[Arc] Inception

"Oh, I'm not saying that I hope he did, I'm just saying that either he's unsure what to do with it, or has some very different plans that sacrifice his immediately safety for some sort of long-term gain. Either way, works out for us that he didn't go that route. For a number of reasons." Blitz said.

Blitz had the man held against his own chair, and unable to properly yell with the grip Blitz had on his throat, but to the man's credit, he still tried to alert the base, reaching over towards an alarm button, only to get a stab from Leo's blade with a yelp. "Nice catch." Blitz said with a slight glance at Leo.

Blitz waited as the man answered his question, and Blitz found himself agreeing with Eris. "We kinda figured he'd holed up somewhere in the lower floors, we need to know where and how to get there," Blitz said, punctuating the latter syllables by tightening his grip ever so slightly. "Besides, if you care about your fellow guards, it's in your best interest. The less guards we run into, the less that will have to deal with us, which I'm sure you can agree isn't great from your side of things."

Blitz paused as Leo removed Duelist, then said "Appreciate the help, stranger." before doing a short rabbit-punch right to the man's forehead, knocking him out, as Blitz released his grip and let his arm change back to normal. Leo walked over and opened the door the man had indicated with the keycard from earlier, but after Eris scanned the screens, Blitz said "Wait a second." with a hand upheld. He walked over to the screens, placing a hand on the terminal itself, and after a moment of the usual blue circuitry lines, there was a slight jump on every screen. "Looped the footage - with him out cold, anyone who thinks to scan the camera for us won't see anything besides what was on the screens earlier when the guards were patrolling the corridors as per usual." he explained, before following Leo into the elevator.

They were quiet for a moment as it descended, but apparently the guards down here were better trained or just more alert, as the moment the door opened, there were six guards outside the elevator who promptly opened fire. Blitz quickly transformed into his full Double Knuckle form, saying "Follow me, I'll give us cover!" to the duo before charging out, bullets ricocheting off his armored form as he charged down the hallway and decking the closest two guards, sending them sprawling down the hallway, one flying into the legs of a third guard who fell to the ground - not out cold, but it was one less person shooting for the moment.

"Good idea," Eris replied as Blitz explained what he was doing. "It's probably for the best that you decided to come around, if you haven't already noticed we are far from skilled at these sorts of things." She made a quick gesture at the screens, before they continued on their way.

It swiftly became evident that the bottom floor of the complex was far more heavier guarded that the top, however, as almost as soon as the elevator dinged with their arrival did the distinct staccato of gunfire ring out. Immediately did Blitz charge out of the box, skin hardening into metal. A takeover mage... Leo couldn't quite recall if he had known that before although clearly it was not the only thing the man's magic was capable of doing. At least he provided a distraction for the rest of the guards, Leo and Eris both rushing in behind him. He cleared a bit more distance than her even as her steps were accelerated with magic, him lashing out at the two guard farthest away simultaneously. Their fire having been previously focused on Blitz, it took them a moment to readjust to a new target, and by that time he had already maimed the arm of one of them and turned toward the second. The woman though, having had a few more moments to prepare, managed to land a shot aimed at his right shoulder. The shirt he wore displayed a multitude of hexagons where the impact occurred, for a moment, before the shapes shattered and so did the bullet embed itself into his flesh. His reaction at a brief glance was minimal, however, and certainly not enough to stop his blade from plunging into her heart, soon following suit with the other guard he had incapacitated.

Meanwhile, Eris dealt with her guard in a similar fashion to what she had done before, first knocking his firearm out of the way with the blunt end of Benediction before then slashing deep into his neck with the blade, enough so that unlike before the light left his eyes within a few moments. With the guards all taken care of, she turned to Leo who was poking at his own injury, blood outpouring from it although such was only really evident once he looked down at his fingers which appeared to almost be coated in black. "I didn't know they taught poking in medical school," she commented.

"Of course, it's a very useful tool in surgery. Removing bullets from open wounds is advised as well," Leo replied sarcastically. Applying pressure with his left hand at the site of impact, he dug into the perforation with a wince, though a small bit of metal was soon retrieved and promptly thrown onto the floor. Hand now positively covered in gore, he wiped it off on a pant leg before reaching for a spool of gauze in one of his pockets. Upon close observation, one would likely notice that his flesh had started to mend itself, although it was not quick enough to stem the blood entirely which was why he started to wrap the area, struggling for a moment before Eris came to assist.

"Did they leave a mark on you?" Leo asked, turning toward Blitz.

"No worries - technology stuff is part of the reason I'm here," Blitz said with a grin. "Granted, that only ends up helping if we missed guards on the upper floors, but if we did, it should at least buy us some time before they figure out where we went off to - after all, we never snagged the card from the guard in the security booth, so they might assume we're card-less, and thus, couldn't access the elevator."

After the charge down the hall, Blitz had already floored two of them, and a swift backhand knocked the third one both out and out of the way - it wasn't subtle or quiet, but given the burst of gunfire in an enclosed hallway, stealth likely wasn't much of an issue at this point. Leo and Eris dispatched the remaining ones, Blitz glancing up to see Eris helping Leo wrap gauze around an already-healing wound. Blitz shifted back out of his form - it was useful for it's boost in power, but was still a bit rusty when it came to keeping it engaged for greater durations. Blitz winced as he shifted back, however. "Not entirely," Blitz replied to Leo's inquiry, raising one side of his shirt to reveal a peppering of small, circular bruises around the edge of a rather thick scar that continued up his torso. "Forgot that my form's durability had degraded a bit over the years - none managed to pierce the form, but they still stung quite a bit. Shoop, you mind?"

"Already on it," Shoop said, the white bands on his form glowing green briefly, and as Blitz dropped his shirt, the bruises were beginning to slowly fade away and grow lighter. Blitz sighed with relief. "Much better. How about you, Leo? You don't seem bothered by it much, but you DID just get shot successfully back there." he asked, curious and slightly concerned. Having Aiden as the last person he fought beside had made him forget that not every ally was as physically durable as him.

Eris started to move toward Blitz as he mentioned his injuries, although soon paused as his hat aided him instead. Knowing that Leo would be alright within a few minutes, she decided to conserve her particular skill for the moment. Still, it appeared that his own concern was at least somewhat mutual. "Mmm, I'm fine. Bandaging is mostly just a force of habit because...." he started, holding up his hand for a brief moment where the liquid that had not made its way onto his attire had started to dry an unnatural crimson nearing black. He then picked up his weapon which he had set down for the moment, ready to continue on.

"Also, losing blood is not good," Eris added, in which he begrudgingly repeated it. "Hey, you're the doctor," she then remarked, in which he sighed.

"Yeah, yeah, I just thought that much was obvious." Before much else could be said, however, an alarm rung throughout the base, in which Leo cursed. "There must have been too much gunfire this time," he stated, wheeling around toward the elevator. "Undoubtedly there are more patrols on the upper levels... is there any way you can shut the elevator off?" Of course there was the warning itself that would also need to be dealt with, although focusing on such likely wouldn't be too beneficial as most the damage had already been done.

From a nearby corridor did footsteps echo, in which Eris quickly created a bottleneck for the guards that started to shoot, forming a barrier with petals that interlaced together. It would not hold for long, however, as a few bullets ricocheted into the room though luckily they struck no target as of yet. With one hand did she attempt to remain concentrated on blocking the incoming fire of the indeterminate amount of guards, and with the other did she strike the ground, spreading tendrils under the blockade in an attempt to divert the firepower. Leo drew his revolver, firing the remaining five shots beyond the flora, although it was for the most part a blind aim attempting to merely thin out their ranks.

Leo explained that he was mostly fine, but that he wanted to keep the blood flow to a minimum for multiple reasons, showing the blackened blood stain. "I'd say your blood's a bit unnatural, but thanks to my years of transforming into machines one after another, my own blood isn't exactly the standard color, either," Blitz said with a smile. "And Eris does have a point, your blood being outside your body instead of inside isn't a good thing."

They didn't have much time to chat, however, as not long after they dealt with the guards, an alarm began blaring through the base, Leo guessing that the gunfire was a bit too loud. "Technically, we haven't fired a gun of any sort since we've been here, so technically they're sounding the alarm on their own noises, but given that they heard gunfire followed by silence, I can't exactly fault them for being concerned enough to pull an emergency level somewhere."

Leo did make another good point, however - with the alarm triggered, the upper floor guards were going to emerge on the lower floors with the elevator if they didn't do something about it. "I do have one idea," Blitz said as he walked over to the elevator, "But it's probably one of the few that stops it without making it inaccessible for us later." Blitz worked his mojo on the main elevator controls and Blitz leaned back out of the elevator as the doors closed. "I engaged the emergency brakes, so the call button and cards won't move it. It won't stop them forever, though - eventually one of them will think to force the upper doors open and rappel down the elevator cable itself - but it should buy us enough time to find our target, at least."

Meanwhile, the guards on the current lower floors began moving towards them, Eris creating a shield of sorts of out of petals to bottleneck the guards so their numbers wouldn't help them as much, with Leo blindfiring around the sides of it. "Step behind the shield for a moment, Leo." Blitz said, shaking out his left arm briefly as there was a ratcheting noise from inside the arm, and the disk on the palm began to glow a soft red. "I didn't want to use this, being a stealth mission and whatnot, but since the alarm is going off, subtle is out the window, so...!" Blitz reached around the barrier and unleashed a blast of laser energy that filled the corridor and slammed into the guards at the end before exploding, faint bits of smoke and force rolling back past the shield as steam slowly wisped off of Blitz's mechanical hand.

"A temporary delay is better than no delay," he replied. As Blitz then moved to blast the guards, Leo had no need to move out of the way as he had been simply shooting through the patches that steadily opened up in Eris's swath of flowers, the barrier eventually falling to the floor just as Blitz's hand cannon went off. It wreaked devastation within the lines of guards, eight or so having been the total count in the most recent wave, yet instead of another patrol appearing did the intercoms crackle to life, a man with a subtle Pergrandian accent addressing them soon after.

"I see you three have been rather efficient in your infiltration thus far, but I'm afraid that will have to end here. I'll see you soon!" His last words ended on a chipper high note, even as an electric field latticed over the hallway, completely blocking their passage. From the walls did automatons unfold, carrying large, flickering batons charged with electricity. So he wanted to keep them alive, then, but for what purpose? Leo holstered his pistol as it was out of ammunition, not like it would have much of an impact on full metal plating anyway, and placed his second hand on Dualist, assuming the wrath guard. He counted ten that had been activated from the walls, leaving spaces that had an eerily similar look to coffins about them. Eris picked her weapon back up, and upon a glance he could tell that fatigue was starting to set in on her side, a result of rapid-firing her magic no doubt. Still, they stood nearly back to back, the tip of Eris's spear pointed downward as her left hand reached out in the direction of two of the charging robots.

Vines erupted from her grasp, wrapping around the mechanisms of the aggressors and attempting to stop their advance. Leo could feel the tug of a counterweight with her action, yet it was all in vain as they quickly broke loose of their temporary restraints, one bringing its baton down on Eris's shoulder, eliciting a loud grimace from her. He spun about, striking Dualist down at what was functionally the robot's neck, cutting through several of its cords in which it stood immobile. For an extra measure, Leo kicked the construct to the ground, even as another that he had previously been facing struck him square in the back. He could feel the shock coarse through his body, stinging with a clear attempt to knock him out although it was not enough, not yet, and he swung about directly at its chest.

With a clang, a large dent appeared on it where he had struck, yet it appeared to not have much of an effect on the target. It instead hit him again with its baton, a visible shudder of pain coming through his visage as Leo again slashed at it, this time at an unprotected gap in the mechanisms that appeared to function as its spine. Like before, the automaton quickly was immobilized, and he knocked it down again, this time with a shove. It was just in time to parry a blow coming from another one of the constructs, though the crackling of the weapon only flowed through Dualist and traveled up his arm, barely stopped if at all. That probably wasn't the best news for Blitz, but he wasn't Leo's top priority as he glanced down for a moment, seeing Eris out cold on the floor. He twisted his blade out of the lock, jabbing it into a gap where additional mechanisms were stored, before turning on another that approached, yet there was one from the left and one from the right. Quickly toggling the button on his sword, it split into two, each blocking a baton as they struck from both sides. He could not break the force of both at once, however, so the current continued until he collapsed, falling to the ground unconscious.

"You're not wrong, but hopefully it's enough time to get things done." Blitz said as the elevator doors were closed. After Blitz launched his laser blast into the crowded hallway, there was silence for a brief moment (aside from the still-going alarm) and instead of more guards, they were greeted by the crackle of an intercom blaring to life, and a greeting from a rather arrogant fellow over the system. A moment later, a lattice of electrical energy cut off both ends of the hall, and automatons of some kind began unfolding from the walls to attack them, apparently having been built into the walls themselves.

"A defense reserved for the lower floors, no doubt, and mass-produced to boot," Blitz said with a grimace as he dodged the swing of one's baton and tried to hack the thing, only for it to pause for a moment, then swing at him again, grazing his cheek and sending a zap of electricity through his skin. Damn things are routed on the same server, Blitz thought with a grimace. I can only hack them one by one if I'm touching the robot itself, but soon as I hack one, the other sense the change and reboot it to clear the 'error' my hacking put into place. Despite being machines, my hacking ability isn't going to be enough here.

Blitz swung and clocked another in the head, denting it and causing it to stop moving, before snatching the baton it had dropped and ducking another baton to slap the side of another automaton, shorting it out in a burst of sparks as he slid it right between a gap in the armor. Normally, he would have used his own weapon, but he saw Leo's own weapon conduct the charge from the batons, and had no desire to make the same mistake - it was already taking some attention to make sure not to hit them with his metal arm as it was.

Blitz swung to an fro with the stolen baton, jabbing there, bashing here, slowly making less progress after Eris and Leo fell, taking out another two before a collective number of swats with the electrified batons finally made him pass out.

"Put magic binders on those two. The blond's nothing special."

In a blurred haze did Leo slowly awake, gaze flickering open and shut again as a harsh light cascaded from the ceiling above, causing him to wince. Before he could make any further movement, although his limbs were sore to the point where trying anything would be difficult, he was shoved into a chair by an automaton, hands tied behind it with rope and legs secured to the wood in a similar fashion. From across the room he saw Eris receive similar treatment, although her arms were secured with handcuffs instead, and from the distance he could make out a faint glow from symbols inscribed within the metal. Blitz, however, was manacled to the other side of the room, farther away from where Leo now spotted Tolokonsky standing. His restraints were the same in quality as Eris's, although of a different design. Where he was held told everything, however, Viktor had no interest in speaking to the metal mage.

Their current surroundings were different from the rest of the complex's aesthetic design, as white bounced off the domed walls of the chamber they were in. As far as they knew, they could have been taken to a different facility entirely, although Leo had a feeling that was not the case. The three robots they had failed to eliminate now stood by each of them, batons at the ready. However, the most concerning part of the room was not any of that, no, it was the dried blood that accumulated on the floor and splattered onto the rounded vertices as well. The thought was put aside for a moment, though, as he saw Eris awaken, immediately making eye contact with her.

Tolokonsky wasted no time. “Hello, Doctor. And milady, you are certainly looking well. Cleaning up others’ messes again, are you?” Even before he finished speaking did their eyes widen simultaneously, general demeanor shifting from what had once merely been mild concern to genuine disquiet. Suddenly why they were there was laid out in in its true colors, at least to the two, and with it did Leo curse under his breath. How had that, out of all things, manage to slip under IMG's grasp? Was there a loose cannon hanging around somewhere, or had the man just happened across the right place at the right time? Whatever the case, the security breach needed to be dealt with, immediately. It would be impossible to do so from their current positions, though, and Viktor needed to not speak in more specific details, not when Blitz was still within earshot. This... it was the worse thing they could have possibly fathomed, it wasn't even something they had considered.

“That is our job,” Eris finally managed, gritting her teeth even as she spoke. In response did Tolokonsky chuckle, a mad man's laugh by the sound of it, and certainly befitting of the knowledge he had apparently acquired.

“Yes, Lancelot’s beloved little slaves, forever tasked to do his bidding… I wonder how he would react, if you just so happened to perish on an assignment he sent you on. Oh, I think that would be proper retribution for what he has done to me; the guild’s fall will just be the nail in the coffin.”