Latika's shouting still went unnoticed, or at least unheeded, by the berserker with the beam cannon.

"What, now you remember, huh?" blurted the flying mammal (with another shot fired). His pheasant accompaniment was approaching his side, but seemed hesitant to intervene yet. "And you didn't mean for it to happen?! You didn't mean to attack me too and keep me from helping him in time?!"

*Blam, blam* went the cannon.

"This isn't gonna get what we're here for, Lang," said the bird with quiet urgency.

"It doesn't matter anymore!" he shouted back, still pursuing Geoff with his sights. "We wanted it to stop Eggman and Eggman's been stopped."

"Yeah, but now, Li Fang..."

(Right around that time, Dian was also departing, rifle held overhead as he zipped down the line and away.)

"So what!" barked Lang in reply to his comrade, finally outright looking at him. It was a moment of distraction. "Don't you get it yet? Li Fang's just a crook. What'll he do, rob a bank with it? What are we supposed to do?! Wade's dead! There's no cops to call here! Nobody's gonna do anything about it except US! This guy is the REASON Li Fang has the mirror!"

His avian friend seemed at a loss for anything else to argue against that point, but "us" may have been the wrong choice of words. He still wasn't moved to help in any way, and instead looked... intensely uncomfortable. Yes, this was the same guy who had been very sullen toward the group aboard the train, but even still, he wasn't ready to bust out the noose... but nor was he ready to stop the guy who was.

There was a twitch and a jump and a start and a minor meltdown that almost happened right there as both the gunman and his friend jolted at Geoff's charge. And, the stop... caught them off guard.

Lang was aiming. He was listening. He didn't look like he wanted to listen at first, but he did anyway. He looked increasingly tense the longer the hedgehog spoke, and then, once the guy was done... there wasn't the release that would have been expected, nor the gunshot.

Lang stepped forward and aimed closer. He gritted his teeth and steeled himself. But he wasn't satisfied, wasn't close enough. He took another step forward. And another. He was just feet away, point blank range.

His teeth gritted. The sights were right between Geoff's eyes. A gurgling kind of guttural growl came deep in his stomach; it turned into a roaring shout of frustration as he just turned away.

Whoop, surprise. He shuffled back, kicking up gravel as he violently turned again, aimed again, and fired.

The shot flew wild over Geoff's head.

Two, three, four, even five more shots went off, obliterating AC units and pelting the support structure of the helipad. He suddenly stormed off, stomping briskly to where Dian had just zipped away seconds before.

The zipline hung limp; it had been disconnected from the other side.

The pheasant looked between Geoff and his partner, then bolted to catch up with the latter. He leered at him for a moment; Lang said nothing to him, but just jumped off the side of the building, fanned out his arms and legs, and soared off toward the other building in much-belated pursuit.

The bird watched him fly off in silence. He didn't yet follow, but instead looked warily back at Geoff.

Casey had meanwhile limped and grunted his way near Geoff. When Latika came out moments before, though, he instead made his awkward pain-waddle toward her to find out what was going on.

There was a lot more going on in Casey's head than just grunting and hobbling, mind you. He hadn't even hurt his leg—it was just the stiffness of absolutely pummeling his back on that gravel. Even that was beginning to fade with that infernal mirror gone. Instead, it was that he was anxious to... get away from Geoff's situation. He felt some obligation both to do something, but also just to keep his distance. Any trouble that Latika brought was "something else," and something else was infinitely more desirable, especially if it was actually important. And... Mako being poisoned, and Ace fighting a robot definitely ranked up there.

"Latika, wha're you talkin' about," he huffed and puffed, straightening up.

The pheasant stared kind of glumly at Geoff for a few seconds.

"... It'd probably be better if you didn't," he answered quietly.

Right about then, a great number more things to deal with came barreling through in the form of Latika and something very pressing happening downstairs. If Geoff happened to glance at the commotion, he'd find the bird gone when he looked back.

By the time Ember and Tyra caught up, chances were that Casey had been forced to make Latika repeat herself at least once for... integrity of communication, one might say. That is, to make sure she was indeed using the right words and seriously meant that Mako had been poisoned and hidden in a closet, and Ace and Ember were fighting a "tank woman."

Mind you, it was not that this was improbable. Not at all. Not only had Casey gotten a sense of the fact that this was just the kind of group that such things happened to with alarming regularity, but he'd seen some crazy crap in his time, too. It was just that it was bad. It was just when he did decide to go barging off for the stairs to take care of business himself that the stairwell door burst open again with, yes, Ember and Tyra, bringing news most foul.

"Gone?" blurted Casey loudly, simultaneously echoing Ember and accidentally finishing Tyra's sentence for her. An astute individual might see that he seemed particularly put out by this, bent out of shape, nearly, even though he hadn't shown any particular signs of taking a shine to Ace prior. He turned and looked around urgently, then started to reach for something on his belt, but stopped short, and stared off toward the stairwell with eyes wide like his mind was racing.

"Do we have any idea what the heck's goin' on or why?" he asked the group at large, urgently. "Those guys said it was Li Fang's men. Why'd some crime boss wanna come bust us up and swipe Ace, of all people?"

Pause. Before anyone could get a full answer out, he looked most pointedly (and confusedly) at Tyra.

"And who 're you?"

Oh, the confusion. There were so many things happening.

Casey had a certain way about him that was transparent, maybe even easy to read. As Geoff spoke, skepticism curled his brows down and twisted his mouth; without speaking, his face clearly said he thought there had to be more to it, or that he just plain wasn't satisfied with that answer, or maybe even that he already had some unshared insight.

Before there could be any more discussion of the matter, he suddenly blurted, "Nevermind, I gotta— I gotta take care of somethin' right now."

He turned and huffed off, hiking his pants up (it seemed to be a problem for him) and trundling off somewhere around the other side of the helipad. "I'll be back!" he called back.

If he was followed too obviously, he'd probably confront his follower with an irritated look and a request for privacy (unless it was one of the girls, in which case he'd be a little nicer, as he was just... old-fashioned like that). If one were to trail him a little more stealthily, and with some discretion, however, they'd hear the beginning of a conversation, as he pulled out his phone (Egg Mobile, of course, as if there was any other option on the market yet), dialed, and addressed a mystery-party on the other end.

"S'Casey," he whispered, albeit loudly, trying to talk over the rooftop winds cutting into the receiver.

...

"Big big big problem. Mr. Yellow done got grabbed."

It was becoming difficult to hear. He was hunching forward and cupping the phone.

"Yep. ... Mirror was here too."

The conversation descended into mumbling. His voice raised again, though.

"You can't possibly expect me to do that alone! No-no-no way, no how, buddy, I ain't— what? ... With this bunch? No. N-O no, not gonna happen. You send somebody. ... Don't care. ... Don't. Care! I'm done, then. ... ... Yeah, I mean it. ... ... ... Yeah? Alright, well, if you send somebody. I ain't suicidal. ... ... Alright. ... ... ... Alright. ... Yeah, you give me support, I'm still on."