5615/ICoT: The Tazal Terminals

ICoT: The Tazal Terminals
Date of Scene:	27 December 2017
Location:	The Bastion
Synopsis:	The final battle between the Bastion and the Ura.
Cast of Characters:	The Kid, 1094, Kotone Yamakawa, Alexis, Priscilla, 673, 215

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The Kid has posed:
    The Tazal Terminals are higher up than any other part of the former continental landmass. Once in the deepest parts of the earth, it was torn from the soil by the Calamity, and cast heavenward. It now stands pitted with snow and frost, temperatures at subzero even deep inside the cavernous mountain. Tattered flags and banners flutter in the strong winds, in the bright blues and yellows that the Ura favour, enwrapping the hunk of rock like a shroud.

    The Kid has set up base at the foot of the Terminals. Being downwind, the smoke of the fire he has created blows away from the Ura homeland, keeping his location concealed. A warpgate hangs precariously over the edge, demanding that he stand before it to catch anyone who might take a poor step through it. Once everyone has gathered, he lets out a long sigh. "I ain't much for speeches. We all know why we're here. Jus' do what you know, and let's put this to rest."

    With that, he takes up his Calamity Cannon and Cael Hammer, leading the way along the frosted path that spirals up and through the cliff face. It's not long before the Ura spot them, and the attack begins immediately after. With their backs to the wall, and no way out, they've doubled down on defending this place, willing to sacrifice anything and everything in order to end the threat that faces them.

    Their pets, the Rattletails, have been let loose on the paths, filling them with holes that make each footfall treacherous. Larger pits have been dug, the bottoms lined with stalagmites so that any who charge ahead might fall and be skewered. Some even collapse outright, demanding quick manoeuvring or a capacity for flight or other type of movement. The rodent-like birds fight with beak and talon to protect their masters, and so much be cut down.

    Peckers, while not easily tamed, can be marshalled through baser instincts, something the Ura know too well. For this reason, they dump carrion upon the party from high above, making them utterly tantalizing to the corvids. They constantly whirl about, diving in and out to retrieve the mean, claws and beaks ripping and tearing, occasionally flying in the path of their attacks, serving as unintentional shields for the Ura.

    The people themselves fight with every ounce of knowledge, both passed down from their forefathers and developed from prior conflicts with the Elites, are brought to bear. Lasers and other attacks of concentrated light are dispersed with water vapour made by subliminating ice, combining it with smoke that renders them harder to strike. Hardier targets are tied down with nets and rope before being stabbed at from all sides. Flour bombs are hurled constantly, intended to mark invisible targets. Every weapon, every bolt and arrow is coated with poison that makes even tiny scratches burn, rendering entire limbs numb. Leather bags brimming with swamp gasses are hurled down, making those who inhale them reel before the clouds are ignited with burning arrows. Avalanches and rock slides are deliberately triggered, aimed at pushing the party off the Terminals entirely.

The Kid has posed:
    But through it all, through beak and blade and mist and poison and a crowd of bodies, the party reaches the summit. There before them is the last barrier between they and the Ura, Zulf, and the Cores and Shards they need. A wall of wood, ice, and Something Wrong created by the Calamity. A mighty fortress, built right into the mountain. The ice keeps the wood from burning, the orderly logs give the structure strength enough to resist a physical assault, and the Something Wrong resists all manner of attacks entirely, as immobile and unapproachable as a malignant tumour.

    The Kid fires his Calamity Cannon at it a few times. A horrible, distorted noise is produced when that awful light hits the Something Wrong, nullifying the blast and rendering the wall untouched. Arrows poke out from the tiny gaps at the top between the logs, far too small to even worm a whole hand in, to fire at the party. They're highly inaccurate, but that's not the point. It's a gesture of being able to attack at all, while the party can offer little in return.

    The Kid, fuming quietly, goes to consider a stray log left outside, leaving it to the others to try and figure out a way inside.

Flamel Parsons (1094) has posed:
    Alright, Parsons. You can do this.

    The Tazal Terminals seem like something out of a twisted mind when Parsons arrives, a little awestruck by the Ura display and the snowy peak. Almost distracted enough that he takes a nasty plunge, if it weren't for the kid. "Oh! Oh. Thanks." He notes, appreciative of the Kid's assistance in making sure nobody falls into the torn planet. The Kid's weaponry today... "Jeeze. Really gonna hit 'em with the spirit of old Caelondia, aren't you! All the old and all the new. Godspeed and good luck on it, Kid." Parsons says, and then seems to limber up as he moves along with the group. "We're all sure as hell about to need it."

    Here comes the remains of the old. "Woah woah woah!" Parsons actually falls straight into one of the pits, falling enough to suffer a short bit of laceration by the rock formations within until he forces his levitation into action, grips it to the pit's walls, and shoves himself up quickly, vanishing into invisibility as he does. "Not this time..." He whispers under his breath.

    It's a gauntlet. A brutal thing, and one he's not entirely equipped to deal with. The birds block an attempt to take out the Rattletails, but Parsons desperately attempts to telekinetically lift entire piles of carrion to other areas. Parsons tries to target his foes, but the smoke blinds him, and he has to try to muster powers of clairvoyance to pierce it. In comes swamp gas, sending him into a painful, dazed mindset, before being knocked out of his invisibility once again and impacted with heavy bolts that slip against his skin with the tiniest, scratch through his unsteady psionic self-shield, until his stylish secret agent adventurer outfit is torn and he moves with a stinging, pained motion. His mind sparks and strains, his brain clearly and visibly /smoking/ with the effort required to hold up rock slides and avalanches, the one time where he can properly shine and yet can't seem to celebrate it because of his current lack of focus. All of this pain is clogging his brain...

Flamel Parsons (1094) has posed:
    But above all else, this time, he's going to make sure nobody else needs to sacrifice themselves for him, and he's going to make sure the one who /did/ gets to have his goal seen to at the end. He's run himself ragged for it, and he's planning to do even more. And as they approach the fortress... "Hhhh. Wow! These guys really are going all out! No point in holding anything in reserve, is there? Everyone keep yourselves together as much as you can, I'm sure we can do this! It's tough, but think hard about all the good you'll be doing if you can tough this out! I've seen you guys make it through things like this..." It's true, he at least knows that much about the people here, even if part of that comes from working together and part of that comes from occasional secretive government agency data-gathering.

    He buckles down and focuses now, properly. "Wow, /wow/! This is Calamity-proof?! That's insane!" Parsons says, eyes wide under his sunglasses. He adjusts them in a rapid gesture of surprise that seems to assume that he's seeing something very, very wrong. "Uh... Crap, I don't have a lot of ideas. Wait! No! There were those... Machines, that kept the strange formations in place!" He poofs into invisibility, having cleaned himself off a little bit ago. "We need to get access to those machines! I'm gonna try my own way to do that, see if the rest of you can find a way to deal with them." He's gonna take a look around for any openings, any gaps, anything that could let one person slip inside even if it takes a heavy bit of platforming... But if there's nothing, he'll still be able to do his main plan, the plan he tried before. Activating psychic sabotage!

    He tries to rush his Astral Projection blindly into the fortress, blankly groping around for minds that could hypothetically be near where he distantly guesses the machines maintaining the Wrong formations are. Then he hopes to breach into at least just one, with however much time and effort it takes to do so, and make them... Well, maybe open at least one opening? Maybe at least render one vulnerable to the efforts of an ally? He's going to have to improvise; blind astral projection is inexact and not always effective if it even works at all.

Kotone Yamakawa has posed:
So it had come to this, this fight wasn't going to end. She could walk away that would be easy but even if she had mixed feeling about this blood feud? Walking away would be /worse/ than doing nothing. So here she was wearing the stealth armour, well suit she normally does though she has a new pair of shades on her face which if one can pick up wireless signals have some sort of computer system wired into it.

She would be making use of that today, but first she's catching up with the Kid and looking at him for a moment.

"I don't like this but leaving this hanging could be worse."

She had no idea about the Kid's plan at all, a short prayer is muttered by the Cyborg and she's ready to go. The canon is fired and she cringes at such a things memories of seeing outlines of people on the ruins of old Tokyo fill her mind. Also what she's seen of the victims of the fall of this world. She cloaks rapidly as the arrows come, she's brought some plasma grenades with her but not quite enough for this, she does have a few other drones up her sleeve today though which stalk after her. A spider like thing which has a gun mounted on it. She'll also make sure to tac net up with Rory as well.

<<Flammel your right this is insane, but this could explain how they surived it in such numbers! Good thinking Flammel>>

The wildlife and attack animals were also an issue here too. The flower bombs however pose a bit problem the Ura have learned how to deal with her stealth as powerful as it is? It just messes with light upon itself. Not on something sticking to the suit. She will put her SMG to use on the wild life trying to thin something out that's attacking them.

<<looks like stealthing by here's going to be harder than expected.>>

She will try to keep an eye on where Flammel was as if a flower bomb gets his physical form? The Ura would likelyu gun him down. So for the moment the Peckers are the main focus of her attacks while she keeps back from the flower bombs, but even then she has to dodge random arrows that fly her way.

Alexis has posed:
Alexis has brought along some of her best for the occasion, which also thankfully means the potential 'first step is a doozy' out of the warpgate isn't much of an issue because she's riding on the back of her Flygon, . "We all know what we're here for," she agrees with the kid. "Fancy speeches just take up the time that could be spent busting heads." She does however pull her hoodie on fully to help deal with the colder altitude though.

Being the thrill seeking sort that she is Alexis has no problem taking a lead up the mountainside despite the dangers it presents. But this is also why Flygon is the one she came on after the previous experiences. Being able to fly just above the ground is out of the reach of most terrestrial hazards be it burrowing bird or pit (thank you Levitate!).

This also puts them on the same playing field as the Peckers to try and provide some cover for the allies forced to pick their way along the ground, fending off the vicious avoids with the sandstorm blasts and disorienting sonic shockwaves produced by the furious buzzing of Mirage's insectoid wings. Or a good wack from Alexis' hockey stick if they manage to get through all that. The sand-buffered winds and sonic booms help keep projectiles and gas bombs from clustering too effectively and knocking back assaults, but for the most part even with Flygon's balance of offense and defense it is a metaphorical as well as literal uphill climb. And while she dislikes relying on one Pokemon to bear the load, she doesn't want to tip her hand too far at the beginning of this. Besides, Flygon is one of her best non-Fire types, she'll endure as long as she can.

Unfortunately the fortress itself is an entirely different matter, especially when the 'destroy everything' cannon somehow fails to make a whole. "Well that was unexpected." Flygon remains hovering near the group, but the wall has stymied them. Not to mention arrows zipping past, inaccurate or not, that's still frustrating. "Oh, they think they're gonna rub it in, do they?" Alexis taps Mirage on the head, then points up at the slots the arrows are poking out of to shoot. It's all the communication it takes, as the Flygon makes a nasty sound not unlike someone trying to snort free and spit out a loogie, then does more or less that save the loogies are sticky wads of mud and saliva aimed at clogging the slots. "You won't be safe in there forever!", the tomboy shouts as her creature mud-spitballs the archery slots and any other hasslers.

Mostly because Alexis would rather do something that might be only minimally helpful, rather than sit and not do anything at all.

Priscilla has posed:
    The footing is no issue for Priscilla. The cold even less so, being something of an old friend of hers, in these lonely, thin-aired heights. The Ura are as troublesome as they . . . no, they're far worse today than usual. It isn't the overwhelming force they had gathered and trained to fight the Kid and his allies the last time, and certainly it couldn't be military in nature any longer, but the degree of entrenchment and preparation is absurd, and the level of desperation that has gone into not just planning a field of engagement, but making every inch of the road upwards a death trap so that every step a roll of the die that the Ura pray will bump someone off, is far beyond even their usual. It truly is the last line, likely those unfit for open combat, but still experienced and knowledgeable.

    Aside Priscilla's estimate of them though, what has her off-balance, metaphorically speaking, is a mixture of having vented the majority of her overpowering rage at the Ura during the last, climactic battle, where she had resolved to absorb as much injury as necessary to deal as much death as possible. There's nothing within easy reach to strike back at here (save the beasts and birds, which she rips apart without hesitation), and her drive to push forward is strong but inconsistent and confused.

    She finds herself taking it slowly to avoid pits and going wider than she needs to, lingering back to duck explosions of gas, frequently stopping to clear herself of flour instead of soldiering on, and basically playing uncharacteristically cautiously for anything involving the Ura. It honestly may be a good idea, since with such ridiculous preparation, even then she is bloody, exhausted, flagging, lightly burnt, and pulling an arrow out of herself at reaching the summit. It's unfortunately caution borne of hesitation, however, not tactical planning. It makes her significantly less useful overall, keeping quiet, keeping to herself, and only mildly helping clear the way in any capacity beyond being an extra target.

    She feels strung out and weary and mixed up about how she still feels about this place, but it's also the first time she's taken to the field again in a significant period after the whole business involving the Painted World had privately and dramatically resolved, and so something about that has her off her game too, in a way that even makes her general presence feel different. A little less familiar, as if she were somehow a tiny bit more of a stranger. Something like a haze beyond casual perception seems to linger around her.

    It's also the impetus behind her doing the first truly useful thing all day. Reaching the genuinely impressive improvised fort, Priscilla trudges up close through the snow in silence, not particularly fearing blind arrows after the hellish climb up here. What it's about is where she finds a wide space between chunks of familiar, awful stone, where the ice and wood hold the line, and places her fingers on the frost. Staring straight into the wall, almost dead-eyed, she suddenly squints as if seeing something in the distance, and then the air, or rather the space, around her outstretched hand, ripples not unlike the surface of the Canvas itself, and she pushes through into some kind of weird, liquid distortion that causes her to disappear from view, giving off a brief chill that is completely separate from the natural bite of the 'mountain', and just as unnatural as the grey spires.

Rory White (673) has posed:
'This is no longer about right and wrong.' Rory White records into her still-running lifeblog XP of the experiences here. Records that she'll probably be loathe to ever review.

    'Just about rescuing someone, and seeing what has been started.'

    Although aware that the Ura have already developed measures against her robotic form, Rory still feels more confident continuing to use her existent tactics - mostly unchanged - and Morph than try to rethink everything just to trick them up.

    Because learning to fight effectively in any form is HARD, even if you're an A.G.I.

    But the robotic feline who steps through the warp gate, body aglow with circuit patterns, is now finely polished courtesy of the Kid's gifts...

    The treacherous footing catches her a few times! But it's one of the reasons she decided to stick with a four-legged form - when a pit nearly gives way, she has back legs to catch her and pull back with!

    Another time she half-falls in but scrambles back up from the ledge without tumbling into any doom.

    After several such close calls, there's the Peckers... and the Ura with their myriad of horrifying combat tactics. Something straight out of tribal warfare. Geurilla tactics of the worst sights!

    Of their tactics, the rock slides are the worst. Fire and choking can do very little to metal, and clouds of flour and smoke cannot impede a robot who possesses her sorts of sensory equipment. That same gear gives her forewarning about falling rocks... but there's only so much you can do WHEN ROCKS FALL TRYING TO MAKE EVERYONE DIE.

    Just get pummeled and dive out of the way of what you can.

    Between that and all the efforts to pin and stab...

    Well, when she shows up facing a monstrosity, the polish has been marred with some splots and splashes of blood, flour, and a decent supply of periodically-sparking gouges.

    By this point, she's also brought out all of her weapons. Close to a dozen tiny turrets have come to life across the robo-feline's body, slipping out of seams that weren't there and locking into camouflaged hardpoint!

    And ALL of those tiny turrets gleam .. to unleash a storm of laser fire on the Very Wrong Wall, trying to melt even a bit of it off in order to get a spectral analysis of its composition to explain a few things... given the locale though, that may not prove useful at ALL.

    "Ura warriors! Stop! You are running out of time. You are running out of lives. There will be almost none of you left if this continues. How will you care for each other?!"

Iria (215) has posed:
Between the armored bodysuit Iria wears most of the time and the crimson cloak she has on over it sometimes, the cold really doesn't bother Iria too much. In fact, she's taken on bounty hunts in far worse temperature, in which case she actually wore a coat over her bodysuit to give her a little extra protection from the weather. Besides, it's more important than she focus on the situation at hand than worry about the weather.

Using her agile skills and survival knowledge, Iria attempts to keep up with the others, not quite fully sure what to make of the whole thing, and getting a little shaken by the cannon fire. She grits her teeth, wishing she'd brought her craft with her, but then she realizes that the radar doesn't work well in snow so it would be useless anyway.

Once she's drawn a bead on the Very Wrong wall, Iria draws her hand gun and fires off a couple of rounds. "Meet the quickest drawing bounty hunter here in the Multiverse!" She says with a slight smirk, adding a Wild Western drawl to her voice as she does so. "Y'all can't keep up with me!"

The Kid has posed:
    Flamel attempts to reach into the stronghold through the astral plane. His PSYCHIC EYES find their vision distorted by the Something Wrong in the walls. They're like still-bleeding wounds on the world, fresh with the ache the Calamity wrought. Pain, as experienced by the land, by nature itself... what could it be like?

    If he manages to shrug off scientific curiosity to phase through the rock above and peek inside, his theory holds true. The Ura do have more of those machines hooked up, but they've learned. Each of the four pillars that make it up is within a cage, and those cages are within an cage that contains them all. Furthermore, they're defended by no less than four Ura at all times, each one with strong minds. He could probably bend one to his will with time, but destroying all four at once before the others noticed would be a challenge...

    Alexis has the firing ports plugged up! It holds them off for a while, but eventually, sticks are driven through the blockages to clear it, and the off-target shots begin anew. It's just aggravating at this point. Maybe that's the point.

    Rory pleads, and Iria brags, but the Ura have no response. After all the slaughter that has happened until now, maybe the AGI's words ring hollow. For all of Iria's bragging, her bullets do nothing to the wall.

    Priscilla strides right up to it, and seems to start phasing into it. However, the Ura did not only bring arrows to their defences. Boiling pitch is dumped down onto the queen from above, just as her arms began to phase through. Through the wood and ice and bizarre minerals, she would also hear the sound of the soldiers marshalling around where she would end up. They would be ready for her the moment she became tangible on the other side.

The Kid has posed:
    The Kid kneels by the log which, upon closer inspection is not a log at all. The brass head of Pyth at the tip indicates it is some manner of battering ram. Perhaps the Ura intended to add it to the fortification, but ran out of time or room. Perhaps it was left out to taunt them. A single one could do little against a wall like this. The Kid stares at the metal visage of one of his gods with exhausted, intense eyes.

    Before pulling his head back and slamming it against the face of Pyth.

    Once, twice, three and four, again and again until his own forehead is bruised and bleeding. Eventually, he presses his head against Pyth's, and speaks in a hoarse whisper. "I offer up prayers nightly to you. Prayin' to being Order back to Caelondia, but you haven't been listenin'. Or maybe you have, but you don't care. Well, if ya can't bring Order, bring Commotion. The attack on the Bastion must've woke ya. Let me be the Commotion. HELP ME!"

    The only answer for a long second is the howling winds. Kid's crisis of faith seems to come to an end as he gets up and starts striding back to the party. But along the way, he places a hand on the battering ram.

    And his fingers sink deep into the petrified, frozen wood.

    With only the tiniest grunt of exertion, he picks up the entire thing and slings it across his shoulder. The attacks from behind the wall come to a complete stop, the Ura spotters looking on with awe. The Kid is strong, but he is not this strong. No one without any kind of enhancement or innate super strength is.

    "Stand back," Kid intones, his voice bearing a strange, echoing quality. He pulls back the battering ram, holding it like it were a slim javelin before launching it at the wall. At the moment of impact, there is a shining, divine light, and the entire structure explodes inwards.

    Several Ura die or are injured in the collapse. Their inner sanctum likes exposed, bristling with armed soldiers looking on with wide eyes. Weapons tumble from some of their grips as they realize that their Bastion is now fully exposed. The damage has been returned across the bredth of the entire continent.

    The Cores and Shards stand in the centre, shining blue and purple. Immediately, the Ura marshal around them as the Kid takes up the battering ram once more. He radiates divine power to those sensitive to such, and a sudden snow flurry makes the ghostly image of a bull about him visible.

    "It ends here. Take them."

Alexis has posed:
    The Ura are staring in awe.. But what of his own allies?! Alexis watchs with a fair amount of awe herself as The Kid hefts the battering ram like a caber log before realizing what he's going to do with it and quickly grabbing for two different pokeballs. "Take a breather, Mirage, you've earned it." She waits to see if this actually works... And by whatever gods are still alive in this world it does! It may be just a metal adorned log but it blows the wall, Something Wrong crystals and all, open like a missile.

Alexis throws her pokeballs as the rubble is clearing and the enemy is still stunned by the display. "Checkpoint, Scorch, go!" The thorny hedgehog and volcanic badger appear to flank The Kid in the entrance he's made, while Alexis makes the typical Trainer Command Point pose. "PLEDGE COMBO ATTACK, NOW!"

"Quill-aaaa-diiin!" The spines on his body glow with ivy sheen as they shoot off, bursting midair like multi-warhead rockets to scatter plant-matter shrapnel into the ground that quickly sprouts up into viney tangles around the Ura feet as they back around the Cores and Shards, making footing a trecherous tangle... but not harming them??

...Because it's not the Grass Pledge that does damage, it just changes the field in their favor. It's when Scorch's flames flare brighter than bright and he unleashes the wave of heat of Fire Pledge that the real tactic becomes visible. The field of overgrowth promptly ignites, not only sheering at the Ura with the heat but turning the ground around them into a smoldering sea of smoke and embers that will continue to burn around the men and woman, turning their retreat into a firetrap.

Rory White (673) has posed:
Of course her calls result in nothing... Rory's optics flash a few times, but they dim as she hops back and leaps away fromt he largely ineffectual arrow rain to continue pondering the scenario. HOW to get through that wall?

    What she wasn't expecting whatsoever was for the Kid to turn religious on her again. Turning her head his way, she gets a glance at what he's up to, hears his prayer-of-sorts.....

    And then, something happens that she would NEVER have expected. STRENGTH BEYOND MEASURE on display, radiant lightshows she can't explain or account for... and a material denser than anything she can really deal with being crushed into rubble!

    That's amazing on its own... but her pattern analyzing software makes out the THOROUGHLY impossible way that the snow flurries about the kid and maintains a cohesive image.

    "It would be nice if the gods weren't so inscrutable... but I am hardly complaining. Thank you, Pyth. Now we will do our part!" It's quite a thing for the A.G.i. to offer any kind of thanks to a god, but she's been made a believer this day.

    Of the gods of THIS world, at least.

    So she simply starts plodding forth, one robotic paw in front of the other, straight towards the Core. If the Ura move to stop her, she rakes them with laser fire!

Iria (215) has posed:
So the shots aren't doing any good. Iria curses loudly as she holsters her gun. "Gonna have to bring out the bigger guns, I guess!" Iria says as she reaches under her cape to put her hand gun away. "Good thing I come prepared!" Iria says as she takes out her grenade launcher and loads a shell into it. "Here, chew on this!" She yells as she fires off the explosive round in hopes of doing a bit more damage this time.

Iria then notices Rory going for the Core, and she decides to take off behind her. "I'll cover your back, don't worry!" Iria says as she swaps out the explosives for her assault rifle. "We can do this together!"

Flamel Parsons (1094) has posed:
    Where super-spy creativity and stealth fail, brute force of the highest order and the greatest power are far more effective, alongside more esoteric means of bypassing everything. Parsons doesn't manage to make any progress with this complex concentric puzzle -- at least partially because he's so drawn to the mind's-eye-searing examination of Something Wrong as a psychic and even psychohazardous phenomenon -- but he's attentive enough here that he's willing and able to leap aside and let the Kid do his work, looking with astonishment over the top of his sunglasses as he sees the damage crash through.

    "Jeeze, Kid!" He says, with an awestruck tone. "I mean... I knew you could do it, but I sure didn't expect you to do it like that! Alright, we can turn this around!" He rushes in! "We've got a god on our side properly this time... Looks like you really passed those tests, Kid! Give me some cover and I'll try to work hard on this next part!" This next part being getting access to Zulf. Once they take those Cores and Shards, the Tazal Terminals... Will they fall? It seems unlikely, but Parsons can't help but feel like there's a chance that some may be linked to this Bastion of sorts.

    That means they'll need to move fast after! Parsons closes in hard and quick after the dazing impact of some of those ranged attacks, explosives, and of course, the ram, flickering between visible and invisible as he goes, going for astrally-projected mental strikes instead of physical ones. While they're a fair bit less effective than just blasting their foes with energy, they allow Parsons to make an effort to breach minds and steal information as he goes. Dramatic palm-strikes against the skull are marked with huge psychic bursts of energy, intended to crash the mind into unconsciousness and salvage as much information as possible while they're going out. He's looking for one thing and one thing only: The location of Zulf! If they can get the Cores and the Shards -- as he hopes his allies will handle, helped a little by Parsons closing in and clearing out foes -- then they'll need to focus on retrieving Zulf next!

    Still not best for open battle, and he's still likely as anything to take a lot of damage from this close-quarters combat, but the urgency of his movement and the quickness of his darting around belie a specific, urgent impulse to make sure not just that others here don't have to sacrifice for him, but that he can be one of the ones who weathers the pain for others.

Kotone Yamakawa has posed:
Kotone Yamakawa seeing what Alexis is doing with the ports does give her an idea she could use freezer foam to gum them up for a good bit. She's done a bit to thin out the attack animals and riled up wildlife but the fight is still going crazy she sees that Alexis has some ideas to deal with the blockage and she's going to attempt to help her make that stick if she can. She's given up on cloaking for the moment, while she leaves it up but does not trust in it to protect her at all. She stares at Kid doing a feat of strength she's not expected out of him. She heeds his warning to stand back. So she does, and she'll move in.

<Watch the freezer foam going up>

She'll chuck the foam into the Ura's ranks to hopefully mix them up and flow them down, just locking them down.

"So this is what all of you wanted? A word that's a god damn grave yard?! IS THIS IT?!"

Even in all this chaos she's keeping an eye on her sensors she recalls the children's drawings in the last base they raided. She is trying to keep a mind out for that. She will also take careful controlled shots as she advances though unlike many if Ura actually flee she'll let them go. They are here for the items and Zulf as far as she's concerned.

Priscilla has posed:
    Now was maybe not the time to pull at this particular cosmic loose thread. With no intent to communicate anything she's doing, and in fact little to no /idea/ what she's doing, Priscilla sort of wanders off and gets herself into trouble. She doesn't seem nearly surprised enough to indicate that her arm being immersed in messed up reality splash space is something outside the realm of what she had expected, but it does look like she hadn't done it until now. She offers zero explanation as to what the actual hell she's doing, why, or even how. It's an oddity that doesn't last long enough to question, because the Ura aren't sitting around and analyzing it, but doing what a crafty and resilient opportunist would do: taking her moment of distraction to dump boiling resin on top of her.

    That actually breaks Priscilla from her focus, and thus her effort. The crossbreed, even more distant than usual today, practically stumbles backward from the fort wall when she hears the telltale sizzle and feels the prickle of heat from the thoroughly medieval defense mechanism. Were it not for having a tail (classically those are for balance) she'd probably have fallen on her ass from how quickly she divorces from her infiltration attempt to avoid horrific burns all over her body. Arrows are one thing, but . . .

    It's frustrating, to say the least. Priscilla had little idea what she was doing here in the first place, and the first sparks to catch light in her head this entire time being blown out like that is intensely aggravating. Truth told, when she watches the Kid go over and start smashing his head against the battering ram, she feels for the guy. She feels like she would do the same, had she the energy. She hates the Ura, and she hates this rock, but though every part of her that she is consciously aware of compels her forwards, she feels lost and foggy and despondent about it anyways, the fire in her having burnt bright and burnt short a battle too soon before the end.

    It's funny, then, that someone who presides over a kingdom of gods should be so surprised when one answers his call. It's not even beyond the realm of plausibility for where one of her own world's gods would bestow his or her favour, but the moment she recognizes a miracle for what it is, raw, rough, and unwritten, happening for the first time, Priscilla can't help but feel shock, and then excitement, pulsing through her at the idea that Caelondia's gods live. She had taken this world for yet another of many where their very existence was dubious, but at least the Bull could not have possibly picked a better time to marshal what strength it has left to its last remaining devout.

    It isn't like Priscilla to be the one who rallies to the sign of a miracle, rather than being the one who pushes forward herself, but in this case, she can make an exception. It's less the feeling that Pyth is with them, but more that something, /anything/ acknowledges the worth of their chosen path, that pushes Priscilla up off her feet, and then into the breach. She draws the shimmering (and oddly liquid) blade of Moonlight, cleaving a gleaming arc into the air that leaps the distance and explodes in the central ranks of the defensive formation, where Priscilla follows with the actual sword itself, taking advantage of the Ura's own surprise and smashing the guards away from the core while they're still stunned and disorganized.

The Kid has posed:
    Alexis takes the advantage immediately, spreading seeds throughout the Ura sanctuary. They bloom rapidly, bringing spring to the wintery place, and confusing the Ura terribly. But then she brings the summer forest fire, rapidly spiking the temperature within. Robes and cloaks catch fire, forcing the Ura to drop and roll to extinguish themselves, while others are totally engulfed. The flames also force them to bunch up, limiting their ability to do their strange, fluid movement.

    Rory lunges right for the Cores and Shards, blating the Ura with laser fire. Thanks to Alexis starting a fire, they have much less ice and snow to turn to water vapour, rendering them vulnerable once more. But as she gets close, Ura grab the Cores and Shards and scatter, spreading all across their sanctuary. Using what could be their final moments to safeguard them.

    Flamel goes in with secret agent palm strikes, causing minds to BSoD as he rips as much information from them as possible. Zulf, Zulf... there! Further back in the sanctuary, there are cells, and he is in one of them! Their memories of him depict him paler, chilled... but still alive.

    Iria scatters grenades, catching several Ura in their blasts of fire and shrapnel, while Kotone scans for children. Thankfully, none seem to be present. At the very least, the Ura know not to put them on the frontlines. Her riot foam spreads, catching several in its grip, immobilizing them.

    Priscilla, invigorated by the response of the Pantheon, carves her way through the Ura with a blade of shimmering moonlight. The cutting wave blasts through the last of their defences, and she begins to attend to them personally.

    But even now, the Ura are formidible, and refuse to go down without a fight.

    In total, there is one Core, and three Shards to obtain. Four Ura have each taken one, and have scattered to the far corners of the ruined sanctuary. Those that remain marshal into escorts for each of them, while others take the fight to the Elites. Rory has one of those subliminating bombs hurled at her feet, enveloping her in a cloud of mist to nullify her lasers, before a net is thrown at her through it, aiming to entangle her! Alexis, as the one who gives orders to those beasts, is immediately targeted. Ura blur towards her, moving about her in confounding patterns as they stab and slice at her, aiming to keep her too distracted to give orders. Iria is targeted by grenades also, ones that release hallucinogenic gas. They then attempt to follow it up with burning arrows to detonate it with her inside!

    Flamel, in getting close enough to get his information, has left himself open. An Ura he jabs at weaves his head to avoid it, before attempting to grab at the agent's arm and pull him off-balance. Out comes a knife, that he plunges at the Psychonaut's gut! Kotone finds herself challenges by an Ura baring a machete. He swings at her in an intricate combo before saying. "No. We fight to protect our own. After so many bodies, would you really stop if we did? Blood cannot be washed off, neither with more blood, nor peaceful waters." Priscilla is dogpiled on immediately, multiple nets hurled at her and smoke bombs hurled at her feet, before every free pair of hands go to stab and shoot her. Now that they know she lacks normal vitals, they try to make up for it with as much damage as possible.

    But The Kid is left alone. Perhaps the Ura too recognize what has happened. They too, worship the Pantheon, and to lash out at the avatar of one of them seems sacrilegious. So as long as he does nothing, they do nothing to him. But then, he begins slamming the battering ram against the ground, causing the roof of the cavern to crumble. Rocks plummet, somehow never close enough to threaten his allies, but always managing to land on, or near, an Ura. Disrupting their movement, clipping limbs hard enough to break them...

    Now they are ready to aggress. Several fire arrows at him, while he is too busy slamming the ground. He's open... does Pyth's blessing deal with defences also?

Alexis has posed:
Guys, it's nice of you to think of trying to talk to them, but there comes a point where it's obvious you can't reason with zealots. Alexis quit trying with Aqua and Magma years ago, it's less obnoxious to just beat them into submission. Same has been proving true with the Ura. Whom also prove to be really quick at adapting even when you do throw a wrench into their plans.

But they're not the only ones that can learn. They decsend on Alexis with their blurry movements, the first one to get close plunging a knife through the girl's hoodie... and finding it stopped as Alexis wore her protective gear -underneath- it so it wouldn't be obvious, and blocking the attacker long enough for her slam them away with her stick. But that's only one...

The other Ura soon find that beating them at their own tricks is the name of the game now. Scorch belchs out a Smokescreen of sticky ash and soot, engulfing the group of attackers, pokemon and Trainer alike in vision obscuring clouds much as they had been using the flour and smoke bombs. Though they'll probably still notice the movement of someone hunkering down in the center of the smoke cloud, which they can still stab and kick at!

... And maybe realize as their stabs dig in much more easily that it's not a huddling girl they're stabbing at, but a decoy made of quickly bundled vines and foliage through Quilladin using Substitute, the formation of the dummy from his lower vantage having looked like someone ducking and curling.

While Alexis was grabbed by the tired but still determined Flygon and hoisted above their field of hampered vision out of the smokescreen, giving Alexis just long enough to return the other two pokemon to their pokeballs as they take off after one of the fleeing Shard holders.

Flamel Parsons (1094) has posed:
    Parsons gets a full eyeful of the incoming blade. As it surges in, his eyes get wider and wider, glow brighter and brighter... It looks, for a moment, like he might need to be saved again. The gleam in his eyes goes a surging, aggressive red as it closes in on him...

    "Not again."

    The words sound out with a sudden, urgent surge, with completely uncharacteristic vehemence from Parsons. The blade surges towards him, but all of a sudden, no less than a dozen shining, translucent, psychokinetic hands lash out, and snatch the incoming arm with a dozen grips at once. The strain of blocking it with such overwhelming, knee-jerk panic force shocks his brain with a sparking surge of its own kind of damage, but Parsons seems determined to power through that, and even more determined to make it a meaningful gesture.

    He attempts to aggressively snap every bone in the Ura man's entire arm in this momentary surge of panic and determination, before kicking him to one side. Still technically nonlethal, but... It's one hell of a maneuver. Straining on his mind too, for a single takedown of a single enemy.

    "Zulf's further in! In the cells!" He calls out, in words without sound. A telepathic broadcast! Way easier to deal with over the sound of combat. He flickers into invisibility, and dives... Back! He's noted the way his foes have looked on this event with some substantial superstition, superstition that may even be quite warranted. He's not sure if what he intends would even be necessary, but it sure seems like a good idea. While staying invisible, he strikes up a heavy, invisible PSI Shield just in front of The Kid! He has no idea of Pyth intends to defend their friend, but Parsons may be able to make it look like he is even if he's not! Psychological warfare is something he's trained in, but in both meanings of the term.

    And beside that, Parsons has a compulsion to properly be the one who helps to save others now, not just getting saved.

    "Alright, Champion!" Parsons says, using an entirely new term for the Kid in honor of his current status as Pyth's... Conduit? "Zulf's further in -- you planning to cut the path? I think the others can focus on those Shards and the Core!" He intends to make sure there's progress made towards that end first and foremost, from the look of it. Something about having visited Zulf's mind once makes him compelled to focus on returning him specifically... And he has the feeling that if he can nudge the Kid mostly towards helping his friends rather than hurting his foes or focusing on the Bastion in a state like this, maybe there'll be some progress on The Kid's own unique processes of grief.

Kotone Yamakawa has posed:
Kotone sees that any children and non combatants are far from here. Indicating they likely have a another place for them. That also says something about the person in charge. They are not forcing every last man woman and child to fight here. Not that can do much for her she also is still a bit reeling mentally from the Pantheon's response to the Kid. She is from a world where response from any deities that might exist are stealthy or hundreds if not thousands of years apart. Or may not even be there at all.

The fight goes on as she she's got a Ura whose going up close.

"I would, I seen what this does my world was nearly reduced to a state like this!"

Kotone finds her SMG is out of ammo and she has no time to reload it, so the weapon is dropped and out comes her combat knife. She intercepts the blows but the Ura has an edge with more experience and longer reach. A skilled close up fighter is still dangerous even to a mil spec cyborg who relies on their body's specs more than training.

"It can't be washed up but you can halt there being more!"

She does not know if there's a way out but she will not dehumanize the ura being people and will keep trying to engage those she can in this way. On the matter of the children a choice is made by her, if it comes to it she knows what she will do. For now she's caught in this smaller scale fight.

Priscilla has posed:
    Of course they'd take the cores and run. Priscilla is filled with disgust at the sight, at first, keenly remembering her thoughts of the Ura being thieves and rats, but then just as quickly remember the feeling she has that they know they can't really fight them, and do so out of . . . perhaps spite? Resignation? Having no less desperate options? The hope that they might take one or two with them? Buying every second they can for some other gambit? It doesn't matter in the end, she supposes. The Pantheon, or at least their only member who cares, has chosen their champion. Fate is agreed on who is right here.

    "After them!" is all she manages to say before she becomes the focus of the massive gank, which is probably the unavoidable outcome after her stunt last time, where she'd both killed multiple generals and also been the closest Elite there to /getting/ killed. The goal here today, however, is not to avenge Rucks and break the Ura's backbone, but to safely retrieve his life's work and bring an end to all of this. Instead of responding to piles of nets and smoke bombs and the rush of oncoming warriors with aggression and death (which would already be a poor option with how exhausting and battering the climb to get here was), Priscilla stands resolute, seemingly unconcerned by the trap sprung on her, and holds Moonlight to her front, turning the flat of the blade to her face, point to the ceiling, and closing her eyes.

    The sword hums. Shimmers. Glows. Shines. Sings. The already oddly liquid etchings on its cerulean blade of light begin to ripple as shadowy blue-white soulfire builds around it, casting off embers of sorcerous light as the power builds within it. Just when the mess really closes in around her, Priscilla suddenly flips the sword and plunges it into the ground, discharging the energy as a swirling, exploding vortex of fire and stars and shadows which consume the nets, the arrows, the bombs, and probably send every Ura within stabbing distance flying like bowling pins. A great deal of them will probably survive the largely defensive attack, bu she isn't concerned with killing them to the last today. She lingers long enough to wrench Moonlight free of the stone, its glow dimming and its song quieting, and then she turns invisible and pursues one of the runners, aiming to stalk him down, take his prize from him by any means, and then return it to the Kid when the opportunity arises.

Rory White (673) has posed:
FRUSTRATION! Ura scattering is met with a quick glance left and right. The robot-lioness flashes her optics brightly and turns towards the one that's closest even if only by a half a meter... and yet, the Ura are gone too quickly. She leaps RIGHT away from where the prizes were, expecting a trap... but it isn't quite enough. The net gets her tangled up in a hurry right as she's leaping and unable to change trajectories. She hits the ground in a tangled mess with a loud *WHUNK*, though not as loud as one may expect of a body made of metal.

    Because while metallic, Rory's body is made of some very peculiar alloys that even the Mancers would have terrific trouble duplicating. They're light, and durable, and...

    And capable of some kind of shapeshifting, it seems. Because after a few seconds to analyze the situation, little pseudopod-like extensions of jigsaw-fractals of extending metal reach out from her metallic 'flesh' and begin to SAW at the net from a dozen places at once. This will not hold her long...

    "I do not understand why you struggle so hard. To win a battle that all your fellows keep losing. The determination is admirable, but repeating an action over and over expecting different results is the very definition of madness. Have you lost yourselves...?!"

Iria (215) has posed:
In situations like this, the best offense is a good defense. Iria uses her fighting skills to fend off the attacking Ura for the time being. Her chain-katana proves useful in this situation. But then comes the time when the grenades come flying. Iria attempts to dodge the grenades, but unfortunately she doesn't quite make it. One of the grenades explodes close enough to release its gas where Iria can breathe it in. She's regretting not bringing her gas mask now...

Unfortunately, while the hallucinations don't begin right away, Iria starts to feel a bit on the woozy side. Meaning that it's not easy for her to dodge the fire arrows that come at her. One of them actually hits her and almost sets her cloak on fire!

Luckily, the bounty hunter is quick to feel the pain as the arrow pierces through her armor and hits the flesh. In a rage, Iria yanks out the arrow, ignoring the fact it's going to cause her to start bleeding, and then collapses to one knee as the hallucinations begin. "Dammit, snap out of it!" She says, slapping her face.

The Kid has posed:
    Alexis displays her trainer prowess, proving to the Ura that her Pokemon are smart enough to cover her even without verbal commands. The thick Smokescreen is a bit heavier than the smoke they use, causing several to stumble from the cloud to breath fresh air and wipe thier eyes. After all, they felt their blades pierce their target, she must be dead, right? Only once thier eye stop watering do they see Alexis zooming towards one of the Shard-bearers. Their defenders open fire at Alexis and her Flygon with arrows and Fang Repeaters as she makes her approach!

    Flamel is not having any of these stabs. The Ura's hand is grabbed, and immediately broken at several points, causing them to hiss through clenched teeth in pain before being kicked away. He then leaps to the Kid's defence, blocking the arrows and addressing him by a new name. The Champion considers his words before nodding, and wading into the battle. Every Ura within range of his battering ram is swung at, every strike causing a vicious sound of bones shattering before the Ura goes flying, usually impacting against the cavern walls with another sickening crunch. He treads through the fire, which parts around him on his way to the rear. Several Ura dogpile him at once, some of them even breaking away from those who hold the Core and Shards to do so. Defending their families perhaps?

    Kotone engages in a knife fight with the Ura, who only shakes his head. "You might. But could you ensure the others would? That Cael hates us, as do all his people." This is the result of years of pent-up resentment lingering from a long war. Even if they made peace on the surface, the Cael, those from beyond this land, came out better from it, and the Ura would never truly be able to let that go. The Ura goes to kick Kotone and drive his blade at her neck. Even if she is machine, that, has to do something!

    Priscilla blasts those who target her away with a burst of moonlight. It doesn't hurt terribly, but it leaves her open to stalk one of the Shard-bearers. Their defenders immediately encircle them, keeping him as safe as possible from Priscilla, but they lack any flour bombs, and there's not much they can do against an invisible foe. One by one, they're cut down, and the bearer can do nothing but fire at empty air before the Shard is taken from them. The Kid accepts it, and stops swinging so much when he knows that Priscilla is nearby.

    Rory frees herself from the net and preaches peace at the Ura. "You burn us with your invisible attacks, off-worlder, even as we prove we can defend against them. You come at us with your machine body, even was we figure out ways to damage it. You perist, just as we do. There can be no victory without persistance." The speaking Ura is the one that holds the Core. At this rate, there are so many Ura down that the defenders must go on the offence. They hand back, brandishing a blade as Rory is surrounded and stabbed at with spears!

    Iria is rendered woozy, but the explosion launched her close to the last Shard-bearer. Their defenders try to monopolize, gathering around her before stabbing and hacking with blades, aiming to bring her down!

Iria (215) has posed:
Even though she's dazed and not seeing things straight, Iria still has a strong sense of determination within her! She yells out and begins swinging her sword around as best as she can, trying her best to drive off the enemies. "I'm no ordinary girl!" Iria yells out at the top of her lungs. "I'm Iria, the elite bounty hunter, and I'm gonna teach you all not to mess with me!"

Somehow, she manages to force herself to see past what she thinks are hallucinations and goes on the offensive, trying to get that shard. "You're gonna regret messing with me!"

Flamel Parsons (1094) has posed:
    Parsons seems to re-assess the situation. If the Kid is doing alright defense-wise, and the psychological impact of his invisible barriers is mitigated here, he may well be best used in distraction. With a rush of speed he moves to back up Iria! Dispelling his invisibility for a moment, he blasts long-range artillery strikes to clear her way, and meanwhile, he projects his astral impulses straight towards her skull, a purifying burst meant to clear her mind of hallucinogenic and dazing effects; Jawson Bog's gasses can't be keeping forever, they have to lose a /little/ potency! Hopefully enough that Parsons can clear Iria's head with a quick psychic cleansing.

    If she can get at the Shard, he can even reach out from /her/ brain and telekinetically assist in getting the Shard brought back to The Kid once she's acquired it! Hopefully this means it'll be brought right back to The Kid in short order, but Parsons won't have to leave the current... Rather thankfully protective region of The Kid's vicinity.

    As long as Parsons stays out of the way of that swinging battering ram, and close enough that it can hit whatever's near him, he'll be fine, he thinks. He hopes, at least.

Kotone Yamakawa has posed:
Kotone Yamakawa thinks she could likely get Alexis, Rory and maybe Iria to stop but the Kid and Priscilla? She has her doubts about that. She gets this look on her face. This sort of hate exists on her world consuming even people who'd love to escape it see to see a way out. She wondered how Japan and Allies ever worked though all the bad blood? Maybe it was time alone? America taking the harder path for once of rebuilding their enemy? She didn't know and now she had to push though for it.

"You speak the truth .... I think I could convince most of them but not all." Kotone is kicked, at and she takes it but comes the blade she moves quickly attempting to catch the blade not caring about the damage and then she fires up her built in eeleware sending enough power to hopefully drop the man so she can move on to go after a shard. She's given him a chance to see tomorrow and it's all she can really do for him other than not forget it. Was it Weakness? Compassion? Kotone doesn't know it would have been so easy. She does not turn off her pain receptors as she moves either and that last blow. If her attack didn't work the Ura would have the perfect chance to get her from behind.

Alexis has posed:
Mirage is doing her best, but not even the not-quite-legendary strength of a Dragon type can go on forever, and the Flygon has been active in some way almost the entire time from flying and fighting up here to now. As the Ura defenders turn and open fire the best she can do is pull upright, taking the shots to shield Alexis from them. Arrows aren't hard to dodge but the repeaters quickly biting away the bug-dragon's already withering stamina.

The protective move is just long enough to let Alexis slide down her back, using the Flygon's tail sort of like a fireman's pole to get to the ground before she collapses beneath the girl midair. "I was hoping it wouldn't come to this, but you don't leave us a choice." She flings one of her remaining pokeballs, then goes to trigger the Mega Bracer on her other arm, activating the boosting change even as the Pokemon is being released. "Let's finish this for good. Lucario, MEGA EVOLUTION!"

Do these Ura know what happened the last time she used that phrase, and one giant monster became even more so and threw an entire outpost off it's floating landmass? If they do, they might be expect the same... Which means it may be as much of a surprise when it's just a human sized bipedal canine with some bitchin' dreadlocks. But that's because unlike last time, Mega Lucario's power doesn't come from size.

It comes from being fast and hitting like a freight train thanks to it's new ability making it's Fighting and Steel type attacks all the more potent. It's not hard to see how Sanshou got her name from a style of Chinese kickboxing when that's exactly what she does, blitzing the Ura defenders in a flurry of punchs and kicks while their repeater rounds and arrows do minimal damage through her almost armor-like metallic fur.

"You've outdone yourself Mirage, thanks," Alexis recalls the Flygon, then moves in to help. While the Mega Lucario is pummeling the guards she darts in to get after the one actually holding the Shard. "Now Caddie!" Her bag rumples around briefly and then the Sylveon pokes her fox-like head out of it. "Sylveon <3" < Don't worry, I just want to give you a hug <3 >. The voice is almost too cheerful and perky sounding as the ribbon-like feelers from around her ears and neck lash out to grab onto the Ura with their subduing effect... And then the crushing squeeze that could rival a python as that ethreal voice goes from sacchrine to almost demonic. <AND DRAG YOU INTO HELL!>

.. Yeah, that's one Fairy type that's got some dissortive personality issues...

But the strength smothering death-grip should be enough for Alexis to grab the shard from the Ura's grasp.

Rory White (673) has posed:
This is YET ANOTHER tactic she was expecting. It is very classical hunter style to incapacitate, surround and stab until a thing bleeds out.

    The spears ram into her metal body right into joints and structural weak points...

    ... But half of those structural weak points are cosmetic only. The seams turn out to be colored oddly to mislead. As it is constructed out of millions and billions of interchangeable microscopic tiny robots, this thing can be DAMAGED, but is incredibly durable and resistant to losing function.

    And there's also the fact that Rory White does not feel PAIN when she is so stabbed. One of the spears DOES pierce deeper than others, clanging against something diamond hard in the robot's innards...

    The machine feline RISES.

    "What you fail to realize is that this body is disposable. Losing it is unpleasant and a setback, but you cannot truly destroy me. Not with swords and spears. What you fail to understand is that time after time I attempted to maintain and establish peace, for every number among the dead is a tragedy to me."

    You know how it's said that wood doesn't conduct electricity? This is actually not so true. ALMOST ANYTHING will conduct electricity if there's ENOUGH of it thrown at it. And stabbing spears and swords into a robot turns out to be a TERRIBLE idea...

    Because unless the Ura have taken the precaution to properly insulate those weapons...

    ZOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOORCH!!!!

    Yeah. Electrification is the backlash of stabbing a robot.

    And even as that onslaught begins she continues speaking, "Every one of you I kill is a potential genius who might be your people's salvation in some future conflict. I do not wish the Ura wiped out, but for the sake of protecting my friends, who CAN die from these weapons, I cannot hold back. This onslaught against a people who have already suffered much, in the smoldering wreck of a great city and countless dead, is pointless. Barbaric."

The Kid has posed:
    Flamel and Iria team up to deal with the Shard-bearer! The bounty hunter grapples with the Shard, the Ura having to drop their blade to keep a grip on it. Flamel's psychic artillery then impacts around them, taking out his guards and stunning him, allowing her to rip it from his grasp!

    Meanwhile, Alexis homes in on another Shard-bearer, releasing her Lucario and making it undergo Mega Evolution. The guards immediately disperse, assuming that yes, it would become hulking like last time. But it just becomes faster, more vicious. With them separated, they can do nothing to support each other as they are viciously brought down with bare-handed blows. The bearer finds themselves accosted by a cute pink and cream creature that begins to throttle the life out of them, making their grip on the Shard slip, permitting Alexis to clasp it.

    All that is left is the Core. Rory does a fine job of stunning its defenders with an electrical discharge, just as Kotone incapacitates her own foe with a final, desperate blow, allowing her to go for the Core. This final Ura, alone, releases it and flees at the sight of the cyborg coming for her. That's all of them. All that is left is Zulf.

    The Kid has carved a path towards his cell, based on Flamel's input. They walk through frigid hallways to find it. But Zulf is not inside. He has been dragged out by non-combatants, who are in the process of beating him viciously, stomping on his prone form. Some kind of misplace retribution? Punishment for drawing the Kid here? Either way, they flee upon seeing the man himself, steam erupting from his nostrils and murder in his eyes.

    Once they're gone, Kid checks on the Uran traitor. He's still breathing, but it's raspy. Immediately and without reservation, he discards the battering ram, the sturdy wood sending a tremor through the Terminals upon impact. Immediately, Pyth's blessing leaves him, and he is forced to shoulder the wounded man with his own strength.

    "Let's go," Kid says, his voice his own once more. The trip out of the Terminals is quiet, until the very end. They find a functional Skyway, blocked by the very last of the Ura. Those who bear weapons with little instruction on how to use them, angry and desperate.

    "Ignore 'em," Kid says, striding forward even as they open fire, doing his best to shield Zulf with his own body.

Alexis has posed:
As soon as Alexis has pulled the Shard free Caddie releases her bind, letting the weakened body slump to the ground, her voice once again going sugary sweet. < Thank you~ > Then lives up to her name by taking Alexis' stick and tucking it into the bag with her. Alexis also hands her the Shard. "Hold onto that, and gimme the rope."

Which is tossed in a loop around the Mega Lucario's midsection, and Alexis deploys her rollerblades. "Get us outta here. To the Skyway!" This was part of the plan, as now the very fast pokemon can just pull her out of the tunnels and likely past any other remaining opposition.

And silently glad she didn't have the use her last pokemon. The Entei may be her most powerful, but there would of been no garuntee that he'd stay in control under these circumstances.

Kotone Yamakawa has posed:
Kotone Yamakawa runs past she looks at the lone Ura running she lets them go without another thought calling out. "You might want to get the guy a bit ways back from me." She notes but she doesn't do anything else other than make for the core and grab it if no one else does. She will not hold back it's time to get out of here for now hoping they have got Zulf and they can get the heck out of here at the Skyway. Kotone is quiet as she steps on to it and while the Ura do not know? Baring physical damage to her cyberbvrain she will recall these events clearly as anything she's experiancing right now.

She will move to push thougha and just take any hits on her way out.

Flamel Parsons (1094) has posed:
    Zulf is alright.

    Thank goodness. Parsons is relieved, intensely and deeply, that the diplomat might be saved. It was one of the few things the secret agent could reasonably cling to as an end-goal and objective here, aside the Shards and Core. He'd worked, from his very first moment stepping foot here, to make sure Zulf didn't swerve hard into despair, and that his... Deep and profound despair could morph into something besides a dangerous, potentially world-risking psychohazard. Just this skirmish, deadly and devastating as it was, was proof enough that Zulf's grief was strong enough to shift the axis of what remained of the world.

    And what of The Kid's? These two had both lost their homelands, the people who helped them, and the people they were loyal to. Both had grown, through struggling... Or at least they'd had the chance to. They were two sides of a very similar coin, each one of the few willing to bridge the gap between the corpses of nations, and that meant The Kid's own possible pain was just as dangerous. So was all this, the rescue of Zulf, an indicator of healing the loss a bit?

    The Psychonaut can only hope, this time. No time to visit that mindscape now.

    Parsons has already weathered a storm of violence on the way in. Now they weather a storm of violence on the way out. And Parsons admits, he's not sure how to parse what happens next. He vanishes into invisibility, but that's something he can't assist the others with. No, he has to hold out his invisibility alone, stepping right alongside The Kid, briefly The Champion. He dodges incoming fire as best he can, seeming more injured by the psychic impulse of anger and desperation than by the few shots that land near him.

    He treats it like a funeral procession. He flickers into vision just enough to be seen matching The Kid's stride straight to the skyway. But, for his part, he fires nothing back at the Ura foes.

Rory White (673) has posed:
Rory White rises from the net, finally cutting herself free. For all her claims, the reality is that the spears DID a number on her Morph. It's sparking and the legs are limping. Auto-repair features are only able to handle some of it. The structures that replicate servo functionality scream with awful mechanical noises as she gets up to her feet, limping. Unlike a living being, she doesn't feel any pain associated with this... but her self-diagnostics are basically ON FIRE with warnings and alerts.

    Still, with the Ura... dealt with... she casts a look that could probably be interpreted as dissatisfied and disgusted at their fallen bodies... and does her best to hurry after the others.

    Upon reaching the Kid though, she takes a moment to measure Zulf's vitals... apparently satisfied enough to not intervene for now, she follows along...

    All the way until the inept would-be warriors are barring their way, however clumsily.

    "IGNORE them?" She's not so sure her microphones aren't malfunctioning after that, so while following along she hAS to ask that...

The Kid has posed:
    "We got what we wanted," Kid says in response to Rory, even as a dart sinks into his leg. He stoicly takes the Ura's blows, responding only by moving Zulf so he is not wounded further. The Ura come at them, civilians clumsily swinging weapons at them. The wounds aren't deep, but there are so many.

    But over time, as they tank the blows, the Ura begin to flinch away. It's hard to make violence when the other party refuses to return in kind, and the intense look the Kid wears as he carries Zulf is intimidating on its own right, let alone everyone else. Soon they make a path, allowing them to leave. One more takes shots at them, but is cut down by his own.

    The party rides the winds back to the Bastion, where Zia awaits. The Kid, as usual, faceflops upon entry, but this time, he does not bounce back to his feet. Zia immediately rushes to his side. "Kid?..." He starts to rise, but his arms fail him. "Kid please, get up..." He begins to push himself up, and gets his knees under him, but falls forward again. "Come on, you did it. Please get up."

    Finally, he slowly rises, drawing a sigh of relief. "Thank you."