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Forte SOMEWHERE IN THE MULTIVERSE

There's a city.

There's a communications company building.

There's a computer in a cubicle on the third floor. And then there's a navi, having broken into the network via bullshit Battle Network physics and de-digitizing into the real world (Someone was naughty and left a port open so that they could play Farmville. It's after hours for the building, and the floor is empty of people.

After a careful glance around, Forte starts floating down the hall, locating the primary server room, and breaking through the locked door via short range teleport. It's easy, it's simple, it's clean.

And it'd be perfect if it wasn't for the silent alarm that Forte just managed to trip, regardless.
X X, holding a newly refurbished helmet in hand, turns it around in his palms. He'd been given a real shine up during the morning after returning to Hunter HQ. With everything that had gone on recently between Wily and then the DMV, it was a lot to take in.

... did he really torture himself, like Xion said? Of course, the answer had to be 'yes' to some extent he realized, as he'd admitted as much. He hated fighting, and yet, it was what took up most of his time. Both her and that, what did Tomari call her; a Virtual Tuber? BB, he recalled, had also told him that he shouldn't be ashamed of being 'more' than a normal human.

Or of using those capabilities to solve the problems he faced. But saying it was easy, and part of him understood that it could be said until the cows come home, but it wouldn't change the way he felt unless he believed them.

His contemplation led to this revelation; that he didn't. And that bothered him.

    ELSEHWERE, LATER:

Like a ghost that leaves fading fingerprints, a digital shadow still trips up two silent alarms.

    NOW:

A blue beam of light streams from the night sky and phases through the building's top, barreling down, down, down until it stops at the entrance to the very same floor that the second alarm triggered on, materializing into a vaguely humanoid shape before becoming solid and forming the recognizable body of Megaman X.

The green eyed maverick hunter, capable of seeing just as well in the dark as the daylight, casts his eyes about the office corridor and begins advancing. "This is X, I've made it inside."

"Be careful, X, we're still scanning that floor for enemies. Layer will be able to provide an update as soon as we're done!" Alia informs him, prompting X to take it slow and steady, unsure of what was waiting.
Cantio It's been a rough week for Cantio. Having her heart messed with and falling in love for the first time, having to live through killing (someone with) her sister('s face), trying to come to terms with mortality and her own limits as a person. She's had about a day and change to recover, sure, but she's still a bit frazzled when the silent alarm reaches her for whatever reason, and she's practically on autopilot just getting to the city's communications building.

What city is she even? Does it really matter? Not really, but she has to at least pretend like she cares about city's interests she's protecting as she fiddles with the locked door, fails to open it, then just shoots the lock with a laser from her sword-gun followed by shooting the rest of the door because she has no training in opening these things with any sort of finesse.

"Intruder, please step forward and put your hands up! If you comply peacefully, you may be able to..." Leave unharmed? Unlikely. It's some company's building, and they wouldn't be happy about hearing that she had just let someone break in and leave scot free.

"To..." Surrender? Nobody in their right mind would do that, especially if they came into a place like this with a purpose. Granted, she has no idea who's here, but there has to be some kind of justification for it, right?

"To... Explain yourself?" Even she doesn't even sound particularly enthused about that.
Hibiki Tachibana     SOMEWHERE REASONABLY CLOSE IN THE MULTIVERSE

    Tachibana Hibiki still doesn't have her children's card game deck, just a couple of bandages and a lot of different thoughts (and some new friends) to show for it. Conflict, reasons for fighting, apparent AI laws(??), and one's own justice are all of the things she's thinking through as she walks, and she's not getting too far with it on her own right now. All that aside though, one setback was pretty unexpected, but today she's getting one for sure. What are the odds something would happen again?

    RIGHT HERE IN THE MULTIVERSE, AFTER SOMETHING HAPPENED AGAIN

    A bright blue streak of light she recognizes from a raid on a certain factory draws her attention from a few blocks away, and after some brief contemplation, Hibiki turns and sprints off in that direction, making sure nobody else happens to be around at the late hour. Within a minute, one Armored Up Gungnir Girl is unfortunately forced to go singing silent once again (because she's also technically breaking and entering here) as she swings into a conveniently unlocked second story window.

    It's dark, and she doesn't particularly have anything to do about that, but her senses are sharp enough that she should be able to maneuver her way around without running into any undue trouble. Only due trouble. "...Something's not right here, huh? And something going on when the place is empty can't be good..."
Forte Cantio, not caring about stealth (or, depending on the degree of autopilot, not caring about any number of other things), gets in a step ahead of X who's caring about silly things like 'not walking into a trap' or 'civilian casualties/hostages' or 'not getting an armcannon pointed at her face point blank'.

One of those things she should have been worrying about, though.

"I am hacking into the server and changing everyone's phone numbers around," says Forte, keeping his armcannon aimed point-blank in Cantio's face. X can easily overhear as does Tachibana when he arrives, and he has a LOS on Forte - but Forte hasn't noticed him. "And then erasing all of the on-site backups, and taking some other disruptive measures I am not disclosing."

"I suggest you not interfere."
X That voice ... now that he thought about it, wasn't that the same mysterious figure who swooped down upon 012 at the DMV?

"As far as we can tell, there shouldn't be any civillians still in the building .. though there's one person in one of the meeting rooms in the last hallway. The target should be dead ahead." Layer informs, before Alia cuts in as well, "We don't know who either of those two are, but he seems to be an incredibly strong opponent, if he's allowed to do as he pleases .."

The bubbly Palette hums in agreement, "We can try and slow him down from here via remote hacking ... but if he turns his full attention to it, we might not be able to do much. We're counting on you, X!"

Making an executive decision and not knowing that the unknown person was in fact, Hibiki Tachibana, X transforms his hand into X-Buster form and immediately dashes into the room, pointing the business end at Forte and, while not directly at Cantio, keeping her in his sights.

"I don't think so! I don't know if you think if this would be a funny prank, or if you're getting something out of it ... but what you're doing is illegal. I'm handing you off to the proper authorities, and I'd prefer it if you came quietly."

The reticence in his heart clashed with its hardening as he put on a tough face. If it really came down to blows, then ...
Hibiki Tachibana     Hibiki's path takes her steadily closer towards the source of this, with the sound of voices in the currently otherwise empty building being easy to pick up on. Exactly what she's hearing, though, gets her to tilt her head as she approaches. "...A hacker? But that's..." ...a pretty petty thing to break into a communications company for, if that's really all there is to it. Is that all there is to it? She pushes on towards the opened room...

    Just in time to see X in the process of diving in. Oh. So it /was/ him after all. And there's not much reason to hold back herself when that happens, so Hibiki promptly picks up the pace and slides into the way of the entrance with her fists up and at the ready, putting her behind X and obsensibly as an obstacle to anyone trying to leave.

    Though they lower themselves somewhat as she both narrows her eyes and tilts her head in slight confusion, recognizing Forte - not from voice, given hardly any speech transpired last time between them, but definitely from appearance. She glances between all three of them, though settles on him.
Cantio That's something Cantio wasn't expecting to see today. She freezes up when the armcannon is pointed in her face, barely managing a peep at first as her initial instinct to just shut up and nod kicks in. It's not until Forte finishes speaking that she finally speaks up herself.

"Why?"

Why is she even asking why? He's doing something wrong, so she should be stopping him. That's what heroes do, right? Or at least people that try to preserve order. But...

"Did they hurt you?"

Who even is 'they'? Why is she still asking? She could just get right into fighting him immediately. Her sword is still in her hand, but she doesn't take a swing. Not yet. There has to be some kind of reason to this, right? Some kind of angle...

<J-IC-Scene> Forte says, "To test how well they recover. And to make their lives interesting."

Some kind of angle she could use to turn this into an opportunity. A communications company with no backups would be in quite the predicament with their customers. Perhaps their customers would seek another company, or perhaps they'd need to find some other means to ensure they're not cut off from society. If a third party were to step in...

That settles that, then. Cantio swallows anxiously before turning to X and Hibiki, putting on the most polite and incredibly awkward smile she can muster. "It's okay, everyone. It'll be for the best, I think. Please don't interfere."

She's still shaky, but she's digging up the nerve as she speaks.
Forte "No," says Forte, looking over at X.

And then his eyes narrow. Aside from the incident at the DMV, during which Forte's attention was focused elsewhere, this is the first time he's seen the reploid - but certain... design similarities occur to him.

"I'm above legalities," he says to X. "Laws are a way for the strong to oppress the weak..."

The cannon is pulled away from Cantio, as Forte shifts his full focus (and Cantio declares her non-interference).

"If you have some better argument, your operator can relay it to me - while they are restoring *you* from backups."

Is that a threat? Given that Forte is blipping across the office floor towards X, energy sword in hand, it probably is!

It also handily solves the problem of X worrying about whether to resort to violence or not. You should be thanking Forte, really.
Hibiki Tachibana     <J-IC-Scene> Forte says, "To test how well they recover. And to make their lives interesting."

    This gets Hibiki to pause only briefly, before she narrows her eyes slightly and speaks up carefully. "The only thing that's going to accomplish...is putting people out of their jobs for no reason." Testing how well they recover? Is he trying to find holes in security for something worse, or...?

    Cantio, however, is the one who gets her attention right after - and gets her expression to turn back to one of surprise, easily seen even when half of her face is obscured by scarf. "For the best...? What do you mean?" Hibiki sounds genuinely confused, all the more so by the smile she's trying to put on. She's trying to figure out what she's playing at, since...well, it looks like she didn't come here with Forte. So then what's...?

    Then things actually start up, and she can't hold a conversation so casually when swings start going out. Hibiki, for her part, actually pushes inside the room to avoid those two and get closer to Cantio. Her guard around her is lessened, but not entirely gone. And she doesn't really want to throw a punch at her, either. "How is /that/ going to be for the best? It's not going to do anything but cause problems! I don't know what he's trying to do, but if you're planning to help him...I can't let you do that."
X     "Is that what you think?"

X's tone is incredulous; the longer the conversation went on, the more insane Forte sounded to him. Of course, his actual crime in this instance was relatively ineffectual .. he wasn't really hurting anyone directly so much as he was potentially causing massive amounts of social and financial damage. But that was hardly the point, it was his perspective. The notion of being above any law with a chip on the shoulder, that's a dangerous combination. He'd seen it too many times to think otherwise.

"You can't be serious," he looks at Cantio with a frown, "Who is this helping? You're just making assumptions -- "

Forte intercedes with his energy blade, forcing X into action. Unless he wanted to wind up mince metal, he had to fight, now. Activating his dash boots, X attempts to swerve, firing off a blast from his X-Buster as the swing comes to interrupt the blade's form, allowing him to push his arm through and knock it to the side with minimal scalding on his arm.

With Hibiki's appreciate prescence at his back, his color scheme suddenly shifted, seeming to match hers, as his Buster formed a large plated fist on the end rather than the usual red-lensed barrel. "I'll take care of him!" he informs her, bringing his arm back to slug the netnavi right in the face, intent on knocking him back with the Supra Arm before shifting colors -- and weapon, accordingly -- back to his original blue, quickly charging up a green bolt that flies out moments later to strike Forte with a stunning amount of force, just long enough for X to release another flurry of smaller, yellow energy bullets his way.
Cantio That settles that, then. "I was hoping this wouldn't come to blows." Cantio sighs lightly, glancing over at Forte and X as their battle begins. She doesn't watch for long, however, as she manages to muster up enough of her resolve and brings her sword to head level, the tip pointed towards Hibiki and the blade level with the ground near her shoulder.

"I understand your apprehension, miss. It's... It's a bit of a stretch, I'l admit, but I have my own ambitions to follow, too. The people working here might be out of a job, but what I'll do for their former customers will more than make up for it."

She still needs to work out the specifics, but it's piecing together slowly. She'll just need to math it out more carefully later if things work out.

"But if it has to come to a fight, then... Then don't hold back against me, and I won't hold back, either!" Making the first move, Cantio lets out an energetic shout as takes a quick step towards Hibiki, firing off a quick volley of lasers from her blade. She follows that up with a quick horizontal swipe. It's a defensive maneuver, to be sure, as if she's trying to feel out her opponent rather than dedicating herself to a full offensive right from the start.
Forte "The disruption *is* the help, navi," says Forte. "You'd understand if you let youself be free of those strings your so-called partner holds you down with."

He turns as X dashes - and gets hit with the Supra Arm, stunning him and knocking him back momentarily and letting X land his combo of energy shots on a stationary target.

As soon as he gets his senses together enough, though-

< <AUTONAVI SLOT IN> >
AREA_STEAL A - EXECUTE


- he disappears and reappears behind X.

"It's nothing personal," he says, as he lashes out with a glowing hand, trying to grab onto X - for however briefly.

-=--=--=-COSACK INDUSTRIES - AUTONAVI.SYS-=--=--=-
-=--=--=--GETABILITY.BAT READ MODE READY--=--=--=-
-=--=--=--=--=--=--=-EXECUTE--=--=--=--=--=--=--=-

It stings like hell if it lands - and not just on the physical level. Something in the code.
Hibiki Tachibana     Hibiki's brow furrows at Cantio's mention of wanting to have avoided combat, with a slight fall of her head and her attention drifting to the floor for a moment being her reply to that. Forte actually did save her, albeit unintentionally the other day, so the fact things have escalated to this point already doesn't feel good. But with the blade pointed at her, she reaffirms her stance, parting her legs a bit more and bringing one fist up higher than the other.

    "...So you're doing it for your own gain? Is that it? That's..." She trails off her sentence, pursing her lips together. "...I'm not in a place I can judge whatever your ambitions are. But I can't see any way you're going to help more than you're going to hurt!

    Hibiki's other arm comes up right after, responding to the volley of lasers with a swipe of one gauntlet-equipped limb to defend against it, then her other, repeating to keep them at bay and deflect them aside until she closes in for her swipe. She brings both of them up together for that, with the blade cutting into the metal even if not all the way through. "In that case...!"

    Going entirely all out against another person is hard for her. But nevertheless, Hibiki retaliates with a hard stomp into the ground followed by throwing her arms out to knock Cantio's sword back - then steps in to bring a knee up towards her stomach to send her flying backwards. She can tell as a fighter that Cantio is just scoping her out...but for her part, she's going for a heavy hit right away.
X     Navi? Strings?

"I have no idea what you're talking about -- ?! Gh..!"

Unprepared for the sudden burst of speed, X barely has time to react as he pitches forward, Forte's hands raking across his back and leaving singing potmarks where they touch, having bypassed all of his physical defenses in an instant. But, as for what was inside, the code and data that gave him life ..

The 'sting' may disappear quickly for him, but it is excruciating for as long as it lasts, the maverick hunter wobbling on his feet as he forces himself back up and straightens out. Unlike reploids and, indeed, many other forms of intelligent machines across the multiverse, X was a tough bot to hack. His systems were able to adapt so quickly to cybernetic attacks that by the time one finished, another and entirely different layer of defense had formed right underneath the last to push into place. Even so, the speed at which Forte had assaulted him so deeply was unnerving.

It was possible that even his own system would have trouble keeping up with how quickly he could break through like that. For having said it wasn't personal, X certainly felt like it was, especially with the way the black-clad stranger had regarded him earlier.

Energy gathers quickly within the X-Buster as X suddenly pivots, spinning on his heel to initiate a dash powered kick to Forte's shoulder, bringing the attacking leg down to slam into the floor, cracking it as he makes an effort to Dash past.

    W A R N I N G

The Force Metal in his body turns bright red and, from it, the crimson energy blasts out his back as he dashes, speeding his charging rate by supplying further amounts of power so that X could fire a fully powered charged shot into Forte's back, engulfing him in a flash of explosive power.

"X, after the damage you took before, your body is still recovering! It can't handle the full power of both your Buster and Force Metal .. if you overdo it, you'll fry yourself again!" Alia warns, hurried as the increased speed and power dies off as quickly as it comes, smoke pouring off of his arm. "Ngh ... but if that didn't put him down, I'm not sure I can get through him without it."
Cantio Hibiki's fighting back. Good. Despite the impending pain, there's actually relief in Cantio's voice as she lets out an affirming grunt. "That's fine. If hurting some people means being able to help more in the long run, then... Then it'll be worth it in the end, even if it's not clear now."

She just has to keep telling herself that.

With Hibiki stepping into Cantio's attack, the swordswoman has to adapt on the fly  when her sword gets knocked aside nigh-effortlessly. Seeing thatknee coming in, Cantio lets out a startled yelp as she, too, moves into the strike with her arm coming down to brace against the incoming knee. Instead of slamming it and her gut into it, however, she moves with the attack, getting launched into the air and flipping backwards several times while desperately trying to find her footing in the process before hitting the wall feet first.

She meant to do that. Never mind all the noises.

Cantio springs forward to get back into the fray, but her second maneuver is considerably more offense-focused. Granted, that's not saying much with her first attack as the baseline, but still. Instead of relying on lasers to close the distance, she opts to lead with her blade, diving in with a quick thrust. As she reaches the farthest point of that thrust, she finds her footing and draws her sword back in quick succession to slice into whatever she can reach. She follows that up with a diagonal slash upwards to try and keep some distance from Hibiki, and only then do the lasers finally return, firing out of the hilt of her blade to try and burn right through her opponent's defenses with concentrated fire!
Forte "Don't act like you don't know..."

The reploid turns suddenly, and the move takes Forte by surprise - he's processing the data he gained, and he expected X to be down for the count longer from getting hit by that. Not a navi, some part of his mind realizes, even as he gets kicked to the floor and hears (and feels) the buster charging to maximum behind him.

He desperately tries to get out of the way - and fails to, taking the shot full on, leaving a hole straight through to the floor and the navi rapidly starting to de-rez and dissolve...

-=-CROSSSYSTEM.SYS - ACTIVATING MOON CROSS-=-

... and then the derezzing abruptly stops, with Forte picking up a new lunar white color scheme and starting to regenerate the damage.

"The - ghh- the things holding you down. Holding you back. The things making your decisions for you..."

He rolls away, getting some distance between him and X, and getting up off of his feet to once again hover in the air. "Witness, then, robot: the unfettered."

< <AUTONAVI SLOT IN> >
CHARGESHOT X - EXECUTE


X is facing down an armcannon, followed by a deadly energy blast, both of which look horrifyingly familiar...
Hibiki Tachibana     When Cantio goes flying, even if not entirely in the way intended, Hibiki is already moving forward to chase behind her. Even in the fray, she's slightly raising an eyebrow at her...motions, for lack of a better word, and will indeed never mind the sounds. Only briefly though, because she's coming back in fast. Her metal boots brace against the floor of the room and help her slow to a stop, turning on her heel and swiveling out of the way of the first thrust - it cuts shallowly along her undersuit-covered stomach where her armor doesn't protect her. Fortunately, she's able to once again use her gauntlet to defend against the follow-up with a metallic /clang!/, and flip backwards out of the way of the slash to put further distance between the two of them...!

    But the lasers are right behind her, surprising her enough that they burn across her body and elicit a grunt of pain before she tucks in her arms and knees against the rest of the barrage. Her Symphogear is able to take the brunt of the hurt, but that one got through clean.

    "Why's it have to be about hurting some to help more...?" Hibiki manages through her teeth in response to Cantio as it becomes her turn to land on the wall. She launches back off of it, tumbling across the ground a few meters away from Cantio before coming back up at a sprint. "It's not a number's game either! I'm not--trying to say I know what's best, but...!" Some of the talk the other day has come to her thoughts again, leading to frustration. "...It's not right, either!"

    Which she puts into the force behind her next strike, whirling herself around into a roundhouse kick towards Cantio's sword arm when she gets close. Her remaining foot kicks off the ground after, launching Hibiki into a wheel kick intended to hit her in the chin and let the Symphogear wielder land back a short distance away and put her guard back up.
Cantio "Sturdy, aren't you? Just like...!"

Maybe trying to contend with Hibiki in close range wasn't such a good idea. Although Cantio's able to get the sword slanted in time to prevent a direct hit from the roundhouse kick, the follow-up nails her square in the chin and rattles the purple-haired girl as she gets launched back into another awkward tumble. The silver lining for her is that she's got some distance now, but she has to use her sword to keep herself steady for a moment as she weighs her options and considers Hibiki's words.

"Nothing good comes without a price, and nothing bad isn't repaid in some way. It's not fair, no, but..." Cantio grunts lightly as she pulls her sword back off the ground, brushing her chin off reflexively and wincing at touching the place she just got kicked. "... If it's going to be right for anyone, then I can at leasmake sure it's right for my people!"

Shifting gears, Cantio does't run right up to Hibiki again, but she instead keeps her distance as she raises the sword overhead, far outside of actual slashing range. Instead, she slashes downwards on the spot as the sword explodes right in front of her. Some of the shards zip forward not unlike a swarm of flechettes or miniature drones at and around Hibiki, each one firing a laser at the fist-fighter at random intervals to try and catch her from multiple angles at once.

That doesn't account for all of them, though. Several others are embedded into the walls, the ceiling, and even the floor, but they don't fire or do anything harmful just yet. They do, however, start to thrum with a TV static-like noise amplified by the sheer number of them.
X X breathes out, staring at the hole momentarily before his eyes widen, and he kips back, holding onto his smoking X-Buster as his forehead jewel begins to glow. " ... !"

Forte rises, having shifted in color scheme -- and from X's perspective, it seemed like more than met the eye. It was as if the newly minted navi was emitting some kind of pressure that couldn't be immediately explained.

    What was holding him down, was ...

        "GHUUUAAAAAH!"

X crosses his arms over his chest and head as he is consumed by the great energy flash of a charged shot. It leaves a smoking hole in the ground, having plowed him several floors below. There's nothing but an increasing fire hazard for several moments, before ...

There's a glowing blue silhouette, before X jumps up, blurring from below. His chest armor from before had been practically ruined by Forte's swiping attack from before .. and after defending himself from a full power charged shot, it seemed like that'd been it for him.

But, leaping forth from the hole, he was clad in a simple white and blue armor set that made him look distinctively /smaller/ than he had just prior. The legs were shorter and stubbier, as were his arms.

Transformed into his First Armor, X swaps colors, the blue on his body taking on Hibiki's particular brand of orange once again as his Buster, now sporting four more nodes around the primary barrel, regained the Supra Arm that propelled itself out like a mortar. "Unfettered? You act like you're unhinged!"

It shoots to knock Forte out of his floating position as X dashes forward to catch it, and re-place it on his arm.
Forte "Unhinged - the words of one who cannot imagine life without strings."

X fires the rocket punch. Forte evades - rolling to the right, and then flying forward at X as the fist returns.

"Your strings are holding you back from affecting any real change. From affecting anything more than a continuation of the same static world."

Forte's armaments change abruptly - a pair of short swords, raking across X in passing!
X Dashing past Forte, X finds two gashes cut along the large fist he held in front of himself like a bulwark, spinning around as they pass eachother, "What, you're saying that .. I can't solve anything if I'm not 'free' like you are?"

... there was a point of conceit there. It's not the first time it'd been brought to his attention, either, after all, wasn't that the purpose of rebellion? X grips his fist tightly, narrowing his eyes as he kicks off of the wall; the floor was no longer stable enough to support the kind of maneuver he or Forte were performing, after all. His enemy held an identical power to his own, or something similar enough, X supposed .. but he'd have to trust that he'd be able to take him on, anyway.

If he couldn't he wasn't sure where that'd leave him. Reaching out with the Supra Arm, X attempts to grip onto Forte's leg in a downwards rush to try and toss him down to the floor below before shifting colors again, the orange hues shifting into a darker, earthier brown.

A debilitating electrical blast leaves the end of his buster, and if it can manage to nail Forte, it'd certainly live up to its name -- the Zap Cage he'd gotten from Megaman Bravura.

"No, that's not right. The 'change' I want to enact .. I can do that just fine where I am. Call it 'strings' if you want."

Re-equipping the Supra Arm, X begins 'charging' it .. causing the large plated fist to begin glowing bright and change forms into an even larger two sided hammer, as he leaps in Forte's direction to smash him over the head with an explosive strike, something X hoped would either knock him out, or force him to retreat.
Hibiki Tachibana     Hibiki maintains the distance the two of them have made while Cantio speaks, her expression darkening at her words. Fighting at a range definitely puts her on the backfoot, and this particular kind of attack is something she's very clearly not used to dealing with. "Gh--! There's so many of them..!" The amount of them and the scattered nature of the laser barrage forces her to kick off the ground and remain moving, avoiding some, deflecting others with her arm and leg armoring, and put totally on the defensive for a brief time. If all of them were coming after her at once, she'd really be in trouble - but it's almost more worrying what the others are doing.

    "Is she preparing for something...? Then...!" Knowing that she'll either get clipped by too many beams or fall victim to whatever comes next if this keeps up, Hibiki makes her decision. Twisting on her heel, one of her gauntlets shifts, the half-cylinder inside pulling back on its own to reveal that it's not just fancy-looking armor, it's actually a piston. She pulls back her arm.

    And kicks off the floor with all her strength, in a burst of sudden speed that'll temporarily leave all of the flying shards in the dust. A short, straight, and direct path straight towards Cantio, as she rears back her arm. "Don't you get it!? You have to think about more than just /your/ people! If you don't, then you get...!" She remembers the other day clearly, and grits her teeth underneath her scarf and growls, before raising her voice. "--I'll punch right through that unfairness if I have to!"

    She swings in to punch at Cantio to moment she closes in, with enough momentum to keep skidding past her. And then she lunges back in for a second with her other hand, only to twist back around and repeat it. She's pushing herself into an increasingly faster punching flurry to keep the other girl totally pressured - and ends with a final kick up off the ground and into the air, to kick off the ceiling and throw herself back down with a final punch that snaps the piston back into place to add a /really painful/ shockwave focused right onto her at the very end of it. They might also end up going through the floor. Hibiki will be, at least.
Forte "Can you? Can you really?"

"Or is it just-"

The discourse is cut short as the hammer comes down, in the literal sense.

It impacts.

Sparks fly. The hit was dead on- the sort of full-force, no-wasted-motion hit that one would only expect to get on stationary target dummies.

Forte goes down - the hit was enough to knock Moon Cross loose, and he's starting to derez a bit again, doing the digital equivalent of breathing hard and trying to hold things together as he kneels on the floor.

"N- no..."

And he makes a break for it - heading not towards any of the doors or windows, but instead one of the office computers. If he gets there, and manages to lay a hand on it, he disappears, retreating to the safety of the digital world...
X     N- no...

X's first instinct is to continue pursuit, even as his system -- strained from his previous use of the Force Metal when he really shouldn't have, on top of having to swap out extensive parts of his body mid-battle -- warned him that fighting further could cause permanent damage. He almost does, his body turning back to the previous white-and-blue palette it had started with. But ...

After pointing his Buster in the fleeing Forte's direction, X slowly lowers it, watching the flickering netnavi, doing his best to hold onto his life, escape into cyberspace with a critical eye.

He didn't have to help him commit his crimes. But he didn't have to kill him, either, he realizes.

It was the same way with the Roidmudes. Although he couldn't sit by and let them hurt people in front of him, he didn't have to bring them to death's door. It was enough to make them stop and then let them be, wasn't it..?

That kind of behavior had gotten himself, and others hurt in the past. But, if he just gave up ... what would that make him?

Turning an eye to Cantio and Hibiki, X quickly hoofs it to the terminal Forte had originally been working at, having to use his dash boots to fly up, precariously perching himself on broken floorboards and paneling. "This is X -- what's going on serverside?"

"Now that you've driven him off, we're securing the server now. Without his help, I don't think that other one can do much with it." Alia responds.
Cantio It's working? It's working! It's... Not going to work for long. Cantio gets a bit too comfortable when she sees that distance between them as she focuses on setup more than defense, pulling another sword out of a pixelated space beside her and preparing to explode that when Hibiki comes flying right at her.

"... Ah." She manages to squeak out with the slightest hint of panic just moments before Hibiki begins pummeling the absolute crap out of her. Cantio manages only the most bare bones of defenses at that, unable to keep up with her sword to defend against thebulk of the strikes as she's knocked back, then forward, then forward some more, then...

She's actually lost track of what direction she's going by the time her feet are off the ground. Cantio can only brace herself against all those repeated impacts, her sword mostly acting as a security blanket than an actual shield with how many times she gets smashed arund. There's a brief moment of relief when she finally hits the ground, but that's followed by another panicked yelp when the piston-powered punch punches her through the ground into the next floor below.

Everything hurts. She can still move, at least, but it hurts to do that. Physically, definitely, but there's a pain in Cantio's chest as well as she forces herself to grasp the outer edge of the her-sized hole that she's stuck in. "Of course I... Of course I get it. But what else am I supposed to do?"

As Cantio pulls herself out of that wall, her grip tightens, and her tone is audibly more focused than before as she transforms in a flash of light (and skipped cutscene) that turns her hair considerably pinker, her outfit considerably more leotard-y, and gives her a number of floating bits that follow her every move. "It's... Easier for people like yourself. Like my sister. It'd be easier for me if I could do that, too, but... I can't!"

She's already back on the offensive as she yanks herself upwards, the sword she's holding having gone from the width of a broadsword to that of a rapier in that moment of talking. "I can't just do that. If I can't fix things for everyone, I have to at least fix things for the people near me!"

She can see X working to undo what Forte had done, and she only catches a glimpse of Forte falling back, but her concern is no longer on that. It's almost like fighting Hibiki has become a matter of pride for her at this point.

Those pieces of exploded sword, on closer inspection, have launched themselves out of the upper floor to pursue Hibiki, joining with the newer pieces from her sword-turned rapier. They don't fire lasers, however, as that static noise grows louder and more intense. Individually, a single piece is barely loud enough to hear, but the combination of so many pieces combines into a pulsating wall of sonic force, barraging Hibiki from all angles with an almost musical tempo to them. As that happens, Cantio surges forward with renewed vigor and a flurry of rapid stabs that almost... No, they definitely follow that same rhythm as the sonic bursts.
Hibiki Tachibana     Hibiki is left down on a knee a short distance away from Cantio after all is said and done, Gungnir's closed gauntlet emitting a burst of steam as she pants and heaves from putting...well, more into that than she would have meant to otherwise, in her moment of heightened emotion there. She'd probably be there for a half-minute longer if it wasn't for her opponent rising back up, getting her to lift her head and peer back at her. "What...?"

    Hibiki also pushes back to her feet, her mouth caught open without words as Cantio not only speaks, but transforms. What's happened with Forte and X doesn't hit her at the moment, her focus on the other girl with a mixed expression of shock and...something else on her face. Sympathy? Or pain, maybe. It doesn't entirely vanish even when she's forced to grunt and re-enter a defensive stance as the sword bits all come back down to join them. She doesn't expect the sonic attack though, bringing her back to the sound-based shockwaves that Chiroptera kept assaulting them with before. They cause her to buckle down in place and wince, seemingly wide open to when Cantio lunges in. But... "It's not easy for me at all--!"

    Her voice strained, Hibiki speaks up through the static to shout back towards Cantio anyway, raising her fist to deflect aside the first stab and have it narrowly cut past her. "I can't fix things for everyone either...! Even right now, I'm trying to figure out what I can do!" Each sentence is punctuated by her arms rising up again, and when the angles start shifting, she manages to just barely turn in tempo to keep matching her.

    "Nobody can fix everything! I can't either! Sometimes, fixing things for the people around you is all you can do!" Hibiki stops deflecting, and starts outright /punching/ back against the tip of the blade, the armoring on her knuckles managing to hold up. Better than before.Wait, are her punches also getting stronger...?

    The dance continues on and on, with Hibiki's expression and shouting only intensifying along with the other girl's own emotions, until she lets out one last roar. "I know that! But /still/! Even if I don't know anything else...!" She rears back her fist again, this time with the piston pulling back once more--and goes to meet Cantio's blade one last time. And this time, it punches forward to transmit the piledriver-like force straight into her weapon and her weapon alone to disarm her. "...I know that hurting other people to do it is always WRONG!"
Cantio 'Nobody can fix everything! I can't either! Sometimes, fixing things for the people around you is all you can do!`

If Cantio wasn't in the middle of trying to stab Hibiki repeatedly, she'd probably be able to let that weigh better in her mind. The adrenaline is keeping her going, however, even as she's put onto the back foot while Hibiki's strikes match her stabs and keep pushing the transformed swordswoman back. The sonic waves keep pulsing, and Cantio's resolve remains firm despite fighting that losing battle.

"That's why I'm doing this! If I can... If I can just start improving things, then one company like this... It's the best trade I can make in these circumstances!" Seeing Hibiki drawing her fist back again, Cantio too draws her own weapons back as the various shards swarm around it to reinforce the blade into something not unlike a  berserker's slab of iron. Her blade meets Hibiki's fist, and there's a resounding echo of that impact shaking her to her core.

The blade cracks, and it explodes in a shower of pixels. Cantio's grip on the hilt is still firm, but she remains stock still as she tries to process what's happening.

"If this is wrong, then what am I supposed to do? If I can't be... If I can't fight blindly for what's 'right' like my sister or you or..." Cantio looks over at X, onyl then realizing she doesn't know either of their names. She does't vocalize it, but the long delay is probably evidence enough. Instead, she staggers back slowly, glancing between Hibiki and X, then at her broken sword before tossing it into a pixelated portal.

"If I can't do that, and if I can't even make the harder decisions to help my own people... What am I supposed to do?"
Hibiki Tachibana     With the blade broken, Hibiki's fist remains stretched out for a long moment. It doesn't keep pushing on, and she doesn't try to attack Cantio either. It comes down when the other girl moves back, to rest at her sides. She's still panting from exertion, and the various lasers and the sonic bursts that struck through her body are starting to be felt a lot more keenly - but she just remains in place, closing her eyes while listening. The expression on her face is hard to read, until finally...

    "...I don't know," she admits bluntly. "I don't know what you're 'supposed' to do. Just what...what you're not." Her hands tighten up at her sides as her voice buckles, more in frustration than anything, but loosen up after.

    "Trading some people's happiness for others...even if it's just something like this, I can't stand it." That doesn't answer Cantio's question though, and Hibiki opens her eyes back up to intently stare back at her. "I don't think fighting for what you believe in...is blind. I'm not good with hard decisions either. To be honest, I've been stuck trying to figure out what I think is 'right' myself."

    After a moment where she winces, the look on Hibiki's face actually lightens up. Just a little. "...Maybe this pushed me in the right direction. I think...you should keep fighting. But the next time you do, you should ask yourself. The people you're trying so hard to help...would they still be able to smile at you in the same way, if they knew everything you did? If they can't...then I don't think it's worth it."

    After a moment, where she internally wonders if that even came out the way she wanted it, Hibiki lifts a hand up to tug down at her scarf covering. "...Hibiki. My name is Hibiki Tachibana."
Cantio "W... Well, it's working better for you than whatever it is I'm doing." Cantio manages a weak laugh at that, although it's the laugh of someone clearly going through some shit and trying not to lose her shit. That laughter dies down after not too long, though, as she lets out a weary sigh and moves over to a wall to prop herself up, wincing the whole time. She glances around once more, looking only mildly relieved that Forte's not there, then finally lets herself relax.

There's another flash of light as Cantio's transformation ends almost as abruptly as it began, and her clothes return to normal rather than the plasticy leotard thing she had going on before. "Their happiness is... An important part of it, yes. If I can make things more comfortable, more prosperous for them, then... I have to at least try, even if they might not like it at first. But..."

She rubs her hand over her face. "Maybe you've got a point, Miss Hibiki. I'm Cantio. Drive Core Candidate of Cadenza. It's... It's good to meet you, even if this was..." She swallows lightly as she glances around, only now realizing the extent of the property damage and what she's indirectly/directly repsonsible for here.

"... Um. I-I think I learned a lot, too! And that's.. That's the important thing, right?" She laughs awkwardly like she's trying to get that weird end-of-sitcom-episode laugh going to draw attention away from how illegal this has all been on her part. Still, it's not as though she's lying about learning anything tonight.

It's fine as long as nobody ever finds out.
Hibiki Tachibana     With Cantio de-transforming, Hibiki follows suit right after, a golden glow briefly obscuring her before she reappears back in her normal hoodie-and-shorts combo sans Symphogear. She finds a toppled desk to sit herself on for the moment, letting out a muffled groan as she does so. She kind of pushed it. "...Nice to meet you too."

    She also looks around the...ruined environment with a slight grimace. Which she is in no small part the cause of. Probably should work on the whole fighting indoors thing. "Yeah, I think it is. Uh...in a way, I guess I kinda owe you. This must be what they mean by a 'goes both ways' thing...ahaha..." She also lets out a dry-sounding, almost equally awkward chuckle, apparently finding casual social graces a lot harder than shouting at each other while fighting. Which she actually does.

    After an inhale to steady herself, Hibiki continues a little more seriously, albeit still a bit unsurely. "...As long as you're fighting for other people's sakes, I think you'll find your way eventually. I hope, anyway. You're not that bad a person, huh? Uh, if you ever need any help..." Hibiki doesn't finish, shuffling a little uncomfortably before looking up.
Cantio "Isn't it? I'm glad we could figure this much out without too many issues." Cantio laughs, although there's still a distinctly awkward edge to it all as she purposely avoids looking at anything that was damaged by her fight with Hibiki.

That largely involves looking at absolutely nothing else except Hibiki, and even then, it's kind of hard to ignore all the property damage. Still, as long as Cantio doesn't personally acknowledge the property damage, she'll be fine! Maybe.

Hibiki and X are playing it cool, at least, so no sense dragging that up more than necessary. "That's true... I mean, I've done a couple of things that I... I don't know if my people would be happy to hear about, but it's never been for personal gain. THat much, I can assure you." She breathes a sigh of relief after that, even looking surprised at the offer before nodding.

"Of course. I still need to figure some things out, but... I'll definitely let you know if.. When I do. Thank you."

Just in case, though, Cantio's still going to make sure to get the hell out of there as quickly as possible. No sense tempting fate more than she needs to.
Hibiki Tachibana     Property damage does not exist. Or at least, it probably won't exist tomorrow. The multiverse is an advanced place, a couple of caved in floors probably won't be an issue...yeah. She'll tell herself that. Besides, it's not any worse than ruined streets and stuff she's also been the direct slash indirect cause of before.

    Hibiki nods to Cantio, with everything that needs to be said between them mostly said by now - did she just make a new friend? She's...not really sure. She kind of relates to the awkwardness, though. In a way, it feels kind of reassuring compared to someone more put together, talking to someone also running into problems like this. Hmm. "...No thanks needed. Like I said, it went both ways. See you...Cantio." She won't stop her from heading off, but she will probably be seeing her again.

    She promptly hops off her makeshift perch, briefly regarding X. She squints. She squints down at him, ever so slightly. "Good luck with that. I'm heading off, too. This is going to be my last detour, I swear." With another brief grunt of pain as she gets moving, and a wave to the Reploid, she's also going to be exiting.