The Arrival

*Cameron is very confused*

<Hector, is everything alright?>

*Unfortunately, for her troubles, all Noct gets is a bloody nick on her arm & a knife full of pants. On the plus side, broken arm guy lets out a girly scream & drops his knife. Hunting knife guy is dazed, but starting to come out of it, raising the knife over his head in both hands while trying to secure Gabe with his legs.*
===============================
*Once inside, they see the 3 ski mask guys standing in the door to the women's showers, not paying attention to them. There are sounds of a struggle coming from inside, some grunts & even a loud bang from something large smashing into a locker. One of the ski mask guys starts walking forward, into the room.*
================================
*Thiera answers her phone as they keep walking, coming up on the gym.*

T"Hello?"

Mimiru: "You called earlier?"

Gabe scrambles to hold the man's hands down while trying to crawl through his legs, using her knees to drive into his crotch and over his legs so that she can mount him instead of being in his guard.

Mortal grabs the dropped knife. Meanwhile Noctis grabs her aggressor's knife arm with her free hand, then stabs into his bicep. She would have punched instead, giving him a dead arm, and causing him to drop his weapon, but she had a knife, and that worked better.

--

Sab grabs Senthose's sleeve and shakes it a bit saying in a panicked whisper, "I think those are the bad guys!"

*He is stabbed, but lets go of her shoulder & aims a left cross at her face. Gabe & Hunting Knife are now wrestling around, rolling slightly. With his non-broken arm, Other Knife tries to elbow down at Mortal's head, while New Guy also aims a few punches at her back & side.*
=============================
*Senthose didn't really need to be told, he & Lilith stepping forward & donkey punching them such that their faces smacked off of the wall. Both of them went down, cold.*
=============================
T"Oh, yeah, I wanted to share my findings with everyone. Can I call you back to arrange a meeting? I'm supposed to meet my sister right now, with the others, for some reason."

Mimiru: "Yeah, sure. We just got something ourselves to share."

"Yeah, sure," Hector replied.

Mortal punches him right in his fucking kidney as soon as he raises his arm to drop the elbow down, but is punched in the back of the head. She spins around, slashing with the knife to dissuade anyone from getting in another punch.

Noct tucks her chin and eats the black eye, but spins and jerks her knife into his bicep.

Gabe is just trying to focus on not being pinned down, and not getting stabbed, and is doing everything in her power to stop that from happening.

--

Sab now suddenly realizes she is in some kind of action movie. Realizing that Senthose and Lilith totally have everything in control, she gives Aroma a look to make sure she is okay, then follows after Senthose and Lilith.

T"Okay, talk to you later, then."
================================
*Lilith heads inside while Senthose leans on a treadmill.*

S"Oh yeah, now you should call the police. I would also recommend maintaining distance from the shower entrance and the gym exit."
================================
*Noting that Noctis's assailants both have serious arm wounds & are bleeding all over the bloody place, Lilith grabs one of the guys attacking Mortal & pulls him off. Not having Mortal's raw strength, she ducks out of the way so that his punch hits a locker & tries to gain some distance.*

<Hey! Where are you assholes going?!>

*The guys attacking Noctis are both running away.*

Mimiru hangs up.

Mimiru: "She'll call back to arrange some kind of group meaning."

Azuma: "Yippy."

<Then why are you blocking me? If I did something wrong, it was never my intention and I am truly sorry.>

Mortal turns back and continues to beat down the guy who tried to attack her, giving him a jab-cross-hook combo, hooking at the kidney she punched before.

Noct doesn't see the need in chasing anyone, and tries to pry the hunting knife away from the guy Gabe is presumably still wrestling with.

--

Sab nods and does just that.

"What are you talking about?" Hector asked. Astarte was beginning to pull ahead and away from both of them.

{What's your emergency?}

*Some wounded dudes run out of the showers & to the gym exit, nearly bowling over RENT on their way in. They look back.*

T"What was that about?"
===============================
*After narrowly avoiding being beaten, the others realize they're pretty much sunk. They run towards the exit, shoulder-checking Noctis as they go. Hunting Knife lets go of his eponymous weapon & scrambles to his feet to follow them.*

Gabe snatches onto one of his legs and tries to trip him, "No you don't! Someone has to answer for this!"

Noct picks up the hunting knife so that no one would get hurt with it.

Mortal sees Gabe latching onto the man's leg with both arms, and tries to grab him by his shirt.

--

"You have to send help to the Ulm Uni gym," Sab said, frantically, "A group of boys went into the women's locker room and tried to commit a hate crime! There is blood, I think someone might be hurt really badly."

Taiyo uas no idea what just happened.

"I guess there's trouble inside," Hector said.

<Maybe I was imagining something. Sorry.>

*Cameron smiles at Hector, then walks up to join Astarte

*Trying to shake Gabe off, he elbows Mortal in the face.*
=======================================
*They jump aside as more people run through.*

T"Are they wearing ski masks?"

{Alright, we're sending help. How many ambulances do you think will be needed?}

Hector was now too distracted by all the guys with ski masks on running by to respond to Cameron, "Should we go in?"

"I don't know," Sab said, backing away, "I don't know how many people are hurt. There are men with ski masks, and they have blood on them!"

--

Gabe holds on tight and Mortal responds by kneeing him in the groin.

Noct looked over at Lilith, "Thank you for the assistance."

S"You know, ideally, you were supposed to stop them."

R"Why are you here?"

S"This whole thing was my idea. I figured that with enough people gathered here, we could convince anyone to back down."

E"Back down? From what?"

S"Apparently, your mythical stalker actually does exist, & might be making a point of attacking gay people."
==============================
L"It's no problem. Senthose said that someone here might need help, so we gathered everyone we could."

Taiyo's grip tightens on Euryale's hand she's presumably holding.

*Eve looks confused*

<That wasn't at all what I was expecting.>

*Tirea whispers to Monu*

<(Maybe the Shadow is controlling them.)>

Astarte felt sick, and folded her arms tightly in front of her chest.

Grimm was still working in the garden, and had put a modest advertisement for cheap lawn-mowing and general garden tending out the front of the church.