[center]
[h3][color=d7d7d7][b]Roland[/b][/color][/h3]
And 
[color=0072bc]Robot[/color] [color=ec008c]Girls[/color]
[img]https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/581952321546879006/1120967522892648530/BlackSilenceIcon.webp[/img]
[img]https://i.imgur.com/kxFo3GL.png[/img]

Level 3 Roland - (6/30) 
Level 12 Blazermate (Holding 3 level up) - (29/120)
Level 5 Susie - (38/50) - (Holding 2 level up)
[b]Location:[/b] Sector 7 > 8 
[b]Word Count:[/b] 3414
[/center]

As Roland moved through the slums, having been cured of his drunkeness by Blazermate (Which he was part thankful for, part annoyed with.) he noticed Sandalphon's new outfit. [color=d7d7d7]"Hey, So, i notice you changed your outfit. Is there anything more to that or are you just changing jobs? Its hard to tell with some people nowadays."[/color]

Sandalphon looked down at him for a moment, question marks in her eyes. Then her pupils returned to normal, a look of understanding flitting briefly across her face. "Oh, I see. You must have been rather low on the proverbial totem pole," she stated matter-of-factly, despite the brisk pace at which she and the rest of the Seekers were moving through the Sector 07 slums. "I observed other members of your group partaking in spirit utilization, but if there are gaps in our collective knowledge, it would behoove me to make sure all are up to speed."

She paused for a moment, considering how best to explain the phenomenon. "Spirit utility is seldom practiced and even more seldom understood. The powers that be in Midgar, and I would assume the world at large, keep what it is -and how to use it- top secret. It is understandable, since I have no doubt that if word were to get out the crime and especially murder rate would spike drastically, but it means that they control the single most expedient way to gain power." Sandalphon put up a display that showed off a number of spirits, with the images of various people shimmering within the orbs of prismatic light. "Despite the name, spirits have nothing to do with a being's consciousness or immortal soul, and are themselves inanimate. Suffice to say, a spirit is an agglomeration of data about a particular being. Very much like the genetic code of biological organisms, albeit greater in scope. And like code, spirits can be merged. Following a brief conflict resolution, which influences the host's physiology and psychology, the host gains a boon from the merged spirit as well as its 'potential'."

After going quiet while the group navigated through a crowded junction, Sandalphon wrapped up her explanation with a little specificity. "How this works can take different forms depending on the fusion method. Cerebrofusion injects a spirit's Skill. Cardiofusion injects a spirit's Ability. Physically destroying a spirit will itemize it, resulting in a semi-random object. Spirits can also be co-opted through a brief ritualistic act in order to make use of it remotely, and the resulting projection is known as an Assist. Think of it as a ghostly puppet, but make no mistake, it's still just an extension of oneself." She thought for a moment, then shrugged. "That about covers the basics."

Roland nodded, listening but not really understanding the big words she was using. [color=d7d7d7]"Sounds like this thing we did back in the library. We turned people into books, then copied their combat abilities by donning their persona. "[/color]

Blazermate, making sure Roland wasn't too intoxicated as he moved through the slums, had been following behind, and clarified the spirit thing.[color=0072bc] "Put it in your chest for power, head for knowledge; although no seeker I know has done that one yet since it doesn't seem like it helps you fight, bond with it to summon it as a friendly thing for a bit, and crush it for an item. Oh yeah, and if you fuse with too many spirits of your opposite gender you'll turn into that gender until you equalize the spirits, unless you have some kinda innate power or something that lets you bypass that like me. And uh, if you absorb too many spirits you'll turn into some kind of chimeric monster. Kamek has something for that part, and Peach did have the power to unfuse spirits, but.... yeah...." Blazermate said, trailing off.[/color]

Side eying the medabot, Roland said. [color=d7d7d7]"So... its like that EGO thing, but different... Wait, is that why Midna looks so weird? I didn't want to say anything, but that doesn't look right."[/color]

Blazermate nodded, saying. [color=0072bc]"yep! She needs to visit Kamek to fix that up. At least its not like Bowser, who had it even worse. I wonder what that guy looks like now, the big teddy bear."[/color]

Sandalphon glanced at Blazermate as she reiterated what the archangel had said, but dumbed down. Had her own explanation been too cerebral, perhaps? The medabot did add one or two things of note though, more or less confirming Sandalphon's inference that one should be careful what one consumed. [i]You are what you eat[/i], as they say.

Susie didn't have much to add to this discussion, and also learned something new as well. She wasn't aware of the gender change part of spirit fusion, something she'd have to keep in mind.

While the slums were pretty quiet, the Detroit sector was anything but. With the dismantling of the leaders of Despirado, those cyborgs were going crazy, with the general police force dealing with that. It was kinda like when two Syndicates were fighting each other for territory in a way, although not as brutal. 

Still, Roland was here to get through the area, not participate in the combat itself. His mask at least made him less of a target. Still, he'd have to find a bit of transport that wasn't shut down due to the riots in the streets. Unlike the robot girls who could just fly above the city and; while getting a birds eye view of the chaos below, could ignore most of the chaos, Roland had to stick to the ground. Blazermate offered to carry him, but Roland wasn't sure if the robot girl that was her size could carry a tall guy like him.

When he looked around near the entrance from Sector 07, Roland quickly found a possible solution to his quandary--and a potential source of trouble. Just outside a corner convenience store, a couple bikers had pulled to a stop in the parking strip and put down their kickstands while they went inside for a quick top-up. Their vehicles were both very impressive, one big and red while the smaller one came in glossy black, but both motorcycles were sleek, high-end machines that stood out against the gritty backdrop of Detroit, as powerful as they were beautiful. Unfortunately, the timing worked out that both bikers were just now returning from the store with a bag of snacks and such apiece.

Though quite dissimilar to one another, the pair matched their motorcycles perfectly: tall, broad-shouldered, and scruffy, the long-haired man sported a roughed-up look thanks to his eyepatch and bandages, but an easygoing smile and disarmingly melancholic eyes. Meanwhile, his short-haired lady friend seemed small and thin but fierce, her black leather contrasting white hair but complimenting a sour expression. Fittingly enough, [url=https://i.imgur.com/GwKWvZf.png]Roy[/url] wore a heavy toolbelt but no weapons, and [url=https://i.imgur.com/eLug78p.png]Sugar[/url] came strapped with both a long shotgun and a sawed-off double barrel. Upon exiting the convenience store, however, the pair found their bikes under examination by a pair of G-men, both with wrenches. "Hey!" Sugar yelled, her voice turned up to eleven instantly. "The hell're you doing?"

The G-men turned her way. "We are mechanics, and we are mechanizing these machines with our wrenches," one told her in his deadpan voice, gesticulating with his tool like a conductor's baton. "Who, might I ask, are you?" He was dangerously close to provoking Sugar, and Roy clearly didn't like these spooks, either. Things seemed liable to escalate fast.

Well, motorcycles weren't his thing, but it'd do for now. Better than running, anyway. G men were.... unique to deal with if anything. He'd hate to be the poor guy who got on their bad side. That being said, those two the G men were irritating were also in a bad spot, and right now Roland needed those bikes the most. Wait... did any of the others even drive, let alone motorcycles? Either way, now was one of the those times Roland got to throw his weight around.

Approaching the scene, Roland said. "Hey pals, don't you know what G men are? Say or do anything suspicious and you go straight to jail. Or disobey the cops." And upon saying that final statement, Roland showed  his turk badge to the group. "Turk business, I'll be needing those bikes. You can pick them up later." Of course Roland didn't know if that was actually true, but considering he could just trigger the g men if needed, well... sucked to be these guys. 

When Roland veered off without a word to take a small detour, Sandalphon followed him, unsure of his intentions. Communication was key to the function of any organization, after all. He turned out to have his sights set on a scene unfolding nearby that reeked of trouble. Sandalphon meant to advise him not to get involved, but she was too late, and just as she expected, neither biker took Roland's intervention well. "We didn't DO anything!" Sugar fumed, turning on him. The sight of his badge, and the declaration that followed, turned her indignation into fury. "No goddamn way! You Administration goons leave us high and dry when we need help the most, then think you can show your face here and walk all over us? Go die in a ditch somewhere!"

Before Roy could try and calm the situation, the original G-man -emboldened by Roland's arrival- stepped forward. "Suspect under arrest for obstruction of General Affairs activity, suspected insurrectionist sentiment, and threatening a peace officer." It reached out a hand to seize Sugar.

"FUCK!" The woman jerked away violently from his outstretched grasp, her face one of raw panic. Almost without thinking, she grabbed her sawed-off and unloaded both barrels directly into the G-man's chest in an obscenely loud blast. It went flying and fell on the pavement in a heap, then melted and erupted into a badly-wounded [url=https://i.imgur.com/By2Ufu5.png]Myrmecoleon[/url]. Promptly the other G-man switched into combat mode, removing its hat and transforming into a [url=https://i.imgur.com/n8JnWso.png]Yowie[/url] the size of a horse. As soon as it appeared, however, the reptilian monster turned toward Sandalphon, who was approaching in order to help control the situation. Aggravated by her new Bane of Dinosaurs weakness, it roared at her and cast Zio to shock her with a bolt of lightning.

Meanwhile, Roy went to deploy something from his toolbelt, and Sugar rounded on Roland, reaching for her pump-action shotgun rather than trying to reload. "Get away! Not a step closer!" 

Roland wasn't surprised this is what was going to happen. It always did with punks like these, although to be fair, he wasn't sure himself if they would get the bikes back. Well, either way, they opened fire first so.... "It would be best to run now. Maybe you'll get away fast enough that we wont get an ID." Roland said, giving these poor sods one last chance to fix their mistake. Still, he wasn't going to say no to a fight and was ready to draw a weapon to deal with these two if needed.

The weird thing was the transformed G man attacking Sandalphon, that would have to be dealt with. These things were always so predictable. Roland moved to smack the Yowiel to knock some sense into it. 

Not only did the Yowie's cast take less than a second to perform, meaning Roland couldn't possibly get in the way in time, but it descended from above like a real lightning bolt, so it struck Sandalphon near-instantaneously and without mitigation. The archangel gasped, flinching. Even if water-aspected beings from her world took extra damage from wind-aspected attacks rather than light-aspected ones, her defense was low enough that she felt even this rather paltry spell. Of course, Sandalphon didn't plan to take that lying down. She bore no more love for the Administration and its peons than Sugar evidently did, especially the G-men, who jumped to conclusions at the drop of a hat and happily backed their presumptions up with mindless brutality. Her gunstaff materialized in her hand as she prepared to take the Yowie down; these mooks were designed to be expendable, and the archangel wasn't so cruel as to deny them their purpose.

In the commotion, both Sugar -her weapons quickly holstered- and Roy -now surrounded by a handful of his mechanical bees, the Sweeties- went for their bikes. They swept up their kickstands and noisily revved their motors as they prepared to make a break for it. However, by that time the Myrmecoleon had recovered enough to attack, and as it faced the bikers it inhaled deeply to knock them over with Wind Breath. 

Roland sighed. Well, he really didn't have any beef with these two bikers, and they didn't look evil or anything, so he would've let them go without much fuss, but now that the situation has gotten so bad and they were making a run for it, he shrugged and made a move for the G man that attacked Sandalphon, coming down on it with his daggers, before moving to intercept the bikers with his sword drawn. He would then notice the other inhaling and getting ready to blow something upon the bikers, and held his attack for a moment to see what it would do.

His dagger strike against the Yowie distracted it long enough for Sandalphon to close to melee range and take over. Using the head of her gunstaff she dealt the monster a heavy smack across the face, and as its long neck whipped sideways the Yowie over balanced and fell over. The moment it hit the asphalt, Sandalphon planted her heel on its neck just behind the head, then planted the butt of her staff -which happened to be the weapon's barrel- on the monster's face. As the weapon spun up, her pupils turned to targeted reticles, and the next second she squeezed the trigger. In an instant the Yowie was dead.

At the same time, the Myrmecoleon battered Roy and Sugar with its Wind Breath. Though the spell lacked stopping power, it dealt enough damage to trigger the bikers' Gleam, and both immediately changed tactics. Roy's Sweeties surged forth to pierce the half-lion, half-ant monstrosity with their stingers, keeping it busy long enough for Sugar to unholster her pump-action shot gun, take aim, and blast the thing to kingdom come. Although both shadows had been mercilessly exterminated, Roland had a chance to act freely.

Having a bit of time, as the two bikers unloaded on the unfortuniate G man, Roland moved behind Roy, the one of the pair that didn't seem extremely jumpy with his silent movement, and as his bees dispatched the G man, Roland squatted on the front side of his bike as his back was turned, tapping him on the shoulder once the monster was obliterated by their combo attack. "Hey, make this easy for everyone here. You two bring me and a coworker where we need to go, and perhaps these G men went missing dealing with some cyborgs. I don't want this to get messy if I don't have to." roland said.

"Whoa, whoa!" Roland startled Roy with his sudden appearance, causing a reaction before he even finished his first sentence. With the ill-meaning stranger way too close for comfort, the brawny man turned and shoved Roland away, then revved up his bike to get the hell out of dodge, his Sweeties ready to follow behind him. With her Gleam sated as well, Sugar hurried to do the same, but that meant she needed to sling her shotgun across her back again before she could speed away. 

Well, it couldn't be said Roland didn't try the peaceful method. But such was life in the city, it was rare to find anyone who could be considered neighborly. Flipping off the bike as he was shoved off, Roland decided to go for Sugar, who was having some difficulty getting into a riding mode due to her shotgun. An opportunity Roland would take by knocking her off her bike with a non lethal hammer strike to the side, before hopping in the seat she occupied and using the pre-revved bike to speed away, swinging by to make sure Sandalphon had her own transport before heading off himself.

With an agonized grunt Sugar hit the ground, several ribs broken. Because she'd been straddling the motorcycle, the force that knocked her over also knocked the bike over, forcing Roland to pick the heavy thing up in order to get it rolling again. As one might expect, however, Roy hadn't planned on leaving his lady friend high and dry. "Sugar!" he yelled, his voice echoing down the street as he slid his motorcycle sideways with the screech of tires. Then he sped back the way he came. His Sweeties hovered around him, ready to attack, and while he now appeared to be holding a grenade in his hand he clearly didn't want to risk hitting Sugar. Speaking of, she wasn't down for the count just yet, and she gritted her teeth through the pain as she reloaded her sawed-off as fast as possible. Roland having been starting to ride away.

In her current state Sugar took too long to reload to get a good shot off, so by the time she fired, the spread of the breaching round only grazed Roland and the stolen bike in a number of places. Sugar was effectively out of the equation, but Roy was not. His Sweeties hurtled toward the Turk en masse, not just trying to pierce him with their metal stingers but also bull into him and compromise the motorcycle's precarious balance. Still, he didn't prime the grenade. It was too risky, and there was a slim chance that Sugar's prized possession could still be recovered later.

It was at this point that Sandalphon stepped forward. She approached the spot where Sugar writhed from behind and planted the butt of her gunstaff to create a healing ring. Addressing the biker might have provoked her ire, so the archangel allowed the relief of restoration to speak for her. Once Sugar realized what was going on, she relaxed somewhat, accepting the help.

Roland wasn't an ace when it came to using a motorcycle, but he knew a thing or two. Having deflected the bit of buckshot that streamed his way, Roland put his sword away and pulled out his gun to shoot the tire of the guy persuing him with his little nanoswarm of drones, swapping weapons back to his sword to deflect the drones when they got close before taking a sharp turn to head down an adjacent street towards quarentine valley. 

While Roland's shot missed, his heart not really in it, Roy's Sweeties didn't manage to make much headway either, and the two men passed within a couple feet of one another as they sped in different directions. That left the biker with a decision: Roland or Sugar. Although it pained him to see some psychopath make off with his friend's motorcycle, the Turk had demonstrated zero sympathy and maximum violence. Better to make sure Sugar was okay than risk both their lives. As the motor of Roland's stolen bike receded into the distance, Roy headed over to the two women, regarding Sandalphon warily. "You okay, Sugar?"

"I'll live," she replied, running her hand along her midriff. Though this prompted a wince, she was already feeling much better thanks to the healing ring. She looked up at Sandalphon. "Who the hell're you? Weren't you with that...that lunatic?"

Roy shot her an apologetic look. "I think Sugar means to say 'thanks for the help'."

Sandalphon's face betrayed nothing, but her pupils had turned into stress marks. "You're welcome. Be safe, you two." With that she hurried off. The archangel had a lot of ground to cover to catch up with the others. Hopefully her familiarity with the sky-line network that ran through Detroit would make up the difference.

As Roland rode away, he shouted behind him. [color=d7d7d7]"You can pick this back up at the interplate train station near the Quarentine Zone."[/color] as he rode away, saying that more to clear his conscious than anything. Overall he was being pretty nice, but he didn't have any reason to be more hostile than he was. These people were just common folk that had a bad shake, but thats that and this is this.