CoLC crossover RP, main thread

"With my... ah, right."

Lu seemed to realize what Tairee seemed to be talking about almost immediately, and after another sip of tea she proceeded to explain.

"I'm actually an adult, or rather, supposed to be. I also quite like humans, or at least I get along with them. It's a long story, but I guess I can share it with you lot if you want. Ahem... Ciel, sit here and tell them the story."

Ciel took a few moments to stare in disbelief at Lu, who in turned looked back at him with a big smile and patted the floor next to her for him to sit. On one hand, telling Lu's story to some children was not what he imagined he would be doing the day before, but he got to spend time with the children, so he was not going to complain.

"Before I begin, does anyone need to visit the bathroom?" he asked once he sat down next to Lu, pulling out his journal. "This story isn't very long, so you may miss a lot if you need to go halfway through. Also, if you have questions, do feel free to ask."

What the hell! He can't just look back at Gurren Lagann and not care! "Ok, so you don't want to fight but listen up! I, the mighty Kamina, will use the fighting spirit that burns within me to defeat you a thousand times over! This machine's endless power will stop you!" and with that Gurren Lagann started charging forward Marcus....but then Simon saw it. Chise was in the way. "Bro, stop! She's in the way!" said Simon and he forced Gurren Lagann to stop right in front of Chise.

Kamina couldn't do it. Fighting Marcus was something he had to do but.....getting Chise hurt because of his attack was not a incident Kamina wanted to happen. Still, Marcus couldn't just be allowed to get away with this! "Hey, could you move?! Gurren Lagann needs to teach Marcus a damn lesson! Just listen to him! Will of the Emperor my ass! He thinks just because his stupid bullshit is allowed by some crappy boss that he can do what he does but screw that! This Emperor is full of crap!"

"Calling my actions immature is nothing but baseless hypocrisy coming from you" Brother Marcus retorted at Upgrade as he secured his grip on Kelsey. Eve's yell didn't seem to faze him, though it did get Thomas and Louie to stop their arguing and pay attention. After her question, Marcus' helmet turned slightly towards her. "That depends on her. It might be fairly simple, or it might be very complicated; it will definitely be harsh, regardless" the space marine told her, then as he turned his helmet around to look at the others in the room added, "now is not the time to be going into detail."

With that, he started to march towards the exit, but paused as Kamina did what Kamina did best: Run his mouth. Brother Marcus paused still for a bit, then slowly turned his helmet a little to look at Gurren Lagann. "Your words only make it clear that understand nothing about the Emperor. He is the savior of mankind, and without him, we would be damned" Brother Marcus informed Kamina, his tone dripping with anger just beneath the surface. "It seems as if all of you have an astounding propensity to speak with confidence on subjects you clearly know nothing about. How you manage to survive in this realm is a mystery to me" the space marine continued, then resumed his march towards the exit, casually holding the unconscious Kelsey between himself and Gurren Lagann, like an impromptu human shield.

"Forget anything that this heretic has said to you!" Brother Marcus announced to the room in general as he approached the door. "If her blasphemous religion starts to spread, then I will be forced to intervene again" he elaborated in a warning tone.

"You're supposed to be an adult? Ah, I think I have a good guess as to what happened" Miss Tairee said simply, her tone neutral and confident without really dipping over into 'smug'. The children's bathroom breaks were dealt with, although Seirwuosuhr was hesitant to go until Miss Tairee had her copy at the computer come over and escort the girl off. Then the children came back and gathered ready at the little table.

"So... If she's actually like an adult, then how old is she?" Tommy asked Ciel.

edited 6th Jun '17 10:57:39 PM by FirockFinion

Brother Marcus continued to try and intimidate the people in the hospital, but he didn't say anything the Lanius hadn't when the Courier fought him off the Dam. Damnit, that just made Arcade think about things he wanted to distract himself from.

Arcade's arm went slack, and his breathing became labored. Working was supposed to give him a respite from his thoughts, but everything just went to shit whenever things started looking up.

As Brother Marcus began to rant about how the Emperor saved the humans from damnation and all that, Upgrade began to mockingly open his hand and close it repeatedly like a sock puppet. He then went on to say that they were talking about something they had no idea about and he had no idea how they were still alive.

"Yeah, and how many times have you died while in the City? Like three?" Upgrade replied. "And I haven't died once, so who here knows what he's doing? Besides, that's how it is in your world, this world is different. So yeah, just go already," Upgrade insisted. When Brother Marcus had left, Upgrade turned around and pressed the button on his body, turning back into Ben with a red flash.

"What is wrong with you all?! Are you guys trying to get the hospital burnt to the ground?!" Ben sighed angrily. "It's like you guys don't want to be rescued. Well whatever. I'm a hero and rescuing people is what I do. Once the watch comes back on, I'm going out there and looking for more people in trouble. Anyone who wants to help innocents, feel free to come along. Until that though, I'm just gonna sit here and make sure things are all right."

With that Ben sat in a stone seat, crossing his arms and sulking a bit as he waited for the watch.

I could feel my heart stop when the robot charged at me and stopped just short of running me over. Kamina was clearly still intent on fighting Marcus but my intervention kept things from escalating.

An argument between that strange blob creature that was a little boy just a few minutes ago broke out. A rather immature argument, which was a given considering the age of one of the parties involved. Fortunately, Marcus began making his way out, using the unconscious woman as a shield to prevent himself from being attacked. I stepped away from him, seeing as at this point I couldn't keep using myself to protect him.

I could still see what was going on as I controlled Rex, but when I saw Chise once more putting herself in danger needlessly I froze. That would allow Rex to move freely for a few seconds, but luckily it seemed fatigue was finally beginning to wear him down. Once I saw that Chise was still unharmed, I went back to focusing on keeping Rex in place.

Eve's discussion didn't really create more than vague threats from Marcus who clearly wasn't happy with the idea of Kelsey spreading a cult of her blood god.

"Wow... a religious nut. Good thing she's the... only one in the city. Oh wait..." Rex said, still struggling to move.

Ben, meanwhile, was too busy accusing everyone of acting like idiots while going along with giving Marcus what he wanted. In fact, he transformed back into a human and waited for his watch to recharge to "go save people" while the biggest threat right now was leaving the hospital without opposition.

"Get off your high horse and save the woman in danger" Rex stopped to rest on a wall before and closed his eyes for a bit before picking up where he had left off "Or don't! There's an actual hero here anyway" he pointed at a random door before realizing that Kamina and Simon were somewhere else, and Rex looked visibly confused "I think I'm just gonna..." and then he collapsed on the floor.

Kamina and Simon listened to Marcus's spiel and had different reactions: Simon felt deep fear. The amount of rage aimed at his big bro was just too much. If he wasn't busy with the current matter at hand, he might have attacked him and his bro! Kamina was business as usual. The big blue bastard could act all tough but Simon and him are more than capable to handle whatever he can throw at them!....now if only he wasn't using Kelsey as a shield!

Kamina told Marcus, "We would be dammed? Don't group me with you! He might be YOUR Emperor but he's not MY Emperor! I, the grand leader of Team Dai-Gurren, would never let someone like the Emperor lead me or my bro if he really wants you to act like a damn bozo!"

With that part of the speech done with, Gurren Lagann took a step forward. "I-"....and then both him and Simon were hit with it. The drain from using Gurren or Lagann but cranked up so much higher. Gurren Lagann took another step forward and then another, slowly trying to reach the space marine but it was no use. The combined mecha disappeared far before reaching him. All that left was Kamina and Simon, both able to move around and otherwise function but also being exhausted and hungry.

edited 7th Jun '17 10:51:07 PM by LightToAll

Eve|Hospitree|Look, An Obvious Distraction

Eve suppressed a grumble about Arcade stepping in front of her. When would he realise that she was better at taking care of both of them than he was? Anyway, though the gesture was appreciated, she found herself somewhat annoyed. This increased when Plague Knight did the same.

She watched carefully as Brother Marcus left, not attacking him, but just watching, and was distracted by Arcade. Something was wrong. Well, there was a convenient distraction collapsed on the floor nearby. She lightly tapped him on the shoulder. "Arcade..." she said quietly, pointing to Rex, "he could use your help. We can talk about this," she gestured around her, "later."

Ben's criticism towards the others in the room made a number of people look taken aback to various degrees. Phillip looked angry, Nails looked confused and slightly annoyed, Silanea just seemed confused, and Dave was clearly about to start saying something- probably something critical given his own frustrated expression.

But somebody else's frustration boiled over and spoke before Dave got the chance to. "ARE YOU SERIOUS BEN!?" Thomas yelled out, throwing his arms down and wavering his cloak a bit. Louie seemed surprised by this, as he was still standing next to Thomas. "All he wanted was to take the crazy woman, and he was all set to do it, and you were the one still struggling and arguing with him! You were putting the hospital at risk of having a fight break out, and now you're yelling at other people about it?!" the young wizard ranted, any semblance of trying to take it easy on Ben due to his age or level of experience gone from Thomas' tone.

"I joined your group because I thought we were going to be making a real difference here! But it seems like you can't go one hour without acting like a self-centered brat! And when we're trying to figure out a game plan, you're off just ignoring us in favor of arguing with people!" Thomas went on. He looked all set to continue, but then suddenly Louie grabbed him.

"Cool it, Thomas! The armored guy was the bigger jerk here, and Ben was trying to teach him a lesson!" Louie said, his own voice raising.

"Let go of me!" was all Thomas replied with as he struggled with Louie. After a moment of grappling, Louie shoved Thomas away, and Thomas staggered and fell to the floor.

"Just freaking relax man! We-" Louie's voice caught in his throat as he saw the blood smeared onto the wooden floor, and Thomas struggling and failing to get back up to his feet. "Th-Thomas?" the young trainer stammered, his face going white with shock as he realized what he'd just done. He took a step forward to help, but Thomas swung an arm out at him to make him back away.

"Piss off, Louie!" Thomas said, voice cracking as his eyes started to tear up from the pain and anger.

Dave quickly stepped over and crouched down to take a look at Thomas. "Stop moving" Dave stated simply as he started to inspect the wounds. "... I think you'll be fine, but we better get you to a bed, fast" the doctor added after a bit, then looked over at Arcade and snapped his fingers once to get the other doctor's attention, then pointed at Rex while telling Arcade, "hey new guy, check on that bozo while I get this kid upstairs." And with that Dave carefully scooped Thomas up in his arms and started to carry him up to one of the other rooms upstairs.

During all the drama and such, Brother Marcus turned his helmet to take one last look at the hospital lobby and those in it. Then he simply shook his head as he turned away, getting a better hold on the unconscious Kelsey, and fired his jump pack to bound off into the jungle.

With it seeming that no fight was going to occur, Silanea let her magic dissipate, and while looking a little bit relieved, looked far more somber. She slithered over to where Rex was fallen on the floor to see how he was doing. Fastanook glanced around the room, then grabbed his walkie talkie. "Wells, Fastanook here. The big guy just left with the crazy girl; we managed to avoid a battle here" Fastanook reported.

"You don't exactly sound relieved, or happy about that" Wells' voice observed correctly.

"It's... There was no battle, but there was some arguing. Things aren't exactly sunshine and roses here, sir" Fastanook admitted honestly.

"Do you think you still need any assistance?" Wells' voice asked.

To that, Nails grabbed his own walkie talkie. "Nails here sir; I don't think we need help, but there was a matter involving Rex I wanted to bring up to you" Nails said into it.

"Ah. I think we just spotted the hospital, so we'll just come over anyway. I'll be right there to discuss this in person" Wells' voice responded.

edited 8th Jun '17 12:57:45 AM by FirockFinion

Some last words were exchanged and Marcus made his way out without a fight breaking out, thankfully. The arguing didn't stop, however, and one of the boysin here, Thomas, began yelling at the little boy for his little outburst. What he said wasn't wrong, but still quite a harsh thing to say to a child. It reminded me of my little outburdt towards Rex earlier, which just made me feel guilty.

Once Rex collapsed, I ran over to him and saw Elias leaving his shadow and resurfacing, still using his glamour. The head doctor instructed Arcade to take care of Rex, and Silanea also came over to check on him.

"He said he was running on little sleep and almost no food, we should just put him on a bed and get him something to eat," I said as I looked at Rex's collapsed state, then turning to Silanea, "Um... Ms. Silanea was it? I'm sorry but I think the challenge to save your people will have to wait a little longer, at least until Rex recovers."

Elias, in the meantime, made his way over to the head doctor and Thomas. He was noticeably sluggish in the way he walked, he likely was starting to get really tired as well.

"If I can get the right herbs, I could make some medicine that should be able to heal his wounds faster, although I'm afraid I won't be able to do anything magical right now," Elias spoke, in a rather tired tone of voice.

Arcade just ignored the bickering after a certain point. He wasn't interested in whatever they were talking about. Instead he followed Eve and Dave's instruction to check on Rex. He didn't exactly have a high opinion of Rex at the moment, but he wouldn't be a Follower if he tried to pick and choose patients.

Chise was already checking on Rex by the time Arcade got to him. "Just tired?" Arcade asked, thoughtfully, "I doubt Dave helped, but I think you might be right." He examined Rex for a short while and nodded.

"Just some bed-rest and lunch," he nodded. That decided, he griped Rex's arms and pulled him over his shoulder. He then carried Rex into the nearest empty room, placing him on the bed less gently than he would a normal patient, but still not overly aggressively.

Before I could get a proper response from Silanea, Arcade came over and began carrying Rex over to another room over his shoulder like it was nothing. He... was a lot stronger than I was expecting a doctor to be. I followed after them and watched as Arcade dropped Rex on the rather... primitive bed. Rather unprofessionally too, but that was probably a result of stress, considering everything that just happened.

"I could go get him some food, is there a cafeteria in here somewhere?" I asked Arcade, as I could remember seeing him with an apple in hands earlier.

edited 8th Jun '17 4:19:06 AM by FullMoon

Arcade was considering what to do about the head wound when Chise offered to get some food. Arcade smiled gratefully and thanked her, giving her directions to the break room.

Eve|Hospitree |Tunnel Vision Has Its Uses

Eve ignored the bickering in favour of following Arcade and Chise out, still concerned about the doctor. The fact that Rex was unconscious was a minor concern. She looked at the teen on the bed, adding her two cents when Arcade had finished.

"His nanomachines are struggling," she said quietly. "Built up fatigue, not enough energy in the system might do it, but his nanomachines are spread too thin. He couldn't transform earlier." She raised her head, looking rather confused. "But why..." she trailed off.

Ben just kept sitting, staring forward, eyes almost glazed over. When Thomas started shouting at him, Ben looked at him almost like a deer caught in a headlights. Thomas yelled at him for ignoring them when they were trying to come up with a game plan.

"But... I wasn't trying to—" Ben almost squeaked, before Thomas continued, he and Louie broke out into a fight, and Ben just stared as Thomas looked seriously injured. Dave scooped him up, and Ben looked intensely guilty as he was being carried away.

"...You're right. I'm being a terrible hero," Ben told them. "A good hero would've saved the hospital without putting everyone in danger, or letting Thomas get hurt. A good hero would've made it so everyone didn't think you were a murderer... but I'm not a good hero.... I can't be a good hero. The Writer won't let me be a good hero..."

Ben continued to sit in that stone chair, staring down at the floor and off into space again, looking crestfallen.

edited 8th Jun '17 6:25:20 AM by AllHailThrall

Once I had the directions I went to the break room as I said I would. There, I grabbed a tray made of stone and began putting all the different types of fruit I could see, although I made sure to check if there was anything outwardly that showed that it could be spoiled or anything of that kind. The last thing we needed right now was for anybody to actually get sick and due to how different this day was it was a little difficult to know what to expect.

I carefully made my downstairs to not drop all the fruit I got, thinking of giving some to Elias since he also hadn't eaten anything yet. Once I got there, I noticed the little boy from before looking quite distraught. I couldn't just ignore it so I went over to him to see if there was anything I could help.

"Um... Hi. My name is Chise and I just got in this city, so I don't really know what's going on, but you're looking a little troubled so... What's wrong?" I asked him, with some hesitation considering this was a situation where I had no idea of what to expect.

Ben glanced over at Chise for a moment, then sighed and looked back down.

"I just... I try to be a hero like I am in my world. But this world is like... fighting against me every step of the way. Whatever I try, things happen and make my job that much harder, and nothing I do is working," Ben explained. "I tried to set everyone free, it didn't work, I tried getting into the computer of the lady working for the guy keeping us trapped here, that didn't get me anywhere either...." he explained. Ben slumped.

"I've been here for like two weeks, trying to protect people, keep them safe from the evil monster who keeps us locked here, trying to make sure they don't get hurt, that they don't d-d-die..." Ben kept trying to compose himself. "But no matter where I go, no matter what I do... everyone just wants to fight each other, and hurt each other, and hurt other people and kill other people and make other peoples' lives miserable. No one wants to work together against the real evil here... they're just okay with being violent, horrible, stupid people..." Ben slumped even more.

"And on top of all that, I'm being framed for a murder. A bunch of murders. I don't kill, heroes don't kill, I could never kill, I couldn't live with myself if I did." Ben muttered. He put his hands on the sides of his head. "I'm starting to wonder if this stupid City is even worth saving."

I froze as I heard the boy speak. I really didn't know how to deal with a problem of this kind when I had little to no knowledge of anything that had happened in this city before I arrived. Still, at this point it was too late for me to decide to just walk away and go back to the room where Rex was. I slowly sat down on the seat next to him, leaving the tray holding the pile of fruit I had been carrying with me on my lap once I was seated.

"What is a hero for you?" I asked him, picking up an apple and taking a small bite off it and using my free hand to grab another and silently handing it to the boy.

Plague Knight slowly lowered his guard as Marcus walked out of the hospital. He briefly contemplated putting it up again when the Gurren approached, but thankfully it somehow.....vanished, depositing its occupants to the floor before they could react, stopping the two pilots from doing something truly stupid. Rex also passed out, so the second person likely to re-esculate the situation was downed as well.

Ben made a rather angered outburst, most likely brought upon the collective stress of the whole situation weighing upon the young boy's mind. Thomas and Louie began fighting, but it ended as soon as it began when the wizard's wounds were made apparent. Dave picked him up as he told the others to tend to Rex as Ben sat somewhere to sulk. The boy needed to be alone for now, so he decided to help with Rex in the meantime, if only to verbally reprimand him. The knight did pick up on when Ben said "murderer," but he let it be for now.....

Plague Knight ran up to Dave before the troll went upstairs. "Here's a healing potion," the knight told the troll, handing the doctor a small bottle. "This will accelerate the healing, hope he doesn't mind the taste of chicken's blood." Whether or not the troll accepted the bottle, he then went to where Rex was deposited.

He spoke out after Eve thought aloud. "Was Rex involved in combat before coming here?" Plague Knight asked. "He might have fought something beforehand when he was already fatigued, and whatever restraint he was struggling against earlier pushed him over his limit."

"I... don't actually know her age," Ciel admitted. "I know she's at least a few hundred, maybe a couple thousand years old. Maybe ev-"

"Hey!" Lu interrupted him, very offended. "You can't just talk about a lady's age like that, Ciel! But... let's just say that I'm older than many of your ancestors, and leave it at that."

"Either way, she comes from a place that humans know as 'the demon world', which from what I've heard is every bit as terrible as it sounds. Back then, she was powerful enough to be chosen as one of the four great Demon Lords that would serve the Demon King directly. She was basically a noblewoman."

"An adult noblewoman." the small demon noted, sipping from her tea. "They even started calling me 'Steel Queen Luciela', it was glorious!"

"Then... well, everything changed. She was betrayed, and she lost everything she had. Her power, her land, everything. I found her soon after she escaped to the human world, in some dirty alley back in Lanox, where I live. By that point she was already a child, and she didn't remember anything that had happened... or anything else, actually; not even her name. I took her home and looked after her for a while while her memories returned. But I suppose they managed to track her down, because a couple of very powerful demons came to kill her some time later. It only took until I was about to die to them for her to start remembering everything."

"You are a terrible storyteller, Ciel."

"But in the end, she recovered her memories, saved my life by making a contract with me, and even routed the assassins. We've been inseparable ever since."

edited 8th Jun '17 4:13:18 PM by Katarsus

Ben looked back up as Chise asked her question. He hesitantly took the apple that she was offering him and took a bite. It was delicious, and he started to chew, then he swallowed and thought about what she said.

"A hero is... someone who helps those who can't help themselves. Protects the innocent and the weak from those who want to hurt them. Fights evil when it pops up, and stops them from doing bad things." He sighed. "But I've been doing a really bad job at all that...." He took another bite of the apple.

edited 8th Jun '17 4:20:47 PM by AllHailThrall

Outside of Hospital

Lucas was waiting anxiously the whole time Marcus was in the hospital. He was prepared to rush in at a moment's notice. And then, suddenly... the threat exited the tree and headed into the jungle. As impossible as the idea seemed, perhaps the situation hadn't ended in bloodshed. Surely he would've been able to tell just by listening if a fight involving the people he knew were in the hospital at the time broke out, right?

A few seconds were spent just staring in the direction Marcus had gone before Lucas turned back to Ciri and said "We should probably go see what happened, right? It doesn't look like things escalated too much, but there could still be some injured people."

Well, I was given a response that pretty much would be what you expected from a boy of his age. I couldn't help but smile a little before taking a few bites off my apple as I tried to structure what I wanted to say in my mind.

"I think a hero is just a good person." I stated, rather bluntly just to get the more important part down. "A good person who helps those in need when they can, maybe not even expecting anything in return or even any recognition, just doing something for the sake of being kind or maybe just because it makes them feel good about themselves. Sometimes people suffer for reasons where there isn't a source that you can just beat up and make the problem go away." I took another bite off my apple and tried to think things more throughly until I finished it. "Honestly, most of the time it's like that. Some people have to be saved more than once, or twice, and sometimes saving them takes a long time and a lot effort, but just a small act of kindness can go a long way. Even just talking to someone can be just enough to save a life and put them on the path of recovery so that one day they can finally have a life where they're happy. Couldn't a person who does that for someone, also be considered a hero, especially in the eyes of the person who was helped?"

I paused for some time to let him think things through. I ended up saying a lot more than I really wanted to so it could have been a little too much for a little boy to grasp all at once. Then again, I might have been underestimating him, he certainly was no ordinary boy if what I saw from him so far was any indication.

"So... I think all you need to be a hero is to be kind." I concluded, taking a pear out of the pile of fruit and starting to eat it, not looking directly at the boy and instead just kinda looking at the ceiling.

edited 8th Jun '17 4:53:07 PM by FullMoon

Eve|Hospitree|There Are No Suspiciously Specific Denials Here, No Siree

Eve thought for a moment about Plague Knight's question. "There was the grocery fight, I suppose." She paused. "But it was a while ago, and it didn't seem to be an issue then." She looked at the unconscious teen again. "I'm more confused as to why..."she trailed off and shook her head, before walking over to Arcade.

"So, want to talk about it?" She asked, gentle and quiet. "You were on edge in the lobby. Why?"