MMF

The robot and the man with no eyes thundered through the portal. Kiritsugu stepped aside, letting them rush by without so much as ruffling his tie. The plankton-girl, the twin-tailed schoolgirl with the scythe.

Then no-one.

He looked over at Beryl, waiting for her response. He was making it quite clear that he wasn't going to move a muscle without her giving the order to. Not before she recognized his fitness. Or rather, not before she assumed the responsibility for it. It was a well-hidden test, disguised under his own mask of uncaring selfishness.

And then she did.

''"Yeah, go! Give them covering fire!"''

A firm command, assertive but not desperate. The demon-girl was asserting her control. He had few problems with that. His assessment had been confirmed, it seemed. While he had issues with the other girl's naivete, this one was proving easier to work with. He still couldn't approve of it, but at least she was clear-headed.

Small assurance, but it was all he could hope for.

Without so much as raising an eyebrow, Kiritsugu took a step back and opened fire.

The Calico trembled in his hand as he unleashed burst after burst, cutting through the enemies pursuing the team with almost surgical precision. His allies thundered down the hall, calling and yelling to each other as they took hit after hit from the hostile guns. He aimed for the gaps, took each pause in stride, and shot. There was no lull in his mechanical rhythm, no spark in his eyes. It was the work of a machine. A pale machine, clad in human skin and clothes of black. Not a person.

Eliminate. Cordon. Cordon. Eliminate.

He kept them away, or killed them as he could.

The last of the ragged, bloody fighters tumbled through. Wasting no time, Beryl shut the portal. With a deflated hiss, his line of sight collapsed in on itself like an explosion played in reverse.

Kiritsugu stopped firing. Slowly, he exhaled. Lowering the Calico, he detached the magazine, passed the warm gun into his left hand and stowed both





The magus killer's calico slides into his grip, loaded and ready in an instant. Beryl's eyes snap over to the portal as Batou tumbles through, dragging Medicball behind him. Maka, Soul, and Foo Fighters fall through next, and for just a moment, Beryl allows her hopes to rise.

A few seconds later, no one else has come through.

She turns back to Kiritsugu, no longer frustrated or concerned with how he'd acted before. Injury or no, he's what she needs right now, and they both know it.

"Yeah, go! Give them covering fire!" Beryl instructs, voice raised but still not frantic. The rest are still on the other side, and they've got seconds at most to get them back.She's really to snap the portal shut the moment the last of them are through. They just have to make it. They have to.

-----

In bullet land

"SIR OSWALD! ALLOW ME TO ASSIST!" Gilgamesh booms, groaning through grit teeth as a bullet grazes against his back just as he rounds the corner. The Bloodhounds are hot on their heels now, as Gilgamesh had been bringing up the rear once their retreat had begun. With inhuman strength, Gilgamesh helps Oswald hoist Jake up, allowing the two of them to carry him back toward the portal.

"It...urgh...it wouldn't do for the rescue team to need rescuing, would it, Sir Oswald?" Gilgamesh grunts, watching with relief as most of the others fling themselves into the safety of the portal. The way is finally clear.

The Bloodhounds round the corner this time, then open fire once more.

Gilgamesh shoves Jake and Oswald through, then prepares to jump through himself. Everyone else has made it through. Almost everyone, at least. Sixes, seeing that the way has suddenly cleared, sprints forward with speed the likes of which the grey giant has never seen. She's a blur now, and just inches from the portal...

But she blurs too late, and the woman with the rifle is too good a shot. Sixes catches a bullet in the thigh, sending her tumbling through the portal with a pained cry. Gilgamesh, taking his personal pledge to make sure the others have escaped before the does just a bit too seriously, feels the back of his armor tighten painfully as a few buckshot pellets punch straight through, pushing tiny clusters of metal splinters into his back along with the rounds. He stumbles through the portal, gunfire ringing all around him. As he passes through, he doesn't know if it's coming from behind or if his allies are returning fire, but in the end, he makes it.

With the last of them through, Beryl immediately releases whatever magic was fixing the portal in place. With a soft hiss of air, the gateway vanishes. Wounded, winded, but victorious, the group has made it back alive.

Rushing toward her assembled allies, Beryl holds off her congratulations in favor of saving their various injured.

"Get them upstairs! Carefully! Medicball, I need you to start healing them as soon as we get the bullets out of them! Anyone who's not hurt should help carry the wounded!" Beryl commanded, preparing to assist with carrying whoever was nearest to her. She's visibly relieved to see May among those who are still uninjured, but then pulls her leadership mask back on and goes back to making sure everyone else makes it.

Sixes is hurt; Batou, Jake, and Gilgamesh, too. She assumes that's Sixes, at least. She looks different, but it's close enough to obviously be her. Less thrown off than she expected she'd be, Beryl accepts that answers will have to wait until the others are safe again.

----\-
Dresden

Dresden stumbled back into the building, shaken and tired, but very much whole. He took a seat for a second to catch his breath, looking around until he found Kiritsugu. The stress of his spells was starting to recede; he'd be back to full operations in a few minutes at most.

"Okay." He said. He pointed across the room at the hitman. "I believe that we still have unfinished business, right? I beat you up, you wear my bracelet. You still up for it?"

----
Batou

Beryl immediately moved forward and called to move the injured upstairs so they could be treated. Not about to let his injuries slow him down, Batou said "Alright, anyone who's not injured, help us move or get out of the way. I'll get tiger-boy, " and moved over to pick up the injured morpher. Hoisting the tiger up onto his shoulder, he added "Sorry your welcoming present wasn't more pleasant, Sixes. I'll get you some beer to make up for it, " his usual smirk finally returning now that they weren't in danger of getting shot. As Dresden spoke up about his planned fight with Kiritsugu, Batou raised an eyebrow and said "Already? You're either relentless or stupid, but suit yourself. Just don't kill each other too hard, we've got enough injured to deal with as is."

Jake in tow, Batou headed upstairs once it was determined they had a clear destination, wincing ever-so-slightly as he walked. Of all the places, it had to be the knee. On the bright side, at least Hatsuse hadn't shot him; She probably would've shot out both.

---
Marisa

In the middle of looking around, she saw that the guy who made that barrier earlier was challenging someone else to a fight. As much as she liked a good fight, he probably could have picked a better time for it. "If you want me to tell you about my magic then quit foolin' around and help me get this guy." He did ask about the Master Spark while they were running earlier, might as well make him work for that information.