We Can Rebuild (Open)

Robin had no doubt that Elisabeth had some tech to assist her the same as him, it really didn't matter at the moment who or what helped get these people out safely. Robin looked up form the monitor of his computer when Rico spoke. "I agree. No need to be stealthy about it," Robin chimed in, leaving it at that for the moment incase they were already being watched. There didn't seem to be any fluctuations above ground but that didn't mean that there hadn't been in the past. "So they mostly seem to be down this way. There also seems to be one or two isolated on their own," Robin continued pointing toward what was probably the gymnasium. "Rapture, is there anything we need to know?" Robin asked trying to include everyone.

"So unless anyone thinks otherwise, since the building is mostly intact, we should be able to split off into pairs. If the isolated ones are more survivors, they're probably hurt and or trapped so we need to get them out quickly," Robin explained his reasoning for splitting up. It was a bad trope to split up the party but if he could avoid any more casualities from this he'd endure it.

Rico blinked when Elisabeth responded to her suggestion for stealth the way she did, saying that the best thing to do would be act as evacuation openly. Rico's cheeks actually turned a little red. Not in a cute way really (though perhaps it might look cute), more in the way of embarrassed that she hadn't thought of it that way before that moment and she felt ashamed. She was so busy trying to engage and be as useful as Elisabeth that she was neglecting logical thinking. It was an endless spiral of doom.

"You're right...that was silly of me." She ended the remark a little quietly. It was painful to admit, but maybe she would grow a little from it. With any hope.

She submitted to Elisabeth's plans. They seemed like a good course of action. Then Robin spoke up, agreeing that they had no need to be stealthy about what they were doing. Rico nodded, and began unwrapping her arm, showing its grisly visage to those present. She wasn't exactly excited showing them, but it helped.


She reached out with her arm, which was presently black and glowing red from the membranes, and the air would shimmer as a giant version of her arm appeared in the space in front of her. It followed her arm's movements to finite detail as she started brushing aside the rubble gently like one would brush dust off a shelf, digging until they had clear access to doors to the building. The arm did have a spiritual presence, if that was Rapture's kind of thing.

While working she listened to Rapture's concerns about yokai, and Robin saying they should split up to find more people. It really was a cliche, but it was a cliche for good reason. She didn't need to remain entirely focused, looking back towards them as she let the arm dissipate. "That's fine with me. Who would I be going with, then?" she asked honestly.

When Rico actually blushed, Elisabeth laughed out loud looking like she actually had tried to hold it in but just couldn't. Quickly, she cleared her throat and regained composure. Couldn't get caught up in childish games like they used to. At least not right now. They had work to do. It took priority.
The important thing was that Robin listened to reason and had agreed with Elisabeth saying stealth was a waste of time. He suggested splitting up a second before Elisabeth herself could, but Spikes didn't seem interested in working with the team. Lovely.

"Well, I can go with Secon-- er, Rico. We can start clearing out the living humans that are in trouble while you... kill the spirits. Would you need Robin to help you with that, or can you handle ghosts alone?"

Sure, Elisabeth believed in ghosts. A giant skeleton just leveled the city block. She just wasn't convinced there were any left, and if there were that they should be priority number one. It just seemed -- wait, what was Rico doing with her arm?

"What the bloody hell is that?"

She'd ask before she realized, leaning forward to investigate Rico's arm. She'd even reach out and touch it, to see how it felt.

"Now you must let me run tests on this. How did you do that to yourself, Second? Oh, unless -- oh, hm... you've never been human, have you? Haha! No no, this is no human arm. No wonder you were so close to being competitive with me! You had an advantage! Adorable."

Elisabeth would spin on her heel, looking at the school. It was time for work.

"Come then, Rico, lets start the evacuation. You can show off your superpowers to me. Something I'll never have that you have. I bet it's nice."

To be honest, Rico's arm was pretty cool- and useful compared to the ego stroking Elisabeth had been doing. Granted she was the only reason they were here in the first place. Robin simply listened to Rapture go on about Yokai and spirits- Robin prefered sticking to things that could be explained by science, or he could see or touch- and a giant skeleton destroying his town fell into two out of those three categories. "Me and Rapture can go check on the isolated life signs, and also make sure there's not going to be a repeat of the attack," Robin said seriously. If you thought he was being petty or even poking fun at Rapture, you would be mistaken. Regardless of his preference, he still had to face that science's resources were not so that everything could be explained. Yet.

It seemed like Rico and Elisabeth would be pairing up, which was what was going to be his suggestion since Elisabeth mentioned she had some buses on the way. He offered Rico a teasing look of sympathey before nodding to Rapture and leading the way. "Anything on your mind?" Robin asked once they were on their own and out of earshot. He was not referring to any lingering spirits, and her tone earlier.

Rico would shoot Elisabeth a brief glare when she began to call her Second, but she corrected herself to Rico before long, so Rico got back to work. It was nice to have an ability useful for the situation, and to have it appreciated by all present. Even Elisabeth, in her own annoying way. She even went back to calling her Second, and Rico could have sworn she felt a vein throb in her head. But she wouldn't finish her excavation if she kept using valuable time to give Elisabeth death glares, so she took it in stride, and finished her work.

She listened to Elisabeth pair them up and a look of despair came over her face as she looked to Robin, who gave her a bit of sympathy. She huffed and went along with Elisabeth to the school, as she said that she wanted to run tests on the arm, and made a remark about how Rico had an advantage which allowed her to compete with her intellect. She rounded on Elisabeth, opening her mouth, before biting back harsh words and taking a breath. "I'll accept that that's what your form of a compliment is. But my genes aren't a credit to me anymore than yours are." She clenched her fist and continued walking with her, politely opening the door and gesturing inside. Elisabeth said something about showing off her powers. Rico frowned lightly; she didn't want to have to use them more than she needed.

Rico spun, as if about to tell Elisabeth off, which made the super genius grin like a child... but it never came. Rico caught herself and instead said some sappy things that the engineer didn't really believe. Sure, it just happened that the only person who was able to be on the map with colleges as young as Elisabeth happened to be more than human. A coincidence, likely.

Elisabeth snorted at the thought.

Coincidences like that don't happen often. Rico probably didn't understand that her powers were helping her in some way, but it was fine. She was allowed to believe it. She was kind sometimes, really.

"GIR says that they should be mostly gathered in the ground level, in the back right corner... probably one of the safest places for them, which is nice. Let's start there, eh, partner?"

She'd ask, flashing an overly polite smile at Rico then start heading there before Rico could even answer. When they got inside, there were teens gathered in the room with a teacher... tied up? What? Why was that...

Oh.

Oh no.

"It's a trap!"

Elisabeth hit the button on her wrist twice and started running into the room. The sound of explosions would echo through, some based around the school but most based on the buildings outside and around. A huge pillar would be falling towards the room, and as Elisabeth cleared the room, her Tesla suit had covered her completely and devices were being launched at the debris. She jumped out the window just in time and she managed to knock the pillar to the side and protect the room full of kids.

"Damn it!"

She cursed as she went back into the room with Rico.

"Why didn't we do this stealthy?"

Robin continued along with Rapture, occasionally moving some debris out of the way, or moving around it as they drew closer to one of the signals. "To be honest I'm not either- especially not like this. The only time me or the others encountered a monster of that size was when we went to Tokyo," Robin admitted offhandedly as he worked to remove an extensive pile of rubble out of the way. He didn't have a cool super arm like Rico but was still strong for a human being. It still meant that he'd take alittle longer than Rico but still. Then he paused when he heard Rapture admit that she didn't care that some people had died, narrowing his eyes slightly even after her reasoning. Sure that was sound logic- but that didn't make it sound any better. "That's where we differ then. I can't do anything about the dead but I can still do something to help their friends or family worried about them," Robin said simply, not trying to make a point or have a debate with her. All that mattered was getting these people out, like he said.

And then suddenly there were explosions. Some close by, shaking the building- others more distant but still close enough for Robin to hear. The ones close by FELT like they had been underground, prompting Robin to on instinct pull Rapture away from the wall as it started to collapse along with part of the floor of the hallway they were in. And then there was an ear splitting groan of metal, sending a shiver down Robin's spine as that could only mean one thing. Someone was trying to drop a building on them! "Window!" Robin exclaimed, already barreling through one of the windows to the outside as one of the derelict buildings nearby started to teeter more than earlier- falling with increasing speed down toward the school.

Rico remained polite to Elisabeth, but there was frustration under the surface. Honestly, how insulting could she get? Rico worked hard and studied and actively worked to be as smart as she was. And Elisabeth's arrogance was trying to rob her of that because of her genes. Rico wordlessly followed Elisabeth, keeping her temper under control. She was the child of Wrath, after all. But she had to demonstrate that Kindness was in there as well.

She observed the room that they walked into, her eyes widening. Elisabeth called out, and she ran in alongside her. Elisabeth went for the window, Rico went for the teacher and the kids. She took up stance in between them and the oncoming pillar, holding her arm up in front of her defensively, but Elisabeth was able to redirect it in time. She exhaled, and turned to the group as Elisabeth came back in, asking why they didn't do this stealthily. Aggravated as she was, Rico didn't take the moment to be petty. She looked to Elisabeth. "We decided it was silly."

She turned back to the group assembled, and would draw her sword in its collapsed form, cutting their restraints free in a quick but careful fashion. "Are any of you hurt?" She turned back to Elisabeth to address her when she was done. "The ground floor should be the most stable, but we can't move them anywhere. And we don't know where the threat is. What do you want to do?" She decided to defer to Elisabeth for now.

Rico never responded to Elisabeth calling her partner, and that was incredibly rude, but in light of the circumstances Elisabeth didn't dwell on it. Instead started tapping more buttons on her wrist -- Rico also didn't comment on the badass suit, but Elisabeth was sure the girl was impressed, if not jealous. Most were with Elisabeth.

"I've redirected evacuation to this location. I can't believe I thought they'd be more safe here."

It was a stupid mistake, and Elisabeth was not accustomed to making those. The girl would throw more magnets to the walls, the ones from the pillars returning to her. She looked to Rico, her mask covering her expression thankfully, because she was a little flustered after her mistake.

"If we get them to open air, the evac choppers can get them out and we can figure out who it is that thought taking kids hostage was a good plan. They'll regret the stupidity."

Was she mad that they used the kids, or that she assumed they were clever enough not to? Hard to tell. She was certainly upset, though.

"There's not many left. Robin and Spikes probably secured some..."

She'd put her arm against a wall, and static would sound over the PA system faintly. Soon, Elisabeth's voice would crackle over the PA for Robin and Rapture.

"Bring the hostages to the courtyard. There is a safe evacuation on the way. It will arrive in 6 minutes and 36 seconds. Then we regroup in the basement level."

The PA system would die again, and Tesla would kick at the wall and two holes would pop out from the magnet's pressure. The supporting beams would stay firm, though. Elisabeth would look to Rico, her face still masked.

"Let's get them out of here fast. There's work to do. Pitter patter."

When they got the kids out, a large helicarrier would be landing. Enough to fit maybe 30 people in it, which by Elisabeth's calculations was the amount of people in the school at that time. Once they were secured, she'd head to the suspicious basement.

Robin quickly got to his feet as the ruined building nearby fell further before stopping- a singular support beam barely hanging on. Instead there was an avalanche of concrete, glass, and plaster that showered the school below it. "You go ahead, I'll catch up," Robin said leaping up into the window, wanting to do a single quick sweep before following after. Rapture said she didn't sense any dead there, so did that mean that someone was alive? Elisabeth's voice crackled through a PA speaker for a moment before he moved to follow after Rapture. Someone had already rigged up explosives to try and bring the place down on them, it wasn't strange to think what his computer had picked up was a fake.

Robin regrouped where Elisabeth had said and then the building from earlier finally came down- crashing down onto that part of the school, kicking up dust and small debris every which way. Afterwards he finally be able to notice that Elisabeth had some kind of full suit of armor. Well, that explained a few things. He'd join her on the way down to the basement, which of course meant finding a way down there first. The first obvious route was now covered in rubble. But they had Rico to help clear away rubble. They both seemed alright, just covered in dust mostly. "It's probably going to get worse further down," Robin stated simply, starting to clear away some rubble on the way before pulling out his computer. Changing a few settings, twisting a dial and he'd be looking extra hard for any surprises that might be waiting for them...

Rico moved with Elisabeth and the hostages, making sure that they could get outside safely. She was ready to protect them with her life. Elisabeth was berating herself for thinking that they could have been safer inside the building. "That was a mistake we all made, Elisa. But you and I are here to protect them now." She observed the suit and how it was working, making notes of questions to ask her later. Maybe she could work out an arrangement with her on letting her study her arm if she could look at the functionalities of her suit. It was admittedly impressive.

She actually smiled when Elisabeth said that whoever was using the kids as hostages, it was a huge mistake. She was starting to agree with Elisabeth, and it didn't feel forced like it did before. "I couldn't agree more... and we'll ensure they don't forget it." She kept on guard, her gun drawn as she helped the kids navigate through with Elisabeth to open air. Thankfully, a large airship was waiting for them, and she would help whoever needed it to get up into it.

Then she turned to start down to the basement with Elisabeth. She would use her arm to help clear out any rubble that was in their way. Someone knew they were here; no use trying to subtle approach now. She would clear aside the rubble and move large pieces of rock, making sure that they all had a clear path. And when it was clear, on they went. With the kids taken care of, she put a hand on her folded sword, not drawing it yet, but keeping it ready.