Scene #7438: Super Hero Taisen X-OVER II

Owner	Pose
Reliant	THE SPECIAL CASES DEPARTMENT... (OR: THE DMV...) It was only at the start of the week that the DMV used by the special cases department as their departmental headquarters was attacked -- successfully -- by a roidmude calling himself Kamen Rider Chiroptera. Since then they've been visited by an individual identifying themselves as a part of AIMS, a government organization for the enforcement of A.I.-related laws. The cafeteria of the DMV has a hole in it, with the rear area currently concealed by scaffolding and tarp to prevent any bad weather from causing further damage. Nevertheless, the actual lunch line and about half of the dining room is still usable, so they're using it. On drafty days it's been less popular, and on comfortably warm ones it's been more popular than usual. AIMS has recently made an appointment with the Special Cases Department, in order to further inquire into precisely what's going on with the roidmude and how it relates to incidents with another kind of artificial intelligence: Humagears, satellite-linked human-shaped robots designed to supplement a human workforce. That... isn't going so hot. A few minutes after the middle of the day, the rather plain-looking cafeteria humagear went into the back room. A brief scuffle was heard, followed shortly by the cafeteria humagear emerging from the back. A pair of stylized headset-like earpieces distinguish her -- and all humagears, for that matter -- from ordinary humans. Ordinarily lit in blue, hers had been a shocking, violent red. She wore at her waist a strange-looking belt, also colored red, into which she placed a cartridge. It declared: Kuehne A push of a button later triggers a crackling, malfunctioning sound from the belt followed by: Z E T S U M E R I S E The humanlike exterior peels away from the humagear, down to a skeleton that looks more 'stereotypically robotic' before a series of wires and tubes burst into existence from within. The cafeteria humagear screams, almost as if in agony, before being transformed into a red-and-silver armored figure. The Kuehne Magia thrusts out a hand, a series of tendrils extending outwards and winding their way into nearby humagears -- around half a dozen, some already present doing small jobs in the cafeteria, a few low-level security guards that are just around to make people feel safer -- and causing a similar grotesque transformation into blank, plate-faced soldiers. Retracting its tendrils, the Kuehne Magia seizes one of a pair of protrusions rising from its chest that resembles -- and ultimately, functions as -- a blade. A pair of its soldiers split off with lethal intent towards those who are in the cafeteria, while the others march on the rest of the DMV.
Go Shijima	Go had been in the cafeteria, enjoying a glass of orange juice. Humagears are... quite different than Roidmude. There are incidents, but unlike the Roidmude, Humagears seem quite capable of living peacefully with humans. They've become so ubiquitous in parts of this world that the blue headphones are a familiar sight, but incidents involving them are on the rise. The one in the cafeteria had seemed friendly, if highly devoted to the craft of cafeteria food--if such a craft can be said to exist. The sudden change--the alarming red of her earpieces, the flensing of her human facade, the scream as she transforms... this is different, too. Go frowns and rises from the table, Mach Driver already in hand and fastened quickly around his waist. The Mach Shift Bike, a tiny miniature white motorcycle, is slotted into the belt's diagonal chamber and pressed in with a click. There's an announcement from the on-board AI, and a jaunty jingle seemingly made of bike horns: Signal Bike! RIDER!! "Let's..." His right arm is held up, bent upwards at the elbow, left hand resting beneath the elbow. There's a dramatic flourish to reverse their positions, and a self assured nod. "Henshin!" MACH! A sleek bodysuit of lightweight white armor with two red vertical stripes down the left side appears, complete with a blue-visored full motorcycle helmet with V-shaped antennae, and a waist-length shoulder cape also at the left side. On the right side of the chest, at shoulder level, there's a wheel with the hubcap facing outwards. "Track..." Go leaps over the taple with a front-flip, his foot coming out to impact with the back of one of the Humagear's troops. "Eliminate!" As he lands, the button on the Mach Driver is mashed four times. The Zenrin Shooter appears in his hand-- ZENRIN SHOOTER He makes a roundhouse, attempting to intercept another such footsoldier. "I'm always at..." A few blasts of the pistol, sending blue energy darts towards a third. He's... pretty confident, huh? "Mach Speed!" He pauses after that third attack, to introduce himself. Despite the fact that everyone here save maybe the Humagears know who he is. "Kamen Rideeeeer..." Two windmills of his right arm, accompanied by revving sounds, then briefly lifting his knee to his elbow, bending low, before stancing wide and low with both arms wide open, palms out. "Ma-ach!" Light jazz hands.
Hibiki Tachibana	Since the events of the last attack on the Special Cases Department, Hibiki has made it a point to be in the area more often and check in about every other day with Shinnosuke and the others. It's a really good thing that the danger level in her own world is (currently) pretty low, so she can stay up to date on the developing Roidmude situation as an interested party. All things considered, a teenager visiting the DMV this often isn't really weird. It /is/ making her consider if she should actually bother to get a license sometime, though... Today, she's decided she wants to try and be sociable enough to actually make time to eat with a few of the others on the job, since it'd be pretty weird if she keeps just being that unapproachable-looking girl with the musical mahou shoujo motif. As it turns out, it was not the day for trying to make friends! Hibiki is on alert at the sounds of something going on in the back, and on her feet with wide eyes by the time the Humagear transforms--just like Chiroptera. "Again...!?" With her activation chant and her own transformation sequence that lasts a lot longer on the inside of the golden sphere that obscures her body, the Gungnir-clad girl leaps into action to block off the path of one of the transformed guards. "Hurry up and evacuate! Keep any more Humagears away, too!" After a call towards the nearest group of non-combatants, Hibiki focuses back forward and squares up. She doesn't know a lot about them still even if she's been learning, but that seems like a really good idea right about now. "The last time--that guy was trying to pick a fight with Kamen Rider. What about you!?" Hibiki's words are directed towards the Kuehne Magia as she starts forward, dropping into a sweeping attack intended to knock the soldier off his feet - then rising back up before he'd even get a chance to hit the ground to follow up with a straight punch to send it flying towards the boss as a (non)human projectile. She doesn't really want to destroy them if there's a chance to save them, but she also doesn't have to be as gentle with machines as normal people.
Xion	>STAGE SELECT "The DMV again? Really? I was just there!" Xion complains. She pages through her other options, but the Toei Quarries and Wal-Mart parking lots don't have anything worth intervening in going on. A ~~Dark~~ Rider can only go to 1% of all Toku Crimes! She has to pick and choose who to send back to the costume department... SOON: Xion -- and, potentially, someone else of a Dark alignment -- snap out of a bubble-pop of darkness, portalling to the large hole in the side-wall of the DMV. Keyblade already out, Xion points with the star-toothed length at Kuehne. "Hey! Those people didn't get a choice to help you. You can't just decide to kill everyone for being inconvenienced in a kitchen!" Xion's other hand rises, a golden medal coming out with Tamamo's face on it. "This isn't helping anyone. So a golden ray of light is needed!" A golden sunbeam falls down, brightening the world outside to blinding for a moment, before wrapping around Xion as she dashes into the cafeteria. Mantling the Cafeteria counter flares open her black coat out behind her, hair shining gold. From among her bangs, almost-hidden stalks of wheat sway as she moves. Her under-shirt is golden yellow, with a stylized white kitsune mask pattern with X's over the eyes silkscreened on, and otherwise wears a standard pair of black shorts and black leggings. She lands across the divide with a jangle of hidden rings, rears back with her now-solar-gold keyblade, and uses the guard to straight up punch Kuehne in the face. "I'm the hero who thought what you did was way not cool to everyone's hearts -- Shine X!" Pronounced 'Shine Key'. Or, in this case, perhaps 'Angrybright Cross'.
X	While staying 'relatively' out of AIMS' way, the Maverick Hunters have kept a close eye on the situation for obvious reasons, themselves. As they were already collaborating with the Special Cases Unit for other matters, it only made sense. X himself hadn't come back to the DMV since that day, given that he felt he'd probably cause more problems there than not -- but it looked like there wouldn't be a choice, this time. "What's going on?!" he asks, running into the command center from the alarm that had rung him to duty. Signas, a tall and stocky reploid with a black body stylized in the same way a commanding officer's suit would, stands with his arms folded behind his back. "We're not entirely sure, yet. All we know is that there's an incident occuring at Njourn's border ... at the Special Cases Unit." X grimaces slightly, before Alia looks up from her workstation, "As far as we can tell, there are a number of hostiles in the area. As far as we can tell from here, they're suffering from some kind of 'infection'." "An infection?!" Signas closes his eyes and shakes his head in a solemn motion, "We don't have any details, just what we can observe from here. X, despite your recent reservations, I'd like you to assist the SCU in neutralizing the incident." " ... No, I understand. It'd have to be either me or Zero, if you sent someone. I'm on the way!" Shooting off in a blue stream of light, X teleports down into the DMV, through one of the holes in the structure to charge forward, his armor and body fully repaired from the recent skirmishes after having time to recover at Hunter HQ. His first impression reinforces his thoughts from before -- even more than Roidmudes, it was closer to a Maverick incident in his own world. His hand is sucked up into his arm as it transforms into his trusty X-Buster, a volley of brightly colored energy bullets raining non-distinctly around Mach to try and suppress the aggro he was pulling. "G--Mach! Hibiki!" Catching himself from spoiling Go's identity, X dashes at high speed to deliver a powerful shoulder check to the unfortunately transformed soldier's side, forcing him off course from the civillian he was set to attack long enough for X to release a more concentrated stream of Buster-fire his way with an explosion of sparks on contact. Raising his free hand, X motions towards the exit, "That way! It's dangerous to stay here!" he says, intent on covering them until they can leave the area.
Hellwarming Trio	What, precisely are Utsuho and Rin doing at the DMV again? Didn't they learn not to eat in the vicinity of this building the last time they were around? Apparently not, as thepair are determined to get their food fix here and now, finding a nice sunny spot outside to finally eat after a long day of work. Unsurprisingly, their meal time just happens to coincide with the sounds of destruction and screaming humagear from the DMV. They each look in the direction of the building, then at each other. Rin: "You wanna go check that out?" Utsuho: "Later. I want to eat some of this first." Rin: "There could be bodies~" Utsuho: "Yeah, but I'm hungry now. We can grab them later." Rin: "Fiiine. Watch my stuff!" Before Utsuho gets a chance to respond, Rin is already up on her feet and jogging towards the entrance, wheelbarrow trailing behind her in her haste to get inside. Utsuho, meanwhile, keeps eating outside, content to actually finish her meal first and not risk getting food splattered all over herself again. That leaves Rin face to face with all sorts of strange robot-faced things. With the soldiers seeking out humans to (presumably) murder the shit out of, she's at a bit of an impasse. On one hand, saving them would give her an alibi and make people less wary of her generally. On the other hand, free corpses. After hearing and seeing a couple of responders already, thoguh, she'll have to settle with the former. "Watch your heads, humans! I'm here to save ya, so try not to get burnt up by accident!" Rin announces herself while floating in midair, releasing multiple waves of blue wisps out that seek out the hostile soldiers to try immolating them whole!
Shinnosuke Tomari	Shinnosuke Tomari is playing hooky from work. At the cafeteria, sitting at a table with a sigh, he's having milk candy shoveled into his mouth. As the Humagear heads into the back, he hears the scuffle. Part of him considers heading back there, but he doesn't react fast enough. And then they come out with different colored earpieces. That wasn't what caused the reaction. The belt did, instead. "Hey, wait, are you-" What happens next is too much motion for Tomari, without his belt equipped, to react to. The violent transformation and scream causes a wince as he's already moving to grab the Drive Driver from his coat. The transformation of the other Humagears is frightening, even as the belt is latched around his waist. But when the Humagear soldiers start marching for the humans in the cafeteria... Shinnosuke starts rushing towards forward, shouting out. "Let's take you for a spin! Henshin!" The red-and-white Shift Car is grabbed, placed into the armbrace, and shifted. A circle of data-like energy forms around Shinnosuke as he transforms, black bodysuit, red chestplate and gauntlets, and bug-like eyes on the helmet. A black tire launches from the parking lot and through the scaffoling, slamming into him diagonally down from the left shoulder, as part of his armor. DRIVE! Type -- Speed! Luckily, Go is already fighting the grunts, so Kamen Rider Drive's first reaction is a little different. He grabs a table, using superhuman strength to flip it on its side extremely casually, in order to provide cover for escaping civilians and for anyone who needs cover. Then... "Magia...you were feeding everyone with devotion! They appreciated you! What changed?!" His fist goes flying out, trying to slam the Kuehne in the torso. Should they block with the swords, like he expects, he pivots on a foot, and moves to send a strong elbow jab to the exposed arm, before a knee up hopefully to the gut as they try to figure out where to block. It's not going to be like Chiroptera...is it?
Chase	Kamen Rider Chiroptera. Roidmude 012. Metsubojinrai.net. How did a below average member gain such power? What is this website? And will they target Drive and Mach again. These are questions that need answering. And the answer to that, clearly, is a stake out. Except, rather predictably, if Chase tried to camp outside the DMV, he'd be drawing attention to himself. So the next best thing is occasional drive-bys to check up. The only worry there is being pulled over by the police for breaking motor laws... It's not like he listens to human law enforcement, though. It's also not like he'd ever be pulled over for a traffic violation ever. Much like being quiet in the library, and much like the rules of basketball, these are rules he understands. Most of his drive-bys have been understandably uneventful, but today is different. An army of berserk humagear, and a creature that looks suspiciously similar to the Kamen Rider from the other day. Realistically, he should let the Kamen Riders deal with this, there's no reason to help...but... BREAK UP! TUNE - CHASER SPIDER! Mashin Chaser drives his motorcycle into the crowd, jumping off at the last moment, landing on one knee as he lets the unmanned vehicle drive through the horde of hijacked humagear. "You..!" Chaser makes his way towards the magear, grabbing it by the shoulder to spin it around before throwing a shielded punch to their face.
Reliant	The humagears turned into faceplated soldiers -- Trilobites -- aren't particularly hard to intercept or hurt. The one kicked by Mach issues a shower of sparks and collapses even before he moves on to a less casual approach of dealing with the problem. A second is shot and collapses in turn, and then a third. Half of the transformed humagears lay sparking on the floor. The Kuehne Magia turns to face Mach. Its free hand twitches, an electronic fizz-pop emanating from its form. It reaches up and seizes its second blade, holding them at its sides in an uneasy neutral stance that isn't broken until attention is directed towards it in particular. Another of the Trilobites is cut off and then used as a projectile. Sparks burst off of its body and then again off of the Kuehne Magia when the impact follows. It doesn't do what a lot of such beings would do, and just hack through the incoming person-projectile. Whether it could've gotten out of the way or not is unclear, but there is a clear conscious decision to take it and then push the disabled humagear aside. Four of the humagears have been eliminated. "In accordance with the will of MetsubouJinrai.Net, humans must be exterminated," Kuehne answers Hibiki, shakily. Its voice is glitchy and coarse, though there is an echo of the cafeteria humagear underneath it that Go can detect even without listening carefully. It is promptly hilt-punched in the face by Xion. It staggers backwards in a shower of sparks before coming about in retaliation with one of its blades, pushing through the hallway towards other targets even as it executes on its counter-attack. The two remaining Trilobite humagears are advancing threateningly on Mach when X comes charging in, drowning them in a hail of weapons fire that sees them on the ground in no time. No trilobite humagears remain active. Consequently, when Utsuho arrives there's only really the one target: The Kuehne Magia itself. Truthfully, the Magia isn't particularly adept at this and just sort of struggles through the scorching wisps to take a wild swipe broad enough to catch both Hibiki and Mach if they're not careful about engaging it. In answer to further comments and questioning, it repeats, "In accordance with the will of MetsubouJinrai.Net, humans must be exterminated." It hurls both of its blades outwards, in seemingly random directions. They hook back around a short while later, coming about on the back of Utsuho and the incoming Kamen Rider Drive. The more specific questioning by Tomari causes a mild reaction. It stutters in place, raising a hand towards its head. Even so, it answers, "In accordance with the will of MetsubouJinrai.Net..." Then Mashin Chaser walks right up behind it, turns it around, and punches it in the face. It slams into the wall behind it, collapses to the ground making all sorts of strange malfunction-y noises, and then raises its right arm. The series of tendrils that were used to convert the Trilobite humagears jut out abruptly, striking towards Mashin Chaser on one hand-- and bending back to strike towards X on the other! Both are subject to some sort of viral assault that their systems are going to have to fend off; it's going to be fairly unpleasant because it's trying to transform them like the Trilobites.
X	"MetsubouJinrai..?!" X squares his shoulders and frowns severely -- even if it were possible to cure her, could they even disable and contain her without dealing lethal damage? ... That belt ... Whatever X was thinking was quickly put on hold as both himself and Mashin Chaser come under attack. His only exposure to him had been, to date, through them fighting mutual enemies. Though , he seemed to be affiliated with Heart, X hadn't found it particularly strange for him to be present, especially with Xion at his side. His form blurs as he dashes in an attempt to go low under the tendrils, but still winds up hooked from the bending, pinpoint accurate tools that easily puncture into the softer part of his body, unprotected by his physical defenses. "Agh..!" The shrieking pain that runs through him is brief, far more insidious than even Forte's attack had been. The initial assault on his programming is swift and merciless, as it 'cracks' through the defensive layer and dives down .. no. For a Humagear, this is where it would be over. But X's systems were far more adaptive and stocky than that. By the time that it had finished 'unlocking' the first layer, it had been replaced with a brand new defense that had already acclimated to the attack, slowing the rate of the second attempt and improving the defense that replaces that one. Within moments, that drilling pain had dulled to a sting, as X grips onto the tendril with a harsh, set jaw and grasps onto the long, spindly line connecting him to the out-of-control Magia, yanking on it to pull her in close while his body shifts in color. Spinning his whole body, the Force Metal activates for a brief instant as X executes a devastatingly powerful uppercut to send her flying straight up!
Hellwarming Trio	Rin hops around in mid-air gracefully, even twirling once with a boisterous laugh as the Kuehne Magia slings those blades outwards and misses the cat completely. "Come on, come on! You can do better than that! I could've stayed still and avoided that!" That momentary taunt puts her in position to get grazed by the return, however, forcing her to reconsider the wisdom in taunting the berserk humagear. "Mrph... Not bad. I should pick some up for Master later..." Utsuho mumbles to herself as she takes a satisfying bite of generic food object, oblivious to (or just not caring about) the raging battle. Alas, she doesn't get to enjoy it for long as a flung blade comes out of nowhere and cuts across her arm, causing her to drop the rest of her food on the cafeteria floor. Utsuho looks towards the blades as they return to their wielder. She looks at her floor food. She takes a deep breath, claps her hands together, then gets up calmly while attaching her control rod to her arm. she makes sure Rin's food is closed up nice and tight, and then heat flares around her suddenly as she flaps her wings once to take flight, then charges right through the doors of the DMV. Literally. She's not bothering to go around or open the door, just charge right through in a seething self-propelling fireball to get to the offending Magia. She blitzes right past Rin as the cat sends out a couple of exploding fireballs of her own, consuming and redirecting that energy into her own charge. She's fulling intending to just barrel right into Kuehne Magia with all that nuclear fire surrounding her, only redirecting it upon impact to start slamming her control rod into it as it flares up like some kind of light blade that's also melting the ground just by passing over it.
Hibiki Tachibana	Hibiki is glad to have a lot of backup, including the unexpected, on this. Xion and Mashin Chaser? This really is a lot different than the last time. Questions will have to wait until they're not fighting though, and Hibiki takes a moment to consider something...both the words between everyone here, and the fact the rogue Humagear-turned-Magia just took her comrade head-on. "MetsubouJinrai.Net? ...This isn't at all like last time. You're being controlled against your will, aren't you...!?" The same way the guards were 'infected', whatever happened in the back must've also 'infected' her. She's definitely not a fighter, nor doing this for any personal reason like 012...is it another humans-versus-them situation, just like with the Roidmudes? ...Except this time, not all of them feel that way. She's forced back several paces by the wild swing of blades, bringing up one of her Symphogear's gauntlets to take what she can't avoid with the loud resounding of metal echoing through the room and flecks of the Relic being sent scattering. It sends Hibiki skidding backwards, but she digs her heels in and stops herself while regaining her stance, pushing forward to close back in while the Magia is focused on flailing its tendrils about. "Officer Tomari! X...!" Even if the latter may or may not have ADVANCED SUPER FIGHTING ROBOT SECURITY MEASURES that came in handy during their last teamup, she still can't help but worry what this mysterious website's hacking capabilities can do. They need to disable her before it's too late...and then find a way to fix this. Consciousness backup? Will that work? She'll just have to take AIMS' word for it at the moment, like it or not. Gritting her teeth, Hibiki takes an unintentional page out of the Kamen Riders' (and Utsuho's) books in her choice of attack. She turns her sprinting momentum into a leap in the air, flipping at the apex and throwing her right foot forward. Golden energy gathers at Gungnir's leg armor, crackling like lightning - and then the thrusters on the back of her skirt armor ignite to send her down at high speed, to crash into the Kuehne Magia and smash all of Gungnir's built-up power right into her. There will probably be some stock effects.
Shinnosuke Tomari	'In accordance with the will of MetsubouJinrai.Net, humans must be exterminated.' Kamen Rider Drive guhs, as the boomerang blade comes flying forth. He runs into it, both arms coming up to deflect it, causing sparks off of the gauntlet armor, as he moves for another punch straight into the Kuenhe Magia, for the torso once again. Are they really gone? They appear to be struggling with it, the motion of the hand to their head. They're still in there, aren't they...? "I know you're still in there! Can't you fight against this infection...?!" Drive doesn't want to destroy them. But... "Shinnosuke! There are people here in danger. You have to be strong. The woman, likely with AIMS, said they're backed up." The belt speaks up, trying to convince Drive that robot murder is in his best interests. "Gh...you're right, but I hate it. So I'm going to wait for them to attempt, before I go for the finisher. Come on! You can break out!" Despite his words, he's still fighting. Pacifism will only get people hurt. Instead, he ups his attack level, a strong kick to the gut following that earlier punch, and a hit to the head if that works, trying to daze the Magia with a powerful blow if robots even work that way.
Xion	Catching the blade on her own, Xion's bright blue eyes narrow with anger, a flash of hatred. "That blade won't ever reach me." She declares, pushing back with her solar sword. Whipping around to swing her blade like a too-wound-up homerun swing, she lifts the horizontal swing vertical and spins out, instead, dropping her guard and windmill-arm hops a pace away when that same phrase repeats, over and over. "In accordance with the will..." She repeats, trying to find the place in her head where those words went. The energy. Bad. Ache. Pain. Malice. Hate. The tip of her blade falls as she just sort of stands in the middle of the fight. Data-cables slither past the air around her, and X shoryuken's past her in response to the attack. Another hacking attack. A bridge to pain. "Absolutely not." Shine X declares, her blade coming up and down in a single motion through the cables headed for Mashin Chaser. "X, Kamen Rider, everyone: That belt must be the source! The bridge!" Xion reasons to the crowd of cops, dash-sliding under X's rising flame fist with a a golden arcing slash right towards the Zetsumeriser.
Go Shijima	"Yo, X!" Mach gives X a cocky finger-gun-salute, briefly taking his eyes off of the fight to do so. Tomari, Xion and X are right--this doesn't seem like something the Humagear had a say in. "If the AIMS people are still here, maybe they know how to reverse this!" He's about to make another remark, when he hears Kuehne's proclamation--and then a familiar, deep-voiced callout. Go wheels around. "Chase?" His fist clenches. What's he doing here? If Roidmudes want to surpass humanity... why interfere with this MetsubouJinrai? ...It's a trick. "Don't get in the way!" He's so focused on accusing Chase of having an ulterior motive, so focused on stopping him from some imagined scheme, that for a moment, his attention is on the Grim Reaper rather than Kuehne. He steps forward, Zenrin Shooter raised, intending to attack Chase, ignorant of the incoming slash until it's almost too late. The blade is headed straight for his center of mass. Crap! There's a sound of a superbike's engine revving as he jukes right, diving to the ground with the pistol's large wheel extended before him. The blade catches his hip painfully, causing an eruption of sparks and a cry of pain that causes his body to briefly seize up. AIMS chimes in over the radio--there's no way to recover a Humagear locally... but their memories are backed up on a satellite. So we'll have to defeat this Kuehne first... then I can eliminate Mashin Chaser. His hatred has cost him more than just physical pain, however. X has proven himself to be a thoughtful, caring and responsible ally... and he's just been impaled by Kuehne's malware. X's pained expression is reflected in Mach's blue visor. He angrily pounds a fist into the ground, quickly getting back to his feet as his ally frees himself with an uppercut. He makes a somersault over Tomari's overturned table, making several pirouettes midair before an upside-down kick is delivered to Kuehne's collarbone. His hand is extended, forming a surface for him to land gracefully on, and he springs back upwards, the wheel on the Zenrin Shooter rapidly spinning... ZENRIN Two high-speed strikes are made across the Magear's chest, as Mach twirls back to his feet. The pistol is twirled, and three bursts are made at point-blank range. "Yeah! She's still in there--MetsubouJinrai must be responsible! If she's backed up... let's end it quickly!" He calls in response to Hibiki and Drive. He has no qualms about it--but there's no reason they can't try X's plan. SIGNAL BIKE//Signal Change! TURN A new Signal Bike is slotted in. The hubcap on the shoulder-wheel of his armor changes to a turn signal, an arrow bent at a right angle. The Zenrin shooter fires a bolt--but it doesn't go in a straight line like the last three. Another, and two more to follow. A swarm, each one flying around Kuehne to try and damage the belt.
Chase	Wires race towards Mashin Chaser, causing them to raise their shield arm as they prepare to defend themselves from the bad touch feelers. Something that never comes, as Xion jumps in to intercept, slashing away at the wires. He lets out a grunt of surprise. Whatever that was, it's dangerous enough for Xion to intervene. Considering this, they should perhaps keep their distance. At least somewhat. Clawed fingers reach into the top of the Break Gunner, removing the slotted car as they insert another. TUNE - CHASER COBRA! The weapon makes an announcement as the shield on his arm folds back, a metallic whip sprouting out. "What is Metsubojinrai.net?" Despite asking a question, they're still on the offensive, throwing their whip arm forward. It extends in response, shooting towards Kuehne as it wraps around their waist. Mashin Chaser yanks, pulling the Magear towards him as he takes a step forward, crouching downward as he tightens his fist. Right before the humagear is in danger of colliding with them, they spring upward, uppercutting them below the jaw with more than enough force to send them flying away again.
Reliant	The Kuehne Magear is grabbed by X and planted firmly in the ceiling. There's a shout of surprise from the next floor up as it dangles there from where its head has been put through the floor. It eventually stirs, pushing itself back down with its hands, though even for a machine life form it has a dazed quality to its movements-- as if suffering some sort of input lag from its own brain. It in fact reacts to Utsuho's furious arrival on a delay, getting pushed into and along the corridor for several yards, armor liquefying and dripping in the heat, before it snags a wall and flips itself out with an odd, unnatural sort of agility. It chucks a returned blade at Utsuho's back, starts towards X empty-handed, and only fills its hand with a returning blade partway through the swing, evidently having calculated the trajectory necessary to rebound the blade for a follow-up swing disguised as a clumsy punch. It is given momentary pause by Hibiki. Another flickering, sickly quality to its voice, "My job is to bring about the extinction of mankind." Once again there's some input lag in reaction to the oncoming charge-kick, and once again the Kuehne Magear gets out of it by seizing an adjacent wall and pulling itself up-- and in the process the sheer amount of mounting damage causes the entire left arm to come out at the shoulder joint. After pulling itself free it topples to the ground, sagging there on its knees before forcibly pushing itself up. Kamen Rider Drive finds himself beating the crap out of something that really doesn't seem like it's actually functional anymore, sparking and buzzing, particularly along its left shoulder joint where part of the detached limb's internal structure juts out oddly where it finally gave way. If it's dazed because of a particular blow to the head... It's hard to say so. // That belt must be the source! // The Kuehne magear reacts to this too, but the message it takes away is altogether different. It raises its one remaining arm simultaneous with Xion's charge and Go's tracker shot. The data-tendrils appear again, snaking out this time not merely towards the obvious machine-people but also towards Mr. Belt, Go's mach driver, and any other obvious technological-looking greeble. This is, at best, being stabbed repeatedly by needles and at worst like an attempt at invasive surgery in fast forward. The belt at Kuehne's waist sparks violently and cracks under Xion's assault. The follow-up blasts from Kamen Rider Mach crack the strange tubes that burst from the belt at the beginning of the transformation, and the data cables currently extended from Kuehne's arm crack identically. The remaining tendrils are still going after anyone and everyone, searching for an infection route that may or may not actually exist when Chase seizes it around the waist. That last little push, that last bit of pressure, breaks the belt. The tubes crack, the data tendrils vanish, and what Chase ends up pulling in is a humagear once more wearing the face of a rather plain-looking black haired woman with a pair of stylized white 'ears' and gleaming red lighting in them. Mashin Chaser isn't in a position not to hit her at that point. He sends the humagear up into the area with a distinctive CRUNCH of metal against metal. The humagear, nicknamed Megumi, lands on the ground with a mundane finality, the lights on her headgear flickering for a moment before going out.
Shinnosuke Tomari	The hits go out. To someone already being destroyed. Shinnosuke Tomari, Kamen Rider Drive, is sickened, but he has no alternative, in his mind. As the cables come out to transform him, however, one's about to slam into Mr. Belt, when Drive's arm comes back up again, sparks flying as it's stabbed and damaged, causing him to stagger backwards. "Miss Megumi..." Drive says, as he watches Chase destroy her. It wasn't Chase's fault, and it had to happen, but... He's upset. As he detransforms, he can feel the old wound from last week acting up again. Shinnosuke Tomari staggers forward, moving to close the Humagear's eyes if they're still open, and then moves to check on any of the remaining civilians who couldn't escape the fight in time, making sure they're alright. That, at least, he can do.
Hellwarming Trio	Utsuho's temper continues to flare even as she loses sight of the Magear, glancing around several times to try and figure out where it went. It's only when it hurls that blade at her back that she finally notices its new position, another burst of flame coming out of her to stop it from cutting too deeply into her wings and cape. "Come on... You think that's enough to take me down? Don't insult me!" The ravens houts as the Magear as she advances on it steadily, not quite giving chase, but moving steadily enough despite the Magear getting knocked around by everyone battering it to pieces. She finally slows down, however, when the humagear is finished off by Chase, and only then does her temper finally settle down. The danger is averted, but at what cost? Utsuho grumbles as she looks down at the fallen humagear, rubbing her shoulder after a moment. "That sucked... What was that all about, anyway?" She'll find out that answer NEXT TIME. Probably. Rin, meanwhile, will keep herself busy (next time) chatting up any corpses if there even are any.
Hibiki Tachibana	Hibiki comes to a skidding stop after her attack, using both feet a hand to slow herself and hop to her feet, spinning back around in the process--just in time for the horde of data-tendrils to come lashing out, getting a sound of shocked surprise out of her. Her Symphogear is /definitely/ mechanical in nature while she's transformed despite just being relic fragments and some extremely secretive superscience she doesn't understand otherwise, and she doesn't want to take any chances with that. At the last moment before it connects with her, she moves her armored-up arms out of the way and allows the tendril to get a glancing lash at mostly-bare side. It seriously stings, and sends her rolling briefly across the ground before Chase puts a cap on today's episode. Leaving her to stand back up slowly, letting out a combination sigh and groan as she looks back from a short distance away. "Is she...?" Her expression is a grimace of anxiety, and she turns her head to the side after a moment with pursed lips. "Having a backup doesn't make this any easier..." She mutters quietly to herself, her transformation vanishing in a similar burst of light to before. Back in her casual clothes and ignoring the residual throbbing where she was struck, she hurries over to take Megumi's dislocated arm where it fell and return it to the Humagear's side - out of some expectation that the same body might be used when she's restored, or maybe it's just some guilt she can't help but feel about how this went. She stands up and regards Chase, and then Xion...and after a momentary look of conflict, hurries off to help Shinnosuke tend to the others before anything else. This is getting even more complicated...
Xion	Xion has a mission, and her harmonized power 'Shine' grants her a small glimmer of Tamamo's power. Good luck. Bountiful harvests. Glowy golden greeble effects. The data lines slither towards her and pierce her like needles and blacken on the spot, curling and melting away without doing much more than give her small cuts and uncomfortable needle-jabs. Her hair, rising with a hidden breeze that ruffles the edges of her open coat, flashes with a solar flare of light as her free left hand reaches 'out' and underhanded towards the fallen Magia-- When the fallen Humagear lands in Chase's arms, belt broken, Xion's hand comes up with the red KUEHNE Zetsumerise key, the Riser having caused multiple cracks and damages to the key superficially. The actual body, and the action, however, are clearly unharmed. "This key..." Xion underhands the key at X. "You should take a look at it, with Drive and Mach and everyone else. You'll probably get a better idea out of it than Brain or I, X." Xion turns, and a bubblepop yawning portal of darkness appears behind Chase (and in front of her). "We'll be taking the humagear. You can check out the rest. That's fair, right?" She walks off, portal open long enough for Chase to retreat as well. She doesn't wait for the confirmation of if anyone else thinks that's fair... But the key in X's hands seems Pretty Important to hang on to.
X	X screams. With the viral propogators lashing out at any kind of vector they could obtain, X found himself on the unfortunate end of them once again, his system under a vicious and re-doubled effort at attack. If previously, it had been like a master locksmith using every tool in its arsenal to break into the lock as fast as he could, now it was like someone trying to brute force their way into the car with a crowbar and lots of elbow grease. It was excruciating. Its only when the belt is destroyed and Megumi, sadly, neutralized that X is given relief to slump down to the ground, the coloring of his ear-nodes flickering on and off, glitchingly into different colors as his internal systems heaved a great sigh of relief and began expunging the junk data. As X begins picking himself back up, he sluggishly catches the key that Xion pitched his way at the last second, looking back at her over his shoulder before nodding slightly, " ... right. With Hunter HQ and the Special Cases Unit both looking at it, we're sure to figure something out." Looking at woman prone on the ground, the lights in her head having been knocked out, part of him wanted to just take her to Lifesaver. But, from what he recalled, the Roidmudes had that one woman who was specialized in healing .. it was possible that she'd be even more capable of helping her than any of the specialists he knew. "I hope she'll be alright ... " X murmurs, before standing up to his full height, once he felt well enough to do so.
Reliant	ACROSS THE STREET... A young man with light brown hair stops across the street, panting and doubling over with his hands against his knees. He is closely accompanied by a humagear modeled at a similar age, dark-haired, wearing a white-and-green outfit. The young man looks up-- he has something in one of his hands. A cartridge in bright blue. An exchange occurs, with tones of light disappointment. The humagear nods, and offers a response that perks the young man up a little. The man waves genially, if anybody troubles to look his way for long. After a short while of conversing the pair begin to leave, walking down the road opposite of the direction they were arriving from.
Chase	The hijacking tendrils this time find purchase, digging into the Evolved Roidmude's armor as it attempts to take control of him. Fear. Pain. Hate. Hate. Hate. HateHaTEHatehAtehATehatEHaTe... The belt on the magear breaks, and the transmission ends. Chase's final blow goes through, decking the untransformed humagear in the face, delivering the last amount of force needed to fully neutralize it. The lights on its ear pieces go out, causing them to take a step back in shock as their grip on the Break Gunner tightens. This isn't what he wanted... Even if it was an accident, even if it was avoidable... The armor of Mashin Chaser dissipates in purple particles, revealing a sweating and panting Chase.
Go Shijima	It's trying to...! Nothing good can come of what that Magear is trying to do. The tendrils pierce the Mach Driver and frantic warning lights on Mach's visor illuminate his panicked expression. An upload bar appears on the screen, the suit's systems partially locking up. It's a battle of willpower against technological manipulation as Go's hand races against that upload bar to free himself from the malware attack on the suit. I can... barely move! The percentage climbs higher and higher, the suit involuntarily forcing the Zenrin Shooter towards Drive, until, at 90, his fist crashes into the button on the Mach Driver four times. The tendrils are violently ejected, his movement restored. Go rapidly mashes the trigger on the Zenrin Shooter, making a backflip to perch upon the edge of the table Tomari flipped to gain a bit of high ground. Those blasts turn more sharply than they did before, swatting any remaining tendrils away from everyone. Everyone but Chase, that is. In fact, when the lights on the Humagear's earpieces go out... That compassionate act doesn't fool me. Even if it's real... he's more dangerous alive. Without a word, Mach opens fire on Chase. Xion probably saw that coming--otherwise she wouldn't have placed that portal between them. It opens up and swallows his shots, giving the Grim Reaper time to escape. "'Fair...' Xion! Chase! You can't have it both ways!" As they leave, he steps down from his high ground and pounds a fist into the wall. Next time. He turns, removing the Shift Bike. The armor vanishes. "They got away... Fine. I'm gonna track down someone from AIMS and see what I can find out about Metsubou Jinrai," says Go, offering no explanation or justification of his behavior. He seems to think it isn't needed. "I'll catch you guys later."