5233/=System Tower: Floor 67

=System Tower: Floor 67
Date of Scene:	03 May 2017
Location:	The System <TS>
Synopsis:	Another floor of the Tower has appeared, this time in the Diamond Drive of Locus. A very Shooty floor, full of bullets, grazing and Power Ups ensues. A mysterious figurine of the local craft is received as a reward. What could this all mean?
Cast of Characters:	1103, Lexicon, Rebecca Chambers, Bahamut, 619, 1113, Jonathan Joestar, 707

---

Theurgus (1103) has posed:
    Once more the Tower has arrived, and once more Charta and Theurgus stand at the base of it, stabbed through the Drive like a giant obsidian nail from skybox to Root Floor. it's driven itself through the center one a floating island this time, the ground suddenly shifting from simulated dirt and grass to a spiderweb pattern of black that solidifies into panels of black closer to the doorway that sits with its glowing sign beside it. 67.

    The Spire of the City sits in the background, the normally radiant beam sputtering, going out completely occasionally before reigniting, the multihued Resource Lines barely even visible in the terrain. Charta floats in midair, her book open before her and surrounding her on all sides with holographic displays. "As we feared, the drain is even greater now. LDF forces have engaged a group of viruses in the northeast quadrant, but their weapons and constructs are showing signs of disruption... but the line is holding for now."

    Theurgus herself is uncharacteristically quiet. "The rate at which we are subjected to this thing has increased since we reconnected. A correlation, but I am unsure if there is a causation there... perhaps reconnecting was a mistake." She covers her eyes with the brim of her hat... and murmurs to herself. Charta looks over the edge of her book, and frowns softly. "I have put out a call to whomever will answer for aid... they should be here soon."

Lexicon has posed:
    Approaching fast from the System Bus terminal is a streak of silvery white, moving in a smooth arc. Riding on wings of light, Lexicon leans into a banking turn, circling the upper level of the tower and then spiraling her way down to the oddly placed entrance. She rights herself as she descends and drops the last few meters vertically, though never actually touches the panels forming the 'ground' around the entryway. Crimson eyes glance up the building's face, then towards Theurgus. She'd arrived just in time to catch the latter half of the Mage's muttering, and swiftly asserts herself, "I don't think it was a mistake. This thing is getting more problematic for everyone. But now you've got help to deal with it."

    Wholly unrelated to the Silver DCC's arrival, a familiar rabbit-eared doll in a frilly blue dress climbs up the platform's other side. After hauling herself up over the edge, Bunnabelle rolls over, panting. A screen pops up, flashing 'Begin Study', and she waves it off, "Let me catch my breath, first..! Floating islands are no joke..!"

Rebecca Chambers has posed:
She hasn't been in the tower for awhile, but Rebecca Chambers remembers it quite well, and she's not going to let another possible chance to check it out go to waste right now. The place is rather unique and a little unsettling to Rebecca, but she knows that appearances aren't everything, especially in the Multiverse. Then again, at least she's not exploring a creepy mansion or something like that.

Unlike those who might have the ability to fly there, Rebecca simply enters through a warpgate which appears not too far from where Lexicon arrives. Although simply might be an understatement since she dashes through rather quickly, a determined look on her face as she takes out a clip and slaps it into her Beretta. She doesn't say anything upon hearing Theurgus's words, instead standing attentively and listening to what is being said. When the mage is finished speaking, only then does Rebecca speak.

"Rebecca Chambers, reporting in," Rebecca says firmly as she salutes. "I did get the call, and I came as quickly as I could." Her tone of voice shows an attitude of determination and authority, yet she is still respectful to Theurgus all the same.

Bahamut has posed:
     Bahamut has seen many things in his time, but this is beyond anything even he has seen. A spire taller than this world. A world that seems to be a simulation of an actual world, but is real in all the aspects that matter. The large form of the metal dragon might cause some concern with the citizens as he makes his way toward the target, a spire no less impressive than the city spire. And much more foreboding. Bahamut lets out a low growl as he nears it. He tries not to judge by looks, but this thing obviously needs to go.

     A series of runed circles appear in the air in front of him as he accelerates, smashing through them with the speed of a rocket and sending harmless sparkles down toward the ground. He closes in quickly on Charta and Theurgus, then with a slight roar of effort he flares his wings and breaks hard. He hasn't lost all of his momentum when he lands beside them, and a slight shockwave eminates outward from the dragon's landing spot. He slowly rises to his full height, the crosses his arms and takes a stance with one foot slightly behind the other. "Greetings. I am Bahamut. I heard your call for help." he says, then looks around at the others. He gives a nod of greeting, then looks at the tower. "So, how do we handle this?"

Sanae Kochiya (619) has posed:
Today presented a rare, double-headed opportunity. To assist with another manifestation of the System's infamous Tower (and perhaps find something useful in the process -- okay, triple-headed), as well as see another Drive entirely. It's not a well kept secret that Sanae Kochiya, the outsider and wind priestess, spends a lot of her time in the System in Britannica, though she's begun to slowly branch out her visitations and assistance. Rather than being something to beat down and then have it be someone else's problem for a few weeks, the quickening pace and growing ferocity of its hunger has made this Tower everyone's primary agenda, no matter where it appears.

    So, yeah, it helps that it's leading to cooperation, too.

    Sanae flies in under her own power, a feat that actually feels a bit easier in this domain than in most places of the System, or indeed the Multiverse at large. It could just be the natural fantasy atmosphere, or rather a placebo effect of it, since she's not actually any faster or agile. In contrast to the silvery-white streak, the green-haired girl is going at her own pace, recording aerial footage with her smartphone of the wonders she's flying over. It looks like something out of one of those RPGs that had started to come out before she left her Earth originally, where they started really toying with the world structure. --ah, but this is research! Yes, research.

    The Tower is difficult to miss, even if she didn't have a glowing, silvery trail to follow to it. The fact that it's on a floating island is also no trouble for her, slowing down and hovering down once she's close enough to be in ear shot. "I'm here to back you up!" She pauses a beat, then clarifies, "Provide reinforcements, that is." Oh goodness, a sudden dragon, too. She hesitates a moment, and decides to provide a start of an explanation that the locals like Bunnabelle (are you okay) can probably fill in much better. "Usually we'd just go in and solve the puzzle or beat the viruses inside, so that it bothers someone else's Drive for a while, but...with how things are becoming now, there's more of an eye to fixing this for good."

Dreamgazer (1113) has posed:
Dreamgazer had done little to announce her arrival, aside from the sound of hooves striking against the ground while approaching the source of the call for aid. How she managed to propel herself to this floating island is anyone's guess, though it took her a while to reach her destination. Though despite her uneventful appearance, the small Unicorn Pony still manages to stick out like a sore thumb among the bipeds present while still remaining unassuming. She stops not too far from Theurgus and Charta, clearing her throat a bit before speaking up, "There was a call for assistance, so I decided to see what I can do in order to help." She said to those who had already assembled here, the dragon seeming to catch her attention first and foremost due to their size. Her eyes then shift towards the tower itself, standing menacingly among the landscape it has jutting out through.

Jonathan Joestar has posed:
A helicopter buzzes overhead as it circles around the spire, giving its occupants a good look of the skyscraping monolith. Inside, a one-hundred-and-ninety-five centimeter Englishman fidgets in his seat. "I can't believe this..." he said. It could have meant many things, that they were so high into the air, that such a gigantic structure could exist, or that it could pierce the skies with its lengths. Jonathan figured he'd have some time yet before he acclimated to the technology of other worlds.

        "Mister Joestar, should I take us down?"
        "Yes, please. Thank you."

Ordinarily, he wouldn't take an out of the way trip from his research like this, but he was behooved to respond to a call for assistance, especially against a threat as seemingly supernatural as this one. He didn't think Dio or the Stone Mask was the cause of it, but none the less, he'd render aide to the ones who needed it. It was his duty, as a gentleman and as a member of the League. Even if it wasn't exactly what he was looking for, this still fell under his jurisdiction of 'occult research'.

The sleek black helicopter touches the ground, and allows the blue-leather clad giant of a man to climb out, a gold-hilted sword with an ornate design strapped to his back. One hand fell over his chest as he bowed lightly to those present. "My name is Jonathan Joestar, I'm here to help."

Theurgus (1103) has posed:
    Charta bows to Lexicon when the other DCC arrives, then glances at Bunnabelle with a concerned look, floating over and offering a small bottle filled with a dark, fizzy liquid. "We set up a cable train to get here... you could have used that." she says, never touching the ground, much like the DCCs in their Digital Divinity forms. The book floats behind her, snapping closed and hovering like some kind of guardian.

    As Rebecca arrives, Theurgus lifts her hat, and looks over with a piercing set of blue eyes. They skim from the brunette to the other DCC, then back, before she nods. "The more help the better, the local militia, the Locus Defense Force, are fighting a Viral Outbreak on the other side of the Drive and are being hampered by this accursed structure draining not only the spare Resource, but vital feed lines as well, including those that power their weapons." she clenches her fists. "The Organization will pay for sending this accursed thing back here."

    Bahamuts arrival actually draws some cheers from the city as he passes. One of the few reasons the LDF haven't completely collapsed with their weapons being disrupted are a pair of much smaller bronze coloured dragon Viruses, turned to aid the city against their former kin. They can be seen scoring wide swaths of multiple Poochooze and Malvaders with breath of boiling metal fire in the distance. Charta squeaks, clinging to her book and using one hand to keep her skirt from blowing all which way as the dragon lands so. Theurgus herself seems unfazed, her long robe fluttering in the wind as she turns to look up at the taller dragon. "I will get to that once everyone has assembled." she replies, tipping the brim of her hat. "Your presence is most welcome, however."

    Sanae's arrival actually turns the sour expression prevelant on the local DCC's face around a bit. The green haired priestess is certainly a pleasant sight to the mage, as she turns and doffs her hat to Sanae. "Welcome to Locus... I only wish it were under better circumstance that you were visiting." she says, then turns to the next arrival.

    Dreamgazer's arrival earns a bit of a stare from Charta, though a talking pony is hardly unrealistic to the locals. They have gel monsters that look like bouncing dog heads after all. Theurgus smiles, and kneels to offer a hand to the arriving pony. "Any assistance will be appreciated." she says, then looks up at the distinct sound of a helicoptor passing overhead.

    Jonathan's mode of transport isn't a native thing to The System, except maybe in the Emerald Drive with their 'games'. Alea's not a bad person, kinda snooty maybe. The man himself has the DCC standing and touching the brim of her pointed hat once more. "Welcome Ser Joestar. Your assistance will be most welcome... we don't know what we will encounter within, but be prepared to defend yourself."

    The bluehaired DCC turns toward the Tower, and Bunnabelle. "We should make haste. The Tower will not simply leave of its own accord." She states, then strides up to the doors... but pauses before entering. "Steel yourselves."

Xiaomu (707) has posed:
There is a sound in the distance much like that of a high-performance motorcycle, flavored with the cadence of a jet engine.

Then it's not in the distance any more. Thankfully, it's not quite as loud as either of its sampled sources, or people's hearing would be in danger.

And then the motorcycle slides to a halt, with its rider sitting up straight and poofing (via a cloud of gold-colored smoke) from her snug-fitting riding suit into her more accustomed black qipao, red vest, and so forth. "Sorry I'm late," Xiaomu apologizes as she unslings her staff from her back and de-rezzes the lightcycle, tucking the resultant baton into her vest. "What'd I miss as far as the usual pre-dungeon briefing goes? Apart from introductions, anyway ... name's Xiaomu, and it's good to meet those of you I *haven't* met yet! Good to see the rest of you again, of course."

Lexicon has posed:
    Lexicon nods sharply to Charta when greeted, then glances back up the tower's face while she listens to Theurgus greet newcomers, oldcomers, and explain the situation. So the viral presence on Locus decided to cause an incident right after the Tower appeared... That makes sense, at least tactically. Though it certainly is inconvenient. The red-eyed DCC scowls at the building, reaching her right hand out. Pixellated light collects, then disperses when her weapon appears-- a high tech axe, which promptly produces a blade of white light.

    She swings this up and rests it across her shoulders, "With Bunnabelle collecting data on it, we'll get a more permanent fix patched in before you know it. 'Til then, we're on damage control." Twisting in midair, she glances over her shoulder (and under her weapon's haft) at Sanae, "Thanks for spending time with my sisters the other day, Kochiya." Loud rotors draw her attention, and she glances towards the helicopter and the familiar man who jumps off, "--Oh. It's you again." She doesn't mean it to sound as blase as it does, "Come to help out here, today? That's good." Her eyes wander further-- A talking pony, probably magical, abilities unknown. Rebecca Chambers, who she recalls from other times she's visited the System. And a big, metal dragon. Her eyebrows furrow in thought. Bahamut reminds her of the Dragon class viruses, though this one isn't trying to eat her so she'll give it a pass and see what he can do.

    Right as Theurgus enters the Tower, Lex raises a hand to welcome Xiaomu, then follows her fellow DCC in.

    "I'm fine.. I'm fine..!" Bunnabelle insists, "I saw the rail go up, but was already halfway up here, you see..." Gratefully, she accepts the drink and takes a sip. There's an immediate pause as she pulls it back, staring at it. After a moment, she glances from side to side and disperses it into pixels, stowed in her inventory. "I'm ready to begin my observations now." The flashing 'Begin Study' holoscreen beside her flips to a series of real-time graphs, and starts multiplying into various text-filled windows around her.

Bahamut has posed:
     Bahamut is both surprised and pleased to hear the cheers. He has rarely been greeted in such a way by the masses and it is great for his ego. He actually waves down at the people below as he passes. He has a slight grin on his face as he starts toward the doors to the tower. He glances down at the others, then steps forward. "I am a guardian. Allow me to go first. Whatever awaits, I can weather it's attacks." he says with the cool confidence of someone secure in their abilities and sure of their strength. And of course a bit of a large ego.

     Even if he is not the first through, Bahamut tries to place himself in a position that will draw attention, and spreads his wings a bit to increase his intimidating appearance. "Do any of you have an idea of what we might encounter? You mentioned something about a puzzle we would have to solve. What sort of physical resistance might we face, if any?" he says.

Jonathan Joestar has posed:
Jonathan nods, solemnly. There was a steeled determination in his eyes as he fortified his spirit for what was to come. "Of course." he said, rolling his shoulders to help loosen the tension in them. Jonathan turned and gave the pilot of his transport a thumbs up, signalling the machine to begin whirling its blades to life once more and take to the skies. He couldn't really spot anyone he recognized here, however, his compatriots in assisting this realm had his complete trust. They'd all need to watch eachother's backs, here.

        Well..

He still looked rather wary of the dragon. He'd come to realize that the multiverse held many wonders, but he still came from a time when stories of such fantasies were told to scare children into compliance. Looking at a living, breathing dragon just like the stories..well. It'd make anyone nervous, right?

        "Huh? You are..?"

The bulky, black haired man looked confused when Lexicon addressed him. He was modest enough not to take offense at her tone, but even if that weren't the case, he was clearly embarassed at not knowing who she was. Unfortunately, there were more important things at hand than trying to catch up with her, though she did sound rather familiar. He jogged with a surprising speed for his weight class to keep up with the others moving forward.

Rebecca Chambers has posed:
Make haste, that's always a good option when things aren't going well. Rebecca nods to Theurgus and says, "I'm ready to move out when you are!" She starts to move in behind the mage, only to stop when she warns them to 'steel themselves.' Rebecca nods a little at that.

"I'm prepared for just about anything!" She says after a moment of considering how to reply to that statement. She would speak up about her weapons and her armor, but decides to leave that as something for another time. "We haven't much time, so we'd best move out now!" She continues following after the mage rather quickly.

Sanae Kochiya (619) has posed:
Darn it, the book closed before Sanae could get a good picture of its 'contents'! Oh well, she probably got some of it on lower resolution video, and she won't kid herself that there won't be other chances. Instead, she trains the lens on the helicopter and the large man that emerges. Yes, this also means she still had her phone out for a few moments longer, before with a casual movement she tucks it safely into a particularly reinforced spot of her magically-infused ceremonial robes. This leaves her free to give a polite bow to Diamond Soul, raising back up to her full height with a smile, and finally setting both of he feet down firmly. "Don't worry. Improving those circumstances is why everyone came, after all!" Including a few new faces, apparently.

    That's also when she notices the concoction that had been offered over to Bunnabelle, or rather puts what it is together in her head. "Oh, be careful -- I think I had one of those when I was in the Amethyst City the other night. Really refreshing, but also really bitter." --oh no, was she too late!? Also, maaan, everyone else gets to ride cool vehicles now, it seems! She still has her old scooter, or the local System segway, that she'll have to remember for next time. But, nonetheless, "Miss Xiaomu, good to have you!" A smile is beamed in Lexicon's direction, in that 'aw shucks' manner. "It's no problem at all. Your little sisters are a treat to be around, and it wasn't long at all that I was that age." Some might say she's never quite outgrown it, either. There are a lot of others she doesn't recognize, additionally, including the dragon from before, but with the urgent situation, she'll save more formal introductions for a break in the action. As Diamond Soul rightly urges, it's time to begin the mission at hand.

    There's no real hesitation to Sanae once the push into the tower itself begins. In her more usual stomping grounds, steeling yourself is a good way to get trapped by a barrage of bullets. It's better to be bold, and ready to make adjustments according to circumstances! Since one can never be certain if it will be a combat floor, she also readies her wand and a series of talismans, which those attuned could feel a gentle, divine sort of 'radiation' from.

Dreamgazer (1113) has posed:
Dreamgazer nodded up towards Theurgus, holding out a hoof in greeting towards them, "The more aid that arrives, the better. Lead the way." She says, more than happy to let those with a greater sense of Bravado lead the charge, allowing her to focus on whatever might be intent upon doing them harm. She turned her face to one side, shielding herself from the wind being stirred up by the whirling aircraft and the large dragon as her eyes turn towards each individual, assuming them to be her allies in this endeavor. She knew none of them, which was often the case as she had only recently begun to travel beyond the boundaries of Equestria. In return she had a few curious looks cast in her direction, there would be time for introductions later as it seemed everyone was eager to get started in breaching this tower and somehow stop it from leeching the lifeblood of this region. Her power was limited in a place such as this, only able to utilize what isn't nailed down and lifting it with her telekinetic magic to utilize as a makeshift weapon or shield. She normally didn't use her full power unless she knew she could do so without the interruption of the daylight hours disabling her bestowed abilities.

Theurgus (1103) has posed:
    The scene greeting those entering is a large, open black space... it looks like some lower resolution versio of what 'space' might look like. In the distance is a large flaming orb, and there are various small craft flitting around in various patterns. A blue ship passes very close to the arrivals, so close they can see the pilot inside the cockpit. They glance over, then peel away, followed closely by four small metal spheres that have a glowing orange 'core' inside of them. "Option, Spread formation." comes a computerized voice from the ship itself, the 'Options' spreading from each wing of the parent ship before they plow through a group of other craft.

    Theurgus frowns. "It seems we are not the first to arrive..." she says, then transforms in a rush of digital light and swirling code. Her form is of a rainbow haired, heterochromic woman in a shimmering, evershifting robe of many colours. She holds her left hand out as if grasping something, summoning her staff with its non-euclidian headcap surrounding a pulsating gem at the core, which shifts through the colours of the System's elements. Her Processors appear at her feet, hips, shoulders and atop her head, like amalgams of clockwork and magitech, each containing a glowing gem of an orange-red hue. Mechanical 'wings' spread from her shoulder Processors, and she takes flight. "I think we must assist the blue ship!" she says, before launching off in pursuit.

    Nearby, for those who cannot fly on their own power, vehicles spawn for their use. They take on various shapes, whatever the person in question feels most comfortable with, but transforms their fighting ability into a local flight mechanic as well.

    Once people leave the little 'starting' platform, the other ships that the blue craft is fighting, start turning on and attacking the group as well, firing shots and sometimes even trying to directly ram into them, though they're individually easy to destroy, there's a lot of them.

Bahamut has posed:
     Bahamut is a bit surprised by where they find themselves. He feels a strange familiarity with space flight, and he spreads his wings just like he were in the atmosphere. He then looks to the others. "If any of you would like a ride, I can carry one or two." he says. He waits for people to accept or refuse, then with a few flaps of those great wings Bahamut is off like a rocket, leaving a trail of blue and grey swirling energy in his wake.

     The great metal dragon extends his claws, ripping into any ships that try to get close to him. But, mostly he strikes with shots of various elements. Fireballs, ice spears, lightning bolts, and bursts of pure energy. He fires as rapidly as he can, but Bahamut is more like a heavy cannon than a machine gun. His shots are powerful and quite accurate, but he can only fire one every few seconds.

     Between his shots he banks and spirals through the heavy storm of shots from the enemy craft. He growls and winces as many bolts hit his solid frame, denting and cracking his thick metallic scutes. And as they do, the golden gyro on his back starts to rotate faster and faster, gaining speed with each hit he takes or lands and starting to crackle with white lightning as he builds energy for his ultimate attack.

Sanae Kochiya (619) has posed:
Speaking of people getting cool vehicles. When they appear on a small starting area in the middle of a low resolution space, it at first almost brings to mind one of those building block games that experienced a boom a few years ago. This doesn't have quite the same feel, though; and the ship and pilot bring something else entirely to focus, speeding off as it's pursued by what, by color code, are either player two or enemies. Going by the obvious disposition, though, she's going to guess the former. "Ah, is this...a shooting game," she wonders? Ironically, she was unable to map some of the previous floors to a genre she was actually familiar with, but this one definitely is recognizable.

    Further, speaking of 'Options': She can fly under her own power just fine, and she's more than used to going against curtains of enemy fire in her present form. Yet, how often does an opportunity like this come up? Possibly once in a very extended lifespan! There's just a moment's hesitation, though she doesn't really have to think about it. She gives a hopping jump into the space where the player craft are spawning, spreading her arms like they're wings. Thankfully, the code does not reject her whims, cubes of light cobbling together around her and encasing her like a larva forming its cocoon. What emerges is a black and green craft that looks more suited to atmospheric work than space, thanks to its extensive and rule-of-cool aerofoils and obviously, aesthetically turbojet engines. But since when has that ever stopped a game?

    Besides, maybe they'll have to fight on a planet in a later stage.

    "Awesome," Sanae's voice still comes from inside, though where the cockpit likely should be is instead a glazed over dome the same green as the flourescent lines coursing over it. "I'm a spaceship! It's just like in that OVA!" Before she can celebrate too much, the ship turns about like it's a VTOL positioning itself for a landing. Instead, it's doing so to 'look' at the enemies that have freshly registered it as a target. "Oh, right...you guys. Well, catch me if you can!" With a firing of the predictable tier 1 standard gatling at those foes, the black and green ship speeds off after that first craft.

    The ease with which the ship rolls and weeves through the enemy fire, it's fairly obvious that this isn't her first rodeo, despite the unfamiliar form she's opted to take. She even doesn't bother to shoot back at some of the enemies with more predictable patterns, perhaps leavig them to contemplate their life choices.

Jonathan Joestar has posed:
Jonathan expected many things walking over here. This was not included in such. He stares in complete confusion as he watches the proceedings and aerial dogfights. Perhaps, he should have stayed inside of the Helicopter. Thankfully, this 'zone' seemed to be able to read this, and supplied him with just that -- a helicopter, with firearms of some kind mounted on its sides. It looked like they launched ball bearings instead of bullets, judging by the bore of the barrels.

        Tentatively, Jonathan enters the pilot's seat and stares at the simple control scheme. A lever to take off, a gun-handle and trigger for the weapons, and a long lever that functioned as a joystick for flight controls. The vehicle doesn't take very long to get off the ground.

        "Goodness..?!"

The J-Copter is unsteady as it tries to evade a pair of suicide bombers. Jonathan hurriedly squeezes the trigger, causing both rotary guns to begin spinning, spitting out high velocity steel balls at a curve. The left barrel's shots curved to the right, and the right barrel's shots curved to the left, creating a complicated zone in which the shots would be effective.

        "Ack!"

A sheet of armor is sheared away from the machine's side as it sways. "I'm not very good at this, but I have to figure it out!"

Rebecca Chambers has posed:
At first Rebecca seems a bit startled by where they've wound up, but after a moment she gets used to it, reminding herself of her old motto, "It can happen in the Multiverse!" And then sets about looking for a set of wings to use, since she can't exactly fly on her own. Or rather, she can fly, just in one direction: Down!

Looking around quickly, Rebecca spies what looks like a smaller sized fighter craft (complete with the S.T.A.R.S. logo on it ironically enough!) and she quickly jumps into the cockpit, watching as a shield forms over her. Almost immediately, she has a sense of what to do, and she launches not long after. It's strange, she's never flown one of these before, yet suddenly she knows exactly what she's doing.

"Anyone got a Kenny Loggins CD?" She says to herself with a chuckle as she attempts to dodge the shots that come at her. Once she's dodged properly, she opens fire on them in return. All while humming Highway to the Danger Zone in her head.

Dreamgazer (1113) has posed:
Dreamgazer had her attention diverted to the unusual starscape before them, and what looked like some form of space craft that were darting about one another. As she began to follow the others, she noticed a small glowing rune on the floor and approached it. The rune expanded into a crescent shape that rose from the ground of the platform as a wireframe structure that surrounded Dreamgazer. The colors of the frame work began filling in, having various shades of blue with a violet colored screen in the center of the crescent. A pair of guns manifested on either end of the crescent.

    

Dreamgazer stepped into what she assumed was the control center of the ship and sat down, finding what appeared to be the controls as the ship's thrusters roared to life and the vessel lurched into open space to join the ensuing battle. It took a bit of time to adjust to the controls, rotating the ship clockwise and counter clockwise before picking a direction and hitting the thrusters. Alarms went off inside of her craft, warning her of the approaching enemy ships. The guns of the spacecraft fired at a rapid pace, tearing into the oncoming hostile ships.

Lexicon has posed:
    "Eh?" Lexicon's reaction when the tower's entrance opens up into SPACE is, if nothing else, surprise. She floats upward to get out of the way of other arrivals through the door, taking in the expanse. With her free hand, she reaches up and scratches the back of her neck, thinking with an audible 'hmm' sound. "This is the floor where the Tower really shows off how the inside doesn't obey any conceptions of what the outside suggests. It's totally non-euclidean, after all..." Previous floors she'd seen were large, but this is goddamn SPACE, it's hard to ignore the expanse in front of her. Even if it's rather cheap looking.

    Sanae takes to it like a fish to water, though, which pulls a "...Wow, nice," out of the DCC's muttering. She glances over her shoulder at the head of her axe, then the attacking swarm of enemy craft. While she's not much of a fighter pilot, Lexicon's not about to sit this one out, either. She's a lady who prefers to fight with her hands, rather than guns...

    Pixellated light flashes up around her, "--Wait, no, damnit--!"

    When it fades, she's been replaced by a blocky-winged white and blue fighter with a red cockpit window. There's a single machine gun on the nose, and under the wings it sports.. multi-jointed grapple arms.

    "--DAMNIT! WHAT'D YOU DO /THIS/ TIME?!"

    It's unclear just who Lexicon is shouting at, though she does rocket into motion to avoid incoming fire, the claw arms unfolding into a ready position.

Xiaomu (707) has posed:
"Wait, this one's a *shooting game*?!" Xiaomu squeals as she gets a good look at the blue ship passing by, and the other craft flitting about - and starting to fight, it seems like.

And yes, that squeal was distinctly gleeful in nature. Of course, given that she's been an avid video gamer ever since they were invented, this should probably surprise absolutely *nobody* who knows her well enough to be aware of that.

The craft which takes form for her is fairly angular, mostly white with a pair of blue engine nacelles set between the main fuselage and the back-swept wings; it takes little time for Xiaomu to get settled in and acquaint herself with the controls, even doing a couple of barrel rolls as if to show off - or maybe to counter some pre-emptive incoming fire. Then she accelerates, matching pace with her allies and the 'native' blue craft, weaving and jinking and dodging in a passable semblance of an experienced fighter pilot.

Theurgus (1103) has posed:
    Theurgus, being one of the two out of the group that /didn't/ transform into a ship at the outset, manages to catch up to the 'local' fighter, and land atop the upper fuselage. The pilot either doesn't notice, or doesn't care too much, especially when the Mad Magician begins to shower multiple hue blasts of energy at the ships the Options and the main gun of the craft don't take out, acting like a turret of sorts.

    The others all get their craft, and show varying levels of competancy, clearing away the massed small fry with claws, blasts of elemental power, and the built-in weapons of their ships. The blue ship seems to be making a bee-line for the large flaming orb, and as it gets closer, it becomes obvious it's not a solid mass of flame or plasma, not an 'actual' star, but a massive fire maze.

Lexicon has posed:
    "Well at least I handle alright," Lexicon mutters as she maneuvers her shipself between waves of incoming fire, "Doesn't make it any less goddamn ANNOYING--!" To puncutate her dialogue, she rears back one of the grapple arms and slams it into a passing enemy craft. Rather than punch through it, she digs in and throws herself into a roll, hauling the vehicle with herself. Her other arm swings in, latching on to the enemy's weapon pod, a rotary-barreled cannon, and starts to pull.

    "GIVE ME THAT, YOU PIECE OF CRAP!" Metal tears, shearing off into pixellated light, "--EEYAH!" and then the weapon is outright ripped from the enemy she'd latched on to. It's immediately swung up, nestled under one wing, while the other claw swings the captured enemy in front, using its sparking hull as a shield, "Think I'm done with you yet? You're going for a ride!"

    Now suitably armed, in more ways than one, Lex-Hander swoops into formation behind the lead ship. Her bigger gun being held by a robot arm gives her more attack flexibility...and a much better rate of fire than the popgun she'd been given initially.

Sanae Kochiya (619) has posed:
At cruising speed, the black and green fighter, which is a space jet despite how little sense that makes, pulls up alongside Lexicon's ship version. "Wow, nice power up, Miss Lexicon," Sanae-Ship compliments, despite being in a live fire situation. "This form...hmm, low speed, high defense and close range attack parameters?" What the hell is she even saying, all of a sudden? A momentary break in the patterns allows her to analyze the forms of the others, too. Even Jonathon's helicopter mode has its strong suits, she figures; the projectiles cover a relatively wide area. Bahamut is a dragon, but that comes with a mean hitbox. The more traditional sci-fi vessel of Dreamgaz--

    Her thoughts are interrupted by the instinctual realization of a resurgence of threatening enemy fire. "Oops, gotta go!" Another twist and speed away, and after some narrow misses (that make a peculiar sound, for some reason -- maybe they're vibrating the airframe?), the fighter positions itself carefully. "Wonder how a bomb would react in this form...I have to try it!" Despite her limited supply, and that it might come back to haunt her, she decides to give it a go anyway. Since, like her earlier words, when is she likely ever to get the chance again? The outer hull of the ship splits along some of those glowing seams it has, reconfiguring itself live to reveal a large cannon charging. "Fire!"

    The result would not quite be called screen clearing, though it is visually impressive and effective in clearing the path immediately ahead. Twisting, white beams like a pair of serpentine lasers are emitted from the large cannon's lens, carving through the small fry and even some of the uncommon enemies that had gathered in place. Once finished, and the cannon cools off, the ship folds neatly back into its original form, presumably to recharge. It also takes advantage of the opening to pick up speed after the lead ship, which Theurgus is surfing on.

    That orb that form a distance had been easily mistaken for something else, huh... "Oh, is that a fire level," she wonders? She's familiar with them, though for once her voice sounds a bit apprehensive, "Ah...I was never as good at these. You're fighting both enemies and the walls around you, which are really confining. I guess there's no skipping it, though!"

Theurgus (1103) has posed:
    The Lead Ship, and Theurgus atop it, are leaving a LOT of debris in their wake. Some of it sparkles and shines, then transforms into a craft specific looking item for each of the trailing fighters. Bahamut gets a small spinning version of his back gyro, giving him a second 'stage' of his Ultimate Attack... expanding the 'charge bar' as it were.

    Jonathan's helicoptor gets a twinlinked pair of rotary guns, which extend the barrels and make each side shoot two balls per 'shot' instead of one, expanding the range.

    Xiaomu's looks like a pair of green laser bolts, and turn the poxy little single bolt into a twinlinked pair under the two side nacelles.

    Rebecca's craft upgrade looks like a STARS badge, and grants her mini homing missiles, while Sanae, having just used a Bomb, acquires a new Bomb stock in the form of a small lotus flower item.

    Dreamchaser's craft earns an auto turret with an icon that matches her QT Mark.

Bahamut has posed:
     With the mooks cleared out, Bahamut turns his attention toward the apparent lead craft of their group. He didn't get to launch his Overdrive, so he is fully charged and ready to unleash destruction on the next enemy they meet. But for now, it seems they are headed into a very dangerous-looking fire maze. Being no doubt the least agile of the group (and possibly still the largest) Bahamut elects to bring up the rear. "I will follow you all in." he radios to the group as they close in on the maze. "If any enemy reinforcements show up, they will have difficulty getting past me to the group."

     With a lull in the action, Bahamut takes a moment to look the many different spacecraft over. And helicopter. He supposes a space game doesn't have to follow space physics! Bahamut has to admit to himself that he is a bit jealous. Although he is a dragon, he is also a mechanic and vehicle enthusiast. Even if he didn't need one, it might have been fun to take a ship form. The power-up is a nice thing, though. And Bahamut grins as he realizes the devastation he can unleash if he just holds on to the charge a little longer.

Rebecca Chambers has posed:
A S.T.A.R.S. Badge?

Rebecca's a bit surprised by the shape of her power-up, but she doesn't question it. She collects it, by running into it naturally as she figures, and finds her craft suddenly has homing missiles. "Oh goody, new toys!" She says with a chuckle as she works on using her missiles to help clear out the area around her. Then she spots Blue Leader heading in, and naturally, she goes in behind the leader. "I've got your back! I'm coming in behind you!"

Jonathan Joestar has posed:
He was doing well enough, for someone who looked like it was the first time they touched anything even remotely similar to Galega. The ball bearings create a semi-circular area in front of the helicopter that can't be bypassed so long as Jonathan keeps up the heat. Eventually, with all of the...what was the word, 'mooks', clearedout, he found his ride upgraded. He didn't quite understand what was happening, it all seemed like a dream, but none the less he would perservere. "I think...I'm getting the hang of this?!"

        It sets course, cautiously, for the Maze of Fire.

'With these new weapons, it should double the effectivness of that dead zone..I think. I'm not so proficient at long ranged engagement, but that makes sense to me..'

Dreamgazer (1113) has posed:
Dreamgazer had a rough star of things, attempting to get in control of her ship when there was this lack of inertia to keeping her from colliding into oncoming ships. Thankfully her vessel had a force field which allowed her to survive plowing into the enemy craft that were honing in on her position. Through some trial and error she learns how to rotate the ship in a fashion to where she can slow her ship and direct in the manner that she desires. She is able to see where the blue ship was heading and decided to follow it into the glowing corona of that fiery object off in the distance.

    She noticed her starship had gained something of an extra gun that seemed to autotarget the nearest hostile object, though for the moment the swarms of ships attacking them had been cleared out, "I believe we have our next destination. Is everyone proceeding towards that flame enveloped region up ahead?" She called out, not certain if her voice was being carried out through any sort of intercom system.

Xiaomu (707) has posed:
"Sweet, we even get power-ups?" Xiaomu comments as her fighter flies 'through' the pair-of-green-lasers icon and her weapons get improved for a result. Go figure, it's the ONE thing she didn't try to avoid ... probably because it came out of an already-exploded enemy after the fireball dissipated.

Of course, that gives her an even easier time clearing out the last of the mooks. She ceases firing as the blue craft, its way now clear, heads into the solar labyrinth. "Thanks, Bahamut, and good luck!" she calls out to the dragon as she heads into the maze as well.

Theurgus (1103) has posed:
    Radios crackle, and a synthesized voice comes over. "Vip Vicar to all wings, stay tight and aware. We have to reach the Flame Dragon at the heart of this star." The lead ship shifts its Options to a spinning circle around it. "Option: Shield formation." for a good reason. More ships are coming straight down the 'flame corridor', as well as a veritable /WALL/ of large fireballs. The latter explode into a shower of shrapnel if destroyed by gunfire, but they don't seem to be aimed so much as shotgunned from further down the first passageway. Hoverturrets line the walls of the tunnel, firing shots at the craft as they pass by, but fall easily if shot at. The real danger turns out to be the tunnel walls themselves. They seem to spew flares of fire across from one wall to another, but telegraph the flare with a few ripples in the flames before the eruption.

    Theurgus, for her part, keeps up the fire, even as the Vip Vicar goes into a Defensive Mode, providing a steady, if low power, stream of bolts to cut through the closest threats.

    Bahamut would sense something coming up behind, a sneaky thing that seems fixated on the glowing orange 'Options' circling around the lead ship.

    The rest of the group just have to focus on not getting shot down for the time being, the blue lead ship expertly weaving through the onslaught.

Lexicon has posed:
    Diving into the flame corridor at the rear of the formation, Lexicon sweeps her gatling cannon upward, spraying a group of turrets along the ceiling. This, combined with the spacecraft shot down on the way in... depletes the chaingun's ammunition supply, and it clicks rapidly. With a frustrated noise, Lexicon hauls it off from the top with the claw holding it, "Useless junk..! Fine, take it BACK!"

    The spent weapon is thustly hurled at turrets along the bottom of the corridor, "--EEEYAH!" The battered spacecraft in her other claw is also hurled, further clearing things along the lower quadrant. Claws reaching out in a ready position, she dives near the corridor floor, scouting for more potential weapons.

    "Watch out for the geysers. That'll cost you more than the auto-guns ever could..! Give me a shout if you blast anything interesting off something, though. Looks like I'm spent."

Jonathan Joestar has posed:
Jonathan's eyes were starting to hurt from all the bright lights. The rotary cannons barked at regular intervals, spewing out two ball bearings from each side, curving to create a shield. The neat thing, he was discovering about his weapons, was that their unique firing arcs allowed him to shoot around his allies, creating a horizontal barrier of sorts that destroyed enemy projectiles or kamikaze units on their way in.

Positioning himself closer to the middle of the flight squad, that's exactly what Jonathan did.

His middle-of-the-ground position seemed to be protecting him from the worst of the damage, but his helicopter's armor was starting to peel off from an inability to predict attacks very well.

Rebecca Chambers has posed:
Rebecca's played a video game here and there in her life, so this isn't all too new to her. But she's no expert, she'll have you know. So weaving through those bullets and whatnot is not exactly easy for her. She finds herself gritting her teeth as she makes a few unexpected turns and whatnots. "Gah, I think I'm gonna lose my lunch if I keep this up!"

After a moment, Rebecca manages to regain her composure. "Stay calm, Becky. You can do this! It's just new to you, that's all." With that, Rebecca steadies her aim and fires off more shots at the enemies, not caring which ones she hits. She just wants to clear them out.

Bahamut has posed:
     Bahamut blinks as he senses that presence, then turns his head to try and spot it. Not knowing just what it is yet, he fires a burst of Impulse. Three large orbs of explosive grey-white swirling energy that travel a short distance before detonating violently, damaging anything nearby. It is difficult to fly backward, so he does his best with looking over his shoulder. "Something is coming up behind us! It seems intent on those strange orbs around our lead ship!" he reports, only to have to dodge a flame eruption and all the incoming fire from the ships and wall cannons. He growls menacingly. "It is a bit tight in here!"

     He starts firing his elemental shots again as he spirals and dodges as best he can, but he doesn't have a lot of room to work with. Shots burst against his metallic hide and the flame gouts singe him. The shrapnel from the destroyed enemy craft pelt him and some lodge themselves in his scales. When he hears that Lexicon is out, he grunts. "Here!" He reaches into a satchel quite well hidden on his back and pulls out a small bag, which he then throws forward to Lexicon. If she catches it, she would find it is filled with Thunder Gems. Basically lightning bombs.

Sanae Kochiya (619) has posed:
A fresh bomb stock is as good as any power up. That's what Sanae will inwardly console herself with, anyway. Being from Gensokyo, though, staying with the tier 1 guns should be fine for now, though, especially with so many other player ships, and dragons, and people riding on player ships to cover blind spots and set up firing zones. There's probably a reason makers tend to make these games for two players at most! "Phew...it's not ready to fire again, yet, but it's good to know I'll have it if it's needed!" It's important to have that safety release valve waiting.

    The fire star, as the priestess-turned-ship would figure to call it, fast approaches. And before long, the blue ship and its entourage actually enter. This Vip Vicar, a name somehow vaguely familiar, though she can't quite place it, seems to have a good idea of how they're going to approach this, and she has no reason to argue against it. "Roger that," she calls back, enthusiastically. It's probably better that she doesn't technically have sweat glands in this form, because even though it's not a star made of plasma in the traditioal sense, that just means it can emit most of its radiation as fiery intense infrared. "Ugh...so this is what a rotisserie chicken feels like," she laments.

    But the heat itself is far from the only or most intense danger. She knows these levels well, and the environmental hazards tend to be many and varied. Though the fireballs aren't being spewed out by volcanoes, she knows this kind of pattern -- "Ah, look out!" A series of minute micromaneuvers sees the green and black ship scarcely graze through a gap between two of them, which causes a bit of flickering from the digital-ablative hull from proximity alone, as well as pixelated 'particle effects'. So that's what that looks like in this mode.

    Though these aren't her strong suit, Sanae finds the layout familiar enough. The ironic strategy she opts for is to remain relatively close to the licking flames of the walls, so that the hazards mostly come from one direction, though of course always wary of danger from below. One such happening, as she's firing on the defensive batteries that also remain close, is that she notices the fire 'boiling' slightly beneath her position. "Eeee--!" Quickly withdrawing, the ship's front gets a close shave from a large arcing of the flames, coursing above her. It vaguely resembles a stellar flare, like you'd see on a 'normal' star.

    When the ship emerges, there's a bit of visible external damage, but nothing that would immediately endanger it. Any scorch marks aren't clearly visible because the primary airframe was already black. "Phew." She's going to have to complain to the designers of this tower floor, that needs a longer telegraph.

Dreamgazer (1113) has posed:
Dreamgazer carefully maneuvers into the fire wreathed passage as she rotates and repositions her ship constantly, biding her time and watching how the flames arc and spew across this molten landscape before navigating her way through it. Her turn speed isn't all that impressive, so she hangs back and fires her guns only when she knows she has a definitive aim on her targets. She is able to avoid most of the hazards that this location throws at her, and whatever ones she cannot avoid she raises the ship's force fields to negate any potential damage.

As it happens, her auto turret manages to become a problem instead of a boon, firing upon approaching projectiles and scattering them in a way where she is unable to avoid them. Forced to suffer some heavy searing in order to conserve her shields for when more lethal hazards present themselves. The hull of her ship is marked with scorch spots where the shrapnel had collided with her.

Xiaomu (707) has posed:
'Stay tight and aware' is a pretty clear instruction, and Xiaomu's Astra Vulpes stays in formation ... mostly. The sage fox otaku is quite happy to help shoot down approaching fireballs before they can threaten the heroes' formation, and if she has the best opening to take out some of those hovering turrets, she happily does so.

Not getting shot down is pretty much her priority, though; if she has to pass up a target in order to not get blown away, she passes up the target.

Theurgus (1103) has posed:
    Bahamut's quick thinking nails a weird, dome-headed organic-looking ship with a BIG mouth... looks like it was planning on chowing down on an Option ball, but instead it's eating a face full of Impulse and explodes into a fireball, leaving behind nothing but a few shimmering bits of metal. For his efforts he gets another powerup, but this one seems to be an amorphous, constantly shifting icon, instead of a single solid item.

    Lexicon would find herself in a position to get hold of one of those turrets... This one is a slightly different colour than the other ones, maybe it's weapon, which it hasn't fired yet, is pretty cool.

    Rebecca's efforts, with cannon and missile, earn her an item much like Bahamuts. What could it be?

    Sanae, once again, gets herself a random looking item, but also a small cluster of blue 'chips' that have a large P stamped on them.

    Xiaomu, again, gets that odd, non-specific item from shooting out one of the shrapnel balls. Along with Jonathan getting one from protecting the rest of the team from the majority of the incoming attacks with his great big iron spheres.

    Dreamchaser's ship, while banged up and scorched, gets its own upgrade module, but it, like the others has no definitive shape until picked up. The autoturret, while aiming at the large fireballs, also tries to shoot down the shrapnel. A curse and a boon it is.

    The Vip Vicar turns a wide sweeping corner, into a large, open-ish area that SCREAMS 'Boss Room'. The wings flare, and it shifts in formation a bit, taking a hovering stance as its wings sweep fully out, and the engines shift to point slightly out from center. "Shoot the Chest!" comes the synthetic voice, as a large, three-headed dragon made from the same plasma-fire as the walls emerges, and lets out a roar that sounds more like a building being consumed in a great conflagration. An 'eye' like blue sphere emerges from the chest area, glimmering like a giant 'Shoot Me' sign, before vanishing inside again... timing seems important with this one.

Lexicon has posed:
    Rolling, Lexihander snatches the satchel thrown her way by Bahamut, "Hey, thanks! Not quite what I meant but I'll make use of it!" The roll follows through into completion, the satchel tucking up under a wing. The other arm's claw flexes, "--Hey, this is promising..! C'mere, you!" Swooping low, she slams her claw into the odd-colored turret and rips it from its foundation. Swiftly darting aside to avoid a flame jet, she tucks the turret up under her opposite wing and gives it a test fire.

    A spray of missiles scatter out in front of her, bursting at a set distance.

    "..Yeah, this'll work."

    She rounds the corner behind the Tower's 'guide' ship, though has to bank sharply away to avoid running into it when the pilot slows down for the upcoming fight. "Is this the dragon he was talking about?" she wonders out loud. After a moment's thought, she comes to a conclusion-- "Sanae! Take these!" The satchel Bahamut threw is held out, then promptly dumped, scattering the thunder gems like pickups for the black fighter to collect, "Use 'em like that bomb from earlier!"

    At least with how she understands elements in the System, these should make things easier for the wind priestess. Wind doesn't tend to do well against fire in this digital place. But lightning is neutral to it..!

    Besides, she has a rocket pod.

Dreamgazer (1113) has posed:
Dreamgazer finds the turret on her ship undergoing a transformation upon coming in contact with the power-up. It detaches from the ship and begins to split into separate pieces that are linked by a single brace. The turret is also enveloped in a field of power that crackles with wild energy. It takes a position ahead of the ship, arcs of stray energy lashing out at anything that happens to get too close to it.



Unfortunately it cannot distinguish friend from foe and any ship, friendly or hostile, seems to suffer damage from these short wave, sparking tendrils that ripple across the detached turret. It seems the upgrade to the power up has become an even greater mixed bag blessing and curses. Meanwhile Dreamgazer is trying to keep a good distance from her new power-up, trying to place herself in position to take full advantage of that weak point once it exposes itself again.

Sanae Kochiya (619) has posed:
Any way you look at it, it's got to be a power up, right? The designers wouldn't be so cruel as to include a power down in an item that changes its offering! The black and green ship that is Sanae surges forward into it, not seeming to mind much which she gets, or she might have been a bit more strategically patient about it. A deep and heavily synthesized voice proclaims, "Minimum. Hitbox." Sanae's voice comes from inside the cockpit, "Wh-what? Why does my onboard computer have a man's voice? And I didn't have any trouble with that--ahhh!" Sanae's voice, though never quite hitting the ultimately hilarious pitch that such things can produce, sounds a bit helium-affected as her ship form visibly shrinks. Given that all the weapon systems and speed remain the same, there is no doubt that this is advantageous, but...

    "No, my cool ship is all tiny now!" Even though it only scaled down by about a 3:2 factor. There are more bits to collect, though, and despite her mourning, she instinctively maneuvers close enough that they get gathered into the ship's air frame. A few rounds of testing reveal that, while they did not change the firing type or its individual potency, the tier 1 style of gatling fire now comes from several more guns that have been added on, via pylons, a well as providing a wider, or narrower, firing arc as desired. The thunder gems that Lexicon hurls over also seems to be 'absorbed' into the fighter's chassis. Who knows if it'll work...but if it comes to it, she'll give it a try. "W-well, I guess this is alright. Thanks, Miss Lexiship!" She totally just made that up. No meta here.

    She doesn't have time to lament any further, though. The caverns begin tapering outward to a large opening. The soundtrack she was making up in her mind just had instruments stop playing one by one, until only an ominous silence remains. "This has to be an arena for boss battling! Though...if it's like this, we're sort of on its home turf." She makes a thoughtful sound for a moment, but then the action starts, the boss showing itself. "Right!" That thing had to be the special weak point that these games' bosses tend to have, being quite conspicuous in contrast against the rest of its body, though for now she continues maneuvering around the room, waiting for an opening and trying to anticipate the boss' movements. This would be easier if she'd played before, to know what its pattern might be like.

Jonathan Joestar has posed:
The Helicopter catches glowing fragments of ..something. Some kind of 'power up'. The rotary cannons glowed and seemed to change form, becoming bulkierin the back with additional supports on the barrels. While the cannons themselves didn't seem to fire much faster, the ball bearings shot out at ear shattering speeds. They were spinning so quickly through the air that they seemed to glow faintly with light from the created friction!

While this technically lowered the firing rate, it increased the power of the cannons considerably.

        "Pardon me, but ... 'boss'? Is the leader of these forces a palpable entity we can confront?"

Jonathan barely had a grasp on the situation, but it was admirable that he was trying, especially with this searing heat.

Xiaomu (707) has posed:
Xiaomu arches her eyebrows at the message which comes up on her console as she grabs this next item, then shrugs -

And isn't QUITE fast enough to test it out when the boss flashes its core for the first time. "Yep, that certainly looks like our main target," she comments. "I'm gonna try and figure that pattern out - whether it's a timed cycle or whether it shows the big crystal just before or just after particular attacks!"

She's staying away from those three dragon-head things, and keeping her distance from Dreamgazer's shield as well for good measure. "That thing *is* the boss, Joestar!" she calls out to the gentleman in the helicopter. "Not so much 'mob boss,' more 'boss monster' - like the dragon that makes goblins do its small-scale dirty work!"

Rebecca Chambers has posed:
Rebecca picks up her power up, and gets... lasers? Well that's nice!

Now following the others inside, she apparently is confronted by the big bad boss, and she goes wide-eyed. "Never thought I'd see one of THESE things first-hand!" She comments after her jaw hangs open for a moment. "But this will look nice on my record I bet!" She says as she turns her shock into a grin. "Time to take out the boss and earn some extra points!"

Avoiding the dragon heads and the shield, Rebecca attempts to hang back briefly for a moment to watch the patterns of the boss, before attempting to fire a single laser beam at the boss's core.

Bahamut has posed:
     The great metal dragon has never actually played video games, but in his world something like this is familiar. A hallway leading into a large room is always where one finds the dangerous boss. Bahamut doesn't pay much mind to the creature he destroyed. Just another part of the battle. But, the powerup presents a good opportunity, but what will it do? And will he lose his current power-up? Bahamut decides he can't risk it. A Tera-Flare is sure to be more damaging than anything me might get from this power-up. At least in his mind.

     When their new adversary appears, Bahamut comes to a stop and snorts. "Sometimes it seems as though I am the only good dragon in the Multiverse." he says, then sighs. "Everyone stay clear of me! I am going to unleash my Mega Flare!" he calls out over the radio. Then he moves into position and spreads his wings to give himself some stability. "This is going to be big!"

     The golden gyro on his back starts to spin rapidly and the white lightning arching over it starts to arc over his body. He growls as he opens his mouth wide, then the lightning starts to arc quickly to a point just in front of his maw. It forms into a growing orb of blue-white energy that keeps growing and growing until it is nearly as big around as his body. With the extra power of his power-up, Bahamut's entire body is pulsating with power.

     Finally, he lets out a roar as he fires! The beam of blue-white he unleashes is as big around as he is tall, and forms a solid line of destruction as it rushes toward the target. The beam is helixed by a pair of energy beams that are gold in color, promising more power than a typical Mega-Flare. He tries to time it well, but he is hoping that with his extended duration he will just make the timing moot. As he keeps firing, there is another burst of energy as fires down the length of the beam almost as soon as it impacts, followed by a pulse every few seconds. The beam itself is destructive enough, causing a steady blue-white explosion of pure energy. But, each of those pulses hits like a ton of explosives, and Bahamut again tries to time these with the exposure of that core.

Theurgus (1103) has posed:
    The blue Vip Vicar does a quick side-jink out of the way of Bahamut as he comes rolling up and unleashes hell in the form of a freaking MOUTH LASER. The dragon made of flame and rage roars with its three heads, the blasts slamming it back into the far wall, and seeming to pin it there, as outer layers of flame are stripped aside and the blue gemstone core is forcefully exposed. The gemstone begins to crack, and the beast shrieks in agony... At least, until it snaps its jaws and makes the floor under Bahamut spew up a massive flare of fire to try and disrupt the attack.

    Should it break free, its chest begins to regenerate, but the gem remains fractured, heavily damaged. The Vip Vicar swoops in, and begins firing short pulse beam lasers from its nose gun, and the orbiting Options. Theurgus herself focusses her firepower into a single Beam from the marble at the head of her staff, trying to keep the beast from regenerating. If not to damage it, then to keep the weakpoint exposed for as long as possible.

    The beast is obviously heavily damaged, but it begins to breath flame, and cause more eruptions around the other fighters, a desperate tactive to buy itself some time.

Xiaomu (707) has posed:
The Astra Vulpes is suddenly doing a *LOT* of barrel rolls - partly an effort to deflect or neutralize some of the oncoming storm of hostile firepower and plasma, but also maneuvering around her allies to try and rain laser bolts on the crystal. *Without* crashing into any of her allies or blocking anyone else's line of fire, if she can help it.

Dreamgazer (1113) has posed:
Dreamgazer had begun to open fire once she saw the gemstone appear, though her ship's energy reserves prevents her from taking full advantage of the opening before the photon guns cease firing, "So much for making every shot count." She grumbled to herself before the upgraded auto turret began swarming about the massive beast in a rather nimble fashion, the arcs of energy disrupting any clusters of plasma that happen to come within range. The voice of the turret coming in clear as it calls out its intentions.

    "PRIORITY OVER-RIDE. NEW BEHAVIOR DICTATED. MUST BREAK TARGET INTO COMPONENT COMPOUNDS."

The turret, unlike her ship, does not seem to be running out of energy anytime soon. How much of an impact its attacks make upon the armored surface of the creature are yet to be seen.

Jonathan Joestar has posed:
Jonathan's helicopter weaves poorly into a strafe, firing in its half-circle. The ball bearings seemed to be nearly limitless in supply as he continued his assault. "A...dragon and its goblins...? I uh...I see." ...He didn't, actually, but he understood the analogy she was trying to get at. "Then, we just have to attack the chest!"

The Helicopter screeched in alarm. Rising temperature and Jonathan's poor aerial evasions meant that it wasn't in fantastic condition. His teeth grit as he began to strategize. Though he had a penchant for powering through his issues, Jonathan was by no means a stupid person -- he was very intelligent when he stopped to think. "This machine isn't alive...but, it can still conduct Hamon!"

    The whirring machine altered its flight path.

        "I'll leave it like this!"

Jonathan ejected out of the cockpit, breaking through the clear hatch first with his fist. The fanciful helicopter crashes nose first into the tri-headed dragon's chest, his leg slamming down on the joint that connected the helicopter's tail to its main body. "Take this!"

        "Koooooooooooh.."
        "SENDO HAMON!"
        "OVERDRIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIVE!"

The giant machine acted like an electrical ground, and send a wave of hamon surging right into its chest! Jonathan used his Wave Kick to propel himself away from his now destroyed vehicle, seeming to be in free-fall. It looked, for several moments, as if he was going to be engulfed in flame. But ... moments later, he came back flying once more, this time on a hang-glider made from two linen wraps! But with all this flame already beginning to sear them, it wouldn't last for long. He seemed to be trying to glide in close enough to someone to hitch a more stable ride. This becomes especially pertinent, as moments later, Bahamut's ultimate attack is launched, adding a gigantic gust that blows Jonathan even farther.

Sanae Kochiya (619) has posed:
The somewhat...abbreviated form of Sanae's ship has no trouble staying clear of the power that Bahamut is about to unleash. Though, she also wasn't quite prepared for the spectacle that it is. Now this is some Double Dragon level of hype! There's no time to appreciate it, though, as it wasn't quite enough to actually finish the boss off, just yet. And, as she had half expected from this being the boss' own domain, it's able to bring its full fury out in an attempt to save itself. Even going so far as to have the walls of the interior lash out into more of those environmental hazards already faced. "I, I don't remember these," 'Dark Jade', as she would take to calling her fighterself, protests. Usually the boss chamber itself was more of a formality instead of a weapon itself!

    Still, she has little choice but to remain relatively close to the walls of it, to give her a maximum field of view of the boss itself. Somewhat following Theurgus' lead, she concentrates more of those limited 'bomb' attacks whenever she senses that a healing over the exposed weak point might be imminent, especially in case the other can't quite match the pace, herself. Otherwise, it's the focused fire onto the core with the six individual gatlings, built in and pyloned upon the airframe. A few times the black and green jet fighter-looking craft vanishes behind a wall of flame that tried to engulf it, but emerges mostly intact, even if the damage is slowly mounting. "Well, I'm going to try it," she figures, and substitutes a thunder gem for a bomb, once her original supply is gone.

    In the end, it does basically the same double helical beam, though adds a convenient electrical element to it. This is probably an acceptable outcome. It also is narrow enough to probably be easily avoided by friendlies -- made even easier because she's trying to time it to actively avoid that!

Rebecca Chambers has posed:
Kill it with fire, right?

Not quite with Rebecca. By now, she's gotten the hang of using her fighter and she's managed to learn a few tricks with evasion. Sometimes you best learn under pressure it seems. Especially since Rebecca's been able to pull out a swift somersault and reverse 180 to try to fake out the boss and go in quickly with a combination blast of her laser and a homing missile shot at the weakness, before attempting to pull back. "Hit and run, I guess!"

Lexicon has posed:
    Bahamut strikes first, and Lexicon gets an idea as the dragon's laser flare tears through the boss' exterior layers and exposes its heart. She pulls to one side, avoiding a column of flames and surrounding fireballs. While Xiaomu opens up with her laser cannons, the Lexhander ascends towards the fiery ceiling of the chamber, staying well out of the line of fire, "Keep pounding on it! I'll grab the first opening I get!"

    She circles back as Dreamgazer sics that messed up plasma ball turret on the dragon boss, and falters noticably when Jonathan's decision is to crash a helicopter into it. How very... retro? She feels like she's seen moves like that in old movies, before. Points go to style, at the very least. Sanae's spiral beam is easy enough to track, and Chambers' combination attack.

    Now!

    With a flickering of digitized pixels, Lexicon's figure reappears atop her fighter, as it extends both arms forward and clasps the claws together. She dashes ahead, grabbing on to the grapple arms with both hands and hauling her vehicle forward. The engines cut out, re-orient, then fire again, adding speed to the rotation as it pulls her closer to the flame dragon's besieged chest, "This is gonna hurt /LIKE HELL/!"

    "ZERSTORUNG!"

    A foot is slammed down to halt her rotation, a maneuver that's effective even in midair, and Lexicon swings her jet wings-first right for the center of the monster's chest, weilding the blocky vessel like a bigger version of her usual axe. In all the flame and explosions, it's difficult to see, but her eyes are definitely glowing red beneath the shadow of her bangs, "--RAAAAH!!"

Bahamut has posed:
     Bahamut's beam lasts for at least 10 seconds before it finally tapers off. Just in time for him to try and dodge the fire burst. He is only marginally successful, enduring a powerful blast of flame along his left side and letting out a roar of pain in the process. He finally pulls free of the blast, but his left wing and arm are badly burned. He winces against the pain, but despite the red glow of heated metal coming from both he tries to keep going. He watches the others fire their shots, watches the chipping away of the fire dragon's chest, and unleashes another blast. It isn't nearly as powerful as his last one, but a Flare spell is still pretty dangerous. An explosion of pure energy erupts against the exposed core just after Lexicon's spaceship axe attack as Bahamut lists to his left, his already low mobility reduced even more.

Dreamgazer (1113) has posed:
Dreamgazer is left waiting for another opportunity to attempt to go full salvo on the core of the dragon. Though it seems the turret is determined to muck things up as much as possible, sending out branches of electrified power out in all directions. The Unicorn looking quite exasperated at how something can be hellbent on causing so much havoc yet doing so in an unfocused manner. If she had a self destruct sequence worked into this contraption she would have initiated it a long time ago. Any projectiles near it are caught up in the fury of lightning and are most likely detonated in the process, "If anyone wants to put that stray turret out of commission, they are more than welcome to." She transmits. Really not having any other options at this point as she is not in a position to split her efforts between taking out both the dragon and the turret.

Theurgus (1103) has posed:
    The Vip Vicar shifts engines, blasts straight upwards and out of the line of fire as the others come sailing in. Engines shift again, and the blue ship launches away in a wide arc, coming back around as the front twin prones open up, revealing a small, hidden gun barrel. "Overdrive. Giga Striker. No Refuge." The small ship fires a thin beam of blue-white energy, that combined with Sanae's Bomb Beam, and Bahamut's Flare, cause the crystal to crack, and shatter, which in turn, causes both the dragon, and the entire fire maze to fade away into nothing. The others attacks helped to bring a swift end to the battle, and the floor creates a platform for everyone to land on before the blue ship brings itself in and the cockpit opens, revealing a very small man with a bird-crested helmet and glowing white eyes. "Thank you, all of you. This beast has been attacking civilians in this quadrant for months now... here. As a token of my gratitude..." he holds out his hands, and a smaller version of his own ship appears. "In case you need it."

    Once it's taken, which Theurgus does with a grateful bow, the little guy hops back into his ship, and blasts off to other parts of this non-euclidian galaxy... and the Tower dumps everyone outside again as it vanishes.

Xiaomu (707) has posed:
Xiaomu ... doesn't actually have a lot to say at this point. She probably could have tried tossing out an attack that wasn't lasers, but old gaming habits precluded 'use a smart-bomb on the boss' - or whatever she has in lieu of smart-bombs. Plus, between Bahamut's Tera-Flare and Jonathan's reprurposing weaponization of his helicopter -

Although speaking of THAT, if Joestar's still falling, she tries to bring her Astra Vulpes in under him so he can actually, y'know. Land on something instead of plummeting into the inky void or otherwise ceasing to exist. Fortunately, that 'platform' materializes with the boss's destruction, and Xiaomu comes in for a landing.

So yeah, not much to say when Captain Peregrine offers his token of gratitude. She just bows her head politely to him, and gives the figurine a very appreciative look.

Rebecca Chambers has posed:
Once all is said and done, and the others have returned to... well, normal, Rebecca pumps her fist in the air and jumps for joy like a little child. "We did it! Yes!" Then she remembers she's really there and not just playing a video game. "Oops... sorry!" She scratches her head nervously and sweatdrops. She's supposed to be professional after all.

Once Captain Peregrine appears, she snaps to attention and salutes respectfully. "I'm glad we could help, sir," She replies firmly.

Sanae Kochiya (619) has posed:
At least from Sanae's perspective, the boss, and then subsequently its domain, fades away in that raster effect where scanlines slowly vanish until there's nothing left. A little simplistic, perhaps, and definitely retro, but still a lot better than having static, pixelated explosions appear and then just having the boss disappear behind them. Well done, Tower. Similarly, in lieu of a lazy message like 'Congratulations -- You are the Top Star Soldier -- Now Try Hard Mode!' appearing in text, they actually get treated to an oddly cute scene between Theurgus and the pilot of the fighter that lead them here. "Awww. This is a great way to cap things off, though I admit I'm a little sad that it's ending so soon." In that same 'holding on overlong' way, she remains in ship form as long as she can, the figurine going into it by way of acceptance like the other items.

    Before she can truly complete that thought, or come to express her own gratitude, they're dropped outside the tower. For just an eyeblink, there's a young green-haired girl in a junior high school uniform, blinking cluelessly. Though, as the last of the lingering effects from inside the tower fully expire, they deposit the full-sized Sanae onto the ground unceremoniously. "Oof! Aw, it really is over. But, I got to experience something great, so I'll try to hold on to that memory!"

Sanae Kochiya (619) has posed:
Though there's also a realization, "I'm guessing these figurines won't be of much help to Bunnabelle, but...can't hurt to try!"

Lexicon has posed:
    The Lexhander explodes on impact, framing the DCC's body and bright white wings in flames and smoke, her black silhouette marked by the glowing red points of her eyes like some menacing final boss appearing from the ruins of the previous. She dips forward and drops in to land, just in time to see but not address the diminuative pilot. He's already given his token to Theurgus by this point, and she only spots his departure.

    At least now, closer up and not backlit by bright explosions, Lexicon doesn't look nearly as scary. A hand is lifted to wish the little fighter pilot farewell, then she turns to assess everyone else's condition. After a moment, she closes her eyes with a grin, "After getting that out, I feel pretty good."

    As the Tower disappears, she keeps her eyes closed. There's a crackling sound, and she's surrounded by a halo of pixellated light. When it fades, she's reverted out of her Digital Divinity and into her ordinary, brown-haired self.

    Nearby, seated and looking like she's recovering from airsickness, is Bunnabelle. Looks like she had a bit of a ride, as well. Judging by the queasy look, she's not a fan of flying, "...Oog... Huh?" Her ears straighten and she glances towards Sanae, "Figurines? I'm sorry, my attention was completely taken up by how frantic it was in there and I missed a good deal of what happened." Yes. 'Frantic'.

Bahamut has posed:
     Bahamut watches in mild awe as the entire entity fades away. It reminds him of defeating the fiends of his world. Except for the lack of pyreflies. Once the platform appears, he lands carefully and lowers to a knee so he is not so much taller than the others. When Vip Vicar holds out the offered token, Bahamut takes it graciously and bows respectfully. "It was an honor fighting alongside you against such a creature. I have enough problems with the perceptions about dragons without such foul beings making things worse." he says, then looks to the others. "And thank you all. Even I may not have been able to handle that creature on my own. Good work, all of you." he says as he rises back to his full height.

     Then they are outside the tower! Bahamut rumbles, then looks down at his toy ship. "Does this trinket hold some sort of power?" he asks, directing the question at those more familiar with this world.

Dreamgazer (1113) has posed:
Dreamgazer had watched the Vic Vicar come in to deliver its own lethal blow to the beast, adding to the fireworks that was able to eventually bring it down. She watched with a startled expression as the creature began to dissolve once its core was shattered, along with the whole environment around her. Well, that's one hazard down. Her journey into space comes to a close as she finds a platform upon which to land the ship, managing to avoid colliding with anything this time as the ship deconstructs itself along with the added baggage that was the turret.

She heads over towards the blue ship, greeting the pilot with a bow of her head, "We're glad we were able to assist you." She says while looking over the strange trinket and then notices the tower having deposited them outside as it too demateralizes, "I am surprised we were able to rid this area of that abberation in such a straightforward manner." Not that she's complaining, it was a strange trip but she's certainly pleased with the outcome.

Jonathan Joestar has posed:
Jonathan finds asylum on the Astra Vulpes, which catches him just as his makeshift parachute glider burns too much to sustain his weight. The machine rattles with a hard thump from the beefcake of an Englishman smacking hard against its surface. "Ah...you have my thanks."

tJonathan waved politely to the small man after they'd gone to ground.

"Today was quite an ordeal, but...everything looks to be back to normal now, I think. ..It almost feels like a dream."

As much as he was used to the darker elements of his reality, the multiverse never ceased to strain his perception on what he considered possible. Rebecca's display gets a chuckle out of him; it was as endearing as Speedwagon's repertoire of narrative prowess.

        "Good work, everyone."

Theurgus (1103) has posed:
    Theurgus, after bowing to the pilot, detransforms as the Tower deposits the group back outside as well. She looks at the small model of the Vip Vicar in her hands, then turns to Bunnabelle. "You requested items from inside the Tower... here's one. It may not be much use, but..." she offers the model to the small Program, then looks around at the others. "As promised, a Locus care package for everyone. These include DocP, DocP+ and RP-Chargers, amongst other sundry items. And a copy of one of our tomes of arcane knowledge... Please forward your requests to my assistant."

    Charta looks over the group, then opens her book and produces a pen from the seame stream of light as Lexicon and Theurgus summoned their weapons. "Please for an orderly queue." she says, preparing to take notes.