[center][h3]Vandelay Campus - Signal Tower[/h3]
[b]Location:[/b] Midgar Sector 06, the City of Glass
Raz’s [@Truthhurts22], Roxas’ [@Double], Sakura’s [@Zoey Boey], Sandalphon
[b]Word Count:[/b] 5611 (+6) [/center]

Out of the five teams, four got off to a decently quick start, even if the routes quickly communicated to them by their new mission control weren’t exactly straightforward. Goldlewis, Partitio, and Roland were given a rough direction to head in to reach Production, the crew headed for R&D were pointed toward a section of robot residential zoning in hopes of reaching a subway that could take them to their volcanic, Giovanna’s team could set their sights on the identifiable landmark formed by Security’s forward watchtower, and Zenkichi could lead Karin and Blazermate toward the grand Atrium in search of Finance. The journey in store for the last team turned out to be a bit more complicated.

“First, please refer to me over the comm lines using the callsign Halo,” Sandalphon began. “I will do the same for you, as Skywatch. The office of Kale Vandelay, who DespoRHado’s most capable associate means to hunt down, can be found within the upper reaches of that superstructure.” She directed her gaze up at the crowning feature of the campus, the sky-scraping ‘V’ tower. “However, I believe that when Sam flushes him out, Kale will flee to a more remote and well-defended location. If you join the large-scale firefight currently taking place in and around the Atrium, there’s no chance of reaching it in time. That’s why I would like 2B and 9S here to assist you.”

At Sandalphon’s command, the DespoRHado androids called in two [url=https://i.imgur.com/ATP3nhA.png]Flight Units[/url], descending from secure airspace at high speed only to slow to a smooth hover beside their operators. They both arrived in their sleek, aerodynamic flight forms, but a moment later they reconfigured into their imposing mech forms so that 2B and 9S could climb aboard.

Sandalphon nodded in approval. “These will fly you into the vicinity of the tower, at which point I would like you to lend tactical air support until the VIPs surface. Once they do, you’re free to pursue and engage.”

[color=f49ac2]”You got it, Halo.”[/color] Sakura said, practicing her Callsign. It also sounded cool. She was admittedly nervous about flying. [color=f49ac2]”We got this, guys.”[/color] She said to Raz and Roxas, and offered them both a high five. Roxas was the first one to reciprocate. Raz had to leap up a bit to reach his, but he was sure it looked cooler than it felt. 

	[color=f49ac2]”Nice!”[/color] Sakura said with a big grin.

Seeing the humans do this, 9S glanced over at 2B, gingerly raising his hand as if to offer one himself. He thought better of it before she saw anything, though.

Once locked in, the androids reconfigured their Flight Units again, providing somewhat tricky but ultimately serviceable platforms for Raz, Sakura, and Roxas to stand on, or at least hold on to. The black coat bedecked Roxas jumped up on 9S’s Flight Unit.

“We will forgo our typical evasive maneuvers to avoid ejecting you, but hold on tight anyway” 2B advised them flatly. Roxas was quick to take this advice. The last thing he wanted was to become a smear on the ground.

[color=FF8c00]”Let’s do this!”[/color] Raz, pumped as ever, with his previous worries for today put on the backburner, pulled his goggles down. He was ready as he ever was.

[center][youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1mWAShM_yvM&ab_channel=CaseTech279[/youtube][/center]

Soon after, Sandalphon waved everyone goodbye, and the Flight Units took to the air. The wind whipped the Seekers’ hair and clothes as the ground receded beneath them. In a matter of moments team Skywatch was cruising high above Vandelay campus, able to see almost everything neither underground nor within a building’s interior. Fights between Vandelay robots and the DespoRHado assault force could be glimpsed all over, along with widespread destruction, especially near the Atrium, where all the well-trimmed lawns and hedges appeared to be on fire. They approached their destination, soaring without a care over the bitter corporate warfare down below, but when they drew near the stupidly huge ‘V’ things began to get interesting. What looked like from a distance like flocks of birds and fireworks clustered around the towers ended up being a huge dogfight between the companies’ airborne forces. Aerial Unmanned Gears called [url=https://i.imgur.com/QqfPjvE.png]Sliders[/url], outfitted with missiles and sometimes worn as winged jetpacks for gun-toting [url=https://i.imgur.com/n5VfALu.png]cyborg paratroopers[/url] had engaged an armada of bomb-chucking [url=https://i.imgur.com/jCvfOOf.png]AIR-1N[/url] fliers and (much more dangerous) [url=https://i.imgur.com/CcKzU5r.png]VU-TOR1[/url] bots, backed up by long-range GNR support from the tower itself. The result was a chaotic mess of explosions, gunfire, and light rays.

“Enemy sighted. Moving to engage,” 2B announced.

“Engaging targets!” 9S confirmed, allowing his partner to take the lead. “Let’s thin the herd!”

Both Flight Units opened fire with mounted machine guns, quickly annihilating a half-dozen enemy robots with streams of incendiary death. Their opponents turned on them quickly, taking potshots or moving to intercept them. With their speed and maneuverability limited by their passengers, the Flight Units held firm, allowing the Seekers to join the fight. 

Sakura made some type of loud, nervous noise, holding on tight to 2B’s Flight Module. She was glad she had Levitate, but she still didn’t want to fall. She stood up and fired a one handed fireball at nearby fliers, to no effect, the relatively slow projectile missing entirely. [color=f49ac2]”Not good enough..!”[/color]

Using her psychic powers to push herself against the flier, she hyped herself up with a yell and let go, standing only on her feet. She gathered energy in her hands. [color=f49ac2]”Hadoken!”[/color] She fired a much bigger fireball towards a nearby flier. It absorbed any bullets it encountered, and though it wasn’t a direct hit, her advanced techniques let it explode to knock anything nearby off course. 

[color=f49ac2]”If they get close to us or behind us, I can protect us, 2B-san!”[/color] She shouted down to her pilot. If they flew behind them, her fireballs gained both travel distance and speed as the enemies would be flying right into her blasts, making them actually fairly effective as air-to-air projectiles. 

Her first challenge came in the form of two Sliders, one with a cyborg attached and another flying on its own. Locking onto 2B's Flight Unit, the Unmanned Gear fired off a couple semi-active laser-guided AIM-9X Sidewinder rockets. As they homed in on the street fighter’s ride, the cyborg paratrooper followed behind them, his [url=https://i.imgur.com/2biJGRL.png]Yellowjacket-3au[/url] auto rifle ready for some good old-fashioned spray-and-pray.

[color=f49ac2]”Crap!”[/color] Sakura shouted, immediately undercutting her previous confidence-filled statement. She brought her arms back together and then forward, palms out and wrists almost touching, firing several fireballs as fast as she could. She was trying to knock the missiles out of the air and provide visual obstruction. The fireballs were forceful enough to trigger any impact based explosives. As for the paratrooper, well, she had to deal with the missiles first. [color=f49ac2]”There’s a guy on us!”[/color] She said, any further details cut off as her fireballs detonated the missiles in a burst of flame, shrapnel, and concussive force.

"Roger." Assuming that Sakura's call-out meant that she couldn't deal with the paratrooper, and that she was ready for intervention, 2B reoriented the Flight Unit in order to shoot the new threat down herself. The dual chainguns opened fire, their salvos ripping through the air to cut the cyborg down, but doing so threatened to send Sakura tumbling if she hadn't steeled herself as 2B believed.

[color=f49ac2]”H-hey, woah!”[/color] Sakura said, flailing her arms, her eyes bulging. She managed to grab onto one of the big sticking out parts of the Flight Unit. [color=f49ac2]”You’re pretty eager, aren’t you?!”[/color] She called out with a nervous smile. 

“Ah.” Realizing her mistake, 2B made an effort to even out her Flight Unit, as well as to apologize. “...Sorry,” she muttered. Sakura wouldn’t get any better than that, though, since the android needed to focus to keep the pair out of the thick of things, where attack could come from any direction. Bullets, bombs, and missiles filled the air, more frenetic than ever now that a couple new powerhouses had joined the fray.

Unlike Sakura, Raz wasn’t afraid of a little air time. Once defensive maneuvers were made, Raz used the momentum of the curves and barrel rolls to fling him up high! [color=FF8c00]”Yaaaaaaah!”[/color] As he reached the peak of his leap the dogfight below threatened to leave him behind, but he was quick on the draw. Targeting one of the unmanned Sliders with Mental Connection, Raz zipped right over to it mid-flight, and slammed down on top of it. [color=FF8c00]”’Scuse me,”[/color] he said, gripping the Gear’s main body in TK, [color=FF8c00]”I’m gonna borrow this for a sec!”[/color] Wrestling control of an automated robot was tricky to say the least, so Raz’s “borrow” ended up more as a “hold on for dear life and pray”. He used the strength of his TK to try and guide the Slider towards its allies, wrangling it like a rodeo bull as it tried to steer itself. It was all just a big lump of chaos. Though chaos was a tactic that sorta kinda worked! The Slider clipped and slammed into a lot of its kin, enough to disrupt the majority’s pursuit of the others, and Raz peppered out some Psi-Blasts at the manned ones, striking the passengers - and if all else failed, they’d have a wild target to try and shoot, one that barely knew what it was doing itself.

Unfortunately there wasn’t a whole lot Roxas could do. Even just freeing one his hands in order to summon a Keyblade would risk him losing his grip and potentially fall. But if he did nothing then it was more likely that 9S would end up being shot down. In other words, he had to [i]something[/i]. So he risked freeing up one of his hands to summon Oathkeeper. With it he took some potshots with Blizzaga. He wasn’t sure how much the wind and flight speed would affect his accuracy but maybe he’d get lucky and hit something? He was hoping Blizzaga could maybe freeze up some servos or mechanical joints, which might possibly result in enemy bogeys losing their flight control and subsequently going down. Luckily for him, the basic Sliders and AIR-1Ns both tended to stop moving momentarily while flying whether to attack or seek targets, which meant that as long as Roxas could take aim he could probably land a few hits on the low-health war machines. And 9S slowed down his Flight Unit to give the keyblade master just that chance, slow enough that Roxas could stand atop it. Of course, doing so made it that much easier for  the GNR units lined up at the windows of the nearby tower to take aim, the direction of their beam cannons foreshadowed by thin red targeting lasers.

[color=Gold]”Over there! In the tower!”[/color] Roxas said to 9S, having to shout in order to make sure the wind speed didn’t overpower the sound of his voice. He also pointed his Keyblade in the direction of where he was spotting the GNR units as well, [color=Gold]”Get me close if you can! I’ll take care of the rest!”[/color]

Registering both the threat and his passenger’s attention, 9S pushed his Flight Unit forward. “Understood!” The trio peeled away from what was quickly becoming a machine feeding frenzy and made for the snipers’ nest. While the GNRs zeroed in on the imminent threat as best they could, they needed to ‘lock in’ a beat before their beams of light blazed forth, which gave 9S enough time to evade them. When the android got close enough to pull up alongside the row of glass windows, Roxas found the gunners just one tricky but still very doable jump away.

Roxas pulled up his hood so that it would help obscure his identity on any stray security cameras, then he lunged forward and launched himself off the edge of 9S’s Flight Unit toward the nearest window of the tower. The white and red GNR Unit stationed there scrambled to try and fire its beam weapon but the red beam only served as a tell Roxas could exploit. He crossed both his Keyblades in front of him within the red line so that when the beam came it was reflected away from Roxas while he was barrelling toward it in midair. Then he twisted himself around and used that momentum to bring the Keyblades around and down onto the GNR Unit. Then he followed that up with an additional slash from each of his Keyblades and that seemed to be enough to finish the unit off.

Now the Keybearer found himself in a window-side hallway staring at an entire row of a dozen GNR units. They’d been previously aiming their weapons outside the open windows to try and shoot down aerial foes. Now they were whirling around and training their arm-mounted beam cannons at the newly arrived intruder. Roxas jumped to the side, narrowly dodging a volley of beam shots. Instantly he dashed forward toward the nearest GNR while simultaneously hurling one his Keyblades at the next one down the hall. Before the nearest could get off its shot Roxas made it near enough to bat the cannon away from its aim by hitting it with his Keyblade. Meanwhile the Keyblade he had thrown had crashed into the cannon of the next GNR, also throwing off its aim as well.

Roxas then hooked his Keyblade around the neck of the GNR right in front of him and forcibly pulled it in front of him to take the incoming volley of shots from the remaining GNR units. Sort of like using a human shield, except with a robot rather than a human. As the GNR he hid behind fell, Roxas dashed forward to continue his assault. He used flowmotion to launch himself between the parallel walls of the hallway, slashing his way through the line of GNR units along the way. When he reached the center of the enemy cluster, the Keybearer quickly thrust Oathkeeper straight up above him, [color=Gold]”Thundaga!”[/color] he called, conjuring an AOE of lightning strikes around him to fry the circuits and electronics of the robotic foes he was fighting. After that he remembered the sigil that Sandalphon placed on him before the mission started, [color=Gold]”Halo? This is Skywatch.”[/color] he told her over the magical connection, making sure to remember to use callsigns instead of names, [color=Gold]”I need an extraction, tell 9S I’m coming out hot! He’ll know what to do!”[/color]

"Understood, Skywatch," Sandalphon replied, her voice clear and calm. "...Request confirmed. 9S en route."

Then Roxas ran forward to the end of the hall. He finished off whatever stragglers remained of the GNR’s and then… he leaped straight out of the window and back out into the sky - hoping 9S got the message and would grab him before he became a splat on the ground below.

Luckily, the Flight Unit cruised by just in the nick of time. Trusting Raz to fend off the Sliders currently in pursuit, 9S swooped in close to the building to catch Roxas just before he really began to fall. His death-defying maneuver went off without a hitch, but the three were hardly out of the woods just yet. Missiles from the Sliders exploded against the surface of the building just meters away, sending a shower of glass down as the Flight Unit picked up speed. A moment later the Sliders emerged from the smoke and closed in, locking on for another salvo.

[color=Gold]”I need you to catch me from falling again.”[/color] Roxas said to 9S, but unfortunately had no time to wait for a response. He launched himself from the side of the Flight Unit and in mid-air appeared to change into a streak of light that homed in on the nearest Slider. As soon as he made contact, Roxas attacked it with a Cross Slash. Now he was in the air among the Sliders with only moments to act, [color=Gold]”Thundaga!”[/color] he let loose the spell to zap and fry the other Sliders around him. He started to fall but only for a moment or two before 9S and Flight Unit swooped by and caught him.

Meanwhile, 2B and Sakura’s had continued their flight path around the periphery of the fight, avoiding the machine mosh pit while they picked off AIR-1Ns and Sliders. It wasn’t long until their efforts attracted some especially unwanted attention, though. A high-pitched, keening screech announced the entrance of a large VU-TOR1 unit. The mechanical bird of prey swooped in and began to hover near the Flight Unit, the beats of its massive energy wings strong enough to buffet Sakura with wind. It let out another cry and extended its talons upward before coming down in a nasty triple slash.

The chances of this giant bird robot being another mook to blast were fairly low, Sakura thought. Sakura crossed one arm to withstand the wind, her short brown hair and headband whipping around. Sakura focused on the oncoming bot and braced for impact. She met with the triple slash with her forearm, scraping aside the dangerous blades with blue sparks. With her focus on defense in order to get a bead on this thing, and no further action taken, the Vulture backed away. It then executed a corkscrew dive, driving its talons to strike twice as it passed by. Seeking to tear up the Flight Unit as much as Sakura, it would repeat the corkscrew two more times, adjusting its aim to pursue its target each time.

Sakura blocked the dive as well, wincing from the pain. But, way better than getting hit. When she noticed the Flight Suit getting damaged, though, she knew she had to act. Grabbing onto the raised section of the Flight Suit, she watched it come in for its next dive. Hopefully she had gotten enough of a read on this thing's timing to hit the anti-air! [color=f49ac2]”Right there!”[/color] Sakura shot her leg upward, bending it with impressive flexibility, the top of her foot angling over her shoulder. It was Sakura’s signature Chin Buster kick, a solid whomp to Vulture’s metal body to interrupt its dive and knock it out of the air. If she could create space with this, she could begin throwing her hadokens to stop it from getting close again. [color=f49ac2]”Really hope I don’t have to try and jump towards it…”[/color] Sakura muttered, having seen Roxas do some crazy stunt out of the corner of her eye. 

Her well-timed kick struck on the perfect beat, knocking the Vulture up in a backflip with an affronted squawk. When it righted itself, it found a volley of fireballs headed its way, and promptly flew around. 2B rotated her Flight Unit to keep it trained on the enemy robot, and when she had a clear shot she let loose. The burst of bullets clipped the bird and persuaded it to fly back into melee range, where 2B couldn't get a bead on it without endangering her passenger again.

The android called to Sakura over the roaring wind. "Do that again! Once you stagger it, I want you to jump straight up!" The Vulture swooped in to slash with its claws once more.

[color=f49ac2]”A-alright! If you say so!”[/color] Sakura said, steeling herself as the Vulture dive bombed her. It was hardly an advanced dive kicker, so Sakura repeated the same timing, throwing her strong leg upward to smash it away. Then she brought her foot down, crouched, and jumped into the air. 

Barely had the street fighter lifted off before 2B took action. Golden energy streamed from emitters on the Flight Unit’s long, rigid ‘tail’, coating it in light to form a huge swordblade as the machine began to spin. It pivoted around in a full revolution and cleaved clean through the Vulture’s middle in a splendid golden crescent, sending its halves spiraling to the ground as the air hummed from its passage. The blade dissipated and the Flight Unit halted its momentum just in time to catch Sakura on the way down, like she’d executed the mother of all kickflips, equal parts exhilarating and terrifying.

Sakura lay on her belly, hanging tightly onto the flight unit, shaking. [color=f49ac2]”Hoaa-haha…ha! Wow! Okay! We did it!”[/color]

As intense as that encounter had been, the Seekers formed only a small part of the fight in the skies–a fight now visibly going in one side’s favor. Relatively slow and featuring only lobbed explosives in terms of attack, the AIR-1N units ended up as fodder for the faster and harder-hitting DespoRHado forces. Though they also lacked durability, the Sliders could avoid damage better and deal out a lot more, especially with a cyborg at the helm. Vandelay’s Vultures were their side’s saving grace, but what they made up for in ability they lacked in quantity, and enough punishment would put them down just as easily.

The Seekers weren’t the only third party in the fight, though. By now, the fighting on Vandelay Campus had definitely caught the public eye, and [url=https://i.imgur.com/gXLOt3c.png]helicopters[/url] full of news crew had taken to the sky to buzz around the facilities. A little too close, in fact. One helicopter, its doors thrown open to reveal a [url=https://i.imgur.com/xEj9NL9.png]daredevil photographer[/url] ready and willing to take chances for an exclusive scoop as the vehicle drew closer. At the same time though, it drew the attention of a wave of AIR-1N reinforcements flying up from below, and the machines did not seem to discriminate between non-Vandelay targets. In only a few moments the chopper would be swarmed by bomb-tossing robots.

At this point Raz’s Slider-Hijack plan had gone belly up. While it [i]did[/i] result in crashing a decent chunk of the assembled Gears, the one he was riding threw him off a while back, and with both 9S and 2B focused on helping the other two he had to sort out his method of flight on his own. How has he managed that?

Just barely.

Utilizing the shared Levitation from Sakura, Raz was bobbing through the air like a tennis ball in water; since he still hadn’t mastered the art of ball-less levitating, he figured he’d use his weakness as a strength! [color=FF8c00]”Whoaaaah! Ahhhh-hah! Look out below!”[/color] A steady rhythm of Raz freefalling and then levitating straight upwards, unfocused in how to control himself, kept him at an okay level in the air. And every time he passed an enemy, be it a rogue Slider or an AIR-1N Unit, he’d telekinetically snatch and sling it at another attacker. 

Probably not the flashiest thing in the battle for the news copter to focus on, but whatever. Raz noticed the chopper, and the robots moving in to attack it, and pivoted (best he could) to reach it as well. [color=FF8c00]”Oh no you don’t!”[/color] Raz cut his levitation, spinning into a dive that would get him to a spot [i]under[/i] the chopper faster than the AIR-1Ns could fly to it, then kicked it back on, slingshotting himself up and up and– [i]thunk![/i] He hit his head against the bottom of the chopper, just as he gripped one of its skids.

[color=FF8c00]”Owwww.”[/color] A little head trauma wasn’t going to deter him though. He swung himself up and over the edge of the chopper, landing inside with the news crew. [color=FF8c00]”Okay, everyone, remain calm!”[/color] He raised his hands to show he meant no harm. [color=FF8c00]”I don’t mean you harm! But those guys [i]do![/i]” Raz turned to “those guys”, being the Vandelay robots, and began a counter-defense for the chopper, zapping them with charged Blasts and TKing away any bombs they chucked at ‘em. He also struck a suuuuper cool pose for the camera people. That was important.

“Whoa!” After hearing the [i]thunk[/i] the photographer had leaned out of the chopper to try and get a bead on what hit it, only to get a snapshot of a giant, goggled head. Nobody could have missed the junior Psychonaut’s ungainly stop-and-start flight through the chaos, but he hadn’t expected Raz to board the helicopter in person. “Here, grab my hand!” he yelled over the punchy whir of the rotors, crouching with one hand extended, only for the boy to vault in himself. The minute he landed, he got flashed by the photographer’s camera. “Nice!”

Of course, he wasn’t blind to the danger. “Yeah, no kiddin’!” When the fight began, the man went into overdrive, maneuvering around to get the best angles despite the danger of falling. Once satisfied, he let his camera fall and produced a notepad instead. “The name’s Frank West, by the way. You got time for a quick interview, kid?” 

[color=FF8c00]”Uhh…”[/color] Raz paused his defense to look at Frank over his shoulder. [color=FF8c00]”Maybe later? I’ll get my people in touch with your people.”[/color]

Frank raised an eyebrow. “‘Your people’?” After Raz said that, though, the man took notice of his custom uniform for the first time. Those colors, the holographic orange wires…it had to be! “Oh, I gotcha! But what’s Psych-OSF doing out here in the first place? What can you tell the people at home about the situation unfolding at Vandelay?” The next second a bomb exploded against the chopper’s exterior. While it was weak, it still caused the flying machine to rock worryingly, for all the difference that made to Frank’s composure. He was already jotting down notes. “Relax, I’ve covered wars, y’know.”

Raz flinched, not from the bomb, but from Frank’s question. [color=FF8c00]”Aw crap.”[/color] He looked down at himself as if to confirm that yes, he was still wearing his clothes. He totally blanked on what his being there meant in the greater scheme of things, turning this clash of two factions into a sort of melee-a-trois, to get a little fancy.

[color=FF8c00]”Nothing! I can’t tell you anything, I just… I just work here.”[/color] He refocused his efforts on protecting the copter - these Vandelay bots had to run dry eventually, right?

As soon as he noticed the news helicopter, Roxas could only let out an exasperated sigh. Were these people nuts? Vandelay was a literal warzone right now. This was no place for a non-combatant! The Keybearer indicated to 9S that Raz was with them and looked like he needed a pickup. Roxas spoke into the sigil in order to reach Sandalphon, [color=Gold]”Halo? This is Skywatch. Looks like the media’s showing up, but they’re just a casualty waiting to happen. Any idea how to get rid of them?”[/color] he asked her, hoping she’d have a suggestion. If not then maybe 9S would?

“That’s not surprising,” Sandalphon replied, and she sounded about as happy about it as she sounded surprised. “Media attention is an inevitability given an operation of this scale. I brought it up to Sundowner during the planning stage, but he said to ignore them. Normally the media remains at a safe distance; whoever’s in there must be categorically insane.” She paused for just a moment to think. A warning shot was out of the question. “If you cannot convince them to leave with words, you’ll have to do so indirectly with danger.”

[color=Gold]”Great, no pressure then. I read you, Halo. I’ll see what we can do. You should know Raz is already over there. I hope he hasn’t said too much.”[/color] Roxas replied with a shake of his head. Unfortunately he didn’t know exactly what they were going to do. But he supposed they could probably start by going to get Raz, [color=Gold]”C’mon, 9S. Let’s go grab Raz. See if you can draw some attention on the way there. We need to convince those reporters that it’s too dangerous to stick around here.”[/color]

	[color=f49ac2]”Raz-kun..!”[/color] Sakura shouted, cupping her hands around her mouth. [color=f49ac2]”Oh, right.”[/color] Then she began to psychically transmit her thoughts to Raz.
	[color=f49ac2][i]”Raz, this is Sakura…Are you in the helicopter? Can you tell those guys to get the heck outta here?! What kind of crappy cameras do they have where they have to be so close, anyway?!”[/i][/color] Sakura transmitted her thoughts. 

[color=FF8c00][i]”Trying to run damage control right now,”[/i][/color] he thought right back, [color=FF8c00][i]”in a lotta different ways!”[/i][/color] Continuing to glance over to Frank, since it was hard to remain totally silent under his interrogation, Raz figured it was time to work some journalistic magic.

[color=FF8c00]”I am not on the record here!”[/color] He [i]kr-zppt[/i] a trio of AIR-1Ns that had gotten closer with a big burst of Psi-blast. [color=FF8c00]”You can’t quote me on anything, I don’t consent, I have the right to remain silent, uhh…”[/color] He felt himself floundering a little, digging the hole they were in even deeper. This guy covered [i]wars[/i]! So, as Raz was trying to protect the copter from the mounting explosive offense, an idea sparked. Not a good idea or anything, but…

In a brief lull of battle Raz spun around to face Frank and tugged his goggles up. [color=FF8c00]”Mr. West, sir, my name is Razputin, and while I’m sure there’s plenty I could divulge to you right here and now, I have a proposition for ya.”[/color] He paused to fire some more blasts out of the open door. [color=FF8c00]”If, [i]if[/i] you and your crew fly to safety, then after this all blows over I can score you an [i]exclusive[/i] interview with ex-Secretary of Defense Goldlewis Dickinson himself! I’ve been working under him for a bit now, so trust me, he’s way more in the know about what’s going down than myself.”[/color]

The newsman’s eyebrows went up again. From flat-out denials to huge promises? This guy must be getting desperate, and the story here must be juicy. Even Frank could see which way the wind was blowing though. “Now we’re getting somewhere!” he joked. Outside the chopper, the population of AIR-1Ns had dwindled down to almost nothing. Raz had been doing a good job, and the efficiency of his psi-blasts against these bots in particular couldn’t be understated. Of course, more enemies could show up any time. “There’s a lot more that I want to know, but I’ll get outta you guys' hair. I’m already in a boatload of trouble for endangering the chopper,” he chuckled wryly as he turned to yell at the pilot. “Let’s get out of here, pronto!”

“You got it,” the [url=https://i.imgur.com/vtC9bzr.png]anthropomorphic rabbit[/url] in the pilot seat called back. Though he’d been doing a spectacular job with evasive maneuvers so far considering he was piloting a civilian helicopter, he seemed happy to leave the danger behind. 

“Sure you’re gonna be okay, kid?” Frank peeked down from the helicopter’s side doors. It was a long way down, so hopefully whatever Raz used to fly had more juice.

This was about when 9S’s flight unit came by, with Roxas in tow, [color=Gold]”I hate to ask, but… how much did you have to tell them to get them to leave?”[/color] It wasn’t that he didn’t trust Raz, because he did. But of the Seekers on this team, Roxas was the one with a direct line to Sandalphon. So it sort of fell to him to keep her in the loop on this stuff so she could keep everyone else in the loop. As Raz hopped onto the Flight Unit, Frank waved goodbye, and the chopper peeled away.

	Sakura looked uneasily between the news copter as it flew off and the barely safe skies. As well as the rooftop below which undoubtedly she and the others would have to drop down on at some point to do battle. [color=f49ac2]”Are we ready?”[/color] She asked.

“Attention, Skywatch,” Sandalphon hailed them. “I just received new intel from some of my androids. Kale Vandelay was just spotted on the bridge leading from the Vandelay Building to a Signal Tower, and Jetstream Sam is confirmed to be in pursuit. I’m transmitting the coordinates to 2B and 9S. Make haste.”

[color=Gold]”Guess it’s time for our actual mission. I’m ready when you guys are.”[/color] Roxas said, with little else to do but wait for them to go on the move.

[color=f49ac2]”Good!”[/color] Sakura said, holding onto 2B’s unit tightly, knuckles white. [color=f49ac2]”Let’s show ‘em what we can do.”[/color] 

Confirming the new data, 9S nodded. “Coordinates received. They’re moving fast. Hold on tight, everyone!” With that, both Flight Units began to pick up speed, descending in a wide arc around the Vandelay Building to leave what remained of the midair mayhem behind.