3185/Scion (2-2)

Scion (2-2)
Date of Scene:	10 October 2015
Location:	Brockton Bay
Synopsis:	It's time to finish off Scion once and for all.
Cast of Characters:	Maya, 20, Staren, 73, 368, Reina Kinney, 554, Shigure, 707, 774, 847

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Defiant (554) has posed:
     On a desolate, cratered plain of Defiant's world, the final battle has been joined.

     Scion is fighting, glowing with golden intensity. All the lines of his golden avatar body, the lines that drew out definitions of muscles, have filled with the detritus of battle - dust, grit, blood. Not that he was human before, but now no one would ever mistake him for it.

     Even with Yuri Stinson's masterful use of rebellion, Scion still has the various forces outmatched through sheer firepower and the unrelenting well of energy that powers him. As the Elites join the battle, they can see Scion cut down Leviathan with a powerful beam and then immediately turn on a series of capes. Before, Scion had had a certain methodical experimentation to his actions. Now, there's nothing of the sort and Scion is locked purely in an unrelenting frenzy. He attacks without pause, without break. His expression has finally changed - eyebrows drawn together, lips forced tight, lines standing out in his throat.

     Scion is /pissed/.

     But now, a second-wave of capes, Dragon's armada of craft, and the Elites are joining the fray!

Shigure has posed:
    Out to sea, about 10 miles away, a fleet of ships appear over the horizon. Flying the flag of the Imperial Japanese Navy. The first thing to be seen is the impressive height of Yamashiro's pagoda mast, rising like a beacon of hope over the edge of the world. The next, plumes of black smoke, and fire, as she lobs 35.6cm shells at the speck of golden light aiming to get him when he's not near anyone... or just finished off someone so friendly fire is a moot point.

    "Kuma! Escorts, break off and switch to Land fit-out, kuma! We're closing to engage, kuma~!" chimes the Cruiser as she powers over the horizon, collision course with the land-sea border. She's flanked by two Destroyers who also surge ahead at flank speed.

    "Mitsuke ta!" chimes in an older voice, as the tell tale sound of piston engines fills the sky. "Zuiun, engage!"

    Out of the sun, dive full-sized Zuiun floatplane dive bombers, aiming to drop their 500lb bombs on Scion in concert with Yamashiro's bombardment.

Tesla Armadia (368) has posed:
It's time to go kill a god. Godlike being. Dimensional abomination. Whatever you want to call it. The important point is it isn't of this world and most definately isn't human in any degree.

The only warning of another arrival is the bright streak hurtling down from the skies. With the Starmadillo in orbit over the Worm world it was an easy matter of launching into an orbital drop from it once Scion's location was pinned down once more. Something akin to a big spikey meteorite hurtles towards the with a radiant glow from atmospheric entry, until it finally plows into the ground not far from the fight. Good thing the landscape is already in ruin. Even as the resulting cloud of dust is settling mechanical sounds can be heard from within, transforming.

The large, bipedal robotic form that steps out of the landing crater, even as the final panels are locking into place along the forearms and to form the broad angular shoulder pauldrons. 'Eyes' alight from a head that appears as some cross between an armadillo and a gas mask.

It's the Pangolinger. Looks like this time Tesla brought out her BIG toys this time. "Playtime is over, Scion," the technopath's voice emits from external speakers. "If you want to be a monster, at least come fight a monster of proper caliber!"

Not a moment is wasted on inefficient brevity beyond that. Even as the mecha advances towards the fight the gatling cannon over its left shoulder spins to life and sprays ballistic bursts in Scion's direction, though it may be as much an effort to sweep his attention away from the sadly outclassed capes.

She broke the Birdcage. She broke Alexandria's Triumrative. She broke Gray Boy's powers so others could break Jack Slash.

Now Tesla was here to help break the Golden Man at the End of the World as We Know It...

Staren has posed:
    Yesterday, Staren tried various weapons on Scion -- or, perhaps more correctly, the avatar. Unfortunately, he did not find some kind of incredible weakness. But two of his weapons worked well enough: The Anti-Wireless railgun, and Mad Morg Mcgee's Annihilator. Staren's not sure whether it was the magic or the hitting very hard that worked well with the first, and... well, with the Annihilator, who knows? Could be something about mad science, could be something about it being made by someone who became a god, could be whatever anti-monster properties Morg built into it... Still. If hitting very hard works, Staren can provide plenty of that.

    The Star Hawk dives down from the upper atmosphere, and Staren doesn't wait to get close to open fire. Even from miles away, railguns can hit a target in seconds. A hail of metal slugs rains down on the golden man from the sky!

Frederica (73) has posed:
    The devastation, particularly the human devastation, saddens Frederica. This is no time for that htough. This is the time for seriousness, for fighting. The pyrokinetic once more has her game face on, and once again has her fox-mask off.

    She sees the golden man, not so golden now, tearing into Leviathan and the capes. She has no tears to shed for Leviathan since it's just a construct, a weapon. One that has literally no purpose beyond being a challenge for one foolish 'hero'. If it saved lives here, it would only begin to make up for the lives it took the last time she'd fought it, let alone all the other times it battled the heroes of this world.

    The capes are another matter though. She can't shield them, not from this range. Her fire is powerful and her aim excellent, but fire is not as fast as beams of light. She can't intercept an attack that isn't heading her way. So, there's only one thing to do. She engulfs herself in flame, calling on the form of Salamandra both as a partial defense and to draw attention. The large flame elemental opens its mouth and lets out a silent roar gouting flames in a ballistic arc, aimed right at Scion.

Dorian Pavus (774) has posed:
    This is a whole lot of something that's going on, that's for sure. It looks like the situation with this world is coming to a head finally. And it's going to be exceedingly violent, if it hasn't already.

    On the way here, Dorian was speed-reading through the information available on Scion. Golden man, not human, well of some kind of power behind him. He can do something, even if it's just direct assault on Scion. He has plenty of spells for that purpose.

    However, as they arrive, that's not what he's doing when he jumps out of the arrival craft. Sometimes bashing the problem isn't the best answer. What he's doing is extending his magical senses in the direction of the golden man, trying to get a feel for what kind of power he might be using. Is it magic? Is it something he can manipulate?

Reina Kinney has posed:
    The Scion might not be happy, but neither is Reina Kinney. Namely since this battle has gone on for far too long in her opinion. It's time to put an end to this whole thing once and for all, and no matter how difficult the situation seems, Reina's not going to let anything stand in her way. When you're with GUARDIANS, you don't show fear for any reason whatsoever!

    Unlike before, Reina's decided to utilize her personal fighter craft, the Delta Falcon, to launch her attack on the Scion. If conventional weapons won't work, then it's time to break out the heavy artillery. "Been awhile since I've been in the cockpit here. Fortunately, I ain't rusty at all!" She grins a little.

Toph Beifong (20) has posed:
    They are really pushing the attack, which is probably the best since Scion would probably have an easier time if they let him rest. But even a ridiculously strong presence will fall from smaller attacks as long as you keep at it.

    One of the Elites that show up doesn't immediately jump into the battle. Instead, Toph takes a moment to inspect the surroundings. Clad in her usual getup, the blind girl has decided to bring something else with her today; the gauntlets from her WMAT costume, vambraces and rerebraces included. Because if they are going to stop this guy, it helps to have more ammunition. And who knows if there will be other metal here to bend for her?

    This battleground is chaotic, mostly due to Scion, but also from all the people present here. Though her eyes widen when the large met crashes into the ground. Huh, that's a big thing. And when Tesla's voice echoes she blinks slightly before shaking her head with a sigh of exasperation. "Man, everybody is bringing some cool toys to this fight..." With that Toph kicks the ground open and jumps in, tunnelling her way towards Scion as quickly as she can.

    Once she's within hundred feet of him though, the earthbending master makes her presence known as a barrage of boulders shoot out of the ground, aimed right for Scion's head when he touches down on the ground.

Xiaomu (707) has posed:
While Xiaomu emerged from the previous night's battle with Scion relatively undamaged, she still needed some help getting back up to full fighting form. Towards that end, she resorted to one of her least-exercised options:

She went to a shrine to the Shinto god of the harvest, Inari, also associated with business and with foxes. She also took an offering of homemade inarizushi, suppressing the urge to take 'just one piece' for her own munchies the entire way.

She would have gone to two Inari shrines if she'd had a chance to visit the Japan of this world, but given how badly she enraged Scion the other night,, she doesn't want to waste time playing tourist. As it is, when she joins the fray for what really SHOULD be the final battle, she's moving at high speed. Again.

Specifically, Xiaomu is once again arriving on her lightcycle - but instead of charging straight in, she swerves into an almost 90-degree turn most of a mile out from Scion's current location, engages the trail-wall, and starts marking out a perimeter --

Except that it's the kind of perimeter which leaves a trail of glyphs not only suspended in the jet-wall itself, but along the ground just inside that perimeter. Anyone who happens to waste time or energy watching Xiaomu closely enough might pick up that she's chanting something under her breath, too ...

What's she up to?

Defiant (554) has posed:
    Kuma's armada opens up with shells, finding Scion and detonating. Smoke and shrapnel eclipses the golden man, making him invisible beneath the conflageration. He's already evading, but those five-hundred pound bombs find their mark. Scion is forced to teleport to one side and he gathers a bright orb of golden energy in his hand - he hurls it in the direction of Kuma and her destroyers.

     Tesla's shells rip through Scion, the bullets punching through him, only for the wounds to glow gold and reknit themselves. Every wound takes some proverbial water out of the well, but it's still not enough. As Tesla's mecha advances, Scion raises his hand and projects a golden beam. It bends up at the last moment, and then comes crashing back down atop the war machine!

     Turning away from Tesla's mecha, Scion takes a railgun slug to the top of his head. His head vanishes, golden bits of matter flying in every direction, but only a moment. As Staren's Star Hawk dives down, and Reina's Delta Falcon swoops in, Scion rises up. One golden beam from each hand, and they each split into two, then four, then sixteen, then two hundred and fifty six. If he can't acccurately nail the agile fightercraft, it seems like he'll settle for an extreme form of area denial! These beams don't bore through - like the last ones Staren had faced - they detonate.

     As Scion hits the ground once again, somehow doing no damage despite the sheer speed that he collided with the earth, Frederica's flames engulf him. Scion burns, golden dust raining down off his body. He doesn't seem to care but even from this distance, Frederica can feel him looking at her. Engulfed in flames, Scion snaps off a beam, compressing the power into the eye of a needle, attempting to cut through Frederica's fiery defense!

     But he can't project that beam for long, because Toph crushes his head with a boulder. And then another, and another. Eventually, Scion raises his hand and sweeps a beam around himself. Everything it touches explodes a moment later, cutting off much of the barrage. He looks down towards the ground, as if sensing something... Toph can sense things, too - there's plenty of metal from wrecked dragoncraft to make use of.

     Elsewhere, Xiaomu's perimeter appears to be set up without much issue. If Scion has noticed, he's given no sign of it. He's probably too busy with the other Elites.

     Up near the local staging area, where wounded capes are recuperating, where Dragon is directing her armada to take on Scion, where Chevalier is shouting orders, Dorian extends his senses. The sheer power there behind the golden man might stagger the mage - it's intense, the sensation of some cosmic /thing/ funnelling its power, its essence, its /lifeforce/ into the avatar like a roaring torrent. It's not magic, per se, but it's certainly esoteric enough, power being channeled through dimensions and power-generating shards, that it appears to be similar. Scion's drawing from a source of power that's closed off to anyone else. If someone could just rip the door open, or sever the connection, or find some way of 'poisoning' the well...

Konoe Kanno (847) has posed:
     Ah, Scion. Konoe had heard much about Scion. She was busy the previous day, but this day, she professed that she would offer her assistance. In some way or form, she would.

     And so here she was.

     Konoe had arrived with Xiaomu. While the latter was riding on a lightcycle, she simple flew through the air next to her under her own power. "So, that's Scion...?" She asked, mostly rhetorically. Based on what she's heard, she sincerely doubted that she would last very long in a straight up melee, so instead, she elected to function as support.

     Without missing a beat, Konoe followed Xiaomu along, occasionally tossing out ofuda along the perimeter that her senior was setting up, reinforcing it with spiritual power. "Let's hope they keep him busy long enough for us to complete this." The miko spoke plainly, watching the conflict from afar as they worked.

Shigure has posed:
    Kuma and Shigure break starboard, transforming to their Land fit-outs as they hit the shore, sprinting up and onto dry land. Nowaki, being the slowest of the three, doesn't quite make it before the beam cuts through her hull as she's making a hard break to port. The armour buckles, the beam cuts straight through, and the destroyer detonates violently as her magazine goes up.

    A bright light forms around the wreckage, as it coasts up to rest on the shoreline, and the battered, blackened form of Nowaki lays there.

    "Tch.. Nowaki's down, beached. Kuma and Shigure, approaching to weapons range, kuma!" sounds the Cruiser, as her turret traverses, elevates, then opens fire, adding smaller 14cm shells to a second volley from Yamashiro, over the horizon. Chitose recalls the first wave, while simultaneously launching a second, the harsh hiss-thunk of her catapults echoing across the ocean. "Keep up the pressure! He has a limit, we just have to find it."

Maya has posed:
So the time had come they had to corner Sicon and end him really. She knows how serious things are and Maya's now made ready. She had her deck with her rifle was acrtoss her back and the magic was already flaring up she'd saved likely some people yesterdya but event hen many of them would not really be up for the matter Maya however she'd also not come alone Runner was along. She'd lept out of a transport wings flaring out through her cloak not seeming to be botehred by it as she's moving to fly in and enage. Runner just drops to the ground leaving an impact crater then lets out a mechanical howl and is charing right at Scion, Maya doesn't even need to say sick em, Runner knows this is a /bad man/ in it's world view.

Reina Kinney has posed:
    "Oh Falz NO!" Reina exclaims as she gets fired upon by the beams which split quickly and then even faster than before. "I can't believe this is happening!" She adds as she attempts some acrobatic maneuevers in hopes of keeping her craft from being shot down. "I can't believe what I've gotten myself into this time!" Once Reina recovers from the aerobatic maneuvers, she tries to steady herself and get a sense of where she's facing now. "That thing is gonna see what I'm capable of now!"

    Bringing up the targetting systems, Reina attempts to find the Scion. "Come to mama," She says sarcastically. Once she gets the Scion in her sights, Reina opens fire with a short burst of laser gunfire.

Dorian Pavus (774) has posed:
    In this case, 'stagger' is quite literal. The immense power that Dorian's initial magical sensing comes in contact with quite literally makes him stumble back against one of the ruined crafts. "...Maker's breath," he mutters. It takes him a moment to get his bearings again. That is a LOT of power, and he's not sure he's going to be able to do anything about it at his level.

    Not that he'd admit he's outclassed, mind.

    With the cautionary words over the radio though, Dorian needs to do whatever he can do NOW, before the possibility that his magic is unavailable to him. He braces himself for another 'punch', as he called it over the radio, and sends a magical bolt at that 'well', those 'shards'.

    Scion's power is not magic -- it's foreign enough that he hopes it isn't going to just make him stronger. It's pure magic from the Fade, unshaped into anything so concrete as fire or lightning. A 'conceptual' bolt, if you will, and as large a bolt as Dorian can manage on such short notice. Already he's starting to hear the whispers, the presences of Things That Should Not Be, particularly not in his head. Hopefully he won't end up possessed...

Toph Beifong (20) has posed:
    The earth shakes from all the attacks, with shells, bullets, bombs, the raging fire... and also from Scion himself. It's a good thing she can keep her distance for now. Especially when Scion sends a beam into the ground. This forces Toph to stop her attack as she has to focus on keeping the earth around her stable and to prevent herself from getting utterly crushed, and she winces as part of the tunnel collapses around her, some earth and rocks falling down around her. Ow ow ow...! Damn Scion!

    But now that she's closer, she can also sense something. Dragon's wrecked dragon craft. Hey, if it's broken, then that means that Dragon won't be able to use it, right? And if so, they could be of use to /her/!

    Okay, it's time to show Scion a different type of bending.

    Toph rubs her hands together, a solemn look on her face as she confers with the radio just to get permission from Dragon and to make sure that the craft are indeed useless to her now, and she can't help but grin just slightly. "Come to mama!"

    Some of the metal on the field clatter on the ground, seemingly moving on its own. Then there's more of them. It's a faint warning, but it might be missed if Scion has his hands full, which is what Toph is counting on. Then suddenly there's the creaking of metal as one of the dragon craft rises into the air, tearing up as it flies through the air towards Scion, peeling off as parts of it seeks to wrap itself around him. His eyes, his mouth, his limbs and torso, strip after metal strip flies at him as if by magic.

Frederica (73) has posed:
    Well, Frederica did want to get Golden Boy's attention. Seems she has that. She focusses her own power, feeding it with her anger and the fear of attracting the notice of such a powerful being. When his beam lances out at her, she's ready. She meets it with a flaming bolt.

    She realizes quickly that he's not hitting her with a huge attack, that it's a pinpoint one. She realizes it just in time to save her life. Her own power narrows, focusses, strikes the golden beam. Part of it is engulfed, part deflected. Her power isn't as strong as Scion's of course, but she's maintaining it with her will while his beam is something he fired then neglected. Mostly it's enough to stop the golden bolt... but even mostly isn't as good as entirely.

    Frederica shrieks as the golden bolt strikes her. Well, not her exactly but Salamandra. It's the same thing, except the damage is all in her mind rather than tearing through her body. Still a bad thing for a psychic. She falls to the ground, Salamandra extinguishing in a smokeless whuff.

Xiaomu (707) has posed:
Xiaomu glances towards Scion a couple of times, partly to make sure the circle remains centered on him, partly to see if anything is being directed her way as anything more than saturation fire. So far, it seems, she's lucky in that regard - maybe she's too far away to register, maybe Scion's got too much on his plate with enemies closer to him than a high-speed Xiaomu ... heck, maybe there's just enough residual energy clinging to her from last night that Scion's mistaking Xiaomu for something of 'himself'.

Or itself, as the case may be.

Konoe's support is certainly welcome, though - Xiaomu would have a LOT of trouble setting this up entirely on her own; the last time she did anything close, Reiji was right there with her, and the situation lent itself better to a properly elaborate 'inscription' across the battlefield. Here? All she can really do is 'draw' the outmost circle and set up the matrix to fill itself in - which is where Konoe's help is vital; the neko-miko knows her binding spells.

Xiaomu runs out of time to think at length about what she's doing in a few seconds, though; the start of the circle is coming up ahead of her. "Break off, Konoe, thanks!" the sage fox calls out, followed by a warning to her allies via radio ... and then slews the lightcycle into a turbo-powered drift to connect the last bit of the <span class=" bold_bg_y fg_n ++ ircle.

    "chy">SAGE FOX SORCERY -- BIG DEMON GATE SEAL!!!</span>"

And Scion is as big as 'demons' come, she reflects as she channels her power and her will into enacting the sealing circle that she's tried to establish. If this works JUST RIGHT, it should slam the door on Scion's access to all of that power he uses; if it works but not exactly as intended, then other magic-users are going to find their external mana supply VERY sharply limited as well.

And if it just up and outright fails? She wasted time and energy working on that perimeter, and is probably going to be ionized for her trouble when Scion figures out what she was trying to do, if it even gets his attention.

Tesla Armadia (368) has posed:
As Scion turns towards it and fires, the Pangolinger raises its arms in front of itself at Tesla's command and the array panels snap open with the gridwork within them already glowing. The golden beam bends up and then comes crashing straight down... but still slams into the barrier as the energy shield is projected around the mecha as a whole. Who would be dumb enough to make a shield that only protects in the front, right?

"You're hardly the only one that can play with forcefields." Though once the attack has passed the field is dismissed, the ducts beneath some of the 'spines' on its back venting out spent coolant. After seeing what the 'stilling' did last time, Tesla knows not to risk getting too close with her warmachine unless necessary.

But that just means she's prepared for a long-distance fight. This time the cannon that deploys over the right shoulder opens up and starts to charge, almost like a railcannon would... except those with senses for magic would notice the energy spiking within the weapon to be more than just technological, the weapon designed to draw power from the supernatural as well as scientific.

Normally Tesla didn't dip too much into the mystic side of things, but desperate times call for desperate measures.

The cannon fires, hurtling a hypervelocity projectile charged with supernatural energies at Scion, aiming at being too fast for him to completely still in time and the combination of magic and machine something he's not going to expect.

Staren has posed:
    Staren smiles and starts to pump a fist in victory -- kinetic force alone works even better than he hoped it would! But then Scion is counterattacking. Staren doesn't know these /aren't/ the boring beams that nearly went through him, so he takes evasive action. He aborts the landing he was going for and overshoots the battlefield, a sonic boom rattling the area a split-second later. Staren launches some missiles, hoping that the plasma blasts might have a scattering effect on the beams. When they turn out to be /exploding/ beams, so much the better!

    Staren loops around. Toph said she might have a way to slow Scion down. He can teleport, but perhaps the distraction will work all the same: Staren fires another stream of hypersonic metal as he approaches again... if he can just get the whole stream on target...

    Staren wonders how long it would take to wear away at the real Scion's energy reserves this way. In a robot body, Staren won't get tired, but... He only has so many missiles, and sooner or later Scion will do the teleport-boring-beams combo... Ah, but they have Teacher's secret weapon today. Maybe, if things get that far, it will be able to finish Scion off before the golden man realizes it's too late...

    For now, they just have to keep fighting. Keep wearing him down.

Defiant (554) has posed:
    Scion is breathing heavily. Or appears to be, given that it is unlikely that he actually needs to breathe. However, the human body that he has created to fit in, to pretend to be human as best he can, is breathing heavily. It probably says more about the strain on him than anything else, having to deal with threats that can actually hurt him.

     However, his true self is safe. No matter what happens, he can't be killed. He'll take these new shardless threats apart, just as he would the others!

     In a certain sense, he made this world. And what he made, he can unmake. Scion takes hold of a whirling tornado of a cape called Ash Beast, and blasts him to pieces.

     He's turning to engage another, when Kuma's next way of artillery hits home. Bombs, shells, they all cause Scion enough of a headache that he teleports again. And he's still taking a second to restore his avatar - one arm in ragged tatters - when he appears a few hundred feet to the left. He's hurting.

     As Runner closes the gap in leaps and bounds, Scion charges to meet the construct. With golden energy around his hands, Scion reaches down to try and rip the mechanised guardian apart!

     However, Runner's saving grace might come from the sheer level of firepower that is being directed at Scion. Laser bolts from Reina pepper his form, burning right through in places. Tesla's railgun takes off most of his head, golden matter flying in all directions. Toph's metal seeks to bind him, and Scion channels his power inward, seeking to burn through the metal and free himself. But with his power directed towards him, he's not blasting outwards. And then Lung, of all capes, steps in - and unleashes a gout of flame on the metalbound Scion, turning the prison into an impromptu furnace!

     Bound as he is, Scion can't hope to eade Staren's next railgun shot. It blasts apart metal and sends golden matter flying in all directions as it rips through the avater bound beneath.

     There's a clap of thunder and Scion vanishes into the air, bits of molten metal still melted into his golden form, giving him an even more monstrous appearance. Golden light suffuses his wounds. And then, Scion raises his hands. He brings them together with a resounding clap...

Defiant (554) has posed:
     ...and everything goes still. The invisible field spreads out from Scion, through the air, along the ground. Wind stops, movement stops, brain activity /stops/, everything is stopped as the energy just goes elsewhere.

     And then the stilling field stops.

     Scion pauses. It's hard to read him because his body language is just as much of a fiction as the form itself, but something seems to be wrong. The stilling power was stopped before it really managed to wreak havoc.

     Because Xiaomu just slammed that conduit shut, denying the avatar its power source. But it doesn't blink out of existence, because it still has what it had managed to draw from. But the fact that his power stopped... that's a clear sign that someone has just gone wrong for the golden man. He hovers above the exact centre of Xiaomu's mystical trap and radiates nothing but /rage/.

     Dorian, recovering from taking the hit right in the magic, gets a good look from his vantage point. He can feel the conduit snap closed, although the colossal world-shaking Entity is still there. Could it restore the conduit? Maybe. But for now, the golden man is truly vulnerable - which means he'll be distracted from protecting his well. Too much on his plate. So, as Dorian hits the well-entity with that bolt, he gets the feeling that it /hurt/. Maybe it is compressed space or something along those lines, but the bolt seems like it did far more damage to the entity that it should. Or perhaps it is because the Entity is just as much a concept in some respects. He's in a unique spot, Dorian - can he summon up enough power to burn the Entity down, or can he open up enough of a gateway for Defiant to get his shot in? Or, perhaps, a gateway for everyone else to do the same.

     After all, if Scion is an entity of conflict and war, surely co-operation is his antithesis?

Konoe Kanno (847) has posed:
     Konoe broke off as Xiaomu ordered, flying up and back, out of the way of the impending seal.

     She watched the battle, producing several arrays of ofuda that floated in the air in a cloud around her. They began to glow a pure white. Someone had requested aid. She eyed the battlefield, taking her eyes off Scion for now. The others were attacking.

     Ah, there she was.

     Pointing in that direction, several fuda burst into white magic particles, and then flew towards Frederica, washing over her with a soothing healing light. It should deal with the headache, as well as any minor wounds.

     From there, she spread her arms and her seals all took on a red glow. "Disperse." Much like before, they burst into red magic particles, and then proceeded to fan out across to all who were fighting, bolstering their weapons and firepower with spiritual reinforcement. It should help increase the power of their attacks for a short time.

     That done, Konoe stayed back to watch.

Tesla Armadia (368) has posed:
That was it. Scion was pushed to his limit, he was forced into a corner. He had to try and break free of being trapped like a rat.

At Dragon's warning Tesla hits the mecha's jump-boosters, launching itself into the air. It couldn't exactly fly, but the Pangolinger could reach enough altitude... maybe... maybe not.. shit maybe this wasn't so smart, if the stilling power hits it in mid-air it might--

--And then the effect is gone. For a brief moment at the fringe of the attack the jump-jets stop, the electricity in every circuit and servo ends... but then flare right back on to slow the mecha's drop back to Earth as Xiamou succeeds in cutting the connection and the stilling field looses its primary source of power.

Even with some emergency braking the Pangolinger lands pretty heavily, having to brace itself with one arm to absorb more of the recoil.

"Now, while he is vulnerable. Before a link can be re-established." Tesla directs the other arm towards Scion, and fires off the clawed hand at him. But it's not a ROCKET PUNCH. Rather the claw-hand is aimed to GRAB Scion. Because, you see that tether its on? As soon as it connects, Tesla lives up to her name and sends a few hundred thousand megavolts of electricity screaming down the connection towards the avatar, when theoretically he won't have the power to pull his stopping trick on it.

Could also be Tesla trying to stop Scion from turning on Xiamou to break her seal.

Shigure has posed:
    Kuma doesn't do well against air targets, that's what she has Shigure for, after all. The stilling power makes Kuma freeze in place, for a moment. "Guh, what was that, kuma!?" she grouses, staring up at Scion.

    Shigure looks up too, but she can fight against air targets. Arms sweep back, and grab her backpack. The left side cannon looks a little, odd, compared to the right side. It's multiple barrels, making it seem more like a large gattling gun. "CIWS System online. Tracking." she murmurs, her eyes blazing brilliantly blue. She takes aim, and the left cannon spins up, spitting a torrent of 20mm slugs at Scion. The right cannon fires more traditional shells, exploding in a flak burst around him, showering the Golden Man in shrapnel.

    Chitose launches a third wave, these ones only sporting their Machine Guns, no bombs as Scion is in the air. They're not built for an air battle, but they can still do so.

    "Load Type Three shells. Elevation to maximum." commands Yamashiro, her turrets elevating to target the flying Golden Man. The resonant clanks of her cannons reloading herald the reports that follow, the 35.6cm cannons spitting out special shells that explode into a shower of molten magnesium and tungsten, saturating the airspace that Scion currently occupies.

Xiaomu (707) has posed:
So the good news is, the Big Demon Gate Seal is working exactly as intended: Scion's lost his energy source, the Entity that projected 'him' has lost contact with Scion, and none of Xiaomu's magic-using allies seem to have lost THEIR magic in the course of it.

The bad news is that maintaining a *normal* Demon Gate Seal takes Xiaomu's full attention. This one is going to take all of her attention AND most of her energy to hold up for any length of time. Xiaomu's already pulled her staff off her back and jabbed the butt end into the ground next to her, to tap whatever she can draw from the local leylines; her right hand is poised in front of her, not in the splay-fingered pose she usually holds for projecfing, but in an onmyoji sorcerer's incantation-pose as she focuses almost on holding the barrier in place.

She can also feel Scion's rage from here, which is a damn good reason (in her book) not to get any closer or split her attention any further than she absolutely must. Talking is about the most she can do right now; if Scion actually musters an attack to throw at her, her attempt to dodge WILL come at the cost of the seal collapsing, whether she escapes or gets oblitereated on the spot.

Reina Kinney has posed:
    Reina smiles as things are starting to take effect, only to feel like her mind is going crazy. She holds her head and struggles not to lose control of her craft. "What the hell is happening?!" She finds herself going into a brief nose dive before pulling herself back up. "Ugh... this is not good!" She finally gets control back.

    "Trying to recalculate," Reina says as she regains mental control.

Frederica (73) has posed:
    Frederica hardly needs Tesla's encouragement to continue fighting, but it's not like she WANTS to continue fighting. She feels like she just had a golden beam, a killing weapon, tear straight through her head. This more or less happened, except of course it only tore through her mind. If the beam had lasted another second, it would have taken Frederica out of the fight entirely, flat out unconscious or comatose. More than that second, it might have penetrated when her power went down, killing her. Luckily for her, her allies distracted Scion, cutting his attack short.

    To all outward signs, Frederica's pretty nearly uninjured. She looks perhaps a little bloodied about the face from some non-obvious injury, but not actually hurt. The headache... well, she wasn't exactly exaggerating when she called it a killer headache. She glances up as Konoe sends ofuda her way. She smiles in appreciation, the pain and damage reduced to a more manageable level. It'll allow her to focus, to more easily direct the power she can gather.

    She doesn't engulf herself in fire this time. This time she's not interested in drawing attention to her flame projection, nor does she need to worry about defense. "Pyro Queen!" she cries out, wincing at her own volume. "Flame lance!"

    The flame lance is another ballistic pillar of flame, similar to what the fire elemental 'breathed'. About the same power too. She doesn't have the volume of fire she commands when using the fire elemental avatar, but she's focussed her intent more narrowly. The lance of flame is narrower, but packs about the same energy into that smaller strike.

Staren has posed:
    OH SHOOT TIMESTOP FIELD and Staren's careening right for it! He tries to air brake, but it's no good...

    And then the field stops. The Star Hawk is still slowing down, transforming to hybrid mode. Scion's still where he was. What did he do?? The lost time... only seconds? Did his allies stop the field somehow?

    Better than that, they cut the avatar off from the entity! So someone figured out how to do it...

    Time to finish this. The Star Hawk transforms to humanoid mode as it lands, drawing out the Annihilator again.

    Staren wonders if Scion can make another avatar. He wonders if maybe the avatar has become its own person... but that moral quandary is settled when someone mentions that this is temporary and a connection might be reestablished. Right then.

    Staren fires.

Dorian Pavus (774) has posed:
    Dorian senses the feedback from the hit. That's what he was waiting for, seeing if he could sense the ripples of...well, it could be called 'pain', but not exactly. Close enough. But he can 'follow' those ripples back to its source, as Xiaomu's spell slams the conduit between the Entity and its avatar closed.

    It almost reminds him of the Breach, but closed to protect something on the other side rather than opened to let something in from the other side. But regardless, he knows where it is now. So he can attack it.

    Or, well...he can when the threat of death isn't imminent in the next few seconds! Perhaps the staging area isn't under direct threat of being 'Stilled', but Dorian's not going to take any chances. He backs off until that golden energy is stopped. Only then does he retake his place. Even he can feel that rage from the golden avatar, and the power behind it. Quite frankly, it's frightening. He wants to run. Oh he wants so much to run, take cover, and find somewhere safe. But no. It pride wins out. No one is going to call Dorian Pavus a coward, not while he draws breath!

    And so he reaches again to that place where those ripples of 'pain' came from. He grips the haft of the serpent-headed staff tightly, concentrating his focus on the inset 'eyes' of magical focus crystals. He aims the serpent-headed staff upwards, but he's 'aiming' the focus in the direction of the place where that pain came from. He doesn't just shoot through. He bends the magic of the Fade, to try to 'grasp' the well and 'pull'. He doesn't know if it's going to work. But he's going to try.

    What Dorian doesn't know is that there ARE circumstances affecting his magic, but they're not anything to do with Xiaomu's seal. The Breach in Thedas opens that world -- and its people -- more to the Fade, meaning the Fade has a greater influence. Fewer restrictions. Conceptual magics that have been impossible before are possible. He may learn this in time.

    For now, however, Dorian throws every bit of magic power he can summon up, trying to force the gate to that Entity open so others can attack it. Or if nothing else, to make it VISIBLE so it can be targeted. This amount of magic doesn't come without a cost. The whispers become stronger, now murmured promises and offers of the impossible. He can almost feel another's hands on his arms, coaxing him to relax, to accept help...but he ignores them for now, focusing on the magic he's trying to weave. But who knows how long he can hold out...?

Toph Beifong (20) has posed:
    Underground, Toph is doing her damn best to keep the metal where it needs to be, but it's not easy with how Scion is just refusing to acknowledge that he can't win this! Though when Lung steps in and heats the metal up, and well, that makes it a bit harder to keep on bending it as it begins to lose its earthen quality.

    When he teleports Toph curses, slamming her hands onto the floor of her tunnel as she waits, her senses open as she searches for any sign of where Scion went. Now, the stilling field effect isn't something she understands, though the others are right. It's time to focus their attacks even further! And well, Toph has to admit that she's a bit sick of hiding.

    When Tesla fires off the hand at Scion, Toph takes the chance as she throws her arms aside, opening the earth as she launches herself up and out of the ground. And while she's in the air she uses her bending to reach out to more of the discarded dragon craft in the area. The metal heeds the blind girl's bidding, tearing off in pieces as they all fly towards Toph, wrapping themselves around the girl just as she crashes down to the ground, landing in a wide stance before she rises up again. She might not have a mecha, but how about large metal armour in layers? Due to the size however it looks more like a ten foot tall metal golem, lacking a head as it's mostly a large torso with big bulking arms and legs that creak with every movement.

    Then, the metal golem rushes forward as its left leg moves forward, and it rushes forward. And while she does so, Toph spreads her arms out to the sides, causing more of the metal strewn about the battlefield to rise up into the air as she rushes by, launching one after one of them towards Scion. Though she keeps some distance for now while the others are dropping bombs and whatnot around Scion.

Maya has posed:
With Sicon rampaing even if he's worn down she knows that he's got his weakness. Runner meanwhile is quite an angry thing Sicon moves to get close and it's grapples moving to try and bring it's jaws down on Sicon's body and if it does it will fire off it's beam canon while it's holding on to him. It doesn't seem to heed the danager or unerstand it's hard to tell. Or maybe Runner doesn't care but it's a stubborn thing.

Maya meanwhile is tracking everyone else as they move in, she's starting to channel magic. She sees Xiaomu do her thing heck she can feel it she tracks Tesla going in and Toph's creative use of metal bending is spotted it's.

she channels there's a massive flare up of blue fire Maya draws more and her hair dances in an unseen wind, she contiunes to channel lobbing not one card up into the air but three of them, one blue, one green and one red. They start glowing and leeching off the fire about Maya's and there's something strange going on with gravity right now as Maya looks at Sicon long and hard.

"You have long planted this harvest and the time has come to reap it Sicon. You end here, your rampage across who knows how many worlds is at an end."

Then more energy is craking and there's a lack of light forming about Sicon. Those who can sense it or maybe just being closing might sense the force of Gravity is rapidly getting stronger, oddly it's not harming any allies of Maya.

It keeps going what seems to be a black hole is forming it's seeking to draw in Sicon to devour him whole. Maya's spell won't hold him forever but can light even escape from such a thing, the strain on Maya is clear as she's keeping the spell forcused on one target namely Sicon.

Defiant (554) has posed:
    Konoe's magic heralds the surge of capes and Elites. Chevalier is there, leading the charge, his massive cannonblade held in two hands. Scion opens fire, and Chevalier meets it with the flat of the weapon. It melts and burns but doesn't annihilate the Protectorate leader - and that says more about Scion's sudden loss of power than anything else.

    Maybe he can sense it, maybe - on some level - Scion knows that Xiaomu is responsible. He leaps away from Chevalier, but gets snared by Tesla. A few hundred thousand megavolts rip into him, causing him to shudder in her grip, before his right hand extends out like a blade and he goes to sever the tether. He's lacking power, but he's still strong, fast, and able to project what power that remains precisely as he chooses.

     Still on the move, Scion walks right into Shigure's fusilade. Shrapnel embeds into his flesh and isn't rejected by his restoration power. One of the tungsten shells nails Scion in the side, blowing away much of his side. He drops back to the ground - despite the grievous wound, that arm can still function properly. Scion blasts away indiscriminately - whatever power he has left, it's still enough to do /that/.

     Frederica oepns up with an inferno, and that lance severs what remains of Scion's arm. The golden man, for a moment, /gapes/ as his arm hits the ground and /shatters/.

     He's still in apparent shock as Staren blasts him from above with the Annihilator. The attack nails Scion from above, driving him to the ground - unable to simply shrug off physics as he had been so accustomed too. The energy of the weapon rips through him, burning away simulated skin and muscle. Like an Endbringer, the closer one gets to the 'core', the tougher he becomes. A golden skeleton, flesh in tatters - but the face, it still wears that terrible expression...

     Above it all, indistinct and hard to see, Dorian forces the greater bulk of the Entity to become visible. Colossal, huge, the thing there shifting like the sleeping movements of a great crystalline comet-worm, pulled into view by Dorian's magic, jamming open the door to the Entity responsible for Scion. Responsible for so many things, for a cycle that guarenteed violence and suffering to prolong its own existence.

Defiant (554) has posed:
     The broken Scion picks himself up, golden light trying to patch up what little damage it can. He goes hand to hand with Toph's improvised golem-armor but where his punches once demolished Endbringers and shattered people, they're strong - but not strong enough. The golden light chews through the armor where it hits, but not fast enough. And when Chevalier steps in with his cannonblade, when Dragon swoops in the armored hulk of a dragoncraft and takes a chunk out of him with titanium teeth, when dozens of capes turn their powers on Scion alongside the abilities of the Elites...

     He can't keep up. Scion stops.

     With his hope gone, his mate gone, the cycle annihilated... He stops trying to dodge, he stops trying to fight. He can't - or won't - dodge whatever comes next.

     And so, Maya catches the golden avatar in a black hole. Gravity tears at him and the golden light stretches out to some infinite point in the singularity, his body twisting and contorting and Scion falls- and he falls- and he falls- And he's gone, devoured.

     Somewhere else, Defiant pulls the trigger. The dimensional cannon roars to life and a great beam of incandescent fury strikes the well. The beam /scours/ the Entity, chain-reactions booming to life. For as long as Dorian can maintain it, Defiant will pour the combined work of a hundred Tinkers into the Entity. A great coruscating lance directed into the nexus of power.

     Dead fragments of the Entity rain from the dimensional gate, showering the ground.

     The cannon shuts off, out of power. Everything is quiet. It takes a few moments for people to realise what's happened. Scion is gone and he hasn't returned. Capes stand around, staring at each other, all of the survivors taking stock of the battlefield, seeing it for themselves.

     Scion - the Warrior - is gone.

     It's over.

Shigure has posed:
    Shigure begins singing softly. "Rise up at the first break of morning light..." her eyes grow hard. "In silence I observe, and listen to the sea for answers, this map of memories will lead the way, to places undiscovered."

    Yamashiro chimes in, adding to the harmony. "Hold out the night, I will remember, taking lead." Chitose adds. "And make it out alive." Kuma, "Just you watch me, kuma!"

    Nowaki groans, but adds in. "We make our mistakes, some we all regret. We learn the hard way, the price of our carelessness."

    All five are singing in harmony by now. "Dream away, set out, the road is long. Through pain, and heartache, the long gone. Journey on from sea to sea to overcome our sorrows."

    "No matter if currents pull us undersea and everything collides. I know your words are all I need. "Don't worry, we'll hurry home."" The girls turn their weapons on Scion, aiming, correcting, loading their heaviest shells. Timing it just right. "And even if waves overturn our ship, we will survive. I will lay eyes on bluer seas, where they shine, you and I will go. Imagine the future we long for and." It's over. The girls stand down, and finish their song. "Take control."

Xiaomu (707) has posed:
And just like that, it's over. Scion is obliterated, the entity is blown out of the heavens by Defiant's megacannon, debris showers down from the dead alien ...

And with a sigh of relieved exhaustion, Xiaomu topples off her lightcycle, thumping onto the ground. Is there grass? There should be grass. Maybe there's grass, maybe there's just bare dirt.

"We did it," Xiaomu breathes. Then shifts her grip on the staff so she can hold it upright and not look, y'know, like she might be dying. Her barrier collapsed just around the time Defiant pulled THE TRIGGER, so there might be some grounds for confusion; she'd just as soon clear it up.

Her staff now vertical (while Xiaomu is mostly horizontal), she thumps the staff's butt on the ground next to her a couple of times, making the rings on its headpiece jingle. "Thank all of the heavens ..."

Tesla Armadia (368) has posed:
It's kind of funny seeing a mecha flop down on it's metal rump like an exhausted child, but that's exactly what the Pangonlinger does when Tesla slumps in her chair in the cockpit. It's what happens when you're directly controlling such a machine with your mind after dealing with Scion puts you through tremendous paces. Tesla is exhausted, considering she didn't have long to recover from the last fight, either.

All the same, the machine cocks its head up to look at the bits of elderitch interdimensional monster flitting down to the ground.

Then lowers its gaze back to the ground, holding up a clawed finger with the remaining hand it has as Tesla remarks over the external speakers. "I just want to take a moment to remind people not to get any sappy ideas. I only helped because I still have plans to pursue in this world."

Or so goes the evil mastermind's claims, at least.

Reina Kinney has posed:
    The Scion is obliterated, and Reina would give a fist pump and a cheer. But she doesn't, instead only frowning with a grim look on her face. "Was that really all there was to it?" She comments. "Something didn't feel right about this fight." She shakes her head. "I don't get it. Why... how..." She shakes her head again, realizing she's babbling a little. "Well, as long as the mission is taken care of."

Konoe Kanno (847) has posed:
     "......"

     Konoe heaved a sigh and descended from the air, landing onto the ground, next to Xiaomu with a soft tap. She looked on at the proceedings quietly.

     After a few moments, she spoke. "...Good job, Xiaomu-san." And she glanced at her senior, smiling slightly. "At least you didn't try to drain it again."

     Xiaomu would never live any of that down.

     Ever.

Dorian Pavus (774) has posed:
    The amount of magic Dorian's using is too much for him to contain. He wonders silently, how is it possible that he's drawing so much? Desperation? Or was he really this powerful?

    He can't hear the battlefield anymore, can't see it. Scintillating green blurs together with the real world, making visual distinction between the two impossible. He feels the hands on his arm now, can see them. Hears clearly the voice of something otherworldly in his ear, coaxing him to relax, to take a break.

    "No," he says firmly. He doesn't even know if he's said it out loud or not. "Not yet... not 'till..." He trails off.

    Dorian feels the Entity die in that he senses the aim of his power disappear. And once it does, he lets go of the magic, releases the pull. {Now you can relax, can't you?} It's his voice, but it's not his voice. It's not him. It's something else...

    To all present Dorian just seems to collapse. His legs go out from under him abruptly, and he sits down hard. His hands fall to his sides. He remains silent. He's not looking at anything, his eyes are unfocused. Dorian Pavus is out of contact, it seems. Physically he's fine though.

Toph Beifong (20) has posed:
    Well, if he wants to fight her head on, now's the time! Toph adapts a wide stance when Scion, broken but still dangerous, and she lets out a roar that echoes inside the layers of metal as she punches out at him, aiming for his face. Or whatever's left of it at this point. The punches he delivers hurt, denting the metal and the impact travels into the centre of the metal golem, and the golden light might not make it all the way through, but it still hurts. Luckily it seems like their combined efforts seems to prevail, as Scion steps down...?

    Maya's magic isn't something Toph can see, but she can feel the effect it has on Scion however, and she quickly rushes back. Noah. And then there's the sound of Defiant firing the cannon. They... did it? As the pieces of the Entity rain down and flop onto the ground however, Toph can't help but make a slight face of disgust inside the golem. Ew, evil creature parts. But what the heck, they did it! The metal golem raises its battered and mostly torn arms as Toph lets out a loud cheer.

Frederica (73) has posed:
    Exhausted by the emotional drain as much as the power she forced into her attacks, Frederica rises to her feet and staggers forward. Her eyes bloodshot, she stares at where Scion was. Where the golden man was, and where the interdimensional slug came through and was destroyed.

    She sighs. After all that... well, the crisis has been averted. Probably. For now. "You know... Dragon's right." she claims, a faint grin peeking through her disheveled mess of a face.

Staren has posed:
    Oh-ho! Staren can't help smirking as he watches what everyone's attacks can do to Scion /without/ that regeneration power, /without/ the kinetic resistance they were already starting to overcome! And then... Scion gets /crushed/ by a black hole. Staren winces. At least it was quick.

    Staren gasps and his eyes widen, even though right now he's looking out through the mecha's sensors as the THING that is really Scion, the 'entity', becomes visible. Is it just a vision, or can they attack it?

    The capes' superweapon answers that question.

    Scion is dead.

    Staren looks at where the golden man was killed, thoughtfully. He replies to Reina. "All there was to it? A huge toll was taken the past week. And then... we found the right way to punch him. That's usually how it goes with a lot of things in the Multiverse. When they don't fall to straightforward punching... You just have to figure out the right /way/ to punch it. The end comes pretty quickly after that."

    The mecha strides over to one of the fallen entity-pieces. Staren's just too curious, you don't often get to examine parts of an extradimensional entity!

Defiant (554) has posed:
     It's a victory. Once people seem to realise what's happened, they celebrate. A few of the Elites get a lot of surprise hugs and praise. The world was just saved - and people are heady with that thought.

     Dragon, back in her humanoid body, finds Dorian. She kneels by him, scans him briefly. Physically, he's fine. Mentally? "Dorian?" Dragon asks gently with that Newfoundland twang, "Can you hear me?"

     To Staren, the broken shards appear to be silent and without energy. As dead as the Entity that comprised their greater being.

Shigure has posed:
    Kuma lets out a sigh, signals the others then returns to the shoreline, where Nowaki is huddled in a lttle ball of 'owwie'. The white haired destroyer looks up from her knees as Kuma approaches. "Come on, kuma. Lets get you to the docks, kuma." she says, before scooping the smaller girl up, and kicking off into the water. Chitose closes to the shore, retriving her floatplanes with rapid work of her crane arms. She then transforms and stands a silent vigil in the middle of the bay.

    Yamashiro casts a disembodied look at Shigure, as she makes the multi-football field sized turn back out to sea.

    Shigure watches her friend go with Kuma and Nowaki, casts an eye to Chitose... before she's suddenly mobbed by giddily happy capes. "U-Um..." she squeaks, blushing brightly at the attention.

Toph Beifong (20) has posed:
    Well, they can celebrate properly later. For now Toph tears her way out of the golem, wincing a bit as her cuts and bruises do hurt. But then again the blind girl isn't the type to complain about scratches and injuries unless they are serious. They need to gather up the pieces and the shards, and so Toph begins walking around the field, kicking the ground to send the various pieces flying all towards the same spot, raining down into one of the craters. Touching them might not be the best idea, and hey, this is quicker and more fun.

    "You guys all right?" she asks of the others as she walks around, looking rather cheerful despite her injuries.

Tesla Armadia (368) has posed:
And admist it all, Tesla's had enough time to recover enough to get the Pangolinger up and moving again... even if it is only to turn and walk away.

The heroes can have their happy ending for now. Mastermind has to get back to masterminding.

Though she might be nice enough to not poke things TOO hard around here. For a little while, at least.

Dorian Pavus (774) has posed:
    Dorian's physically fine, aside from the strain that channeling that much magic caused. That takes the form of sweating, elevated breathing and heartbeat, etc. Much like he'd been running for a long period of time. Dragon might also pick up increased magical output from him, and possibly a signature much like a telepathic contact. Which might explain what's happening.

    Oh he can still hear Dragon. He can hear what's going on around him. But he's currently telling off a demon who's trying to possess him, so he's slightly unresponsive.

    Dragon does get a response out of him, though. "...Mhm...vaguely." Pause. "...Demons," he tries to explain. His usual eloquence and snark is missing at the moment.

    It'll take him a few more moments -- an eternity in the Fade -- until he blinks, hard, and then shakes his head. He looks around, finding Dragon there. Dorian blinks again, as if confused. And then the confusion clears, and he shifts to sit properly, offering a smile. "Do forgive me if I worried you. I'm afraid I had to tell a demon to shove its promises of power up its..." He stops. "Well, never mind that."

    He stands then, though slowly, and he staggers a bit. Once he's standing again, he takes a breath. "Well. That was...something."