1705/The Bear and the Banjo.

The Bear and the Banjo.
Date of Scene:	02 March 2015
Location:	Great Ocean - Northern Loop
Synopsis:	Lute hunts down Kuma and co to Attack
Cast of Characters:	188, 367, Shigure

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Shigure has posed:
    It's near dusk on the Northern Loop. Kuma and her Fleet are on a patrol mission. They're traveling in a loose diamond, with Kuma on point, Chitose in the middle and Shigure and Nowaki handling the 'wings'. "It'll be night soon, kuma! Get your Star Shells ready, Nowaki and Shigure, kuma~!" calls the Cruiser over her shoulder, "Chitose, launch recon flight, kuma! Check south east around to north west, kuma!"

    Spray kicks up from their feet as they skate along, Shigure unhooking one cannon-fa and inserting a red canister shell into the breech. Nowaki does much the same on her 'necklace' cannons, inserting a pair of red canisters into the turret housing.

    Meanwhile, Chitose deploys her launch rails, and aims upwards at an angle. "Go Zuiun! Patrol sortie!" Pulling the trigger, a pair of floatplanes roar to life from the rails, followed by another four pairs that form up into four squads of three, taking different distance points as they fly out their patrol routes. Chitose reports. "Scouts deployed!" before closing her eyes to let their feeds fill her mind.

Lute (188) has posed:
     Lute has been preparing and planning for this for some time. Naval training exercises at the Confederate base have been just one aspect of his preperation. The harder part? Finding Kuma. Using information from the Abyssal Fleet, though, he has finally gotten a lead on where she might be making a patrol. And so, Lute sent his Unown into the evening sky, to spread wide across the ocean until they spot something. And, at long last, Kuma has been found, along with her fleet. The Unown starts flying after them, trailing them and relaying their location to Lute.

     And, Lute smiles, seeing through the eyes of the Unown that the fleet are out. He has been scouting the ocean as well, flying atop Giratina. The massive dragon Pokemon loops flies high above the ocean, hard to spot against the darkening sky. Lute gives orders, and changes the path of the Legendary Dragon.

     "Let's sink her fleet, then, shall we, Giratina?"

     Giratina response is simple: a roar.

     The first real sign of Lute's approach is the Unown massing in the sky. They might be harder to spot as night comes, but still, odds are, a hundred Unown beginning to cluster in the sky following Kuma's patrol? It'll get noticed. But, not long after that, Giratina comes in. Roaring. The creature /almost/ looks like something the Abyssal Fleet might have in it, though not quite. And, the roar is the only warning of attack it gives. It immediately launches a burst from its mouth, a swirling ball of shadows and darkness about a meter across. He's aiming, specifically, for Kuma herself. But, the splash damage of the attack might strike the others as well.

     And, with that attack, Giratina simply starts circling the Fleet Daughters, roaring yet again down at them. If one of them looks closely, they might even be able to notice the horde of Unown moving a bit towards Giratina, about ten or so of the Unown merging itself to Giratina's underside. So, Giratina now has a number of unblinking unnaturaly white eyes on its underbelly.

Shigure has posed:
    Shigure spots the Unown and swivels 180, lifts her cannon-fa and fires the Star Shell. A bright red glowing ball flies skywards, and very slowly begins to fall down. "Incoming! Break formation!" she cries, juking further out from Chitose.

    Nowaki frowns, and swivels her waldo-mounted cannon up, returning the Shadow Ball with her own two explosive shells. For her trouble, she takes splash damage from the ball, as it slams down into the water nearby.

    Chitose jukes out, recalling her floatplanes, which come roaring in. They're not built for aerial combat, but they have machineguns, which they fire into the Legendary Dragon as they swoop in. Kuma is the only one not to get in on the action, her equipment just not suited to aerial opponents. "Maintain formation, kuma! We're stronger together, kuma!" she rallys, her voice, though young, ringing a clarion call across the darkening ocean.

Lute (188) has posed:
     The cannons and machine guns graze against Giratina. It's a fairly agile giant dragon, and so it's doing its best. It is caught minorly in the explosive shells's blasts, and just barely gets out of the path of the Star Shell, butit has more trouble avoiding the machinegun fire.

     "Giratina! Move in. Slash through them all. And, well... Time for the signal."

     Giratina swoops down, skimming along the water. It lets out a roar again, as it spreads its wings. From this angle, it's probably a lot easier to tell who the human on the back is. Yes, it's pretty obviously Lute. And, for some reason, he is holding up a flare gun. He shoots it up, and a red flare flies into the sky. As this happens, Giratina simply keeps going forward, using Slash via the massive spikes on its wings. It's trying to cut towards their legs. Lute has one order for Giratina tonight: Do not kill. /Sink/. And, the creature knows this. It roars again, looking at each of the Fleet Daughters in turn.

     With the flare in the sky, though? Another creature is moving in. It is swimming along the water, though slowly, heading towards this location.

     This creature is Mr. Crabs, the giant Kaiju. It will take a bit for its arrival, though.

Shigure has posed:
    Kuma grits her teeth and cries. "Scatter!" The giant dragon is too fast though, scoring right through the middle of the formation. Uniforms tear and the sound of metal being ripped up fills the air. Nowaki staggers, her backpack missing a goodly chunk of material. Chitose manages to keep herself mostly intact, just missing the crane from the left side of her backpack. Shigure skids back from the slash, arms crossed with her cannon-fa blocking the hit directly to her, though they earn a large silvery scar for it. Kuma herself attempts to grapple the dragon, grabbing onto something and getting taken for a ride... though from here, she unloads her 14cm cannon at point blank range.

    Chitose orders her floatplanes to angle around, their underslung bomb load bring brought to bare now, as they angle to drop the bombs in Giratina's path.

    "Unknown submersible unit approaching! Nowaki, depth charges ready!" calls Shigure, though she currently focuses fire up at Giratina, firing twin blasts from her 12.7cm cannon-fa.

Lute (188) has posed:
     At the point blank range, Giratina can't avoid the cannonfire. It lets out a roar as the blast digs into it. Instead of blood, it leaks out a black mist instead. It is a ghost type Pokemon, so its physiology is a bit different. But, this is still not something Lute expected. for Kuma to actually /grab/ the beast.

     "...You're more impressive than I thought you'd be. It's going to be a bit more of a challenge to sink you than I thought."

     Lute just grins. He sounds... fairly wicked right now. He is wincing a bit, though, as Giratina flies into the path of some of the bombs being dropped in front of him.

     "...Alright. Go, Castform. Use Rainy Day, then Weather Ball to get her off of us! And, Giratina, angle back towards the others, and use Dragonbreath from above!"

     Lute holds up Castform's Pokeball. The small Pokemon that vaguely looks like a cloud appears, and shoots a strange burst of blue into the sky. Suddenly, clouds form, and it begins to rain. Not in a wide area, though. About the size of a city block. But, still, there is rain on the battlefield. It then shoots forward another ball. It looks plain and white, but upon impacting the rain, it becomes a ball of water. It aims to strike into Kuma, and try to knock her off Giratina.

     The large dragon Pokemon turns towards the other Fleet Daughters, before swooping into the air. Again, it starts circling, looking down at Kuma's fleet. It fires burst after burst of a firey dragon breath at them. Its aims at the edge of them, though, trying to keep circling them with the blast. Trying to keep them pinned together.

     And, Mr. Crabs begins to rise from the ocean. It is still a distance away, but the large crab Kaiju, eighty meters tall, can be seen bursting its head from the water on occasion.

     Lute just laughs again, quite heartily, "Seriously, just give up. I just wanna bring you girls back to some of your sisters!"

Shigure has posed:
    Kuma grins ferally at Lute. "DON'T YOU DARE UNDERESTIMATE ME, KUMA!" she roars over the rushing wind. The rain beats down, and with a snarl of defiance... Kuma swats the Weather Ball away. She then digs her feet into some of Giratina's scales, and with a nearly bestial roar of, "FIRING TORPEDOES, KUMA!" four explosive javelins unhook from the racks on her ankles, attempting to embed into the Pokemon before they detonate. Kuma releases her hold, crashing back down into the water. "Ocean Fitout!" she cries, becoming engulfed in white light. The bubble bursts outwards, as the bow of the Kuma-class Light Torpedo Cruiser, Kuma breaches, then crashes down in its full glory.

    Shigure jinks out of the path of that dragonfire, then turns to see the head of the Kaiju coming in... "LEVIATHAN!" she calls in warning, before she too is engulfed in white light. The Shiryatsuyu-class Destroyer breaches the bubble and slams down into the water, steaming ahead to bring her cannons and torpedoes to bare against the approaching waterborne menace.

    Nowaki transforms also, though her turrets continue to track Lute's Dragon, firing airburst shells into its path. "Do not think we will go down so easily." she says stoically.

    Chitose transforms to Ocean Fitout as well, the planes she launched growing in size as well to match. They come in to land, while a new set are attached to the launch rails and fired into the air, six Bombers and six Torpedo carriers. They angle after Giratina and Mr Crabs respectively.

Lute (188) has posed:
     The torpedoes blow away at Giratina, bursting off more of its skin. Some of the AA fire strikes it as well, blasting holes into it. It roars, and without orders, moves to land on the now ocean outfitted Kuma. Lute has heard that something like this might be possible. And so, he just smiles. Yes, he came prepared for this, too.

     Either way, as Giratina tries to land on Kuma itself? It opens its mouth again. Giant blue balls of fighting type Aura appear from its mouth, trying to pummel into the ship below, over and over again.

     As Shigure moves in towards Mr. Crabs, the top-hatted and monacled Kaiju lets out a bestial roar of its own. It moves in towards Shigure. It is simply trying to tank the cannon fire from her, while also tanking the torpedoes and bombers. With its massive crab claws, it tries to pinch into Shigure. This is a creature capable of fighting giant robots. If it gets a good enough grip on a ship? It can cut it apart as well.

     Lute, still atop Giratina? He tosses a Pokeball towards Chitose. And, it opens, revealing Registeel. Lute just shouts to this Pokemon.

     "Registeel, use EARTHQUAKE!"

     The gigantic steel golem lifts its claw and stomps its feet. He tried this strategy in training against Ri, actually. Earthquake breaks apart the earth. But in this situation? The battleship itself counts as the 'earth.' So, this could be a bit nasty as well.

Shigure has posed:
    Shigure's girlish voice rings metallically from the Destroyer as those claws move to pinch into her hull. The Destroyer makes a sharp turn to try and avoid them... but it caught. Metal groans under the strain, and a girlish scream of agony sounds out from within the hull. Cannons fire, machineguns strafe and torpedoes continue to launch... but she's in a bad position.

    Once landed on, Kuma's AA guns turn and fire at point blank, though the gravelly battlevoice of the Cruiser grunts in pain from each strike into her superstructure. Metal flies off and lands in the water, and one of her 14cm turrets gets turned into a misshapen pile of scrap.. until one of them right under Giratina fires into it's underbelly, trying to dislodge it.

Nowaki comes alongside Mr Crabs, launching a large spread of torpedoes to try and get its attention, her smaller cannons firing rapidly into the monster.

    Chitose isn't a battleship, nor is she particularly well armoured, so as Registeel comes stomping down on her, she screams in pain. Hull shakes, one launch rail comes loose from its mounting and falls off into the water. The returning torpedo bombers dive in an strafe with machineguns, while the Seaplane Tender's own defense battery fires into the metalic golem.

Lute (188) has posed:
     Even as the attack on it continues, Mr. Crabs keeps its grip tight. It's powerful shell is obviously cracking in various places, but it keeps fighting on. Master told it to destroy these ships, after all. Sink them. Bring them under. And, these ships are enemies of its master. Even as Nowaki moves in, it keeps trying to tear into Shigure. The only change? It turns its body slightly, to try and face Nowaki a bit. It begins to spit bubbles. Normally, it is cute when a crab does this. But, these bubbles are in fact highly acidic. They float towards Nowaki, trying to cover her.

     Lute just winces as the AA fire is aimed at Giratina. There is too high of a chance of him being hit himself at the moment. Some of the fire does in fact graze him, but Giratina is moving to protect Lute with its wings. And, Lute just smiles, looking at Kuma. Assuming Kuma can still hear him.

     "You'll be so much cuter as an Abyssal, you know. Giratina, Dragon Breath!"

     And, unfortunately, before Giratina can fire its breath out, it is shot in the underside, and launched into the air. It does manage to right itself up again, though its underside is largely torn up. It sends forth a burst of Dragon Breath, though it's a fairly weak burst. Lute just sighs, "Giratina, get into the air a bit higher! Let's just keep circling for now."

     And, Giratina does so, flapping to get higher while it tries to regain composure.

     Registeel as well simply tries to tank the machine gun fire. Its steel body is getting dented. But, without an order from Lute, it just keeps fiting on its own. It randomly walks around Chitose, punching down into her with its massive metal claws. It doesn't have much strategy aside just 'destroy', really. It's a Shadow Pokemon, a feral beast.

     Lute looks down on things, smiling. So far, it has been working. Force them into ship mode, give his Pokemon room to fight. The extra damage to Giratina was unexpected, but... He can manage with the plan still. And, there are still some more Pokemon he could send out soon, if need be.

Shigure has posed:
    Shigure would be gritting her teeth here, if she still had human form... as it stands, she's letting out a long groan that sounds exactly like a ship hull slowly being torn apart. She changes back to get out of those claws, landing back in the water in human form. She sinks down to mid calf and looks much worse for wear, scuffed skin, shredded clothes and one cannon-fa bent useless. "Being able to corner me like this... well, whatever." murmurs the Destroyer, as she wades out of the way, dropping another spread of torpedoes as she tries to evacuate the area.

    Nowaki turns out of the acid bubbles, though some of them manage to melt through her superstructure, one turret melting into useless slag.

    Chitose tries something desperate. As her deck is punched, her remaining catapult traverses into position, aiming right at the Shadow Pokemon. A plane appears on it, then launches at pull speed, seeking to knock the metal monster off of the ship.

    Kuma, meanwhile, adjusts her course, getting a mild singe of that dragon flame. Her AA guns traverse and fire up at Giratina, while her main battery targets on Mr Crabs, seeking to disable him at least with her heavier firepower.

Lute (188) has posed:
     As Registeel is launched away, Lute holds up its Pokeball. A beam of light reaches out to Registeel from the Pokeball, "REGISTEEL, RETURN!" He frowns. Well, at least Registeel did a bit of damage.

     The torpedoes and AA continue to pummel into Giratina. Lute frowns a bit. Well, time to bring out another Pokemon, for support. He opens one up, and a Gardevoir appears on the back of Giratina as well. "Savant, keep Giratina afloat! Do whatever you can to make sure we stay in the air! Support him with all you have!"

     A thin psychic barrier appears around Giratina. Some of Gardevoir's psychic powers are being used to help make things easier for Giratina as well. It's not much, but it at least keeps Giratina up.

     Mr. Crabs, meanwhile? He's moving to the forefront. Moving in towards Kuma. Lute lets out a shout.

     "MR. CRABS! MORE ACID BUBBLES! THEN, GET OUT THE BASIC BUBBLES! Grab at Kuma!"

     Lute points towards Kuma, so Mr. Crabs knows who he means. That is the main goal, after all. Sinking the others would be icing on the cake, but... One of them is already leaving the area.

     Mr. Crabs, though? He's spitting out more of the acid bubbles. And soon after, another type of bubble is spit out. The two bubble types, on impact? They lead to a massive explosion. Mr. Crabs is trying to launch an explosion across the battlefield, to engulf the three ships still nearby. Once done, he moves to try and pinch into Kuma.

Shigure has posed:
    Shigure isn't exactly leaving, just getting some distance before she pulls her remaining cannon-fa from her back and opens up on Giratina again. "I'm disappointed in you guys." she grumbles softly.

    Nowaki turns again, bringing her AA guns up at Giratina and firing a spread of torpedoes at Mr Crabs once more, while Chitose, unable to launch more planes, turns and attempts to back off, parting shots from her AA battery up at the dragon.

    Kuma, meanwhile, turns her broadside to Mr Crabs, and unleashes hell in the form of all her torpedoes... she manages to get them out just before that acid explosion smashes into her, melting metal and ripping off one of the smoke stack caps, sending it spinning into the water nearby.

Lute (188) has posed:
     Something odd happens.

     Even as the shells continue to pummel Lute and Giratina, even as Mr. Crab's exoskelton is torn off? Lute seems to be having a conversation with someone. A quick little radio conversation. But, the moment the conversation is over? He takes on a completely sullen and broken appearance, for just a moment.

     And then he suddenly looks like he has completely broke mentally. It looks like he has gone completely mad.

     The Unown still floating around? They start to return to Lute. Merging onto his body. Lute lets out a beastial roar. It has been /some/ time since this has happen, but something has made Lute /so angry/ that his third personality has come out. His personality that is a complete berserker.

     With the Unown attached to Lute's body as an armor, his strength is increased incredibly. He no longer is thinking rationally, at all. He leaps off of Giratina, down towards landing on Kuma herself. He rapidly runs towards her mast, and tries to grab it. Trying to /rip it off/ of her. With the boost from the Unown, and his own bestial mentality right now? It's very much possible.

     And then, if successful, he tries to slam the mast straight into Kuma.

Shigure has posed:
    Thump. tacktacktacktack CRRRK, CLLLLANG! That's the sound of a Lute landing on the deck of a Light Cruiser, running over, RIPPING OFF the radio mast, and smashing it into the deck further down. A pained groan escapes the Cruiser, "For Kuma to get in this shape, what a disgrace, kuma..." Before she reverts to human form... where this leaves Lute? Who knows... but before he hits the floor, the battered, bruised and burned girl pulls on her ahoge. It morphs, shifts and detaches, forming a three-section-staff, which the Cruiser leaps into action to use, slamming the reinforced rod into the berserking man, using all the might that a shipgirl can muster. "Don't underestimate me, kuma!" she repeats from earlier, laying into the pokemon trainer for all she's worth.

Lute (188) has posed:
     As Kuma transforms, Lute is just there, swimming in the water. Even in his berserk state, it seems he can manage some sort of self preservation and last in the water. But, still, this puts him at the /worst/ disadvantage. The three-section staff strikes hard into Lute, sending him /flying/. Giratina, though? He flies in, to catch Lute with his mouth. Lute is still frothing and raging, but he is calming down a bit as he looks /incredibly/ injured from that last attack.

     But, there is one other thing in the water now, that wasn't there before. While in the water, one of Lute's Pokeballs opened.

     It floats, under the water. As the other ships are dealing with the Kaiju, and focusing on Giratina, something else is moving in to try and focus on Kuma herself.

     A large grey tentacle bursts out of the water. It attempts to grab hold of Kuma's right arm. Then, another comes out. It attempts to grab ahold of her left. More and more tentacles keep coming out. Once all of the limbs are /hopefully/ bound, the additional tentacles will be trying to help the others restrain more, and to grab all around the body.

     And then every single tentacle starts to try and crush down upon Kuma's body, trying to break every limb. Trying to crush in her body.

     And as they do this? They /try/ to bring Kuma under the water.

     Underneath the water? Kuma is likely able to see a Tentacruel. Lute's starter Pokemon is trying to finish the job that Lute went too berserk to finish.

Shigure has posed:
    "Kuma!" "Flagship!" "NO! No no no no nononononono!" Nowaki, Chitose and Shigure cry out as Kuma struggles against the crushing tentacles of the jellyfish pokemon. Shigure, damaged as she is, tries to limp in to help, Chitose just keeps firing up at Giratina, trying to nail the source of all this, while Nowaki turns wide, coming in with her Depth Charge launcher primed. If she had a face, it would be in a determined, thin line with gritted teeth behind closed lips.

    Kuma isn't done yet though. Even as her limbs creak, equipment groans and buckles, and she's pulled inexorably beneath the waves, she has a dauntless expression. She's a reckless character, always has been, and so, as she stares into the Tentacruel's eyes, she smirks, materializing a spread of torpedoes right in it's face... the explosion plume reaches all the way up to Giratina's height.

Lute (188) has posed:
     As the torpedoes fire at the Tentacruel, it is shot straight in the face. At this point, its not /quite/ unconcious, but its tentacles have been burnt bad enough that it can't grab on anymore. Lute is going to be /very/ dissapointed, later. The Tentacruel floats away, trying to regroup itself a bit.

     Mr. Crabs, though? It meanwhile just tries to keep the other ships back and away. With its master somewhat insane right now, it's just in 'defense mode', not full out attack mode. Even Giratina and Gardevoir can't do much. They're just trying to keep afloat and keep Lute from breaking free.

     Which leaves just Castform left.

     Castform suddenly decides to make it snow. Just because.

     Damnit, Castform.

Shigure has posed:
    Kuma sinks, her brown eyes watching the dim light from the surface fade slowly away. "Kuma... wanted to stay... a little longer..." she transmits, as a hand forlornly reaches to that light, as if it would help her keep hold of it a moment longer.

Na`Sabal-Une Fang (367) has posed:
     Though it might not be readily apparent, there was a shadow flying relatively high in the sky, sharp eyes scanning the water's surface as the Guardian of The Wilds arrived. As castform begins to make it snow, this possibly aids further to Nasa's arrival being relatively stealthy, but mostly her own silence in flight would likely be the biggest factor. Once Nasa spotted the pokemon, along with the other ship girls...

     Nasa's eyes narrowed. These were her friends, even if she had only known them briefly. Nasa's fingers shifted, magical energy gathering in her hands as she folded her wings roughly above where Kuma was sinking. And... unless stopped, her wings would simply fold in against her back, as Nasa suddenly dove down towards the water. Breaching the water's surface would be easy from her height, the impact softened by her magic. Her intent was simple. Dive down and start swimming as fast as she could for Kuma, with a small bubble of air around her own head to allow her to both see and breathe. If she managed to get to Kuma without too much disruption, a similar bubble would form around the fleet daughter's head, while Nasa worked at bringing her back to the surface.

Lute (188) has posed:
     As Castform is happily making it snow, it sees Na`Sabal-Une entering the battlefield.

     OH NO SHE WON'T.

     It grunts, and launches a Weather Ball at Na`sabal-Une. The ball becomes a ball of ice, due to the snow.

     It is stupidly ineffective.

Shigure has posed:
    As the world starts to fade, Kuma's eyes sliding closed, she forces them open as something moves... it isn't her crew, they abandoned her, they just, left her to die... no, isn't that... she doesn't know who that is, but they're... coming for her? She hasn't been abandoned!

    Kuma reaches out for Nasa, renewed faith in her friends bringing her back from the brink of those sorrowful, ragefilled thoughts.

Lute (188) has posed:
     At this point? Lute's Pokemon are leaving the area, with him and Mr. Crabs. Eventually, Lute will calm down.

     Lute will, of course, be pissed at his failure. Because he was /so close/. And then /that happened./

     But, that's something he's going to have to be pissed about later.

Na`Sabal-Une Fang (367) has posed:
     Luckily for Nasa, she has Mage Armor on her right now! Which means that beyond it possibly being mildly uncomfortable and sending her slightly off-course, the ineffective attack would be, well, ineffective! Nasa quickly continues to swim down... and the sight of Kuma reaching a hand out towards her gets a brief smile from Nasa. She hadn't lost Hope. Good. Nasa quickly grabbed for Kuma's hand, magic spreading from her to Kuma to create a small water bubble around her head, along with several other places on her body to begin helping Kuma float up to the surface.

     Meanwhile, Nasa keeps firm hold of that hand, using her other hand to begin to help her ascend, her feet kicking at the water. It might be a little bit, but they would break the surface. Meanwhile, those airbubbles persisted on Kuma's sides to ensure that she continued to float on the surface, just in case she couldn't stand on it just yet.

Shigure has posed:
    Nowaki has taken up station around the sinking point, ready to take Kuma, Nasa and the others aboard. She's the least damaged of the fleet, after all.

    Chitose and Shigure come over and board, then help Nasa get Kuma aboard as well. The Kagero-class destroyer then turns back toward Hikari, taking a long way around so she isn't followed.

Na`Sabal-Une Fang (367) has posed:
     Nasa somewhat happily took the invitation onboard Nowaki, because, frankly, swimming in saltwater /sucked/ and already she could feel the salt beginning to settle in all the wrong places. On the other hand, she also felt fulfilled. Kuma wouldn't sink today. Nasa made sure to stay beside Kuma the whole time, carefully doing what she could to tend to the fleet daughter's wounds...

     Not that she could do ~too~ much for a ship, but bandages and such were still applied.