Scene #8558: Clearing Up Misunderstandings About Heroism

Owner	Pose
Petra Soroka	It's sometimes strange to think about the fact that Eggman's multiversal escapades, like Indus, are only the very fringes of his Empire. Huge swathes of land, the size of countries, are actually wholly under his control, and heroes rarely ever have arcs that involve bothering to go to them. Countless people have either been displaced or remain under his rule, but even for them, life goes on. One such collection of war refugees is a low-orbit artificial planetoid, sheltered by clouds and encased in a shell of lichenous rock. Pumpkin Planet is only large enough for a few thousand residents-- furries, if you're taking after Eggman-- but for them, the city is a safe haven, self-perpetuating and integrated with nature that grows abundantly even inside the odd, flying terrarium. Divided into tiered floors, because of course the gravity of the superplanet outweighs the metal core of the structure, the elevators, vehicles, and other tech blend seamlessly in with the environment, harmonic. Now, however, the rocky shell containing the city has a hole smashed through it, sending debris crumbling into the biosphere, crushing buildings and knocking down one particular yellow and white two-tailed fox. Petra stands in the rubble, holding Tails at arm's length by his scruff like a distasteful feral cat. "Is this really the one...? I mean, he looks like it, but..." Tails, struggling in her grasp, fading from consciousness after the completely incidental rock blow to his head, shouts defiantly at Petra using the last gasp of his energy. "You'll... never... get the Chaos Emerald here!" "What the fuck is a Chaos Emerald?" Petra looks dubiously out to the crowd, considering leaving now that she accomplished her original goal within seconds of arriving. The crowd gasps in fear, calling out to each other in alarm, backing away and breaking off to flee. "Run! Eggman sent someone to steal the Chaos Emerald! We have to keep her away from the core, or the whole planet will go down!" Petra looks at the unconscious fox hero dangling from her outstretched hand, then to the massive plated core of the planetoid that the crowd is alternatively rushing towards and away from, and shrugs. Calling out a morphmetal mirror and drawing Qetra from it, Petra shoves Tails into her hands. "Apparently they think a Chaos Emerald is something Doctor Eggman wants, so I'm going to get it. You hold the little guy." "Sounds~ good! But you know... you only ever let me hold things, I think I should get a chance to do more, too." Petra looks at her mirror-double disbelievingly, then her eyes flick up to the welder's goggles perpetually on her forehead. She sighs, bends down and withdraws the black and yellow striped Banana gun from her ankle holster. "Don't shoot for the head." "Ahahaha! Thanks, ajoeto~ What about if it's Bikki, can I aim for her head? Or are you still saving her for Lilian?" "Shut the fuck up, you literally already know the answer." Petra pauses for a moment. "You can if it's Remee."
Petra Soroka	The frantic civilians part around Petra as she starts walking to the core, but there's no direction to their fleeing, and no one is stepping up to organize them. That might have been Tails' job. Biting the inside of her lip, and thinking about the phrase 'the whole planet will go down', Petra is caught off guard when a waist-height rabbit boy runs straight into her by accident. Reflexively, she grabs onto the top of his head and lifts him up while he flails and cries. "Do you have a phone?" "All of you, stop freaking the fuck out, alright?" Petra calls out to the crowd while using the phone to connect to the Pumpkin Planet main communications tower, sending out a distress signal, then tosses the phone over her shoulder. The crowd, however, being too loud to listen, and Petra is about to give up and move on when Qetra chimes in. "Quiet down, or I shoot him!" Qetra holds up Tails, gun pointed at his head, and the clamor quiets down enough to speak over. Petra rolls her eyes, and Qetra sticks her tongue out in response. "Let the heroes tell you how to evacuate when they get here; don't like, do the mob press thing. You'll fucking get yourselves killed for no reason." Inside the core, having broken through the sealed steel doors, Petra and Qetra stand bathed in the glowing green light of a gem enshrined in some kind of pillar. The otherwise spartan metal room has flowering vines growing around the edges, phototropically reaching towards the light as if worshipping it. "That's got to be it, right?" "Emeralds don't have to be green, you know! They can also be blue, or yellow!" "Yeah, fucking, sure, let me know if there's a magic glowing yellow gem in another sealed room in the core of this thing." For any Elites already on the planetoid, the moment that Petra pulls the Chaos Emerald out of its place is immediately felt. Ambient noises of flight that had faded into the background suddenly cut off, stomaches lurch at the shift in momentum, and plant life starts to sag.
Angela	Angela, secretly, is not exactly fond of mass murder. She WILL, if she has to, or if the 'script' calls for it--but Persephone understands her well. If she has the opportunity to be kind, she'd rather be THAT. The limiter on that isn't what she has to do, it's her desire to take what she is owed. But it doesn't really matter. In the end, The Manager is the boss. And the Manager thinks that the cute funny animals shouldn't be murdered. And also... ...Well, getting an opportunity to study a potential alternative power source might be helpful in the production and refinement of Enkephalin. Cinder arrives, pulling in a couple other Agents, using Fourth Match Flame to get into the planetoid. Cinder, along with the Agents arriving with her, marvel for a moment at the strange home. Agents always manage to find a little bit of awe at the least for the unusual places they end up throwing themselves into. The other agents coming along today include ROSE who is here to help her pal Hibiki (she probably doesn't care that she's wanted for fifteen murders) along with Nonon, who enjoys a good scrap. Nonon, to those that haven't met her yet, is a big muscular gal wearing the King of Greed EGO Gear (like Angela lately), Rose is a teenager wearing the Magical Girl of Courage outfit. Cinder, really, feels like the odd gal out here. Rose hangs back, trying to help with any recovery efforts while Nonon maneuvers ahead, looking for the troublemaker, smiling bigly all the way over. Cinder is kind of in the middle here, crouching down to try and reassure a little child rabbit girl who is sobbing their eyes out. "Hey hey... Help is on the way, but for now you should probably get out of here..." Cinder murmurs. "Your parents are here right? I can guide you to them." There is a shudder amongst the agents as the Emerald is pulled but Nonon arrives first. "Oh!" Nonon brightens. "Hey Petra!" She grins. "Making things up to Eggman?" She doesn't aggress immediately because Petra IS a fellow coworker.
Ishirou	Ishirou lands on the planetoid, RESCUE already deployed otherwise he wouldn't be flying. "Alright, time to evacuate, I know this is rough but there are places you can go! For now, it's about getting somewhere safe... alright?" He starts directing traffic, so to speak. Artificial warp gates are set down, while OPTIONs spread out aiming to provide flight assistance to Mobians that can't get away on their own. These will help get people to evacuation ships for those who can't get to the artificial gates. However, when the planet /shakes/ slightly, everything droops. The entire planet going from having life on it, to that life quickly starting to run out. He scans, the source of the power is enough that it can be scanned, and he can find it. He runs towards the highest residual source. Once more, Ishirou lands, as both Petra's stand over the emerald. Nonon says something that catches his attention... and causes him to frown. He takes a breath. He isn't interested in hurting Petra's relationship with someone, and they both seem to achieve enrichment from it... but this place is these people's homes. RESCUE systems switch out. Semi-auto flight is turned on, but a hovering system is set in place so that he can use this room more effectively. This means he'll be stuck in the humanoid mode, but that'll be better for engagement. "I'd ask you to stop, but making the attempt is just as important as succeeding... but I'm not about making these people's lives harder."
Hibiki Tachibana	You know how it is. Even having a warrant out for her arrest isn't enough to stop Tachibana Hibiki from hearing a distress signal and /not/ try to do something about it. If anything, it helps keep her mind off her own problems. And any life she can save is one more that... There's already a convenient hole in, and don't ask how she got ever got high enough to get down it in the first place. Already wearing her Symphogear in the process of getting to the planetoid, she has the (mis)fortune of arriving exactly in time to feel the entire structure shift, lurch, and fill her gut with the terrible feeling that comes with something not very good at all. "Stay calm! Seriously, listen--/stay calm!/" Among the short list of 'things she is undeniably good at', raising her voice to quite frankly ridiculous levels is one of them. However much the civilians might or might not have reverted to panic in the wake of what might be their worst fear coming to pass, Hibiki makes sure she's heard while pushing onward. "There are Warpgates you can take out!" Thanks, Ishirou. "And whatever evacuation setups you have, you can make it towards them calmly! Work with each other to make sure everyone gets out! Focus on staying safe more than anything!" Hurrying through as quick as she can without actually moving anyone out of the way, she makes sure to spend a moment to link up with Rose while she has the chance. With /that/ kind of apologetic smile that's barely a smile at all. "...Sorry we haven't had the chance to talk much lately...I've gotta push ahead to get to the bottom of this." And off she goes. Into the breached core, where plantlife withers away and the radiant green glow formerly basking the chamber is now in a certain someone's hands. Up until now, Hibiki had been more focused on acting than worrying about /who/ was actually responsible for this happening in the first place. Being face to face with it kind of puts it all into perspective, though. "Petra--!? And..." Qetra. It's not like she wasn't expecting to never see Petra's reflection again, but it's surprising nonetheless. That much more when /she/ looks armed to throw down, too. "--What the hell are you /doing/!?" This could be a genuine question, just an exclamation of outrage, or somewhere between both.
Petra Soroka	Ishirou's presence and active support draws attention immediately, shouting dying down to let him speak over them, especially when Hibiki adds her voice to his. Older Mobians are encouraged to move to the artificial warpgates along with children, while the more able-bodied accept Options, or move to the flying lifeboat-type vehicles now that the panic is getting directed properly. The young rabbit that Cinder crouches down to talk to immediately clings onto her, sobbing. "M-m-m-my g-granpa... at h-home..." She points upwards, arm latched on to Cinder's, to the rocky ceiling above them. Presumably, she means that he's on an upper floor. Petra doesn't feel great about mass murder either, though her opinion on it is somewhat skewed. As long as she's inside this reactor room, rather than face to face with a crying child, the harm she's doing to this city is abstracted, vanishing as soon as the scene is over. Individual murder practically sticks with her more than mass destruction, since people linger-- statistics don't. Either way, noticing the heroes finally arriving does ease a little bit of strain in her chest. The green glow of the the core room doesn't vanish just because the Emerald is removed, and when Nonon, Ishirou, arrive, it's still flickering with sickly light, vines slumped on the ground lifelessly. Petra's eyes glow faintly in the gaps between illumination, and the Chaos Emerald in her hand washes her arm in continuous light. Qetra turns around first, while Petra is busy tapping the gem with her finger. "Hey, Nonon! Hiiii Ishirou! And Bikki, I'm so glad you came." Qetra gestures with her two full hands, one holding Tails, flopping around limply, and the other with the Banana gun. "Yeah, that's pretty much it, Nonon. I am his apprentice, you know?" Satisfied with whatever she was trying to figure out with the Chaos Emerald, Petra lifts it up and lets out a surge of morphmetal from her bomber jacket sleeve, enveloping it. Green light starts shining through the roiling sphere of quicksilver as Petra levitates it beside her, and silver fluid tendrils erratically form and lash around before vanishing. "That thing's called a Chaos Emerald, apparently, and it was powering this whole place. I'm here to take it." A silver rod extrudes from Petra's hand, flaking away to reveal the black glass run through with gold of Pillar of Creation, which she gestures at Hibiki with an excited smile, practically bouncing on the balls of her feet. "And you're all here to stop me. That's how this goes, right? Since I'm a supervillain's apprentice; what did you all think that meant?" The Chaos Emerald-containing orb pulsates, rippling from top to bottom, in tandem with a rumbling sound throughout the planetoid. The metal of the walls creaks and bows inwards, vines growing and writhing until they pierce through to flood into the room. At the same time, Petra dashes forwards to swing Pillar of Creation in an arc, blunt-side inwards, at the group of Elites. Qetra stands back, running her hand over the Banana gun until Petra moves, then she points it towards the door. "How about... Ishirou?" "... No, sorry, still no." "Fiiiiine." Qetra fires the taser-like weapon at Hibiki's leg, lowering the gun from Ishirou's head, flooding it with injected ions to make her arm spasm and twitch against her will.
Angela	Rose says, "Hey, it's okay Bikki. I know you've got...stuff going on. I'll catch up to you soon! Everyone's worried about you," as she is helping guide little furries to the warpgate. If the fight is still going on by the time Rose gets there... Cinder might be taking longer than she expected. She pats the rabbit girl on the head gently, lifting her up in one hand. Should she bring the rabbit girl along? The idea that 'granpa' will probably need help getting out of there tells her a great deal even if it might be tougher to find him without a rabbit girl pointing where to go. She says, "I'll go find him." Cinder studies the rabbit girl's features before guiding the girl over to Rose so she can help get her to the Warpgate. "Missing her grandfather, I'm going to go looking for him." Cinder says, before electing to use her EGO Weapon as a jetboost to make her way up to the upper level. She's hunting rabbit. You know, so she can save the guy's life. MEANWHILE Nonon is smiling. She bounces lightly on her feet, "Hey Qetra! I'm so glad I came too! Usually Shajo helps me with that but he's been out at the Busan for the past while." She nods to Petra's words. She understands the reasoning. "'Course the Manager wants that gem too. Because I guess he's also a supervillain so we're here to stop you. No hard feelings--" But Petra is (surprisingly to Nonon) more likely to dart forward and start swinging than she is. She gets clobbered in the side by the spear. Some of the power of the strike is resisted by Gold Rush--but not all. Nonon grunts as she goes sliding across the ground. Her bulk makes it easier to stand her ground. She clenches her fists, beaming, "Always wanted to see if I could take you on!" And she twists her body to swing a singular normal Punch for Petra's upper body, empowered by the Gold Rush Ego. She is one of the few Agents that actually has extensive battle experience prior to joining L-Corp. And the things she had to fight at the Great Lake are best not dwelled upon. But this is Petra she's fighting, she tells herself. Cinder has gushed to everyone about how she dealt with Schadenfreude.
Ishirou	Ishirou does his best to ignore Hibiki. Right now the Mobians are more important, trying to get them to safety is what is important. Hibiki stays there, but she can feel his eyes on her almost at all times. She's being watched, and she's not being trusted. Facing Petra and Quetra the conversation causes Ishirou to tilt his head slightly. What..? What about him? Why did she say no? "What... am I not good enough to be a hero for you now? Sigh..." It's always like this for him, nobody actually respects him. Petra will know this because the Hero Wiki doesn't even list him. It never has either. Spear comes down, and Ishirou uses a rapier to try and deflect it. It's not clean, and it catches Ishirou's armor in passing and the RESCUE soars off in one direction before turning around. Ishirou's weapons tune and Ishirou deploys POD. The two fly around attempting to get a lock on that emerald... but it's going to take a moment. Ishirou dives in, aiming to swing with the rapier first, attempting to pierce through Petra's defenses with the spear, trying to feel out how she'll defend herself, or if she'll put more effort into keeping her hand on the emerald or not. He dives back a second later, once more keeping his distance. She can feel him trying to test her defenses.
Hibiki Tachibana	Doing this to Rose isn't fair at all, honestly. And making everyone worry about her also isn't fair. She knows that. In contrast to the slight sting in her chest of moving away from her, Ishirou keeping a constant eye on her is both more expected and a lot easier to deal with. She's been pretty unfair his way too, and not being trusted for it feels right. In a bad way. But more important things to deal with. NOW: "What did I think that--" Hibiki repeats after Petra, almost dumbfoundedly, her attention drifting between the other girl, her reflection, and the Chaos Emerald being handily sealed away. It takes her three seconds of just watching that excitement before everything she had said actually sinks in. And the sudden trembling all around them forces her to move, just prior to the moment violent greenery fills the chamber and Petra herself moves. Hibiki flips upwards and forwards, actually briefly grasping the shaft of Pillar of Creation to barely shift her orientation as she moves. "I don't know what the hell that means--because apparently even /you/ can't decide if you're a hero or a villain!" There's prime opportunity to drop down behind her and send a kick her way. But Hibiki hesitates on it for a split second. A split second long enough for Qetra to take aim and fire. So she transitions her movement into going further than she initially would, narrowly twisting past the incoming bolt trying to embed itself in her limb and hitting the ground again running. The distance between her and Qetra is going to be closed in basically no time at all. There wasn't much chance for Hibiki to get a good look at her, back on the Infinity Train. There was Lance, her argument with Berislav, Petra's attempted murder, and everything else. But in the instant where she's closing in to engage her, she can take her appearance in a little better. The differences. The unfamiliar streaks in her hair, the slightly familiar placement of goggles if she remembers a certain someone back at the party, and... "--You're wearing those the same way I wear mine..." It is a half-surprised and half-awed line dropped, eyes on Qetra's pins, while she's already in the middle of almost automatically launching a palm strike in an attempt to disarm her of the banana gun.
Touta Konoe	Touta's arrival is a bit later upon arriving to the planetoid. Though just in time to see the apparent effects that releasing the Chaos Emerald has on the Pumpkin Planet. Life was already beginning to drain from it in a way that was just...Dangerously dependent on it. Even now with the evacuations it had been apparent just how serious things had been escalated to as the artificial Warpgates are provided to try and keep everyone moving safely, though even he's a tad surprise how orderly everyone is... It's only as he hears the booming voice calling out does he spot Hibiki first of the Elites, he calls out at first, "Hibiki! Hold on!" He attempts to follow her as she starts heading towards the breached core, though he finds himself halted by panicked evacuees looking for help finding another one of their family members. It ultimately takes him some time before he ends up meeting the others. It takes some time, but eventually he makes his way back with the others to find the Elites joined together. "Guys, good timing, think they were saying that they had their gem stolen, some chaos em--" He doesn't even bother to finish his remark as he sees the group, rather opting to utter his words a bit quieter. "Oh...Well guess this is a thing..." Before he can even question the events that begin to transpire, he finds himself caught in the Chaos Emerald's mayhem. He watches as the world shakes, vines flood in just as he attempts to make his way through, and there's the worry of being caught in a breaking down of the pathway as the walls and bows press inward. With all that unfolds, everyone goes on the offensive against Petra and her ally. An unfamiliar...Well, perhaps an unfamiliar face that has him raise a question in his mind. Though...That wasn't important at the moment. What was important was trying to get the Chaos Emerald back, and Ishirou looked like he had something in mind...He's not sure if he's in a position to catch Petra off guard, but he can give it a shot. Cinder and Ishirou are the first to take their shots at her, while Hibiki handles the stranger. It's hard to say if it's a coordinated attack, but he can at least attempt to make it hard for Petra to deal with all of them. While Cinder throws her punch high, Ishirou feels out her defenses, Touta attempts coming in behind the two Elites as he brings out a low-sweeping kick to try and throw off her balance.
Petra Soroka	The upper floors of the Pumpkin Planet are still less organized than the main floor that Ishirou and Hibiki addressed. When Cinder gets up to the layer that the rabbit girl gestured at, she sees that it's less crowded than the previous one was, but even with escape crafts freely available, there's plenty of disabled or elderly Mobians that need assistance getting to them, so the process is slow. Cinder scans the crowd for someone who could probably be related to the rabbit girl below-- probably a rabbit himself, she can assume-- and eventually finds him, trying to find his way to the stairs down. "You met my granddaughter? Is she safe? Can you take me to her?" Inside the core: "Well, if it's between Doctor Eggman and the Manager, it's a pretty clear choice, right?" When Petra's EGO is stopped cold by Nonon's density, she stumbles forwards from the followthrough, throwing up a tide of Silver just in time to barely deflect her punch. Taking advantage of the window of being within Nonon's reach, she directs the wall of morphmetal to swing upwards into her chin, then spins around with Pillar of Creation to stab through her own Silver into Nonon's chest while the wave conceals her. Petra is actually familiar with why Ishirou doesn't have an entry on Wikelite; being a regular user of it herself, she looked into his page when he complained about this before. Practically everyone has a page on Wikelite-- even Petra does, at this point, despite originally being only on the Villains wiki. It turns out that Ishirou has a small but dedicated group of haters conspiring to make his online reputation worse: something a lot of people imagine they have, but so few actually do. Petra passed along some tips to them, and let them continue their good work. "What are you talking about? You've never been good enough, but I don't know why you're bringing it up now." The writhing mass of morphmetal around the Chaos Emerald throbs, and the tendrils veer towards POD as if it's emitting gravity. Morphmetal pseudopods reach around POD to crush it, emitting dizzying amounts of energy at close range, distorting readings and sensors. "Oh... well guess this is a thing." "Yeah? That's the best you can say? Is this a surprise to you?" Petra lets her spear downswing carry into the ground, launching herself slightly off the ground to dodge Touta's kick, and returning the favor with a double back-kick into his chest. When her boots connect, they pulse with repulsion energy, launching him back and Petra forwards to complete her frontflip away from him. The mass of vines begins to fill up the reactor room, forcing the fight outwards as they spill into the hallway of broken bulkheads that used to seal entry into the chamber. They reach out to the glowing green morphmetal orb, pushing aside Elites to get to it, and Petra utilizes this by swinging it around telekinetically to force the vines to strike at people. "I know exactly what I am, Tachibana. I'm a hero for one person, and all the rest of you can get fucked. Well--" Petra falls silent for a moment, "A couple people, I guess. But I never stopped working with Eggman. This is what I'm good at."
Petra Soroka	Meanwhile, Qetra squeals when Hibiki closes in on her, though she sounds delighted rather than afraid. "Hi-bi-ki! Are you getting hunted down as much as Remee is? Do you think it was worth it? You look miserable, you know? Even now!" She pulls Tails' unconscious body up as a limp little shield and flinches when Hibiki looks like she's about to swing, in a pathetic, hyper-expressive way that Petra doesn't do anymore, when faced with pain. When Hibiki stops and looks at her though, she lowers him and tilts her head to stick her tongue out, both hands down by her sides. "Yeah~? My hairclips, you mean? Is that surprising? She's told you how much of an inspiration you are, hasn't she?" Qetra raises her gun like she's going to coquettishly press it to her cheek, moves to actually do that, and the building sinking feeling in everyone's stomaches from the rapidly falling planetoid brings her back to attention. She spins the Banana around her finger, pulling the trigger twice to send taser bolts into each of Hibiki's legs at close range, seemingly uninterested in distancing herself despite the negative matchup.
Angela	Hopefully! Cinder's mentality is that of an Agent, in the end, and that means that she had the opportunity to rescue both for sure while risking a child's life or to ensure the child gets saved and risk the grandpa. It didn't require much forethought on her part. "Of course," Cinder says softly, carefully trying to heft the rabbit grandpa up. This occupies both arms, but it'll be easier to move this way than just slowly moving by hand and she has no idea how long this planet will...stay afloat? Be empowered? Explode? She's not an engineer here. She can still move faster on her feet even if she can't use the Fourth Match Flame to speed it up. Rose isn't going to advance until Cinder gets this guy to her. Only then will they make their way to the battlefield. It speaks to where their priorities are. And Nonon's. "Woah!" Nonon says, sliding back as she nearly gets clobbered in the chin. She twists her body at the last moment so Petra merely slides a vicious looking gash across Nono's chest rather than impales her (an injury that could be fatal). "You don't play!" She slides a foot back, squatting down on it as she looks into Petra's eyes. "Well, he's who we work for. As unassuming as he is normally, he can get vindictive now and then." Nonon says. "But I like you, Petra! You're alive!" Dust kicks up as Nonon twists her body around, the bits of dirt from her shoes and around her popping up into the air as she puts her full weight into a spinning roundhouse kick for Petra's side. The fighting style is deceptively simplistic. Nonon doesn't need to rely on tricks because she hits like a truck. She intends to hit like a truck again. "Are you satisfied?" She asks. "Or do you want to chow down on more?"
Ishirou	Ishirou's eyes widen as the morphmetal pseudopods shoot for POD. The two break apart for a moment, moving in two different directions to avoid the strikes, before the two figure out that the attempt to vore POD was what she was doing. Ishirou frowns. They zip back again, though POD is starting to lose distance from the attack before Ishirou scoops it up, and it flies back into the slot on the RESCUE. Alright... Well if she wanted to be like that... His rapier disappears, and a new weapon finds its way to each shoulder. He dashes right, trying to keep a distance from her. When he gets shot, two OPTIONs fly out and hang around Touta (ugh) and Nonon (yay). Touta's attempts to correct his horrific ability to strike things, whereas Ishirou instead attempts to reinforce Nonon's ability to damage them. Hibiki isn't ignored, but she remains unsupported... which might be a different feeling. Usually, he supports her quite a bit. Meanwhile, the two shoulder-mounted weapons fire two small shots, and if they hit viral payloads are delivered into her metallic body, aiming to mess with her solar generator's ability to generate power... but without causing it to melt down. He learned his lesson from before, and the idea isn't to cause a situation where they both die. "No, I was good enough, but I kept trying to do something I wasn't good at. I was trying to be something I am not, so it's time for me to try and be something that I /am/."
Hibiki Tachibana	"Why does being /good/ at it mean it's what you should be doing...!?" That's more a frustrated remark to herself than any kind of reply to Petra. Mostly because she knows plenty of things she's proven to not be good at, and even still... But Petra has plenty of heat on her as is, and Qetra - and her captive - are taking up all of her attention right now. The lack of support from Ishirou is something of a nagging notice in the back of her head. It makes her engagement with the reflection feel like it's something happening on its own island. "It wasn't worth it at all," is her reply to the first thing that Qetra says. Those bags under her eyes haven't stopped being noticeable, which probably speaks to different problems than just being hunted down - but she's still primed to move even so, although that moment where she flinch makes Hibiki's own face wince in a moment of uncontrolled...sympathy? Care? Something else entirely? It's part of, but not entirely why, the next burst of shots actually make it into her leg this time. As both limbs begin twitching and trembling in response, she stumbles yet keeps her balance for the time being, clenching her teeth. "An inspiration...? Me of all people...?" You're the most heroic person I know, Hibiki. Don't let me take that from you. The possibility of losing her footing at any second is enough to push her to move again, this time aiming another low palm strike - not a punch - towards Qetra's side, with the intention of unbalancing her. Right behind it is an attempt to grab her gun-wielding arm and bring it around into a painful but not seriously damaging lock...for as much as that'll matter for someone like her? Hibiki actually has no internal sense of how rough she can be with Qetra, and combined with that earlier reaction, she's trying not to genuinely hurt her without really thinking about it. She /should/ be rougher and more forceful--but this should be good enough for both stopping more shots and maybe getting her to release Tails. "...Any time where she said something like that to me and really meant it was ages ago now."
Touta Konoe	Now that he thinks about it, this is the first time he's been able to properly watch Petra fight, other times they've been in the same spot but never properly dealing with each other. Well, he's paying attention now. The way she maneuvers with her spear shows she's already no slouch as she ends up dodging his strike, and in the same movement attempts to counter with that double back kick, only she'll find that rather than kicking into his chest, she'll find that she's only cutting off the back of his blade instead, and the force of her repulsion doesn't seem to knock him back as much as she'd had preferred. "Yeah? That's the best you can say? Is this a surprise to you?" "Just a little. I figured you were fine getting dirty with all the shit-talk, but I guess you're really going the extra mile taking the power from a planet filled with little animal folk. Didn't think a friend of Lilian's was trying to go pro-menace!" If anything he's quick to get back to his feet, chasing her down even through the hallway, evading the vines as they came. If Ishirou's gonna offer support regardless of how annoyed he is to provide it, he's not going to say no. If the POD was going to help as a guiding system then that just meant he could try to give a more focused strike. His body goes like a blur as he uses a flashstep. Like Nonon he attempts to strike her opposing side, still trying to keep in sync as best as he can to make dealing with the group as annoying as possible. Though rather than a kick, his attack was going to slaw a fist for a liver blow, focused more on just a more debilitating strike on the girl than focusing on throwing her off her feet. "I know exactly what I am, Tachibana. I'm a hero for one person, and all the rest of you can get fucked. Well--" Petra falls silent for a moment, "A couple people, I guess. But I never stopped working with Eggman. This is what I'm good at." "Congrats. You're good at stealing people's lives! Now can you be good at this while holding still?!"
Petra Soroka	Petra wasn't playing with Nonon because Petra forgot that her EGO weapon would be more effective against Nonon's EGO suit. The ease with which she cuts through surprises her, but her expression returns to a cocky baseline by the time Nonon's recovered enough to see her. "Honestly, I wouldn't trust the Manager with anything with more power than, like--" Petra tries to be witty, and fumbles when she reaches for a comparison. "Like a... battery. He's a loser. Angela's the one I trust, but I'd never let the Manager get his hands on this." Nonon's roundhouse kick sends Petra actually flying, despite being as dense as solid metal. She slams into the wall of the hallway with a clang, vines coiling around her to push her back to her feet as she spits out a spray of silver blood. "I'm not giving up after just a couple hits, of course. Besides, it's not like we'd get a chance to fight in the facility, would we?" The Chaos Emerald morphmetal drifts to a halt in the air when POD flees, aimlessly floating with weightlessness that's strangely reminiscent of an artificial sun. Petra swings it in front of her when Ishirou fires off his energy shots, and the writhing metal mushrooms out into a slick metal dome, deflecting the attacks and burning away their energy in the harsh green light of the Emerald. "What's the thing you're good at, Ishirou? Being a self-absorbed crybaby? Is it hurting the people around you and making them regret that you're even alive?" Petra looks out to the end of the hallway, past Ishirou, seeing Rose and Cinder coming to join finally. "Or, and I'll be generous-- is it saving civilians? Because if that's it..." Petra shifts Pillar of Creation to one hand, holding up the other towards the Chaos Emerald. Quicksilver tendrils whip out of her sleeve, connecting to the floating mass, and the planetoid shudders as rocks audibly crack outside, audible through layers of steel. Distracted by that, and with the Options' guidance, Touta lands his punch on Petra's abdomen, just to find it exactly as metallic-hard as the rest of her. She doesn't even have a liver. "Lilian isn't even here, Konoe. And if she was, she'd be trying to stop me, just like with the rest of you heroes. So why the fuck would you bring her up like that? I'm here for Eggman, not Lilian, so what I'm doing doesn't reflect on her. She isn't responsible for everything I do." It's at this exact moment that Qetra tilts her head again, and Petra's eyes slide over to the black and gold collar around her neck with the sword and lily motif. Droplets of quicksilver rain upwards to dart to Qetra, circling defensively around her neck to block people's view, almost certainly too slowly. "I'm not stealing anyone's lives. No one needs to die here-- and if anyone does, I'd only want it to be you. Fix your fucking one-liners."
Petra Soroka	Qetra herself doesn't seem to care either way, giggling when Petra gets flustered. With the vine growth almost expanding through the entire core hallway, the Elites are forced back outside to the main level of the planetoid, and the Chaos Emerald flashes even brighter than before. Plants punch through the ground, sometimes with enough force to tear their own roots out and fall over dead, sometimes shattering other structures as Mobians run and weave to get to the artificial warpgates. "It's precious that you still believe she meant it before." Qetra is so, so much weaker than Petra is. She's unaffected by the Silver, Hibiki immediately realizes, and she's weaker than Hibiki would be even without the Symphogear. Her arm trembles whenever she holds Tails up to gesture with him. Despite that, though, she's dodging away from Hibiki's attempts to grab her, skittering backwards just in time for a vine to thrust itself between them, or firing near-misses of the Banana gun to force Hibiki's outstretched hand to recoil. Everything she does is entirely defensive, skittish, even though she doesn't seem at all afraid. "Of course, she did. But that means you still believe in her, right? You're not writing her off as a monster just because she's mean to you now, like so many people do. I think that's cute~"
Ishirou	'What's the thing you're good at, Ishirou? Being a self-absorbed crybaby? Is it hurting the people around you and making them regret that you're even alive?' Ishirou can't help by wince at that. She wasn't wrong, he sure felt like these things were true. He wanted desperately for them to not be... but they were. He wanted Lilian to forgive him, he wanted to undo all of the nasty things he had done... he wanted his old body back. But you can't undo a story. He can only shovel the coal, he can only fix himself, try and show kindness and genuine love for those who are important to him. But... He doesn't like Petra. He tried to have everything, every person's love and affection... but he can't. They hate each other and with good cause on either side. There is no reconciliation. She works for his worst enemy. She betrayed his trust. She killed him. But in turn, he... referred to her as less than human, forced her into that situation... and blamed her more for what she deserved. He draws the Rapier again. 'Or, and I'll be generous-- is it saving civilians? Because if that's it...' The ground shakes, and the planetoid shudders as she endangers the remaining civilians. ...No, there is no reconciliation, there is no trying to understand. Instead of all of this effort, he should be caring about those who should be protected. About the people he loves. And he should throw away his stupid pride for a mission to make sure those people are protected. Because whatever he feels about what Hibiki did by her inaction... It isn't the Mobian's who were at fault. His eyes close, and he quickly scans, before they open wide again, glowing blue as as much data as he can handle floods in. He doesn't stop moving, as he tries to make calculation after calculation. And then he has it... Data leaves him as another OPTION flies to Hibiki to hover over her shoulder. A plan is formed. "Hibiki, ignore her, you need to be ready to swing the moment I tell you. Touta, keep pushing Petra, don't give her a moment to think. Nonon... stop aiming at Petra, and instead aim for the Emerald before it tears the place apart. Knock it towards..." He points at a location, away from the fissure that just formed. "Hibiki, you know what to do. Get her hands off of it by any means necessary. Touta, when it happens help... I'll distract Quetra." All of this information and planning quickly plays out, and the OPTIONs display the arrangement and prediction in their minds. Then Ishirou turns from Petra, and dives at Quetra. He aims to shoulder-check her, aiming to try and get her away from Hibiki, and drive the blade into her. It's his estimate that they are more on equal footing, even as he's running the calculations and updating both Hibiki and Nonon's numbers up by the second. "I'm not a hero, Petra. I don't save the day. I don't rescue the lady in danger. But what I am good at... is making it so those who /are/ can do so as cleanly as possible. I write the plan, I oversee the mission... I calculate the variables, and I warn them of the unexpected. /That/ is what I am good at... and it's about time that I do what I am good at, instead of putting people at risk by trying to be something I'm /not/."
Angela	''Honestly, I wouldn't trust the Manager with anything with more power than, like--Like a... battery.'' "Yeah," Nonon admits, studying Petra's movements. Despite being a maniac, Nonon isn't an idiot. She watches Petra carefully, still smiling, with the focus and joy that only someone who loves fighting can manage. Convincing any other agent of this might convince them to let Petra just escape with the Emerald, but Petra knows Nonon isn't that kind of agent. "But she and all the Sephirah are bound to the facility. I could fuck off, but their fates are bound up with the Manager. I'm not the kind of gal to get pissy about a gal just because she happens to be a machine. But you're right, we'd never get a chance in the facility." Cinder successfully hands of grandpa to Rose and escort him out. They make their way to the fight, Rose rushing ahead because she is worried Hibiki might need help. She busts in, Cinder trailing behind, and she seems surprised to see Petra. "Bikki? What's going on here?" Her eyes travel towards the kid being held by Qetra and readies her hammers but takes a moment to get her bearings before going in for the assault. Cinder is coming up behind. Nonon gets Info from Ishirou. She has no objection to this--Shajo performs a similar role in a fight as the guy who really excels at Analysis. She takes to it well. "Glad you're not givin' up yet." Nonon says as she weaves between vines lashing out to strike at her, always grazing her and causing cuts across her face and arms but Nonon gets the feeling that there is a kind of play to this battle. She's serious about the Emerald, Nonon thinks, but she isn't going all hog. Maybe she can force her to, Nonon thinks hopefully as she straightens up. More dust and dirt, and Quicksilver droplets kick up as it's like Nonon is perform a choreographed dance with just her feet, her upper body focused on bringing up her arms and looking for an opportunity to strike. She darts in with a series of punches, going for a series of jabs rather than one serious punch. She's trying to tire Petra out more than she is trying to finish her off with a singular blow. "But what I meant," Nonon asks. "Is if you're content with being a hero to a few. If you're satisfied with your life right now." And that's when she steps in, twisting her body as smoke and dust billow up around her as puts her full body into a swinging uppercut right for Petra's chin, intending fully to knock her for a loop. "Are you full? Do you have all the joy you need?" She isn't corroding yet, but she's on the razor's edge. Rose hears Petra say those last few words. Cinder hesitates but Rose has no such compunction. "You may not be stealing their lives, but you're stealing their homes." Rose says. AS Hibiki knows, that's something near and dear to her.
Touta Konoe	Touta's punch ends up finding its target...Or where that target would have been. He really should learn more about this girl properly at some point. Though with the two being a bit closer than usual, he can at least get a word in edgewise, "I'm not saying she should be responsible...." At this point, he's just trying to cut the crappy one-liners and just tries to be frank with her. "She's your friend, isn't that enough for you to not want to do something that'd make her have to stop you. Seriously, you're just like Miko--" All a sudden...Maybe it was just the way that he was holding back that word, but the way it escaped his lips, the way his expression changed right as he stopped himself. The look that comes on his face actually looks so appalled, so astonished, that it feels less the words he just had uttered had inflicted more damage than any insults, any sort of attack she brought on him thus far. "I'm not stealing anyone's lives. No one needs to die here-- and if anyone does, I'd only want it to be you. Fix your fucking one-liners." Touta finds himself stumbling for a moment as he actually starts holding at his head at the moment. "Oh my God...You're literally just like...And then Eggman would be..." He finds himself just mumbling a moment before Ishirou starts calling out, and it's his voice that slaps him from the funk. "Ah...R-Right..." He holds up the blade once more, as the plan of action comes together. There's a long breath that escapes his for a moment as he prepares himself... "..." To Petra's content, Touta doesn't have more to say. Instead, he seems fully intent on following her even as they're brought back to the main level. This time rather than going in with just punching strikes, she'd find that he's bringing his blade down upon her proper. He's not sure if she's ever experienced a blow from it before, but while it appears like a tiny katana, it's definitely got a bit of a kick to it. In its tiny form at the moment, it'd feel like Touta had been swinging a truck at her. Each blow erupts with force, and yet at the same time...He'd be swinging it as if it was that tiny little blade it appeared to be. Speaking of erupting though... "Ishirou!!!" He'd call out to him as even Touta can see that the Chaos Emerald's running amok to the point that it messed with the surroundings, and even putting the Warpgates at risk. No one had to die, no one needs to die, but she surely wasn't making it easier to keep it that way...
Hibiki Tachibana	The battlefield is shifting--and fast. Petra's control over the Chaos Emerald, and thus the planetoid, is making things a lot more difficult than first thought. It's one thing to have the chamber they're fighting in be made dangerous to them, but the distant sounds of cracking and the trembling running beneath their feet is something else. Forced back out the way they came, Hibiki nevertheless continues trying to scramble close to Qetra, yet never quite managing. The actual obstacles are a big part of that, with slithering vines thrashing around and narrowly forcing her away whenever stunning shots aren't doing the same. The inability to exert any real force with her is the other. Both in the physical sense, and almost like a mental block stopping Hibiki from wanting to throw anything resembling a punch. "I don't--" Why do you believe anything I say? What is there to hold on to, that isn't fake? Hibiki tries to get a grasp on Qetra even when it's not a good idea in the least, just to eat a taser bolt to the arm for her trouble. Her other hand reaches over to grip onto her shuddering wrist tightly to force it steady as she hops backwards to take a moment to breathe. What she just said...is impossible to deny, given what she did at the tail end of the beach party. Why would she do anything like that otherwise? "For a reflection who agrees she shouldn't be trusted, you're a lot more honest than both of us put together..." It's not entirely clear which sense she means that in, and she doesn't elaborate before Ishirou's aid and plan comes in. Her lips draw tense, and for a second, it looks like she might still not say anything to him at all. But she does, in the end. "...You're not helping a hero here, you know." Delivered flatly, and then a much more quiet, "...She's just a girl with a gun. Get her hostage away, but don't...you know." And then she's turning on her heel, calling over to Rose as she switches tracks and moves. "We're making sure we do everything we can to help these people! And that means stopping her from tearing this place apart even more--!" A home to come back to is important. A place you can belong, and always know is waiting for you. These people already lost theirs once, and they're going to again. That's all the reason she needs to follow Ishirou's ploy, and not have a single word to say towards Petra while doing so. While Nonon is layering on blows, Hibiki sails overhead in an arc, shifting horizontal while winding back her fist - gauntlet's internal piston slotted back, and both the gap left inside and her fist glowing with a building golden light. Thrusters fire off to immediately shift her momentum and propel her straight downwards towards her target, from overhead. "Haaaahhh--!"Where she comes down on the morphmetal connection with the Chaos Emerald with a violently and very literally explosive punch that'll engulf the area for several meters around in destructive energy--burning away at both Petra and the quicksilver shell around the Emerald at the same time.
Petra Soroka	"You know, Ishirou-- do you think I'm the bigger threat here than Tachibana?" Petra watches the Option fly to Hibiki, reaching out to it with the jumpy neural connections between each drop of morphmetal, but Ishirou's control over them is much stronger than she can overturn. "I mean, she killed a dozen people? I don't want anyone to die here at all. But here you are, sending resources to help a Watch-affiliated murderer, just to stop me. Not even directing your attention over to the civilians." The Chaos Emerals pulses, and its effect on the surrounding morphmetal is starting to become visible. The fluid mass is drying and flaking away in cracked chunks, disintegrating into silver glitter in the air, apparently overwhelmed by the power source it's trying to utilize. "If I was as bad as Tachibana, then I'd use your distraction to crush every warpgate into scrap right now." Petra twirls Pillar of Creation to try to fend Nonon off, but the Disciplinary Captain is more than willing to just barge right through it. Each of her punches knocks splatters of quicksilver out of Petra, running out of her sleeves, out of tears in her clothes-- she specifically chose to not take the CREATURE MODE shirt-- out of her mouth. Eventually enough of a reserve builds up to wrap around Nonon's limbs and pull her away for long enough for Petra to escape from the barrage, low to the ground and profusely bleeding. "I don't really think being a hero is the only way to-- to be content. I mean, I'm not even capable of being one to more than a few people. Not more than..." Petra's eyes flick over to Cinder, "Four, it looks like. So for the rest... why not be fulfilled by doing the things I want to do to you all? Ishirou tried this fucking trick all the time, insisting that there's no way I don't want to be good, deep down. But maybe I just don't. And that has to be fine too." Feeling a little emboldened by Cinder's presence, in a heterosexual way-- wait, she doesn't need to keep that up to herself anymore, she went on a date with her already. Feeling emboldened by Cinder's presence in a coworkers-who-have-gone-on-a-date way, Petra straightens up and scratches Pillar of Creation in an arc on the stone between her and Nonon. "I'm pretty fucking fulfilled, considering everything. And when you put it like that-- being here is part of making me more that, not less." A long streak of silver paints the ground between Petra and Nonon, like a runway with a quaking fluid surface. When Nonon moves to approach her again, Petra moves faster, planting her foot into the silver pool behind her and sending a spread of ripples across the stripe. When she kicks forwards, every droplet of morphmetal along the way pushes her forwards with each step, speeding past Nonon with the weight and force of a truck, spear whipped around to trip her instead of skewer, and her other arm charging forwards to punch Nonon into the ground. Nonon crashes down, splashing quicksilver up in alien tendrils that linger and float just a bit longer than water would, and doesn't get up. Petra laughs, then coughs and spits out more metal. "Cinder! I was wondering if you'd be here. Is everything alright out there? No one getting too hurt? Don't worry about, like, trying to stop me. That's normal, I..." Standing over Nonon, Petra can't stand up fully when trying to look at Cinder. Her mind flashes back to that imaginary world on the train, where everyone so readily believed Cinder would join her for anything, and just as easily left her in the dirt afterwards. "Whenever something like this comes up. I won't mind if you're on the heroes' side."
Petra Soroka	Touta's sudden misery and earnestness doesn't go unnoticed by Petra. She looks at him, lips sinking into a little frown, then twists her head away to say with her typical nasty tone, "We do what we need to do. Lilian wouldn't do anything like this, but I would. I don't do things without thinking about her feelings, so you shouldn't fucking assume that's what this is." Petra hasn't been hit by Touta's katana before, but the trained and perfected memories of the Warrior intrinsically planted in her core don't need Petra to have experience. Tiny motions of air and debris around his weapon trigger the gut feeling inside her that it's more than it appears, and she instinctively moves to dodge rather than taking the blow head on like she otherwise could. Silver squirms and twists beneath her feet, helping her jump off to the side before he manages to hit her directly, though he still lands the sword on her hand. Parts of her fingers and hand shear straight off, exposing metal skeleton beneath, and gushing morphmetal pours from the wound. Petra hisses in pain-- a noticeably subdued reaction, considering the damage-- and stems the outpour of blood simply by collecting it into a sphere stuck around where her hand was. Meanwhile, Qetra's eyes settle somewhere around Hibiki's forehead, and she slows to a stop on top of a vine that carried her into the air. With a smile and the least whimsical cruelty in her voice that Hibiki's heard from her, Qetra says, "I'm not really honest. I'm just stupid. Everything I say could be fake, you know? I wouldn't have any idea if it is, either way." Qetra's smile melts away when Ishirou tells Hibiki to ignore her, and that looks like it bothered her more than being attacked did. Ishirou's shoulder check lands, and he's proven correct by their more equal strength capacities. She tumbles to the ground, popping back up with a vine used as support. She opens her mouth to talk, but the impact knocked something around in her, and she just starts coughing instead. Still recovering, Qetra holds Tails up as a shield from Ishirou's sword, eyes wide, and when that doesn't seem like an effective guard, she drops the fox entirely. "Ahaha, woah... my hand cramped! Hey, Ishirou? Are you really good at any of those things, or do you just say you are? Do you just have tech that you rely on to make you good at them? Because, you know... I remember Lilian talking about how you actually ruined the plan for Indus. You're kind of pigheaded, aren't you? It's no fair that you still get to call yourself smart, after messing up more times than I have."
Petra Soroka	Petra, feeling herself backed into a corner-- not literally, the floor of the planetarium is almost entirely opened up at this point-- starts drawing on the Chaos Emerald more and more. The ground cracks and shakes, and vines start pushing machines with even further growth coming out of them out of the ground, seemingly the source of the terraforming. Similarity, as the morphmetal around the Chaos Emerald trembles and breaks, the rest of Petra's control over it starts shuddering. Hibiki jumping in to destroy it is sort of relieving, even though the released energy feels like radiation burns and iron filling everyone's mouths. And also, more importantly, the Chaos Emerald itself is falling out of the sky now. Petra abandons Touta and double jumps to grab it, repulsors jetting her into the air. "Qetra! We're leaving! Catch!" Petra twists in the air to spike the Emerald into Qetra's hands. Qetra fumbles it, of course, and has to crouch on the ground to pick it back up. "It's always just holding things...." Without standing up, she flashes a peace sign at Cinder and rolls across the ground to the puddle of morphmetal, vanishing inside it along with the Chaos Emerald. With its disappearance, the quaking of the planetoid stops, as does the ambient feeling of energy overburn, but the sensation of the planet falling picks up to feel like a plummeting elevator. Petra, in that moment of confusion, hopped between buildings to head for the hole in the shell of the planetoid. Clambering up out of it, she turns back while standing on the edge, hesitates, then decides not to say or do anything to acknowledge the Elites before jumping backwards and vanishing, falling to the ground faster than Pumpkin Planet.
Ishirou	"She's not endangering the people now, Petra. You are. You're endangering them and taking their homes, so jump off that moral relativism cliff," Ishirou snaps back. Irritated that she was trying to use that against him, but more irritated that she was /right/. He should be trying to put Hibiki in jail. "You could try," Ishirou says in response to her 'what if' tone. Right now, he's already calculating her chances of that. "I didn't call myself smart, nor do I claim to be smart. The technology you talk about is connected to my brain, it is a part of me as I'm a part of it," is all he says to Qetra, refusing to fall into the bait. Even as the two collide in combat, even as things fall all around him. Even as the RESCUE strains to keep up and is on the back foot the whole time... Ishirou tries to go for the Emerald the moment it flies at Qetra, but he really can't get to her in time, damage to his system prevents him from closing the distance in time... The moment the planet starts to fall into gravity, he growls. He can't even get a shot at Hibiki. He pulls the OPTIONs back, attempting to send them out and attach to as many civilians as he can, trying to get them to where they need to be, or to safety. Another home was destroyed... and once more he wasn't able to save it. He can't think about it right now, because if he were to... he'd immediately collapse into despair.
Petra Soroka	Landing gently on the ground with her repulsors slowing her descent, Petra looks up at the falling planetoid. A few ships are still escaping from the mostly-empty lifeboat craft hangars, and now that she's gone, the others will probably help the rest get away. So that's all there is to it. Petra starts trudging away, twigs breaking under her feet as she goes into the forest. She didn't bring her electric bike, of course, out of fear she'd lose it, so it's on foot all the way to the nearest warpgate. Some time into her journey, while Petra is tunelessly humming to herself out of boredom and a lack of cellular connection, something laying on a tree stump catches her attention. Unnatural colors, a plasticky gleam, and a distinctly weapon-like shape, the object obviously has to be someone's, but this deep in the woods, it's impossible to imagine whose. But as she gets closer... "As for you, Petra... if you wish to show a devil that he holds a place in your heart, then speak his language. Do something that affords his home a greater measure of warmth. It is, after all, as HIM says, so very rare for even mortals to do this--to reach, earnestly, for what they want, and seize it." "Think on it. When you find the answer, you will find, some time later, a gift from me, to cement your bond." The transteam gun laying out here, in the middle of nowhere, coincidentally right along Petra's randomly chosen path that could only be known in retrospect-- had to be from Ohma Zi-O. Oblong like no practical weapon would be, it looks more like something out of science fiction than a real gun. Purple plastic accented with yellow curves forwards into an aperature that can only be described as a laser cannon, with indiscernable glass and iridescent material making up the fist-sized face. Clear plastic bulbs line the spine of the weapon, the transluscent color jarring and discordant with the rest. Petra picks it up, examining it from all angles. She looks around to make sure that no one's near, out of pure paranoia, and then presses her lips together awkwardly. "Um. Henshin." Nothing happens. Petra blushes, lowers the gun, and decides to figure it out later.
Angela	Rose bites at her lip when Petra reveals Hibiki killed a dozen people (Rose's understanding of the situation does not agree with this prognosis). What she does feel is people took advantage of Hibiki's kindness. And maybe it wasn't the first time. But Rose isn't someone who tries to convince people. Nonon being on the edge of corrosion, her movements are not entirely ideal but Nonon is so focused on the fundamentals that Petra is able to do something sneaky. The quicksilver wraps around her limbs, pulling her back. Nonon's mood moves in one direction but she does writhe while contained like a 5 star meal is before her and she's not being allowed to take a bite. This is why Shajo is the captain. He's not the best fighter of the duo, but Nonon doesn't have the temperment for the work. But Nonon does, if nothing else, respect Petra as a warrior and a fellow agent. When she speaks, she listens. ''Why not be fulfilled by doing the things I want to do to you all?'' ''But maybe I just don't. And that has to be fine too.'' "Can't argue against that!" Nonon grins through bloodied teeth that look a bit sharper than normal. When Petra admits that she's 'pretty fucking fulfilled', Nonon's posture relaxes--like Petra has denied some core part of the way she thinks, but not in a matter that bothers her. More like acknowledging a different path. "That so huh...? Good for you." Nonon breaks free long enough to move forward again but Petra is just a bit faster. She protects her upper body. Petra goes for the lower body. Nonon trips forward and goes tumbling straight towards Petra's fist and sends her sprawling into the quicksilver. The alien tendrils grip her and she lays there, out cold from that well timed blow. Cinder is definitely more 'heterosexual' for Petra than less after this, though, because Cinder just took out one of the strongest Agents in the facility. Frankly, despite Nonon being unconcious, Petra feels like she took the worst beating but she's still going anyway... "O-oh... is it? You just... knocked out Nonon." Cinder says as Rose comes in swinging with the hammer but that's not too rleevant as to Petra's escape. ''Whenever something like this comes up. I won't mind if you're on the heroes' side.'' "Is that what you want?" Cinder asks even though she knows what her job is here. Of course, going all IN on Petra isn't what the Manager would want either--largely because Petra is just far too useful for L Corp. Losing the Emerald is more acceptable than losing Petra as an employee right now. Rose is going to give her a hard time over this. Cinder is going to have to think about this, kind of glad that she had civilians to help so she'd have the time to think about it. Rather than try to catch up to Petra as she absconds, Cinder crouches down to help free Nonon from her bindings. She's a big girl and it'll be really helpful if she can wake her up so she doesn't have to drag her to the Warpgate. Despite herself, she can't help but smile at Qetra's chill as she slaps Nonon in the face a few times to try and get her to wake up. Unfortunately for the two of them, they are eventually just going to have to both work on dragging Nonon back to the warpgate.
Hibiki Tachibana	"Damnit--!" The unpleasant sensations that come with everything is far less of an issue than the Chaos Emerald slipping away. Catching herself on the trembling and breaking ground, Hibiki gets a running start and leaps up with a blast from her Symphogear's thrusters to try and chase it down. But Petra is fast, and she can only watch the emerald get caught by Qetra and whisked away to somewhere they can't follow. She certainly tries, but realizes partway there that she can't enter quicksilver puddles the same way a literal reflection can. And by the time she does... ...Petra is gone, too. There's still so many things to say to her--to Qetra, too. Things that, while fighting on a rapidly falling planetoid is hardly the right time for any of them, they're still things she could never talk about anywhere but face to face. Part of her selfishly wants to jump out of the hole and try to go after her, before she could possibly get too far. Instead, she gives Ishirou a single glance with unreadable intent behind it, then hurries onward through the quickly descending structure. Does he agree with everything Petra said about her...? That she's the bigger threat between the two of them? Is that it? ...She shouldn't care if he does. It's fine. One act of supervillainy today doesn't change the fact that she's still on his most wanted list. It'd be stupid to think anything else. So Hibiki pushes onwards. "Touta! Thanks for the help! Rose--we'll talk properly later, I promise! I'm really sorry for everything!" With Nonon getting dragged off and Ishirou's suit as damaged as it is, she doesn't have any excuse to not try and track down as many civilians who might still be trapped somewhere or need help escaping as possible. If it comes down it, she'll...get off just before this thing hits the ground. Probably. There'd be plenty of cover so Ishirou didn't follow her after, at least. Only while she moves does she finally think back to what Qetra had said to her, although it's not as if anyone will hear her reply now other than herself. "...Fake things can't be made real...is that what you still think, Petra? ...Is that what I think now...?"
Touta Konoe	There's a lot of things that Touta can say about Petra at this point. She's unforgiving and unrelenting to those she holds contempt for...But still genuinely talks about the people she cares for with a level of dedication. Even acknowledging that they're not the kind of people to do what she does, and defending them when her actions would represent them poorly. She is someone that isn't afraid to put a planet at risk for her goals. Though at the same time she argues that she's the type to abstain from going to the extremes... It's an unsettling thought to think that for a moment, just maybe a moment, that this girl did this knowing that someone would come in. Even if she was going to cause something like this, there was bound to be someone that was going to handle it for her. To think the very notion was giving her perhaps too much credit. He's heard she's the type that has no issues when it comes down to it to kill. Though if it was simply because she didn't want to. There are many things that Touta can say about Petra at this point, but if there's one most important thing he's learned... "We do what we need to do. Lilian wouldn't do anything like this, but I would. I don't do things without thinking about her feelings, so you shouldn't fucking assume that's what this is." It would be so easy if he didn't have to, but when he looks at her...There's that face and a tint of green...A thought to a conversation that happened a time that feels like an eternity ago...Before Hibiki Tachibana, he can recall another Mahou Shoujo. She was...Someone who did what she needed to do as well. Before he realizes it, his blade's being evaded, he should be trying to hit more precisely, maybe lower the weight if only a bit so as to up the speed of his swings. In this moment now, there's another force driving his strikes beyond battle instinct. His eyes are definitely on Petra as he brings his blade to clash, but at the same time they're. He remembers that person, a person that he considered like a sister. Though more than that he remembers one of the words she would call herself pridefully... "We do what we need to do?" It's as the words escape his lips does his blade finally start a bit of a rhythm, or rather a lack of one that makes even reading the air currents trifling. The blade starts alternating between hands in a way that clearly doesn't feel like a proper sword style, but all the same still handles clear enough that she can feel the edge of that blade constantly a hair's length away. His footwork starts to become more efficient, constantly keeping himself in distance for a proper swing, while refusing to let her get too far or too close into his reach. Ultimately his blade reaches as it slashes through the hand. "If everyone did what they needed to do..." He looks to her as if the look ago says it all, 'Do you really believe anyone here does what they /need/ to do?' "I'm not assuming this part. Whether you both end up doing what you need to do or not...At least one of you won't be happy about it. I just hope if it does...I actually hope you're right." The floor of the planetarium was all but dismantling before them at this point. It was apparent that it wouldn't be holding for long, and in that moment of realization Petra does take her leave. With it, perhaps the Elites actually do what they need to do... "Touta! Thanks for the help!" "Oi, I'm not done helping yet!" He finds himself shouting out to that girl who seems like she's one of the few that does genuinely know what to do...And for now, he'll just follow her example. Attempting to help in the evacuation as best he can, moving as many as possible through what remaining artificial warpgates were available. Moving as many people through them at once even if that included...Drastic measures.