the window. There, in front of his house, stands a warhorse in metal armor. No wait, that it not right. There is no point where the armor stops and the animals begins - the beast itself is made of steel. It stares at him with glowing red eyes.

Grasping the hilt of his sword, Hoshiki gets to his front door and pushes it open. Something about the beast feels familiar, but he can't quite tell what. "What do you want from me?", he asks, more from himself than the creature.

But it seems the creature hears him, because it snorts and turns. It trots a short distance away, then stops and look at him again.

It wants him to follow.

Hoshiki steps out the door and, after checking he has his key with him, closes it behind him. "Well all right. Show me the way."

[Shadowcaller]

[Planar Introductions]

"Don't say things that might still happen." Ambrosia shudders but then takes another deep breath and heads out the bathroom and back to their table.

"I'm back, sorry about that. Had... to make an important call." She looks between Utayo and 'NeOn'. "How... have things gone here?"

[Thursday Violist]

[Riftline: An angel and me]

"Yeah, definitely sounds like an ex," that woman says after hearing Marianne's explanation.

She adjusts her sunglasses, and then glances out the train door's window, checking if a station is coming up soon.
It's not.
She looks back at the other five sleeping passengers so that she can watch them in case they suddenly wake up, or something.

"Seriously, though, that sounds the worst. Someone ought to tell them to stop doing that: there's other better things they could be using their powers for."

Speaking of the other passengers, starting now further inspection would reveal that the one closest to them is actually a mannaquin. The one farthest in the back has blood pooling on the ground. And the one closest to the front starts snoring. And the other two...well, nothing's changed about them.

[Riftline: An Angel and Me]

"Were it only so simple." Marianne mutters, taking a seat nearby. "They sort of have to do what they do. It's kinda like... have you ever spent any amount of time in a mob town? You might not like the guys in charge, but whereas you don't want to get fed feet-first into a woodchipper or tossed into the river with cinder blocks on your feet, you do what they say." She sighs. "...After a while, you sort of forget how to object and it takes a couple of fresh faces reminding you it doesn't have to be that way to snap you out of..."

The angel trails off as she looks over the other passengers, noticing the less-than-reassuring details among them for the first time. The mannequin was excusable; there's a number of innocent, if bizarre, reasons why it might be here. But the pool of blood forming under one of the bodies? The fact that none of them are moving? That might be cause for concern.

"...Are you seeing what I'm seeing?" Marianne croaks worriedly.

[Riftline: An Angel and Me]

Last time on Dragon Ball Z
In Trog's Tavern, a woman with voids-with-sharp-teeth instead of eyes, who leaves nightmarish black gunk behind when she touches things with her claws was looking for two helpless pixies. Our hero Marianne tried intervening and, realizing that one way or another this woman was chasing after the pixies and claimed she was on a time limit, decided that as an angel she should go with and make sure nothing bad happened. The pixies fled to GLoG on instructions from a helpful bargoer, and the woman somehow knew they were gone, and even though trying to intimidate the bargoer didn't tell our heroes where the pixies went, they figured someone out on the streets would know. Eventually a couple of other fairies came along. While Marianne tried to save one from a cat and was left with a massive feeling of guilt, the spooky woman negotiated with the other fairy: she'll wear the fairy's sunglasses in exchange for the fairy telling her which way those two went. As the woman tried cheering Marianne up, they encountered a train car with five passengers, going the wrong way. Unfortunately, two demonic soul-munchers appeared and forced our heroes onto the train.

The woman nods: sure, she's never been to a mob town, she still understands the metaphor. She opens her mouth, to come up with a response and waits for Marianne to finish, when Marianne brings up a valid concern about their ride.

"Are you referring to the passengers, the teddy bears, or the things hanging from the roof?" the woman asks Marianne. "If one of those, then yes. I'm seeing it. Something else? No, tell me what you're seeing."
There's nothing hanging from the train roof. At least, as long as Marianne keeps her eyes open. Close them? She'll feel warm, wet things dangling from the roof that jostle around whenever the train bumps.

The woman turns and looks for the emergency stop button - she presses it. Instead of actually doing anything, though, it makes the lights on the train go out. Luckily, it's afternoon so it's not pitch-black.
"Um. Sorry."
She looks back at the passengers.
Since the five are spread along the whole of the train car - some in front of them, some behind, one of the ones that Marianne wasn't looking at is now in a different position and a different seat. That passenger is still motionless, but, "Is it just me, or did that one move when I looked away?"

"..."
"Well...got any suggestions for an emergency exit?"

By the way, even though they haven't left the city of Inside, the train is approaching mountain, presumably towards a tunnel. Seems their destination is on the other side of that mountain.

[Church of Venus]

The outsider in the stolen cloak scoots forward, to listen better to the conversations going on deeper into the church.

Something about a bake sale.
Proselytizing plans.
Blessings, prayers, testimonials.
Some kind of confession.
Something catches her attention: still no confirmation on where Venus is. The outsider isn't sure whether to feel relieved or worried. Mostly relieved, with a little bit of worry.
Well, that changes to worried with a little relief after she overhears that supposedly somone spotted her on the beach, and so a few of the more devout have been sent to that beach to see if they can confirm that rumor.

Especially since the last time June had heard of Venus was when she was drugged out of her mind on warlock drugs in a binding circle on a tropical island after getting chased and shot at by crazed cultists...
...
Okay, maybe they really did see her on that beach.
Goal of today: find out which beach and where it is, before leaving, before anyone can put together what she's doing.

[Church of Venus]

The outsider in that stolen cloak looks around, trying to find out how to proceed.
How will she find out 'which beach' without giving away that she's an outsider, not part of this cult?

[Rebonack]

The prepwork is always time consuming. Coming up with costume ideas. Names. Themes. Though usually that sort of thing flows naturally from one's power set. Thankfully that initial legwork was relatively easy.

Khannie already had her costume.

She assembled it from components she had found in a weird hi-tech bunker a couple years ago and it had gone along pretty well with her power set. The suit had been set aside when the whole magical girl thing happened since that was a different sort of super thematic altogether. But now that contracts are broken and Khannie is back to her old self (more or less) that means it is time to break out the old suit again!

Of course, this time around, she's got some new friends.

It all went more or less as expected. Mary noticed the suit and asked about it and Khannie confided in her room-mate the super heroics she used to engage in even BEFORE the magical girl stuff. Some of Khannie's protagonist classes cover caped heroics and she had decided to start getting back into it. Her drive to make a difference with the skills she has is just way too strong to ignore. It always has been.

But!

Mary expressed interest in helping. After all, Mary had made her wish to make the Slums a better, safer, more beautiful place. That sort of desire is something the pair of former magical girls have in common.

So! Plans were made. Sneaking off campus after curfew happened (honestly that's expected; students only get in trouble if they're bad enough at it to get caught). And a patrol rout was decided upon. Which leads our pair of heroes to-

[The Slums]

Ghost's outfit hasn't changed, an athletically built young lady in a form-fitting suit of dark greys and purples, a lattice of little hexagonal patterns spread over its surface. Thicker armor protects her vitals and extremities, though not nearly enough to appear bulky or confining. It's an elegant sort of carapace, smooth and flowing. A mantle covers her shoulders and a hood her head, her face obscured behind a featureless bone-white helmet with five points of blue-green light suggestive of eyes. From her belt dangles a collection of hi-tech looking gizmos that are all for giving bad-guys a bad time.

Standing atop the roof of a (mostly) intact warehouse, our heroes will have a pretty good view of the surrounding area. Getting up here was easy. Mary can fly and Khannie can use her ghosting tricks to basically fly. Or super jump. Or whatever.

"Okay, so, ground rules! Remember when we're in costumes that means only using cape names," Ghost explains again. "Always check your line of fire when you're using powers. First priority is ALWAYS making sure innocent people are safe. If that means the bad guy's getting away that's still what we're gunna do. No killing ever. Use those zip ties to tie 'em up so we can let Intersection know where we dumped 'em."

Easy stuff, right?

Ghost is feeling nervous. And excited! And she's probably talking faster than she needs to. The run-in she had with Legion had shaken her but... at the time she wasn't in costume. She really wasn't expecting that. Getting caught out by a villain is always jarring. This time, though? She's ready for anything!

[Keeper]

Planar Introductions

"Everything's going just fine. Take all of the time that you need." Embralat/Ne0n says quietly. She moves out of the way so Ambrosia can take her seat again.

Hunger Busting

Sirius declares simply, "Nope!" and declines the forks, removing his paws from his gauntlets so he can hold the ribs between his paws and begin loudly munching on them.

[bc56]

Train
The train is speeding away from the station now. "We seem to have gotten away this time." Jason says, just before a purple tentacle erupts from the floor beneath him to prove him wrong. "Gah!" It's wrapped around him now, pinning him in place. "Oh hello there," says the head of the entity (or the closest thing it has), as it descends from the ceiling, "You didn't expect me to catch the train."
Outside the windows, more tentacles drop down to encircle the entire car.

Slums
Mary looks around carefully. This place was her home for a long time. If you squint, you can still see the remains of some of her murals on a few of the walls, buried by grime and graffiti and hidden by the half light of dusk. "Right. You're Ghost, and I'm Facade." Facade has a sort of witchy look going on, with a black dress (shorts underneath, she's not that sort of cape), black knee-length boots (no heels, again, she's not like that). Unlike her friend, she doesn't wear a mask. She doesn't need to. She's altered her appearance pretty completely - if Khannie didn't know, she wouldn't recognize Mary. Facade has none of the demonic or draconic features of her true self. Instead, pale skin and long white hair gives her an ethereal look, and her wings are covered in white feathers. "Do we just wander around until we see something happening?" She doesn't especially get it. She's never read comic books.

[Rebonack]

[Hunger Busting]

Well!

It looks like Khannie and Sirius get to have a pleasant lunch with no horrible interruptions.

What a nice day.


[Slums]

Witchy with white wings is a good look! Nice color contrast. And yeah, between Mary's shape shifting and her form altering clothing things like identities and costumes are pretty easy for her!

Technically Khannie could use her illusions and NOTHING else but having a real super hero outfit makes a big difference by her estimation. It's the spirit of the thing! Also the fact that the suit has some high tech body armor built into it really doesn't hurt, either. In fact, it does the opposite of hurt. It makes it less likely that SHE gets hurt.

And that's important.

"Not wander, we patrol!" Ghost corrects heroically. "I've got a route planned out. We move through systematically. I got a crime hotspot map off Paragon that we can follow. 'sides we're heroes. That means we're trouble magnets. A protagonist's story would be pretty dull if there weren't any heroing."

That said?

Ghost takes a couple steps back, gets a running start, and JUMPS!

At the apex of her leap she goes wispy and incorporeal, gravity apparently forgetting that she exists as she keeps sailing forward until she's just over the roof of the next building, whereupon she snaps back into existence and drops to the gravel covered roof silently.

Facade, of course, can just fly. Easy!

From their perch atop this new building they'll have a pretty good view of a decrepit warehouse at the rotten piers of the slum's waterfront with some positively spooky eldritch green light oozing from the windows. That looks pretty suspicious! So does the pair of thugs standing outside the building holding clubs and looking... mostly vigilant? Definitely suspicious.

"Okay this is the first spot we're checking," Ghost whispers. "Some reports of strange lights and noises. The goons beat someone up for asking too many questions. And a couple of the homeless folks who have been staying nearby have reported some of their friends disappearing, too."

All bad signs!

[bc56]

Slums
Facade jumps and glides the rest of the way to land next to Ghost. "That sounds like something we can deal with." she replies coldly. She used to be one of those homeless folks, so just thinking of their disappearance and likely demise has her burning with anger already. "I can get the one on the right if you get the... Um, hold on." she taps her throat with two fingers. "I forgot to do my voice." With that, the last hint of her true self is erased. She can play the part of spooky but heroic witch without any worry that it will come back to affect her normal life - especially that her mum won't find out that she's putting herself in danger. "So, um, I can get the one on the right if you get the one on the left?"

[Rebonack]

[Market Street Mayhem]

While Khannie has her human disguise active there's no problem.

But Khannie's human disguise isn't always active. When she falls asleep it's back to spooky nine-tailed zoroark for her. And as soon as she's got NINE TAILS that mean's she's got nine fox stink-glands. Their room smells awful and it is driving Mary crazy. And it really doesn't help that, in spite of smelling like a fox, Khannie still doesn't like fox-stink.

This is probably Inari's divine retribution for complaining about foxes smelling bad.

Anywho, Khannie is on a MISSION.

This is the NEXUS after all. And the Nexus is a place where anything is possible!

Anything like, say, a place having some sort of perfume or deodorizer or SOMETHING that can neutralize fox smell for a couple hours upon application so her room doesn't smell like fox-musk constantly.

She doesn't make it too terribly far into the Market Street before noticing two really odd things.

First?

It's weirdly empty.

Second?

There's weird fog everywhere that smells vaguely of ozone.

This is something she recognizes immediately thanks to her Dangers of the Digital World class. She pulls on the goggles hanging around her neck (eye protection is important!) and releases Sirius! "Hey I'm not making a false call, right? This is one of those cloud things digimon pop out of?" she asks.

Bold of her assuming that Sirius would know the answer.


[Slums]

Sekhmet sent Mary to the protagonist school.

OF COURSE there will be danger involved!

The only reason there wouldn't be is if Mary is, like, a tennis protagonist or something. But even THAT can get weirdly perilous sometimes.

Regardless!

Ghost gives a quick nod before springing into action! In this case? By leaping off another rooftop!

She does that quite a bit.

But this time with a twist! Reaching out with her illusions she fills the sky around herself and Facade with nothing buy empty air and distant stars, effectively rendering their approach invisible. Ghost has never been big on the whole fighting fair thing. She doesn't see any reason to. It's better to take down the bad guy as cleanly as possible to make sure they don't get hurt worse than they have to AND keeping herself safer. At the last moment Ghost steps out of the illusion, seemingly appearing out of thing air and smacking one of the thugs with her baton, blasting him with a pulse of paralyzing force that slams him bodily into the wall behind him.

Ouch.

[bc56]

Slums
Sekhmet sent Mary to protagonist school because it had the best accomodations for illiterate demons who are chosen by fate for some grand destiny, not because she wanted to put the heir to her throne in danger.
Invisibly silently, Facade touches down behind the other guard. She reaches out and wraps her arms around his throat, squeezing tightly until he passes out. It's not as flashy a takedown as Ghost's, but it's still effective.
She's surprisingly strong for her appearance. On the surface, she seems human-ish, but her internal biology is made of significantly sterner stuff.

[Rebonack]

[Slums]

Nothing quite like throttling mooks into unconsciousness.

That's one of the problems when a lot of your offensive magic is all about fire and toxins. Those are a little on the lethal side. How exactly would you make NON-LETHAL fire?

Well.

There's probably a way to do it.

Fire that just...

Knocks people out.

Somehow?

Pokemon manage to pull it off but pokemon are extremely weird and if Khannie is really honest she has no idea why an attack like GIGA IMPACT doesn't just kill things. Honestly it doesn't make a lot of sense.

Anywho!

Mooks down.

"Okay now we don't want to just leave them here when they wake up," Ghost says as she kicks one of the goon's weapons away and drags him over to a nearby telephone pole. She leans him up against it and zip-cuffs his arms behind him around the pole. "See? We wanna make sure they're secured so when they wake up they can't just cause more trouble."

Looks like she's expecting Facade to follow her example.

[bc56]

Slums
"What? That's a terrible idea! I thought you didn't want to kill people?" There seems to be a disconnect here. "If you leave someone helpless out in the open, they don't often survive the night. Thieves or zombies or worse could get them!" Facade's lived in the red zones. She knows how things work (and she's so happy to live at GLoG and PREP now because they're so much safer). "We can still tie them up, but let's hide them in this dumpster."

[Rebonack]

[Slums]

Oh!

Huh.

Ghost hadn't thought of that.

"Okay, yeah, that's a better idea. C'mon let's hurry," she says as she drags her goon over to the dumpster in question and hefts the lid open. Thankfully the thing is mostly just full of broken down cardboard rather than grosser or more dangerous things. Tie 'em up and toss 'em in! If Facade needs any help tossing the goon in there Ghost will be happy to assist.

Once THAT job is done attention turns to the warehouse.

"Okay we took down the guards without making much noise. Now we've got some options. We can go in the front. There PROBABLY won't be more guards that way but it'll probably be more likely someone notices us going in. Or we could check for a roof access, but there might be more guards up there."

Time for a choice!

How to break into the possibly mad-science filled warehouse?

[bc56]

Slums
With the two crooks disposed of, the capes look at the door. "Give me a second, I'll ssscout it out," says Facade the slender, shadowy snake. She slithers beneath the door into the warehouse and is gone from sight.

[Rebonack]

[Slums]

Ah, splitting up.

Hopefully that won't be a problem.

Ghost gives a little nod and constructs a pair of really simple silent images to stand where the pair of guards where. She hadn't studied them in detail and the doubles aren't exact. Not the sort of thing that would stand up under inspection. But they WILL probably be able to fool anyone who glances out a window to see if the guards are still there.

Tricks like that are pretty easy, comparatively speaking. She'll be able to maintain them so long as she remains relatively nearby.

Then?

She crouches low out of sight!

Stealthy.

Meanwhile!

Facade slithers inside!

The warehouse is BIG and doesn't have any entry hall or anything of the like. Just gobs of old shelves and a second floor that consists of catwalks and an office. The spooky green light appears to be coming from the office on the second floor. Another flight of stairs leads to a roof access, but there's another pair of guards near that as well. Possibly in addition to MORE on the roof itself.

Why so many?

Because heroes ALWAYS come in through the roof access instead of the front door.

Unless they're one of those invulnerable punchy LOUD sorts of heroes, in which case the number of guards probably won't matter.

[bc56]

Warehouse
These, unfortunately for the guards, are sneaky tricky heroes. They have lots of ways they could get in without being noticed.
Speaking of which, Facade isn't going to wander off and be caught alone. As soon as she's made note of where the guards are stationed, she slithers back out under the front door. "Whatever'sss happening, it'sss in an officcce on the sssecond floor. There are two more guardsss by a roof accessssss, they have a good view of the whole warehoussse from there. There might be more on the roof, I couldn't sssee."

[Ironsmith]

[Riftline: An Angel and Me]

Last time on Dragon Ball Z
In Trog's Tavern, a woman with voids-with-sharp-teeth instead of eyes, who leaves nightmarish black gunk behind when she touches things with her claws was looking for two helpless pixies. Our hero Marianne tried intervening and, realizing that one way or another this woman was chasing after the pixies and claimed she was on a time limit, decided that as an angel she should go with and make sure nothing bad happened. The pixies fled to GLoG on instructions from a helpful bargoer, and the woman somehow knew they were gone, and even though trying to intimidate the bargoer didn't tell our heroes where the pixies went, they figured someone out on the streets would know. Eventually a couple of other fairies came along. While Marianne tried to save one from a cat and was left with a massive feeling of guilt, the spooky woman negotiated with the other fairy: she'll wear the fairy's sunglasses in exchange for the fairy telling her which way those two went. As the woman tried cheering Marianne up, they encountered a train car with five passengers, going the wrong way. Unfortunately, two demonic soul-munchers appeared and forced our heroes onto the train.

The woman nods: sure, she's never been to a mob town, she still understands the metaphor. She opens her mouth, to come up with a response and waits for Marianne to finish, when Marianne brings up a valid concern about their ride.

"Are you referring to the passengers, the teddy bears, or the things hanging from the roof?" the woman asks Marianne. "If one of those, then yes. I'm seeing it. Something else? No, tell me what you're seeing."
There's nothing hanging from the train roof. At least, as long as Marianne keeps her eyes open. Close them? She'll feel warm, wet things dangling from the roof that jostle around whenever the train bumps.

The woman turns and looks for the emergency stop button - she presses it. Instead of actually doing anything, though, it makes the lights on the train go out. Luckily, it's afternoon so it's not pitch-black.
"Um. Sorry."
She looks back at the passengers.
Since the five are spread along the whole of the train car - some in front of them, some behind, one of the ones that Marianne wasn't looking at is now in a different position and a different seat. That passenger is still motionless, but, "Is it just me, or did that one move when I looked away?"

"..."
"Well...got any suggestions for an emergency exit?"

By the way, even though they haven't left the city of Inside, the train is approaching mountain, presumably towards a tunnel. Seems their destination is on the other side of that mountain.

[Riftline: An Angel and Me]

"Well... there's always the old-fashioned way." Marianne points out, moving over to a nearby window and trying to get it open. There's every chance that won't work, either being too small for a grown woman to fit through (even one of Marianne's relatively small stature), or they simply won't open for reasons.

But regardless of whether she can get through or not, it's kind of a last resort. Still, she'd rather know about that in advance.

"...Wait a minute... things hanging from the... what?"

Ugh, now that the eye-void lady brings it up, Marianne can definitely feel something around her. She hasn't felt this gross since their photoshoot for the cover of Filling the Void; it turns out, silicon tentacles and starch-based slime made for some pretty unpleasant sensations. At least the sales numbers and general feedback on that one discouraged her from making it a thing they'd keep coming back to.

Although she gets the impression whatever they're dealing with here is slightly more alive than her questionable taste in props had been.

"...Hold onto me. I'm going to do something." Marianne winces, waiting for the woman to comply before proceeding. As soon as they're touching, Marianne holds out her hands and forms a glowing cyan bubble around the two of them, a simple barrier intended to keep whatever that thing is from touching them. In the dark of the train car, it should also serve to provide a little extra illumination, though that part is frankly secondary.

[Recaiden]

Train
The train is speeding away from the station now. "We seem to have gotten away this time." Jason says, just before a purple tentacle erupts from the floor beneath him to prove him wrong. "Gah!" It's wrapped around him now, pinning him in place. "Oh hello there," says the head of the entity (or the closest thing it has), as it descends from the ceiling, "You didn't expect me to catch the train."
Outside the windows, more tentacles drop down to encircle the entire car.

Haru immediately lunges forward, claws aiming to tear through the purple tentacle and let Jason move. Wait, how come it's holding Jason in place and not just ...slicing him in half with its weird matter-ignoring powers? Can it not do that to him? To his armor?

Kiun is...slower to react, and wastes a moment looking around, seeing the tentacles coil around the window. This is not good.
"Why bother doing it like this? You can just go through the train's walls!"
She does at least manage to get out of her seat. Can they make it to the door out of this compartment?

[bc56]

Train
The tentacle is torn through, releasing Jason who immediately follows Kiun towards the exit. But as they run, there's a sickening CRUNCH as the entity tightens its could around the car, shattering glass and bending metal and plastic inwards. This is followed by a loud screech and everyone being thrown violently towards the front of the car as the train grinds to a halt "It's more fun to watch you squirm..." the Eidolon replies, "... Like rats in a trap."

[Rebonack]

[Warehouse]

Ghost nods back at her doubles-partner for the evening. "Okay, cool. Were they looking at the front door?"

That would be a no. Assuming Facade conveys that information-

"Alright, here's the plan. We slip in and I'll set up a screen between us and the guards. That way they won't see us creeping around. We do a quick search of the warehouse for clues then head for the office. We don't wanna be TOO hasty since there's usually stuff around to give us an idea of what we're going up against so we don't dive in blind."

Ghost's usual inclination is to dive right in but her time as coordinating for the magical girls really gave her a better appreciation for foresight. Her nature goads her to act heedlessly but she knows that's just pokemon brain at work. She's better than that. Better than just lashing out because that's what her instincts tell her to do.

Sometimes acting without thinking is good. Sometimes even a moment of hesitation means you're in trouble.

But that kind of (un)thinking isn't ALWAYS a good plan.

Ghost begins walking toward the door and gives a little hop, going insubstantial and passing through through it before snapping back into existence. As soon as she touches down she spies the guards and reaches out with her magic, weaving together what amounts to an image of the inside of the empty factory none too far from the pair of goons. So long as they stay more or less where they're standing they'll be looking at the screen rather than the actual factory.

Way easier than making herself invisible.

"C'mon, let's see what they're up to."

There are several avenues of investigation. Like those open crates over there. Or those stacks of glowing green canisters. Or those people locked up in cages! All very important things.

[bc56]

Warehouse
Facade slithers under the door after Ghost and resumes her normal shape once across. Being able to fit through small gaps is good, but having hands is better. She slips silently through the warehouse towards the people in cages. She can guess who they are. "Psst! Don't say anything. I'm going to get you out of there." A bit of highly concentrated sulphuric acid forms at her fingertips. She wants to try to melt through the locks.

[Rebonack]

[Warehouse]

The people in the cages have seen capes before.

There's always that HOPE when something bad happens that you'll be one of the fortunate ones. And it looks like hope paid off this time.

"The guards won't be able to see what's going on," Ghost says as she moves to the next cage in the line, drawing her baton as the paired tines begin glowing as the air around it wavers with heat. She slices through the lock, sending a few spatters of molten metal splatting to the ground. Ghost grips the doors and pulls them open. "Head straight out through the front door. We already took care of the guards."

"They're doin' somethin' to the folks they take," one of the prisoners whispers. "You gotta help 'em."

Well.

Ghost is pretty sure they aren't giving them cookies and milk.

Better put a stop to whatever is going on here.

[bc56]

Warehouse
"We will. Hurry!" Facade dissolves through the lock on the cage and motions for the captives to leave.
That leaves open crates and glowing canisters. Facade looks in and around the crates. Maybe they say what they're for somewhere? Or maybe the contents are still in there?

[Rebonack]

[Warehouse]

Hmm...

There's a written invoice near the crates. It's got some big words on there and Facade might have a little trouble with it. If need be, Ghost can read it. Either way, this appears to have been a shipment from Skyside and it includes names of chemical compounds? Maybe? And the amounts of said compounds.

Ghost has no idea what any of those things are or do.

Probably something terrible.

Are they using the chemicals on the prisoners?

Is this some kind of mad science experiment?

Usually all that stuff just happens in Skyside so what's something like that doing here?

[bc56]

Warehouse
"Can you read this?" Facade has no idea what those words are. They sound sciencey. She goes over to look at the canisters instead (although if those are the things from the crates, she probably won't know what they are either).