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Rubi-Kan Vagrants PETRICHOR V
RALLYPOINT DELTA
'Contact Light' Survivor Camp

    The teleporter drops you off on the shore of a lake that stretches for as far as the eye can see. Snow gently falls, blanketing the dark soil beneath your feet, where the water doesn't wash it away. To the east, smoldering wreckage shorn from the Contact Light in atmosphere weeps a trail of acrid smoke that disappears into the snowfall-dappled blue sky.

    Behind you, to the south, a chain link fence, partially torn open, under the shade of a massive natural stone archway. Icicles cling to the underside of the arch, which is lit in slow red pulses by a signal light atop a metal platform.

    Passing through the hole in the fence and beneath the arch, there is a haphazard collection of large shipping containers. Some are stacked evenly, some rest askew against the ground. All are open, bearing coats of snow, and most have canvas tarps laid at least partial over their doors. Taken with the abundance of walkways, platforms and guard towers this can be assumed to be the closest thing to a fixed settlement the survivors managed to build.

     "Remarkable," says the Captain, as his shotgun prosthesis fells a charging, horned bovine with three eyes arranged vertically. "Do you know what that is?"

     "Saturnian Bison," says the Huntress. "Presumed extinct after mysterious disappearance. Did Providence snatch them from human space without anyone catching on, or were they brought somewhere else and found by chance?"

     "I certainly hope it's the latter," says the Artificer. "I'm going to get a better look at this place. Radio me if you want me to keep an eye out for anything in particular." There is a surge beneath her feet, a cloud of powdery snow kicked up. Flickering blue lines fade in and out of existence, connected to each other at right angles, as her jetpack rockets her into the sky.

     The monsters here are mostly under the control of Rita and Hiromi--save the animated masks and some new additions. Larger, more powerful cousins of the masks, burning with green flame, occasionally appear with much wider, more sustained and intense blasts of energy, the masks themselves more durable for their larger size. The Saturnian Bison, as well, share that aggression seen from other creatures here, charging headlong to gore with their metallic horns.

     The human structures rest at the bottom of a U-shaped canyon, sharing it with a towering, snow-capped spire with a spiral walkway. A cavern complex snakes in and out of the canyon walls.
Redshift Operators     "Reminds me of home." The man who says that is just slightly less gruff than usual, as he watches the snow fall. He leads the Redshifts in wandering through the hole in the gate, and sticks close with the others.

    "Take care you are not gored while entranced, RD." Says the cyborg, grabbing his shoulder and calling his attention to what just happened with the bison.

    "Hell-- Giant, help me out. Can you get one of these wrestled down for Rita? I don't know how fast her monster-catching is. Or at least keep the damn things under control?"
    The giant's good optics gleam sharply. These animals look so soft and fluffy! But, animals are an essential diet thing. And these things come back immortally, right? So of course he says the most helpful and positive assent he can: "Would be a shame if they suffered before Rita could *work*."

    The seven-foot-something titan of hardsuit polymers and muscle strides out, stands in front of the nearest bison, braces himself in a wide stance, and tries to grab the horns like he once grabbed the claws of a hostile mecha (likely enduring strain and pain as he does), then hoist and slam the thing into the ground, hoping to pin it and subdue it like a huge wrestler. He plans to do the same for any others, if Rita's lacking the blood-slots for additional monster-command.

    For now, he's covered by the astronaut trying to put heavy any-vehicle rounds through the big masks, something done while the leader and cyborg scout the locale for any signs of where the survivors might have evacuated to. Another teleporter? Any sorts of electronic records they can get the astronaut to hack open?
Raziel Raziel appears with the rest of the group, out of the special portals that take them around the planet.  It was no surprise to him that creatures were as violent here as they were in most places.  The Soul Reaver snaping out when a mask appears, and with a flick of his blade deflects a shot aimed at him.  He responds by closing the distance and thrusting the blade through the mask.  

'Hostile creatures met us here as they did in other places, after leaving the static calm of the between place behind.  This would mean a limited time to collect data and look for survivors.  Though given the low amount of danger so far, the likely hood of survivors was nil.  The only reminder that they were there were red soaked snows and smoke rising into the pristine sky of this planet.'

Crouching over the edge of the canyon Raziel looked over what he could see.  Which, sadly wasn't much.  Though the spire did catch his eye.  He stood back up and started to back away from the canyon, before running full speed towards the edge and leaping off.  At the apex of his jump, he grabbed the 'cape' on his back revealing the tattered remains of his wings, and used them for lift, allowing himself to glide towards the spire itself.

If he got close enough without being at the bottom, he used his claws to dig into the side of the spire, dragging himself up to either the top of the spiral walkway and proceeded to walk upwards.  
Rita Ma      The runt lizard and the bandaged beetle are Rita's only companions when she materializes in the snowy valley. A heartbeat later, they aren't.

     The other lizards and beetles (big ones included) here fall in with her nearly instantly, but they act differently than before. Instead of being eerily passive in the absence of orders, they mill around on their own prerogative. Instead of throwing themselves into danger with an almost vindictive suicidality, they act more cautiously; beetles hang back until they can rush in and overwhelm the bison, lizards duck behind cover between taking potshots at the flying masks.

     A slackening of the leash, a little more care.

     Nothing here can die for good, so I won't feel too guilty. But, if they're really being controlled by 'Mithrix'... if it's not their fault they're attacking us, after all... then there's no reason to cause them undue pain.

     For her own part, Rita looks miserable, but not from guilt- from cold. She's shivering within seconds, completely out of line with her at least moderately warm-looking outfit. It won't be long until she's blowing into her hands just to keep her fingers warm. "Ms. Grier?" she says helplessly. She doesn't want to be greedy after just being given water not long ago, but...

     Red Giant distracts her from her impending frostbite by appealing to the only need more pressing. She flashes him an almost giddily grateful smile, then rummages in her little satchel and pulls out a (fake) handgun. She points it at the bison's head while her enormous friend holds it still. When she pulls the trigger, there's a noise like a gunshot and a neat hole clean through the bison's skull, but no muzzle flare, recoil, or scent of gunpowder.

     When it stops moving, she points to the nearest canvas-shrouded cargo container. "I'll be in there for a second, okay? Don't wait up!" She drags the whole bison into the container by one leg, with beetles helping her like solemn pallbearers, and closes the canvas curtain to hide herself from view.

     Within a few seconds of Rita excusing herself, the bison fall under her sway too. She emerges to rejoin the party a minute later. There's a little bit of red under her fingernails.
Hiromi     As they reemerge into the cold, as many stone guardians as have made it this far with the group still following Hiromi's lead, the Archwolf goes back to being 'largely unhelpful' and letting everyone else fight as they like. The creatures here are after humans, after all, and not wolves or stones, and she's found that the others involved are all more or less capable of taking care of themselves for five minutes at a time.

    It's purely coincidental that Hiromi walks in front of a bison as it's charging someone else. It reorients her to strike her head on, rather than the riskier prospect of clipping her, and she waits until it's within two steps of her before she reacts with anything more than an appearance of 'slowing down.'

    Like a coiled spring snapping a trap, she takes that first step, kicking off with one foot, the other outstretched, and then striking solidly into the earth to anchor her as she leans into the charge. The bison's head strikes hers dead-on, a great force meeting an unstoppable one. Her countercharge ends with a loud crack, a cloud of dust from what earth wasn't solidified in response to her wordless request for its support, and one badly stunned, three-eyed animal, having taken a deal more than its own maximum force, rebounding to drive it to the ground.

    Satisfied with the exchange, Hiromi walks on, feet seeming to glide along the ground to help her quickly avoid the fighting. She's more interested in the caverns, but she'll bring the local stone men under her sway, if she happens upon any, in the same way she'd taken the others.
Liza Grier     For some reason, the thing that is most attention-catching, most surprising, to Liza for the few moments upon exiting the Bazaar, is Red Dwarf. "Home?" is what grabs her notice. For some reason, it feels like she'd never expected to hear a word from that entire supercategory from that group. A short silence follows. "It's been a while since I've thought of that. I don't really think of where I grew up as home anymore."

    Liza is briefly distracted from being useful to the mission by Rita generally existing. Of course she wastes no time doing her best with dialling in a suitcase packed with oversized fuzzy winter wear (in red and grey, of course) and an ambient climate control module (that sadly has to be actually affixed to the ground). She makes a laugh-adjacent sound at the faux-gun. "You know, I've really got to just set you up with a real one." She is already, of course, thinking of 'probably just loaded with blanks, but that's more convincing at least'.

    From there, Liza repeats her scanning routine. In the cold, however, heat signatures are going to stand out well from long range, so she prioritizes that, followed by signs of any transmissions or computer equivalent. Due diligence for any potential survivors, even if her hopes aren't high, and failing that, any logs that might tell her where they could have fled from Rallypoint Delta, if any were alive and escaped when holding it became unsustainable. She asks Phreak to check any teleporter logs once they actually find one; which entails her splitting up to seek one out. She assumes that if even this place is empty, someone would have rationally made a last ditch gambit to stave off the inevitable using one of those.
Rubi-Kan Vagrants Red Giant finds that the bison are strong enough that no other member of his team could safely wrestle them--the impact would simply send them flying, and it's only because of his immense strength that he isn't. Wrestling one to the ground isn't only difficult because of the beast's strength, but because of that poisonous influence from Mithrix on the [moon], instilling his fervent hatred of 'imperfect things' and, especially, 'humanity.' It writhes in his grasp, metal horns flailing dangerously as it thrashes. With cover from Neutron, however, he can turn it into a contest of time, and he is better equipped to win that than the beast. Driven to the ground, its sides rise and fall with labored breaths.

     Neutron's cover fire sends a crack through one of the tougher masks, shattering through some of its lesser counterparts on the way there. It turns to fire on them, but the beam is split in two by the Soul Reaver. Banking low proves a fatal mistake, when Raziel drives the weapon through it, widening the crack and breaking it apart. The 'hands' fall lifelessly to either side.

     Red Dwarf and White Dwarf do indeed find something that Neutron can open. A few somethings, actually. A time-sensitive chest is guarded by a broken robot that must have been trying to unlock the chest to use against the monsters. The Engineer can take whatever task Newt doesn't. Inside the chest there is an unlicensed particle accumulator meant for performance low-g racing machines--that could theoretically be used as an extremely powerful weapon, once every so often. The robot is too damaged to fully repair, but does have the largest repository of information about the survivors thus far. Its interface is user friendly enough that maintenance workers can simply enter queries, and relevant entries will appear.

     Of particular note is the kind of robot this is--a mass produced maintenance and construction model with modular fixtures. Several of these working in tandem with the survivors could have gotten this place to its current state in the timeframe the Captain mentioned since the crash.

     Passing beyond the Redshifts to the spire, Raziel finds a golden shrine. Oddly, the AR display that Phreak coded for the investigation team shows a price. It is ludicrously expensive compared to most of the things here, but theoretically possible to 'buy.' The Captain mentioned something about an override beacon that could transfer funds directly from the UES, but there's no clear indication of what this shrine is meant to be, other than what it depicts: a golem, much like the ones that Hiromi commands, rendered in solid gold. The others may know more.

     The Captain subtly offers Rita a handkerchief, upon her return. "I haven't had a bison steak since I was a young man. It's good, no? The middle ground between Earth beef and venison." A larger wisp menaces him from behind--he bounces a stun laser off a crooked lightpole, dazing it. "Keep it, with my blessing," he says of the handkerchief. His drones swivel in unnerving unison and drill it full of holes, like ants stripping a carcass. He's moving briskly after, leading it through and around obstacles to whittle it down with the shotgun as his drones swarm it. He is nearly bowled over by a bison, before Hiromi intercedes--she is given a cordial tip of the hat.
Rubi-Kan Vagrants      Hiromi, traveling through the caverns, finds a shrine very different to the one that Raziel found. The AR display lists no price. It is a four-fingered, clawed hand, the palm of which bears a circular button. Her stone servitors inform that it is known as the Shrine of the Mountain--a holdover from the days of this planet's prime. Would-be heroes would visit the shrine seeking a challenge, and would be rewarded with treasures for success. More pressing than the shrine is the arrival of new monsters in the cavern.

     Black bodies, not as tall as humans nor given to wearing garments. Singular, red cyclopic eyes. Horns and claws, stained that same red. Rather than step on the ground, they float--but much more often, they teleport, in bursts of red-black voxels, to swipe with lacerating claws that cut the flesh, and something else. The Archwolf's servitors overzealously defend her. These are the usurpers--the imps.

     Liza, searching for heat signatures, finds few. There are heating devices spread out through the complex. Filtering out those, the monsters, and the rest of the team, there are two. One square and blocky, like the maintenance robot. The other is humanoid, but even closer in size to Red Dwarf than the Engineer is. The humanoid shape is lying prone. Injured, perhaps. Following the traces in, she finds a heating unit keeping an injured man warm while a medical robot turns to face her, suture gun lifted defensively.

"I suggest you stay indoors and rest," says the robot.

"MED-E, give it a rest. Wait... who is that?"

     Meanwhile, working with the Artificer, Phreak manages to find the teleporter. He takes to gathering data almost immediately, rapid-fire multitasking between that and fighting off the larger wisps and teleporting imps, his copper-colored spacesuit a blur as he zips back and forth from the pedestal. "Teleporter fired recently," he says over the comms. "Triangulating the drop-off point now. Doesn't look good for survivors--fuck you, idiot!--not you, Liza, this imp. ...30 lifeforms passed through. Down ten from the last."
Raziel The display pops up, alerting Raziel to the price tag of the chest before he even had a chance to take a careful look at his surroundings.  Though taking a better look at the shrine, his eyes caught the gaudy gold.  With the conversation over on the radio, he started to look at the details of the shrine itself.

'Displayed here before me was an idol of a golem, covered in gold.  The shrine was opulent, radiating the value of wealth or prosperity.  The shrine itself was potentially something that the golems of this land made, and perhaps the golden golem was a figure they revered or paid tribute to.  Funny, that it would ask for credits from me, who shared little value in it.  However, my curiosity got the better of me.'

Raziel leaned over the shrine, deciding to see if they could override the account to transfer the balance from the ship itself instead of blowing everything they had earned.  While Raziel himself seemed to have little interest in the value of this currency, he did acknowledge it had value for the others here.

More than that, it provided them an advantage in this place, assuming they could open more chests.
Redshift Operators     The giant strains, slammed hard by the impact. Bruises form on skin beneath screaming metal that strains to keep up with this battle. But before long, it's on the ground. With a posture that looks hunched and menacing, and which is actually just uncomfortably sorry and wrestling, the large man keeps it still for Rita to do as she does.

    The gruff man escorts the astronaut a while, speaking to Liza. "Can't afford to live on a ship right now, like you. We're squatting in an abandoned frontier fuel resupply and security outpost. But it's on a snowy spot, kinda like this. That's home. Sure isn't where I was born though." He makes tactical gestures to his friend. "Newt. Pop the case, put whatever's in there to work."

    Then someone calls for a medic. Wait, Liza's just nearby! The cyborg's arm pops open, revealing a wide array of tools, while she immediately goes for injection pens at her belt. An unbelievable array of surgical implements is what she rushes out of the snow with, having already presciently prepared precisely what the prone fellow might need to treat wounds as she rushes to assist with chemistry and rapid field surgery. "Left behind, my unfortunate friend? A *survivor*. Grier, you managed to find a living human after all of this?"
Rubi-Kan Vagrants      The Safe Travels makes its presence known. Something glints, high above Raziel. It cuts through atmosphere, burning in re-entry, colliding with the ground hard enough to shake it beneath the vampire's feet. After the cloud of powdery snow clears, there is a click, as a solar-powered beacon extends, slowly swiveling. Some sort of information transfer begins, represented by a holographic progress bar extending from the beacon to the shrine. A helpful circular perimeter is also displayed around the shrine. It... is going to take a -while.- But the good news is that it's working. Steadily, the 'price tag' on the shrine shrinks. Within a few minutes, the Captain advises, it will tick down to 'zero.' This, then, should logically appease the shrine.
Raziel The ground shakes, causing Raziel to nearly lose his footing.  He grabs onto part of the shrine to steady himself and turns to face the source of the drop.  Though the reason for this is explained quickly by the captain, as well as the count down.  

"Mm.  Hopefully.  Though I wonder if that noise will attract the creatures here," Raziel says to the captain, and his left hand produces the Soul Reaver.  "This'll be interesting, and perhaps some questions here will be answered."
Rubi-Kan Vagrants      "The name's Wyatt." Without the slight blobby-ness of infrared imaging, it's easier to see his features. He isn't wide like Red Giant or the Engineer--just taller than most humans tend to be. Gaunt, but with a core of iron. MED-E, having run low on supplies, was essentially only able to stabilize him, but White Dwarf can get him in something close to fighting shape. Leaned up against the wall is a massive riot shield, a set of blue combat armor. There's a shotgun propped up near the bed. "Not left. Stayed. MED-E dragged me back here after the others made it through the teleporter with the injured. By the time the last one got through, it'd lost the charge." Liza and the Redshifts both recognize the UES branding on the shield. This man is one of their 'Enforcers,' the crisis response corps.
Rita Ma      EARLIER: "This is a real gun!" Rita whines in useless protest. When she realizes she's not fooling anyone (or at least, certainly not fooling Liza), she sighs and slumps in defeat. "Maybe. Mr. Candy got me to shoot one a while ago, though, and it was really scary. It hurt my shoulder a little bit."

     Even if it isn't 'her colors', she dons the fuzzy winter coat with gushing gratitude and swoops in to wrap her arms around Liza's waist in thanks. "You're the best, Ms. Grier! I won't be a bother again, I promise. Ah, it's so comfy, too..." The poofiness and size gives it a 'boyfriend's hoodie' kind of vibe on her. It's cute.

     NOW: She looks startled to be offered the handkerchief. It takes her a second to notice the red under her fingernails, whereupon she accepts it sheepishly. "Ah... I wouldn't really know." The conversational topic being brought up at all seems to mortify her, now that life-and-death violence isn't at the forefront of her mind. Her arms cross; her balance shifts from one leg to the other. "It's... I didn't really..."

     The appearance of a giant mask, blessedly, distracts from that. While the Captain's drones chip away at it, Rita herself circles around cargo containers into its blind spot, then leaps a good thirty feet straight up with a backscatter plume of snow and heel-kicks the mask right where the bullet-holes have weakened it. Then she's, conveniently, too far away from the Captain to do much other than wave back at him in gratitude.

     A few moments later, she, the runt lizard, and the bandaged beetle are seated on the back of one of her now-tamed bison. Her steed dutifully carries their little party towards the flaming wreckage they'd seen earlier. It's a bit of a long shot, but maybe the wreckage holds clues about what happened to the Contact Light in the first place?
Hiromi     To attack Hiromi is to challenge her. To present her with a button abstractly marked with the meaning of 'for a challenge, press here' is also to challenge her. One method works more swiftly than the other, but the difference is nothing grand. She has four limbs. She can deal with several things at once. Even more so in a cavern, where the earth, whether it be of her homeland or not, can hardly rebel against her.

    The space of her reactions is dense. Here, at once, she's driving stones upward, some to meet her opponents beneath their feet as spikes to impale them, others harmlessly, but once they touch a body, she knows precisely where that body is, as if looking in every direction at once. Walls rise and crumble again, rough and curved and with the seemingly natural curves of a winding river, only understandable as methods of funneling and confusion to one who can see the whole space at once.

    Those spaces she can strike she leaves open, and horns and claws meet claws and teeth, together with twirling leg strikes that curve through the air and crash imps into walls that hadn't been there, moments before. There's little about the space of Hiromi's presence that isn't dangerous, little her ears won't pick up, and no need at all for light, here in underground places. This hadn't been 'her den,' and it's not 'a place for her to defend,' but those are mere technicalities in the face of forcing the situation to fit her specialties.

    Still, 'new opponents,' together with 'new forms of attack,' together with easy teleportation (which is less new, to her) means she won't get through this unbloodied. It would be hard to guess, looking at the frenzied bursts of violence, and the motion that hardly pauses but to subtly wind up for the next strike, that this isn't something that bothers her, and that the teeth and the raw menace she exudes are 'normal' aspects of combat. Difficult, that is, to guess she was enjoying herself, until one hears her laugh. What follows is a growling speech, something unavoidably understandable, directed at the imps, unimpeded by the blood dripping over her lips.

    "They call you 'usurpers,' but what would-be king do you serve? What throne will you take? What claim do you make? Tell me of your broken dreams and crushed ambitions before I kill you."

    She doesn't wait for an answer. There's still the Shrine of the Mountains. Hiromi vaults over a ten-foot wall of her own construction, dives through another that melts before her, and sticks the landing on the challenge-button with her heel.
Rubi-Kan Vagrants      Rita and her merry party arrive at the wreckage. The smoldering part appears to be one of the thrusters the Captain mentioned, and when the wind blows the smoke her way, it carries an acrid, chemical stench. There are other pieces, however. Portions both internal and external tell a piecemeal story. While portions of the wreckage appear to have been shorn by explosions or forceful atmospheric entry, others appear to have been cut. Cleanly. A monitor that miraculously managed to survive the fall flickers in and out--a simple bit of work from her tentacles can fasten it to the power source from which it loosely hangs. A figure, dark. Humanoid in shape only. In the dimly lit ship's interior, he marches, hunched over for his immense height, yet no less nimble in his destruction of everything that he sees. The last image the camera captured before the footage loops is the shine of a single, golden eye, illuminating also a green-gold headdress, a sword formed of the same material, and a flowing red cloak. She knows, instinctively, from her shaped glass weapon, that this is the [hero], Providence.
Rubi-Kan Vagrants      The imps are agile, but not strong--and there is evidently a limit to their ability to teleport. This makes Hiromi a very effective opponent against them. Catching them after they've worn themselves out makes them easy for her and her servitors alike to deal with, as their bodies are not nearly so hardy as hers.

     We serve [his eminence] the overlord of [the red plane] is the response that she gets from her command. It is not so much spoken as felt. He desires this place and sent us to claim it but the guardian Providence a curse on his name slaughters us whenever he is near transmits another before being crushed. A third further elaborates, [his eminence] will come when you attempt to leave may he destroy you as he destroyed the ape creatures

     Depressing the button on the shrine sends out a wave of will. She is Seen, in that moment--everyone is Seen.

     Near the teleporter, Phreak speaks up on the radio. "Holographic display just popped up over the teleporter pedestal. Looks like a claw. Not sure what it means but I felt like someone was watching me, just now."
Liza Grier     Two sigs. That's a good twenty too few for Liza to get her hopes up, and two too many to ignore. Of course the first thing she checks on is the sight of a human figure; in a frozen warzone like this, there's no telling how long that body will stay warm.

<J-IC-Scene> Liza Grier says, "The f-- Medic, over here, now!"

    "Stand down." says Liza, though whether to the robot or the wounded man is uncertain. "This is your lucky day. We're a dispatch from the Safer Travels here to investigate what the fuck happened to you people. I'm getting you patched up and then 'anywhere but here'." Liza drops one of her dwindling supplies of cling-sentries to cover White Dwarf, then mobility techs over to the first heat blob to chec on that. If the machine isn't horrifically damaged, she will boot it back up, or hack it back into working order, intending to pull as much data and get all the backup the group can.

    A brief discussion about the golden statue happens. Liza obligingly uses the designator to bring down the ship's comms uplink so she can burn up exorbitant amounts of corporate money.

    "That's thirty reasons to keep going." she says to Phreak.
Hiromi     There are no more questions. Enough was said, and the rest will be seen.

    If there's one thing-- two things-- if there are three things Hiromi's good at, one is outlasting her opponents. What she does, she keeps doing. It's a finely honed, thoroughly practical 'style,' and she always ensures that trading with her is a loss. Nor does she take it easy, and let them work themselves down. She forces the issue, pressing any who don't come at her with maximum effort, never allowing the fight to slow, and punishing every moment of weakness, while being as frustratingly unkillable as inhumanly possible.

    She's still a sight to see, when she leaves. It's a wonder any of her outfits survive what she does, considering it's only slightly less ordinary fabric than it looks. As some peculiar insistence, it's only her hair that she shakes loose of the drying blood, to let it flow freely as she makes her way out, accompanied by her ponderously mobile crowd of golems. Some have fallen, here and there, but her walls and control of the earth were for their benefit, as well, and more have joined their ranks.

    Hre destination is the teleporter, at which Phreak has relayed that her sign that her challenge will take place. It won't be just hers, but that's fine, too. She's willing to share that much, if it's connected to their travel onward.
Rubi-Kan Vagrants      The United Earth Shipping ERT--Wyatt, has been patched up. The MED-E robot is also in working order. Additionally, Liza and Neutron have secured a sizeable cache of data from the broken MUL-T unit. The most useful appears to be a last known location of a tracking beacon. Of course, with this being UES, the tracking is on a parcel and not a human being, but it's actionable nonetheless. Calling it up on the Safe Travels' planetary imaging tools with triangulation from the robot's data and help from the Engineer, the Captain shows it's a misty highland strewn with varying kinds of wreckage.

     All that remains is to activate the teleporter. Once active, there is, as before, that rumbling.

IDENTIFY YOURSELVES, SLUTS.

     Space tears, in the recess where the teleporter lies. A towering black shape, two arms, two legs, and a single, baleful red eye.

MORE APE-THINGS AND NEW STENCHES UNKNOWN TO [your eminence]. The Imp Overlord's voice, as with its underlings, is more felt than heard, scraping against the inside of the skull and the pit of the stomach. KNEEL BEFORE-- Before it can utter another insult, or even raise its hand against you, its eye is burst by the violent emergence of a green-gold straight sword driven straight through its body. The shockwave of Providence's landing sends up plumes of snow one second later.

BGM: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SIPGFhFPJhg

     As the overlord falls, a figure stands behind it. Great and terrible in its majesty, standing taller than Red Giant, than the Engineer, taller even than Hiromi. "You, who have invoked the challenge of the mountain--face us in combat." Providence's single eye blazes, illumiating the green-gold headress as the cold wind blows his red mantle. His body is darkness given form, and yet his presence could not be any different than the slain Overlord's--rather than spiteful contempt, he radiates quiet sadness.

     "Victory will earn you a boon from myself and my steed. Failure will entitle you remain on this planet under my care. Such as it is," he adds solemnly. He is gone, then, an instant later, as monsters Rita has yet to commandeer swarm the teleporter.

     Amidst imps, wisps and the greater, more powerful variation of the wisps, there emerges from the earth a brilliant blue worm long and massive enough to seat everyone here comfortably and then some--Raziel recognizes it as the same one from the stele in the Aqueduct. As it emerges, ball lightning is shed from its glowing carapace, carpeting the battlefield with oppressively numbered explosions.

     Providence himself brings his sword--easily ten feet of worked starmetal--to bear against you in masterful, broad sweeps, teleporting in and out, his footing never in question even amidst the zealous monsters swarming in. Of these, only the imps attack him, and they are trampled easily underfoot.
Kukuru Dragging her feet as she follows along, Kukuru's still looking about as groggy as she always does while following the crew seeking out the missing members of that other crew while trying not to get gored or shot up by the wildlife. Thankfully, she's settled into a system of teleporting every now and then near the front of the group so as to not lag behind too much for too long, and she even pops herself into the air every now and then to yank down one some kind of flying thing or check out some inconveniently-placed containers just in case there's anything cool hiding inside any of them.

She probably doesn't find much, though, since she's not looking that hard. It's still too early to be awake!

"Nothing up here, either." Kukuru half-drones half-calls out as she leaps back towards the group to rejoin those closer to the center. She shakes her head once to get some of that snow off, then digs into her pockets to bring out...

THE SCARVES. They're all pretty normal, but she does make sure to throw one over each person. The Redshifts get a bunch of matching ones (Red Giant getting the really big one), Raziel gets one that's a little less colorful to try and match his general look, Rita and Liza get matching ones (after waiting for the go ahead from the latter just in case she refuses), and Hiromi gets one that's already blood-colored.

And then everyone's called sluts. "Oh? He-llo there. My na-" And as quickly as the Imp Overlord arrives, it's quickly destroyed by the blade of the blazing-eyed Providence. She blinks slowly while looking up towards the one-eyed commander. "Ah, you're gonna take care of us? How nice~"

She doesn't really get it yet, but she'll catch on sooner or later. Mostly sooner as it and the swarm of creatures start coming after everyone, and the initial slash at Kukuru leaves a light gash that starts healing over nearly as quickly as it drew blood.

Instead of chasing after Providence, however, she stands her ground momentarily to direct her healing powers all over the place. It makes everything nice and minty in that snowy air, and it also helps her catch her breath before she grabs some of those offending imps to whisper gentle words to them  and hurl them right at Providence like some kind of inhuman death balls.
Raziel 'The foul stench hit me almost immediately, faster than the fouler words from the malformed creature.  Immediately I drew the Soul Reaver, but before I could form words to respond to this creature, and tell it its time was soon over, something else responded.'

Raziel is not one to be easily taken aback, but the arrival of Providence did catch him off guard and forced him on the back foot for a few seconds, a clawed hand raising up to cover his glowing eyes as he watched the remains of the Imp Overlord be easily discarded.  Looking up at the towering figure of Providence, he brings the Soul Reaver into a defensive stance.  

'The ground rumbled beneath my feet as the figure of Providence disappeared, before the sight of the powerful blue worm came into view.  I recognized it immediately, it was the same in the legend of these people...and the mount of Providence.  It seems it would bring everything here to bare against us.  Even with his offer, I knew this would not be easy.'

Raziel runs forward, bursting into speed and allowing him to avoid directly getting hit by the explosions coming from the blue worm, though being singed by close calls and near runs.  Eventually, Raziel leaps up and attempts to land on the side of the worm, clawing his way up to the top before driving the Soul Reaver, the energy blade-looking weapon, into the worm as he runs towards its head.  

"Very well then, Providence.  I, at least, accept your challenge."
Rita Ma      "Ms. Grier, what's a sl-"

     The trademark Rita Question is cut short by Providence's dramatic arrival. At first she startles and clutches at Liza's arm; then she relaxes, perhaps unwisely, the lack of palpable menace encouraging her to let down her guard.

     "You shaped this planet, then," she tries to say, before he's gone. Reaching into her bag, she grasps the handle of the eerie glass tool and draws it out, holding it in both hands for examination. "Is this yours? I found it-"

     But there's no time to continue that train of thought, either. Monsters surge in, and Rita's own horde retaliates. Only her bison and the larger, spikier Beetle subspecies are capable of standing up to much punishment; the latter take the front lines, while the former wait for smaller beetles to pin imps down before charging at the immobilized targets to crush them. Her lizards pick away at the wisps with their fireballs from safe positions; their slow-moving projectiles are easy to avoid, but harder when the air's thick with them.

     When the worm emerges nearly underfoot, they scatter, and so does Rita: it's barely broken earth when she leaps backwards in a puff of snow, presciently dodging a spray of ball lightning by a comfortable half-second.

     I shouldn't fight that. Acid works, absorbed powers work, I could wear it down- but my tentacles will just conduct the electricity, I think. I'm tagging out.

     So instead, with a couple more snow-plume-creating pounces, Rita makes her way to the corpse of the slain Imp Overlord. Her tentacles stealthily pierce its still-warm(?) body, drawing out residual life force and viscera. The imps are already attacking Providence, and they don't seem very effective at it, but they can at least be turned away from harming the rest of the group.

     For once, it doesn't look like she expects to find it appetizing.
Redshift Operators     The Redshifts are pulled away from their work. The astronaut and the giant with the search engine, and then the ninja and her gunman companion with the downed man. As they assemble and ready themselves to take on the massive imp, the impact happens.

    It is, as always, the precognitive of the group who thinks fastest. In a single motion, she pulls her allies behind the giant to enduire the shockwave. When Providence's declaration is given, though, she's the first to rush forward. Rallying with great energy, she clashes. "It is my dark destiny to burn the cosmos itself and remake its unfair rules!" Sparks fly, as hard light jarringly slams back from a starmetal sweep. A thought rushes through her mind. A memory of the bazaar. "Not," She says, dramatically sweeping her robotic hand to her hair. "To *stay* under any *care*, however benevolent!" She rips the beads out of her hair, loosing her long ponytail as she does. She recalls: The keeper of this place had some objection to the beads, wasn't it? She doesn't understand their meaning, but she does understand objection.

    So she crushes the beads in her palm as hard as she can and throws away what remains, in his sight. And then, with unbelievable eagerness, she lashes a hand out to one side.

    "Fastball!"
    "Okay!"

    The giant rushes to snatch the ninja's hand, and with one large swing, launch her wildly at the massive worm. With the team's sniper blasting away at the ball lightning, she can hopefully land atop the beast and duel the man from there, much like how Raziel is running along its side. With swift, sweeping, lashing strikes that use precognition to optimize the impacts, she goes for the full assault straight out the gate. "But the eye of a company is on your holdings! And if I'm going to to do my work, I need to understand why -- and carve that eye out!" Her grandiose declarations are delivered with every swing and occasional thrust.
Hiromi     Hiromi accepts the scarf from Kukuru with a vague affirmative-noise. Flowing red makes a good contrast against her black hair and naturally tanned tone, though she, for reasons unspecified, elects to use it as a huge, flowing hair ribbon, giving her a similarly huge, flowing ponytail. Just for today, she'll restrain her mane.

    "Not ape." Working backwards through the strange greeting, Hiromi is about to give some 'oh, I know that term' commentary on the imp's third word, when everyone is saved from the topic by Providence. Hiromi tilts her head, turns an ear toward the direction the sword came from, and waits for a new greeting.

    "Ahaha! Good, good. You've earned seriousness. Don't disappoint me, now. You'll challenge all with two, without complaints, yes?" While she speaks, Hiromi plants her warbanner by throwing it hard enough to stick out of a pile of wreckage nearer her opponent. She doesn't need it, at the moment, when there's so much else to fill her hands.

    Zero to full in no time at all. Acceleration is a function of power. Purity helps, some, whatever else the lunar crystal does for her. Her route is neither straightforward nor cautious, moving through the edges of the worm's widespread attack, choosing aggression over defense, barely acknowledging the danger in grazing it, rather than going directly through. Her own regenerative powers are considerable, but so long as she pays no attention to her own state, Kukuru's powers have much more opportunity to shine.

    Along the way, without breaking stride, her claws descend into the wreckage. The results are explosive, metal flying apart, but leaving in her grasp... nothing, again and again. Bits and pieces, weak and useless.

    That's the case until it isn't, as she finds something 'hard enough' to be of use. It's not what one would normally call a weapon, and it could hardly be a shield, but neither intent matters, once her hand holds it. In her hands, by the strength of her path, even the old, discarded, and nearly broken -- if not yet broken -- becomes as unbreakable as she is, until it leaves her. Even if it's an incomprehensible mess of pipes leading into an open cone taller than she is, held up by her single-handed grip on one lateral pipe, using her elbow against its side for greater control and leverage.

    Once Hiromi's close enough, she leaps into a downward swing with the massive cone, just where the path of the worm is leading Providence to be, with what is probably only coincidentally similar to an Apollo F-1 rocket engine.
Liza Grier     Liza pings the affirmative for emergency surgery on the survivor. "What can I say? It's part of my whole 'mythos', isn't it? If anyone was going to find him, it'd naturally be the most unkillable person here." She has him sit tight while leaving with Neutron, though not before saying to Red Dwarf, "No, that's not it. I know everyone needs a place to live. I just don't usually think about where people were born. Not in this job. Not people like us. It'd be weird if I showed you my yearbook or something, right? We don't exist in that context."

    She retrieves the data as quickly as possible, then voices unease (distinct from dissatisfaction, even for her) at the description of where it is and what precisely ended up there instead of a person. However, she gathers up on the teleporter, because what else is she going to do?

    'IDENTIFY YOURSELVES, SLUTS.'

    "Oh come on, I was twenty f-" the pin drops mid-sentence, as Liza takes a few seconds to realize the voice was in her head and not her ears. She never takes a few seconds to realize anything. Her gun is already pointed at head level as she turns on the overlord, awkwardly tracking upward once she sees its actual size. "Should have brought a fucking guillotine." is about the smartest thing that pops into her head when trying to assess the new threat talking to her.

    She never gets to a useful plan of action. It's dead too quickly. New boss, old boss, the two crisis situations blur together seamlessly in her head, melding into a single streak of rising adrenaline. Liza doesn't even consider for a second that this will go any differently from the giant imp because she isn't considering anything but how to survive the next seven seconds and how to start dismantling the new enemy at eight. Just one piece of information --the one that screams the loudest, seeking its connection like a hot bullet through flesh-- pierces through the nonverbal chaos of adjusting to the surprise.

    "You're the one the newt was talking about. Aren't you. Which brother are you supposed to be? The bad one, or the worse one?"
Liza Grier     Liza spends her first fraction of a second pushing Rita behind her. Her other arm is used to fire her weapon, but the twelve in the handgun's magazine won't get any further in a single burst of professionally termed 'panic fire' than splattering the first couple of imps that get in the way. She doesn't reload. She doesn't even holster it, simply letting it drop out of her hand and into the snow. No time. Providence is already coming at her.

    Heavier weapons need dialling from the PDA. Good for the worm, but they might as well be on a train for how accessible they are right now. The e-shield has cooled down a lot. Her arm is just out of position, but she has enough time to flick the switch and turn the brilliant blue disc of energy in the direction of one of the explosive lightning blasts. It throws her down and overloads the device instantly. Her free hand was already going for her belt. The ruby blade of her energy sword springs out in an instant to clash against Providence's starmetal sword, making an awful, incendiary squeal where the blades make contact. Parrying grounded causes her to roll backwards. Liza uses it-- kicks forward over her head and rolls out of the prone, letting the teleporter get skewered instead of her.

    Rita is away. Liza's shieldless arm waves behind her. Heavy metal canisters bounce off the stone crunch into the snow where she just was. She turns and hacks one of the monsters down the middle, lunging into a sprint away from an aerial fireball, back turned to Providence. Perfect target, but just for an instant. The explosives go off at his feet between them; damage, pushback, noise, visual cover, steam and smoke obscure thermals-- as if he even has them anyways. She's already off the telepad and vaulting into the scattered rallypoint wreckage. Space-grade hard cover will keep her sheltered from the worm's bombardment for a little while longer.

    A dozen streaks of red light cut from space to the ground; calling hardware to her directly would just give her position away in an instant. Let him guess. "What the fuck did you do?!", Liza hisses into the radio, attempting to cut another imp down the middle as quietly as she can, anticipating it'll teleport right behind her.
Hiromi     It's after that strike, after Hiromi has closed, that she says, "Boons for lives. Do they balance? Arrogance, confidence, story unchanging? Or, desperation? What trial would you give, for your life?"
Rubi-Kan Vagrants      "Such is the Challenge of the Mountain," Providence answers Hiromi. He meets her on-foot, sword held aloft--but changes his stance, preparing for a thrust. This particular kind is ill-suited to that manner of attack. Willingly taking the trade, Hiromi finds the reason for that stance. The green blade shimmers, vibrates as he's brought to one knee. The smell of ozone is the only warning before a blinding pillar of white-green energy sears from the tip of the blade, occluding near everything around it in its radiance. The beam passes, and he has teleported free of her reach, standing upon one prong of the teleporter and flinging vertical pillars of light around the battlefield in erractic patterns, menacing both the Archwolf and Kukuru. While they seem to appear only in one instant, they strike in two at once, melting snow and coring deep holes into the earth that serve as hazards in themselves.

    "I didn't make the planet, no. Certain things upon it, certain inhabitants, yes--with help." He floats backwards, cloak billowing as he wades back into the fray. Rita finds the Overlord's carcass to be an utterly alien experience--flesh and viscera pulled from some other plane, with different rules, forced into a shape that more or less follows this plane's rules. There is something useful to be gleaned from the unsettling experience, be that as it may. There is an organ, unlike anything else on this planet, which refuses to remain in a conventionally understood shape. Its function understood, Rita may now fold space within this plane, crossing into the [red plane] and emerging at a different point.

     The lip of Providence's sword--meant to puncture holes in armor, an expert like White Dwarf could easily guess--has little problems puncturing the imps Kukuru throws at him. Tall and strong as he is, there is still an art to his movement, the full employ of his hips and shoulders in every swing, one or two hands on the wrapped grip. Rita, having glimpsed briefly into his past through her echo of his [shaped glass], can see the artifact at work in his attacks, each one hitting twice through some nebulous time-folding technique.

     While he handles the thrown imps expertly, doing so occupies his focus during that time. Warped red-black crystals from the imps now under Rita's command explode at his feet, lacerating his lower legs. They're conjured by those imps still attempting to swarm him, and far from the only trouble he faces.

     A cruel, cackling laughter resounds from the beads as they are held aloft by White Dwarf. "YOU DARE BRING THE TRAPPINGS OF OBLIVION BEFORE--" there is a moment of intense anger, radiating palpably from Providence at the sight of those beads. It is quelled, and so is the laughter, the instant they are crushed before him. It is enough to stun him into silence, to stay his blade, for just a moment. Just long enough for White Dwarf to be thrown clear of his blade, and onto the worm.

     In that moment, he dejectly answers Liza as she charges. "...Every ill that plagues this planet is my fault in some way or another." The bad one, then. A one-handed stance is brought to bear against her, opposite hand held out for balance--but it's his legs that he uses most deceptively, mixing in stomps and sweeps until he decides to disengage.

     Raziel and White Dwarf, climbing atop the worm, finds that while its carapace is hot to the touch, making contact is not so dangerous as the absurd electrical generation capabilities would imply. It lets out a screech as Soul Reaver is driven in, and its counterattack reveals where the true danger in riding it lies--the worm has some means of flying and orienting itself which renders gravity a suggestion. Running towards its head, Raziel finds that the worm can essentially turn on a dime--in other words, its head makes a complete 180, rocketing towards the vampire with sharp, protuding rostrum aimed straight at his center of mass.
Rubi-Kan Vagrants      As the glowing mount loops around itself, Providence alights upon it, too, charging towards White Dwarf to lock blades with her. "My brother has learned ways to subvert his prison--to reach out with his mind's eye, across the stars. I didn't realize until it was too late. I panicked. Acted without thinking; put my own fears before their safety." His voice is wracked with guilt, as he charges forward, switching to a two-handed grip and making three whirling, advancing strikes, high-left, high-right, a feint into an attempted shoulder-hook with the weapon's lip.
Kukuru "Oh, you can zip around, too? Neat~ Just don't be too predictable, okay? I get caught all the time doing that." Kukuru half-advises Providence as she keeps that energy flowing to Hiromi for quite some time, moving ever closer to the giant swordsman to try and find a different angle of attack. She finds herself momentarily confused when he teleports, looking behind herself almost immediately as if expecting him to do something so predictable!

Unfortunately for Kukuru, she's probably one of the few people that really are so predictable with teleportation. By the time she spots those laser pillars coming towards herself and Hiromi, she only has enough time to toss herself aside in an awkward roll. It doesn't protect her all that much from that searing heat as it bears down upon her, but rolling does (somewhat) limit how much surface area is exposed to the pillars and how much she needs to heal herself afterwards.

Unlike Providence (and just about everyone else), however, there is little artistry to Kukuru's movements. Gathering up her willpower again, she grips her claws tightly against the snow as if readying to hurl herself at Providence not unlike how she had tossed those imps earlier. She takes her time to listen to his answers, however, drawing a troubled noise from her before long. "What are you gonna do about it, then? About the planet, about your brother? What do you want to do?"

That last part in particular tugs at Kukuru's heartstrings, and that's what motivates her to adjust her approach. Instead of hurling herself forward, she instead falls backwards into a dark purple cloud that forms behind her. It warps the air around itself before disappearing, then reappearing far above Providence to drop Kukuru out of it with her arms outstretched and claws readied. As she builds up speed, she brings the claws upwards, then slams them down at where she hopes Providence's shoulders will still be by the time she gets down there.
Raziel The world around Raziel is turned out, all he can focus on is the creature before him, as its head turns completely on a dime to face him.  Gravity is a suggestion for the creature, and so apparently is anatomy.  The front of its face strikes, clashing with the Soul Reaver itself as the two of them clash.  However, the creature has too much leverage, and strength over Raziel.  He goes flying, flipping before coming to a skidding stop along the beast's carapace.  His claws dug into it to stop his momentum.  

Raziel's undead nature throws off most of the blow, though his clothing temporarily takes a beating, revealing more of the man's features.  The desiccated torso, the legs aught not but sinew and bone.  He looks more like a body does after being subjected to acid, rather than a whole creature, but he still moves.  Those glowing eyes focused on the head of the beast he was riding on.  

He runs in, this time trying to slide under the creature's head and attempt to cling to one part of its head to try and force himself into an awkward position, while he reaches towards the eye of the creature, attempting to bring the sword down across it.  
Rita Ma      Rita hops down off the Imp Overlord's carcass, a disgusted-shuddery expression on her face. It's not immediately obvious what she's done, except for the floating bloodstains behind her that soon wipe themselves on the snow. Experimentally, she tests the new power just a little- pushes her fingers into that other-space with a swirling crimson glow, and then draws them back out. But better to keep it in reserve for now.

<J-IC-Scene> Rita Ma says, "Are you okay, Ms. Grier?!" <J-IC-Scene> Liza Grier says, "He was polite and dumb enough to announce himself, so I'm fine for now."
<J-IC-Scene> Rita Ma sighs in soft relief.
<J-IC-Scene> Rita Ma says, "I think I'd have a hard time with the worm. I'll try to stay on top of him, instead."
<J-IC-Scene> Liza Grier says, "Then let's trade off."
<J-IC-Scene> Liza Grier says, "I've been holding the mauler in reserve."
<J-IC-Scene> Rita Ma says, "Mmm! Will do."

     It feels a little bad to interfere with White Dwarf's duel, but compared to letting down Liza, that's by far the lesser of two evils. The erratic laser beams gouging holes in the battlefield don't seem to pose much threat to Rita- if they struck her it'd be disastrous, but as long as she's in the zone like this, zipping along the snow-covered ground with feral agility, that's simply not going to happen.

     There's a tactical consideration. With her warm, cozy, Liza-given jacket on, she can't very well turn invisible. On gutfeel alone, she decides not to toss it away. Maybe it's something to do with the tactical value of being warm. Probably it's just because she likes it.

     Instead, Rita darts behind Providence as he advances on White Dwarf, leaps high into the sky, and comes down towards him in a lazy arc with claws outstretched. If he sees her shadow on the ground, or if he has any danger sense at all, it'd be trivial to turn around and cut her out of the air. A parabola is the most predictable thing in the world.

     But Rita, jacket and all, will simply dissolve if struck. And the real Rita, right behind her, will impact a fraction of a second later, a devastating momentum-converting kick that strikes twice shifting into an assault with raking claws as she lands. If she stays inside his reach, he'll likely just teleport away- but as long as he's playing defensively, he's not harrying Liza.

     When there's a lull, she replies: "Your brother... you mean Mithrix, don't you? Why was he imprisoned?"
Redshift Operators     The ninja has limited physical parameters. Her speed may be superhuman, her agility at its peak, but her strength and endurance are only human. The strain he puts on her is what outmatches her skill and her body -- but not her mind. She can read his movements, or more accurately, she can read his future. Feints simply will not work on her, and every time one is attempted, she moves to punish it ruthlessly: she signals with her blade up (visible, sensible) and a palm over one eye (overdramatic, silly), and that's when the sniper takes a shot. There is simply no way to feint her -- at least with her focus unbroken.

    "Then he brought them here to take him away. He turns the eye of the company upon him, in hopes that those who make delivery their business will deliver him from his imprisonment." There's a "hmmh!" sound of a smirk under that respirator. "Did you get this far through inaction? He has escalated. Do you not plan to? If these interstellar cargo-carriers cannot have their way, he will bring more." She can plant her blade in the carapace just in time to not get thrown off by the ten-cent turn the worm executes before getting right back into it.

    "He would subvert your world, then subvert the galaxy. So defend your world, *and* defend the galaxy. If you won't halt him, help *us* halt him. Act as the savior, Providence. Guilt," She rushes close during a high attack, closing inside his arm's reach with a ruthless thrust. "Is a *paralyzing venom!*"
Hiromi     Liza has asked a question of Hiromi, but since neither realizes who the question is for, Hiromi doesn't answer it.

    The golem followers are left without any command to aid against Providence. And why would should it be otherwise? The challenge was accepted by Hiromi, and she allows for these half-dozen-some others to join. There's no need for further interference. That would make it even less a duel, and more a war, uglier, and more foolish.

    But those other creatures are another matter. Not content to let a leader carry on with a leader's business, it's clear, whether it be Providence or the Imp Overlord, conflict between the golems, imps and wisps is inevitable. She'll see to it once her own battle is won. For now, they're merely obstacles, if mobile ones. Before Rita has full control of them, it's necessary, in passing, to either bat aside imps with her free hand, or suffer their peculiar, burning claws, the red pain of 'something else.'

    And suffer that, Hiromi does, together with the pillars of energy from the green blade. Eyes widen in fascination, then lock in focus, learning even while her flesh is seared away. Though she moves to deflect the blinding energy, glancing it from the curves of her empowered rocket club, the attacks that follow tear away at her form at the same time as wisps and imps. A break in her defenses widens, the punishment for how little care she's given the matter, as if a cracked shell offered no more defense.

    And yet, there's no slowing of her motion. She tries to read the formless pattern by mere intuition, leaning at least her head aside to avoid the blows, until it's only her limbs that are still struck, and then hardly even those. There should be nothing at all left of her but her head, by this point, all the rest torn or stabbed or burned or otherwise reduced to meat. Clearly, that's not the case.

    She only needs as much time as it takes to step forward, for her feet to reform from nothing. Because she wills that she can still move, it follows that she does, an enforcement of truth that leaves the world no choice but to accept her claim. Providence flashes away, and Hiromi follows, trampling over what doesn't become a mere springboard. Imps lack durability, but any mass can be used for its reaction, driven away at great speed only that another may gain some slight velocity.

    "I have your scent," she says, "your fear, your failure. You weren't strong enough. Do you still try? To right your mistakes. Can you? Do you wait for another? Hope in mysteries. New allies, new enemies. One will cure those ills, maybe? The seas are vast, hiding rising land. You're right to hope."
Hiromi     The rocket club strikes again, though this time from the side, the moment she closes. The blade can be taken in trade -- she's already acclimated to the burning pillars. Predicting another teleport, either before or after the strike, Hiromi trusts her ears, rather than her eyes, for the movement of the air, and discards her weapon in a power throw that turns the mass of machinery into a burning comet, instantly melting against the air, exploding, yet carrying nearly all its mass straight through the point she targets, to disintegrate over an arc of miles before splashing into a distant mountain. It'll be some time before the roar of that final impact reaches those fighting here, though the explosion of her breaking the speed barrier is immediate.

<J-IC-Scene> Hiromi says, "I'll not let you be bored."
<J-IC-Scene> Hiromi says, gruffly, "Others, ware. Clear."

    The throw is followed immediately by a launch of her feet against the broken soil and wreckage, breaking a crater with enough force to throw anyone remotely close to her flat to the ground, taking her on a slightly lower trajectory, letting her stay close enough to the surface to break and redirect her momentum should Providence, as she still expects, zip away again, at the cost of further damage to the environment. At the least, this place is already a graveyard, and the rearrangement of its monuments of past destruction will harm no survivors, so long as they aren't standing beneath the vehicular debris when it falls back to earth, after Hiromi's hand strikes it to turn her back around to her target.

    Near once out of thrice, rather than pushing the wrecks away, Hiromi's claws pull out strips of metal, shivs thrown ahead of her in the same motion, likewise enhanced to implausible indestructibility that bleeds away only some moments after they've left her hands. This, too, is in service of making it as frustratingly impossible, no matter what tricks are pulled, to avoid her excessively aggressive advance, after demonstrating that taking off her feet still isn't enough.

    And then there's the moment where she catches up, and her claws reach for solid purchase, and hard, tensed fingers with harder spurs of bone grasp for the swordsman's limbs.

    "Rejoice! Your wait is over. I am Hiromi, and I am strong enough."

    She twists, pulls, and slams Providence, by his leg, into the ground to her right, to her left, and back again, before spinning fully around and sending him, with a greater spin, off the tallest remaining wreck in sight.
Liza Grier     "Nice for one of you to admit it for a change." is what Liza manages to exchange with Providence between blows. He's way bigger than her. She can keep up in terms of strength, but in terms of reach, speed, mass, and the precociousness inherent to showing up with a sword as a primary armament, she'd rather not trade blows like that for long. "That means that you're being half-truthful. If you were really the one to blame for all of it, you wouldn't think so. So I guess that makes you bad. And worse made the mistake of crossing the line you were looking at. Right?" She makes a tag-out handsign and finishes bailing as White Dwarf takes over.

    One of the red telebeams is different from the others. They don't visually vary much --information transmitted through space doesn't squash and smear like that-- but the impact it makes is much more dramatic. Scattered gunfire, clanking rapid footsteps, a muffled explosion, sizzling bursts of steam, draw a direct path towards it through the ghost of the fortified rally point. Lost in the sounds of combat, a couple of innocuous bootsteps, the creak of a polymer seat, and the hydraulic hiss of a locking frame. A few seconds go by with only the sound of a gentle whine, building up into a faint electronic roar.

    A second later, one of the walk-in cargo containers making up part of the base dents in and bends halfway, flying into the air and in the worm's path with a sound like a car crash. Out from behind it, a hulking bipedal behemoth of night black metal, scrubbed of all identifying marks or patterns, charges out into the snow ahead of a white hot plume of thruster fire, bright red optics glowing at full, ominous intensity.

    Liza's target profile is too big to try dodging attacks individually, so she doesn't; the mech runs on pure situational awareness and three-dimensional positioning intuition, using its weight, the ice, and the melt from its boosters, to drift through the snowfield in wide skidding circuits that loop inside where the electric bombs land and minimize the number of sword beams falling on it, simply pulverizing the little monsters that get in the way and ignoring the volleys of small fireballs that crash into its armour. It works this way, occasionally zigzagging while weaving in and out of the cover provided by the wreckage, so it can stay fixed on Providence atop his steed.

    It stays fixed on him so that an automatic shotgun and heavy machine cannon the size of a dumpster can fill the air with so much superheated metal that there's really nothing he can do about it. Over-the-shoulder SAMs fire shrieking clusters of mini-missiles after the tremendous heat signature of his mount, looping and winding back around each time they're missed. Imps that bunch up too much are quickly obliterated with a quick sweep of the cannons, while massing wisps are shot down with point defense lasers. The sheer amount of armour being shot, banged, melted, and cut by the second should be extremely worrying for whoever has to repair it later, but it's like Liza is trying to push the ammo bill higher first.
Rubi-Kan Vagrants      What does Providence want? "For things to be the way they were. For this planet to be the refuge it once was. One of those desires is impossible. The other is impossible--" Kukuru's claws dig directly into his shoulders, bringing him to a knee. His eye flickers dimly. "so long as my brother lives." Does the planet's hold on life also extend to the brothers? Given the dejection in Providence's tone, that's very possible.

     He rises, Kukuru still clinging to him, and throws her upon the back of the worm using his shoulder and hips. The hard, armored plates are bad enough, but the spewing ball lightning is in a league of its own, even with support from Neutron's rifle and the Captain's drones.

     Raziel finds the weakness of the worm. Two, actually. The first is that 'eye' isn't actually an eye. There's a protrusion where one might expect to find eyes--but it's more like a frog's tympanum. The worm is blind, operating entirely by hearing and smell. Raziel, dragging Soul Reaver across it, causes the worm to utter a piercing shriek, its flight growing dangerously erratic as some sort of internal balance organ is injured.

     Having ridden this beast through thick and thin, Providence adjusts expertly, feet finding their place with ease. For Raziel, White Dwarf, and the Rita that -doesn't- dissipate, struck by a backwards elbow from the giant, it may not be so easy to stay atop a writhing, lightning-spewing serpent doing its best impression of an alligator's deathroll. When the real Rita makes contact, there is a kind of sympathetic link, between the echo of the shaped glass in her possession, and the one that was folded, countless aeons ago, into Providence. It answers her question.
Rubi-Kan Vagrants The boys knew to stay away from the gravity wells - or at least, they knew they had been told to. Kids will be kids.

They threw in dirt and stone and kifruit and starseed, watching as it all collapsed. Thorp! The gravity wells would swallow up anything, carrying it, infinitely compacted, across the purple plains. Glass and mud and silver. Wind. Heat. Pulsar radiation. To the last, it would shrink to an impossible fraction of its size, to a near-perfect sphere.

The kifruit was particularly entertaining--how the pulp and juice would try and escape the crushed flesh, competing with it to be free of the wells' immense pressure. The noise following that *thorp*, and its easy comparison to something crude, amused them so much that on one occasion, their laughter almost gave them away.

When his brother wasnt watching, Mithrix would throw in worms. Thorp! But only when Providence wasnt watching. Providence loved worms. Mithrix knew it would make him sad. But he didnt care much about worms. He was just curious.

One time, Providence -was- watching. And he loved worms.

     "It was always more difficult for Mithrix to be good," Providence notes, in that lull. "Your companion speaks truly, in every respect," says Providence, as star-stuff weeps from a wound cut by White Dwarf's sword.

"As he is now, he despises every creature on this planet. For the crime of having my love, which he imagines to be finite, his hatred twists them into what you see below. Your people, humanity, he hates most of all, for often would I leave this place to watch your triumphs in secret. If I had not destroyed your Contact Light, he would have used it to escape. To bring ruin upon your people, destroy your planet, only to wound me."
Rubi-Kan Vagrants      Providence has no defense for White Dwarf--not her strike, nor her argument. Her sword pierces cleanly through as the worm writhes, and he is finally thrown from the worm by the impact of the rocket club from the Archwolf.

     "Thank you, for this. For letting me relive some small shadow of those days, in this place. When all is done, I shall be most glad to duel, you to whom the earth kneels."

     The teleporter -pops.- It's done charging--but the Mountain has yet to be climbed. Hiromi is strong enough. Her blow knocked Providence into the nearby spire, hard enough to tunnel a cavern into its side. It alights from within--another pillar of light, this one swept from side to side. It isn't so much the laser that's the danger as the tumbling wreckage from the falling spire, now. Providence bats it aside on his way out, now hunched over from exertion as his cloak billows behind him.

     Shattering a falling satellite dish with a knee, he is just in time to meet Liza. She knows, or can reasonably guess, by his answers to Rita and White Dwarf, what that line was, if not necessarily when it was crossed. "There were those who saw this planet's dominion over life as harmful--who felt that even a place of spiritual peace must eventually invite that final peace. When they found a way to step through that door, neither of us handled it well. His way is dangerous to others. My way has made him resentful of me, driven him mad with jealousy."

     The cargo container crashes into the worm, knocking it from the sky behind him. It still holds the warmth and glow of life, but will not aid its rider any longer in this fight. There is an impressive effort brought to bear against the Mauler, Providence's sword whirling before him and sparking as hot lead is guided away along the plane of the blade. It is the SAMs which ultimately do him in--though aimed at his mount, he leaps in to defend the downed creatures, pummeled into submission by a litany of miniature explosions.

     When the smoke and driven snow clears, Providence, on hands and knees, has thrown his sword to the ground. The teleporter is charged--though there is a mysterious golden portal torn into space beside it. The Engineer confirms it's something to do with the shrine Raziel found.

     "You have surpassed the mountain. Heroes, name what boons you would ask of my steed and I."
Kukuru Providence answers, and Kukuru listens. She doesn't quite understand the full context of why his desires must conflict or why his brother's life is related to that matter, but it does jar her memory enough to recall (at least somewhat) the things mentioned in that odd place prior to arriving at this snow-capped landscape.

The call to clear away is given, and Kukuru's already way ahead of it when Providence just tosses her right off of him. She goes tumbling and rolling along the surface of the snow almost bonelessly despite the claws, and she even teleports a few times to try and slow herself down before wedging herself right into a snowbank. It gives her some more time to consider what Providence means, and also to see everything else being thrown at him and the massive worm mount.

Was he ready for this fight? Was he hoping for them to overcome this challenge? It certainly seems that way when he's already explaining Mithrix's relationship to him, Mithrix's motivations, and the reason for his hatred (even if she's already heard about that last part before). The only thing that stops her from trying to speak  immediately is the sheer volume of stuff being sent at Providence and his odd steed, even going as far as covering her ears not to be deafened by ground-shattering slams, clashing blades, and explosions of various sorts.

It takes until the smoke and snow finally clears for Kukuru to pull herself back out of the snow, eyeing the golden portal for several moments before approaching Providence again. Despite fighting him mere moments ago, she places a now-bare hand on his shoulder, pouring some of her healing nanites into him to try and get him back to a healthier, if not necessarily perfect state.

"A boon? Um... I dunno if it counts, but can you make people smarter? I want to..." Kukuru drones for a bit as she tries to figure out a more compelling way to word something, fails miserably, then just continues. "... Be better at thinking of a way to make that impossible thing not impossible. Families shouldn't have to be torn apart if they don't want to be just because one of them wants to destroy stuff and the other doesn't want them to destroy stuff."

She wrinkles her nose as she struggles to think again, and then she snaps her fingers when it actually seems to work for once. "Oh! Can you make my brain powers stronger? So I can make him think that your love insfin.. Isnfin... Isn't finite."
Hiromi     As soon as she's made her toss, Hiromi just watches. When a massive piece of debris falls to her, she brushes it out of the air, to better see Liza's Mauler unleash its firepower in the finishing blow.

    She could help, of course. But her demonstration was complete. She'd only be in the way, after that, even if she didn't mind intercepting the hailstorm of bullets and rockets. It doesn't look like a fun place to be, if one were to answer honestly, and she's hardly one prone to dishonesty.

    "Heroes, name what boons you would ask of my steed and I."
    "I'd ask much, when alone. Now, I'll ask little. Only what you must do." Still in mere tatters of clothing, and covered in blood from dozens of wounds, though with odd patches of perfectly clean skin, where it has since regrown, Hiromi emphasizes her point with a slow curling of her fingrs into a fist, arm before her and bent, every motion of muscle clearly visible from shoulder to wrist. As ever, her appearance is oppressively real, an eye-catching, impossible yet natural, inhuman perfection of strength, in a near-human form.

    "Fight."

    She spreads her arms, her gesture encompassing the whole battlefield. "You hold claims to this world. You know what's wrong. You wish for rightness. 'Impossible.'" She practically spits the word. "Weak thoughts. You've seen my strength, if only for moments. You've seen these others. Throw away that weakness. Fight your 'impossible' fight. Come. Reach for your future with your strength. Without trying, you'll deserve nothing. Understand that."

    That forceful, moderately threatening entreaty delivered, Hiromi's voice gains a rare layer of softness, lowering. "Fights with family are hard. If you've made your choice, follow it. If not, come, see, with own eyes. Or, you'll lose that right. Others will change what you'd turned from."
Rita Ma      Rita is breathing deeply, but not raggedly. She is- at least- untouched.

     Estranged family is a topic she's only glimpsed dimly, through Lilian and others. "Having to feel that way about someone who's supposed to care for you... I'm sorry, Mr. Providence. I can't tell you that I'm able to imagine it, except that it must be really hard. You carry a lot of pain in your heart, don't you?"

     The revelation that the person who destroyed the Contact Light is standing in front of her makes her shift uncomfortably, hands stuffed in her pockets. The moral calculus here is obviously difficult for her to square. After a moment she settles on asking: "What was so dangerous about the ship, Mr. Providence? Are we going to endanger Earth when we leave, too?"

     After trying, and failing, to settle her feelings with him for a few more moments, Rita rummages around in her little leather satchel and pulls out some gauze and ointment. "Here. Bend down, okay? Let me help. It'll sting a little bit, but you'll get better."

     If he allows it, she swabs something that looks like a homemade white crayon against the inner edges of the wound, applies some antiseptic cream, and then applies gauze and secures it with a bandage wrapped around his torso a couple of times. She doesn't look him in the eye while she works, preferring to stay engrossed in what her hands are doing. Maybe it helps her sort out her emotions.

     His blood doesn't smell human, so it's easier than usual, too.

     After her work is done, Rita steps back and tucks her hands back into her pockets. She still looks uncomfortable, but a little less so.

     "Help us find where the other survivors are," she says firmly. "More of them are somewhere on the planet. That's what we're here for, so wishing for something else would be selfish. And if you really do feel guilty about the Contact Light, then it'll be good for your heart too, won't it?"

     Her smile is hopeful.
Raziel Raziel's strike was true, doing more than blinding the worm, causing its very balance to shake.  Even as he clung, its death roll had enough force for even his piercing claws.  Eventually, he is thrown from the creature and hits the ground.  Though not with the same lack of grace as before when he was struck.  He lands, claws dragging along the ground as he gains his footing, quickly standing.  

However, the battle was over, and the giant laid his sword down.  The Soul Reaver vanished from his hand.  The Archwolf's boon is obvious, though he was surprised at Kukuru's.  He takes a moment to mend his clothing, a force of will causes the magical garments to restitch, and conceal his...undead features.  

"I doubt you can do for me what I desire, one is something I can do by my own head and the other is likely beyond your powers.  However, I would consider our debt settled if you make good on your boon to the late Ma, and help us find those that did not survive, so I can free their souls from the prison that is this place."
Redshift Operators     The ninja lands after much tossing about. The worm flung her far, but not so far that the giant can't leap up to catch her, slamming into the ground and leaving a small crater of blasted snow. He sets her down, and the group head towards the teleporter, towards Providence.

    "Sounds like the bastard's drowning in some insecurities and pain. I'm gonna tell you what needs telling." Says the gruff man, cutting his medic off before she starts speaking. "Whatever species you two are, if you're brothers, you got built into your blood that feeling like you gotta help him. And the fact is, he's never gonna be better while he's waiting on a drip feed of attention." He shoulders his gun and jabs a finger at Providence. "This inaction, this fucked up status quo, it's not helping him, it's making him worse if I know about this at all. This shit where he starts problems just to get your attention for a minute."

    "Don't let abusers fill your head with the kind of lies your blood knows aren't true, about how painful love is. Love your brother? Fine. But *don't enable him*. Love's happy stuff. You feel good when you love. Love isn't *miserable* to feel. You're full of love but you sound like you're gonna put that sword to your neck when we're gone, dumb bastard. Cut him off. Set the boundaries. Tell him, no more until he gets his *shit sorted out*. Make a damn statement for him to leave the shit you care about *alone*, and aside from that, no contact -- not until he gets it the hell together. Come on. Family means you help them, and helping *him* means cutting him off so he'll fucking sink or swim, because you are outta options and that's the last one you can use while he puts the stuff that matters to you at risk."

    He also glances back to the medic, as if checking. She starts to speak up about a boon, stops... then ponders. After a moment, she nods to the gunman instead. So he speaks. "Boon... Give us some way to get to that bastard myself. If you aren't gonna do it, we are. You join in if you want, but it's happening one way or another. How's that for inaction?"

    He directs the others towards the portal with a series of tactical gestures, and will likely join them himself as soon as this conversation is done.
Liza Grier     The whine of stressed servos, the sparking of blown fuses, and the thunderous stomp of still-functioning hydraulics, precedes Liza's path through the snow towards Providence. Flickering beams of ominous red light sweep back and forth through the residual mist, traced back to the points of glowing crimson settled in the mauler's pitch black bulk. Parts of it glow lit-cigarette orange, numerous pockmarks and gouges cloaking its silhouette in a dim haze of lightly toxic smoke.

    The sound of heavy metallics and a crash on the ice mark the sound of a giant drum magazine being manually disengaged, release and charging handle operated by articulated mechanical fingers; the fallback for a shorted feed circuit. The rattling centipede clicking of a new cannon belt being threaded through the link feed is a more subtly understated threat, of how armed it still is. The right arm whirrs. A smouldering gunmetal muzzle glides up point towards Providence; the slight error to the movement betrays that it's all manual.

    The weapon is jerked gesturally at the teleporter. Liza's body language, expressing those little bad habits, is suddenly all too visible through the powered frame, despite the fact that it operates by hand controls. The vocalizer isn't any clearer. "So that's how you found out, huh? That there are too many 'people' out there who don't care what they have as long as everyone else hasn't."

    One of the sensor pods on the shoulder sweeps a laser line at Rita, like a habitual sideways glance. "Take a guess. They're a company ship, remember? They weren't here to document anything. They were surveying. Looking to see if they could report a profit. I'd bet you anything that what they found was 'a way Mithrix could use to follow them', and took it back home to sell."

    "No offense, if it's an honour thing, but I'm not in the habit of shooting people and then telling them to pay me for it. If you want to make a trade, then how's this: do your best for me, one last time, to unfuck your brother, and if he needs to make himself a menace to all humans everywhere, I'll be there to clean up. Deal?"
Rubi-Kan Vagrants      Providence shifts, sitting on his knees so that he is close(r) to level with everyone who isn't Hiromi. So that Rita can mend his wound. Hands folded before him, sword resting in a bank of snow as his steed recuperates, he listens. When everything has been said, he speaks.

     Kukuru is offered what was once, very clearly, a human spine, before it was broken in half and modified with unusual spines. "This is the work of a brilliant human who was also... unwell. He intended to use it for harm, many years ago. The endeavor to prevent that harm was one of the few times I set foot upon Earth in person. I regret that I could not convince him to turn his considerable talents towards nobler pursuits--but his work will serve you well. Be warned that it does not distinguish between friend and foe."

     Hiromi is given a single, solemn nod. His answer is as much for Rita, Liza and Red Dwarf as it is for her--though his face, formed of shadow, is indistinct, there is the sense that Liza's summary has drawn a wince from him, for the cold, simple truth of it.

     "...I have made my decision. I will fight. I will help you find the other survivors and do my best with Mithrix, come what may."

     The [hero]'s cyclopic eye is next focused on Raziel. He has sworn his service to the cause of finding the survivors, and to fighting his brother. But the other request is something he imagines he knows, all the same. Feels compelled to respond to. "Mithrix is a craftsman, I am a warrior. Once, there was a healer among us, a radiant soul with a flock of disciples. I am sorry that you arrived too late to meet her, but take heart--as you have stepped into this place, some of it has stepped into you. If, one day, what you seek is just beyond your grasp, then reach out for it anyway, and I will be reaching, too."

     He turns his gaze to the golden portal. "I see you have opened the cage which holds my first creation. I never could, by Mithrix's intentional design. The [wealth] of a [hero] means nothing to that golden shrine--for the offering must well and truly be a sacrifice, and [treasures] are heaped heavily at the feet of [heroes]. Fixing this place, doing the impossible, will mean freeing the golden one from his timeless prison, for he, too, suffers. I will help you do this, and bear the brunt of his anger."

     The newest in a growing number of allies stands back to his full height. The sword returns to his hand seemingly of its own volition, and he strides towards the golden portal.

     "...and when we emerge from that gilded cage, my [will] shall see us through to the survivors, with scarcely seconds having passed in this space."