[center][h3][color=C0392B]Rudolf Shilage[/color][/h3][/center]

[color=c0392b]”Don’t sell us short on preparation,”[/color]

Metal creaked and shifted as a rough-hewn growl sounded a moment after Zeke’s tirade, before the rightmost panel of twisted aluminum alloy was cast aside by an arm of black steel. Rudolf’s greathelm bore a few new scrapes and scuffs, but otherwise seemed little worse for wear even after the wreck. His eyes shifted behind the visor, more metal shifted behind his arm. [color=c0392b]”We have [i]three[/i] tour guides.”[/color]

Esben, Eliane, and Chisato were revealed in short order. The former two were as native to the city as anyone left within, at this point— and they no doubt would know the way towards what would pass for safe harbor. Not to mention…

[color=c0392b]“I was [i]hoping[/i] we could just have Eos and Selene handle this bit. I didn’t [i]say[/i] fly directly over— Loki got us, didn’t she?”[/color] More a rhetorical question than anything else; there was no real alternative candidate. Zeke had stayed within eyesight the whole time they were aboard, the engine conditions were verified before takeoff, and most importantly—

[color=c0392b][i]You are a terrible early warning system.[/i][/color]

[i]I had maybe half a second to smell the shadow on the aethereal wind. I work with what I get. It was still enough for you to get everybody to crash position.[/i]

The armored flatlander clicked his tongue, thumbing the pommel at his belt. The black spot on his soul coiled in response, no happier than he save for their argument. Disdain swirled around the pair of one.

[color=c0392b][i]Riddle me this: What’s a fundamental step in melanosis? What begins the process of transmutation, since you’ve been so encouraging of my alchemical interpretation of everything you do?[/i][/color]

[i]I am a literal shade, boy, spare me. Dissolution of the form is a fundamental concept, true. It can be leveraged to restructure your guise to that of another, true. I myself am familiar with the requisite magic. In my life, I wore other faces when the need arose. YOU riddle ME this: what would the practical use of such magic be, if it was so easily seen through by a feeble echo of the mages that developed it in the first place?[/i]

He supposed that was a good point, but it helped matters none.

Their initial suspicions were well-placed, in the end, but they’d still been caught off-guard once their mission parameters had changed. Flying right in was already enough to set the lot of them on edge, not being remotely close even to Eliane’s intent— but the strike had come without warning, save for his passenger’s last-second alert that, [i]oh, by the way, i smell shadow-aspected aether, you got played after all[/i].

After that, it had been all he could do to try and put as much of himself between his teammates and the screaming metal as he could. It was a wry quirk of fate, thinking about it, that he kept pushing his familiarity with weightless vertigo to his advantage whenever Loki let her mask drop. This was the second—third, if you liberally counted the battle against the Behemoth.

And now here they were: Stranded inside the walls of the zombie-infested city, their way in strewn hallway across the rooftop and gardens of a Skaeler manor, and their chaperones in nearly as many pieces as the ride. A grisly sight by any measure. Rudolf let a moment pass, full of wondering when exactly he had become so cold blooded about seeing people, real living people, be reduced to scraps of meat…

And then he returned to searching through the wreckage, turning aside rent steel and stomping out tongues of orange flame, the long shadows of dusk seeming a thirsty pool around him.

[color=c0392b]“That’s all the more reason to get everyone still breathing stable, and everyone still stable [i]moving[/i].”[/color] He huffed, pulling a groaning raider free. Zeke was hardly wrong—a cataclysmic wreck like this and fresh blood on the wind were sure to draw the attention of everything in the city. 

He could hear his father’s voice echoing in his head, cutting through the swirl of smoke and confusion in his head, carefully cordoning off the part of him that wanted to panic and lose nerve before smashing like a mace into the mire with characteristically heartless advice: Those who can follow you out will. Those who can’t will not slow you.

He bit back at the unwanted counsel.

[color=c0392b]“Now if you can complain, you can help us get out of here quicker.”[/color] he grunted stiffly, reaching for his absorption materia. The flow of vitality was itself an expression of aether, at some level— that it could be manipulated to sap strength from one to bolster another, in theory, was a two-way street. And he had by far the most strength here to give, by any reasonable reckoning— but he couldn’t overextend himself, lest he end up trapped beneath the weight of his harness. [color=c0392b]”Or do you not share your sister’s gift for both the major schools of magic? If so, help Chisato with triage— we’ll get who we can on their feet as we get them out of the mess. I’m sure there’s already somewhere we’re to be heading between the other two.”[/color]

Her home. Please be her home. If anything had to come of this horrible mess they were once again stranded in… please let it be closure, if not a reunion.