Scene #8879: Fast Track

Owner	Pose
Hibiki Tachibana	Noise, extradimensional monsters that reduce living creatures to carbon on touch, have seemingly always appeared and attacked population centers at random. In Japan, their assaults have been kept in check by the government agency S.O.N.G., charged with handling Noise appearances and securing ancient Relics, fragments of which are donned by special 'Attuned' girls as anti-Noise armor - Symphogear. That status quo changed when they learned of the existence of the Bavarian Illuminati, a secret society of alchemists who had Noise under their control, using them to cover their clandestine actions. Pursuing them to one of their bases, the group fought a homunculus named Viviane, who had been a scapegoat to give the Illuminati time to evacuate. After her detainment and willing defection, she explained her story; her creator Yliaster was once a kind man who desired to aid humanity by giving them ideal and immortal bodies, but began reaching his mental limits after hundreds of years without a breakthrough. When the world joined with the Multiverse, learning of its scale and the countless forms of life in it shattered his psyche, as he realized if his efforts still had yet to find 'perfection' for even one world, his life's work amounted to nothing in the face of so many others. And so he was left with only the unhinged compulsion to accomplish his goal by any means necessary. Mobilizing his faction of the Illuminati, he intended to abuse Solomon's Cane, an artifact with the unheard of ability to summon and control Noise. By using other Relics to empower it, he would create Noise with the numbers and strength to genocide planets, to study the ashen remains of different worlds and their inhabitants to find the 'prime material' that would complete his research. Thankfully, the Elites put a stop to his hunt for Relics in the dark continent of Europe, and in the process met the oddball alchemist Good Speed, who took a liking to them and offered to keep them appraised of his boss' activities. Before anything could come of that however, the offworld military state of the Titanomachia took interest in the Cane for their own purposes. The machine they sent to steal it left Yliaster's hideaway ravaged, and it nearly escaped with it - but its eversion cannon turned the Cane upon itself, banishing it to the very same dimension it calls Noise from - the Treasury of Babylon. Since then, the Titanomachia has been stopped, and so have their plans of opening a way into the Treasury to retrieve the Cane. With their fall, it seems Yliaster is returning from the shadows to make his own attempt at doing so, to resume his mad schemes. The only one who can tell them the details is...
Hibiki Tachibana	"...That Good Speed guy. Not really anybody's first choice of informant, but he's the only one we've got." The group's escort today is none other than Hibiki herself, hands in her jacket pockets as they trudge ahead. She doesn't look like she's at her best; just a glance at her face and her posture shows she couldn't have gotten much sleep, and she looks like her mind is halfway somewhere else whenever she thinks anyone isn't looking at her. "And sorry if that explanation sucked. I went back over all the reports again, so I think it got most of the important stuff, at least." She insisted she be the one to come out for this, even though S.O.N.G. was initially going to send someone else - not just out of consideration for her, but because Good Speed is a total freak who made the Elites race him on top of a flying air fortress before he cooperated previously. Her skillset is pretty unsuited for it (maybe if she were a Kamen Rider...), and chances are high he'll pull something similar here instead of just talking like a normal person. MIDDAY SOUTH AMERICA, VENEZUELA THE GUIANA HIGHLANDS? That's one of the only explanations as to why the meeting point is all the way on the scenic mesa of Auyán-tepui, one of the numerous flattop mountains in the Highlands towering over the vast tropical forests and rivers below. It's lofty enough that some wispy clouds roll through the steadily inclining woodlands and stretches of rocky terrain, while others can be seen below, over the edge of the steep cliffs. Woz was able to confirm him being at this precipitous locale through his future reading, but Good Speed also helpfully called ahead as well - making good on his promise to stay in touch. Seems like he just gets a kick out of making everyone hoof it here one way or another, and it's been an annoying trip without any warpgates in the immediate area. But now, after however long, cresting a stony rise brings a vast running river with cobbly surroundings into sight. Along with... "Yo~! Kiddos, new and old! Nice of you to finally make it!" Jet-black sunglasses, slicked back brown hair, middle-aged without coming off as old, a black leather jacket that would be more fitting on a gang member than an alchemist... and leaning out the driver seat window of what can only be described as a gunmetal gray angular supercar, overdesigned and exposed engine rumbling and roaring even parked at the riverside. "...Yeah. That's him alright," Hibiki sighs out exhaustedly, before picking herself up as best she can. "What, we kept you waiting...?" "Sure did. Woulda been even if you got here in five minutes flat. Every second'cha waste is one you'll never get back later, gahaha!" Good Speed lets out a hearty guffaw before clapping a hand against the car door, grinning back wryly. "Real big mess before, that Titano-whatsit. Woulda been nice if it was all over just with that, but... then you wouldn't be here, eh?"
Angela	Strangely, Rose isn't present today--she's off scouring around Kagoshima--but Nikki and Carol have made it today. Magical Girl EGO Agent Response Team! or MGEART for short. Okay, maybe that acronym isn't actually that good nevermind. Carol remains a dour looking woman, wielding the Sword Sharpened By Tears associated EGO Gear and Nikki remains the Blaster Type who is wearing In The Name Of Love And Hate EGO gear (ie: The same outfit the Queen of Hatred is constantly using, complete with magic staff). Carol kind of--sliides her way over to Hibiki and says, "Hey uh... dunno if I had the chance to say it before but--sorry for getting pissy atcha 'cause Rose was lurking around here." Maybe Rose's recent 'injuries' has changed her outlook on the matter. She odesn't linger too long, trying to just get that little apology in before the objective becomes the team's concern. ''Every second'cha waste is one you'll never get back later, gahaha!'' "Maybe we should have sent Nonon. Sounds like they're peas in a pod," Nikki manages, dully. "We're hoping for more details, details we figure you can provide us. Since we're pals now and all."
Ritsuka Fujimaru	"Not the first, but definitely not the last. He was pretty cool outside of working for that Yliaster, you know?" "What a low bar for quality. Still, any information is still better than none, I guess." It's easy to hear that the duo from Chaldea came away with vastly different impressions of Good Speed after their first run-in with the alchemist. Ritsuka, as always, is eager to have another run in with the speed freak while Jeanne sounds like she'd rather be doing anything. Mash, meanwhile... Isn't here today. Hearing that the meeting place in the highlands means one thing: Safaris! And plants. And possibly bugs everywhere. Also, the humidity. Even though Jeanne and Mash might be able to get away with instant wardrobe changes, they join Ritsuka in dressing for the occasion, donning color-coded vests and light pants along with wide-brimmed hats to keep the bugs and sun off their heads. Plus, Ritsuka just really wanted an excuse to get Jeanne to wear a vest, even if it's still in h her usual darker colors. "Hi, Goods! Sorry to keep you. Too bad none of us got cars like yours. Then we'd really be here early!" "You'd lose your license in a day if you drove like that." Sighing lightly, Ritsuka mulls over her current inability to drive for all of five seconds before snapping right back to her usual pep, even if it does falter a bit at recalling just how much destruction the Titanomachia caused. "Yeah, probably not. We'd just be getting into some other mess instead, but since we're here... What have you heard, anyway? Anything about that Yliaster guy, or anything else his people might be planning for the Cane?"
Timespace Riders	EARLIER Sougo and Woz tag along behind Hibiki, the one dressed in a pastel yellow button-up, rolled khakis and hiking boots, the other dressed as he always is in the somewhat apocalyptic uniform of the cult-slash-honor-guard known as Quartzer; an olive double-breasted greatcoat, black close-fitting pants, zip-up ankle boots and of course, the iconic grey scarf. I went back over all the reports again, so I think it got most of the important stuff, at least. "Indeed," says Woz, carrying that mysterious book under one arm as always. "I wouldn't worry about Good Speed," the ever-optimistic Sougo opines with a warm little smile. "You don't always get to choose who's on your side, and sometimes, 'on your side' is... a generous way of looking at things. But if you can't have 'loyal,' 'predictable' is the next best thing." --- Yo~! Kiddos, new and old! Nice of you to finally make it! "Yo," Sougo playfully answers, with a little wave. Somewhat winded, and between pants: "You really know how to pick a meeting spot." The Demon King's favored hiking boots have probably gotten their most appropriate use since his visit to the Behemoth for Diana and Elara. "This mountain air... it's pretty great, isn't it? I feel a little lightheaded, but refreshed, at the same time. The view makes all of that hard work worth it." Sougo reaches for Woz's scarf to wipe his brow. The retainer purses his lips and sidesteps his king's hand, procuring instead a soft white towel on a plush velvet pillow procured seemingly from nowhere. Woulda been nice if it was all over just with that, but... then you wouldn't be here, eh? "I admire Yliaster's ambition and conviction, despite the scarcity of other qualities to recommend him," Woz says, as Sougo smilingly takes the towel and dabs his forehead. The retainer continues: "It is well that you recognize time for the precious resource it is, Good Speed. I believe you have some special insight to share, yes?" The expectant look on his face says 'out with it,' while simultaneously sporting with his tone a bit of skepticism that Good Speed will spit it out as easily as that.
Petra Soroka	Petra Soroka makes her return to the world of Hibiki Tachibana, both narratively and personally, after quite a long time. The Ekanamsha S2 was her responsibility, sure, but with that resolved she has next to no reason to keep coming back, given that her only prior interaction with the Bavarian Illuminati was the dumbfounded discovery that the Illuminati is real and that they aren't lizard people, from well over a year ago. She's got no particular stake in stopping them, only vague familiarity with the Noise, distantly tense relations with SONG, and then... also Hibiki Tachibana, who is the real reason she's here. Hibiki might be in kind of a shitty mood, but Petra actually isn't. Whining about the heat and humidity, sure, though she's steadily more willing to actually stash her jacket away and dress in appropriate hiking pants, boots, and a crop top recently, but not radiating ambient unhappiness like usual. She's radiating something, still, which feels even more maddeningly unpleasant in combination with the mosquitos doing essentially the same thing, but she's pretty high energy all things considered. "Gosh... you know, I've never actually been to the Amazon Rainforest before... and up here it's... wow." Auyán-tepui may not be an alien landscape, but as far as Earths go, it's about as scenic as the planet has to offer, and Petra is actually in the mood to be struck by it. "People should randomly make missions happen in the prettiest places like this more often. It doesn't make any sense at all, but it's like-- literally when else would I have an excuse to come out here?" "And sorry if that explanation sucked." "Whatever. It's, like, the Illuminati, doing some dumbass insane stuff, because of a magic alchemist guy who chemically invented his perfect daughter and then fucked her up enough that she came to you. Makes sense." It does make sense, for some reason. "And a guy who makes to either go fast or do meth." "Yo~! Kiddos, new and old! Nice of you to finally make it!" "'Sup." Petra is already tottering ahead to stand on top of the ridge, clambering up the rocks so that she can get a better view of the river and the falls over the side of the cliff. Standing up high for no apparent reason besides wanting to, she actually appraises Good Speed and his terrible car. "Why'd you bring us all the way out here? Is there..." Petra looks around for some way the car could've possibly gotten here besides a portal or flying, and obviously there isn't any. Then she draws a line with her eyes from the car beside the river, out over the cliff and the open air above the jungle canopy. "... Does that thing fly?" She sounds slightly hopeful for the answer of 'yes' at first, and then realizes something and makes a frustrated noise in the back of her throat, scuffing her boot against the rock. "Damn it, dude, I was totally studying vehicle tinkering before all this Quicknest shit made me focus on killer robots. I was doing shit like putting jets on my fucking bike-- I mean, before Liza shot it to pieces." "Every second'cha waste is one you'll never get back later, gahaha!" Distractedly, Petra says, "That's true. Every second you're not working and someone else is is a second you're falling behind." "Real big mess before, that Titano-whatsit." Petra isn't that happy to be reminded of the Titano-whatsit. She shrugs and squats down to stare out into the jungle vista, clouds drifting across green. "Sure was."
Hibiki Tachibana	"Ah..." Hibiki seems a little caught off-guard by Carol's apology, but shakes her head after rubbing the back of her neck. "...I'm sorry, too. I should've thought about how other people who cared about her would feel. I just... want her to have better than she does." Maybe some part of Hibiki considered going around Kagoshima with her instead of being here. Sougo gets a curious glance from her, and then a tired-sounding but genuine chuckle before she goes back to neutral. "Suppose so. An ally's an ally, yeah? ...I'm glad you've always got a way of looking at things, Sougo." Petra mentioning the locale actually gets Hibiki glancing over the landscape. "...Never, probably? I think the closest I've been to anywhere like this was... when I visited Hiromi. That was more forest than rainforest, though." She makes a sound of agreement at 'makes sense'. ... "Heeeeeey, it's the literally hot lady and her energetic friend!" Jeanne and Ritsuka both get a hearty wave of greeting from Good Speed, along with another laugh at their fitting outfits for the adventure. "Dressed to impress, too! Didn't strike me as a stickler for that 'license' stuff, though. What, you think /I/ got one? Don't let anyone ever tell ya what you can and can't do." Sougo and Woz also get an appreciative glance - maybe a more amused one, for Woz's everconstant outfit - and a fingergun back at them both. "Only pick the best venues! Figure a 'Demon King' wouldn't mind being a little more well-traveled, either. Somethin' here I wanted to do for a while, so thought I'd get two things outta the way at once!" He makes a vague gesture to the running rapids. Petra gets an appraising look back herself, before he follows her gaze around the area from behind his sunglasses. "Fly? Oh, yeah. 'Course it does, when I want it to," he answers casually. "Never beats solid ground 'neath the tires, though." She actually gets a fairly sympathetic sort of glance at her complaining after, followed by another of those wry grins. "Now you're gonna get me interested in seein' what you can whip up, little lady. You know how /hard/ it is to meet anyone who's actually up for slapping a booster or three on their ride? No imagination, I swear." He sounds serious about that. ...is a second you're falling behind. "Not half bad words to live by," he says with a turn of his head.
Hibiki Tachibana	We're hoping for more details, details we figure you can provide us. Since we're pals now and all. What have you heard, anyway? Anything about that Yliaster guy, or anything else his people might be planning for the Cane? I believe you have some special insight to share, yes? Good Speed taps his thumb against the hard metal of his car's exterior a few times, his other hand on the steering wheel. "Yep. If you imagined boss man was right pissed after you crashed his plans in Europe, it was a whole 'nother story after the Cane went kaput. Think he mighta lost what little bits of common sense he had left." "...Didn't imagine it would've went over very well," Hibiki murmurs. "If he even survived. What's he been doing, exactly?" "Scheming. You know how it is with their type." He pauses for a few seconds."Spent weeks on weeks tryin' to find some way to salvage things. Thought about raidin' the Titanomachia himself to try and find a way, even if that'd have obviously never worked. But if the Cane was the only key to the Treasury, what was he 'sposed to do? He ended up desperately lookin' for any solution he could." His hand gives a little roll. "This world's got all sorts of crazy ass Relics, so there had to be one that'd help. That's what he kept goin' on about, even as the other branches of the Illuminati were givin' him the stinkeye for bringing all that crap here." He scoffs, kicking back up into a wide grin. "He sure found one. What if he made it so all of that never happened in the first place? Just sorta..." Good Speed snaps his fingers. "Shoved off all the time between then and now so things went different?" Hibiki seems somewhere between confused and skeptical. "Uh... are you talking about... time travel or something?" "Yes, but also no!" Good Speed guffaws, before that oversized engine abruptly begins belching flames and heat. Woz was right to be skeptical about this just being a nice informative chat, as the blaring of his vehicle starts echoing through the air loud enough to send treetop birds flying as they're startled. "Hey, y'ever hear about somethin' called the 'Legend of Urashima'?" That's all they get before spinning wheels driving ditches into dirt and stone are finally loosed, and Good Speed's supercar hits a sudden and fiery acceleration forward - on a smoking path that tracks along the riverbank and up towards Auyán-tepui's summit in the distance. The way he beckons with his free hand as he goes is pretty implicit - 'keep up if you want to know'. Hibiki just groans loudly again, fishing out her pendant. "Come on...! I don't even have a bike like Tsubasa does..."
Angela	Carol says, "...Yeah. I guess I can see just how badly 'what she has' is, now." in a soft grumbly tone, but that grumbling isn't directed at Hibiki exactly. Carol's got a lot on her mind. Normally Tiphereth is just sort of sent as the Sephirah guide for magical girl chicanery too, in fact, but she's kind of getting overworked enough as it is with so many magical girl problems coming to pass simultaneously so Hod's kind of volunteering since this surely will be just easy peasy chatter--Hod can do that pretty easily! Unfortunately, the pad that Nikki is carrying is held underneath her arm so that's what Hod's getting a good look at. Hibiki keeps helping out at LobCorp so there's plenty of reasons to lend a hand with SONG. "Oh Petra...!" Hod's antenna wiggles. "It really is neat, huh, a flying car, wow! I don't think we've got anything like that ovr here and ah Nikki can you...hold me the right way?" Nikki doesn't immediately follow HOd's request since she says, concerned, "Two things out of the way?" She frowns as Good Speed speaks of the boss 'losing it' more than normal which isn't a very great thought process to entertain when you work for Lobotomy Corp. She carefully twists the pad around so Hod can get a good look at Good Speed. ''Hey, y'ever hear about somethin' called the 'Legend of Urashima'?'' "Uh, no--" The wheels start spinning and Nikki swears under her breath and CHUCKS the Hodpad through one of Good Speed's windows and into the backseat of his vehicle. "W..wh..what's going on? I just heard wheels spinning and---why does the feed keep spinning around, I'm gonna get dizzy!" Hod cries out. Nikki takes a breath. "Uh, maybe she can still ask questions like that? I sort of acted on instinct." "I can't believe you were once our Captain." Carol complains before looking to Hibiki for--oh. No vehicle there. "None of us ... have vehicles. We're not made of money you know, we use public transport." Carol then looks to Petra. "You uh. You got something?" "Aaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhh" Hod's wail gets more distant with every passing moment.
Timespace Riders	What if he made it so all of that never happened in the first place? Just sorta... Shoved off all the time between then and now so things went different? "Yes, 'what if,'" says Woz, with sardonic amusement. Answering the rhetorical question nonetheless: "I suppose I would indulge a single chuckle before I ended his life for the impertinence and undid his amateur fumbling." He seems pretty confident in that assertion... It's actually Sougo, not Woz, who seems more prepared for Good Speed's abrupt challenge. Between the two, he's the first to have his Driver ready. "See?" Sougo says to Hibiki, waggling the bulky white Driver at her. "I only wondered 'when,' not 'if.'" Armor Time! Start Your Engine! DRIVE! "My blood cells are in top gear," Zi-O confidently catchphrase-mangles. His armor is a speed demon's take on a knight--candy-apple red plates with white racing stripe accents. The lenses of his helmet resemble white car headlights,l shaped in katakana to spell 'RIDER.' His symmetrical pairs of 'antennae,' usually taking the form of mirrored minute and hour hands, are instead the needles of speedometers. Future Time! Dare Ja? Ore Ja! NINJA! Futurering Shinobi! SHINOBI! Woz's smartwatch-themed armor sports shuriken motifs in the color purple, on the breastplate, and on the 'app icon' pauldrons by way of purple cameos. The 'hands' of the watch serving as his antennae are the exaggerated tines of an asymmetrical shuriken, and the most striking feature on his armor is the billowing, iridescent purple scarf. Both Riders are visible only for a moment following their transformations. Zi-O becomes a blur of red and white, his ankle-mounted tires kicking up a spray of dirt and loose gravel to the tune of a revving supercar. He leans into a controlled descent down the side of the slope, before picking his speed up to try and catch Good Speed on a straightaway section of the riverbank. Woz, meanwhile, strikes a kuji-kiri seal with his hands, uttering a little 'hmph' of effort before he disappears in a puff of smoke, complete with the archetypical bamboo-scare 'thunk' sound. The misty landscape partially occludes several of these as he keeps up, a zig-zag pattern dotting the descent down the steep rise and towards the bank. On flat ground, he does That Run (no not that one, the other one), keeping pace with the speedy Demon King.
Ritsuka Fujimaru	"Hehe." "... What?" "Even he knows we're friends now." "We are not." While Jeanne's busy groaning at both of Good Speed's assertions, Ritsuka's soaking it all up with a bright grin on her face and her hands on her hips. "Right? I mean, I haven't learned how to drive yet, but I'm sure I could outrun anyone chasing me over little details like that." "And then you'll have those pigs after you in a heartbeat. Not that I'd mind having a steady supply of bodies to fry, but..." Jeanne chuckles ominously as she looks between Good Speed and Ritsuka at his encouragement. "You know what? I think he's got the right idea. What's the worst that could happen?" Sougo's optimism about Yliaster's ambition, weirdly enough, gets an affirming nod from Ritsuka. "Glad someone else gets it! Even if he's gone nuts, he's still going for it. It's just a shame that kind of drive wasn't pointed at something better before all that stuff happened with his dream." Petra's talk of falling behind, meanwhile, has Jeanne tilt-nodding lightly in sort-of approval. "That's not wrong with the caliber of Elites around these days, but. How long can you keep that up without burning out?" She asks, raising a hand to let off a brief gout of flame in the air for emphasis while a self-satisfied smirk crosses her face. She totally thinks that sounded super cool and super deep. Ritsuka probably does, too. Once Good Speed explains how things have gone with Yliaster, however, the pair turn their attention right back to the matters at hand. Ritsuka's eyes light up when he brings up a newly named Relic, and she shakes her head quickly. "First time I've ever heard of it! Something like that would be pretty dangerous in the wrong hands, but if he used it to... Wait. Could anyone...?" Before Ritsuka's mind can start drifting to other uses for such a Relic, she looks up just in time to see Good Speed blasting ahead while he beckons everyone to keep up. She starts running after him on reflex, prompting Jeanne to laugh derisively before leaping right past Ritsuka and scooping her up in one hand in mid-jump. "Were you really planning on chasing him on foot? In that car?" "Better than standing around, right?" "... Fair. Well, at least we won't have to worry about losing him as long as that brick keeps screaming." Conveniently, Jeanne parked the motorcycle she and Ritsuka used to get here in the path of that jump! After making sure Ritsuka actually gets her helmet on, Jeanne starts urging the vehicle forward, albeit not with the level of mobility she'd normally have driving without a passenger. They'll be okay with straightaways, but how many convenient paths can they truly expect to find in the highlands?!
Petra Soroka	"You know how /hard/ it is to meet anyone who's actually up for slapping a booster or three on their ride? No imagination, I swear." Petra, attuned to another vehicle-tech villain, nods fervently, drumming her hand against the rock she's crouched on. "It's kind of, like, a whole thing, isn't it? Who else out here is actually studying and improving on the stuff they're given? No one's ever like, thinking about how to work with the tech to make it better for them specifically, or how they can experiment with it, or push it to do new things, or, like-- like just being more comfortable with the user-tool interaction paradigm! Vehicles and weapons and stuff aren't, like, inanimate things that exist separately from you! They aren't things that 'perform a function' without a person; they're just ways to make the person themselves doing the thing do it better. Like, extensions of you. So of course you should slap shit on them. You got a car because you wanted to move faster than walking; so, like, keep making it move faster and faster until it stops feeling right." Petra takes a breath, and then adds on awkwardly, "I've never driven a car though. I don't have a license or anything. The only thing with wheels I've ever driven was that little electric bike I had, so, uh....." "It really is neat, huh, a flying car, wow!" "Oh, Hod, no," Petra frets immediately at Hod's positional predicament, nudging Nikki to hold her upright before answering. "Flying cars are pretty basic I guess? I'm not super into cars, honestly. I feel like there's way cooler vehicles to have." Petra reflects on the types of vehicles that exist, then pouts. "They're better than fucking trains though." "How long can you keep that up without burning out?" "Forever." Petra responds immediately to Jeanne, standing up on her elevated rock and teetering to pace along the ridge. "Forever. Lilian's been doing it way longer than me, and she'll be doing it forever too, so to even stay close enough that I can keep being useful I can't fuck up like that. But the point is not doing it alone." "He sure found one. What if he made it so all of that never happened in the first place?" Petra sucks her breath in through her teeth, attention finally snapped onto the plot by that line from Good Speed. "Fucker. I'm not going to let him make some-- fucking kind of, alt-u where-- like, the Titanomachia still exists? And the Cane's back? No fucking way." 'keep up if you want to know' "W..wh..what's going on? I just heard wheels spinning and---why does the feed keep spinning around, I'm gonna get dizzy!" "H-Hod!!" Petra puts her hand to her mouth and calls out in distress-- no, wait, she's choking back giggles. "Nooooo.... Hod... oh my god, poor Hod...." After that distraction though, the car is already speeding away, and Petra realizes she has to keep up somehow. "Shit! Right after I said my fucking-- my fucking bike got broke! Asshole! I swear to god, a million fucking times lately I've been wishing I had some kind of god damn fucking mech, I might as well just build one my fucking self, seriously--"
Petra Soroka	"You uh. You got something?" Carol turns to Petra in the middle of her griping, and she whines at her. "I dooooon't! I don't have shit outside of Quicknest!" Petra blinks and then flicks open her compact mirror, pressing her hand to it. "Oh, wait, hold on." Two ratbots come out, hovering in the air one after the other. Petra grabs them, and then firmly places them on the back collar of Nikki and Carol's suits, hooks attaching like they're kittens being picked up by the scruff. This isn't a fast mode of transport at all, it just immediately makes them feel weightless, and then like they're falling at the speed of normal gravity sideways towards Good Speed's car. "Haha! That works." Petra, for her part, just uses the Silver as a sort of hoverboard. She can telekinetically direct it faster than running, and not needing to trek over uneven ground is faster still, and its ability to smash through any obstacles slowing her down helps create shortcuts, but... well, it's not a souped-up car. She also pulls out her gun and starts feeding morphmetal pellets into it as bullets, for when that jackass gets in a clear firing lane again.
Hibiki Tachibana	I only wondered 'when,' not 'if.' "You understand whatever the heck goes through his brain better than me, Sougo." Hibiki admits defeat to Sougo on this front, before a tight grip on her pendant and a familiar chant has her arming herself with Gungnir. Despite that, when Nikki and Carol look at her, she kind of fumbles for a second. "I, uh... I mean, if I had a bike or something..." Mumbled, "Or a license in the first place..." Louder, "I'd have bought it..." She also looks to Petra. Who thankfully has a better solution than 'grab the Agents and physically cart them along'. If nothing else, Hibiki can assist with making sure they can keep up by sprinting ahead of them and help Petra ensure no obstacles get in their way through the wonders of extreme physical force. She's about on par with her in terms of speed, even if it's debatable how long she'll maintain that pace. ... Even if it's not perfect, the following the river means there's enough straightaways to gain ground and enough twists that Good Speed has to do bare-minimum slowing down for, necessary for vehicles to avoid careening into the treeline but not a more agile person in hot pursuit. Hod, who has unfortunately been selected as his tagalong accomplice today, gets her tablet picked up by the alchemist as he drives one-handed, eyes completely off the road while he looks it and its screaming Sephirah over. Rather than doing anything to quiet her down, his boisterous laughing only /adds/ to the noise. "Gahahaha! If just watchin' through a screen is enough to get you losin' it, you'll love what we got comin' up at the end of this!" Hod not only gets her tablet tucked into the passenger seat, but she gets strapped in via seatbelt, too. How thoughtful. "Hey, y'know--" The speed junkie leans out of his window shamelessly, even as Petra prepares to unload a clip first chance she gets. One way or another, at least everyone is keeping up enough that he can still be heard over his own obnoxiously loud engine - although it's not going to be easy to maintain that. Beyond sheer thick forestry often at either side, just the rocky riverbank itself is leading ahead to several craggy spires rising up through the rapids ahead. "I'm glad you got such strong opinions on the matter, little lady! Feelings like that, whatever ride you whip up one day might even put me through the wringer! Some healthy competition might help me figure out how to get even faster, hah!" And on that note, he shows off his own alchemy - as an earth-brown light shines from within his vehicle, becoming bursts of what look like lightning arcing across his supercar's form. Metal morphs and shifts, part of the frame thinning out and shifting towards the front bumper, reinforcing and layering over it in the same vague shape as a plow. On-demand customization! He seems intent in bashing /through/ everything that can slow him in his path, which'll end up in no shortage of stony debris that needs to be avoided.
Hibiki Tachibana	"Lesse-- since you're such good sports racin' with me again, stop me if you heard this before." Good Speed rumbles his voice lowly, dropping it down into an approximation of some kind of narrator tone. "Once upon a time, in the underwater land o' Urashima, the princess of the luxurious 'Dragon King Palace' ruled kindly. The humans on the surface didn't bother them, and they didn't bother them back. Not 'til a terrible shipwreck happened, and the prince on board fell into the sea!" It's kind of impressive how he can keep an overdramatic storyteller tone while speeding downriver, as water and stone all go flying. "He was rescued and treated as an honored guest, showered in gifts, drownin' in delacicies that didn't exist on the surface, swept away and losin' his sense of time. He loved it, but he was still a prince, y'know? He had his people to go back to, and so one day, he asked to leave." "Oh, but you know how it is; the princess had fallen in love with him. Cried for three days and three nights. Poor girl's heart got broken in half! 'Cause while the prince might've lost track of how long he was down in that magical and timeless place... it was actually hundreds on hundreds of years she was lavishing him down there, hoping for a forbidden romance to spark." He takes both hands off the steering wheel entirely for a moment, reaching for a glovebox napkin to dab beneath his sunglasses with. This is over the likely sound of bullets smashing into his car. "When she finally stopped bawlin', pure affections unrequited, she handed him a jeweled box. 'This', she told 'em, 'will send you back to your home. But you'll never be able to return here again'." Sniffling, he puts his hand back on the wheel and stops spinning out, likely to Hod's relief. "She didn't even have the heart to tell 'em his kingdom was long gone. Instead, she broke the rules again and let an outsider use Urashima's treasure - a box that'd lock away all the time he spent down there, sealing it away like it never happened. He returned back to his kingdom of the past..." "...and the ill-fated princess was left watching over the box, unable to bring herself to selfishly open it and undo it. Even as the gods punished her by banishing her kingdom to the dark depths, she held on fast - so that he could be happy, even if it meant bein' eternally separated by time itself in an unwanted future. ...It's totally heartwrenching, yeah? Unfair?" He melodramatically sniffs again, and it's legitimately hard to tell how genuine he is - at least genuine enough that his skewed driving for a few seconds gives time to close distance. Outside his window as they all speed on, his free hand points up with its index as if for emphasis. "Obviously, legends aren't one-to-one. But that box... is what boss man Y wants to get. A Relic that can lock away time that's already happened. Makin' a sorta 'alt-u' might not be that far off the mark."
Angela	"Petra...!! AH..Petra... ...aha..." is Hod's reaction to Petra choking back giggles at her plight. Petra has a plan and attaches ... ratbots?.... on Nikki and Carol's suits. "Eh? What's--" "Uh how does this--" And suddenly they are flailing and spinning through the air as they get 'thrown' after Good Speed, yelling in a similar panic because---yes!--they don't normally fall horizontally. Indeed, some days they don't even fall vertically. Nikki, thanks to being a vampire knight (half) ((kind of)) (((look even she doesn't know exactly how it works and she's not going to ask))) has faster reflexes and is able to snag Carol's arm and then spin in the air together as they fly after the car. "It's okay! It's okay it's working, Captain!" Carol shouts in Petra's direction, though with the way they're spinning Petra's likely to get every third word rather htan the whole thing. Meanwhile, Hod is plucked out of the backseat and into the passenger seat where she gets strapped into the passenger seat, "O-oh!" She smiles. "That's very thoughtful of you, Mister Speed." No Hod, you just stopped peddling drugs don't become a SPEED junkie! "Did you, um, always like driving like this Mr. Speed? Were you maybe a racer before, um, you got your magic car?" Is it actually a magic car? She has no idea. She quiets down when there's a story. This story is actually ... familiar to Hod, not exactly told the same way--but the general gist of a person heading into a place and then returning home only to find that his entire life passed him by. ''Making a sorta 'alt-u' might not be that far off the mark.'' "I...I read a little bit about mirror world theory," It's sometimes easy to forget that Hod is a prodigy who is well acquainted with localized scientific advancements--at least before she got dumped into a Sephirah shell. "But I don't think, um--we already have a proven multiverse don't we? Going out and ''creating'' one--I don't know if that's possible, it certainly seems dangerous. If anybody could just m-make a universe like that... I think it could be really bad." She sniffs. "Oh, you seem...really affected by that story, mister... It must speak to you on some level, though, right..?" Nikki gets an idea. She shifts to holding just one of Carol's hands. "The Arcana Slave should propel us faster..." Carol murmurs, twisting the staff behind them and kind of trying to aim away from hitting anything but air. The pink blast bursts out of the staff and propels them faster through the air after Good Speed--their weightlessness making this a significantly more viable option. "We know you like races but it's hard to focus on the exposition while we're running around and sometimes not even in earshot!!" Nikki complains loudly. "We sort of have to make peace with the world where we messed up, right? Petra and Bikki taught me that we have to take responsibility, we can't just--look for a world where things are better. I can only imagine that goes double if you're creating worlds yourself. What will you do if you don't like what you see?"
Timespace Riders	He seems intent in bashing /through/ everything that can slow him in his path, which'll end up in no shortage of stony debris that needs to be avoided. Zi-O and Woz each deal with the debris kicked up by Speed's plow in different ways. The retainer avoids it by breaking it apart into smaller pieces with well-timed spreads of explosive shuriken, or otherwise obviating the issue altogether by teleporting above, ahead of, or around. His armor's revving joining that of Speed's car in a growly duet, Zi-O seems to know where the debris is going to be before there's even any 'debris' to speak of. The speedometer needles on his headlight-lenses spin in circles, like clock hands moving in elapsed time--and minute jukes, leans, or brakes keep him clear of collisions by margins of inches. Whatever the story might have done to Good Speed's driving, the Demon King is not in a position to capitalize--stories like that hit a weak point of his, too. It's Woz, leaping from tree branch to tree branch, who pulls ahead, landing within grasping distance of Good Speed's tail lights and maintaining his rapid sprint. "I did not take you for a romantic, Good Speed," calls the retainer back--though not at all in a mocking or disapproving tone. If anything, he sounds a little impressed. "Living in the moment as you do, I can see why the princess' fate affects you so. Had she spoken her feelings to the prince even once, rather than lavishing gifts upon him and quietly hoping he might divine them, she might have spared herself both her tears and her eventual fate." "I thank you for the information," he says, flinging his scarf outwards to deflect an earthen clump of tangled roots from flying into him, after the car's plow tears it free of a passing tree. "Am I to intuit that you know where Yliaster might seek this jewel?"
Ritsuka Fujimaru	"Forever. . . But the point is not doing it alone." Although Jeanne was trying to sound deep in front of Petra earlier, hearing what she has to say about Lilian and her devotion towards the same actually has the pale edgelord going quiet for a moment. Her face twists briefly at first, like she's just seen something weird, but her mind wanders shortly thereafter. She can't help but be reminded of someone else from her past, after all, and her expression actually softens considerably seconds later, even if it's not to the point of actually smiling or anything. "... Hm. How lucky for her." During the ride to follow Good Speed, Jeanne still manages to lose herself in thought even at those blistering speeds and wild turns to avoid careening off everything. Thankfully, she's driving safely enough that Ritsuka's handling it pretty well between hanging off of the Avenger's waist and keeping her head down, but she soon notices the lack of yelling and quips going on. There's not a good opportunity to ask Jeanne about that, though, as Good Speed uses his alchemy to plow through the terrain instead of avoiding it and begins the narration. Also, because they're speeding downriver, and it's taking a lot of focus just to hear the narration through all those clumps of stone and river gunk impact against both of their helmets. Unlike Good Speed, however, Jeanne's motorcycle is distinctly liking in easily-accessible storage space, and Ritsuka's not about to go rummaging around in the one little bag on the seat while she has to make sure not to get her head taken off by a ricocheting stone, a low-hanging branch, or even bullets flying all over the place. "That's such a rough story... Couldn't be with the one she loves, had to watch him from so far away, AND she had to eat all that punishment?" "She was happy with her choice. better than the alternative." "Are you... Okay, Jeanne?" "Hn? Why wouldn't I be?" "Mm...! Never mind." Thoughts about the legendary box itself rattle around in their minds about as much as all the rocks rattling against their helmets, and Jeanne takes full advantage of Good Speed slowing down to close the distance enough that they can keep conversing. The amount of tree-coverage prompts her to bring out her spear and start burning a path through some of the foliage as well, although Ritsuka has to nudge her every now and then whenever those flames start coming a little too close towards their lead's vehicle. "Easy, Jeanne. We don't want to ding up the ride!" "Why not?" "It's story time, not a blood-TREE! Blood-sport. We'll need a bigger arena for that, anyway." "... Right." "So! If that's the kinda Relic Yliaster's after, does us not seeing anything reset like yet mean that he won't get the box in the future? Or.... Wait. Would him using the Relic just be sending all of us into an alt-u where he does succeed...?"
Petra Soroka	As the car starts morphing, Petra makes a surprised little yelp, ducking under a splinter of wood flying in her direction. "I-- I forgot he was magic!" Contrary to expectations, Petra isn't actually just unloading her revolver at Good Speed. She has to take some shots at the debris kicked up by his bulldozing through the environment-- something she also takes on a sour expression when considering the impact of-- to clear it away, morphmetal bullets splitting after firing to strike multiple disparate rock chunks at once, but that's not her main purpose. She shelters her eyes from rock fragments with her forearm, wincing as they batter her and squinting past it to keep an eye on her distance from the car. Carried along by balancing on her morphmetal, Petra is constantly losing ground in any straightaway with the car, but she needs a straightaway so she can do something stupid and reckless. That's what high speed racing is about, after all-- she thinks, it's not like she's ever done it before. More importantly, she's frustrated at this kind of thing coming up when she doesn't have a vehicle to actually properly use for it. At a large bend in the river, Petra veers to the side and cuts straight through the rainforest, either side of the morphmetal platform she's on stretching up into razor sharp arcs in front of her to shred to blocking branches and vines. When she bursts out into the riverside again, cutting off just behind the racing car, she levels her revolver and fires the last morphmetal shot into the back, but not to aim for Good Speed himself. Instead, the metamaterial clings to the muzzle of the gun with a thin strand, the rest of it launched out faster than the car can move, unspooling into a string of metal tougher than any wire, and then pierces through the back of the body. The excess material flares out, forming spikes in the car's interior, and... Petra has a grappling hook! And she is now wake-hoverboarding behind a speeding car through the Amazon Rainforest. And has essentially disarmed herself. Reeling herself closer is a process of getting pelted with rock and dirt and having absolutely nothing she can do about it, whining the entire time and steadily crouching further down to shield herself with her knees. "Feelings like that, whatever ride you whip up one day might even put me through the wringer!" "Well, you know--!" Petra is actually among the closest to the car at this point, but she is not better off for it. "I am building shit! I've got some normal ass vehicles I've made, they're just not like this! I'm just more focused on making a big ass robot to crush a bunch of heroes with right now!" Wait, are any of those heroes listening? No, she's fine, she didn't accidentally leak information. "But you know what?!" Petra spits out a clod of mud, kicked up and splattered on her face from the riverbank when Good Speed dipped to a fourty-five degree angle inside it to take a curve harder than should be possible. "Maybe I fucking will! When I get myself something to pilot!"
Petra Soroka	"...It's totally heartwrenching, yeah? Unfair?" During the process of Good Speed telling the story, Petra slowly reeled herself in to the back of the car, painstakingly gaining foot by foot while the morphmetal cord vibrated with strain. She then, ended up on the back of a car going insanely reckless speeds through the Amazon Rainforest, and is now stuck there clinging for her life. It does at least give her the sense of relative stillness to really absorb the story, and Good Speed's tone when telling it. She falls a bit quiet, after her shouting earlier, pressed helplessly against the car's body for now. "... That's fucked. Stupid dumbass prince. You can't just cling onto loyalty to the first people you're with and use that as an excuse to hurt everyone else you meet while pretending it's 'noble'. He spent hundreds of years there, even if he lost track of time. He spent, like, twenty years up on land." "Even if he couldn't accept staying because of feeling guilty, he's a horrible piece of shit for hurting them when he left. Fuck him. If the story was real I'd fucking dismember him." Petra's thoughts go on a tangent, inscrutable to anyone but herself, and she murmurs out loud, "You know, for this it actually works best with a 'prince' and a 'princess'." "He should've gone back to land and just been miserable forever." Like Hod said, actually. "You have to live in the world where you fucked up. You just have to work on making it better."
Hibiki Tachibana	Oh, you seem...really affected by that story, mister... It must speak to you on some level, though, right..? I did not take you for a romantic, Good Speed. ... That's fucked. Stupid dumbass prince. "Oh, yeah... it hits me right where it hurts," Good Speed nods empathetically, reaching for a handkerchief again to blow into, and once again having his driving get dangerously erroneous because of it. "That poor girl, yeah? She spent so much time, so much of herself on this guy, not able to speak her true feelings... just for that to be how it ends! It's not fair, man! She deserved so much better!" Sniff. If he's faking it, he's doing a pretty good job. "Stuff like that...? That's exactly why y'live in the now and don't let a single second pass y'by. Life's too damn short to waste time screwin' around, dancin' around feelings and misunderstandings, lettin' anyone else slow you up or tell you what you can't do. Ah, hell, I'm gonna get emotional again..." Hibiki, who has been doing her share of pummeling her way through errant debris to help keep their pursuit clear, is notably silent. While they're all going full throttle like this, it's hard to see how the look on her face has grown more dour and contemplative. Would him using the Relic just be sending all of us into an alt-u where he does succeed...? Going out and ''creating'' one--I don't know if that's possible, it certainly seems dangerous. Finally breaking clear of the rocky obstacles, it looks like Good Speed's driving on to a clear stretch of river ahead now. "Dunno," the alchemist admits. "Hard to tell exactly what'll happen 'til it happens. All I know is tryin' to change how things already happened ain't possibly gonna lead to anything good. Whether it'll only change this world, or more... I'm sure there ain't nobody but him who wants to see what ends up comin' from it." We sort of have to make peace with the world where we messed up, right? You have to live in the world where you fucked up. You just have to work on making it better. "Ah... think you hit the nail on the head, kiddos." Good Speed agrees after he's done choking up, unaware that Hod has been through enough time loops to not exactly be a 'kiddo' by any metric, and very aware that Petra is now clinging on for dear life on the back of his ride. "Boss man Y's problem, if you ask me? Instead of pushin' on after that big fancy life work of his had a wrench thrown in it, he gave up and totally lost the plot. And this time again - after losin' the Cane, instead of any other option... he can't stomach the failure again, so he's goin' to try and undo it all."
Hibiki Tachibana	Am I to intuit that you know where Yliaster might seek this jewel? "Ahaha! Sure do, my book-loving friend!" Good Speed's good cheer comes back after all that seriousness, and it quickly becomes apparent that the fact there's a wide open stretch of riverbank up ahead is just as much of a bad thing as a good thing, as he speeds up further. Right up ahead is none other than Angel Falls, one of the highest waterfalls in the entire world, leading from the very top of this mountain all the way down to the very bottom. And he's putting the pedal to the metal, bringing both Hod /and/ Petra along for the ride as he does the exact opposite of slowing down while the distance rapidly diminishes. They're far from the only ones who'll have to take the plunge however; did you really think Good Speed will spill the whole plot before the best part? With no hesitation and at full fiery speed, his supercar launches itself off the edge of the cliff, where there's an absolutely fantastic view of miles on miles on miles of bountiful rainforest and winding rivers, and the fantastic feeling of being above the clouds with nothing under you. And also an 800-meter straight drop. "Yahoooooo~! Meet me at the bottom in one piece, and I'll be more than happy to tell ya exactly where that legendary palace is! You'll be racin' him there as much as you're racin' me today!" His car, and all three occupants, plummet down like rocks. How he, much less anyone else, is going to accomplish what he asked is anyone's guess.
Angela	If Hod was thrown out of the car at this speed she would be... absolutely okay! She is telecommuting here. She isn't actually here, she's just on a video pad and actually there's a moment you can see her buffering during the chase. Fortunately she gets most of what Good Speed is saying. When Good Speed speaks about not letting time waste dancing around feelings, Hod admits out loud, "Ahah... That's true, easier said than done...And I guess that's why you like to drive so fast, huh? If you move fast enough you don't have the time to dwell on regrets." Hod is quiet at some of the alchemist's answers--not having much to say about going back in time to say fix a mistake because OBVIOUSLY nothing like that happens at Lobcorp Ahahahahah hahaha haha ha... ha... Yeah she doesn't suspect it'll be good to get into it. She makes an awkward noise at beinf called a kiddo even if she is the second youngest on the team not counting Angela but frankly age as a time loses meaning after a while. At least if you are trapped in a basement. Carol and Nikki manage to grab hold of the roof. "Aha!" Nikki says triumphantly. "Um." Carol begins. Their jaws draw open as the car plummets and they scream the whole way and also cry and Carol nearly pukes and they scream and cry some more. Hod has a strategy for this and closes her eye. "Ahaha.... I really can't watch."
Petra Soroka	[ansi(243,"Life's too damn short to waste time screwin' around, dancin' around feelings and misunderstandings, lettin' anyone else slow you up or tell you what you can't do.")] "Life's too short to waste time on some dumbshit idiot guy who spent hundreds of years there without getting any better instead of beating him half to death and demanding he make some kind of choice that doesn't just drain all the fucking poison of his shitty decisions down onto the girl who doesn't deserve it." Petra's voice is adamantly declarative, but she might not have taken the right lesson from the story. On the other hand, 'beat someone half to death' is legitimately her tactic for solving relationship issues, whether you ask Lilian or Hibiki. "Instead of pushin' on after that big fancy life work of his had a wrench thrown in it, he gave up and totally lost the plot." "People who want the world to be better for everyone and won't settle for anything less are basically the same as people who don't do anything at all. Dumbasses. He's kind of stupid." "Meet me at the bottom in one piece, and I'll be more than happy to tell ya exactly where that legendary palace is!" But Petra is attached!! "Ahhhh--! I thought-- I thought it could fucking fly!! You said--!" Petra can't simply let go of the car before it hurtles over the edge; she'd turn herself to paste on the rainforest floor. She is also, however, not particularly thrilled at the idea of impacting the ground in whatever way Good Speed has planned for the car, given her lack of seatbelt and seat, and zero trust in his safety choices. Petra screws her eyes shut, shoves off of the back of the car once it's in freefall, and screeches while using the retracted morphmetal as a reflective surface to pull out her last ratbot, triggering its antigravity tobarely catch her fall before she lands facefirst splayed out in the foliage below.
Hibiki Tachibana	Ahhhh--! I thought-- I thought it could fucking fly!! You said--! "Hahaha! And it does! But the trip down's half the point, girlie! Feel the wind rushin' through your hair!" Good Speed doesn't seem to be bothered one bit by Petra's panic, nor does he look like he has any intention to fly, unless you count a full-speed drop as flying (you shouldn't). He shoots her a thumbs up as she detaches and plummets, before glancing up and laughing uproariously as Carol and Nikki come along for the ride. "Glad ya could make it! I'd hang on tight if I were you!" Hibiki had been content to follow along up until now-- but seeing the agents go sailing down off the falls with Good Speed, every bit of tiredness she's been carrying for the day seems to leave her. "Oh, crap--! Oi, oi, Carol! Nikki!" She shamelessly joins the party in taking a one-way trip down Angel Falls, her Symphogear's leg pistons ejecting forward then slamming back into their moorings to give her an explosive burst down to catch up. Where she ends up just kind of full-body bashing into the roof of Good Speed's car and nearly rebounds off before she grabs hold, pulling herself on to grab hold of the agents and brace. Apparently, she seems to be planning on taking as much of the impact as she can manage when they all hit the bottom. Which turns out to not be necessary - as only fifty meters from hitting the rapids below does the lightning-like sparks of Good Speed's alchemy once again run through the frame of his vehicle, metal shifting along the underside, through the suspension. A pull up on the wheel as if it were an aircraft more than a car has it weaving in midair so that its bottom is roughly aligned with the ground below-- And when it comes down with a deafening and booming eruption of stone, foliage, and water, its the alchemically-reinforced hydraulics that fire off at the same time and neutralize most of the force, not dissimilar to how Hibiki uses her own shockwaves to do the same. The landing is rough, bumpy, a little bruising... but not lethal, thanks to that. And when both the literal and metaphorical smoke has cleared, all Good Speed has is another of those boisterous howls of amusement to show for it, a hand clapping against the side of his car door. "Gahahaha! That was one of the 'two things'," he says, aiming a finger gun up at Nikki. "Always wanted to take a nosedive off the world's biggest waterfall! Now you've got a one-of-a-kind experience under your belts, too!" Hibiki, with or without the agents in tow, slides off the roof like jelly. She looks extremely done. "...Just give the location... please?" "That's what I said, yeah? There's be a certain island - and down in the ruins there'll be the key to gettin' to the palace. Whole place is submerged most of the time... but resourceful kids like you can manage. Be careful, yeah? Like I said... it'll be a race."