Rushing to finish. My map says epiloges start on ch 70. Gotta wrap this up in 6 chapters, and I'm hoping my planning paid off

AAAAAAAAAAAA

I wanna write Terraria fanfiction lmao. btw, try Calamity Mod it's the best shit ever. I'm so stoked to talk about it.

Mary had seen this before.

Walls, goopy and partially melted. White powder scattered across the molten floor. Bullet holes peppering the walls. The entire floor, emptied out. The furniture had been atomized. The carpet became nothing more than a foul, plasticky odor lingering in the air. Every article of glass had been shattered - from lightbulbs to coffee tables to the massive floor-to-ceiling windows. It looked like a decrepit building which had gutted in a warzone… if Mary didn't know better, she would've thought she were in Syria.

Yagami you lunatic… the hell are you up to this time?! Keep this up and they'll actually kill you...

A few minutes ago, an order came through via the police comms. According to Blackwell, the Feds suddenly wanted Yagami dead - a decision that was surely made at Geese Howard's behest. Helicopters had eyes on the 14th floor, where Iori was presumably wrecking furniture, and the federal troops were preparing the minigun him into oblivion. The police were ordered to evacuate immediately for their own safety, and Mary likewise sent her crew away in compliance - but she herself continued onwards, trodding her way past a large sign indicating floor 13 as she traversed the southern stairwell.

He's here...

Why? One might ask? Why would she disobey orders, and instead risk her life. Surely not for the sake of Iori. No. It was no secret that Mary had no love for Iori Yagami. Their relationship was something between 'unreliable ally' and 'acquaintance of a friend', and frankly Mary wouldn't be particularly saddened if the red-haired loon met his demise.

So why was she still climbing this tower? Well, because Iori Yagami was on floor 14, and her recent communications with Terry Bogard placed him on floor 15. She had attempted to contact him to inform him of the danger, but Terry didn't pick up, and Mary sufficed with a voicemail and a text message. However, her intention wasn't to convince Terry to retreat. The Wolf wasn't one to run from danger. He possessed an unreasonable amount of courage which could occasionally border on ridiculousness. If he weren't the strongest man in the city, Mary would have deemed him insane.

Maybe Rock learned a bit too much from him… agh, he used to be such a shy kid … now he's running around playing Batman.

And because Rock Howard's courage (suicidal insanity) had driven him up the tower, Terry Bogard, driven by fatherly love, was following close on his heels. The Wolf would reach the top, and nobody - certainly not Mary - would stop him. The only way Terry Bogard was going to leave this building was either carrying his son, or dressed in a body bag.

I'm sure Geese wouldn't mind if Terry was caught in the crossfire… I bet he waited until Terry and Yagami were in proximity of one another before he gave the command.

And thus Mary was here to accomplish two things. One, place distance between the Fed's target and Terry Bogard. Whether that was accomplished by stalling Iori or convincing him to turn back was inconsequential. All she needed was for him to be the sole target of whatever those helicopters had in store for him. She wasn't wishing death on Iori, but Iori seemed to be able to survive just about anything thrown at him. He could fend for himself - and if he couldn't, then he only had his weakness to blame.

Good luck buddy.

Her second goal was to assist in Terry's mission. Kill Geese Howard. Bring Rock home safely… and then go straight to court and come up with some kind of defense that didn't put Rock in the electric chair. Humph. It's gonna be a pain getting a lawyer after what happened to Hein's Firm…But I'll deal with that issue when it comes…

Mary sighed and focused. As she cleared the staircase and entered the 14th floor, the smell of smoke and ash grew poignant, almost suffocating. All about her, the walls were melted just as they'd been from floor 1-13, yet this time they emanated an incredible heat. Iori was on this floor - and he had just finished roasting everything and everyone within. Given she wished to avoid that rather gristly fate, she called out to make her presence known. She hoped Iori had a good enough memory to recognize her name.

"Hello!? This is Mary Ryan. The police officer?... Yagami! I know you're up here! You'll be in trouble with Kagura if you burn me!"

"..."

Initially, silence - then a low muttering coming from the direction of the northern stairwell. Mary continued announcing her presence as she made her way across the floor. Beneath her feet, the previously level tile floor was now lumpy and misshapen, even having burst upwards in some places. She nearly twisted her ankle on one of the odd protrusions.

Alright you little shit… you better not have freaked out again… if I see you eating somebody's guts, I'm really going to shoot you. You had no idea how much bullcrap you put me through because of the Freeman Incident...

"Yagami?! Hey! Are you here?"

"..."

More silence. Mary grew concerned. Iori Yagami wasn't one to hold his peace, or otherwise fail to respond to being summoned in this fashion. She was beginning to doubt he was here at all, and would have approached the end of the hallway if she hadn't discerned the low muttering as understandable words. She froze and pressed her ear against the wall to make sense of them.

(...try not to move your ankle that fashion any longer. The break will worsen, and although you might not feel pain now, you'll be cursing yourself tomorrow… ah, Sir Heir - somebody is approaching us. Should I dispatch them?... Sir Heir?... sir… are you alright?!)

An older voice was murmuring from the end of the hallway. Mary couldn't see him, but given he was speaking Japanese, she could only assume he was speaking to Iori. Mary was thankful she had learned Japanese all those years ago, otherwise she might have burst in - and undoubtedly found herself in peril. Instead, she called out again, this time in a language Iori's accomplice would understand.

"Excuse me! This is Officer Mary Ryan, member of the SouthTown Police Force and an acquaintance of Chizuru Kagura. There is danger here and I've come to evacuate the building. I'm coming over now!"

There was no immediate response, so Mary drew her weapon and rounded the corner. The bright sunlight was filtered and dusty as it illuminated the small office space. Iori was seated on a lone office chair (it seemed to have been spared the inferno for this very reason) and beside him stood a pristinely dressed red-haired older gentleman. It became immediately clear that Iori's escort was one of the Yagami family bodyguards her crew mentioned had gone up the tower before her. Mary looked at him, then looked at Iori. After a moment, the image registered and she raised her eyebrows in surprise.

"Oh wow… should I... call an ambulance?"

Iori didn't even acknowledge her presence - he was slumped on the chair with his head lolling over the back of the seat. He stared intensely, gasping, at the ceiling as he clutched at the front of his own shirt. Besides for his obvious mental discomfort, his left ankle had also been visibly broken. There was a shard of bone sticking out of his blood soaked sock, and the tightly wound bandages were doing little to provide either support or staunch the blood loss. The tightness in his ragged breathing seemed to indicate some internal damage, and possibly a broken rib. There was likewise a tremendous and dramatic bruise on his left shoulder. Clearly a broken collarbone. Goddamn... I wonder who managed that…

The bodyguard blinked at her and didn't let down his guard until her firearm was holstered. Only then did he loosen up and speak out. Clearly, he was just as disturbed as she was at Iori's condition, but was doing his best to mask it. He once again addressed his badly injured charge.

"Sir Heir, can't you see? I told you we should go back. Even the police are here to help. We Come, I'll carry you if you wish. I know you say it doesn't hurt, but truly it's best if you didn't move anymore."

The Bodyguard took a tentative step towards the man who seemed locked in a staring contest with the burnt ceiling and carefully grabbed him beneath his unbroken shoulder. He was shaken off with a surprising ferocity. Iori snapped his gaze from the ceiling and glared at the bodyguard, then at Mary. He was pale, fearful even, and snarled aloud to mask it.

"He's here! That fucking bastard is here! I can feel it! I've gotta go!"

Mary watched with some kind of sick curiosity as Iori completely ignored his broken ankle, and stood rapidly to his feet. He seemed to be held up - not with flesh, tendons and bone - but rather with some strange otherworldly power which didn't need to rely on such petty things as 'structural integrity'. The bodyguard winced each time Iori's ankle bones crunched against each other, but followed nevertheless - sighing rather dramatically as he did.

Agh, shit! I need to stop him… Maybe I can convince them to go back down…

Mary rushed ahead to stand in front of Iori - blocking his path. He stared at her, annoyed, but took no action against her.

"What now Ryan. I'm in a rush."

Mary drew herself up, intentionally making her language as slow and clear as possible in an attempt to make the shockingly dull man understand her.

"Yagami. It's dangerous. You need to go back to the ground floor. You need medical treatment. I'll escort you down.

"No."

Iori's breath seemed to rattle perilously in his ribcage, but his eyes blazed with idiot stubbornness. It was very clear he hadn't understood his situation. Mary plunged into further detail, casting her gaze between Iori and the much more reasonable Bodyguard.

"Iori there is a helicopter outside. It… It's Geese's helicopter, and they've just been given the order to kill you. So you need to go to the ground floor. Do you understand me? If you stay here, you will die!"

Iori scoffed at her and was just about to say something moronic, when he froze and spun around to stare out the shattered windows. The beat of helicopter blades was soft at first, then rapidly became unbearably loud. Had so much time already passed? Were the helicopters already here to accomplish their hit? Mary didn't stay to find out. She turned on her heel and fled up the staircase lest she be caught in the crossfire.

Behind, a bursting inferno shot through with the whizz of bullets chased her as she flew up the stairs. She had half expected Iori to follow, but he didn't. Whether he had gotten killed on the spot or decided to stay and battle a helicopter (only he'd be dumb enough to try it) was inconcequential. In fact, his life or death was similarly inconsequential. The only thing on her mind was Terry Bogard's welfare.

Her heart sick with worry, she climbed in search of him.

Freeman incident is referring to a fic - Switcheroo. Mary was investigating Yag for the murders and eventually he pulled strings to get the Sheriff fired and the charges dropped.

yag's a really steller guy by the way. I'm sure you noticed by now.