Empyrea

[Jokerman-EXE]

Martin intercepted the incoming shockwave with the tip of his umbrella, disrupting the attack and causing the energy waves to dissipate entirely. As for the actual, solid debris, a quick flick extended the umbrella and the rocks bounced off.

He looked at Mason pityingly. "You, sir, are quite foolish in thinking that you want to start a fight with us. This is neutral ground; I won't fight here unless to defend my sister and brother. However, if you keep insisting upon a scuffle, I will be forced to take action - and doing so might just call the MADHATTER right to this location." Martin pulled a very shiny silver watch from his pocket as he spoke, playing lightly with the catch of it. The Workmen knew that if he opened that watch, something bad was certainly going to happen.

Henry, using his TK, stayed out of the line of fire and maneuvered to get out.

Shepard faced down Maria, staring her in the eyes.  

[Isa-sama]

Ton'yell needed no further encouragement to leave the room. When I said "do something productive" I meant cure the damn disease! She supposed she should have been more specific. Just as Dawn had grabbed her wrist, Ton'yell grabbed onto Jesse's wrist with her free hand.

At the mention of Hunter, Ton'yell gave (what she hoped looked like) an encouraging smile. Nice and quiet. Sure. I'm not entirely surprised to find out he's quiet. Silent types were worrisome, but Ton'yell had a feeling that they wouldn't need to worry about him hurting the group. At least not while Dawn was around. The Workmen seemed to be Dawn's protectors (and Ton'yell understood that protective feeling); to be under Dawn's protection meant having a certain degree of protection from the Workmen.  

[Elesariin]

Dawn beamed back, obviously appreciative, and chattered on happily as she lead the pair back up to the doors. It was hard to follow her rather jumbled train of thought, as she was prone to jumping from one subject to another without much warning; in the space of about two minutes, Ton'yell learned that there was a cute, fuzzy little thing behind door three (that Dawn could not seem to catch), that Mason was really bad at bedtime stories, and that she thought Miss Maria had looked just like a fairytale princess.  

[NativeForeigner]

Maria scoffed at at Shepard and broke eye-contact only seconds into the stare. "You really think you can take me, do ya?" he cackled and pulled the brim of her hat just over her eyes.

"I'll take you on blind, I will!" she announced, taking a rose from her hat and dropping it to her side.  

[Venom3001]

Mason smirked darkly and pulled his chisel from his belt, holding it between two fingers. Andreas followed Henry's lead in the meantime.  

[SirBayer]

Arthur scowled his way through the conflict, but then Henry - Henry attacked him. Arthur threw himself to the side, clearing the attack (axe kicks are painfully slow), then prepared to use his backpack as a bludgeon, but Henry had already backed out. Standing, Arthur began running on instinct, not paying any attention to where he was going or how. He simply ran for the tower, hoping to reach safety.  

[Jokerman-EXE]

Henry, also on his way out, darted quickly in front of Arthur. "Now, now, Doctor," he said darkly, cracking his knuckles. "You have to take your medicine. No trying to run away now."

He dashed forward, aiming a quick jab and a hard cross right at the doctor.

Martin spun his umbrella unconcernedly as he looked at Mason in boredom.

Shepard said, "Tch!" before charging Maria, sweeping at her legs and throwing a wide arm at her head.  

[thegoodsamaritan]

Jasper was quite ready to leave the battle behind as well. All the nonsensical bickering was giving him a headache. He followed along behind Ton'yell, Jesse, and Dawn, eager to see where this situation was going. Someone quiet among all these idiots? Sign me up. "So..." he started, unsure of what to say. "Shall we go now? I'd like to put that," he said, jerking a thumb back at the conflict behind him, "behind us as soon as possible."  

[SiberDrac]

Jesse was decidedly not intent on leaving the battle. He watched the nearly effortless deflection of the Workmen's attacks with growing anger, and when Ton'yell grabbed him to get him to leave, she found her hand thrown back with something like an electric shock. Jesse hadn't noticed. He stood firm and howled his support to the Workmen. "Crush those pansy-a** fairy-f**ks! They got nothin'! Hear that, MAD-asses? You got nothin'!"

Of course, he was very much aware that his own involvement would yield nothing and besides, Chris and Alex were both threatening a violent overthrow - the results of which they all knew would be unpleasant, remembering what had happened a moment ago when Chris had forced her way to the front. They had been almost out of control, and if the others didn't, Alex remembered feeling some... part of himself try to make its way to the surface, when she did, as though the three of them fighting for control loosened their collective grip on his body as a whole. He didn't want that to happen, but at the same time, if Jesse decided to jump in... he knew what he'd have to do.

Jesse also had to give it to the MADmen, unfortunately - they were being admittedly cool in their combat style. But he was with the Workmen, through and through.  

[Isa-sama]

Ton'yell yelped as she let go of Jesse's hand. It felt like he had just shocked her. But that wasn't possible; he didn't have anything electrical on his hand. And even then, she doubted that he'd intentionally shock her like that. "Jesse, we need to go. Now." Seeing how Jesse didn't want to leave, Ton'yell turned to Dawn with a small smile.

"Hey sweetie, why don't you go with Jasper up the stairs now? I'll be along in just a minute." Knowing Jesse's stubbornness, she'd need to focus solely on him in order to get him up the damn flight of stairs. She wouldn't be able to get him up if she was also worrying about Dawn's safety. And didn't the little girl want to help the Workmen fight as well? Ton'yell was NOT letting the kids fight. "I'm sure Jasper would love for you to guide him up to the room," she eyed the man. She hoped he'd take the hint that he should persuade the girl to go upstairs, where they'd be safe.

She turned back to look at the teenage boy. "Jesse. Let's go. We're just gonna get in the way," she half-commanded and half-pleaded. She reached for his arm again. She prayed that he'd listen to her.  

[SiberDrac]

As Ton'yell's hand once again reached Jesse's arm, in his rage and spun and shouted at her, "Woman, there are more important things-!" He was cut off mid-sentence as Ton'yell was thrown backwards by another electric shock, her hair frizzed out comically while his eyes opened wide.

"Tony- I mean, Miss Jordan!" He rushed to her side, wondering what had hit her. "You okay? I didn't mean it Miss Jordan, I just got caught up in things; you alright?"

"Jesse, what did you do?"

"I didn't do nothin'! Someone hit her!"

"You hit her, you idiot! Didn't you feel that?"

"I- I..."

"Jesse," Alex said quietly, interrupting him with a calm authority. The other male presence bowed in confused shame. It was Alex's body. If he wanted it, it was his.

A fit of blinking later, Alex was kneeling at Ton'yell's side. "I don't know what happened, Miss Jordan. He didn't mean it. Jesse, I mean. I don't know what it was, but he didn't mean to hurt you." The boy was shaking and pale as he tried to explain himself. All three of them were scared. Something had shocked Miss Jordan, and Chris was frantically cutting down possible explanations, leaving her with very few possible sources. It was hard enough for her to believe what Martin had done; but with that added knowledge, suddenly everything was a possibility, and no one had been facing Ton'yell, as far as she could tell. Maybe... maybe it had been a MADman.

Alex scanned the battlefield the instant after Chris suggested it. Suddenly, he stood up, shaking off Chris's warnings with a determined look on his face and cried out, "Who did that?" His weak voice was lost in the sounds of battle. Alex was getting angry, and color began to return to his cheeks. It was not an emotion to which he was accustomed, and Jesse and Chris both were startled that it was doing anything. It built up a very... odd feeling within them. Red clouded his vision, like a fine mist between him and the rest of the room, and he stood in front of Ton'yell, prepared to defend her from anything that might come at them.

"Alex, please be careful."

"NO."

A monstrous presence flashed to the surface of his mind for a second, and he felt blinded, but out of his throat came a roar that demanded to be heard.

"Who hit Miss Jordan?"

The instant the question had finished its course, his pale face turned ashen and he seemed to collapse in on himself, not really sure what had just happened. His eyes wide, he stared like a frightened rabbit at the scene and started backing away.  

[Jokerman-EXE]

Martin and Shepard stopped when Alex shouted with such force over hte battlefield, but they weren't sure what the boy was asking.

"I say," Martin said, "if she was injured, dear boy, and you're not sure by whom, then perhaps it was your own fault, yes? Perhaps being in the room with such distinguished personages as ourselves has awakened your latent powers. I do say, would you like to accompany us, then? We can give you the control over your powers to help protect young Ms. Jordan, as you want."

"No!" Shepard growled. "They're lying so they can use you! Come with us, and we'll keep all of you safe!"

"Enough of that," Martin shot back quickly. "This fight is accomplishing nothing." With an air of finality, the purple MADman clicked open his pocket watch. There was a bright, brief flash, which rapidly faded. The room was as before, but the face of the pocket watch was totally blank white. The only feature was the two hands of the clock, which were quickly ticking towards 12 - midnight, which the Workmen knew would be a very bad omen.

"Tick tock," said the MADman evilly, as he chuckled to himself.  

[Isa-sama]

Ton'yell screamed at the second shock. She must have flown back because the next thing she knew, she was lying on her back. Jesse - no, Alex was saying something to her. I feel numb. She had been temporarily paralyzed after experiencing that shock. She slowly sat up, trying to understand what was going on. "Alex, it's okay. I'm alright," she tried to cheer him up. However, it feel on deaf ears as he let out a roar - it was a tone that she'd never heard. It was frightening. Not to say that she was afraid OF him, she was afraid FOR him. Who was that?

She got up clumsily and hugged Alex from behind. "It's okay, dear. I'm alright, I'm not mad. I don't care who hit me, so long as they didn't hurt you." She heard a couple of people try and lure Alex to their sides. She held him closer to her and yelled, "You leave this boy alone!" Of course, Martin pulled out a pocket watch and did something weird with it. If ever there was a sign to leave the premises...

She grabbed Alex's hand and squeezed. "We need to get to safety now, hun. A'ight?" Her accent was slipping out again as she tugged to get him to leave with her.

The beetle who'd been with her suddenly scurried up to her. It had been blown farther away from the shock. It started screeching as soon as it noticed that Alex was with Ton'yell. "Little bug, please leave this child be. I don't know what happened, but I know it wasn't on purpose. Alright?" I don't know what's going on, but this bug seemed to understand me earlier. Let's pray that my guess is correct. She'd been right - it listened to her and ignored Alex. It started crawling up her leg and rested on the shoulder closest to Alex. Whenever Alex turned to look at the bug, it would screech.  

[Elesariin]

Dawn, who had moved up a few steps, seemed to be concentrating very very hard on something. The next second, a large portrait of fell off the wall-- directly over Aurthur. Dawn's eyes widened. "...Oops." She concentrated for another second, and a similar portrait fell down... just to the right of Henry. At that point she gave up with an annoyed little shrug, and then turned to Jesse with an odd expression in her bright eyes. "Stop doing that," she told him firmly, "Get ahold of yourself."

Finally she turned to Jasper with a bright smile. "Okay! C'mon!" Taking ahold of Ton'yell's wrist again, she led the small group the rest of the way, stopping in front of the doors, specifically the one labeled with the number four. "I guess... we wait now," she said uncertainly, "If any of the MADmen come after us, we'll run through. Kay?"  

[thegoodsamaritan]

Jasper was more than a little bit wigged out by this odd turn of events. Jesse, or Alex, or whatever he was right now, had just shocked Ton'yell twice, he seemed to have some monster within him, and the little girl- Dawn, her name is Dawn, you moron!- seemed to be able to move objects with her mind. Yeah, nothing to worry about, he thought wryly. Everyone but him (thankfully) seemed to have some sort of weirdness about them. Especially those Workmen. However, as strange as they were, they were fighting to protect them all, right?

Still, Jasper had had just about enough of this tomfoolery. "Alright, I've had just about enough of this tomfoolery," he said out loud. He walked over to the door. "Any more of this, and they'll end up crisping us," he said, nodding to the battle downstairs. He reached for the door, and laid his hand on the knob. "I say we move."

He turned the knob, and swung the door wide.