Scene #8225: Club Penguin Fight Club

Owner	Pose
Remee Halcyon	SPACE STATION SILICON VALLEY Someone finally found and fixed the part of the station that controls the intrastation airlocks between biomes. For the grasslands, there's two doors that this gives access to - one clockwise door that leads to the desert biome, and the counterclockwise door that leads to the arctic biome. It's the latter that the group is exploring first. The first giant airlock door opens, leading into a checkpoint area. There's bits and pieces of architecture and furniture here - decontamination showers, a monitoring room, a guard station - none of it operable or useful anymore, but still a sign of the station's original purpose as a research project. The space is theoretically habitable, but getting here from the teleporter would require trekking through the bear-infested grassland biome - which isn't a trivial task for non-elites. Best to move on. The real exploration target today lies beyond the next door, anyway: the arctic biome. Which, immediately, lives up to its name. "Excuse me a minute," says Remee, ducking back into the checkpoint. When she emerges, she has her winter coat on. (The 'winter coat' meaning that she's in her anthro wolf form, which is also considerably fluffier than anyone might remember her being.) "Right. You all might want to bundle up, too." The suggestion is likely redundant. It's frickin' cold. Also: while it's not snowing right at the moment, the half inch of snow on the ground clearly indicates that this part of the station is equipped to simulate that kind of weather, and you don't have a weekly forecast to rely on. "Soon as everyone's ready, we'll get moving. I want to stay together, in case there's like... cyborg polar bears or something."
Karlan Nobles	The siblings look right at home heading into the arctic biome, dressed up in the big puffy coats they often do when going just about anywhere. Pramanix, in a puffy gray and blue jacket with a heavy skirt in matching colors, hikes her bag up a bit to rest the strap over her shoulder, checking the inside briefly to make sure her bell is safely inside. SilverAsh, in his gray wool trench coat over his usual fancy suit, settles for slipping a matching hat on over his head before slipping a small snack out of his own bag for the eagle on his shoulder to munch on. "Cyborg polar bears... Do you think we'd be able to talk with them?" "I would advise against it. Miss Halcyon's warning would imply quite the opposite, and that there could be more than one." As per those warnings, Pramanix actually stays put while SilverAsh handles scouting duty. He doesn't actually break off or move any faster, but he instead sends the eagle high into the sky (or as high as it can go in that artificial biome with the potentially messed up weather conditions) to do some visual sweeps of the area for cyborg polar bears. Specifically those. It won't really care too much about more organic bears.
Hibiki Tachibana	The fact you can actually teleport here now is a blessing that cannot be understated. No more eight hour trips through space. Never again. Alright, it'd probably have been okay to do it with any kind of dedicated transport, but not the way they did it before. But with the fugue that comes from that not a problem this time... Hibiki is here once again, and for reasons different than 'needing to do it to survive in space', she's also once again transformed and clad in her Symphogear ahead of time. Part of this is indeed because they're going to be heading into the Arctic Zone(tm), as Remee has pointed out. "One step ahead of you there." The overly large, half-face-covering scarf is adjusted a little higher upwards with her hand as she gives an idle glance across what of the biome ahead is visible from their position just outside the checkpoint. Of course, you can ignore that the rest of her outfit doesn't seem to be very suited for cold environments, since it doesn't seem to be bothering her one bit. Makes sense, really. "I'm just gonna hope we can scare them off if there /are/ any...cyborg polar bears." There's a muffled sniff from beneath her scarf. If it came down to it, she'd rather not actually have to hurt any fluffy and/or cute animals living here, and she's already giving the occasional side-glance to exactly how fluffy Remee is right this moment. ""I'll stick close. It'll be kinda nice to just explore this time without worrying about setting up infrastructure or anything else."
Petra Soroka	Petra's already at the station, having spent the day moving in to her newly established room. Or, rather, she parked the Kana in its hangar, pulled her two (2) hangers with clothes on them out, brought them inside the empty room, and then stared at the wall for an hour. The room is furnished by Remee's demands--and the rest of the Watch's--with a comfortable bed, a wardrobe, more than enough storage area, an attached bathroom. Considering that it's on a space station set up as a safehouse for terrorists, it's shockingly luxurious. And... Petra feels a little bitter, about that. It's not just that she doesn't get to live the survivalist soldier life anymore. That's some of it, but if it was just that, she would've refused the offer in the first place, back when she and Remee were talking after the hotel. It was, genuinely, exhausting, getting so little sleep every night, showering maybe once weekly at a truck stop, picking through her heaps of garbage in the cockpit to find her last ramen cup. But no, it's not just that. Petra looks around the room, with its comfortably queen-sized bed, spots on the wall that she can perfectly imagine hanging posters on, shelves, and softly engineered atmosphere... it's too quiet. And opening up the door won't lead her into a softly carpeted hallway with a chorus of sleeping breaths. It feels like home. <X-Watch-Chatter> Petra Soroka says, "I just...." <X-Watch-Chatter> Petra Soroka says, "No, it's great, I'll figure out what else I need to get settled in soon." Petra sighs and turns the microphone off, sagging into the bed and lowering her forehead onto the cold metal of the radio. Which, of course, makes Remee's reply blare directly into her ears, and she grabs the radio and messages back overenthusiastically. <X-Watch-Chatter> Remee Halcyon says, "You're welcome to come join me in the biome. Or... biodome, or whatever you want to call it." <X-Watch-Chatter> Petra Soroka says, a little too quickly, "Yeah! I'll do that." Petra blushes, realizing she probably meant joining her for the mission tonight, and turns the radio off. She needs to head out for that anyways, so she might as well do it now. Petra shows up to the checkpoint area with her aviator hat and goggles pulled tightly on, her bomber jacket zipped up for once, a scarf and gloves covering what little exposed skin would've been left. "Hey Remee, hey Bikki, hey everyone."
Remee Halcyon	Silverash's eagle doesn't spot any cyborg polar bears. It does spot something of note, though, and it's something the party will be able to visually confirm soon enough... the land here only goes so far. After a certain point, the land gives way to thick ice - a snow-covered glacier - and shortly after gives way to an icy ocean. Remee leads the group to the very edge. "Well, unless everyone's an excellent swimmer, we might want to just explore this first part, and then head back and see about finding a boat. We can probably just buy a couple hovercraft, and that'll handle all of-" There's a loud CRACK from clockwise - the way the party came from. The ground lurches. Make a saving throw to not fall into the icy water. The section of glacier Remee's lead the party onto has broken off, and is now a free floating iceberg. One that is drifting, at a steady pace, towards counterclockwise... further into the biome. "This... works?" says Remee, as she climbs back onto the drifting iceberg. "Not like, my first choice of boats, but hey?" Make a saving throw to avoid being drenched by the wolf shaking the water out of her fur. Further counterclockwise, another island comes into view - one that has dozens of penguins on it. Dozens of penguins on... bleachers?
Petra Soroka	Petra looks down at the water. "Should I just... go get the Kana? We definitely don't need--" Her sentence is cut off with a squeal as the ice cracks, and her boots lose traction on the ice, she reaches out to the closest stable thing, which happens to be Hibiki, and grabs on. Petra clings tightly to Hibiki with her eyes shut, preemptively shivering in anticipation of the water, and then realizes that it's stopped, and she hasn't fallen in. Her eyes open, and she squeaks again, pushing herself back away from Hibiki. "Sorry! Sorry, sorry. I panicked." Her scarf blissfully covers up her reddening cheeks. Petra crosses her arms, looking pointedly away from Hibiki, and spots the second island. "Oh my god, is that penguins??" Petra slaps her hands to her cheek in excitement, just in time to be drenched by Remee. She flickers, but doesn't move, and gets the wet doggy treatment.
Karlan Nobles	"We will have to see about the infrastructure matter after we finish our initial viewing of this area. Quite true, however, that there's little reason to concern ourselves with that before we've even finished our first viewing." SilverAsh affirms to Hibiki, raising his hand briefly to let the eagle dive back down and land as if on cue. "No bears, but we may encounter a troublesome lack of land sooner rather than later." Pramanix gives Petra a light wave and reassuring smile in greeting, meanwhile, beckoning her over to try and get her to bundle up with the rest of the group. "Rested well, I hope? We're in new territory, so we'd best keep our eyes peeled in case any other unexpected problems show up." And then there's a whole lot of ice followed by a whole lot of ocean. Pramanix's eyes light up a bit when Remee mentions hovercraft, and she's already turning around in her excitement. "Are they really as fast as they sound? I've seen people on waterskis go flying off ramps, but a boat full of people-" Before Pramanix can get too wrapped up in her own thoughts, the ice breaks! SilverAsh drops to a knee and throws his arms out, partially for his own balance and partially to aid everyone else in not falling away from the (probably) more stable center of the freed iceberg. Pramanix, meanwhile, gets her bell out of her bag to start her snow-controlling ritual once she's back on her feet (after slipping and falling on her ass when the iceberg first breaks off). "Does it? Then... I guess we don't need to make a bridge yet, then." "I suppose not. But over there, in the distance. There's... Penguins." "I wonder if they're related to-" Both siblings fail their saving rolls and get drenched. Pramanix lets out one of those startled yelps, SilverAsh bears it stoically, and they both wrap their tails around their waists to try and stave off some of that cold.
Remee Halcyon	Cats. You get a little bit of water on them, and they act like it's the end of the world.
Hibiki Tachibana	"Hey, Petra. ...You been holding up okay?" With an accompanying chest-height wave of hello, Hibiki's question seems like the kind of thing you'd just ask out of hand, but she sounds genuine enough. She doesn't really have any way of knowing about the troubles she's had with her new living situation - other than some of the radio chatter from the other day - but she has reason enough to voice that bit of concern. She doesn't particularly have a pleased look on her face when they hit the edge of the ice leading into the water, but her frown turns into surprise when first the glacier begins cracking loudly, and then doubled up when Petra grips onto her. "Woah--!" Fortunately for the both of them, she's particularly good at reacting on instinct, and both tightens her grip around the other girl and braces herself, with a set of jacks from her leg armor ejecting backwards to embed themselves in the ice and stop them both from teetering dangerously far forward. Pulling back to right the both of them, she lets Petra go and gives an only slightly awkward tug on her scarf. "...Don't worry about it. I was caught off guard, too. But I guess this...does actually work? Other than the part where we'll need to get back later." There's no saving anyone from Remee splashing water everywhere thought, which Hibiki accepts with the most flat look on her face. Though that only lasts for as long as it takes to get a glance off towards... "Those /are/ penguins! And they're...on... ... ...huh??" Bleachers. They're on bleachers.
Aidan Proudpick	FROM DOWNTOWN! Aidan leaps! From the top of another glacier, his arms spread wide. His tail twists in the air, moving about so that the squirrel can roll across the ice in a perfect landing. He leaps up with ease onto weird digigrade animal feet. "Hey look!" He holds up a plastic wrapped golden snack cake. "I found food!"
Remee Halcyon	"For getting back... I mean, we've got a whole Watchtower full of allies here, right? We'll just call someone and they'll bring a boat or something..." "... I mean I guess it's not actually officially a Watchtower yet, but soon!" It is indeed penguins. And it is indeed bleachers - of a sort. They're not any sort of riveted metal or poured concrete bleachers that you'd find at your overfunded football field/stadium of choice, but instead piled up stones in a wide staircase shape that is identifiably 'bleachers'. Especially since the penguins are all on the bleachers, making penguin noises and moving around some, but remaining on the bleachers instead of the island ground. As the iceberg 'lands', crunching up against the side of the island (and then sinking anyone who's not quick enough to step off of it), the penguins all stop milling around and focus their attention on the group... and on a figure coming in from the other side of the island. A large figure. A large penguin, easily eight feet tall, with a metal beak, metal flippers... and a crown. ALERT - ALERT - ALERT - ALERT - ALERT - ALERT - ALERT - ALERT - ALERT - ALERT KING KING PENGUIN The Ice Cold Knockout Tyrant ALERT - ALERT - ALERT - ALERT - ALERT - ALERT - ALERT - ALERT - ALERT - ALERT It doesn't wait for the party to get ready - just seconds after they reach the island, it dives and goes sliding on its belly across the ice and snow towards them like a missile!
Karlan Nobles	"I could blow us back, too! Or even try to make an oar for Hibiki to... Uh. What is that penguin doing?" "Quite the large specimen compared to its brethren, isn't it? Do be careful, as I believe it sees us as an intruder." Calm as ever, SilverAsh steps forward with his sword drawn as the King King Penguin comes sliding in while Pramanix stays a relatively safe distance some feet behind her brother. Bracing the weapon in front of himself, SilverAsh brings his foot up and kicks off the surface of the charging penguin at the last moment, launching himself into the air above it. The impact is somewhat jarring for his leg considering he's absorbed so much of it into one limb, but he makes the trade to just barely nudging its path away far enough that Pramanix can throw herself in the opposite direction to avoid getting slammed into. "They're not related at all!" "Perhaps not, but they're territorial all the same. Shall we put them on ice?" Pramanix doesn't answer that. Instead, she starts drawing on her icy powers and all this freaking ice around her to turn it against the King King Penguin, somehow managing to make it even colder as she tries to freeze the ground its sliding on to its belly. SilverAsh finally comes back down in the meantime, sword raised high overhead and brought down in a mighty slash as he dives towards the king. At least he's aiming for one of those flippers instead of its main body.
Petra Soroka	Petra waves to Aidan, then realizes something. "This area is practically unusable other than the water, right? There's got to be some fish in there, otherwise what would've been the point of building it this way? Do you think we could eat them?" Her musings on the rationality of the station's designers are derailed immediately, along with any hope for a rational expectation of this biome. When the iceberg docks, Petra takes a step forwards, excitedly waving at the penguins. "Oh my god you guys, what are they looking at? What are these little guys doing??" When the King King Penguin rockets towards them, she's caught totally off guard, gun not even drawn, and its body clips her and knocks her down, skidding along the ice. Petra pushes herself back up to standing, drawing her revolver and aiming it--then looking back at the adoring penguin audience in despair. Instead, she whirls around on the ice, boot spikes digging up a spray of snow, and shoots away from King King Penguin, sliding across the ground. She lifts one boot up off the ground and spins, firing one more time to propel a kick into the Penguin.
Aidan Proudpick	The island floats lazily into view. Aidan is in the middle of taking the golden cake out of the package when he hears the movement of water. His ears twitch, and it pulls the rest of him around to look at the island. "Hey, those are uhh... those birds. Prinnies?" Danger sense begins to tingle as the island floats in hard enough to CRASH, and Aidan is already moving, taking a few quick steps, then a leap onto the island. His lips part and he puffs out a quick breath. The buckler on his arm suddenly ROARS. It becomes a growling, basso roar as the lion shield extends into full size. A quick step and another spinning leap, and Aidan uses the shield to pivot around the King Penguin, letting it slide underneath him and towards the others, then land back on the island. "Another monarchy, huh?" Aidan cracks his knuckles before dashing back towards the penguin, arm outstretched. First, it is him running. Then FIRE begins to pour from the lion's mouth, taking to the edges of the shield and propelling the squirrel forward!
Hibiki Tachibana	Hibiki is momentarily distracted by Aidan's dramatic arrival, to the point she glances away from the incoming island to look him up and down. "Woah. Wait..." She first narrows her eyes, and then raises an eyebrow at what he's holding. "Where the heck did you get that? ...Is it still good?" She doesn't get to get out more than that before they make landfall (icefall?), and quickly hops off onto solider ground while they ticket here sinks beneath the waves. "Oh yeah, an oar wou...ld..." That itself would be a little frown-worthy, if there wasn't something much more so waddling into view. That's... "Heeeeehhhhh!? A giant penguin!? With metal parts!?" Exactly that, and it's actually doing a lot more than waddling. The magical girl is caught offbalance enough that she doesn't actually get out of the way in time, and a bunch of heavy arctic bulk crashes into her the second after she throws her arms in front of herself, with some seriously body-jolting pain accompanying that. Though she's not just guarding it and getting bowled out of the way for her trouble. She actually put both hands forward to grab onto King King Penguin, while digging her heels down into the ice hard enough to embed them a couple inches into it - forcibly working to slow him in his tracks through raw strength and the help of Pramanix's icy efforts. "Hold on, hold on, holdonholdon! We didn't come here to--what the heck even /is/ this!?" As much as she doesn't want to hurt cute animals, it's a little unavoidable here. And after doing her best to try and hold King King Penguin in place for everyone else - she stomps a foot down even further into the ice and, with a roar, goes to try and suplex him onto his back. All eight feet of him.
Remee Halcyon	The King King Penguin ends up briefly stuck to the ground, during with Silverash comes in with a decisive chop at one of its flippers, cutting into it. It manages to get unstuck before he can do further damage, but the flipper's sparking a bit where it's been cut into. Petra comes in, launching a spinning kick at the penguin - with Remee leaping over her, and setting up to slam into its other side, causing a nice hammer-and-anvil impact. Aidan's fiery charge bears down on it, causing another impact - which sends the giant penguin directly into Hibiki's grip, and... yes, there it goes, up and then over, suplexed directly into the ice on its back. That looks like it hurt. The penguins lining the bleachers boo, in unison. Or... they make penguin noises that sound like the noises penguins would make when they boo. It's not terribly 'boo'-like, unfortunately. The King King Penguin, on its back, isn't going to take this lying down. And as it turns out, Pramanix isn't the only one with icy powers - as the prone penguin opens it beak, and subjects the party to a spray of icy cold mist.
Karlan Nobles	"Prin...? Is that a local name for them?" "Perhaps the penguins of his world can talk, too." "But what about /this/ one?" "Any luck, Hibiki?" Although the siblings from the mountains get the completely wrong idea of where Aidan is from, they don't even think of entertaining that thought when it comes to the King King Penguin. SilverAsh leaps backwards and away from the giant once its freed from Pramanix's hold, and Pramanix is already changing up her steps by the time their opponent gets into position to start blasting ice right back at the group. This time, however, they're little more separated than before, so SilverAsh isn't in the right position to bodyblock for Pramanix. He actually manages to keep moving quickly to avoid getting himself stuck to the ground even though it's still hampering his ability to get around, and Pramanix has her own defenses in the form of fighting ice with ice. "Remee! Petra! Have you ever seen a penguin this huge before? Who do you think could have added all that stuff to it?" The talking isn't just free talking, of course, as it helps keep Pramanix focused and prevents her mouth from being frozen shit as she dances through the waves of ice coming at her. She pushes through the bulk of it with her own downward blast of snow, however, eventually bringing up an icy pillar in front of herself to further divert that breath. It's a convenient source of cover, at least, although there's a suspicious-looking crack at the base, as though it might be easy enough for someone to knock it over at the right moment. SilverAsh, then, is the one that focuses on splitting the creature's attention. His sword goes back into its sheath as he starts circling around it, leaping and sliding all over the place while flicking out his weapon every other second to throw blindingly-fast slashes all over the King's body. He's still largely targeting those metallic flippers and the metal beak rather than its fleshy body, though, as if trying to weaken those parts instead of going for the easier-to-stab flesh.
Aidan Proudpick	The penguins squawk. Aidan has to look over and try to consider what they are doing. It is mostly sort of hissing and flippers around the mouth. It DOES sound pretty aggressive though. Aidan can't FLY. Flying assumes that one can control the direction one is going. Instead, Aidan does a quick few pivots, breathing in and out in short bursts until he has made a U-Turn, and then rockets back towards the island. Once he reaches the island, however, ice begins to form around him, as the breath blows forward. And then Aidan learns about ice. Aidan stops on the glacier island, ready to dig in his shield. He does this while having previously travelled at the SPEED OF SOUND. The shield does block the ice breath handily. It does not block the Squirrel Knight sliding over the island at 300 mile per hour into the stone bleachers. The shield itself keeps Aidan from turning into pump against the seating, but he does take a nasty header, face SMASHING against the stone. There's a worrying thump as his entire body crashes up against the side, then slumps back down. Slowly, Aidan staggers up to his feet, in a bit of pain. But he shakes it off, snapping his arm forward again. Instead of immediately going into the shield, he brings the air out of it, turning it once more into a buckler. Only to form a full green wall in front of him, translucent shimmery air forming a barrier, only to be suddenly pierced by several arrows as Aidan makes quick hissing breathes. Bolts of green ripple through the air towards the KING PENGUIN!
Petra Soroka	Petra's momentum carries her over the Penguin, and she flips over its body in time to see the mist swirling in its mouth. She lands on the ice, boots skidding, and in her adrenaline-addled state, remembers that Remee is looking extra fluffy today. Petra kicks off the ground, sliding into Remee, and grabs her arm, her inertia swinging her around into Remee's furto shield her face from the icy blast just in time. Remee can hear a quiet, nasally whine of "Not againnnnnn!" before Petra shoves off of her, disproportionately raising her voice to respond to Pramanix. "No! I don't know! They don't usually get this big, but also the bears from before were cyborgs, so anything goes, really." Petra fires downwards into the ice, and the bullet lodges inside with a loud crack as Petra flies upwards. She lands on top of the King Penguin and looks annoyed at the bleachers. "They booed us? Sort of? Well then, no more playing nice!" Petra flicks open the cylinder of her revolver and smoothly shoves a new set of cartridges in, then slams it shut. She aims it downwards, directly into King Penguin's belly, and fans the hammer. It's probably, like, mostly metal, right?
Hibiki Tachibana	After toppling the King of King Penguins (this is how she's choosing to interpret 'King King'), Hibiki rights herself only to fall back a step with her guard raised, catching her breath again. "The little guys...?" She almost forgot, and glances over her shoulder at the sight of the many 'booing' penguins. Wait, are they... "Are they just spectating? You gotta be kidding me...did we walk in on some kind of...penguin gladiator arena!?" It sure seems like that at least, and she twists back in the direction of the fallen metal pengu just in time to catch wind of what it's doing. The icy wind surges forth and she reacts on the fly, raising a leg before stomping down into the ice, causing a thick sheet of it to break free from the rest and flip up in front of her like a makeshift shield - it doesn't stop all of the frigid breath from washing past her, but it sure diminishes it. "If he can, I'm not sure he's very interested in it, but...!" She calls back to SilverAsh, waiting out the attack before planting a foot on the back of her ice chunk and kicking it forward towards King King Penguin! It'll sure hurt when it breaks apart on hitting the towering royal, though the real danger is that Hibiki was sprinting right behind it, a fist reared back for a punch. And even if she's also not aiming to actually injure too badly, it's going to be a heavy one, coming in to try and sock their opponent right in the face! Beyond just seriously smarting, the physical contact is enough for her and her Symphogear to make just enough of a 'connection' that she can try to feel out King King Penguin's surface thoughts and general vibe. Just to vaguely confirm this is what it looks like. "If you really wanna put on a show so badly, then we'll give you one!"
Remee Halcyon	Silverash goes in with multiple hits to the flippers and the beak, doing increasing amounts of damage to it. Aidan's bolts slam into it, along with Petra's shots. Hibiki coming in to slam her fist into it also manages to give it enough of a push to get back up to its feet. Its beak is badly damaged by this point, along with its flippers - but it still has the spiky crown welded to its head, and it's that that it uses to start slamming into people with! With each slam, the crowd of penguins give a single cheering squawk, in unison, and then fall silent again. It's distinctly un-penguinlike behavior. Admidst it all, Hibiki's brief connection bears some unexpected fruit...
Petra Soroka	Petra dives off of King Penguin's belly as it stands up, landing on the ice with her gun arm held out to the side. She flicks her wrist to open the chamber, reloads, and watches for the Penguin's next move in that uneasy stance. <J-IC-Scene> Hibiki Tachibana says, "Ugh--! Guys, the crown...! Try to destroy that crown!" When it starts swinging its crown around, Petra gets a bad idea. Embolded by the audience--and maybe some of her allies--to do something reckless, Petra stays still for a moment, baiting the Penguin into smashing its head down at her. She holds, not dodging out of the way, until flickering and trying to grab onto the spike of its crown as it swings past. The only problem: Petra forgets that she is Not Cool. Petra jumps, and doesn't quite make it, her hand slipping off before she gets a good enough grip. The crown crunches into her, and she goes flying. Petra lands on the ice with a thud, seconds worth of gravity's full acceleration laying into her. She remains there as a little heap of a bomber jacket for a moment, then pulls herself up, gun already angled upwards. She can do this the uncool way, too, as long as it works.
Karlan Nobles	"Gladiator penguins? That's so...!" "Appreciable, is it not? As people enjoy the spectacle of battle from the safety of the stands, so too must these penguins long to witness this match." "... I was just thinking it was cute." The cheering from the penguins starts to give the pair some ideas, though, as they keep dancing around its attacks instead of taking them head on. In Pramanix's case, though, it's less 'dancing' and more 'running away' and shrieking in terror each time the King King Penguin slams its head down at her. Eventually, she starts getting into the performance side of things, trading in those shrieks for forced laughs that stop once one of those slams actually throw her off her feet and near that icy pillar from earlier. That's when SilverAsh finally gets back into position, discarding all those flashy evasive maneuvers from before in favor of meeting the King head on. The slam makes a sickening impact against him along with drawing a fair bit of blood through his coat, and it's only his regenerative abilities that keep him from losing enough of it to be too worried about (for now). At that range and against such a massive opponent, though, he should have a far easier time slamming his sword through one of its flippers, trying to draw its attention down towards him as he looks right back up at it. "A valiant effort. How long can you keep this... /Up/, though?" As SilverAsh gives that stupid line, Pramanix is already back on her feet, once again dancing the night (or day?) away to bring the hail down on the big penguin and its crown. It's coming from multiple directions at once, too, battering away at the penguin, but it's still more of a hefty distraction while they try to create more openings for Aidan, Hibiki, and Petra to really do some damage to that strange crown.
Hibiki Tachibana	Contact is made...! Barely. But it's enough to confirm that...what Hibiki had thought was obvious on the surface turns out to have not been true at all. The sudden understanding and surge of realization is enough to get her to go wide-eyed and lock up for a moment, freezing in place. "Wha--" This, of course, leaves her rather open for the royal beatdown that's about to ensue. That's a lot of weight coming down, and she's just barely in time to block one slam, buckling her knees before the next sends her tumbling head-over-heels back over the ice. She catches herself after a few meters, groaning on her knees. "Ugh...! Guys, the crown...! Try to destroy that crown!" It seems like she's saying that for very obvious reasons at first, as she kips back up and prepares to run back into the fray. She only pauses for a second, before Aidan's mention of being unable to get back in hits her. She thinks about it, then... She moves /away/ from the chaos, giving a grimace to the penguin crowd while hurrying towards the squirrel knight's position in the back. Some kind of plan in mind, probably. "I can do something about that! But you better make it count, this is even weirder than I thought it was!" Though the 'something about that' doesn't actually turn out to be any kind of fancy plan making. Rather, the magical girl is going to grab him by the belt of his armor, and hoist him up effortlessly with one hand before rearing back. "This guy is /controlling/ his subjects, they're not cheering for him because they want to! And the 'King'--is just a puppet being controlled himself!" What? She only gives everyone, Aidan included, a second to process that information before she outright flings him as hard as she can, straight at the King King Penguin! She's seen that shield of his in action once before, she knows he'll be fine. And only after he's sent flying does she start dashing back in to close the distance herself!
Aidan Proudpick	The air shield isn't enough to block against the WEIGHT OF RULERSHIP. It BENDS as the weight of the mighty penguin pushes against it, and then past it. Like a soap bubble bursting, the air barrier pops, disappearing into thin air. And with it, Aidan earns a stomach wound! The sharp crown rips across his leather armor before he can get his shield back into place. Leather tears across the front, golden blades of regal might opening up a wound that, thankfulkly, doesn't pierce past the muscle. It is still rather enough to make the squirrel buckle over in pain. But not enough to make him give up. He is about to lash out again, when Hibiki speaks up. The crown? Aiden is light. He only has on a set of leather armor, and his lithe form isn't very heavy. "Wait, hol-" FLING. Aidan is rather used to this actually. But he gets the idea as he hurtles up into the air. Rather than simply bashing straight into the penguin, Aidan starts to adjust his tail and body as normal. Then, just as he starts to come down, Aidan ignites Aegis. The mighty lion's roar sounds as Aidan does his darnedest to clip the crown and not the penguin!
Remee Halcyon	Plinking shots and hailstorms - wearing away at the King King Penguin, but ultimately just a distraction for their real move. Pramanix, Silverash, and Petra get the King's attention... and Hibiki capitalizes on it, using Aidan as the payload. Impact. It's not enough. The force of the flung squirrel isn't enough to dislodge the welded-on crown... ... until Aegis ignites. The crown crumples and goes flying off, landing in the ocean and skipping once before sinking. here's a few seconds of nothing happening aside from the battle continuing, the king king penguin continuing to fend off the trio distracting him... until from the stands, there's a squawking. And then more squawking. Whatever spell was holding the penguins in place in the stands and controlling their voices is gone, and the penguins have decided they've had enough of those thing. The stands empty rapidly as they head for the water. The penguins are not... coordinated. Several hundred penguins all trying to leave at once ends in a lot of crossed paths and further agitation. Also, they do not really understand, or possibly don't care either, that the party was trying to rescue them. The outsiders are just one more strange obstacle to be pushed through (or run over) on the way to their egress. Also also, these are not normal penguins. These are cyborg penguins, many with various weapons, wheels, jet thrusters, or other things to worry about. And they're all very, very agitated.
Aidan Proudpick	Aidan SMASHES the crown off, carefully avoiding the penguin. The Aegis suddenly stops, Aidan holding it behind him to fire off a short burst to drag himself to a stop. Then, a tail twist, and a perfect three point landing. He stands up, turning towards the King. Who is still fighting. Wait. "Hey, I don't think that-" The penguins start to move. The cacophony of squawks and hisses. Of jet engines and metal feet on the ice, building up into a single stampede rushing across the floor. Aidan gets slammed to the floor by the penguins. For a moment, this is highly amusing! Then the crunch of bone and cartilege begins, a few sprays of blood out of his mouth as he is ground into the ice. There is no purchase for him to scrabble his claws away from the stampede. Only horror as the darkness consumes his vision, and pain becomes his world, until it is mercifully snuffed out with unconsciousness.
Karlan Nobles	The crown is off! For a moment, it looks like the battle is over, and the duo from Kjerag can finally relax. They even go as far as breathing heavy sighs of relief. "Well done, everyone! Hibiki, Petra, Aidan. Are you alright?" "Let's not rest on our laurels just yet. The rest of them appear... Displeased." Even Pramanix's fancy footwork relies on her having any sort of contact with the ground in general, and SilverAsh can only heal through so many attacks at a time. With so many penguins swarming towards them, there's not really enough room or time for their specialties to work in their favor. Without any ground beneath their feet to really speak of, the two get stomped on and jostled about rather violently by all those metallic penguin feet! "... What just happened?" "The unique experience of being a road." "Oh. I don't like this. I don't like this at all." "" Inhaling slowly, Pramanix raises her legs over her head, then kip ups almost like how a martial artist would. Brimming with vague irritation at that blow to her pride, she starts ringing that bell again, stepping around firmly as though she's putting all of her focus into getting everything done just right. The blizzard around her intensifies, swirling like a cyclone that somehow avoids lifting the snow leopard-y woman into the air with it before churning towards those escaping cyborg penguins. The fact that she's using her god-given powers for something so petty doesn't seem to bother whatever entity gave her these powers, judging from the fact that it's all still working. The blizzard swirls out and away from Pramanix towards those penguins, turning into one massive icy gust that's aimed at launching the whole lot of them as far away as possible. SilverAsh, meanwhile, is content to keep sitting there for a while , sighing lightly and leaving his sister to her own devices. Someone has to dig Aidan out of that hole.
Hibiki Tachibana	They got it...! Aegis really is something else, she can't lie. ...Unfortunately, Hibiki didn't particularly account for what all of the mind controlled penguins would do when confronted with free will again, and she stands up out of her pitching pose just in time to glance back at all of them preparing to not so much waddle as migrate back out into the water. Uh. Oh. "Oh...waitwaitwait, crap--!" Times like this, it'd be nice to be as tall as Remee, or maybe Hiromi. Contending with an utter tsunami of cyborg penguins trying to run you down and get past you by any means necessary is trouble, and maybe remembering how Petra had reacted to the crumbling ice earlier - and also because she's closest - she only pushes against it to get to the other girl and act as a physical wall parting them aside to give her more time to react. "I got you! I'll just--wagh!?" She says that, though about the same time as Aidan, she loses her footing and gets bowled over to vanish beneath the otherwise adorable but currently terrifying black-and-white tide. There's a somewhat muffled and strained shout that might be something like 'I'm okay!' from somewhere under there, but it's hard to tell. And then abruptly, there's an explosion of frost and force as Hibiki punches into the ice beneath her, leaving a several meter wide hole pummeled straight down into the glacier, serving as the escape route she falls down to get out of being trapped underfoot. A couple penguins might end up tossed about from the dramatic exit, but she's otherwise more than happy to let them all go with Pramanix's encouragement. And a few seconds later, there's a second eruption, this one from Hibiki punching up from /beneath/ no-longer-King Penguin. The rising motion comes with another grab, a twist, and an attempt to both flip and wrestle the extremely large bird to the ground one last time, probably putting a flipper in a fairly uncomfortable position just to ensure he won't cause any more problems. "Alright, no more of this...!"
Petra Soroka	Petra watches triumphantly as the crown detaches from the King's head. And then the ground rumbles underneath her. Petra widens her eyes in realization. "You guys are the worst audience everrrrr!" Heretra ducks behind Bikki when the tide reaches them, gladly using the stronger girl as cover to reload. Before getting overwhelmed by the stampede, Petra shoots at the ground, cracking the ice a second time, and flies into the air. She, despite her earlier bloodlust, carefully avoids shooting any of the rampaging penguins. They haven't done her any wrong, after all. Except, for being the wrong kind of audience. Petra's leap deposits her directly in the stands, stumbling and failing to perfectly stick the landing in a smug sitting position--reminiscent of someone?. She adjusts on the bleacher, points her gun over the heads of the penguins, and cups her mouth with the other hand while firing. "Boooo! That's right, run! Boooooo!" She's hoping that the booing (and noise of gunfire) will scare them off before doing any more damage.
Remee Halcyon	And at that point, that's the ball game. Even without the heroes bearing down on it, the King King Penguin was also subjected to its former subjects running wild. What Hibiki wrestles down is a shell of its former self. Pramanix's blizzard and Petra's warning shots scare away most of the stampeding penguins, with Remee going wolf-mode and catching one of the penguins in her jaws being sufficient to get the stragglers in motion. (She does let it go afterwards, regretfully.) "... Someone's in the station... controlling the penguin remotely..." she says, summing up what she's hearing from Hibiki via the radio. "... This, ah, feels like it might be a problem?"
Petra Soroka	Petra looks over the water where the crown sunk down. "If that was a mind control device, we totally need to go down there and retrieve it, right?" She hops down from the bleachers, pausing to pick up some spent cartridges littering the ground. <Tac-Watch> Remee Halcyon says, "Well the alternative... if we're staying put we should at least take precautions." <Tac-Watch> Remee Halcyon says, "I think buddying up is a minimum now." <Tac-Watch> Petra Soroka says, "...That makes sense." <Tac-Watch> Remee Halcyon says, "And... since everyone else besides you and me is sharing a room already..." It's as though her wishes earlier were answered-- Absolutely not. Petra clenches her fist and tamps down the warmth in her chest by sucking in bitterly cold air. Another breath. Relax. <Tac-Watch> Petra Soroka says, "W-well, the Kana should be safe from any of the animals... if I sleep in there...." <Tac-Watch> Petra Soroka says, "But--but then you'd be alone, right." It's fine. It's for a couple nights. And it's for practical reasons, and she didn't bring it up, because she doesn't need it. There's nothing there. There doesn't need to be. Petra's shoulders draw forwards, and her bomber jacket seems to swallow her. Her voice is quiet, muffled and drained, and she says, "...Let's go grab the Kana, and find that thing, while we still remember where it sank."