Hearing the announcement blasting through the hallways, Hierophant grit his teeth nervously while Death lets out a disdained tsk.
"And all this could have been avoided if you'd just use your Teleport spell instead of messing with the old man's machine," she grumbles.
"You try thinking in the midst of being spotted!" Hierophant nearly snapped, though barely keeping calm enough to keep his tone to a hissing whisper, "Besides, there's only a few places other than outside I could have teleported to, and I'm not in the mood to spend another hour in wet clothes."
"I hear voices coming from the broom closet!"
Both irked and looked towards the door as the sound of rockets and missiles pierced their ears. Hierophant panics as he grabs Death and holds his staff into the air.
"VANISH!!!" he shouts, causing the blue orb to glow white as crystal-shaped entities circled it before trailing around him and Death, causing them to blink out of sight just as the entire room explodes from the projectiles launched outside. Both remain completely unscathed as debris fell right through their invisible beings before two bulky robots blocked the hallway lights.
"You idiot!" Teach Man shouts as he whacks Tanker Man in the back with his Whipping Cane, "When Dr. Wily II said bring that intruder to him alive or dead, he meant bring back a piece of it!"
"For a teacher, you're really ignorant to the laws of physics!" Tanker Man grumbles, "I may have obliterated everything in this room, but I used only half of my ammo just to make sure there's at least a finger or two to present to Dr. Wily II!"
"MY BROOM CLOSET!!!"
Teach Man and Tanker Man were pushed away from each other as Swiffer Man scrambles into the room, trembling everywhere as he looks at the splinters, fiber and metal that was once the tools used for cleaning.
"DO YOU HAVE NO CONSIDERATION FOR THE PRECIOUSNESS OF CLEANLINESS!? ALL MY HARD WORK COLLECTING THESE CLEANING SUPPLIES...RUINED!!!"
Just seeing the debris scattered around the closet room causes Swiffer Man's eyes to widen as his glitch ran itself into overdrive.
"CLEAN!!! I MUST CLEAN EVERYTHING!!!" he shrills as his left arm turns into a Swiffer vacuum and he begins running it all over the room. Teach Man freaks and rushes in to try and stop him while Tanker Man ignorantly wanders off to find something else to blow up.
"No, you idiot! Wait until we find the remains of that intruder, then you can clean your precious closet room!" he shouts while fighting against Swiffer Man's entranced Swiffer Sweeping.
While this was going on, Hierophant walks out of the room, completely untouched and unseen by the entire fiasco, and heads off towards the control room to check and see if Emperor had snuck his way back in. He stops near the entrance, poking his head in to find WilyII in deep thought and the guy with the Dark Crystal seemingly arguing with something unseen.
Emperor was nowhere to be found, but given he was still in his ninja form, he could have used a more potent vanishing spell to ensure he is unseen by anything that could bypass general invisibility. His best chance of knowing was to use his staff to uncover Emperor's card, but his Vanish spell is limited, and the mere flash of his staff could expose him to the very people he didn't want spotting him. Not to mention the mystical properties of the crystal held by the newcomer could also dispel his invisibility, leaving him open to be captured without even given WilyII's robots the glory of doing it first.
Still, he couldn't go anywhere else until he was certain his vanishing act was mistaken for an accidental annihilation from the tanker robot and the OCD malfunction of their cleaning robot. He sneaks to the other side of the door so as not to accidentally press himself against the keypad and peeks in to see what happens next.
Vixy flew around the city in her Super Heart Vixy form, looking for anymore survivors she could rescue and cure of their traumatized experience. She had sensed a negative presence somewhere in a desolate neighborhood that seemed to have caused a reaction almost similar to the Frenzy Waves unleashed by Frenzy Man and decides to head there to see what was going on.
Upon arriving, she sees a beat up caravan plowing through a mess of terrified citizens, most of whom charged at the vehicle with no other consideration than to see the drivers and whoever else accompanied him either driven out of the city or slaughtered by their blindly justified hands. Thinking they were ruffians ruining the restoration of the city, she flies down for a closer look.
Unfortunately, the citizens exposed to Chariot's Blood of Swords were still in a rage due to their lack of understanding and overcoming its negative sensation, and upon seeing Vixy landing on top of the trailer, immediately remembered PB's rampage through the city and all but forgotten her efforts to fight back his Frenzied rage.
At that moment, the Chariot saw the tower-shaped aura surrounding the neighborhood shattered into bricks of fear and anguish.
"Ah, crap!" he growls as the entire neighborhood swarmed to intensify the rocking and bashing of the caravan, all in a raged bid to knock Vixy off the trailer and tear her to shreds. The Berbils began to panic as the increasing swarm slowly started to fight against their pursuit to escape the neighborhood, leaving them sluggishly trapped and vulnerable to the increasing mob's uninvestigating vengeance.
"No good," the panda Berbil exclaims monotonously, "Citizens coming on strong. Caravan unable to continue further."
Chariot looks towards the walkie-talkie where the panda Berbil's voice came from, then the windows just as their Plexiglas material was beginning to bend and crack from the savagely vengeful citizens beating and throwing whatever they could carry at them, before looking towards the hatch at the top of the trailer.
"That's it! I can't take this anymore!" he shouts before using the back end of his spear to knock down the ladder blocking the valve controlling the hatch's locks.
"Vixy can quell citizens," the red panda Berbil protests, "Chariot should not interfere while still bleeding from injury."
"The only reason those citizens are attacking at this magnitude is because they remember what kind of energy I was giving off when they threw that rock at my face," Chariot retorts, "In their frenzied state, they won't stop attacking until they either rip me to shreds, or witness me give off an energy that will wash away their terrified assumptions!"
He then marches over to the ladder and starts climbing towards the hatch, "Besides, I still need to maintain the neutral energy of my Blood of Pentacles, and sitting here, letting someone else rescue us from this mess isn't going to make hiding my Blood of Swords any easier."
The Berbils stood their ground and watched in worry as Chariot turns the valve until an audible click signifies the unlocking of the hatch which he then pushes upwards, startling Vixy out of the way as she turns to see him climb onto the roof of the trailer.
Upon seeing his appearance, the citizen's outrage intensified as they scrambled to get onto the roof while those nearing the edge reached out to grab his legs only to have him inconsiderately kick them back down. He quickly glances towards Vixy, seeing three transparent swords hovering around her as an indication that she was beginning to realize he was the cause of the neighborhood's batshit savagery. He had to hurry before the swords take advantage of her tiny sliver of distrust and slide in unison through her ever loving heart, poisoning her into seeing him as the newest major threat to the still recovering city.
Chariot shuts his eyes and concentrates on his more reliable energies; the neutral Blood of Pentacles, and the positive Blood of Wands.
Believe.... Believe that my actions are voluntary and not forced.... Believe that I will do whatever it takes to achieve victory for myself more than those I choose to protect....
As he continues to concentrate on his own beliefs and desires, emerald-colored blood began pouring out of his injured nose, overlapping the citrine stain caked around his lower face. From the emerald flood unleashed a flow of positivity left up to interpretation by those who gazed upon its crystalline glow.
This didn't stop the citizens from attacking the caravan, however, enough of the positivity had seeped through the minds to wash out the negative reaction caused by his Blood of Swords and their attack on the caravan had reverted back to simply driving them out of their neighborhood, though those barricading the front of the caravan quickly got out of the way upon gaining enough sense to realize their own idiocy. Chariot looks towards Vixy one more time before leaping back into the trailer and running over to the walkie-talkie.
"Drive now, before they change their minds and start attacking again!" he shouts. The panda Berbil nods in agreement before flooring the gas peddle, causing the caravan to careen through the rest of the neighborhood and into what appears to be a ghost town a few miles from where they were almost buried.
"We should rest and recuperate before continuing," the panda Berbil said, "No point finding friends and survivors if Berbils and Chariot are still overwhelmed by situation in neighborhood."
Chariot muffles a frustrated sigh as he slaps off another layer of emerald and citrine from his still bleeding face, "While you guys get your senses back, I'm going to go wander around this part of the city and look for something to do until my nose stops bleeding. I don't want anymore people coming after me at the first sight of my Blood of Swords."
The Berbils in the trailer watched as he unlocks the double doors and hops out, looking around before wandering off to an area away from where they had just entered, not bothering to check and see what Vixy was going to do after being taken for an unexpected, and almost heart-wrenching ride.