Scene #8353: Predator X

Owner	Pose
Rowdyruff Boys	The CITY of TOWNSVILLE... Is under attack by Mecha Predator X! You already knew this though, because you probably haven't actually left since dealing with MAJOR MAN and the Chemical X-addled population of Townsville. That was only SIX MINUTES ago! During that six minutes, the POWERPUFF GIRLS, TIMESPACE RIDERS, and ISHIROU made plans concerning battle approach: The group will be working towards pushing MECHA PREDATOR X back into the bay to prevent the city from being demolished as a mere after-effect of the fight existing at all, at which point all participants will be able to cut loose without worries. During the push to the sea, Princess Morbucks will provide artillery support to seal this stage of the plan, after which Ishirou will activate its CHEM-X VACUUM to cause it to intake a large amount of sea water, and time looped versions of SOUGO and WOZ will seal off its ventilation options. The ROWDYRUFF BOYS will be providing screening by upsizing to their maximum size and engaging MECHA PREDATOR X, having advised the collective group to come in on the backs of swings at them in particular and strike MECHA PREDATOR X while it was on the recovery. What, then, does MECHA PREDATOR X look like? For the most part it presents as a machine, with a body of silvery metal cast in the shape of a (barely) legally distinct Godzilla. Whoever made it wasn't fun enough to give it actual colors, but it does have a drill tail and some shoulder-mounted guns. You suspect that if somebody's legal department hadn't said something about it, that it would be called the DRAGONXORD instead of MECHA PREDATOR X. Speaking of which ,its fingers are opening up and spewing missiles into the convenient empty warehouse district that it's plodding around in. Best get to pushing it back to the sea before it starts blowing up REAL buildings.
Ishirou	Ishirou has had enough time to properly prepare OPTIONs for everyone. The old OPTIONs are recalled, and recycled, while new ones are created. Everyone will get one that has access to his analysis and sensory equipment. They will also have access to his ability to reshape the battlefield, with the idea that they'll be used to help control damage and prevent it. Then from there, it'll be adding custom profiles. Those who don't have enough super-powered toughness, strength, or speed get that added to them, those without flight or underwater prowess get that added to theirs. Those who are tired get his ability to produce energy for them, and he keeps cycling to make sure his array of powers is shared so that everyone has every edge they need and he can provide. The new OPTIONs are released and go to their new partners. Those that need physical power-ups have them attached to them like a suit of power armor, while others simply will hover on their shoulders as POD does for Ishirou. RESCUE is already deployed for Ishirou, but before he can launch, the missile explosions and debris fall on him, and he's forced to defend himself. Pushing out of the attack, he takes to the skies to try and get eyes on the situation. To start off things, Utsuho's OPTION glows, as Ishirou sends telemetry data to her to try and increase her ability to put her considerable power to greater use. Then Sougo and Woz's POD comes to life, getting fed with data and enhancing their already considerable superhuman traits, as well as a lot of fire power. Meanwhile, Ishirou fires a barrage of missiles, aiming to pepper Predator X with explosions and try and keep the regenerating parts of its biological body from actually doing that. The longer they can do this, the better this mission with go!
Stanley Padgett	STANLEY PADGETT might be a leader of Combat Psychologists, but today he is still following instructions. It's almost like he's learning how not to be a shitty teenager (somewhat). That said, he's feeling refreshed and ready to go after all those Rude People with Chemical X Powers. Even more so when he's busy dodging missiles and debris that the PREDATOR X-O-ZORD is hucking around in its wake. There are a few close swishes of rocks right past his head, and an explosion he forgot to look away from like a COOL GUY... But otherwise, he's pacing the giant robot, and scampering from rooftop to rooftop of Empty Warehouses before they get torn up. "Hey, I'm just going to say I'm not a pirate and not a seaman, I'm a fencer, is that going to be okay?" Stanley's form flits upwards to the top of a telephone pole to blast at the ROBOTRON 9000 with a burst of corrosive energy to try and herd it in the right direction. "I did not bring my swimming gear, that's on me, I guess."
Futaba Nuki	What's a ninja to do when it comes to tangling with a giant robot? Becoming big herself, for starters. The most direct way of getting Mecha Predator X back into the water would be to smash it right back in, and that's just what Futaba's working on. Joining the Rowdyruffs in becoming extra large is an oversized Futaba, but she isn't joining them right up front. No, their plan to keep it on the back foot by coming in while it's trying to counterattack makes way too much sense for her not to follow. Besides, it'd be a visibly confusing mess if she was to just rush in at the same time as them, and she's content to maximize her own visibility if it also happens to coincide with a proper plan. Maximizing visibility through size means being an easier target, though, but that's not necessarily a bad thing in the case of protecting the city. Turning her front to steel to weather the initial explosions, the giant ninja sheds off some of that charred surface steel and blows on her hands a bit from the initial sting of the explosions. "Big guy, huh...? Looks like something right from home. Okay!" Adopting a sprinter's stance, she waits until the Rowdyruffs have begun their own maneuvers before rushing in after them. After building up a fair amount of speed, she leaps right over the trio to throw herself at the kaiju with a huge drop kick. It's a literally huge drop kick, too, as she transforms at the last second (again) to turn almost all of that mass into making her legs comically oversized for even more kicking power.
Utsuho Reiuji	There were battle plans made. Utsuho even listened to them, though it is an open question how much of it she will retain - though she's had it drilled into her head that she is not supposed to open up with her full power until after Mecha Predator X is in the bay, please. Hopefully she remembers that at least. No, what Utsuho was really thinking about is that people (say, all the people in Townsville) are going to love her after this. She'll be a hero! They might even give her a medal! (They will probably not give her a medal.) She's going to be able to Do Something and Be Praised For It and really, is there anything else a nuclear bird needs? Dinner, probably. But she can handle that afterwards. "Come on let's goooo," Utsuho half-whines, impatient at the prospect of action. Fortunately, she doesn't really have to wait all that long, and she leaps into the air, her great wings spreading and catching the air as her starfield cape billows outward. She has, apparently, already decided to deviate from the plan, because she barely waits for the Rowdyruff Boys before charging directly in. A POD manages to catch up with her, and because Utsuho has decided she likes the PODs she lets it hang on before she fires thrusters, accelerating even faster. Explosions shower around her, but she manages to avoid the worst of them; a glancing hit causes her to lose her speed for a moment until she catches herself, redoubling her efforts. A few instants before she would hit PREDATOR X, Utsuho suddenly brakes, spreading her wings and beating backwards. Her extended rod emits a white-hot cutting beam of light as she tries to slice into PREDATOR X's shoulder and down its arm as she turns sharply, beginning to fly further out to the bay. The cut line continues to glow white-hot, melting. Maybe she did remember the plan, and she's trying to get it to fire at her, currently not in the direction of the city. Or maybe it was just a convenient way to go. The world may never know.
Timespace Riders	Zi-O and Woz rush into action. Zi-O, clad in the FOURZE MAGNETSTATES variaton of the blocky DecadeArmor, soars through the air, weaving through and around explosions which rock the warehouse district. His retainer, clad in the robot-themed, wrench-motif KikaiArmor, is held aloft by Zi-O's current command of magnetism, racing alongside the would-be Demon King. Both riders take up positions behind the upscaled Rowdies, lining up to enact the first part of the plan. Woz's armor sprouts four golden manipulator arms from ports spaced along the back of the golden cuirass, puffs of steam hissing from vents as he navigates a tight loop around Brick. Ishirou's OPTION snaps into place atop his armor with a satisfying metal clang. All four arms then strike centermass at MECHA-PREDATOR X like pistons, one after the other in a rhythmic flurry. When the brief window has passed, he hastily fades, manipulators crossed in a block as he circles behind Butch. In that same window, Zi-O's OPTION plugs into the back of his white, bulky armor like a battery pack, supercharging two heavy-looking arm cannons. Powerful, directed magnetic fields shove and strike at the mechanized kaiju, their path visible by the rocking of parked trucks and industrial equipment below.
Powerpuff Girls	Bubbles is the oddest one out of the incoming Puffs, since she has to figure out what the plan is from the groupchat, and nobody else is answering their phone! > Blossom what the heck is going on? > Predator X > :blosstare: Do you have your airpods in? > No!! Tell me the plan! We're not putting it in the bay are we? > We are? That's the best plan. > You need to be more conscious of the very delicate ecosystems there! > Currently conscious of very delicate Townsville right here. Bubbles groans and keeps flying, a blue trail of light from Stanford out over the city on an intercept course to Predator X! MEANWHILE Blossom has to furiously type into her phone to bring Bubbles up to speed, the arguing piquing her eyebrow frustratedly as something on the screen makes her have to click yet harder and more deliberately as she Reminds Bubbles of what their actual duty was. That done, and holstering her phone with a sense of finality, Blossom looks up at the looming Predator X that Brick has already upsized to engage, and takes off in a SKRR! of ruby energy herself, catching up to her giant red opposite to start harassing with laser vision, aggressively searching for weak parts that Brick can exploit. AND IN THE CLOUD OF DEBRIS AND GREENS Butch, giant sized, charges down Mecha Predator X with his arm already loaded back, ready to throw. In his enormous mitt is Buttercup, crouched and ready, so when he hauls off, the smaller Puff shoots right for the face like a coilgun of stored kinetic force and a helixing two-tone lance of green as Buttercup also leads with her shoulder right for the great Mecha-Kaiju's neck, screaming. "OH IT'S BAD NEWS FOR YOU YOU METAL FREAK!" "I HAVE SOME FEELINGS TO WORK OUT!!!"
Rowdyruff Boys	MECHA PREDATOR X currently does not have exposed bones. Thankfully, it also isn't regenerating inside particularly quickly, and whenever it does the tissue within will have to displace the exterior plating at some point. At any rate, you can get started on cranking this tin can open. Its silhouette flashes violently at the point of impact-- it's not a forcefield exactly, but an exertion of durability. The great mechanical beast opens its mouth and ROARS in Ishirou's general direction, a flurry of ice and snow battering his position from its open maw. The blast from Stanley lands more firmly against an already-scorched knee-plate, staggering its approach. Another volley of missiles load into its left fingertips which it directs towards Stanley in particular in retaliation. Just to make matters worse it saturates SPECIFICALLY in a circle around him so there's really nowhere to go to look away from the explosion like a cool guy. Futaba's giant drop kick--! Just barely catches an arm of Mecha Predator X, which turns immediately and brings its tail-drill about with a gigantic, grinding thunder aimed directly at one of her oversized kneecaps. "Be careful about upsizing. Blossom wanted collateral minimized," Brick advises Futaba from nearby. He is, quite conspicuously, screening Blossom in particular at the moment. He jukes to one side as Utsuho makes her attack run, the cutting beam firing into one of the shoulder cannons of Predator X quite credibly-- but damned is that thing tough. Glowing red-hot at the point of contact all the same, Mecha Predator X angles a cannon which SHOULD be fried up at Utsuho and fires right back with a spiraling drill of an energy cannon. Between Utsuho's actual hit and its counter-fire recoil, Mecha Predator X is pushed back through the warehouse district and towards the docks. It knocks over an inconveniently located shipping crane with its tail as it goes. A powerful magnetic SHOVE that really should have affected that much metal more than it did couples with Buttercup WORKING OUT HER FEELINGS to bring Mecha Predator X directly to the edge of the bay. It manages -- barely -- to keep its footing, delaying the moment that the first of several traps will be sprung by seconds at most. MECHA PREDATOR X retaliates to this MAGNETIC ASSAULT and fastball special by immediately subjecting Zi-O to a similar -- perhaps more intense -- magnetic force drawing him IN, before swinging at him with its tail to send him hurtling -- more or less -- towards Buttercup. Spontaneously manifesting powers thrown at it MIGHT have something to do with the degree to which the Ruffs and Puffs reacted with aggravation.
Ishirou	The ice breath directly hits the RESCUE, icing up its flight systems and causing it to lose altitude due to the added weight. He starts descending, trying to break out of the encrusting ice, and decides to at the last moment change bits. Flight unit parts swap out for burrowing ones, and the ice shatters right before he hits the ground. This turns into a sliding recovery, before he switches back out for the flight unit, and takes flight again. Ishirou, seeing the extra material thanks to the ice breath reaches up and gathers the ice, and then fires it underneath the Metal Predator X, aiming to freeze the street and reduce friction...trying to aid the various powers in pushing it toward the bay. Ishirou's own OPTIONs start to power up and spit up aiming to surge around the machine. Aiming to send junk data into its systems to try and cause run-over errors, enhance inefficiencies, and generally make its day very bad.
Stanley Padgett	Stanley, having been presented with the worst possible method of NOT looking at the explosions, instead takes the scenic route, and teleports straight up. Unfortunately for Stanley, this means instead of landing back on a nice solid roof of an empty warehouse, he tumbles into a mess of tangled metal, horrible scraps, rusty rebar, and general tetanus hazards. Thankfully for Stanley, he's immune to tetanus, so instead he just gets his nice suit all messed up and a bunch of bloody scrapes for his trouble. The Brave Fencer grumbles and dusts himself off as best he can, looking up and out of the hole where he landed to where the MECHA MANGLER is rumbling out into the bay. "...okay, let's try that again. And look cooler doing it." Stan's energy flutters around him, and he dissipates into a speedy blur once again, heading for that leg he cooked with Mega Rusting Powers. "My other self! MERCUTIO!" There's a flash of energy, and then the looming form of Stanley's Persona slips into view, the massive longsword of the Fool moving to crash down on weakened joint plates and brittle conduits, looking to crack the monster open for the others to get at it.
Utsuho Reiuji	Utsuho kind of expected the shoulder cannon to shut down and, if she was lucky, the arm to fall off. It's a robot, she figures; it's okay if its arm gets cut off. She was not expecting it to not only keep working, but keep working well enough to fire at her almost immediately. She lets out a startled yelp as the cannon fires directly at her, and her instinctive response - to bring up a barrier - only manages to shatter the spiral and surround her in a corona of energy instead. It's slightly better, in that it didn't blast her out of the sky, but it's still absolutely no fun! Utsuho rises out of it, giving the shoulder cannon a wider birth, before she says the most dangerous words in the world. "I have an idea!" Utsuho turns and flies a bit further out toward the bay, in the direction everyone is pushing PREDATOR X. She raises her rod overhead and starts to form a sphere of... ...something. It's somewhere between gas and energy; a swirling cloud of something shot through with streaks of white and yellow and red energy that roil and churn inside it. But more critically than that is the gravity. The sphere pulls. It pulls everything, like gravity, though unlike gravity it doesn't get stronger when you get closer to it. It can't pull things apart or crush them under their own weight... but it can drag things toward it, constantly, inevitably, until they hit it (and burn). The water directly underneath it bulges upward into a dome, a stream of it breaking away and sizzling against the underside of the sphere and shrouding it in steam. Utsuho stoops away from it as it grows, tugging the PREDATOR X along the ice... and everything else, of course. It's possible to just get away from it, but if you don't try, you're going to get closer and closer.
Futaba Nuki	Unfortunately for Futaba, her aim is a bit off the mark, and the Mecha Predator X is in prime position to smash her knees if she's not careful! Fortunately for Futaba, its aim is also a bit off, and she's able to shrink her legs in time so that she just gets slapped around and sent spinning across the water. It's still rather jarring, and she's not sure which way is up for a little while, but it's far better than the alternative. "Got it! Whoa... Stopped some of the explosives from reaching the city, at least!" She chimes in after brick, still managing to sound chipper despite needing a moment to right herself and face the giant again. She takes a moment to observe the beast in action, stroking her chin as though she's just studying it rather than fighting it in that moment. "Huhhu... Ice breath, fiery cannons, drill parts... Such a cool machine. Too bad we've gotta fight it, right?" Slapping her hands together, Futaba once again comes charging in with her flaming katana drawn and upsized to match her still-giant standing height. "But if it's a robot, that means it has to melt if we get hot enough! And... Oh. Miss Blossom!" An idea forms. "I saw something how if you heat something up really fast and cool it really fast, then... Something bad happens!" She waves that flaming katana in the air as though it might be part of A Plan, but doesn't actually remember enough about what she viewed to elaborate. Still, Futaba waits for another opening in Mecha Predator X's offensive before swinging that elegant blade at it with all her might, wielding it less like the katana it is and more like an oversized flaming sledgehammer. She's even got the posture of a baseball player while she's doing it.
Powerpuff Girls	Blossom's mind continues to prod at the weak points of the Mecha Predator X, but even screened by Brick she's not making clear headway. Peeling the metal away was a job for precision cutting, but of course, the big guy kept moving, and it was dangerous up close! She's waiting for... Bubbles streaks out bright blue over water, coming up from the bay in a leaping-following waterspout of hydrokinesis to lash about Predator X's midsection and yank it backwards, towards the water, in a great splash of delightful(ly bay water) glittering in the light. Thanks to the extra ingredients in the water, it shines extra brightly as it rains down. Blossom assess the damage potential to the city, and, expecting more pushing to take place, switches to shooting carving beams at the land-bar beneath the behemoth, to assist the slide into the water. And, of course... Buttercup is working her feelings out. "Think you're so big and invincible? Big hungry boy?!" She shouts, friction-hot as she twists about to deliver a wind-splitting mid-air kick only to hear the Loud Sound of Belts And Hyperplastic. Her focus, furious attention pauses and shifts, saccade, to the side to see the leading N/S Spaceman's rocket dome and two cannons hurtling her way. Instinctively rolling mid-air to receive, the pair of Zi-O and Buttercup spin, before a Super-Electromagnetic field begins to generate in their not-stopping and only growing faster tornado spin. They don't quite connect -- Buttercup can't bleed off all the force -- but it doesn't matter. She hurles the magic magnet man who would be King at Mecha Predator X, a hurricane of Super-Electromagnetic force. "Rip it to shreds, Zi-O!!"
Timespace Riders	Woz darts out from behind Butch as Bubbles emerges from the water, threading the needle between the supersized Ruff's legs to attack the calf of the mechanized kaiju. Boots grinding sparks against the pavement of the pier, Woz halts himself with two manipulator arms, claws open to plant firmly against solid ground. Woz utters a cry of effort as the other two arms rocket upwards, joined by both of his fists, intending to make himself a fulcrum to topple it. Zi-O doesn't fare as well. "What?! It's got me!!" Zi-O's rocket boots strain against the magnetic counter-attack, trying in vain to pull him free of the magnetic field MECHA PREDATOR X uses against him. He tumbles ungracefully through the air after the mecha wins the tug of war, struck directly in the back by the swinging tail. Sparks fly from the white armor, and the Rider's dizzy, disoriented shout of pain is the only warning Buttercup gets--from him, anyway. But he's caught! Charged up and sent on his way by Buttercup, Zi-O gives a high-speed salute. "Right! Space Magnet Gyro Tackle!!" Magnetized to MECHA PREDATOR X, the blurred white, red and blue rider sports a visible corona of crackling blue electricity, right before he strikes the same leg as Woz. The impact of his whirling tackle discharges all of that stored energy at once, exploding violently as he zips past. The last of the centripedal force spent, he evens out in the air, shoots Buttercup another one of his trademark index-up salutes, then rockets behind Futaba for cover.
Rowdyruff Boys	MECHA PREDATOR X has been outsourced and thankfully (for it, not for you) does not have the vulnerabilities necessary to deal with its equipment the way FATHER's machines could be dealt with. All that to say, it makes it save and is not IMPAIRED or BURNED. It does however narrow its eye lenses, APPARENTLY quite aware of what was attempted. Which is why it attempts to do it right back, an electrical pulse firing from its eyes towards Ishirou. Immediately after it breathes fire on the ice beneath it, melting it away. Simultaneously, Stanley's PERSONA is used to stab at its knees. The good news is that, although it's not as clean a hit as would be desired, it DOES manage to crack the armor. The bad news is that there's flesh under there and it's not going to need mechanical means of holding itself up for much longer. As if to underline the fact that it is adapting to what's being thrown at it, it sends a purple bolt of energy towards Mercutio that is very likely to reverberate into Stanley on account of them being the same being more-or-less-- it's not physical at all, it's some sort of awful headsplitting psychic attack. Around this time, it starts getting tugged towards Utsuho's ball of gas, energy, and gravity. Its mask begins to crack, revealing a reptilian shape growing underneath it. A less mechanical roar follows, and it practically unhinges its jaw opening its mouth and chomping down on the energy field, splashing down into the water as-desired but treating the anomaly as a solid object. An object that it then begins to feed until it is no longer in Utsuho's control. Until it collapses in on itself. Until it comes back out of the creature's partially-reconstructed mouth and begins to be her problem and maybe the problem of some other people nearby also. Speaking of which, MECHA PREDATOR X is around 40% organic now, with armor beginning to get pushed away from growing flesh. Beneath there is still visible skeleton, but it's lost a lot of the brittleness of being made of metal. Futaba's flaming sword crashes against what's left of its breastplate and begins it flaking apart, reducing some of its overall mass and weight. This makes it a lot easier for Bubbles to drag it into the center of the bay, setting it up for THE PLAN-- which will commence imminently. No, not the plan that Sougo and Woz are engaging in, the other PLAN. Speaking of Sougo, Woz, and Buttercup though, that just goes swimmingly. We call what they're doing a RAILGUN RIDER KICK, and it is plenty enough combined force to blast the armor off the entire lower body off MECHA PREDATOR X, which screeches in aggravation and... submerges beneath the bay. It is not running away. The waters begin to circle downwards as it very literally begins to swallow all the sea life -- and anybody unwise enough to let themselves get caught in the waters -- that hasn't long since been spooked off. It emerges a moment later, snapping violently at Bubbles and Futaba as it emerges. It has a proper lower body now-- sort of... its scaled and carapace inconsistent with its actual main mass, looking more fish-like than reptilian. The weapons systems are still clinging to its body, though it hasn't used them for a bit, so technically it is still MECHA PREDATOR X though it looks less like it by the moment. (It is mid-fight! The Powerpuff Girl's previous arrangements will result in active shields being down for your return attack volley, and maybe some extra.)
Ishirou	The electrical energy coursing through his body causes Ishirou to scream and drop to the ground again, this time he crashes much more dramatically. Moments later, he's awakened by his OPTIONs trying to reboot his systems and force him back to his feet. Cursing a little under his breath, he gets out of the Ishirou-shaped hole to get a feel for the situation. Wait, it's there...but something unexpected is happening. It's absorbing the biomass of the bay. Oh no! All the fish are going to be dead! This thing is a monster, beyond redemption, as is the person who made it!!! On the other hand, it is where it needs to be but isn't submerged enough...not yet. However, this does mean Blossom's plan is happening now! Ishirou looks up and swaps out flight gear for water gear and dives into the bay after it. His adventures in Rita's world have taught him a few tricks to deal with things in the water. Such as...making the ground underneath the monster erupt. Tentacles of earth, stone, and mud wrap up, trying to drag the creature down. Once more he attempts another surge into its systems. "You can't keep me out forever!"
Futaba Nuki	"It's working! It's... Uh. Whoa. Is it actually a cyborg under all that?" Futaba starts to realize Mecha Predator X isn't just a mechanical monstrosity when it starts shedding its armor from the group's repeated attacks. She's less concerned and more excited, though, even letting out a cheer at the RAILGUN RIDER KICK and trying to come up with another kind ofcool team combination. Before she can, though, the beast submerges, and it starts dragging all manner of sealife and living-things-near-the-sea into its gaping maw. Futaba just happens to be in that latter category, and she gets dragged right into those snappjing jaws through a combination of being too big to not and also not having quite enough momentum to kick herself out of there. She even suffers a rather nasty bite down on center mass before finally getting it together enough to change forms yet again, shrinking herself down this time into something far more conducive to not getting shredded by a giant mechanical beast's teeth: Rocks. Or, rather, Futaba turns into a rockier version of herself, complete with pillar-like limbs to help keep her steady in the wake of so much seawater threatening to send her deeper into the technically Mecha Predator X. "Hungry for more, huh? Then let's make sure you get enough... Minerals!" Wait. Can anyone even hear her in there? Futaba can at least make sure everyone sees her as she starts enlarging herself again, turning her legs into spikes to start stomping into the Mecha Predator's giant mouth for both damage and leverage while using her slab-like palms to start battering away at the teeth on the other side of its mouth to try and break those teeth before it can shred her or her companions up even more.
Stanley Padgett	Stanley's attempts to kneecap the apparent MECHA MEAT MONSTER are mildly successful, though once again, he suffers the slings and arrows of being unused to Kaiju Combat, by getting blasted with psychic energy. He staggers into a conveniently placed pile of trash cans and cardboard boxes, Mercutio disrupted right back into his soul and is unable to assist. The Fool dusts himself off, spotting the combo assault from the Puffs and Zi-O overhead as he flits around trying to find a good spot again. Apparently, this thing only really gets hacked off and swings at you if you're swinging at it. That would be okay if its other goal wasn't being a giant monster that wanted to wreck Townsville. A mid-fight transformation, and then one of Ishirou's options swoop in and charges Stanley up for THE PLAN. THE PLAN. RIGHT. Stanley's form flashes out across the water, as he skips from flotsam to flotsam, carefully maneuvering until he can start climbing the MECHA PREDATOR's now fishy and waterlogged flanks. The time with Rita's people taught him how to parkour nasty wet decking and this was no different. And as he goes, Stanley is blasting at the PREDATOR with his saber, bursts of piercing energy aiming for more of that armor, trying to wheedle his way underneath and get at the delicate bits. "Fight, gentlemen of England! fight, bold yeomen!" Stanley's words ring out across the bay, punctuated by the stabby noises of Saber On Robot.
Utsuho Reiuji	"Ew, there's stuff under there." Utsuho hadn't really known that PREDATOR X had anything but mechanical parts - she'd even considered it a robot. Someone might have told her it had the original's bones under it and she wouldn't have remembered, anyway. She hovers, occasionally guiding herself away from the Hot Jupiter as it pulls her, like everything else, towards it. But it turns out the words Utsuho spoke really were the most dangerous words in the world. "Bad idea! BAD IDEA!" Utsuho has mostly been fighting 'by herself' - oh, there are other people around, she's trying not to shoot them, mostly (if they fall into the Hot Jupiter it's their own fault), and she's taking advantage of their presence. But she hasn't really been working with them, with the possible exception of Ishirou. This means, fortunately, that she's the one who has to deal with the approaching black hole, and unfortunately, that she has no help in doing it. She goes straight vertical in an attempt to dodge it, mostly - straight up, firing a quartet of jets of flame from beneath her cloak like thrusters. Because it is a gravity ball, this has a mixed effect; Utsuho doesn't get nearly as high as quickly as she's expecting to. She changes her angle, misjudges, and is pulled around the gravity distortion in a tight orbit, slamming into the water at a painfully high speed and being dragged through it. Steam rises from where she fell. The good news is that the gravity distortion won't last for too much longer, unless PREDATOR X can sustain it itself! The bad news is that it has absolutely done its job and wrecked Utsuho. Well, to an extent. Utsuho rises back out of the water on a plume of spray and steam. She looks incredibly bedraggled, given she just got dragged through the water and got pretty close to being eaten herself... and the eye on her chest is moving, rolling side to side as it attempts to look at PREDATOR X. Yatagarasu didn't like that. Utsuho lets out her frustrations in a wild scream, head back, and her third eye glows with a baleful red aura. Her two actual eyes are glowing, too, though not as brightly, and a corona of energy surrounds her, rolling off her in waves. "I'm not going to let you do that to me! I'm the sun that burns everything! Lord Yatagarasu, the Black Sun - I need more power!" It's a desperate plea, a hint of her old self, pushed aside for a time but on its way back. She didn't come here to be made a fool of, to have her attacks eaten. She wanted to show people what she could do, that she was powerful, that they needed her. Utsuho, her arm slightly wavering, points her control rod at PREDATOR X. A sphere of light and flame - a sun - forms on its tip, small at first but it grows and grows, scaled for something like PREDATOR X. (It's not because of that, though. She'd always go this big.) And then she releases it, an enormous solar discharge. Water boils beneath it, and this time she's not really aiming 'not at other people' because that's frankly impossible; the only thing she has remembered to do is not point it at the town, but over the bay instead.
Timespace Riders	"Kind of!" Zi-O answers Futaba. "It's becoming less of one by the minute--we need to stop it before it's all the way back to organic!" He naturally moves to pursue, as does Woz, the two of them hovering over the water, ready for opportunistic strikes the moment the kaiju emerges. The tenacity of the cyborg again takes both riders by surprise--each of them is caught by the converted energy field, blasted from the sky--saved only by quick thinking from Zi-O. Mashing the stop on his Timespace Driver, Zi-O finds himself and Woz hurtling towards each other through the power of magnetism, stopped perilous inches short of impact with the watery vortex below. "Woz!" Zi-O cries, hand extended. The retainer takes his hand, and the two of them whirl rapidly in the air, breaking off after building speed to split in two directions. Zi-O, fatigue evident in his ungainly but rapid flight, circles around behind MECHA PREDATOR X as it emerges with Futaba in its maw, blasting at the back of its neck. Meanwhile, Woz forms the other part of a combination strike--whirling in the air to deliver a kick to the cyborg's stomach, followed up with a flurry of piston strikes from the golden manipulators at his back. The two of them seem to be trying to get it to spit Futaba out, essentially giving her a retreat opportunity following her attack!
Powerpuff Girls	Having executed her hurling finisher, and heaving with breath, Buttercup holds her position in the air and lets the fight peel away from her, an emerald torch of energy and a girl in black and green. Shoulder down, legs apart, she hangs there, looking at the giant lizard's lower armor break apart, and feels that, maybe, she might've hit something hard enough. Then it gets up, and erupts as a CYBERPISCENE PREDATOR X, snapping at Bubbles and closing its jaws around the sapphire Puff, causing a momentary bouncing-screaking tantrum of electrical blasts to get her way out, mulched and tattered in her coat and drained of more of her Chemical X -- "Aaaaagh! But there's something worse! All the fishies! I'll get you for that, Predator from MY lagoon!!!" Bubbles shouts in building anger. Still carrying an electrical charge, she is about to unleash it, when Blossom calls out. "Bubbles, back off! Get away from over it!" The blue puff listens instead of redirecting her charge downward, zipping away with a SKRR! as the sky grows as bright as the sun overhead... IN ORBIT: Twelve linked Morbucks satellites, having each been re-tasked and repositioned over the long minutes of the fight thanks to the patently absurd super-tech one rich woman can put into the sky when they can simply make it legal if they really wanted, but don't, because it wouldn't be sporting. Instead they have a government contract for orbital debris clearing that somehow keeps getting upped. It's nice to be 'recognized' for 'good deeds'. And... Sometimes it's nice to be recognized for a good deed. SO... Pre-zeroed to the bay and only needing final firing angles, Blossom provides the details to Morbucks by face-timing the yellow with her outside camera. "Are you ready to praise me, Blossom?" Princess asks with an expectant, giddy-sweet. Blossom makes a noncommittal: "I'm ready to, yes." The squealing begins again, but this time, also, a second sun alights overhead, twelve points forming a circle, and a column of hot light falls in a blinding solar VREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEM of overflowing light from above, bombarding down when Ishirou sets up the lashings of the earth and sea to hold it in place. This was, of course, always the plan. "You'll only get one, blossom - girlie! - toodles!"
Rowdyruff Boys	Hummmmmmmm VREEEEEEEEEM Solar-powered orbital cannons fire down onto (mecha) PREDATOR X, who is not currently in a position to inhale solar power and so is hammered down the length of its body with the furious onslaught, what remains of its armor and even most of its weapons turning into useless slag that flows pitifully off like mercury from a cracked thermometer. Between Sougo and Woz's attack and the orbital laser, it is the first time the noise that (mecha) PREDATOR X makes sounds like a beast whining. It directs its maw away from Zi-O and towards the fleeing Bubbles, turning up the setting and quite obviously attempting to steal some of her Chemical X. But its gaze actually turns upwards... Towards the satellite cannons. Yeah, you don't want that happening.
Rowdyruff Boys	It's a good thing that Ishirou thought to cause growths at the bottom of the bay because there almost aren't enough systems left in it to really hurt it through them. There's a couple of weapons, but-- the really big one that would let it siphon Chemical X into its body is still there, and he gets to make progress on opening that up while he pins it down. The induced changing landscape grabs hold of the beast's tail and pulls it lower in the water, quasi-immobilizing it. It is at this moment that somebody has their perfect opportunity from outer goddamned space. But at the same time, Futaba starts messing up its mouth, and it simply spits her out after getting a couple of teeth cracked. You'd think that amount of damage would be represented by a lot more, but have you ever had something stab a goddamn tooth nerve? That shit hurts like the devil, and on top of that it's getting sea water in its mouth. In retaliation it spits an incredibly painful bile at Futaba. It's not strictly DAMAGING if it makes contact, but it does feel a lot like impacted wisdom teeth in fast-forward to get hit by. Almost parallel to this, Ishirou feels something nearby-- a grim, ghostly presence watching from nearby. The DARK WATCHERS are a historical urban legend in California thought to observe from the Santa Lucia Range as far back as 300 years ago. Those were probably just distance hallucinations or illusions. In this case though, they're projecting a psychic attack that inflicts the very recent and raw experience of simply being dead on him if it takes. The Dark Watches materializes adjacent to Stanley and project cutting contempt at him, slashes carrying through the air (and water) from no particular source as he cuts away at arm armor beneath which is mostly raw, skinned muscle and bare bone. It's not fully regenerated yet, even now... Bedraggled, deprived of most armoring, with arms that are more bone than flesh at the moment, (mecha) PREDATOR X howls in rage and spins around with surprising rapidity, repelling all three of the Rowdyruff Boys who continue to SCREEN for the group-- it's not really hard to tell why it might have needed this sort of treatment back in the day. It raises its head to face Utsuho and meets her sun with opened jaws. Its face peels away and its teeth disintegrate and the water in its tissues boil away and-- it does not die. It should die, nothing made of meat and metal should be able to do anything like this, but in the end although it wreaks absolutely catastrophic damage on the creature, (mecha) PREDATOR X swallows the sun and snaps its mouth shut even as steam begins to pour from its maw. When it opens its mouth again to point at Utsuho it is not fire or radiation that emerges-- it is not anything. But the density of space begins to increase on top of her-- little by little, bit by bit. Just as it had turned the Jupiter into a black hole, it's beginning the process of collapsing her into a neutron star. This, she understands from the psychic emanations that accompany the attack, is deliberate. So the beast declares: YOU ARE NOT EVEN THE MIGHTIEST OF STARS. This psychic attack might honestly be more intense than the actual effect of trying to collapse her physically; it is unclear if the beast truly has the power to complete that process on its own. Meanwhile, it is being harassed on the back of its neck by Zi-O-- he had already compelled it to let go of Futaba, but it twists its neck unnaturally in response to continued harassment, throwing him off before re-orienting his body properly to once again seemingly try to swallow him. It is worse/bad than that. The mechanisms that allowed it to inhale Chemical X earlier rev up and begin a suction effect that nobody at all wants to get caught in. Right? ALERT!: This is what Ishirou and loop Sougo and Woz have been waiting for. Carry out your planned actions.
Futaba Nuki	Now that Mecha Predator X is out in the bay and safely-ish away from the city, Futaba's feeling far more confident about going all out. After finally escaping from the creatures jaws (mostly by being ejected), she leaps forward and flies upwards briefly with a pair of wings sprouting from her back, spinning herself around to face the giant once more. As she does, the bile catches her head on, eroding away that stone skin with a horrendous-sounding sizzling that even draws a pained yelp from Futaba and forces her to submerge herself in the water momentarily to get that acidic substance off. "Pfuh... Stop it before it becomes organic? Wouldn't it be easier to beat up if it was meatier instead of metally?" Although she asks that of Zi-O, she's not about to test that concern by actually waiting. Instead, Futaba shakes herself off after she comes back out of the water sans rockbody and sans bile bullets making her jaw feel like she just got kicked in the teeth. "Geh.. That'd take too long, though. Let's just take care of it now like we planned before it gets any worse!" Futaba gets on all fours as her tail enlarges itself behind her, twitching violently and looking like it's about to explode in moments. It bursts open on contact, but not in a disgusting or gross way. Instead, it explodes like a fast-forwarded time lapse of a flower finally blooming if the petals and everything inside of was actually made of beautiful silver ribbons. The silver strands swirl around the base of her tail at first, slowly opening up into an array of tendrils that almost look like they're pointing at Mecha Predator X as they settle above Futaba. "Still trying the same old tricks, huh? Fine, if you're gonna be that greedy... Time for all you can eat!" Futaba's insistent on throwing out those dumb lines as she starts rushing at Mecha Predator X once more, running on all fours and practically hurling herself forward to offset the water slowing her down somewhat. As it sucks, she flips forward to aim her ribbonized tail right at it, and then the mass of tendrils surge towards it en masse, aiming to fill up its mouth with all of them at once. The tips of each silver ribbon are sharpened like razors despite looking like... Well, ribbons, and they're poised to carve up Mecha Predator X's mouth quite terribly on their way in. It'll be even worse with the rest of Futaba's body coming in from behind them, though, forcing the ribbon forward even harder. Only when Futaba and her tails are all locked firmly in place does she take out her katana and swallow it whole, prompting her entire body (ribbons and all) to heat up rapidly enough that even the Seawater nearby starts to boil.
Ishirou	Ishirou is struggling to keep the beast down, keep it here long enough for his part of the plan to happen. He has hacked inside of it, something is clicking their plan is coming together, as well as his part in it. He just needs to give the signal to Sougo and Woz... And then he's on the ground, Petra overhead as the gun blade punches through his chest again. He can feel the hole in his chest, as cleanly as he did that day. He can't breathe, he can't think, and pain eclipses his existence as he stares up at the hateful woman. He struggles, body seizing as it tries to figure out what happened to it. He can feel blood fill up his lungs, his vision going dark...everything hurts. So many regrets, so much pain...the raw feelings of rejecting everything Petra accepted as humanity. The raw /hate/ he felt against her...all bubbling to the surface again. "...Help.." he begs. Something he didn't do before. Something he wishes he did. Something he desperately wished he did. He reaches up towards the surface of the water, though in his mind he's reaching up at the sky... And it's Candy that catches his arm. Beside him is Lilian driving Petra back. Dragonfly and Metaphor are giving him life-saving resuscitation. Futaba is protecting him and the two medics. Hibiki is there with Lilian, but trying to restrain and not hurt Petra. Tamamo is aiding the two medics by keeping him there. He snaps out, he wasn't alone. He was only alone because he kept trying to reach for something he wasn't and shouldn't be. He snaps out, even though his mind is exhausted, and his body in pain, the RESCUE snaps into attention again. All of the OPTIONs resonate, providing crisp and clear data to everyone. He gives the signal to Sougo and Woz, as he trips the circuit in the beast they are fighting. Aiming to draw in as much sea water as he could, everything to try and fry and damage it from the inside out.
Stanley Padgett	Those psychic attacks come in, just as Stanley is busy trying to get clear of Orbital Death Lasers, and while none of them actually land... Stanley is still struck... by a horrible yawning sensation that perhaps, he is, in fact, British. The shock of it is enough to pitch him over into the bay itself, where he's dunked into messy monster gore polluted water with no fishes in it. He gasps, coming up for air, his outfit soggy and gross and his fading blue hair caked to his face. "...I'll try to figure that one out later..." He grumbles, and flits himself up and out of the bay, landing near Woz and Zi-O. "Right. Hey Woz, can I borrow you for a second?" A winning smile, as he manifest Mercutio again, only to be further bolstered by another set of Ishirou's Options. He'll have to thank Ishi, now that he isn't dead. Once he can run into him, of course. But he plants his feet, revs up his speedster boy energy again, and huffs. "...Point me at where I'm /going/ to land The Hit, Woz."
Utsuho Reiuji	For a few moments there, Utsuho is feeling on top of the world. Exactly as she should; like she's one of the most powerful people on it. She laughs, exultant. "That will show you! I'm the greatest! I'm a hero!" But that's not the actual result. So far, in her life, Utsuho has run into exactly two people who could probably take a shot like that, but she didn't actually throw something like that at them, so she isn't entirely sure. Certainly nobody has ever eaten the sun she launched at them. Her eyes widen in shock as the third one in her chest becomes more active, rolling this way and that as if whatever (or whoever) was trying to get a better look at it. "Unyu? What? How could - how could you do that! You were supposed to be dead! My fusion burns everything away!" It opens its mouth, and Utsuho expects to deal with return fire. Which she can handle; of all the people here, she is the most likely to survive a solar strike. Yatagarasu wouldn't let her fall to that, she thinks. There's no way! But that's not what she has to deal with at all. It's the opposite. She feels her stone leg get heavy, a dead weight on her body, and then slowly start to pull upwards. She spins, but no matter which way she turns it's always trying to go 'in', curling her up into a ball. PREDATOR X may not be able to turn her into a neutron star, but it can still crush her. "I AM," she yells back, a particularly childish outburst. Utsuho twists, her body beginning to shine sun-yellow... but it's distorted into weird blues and reds with no particular pattern. Trapped in the distorted space, Utsuho struggles and so does Yatagarasu, trying to free herself/themselves. To be the most worthless of stars... that would be a worse fate than burning out entirely. She needs more power. She thought she had enough, but she doesn't. Utsuho's aura reasserts itself, rippling across her as all three eyes stare directly at the PREDATOR X. She's doing something inadvisable and she knows it and she doesn't care. "I'm not going to get told what I am by some ... dead machine kaiju! I'm Utsuho Reiuji! I'm the Scorching Divine Flame, the Sun that lights the Underworld! And..." Her lips curl back into a grin that's halfway to rictus. "I burn corpses!" Utsuho doesn't go for anything solar-themed. While there's light, it's not what she's calling directly, nor energy, and certainly not gravity. No, she goes for Old Faithful, the very first thing she did when she reignited the furnace: She goes for fire. Utsuho descends toward PREDATOR X. It's falling, really; falling while surrounded by a corona of flame, trailing a comet tail behind her. She falls - and when she touches PREDATOR X, she explodes, fire blasting off of her in all directions. The explosion is sufficient to launch Utsuho away, sending her falling into the bay again herself. This time she does not immediately surface.
Powerpuff Girls	Bubbles tries to escape, but between the ultra-vortex power of Mecha Predator X and her own late escape, she can't make escape velocity even as she forces accelleration. Blossom and Buttercup suffer similar fates, all gassed from their own efforts while fighting near Predator X, the real threat of the monster: They had a lot harder time bouncing back, going this all-out with their own scale. Being drained and sucked at the same time put them fully on the defensive, each struggling to escape the deleterious effects of the turbines sucking them inexorably down, drinking in the long contrails of colored energy. And Ishirou's calling for help! Gurgling on the radio and pleading. Each girl, in turn, turns their heads and tries to figure out how to save the day, even as Mecha Predator X looks up to take the Satellite Power system itself right out from their hands. Things look dire for the girls, bad enough the Narrator is getting a little worried! But look! Up in the sky! It's-! From the glow of the second sun high in the sky, and the bay-blasting clash of stars against psychic super-lizards, from where the beams had converged and coruscated into a single hot cone, the Predator looks, and finds a hot metal flash of Gold. A metal 'boot', all mechanical, segmented in golden and metallic red bands, wreathed in flames. Thick metal legs, panels lined and sloped inwards, elegantly coiled around what is unmistakably large, boxy, and heavy. A heavy humanoid exosuit, with pauldrons, and a single falling cloud-plume in ginger-red. There's a big heart, cracked in the center, and the 'wearer' wears a tall stylized tiara with a red-set jewel. And inside -- "For once it looks like not having the power of Chemical X has come in handy!" Calls the twice-synthed voice of Princess Morbucks, falling in her Heartbreaker Armor, heel out, to plant a meteoric drop-step right on the top of Mecha Predator X's forehead, kick off (to avoid the inevitable Eight Finisher Pileup), and erupt in a wing-jet plume spread of thrusters to bid for just enough distance to angle down... Have the central heart-core open... And fire an enormous - but single - core chest beam. "Doesn't it just break your heart?!" She calls, because every magical girl calls out their finisher beam.
Timespace Riders	"Uwoh!" Zi-O again magnetizes himself to Woz, though not quickly enough to avoid the surprise whip-around of the cyborg kaiju. On his way past the closing maw, his white armor is scraped by the jaws of the beast, eliciting a cry of pain as he clumsily escapes, sparks showering down to fizzle out in the depths of the bay. "Woz! Throw me, up there--as hard as you can!" The retainer catches his king with two of his manipulator arms, inertia carrying him into a spin--much as Buttercup had, earlier. Held by the midsection, Zi-O is tossed high into the air, just as PREDATOR X, blasted with the orbital laser, turns its attention towards Bubbles. At the very moment gravity begins to reassert itself, Zi-O pulls Woz up to meet him. "That's Ishirou's signal! It's time--switch to something that can stay in the air, and cover Stanley!" "At once, sire!" Another Zi-O appears, emerging from a pillar of pink light. He, too, wears the MAGNETSTATES armor, but only for a moment. "With no continues," says Present!Zi-O, holding up a Ridewatch bearing the colorful 90s-gaming visage of EX-AID... "I feel like we can clear this!" finishes Future!Zi-O, as both of them replace their watches. Final Form Time! E-E-E-EX-AID! A deck of person-sized hologram cards deals itself over the falling Zi-Os, each one receiving tactical information on the kaiju's venting systems. The cards flash-forge new armor onto each Zi-O, and their helmets switch like signboards to display the platform gaming, angy-eyed visage of Ex-Aid. Each Zi-O sports a lightweight bodysuit with the DecadeArmor's blocky cuirass, pauldrons and helm remaining. They are mirror images of each other, in shape and palette--Present!Zi-O is primarily electric blue while Future!Zi-O is vibrant orange. The barcode standards on their chests scroll MIGHTY BROTHERS XX! ULTIMATE TIME BREAK!! as each of them procures a sword. The Zi-Os fall towards the ocean, their swords conjuring a domino trail of hologram cards ahead of them, guiding their trajectories along each of the vent-points marked by Ishirou's options. Their spirited war cries sound in stereo as colorful HIT!! markers pop up with each strike, all the way down its body, culminating in a trail of explosions for each card in the trail.
Timespace Riders	>...Point me at where I'm /going/ to land The Hit, Woz. Woz's nimble descent is belied by the breathlessness in his response to Stanley. "Very well. Prepare yourself." Dare Ja? Ore Ja! NINJA! Futurering Shinobi! SHINOBI! Arms and legs tucked in to speed up his descent towards Stanley, Woz brings both hands briskly up to strike a kuji-kiri, disappearing in a puff of smoke (complete with the obligatory deer-scare sound). He reappears behind Stanley, sickle-tipped spear in hand, slipping the haft beneath the psychic's arm to gently guide his aim upwards--towards the kaiju's chest. Tucking his knees in, he guides himself into a backflip moments before impact with the ground, and disappears once more. BEYOND THE TIME! SHINOBI EXPLOSION! Reappearing at the spot he'd guided Stanley to, that final venting port on the chest--Woz strikes another kuji-kiri, this time disappearing and reappearing so rapidly that there appear to be multiple duplicates of him in tandem. The many Woz-es, making hit-and-run rakes with their sickle polearms, form a burning X of crackling green energy that dramatically explodes the moment Stanley's strike hits home.
Stanley Padgett	Stanley smiles at Woz, and rolls a shoulder, a motion that's mirrored by Mercutio behind and above him. A calming inhale of breath as Woz launches himself into the Predator, and then... Stanley is suddenly 200 feet away from his spot, in a single teleporting leap, and Mercutio BURIES its sword into the Predator, Where Woz Told Him Too.
Rowdyruff Boys	(mecha) Predator X is in fact definitionally greedy. It is a creature that came about as a consequence of Chemical X pollution in the surroundings and, in the end, most of what it wants is more Chemical X. This makes it robustly ridiculous, possess a myriad of powers, and adaptation that is beyond anything that is reasonable for it to actually possess. It only just occurred to it that, perhaps, it would have a good time eating the rest of you. This thought mostly came too late, and is courtesy of Utsuho. Filling up its mouth with ribbons causes it to start growing ribbons, which slowly but surely begin to wind their way towards Futaba... And then Ishirou triggers his part of the trap. The intake goes into overdrive, beginning to suck in the ribbons and sea water uncontrollably. It was flexible enough to -- painfully -- deal with the ribbons, but not enough to deal with the entire bay being forced into it faster than it can possibly process it-- which is something, because it was processing FAST earlier. It bloats grotesquely, and begins to spring leaks because its mass hasn't regenerated enough not to split here and there. It is unclear if (mecha) Predator X has the sapience necessary to actually talk back at Utsuho physically, even though it conveyed its contempt psionically just fine. Though, the water would be a problem just now. Utsuho falls near the beast's head and explodes. The mechanical portion of its jaw bursts off and melts away, leaving it with a quarter-skeletal face whining into the water. Finally, it pivots its tail about and thrusts into its own stomach, providing an outlet for the water, though blood gushes out also.
Rowdyruff Boys	Brick recovers and snatches the three normal-sized girls out of the air, pulling them in close and angling his hand against his chest so that they're not particularly exposed. Butch collapses to his position, looking worried. Boomer floats face-up in the water, conscious and alert but apparently too worn out to be inclined to get up and move. Meanwhile, as Morbucks begins to fall, she is abruptly caught by-- no, it's not Buttercup, it's Beryl. She emerges underneath the techno-Puff in a SKRRR of green, grabbing her underneath the arms. "Hey," she says, dully. AND SO, THE DAY IS SAVED BY... YOU.
Ishirou	The mass of explosions, time clones, backtracking, and then various superheroine actions is a storm of action. Thankfully, before anything gets too dangerous, Ishirou manages to get out of the water and lay flat on his back at the beach around the bay. The armor is dismissed, and his body, new as it is to him, groans. The damage readouts come back to his mind as soreness and pain, and he wouldn't have that feeling happen any other way. The specter of his death looms over him, but...at the same time, he realized the depth of his folly. What it really means to be a hero and a member of society. He hasn't felt more himself in such a long time. The screen face looks more at ease than he has felt in a very long time.
Utsuho Reiuji	For some time, Utsuho remains very firmly underwater. She actually misses seeing the last explosion entirely, though she can feel it as soon as it goes off. After about thirty seconds, she bobs to the surface and spits out a veritable fountain of water. At least, most of it's water. Then she rolls onto her back and lets out an incredibly aggrieved (and somewhat pained) groan, floating with her arms and wings spread and looking like something the cat dragged in. Utsuho's third eye has gone still again, looking more like a patterned orb than a rolling eye with slit pupil, and the aura is gone. So there's that!
Futaba Nuki	The day is indeed saved! Futaba has some trouble fully understanding what's actually happening when a second Predator X appears, but she can at least guess it's a threat to stopping the first's rampage. "Another one? Oh, we don't have time for you!" Although she utters some big words, actually getting into a position to start fighting that one off is somewhat difficult with how much Futaba's crammed herself into the first Predator X. By the time she pulls herself out after Utsuho blows its jaw clean off, she only has enough time to sling her mess of ribbon-tails towards the newcomer before it disappears with Morbucks' core in tow. Luckily, Beryl's got her, so Futaba can safely fall into-wait. She can't swim that well. One more transformation later, and she glides over to the beach just enough to embed herself into the sand, spiked-legs first. "... We did it, right? We're good for now? I mean... Until that second one shows up again?" A beat. "Also, what the heck was that second one?!"
Timespace Riders	As both Zi-Os land in the bay, each is swept up by Woz's iridescent purple scarf, deposited onto solid ground before the retainer himself teleports. Standing on the pier overlooking the bay, Present!Zi-O switches back into the spaceman magnet armor, disappearing into a pillar of pink light to travel to the past. The remaining Zi-O thusly becomes the Zi-O of the present, removing the transformation devices from his belt, as Woz does the same. Sougo's olive shortsleeve button up, and the pink longsleeve shirt beneath it, are matted to his chest with sweat, his chest heaving with exertion. He finds a seat on the ground almost immediately. He's smiling--Woz isn't. The retainer frowns, leaning against a concrete bollard meant to discourage vehicle traffic. His brown eyes are fixed over the sea, and the fight has clearly exhausted him as well, despite his efforts to conceal it with his choice of leaning spot. "My Demon King, dalliances such as this will only delay your coronation. Have I not cautioned you before against this? Against, as well, the dangers of misusing your power?" "Woz..." Sougo frowns, palms spaced out behind him, propping him up. He takes a moment to look at the retainer. "I know you've been worrying about me a lot, since we saw those... timelines, in the cave." Woz pointedly looks away from Sougo, his frown more tight-lipped, as if trying to suppress something inside him. He clutches that strange book so tightly that the spine groans audibly. "I care about you, too. But using my power to protect people... that's what a good king would do. I'll never see that as misusing it." Woz's grip loosens. "That is precisely what worries me, sire," he softly replies, the defiance bleeding slowly out of him as his eyes contemplate the ground below. "You spend yourself for the same commoners who ostracized and mocked you. Who would never let you or I be human in the way that they are. They know only how to take--and every step you take towards your notion of a good king is a step closer to the day they will take you from me. Seek me out when reason returns to you." Sougo rushes to stand up, but Woz's scarf has already done its work by the time the would-be king calls for him. "Woz--!" Left alone, Sougo extends a hand to touch the spot Woz had been, just a moment ago, leaning upon the bollard in place of his retainer. "It's my fault," Sougo softly explains to Futaba. "I should have guessed it would copy that, after it copied Fourze's power. I'll find a way to fix it, somehow."
Powerpuff Girls	Externally, The three Powerpuff Girls are rescued out of the air by the Rowdies, relieved and exhausted as their individual power auras gutter and fade around them. They hug each other in the air, Bubbles and Blossom sharing an arm each with Brick and Buttercup. Since Brick is still big, they're hidden -- but almost certainly safe. Princess Morbucks falls out of the air, her Heartbreaker Exo-Armor stripped away by the rising tentacles and coreless after the looping 'second' Predator X takes advantage of her armor's systems to complete a time loop and - miraculously - escape. It was lucky that she didn't have Chemical X powers, maybe -- now it had her technology too, and had torn it from her so easily. Dropping out of the air, the gold and red armored Princess falls eyes closed and wet, waiting for the thud, anxious if anyone will grab her. And then there's a heavy 'whud' as she lands in Beryl's arms and, teary-eyed wincing looking up, Princess Morbucks responds to the flat greeting with a choked "H-hey?" of her own. But the Day is Saved! And it wasn't as bad in the remake-sequel.
Stanley Padgett	Stanley, who had just been about to bury Meructio's longsword into the beating heart of the Kaiju, instead finds himself swatted away by Time Shenanigans and instead is plunged once more into the bay. It takes a few minutes for him to drag himself up onto dry land, not far from Ishirou, actually, and he keels over. The Magical Fencer Boy outfit fades away, and instead, it's Stan, in his now waterlogged and torn-up school uniform, the tie mangled and the button-up shirt slashed to show off bloody abrasions along his middle. "...hey there, Mr. Ishirou."
Rowdyruff Boys	Brick, who is still large, wades -- he is too big to actually get on shore comfortably without breaking anything -- over adjacent to Sougo and Futaba. He leans against the shore, offering the Powerpuff Girls an exit if they want it. "It wasn't able to copy that extensively before, or didn't understand that it could if so. Something has probably changed. It wasn't something you could have predicted," he advises, dully. Boomer returns to normal size and flies over to collapse onto Brick's palm. He tips him out in response. "Hey!" "Nuh-uh. We didn't do the bulk of the fighting. None of that shit." Beryl snorts at Morbucks, flying down towards the shore where everyone is gathering. "You look like you got forgotten. That guy was watching. I just figured it was better not to put everything on the people in the thick of it." Bellamy wanders up in the aftermath, looking like she feels a bit awkward. The sound of sirens can be heard in the distance; after the explosion, it's only a matter of time before the whole rapid-rebuilding nonsense starts here.
Futaba Nuki	"Huhuhu... Don't beat yourself up over it, Mister Tokiwa." Futaba replies to Sougo as she approaches him, looking considerably more worn out now that the adrenaline from fighting has finally worn out. Gesturing at Brick, she nods in wholehearted agreement. "Mhm! If it wasn't for you, we'd probably still be fighting that thing! Maybe even for another twenty minutes or something. So what if it learned some tricks from us? Not like it's ever gonna be as good as we are at it. I mean, I'm not even as good as Miss Dimo at the ribbon thing, and..." Right. It copied that, too. Starting to sweat a bit more now, Futaba loses a bit more of her enthusiasm. Realizing she's still next to so many others who've had their abilities snatched, though, Futaba clears her throat before putting on a brave face and forcing another confident chuckle. "That'll make things more interesting for next time, then! But next time, we'll be ready. We just need to figure how to fight against what it got from us!" Wait. She's never actually been able to overcome Dimo's ribbon things, either. This might be more of a problem than expected.
Ishirou	Ishirou looks up at Stanley, and his screen gives a smile. "Hey," he says and sits up. "Just taking a moment, I'm fine. Well, I'm...mostly fine. Don't worry about it." He hears Sougo and shakes his head, "We didn't know the limits of its ability, so that's not on you. It also might not be all bad...if it's wanting to keep itself alive at all costs, and has access to time travel..." "And it seems to have intelligence, it might eventually figure out that its continued existence is better to stop doing what it's doing, and might fix itself. Or it'll think it controls everything and attack us when it thinks it can win but...that seems ill-thought-out." "I'll run things through a simulator later and look for something we can do...but..." he sounds hopeful. "I'm hoping it can try and figure itself out first." When Bellamy shows up, he waves. "Hey, Bellamy! We did it!" he says, with a stupid smile on his screen face. It seems despite everything Ishirou came out the other side better for things. "Hey everyone, this Bellamy."