Mirage is dashing to the north of the room as fast as possible, though it is awkward to pick her way through the discarded books and desks and scrolls.
As she nears the door, she sees that the writing that covers the walls grows to a crescendo the closer she gets to the end of the room. And at the far northern wall, one phrase has been left untouched by writing around it, in bold letters, in English.
It takes all the running you can do, to keep in the same place
Those of you up top, lacking any sort of real direction you keep moving on a straight line bearing into the rafters.
Trouble with this area is, it's not designed top support many people, and is rather old. Although you are much better covered from the Agents than Heph... you are not at all sure all this lot will take your weight...
---
"Speaking of your concerns," says the Agent, "how did it come about that you lost the key entrsuted in your care?!
"It was stolen from me, expertly."
"It was part of your agreement to prevent such an occurence."
"The failure grieves me. Much as I am sure you are aggrieved by the apparent escape of the Humans?" says Lo Qi, raising an eyebrow.
A pause.
"There has been no failure. With their transport destroyed the Humans have nowhere to go but back here. Soon they will be dead."
Well, going ALL the way across- and presumably out the building- one at a time could take half an hour, Mors. Totally impractical.
---
"Well, I am equally confident that the situation with the key will resolve itself also," says Lo Qi.
"I would have imagined you would make a better effort to live up to your vows," says the Agent. "And what of this device? This is most certainly not within the limit of those vows."
Ugh...hmmm...well, San can always go with her usual role of Agent distraction and briefly engage it to keep it busy, and then tap PW to get out of combat once everyone else turns up (or at least until Azrael's reloaded), but I've taken a fair amout of damage and Agents are evil bastards so that could be a bit chancy.
And frankly, my plan at the moment is "hold the Agent off until the other three turn up and then we fly", so yeah.
Well, I'm going to need some acknolwedgment of stuff from Mirage for the 'up north' bit to go on.
---
"I fail to see why," says Lo Qi.
"This device can be used to disseminate the network code. That is hardly within your parameters."
"On the contrary. I am here to consider the nature of the Universe, of reality. Here, reality is a computational Matrix. Analysis of the code is endemic to my function here."
San- might need a very fancy diseangage to get out of this mess!
Storm comes back out to the main way out joining the corridor just as Ares and Melis come dashing by. The three of them get out onto the balcony at the same time, bringing a second Agent with them, and more behind!
A few seconds of furious action now are what stand between you guys and either escape or death.
Other than that, I just need what the guys up in the rafters are going to do... and then we are all done!
Well, I was figuring I'd only need to hold him off for one turn, while Azrael reloads, and by that time Ares should be a in a position to take a few shots. So I was thinking of tapping HL (do I have that untapped? Please please please say yes) and BS to basically hit as hard as I possibly could unarmed, and then tap PW to get away. At that point Azrael should be reloaded and should open fire, and if Ares can shoot at that Agent, that would be greatly helpful too.
Mors regroups his men- Balder, Burn, Hawk, Helios- and briefs them for the trip through the rafters.
"We must move quickly, but cautiously," Mors says. "As a group. If we go one at a time, we risk breaking the rafters from overuse, and we risk our time. It would take too long. We must go at once and together, but spread out the weight. Understood?"
Mors twirls his sais and places them back in his coat.
"Let's move."
(I trust spreading out the weight may help, so that the weight of five armed men will not be stressing one section of the rafters, but distributed as evenly as we can.)
Anyone know who's talking with Ariadne? I believe Mirage may have Finn.