628/Samar Strikes!

Samar Strikes!
Date of Scene:	20 September 2014
Location:	Brockton Bay
Synopsis:	Brockton Bay falls under attack by three of Samar's Capital Ships, who find unexpectedly strong opposition.
Cast of Characters:	95, 494, 554, 560

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Armsmaster (554) has posed:
     BROCKTON BAY
     AFTERNOON

     Brockton Bay is a good sized city in the north eastern United States. Home to one of the largest parahuman populations in the United States, the men and women of the city are quite used to the strange and terrifying. While superpowered gangs hold wide sections of the city as their territory, it is the men and women of the Protectorate who stand up and keep the city running as it should. Foremost among the members of the local Protectorate team is Armsmaster, known for his midnight blue and silver powered armor and his distinctive trademark Halberd weapon.

     For now, however, Armsmaster is in his workshop, working on a new computer program. The Protectorate is unaware of the dangers of the Confederacy, and have never encountered a hostile Multiversal Elite before. Will Brockton Bay's best be up to the task?

Samar (494) has posed:
    Large costal city? One of the largest popoulations in the U.S.? This sounds like the perfect target for sweeping destruction.

    That's exactly what the Abyssals think upon seeing it in their multiversal surveys. And today, just for fun, one of them has decided to come along with a couple of allies.

    Of course, they arrive out at sea. The waters off the coast churn and bubble with heat from below the surface, and that serves as the only warning before three female figures breach the waves: Savo, Anchorage, and Leyte, all three of them at their normal humanoid sizes for the moment, but no less imposing for it. Savo's and Anchorage's mechanical parts are nearly the size of cars, after all, and Leyte is simply bristling with weaponry.

    As the trio approach the coast, Savo and Anchorage both hovering over the water while Leyte 'skates' along it, Savo grins and points off toward the city. "Alright! Might as well start opening fire on them. Let's see if anyone here feels up to trying to defend this place. A few good explosions should do the trick~!"

    Leyte gains a menacing grin, but Anchorage's irritable expression hardly changes. Despite that, Leyte is the one to start firing first: resounding peals of cannon fire crash through the air as shells begin flying toward the coast, and while they may not be at the size of a ship's munitions, those shells certainly explode with more than enough force when they strike.

Sagat (95) has posed:
For some people - actually, probably for a LOT of people - the idea of criminal street gangs with superpowers is probably fairly terrifying.

For Sagat, the Emperor of Muay Thai? It means 'a decent workout' ... as the E88 are discovering, greatly to their chagrin. They may be down to the E66 or so at this rate, if the name works that way - but honestly, picking a fight with somebody Sagat's size just because you don't like the color of his skin? Not gonna go into the Guiness Book of World Records for 'brightest bulb in the <span class=" bold_bg_y fg_n ++ handelier'.

"chy">TIGER UPPERCUT!!!</span>"

... and that's BEFORE you factor in the tidbit that his Muay Thai prowess is pretty much a superpower in its own right. Still, not even the best Tiger Uppercut that Sagat's ever thrown results in something exploding well out of his line of sight - and the naval bombardment starting in the distance actually draws Sagat's attention away from the bigots he was bashing around. Most of them do the smart thing; one grabs a bottle and tries to smash it over Sagat's head.

Which 'works' to the extent that the bottle breaks. Sagat just picks the guy up by his collar and asks for directions.

Shortly thereafter, Sagat's burden is lighter by one bigot and his schedule is heavier by one or more ships that need to be scuttled. Of *course* they're well out at sea, though ... that makes things more interesting.

If he can avoid being blown away out of hand, this should be an even better workout than the racists.

Armsmaster (554) has posed:
     Several of the shots slip through, blasting apart sections of the docks in fiery detonations, some finding their way into the centre of the city. One shell detonates in the top of a skyscraper, sending glass raining through the air. The people of Brockton Bay are initially bewildered, scared, but quickly begin finding the disaster shelters. It might not be an Endbringer attack, but everyone in the city knows what to do when disaster strikes. They've trained for this, they've had drills - get safe and let the Protectorate handle it.

     The next barrage of shells slams into an invisible wall, glowing with rainbow ripples as the shells detonate. With the Protectorate HQ forcefield operational, nothing will be getting through - at least not without prolonged powerful bombardment. The forcefield will hopefully hold until these attackers - this Savo - decide that there is little point in continuing their barrage, or that reinforcements from elsewhere arrive. Without any flying capes at his disposal, with Dragon up in Canada, Armsmaster is going to be forced to engage them on land. Whoever they are.

     Halberd in one hand, midnight-blue armor glinting in the afternoon sunset, further reflecting the sunbursts of small explosions in the near distance, Armsmaster waits.

Emiya Shirou (560) has posed:
    Unlike a certain martial artist, Emiya Shirou's not the kind of guy to seek out conflict for self-betterment, but if his last few forays into heroics are any indication, MAYBE doing so might be 'smart.'

    Because when he was helping out Eorzea, at least he had more prana available. There is no forewarning and no local resources to tap into this time around. Emiya Shirou has less than half what he had to work with last time available, but now THREE of these horrible women are t work from what he can see.

    Yes, he's in the harbor, behind a building, just glancing out to get an idea for what's happening! With his eyes Reinforced properly, even seeing out to sea is no big deal. "... That girl again...!"

    Chills are running up the spine that nearly broke last time. His arm throbs, remembering the pain of being crushed. He'll die if he goes out there. He's lucky that he SURVIVED the last brawl, and that miracle won't happen again. Even if it did, he can't count on being spared by the enemy.

    "Damn it, this is my fault for being so weak..."

    How can he fight monsters, when he's just a human? If the Abyssal Fleet women used melee weapons, he might be able to keep them busy, but they use guns.

    BIG guns.

    "Trace, on."

    He has to try. If they're left alone, and he does NOTHING to stop them, people will die.

    In a panic, he charges his body full of prana, Magic Circuits thrumming to life within him. Strength, speed, durability, all improve drastically. But not enough to compete directly.

    He can't possibly beat her in a direct fight. But what about keeping her busy, drawing her into disadvantageous territory...?

    Shirou eyes his surroundings. The hazards of any city are gonna be a better weapon than anything he can Project, in this fight. But still, he's gonna need a weapon.

    "My body is made of swords!" For some reason, acknowledging this fact as a chant has proved beneficial in the past, and he calls up the feeling that such a realization brought and forces it through his mind while he projects.

    Words are meaningless to modern magi. They serve only to guide the mind. Self-hypnosis. A mnemonic aid.

    But this is a very effective aid. In a few flashes of golden light, KUSANAGI appears in Shirou's grasp. It's of superior quality to previous versions, if only slightly...

Samar (494) has posed:
    Once defenders of the city start filtering in, Savo holds her arm to the side to stop Leyte's bombardment. Leyte does so after a moment, the barrels of her cannons still smoking after that continued assault. Savo's arm comes to rest on the 'arm' of her seat, just above a smaller pair of cannons. "Well, this seems like a good turnout! Let's see...Anchorage, you go take care of the armored guy. Leyte, you-"

    "Oh, come /on/!" Leyte's sudden, frustrated snap interrupts Savo when she sees Shirou's arrival. Teeth clenching, armored claws balling into fists, Leyte abruptly activates the thrusters on her boots and /rockets/ across the water toward Shirou. She'll probably reach land shortly, but before she does, the triple turrets at her sides open fire with crashing peals, sending a barrage of explosive shells out toward Shirou.

    Leyte's sudden beeline makes Savo stare in surprise for a moment, but the Airfield Princess just shrugs afterward. "Well, that's taken care of! Off you go, Anchorage." The Anchorage Demon beside her just gives a brief nod before turning her attention toward Armsmaster. A quick burst of her own thrusters sends her rushing over the water as well, and the strange, shark-like maw that she rides on opens up to reveal a single cannon. Armsmaster only receives a single explosive shell...but it's still no doubt going to be a painful one to tank.

    And finally, Sagat. Savo turns her grinning attention to the Muay Thai Emperor, but she seems to be the only one who chooses to stay a good distance from the shore. "Alright, big guy, you said that this won't save me, so come on! Prove it!" The four smaller cannons beside her all fire in unison, more an attack to test Sagat's reactions when he finds explosive shells directly raining down on him than anything.

Sagat (95) has posed:
Well, simply standing there and taking them won't do much good; Sagat knows he's fairly tough, but he also knows he's not tough enough to shrug off heavy artllery fire, particularly the sort of shells that explode on impact. So he gauges the shells' path as well as he can ...

And realizes a little too late that his opponent was canny enough to launch a bracketing salvo, spread wide enough apart that dodging away from one will take him that much closer to another. When the explosions subside, the Emperor of Muay Thai actually looks rather battered and scorched, even bleeding a bit from shrapnel or something <span class=" bold_fg_y bg_n ++ omparable.

"chy">TIGER!!!</span>"

But he's got plenty of fight left in him, and a Tiger Shot erupts, flying towards Savo - and in spite of the distance between them, Sagat put enough focus into the chi projectile to make sure it retains cohesion all the way across.

Armsmaster (554) has posed:
     Unfortunately for Armsmaster, much of his prowess comes from the predictive combat software in his helmet. He is no slouch, certainly - but information is power and that is quite literal in his case. So, with nothing to base his movements off, and the fact that very few parahumans - hero or villain - use firearms, Armsmaster dodges a moment too late. He's fast, the peak of human physical conditioning, but the shell still clips his torso. The blow spins him around, causing the PRT Commander to vanish in a fireball, and he throws up sparks from the metal sections of his armor as he collides with the asphalt and goes sprawling.

     Armsmaster picks himself up. His Halberd had landed a few meters away, and he calls it back to his hand with a crackling display of light with a brief movement of his hand. Not wasting a moment, Armsmaster breaks into a sudden sprint - and he leaps.

     Halberd held behind him, ready to swing, the incredible technology in Armsmaster's armor allows him to leap further than any normal person might be able to. His Halberd is practically as long as he is tall, if not longer, and he swings the large axe-head blade down towards Anchorage. His lips, the only part of him that can be seen, are pressed in an incredibly disapproving frown!

Emiya Shirou (560) has posed:
    OWWWWWWW.

    Shirou's not really so superhuman, physically. He can only bleed and die if a barrage like that hits him.

    Yes. If he hadn't reinforced himself, that's what would've happened. But he reinforced everything. His body, first and foremost. But also the clothes he's wearing on top of it. And... the vest over that which protects his vitals. The bulletproof fiber-weave, Reinforced with prana, is ten times its normal durability. It absorbs the impacts on his vitals and keeps the explosive shells from bursting open within him, so Shirou's mostly just hit with a lot of physical force.

    He goes tumbling backwards with a crunchy thud, and chunks of his protective wear mingle with spilled blood from shrapnel wounds all over his body. But he survived. He didn't suffer any critical injuries, and such minor ones are already healing.

    He'll just have to ignore the burning HEAT that stings his lungs every time he takes a breath, after that calamitous impact.

    Good, Leyte's angry with him. Now if he can just lure her in to somewhere he'd have an advantage.

    For that to fool her, he'll have to keep her attention and not let on that he has any plan at all.

    He grips the legendary sword, greatest in all of Japanese mythology to the best of his knowledge, and raises it high. "HOWL, KUSANAGI NO TSURUGI!"

    A TREMENDOUS surge of Prana follows. The blade speaks with the wind and dominates it. Only a portion of Shirou's prana is actually needed - some of it comes from the world itself, thankfully.

    But the amount needed for what he's doing is easily half his current supply, even with the amount donated by Ainsley still flowing in him.

    The winds spiral like a typhoon to encircle the blade and become a drill-like cyclone. The 'sword of heaven's gathering clouds' is not to be taken lightly!

    Proving this fact, Shirou swings the blade. All the power is unleashed at once. A rippling gale cuts across the bay Leyte's way! It sunders a trench into the water and kicks up a massive wave, then pierces through the wave while dragging it along behind it. The force of a great storm, compressed into a tiny horizontal slash, is coming straight at her. This is far, FAR more threatening than those piddly wind slashes Shirou attempted last time.

Samar (494) has posed:
    Oh, so that wasn't a bluff. Savo realizes this just as she sees Sagat charging a ranged attack and sending it right for her, her eyes widening in brief surprise. Thankfully for her, she's not /too/ slow, and a boost to the side coupled with a sudden duck spares her more than a graze along her left shoulder. She can still feel the energy from there, though; clearly she shouldn't be letting that one hit her.

    Still, the Princess is cocky, and her grin comes right back when she straightens up again. "Ha! Missed me! C'mon, you gotta aim better than that!" Yes, that is probably a grin that needs to be wiped off with a fist. Still, heedless of what is no doubt an impending beatdown, Savo sends off a small swarm of bizarre planes about the size of housecats (http://tinyurl.com/nt4ctx9) that run along the airways to either side of her before zipping up into the air, flying in a triangular formation toward Sagat. Once they come close, they dip down as if preparing to open fire...but instead of doing that, they suddenly bank upward again, dropping off small bombs that explode with much more force than they seem like they should!

    Before Anchorage even comes near the shore, Armsmaster's incredible leap sends him flying toward her. She attempts to stop her forward progress, but too late: his halberd slams into the 'forehead' of the strange machine she rides, splitting into the black armor and sending up hissing red steam. The creature growls mechanically, reeling back, but Anchorage only glares down at Armsmaster from her perch. Seems he's not the only one prone to frowning.

    Wordlessly, her mount reaches up one pale, muscular arm and aims to snatch Armsmaster by the waist. A quick thrust of that same arm is send out to hurl him away, tearing him off and tossing him back to a painful landing on land.

    Leyte is suddenly faced with a devastating wave of wind rushing toward her, and she's not really moving slowly enough to get out of the way. She flinches, clenching her teeth and raising her gauntleted arms to try and block...which sort of works. Her torso isn't cloven through, at least, but the wave slices deep trenches into the structures on her forearms and sends her flying back along the water. It's only through fortunate balance that she lands on her feet again, kicking up a spray behind her before she shakes her head clear of the disorientation.

    "...the hell? What, did nearly killing you just make you stronger or something?!" Leyte gives an irritated growl, then pushes toward the shore again. This time, she doesn't use up any more artillery; she simply leaps near the coast, pulling back one clawed fist, and with an enraged shout, she drives that powerful arm of metal straight for Shirou as she lands!

Armsmaster (554) has posed:
     Armsmaster pulls his Halberd free, reeling back for another blow. This time, however, the blade of his weapon is noticeably humming. Whatever his plan is, however, he doesn't get to put it into action. Anchorage's mount grabs him, armor buckling around his middle at the strength of its (her?) grip, and hurls him into the air.

     As red lights blink into view on his HUD, Armsmaster reacts quickly. Just as he reaches the apex of the throw, he reverses his grip on his Halberd and aims it towards Anchorage. The axe-head shifts, splits and reforms into a spearhead, like it is folding around itself in an obvious bit of defiance to the conventional laws of physics. The spearhead launches out of the haft of the weapon, trailing a considerable length of steel chain, more than should obviously fit in such a weapon. Hoping to find purchase on Anchorage or her mount, Armsmaster goes to reel himself in at high speed - and hammer both of his power-armored boots squarely upon the Abyssal ship!

Sagat (95) has posed:
The feint is enough to catch Sagat by surprise; he's jumping up to try and punch a miniature airplane out of the sky when they drop their bombs and pull up - and catch Sagat squarely in the midst of the explosions, with enough force that he actually goes down. Pretty hard, too.

But not hard enough to STAY down, as evidenced by his rolling back up to a crouch, then leaping -

"TIGER KNEE!!!"

- more forward than vertical, and with a controlled internal surge of chi boosting the leap enough to cover the distance between them. He doesn't fully expect the Tiger Knee to carry enough momentum to count for a serious hit, though ... and he's right to expect it, apparently, but he makes up for it by trying to plant an elbow squarely on Savo's head.

At the same time as his feet seek footing on one of her launch decks.

Emiya Shirou (560) has posed:
    Wow. She can really jump! And Shirou can't possibly avoid that. Even if he dodges, he'll be vulnerable. He can only try and meet that!

    So he brings Kusanagi up. The winds roar again and gather, creating a buffer-like barrier with only one purpose. It should be to enhance a slash, but in this case...

    Leyte's fist impacts Kusanagi's flat. Or rather, the 'storm' that's built up around it. The fist is slowed, partially deflected... but still strikes. Shirou's knees buckle and, like a spring bent sideways...

    Leyte's fist hits the ground where he stood. The actual fist doesn't more than graze him, but the wave of sand it kicks up almost buries him, and the force his parry attempt absorbed sends him tumbling across the ground. Smash, whap, whonk, clang. He's onto the pavement now, and hitting the streets. AMAZINGLY, Kusanagi is still intact, though his arm now stings something fiercely. "Yeah, I wish it was just that simple, but nothing about my body's improved at all since then." He states bitterly.

    He's going to have to kite her. Stay within range of that leap, rather than prompting her to use her guns. If he lets her gain too much momentum and control, this ain't gonna work.

    "You're too much trouble! If you want to be appreciated, this isn't the way to do it." With another swing of Kusanagi, he sends a smaller blade of wind at her. And another. And another! He glances over his shoulder just once to get a view of some local power lines...

Samar (494) has posed:
    Anchorage's earlier assessment about Armsmaster seems like it's steadily being proven true. The armored hero goes flying, but he just as quickly transforms his weapon and hooks into the strange ring of 'teeth' where Anchorage's legs sink into her mount. The Demon glances down at the spear tip, then back up at Armsmaster, her glare hardening as she puts two and two together.

    Well, dodging is out of the question, so there's only on real option for her. One of her mount's hands curls into a fist and pulls back, and as Armsmaster is hurtling toward her, that massive fist suddenly comes driving toward /him/, using his own momentum to make the punch strike that much harder!

    Assuming he doesn't have something /else/ up his sleeve.

    Savo grins with glee as her bomber planes send Sagat sprawling across the ground...but that grin quickly fades into a look of absolute horror as he goes /flying/ across the gap toward her.

    Savo screams. It's not very dignified.

    Her left arm comes up to try and shield herself, but it's not quite enough. Sagat's elbow strikes a clean hit right between her horns, sending the girl into a brief daze that gives him more than enough time to find purchase on the landing strips on either side of her. The mechanical base wobbles a little in its hover, but it's enough to keep both of them above the water for now.

    When finally Savo shakes her head and clears the buzzing from it, she looks up...and up...and up...until she finally sees Sagat's head looming above her. The Princess only manages a brief squeak in her panic before suddenly balling up in her seat, trying to protect her beautiful, beautiful face. It's the cannons on either side of her that retaliate, aiming up and firing at Sagat to get him /off/, or at least /away/!

    Leyte, meanwhile, glares at the imprint her fist made in the ground, and the /lack/ of an imprint it made in Shirou. She snarls, then yanks her arm out of the sand, claws curling and flexing. "Oh, come on, I don't /care/ about being appreciated for all that now! What, do you think I want everyone to just start holding hands and singing songs about how great all the ships were? THAT DOESN'T MATTER ANYMORE!"

    Kusanagi swings, and Leyte is a little better at dodging this time. Boosts of her thrusters send her skating from side to side, and while the first strike cleaves along her right bicep, the others are much more effectively avoided. Her gaze remains fixed on Shirou, every jolt bringing her closer...

    Suddenly, she's close enough that she can use her thrusters for another purpose: powering a sweep of her armored leg to smash his legs out from under him, striking with more force than a standard kick would on its own.

Sagat (95) has posed:
Sagat disappears briefly in a point-blank cannonade, roaring with pain and fury ...

And then he starts hitting Savo back. Exactly how he STAYED on her flight deck in the midst of the munitions is a mystery that will last through the ages - although it might have something to do with getting bombarded from two sides at once. Plus, y'know, being a huge dude who's built to take pretty much everything in the face.

But can Savo take it as well as she dishes it out? Sagat's fists, feet, knees, and elbows are going to find the answer to that - or so he hopes; the smoke hasn't even fully dispersed around him when he starts hitting her, and hitting her some more, and hitting her still more than THAT. He doesn't even turn any of his attention to the cannons themselves - just the feminine form at the ship's 'core'.

Armsmaster (554) has posed:
     Whether it's simply the speed that Armsmaster is hurtling in at or the strength of his armor, the blow doesn't kill him. However, the kinetic force of the blow still wrenches Armsmaster around, almost looking like he risks dislocating his shoulder entirely as he grips onto his Halberd weapon for dear life, the metal of his gauntlets squealing as they shift against the metal haft of the spear. He's going to feel that one tomorrow, certainly.

     Armsmaster grunts, finding his footing on Anchorage's mount, tossing his Halberd into his good hand. The spear snaps back towards his Halberd proper, dangling by a chain, and then it shifts again and-

     Oh, it's a flail now.

     With a powerful spin of his arm, Armsmaster sets the head and chain of his flail whirling around his helmet, and the heavy weighted sphere begins to glow as some sort of super-hot plasma is injected into the metal. With a shout, Armsmaster sends the flail crashing down - directly at Anchorage herself!

Emiya Shirou (560) has posed:
    Once again Shirou brings Kusanagi around, this time using both hands to control the blade. A KICK is a little easier to manage since it comes from the side, though he has to stab the weapon into the ground to gain any leverage. The concrete easily gives beneath the legendary weapon, needing very little force, but the weak link in this chain is undeniably Shirou's arms holding onto the top - and the opening this creates otherwise.

    All he can do is weaken and blunt Leyte's blows, not outright parry them. It's a miracle he can even do that as an amateur magus though, really.

    There's a tremendous CLANG as Kusanagi absorbs the blow. It doesnt' hold though. Shirou's arm is wrenched awkwardly and painfully, ALMOST dislocating it, and the weapon shatters into a hundred piece with the sound of breaking glass. "ghhhgh!"

    He's hit, though the foot hits his side instead, and sends him sprawling along the ground again.

    With a few grunts, and groans, he scampers to his feet. Golden light streams out again, this time into a VERY lengthy and thin form--- KSSSSH-CLANG!

    What he holds now is an UNUSUALLY long spear. The ornate, golden weapon is almost twice as tall as he is long, and has a strange cross-guard two thirds of the way towards the business end - which happens to be a thick blade just as suited for slashes as thrusts.

    Leyte has no way of knowing that this is the spear of Dragonslayer Ornstein, one of the guardians of Gwynevere, Princess of Sunlight, who fought countless battles in Anor Londo before recently falling. It's a mighty weapon in a different sense than Kusanagi.

    "Don't be ridiculous. But you know where this path's leading. You've chosen to become monsters. No matter how much you destroy, it won't make you happy..." He's leaning on the spear for a few breaths, but he regains his balance and takes aim.

    It looks like he's going to thrust. From very far away.

    And that's EXACTLY what he does. A bolt of sizzling, golden lightning flies from the spear tip, straight at Leyte!

    "You're really bad at hiding it. You act all angry, but aren't you really just crying? You're not going to be remembered by destroying everything. There won't be anyone to remember you then! Is that really waht you want?!"

Samar (494) has posed:
    Kick! Kick! Elbow! Kick! Punch! Savo falls under a painful assault, and she quite simply isn't built to tank attacks like that like some of her fellow Abyssals. Nor can she really dodge; even if Sagat weren't standing right over her, her lower back and right arm are plugged into the mechanical 'throne' she sits in, and that's not exactly a thing she can quickly extract herself from.

    "Ow! Ow, hey, that - OW! STOP IT!"

    Rather than directly attacking, however...Savo begins to grow. The entire being of the Airfield Princess grows larger and larger, and while that means Sagat ends up standing on what's scaled to be a proper airfield, albeit one hovering above the water, that /also/ means that the woman he was just punching has reached kaiju proportions.

    Savo finally uncurls herself, then glares down at Sagat with an angry frown. Her free fist comes up, then just as swiftly /slams/ down on the Muay Thai Emperor. She may not be exceptionally strong, but now her size will more than make up for that.

    Anchorage's blow neither kills Armsmaster nor sends him off her hull. Sure, it hurt him, but his stubbornness ensures that Anchorage's main attempt didn't work. That's enough to make the irritable Demon snarl in annoyance, but it's not an irritation she has much time to dwell on. Armsmaster has switched to /another/ formation for his weapon, and that glowing head is bearing down on her right now!

    Her body twists, and her left arm lifts. It's her bicep that the flail's head hits, and while it sends up sparks with its strike and makes the female spirit buckle from the impact, it at least doesn't smash right through to the flesh. The strange mouth on her bicep is what catches it, its teeth and jaw mangled from the strike but holding fast to the weapon's head!

    "...you are such a nuisance," she growls. The long cannon over her other shoulder lowers, and while she hopefully still has Armsmaster at point-blank range, she fires a single shell crackling with crimson energy from that sniper-like cannon! It's not a shell made purely for exploding: the energy it erupts into does make use of kinetic force, but the red energy also eats away at the matter it strikes, gnawing at it like a remarkably potent acid.

    Leyte's kick shatters the weapon, a result she was expecting to have happen much sooner. Something about Shirou has improved since the last time, she can tell. It brings a snarl of anger to her as she plants her foot in the ground again, watching as he creates...a spear? That's a new one.

    Unfortunately, the weapon's significance is lost on her, but she knows better than to underestimate such a thing. He thrusts, and she moves away just in time that the crackling bolt of lightning rushes inches past her, sending a wave of static through her body but thankfully /just/ sparing her from harm. Yes, that's definitely not something to get hit by.

    But whether she's thinking clearly enough to be worried about that is another question. Shirou's words are a spark for her anger, and she lets out a tremendous roar as she rushes in after him again. "I'm not /crying/! I don't /care/ how many end up dying in all this! If that's what it takes for them to realize how /powerful/ I am, THEN THAT'S WHAT I'LL DO!" Her fist swings low into a punch aimed at his gut, but that's not the only thing she strikes him with. The strong impact is matched with a sudden blast of the cannons on her forearms, sending two explosive shells at point-blank range to add to the force!

Armsmaster (554) has posed:
     The blank silver visor of Armsmaster's helmet stares back at Anchorage, frowning as she growls at him, frowning as he pits his strength and his weapon against the strength of Anchorage's arm and monsterous jaw. Beads of sweat roll out from under his helmet, his arms shaking, as he goes to try and jam the rest of his flail down that mouth on her arm.

     And then he gets shot and, where he was hit, Armsmaster's midnight-blue armor plating disintegreates in a red haze. Beneath it is nothing more than muscular flesh, burned to a sore looking red by the impact. For all his bravado, Armsmaster is just a man, albeit a man with one hell of a weapon and some impressive skills.

     But just a man all the same. He can't let himself get shot again.

     Armsmaster twists something on his Halberd-flail, and arcs of electricity crackle down the chain and into the flail - and, from there, into Anchorage herself. "Fall!" Armsmaster roars.

     On the shore, members of the PRT watch the battle. While Armsmaster right be so focused on Anchorage he misses what's happening with Savo, they don't. Unable to assist, the other members of the Protectorate can only watch and wait and hope that Armsmaster and his two Union allies can manage to stop these newest villains. With Savo's sudden size, some might pray for Scion - but one can never count on the arrival of the golden man.

Sagat (95) has posed:
***WHAM!!!!!!***

And that would seem to be it for Sagat; there's no way he can still be standing in the gap between the deck and Savo's fist - not even if he were crouching as tightly as he could. Did he get driven straight through the deck? Probably not - if the ship is part of Savo, she would know whether there was a hole in it, presumably; there is no hole.

The answer is simple enough, should she lift her fist up to take a look: Sagat is flat on his back, sporting a LOT more bruises - but he's still breathing, and as soon as he gets a chance to move he's back on his feet - rolling quickly to the side in order to dodge the next anticipated hammerblow and coming back up off the deck. "There's only one way I'll stop hitting you ... and that's when our fight is *over*!!" He actually charges towards Savo's main body before dipping into a crouch -

"TIGER UPPERCUT!!!!"

- and leaps upwards and into Savo, leading with his fist rocketing from just above the deck as far into the sky as his body can drive it; in point of fact, the physics work out more like it's Sagat's fist that rises forcefully enough to pull the rest of him behind it ... of course, he's driving it into Savo as hard as he can along the way.

Emiya Shirou (560) has posed:
    "I'm not buying that! Trace, on!" Shirou has not improved, bodily, it's true. But after panicking so much against Leyte, and fumbling around in Sen's Fortress, almost dying several times...

    He is gaining a decisive 'battle sense.' What actions to take, what not to do, and how to estimate the outcome and gauge his opponent's temperament. Sure, his Projections have gotten -slightly- better, but not much.

    Even a little helps though.

    The TOWER SHIELD appears out before him. Again, it's like a blob of energy in the rough shape of a shield and not ENTIRELY solid. But it's sufficient to absorb that punch. Most of it, anyways. The fist slams hard into it, and goes no further - although the energy does 'crack.' It's the second volley that gets through. The guns pierce straight through the shoddy shield and disperse it. Still, only half the force of those shots gets through to slam into Shirou's reinforced torso and blow him backwards. He yells whilst sailing through the air, then slams hard into the base of a power pole at the street side, where things start to connect to the harbor. Some of the explosive shells struck his flesh and tore chunks out. He's bleeding badly, but like before the wounds don't bleed a lot for long. They dwindle... is that a metallic gleam filling the 'holes', slowly...?

    "Moron! As if roaring and beating your chest solves anything... I think I've got a better idea of what kind of spirit you are. Hurting a girl isn't really my style at all, I'd rather you calm down and give up on this crazy mission, but you're making this really hard!"

    he sucks in a breath. It's go time. Almost. He gestures broadly-- scrunches his eyes shut for just a second in enormous concentration, and dumps most of his remaining prana into something big.

    Four weapons appear around him, and one tiny one higher above him. The four that hover around him are Auron's Katana, Kusanagi, a HUGE and rusty chunk of metal that can barely be called a sword, and.... a dazzling white-silver longsword with red designs. It exudes a pristine, regal aura - yes, it's a holy sword of some serious legend. Clarent, the Radiant and Brilliant Royal Sword that was stolen by Mordred.

    He clenches his fist and gestures, and those four weapons hurl themselves like missiles at Leyte...

    Up above, the Estoc waits, angled down towards the power pole and lined up with Leyte. A sliver of somewhat insulated cabling is the only thing between it and the Abyssal ship.

    The Estoc's launch is slightly delayed, and for good reason. Shirou expects Leyte to try and dodge, destroy, or even just smash the offending weapons and busy herself.

    The Estoc spears down, piercing the power line and ripping it from the mounting on the pole. The sword digs through, becoming a spike on the end of a nasty, electrical whip through which more power courses than the Magus, Shirou, could ever hope to generate.

    RAW ELECTRIC POWER.

    If that Estoc connects, it will turn Leyte into the grounding point for a conduit of awful agony. Enormous piles of raw energy will sizzle, fry, and wrack everything in a nasty lightshow. it's Shirou's hopes that this will wreak HAVOC on her guns and senses.

Samar (494) has posed:
    Anchorage allows a small smirk to form over her lips when she sees flesh beneath the armor. "...pathetic." Yes, she's being beaten, but the man who faces her is just that. He can be beaten. It's just a matter of time and focus...

    The electricity, however, is a clear problem. It rushes through the metal in her arm to the rest of her body, filling her with powerful jolts and agonizing pain. Her teeth clench as she tries to push through it, focusing on how to retaliate against this armored opponent...

    Suddenly, her mount's nose flips up to toss Armsmaster into the air. Like some giant shark, the metal creature snaps out to bite down on his waist with crushing strength, grinding him between its teeth and the smoldering heat in its maw!

    Savo does indeed wonder at the distinct lack of blood spread over the runway and the lack of a hole punched through the deck. Sagat has to have gone somewhere, of course, but...he can't relaly have just /tanked/ that. Can he?

    Her fist lifts, and she sees him...still there. In one piece, for all intents and purposes. Her expression grows an annoyed frown as he rises, her fist coming down again - but no, he rolls out of the way too quickly, and it simply slams against the runway! Even at this size, she's having some trouble.

    Again his fist rockets toward her, and Savo clenches her teeth in anticipation of a great deal of pain. There's inhuman force behind those fists, she realizes; even at this size, getting struck would not be something she wants to deal with.

    Her arm lifts...but that's not what saves her. It's one of her planes, now the size of an /actual/ jet, rocketing in from the side to slam into Sagat and knock him away in a kamikaze maneuver!

    Leyte successfully sends Shirou flying, but it doesn't bring her much satisfaction. She's burning, seething with hatred toward Shirou more and more with every word he speaks. Her heavy footsteps carry her toward Shirou, her mind filled with all the things she's no doubt going to do to him once she catches up to him.

    The swords appear and fly at her, but rather than wait for them to reach her, she simply aims her guns up toward each one in turn and blasts at them one after the other to knock them out of the air. Her aim turns to Shirou next-

    And she's suddenly stabbed through the stomach with what is essentially a grounding pole for coursing lightning. No blood flows from the wound, but it doesn't need to: that electricity creates more than enough of a sign of agony in the Southern Demon as she screams out in pain, electricity coursing through her body and the metal attached to it. It's an overwhelming effort for her just to grab the estoc and yank it out of her, tossing it aside; afterward, she falls to her hands and knees, steaming and gasping as her head still buzzes from the assault. She's not out completely, but...boy, did that hurt.

Sagat (95) has posed:
Sagat lets out a yell as the plane sideswipes him, explodes, and slams him back into the deck. He hasn't had the coolest of tempers, but he looks distinctly and decidedly more pissed off now as he drops into a crouch ...

"TIIIIGEEEEEERRRR *GENOCIDE*!!!!"

And rockets across the distance between him and Savo, leading with a Tiger Knee - not merely crossing the distance but actually *connecting* with the knee, and then unwinding into a Tiger Uppercut when he's basically already in contact with her, dragging his fist up along the Abyssal's torso. If he sails high enough to plant the uppercut under her chin, that would just be the icing on the cake ... he'll settle for brutalizing the undead ship-wight however he can, though.

Armsmaster (554) has posed:
     Armsmaster goes flying before he can fire off a retort to Anchorage, and comes back down to land in a maw of teeth and heat. Armor plates split, paint is scorched, and some of that bite finds purchase in his flesh. Armsmaster does reply, but only with an anguished shout. He extends his right hand, calling his Halberd back to his grip in a bright flash. He's running out of options. With his armor sundered, he might not last long - he isn't a cape with an invulnerability power.

     He makes up for that with sheer force of will and 'never back down' aggression. He has one final trick up his sleeve, however.

     On his world, there exists a parahuman known only as Leviathan, a member of the mysterious Endbringers. A powerful macro-hydrokinetic, Leviathan can sink islands beneath the waves by summoning colossal tsunamis with a thought and shatter the land by pulling water from the aquifer beneath the ground.

     And this trick exists to stop him.

     Armsmaster swings his Halberd with one final ounce of strength, aiming to hit anywhere on Anchorage. And, where the Halberd touches...

     ...everything flash-freezes, suddenly dropping to well below zero degrees celcius. Who knows whether the ship-woman-thing can resist it, but it extends down into the water and freezes several meters in every direction. And then, Armsmaster draws his Halberd back, shifting it into nothing more than a giant sledgehammer, and swings right for Anchorage, like he's intending to shatter her - or most of her - into pieces!

Emiya Shirou (560) has posed:
    Awwwww, geeze. Even THAT isn't enough to down Leyte? Her resilience is incredible. Shirou would be dead if that kind of current hit him. Almost certainly dead.

    But it's a problem if that doesn't kill her, and instead leaves her gasping and painting. The scream was enough to rattle his resolve, but only slightly. He has to keep reminding himself.

    Leyte is more a monster than a girl. More a vengeful spirit than a human. He can't expect reasonable thoughts out of her.

    And his prana is practically empty. Only a few shreds of energy still course through his body.

    He honestly should be collapsing. Most magi would, with their od drained this dangerously low. They'd fall unconscious and sleep for up to a day, even.

    But Shirou has endured the harshest of Magical trainings in his own way. Sheer stubborn willpower keeps him on his feet, and lets him summon up these last shreds of available energy.

    He has no words for Leyte. He can't waste any effort on speech. But agony mars his face. Agony and focus. Grunting and straining with everything he's got, he traces one more weapon. Kusanagi appears in his grasp and Shirou raises it in the exact same motion as before. The weapon gleams, then shines, apparently turning unstable just as happened last time.

    Broken Phantasm.

    That surefire method of destroying everything. If that sword explodes again, a great portion of the street will be scoured away, and everything on it scorched and shredded into dust...!

    The weapon glows ominously. Yet Shirou does not throw it.

Samar (494) has posed:
    Savo's arm falls again, and she looks aside to see where Sagat landed. Well, he's still on the deck, but seeing him crashing down is enough to bring that smirk of satisfaction back to her.

    Aaaand there it goes again, as he bellows that name. /Genocide/?!

    She's simply too large to avoid that right now. His knee crashes into her waist, drawing a pained 'grk' as she lurches to the side, but it's the fist that causes the most damage. It rakes along her body, dugging a burning furrow across her form, until at last-

    POW. Right against the Abyssal Princess' jaw. The strike sends her reeling - her entire form, in fact - and whirling over the ocean's surface for a few yards, her free hand lifting to her jaw where that final hit landed. She looks absolutely shocked; rightly so, given her relative size right now. A punch simply shouldn't hit that hard!

    Anchorage isn't doing much better, either. Her base gnaws and grinds Armsmaster's torso, but then that Halberd strikes her...and freezes her. Her entire body is frequently coated in water, after all, and that ice impacts everything. A look of confusion comes over her face before the ice crests over her head, making her into a rather grotesque ice sculpture in the middle of the water. And then comes the sledgehammer.

    Not all of Anchorage shatters...but a good deal of her does as she's sent reeling and tumbling over the water. Armor is made brittle and shatters in several places; her female form's left arm is broken into chunks, but no blood emerges from the wound in her shoulder; chunks of her torso are smashed away as well, and the muscular arms of her mount are similarly broken away. It takes her a good deal of time just to straighten up again in a straight hover after that powerful strike.

    And Leyte...well, Leyte already wasn't doing so well. She gasps and pants, trying to force through the lingering pain running through her body, trying to will her body to /move/ into combat again. It's a struggle, and one she doesn't seem to be winning.

    When he summons that sword again, her head lifts...and she /glares/. It's a look that almost dares him to hurl it, here, where it's not just ruins, but a whole city that could be put at risk from using that weapon. Would he really use it there? Would he take that risk just to see her defeated...?

    "Anchorage! Leyte!" The shout comes from Savo, wincing as she holds her waist. "This is...gh. That's enough. We're leaving!" The Airfield Princess doesn't look too happy about that, but at this point, it's either leave or stay and be smashed into further submission. She's quick to sink below the waves with one last glare at Sagat, and Anchorage, though silent, casts her own enraged leer toward Armsmaster, as if challenging him to be so successful the next time they meet. Soon they're both consumed by the waves again, moving off into the ocean.

    Leyte growls her annoyance, but pushes herself unsteadily to her feet. "...this isn't over," she growls threateningly to Shirou, but aside from a look that could kill small animals instantly, she doesn't continue her attack. Her uncertain gait carries her back to the ocean, where she sinks down to follow her superiors in retreat.

Emiya Shirou (560) has posed:
    Indeed. Leyte's on the right track. Shirou defeintiely wouldn't use that thing here. It was an overight on his part, since it was a bluff to begin with he didn't think about the consequences of actually sing it for him.

    Slight oversight.

    But it seems to be working somewhat, in any case. "nhhhgh.... that was intense..."

    With another shattering sound, Kusanagi breaks into pieces. Shirou's legs lose all their strength, and he collapses onto the pavement. Hard.

Armsmaster (554) has posed:
     Armsmaster takes one final leap, landing on his feet in the shallows of the bay. He watches the Confederates leave, Halberd propped against the sediment in a heroic posture - one that is also supporting a fair amount of his weight. He's wounded, bloodied - perhaps more than any Brockton Bay villian might be able to do to him - but he has prevailed.

     But, as always, that is only ever 'for now'.

Sagat (95) has posed:
It's a good time not to stay on board Savo, especially when Sagat hits her so hard that she skips not unlike a flung stone. Fortunately for *her*, the very flipping that Sagat incurred flipped him 'overboard'.

Unfortunately, Sagat also knows enough about swimming not to drown ... although rather than pressing the battle, he heads for the shoreline and looks for a place to pull himself up onto relatively dry land.

The ships' departure is greeted by an upraised fist. No fingers, just the fist. It's not the kind of gesture Sagat usually offers, but it seems adequate. Besides. Savo is probably deathly afraid of THAT FIST by now, given how hard Sagat socked her. Never mind that he looks more black-and-blue than brown, and there are still streaks of blood, mostly dry, some not, over a lot of his body.

He is not sorry to see the Abyssals' backs.