Like most major harbors, Uminari has a warehouse district. It's comprised of long, mostly unmarked (or at least not obviously so) buildings which belong to a variety of businesses, shipping goods in and out of the city in huge volumes every day. One of these unassuming warehouses, however, never ships anything in or out. This is because it's not actually a warehouse. It's a TSAB Remnant prison.
When the TSAB crewmembers who had survived the wreck of the Asura tried to re-establish their operations on Earth, they had legally acquired the rights to this building. Although as a whole the TSAB Remnant operates as a part of Virtue, they maintain this facility to contain prisoners who they view as their responsibility- specifically, prisoners who had been aboard the Asura, being transported back to Mid-Childa, at the time of the Incident. There had been several, and several more had come to inhabit the prison since it had been estblished in Tokyo.
The problem is that this is not actually a prison, and certainly not one which is suited to hold dangerous space-criminals for long periods of time. However, with no way to leave Earth, the TSAB officers had to make the best of what they had. Thus far, it had worked- it'd been quite some time and the facility had operated successfully.
That good record was about to end.
In the evening of the 15th of July, the harborside is suddenly rocked by a large explosion. A portion of the warehouse building containing the prison had exploded outwards in a huge fireball that threw bricks and dust against the side of other nearby buildings. Instantly in the wake of the explosion, alarms begin to sound- both inside the building, and on the communications frequencies.
Anyone with access to the Virtue network immidiately begins getting a distress call from the TSAB facility, warning of a 'breach' and asking for assistance from anyone in the area.
At first it's unclear exactly what is going on, but as the dust begins to settle, a few forms can be seen dashing out of the new hole in the wall, all wearing plain white jumpsuits. There's two men, one big and burly and one small and ratlike.. and one woman. A swaggering blonde who, despite being covered in dust, is grinning like crazy.
While not officially a member of Virtue, Sayaka Miki is enough of a heroine that she might as well be - well, of course, except for her affiliations with WPS. In any case, she just happened to be lurking upon the harbour, just at the right time so that she spotted the chaos unfolding, and the escaped prisoners. Eyes narrow and she immediately clenches her fist containing her soulgem. Looks like it's time to transform! And while grief seeds are still rare, at least grief cubes will keep her going for a little while longer!
She doesnt even bother to hide her transformation, stepping towards the prisoners, sword drawn. Of course, Sayaka doesn't initially know what's going on but by the looks of it, these people should be locked up! "Alright, hold it right there! You guys had better surrender until the police arrive!" She points her sword at the three nearest criminals, just daring them to make their move.
Guardian Hino was out and about on rooftops in the evening sort of checking alleyways. And banks. For robbers. Now. This is not really a thing Mahou Sho*types do, but Hinote kind of like well....
How it made him feel like Batman.
Look, if you're going to be a magical knight with a cape and fancy dress you may aswell live a dream of also being some sort of vigilante protector.
But then something beeps from on his person and pats around and--oh. It's the Virtue phone and he peeks at it.
Whelp, looks like he's going to get to live the dream afterall!
Guardian Hino looks down upon the whole fracass and frowns heavily from a nearby rooftop as he jumps down to the ground and draws his sword.
He examines all the people and then his eyes rest down on....
Madison.
"I suppose there's no peaceful resoultion to this whole affair." says the knight.
"Given the last time we met, you tried to murder the Princess." he says.
"So I will ask only once. You and your friends there. stop right there, or I refuse to hold back further for the evening." he says.
At least he's a little more level headed than the last time he ran headfirst into Perry.
And Eilam? Well, he was here on business. Actually being fairly wealthy, most of his day-to-day was actually left up to brokers across the world that he was familiar with, investments, commodities, so forth. But some things, Eilam actually dealt with on his own! Specific today Eilam was actually in the Warehouse district to look into acquiring a piano. Specifically a Steinway & Sons Concert Piano. Why? Well, Eilam liked long-term investments and some things really only seemed like a 'good' investment to one who wasn't really worried about things like time and liquid capital!
Thus, Eilam, dressed in a rather nice business suit, sat at the bench of the piano in the harbor warehouse that had just been shipped into the country, hands running along the keys as he humored himself with a melody. Something he wished he had more energy for, playing music. He knew how, but it took so much out of him at points.
And then...
The explosion, the entire warehouse rocking from such, everyone including himself knocked to the ground. As he worked himself to a stand, the first thing he thought wasn't to try and find the source, but to look at the piano. Largely undamaged, it seemed, except the bench he was on having been knocked over, one leg broken on it. In the chaos that ensued Eilam reached over to take the stave he always carried with him for walking and started to make his way out of the warehouse to try and figure out where the explosion came from, or what had caused it. He was, after all, rather uniquely situated to step into dangerous situations to try and help others, if such was needed. Though to anyone who saw him? He probably looked like a wealthy, somewhat feminine teenage boy that might very well be an easy mark, and was likely tied to the expensive-looking towncar in front of the warehouse he came out of.
In addition to the people responding to the distress calls from outside the prison, there are a few guards from inside the prison too- it's not like the escaping prisoners were able to take all the guards out beforehand. At least four people, two men and two women, in TSAB uniforms come dashing out of the hole in the wall moments after the prisoners. One of them raises a Device and fires off a blue laser at the larger male prisoner, only to have one of his companions smack his arm down and yell something about 'danger to civilians'- after all, they are in the middle of a warehouse district, after all.
This turns out to be a poor choice though, because that big beefy prisoner, after being shot at, turned around.. and moments after the exchange between the two guards, he's charged them with a roar. Before they can react, the big man punches one of them hard enough to put him on the ground, then pushes the other aside, grabbing something from the downed man's belt. It appears to be a keycard.
The woman guard tries to get close, but before she can, the man has held the keycard to some kind of bracelet around his wrist.. which snaps off and falls to the ground. Laughing, a surge of magical energy then comes from the prisoner- the bracelet was clearly some kind of magical inhibitor, keeping his powers in check. The woman, paling, falls back, whipping out some kind of stun-baton which crackles with blue energy.
Meanwhile, the other two guards are chasing the skinnier male prisoner, with similar batons. They run him straight towards Sayaka, as she arrives and points her swords. The skinny prisoner still has his inhibitor bracelet on, and curses as he finds himself between the guards and the sword-wielding Puella, swerving to try and dash out onto the street.
Madison herself has run straight into Hinote, and she comes up short, stopping her dash. She too has an inhibitor bracelet on one of her wrists, a small red light beeping slowly on it. She quirks a brow, her grin wolfish and never slipping. "Oh, it's the fire-boy. That's right.. I do have business to settle with that princess of yours. Thanks for reminding me.. but first..."
She holds her hand up to catch the keycard as the burly prisoner turns to throw it to her. She catches it deftly, and in a moment the bracelet falls to the floor. Lifting her head, Madison yells out, "Heartrazor!" There's a second explosion from the building as Madison's device, kept in a storage room, literally blows through the wall in a streak of red, flashing to her location in an instant.. and a moment later, the blonde is once more clad in her black-and-dark-red barrier jacket, her two long, curved knives held easily in her hands. "Much better. Now, kid, you gonna step aside, or am I gonna have to do to you what I did to that princess, hmm?"
Guardian Hino keeps his sword drawn as he hrmphs and raises it in front of himself as he watches a keycard fly through the air toward's Madison. He's a little too slow to try to fireball it out of the air here- that and he's holding his longsword two handed.
"No such thing will happen as long as I draw breath." he insists.
"-and since it seems you still intend to follow through while you draw breath....." he lets Madison Perry draw her own conclusions as he releases the two handed grip of his sword and raises one of his palms.
"Burning Ignition!" he calls out--- a wave of flame emitting from his palm as he attempts to heat up this conversation further.
"I've dealt with enough dagger weilding maniacs recently to know what the heck I'm getting into. That's for sure." he seethes.
And there was Eilam, just on the outskirts of the warehouse he was in, as he started to hear and see weird things. Really? Magic? His conversation with Jiaying came to mind, making him wonder if this was before Reiko and the shade had kind of forced magic into his world purview, how would he have responded to seeing this? The explosion outwards of the device caused him to take a step back, confused, watching as suddenly there was a woman clad in new clothing with weapons.
"..."
Well, that was relatively handy. Maybe he would have to try and talk someone who knew magic into outfitting his stave and the sword inside it to something like that! Though that was for later, and for now? Might as well play dumb, it's worked for him for years, and it will possibly provide enough of a distraction now. Unscrewing the top half of the stave he had until it came apart, Eilam dropped that and stepped forward, holding onto a handle revealed inside and the bottom part, not quite revealing the weapon inside yet. "Please stop this, there is already enough damage to the surrounding area! People and property alike are going to be damaged if this... whatever is going on keeps up." That was more towards Madison than the one who seemed to be trying to stand up to her, but he really wasn't remotely imposing enough for anyone to /care/.
The skinny male prisoner just isn't having much luck- with Sayaka in front of him and the two guards behind, and not close enough to make use of the keycard, he wasn't going to make it far. Indeed, even as Madison and Hinote snark at each other, he's tackled and with the help of the Puella, dragged away somewhere to be re-incarcerated. Unfortunately, this takes Sayaka out of the area for dealing with the remaining prisoners..
The beefier male prisoner, now free of his restraint, laughs and reaches down to bodily pick up the fallen guard. He seems to have some sort of magical super-strength, as he hefts the man and hurls him like a doll to one side. The woman guard keeps trying to dart in and hit him with her stun baton, but appears afraid of getting too close without support.
Madison, meanwhile, is smirking at Hinote as he gives his chivilrous knight speech, standing easily with knives held loosely in her hands, shaking her head. "Ohh, I've had more than enough speeches while I was in there," She says, jerking her head back towards the prison. "The last thing I need to do after finally gettin' out is hear another one from-"
She's interrupted by Hinote suddenly projecting a wave of fire towards her! Cursing, she's forced to duck and spin out of the way, the tips of her blonde hair getting a bit singed in the proceess. She's laughing as she comes out of the dodge though. "That's more like it! Give me a little excercise after being cooped up for so long!"
About this time she becomes aware of Eilam, as he approaches and shouts out for them to stop. Blue eyes dart to the side, then back to Hinote. "He a friend of yours?" She asks, sneering.. and hopefully as Hinote looks (and even if he doesn't), she darts forward like a snake, her two daggers flashing as she tries to knock the knight's sword aside and stab him in the chest. As he probably remembers, though she has magic, Madison always prefers the straight-up melee combat if she can get it.
Guardian Hino is getting ready for a counter-attack. He remembers that yeah, Madison Perry prefers to get up close and he's counting on that-- he's not afraid to just light Madison on fire. He frowns a bit as he draws his sword back--like he's about to try to leap into the fray, when she goes 'friend of yours?' and there's some boy shouting about stopping the fighting and he makes the mistake and-- looks.
"Get out of here!" he calls out at Eilam, since he doesn't look like a fighter or a magical type.
This gives Madison ample time to slam those daggers home and they actually stabs him the chest. Well that's super pleasent.
He attempts to swing the sword forward to make Madison back off, because as far as he remembers, she can't just leave those things in him like Shira could.
He kind of hopes they're also not poisioned.
He's bleeding. That much is obvious now, but regardless--- his sword lights on fire and attempts to swing it downwards in front of him, into what he hopes his Madison.
"FIRE BRAND!" he calls out.
Eilam winces when he sees the daggers stab into the other boy, especially since he saw him make the mistake of /looking/. He wasn't a seasoned fighter, he may have experience doing things and using that weapon, but actually taking his eyes off her?
Still a child.
Distracted as Hino was, and likely soon Madison as he saw him start to wind up an attack, Eilam ran towards Hino and after his sword came down, he did something incredibly stupid - by all rights. He turned his back towards Madison, while standing facing Hino. "You're hurt..." he said aloud, then whispered a bit softer, "You might not understand, or believe me... but she will probably take the chance to stab me in the back. If she does, put that sword straight through me into her. It won't hurt me, I promise... more than you know." That was a lie, it /would/ hurt him, probably quite a bit, but he also knew full well about his own curse, and that it wouldn't let him die by such a means. But did Madison have any such inclination? Or did him appearing to be ignorant and trying to help the injured boy present an easy target?
Madison's wolfish grin grows all the more satisfied as her dagger finds flesh, sinking into Hinote's chest, although Heartrazor is clearly not living up to his name, for if it had found Hinote's heart the knight would not be able to swing back at her. Yet he does.. his sword bursting into flame as he swings it down at Madison.
She actually laughs, though she's forced to dodge out of the way again, moving like a viper, her natural grace beautiful if not for the deadly work to which she puts it. In order to get out of the way, however, she's forced to leave her second dagger stuck into Hinote, protruding from the side of his chest like a grisly ornament. Even with her quick dodge, the fire catches the edge of her arm, slicing a burnging gash along her forearm. She shakes it, as if the injury was something she could shrug off, though it leaks blood down to her hand. "Glad to see you're not one to be taken out so easily.. that'd be boring."
Of course, then the other guy is running over to put himself between the two combatants.. with his /back/ to Madison. Her eyes narrow, though she can't hear what Eilam says. Unfortunately for his plans, she doesn't do exactly what he wants..
Her hand snaps out, and the dagger still stabbed in Hinote suddenly pulls free.. spinning backwards to return to her hand, and in the process, slicing past Eilam- not stabbing through him like he seemed to anticipate, but likely cutting him regardless unless he manages to dodge or defend himself someway. "Didn't anyone tell you it's not polite to whisper in front of people?!"
The beefy prisoner, meanwhile, is still tussling with the guard, now reinforced by at least two others. They have him surrounded, but he still seems to be holding them at bay with big, super-strong swings of his arms.
Guardian Hino grits his teeth as he stares at Eilam with 'are you insane' look. Also. Runealy Waldia, Princess of Waldia would totally have his head after something like that and he's not going to upset his sworn friend like that. She has enough to be upset about right now.
He shoves Eilam out of the way, quickly because dammit, he has to play babysitter now as far as he's concerned. He also moves to dive away with Eilam. "Stay out of this." he says through seethed teeth. "I shall do no such thing." he spits.
He throws his hand up at Madison and calls out... "COMBUSTION!"- an explosion of flame appearing either trying to appear directly into the space Madison occupies, or close enough.
"I won't give up so easily. Not when you threaten the Princess." he spits out.
A combination of Madison not actually being as stab-happy as he thought she was, and Hino being... well, while he can't BLAME him for not believing him, he's wielding a freaking fire sword and fighting someone who could make daggers fly around. Though shoved as he was, Eilam lets out a pained sound as the dagger slices along his side and arm, and then he winds up on the ground nearby, stave clattering as the sword inside - a long, guardless custom-design estoc, slid out of the compartment inside that he'd opened up just before he came over.
But, to Hino's effort, he didn't get up directly, instead just waiting to see what happened since it seemed he wasn't going to actually go along with Eilam's efforts.
Madison's dagger, dripping blood, spins back through the air to effortlessly slap back into her grip, where it is spun back around and held easily. She starts to advance on the two even as Hino shoves Eilam aside and dives after him, sneering yet again. "Is this all you've got? I waited months to get a chance to fight again. I was hoping it'd be more-"
Again she doesn't get to finish her sentance, as Hino raises his hand and an explosion of fire comes out of nowhere literally right on top of her. There's no attack she can dodge this time, and even though her Device flashes and a red magical shield snaps into being at the last moment, an automatic defense, it isn't enough to stop the explosion from throwing her off of her feet, rebounding off a nearby wall and stumbling as she falls to one knee. "Urgh.. dammit. Shoulda known you wouldn't fight fair.." She spits to herself, either unaware or uncaring of the hypocrisy. She staggers back to her feet, shaking her head, clearly dazed by the blow. She doesn't immidiately advance towards where Hino and Eilam lay on the ground though, trying to clear the ringing in her ears.
The beefy prisoner looks like he's about to make a break for it, having thrown two of the guards into each other and now backing away from the remaining two towards the street, keeping them at bay with occasional sweeps of his arms, though he's been hit by the stun-batons at least a few times and looks slightly slower than he as before..
Guardian Hino frowns heavily down at Eilam and then back up at Madison Perry. "You talk a lot." he says. "Is that thing powered by your running of the mouth?" he asks.
He's watching Madison try to get her bearings again so he uses the moment to suddenly dash forward--cape whipping behind him as he swings that sword downwards toward's Madison. He remembers, that last fight- he was able to overwhelm Madison. Either Madison learned from that, or she'll make the same mistakes.
He's hoping the same mistakes are made.
With Madison distracted at this point with Hino again, and Hino seemingly being in a more favorable position, Eilam pushes himself to a stand and grabs the slim guardless estoc he had, walking his way towards the other person who was causing problems. Large, incredibly strong... well, Eilam wouldn't be able to do much if the guy just reached out and grabbed him or just kind of brushed him aside, but there's always the chance he can provide a useful distraction! ...unless the guards that he was fighting had the same problem Hino did, and wouldn't actually use him as a distraction even if it was beneficial to them.
Unlike Hino and his method of wielding his sword, Eilam didn't really brandish the estoc, didn't hold it in two hands or even one in front of him. He didn't threaten the prisoner. In fact, he just walked calmly towards him, the estoc held facing backwards in his hand, palm over the hilt and holding it at an angle so that it might not be obvious what he had in his hand. Not that he could really /wield/ it that way. Didn't even say anything. Just walked towards the large prisoner, watching him to see what he was going to do.
The large prisoner is still backing away from the guards, who are advancing slowly but very cautiously towards him. That is, until he suddenly spins around and turns to run.. just as Eilam is crossing his path. The large man runs smack into Eilam, with an 'oof', stumbling back, looking surprised.. and in the same moment the guards leap on him from behind, turning everything into a melee of stun batons and fists- and Eilam's blade or staff, if he chooses to join in.
Meanwhile, Hino doesn't give Madison time to recover, leaping towards her and swinging his flaming sword downwards again. As he remembers from their previous fights, she is incredibly fast and skilled- but not particularly tough. She doesn't have time to dodge, still slightly dazed from the fire, and instead has to throw her daggers up in an X to block the sword. The impact is enough to make her grunt and fall back a step, being pushed down by the sword.
Finally she seems to just give up. Suddenly dropping the daggers, hoping the sudden lack of resistance makes Hino stagger, she darts away.. trying to put distance between herself and the Guardian. "I don't have time for this!" She snaps, her coat singed and her arm still dripping blood from the nasty gash her gave her. "But I'll remember this.. and tell your Princess I'll be seeing her soon." With that, she turns and lifts into the air, beginning to rise up and make her escape.
Guardian Hino sort of draws his sword back when he attempts to go in for what he hopes is a strike that will take Madison down, but he's indeed caught off guard by the slack and soon, she's running.. "Dammit....!" he curses out as he attempts to fire off a blazing bright swath of fire into the air toward's Madison, but this is to no avail.
"Dammit." he mutters finally.
Oh right he's bleeding still.
Now that the adrenline's wearing off he realizes that hurts a lot and is making him woozy. He shakes his head and frowns back toward's the facility.
God dammit, is that weak looking guy about to try something stupid. Dammit. He'll try to make his way over there next.
Suffice it to say, Eilam is not in any way able to withstand the large prisoner bumping into him. He gets knocked backwards and when he sees the pile of guards jump on him and start trying to contain him, he just stays back out of the way at the moment, letting those who are 1) more capable, and 2) actually equipped to do such, take care of it. Though he does start to push himself back upright, staggering a little more from his own lack of physical strength due to his condition more so than any injury.
Besides, Eilam was there to help if needed. Yeah... a lot of help. >.> He's just kind of standing out of the way instead of joining the fray, and if Guardian Hino was trying to find him, he'd easily find him leaning against a wall watching the tom and jerry-esque pile with the estoc held lightly in his hand.
That final arc of fire that Hino fires after Madison actually catches her just as she's starting to pick up speed, causing her to swerve and twist, and she's trailing smoke as she vanishes among the buildings a moment later..
It seems like the guards have the beefy prisoner down now, thanks in part to Eilam- maybe not in the fighting part, but if the prisoner hadn't run into him, he might have gotten away, too! As the start to drag him back inside, a young man in a TSAB uniform, looking dishevelled, walks up, addressing both Eilam and Hino, as the latter walks over.
"Thank you both for responding to the alert," He says, earnestly. "They all might have gotten away if not for your help." He then blinks and looks at Hino. "Sir, you're injured! You should let us bandage that up!"
Guardian Hino looks to the young man and blinks. "Yeah, I'd appreciate that." he says softly. He frowns a bit as he frowns. He looks over to Eilam.
"So why the hell did you think it was a good idea for me to stab you?" he asks pointedly.
"...right, you." Eilam turned to look at Hino, then glanced towards the TSAB person. "I... admit I did not come because of an alert. I was in a nearby warehouse on business when the explosion happened. I have no idea what any of this is, truth told. But yes, you should probably help him, he got a dagger in the chest. It's a wonder he's still alive." There was a strange lack of concern in his voice? Like he was all too used to such things. "But to your question... you should have taken my idea and went with it. No one would actually suggest that without having a good reason. I will not elaborate right now, as I prefer to keep my secrets... but suffice it to say, there is more to me than you can see."
As he reached down to grab the estoc that had fallen, he then realized he'd been cut by the dagger as well. Not that it was still bleeding, nor was there even a visible injury, but his suit had been cut along the arm and side from the spinning dagger and there was signs that he had bled. "Great, now I am going to have to replace this. What a pain, I liked this suit." More concerned with this clothes than the injury?
The TSAB guard gives both men a bit of an odd look, but then gestures to the building.. "Our infirmary is right inside.. we can get you patched up in no time. Thank you again for your help. As you imagine, we're going to have quite a bit of cleaning up to do.."