[center][h3]The Lady in White[/h3]
Location: Kno One
[@Lazo][/center]

Splinters flew as the two tables slammed together with a thunderous [i]crack[/i], but no bifurcated body went flying along with them.  With Pithy escaped from the vice, the furniture seemed to lose all will to continue, and both slumped down into a shared pile of debris with the utensils, shattered glassware, and fractures plates that adorned them seconds before.  Though whatever animated them appeared to have departed, it lost no interest in Pithy, even as her magicked frost surged over the restaurant's interior.  Paintings and other items floated off their hooks and wall-shelves, pausing just long enough to turn sideways and gather speed before hurtling themselves as well.  One by one they met with Pithy's evasion or defense.  While the frozen pipes, still half-phased through the floor, shook as though trying to free themselves from winter's clutches, no more rose from the ground to bind Pithy as she neared the unmarked door.

When she reached for the knob, the brass handle bent out of the way before lashing out in a curt slap at the sorceress's hand.  The nasty sound of rent metal burst through the hallway from the direction of the kitchen as a fan ripped itself loose from the ceiling.  Blades spinning with wild abandon, it whirred in Pithy's direction.  

Despite the commotion, the lack of active machinery left the scene rather quiet.  Over the groan of leftover wind the Lady in White could hear a haggard shout from inside the room.  “Can't get in that way, window in kitchen!  Don't relax for one instant Pithy, Kno One [i]is[/i] this entire building!”

As the fan bore down on Pithy, a laugh echoed from the foundation to the roof, seeping through every wall.  “Heheh.  Looks like he's banking on you not killing him, if you get out of here.  Maybe his warning has helped you realize, but you've walked into a deathtrap.”  At that moment, the connection became easy to make.  The psychological pressure, the portentous feeling of wrongness that made every fiber of one's being ache for escape...though far more powerful, it resembled the sensation one felt when dipping one's hand in a lake filled with piranhas, or of placing one's head in the wrenched-open maw of a crocodile.  It was the doom of being in the belly of the beast.  

[center][h3]Sunspot[/h3]
Location: the Park
[@FloodTalon][/center]

Laughter.  Pieter's face wasted no time in beginning to twist in umbrage.  Ever since that fateful day in his childhood he'd heard it, and never had it failed to piss him off.  This jackass just didn't seem able to understand the situation he was in, or perhaps he was just that committed to ruining Pieter's day.  “You'll get the idea when your muscle peels off your bones,” he muttered, contempt dripping through his voice.  Over the cacophonous swish of leaves and Jin's own derisive laughter, though, the noseless man doubted his opponent could hear it.  His leaves were in position to pierce Jin's hide, delivering a fatal dose of the poison straight to the center of his circulatory system.  From there, all Pieter would need to do would be to wait for the brat to fall to pieces--!

He jolted in surprise, an involuntary cry escaping him, as Jin lunged forward.  Attuned to their master's will, the leaf-lances zeroed in on the assassin's position to hurl themselves into his body, but not a single one hit its mark.  They sprouted from the ground in his wake, like the shoots of a young forest, as he barreled ahead.  A brutal light gleamed from his swords, leaving the steel behind to fly through open air and shear through Pieter's tree as thought it had already been made into paper.  The tree's upper half shook, forcing the College man to strengthen his grip and grit his teeth.  Every instinct on him cried out as the tree began to topple, everything happening so fast that Pieter couldn't even breathlessly vocalize his shock.  The tree fell backward, pushed by the residual force Jin's blade beams left behind, and in another second its rider would be crushed beneath it.  Adrenaline pumped through Pieter, however, as he realized that his doom drew near, and he managed to find his voice.  “Autumn!”

Like a swarm of hornets converging on a target, the leaves responded in an instant.  They shot toward him, plastering themselves around the man as he fell and pulling him free of the hefty trunk that threatened to pulverize him.  Buoying him up with the considerable combined mass of its leaves, Weird Autumn lofted Pieter skyward.  As it ascended, its shapeless shoal coalesced into the form of an enormous bird, sans legs but up two additional pairs of wings.  As though the assumed body gained a life of its own, Weird Autumn beat those half-dozen wings in rhythm as it began to circle around, Pieter atop its back.  Still on edge, and not totally confident in his Stand's ability to keep him out of harm's way, he peered over the edge of its back at the assassin below.  The sight of Jin washed away his fear and replaced it with smoldering anger—enough to make it clear that the time for jibes and games had departed.  Pieter mimed a slash with his fingers at Jin, and Weird Autumn reeled back before letting fly a volley of leaf-feathers.

Innumerable as stars in the sky, the pinions bombarded Jin's position.  Up above, the extraordinary bird beat its wings to keep up the pressure, sending salvo after salvo, but remaining almost stationary as it did.  Pieter's glare could be seen even from the ground as he poked his head out, too eager to see the annoying assassin ripped apart.