7643/Cryptid Hunting File 03 - ICE DEVIL SEAH UNSURTR

Cryptid Hunting File 03 - ICE DEVIL SEAH UNSURTR
Date of Scene:	18 August 2021
Location:	The Great Ocean
Synopsis:	The Elites rescue Mishelam Wonderland from the icy clutches of Seah Unsurtr; however, tragedy strikes as Featherman's sleuthing unearths unfortunate consequences for the entire group.
Cast of Characters:	Crow Armbrust, 7412, 7359, 7248, 7417

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Crow Armbrust has posed:
After the last excursion to take on the Hydra Plant ended how it had, things in Crossbell returned to an uneasy 'peace' as talk of independance continues brewing amongst the figureheads in the city proper. In such a tumultuous time, it's only natural that the people would seek some kind of relief for the pressures and dread building in their every day life..and that's why the proud workers of Mishelam were all too eager to take this opportunity to rake in as much business as they could.

It wasn't as if they were gouging people, though, as they launched an excellent Mishy-themed PR Campaign in the city of the cute mascot character advertising that he was lowering his theme park's cost of admission massively to make it easily affordable fun for the whole family.

    A Gift From Me-shy To You!

... and so in the week between then and now, Crossbell's citizens had unwound at the Island-Resort-Theme-Park and allowed themselves to escape, even if briefly, into a world where war, horrifying monsters, and other such hardships weren't a factor.

This, too, is why it's such an unsettling sight for the Elites riding on an uncomfortably small set of speedboats; powered by orbal motors, to bear witness to a massive glacier floating where the artificial island should be. "What the hell?" C intones with only mild shock.

According to what information he was able to obtain, some kind of large monster appeared in Mishelam's outskirts and had attacked the park - but this was completely beyond the pale.

"At least now we know it's gotta' be a Cryptid, a normal monster couldn't do somethingon this scale," the masked man grouses. "Still, isn't this a little too off the wall, here?! It froze the entire damn park!"

As they get closer, details become clearer and easier to make out; a ferris wheel covered in hoarfrost, massive ice-cicles dangling off the sides ...

And many other attractions in similar states. Mishelam had been transformed from a cozy island get-away to a vertiable fortress of ice and galeforce wind that could sear the skin off of someone with how cold and strong it was.

     " . . . the dock is completely iced over . . ."

As they pull in, C advises everyone to watch their step as they disembark. "There's no real clear sign of where it is, now that it's made itself at home here. I guess we'll just have to look around, and hope for the best?"

Travelling further in, they come across the main plaza - ordinarily it would be a bustling place with the flower garden depicting Mishy's charming face being the center-piece, but ... it's all been frozen over. Snow and ice coat just about everything, and the citizenry seem to have been frozen solid. "Are they dead? Damn."

    "No."

The answer is a muffled, young girl's voice coming from a Mishy masoct suit, lumbering unevenly towards the group to stare at them for a moment in awkwardness, before she reaches up and pries her over-sized head off to reveal a head of light blue hair, and a familiar face.

Tio looks at the group evenly, "They are in a state of cryo-stasis, somehow."

    " ... uh huh," C hums, reaching out to make a hand motion as Tio approaches him. Before anyone can say anything, he finds himself handcuffed to the frozen metal gating surrounding the garden. " ... really?"

    "I caught the bad guy." Tio nods.

She then places the oversized mascot head overtop of her own, deadpanning, "I'm a Mishy on a mission."

    She lumbers off, towards the rotunda.

"Man .. well, whatever. While I get myself out of this, we should probably spread out, and radio in when we've got eyes on the target. This place, and the people, will probably thaw safely if I can control it with my flute."

Featherman Neo (7412) has posed:
Featherman Neo is here, after last time he got arrested! As they move across the ice, he's appalled at the frozen bodies, but apparently they're still alive...perhaps they can still save them?

As C is handcuffed, Featherman Neo approaches him. "Do you need help with that?"

Expecting a prideful rejection, he opens his mind, and enters C's. He has three questions for his memories:
*Who are you really? Are you truly the incompetent?
*What motivates you to be C?
*What are you planning, for Ouroboros, for the Cryptids?

And then, Featherman heads to the ROTUNDA, after the Mishy named Tio. She might need backup, and it's good to have that place locked down and investigated.

Hibiki Tachibana (7359) has posed:
    Just the news of one of these Cryptids attacking a theme park of all things is already awful enough news. The sight of what's actually happened is something else entirely, as they all ride in together. "What the hell...?" Hibiki outright echoes C, looking both intensely concerned and more than a little worried as they get close enough to disembark. Getting out is rough. And she didn't bring a jacket thick enough for this. Or something more protective than shorts.

    Moving into Mishelam proper, and getting a better view of what things are like, her mind also jumps to the worst case when she sees the state of the people who were here. There's a heavy gulp, glancing from them to the frosted-over surroundings while she tries to keep her footing.

    Wait a second, that's...

    "Tio...? Why are you--" The obvious question dies off in her throat as C is cuffed and bagged way faster than she ever expected the girl to be capable of. "...Oh." Mishy on a mission. Okay. That makes sense. And it's actually really cute, not that she'd ever say that out loud.

    "...Alright. Then the sooner we find this thing, the better." She fully expects C to be able to get out of that perfectly fine on his own, so after a moment of thought and feeling better about the fact they can still put everything back to normal, Hibiki opts to head in the direction of the FERRIS WHEEL, while Featherman joins Tio.

Karlan Nobles (7248) has posed:
SilverAsh: "I'm having trouble believing this is supposed to be a vacation spot. Something must be wrong here."
Pramanix: "That's... Yes, that was rather obvious just by looking at the place."

With the entire park frozen solid, neither Pramanix nor SilverAsh look all too pleased. They had been hoping for a relaxing day away from having to fight and investigate weird stuff, after all! SilverAsh is better at hiding his disappointment, at least, or even channeling it towards new excitement as he steps off their ride and straightens out each side of his coat.

Pramanix already looks like she's done mentally, but at least her own coat is well-suited for the icy area. "For something to have frozen such a large area... We're in for a tricky battle if we can't subdue it some other way, aren't we?" She asks, both of C and of Tio when she reveals herself.

Neither of the siblings look surprised when C gets handcuffed. They instead look towards the costumed Tio as she heads towards the Rotunda, and Silverash is already headed in the direction of the CRYSTAL PALACE. "It's hard to say you don't deserve at least some of that, but..."

Pramanix sighs, then takes off her tiny hat and plants it on C's head. "Pretend it's warmer than it really is." She brushes a hand through her hair to floof it back out, then follows after SilverAsh to continue widening the search net!

Rita Ma (7417) has posed:
     By now, most of the people present have seen Rita's "true form" one way or another. So it's quietly revealing that, even with nothing to hide, she shows up as an ordinary girl again.

     Even if my tentacles mimic clothing, they don't protect me from this chill. After all, that's still part of my body being exposed to the cold... I wish I'd thought to bring a real coat.

     Her arms are crossed over her stomach as she gets off the speedboat, shivering visibly. When they come to the corpses, she reaches out- hesitantly- to touch the ice engulfing one of them, brushing it with her fingertips. "This is horrible, Mr. C. I hadn't really realized... the damage these things can do, if they get to attack ordinary people."

     But I'm lucky it's bloodless. This many people... if they'd just been torn apart, it'd be hard to control myself around that much blood.

     Tio's explanation makes her heave a sigh of relief, visibly sagging from the release of stress. "So they aren't dead yet? ... Well, we'd still better free them as soon as possible. No point in testing how long they can survive like that, right?"

     As she waves a cheerful goodbye to C, Rita uses an invisible, super-strong tentacle to quietly break his handcuffs, then replaces them with illusory cuffs made from camouflaged tentacle-stuff. He's effectively free now, but it's easy to keep pretending to be restrained for as long as he wants.

     "See you, Mr. C! We won't let you down!"

     Of course she teams up with her favorite magical girl! On the walk, she chatters companionably: "I was just thinking we should climb to the top of that big wheel, Hibiki. It's probably the best vantage point, right? So unless it's hiding inside a ride or something... I bet we could see it from up there."

     If it's covered in ice like everything else, though, scaling it might be a challenge.

Crow Armbrust has posed:
With his answers received, Featherman Neo is able to depart from the plaza without issue, and follows after Tio.

C, meanwhile, can only chuckle in a 'what can you do?' manner, as Pramanix lends him her tiny hat. It sits adorably on top of his visored mask, as he nods his head. "Ha ha ... well, it's better than nothing, right?"

It was hard to say anyone else wasn't starved for mercy, though, as they really do leave him by his lonesome to sort himself out. Except for Rita,who quietly and subtly breaks his cuffs and replaces them with something far easier to slip out of when he needs to, " -- heh. Yeah, see you guys around. I believe in you!" he calls back.

    ". . . . . ."

    ROTUNDA:

Featherman Neo finds that the various stores, the customers, employers, and general goers of the theme-park have all been treated the same as everything else in the park. Windows are shattered from the icy wind, and the frost has slathered just about anything and everything it can. After walking the circular path long enough, he'll find Tio checking up on Zeit, who has been frozen like everything else. Beside her is Ellie, who raises her thin eyebrows at the sight of Featherman, visibly shivering even as she's wearing several layers of clothes from the nearby store overtop of her uniform. "H..h..hey, it's y..y..you. T..t...Tio mentioned your g....group came by." she greets.

Tio, in her Mishy outfit, breaks open a large metal suit-case that reveals itself to in fact be an Orbal computer, and gets to work wordlessly. "S...s...she's trying to t...t..track U...Unsurtr w...with o...o..orbments w...we.....we've scavenged.."

Tio finally speaks up, "They're motion detectors." as if that explains everything.

    FERRIS WHEEL:

Hibiki and Rita pass by several stalls, resteraunts, and other similar locales on the way that have been left frozen in time. The people look like it hadn't been a necessarily instant process, but it hadn't been too slow, either. They'd had maybe five or ten minutes before they were put into cryostasis, as Tio had put it.

There is a sign of something having passed through the area, the rooftops of several of the buildings have had parts shattered off, as if they had bore a great weight.

One resteraunt looks like it had been run through roughsod by something huge, though it evidently happened a long while back. Additionally...

An airship seems to have come through here, only to have been skewered by a spear of ice almost as big as it was. It currently rested overtop of where a stall selling Mishy memorbilia had previously been stationed.

The Ferris Wheel itself also seemed like it'd be a prickly pear to climb.

        CRYSTAL PALACE

What was previously a make-believe 'castle' scaled down for entertainment has now become an actual frozen ruin. One of the towers has collapsed, having been evidently attacked by something from above, and nearly a dozen icicles skewer different parts of the complex. At the entrance, Pramanix and Silver Ash can see Lloyd Bannings being tended to on the ground, a bloodied leg being treated with a Tear balm and bandaging by a girl in black hair and clothing unfortunately ill-suited for their environment, though she seemed to excellently be toughing it out, despite all the frostbite covering her own wounds. "Huh? Aren't you guys ..."

The woman looks up, one hand reaching for a large sword at her side, " ..? Oh .. Lloyd and the others mentioned you all, I think ... are you here to fight that Cryptid, too?"

Rita Ma (7417) has posed:
     Rita takes a brief detour- "keep going, Hibiki, I'll catch up!"- into one of the restaurants. She comes out with a chunk of frozen raw steak from the kitchen to gnaw on. It's important to keep your energy levels up at times like these!

     By the time they reach the ferris wheel, even the bone is gone.

     Rita shades her eyes with one hand as she squints up at the massive ride, trying to map out the ascent in her head. "I could probably climb it, but probably isn't definitely," she admits. "I'm not used to dealing with ice. ... If you throw me up there, though, I promise it'll be okay! I can just grab on with my tentacles, you know? Or do you have a better idea?"

Featherman Neo (7412) has posed:
Featherman, noticing Ellie freezing to death, nods to Tio as she grabs her motion detectors. "See if you can find it. I'll make it a little warmer so you stop freezing!"

Spotting a trashcan, Featherman Neo summons a locket to hand. It's Featherman Engarde's.

SNAPSHOT

As usual, it opens up, revealing a picture of the knightly Featherman.

FEATHERMAN ENGARDE - SUMMON

As the knightly Featherman with the lance appears, he gestures, and moves to throw a ball of flame straight at the trashcan, trying to create a bonfire to warm up the group!

Crow Armbrust has posed:
        ROTUNDA:

"T..t...that....wo..won't...." Ellie chatters, as the flame ignites the cold trash inside in a great blast of life-enticing heat that .. evaporates. It visibly shrinks into nothing within moments of it appearing. That he'd lit frozen tinder alight was in and of itself a feat, however.

Tio, muffled behind her Mishy costume, explains as she clicks and clacks away at her computer's keyboard. "Seah Unsurtr absorbs heat on a massive scale. The reason everything is like this is because it is continually swallowing all of the heat and energy on the island, bringing it to entropy."

Ellie nods, "T...t....thank you for t...trying though. I'll..t...tough it out."

"We...we're waiting on L...l..lloyd to get back from i...investgating the C...C..Crystal Palace."

Tio interjects, "It's a house of mirrors. It was fun."

Hibiki Tachibana (7359) has posed:
    "This is awful..." Hibiki murmurs as Rita joins her on the way forward, passing by what looks to have been Mishelam's spot to get all sorts of food and snacks. It'd have probably been easier to stomach if it /did/ look like it was instant. "And you see up there?"

    She gestures up towards the rooftops, and then the restaurant further ahead in even worse condition. "There's no way this thing isn't huge like the other two." And that airship...would that have happened if they came in from the air, too?

    Rita heads off, and Hibiki gives her a raise of her eyebrow as she does so. But she still keeps on going ahead, and by the time she's back, Hibiki is examining the ferris wheel carefully, glancing over her shoulder when she returns. "A better idea? ...Well..." Hibiki thinks about it. She takes a deep breath of cold air in.

    "Balwisyall nescell Gungnir tron..."

    After a flash of light, Hibiki's in her Symphogear, which doesn't actually look like it should make her any warmer. But she's not trying to hide her shivering anymore, and there's a warm scarf included. "Nope. Let's give it a try. I'll be right behind you."

    She takes a knee, and holds both hands down like in a position to boost someone upwards. She has a good idea of how much strength she has to put into this. Rita can get a one way trip up to the top of the ride whenever she's set. This is probably a lot better than just throwing her up there.

Karlan Nobles (7248) has posed:
SilverAsh: "What a magnificent structure... This could be worth investing into after all this cryptid business is sorted out."
Pramanix: "Really? With everything you have at home, you'd really want another one out here?"
SilverAsh: "... I suppose not. I'd get more of a change from a smaller apartment."

As the pair approach the castle, they look over the giant structure while taking note of all those icicles stabbing into the place. Actually working on the same wavelength for once, Pramanix withdraws her bell from her side whle SilverAsh holds an arm out as an eagle just glides in from out of nowhere to land on the makeshift perch.

Before they get to work, though, they hear and see a pair of injured people, presumably local. Lloyd is actually somewhat familiar, but the woman is not. "We're here to help, friends. Nothing to worry about." Pramanix speaks up as she steps between SilverAsh and the woman, putting the bell away when she notices the frostbitten wounds. "How long have you two been here?"

Lacking in any sort of healing abilities, Pramanix can at least try to provide the two with some added warmth by taking off her coat and just draping it over Lloyd's non-visibly wounded side while resting her tail over the same for the woman. "Were you able to see the thing that did that to the castle? Or hear it or... Were you attacked by it?"

SilverAsh, meanwhile, sends the eagle into the sky. It makes one loud noise as it rises, starting to circle the sky above and wordlessly relaying what it sees with its superior eyesight back to the man on the ground.

Featherman Neo (7412) has posed:
"I see." Featherman Neo frowns internally at the lack of fire, but it provides details. "What if we use cold attacks against it? Maybe it's stealing heat because of a lack of heat. Worth a try, at minimum..."

And then, he turns back to the lady and Mishy(?). "Anything I can do to help? I've gotten a lot of information already." It's a double-meaning, but, they might not realize that.

Crow Armbrust has posed:
        CRYSTAL PALACE:

The woman relaxes just slightly as Pramanix drapes her tail over her, and allows Lloyd the user of her coat, "My name is Rixia Mao -- thank you, for your help." she introduces herself with a gentle, but grim smile. Lloyd nods his head, "We appreciate it. Rixia, these are the people that Featherman was working with," he confirms, to which Rixia places a hand on his shoulder to stop him from trying to sit up further. "Ugh.."

Tilting her head to Pramanix, Rixia says, "I'm..more of a friend of Lloyd's, and am not part of the SSS proper, but I was helping them track down the monster attacking this place. We were setting up motion sensors for Tio when we came across Unsurtr. It flew off towards the other side of the island, a little bit before you all arrived."

Silver Ash's eagle can't see much of interest from its birds-eye-view, which is strange, considering how large the thing had to have been, as well as it having been described as being able to fly itself.

Lloyd addends, "It's massive, like a moving glacier ... but once things on the island started freezing over, it was able to use all these frozen structures like a kind of camoflouge. It's also how it caught us off guard."

Rita Ma (7417) has posed:
     "It's got to be huge," Rita agrees with a solemn nod. "If we don't see it from up there, then we know it's got to be hiding!" And there's only a few places something that gigantic could conceal itself.

     She takes a deep breath, looks upwards at the ferris wheel one more time, and then looks down at Hibiki with a firm expression as she sets her foot in her friend's palm. "Ready! Three... two..."

     Whoosh.

     Rita hurtles through the air at dizzying speeds. The ferris wheel's apex is right there. She reaches out with her hand to grab the icy metal-

     -her fingers slip-

     -and her arm's disguise unravels into blue tentacles to grab the ferris wheel anyway, hauling her up. She perches neatly in the top seat, glancing back down to make sure Hibiki's making it up safely too. If the magical girl needs a bit of help, she'll gladly lend her friend a tentacle!

     "I've never been up so high before," she admits, marveling, once they're both safely at the top. "Except in HurriKaiser, but that doesn't really count. It's kind of scary, so... I'm glad I'm not up here alone!"

     Even as she says that, she's shading her eyes with her hand and scanning the park below. Surely the monster must be visible somewhere...?

     Or, if not, she stops to sniff the air. Rita's got an abnormally keen nose for monsters- if it's visually hidden, could scent reveal anything?

Crow Armbrust has posed:
        ROTUNDA:

Ellie considers it for a moment before looking over to Featherman, "C..c...could you g...g...go out and find R...R..Randy? H...he...and N...N..Noel were s....s...supposed to g...go set up s...s..sensors at the F...F...Ferris Wheel after we f...f...fought Unsurtr on the b...beach, back the w...way."

She motions further down along the Rotunda, "Y...you can g..get to the F...Ferris Wheel from the p...plaza."

Tio pipes up, "That is not an unfounded theory. However. We do not know. It is worth trying."

Featherman Neo (7412) has posed:
Featherman Neo salutes, and then rushes off to the Ferris Wheel with Featherman Engarde! Their primary objective: find Randy and Noel. Hibiki and Rita can handle themselves.

Hibiki Tachibana (7359) has posed:
    Fortunately, when Hibiki said she was right behind her, she meant it. After Rita was tossed up, she took a moment to find some proper footing on the icy ground, and then leapt up along the same path she sent the other girl on. She doesn't quite make it the whole way in one go, but a quick blast from the her armor's thrusters helps steady herself enough to grab onto the offered tentacle and get pulled up the rest of the way.

    "Phew..." After making sure she's steady beside her on the top seat, she nods. "And now you see why I said you still wouldn't wanna fall, right?" There's the slightest hint of a tease in her voice before she also joins in on scanning everything below, the opposite direction from Rita.

    There are no supersenses here, so it's simply seeing if anything stands out to her visually. Unsurtr had to have been what made that damage, right? So it has to be big enough to spot. Or maybe...are there any buildings it looks like it could hide itself in?

Karlan Nobles (7248) has posed:
"Pramanix. Ah, you're familiar with Mister..." Pramanix pauses briefly, recalling the last time she had seen Featherman with anyone from this world. "... Anyway. Ah, easy, easy. So you saw the creature, then. And it was... A moving glacier? That doesn't sound like it should be able to fly at all."

SilverAsh, after recalling the eagle, continues towards the palace and eyes one of the lowest icicles he can find. If it's close enough to the ground, he'll just try and carve off a chunk with his sword before bringing it back to Pramanix. Otherwise, he... Well, he still tries carving off a chunk, but with a stupidly fast slash of his sword that launches a cutting shockwave to do the same thing (but cooler looking).

"And if it's camouflaged... Wait. Does that mean it's... Is it the castle itself?" Pramanix asks aloud while looking towards the castle again, already grimacing slightly at seeing what Silverash is doing. "Do you know if this attraction was this large  when you first got here?"

Crow Armbrust has posed:
        FERRIS WHEEL:

While Hibiki and Rita enact their plan, Featherman pokes around the various areas nearby. As he moves to turn a corner, he finds himself face-to-halberd with Randy Orlando's weapon of choice, "Oh -- it's you? Man, my bad, I almost got ready to really clean your clock." the redhead apologizes, stepping out fully. He's bedecked in his usual twenty-mira, cheap suit and orange overcoat, but it all looks rather tattered, presumably from the SSS's attempts at defeating Unsurtr.

"Guess the rest of your guys are here, too?"

After presumably being brought up to speed, at least as far as Featherman knows, Randy nods a little somberly. "Yeah ... about that ... while we planted the sensors alright, Noel wound up collapsing. She's gone into cryostasis, like nearly everyone else on the island. You got people in this part of the park too, right? We should try and meet up with 'em."

Rita, meanwhile, does not see any better than Silver Ash's feathered friend had, but her nose gets a good deal more of a response. The scent is coming from somewhere near the Rotunda.

        CRYSTAL PALACE:

Rixia and Lloyd both look at eachother and then to Pramanix before mutually chuckling, "Oh, uhm...I don't mean to laugh at you .. but yes, it was always this big. It's more that, because so many things have been frozen over and covered in thick sheets of ice, its easier for Unsurtr to blend in with the buildings. But, it isn't here anymore; it has two great wings that allow it to fly, and it took off that way."

        ROTUNDA:

    " . . . . "

Tio frowns, "There's no response on the scale Unsurtr would make in the areas we planted sensors. Then ... the only place it could be is where we haven't ..."

Rita Ma (7417) has posed:
     Rita's sniffing is initially unsuccessful- until, her face turned away from Hibiki, she tries sticking out her tongue. This is what snakes do, right? Tasting the air? She feels a little silly doing it, until aa familiar flavor makes her bolt upright.

     I've got you now.

     "Hibiki! Hibiki! It's over there!" she shouts, pointing in the direction of the Rotunda. For a brief moment, she seems ready to leap out of her seat and chase it- and then a glance down at the ground persuades her otherwise.

     "Uh, but could you help me... you know, get down?"

Karlan Nobles (7248) has posed:
Pramanix lets out a heavy sigh of relief when Rixia and Lloyd reveal that there's nothing to worry about for the time being, looking up just in time to see which way they indicate. "That's good, then... Well, it's not that good, but at least we have a better idea of where to find the thing. Er... Sort of."

She scratches her cheek lightly and gets ready to get up, but remains in place upon remembering that she's still trying to unfrostbite Rixia's wounds. Also, that it's way warmer with them than it is standing up on her own. "How long ago was that, do you think? And... How did it attack you? Did it shoot things or pull things or... What?"

SilverAsh, meanwhile, just keeps carving up the icicles to see if he can dig up anything else while Pramanix handles the talking side of the investigation. He looks disappointed for some reason. When Rita relays her findings, though, he breaks into the run to head towards the Rotunda!

"Will you two be alright on your own? Can you get somewhere safe?" Pramanix asks, apparently looking ready to give chase as well if LLoyd and Rixia give her the go ahead.

Featherman Neo (7412) has posed:
Featherman finds Randy! As he mentions what happened to Noel, Featherman grimaces audibly. "No...alright. We need to hurry up." Rita calls over the radio.

"The other side of the rotunda. Surtr's there. With me, Featherman Ally!"

And then he sprints off, hoping Randy catches up with him. If they all gather together to fight The Boss, they'll have more numbers. He starts drawing his knife and red blaster, ready for combat! Engarde is just standing there with a lance. He'll be fine too.

Hibiki Tachibana (7359) has posed:
    Hibiki isn't able to find anything of note herself, but at least she /does/ pick up on Randy and Featherman somewhere down off in the distance. "Oh, is that...?"

    Rita's call gets her attention to snap over however, and her eyes go wide and she looks off in the direction. She's getting ready to hop off in pursuit when Rita does, but it never happens--and she gives a few actually surprised blinks when she's asked that.

    Followed by a snicker she has to try to keep back, and a smile that's obvious on her face even with her scarf in the way. "...Alright. Here, hang on." Hibiki takes Rita's hand lightly - and then goes to sweep her off her feet into a princess carry before she hops the side of the seat back down to the ground, falling like a rock.

    She comes down with a few cracks in the icy ground, but sets the other girl back down just as casually as she grabbed her and hurries off in the same direction as Featherman--off towards the rotunda. "Alright, let's go take care of this thing! It'll pay for doing this to an amusement park of all places!"

Crow Armbrust has posed:
    CRYSTAL PALACE:

Lloyd and Rixia both nod to Pramanix, sad to see the comfy heat of her fluffy tail and demeanor go, but more than understanding of the situation. "We'll catch up with you as soon as we can -- this is our fight, too." Lloyd re-affirms, before warning, "Seah Unsurtr can form ice in the air and fire them as projectile, as well as a really dangerous breath attack. ..Also, it can attack with its jaws and claws, so be careful."

    MAIN PLAZA:

Everyone passes through here on their way to the Rotunda. C seems to have vanished into thin air.

        ROTUNDA:

Ellie is now curled up on the ground, her shuddering having stopped. Tio has already closed her monitoring equipment and done everything she could for both her and Zeit by the time the Elites and Randy arrive. " ... ah .. hey, Tiotot." he says, with an uncertain look on his face. "So she collapsed too?"

"Yes. If you're all here, you must have come to the same conclusion, that Unsurtr has momentarily lodged itself at the beach-head."

Randy's eyebrows wriggle in discomfort, "Yeah. It's where we all fought it together last time .. I guess its already flown around the island so much, its bound to visit the same place twice. Alright. We've gotta' hurry."

Tio secures her costume's headpiece as well as she can before reaching out to her Orbal Staff.

Once the Elites make it out of the Rotunda, they see the frozen remains of what was doubtlessly a popular dating spot with an overhang and a bench overlooking the seas and what should have been a beautiful beach. The sand has been hardened by ice and covered in a layer of snow, and the entire area seems ravaged by a previous battle.

... but where is it?

"Hey ... you know, that craggy rock there wasn't here before, was it?" Randy wonders.

And indeed, pressed up against one of the cliffsides, the frozen 'rock' begins to move, stirred by the noise of those who'd come here. Seah Unsurtr angrily stomps towards them and unfurls its wings, roaring loudly.

    "Me..and my big mouth?!" "Grr..Randy...!"

Rita Ma (7417) has posed:
     Rita lets out a quiet, choked-back "eek!" when Hibiki sweeps her up, but at least manages to keep from screaming on the way down- though she does hold on to that scarf with white knuckles. Dismounting from Hibiki's arms, she wobbles a little, still unsteady on her feet from vertigo.

     After a couple of seconds, she finally gives her friend a smiling thumbs-up. "Er- right!! Let's go beat it and save these people!"

     When she takes off in the direction of the rotunda, it's with an uncanny but graceful all-fours gallop: her body leans into the run so deeply that she digs her fingers into the ground to propel herself along or corner more tightly.

     My mind and my body... they're finally in alignment. Right now, on this one thing, they agree. This cryptid- I'll tear it to shreds!

     When she arrives, it's to a deafening roar that forces her to cover her ears and wince. But that doesn't stop her for long. As she steadies herself against the roar, her body unravels, revealing her mutated, frilly true form.

     The fallen ribbons of her old skin morph and resolve into a dozen menacing tentacles, alternately standing on guard to defend her body or pointed at the Unsurtr as if to strike.

     I feel 'exposed' like this. Like anyone could see or judge me. Even around people I trust, it's a nagging feeling. ... But this is more important. While I still have a job to do, I won't let those feelings shake my focus.

     Rita dashes in to the Unsurtr's left in a bold maneuver that's sure to draw its ire. Then she flickers out of existence, her illusory decoy fading back into invisibility. The real Rita materializes on its right, too late for any reaction.

     One of her tentacles whips out as she fadeds back, slicing shallowly into a joint in the ice armor on its neck. If she can draw even a drop of blood, she'll immediately bring the cutting tentacle to her lips, greedily slurping the fluid off and taking in its essence.

Karlan Nobles (7248) has posed:
Pramanix: "This would be a nice spot if not for the... You know..."
SilverAsh: "All of this?"
Pramanix: "Yes, exactly."

When the pair from the mountains arrive at the Rotunda, they're not really sure where their quarry is. They remain on guard, with Pramanix already ringing her bell gently while SilverAsh keeps a hand on his sword. When Randy draws attention to the out of place rock, they're quick to turn their attention towards the roaring beast.

SilverAsh moves in almost immediately, brandishing his sword to start hacking away at the creature's legs while darting in and out of casual swiping range.  He does get clipped rather badly in the process, though his natural healing means he's not staying out of the fight for more than a few moments before getting right back in.

Pramanix does what she does best and starts bringing down a snowstorm, but not quite in an uncontrollable way. Instead, it almost seems as though she's trying to monopolize what ice and snow are even available as she brings it down onto the Unsurtr. The supernaturally infused attack even works to strip away the creature's defenses, almost as if the snow itself is melting on contact.

Featherman Neo (7412) has posed:
Featherman Neo is roared at as the group arrives. He's pushed back briefly, but manages to hold his footing. Engarde is fine, and begins preparing an attack. "Engarde, leap and pierce!"

Featherman Engarde begins empowering holy light into his lance, and makes a running jump into a leap towards Unsurtr's face. Using superhuman legs to empower himself, he moves to use it as a drill, and start injuring the beast heavily!

Featherman Neo, meanwhile, is coordinating. "Anyone with ice attacks, attempt my theory! I'll focus holy!"

Hibiki Tachibana (7359) has posed:
    Everyone's back together--but C is missing? Where'd he go? ...Hibiki knows he's prone to disappearing acts, but they usually come after everything is said and done. Is he waiting in the wings with his flute...? Or...

    There's not too much time to waste in looking for him though, as the group maneuvers their way to what would any other day on the artifical island, be someplace she'd love to take any of her friends. But it's just as bad off as everything else, drawing a frown from her. Her eyes scan the area, but there's nothing odd...until Randy points that out.

    Oh.

    "Talk about a jinx...!" The magical girl braces and winces against the shuddering roar, but holds her footing--no, she digs them in for extra support, cracking into the frozen-over sand. So that when it passes, she can launch off straight in towards it.

    It's an incredibly fast movement, one that sends her straight in front of the charging Cryptid. While Rita draws its attention, she blocks its path directly, and aims to stop it in its tracks by blowing straight upwards towards the bottom of its jaw with a full-force uppercut. This is followed up by another from the other fist, to see how much give this thing's glacier-like body has.

    "Kept us waiting, didn't you...!?"

Crow Armbrust has posed:
Randy shudders under the supernatural call of the roar, and Tio is knocked down, forced to pick herself up in a very un-Mishy way as the battle got underway. Silver Ash streaks like a flash of light as he blitzes Seah Unsurtr's legs, cleaving and slicing thick gashes in its icy armory. Rita, while Unsurtr is busy stomping around and trying to shake him off, cuts into one of its joints to draw blood; first blood, truthfully. Lapping it up allows her to supp on Unsurtr's ancient essence, something that it almost intelligbly seems to realize as it zeroes in on her.

Featherman Neo and Engarde's combination attack with Pramanix is the last straw. The ice-element attack that assaults its body seems to have merit in what was discussed earlier; although it is not especially effective, it is not especially ineffective either. If one were to rate it with arbitrary numbers, with its full 'normal' damage being a 100, that would be what it would be doing.

In other words, Ice Element attacks are perfectly suited to damaging it. Featherman has difficulties drilling through the shick glacial spoke protecting its chest, but as he does dig deep enough to begin drawing blood, Unsurtr swipes at him, and hunkers down.

It weathers powerful blows from Hibiki, which crack the ice along its head, and seems like it is about to breathe in deeply.

<J-IC-Scene> C | Tio deadpans, "Mishy is here to help. Together, we'll save Mishelam."
The Mishy-clad heroinne raises her staff and connects to her Aeon System. Using it, rather than traditional orbments or even Erebonia's experimental ARCUS units, Tio is capable of casting near-instantaneous Arts, and quickly belts out two high level Arts in a row.

<J-IC-Scene> C | Tio intones, "La Forte. La Crest."

First, everyone is engulfed by an invigorating feeling of strength, from the fire-element attack-raising Art La Forte, before they are surrounded by a bright, sunny brown glow and become hardy like a mountain from the Earth-element defense-raising spell La Crest.

<J-IC-Scene> C | Randy says, "Alright..time to earn my keep! Crash Bomb!"

Reaching one hand into his coat, Randy hurls a stun grenade at Unsurtr's cracked head and, as it goes off, he charges forward and strikes it with a powerful upper-swing from his orbal halberd, hopping back to avoid Unsurtr's retaliatory bite. "Whew...this is goin' a good bit smoother than before. Why's it so docile-?"

Randy, as before, jinxes everyone as it rears back up and opens its mouth, unleashing a powerful white Miasma that turns everything it touches into crystalized ice. Randy, thankfully, gets away with only having his right leg and arm covered up to his knee and elbow respectively, "D..damnit!"

Slamming its claws down into the frozen sound, its eyes glow ominously as a dozen missiles of ice rapidly form in the air and shoot at the remaining group.

Featherman Neo (7412) has posed:
"Ice isn't especially effective, but you can keep it up!" Featherman Neo shouts to Pramanix, but Engarde is sent flying back by a blow, and then the ice breath comes in. A massive blow of pure ice...

"Engarde, barrier!"

Engarde suddenly raises his free hand, and throws up a multi-layered barrier to eat the frost breath. It still freezes his non-lance arm in the process, but the rest of the blow is tanked, protecting the pair from being frozen solid, even if they're worse for wear.

Featherman Neo suddenly sprints forward, combining his knife and pistol into a rifle. "Let's try rifle mode, uncharged!"

He begins blasting precision hits, aiming for those wings. His goal is to prevent a later escape, and to make it harder to dodge the group's attacks by flying away!

Karlan Nobles (7248) has posed:
"I feel... Hardier? Thank you, T.. Mishy!" Pramanix seems rejuvenated with those boosts to her defense, murmuring quietly as she continues her snow-calling ritual as those missiles start forming in the air. When they come firing in, she throws her hands up as an ice wall pops out of the ground. It splinters apart as the ice missiles crash through it, a few of them even stabbing into Pramanix as she lets out a pained yelp, but she returns fire with ice spears of her own.

"How fortuitous. We are in the Mishy's debt." SilverAsh, feeling particularly chunkier in his own right, just keeps advancing with each empowered swing of his blade, bashing a few missiles aside with that enhanced strength and staggering back when a few others punch into him. Instead of wading right back in immediately, though, he settles into a lower stance with his blade sheathed and one hand on the sheath itself near the hilt.

"If this creature thinks it can flee so easily, then we'll have to clip its wings." He flicks the blade out just a little as he dashes forward, vaulting upwards at the last moment into a rather athletic somersaulting maneuver. He unsheathes the sword not unlike a quickdrawn katana slash, aimed at the same spot Featherman shot at to try and just demolish the everloving shit out of said wings with concentrated attacks.

Hibiki Tachibana (7359) has posed:
    "You jinxed it again, Randy...!" Hibiki murmurs back as she backs off in time with his own incoming strike, getting clear of the bite herself lest she risks getting snapped right in half--and then the miasma comes in. There's no doubt it's bad news, the state of Mishelam alone already says plenty enough.

    But like him, Hibiki isn't fast enough to completely get away from the haze before her right arm gets frozen over up past the elbow, armor and flesh alike being turned into ice. "Crap--!"

    She stumbles away, gripping onto her shoulder with her still-good arm and trying to move it to little effect. Her teeth clench, but the magical girl nevertheless picks herself back up and squares up, shifting her stance to level her other side forward. "...Then let's make sure you won't be able to freeze anything else ever again!"

    The others go for the wings. Hibiki throws herself into a high jump, coming down in a high arc before her thrusters kick in to send her straight down like a meteor. Her armored boot comes down into its skull from above, followed by a burst of acceleration intending to force its head to smash down into the frozen sand.

    "Hah!" Followed up by her still functioning gauntlet's pilebunker piston slotting backwards, fist coming down fromhigh above to impact at the same point before it hammers in, sending a wave of raw force directly down into it and out down below it. There's about to be a small crater in the iced ground below its jaw.

Rita Ma (7417) has posed:
     As Rita licks the blood off her tentacle, two different kinds of power flow through her: the first from Seah Unsurtr's ancient essence, and the second from Tio's bolstering magic. It takes her a moment to process it all- but Unsurtr isn't eager to give her that time.

     There it is again- just a taste of blood, and that aching hungry feeling comes back. Its power flowing through me is warm and incredible like always, but it comes with pangs too; my body telling me it's not enough. ... I can hold myself back, though. For Mr. C's sake, I can't eat this one.

     Rita swerves out of the way as the Unsurtr aims its breath at her, tearing across the frozen sand in a feral all-fours gallop. She skids to a halt and duplicates herself with an illusory tentacle-decoy when it fires those missiles. Both versions of Rita dodge in opposite directions. Both of them are struck by projectiles anyway.

     And both of them unravel into flailing azure tentacles. Neither was really her.

     The real Rita unravels her shroud of active-camo invisibility. She's standing on the back of the Cryptid's neck, her bare hand pressed against the base of its Hibiki-damaged head.

     I want to crack its shell open and suck the blood straight from its heart. I want to feel the bones snap under my teeth and pull the tendons out with a yank of my head. ... I won't. I won't! For the sake of Mr. C's trust in me, I won't do it. ... But if I can't eat its body, I'll just have to feast on its heat instead.

     Rita's body becomes wreathed in vapor, fog condensing out of the air as her body temperature plummets towards absolute zero. Her hand presses into- hopefully- a place where Hibiki has cracked its armor, seeking out flesh beneath the ice.

     You were scared of me stealing this power, weren't you? Let's see what it does to you.

Crow Armbrust has posed:
Featherman and Silver Ash work in conjunction as Unsurtr raises its haggard body, clearly exhausted from gathering the energy necessary to fire its breath attack at them. Thinking on it, it didn't seem improbable that if it stole energy from others, that with the island already being as drained as it was that it didn't have the easily refuelable source of power it may have had the first few times the SSS had tried to take care of it themselves; and it was only by working together now that they were starting to have a fighting chance against the massive creature.

Each of its massive wings are shattered and flip in the air, twirling as they impale the icy ground at the shore, water lapping at them. Unsurtr roars loud and clear in retaliation.

Randy, struggling to maneuver properly, is forced back with a useless feeling tugging at his chest; Tio shares her energy with the others through her Orbal Staff and a substance called 'EP' to assist in keeping them going strong.

The Cryptid's head slams down into the ground, Hibiki's combination shattering the ice covering its head completely and drawing blood as its actual skull cracks from the force, rattling it as it moans weakly, body slumping.

This gives Rita the exact opening she needs to touch upon its skull and use the power she pilfered from it to drop her own body temperature to nothing, and steal away all of the heat inside of its body, forcefully freezing it in an instant.

Unsurtr's eyes flash brightly as she does this, and within a moment, it rears its head back up and smashes its freshly re-covered head with an utterly colossal amount of force.

It stands to its full height, nearly imperial in its regal anger, flexing its claws and clicking its jaw.

" ... Unsurtr hasn't healed necessarily, I don't believe ... but its caught a second wind from that ... !"

Randy is taken aback, "What the hell?! I thought ice based attacks worked on it..! So if she froze him over, then it should've hurt, right?"

    "Not..necessarily..." Tio frowns.

But there's no time to figure this out as Seah Unsurtr roars and gathers a monumental amount of energy in its core --

Crow Armbrust has posed:
"Don't give up!" Lloyd shouts, standing from the entrance leading back into the Rotunda. Rixia is at his side, helping him walk as she uses her own sword as a crutch, Pramanix's coat having been swapped over to cover her up. There's a determined look about him as he sucks in a deep breath, "That thing ... is nothing more than a barrier for us to get over .. that's all we have to do! Forget everything else! Forget how strong it is, forget how tired you are..because all you have to do is -- "

        "GET OVER THE BARRIER!"

A frigid hurricane begins to build. This is the last chance before Seah Unsurtr uses its second wind to unleash everything it has, now that escape is no longer an option for it.

Featherman Neo (7412) has posed:
As Unsurtr reaches to full height after their attacks, especially Rita's, Featherman Neo is shocked. "OH NO!" The enemy is going to attack again. A second wind...this is bad, it'll freeze them all solid!

But someone shouts out. To not give up, despite being their enemy, ostensibly. The words echo out.

Get over the barrier!

The Sun shines on a new friendship, as Featherman Neo's belt dings, creating a new bond locket.

But he doesn't activate it, yet. Instead, he summons it to hand...and places it in the rifle slot.

SNAPSHOT

The rifle starts charging with energy, as Featherman Neo points straight for the head. "TAKE THIS! BARRIER BUSTER!"

FEATHER RIFLE - BARRIER BUSTER

He moves for the crucial shot, to defeat it once and for all, with a burst of pure piercing energy.

Karlan Nobles (7248) has posed:
Karlan Nobles says, "A second wind? Hmhmhm... Unfortunately for the Unsurtr, I'm the one controlling the wind!" Pramanix shouts with an uncharacteristically confident laugh, ringing her bell with even more ferocity while she looks around to see if anyone's actually amused by that.

SilverAsh just avoids eye contact completely to try and mitigate at least some of that internal cringe.

Regardless, the pair do seem a little winded as the fights goes on, and the Unsurtr's swirling winds have them struggling just to not get blown off their feet and off the island in the process. SilverAsh even has to stick his sword into the ground to regain his footing after a while, and Pramanix conjures up some smaller ice walls to steady herself after not too long.

"Anyway. It's on its last legs now. Where is...?" Silverash murmurs as he glances around briefly, dipping into a low stance again to minimize how much of him is exposed to the hurricane. He goes into a sprint again, but opts to start circling the Unsurtr quickly, just running around it while slashing away at its legs, its arms, its everything with steadily quickening slashes to the point that it becomes...

It doesn't quite become a blur because he's not that fast, but his slashes come so frequently and steadily that there's no real gaps in how often he's slashing. They just keep coming even as more of that blizzard punches into him, as though he's trying to outlast the creature that's on its last legs.

"A-anyway... I'll take the snow right out of its hands. If it thinks it can use the wind as it pleases around me, it's got another thing coming!" Pramanix shouts as she puts her all into conjuring up what's basically a spiked ceiling in midair, stealing as much of the ice and snow the Unsurtr is trying to use for her own constructed attack. When it reaches critical mass, she just drops the entire thing onto it."

Rita Ma (7417) has posed:
     Rita's eyes widen in shock as the Unsurtr gains its second wind. That should've been the deathblow, shouldn't it? And nobody else's ice attacks had reinvigorated it. A stolen power backfiring is poetic, but...

     Devouring it would be easy, but I can't. What else do I have? Acid's too slow. My tentacles would risk killing it. Isn't there something else?

5t She's flung backwards as it rears up, catching herself in a three-point stance as she skids backwards along the ice. The vapor surrounding her fades away when she releases her focus on Unsurtr's essence.

     I tasted Elon Ark. I ate the Hydra Plant utterly. And I've tasted Seah Unsurtr, too. There's enough of the Cryptids' essence in me to do this. If I make contact with it like 'that'...

     Rita wraps herself in her tentacles again, resuming the appearance of an ordinary girl. There's no need for her to use them anymore. She raises a hand towards the Cryptid, and her left eye is shining with a piercing blue.

     "STOP," she yells. And for a brief moment, their hearts are linked by that devoured essence.

     Rita is suddenly, abruptly its offspring in need of protection- no, its Queen giving an absolute order- no, its parent dispensing gentle instruction- every hijackable biological instinct it has, and several it doesn't, are bent to her service. Its reflexes and rules are warped by the metaphorical gravity of the biological singularity at her core.

     With something like Seah Unsurtr, she likely can't expect to seize control of it for more than a moment. But a moment is all her friends need.

     "Let them hurt you."

Hibiki Tachibana (7359) has posed:
    As Seah Unsurtr rises back up, right after she thought Rita using its own power against it would've sealed the deal, Hibiki's eyes go wide and she's thrown off. Her instinct to catch herself with her frozen arm fails her, and leads to a rough tumble across the ground as she rolls several meters before catching herself. "Crap...it got back up from that...!? What's it doing...!?"

    This isn't good. If it's getting energy back for something like the freezing miasma it used before, it's going to be a lot worse this time. What's she going to have to do to...?

    And then Lloyd shouts, something she didn't expect to hear at all, and she's brought out of her thoughts as her attention snaps towards him. "Wh--a barrier...?"

    'Tall walls you climb, but...show me this!'
        'If there's a wall--I'll punch right through it!'

    That's right. She does have her own barriers to get over. "Compared to all of those...one just like all the others we've already beaten isn't anything...!" With a grunt and her thought finished out loud, she gets full back to her feet, and clenches her unfrozen fist tightly.

    And her frozen one. With a golden shine forcing its way out past the frost covering to almost burn at it for a brief moment, the entire gauntlet suddenly bursts outwards in its much larger, thruster-bearing form and sends ice scattering. She rears it back--

    And throws herself back forward with blurring speed, diving into the building blizzard and beneath Seah Unsurtr's body to get underneath it. Her arm comes back, and the rocket boosters ignite to send it forward. To blow back through its icy armor and into its body.

    "Take THIS!" Where the internal energy built up will be unleashed to explode directly inside of it, a detonation of gold that'll burn it from within and continue going out to every corner of its body.

Crow Armbrust has posed:
Seah Unsurtr has no concept of such things -- it was something wholly alien to this world, and many others. Rather than issuing an order, the effect of Rita's command was more like whtie noise in its skull. Like trying to explain why, scientifically, the sky looked blue to someone who'd never left a cave in their entire life. Even though she was speaking in a 'language' it could vaguely understand, it could not comprehend what she wanted.

But it achieved what she desired none the less, as the dazed creature wobbles on its hind-legs in confusion. This gives Pramanix and Silver Ash free reign to unleash their combined efforts, the lightning-like swordsman tearing into its exposed calves and cutting it to the bones so that moments later, when the massive spiked mass of ice created by Pramanix fell onto Seah Unsurtr's shoulders, it would collapse to its knees, unable to hold up its own weight.

This lined up Featherman's shot perfectly, as its iced-shell explodes and the bullet strikes its earlier wound dead on, drawing forth a deafening screech from the Cryptid as it pours all of its strength into forcing its body back up, striking out at Silver Ash with its tail and bolting forward with shocking amounts of speed. " ..!! Damn, it's coming..!" Randy exclaims, sluggishly trying to throw himself forward.

    Hibiki Tachibana begins to shine.

"S..she broke free of the petrification..!" Tio remarks, the usually deadpan girl expressing mild surprise -- which for her, may as well have been jawdropping.

Unsurtr's clawed punch sends sparks flying as it scraps across her Symphogear's headpiece, Hibiki weaving just under the mad blow to deliver her rocket-powered rebuttal straight into Unsurtr's chest.

The explosion of light fills up its whole body, and kills all of its momnetum dead -- no, it goes as far as to begin reversing it, gravity seeming to give up as it hangs in the air, light spilling from the wound Hibiki had given it.

And within moments, that light began to spill out of its mouth, and then its eyes before Seah Unsurtr begins to break apart, ultimately exploding in a whirlpool of golden strength, evaporating in the shine.

Lloyd, tiredly, smiles. "Ha ha ... you really did it, you guys ..." before Rixia shakes her head with a smile, and interjects with, "No. We did it, Lloyd. Us, and our friends."

Randy chuckles, "Well, I can't argue against that, boss."

Tio, in her Mishy outfit, strikes a 'heroic' pose. "Evil has been vanquished, and Mishelam is liberated from the freezing grasp of despair. Mishy couldn't have done it without everyone's help. Thank you." she deadpans.

    Yet, something seems ...missing.

Rita Ma (7417) has posed:
     Rita lowers her hand, her eye's glow fading. Her expression's obviously conflicted: awe at her teammates' raw power, sadness that Seah Unsurtr couldn't be captured, and...

     What a waste. If it was going to be killed anyway, I wish I'd just eaten it. ... No, there's no point in thinking like that. Get ahold of yourself, Rita!

     She hurries over to Hibiki with a Girly Run- you know the one, elbows bent and hands out- and immediately fusses over her. "That was amazing!! I can't believe how you used those boosters, Hibiki! I saw you take a fall, are you alright? And the part where you were frozen, I was so worried..."

     It takes her a moment to realize what's missing.

     "Hey, where's Mr. C? He wasn't here to play the flute. I broke his cuffs for him, didn't I?"

Featherman Neo (7412) has posed:
Featherman Neo turns to the SSS as Seah Unsurtr goes down. He puts away his rifle and the locket, as he speaks to Lloyd.

"Thank you, Lloyd. Your encouragement was important!"

And then...wait, where's C? They can't do the victory royale unless they're all together, can they?

Hibiki Tachibana (7359) has posed:
    Seah Unsurtr explodes overhead, underneath the weight of everyone's blows and her full force punch.

    And after the fact, Hibiki lowers her punching arm and stumbles back a step before catching herself, letting out a heavy sigh of relief and exhaustion. It takes her a few moments to catch on to everything being said, but when she does, she looks between the rest of their group and then the SSS with a small smile.

    "...Yeah. I don't think any of us could've done it alone. You guys were great. Thanks...you especially, Lloyd. You reminded me of something important." He gets a grateful nod, before she blinks. Huh, wait. Friends? It strikes her as how funny that is, considering how things were just a few meetings ago. Then again...it's not the first time something like this has happened. Far from it.

    Rita brings her back to reality, where she immediately gets a few chuckles and a humble wave off with her hand to show she's fine. "I'm fine, I'm fine. You did great, y'know. Practically ran circles around it..."

    But...she also catches on to what's missing, as everyone gets together. She noticed it on the way here, but it quickly slipped her mind. Where's...?

    Hibiki frowns. "Where /did/ he go? He wasn't there when we looped back around to get here..." Her head glances side to side, as if expecting to find him somewhere nearby.

Karlan Nobles (7248) has posed:
In the Unsurtr's final desperate throes, it still manages to tail-bash SilverAsh right on the side shortly after he slows down from his more-than-three slashing maneuver. He takes a rather nasty tumble, rolling over a few times before catching his hand on the ground just in time for him and Pramanix to see Featherman's shot and Hibiki's punch exploding into it.

Soon, the creature is destroyed, and the siblings let out simultaneous weary sighs of relief.

Pramanix: "Heh... Hah. We did it, everyone! Good work!"
SilverAsh: "That we did... What a formidable foe. I wonder if there'll be more fights like that in the future."
Pramanix: "Ah, we can worry about that later when it happens. For now..."


After reattaching that bell to her belt, Pramanix moves over next to ~~Tio~~ Mishy and mimics the pose. "Our work here is done, friends! Now, what say we get something to eat after everything defrosts?"

SilverAsh, meanwhile, moves to join Rita, Featherman, and Hibiki. "We do seem to be missing someone, yes... Perhaps it'd be wiser to contact him via the radio if he's not visible around here." He suggests, being careful not to mention C by name while also semi-subtly gesturing at the local group with his tail.

Crow Armbrust has posed:
Tio looks uncertainly to Rita, "You broke him free?" -- that, she thinks, would go a long way towards explaining the terrorist's abscence. But, it did not set well with her. What had he been doing in the meantime?

Lloyd shakes his head, " ... I'll pretend I didn't hear that. - Oh, don't mention it, I'm just happy that we all made it out okay, and that the people here at Mishelam will be fine. The real hero today was our Shining Bonds."

Everyone is smiling. Even Tio, under her Mishy costume as she strikes a pose next to Pramanix. Randy is grinning tiredly, but cheerfully. And Lloyd has a confident and bright lookon his face as he opens his mouth --

<Tac-Watch> 3 Hibiki Tachibana says, "Yeah, I'm okay, I think. Where...C, are you still here?"

    BANG.

"Urk..?!" Lloyd gasps, a hole appearing over where his shoulder and torso meet as he is jerked cleanly out of Rixia's grasp. "L..Ll...LLOOYD?!"

    BANG.

Featherman receives a similar bullet aimed to blow a hole cleanly through his chest.

    BANG.

    "Hn!!"

Randy swiped his Halberd not a moment too late as the projectile barrels into it and blows it in half, dislocating his elbow in the process.

Tch. I guess that's the 'War God' for you..or the closest thing left to him still walking Zemuria. He already found me after just two shots, should've blasted him first. That looker from Heiyue's about to come up here, too. Time to scram.

But Rixia Mao's vengeful steel wires, and heavy blade, find no purchase. "W..wha..? But...he was here! I know it! He was right here..!"

It had only taken here less than a minute to traverse the rooftops, now that Seah Unsurtr was no longer a threat that would eat her up for doing so, but there was no sign of the assailant anywhere. He'd evidently set up shop in one of the Ferris Wheel's comparments, at the tippy top of the rotation, and taken his shots from there once he had a good opportunity.

So then, why was there no sign of anyone having been here?

"Stay with us..!" Tio panics, not having access to healing Arts herself and only being able to treat the wounds with the medical supplies on hand, she attempts to stabilize Lloyd while Randy kneels next to Featherman, having taken this time to reset his elbow painfully, and works the sore limb to pull out a Tearal Balm to use on him. "Call the chief, we need a medical evacuation pronto."

It's not long after that an airship carrying trained medical professionals arrive to treat the critically injured at hand.

Featherman Neo (7412) has posed:
Featherman Neo is celebrating. Two shots. He's sent flying back by his, armor impacted heavily, by the blow. He feels the bullet enough that he's bleeding inside from the pressure.

Randy comes to him. "Take me to headquarters, fast...that was Ouroboros, I'm sure of it...*I have the intel on C! He's more dangerous than we think*"

The spy is revealed. Featherman Neo, working with SSS on the inside.

"Lloyd..." Featherman is struggling to keep conscious. He can't desuit right now. The balm helps. But he'll have to be taken back so he can heal up.

Karlan Nobles (7248) has posed:
The shots ring out, and SilverAsh and Pramanix are already on the defensive. SilverAsh keeps his sword drawn, undoubtedly prepared to do some sick bullet parries if needed, and Pramanix calls up a few ice walls arund the injured to give them some maybe/maybe not needed cover from further gunfire.

"Ourob... Ah, we'll figure that out later. Keep your heads down, everyone!" Pramanix all but orders, only moving from her psot to call up more cover for the medics once they arrive on the scene.

"Was this really his handiwork? Why...?"

Hibiki Tachibana (7359) has posed:
    Hibiki had really expected C to just have left, as he does, so that he wouldn't have to have any uncomfortable confrontrations with the SSS like the last two times.

    She wasn't expecting bullets, out of nowhere. For Lloyd and Featherman to go down, and Randy to nearly suffer the same.

    It clicks in a whole second after the fact, where her expression takes a 180 and she rushes forward while glancing between the two injured. "Featherman--! Lloyd...!" In a panic, there's not much she can do. The best is helping keep Tio steady and assist in doing what little they can, since Randy has Featherman well cared for. Hibiki knows some very basic medical fix-me-up, enough to at least help with this much...

    But what Featherman says draws her attention over. She knew he was investigating him, that's not a surprise. Hibiki was also trying to learn more about him, over the course of all of these Cryptid hunts, and that meeting back at John's house. But...

    What happened? Did he do something? "More dangerous than--?" She has a couple questions that die out in her throat, but Hibiki gulps them down for the moment to make sure the injured are going to be okay before anything else. Her voice, when it comes out, is low and quiet. To herself. "Why did this have to happen...!?"

Rita Ma (7417) has posed:
     Rita's eyes are wide with shock as the shots ring out, and glassy with something else. Abruptly, the smell of human blood is all around her. She pushes her way past that monstrous desire, but it's not the only thing clouding her mind. She reaches for her medicine satchel, but hesitates.

     Ms. Grier said... cops, and people like them, would trick me into being nice to them. Did C really just shoot those people? If so, should I be helping them? Maybe they're bad in ways I don't understand.

     ... No. They've protected people from monsters. They've been nice to me! Of course I have to help them.

     Rita drops to her knees next to Featherman, immediately trying to stabilize him with her rustic cures. A homemade caustic pencil gently burns the flesh around the wound, closing blood vessels and preventing excessive bleeding; a sterilized rag is bunched up and pressed into the hole with a finger, further stemming it.

     "You'll be okay, mister," she says, and only a little uncertainty bleeds into her voice. You can barely even notice when she swallows back drool.

     Her attention then turns to Lloyd, who was hit less center-mass; he receives equally urgent care with the supplies she has left. She doesn't leave them until further help arrives.