227/Jailbreak

Jailbreak
Date of Scene:	29 July 2015
Location:	Plot Room #1
Synopsis:	With Mami's help, Kyouko finds her freedom.
Cast of Characters:	Mami Tomoe, Homura Akemi, Hannah Sharpe, Kyouko Sakura

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Hannah Sharpe has posed:
It's been some time since Kyouko's capture, and finally the experiments seem to subside...slightly. Even Hannah still has quite a bit of humanity to her, and rather than risk actual permanent harm, she's given the woman a bit of rest. A medic or two occasionally peers in to check on her, but otherwise, she's left to her own devices.

That last experiment involving moving her soul gem, after all, even gave Hannah a start. Some part of the woman is actually feeling guilty. But the data was worth it.

More worrying still is the fuzzy image of a fluffy being that's left next to no signature in all of her readings. One she's never detected. And is only captured on a security camera. The WPS building, like most Eclipse buildings, has one particular route to Kyouko's holding cell.

It's on the second floor, and into the janitor's closet, then shove aside the supply locker into a non-euclidian-space portal.

Far, far upstairs, Miss White is frowning as she goes over test data and the /missing/ data regarding the intruder. She sips her coffee angrily.

"What kind of Alice in Wonderland rabbit /ARE/ you!?" She howls at the computer.

Downstairs, Ao Karina is at the receptionist's desk, having taken the place of a sick office worker. There's few people coming and going at this time of night, the entryway covered by a single security guard. There's a metal detector at the door.

Kyouko Sakura has posed:
    Kyouko is in her cell. It's more of a medical exam room than a cell, all white tile. The only furniture is the padded exam bench. She's been in here for over a week- it's pretty incredible that she hasn't gone stir-crazy, although she has as much to mull over about Hannah's recent findings as her captor does. Her hands are secured behind her back, the technological-looking handcuffs both binding her wrists together and covering her hands entirely in metal 'mittens', preventing her from picking up or manipulating anything.

    Overall, it's been an incredibly boring week. Except for the experiments. Those haven't been very pleasant. As Hannah knows, she's had a few visitors- some more human than others. None of them have been particularly pleasant. None of this has left Kyouko in a particularly good mood, so the evening finds her staring at the blank wall, a scowl on her face.

Mami Tomoe has posed:
Kyubey and Mami had ... well, they had a interesting conversation, that's the best way to put it - to hear that Kyouko in trouble wasn't so much news as in a strange way of thinking about the fact that Kyouko could be trouble, but even though their friendship was broken, Mami still considers her someone that is worth trouble - after all, even though they fought viciously one of the last few times they met, there is still some lingering memories of their relationship. As such, Mami was on the prowl one night towards the location that Kyubey had told her about.

A henshin sequence temporarily breaks the back ground music.

Mami follows the the feel of magic towards the closet, moving rather quietly for her heels, a length of ribbon hanging from her hand.

Homura Akemi has posed:
Homura Akemi always knew, in her heart, that this imprisonment couldn't last. Kyouko was resourceful, powerful... as much as Homura wasn't getting along with her, she at least had to respect that much. Kyouko was going to break out, and there wasn't much Homura or anyone else could really do to stop it.

What Homura didn't expect was for Kyubey to come in and talk to Kyouko. Homura also didn't expect Kyubey to tell Mami about her predicament. So she really has no idea that Mami Tomoe is going to be involved in this. As such, she has no idea how out-of-hand this is likely to get.

Homura is hesitant to approach Kyouko. Before she felt like taunting, but Kyouko has been in there a while. She has needs that need to be met, she's too strong to be useless to Homura's ends, and... well... they were friends before, in another timeline. Homura hopes they can be that again.

As unlikely as that seems right now.

Homura is coming down the secret passage to Kyouko's cell, holding a Grief Seed. She's not walking very fast. What will she say? What will she do? What if Kyouko refuses? In the latter case, Homura isn't above just forcing her.

Since she's not walking very fast, it'd be pretty easy to catch up to her, or maybe even sneak up on her.

Hannah Sharpe has posed:
It's oddly easy for Mami to gain entrance to the dilveries area. At this time of night, everyone's gone, but the visible security cameras aren't blinking. The /other/ metal detector is clearly offline. There's no mortal, or youma security guards. The door's unlocked. It's as if someone wants others to break in. Very odd.

High above, in a darkened board room, the single working camera catches a glimpse of Mami Tomoe. An elderly man in a suit grins at the sight.

"...That little upstart will learn her place." He says to the room around him, laughing.

Thus, Mami makes her way into the closet undetected. A little fiddling, and with a perhaps familiar sense of 'lost' that one can so easily get in Infinity Middle School, she finds herself some physical space away.

Everything is white, tile, and the grey of steel at the doors. Locks are obvious, but at this hallway, there's still no notable security guards. A doorway on the right, with an accompanying keypad, is marked 'Experiment Data Center'. The one on the right is marked 'Containment Cells'. A horrible, familiar feeling, oddly muted comes from that direction. Anger. Pain. Suffering. The sense of Witches and Familiars leaking out despite the obvious feeling of well-worked magic in the air.

The one in front of her, starting to close from someone recently passing through, is marked 'Medical Ward'. If Mami's fast enough, she can slip through. Beyond that door is a long hallway, filled with steel containers, two flanking a single door with single numbers. They go on into the twenties. There's only a few that are lit up. At the far, far end of the hallway, cell number twenty-two, is where Kyouko rests. In cell twenty-three, her Soul Gem is protected by a glass case, and several powerful barrier spells. Four of those steel containers are stationed in the room ominously.

As soon as one walks into the long hallway without an appropriate rfid tag, alarms go off, and those containers open in the hallway. Black-suited robo-gangsters start to pile out, pistols, machine guns, and various melee weapons in their hands. They're each no match for a Puella. But there's /lots/ of them.

Mami Tomoe has posed:
The little upstart is a little off-put by the fact that it seems so empty. She inhales sharply as she feels, to the right, those horrible, strangely familiar feelings, and her jaw tightens, actual, slight stress lines pulling across her face, an expression rarely seen on Mami Tomoes' face. She can't get in there, though, but she can go forward, barely making it into the medical ward before the door shuts behind her, and only having seconds to register the hallway - and more importantly, the fact that she distantly sees a figure with black hair - when the containers burst open.

"My goodness."

Mami is not one to be stopped, however, by a bunch of robo gansters. Guns? Bah. She brought her own. She sweeps her hands in front of her and in the tight hallway a semi-circle of guns appears, and she moves into gear, kicking them up into the air as she swings them around. She's not going for precise shots - there's not point here, she's just trying to move - and get a closer look at the figure down the hall.

It can't be- it just can't-

"... Akemi...?" She breathes.

Homura Akemi has posed:
The alarm goes off, and Homura is no longer unaware. Who would dare to--

Homura spins around, hair swinging outwards behind her as her purple eyes settle upon the magical intruder. The Grief Seed is stashed into her shield. Twin pistols are already out, and her mind is in combat mode.

Target Name: Mami Tomoe

Target Capabilities: Ribbons*, Guns (*Ribbons are especially dangerous.)

Overall Threat Assessment: It's Mami Tomoe!! D:

Homura's teeth grit. The robo-thugs rush forward where the Puella fears to tread. As the machines move forward, Homura runs back, retreating to get into a better position. She can't really use explosives in here, or at least if she does she has to be careful about them.

"You shouldn't be here, Tomoe-san!" she shouts over the din of combat. "What do you think you can accomplish here?"

How did Mami find them? Was it the Witches? Or did she somehow find out about Kyouko?

"It's not too late for you to turn around, Tomoe-san!"

Homura is hanging back and waiting, dodging the shots that come her way. Most of the shots she could fire are more likely to hit the robo-gangsters than Mami, so there's little she can actually do that's productive. She has to come up with a plan, and come up with one quickly.

She starts running towards the cell that has Kyouko's Soul Gem. That might be her one and only trump card in case things go really bad. And things actually did just go really bad.

Kyouko Sakura has posed:
    The sound of the alarm going off makes Kyouko blink. This is.. something new. This hasn't happened before while she's been here. She doesn't know Mami is coming for her, but she's on her feet anyway, prowling towards the door, brows furrowed as she tilts her head towards it. Maybe, she's thinking, whatever is going on out there will afford her an opportunity to finally get out of here.

    Then.. gunshots? Kyouko's eyes widen slightly. /Something/ is going on. She can't recognize Mami's guns merely by their sound, of course, but the fact that somebody is shooting up the hallways means that something is happening, something which is likely not good for WPS- which means it might be very good for her.

    Instantly, she's looking around for something to do, anything, to get the door open. This might be her only chance. After a minute, she runs over to the exam table. Pushing her shoulder against it, she moves it across the floor with a screech of metal on tile, until it bumps up against the door. Then, gritting her teeth, she backs across the room.

    And sprints at the table at a rull run, leaping at the last moment to perform a rather graceful drop-kick, smashing both feet into the back of the table to send it crashing into the door as an improvised battering ram. If it doesn't work the first time, she'll do it again. It's a locked and guarded door, but its only a medical room, not a real cell, and the guards are obviously distracted..

Hannah Sharpe has posed:
There's a quite literal wall of bullets that greets Mami Tomoe. These robots aren't bright or strong, but numbers has a certain quality. They inundate the hallway with bullets, most met by Mami's own string of bullets, shattering even that magical metal to shreds with her ribbon-bullets. One after one, they fall, and yet they advance without thought for self preservation. True automatons, these things.

The more pressing matter might be the sound of steel doors closing behind Mami as the security system catches up to the veteran puella. She'll have to shoot or blow her way out. The mook robots go down in hordes of yellow ribbon-shot, but there's the far more dangerous Homura Akemi here.

As Homura retreats to the Soul Gem room, her keycard gets her in easily. Miss White /trusts/ her, perhaps to a foolish degree. As she walks in, all the safeties deactivate, and there's a soul gem for the taking for Homura. The guards, too, activate and step out, four machine guns pointed at the door defensively.

Inside of Kyouko's cell, her work slowly bears fruit. It's indeed a medical ward, despite the defenses. There's dents in her doorway with each slam of legs to exam table. It's a heavy thing, but Kyouko Sakura has considerable force for such a young girl. Soon enough, the door dents, gives way, and an exam table goes skidding out into the hallway...only to be blasted into scrapnel by a combination of robo-bullets and Mami Tomoe's own. Kyouko would be wise to get down now to avoid her mortal form being shredded up by shards of metal.

Upstairs, Miss White throws on her coat after yelling at several departments. A breach. A damn breach, and they didn't catch it. Security cameras /off/ despite her orders! She'd been prepared.

The girl's anger has wind magic flaring around her as she kicks open her office door, calling Ao down below.

"Hey Ao? Remember that button under the desk I told you to never press? If you see me downstairs, or anybody that looks /off/ like me, you hit that button immediately, got it!?" Then she hangs up, cursing and heading towards that janitor's closet.

"...Old man, this is your doing, right!?" She kicks a desk over in passing, much to the shock of one poor intern.

"NOBODY SCREWS WITH ME!"

Mami Tomoe has posed:
Mami lifts her voice to a near yell, in a response that is probably now audible to one Kyouko Sakura.

"I'm here to get Kyouko!"

Get, not save. Wording is important.

Her attention is caught by Kyouko's door shattering open, not that Mami knows it's her door - in response, Mami lifts her hands, ribbons wrapping into some sort of cannon in the hallway. It's no Tiro Finale, but it is effective at blasting a path as doors start slamming shut. She fires it and it dissipates, rolling another simple matchstick rifle over her shoulders as she fights her way down the hallway.

"Why are you here?! Are you protecting Kyouko, or hurting her?" She demands of Homura as she approaches that general area where she disappeared too.

Homura Akemi has posed:
To Mami's questioning, Homura shouts, "I'm protecting the WitchHunter's interests. I /wish/ you two would quit getting in the way of that. Kyouko wouldn't be in her situation if she just left things alone!"

Homura fumbles with the keycard in haste, enters, and locks the door behind her. That should buy her some time. Hannah trusted her, and Homura had no intention of betraying that trust...

... as uncomfortable as her current situation is. Choosing between friends isn't really something that makes her happy.

What makes her even less happy is what she chooses to do next. She puts away one of her pistols. She reaches for the red Soul Gem. She takes it into her hands. She turns around and waits for the door to burst open. She's pointing her gun at the Soul Gem. Kyouko can't leave without this, and Homura is holding it hostage.

She is crossing a line here, and she knows it, but she's already cast her lot in with WPS. She has no choice in the matter.

Even if Mami and Kyouko come in and agree to her terms... what demands should she make? Putting Mami into another cell would just be inviting trouble.

Well, there was one thing on her mind. Homura's face grows dark as she considers it.

She mutters to herself, somewhat bitterly, "Well, Mami-san. I guess this answers your question... I'm hurting her. Tch... who do I even blame for this?!"

Kyouko Sakura has posed:
    The door crashes open! Kyouko, due to the nature of drop-kicks, is already on the floor as this occurs, having fallen there after smashing both feet into the edge of the table. This turns out to be a good thing, as the door bursts aside, falling off onto one hinge, and bullets careen into the room haphazardly, making Kyouko curse to herself under her breath.. a curse which is repeated, slightly louder, as she hears Mami's voice echoing down the hallway. Still.. she can't keep a small smile from her face, as well as a renewed burst of energy. She had chosen to send a message to Mami because she had hoped the other Puella would come. And she had! This makes Kyouko feel.. surprisingly good. And when she feels good, she feels like nothing is beyond her.

    There's a lull in the gunfire. Kyouko suddenly leaps to her feet, dashing forward and sliding over the top of the exam table (now blocking the open doorframe) like it was the hood of a car, coming up to a crouch on the end of it at the last moment. She may not be in Puella mode, her soul gem still in the next room, but she's Kyouko Goddamn Sakura and she's far from helpless, even with her hands cuffed behind her back.

    She launches herself from the edge of the table towards the nearest robo-goon, wrapping her legs around his neck and swinging her body, using her weight to throw him to the side and releasing at the last second to land in a crouch atop his now-mangled body. "Mami! I'm over here!" SHe calls, before running forward and sliding through the legs of another robo-good, kicking up to knock his feet out from under him as she passes by before rolling back upright again. "Get these damned cuffs off of me!"

Hannah Sharpe has posed:
Between Mami's gunfire, and Kyouko's epic escape, the hallway is littered with pieces of robogoon.

As if the tension couldn't get any higher at this point, the doors back to the entranceway smoothly slide open as the white-suited figure of Miss White walks in. She idly kicks away a robot head.

Hannah emerges, clenching Raging Tempest in her fists.

A quick area search gives her the layout of the situation.

"So you must be the legendary Mami Tomoe. Akemi-san has told me a bit about you. I think we met once, never did get a chance to properly introduce myself. Kasagami White, Director of Special Interests and Acquisitions. It is a /pleasure/ Tomoe-san." Comes the girl warmly despite the situation, voice level and confident.

Then she turns her attention to Kyouko. "Oh, so you finally escaped Kyouko-san. Took you longer than I thought. How are you feeling, any aches, any side effects? Sudden unexplained increases in magical output or decreases in soul gem darkening rates?"

Then she chuckles.

"Though I guess the most relevent question here is what are you two going to do now? Ball's in your court kids. Fairly useless for Kyouko-san here to start running when she does not have her soul gem on her, right? Go ahead, Kyouko." She steps to the side of the hallway, smirking. One hand indicates the hallway.

"Just try running away right now." Taunts the woman. As far as she knows, the soul gem is still locked up, and she'd rather keep the attention on herself.

Mami Tomoe has posed:
Frustration papable in her smooth voice, Mami calls back to Homura, "What is WitchHunters?!" She shoots a look at Kyouko as she approaches the red-headed Puella Magi, lifting her hand as one of her matchlock rifles appears in a glitter of golden ribbon, Mami shifting her weight for the briefest moment as she glances down at the locks on Kyouko's hand ... before she shoots. Hopefully she aimed right and the gun will skim the outside of her wrists, weakening the metal enough for Kyouko to finish breaking them open.

She turns to Miss White. She can practically hear the smirking, and the taunts doesn't help, even as Mami stands there for a few brief seconds. Normally she's going - but sometimes, it's just good to /stop/. Then she nods, a smile crossing her face. Miss White is clearly going to be a problem, so sometimes it's time to catch a spider in another web. She whirls around, shooting down the hallway, the bullets whizzing towards Miss White - but they don't /hit/ her, inexplicably they go into the wall and the ceiling around her opponent, before the guns burst apart into ribbons, aiming to form a barrier between her, Kyouko, and Miss White.

"Where is your Soul Gem?" She asks of Kyouko, her eyes narrowing towards where Homura disappeared too.

Kyouko Sakura has posed:
    Kyouko rolls back to her feet and turns slightly, just in time for Mami's bullet to crash into the side of the handcuffs. Her aim is precise, and all it takes afterwards is some fierce tugging on the redhead's part and the metal fragments, separating her hands. However, the handcuffs still have those metal 'mittens' that cover her hands entirely, and those are still in place, meaning that while she can now use her arms, she can't actually pick anything up quite yet.

    Miss White enters the hallway, and starts shouting her taunts. Kyouko scowls. The expression on her face becomes one of pure, unadulterated animosity as she turns her ruby gaze down the hall littered with robo-corpses to the WPS leader. "Up yours, Miss White!" She calls back from behind Mami. Given unformation which has.. recently come into her posession, the taunt about not leaving without her Soul Gem hits home, but she stiffens her lip and glances at Mami.

    "It's in there." She says, pointing to the locked door Homu had vanished into. "I'll get it." As Mami forms that barrier, Kyouko walks to the door, and kicks it, hard. Locked it may be, but these are still just medical rooms, not cells, and a few hard, repeated kicks shatters the door jam and sends the door springing inwards with a crash..

    To reveal Homura standing there, a gun pointed right at Kyouko's Soul Gem.

    Homura likely expects Kyouko to hesitate. After all, she probably isn't really planning to shoot. Maybe Kyouko will see the threat to her Gem and surrender, or at least be distracted. This is not what happens.

    Kyouko acts on instinct, like always. She knows Homura can be surprised, that her strange ability to 'teleport' relies on her conscious control. And so Kyouko does what she hopes Homura won't expect.

    As soon as the door is open and she processes what she sees, she sprints directly at Homura as fast as she can, pulls back one metal-clad fist, and punches Homura right in the jaw.

Homura Akemi has posed:
Homura waits with her gun pointed at the Soul Gem. With a single pull of the trigger, she could end Kyouko's life. It wouldn't even be difficult. She waits for Kyouko or Mami to come in.

When she hears Hannah's voice coming from down the hall, she's only slightly relieved. She's /way/ out of position to help her boss, but at least it isn't two versus one anymore. Maybe if she only had to take either Mami or Kyouko, she could stand more of a chance. On the other hand, if they decided to gang up on Hannah while Homura was holed up in here...

They really were caught off guard.

The door begins to shake. One hit after another, Homura watches as the doors give way, pursing her lips tightly. Kyouko is coming. Maybe if Kyouko sees what Homura is doing, she'll stop. She'll realize the danger she's in, and give up.

That's not what happens.

Kyouko bursts through and rushes Homura down, and this time it's Homura's turn to hesitate. She knew she wasn't going to fire. Apparently, so does Kyouko. The redhead's fist smashes into Homura's jaw. Homura is sent falling backwards, sprawled against the ground. The red Soul Gem is still clenched firmly in her hand. A trickle of blood falls from her lips and down her chin. She wipes it off.

"I see how it is. You think you can beat me just because I'd rather not kill you, right? You've tried that tactic before."

"How naive. Don't you realize that I don't need to kill you in order to win?"

Homura's retaliation is immediate. Too immediate. Several metal cannisters drop into the ground, quickly filling the room with tear gas. How did Homura get that? Probably the same way she got all those rocket launchers. For a brief moment, Kyouko can see Homura standing up, in a corner, putting on a gas mask, before the tear gas blocks all visibility.

Yet Homura doesn't keep her distance. Her attacks come out inhumanely fast. Machine guns aren't this rapid. Kyouko can see, for brief flashes, a fist going for her face, a kick going for her side, a metal bat going for her stomach. Kyouko might not be able to see the last attack. It comes from behind, the back of her hand swinging for the back of Kyouko's head.

The rapid succession of these attacks come so fast it's almost in an instant, yet something odd happens with each strike. It's like each time Homura hits Kyouko, the world seems to stop. It happens so fast, she might miss it.

After that, nothing happens. The tear gas spreads through the room. One might wonder if Homura is even still in the room. She has to be nearby, right? Kyouko would've fallen over if Homura ran off with her Soul Gem. If only it were possible to know where Homura was hiding...

Homura's ringtone goes off. It's pretty loud. Someone apparently didn't set her phone to vibrate. Homura hastily takes out her smartphone, the light of the screen further gives away her position. She hastily mutes it and, for a brief moment, sees the text on her screen.

Mamoru Chiba? Complaining about Madoka's math skills? Well, he's not /wrong/.

Hannah Sharpe has posed:
Miss White sighs as she's met with a look and silence from Mami. "And they Americans are lacking in manners. Alright, have it your way." She mutters, before suddenly, bullets!

Or more accurately, ribbons. She moves to duck aside before realizing what's going on. A barrier. She whistles, holds up her Device, and takes a moment or two to scan their magical properties.

"Not bad for such a quick barrier." She mutters to herself before settling into a fighting position. Smoothly she draws back her fist, and slams a punch into the barrier. It shudders under her strike. She keeps repeating until finally it breaks down.

"What inspiring words, Kyouko Sakura! Ever considered becoming a motivational speaker?" Further taunts the woman to the red head before she dashes after Homura into the room.

A moment later, and there's gas coming out from the room as Kyouko breaks in. It doesn't take too many guesses as to /who/ caused that. With the Barrier down, Miss White springs into action!

She's gone as soon as the magic ribbons fall, swept up in a torrent of emerald-green wind. That same gust deposits her a foot in front of Mami, where she aims a sudden pair of golden-knuckled jabs towards the magical girl's stomach! A left, then a right, and she ducks to the side, swinging a hard kick towards Mami's right arm! Wind magic rotates around her foot, ready to slam vibrating winds into Mami's body, enough to rattle bones! More importantly, she tries to keep herself between the door Kyouko and Homura are fighting in.

"How /did/ you find out? Honestly, Kyouko-san hardly strikes me as a person who has a lot of friends. Pretty odd to see you coming to help!"

Mami Tomoe has posed:
Mami rolls with the punches - quite literally. Distracted as well by the gas dissipating from the room nearby, she can only figure that it's probably the room with Kyouko's Soul Gem, so Kyouko and Homura are both in there. Yet, she's got bigger matters - like fighting the person, it seems, who captured Kyouko Sakura for fun, profit, and experimentation, and it's the last bit that really annoys Mami.

Mami meets her impacts, teeth rattling, bones rattling with the concussive-seeming attacks, the puella magi, rolling with them as much as possible. Miss White also learns that Mami isn't one of the better fighters in close combat - she is somewhat reliant on her guns, but she still has yet an advantage even as she gets knocked into a wall - and that's what her guns are made off.

Ribbons magic themselves into life, and Mami uses them as one would expect - she's aiming to trip and tie Miss White up, if not outright use them to bind her knuckles as she punches back, aiming to keep White from getting to the room as well.

Kyouko Sakura has posed:
    Kyouko snarls in animalistic satisfaction as her punch connects and sends Homura sprawling onto the ground.. but the other Puella didn't drop the Soul Gem. That's a problem. The redhead's brows draw together as Homura talks about her 'trying this before'.. since as far as she's concerned, they've never fought before. Not really. But she doesn't have time to think about it now. Thinking mid-combat isn't really Kyouko's style.

    The gas is a surprise, filling the room with rapidly expanding smoke that stings her eyes and her throat, and she sucks in a breath to hold.. one which gets knocked out of her immidiately as Homura attacks, her fist impacting Kyouko's face, causing her to gasp in more of the choking gas, the other blows causing her to stumble to her knees. She's not henshined, after all. She may still be a Puella, but her abilities are not as full capacity.

    Yet, she's still processing information. Even if she doesn't do it consciously, she registers those small.. pauses in reality. Every time Homura uses her powers against Kyouko, the redhead comes that much closer to figuring out how to react to them, even if it's not something she's actively thinking of. For now though, she's left on her knees, gasping and choking and unsure where Homura is in the room..

    Until Homura's phone goes off. That's all she needs. She's moving before she even knows it, springing to her feet and hurling herself at that breif spot of sound and light. Luckily, the gas blinds Homura as much as it does her. Careening into the dark-haired girl, Kyouko simply attempts to bring herself near enough to her Soul Gem to successfully henshin.

    And she does. There's a blinding flash of red light, and suddenly the gas in the room is whirling in a small cyclone as vaugely-seen segments of spear and chain, formed out of the ether, spin around her. She leaps back though, gaining some ground, two spearheads forming atop two distinct segments and arrowing down, each smashing one of the metal mittens off of Kyouko's hands. She stands up, flexing her fingers. "/Much/ better.." She all but growls, her eyes going back to find Homura amidst the now-swirling mist. She can hear Mami and Miss White going at it in the hallway. Hopefully Mami can keep the WPS boss busy.

Homura Akemi has posed:
Homura is crashed into. There's nothing she can really do about it. Her smartphone goes flying out of her hands and bouncing along the ground, landing somewhere on the ground. Homura herself is on the ground again.

Plan one: Continue fighting against Kyouko in a tear gas filled room. Gas mask will probably let Homura have a slight advantage, at least until Kyouko tears it off. However, it would be a melee fight and Kyouko could probably defeat Homura just by swinging her spears around blindly. Not a good idea.

Plan two: Try to get the Soul Gem again. Same problem as Plan one. Also a bad idea.

Plan three: Lock Kyouko into the room. Wait, isn't the door smashed down? Yeah that plan is literally impossible.

Plan four: Escape to where she can see and meet up with Miss White. At the very least, they could start to coordinate something. The hallway is narrow and Mami Tomoe could just blast them both if they were that close together.

This... isn't really a good situation, is it?

Something occurs to Homura. It's a gamble, but it's better than nothing. She rushes out of the tear gas filled room, shouting something muffled by the mask. "Mmmf mf m-mmmf mmf!"

When she reaches Mami, she's just... past her, somehow. As if she 'teleported' again. She lifts her mask, after realizing that she wasn't heard before. "Miss White, Kyouko has her Soul Gem again! Put this on!"

Homura tosses another gas mask to Hannah, and moments later a new series of canisters explode in the hallway. Hannah might not be bothered by the vision blocker, but that stuff can still mess with her eyes and throat.

Homura stops next to her, turning around and pulling out a pair of SMGs. "What should we do? I don't think a prolonged battle here will benefit us even if we win."

Hannah Sharpe has posed:
Mami's lack of experience with melee isn't exactly unexpected: most gun users tend to keep people /away/. Unless your name is Homura Akemi. Then you bring a golf club to a gun fight.

Instead, it turns out that Mami is more of a seamstress than a golfer. Knocking the other girl to the wall, feeling the air displace around those magic ribbons, she leaps back in time to avoid getting utterly tangled up. A quick jab filled with a burst of wind knocks away the ones going for most of her, but her left arm does get all tangled up! Rather than just try to get loose immediately, her legs glow emerald, and then she's swinging towards Mami trying to plant both feet into her face and kick her towards the hallway if she can manage it!

"Tactiturn one, huh? Oh come on, try to enjoy your work! Life is too short, especially for you Puella Magi!" And then the sounds and feelings of Kyouko's magic filters through to the hallway.

Miss White scowls.

"...Fah! HOMURA! NO DIEING IN THERE, GOT IT!?" She yells as she tries to now disentangle herself, all the while wary for more incoming bullets!

Then in comes the mask, she tears off the ribbon-binds, and slips it on. Just as those cannisters go out, she's running back towards the entryway!

"Good point! Okay, uhh...right, all the lab workers are off today! Alright! Simple plan, we run like satan is on our heels, close the doors, then I hit the buttons I told you to never, ever press! Meanwhile, we put enough firepower down range to keep those two occupied! Ready?" She quickly intones to her compatriot.

Then Hannah helpful aims a wide kick towards all of that smoke, sending a tornado of emerald wind down range before she's running away, blazing a trail with green glowing legs!

Mami Tomoe has posed:
Mami gets swung around again, this time crashing backwards on her rear end and sliding down the hallway. Homura appears and passes Miss White a gas mask, and Mami stares at her, that clear look of disapproval on her face. It is a look familiar to Kyouko, at least, if not the other two ladies. That done, she makes her way back to her feet, quickly darting back towards the door where she last saw Kyouko, the gas stinging her eyes before she nods at her.

"We're not staying down here long!"

Mami moves again, this time kicking the table out of the doorway that led into what was once Kyouko's room. That done, she slams her hands together, as tripods start rising out of the ground in front of her. Anyone who has fought beside her potentially knows what is coming.

"TIRO!"

Okay, now everyone /definitely/ knows what is coming.

"CANNON!"

What. Indeed, there's a flare of magical energy as Mami unleashes a smaller but still potent version of her Finale. So, here's her intentions: Blasting her way out of here.

Kyouko Sakura has posed:
    Kyouko is about to take her righteous vengeance upon Homura (or at least give it a good shot), but the darkhaired Puella suddenly dashes out of the room. Kyouko reacts, but too slow, a segment of spear slamming into the floor and cracking the tile right at Homura's heels as she exits into the hallway.

    By the time Kyouko emerges mere seconds later, Homura and Miss White, both clad in gas masks, are already dashing down the hallway back towards the door. Kyouko fumes, quite literally seeing red, and not just because the continuous unprotected exposure to the tear gas is making her eyes bloodshot- at least now that she is henshined she can withstand it better than she could before. But it's still not exactly pleasant.

    She looks back over her should at Mami as she hears the other Puella kick the table out of the way.. and at the start of her incandation, Kyouko's eyes visibly widen and she actually throws herself to the floor. But it appears Mami is excercising some restraint. Luckily, the fact that she threw herself to the floor means that Miss White's blind attack down the hallway goes over her head instead of knocking her off of her feet, and she scrambles back onto them a moment later.

    "Are you sure that's gonna work? Didn't you think of a way to get back /out/?" The redhead shouts over her shoulder, grinding her teeth, before her eyes fall on the huge steel door. She can sense the Witches behind it. Prey, her mind tells her. She glances down the hall, then back at the door. Well.. they aren't doing her any good in there. She grabs her spear, shortening it with a thought to a throwable size.. and then chucks it right at the keypad. It penetrates the electronics easily, sending sparks and broken keys flying. Well.. that always works in the movies!

    Instantly, she steps back and throws out a hand, one of her own barriers of lace-like red diamonds forming across the hallway before she turns and goes back to Mami. "C'mon, let's get out of here already!"

Homura Akemi has posed:
"If that's what we have to do," says Homura. They'll be able to recover, in time, Homura is sure. However, it'd be quite a setback.

Well, it's the lesser of two evils.

She responds by lifting her SMGs and pointing them down the hallway, shooting blindly as bullets rapidly pour out. She spreads her spraypattern out to saturate the hallway, trying to make sure at least some of them hit.

Then she hears the word 'TIRO'. She turns to Hannah and shouts, "GET DOWN!" Homura has a shield that she can use, but trying to block a Tiro Finale with it would be an insanely bad idea. She doesn't have time to explain. When she hears the word 'CANON!', she just reaches out to grab Hannah, freezing time around the two of them. Finally a moment to talk.

"That's a powerful attack she's sending at us. Let's just get to the elevator."

Homura looks over to see Kyouko reaching for the Witch Door. She mutters about Kyouko being a stubborn fool. "Of all the places she could go, she chooses /there/?!"

No time to think about it. Homura exchanges her guns for a Grief Seed, the one she intended to use on Kyouko's Soul Gem in case she needed it, and puts it next to her own Soul Gem, purifying it.

Then she starts running with Hannah to the elevator. Maybe with the timestop they can be in the elevator (or some other safe place) before the blast hits them.

One benefit of the Tiro Canon is that it probably incinerates all of the tear gas that Homura was spreading around.

Hannah Sharpe has posed:
Kyouko's attack proves less than completely useful. The spear goes flying right into the keypad! Sparks fly, bits of pad shatter to the ground, and there's a noise from the door. Could she have unlocked the thing!?

The room darkens, and red alarms go off. A robotic voice fills the area.

'Level 4 security tampering detected! Initiating lockdown.'

Steel bars first slam down around the door, criss-crossing each other before magic flares and a barrier forms around the door to the Witch area. It seems Kyouko just mega-locked it.

Luckily, Homura's quick on the Time Stop draw, and then they get a moment to talk.

"Yeah, we can recover from this. Not like we could hold Kyouko forever. Come on!"

Then it's time to run, and they're off to the elevator.

Hannah its a concealed button on the way out! Gas starts to pour in throughout the medical ward as the doors slam close! Sleeping gas! The two will need to get out fast!

Which Mami helps with. Her shot blows through the wall, and down through several more. Once the debris settles, the pair will find themselves through various bits of piping, now remains of wiring, and other appliances all in a complicated setup like this. Eventually the blown walls end up in a large room. Massive tanks fill the area with pipes leading to the walls. The tanks have a dozen different warnings on them. Luckily, none were pierced!

Here, there's no immediately obvious way out. But if one feels out with their magic, they'll notice a locker similar to the one they got down here with.

Should someone enter, it'll put them back up in the lobby, stepping out from behind a decorative plant. Weird Eclipse space-cheating.

It's then that Ao Karina presses the button on her desk, and a massive barrier covers the lobby. All the office workers are gone, save for Ao, who gasps and stands up as she looks around.

The elevator dings, disgorging Miss White and Homura.

"Get ready! If they find the way out, they could get here fast!"

Mami Tomoe has posed:
"Come on!"

Mami leads the way down the hallway she just conveniently created, dodging debris and also swiping through the smoke and gasses that are escaping. She inhales sharply as she glances around the tanks they end up in, and she feels out, closing her eyes. "This one, I think." She says, pointing at a closet. "Should work like how I got down here, I think." That's a lot of 'I thinks' and not some very helpful 'it wills', Mami Tomoe.

She waves Kyouko into the closet with her - it's a tight fit, but it works - and they reappear behind the potted plant. "Hnh." Mami says, briefly, before gesturing. "That's the exit, let's get out of here!"

Kyouko Sakura has posed:
    Kyouko is bad at picking locks, it turns out. She glances back through her barrier, scowling as the alarm starts to go off. Good thing Mami is here, blowing holes in the wall- if she had tried that by herself, she'd be locked in and sleeping-gassed right about now. As it is, Hannah's ploy (unintentional or not) to capture two Puella for the price of one fails, as Mami has created an impromtu exit that allows them to escape the rapidly gas-flooding hallway.

    "This place is a goddamned labyrinth.." Kyouko grouses as she follows Mami, but she squeezes into the closet anyway.. grunting as they stumble out into the lobbey, her eyes darting around until they land on the exit. That barrier springs up, but, like most barriers of this sort, it's to keep civilians out.. not to keep magical girls in. "Yeah, let's blow this joint." She says.. as she hears an elevator bell ding down the hallway. Looks like time is indeed short.

    She turns and starts dashing towards the door.. but screeches to a halt when she sees Ao Karina standing behind the desk, looking surprised. Kyouko's eyes widen in equal surprise.. and then she glances at Mami. "Go ahead, I'll catch up in a sec."

    As Miss White and Homura dash into the lobbey from the elevators, across the room they can see Kyouko saying something to Ao. It's a short conversation, it lasts only a few seconds. Maybe Ao responds, maybe not, but then Kyouko is running again.. and by the time the other two arrive, the door is slamming shut behind her.

Homura Akemi has posed:
Homura nods. "Yeah, that Kyouko-san is a loose cannon. I think Mami-san's chances of siding with us are going to be lower now, too..."

On the way up, Homura thinks back to the disappoitned look Mami was giving her. Mami, of all people... how /dare/ she? Homura stews over crimes that Mami hasn't commited yet, or may never commit, yet they happened as far as Homura is concerned. To Homura, Mami remains the Puella Magi that would turn upon all her friends and shoot them if she finds out where Witches come from. For her to get self-righteous, of all the Puella Magi...

No, there's no time to think about that. Homura gets out of the elevator with Hannah, only to see Kyouko talking to Ao. A rifle comes out. It's not a paintball rifle this time. Homura looks down the scope, ready to fire if Kyouko doesn't back away, but Homura has to take time to line up the shot. Hitting Ao would be unacceptable...

Oh, Kyouko is running away. She was just talking? With things as they are, Homura can't see much use in firing a parting shot. No, the sooner this engagement ends the better.

Homura lowers her weapon and sighs heavily. She looks over to Miss White, saying, "Well... that could've gone worse."

Homura watches the exit, somewhat absentmindedly. She understands why Kyouko feels the way she does, and why she acts the way she does. She has tried to be patient, and really, /of course/ Kyouko would want to break out, yet that's not all there is to it, is it?

"How in the heck did she get Mami-san to join sides with her?!" she says out loud. If Kyouko got Mami to join her, then with Mami potentially comse Sayaka and, worst case, Madoka.

If it comes down to it... will Homura have to fight Madoka?

Homura turns and walks away, her eyes the very image of death themselves. She's out of patience. She's done with understanding. The next time they meet, Homura will treat Kyouko like an enemy.

Hannah Sharpe has posed:
"Only good for consulting work, that Kyouko." Quips the girl to Homura.

The first thing Miss White sees is Kyouko near Ao Karina once again. Every paranoid instinct goes off immediately, even as Homura's lining up a shot. The girl is rushing in a a mad, magic-enhanced dash towards Ao and Kyouko, flashbacks of when Ao was first hurt by Kyouko running through her mind.

"GET AWAY FROM HER YOU WENCH!" Screams Miss White in that same nearly insane howl she gave out before. Her magic darkens almost at once, the girl getting ready to physically drive off the other magical girl. Mami and Homura barely seem to exist to her at the moment.

Ao listens. She's good at it, after being with Hannah for so long. Despite lacking magical powers, she doesn't shrink back from the other girl either. Brave for one so young and clearly vulnerable. She then turns, and reaches to lay a hand on Hannah's shoulder. As if a spell was broken, Miss White's attack fades to nothing.

"White-san, you're going to have a stroke if you keep getting that upset whenever I'm in danger."

Miss White falls into Ao's arms, crying in relief as her best friend is /safe/. The retreating magical girls get away scott free, the woman too lost in hugging Ao Karina close.