Gizmo

"Oh, make the injured guy walk over there. Cruel, cruel!" He laboured over the pronunciation as the shirt went back over his head, fitting in extra syllables while he flounced over the the reception area with melodramatic effort before composing himself with a grin and rounding the corner. "Hey, there! Welcome to--" The taste of old copper pennies on the back of his eyelids rolled into Erik like a breaking tide. He knew the dragging fingernail screech of blood magic well but in Talya is was tidy, contained, almost elegant and whisper quiet until called upon. This was ghastly magic forced into too small a container, oozing out through gaps and cracks. This was a malevolent predator on too short a leash made of rusty, gangling chains. Something artificial, cheap store-brand cola poured into aged whiskey. Something almost familiar, hot breath down his neck and choking his nostrils. "--ahrm, ha, sorry, swallowed wrong there!" he continued with only a slight hitch, slapping his chest and clearing his throat with an easy smile for the unassuming young man with the serious expression. "Welcome to the dojo! You just caught up finishing up some training. Hey bengala, give me a hand out here, huh?" He absolutely did not call Raina that, certainly not out of costume and there was nothing he should have needed her help with. "I'm Erik Espadas," he told the youth, casually putting a hand into his pocket and gripping his lighter while gesticulating amiably with the other. "Were you looking to sign up for a class?"

Erik looked down at his bare torso in consideration. "Yeah, double standards are a @#$%." He turned his attention to the nearby broom and frowned. "If I put by weight on that it's one hundred percent going to 'drop me on my ass', isn't it? I think I've gotten in enough physical comedy for today." He put his foot down on the mat experimentally and was confident enough to walk over and retrieve his discarded shirt from where it was strewn across a weapons rack. "Perks of age, though: one of these days? Sword cane." He tapped his temple with a finger and nodded sagely.

"I'm alright, I'm alright," Erik insisted with a rueful, lopsided grin, one eye squinted closed. He stopped hopping and balanced on his good foot. Indeed, apart from some redness and burnt hair around his ankle he seemed unscathed. "My decision quality is questionable but my reflexes are beyond reproach! Mostly. Ow." He let his rapier dissipate and hopped over to put an arm around a training dummy for support. "Using the broom to split focus was smart! What I was going to say is that it also seems useful as a vault to use some of what you've learned from Talia. Just mind you landings, I guess."

Erik looked physically pained. "Why are you like this." It was somehow more of a statement than a question. He seemed oblivious to the incoming broom until the last possible instant when he abruptly fell backward out of its path. In free fall his empty hand shot out and grabbed the handle of the still inbound broom and pulled. As expected the broom stayed just where Raina had placed it, as it would when she lifted herself up and onto it, and Erik used it as an anchor to turn the fall's momentum into a swing that took him over her slash, flipping through the air and back down in an easy stance, his foot pinning her blade to the mats. Or at least it would have been pinned had the construct had more physical weight and less... fire. "Gah! Thought I could step on it! Thought I could step on it!" Erik insisted through gritted teeth as he hopped away, waving his scorched foot about.

"Excuse you, Ms. Teen-Years-Behind-Her!" Erik allowed himself to be goaded, feigning indignation as he closed most of the distance between them in a single lunge and tossed off a trio of rapier thrusts that were always a split second ahead of where Raina was about to move her own blade. "You are gonna wish you had calves like these at my age!" He pulled back to strike a pose like a bodybuilder, pointing the toes of one foot behind him while bending the other knee and twisting his waist so that he was only partly facing her. It was obviously a feint that only appeared to leave him open but on the other hand it was probably the best opening she was going to get if she could think of an unexpected way to capitalize on it.

"Okay, well, that seems like maybe a larger philosophical discussion than we can really give the proper time to given the circumstances," Chitin suggested, waving his hands as if to dispel some of the tension. He didn't really want to act as the mediator but with Angelic being this aggressive he couldn't really gang up on Malachite without feeling like a bully. "If we can all stop calling each other stupid for a second, what I was getting at was, like... let's say there were demons and you freed them. Then what? Because they made it pretty clear they want to eat faces and you have a face. It feels like you haven't thought this through." He rapped his knuckles against his helmet as though to demonstrate.

The miniature fireballs impacted along Erik's swirling rapier with a series of paffs and brief blooms of heat. "Hey, I'm all edge! It's right in the name!" He timed the arc of his swing so that it ended with the blade vertical behind his right shoulder just in time to catch Raina's slashing attack and divert it to the side. He dropped down into a roll to avoid her quick recovery and counter, somersaulting forward into a handspring then spinning about to land on his feet facing her. "Nice change-up! The practice with the broom is paying off!"

The Espadas School of Self-Defense and Swordsmanship! "Ha, making me work for it today!" Erik Espadas called across the length of the training mats while he intercepted a pingpong ball-sized fiery projectile a hairsbreadth from his nose with equally fiery rapier. The flame wrapped around his hand in an elaborate guard and the light of the deceptively delicate blade was picked up in the sheen of sweat across his chest. Where his shirt had gone and why he had bothered to wrap a dark blue bandana over his eyes when they both knew he was using his metamagi sixth sense to anticipate the incoming bolts of fire were questions his training partner had learned not to waste energy asking. Instead another flurry of little fireballs forced him to flip backward and contort his wrist to catch before they could hit him or the flame retardant tarp they'd hung up on the wall behind him.

"We're actually both pretty smart, man," Chitin told the fallen Malachite, dropping down into a crouch with his forearms resting on his knees. "I won't claim to be an expert on 'real arcane power' but I feel like it probably doesn't cap out at, y'know, throwing knives. Do you want to tell us what this was about besides barging in and being super rude and violent for no reason?" He tilted his head up to exchange a glance with Angelic and considered asking her to remove her foot from the young man's chest before deciding against it. He was a fairly forgiving sort but Malachite hadn't shown much inclination toward calm discussion.

"He threw a knife at Yellow!" Chitin protested with an animated shrug but Angelic had already surged forward, wing battering the intruder. "Woah. Robot angel versus demonic groupie. That's so cool!" He took in the scene, backlit by the sparking remains of the exit sign for a moment before remembering himself and dashing into the fray. "You'd think someone calling themselves Malachite would be wearing more green," he remarked aloud, ducking under the spell caster's field of view and bobbing back up so that he was on the opposite side from Angelic, forcing their foe to split his attention. "Or is it an especially demonic mineral? You can tell us about it once you've cooled off!" He threw a pair of feinting jabs then wound up for a haymaker with a gantleted fist. "One! Two!"

EDIT: Scratch that, new plan: Chitin is going to move up to Malachite and try to wait to do a combined attack with Angelic. Chitin Move Action: Move to one side of Malachite. Standard Action: Holding for Combined Attack with Angelic: Unarmed Attack vs Malachite; All-Out Attack 4: 1d20+10 22 The DC is 20 which should be within 5 of Angelic’s attack.

"Yellow!" Ryder spun to his left, shifting the computer tower to one hand and shielding the robug with the other, pushing her out of the way. The thrown blade sliced through his upper right arm, tearing through the bright green hoodie and staining it with a growing patch of red. With a hiss of pain Ryder fell to his knees, the deep cut burning like fire but he continued to shield Yellow with his body. He managed a shaky grin as she buzzed in alarmed concern. "It's okay, I'm alright," he assured her, setting down the computer and bracing himself against the hallway wall. As he staggered to his feet with Yellow sitting in the palm of his hand Ryder called over his shoulder, "The way you say 'intern' tells me you think you can get respect without giving it. Probably treat the people who make your food like crap too, huh?" He turned around, his right arm hanging to the side with the hand resting heavily on his belt, his expression hard. "I did want to ask what you wanted but now? I think we're just going to have to ask you to leave." "CYMK! Dream in colour!" With a burst of displaced air and a flash of light the Chitin armour reappeared, superimposed over his frame. Yellow made a harsh buzz that was almost a growl as he raised her up to the front of his helmet. The robug's form unfolded and incorporated into the faceplate, the translucent wings forming a visor etched with a hexagonal pattern over his oval eye pieces as they turned a deep purple. The thorax split in half and flatted against the forehead so that the stinger halves formed little horns. "Yellowjacket Instar! Kick the nest!" New yellow bands of armour appeared and fastened over his arms and legs, forming a striped pattern over the black of the base suit. The new chest plate repeated the hexagon shapes with black trim and added a high collar and yellow pauldrons. Before the rush of wind had even died down Chitin clenched his fists and pulled his elbows back as a flurry of red beads of energy launched from the hexagonal chambers in his chest plate, spiralling and dancing through the air before converging on Malachite with explosive force! "And it's not spying when someone sees you break into their house!"

Chitin Standard Action: Activate the CMYK Driver! Move Action: Activate Yellowjacket Instar! Hero Point: Surge! Standard Action: Attack Malachite with the CMYKuarrels! That's Damage 8 (Extras: Area [General, 80’ Cone]) [16PP], so a DC 18 Reflex Save to halve a DC 23 Toughness Save.

Okay, so, as per discussion in chat going to retroactively have Ryder use Interpose to block the attack on Yellow. Chitin Toughness Save vs DC 24: 1d20+3 8 Wuh-oh! Toughness Save vs DC 24; HP Reroll.: 1d20+3 22 Hooray! He takes an injury.

Chitin Initiative: 1d20+10 29 So, based on the rules for damaging Devices, Yellow would be making a Toughness Save at 10 + Device rank so +13. Toughness Save: 1d20+13 22

"So does she just reverse the direction of gravity and fall upward?" Ryder wondered aloud. Then Nocturne's question sunk in and he jumped with a start, nearly throwing his smoothie cup. "Ah crud, she's right!" He pulled his phone out and tried to make a call with one hand while scooping up the remaining food with the other. "Hi! Sorry! Yeah, I know, but-- No, I didn't get distracted! Well, I mean, technically I did. Aw, c'mon!" He raced across the street to where his bicycle was still chained up and started trying to juggle unlocking it with his hard already full. "No, listen, it was important! It was! I made a new friend!"

Ryder stopped drinking, straw still in his mouth and blinked several times. "It was? Wait, which part? Because you seem less annoyed but also sort of like the time I told my dad I'd do anything for a new bike and he invented entirely new chores." On his shoulder Black clacked his mandibles together and poked Ryder in the face with his horn. "Ow, okay, okay! Don't look a gift beetle in the mouth, I get it!" The robug's little huff suggested his creator did not, in fact, get it but went unheeded. "Obviously if you need help with something, let me know! Or if you just want another smoothie."

Ryder stood silently in the hallway for a moment, hands full of computer with Yellow hovering over one of his shoulders. "...no?" He cocked his head to one side, trying to parse what he was looking at. "Sorry, hi! Who are you? Did you maybe get lost? It's probably pretty hard to aim whatever portal thing you just used." It didn't seem like too big a leap to assume that the newcomer was looking for the Infernects but even Ryder was having a hard time assuming positive intent. "Eira?" he called loudly, not taking his eyes off of the young man. "Do you know a like a scene kid who's trying to grow a goatee? It's my first day so I don't know everybody yet, sorry again!"

Doktor'd! Chitin Skills: Spending 3PP +10 ranks in Diplomacy to Diplomacy 12 (+15) +2 ranks in Handle Animal to Handle Animal 2 (+5) Feats: Spending 1PP Second Chance [Emotion Control] Powers: Spending 4PP +1 rank of Device to Device 11 (CMYK Driver Belt; 55PP Container; Flaws: Hard-to-Lose; Feats: Restricted 2 [Authorized Users], Subtle) [47PP] Communication 4 (Radio, 1 mile; Flaws: One-Way; Feats: Subtle) [3PP] Immunity 2 (Suffocation) [2PP]

"Lotta protein 'cause they use black beans instead of flour. There's also a fancy grilled cheese with apple slices in it or a flatbread with spicy falafel?" He met Nocturne's narrowed gaze and gave her a helpless shrug. "I agree with like two-thirds of that? I don't know if anything I say is actually going to convince you though so probably we're just going to have to hang out again so you can decide for yourself. You know, like potentially useful assets do." He reached for his own smoothie without breaking eye contact and took an intentionally noisy drink through the straw.

Ryder gave her a thumbs up and an enthusiasm that seemed less a foregone conclusion and more of a conscious decision. "Awesome! Normally I'd take time to make it look like a cross between an ant farm and an Etch-a-Sketch or something but I guess this isn't really the time for style points. We'll bring it over now. C'mon Yellow!" The robotic wasp made a tentative buzz at going back in the room with the face-eating demon bugs but followed along nevertheless as Ryder carried the tower out of the lab and into the hallway.

"Hey, it's not like I don't know that. There's Mikes and Mays out there who are dead set on doing things that hurt other people and need a four colour concussive reason to stop," Ryder admitted, punching a fist into an open palm. "But you really think her dream is making robot gorillas for somebody else in an unfinished basement? Whatever she really wants she doesn't think she can ever get it, so she's settling." He cracked his knuckles and a bit of that edge came back into his smile. "I'm not big on settling and my dream is making a world where nobody else has to, either. People can do amazing, impossible things when they know somebody has their back, even if it's just one guy. That's what Chitin's for." He dropped his hands to his hips and laughed. "I never really put it into words like that before. I like that! Thanks, Nocturne! You're really good at this!"

“‘I ate a smoothie’ she says. And I’m the one who can’t take care of myself,” Ryder scoffed good-naturedly. “I dunno, knowledge as like an abstract concept is like power or money or whatever. It’s all good but it’s just a way to reach your actual dream. I just don’t really get people who want that stuff for its own sake.” He tilted his chin upward and considered, trying to give her question serious thought. “I don’t really spend a lot of time trying come up with some nightmare scenario. Also pretty sure this is already the perfect brownie! Hint, hint.”

Ryder looked back at her with big, bright eyes that up close looked like they had flecks of hazel amidst the toffee brown. "How about this: you can trust that I'll never stab you in the back because then I'd be losing this debate. Or because I'm big naive dumb-dumb. And if I decide to trust you, that's just my problem." His grin was warm and sincere, a little too wide to be calculatedly photogenic, bringing back the subtle dimples and crinkling the corners of his eyes. "Also I deal with hungry people like everyday at the Smoothie Shack and I'm trying to think of a way to suggest you at least eat something after all the fighting and gravity stuff but without it sounding condescending or like I'm trying to poison you or anything."

Ryder stood up straight and gave an exaggerated salute, jutting his chin forward in mock seriousness. "Yes ma'am, Nocturne ma'am! Reporting for asset duty! I'm a tough guy who makes tough decisions in tough situations! Grr!" He held the pose and scowl for a moment then winked and relaxed. "You know what's great for dealing with back knives? Bug themed power armour. Also? Friends. Or 'assets' if you're more comfortable with that. I know you like giving things nicknames. Now have a brownie. It's much harder to be pessimistic when you have a brownie."