Scene #8130: Agents of BUILD: Helldive

Owner	Pose
Operator	The hellportal generated aboard the alien mothership deposits the Elites, along with Duke Nukem, onto a rocky crag overlooking a sheer, 50-degree angle drop into the Earth. It's dark, with the only light coming from far below, casting eerie shadows onto the wall. Above is also dark, so dark that it's unclear if there is a stone roof above, or just endless darkness. Duke lights a cigar, cutting through the gloominess as more hellportals begin opening. Back on the mothership, Tommy has seized control of several of the invading saucers and forcibly landed them, allowing ground troops (accompanied by Hiromi's empowered civilians) to board and slaughter the crew. From there, he has advised them on how to operate the hellportal technology. Using this, they now arrive to set up a forward-operating base on this cliff. Supplies are carried in, and other Elites can arrive to support the next stage of the counter-invasion. "All right, we're going allllll the way down," Duke explains, gesturing at the fathomable deep hole. "According to our forward scout, this hole will take us straight to the demonic headquarters for this invasion. So we gotta thrust ourselves all the way in, got it?" He delivers the innuendo with a totally straight face, before striding over to the supplies and pulling the protective sheet off a bike-shaped lump. Surprisingly, under the sheet was a motorbike! A Harley Davidson Fat Boy to be exact. "Now, if you don't wanna slide all the way down to hell on your keister, I recommend you grab a ride." Among the supplies brought in is all manner of vehicles. Other motorbikes, skateboards, snowboards and their hovering equivalent, roller skates. There's even a horse! "The hole never goes sharper than 60 degrees apparently, so there might be some drops, but if you're good, you can stay on the surface the whole time." With that subtle taunt, Duke revs up his bike, extinguishes the cigar against his boot heel, and rides off the cliff to start driving down the Hellmouth!
Remee Halcyon	> we gotta thrust ourselves all the way in, got it? "(What an odd way of speaking,)" comments Remee to herself, not getting it. And then Remee looks over the vehicles on display. "I'm... not terribly used to driving myself around? Especially down unusual terrain like this?" Her eyes linger on the horse. The Halcyon household has played host to any number of Rich People Pursuits, but equestrianism has never been one of them, for several reasons. Remee's nose wriggles, and her eyes narrow. "... Well... if the stupid horse can handle it... and it only gets to sixty degrees..." She turns around to focus on the hole again, takes a few steps backwards... and takes a running leap at it. Two legs leave the ground, and four paws return, scrabbling to find footing on the sides. The worst that'll happen is that she loses control, hits the ground too fast at the end and dies, after all.
Corona Arclite	Corona Arclite walks over and crouches down at the edge of the hole, taps a few commands at her analysizer, which brings up a similar read on the incline angle of the descent, though she doesn't have the range to scan all the way down its enough of a measurement to confirm. "Ayup. That's a long way down, but it ain't entirely steep." She's stifling a snicker at Duke's wording. She entirely got it. She stands, glancing over as the big man pulls the cover off his bike, and several others of sorts nearby. "Nice ride. Ahpreciate the thought." If she'd known it'd be a ride she'd brought one of her own, but provisions have been made in the matter. The vixen gunslinger ambles over to swing her leg up and straddle one of the other motorbikes. Turns the ignition, revs it up, and follows Duke over the edge to begin the descent into whatever hell waits below.
Timespace Riders	Woz rolls his eyes at Duke's innuendo. It flies completely over Sougo's head, and he nods assuredly. "Got it! All the way in!" The array of vehicles gets their attention, and the two of them share a glance. "Ah, how fortuitous," says Woz, picking up the hover skates. His tone is cool and collected, but his brief expression of relief implies he might mean 'thank God I don't have to ride a motorcycle again' instead. "And there so happen to be two pairs. Here, my Demon King." Both of them slip into the boots, then each of them dons their transformation belts. Woz's far-future duster and Sougo's pastel pink button-up both disappear between their respective armors, one conjured from imposing, stately analogue clock hands and the other flash-printed by a smartwatch-built laser light show. Kamen Rider Woz? WOZ?! o/` Kameeeen Rider! o/` ZI-O . . . Two riders, one in pink and silver, the other silver and green, both don hoverskates in place of their normal boots, and each of them take off downhill. Of the two, Woz is the more graceful, with Zi-O making a few false starts and near-falls to the sound of startled cries.
Hellwarming Trio	"Now this is more like it." "Right? It's homey!" "It could stand to use a few more lights, but it's more pleasant than that flying machine." Indeed, the three youkai look right at home as they peer over that big sheer drop, loitering dangerously over the edge without so much as a hand on the ground to keep themselves from falling off. Utsuho has her hands crossed behind her head, Rin has her arms held past her head as she gestures at various stone formations, and Satori just has her arms folded in front of her. When Duke gives them their marching orders, the bird and the cat exchange brief looks before snickering quietly to themselves. "That's one deep hole, yeah." "Bet we'd all fit in real easy, though." "Of course we would. It's a massive hole, likely well worn from centuries of use." Satori looks on in confusion when the other two burst into laughter, then sighs after a moment and grabs them both by the ears to drag them over towards the motorbike and other assorted vehicles once they're revealed. "A-anyway. We'll be fine without those things. We can fl-" Before she can finish her sentence, Utsuho and Rin have already leapt onto a motorbike and roller skates of their own, respectively, to start following after the gun-wielding blond with all the hooting and hollering to be expected. Satori's quieter, at least, as she follows along on a skateboard.
Ozhira	Ozhira emerges from the Hellportal in a bit of a state, colliding with the ground in a wet, meaty impact that scatters crimson fluid in all directions. After a moment, their legs straighten and lift, the fluid retreats back to the primary mass, and the girl-like shape reforms itself from someone smashed face-first into the ground-- into a girl-like shape standing up normally. The first thing they do is lean over the edge, staring down into the Hellmouth with their jaw slightly agape, trinagular teeth on display, "That is. Our destination?" Leaning back, they glance towards Duke as he unveils his motorcycle. The Beast is, once again, fascinated however briefly by chrome and metal and moving parts with a little 'Ooh' sort of noise just as the engine turns over to its distinct, throaty rumble. Duke roars past Ozhira, drawing their attention back to the hole bored down into, apparently, Hell. They act fast, though. Having no skill whatsoever when it comes to managing vehicles, and being a Beast that no doubt would unsettle the most stout-hearted horse, Ozhira instead shoots out a crimson tendon of stretchy, flexible organic material. This grips on to the Fat Boy's rear fender, quickly shifting until it can anchor on to the Harley's sturdy frame. Ribbonlike crimson flesh pays out of Ozhira's outstretched, hand-less arm for a moment. When it snaps taut, the Beast is yanked off their feet and over the edge. They hit the borehole side solidly with a splat, scattering crimson fluid. It takes a few bounces for them to land on their feet and stay there, forming 'skis' of keratinized bone out of their 'shoes'.
Hiromi	Hiromi doesn't know the first thing about riding a bike, and it's not really pleasant to slide down on her feet unless it's natural earth and stone. She isn't trusting anything regarding any 'hell' to be natural. That being the case, she inspects the 'snowboard,' lifting it up, turning it around, setting it on the ground, flipping it up into the air by stepping on the edge just so -- and she sets it down again. There's only the one problem with it, and that's that it's too small. Snowboards made for those of her stature aren't exactly common. She turns to go. Soon enough, she returns, having both finished a short conversation over a great distance, and acquired her necessary material; it's a tree. A whole tree ripped from the ground, it's upper branches stripped by violently rolling it, leaving some twenty feet of trunk several feet wide. She drops it at the edge, such that it nearly tips over, but is stopped by her foot. She steps aboard, sets her feet hard enough to crunch impressions through the bark, and tilts, knees bent. After a long moment, she disappears from the view of any still deciding their entry. Impacts that should shatter her ride merely shave away unnecessary pieces as she descends in terribly efficient fashion, gradually transforming the tree to ever slightly more the shape of the board it replaces. She lifts off the ground where the incline changes, slams down again, and tilts side to side to maintain near-upright posture as it rolls beneath her. Not having the smoothness of a snowy ski slope, jutting stones are greater hazards, but ones she avoids by lifting with her front foot and turning at the back, taking some new course wherever the straight path would have slowed her down.
Evehime Gevurah	'New Elites arriving for further support' is rare occurrence midway through any given operation. When it comes to the Multiverse's fewest and finest responders, one typically gets what they get, plus a newly needed specialist or two. An invasion of Hell itself, just after fighting off an invasion from space, certainly must qualify as one of those times where even Elite forces are further expanded and reallocated as they go. In this case, anyone who can fight would do. But still. Why did it have to be her? Is the Archwolf friends with her now? That's sort of what it looks like, just a little, when Hiromi's one-sided conversation wraps up not five minutes before Evehime walks out of the new Warpgate as if it somehow belonged to her. Just slightly before Hiromi returns with a whole tree, so it is maximally uncomfortable for anyone to be around even her restive presence, and yet just in time to meet Duke fucking Nukem on a motorcycle, absorb that instructional innuendo, contemplate it, in full seriousness, arms crossed, deep in thought, and finally utter back with immense, sagacious gravity, "Regardless of one's efforts, they cannot be considered to have passed the boundary until all of them has passed it. There is no 'in' but 'all the way'. One is outside or they are there." She definitely, absolutely, took that stupid joke to be some kind of foreign koan to be contemplated before battle. She totally did. She absolutely totally thought about that like a monk for some reason. It'd be so, so funny to point out, if only the idea didn't seem passively terrifying. She caps it off with raising her chin in something akin to approval, and giving Nukem a look that seems to say 'you are wise. proceed.' before wandering off to where Hiromi has set up. Not that she intends to ride the tree. The only particularly durable part of her fit always seems to be those same boots. There is apparently a good reason for this, and it is evinced by the fact that Evehime simply intends to skate down the slope by acknowledging that beyond a certain level of force, all surfaces behave as if frictionless.
Operator	"We're in hell... or hell-adjacent. No one to license check you here. But, if you're too chicken, portal's that way," Duke says smugly to Remee as she admits to not being able to drive herself. But when she morbs out and just starts running down the shaft after him, he looks back and laughs. "Well, that's the spirit!" Woz and Sougo get a look from Duke, his finger coming up to push down his sunglasses so he can stare at them directly. Once they're on the slope going down, he drifts his bike towards Rin and Utsuho and gestures at the two. "Are they.. you know..." He takes a hand off the handlebars, raises it up, and lets the wrist go limp. Only now does he notice that Ozhira has tethered to his bike and is sliding down behind him. A throaty chuckle emerges from his throat. "Man, you're a weird one. But I like it!" But speaking of weird, Hiromi is delayed in riding down, because they went to get a tree to ride. And she bought a new friend. Duke was definitely checking Evehime out when she arrived, and when she nodded her approval to him, he took the moment to flex a bicep. But thoughts of big women will have to wait as they begin passing by the first circle of hell. Unlike what one would expect, the glimpses they get of it through holes in the shaft depict a mostly pleasant place. Limbo, the home of the virtuous unbaptized. Grand castles and pleasant meadows, bereft of the grace of God, for those who lived good lives without relying on divine words to live by. Unfortunately, just because it's the nice part of Hell, doesn't mean it lacks defenders. It's like the gated community of the afterlife after all. Demons in the porcelain guise of angels fly into the shaft through these gaps to assail the spelunkers, firing blasts from great trumpets. Duke produces his golden deagle and returns fire, but they swarm in mass. "Don't scratch the paint, creeps!" the meathead yells, decking one who landed on the handlebars. But suddenly, three golden coins leap from one of the gaps, spinning through the air. And then a bullet follows, striking one, and then ricocheting between the other two before flying to drill through an angelic demon's head. A robot leaps into the shaft behind them. It's blue, with robotic wings bearing golden 'feathers' that spread and glow as they begin sliding down the shaft alongside everyone. Their head is like a single big security camera, and on their chest over where a heart would be on a human is written "V1." "Hey new kid! About time!" Duke calls to the robot. They respond by raising a single middle finger at the man, before fanning the revolver in their hand to drill the sentries full of lead.
Ozhira	"We are, Weird," Ozhira responds to Duke's compliment. Not simply acceptance, but an assertion. They know they're a monster, after all. They manipulate the positioning of their feet and 'skis' to swerve around gaps as they appear. They glance back when these gaps start producing monsters, calling out "We are joined!" The Beast's silhouette distorts and stretches unnaturally until, with an elastic pop, there are suddenly two Ozhiras standing on those skis, differentiated only by the color of their ties. This is a trick Duke has seen the Devourer pull before. Black Tie Ozhira lets go of the leading version of themself and drops back. A tendril lances out of their chest, right above the collarbone, spearing into a flying demon and yanking the girl into the air where, mid-flight, they implode into a ball of keratin-coated spines and gnashing teeth. Red Tie Ozhira remains tethered to Duke's bike with their left arm, their right unzipping and unfurling into a bloated, keratinized mass of spikes. Raising their reconfigured forearm, this Ozhira fires the spines as one might fire bolts from a crossbow, using elastic tendons and cartilage joints in place of the normal arms and string of such a weapon-- all while maintaining their balance in this Water-Ski-like arrangement.
Corona Arclite	The group roars down the slope to Hell on their various modes of transportation. With one hand gripping the handlebars Corona uses the other to scroll through the arsenal she's brought with. Then veers hard to the side as the trumpeters come to greet them with their sonic blasts ripping up the rock behind them as she steers away. "Here comes the welcoming committee, time to look alive pardners!" A bad joke, considering most of their foes are likely going to be either dead, undead, or demonic. She snorts, and pulls one of her weapons from her stockpile. It.. almost looks like a Nerf gun. Or at least looks like a punked-up version of such a thing. But rest assured this thing shoots more than foam darts. Corona takes aim at the trumpeters and fires off a series of shots that, with her precision gunslinger aim, sinks the rounds right into several of the trumpets. Then the shots erupt and sploshes of sticky hot tar glop out of the weaponized instruments to end their sonic assault by clogging them up and leave the blowers choking on the hot sludge. An another arrival joins the fight, dispatching several of the foes with some slick shooting as well. "Yeehah!" One trumpter managed to duck his head away, but in doing so exposes its back, which Corona pops off another shot to glob up its wings and send it crashing back into the depths of hell before them. "Highway to Hell? Don't need no slaggin' highway!"
Hellwarming Trio	In theory, Utsuho should be fine driving a motorbike. She's watched Go do it plenty of times, she's been in the back seat of a car with Rin countless times, and she's even watched one whole video about it on her phone! In practice, it's... Not disastrous, but it's kind of awkward all the same. Rin's not faring much better on her roller skates, either, but they manage to start moving down safely enough once they're counter-balancing each other by holding onto each other('s rides). It gets a little easier over time, but only a little bit, and not enough for them to separate confidently by the time Duke comes riding on over towards them. They follow his look towards Woz and Sougo, then stare at him blankly when he does that gesture. "Uhhh... Maybe? Sure, I guess." "Totally, bro. How about you? Are you...?" It's pretty obvious they don't know what it means, but Rin does a really good job mimicking the motion. Utsuho doesn't get a chance to copy it herself, though, as they're soon beset by the porcelain-faced demons. Against their better judgment, they stick to their chosen rides instead of taking to the skies, just holding onto each other's hands for dear life while their other hands are in charge of firing back at their attackers in the most literal sense. Of course they're going to use fire here. It might blend in a bit too much with the background, but they're not worried about aesthetics right now. Satori's too busy to pay attention to what's going on with the vulgar motions, anyway, as her skateboard takes her speeding down the path in front of her. She weaves between stone formations and burning geysers like an expert going through the baby slopes, even ducking forward on one side with her hand to hold the front of her board up while her other hand directs all manner of colorful magical blasts at the porcelain demons harassing them. Anyone that's really paying attention, though, will notice that her jaw is screwed shut and she hasn't blinked once the entire time. When the robot flips Duke off, Satori still can't bring herself to speak up in greeting with as terrified as she is of the ride. Instead, she returns his greeting with a light bow of her head and a raised middle finger of her own.
Remee Halcyon	"I'm not chicken," says wolf-Remee, with some smugness, as she runs down the portal. After some initial trouble, she manages to get her footing and get used to the angles they're traveling at. Even on 'foot', she's managing to keep pace with the vehicles pretty easily. Running, running... There's Hiromi, and there's Ozhira - people she keeps meaning to go off in search of at some point. She'll have to worry about that later. The youkai, the riders, and Evehime each get a nod - the best she can do, not being able to wave like this without stumbling. Further socialization will have to wait, though - incoming enemies. Gatekeepers. "Wasn't - expecting to run into stuff till we'd reached the bottom!" calls Remee, panting a bit as she tries to run and talk at the same time. "Could have given me a chance to get ready!" She runs - and she starts changing, back and forth - fortunately it's timed while nobody is looking at her, not because of any embarassment on her part, but because rapid shapeshifting between 'form the equipment is designed to fit' and 'form that has fingers to get it on with' tends to get disorientating for the casual observer. After about four shifts, though, she's back in action - and dashing forward to catch up with the group and engage. Her equipment loadout could be described: Take an oversized dog harness. Attach it to the wolf. Attach two shotguns, one on either side, to the harness that is attached to the wolf. Add some pneumatics and pulleys to enable head-based-aiming, attach an autofeeder to eliminate the need for reloading, and a bite-based trigger for firing. The shotgun-wolf leaps, getting in reasonably close before biting the trigger and opening up a spray of blessed lead at the demons, and then landing and continuing her run. The autofeeders load in another set of rounds - the holy bullets that Remee had the foresight to bring along, blessed by the highest clergy that money could buy.
Timespace Riders	"Uwoh!" Zi-O has to hop to avoid the porcelain demon struck by Duke as it slides off his bike. His landing is clumsy, just barely allowing him to keep up speed. Woz, spear in hand, fares slightly better, leveraging the weapon's haft to slam into oncoming defenders, rolling with the force of his blows to keep moving--but he's falling behind. They need speed and maneuverability, but luckily, each of them has a tool just for that. Racing down the incline and leaping over one of the gaps, Woz slots a futuristic pocketwatch into his belt midair. Dare Ja? Ore Ja! Ninja! Futurering Shinobi! SHINOBI! Zi-o follows suit, after tripping on the lip of the same chasm. Level UP! o/` Ex-AIIID! o/` Woz, in the ninja-themed Shinobi armor, is now fast enough to keep pace, while Zi-O, in the colorful 90s gaming themed Ex-Aid armor, is now able to make absurd video-game double jumps, complete with retro bweeps. Zi-O, armed with two B-button bludgeons in place of his gloves, makes a nimble frontflip over the next gap, blasting an angel-guised demon with both pummels from behind as he passes. Colorful HIT! indicators fly up for each, the blows made with enough force to launch it towards Woz. Purple scarf blowing dramatically behind him, the retainer flings a rapid volley of explosive shuriken, sliding to low-profile himself beneath the demon and leaning back upright just as the explosions go off. "Salutations, robot," calls Woz, cutting to the side to ride along a wall in avoidance of another gap. "Hi! V1... I'm Zi-O," calls the bludgeon-wielding rider, mimicking Woz's motions on the opposite side of the chasm.
Hiromi	Hiromi did, indeed, invite Evehime. If riding into hell wasn't enough of a reason for the two of them to be in the same place, then what could be? Whatever past events led to that personal connection (apart from the extremely public fight that destroyed a portion of a city and at least one battleship on another world) will remain a mystery, for the moment. They're attacked, and while it would definitely be handy to have something like 'a gun' in this situation, some must do without. At first treating them merely as a hazard, Hiromi's path down the slope weaves through blasts from the trumpets, baiting them to fire in one direction before shifting her weight with a jump that takes her down a split around craggy obstacles. But then, maintaining speed becomes impossible. And then, the swarm grows to be, effectively, everywhere. There's no helping it. A tree trunk shouldn't be able to survive a hundredth of what Hiromi puts her ride through, but it does. Even when she slams one foot down to rock backward, twists low, and leaps, sending herself into the air, and her increasingly smoothed-down sled rocketing down into the pit. She reaches one winged demon halfway to the apex of her arc, and has just finished tearing her claws clean through it when she finds another. Once in the air, her footholds are the swarm itself, and her feet are likewise clawed, black spikes like bone erupting and retracting in a way that looks not quite natural only if one pays careful attention. One scarcely could, at her speed. Above the slope, maneuvering in three dimensions, redirecting her momentum with every third kill, avoiding incoming fire is that much easier. Wings are torn, faces sliced, what passes for spinal columns speared, bodies bisected in passing or tossed back into others with the sort of force that turns any solid object into an improvised, fragmenting explosive. And then Hiromi leaps from the furthest demon she could reach, lands with both feet on her tree trunk, sliding into a 360-degree spin to observe everyone else's situation, arms crossed.
Evehime Gevurah	Evehime, having mistaken Duke Nukem for the wise war-leader of the Earth armies, and thus not yet aware of the fact that he is an idiot, seems to have no problems with him admiring her looks. If she were the type to be picky about that, she'd probably wear more and pose less. Something akin to amusement twitches the corner of her lips when he flexes, even. And not even the condescending type. "Your spirit. I enjoy it." she says, before meeting with Hiromi. It is unusual that, of all things, she looks surprised as they descend into Hell. Not just because it's Hell, but the soft shock silently exuding from the way she goes from staring ahead aimlessly to absorbing the sights of Limbo with widened eyes speaks to a level of subversion that implies she thought she knew what to expect from literal hell. At this incline, with her strength and weight, it only takes her slow-paced and repetitive kickoffs with alternating feet to keep grinding the slope, 'elegantly skating' with molten rock sparks splitting out from under metal-shod feet, which only makes it all the more tonally dissonant when she turns to look as she goes much as a skater would drift around a rink. "This is your 'Hell'? I wonder if the words should not be translated so. I cannot believe that this is meant to be the realm of anything that should be called 'Demon'. What use is this as a lower plane? The human realm is clearly the one far more base and degraded. One would be more blind to the higher realms simply by being alive." She doesn't really seem to grasp that the things with trumpets are demons, and so a flurry of trumpet blasts pump into her center mass. The way she instantly flies back off into the distance is deceptive; the flames clearing show immediately that she is functionally unscathed, but that the combined impact was enough to steal all her momentum, while everyone else is still racing ahead. A 'tsk' of displeasure skips off the ground, and then a rumble like thunder follows. Evehime blurs past again, ahead of an impressive blaze of colourless energy, keeping both legs firmly planted to remain combat stable. A column of angelic demons are smashed to pieces simply by colliding with them. The scattered limbs are left with the molten trails in her wake. And then something really has her attention.
Evehime Gevurah	Namely, the coinshot causes her eyes to suddenly light up. For a moment, one could even describe them as 'sparkling', if they felt so inclined. "V1? That is . . . First Version?" she utters out loud. It isn't a question. It does not invite a response or a correction. But it drips with anticipation. She even recognizes that the gesture is, in fact, meant to be rude, and laughs loud enough to easily be heard over the gunfire. "Is this it?! Were all the truly interesting souls simply spending their time in Hell?! This improvement over the land of man! I see! Well then, First Version, do not stop there! Let us make this even more interesting! As exciting as we can!" Evehime cracks the air like glass. From the shining void beyond, she withdraws the entire severed assemblage of what was certainly a cannon attached to a mecha, not very long ago, now braced into her shoulder like a folded stock carbine. Then she withdraws another. Only her voice would carry over the scream of the barrels revving up simultaneously. "I will be watching! And I will be counting! Let us compare! And do not disappoint me!" Her laughter is dimly audible over the dual roar of paired autocannons now spewing thousands of rounds per minute straight downrange, spewing wings of tumbling brass casings behind her. She relinquishes the triggers only long enough so that one cannon's recoil unbalances her and causes her to swerve or spin, using the two of them to maneuver as much as to shoot. The cutting waves of giant tracers match to where she swerves and zigzags, riding the wall and blasting apart corpses before they can slow her down. Charging as deep as she can go, she fires slightly out of synch, causing an humanly lethal spin that omnidirectionally sprays lead at every target around her.
Operator	Black Tie Ozhira finds the angels are like a gusher or something. A hard crispy outer shell of gold and bone-white porcelain around a gooey, demonic centre. These ones are kind of fatty, presumably there's not much to hunt on this circle so they've become the demonic equivalent of mall cops. Red Tie meanwhile gets to watch with satisfaction as her bone bolts crack through that outer shell to over-penetrate. This is no armour, it's purely decorative. Corona drills her bullets straight into the horns, the hot tar erupting into what is assuredly the worst fluid that a wind instrument player has ever had to feel blowback into their mouths while playing. A couple have their mouths gummed shut entirely and plummet as they run out of oxygen. Duke looks at Rin for a long time before responding. "Have you seen me? Of course I'm not." While fire is a bit cliche, it works! Their nuclear and spectral flames cause the outer shells to explode as their internals boil, the steam pressure building until it erupts out. Satori manages to strike down several as well, even as they return the greeting to V1. They don't have shutters on their lens, but there's a sense that they would be glaring if they could. Shotgun wolf! Two terrifying words that are more terrifying together, and now these demons gets to see it for themselves. They gib beautifully as Remee blasts them point-blank, the blessed rounds causing their meat to ignite into smokeless flame as they die. The Riders tag-team on a demon, lighting up the dark tunnel with the bright HIT confirms, before the flash of the explosion wholly brightened it for a brief moment. V1, in response to their greetings, looks to Duke and makes the same hand gesture that he did. The big man shrugs in response. Hiromi goes high, drawing fire as they begin leaping from demon to demon, ripping them to shreds bare-handed. They begin trying to scatter, thinning the herd to limit her mobility, but she always finds her mark before landing back on her log amidst the shower of gore. V1 adjusts their sliding angle to get covered in it, the blood being absorbed by their chassis. Evehime is getting mad hype, and V1 looks back to give them a thumbs-up as they open fire with the autocannon, ripping apart what remains of the demonic horde. The ride returns to sliding only, dodging gaps in the tunnel walls for a short while. But eventually, they hit the second circle of Lust. Violent wins come in through the gaps, buffeting the invaders as they descend, shoving them to and fro and intensifying the risk of falling through a gap into the circle proper. And then, to make things worse, a massive serpent begins coming in and out of those holes, clearly winding around and through the tunnel in pursuit of them, a gigantic maw opening to snap at their heels. Duke begins tossing back pipe bombs to try and trick it into swallowing one, but only manages to chip its fangs. V1 meanwhile, produces a shotgun from one of their wings and stands up, turning around to aim and fire. And in the instant that the buckshot leaves the barrel, they punch it, hyperaccelerating the rounds to crash against its snout, cracking the scales there!
Remee Halcyon	Shotgun wolf! A couple more rounds are pumped into the various forces of hell. The shotgun harness isn't terribly accurate compared to human hands, but when you're in a target rich environment it doesn't really matter that much. The serpent, though, is... more concerning. Remee can't fire backwards without looking backwards, and this thing looks like it'd take more than a few rounds to start hurting it, consecrated munitions or no. "... Ah!" This is a stupid idea that's just occurred to Remee. But it might work, and that's the important part. "Duke!" The wolf runs over next to his motorcycle, keeping pace. "Quick, load me up with every explosive you can spare! Just trust me!" As soon as he's done that, she turns - and runs at the pursuing serpent. "I'll catch up!" is the last thing heard before she leaps into its mouth.
Corona Arclite	The winds howling from the openings buffet back and forth. But Corona is use to driving a motorcycle while dealing with sandstorms and dust devils and compensates for the rushes of air with little difficulty. The giant serpent is a different matter, as it comes rushing up and slinking across the slope to try and gobble them up. For a tense moment it looks like the big beast has curved it's way into her path and she's going to crash, but Corona manages to steer her motorcycle onto a small outcropping of rock and use it as a ramp to jump over the slithering fiend, landing roughly on the opposite of it. That's going to be rough on the bike's shocks, but it worked. "Sunnova.. that thing could give the Landviathan a run fer it's money!" Now in front of the beast she glances back, seeing how V1's shots at least crack some of the scales. She considers that for a moment, then scoots back on the bike's seat. "Take the wheel, err, handlebars pardner!" At first it's not clear who she's talking to. Then her backpack unfolds, flipping over her shoulders as it does, and lands on the seat as Hopalong finishes reverting back to his automatronic jackalope form and grabs the handlebars with his forepaws. Which allows Corona to swing her legs and turn around to ride facing backwards. And pull out what looks like dieselpunk RPG launcher with a drill for the head. "Ain't seen no rock that can stand up to this, hopefully it'll get past those scales." She takes aim right between the snake's eyes, and there's a hiss-fwoom of exhaust out the back of the weapon as she fires. The drill whirrs to life as it hurtles through the air, combined with the rocket power's momentum to slam into it's target with enough force to bore through some of that tough scaley hide. Then explode after getting hopefully far enough in to hit something more sensative that the scales are protecting.
Timespace Riders	Zi-O, buffeted by the gale winds, shouts in surprise as he's thrown off-course, lifted off of his skates and hurled towards a gap. He recovers midair with an impossible double-jump, his armor making that iconic 'bweep' as he turns his flailing into a graceful frontflip. Landing on his feet, he leans forward, knees bent, pushing fully to the side to build up speed. He needs it--his acceleration is just in time to keep him from getting caught by that immense serpent. Wheeling around, Zi-O makes a springboard kick off of its snout to buy some more distance. Carried forward by the force of his attack, Zi-O now seeks out the violent winds, using them to propel his double-jumps further. Woz, meanwhile, makes a finger gesture at V1 (not the same one the robot made). After striking a quick kuji-kiri, he disappears in a puff of smoke, complete with the obligatory deer scare noise, reappearing above the serpent. He flings a spread of five shuriken, traveling in a horizontal arc down to meet the body of the serpent. The moment they're loosed, he teleports again, appearing along a wall and skating in a downwards arc to race towards Zi-O's side again. "I have a good feeling about this," says Zi-O to Duke, one B-bludgeon raised triumphantly. His catchphrase, as ever, is uttered when there really isn't much in the scenery to suggest good vibes.
Ozhira	Black Tie Ozhira's body clamps down on a demon in a spray of gore and sparks, resolving back into the fascimile of a human being. Using barbed tendrils as grapple hooks between enemies, the Beast swings from victim to victim while their other half in the Red Tie peppers them with spears of keratin-sheathed bone. This goes on until something massive breaks into the tunnel behind the group's myriad Extreme modes of transportation, prmpting both Ozhiras to glance back. "Large..." "Prey..." Coming to a concensus, the pair converge, with the airborne girl crashing into the terrestrial one until the result is a single instance of the Devourer, dragged along behind Duke's Harley. Duke is the closest to see it when Ozhira's tendril lets go of his motercycle, the elastic tendon snapping back into their forearm. They spring upward as they slow down, curling in their limbs and becoming a convenient snack for giant reptiles. Biting into the Beast is like biting into a wad of used chewing gum. There isn't the satisfying squish of flesh and crunch of bone-- the thing doesn't actually possess any bones at all. Only the simulation of such when necessary or convenient. Instead, when chomped, it squishes out into a sticky red paste shot through with elastic tendons that anchor into the gumline, straining to hold the mouth closed. But gumming up the maw isn't even the real thing the monster went in there for. As it spreads throughout the monster snake's mouth, a stinger emerges from the biomass and rams itself up into the hard palette at the roof of the mouth. Twisting and searching, it seeks out-- nerves. And starts following that pathway to the brain. A brain against which the Devourer asserts its will against that of a larger but presumably weaker mind.
Hiromi	Hiromi, who has brought no weapons with her but her own body and her wooden ride, watches with an animal's unblinking curiosity as the twin autocannons come out, drowning out the more familiar roars of shotguns and deagles. Her attention turns from there to the talk about V1. There is, unfortunately, little chance of friendship between wolf and robot, but she can still have appreciation for combat prowess. For whatever purpose V1 was made, the result is one that agrees with her. It's an expression of strength, whether attributes to the artificial being or to the mysterious one that created it. She's spending a lot more time sliding backwards, arms crossed in contemplation, than she is worrying about the giant demon snake coming after them. Without looking, but with an uncanny sense for the shape of rocky walls, she continues to leap the gaps and avoid wiping out, as well as keep up enough speed to stay ahead of the enormous monster, but her priorities are clearly other than the obvious and sensible. And so, she has a clear view of Remee leaping toward its maw, and Ozhira's similar disappearance. "Ah." Interesting, though a reason pops into her head immediately after. Should she let the smaller wolf and the many-voiced hunter handle it? It's not a 'temptation' so much as it is a thought brought on by something parallel to 'politeness.' Too much force, or too direct a choice, would rob her of the chance of seeing something more interesting. As if due to her current pondering, Hiromi begins lagging further and further back, only suggesting it as a purposeful, tactical maneuver when she jumps backward, kicking her ride across the next gap, lands on her feet beside one of the holes in the path and walls the serpent has been using to chase them, and commands it. Close. The language of Earth and Stone is something multiversal, though she still doesn't trust it in a lower plane, but she strikes the ground with force, enforcing her will to tighten around the serpent's body, to strike it with solid spikes and scrape and slow it, to pierce and bloody it when it pushes through. Some monsters, especially those of such a size, cannot be expected to slow for a mountain standing in their way. It's the force of Hiromi's will, added to the stone itself, that is all she expects to make this effective. That single not-word given, and Hiromi is heading right back to catch up with her ride, there to turn and watch what happens.
Hellwarming Trio	Duke's response to Rin gets another long stare from her as she tries to comprehend why he's not something, yet Sougo and Woz are. She gives up on trying to figure that out after a while, though, in favor of focusing on blowing demons up with Utsuho. They're sort of learning how to balance on their bike and skates better as they go, too, just in time to catch up with Satori as V1 puts out that glare-like vibe. "Whoa. What'd you do to piss them off?" "They're angry? I greeted them." "You sure about that? That doesn't look like someone greetin' ya back." "There's no face there..." Undeterred, the trio start moving further into the next circle of Lust, starting to find their rhythm as they slide around corners and bank off sloped walls before flinging themselves across larger gaps or into crowds of the responding demons. Utsuho's certainly getting more comfortable whipping her motorbike around to grind down demons in her path while using its weight to keep her on the path, and Rin opts for more acrobatic flips and spins while using the winged creatures to swing herself across those very gaps they're trying to launch everyone into. Even Satori's getting into using the skateboard to stunt, using what she learned from accidentally jumping earlier to purposefully ramp off demons for extra air time and time off the ground to catch her breath before ~~cheating with flight~~ guiding her skateboard back to solid ground. The giant serpent coming for them, though, has the youkai regrouping to figure out how to best blast the thing. Corona's explosive rocket and Woz's teleporting shuriken antics give them some idea of where to aim while Remee's charge with all the explosives along with the combined Ozhira's dive give them a better idea of what to do. They slow down in a wide formation while spinning around to face the serpent, then let loose with more of those intense flames and wispy blasts of magical something or another. Rather than firing wildly at the serpent's face, however, they aim to the sides of its mouth before aiming towards the center. They're looking to bolster the mouth-jamming operation to ensure that the explosives stay there!
Evehime Gevurah	Suddenly having the time of her life, despite the initially lackluster opposition, there isn't a full second where Evehime isn't firing. The torrent of shell casings is a hazard to those behind her, second only to how hazardous it probably is to be in front of her. It's only a slightly surprising inevitability that it wouldn't be long before both the roaring screams and flashing bonfires of muzzle flash would be abruptly snuffed out. The rapid clicking of dry machinery alongside the whine of abused barrel motors is ample reminder that neither cannon is actually linked to an ammo feed anymore. It oddly doesn't take even a moment for Evehime to figure that out, despite the weapons not being hers in the first place. It takes her even less time to simply throw them away, casting them to either side of her and letting them shatter into loose components. The last faux-angel in her way is felled by Evehime snapping her fist around the last casing to escape the extractor, and flicking it like a skipped stone, instantly turning it into the molten copper lance of an RPG warhead square against the porcelain. She looks to V1 with a vicious grin of competitive elation. The wind hits her by surprise, clearly being another thing she was not expecting underground, but Evehime barely needs to square her stance to bounce back and compensate for it, probably weighing as much as Duke's motorbike. The most it does is cause her ample hair to whip out around her even more dramatically. Her gaze, staring forward into the empty tunnel, is now laser-focused and crackling with energy, waiting for the instant a new target arrives; a far cry from the obliging boredom with which she originally entered a goddamn Hellmouth. "There it is!" says Evehime at the appearance of the serpent, not a bit of fear in her voice. There is something like a smidgen of begrudging awe and disbelief in the way she laughs at the sight of V1, however, buzzing with anticipation that has surely not been disappointed. "Hahaha! Absurdity! And yet, is this not only logical? No, no, I see now! The purpose of these weapons-- they are simply being used wrongly! My eyes are opened!" She clearly took a few things from the armory on the surface before anyone could summon up the courage to ask if she was allowed to, because now it's a vehicle-mounted missile launcher. Half-translucent colourless fire swirls around Evehime as she corrects the flow of energy to allow her to face backward. A fine mist of molten lava sprays from the grinding of her soles against the tunnel. She doesn't even brace the launcher before firing, and the plume of fiery exhaust and blossoming smoke that erupts from behind her doesn't seem to slow her at all, but she does stance just before. It's so she can lunge out and snag the primed and active missile in her hand. The launcher has already been thrown away, left to blow into the snake's mouth, or crumple against its body. Smoke and molten rock fountain from around Evehime as she spins herself around to build up momentum, only to be blown away by the supersonic thunderclap of her throwing the missile like a spear. Missile, thruster, and trail, are impossible to perceive separately. The sheer velocity blends them all together until they look like an energy beam, and the impact is functionally simultaneous. Just the physical impact is like having a skyscraper collapse on a spot the size of a frisbee. The warhead remains intact enough to explode only because she had saturated it with her energy whilst in her grip, which serves the further amplify the blast.
Operator	"Huh? Oh, sure," Duke says distractedly, taking off a bandoleer heavy with pipe bombs and offering them to Remee. And then she runs into its mouth. "Hey! Kill yourself on your own time!" Duke shouts after them, but the snake snatches them up regardless. Corona has her backpack pilot as she fires a rocket drill at the snake's eye. They blink, closing their eyelid to try and block it, but it bores clean through to get stuck into the organ anyway. It's howl of pains shake the tunnel, causing chunks of the roof to begin falling off, adding a whole extra hazard to this wild ride. Woz's explosive shuriken burst, opening up the snake's back, the dull white of their long spinal cord shining through the bloody holes. It renews its thrashing, bringing down more of the roof, and making those gaps wider as the edges crumble into the violent storm of Lust. Nothing is going well, contrary to what Zi-O says, but Duke smirks and nods. "I've wrangled bigger snakes with my bare hands." Ozhira becomes the chewiest piece of gum of all, closing the snake's mouth up entirely. It's akin to a crocodile. It has a tremendous amount of force behind its bites, but its ability to open its mouth is limited, so even a relatively little obstacle to doing so has it helpless. Boring through the roof of its mouth, Ozhira finds a nerve and follows it to the brain. The snake begins to shudder as it is overtake, but it's so god damn big that it takes a long time for the signals to travel its body. The front might be under her control, but the back is still moving on muscle memory, pushing the snake along. Hiromi orders the stone to close, and it obeys, the tunnel growing thinner to patch it up. Somewhere back there, it begins to bind the snake's many coils, forcing it to struggle and strain against the very walls. The whole place is shaking now. The yokai trio focus fire on the jaws, holding them closed and scorching its lips to keep the mouth shut as Remee prepares to blow. Its one eye has begun to realize what is happening, and struggles harder and harder, causing great cracks to appear in the Hellmouth. And finally, Evehime, having her eyes opened to the potential of guns, pitches a rocket like a football, and the impact combined with its empowered explosion seems to be the last straw. The tunnel shakes, gaps widening... but it holds. Somehow mercifully, it does. And then Remee explodes inside the closed mouth, completely separating the jaw from the skull, and that does it. The tunnel opens up, and everyone inside plummets. Having passed through Lust, they fall into Gluttony, and are lashed by putrid swampy rain. The snake's corpse falls with her, and Duke directs his hog to ride along its coils. "Stay on the snake! Don't get seperated!" he orders. V1 meanwhile is using those wings to hover in the air, before slamming against the corpse, forcing it to fall faster and faster to create a road straight down through the circles of hell, threading it through the gaps and course-correcting with flicked coins that they shoot with a massive railgun to impact the corpse at precise angles.
Remee Halcyon	BOOM ... ... After a bit, prompted by V1 slamming into it, a much-charred Remee manages to wriggle her way out of the snake corpse, coughing. "Thank... goodness that's over," she says. She's back in human form, at least temporarily - the usefulness of hands outweighing the land speed and stability of four paws. "Oh- or it's not over," she says. She manages to climb back out and perch on what remains of its head while she takes stock, recover, and try to just generally hang on at this point.
Corona Arclite	Corona Arclite ditches the spent launcher, and pulls her oversized handguns from their holsters. Which she uses to shoot apart several of the falling rocks to make them less of a hazard, ricochetting shots between them to do so with as much coverage for the group as well. Then the snake corpse slides by, with Duke pulling his bike up onto it's remains while shouting to stay together. It's not hard to hear Duke admist the chaos, he's got a voice as beefy as his biceps. "Follow his lead, pardner!" Hopalong bobs a nod, and steers their motorbike to pull up onto the remains of the serpent just before it goes sliding and sloshing down into the noxious swampy terrain. Then Corona resumes shooting down obstacles and falling rocks so people like V1 can focus on propelling their improvised ride and not have to worry about having chunks of hellstone trying to split their skulls.
Ozhira	The Beast invades the Brain; and in here it pours itself, expanding, filling the space while overriding the serpent's brain. Even as the monstrosity starts to die from all the abuse it's taking, the Devourer twists its body into useful shapes for the others to take advantage of as they fall into the newest plane. Aided and guided by V1's efforts, Ozhira provides a highway. But a dead snake is still not terribly useful, and the Beast opts to make an exit. One of its colossal eyes rolls back, turning a bloody crimson color and then--messily exploding, splattering the entire side of its face in red sludge. This peels off and away, resolving into a tangle of ropey tendrils, loose tendons, sludge, and teeth. A tendril shoots out, snatching on to the rear fender of Duke's Harley again. Latching on to the frame, the tendon goes taut and the Beast's body flattens out into a vague delta shape, the edges of its gliding sails lined with sharp-edged keratin growths, trailing a flexible tail made out of interlocking cones of long spines that the creature fires at threats. Like some kind of nightmare kite, Ozhira continues to follow the party downward.
Hellwarming Trio	"You heard the guy!" "We're supposed to go down that way? Oh, awesome! Master, you need a ride? Ok-" "I'll be fine. I think I'm starting to understand this... Style thing everyone's going on about." The snake's head explodes, and its body starts going down into the massive tunnel while threatening to smash everyone underneath it. With Duke and V1 making it obvious that down is the way to go, though, the trio see little reason not to join along for the ride. Utsuho and Rin, naturally, are just having the time of their lives with the motorbike chugging along with its own weight pushing it downwards. Rin's skates mean she has a fairly easy time swerving along that scaley back and even leaping off of it from time to time to glide along the walls instead, and Satori... Satori actually looks like she might finally be having some fun with all this. Taking a cue from V1's shooting, she experiments a little by firing off some magical bullets to her sides, shooting them just slow enough that she's actually keeping pace with them. She keeps fanning out those projectiles above and around her, creating what almost looks like a static array of fireworks following her movements if they weren't actually whizzing by at the same speed she's descending with the snake. Rin adds to that by blowing out flaming wisps to join in that colorful formation around Satori, although the flames looking like they're constantly being pulled back does help them realize just how quickly they're moving downwards. Utsuho, not one to let herself get left out, flings a massive fireball out in front of that shape, and... She fires it off way too hard, so it just ends up blasting forward and threatening to blow a massive crater into some random wall on the way down. Hopefully, it's not a load-bearing wall.
Timespace Riders	Both riders are taken by surprise--caught in a freefall together until Woz can teleport the both of them with his armor's purple scarf. It unfolds impossibly from nothing along the length of the dead serpent, depositing them both along its coils. Both riders land on their feet, with Zi-O in particular striking a grind along its scales. When V1 course-corrects the serpent's body, each adjusts in their own way, with the Demon King leaping to the next segment, while Woz flings his scarf outwards to pull himself in the right direction or make sharp turns on the spot. Along the ride, Woz makes brutal use of his now sickle-tipped spear, hooking would-be attackers at speed, his cuts trailing searing, crackling green arcs of energy. When it looks like one particularly sharp, railgun assisted turn might cause him to lose his balance, he uses the hooked blade to catch the serpent's body and swing 'round it, landing once more on his feet with an indulgent pose. Zi-O, meanwhile, changes his armor once again, this time adopting the theatrical, stage-themed Padgett armor. Another agility form, this one comes with an elegant looking rapier, which Zi-O employs to create gusts of wind, blowing aside troublesome looking wall fragments and enemies alike on the way down.
Hiromi	Hiromi shifts course, but soon finds herself falling, in attempting to join with the rest. Whistling through the air, hair streaming above her, this doesn't seem to bother her quite as much as it probably should, though neither does it seem to be something she expected. Reaching the snake's coils, she lifts up her tree trunk, by now well polished for its purpose, hefts it over one shoulder, and runs down the snake on her own feet. She just has to reach a point 'close enough' to the bottom, if the goal is to fall faster, as V1's actions suggest. At the second-to-last, Hiromi plants the pointed end of her tree into the snakes scales to secure it, scrambles down and upside down on the underside, hanging by her claws, then leaps downward, twisting in three dimensions to wind up the thunderously loud impact of her striking the lowest coil with both feet. That force is carried through, not piercing as might be expected, but anchored to the whole of her target. She struck the corpse just as she would strike a mountain with the intent to move it, rather than to bury her fist. This carries her back up to her prior perch from the natural reaction, but there's hardly a second impact. She lands lightly enough.
Evehime Gevurah	'Stay on the snake' is clearly taken as a direction for other people by Evehime, as she goes shooting out of the end of the tunnel with a surprising amount of grace for someone moving at such tremendous speed, and decides to simply angle herself to accelerate in fall. However, what she thinks of Duke Nukem is made quite apparent as she begins to draw even with the snake's terminal velocity. "You have done well to keep up so far, lightly equipped as you are. Earth has chosen its champion well." That pale fire flickers up around her again, and she pulls ahead. There, she says "There is no need for impatience, First Version. I will not do you the disrespect of racing on ahead to claim kills that are denied to you. If you have need of the deeper reaches of the realm, however, and have no wish to join me in going thoroughly, let us be there." and then accelerates. Though she is well ahead of the snake now, it would be a lie to say that she hasn't 'stuck together'. At just enough distance, there is the flash and boom of lightning and thunder on crashing waves and crumbling cliffs, and Evehime streaks straight into the bottom of the current layer, only Hiromi fully congizant of the fact that, very far away, she has Nemarrigan held overhead. It's a lot easier to get there if there are simply more holes directly in the way of where the snake is already plummeting. What that looks and sounds like is akin to flameless nuclear bomb going off. The ground exploding out from underneath into deeper layers of Hell still, struck with such raw force that the fault exception of stable reality simply determines it to be interchangeable with all other kinds of energy, and thus all the air in its proximity to also be fire. The flash is smaller, the earth-quaking boom more outsized, and plunging even lower beyond, one sees the 'mushroom cloud' billowing out in reverse, chasing its debris, like a tree growing in reverse. Doing that should save a whole minute off the run.
Operator	Rocks do indeed fall, providing Corona with plenty of target practice, but they're joined by more demonic sentries. Demonic squalls of slime and muck chase them through Gluttony, with more and more different kinds chasing them as they descend. Small winged imps baring jousting lances as they plummet through Greed, hideous winged hags as they fall through Wrath, and massive coffin-bearers as they fall through Heresy. Ozhira makes the body of the snake twist and spasm, making a proper road for the likes of Duke to keep riding along, spiralling down. The bullet hell created by the yokai help V1 with the micro-adjustments, earning them a thumbs-up from the robot (and implicit forgiveness for the earlier bird-flipping for Satori). Woz takes to the air, helping Corona deal with the pursuing demons. The imps and hags are easy to deal with, but the coffin bearers are bulky and dense with muscle, forcing him to put a lot more into the swings to cut them in twain, increasing the risk of over-extending and separating from the snake. Hiromi drives the snake on, staking it with her log to make it accelerate, its added speed working with the mass to force it through narrow openings without coming to a complete stop. V1 follows up her strike with its own ground-pound, forcing it to travel even faster. And finally, with Evehime simply obliterating sections of the circles to create a path, they travel deeper and deeper. Through the boiling heat of Violence, the circular trenches of Fraud, and finally, the frigid depths of Trechery. A momentary glance of Lucifer themselves, flapping their wings to try to escape back to Heaven, only to continually cool the deepest circle forever. But deeper they fall. And finally, they land. The snake hits first, a deep sickening crack as it becomes a puddle of gore that softens the fall of anyone who lands after. Duke ramps his bike off the body and brings it to screeching, sliding halt. "Whew! Looks like we're balls deep now. The air is thick with sulphurous BO. The sky above is thick with smoke, and in the distance. The rumbling stomp of many feet, and the cries of many feet. V1 impacts the ground in a three-point landing and points in that direction. "So, this is it. Last chance to rest and prepare everyone. Cuz we're gonna show hell what we're made of."