Scene #5581: Distorting Reflections: Enter the Dragon

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Kyoko Takada	Most of those responding to Alpha-39's call for assistance have not been to this particular Earth-zone before. "Earth" it isn't, not fully, as it seems as if only the area of Japan, sea included, was placed into this area of The Quilt. For those who know what Japan is generally like, the close-up isn't going to be all that familiar. One could at best call this place a sparse savanna, but it's more like a desert. Little life remains that isn't some kind of monster that wants you dead. How the food chain supports what A-39 calls "demons" is anyone's guess. Fortunately, the nearest warp gate isn't all that far away, just-close-enough to be narratively convenient for anyone without access to transportation. Those with certain sets of sensors will immediately sense certain things very wrong about this world, like the radiation levels. You probably shouldn't drink the water, but there's not enough wind and dust to kill through short exposure. Living here is another matter entirely. And it does look like there are people living here. The remains of a city has been blasted down to ground level and then covered in dirt and what plants are capable of growing on top, and where the roads ran can barely be made out, but the one thing in sight that has maintained itself in nearly pristine condition is a fenced-in school campus. It's pretty large, with the expected sports areas for track and soccer clubs, and multiple, modern buildings. Someone's even gotten a thriving garden going, spread out between most of the roof space, as anyone with the right vantage point will immediately spot. It doesn't take much to spot the monstrous horde. The fighting hasn't yet reached the school fence, but the defenders are being pushed back that way. On the one side, swarming creatures like extremely ugly, turkey-sized lizards jostle against and climb over each other, their maws unpleasantly dripping, and mutually paying no heed to the mottled brown-and-purple elephants half-covered in chitin and with legs ending in claws. On the other side: highschoolers, boys and girls. Somewhere in the dozen-to-a-score range. Some of them seem to have swords. A-39, the one who put out the distress call, isn't in sight. That's because she's found a sniper's perch in the ruins below the school, and is setting up her sights.
Leyanne	Leyanne Mace is probably one of the first to arrive, doing so astride a growling, angry-sounding bike. She's in her armour today, and clamped to the big backpack-cum-ammo hopper she's wearing is today's heavy weapon, an M2 Browing heavy machine gun. The name painted on the receiver proudly proclaims its name to be "Ma Deuce." As she approaches from the warpgate, Leyanne gets on the radio. "Tiny here, I'm inbound about a mile and a half out, ETA 90, that is niner-zero seconds. Where d'ya need heavy weapons?"
Nozomi Houken	The voice on the radio was an unfamiliar one. She's definitely not someone in the Concord, and she's also not one of Nozomi's close friends. She's got no stake in this. The higher-ups in the JSDF will probably not be happy with her coming out to a world like this. But people living in a high school are apparently under attack by demons. No way in hell is Nozomi staying away. But as soon as Taiga comes bounding through the warpgate, both he and his passenger have to stop for a moment to just... stare, at the landscape. "This is /Japan/...? Wh... what happened here?" she murmurs softly. The robotiger shakes his head. "I don't know. But it is almost certainly hazardous simply to be here. I cannot recommend staying without some form of protection." There is a softness to his tone; both of them know she's not leaving. So both of them know what he's suggesting. "...then we should transform." "Very well. Disengaging Independent Mode. Rerouting Gensou Engine power to motive and combat systems. Rampart Mode engaged." It is not a girl and her tiger who approach the school - but rather a cold, efficient slayer of demons, clad in black technology and riding wings of magical thrust.
Maya	It was quite strange to hear what A-39 had to say, and this isn'tnormal for what she knows of most versions of Japan. She's ready for combat, she's loaded up she's taken a few drugs the PAladins have to help with exposure to radation and the like but she'll likely need a trip to the medical bay after just to be sure, she also got a full on cloak on, with a hood hiding her face, and a mask over her mouth to help filter things out. 5R She was making for hte locaiton riding on the back of a large robotic vaguely dog looking thing as she was comming in along the ground. <<This is Maya of the city of Oasis I am almost there, eta sixty seconds.>>
Starbound Flotilla	The STARBOUND FLOTILLA are here, in their standard Durasteel equipment! Moonfin, the fishman, is in elaborate full-body durasteel armor that looks like a powered cross between a diving suit and a samurai's armor, glowing cyan at the faceplate. Biteblade, the humanoid plant, is in durasteel plating with elaborately carved wood and bone ornaments over glowing powered components that glow an intense green. Pavo the bird-girl wears a pirate-aesthetic set of mesoamerican-style armor, with yellow bands of energized fabric linking the pieces to her central piratey longcoat. Albert the monkey-man is wearing elaborate dystopian commando armor reconstructed with a 'rebel spy' aesthetic: A sleeker faceplate, a slimmer form, and a more chaotic design that integrates thin, resilient plates of durasteel, and lines of bright white. George (just plain human) wears a futuristic combat EVA hardsuit that glows a gentle red at the flat faceplate. Seft, the robotic Flotilla member, is wearing full-on medieval knight armor with a soft energized blue glow below the plates on her body, and especially around the eyes. Each has a heavy industrial-yellow two-pronged plasma-cutter-like tool strapped to their side, a Matter Manipulator. And today, all of them are riding a set of hoverbikes to swiftly make their way over the wasteland. "Assuring. Anti-rad EP systems confirm full protection." "Civilians sighted. Engaging in self-defense?" "Floran can sssee badmeat prey! Swarming!" "Aye, enough for a good bombing run!" "Nothing near the school. Don't fix what isn't broken! Keep it clean." "Aside the blood, I would much assume. Strike without hesitation, our local contact is not one to take such matters in-person. And may we yet join them in their swordplay." Explosions from the fringes sound out as Albert fires off his grenade launcher into the swarms, focusing heavily on the elephants as they ignite into horrific incendiary chemical payloads. This is meant to clear the way for when all six hoverbike riders skid into the swarms, ditch their ride somewhere just between the main body of the swarm and the children with swords, and engage in combat. "Hey kiddos! Here to help! I've got no idea what I'm doing but it sure does look like it's /probably/ the thing that isn't stupid!" George calls out, firing on the lizards with a pistol and attempting to punch out an elephant with an electrified gauntlet. As he does, Albert strikes with AoE shockwaves from a heavy power-hammer, Biteblade tries to tear into swarms with hunting expertise and a pair of power-daggers, Moonfin works to slay elephants with graceful katana strikes, Pavo has taken to a low glide and is opening fire with a pair of flintlocks, and Seft is searching about for any of the children in need to try to block the swarm with a heavy shield and counterattacks from a hand-axe. As always, a perfectly organized squad with immediate blitz tactics. Hopefully the kids are friendly too! Otherwise the Flotilla will easily get stabbed in the back.
Staren	Staren emerges from the warpgate riding, or rather... driving? piloting? a bipedal construct made of some sort of striped wood. Where one might expect an upper torso and head, however, has been replaced with something like the inside of a car -- places for a few people to sit, and a control panel in front of the driver -- the shape of this 'cockpit' exposes the upper bodies of the occupants, in this case Staren, which is probably why he's still wearing armor. Two arms hang down from the 'body', armed with light machine guns. All in all it's maybe 9½ feet tall, 11 if you count the exposed part of its occupant. Staren can take some passengers if needed, there's room for three to sit comfortably besides him. The construct races towards the indicated point. Staren gives a friendly nod to the Starbounders on their bikes. And so Staren finds himself coming into sight of a bastion of civilization under siege by demons. It's a familiar feeling. Almost comfortable, in the sense that what to do is immediately clear. Given there are swarms of demons, what some might call 'fireball formation', rather than using his ride's weaponry immediately, he stops in sight of the demons and hefts a missile launcher, firing explosives into the horde. Hopefully he can get a couple good shots in before they realize what he's doing and spread out.
A2	For A2, the difference between an uninhabited wasteland filled with the remains of human civilization and hordes of wandering monsters, and where she had come from not long ago, is mostly a matter of radiation and a corresponding lack of things living in it. Radiation sickness from dust or water isn't a thing she needs to worry about, but even before the demon horde is even close to coming into view, the lack of anything at all here, be it bird or pig or fish, trips something in her that feels so alarmingly close to the description of 'intuition' that A2 has to try several times to dispel the notion. Truthfully, she'd only come here because she'd heard A-39's voice, and she still owes that one a favour, in a really vague and evasive kind of sense. She doesn't look to be in much better of a state than the buildings, aside from still being standing. Already so scraped up, windblown, burnt, and eroded away that her skin has peeled off large parts of her frame, and then the plates underneath that, the facade of carefully and delicately crafted humanity is only really intact around her face, and the rest of her looks like a piece of incredibly beat up military equipment, wearing a quarter of a black outfit and completely impractical high heels. Sand and said heels don't usually mix at all, but she seems untroubled without a ride of mount, despite how heavily she sinks into it. A2 practically meanders about the long gone streets ahead of time, following the sounds of combat, until she finally catches sight of the fray. It might be wise to contact the students (is that what a student is?) ahead of time and set up some kind of tactical maneuver, but A2 hasn't fought as a team in . . . she just doesn't fight as a team anymore, okay? Instead, blistering golden particles fizzle into existence from nowhere, and coalesce into a high-tech executioner's sword of utterly massive proportions, casually gripped in one hand despite probably weighing as much as a car. She just charges right in at the front line of the horde, from only a slight angle, quickly accelerating to speeds motorbikes typically see on most roads, and blasting into the lizards with her weight and momentum as much as the sword.
Kyoko Takada	As people get closer, many things become more readily apparent. Despite being badly outnumbered, the students aren't getting surrounded, though they probably would be if they weren't slowly giving ground. One boy in particular seems to be shouting most of the orders to keep them coordinated, one who causes the smaller demons to go up in fiery explosions on contact with his fists. The flanks are being protected on one side by a girl wielding several swords that orbit her as she gestures, and on the other by ranged support, consisting of several bows but not a single firearm. The swarming lizards don't seem that much of a problem, at least so long as they don't actually climb up onto their opponents, which is naturally every last one of them is attempting to do. The chittering noises they make add to the general impression of mad, frenetic behavior in their motions. The elephant-like creatures would be a bigger problem if their targets stayed still, and are probably a large part of the reason this has been a retreating battle. The chitin covers their front and sides more so than the rear, but the rear is covered by the lizard swarms, and the front is strong enough to take most of what's being thrown at them without even flinching. Once grenades and missiles start going off, though, neither the less-armored rears nor the lizards can easily get by unscathed. The smaller demons are blasted or scattered, choosing to stay scattered rather than bunch up again, though their numbers and the limited battlefield space prevent them from entirely avoiding more AOE attacks. The flank not being protected by flying swords could certainly use a strong close-up defender, though that hand-axe had better be fast to deal with the lizards trying to climb over shield and armor and sink in claws and teeth, as well as weight down with their bodies. As for the kids, "You can talk!" one smartly observes of the suddenly arriving aliens. Even more visitors are showing up ahead, adding to the instant confusion, which is cut through by the fiery and fiery-haired leader (who might be all of eighteen), as he shouts, "Reinforcements! Cover the right flank, keep backing up, don't let the tusks reach you!" He's not wasting any time on surprise, opting to instead just add the Starbounders to those he's (loosely) commanding. Some of the horde turns to face Staren, along with anyone else coming up from behind, and there's a long line of reinforcements/stragglers in this mixed of group of killer maybe-animals, enough to turn it into a two-fronted battle. Still, the turning gives the perfect opportunity for A-39's anti-material rifle to go out, the boom just audible even with everything else going on, and the round piercing through one of the monster-pachyderm's eye-sockets. It doesn't actually go down, but it looks a lot more disoriented as it charges in a slightly-wrong direction. Anyone trying to take one of these things head-on can still find purchase, if they're that much of a straight-forward heavy-hitter, though a little finesse goes a long way.
Leyanne	Leyanne Mace arrives from a different flank, clearing the fence, bouncing her bike, and sliding it to a halt near the group. She raises the faceplate of her helmet, smirks at someone, and then climbs off her bike. As she does so, cybernetic arm bends in a really messed-up way to take the M2 from her backpack and move it into firing position. The Martian looks out over the demons, towering over the students as she turns to face the nearest demon-pachyderm. "FIRING!" She warns, before the massive gun she's carrying opens up, spitting big-bore rounds at the monster. "Someone who knows what's going on want to tell me what the fuck these things are?"
Staren	"Yes, we can talk. Are there zombies here too or something?" Staren asks. As the horde turns to face him, HE starts retreating, the transport golem backing up. He ignores the pachyderms for now since they've turned their armor to him, instead prioritizing the little reptiles, using a mix of short, controlled bursts to drop them, and wilder sprays of covering fire to try and make them back off if they get close. Still, he can't really use the machineguns for the long term -- this was a hastily-armed transport construct, not a true combat mecha -- he's only got enough ammo to fire each gun on full auto for maybe a couple dozen seconds, so he can't just blaze the guns without a care. He wonders if the demons are smart enough to know about limited ammo?
Nozomi Houken	Oh hey, it's the Flotilla. People Nozomi actually knows. If she weren't transformed, she'd probably give them a warmer greeting - as it stands, all they get is a lingering stare from yellow eyes, probably all too familiar to them for the simple coldness of this version of her. She never talks in this form, anyway. Besides, there's something more important. The initial barrage from others has scattered the smaller members of the enemy line, and their attention has been split by the arrival of the reinforcements; it's a perfect time to jump in and start breaking the assault properly. So naturally, she does this by doing something... rash. The black-armored girl hurls herself right down into the middle of the enemy formation, descending from above and unleashing a barrage of cannon fire from both arms. Globes of yellow energy rain down, deadly 'softballs' aimed at clearing her a landing space. And as soon as her boots hit the dirt, Nozomi swings her massive blade around and takes a one-handed grip on it. Using the weapon's built-in jets to assist her already-prodigious strength, she starts unloading on anything and ecerything she can reach, firing off more energy blasts with the cannon on either arm, and whenever something gets too close, she lashes out with the EM Zanbatou in her right hand. Aside from just 'thinning the ranks', her aim is to make a major enough threat of herself dead in the middle of the demons, that their formation loses a lot of its cohesion trying to deal with her.
A2	Things having to climb on top of her to actually hurt her is a bit of a new one for A2, and one that makes things significantly easier. With no coordination in the enemy forces --without intentional group movement and tactics and judicious fire support-- it feels strange to smash into the frontline unimpeded. Strange, but not unwelcome. Where she crashes through the front, breaking the press of smaller critters with her weight like a wave upon a rock, she digs in one of those heals and sweeps the sword around her like a medicine ball, clearing out anything unfortunate enough to be within reach in a full 360 degree arc, and then intentionally releasing it. Where it flies from her fingers, rings of complex holography in black, gold, and grey light take over, and the giant sword continues its route, spiraling out further and further in two more revolutions around her in order to splatter several times the area, before disappearing in the same swarm of lights it had came from. "Yeah, do you mind explaining /anything/ about what the /hell/ is going on?" she finds time to bark into the radio. For supposedly being humans, the children she had rushed unthinkingly towards appear to be fighting more like Androids, and they're clearly practiced hands at this. How long have they been holding out in this place? "Can these things call for reinforcements? Do they have any kind of air support?" It might sound stupid asking that about what are literally called demons, but A2 has had teammates shot dead by OtH lasers when cleaning up trash before. When she had them. She fixates on the elephant-creature wounded by A-39's rifle, rapidly approaching it from its now-blinded side to get in close without interruption, and getting right to the edge of her cleared space before flexing her entire body down and then into a powerful, soaring leap. Something in her left knee creaks dangerously, but holds, and so A2 dismisses the warning in the corner of her vision that has become the background noise of her life. Essentially, she leans into the jump in a flat, bullet-like trajectory, aiming straight for the wounded side of the elephant's face, and flipping over to hit the side of its head feet-first. A second blaze of light coalesces in her opposite hand, producing a slimmer long sword of the same make and material, which she goes to ram up to the hilt into the wound. Pending success, she'll squeeze the trigger in the hilt, and the badly worn capacitors will discharge a massive burst of electrical pseudo-magic energy into the inside of its skull.
Maya	Maya's on Runner and she's now in range of the demons, it's time to get to work. Maya has been around a long time but she's not been very noticeable to the multiverse at large but today the people here are going to get a bit of a show as she lands in a crouch and she notes to Runner. "Sick em!" The hulking mecha dog thing barrels into the nearest of the demons to rip them apart up close. While Maya has her rifle out and she levels it the housing opens up, and small missiles appears which fire into the nest mass of the Lizards seeking them out and they will explode but this is all to buy Maya time to get some heavier spells up and going for now the seekers seek out the lizards and will explode on contact with them. "Understood." She's going to make for right flank and Runner will move it's carnage in that direction thought as she goes. "Been a while Staren!" Also was Nozomi in there? She thinks they might but and the Starboundrs ar here too. A2 she has no experiance with but Leyanne she does know but from all reports Leyanne has got her shit together since the last time Maya ran into her and Touta is another unknown and she suspect A39 is around here somewhere to give some support fire of some sort.
Kyoko Takada	If you don't have ammo concerns, enough firepower will at least keep one of the stomping, clawed, tusked brutes from advancing forward at-will. They seem to have a tendency to lift their heads and roar when this happens, bringing their eyes out of the line of fire and revealing that the underside of the neck isn't the vulnerability an optimistic hunter would have hoped for. There are points that will take damage, though, and even if you don't look for them, enough projectiles will find something, crack and strike through. The students don't seem to mind a biker mouse after the last set of aliens, particularly, but they are all rather busy. The lizards, meanwhile, are far softer targets. Softer and faster, but as the students have already shown, a mixture of giving space, sweeping attacks, and watching the flanks is enough to more or less keep them away. A 9-foot robot takes bigger strides, but in Staren's case, there's the disadvantage of not having anyone watching his flanks, either. No one as yet, except A-39, that is, as she takes advantage of her full view of the battlefield to blow apart the few raptors slipping past other's defenses. They might not be smart enough to know about limited ammo, but they're clearly smart enough to play dead, then leap back up after automatic weaponry is no longer pointed right at them, as the mecha pilot may quickly learn. Nozomi proves to need little covering fire while in Rampart mode, and landing right in the middle of the enemy provides the disadvantage of being a prime target for the lizards once they regroup, but proves highly effective at tying down the oliphaunt-alikes. They're good at charging, but less good at turning, and they have to turn to move their armor into place. They don't, however, need to turn to leap, taking surprising distance for creatures that heavy and enormous, and come down at one armored girl beneath their armored, stompy claw-feet. While they can take an astonishing amount of punishment even through their armor and keep going, the large-type demons have limits to even that, and aiming straight for a weakened point and A2 discharging her attack right into the body turns out to be as effective as anyone could hope for. It still takes awhile to die, but it becomes an irrelevant casualty almost immediately. The height will even give her a chance to get somewhere else before the lizards she hasn't already killed can get up to her. After seeing her attack once, along with everything else happening, and having more space to move about in, they're getting smarter about spreading out.
Starbound Flotilla	"The problem with George is that he can't stop talking." Albert grunts. "Starbound Three! Break right, retreating cover! Starbound Four, half-cherubs, focus heavies! Starbound Two, cover Three! Starbound Five, body count! Starbound Six, trenches!!" The Flotilla doesn't usually take orders from kids, but making a good impression seems to be a good idea, and they'll go ahead and do it! Seft's overwhelmed by lizards crawling all over her, crushing and crashing through armor, but thankfully that's before Moonfin rushes in to slice away at them, and he'll make passes each time she's overwhelmed. She's forced into the back row by the damage, though, and she'll need to focus primarily on covering the students with heavy shieldwork. She ditches her hand-axe in favor of wielding a /second/ shield, and begins to provide cover against the hordes and mostly focus on enabling the other students! Meanwhile, Albert and Biteblade focus on thinning the herd with heavy, brutal melee, and Pavo takes great flight and tries to pound away at the elephant-sized foes with sheer overwhelming quantity of munitions, swapping rapidly from her smaller arms to what appears to be some kind of heavy, massive harpoon gun! She opens fire with it, trying to stake into the elephants and then chain them to the ground with every other shot. However enduring they might be, if the Flotilla can get their hooks in them, maybe they can slow them down. George has the shitty job, though. "Fucking... Goddamn stupid... 'Starbound Six', who made you Starbound One anyway, I should at least be five. Make a bunch'a stupid defenses yourself next time, then I'll swing around the big dumb hammer, you asshole..." George rushes through the battleground, seeding it through his matter manipulator with a wide variety of terrain hazards! Spikes, fire, electrification, trenches of acid, George has it all. Bringing down the Starbound Flotilla's expertise in shaping terrain, George tries to form lines of hazard that will impede and choke the rush of lizards, at least, and let the defenders focus firepower on the heavy enemies. A few people are noticed. First, Nozomi Houken: "Taiga Unit, be advised. No aerial contacts besides you in this area. Only ones we've seen in this region are large enough for radar contact. Move to air whenever you need safety." Then, Staren: "Floran thinksss, good woodride! Focusss less for bodycount, more for shore up gapsss in defenssse for thisss tribe! They know how to do fightsss, Floran think! But you have concentrated power!"
Nozomi Houken	There is no spoken response to the Flotilla, of course, but the open band responds with a 'message received' ping that almost certainly indicates it's been heard. And down comes the Oliphaunt. Nozomi looks up at the last second, and per Albert's advice, her thrusters kick on instantly - it's fast enough to get her out of the way of a total crush, but not quite fast enough to avoid a glancing hit that sends her tumbling right into the lizards. But in the next second, she regains control of the tumble, thrusts off the ground and tears a stray demon loose. And scowls. "Disengaging EM Cannons. Rerouting excess energy to EM Zanbatou." The voice is Taiga's... or, rather, TIGER's. There is no personality to that voice. It's a simple machine announcement. For a second or two, the EM Zanbatou's edge hums faintly. This is a weapon made to fight even something as heavily-armored as a dragon - but in default configuration, it might not have the juice for the denser sections of armor. Like this, though; like this, it should prove more than enough of a threat. Then yellow eyes catch sight of A2, and an idea seemingly forms. Thrusters ramp up, and Nozomi swoops in, taking a swing at the oliphaunt's armored side with her enhanced blade. Partially, it's a test to see just how deep it'll carve into that armor at full power; mostly, it's an attempt to get the thing's attention. Then, she'll start dancing backwards in the air, 'floating' on her jets and luring the huge demon along with her. In A2's direction. A2 will also receive a location ping from Nozomi.
Staren	"Agh, COME ON!" Staren shouts when a 'corpse' leaps up and charges him. Now he starts firing a couple extra rounds to 'make sure' each time one drops. Still, he was hoping to deal with them more quickly. He had a plan to deal with the mammoth things, but it's hard to fight them at the same time as the lizards. I mean, he can fly and he's a walking armory by himself. He hardly /needs/ the vehicle here, it was mainly transport. But it'd be nice to avoid its destruction, and he went to the trouble of making all that machinegun ammo... At least he's getting some good data for one of their planned uses as security vehicles for AMALGAM colony. Getting outflanked by hostile xenofauna is certainly a potential issue. He'll be sure to warn to deploy these things in groups with someone to cover them. Also maybe work on a better ammo system so they have more than 150 shots. There are just so many lizards... Staren recognizes he's being helped. The first time he notices he's backing PAST corpses, he holds out a thumbs-up for a couple of seconds, if A-39 can see. Note to self: Put more cameras on these things, too, and screens so you can watch your back. Biteblade shouts some advice. "I can't get through the horde! There's too many demons in the way!" Staren replies. Although... she has a point. Maybe it's time to abandon this thing and fly over there.
Kyoko Takada	A-39 talks over the radio, her pick-up fortunately muting out the retort of her rifle. "Honestly, it's not that small a country, and I've never been to this part of it. Couldn't tell you how long they've been around. And yeah, they've got fliers, and with my eyes on my scope I'd advise taking a look up now and then. No guarantees. Just haven't seen one yet." It does cause odd pauses in the audio, still. "The demons aren't soldier-smart. It's actually a little weird for different types to work together, but I've at least seen that half a dozen times." For all the situation is still as chaotic as could be expected, she's more relaxed than she usually sounds while "working." Maybe because this op is letting her stay strictly support, and is her own world's weirdness instead of another's. If the stragglers get to her position, she'll have to get out quickly, and there's a serious danger of that. Maya's support is appreciated, giving the fighting line a more solid standing, and now they're backing strictly to keep at more than tusk's length from the elephants, and not because they're really being pushed back. It's just smarter to fight that way, moving forward only once a big target goes down, and the redheaded senior shouting the orders continues to shout, "Keep it up! Don't let any around the left, Rose! Star, take the chance to get high ground! New friends, move with the line, we'll take them all out before they reach the school!" He'd probably make a fine drill sergeant, showing no signs of hoarseness despite leading from the front. At his word, one girl with a bow leads several others back up the shallow hill toward the school, turning from there to continue their ranged support, now focusing on the massed enemies. "Moving forward" becomes less attractive once the traps start appearing, but also less necessary with the other fighters in the middle of the enemy force, and the varied support from the Starbounders gives plenty of chances for the schoolkids to stand and fight, or even cover their new allies. They're spreading more thinly now, blocking off anything from charging the rest of the way up the hill and to the vulnerable(?) school buildings, but the increased firepower and terrain manipulation is what's letting them do that safely.
Kyoko Takada	The powered-up Zanbatou proves able to slice even into that heavy armor, though the phrase "like butter" sadly does not apply. It's a serious wound, or should be, but the ability of these things to keep charging when shot in the eye has already been demonstrated, so the ability to keep moving with blood gushing like a wrecked oil tanker and trumpeting its displeasure shouldn't come as a great surprise. And if one wounded target was insufficient, a second, largely-unwounded charger takes the opportunity to gain on and pass by the first as it tries to test its tusks against Nozomi's armor. Whether it reaches her before she reaches A2 is largely up to how A2 moves. Staren's making backwards progress, but he's still alive, and that's most of a win in A-39's book if no one else's. Backing up eases a lot of pressure off him, what with the combined firepower in the center of the mass. He's still got stragglers to deal with, but it'll only get worse if he charges forward again. The numbers of targets are dwindling, on the plus side. There don't seem to be any distant reinforcements. And shame on anyone for thinking that things wouldn't get worse. The ground rumbles, and anyone who happens to have seismic sensors that can detect earthquakes should notice that it's far, far from natural. It's more like a number of subway tunnels being opened very quickly. And the biting-tentacle-headed mole that pops up in-between the student line and the school is a bit bigger than a subway car. "Breaker!" "On it!" A male student reacts first, stomping the ground like he's beginning a martial arts routine, clods of earth flying up as he does. A strike of an open palm and the earth transforms into a wide splash of oil. A leap from the leading senior-class kid with the fists of fire, and another strike sets the mass of tentacles the mole-thing has in place of a head on fire. It's still there, it's just now on fire. A second digger pops out somewhere at a distance slightly removed from the fighting. Exactly where is further explained by A-39's voice on the radio going "Shit!" and the sudden lack of her covering fire.
Leyanne	Leyanne Mace continues to lay big-bore anti-materiel rounds into the giant pachyderms, though when the big mole-thing pops up, that's where her fire is rapidly aimed. She's got a big M2 Browning, firing .50 rounds - if she keeps her yaw rate down, she should be able to sever pieces off the giant mole-tentacle-monster clean away. So that's what she sets about doing. She settles her aimpoint just to one side of the creature's neck and opens fire, slowly tracking the hail of fire across the monster. Helpfully, a counter in the corner informs her she's burned through 750 rounds already.
Staren	Well, the pressure's finally off Staren, and his ride is out of ammo. Time to fly over and missile some pachyderms... Except then reinforcements show up, not from the air as A2 feared but from the opposite direction. With A-39 going suddenly silent, Staren turns and looks for her. There are others helping the schoolkids, and if they lose their support and get flanked, this could get uglier fast. He abandons his ride, taking to the air and looking for her on stylized ethereal wings that buzz like an insect's. As soon as he can find the mole attacking her, he opens fire with personal energy weapons from the sky. His turn to provide sniping support!
Starbound Flotilla	"Holding with you!" Albert calls out. This isn't a panic situation, but his mind still rushes with ways to deny them ground. Radiation? Well no, they're undoubtedly hardened against radiation. Biohazards? They /are/ biohazards. Shock and awe tactics? Impossible against the animalistic and mindless. Hmmmm... "Starbound Five! Barbed wire, go!" "Yeahyeah! Thinning meansss Floran can trap big onesss more! Gonna do it!" While they may not be focusing on specific targets or striking at specific members with specific tactics now, the fight is undoubtedly wearing down the Starbound resources, health, and integrity quite effectively, and they should take a very drastic measure. Biteblade's is the one they take next, and in tandem with Albert's space-clearing AoE hammerblows, she starts tossing out big rolled-up wheels of horrible barbed wire, meant to trap large prey in dangerous, lacerating grips. If the horrible lizards are being thinned out for the most part, this, they hope, can immobilize the main threat of the larger foes effectively, and subject them to the concentrated fire of the students. "A-39!? ...Dammit! Starbound Four, get her covered, /now/!" Pavo's relative safety in height is near broken by the massive subway-sized danger, and the terrifying, burning thing swinging its mass around manages to slam her to one side with a sickening crunch, but she barely manages to get properly righted and glide off towards where she recalls A-39 was firing from, intending to impale whatever dangerous monster she finds there with plenty of heavy harpoons and subsequently force it to stay chained down long enough for their local contact and backup to get away! "Avast and ahoy, matey! Call out where ye be and where ye need killin' done, lass, I've not got energy and altitude plenty on these glides!"
A2	Oh great. There are flying ones too. A2 is willing to take A-39's word that there aren't any present, though. Not only does she have a high vantage and a scope, more importantly, she's covered A2 twice before, and so she has no reason to suddenly start doubting one of the very few Watchmen and Watchwomen she can actually trust, in their mutually minimal kind of way. The Android rips her sword free of the dying elephant-demon's skull with a fantastic flourish of crackling, vapourizing blood, flicking it across the groud where it sizzles and steams away, and starting the blade's recharge cycle. Seeing the lizards swarming in from every direction though, and wising up to the lawnmower tactics, though A2 looks this way and that, there doesn't seem to be a particularly good option. 'Whatever', she thinks. 'I'm always surrounded.' Then she gets the ping. It's not so startling, since she'd left her communication software set with an open local band (something she had made sure never to do for quite a long time), so it takes her less than a second to figure it out. Where the furious, biting critters close in, coming dangerously close to her ankles, A2 crouches down, touching fingers to the giant carcass beneath her, and then explodes upwards into a jump so high and fast that a percussive pressure wave buffets the smaller demons that were so close to her. The leap carries her upwards for a good two seconds, then slows, allowing her to hang for another, and then begins to accelerate downwards, adjusted only to a slight angle. Her fall picks up speed, and then accelerates well beyond her unusually high terminal velocity. The air darkens, ripples, and then breaks around her with a translucent, barely visible screen of energy. The gigantic sword flickers into her hand again, summoned from a cloud of burning pixels, and is pulled over her head with her lifted arms and arched back. The functioning ballistic lidar in her right eye kicks in, causing an ominous red glint that leaves a streaking light as she descends. When Nozomi swoops past, giant beast in tow, A2 comes down on it like a crate of iron bricks from orbit, swinging with all her strength just at the moment of impact, and punctuating the tremendous blow with an emphatic: "Die you piece of /SHIT/!" If if, somehow, the edge didn't cut in, the sheer force is literally spine-shattering.
Nozomi Houken	The wound isn't as deep as Nozomi might have hoped for, but it's better than the worst-case scenario by a long shot. A bleeding enemy is a slowly-dying enemy, if you can just keep them bleeding (and perhaps add a few more holes). So she's content to keep luring it back to A2's kill zone - until a second joins the fray, and she's suddenly gone from 'drifting back' to 'being pushed back'. The tusk doesn't manage to do much more than glance off her armor with their mutual movement, but it forces her on the defensive and off her own pace, which could be a problem. But she sets herself into the charge, using her weapon to just barely hold off the impaling... bone? Keratin? There's no telling. She's holding it away, though, and her thrusters shift and kick on, pushing in just enough forward thrust that this becomes a sumo match which the armored girl deliberately loses. She doesn't have to push it away, after all. She just has to slow it down enough that A2 can more easily hit her mark.
Maya	Maya has some other ideas but now she's got osme breathign space while runner, does some interferance for her. She seems to have her rifle lowered and she's got a few cards out in hand they rises up out of her hand and blue fire of some unknown magic save maybe to Staren leeches out of Maya's body she's focusing now on the lizard hords and seems to be making ready with some sort of magic, then a thought strikes her, no the defenders would need it more and the cards rapidly change now for one blue and red rather than green and red. The fires contiune as she focuse her spell upon those defending the place and she enchant them with protecive barriers which should give them a fair bit of protection. Any of the other responding elites who don't fight it off would get it too, once that's done then she can really cut lose....
Kyoko Takada	The big, slow beasts are a good target for those .50 cal rounds, at the least. The fire is hurting the tentacles, though in their frenzied unhappiness at this treatment they represent a blind, unfocused hazard to anything nearby. This includes the students with the bows, who have been forced to scatter, some wounded, but at least avoiding a grappling situation. "That didn't work!" 'Breaker' complains, but there's not much he can do about it except wait for the thing to burn out. Pouring more oil on... well, he'll wait for orders on that. Leader-boy wades right into the fire, not so much immune to it as immaculate in his avoidance of the flames. They might actually be moving away from him as he pummels waving tentacles, trying to buy time for the rest of the group, "Reform! Stick together as you move!" The barbed wire, together with the traps, does a lot to slow the remaining mob's advance, but it's still dicey going as the troupe gets its act together after this sudden enemy's appearance. A moment's hesitation with the sweeping strikes and anyone in that line, human or alien, is still likely to get a lizard to the face, if their numbers have fortunately fallen short of full-body swarming. Staren and Pavo go to look for A-39, and with the other giant monster over there, it's easy to find her. She's fled her perch, and is firing her SMG as she runs back. This monster has fully surfaced, and on the whole either mole- or badger-shaped. Despite the size, it crashes the ruins every bit as fast as the soldier it's chasing, and it's only through quick, reflexive evasion that she hasn't yet gotten caught under its claws. It stops once Staren starts firing on it, facing up toward him and reaching with its tentacles, but it'll go straight back to the in-reach prey if he's out of range. It doesn't have the heavy armor of the pachyderms, instead just seeming so dense that it takes that much punishment just to get it to stop and notice, though the tentacle-head-parts are softer.
Kyoko Takada	A2 almost got to repeat her feat of targeting weakened enemies for massive damage, but a healthy one got in the way. With less with targeting the wound and more with accelerated dropping attacks, it still works, breaking chitin and bone alike, meanwhile proving that these things have both endo- and exo-skeletons, though the latter is less-than-complete. The shock is enough to take this one down, and its stirring afterward seems more the ineffectual flailing of the partially-paralyzed monster that can feel hunger but not crippling pain. Nozomi had slowed that one down, but the slow one was still gaining on her. The blood really is getting everywhere, but it's not decelerating hard enough that she won't have to deal with a second charge, so soon after the first. Or she could just get away from it, if she's quick enough.
Staren	<"I see her, Pavo! Over here!"> Staren radios. The beast looks up at him, but he's too far away... Seems A-39 will have to hope she can keep running. Staren goes for a tactic of just wearing it down. It's not armored, and he's chosen his weapons to dish out damage -- A pre-RIFTS laser rifle design from the height of the golden age that fires three-pulse bursts of the most intense man-portable laser ever developed on (his) Earth, and a pair of beam cannons built from leaked Coalition designs -- So he just keeps shooting, trying to cook and ablate the mole monster away until there is too little left to keep chasing their sniper.
A2	After that one, A2 has to slow down and catch her breath for a moment; figuratively, but mirrored in literal as her ailing system struggles to expel excess heat through air cooling. Something about the sight and sound of what anyone would recognize as overexertion makes it all much more human, and more likely for one to take their limits seriously, or so the logic went at the time. She wrenches her sword free of the thick double skeleton with some degree of difficulty time, the blood spilling out as an ooze more than something flashy, along with a great deal of bone chips and chitin fragments, no doubt. "God dammit. Is there no /end/ to these things?" she curses. She starts walking again, only pausing to stop and shove the blade into the still-stirring giant's head with a vindictive grunt. A2 takes off into a jog then a steady run as her core temperature lowers and her system picks up speed, dispelling one sword and trading for the other once again. She swerves through the thinning crowd of lizards as she can, tip of her blade darting out to either side where necessary to cut down the smaller demons that get to uppity. Closing in on the struggling, though commendably well coordinated students, she flips her sword and catches it overhand, cocking her arm back, accelerating her last two steps, and following through to hurl it as a javelin ahead. When the somatic holograms kick in mid-flight, she twists her fingers with a sweeping back pull of her arm, and the flying blade abruptly whips itself into a furiously spinning buzzsaw. As if holding it on a string, A2 guides it through a precisely curving arc, aimed to slash through a heap of tentacles and widely spiral back to snap into the outstretched palm of her opposite hand.
Starbound Flotilla	Pavo continues her glide. Her efforts to pursue the thing unfortunately leave her a little short-handed, given that Staren is by far the bigger expert when it comes to super-heavy weapons. But Pavo DOES have something that can be put into deployment here! Her big harpoon can go straight for the vulnerable flesh, yes, but that's not the end of it. "Aye, matey! I'll bring it down, ye keep it down!" She calls out! And with the rest of her altitude, she lines up a shot with gun, tries to fire a harpoon square into the back of its more tender flesh, and then dramatically SWOOP down below the head, yanking it down and to the side with enough force to pitch the thing off of its step and force it to whiplash itself into headbutting the ground hard. Then, coming up out of that swing, she intends to launch herself up, and then fall right down with a heavy, ground-shaking strike from above with her cutlass! As for how things are going elsewhere, the rest of the Flotilla do their best to manage for the gaps in the group as the rest of the defenders take out the heavy enemies. Few have ever been as happy to have enemy animals leaping straight for their face as Biteblade, whose head armor is specifically designed to give them /power biting/. As the final thinning goes on, she even winds up chewing straight into the flesh of enemies that rush at her... Oh right, those are bio-hazardous. Biochemically enhanced though she may be, and while she doesn't stupidly /swallow/ the probable poisons, she's still going to likely be taking heavy toxicity damage from this surprisingly intelligent and surprisingly self-sacrificing war tactic that the Demons entirely accidentally accomplished. This forces her, remorsefully, towards the backlines with Seft. This leaves mostly George, Albert, and Moonfin to try to clear the remaining waves, or rather, to facilitate the students clearing the waves and to fill in for their gaps. Just like their advice to Staren said, this mostly takes the form of sticking with the students and trying to give them flexible room to retreat as needed.
Kyoko Takada	The tentacles are softer targets, and vulnerable to cooking, if not immediately. The rest of the body proves much more resilient against heat, a damage-type mismatch if anything, taking shallow wounds where it should take gaping ones, and not enough internal damage to safely be taking this thing out before it kills someone. Unfortunately, it's a rational enough eating machine to focus on what it can get in its mouth in the meantime, and then maybe run away from the thing it can't eat. One misstep will mean one less sniper in the area. On the upside, "not dealing with the tentacles" was one thing A-39 needed, and the laser fire is giving her some of that. It's also giving Pavo a good opportunity to do her thing, for both softening the back, and not being whipped by head-tentacles after she strikes. Her maneuvering works just fine, as if it didn't notice her approach at all, and the thing is massive enough to barely move, but when it does move it moves hard. It's been both distracted and briefly immobilized. A-39 rushes in, her SMG slung, taking out the shining power-sword she so rarely has a reason to use for the implicit danger of melee, and goes for comparatively soft, tender, vulnerable, and balance-important back legs. She's as swift on her feet as ever, digging her blade in just enough to get to tendons and then backing quickly out. "Clear! It's cut!" It won't stop the thing from digging, but as soon as it gets up, wounded as it is, it won't have nearly the over-surface speed to be the kind of threat it was a minute ago. It'll still be dangerous, especially to Pavo, but if she gets out quickly enough, its next order of business is to retreat back underground and seek slower prey elsewhere.
Maya	Maya has been doing her best to give support to the people here with that out of the way for good or ill? She's going to start focusing on channelling a lot of magic now, her rifle has been shoulder while Runner is off doing who knows what with some of the Lizards in all likely hood. "Your judgment has come." Maya notes oddly for a moment but it looks like it might be part of the magic she's working with given she's muttering in something that might sound a lot like Babylonian if there was any earth born comparison she sees the mole that is trying to flee, she doesn't intend to let it fly, the blue fires dance and the cards start to glow. Thais when the lightning will be raining down on the remaing demosn that Maya is aware of and that mole's going to get a fair bit of the blasting from the spell she just let rip.
Nozomi Houken	And down it goes. Nozomi shifts herself backwards in the moment that A2's blow is finishing off the previously-unharmed demon. The gynoid receives a brief look from yellow eyes, the faintest nod - and then those jets kick into overdrive again, slinging her around the dying beast. Her plan isn't quite 'deal with the charge', but neither is it anywhere close to 'flee'. For While the white-haired robot is moving to take care of the students, the armored human shifts her grip, hurling herself into a straight-ahead charge of her own at full speed. She's combining her own momentum with that of the massive, armored demon in what looks like a lethal game of chicken. "EM Siege Breaker." Yellow magical energy floods the EM Zanbatou. The weapon's entire blade lights up, but nowhere moreso than the edge, brighting to a shining ribbon of impossibly-sharp light. At the very last second, the jets on the Zanbatou kick on, and at the same time Nozomi herself drops to the ground, slinging the blade upward right into the oliphaunt's face. And while the intensely-focused magic on the edge makes it insanely sharp, the part that makes this attack a 'Siege Breaker' is what happens after, something not all that different from A2's approach. Once the blade sinks past the armor, all that concentrated magic /detonates/.
Kyoko Takada	As Nozomi might have been concerned over, the heavy frontal armor on the oliphaunt gives a longer slash a lot of trouble, having to break through all of that. But as sharp as it is, it does break, and she doesn't have to dig deeply. Siege Breaker goes off, and the energy blasts through the demon's interior, exploding out the sides to intensely bloody effect. A little ways away... While fire slowly cooks them, and fists seem somewhat iffy, A2 confirms demon-mole-flesh to have a slashing vulnerability, as previous attacks hinted toward. It's shocking the comparative ease with which they're cut apart, at least to some of the watching students. Seeing that, the leader yells again, "Rose, over here! Follow through!" "Coming," and the ponytailed girl who'd been almost single-handedly guarding the left flank rushes forward, half a dozen swords flying in the air around her. With cutting motions that show the influence of yet another martial art, her blades join with A2's to scatter still-flaming but now-probably-dead, twitching, toothy tentacle-bits across the field. This brings the last of the big targets down to "out" or "heavily wounded," taking off a lot of pressure all around.
Starbound Flotilla	"Aye, lass!" Pavo calls out, leaping off of and away from the creature, and then double-triple-quadruple jumping into a long and swift glide away. "No profit in staying where we're unwelcome!" She calls out, pushing into a steep, accelerated glide away. Time to get back to the school! Especially if A-39 is heading that way as well. She does turn around enough to fire a few shots at it with her erchius flintlocks, but that's more to slow it down and make it want to not follow along than it is to really finish it off. God /damn/ those things are tough!
Staren	It's resistant to heat?! Figures. Staren has more appropriate weapons, but the problem is soon solved with the 'mole' retreating underground. The other mole is cut to pieces. Huh, so slashing weapons were the answer. Kind of a weak point in Staren's arsenal, honestly. With the demons dead and gone, Staren returns to his vehicle to drive it over to the school and see what's up. Knowing how self-absorbed teenagers are, they should be all to eager to dump exposition on their saviors, right?
Kyoko Takada	Slower prey may not be tastier, but they're prey you can eat. The second demon mole is ready to get out of here, when lightning is called down. Even this isn't enough extra cooking to fully stop it in its tracks, but it is enough that it's uncertain whether it'll actually get anywhere after it burrows back into the ground, or limp along until it dies from its wounds. At least, none of the creatures so far have shown super regeneration, just super endurance, so its survival chances are uncertain, and tracking it down wouldn't be impossible. Maybe A-39 will get a chance to learn how to safely eat a new species. She has a lot of experience with that. Getting back to the students seems a higher priority, though, and both A-39 and Pavo are headed that way. Things haven't quite wound down yet, with A2 having freshly chopped up the other supersized target, but they're getting closer to the point where maybe people could have a conversation. Anyone looking up that way can see a few people coming out of the school and looking down toward the battlefield. They'll get straight out of the way for Staren to drive in through the open gate in the fence.
Nozomi Houken	And down it goes. An attack meant for bringing down even the most heavily-armored dragons; if it /hadn't/ worked, Nozomi would probably have been rather shocked, especially with all that combined momentum behind it. But the middle of battle is no time even for satisfaction in a monster brought down. There are others to deal with, and moreover, there are people she knows on this battlefield. With her cannons back online, Nozomi lifts up into the air and unloads a couple stray shots on the smaller lizards, long enough to spot the main Flotilla group - the one with the students. Then she's off through the air, rocketing their way at full speed.
Staren	It seems they're waiting for him to speak first. Staren drives just far enough inside to leave the gate clear for the others. The mech keeps its guns aimed at the ground. "So." Staren starts, uncertainly. "How long has this school been here? I mean... been here? And who's in charge here?" As in, where are the teachers? He turns to give friendly nods to the students who fought and commanded. "Good job keeping your cool fighting the monsters. I don't imagine this was the sort of school to train you for that..." Otherwise all the students would have fought, right? He has a vague sense of unease, as if somehow, what he said could be taken offensively.
Starbound Flotilla	Woah! Nozomi just did another Siege Breaker! "Woah woah!! Look!! Quiet friend did sssuper huge explosssion ssstab again!" "Shit, not seen her do that since, what, back in that nanohazard ruin?" "Impressed. Oh my goodness, so much magical power...!" "Lethality over final mercy, though." "Indeed, no dragonslayer achieves clean kills. Mr. Petrov, if you might deliver the final mercy as it retreats! I believe this calls for your own particular skills." Albert works hard on setting up what looks like some massive over-the-shoulder artillery weapon, moving away from the group, arcing it up, and firing a slug that splits into inhumane, lacerating flechettes and other materials that should exploit that slashing weakness. He doesn't expect it to kill it instantly, nor immobilize it. Rather, he intends to keep pumping munitions into it until it keels over and dies from sheer pain, shock, "blood" loss, and muscle damage. He may be doing this for several minutes. This gives the others time to talk while he does! Specifically, it gives George time to hassle them. "Heyyyyyy kiddos, what's going on here? How'd you guys get stuck going to a place on this shitty a side of town? No, let me guess: This is a charter school fuckup, isn't it?" The rest of the Flotilla seem intent on recovering but... Moonfin, at least -- the only mostly-uninjured Starbounder aside from Albert -- is already getting to work trying to set up stylishly eastern-aesthetic fixed defenses on the hill to keep the school from being swarmed anew. Apparently pro-bono!
Kyoko Takada	It does want to get away at this point, but with the damage coming down at it, and its limbs being far better at digging forward, and unable to surface without being even a bigger target, it looks like Albert will get to, if not finish the last large-type demon off, at least wound it to the point where it stops moving and slowly dies. And now A-39 will definitely get to find out how to cook these things. It's probably tough as chewing nails. While this is her world, when A-39 trudges up, it doesn't look like she has all that much inclination to take point on meeting the students. Now that they're standing close to each other, she looks a little younger than most of them, but there's enough variance in the girls to make it uncertain. As one might have expected, the boy who'd been shouting all the orders is the one to take point for his side. He bows politely, if a little too energetically, to whoever is first to step up toward him, which will be A-39 if no one else does. "Thank you for your support!" He's still shouting, but drops the volume as if just realizing it. "The whole school would have been in trouble without you. Letting... oh!" He looks to the side, and sees the people coming out to meet Staren. "Let's talk in there, have to let everyone know!" Even when he's not shouting, he's still on the loud side. A-39 looks around, shrugs, and continues up after him, cleaning off her sword as she walks. There are some wounded, but their classmates(?) are helping them back onto school grounds. Whatever powers they had in play out here, they either didn't include healers, or they're not using them. Restarting the conversation with a larger gathering, the leader-guy again speaks, first waving up to Staren and saying again, "Thank you!" More informatively, he follows up with an answer and introduction. "Call me Dragon. I'm a member of the student council. Er, most of the others aren't here right now. Letting Ox, Tiger, and Ram all leave the school at once turned out to be a grave mistake. Or it would have been, if you all hadn't helped." The others all look fairly relieved. Or in pain, in some cases. Dragon is mostly chagrined, but the expression passes in a moment. This might not have been most explanatory answer from Staren's perspective, but at least they didn't seem to take offense. But someone does take offense to George. It's the archery troop leader, the one the leader called Star once, earlier. She has pink hair. "Hey. Hey! This is the best part of town. Haven't you seen the other side? It's all ruins." Then she looks around. "Where are the health committee member? We have wounded here!"
Staren	Staren parks the construct, its knees squatting for him to hop down. Seeing people injured, he offers nanobandages for the most injured, and offers to come back with more medical supplies later. What the leader says, though... "You're welcome, and nice to meet you, Dragon," he offers a handshake, "but... are you saying the school has been here the whole time, through... whatever happenened to this world? Where are the teachers? And how have you been staying supplied?"
Starbound Flotilla	"Wow, you got that whole Hylotl warrior-school thing going on, I dig it. I don't actually /understand/ it, but I dig it! It's uncomprehendingly dug." George says, flicking his hardsuit's helmet into a quick fold so he can greet the kid. "Dragon! Nice. Name's George! Just George. Twenty Questions here," He jerks a thumb at Staren. "That's Staren. Over there is the Flotilla, you'll learn about them later or something. Probably with the healing! We could do with some of that." "Staren says what we've wanted to know. Expected a spatial anomaly or militarized zone. Explain this school." Albert says, between shots, and then seems to discard it into his inventory. "Strange abilities. Nothing similar seen in this world. No adults in combat. How?" The other members of the Flotilla easily go to the... Health committee members? If their attentions are available. The Flotilla has some medical equipment, but...
Maya	Maya catches her cards before they drop and she takes a moment to look around to make sure all the demons are handled at this point. She also makes note of A-39's comments on teh radio, so there's something odd going on here. She pocket the cards make sure he's gun is secured and recalls the massive mechanized dog thing as she mvoes to join up with everyone else. She pulls the hood back and the mask off her face, shaking out her long blue hair and then starts to take a look at the people they'd help. "I am a healer, lead me to the wounded."
Nozomi Houken	Things seem to be more-or-less settled out. After the metaphorical dust settles, Nozomi's thrusters tilt and lower their output, allowing her to gracefully drop to the ground. The EM Zanbatou ends up resting over her shoulder, and... she notably doesn't transform back. She does fall into step behind the Flotilla, though, the heavy boots of Rampart Mode TIGER clunking even on the dust. Once they're inside, she... still... doesn't transform back? She's just kind of standing there beside Albert, silently. Staring at Dragon. Staaaaaare.
Kyoko Takada	Dragon shakes Staren's hand. "That's right, we make up the largest group of survivors we know about." Proudly, "It's all thanks to everyone working together that we've held out like this." The bandages are well-received, and things get a little calmer after a few more students arrive from inside, these ones wearing red armbands. They don't have red crosses, but by their actions, they must be the health committee mentioned a moment ago. Most of them are doing little more than first aid, but a mild-looking boy wearing a labcoat over his school uniform is performing some glowing-hands technique that at least eases pain more quickly and completely than anaesthesia is generally known to. It doesn't make blood disappear. He's happy to also treat the flotilla members, at which point they'll find out he's also closing wounds, though his fellow committee members practice strict prioritization of severity before he gets to anyone. There's enough wounded that Maya's help will be quite welcome. Star is less fretful with the healing now going on, though George confuses her. "What's a high-low-till?" Dragon doesn't let such comments and strangeness faze him. "None of the adults had the... the..." he gestures helplessly for a moment. "They didn't have what made the ones who did survive special. That's just how it ended up. I wish we could have saved everyone, but it would be as hard as transforming this country, and you can see how slowly that's going. Though... where are you all from? If you're not from here..." A-39 answers that one. "They're all from off-world. You guys and me are the only ones who've been here more than a few months." "O-oh. Huh. Somehow, I feel like I should have known that already." His surprise and subsequent, uncertain feelings aren't made any better by Nozomi's staring. He doesn't stare back long, but bows again, this time specifically to her.
Staren	Staren looks to A-39, then back to Dragon. "Yes. We're from other worlds. There's a gate not far from here. But what do you mean 'the ones who did survive'...? It doesn't sound like you're talking about a monster attack. A plague? Something else? Is it the same thing that made the landscape like this and brought the demons?" He rubs his chin. "Although, there's also all that radioactivity..."
Maya	Maya takes a moment to pull something out of the folds of her cloak, it seems to be gloves and another card she smiles a bit to the guy whose using some of his powers to heal. "Good I should be able to help with the load." Maya does somethign similar when she's helping but she'll do things like help clean out woudns and the like. She then will use her card which acts muchliek her battle ones, but rather than elemental attacks ther's a pink aura and wounds would be closing up, set bones would start to knit back up. There would be healing time but it's greatly reduced here. "My name is Maya." She notes as she works.
Kyoko Takada	Dragon shrugs to Staren. "I mean, the disaster before the monsters. Or maybe with the first monsters? Nobody really know just what happened, only how we ended up, and what it's been like since then. A few of us still dream of forests, though. Of rice paddies and safe water. That's why," he makes a fist, "we've got to pull through! Or we'll never have more than our rooftop garden." A-39 looks between him and the others before saying, "Yeah, okay. The garden's pretty impressive. Maybe you could do that if the land weren't crawling with demons. It'd be a pretty good dream, if that were so."
Starbound Flotilla	"I'm gonna admit, you guys have a buffet of apocalypse shit here, we just assumed 'big war' and stopped thinking about it. I mean, you know, radiation and such? I don't know how you guys are even living. /All/ the adults died! And you became... Special? Or wait--" George looks confused. "So were you guys shooting fire and doing sword-kinesis /before/ any of this? What was all this stuff before it went pear-shaped? Actually, hang on a sec--" He turns, now, to... A-39? "You got adults where you are, right? Who all lived and died around you?" George seems genuinely baffled by what's going on, but absolutely fascinated, in a... Worried way. Kids and kids being stuck in shitty situations like this are a particular point of concern and interest for him.