[X] You can be a good girl. Stay on the ship.
- [X] Fate looks kind of busy, so you'll take Vivio to the infirmary to check on Carim and Verossa, and all the others. Still, there are some things you need to tell her.
- - [X] If Satsuki is still berserk when she's found, you can head down to force-feed her blood and calm her down when they spot her, to not waste time and avoid a pointless fight. Infirmary is probably too full already.
- - [X] You can also add that the two dragons were stated to be the last 'surprise' they had. It just so happen it's the card they played for everybody to lose.
You shake your head and approach the ragged Enforcer. You clap a friendly, but firm, hand on Vivio's shoulder and smile at her when she jumps, scared. "There, there. Come on, let's go see them, hm? Carim and Verossa. I'm sure they'll be glad to see you." The Sankt-Kaiser shudders and her lips tremble; you glance at Fate, and she seems too surprised to do anything else. "Fate has work to do, so let's not bother her right now." That gets her back to thinking, and she stands up and steps back.
"Thank you, Flandre. Vivio, everything will be fine. Just go with Flandre to the infirmary to visit Carim and the others, okay?" Shaking, the girl nods, and Fate abruptly turns and stalks away, still in her Barrier Jacket. Hopefully she isn't planning on doing anything stupid …. You smile at Vivio and turn her toward the infirmary, then give her a little push to start her moving. She goes along with your prodding and you make it to the infirmary without incident. The doctor on duty looks up from her desk and gives you an exasperated look.
"Carim!" Vivio bolts away from you toward the bed Carim is lying in and ploughs into it. "Carim, Carim!" You hurry toward the doctor before she can do more than rise from her chair.
"Don't worry, she's fine, and I'll make sure she doesn't bother them too much if you want to go somewhere quiet for a bit. Or do you have to stay here?" She blinks and stares at you for a moment before shaking her head.
"No, no, if you can keep an eye on things for a while, I'm going to go fall over. Just make sure to come get me before you leave - I'll be just across the hall." You nod and she shuts down her console before limping out of the room. You look around the infirmary - cabinets and closets line the walls, and beds fill the rest of the space. Most of the beds are, surprisingly enough, empty, but it becomes less so when you take a better look at the inhabitants. They're all in pretty good condition and look like they simply need rest more than they need actual medical attention. That would also explain the doctor's willingness to leave; if no one here is in bad enough condition that they need a medical professional right away if something goes wrong, then as long as someone healthy is in the room she doesn't need to be. Carim and Verossa are there, both awake, but of course you don't see Schach, Vita, or Deed. You actually don't recognize most of the people here, and only a handful seem to be part of the Church or the Bureau, anyway. You walk up to Verossa as Vivio babbles uncontrollably to Carim.
"It seems she's warmed up to you," he says, and you snort and shake your head.
"No, she's just in delayed shock and very scared. Not every day you're a hundred meters from a giant angry dragon that's decided to wake up and start destroying things." He goes pale and starts to say something, but you hold up a hand to interrupt him. "First thing's first, Verossa. Satsuki. What happened to her when you left. How was she looking and acting?" He sighs and leans back against his bed, looking worriedly at Carim. The Church leader seems fine, and she looks up to smile cheerily at the two of you before turning back to Vivio.
"I … I'm not sure how much help I'll be, really. We weren't exactly in a good spot when she saved us." He lifts the blanket partway to show you the wrappings around his torso. "Two of their green assassins got the jump on me, then I got swarmed by the brown fighters. Except they weren't even trying to kill me - not right away, anyway. And then I heard this … frustrated, angry screaming, and something just started ripping them away from me. It was Satsuki, just … picking them and throwing them away, or ripping them in half, or just hitting them and smashing them apart. And she … she didn't care about being injured. Another green - a big one, not one of the little ones like that got me - puts its claws into her and lifted her up, and she just … just smashed its skull in and kept fighting. It was …." He really looks quite disturbed, reminiscing about his rescue, but your eyes narrow.
"Verossa. Verossa. How did she seem?" He frowns and you inhale calmly. "You see, when Vita told me about her being missing, she said that Satsuki was 'berserk.' That means something specific when you're talking about extremely powerful creatures that are a hair's-breadth from being completely willing to consume their allies for sustenance." He pales and screws his eyes shut as his breathing worsens. Carim gives you a worried look, but he shakes his head.
"I … she … she seemed in control of herself, I think. But … uncaring?" He struggles, trying to come up with a proper explanation, and you sigh and shake your head.
"Leave it. I'll just have to remember to apologize to Vita. And hope that I didn't slow down the search team by warning them to make sure she's fine." Not to mention that maybe you could have decapitated the night-demons by now if you hadn't thought you needed to come rushing back to search for her. … Are there any other concepts you should make sure they know about with regards to vampires, specifically, and that are even remotely likely to come up in the next couple months? You set part of your mind trying to work that out and turn your attention back to Verossa. "Anyway, can you contact the search team? Fate told me to stay on the ship, but if they find her and she has gone berserk in the meantime, it would really be better if they just call me down instead of trying to handle her themselves. If nothing else, I'm stronger and tougher than she is, or they are, so if she tries fighting I can take the hits without dying." He nods, still pale, and looks away. Carim surprises you by getting up - with Vivio's help, of course - and starting to stumble across the aisle. You save her from further mishap - she looks as bad as Verossa - and support most of her weight until she is able to collapse onto the bed next to his.
"Thank you, Flandre," she says, ignoring the scalding look from Verossa. "I'm sorry, but Vivio was telling me that there was a dragon on the planet?" You shrug and nod, then go into a brief retelling of the events of Vivio's rescue and the dragon's awakening.
"I don't actually know that there are only two dragons, but since the spokes-demon wants me so badly, I'm sure that if there were more then it would have said so. But I'm also pretty certain that this is their last hurrah. They've taken too much damage, somehow, and they can't control these dragons - I guess that's the prerogative of their 'ruler.' So once they're dealt with, it should just be nothing more than mop-up, at least on this side." Carim nods.
"And we know where a portal to their world is, thanks to you." She taps at something in the air and a screen appears, showing the dragon, massive and grey. Your eyes widen as you realize that the streaks of red slashing across its torso and arms are blood. Apparently it rushed a bit getting out of its tomb. "Hm. Yes, it's definitely stronger than Voltaire … not overwhelmingly so, but in a one on one fight, I think Voltaire would lose."
"What about … ah, that …." You frown at Verossa as he furrows his brow in thought. "Haku- … Lutecia Alpine's summon?" You blink at the reminder of your friend - and after digging through your memories, you remember her talking a bit about her most powerful summoned creature.
"Hakutenou," you say, and Verossa nods. Carim taps at something else and a series of bars and numbers appear to the side of the image. They don't really mean anything to you, but the sight of the dragon blasting its way through a mountain does. Fighting back against it isn't really an option - no one could hope to put up a shield capable of blocking its attack.
"The two of them together could defeat it, yes. Of course … it's not alone." The dragon blasts apart another mountain, releasing the second dragon mentioned by the spokes-demon. This one is definitely not humanoid. Its body is long, maybe even two or three times the height of its grey cousin, but long and serpentine, and it simply doesn't stop moving, instead looping around in a small area, looking like some kind of frenzied pretzel. And it's hard to keep track, but you think it has at least three sets of wings. You're very lucky the night-demons decided to wake up the other one first; as quickly as you retreated, you're not sure you could have gotten away from this one. You change your focus, trying to look at the dragons' eyes to compare them - but either you can't see them through a video screen, or you're too far from the creatures themselves. Irritating, but not insurmountable … you'll just have to be quick if you get the opportunity. Should you volunteer, though?
An hour passes in relative quiet. Vivio fell asleep against Carim as you all watch the dragons fly over the mountains toward civilization. The quicker one, more energetic than its cousin, flies around, destroying mountain-peaks seemingly at random, and definitely seems much weaker - its blasts are only as powerful as a Master Spark, in your opinion. Of course, when you think back on that idea, you're forced to laugh. Perhaps the most powerful attack you've seen a human use, and this creature fires them as easily as Patchouli would spend her guardian tomes.
You watch as they approach a human village - abandoned, the victim of the night-demons - and the smaller one darts ahead, stretching to its full length and flaring its nine magnificent wings as it spirals through the air. After it sweeps over the village, however, it climbs high overhead and pauses, holding perfectly still. Carim passes over an alert of some kind - and then the bigger dragon attacks the village, a torrent of energy pouring from its mouth to explode against the village. At long last, even before the smoke clears, she sighs and turns off the screen, shaking her head. You flex your claws in irritation; maybe you should have pressed her to let you go down and deal with the dragons right away? While this time may be letting everyone study them, if you're just going to kill them anyway, why bother studying them?
The door to the infirmary slides open and you turn to look. It's not, as you'd hoped, Fate - but it is Alph, and she smiles when she sees you. Then she steps to the side, leaving your servant standing in the doorway. Satsuki looks at you worriedly. "F-Fla-!" She flinches as you hurtle through the air toward her, but instead of colliding, you wrap your arms around her and hug her tightly. "… F-Flandre-sama?"
"… I'm glad you're alright, Satsuki. Really, really happy." Her arms start to wrap around you, but you float a bit higher and stroke her hair.
"I - I'm sorry, Flandre-sama! I know I messed up -" You put a finger on her lips, silencing her.
"No. You didn't make a mistake, you didn't mess up. You didn't do anything wrong, Satsuki. You were magnificent." Tears appear in her eyes, and she trembles - and then the effect is ruined by a gigantic yawn, and you giggle.
"I - I'm sorry! I …." She yawns again, and a smiling Alph holds up a pack of blood. You nod and she tosses it toward you. As you catch it, you realize just how cold Satsuki is.
"Here, why don't you drink this and then get some rest?" Her gleaming eyes fixate on the pack, and she barely keeps herself from snatching it out of your hand. You stroke her hair as she gulps it down, then help her to one of the beds … not that she even makes it all the way there before passing out. After tucking her in, you turn to find that Fate has somehow joined the group, looking even more tired than before - but her eyes are bright with purpose.
"Flandre. We're pretty sure we can deal with the bigger one without any real trouble. The smaller one, though, seems too fast for us to do anything about. If nothing else, we can try bringing Caro here and seeing if Voltaire can handle it, or at least help restrain it - but I was wondering if you had any ideas for taking it out." You blink and stare at her. Has she been talking to Vita, and Vita said something? Or is she genuinely curious about any insights you might have? In either case, though ....
What do you do?
[ ] You'll deal with the dragons yourself. Both of them. It should make a much clearer statement to the night-demons where you stand, if nothing else.
[ ] Let the Bureau deal with the big one first. You'll help, of course, if they need it, but once it's gone you'll break the fast one.
[ ] Break the fast one first, then help the Bureau take out the big one if they need it.
[ ] ... Sorry, you can't think of anything.
[ ] Other?
