586/Therion Lies the Answer

Therion Lies the Answer
Date of Scene:	14 September 2014
Location:	Urbania
Synopsis:	A giant bull rampages in Arkham, and then suddenly, Doctor West.
Cast of Characters:	2, Arthur Lowell, 135, 219, 253, 274, 347, 353, 395, 481, 545, 553, 565
Tinyplot:	Project C

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Herbert West (274) has posed:
There's not a whole lot to say about what's going on in Arkham! People are screaming and fleeing from the square in this sector of the city, as a rampaging bull about the size of a city bus is ramming into things, crashing against buildings, and otherwise being a nuisance. The police have called in a blockade of armored cars and are peppering it with automatic weapons, but this isn't doing much. Most people are running AWAY from the whole mess, not toward it.

It is in all a scene of utter chaos. Not much else to say about it.

Nurse Joy (553) has posed:
     With the large crowds running /away/ from the havock and chaos that is underway, Nurse Joy is joining in the small crowd of people who are running /straight/ to it. Of course, she is assuming that the majority of these people running in are going to be Union, Syndicate, possibly Confederate, and who can forget the 'random idiots who have decided to come in and get themselves killed trying to get selfies of what is going on'.

     It's somewhat hard traversing the crowds, but Joy is leaping over them, more or less, from street light to street light, until the crowds thin out and she can run at high speeds along the ground. Man, she is /incredibly/ athletic. Nothing like the two Nurse Joys who showed up last week.

     Anyone paying attention closely might notice she is a /bit/ more tan than the other Nurse Joys.

Laer (353) has posed:
    Naturally, where there is chaos, there will be those who will step in to create order and save the day!

    Laer's not really one of those. At all. But she's here regardless, so this might make for bad times for all those fighting the bull. She'll walk up on one of the local police, flashing her Confederate ID as if it should mean anything to them. "Hello, there! I can't help but notice that you seem to be having a bad time, and so I was considering offering my bull wrangling service to you local authority sorts. Do you want assistance, or would you rather it come after you all get slaughtered? Either can work narratively but the first carries a higher bill."

    Mostly because the second just means Laers going to rifle through the pockets of the dead afterwards for loose change and valuables.

Kirika (481) has posed:
    Where most flee from, Kirika CHARGES. Given her skills at mantling and running, she has an easy time at avoiding traffic as well as any other obstacles in the way as she makes her way through the streets, following the bull at full sprint while she occassionally slips, slides, and leaps to keep from getting pulverized by a random automobile.

    As she moves in to intercept the bull monster, Kirika continues to parkour her way until she manages a flying leap and a teleport, disappearing in a shower of petals and light before she reforms right above the bull.

    Kinugiri slides from its sheath, and she descends upon the monster with a downwards slash at its back.

Psyber (253) has posed:
    Whrever Ness and Stone are, that is where Psyber makes his approach from. Presently jacketless and wearing simply jeans and a t-shirt (Thank Sakura for convincing Laine to hide his jacket in his jacket for the current outfit). The half-angel is wearing a belt with a gun at the hip and is watching the bull as it rampages.

    "Hey guys, you want some help on this one?" He asks in a casual tone, hands falling to the belt he's wearing and resting his thumbs there while he rocks on his feet, "I have a big fight tomorrow and could use the warmup." He notes, stretching out his arms and cracking his back right after he says that, seemingly not that good at keeping still quite yet.

Homura Akemi (2) has posed:
    Rather than make a direct approach, when Homura appears, it is atop the ledge of a roof giving a good view of the bull's rampage, already transformed in her magical girl outfit but currently unarmed. She has her arms acrossed and her glasses on, idly paying attention to the scrolling text on one of the lenses.

    Though she makes no overt or visual moves, pink arrows of light bombard the ground directly ahead of the bull, trying to lure it to change its course towards less bothersome directions; areas with less traffic, or less houses, or the areas where people are waiting in ambush.

Ariel (219) has posed:
Ariel is arriving by way of rooftop-leaping and wings, as she's already in her Magius Form right now. "Ah... it looks like the police are already evacuating the area. That's good! Maybe we can take care of this quickly and without too much damage," she reasons. "Al, Diea, are you ready?"

She doesn't know if her Abstractum is awake or not right now, but either way she's going in hot. Kirika's bold assault has her shouting out, "BE CAREFUL! They aren't always what they look like!" She's swooping around and landing in the path of the bull, a faint hiss sounding as she opens herself up... figuratively. She's going to attempt to absorb any stray electricity the bull is making.

Lila (545) has posed:
    Lila is here too. How did she get here? Who knows? She's sure not charging into battle.

    *SLUUUURP*

    She is, in fact, sitting on top of a turned-over bus some distance away, drinking a BerryBuzz Slushie.

Al Azif (135) has posed:
    Al Azif is in TINY AL form, riding on Ariel's shoulder as usual! She's scanning the area with some puzzlement when the bull charges about, and she yells in Ariel's ear, "I don't know yet what pages this would be! I'm really confused as to where they could come from! So be careful, it's got to be some weird manifestation."

Amalthea (395) has posed:
    Whenever one of those pages gets angry, it's always at a bad time. The sudden SHHHREEEEEE-/POP/ of something in the kitchen exploding heralds the heavy sigh of a unicorn who should really leave the creation of all sweets and treats to her sister. Thusly it is a very pudding-coated Amalthea that heads to her armory to suit up.
    She is less pudding coated on arrival, but has opted for her heavier set of full platemail for THIS particular outing, especially after the last incident involving a flaming bull melting more than half of her armor off. Well, as Ariel lands in front of the bull, the elder, heavily armored unicorn lands in front of her daughter, forming a singular wall of bad temper and armor.
    One boot scuffs the pavement testing her traction. She snorts.
    And then throws her arms wide open as if in challenge of the bull.
    Her plan is simple. Try and take life- and the bull- by the horns just like with Cthugha.

Arthur Lowell has posed:
    ARTHUR LOWELL makes sure to spend just enough time with one foot up on the elevated edge of a rooftop, his heel just over the edge, his arms crossed dramatically and his long robes flapping in the wind, to establish a sweet dramatic shot. He's arrived here the same way as the others: Via warpgate, and then, via his own empowered navigation, through drifting and leaping.

    No ranting tihs time, or at least, no ranting yet! We'll save that for later. For NOW: Arthur does the thing any videogame protag does when he's faced with a LARGE BULL ENEMY that isn't focused on him. He attempts to drop in from above and mount it! That electrical effect can't be THAT BAD, right?! What this means, for all intents and purposes, descending from above. Kirika's slash on the body will be given its distance, but Arthur himself is trying to get a grip on the bull, and grapple into a position on it from which he might attack!

    As he descends, he yells out that usual screaming battlecry of heroic enthusiasm! Gotta stick with hat he knows here, and it's not like the attention will be detrimental to getting onto that bull.

Herbert West (274) has posed:
It doesn't look like anyone has been critically injured this time. Nurse Joy thus doesn't have to worry too much about anything bad here, other than the fact that she's leaping toward a giant bull that is stomping hard enough, when she nears, to shake the streetlamps.

The local police just stare at Laer. "Look, we don't care if you want to get yourself killed. We're just going to try holding it off until Metatron or someone shows up." The other points out, "Man I haven't seen Metatron in /months/ guy." They set to arguing amongst themselves, which while entertaining is probably not what Laer wants, except to realize there's someone named Metatron in town.

Psyber wanders up to Ness and Stone, and they recognize him of course. Stone starts to say something, but Ness interrupts with a shrug and an answer, "Eh, I guess if you can take it down without wrecking half the city, we won't complain. Vigilante or not, it's not like we can do much right now." There's something /really/ odd about the way he says that, though.

Lila's BerryBuzz Slushie is really sugary.

Kirika comes in from above, and the sword pierces RIGHT THROUGH the shoulder blades of the Bull. This... doesn't stop it, at least not at first. It BELLOWS loudly and stampedes forward, though the arrows do seem to be guiding it somewhat.

When ARTHUR lands atop it, he will indeed find that he can ride it at the cost of crackling electricity COURSING through him! It doesn't hurt as much as would be expected though... especially when it suddenly arcs toward Ariel, where the little unicorn starts absorbing it into her systems. Does this weaken the bull? Maybe. Maybe not.

It does end up CRASHING into Amalthea, hard enough to slam her backward even if braced! Not a great amount though! And when it hits... the neck and upper body creak and groan, a rent opening up from where Kirika hit it. Rippling explosions pop out the bull's rear legs, and it abruptly tears itself apart in a rain of metal and plastic, revealing the robotic innards as it just falls apart around Amalthea, dumping Kirika and Arthur to the ground.

Nurse Joy (553) has posed:
     Nurse joy sighs in relief. The fact that there are not many injured around is going to free her up for some /ass kicking./ And so, she smiles, staring down the bull head on. She looks /incredibly/ pleasant and friendly.

     And then the bull is stopped by Amalthea, Arthur, and Kirika, and blows up a bit.

     Nurse Joy just stares. ...Did it /really/ go down that fast? She looks somewhat puzzled anyways.

     She sighs, holding up a Pokeball.

     "...Sorry, Wailord. I guess you'll get to wrestle a giant electrical bull another day."

Al Azif (135) has posed:
    Al squints. "I'm pretty sure that wasn't one of my pages. At all. Who would make a robot bull and unleash it on the city for fun? Is this one of those Confederate tricks or something?" She glances back toward Laer, who still hasn't done anything outright hostile...

    But Al remembers what Laer did, oh yes.

    "I kind of expected more of a fight..."

Lila (545) has posed:
    Lila finishes her slushie and looks around for a trash can. Her other hand waves a little pennant. "Go mom."

Psyber (253) has posed:
    Psyber tilts his head a bit at Ness and Stone while watching the fight unfold. It turns out he wasn't needed after all, which is a nice change. Why not hang out and chat with these fine men for some sweet information? The half-angel looks to Ness and Stone, "Right now? You mean you guys have something planned in the works? Does it have to do with that Metatron person those officers over there mentioned?" He inquires in mild curiosity.

    Internally, he makes a mental note of things to look into later.

Kirika (481) has posed:
    Thus the bull falls upon felling, and Kirika slams onto the ground with a grunt. "Oof..." She stands to her feet after a wobbly first attempt, dazed but not entirely down for the count. She offers Arthur a hand up before she looks around, sword resting on her shoulder.

    "THat was...rather quick." She muses, eyeing the damaged machinery of the bull robot for a moment before tapping it with the blunt side of her blade to make sure it is indeed dead.

Ariel (219) has posed:
Ariel sucks in some electricity and braces to... see... that the bull was robotic. She blinks a few times, rubbing at her head just below the horn. "Uhuh... um... well, how many people do we know who can make a giant mechanical bull and unleash it for no known reason?"

She lets the question sink in for a few seconds to the others, before she turns around and yells out loudly to the streets, "DOCTOR WEST! YOUR THINGIE BROKE!"

Homura Akemi (2) has posed:
    "Could just be Doctor West," Homura says, suddenly behind Al, whether she is still tiny or not. "Though if it's him I detect a distinct lack of guitar, rock and bragging about it. Also Arthur's girlfriend isn't here either."

Amalthea (395) has posed:
    Amalthea is braced as well as she ever will be, and does not waver in the face of the bull's oncoming rush. When it hits her the KRUMP of impact draws a grunt of shock from the force behind it, as she's lifted briefly- sets her boots back down and digs her heels in, dragging furrows in the pavement for a few feet before...
    The thing comes apart?
    As momentum slows to a halt, Amalthea is left holding the bull's head by it's horns while the rest of it pops and explodes. She remains standing like this, looking somewhere between perplexed and relieved. She pauses. Peers back over her shoulder ad Ariel and Al to check on them.
    "Uhhh. Well... Okay I guess...?"

Laer (353) has posed:
    Laer stretches out, Nyarie behind her ear at the moment, smiling at the police. "Well, there you go then. I'll send you the bill next week, okay?" For her 'associates' assistance, naturally. Or whatever other excuse she can give. She notices the squinty glance from Al, though she didn't hear what was said, and offers over a cheery wave, utterly without regret.

Arthur Lowell has posed:
    Arthur lands! He lands dramatically, and does MANLY TANKING of that electrical damage! It crackles through him and... Causes some pain, instead of being an epic eldritch gauntlet of damage. Huh. And then it collapses and dumps him off.

    His battlecry sort of falters and dies uncertaintly. "Wow, I was psyched up for a lot more than that." He says, after sort of tumbling to a stop in front of it, lying on his back. "Oh well. GOOD HUSTLE EVERYONE." And then he takes a long, proper look at it, sitting up, narrowing his eyes. He accepts the offered hand up, then he goes to examine it.

    "She's not my girlfriend! It's a big misunderstanding." He makes sure to object to Homura Akemi alongside his movements over there. But then he begins attempting to dissect the machine violently with gravity magic. Specifically, he's trying to make sure either A: A message built in is properly activated and revealed, or B: He locates one of those Decoy Enemy's Explosive Payloads before it goes off and blasts a lot of people all at once, because he's working based on fiction tropes.

    It's unlikely that it'll accomplish either of these goals, but hey! Might do something. That was REALLY short!

Abstractum.Net (347) has posed:
    "Powering Strife Drive-- Wait." Diea just woke up! And... Seems concerned. "Oh, okay. Umm... Depowering Strife Drives, I... Apparently." The cloak seems a bit embarrassed. "Were we... Were we supposed to do that? I expected a bit more of one too." It says to Ariel and Al Azif.

Herbert West (274) has posed:
"We haven't seen Metatron in months! A true tragedy!" Stone says loudly!

"She's the city's guardian angel. Or was before that little unicorn and you guys showed up with the giant robot," Ness says more casually. "But we can't rely on her showing up. I wonder where she went?"

The robot does not explode, FYI.

HOWEVER! The back of a van is suddenly KICKED OPEN down the street, and the familiar wailing GUITAR RIFF echoes down the city! "That's right!" Says the familiar and loud voice of DOCTOR WEST! "Ahaha! Just as expected of my INVINCIBLE GENIUS, you have all been lured into my trap! IT WAS ME ALL ALONG!" Just as Ariel said.

"Ah, Darling came too, robo~!" Comes another familiar voice, leaping off the top of a tall building and doing an acrobatic flip before landing with a SHATTERING of asphalt. An elflike girl with long hair, wearing a school uniform and carrying what appear to be tonfas.

"And just so you don't get any funny ideas," West shouts. "I have PREPARED for your allies! Hand over Al Azif, and nobody gets hurt!"

All around the block, building fronts fall over, revealing the buildings are still there with false fronts! Numerous small(8-10') robot soldiers are stationed around the area!

Abstractum.Net (347) has posed:
    Manattobuki immediately expands from its collapsed size, the blade flaring out from the handle and popping off of Kirika's back in one dramatic motion, immediately glowing with soft red fire and presumably prompting Kirika to grab it out of the air and get into a ready stance. It's already prepared to conduct her magic.

Psyber (253) has posed:
    "Like a literal guardian angel, as in me? Or do you mean in the figurative sense that any given person doing sufficient levels of protection can be considered a guardian angel?" Psyber asks to Ness and Stone in a sort of wondering tone. Female guardian angel? Could be worth looking into. He makes a mental note of that to pursue later.

    Psyber, meanwhile, tears a page off from his Fetch Modus and draws out Adjudicator, slinging the sword across his back as West reveals his very peculiar ambush tactic, "Jude. You ready for a warmup for tomorrow, or do you wanna leave it to Ariel and the others?"

Abstractum.Net (347) has posed:
    "Seems like they need a substitute guardian angel." Adjudicator says, simply, as it suddenly appears from the sylladex. As the storefronts open, a burning red fire begins to accumulate around it. "They're not West's target, but it might be a good idea to take that up for a little while, don't you think? I am prepared to act if you are."

Kirika (481) has posed:
    Luckily enough, Manatto's timing is as amazing as ever the minute the soldiers arrive. Kirika sheathes Kinugiri, reaching out with her left hand to grasp her spear, before her other hand grabs ahold of the Abstractum as well upon freeing up to properly wield the weapon. She performs a flashy twirl before she assumes a readied stance, staring up at the robots with a narrowed gaze.

    "I admit, I've needed a chance to get reacquainted with this menas of fighting for some time now." She muses, before giving her spear a grin. "Ready, Manatto?"

Lila (545) has posed:
    Lila is nowhere to be seen. Neither is her empty cup. When the robots appeared, she seems to have just vanished. Probably hiding somewhere, if she's smart about it. Right?

Nurse Joy (553) has posed:
     Oh, wow! Joy is actually incredibly impressed, looking around at all the false fronts. That's actually far more than she expected. Plus this is such a brilliant plan. Yeah, of course they'd all respond to a giant robot bull attacking the city! Really a perfect plan.

     Still, though, she just smiles, looking around.

     This means Wailord gets to fight!

     "...Well. I guess these are all bad guys, so. GO, WAILORD!"

     Nurse Joy casually throws up a Pokeball, aiming it to be above a group of robots, and away from her allies.

     A /giant fricking whale/ pokemon appears. It's about two stories tall, and rather long and wide. It falls to collapse on the ground.

     "WAILORD!" <AWESOME! BATTLE TIME!>

Homura Akemi (2) has posed:
    "Siiiigh," comes Homura's voice, before she glances at her ring. "Well, Claire, I guess this was too nice to last." She slots her Combo Frame on and just casually blinks in and out of existence to reappear by Psyber.

    "Let's go, I guess."

    Better activate it if only to give it experience.
    Resonance.
    Whatever Combos drive off of.

    "Arthur, will you be handling Elsa?"

Laer (353) has posed:
    Laer will look up as the building fronts fall over and the trap is revealed. She seems to approve of this one, though! "Oh, hey, that was pretty good. I didn't even notice it!" And she gets an automatic roll to detect hidden entrances!

    Oh, right, she should probably at least pretend to help Ariel. Or Arthur.

    "Nyarie, do we have any love poems handy that we can give Arthur to read her?"

    Laer is the worst helper.

Abstractum.Net (347) has posed:
    "Powering Combo Frame." Claire says, and suddenly both Abstractum blaze with even more intense light, bolts of lightning crackling up and down Jude's blade and Homura's hand. Claire then speaks up a bit more meekly. "I g-guess he's a lot better at subtlety than we gave him credit for, Miss Akemi. I mean, not... Not /really/ good, but better. A-anyway! I'm ready to help deal with this!"

Amalthea (395) has posed:
    IT'S A TRAP.
    West's sudden appearance... Well Ariel sort of called it already, but the building-fronts dropping to reveal more robots makes her heave a heavy sigh.
    How can one man be both so vexing and fairly dangerous at the same time?
    Hunkering behind her shield, she draws her Vector SMG.
    "Oath, buddy, need you to wake up." She murmurs, rummaging around to slot Homura's cartridge into place and get ready to start shooting.

Ariel (219) has posed:
Aaaand it's Doctor West. Well, Ariel kind of expected that. But an army of robots? They aren't giant robots, and she's gotten a lot stronger. Maybe West miscalculated this time. "It looks like we get to power Strife Drives after all. We'll go Green Chroma for now... we can coordinate with the others and make sure this fight doesn't hurt anyone." Collateral damage is less of a concern for her, as usual.

"Al... I'm going to fight. My wings should work fine for this, right?" Ariel spreads the wings out, flexing them as the others are already engaging the robots.

To give her a little help, she slots in PSYBER, HIMEI, and then ELEANOR cartridges. "Doctor, please rethink this. We really don't want a fight!"

Al Azif (135) has posed:
    "It should be fine, Ariel," Al replies. "You've gotten good enough that you can probably handle any minor robots he makes. Elsa might be a problem though. Be careful if you engage her."

    Al clings to Ariel's horn again to steady herself, then she calls out, "How did you even manage to hide all these things?!"

Abstractum.Net (347) has posed:
    "Strike at will." Manattobuki says, simply, and with a professional sort of tone. "Ready."

Abstractum.Net (347) has posed:
    Nyarie says, "Already on it!" It sounds like it would be saluting, if it had hands! And now Arthur's receiving a lot of suggested, hastily-written poetry suggestions over PesterChum. You can see his frustrated, flustering twitching at it, even if you can't see what Nyarie's sending him.

Abstractum.Net (347) has posed:
    "I stand ever-ready to guard." Ironclad Oath says, simply, the gauntlet lighting up with a vivid red light. Crackling red energy flows over Amalthea's shield, enhancing its durability, shock absorbing properties, and other suchlike, while she's given a mental prompt to activate at any time to dull her pain.

    Homura's cartridge has an unusual effect in a DEFENSE TYPE ABSTRACTUM! The cartridge will allow Amalthea to full-block an attack by setting it up to strike her several seconds in the future! Unblockably. That's... Sort of convenient?

Abstractum.Net (347) has posed:
    "I stand ever-ready to guard." Ironclad Oath says, simply, the gauntlet lighting up with a vivid red light. Crackling red energy flows over Amalthea's shield, enhancing its durability, shock absorbing properties, and other suchlike, while she's given a mental prompt to activate at any time to dull her pain.

    Homura's cartridge gives its traditional effect: FUNCTION QUEUE will allow Amalthea to delay the effects of any Abstractum-related or combat-related actions, effectively queuing them for a later execution.

Abstractum.Net (347) has posed:
    "I'll get the Tandem set up!" Harmonious Diea says. Psyber's cartridge slots in, preventing friendly fire, while Himei's grants enhanced athleticism and Eleanor's... There's a particularly unusual effect there. Remember AUGMENTATION STABILIZATION? Apparently it'll help tapping into extra power, as well as using those wings.

    "You just give your orders whenever you can, I'll be ready!"

Herbert West (274) has posed:
"Oh she's literal," Ness says. "Flying and attacks of light and the whole thing-" Ness groans, "Destroyer robots. Great. Are they smaller now?" He adjusts his hat with a sigh.

Wailord is SUMMONED and thus... crushes several of the robots. While not weak and more than a match for the police, they aren't really up for handling a whale dropped on them. Still there are a lot of them, and the hum of powered weapons begin. Guns begin to blaze toward Ariel's allies, peppering the area with gunfire! (Feel free to smash robots as you please but keep in mind they should take at least a minimal effort)

Elsa twirls her tonfa with one hand, and the other makes a gesture. "Heart-on-Sleeve will help me, Robo." She focuses her thoughts on her outfit and the strange emotion called LOVE within it, summoning up the Abstract Power to form something of LOVE. She hasn't tried this before so doesn't know what it will be.

Doctor West WAILS on his guitar some and cackles! "A whale! Talk about ESCALATION! As for how I did it... the same way I did THIS!" He does a guitar riff and then slams a button in the back of the van, resulting in the nearby skyscraper's entire front to crumple! It is... a HUGE DROPCLOTH that just LOOKS like a building front! It has dropped away to reveal...

"SUPER WEST INVINCIBLE DESTROYER ROBOT TYPE 28-DX: DEMONPAIN!"

This does not answer the question.

Lila (545) has posed:
    Lila has reappeared near the policemen, next to LAER actually. She has a cup of gelato. She climbs up on the hood of a car to sit there and watch. "This looks like a lot of fun, hmm?"

Kirika (481) has posed:
    Spear in hand, Kirika does as she does best; MURDER THINGS WITH REALLY FANCY SHARP THINGS.

    She makes her way towards the middle of the horde of robots, her abstractum spear lunging towards one in particular with a stabbing motion to impale the robot directly in the chest-area. "RAAAGH! TASTE THE BENEDICTION OF A GUARDIAN, AUTOMATONS!" Hot blooded as ever, Kirika springs into the air, her hand waving as she unleashes a hail of ice bolts at nearby robots.

    Her motions are graceful, and attacks in her direction will for the most part be either evaded or made an effort of dodging.

Psyber (253) has posed:
    "Definitely someone I wanna meet, then. I don't get to talk to nearly enough other Guardian Ang-" Psyber cuts off as he moves directly in front of Ness and Stone, trying to shield them when the weapons fire starts. He takes several shots to the chest, staining his t-shirt with the deep crimson before the wounds quickly seal themselves up.

    "I'm gonna handle these guys, but I will come back to you later for some more information," Psyber says before he draws Adjudicator, "Jude, all Strike Drives power up, I don't wanna hold back," Psyber says as he charges towards the shooting robots.

    He swings the massive, offensively-specialized blade in a cleaving horizontal strike, trying to take out as many of the robots that just temporarily perforated him as he can.

Laer (353) has posed:
    Laer gives a glance over to Lila. She naturally has no idea who that is, but that's only a minor issue; she's not really super invested in the fight, anyways, and instead mostly seems eager to cheer on one side or the other.

    Mostly West. She approves of his guitar stylings.

    "Can I have a bite of that?" She'll ask Lila, gesturing at the gelato. "Only, I mostly came here to capture a bull, so I'm a bit disappointed that it's gone this way. Good concert, though."

    She'll direct Nyarie to keep pestering her chum Arthur.

Homura Akemi (2) has posed:
    It's true that doesn't answer anything at all.
    Homura frowns.

    She extends her right hand, and a golf club gets produced out of thin air. One can presume that red runes trace themselves along the weapons's entire surface from her Abstractum, giving it an arbitrary boost into the realm of 'golf club +1'.

    She flickers out of existence-- and then in again, standing atop the Doctor's van. She promptly attempts to clobber him in the face several times with the golf club.

    "That doesn't answer the question!"

    Time to see if he can hold his own or not.

Abstractum.Net (347) has posed:
    From the handle of one tonfa sprouts a massive hammer. Traditionally, hammers of love are big and comical and squishy and do no more damage than can be shaken off by a hapless protagonist after an initial burst of indignation. This is not a traditional hammer. It's a giant warhammer, the kind you'd use to break the bones of a giant monster. It is, however, still marked with pink hearts among its darker red glow.

    "A reunion of lovers on a battlefield in a recreation of their first meeting?" Heart-on-Sleeve says, as if it's having its mind blown. "Elsa, you picked /perfectly/! I already like how this story's gone. You definitely need to start a real duel now!"

Amalthea (395) has posed:
    First and foremost, Amalthea lines up several instances of 'get guard up now', for later use as needed. A good start as she starts opening fire in short controlled bursts, lining up the red laser sight. It's cheating, sure, but she can't be faulted due to her lack of depth perception. Nevertheless, she begins pumping bullets at the smaller robots.
    When a new dropcloth falls to reveal the Demonpain. She has to pause here to ruminate on the ramifications of another giant robot battle about to start.
    "I... I really just can't top that..."
    Her focus now is going to be squarely on the smaller robots.

Lila (545) has posed:
    "It's mine!" Lila says! But she offers out a spoonful anyway. "Mom is a lot of fun! She's so nice but she still gets into these weird situations. Oh, I think she's going to use her giant robot!"

Ariel (219) has posed:
Oh boy. This is... going to be a little weird. "Right! Everyone else take cre of the small robots and PROTECT LILA AND THE CIVILIANS! Homura, you take care of West! See if you can't get him to stop hounding us!"

Meanwhile. "Let's go, Diea, Al! The innocent blade! Time to summon it!" She holds up her hand, a summoning circle appearing beneath, and hands things off to Al.

Nurse Joy (553) has posed:
     The giant whale Pokemon is a little bit uncomfortable where it is. Robots are made of some sharp parts. Lucky for it, it has a fairly thick body made mostly of fat, so it will be hard to do a /lot/ of damage to it by accident, but the robot bits are still rather annoying to it.

     The whale, though, being the biggest thing here, well... Nurse Joy of course has a plan.

     "WAILORD! Go for the big one! The realy big one! Use Rollout!"

     And the Wailord starts to roll towards the Demonpain, trying to avoid anyone else that might be moving to attack it. Of course, if someone else is going for an AWESOME SOLO FIGHT, giant robo to giant robo, he'll hold back for the awesome.

Laer (353) has posed:
    "Mom?" Laer asks, taking the spoonfull and pulling it into her mouth, making a slightly happy noise as she does. She'll seem to appreciate it before continuing the conversation, evidently unwittingly defending Lila in spite of not really meaning to follow Ariel's orders in any way. "Which one's your mother? Please tell me it's somehow Psyber."

Al Azif (135) has posed:
    Somewhere, Ruri puts her head in her hands. "Really? They're summoning Demonbane, aren't they?"

    Winfield, the butler, helpfully points out, "Well, there is a giant robot battle in the middle of the city."

    Ruri sighs and presses a button on her chair, which causes it to streak down under the ground toward the command center.

    MEANWHILE, IN THE BATTLE!

    "Thou art Demonbane, the Smiter of Evil! The Innocent Blade!" Al is doing the whole incantation rigamarole for Ariel, but with a thunderous BOOM the Wailord is now joined by a massive machine of metal and magic, landing just next to the whale. This is getting a little crowded in here, but hey maybe they can do a combo attack?

    Either way, the massive machine shimmers, summoning Ariel and Al up into its body with a flash of purple.

    "Wait, is Demonpain even moving?"

Lila (545) has posed:
    Lila shakes her head, setting the gelato between herself and Laer to let the elf have some as she wishes. And she has no problem talking in the middle of the EPIC BATTLE! "It's always so fun seeing that happen." She smiles, "Oh, no, mom is Ariel. Isn't she great? A little naive but it's so cute that way." She claps her hands like a little girl.

Arthur Lowell has posed:
    Arthur's not liking the look of Demonpain there. He knows Elsa's critical to its operation, though, in some capacity. If he can keep her occupied, than he can delay or prevent its activation. Even if it means trying to beat up the waifu. His forced grin cracks further with uncertainty when he sees that hammer come out, though. For one, legitimate confirmation of this being 'love' and not some awful misunderstanding is causing him awful problems.

    "Shit." He says under his breath. "This is gonna hurt." Oh well! He leaps into action! "ALRIGHT, YOU TWO!" He hops high into the air, and comes down swinging! "Let's MAKE THIS HAPPEN!" He opens up with one initial downward swing that slams into the same crater Elsa made on her landing, then rushes into a lot of follow-up, swinging and slashing with the blunted broom. No rocket power, no blending, no shooting, just swinging and the occasional jabbing.

    The posture and tactics he's got are clearly reluctant, in the sense that he's not actually trying to inflict injury, but to "duel"; on the former side, he's absolutely holding back, but on the latter side, he's full of his traditional enthusiasm! Elsa's thankfully not made him freak out about anything yet, so he's got a lot of gusto to the engagement.

Laer (353) has posed:
    Laer will take a seat as well, watching the giant robots square off, only slightly hampered by the onesidedness of the actually doing things. She'll take another spoonful of gelato, and the glance that she gives Lila while considering that response speaks volumes. "Hmm. Ariel's daughter, is it? Let's see... are you a time traveller from the distant future, come back to prevent the horrible death of your parents?" Laer will tactfully not mention that the last person to nearly kill Ariel, to her knowledge, was her. That might be considered rude.

Abstractum.Net (347) has posed:
    Harmonious Diea is fluttering dramatically while Ariel summons! Ariel's orders are also conveyed; all ABSTRACTUM USERS find their attacks deal ENHANCED DAMAGE when used against robots that are presenting any risk to local civilians, and especially Lila! Homura gains an offensive boost in her assault against West, a burning green fire added to every strike alongside an increase in sheer force.

    Al Azif gets a bit of an awkward look from the cloak. "Er, well, Elsa's over there right, and she makes it work, doesn't she? And Dr. West is... Um, occupied, so..." It looks out at the robot. "Do... Do you wanna get back out, or..."

Herbert West (274) has posed:
Kirika's spear and Psyber's sword, plus Amalthea's attacks, quickly start to dismantle robots! They explode and crash into the walls and ground, flailing about. Some of them start to unleash cannons that are bigger though, filling the air with lead.

A few of these thing have started peppering Wailord, but the giant pokemon is now rolling toward Demonpain... and Demonpain isn't reacting at all.

"It is a tragedy of intense excitement, robo!" Elsa agrees! Arthur is actually better and stronger than she is, but since he's holding back and she doesn't quite understand that idea, she's fast! Some of his strikes slam into an arm or her chest, driving her back, and she barely manages to parry some others. But the warhammer is still a HAMMER and she slams it downward, a blow that will shatter asphalt of course, opening up counterattack and wearing this RIDICULOUS smile. "A true battle between lovers, forced onto opposite sides! Elsa is so happy, robo!"

Demonpain isn't moving though. Wailord could probably knock it over pretty easy, but will have to be careful not to knock it INTO the skyscraper. It's big!

Lila and Laer are safe because the robots are focused on others.

And Doctor West?

"OW! Hey, wait! That isn't fair! You're supposed to wait until we get into the robot! OW!" WHUMP WHUMP WHUMP! "AUGH! IT HURTS AND STINGS!"

Lila (545) has posed:
    Lila shakes her head, "Oh, no. Well... no. Nothing like that, but you're closer than you think! But no, Ariel just found me alone and soaked in the raining streets, with strange goons trying to shoot me. You know how it goes."

Psyber (253) has posed:
    Psyber is slammed hard with a few of the larger cannons, staggering him in his charge on the robots and opening larger holes in his chest and wherever else they hit, punching through his clothing without too much effort. This causes some more bleeding in the time it takes the wounds to heal up from the damage.

    He'll leave the larger fight of Robot on Stationary Robot to Ariel and Al, mostly wanting to just focus on using hugely powerful swordstrikes to take out robots.

Homura Akemi (2) has posed:
    See the first time Homura tried this, West had missile launchers! She thought, you know, maybe he'd have those again. You never know. Hidden gadgets in his suit or something. It turns out he... did not.

    Now she just kind of feels bad for picking on a technically defenseless man with a powered golf club. Leeeeet's go with Psyber's suggestion.

    Discarding the blunt instrument, the Puella Magi moves to grab West by the wrist and handcuff him to one of the doors of his van. She refrains from further beatings, although still feels like she is breaking several narrative rules and tropes here.

    "S... sorry, I thought you might have rocket launchers again. So err. How did you manage to replace all the building fronts without anyone being wiser for it? You'd need an army of trained ninja for this-- please don't say Super West Ninja Robots."

Nurse Joy (553) has posed:
     With the giant robot... still not moving, Nurse Joy, and Wailord, are both just somewhat confused. Joy ponders, tilting her head. This is anticlimatic to an extreme level. She shrugs her shoulders slightly, though. There is still a mission to be done here.

     "Wailord, keep the robot guarded from anyone of those people who might pilot it! Also, MAGIKARP, I CHOOSE YOU!"

     And Nurse Joy sends out a Magikarp. A magikarp the size of a van, or car, or somewhere in that range.

     Nurse Joy reaches for the Magikarp, and starts to use it as a bludgeon against the various robots around. Might as well try to thin the horde a little bit.

     The Wailord, on the other hand, is basically just tanking in front of the giant robot.

Abstractum.Net (347) has posed:
    Heart-on-Sleeve seems to be quite happy about all this. "Yes! Exactly! It's so exciting, just like the stories!" The little hat that goes along with her outfit seems to have a big grin at its brim. The hammer comes down! "But!" Heart calls out. "If we beat them enough, eventually there won't be another side for him to be on! A defection, or a redemption, or even just a capture! All you need for the happy ending is to try your haaaardeeeest! Strike Driver!"

    The hammer comes down and seems to be burning with bright red fire! It seems almost rocket-powered, the weapon's weight and force increasing during every moment of the swing.

Kirika (481) has posed:
    Giant robots. Kirika is no stranger to fighting these things, given her experience in the Union. As they keep fighting among the carnage of smaller robots, Kirika opts to keep fighting the little ones, evading and tanking their fire as she links up closer to Psyber and AMalthea, stabbing and slashing away at robot after robot.

    Time to time she lets off a blast of fire or lightning, if only to soften the 'bots up to impale them right through with Mantatto's magic spearhead. "Ragh!"

Laer (353) has posed:
    Laer contemplates that for a moment. "Ooooh. Okay. You're a little bit young to be the full on damsel in distress, but I think I get how that could happen. And you're keeping some dark secret or other from her for her own protection? People who you owe money, maybe. Or a dark Union secret ops experiment. Oh! Or that you're actually her time travelling adopted daughter from the future?" She asks, before taking another spoon of gelato. "Don't worry, I won't tell her that part if she doesn't know. It's more fun to watch this kind of thing play out normally. I'd offer to write it up, but I'm in the middle of a subject at the moment."

Ariel (219) has posed:
Ariel sighs, feeling a little guilty as well... but then she gets an idea. "Huh... actually Al, this might be a good chance to..." She trails off, then yells to the others, "Finish off those things or make West call them off! I'm going after Demonpain!" Such a dangerous thing! Demonpain!

Ariel drives Demonbane forward, footsteps thundering along the street and moving to where Wailord keeps Demonpain pinned. "ATLACH-NACH!" she yells, intending on sending an entrapment toward Demonpain... but why, when it's immobile?

So it doesn't slam back into the building when she punches her fist through its chest, aiming to tear out the power module of Demonpain... and recover Al's pages inside it.

Arthur Lowell has posed:
    Elsa may be a few rungs on the echeladder lower than Arthur is, but he's still a squishy caster and she's designed for combat, so when the hammer comes down, it can't be no-sold; he puts the broom up in both hands, trying to catch the hammers head on its handle, and the jarring impact transfers sudden jolts of trauma through his arms and torso. "J-jeeze," He stammers a bit. "I didn't know this sorta stuff made you so happy." He can be okay with that; a smiling Elsa is kinda cute.

    He shakes his head and regains composure in time to avoid collapsing under the weight of the rocket-powered hammer. "ALRIGHT! If it's FIGHTS that you want, HELL if I'M gonna be the guy who turns that down!" He forces the hammer to the side, letting it drop into the earth with an asphalt shockwave that he leaps over, planting the bristles where the handle meets the head of the hammer and then using the broom to vault forward and try to land a solid kick on Elsa.

    He's less reluctant - Elsa's enthusiasm is the infectious one this time - but he's still firmly in "competitive duel" mode.

Al Azif (135) has posed:
    The Atlach-Nach spell is a new addition! Demonbane's HAIR leaps into action, wrapping around Demonpain and pinning it in place. With that combined with Wailord, it should be enough to immobilize it even during the jarring impact of Demonbane's fist. Hopefully that's enough to give them time to fish out Cthugha's pages.

Abstractum.Net (347) has posed:
    The blade in Psyber's hands lightens. Jude intends to be more useful here; the sheer numbers and offensive firepower are an issue, not the sheer power brought to bear. So making it possible for Psyber to maneuver the blade more is paramount.

    Additionally, huge waves of bright red fire are being regularly released with each horizontal swing, intending to turn every strike into an AoE attack; it should be particularly effective against large clusters.

Lila (545) has posed:
    Lila just smiles. "Oh... something like that." The words are just a tiny bit forced, though. There may be some truth to the accusation.

Herbert West (274) has posed:
Weapons cleave through the robots. The robots, for all that they try, really can't stand up to Elites. It's not that they're shoddily made, it's just REALLY HARD to fight Elites of this level, you know? Especially when magical spears and giant fish being swung by athletic medical professionals are involved, for example.

"OUR LOVE IS PURE ROBO!" Elsa cries out during the duel, her systems taking visible damage from the clash of HAMMER OF LOVE against the BROOM OF SPACEKID! It really is a clash, and for a dramatic moment, the INTENSE STARE is given across from the haft of warhammer and broom locked for a critical moment, sparks flying off the weapons! Which makes no sense, but it happens!

"Super West Ninja Robots are a great idea! I will have to think of them!" West says as he sputters and slumps against the van. "The answer is... MANY MANY HOURS DISGUISED AS A WINDOW WASHER!"

The Wailord and the web(that sounds like a cool series) hold Demonpain still to allow Ariel to TEAR the core out, yanking Cthugha's pages back into the grasp of the Deus Machina. It is now just a useless doll of a machine with bizarre colors. Until further notice, a Desu Machina.

Master Therion (565) has posed:
And it is about then that a new voice joins the battlefield. "I never expected West to do so well, yet at the same time... the advancement has been phenomenal. This Multiverse has provided such an interesting new twist in the game."

The voice is cool and fluid, almost bored, and comes from a young-looking man with silvery hair floating in midair, with an impractal outfit that has his chest bare. Clinging to his side is a girl, in her late teens, with a dull-eyed and haughty look about her, looking down at the group from where they stand in midair.

"My apologies for not meeting you all sooner," he states as the carnage fades. "The... change of plans had me occupied." From the tone of his voice he wasn't occupied at all.

Laer (353) has posed:
    Laer stretches a bit as she casually exchanges radio-based dislike with Amalthea and totally accidentally risks distracting Ariel in the middle of something important. "Well, don't worry too much about it. But if you need help, let me know, hmm?" She puts her hand out towards Lila, and somehow or other an actual factual business card has gotten into it, listing various contact information as well as giving her full name and rank. "Oh, hey. Someone new. You don't happen to know who that is either, do you?"

Psyber (253) has posed:
    Psyber follows through on one swing of Adjudicator as it adjusts its maneuverability. The tip of the blade carves a deep gouge in the ground before he turns to point the blade at the newly arrived figure. Psyber says in a rather flat tone, "Who are you?"

Homura Akemi (2) has posed:
    "I... see. You really are dedicated," Homura comments, keeping an eye on Elsa just in case she might decide to backtrack to free West. Then another voice; and two new people. This keeps getting more interesting, apparently, and not in good ways.

    Rather than mirror Psyber's question, she decides to ask West. "Who is that man and what part does he play in your plan?"

Ariel (219) has posed:
Ariel yanks hard, causing Demonbane to tear the core from its moorings and out of the other robot. Tucking the pages into her chest, she lets Al handle any assimilation that is needed.

But when she turns around there's... no more fight and a guy floating in midair. This is setting off some alarms. "Are you with Black Lodge?" Ariel shouts toward the newcomer. "We've already beaten all your sorcerers so far, you can just give up, you know!" She doesn't actually feel that confident about it, given how terrified she is about battle.

To the Abstractum users, she directs, "Keep an eye on him in case he tries something funny, and subdue him as fast as possible. These guys are kind of crazy."

Lila (545) has posed:
    When Therion appears, Lila's tone changes, in mid-shake. The card is whipped away to be tucked into her dress, and she shoves the gelato to Laer. "Ah, yes, I think it is time for me to be going. I'm Lila, nice to meet you, I'm sure we'll have a lot of fun, bye now!"

    Lila quickly scoots off the hood of the car and tries to creep away.

Al Azif (135) has posed:
    The core shimmers and disintegrates when Al reintegrates the pages into her being, giving out a soft sigh. "Just a little more, I think. We're almost done!" Then Demonbane turns around... and she grows quiet.

    "That's... that's Master Therion," she says to Ariel. "The head of Black Lodge. And the one who destroyed Aeon, my previous Deus Machina."

Nurse Joy (553) has posed:
     As the newcomer arrives, Nurse Joy is along with everyone else in wondering 'who the hell this guy is'. With West mostly incapacitated, and the giant robot now useless, she recalls her Wailord. She leaves the Magikarp out though, and carries it over towards Therion. Not threateningly, just casually.

     She looks as if she is about to speak, but others are already asking who he is, so she doesn't ask.

Amalthea (395) has posed:
    Ceasing her assault on West's robots, the new arrival gets Amalthea's attention up. Loppy ears prick right up as the unicorn turns her eye to Therion. She had already been on course to Lila and Laer, so she addresses them first.
    "Laer what do I need to do to get you at least five hundred yards away from anyone I am even tangentially tied to?"
    But then Lila seems AWFULLY keen on leaving.
    "Away from her" Grunted before looking back up to the silver-haired man. "Who the hell are you?" It's a moot question to ask when Al answers anyway.
    "Okay yeah. Lila. Behind me. Now."

Laer (353) has posed:
    Laer seems marginally surprised by the rapidity of Lila's decision to depart, though it does get her what she truly desires, which is to say the remainder of the gelato. Laer will pick that up, hopping to her feet and looking over towards Amalthea. "Well. You could cut off all ties to everyone, then move to an island far, far away. I'm not very fond of islands."

    She's hopped to her feet on top of the car, but the owner has probably been shot by robots or something anyways.

    "Something I should know?" She asks, not having picked up on the actual cause of the increased tension.

Herbert West (274) has posed:
West answers Homura quick enough. "My plan? Ahahaha! That's my boss, don't be silly! Why did you think I wanted Al Azif? What use do I have for a grimoire?"

Elsa remains locked in battle with Arthur. It's pretty freakin' epic. But we won't detail that for now. Imagine a spinoff manga that takes 24 chapters to cover it and we'll be about right. It's that epic.

Master Therion (565) has posed:
Therion toys with his hair lightly, listening to the various queries and what others say of him. "As Al Azif has said. I am Master Therion. I am not here to have our final battle... that has some time left, I think. Kuklos ka Ariel Schmendrick-Fortuna has been... an interesting new direction to the expected plan. I look forward to seeing how she grows. But she is not ready to fight me yet." He alights on one streetlamp, looking over the people here. "So many who can battle even a Sorcerer. It has changed the Anticross's tactics, mn." He's kind of wide open... until Amalthea bares fangs and makes to protect Lila. And Laer, though that probably isn't intentional.

"Really, unicorn?" He asks. "And how would you stop me? You would stand between me and... Lila was it? Is that what mother has been going by all this time?"

With a small gesture, he briefly reverses gravity beneath Amalthea, with the intent of flinging her up and away from the scene of the battle. "Please."

Lila (545) has posed:
    Oops. Lila was called out while she was tiptoeing away. She flashes a little smile to Therion... "Eheh... sorry, not ready to come home yet. Too much fun!" She suddenly dashes for the alley, presuming that the others will keep Therion busy and thus she won't have to fight him herself.

Homura Akemi (2) has posed:
    "I don't know. Power your giant robot?" Homura asks West, actually with complete honesty too. "A few pages seemed to be doing a good job at it, I figured if you had the whole book your giant robot would actually be invincible and you'd be able to conquer the world with your genius. Or rock. Metal? Something like that."

    Therion is quick to show off though.
    Not impotently either.

    Homura decides not to move for now, keeping an eye on the handcuffed doctor instead. "So why do you work for him? What could he offer you that's more valuable than just taking Al Azif for yourself?"

Amalthea (395) has posed:
    Stowing her gun in favor of the black dagger at her hip, the unicorn sets her footing. Yes, she bares her fangs in trying to guard the latest erstwhile member of her family, flipping the blade in her grasp as she braces.
    "es, REALLY, I--"
    Wait what.
    A glance casts back over her shoulder at the small girl. "Mother? What the fuck."
    This guy is somehow her great grandson through adoption and the situation has now just become utterly perplexing, but she still stands in his path. "I'm not budging from this spo-"
    Amalthea is LAUNCHED skywards with a riotous curse, faster than she can get her balance and kick her jetpack into gear, which launches her through the nearest building with a huge crater, dust, and echoes.

Psyber (253) has posed:
    "Wrong, guy," Psyber says as Therion moves to dismiss Amalthea. Psyber, sword in hand, points the blade at Therion and moves to circle around and try to move towards Lila while Therion dismisses Amalthea.

    "Not just her. I'm ready to stop you too," The half-angel spins his sword and moves to cover Lila's retreat as she runs off, holding his sword tightly. He's actually not fully sure of his odds, considering how the man was just able to apparently fling off Amalthea. But he's also not keen on just backing down.

    "I dunno who you are, but you're not getting her," He tries to dart towards the opening of the alley and block it himself, "Run, Lila." He encourages.

Nurse Joy (553) has posed:
     Joy just stares as Therion tosses Amalthea casually into the sky. While she is from a Pokemon World, she has yet to see this occur.

     She is really /really/ resisting suggesting 'let's get out of here and then plan for him with a lot more power behind us'.

Ariel (219) has posed:
Ariel is still bringing Demonbane near and readying, with intent to fight if she has to! But the words that Therion says just bring her up short. Mother? What? That means that he's her... uh...

This is getting complicated.

"What do you want from me? You aren't getting Al or Lila! So you can just go home! I don't care how strong you are, I'm not giving either of them up!"

Laer (353) has posed:
    "Oh, wow, this is a family reunion suddenly. I could have teleported you out, probably." Laer calls at Lila's retreating back before giving up and returning her attention to Therion with a shrug. "Do you want to have a preliminary fight, then? I'm not even certain we're on different sides. I'm mostly here for the gelato, but we could probably work out some kind of arrangement." She suggests, not really wanting to get too involved in actually fighting if she doesn't have to.

Arthur Lowell has posed:
    Honestly, Arthur isn't THAT distracted by the new visitor's appearance. His commentary about games, and Al Azif's distant explanation of his leadership of Black Lodge, get Arthur thinking in the midst of the heated duel with Elsa. More swinging and jabbing, he's not going to let other stuff interrupt this duel, but he does speak back to Therion as he fights, briefly, during one of the clanging broom/hammer locks.

    "HEY PAL. I'm only one of the DISTANT RELATIVE sorts 'round here, but this FAMILY is TIGHT AS ALL FUCK. Dunno what's up with Lila but you oughta know you're steppin' into some BAD SHIT here. BLACK LODGE tactics been at least MOSTLY okay so far, but if you're TOP DOG, you oughta know shit escalates BADLY if you push it TOO HARD."

    Then he's back to focusing on Elsa. She seems really into it and for reasons that Arthur is unable to determine or explain he's loathe to disappoint her in any way.

Al Azif (135) has posed:
    "I knew there was something off about her," Al says with a sigh. "But... something about that doesn't make much sense. Maybe it's something else." She shakes her head. "Human relations are so confusing anyway! All I know is that Ariel... what Ariel says goes!"

    But why hasn't Therion attacked? "Are you going to fight us or not? We'll take you down right now if you want! I bet we could do it!"

    She hopes.

Herbert West (274) has posed:
Elsa really does seem happy, and as broom clashes with the warhammer of love, made of shimmering abstractum stuff, she shows off some fancy footwork as well. "This is how it is meant to be, robo! Feel the burning passion, Darling!"

Way too happy about that.

It does seem that Therion's appearance actually gets through to her, though, and the duel is cut short! She was kinda losing anyway, having been driven back several feet already. "Ah... Doctor!" She smiles, "Another time, darling!"

Master Therion (565) has posed:
Psyber moves to guard Lila, and Therion sighs, flicking his hair back as he observes the group here. "Mn... no, fighting here would be pointless. Even if you won, it would be a loss for you... and I would rather fight Ariel and Al Azif. There is something I must know. And besides... it is not yet time for us to have our final showdown, hmmn?" He smiles. "Soon, I think. It will be... far more interesting and enjoyable. Take good care of mother for me, hmm?"

It... looks like Therion was just here to gloat? Or something. Because he's opening up a portal in the air, moving to step through it. Looks like he has no desire to fight anyone else right now.

Herbert West (274) has posed:
West, meanwhile, answers Homura with an obvious answer. "Really? I am going to prove what a GENIUS I am, and Therion recognizes that! Also it gets very expensive building lots and lots of Destroyer robots. Someone has to pay the bill!"

Psyber (253) has posed:
    Psyber twirls the sword in his hand and sticks it into the ground, leaning on it a bit as he exhales heavily, "Phew. I'm glad he backed off. I really didn't want to go on a city-destroying row with someone after challenging someone else to a fight tomorrow."

Lila (545) has posed:
    Lila isn't in the alley. She's just gone. Anyone checking her Union radio transponder will find that she's halfway across the city now and headed for the warpgate.

Kirika (481) has posed:
    Kirika seems to have been mopping up the rest of the robots before the guy ran right off. Boredly twirling her spear in hand, the half-kitsune produces a flask as she stows Manattobuki back into a sling on her back. It's filled with an herbal tea she's fond of, something she's never been one to leave home without a supply of. Taking a sip from the warm liquid, she also produces a handful of what look like little bits of chocolate, goji berries to be precise.

    "Who's hungry?" She asks cheerily, holding out the handful of berries after she takes a nibble herself.

Homura Akemi (2) has posed:
    Homura will unfortunately have to stop Elsa from freeing West if she tries, but she'll produce a bottle of MORNING RESCUE for the doctor to drink. And hopefully forget she bashed his face in with a golf club.

    "We're um. Not sure what we're going to do with you. Apparently there are four or five different ideas right now, some of which end in you receiving large quantities of money. I don't suppose you know what your boss wants with Ariel and the Necronomicon?"

Herbert West (274) has posed:
West is... surprisingly okay with this question and sudden change of heart from his enemies! He slugs back some Morning Rescue with a phew, rubbing his face with one hand. "Ehh? You're asking me?"

He shrugs. "Something called Project C. I don't know anything about it! It just needs lots of magical power and he wanted an army of destroyer robots for it. Now he has the second!"

Herbert West (274) has posed:
Elsa is looking a little unsure if she's supposed to keep fighting or not. "Robo~?"

Ariel (219) has posed:
Ariel dismisses Demonbane at last to land lightly near West. "Hi! Well, if you don't want to work for that guy any more, I guess we can give you some things to do in my duchy. Like making quality of life stuff. I wonder if Nerites has Warstriders that need work...?"

Well, Ariel IS pretty forgiving, so there's one obstacle out of the way.

Nurse Joy (553) has posed:
     Joy herself has her own ideas. She has by now walked over to Homura and West, and has been listening in a little bit.

     He pauses, considering.

     "How many destroyer robots did he have, and how much money would it take you to build an army of destroyer robots twice as big as his?"

Herbert West (274) has posed:
Blinking, West thinks. "Oh, I don't know. A thousand or two? A lot. Once I got the technique down it was easy! It'd be... millions on millions of credits though. And a lot of time. I've been working on this for years, you know!"

Psyber (253) has posed:
    Psyber is mostly migrating his way back over to Ness and Stone to make sure that they're doing alright after the robot attack, now that everything is calming down.

Nurse Joy (553) has posed:
     Hrm. Probably not reasonable to expect him to make an army of robots of an equal size that fast. He does look towards the others, but sighs. "I assume that none of us have millions of millions to throw at a project of building another army of robots... Though curious, can we at least get the blueprints for these robots to look for design flaws? --not that there are likely to be any, but just in case."

     She doesn't wanna hurt this guy's ego.

Arthur Lowell has posed:
    ARTHUR LOWELL does that thing people do in anime fights where one particular clash somehow generates backward momentum, and skids to a stop some distance from Elsa. He calls out over to West and the others. "MAN," Arthur says, "C'MON, this shit's EASY! Dude doesn't need WARSTRIDERS for workin' on, just turn him LOOSE on all the OTHER PROBLEMS! Man, didn't you see him at the BEACH, dude makes ROBOTS that do DESTROYING THAT LOOKS A LOT LIKE BUILDING really well! Amp up the LABOR and the DEFENSE and basically goddamn EVERYTHING in ONE SWEEP!"

    Swapping to a dramatic reverse-grip on his broom, he also calls out to West specifically. "HEY BRO, I'm not meaning to be DOWN on your ACCOMPLISHMENTS or nothin' - you're doing GREAT so far, when you think about it - but think of all the stuff you'll be able to DO without US gettin' in fights with you, yeah? Hell, Al?! Al. What's your stance on some BASH BROS co-op shit with DEMONPAIN? Does THAT THING still have MOST of its parts? Anyway, MAYBE you can figure some shit out about bringing in some of OUR TECH and MAGIC and all that."

    "ANYWAY can ya give ARIEL somethin' to WORK WITH on a JOB OFFER QUICK? Not like I'm not enjoying FIGHTS, but, y'know. It'd be SUPER RAD to not HAVE to do more FIGHTS with ELSA, especially right now."

Herbert West (274) has posed:
Elsa points out, "Our conflict drives our emotions higher, robo." Or something. But then again... the hammer is gone and she's suddenly clinging to Arthur's arm, totally not hostile now. So who knows, with this girl!

As for West, he peers around and hmms. "Oh, I don't have to build destroyer robots! That's just what was asked for. I'm equally adept at repairs and other robotic sciences! If Ariel is willing to hire me, I would be fine working with her instead!" He stops.

"Black Lodge may not be too happy, but I'm confident that won't be a problem now, AHAHAHA!"