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"I would prefer not be to buried in the sand-" the Athena began to complain as the force wave's residue fried the taxi's engine. "Suggestion: Utilize thaumaturgy to force the engine to execute its combustion processes despite its failure."

--

Fyrin's counter-blast softened the force blow towards the top, but not towards the bottom - the van experienced a brief wheelie as the front wheels caught the bulk of the blast. The shrapnel was detonated after having its momentum canceled out by the force wave, exploding where it was in the air like a grenade instead.

Renard grew a gauntlet of bone around his fist and punched out the rear window of the van. "Boneman, get the guys in front! I'll take the ones following us!" he called out, aiming his hand out the window. Paul's taxi was still moving forward on its inertia. Renard fired three spikes of bone, puncturing the windshield but not shattering it. He clenched his fist and pushed it in Paul's direction. Pustules began to form and burst on the skin of Paul's hands.

Joe dropped down in the midst of the all the fire and bone, between the taxi and the van. With a final burst of mana, he put himself above the van and dropped down on top of it.

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Marco waited calmly as the van came screeching at him. When it was close enough that he could count the number of lines in its grille, he launched upwards about ten feet, also landing on top of the car.
He saw Joe and gave a precursory scan with his third eye. "You're not a Demon," he said, and, simple as that, he punched through the top of the van and dropped in. As he went, he sent out a call to his team to gather on his signature.

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Joe shrugged. "Thanks?" Still, he had no idea what was going on, except that this man had high magical power. He followed into the van.

((Someone should intervene, so I don't wind up fightning myself.))

Marco felt a flash of demon energy and looked up the van. A...panda? was floating outside the window. With a shrug, Marco raised his left hand. Tatooed on his upper arm was a different sigil; with a twinkle and the effect of the color draining out of it, Marco blasted out a wave specifically designed to reduce a demon to its base state and bind it to Marco.
The panda had less than .01 seconds to respond. It had better be fast, indeed.

Marco lost his balance and his spell; just in time, the panda had already begun to break down the slightest bit.
Marco lay on the ground as the men approached. "Interesting," he said, his smooth voice containing no panic. "Might you be the demons I've been searching for?"
He raised both his hands, the sigils on his wrists plainly visible. The approaching men stopped.
And then Marco's men dropped in through the hole in the roof. Four out of six, anyways. They held various anti-demon (and indeed, sharp) weapons at the ready, behind the men around Marco.
"Checkmate, I believe?" he said suavely.

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Joe hardly moved at the sudden deceleration and acceleration. He was used to that kind of thing.
He watched the exchange silently, hoping to draw no attention. His mana was already charged and primed, and the wind hovered just outside anyways, watching gleefully. Fire burned inside Joe, waiting for a chance to lash out.

((SirBayer, you can't blow the doors off the back of a van, toss it around, and expect none of the nineteen children to come flying out unless they're in cages biggrin And... how many people are on this van? Niether vehicle has stopped moving, it started with at least 21 people as far as I can tell and gained a good deal more.
And for clarification, a lesser panda doesn't look like a panda. It's more like a raccoon.))

"I didn't say they necessarily wer-"
Out.
Siber activated Centauri's charge at the signal like it had been a trigger and the dæmon messenger got out in time, letting Siber soar towards the open van doors, spread his wings, and keep the children from being blown out the back. This did unfortunate things to the taxi door, but it didn't seem to be such a bad trade off after the next few moments. "Damn it!"
He shouted up to whoever could hear him, not fully understanding the situation as the van twisted and turned, only battering the kids inside more. "Spare me at least a little stupidity, would you?" Rolling his eyes, he pulled out the lesser panda again, throwing shadow sigils on to each child as markers before tossing a handful of mana-marked smokebombs and pennies behind him. The panda used up the energies to get the kids safely out, and Siber moved back to protect them while mayhem ensued within the van.
He knelt down by the creature to thank it for the quick response. Practically evoking had taxed both him and the dæmon. Sorry about that. I couldn't tell what was happening.
Just avoid almost losing your link to me in the future. We're flighty creatures, yeah, but he was using anti-dæmon magic I did not like in the least. Don't expect something like that all the time.
I won't.
Later, then. The creature vanished and Siber found himself in a full suit of armor staring down a group of almost twenty frightened kids.

Centauri, can I keep you on stand-by? This is hairy. And harried.
Sure thing; I like kids.
The dæmon faded, leaving Siber in plain view. "I imagine all of you are wondering exactly what's going on. So am I. I find candy soothes everyone's nerves." He pulled out a package of sixlets and tossed it to the tallest one after taking one for himself and eating it. "They're not poisoned; just don't choke on them."

((This whole business needs to be sorted out quickly. We're losing clarity on physics and character-world interactions. Now, it's possible that I've completely lost track of things over the last few pages on my own; I won't count that out. Just... this all seems dangerously hectic. Sorry, didn't mean to preach biggrin ))

((Siber - the van is magical. Very, very magical. As in, unusually sizy, to a terrifying degree. There's room for them to hold on.

And I"ll post properly in a minute, dessert time.))

((Sok, Siber. Your post appears appropriate.))

SCAR-man's innards would have been blown out against the wall.

Except he didn't have any.

The jacket and the clothing underneath it tore away, revealing broken ribs, but no broken limbs. "Nice try, chump," SCAR-man said, picking up the knife (now embedded in the wall) and slashed violently at Marco's abdomen, this time lunging much lower.

((Too bad you can't see Fyrin's profile, you'd have known about that.))

---

Paul shrugged before Siber disappeared. "I'm sorry! Working on it here!" he cried, and then he was alone. "Could I pull in close enough?" he mused to himself, then dismissed that thought, holding on to the pistol and keeping as close to the open back as possible. "Come on, give me something worth having!" he muttered, the sights of the pistol tracing people as much as possible.

---

Fyrin jerked his head around to survey what was happening behind him. There was someone who had just blown away all of One's clothing... there were some men by the children... men by the children? Were they going to help? Fyrin had to hope so; his men were hard-pressed, if not down-right losing. There were more of them than there were of his fellows. He would maneuver, but that was risky, no matter what.

The magic struck the skeletal gunman, but was targeting the wrong kind of magic - his reanimation was, in fact, entirely necromantic, and disruption of necromancy was the realm of Warlock Hunters, not Demon Hunters. Bone chipped and was blown back and clothing was torn by the force, but with nothing to lock onto, it began to seek the only true demon present - Renard. He threw his kinetics into an upward blast, creating an extrusion of the roof beneath Marco and creating a kinetic thrust at him lateral to the van's movement while disrupting the blast with a shield very much like that of the druids - Siber could feel the similarity of the technique.

((I like how Paul has been totally ignoring bubbles of pus opening and popping on his hands. xd Check the end of my last post if you didn't see it.))

--

Takeshi raised an eyebrow at Agnese. "What about Haru and patients?"