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Helena made it to her feet with a whimper, her eyes watering. "No, I'll be okay," she answered, refusing the piggyback offer, but using Clarissa's shoulders for support all the same. Standing angered her neurons, and painful signals flared like a series of white-hot needles across the lower half of her back. "Oh dear God," she murmured to the person that was perhaps the closest Grissom had to a friend, "It's like someone shot me in the back with a nail gun repeatedly." She gave another whimper, trying to stifle her noises. "But you need to help our mystery man," she continued in a strained voice, trying to turn the conversation away from herself. "He's the only one that will help us, it seems." Thoughts of just how unfair the world could be flitted through her mind, but were instantly repressed. The world was neither fair nor unfair. s**t happened, and she had to do her best to come out on top. Right now that required succumbing to a world of pain while the others took care of the important stuff. "If we don't get out of here, making me comfortable won't ******** matter."

Elizabeth took one look at Agent R, and dashed for the submachine gun. Untrained or not, it spat bullets. Factor in her abnormal strength...

She grabbed it off the floor and turned it to Agent R; making sure nobody she cared about was behind him, she raised her shield and began to fire around it.

"Got any bigger guns?" she retorted, frustrated. When in doubt, snark. At least if he attacks me I can hide behind my shield for a while.

Clarissa glared at Agent R as he looked over at them. The ugly remark she was about to make died in her throat when she saw Host-Agent R point a gun in Helena's and her direction. "Sorry," she murmured. In less than a second, Helena found herself being carried away princess style. It must have hurt Helena to have her back bent, but at least Clarissa wasn't holding on to her lower back.

Thankfully, Elizabeth distracted Agent R so that they didn't have to outrun him forever. Finding a niche for Helena, she gently placed her there and hoped that no one would get to her. I can't leave her here without something to defend herself with. She almost laughed as she realized she had her bag with her. "I don't have much, but they'll do you more good than me. I have clothes and a first aid kit in here." She also had food, documentations, and books in there - if anything, Helena could chuck books and run. "Try to fix yourself if you can. If not, I can stitch up all your wounds." This was only in theory - things were so much different from reading about it to actually doing it.

Looking over at Elizabeth, she saw that Agent R was about to shoot her with the cannon. She needed to do something! "Be right back." While Agent R had his back turned, she immediately ran up behind him to claw his back. It was too late to help Elizabeth (he'd already shot at her by the time she jumped on his back), but at least she could keep him from going after Helena.

As Elizabeth spun back from the attack (she would be lucky to get off with a shattered arm; she would be unlucky for her shield to dissolve and her shoulder to be broken too.), Host-Agent R grinned.

Without turning, there was a shift in his stance and a long black and purple appendage shot out from his lower back. Clarissa had enough time to gasp before it whipped around and snapped her in the face with the force of sledgehammer.

Exasperated by the repetitive questions, R roared, "Just shut the ******** up already! You ******** volunteered!"

Luckily enough for Clarissa, this outburst threw off his focus enough that the next strike, instead of snapping her neck, shattered her shoulder and sent her back into the wall. She was on the absolute edge of consciousness.

Clarissa and Elizabeth were removed from the fight, as was Helena for the most part. This left Lance, Jesse, and Saieve to try to make it to the Thief and help.