706/Speaks vs. Users

Speaks vs. Users
Date of Scene:	30 September 2014
Location:	The Homeworld
Synopsis:	The Users face off against Speaks for a lesson in Abstractum combat.
Thanks to:	Abstractum.Net
Cast of Characters:	Kirito, 2, Vruasa Telash, 131, Fiora O'Brien, 183, 219, 253, 347, 383, 570
Tinyplot:	When They Return

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Psyber (253) has posed:
    Pretty much everyone coming are people Psyber knows personally to some degree or another, so it's safe to assume they were invited to participate in his little experiment.

    The half-angel is only just now making his way into the Red Wing from his office, having given people who live/work on the premesis a ride over via car. Across his back is slung, of course, Adjudicator! The Greatsword almost constantly being in that exact spot.

    As soon as he enters the Red Wing, Psyber goes straight to the holodeck controls, intending to start setting up the program while everyone settles in and gathers. He's mostly going to set up the arena and try to summon speaks.

Abstractum.Net (347) has posed:
    Setting up the arena has a simple interface. A few default environments, but you can select one that's based on any given Node! Psyber can pick any currently-existing Node to use as the framework, if he wants, or pick one of the default semi-random ones.

Kimiko Shinobu (570) has posed:
    Kimiko arrives in her Puella Magi outfit, like an off-canon Victorian reenactor. (It makes getting around quickly rather easy.) She's not visibly armed, as yet, but Koishin is on her right wrist, in the form of a bracelet.

    She's not going to interrupt Psyber while he's getting stuff set up, so she just stands to one side, leaning against a wall and waiting for everyone to get there.

Homura Akemi (2) has posed:
    Normally Homura would not strain herself after a thing like Sunday, but between the care she received and the fact this is a simulation, she's not too worried. She's been good enough to attend class and hand-in essays anyway, so she's good enough for a simulated fight. Hopefully. Probably. She's definitely not standing on the front lines today, at any rate. Kimiko, Kirito and Psyber are more than suited for the role.

    Hair in a side-tail, glasses on, white dress shirt and black pants as usual, with red ribbon in her hair, the Puella Magi is standing to the side, waiting for everyone.

Laine (383) has posed:
    A wolf with a gleaming silver collar upon her throat is here. She is just casually curled up nearby, tail lazily swishing at anyone who comes in. Not much to see here, just a wolf.

Kiyoko Saito (131) has posed:
    "RIGHT, PASSION!" Kiyoko says loudly as she barges right in. "It's time to show them what you can do! This should be awesome, because I don't really know what you can do yet! As expected of a SKILLED NINJA'S Abstractum, ho ho ho!" Yes, she said ho ho ho out loud.

    Kiyoko hops over and starts to bounce on her toes, right next to Kimiko. Someone might want to tell her that Kimiko was the one her Yamiko tried to murder.

Vruasa Telash has posed:
    VRUASA TELASH might or might not actually be here. There is however a cardboard cut-out of him surrounded by strange humanoids. A whiteboard text bubble is embedded in the sign, and has presently been covered in profanity. The THREE HUMANOIDS he's sent in his place are carapaced and buglike in appearance, and two of three of them are wearing finely-tailored black suits.

    The first of them is utterly average. Average height, build, and appearance. PLEASANT SOLDIER is armed with a set of KEYS.

    The second is TALL and LANKY. It appears to be MALE, but is weariing a FANCY DRESS and HAT. POLITE INFANTRYMAN(?) is armed with a single KEY.

    The third and last of them is SHORT, FAT, and CRANKY-LOOKING. AGGRESSIVE DEMOMAN is armed with a HAIRPIN.

Ariel (219) has posed:
Ariel is in her humanoid form, and scratching her head at Vruasa. Looking at the other options around her, she tilts her head and then sighs. "Ah... I guess we might want to go Green Chroma. So we can like, do a Tandem properly." At the moment she IS the only Green-capable one present, right? Because Vruasa is NOT HERE.

Psyber (253) has posed:
    Psyber decides to set the arena up to be based on the City of Division, wanting to give himself some sort of home court advantage against whatever speaks will be planning. He taps at the keys and then starts explaining aloud as people wander in, "So here's the deal. Mr. Speaks, one of the Operators, was a high-level Abstractum user in a previous cycle. I'm hoping I can set up a match against him so he can teach us some stuff about Abstractum combat, and specifically maybe some anti-Pure tactics. But he's kind of crotchety, so he might not show up. If that happens, we'll use the holodeck to have a big water balloon fight."

He briefly looks up from typing shit into the computer and says, "If he does fight us, the only thing I know about his Abstractum is that it created elemental effects. He told me this once. Other than that, we're flying blind against a high-tier User, so... be on your toes for whatever."

    Overall, his setup is simple: Arena based on the City of Division, Summon Speaks.

Abstractum.Net (347) has posed:
    PASSION is thankful, to some degree, that Kiyoko is being nice and not using the full name. The rest of what she's doing could use some work, but the mask will take what it can get. "Or of any Abstractum which has not seen much battlefield use, really." The mask says, in a sighing kind of voice.

    "I'll swap to Green Chroma, then. It's good that you're doing what you can to keep this all together!" Ariel's cloak speaks up in an encouraging tone as it flares, briefly, a soft green glow saturating it.

Kirito has posed:
    An experimental batle, huh? Kirito can groove with that. He needs every bit of combat experience he can get, and every moment shared posible with Double Fault that he can get, if he's going to take KING on. That half-assed swordsmanship he was wielding earlier would've made the Black Swordsman of Aincrad cry.

    At the very least, he needs to live up to his own standards. Double Fault's placed all trust in him, and he has to answer that. "Sorry I've gotten so rusty." He mumbles quietly to his weapon. That ends now, of course. Well, it ended their last operation. But now he has an opportunity to practice more.

    "After this, let's do some training against simulated enemies. Sword Skills and your Drive attacks." He doubts he can reclaim his edge completely, but anything is better than nothing.

    "Yo, Psyber, everyone." ... And he does turn Vruasa's way, but he finds something odd there. Boggle. "...what's this...?"

Kimiko Shinobu (570) has posed:
    Kimiko has no idea what to make of the carapaced trio, but based on the fact that no one else is more than mildly puzzled by them, she's fine with ignoring them until something happens. As far as she knows, Ariel is right, and gets a nod from her.

    Homura gets another nod from her as she comes in, along with a, "How are you doing?" Homura had not, when Kimiko carried her out of that battlefield, been doing so well. Doesn't hurt to check.

    Kiyoko's exuberance gets a glance over, along with a mild question, "Have you not tried it, or just not tried it enough?" This Kiyoko has no goatee, fortunately.

Mizuki (183) has posed:
    As it was for Homura, Sunday was quite trying for her: her power was virtually spent, and her form teetered perilously on the brink of erasure for the first time since she was outright destroyed back in Priscilla's world.

    Still, when Mizuki received Psyber's invitation, she was beyond happy to accept. Just a few weeks ago she had created her node, but she hadn't dreamed she would have the opportunity to learn more about Abstractum, her own included, so soon! This is a small treat to her and it shows, a smile decorating her face as she alights a yard or so away from Psyber and the consoles, glancing around at her company.

    At them, she nods. There are a few new faces, but she knows most of them at this point. For now, she just stays quiet and trends near some inconspicuous corner, eyes eventually settling on Psyber as he begins to explain. She nods along, summoning her sword into her hand with a small smile. "Field experiments are some of the most efficient ways of gathering information, after all, and I would like to see what a more experienced Abstractum wielder is capable of." Speaking of those little things, Mizuki's own pocketwatch is probably hooked to her jacket by its chain. "I'm certain Speaks won't be my only example of that, but this should be very interesting indeed."

    Famous last words, or something along those lines.

Vruasa Telash has posed:
    POLITE INFANTRYMAN takes a marker off of a string around its neck and writes on the board for Kirito's benefit: BRT (10 subjective minutes). This explains absolutely nothing, but the carapacian seems to get the gist of what it means. It re-caps the marker and secures it around its neck, smiling and waving politely at Kirito.

Kirito has posed:
    Kirito, after a few moments, returns the wave. But then Yui pops out of his pocket and announces in english, "BRT. It means Be Right There, papa!" Kirito promptly slaps the waving hand against his forehead.

    "Right. Time shenanigans."

Abstractum.Net (347) has posed:
    ARENA: [THE CITY OF DIVISION]

    The arena based on the City of Division is a simple one, divided down the middle into two parts: On one side, a modern city, full of huge skyscrapers, streets densely packed with cars, and a night sky saturated in more stars than should be visible. On the other side, there is a woodlands-style forest, full of sweeping, tall trees as large as the skyscrapers opposite, interspersed with the shattered ruins of several castles. There are no stars in the sky on this side, only the moon.

    A query is sent to Mr. Speaks, which he responds to. The man flickers into existence in the holoreality arena, his simple sword Abstractum slung over one shoulder. He's a younger man, in his prime, with short, dark hair, and a well-tanned and well-muscled physique. He also wears the same simple business suit that the other Operators wear.

    "While I owe you a favor for previous generosity, my understanding of this appointment is that it will likely expend the last of it, with no particular hard feelings for either of us, beyond one single resentment that you will harbor at the end." He swings the sword down and plants it in the dirt of the forest side of the arena.

    "Now, what assistance do you request?"

Abstractum.Net (347) has posed:
    "Oh man, there's a /bunch/ of training options based on the Nodes, it could be fun! Let's give it a shot!" The sword in Kirito's hands is making agreeing nodding sorts of noises. "Don't worry about rusty, let's just do the fights, it's fine to enjoy some real competitive fighting sorts of things."

Psyber (253) has posed:
    Psyber gives Mizuki a nod of greeting, then the same to Kirito. The half-angel then takes a long few moments to watch as Speaks shows up. The half-angel draws his own sword off his back, "I'm going to go out on a limb and guess that my resentment will be you still not giving me all the information I want? As par for the course by this point," He notes, gripping the handle of his blade.

    "Alright. Let's get Tandems set up and everyone saddle in with battle buddies," Psyber says loudly, trying to draw attention to the fact that the match will be starting soon. For the moment, he's ignoring whatever shenanigans are going on in lieu of Vruasa's presence. That guy shows up whenever and wherever, so there's no sense stressing over his absence.

    "Okay, Speaks. I want you to teach us some stuff about Abstractum combat. Impart some knowledge or whatever that we're gonna need for upcoming battles." Psyber walks up to the edge of the city/forest border, standing firmly on the concrete side of it to opposite his more arboreal positioning, "We're gonna have a fight, basically."

Kiyoko Saito (131) has posed:
    "Not enough, really!" Kiyoko says. Her Abstractum is a ZORRO MASK because it's Kiyoko. "But I'm fully equipped! I mean... as much as I can be. I actually have to make weapon choices these days."

Abstractum.Net (347) has posed:
    "Acceptable, though you currently, and will, when you experience it, misunderstand. I will now teach you of a flaw in your Cycle. A habit and tendency that will, within the span of three years, bring about a great tragedy if left unchecked, as well as many losses of a nature most severe. I will not teach you of it in the form of pointless words. I am Speaks, but the greatest messages are conveyed through action."

    The simulated Abstractum in Speaks' hand is awake, it even looks alive. The eye moves around, as if observing, but it never does talk. "I will be simulating a Threshold Redshift, otherwise known as Category Three Shift. I believe it should suffice to impart the lesson." His grip on his sword firms, and brilliant red lines run over it, and then along his arm, over his body, all the way up to the right side of his face. The light grows more intense as a large, solid ring of red forms behind him, just behind his back, like a halo. With one final flourish, the blade itself seems to experience large cracks along its length, exposing a shining red light below, like magma running below shattered fragments of the earth's crust.

    "Tandem's all set! I've got everyone, but I've set it up to accept Vruasa and his compass whenever they get here!" Harmonious Diea calls out. "Oh, and Speaks! Good luck, thanks for this! I hope you have fun with this, if you can."

    Speaks, himself, finishes the brief blade flourish and assumes a ready stance. Both hands are clasped around the hilt, held up protectively. A very European sort of style, meant for one-and-a-half hand swords, with a wide and low center of gravity. "Arrange yourselves as you like. I will begin the lesson at the first attack your unit performs." He says, simply.

Ariel (219) has posed:
Ariel claps her hands. "Okay! For those of you new to the idea, a Tandem is a thing where if you follow the Green's orders, you get a bit of a boost! Um... I'm the only active Green here, so please bear with me." She steps back as she ponders who is here, then she tosses a PSYBER CARTRIDGE to Kiyoko. "I'll need that back. Does anyone not have Cartridges at all? I only have one Psyber Level 1 but I need it to go to Kiyoko for reasons." She's betting Kimiko has none either, so she offers up a HIMEI CARTRIDGE for her, if she needs one.

"Okay Diea... let's see..." As the Strife Drivers spin up, she considers. "I'll give you your orders on channel, guys. I'm new at this, so if you're having problems let me know and I'll try to adapt."

For her own first move, she's going to cast out a generalized boost in power and speed to those present, as a general buff. That's the best she can do right now. Except that she also slots an ELEANOR 1 and HOMURA 2 Cartridge.

Mizuki (183) has posed:
    Blink. Tandems? Luckily, she has enough sense to guess at some of what that term entails, especially considering the words that follow it. 'Battle buddies', he says. That gets a well-defined quirk of the eyebrow from her, and her arms emerge from her pockets just so that she can fold them, completing her look of moody scepticism. The gestures are tempered by the usual omissive, coy smile, though, signifying that the idea probably isn't as off-putting as she might have had some believe at first.

    Besides, what better way to learn about a person's capabilities than by fighting with them? She exhales quietly, scanning the crowd again. Who here would she be most easily capable of working with, or failing that, who does she stand to learn the most from? Homura is her obvious initial thought, but tactically speaking her abilities would much better serve someone who does not already have temporal abilities of their own. There's Psyber, too, but she quickly dismisses that idea as he, being the person who invited them here and who he is in general, will likely have a bevy of willing candidates for a role as his partner.

    No time to think about that before more crypticisms pour from the mouth of Speaks. Fitting as that may be given his pesudonym, this bothers her. Usually -she's- the omissive one, you know? Being on the other side of that fence isn't exactly the most pleasant feeling in the world, and in that moment it's perhaps more clear than it's ever been why Equinox is blue rather than red or green: that's her primary goal in all of this, at the end of the day. To know, and to learn.

    You know, this internal monologuing would go over a lot better over tea back home rather than when she may very well about to be thrust into some very uncompromising crevice of cruel reality. So she assumes a ready stance too, right after raising a hand at Ariel. "I've not had the opportunity to receive a cartridge. Some assistance on that front would be greatly appreciated."

Kimiko Shinobu (570) has posed:
    "Preparation is difficult, when you know little of what to expect." Just idle musing, really. But the appearance of their... opponent? ...gets Kimiko's attention. She moves off from the wall--now the outer wall of a skyscraper on an urban street--and toward Psyber's position, yet keeping several paces away. Calculated to allow a simultaneous flourish of a weapon Adjudicator's size, should anyone notice.

    As she walks, Kimiko glances further to each side. Mizuki, Kirito, a certain wolf--there aren't many entirely unfamiliar faces, here. That's good. "Koishin, we're set?" Harmonious Diea said so, but this is also a form of mental preparation.

    With restrained curiosity, she takes the HIMEI CARTRIDGE. "What is this?" The question is as much to Koishin as to Ariel or Diea.

Abstractum.Net (347) has posed:
    "Cartridge installing! Powering Strife Drives!" Ariel slots in HOMURA 2, granting her the ability to REPEAT attacks or buffs at no cost! She also slots in ELEANOR 1, which helps stabilize or enhance AUGMENTATIONS, and Harmonious Diea seems to fully accept this. It can't help with her BUFFING, though, which will have to be done independently.

Homura Akemi (2) has posed:
    To Kimiko, Homura simply shrugs.
    "Good enough for this, not enough I'd bet on the outcome," is her answer.

    The cartridges she starts with, herself, are PSYBER-1, PSYBER-2, FREDERICA-1 and VRUASA-1, an obvious focus on tools that will let her attack from afar with maximum output, without having to worry about Speaks' blade close-up. Unfortunately she is almost certain someone strong enough to achieve Shift 3, and higher, is going to be able to use his sword in a gunfight just fine.

    The Puella Magi transforms into her magical girl wardrobe. If Speaks cannot interfere with her blatant abuse of timestop, she's going to set about a dozen charges of explosives up around the area, hidden in the cracks of buildings, in the sewer manholes, in the streetlamps, and even in cars. This'll take her a few minutes, but for everyone here that shouldn't look like anything at all. Homura hasn't moved in the slightest.

Psyber (253) has posed:
    "Adjudicator, full power to Strife Drives. All Strike Drivers go, too." Psyber says simply, spinning the sword in his hand easily despite its massive size. He's calm and deliberate in his motions, trying to keep Speaks focused on him, "Give me a Level 1 Shift. We're going to slot a couple cartridges, too." Psyber says, sliding a Himei Level One Cartridge and a Homura Level Two. He looks sidelong at Kimiko and gives her a silent nod of acknowledgement.

    He then steps towards Speaks and then stops in his motion abruptly, feinting the man and trying to keep Speaks focused on him. He's deliberate in it, occasionally making it seem like he's about to charge him, while simultaneously neither giving or gaining any ground or covering much distance between the two of them.

    He's sticking to Ariel's plan and keeping himself from engaging right out, trying to create an opening for someone else to go in.

Abstractum.Net (347) has posed:
    "Powering Strife Drives." Equinox says, the watch glowing a soft blue as it ticks with each word. "Man, for a guy called Speaks he sure says a lot without, uh, saying, stuff. Hmm. Don't worry, though! Cartridges are mostly just bonus effects, I think. It's up to you, if you need one!"

Abstractum.Net (347) has posed:
    "Oh! That's a cartridge." Koishin says, to Kimiko. "Here, lemme just..." It transforms into its proper bracer form! And now, it bares a pair of slots! "Just slot it in!" And when she does, it'll sink in with a soft click. "Cartridge installing." Himei's level 1 is very useful in an overall way; the power that moves back into Kimiko is one that increases athleticism!

    "Alright, powering Strife Drives!" It says. "I've got the barriers all ready for you!" And it does! Kimiko has full control over the dozens of barriers that Koishin projects by amplifying her magic.

Abstractum.Net (347) has posed:
    "Nnnnnh..." Clairvoyant Rush makes uncomfortable noises. "I... Alright, p-powering Strife Drives. This guy... I'm not looking forward to this..." The nervous little ring makes a meek noise before glowing a brilliant red and rushing with a fiery effect. PSYBER 1 prevents friendly fire, while PSYBER 2 causes her to gain a power boost relative to violent inclinations of the target... Useful against speaks. HIMEI 1 gives her the usual endurance and speed boosts, while FREDERICA 1 grants her a single trajectory alteration on the projectiles she fires! Very nice.

    Her explosives have an ominous set of red witch-rune markings. We'll see the effects of that later.

Laine (383) has posed:
    Laine only has 2 Cartridges... and may not even be able to slot two. She'll slot in a Homura and a Psyber, in that order, before nodding to Ariel and bounding off to the side. Immediately, everyone in the group who accepts the slight mental touch the wolf offers will get a view of where everyone is in the battlefield, relative to Speaks. It can't defeat stealth powers, but the effect does prevent Speaks(hopefully) from just hiding behind a mailbox and surprising anyone. Not that she expects this to happen.

    "Wuff," she says firmly. A sudden roar of wind picks up as she whips up an air elemental to give people boosts in speed and jumping or flying, while hopefully hindering Speaks.

Kirito has posed:
    Oh man... Shift Three. "We've only got sift one." Kirito announces regretfully. Oh well. What they lack in raw power, he'll just have to make up with skill.

    The Spriggan unsheathes his weapons - Double Fault in the right hand, a crystal-blue longsword named Lucent Arrester in the left.

    And he is still utterly Cartridge-less, so he'll have to make up for that loss with his own skill even more!

    "Let's go! Like you say... let's just do this." No more worrying. Kirito smiles ruefully, almost mentally chastising himself for all the regrets and anxiety attacks, and deploys his wings. "We were told Shift 1 is only ever a good thing... let's see what you can do!"

    Kirito heads skyward for a good look of the battlefield, hoping to get a moment to see how Speaks fights... but what he instead gets is a good angle of attack, coming in from above and at the side.

    Kirito enters a DIVE, aiming to zip down at speaks and deliver a full-momentum slash. If it strikes, he'll go skidding over the ground and prepare for proper melee!

Mizuki (183) has posed:
    Mizuki looks down to Equinox, who is immediately able to make her smile. "/Quite/." Her grin widens faintly. "We will just have to seek genuine knowledge in other ways, I suppose. Shouldn't be that difficult for us, considering, but do alert me to any observations you make regarding his abilities and tendencies as you're made aware of them, naturally." She draws in another, small breath, and exhales. "... somewhat ironic that our first proper fight together should be against a member of your own 'team', so to speak, but Creation's cogs often turn in mysterious ways." She levels her sword at speaks now, doing her best to steel herself. "With regards to these 'cartridges', some passive boon to our abilities would certainly be lovely, but given how quickly things seem to be escalating it may be prudent to worry about them another time."

    As Laine's wind rushes behind her, she gives a few flaps of her wings, transitioning into a near-ground hover intended to test its effects. She wants to have her bearings when the proverbial fireworks begin, and to be able to strike when she's given the opportunity.

Abstractum.Net (347) has posed:
    "Powering Strife Drives. Strike Drivers at full Category 7 activity." The blade in Psyber's hands speaks in mature, simple tones, as if it were reading out of an instruction manual. There's a brilliant red light that rushes over him, reaching up his arm and up his face as it inscribes lines of biblical text over his skin in crimson brilliance, flooding him with intense physical power.

    Ariel's ORDERS provide a buff to dodging the response to restrained feinting. Speaks moves like a man who knows everything he needs to; he never moves more than he has to, using the absolute minimum of motion required to dodge the feinting. With Strike Drivers as intense as Psyber's at Shift 1, they're letting out huge blasts of force, tearing up the ground and the trees around Speaks himself!

Abstractum.Net (347) has posed:
    HOMURA 2 gives Psyber the ability of REPEAT ATTACKS without effort, while Himei's grants him its traditional, always-useful athletic endurance and speed boosts that come with such a generalized focus.

Kimiko Shinobu (570) has posed:
    Oh, this will be useful. Kimiko's probably going to need to cover a lot of ground very quickly during this, and her usual method of attaining speed is energy-intensive. Himei/Ariel's cartridge and Laine's magic will both assist. But all she voices is a soft grunt of acknowledgement.

    To start, she leaps forward. No armor, yet, but a sword appears in her hands--between that of her usual knight's longsword and the kind of greatswords her strength let her lift, it's a German-style bastard sword, not too unlike what Speaks has. A versatile weapon for an uncertain fight.

    Immediately, she dashes to try to position herself nearly-opposite Psyber, but at such an angle that her opponent could still back off from both--by moving farther from Ariel. Her own position is a whirling display of swordsmanship as she tries to take advantage of any opening Psyber's own offers, all accelerated slashes from every conceivable direction. She puts Koishin's barriers to use, stacking them in front when she finally thrusts--an inherently riskier move, but more difficult to defend against, as well. Otherwise, they interpose seemingly at random, just getting in her opponent's way, moving out of her allies' strikes, and being generally as annoying as possible.

Kiyoko Saito (131) has posed:
    "Got it!" Kiyoko yells! "Okay, Passion... let's get dangerous!" When /isn't/ Kiyoko dangerous? She likes to play with knives! She catches the cartridge and jams it into her... uh... mask. Somehow. Then she's springing up to dart this way and that, assisted by Laine's wind! She's tossing small blades and the like, usually with tiny explosive tags, some attached to wires, nothing special.

    Basically, setting up her 'traps' for future use in the battle.

Abstractum.Net (347) has posed:
    Laine, should she be remaining in that wolf form, will find a pair of slots on her collar, allowing her to slip the cartridges in. Homura's enables her to QUEUE functions on time delays to execute automatically, while Psyber's prevents friendly fire! Useful things. "Alright, Powering Strife Drives. Let's not go overboard, but I think we can show off a bit of the power I can help you with here. Activating the Stasis Transfer function."

    Laine's Abstractum and its own unique function make themselves easily known as they show off her ability; she can draw "stasis" out of her allies and apply it to Speaks! Using this semi-magical effect, her wind spirit will have its effect amplified!

Abstractum.Net (347) has posed:
    "Right! Powering Strife Drives! INSCRIBE REDSHIFT!" Adjudicator was silent, but Double Fault likes a little flair to the process as it marks circuit-esque lines up Kirito's avatar's arm, flickering over half of his face, while it pumps him full of massively increased power and intensely sharpened reflexes! His dive is comet-like, and comes down towards Speaks with a rush of meteoric fire! Ariel's buffs are providing a huge boost to offensive power here, alongside Laine's speed boost.

Abstractum.Net (347) has posed:
    Kimiko's defenses are boosted with the soft green light imparted by Ariel's orders as she moves in to help defend, her elegant tag-team sword-fighting with Psyber allowing a firm advancement without much risk, and covering many of Psyber's potential openings with Kirito! While many are fragile, they stack very effectively, especially with the assorted buffs from the support blues.

Abstractum.Net (347) has posed:
    Kiyoko's traps are going to have a soft green glow that only she and the others of the Users here can see, not Speaks; Ariel's buffs allow for enhanced awareness, but even then, Psyber's cartridge prevents any FRIENDLY FIRE incidents with the traps! Useful stuff. These will be good once he gets in here. "Alright, we're going to start off with what I can do for you." Passion says, simply. "Now, ignore all the other things I said before, in public. All the energy, keep it at one-hundred-percent. You're not allowed to tell anyone I said that."

    "Powering Strife Drives. Surrogate Shadow." And, abruptly, Kiyoko will find herself in two places at once. Specifically, there's a masked one, who is now completely silent in all ways. There is also an unmasked one, from which Kiyoko does all of her shouting, but which she will be keenly aware is not actually real, and is actually going to disappear if struck even once. Through an offered mental interface, Passion will allow her to operate the Surrogate as an extension of her own will. As long as her attention isn't too split, it's the absolute perfect compliment to her usual trap method!

Abstractum.Net (347) has posed:
    Speaks is slowed. Speaks is blocked and attacked from all angles. And in fact, for the brief several seconds of the initial attack, he appears to be on the defensive.

    There's a glint in one eye, a soft reflection of the crimson light surrounding him, and the short declaration of, "Versus Paradigm.". It is the only warning that comes before his full response, which comes just as Psyber comes forward from an alternation with Kimiko and right before Kirito's first attack.

    Kirito dives in and, abruptly, Mr. Speaks suddenly seems to not care about whether Psyber's holding back. "Barrier Driver." He says, simply, blunting one of the feinted blows while he steps forward and catches it on his own flat. "Dash Driver." He rushes in and uses his incredible speed to push forward at Psyber's position; either Kirito will be forced to attack Speaks THROUGH Psyber - which will cut a grazing wound down his body, should he choose to - or Kirito will have to avert the attack! While Tandem prevents him from harming Psyber with his Strike Driver, it doesn't mean that getting stabbed would be any more fun!

Abstractum.Net (347) has posed:
    When Kimiko's tag-team response inevitably comes up to counter, as she has been doing so effectively so far, Speaks suddenly releases an unexpectedly intense kiai, rushing in and simply tanking her lesser offensive power and allowing her to cut deep into one arm while he yanks on her bracer, forcing the barriers to rush forward and interpose themselves between Speaks and the counterattack from Psyber and Kirito.

    "C-crap! Kimiko!" Koishin calls out.

    "Strike Driver." Speaks says, simply. With the few barriers it has left, it tries to block an intense, powerful PUNCH from the man square across her jaw, but they shatter and succeed in only slowing the ancient immortal's assault down. Could probably have stopped it with a full stack, but having used the barriers so offensively before... The force, if it manages to land, will be enough to send her flying.

Abstractum.Net (347) has posed:
    Disengaging from Kimiko one way or another, Speaks elects to simply ignore the pair, and go after the support-type Greens and Blues who have been left with only Kiyoko and her traps to guard them. "Dash Driver." He says, simply, blasting off over the ground with incredible speed! As Psyber mentioned before, his special ability was a simple, rather low-level elemental ability; his sword is surrounded by very literal wind, struggling to counter the wind spirit reducing his speed, but his top-speed was apparently already quite fast.

    His first target is unexpected. He bears down straight on Laine, of all people. Crashing through several of Kiyoko Saito's traps, taking the explosions as he goes and suffering burns that he seems to be ignoring as he tries to run down the wolf and bring several brutal overhead strikes down on her side while there are few Reds nearby, trying to take advantage of the heavy forward arrangement of the Red types, before leveling his blade towards Ariel's position and saying, once more, "Strike Driver." Before releasing a rather huge fireball towards her.

    "Woah, Laine--! Barrier Driver!" The collar around her neck calls out, bringing up a few slowing newbie-level barriers that shatter under the immortal man's well-experienced assault.

    "Incoming, Ariel. FORM: SHIELD." Harmonious Diea quick-swaps to its shield form on Ariel's arm without any question and immediately tries to move to interpose, even while it can't defend like a Red-type!

Vruasa Telash has posed:
A WEEK AND TEN MINUTES FROM NOW
AFTERUS

    VRUASA TELASH crawls out of bed blearily, the harsh light of the Afterusian sun filtering through the window causing him to squint in aggravation and cover his face. He staggers across the room to where his RACK OF SHADES is, fishing a pair off half-blind and initializing it with the programs built into his mechanical eye. He blinks at the world through a cerulean filter, now suddenly at tolerable light levels. A faint, incoherent grumble escapes him as an old alert flashes at the bottom of the s<span style="color:reen.

c#005682">> 1 WEEK 10 MINUTES @GO: FIGHT @SSHOLE OPER@OR</span>

    "What?" Vruasa converses with himself, "I didn't do that."

    "Wait. Shit. I didn't do that!" Vruasa throws on some charcoal grey cargo shorts and disappears into the past, leaving behind a shining silhouette of a spinning red cog.

RIGHT NOW

    A fully clothed iteration of VRUASA TELASH is having an argument with a Derse Carapacian in the streets of Afterus. They conclude this exchange by having a cordial brawl/knife fight, which ends when the carapacian's knife breaks against Vruasa's skin. They smile threateningly at each other, but go their separate ways when the WHITE QUEEN exits the senate building behind them and stares at them disapprovingly.

    ALSO RIGHT NOW

    A shorts-clad VRUASA TELASH emerges, sunglasses halfway off, desperately screwing Ulixes into his prosthetic eye socket. His left arm is mechanical from the shoulder down, and several prominent blue marks are visible along his sides. He starts to speak, "Sorry about that guys, I switched to a set of shades that didn't have the right alerts on it so--" Speaks does some really fancy shit that makes it inconvenient for Kirito to attack him.

    The troll straightens his shades and watches Speaks go to town. "Uh... shit, Ulixes... short-to-mid-term predictive sight. I probably need to help them figure out all these dirty fucking tricks he's pulling and get around them. Let's see..."

    VRUASA pulls the SONICSTRIKE SPEAR out of his sylladex and engages his own form of bullshit superspeed. He doesn't bother going for surprise, though. "HEY, ASSHOLE!" He screams to Speaks, setting the spear to vibrating powerfully before striking. It's not a serious attack -- he's aiming at the Operator's weapon. The powerful vibrations of Vruasa's own spear are pretty disruptive and numbing. Like trying to strike a reinforced structure with a baseball bat from the back of a pickup truck running at 50mph.

Homura Akemi (2) has posed:
    No lecture from Homura right now for Psyber.
    Considering her stupid plan last weekend she has no room for it.

    She does however appear by Psyber (whenever he has half a second of not being hit), Combo Frame suddenly slotted in-- being in real close doesn't bother her, she'll be in and out before Speaks can do anything. Hopefully.

    "We forgot this. It'll help."

    Once their COMBO FRAME is active, Homura withdraws again, appearing atop a convenience store. She pulls an assault rifle out and starts unloading towards Speaks, trying to push him back towards a car. Combined with Vruasa's sudden appearance and strike, she might just be able to guide the Operator towards one of her many traps. On the other hand the bullets aren't anything special unless her Abstractum decides to make them.

Kirito has posed:
    "What--?!" All charged up he may be, thanks to Double Fault, but all the circuitry throbbing through him is of little use when Psyber's suddenly in the way.

    And he wasn't counting on Psyber being so self-sacrificing. The boy hesitates in spirit, though not in body, and his aim wavers. He doesn't want to do.

    Cutting through Psyber to strike an opponent is utterly against his style!

    But the half-angel's trying his best, and if he doesn't that would be betraying those efforts. The boy grits his teeth and closes in. "Uuuuuurrryahh!!!" Double Fault's brought down with tremendous force... "What a miserable strategy...!" Though effective. EXTREMELY effective. He figured Speaks had something up his sleeve when he calmly accepted this proposal... because this fight is ridiculously unfair for one person to be facing down.

Psyber (253) has posed:
    Psyber inwardly curses as the feinted blow is stopped. He was holding back on each strike, trying to make Ariel's plan come to fruition, and it backfired. The half-angel is twisted and pushed through by the attack, leaving him to see exactly what is happening as it happens. r
    Psyber shoulders the sword across his side and steps in at Speaks, trying to keep his own pressure on Speaks as they press inward. He says something predictably in his own vein of thought, "Do it, Kirito. Don't worry about injury to me. It's more important that he win. Just Himei the shit out of your sword strikes." He forcefully states, trying to smack Speaks in the jaw with a closed, barehanded chinpunch and give Kirito the opening he needs. As the swords pass through him, he grins to Kirito, "Don't worry about it. I've had worse." He says, giving the boy a pat on the shoulders before pulling himself off the blades and then taking off towards speaks.

    Of course, Speaks is off and away right after that brief exchange. The half-angel shouts, "Not so fast!" While put on DPS by Ariel, he's still aggressive and protective of people. As Speaks runs off, Psyber taps the Combo Frame with Homura and takes off after him. The half-angel is less focused on hitting Speaks and more on catching him.

    "JUDE! Supplement my physical strikes. I wanna pull him off of Laine," Psyber says, trying to run as fast as the Laine Wind + Himei Cartridge will let him in order to shoulder-check Speaks before he can hit Laine and try to take the entire hit square in the chest for her.

Abstractum.Net (347) has posed:
    The predictive sight is going a little wonky. Speaks is a big ball of awfulness in Vruasa's view, but he can at least see it moving around and attacking! "Bleugh." Ulixes declares. "His timeline tastes like stale bread." Speaks' apparent temporotactical data indicates that he's intending to swiftly run down and brutalize whatever Green and Blue type Users that get in anything resembling a vulnerable position. Vruasa can manage to intercept him just after he's knocked away by something else though.

    Speaks' hand goes completely numb under the sonic attack as he's quickly rolling to his feet. That's one hand though. We'll discuss what Speaks does with the other one in a moment.

Kimiko Shinobu (570) has posed:
    Kimiko does try to slow down Speaks' response, and isn't ready for the speed with which she's grabbed. Her first instinct is to stop Speaks from ripping Koishin from her, but her reactive armor normally appears /beneath/ the bracer, so as not to cut off its sight. It's with haste and little effectiveness that bands of steel circle around Koishin from her gauntlet--she can't summon her armor with enough force to actually dislodge someone of even her own strength.

    The helmet that suddenly interposes itself is more effective, at least in spreading out the impact through her rapidly appearing defenses and avoiding a shattered face. Conservation of motion still takes its toll, sans barriers, to send her flying backward.

    Rather than arresting her motion, Kimiko flips through the air hits the ground running, pounding steel into concrete as she keeps on in roughly the same direction as she was flung--toward Ariel. Not being anywhere near fast enough for it in the face of that Dash Driver, she leaves Laine's defense for another--it's unfortunate that, as mentioned, they really are lacking tanks.

    Ariel said to cover her, and she can and she will. It's an even faster run than she expected, though her head is still feeling that impact.

    "Barrier."

    The shield Kimiko summons now, positioned by handles obviously intended for both hands, is more like a wall of gleaming metal, stylized on the front side as an intricately layered sunrise of fluted metal, and big enough to hide a car--so one or two girls are quite, temporarily, hidden.

Mizuki (183) has posed:
    Mizuki's expression slowly becomes more neutral and severe as the fight rolls on, her arms remaining folded all the while. Never has she been quite so thankful for her natural tendency to remain unnoticed without explicit introduction on her part; it's given her plenty of time to observe, and more than enough reason to be wary. More for her own psychological benefit, Mizuki addresses Equinox briefly without necessarily looking at him. "His announcements give some indication of what actions can be expected, clearly. He doesn't seem to have a weakness where range is concerned, nor does he seem especially vulnerable when impacted." She grips her sword and raises herself higher into the air now. "In short, I couldn't have been assigned a better role. I would not want to be one of the poor souls given the responsibility of taking the brunt of his offensive prowess."

    Before she commits herself to the fight, however, Vruasa gets her attention. He's very... loud, isn't he? Sort of vulgar, but for some reason not in a way that comes off to her as overtly offensive. In some way, he reminds her of Arth... wait.

    So -that's- why he felt familiar.

    She smiles. Such interesting crowds this Abstractum business seems to draw! But again, that's all inward facing banter best saved for another time. Finally prepared, she closes in on Speaks' position and, after cloaking her gun and, by extension, he bullets in one of her speeding fields, she fires a rapid volley of 5 shots. She immediately disappears, reappearing on his other side and doing the same, primarily intending to whittle him down where possible and confuse him at the moment. Though that does come with the risk that he'll simply elect not to pay attention to her. And if he does?

    Well, let's assume she does. Preferably at a moment when he's preoccupied with another fighter, she would attempt an appearance at his sides after changing the speeding field from her firearm to her sword. Two swift slashes on his left and then his right, not really intended to be heavily damaging because she can't fathom that her strikes would be even if she intended for them to.

    That completed, she would attempt to blink away from Speaks as quickly as she can. No sense in sticking around for a pummelling if she can help it, naturally.

Abstractum.Net (347) has posed:
    "Barrier Driver." Speaks calls out when Homura brings out her guns.

    "S-strike Driver!" Claire squeaks in a kind of panic, cauing Homura's bullets to become saturated with magic and hit harshly, like some much, much more brutalizing. Unfortunately, they're slamming into Speaks' considerable barriers, which blunt their impact heavily, though you can see the bruising affecting him.

Abstractum.Net (347) has posed:
    "COMBO FRAME ACTIVE." Both Homura and Psyber's Abstractums spoke while Psyber passes Homura, both on their way to deal with Speaks. The gush of power is going to be necessary for what comes up next. Speaks is stumbling back towards one of Homura's traps, certainly; it's quite effective.

Abstractum.Net (347) has posed:
    Kirito cuts through Psyber! Mr. Speaks is doing all this with a massive gash down one side of his body now, whatever might be happening to Psyber. Kirito's attack may have been blunted, but it definitely did inflict a proper wound on the virtual man!

Fiora O'Brien has posed:
    From LITERALLY NOWHERE comes a voice, audible to all participants.

    "Hello? Hello hello? Can anyone hear me? God, have I been talking to myself? Well, that's flipping fantastic. I feel like a huge idiot, and let's get out ALLLLL of our chuckles at the Void goddess being totally ignored by everyone right now."

    "Ha ha. Alright! Laugh time's over! Let's see. Ahem."

    Fiora's voice begins narrating. "As the Cobalt Knight appears in a daze, he finds himself confronted by a great foe. Many are already confronting the foe, and they are proceeding in..." She pauses, before the sound of clattering dice sound. "A loose initiative order, with Speaks making regular actions with his Staggered Action trait - he gets one action oer attempted action by another player or group of players - and the party trading their positions in order due to Speaks having a very slow turn speed otherwise. So! The battlefield sweeps out, as generic as a field can get..." She continues, ink spreading outwards on the ground and 'sketching' out the doodle of a gently rolling hill, over top of whatever else is going on but not truly interfereing. "With trees interspersed around for cover here and there." She finishes, as doodletrees (they look like they're being speed-sketched) appear around the battlefield.

    "Standing behind a tree provides Partial Cover against attacks!" She adds, happily.

    The trees appear to swell with a sort of dark, smokey power, before their doodleness subsides.

    "So, how did I do? I'm practicing this Clouder thing today! It sucks nobody could hear me before."

Kiyoko Saito (131) has posed:
    "THAT'S RIGHT!" Kiyoko-shadow yells loudly! "You face The Amazing and Incredible Unstoppable Divine Stylish Magical Formerly Pony Nurse Ninja Rocket Hammer NotEvilClone Santa's Little Helper Super Entrepeneur Club President TzimischeBane Vampire Hunter Ace Detective Giant Robot Pilot Martial Artist Abstractum Wielder Love Doctor Titlemaster Half-Metaphorical Princess Dame Sailor Salvation! As a MAGICAL GIRL I know all there is to know about the power of TEAMWORK and FRIENDSHIP, and now you face ALL OF US together! Dare you face The Amazing and Incredible Unstoppable Divine Stylish Magical Formerly Pony Nurse Ninja Rocket Hammer NotEvilClone Santa's Little Helper Super Entrepeneur Club President TzimischeBane Vampire Hunter Ace Detective Giant Robot Pilot Martial Artist Abstractum Wielder Love Doctor Titlemaster Half-Metaphorical Princess Dame Sailor Salvation? COME AT ME, BRO! I'M GONNA CAST A SPELL! I cast..."

    Kiyoko-shadow strikes a pose.

    "GUNDAM SUMMONING IV!"

    In time with this, the 'real' Kiyoko has not just been laying traps, but slid several of her distractionary holoprojectors across the ground, aiming for an area around where Speaks has charged in. With a sudden 'POOF' FOUR GUNDAMS appear! They're just holograms, though.

    That should be a good start, but the real Kiyoko is quickly getting overwhelmed by all the activity. She is NOT stupid though, and as the 'hidden one' she is in a unique position to yank one of her wires and use the boost from Laine's wind elemental to dive in front. Maybe she can help out Kimiko, and in the process... she shimmers into view. "TWIN PHOENIX FIST!"

    Kiyoko takes a good portion of the strike, and is blown back by the sheer power to go... pretty far. Ow. But at the same time, both the FLAME PIECES in her braces explode outward in a blossom of flame, enveloping the area - and hopefully Speaks as well - in fire.

Abstractum.Net (347) has posed:
    Why did Vruasa have a chance to take on a tumbling Speaks? Clearly because Psyber came in and pulled a hand-egg on Speaks as he was trying to wail on Laine. It did likely interrupt an attack! Though it may not have been all the attacks, depending on Laine's own evasive abilities! Psyber will wind up needing to tank an extra fire-saturated blade attack though, one of the heavier ones. But the brilliant red light and tremendously increased force that comes out of his body is a clear testament to Adjudicator still putting in all the effort it can to help out.

Laine (383) has posed:
    It's good that Psyber comes to help, but Laine is still sent tumbling. Her Abstractum is fairly low-level, and the barriers shatter far too easily. Fortunately, Speaks may not know that she can regenerate. Laine lets out a shrill yelp, slamming back against a wall, but with Psyber intervening she's kept from really taking heavy damage at least. This lets her do SOMETHING in return.

    <<BREAK REALITY!>> The howl of the wolf is translated, but the /effect/ is battlefield manipulation. Abruptly, from the street, walls erupt into a complex and mazelike configuration, specifically around Speaks. The idea is to give everyone attacking Speaks a direct line to slam him, while baffling any attempts to go after the greens and blues. Such an effect probably won't hinder him for long, but it is a pretty high-level ability, so it should at least slow him down long enough for her to dash along one wall toward Psyber, or Kimiko, or anyone else who may have been injured.

Abstractum.Net (347) has posed:
    Kimiko is massively boosted by a friendly air spirit and the orders previously given to her by Ariel, meaning she practically doesn't need a Dash Driver. She wouldn't have gotten there ahead of the fireball without it, and when she does, Koishin's determined not to fail. "We've got it! Barriers restored! Barrier Driver!"

    The fireball crashes through stacks of spellcircle barriers - and then a delaying Kiyoko! - before it slams into Kimiko's shield, errected just in time! The heavily reduced gush of fire is heating the metal up just enough to draw a sweat before it subsides.

Ariel (219) has posed:
With Kimiko blocking, and Kiyoko slowing him down, Ariel is braced pretty darn well! So she isn't /actually/ hurt... but the way that Speaks did, in fact, go straight for her has the unicorn shaken a little bit. She staggers back a few steps, holding the shield before her, but feeling only a wave of heat thanks to Kimiko and Kiyoko.

For her part, Ariel drops to all fours in a gallop over toward the fallen Kiyoko. Healing power starts to flow, and her tail whips out to inject a mild anaesthetic into the girl for painkiller purposes. "Right, he's playing dirty. Guess we can, to. Orders incoming."

Playing dirty? Ariel?

"Diea. Shift Two."

Abstractum.Net (347) has posed:
    With Homura firing at him and Vruasa pressing him back, Speaks can do little more than drain his barriers to be able to halt those bullets. "Oh! Oh, are you double mirrored attacks to stop that stuff he was doing before? Hang on! I can help." Equinox says, in a friendly way that's slightly irreverent, considering the intensity of the fight.

    "Double Time!"

    It's not that Mizuki is attacking and then time-traveling to make a double, nor is it, exactly, that her timeline is splitting. But, somehow, through means that aren't quite clear, time seems to fold up on Mr. Speaks, causing him to suffer both slashes at the same time, so he can only dodge one slice and not the other.

Abstractum.Net (347) has posed:
    Two attempts to overwrite reality both occur at once, with walls blasting out of the skyscraper to create intensely complex maze-like configurations. Usefully, this actually means Homura's and Kiyoko's traps will be coming along for the architectural ride! Meanwhile, huge trees are gushing out of the ground, alongside rolling hills. Parts of the woods of the original setting are pushing in, and areas behind the trees are becoming more and more secure.

    Meanwhile, Soaring Silver enhances this by harvesting vast amounts of STASIS from the environmental change, giving her a fairly substantial stock of the... 'substance'? "Woah, that's a bit heavy, Laine." It says, nervously. "Don't get too much into it."

    Hecate is smugly elsewhere, but its advice is having effects here, so that's really all it cares about, honestly.

Abstractum.Net (347) has posed:
    KIYOKO was critical to stopping the fireball in time for Kimiko to take the brunt of the damage. This unfortunately means Kiyoko took the fireball head-on! "You know, I suddenly understand every objection people have to your explosive traps. Burning is /awful/." Passion says, simply.

    Elsewhere, Definitely Not Fake Kiyoko has attracted Speaks' attention, and we'll get to his response to the Gundams momentarily.

Abstractum.Net (347) has posed:
    "HALO GREENSHIFT." Harmonious Diea says, softly. The rushing assembly of a softly glowing green halo behind her back, and the gush of light over her arm as the shield displays the same, come with a flood of tactical awareness and reflex, and a high degree of buffing to go along with a suddenly clear mind. And, of course, as is by now per the norm, a tastefully green-colored magical girl's outfit forms over her quickly, because that's still a side-effect that Diea can't really turn off.

Mizuki (183) has posed:
    Mizuki certainly notices Equinox's 'irreverent incongruity', and it makes her smile a bit. Her mind quips something that could essentially be chalked up to a reflection on how 'cute' it is that her device takes after her so. Or that's how she interprets it, anyway. Once she's a safe distance away, she pauses and veils her expression in a flowing sleeve. "We will have to deliberate on other applications of this, Equinox, but time compression seems quite a useful thing indeed."

    But no sooner has she come out of the second time jump intended to get her away from Speaks than has a maze, along with no small quantity of trees, begun to sprout out of the landscape. Now -that-... that is bewildering. Not because she has never seen magic that creates before, but rather because it is something she has; that is precisely the sort of thing that she is capable of doing at her home, and what she has sought a method of doing elsewhere since her world's unification.

    Bah, but those should be benefits, not distractions! The moment the likes of Psyber and Kimiko create another opportunity for her, she would soar toward him in a zigzag pattern, aiming her sword as though she were going in for one of her suicide thrusts, and stopping short. When she is inches before Speaks, she would attempt a quick jump through time, and a jab at him weak enough that will allow for quick retrieval of her blade. She attempts a few more such strikes before retreating through a speeding field, firing another volley of shots as she passes through it.

Abstractum.Net (347) has posed:
    Speaks lets out another sudden, intense, and uncharacteristic kiai after quickly glancing behind him into the car Homura trapped. His hand is free so he grabs at Vruasa and, while it's unlikely to harm him too much, maneuvers their engagement such that Vruasa is the one forced against the car, trying to use MASSIVE personal strength and crushing force to ram the troll's face into the car itself apparently as he maneuvers around. "Strike Driver." He declares, simply. bracing himself against Vruasa.

    He launches an electrical blast into the car out of his sword, manually detonating the explosive. Homura's friendly fire prevention keeps her from damaging Vruasa, but the blast is going to knock Speaks, at least, away harmlessly because of his use of Vruasa as a shield. He's not interested in having the sword broken or beaten out of his hands, apparently. Unable to get at Mizuki, he instead elects to focus on other targets. He's already on a trajectory towards Homura; his blade flips through the air and slams point-down into the asphalt near Homura, a preface to Speaks coming in and trying to solidly kick her in the face with the momentum given to him by the bomb, before quickly picking the sword up with his left, uninjured hand. The kick's force is enough to take most people completely off their feet.

Abstractum.Net (347) has posed:
    Now stranded in the maze, Laine's awareness is going to be the forewarning everyone gets for what happens next, which is that he's simply CRASHING THROUGH THE WALLS. Homura's explosives and Kiyoko's traps are going to be the most effective things in this sequence, draining his endurance with blast after blast, but the man just seems to keep going! Kirito's the one alone now, and completely lacking the paired support the others have, so for once, Mr. Speaks goes after a Red-type! Crashing through a wall behind Kirito, the man lets out another shout and tries to catch him off guard with a flurry of blows and simple parries of counterattack, trying to get him off his feet with the sheer, overwhelming force of the strikes before going for a disabling blow.

    "WOAH SHIT, KIRITO!" Double Fault blasts with red light. "COMBO DRIVE!" The blade is more interested now in defensive combos; the light that moves down its length is actually an indicator of when to optimally parry! Counterattacking will have to come from Kirito's own inititive. This whole personalized duel thing only lasts for several seconds, though, and the impact of two Shifted enemies going at each other tears the environment in a radius of about twenty feet to shreds.

Abstractum.Net (347) has posed:
    This whole gesture seemed to have been a feint, though! Hoping that Homura is still dazed - and that Vruasa might be similarly dazed after having a car-bomb go off in his face - Speaks tries to go after a less prepared enemy that few people expect him to go after, disengaging from Kirito before Kirito can get his bearings and, despite whatever wounds he might suffer in the duel, rushing back towards Vruasa! It takes a bit, Fiora's trees are really messing with his ability to look at everything at once!

    When he arrives again, he's planning on slamming into Vruasa with titanic force and crashing down on him so harshly that, whatever the damage may be to Vruasa himself due to his absurd degrees of endurance, the ground UNDERNEATH him will have disintegrated so much that it practically buries the guy for at least a little while. Sure, he might have broken END, but that doesn't mean the floor does!

Abstractum.Net (347) has posed:
    Then, leveling his sword at Ariel - AGAIN! Rude dude! - he tries to blast a huge earth-based attack at them, tearing the ground open beneath Kiyoko, Kimiko, and Ariel in a way that's very difficult to block! He's having to do it THROUGH walls, though, meaning it's going to have a lot of forewarning in terms of noise, and may be inaccurate if the group can move just a little bit quick! More focus on Ariel than before, though...

    He then quickly swaps to a reverse-grip and swings around to his back and sides, in a gesture that might be a flourish but is actually just an attempt to catch Mizuki on one of her feinting time-powered flanking attacks with a vicious mundane-prediction-powered slash, a simple measure intended to either cut her or ward her off of the same assaults.

Vruasa Telash has posed:
    "Ugh. The dirtiest tricks. Why the shit does he look like a temporal STD?" Vruasa demands of Ulixes, ponderously. He wonders if that's something he can use against Speaks right now. If there's something stagnant about his time, maybe that in itself is a vulnerability to be exploited. Not having a place in the present context is certainly a thing that is hardly good for people. It means that fate isn't likely to be on their side when it comes right down to it. In fact, this kind of "stale time" reminds him of people who are flagged Doomed. It's just a matter of time before somebody cuts their throats and has done with them, but...

    That doesn't seem to be what's going on with Speaks. At least, not here. Maybe it's just not his time?

    "Amazing job, Fi. This kind of shit makes it that much harder for a guy to exploit the weak party members. BLUES AND GREENS, TAKE COVER! REDS, KEEP SPEAKS OFF OF THEM!" Now that the terrain has been overwritten, Vruasa figures it's just as well to exploit it and give some half-decent orders. Only half-decent though, because he really can't think of a lot of complex stuff to try on this guy just now. Ariel's got a better multi-layered plan. Really, he just wishes that Ulixes was a red-type sometimes. An eye laser would be pretty cool.

    Maybe he could get Research Assistant to make an eye laser.

    Aw, shit, Speaks is grabbing him and that sure is a car. This in fact DOESN'T hurt Vruasa substantially apart from faceplanting him inconveniently into a car, but the Vruasa that's planted face first into the car doesn't actually bother resisting proactively.

    A second iteration of Vruasa immediately materializes in a silhouette of red and THROWS two objects rapid-fire. The first object is aimed directly in front of Speaks' kicking foot as he rides the explosion towards Homura, a spirograph pattern displaying itself on the "face". It's a round disc-shaped object an... oh, that's a transportalizer. Its sister unit is set up next to the first Vruasa (who just got carslammed and jumped away from), who has knelt down in front of it and braced with a spear held up at an angle.

    The intent is, of course, to divert Speaks' course directly into a braced spear and generally disorient the shit out of him with teleportation nonsense before he can actually hit his stride. It's kind of a long shot, but crazier things have been pulled off.

    Regardless of whether or not THIS particular ploy is successful, one of the two VRUASA iterations -- looks like the one from the future, because he seems more marked up -- gets slammed into the ground and buried. Hilariously it turns out that he actually has a spear specifically for this, and can be seen DIGGING HIMSELF OUT with SUPERNATURAL EASE. No, seriously, Vruasa actually has a spear-shovel hybrid that is specialized at digging through the earth like it's nothing.

    This is exactly as ridiculous as it sounds.

Homura Akemi (2) has posed:
    "Got it," Homura answers Ariel.

    Black wings spread from her back, cracks in the fabric of the simulation, growing out. Within, tons of colors and symbolism we won't go into. Suffice to say they're fucked up looking black wings that look.

    Before she can take off, Speaks slams his blade into the ground in front of her. She barely had time to see him coming, much less react-- which makes the fact Vruasa is playing defender all the better. Assuming the troll is able to intercept Speaks, the magical girl does not stay still, and immediatly bolts up into the sky, throwing her rifle away like trash and producing her large black bow instead. If Vruasa is not successful, she's going to get her shit kicked into a wall pretty damn hard, but is going to burn a bit more magic to more or less follow up in the exact same way as if she hadn't been hit. Just with more bruises and injuries on her person. Mostly a big red mark on her face shaped like Speaks' foot.

    Trying to make use of both Ariel and Vruasa's orders at the same time, Homura lets loose a barrage of pink-purple light arrows from ABOVE, of which several are trying to bombard the area around the OTHER VRUASA, as instructed. Individually they're not too threatening but she's let about two dozen out in half a section, and she's gearing up to let another volley off, this one in realtime.

    She also addresses her Abstractum: "Can you do that thing Psyber asked for?" As long as they're working together, she wages it shouldn't be too big an issue. The arrow rain might provide Psyber with cover to head in, since friendly fire is off.

Kirito has posed:
    Sneaking up on Kirito is NOT easy. The Black Swordsman's learned to pay attention not just with his eyes, but moreso with his ears. The instant the wall breaks Kirito swings about and brings Double Fault up to parry. The Sword's initiative is great, and Kirito manages to go along with this plan. mind hyper-accelerating in a panic, he has little trouble matching Mr. Speaks tremendous speed. Double Fault's wrenched about every which way to catch attacks with nigh-perfect timing, but the downside is Kirito's COMPLETELY on the defensive to manage this. Both weapons are needed to catch and deflect blows away from his body for some strikes, leaving little opportunity for a counterattack. So while Double Fault's on defense, several times Lucent Arrester flashes out for a quick counterstrike that'll likely glance at best, even if it's not parried, since he can't extend much into the strikes.

    The insane impacts are in fact shaving down his HP slightly. Even a maxed Parry skill isn't enough to fully negate blows like these! The boy shuffles about, mostly BACKWARDS, but a single miscalculation gives Kirito the opening he needs.

    Getting a Spriggan off their feet is meaningless. His wings thrum into action, taking from 0 to YES instantly in a sideways rotating manuever. A quarter-circling towards Speaks' other side. "Teeeiyah!"

    Only then does he slash, with everything he's got, going for that opening!

    But strike or miss, the next thing he's going to do when Mr. Speaks heads off for another engagement is raise an arm and chant... rings of golden light surround him, each ring containing sets of words in old norse. He's really bad at pronunciation, but as he chants the rings glow blue and lock in place with each word.

    "Gr�ma gera sl�tr, f� fl�tti m�ti sigr!"
    Or, translated:
    "Shadow become flesh, take flight towards victory!"

    As his MP depletes MASSIVELY, the Spriggan's shadow wavers weirdly and splits like clay into multiple parts. These parts glow, rise up and materialize, then *POOF*

    .... there are now multiple Kiritos. A baker's dozen, in fact.

    The new dozen are running on AI scripts that tell them 'obey pet orders, but otherwise stick close and harass/confuse enemies.' So they don't move quite like him, but they do LOOK like him and his gear... he's setting up for SOMETHING.

Psyber (253) has posed:
    Psyber takes a huge flame-strike across the chest, tearing through his shirt and opening up a charred wound across his front. He staggers a bit and stumbles back, at least satisfied he was able to defend Laine as much as he did, even if she still took a hit or two. He rolls over and pushes himself to his feet, trying to re-orient himself.

    He grips the blade in both hands and charges in towards Speaks. Mentally, he's counting in his head and queueing up attacks via the CARTRIDGE Homura gave him. If Ariel wants him to go on full offense, that is precisely what he's going to give the tiny Unicorn. He charges, calling out, "JUDE. SHIFT THREE. WE'RE GOING TO HIT HIM WITH EVERYTHING WE'VE GOT."

    Whether she Shift happens or not, Psyber is using the cover given to him by Homura and the cover he assumes will be coming from Kirito as per Ariel's orders to get in close to Speaks.

    He runs a check in his mind. None of his Morality Paradigms are particularly more effective than any other at this moment. He wasn't damaged enough for Talionis, Live by the Sword wouldn't work because Speaks wasn't usually violent and this was provoked. He hadn't broken any rules, so Law's Grasp didn't work, and Judgement of Ages didn't seem to fit based on Vr-" Psyber blinks a few times. It WOULD work after all. At least Psyber thinks it will.

    "Speaks. YOU know exactly why history will hold you in a dim light. Normally this wouldn't work, but I went digging into your past, and I do know what you've done, at least in part." Psyber does a full turn with the sword. He's queued up three attacks on the Cartridge, all into the space of a second.

    The first is a massive, cleaving, Horizontal swing towards Speaks Mid-section. As soon as this land, the second one comes in, a huge and heavingrepeat of the last attack only a quarter second later thanks to the Cartridge. These are meant to shatter his barriers and then throw aside his parry.

    The final attack is an overhead swing straight down, "Morality paradigm! Judgment of Ages!" He shouts, bringing the sword down.

    OPTIONAL ATTACK UNDO DUE TO COMBO FRAME:

    If the Morality Paradigm fails to damage Speaks, thanks to his combo with Homura, it immediately undoes itself. Instead of the Morality paradigm, Psyber goes for a THIRD cleaving swing, this one with as much force as he can put behind Adjudicator, meant to hit with the maximum amount of force his Abstractum can muster.

Fiora O'Brien has posed:
    "As reality contorts, the adventurers gain a plus two momentum bonus on their attacks, skill checks, and saving throws, while due to the rapid rearrangement of reality, Speaks recieves a hefty penalty." Fiora narrates, but it doesn't really have much of an effect. She's mostly just retelling what OTHER people are doing.

    "As the party powers up to higher levels, spending their bonus actions on great power ups, but time will tell if they pay off! But oh no! Speaks rears up! Critical hit! Hit! Damage is..." Dice are rolled.

    Fiora laughs merrily at the whole charade, before hem-heming. "Ah. Well, this appears to be a climactic moment! And for that we need... Why, special effects!" She announces. She drops her voice to a low, serious tone. "The battlefield shatters and rumbles, conflicting powers and presences threatening to tear the world asunder as Speaks strikes with titanic force and the party arranges themselves to defeat him. The crash of thunder and lightning--" KRAK-THOOM! "--is heard through the battlefield as a thick droplets of rain--" pitterpatter pitterpatter "--carpet the area. A groundswell of power, of justice, of /destiny/ strikes, as the sky clears, light shining down from the breaking clouds upon each within the party, invigorating them - for a plus five bonus - with this great precipice that they stand upon, between victory and defeat. Will they do it? Will the dice fall in their favor?!" She narrates, raising in volume until she cries the last bit, off in nowhereland having Hecate's HYPE DRIVERS get used for all they're worth and adding in the special effects with her Inkkind creations, and a little bit of stage magic.

    "Ah! I almost forgot!" Fiora admits, before a giant... GM Screen falls around Vruasa as he acts for the briefest of moments, Fiora appearing in a puff of black smoke to tap her broomtip to his cybernetic eyeball. "Combo activate! Give 'em hell. But I don't need to tell you that." She offers, before she and the screen disappear and the narration resumes.

    "The initiative has been rolled! The spells, the buffs, cast! The plans, executed! A moment of truth! With all of the things that stand in your way removed... will the party grasp victory with their stacked bonuses, or fall and fail to acquire sweetl00t?!"

    "Holy shit I'm hype as fuck and I'm not even really playing."

Laine (383) has posed:
    As she bounds along the walls and trees, Laine takes a flying LEAP into the air, shifting into her human form in the midst of it! It's a twirling leap that ends up with her dress fluttering about her, where she reaches the apex of the leap and-

    Stops.

    Just like she said on radio, 'Laine stopping.' It is a thing that happens. The ability to fly is one that people usually forget she has, after all. This keeps her largely out of the way, and lets her stand still watching... while using one other particular ability, a quick shroud of spirits and sorcery wrapping around her that keeps her as basically an unnoticed person so long as she doesn't move.

    As everyone below is launcing into their attacks, she waits... and watches. As soon as she sees Speaks is assaulted by multiple people, and Kiyoko is back up, she taps her hat. "Soaring Silver Stasis!" She asks her Abstractum to dump ALL that stasis she had right into Speaks, hopefully setting him up.

Abstractum.Net (347) has posed:
    Mizuki will find herself rushing right towards his sword! Her attempts to dart in on the flank, now and generally later, seem to have about half a chance of finding him in a moment where he's trying to use mundane, human-level predicton to interrupt one of her flanking attacks. It's sort of a brute-force solution, but it's effective, and with his TITANIC level of personal power that comes behind every swing, it's dangerous!

    She does wind up lunging through him several times, evoking a spray of red light that seems to be the equivalent of blood for him. His counterattack is getting more and more harassing every moment though, even though Ariel's helping out with those buffs that get stronger as she moves to Shift 2.

Ariel (219) has posed:
"Thanks, Kimiko!" Ariel shouts! After she finishes healing Kiyoko, she... oh wait, crashing noises! Something's coming! Ariel leaps into the air, using her Unicorn-granted abilities to dive behind to let Kimiko do her job, as she whips out her own magical abilities. Time to throw everything she has at Speaks!

This isn't much, but she has something.

Twisting the World to her will, Ariel sends a burst of crackling magic out, reinforcing the existing walls, and using the Homura doubler to do it AGAIN, hardening the trees and walls into much more powerful and sturdy ones. Her other trick? Making an illusory PSYBER to crash through an illusory wall, along with a few illusory walls to baffle Speaks. This is the limit of her Sorcery right now, though.

Kimiko Shinobu (570) has posed:
    Kimiko leaves her massive shield where it is, modifying it into an actual, solid defensive emplacement only by adding braces. Thanks to Laine's magic, she doesn't actually need viewports. If anyone can see Speaks, she'll know where he is.

    Now that she can think--that was too close, and she probably won't be able to move quickly enough to get there in time if they do that again. There are only so many times she can stand to see an even younger girl take a fireball head-on to give her time. In fact, let's never do that again, if possible. She'll have to stay right on Ariel.

    "Koishin. Remember the dog city?" She's probably not going to mentally refer to Yuri Stinson's inner world by any other moniker any time soon. Trees and mazes will help to some extent, but Kimiko is going for a more focused and obvious defense, as well as one tailored for how Speaks deals with static defenses--which will have to wait, because she sees what's coming.

    On her own, she wouldn't be able to use her magic like this. But with Koishin, it can work--reshaping and redirecting, while keeping to the same purpose. Rather than shields, Kimiko brings into existence beneath her and Ariel's feet a solid, low-walled platform, shaped roughly like the top of a castle tower if it were made entirely of brightly polished steel. Rather than actually having a tower beneath it, it has wide, sharp spikes digging into the earth at several angles, and raising it above the ground.

    Then, the attack reaches them. The ground breaks entirely apart, even wider than she expected. For a moment, there's a CHASM in the field, and she is falling into it, atop her summoned ramparts.

    In the next moment, armored columns fire out to either side from the platform's base, digging into the chasm's walls. Her descent is halted. They didn't even fall too far.

Mizuki (183) has posed:
    Not getting out of here without something to show for it this time, unfortunately. As soon as she lands that last attack on speaks, she takes a painful slash that runs from her left side to about the middle of her torso. Wincing, she completes her retreat accompanied by twin rivers of azure sparks, and the crack of her next group of gunshots reverberates through the area. When she's in an area of relative safety, she grasps her side and winces, tensing herself up to dull the pain in some form.

    "To be able to resist all of us at once like this." She shakes her head. "And yet he and his cohorts -still- couldn't best Them in his cycle? How... completely absurd." She swallows, steadying her breathing and readying herself for another pass. This time her approach is more simple in nature, involving perhaps a few time-based teleports to and fro to make her eventual point of contact harder to predict, ultimately ending up just past the periphery of his vision on his right side. Once she arrives, she'll already have endowed her blade with the same haste as before, and she lets fly a lash of strikes that are as varied as they are chaotic -- slashes followed by thrusts, thrusts followed by a maneuver so bold as an uppercut toward the end. She mirrors this maneuver on Speaks' other side before departing in attempt to take advantage of Equinox's newfound power, and to minimize his window of opportunity to harm her.

    And again she retreats, this time in the more conventional time warping manner that she attempted at first granted that Speaks doesn't get a hit in before she does so. When and if she arrives on the other side of that jump, her breathing would begin to sound labored, and raspy. Her use of her skills alone is starting to take its toll, and for the second time in recent memory she furiously laments her poor endurance. She'll have to remember to ask for one of those 'cartridges' to help with that later.

Abstractum.Net (347) has posed:
    Vruasa's orders give massive cover bonus that compund Fiora's existing one, but not really much compared to what Ariel can give. His more personal tactics are better. Homura does get the face-kick - Speaks doesn't touch things randomly thrown his way, instead he simply called out "Strike Driver" and, of all things, his damn SWORD, near Homura, fired a bolt of electricty at it to disable it - but the panel does sort of blunt the kick and reduce it to only disorientation, and the spear that was braced in preparation for him does mean that Vruasa is going to be able to get in a solid stab at the guy when he comes crashing back in before getting buried, drawing another bright red spray.

Kiyoko Saito (131) has posed:
    Kiyoko is not aided by Kimiko. She doesn't need to be, now that Ariel has tended to her wounds a little. Oh, she's still burned and hurt, panting now, but... well, she has that fake to draw attention.

    Kiyoko-Shadow, "BURN WITH THE LASERS OF JUSTICE! GUNDAM TEAM SAILOR FORCE FOUR, GO!" Brilliant light lances down, and Kiyoko detonates her traps, relying on the 'no friendly fire' to help the others survive. The area is surrounded by explosions now! Though most of them might be poorly-aimed, as Speaks WALKED THROUGH most of her earlier traps and wires. Jerk.

    But the real Kiyoko has that earth attack coming through her. The noisy earth attack that is WAY PROJECTED! Crippled with burns as she might be, projecting an attack on Kiyoko is a bad idea. "Kawarimi no Jutsu!" Her hands form several seals as she uses the only ninja technique she's truly mastered: Body Replacement Technique.

    A stuffed dolphin tumbles into the chasm from a puff of smoke.

    Now the 'real' Kiyoko is leaping from above, coming in at Speaks with both Flame Pieces blazing, and a loud "KYAAAAAAAAH!" This no doubt reveals her position, and all, which means she's no longer hidden! But the flames are just... another distraction from her real attack.

    Under cover of the shouting and chaos, the blasts of flames, she lets her satchel drop. THAT is the real explosion. Almost everything she has left!

    Sadly she might get stabbed for this.

Abstractum.Net (347) has posed:
    "Th-the combo should do it, Miss Akemi! I don't there won't be a problem!" The ring around Homura's finger assures her. Meanwhile, the pink arrows have a deep red aura around them, and trail witchy runes as they impact in huge explosions, saturating Speaks in more awful fire. Having buried one Vruasa, Speaks smashes at the other with his sword to try to force him into a dazed block before ducking under him and then dodging under the wrecked car, sliding under and taking explosive splash damage until he can get out of the zone of fire and resume running!

Abstractum.Net (347) has posed:
    Homura's arrows fall, scattered from the sky in huge explosions. Kirito inflicted a pretty big wound on Speaks earlier, a mirror of the one he inflicted a while ago through Psyber, but now the swarms of fake Kiritos come in! With Homura and Kirito both saturating his run with damage, Mr. Speaks winds up in a dynamic fight against these disposable fake Kiritos, alternating between heated swordfights where he suffers damage from them and the explosions around him, and creatively using them as shields against Homura's rain of explosions!

Abstractum.Net (347) has posed:
    "THRESHOLD REDSHIFT." Jude says, simply. "Everything we have, then." The blade blazes with intense red fire as the halo forms over Psyber's back, and grunts with exertion as its physical form cracks and crumbles, revealing the magma-like undercurrent of energy!

    An illusory Psyber bearing the same advancements crashes out of one wall and is immediately cut down by Speaks, leaving Psyber to leap right out of an opposite illusory wall and do that double-strike! The first one slams into his ribs and is only blunted by a quick "Barrier Driver", but the other one winds up shoved away on Speaks' blade itself. But when JUDGEMENT OF AGES comes along, Mr. Speaks swings his blade up and the sheer, overwhelming force of the strike snaps the blade in half along the midsection, averting the blow but showing off its sheer, intense power!

    The shockwave of this impact annihilates Laine's maze and Fiora's trees within several dozen yards. Mr. Speaks, somehow, doesn't lose a single step. However troubling the implications of this might be, his immediate response is to take the half-sword and try to plunge it into Psyber's chest before disengaging.

Abstractum.Net (347) has posed:
    Fiora tries to apply a penalty to Speaks, and Laine dumps the stasis from the entire Reality Break into Speaks, while he tries to get back into cover in the maze, trying and failing to smash through it when Ariel reinforces the structure, having to take a moment to smash through a wall with his half-sword. The group's combined effort did manage to slow him down, though, forcing him to lose a fair bit of momentum!

    This is a perfect time for Kiyoko to detonate all her traps around that area, as he's currently trying to get to Ariel through them. Lucky her, she manages to get him turned away from beating up a two year old and instead get him heading right for Kiyoko instead! The fake one, momentarily. The blast of fire from before - delated through the maze, rushes to greet him as well, the combined explosive impact causing major damage, and then YET ANOTHER explosion from her satchel! This guy just keeps getting blown up.

    Mr. Speaks has much of his upper body covered in ash or charred skin now. His left arm is currently missing and he is additionally disarmed of his blade just for a moment. This does not seem to be slowing him down. With the noise now coming from the REAL Kiyoko and not an entirely fake one - and with the robots, like the people, ignored until they attack him - he now tries to rush forward at her, grab her right around the throat, pick her up, and slam her into the ground with an intense and powerful blow before grabbing his blade where it landed near her and dashing on.

Kiyoko Saito (131) has posed:
    Yeah, Kiyoko kinda knew this was coming. She knew she was going to hurt. "HRK!" Her hands go to the arm that grabs her by the throat... and it IS successful, because for all her trickery Kiyoko is still kind of green in actual, straight up hand to hand combat. THIS is where she's most vulnerable.

    She does have a trump card she could use right now... but it's not worth using it here and might not change the pace of the battle. Better keep it in check for some other time.

    So there's absolutely nothing to be done about her slamming into the ground, rattled again and gasping. She was basically running on the painkillers that Ariel gave her, so now she's not really in any condition to get up.

Abstractum.Net (347) has posed:
    Speaks is heading for Ariel again, because she's still vulnerable with the others distracted. He thinks she's at the bottom of his chasm, though, when the reality is entirely different. Koishin speaks up, giving an affirmative noise! "Not gonna let you down here either, promise!" It says, firmly, amplifying Kimiko's control of fortification formation magic as it begins to grunt and audibly struggle against the strain of maintaining this. The tower-like fortification buckles slowly into the ground, but with a loud yell, Kimiko's Abstractum puts its all into securing it more, and the armored columns slam into the walls of the chasm and press against them forcefully, maintaining the height and preventing speaks from reaching Ariel!

    Speaks himself reaches the base of the fortification thing and tries to smash through it, but... While he seemed immune to the pain before, he wasn't. Everyone's now too paired up, too focused, and the lesson, by Speaks' reckoning, seems learned.

    Stepping back from the tower with the princess in it, he kneels down, propping himself up with the remaining half-sword while he only just now begins to breath heavily, and allows his Shift to conclude. He looks like he'll probably have something to say, in a moment. For now, though, the Red Wing's simulation begins to shut down; holographic injuries are removed, leaving behind aching exhaustion, while Speaks himself is reverted to his previous form, the simulated Abstractum no longer broken and the body of the man no longer dismembered, burned, cut, and all other sorts of injured. Right back to standing in a perfectly dignified way.

Psyber (253) has posed:
    Psyber, who was up until a moment ago, recovering from a heavy chest wound and pondering the implications that his sword had broken the Abstractum but not damaged Speaks too terribly much, is back in his normal state of being and adjusting his jacket.

    He tilts his head to Speaks as the simulation concludes, "I suppose we're even now for the favor. I'll wait until you decide we have our next appointment to ask for anything else," Psyber says as he takes a cigarette out of his jacket and calmly lights it with a zippo from his pocket.

    "What was the lesson? That the Pure will seek to turn us against one another? That unless we learn to work in synergy, we'll eventually fall apart due to our different styles and cause losses?" He hazards a couple guesses.

Kimiko Shinobu (570) has posed:
    Kimiko stands atop her fortifications. There is, though a few moments ago there was not, a shield beside her, one hand resting on its upper edge as the kite's point touches the platform. Her other hand is on a sword that was, similarly, not there before. She stands, and watches Speaks tear through everything on his way over, marred by everything her allies threw at him. And she looks down on him, for one simple reason.

    She's in a tower, and he's not.

Kiyoko Saito (131) has posed:
    Kiyoko is on the ground still, but now not hurting horribly from burns and choking. She blinks a few times, sits up... and blurts, "THAT WAS AWESOME!" She claps her hands. "I haven't been beat like that in uh... well it hasn't been that long but still. Also Eternal Passion is great!"

    Yeah, she's still high off her first real Abstractum fight. Climbing to her feet, she looks around. "How did we do?"

Ariel (219) has posed:
Ariel gives Kimiko a hug. "That was perfect! Thank you." Also, she managed to get through WITHOUT getting stabbed or shot or hurt badly this time. That's a first. Also very unexpected. She knows it isn't really from her own ability in this case, though.

    "Eheh... I guess we still have a little work to do, but I don't think we did too bad."

Abstractum.Net (347) has posed:
    Mr. Speaks elucidates, after the simulation is fully concluded and everyone's finished getting fixed up. "In a way, Psyber." He says, simply. "The core of this was that I sought to show you why, in the First Cycle, we sought the use of Tandem Units no larger than three individuals." He holds up three fingers. "You won, and would have soundly defeated me. However, the wounds exacted upon each of you were quite major. Unity is good. But it can only be so good. You are better than most. Most would become frustrated with each other, turn on each other." He says. "And yet, that is not the lesson." He plants his simulated sword in the ground and crosses his arms. "The more allies you have, the more options your enemy has. The Pures know this better than anyone. If you intend to face them, numbers /will/ guarantee you victory, as they did here. Allies are important, as I am sure you will recall. /Together/ we'll end them, after all."

    He puts one finger up. "However." His face is slightly grim. "The simple fact of the matter is that the more you commit numbers to this, the greater chance that one of you will suffer /substantially/. As you saw, despite the fact that your cohesion is actually quite substantial, I am still quite capable of exploiting one technique against another." He clasps his hands on the top of the hilt of his blade. "The fact is that, at some point, you will begin to see the Pures take advantage of your numbers. And while numbers are safe, a group that is small and unified will be less risky for you than one that is large and unified, as you saw when you began to split up, into pairs, or trios."

    "To confront your Pure enemies in such numbers will guarantee you success. It will not guarantee that all of your allies will survive the experience. I do not talk about you, the Aurics, who chronically display the ability to survive. I speak of those much more at risk." He pulls his sword out of the ground and slings it over his shoulder. "Food for thought." He says, simply. "You may decide such victories as worthy or unworthy of the risk as you like, and I will hold no grudge against those of you who decide to ignore my advice, conditionally or otherwise. Simply keep this in mind."

    He gestures, to himself. "I have limited my Shift in this demonstration to Threshold Shift, the third Category. The true Nemesis you will find in your Node will, quite often, have no qualms about engaging in a Terminal Shift, if not risking a Cascade Shift. You, the Aurics, find much less risk in this than your Abstractum do."

    He stands silently now, in case there's anything else worth responding to.

Fiora O'Brien has posed:
    As the fight ends, a rather huge wooden chest fitted with gold edges and lining drops out of the sky in front of speaks.

    Everyone has +60,000 EXP float above their heads, as well as a seemingly random assortment of 'level up' bonuses from '+1 to Dashing Good Looks' and '+3 Swording Really Good' that float over their heads in a cascade.

    The chest opens up to a huge pile of gold coins.

    Real gold coins.

    That people can take.

    "It appears as if this is the time to shower the party in the spoils!" Fiora laughs from 'off screen'.

Psyber (253) has posed:
    Psyber shrugs to Speaks' line and says pretty blandly, "I guess we'll see when the time arises. I don't have a speech in me about defying the odds, or even my usual 'I will do what it takes' spiel." Psyber says in a pretty dead tone. Instead he just sort of boredly drifts over to the chest of gold coins. If Fiora is giving out free money, Psyber will definitely partake of Real Gold Coins, shoving them into his jacket by the fistful.

    "It'll get done. If people die, they die." He says simply.

Vruasa Telash has posed:
    "You're a pragmatic son of a bitch, so I think I will take your advice." Vruasa speaks up -- only the one now. The second seems to have taken off back to his time period. The current version looks about as bruised and dirty as that one was when he first showed up. Which is to say, he is now officially at a point where he can loop back. "So what you're saying is that a Perfect Trio is ideal. How do irregular Abstractum types factor into that? Is it acceptable to add off-types to a Blue, Red, and Green group, or is it just as dangerous as increasing the numbers in any other fashion?"

    He pauses momentarily to examine the chest that Fiora... painted into existence? Vruasa isn't certain. He takes a handfull of coins, but CAPTCHALOGUES one separately from the rest. Apparently he has something special in store for one of these. Most of it is going to some nefarious purpose, to be sure.

    His sunglasses light up. There's probably a conversation going on there.

Laine (383) has posed:
    Laine lands lightly, still in human form. She adjusts her hat while she listens, then ignores the gold and looks at Ariel before looking back to Speaks. "Like pack!" She clears her throat, concentrating to speak more clearly. "A perfect Pack has five members, one for each phase of the moon. One for each Auspice. The Full Moon to fight, the Gibbous to remember, the Half to speak, the Crescent for the mystic, and the New Moon to question."

Mizuki (183) has posed:
    Mizuki examines a few gold coins as they appear, arching her eyebrow a bit at the... er... 'level ups'. She wonders for a moment if that's something that actually pertains to her Abstractum, but eventually realizes that these are just more of Fiora's, or someone's, shenanigans.

    The only other response to speak of is found in a tiny smile at the general impartiality of what Psyber says when Speaks has finished, and something nigh inaudible that she mumbles about stories and cycles and the like.

    So a pretty standard deal, for her. She just wants to get home so that her Arbimana (tm) can heal this throbbing pain in her stomach.

Abstractum.Net (347) has posed:
    "The trio is ideal for Abstractum users. Anything more is riskier. Every risk might come with a better reward. You can decide how to assess each situation. I believe one of your cultures in this cycle has a charming phrase for it. 'Too many cooks in the kitchen.' You may feel free to treat every instance as its own matter."

    There's a quick nod to Laine. "You have the right of it." Mr. Speaks talks in very quick sorts of tones. "Redundancies in role can be a force multiplier, but the more people taking a role, the more mistakes may be made."

Kimiko Shinobu (570) has posed:
    Kimiko is hugged. This is very unusual. She manages to hug Ariel back without looking too extremely awkward, though she has to unsummon her armor to do it.

    She doesn't have much to add, though what Speaks and Laine suggest makes her think, particularly back through how the fight progressed. That gets a nod, either in agreement or in understanding.

    The words appearing over her head instruct everyone that she has gained '+3 Face-Tanking,' whatever that means.

Fiora O'Brien has posed:
    Fiora appears atop the giant pile of sweetloot, though her form is wispy and smokey and lightly transparent, and people who go to grab gold can grab things right through her.

    "I think what Vruasa was asking is... What of us without a role, or what of those who can change, can fill many roles?" She asks plainly, holding up Hecate with a phantom hand.

    "I don't even know if I'm a cook at all."

Kiyoko Saito (131) has posed:
    "So like, if Himei and I work really well together - for example - and we grab uh... Laine as our Blue and someone else as our Green... that would be okay so long as we're really tight-knit?" Kiyoko muses about that. "Huh. I have one question left though... what did you do about the color uh... numbers? There are a lot of reds and not many greens. Or did you not have that problem?"

Kirito has posed:
    "..." And the fight's over. Kirito lands near the powerd-down Speaks after several long moments of agonizing oer 'how the heck did his sword just BREAK' and giving Double Fault a rather worried look.

    He's been thinking, this far, that Abstractum were practically indestructible aside from their notable weak point.

    A weak point that isn't Aurics, huh... Kirito frowns. Frowns heavily. He has a very good idea of what speaks is getting at. "So... the optimal strategy is to break things down into parties arranged into raid groups."

Abstractum.Net (347) has posed:
    "I have no answers for you, not because there are no answer to give, but becaue I am not the one who gives the answers to such things, and because that is not one question, but many." Mr. Speaks says, to Fiora. "You are intelligent people, with the capability of discretion. Whether it is worth defying the Rule of Threes is always situational, in Tandems, in Shifts, or in any other matters." He doesn't say any more on the subject.

    Kiyoko receives a long stare. "This is the first Cycle with such a severe presence of Red types. This fact is connected to, though not causing, the fact that They are several hundred thousand times greater in conceptual weight in this Cycle than any other previous Cycle. The numerical disparity is not an issue of our sister Network. Your reality is unlike the others."

    And with those ominous words delivered, he flickers out of simulated presence in the Red Wing, apparently having spoken himself out for tonight.