Calling all "Heroes"!

[AmbushCat]

The robot doesn't exactly stand still to be shot, dodging aside of some of the bullets and especially the slower-moving higher ordinance in more rapid, jerking motions. Blowing up the top of the tunnel causes rocks to fall, most of which all this dodging around keeps the robot out of, but doesn't actually fully collapse, suggesting this tunnel was deliberately engineered to prevent cave-ins. That shield does see plenty of use, displaying glass-like cracks across the hexagons and flickering slightly as if it's running low on power by the end of the assault, but apart from some dents the robot seems pretty intact, all told. Surely it took at least some of those bullets, so its armor must be thicker or made of better material than the one from the post office. It's not in close range by the end of all that, standing on top of a pile of rubble from the ceiling, so it responds by pointing its sword at Applepills and firing the blade as an unusually long single bolt of laser fire, generating a new one in its place right away.

*By the time the robot fires off the blade, the Weasel Unit has fully expended its ammo. Running a few calculations through her mind and determining that the blade could damage or destroy one of her gatling guns, Applepills switches back to pony-form right before it hits and pivots on her back legs, facing the robot again.*

*whistles as she surveys the damage, or lack thereof* Wal, I'll be a possum's comb. Yer a tough one, ain't ya'?

[Whatevr89532]

The knight-robot seems to move its sword to its side, held upward, the shield still in front of it. A hesitation, or it's distracted...?

--

The crazy wolf-girl sees the fireball coming and greets it with a sharp-toothed grin. She takes off at a run, heading straight for it, her feet setting more of the floor alight, and jumps right at it, somersaulting into a ball as she goes. When the fireball contacts her, it shrinks, apparently sucked inward. She lands a few feet away from Dan then, her original outfit burned out of existence but a black tank-top and bike shorts she had underneath thankfully still present. The goggles also share her apparent immunity to fire, with her fur and hair not so much as singed. "I don't think you're very smart, huh? Never heard of fighting fire with fire?"
The room is getting to be hot and approaching pretty bad shape, but it seems like the smoke from it has reached into the hallway and started the sprinkler system there. The rest of the building at least seems unlikely to get destroyed, but if this room goes down it could spread outside...

A different woman's voice, sounding like a remote transmission, comes from one side of her goggles: "Valora, that's enough!" This voice stops her in the windup for a non-burning punch toward Dan. It should be very familiar to Ookalf.
"Wha--oh come on I was just starting to have fun!" 'Valora' (if that is her name) waves an annoyed expression at the air, directed to whoever is contacting her. This seems to have completely stopped her momentum as far as fighting goes.

[Ookalf]

A different woman's voice, sounding like a remote transmission, comes from one side of her goggles: "Valora, that's enough!" This voice stops her in the windup for a non-burning punch toward Dan. It should be very familiar to Ookalf.
"Wha--oh come on I was just starting to have fun!" 'Valora' (if that is her name) waves an annoyed expression at the air, directed to whoever is contacting her. This seems to have completely stopped her momentum as far as fighting goes.

...Hold on a second! *Ookalf carefully approaches the woman possibly known as Valora.* That person you're talking to. Is that Jade, by any chance? Is she who you meant by someone I made?

[Abillioncats]

"...alright then."

[AmbushCat]

The knight-robot seems to move its sword to its side, held upward, the shield still in front of it. A hesitation, or it's distracted...?

*glowing lines visible in her eyes* Loadin' grenades!

*Applepills draws her elephant gun and assails the robot with four grenades in rapid sequence: ice, fire, electric, and explosive. At that short range she's caught in the blast radius for all of the shots, but she doesn't seem to care.*

[Whatevr89532]

The robot starts reacting just slightly after the first grenade fires, jumping back away from it as much as possible. The reaction is too slow to not be caught in some of the cold blast, and then some of the fire, forming a spiderweb of cracks along some of its outer shell. It stops in place during the electric attack, seemingly well-enough shielded even with all the damage so far to no-sell it, and when the explosive grenade starts toward it it makes a forward-pushing motion with the shield, firing the flickering force field forward at the grenade. It meets it in mid-throw, ricocheting it back toward Applepills before it explodes. This seems to expend the rest of whatever energy the shield relies on, as it doesn't reappear.

The badly-damaged knight-bot turns its sword downward, standing like a medieval armor decoration. The voice from its speaker says, "There isn't much left for this one to do; it's a real disadvantage of being primarily built for defense. If you're still feeling violent enough to destroy it, then I suppose you can; otherwise you might as well come and see who you've been chasing after." In the last of it, the gravelly, deep-pitched voice switches to what sounds like a mature woman's voice in a way that strongly suggests some kind of voice modulator is being turned off rather than one person ceasing to talk and another taking over.

--

Seeing that Ookalf could hear the voice, Valora hmphs. "You set the volume way too high, too!"
"That was intentional. This was a bad idea from the start. Please explain, and put out the fire before it spreads anywhere dangerous," says the voice from the goggles, speaking quickly as if anticipating a need to quickly turn her attention elsewhere.
"Yeah, yeah.." She makes an upward-waving motion with her hand, and suddenly all of the fire swirls in toward a spot just over her; she wasn't all that careful to ensure it doesn't actually hit one of the other two people in the room on the way, but it's moving slowly enough to react to at least. "*sigh* Sooo anyway, that's Jade, yep. Our little game was supposed to run for two more levels before getting to the boss, but seeing such a low turnout made her feel like it'd be a waste." Soon there's a ball of fire above her, which she pulls down into her body and absorbs like the fireball earlier. "I bet you can guess who you were 'rescuing' too, right?" she says with a toothy grin.

[Abillioncats]

"Huh?"

[Ookalf]

Seeing that Ookalf could hear the voice, Valora hmphs. "You set the volume way too high, too!"
"That was intentional. This was a bad idea from the start. Please explain, and put out the fire before it spreads anywhere dangerous," says the voice from the goggles, speaking quickly as if anticipating a need to quickly turn her attention elsewhere.
"Yeah, yeah.." She makes an upward-waving motion with her hand, and suddenly all of the fire swirls in toward a spot just over her; she wasn't all that careful to ensure it doesn't actually hit one of the other two people in the room on the way, but it's moving slowly enough to react to at least. "*sigh* Sooo anyway, that's Jade, yep. Our little game was supposed to run for two more levels before getting to the boss, but seeing such a low turnout made her feel like it'd be a waste." Soon there's a ball of fire above her, which she pulls down into her body and absorbs like the fireball earlier. "I bet you can guess who you were 'rescuing' too, right?" she says with a toothy grin.

Wait, wait, hold on a second! *Ookalf sidesteps out of the way of the flying fire.* Game? Levels? Are you saying that this whole kidnapping thing was fake!?

[AmbushCat]

*Applepills walks out of the explosion a few seconds later, looking singed and little electrified, as her hair is standing on end. She looks mostly unharmed, though.*

*seems annoyed about what she's hearing* I'll lissen fum down hyar. Ah's deteckin' someone else down hyar in th' tunnels somewhar. *grins toothily* Thet doesn't mean ah can't leave a nice partin' gif' fo' thet Vitamin C y'all lef' me, though! Loadin' grenades!

*The plushie cuts loose with what looks like the same attacks she used just a few moments prior. However, instead of carrying elemental charges, they instead explode in a cloud of Orange-colored gases that are drawn to the cracks in the robot's outer shell.*

[Whatevr89532]

"I can understand if you're upset, but--" The speaker-voice is cut off by the gas-grenade; the robot doesn't really move in response to it. "I..should probably warn you not to expect that to actually do anything. What you're targeting lacks the volitional entropy to be affected by color energy...you might as well be microwaving a cocomelon."

((Hopefully I'm reading the intent right. Realistically, Jade would anticipate attempts to use color energy on remote-controlled robots of hers and try to ensure it won't really do anything, but miscalculations are always possible, especially since she never did any live tests because that would mean using color energy on a robot and risking it actually having an effect. What I'm trying to say is that despite what Jade says you can go ahead with whatever as if she's wrong, if you want.))

--

"Well, duh. What kind of psycho idiot would imprison a little girl and then advertise they did so to the whole world?" Valora sighs, and waves her index finger around in the air, some fire trailing around behind it. It doesn't seem to be a threat or an attack, just something she does as an expressive gesture. "After we met up--now that's a story for ya--Jade wanted to try and recruit some heroes to work together and try to clean up this cesspit of a town. You know, something like the Exorcists used to be way back when. She just wanted to do an open call, but I thought looking for people who might actually care about protecting the innocent regardless of reward and weren't totally useless was a better idea. A big shame almost nobody and one potential villain is who showed up, though."

[Abillioncats]

Dan's gauntlets disappear, with Dan himself looking very put off.

"Fantastic."

[Ookalf]

"Well, duh. What kind of psycho idiot would imprison a little girl and then advertise they did so to the whole world?" Valora sighs, and waves her index finger around in the air, some fire trailing around behind it. It doesn't seem to be a threat or an attack, just something she does as an expressive gesture. "After we met up--now that's a story for ya--Jade wanted to try and recruit some heroes to work together and try to clean up this cesspit of a town. You know, something like the Exorcists used to be way back when. She just wanted to do an open call, but I thought looking for people who might actually care about protecting the innocent regardless of reward and weren't totally useless was a better idea. A big shame almost nobody and one potential villain is who showed up, though."

Ah... I see? *Ookalf cancels his Rider transformation, letting Valora see the confused look on his face.* So this was like a test, then? Did we pass?

[AmbushCat]

"I can understand if you're upset, but--" The speaker-voice is cut off by the gas-grenade; the robot doesn't really move in response to it. "I..should probably warn you not to expect that to actually do anything. What you're targeting lacks the volitional entropy to be affected by color energy...you might as well be microwaving a cocomelon."

*smirks* Yo' may try explainin' thet one t'th' Brotherhood sometime.

*The rest of the Orange disappears through the cracks. A moment passes without anything happening, then a corona of electricity surrounds the robot as something begins to alter its insides.*

Think about i'. Fust thar was an emppy shell, then thar was Applepills. How'd ah come t'life wif seemin'ly nothin' but metal and electricity? Wif liberal applicashun of Colo' inergy...

*By the time the electricity stops acting up, the changes have been completed. Outwardly the robot doesn't look all that different, but that belies the new fact that there's a girl fully merged with all that armor, complete with her own personality and---surprisingly enough---memories, up to and including the fight that had just taken place. Per the Energy it was hit with it has its fair share of aggression and love of violence, but there's enough leeway for other traits to surface as well, including possible loyalty to whoever it was that created it. The robot's physical defenses look to have taken a turn for the durable, much like Applepills' own: it's doubtful that the earlier grenade combo would have had quite as much success.*

...wrapped aroun' tiny co'es of fluff straight fum thet Cosmic Plushie Fo'ge. *looks off to the side for a moment* Thet's not t'say we ain't tried microwavin' a cocomelon, but... we try not t'speak of thet ennymo'e.

*However, the robot's energy level seems to have taken a temporary nosedive, equatable to what exhaustion would look like in the average human. Plain and simple, she probably isn't fit to fight anymore.*

[Whatevr89532]

The robot-shelled girl puts her hands up to her head, dropping and turning off the energy-blade in the process. "Orders...processor hurts, can't feel orders. Should I resume the--" she gasps, and falls to a kneeling position, hands on the ground as well. "Rrgh. Milady, I think this armor is too heavy. Can you still receive? Hephaestus?" It doesn't seem like she's talking to Applepills; there's a lot of confusion obviously present from suddenly having a mind.

--

"Yeah, like a test. I guess for as much of it as there was you passed. The most important part is deciding to even begin. But I think it's safe to say you would've been invited regardless." She gives Ookalf a bit of a thumbs-up, and then turns attention to Dan. "What, you didn't like the little adventure? Trust me, it would've been way more fun to see the whole thing. The idea was to drop little hints all along the way that something funny was going on. Like, why'd someone whose job it is to keep these mansions safe just let some strangers walk in and not kick them out after they showed a willingness to set the place on fire, hmm?"

Jade's voice cuts into the conversation. "We have a situation down in the tunnels. Applepills appears to have turned knightbot #3 into a person; I, miscalculated. She's...confused, and I don't have any speakers in easy range."
Valora grins and laughs, "Hahah! Does that make you a parent, too?"
"This is serious, Valora. I'm opening elevator 2, please move as quickly as you can."
The wolf-woman claps her hands against each other just a couple of times. "Welp, this is getting cut short. Or you can come with if you want, this is sure to be fun!" she offers, before starting a sprint toward the door back into the hallway. The first door on the right in there has apparently opened itself up to reveal a blank-looking, empty room, which is her actual target.

[Abillioncats]

"...I just thought they were really bad at their job."