1098/Robot Escort Service

Robot Escort Service
Date of Scene:	07 December 2014
Location:	Urbania
Synopsis:	The quest to create a robot girlfriend for Lute leads to a bank-robbing blind date.
Cast of Characters:	3, 20, 188, 304, 529, 585, 633, 635

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Dr. Wily (529) has posed:
    While it cannot claim to be the richest, grandest, or most secure bank in the Multiverse, the 732nd InterWorld Bank of Commerce in downtown Urbania would certainly try anyway. Regular police patrols help to reinforce its own security, and ensure that even if anyone did rob their vaults, they could not possibly take their loot home with them.

    That is, they do on most days. Today, however, those police - and even a proactive contingent of the bank's own security force - are more occupied with an ongoing bomb threat. For some time now, they have been tracking their mad bomber; the best lead they've found so far came with an explosion only blocks away from the bank.

    A bystander manages to capture it on film. A sudden, fiery blast, plumes of black smoke, and a solitary figure walking away unscathed, silhouetted against the flames. They spot the camera, and make a sudden dash toward it. The camera is dropped as its holder flees, but it captures a quick flash of a navy skirt and white stockings, and a melodious - though perhaps a bit crazed - voice: "Luuute! Luuuu~te! Notice me, Sempai!"

    Since this video was captured, there have been no further sightings, though more explosive incidents continue around the city. The casualties have, thus far, been amazingly few - no reported deaths, no serious injuries, only minor trauma likely to have been caused by the act of /fleeing/ - but experts maintain that it is only a matter of time. The atmosphere in the city is tense, as everyone tries to figure out just what is going on.

    Is this a terrorist attack? The first stage of an evil scheme? A big misunderstanding, somehow? For the management of the 732nd InterWorld Bank, there is no question - this is all happening too close to home to be a coincidence.

Quentyn Westwind (635) has posed:
    A mad bomber? Quentyn's not sure how old that footage is, but, well... bombs tend to leave lots of injured. Had to be just luck there were no major cases, right? When there are... Maybe he can help. Or course, he might run into the bomber or such villains... so the white mage has his ridiculously large (at least for him) rifle assembled, but slung across his back when he shows up in the area.

    The teen finds a nice little out of the way corner, not far from the last bombing, and leans against the wall. Quentyn tries to find the local emergency responders' frequencies with his radio, and from there just listens intently... not paying so much attention to his actual surroundings.

Lute (188) has posed:
     Of course, Lute is not going to let his kohai go unnoticed. So, he rushes to Urbania as fast as possible, in the most dignified way. By using a black painted U-haul truck as his vehicle, rocketing into the area at an insanely high speed which is in no way safe whatsoever.

     Lute is driving, though his head is kind of sticking out the window. He honks the horn a bit, trying to get the evacuating people out of the way. He shouts, though, quite loudly.

     "I NOTICE YOU KOHAI! I'm coming for you!"

     If this doesn't end with a confession of love atop a building with explosions in the background, Lute is going to be /very/ dissapointed.

     But, Lute still has some time to get there, and he /still/ has to find his kohai. So, to save time, he's driving the U-haul through the first floors of some buildings. It is a surprisingly enduring truck.

Black Arachnia (304) has posed:
The girl's calling out for Lute? Like she WANTS him?

Black Arachnia finds this incredibly difficult to believe - but if Lute is going to show up, she owes him for that incident with the stolen yacht. In the meantime, the wandering bomber is a very immediate problem, and as the Maximal spider makes her way to Urbania, she's plotting out where and when the explosions take place. Maybe she can figure out wher one will be before it happens ..

Or she could just follow Lute the Loudmouth. That works too.

Either way, Black Arachnia is traversing the Urbanian cityscape like only a robotic spider (of unusual size) can, a combination of grapneling and parkour and occasional straight-up wall-climbing, and heading for what seems like a good intercept point.

Bigby Wolf (585) has posed:
Bigby Wolf generally has a busy enough time keeping order in his OWN jurisdiction without going out looking for trouble; but as it happens he was away from Fabletown today on one of his scouting missions when his radio picked up the police band alert. He had been debating the merits of getting involved versus NOT having his head chewed off by Snow White for interfering where he wasn't absolutely needed, but then Lute said that thing about it definitely not being related to a top secret project, and that sealed his decision. Anything Top Secret could possibly involve the Adversary getting involved with one of the superfactions -- in this case the Confederacy -- and that was worth giving a sniff.

If only he knew how stupid the actual case was.

A man in a shapeless trenchcoat throws himself out of the way of the speeding black U-Haul as it kicks up onto the curb and directly through a plate glass shop-front. "Jesus!" the man swears, but instead of running as fast as possible in the opposite direction, he races around the corner of the building to climb the fire escape. He reckons he'll get a better view of the big picture from there, and less people to dodge in order to give chase.

Toph Beifong (20) has posed:
    This weekend turned out way busier than anticipated. It had only been hours since Toph got home last, and just as she was about to begin slacking off, this happened. Oh well, what's a poor earthbender to do but to head out? At least it's constructive and an excuse to take it easy tomorrow if she needs one. Besides, doing the right thing is what the Union does!

    The blind earthbender arrives in her usual fashion; loud and forceful. Surfing on a concrete plate down the street, the blind girl kicks into it once she arrives, making it melt into the street as she leaps forward, landing steadily with a serious look on her face as she tries to get an idea on what's going on. The video footage didn't do her much good after all.

    Then Lute arrives... and Toph lets out a groan. That dunderhead isn't making things any better! So she rushes down the street, sensing where Lute is driving... and then she focuses on where he ought to go, kicking into the ground and raising it there to make it a steep hill that ought to stop him. Or at least slow him down...

Roll (3) has posed:
    With explosions going off nearby, Roll has no choice but to declare her grocery shopping for some exotic off-world goods to be a bust. "Ooooh, now what?!" A bit angry, sure, but the little robot's also worried. EXPLOSIONS mean people are bound to get hurt!

    Of course, most people on the streets are running away from the mess. The childlike robot in a simple red dress is running toward it with a hand up to her temple.

    Nobody can see it, but she's sending out signals, doing quick mental research, pinging Rush to get ready for anything, and booting up all kinds of support software for handling various crises! Including combat, if it comes to it.

    Roll arrives at the sight of the nearest explosion, but finds nothing but rubble and a crime scene. Her scanners and sensors aren't specialized to find anything much that normal eyes won't aside basic things like thermal imaging, and that's not too useful after an EXPLOSION now is it?

    "Maybe an eye from the sky will help? C'mon Rush!"

    With a single signal, the faithful robo dog drops down from the skies as a bolt of light and immediately shifts to Jet mode as Roll hops on and takes off... still with her grocery bags in hand...

Dr. Wily (529) has posed:
    For those arriving in the chaos of the city, it isn't difficult to find out where help is truly needed. A U-Haul crashing /through/ the city is bound to reach the right place soon enough, as will anyone following it. For those who prefer to /know/ where they are going, however...

    Those following police radio may notice first. A call goes out, "Suspicious activity in the bank district, I think there might be another..."

    After that, anyone with eyes and ears will probably notice the high-rise building down the street from the 732nd. And how suddenly, letters are being written out on the side in flames - L. U. I. L. ... just... just give those last couple another minute. Someone is clearly getting /bored/ of waiting.

    But as for culprit? Who knows! Let's ask the girl in the Japanese Schoolgirl Uniform over there what's going on, she might know. ... wait, why is she running toward the bank, that has to be the worst place...

Lute (188) has posed:
     Lute spots the letters being written on the building in flame. At a /guess/, that is the most likely spot she is going to be. But, alas, how is he going to get there faster, especially with him guessing that here are a number of other Elites coming here as well. This is even proven by Toph's presence, trying to impede Lute.

     Sadly, though, Toph is making a hill to slow Lute down. And Toph does not understand the raw potential of the U-haul.

     Lute pulls a lever as approaching the hill. Suddenly, hatches open all over the U-haul.

     Vernier thrusters for manuevering. Rockets for forward momentum. And Lute presses the button.

     The U-haul briefly takes to the sky, powered by rockets, and landing in front of the bank. It screeches to a halt outside of the bank, only barely stopping in time to avoid knocking over a statue out front.

     Did I say 'barely stopping in time?'

     I mean that statue is totally knocked over and now forms a hole in the building.

     Lute steps out, dramatically. But he has to make this look /proper/. He has to act like a Sempai.

     Which is why he has a book bag flung over his shoulder.

Black Arachnia (304) has posed:
Bigby would reach the top of a fire escape only to nearly get trampled by a passing spider.

Nearly. Not actually. Black Arachnia barely catches herself with less than a second to spare before the collision WOULD be unavoidable, eight legs digging into the rooftop to push herself to the side. "Bad guys are in the other direction, Chief, and I'm not one of them. Pardon me."

With that, she launches her mandible grapnel - which looks like LITERALLY shooting her mouth off, with a glowing, shimmering cable connecting it back to the rest of her body - and latches onto a cornice across the street ... then simply jumps off, reels her line (and herself) partway in, and lets gravity do the rest. Her intended target to land on is the roof of Lute's U-Haul.

... its systems don't have a wireless interface of some sort, do they? She's checking as a matter of habit, but not looking to break into them. Yet.

More importantly: "'Sempai,' you need to set a better example for people than this."

Quentyn Westwind (635) has posed:
    Quentyn just staaaares at the U-haul that goes crashing past. But it's not till the radio chatters that he moves. Out towards the street, he takes a small polyhedron in his hand-- aether visibly gathers around it as the mage casts a spell out of somekind and he summons out of thin air the best kind of transportation: A chocobo!

    Quentyn hops onto the bird (or construct closely remembering one anyway) and with a "Kweh!" the pair charges off after the truck. He's not very intent on stopping it, instead keeping an eye out for anyone seriously injured enough that paramedics might not get there in time... which so far (none), so good?

    Quentyn's flightless bird has to do a little more work to get around the obstacles Toph sends at the truck, but in the end he too arrives at the bank, eyes lingering on the burning letters for a moment. "Um... something might be happening at the bank," the student radios to anyone in local range along with a position tag. He dismounts his chocobo there, which promptly collapses out of existence. But weirdly, the boy doesn't seem very concerned with Lute or his rocket truck other than any injuries his antics might have caused. Well, until Arachnia lands on it, but Quentyn just watches from a small distance, trying to figure out exactly what's going on.

Bigby Wolf (585) has posed:
Bigby thought it would be very possible to follow Lute's crashing progress through the city at first, as all he has to do is sprint across the rooftops and leap across the alleyways to the next building, whereas the U-Haul probably gets hung up magazine racks and... people, and stuff.

But his life can't ever be simple. First he nearly gets trampled by a giant spider that he... kind of recognizes, before she insults his deductive skills and grapnels away again.

And then he sees the truck flying.

A naughty swear word escapes him in a throaty grunt, and he drops to all fours, galloping after her, and Lute, his body shifting to gorilla-wolf proportions under the flapping trenchcoat as hair sprouts in a rolling wave over his body.

On the street below, someone snaps an insane photo of a goddamn werewolf flying through the air, trenchcoat flapping majestically behind him, as Bigby leaps across to the next building. Sadly, it will probably not make him much money from the tabloids given all of the other nonsense going on at the same time.

The hulking beast reaches the edge of the roof just in time to see the statue crash through the front facade of the bank. He leaps down into the bank parking lot -- landing quite dramatically on all fours before rising to his feet, the tattered remnants of his shirt flapping in the breeze along with his coat -- and tries to mask the fact that he's out of breath by turning each prodigious gulp of air into a threatening growl as he stalks forward.

"Game's over, kid," he calls out gruffly. "How about you put down the bag before any one of the--" quick sniff, quick exaggeration, "dozen Elites surrounding you takes you down the hard way?"

Roll (3) has posed:
    After the strangely cool 'explosion' sites, seeing a FLYING U-HAUL settles it for Roll. She knows where to go now!

    Right down towards Lute. With a THUNK, Roll and Rush land atop the U-Haul's roof. She's not in armor and Rush isn't looking anything but alert, but Roll still leans over the edge and calls down to Lute, "I wouldn't do that if I was you!"

Soan Sagittarius (633) has posed:
     The large burning arrow was rather hard to miss. Usually, this kind of sign is... rather deliberate on the criminal's plan to drive attention away from everything. Soan is a thief. He knows misdirection, even if it's non-intentional on certain's part. He also have little idea who 'Lute' is, beyond apparently an infamously miscreant criminal on the Confederate side. He's already being taken care of at right this moment.

     Standing at the very top of a radio tower, lighter than air, is a tall figure in full, body-covering plate armor with his arms crossed over his chest. His glowing eyes pierces around the area, scanning the chase of the U-Haul, but diverting his attention away, more toward where the vehicle came from, that bank. It's rather strange to see a school girl like this running about -- or at least, what he think looks like one, anyway. None of this feels right.

     Dragoon Man leaps away from the tower, sailing through the air to land on the roof of a near-by building to the bank, peering down the sky windows of the bank proper, glowing eyes narrowing as he watches.

     Time to see where this is going to go, school girl.

Toph Beifong (20) has posed:
    As the radio alerts them all to the bank district, Toph frowns. Just where was the damn bank district again? But what Toph does notice is how most people seem to be running away from a certain area, there's somebody running /towards/ it. Is that the crazy Lute fangirl?

    It doesn't help it that Lute's truck seems to fly through the air after a brief burst of speed. What the heck is going on?! But once the truck crashes into the ground again, there's no question about it, and Toph frowns as she kicks into the ground, launching herself through the air in the direction of the bank.

    Even as Black Arachnia lands on the truck and Lute steps out of it, the earthbender crashes into the ground nearby, a stern look on her face as she focuses. Where did that crazy girl go, and what is going on here anyway? Quentyn's arrival makes her arch an eyebrow, and she can't help but sound sarcastic. "Gee, you think?" She's aware of Bigby and Roll arriving too, though the only person she really does know a fair bit about here is sadly... Lute. She raises her hand and points it directly at Lute. "If you're behind this mess and destruction, then you're going to get noticed in a way you are going to regret, lover boy!" the blind girl huffs, then she steps forward and reaches out with both hands to pull the statue back with her bending so she can walk in through the new improvised doorway. Which she should probably fix later.

    "Who is that girl, and why is she /really/ doing all of this?" she demands, ready to head into the bank.

Dr. Wily (529) has posed:
    Lute's entrance doesn't go unnoticed. First by the police and bank security which happen to be in the area - that was a /priceless statue/ for insurance purposes and cannot /possibly/ be replaced without a large settlement! How terrible! Move in to subdue, boys! Second, by the oddly out of place schoolgirl! Well... okay, maybe a little old to be a schoolgirl. Probably for the best. But she does rush over to Lute, and immediately grab him in a hug. "Sempai Lute! You came! ... let's go rob a bank!" She sounds way too cheerful.

    Ladies and gentlemen, the cause of all this mayhem! Yes, that voice matches the one in the video perfectly, as does the outfit. Her large brown eyes seem, at moments, to take on a predatory cast, and the mention of robbing the bank gives her a momentary grin that seems strangely inhuman. Otherwise, however, nothing seems to be unusual or special about her - how peculiar.

    Nothing that is, except... "No! You won't take Sempai Lute from me!" She tosses a few small black spheres to the ground, and they immediately burst into thick clouds of smoke. The old ninja smokescreen trick... are they escaping?

Lute (188) has posed:
     Lute, of course, returns the hug. He does in fact notice all of the others around, and Black Arachnia on top of his truck's roof. Dangit, didn't he drown her at the sea? Still, though, looking around, Lute is probably heavily outnumbered, even with the help of his girlfriend. And so he smiles, looking at everyone. He is attempting a disarming smile.

     "Don't worry, everyone. I've got this under control. You guys won't get in the way of /true love/, would you?"

     Of course, with the smoke screen up, Lute grabs her hand. With his other hand, he reaches into his bookbag. And he pulls out a piece of cold toast, and places it firmly in his mouth.

     Taking his kohai's hand, he speaks, toast still in mouth.

     "Don't worry, kohai! We'll go rob the bank and show the world our love!"

     And Lute starts pulling her to the bank, running in a manner of 'oh shit I'm late for school.' You have to do these things /right/.

Black Arachnia (304) has posed:
As soon as the bizarre schoolgirl tosses out the smokebombs, Black Arachnia launches her mandible grapnel again - trying to lock onto 'Kohai-robo' before she can GO anywhere and yank her back out of the smoke. The fact that Lute plunged into the smoke to join her just makes it two for the price of one as far as the Maximal is concerned

Of course, if Black Arachnia MISSES - somehow - then it's far more likely, given her elevation, that the grapnel will plant itself in the ground and the attempt to 'reel in' her targets will result in Black Arachnia *herself* yanking herself off the U-Haul's roof, into/through the smoke, and faceplanting into the pavement somewhere on the other side of the smokescreen. That'll be ... somewhat awkward.

(But if that happens, she might also hit and/or slide hard enough to knock the young lovers off their feet, and that'll at least slow them down. Hopefully.)

Toph Beifong (20) has posed:
    When the school girl makes her presence known and rushes over towards Lute and hugs him, Toph stops by the remains of the fallen statue. And there's a totally confused look on her face where she stands, as if she just heard the most ridiculous thing ever.

    "You love a /robot/...?" Toph questions, though hey, she won't judge him. Not anymore than she already does, anyway. "If you think we will stand by while you rob a bank, then you need to get your head checked!" And sure, the school girl might be tossing smoke bombs, but for somebody with no vision it's hardly going to matter, now is it? Toph brings up her foot before slamming it down into the ground, and she throws her hands forward as she erects some earthen plates around Lute and his girlfriend, attempting to trap them or at least hinder them. It's a bit hard to 'see' what Black Arachnia is doing, unfortunately.

Bigby Wolf (585) has posed:
Bigby's nose wrinkles. That's no girl, that's... well it's either a metal golem or a robot. The faintly electrical tang says robot. The smokebombs go out, and he recoils at first, reflexively, before he realizes that the smoke seems to be lacking in the usual choking smell that he associates with such things. He gives a loud snort to clear his nose just in case and then closes his eyes and inhales deeply. Yes, he can still smell them clearly. The smoke only seems to cloud his vision, and his sense of smell is by far the more important one. Like Toph, he's a superhero in situations where no one can /see/ anything.

"They're going that way!" he shouts out, pointing in the direction the retreating smell is coming from, and charges into the smokescreen. He drops again to all fours for a burst of speed, and unaware that Toph is about to fling up walls of earth in his path, he makes a great pouncing leap after his quarry, claws outstretched!

Quentyn Westwind (635) has posed:
    'Let's go rob a bank?' Quentyn slides that big old rifle of his into his hand, but he doesn't *immediately* He eyes the smokescreen where the two were thoughtfully, then the U-haul. He swaps in a new magazine, and sights in the U-haul's engine block. There's a BOOOOM as the rifle fires, sending a round with an armor-piercing core backing high explosive and incendiary components.

    Unfortunately for Quentyn-- the rifle's recoil also literally sends the boy flying back and skittering over the pavement for a short distance... yet he expertly keeps his rifle from ever touching the ground and practiced feet find him quickly back on his feet, even if he is wincing.

Roll (3) has posed:
    "T-true love...?!" What?! Roll makes a baffled face. No, love between a human and a robot doesn't bother her at all, why would it? that it's Lute though, the infamous wacko of the Multiverse, has her blinking once.

    not like she can intervene at this point besides yelling at them though.

    even though the smokescreen though, she can see where they are and where they're going. Thermal imaging, gotta love it! "Ugh... that was a Wily transponder code, I'm pretty sure... and Robot Master framework." Bizarre. "I hope that's not OUR Wily!" But a Wily is still a Wily, and there's trouble afoot. "C'mon, Rush! Let's follow 'em!"

    She again hops on Rush Jet and takes off through the skies... there won't be any intervening. But she's not going to be thrown off the trail THAT easily.

Soan Sagittarius (633) has posed:
     Soan watches the happenings from his perching point. This is as he thought, apperances are very deciving, altought he is not very much aware of the status of the school girl as a robot, if that the case may very well be. No, what he does know, is that smoke bombs has been deployed, some weirdo that remarkably looks like any irresponsible late-teen high schoolers late for class is really pulling up the airs of one, perhaps a bit more than absolutely was needed. This is the time to act.

     Dragoon Man leaps off the building he was perched on, causing a slight shake of the immediate roof as he leaps into the airs, making a parabolic arc into the skies as he plummets down into the bank proper, of course, going through right the windows.

     The fully armoured man thunders through the sky windows of the bank, shouting at the top of his voice a catch phrase that is wildely unknown to the multiverse, yet a few might be able to recognise:

     "BY THE SKIES ABOVE THE SKY!"

     DRAGOON MAN's impact against the ground, further away from the two would-be criminal creates a shockwave of air from the speed he impacted against it, challenging the authority of good ol, wholesome air against the smoke. The Dragoon, in a three-point landing positon with an hand outstreched outward, have a Great Spear, materialises out of thin air.

     "Whatever ill fate you intended to do today," Dragoon Man's disorted, spectral voices booms out. "I suggest you to renounce it immediatedly, or face the consequences!"

Roll (3) has posed:
    THIS arrival gets Roll swerving about to a halt. She crouches on Rush's back to gaze down, zooms her optics in for a better look, and immediately...

    "O-oooooHH! A SUPERHERO?!"

Dr. Wily (529) has posed:
    The impact of the dragoon's jump seems to have a... strange... effect on the smoke - it doesn't disperse or shift, instead /flickering/ for a split second and outright /moving/ away from the air blast, while still billowing straight up. Odd.

    The accompanying warning, however, is going unheeded. As is... largely everything else. It seems that the criminal couple has at least some help to count on. "Aww, thanks! Protecting us from all these meanies, isn't that nice?" It isn't even a mocking tone. The schoolgirl is sincere, and genuinely pleased with the wall of concrete. "Or wait... was that /you/, Sempai Lute?"

    Meanwhile, it seems that the benefits of /stellar teamwork/ are being shared all around. Hopefully the big bad wolf and Lolth cosplay robot can recover from their respective over-commited surprise attacks before bouncing harmfully off of miss I'll solo the whole event's walls...

    Now the truck explosion... that's a big deal. It's close enough that it would probably be causing some serious hurt to Bonnie and Clyde there, except... concrete~! The ring takes the brunt of the impact, though chunks are sent flying inward as well. It seems as though Lute is blessed by unimaginable luck, as chunks bounce off of /empty space/ just before hitting him in the head. Kohai, on the other hand... not as lucky. "... ow! That... that was /mean/..."

    The bank also didn't hold up so well. The small statue-hole is now a /big/ pile of rubble and an opening one could drive a bus through. Hah, perfect! Onward, to adventure!

Lute (188) has posed:
     The explosion and the walls and the GENERAL CHAOS are taking Lute completely by surprise. But, he is trying to make sure that he and his Kohai are absolutely safe. And that he gets credit for anything that might help them, even if unintended.

     "...Yes, the wall is totally my doing. I did it to protect our love."

     Toph is going to be pissed. But, either way, Lute has to do /something/. With everyone around, though, well. At the least, he needs to hold them off for a bit so that he and his lover can get away.

     The truck, though exploded a bit, does in fact go flying into the concrete wall, before bursting up in the sky. But, by some weird luck, it lands on a building nearby, straight up. Its engine has still been basically trashed and will need repairs later, though. But otherwise Wily's previous pose goes as it had.

     Lute is surprised the things just bounce away, though, but he'll live with it. So, for now, he throws out a Pokeball, in a dramatic fashion.

     "KAELIN! I choose you!"

     And, his Tentacruel appears, it's tentacles attempting to enwrap the various enemies, to catch them within its grasp.

     He looks at everyone pleadingly, "Why must you all get in the way of /true love/. I mean seriously. She's hotter than the last one Wily made! And more comfortable with physical contact!"

     ...Of course he doesn't think that him summoning a tentacle monster would cause pause to a japanese school girl robot. So hopefully that doesn't backfire.

Roll (3) has posed:
    "H-hey, stop blowing things up, someone's gonna get hurt!" Roll KNOWS they know that though. That's definitely why they chased most people off. There's no stopping these two, is there?

    Briefly, Roll wishes she didn't have to worry about the First Law of Robotics, or had some extra wiggle room to pre-empt things. How easy it would be to knock Lute over and bind him up, leave him for the police! Maybe.

    Okay maybe not that easy. But the idea has a touch of merit.

    Not happening though.

    Scowling disgustedly, Roll descends through the giant hole and into the bank. Smoke and dust and debris don't bother her at all, she manuevers around into a landing just fine. With a sour look on her face, she summons up her armor.

    In many realities, Roll Light is just a housekeeper robot. In her own however, she was the only robot left to rescue Rock from being taken over by a virus, and took upgrades meant for him to get him back.

    Light flows up her body with a surge of crackling energy. Her clothes and cosmetic layers are replaced instantly with pink and red armor, and her right hand becomes the mighty Mega Buster while a helmet forms on her head... with a hole in the back for her hair.

Quentyn Westwind (635) has posed:
    Quentyn, still recovering a little from the rifle's recoil, isn't quick enough to dodge the tentacles and gets snagged! His eyes go wide and panicked and he calls out a hurried, "Help!"

Toph Beifong (20) has posed:
    What the... when Toph senses Bigby leaping towards the two, her eyes widen in surprise. Luckily she throws her other hand up, and a small pillar rises with the intent to push up underneath Bigby's feet to keep him from crashing into the walls she just made, and instead send him over the earthen plates so he can cut the two off if they evade her trap. "Look before you leap, Doggy!" she warns the wolf.

    Then there's another crazy arrival, and Toph blinks in confusion as she feels the vibrations carry from the destroyed windows and Dragoon Man crashing down on the ground. Well, at least they are enough here to handle the situation, hopefully...

    "You are surrounded, just give up already!" Toph calls out to Lute. Seriously, what /is/ going on here?

    When the truck explodes though, Toph can't help but help, nearly losing her footing as she's pushed aside, stubbornly digging her heels into the ground and keeping her weight low as she raises up her hands to raise pillars in attempt to block the chunks from the others. "LOOK OUT!" she calls in warning.

    Though she can't help but get an eyebrow twitch when Lute takes credit for /her/ bending. "Oh, you want a bending battle?!" She kicks the ground, and a concrete block flies up before she punches it towards Lute... at least before she feels something grabbing onto her arm. And since the Tentacruel isn't touching the ground, she can't exactly see it. "LET GO!" she cries, not knowing what the hell it is but there's no way she will stand idly by as she throws her free arm up to send a spike towards where she thinks the Tentacruel is.

Black Arachnia (304) has posed:
This is very much not Black Arachnia's day. Her attempt to grapnel-snag Kohai and Lute runs into a brick wall - well, an asphalt wall, but she can't tell the difference while her optics are resetting from the unexpected impact - and then she gets sideswiped by a flying police werewolf. Not to mention DRAGOON MAN dramatically landing in the middle of everything.

Oh yeah, and a Tentacruel. She is growing less appreciative of Pokemon every time she tangles with one of Lute's. She also can't transform once Kaelin gets its (his, hers, whichever) tentacles around her - at least, not without a contest of strength that she doesn't have time for.

What she CAN do is try to chomp onto one of its tentacles and inject a sedative version of her cyber-venom. It should be potent enough to put Kaelin to sleep, and relaxing enough for people to get out of its grip. If the tentacles grabbing her loosen enough for her to bust out, transforming will be very much in order as her next course of action.

Bigby Wolf (585) has posed:
Bigby sails through the air, a dark, threatening shadow amid the fake smoke. The ultimate predator, keen senses leading him directly to his quarry, deadly claws and fangs bared.

And then he smashes into a wall. Or more accurately, the wall smashes into him, as it rises up out of the ground and catches him under a chin, snapping his mouth shut with a *click* and an abbreviated yelp as his tongue catches between his teeth. The rest of his body slams into the rock as momentum carries him onward to his Wile E. Coyote-esque destiny, and he scrabbles in confusion against the sudden, unexpected barrier before falling backward on his ass. "What the fuck?" he manages to get out, before he raises a hand to gingerly feel his injured tongue. He spits out a bit of blood.

And then a giant tentacle monster is rising up out of the encircling rock wall, and the Big Bad Werewolf has purpose again. With a mad howl, just wanting to BITE something now, he lurches to his feet and lunges at the Evil Pokemon which has now taken a little girl captive. Not that he hasn't done that kind of thing in the past, but he's one of the good guys now. Kind of. He tries to grab hold of the tentacle encircling Toph, and chomp down on it just above where it's grabbed the blind bandit. Probably he's not aware that she's the one who just clobbered him, inadvertant though it may have been.

Soan Sagittarius (633) has posed:
     Soan eye's narrows behind the face mask as his powerful landing barely did anything to the smoke. Worse, it... didn't really do much at all, now did it? Still, he can easily hazard the guess that this is probably some kind of holographic smoke. Which is... sounding far more elaborate than it has any needs to be to his practical Thiefly part of his mind.

     Things goes nuts pretty fast. A truck explodes, fired by Quentyn, a student he knows, a wall erupts from the ground to seal things off, that school girl seems to be downright /obliviously crazy/, as contrary to obviously crazy, plenty of Heroes are apparently here to challenge the problems.

     And this 'Lute' guy, as he's being called, summoned a Sea Monster that's throwing it's tentacles all over the place. Dragoon man is puzzled, including himself!

     "SO BE IT THEN!" Dragoon Man intones loudly, spinning his great spear around to face the cutting side on the tentacles, instead getting his leg and arm wrapped around. Streching it out wouldn't do much. As he tries to pull away, the armoured form takes in a deep breath, then roars out in a distinctly inhuman way, a stream of lightning, precisely controlled, erupts from his mouth to strike at the Pokemon, while his great spear slice down to block the conduction of the electricity around Quentyn. Poor boy had enough electrocution lately.

Dr. Wily (529) has posed:
    "Oh, we're stopping to get rid of the mean people first? Okay!" Kohai's cool with this plan, and apparently unphased by Massive Tentacle Attack, so that's... a good sign?

    So a quick glance sums up the situation well enough... entangled, ensnared, resisting, freeing, fighting back... and then there's one prospective hero left as an immediate threat. One who has already been marked as 'significant danger' by something in the back of the robot mistress's mind. So...

    "You're so thoughtful, Sempai - you remembered to leave one for me to play with! I'll be right back!"

    With that, Kohai is diving toward Roll with speed and agility which /greatly/ belies her human-looking form. While in midair, she is already preparing an attack - apparently, she wants to make this a Stereotypical Samurai Single-Stroke Battle, and is wielding... a katana made of /fire/ to do it? Man, what the hell. Is this Japanese Cliches Plus Fire Woman or something?

Lute (188) has posed:
     The cyber venom loosens the grip of the Tentacruel, at least enough for those enwrapepd to have a better chance to break free. The biting from Bigby, andthe slicing and lightning breath from Dragoon Man? Those really hurt the Tentacruel, causing it obvious and visible pain.

     Lute, though, briefly looks at Kohai as she starts taking out her fire blade thing. He pauses.

     "...Man. You are /so hot/. My wife is going to love you."

     Still, though, since it is Robot Vs. Robot, and Lute vs. Everyone Else, Lute just smiles. And looks around. Sure, his Tentacruel is being beat up on, but like. Lute is /used/ to fighting hordes of enemies.

     He neglects to note that he is also used to losing.

     "Alright, let's go! TYRANTRUM! TYRANITAR!"

     He sends out the two large ground Pokemon, both vaguely dinosaurish. And, immediately, they go to work. The ground shakes, as they both unleash earthquake attacks at the opponents. The earth cracks, bursts up, and overall just tries to beat at the opponents.

     This is probably not a good move considering that his enemies include an Earht Bender, an agile spider, and a dragoon. Like all of those could probably dodge super easily.

Toph Beifong (20) has posed:
    With Bigby nearby it's luckily easier to know just where to not strike, as Toph aims none of the spikes up towards him. But when it does let go, Toph lets out a sigh of relief, yanking her arm back. "Thanks...!"

    When the two other Pokemon show up though, Toph assumes a defensive stance. Man, those are /large/! But their attacks... well, Lute could probably have picked something better against a girl who claims to be the greatest earthbender ever. Immediately she gets to work as well, gritting her teeth as she works on stabilizing the ground and turn it back against the two dragon Pokemon. "Knock him out!" she calls for the others. "I'll cover you!"

Roll (3) has posed:
    "Wh-whoah!" What might be more startling than 'Kohai' showing off so much speed and agility is that Roll manages to keep up. Her non-buster hand gleams silvery-white and the color swiftly replicates across her armor. The gleaming hand's like a claw, rending at the air sharply enough that the air itself becomes a blade just around Roll's fingers. Sparks fly as claw meets the strange 'burning' blade... and the result?

    Roll goes skidding back across the ground a full five meters. Just as soon as it appeared, the color's again shifting... to a very deep blue and frosty white blue. The Mega Buster's aimed... "We don't have to fight, you know! You could just cut this out and go home! Lute's already cheating on you!"

    The weapon she's chosen is ICE SLASHER. The buster fires superchilled liquid nitrogen bursts right at 'Kohai,' and EVERYTHING in their wake lightly ices up. Even the ground!

    It's not terribly damaging though, because Roll really doesn't want to fight this robot... she's being exploited!

Quentyn Westwind (635) has posed:
    Quentyn drops back to the ground! It's an OK landing, but he neglects to avoid scraping up that precious rifle of his. "Thanks, um, Mr. Dragoon!" The student tries to steal a glance at the figure... but oh, his face is covered. He settles for a quick retreat instead, straightening out his skewed glasses quickly.

    Unfortunately, Quentyn doesn't dodge those earth attacks so easily, at least what Toph doesn't block. Fortunately, Toph's efforts keep the little mage from getting wrecked. This time, anyway. Quentyn tries to retreat further and, if he does, he then turns back towards the other and casts a Stoneskin (essentially a shield spell) at DRAGOON MAN and Toph. If they don't resist it, it gives them some protection from the next hit (or several if they're weaker hits). Quentyn leaves actually taking out the pokemon to his more offensively oriented fellows.

Bigby Wolf (585) has posed:
Oh Bigby, if only you'd ever learned to fly, the shaking and rumbling wouldn't faze you at all. But you didn't. And now you're staggering for balance while spitting out gross Tentacruel fluids.

But the little girl he just helped rescue is doing work. Bigby shoots her a surprised look as she's clearly focusing on doing SOMETHING that seems to be directly responsible for the earth stabilizing beneath his feet.

With his balance squarely beneath him again, the werewolf crouches, then charges at the huge pair of Pokemon, aiming to slip between them to get at their juicy quarterback in the pocket!

Black Arachnia (304) has posed:
"Black Arachnia, MAXI--" Suddenly, pair of fairly huge ground-types. "- hold that thought."

Aborting her transformation in a hurry, Black Arachnia wrests herself out of Kaelin's grasp the direct way - and actually uses the Tentacruel's mass as a foothold long enough to leap away, grapneling a skyscraper wall and reeling herself out of the other Pokemons' reach. She can't use cybervenom on them - the 'glands' which synthesize it need to begin from scratch, and she has her doubts about being able to pierce their hides with her mandibles. Well, there are other options.

"Black Arachnia, MAXIMIZE!!" Such as transforming into her robot form and opening up on the two behemoths with her leg lasers. She's hanging off the side of a skyscraper now, which is probably not the best place to snipe from ... but she's aiming for their upper bodies and doing her best NOT to catch her allies in the lines of fire.

Soan Sagittarius (633) has posed:
     DRAGOON MAN knows his elemental vulnerabilities. Lightning is a very common weakness to water-based monsters, after all! He will help deal with the beast the unreliable-looking man is summoning, rather than the robot. She seems to be very well in-handed right now. The Tentacruel get pretty wel throughly beaten down by the collective might assembled here.

     Soan steps back with a small hop, giving a look at the dinosaur-looking monster. A quick glance around tell him that this /is/ the source of the earth cracking. There is an easy answer to that.

     Quentyn's spells effects appears on the leaping Dragoon, somersaulting up in the air to reach to non-window ceilling of the bank as the ground pokemon has it's tantrum. He launches himself, springing from the ceilling to ran himself straight into the pokemon, smashing his spear downward.

     Dragoon Man do not shout out a taunt or an insult. Beyond the wordless battlecry he shouts, he is pretty silent in this.

Dr. Wily (529) has posed:
    Brr! Landing from a flying slash makes it a little hard to dodge, and the ice slasher shot manages to catch Kohai full-force. For a brief moment, ice crystals seem to hang in the air around her, before flickering out of sight. She seems like she'd even be held in place for a moment by the ice which... inexplicably spreads beneath her but doesn't suddoung her feet? However, that's about when...

    TYRANITAR used Earthquake! It's super effective!

    Man, pokemon trainers. That hits allies too you know! The shaking ground /does/ shake Kohai free of the ice, but lands her flat on... ... on... okay she should not be floating a few inches above the ground on her back like that what is going on.

    The strangest part is though... there doesn't seem to be a scratch on her. Concrete, ice, earthquake... not a mark as she stands up. She's visibly dizzied though, staggering a bit as she stands. "I... I know that! But... but..." Suddenly Kohai leans in toward Roll, and retorts with a vulpine grin, "... I'll just have to make him love /me/ more!"

    Fwump! Dizzy plus leaning in do not make an effective combination. ... wait... are those firecrackers lying next to her? /Lit/ firecrackers?

Lute (188) has posed:
     Lute looks at his Kohai. And blinks. Wait, she can float, too? And she's really resilient, it seems. What exactly /is/ this robot made of? He also notices, though, that Quentyn is casting protective spells on the others. God damnit, a fricking supporter. Lute /hates/ those kind of enemies.

     Lute is not doing well otherwise, though. This is too many people, even for him. His Pokemon are being bitten, sniped at, and pierced. He is, somewhat, running out of options.

     He pauses though, and looks at the group of enemies, thinking.

     "...We surrender if you'll just let us walk away?"

     His plan, though, is to walk in the direction of the /bank/ afterwards, and while the heroes are winding down, launch a surprise attack. But he has a backup plan.

     A call has been put out. Something is moving along the bottom of a nearby river, moving closer to the city. If they /do/ persist, or don't fall for his planned bluff... /maybe/ this will help.

Black Arachnia (304) has posed:
Black Arachnia does, at least, hold her fire when Lute offers to surrender. She also plays her grapnel's line back out, reducing the distance between her and the ground, before triggering the grapnel's release and letting go of its grip further up. She hits the ground fairly smoothly as the line is reeled the rest of the way back in.

"So after your girlfriend blows up half a dozen buildings, after you've blown a hole in the side of at least one building, and after you had a giant squid Pokemon grab all of us and *two* rocky horrors tear up the pavement ... NOW, after all that, is when you want to surrender. And walk away."

The Maximal shakes her head. "Do you think we're bigger idiots than you are? Surrender if you want, it'll save us some trouble - but we're not letting you walk away scot-free."

Her lasers re-align, focusing on Lute. "Try making a better offer," Black Arachnia suggests. "Something that means you'll actually compensate Urbania for all the damage you two lovebirds have done since either of you got here."

... she probably should be aiming at Bombshell over there too, but a quick glance indicates that Lute's wind-up girlfriend is currently on the ground. Roll probably has things in hand, so Black Arachnia shifts her attention back to Lute.

Quentyn Westwind (635) has posed:
    Surrender...but let him walk free? Quentyn looks to the others to make that call. In the mean time, aether visible gathers around the mage each time he casts a spell. As if the brown shields weren't enough, out come the green shields and blue-white shields. Arachne, apparently being a distance fighter, doesn't get them (at least for now). First priority goes to the dragoon and earthbender, then to Roll.

    This all counts on Quentyn staying uninterrupted, of course. Since he's casting conventionally, the white mage is well in range for a ranged attack, or maybe even a very fast melee attacker if they can get past the other elites. If he actually does manage to get everyone on the frontline buffed during this negotiations phases, the student looks very pleased with himself.

Toph Beifong (20) has posed:
    The offer of surrender earns a suspicious look from Toph, as if she tries to figure out just what he truly means. Then she raises a hand and points directly at him again. "Make your girlfriend stand down and we'll not kick your sorry little ass too much!" No, she's not happy at all. "You guys messed this place up, take some freaking responsibility, will you?!"

    For now she's aware that there's something going on with Quentyn, but she isn't sure what. But she doesn't mind standing as a short sentinel in front of him to make sure Lute doesn't suddenly attack him.

Soan Sagittarius (633) has posed:
     Buffing spells are very useful! That's why White Mages are very well prized in Galianda! That and healing. The clearly Robotic School Girl is doing a lot of damage over there, DRAGOON MAN giving a look over in that direction as he leaps away from his previous attack, rolling over on the ground, stopping himself at the wall. She's well-taken care of so far, throwing in an area attack would be pretty bad.

     Then the guy says something fantastically dumb. It's not the dumbest thing he's ever heard, but it is... resonable in it's own stupid way. The sentence is fine by itself. The situation surrounding it is not.

     DRAGOON MAN adds nothing to what the other heroes are saying, merly jumping a few feets foward, brandishing his Great Spear to slam at the Pokemon, merly looming over the human. His glowing eyes are blazing in his armor's sockets, looming over him.

     "Are you afraid of heights?" He intones, menacingly.

Bigby Wolf (585) has posed:
Bigby can smell a bluff, though. Somehow he just /knows/ that this kid can't be trusted. Maybe it's the subtle shift of pheremones as the lie is uttered. Or maybe it's the fact he's just attacked them with a tentacle monster and two dinosaurs. While trying to rob a bank.

The werewolf doesn't slow down. He turns sideways to skip past the flailing leg of one of the pokemon, and then he's past, and barrels into Lute like a linebacker! Except most linebackers don't have claws and teeth like this.

There's no ripping or shredding though, as one might expect from a vicious monster leaping atop a human. Bigby just uses his weight to slam Lute to the ground and hold him there, snarling hot breath (that smells, strangely, not so much like the stink of carnivore but kind of like Chinese food) in his face, just the tips of his claws pressing warningly into his flesh without piercing.

"Call off your monster squad," he growls his demand. His yellow eyes flash quickly toward the robot girl. "And you, girl, back down if you don't want to see your boyfriend ripped in half."

Roll (3) has posed:
    "W-wah!" Roll leans BACK when Kohai leans IN, but not enough to avoid getting clonked on the head. She wobbles and totters back a step, but well this is why she has a helmet isn't it? And that didn't really hurt, but she's comically dizzied and stumbles about while her systems recalibrate. With a thunk she drops to a knee, only to rise a moment later. "That's... that's not gonna work, you know! You--" Then she spots the firecrackers. THANK HEAVENS she still has Ice Slasher engaged.

    That's a simple fix.

    She aims and fires at the mini-'explosives', unsure if those are really worth the weapon energy or if they can really hurt someone. If it came from a Wily bot? Best not to take chances though!

    She does take a moment to examine the space where Kohai seems to have NOT gotten frozne to the ground, and just sort of boggles. This is headscratchy!

    "Are... are you alright...?!"

    Only Rock or Roll would ask this of an enemy robot...

Dr. Wily (529) has posed:
    The prone form of the robot girl offers nothing in the way of reply. It doesn't even move. Was... was that little fall all it even took to disable her? If only all of Wily's robots could be so handily dealt with.

    Or... wait. Something doesn't add up. That robot-girl body on the ground /is/ moving. Swaying? Rocking as though... moved by a light /breeze/?

    Maybe it makes a bit more sense when taken with the battlefield as a whole. An outside observer, one not pre-occupied with the battle at hand, may have noticed a few oddities in the city at this point. Have the letters on the high-rise gone out? /Which one/? None nearby show any marks. The smoke bombs seem to have simply vanished without a trace - not even a spent husk remains of them. And... weren't there burnt-out craters around? So why does the street look perfectly... ... okay, /mostly/ fine except for earthquake and truck damage?

    And why is it, that Kohai is lying near-motionless in one place, and diving toward another? The moving form screams out a shrill "SEMPAI! NOOOOO!" as it dives toward Bigby. There is a ripple of... /something/... visible for a moment as it flies. She is /fast/ for her size.

Lute (188) has posed:
     Lute is pinned, and threatened. He recalls his Pokemon, and looks towards his kohai. And the fact that basically /everything around/ is changing at random points. What the hell is even happening? Weren't things more destroyed?

     Still, though, Lute has a robot coming to try and save him, fast. Well, that's one rescue method for him.

     But another is coming. From the nearby river, something bursts out.

     Something dapper.

     Mr. Crabs, the eighty meter tall crab Kaiju, bursts out of the ocean. It is, likely, visible at a distance. At the least, there is likely some emergency alerts going out about it appearing.

Roll (3) has posed:
    "...Huh?" No, Roll's not sure what's happenin here at all. When the gynoid before her seems to have stopped responding she switches modes to thermal imaging again and... BOGGLES. "A trick?!" Roll crouches down to examine the anomalous girl... poke poke? "Is she a balloon?" That wouldn't make any sense, now would it?

    Poke, poke...

Dr. Wily (529) has posed:
    The poked robo-girl crumbles into a puff of... leaves? They scatter quickly on the wind, but each seems to have scraps of burnt-out circuitry embedded in them.

Quentyn Westwind (635) has posed:
    And what's-her-face dives towards the one guy he forgot to buff. Oops. But at least there's no instructors here to compound Quentyn's flushed embarrassment. As to the weirdness, the white mage just puts it down to there apparently being more than one robot...until one disappears into a ball of leaves. What?. Ok, focus-- For now-- cue more Final Fantasy style spellcasting noises and visual effects!

    "Thanks for the cover!" Quentyn calls out to Toph, "Um, few more seconds if you can!"

    The Kaiju appearing does give Quentyn a moment's pause, a brief freeze up. Then he takes up a focused look... get this done, then worry about huge monster. He tries to get Stoneskin on Bigby first, but it probably won't land before the girl does, and he'll try to get Protect (the blue-white shield) and Shell (The green shield) on the wolf after that. Once more this all counts on the mage remaining uninterrupted, but it's worked out so far!

Black Arachnia (304) has posed:
The fact that the street looks a LOT less wrecked than it should have does not go unnoticed by Black Arachnia; she turns some of her attention to an internal diagnostic.

Not all of it, though. Most of her attention is on Lute himself, and the suddenly-on-her-feet-and-lunging-at-him Kohai-tan. A few of Black Arachnia's lasers shift target -

And she fires, aiming to try and hamstring Lute and Kohai with precision lasers. Not that this will help MUCH if Kohai is already in flight (or mid-leap) and doesn't need her legs until she lands ...

She's kind of ticked off by now, though.

Bigby Wolf (585) has posed:
Bigby's focus is shifting between Lute and the robot girl, suspicious to the end, even with the both of them on the ground. Ironically it is just this paranoia that prevents him from seeing the... other robot girl? diving at him from the side. She slams into him with a /solid/ sounding *whump* of metal and flesh that doesn't seem possible for her size. Girl has some junk in her trunk!

Bigby sprawls off of Lute with the Japanese schoolgirl-robot on top of him, and this would be really embarrassing if not for the sudden threat to his well-being. He struggles to get his legs up to kick her away, muscles bunching for a ferocious heave now that he actually has a feel for the weight of her.

The sudden glow of blue and green light sparkling over him is just confusing.

Toph Beifong (20) has posed:
    As the crab Kaiju reaches land, the blind girl tenses up, then mutters under her breath. "... you did /not/!"

    But she focuses on defense for now, frowning when the robot attacks Bigby. Standing close to Quentyn, Toph punches out twice with both hands, aiming a spike for the girl and to help out the wolf. "Get off!"

Soan Sagittarius (633) has posed:
     This is not the reaction DRAGOON MAN was expecting out of the threatened man. The Dragoon's head lifts, feeling the sound and rumbling from a 80 feet tall Kaiju just erupting from the sea. He don't know from here what just came out, but he knows, deep down, this guy is something to a fault for it. Soan scowls behind his helmet, moving out of the way just in time to not be smacked by Bigby's unfortunate fall from the tackling of the invisible gynoid.

     "It has Holographic equipment!" Dragoon Man lets out, reaching a hand to grab for Lute's collar and lift him up, if he don't slink away from him. He seems to be pretty good at that, admittedly. "As for /you/, you are coming with me to see the kind of damage you are causing -- and WILL cause if I am correct of what is happening outside!" He takes in a deep breath, swinging around to breath out another precise ray of electricity, aiming at the thing that is on the top of the werewolf.

     Fortunately, Quentyn had the forsight to cast a spell to reduce any risk of friendly fire in that sort to zero! In his knowledge, Robots don't like Lightning. very, very much at all.

Roll (3) has posed:
    Frowning, Roll grabs a few of the electronic leaves and examines them more closely. "Holographic emitters? Right, no more normal optic scanning, it's thermal all the way here. But how's this thing working? There's no batteries here..." Just something to ask Dr. Light about, if she can weapon copy this girl! But if not..

    Roll strolls over to her discarded groceries, stuffs a few leaves in the bag, then vacates the bank with Rush. "Where did she go?!"

    Oh. There's Bigby way over there...

Dr. Wily (529) has posed:
    Dr. Wily laughs in the face of your puny mortal type science! His robots are weak to all sorts of crazy things, and only about an eighth of them are lightning!

    Kohai doesn't seem to /like/ getting hit with the lightning spell so very much, though. Sparks fly around her, arcing in... spots they probably shouldn't, to be honest. A shower of what looks to be television static surrounds her for a moment, but fades quickly, leaving a... still mostly unharmed-looking girl. What. The hell.

    With Toph's earthbending spike attack, however, it seems that all this battering has had /some/ effect. Kohai is flung up into the air, and, despite an agile flip to attempt a clean landing... makes sudden contact with the pavement instead, as one leg gives out unexpectedly. Falling forward, she doesn't seem to float this time. She also doesn't seem to pass out as easily, forcing herself up off the ground. It looks like a slow and painful process, and it's accompanied with an almost animalistic shriek. "Rrraaoooough! Lute-Sempai! L-let's forget the bank. Let's just... destroy them all, and come back another day?"

    Somebody's an optimist. Easy to be optimistic when you just noticed a GIANT (non-)ENEMY CRAB approaching that your boyfriend seems pretty okay with, though. Time for things to turn around, right?

Lute (188) has posed:
     As the giant crab Kaiju comes in, Lute speaks. Quite firmly, and quite angrily. Yeah, he's not very happy with how things have been going. So Lute is getting slight pissed.

     "OKAY. You guys are wanting us to flee, but at the same time, wanting us to be punished. So. I'm gonna /change/ how negotiations work today."

     "See that giant crab? That's Mr. Crabs. He is my loyal pet. Stand down, and let us go, or he is going to start crushing every single building he sees, slaughtering anyone who may be hiding out in them. Kohai Girl and I will ride the crab out, and you guys will leave us alone. Or else."

     It doesn't help Lute's mood that as he is trying to discuss an (obviously one sided) ceasefire, that the others are still trying to attack. So, yeah. Threaten with the destruction of the city time. And Kaiju may not be the /strongest/ things in the Multiverse, they're certainly /destructive/ on a city scale. And not to be messed with.

Quentyn Westwind (635) has posed:
    "Hey, thanks again," Quentyn calls to Toph, offering her a quick smile if she happens to look his way. And now, well... the party is buffed, and mostly not injured? Quentyn fiddles with his glasses and peers Bigby's way, trying to decide... the wolf looks mostly ok for now. But Quentyn casts a regen his way, just in case.

    Quentyn crouches and starts sighting in that rifle at the crab kaiju. "Umm... don't stand near, this is going to be loud in front..." the white mage warns Toph if she's still nearby. He sights in one of the monster's eyes. But with Lute's second attempt at negotiations... Quentyn holds fire. But he tracks it with his rifle while waiting to see (hear, actually) the others want to do.

Toph Beifong (20) has posed:
    Poor Quentyn will have to wait forever if he waits for Toph to look his way.

     Besides, her attention is on Lute right now. She does not like this at all. Toph looks like se's sucking on a lemon, her eyebrow twitching just slightly.

    "If that oversized crab stick does wreck something... then you better get ready for a whole load of butthurt," Toph warns him. As much as she would like to let him pay for this, it wouldn't do to have Urbania suffer further. This might suck, but it is the smaller of two evils. "You and your tin girlfriend better hurry on out of here and never come back!"

Bigby Wolf (585) has posed:
Bigby climbs back to his feet, and rolls his neck a bit as he feels the strange sensation of healing magic flowing through him. He growls dubiously at the prospect of just /letting them go/ after all of this bullshit. But this isn't his city to just let be demolished. And that crab is a LOT bigger than he is, even in his true form. How can a little twerp like that have such a devastating monster under his control?

Another growl rumbles sullenly in his throat, but he takes a step back, indicating that he at least will abide by the ceasefire if he has to.

Black Arachnia (304) has posed:
The Kaiju is probably not a hologram. Black Arachnia shifts her optics' spectrum back and forth to check .... yyyyyeah, not holographic.

She's really not happy with Lute at this point, either ... but she sighs, her lasers retracting and her legs pulling back out of the way. "Fine. Go. You aren't worth this much trouble, and if you think you are, you're even more hopelessly deluded than I thought. Beast Mode."

She transforms back into spider mode and skitters off into an alley ... or at least, she seems to be retreating. She gave up pretty easily if that's the case, though ...

Soan Sagittarius (633) has posed:
     Dragoon Man listens to the threats, twisting his head around to see the looming shape of Mr. Crab coming along. That is a pretty impressive monster, he has to admit. He could very likely take it down, he thinks. They have enough firepower. It would, however, cause quite a few lives lost.

     A part of him, the thief, does call a desperate bluff when he sees one. He knows nothing of this guy, on the other hand, and do not know just how serious he is in saying he'll destroy a city, with a bunch of powerful fighters before him that would reduce him into paste if he did that. Still. One kill, compared to several thousands innocents. No. It is not how it is to be done.

     "How eloquent." Dragoon Man states, matter-of-factly. "Your bluff is full of holes, but I accept as well. In fact, Summoner, I will be even kind to /show you the way out/."

     Without saying very much else, the armored figure reaches out for Lute, to grab him firmly by the shoulder, fingers digging into him to firmly hold him so he wont fall. Then, with a brief shake of the earth, DRAGOON MAN slams upward into the skies at breakneck speeds, arcing himself toward the after mentioned giant crab off in the ocean.

Roll (3) has posed:
    Roll arrives a bit late with Rush at her heels. She's hardly tired - she's a robot, she cant' get tired. Only overheat a little! But she's in time to hear Lute's ridiculous proposal... and what does she do?

    Sticks her tongue out at him. "Bleeeegh! Is ANYONE really THAT selfish? Even Dr. Wily's more eloquent about making demands and threatening people! Just get out of here-- huah?!" And there goes DRAGOON MAN!

Dr. Wily (529) has posed:
    "We're... sparing them? Oh, Sempai... you are so merciful!" Sparing. Yes. That is exactly what Team Antagonist is in a position to do right now. "You could have your crab friend /crush them all/ and you offer them a chance to live! How /noble/!"

    By most reasonable standards, it is far to say that Dr. Wily's mission to make a robot mistress who could tolerate Lute and not go horribly insane has failed - this one /clearly/ started that way.

    Still, everyone seems to be willing to stand and negotiate, and not fight, so Kohai is willing to do the same. Cease-fire may not have been the best-case here, but it's still enough of a win as long as nobody gets--

    "... SEMPAIIII!"

    And just like that, a dragoon is carrying off the pokemon trainer. Well! This is... not going to do at all. Unfortunately for poor Kohai, while she may be swift and agile she's simply no match for a skilled dragoon in a jumping contest. She's got no chance of intercepting the two in the air... but that is going to be one nasty landing if nothing is done about it. So, with no other choice, she... stands there paralyzed in indecision?

    Nope. Stupid leaf trick again, it seems - leaving a doppleganger in her wake - actually two if one looks closely, though one is /already/ scattering into leaves from the force of her dash - she is going to run, jump, and parkour her way out to the ocean as well. The mission: Get to the giant crab before Lute is struck against it, and tank the impact for Sempai. Preferably with a dramatic slow-motion dive-grab-hug seconds before impact because /that is how it is done/.

Lute (188) has posed:
     Lute is, more or less, completely taken by surprise by the grab. Seriously, how do these guys /jump/ that high. It's really unnatural! Still, though, he is brought in the sky, and brought towards Mr. Crabs.

     And there is Kohai Girl, on him, trying to catch him. Unfortunately, the level of force to jump this high, and then Kohai trying to catch Lute, is /probably/ going to cause her damage. But, still, despite being in no position to control the jump path, Lute holds his arms out to his Kohai, hoping to be caught by her, and then give her a romantic kiss. On the lips! Awww.

     She's probably going to explode.

Quentyn Westwind (635) has posed:
    Blinkblink. Quentyn stands and lowers his rifle, flicking it to safe and murmuring something into his radio. He looks around for a moment. Over as easily as that? Quentyn taps a curled finger against his chin for a moment, and then, after fiddling with his glasses, he looks over each of his allies (the ones that haven't left anyway). Checking for any signs of injuries he might not have picked up before. Everyone OK?

Soan Sagittarius (633) has posed:
     It is very hard to follow a Dragoon when is in full leap. You have momentum, gravity plus whatever bullcrap a Dragoon has in their secret ancient arts that allows them to act as if Gravity was a thing that happened to other people. Lute is not in any risk from falling, his grip is rather tight over his shoulder. He still might get a lot, and lot of wind on the way down.

     This must be what it's like to be fired out of a cannon, with you being attached to the cannonball. The parabolic arc DRAGOON MAN makes as he reaches over toward Mr. Crab is very reminicent of one, his feet down firsts as he plummets down, reeling Lute backward. It was not his intentions to slam him down into the hide of his pet -- but love, even love that's programmed to think that it's some kind of 'obsession', can do miracles. They can make you push yourself further than possible, even if at a price.

     Whatever DRAGOON MAN impacts against, it's going to be one hell of an shock.

Black Arachnia (304) has posed:
Well, that takes the wind out of what Black Arachnia was GOING to do.

The Maximal spider appears to skitter around a corner and out of sight - but Black Arachnia's allies, those who don't rely simply on the visual light spectrum, may have noticed that while she DID transform, she DIDN'T actually go anywhere. With Lute getting skyjacked by Dragoon Man and Kohai leaping after the two of them, though, Black Arachnia's intended follow-up seems kind of like it won't be going anywhere. And they're all flying out towards Mr. Crabs too fast for her to keep up, no matter which mode she might assume for the attempt.

"Looks like the fun part is over, huh?" the Maximal spider comments as she de-stealths - right behind Roll, if the super-powered robot maid didn't already take off after Lute, Kohai, etc.

Bigby Wolf (585) has posed:
"There was a fun part?" Bigby asks sardonically, as he flexes all of his joints to be sure they're all still working. That healing spell seems to have done the trick; though his ego is still pretty bruised. Beaten by a giant crab, that's a new one. It's certainly the version he's going to tell Snow. Not that he was tackled to the ground by a schoolgirl, even a robot one. He squints after Lute and DRAGOON MAN, shielding his eyes with one hand, trying to gauge whether crazy robot girl will reach them before they hit the crab. As the action seems to be done with, over here, his more wolfish features begin to recede, until he's just a scruffy-looking man again, albeit with a shredded shirt. No matter, he buys them in bulk on the cheap.

Roll (3) has posed:
    "Yaaaa-aaah!" Roll didn't take off no! She stumbles forward, startled by Black Arachnia's sudden appearance. Her vision can't zoom too far though, and with the Dragoon Man making things weird... she seems pretty unsure of WHAT to do. "Um... should I go chasing them?" She hates feeling clueless like Rock always seems to be on these kinds of missions, but... Lute? Lute is a special case.

    And he DOES have a monster!

Dr. Wily (529) has posed:
    A dramatic last-second dive-leap is... not the best way to save someone, it must be said. Better timing, or strategy, or any number of other options would be better - you know, something which /prevents/ the horrible thing that's going to happen, instead of simply making it happen to someone /else/. Sadly, no such option is available here. Instead, Kohai is pushed to her limits simply getting between Lute and the nearest hard surface, and using whatever means are available to soften the blow for /him/, even at her own detriment.

    This has two notable effects. First, /crash/. That kind of impact has to inflict some /serious/ trauma on even a durable (but not quite super) fighting robot. You wouldn't be able to /tell/ of course - blasted thing /still/ isn't showing a scratch.

    Well, okay, hold that thought. The second major effect manages to hold off until the moment Lute leans in for a kiss. In better times, he might be surprised to stop short of the robot mistress' visible face, by a good three inches or so. Now, however... it's not going to be so hard to see /why/.

    At last, the rippling, static, and general /weirdness/ comes to a head, as what was obviously a hologram all along finally gives out. The smallish schoolgirl disappears from sight, and in her place is... well, let's get a good look for a minute. Still an obviously feminine robot design. Mostly white with bulky orange armor in places... /three white-tipped bushy tails/ that's strange - and probably explains the floating, and even the inexplicable deflection - they're large enough that they would reach over Lute's head if they weren't curved loosely around him for protection.

    Of course, the feature that is most likely to catch a dangerously close eye is the /face/ - that is not a very human face. It much, /much/ more closely resembles that of a fox, if one with a few dashes of human expression and emotion on it.

    The emotion mostly being /pain/. There are cracks, scorch-marks, and exposed machinery all over the robot's newly-revealed true form. She may have been hiding her injuries well, but they are /pretty/ critical.

    Her voice, however, is unchanged. "I... I did it. You're... okay... Sempai..."

Lute (188) has posed:
     Lute just... stares at the kitsune person. Now, Lute is, indeed, a pervert amongst perverts. A man amongst men.

     But he draws a line at a point.

     He starts spitting to the side, obviously disgusted, a bit.

     "Oh god /what the hell is this/ it's a fricking /FURRY/?! Damnit, I wanted /humanoid/ robots. I'm not some freak furry!"

     ...This is probably not good.

Black Arachnia (304) has posed:
Roll's reaction is an amusing one, and more or less what Black Arachnia was going for. The fact that she didn't reflexively shoot at the Maximal is quietly appreciated.

On seeing Kitsune Woman, though - and on hearing Lute's reaction - Black Arachnia just starts CACKLING. If she were in robot mode she'd be rolling on the ground; as it is, she's in her spider form, and just quaking with laughter on all eight legs.

Quentyn Westwind (635) has posed:
    Everyone's OK. No major injuries in the city, apparently, and there's not much he can do about trucks lodged up in buildings. Or about those far away on the crab thing. One last looking around and, fiddling with his glasses a moment, Quentyn summons his chocobo and rides off into the warpgate!

Soan Sagittarius (633) has posed:
     DRAGOON MAN is not happy.

     To be fair, he wasn't very happy to begin with. Crushing that robot school girl wasn't really part of his plan, but her transformation was something he didn't expected either.

     Lute's outburst get the superhero to stare at him... well, like how he stares at everyone. That helmet is not there for nothing.

     "Wow." Dragoon Man echoes out in his usual etheral voice, sardonically, audibly not very impressed by that statement. "Just, wow. /Somebody/ builds you a polymorphing girlfriend that could have looked like /anything/ and you're worried about how she's looking fuzzy when in a base state? Mighty Dragons, /give me strength/!"

     He cranes down to kitsune, heavily damaged person. "I don't know if you can really comprehend me, but you've impressed me with your selfless devotion. Just... wow."

     Dragoon Man turn his gaze back at Lute. He wants to deck him. Pretty badly. Instead, he just give him a judging gaze, his glowing eyes on his helmet-mask glowing in a different manner, as if he Lute just turned into a particularly amusing tipped-over cow.

     Then, without a word, he leaps off.

Roll (3) has posed:
    "Wh-what are you laughing about?! Rush!" Others around her are laughing, but Roll... Roll's seeing a robot in a poor situation being now rejected by the only person they even cared about after taking massive damage to protect him...

    "RUSH!" FURY.

    This is a case for SHEER FURY for the poor furry.

    Roll's not happy alright. She's rocketing straight for Lute and his crab with the most incensed scowl. "Ungrateful, selfish JERK!" If Lute doesn't stop her?

    She's gonna be landing on the crab.

    Because Roll sees a desperately damaged Robot who needs help and to be taken away from this scum. Maybe Dr. Light can repurpose her!

Dr. Wily (529) has posed:
    Some might have expected a large explosion - either metaphorical or literal - at Lute's reaction. It seems only reasonable - first because /wow/ that's insensitive, and second because what if that was the only thing still keeping the robot mistress /going/? Dude, you could have just /assholed/ this robot lady to death!

    However, that... doesn't seem to be the case? Instead, the inevitable breakdown comes in a... somewhat different form?

    Robot mistresses can cry, apparently. This one can, anyway. "I'm... I'm sorry I couldn't... be what you wanted... ... Sempai Lute..."

    Uh. Tears and arcing electricity /do not mix/. This is not good. Small shorts are becoming small pops. Metal is buckling and smoke is rising as the robot's form finally starts to give out. But not before one... last... surprise.

    Roll, at least, may be able to make sense of what happens next. Some who are used to seeing Light-derived robot designs and Wily's variants could guess. For anyone else, the robot simply... blurs, for a second, and suddenly where it stood are now /two/ robots.

    One, a non-descript humanoid Lute may recognize, by the smell of burning vanilla if nothing else. The other, a large robotic three-tailed fox - which immediately runs off as swiftly as its battered form will carry it, tears and smoke trailing behind.

    The human half of the robot looks up at Lute, with fury and exhaustion fiercely battling in its eyes. "Y-you... ... again...!?" It has no further time to speak - the effort of two supremely hate-filled words exhausts what energy the broken form of what was once Vanilla Woman still holds.

    it seems, however, she doesn't /need/ energy to once again leak virulently vanilla-scented chemicals, perhaps as a spiteful final act.

    If Roll means to save this critically-damaged robot, it's going to take some quick action - this is about the point where a reploid would be freezing in place for an explosion to make a Bay film blush. For a Wily bot... the reactor core is already breaching, telltale energy rings are already starting to bleed off. Maybe it's better to just do a victory pose, scoop up the weapon, and call it a day at this point.

Lute (188) has posed:
     Lute just /staaares/. Wait, Vanilla Woman is back? Wait, the two were merged? Lute isn't even usre /what the hell/ just happened. He just stares, somewhat wide eyed, somewhat confused.

     Still though, while he is casually confused, he still manages to reach into his pocket, pull out a gun, and shoot in Roll's general direction. Without even looking.

     "...Well I have no idea what just happened."

Roll (3) has posed:
    The bullet spangs off of Roll's Ceratanium armor on her left arm with a spray of sparks, but it DOES jerk her arm back just as she's reaching to try and rip open whatever access panels she can. "ENOUGH from you!" She can't possibly focus on such delicate work in a hurry while being SHOT. Her voice is getting shrill with panic too!

    Worse still, she can't counterattack. So instead she works with what she's got. She places her BACK towards Lute - probably something stupid - and tries to do whatever she can.

    This might include wrenching the reactor out wholesale and hurling the reactor into the sea! Which will be a messy process with parts flying everywhere.

    She knows from her own design that a reactor simply SHUTTING DOWN does not destroy a robot's personality, as the I.C. chip will run off of a backup power to go into hibernation, but a DETONATING REACTOR?! Now that's another matter entirely.

    In a pinch, this is the best she can attempt...

    Oh, Lute's face might be ALMOST in the way of the flying unstable reactor.

Dr. Wily (529) has posed:
    It's certainly a close call - that detonating reactor is going to raise a column of water above it as it goes off almost the /second/ it plunges below the ocean surface. Luckily, Wily only went with a low-yield one this time - this wasn't a high-performance combat model, apparently.

    The robot mistress the reactor belonged to, though... she's still in rough shape without the explosion. This wasn't 'the reactor going off is going to break things'... the reactor was going to blow /because/ everything was broken. While the broken form is salvageable, there probably isn't any amount of repairs that will make it work again - short of a full rebuild.

    The intelligence that inhabited that robot, on the other hand? ... well, it's probably going to be severely /traumatized/, but if installed in a working body again, Vanilla Woman could easily survive.

    She's almost certainly lost her loyalty programming in the shuffle, though. That kind of damage - nearly exploding /twice/ plus mental trauma and possession to boot? No, she's not going to be listening to any iteration of Wily anytime soon.

Lute (188) has posed:
     Lute just stops shooting, as ordered.

     Mr. Crabs is heading out of town now anyways. Also he picked up the truck, as a note.