Spiral Giant [Ocfos]

[cliffracer]

"I don't think. We're three strong, and this is a complete corporate headquarters that goes up for quite a ways. On top of that, none of us have the means to un-bind a slave once they've been broken in to accepting their slavery."
"Yeah. I'm right there with you on wanting to fuck this place up, Zythia, but we've got quite the force coming in behind us now to take this place down. Getting in touch with command was a good idea."
"Sheesh, yeah. Who were you talking to on the horn, Zoe?"
"Lieutenant Feron, if you can believe it. We're gonna get a boot up our asses if we haven't continued our mission by the time he's showed up."

Zythia, Zoe, and the two knights finally meet up with Saph at the stairs. Zythia's arm is admittedly a little tired from all of the bar-bending she's just done. They're letting her lead down the stairs, as she's somewhat given herself a defender role for them.

[Ocfos]

"I didn't mean us, I meant your backup that's coming in. I might be bigger than you four, but I wouldn't expect any chance of holding out everything they got. Getting out of here is definitely something I wouldn't mind by now." Zythia replies, taking the lead as they want her to.

"Easy exit, right?"

[cliffracer]

"Floor three wasn't too bad, the new tactics that open up from these demons being so horny are effective. We're clear the whole way down to the lobby." Saph wipes away some of the spunk on her face. "Just an open office floor with a skeleton crew, but they hid the stairs behind some crap. I took prisoners and checked their pockets."

Sure enough, once Zythia is down the stairs, she sees Saph's handiwork. Most of the thin seperator walls of the cubicles are punctured hundreds of times, and there's four deviladies tied to their own swivel chairs along one side of the floor. Two of them look like they've been poisoned and their suits are perforated, while the other two are still dazed by afterglow.

[Ocfos]

"Stay close regardless, I'd prefer all of us get out with no trouble." She mumbles, scouting around as she goes further towards the lobby.

She holds the sword in both hands for more control, even though she could easily wield it in one hand with less.

[cliffracer]

One of the poisoned deviladies makes an ill-sounding burp and coughs up some smoke as Zythia passes, but otherwise, there doesn't seem to be anyone else on this floor. If there were more, they're wisely keeping their heads down.

The group gets to the lobby after a rather tense descent, but they don't find any trouble in their way. There are some strange bat-like vermin crawling out of the vents here and there on floors that have been cleared out, but they don't bother the group. Waiting in the lobby are two knights with clipboards and boxy terminal computers. The devilady defector is being interviewed by one while the tied-up hostage is scanned by one of the computers.
"Ah! You two are the researchers, excellent. We have two knights that need to be protected while a search and rescue force comes in."
The currently-unoccupied-seeming researcher nods, the antennae on his helmet bobbing. "Understood. You tw-" His eyes catch Zythia, his helmet lighting up as he seemingly blushes at her mostly-naked state, seeming to override his suprise at her being a xeno. "Three! Have been doing excellent work. Erm. The more live captures the better. Of course." He coughs and turns away.
Zoe chuckles, looking at Zythia to motion with her head at one of the soft benches in the lobby. The other rescued knight has already taken a seat there.

[Ocfos]

"While it might be a long shot to hope it as an option, I would be delighted if you were able to help me gear back up, since those hostiles earlier tore it to shreds alongside that of Saph and Zoe's armor." Zythia tells the two researchers.

"You don't need to fear me by the way, I am fully on your side - Not just because of the strangely similar choice of helmets." She chuckles, following Zoe's suggestion to sit down at the benches. She kneels down with her back turned, allowing the sleeping knight on her back to comfortably be placed down next to her squad mate.

"Before you do ask though, I don't fully know how I ended up here either, so I can't really say much about it."

[cliffracer]

The scientist requests the workstation from his friend, who sighs and lets him bury his face in the work. The second scientist is a pink-colored knight with a closed-face helmet, though her eyes are still visible through slits. She looks Zythia over for a moment with some lingering on her helmet and her chest, but she ends up bobbing her head side to side after her inspection.
"We don't have armor in your proportions. Your size, sure, our Wardens are about your size... Just not your shape. Saph and Zoe can get new outfits from the arsenal box on the next floor, but you'll have to make armor in your size if you want something proper, I'm afraid." She clears her throat. "As for the fact that you're clearly a type of sentient we haven't seen before, well, you've shown up when plenty of weird stuff is already happening. You'd be the main event, if it weren't for..." She glances to the deviladies. "...everything going on. If you finish this mission with your new squadmates, though, it'd be hard for command to say you don't deserve to be formally their rank."
"You'd fit right in while you're here, I promise!"

The rescued knight has been pulled in to her friend's lap, and now the both of them are napping.

[Ocfos]

"I was already planning to follow the two through with their mission, so that fits me just fine. Would we be able to have a chat about lodging as well, once we're through with the mission at hand?" She inquires, not seeming to mind the 'inspection'. She does reach to momentarily deactivate her own helmet to give the knight a better look at her face, if only briefly.

[cliffracer]

"No need to worry. We've got plenty of beds to fall in at our barracks--"
Saph raises a hand to politely interrupt the researcher. "Zoe and I have a place on the east side of Haven, and we've got space for a third."
"Oh, especially if you let us sleep on top of you!" Zoe giggles mischeivously as she gets jabbed in the shoulder by Saph.

Zythia can see that the researcher did study her face for a moment, the gesture seemingly appreciated. "Well, while you three were upstairs, we located the elevator to the next floor of the clockworks. It's in the basement, but there's a small arena with a trojan protecting it. Ah- actually, if you would be willing to tire out that thing for capture, we've brought along the proper tool..." She shuffles in her pouches for a moment, then withdraws a golden tuning fork. "If you're able to fatigue--"
"NOT injure!"
"--one of them, tap this on its crystal. That will cause it to enter a slumbering, but not solid, state. You'll not go unrewarded!"

Zoe's eyes are sparkling at the promise of extra pay, while Saph seems to just be thinking.

[Ocfos]

Zythia's helmet fixes itself back onto her face. "It didn't seem to tire very much in combat, I can say that much." She pauses for a moment.

"I have a feeling where this is going... What's the reward then?"

She doesn't reply to Zoe's offer yet, even if she's interested in taking it for privacy's sake.

[cliffracer]

"A hefty sum of crowns, and I'll make sure to hook you up with some alchemy orbs as well so you won't need to spend much making your armor or any weapons once you're at Haven."
"I'll throw in some necessary materials as well, to hopefully accentuate just how useful this capture is for our studies."

If Zythia looks to the other two for input on the offer, she gets a couple of nods from Saph and an "ohmygosh alchemy orbs are SO EXPENSIVE though" from Zoe.

[Ocfos]

"How do I let you know it's subdued?"

[cliffracer]

"I can tell them over the comms, that way they don't need to watch the process. They're close enough that the building's interferance shouldn't matter much."
"Er... yes. I feel safer remaining here, anyways. I get the feeling I wouldn't be able to focus if I went with..."
The other researcher laughs quietly, shaking her head. "Yes, that'll be more than acceptable."

Zoe is bouncing up and down in front of the elevator doors behind the main desk- rather, the open doors that lead in to the shaft, which have flares and a climbing rope set up.

[Ocfos]

Zythia simply nods, walking over to the elevators where Zoe impatiently jitters about. She wonders for a second if she's to go first, but does so regardless.

She's having doubts the rope would hold her weight.

[cliffracer]

The rope ends up being much better than Zythia first guessed, but the real issue is that the elevator shaft doesn't have a bottom, and instead is just an open pit straight in to a freefall after four basement floors. The rope hardly groans under her weight as she descends it in to the first basement floor. It looks like what's left of some kind of storage floor, with the 'arena' in question being formed out of piles of fallen shelving and multitudes of crates, pits to the second basement floor being on the other side. The Trojan stands inactive towards the middle, with one of the squad-check buttons at the start of the arena. The Clockworks elevator is behind a raised gate on the other side.

Zoe is down first after Zythia, and Saph is just behind.
"Shouldn't be too tough. Zoe and I will make sure you don't get ganged up on while you're working on the Trojan." She holds up the tuning fork. "One of us should hold on to this, in the offchance your hands get pinned down. Up to you, though."

[Ocfos]

"Well first things first, it's getting that sword and shield taken away." She mumbles, "It's best you two handle the fork, I'll wrestle it solo."

Zythia takes the sword she was given, and holds it out to its rightful owner, before taking her few armor scraps off to get fully naked.

"Would you believe me if I said this isn't the weirdest request I've had asked of me yet?"
Once she's finished, she holds the scraps under her arm, ready to take on this in a pacifist manner.

[cliffracer]

Zoe takes her Troika back from Zythia, strapping it along her back. It's still a little suprising how she manages to heft that sword around with her size. Saph puts the tuning fork in one of the loops in her belt for quick access.
"Nnnot suprised! At least it's something fun, right?"
Saph chuckles and shakes her head as the squad steps on to the button.

A gate raises behind the team and spotlights around the room light up, making things at least a little better in terms of visibility. The trojan comes active a moment later, some sparkling butterfly creatures and a couple of deviladies appearing on the sides of the room. Saph and Zoe know what they need to be doing and fork off, the Trojan already looking like it's focused on the naked one here. If she played it right, she could easily get it to lose its sword and shield...

[Ocfos]

Zythia chuckles at the trojan, a bit surprised at the sudden flood of other enemies.
She sprints straight for the trojan, grinning under her helmet.

She gives an attempted kick at the hilt of his sword as she closes in, wanting to leap at his front to try and knock him down.

"Hey big guy, let's dance!" She taunts.

[cliffracer]

The trojan meets Zythia's charge with his own, and her gambit to kick at his sword works- it pops straight out of his hand as she catches air. However, when she lands against the Trojan's chest, he keeps his stability with suprising ease and claps his emptied hand straight on to her ass. The trojan appears to take this as a sign of sexual intrest, and is starting to awkwardly shuffle its other arm out of the straps on its shield as his broad fingers knead in to her butt. Zythia can feel his meat standing between her thighs, but he seems unconcerned with spearing her on it until he's got both hands free.

[Ocfos]

Well that was surprisingly easy... Zythia thinks to herself, briefly glancing over to her allies before clenching her thighs around his rod before she can get impaled on it, hoping it'll be enough of a distraction to the trojan before he gets his other hand free.

The cold stone hand on her ass definitely makes Zythia a little nervous about this approach, but figures she definitely has the most stamina - at least she's hoping she's right in that assumption.