Difference between revisions of "2796/Project C Begins"

Latest revision as of 17:54, 27 September 2015

Project C Begins
Date of Scene:	13 August 2015
Location:	Urbania
Synopsis:	Description pending. (Project C TP)
Cast of Characters:	2, Deelel, Arthur Lowell, 135, 219, 253, 255, Theo Morrison, 347, 353, 385, 395, Blurr, 545, 554, 565, 829, 834
Tinyplot:	Project C

Professor Therion (565) has posed:
    ONE HOUR AGO...

    This is a temple with throne room. Droning voices carry on, a worshipful tone that empowers those standing here. This statement repeats about six dozen times. No seriously, it just goes on and on. It's kind of tortuous.

    CURRENT TIME

    At last, the Illusionary Heart Mother has risen into the sky, and in the process numerous cultists have died. Not that anyone OUTSIDE knows that. All that matters for the city is that the massive fortress is hovering above it... and the swarms of flying drone-robots. They're definitely West's design, though more streamlined than the earlier ones... and there are hundreds of them. Smaller than his usual ones, they still prove capable when a squadron of approaching fighter jets is dispatched with ease.

    There's another problem, though... a pulsing /presence/ from the globe is saturating the city, a feeling that claws at the mind. Partially it's because the sphere doesn't really look like a sphere, exactly, like it's angles are wrong... which makes no sense because it's a sphere. It should come as no surprise that the panic in the streets is making an orderly evacuation very, very difficult, meaning the city is PACKED with screaming and fleeing civilians, some of whom are fighting one another.

Setsuko Kaminagi (255) has posed:
    She should have seen it coming. She should have felt it coming. A chaotic battle this big? Rioting and panicked fighting in the streets, jets being shot out of the air? Setsuko should have felt this level of chaos a week in advance. Did they obscure what was coming with some sort of magic? Or did she simply miss it, a failure on her part? Too new to the world, unable to see what was coming for the battle she was already in? It doesn't matter. She failed to see it coming, and now people are dying. It has to stop.

    She can't stop the fighting in the streets. There's too much of it, too widespread. But in the sky above, there are enemies. A whole host of them. She's not sure what these drones are, but the swordswoman knows they're something she can handle. A threat she can remove.

    "ZANJINTOU... DAI! SHAAA! RIIIIIIIN!"

    Its blade shaped into a massive boomerang, the massive sword belonging to Setsuko Kaminagi goes hurtling through the air towards a cluster of airborne drones, aimed to cut through several in succession before finally returning to its owner's hand.

Marisa Kirisame (829) has posed:
SUDDENLY, LASER!

    Four brilliant beams of cyan starlight lance across the sky, cleaving into a cluster of drones. Explosions follow- but not just from broken machines. Bolts of emerald-colored magic barrel in after the beams, bursting into starbursts of heat, light and concussive force the moment they make contact with anything substantial.

    A little witch races beneath the stormy clouds, the city below her aglow with the mandmade light. She licks the sweat off her upper lip, tugging the lip of her mushroom-like hat down over her eyes to keep them from staring at that terrible, undulating non-sphere up above.

This isn't the first time Marisa Kirisame has dealt with awful non-euclidean bullshit, but it's certainly the first that something of this order has ever been involved.

    "This looks like it could get interesting," Marisa chuckles, quartet of colorful glass spheres whirling all around her. More lasers pour out of them, pummeling at another cluster of drones. "Don't think it's gonna be something we can just wrap up quick and be done with. Ah well."

She smirks, "Might as well make a show out of it."

Yuna Kagurazaka (385) has posed:
"LIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIGHT *UP*!!! EL-LINE!!"

Yuna and the Matrix of Light are barely on the ground in Arkham for three seconds - just long enough for them to clear the warpgate and for Yuna to take a deep breath - before a pillar of light rises into the sky; within the pillar, there's a brief glimpse of the figures of Yuna, Erina, Jiina, and Marina, plus the much smaller form of Elner, before all five of them are obscured from view. Seconds later, the pillar dissipates again to reveal the sleek, massive, gleaming form of the Matrix Figure, El-Line, just before the giant robot accelerates into the air.

"Those robots that are flying around are just drones, right?" Yuna inquires within the Matrix Figure's cockpit, her knuckles white under her gloves as she grips the controls.

/Affirmative,/ Elner's voice replies, the robo-faerie's 'visage' displayed on a monitor to Yuna's right. /No life signs detected, and I'm not sure they have room for pilots./

Yuna nods, taking a deep breath. The last time she was in El-Line's cockpit was ... not a very fond memory, and while she's largely come to terms (finally) with what happened on that outing, that doesn't mean the emotional scars have gone away - as she's discovering. But the fact that the drones *are* just drones is a welcome relief; she doesn't have to feel guilty about wrecking them. "Are they headed for any particu-- LIGHTNING SWORD!!!"

Rather than finishing the question, Yuna summons El-Line's sword, the massive blade flaring into existence in the Matrix Figure's grasp just in time for El-Line to swing it hard at the first of an approaching group of drones. "Shugoseiheki!!" Yuna follows up, and the kite shield - scaled up to El-Line's size - materializes in her super robot's left hand for defense.

There are probably going to be civilian casualties no matter what, but Yuna can at least start wrecking the drones before they can kill civilians near her location.

Amalthea (395) has posed:
    The past few days have been rough. Amalthea had the simple plan of relaxing in the Arkham apartment after the last big push by Black Lodge, keep an eye on things, and hopefully take it easy.
    It is not to be.
    Waking up and pouring a bowl of Shoggothi-os for breakfast and munching away slowly while reading the paper, the unicorn spends most of her day being lazy, wearing only a fuzzy bathrobe, and otherwise channel surfing.
    Getting closer to evening time now, Amalthea chances opening the shades, a fresh mug of evening tea in one hand, hair a mess, and otherwise looking like she hasn't bothered with doing a damn thing. Until she looks out the window. For a long moment all she does is stare blearily outside at the mind-scathing spheroid, before her brain finally registers that she should be dropping her mug right now.
    With a crash her mug shatters into a million pieces as she wheels around and throws open the closet, flinging on more than just her bath robe in a hurry.
    Once again she has an awkward elevator ride up to the roof with a neighbor, while cheezy muzak plays, until she hits the apartment roof deck and promptly leaps off, taking to the skies.
    Only to find them CHOKED with drones.
    In the fiery wake of the defense jets being taken down, she darts in like a flash of silver and prismatic color, lance gleaming vengeful promise as she flings herself into the aerial fray.

Al Azif (135) has posed:
So, with all these robots showing up, it's not a big surprise that a sudden explosion of air shatters(more) windows nearby, the massive form of Demonbane crashes into the street near the abandoned sector. It's not anywhere near civilians this time.

Demonbane quickly leaps up, smashing a fist into one of the robots, then jerking in midair to dodge a salvo from another. The movements of the mecha are... sluggish, though. Jerky and less refined than usual. As if there's something wrong with the control system.

Psyber (253) has posed:
    Arkham was under attack again. Anti-Cross's next move was much faster than Psyber anticipated it would be after the pretty heavy hits both sides took during the last conflict. As soon as the distress call went out, Psyber had mobilized to go. Unfortunately, the panic in the streets and densely packed civilians meant he (and the potential passenger or two that came in his car) have to park and then go on foot.

    The half-angel doesn't have much that can deal with airborne drones. Homura is in possession of the only weapon he has that could do that. So instead, he's trying to organize help on street level. He can feel the clawing panic and the influence of the globe. But he's become well and capable of swallowing his own emotions and putting on the calm face as of late. Plus, street-level rioting he can deal with.

    He takes a huge object out of the trunk of his car, which is revealed to be an M79 grenade Launcher. He promptly sends one flying towards a group of rioting civilians, trying to saturate the air around them with tear gas and disperse the fighting.

Deelel has posed:
Deelel has taken to patroling as of late and she's picked up the signal regarding to the in prodgress attack. There were a whole not of robots attacking and they were going to need some help. There's also something else something isn't right here either and it leaves the basic on edge as her light jet banks in towards city. The Orbs? The fortress and the robots? Do not sit well with Deelel however she's going to get into the mix of things fast the moment she's in range of the bots the energy machine guns on the jet will be opening up on them as she moves to engage them.

Defiant (554) has posed:
Defiant can't take to the skies, not without a dragoncraft. And the civilians, in danger from the drones and from themselves, is a more pressing concern to the cape. He cuts a distinctive figure in his green and gold powered armor, replete with etchings of dragon wings and scales. The sphere's influence presses in on his mind, like the far-away sound of nails on a blackboard, just at the edge of his perception.

Spear in hand, Defiant presses his way through the crowds. He's slow and careful, relying on his size and weight to allow him to push through the press of people like a rock through water. But when he comes across a group of rioters, his spear goes down and he projects a wave of sonic energy at them - stopping the fighting by debilitating the people involved.

Homura Akemi (2) has posed:
    Not one for being idle, this time Homura is working on a ground-to-air missile on the backseat of Psyber's car. The thing barely fits in the car, and she's propped it half open to add stuff inside it. This could have been her career, honestly, but most colleges don't offer 'illegally messing with military hardware' as a course or diploma of any kind. Something about it being heavily discouraged and also maybe illegal.

    She shuts the panel of the missile as Psyber stops the car (to shoot drones with a grenade launcher), just sort of sitting on the weapon and glancing out the vehicle for a moment.

    "Why do you never take me here for nice things, anyway?"

    She gets out the car, dusts herself, causes the missile to disappear, and then joins Psyber, insofar as one can call standing by him idle 'joining'. She is in fact already transformed into her magical girl outfit, though unarmed.

    "Or is this your idea of father-daughter bonding now?"

    An idle rocket appears out of nowhere headed skyward towards one of the drones, but it's to see how resistant they are more than anything.

Valentha Summers (834) has posed:
    Upon learning that Arkham had been plagued rather consistently with otherworldly horrors and devilish Shifter antics (at least, something close to what she'd call a Shifter!), Valentha took some time to investigate the region. Mystical studies uncovered some shocking answers to questions she held, but before she could really formulate any plan of action...

    Well, this happened.

    "Can I -PLEASE- have some PEACE when working on a project?! Gods!" Feigning comical indignance, arms folded over her chest, Valentha Summers nevertheless scans the battlefield swiftly whilst rising up into the air on a drift of arcane power.

    Her attetnion is drawn quickly towards the odd globe. Valentha stares only long enough to clap a hand to her forehead and squint both eyes shut. "Nnnnrgh.... twisted, alien geometry."

    More information will be needed to combat that THING safely. So Valentha doesn't bother, as many others are pulling out the big guns.

    Instead she swoops down through the streets, measuring evacuation progress. When she spots FIGHTS... she swoops in close and reaches out with her mind to scan those people's surface thoughts and feelings.

    She has suspicions, but it's best to confirm.

Laer (353) has posed:
    It had actually been a while since Laer had been in this part of thing, possibly to the relief of those involved normally given what sometimes passes for the bard's 'help'. That is going to end today! Because she's already here, mostly, turning up in a portal as the sort-of-sphere lifts up over the city. She'd gotten the memo, it appears, and has decided to come along and work a bit.

    The elf will glance downwards from where she's floating, about twenty feet over the street, at the civilians who are quite panicked. A teleporter elite could go a long way in helping the evacuation of the city, after all, and keeping people safe.

    Laer will ignore them, choosing instead to float in the direction of the sphere, trying to ignore that uneasy feeling in her mind about it. She wants to find out the actual source of that kind of power, though, and it's far more interesting than the robots are, though watching those fights is also a lot of fun. For the moment, she's observing more than assisting. This could be good or bad.

Lila (545) has posed:
Lila is here! As... usual. Well, she was somewhere in the city, and now she's atop a building, perched on the roof to watch the chaos wrecking the city. The young-looking girl doesn't look nearly so awe-inspiring without her Deus Machina, but she is armed and, as it proves, dangerous. Bullets walk toward her as a stuttering fire from one of the robots heads toward her position, and she lifts a barrier to block it, the mystical shield soaking up the hits without much damage. They'll need something a bit bigger than that to get through her defenses.

Of course, they do have something bigger, she's sure. That's why Lila isn't taking chances, and the robot attacking her vanishes utterly, as if it were never there to start with. Lila climbs up onto the lip of the building to sit down, considering her options during her brief moment of peace.

Blurr has posed:
Giant apparently spherical device releasing hordes of attacking drones on innocent humans, sounds like a situation that needs to be dealt with by Elites!

Blurr arrives quickly on the scene at Arkham city after hearing the reports, and after taking stock of the situation, he immediately heads toward the giant "sphere"-shaped whatever it is, hoping to learn more about what exactly it is and potentially find out if he can infiltrate it and stop the problem at its source.

Arthur Lowell has posed:
Arthur's approach comes as it always does: Screaming, riding a rocket, and ready for violence. He's charged danmaku bolts alongside his glowing body's blasts of white and black energies. He's going to pair up with Marisa, someone using the same tactics he does almost exactly, for now.

He focuses on the one thing he has some expertise with. Otherworldly spaces, otherworldly entities, and violence against robots. He's going to try to cut a path to the large sphere. Normally, he'd try shooting it, but if he can get close enough, he's going to try to cast his SPACE MAGIC to it. Probing at it, trying to disrupt whatever spatial intrusion it represents, and generally harassing it at an eldritch level to see how it can be meaningfully interacted with. Breach points, vulnerable areas, and the like!

Theo Morrison has posed:
Theo arrives in the fastest, most /technically/ direct, and potentially dangerous way he knows how: by planeshifting.

The air at the head of an alley adjacent to a construction site and near the worst of the trouble ripples strangely, space contorting like the fabric of reality was being twisted up by something underneath it. A second or two later, it actually breaks open, a rip to a place thankfully shrouded in dense white mist forming, if not actually /stabilizing/. Another couple seconds after /that/, Theo emerges, leaping through the distortion and sticking the landing for a change. He's been practicing.

The rend in reality lingers for a second or two longer than he's used to. He glances back, frowning, and it snaps shut, the normally-momentary tear gone as if it never was. He's not really good at the subtlety, but even then...

"Well, whatever," Theo mutters. He's heard the radio reports; he knows how bad this is looking. Theo snaps his fingers, and there's a flicker of the same white mist, appearing for an instant as Kickotron materializes. Theo hands the three-foot bird robot the usual tray table, and his sidekick dutifully plants it atop its head. "C'mon, let's get this show on the road."

Theo leans out from the corner of the alley, spotting the rioting and the seemingly-innumerable spheres. He sets his deck up while he does it, and his minute frown deepens when he spots the /big/ one. He doesn't have as much of a problem looking at it as some might; he's regularly exposed to space-that-isn't-space, so it's not too weird for him. Weird, yes, but /understandably/ weird. Except not... understandable.

Rather than pursuing that train of thought any further, Theo draws seven, puts two cards down and taps one. "Urza's Mine into Expedition Map." The construction site changes, turning into a deep pit ringed with primitive- and arcane-looking machinery at the top for moving things into and out of what is apparently some kind of mine. A large and ornate map of the city similarly materializes, this one in his hands. He spends a moment studying it rather than staring too closely at the death-orb.

Professor Therion (565) has posed:
    Setsuko and Marisa's entrance prove something pretty quickly: these drones are pretty tough, as things go, but they can't stand up to dedicated fire. It's not like mowing through mook soldiers, but as long as any combat-focused Elite keeps their head, they should be all right. Setsuko alone shears through three of them, causing them to falter and explode, while Marisa downs a few more. The real problem here is their sheer /number/, and keeping the civilians safe. Well, that and one other problem.

    The El-Line crashes down to slice into two more Drones by itself, and block incoming fire from a third. The drones are only a little smaller than the El-Line, so this is a good matchup. They're considerably less powerful though... it's a very refined design of West's, but they're mass-produced and have a few shortcuts to keep them from being too difficult to manufacture. The El-Line is soon joined by Amalthea's streak of jetpack carrying her into the fray. A small, maneuverable target seems to work well against these, but with the onslaught they're facing, they've started firing homing missiles at those that are too fast to just pursue. As Demonbane makes an entrance, however clumsily, more of the drones fall. A few swoop around to try to flank, but Deelel's energy bursts send them crashing into a building instead. There's... a lot of them, but the Union and others are out in force, aren't they?

    Not all are dealing with the drones though. Tear gas from Psyber makes the croud cough and fall, putting the riots into some level of control, however brutal. Much better than trampling one another, though. Defiant provides excellent crowd control as well, allowing the local police to herd people toward the shelters.

    Meanwhile, on the street nearby... "HEY! LITTLE GIRL WITH THE LAUNCHER!"

    THat would be the large man named Stone, yelling at Homura. Ness adjusts his cap. "My partner is wanting to ask... you wouldn't happen to know how to use one of these?" He jerks his thumb over around the corner, where a large MISSILE TRUCK sits with keys in the ignition.

    Valentha's scans reveal that the people are scared, but also having trouble THINKING because of that oppressive alien presence. Most of them are actually okay, but the more weak-willed have already had their barriers collapse within their mind, and are starting to lose it. That must be why things are so crazy.

    Laer will, surprisingly, have no trouble approaching the sphere. In fact she'll be the first one to see what happens shortly, though for now there's not much interesting going on. There are some openings in it, but they look kind of... alive. Ew. Blurr will follow shortly after, his speed letting him skim past most of the drones anyway. More on what they see in a moment.

    Lila, as usual, does nothing of importance yet.

    Arthur manages to open up a path toward the sphere, briefly exposing a tunnel without any flying drones for anyone who wants to follow. This opening will show up pretty clearly on Theo's map, and the sphere will be over SECTOR 13. However... a rippling, then a tear in reality opens nearby, bringing with it an emaciated-looking, alien and four-legged creature that only distantly resembles the Hound of its namesake. Turning toward Theo, the Hound of Tindalos starts to lope toward him.

Deelel has posed:
Deelel has run into the robots, she can help with that, while she's aquired some magical ability she's a raw rookie and she knows it. Given what's going on here? She's going to follow Arthur's advice. She's going top stuick to the robots. She doesn't seem to be happy about the crashing but there's not much she can do. She'l try to watch her attacks.

She kicks in the auto pilot on her ride and holds out one hand her keyblade appears in hand looking a lot like a light disc mounted on a tech handled and guard. She then throws it like a boomerang at some of the robots and banks. The weapon even if it misses will return to her or just vanish and appear back in her hand.

She's also moving to keep on the eviaive as these things seem to be pretty well made from the looks of it. Someone knew they needed numbers to deal with the response they'd get.

Professor Therion (565) has posed:
    For the most part, the drones don't seem to especially target anyone. They're going after anyone nearby, though they do seem to have threat-detection algorithms to go after the most DANGEROUS nearby, so that at least means they've largely stopped messing with the civilians.

    On a more immediate note...

    Arthur, Blurr, and Laer are approaching the sphere, and they will see an interesting sight. Namely, a number of Deus Machina, ranging from 40 to 80 meters in height. To be specific there are SIX of them, since Cykranosh is missing, what with Vespasianus stuck in a Union holding cell. These six consist of:

    A floating golden ball with lasers blasting out of it, eighty meters in height and pummeling the street with golden rays. A swift, flying one that is the smallest of all of them keeps screeching down, buzzing their opponent. A massive machine that looks to be slow and tough is advancing, cutting off escape, while another with four swords is desperately slicing and dashing in at the enemy they fight. Finally, an ugly-looking bulbous one is also in battle with the sixth... a sleek-looking humanoid one, that has some similarities to a lighter-colored Demonbane. The Liber Legis. It's heavily damaged, one arm torn off already, but all five of the others look to have had some pretty heavy damage as well.

Valentha Summers (834) has posed:
    There simply is NO TIME to to go over the fine details of thie situation! Having pegged the problem to be supernatural influence over simple panic, Valentha decides... the best way to fight fire is with fire. Were she a more powerful psion, perhaps she could WRENCH SOME SENSE back into these clouded minds. Since this is NOT the case, however...

    She swoops in, casting spell after spell, touching shoulder after shoulder. It's slow going at only a few castings every few seconds with many people who need some help, but she uses the extremely complex magic time after time.

    A wave of calm is delivered, time after time, to quell the panic and the gibbering broken minds, and perhaps give sanity a chance to recover. "Flee! Flee to the shelters before it gets worse. DO NOT LOOK UP!"

Defiant (554) has posed:
     Whatever this malignant /thing/ is, the closest analogue in Defiant's mind is of the Endbringer Simurgh, a winged being that psychically influences everything it hovers over. Going by what's happening on the streets, the sphere (which still hurts his organic eye to look at and threatens a migraine) is having a similarly destructive influence.

     Therefore, saving the civilians is his first priority. "Get moving, find shelter," Defiant intones from behind his helmet, waving over a set of beleagured police officers to guide a group of civilians to safety.

     The situation over the radio has him keep his eyes peeled, spear in one hand. Even if he's only taking handfuls of water out of a sinking ship, that'll have to be enough. "Theo, what's your status?"

Setsuko Kaminagi (255) has posed:
Setsuko catches the Zanjintou as if it were the most natural thing in the world, already moving when she does so. The momentum of the flying blade is transformed into a spin, and by the time she brings it around towards another drone with all the might she can bring to bear, it's taken its more usual shape of a blade twice her own height. She brings it through the followthrough easily, about to turn and launch for another nearby drone - when Ariel's voice comes in over the radio.

The realization is instant, and a blend of sudden, deep worry and frustrated ire flares in the swordswoman. But she crushes both emotions immediately, and instead turns to fly as quickly towards Demonbane as she can. The swordswoman means to put herself near the Deus Machina as quickly as she can, where she can lash out any any given target that comes close enough to present a danger to Al Azif. This could still easily go bad, quickly, but even if all of them focus on Demonbane at once, Setsuko can at least buy time.

Psyber (253) has posed:
    "Well Homura, you know," Psyber comments as he flips open the grenade launcher, ejecting the spent casing and sliding another one in, "Only place I really know in the city is an ice cream store. And you don't let people go to ice cream stores," Psyber notes as he clicks the grenade launcher shut.

    "Besides, maybe I'd take you more fun places if you remembered holidays like Father's Day, y'know?" He comments idly, totally not still a bit salty at not being expressely given a card by Homura. He's only... at most... ten percent serious. He grins at Homura and then watches as a MISSILE TRUCK shows up. Even as her father, he knows he can't compete with the truck for her attention, "Go on, catch up later."

    Psyber's original plan was to stick street level and keep lobbing grenades of tear gas into crowds to help Defiant out. He gets a couple more clouds of teargas going to keep the police covered before he tosses the weapon to the side upon getting more important news over the radio. The half-angel shifts his gaze up towards the sphere and then takes off into flight. He, despite better judgment, is going to try to really haul ass and wing-flap his way up to give Therion some cover.

Yuna Kagurazaka (385) has posed:
So El-Line is drawing the drones' attention away from the civilians. This is an acceptable situation in Yuna's eyes, although there are a LOT of drones ... and she's still several shades of anxious about just having the Matrix Figure in action. If she can lead drones further away from the local citizenry on the ground, though, she's happy enough to do that.

(It hasn't occured to her, at least not yet, that her case of nerves is based on something more than recent memories.)

Homing missiles aren't all that hard for Yuna to deal with; she flies away from them and does her best to catch the incoming missiles on her shield, the Wall of the Guardian Star living up to its name. Thinning the missiles out further is accomplished by dismissing her sword and launching energy blasts from El-Line's thusly-freed hand - plus, Yuna can dispense some blasts to keep the drones' aggro on her.

With the situation continuing to develop, there's a piece of Yuna which wants to finish the drones off faster and go help with other issues ... but if the drones are allowed to run free, a lot more civilians will die, or the drones will go after her friends instead, or - other bad things, too many possibilities to make a full list while she's in the middle of them.

The Savior of Light takes a deep breath, grits her teeth - and then doubles back, plowing THROUGH the missiles shield-first, and goes back to town on the drones with Lightning Shoot energy blasts and a few stray kicks and shield-bashes.

Homura Akemi (2) has posed:
    "That's not very fair. I haven't celebrated that in..." Homura actually raises her hands to count on her fingers briefly, not the full length though. "More than a decade. I'll get you two cards next year."

    He's right, though, being given a missile truck is pretty distracting. The Puella Magi smiles innocently to the two officers. "Wwwwwweeeeell, I know how, but it'll only be my first time."

    The next moment she's already on top of the missile truck, rather than inside, a light purple sheen wrapping over the vehicle. She glances towards Stone and Ness. "Well, are you boarding or not? I can provide weapons." If they do come with her they'll have a near-infinite supply of rocket launchers (and rockets) on demand.

    Either way, the rocket truck will take off in the streets, not driven in the cleanest and straightest way (Homura's magic was just not made to drive vehicles, and it's kind of an add-on to her ability to stuff magic into things) but accurately enough not to crash into anything. She's making for the DEMONBANE, ground-to-air missiles firing to intercept DRONES.

    She didn't know Al could pilot the thing on her own, but it's sounding more difficult than if Ariel were there, so best provide aid. The abuse of time magic to reload the missile truck between shots might just help THEO out too if that HOUND can be distracted at all.

Amalthea (395) has posed:
    All it took was one little moment of finding out that Ariel isn't in the Demonbane to throw Amalthea for a loop. It explains why the mecha isn't at top shape. Yet still it's enough to throw Amalthea for a loop and off her game with a grunt. She has to swerve out of the way of a drone, it's that bad.
    And then there's the ominous battle of the Deus Machinae. Now she just breaks plain off, from the drones that blanket the skies, smashing through one last one.
    With a THUNK, Psyber might feel something more solid under his boots...
    It's Amalthea's shield, propping under him as she flips down her aviator's goggles. "Need a boost?" She doesn't wait for an answer to kick in her jump pack's afterburners.

Theo Morrison has posed:
Theo examines the map. He sees the tunnel, the sphere, the destination... which is about what he needed. "Sector 13... alright." He tosses it aside, drawing and playing another land -- this one, "Urza's Tower," converting the opposite side of the street into a a tall, square tower made of white stone, with high arches, huge windows, and a golden dome at the top. It's not... /too/ out of place, right? "Tap two, sacrifice Expedition Map..."

It's right when Theo is searching through his deck that he feels the prickling on the back of his neck. He turns... and drops the card he'd just fished out. It flips and falls, landing face-down on the tray. "Uhh --" He slaps the deck together and sticks it on the tray adjacent to his Abstractum, the emblem currently stuck firmly to the surface. Kinda like the cards are. "-- run!"

Theo takes off out of the alley, Kickotron ahead of him. He heads towards the open passage, trying to put distance between himself and something that can straight-up leap out of his card sleeves to kill him. (Perhaps fortunately, he doesn't think about this fact, or he'd be in a way worse state of mind right now.) He /does/ get on his ecto to call for help, though!

Arthur Lowell has posed:
"THERION!" Arthur calls out to Therion as he tears ass through the drones. "FUCKING OPEN UP! RIGHT NOW!" He hopes that his demonstration of willingness to protect Therion back in that infested city will come through here. Rocketing as hard as he can at the Deus Machina, he's going to try to locate ports or points of entry and simply slam into the body of the machine, already glowing with tremendous power. A little known fact: Arthur Lowell is an incredibly potent WARP ENGINE, able to provide outrageous amounts of magical energy to any vehicles.

"You piece of shit, you absolute fucking asshole, I will fucking /kill/ you if you die here!" He shouts, hopefully at this point pumping copious space energy into the Liber Legis. He'll try to make a fancy STARLIGHT ARM to replace the lost one, through which he'll manifest his own abilities more directly. "Explain! Fucking explain this shit /right now/!" He may be here to help, but lord knows he's gonna make Therion know he really doesn't want to.

Professor Therion (565) has posed:
Deelel is attacking the drones, and it's pretty chaotic up there! Quite the mess, really! Bullets fly, and missiles fire... but one after another they start to fall. That's when their movements get a little less random, and seven of the drones form up into a complex pattern, weaving about and moving to outflank Deelel in a surrounding motion that will catch her in a crossfire if nobody does something, or she doesn't try something clever.

Marisa Kirisame (829) has posed:
    Drones, drones, drones. These things are actually pretty sturdy, to be quite honest. Marisa sort of expected them to be the type to take a few hits and then explode, considering how many of the damn things there are. But no, they've got enough individual bulk to take a licking and keep right on ticking. Several swoop down after her, but dodging a whole bunch of angry flying things is something that Marisa is all too familiar with.

    The situation... develops, over the radio. Marisa's lips form a thin line as she unleashes another flurry of magical projectiles. "Wow, this is uh. A little heavier than I expected," she mutters. "'An apocalypse,' huh? Don't think I signed up to stop the end of a world..."

First time for everything, though.

    More drones swoop in, Marisa's eyes dart towards them. She jukes out of the way just in time to turn around and fill her assailants with so many beams. "Right, I think it's about time to start gettin' serious."

    Marisa... straightens. She forces herself into the air with a shove of her hands and then lands, feet flat on the shaft of her trusty broomstick. With a flick of her wrist and a whipping sweep of her legs, the Hakkero is pressed hard into the tuft of shredded bamboo at the business end of her loyal steed.

She lifts her hat. One more orb joins the other four.

    "Arright," the witch grins, her stance widening, profile lowering. More drones crowd in- they're between her and her goal. 'Support Therion,' they said, right? 'Kill the drones too' was implicit. Fortunately, she can do both. "Declare Spell Card!"

    Light suddenly swallows the five orbiting orreries. A plume of flame erupts from the back of her broom. Marisa presses her hat to her head with one hand. The other clutches at two brilliant, glowing <span class=" bold_fg_y bg_n ++ ards.

chy">BLAZING STAR</span>
PLUS
NON-DIRECTIONAL LASER

    Marisa takes off into bulk of the swarm like a shot. Her laughter tumbles out of her throat, but is largely swallowed up by the tremendous, deafening thunder of the Hakkero's thrust! There's light all around her. She's surrounded by the stuff! But that's not all. Those five orreries aren't just for show. Each one shines with a halo of colorful, vivid energy. Each one fires an intense lance of sweeping, metal-melting, stone-shattering energy that is somehow both simple beams of laser-light and rays of raw, concussive force all at once.

Are these the BIG GUNS!?

No. This is just the start! Kirisame Marisa hasn't even begun to fight!

Laer (353) has posed:
    Laer may not have been following these twists closely enough - there was some kind of wierd relationship between Lila and Therion, she remembered, but what was it, exactly? One of them was the other's mother.

    She'll figure out which is which again later on. It probably won't be that hard.

    The elf is going to intercede in the battle, not particularly hampered by the issue of scale between elf and mecha by virtue of not getting in the way directly. She doesn't really want to break into scales, trying to save that for when she needs the extra boost.

    "Fine, fine, Arthur. If you really insist upon me getting involved." She'll target the one that's scouting the street with golden rays, by virtue of singing and attempting to open up a portal from between it and the street to behind it. Laer may have spent a little too much time working for GLaDoS back in the day.

Professor Therion (565) has posed:
The panicking civilians are... calmed, thankfully, by Valentha's spell. This allows them to stop screaming, and pay attention to the authority-figure-type man that's shouting for them to get to safety. Well, more just saying it, but the point is DEFIANT looks like someone who knows where to go. This is clearing the streets rapidly, which is good. It should be a lot easier to move now that the Arkham police can handle the leftovers.

Blurr has posed:
    Blurr indeed happens upon an interesting sight as he approaches the sphere. It would appear that there is dissention among the ranks of the enemy mechanoids, and this is confirmed by the chatter on the broadband. Well that's a good thing, right? Since they're occupied fighting each other, team good can focus on stopping the immediate threat to the city. Why is this vessel attacking the city, anyway?

    Only one way to find out. It does appear that there are openings in the strange round ship, though they don't look particularly inviting...

    The Autobot continues his speedy advance and attempts to get inside the ship through one of those openings, if any of them are large enough to fit him.

Deelel has posed:
Deelel has been in some chaotic fights, and this one is certainly chaotic. She's trying to eodge the incoming attacks and also watch for large area effects from allies. There's a lot of people responding some she might not have fought along side before. Her keyblade comes flying back at her and she deftly catches it in her hand before turning about to see she's got seven of them coming after her. They will catch her in a crossfire but she's got a plan, she has something the enemy might not know, she holds her Keyblade towards herself for a moment, she pulls up hard and then the lightning which might just jump between the enemy formation and hit several units. IF that fails she's got another plan in mind.

Lila (545) has posed:
Lila listens to people... and smiles to herself with a sigh. "Ariel is much too gentle for this. Maybe this was a mistake after all. I wonder if I'll get another try, or..." She closes her eyes. "It would be nice if I just managed to die this time... but I've enjoyed my time here. Maybe I'll actually help them. Let's go."

Lila steps off the building... and vanishes into the swirl of the summoning that she performs, the vast shockwave of a massive, three hundred meter death machine appearing causing buildings around her to crumble outright. The enormous form of the Nameless One is quite a distance from most of the fighting, but that doesn't matter. All she wants to do is ONE THING, really... and that involves the red-tinged energy blast to tear across the sky, ripping a path through the swarm of drones and even searing into the side of the giant sphere, as much as she can. Where it passes, there's simply /nothing/ left, eradicated as if it never existed, even the tops of a few buildings.

Al Azif (135) has posed:
Hey, Al Azif can pilot the Demonbane JUST FINE without Ariel, you see! Okay, she's slower... and can't use Cthugha and Ithaqua. And well, she's not that great at handling all the systems, either. But she CAN use the Scimitar of Barzai, and that cleaves through another Drone.

Then the frustrated noise. "I can't..." Sigh. Much as she doesn't want to admit it, she is FAR weaker in Demonbane without Ariel, and she's slower too. The leg-shields power up, and a leap carries her to another section of the city, slamming down atop a building. This rendezvous with Setsuko does give her some coverage, though. "I know I'm not as good as Ariel, but she doesn't want to and I can't force her to! I'll... break the pact if I need to."

Professor Therion (565) has posed:
Lila's blast thins out a path, and even opens a scar along the side of the sphere! A gash that is... starting to heal already. The rest, though, are annihilated, as her power tends to do when these things come into contact with her abilities.

But she isn't the only one handling that. The skies are getting cleared further as YUNA plows through a missile barrage to down some of the drones, allowing some more to form up behind her... until they're distracted by another threat, as HOMURA just starts sending rockets blasting into them, several careening down and smashing into the ground. RIP Drones. It looks like Homura and Yuna are managing to keep them under control for now, thankfully, at least in this sector. Setsuko and Al can handle the remainder that are drifting toward them, getting a scattering at first. Strangely, they don't seem to be focusing on Demonbane any more than anything else.

Professor Therion (565) has posed:
Amalthea gives Psyber a boost, letting him fly faster toward. The rocket knight and half-angel hurtle toward the battlefield, and thanks to the efforts of Lila, Yuna, and Homura, they have some clear sailing to it! There remains the question of what to DO when they get there, though!

Valentha Summers (834) has posed:
    The timely arrival of DEFIANT helping Valentha leaves her sighing in relief. Perect timing! She'll continue casting calming spells on anyone who needs it, but once the procession is going soothly... swoops straight up into the sky, still held aloft by a barely-visible magical aura.

    Idly she casts a few spells, chantnig out words at high speed and directing flares of energy! Mystical orbs packed with explosive power fly out, each homing in on a different nearby drone. But her main goal is gazing down to see if there's any more pockets of civilians in need of help..

    If so? Time to swoop down and repeat the process!

Setsuko Kaminagi (255) has posed:
"And how would she feel if you did so, Al Azif?" Setsuko replies, whipping her weapon around her again and again, moving with perfect fluidity to cover the Demonbane's blindspots. With every swing, she speaks; so in tune with the battle that she can converse without breaking her flow, carving through drone after drone with Zanjintou easily.

"If I know Ariel even a fraction so well as I believe I do, she has come to count you as more than a tool or even an ally- you have become a friend to her, someone she cares for. And how badly will she be hurt if you break that pact? If you are captured? If you were hurt for her sake, pushed her away to protect her, what do you think that would do to her? I know that you have good intentions in mind, Al Azif. But if you act so rashly to protect her, you will cause Ariel more pain than if you had simply stayed by her side and supported her!"

Ariel (219) has posed:
    Huh. Everything is kind of going crazy. Ariel is staring out the window, and clutching her hand to her neck, feeling the Abstractum there. "I was just going to leave Demonbane alone, wouldn't that be better?" Shuffling a little in concern, her ears droop slightly. Sigh. "I don't think I like what I've become," she mumbles. "But it sounds like... Deia, I think I need your help. If you're awake."

    Summoning up her courage, the little unicorn shifts to her foal mode, scuffing the carpet. She turns toward the giant sphere in the distance, knowing the battle she needs to be at is somewhere there. "A... straight line. Well... I guess mom would be proud." Bracing herself, she lowers her head, horn-first at the wall...

    Then /bursts/ through the Hadou mansion wall in a sudden gallop, thundering toward the horizon horn-first. Hopefully she won't run into anything too tough for her horn and Deia's Barrier, right?

Professor Therion (565) has posed:
The Hound of Tindalos chases after Theo... at first doing a lazy loping gait, but Theo rapidly rounds a corner and evades, losing sight of the Hound very quickly. Doesn't seem like that bad of a thing, right?

Unfortunately, he didn't /literally/ round the corner, so the Hound of Tindalos is, a moment later stepping into his path as it emerges from a mailbox. Landing lightly on the street, it turns that misshapen head toward him and advances, as if toying with its prey. Defiant will probably arrive about this time.

Professor Therion (565) has posed:
Arthur's arrival at the Liber Legis at first gets no reaction, and indeed the Ogre's sword shears down the armor and causes it to stagger. Therion's counter-punch seems... weak. Unfocused. How odd. Yet he does open the hatch and let Arthur in. The magus and Etheldreda, his grimoire, watch passively as he supercharges the systems, the arm that forms slowly getting replaced by an impossible 'regeneration' of the mechanical parts. This allows him to almost casually bat the next strike from Ogre out of the way, and kick the machine of Titus's aside and into a building.

"It appears they are betraying me," Therion replies with a note of boredom. It's also pretty obvious that he... isn't /really/ trying to defend himself. He's putting up a token struggle, and even so he's managing to hold off all five decently well. "They are probably going to kill me and take control of the Illusionary Heart Mother for themselves. Most likely Augustus."

Defiant (554) has posed:
     It's difficult to navigate through such chaotic situations, however, luckily Defiant and Valentha have managed to clear much of the panicking civilians out of the way. When there's no clear path, Defiant simply uses his set of powered armor to crash through walls, leap over cars, and generally bulldoze his way through anything he can. His power-armored boots leave deep imprints in the hood of a parked sedan as Defiant uses it as a springboard, landing with a heavy impact and the distinct sound of cracking asphalt.

     Just in time to see the Hound creeping out of a mailbox. It makes his head hurt.

     The cape draws his spear from his back, the three pieces snapping into one two-pronged whole. Moving to place himself between the Hound and Theo, Defiant advances upon the beast, whirling his spear around himself in a dazzling arc. Where the blade meets something, be it asphalt, concrete or metal, the blade slices through like its only meeting air, leaving grey smoke in its wake.

     "I'll hold it off," Defiant intones to Theo from behind his helmet. "Tame it, if you can. Otherwise, give me a signal, and I'll do my best to kill it. If my weapons are ineffective, then run."

Abstractum.Net (347) has posed:
"You need me. And your friend needs you. We can always place our faith in each other." Diea says, with a soft, encouraging tone, to Ariel. "You decide what you've become, Ariel. You don't need to have become a fighter. You can have become someone she can put her faith in." And then there's a more automatic tone. "Red Chroma. Barrier Driver." The colorful red spellcircles that encase Ariel should do the trick in letting her smash her way to the battlefield.

Homura Akemi (2) has posed:
    It's odd the Demonbane isn't getting targetted more heavily. Well, if it makes covering it easier, Homura won't complain. A missile truck can't even begin comparing to the armaments on the robot, but if a few well-placed shots buy Al Azif more time to do her thing, or Ariel enough time to reach it and use it (assuming she intends to at all), it's better than nothing.

    There will be a short stop, though; between rounds of firing at the drones, once Homura reaches the Demonbane (if she can at all), she intends to hop off the vehicle and take a closer look at the drones, or what's left of one anyway. She's no technology expert but she's no less curious what it is they're fighting, and perhaps whether or not the weaponry could be salvaged.

    But for the most part she's really just taking shots and trying to avoid them. She knows that truck won't survive a hit, so best not take one, even if it's inevitable. It's far too slow.

Professor Therion (565) has posed:
Marisa sends out another 'option' and then fills the air with BULLET SPAM all over! The resulting scattered fire sends several of the nearby drones down... which had the added effect of basically completely clearing the airspace around the Anticross. What's this mean? Well, Lila opened a path TO them, and Yuna and Homura cleared the entrance to that. Marisa just cleared the exit, and now there's a completely clear shot at any of the Anticross of anyone's choosing. Including hers...

This also makes it SUPER easy for Laer to open a portal, the next volley from the Legacy of Gold sending searing beams of light out and into... the portal. They slam into the floating orb's backside, sending it rocking forward. It seems to have some resistance to its own rays... but resistance isn't immunity, and it just got caught completely unawares, flipping over and tumbling to crash into the ground. It's not so damaged that it doesn't start to get up, but it's out of the fight for the moment, seeking new targets.

Psyber (253) has posed:
    "THANKS!" Psyber shouts down to Amalthea, bracing himself against the shield and banishing his wings as she jets him up towards the Illusionary Heart Mother. He's bracing his legs and resting them up a bit, but mostly planning out what exactly he's going to do. He doesn't have a mech, he can't steal a mech, and these guys all have mechs.

    He covers his eyes a bit at the massive blast of red energy from Lila along with Marisa's showy spell casts. He mulls it over for a bit. He knows WHO he wants to fight, but he lacks the end gameplan to do it. That's usually not been an obstacle for him, but this time it might be. He doesn't even have the energy to make a pun about winging it when Amalthea asks her question.

    It angers him, to some level, to not have a solution for a problem he wants. To only be working on guesswork and a hypothetical solution. Once he an Amalthea arrive, he goes through with the rough plan he gave Amalthea to take some heat off Therion. Hopefully it'll line up with Arthur's own goals.

    Using the momentum from her jets, Psyber leaps off Amalthea's shield and then summons Einherjar to his hands. Using all that forward force, he attempts to slam the crackling, holy blade right into the mid-section of Belzebuth, "HEY CLOWN MAN. I'M YOUR FIGHT TODAY. WE NEED TO HAVE A SERIOUS CHAT."

Al Azif (135) has posed:
Sigh. Al grinds her teeth and stabs another drone, then takes the resulting rest break to talk to Setsuko a little. "You weren't here in the cockpit with her. I know... I know if I ask her to, she'll go through with it. And I don't want to see that face again, okay? She's not just my Master, she's... she didn't ask for any of this, and she isn't ready to be a warrior, all right? She's not like you, not like me."

Demonbane needs a moment to recover though, so she backs up to let Setsuko handle more of the Drones. "She isn't someone who can take down Therion. Not because she isn't capable, because she shouldn't be capable. I'm fighting to defend people like her."

Professor Therion (565) has posed:
Is it possible to get into the ship? SURE IT IS! Blurr will, of course, need to find a way to gain altitude... that sphere is pretty high up. But a car of his speed should be able to do a sweet ramp up something and into the gap opened by Lila before it closes, thus gaining access to the... interior?

It's kind of like walking in the bowels of the ship, literally. Blurr will find the entire place is made up of a slick, spongy material that seems like it's alive. In fact, it has a /pulse/ of some kind. It also has some defenses, but they're pretty much mooks that an Autobot can walk right through... if he feels like going toward the center.

Professor Therion (565) has posed:
Ariel begins to smash through the wall! Ruri is not happy. But then, Ariel smashes through the fence as well! And... the stone wall beyond! The unicorn starts leaving a little cute-sized hole through everything in her way, making a very plain trail visible from the sky toward the battle.

Marisa Kirisame (829) has posed:
    There ain't nothing like superior firepower to clear the airspace in the morning. Marisa's triumphant grin seems utterly invincible as so many drones pop and explode all around her. The sky's all ablaze and it certainly seems that this particular witch is enjoying every minute of it.

But now that her path is clear, Marisa's got her eyes on a different sort of prize.

    The giant golden thing certainly looks tempting, but... As far as beams go, that sort of thing is her /specialty./ No, Marisa's going after the machine that only she can probably really keep up with.

Lord Byakhee is about to get a new dance partner.

    The Hakkero still burns brightly at the back of Marisa's broomstick. Even without the power of her spell-card fuelling it, Marisa's own magical reserves are enough to keep up speed-- even if she doesn't necessarily have the AWESOME ENERGY AURA up right now. But Lord Byakhee is fast. Maybe as fast as the Tengu. Marisa's going to need to press it hard to keep up, but...

    "Hey, speedy! You're pretty fast, but, I wonder--" The witch roars, dashing after the massive flying machine as fast as her broom will go. The orreries spin, their orbit oscillating as their beams lance outward. Lasers sweep from narrow to wide and back out again, the whirling orbs unleashing arcs of light to cut chunks out of the Lord Byakhee's armor. "Are you fast enough to dodge this!?"

Answer: probably.

Fortunately Marisa's got a backup plan.

Amalthea (395) has posed:
    If Amalthea could hear the things Al is saying, she would have some very choice words for the grimoire. Words about underestimating her daughter. If Amalthea could hear what Ariel is saying, she would, once again, take her daughter to her chest and give the young unicorn the best advice she could. If Amalthea could hear Lila, she would probably backhand the girl, for being so willing to die, after finally being accepted into the strange hodgepodge of intertangled and complicated relationships Amalthea calls a family.
    But with the wind screaming in her ears at blazing speeds, and distance separating them all, she can only focus on ferrying Psyber towards the clash of Deus Machinae. Having to squint through the blaze of brilliant red and prismatic light. "Ruh." Is her vague and affirmative reply to Psyber as he leaps off her shield. A twirl of her lance and decides her course of action.
    "TITUS."
    Her voice is a clarion call of challenge as she points the Wishblade at Ogre, the ancient silver lance of Tellius gleaming in the dim light of the night.
    "The last time we met I wasn't ready for you. But now I am. FACE ME!" Snarled in hopes to drag the sword wielding sorceror's attentin off Therion with a challenge he cannot refuse.

Professor Therion (565) has posed:
DEFIANT slams into the ground just in time to intercept the Hound of Tindalos. Maybe. The Hound could probably evade, but that smoking edge actually nicks it... and the nano-mist can actually HURT this thing. It doesn't come apart like a mortal being might, but there's an actual cut in the Hound's side, making it stop and vanish, then erupt from the join of the sidewalk and street, trying to pounce on Defiant. It's a pretty quick little thing, and vicious, too. Important thing is it's now busy with Defiant, though.

Yuna Kagurazaka (385) has posed:
The drones are getting thinned out pretty aggressively at this point, which is an excellent sign. In fact, it's excellent enough that Yuna allows Shugoseiheki to vanish again, the shield vanishing much the way the Lightning Sword did when it was no longer needed in-hand. Doctor West speaks up on the operations radio, providing some potentially useful intel on the drones - but it's intel which requires precision aiming, something that the Lightning Shoot isn't a whole lot of good at.

Fortunately, there's another option. "Elner," Yuna calls out, "I'm gonna need the Lightron. Could you -"

She doesn't need to finish the question; a large beam rifle materializes in El-Line's hands, and the Matrix Figure shifts the Lightron rifle into firing position as Yuna continues weaving across the city. Just because the drones are thinned out doesn't mean there are NONE left, after all - and while Yuna is heading towards the Nameless One to support Lila, she's still worried about the drones.

/Scanning for the weak points Doctor West described,/ Elner reports. /It should be easy enough to hit them at range./

"Thanks," says Yuna, pivoting the Matrix Figure to fly 'backwards' as she sweeps her aim across the cityscape. The rifle settles in one direction as she spots a cluster of drones ...

And just as the drones are almost perfectly lined up, Yuna pulls the trigger, and the Lightron rifle fires, sending a focused beam of energy lancing through the sky and into the drones. Precision aim is one thing - but the power in the Lightron's shots is probably enough to just go *through* the drones rather than 'merely' disabling autoloaders or engines. "Lila, are you holding up okay?" Yuna transmits as she resumes looking for drones to shoot down.

Theo Morrison has posed:
Theo's first movement, when he's around the corner, is to play through. Untap, draw, play. "Urza's Power Plant," he pants. He's not used to playing on the run, but he /is/ better at running. Since he got into the monster fighting business, he's been getting into somewhat better shape. It's momentarily heartening that he loses it.

And then it pops out of a mailbox. Theo skids to a halt. Kickotron, ahead of him, stops more gracefully -- which is good, because the sidewalk and the mailbox just changed dramatically. A brick and brass building takes the place of the one that was to his left; inside, flashes of green and blue light are seen intermittently. Not a second after that, it, the tower and the mine start working, taking on a certain dim radiance of their own. To the magically-sensitive, mana seems to well up in abundance from the three buildings working on concert.

Which is kind of what Theo wants. "Uhhh, good dog --" Defiant shows up and takes to trying to keep it off him. Theo's relief is palpable. "Great timing, Defiant." Theo glances at his hand, and taps out. He takes a breath.

"Golem Foundry!" A flicker. A vertical metal vat, better than seven feet tall, manifests to Theo's right. The front is open; the interior is dark, and what looks like vats of molten metal rest to either side of it. Heat radiates from it, but it doesn't do much of anything yet.

"Surge Node!" A flash. A gold and brass object rises out of the ground in front of him, a little taller than a minifridge, with a glassy domed top split by tines of the same golden-brass metal. Inside the globe, blue-white light swirls, giving off an impression of power and neatly illuminating the space around him. There's some kind of plug at the bottom, too... and the moment it appears, the heat from the Golem Foundry grows.

"Arcbound Ravager!" A wisp of white. A thing made of bent pieces of metal connected with some kind of white energy strides out from behind him, planting it firmly between him and danger. It's a little shorter than Theo, but wider, walking like a gorilla. It has very large, very sharp-looking teeth, and its head -- skull, really -- seems to be pitted and melted. The Golem Foundry nearby, at its presence, glows brighter than it had before.

This all takes a matter of seconds. Theo's spellcasting is as simple as playing a card game, albeit one with very real results in this kind of situation. He clutches his hand tightly, voices coming to him over his radio link, and steps forward. He extends his free hand, gesturing next to Defiant and uttering, "Myr Servitor."

There's a wisp of that white Aether again. It coalesces into another myr, a bird-like robot about the size of a small child, identical to Kickotron in all but the lack of heroic demeanor. Theo focuses, lowering his other hand to brush against the Izzet Signet he carries. He channels ambient mana through it, drawing on the blue mana that it converts it into. He's focusing; sweating. What he's trying is... hard.

"Un... summon?" It's almost phrased like a question, because he's not /really/ doing that. He directs the spell towards the newly-summoned Myr Servitor, but focuses the leftover Red mana through an /Azorius/ Signet, this time. He snatches the resulting Blue again, and twists it against the spell he's half-casting, disrupting it in a less-than-subtle manner. "Force Spike, I guess," he grunts.

The result is that the Unsummon spell doesn't actually work right. It tries to drag the Myr Servitor back into the Aether from whence it was formed, but it doesn't quite have the strength. Instead, it causes an odd dimensional flickering, making it seem like an out-of-focus film or damaged tape reel. Something like, say, a big ol' space-time chew toy for the Hound to play with, maybe.

It could also get him /instantly killed/ since he's defenseless in the process, but that's what Defiant's here for. Right?

Professor Therion (565) has posed:
HOMURA downs another drone! Ness whistles, "You're pretty good at this." Stone gives a pleased grunt as well, the two officers riding on the truck with her. It is easy to get to Demonbane now that the civilians are clearing up, and overhear a bit of the conversation.

Of more interest is the fact that these robots have variable armaments. Not all of them have missile launchers, but many do, for example. Homura can probably get a pretty nice load of ammo from these.

Setsuko Kaminagi (255) has posed:
    "So don't ask her to." Setsuko continues to move through her dance of blades, taking a place in front of Demonbane without an ounce of hesitation. "She doesn't need to be a warrior. She doesn't need to make that face again. And you don't need to hurt yourself, to hurt /her/ by hurting yourself, to prevent it. If you insist on solving this problem for her at any cost, you push out every other person who counts themselves her friend or family, every person willing to fight in her stead."

    She stops briefly, to look over her shoulder. "Look at the skies around you, Al Azif. Do you truly think yourself so alone?"

    Blade whips around wielder, returning to the attack. "If I could spill my own blood for a year to buy her but a single day of happiness, I would do it without hesitating. To sully my hands with blood so that others never need do so... to stand on the battlefield that the innocent may live in peace, is not simply my creed - it is the very heart of the Kaminagi clan! There is a third path through this darkness, Al Azif, but you cannot find it unless you're willing to walk it together with those who feel the same way you do!"

Laer (353) has posed:
    Laer won't continue to pick on the Legacy of Gold, even though she'd been making decent progress. This is mostly because of a lack of desire to become that new target, and also because she's not really certain she wants to break out the sorts of attacks that would get through it with her own powers.

    Everyone else seems to be going all out, though, and whatever Lila did made quite the impression on her; Laer will take a moment once her previous plan was complete to admire that. She'll have to talk to Lila's mother, once she remembers which particular person around here that was, to try and do a little bit of recruiting.

    Once that's done, though, Laer's going to slide the electric eclectic bass guitar off her back, starting to lay down a soothing line that will hopefully inspire Therion to live and will also possibly help him move about ten percent faster. While she's doing this, of course, she's also starting to build up a nice electric charge in the air around her which she may get to turn on one of the Anticross members if they leave her alone long enough.

Blurr has posed:
Yes, a speedster of Blurr's caliber, while unable to fly, can still manage fairly large distances into the air what with ramps and boosters. So he -barely- manages to catch onto the edge of one of the openings, and pulls himself inside.

Yech, this place is -disgusting-, he thinks as he pokes the strange spongy material. Continuing to scan the area, he searches for a terminal or central control area of some sort, ignoring the defenses, since they are not much to speak of.

Arthur Lowell has posed:
"Yeah, I figured fighting them all wasn't your plan!" Arthur shouts bitterly at Therion as he blasts more power through the body. If Therion won't defend himself, Arthur will; he begins attempting to encase the Liber Legis in a heavy gravity barrier, and generate a heavy gravity shield on the remaining length of that SPACE ARM.

"Boy, sure is a BITCH to DEAL with all this BLACK LODGE HARASSMENT, huh?" He says, still a bit sarcastically bitter, briefly breaking into his usual coolkid tone before getting more serious. "They're /not/ going to kill you, and if they do I'mma be mad as all hell, you shitbag. Fucking second time I'm doing this, don't you make me do a goddamn third." He's channeling his anger into powering the machine though. "The fuck is the Illusionary Heart Mother -- guessin' that's got something to do with superball over there? -- and what the hell are /you/ gonna do with it instead?" He says, between sustained noises of ragged-breathed shounen shouting and pushing energy into the machine.

Professor Therion (565) has posed:
With the skies clear, it's child's play for Psyber to streak down and /imbed/ the Einherjar into the armor of the Belzebuth. This is... not really as effective as it could be, because the Belzebuth is really huge. Psyber's pretty strong though, and it STILL tears into the armor of the Deus Machina, and gets a... laughter from the sorcerer within.

"Even you can't kill me," Tiberius taunts, the mecha's arm swatting at the angel. Of course, he's pretty slow, so it's trivial to evade. The Belzebuth is also badly damaged... but the thing is, it's healing fast. Psyber will need to hit it hard for it to stay down.

Professor Therion (565) has posed:
Valentha manages to clear the remaining drones around from the shelter, leaving her some time to rest. She can either join DEMONBANE, join LILA, or head for the ANTICROSS or the SPHERE.

Defiant (554) has posed:
     The Hound vanishes but Defiant knows that the wound wasn't a mortal one - but that doesn't mean he's at all prepared for it emerging out of the thin line between the sidewlk and the street! The Hound pounces him, claws and teeth meeting armor, tearing deep lines down the smooth panels with a shower of sparks. And it's in too close for Defiant to be able to wield his spear!

     He can hear Theo doing his spells behind him and flickering warnings on the HUD of his helmet alert him to some weird space-time things going on. But he's seen Theo in Endbringer confrontations and, so, Defiant can afford himself some assurance that Theo knows what he's doing. Unable to use his spear, he drops it and instead tries to get his hands around some part of the otherworldly beast, to try and pry it off him and then hurl it against the nearest stable object. It might be fast, but the couple of seconds that it buys whenever he reappears somewhere else are invaluable.

     "This thing's fast, Theo!" Defiant says, taking up his spear once more, "There's too many locations where it could reappear for me to predict!"

Professor Therion (565) has posed:
"AHAHAHA!" Laughter? A young boy's laughter? That seems to be what's coming from the Lord Byakhee. Claudius sneers, "No WAY a witch on a broom is faster than me! COME ON, YOU'RE ON!" He does, indeed, thread his way through the beams lancing out, though a few slice of chunks of armor. He's trying to get some distance, to bring that rifle he carries to bear, but...

He's fast. Maybe about as fast as Marisa. But at best he's 'as fast' and he's definitely not as good at dodging. Claudius doesn't realize he's actually outmatched here.

Homura Akemi (2) has posed:
"To be honest," Homura says as she stuffs the remains of the drone into her Elsewhere, "I'm surprised neither of you asked Doctor West to make you your own police super robots yet. You should consider the possibilities, especially if you're a fan of drills." Knowing West, there's no way they'd escape having at least one somewhere.

Having joined up with the DEMONBANE, she asks Al Azif over radio, but so that Ness and Stone can hear as well: "Setsuko is right. Now, will you change your plan and direct us accordingly? This is chaotic enough as it is without infighting."

Professor Therion (565) has posed:
"Ah... the little Paladin," Titus replies with his voice booming from the Ogre. "A worthy opponent indeed. Handicapped by the damage I have sustained, this should be a good battle." Last time, they were roughly even with Titus outside the Ogre, but Amalthea underequipped. This time, he's in the Ogre, but Amalthea has equipment. It's fair.

He's slower, but the giant katana plunging down slams forward, making an elegant thrust and, more importantly, taking him off of Therion.

Marisa Kirisame (829) has posed:
    That's... a kid!? Marisa blinks in mild surprise as the Lord Byakhee starts yammering at her. Probably the pilot, she considers- if Demonbane's got one and the Nameless One does too, then it stands to reason that this one's got a guy in it as well. Pretty young, though. But then, so is she!

    "Heheheh, you clearly haven't heard of me before," Marisa smirks as the Byakhee begins returning fire. But-- they're singular, heavy slugs. And what more, he's aiming /at/ her. The witch pivots suddently, pulling some sick MID-AIR BROOM DRIFTING to arc her trajectory away from the Byakhee's bullets. She's moving fast, but not fast enough that Claudius can't track her with his rifle-- and that's what she's counting on.

Time to teach this kid how things go down in Gensokyo.

Lesson 1) Streaming.

    More beams lance out from the orreries- but that's not all. Marisa sweeps her arms grandly out toward her sides, leaning forward as if she were a bird spreading its wings. Her Hakkero responds by burning even brighter, pushing her forward even faster! "I'm Marisa Kirisame. I'm not JUST a witch on a broom!" Pinpricks of emerald light wink into the air around her-- and then surge forward in a great bombardment of explosive, mana-draining magic missiles! "I'm the greatest witch in all of Gensokyo! Now start RUNNIN'!"

Professor Therion (565) has posed:
The Hound vanishes, flickers into being again at another corner, and prepares to pounce Defiant once more... but it doesn't need to. A different, flickering presence makes it pause and consider, the alien being assessing priorities. There are a lot of time and space distortions around here.

It works. The flicker resumes, and the Hound POUNCES at the Servitor, growling and chomping at it with an attempt to drag it back into the crannies of spacetime.

Psyber (253) has posed:
    Psyber doesn't dodge, though. That's the crazy part. The half-angel lands on the ground in front of the giant Deus Machina and stares up at it, tilting his head as he looks at the machine. And he raises up one hand to stop the punch with a titanic shockwave from where his palm collides with the machine's blow.

    Now, to the immense credit of Belzebuth, Psyber no longer HAS that arm when the mech swats at him and he stops it. Instead, Psyber has a sort of hanging mass of flesh and jutting bone from where he absorbed all the force of that hit into a single point of impact. It's the kind of injury that causes, say, any ambient Ninjambulance who treats him some distress at the frequency at which he lets stupid crap like this happen to himself.

    But... mental disconnect is a hell of a painkiller at the moment. So despite the wreckage of a limb hanging off his left side and the growing pool of blood Psyber has at his feet, the half-angel looks up at Belzebuth with an almost insane glint in his eyes. He runs his right arm (the only arm left) through his hair and then smiles widely. That kind of smile someone gets when they unhinge just a bit.

    "Can't I? A lot of people tell me that," Psyber says, smiling like a wolf. He steps forward a bit, staring up even more, "Tell me, clown man. Do you have a mask for fear? Can you even feel it any more? If not, you're about to be in for a nasty surprise."

    "See people like you... you hurt people. And you just keep on hurting people. And eventually... eventually..." Psyber looks down at himself, "You hurt someone like me. And that's okay. That's fine. I accept this. But you..." He seems to be somewhat in a rant, "You hurt someone that someone like me cares about. And that... that's just not okay. I can't really... let you live. Knowing that you might come back, might hurt her again, might make her do another thing she shouldn't have to."

    He waves a hand, "You hurt. You kill. You steal. You do whatever you want because, to the mortal man, you are above justice. You thrive on reproach and disgust, because those victims have no voice that can shout over you," Psyber says, slowly reaching into his jacket and pulling out a weapon. It's not a gun, and it shouldn't actually fit in his coat. It's a greatsword almost as tall as he is, tinted red and with a single eye.

    "But me... well. I'm a monster too. But I became a monster so other people don't have to. To goalcheck people like you from their pedastals and back down into hell where you belong."

    Psyber steps forward, dragging the sword behind him in a marching fashion, "And right now? Right now I wanna hit you so hard that you die. And die again. And you never STOP dying until every crime you have ever committed on other people, every single trespass, every injury is carved back into you. Because I'm going to make you face justice. And you should be... very afraid."

    The half-angel looks back at the sword behind him, "Jude. Shift 3."

    And then Psyber breaks into a lunge. Even with only one arm, he wields the massive sword as if it weighs nothing. He dashes forward and then leaps up, wings coming out to beat just a couple times and create a double-jump effect. While high up in the air, Psyber flips forward and then streaks down with his Abstractum like a comet, intent to take out all the weeks and months of pent up futile rage out on the first deserving target he has had put in front of him in months.

    "Load Morality Paradigm. Law's Grasp."

Valentha Summers (834) has posed:
    Now that the main problem of civilians in dangert is solved, Valentha sets her sights on the huge sphere above. At the same time she gathers all of her willpower and forms a potent psionic defense, hoping to screen out foreign influences. this may not help her if the thing's maddening influence is caused by sheer incomprehensibility, but it's better than nothing.

    She is a wizard and a seasoned dimensional traveler. Above all, she is a DRAGON.

    If she can't tussle with an extradimensional horror to at least SOME extent, there's a serious problem here!

    In a few moments, she's no longer down on the ground. Instead she blips in and out of existence, appearing FAR ABOVE the enormous black sphere... in free fall.

    "Let's see how it reacts to typical stuff first..."

    that being, she gestures softly, chants out a spell... and points!

    A pillar of over a dozen intertwined lightning bolts slams down from the heavens towards the sphere!

Al Azif (135) has posed:
    Al Azif drums her fingers on the handle of the control. "I really hate her. Lila, not Ariel. But you're right that I can't just... undo what's been done." She sighs... then jerks her head up. "And right now she's headed to the fight WITHOUT us. We need to get over there. Setsuko, can you cover me?"

    She has something for Homura too, though. "Homura... you can either cover me with that thing, or I can bring you with. Up to you. I think it'd be nice if Ariel saw us all supporting her though." She'll lower Demonbane's hand to give the girl a lift and save her magic if she wants.

    Whether or not Homura accepts, Demonbane will start bounding across the city, using the rooftops and relying on Setsuko to keep drones out of her face.

Amalthea (395) has posed:
    That is the best way to divert attention, yes. Call out a mecha pilot for an honor duel.
    Still, Amalthea steels herself when her call actually turns the samurai sorceror's attention upon her. Ogre doesn't need to be fast when it has titanic blades. Amalthea is going to have to be the one who reacts fast.
    "Who are you calling little?" Grunted as she slings her shield aside. It will be of no use against a mecha, any one of those swords could cleave clean through her, even in her finest armor.
    Twirling her lance one last time, the unicorn jinks, a side-thrust kicking her aside in the air. It's a graceless maneuver that has the massive sword missing her by way too frighteningly close a margin before...
    She hops onto the blade.
    Those who know a katana and the wielder of such a weapon know one thing...
    You never let anyone touch the blade.
    The katana is an extension of a swordsman's soul, a part of their body, to be treated with respect and reverence...
    And Amalthea is charging along the blade, snarling like a beast, running at full tilt, lance raised and bearing down to strike.

Abstractum.Net (347) has posed:
Adjudicator is dragged, slowly on the ground, kicking up a huge gush of brilliant crimson sparks. "Redshift Abstraction." It says, dutifully. And in an assuring tone, "There are times that fury is not the righteous path. There are times when forgiveness should be your utmost priority, and when second chances should be granted at all times." There's a brilliant red fire as the blade grunts, and its length splits open with glowing red cracks. A halo, seemingly made out of stone and covered in justice symbology, appears behind Psyber's back, and lines of scripture rush up his arm and to his cheek. "This is not one of those times. Morality Paradigm: Law's Grasp."

Adjudicator's impact spikes; the tremendous impact will correspond to how much Tiberius breaks the laws of this place. Legal laws, sure, but also laws of nature, laws of reality, laws of creator deities, and similar. It is, effectively, meant to embody the force of society, civilization, and the world against elements that defy them, and strike particularly hard, in a very abstract way, against the parts of the subject that violate them.

Lila (545) has posed:
    Lila replies to Yuna, "I'm just fine, really. You're all doing more work to defend me than needed." Lila sighs, boredly flopping back in her console while the Nameless One is sitting and doing nothing. As usual, she's now a dead weight.

    Except...

    "Yuna, I'm much stronger than you give me credit for," she points out. "I can handle the Anticross, these drones aren't a threat. You... go help Ariel. She'll need cover. I'll take care of the drones that are left."

Setsuko Kaminagi (255) has posed:
"Gladly," comes Setsuko's simple reply. With her flight speed and maneuverability, she's got ample opportunity to run interference around Demonbane as it charges.

Professor Therion (565) has posed:
Blurr searches through the passages... and thankfully, they get less 'organic' as he travels deeper. More cramped, though! Still, this place is BIG, and he's... not... finding much in the way of computers, actually. The only thing of note is a massive energy signature toward the center of the sphere.

Oh, there are computers, but they're pretty primitive ones, and they don't seem to be linked into any sort of /control/ system.

Professor Therion (565) has posed:
    The music strums, and Therion actually brings the space-hand up just in time to block a CRASHING charge from Kraken. He moved it! Instead of just tanking it, he actually does a punch that crumples the Kraken's armor, sending it lurching back. The gravity barrier bends the incoming beams from the Legacy of Gold away from the Liber Legis, thus melting some armor but hitting no real components. Laer's inspiration must be working... well that and what Arthur is saying.

    "I must admit, it is a different feeling to have you sorts fighting /for/ me," he murmurs lazily. "Hmm... very well, perhaps we will handle this... differently this time."

    The Liber Legis launches into the air, slamming a foot down on the Legacy of Gold hard enough to smash it into a building and through the other side. "Perhaps I will convince them that this is a bad idea, after all."

Defiant (554) has posed:
After confirming that everything with the Hound is as expected, Defiant stands down. He keeps his spear on-hand, though, and keeps his eyes on the Hound. Theo should have it under control, though. For the moment, he takes in the situation over the radio.

Professor Therion (565) has posed:
    Ness and Stone look at one another, and Ness chuckles, "Well, don't think we really have the budget for that, Miss. It'd be a pretty great idea though. Have to run it by the department, you know, see if we can't get a good quote."

    Stone sputters, "ARE YOU REALLY GOING TO USE THAT CRIMINAL?!"

    Ness holds up an earpiece. "Hey, according to what I'm hearing, he's a good guy now."

    Yeah, Ness has a radio.

Homura Akemi (2) has posed:
    "I don't know how much he charges but I'm starting to notice a pattern regarding your city and giant robots, so you should consider it. Perhaps give Doctor West a badge while you're at it. A big one that he can put on the Demonpain. He'll be too busy rocking out a guitar solo to really pay attention to what you ask him next," Homura tells Ness, before glancing up at the Demonbane.

    "You two take this thing where it's needed and try to keep drones away from important places. It'd be awkward for the Demonbane to have to transport it."

    With that, she'd hop onto the Demonbane's hand and with a few more graceful hops settle onto one of its shoulders, sitting down for the time being. "You're right. Let's go help Ariel before she gets in trouble. And while we can't ask you to forgive Lila, I think your feud with her can wait until the city isn't in danger. That much she seems to agree on herself."

Blurr has posed:
So how the frag is the massive sphere controlled then? Is this actually someone's body? Blurr shakes the thought off. Gross. He examines the primitive computers, but finds them of no use.

Still, there is that massive energy signature at the center, so he continues toward it.

Professor Therion (565) has posed:
Valentha gathers power, the Ley Line helping to supercharge her spells as she weaves together a devastating assault! The thunderous KRAKOOM of the blast splits the sky, sending a shockwave through the air as the numerous bolts slam into that black shell, sending up an eruption of dust and flame!

When the dust clears there is a... small... chip in the sphere. Well, small relatively speaking. It's also scabbing over rather quickly.

Professor Therion (565) has posed:
    The rifle tracks, all right... and Claudius manages to get a shot off! Only, it's at the same time as the numerous streams of mana-damaging bullets /rain/ down on the darting Lord Byakhee. This has the expected reaction from a kid like Claudius.

    "OH FUCKING FUCK FUCK YOU BITCHFUCK!"

    Tearing through the lightly-armored Deus Machina, Claudius realizes that there /is/ a bit of a power gap between him and the witch... and it's not in the direction he expected. The Byakhee veers off course, slams into the top of a building, and flips over to smash into the street.

    Poor kid gets smacked around so much.

Professor Therion (565) has posed:
    Since all the anticross are uh... OUTSIDE... anything inside is just at best a drone, and most of them are human mooks who scatter anyway. Blurr will find it ridiculously easy to walk inward, though the halls are a bit of a labyrinth and it will take some backtracking now and then. Still, at least he's getting the layout, right? Or part of it.

    Reaching the center isn't hard... and the heartbeat is very loud right now. The entire massive chamber looks organic, with tendrils and veins all around it. One gigantic bulge is on one side, and a huge oval chamber hangs suspended in the center.

    That's when the bulge shifts a little, showing that it has a slit down the middle. It's still closed, but that motion is all it takes to reveal that the bulge isn't a bulge. It's an eye. Easily three or four times the size of Blurr.

    Whatever this thing is, it's /asleep/.

Marisa Kirisame (829) has posed:
'Bitchfuck.'

Marisa stares at the Lord Byakhee like its pilot had somehow sprouted a second, even mouthier head. "Wow, jeez," she blinks, weaving out of the way of the giant robot's enormous slug. Her hair and hat billow in the brief breeze that follows. "You've got a hell of a mouth, don't you? I'm almost impressed!" That could make an Oni... Well, not blush. They'd probably laugh and then smack your shoulder for making a funny joke.

And then you'd be dead.

The little witch zooms over to where the Lord Byakhee had fallen, hovering over it like some kind of awful scavenger-bird. "Here," the witch grins. It's a... hell of a grin. A terrible, awful, shark-toothed grin. "Wash your mouth out with some of these!" And then she starts dropping... Urns. Small, glowing, brightly colored urns. These aren't merely pottery, though! These are...

These are filled with a variety of Marisa-Grade Magic Mushroom Potions.

Some of them are explosive! Others have... More experimental effects. LET'S FIND OUT WHICH.

Professor Therion (565) has posed:
Yuna's beam lances out and manages to explode numerous drones. The skies are starting to clear now... and there are still a swarm of the things, but they're circling the OUTSIDE of the city, making a perimeter. That makes the inside of the city fairly clear, with mostly mopping up to do.

It should be easy to join the others.

Professor Therion (565) has posed:
Amalthea runs up the blade at high speed, but that's when one of the smaller arms comes out, slicing a faster, lighter blade toward the robotic unicorn. It's a pretty swift strike, but weaker than the other. It's also still slow... partly because of the damage. Amalthea, despite not being a hand to hand combatant, has a /slight/ edge here.

Valentha Summers (834) has posed:
Well THAT gets a frown. Valentha doesn't kill her drop though. Instead she's brave enough to attempt to LAND on the sphere! Brave or crazy, either way. She gathers ALL of her supernatural strength for a plunging KICK, intent on ripping a passage INSIDE of the thing. It might work!

Professor Therion (565) has posed:
    And down the sword goes. Tiberius is laughing though. "AHAHAHAH! You, punish me? That will not happen. There is NOTHING that can destroy me! I have achieved true ImmortalitEEEEEEEE!!!!"

    That shriek is sudden and vicious. He's right... Psyber CAN'T kill him, even with that Morality Paradigm. But it pierces the shell and causes the Belzebuth to disintegrate into a swarm of insects, the clown-dressed figure inside hurtling out the back, skidding across the ground, and slamming into a building.

    He screams. And screams. And screams as he's reduced to a fine paste which bubbles and churns. The scream finally fades as he's crushed into that goop, which swirls and curdles.

    No, it didn't kill him... but he's going to be stuck like that for a few hundred years.

Blurr has posed:
    Blurr spends a few minutes zipping through the organic labyrinth. But, given how fast he can move, even though he has to backtrack a few times it's not long before he reaches the source of the energy signature in the center chamber.

    He studies the strange bulge in there, scanning it a few times, until he finally notices that slit. Huh...suddenly it dawns on him. It's...a giant eye! This was no ship or machine, it was some kind of -monster-! No wonder there hadn't been any controls...

    Well, in that case, since it appears to be asleep, now's his chance to do what he can to put an end to the drone onslaught once and for all. If the drones are indeed coming from this...being or whatever the slag this thing is. He pulls a grenade from subspace, activates it and throws it into the bulgy eye before diving into the hallway to await the explosion...

Yuna Kagurazaka (385) has posed:
"You may have been the most powerful magic-wielder in Black Lodge," Yuna replies to Lila, "but you still betrayed them. And just because they were ganging up on Therion before -"

She takes a second look at the tactical map. "- before Amalthea and Marisa and Psyber pulled a couple of them off him, doesn't mean they're going to keep ignoring you forever. And on top of all of that, you're family. Ariel took you in, adopted you as her daughter when you were on the run and had nowhere to go. And a lot of the rest of us are honorary parents to Ariel, which makes us family to you too."

Admittedly, Yuna's not sure whether she's got a spot on Ariel's family tree, but she's not going to quibble about a detail like that.

"If neither of those were enough of a reason," she continues, "Arthur said to protect you as well as protecting Al Azif. Al's got support already, but you were over here with nobody helping to cover you. Even if your Deus Machina could shred through the rest of Anticross, even if you don't 'need' backup? I'll watch your back, make sure nothing sneaks up when you aren't looking ..."

She does another sweep of the cityscape for approaching drones before finishing, "And I'll make sure you aren't all alone."

Arthur Lowell has posed:
"Yeah? Feels funny, don't it?" Arthur says, grunting from the strain. He's going to crush through a lot of his reserves for this one. "Gets the blood boiling and the heart pounding?" He grabs onto parts around him with a white-knuckle grip. "It feels new and differet? Well fuck you, that's exactly what you could get all you wanted if it wasn't for shit like this. This is what we do, what /I/ do for good people I care about, even if that means saving my first-cousin twice-removed thrice-brainfucked supervillain. As soon as I'm done here, we go /right back/ to the shit you're so bored of, when you do some evil fucking scheme with the heart. Until then, fucking /focus/ and start taking out these sons of bitches! I want 'em /on their asses/!!"

He sees the others are starting to bring out Big Guns and finishing strikes. Arthur begins overcharging gravity effects; the remaining Space Arm can now emit tremendous stunning gravity waves to help disorient the other mecha to allow the others to strike more effectively. He seems to be suffering palpable pain as a result of reaching deeper now, but resumes his energetic shounen screaming.

Theo Morrison has posed:
The Hound of Tindalos is... mostly distracted. Theo lets it chase after the myr, allowing it to drag the summoned and unstable creature away. It means it'll pull it into another dimension to destroy, which means that he and Defiant don't need to spend any more time on it. He has no other idea how to tame it. Eldritch dogs aren't his pet specialization.

"Okay, um, that'll take care of it. Thanks for the help. Now, let's put some real pressure out there..."

Theo untaps and draws. He looks at his hand, and a grin grows on his face. "Alright. This is going to get a step closer to stupid." He flips one card down, sliding the lands closer to his Abstractum on the table to make room. "Another Urza's Tower!" The first one gets larger, building upwards in fast-forward. It gets more grandiose as it does, standing out even more than it had. The potential mana is getting impressive; it works with the other buildings just as well as it already had, maybe even better. Something Theo is counting on.

"Tap both the Power Plant and the Mine for a Clock of Omens!" Where a traffic island at a big intersection was, a big, black iron edifice rises. A pair of crescent-shaped metal parts, one a smaller copy of the other and set inside the bigger, project what looks like glowing green hands of a clock. The ticking of the device is clearly audible, and people and things near it find themselves moving in time with it unconsciously.

"Then, the first Tower for a Titan Forge!" The terrain changes again. An enormous liquid-filled basin forms, blocking roads and shimmering in the incidental light of the fighting. The liquid seems to mirror the Golem Foundry's liquid metal reservoir, but on a much, much larger scale. The Foundry seems to grow hotter, while the Forge does no such thing.

"Ornithopter plays for free!" Another card hits the table. A vehicle appears, a wood-and-cloth flying machine of curious, if functional, design. It seems to glide around Theo and Defiant on its own power, easily big enough to ride. Theo spares it barely a glance before moving on.

"Then the final Tower taps for three mana... the first of which is spent transferring a charge from the Surge Node to the Titan Forge." The techno-sorcerous power source flares and dims again. Previously-unseen etchings and grooves in the enormous above-ground basin begin to glow with white light, gradually spreading over the markings. "Then, use the Clock of Omens to tap the Ornithopter and the Golem Foundry to untap the Surge Node and do it a second time... and tap the Clock of Omens itself and the Arcbound Ravager to do it a third time!"

Everything around Theo seems somehow spent. The Surge Node is glowing much more dimly, and the Golem Foundry seems charged up and ready to go, but it just all seems worn and used. Everything, that is, except the Titan Forge, the enormous basin positively thrumming with energy -- right up until Theo reaches out and taps the card, causing off it to be dumped into the interior of the basin in one enormous wave.

There is a moment's pause. A ripple passes through the liquid interior.

Then, it parts like a bomb went off in the middle. walls of liquid metal spring backwards, away from the now-dry object in the center. The side opens to reveal the contents, and it marches forward, shaking the ground with each step. Armored, bladed and possessed of mindless obedience, the Titan steps out into the street, dwarfing all of Theo's other creations by a huge margin, standing scant feet shorter than most of the deus machina themselves.

Theo raises an arm and points with a completely necessary dramatic flair. The Titan starts forward, a slow, inexorable march into the midst of battle.

Ariel (219) has posed:
And SUDDENLY the wall nearest the crater that the fight with Therion is doubtless forming ERUPTS with the explosion of a new challenger! A... tiny unicorn! Yes, Ariel has arrived!

Skidding to a halt, Ariel surveys the scene and draws in a deep breath. She shifts to her humanoid form, gathers up her power, and a crackling LIGHTNING BOLT blasts toward the Kraken! It is of course... not nearly strong enough to do any damage, but the point is to get its attention.

"Hey!" she shouts out. "Get away from my grandson."

Psyber (253) has posed:
    In the aftermath of this, Psyber falls out of Shift and banishes his Abstractum back into his Fetch Modus. He falls to a knee after and watches the man scream and reduce, bubbling down into a roiling pool and puddle on the concrete. The half-angel, who is by the way still bleeding from that destroyed arm, murmurs, "Thanks, Jude."

    His right hand braces on the ground while he tries to push himself to his feet. He gets there, eventually, and then teeters and toters a bit before starting to march himself forward. That arm is going to be dead useless for a couple days, more likely than not, unless he gets medical care. And he really doesn't want to have to explain things to Haruno, so that's not an option.

    He manages to muster up enough energy to walk over and stand behind Ariel as a show of force on her behalf.

Al Azif (135) has posed:
Okay, that's the signal for Al to step things up. Cupping Demonbane's hands around Homura, the leg shields charge again... then release with a blazing, blistering explosion of energy. The moment Ariel finishes her demand, Demonbane slams down to land on the ground, straddling the little unicorn. Just, you know, a nice reminder that she DOES have backup.

As Demonbane opens its hands to let Homura out, Al calls out over the speakers, "I think you might want to call it a day. Ariel, get in. We're going to save some lives."

Amalthea (395) has posed:
    Annnnd there's the second blade.
    There's a resounding CLANG.
    It's faster- too fast for Amalthea to evade, and as a result that razor edge connects. And it cleaves-- armor.
    It's an almost suicidal tactic, one Amalthea had not intended nor planned to even attempt, but was forced into, as soon as that blade came in. It was a snap re-angling of her jump pack and thumbing the activation rune on the grip of her shield that makes her roll with the monster-cleavin blow, snarl turning into a cry of surprise and pain as she's left holding on riding the edge of a mech-sized sword, gritting teeth as she rolls arop the second sword in a jumbled heap, before clinging on for dear life.
    She aims Wishblade once more... And while still on her knees, kicks on her jets, sparks skidding all along the edge of the blade as she skates alond the sword, fully intent to ram the gleaming silver lance into where she can approximate where the cockpit is.
    "Got any ice cream in there, Titus? Block THIS with your teeth!" Snarled all the way down.

Setsuko Kaminagi (255) has posed:
Setsuko comes down from her flight onto Demonbane's shoulder, giving the Zanjintou a quick flourish around herself before resting its entire weight on her shoulder at the handle. It looks more like it should be a shortblade for the giant robot whose shoulder she stands on than a weapon for Setsuko herself, and yet she somehow manages to balance it perfectly.

Professor Therion (565) has posed:
    Potions tumble out as the Lord Byakhee creaks and groans, trying to right itself from the wreckage of its tumble. They impact with a string of curses from within. Tumbling out from the now thrice-wrecked Deus Machina, Claudius groans as he thuds to the ground. Clutching his stomach, he's looking a little green... and sniffling, coughing, then sneezing. He's also putting out his left sleeve, which is on fire. "Ughhh..." All nasally, he sniffs... and then cat ears spring up from his head, with a tail flicking back and forth. "Ohhh you BITCH! I can't be- *CHOO* FUCK! Come down here and I'll meowssacre you!" His hand claps over his mouth.

    Amalthea slams into the chest of the Ogre, starting to topple it. She does not impale Titus, but it's so close she might as well have, as he chuckles, "An excellent match, as always. However..." What does he know that she doesn't? Well, he can sense the tide of battle changing.

    Because Theo's TITAN rumbles around the corner, and that's a nice appearance and all... but they still outnumber everyone in Deus Machina.

    Ariel's delivery of her ultimatum is paired with Demonbane slamming down above her, and a goddess of war on one shoulder, and a magical girl in its hands. This is... not going to be easy for them, either.

    Valentha lands and manages to tear a scratch into the sphere, but it will take some real digging to make a hole big enough and deep enough for her to crawl in. That's when the entire thing shudders as the grenade inside goes off, and a loud annoyed rumbling begins to sound throughout the city.

    Therion speaks first to his former minions. "It would appear that your gamble has failed," he announces. "We will punish Augustus later. For now, it appears we have a rat in the pipes. Now is the time to withdraw."

    Like it or not, the Legacy of Gold is not going to be able to say anything... because as it powers up again, the Kraken turns toward the Legacy of Gold, and the Ogre steps away as well. Two of their number are down, with Tiberius not getting up any time soon. Ogre is in no condition to continue. Claudius's life is in peril. The Legacy of Gold's glow finally dims.

    Therion speaks to Arthur again, "This is very different. I will live this time. I look forward to fighting the little unicorn properly." The hatch opens, letting Arthur go, and Therion gives him a lazy smile. "I think this might be it. At last."

Lila (545) has posed:
Lila listens to the speech and rolls her eyes, mentally. She doesn't interrupt, though. Finally, as Yuna finishes, Lila leans back. "Yes, yes, I've heard it all before. I've heard worse. Heard better as well. It's all just words. None of them last in the end."

That might sound pretty dismissive... and it is. She's not done, though. "I'm still here, and I'm helping, not because I'm bored. It's because I l... I li... I find Ariel fun to be around, and I think she should stay the way she is."

Marisa Kirisame (829) has posed:
Marisa descends, her horrible toothy grin still splitting her face like a horrible shark-mouth. "Wow, I'm gonna have to remember the recipe on that last one. The look suits you! S' only right for a catty little brat like you. Speaking of which..." She picks a narrow, minty-green vial from a bandolier across her chest. "You ain't in no shape to fight a lady like me. So instead, I've got a little something you might find interesting! Y'see, I just got done disciplinin' a certain other cat, and I've got some... leftovers. Here! CATCH." With a quick flick of her hand, Marisa hurls the little green glass vial. It tumbles lazily through the air, turning over itself once, twice, before crashing to the ground in front of the Anticross magician.

Whereupon it goes up in a cloud of fragrant, green mist. Is it... /catnip!?/

That evil gleam in her eye-- who taught her to be so twisted and cruel!? Is this witch really human!?

Answer: A spirit so evil and so OLD that her evil eventually fell right off.

"Now," she chirps as she strolls over past the double-sickened and now possibly high sorcerer. She's moving... towards the Byakhee, "I hear you've got quite a book. You won't mind if I borrow it, would ya?"

Amalthea (395) has posed:
    So close. So close, with her lance through the mecha, but Amalthea is forced to wrench it free. Without the momentum to build up for another thrust she can't land anything better than that on the Ogre tonight as she detaches with a grunt. "However what? We're not done swordboy. I'll be seeing you soon." Demanded as she clutches her gashed stomach, running like a fountain of liquid silver, and now reeling from blocking a mech-sized sword stroke with her body.
    Read: Nearly getting cleaved neatly in two.
    But she lands herself on top of a building with a huff, dropping to knee. "Mn."
    Therion's challenge for Ariel does not sit well with her.
    But that's not her fight to fight.

Valentha Summers (834) has posed:
    NEVER BEFORE has Valentha encountered a material this tough that even her full strength can't really penetrate it with ease. Oh sure, mech armor takes a few good blows, but this stuff goes beyond even THAT. Startled, she takes off again and decides to simply circle the sphere and observe it.

    Juuuust in time for the awful noise to start...

    And a withdrawal begins.

    So Valentha lands on one of the remaining buildings, frowning.

    "This HAS to stop. I wonder if there's some way to cut off their power source. Magic of this level's beyond mere individuals..."

Arthur Lowell has posed:
Arthur pants, coughing. He's bleeding a bit, from the eyes and the ears, maybe a bit from the nose. "Fuck. God, fuck you so much." He mutters, through gritted teeth at Therion. He is still full of venom and aggression. "You listen here. You try to make that kid become a fighter, you'll be dealing with the rest of us, not her. I'm not gonna put you in the ground, Lila's our friend. But I'm sure as hell not gonna let you force that on Ariel. She makes her own choices." But, of course, Arthur acknowledges he has basically zero chance of beating Therion in a mage-off at this stage. Exhausted, bleeding from the strain, and with all his allies wounded or tired as well, Arthur doesn't dare try to live up to his hot-headed hype.

"This isn't over." He mutters venemously, wiping some of the blood off his face, and with a burst of gravity magic, blasts himself out of the hatch, retreating.

Blurr has posed:
    The grenade goes off, and Blurr peeks back into the room to see how much damage it did, which...is not much. Well the thing is massive, even if it is organic. It's going to take a lot more firepower to destroy this thing entirely. But what with that massive energy signature that he's just filed away in his databanks, it's not going to be difficult to track down later anyway.

    There's an annoyed rumble, but it doesn't appear to make any hostile moves against him, so he reenters the room and stares at the blood that has been drawn for a few seconds.

    Huh. Well Perceptor will probably want to have a look at that, and maybe the scientist can learn something about this thing to tell the rest of the team later. So he pulls out a vial to catch a few drops of it, as well as attempting to pull at the eyelid until a small portion of it comes off to stuff into the tube as well. Yech. The Autobot subspaces the the vial and heads out back the way he came.

Professor Therion (565) has posed:
Claudius stares, "The fuck is coming out of your pie-hole, b-uuuuhhh..." Mid-profanity, Claudius smells the catnip. His ears twitch. Then the cruel, mouthy Sorcerer is flopping on the ground and rolling over, arching and rubbing himself into the spilled fluid. Purr purr purr.

There's a young girl in the cockpit... a girl with dark hair and pointed ears. She's just staring and not doing much else, patiently waiting.

Marisa Kirisame (829) has posed:
Well! That should keep him for a little while.

Marisa hops up into the cockpit to find... A young girl? One even younger than she is! Well, this must be what the Necronomicon was talking about. "Hey!" the witch grins, hopping into the busted up machine's cockpit, "The name's Marisa Kirisame. I'm gonna be your new partner!" She extends a hand, all traces of that HORRIBLE WITCHY AURA gone in favor of her usual bright and cheerful charm. "Your old boss is gonna be put away for a while. So why don't you come with me, and we'll all get outta here, huh?"

Psyber (253) has posed:
Psyber, who doesn't have energy left, is mostly loitering around his brief clash with Tiberius. High-level Shift, losing his arm, and bloodloss have all weighed in on him. He's hiding the injured arm, mostly, keeping it tucked into his pocket and letting it hang there while he watches things play out. And try to recover some breath (and blood).

Arthur Lowell has posed:
Arthur will, hopefully, have time to deal with one particular issue. Psyber currently has a pasted Tiberius in need of... Disposal. Arthur, as a mage of space, knows a lot about black holes and where to find them. Hopefully, he can go find the gorey paste, spend a few minutes recovering from his horrible gut-wrenching reaction to any core, and then get it teleported off towards the nearest black hole.

Professor Therion (565) has posed:
    Blurr ramps out of the sphere after stealing a bit of Cthulhu, like a bawss. Meanwhile, the Celeano Fragments, whose actual name I cannot remember and just spent en minutes looking for, shakes her head at Claudius and takes Marisa's hand. "All right." Much more passive than Al, this one.

    That's when the regrouping Anticross... vanish, with a warping TWIST in spacetime. At the same time, the remaining drones crash to the ground, some of them exploding harmlessly in the ocean.

    The entire sphere also vanishes abruptly.

Homura Akemi (2) has posed:
    With Arthur giving the go-ahead, Homura will eventually wander off the Demonbane's shoulder and/or hand, and start scouring the streets for the remains of drones to stuff them into her hammerspace. It is only a little bit later that Doctor West will find the pile of scrap in his workshop (and, likely, all over his front lawn too). Homura doesn't care what he does with them, as long as they wind up making something that plays in their favor.

    Maybe something about outfitting Ness and Stone with a super robot of their own in the future too. But for now focus on something that's immediatly useful.

    See if other techies want to give him a hand, make the most of the time they do have.

Marisa Kirisame (829) has posed:
"Awesome, you and I'll get along great!" Marisa chirps, pulling the little book girl up and out of the busted shell of the Lord Byakhee. She looks back and down at Claudius and just... Well, honestly she snickers a bit, and manages to wedge the shaft of her broom under the purring mass. "Come on, let's get you someplace nicer than this! And him locked up in a room somewhere."

And with that, Marisa would TAKE FLIGHT with her new book (MISSION COMPLETE) and captive mage (Mission.... complete?).

@@ Line 5: / Line 5: @@
 |Thanks=
 |Cast of Characters=2, 8, 33, 135, 219, 253, 255, 317, 347, 353, 385, 395, 492, 545, 554, 565, 829, 834
-|Tinyplot=
+|Tinyplot=Project C
 |Tinyplot2=
 |pretty=yes

Difference between revisions of "2796/Project C Begins"

Latest revision as of 17:54, 27 September 2015

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