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I guess this means the elevator's working. 8[a

Smoke. Again. Which obviously meant fire.

Ganymede came to an immediate halt in her search for a set of stairs to take them down, confused and wary as to what fate going any further would bring them. Common sense dictated that they leave right then and there. She'd had enough of fire for one evening, and the last warehouse venture had ended in a similar blaze. If they continued on their way down there seemed to be a very great possibility that they'd be trapped. Had the other floors been above them an escape via window would have been relatively simple, but she doubted there were many avenues for departure once one descended to lower floors.

The idea of dying was not one that sat well with her. At this rate she'd either asphyxiate, burn alive, or be buried beneath the rubble when the warehouse collapsed under the strain—and it was sure to with no way to put out the fire. Her death arising as a result of this war was not a fate Ganymede had resigned herself to even three years post awakening.

But strangely she wasn't afraid. Perhaps it was the adrenaline, or perhaps her successes over the course of the evening really had gone to her head, filled her with false courage. She'd always viewed fear as a healthy emotion; the absence of it, dangerous. Fear and self-preservation had kept her alive this long. It seemed foolish to rely on luck and bravery to do the same.

That was new to her—bravery. This surety, this acceptance. The thought that she might never walk out of this building; the response to it ******** it.

The smoke was rising, but Ganymede would not let that deter her. She grabbed her long red train and turned to Vallhalla, ordered, “Lift your knee,” and snagged the fabric on the sharp spoke of his armor until it tore. She ripped the train clean off until all that was left were minimal shreds at the base of her wings, and followed this action by tearing off sections wide enough to cover the nose and mouth, and long enough to tie at the back of the head. She tied a piece in place over the lower half of her face, then tossed a piece to Leda, Valhalla, and anyone who might be nearby.

“Cover your noses and mouths. It's not much, but it'll help.”

'Deja vu,' she thought.

“Turn back if you want,” she cautioned them. “But I'm going down. Look, there're stairs and an elevator over there.”

She made her way toward them, counting on the remainder of their allies to keep the assembled Negaversers occupied. She ran right into the other Senshi (Varuna) that arrived seconds before she did.

“Which do we take?” she asked. “If we get trapped on the strairs there won't be any way out. At least if the elevator stops working we can climb out through the shaft, right?”

Right.

… maybe...

Regardless, she furiously pressed the button to get the elevator in gear.

“Got it!” she crowed as the large mesh door rose up with a loud grind of metal.

Leto is on the first floor.

Leto glanced at Avalon when she called out to her and nodded at her with a grin. The Senshi were coming, the Strike team below had been informed, and now it was time to play.

Except for the fact that the first Senshi through the doors was Acubens, and that had Leto just as frozen as the Senshi of Velociraptors. She cringed when Acubens called her name, her eyes practically pleading with the other girl for forgiveness for being there.

Then Andronicus, the brave Page that wanted to protect her at the ambush only a few short weeks before. She offered her a smile when she bowed to her and quickly turned her attention away from the two girls- the last thing she needed in that moment was any sort of distraction, when suddenly more Senshi and Knights began to pour in through the bay doors.

A rainbow lasso sailed past her by mere inches, and garbage was being thrown at the opposition as they came. One particular power signature almost made her feel sick to her stomach with how disgustingly pure it was.And then, as quickly as the Senshi and Knights had arrived, the smell of smoke invaded Leto's senses. The plan below was clearly going uninterrupted.

For now.

Seeing a small group sneak away while the others remained occupied in the fight, Leto cursed under her breath. She heard the grinding of metal and she knew that without a doubt, others would soon follow the small group. Pain or not, she needed to act quickly. Shifting into her Princess form, her wings burst through the bandaging on her back, tearing open the gaping wounds that Wolframite had inflicted upon her. She summoned her crystal into her left hand and focused all of her energy into it. "Crystal Power Concealment!" she called, and suddenly the illusion of a deep, dense jungle sprouted up into the warehouse's first floor.

She hoped that it would serve as a distraction to keep any more of the White Moon from getting to the stairs or the elevator before the smoke and fire had a chance to seep into the first floor.

[OOC Note: Any Chaos person within 150ft AOE is now camoflaged. The higher the rank, the more camoflaged they are. However, the higher the rank of Order people, the more easily they can see through the illusions.]

*Attack Info:





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Cyllene is on the second floor.

Cyllene heard nor saw nothing and no one else on the floor. Her sole focus was on the General that was to give her orders to set the floor ablaze at any moment. She heard the message come over the crystal communicator that the Senshi and Knights had arrived, and so she stared intently at Mica for the go-ahead. As soon as the words came, Cyllene stooped to grab her canister and practically danced past a few people.

Stopping for a brief moment, Cyllene flashed a huge ridiculous grin at Kerberos. "I love that song!" she practically squealed with delight as she sang along to his humming, dumping her gasoline on the floor as she twirled.

"Light 'em up up up, I'm on fiiiirrrreeeeeeeeeee~"

She flicked her lighter, stared intently at the flame for a brief moment, and then dropped into the gasoline, setting her section of the second floor ablaze.

gunn is on the first floor!

The damn captain had helped that lieutenant get away, so when the chaotic signatures began to disappear Gunn had proceeded to follow the biggest energy signature she could sense. It was either a massive youma or an absolute ******** ton of agents, and she knew exactly which she was putting her bets on. (It was the giant Nega congregation. Hands down.)

After a few detours, she finally located the site of the Negaverse plot. It was a warehouse, of course, because why not? And before her, before the group, stood Leto.

Europa had told her about the dark mirror whore's recent upgrade. The specifics of it did not matter. Princess, Eternal, or basic scout, everyone burned just the same. "Hey, b***h," Gunn shouted across the warehouse, pitching her voice to be heard over senshi incantations and Negaverse orders. It had been forever since she'd seen Leto and part of her was fiercely glad Leto was still alive for Gunn to kill. The rest of her hated what had become of a once-proud Blood Moon senshi. She was an abomination, fit only to be put down.

Gunn was probably the only person who could take Leto down, at this point, and not have it be pure luck.

She barreled past the small cluster of other senshi, past Avalon and Persephone, and threw herself at Leto through the rising smoke. "Ironic, huh," she said. "Born in smoke and in smoke you'll die. Gunn Wildfire Propagation!" The fire below them roared in answer, the floor beneath them began slowly to heat, the materials melting together from the heat. Gunn's knees began to itch as the heat ate through the fabric of her leggings, but Leto, poor pinned Leto, would be feeling the heat much more keenly.

Athene wasn't sure how to feel when he finally managed to make his way to where he sensed yet more Nega-auras and found a warehouse, after all he'd stumbled on the Negaverse trying to kill their former allies, the Dark Mirror Court, the last time he'd been in a warehouse and had subsequently ended up having to escape from the building after one of the Nega-officers set it alight.

Still even though the power had started to finally if slowly come back on after the Nega-group vanished from the plaza with the crystals they had been guarding in tow, Athene couldn't help but think that that wasn't the end of it all and although he had been unable to follow the teleport-capable officers he had done his best to track auras, figuring that he could try following some Lieutenant level auras.

Hence the warehouse. Which he was going to enter, despite not feeling keen on the whole thing. He could sense other Order auras around though and realised he wasn't the only person to have made his way here.

Inside it looked like attacks had been exchanged, with snow on the warehouse floor, along with what looked like rubbish - muck and junk of the type that Athene didn't want to look at too closely. Athene only knew of one senshi that used rubbish as part of their magic and that senshi was Atë.

Atë who had once been white moon just as much as he had. He had trained with her and Pomona back when Prince Castor had offered training sessions and patrolled a few times with her and had had awkward conversations with his cousin who had caught him scrubbing the mark left by her bright red lipstick when she'd kissed his temple as a parting gift that one time. But now she was working for the Negaverse - happily working for the Negaverse if her actions that night of the zoo was anything to go by.

And she was here, Athene had spotted her amongst the Nega-officers. Had spotted another corrupt eternal amongst them as well along with oddly enough a Dark Mirror senshi, which was odd only in that it hadn't been that long since the Negaverse had tried to kill off the Dark Mirror Court - or at least that was the way things had appeared to Athene - and so he personally would have thought that they would stay neutral.

And then she was shifting forms and Athene realised that she was more than just an eternal level senshi, just as a jungle suddenly appeared in the confines of the warehouse and hid both the Dark Mirror Princess and Nega-officers from sight. At least at first it did as both the sight and sounds about him distracted Athene for a few moments and then with loud 'plosh' he stepped into something wet, his eyes glancing automatically down. It was a puddle, a puddle of water intermixed with muck and totally out of place in the supposed jungle. A jungle, which after a good bit of frowned concentration, Athene realised wasn't real. The smoke he could smell however was real, real and coming from somewhere below.

Below? For a moment the thought had him pause. Why was smoke coming from below? And then Athene was moving, despite liking this whole thing less and less it appeared something was happening down below, mayhaps even with those crystals that the Nega-officers had been guarding back at the Plaza, which meant that he had to somehow find a way down.

Quote:

For anyone nearby Athene's postion

Matisha

mention

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Falias is on the first floor

Falias hadn't been particularly enthused to find the warehouse, especially since the last time that he'd been in a warehouse had ended up with him on said warehouse floor as the place burned and although he had somehow unlocked the strength to increase in power level to Squire and that pink-haired Dark Mirror senshi had helped him escape - it was an experience that Falias would rather not go through again.

From outside Falias could sense four particularly strong chaotic auras in close proximity. Two corrupted senshi, a Nega-General and an eternal level Dark Mirror aura. He could sense strong aura on the Order side too, two or maybe three eternal strength auras and a Knight aura and on stepping into the warehouse he could see that it appeared that battle had already been joined, given that parts of the floor was covered with junk and muck and there was a bit that had what looked like snow on it.

He didn't get much more than that quick glance however as at that moment the Dark Mirror senshi's aura changed from the strong aura of an eternal to the blazing one of a royal.

Royal? But I thought the Princess died back in the ambush WP set up He had time for that quick thought as a female voice shouted an attack and then suddenly there was a jungle in the warehouse, an honest to goodness jungle with sight and sounds.

Falias had tried to move through it, as best he could with wand to hand when he started to smell smoke and the immediately thought of 'not again' slipped through his mind. The jungle was hiding the door though and Falias wasn't about to try and find his way back to it.

Then he heard a voice call out something about a rainbow, thought he could see a dim glow of light from up ahead and did his best to head in that direction.

Quote:

For anyone nearby Falias' postion

LizzyMoo

mention

Leda is on the first floor.

"Oh..." Leda mumbled to herself, more than ready to follow Ganymede's lead. As an eternal, Leda surmised that she knew what she was doing - and if the blonde determined that circumventing the fray proved a far better idea than thrusting herself headfirst into it, then Leda had no qualms against it. If anything, it felt rather refreshing to avoid a fight, even if it only lasted a few minutes...

Yet those minutes felt like hours as Leda crept along the parallel aisle between large racks, with each gap between pallets offering a glimpse at the fray. She caught herself peering between boxes toward their enemies, particularly Persephone, who stood defiantly against those she once called ally. How could she? How many of them supported her in her days as a White Moon senshi, only for her to spit in their faces? And for what? No matter how often Leda tried to consider it, no clear answer surfaced from her ruminations. Soon afterward she caught herself lingering behind, and she hurried to keep up with Ganymede and Valhalla.

Valhalla's observation led Leda to sniff the air a bit, realizing the presence of smoke soon after he articulated it. But why? No one was in the lower levels, as far as senshi went... Right? She hadn't felt anyone of their alignment in the lower levels, but the Negaverse held hostages that were senshi or knights before, so it wasn't out of the question... "Do you think they're hurting people down there?" Even asking the question coaxed tears to her eyes, though inwardly she brushed them off as a product of the smoke.

For this, a piece of Ganymede's train was gladly received. She pinned the red fabric to her face in hopes of staunching the smoke inhalation.

"Either way they'll hear us coming..." She mumbled through the fabric. "But if we get in the elevator, we have a little protection, right?" Stairs offered nothing to deter the weapons of the Negaverse, but the mesh door might just work for a bit... Certainly enough to hold the enemy at bay in case they needed to go back up. Leda followed the pair into the elevator, flashing Varuna a quick smile before she realized that the entire lower half of her face was obscured by the strip of train.

"Three floors... Which do we pick? I mean, which floor is on fire? Maybe they both are..." Maybe this entire warehouse is just another distraction.

Astarte is on the first floor.

With Megrez now occupied with throwing plates, Astarte hoped that bought her enough time to wipe some of the sticky sludge off her uniform, and more importantly, scrape it out of the gash she sustained from that general... Thus far, simply scraping at it with her hands offered little remedy, and peeling one glove off to wipe it out amounted to the same effect. Muttered cursing accompanied her attempts before she finally gave up on the idea of cleanliness altogether.

And soon, she realized that her state of dress was the least of her worries.

A familiar, almost sweet smell accosted her senses, and Astarte recognized it almost immediately: fire. More accurately, smoke. But where was it? Astarte spotted no signs of fire yet, nor did she feel a rising heat beyond what was expected of battle. Still, she found it prudent to keep on her toes, especially in this mess.

All she needed was for a cat (Liryn) to confirm it. "Shite, they're smoking us out aren't they?" But with the bay doors rolling shut behind them, Astarte figured they weren't intended to go anywhere.

Suffocation tactics.

"Hey," she called to the egg senshi she bossed around earlier. Afterward she stumbled toward the pallet and caught the girl's arm. "We can't stick around here. Smell that? We've got to get out of here, or to lower ground." Luckily she paid attention through all those fire safety courses as a child... When smoke stemmed from fires, one had to drop to the ground. Perhaps the same held true in a smoky warehouse...

But could the others buy enough time for them to escape?

Astarte doubted it. Out of nowhere, an immense jungle sprung up in the midst of the building. What in blazes is this? However, Astarte suspected she had little time to marvel at the magic of it. Between the sweeping blades of thick jungle grass clawing toward her waist, she lost sight of their attackers.

This didn't bode well.