4486/Chase of Last Century

Chase of Last Century
Date of Scene:	30 August 2016
Location:	Waterland Desert
Synopsis:	One of Anne Blakely's old inventions goes on a rampage. Staren says the A word in front of Fate.
Cast of Characters:	983, Priscilla, Staren, 134, 560, 996, 219, 255, 1014

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Anne Blakely (983) has posed:
    Arriving on scene is uh... much like the radio transmission. The crab is fortunately slow-moving but methodical, and one claw appears damaged at least. Apparently the air strikes made some progress before being blasted by... well, the weapon doesn't seem to have a VISIBLE beam or anything, but does make a rippling in the air, very faint but catchable by sharp eyes. The crab is VERY large, at least four stories tall.

    Which explains how it is so capable... maybe? But the blasts fired by the /retreating/ tanks are barely making a dent in the armor, even though it appears to be nothing more than some kind of bronze. At least they are slowing it down more, and showing some reasonable tactics. They've obviously switched to trying to give the civilians time to evacuate from the city. They're already in the suburbs of the desert city, which are taking a beating from the battle.

    Except... for the beat-up old jeep that keeps weaving and darting between streets, heaving from out of town toward the crab.

Priscilla has posed:
    Priscilla has heard much about this one. Not the crab, but whom everyone seems to expect is behind it. A little incredulous at the idea of a giant clockwork crustacean threatening a city, she is, nonetheless, facing the fact the minute she arrives and breaks from the warpgate, left staring incredulously, and mildly impressed, that something that complex, and seemingly made of bronze, is eating shells so easily. The nature of its weapon, however, concerns her.

    More importantly, these constructs have been talked about a great deal. Out of some measure of concern, the crossbreed begins closing in through portions of the urban landscape that don't seem to be under attack, cloaking herself in invisibility to avoid the construct's notice for now. She wants to be within an appreciable distance to pick up on the presence of, well, if the crab has a soul(s). There is little else to describe of doing so unseen.

Staren has posed:
    It's a giant enemy crab! Here to attack it's weak point for massive damage is Staren! The Star hawk is flying towards the scene in fighter mode... Staren is tempted to just fire all the missiles. But is that overkill? Then again, a full load of missiles is surely cheap compared to the planes and tanks already being lost here...

    But then, what if it can manifest some force field, making them a waste, or deflect them into the tanks? No, he needs to feel this out first. Once the weak point has been exposed, then he can hit it with everything!

    For now... the Star Hawk lands thousands of feet away, transforming to humanoid mode and unleashing a barrage of railgun fire. "Where did this even come from? I mean... people must have seen it coming, it's a 40-story crab..."

Sakura Haruno (134) has posed:
    Slow moving gives Sakura a chance to get there, hitching a ride in on the ground from the nearest warpgate. This is good, because it gives her time to think of what to do when she gets there. Unfortunately, it's not really ENOUGH time, because by the time she's arrived she still doesn't have a plan better than hitting it and hoping that works.

    The medic will hop out of the car about half a mile short of where the crab is, staring up and watching. "...I guess we could try to find a very large pot of boiling water." She'll say, a bad joke, but her first reaction. She's just planning for now. Really.

Emiya Shirou (560) has posed:
A motorcycle and its rider roll forth from one of the warp gates, make a few turns down the roads... and revv up to INSANE SPEEDS! Truly remarkable speeds far exceeding what appearances would suggest. No ordinary bike should be managing THAT so casually... but it's speeding towards the combat zone!

    EMIYA SHIROU parks his bike atop a hill overlooking the mess and immediately CRINGES.

    "What the hell IS that thing?" The magus asks nobody in particular, color draining from his face. Can he even make a difference against anything THAT SIZE?

    It's going to take him a bit to figure out a strategy. For now, he observes...

Fate Testarossa (996) has posed:
"Bardiche." Fate Testarossa whispers gently to the golden medallion clasped in her hands. Before she can ask, the Device knows what she wants.

"No sir." Bardiche buzzes, the mechanical tone firm.

"Bardiche, please." The child asks again, voice strained, eyes heavy-lidded and bleary, making her faithful battle companion pause before automatically running through a list of potential disturbances worth investigating. "Yes sir." The Device hesitantly relents, displaying news reports and varied findings. She picks one at random before shuffling to the rooftop of her high rise apartment.

With a flare of lightning she's gone and... It is a very haggard Fate Testarossa that appears, perched on the roof of one of the taller suburban houses with a clap of thunder, already in her Barrier Jacket.

The construction on that crab certainly looks familiar. But the girl pushes the thought from her mind, too focused on several simple thoughts: something like that must have an energy source worth acquiring. She disappointed her mother by attacking Anne Blakely, and now has to work much harder to repair the damage she has done.

"Careful, sir." The black axe in her and buzzes lowly.

"I'll be fine..."

Ariel (219) has posed:
Ariel is coming as well! Galloping along with Al on her back, the unicorn streaks as fast as she can from the warpgate in the city, only skidding to a halt so she can take some cover and get a good idea of what's going on here. Which is... unfortunately pretty obvious. A giant mechanical crab attacking the city? There's not much to say about that!

"... kay. Al, you see if there are any civilians left nearby. Maybe check out the jeep? I'll try to slow it down until we can get organized." Slowing it down is of course going to be harder than it sounds, but she has an idea. Galloping through the streets, she erects brilliant, shinging 'caltrops' of solid mana, designed less to damage the crab - she'd need to put a lot more effort into it to do that - and more to make it hard to move through the area.

Al, meanwhile, slides off to let Ariel do that. "I guess that makes sense." Pages of paper whirl around the silver-haired girl before solidifying into two black, winged forms. The Nightgaunts are too weak to help much in this battle, but they make excellent flying scouts.

Setsuko Kaminagi (255) has posed:
    On most days, Setsuko Kaminagi would be arriving on a hoverbike. Today is not most days. Today, Setsuko lost her bike to a thunderstorm; she's lucky her radio still works at all, let alone well enough to pick up the transmission that brings her here. She's spent the past several minutes trying in vain to get a comm signal out, but only just came close enough to the nearest relay to fire one off. Ah well. It's fine that they know she's coming.

    The warning comes only moments before she erupts out of a cloud, heading straight down towards the city in a power dive; beyond terminal velocity, she's actively pushing herself through the air, straight towards the clockwork crab with an expression seemingly carved from stone. It's another one of Anne's, most likely.

    Setsuko Does Not Like Anne.

Anne Blakely (983) has posed:
    It would be exaggerating to call the crab's march 'mindless' really. More like... undirected? It seems to be stomping through the suburbs and toward the city mainly because it wants to just wreck things, and it doesn't really care much otherwise. It does so with dogged determination though, and is actually identifying the tanks that are causing the greatest problem for it. These get the most of its wrath, and another 'pulse' tears through the air. Looks like the attack is a sonic one.

    Up close, it is more obvious that this machine, though incredibly tough, is an old one. Cobwebs and dust are till present on parts of it, though most of it has moved around enough that it's jostled it free. One of the eyestalks has the eye fogged up, usable but less clear. Of more import is that if it has enhanced senses(it does), they aren't enhanced enough to see through Priscilla's invisibility. She can get close enough to sense that this creation does, indeed, have a soul.

    It also can get annoyed. The railgun fire peppers it, and it looks like this is going to take some doing. It just looks annoyed, though there's some leakage of a silvery lubricant that sprays out from the impact points when it turns toward Staren... and starts to advance, only stumbling with a clatter as one leg gets caught in the caltrop nearest it.

    Well, at least this keeps it off Emiya and Sakura, right?

    Well, better than Setsuko at least. Good thing Setsuko is a demigod, because that giant claw is taking a /swat/ at her. Success is had by the Elites, though! They've... allowing the military to regroup, because the crab is now looking at them.

    Civilians are thankfully few, but there are a family or three that are huddling in the houses. The group will need to either keep the crab away from those, or evacuate them. The jeep, on the other hand, is weaving closer cautiously, and appears to have two men in it, one of whom has a strange speargun.

Setsuko Kaminagi (255) has posed:
    CLANG.

    That's the sound of a giant crab's dusty, battered old claw slamming to a stop against gleaming, pristine steel. Setsuko comes to a complete and total stop in the blink of an eye, and Zanjintou's blade is there to stop the blow in the same heartbeat, the demigod's arms holding steady against the machine. "Whoever or whatever you were, it's time you were laid to rest. I'm sorry." And then, with a tremendous heave, the swordswoman roars and pushes out of the lock.

    She drifts back about a meter in the air, and with a whipping flourish, snaps Zanjintou out to its full size. And then down it comes, swinging the massive blade in a rapid-fire series of powerful strikes intended to bring the crab's guard up - so that she can carve one of those arms off.

    This way, she can keep its attention while the others try to immobilize it.

Fate Testarossa (996) has posed:
Fate watches for a long moment, how the crab ambles, violent and without purpose. She purses her lips. Property and collateral damage aren't her concern but Bardiche pings in her ear as she gears herself up, both mentally and physically for an assault she very well should not be attempting. The Device halts her.

"Sir."

"Mn?"

"People, sir."

Her axe pings, a low chiming sound before bringing up a hologram screen and displaying myriad local lifesigns huddling in houses. She sighs.

The last thing Fate Testarossa wants is for someone to get hurt as a byproduct of her actions. Or inaction. "Alright... Put up a Barrier."

"Yes sir." Bardiche chimes, running through the calculations and formulae to erect a Barrier capable of holding the giant enemy crab within.

There's a pulse of magic... And then the skies darken. A blotting effect adding purples and flat grey patches of rippling color to the sky as a small local radius is engulfed inside a Mid-Childan spell barrier. Non-combatants cease to exist in an instant. Property damage is rendered a moot point, as the entire region is transformed to a 1:1 mock up of itself.

Priscilla has posed:
    Sensing the jeep coming (and not primarily in any mystical way, hearing is a sense), Priscilla makes sure to move so that she can keep it in her field of vision while facing the clockwork crab mecha; not so much to watch it directly, but to be looking if or when it does something strange.

    Having confirmed the unpleasant truth for the others, though predictably her reaction is less severe, she then quickly spaces her way backwards, likely doing so without issue, given a high speed in an arbitrary timeframe. Whatever it takes to get out of lunging range.

    She needs to do this because her next action is something that isn't significantly hidden by invisibility. A cruciform twinkle of light sparks deeper into the suburbs, small but visible from range. So far from the others, the mental 'sound' is very faint; little more than mild ear ringing.

    The purpose of exercising the Eye of Calamity like this, is to brand a kind of supernatural mark onto its essence, usually perceived by others as a fiery, orange eye looking down on it from above. The effect, while it lasts, mysteriously amplifies the damage the recipient receives from others by a very large degree. When faced with such a well armoured enemy, Priscilla hopes that the specialist enhancement will help them crack its shell. It's also worth mentioning that this does apply to the local military, though probably not enough to make their attacks deadly, so much as 'not nearly useless'.

Staren has posed:
    "Yeah, that's it, Crabby! Follow me!" The Star Hawk backs up, for now, continuing firing its gatling railgun bursts to keep the crab's interest, following Ariel and trying to lead it away from civilians and into her caltrops.

Sakura Haruno (134) has posed:
    Sonic attacks are not something Sakura has a ton of experience in stopping; she'd mostly fought against them when very young and very bad at fighting. She's better now, but she'd rather not get blasted with it. As such, she's going to circle around to behind the monstrous crab, trying to come at it stealthily and without warning.

    The stealth part would work better were she not so pink, but the others might distract it. Or maybe crabs are colorblind.

    Either way, Flowers is going to go for one of the legs not otherwise under attack, looking for any particular joint-looking things she can try to kick into disjointedness.

Ariel (219) has posed:
Well that's a start. As Al tells her where the civilians are, Ariel starts to gear up... only for the Barrier to go up. That solves that. The unicorn screeches to a halt and changes tactics. This is going to be... hmm. Let's go with 'run and gun' for this one. Shifting to humanoid form, Ariel bolts off toward the jeep so she can maybe figure out what they're doing here. Along the way, Ithaqua in pistol form manifests, letting her fire off several shots in the general direction of the crab, letting the homing bullets do the work of blasting the mystical shells into the crab's carapace. Mostly, she's going to just add to what the others are doing while moving, trying to get to the jeep to shout.

"HEY! It's dangerous! What are you trying to do?!"

Emiya Shirou (560) has posed:
    After hopping off his bike, Shirou keeps his position on the hill... but is quick to gape and look all around when the barrier swallows up such a fast area from nowhere. "This bounded field style is--?!" He's been in one of these before. Two or three times. And if he remembers right...

    "Some kind of dimensional offsetting... we can go ballistic and nothing'll affect the city. Great thinking, whoever set it up!"

    Now that he's here... and with nobody attacking him... Shirou focuses. "Trace, on."

    Magic Circuits revv into action, power flooding his body and heating him up, quite literally. He glows neatly on infrared if anyone were watching.

    But everyone has way more important things to look at than him right now. Except for that crab.

    If all goes well that crab's about to realize that ignoring him was a mistake.

    Shirou's outstretched hand fills with light. With a noisy little SNAP it fully materializes into a black, over-engineered, Japanese-style bow. All stringed up and ready for use. In his other hand...

    Golden light shines from that palm, slowly stretching outwards. A wave of grainy light slowly fills an invisible mold, some of the light flaking off and fading like fairy dust. But in its wake... a sword's forming.

    A royal blue hilt and dark gold, flat circular pommel. A golden, lightly upswept crossguard with blue etchings and inlaid designs. The guard extends up into the gold-tinged silvery-white blade of the longsword. Words are etched upon the flat... "Whoso pulleth out this sword of this stone is rightwise king of all England." It's a sword of considerable legend. Can the legendary sword in the stone possibly bring down a gigantic monster like that?

    Shirou raises the weapon up, shifts his grip on it... and brings it down across the bow in the kyudo drawing style. As it's being slid down into place the blade glows from within, casting off a glorious golden light. But as it does so, it's twisted up and straightened, the whole mass altering into a far-more aerodynamic shape...

    "I am the bone of my sword." The boy chants, deep in focus.

    The blade of legend, reduced to an unrecognizable arrow, slowly builds up a burning aura of power.

    For now he's only taking aim and readying himself. It'll take a bit.

Heaven's Armory (1014) has posed:
    There is nothing in particular to mark the presence of the spear, Svala, for she is as invisible as everything else Priscilla carries, so long as Priscilla remains invisible. Her alternative mode of presence, the bit that isn't a spear, isn't here, nor anywhere, on account of the significant danger to it posed by giant, clockwork crabs.

    She's humming something to her wielder, a little psychic buzz that carries sentiment more than words. Something about wondering over Fate's barrier and its curious effects. As this is soon explained, though the source is still not visible, her not-words turn to consideration of opportunities posed by lack of collateral damage and the extant rubble she can manipulate, along with possible advantage in gaining height.

Anne Blakely (983) has posed:
    The crab might have sharp senses, but... it's kind of preoccupied with the Star Hawk and Setsuko. With the Eye of Calamity branding it with a searing light, the peppering shots are able to cause loud whistling and grinding to happen. The thing is massive, but it has moving parts in it. These can be damaged, and it is lead right into caltrops thanks to its foggy eye. A stumble here and there is all it takes to slow it down tremendously.

    Setsuko will find that her slices, while shearing off large amounts of plating... well, this isn't normal bronze or steel. It's not a hot knife through butter, it instead /tears/ it, and only smaller chunks fall off. The damage the demigod is doing is significant, but not as immediately incapacitating as it should be. She doesn't even slice off the arm that raises to block! Though there is a HUGE eruption of steam and a loud whining noise as it starts to fall, before a backup system manages to restore limited mobility. Really it just wants to kill things. That's why the next sonic roar blasts out like a rapidly-moving wall toward Setsuko.

    On the upside, punching with super strength DOES work well. Sakura manages to dent savagely one of the legs, and cause it to buckle under. It's not completely disabled, but it causes the crab to lurch some, and flail out with a second leg toward the mednin.

    Ariel's shells are magical and enhanced by Priscilla's buff, so they tear pretty deeply inside. Of more import is how the jeep screeches to a halt, the middle-aged man with the speargun getting out and eying the crab... then Ariel. He double takes at a little unicorn shouting that, but he's been in the Multiverse long enough that he doesn't ask questions. "Sorry! We uh... accidentally let this thing out from where it was trapped. We're trying to stop it before it reaches the city. Looks like you have the same idea."

    The crab, however, is not stupid. It's slowing, but not entirely because Staren is leading it into caltrops. It is seeing that it is surrounded, and digging in after releasing that sonic blast at Setsuko.

Priscilla has posed:
    This is both Priscilla's first time seeing a Midchildian barrier, and her first time taking Svala into active battle. The former is a little concerning, though quickly explained away as something beneficial, the second is a little awkward, uncertain of what entirely to do; a bit like everyone's obligatory first time being forced to dance with a partner. Though the crossbreed is obviously quite used to polearms as a general weapon set, it feels strange to have something other than her hand-forged armaments in her hand, holding the spear almost too delicately.

    Staren and Setsuko seem to be doing a good job of keeping the colossus occupied, and everyone seems to be doing more than adequate damage now, which fills Priscilla with a certain sense of silent satisfaction. She moves once again, not wanting to stay in the same position she just gave away, even if the others are holding the aggro. This time she gets much closer, approaching the crab's legs from the ground, and closely examining them as much as she can whilst looking out for a sign of the barrier's creator.

    She's hardly an engineering expert, but gears and pistons and all those kinds of moving parts have something fairly obvious in common. If there is anything remotely exposed between plating, presumably around joints, or through any extant damage, she compels Svala; silently, but not mentally, seeing as she hasn't figured out that aspect yet. "I realize, perhaps, we shouldst hath been better trained for this, but If I am to wieldeth thine powers, I wouldst first ask of thee thus: acquire whatever debris of any size and durability thou may, and thrust it as I point."

    She /is/ at least aware that Svala's domain involves gravity, and so she spots out where the moving parts have the largest openings, and tracks the point of the spear to those locations to point them out, hoping to jam them full of the sturdiest rubble Svala can find. It seems like it should be more expedient then trying to outright destroy limbs that massive and well-armoured for the short term purposes of immobilizing it.

Setsuko Kaminagi (255) has posed:
    Again and again Zanjintou comes down, and the damage it deals is less than Setsuko had hoped; its durability is something Setsuko has to respect. She's just rearing back to come in for another strike with a new plan of attack in mind, when the crab golem unloads a sonic blast right in her face. The demigod goes ass over teakettle through the air, slams into a rooftop, and skids to a stop; when she comes up, she's bleeding from several scrapes and gashes due to the impact - and from one nostril and both ears.

    And she looks pretty irritated about that.

    Even with her hearing blown, though, Setsuko doesn't slow down. She leaps back up into the air, allows herself to take a high arc that drops her down about ten meters from the crab, and then from there springs at it essentially from /below/, coming up in an arc that slashes Zanjintou at the bottom of its 'face' on the way up. In the same movement, however, she brings the weapon over, and begins striking at it again and again - this time, aiming for a spot where she's already caused damage. Deepening existing 'wounds' seems like it will be effective here.

Fate Testarossa (996) has posed:
From her rooftop perch, keeping her distance, Fate watches now. Not quite jumping into the fray just yet, but marshaling her strength. Erecting the barrier wasn't much of a difficulty, but she considers... Taking even a single blow from that thing could kill her. Weighed against her speed, normally she would have he advantage, probably.

But the child isn't firing on full cylinders. Her motions seem mechanical and even sluggish as she hoists Bardiche.

"Ready, sir." Her faithful Device reminds, surprisingly gently. Perhaps she should have brought Arf with her this time, but it's too late now. She'll have to rely on Bardiche, which is fine. But she may also have to rely on the Unionites present. Less so.

"Scythe form." Bardiche announces in a buzz, the black axe snapping back, flaring to life with a sudden golden light, she heaves... And launches the golden scythe blade, formed from voltaic energies. It arcs through the air like a glimmering boomerang made of pure lightning with a call of "Arc Saber." From the black axe's AI.

The golden blade is hurled in an arc, end over end horizontally, nearly forming a whirling disk in the air, aimed for a leg joint. Before Bardiche speaks up again:

"Saber Explode."

As advertised, it explodes with violent concussive force.

Ariel (219) has posed:
Well that's interesting news. Ariel blinks, then whips her eyes to the crab. "So you don't know what made this, or you do and you want to destroy it? Because my friends are going to destroy it if they can, so if you need it for something else you'd better talk fast."

She's more interested in learning what this means than actually fighting, though. Unsurprisingly, the unicorn is more than willing to let others handle that dirty duty.

Emiya Shirou (560) has posed:
Ghostly power of slightly wasted mana drifts from the blazing sword-arrow Shirou's nocked and drawn back. The bow creaks and groans, but holds the tremendous load. How many hundreds of pounds of draw weight does that thing have anyways and HOW is Shirou managing it? If anyone was nearby, the complex network of magical energy thrumming through every component of this sniping machine would give some clues, but he's alone and far away from everyone else. About a kilometer, in fact, at this point.

    That's a good thing. He needs distance if he's going to have even a slight chance of preparing a second shot! But for now...

    FOR NOW, he's having a hard time controlling THIS one. Stray mana arcs and sizzles from the sword as he pumps it ever fuller with what he can, up towards its current breaking point. The boy grunts and groans, hissing through his teeth but maintaining focus. All until...

    He finishes taking aim. Right at that thing's face. And the good eye...

    "CAAAAALIBUUURN!!"

    One little release, and physics takes over. The arrow takes off like a meteor at ludicrous speeds, drawing a brilliant streak through the sky. And where it strikes...

    When it strikes, the arrow fragments moments after piercing into a target, coming apart at the seams in every conceivable way. The eruption of purest energy that results is a tremendous thing! A rapidly expanding golden fireball that's almost blinding to look at, quickly filling out to engulf the length of an entire 18-wheeler. It's one HELL of a boom...

Sakura Haruno (134) has posed:
    Sakura is certainly trying to handle disabling the movement of the crab. Or, perhaps more accurately, after landing the one big blow is attempting to not get completely squished. The need to go up next to something to hit it was rather dangerous, after all, a lesson she'll be reminded of as the second leg swats into her.

    She'll roll a few times before climbing to her feet, blood streaming down her face from her freshly broken nose, at least for a few moments. The flow will stop soon enough, though she'll have to take a moment to set the bone back in place later to fix it. She'll launch herself back at that second leg, trying to knock it off - how many legs can a giant crab even have, after all?

    (Probably ten)

Priscilla has posed:
    Priscilla feels that pang of awkwardness as nothing seems to happen, having to wait several moments for elucidation from Svala, in silent, mental connection. Understanding, she makes a business of moving to actively touch what she can find; pieces of shredded military vehicle especially, tapping them with the point of the sphere to magnetize them to her gravity first. It goes to guess that she wouldn't have effects as dramatic as the previous, experienced wielder.

Heaven's Armory (1014) has posed:
    Svala spends those same, awkward moments trying to communicate with Priscilla her available capacity for their current issue. Magic is difficult to define, often, but if a particular direction is given, it is relatively simple for her to describe where the barrier exists along the given line.
    Fortunately, there's nothing too flashy about what they're currently doing, and so it's unlikely to attract attention in the face of the likes of Caliburn and Arc Saber going off, to say nothing of war-demigod's immediate presence. Where the debris is touched, it becomes weightless, and then is lifted in attraction to Svala's blade. From here, it is a simple matter to swing and release, imparting motion through ordinary physics, if operating under magical modification. The projectiles, en route to the clockwork monstrosity's exposed joints, continue to disobey the planet's gravity, traveling in nearly-straight lines rather than ballistic arcs, and weakly stuck together rather than scattering.
    She'd be yet more effective if she could operate on the Crab itself, but that's somewhat more dangerous, especially with all these things exploding.

Staren has posed:
    Ohhh, that's one of the TSAB's barriers? Eeeexcellent. Guess Staren doesn't have to lead it away now...

    That leads to the next problem: How to /stop/ it?

    "It was trapped somehow? We'll have to check that out after." Staren replies over the mech's speakers as he starts marking spots on the crab's body on his targeting computer -- spots far away from where his allies are attacking, of course.

    Everyone else is attacking too -- far be it from Staren not to contribute! One of the missile packs on the Star Hawk's back opens, and a salvo of 15 shoot into the sky, arc, and then rain down on the crab, warheads releasing bursts of tremendous heat that try to /melt/ its armor. Who knows what melted slag caught in gears might fo, besides?

Anne Blakely (983) has posed:
    Slashes that are enhanced and aimed at the damaged portions are, well, a pretty good idea. Those slices carve into the depths, and now steam is jetting as the slashes from Setsuko are damaging internals, making the crab lurch and shudder. Another sonic blast... but this one will miss Setsuko, aimed haphazardly but possibly catching someone else in the blast, if they're nearby.

    Staren's missiles do slag some armor... but a depressingly small amount. Depressingly. Good news, though! Some of the explosions got inside through existing damage, so Staren doesn't need to chew through all the armor, and likely targeted some weaker points anyway. Upshot is, some of the internals are slagged.

    Then the actual teamwork happens.

    An explosion at one leg blasts it open, and Sakura's chakra-fueled punch knocks the second leg off balance just as the first is trying to right itself. The continued assault on the three legs of the same side is having an effect though... because that debris chokes into the open gaps that have been torn away by age and battle, and... well, it's a REALLY sturdy machine, made to withstand battle, so there's numerous safeguards against this. 'Numerous' is not 'infinite' however, so some of the debris does catch on critical parts that the secondaries and tertiaries are either broken, or also clogged by debris. Between the damage done by the explosions and punches, and the off-balancing done by the jamming and the earlier caltrops... the crab starts to lurch, exposing more of the giant rents and sparkling internals of the construct. Including a pulsing line that heads toward the center, likely the power source.

    Then Caliburn impacts! A massive explosion engulfs the construct's face, making it let out a keening noise. But when it clears... the face is still there. Scorched, and with parts dangling off, but still there. However... that good eye was hit pretty hard, and the lens is shattered despite the mystical reinforcement, now dribbling a healthy stream of headlamp fluid. The other, foggy eye looks about as the good claw flails blindly, the construct toppling to its side from the concentrated attacks on its legs.

    Ariel gets her answer as the battle is ongoing. The man sighs, seeing that he's not needed. "We don't need it. We were looking for something else. Someone, anyway. Blowing the cave-in let this thing out. I think we woke it up... if such a thing can sleep. Looks a lot like the toys my uncle had, though..." He looks at Ariel. "Your friends can tear it apart for all I care. Thing's a menace."

Priscilla has posed:
    Still not an engineer, Priscilla has to wonder with some level of frustration how Anne had presumably made this thing. "I realize it is made of metal, but there shouldst be a limit to how stubbornly resilient something such as this may be." She voices with an edge of exasperation.

Shetill, the legs are down, the good eye is out, it's still marked; the thing is basically begging for the finisher. What amounts to a power cable is pretty easily the domain of people using giant slashing weapons, which brings her to a point of distraction of where the Arc Saber had come from. Though Fate can't see it, Priscilla puts a good effort into trying to pick her out, relying on her eyes without much else to go on.

    She'll give it a few seconds, before turning back to business. On something of that scale, and trying explicitly /not/ to damage the soul(s) inside, there's really one best option for her. The dirt depresses lightly in the wake of a few, slow footsteps back, as the crossbreed takes a deep, somewhat superfluous breath. The moment next, a brilliant, luminous beam of fierce, blue-white light slashes out from her position, piercing deep into the holes in the giant robot's exterior, and sweeping through the insides it like one would expect from a death ray.

    The magic itself is actually very powerful in that narrow point, probably disintegrating whatever the beam directly touches, but its applicability as firepower against a large target stems from the fact that the surrounding metal should experience the effects of rapid, unnatural crystallization; a kind of curse-laden grey glass that petrifies it as frost creeps over a pond. The crystal itself isn't actually damaging by proximity, but it is incredibly fragile, and that's sort of the point.

Fate Testarossa (996) has posed:
Sturdy as the crab may be on the outside, with all the fire focused upon it, Fate does not try again beyond her initial attempt at flinging an attack. No no, scarlet eyes narrow. Once the others have caused enough damage, she observes.

She spies something interesting.

The pulsing line of energy visible through the damaged plating catches her attention.

Taking a breath, the girl... Takes a single step forward off her rooftop perch. And then she explodes forth in a burst of speed that is far from human and far from safe. Trailing contrails of golden light in her wake she streaks through the air and...

Launches herself inside the crab. Twisting her body to jink through the largest gouge in armor she can find and follow that trailing light from within.

Setsuko Kaminagi (255) has posed:
    This time, Setsuko is ready. The blast happens, and... she doesn't have to put as much effort into evasion as she initially thought. She drifts back in the air and feels little more than the wind of the shockwave's passing. They've really messed it up; and her hearing finally kicks back in just about the moment Staren asks for an opening.

    So she kindly offers to create one.

    The demigod floats back several meters before suddenly launching straight upward. "Haaaaaaaa!" Up, up, higher and higher, pushing herself to the very peak of the barrier, where she finally slows to a stop, as if reaching the height of a jump... only to halt herself in the air entirely. She's got eyes to rival an eagle's; she can see Fate go running inside, and that brings a complete screeching halt to her plan of attack. "Tch...!"

Staren has posed:
    Heat no good against armor, Staren notes. Hmm. Should've brought the old APHE rounds he used to use...

    But, he has other weapons.

    "Toys your uncle had? Yeah, I think we /definitely/ need to look into this." Staren says.

    The Star Hawk leaps into the air, briefly transforming to hybrid mode to circle the crab to the side where everyone's damaged it. It transforms and lands again, one of its shoulder packs expanding into a giant sniper rifle which the mecha pulls down over its shoulder by a handle. "Okay, Setsuko! Whenever you're..."

    Wait, did Fate just go /inside/ it?

    "...ready??"

Ariel (219) has posed:
It looks like the others are taking down the crab. Ariel breathes a sigh of relief as it looks like these men aren't responsible... and that the city will be spared the problem of a giant rampaging construct. This is all a good thing for Ariel, which makes her tail swish happily. Or, well, start to.

Something that was said has her ears flicking though. The unicorn peers at the duo and then back at the battle, before deciding to resume her investigation. "Your uncle's toys remind you of this? Um... can I ask a little more about that? I've seen monsters like this before... but never one this big."

Emiya Shirou (560) has posed:
Shirou's sharp eyes spot the cable, but the angle's bad from where he's at. Would be pretty hard to snipe THAT without getting closer... because, well.

    That was most of his prana all in one go. He can't POWER another shot like that. "Tch.... man, weapons that big... if we didn't have this barrier..."

    He's relaxed just a little, keeping his cool. But inwardly he's a bit furious at whatever jerk CREATED this thing. Especially given Priscilla's claim that souls were involved in its manufacture...

    So all the more reason to question just who the heck those guys in the jeep are.

    For now, he's done mostly all he can. Shirou returns to the starting position, bow angled behind his back... but his eyes are on the battle while he ponders his next move. For now he simply scans the battlefield, looking for any important details besides that cable...

Anne Blakely (983) has posed:
    Bronze and metal resisting damage so strongly was suspicious. Using mystical abilities on it makes it a little more clear. Anne has done SOMETHING to make the machine reinforced, as Priscilla's crystallization does not go as planned, being resisted by the machine. Resisted... but not immune. And as it starts, the process accelerates, the weakening magic making it harder to resist the transmutation and causing some loud cracking from inside, as things can no longer support the mass above them.

    Fate's invasion of the massive clockwork beast will be fraught with moving pistons, with a need to dodge from the collapsing or moving parts. But the power line leads right to a simple, softball-sized casing deep in the machinery, connected by durable tubing... but with visible latches to detach it.

    The two men get questioned by both Staren and Ariel, and look at one another. The one who has been talking shrugs, "Sure, he had a few wind up things that were really fancy for the time. Collectables now. Got them from his dad when his dad travelled a lot. We were trying to find my uncle when we found that thing in one of the places he'd been." He produces a sheaf of papers which look like old, handwritten letters, a tattered map that doesn't look like any world or lettering known to man... and an old photograph. Ariel's the only one close enough to see him point at a young man in the photo in a crowd of about twenty people, looking dashing and all. It's an ancient, grainy black and white photograph, but still surprisingly clear, even if everyone looks victorian in it.

    Of the most interest is a very slightly younger image of Anne Blakely in the front, smiling /happily/ and clinging to a man's arm, with the man looking like he's the head of the expedition in the photograph. He looks to be in his mid to late thirties, but still the picture of health. Well, for whenever this picture was taken.

Fate Testarossa (996) has posed:
Fate just went inside it.

Gutsy, foolhardy, ill-advised, call it what one may, it is a decision made off the cuff of the moment, and one that would most certainly be fraught with suicidal levels of peril.

Pistons slam, plating slides, gears and cranks churn, she swerves and twirls at dangerous speeds- which for one horrifying moment comes to a choking and violent halt.

Her cloak briefly gets caught in the teeth of two gears large enough to crush her. A split second of panic sets in before even faster reason makes her hand snap to the clasp at her throat. The cape is sacrificed; left behind to the machine's innards as she undoubtedly ruins every plan made, but, she follows that cable. All the way to the casing deep within.

She works fast, not bothering to undo the latches by hand, but simply firing a bolt of superheated electrical plasma at each one, before brazenly reaching to snatch the core.

"Thunder Smasher." Bardiche announces as she aims the Device in... A direction. It really doesn't matter which as another wave of superheated mana is fired with everything she has, intent to crate an exit.

Or at least let others know where to concentrate fire and create one for her if that fails.

Staren has posed:
    Staren looks uncertainly at the robot as it creaks ominously. (He would be super-interested in the photograph, but he flew away. He'll have to see it later!)

    "Wait but... Fate is still inside!" The giant rifle folds back up, and with a thruster-assisted leap, the Star Hawk is by the side of the crab, ready to help pry it apart! "Fate! Where are you?! You gotta get out of there!"

Setsuko Kaminagi (255) has posed:
    Inside the crab beast, Fate fires a Thunder Smasher.

    Setsuko feels it. Hell, she sees it. If Fate is shooting there, that means Fate is not there. Which means that it's a perfect target.

    And so, the demigod descends like a missile from above. "HrraaaaaaaAAAAAAAAAA!!!" Where her descent from before was swift, this is like a bolt of lighting, descending as fast as she can fly plus the boost of gravity. All of that speed, all of that power transfers into the mass of Zanjintou in the instand before impact, its titanic form swung around and down in a tremendous descending slash intended to hit the spot Fate has already blasted and split it wide open.

    "CHEEEEEEEEESUTOAAH!!!!"

Ariel (219) has posed:
Battle is ongoing, but now Ariel is way less worried about that - the others are hard at work rescuing Fate, and would be better than her at such a thing - and is more interested in what she's just been shown. The map and notes are kind of neat! But it's the photo that grabs her attention, of course.

"Um... who is this man and when was this taken? And who is the girl with him?" She points at Anne and the man Anne is holding onto. "This looks really old. The photo. Is this your uncle?"

Emiya Shirou (560) has posed:
A few seconds after Kaminagi requests fire support, ANOTHER colorful strike. Mostly white, but looking hard enough one can maybe spot rainbow colors from the twisting, spiraling projectile at its core. And it's aimed straight for the requested spot with terrified accuracy.

    Unfortunately, this CALADBOLG II was packed with only dregs of power. Dregs of power, but plenty of sincere anger and desire to free the tortured souls from that thing.

    Emiya Shirou can't save these people. They're beyond anything but miracles. All he can do is release them.

    The twisted, spiral-shaped sword arrow's passage through space leaves strange ripples in its wake, and for all it has very little EXPLOSIVE power like the last arrow... its piercing power is off the charts. Still, it's likely to go off with a burst of scorching blue mage-flame, no more intense than hand grenade.

    Shirou lowers his bow again, teeth clenched.

Priscilla has posed:
    Priscilla finally lets out the last of her breath with a little puff of scintillating blue motes, taking a few more, smaller ones, to normalize her breathing again. Something of a frown comes to her face, faintly. It's not unheard of, but not very often, to see this kind and level of curse resistance. Anne's capacity as a magic user, or at least enchantress, have to be more significant than Priscilla had assumed, figuring her mostly for a tinkerer.

    At any rate, everyone freaking out about Fate makes it seem like the best idea is not to risk firing blindly into the crab anymore, and so she falls back once again, watching distantly as the mech is ripped to pieces, but not wanting to stray too far in order to verify the release of its trapped souls. Assuming the jeep crew are close enough, she'll move to them instead, voyeuring the photographs that Ariel has urged someone to study. Her fingers squeeze just a little tighter around Svala at the sight, though for what reason is unclear. "Such seems to be an unlikely memento, and an ill-kept heirloom. I knoweth not of what significance this machine beast holds, if any."

Heaven's Armory (1014) has posed:
    /This/ part of the battlefield has people talking and has suffered no significant damage. That's good enough to let the cautious, youngest blade of Heaven's Armory to materialize her other body. There's a little pushing outward of space to make room for the red-eyed, monochromatically-dressed girl. She could already 'see' well enough around her from her true body, but still takes this opportunity to (more visibly) spy upon the photograph, and flashes a smile toward Ariel. She only sort-of seems to notice the two in the jeep.
    Whatever her specific reaction to this picture is, she doesn't yet voice it.

Anne Blakely (983) has posed:
    The blast from the Thunder Smasher isn't quite able to fully make an exit, but from the inside it is a lot easier to blow a hole. The yellow beam of mystical light erupts from the side as the crab... topples fully, losing power completely now. This does make it a LOT easier to blast at the hole that's erupted, wrenching it open with blade and bolt. Shirou and Setsuko rent open the hole farther, widening it for the little mage trapped within the collapsing thing. Whatever enchantment strengthened the materials is still active, for the moment, but all the damage has caused it to start buckling. The severity of the damage allows the Star Hawk to pry the plates off though, making a wide space for the exit.

    Meanwhile, Priscilla and Svala and Ariel are grilling the duo by the jeep, who are looking confused and nervous. "Uh... Michael...?"

    The one who was talking before, apparently Michael, shakes his head. "No, that's my uncle's father. My great-uncle. The picture's from the turn of the century, about uh... eighty years back when he was with a bunch of explorers." He points out the man in the lead. "That is Jason Middleton, a famous explorer and adventurer of the time. My great-uncle flew with him for years! The girl was his fiancée at the time, Anne Blakely, but she vanished when the group fell apart after encountering some witch or something. Middleton spent most of the rest of his life looking for her, from what my letters say, but I don't know if he ever found her."

Fate Testarossa (996) has posed:
It was, perhaps, not one of Fate Testarossa's better ideas. In fact it was quite possibly one of her worst to date, but the Mage cannot be faulted when her high risk maneuver pays off with high rewards.

With the core in hand, she puts every ounce of strength she has into the spell for her escape. It's not quite enough. Relying on the aid of others is not something she is quite used to... In fact she may not have tried to rely on the union at all if not for Setsuko Kaminagi. From the very brief interactions over radio, and from what she has seen in other operations. The woman has a quality Fate can't quite put her finger on or even completely grasp. But there is something inherently trustworthy about the Demi-God. A feeling that if Setsuko were to give her word, Fate could trust it.

Probably one day Fate will learn of what honor truly means. But for now the Demi-God of war has given her an idea of what it is.

In that moment when her spell hits, and the others lay into the damage resistant and enchanted armor, she launches herself. As the crab topples and begins to die, systems slowing and grinding to a halt, her speed only makes the way out all the more treacherous, weaving through gears and piping that only slow more and more as she passes, throwing her timing dangerously off.

But the small blonde emerges from the newly formed hole at top speed. Stopping herself is not easy and results in a tumbling bad landing. Fate bounces once, twice, then rolls to a stop on bloody scraped knees, Bardiche held in one hand and the machine core in another. There are no words. Just a silent stare of one scarlet eye over her shoulder at the Unionites, the crab's 'heart' clasped in the white knuckled grip of her hand.

Setsuko Kaminagi (255) has posed:
    As Fate vaults out of the crab, there is a moment of eye contact - just a fleeting instant - between swordswoman and mage.

    Then it is past, and while Fate leaps up and away, Setsuko simply takes an almost lazy arc back, landing on the street and whipping the massive sword to one side, then straight up. "There is nothing my Zanjintou cannot cut," she intones, that peculiar ritual of hers; the weapon returns to its normal size with a *snap* and a scattering of blue motes of light, and then she slides it into its sheath.

Priscilla has posed:
    Priscilla wants to ask something about whether Anne should actually still be young after eighty years. There are, in fact, a lot of questions about this whole setup. The little girl she's never actually met, however popular, looking tired, beat up, and carrying something unfamiliar, is something that seems worth more immediately pressing focus.

    She departs from the photo cluster, making her way over to Fate whilst actually revealing herself halfway there, though she's unwilling to leave behind the silver and red spear for the fact that it's someone's actual body. She doesn't get all that close, but leans forward slightly to look over Fate's shoulder regardless, trying to inspect what it is she has.

    "There art a great many things I couldst say about such ideas, but I expect thou art ill-inclined to hear them. Thine efforts art appreciated here all the same, though I perhaps wish thou wouldst not injure thineself so." To give her some credit, she knows next to actually nothing about the Testarossa family. "I am surprised to see one as skilled as thee be a chance appearance as well. I am Priscilla, and this one is named Svala, though I regret to inform thee that she is not quite thine age."

Ariel (219) has posed:
Ariel has payed enough attention to goings on to know who/what Svala is... vaguely. She has her own companion, though Al is hopping up onto the nearby jeep's bumper and swinging her legs, rather than doing anything useful. Svala does get a curious look, and a quick smile back, but her smile is distracted.

"I knew her name," Ariel says. "I've seen her before. Well, she was a little older. Do you mind if we get copies of all this? I think we might be able to help one another, but it's kind of important..."

She trails off suddenly, seeing Fate emerge bloodied and battered. Ears perk up and she points, "Stay with Al, I'll be right back!" Sakura is somewhere around here, but we can never have too many medics, so Ariel is on her way over to Fate.

"Are you hurt? Do you need healing?" Hey, she smelled blood in the non-predatory way!

Staren has posed:
    "It's comin' down!" The Star Hawk steps away once Fate is free, so as not to get its foot smashed by falling crab or something.

    And, Fate got something! "Hey, what've you got there?" The 40ft tall mecha actually leans down to look at the core in her hands with interest.

Heaven's Armory (1014) has posed:
    Svala is less familiar with Ariel, but will work things out shortly if she hasn't already. Neither is some secret presence, after all, nor a mysteriously unaging figure from a photograph of a group of explorers that broke up on encountering a witch-or-something. How curious, that.
    This silent meeting gives way for a more formally voiced one, as Svala follows dutifully after Priscilla (and herself, technically), and inclines her head toward Fate. A bow might have been appropriate in some locales, and a curtsey might match her general appearance, but she does neither. "I am Svala, of that called Heaven's Armory." Whether the (undoubtedly younger, yes) girl is actually curious about her, Svala could not guess before watching, but the spear is at least curious of the mage.

Fate Testarossa (996) has posed:
Eyes meet. Fate is silent for a long moment.

But then half the world is on a course straight for her. Fate remains stone silent, save for the sound of her breathing, quick and shivery with adrenaline still. Priscilla approaches and the blonde is back on her feet. In a flare of golden magical light, her first act is to manifest a new cloak. she throws it over her shoulders before turning, Bardiche brought to bear.

No, no this was no chance appearance at all.

Though she may be reeling still from her near suicidal stint inside the crab, but hearing this machine may have been one of Blakely's sets off a small, ringing, alarm inside the child as she wheels about, her scythe aimed upon the crosbreed, her sentient (and quite polite) spear, Staren's mecha, and even little Ariel. Her gaze darts from one to the next, hard and steely, but also wary and frightened; especially when questioned by Staren.

"I'm fine." That is, first and foremost, to Ariel's kind offer; an offer that actually makes it painful for Fate to aim her Device as she is, but the act is done, and she cannot allow herself to look weak.

What has she got in her hand? It doesn't matter for one simple reason: "I'm leaving with it. Don't give me reason to shoot." She states very pointedly, before adding something else:

"Please."

Priscilla has posed:
    Well that's not a very nice response to one of Priscilla's few attempts at being proactively kind. Her expression, previously nothing but curious, hardens considerably, enhanced by how far she has to look down at the girl once she stands up straight. "I assure thee, whatever it is, none amongst us possesseth any real idea. Is there perhaps, some reason we should wish to take it from thee?" She doesn't sound like she's trying to be threatening, more offhand than anything, but it comes out cold all the same.

Staren has posed:
    Staren, through the Star Hawk's cameras, looks at Fate. The machine stands up. "Every time I've encountered one of the murderer's constructs, it was powered by souls. Is this one different? You have to understand, if there's people trapped in there, you can't just do whatever you want with them. Um... I dunno if I've ever met this version of you, but... The... Alicia was very nice. I don't think she would steal people's souls, and I hope you have that much in common."

    "...Of course, if there are /no/ people in there... then I don't have a problem, although I'm curious why you want it so badly."

Ariel (219) has posed:
Leaving with it? Ariel doesn't quite seem to parse that for a moment, but it hits her what Fate is holding a moment later... and what it has within it. She hopes she's wrong about that. Staren already brings that up.

"Please, I think... maybe we should just finish this off..." She hesitates some. "I-I... think?" This is actually conflicting to her, because if she's hearing right, this means they'll be 'killing' the person. It is a mercy kill, maybe, but even that is something that is making her balk.

Heaven's Armory (1014) has posed:
    Svala is actually quite concerned about this threat to shoot her, though she does not particularly show it. She just stares at Fate. The ways in which she tenses to act are not the ways in which an actual human would.
    She does not offer an opinion as to the value of the object. Not in public, at least.

Fate Testarossa (996) has posed:
Bardiche's point of aim shifts, again and again, the girl keeping track of Priscilla, Staren, Setsuko, Ariel again when the little unicorn makes her suggestion. Even between cool, questioning, and gentle tones, the child is backing up a pace.

"No." That's quite firm, before something is said. Something catches her off guard.

"... Alicia?"

'I dunno if I've ever met this version of you, but... The... Alicia was very nice. I don't think she would steal people's souls, and I hope you have that much in common.'

Red eyes blink, first, before Fate's expression puckers. Conflict, confusion, pain all bubbling to the surface. For some reason she doesn't understand, her vision blurs; Bardiche begins to rattle.

Her hands are shaking.

"A...lic...ia?" She repeats again, as though turning the name over on her tongue, much slower, as though it might help her understand. It does not. "Who... Who is...?"

Memories flood the girl. A mother's smile. A picnic. Braiding flowers into long dark hair.

A woman's loving voice saying: 'My darling Alicia~.'

"That's not... I'm not... Who..."

It is, in this moment, Fate Testarossa loses any and all cool she could have possibly had. Though she does not lash out, it is a very stricken child that suddenly has a glowing golden sigil forming beneath her feet and spreading outwards.

"Leaving: now." Bardiche announces, before completing the Dimensional Transfer spell.

A bolt of lightning streaks down from the skies. With a clap of thunder, Fate Testarossa is gone.

Staren has posed:
    Mentioning family was, admittedly, a risky card. Alicia might have never existed in this version of the Testarossa family, or maybe she's dead and it's a sore point, but it's the only card Staren has to play with the Testarossa tag on it.

    Fate's reaction, though... Something is wrong.

    "Wait!"

    A giant metal hand reaches for Fate, but she teleports (or does something technically different but effectively the same, Staren's not sure if the barrier is involved) and is gone.

    "...Well, /now/ what?"

Heaven's Armory (1014) has posed:
    This is not a reaction that Svala, with her limited understanding of the situation, could possibly have predicted. Therefore, she asks Staren, for having been the one to bring it up, and the only one to say the name and not immediately have a public breakdown. "Who is Alicia?"