Panther lays about her with her whip, keeping the shadows occupied and off her teammates.

Julie bursts forth, spreading curses upon the guards.

The guards are starting to fall apart now, down to only half their numbers. They keep fighting, though. One stabs at Joker and another slashes brutally at Panther.

Joker's not there, though. She leaps out of the way of the stab, then tries for her own strike in return. It's kind of fun how light on her feet she is now. 

Panther falls back from the strike, then her whip lashes out and wraps around the guard's sword hand. In a moment she has it disarmed, and with her free hand she pulls her Tkachev and shoots it thrice in the chest. 

One shadow falls, Joker's dagger piercing armor with the caustic power of all the hurt she's been dealt, and then the other, the bullets from Ann's Tkachev puncturing it easily.

Both dissolve into darkness.

Orchid snags the stray sword, shifting her empty gun to her off-hand. It feels good, but she wants something longer. She hastily blocks a strike from a shadow, then lashes out herself, sending it tumbling backward.

Skull catches that one in a blow from his pipe as well, and it falls.

Carmen incinerates a guard that was approaching Orchid, and then throws her a wink.

The rest is pretty much just cleanup after that.

Orchid boggles a bit at how impressive everyone is, but follows along as they continue to explore.

With a few more fights they can't avoid, the team manages to make it to the playroom.

It's still exactly as dehumanizing as they remember.

Shiho recoils. "Oh god. That's how he sees us, isn't it?"

Ann nods. "Yeah. We're just lucky my clone seems to be out." 

"We're going to put an end to this. We've just got to keep moving."

Orchid looks back at the playroom for a moment as they depart, shaking her head. For a moment, a headache crashes across her temples, and she brings her hands to her head, hissing in pain.

Skull, near the back of the group, hears her first. "You okay, Orchid?"

Panther looks over concernedly.

"Headache?" Joker asks.

She nods. "Yeah. Just hit as we were leaving the room. Passed now, though."

"I had those for a while before I awakened, too. That does seem to suggest you have the potential..."

"Hm. Good to know. Let's keep going, though."

Skull nods and starts moving as well.

Joker nods, and the group continue their journey inward.

Out the back of the playroom, up a narrow staircase, and then they find a small group of armored shadows outside a guard station. The guards are easily dispatched, and then they find the other half of the map inside.