Scene #8230: WCW: Sea of Flames

Owner	Pose
Midway	Welcome to the English Channel. The southern shore of the British main island is well within view of the northern coastline of France. It is here that the heavy cruiser Fenris is engaged in combat with a monstrous aircraft. The Archaeopteryx is easily the same physical size as the Fenris or possibly much larger, with some key differences. Most notably the vessel flies, engines to the aft of the body and rear edges of the wings leave trails of black exhaust. The main hull is a twin-hull design, copper in color and covered with cannon mounts. The sea is awash with patches of flame and wreckage as the Elites arrive. The noble commander of the Fenris and his adjutents, Braun and Tsukuba, have put up one hell of a fight, as most noted by the fact that the cruiser itself is almost completely undamaged while the Archeopteryx has several clear missing gun mounts and chunks off its broad wings. As one emerges from the warp gate tucked safely on board the harbor ship Skidbladnir, the Archeopteryx itself can be seen coasting low in the air, trailing smoke. Transferring to Fenris is an easy matter, amidst the thunder of main battery guns and the hiss of rocket launchers. Tsukuba observes from the main deck, hearing protection also conveniently holding his cap in place, his arms folded. He allows himself a smirk when the enemy superweapon falters, tilts, and crashes into the sea to the cheers of the Fenris' crew. He turns then to acknowledge the arrivals, "Welcome aboard! I'm sure Commander Schulz appreciates your prompt response, but as you can see--" "Admiral!" a crew man calls out, snapping Tsukuba's attention back to the foundering superweapon. Amidst the explosions and flying wreckage, a light shoots out. Twisting into an arc, it approaches the Fenris, resolving into... An adult woman clad in torn copper armor and tattered black clothes, her skin deathly pale, her eyes shining with an inner violet light. Delta wings cling to her back, spouting streams of black smoke from mounted engines. Wielded in either hand, shields covered in cannons and oversized human teeth. Even before she's come into weapons range, her enraged, resonant scream echoes across the waves. "--Maintain battlestations!" Tsukuba barks, "We're not finished yet, this enemy has a second act!" Up on the bridge, alongside the sharply uniformed commander, a woman in a long white coat cradles her chin. Out loud, Doctor Braun wonders, "Is this the enemy pilot? Oh, but all prior superweapons were unmanned..." Her eyes shift, glancing towards the aft of the ship, "...Another creature like Leviathan?"
N'Raha	But N'raha's not on the ship today. Or rather, not on the Fenris. No, instead, there's a sudden clanging of bells, and the sound of wooden rigging and sails, and excited cheers and roars of noise... As cannon fire starts to pepper at the area of the floating ship girl. Actual cannons. 10-ilm bores, at least. "AHOY, FENRIS!" The boisterous voice of N'Raha carries over the waves, as the No-Name bounds over the seas on aether board winds, maneuvering alongside the ship and then past it. The rebuilt brig is crewed by the Crystal Braves, it would seem. Raha's bringing the crew out on a multiversal trip. "I figured after last time, that having more guns and more wood on the sea would be a benefit, aye?" He cheers, and the crew on the ship roars in return.
Futaba Nuki	An unfamiliar face arrives on board the Fenris, not by swimming or taking a ship nearby to board, but instead heralds her own arrival with the screech of someone imitating a seagull screech. Indeed, there's a flock of seagulls flying barely even in the same direction, and one of those seagulls (with a rather noticeable leaf on its head and a gold ring around its leg) just turns hard sideways to head towards the ships. Once it's above the Fenris, it dives right towards the ship, flipping forward in mid-transformation for a dramatic landing not far from where Tsukuba is waiting. "Sorry to keep you waiting! I-" Before Futaba can announce her presence properly, though, the armored stranger announces her own arrival with that horrible scream, drawing a pained wince from the ninja-themed girl while she covers her (upper) ears. "Loud. You guys are the one the Princess called for us to help out, right?" She glances back over at the Fenris' crew, giving them a big thumbs up before grabbing onto the edge of the main deck and pulling backwards slowly. "Don't worry. We've got this! Me and..." She squints, noticing N'raha approaching their target already. "... Uh. Keep an eye on things in case anything capsizes!" Futaba promptly flings herself forward before turning her arms into wings, gliding towards the ghastly figure and floating nearby once she's in shouting range. "Hey! Let's take this on deck somewhere, huh? Our fight'll be cooler if we're not in the water!"
Midway	"A pirate galleon?" Braun's attention is drawn back to the bridge windows. Lifting some binoculars, Schulz confirms, "It's the cat warrior from Panama. Seems he has a ship of his own. He's Multiversal, don't count them out just because it's wood and sails." Lowering his spyglasses, the commander glances over his shoulder. A short moment later, a signalman is on the bridge observation deck, signing in semaphore for the No-Name. Schulz has just assumed these fantasy pirates probably don't have a traditional radio or do light signals. Flag signals will be perfectly fine and-- somewhat nostalgic, he thinks to himself. Raising the binoculars again, he gazes out over where the Archeopteryx went down, and the demon now approaching from it. On deck, Tsukuba assumes a stance that to the layman seems surprised, but to a martial artist betrays his immediate readiness when Futaba drops in on him. His posture relaxes when she makes her good intentions clear, though his brow furrows, "Princess?" Quickly, the Japanese officer shakes his head and gestures, "You can tell me about that later. We have more pressing matters." Futaba disembarks for the onrushing Demon. The Fenris heels hard to port, swinging her guns out over the side to add her broadside to No-Name's barrage. Archeopteryx brings her shields up as she charges, shells slamming into them with the ringing of steel striking steel. Cannonballs from the side are tougher to deflect, due to her longer profile from this angle. Glowing eyes swing towards the galleon, then to the vessel that has so clearly raised her fury-- and the tanuki dashing off of it. "GET OUT OF MY WAY," the woman bellows in that resonant voice. Engines roar to life behind her and she lifts up out of the water. The wing pylons extend outward and lock into place. The cannon turrets on her shields swivel in place, barrels lifting to aim at Futaba while the Demon takes to the air. When she passes over the cruiser, the toothy maw of her left-hand weaponshield opens. As she banks across Fenris towards the No-Name, clusters of bombs release, battering the steel ship's deck. Crossing over the galleon, she repeats the maneuver with the right-hand weaponshield's bomb bay.
N'Raha	And it's true, in most places a wood and sail ship would be at something of a disadvantage to a steel ship with turbines and engines and armor. This is no simple wood and canvas ship. On the deck, a pair of figures appear. A tall elezen, carrying a long wooden staff, calls out. "FIRA!" And ammdist the cannon fire, now there's airbursting explosions of raw aetheric flame, battering at the sky and casting fields of heat across the water. "Raha, I think she means to sink us!" The joyful laughter of Coultenet Dailebaure carries across the water. A sudden barrage of magically empowered arrows follows suit, trying to pluck the Shipgirl out of the sky as well. And a second elezen strides up, nocking her bow for more attacks. "Coultenet DO be careful, this is our first off world mission." Ephemie Giphelmont's voice suddenly cries out in song, as the bard's battle songs bolster the crew of the No-Name. "SAIL US CLOSER, V'KEBBE! I NEED TO HIT HER WITH MY AX." Raha calls out, and from behind the wheel of the No-Name, a tiny catgirl is holwing at the crew. "YE HERD HIM, YE LITTLE SCABS, WE BE FIGHTIN' A PROPER DEMON O' THE SEA SO NO SLOUCHIN' AND NO SLACKIN'!"
Ishirou	A bit ago... Ishirou was sighing heavily at the radio. Yeah, no, Kale was going to dig himself another grave and this time he wasn't going to be around to dig him out. So he decides to go for a walk, he heard about ships in a place that was turning into Abyssals, so he wanted to check this out for himself... Less bit ago... Ishirou was at the french side of the channel, looking over various boats. Nothing seemed to indicate that they were developing awareness...so this was weird? He got word about the battle over the channel forming. Right about now... The R.E.S.C.U.E. Unit had summoned the flight armor and had been flying high speed over the channel to help provide backup. Unable to help with the main engagement, he was now on course to help with... Well dang. It was abyssal, but his scans couldn't tell him more than that. He rolls out of the way of incoming fire and signals to the Fenrir that he's friendly. "Paladins, my name is Ishirou," he says with a quick introduction. He's already running scans trying to figure out the Abyssal's plans before he gets an idea. He starts setting up a network between the captain of the Fenrir, himself, Raha, and Futaba. Once he can do that then he relays his data before then trying to figure out exactly how those defensive arms worked. Once he can do that he starts directing shots, pointing out to people exactly where to shoot and when. He flies overhead again, keeping momentum and not hovering for a second. Instead taking wide banks to make sure he isn't losing momentum. "POD-OPTION ONE AND TWO GO!" he shouts, as a defensive option covers the Fenrir to try and shoot down cluster bombs, and another aggressive option hovers around Futaba to help augment her attacks with its own laser shots.
Futaba Nuki	"No way, lady! We've got a job to...!" Futaba pauses briefly as she looks back towards the Fenris, then at the humanoid form of the Archeopteryx. "... Well, the last ninja that helped with this had a job to do here! And Paladins usually have good reasons for doing this kind of thing, so I can't let you off that easy!" Seeing those turrets turning her way, the tanuki flings herself upwards with another broad flap of her arm-wings, reverting them shortly afterwards as she sees the unidentified woman herself flying. While she moves over the Fenris, Futaba flings her arm forward, quite literally stretching it to wrap it around one of her legs and reel herself in. "Hey, cat guy! Mister Ishirou! You know what's going on with all of this?" As she calls out to her companions, she starts swinging herself around erratically, trying to use her own body weight to throw off the Demon's ability to fly and maneuver properly against the Braves' magical arrows and the aggressive option's lasers. "And you, ghost lady! What's got you so angry at these guys, anyway? Did they destroy your family or homeland or something?"
Midway	The furious Demon almost seems insulted when, of all things, she is peppered with arrows from the pirate ship. This lasts up until one, mystically enhanced, slips past her shield and buries itself in her shoulder. The disgusted expression shifts immediately back to one of rage. Ishirou's scan gets a surprisingly detailed readout of the demon in flight, though it comes back more like the blueprint schematic of a far, far larger vessel. In fact, it just about matches the exact dimensions, displacement, and arsenal of the full sized Archeopteryx still foundering in the channel about half a kilometer away. Heavy underside armor and reinforced wing connections. Multiple high-thrust engines suggests redundancy in case multiple are lost. Naval cannons in ball turrets on top and bottom. Countless rocket launchers and autocannons. The primary armament appears to be two immense bomb bays which are currently empty, though rapidly refilling. She swings around for another pass, weaving between bursts of fire magic. Futaba's interference throws off the Demon's aim when she starts firing rockets during her turn. She's outright steered into one of those airbursts of flame magic. Lasers score one of her wings and she hurls herself into a sharp roll in the other direction, barking, "Get off me! You'd be angry at them too if they sank you--!" It's a maneuver that sends her rockets in literally every direction, completely out of control.
Ishirou	Ishirou considers how to go about this, he's getting the blueprints of the ship that is sinking already. How is this happening so fast..? Why is this happening in a land that isn't related to the Abyssal fleet at all...? Ishirou keeps flying at the best speed he can, before releasing a barrage of missiles. The missiles aim to try to force the Abyssal to prioritize her own defense instead of going on the offensive, while his bits keep their support on the targets he elected. He also starts checking her movement and providing firing solutions for the Fenris. "What is your name?" he asks the Abyssal. "Do you know why you're here now, fighting again?"
N'Raha	The arrows from the bard on the boat sink in, and there's an ACHE in that wing, somehow, as the Windburn starts to work at the metal of the joint. Ephemie is now singing her heart out, playing a harp on the deck, and waltzing around. Everyone's moving crisper, the rate of fire picking up from the 10-ilms. They're not quite on target, but the amount of steel in the air is enough to handle things. N'raha, still in his full armor, is up in the rigging of the No-Name, and as the Archeopteryx sails past the next time, the Warrior LEAPS to try and intercept Futaba and the Birb, lashing out with a massive swing of that ax, energy lashing out from the edge of the Bravura to slash and burn.
Futaba Nuki	"Well, yeah, anyone would! Doesn't mean...!" Actually, Futaba doesn't really have a comeback for that point. The fact that she's largely here out of Paladins-based inertia might become a bit clearer later, but for now, she's going to have to focus on not getting hurled into the water when the Archeopteryx starts spinning out of control. It has the tanuki yelping and latching on for dear life, of course, although it's notably easier to stay attached to the Demon when she... Disappears? She shrinks instead, both to try and throw the ghostly lady off her trail as well as keeping herself out of the way of Ishirou's missiles and N'raha ax chops. Having shrunken herself to the size of a bee, she sprints along the back of the Archeoteryx before growing once again turning herself into an old-fashioned anchor with stretching arms coming out of it to try wrapping them around her midsection and become a massive, sudden weight once more. "What's your deal, anyway? What's got you all fighting like this, anyway?" The anchor, of course, has that same leaf attached to it.
Midway	"Archeopteryx Water Demon-- We're FIGHTING, why are you TALKING?" Archeopteryx demands when both Futaba and Ishirou ask her questions. The tanuki's disappearance gave her some manner of reprieve, at least enough for her to roll mid-flight and present the Bravura's descending blade with one of her shields-- and the defend herself from below with the other. The impact bites into copper-colored armor, cracking the metal and shoving her downward in midair. Futaba transforms into an anchor. The sudden weight forces her to swing her legs under herself and keep her body vertical to maintain altitude, leaning back with her teeth bared. The shield that Bravura bit into erupts with small calibur gunfire, autocannons primarily blasting out in a cone of exploding lead. The tooth-lined bomb bay opens again and she sweeps the shield in an arc around her, scattering more bombs into the air above the No-Name below. Her other shield is raised, then brought down, striking at Anchor-Futaba with the leaing edge, "--Let.. Go!" Amidst the missile barrage, one of her engines gutters out. Thrust reduced, the remaining five engines burning at full thrust, she's now slowly descending. Each time she strikes at Futaba, her larger gun battery fires at Ishirou in the distance.
Ishirou	"What you can't multitask?" Ishirou asks, sassily. It seems like she's not the type to talk but to shoot first and ask questions second. This might be troublesome. "So you do realize you're firing on your own people right? The people who sent you out to die tried to kill your king and that ship is protecting him." Ishirou tries to see if there is anything of a spirit in her...spirits are notoriously known for attachment...but this might reveal more about her personality. With the cannon fired at him, he's able to move and avoid direct hits. Thanks to Futaba weighing her down and throwing her attacks off. The shockwave is enough to rock the unit itself but delivers less than destabilizing force. Ishirou flies by again, firing a barrage of lasers, but... The lasers are a deception, attempting to biohack/hack her and trying to draw out more data, while also trying to scramble her thruster systems.
Futaba Nuki	"Because I'm a young nosy hero and you're still in the air where it'd be real dangerous if anyone fell in the ocean!" Anchor-Futaba answers, groaning and wincing each time she's struck on the anchor part of herself and doubly so when Archeopteryx actually goes for her arms. One of the strikes seems to even dislodge Futaba, too, when her arms retract and the anchor starts to fall only for her to transform yet again, this time back into her humanoid form with a pair of wings coming out of her back to keep her aloft. "Now let's take this somewhere drier, or you'll never get me or Mister Ishirou to shut up!" She takes a cue from Ishirou's petulant youth book while darting towards the Demon once again, revealing that she's actually quite used to maneuvering in the air. "Who are your people, anyway? And who are the ones that you're going after right over there?" Noticing that the engines are wearing down, she starts feinting with quick spear-hand thrusts* from the front while ascending steadily followed by high-angled axe kicks** that overshoot the Demon by a wide margin in order to reach their actual target: The thrusters. * Her hands quite literally turn into spears. ** Ditto.
N'Raha	There's a happy cry from the No-Name, as the tiny angry catgirl behind the helm is screaming at the crew. "HARD TA LARBOARD, ALL CANNONS SET." The brig wheels hard, as the crew sets the sails to the wind, using the maneuverability of the smaller vessel to give them the room to- All 6 guns on the... larboard side of the vessel start to fire, in succession. N'Raha has got his ax planted on the deck, waiting for the right time here... And then something that happened to Leviathan before her happens to the Archaeopteryx. A magical chain lashes out, to try and drag the bird down to the deck of the ship. "GET DOWN HERE, YE FLIGHTY THING."
Midway	Being forced to stop right over the No-Name isn't very good for Archeopteryx, who has been forced into the defensive from cannon and spellfire from the deck now. She whirls in place to present a shield to Ishirou's lasers, scorching marks across copper-colored armor. At this point Futaba detaches. The heavy thrust suddenly lurching her upward catches the Demon off-guard, one of her shields slipping out of her hand. It tumbled down to the deck, embedding in the wooden planks of the No-Name. Far too heavy for an ordinary person to lift. Suddenly lacking in defense and off-balance, Futaba finds a good chance to relieve her other wing of one of its engines, causing a sputtering failure in thrust. Fuel feed to the others suddenly turns intermittent and she drops. N'Raha's chain snags her and yanks her down-- smashing the Demon into the deck hard enough to splinter wood and buckle steel. She remains where she lands, wings crumpled and engines sputtering, a mangle of limbs and metal surrounded by broken wood and supply crates... on the lower gun deck. The ghostly pale woman might be dead, at least up until she makes a noise and tries to move again.
N'Raha	And as the Demon Bird smashes into the deck of the No-Name, the tall lanky form of Coultenet clambers across the mess of the decking, to reach Archaeoptryx. He's already chanting, and the spell will ring familiar to the ears of both Ishirou and Futaba. It's the familiar noises of a Sleep spell. A basic one, but at this point, the Braves just need her in place. Raha's right there to beat the girl over the head with his axe if this doesn't work.
Ishirou	Ishirou connects with the hacking/biohacking connection. That's all he needs and he focuses on that connection. With her being flat on the deck of the ship, he focuses on trying to take down systems that aren't vital to her living. He focuses on disabling her weapons, her flight systems, and her defensive systems. For this, he has pulled out of flight mode and is hovering in humanoid mode. So if he fails, or she gets loose before he can finish the job, he's going to be in /big/ trouble. Once he finishes this, however, he attempts to slowly force her into a resting state and tries and go for internal data. Memories, information about her. Stuff like that.
Futaba Nuki	Sadly, Archeopteryx doesn't give Futaba any further answers, but the ninja-wannabe does keep good on her promise when the plane-esque person goes down to the deck: She actually shuts up! "She's down! I've got just the thing for this!" Sort of. She's not asking more questions, at least, but instead joining her on the deck with another heavy crash. Raising her hands, she holds her palms open as they grow, they grow, and they grow, until they're uncomfortably large and well more than enough to just cover herself and the Demon up entirely with sheer volume. For better or for worse, Futaba doesn't actually try to crush anyone with her oversized hands. Instead, she just uses their size and her ring-boosted strength to hold the Demon down while Ishirou works his hackery. "So... Uh. What's the plan now?" She has no idea what he or N'Raha are actually doing, of course. She'd have no way of knowing, after all.
Midway	Violet eyes open and Archeopteryx lets out a groan, struggling to pick herself up. The struggle ends when Futaba's Freakishly Large Hands scoop her up instead and keep her restrained. Already-damaged wings crumple further from the pressure, crunched against her more solid body. As she starts to regain sense of where she is, the Demon's struggle begins. This buys time for Coultenet's spell to complete. There's a ringing sound when it goes off and, already weakened, the Demon returns to unconsciousness. Ishirou's result is much the same as the case of Leviathan. Archeopteryx appears to be a ship with no history. Presumably brand new. Perhaps her rage was at being cheated a chance to carve anything resembling a history for herself, in the same vein as how desperate and sad the submarine was in her own defeat and presumed death. The Fenris slows to match pace with the No-Name, men on deck working hard to extinguish flames. The burning hulk of a seaplane is hauled overboard. Amidst the sailors, Tsukuba stands with his arms folded. Further up the superstructure, Schulz and Braun observe, with Braun clearly taking notes.
Ishirou	"...no history.." Ishirou thinks. That's just not right, a ship is only supposed to get to a form like this with history. Something to awaken the spirit within..? Ishirou frowns. Something is up, and he's very nervous about what Midway is up to. He assumes she is at the center of this, and not this country that is trying to take over the world. Is she trying to turn his world into ash through war too? He flies towards the sinking supership and starts scanning on his own. He'll be here a while, trying to collect data on the systems that are here, and trying to figure out what and how the ship was created.
Futaba Nuki	Futaba finally breathes a sigh of relief as the Demon finally stops struggling, setting her down gently before taking a seat on her own tail (somehow). Shaking off her hands, she turns them back into hands before giving Ishirou and N'raha a hearty thumbs up. "Good work! Now...! Uh." Ishirou's expression suggests concerns about something, and Futaba nonchalantly slides towards him while resting a hand on her chin and staring at Archeopteryx the whole time. Before she can ask him anything, though, he takes off, and she looks between the Demon and Ishirou several times. "Uhh... You got this? Okay, keep an eye on her!" She half-shouts and half-whispers, trying to keep her voice (partially) down so as to not accidentally reawaken the sleeping demon. Before long, she takes off after Ishirou again, opting for the arm wings while fluttering beside him. "What's up, Mister Ishirou? Got something?" She asks while looking across the water at the sinking wreckage, squinting after a few moments to try and see if she can find any traces of people in the water that might indicate a crew.
N'Raha	N'raha's standing right there, though, looking at the little seaplane, and the rest of the affair. "Let me guess. Freshly minted, like the Leviathan?" And V'Kebbe haraunges the crew into coming side to side with the Fenris, and the two crews can mingle and chat, while their chiefs figure out what to do with the little Demon.
Midway	For its size, the original hulking form of the Archaeopteryx has already mostly slipped beneath the waves. Only the right wing, mangled as it was by gunfire, remains above water along with parts of the engines on that wing. It'll be gone before long, surrendered to the deep of the Channel. Fortunately, scanning the woman here has given Ishirou a rather detailed blueprint of the thing. It clearly wasn't designed with crew in mind and, for its size, achieved flight through the ridiculously high energy output of a black box engine compartment. At least that means no men on the distant craft in need of rescue. Tsukuba himself aids in setting the ropeladder rigging between the Fenris and the No-Name and is the first to set foot on the wooden deck. He claps N'Raha on the shoulder with one meaty hand, then casts his learned eye across the pirate crew. Behind him, some enlisted men bring over supplies as a way of thanking their fellow sailors for the aid. "I don't like it," Braun mutters up in the bridge. Lifting a hand, she bites the tip of her thumb in thought, "If this is 'Abyssal' in nature, is it truly the work of that Princess? This is well beyond the science that I understand." "While I agree," Schulz closes his eyes with a shrug, "We can't ignore that she's the one who warned us to prepare for an aerial attack. If she is responsible for these creatures, is she really working alongside Weisenberger?" He turns slightly, glancing aft-- where the ship's sickbay is, and the Leviathan Water Demon contained therein, "...Or is this part of a larger plan that none of us can see?"
Ishirou	"No...the blueprints I got from her were clear that it was unmanned. Nobody is here to rescue," Ishirou says to Futaba. "Sorry for rushing out here, but I wanted to try and get some data before things became too lost to the sea," a beat, "Nice to meet you at least!" "I'm going to try and recover some of the salvage that I can...there is a 'black box' that I want to study...and that lady on the Fenris will likely want to help with that," he says and deploys slowly. Parts swap out. Hydro-gets for thrusters and maneuverability parts for the wings as the R.E.S.C.U.E. unit descends into the water itself.
Futaba Nuki	"That makes our work easier, then. I mean, it's a war thing, but.. Still, you know?" Futaba fidgets lightly as she looks over the wreckage, not quite understanding most of what she's looking at so much as she's just sort of trusting Ishirou to know what needs to be done here. When he mentions salvage, though, she lights up just a bit, and the ninja's pouch is already opened up as she follows after him at a relaxed pace. "I've got plenty of room in here, so let's pack in as much as we can. And nice to meet you, too!" If nothing else, she has the physical strength going for her as far as actually picking stuff up, and plenty of/too much space in that pouch. It's not clear how everything fits in there.