Central District [SPLODY PLOT]

[9circles]

Unseen- because the unexpected and unobtrusive goes unnoticed so very often, bat-bots from the ruins fluttered out of open windows, traveling here and there, following people into buildings, seeking perches. They took them, then waited.

The front door to the C-Tank jingled softly as it opened.

Wolf-bots lay in wait, still as statues, their

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[craigjustcraig]

The instant Dante began talking, the little hairs on Craig's neck stood at attention. On the surface, he didn't react to Dante's barb at all, simply finished placing the mug he'd been drying on the shelf in front of him calmly. Below the surface.. well, it really took all of his considerable self-control not to shatter the mug with his superhuman strength and vault the counter to lay into Dante. Unfortunate really that there was a rather large number of noncombatant humans in the room.

"You should fire whoever writes your material," Craig said, finally turning to look at Dante. "As I recall, you've said that to me before. Layer, please get everyone into the shelter and page Zero when you get a chance."

He stepped out from behind the counter calmly.. except for his eyes. They almost glowed even in the bright light of the cafe, nearly pupil-less and inhuman.

[9circles]

"I've repeated myself?" he tsked. Dante smirked at the girl's fearful look- noted the lack of shock. Humans tended to think he wasn't dangerous until they saw the armor.

"Shame, that-" his eyes followed the girl as she shooed the patrons- most of them confused but trusting Craig, "I hate to reuse rhymes. But how dare you insult Mother Goose!" he said in mock indignation.

Dante turned slowly back to face Craig as the humans ran for cover.

He smiled.

"What? No hug?"

[craigjustcraig]

"I make it a personal policy not to hug psychotic relations," Craig said, keeping half an eye on the evacuation. With the other half an eye, he started a scan routine, checking Dante's form to see if it was a hologram. While it was true the other mechanical could command drones from a distance.. Dante was also given to misdirection.

[9circles]

Which was certianly true here. True of the entire purpose for his visit.

Dante chuckled softly. "At least you don't bother to deny the family bond. Some of the things I've heard come out of your decendants." He tsked. "Shameful. Brothers disowning brothers, even when they've lost everyone else- they don't cleave to the family that remains to them. But," he raised a hand, shook a finger in Craig's direction, "that's not exactly true for you, now is it?

"I would have sent Rachel a card- but," he raised his hands in a little shrug.

[navigator_zero]

Zero was pissed, a state of being this version of the 'red ripper' was not used to, mostly because of the entire testing process for identification and now this. She had her Z-rapier out and tearing through drones, moving much like her male Hunter alternates.

She was also trying her best to keep an eye out for any civillains she could help as well.

[perfectcopy]

Omega X hadn't exactly planned on going out today. But when the evacuees had started to flood into VC, he had become curious and gone out to talk to some of them. When he heard what was happening, he had teleported to Central to try to help.

Unfortunately, he ended up getting distracted by a woman who looked vaguely like Zero, and ended up swarmed by some mechaniloids.

[navigator_zero]

A flurry of strikes to clear out the area near her when she saw a reploid who looked an awful lot like Aila, only blue. With an almost feral grin she leapt at the mechaniloids swarming Omega X.

[perfectcopy]

A charged shot blasted some of the mechaniloids away, but more just filled the gap. He screamed in anger and tried to beat them away with his buster, not caring - for once - about the wing decorations that snapped off at the rough treatment.

[belcanto]

"Well, now isn't this interesting." Lumine murmured softly to himself as he observed the chaos happening around him. When the bots attacked, he was surprised as everyone else, and had simply switched into his armor.

As it was now, he was walking down one of the streets within Central District, his curiousity great enough that he wasn't just going to evacuate. Armored Armadillo's data was good enough to protect him. He watched as one of the wolf bots threw itself against the shield and when it couldn't get through it vocalized a growl and darted off to find an easier target. With that, Lumine moved on down the street, perhaps to find a better spot in which to observe the carnage.

[gunslinging]

The day had started out normal enough. Poke around Central District, hang out, enjoy the downtime, maybe get around to heading over to City Hall and seeing about getting that ID that he'd been putting off for too long now -

- and then all hell broke loose, and within a space of seconds Axl had recalled his armor and was shooting anything that got too close.

It didn't make sense, he thought as he switched to the Spiral Magnum (there was, in Axl's opinion, nothing like a good shotgun when you were feeling a little bit frustrated with the world). He felled another couple of wolf bots.

There's gotta be something coordinating them, or...this wouldn't just happen at random.

He glanced around, taking it all in, getting his mental picture of what was going on where straight, trying to figure out where he should go if he wanted to cut things off at the source -

- and froze as his gaze landed on an all-too-familiar figure. No way.

[belcanto]

Lumine wasn't attacking the bots yet, even if he had been honing on his fighting skills in the ruins on similar bots. Maybe if he got bored or annoyed with the attempts at attacking, he'd fight back.

As it was, he was still observing the bots attacking and it wasn't too long after Axl noticed him that he noticed Axl. Immediately a small amused smirk crossed his face as he noted Axl to be either in shock or surprise. He raised his hand to give Axl a little wave, wondering if Axl would remained shocked long enough for one of the wolf bots to take a bite out of him.

[gunslinging]

It didn't get a bite out of him, but one did pounce and slam into Axl from the side - which was enough for him to snap out of it. He shifted to Ninetails for a split second, just long enough to tear the bot into pieces. He wasn't quite fast enough to save himself from getting knocked over, but as he reverted to his normal form, he ducked, rolled, and came up in a crouch.

His gaze didn't leave Lumine, who was far higher on his list of potential threats than a few wolf bots would ever be.

[doomgaze_girl]

Layer rounded every patron she could find in the Emporium, directing them to the shelter on 'Craig's orders'. There were quite a few, although the other store owners had begun to do the same. It took a surprisingly short amount of time- especially once the Defense Forces broadcasted an alert and a command for everyone to get inside the Vanishing Courts Anti-Violence field.

She and a few of the more dangerous store owners (those with armor and weaponry) headed to the main doors to round up more civilians. The Defense Forces who knew of the Emporium's shelter aided them in their venture.

Layer stepped off to the side and picked up a public comm.

Zero's signal- oddly enough, was like the emergency hotline. Layer thought- with the part of her mind that was managing to keep her moving in the crisis situation- that was lucky. She didn't have a quarter.

"Zero?" she said hopefully when someone picked up.

[animusexmachina]

"A little busy!" Zero said, fighting her way through drone robots in the ICPU headquarters, trying to keep the agents protected as they defended the network from the viruses that had been let loose.

She was mentally thanking every god whose name she could remember that her old armor call unit still functioned as she sliced through more drones.

[doomgaze_girl]

She hesitated, then realized with horror that Craig hadn't really said what to tell Zero.

So she decided to just spit it out. "Zero, some purple-haired mecha came into C-Tank and started telling nursery rhymes. His thoughts were evil- Craig told me to get people into the shelter and call you."

One of the DF had wandered over to her, but wasn't making her get off the comm- yet.

[animusexmachina]

Zero spat a string of curses that would make a sailor blush. "Dante.. where is Craig? We're under drone attack here, and I can't leave the kids unprotected."

Like her spawns, Zero was a master of the beam saber.. which was a good thing, since practicing the moves until she could execute them without thinking about them spared her processor time to talk to Layer.

[feral_zero]

Feral had been stalking a pigeon when the screaming began. He glanced up from his prey and blinked, staring at the bots surging into the streets. His right hand twitched slightly, then a tremble slowly spread through him, accompanied by a low rumble. The rumble slowly became a growl, then grew to a snarl as he leapt into the fray, ripping into any drones he came across with his bare hands.

The Maverick had awakened.

[flamboyantstar]

"Run, you idiots!" Starman shouted at the few squishies hiding behind him, and his shielding, trying his best to sound authoritive. Which got them moving as the Robot Master did his best to cover them, firing off a few plasma shots before calling up the Star Shield again.

He was really hoping that he'd run into the defense forces, or hell a Rockman, but instead he saw Feral.

[feral_zero]

And Feral saw Starman. He paused and stared at the Robot Master for a moment, a vague memory tugging at his mind. Then it was gone and he was leaping toward Starman with a snarl, drawing his beam saber.

The shield had to go.

[flamboyantstar]

Starman's eyes went at that, throwing up his shield just in time.

What he shouted at Feral in japanese was not the most polite thing as he fired a few quick shots at the reploid.