6137/Fetch Quest

Fetch Quest
Date of Scene:	03 November 2018
Location:	Moon Cell
Synopsis:	Taiga NPC accidentally bugged an area trying to spawn in some items, but luckily a few brave adventurers answer her distress signal to help her retrieve some valuables before the area gets deleted.
Cast of Characters:	Archer, 6756, Seifer Almasy, 6384, Tomoe, 993, Staren

---

Archer has posed:
     The super and overtly obnoxious signal would lead anyone who followed it to Moon Cell, a strange and somewhat surreal cyberscape, and even further than that to a place that looks strangely like your typical Japanese high school.

Or rather it would be typical, but the building seems to be rather distorted. Missing textures and floating lines of binary litter the area, and inside the school windows there appear to be what could only described as monsters of various shapes and sizes.

Outside the school gate there's two people conversing. One a tall man in red, and the other a smaller woman in a green and yellow stripped shirt.

"See, no one is coming. Now stop throwing a tantrum and I'll coo-"

"Shut up! It hasn't even been that long yet! I sent out a really good SOS, there'll be people swarming the place any second now coming to help lil' ol' me!"

"That's..."

The man silently rubs his temple in clear annoyance as the woman just completely radiates confidence.

They'll come. They'll always come. There hasn't been a request she's put out that has been ignored yet.

Stella (6756) has posed:
    The logic holds up.

    The Moon Cell is Seifer's domain.
    Defending the Moon Cell meant being useful.
    Being useful meant being noticed.
    Being noticed meant a greater chance to get along.
    And getting along is efficient.

    Stella arrives, quite on time - in the Moon Cell, it might be that the slightly glimmery, crystal-like hue to her skin, clothes and hair seems a bit less obvious, what with everything being so blatantly digital, but only barely so.

    When she arrives at the school, stopping before the pair arguing in front of it, she looks around, confused. "There was a message for help, but I do not see an enemy. Is the enemy inside?" Situations need enemies. That's just... how situations work. You can't have a situation without a clear, identified enemy.

Seifer Almasy has posed:
     The Moon Cell is Seifer's domain. Well, technically it's Tamamo's, but Seifer has been assured that he is also King of the Moon, so who is he to argue? And as King of the Moon, it's his job to defend it and interact with its stranger aspects on behalf of the Concord when Tamamo is busy and Nero is doing whatever Nero does and Nobunaga is...off being Nobunaga at things. Right now, that means swaggering up to a weird school setting out a weird signal.

     Plus, there's even odds Seifer's gonna get to play with his new trick, and he's gotta practice that to get better at it.

     "Heyyyy, new girl!" Seifer calls to Stella as he swaggers up, white coat flowing behind him, Hyperion over the back of his neck. "You settlin' in OK? Anybody been botherin' you? You just lemme know, an' I'll kick their asses."

     He stops.

     "I mean I'll beat 'em up so they stop," he confirms, then turns his attention on Archer and the mysterious girl. He squints at Archer for a minute. "Pretty sure I know you."

     "Pretty sure I hate you."

     Seifer taps his gunblade on his shoulder. "You guys better have a real good explanation for what you're doin' on my turf, sendin' out a signal like that. If my foxy lady weren't all laid up in bed she'd probably be out here too, but tonight that falls to me."

     Seifer is bandaged up pretty bad, though. This seems to be a regular thing with him.

Orchid (6384) has posed:
     When your radio is in your head, you have trouble avoiding hearing signals like that one. So Orchid followed it to Moon Cell, half to shut it up as much as to rescue whomever needed rescuing. This isn't the first time she's visited a data-structure-made-real, but it's clear that this one is less well put together than the System that Lexicon and Theurgus come from.

     As for how she arrives? In one of the most awesome ways possible: rocket surfboard. Not quite Dirk Strider levels of awesome, but still pretty awesome, hair flowing behind her as she swoops in, jumping from the board to land just outside the school, holding her surfboard in one hand.

     "Can you PLEASE turn that racket down?" she demands, pointing at the transmitter.

Tomoe has posed:
Tomoe has been connected for a long time to the Syndicate and a little Salamander sort just happened to pass news her way of this job, so after a bit of finding her way via the warpgate network. She'd chosen to fly her way in and was just coming in for a landing at the gate, the armoured elf looking woman's wings vanished as she can in for a landing making for the pair at the gate.

"Hello I heard there was some work that needed doing?"

She takes a look at Stella and then Seifer for a moment.

"Oh the name's Tomoe."

She eyes Seifer for a moment then to Orchid and back to Archer.

"So just what's up?"

Princess Luna (993) has posed:
     If one knows about Princess Luna, one might expect her to dislike the moon and associated things, but despite her past actions and long banishment she never lost her love for it. So, when she received a signal from something called the Moon Cell she was intrigued.

     The tall pony woman floats down regally, her ethereal mane and tail flowing in some unseen breeze. She barely even has to flap her majestic wings and lands with hardly a sound before approaching the gathering of people. "Greetings to thee all. I am Princess Luna of Equestria, and I heard...something coming from this area. I was not quite sure what to make of it. Which of thee art responsible for this...rather intrusive signal?"

     Her ears perk and she looks up at the various creatures visible through the windows. "Dost thou require assistance with thy monsters? I have a bit of expertise in dealing with evil creatures in mine own world." she says before looking around at those gathered. She blinks as Seifer. "Art...thou alright? I could offer thee a bit of my healing magic."

Staren has posed:
    So this is the Moon Cell. It looks normal enough, which is actually what he expected... until he sees the graphical glitches. Huh. Is the Moon Cell malfunctioning?

    He's in futuristic armor reminiscent of a reploid's, and he's... riding a flying broom, because this is the Multiverse. He lands near the couple of people, dismounting and putting the broom away in a bag that is clearly too small for it, like... like... like some kind of Mary Poppins, except Staren.

    "That's... quite a signal you're putting out. Do you even know you're doing it? What's going on here? And who are you?" Staren looks to Seifer. "Does the Moon Cell have, like... natives?"

Archer has posed:
     The signal that everyone was complaining about mysteriously stops, as neither of the two Moon Cell denizens reach for anything to stop it. Weird. "Hate me all you want, I don't care how you waste your energy. Anyway the situation is li-"

Archer doesn't really get to finish his sentence as he's cut off by the woman, who loudly introduces herself.

"Hi! Hi! Yes it was I, the young, beautiful, and UNDENIABLY COMPETENT Taiga Fujimura, that called you all here today to uh..."

Taiga visibly deflates, clearly ashamed.

"Look. I'm just gonna cut to the chase, I really screwed the pooch and now the School has to be rebuilt. But I left some really important 'paperwork' at my desk that I need."

Archer rolls his eyes and seemingly walks off from the scene, a bow in hand.

"Anyway, the front gate is locked, so you're gonna need to well uh... You know go around back and-"

Taiga is now the one to be cut off, as from the distance something that can only be described as an arrow comes screaming through, pushing past the gate and slamming into the school with an explosion and leaving an opening for everyone to fit inside.

"Just hurry up and get her stuff! I'd have done it myself but I have to make sure her mess doesn't spill out!"

A familiar smug voice yells from the distance.

No monsters have seem to have spilled out yet, but that's likely to change if the group dawdles too long.

Stella (6756) has posed:
    "I am doing fine," Stella answers Seifer. "You however appear injured. That is not an optimal state to engage a situation in. For the sake of efficiency, please leave the injuries to me today."

    It's not empathy.
    It's simple math and analysis of battle conditions.

    "I am Stella," she answers Tomoe, knowing enough about social norms to return an introduction. As Luna arrives, Stella points at her.

    "Seifer. That is a horse. It is large, blue and very hairy, but it is a horse. Therefore, you must acknowledge horses are real."

    Oh, that's still going on.

    Their quest is finally delivered.
    A weekly quest, as it were.

    "Very well. We will retrieve your paperwork and restore order to this sector," Stella says. She sounds entirely too rigid. She's not doing this because she cares about it.

    Onward then, unless Seifer tells her no. He does have the authority to, and she'd listen without skipping a beat.

Staren has posed:
    Staren's about to ask why they don't just break through the gate, when someone does it for them. "What's the 'paperwork?' How do we know it isn't, I dunno, the summoning seal that calls forth Yog-Sothoth to end the world or whatever? Who the hell ARE you?"

    And then Stella points at Luna as a horse, and Staren facepalms. "While she shares some... she looks a bit horse-y, that's not the same thing. That's not what the horses people are talking about look like."

    He points at the mystery girl. "This isn't over. You explain, or we keep the paperwork for ourselves. Or maybe we destroy it. Who knows?"

    Staren leaves a quadrotor drone behind so he can keep talking to them as he heads inside.

Orchid (6384) has posed:
     "Thank you," Orchid says about the stopped signal. "While it's kind of borderline, breaking into a place that's going to be demolished anyway, to get something that someone owns returned is close enough to the spirit, even if it violates a few letters of the law." So, as a paladin, she won't get in trouble for the B&E... even if Archer is doing the B part of that.
     But there are people to greet. "Hello Tomoe, Seiger, good to see you two are doing alright. Staren, is this your new girlfriend?" she asks, indicating Stella. There may be a teasing aspect to her speech.
     She'll ask a few questions of Taiga, about where in the building the documents are supposed to be, before walking in. No, she's not in much of a rush.

Seifer Almasy has posed:
     Stella talks, and Seifer chuckles. "I'll keep that in mind, new girl."

     Luna arrives. Seifer looks at Stella, then at Luna, then at Stella. "That's weird as hell. Are you sure that thing is real and not some Moon Cell shit?"

     Orchid gets a raised head nod. So does Tomoe. Seifer scratches at his bandages. "I've been healing. Nothin you can do is gonna be better than what I already got, thanks."

     At Staren, he shrugs. "I dunno, probably? There's drones and shit. Probably some of 'em are clever."

     Then he just heads inside without another word in the aftermath of the arrow (which he's pretty sure Archer grazed him with, and probably on purpose). Despite Stella's offer, Seifer is perfectly willing to just go ahead in front. This is because he is Seifer, and convincing Seifer not to do this kind of thing is functionally impossible.

Stella (6756) has posed:
    Stella looks between Staren and Seifer.
    "It is not a horse?"
    She looks back at Luna.
    "It is on four legs, is shaped like a horse and walks like one. Its mane is strange and its armor impractical, and it can speak, and it is winged, and..."

    Stella pauses.

    "My apologies, Seifer. That is not a horse. It is a pegasus-unicorn. It is a horse with wings, a pegasus, and a horse with a horn, a unicorn."

    Myths and legends were never her forte.
    She knows the basics, but forgets easily.

    She turns to Orchid, afterwards. "I am a girl by some definitions, I do not know if I am his friend yet."

Staren has posed:
    Staren sighs and rolls his eyes at Orchid. "No, she's just new and eager to learn things." At Stella's interpretation of the question, he turns back to her briefly. "In this context, the word 'girlfriend' implies romantic involvement. I think she's making fun of us, but I'm not sure what else she's trying to insinuate. ...This teasing does not necessitate violent revenge.:

Princess Luna (993) has posed:
     Staren gets a bit of a suspicious gaze from Luna, but any misgivings she has about him are forgotten for the moment when she is suddenly pointed at and identified as a horse. "We prefer to be identified as ponies or Equestrians. And as Sir Staren says, there art other kinds of equines that look somewhat like myself but walk on four legs and have no sapient characteristics." She pauses a moment, then frowns lightly. "I am not sure what to think of thine comment that I am 'hairy'. Are not other equines also covered in short fur over their entire bodies?"

     Seifer's comment makes Luna blink in surprise. "Thou doubtest my existence?" She reaches out and gives him a poke in some uninjured area of his torso just to prove it. The pony princess listens to Taiga and...gets a bit of a deadpan look at the undeniably competent comment. If that were true then they wouldn't be here, but Luna has at least enough tact not to say that. Taiga comes clean and Luna sighs softly. "Very well, but for once Staren and I are in agreement. Where is thy desk located?" she says even as she starts forward and reaches up. She holds her palm flat facing the sky (or whatever passes for sky here) and in a flash of midnight blue she is holding a rather stylized scythe that looks like it must have been made purely for show. But, the shine on the blade makes it also look quite dangerous, and she gives it an experimental twirl before continuing forward. "What are these creatures? Do we need to concern ourselves with preserving their existence?"

Tomoe has posed:
Tomoe listen a Taiga and archer give them the run down. "All right, we'll get to it." He wings will flare out again. Tomoe looks at Stella for a moment "So your another Tank? Good, it will be nice to duo something."

Strange choice of words then again if you know Tomoe at all it might make perfect sense. She looks at Staren for a moment, she did not expect that out of Staren's mouth to the point she forgets to say hello to him for a moment.

"Let's get moving and hi to you too Staren. Eh? I thought he was dating Twilight. I'm doing all right Orchid."

She notes before she get reayd to fly her self over the fence but if anyone ask she'll happily carry someone over. If they need it.

Archer has posed:
     "OH RIGHT, MY STUFF IS ON THE SECOND FLOOR, CAN'T MISS IT BECAUSE I LEFT THE DOOR OPEN! GOOD LUCK AND TRY NOT TO DIE~"

Taiga waves to the group as they leave to enter the hole left by Archer, clearly confident that they'll succeed.

The inside of the school is actually worse than the outside, the missing textures and floating spaghetti code appearing to be even more concentrated. There's also the monsters as Luna pointed out, but they don't seem very interested in the group. If anything most of them seem to retreat upstairs.

Save for one.

A strange human-shaped effigy guards the way leading upstairs, and attacks upon seeing the group.

Weird tendril like arms reach out to lash at Seifer, though the way it begins to flail them around would probably catch the rest of the group if they aren't careful.

Stella (6756) has posed:
    "Oh. I see. I do not think I am a suitable mate," Stella says bluntly. She then accepts the addition. "I will keep in mind that teasing does not require physical response in the future."

    It's good Staren said that.

    To Luna, she responds: "I meant the flowing, glowing mane you possess. That is not standard on horses I have seen. Also, are ponies not simply baby horses?" Are they? Aren't they? She's not a horse expert. She knows ponies are small horses, but never asked anyone if they were just small, or babies.

    Stella is unconcerned with the questions concerning the paperwork. Seifer strides ahead, and she must keep up. "Please wait, you are in no state to -"

    To encounter some kind of humanoid monster that lashes out with tentacles. Her point exactly.

    Crystals form around Stella's hands and wrists, crunching together into blades made of a clear, somewhat rainbowy crystal material, that she grasps immediatly to wield.

    She starts slicing, trying to keep the tentacles from reaching Seifer while disarming the creature to the best of her ability.

Archer has posed:
     Taiga seems confused at Staren's question. The heck is a Yog-Sothoth? Why does he think she wants to end the world? Why does he care about the paperwork? Most people she asks don't care about the details, they just do it because she asks.

"I'm a teacher, I work here! Stop asking stupid questions and trying to make me look like a bad guy! Anywhooo, I told you. I sorta kinda messed up. Sorta kinda tried to edit in some food. And uh, sorta kinda bugged the school and brought in some old trash programs. It's not a big problem though!"

She scratches her head sheepishly, trying to think of the best way to respond to the paperwork thing. "Anyway, it's uh... Comic books? You know, as a teacher I gotta confiscate those sorta things if I see students with them! But at the same time I gotta make sure they stay safe, I don't need a phone call from their parents complaining about destroyed property! It's not like I'm reading them! I know you're thinking that so stop it!"

It's quite easy to tell that Taiga is indeed reading them, even if she says she isn't. She's not a very good liar.

Staren has posed:
    "No. Ponies are breeds of horses that are small." Staren clarifies. "However... there are also some worlds out there inhabited by intelligent equines who also refer to themselves as 'ponies'. They don't really look like horses though, any more than humans look like a monkey."

    As he explains this to Stella, he pokes some of the floating glitches with a beam saber to see how they interact.

    Taiga proclaims her innocence. "Right. Whatever. I guess I'll let Seifer decide what to do with the ...comic books once we find them."

    And then a battle starts with a tentacle monster! Staren stays in the back, trying to position himself to fire his beam cannons past his allies at the monster. "Have you ever seen anything like this in the Moon Cell before?"

Seifer Almasy has posed:
     Seifer hates tentacle monsters.

     It's a super long story.

     This one on the Moon Cell is no exception. The tendril catches him by surprise, gouging a long cut down his cheek. Another catches him in the stomach, carving through his bandages and exposing his already-burned chest. It nearly cuts him, even, save that he steps back just in time, right past Stella charging forward. Stella takes over playing guard while Seifer holds up his hand.

     OK. He was gonna focus. Just focus. Just breathe in, breathe out. He'd done it once. He'd done it a few times in private. Just take the power, and...

     "HYAH!"

     Seifer forces his explosive Soul Force into the air. He guides it straight towards the creature. As he perceives it about to hit the creature, he closes his fist, severing the bond. The air erupts in a fiery blast around the monster, as if a gunpowder bomb had just been set off in front of it.

     Seifer pumps his fist.

     "Yes!"

     "See that? I am *fucking awesome*, is what I am!"

     To Staren, he shrugs. "No? Maybe? Yes? Have to ask Caster."

Orchid (6384) has posed:
     "Better to explain it than let it confuse her later," Orchid replies to Staren with a wink. "And she seems to be learning well. Yes, most social interactions, even aggressive ones, don't call for physical violence."
     Onto the adventure! Orchid releases a few drones to keep an eye on the different angles, as she attempts to assemble a map. Her part in this is to watch for longer-term dangers, while her allies deal with the more immediate dangers. She'll give heads up as soon as she sees any other monsters, keeping surprise on their side.

Princess Luna (993) has posed:
     Luna nods at Stella's clarification as they continue inside and shakes her head at Stella's question. "By standard definitions I suppose, but pony is our race name, much like human or pokemon."

     She listens to Taiga and nods lightly. "We shalt retrieve thy comic books so that thou may continue to...not read them." She smiles knowingly to Taiga, seeming to accept the explanation and Taiga being mostly innocent.

     She follows Seifer in, and seems to share his misgivings about tentacle monsters given her expression, but with a deep breath she charges in as well and gives her scythe a wide swing, trying to reap as many of those tentacles as she can.

     The explosion from Seifer gives her pause for a moment, but just long enough for the blast to subside. "Please be more careful with thy explosives!" she exclaims as that silver blade flashes through the air on way, then back the other. "Stand down, creature! Thy fate need not be sealed this day!"

Tomoe has posed:
Tomoe is up near the front of the group as that's where she's best suited to be and then there's the things with Tentacles, she will end up getting buffeted at, and that causes her to cast a spell, one she's chanting badly in Norse, two? Golden runes dance about Tomoe's body. Her sword bursts into flames and she will start attacking the best with no shortage of Fervor, as well she does not hold much if any love for things with tentacles.

After a few normal strikes she'll break into a combo of brutal and rapid sword strikes as she's just cutting loose with a sword art already against this thing.

"Why do we keep finding things like this?!"

Archer has posed:
     Staren interacts with the floating spaghetti code, but his sword just sorta clips through it like it wasn't even there. Something may have been learned from this, but probably not.

The human-like creature doesn't stand a chance. Luna and Stella keep the brunt of the tentacle attack mostly relegated to Seifer. Though it could have been worse otherwise.

Staren shoots it full of holes, Tomoe slashes it with a fiery sword, and to top it all off it's exploded at the end.

There's absolutely nothing left of the thing save for a smoldering crater and a bag of... Money? Seifer might recognize it as Moon Cell's currency maybe, but it's too corrupted to be of any use.

Orchid, meanwhile, can probably pick up that all the monsters that ran upstairs a congregating in one room for some reason. It's most definitely not a good reason. Either way, the way upstairs is now clear.

Orchid (6384) has posed:
     There's something almost inevitable about all the monsters going into one room. The room on the floor they are going to. Orchid is sarcastic about this over the radio. It helps her deal. But she releases some more spiders, directing them to weave webs to seal off the doors they are going past, to make sure they aren't flanked. Past that, she's following the others, staying away from the front of the fights.

Staren has posed:
    It dropped... money? "What is this, This Planet?" Staren retorts. Then sort of deflates. "Man, we've had so many video game worlds at this point... why not." He gives Luna a sad look as she tried to talk to the monster who was attacking them. "It wasn't talking. These things probably aren't even sapient. And maybe not even sentient, for that matter. They could be directed by the Moon Cell's code."

    Staren looks at the tacnet. "You know, maybe we don't have to fight them all. What if we just go to, like, the room under her office, blow a hole in the floor under the desk, then grab the comics out of it and run?"

Seifer Almasy has posed:
     "Then *I* have to clean up the mess," Seifer says to Staren irritably, "So we ain't doin' that. We're sweepin' the goddamn place."

     He walks past the broken money. "An' when we're done I might go outside and push that smug red shithead's face into the dirt, too."

Staren has posed:
    "I thought she said this place had to be demolished and rebuilt, anyway?" Staren shrugs.

Seifer Almasy has posed:
     "Even odds we're gonna have to come back an' sweep the place later so she can tear the damn thing down," Seifer grunts, "An' I'm pretty sure tearin' the place down'll just release the damn things anyway."

Stella (6756) has posed:
    Weird glitchy money.
    If nobody picks it up, Stella jabs it with her sword. The pile of non-money gets sucked up into the crystal blade, and she reabsorbs the weapon into her body.

    She follows after Seifer afterwards, looking around as they seek a way up. "I must agree, enemies should be eliminated while the chance presents itself and not be given a chance to regroup and gather their strength for an offensive of their own. These creatures may become a larger problem if allowed to live."

    That, she knows how to handle.

Tomoe has posed:
Tomoe looks at the drop for a moment she gets a bad feeling about this dropa nd so she moves to leave it be.

"Let's head onwards. Stella shall we?"

Implying they sshould take point again and she seems pretty happy to get moving. She also pauses for a moment she looks at Staren.

"Staren you been to my world how is this /new/. If it wasn't like that do you think you'd have met, Kirito? Me? Silica or any of the others?"

She's not being insulting she's just making note of it.

"What if they monsters are reading the comics?"

Seifer Almasy has posed:
     Seifer jerks his thumb over his shoulder as he walks, pointing at Stella. "See? New girl gets it."

     "Be more ambitious, man."

Princess Luna (993) has posed:
     Luna hears Staren's radio reply and blinks. "...perhaps thou art correct." she says as she prepares for another slash. But the monster just...disintegrates? Vaporizes? She isn't sure. And...it leaves behind a bag of money? Luna raises an eyebrow. "...Art we all inside of...some kind of video game..?" she wonders aloud. She listens to Staren and Seifer, ears perked, but doesn't add anything. They seem to have covered any questions she might have asked.

     As they go up the stairs she looks to Seifer. "Forgive me for my outburst earlier. I was surprised by the sudden explosion as I attacked. If we are to enter a room full of hostile video game creatures, then wouldst thou be so kind as to use one of thine explosion powers before we enter the room properly? Fighting a multitude of creatures in close combat is hardly ideal."

     As they approach the door, Luna's horn glows and she gestures at the door. "I shall open it from here, so that we might engage them in a choke point." she says as the door handle starts to glow the same soft blue as her horn.

Staren has posed:
    "I was more thinking that we could just set off a bomb or something once we've got the comics instead of fighting through all of them, but whatever."

    Staren gets into position to shoot monsters that, he assumes, will flood out the door as soon as it's opened. "I guess this way we can be more sure we've cleared all of them, though."

Orchid (6384) has posed:
     "My preference would be to seal all the monsters inside, and explode the place from a safe distance," Orchid says. "But that would require that the monsters stay sealed in. Stella has an excellent point." She replies to Luna with, "Excellent idea. If we blast them from out here, we control their movement to where we want them to be."

Archer has posed:
     The group come across the open room that Taiga mentioned. Which is good. It means the joke of a retrieval mission is almost over.

Orchid can probably pick up that all the enemies are not only gathered in that room, but also decreasing in number until there's only one signature left. One really big signature. A very big signature tht makes itself known as it busts out of the doorway and takes the entire wall with it.

If it was a servant, it's massive size and burly physique would probably make it a Berserker. But it's just another mindless program standing in their way.

It beats its chest with a primal fury before slamming its fists against the ground, creating a visible shockwave that travels across the hallway floor and aims to knock everyone down.

Stella (6756) has posed:
    That one is a lot bigger.

    A shockwave along the ground is pretty hard for Stella to just... tank. Even if she put herself front and center it'd just smash through her and keep on going. She might lessen it a bit, but those kinds of attacks are hard to sponge for effectively.

    Well, that's fine.

    Stella leaps, as she responds to Staren and Seifer. "I do not object to the planting of an explosive device to raze this area. It is likely more efficient than fighting this way." On the other hand, they're already there and doing it, so...

    She passes over the shockwaves, and produces two blades of crystal that she hurls to either side of the monster. They plant into the ground like lightning rods.

    The shockwave, still distantly smashing along, is visible on the glimmering surfaces of the crystal blades. They rumble, and the same shockwave fires from the blades, trying to sandwich the monster inbetween two of its own attacks.

Seifer Almasy has posed:
     So that's new.

     The shockwave sweeps through. Seifer's just a little too slow with his injuries. He's knocked off his feet, hitting the ground with a *thud*. Today has not been a great day for him, between the tentacles, the suggestion that Tamamo was a video game, and having to deal with Archer, and the shockwave just sort of caps it all off as he hits the ground.

     He pushes himself back to his feet with an irritated look. Stella hits the ground with her sword; the shockwave ripples back out of it. Seifer goes for the other side, throwing out another gunpowder blast that erupts under the monster's leg, to keep it from simply jumping out of the way of the assault.

     He's quietly cursing the whole time.

Staren has posed:
    The enemies all merged into one?

    It pounds the ground. The ground, which is an UPPER-FLOOR HALLWAY, actually does a wave thing instead of collapsing. Staren wing-assisted-jumps it. "Not a videogame, huh? When it turns red and starts moving faster, is this still gonna be not a videogame?" Staren's keeping back and pew pewing it with beam shots. He doesn't need to be showy, there's other people for that.

    "Oh, or maybe when it exposes its weak point and we have to shoot the core to do actual damage? ...Seifer, what if the Moon Cell is being /invaded by/ a video game?"

Orchid (6384) has posed:
     Hanging back turns out to have been good for Orchid; she can see the shockwave coming with enough time to jump over it. At Staren's words she rolls her eyes. "Ix-nay on the aim-gay!" she suggests, "And can we get big an ugly there to chase one of us, say chase them out of the building to somewhere that we can hit it harder?" She's not shooting back this time.

Tomoe has posed:
Tomoe keeps the spell upon her sword as she moves towards the second floor and she just leaps back as something busts out fo the doorway. She looks at the thing for a moment as it screams rages and now tries to pull off some knockdown. Tomoe has a lot of experience with things like this she's able to take it. She seems to be agile enough to dance in and out of the shockwave and other assaults much like Seifer she's fairly experienced even if she was of the school to learn or die.

"You know I have questions about this when this is over."

She is already looking for weak points as she strikes she also pops /taunts/ now trying to get the things attention on her.

"Come on ugly don't you want to smash be just for being a fairy?!"

Princess Luna (993) has posed:
     The shockwave comes rolling in and instinctively Luna flaps her wings, but she is currently inside a building so...crash! She ends up smashing into the roof above them. She grunts and shakes her head to clear it, but rather than fly in toward this creature her horn glows more brightly before a powerful, broad beam of blue-white lances out, aimed at the chest of this strange amalgam creature.

     "A good plan, if we were concerned about this building's structural integrity! But, as this building has already been condemned it seems counter productive to try and lure it anywhere!" she says to Orchid, her voice a bit loud thanks to the effort she is putting into her beam attack.

     As Tomoe attempts to gain the creature's attention Luna puts more into her beam. "No! It is I you wish to strike merely for being a fictional talking animal!" She may have said it was kind of pointless to try and lure the creature, but she doesn't want anyone else to get hurt by it.

Archer has posed:
     The large brute-like program lets out a roar as its shot at despite its lack of a visible mouth. Being sandwiched between its own shockwave also doesn't help with the pain(?) its feeling, but it never really once bends to it knees or shows any visible weakness.

It once again pounds its now hole-filled chest in an attempt to intimidate the group of adventurers before it attempts to just mad dash through the hallway and tackle everyone in its way in a last desperate and spiteful attempt to hurt or take down as many people as possible.

Staren has posed:
    In his hurry to snark on the enemy's videogame boss-like mechanics, Staren unthinkingly also pushes the 'Caster is just a 2D waifu' meme. He looks aghast when Seifer chews him out over the radio -- implying a person isn't is super terribly by his own morals -- and doesn't explain, or justify, he just says 'Sorry.'

    Damaging his working relationship with his fellow Hand is /way/ more dangerous than whatever this thing is. Staren certainly is THINKING about how to blow out a wall or something and lure it to a more open area, but he doesn't see a quick way to do that, so for now he continues to use his cheaty power of three-dimensional movement to avoid the boss and slowly plink its health down.

    Surely someone else will put it out of their misery.

Seifer Almasy has posed:
     Seifer is quick to anger, but Staren apologized, and frankly Seifer probably won't remember in a couple weeks anyway, so he's also quick to forgive. Staren apologized and Seifer's response was 'okay' and 'magic is weird as shit.'

     Because, you know, it is.

     Seifer snaps his fingers again, and another explosion triggers under the boss's other leg. He's getting *good* at aiming that for precision tricks. That's probably not a great thing to see, Seifer getting good at aiming explosions he can just make on command.

Stella (6756) has posed:
    Oh, it's charging. THAT, she can handle.

    Stella puts herself in the monster's path, even as bolts of energy from Staren rain against the monster and Seifer targets its leg with an explosion. She produces two blades with which she attempts to block the creature's adventure, keep it pinned in place.

    It is way stronger than her.

    While Stella holds her ground, her body cracks along her arms and legs under the assault. This'll work out - it keeps the beast still while the others attack it. And for all Stella's body breaks, crystals seem to fill the cracks and patch her up just as quickly.

    Once she can, she seizes her chance. Seifer's explosion reflects off her swords, and she pushes in. Both of her blades glow a bright orange-red, and let off similar explosions, in point-blank, as Stella attempts to shift her stance and slice past the angry berserker.

Orchid (6384) has posed:
     Orchid is going to let the creature get into the hallway. This is because she is fast and nimble, and is going to sneak around the thing to get into the room, looking for the comic-books, and possible trashy romance novel the teacher would NEVER admit to owning.

Princess Luna (993) has posed:
     As Seifer blasts and Stella tanks, Luna takes advantage of the opening Stella creates and rushes in. With only a single flap of her wings she is upon the creature. As she moves she goes into a spiral and as Stella slices past the berserker Luna follows up Stellas's attack with her own. A powerful upward slice aimed right at the center of the creature. The gleaming silver blade of her scythe flashes through the air, and she follows up her scythe strike with a powerful kick from one of those hooved feet of hers. "Be gone, simulated nightmare!"

Tomoe has posed:
Tomoe growls about this thing she is not happy dealing with this thankfully while she things understanding digital here she just can't see anything like this as a Game, she never will be able to after what happned to her. She wil shift her body as it charge leap into the air and drop down aiming to use the force of her impact to drive her blade the dawn breaker into it.

Archer has posed:
     Between being stabbed, shot at, and exploded, the brutish monster is put down like the previous one, crashing into the floor before dispering into 1's and 0's. More corrupted currency and mangled corrupted and now items drop to the floor, being just as useless as last time.

Orchid meanwhile sneaks into the room to find the comic books. And that's exactly what they are. Comic books. No trashy romance novels or anything, just typical shounen stories that are popular with high school boys. Which is probably a relief to most, unless the reploid was really looking foward to seeing that sort of thing. In which case, too bad.

Orchid (6384) has posed:
     Eh, Orchid might have pocketed a romance novel, but she collects the comic books into a bundle, for better transport back out.

Stella (6756) has posed:
    It dies, without a corpse again.

    Its glitched out drops will be Stella's prizes again, if nobody wants them. She's not sure what she'll do with them, but surely awful glitched items might come in handy someday. Not that she knows what glitches even are.

    Worst-case maybe the Queen of the Moon Cell will want them. In fact that's her basic plan for them right now.

Princess Luna (993) has posed:
     Once again the creature disappears and leaves behind items. Luna looks around a few moments to make sure the creature is truly gone, then goes to Stella. "Art thou injured?" she asks, gesturing the the cracks that formed on Stella. "If it is serious I shall help thee to a medical facility."

     Since Orchid has apparently already secured the comics, Luna doesn't head into the classroom. Instead, she heads back down to meet up with Taiga again.

Orchid (6384) has posed:
     Orchid goes with the others to turn in the comic books. Nothing exciting unless more monsters pop out.

Archer has posed:
     "Welcome back and congratulations! I knew you all could do it, yaaaay~"

Taiga claps for the returning party, and also for herself because she was right again.

There's also now a pile of different furniture pieces behind her, a table, a sofa that Archer is currently resting on, a lamp, a dresser, a potted plant and... A box of tangerines?

"I brought you guys your reward for a job well done, some pieces of furniture I was gonna thro- I mean that I cherish very much! I mean, I'd have just given you all money, but NPCs like myself don't even get a paycheck!"

Taiga blinks for a moment as she processes the last thing she said, before ultimately dismissing it.

     STAGE CLEARED
     ITEMS OBTAINED: Pointless Furniture
     LOSSES: Your valuable time that you could have used to do something more productive than helping Taiga.