[Arc] Deluge

Blitz listened as Eris halting gave an explanation for Leo's sudden aggressive attitude. He would have understood if it was Eris getting harmed that set him off - they did seem to be rather close - but it wasn't until after Eris had a word carved into her that he finally snapped, so that - at least, by itself - wasn't the main trigger, and from what Eris had said, she herself wasn't even sure what had caused it to occur. "So you're saying that his own sense of morality is affected along with his magic? The more he uses it, the less calm and passive he is, and he gets more like....this?" he said, gesturing to Leo, who was still holding Tolokonsky at sword-point.

When he tried to walk over, however, Eris stopped him by putting her blade in front of him - not in a threatening manner, but in manner of warning. "It's that bad?" he asked after a moment.

Leo finished with Tolokonsky, however, and turned around just as another group of guards burst into the room, perhaps having heard Leo's interrogation. Or on the monitors, Blitz thought. I set them to loop, but I don't know how much time passed since we were knocked out, so it's possible they rebooted the server to reset the problem. Unfortunately, the now-aggressive mage launched a blast of fire at the group of guards, causing them to be eviscerated in multiple directions, and would have made an even bigger mess if the flames hadn't roasted the remains. He wasn't pulling punches before, but he's really going all in now, Blitz thought briefly, before the ceiling over the blast area groaned from the shredded support columns.

Leo leapt and stabbed a fallen guard, before launching a torrent of darkness that ate through the ceiling and upper floors until the sky was visible through the hole, though the place was now crumbling on several levels, as multiple support pillars were now dust. "Gotta agree with Eris here, maybe shoulda done that AFTER we got out!" Blitz pointed out. Leo dodged a larger, falling piece of concrete - which Blitz still wasn't sure if that got the point across to the young mage - then used his darkness to sprout wings and take off with Eris in tow. Blitz cursed and ran under the hole, firing up the Jump Jets on his legs and back to rocket after them through the vertical escape tunnel. 

Sense of morality, despite the severity of the situation her mouth upturned the slightest of a smile, Blitz spoke as if either of them had much of one to begin with. "Correct, though it does depend on what this is," Eris answered. Truth to be told, she knew fair well Tolokonsky would have been interrogated regardless, if not by Leo then with her own hands, but she had a feeling Blitz wouldn't be all too agreeable with that reality. No, it was the further ruin that she spoke of, the will for annihilation that flowed through his veins, and even as she nodded to Blitz half of herself scoffed at his words, at her own.

Seeking flight from the collapse, he landed at the edge of the hole above, crimson gaze creeping back into the pit even as he set Eris down beside him. She quickly dusted off her clothes, before evaluating the building as they stood upon its roof. Some of the area around the blast had caved in, but the entrance they had initially come from was still intact. Near it were a smattering of guards and automatons gathered, and as they saw the three rise from the wreckage did they take aim and fire an assortment of weapons. Leo turned about almost immediately, furling his wings around himself and Eris as they blocked the first volley of fire, dissipating into nothingness as he dashed across the rooftop soon after. The shadowed blade of Calamitas slammed into the ground below as he flipped over it, handle still gripped even as darkness flitted across the surface in a cone for a mere moment, before erupting into a destructive force that tore away the dirt and all those who stood upon it. Even as Leo landed was the sword yanked out of the ground, poised for another strike although all those who held the capacity to retaliate laid unmoving.

Leo frowned in disappointment, glancing back to see Eris on the roof above, watching him. "Where are the archives?" he asked, in which she shrugged. Dropping down, she landed next to Leo, reaching toward him although he avoided the contact, or rather had sent the nearby door flying off its hinges with a magic empowered kick and had re-entered the complex already. Where there was once a four way intersection had been reduced to three, a gaping chasm opening in the continuation of the passage. It left where they knew the survelliance room to be and an unexplored hall. Drawing his hand over the former, its walls were diced into a series of slabs that slipped in the direction of the chasm, blocking off the path entirely. Leo then turned down the only remaining corridor, breaking open the two opposing rooms with a flick of his blade, darkness eviscerating their entrances. To the left was a room filled with files, to the right several monitors streamed lines and codes of data, incomprehensible to both of them.

Assuming Blitz followed, Leo would make a sweeping gesture with Calamitas in the direction of the latter area. "Let's see if that sniveling weasel was speaking the truth, then."

Eris' answer didn't sit well with Blitz. If even Eris had no idea - or at least, to what extent - this was, then it meant that it was truly uncharted territory for both of them. Perhaps all three of them. And that wasn't a good sign.

Blitz followed Leo and Eris out of the hole as the building began to collapse around them, flying out of the opening in the ground to see one of Leo's 'wings' covering Eris to protect her from ranged attacks from a group of automatons and guards that were outside the main facility - they weren't there when we entered, so they must have moved to safety when they heard the sounds of the building starting to collapse, Blitz thought. He would have joined in the battle with Leo, but he didn't seem to need much help, as he devastated the group much in the same way he had the group back in the holding area.

After a moment, Leo kicked the front door in, returning inside, with Eris and Blitz following him a moment later. If he wanted to locate the archives, you'd think he would have asked one of the people here before he killed them all, Blitz thought. Some of the inner corridors had collapsed, but the one they needed was obvious at this stage, as it was the only one they hadn't gone down the first time that was still unblocked. Going down the one remaining hall, one lead to a room of flies, while the other had codes and monitors galore inside. Leo gestured towards it, which was undoubtedly a suggestion for Blitz. "Sure, lemme see what they've been up to." he said, stepping past Leo to place a hand on the server and blue lines of circuitry raced across it, and the code flickered in a few different patterns, flickering occasionally as Blitz worked, Blitz himself pulling a side panel with circuitry woven into it and some backing - a drive of some kind. "From what I can tell, nothing was transmitted, so if he sent information off, it wasn't done digitally, at least. No outgoing messages, transmissions, anything of that sort." he added. "As for the information itself, I snagged everything on the hardware and stuck it on this. As for the server itself..." On the main monitor, a pixelated flame with a ghoulish grin appeared, letting out a brief cackle before diving into the main folders, then the screen went blank. "I lobbed a little virus surprise onto the server, in case any buddies of his think to come check it. Anything that gets hooked up to it for the next 3 months or so will get wiped completely blank."

Blitz walked over and handed the drive to Leo. "Assuming he didn't spread any info by word of mouth and didn't have any backups off-the-network, this should be everything he had. And needless to say, I disabled the automatons that were left - I couldn't hack them individually, because they were all remotely linked, so the others would correct the attempt, but from the source, I shut them down."

As Blitz spoke, neither of them truly understood what he was trying to convey, though Eris tried her best Leo's eyes simply glazed over, mostly catching nothing was transmitted and everything he had. It was all that he needed, however, anything else was merely a distraction from their one purpose, to sweep a very important something under the rug no matter how much bloodshed was required. He tossed the drive up and down a few times, eventually catching it in his palm and closing his fingers around it, crushing the device. From his hand did the remains crumble into nothingness, mixing in with the dust already present in the air. And thus did his stare turn empty, desolate as the task had been completed; there was nothing else to eradicate from existence.

Nothing else, no that was a lie, around him lay an abominable mass of concrete and steel, so far removed from the cruelty of the wilderness that it was sickening to look at, even in its decrepit state the orderly angles and lines practically begged to be reduced to the chaos from whence it had come. Its sagging structure wanted further annihilation, otherwise his artwork would be left incomplete. The compound's presence was now superfluous compared to the environment around it, though that had always been the case it was even more obvious now. Thus did he turn back to Eris, visage splitting into a wide grin. "This place is only an ugly mark on the Rutschigeklippe now, don't you think?"

Her eyebrows raised, a brief sigh escaping her lips as she glanced over at Blitz. "I'm sure that's your motive. Just let us get out of here first." Leo nodded enthusiastically, waiting patiently for her to turn the corner and a few more seconds, presumably enough time to pass through the other remaining hallway. However, after that was all sincere intent wiped from his facade, except for the toxic ecstasy that drove him to slam his hand against the closest wall, destructive force flowing through it as crevices devolved from what had once been an aesthetic design choice into true fissures, dispersing to the ceiling and the floor. They carved their path until Calamitas slammed into the point of origin, a deafening crack resonating throughout the infrastructure before it shattered into a million pieces.

And yet from it still did the lower levels of the base remain somewhat intact, although everything else had been completely leveled. Its skeleton was now exposed, at least, as Leo stood only upon a thin column remaining, even as he jumped down into the ruin did it collapse. Still, it was not enough, it was never enough, the desires he had suppressed for so long out of fear now uninhibited with the lack of it. Even so, there was a wince from himself as he held his head, a pounding sensation once again returning although quickly was it dismissed by his own intents.

Eris' eyes glazed over a bit as Blitz explained what he'd done. Didn't really expect a captive audience, but perhaps I should have just told them I got the info and kept it on the short side of things, Blitz thought.

Blitz handed the drive to Leo, who tossed it up and down a few times.....aaaaaand then he crushed it in one hand. Blitz blinked briefly, then sighed. "I was going to say that we could send that back to IMG so they could confirm the data against what they believe he had stolen from them, but sure, just crush it flat." Blitz said sarcastically. "And the server's been wiped, too, so if there was anything extra on that drive that was of concern, we just lost it. Starting to see why they sent you on a 'tie up loose ends' mission and not a 'get something back in one piece' mission." Blitz said, mildly annoyed.

Leo wasn't done with just the drive, however - it seemed the whole place offended him in some way. "You wanna stay and carve up stonework, be my guest." Blitz would have liked to speak further, but Leo didn't need much invitation after Eris gave a green light of sorts, and he quickly reduced the place to the lowest levels as he crashed through parts of the building.

"You know, your own skills might speed this up a bit." Shoop said. "If you're in the mind to get him out of here in a timely fashion."

"Apparently, he needs to blow off some steam," Blitz quipped, glancing into the semi-crater at Leo, "And besides, after what he did to the drive, I don't owe him any favors."

Blitz did, however, glance at Eris. "Okay, so I get that you're not sure what triggered this, but how long before he snaps back to his less-destructive self so we can get on with it? That collapse was fairly loud, and we REALLY don't want him meeting local law enforcement." Blitz pointed out.

"Anything gained from the drive would be insignificant compared to what would happen if it fell into the wrong hands. And by taking it with us, we'd only be marking ourselves as targets for an abundant host of people who would do anything to acquire it," Eris stated in a low tone, almost reluctant to explain Leo's actions although she certainly didn't disagree with them, not on the fundamental level. He hadn't even put that much thought into it, normally he would have perhaps contemplated consequences for a few moments but ultimately his decision would have been the same no matter what the circumstances were. It was true, Tolokonsky could have acquired other organizations' secrets, maybe even had details on other plots to take down IMG, but it was too risky of a bargain. There indeed was such a thing as being too proactive, and no risk could be taken with the information Leo and Eris knew with certainty was there, and there were likely more secrets Viktor hadn't divulged in his interrogation.

Eris laughed for a moment at the mention of law enforcement, despite the gravity of Blitz's words. "Oh, he hates the police under any circumstance; this one is certainly no exception. We haven't exactly been treated kindly by the law in the past," she replied somewhat cheerfully, though it dropped the longer she spoke. "And I don't know, usually it's just until whatever is dealt with... but, ah, that's just us-him normally. After, after...." she stumbled on her words, wincing as her grip fell upon her temple, "after... this thing, stuff changed, and, ah, his magic was only like this for a year, maybe less, before it was sealed. I'm sorry, but a year means very little to us, all I remember are just terri-" This time, her words were merely cut off with a choke, in which her face reset into a brief snarl. "Oh, fuck you," Eris muttered to herself, before sighing with a shrug, re-establishing the eye contact she had dropped with Blitz. "Uh, yeah, I'm going to call our doctor now."

Even as she fumbled through her pockets, Leo continued his semi-rampage, though it was less inspired by rage and more concerning an inhuman shade of glee, and such would be almost painfully obvious were one to read the expressions on his visage. With each level did the structure itself appear more to be precariously standing, though its roof had been destroyed already much still remained, as unstable as it were. Crashing down came slabs and supports, each of which he either nimbly dodged or decimated before it could come into contact with him, a deadly dance of bliss as any repercussions of his devastation were blotted out from his mind by the darkness.

"The whole reason we're out here in the first place is BECAUSE it fell into the wrong hands already, and might still be in the wrong hands if our late jailer was fibbing about not telling anyone by word of mouth. And from what I gathered, you two are aware of major portions of said information, so you've got a target on your back as it is." Blitz pointed out. "Not having a physical copy might safeguard it a bit better, but those two points don't necessary change just because he destroyed it. Besides, if the information itself was all that he needed or all he wanted to know, why'd he bother interrogating the two of you? You'd think he'd have locked us away then returning to examining or doing something else with his stolen information, but instead, he tried to get more out of you, meaning either his own information was somehow incomplete, or he was fishing for more, and gathered that you two might be privy to it."

Eris seemed to laugh off the idea of local law enforcement, explaining that they weren't on great terms with law enforcement as it was - given Leo's new persona, no big surprise there, Blitz thought - but seemed to struggle with something before cursing herself and saying she would call their doctor. "I'm not saying that local law enforcement is a problem because of how he gets along with them, I'm saying it because I'm fairly certain that the Boscan government - or at the very least, the owner of this farmland - does not know that we're out here, and I'd rather not spark an international incident that both of our organizations might have to put the fires out from." Blitz pointed out.

Blitz glanced into the pit Leo was carving into the ground as Eris went for the doctor. He wanted to get his attention and let him know they were leaving soon, but leaving Leo to his own devices for the time being, despite his own warning, seemed a decent idea for the moment. And since Eris had mentioned a 'doctor', but none of them were sporting any more injuries, it meant that it was likely for Leo in some capacity.

She put her hand over her face for a moment, sighing. "People don't know that we know, that's the entire point of it," Eris muttered, though she looked up at him afterward. "And it would be best kept that way, do you understand? Though concerning Tolokonsky, his primary motivation was usually profit, and documents certainly sell better than word of mouth. Anyone can make up a lie, after all, and he's known for them. Those willing to pay the absurd fee he undoubtedly was going to charge would have asked for solid proof, which you said wasn't transferred."

Eris scrolled through her contacts list for a few moments before finding the person in question, rubbing her eyes for a brief moment. "Oh, is she going to be pissed...." she murmured, before tapping the call icon. After a few moments of ringing, the other end of the line picked up. "So I hate to bother you, Maescia, but we have a problem...."

"Oh, greetings to the most sporadic patients I've ever had; what's the limb and when's the meeting?" the other end answered almost immediately, in a tired tone as if she had repeated her words a thousand times before. They rarely had any encounters that were beyond mild inconveniences to them, after all, and even when they did for the large part they could mostly work those out themselves. When they did call upon Maescia it was mostly because of concerns with expedience, but there were other things that she knew about too, primarily details that related less to physiology and more to... esoteric qualities.

How was she to explain the latter, though, the speech clung to her tongue as it was so far removed from what the elf assumed was the truth. It was easy for those who did not understand the consequences, but she did. "I... wish it were that. It's Leo," Eris eventually managed, which prompted an almost immediate response from the other end, not the mood she had anticipated although what else was to be expected, given how little she had just explained?

"Oh, is he coughing up blood like he has tuberculosis again, or having a bunch of those migraines?"

Maescia's words, however only served to further throw her off guard, and Blitz would catch Eris blinking a few times, a reaction to the whiplash she had just abruptly experienced in her mind. "Um... no? Sorry, did you say consumption?"

The elf chuckled at her choice of vernacular, of course unaware of the ground around them that had started to slide inward toward the gaping chasm of the complex, though for her part Eris didn't seem to notice it either, too concentrated on discerning Maescia's voice amidst the ambiance of annihilation. "Oh, I guess he didn't tell you, my bad. It wasn't actually that. Anyway, so what's the problem?"

"Well...." she coughed. "The seal broke."

There was silence on the other side for some time, a pregnant pause that seemed like an eternity and an instant all at once. Eventually, however, a tone of trepidation emerged from it. "Are you okay?" Maescia questioned, though it was posed more as a statement.

"For now. I don't know what to do though... I didn't even think it was possible...."

There was again a lapse of disquiet, though this time it seemed as though it were more in contemplation, although she had no true way of telling. "Get him to calm down if you can, if not... well someone else eventually will. If that's the case, you can pull some strings, right?"

A brief sigh of relief echoed from Eris, though the elf had told nothing she had already known, deep down, it helped to hear so from an outside source. "Yeah, I can, though I'd still rather try for the first option. Then we come to you?"

"Yes, and I'll try to figure out what caused it in the meantime. I wish you the best of luck."

She shook her head, glancing up at the sky, unmarred despite the chaos unfolding around them. "We'll need it."