AND THE PEOPLE WHO GAIN THE WORLD

[strangerpeople]

AND LOSE THEIR SǪ͞UL̨̡͢


[The time goes down to zero. Vyce's fists clenched.]

. . .You fools.

[He raises a hand, and suddenly, Lala lets out a gasp as she begins to grab at her throat. Green lines begin to glow from within her body as she starts to writhe, before falling to the ground into convulsions.]

For all of your claims and bravado, you still voted to condemn her! You claim to care, you claim she is innocent, you claim to want to take her place, but in the end it never mattered!

THIS is why I cannot trust anyone with my mission! THIS is why YOU would fail in MY shoes! THIS IS WHY I ALONE MUST--



[Suddenly, everyone is thrown to the side as something violently jostles the whole house, Vyce included. Immediately, Lala collapses to the floor, and the glowing lines disappear.]

WHAT THE-

[It actually felt like the house was rammed just then.]

Comments

[15unknowns]

HRRGH!

[And he gets summons a gun, aiming it at Lala's head.]

[starswink]

[Yoosung is hearing a lot of pain noises coming from Vyce so he's started running around looking for where he manifested. Gasp.]

No!

[Now he's just going to throw himself at him from behind and try to knock the gun out of his hand.]

[15unknowns]

[And now he is being tackled by Yoosung, the gun being knocked out of his hand.


But not before he is stabbed by Gaius' Fafnir.]

NO-!

[starswink]

[GRABBING THAT GUN AND AIMING AT HIM. Yeah. yeah]

[15unknowns]

THIS IS NOT OVER!

[And as he grabs at the place where Fafnir hit him, he starts to shimmer in teleportation.]

[nightmareofdivinity]

[Oh are we stabbing now?]

[He goes to stab Vyse in the throat with the fire poker.]

[15unknowns]

[Sadly, the poker goes through Vyce like he was a hologram once more, and in the next instant, Vyce is gone.]

[nightmareofdivinity]

[He roars in anger like a wounded beast, regaining his balance from the thrust and spinning around, stalking through the house to try to find him.]

[starswink]

[...agh, shooting him while he's disappearing might be a bad idea.]

LINKARA! IF YOU CAN HEAR US, DON'T LET VYCE ESCAPE!

[he hopes there's something he can do about this. he really needs to stick around for his ass kicking. Yoosung will at least try to smack him upside the head with it.]

[starswink]

[whoop, there he go] Dammit!

[whatsmytalentagain]

...

[Well. Someone is exhausted but glad to see everyone survived. Plus him.

He's gonna make sure you can at least see him before he puts a hand on your shoulder.]

[starswink]

[The touch makes him lower his gun. He'll smile weakly as he sighs in a mixture of relief and resignation. They didn't get to defeat him yet, but at least they protected Lala and Lithia. That feels like a big accomplishment after everything that's happened.]

Hey, Rantaro. Think we distracted him enough?

[he hopes so. but also that was pretty scary with only half of the attacks working.]

[whatsmytalentagain]

[Good question-

Wait, that's Linkara speaking. Rantaro's definitely nodding now.]

[thiscomicsucks]

Don't worry. He's not going anywhere.

Not this time.

[The house begins to rumble. It's not as abrupt as the initial hit from Linkara had been.]

Nimue, status.

[Some of the lights in the kitchen console area begin to sputter and spark, before finally going dark]

STATUS: PATCH COMPLETE. THIS UNIT CAN CONFIRM THAT SIERRA AI IS BACK ONLINE AT FULL CAPACITY, AND VYCE'S NEW IMPROVISED BASE HAS NOW BEEN DISCONNECTED FROM THE HOUSESHIP.

TIME UNTIL OPTIMAL FIRING RANGE ON VYCE'S BASE FROM COMICRON-ONE'S WEAPONS WITHOUT DAMAGE TO THE HOUSESHIP: TWO MINUTES.

Good. Send over the crew to check everyone out. And make sure Vyce can't leave while were prepping the cannon.

CONFIRMED.

[starswink]

!!!

[That was a delighted gasp. He's a bit distracted from the rumbling, but this sounds like really good news!]

[15unknowns]

Sounds like our cue to join in~! We should hurry, sweetie!

Coming right behind you!

[Both voices that speak up appear to be female over the speakers as not even a moment later, the sounds of footsteps can be heard in the Strangers' direction. What greets them is indeed two women of different stature, the smaller one poking her head out from behind the larger one.

Oh yeah, the bigger one also has an axe over her shoulders like it's no big deal. Don't mind it as the smaller one speaks up.]

Is everyone alright? Anyone injured?

I should go check on poor Jaeris. Will you be able to handle things here?

I'll be fine. It's not the first time I had to do this.

[nightmareofdivinity]

[That tall one is giving him major Ursula vibes, but.]

Excepting some minor injuries, indeed. However, one of our number hath fallen due to the poison of these 'nanites'.

[adollnomore]

We heard unfortunately. I'm sorry we didn't get here fast enough.

[Small girl has a sad.]

But we're here now and we can help you out.

[stopfen]

[Getting really tired of weird shit happening. Why do they keep moving? Shouldn't they be getting out before this whole thing collapses?

Either way she's still just lugging Jaeris around over her shoulder. Which probably isn't the best way to do it. But her training is 'move person away from danger of being eaten' so handling internal injuries wasn't on the table. And he's just starting to twitch and mumble.

Well...Not that that she's at a table, she's stood there holding on the banister at the bottom of the stairs.

She does shift her feet when the newcomers appear, ready to kick out if needed. But she doubts it.]

[touchsensors]

[Oh, new friends! Probably friends? Friends eventually at least, that seems to be how it works.]

Our normal abilities are still turned off but I don't think anyone is hurt-lun. Except Inaba but you know about that-lun.

[whatsmytalentagain]

[Ah, there's the rest of the cavalry. Rantaro nods... He's good enough. Functional.]

[starswink]

Injured, no. Full of death nanites, probably! Our friends and family have them too... How do we get rid of them?

[stopfen]

[Oh, what the fuck is happening now? Mikasa's sprints down the steps, jumping a few. Jaeris flung over her shoulder like a sack of spuds.

Just in time to see Vyce fade out.]

He was actually here?

[starswink]

[he's glad to see they're both still okay, at least.]

You just missed him. I took his weapon... he can teleport in and out and will. We'll have to be careful.

[stopfen]

As long as he can't do it instantly...

[Please ignore the groaning from Jaeris.]