The group looks to the towering Fellblood casually making her way over to them with an introduction. It was not a sight that Ulrich was expecting to see, but he met Izzy's introduction all the same. He could see that she'd been stuffing her shirt with countless handfuls of papers all around the warehouse.

Ah, a private investigator! He hadn't heard of her before, but she sure knew how to make her presence known!

"Ah so you must be the snake lady that can flat-" He's cut off by another wave of goons rushing towards them, weapons drawn! One of the men attempted to run their sword through the bespectacled man! Ulrich pivots; catching the goon's extended arm and using his momentum to throw him over his shoulder. The man flies through the air into more crates behind the group.

Two others rush at Ulrich and the group! Lil Frijole and Aella weave through the man's legs, distracting him from the floating objects!

"Yoohoo! You should probably pay more attention to your surroundings, Young Sir!"

He looks up to see a dagger quickly disappear out of sight replaced with a hammer quickly striking him in the temple! A gust of wind blasts forth from the hammer sending the man flying into some crates stacked against the wall!

"Not the most spatially aware, are they?"

The big goon engaging Ulrich is a bit more competent, however. Brandishing nothing but his fists; he hurls a flurry of punches towards Ulrich! He meets the goon's blows with blocks and dodges of his own! He waits for the moment an opening presents itself, and initiates his counterattack! Ulrich twists his body; a kick flying towards the goon's stomach, but it's swiftly stopped by his hand! A look of approval briefly finds itself upon Ulrich's face before he uses the goon's grip on his leg as leverage to twist his body again! His boot finding it's mark upon the side of the goon's face! The goon falls to the floor with a massive thud, and Ulrich gracefully lands back on his feet.

"Huh, that was impressive on his part!" He turns back to Issala with a chuckle, "Yes, they are! It's a pleasure to meet you, Issala Arodre. I am Ulrich Ambriz, your every day traveler! ...is what I would say if we hadn't met in such circumstances!"

The group turns their attention back towards the man floating in a panic; his comrades yelps ringing out throughout the warehouse. Ulrich lets out a nervous chuckle, "Knowing Hylltywyll, they're probably not having a fun time over there." The group all laugh nervously remembering the sight of the fairy standing over Tony, who he had trapped into the flooring.

Snake lady!? Before she can process that, (is it a compliment or is it derogatory? It's probably a compliment. Snakes are great), there is yet more of the battle to see to. As the individuals rush in, Izzy cracks her whip, using her sword in her other hand to fend off those with actual weapons while causing high speed collisions by yanking people to and fro with her whip. The... Hyll creature was a master of subterfuge diversion. Ulrich was quite handy as well-- literally. He was man-handling all sorts of goons, tossing them this way and that as though they weighed less than a couple of grapes.

Finding herself in such situations was a regular occurence for Izzy, but she hadn't expected others-- especially two people so wildly different as the Creature and Ulrich Everyman to be in such places. Perhaps trouble just had a way of finding what people could benefit from it most. A little spice to the mix.

"Impressive all around, I rather think!" Izzy hops back a few paces. tracing circles with the tip of her rapier, a wild grin plastered over her face. The herd had seemed to have thinned out quite a lot, but with the last of the goons fleeing deeper into the warehouse, ostensibly for reinforcements, Izzy turns to the electic group of people. "We have 'em on the backfoot, it seems, but I'm not sure they're through yet. Do we bounce or do we give 'em a further taste of what-for?" Her savage smile darts between Hyll and Ulrich, brimming with glee and the desire to terrorize these already scared criminals. A fine way to spend a Tuesday evening, in her view.

Izzy looks at Hylltywyll to see him hissing as he stands on the shoulders of one of the criminals floating in the air while pulling tight a leather belt around the man's neck. The man's pants have fallen around his ankles and he's doing his best to keep them from falling to the floor while he drifts a few feet off the ground.

Without him actually giving her an answer, the Fairy's vote for what to do next is obvious. He wants revenge on these kidnappers for shoving him into a cold iron box and letting his feet burn. Just how far he might take that revenge is still up for debate, though if his latest victim is any indication, he might take things a bit farther than Ulrich and his pets would probably be comfortable with.

Ulrich lets a small chuckle escape him at Izzy's mention of extending the fight with these goons. Despite his unassuming appearance, Ulrich couldn't resist a little bit of fighting. A fight here and there makes life a bit more exciting every now again.

"I think a bit more terrorizing wouldn't be too bad for them." He replies smugly. His shoulders shrugging as if attempting to hide the excitement of getting to fight more thugs.

They could take them no problem. Everyone of them here was capable of defending themselves— the only concerning thing, however, was how much Hyl wanted to make them suffer.

The group looks up at the sound of Hyll's hiss, seeing him tightening a leather belt around the neck of a thug; helpless to defend himself as he floats in the air, pants around his ankles.

"Oh dear... Our friend here is angry."

"Understandably so."

"Should we, uh, stop him?"

"That would probably be a good idea... I'm not sure we can convince him though."

A face of slight concern finds itself forming across Ulrich's face as the thug begins attempting to gasp for air. His eyes slowly closing as his lungs are starved for air.

"Uhh, Hyll? I think you got him! He's unconscious!" His eyes never leave Hyll, and he reaches his hand up to point his thumbs over his shoulder, "Besides there's more guys coming for you to terrorize!"

The sounds of many more angry thugs start to rush from deeper in the warehouse.

"Wouldn't you like to scare them too?"

Ulrich's group of unlikely heroes exchange glances around at each other. Silently wondering altogether if his convincing would be enough to get Hyll off of the thug.

Izzy watches the Hyll Creature in the process of garotting a man with his own belt, their vehement hiss making their stance quite clear. Similarly, Ulrich and his retinue of floating objects seem to agree. Izzy chuckles, a low, throaty sound, as her ever present grin spreads wide over too-sharp teeth. "Aight. Bet."

Thinking all was well and agreeable, and leaving Hyll to their own devices (who was she to stop a gremlin from exacting their revenge?), she turns towards the entrance to the room, where the sound of footsteps and shouting increases. Gingerly, Izzy replaces her rapier and draws a different sword, with the same meditative energy as one who practiced tea ceremony. Where Ulrich was intent on teaching a lesson (but perhaps not a lethal one) and Hyll was more determined to have their vengeance against those who imprisoned them, Izzy was motivated by concepts that were far less lofty.

She was going to cause problems on purpose.

The moment one of the gang members barrels through the door, Izzy lashes out with her whip[1] snagging the spear-weilding guard around the wrist. With a yelp and a stiff yank, she hauls them over to her until they are nearly flush with her chest. She grins horrifically down at them, and gently lays a finger on their brow. "I think you're playing for the wrong team, friend~."[2]

As the guard's eyes go black with rage, Izzy shoves them back towards the crowd. With a wildcat yowl, the guard drops their spear and lunges at the first person they laid eyes on, snarling like a person possessed. In the midst of the chaos happening at the entrance, Izzy lopes forward, the sword in her hand morphing to match her smile[3]. A soft, gleeful laugh begins to emanate from the widening maw of her sword, echoing her own savage smile. She points it at another person, her ember-like eyes dancing with mirth. "Sing for me, won't you?"[4]

The man that she points at does not appear to outwardly change; he does not fall to his knees in supplication, he does not abandon his sword out of terror or try to flee. He simply... begins screaming. A bloodcurdling sound that is wretched and grating, ragged and harrowing enough that his throat would surely be sore the next day. As it was, the people near the entrance who weren't being attacked by their own comrades were taken aback, pausing in the door frame to think, for a moment, if they really wanted to go into the room where it sounded like Jasognathan was being brutally murdered.

Izzy turned her head towards them-- not the normal way. That would be too easy. Instead she simply rotated her head on her shoulders in the most unnatural way, greeting the gang with a wide, infernal smile. "IT'S YA GIRLLLL~."

---

[1] Hangman's Coil
[2] Infuriate
[3] Smiling Scimitar
[4] Screams of the Underworld

Hylltywyll paused his choking of the man to watch with a mix of awe and horror as Izzy did her Izzy things. He sensed what magics she was using and cast some of his own magic to protect him from the effects she was about to unleash.

The choked nearly to death man hit the ground like a sack of meat with Hylltywyll standing on his back and plugging his ears with his fingers as the man Izzy pointed her sword at screamed. He threw Izzy an annoyed glare. She'd freed him from his prison, but he still didn't appreciate the annoying scream that he even needed to magically protect himself from. He'd give her a little something to show his grievances.

With a flick of Hylltywyll's finger in her direction, Izzy's hands and arms began to change. Fingers melted together and grew, her hands shifting into mouths and growing eyes and nostrils, one fanged mouth around the handle of her smiling scimitar. Her arms elongated, the elbows smoothing out to form a single scaly tube.

When the magic finished its work, Izzy stood with two long, white-scaled, red eyed snakes where her arms used to be, each of their tails connected to her shoulders, their bodies slithering across the ground around her, one with a scimitar in its mouth.

---

Mind Ward
Alter Reality

"Oh dear."

"Nothing like a little demented fun to rattle your enemies, right?"

The group stare, mouths agape, at the horrors the other two unleash upon the guards of the warehouse. Although they couldn't really complain; they probably had it coming.

Feeling that the situation would become a bit much for the younger members of the group, Ulrich turns to address Alvis and Xavier quickly.

"How's about you two take the little ones outside to safety? Probably not the best thing for them to see here at the moment." He says with an uneasy smile.

"Aw Pops, do we have to?" The mustachioed Behir's head droops a bit; Aella propping herself atop his head in protest of having to miss out on the fun.

Ulrich kneels down with a soft smile and pats both the little ones on their heads gingerly. "I know that I've been training you both for situations like this, but now isn't the time for you two to see things like this getting out of hand." His eyes adopt a bit of sternness while keeping the warmness of his smile. "Do you understand?"

The two look up and nod to their father's words.

His gaze floats to the Dagger and Hammer and he gives them a nod, "Make sure they stay safe."

"Right. Come on, you two."

"Your old man has to take care of business."

He can hear the sounds of them reassuring the two little ones trail off into the darkness as they make their way to safety.

"Now then," Ulrich turns back to see Hyll and Izzy making quite short work of terrifying their would be attackers, "This is kind of my fault. How's about we scare it up a bit?"

Small gusts of concentrated wind shoot from his fingertips ridding torch after torch of their firelight. The warehouse starts to go dark; shadow spreading, reaching towards the terrified goons as they stare at the horror in front of them. Now that there was an sufficient enough amount of darkness, Ulrich sinks into the shadows^[1]. Through the shadows, he makes his way over to Izzy and he props himself above the door. Izzy and Hyll have them properly scared out of their wits which makes them easy pickings as they've planted themselves in the door frame.

The foremost goon is positioned into the door frame just enough. A pair of hands suddenly grabs him by the head; their tight grip muffling his terrified screams as he's pulled up into the darkness. His shrieks of terror ring out for a second before suddenly being silenced. From the goons' perspective, all they can see is their comrade's feet hit the ground accompanied by the thud of his unconscious body, and then it's suddenly dragged away into the darkness. The goons cry in terror; discourse spreads amongst them as they push and shove each other to ground!

Ulrich pulls the goon's unconscious body away into the darkness and spares a look at Izzy's horrifically altered appearance— thanks to Hylltywyll— and gives her a mischievous wink and nod.