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Angela	The City is not a kind place and so, therefore, neither is Binah. She does not give forewarning to the outside world that it's about to happen, nor has she acted particularly unusual (as far as how most people understand her normal behavior) to arouse suspicion that her meltdown was incoming. She has stayed politely in her little dark basement until... ...She suddenly wasn't, emerging in Control as her box-bot form distorts, transforming into a humanoid form. Agents try to stop her. Hell, even some Clerks try to with their newfound arms training--but they don't even slow her down. She gestures with a hand and a shockwave of force slams them against walls and ceilings. She has a destination in mind. Not Angela's office. Nor Malkuth's. She instead stops right by the Warpgate, points one arm at it and-- "Stop her--!" Justin says, struggling to stand. "She's going to cut us off from the outside...!" --a series of chains wrap themselves around the Warpgate and it shuts down within moments. "My apologies for putting such a meager challenge before you, my friend, but I need some time to prepare the party for you." She steps back into the elevator, stopping to run her hands across the cells she passes by, releasing Abnormality after Abnormality--including Punishing Bird-- Then she makes her way down to the central layer, doing the same thing there--releasing Abnormalities--including Big Bird and Judgement Bird before making her way down to her level. Binah sends a Fairy into the elevator control panel and it it starts up again, diving deeper into the facility. "Now then, Ayin... I should finish my last big job..." The doors open into the Architectural Department, which only a spare few of Outsiders have ever been down, and the doors slide open. Binah locks those elevator doors with chains as well and heads further in but not before someone drops down on top of the elevator's roof and slides through a gap between it and Architectural's ceiling to land behind Binah. "Ah, Parker." Binah says. "You are starting to remember some things, are you? Would you like to meet the man who took your family away with me?" Parker lowers Yesterday's Expression from Binah's back. "My real face...You know it?" Binah wraps an arm around Parker and brings her into Ayin's office. "Indeed I do, Parker. Indeed I do. For I was there when your team decided to take on L Corp." The doors to Ayin's office slide shut behind them and seal shut with one more set of chains.
Angela	NOW A long time ago, in a warm and dense forest lived three happy birds. The call for help came from Ceri of all people, as she was one of the few Agents who is consistently acting outside of the facility. "Binah made her move and she locked the Warpgate! The other Sephirah are shut down and she released so many Abnormalities we can't even get to her! Please help if you can get here!" When the Elites arrive, they will indeed find the place is swarmed with Abnormalities. A red framed portal has appeared in Central with black branches twisting out of it. The Punishing Bird is right outside it and with a little tweet and hop it jumps right into the darkness. Little Bird decided to punish bad creatures with its beak. A yellow and black eye appears in the portal, staring outside into the facility. The Judgement Bird is the second to arrive. The Central team is launching loads of WAW-grade weaponry at it but they just don't seem to have an effect on the Judgement bird as it leaps into the portal as well. Long Bird weighed the sins of creatures that enter the forest to keep the peace. Long Bird's scales could measure every sin, and were fair and just. A red iris and black pupil appear in the portal's eye as Black Bird approaches the portal. It's only a matter of time before whatever is coming and the Agents, seeing that nothing is stopping it, flee Central into other departments. "Oh god, oh god, it's game over man, it's game over!" Mikey yells as he flees towards the Disciplinary Department. Abnormalities of various stripe rush towards Elites, ranging from TETH to WAW, not so much intending to impede their progress but no doubt doing so incidentally. BGM: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a5LyzJdJw4I            __________________________________________________________                      |ARNING-WARNING-WARNING-WARNING-WARNING-WARNING-WARNING W|                      ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯|=|????? CLASS THREAT|=|¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯                                       ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯                                                       TALE OF THE APOCALYPSE BIRD                                                          STORY OF THE CITY                                            __________________________________________________________                      |ING-WARNING-WARNING-WARNING-WARNING-WARNING-WARNING-WARN|                      ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯
Xion	It wasn't something that Xion talked about too often, but she hated parties. A dry hate, harm-avoidant of the implications of what they represented. Parties were meaningless. A haze of yearning desire clawing fervent around the offering-bowls. People acting happy, for a moment. People acting, like a lie. People acting. Parties might be the start of something terrible - a terrible fight, an invasion on grounds, a violation of safety. But people didn't go to parties to linger, gargoyle-like, at the periphery, and turn outwards to watch for danger. Parties might be the end of something terrible - long campaigns or short battles alike. But people didn't go to parties to linger, ghost-like, fading from use and need. If Xion had known Binah had planned her a party, well. Xion probably wouldn't feel differently. --- > "Binah made her move and she locked the Warpgate!" Xion had been between errands when her phone started ringing and buzzing and alarming at once. Her digital assistant, themed after a robotic sassy burger girl in stripes and braids, was firing every alert it could on her keychain-charmed phone. Moving the smoothie she had been enjoying away from her face to place on metal mesh outdoor table and picking up her alert-blowing-up phone she's faced with the text alert version of the radio alert. Off like a shot, smoothie ignored on the fruitshoppe furniture, Xion started running for the local warpgate - just at the end of the street. As she ran, passing lightpoles and lookieloos with whiteknuckled grip about her phone and quick zigs and zags, her first instinct is so mundane, so normal: She just tries to use the a warpgate anyway, jumping through civic gateway in checkerboard patterend streetclothes and exiting on the other side in a silkenblack coat with silver metal and draws. Hood about her neck, the strained-expression noirette making he last connection and jumping at nothing. On one side, golden chains, and on the Nobody-facing side, nothing at all. Sworling-dark and emptiness, a suggestion of a path most-defined by the brightness of black boots that seem limned in definite and clear lines compared to the emptiness falling to either side of an ever-shifting, a 'straight ahead' that went nowhere and had once went somewhere important. "Binah!" Xion shouts, at a path within the Deeper Darkness, among the Corridors, voice filling the infinite nowhere like a small room with a closed door. It goes nowhere, and despite throwing back her head and tightly closing her fists and shouting with all her might... her voice, her heart, does not reach. And so the noirette jams her hands into her pockets, angry, searching, rummaging in a medallion-falling fervor as a dozen tokens in every color and state of fade pull from her pockets, overflow her hands, fall like frustrated tears as she tremblingly searches for the right one. Elusive, like its source, wrought in black and honeycombs of gold. Finding it, hiding in accomplice at the bottom of her reach, Xion closes her left hand tightly around the struck portrait of Binah's smirking face and swings out the hand as if a sword. Eye of Judgement, tarnished-gold blade and triangular-held oculus tooth with chained black grip, appears from the medallion, the Binah-referencing blade bright upon the background of the Deeper Darkness. --- The Nobody chased three lights, taking the 'long way' around and guided by the dragonfly-winged manifestations of her Keyblade's arbiter-echoes. > "What price may I pay for more Xion?" > "I don't think it should cost something directly. Do you? Can't we both get things? I can have without *taking* ... can't you?" Bitterly, Xion wondered if she had been given her answer. Even though she knew, it would always go this way at least once. ---
Xion	Pinholes, black dots in reality, pixel errors in the visionscreens rendering the real, scatter like dust over the warpgate, like rust over the fairy chains. Trembling like iron filings near a magnet, the field that effects them grows more present, and then, pointed. Gathering-imploding into a puttydough ball of black that slops as smoke and reforms into solidity at an uncertain core where the portalhole in Control once was, a surfacepour flat plane takes shape and then from vantablack depths comes startlingly-bright pale gold lights dripping smoke from dragonfly wings. The first and second light bump into each other as they exit, piling up in the air, and the third fairy ball advances into the other three while being gripped around by a black gloved hand. Straining and pulling, joining all together after a bumbling moment of fairy bouncing, the trio pulls Xion's arm through the narrow keyhole through the Corridors she had frantically pathfound. The rest of her spits out of the nowhere-hole and flips her onto the floor of Control, instantly awash in desperation and horror as she hears the facility scream and Trumpets blare. The Nobody turns, rises, and drives her key through the chains sealing the warpgate, the key-click crunching and metal-bending against the fairy chains of the Arbiter. Remaining or not, the Keyblade's power renders them open and unbarred, the first closed door smashed aside. But - Binah knew how long she bought, locking doors. It's why she let all the Abnormalities out too. Xion turns to the fleeing, screaming Agents and Clerks and sets her back to the Warpgate, bringing up Eye of Judgement in her left hand to ready while the Kingdom Key issues the summoning 'shwink!' as it falls into her right. She doesn't even have time to pose or issue a dry line, immediately attacked by rushing Abnormalities!
Kukuru	It's a fresh start to a fresh week, and Kukuru's ready to do enough without doing too much! Today should be an easy day, at least, with a fairly straightforward outreach day that shouldn't involve any kind of intentional injuries whatsoever. That goes out the window, of course, when she hears a familiar voice coming from her radio, then a second spurring her out of her midday nap with a confused grunt and sliding down a ramp marked by so many rolling wheels and the occasional patch of dried blood. "Rrnhg... HuH? Oh, I'm coming, I'm on my waaay...!" She mumbles groggily into her radio, sitting up slowly and waving an unclawed hand lazily at a group of confused teenagers. "We'll continue the lesson later, okaaay? Be good now." She chimes up and, before they can even agree in unison, she's already falling the a dark cloud. Moments later, Kukuru emerges from the warpgate not far behind Xion, hands fumbling around in the pockets of dark blue track pants with until she's able to draw out a pair of oversized claws. "He-llo, Xion... How bad is it?" She asks while slowly getting both eyes open, already starting to wake up and just moments before getting set upon by some of those rushing Abnormalities herself. Good thing she's still got her skating helmet on. It cracks rather easily at Kukuru's first head-on crash against the wave of Abnormalities, and she just snaps it right off to use as a bludgeon for all of two seconds before using her claws as they're intended: Slashing, crushing, and flinging everything she can at everything she can.
Ishirou	The initial warning came, and Ishirou was already trying to plan a way to get to L-Corp from the surface and realized he didn't know how...it was good when Xion announced she got it back up, allowing them a quick entrance into the facility without trying to think of alternative methods that might lead to the destruction of the facility in other ways.  He appears at the warp gate for L-corp's entrance... "Oh goodness," he manages to exclaim, already transformed into RESCUE, having had thought he'd need it right away upon getting there, and didn't know how right he was.  He jumps back, trying to put him behind someone... anyone else knowing he wasn't a front-line combatant, and what was going on was a frontline threat.  He also hears something he has been dreading.  It was Binah... The fact she has done all this speaks volumes to her strength, or rather, her desire to see this place destroyed.  His mouth is dry and he can feel the fear from the other agents.  He shouts out for them, "We're here now!  Don't forget you're training, alright!  We can do this!" he says, though something in him wondered if he believed in his own words.  ' Regardless, he dashes into action, creating fields of electromagnetic force to try and weigh down the escaped anomalies, attempting to give clerks time to escape, and agents time to get where they need to be.  He had to not think about things... Lilian would be here to help them, he knew it.  He believed in it.  Xion was already here, so things were still not hopeless!
Madeleine Cadrasteia	Madeleine's off the clock when the announcement comes on the radio, so she's not far from a warpgate herself. She is also, however, unable to *use* that warpgate to get to L Corp directly. Instead she dials in the access code for the Trideag Association warpgate and sets off at a brisk jog toward L Corp's headquarters. A 'brisk jog' for the huntress easily outpaces most automobiles, so thankfully it isn't long before she gets to the Corporation's complex. She skids through the door, impatiently taps her foot as the security checkpoint reads her Elite clearance, and emerges into Control with her spear at the ready. She knocks an abnormality (which one it is, she doesn't really care) out of her path with the flat of the weapon before remembering she can probably skewer most of these things to her heart's content.
Rufus Shinra	> "Binah made her move and she locked the Warpgate!" Rufus's attention has been caught. "Wait - that means we can't get in... man, that's a dick move. Guess there's no work for today." He goes to order another drink. "..." "..." "Oh, wait, shit," he sits up as the dots connect. "You mean she's melting down?" --- Rufus barrels through the warpgate, sparing a glance at Xion - who is already off fighting. "I'll give you two hundred million dollars for that thing!" he calls after her. He reaches for his shotgun, and wields it - not to fire it, but to tap one of the large round jewels inset on its grip. "Need to restock... I'm almost out of Enemy Skills..." ... Well, he's almost out save for that one. The one he hasn't even tested yet. "Better make these count, then!" Rufus runs forward, and leaps into the air-                                 | Dragon Drive |                                 - and slams through the oncoming crowd of abnormalities, spinning and glowing rainbow colors, highly damaging to the touch at least for the few seconds he's airborne! Though - when he lands, the jewel on his shotgun glows a little bit dimmer - another use, used up.
Hibiki Tachibana	Binah made her move and she locked the Warpgate! The other Sephirah are shut down and she released so many Abnormalities we can't even get to her!     While Hibiki might not have really interacted with Binah much at all, she gets the unfortunate feeling in the pit of her stomach that not giving any advance warning, as many of the other Sephirah had done, is very much like her.     Describing it like that makes her sound a lot calmer than she actually is - with what happened to Love lately agonizingly fresh on the mind, not to mention what she went through last Meltdown, courtesy of Melting Love. But even more than both of those, what gets her dashing through the Warpgate and into Lobotomy Corporation at a dead sprint is...     ...the simultaneous knowledge that there's only a little more to go, as far as the Sephirah is concerned - and that this last stretch here is going to be the worst of all, for the Agents who are stuck being dead center of it all.     "--scell Gungnir tron!!"     Hibiki hits the scene already in the middle of transforming, body engulfed in light that bursts away to resolve into the silhouette of her Symphogear, clothing and mechanical parts alike fading into definition from blinding gold. Despite the onrush of Abnormalities waiting for them, there's no hesitation in the way she meets their charge with one of her own from frame one, fist drawn back.     Her whole body is put into a vicious downwards hook at the first one right ahead of her, intent on slamming it down into the hallway's metal floor hard enough that it bounces back /up/, before she springs off of a foot and whirls around into a kick meant to send it flying into the rest of its allies-by-circumstance.     That still leaves plenty of others she has to contend with close-up however, but she's fully planning to give back as good as she takes with a flurry of back and forth blows. The first thing out of her mouth is a shout to all of the fleeing Agents, Mikey included, "Hurry up and get moving--! We'll keep it under control!"     The second part is addressing what exactly 'this' is, as she one-two-three's another Abnormality while her eyes flash towards the portal that the trio of Birds have jumped into. That's not any good. She doesn't need any details at all to know that's not any good. A strained grunt through her teeth leaks out in the middle of fighting.     "Xion...! You alright!? If this is all going on here... where's Binah right now...?"
Sarracenia	%      Sarracenia hears the call, and...almost does not go. She wasn't kidding when she said she is starting to wonder if helping Angela was even a good thing. And it is Ceri that made the call. And it is guaranteed that Petra and Lilian and who knows how many others that do not like her will be there.      But, she said she would help. Or at least said she would make them admit that she is helpful. So, she gets into her battle dress and heads toward the nearest warp gate with her hammer in hand. When she is nearing the gate that Binah has locked...well, she does not really have a plan except her usual. Brute force the door open! Does that even work on warp gates? She goes into a spin and prepares to find out!      Luckily, she does not need to. Xion has the whole opening doors thing under control. The princess comes spinning out of the warp gate and right into the crowd of Abnormalities. She grits her teeth and just keeps spinning, hammering as many as she can to try and stem the tide. Despite all the reasons she has not to help here, she does have one good one. "Binaaaaah! There is no chance we will let you have your way!! The people in here have suffered long enough!! Not to mention you are a really big jerk!"
Lilian Rook	'Binah made her move' is a sequence of words that Lilian didn't expect to hear so suddenly. They're also a sequence of words she'd been anticipating ever since Gebura. As perfect as that victory was, and as gruelling as it had been to achieve, the reality that there was still an equal loose in the facility, Meltdown pending murkily on the horizon, had never quite slipped Lilian's mind.     The 'wall we never broke through' doesn't exclude the possibility of another one. And before that, and even that--     '--Think of it as a respectful gesture to a fellow warrior to leave one of your arms intact. I don't know if it'll ease your pain, but this happens quite often, more often than you might think.--'     'We do not have footage of how she was able to ultimately take down the Arbiter.'     'The video holds Lilian's attention with an uncommon degree of intensity. She whispers something unhappy about the frame rate, and finds her smart device without looking away, mechanically taking notes as if at one of her lectures-- save that she refuses to miss even a fraction of an instant of what she's seeing.     § 1.7~13.8m obsv dist. Digit. ext: 1.3+-0.2--     Before Xion had spoken to her of Binah, Lilian had watched her on tape. Before Lilian had watched her on tape, she had met in Extraction. Before Lilian had met her in Extraction, she had spent days labouring away on the leystone circle in the disused cell. And before she had done even that, a ghost had passed a sword to her and told her how it was used to slay faeries.     Only just now, through the private travel point of her own devising, floors away from the Warpgate, does Lilian dimly remember the texture of those tales. How Aobheil had referred to them. The Tuatha Dé. 'The Tribe of the Gods'. It lingers on the tip of her tongue for a while, then gradually slips away again, as the full bandwidth deep memory is taken up with pressing requests for old techniques.     Lilian's IFF pings in a separate part of the facility. A confirmation signal is sent to the main security network, for whoever has the spare time to see it. Xion thinking on her feet has already seen the Elites to the heart of the action, and so the Lilian on sensor is effectively bringing up the rear by painting a trail of blood and Cogito-reverted Abnormality 'eggs' from there to here. The facility is a complete disaster already; there is arguably no point, especially after seeing how Gebura's identical choice went in the past; but she certainly is the type to insist on putting out a bonfire with a wine glass by throwing the a lot of times really really fast.     The radio crackles. <Xion. Thank goodness. Do you have a direct line to where Binah is now? I've tried, but I can't get past the locks on my own. We'll have to breach at the same time.>
Angela	Most of the big Abnormalities fought during Meltdowns have been Alephs, but any of them can be dangerous. Kukuru out hugs and outclaws a Happy Teddy Bear while Ishirou slows down a whole crew of them (the electromagnetic force doesn't seem to slow down Big Bird, however), which buys time for clerks to flee and Agents to regroup. Rufus uses this an opportunity to crash into them from above, scattering them with the power of a Dragoon. "Thanks guys," Justin manages as he falls back towards Random and the rest of Control. ''Hurry up and get moving-- We'll keep it under control!'' "Thanks Bikki!" Mikey says as Hibiki suplexes Schadenfreude so bad it shatters and crushes back into its egg state. ''Various wonderings about Binah.'' "She went down past Architecture--" Tennant says, in the midst of a gun duel with Der Freischutz. "Should be able to follow her if you want. If she kills Ayin that's a reset for sure--but I think she's not about to do that--it wouldn't end anything. Ahhh, I thought we had finally made peace with her after all this time..." Madeleine gets a rematch against the Big And Will Be Bad Wolf and it fairs worse this time, now that Madeleine knows its tricks. Sarracenia can start clobbering Abnormalities for sure--knocking them around does preempt them from killing employees. However... Big Bird jumps into the portal, gets a little stuck, and then squeezes itself through. Big Bird, with his many eyes, watched over the forest to seek trespassers. Big Bird's eyes can see very far...And things we can't see. The facility's lights... ...Turn off. In chaotic cries of fear, somebody shouted. 'It's the monster! A Big terrible monster lives in the dark, black forest!' In Central, something claws out of the portal. A horrible misshapen creature with massive black wings covered in glowing eyes, jaws that look like they could devour Nonon whole protruding from its stomach, a long towering head scarred and red head with glowing yellow eyes, and claws with each digit the size of a car. It roars. And as it does so, reports come in through the band that three person sized eggs seem to have materialized around the facility. One egg is covered in eyes and is situated in RECORDS. One egg, wrapped in bandages with a pair of wings sticking out--is in EXTRACTION. And finally, one egg, with protruding red jaws is in DISCIPLINARY. They don't seem to be trying to harm anyone but...they seem important.
Angela	When Xion (and whomever else makes their way down with her, or in their own path) break the last seal and make their way down into Architecture... They find Binah in her Arbiter form--Xion's seen it before--standing with Parker, who seems anxious even through the mask that she wears. She has, expectantly, stepped away from the doorway to be facing inward. The office is... cozy looking, if old fashioned, with a plush couch in one corner with a pair of yellow pillows, shelves of books in one corner, and numerous equations, charts, various city ordinances and the like pinned to bulletin boards. The young man who was the Manager is no longer a young man. He seems to have been replaced with a an older man with a wrinkled forehead and a pinstriped suit with grey eyes. He is seated at a desk, with a computer (labeled with an X) and a red pixar-style lamp. The air is filled with ambient psionic energy. "To think you'd be so bold, Binah." The old man says. "To think you'd be so cowardly," Binah says. "Hiding behind that failsafe personality you implanted into your mind." "X is not in a position to answer any questions." The old man says, eyes slanting over to the interlopers. "Besides, we have other arrivals." Binah turns. She sees Sarracenia. She doesn't say anything sassy at all, which may be surprising! It may also be surprising that she summons and flings a black and golden pillar at her midsection, wholly intending to crush her and send her flying out the door. "Xion. I said this time, at least, was inevitable. But I'm glad you accepted the invitation all the same." Her tone is a little off. Despite attempting to seem as in control as ever, SOMETHING is gnawing at her even if she won't admit it. When Lilian arrives, Binah sends a pair of fairies--one towards Lilian, the other towards Xion, intending to open up wounds that will not heal. Her expression is completely hidden behind her helmet. But this is just to ensure her third fairy reaches its target--flinging itself into Parker's horrible leathery mask. And it... ...slips off. Parker doesn't look horrible behind her mask. She has bright green eyes, clear skin... Her face is completely unscarred. "...I remember..." Parker whispers, eyes widening with pain and horror. "...We found that they had started the Smoke War... So many dead, so many worse than dead... So we came to stop them... To see what they were really up to..." She looks over to the side and throws up. "You killed them..." Parker says slowly. "But I found the Well and..." She wipes at her mouth.
Rufus Shinra	"Eggs?" says Rufus, checking the reports. "No time - the main event's here..." The Apocalypse Bird. Rufus starts squaring up to tackle the big bird, but - he doesn't speak up in time, and other people call dibs on it. "Alright - well, you'd best keep it busy! I've got Extraction handled." ... He sounds more confident than he's feeling. Binah released a lot of abnormalities. Can they keep up with them all? As he runs, Rufus taps on his Enemy Skill materia again. He's down to his last use of the next skill he's got chambered - but this is the time to bring out the heavy hitters. Hopefully this one will last a while...                                | Greed's Grasp |                                 When he reaches the egg, his clothing stretches out, forming tendrils that start hammering away at it, trying to crack it open!
Ishirou	Three eggs, and a giant bird who has come to try and kill them!  This is bad, and Ishirou moves to try and keep out of the way of that thing's beak and claws.  For his efforts he only gets glanced by the claws and beak, rolling to a defensive position and throwing out another field to protect himself.   Three eggs appear, and he takes a moment to use his scanners on them while staying away from the Apocalypse Bird.  He gets the information he needs and tells the others.  "The eggs, they're like the birds that made this one, and they're destructible. I suggest we destroy them!" he says over the radio, before rushing off towards Records.   Once he's in Records and sees the egg he flies up, and over the egg, and then down with a rapier, aiming to try and put as much damage as he can on the egg.  He doesn't let up, the eggs are destructible, and obviously /should/ be destroyed before something happens with them.
Madeleine Cadrasteia	After a brief discussion of priorities, Madeleine sets off for the Disciplinary branch, leaving Hibiki and Kukuru to face down the monster in Central. As she hustles away from the Apocalypse Bird she breathes out a parting gift for the other elites, a pack of ice-wolves to support them. They probably won't fare well against something as powerful as the Bird, but at the least they'll serve as a sort of ablative armor for Hibiki and Kukuru, letting them hold up a little longer under the creature's assault.     Instead of waiting for an elevator down to Disciplinary, Madeleine pries the doors open with her hands and wall-hops down the shaft. If there's an elevator in her way she kicks through its ceiling tiles and rides it the rest of the way down - the repair costs will be minimal next to whatever Apocalypse Bird has planned.     Once she arrives in Disciplinary, she quickly scans the room for unusual eggs - with how good her night vision is, she only notices that the lights are out when a panicked clerk bumps into her in the dark and screams. She shoves the frightened employee to the side, heedless of their well-being, and rushes to the egg. Raising her spear, she drives it toward the shell but stops short as Drogrung's jaws manifest around the egg and slam shut in an attempt to crush the thing in one go.
Xion	> "He-llo, Xion... How bad is it?" "Binah-bad!" Xion is quick to answer, making progress through Control more via jumps and fierce down-aerials than any motion through bodies and unleashed-Abnormality violence. "She said she had to do something, she made it sound inevitable, but I thought--" Well, she hadn't thought to wish for more time. Swinging key-swords, she might not have thought at all. A friend! Someone who understood. "--we just have to win!" Xion declares, voice flat and jaw set. It's not convincing - she's not trying to be. It's a simple statement. They just have to win. > "I'll give you two hundred million dollars for that thing!" "Not for sale! And, sorry Hibiki! I'm trusting you to handle things down here!" Xion announces, once again leaving it all on Hibiki Tachibana and chasing her trio of dragonfly-winged fairies towards the elevator, where the trio of light-balls are already working their palpably fat ball-blob-of-light forms into the seam and fluttering the doors open. With Sarracenia behind her, eager to participate in Binah for Sarracenia Reasons, Xion brings up her triangle-toothed and crown-toothed pair of blades and levers them at the elevator door and allow both of them entrance. "Sarra." Xion murmurs, handle-bumping the elevator controls and forcing it to move as others race for portals. "We didn't finish that conversation, but we're going to Lilian now. If you can, please. This time, try your best to help Lilian. It could be worth the world." A pause, and a little frown. "She's probably going to be really mean about it, so, thanks in advance." The elevator, overridden, travels quickly while Xion dismisses the Kingdom Key in a swirling cascade of pale sparkles and pulls out her phone to speed dial Lilian. <We're going now. My keys work, but L-Corp is twisting around the three Birds and everything's *wonky*. I'm bringing...> Xion's blue eyes alight - bare-hopeful - on Sarracenia. <Some help?> --- Meeting up with Lilian just before the locked door to the Architectural Department, the last set of Binah's delaying chains is cloven apart by the sweep of the Eye of Judgement, opening up the stage in motion! The doors sweep free and the Nobody dashes into the room running with Eye of Judgement in hand for her to stop and stand ready and stare, a little uncomprehendingly, at the arrangement of figures. Who's that? Are they the true villain? There's a lot of proper names going on around here! Is that orange person a friend or an enemy? Is someone going to start talking about Light, Hearts, or Darkness? Actually that last one is very likely. "Binah," Xion's pauses continues a half measure more as her face melts, seeing the armored-and-masked once-Arbiter for the second time. "Is this what will let you take more steps?" The flung fairy against Xion is swiftly reacted to, but not by Xion. Instead, her trio of flying fairies clash with the single sent for her, first aligning, then second blocking, then third growing bigger as it gobbled up//countermanded 'open' with 'shut'. Jinking around the clashing fairies with an acrobatic forward lunge-roll, Xion balances with stroking office-floor for a moment before she springs and lunges with a centerpoint thrust that falls into a rolling corkscrew. Halting, boot on dragonfly light-ball as a step, and then a third, and then a second, Xion air-steps immediately after to wheel out a +-slash, the lesser slantwise cousin of the classic.
Kukuru	Kukuru grunts lightly as she finishes bear-hugging a Happy Teddy Bear into submission, coughing a few times while catching her breath after all that. "Binah really made a mess out here, huh...? But that's what has to happen, I guess. Then the plan can keep going somehow..." She furrows her brow, knowing just enough not to feel the need to complain while still visibly not getting quite a lot of everything else. She doesn't let herself dwell on that too much, however, as she sees those clerks and Agents getting some breathing space, and she hurries over momentarily to spread some of her healing nanites arund. "There you go... Now stay safe, dearies. If you get hurt, make plenty of noise and stay somewhere I can find you after." She delivers that somewhat morbid direction with her usual pleasant and reassuring smile, only reaching out to pull one or two of them out of the splash zone of other attacks coming through. The lights go off, and something terrible starts to emerge from Central. Eggs appear in several other departments, and Binah is still down in Architecture, too, but there's only so many people around to handle everything that's going on in addition to all the other fires starting all over the place. <J-IC-Scene> Madeleine Cadrasteia says, "Some of us should stay here and keep this thing from running free. Kukuru, you with me?" <J-IC-Scene> Ishirou says, "I'll go to records then!" <J-IC-Scene> Hibiki Tachibana says, "I'll keep it busy for however long I can!" <J-IC-Scene> Kukuru says, "In Central, riiiight? That's a good idea... It'll be easier to keep everyone healthy if I don't have to jump arund, mhm." <J-IC-Scene> MIkey says, "W-woah... you're going to face down THAT kaiju? Radical..." <J-IC-Scene> Rufus Shinra says, "Extraction, then!" <J-IC-Scene> Ishirou says, "Someone needs to go to Disciplinary." <J-IC-Scene> Madeleine Cadrasteia says, "alright, I'll go. Kukuru, Hibiki, good luck." <J-IC-Scene> Kukuru says, "Is it? Oh, it's fiiine... If it's just about being big..." That settles that, then. Kukuru has a bit of a time hurrying to Central alongside Hibiki and Madeleine's ice wolves, opting to actually use her feet instead of teleporting straight there. There's undoubtedly more Abnormalities to smash and people to heal along the way, after all, and she even takes some stray shots and bites meant for passing clerks and Agents on the way to Central.
Kukuru	If nothing else, it helps to get her blood pumping a bit more before coming across the main event she's here to face with the wolves and the Symphogear wielder: Apocalypse Bird. "Beautiful..." Kukuru murmurs at first sight of that massive creature, her thoughts wandering briefly as she looks from that giant mouth to those horrifying claws. She gets her head back on track quickly enough, though, as she tilts her head slightly towards Hibiki. "Hibiki. Doggies. I'm gonna get bigger, too. Theeen you can find good places to smack it so it doesn't bite me too much, right?" Although she poses that as a question, Kukuru's not actually expecting or waiting for a refusal as she starts to send her nanites into overdrive. There's some uncomfortable noises as she increases in size, lumbering towards Apocalypse Bird steadily with her claws clapped together. "Okay, Birdies... We can't let you go out looking like this and cause more trouble for everyone else. Be good, and we can spend more time with you all later, okay?" Again, it's a rhetorical question, as Kukuru shoves her own enlarged claws right at Apocalypse Bird, focusing more on trying to get a proper hold on its claws to keep it from thrashing around. She tries closing her claws around it's, pinning them against her sides, and even trying to bite into some of Apocalypse Bird's many eyes, and it becomes apparent that her maneuvers are more about trying to pin it down rather than actively trying to tear it apart. She only has the two claws and one face, though, and that means her nanites really have to work double duty between patching up the wounds it's putting into her while also maintaining her size. "If you can hear me, though... Why /are/ you like this now? There's gotta be something going on, right...?" That, at least, isn't a fake question. She just doesn't know if it can answer or understand her at this point.
Sarracenia	Sarra follows after Xion, listening to what Xion says and watching those faries in curiousity. When asked to try her best to help Lilian, Sarra hmphs softly and frowns lightly. "...I will." she says with a solemn nod. "I would not have come if I was not going to give my all. I understand what is at stake." she says, running with her hammer at the ready. "And by now I know it is a foolish hope to think she would be grateful or gracious about it with me. So, try not to worry."      They end up in the company of Lilian and she grips her hammer more firmly, ready to prove once more that she is dependable. Coming fresh off the incident in Kagoshima, Sarra rushes in eagerly.      And a pillar is thrown at her! The princess swings her hammer to counter the attack. She manages to catch the pillar right on the hammer head, but the impact sends painful reverberations through the princess's hands and arms, leaving her wincing. Sarracenia was definitely expecting Binah to say something sassy or snarky or otherwise mean, not just suddenly attack!      Sarra clashes with the pillar finally she sends the pillar rocketing back toward Binah, launched with the sound of a cannon shot much like one of Sarra's Bullet Bills. "Well, that was even more unfriendly than usual!" Sarra says with a bit of a grin. "You must be worried, huh? Well, I will be happy to supply a good reason to worry!"      Sarra does not really know what the Smoke War is. And seeing Parker throw up leaves the princess a little queasy, too. She holds it in and approaches, trying to put herself between Binah and Parker. She also does not know why those two are together, but usually an Abnormality being close to an agent in a Meltdown is a bad thing. "What well?" Sarra asks Parker. "What did she do to you?"
Lilian Rook	'Ahhh, I thought we had finally made peace with her after all this time...'     Blitzing from corridor to corridor, between the chopped up audio of screams and snarls for a melody over the percussion line of the same alarms going off at the same time everywhere in the facility, catching that, and only that, bothers Lilian. Wrenching her sword from the body of another Abnormality, black armour spattered multi-colour and fizzling with restless dots of an uncannily similar colour scheme to Binah, Lilian pauses while catching her breath, and says, despite herself,     <Why? Because she's been quiet for long enough? Revenge doesn't come with a fucking statute of limitation. Sometimes people fall silent precisely because they hate you. Haven't you ever looked at her?>     The flicker of the lights is followed by a snap of her fingers. Lilian is plunged into blackness, then surrounded by dozens of ghostly will-o-wisp motes of petty magical light. "That's 'game over'?" she whispers to herself, amidst a quick ammo check. "So was Nihil. I'll just . . ." The words 'do it again' don't come. Lilian trails off, and tries not to think about what Nihil cost her.     <You can handle it; for once, we're not short on manpower, so we should have Elite combat personnel sufficient to split between all present manifestations. If possible, round up stray Abnormalities into the kill boxes left after Gebura's meltdown. We didn't leave much in the way of supplies, so stick to Kukuru and Ishirou for support. Once you've neutralized one objective, split halfway and divide yourselves amongst the remaining two; trying to analyze which group is worse-off will be nearly impossible right now.>     <We're going now. My keys work, but L-Corp is twisting around the three Birds and everything's *wonky*. I'm bringing...>     <Some help?>     "Besides yourself?" Lilian murmurs at her device, then disappears. Arbiter chains separate from office doors mere moments later. The entire time inbetween is spent by Lilian in mounting irrational dread that they're wrong, and alternately conjuring and banishing the image of 'X' dead in his chair.     The first thing that comes out of her mouth, however, after practically kicking down the door and rushing in from the other side as Xion, is "Parker?!" A glimmer of fury comes and goes, for seeing the mask removed and finding nothing for it to hide, leaving only pins and needles. The second thing is "Cleasanna-!" the instant one of Binah's deadly 'fairies' barrels towards her. The intel Lilian has on her abilities is minute; nearly null beyond what she has seen Xion herself copy; and so she wastes no energy intercepting it. She flickers back half a dozen stop-motion steps in sequence and her sword draws four times as many clean lines through the evil mote before it can stumble into her. Night Mist's inner light seethes from its deepest grooves.     'You killed them... But I found the Well and...'     The third is "Get DOWN Parker!" as Lilian charges into the room. Xion lunge-rolls foward; Lilian pivot-leaps sideways; Xion springs up from the floor; Lilian kicks off from the opposite wall; Xion crashes down with rolling strikes from above; Lilian void-steps past and cuts across Binah's side; Xion hop-step-leaps and comes at Binah with her cross-stroke; and Lilian blips and strikes from the perpendicular angle; strike-fade-strike-fade-strike-fade-strike-fade-strike-fade in counter-clockwise corkscrew until her sword has drawn every hour on the dial.     'X is not in a position to answer any questions.'     "Then you better be." is the fourth.
Hibiki Tachibana	And she would suplex Schadenfreude a second time, if she had to. ...She might have to. Anything is on the table with Meltdowns.     After seeing Mikey safely off, Hibiki gets her breath back and focuses on keeping the tide of Abnormalities in check, lest an already bad situation get even worse from them being left unchecked - and she might've considered joining the chase for Binah, if she had time to think about it. Would she be able to get through to her? That's...     ...not something she has time to consider, for better or worse, moving ahead - as every single light turns off, and her eyes first go up to the ceiling... and then to the avian /thing/ ripping its way out of the portal in Central. Hibiki is no stranger to massive monsters, of course. Despite that - or maybe because of that - she can tell at a glance, and from the awful and oppressive atmosphere in the air, the way the Agents were running as if they had an inkling of what was going to happen...     ...this isn't good. "It's like... all of the birds at once. Is this what Binah was locking us out to unleash...?" She mumbles beneath her scarf, not imagining she'd have ever gotten the chance if they were here any earlier than they were. She gets the message about eggs that Ishirou thinks are a good idea to destroy, and they probably are.     But the thought of this thing going anywhere...     And, sorry Hibiki! I'm trusting you to handle things down here!     That settles it. Xion and Lilian are probably the best ones for dealing with Binah on an emotional level, too. "Yeah! Leave to me! I'll keep it busy for however long I can!" Hibiki replies back to Xion and also all of the egg-hunters, and by 'me', she means herself and Kukuru. Which she's thankful for. It's a good thing she never found out what happened to all those Agents she left in her care during the Melting Love incident! Wait. "Bigger?"     Kukuru got bigger.     Hibiki spends only a moment looking up, before she scrunches her face up in concentration - and starts forward in a sprint alongside Madeleine's pack of wolves. With an embiggened Kukuru going after those dangerous-looking talons, that means she can focus on every other part of the behemoth bird, and assisting in getting it locked down. With her running start, she leaps...!     ...and comes down from above with a descending grapple, using her falling momentum and absurd strength to get a hold on one of the Abnormality's huge wings, and /yank/ down - trying to bring it down onto its back! That might be a tall ask with its sheer size, though, but if nothing else she might be able to stop it from doing anything funny with said wing.
Angela	Rufus can readily head into Extraction though he's going to need to do some platforming to get down there without the Elevator to help (people heading to Records will need to get down there without the Elevator too). True enough that when he gets down there, there's the bandaged egg. It is fitting that the egg belonging to Judgement Bird is sitting in the Arbiter's domain, even if she is not currently present. It doesn't react to Rufus's arrival, but after the first tendril smash, hordes of feathers erupt out from the egg and fling themselves violently at Rufus, seeking to tear apart his flesh! It is the duty of feathers to sacrifice themselves for their Nest... Ishirou heads down to Records. There's an egg there, covered in eyes--fitting, of course, for the department that hoards information and knows more than all the others. When he moves to pierce the egg with the rapier, he can inflict a crack! But naturally, like with the egg Rufus is handling--a swarm of eye-covered feathers lash out at him, aiming to tear him apart! It is the duty of feathers to sacrifice themselves for their Nest... But Tennant rushes in after Ishirou, drenched in sweat and trying to maintain a chipper attitude. "Sorry I'm late!" They shout to Ishirou. Madeleine makes her way to Disciplinary. It's actually not a clerk that bumps into Madeleine though the way he screams might suggest otherwise. It's actually Mikey. "YEEEK! WHO WHAT THAT? Oh Wings oh Wings why is every Meltdown so awful??? Normal days are bad enough!" Madeleine swings her spear towards the egg and the jaws clamp down upon it, unleashing several cracks. Like with the other eggs, feathers swirl around it and fling themselves at Madeleine, intent on tearing her apart. Nonon is rushing toward her (and the egg). She bellows out, "THE BREAKFAST BOY CAN DEFEAT ANY EGG! LIKE I MAKE SHAJO NIGHTLY, I'M COMING!!" as she rushes in to try and help Madeleine.
Angela	Ice wolves throw themselves at the Apocalypse Bird but they don't last long. It rips them to ice cubes in a quick series of swipes from its claws. Kukuru gets larger, unleashing the power of her own INNER KAIJU. This definitely succeeds in drawing Apocalypse Bird's attention. Kukuru can grip it tightly, Kukuru can even claw out its eyes--but every time Kukuru rips out bits and pieces of the Apocalypse Bird--it rapidly regenerates them. The eyes reform. The feathers grow back out. It's another goddamn puzzle boss. Pressing its claws into Kukuru's, it fans out its wings and unleashes lasers from each glowing eye right out at Kukuru! Each laser hits with the power of a cannon, it's easy to imagine these attacks tearing even an elite Agent to pieces in seconds. But before the wings can unleash another barrage of lasers, Hibiki leaps up and grabs ahold of one wing each with each hand. While the Apocalypse Bird is nearly indestructible, Hibiki can still outmuscle it. She falls behind the wings, dragging the Apocalypse Bird onto its back. It shrieks and the long neck of the Apocalypse Bird raises its scales and-- --a pale light pulses into Hibiki, rending her life and spirit! A loud roar erupts out of the monster's many beaks! It's considerably less cute than Punishing Bird, unfortunately, and it seems most Agents are too busy fighting Abnormalities (or too terrified) to lend a hand!
Angela	''Binah, Is that will let you take more steps?'' Binah's exhaustion is betrayed in her tone as she responds. "Binah is the name this man gave me." Binah says. "To fit his twisted, cruel plan. I see the most of myself in him... It would have been nice to be able to see more of myself in you, no? I do not blame him, because I brought this upon myself. I would have done the same to him if our positions were reversed." She lets out a long exhale. "Xion, you already know my real name... The one The City gave me... is Garion." BGM:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=twdpS1rpkBk            __________________________________________________________                      |ARNING-WARNING-WARNING-WARNING-WARNING-WARNING-WARNING W|                      ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯|=|DEADLY CITY THREAT|=|¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯                                       ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯                                                              ARBITER GARION                                                               THE EYE FACING FEAR                                          __________________________________________________________                      |ING-WARNING-WARNING-WARNING-WARNING-WARNING-WARNING-WARN|                      ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯           "...I need to see the movement outside the winds. I need to know that this is not all for nothing. I need to ''believe'', even just a little, in something beyond the certainty of The Head--or some equally monstrous replacement." Her gaze shifts towards Lilian. "Perhaps you are what I've been looking for."
Angela	Lilian feels telekinetic pressure attempting to throw off the pathways of her swing, but perseveres and slices into Binah's side, leaving a thick carved incision there. Parker, helpfully, hit the floor. "AHh...haha... No wonder you were able to defeat that Rusted Color..." Binah laughs without humor. "But I just...need to survive long enough." ''Then you better be.'' "...After our first facility fell, and digging around in Garion's head, we learned in order to accomplish our goals... We needed to become a Wing." The old man says. "But there's only one way to become a Wing. You have to take the place of a Wing that has fallen. The old L Corp was the best choice. As you know, G Corp also fell as a consequence of that war. The one we started. Benjamin and... Ayin." Sarracenia taunts Binah and throws her own pillar back at her It dissipates before reaching her when Binah waves her hand and it simply dissolves back into fairies and they flutter around her. "You really must enjoy being insulted. Do you think L Corp will be your ally so long as you are seen as a nuisance by the Dame Commander?" ''What did she do to you?'' "She... saved me." Parker says. "My mind was even more shattered... But a mind is inclined to heal. She gave it...time to heal." She seems to remember some of Flamel's lessons. "It was the monsters that got my friends." She steps back, pressing her back against the wall, glaring daggers at the old man. Xion catches Binah into her other side with her own blade and Binah retaliates by having black spikes burst out of the floor from underneath her while fanning her hand out and unleashing a black and golden telekinetic shockwave towards Lilian and Sarracenia!
Rufus Shinra	Rufus has a shotgun powerful enough to doublejump with. He'll get through the platforming! ... There'll be a few extra bullet holes in the floor and a few extra spent shell casings to clean up, but Rufus isn't on cleaning detail right now. The egg counterattacks. Rufus dodges - and his clothing tentacles fizzle out. Once again, the Enemy Skill materia on his shotgun looks slightly dimmer. But at the same time... > It is the duty of feathers to sacrifice themselves for their Nest...                    | Gained Enemy Skill: Feather Sacrifice |                     As Rufus lands from his dodge, he's already reaching to slam his palm against the materia -                              | Feather Sacrifice |                               - and clouds of feathers erupt from around his body, going one on one against the assault from the egg. These aren't symbolically pure white feathers - but they aren't purely black feathers either. These are sort of shiny, shimmering as they move and reflect light - in much the same way oil spilled upon the water shimmers and shines. Rufus keeps moving, trying to take advantage of the fact that he is not an immobile egg to outmaneuver it, and blast the egg with his own barrage of sacrificial feathers!
Ishirou	A swarm of feathers erupts from the egg, but, thankfully, Tennant is there to help.  Ishirou leaps back, aiming to try and use a wave of electromagnetic force to try and keep the feathers at bay, but a few get through, biting into the RESCUE armor, and causing the energy field recently installed to spark into life.   Ishirou smiles at Tennant, and draws the rapier again, readying it against the giant egg, and dives in.  He repeatedly thrusts at it, trying to find purchase in the egg before throwing a wave of electromagnetic force all around it, trying to use it to try and crush the egg under its weight, while also trying to weigh down the flying feathered eyes that seem to want to defend it.   "Glad you are here, Tennant, let's break this egg so that we can get back to taking down that giant bird.  If we take too long Lilian will have to do two things tonight!" he says with a cheeky grin.  Knowing she's already gone forward to deal with Binah.
Madeleine Cadrasteia	Madeleine risks taking a hand off her spear to place a steadying hand on Mikey's shoulder. "Get it together," she says. "Try to get the lights back on, you'll get to see an Elite in action." Then her attention is back on the egg, holding her weapon steady and enduring the barrage of razor feathers. Chainmail is ample protection against light slashing attacks, so her torso is spared the worst of the damage. Cuts accumulate on her arms and legs, however, slits opening in her leggings and gloves and blood seeping forth. Thankfully for the huntress, it's enough small wounds that many of them vanish within seconds, 'forgotten' by the world as there's nobody to pay attention to them.     Drogrung hears Nonon... arriving, and shifts its grip on the egg a little, lifting it into the air for Nonon to slam-dunk it with Gold Rush's gigantic fist.
Kukuru	"Bigger?" "Biiiigger." Kukuru affirms to Hibiki with a light nod, smiling gently as ever even as she gets in close at the start of the melee. Grappling with Apocalypse Bird teaches her several things very quickly, too! For starters, it's... Not as strong as it looks? It's healing far too quickly to rip apart, certainly, so beating it to death temporarily isn't a real option. If that's not an option, though, what other options are there? All she has is her claws and her body, and knowing that she has to adjust her tactics somehow. She can see Hibiki a little more clearly at this size, at least, but she's also quickly reminded that the disadvantage of being bigger is that she's an even bigger target for APocalypse Bird's spray of lasers. Even someone like Kukuru knows that dodging any of those isn't an option at this range.  She doesn't have long to actually think about that, of course, since the lasers are already blasting into her well before she's even started to think about that at all. Like Apocalypse Bird, Kukuru starts to shriek as well, albeit not quite at the same volume or intensity. The shots leave behind quite the sizable marks as they tear into her, sizzling unceremoniously as her nanites surge around Kukuru in a green haze to mend the wounds noticeably slower than they're being inflicted. Hibiki's leaping grab gives Kukuru an idea on how to proceed, though, especially in reminding her that their goal isn't to destroy the combined. No, their goal is to keep it from escaping and wreaking havoc while everyone else is still occupied with Binah and however many eggs Rufus, Shajo, and Ishirou had identified earlier. "If we can't break the birdies... Nngh. We can still tire them out!" Kukuru calls out to Hibiki as she redirects some of her nanites towards her companion. Even if they can't fix the spiritual wounds, they can at least dull the more physical pain. "If we can keep those eyes off us and the neck bits closed... Uhh..." In yet another rare flash of insight, Kukuru goes for another brief burst of movement! She avoids using her teeth this time, even, as she instead starts leveraging her own monstrous strength to aid Hibiki in keeping it pinned to the ground. One of her claws continues to clamp around the Bird's claws in an effort to keep those at bay, and the other claw... A little more tearing, just to get the right leverage. Instead of just trying to hold one of those eye-filled wings down, she tries shoving the second claw through it entirely before throwing herself right over Apocalypse Bird entirely. If her and Hibiki's hands can already do so much to hold it down, why not try using her body weight as well?
Xion	Xion understands little more when she moves, in tandem with Lilian, equal in step through the door and in time in motion while the clock strikes twelve and two more to seat fourteen. She doesn't know the people, really. The story of the revenge, or the story of the original moments. Ayin, X, Parker. She came to help//stop Binah. She came to help Lilian, though when she first imagined the day, she hadn't imagined being besides the Dame Commander. "Be careful, Sarra, she really builds up!" Xion councils the hammer-swinging princess when she lands besides Binah, skidding on black bootsole while she finds her balance, making shallow cuts and not even feeling a response from the ostensibly-resonant keyblade she bears in both hands. Flit about by her trio of fairies, Xion readies with an exhale and shifts blade-guard low and knees bending, mid-tense for jump when Garion's black spikes jut up directly into her from their generation on the ground, slamming into her stomach with a wrenching 'oof!' and forcing her recovering guard tight to chest. The jangling of chains about guard grind against the zipper and she's forced up and away, arcing back. Tensing and snapping forward, aerially recovering enough to have her legs beneath her on landing, Xion weaves back with momentum on deeply bent knees before using that to shift into a sprinter's start. The dash carries her through just enough running for her to leave a boot-toe scuff on the floor and a burned in divot where she departs, Xion hurtling forward into an opening dot of dark-splotch shadow and exiting in an equally two-dimensional gateway nozoning open at an angle to springshot her over the exhausted-toned Arbiter. "Okay then, Garion!!" Xion answers at a blur, rolling and throwing out a hand to fling out a fan of thunderbolts across Garion's overhead down that land as ''knives'' (Hearts with a cross-dagger point) in groundshattering buried-points, crackle for a little bit, and then pulse falling thunderbolts again. Several go wide -- past Garion. Landing on the far side, as her momentum carries her in spin, Xion ends her fall lands and turns to raise her sword in two hands. The 'extra' pulse of thunder falls in faint telegraph after - with three daggers in a triangle about Xion herself, the bolts all falling upon the blade of her raised Keyblade and concentrating down for one dramatic levinbolt slash. > 'But I just...need to survive long enough.' "Today, then, we'll play to *time*!" Xion shouts as she swings charged blade.
Hibiki Tachibana	Bird down. Unfortunately, that doesn't mean it's out. Hibiki's already noticed that absurd regeneration ability that Kukuru revealed it had with every clash against it - it looks like they're not going to get anywhere trying to take it down themselves. It must really be connected to those eggs after all...     ...which means trusting in the others to do their job - both the egg hunters, and Xion's group - while they do theirs. This thing is powerful. Way too powerful. The Agents falling back was the right call; they'd be throwing themselves into a meat grinder for nothing less than helping slow this monstrosity down a little bit longer.     And she wouldn't accept that. Of course, accepting that means shouldering anything that Kukuru isn't taking herself, which also means getting blasted by that pale-tinted light. Her eyes widen and her grip loosens, damage beyond just the physical making her stagger back and nearly lose her footing. Getting hit in your /spirit/ is never pleasant, and it catches her off-guard enough to momentarily give the Apocalypse Bird some breathing room, as if a beast that massive needs it.     If we can't break the birdies... Nngh. We can still tire them out!     "Hngh... yeah..." With a sharp breath in, she picks herself back up and tightens her fists up once again. They don't have to win. Just not lose. "As long as we keep it busy for long enough that everyone else can manage, then that's good enough...!" She might've gotten a healthy amount of vital energy shaved off, but it'll take a lot more than that to dampen her spirit.     So when Kukuru comes back in, Hibiki also lunges back into the fray before the gargantuan Abnormality can go on the offensive again - with Kukuru going for one wing and then the full body pin, that leaves the Symphogear user to handle the remaining wing, going back in to get a grip on it. More than just heaving down this time--     The set of jacks in her leg armor, miniature spiked pistons in their own right, angle down and shoot out behind her to embed themselves in the floor. With the added stability, she...     ...is outright trying to aid Kukuru's pinning attempt by suplexing this entire half of the Apocalypse Bird.     Two in one day! She's on a roll.
Sarracenia	The pillar just evaporating into fairies and sparkles Sarra blinks in surprise at Parker. "...she...saved you?" she says, obviously skeptical. She follows Parker's dagger-filled gaze to the old man. "And, what did he do?" she asks.      Xion and Lilian make a dazzling display as usual. Sarra accepted that she was not on the level of facing these kinds of Abnormalities directly during the Gebura incident so she tries to keep one worry at bay for them by protecting Parker. But, that does not mean she is not going to do some damage!      "Lilian is right, Parker! Stay down and we will protect you!" she says, then hmphs at Binah. "No, I do not think they will be my ally. Actually, I am quite certain they will not. If I actually cared about that I might have gone groveling to Lilian long ago."      She reaches into her purse and pulls out a Bullet Bill. "But, as you might have guessed, I do not care about that. I do not need L Corp as an ally, and most of them have made it clear that we will never really be allies anyway. I am doing this for me as much as if not more than for anyone here! I said I would become dependable and I intend to prove it! And no haughty, hateful, horrible Abnormality is going to stop me!"      She hammers that Bullet Bill off like an artillery shot. "But besides all that," She pulls another and fires it. "...you need to stop!" And another. "Let these people get free of this hellish place..." Another. "...and maybe find some peace for yourself in the process!"      "Or, you know...do not and continue to suffer as long as you do it alone! Either way is fine with me!" Several more Bullet Bills are fired at the end of her hammer, each one exploding on impact. Obviously she is not nearly as in sync with them as they are with each other, but Sarra does her best to launch them at openings when Xion and Lilian are dashing away or recovering from making an attack. It would be pretty bad to hit one of them when she just told Xion she would do her best to help!      The princess gets knocked back by that shockwave, smashing into a wall behind her and leaving a bit of a Sarra-shaped indent. She extricates herself with a groan, then takes up her spot between Binah and Parker again. She launches more Bullet Bills and just keeps firing them until her already aching arms feel like jelly.      'Be careful, Sarra, she really builds up!'      "Er...careful is not really my thing...but I will try!" Sarra says back to Xion.
Lilian Rook	'AHh...haha... No wonder you were able to defeat that Rusted Color...'     "And let me guess-- Gold never tarnishes. Am I right?" says Lilian. Holding her followthrough posture with sword extended only for a moment, she stands and turns in the same motion as blinking away from the pillar, reappearing at the edge of Binah's vision with her hair still swirling around her, then again vaulting over the table and smoothly leaping from its surface to hit the ceiling as it is chewed to pieces by spikes. Black static crackles in her wake where she takes off upside-down, and lithobrakes steel-on-steel sparks across the room, forcing Binah to turn again.     Blending motion and un-motion, cause and disjointed effect, she takes her head-on stance, point readed in Binah's direction again, as if her scatter-stop evasion were part of the dialogue. Her eyes dart from fairy to spike to pillar-- to 'Ayin' to Parker to Xion-- and her thought continues on its own. "To tell you the truth, it always looked yellow to me. Gold is meant to be beautiful, incorrodable, infinitely malleable without breaking; but you always reeked of cowardice."     She braces, fixes gaze, and darts aside from another attack, skipping twice behind Binah and crossing over behind Xion's fairies to divert her. "Of all the things I said just to piss you off. That wasn't one of them. The way you talk about Kali is far too familiar, 'Garion'." A trinity of blasts from Winter Crow spray hard gold into the room, smoking and radiant; Lilian dodges her own shots from the other side to close in and rake her sword over Binah's wrists. "You talk about her like little more than filth that bubbled to the top. I see how you grin and bear it like being lumped in with her is your fair punishment for letting your guard down. But you're obsessed with her, aren't you?"     Lilian kickleaps back at the next threatening gesture, but bracing her sword across her body is the wrong move for telekinetic shock; gold and black read wrong without the ability to cut and pry open Binah's mind. The air is silently driven from her lungs; protective magic sparks from the crossguard driven into her chest, and Lilian crashes through metal and concrete before she can blink. A black blur streaks past four security cameras in sequence-- and then the awful squealing of a misaligned edge cutting through metal plating echoes back from the hall.     A thin, slicing ray of black-gold temporal distortion cuts the debris from her entry crater in half before it hits the ground, and bisects the room at the legs just as Xion springshots off the floor.     <God you piss me off!!"     Radio crackle transitions seamlessly into Lilian's own raised voice, pushed loud and raw, as she appears out of the air before Binah already in the midst of winding spin-kick to drive her hand out of the way just before her sword comes down through her in the same ribbon of motion. "Using 'the strongest' losing to 'the Head' as an excuse to smirk about inevitability and do nothing!"     Lilian drops below sight faster than gravity would let her, and slams a runestone onto the floor below Binah, only to leap away just before Xion's lightning bolt lands. "You stupid piece of shit! You aren't the Head; you're just the craven loser who works for them; afraid of taking responsibility for your own fucking freedom like everyone else! If you wanted things to change, all you had to do in that one godforsaken moment was to join them!"
Lilian Rook	The magically charged stone explodes at the peak of Xion's landing followthrough, throwing momentum into her next maneuver while casting smoke and flames around Binah. The cloud splits down the middle and slides apart, along the axis of another magical distortion, angled through Binah.     "Get your shit together, 'Garion'. I'm not going to hold my hand out to you like I did for Kali. You can be part of what's going to happen, or I'll replace you. And not this useless, pathetic 'you' of the present, either! The 'you' that should have been, back then, and was too afraid."
Angela	Kukuru decides not to use her teeth. That's...probably a good idea. Abnormality meat does not taste so great, only Chewie has really put any thought in how to even prepare it. The bird shrieks as a claw digs into its backside-- but Kukuru grabs a wing as she falls behind the bird-- Meanwhile Hibiki grabs the other wing and falls with it, the two of them dragging the poor poor creature (how could you) along Central's floor, knocking over pillars and the like. Agents coming to help end up just running out of the way lest they get trampled. Then Hibiki goes ahead and suplexes the creature, using her grip on the wing to swing Apocalypse Bird over her head and into Central's wall and then the ground as it lands heavily on its back. Its jaw lashes out, trying to CHOMP through Hibiki. And uh. Kukuru but. Look, the jaw CAN devour everything but Kukuru will probably take more than one bite at least...It lets out another cry but it's cut short as Kukuru's back comes crashing down on its face and it tries to eat through Kukuru anyway! At this point Central's team sees an opportunity to lend a hand. Rose, Nikki, and Carol all pour in from the cover they'd been taking and unleash pink beams of death, flying swords, and thrown acidic mallets that rip off chunks of flesh but they're only slowing it down a miniscule amount compared to Hibiki and Kukuru.
Angela	Rufus unleashes a barrage of sacrificial feathers while avoiding the feathers sent towards him! The egg shudders under the assault of Wing on Wing warfare.... But it does not break! Nobody's rushing to Extraction to help him which makes the progress on Eggslaughter significantly slower. "Fuccck that's so much harder without the Elevator..." Cinder manages as she hobbles with a sprained leg towards him. "Hang on, Rufus! Sorry it took me a bit-- Had to jump down here from the top level..." Nonon says, "Hell yeah, Madeleine!" not realizing that it's Drogrung positioning the egg up high because she's a bit stupid. "Here comes some SCRAMBLED EGGS!" And she punches the floor, throwing herself into the air with a shockwave so that she can swing Gold Rush into the air and punch it down into the egg with all its force! The cracks rapidly spread across the egg... before it utterly shatters into pieces! And Little Bird's mouth that devours everything has been shut. "GA HA HA! I AIN'T AFRAID OF NO CLAWS! I'LL GRASP MORE THAN THEY EVER CAN!" Nonon bellows and aims to give Madeleine a big hug! ... Yeah, sorry, this actually does do damage she's feeling really exuberant right now. "Kukuru and Hibiki are gonna need help--I'll keep Abnormalities off your back!" Nonon beams, giving Madeleine's back a hearty SMACK of encouragement. ''Glad you are here, Tennant.'' "Ahaha, yeah! By the way I'm sorry for uh--any friendly fire?? But I guess it's better than unfriendly fire right?" They say as they line up a shot. Indeed, as they line it up and fire, a large burst of purple light is launched out of the rifle, winging Ishirou on the way to the egg and causing more cracks to spread out across the surface-- --allowing Ishirou's continued pressure on the egg... TO SHATTER IT! Far-sighted eyes of Big Bird have been blinded "Whew...!" Tennant says. "You okay, buddy? Sorry about that, but figured speed was more important than accuracy..." They grin. "Eheh... That's the Eye down... Those Beholders can't possibly see what's coming... Not from here. Or from ''her''." They glance back to Ishirou. "I'll cover you--and I'll be ''careful'' this time."
Angela	Parker does not seem to be the target of anybody's violence yet and as she's remembering herself, she realizes her mask has fallen--but she still has a gun. She slowly raises it up to point it at the old man. "...Why did you do this?" "We weren't so unlike your team. We were trying to fight against the corruption of the City. The only way we could imagine at that point was with the power of the City." The old man says. "If we had known of your crew...we likely would have invited you to help us.. But the first time we knew of you is when you infiltrated the facility. We had little idea of your true aims--so we treated you as enemies." "Indeed, Parker. You have a gun. They have one purpose. And perhaps with the Dame Commander here... she can make it stick--she'd rather that than a reset, I imagine, so it's ''not'' pointless." Xion does something tricky. Binah is a trained warrior, but she hasn't fought too many people approaching her level before. This might be the second time in her life she's actually feeling pressure in a battle. She brings her arm up to protect her main body from the knives but, not actually being Larxene IRL, she has no idea that Xion's going to followup with a swipe across her midsection which results in electricity scrambling across her body. Binah drops down into a crouch. Her body shaking. Gebura isn't the only one who got a bit 'rusted' after being down here for so long. No, Garion has been purposefully degraded. It's the one that Garion just plain underestimated. Sarracenia. That decides to test whether overwhelming power can overcome overwhelming power.
Angela	''Let these people get free of this hellish place... and maybe find some peace for yourself in the process!'' "I loathe people like you most of all." Binah says. "The people who ruin the City, who make the Head necessary... You're just like them. Relying wholly on inherited power, constantly making the SAME mistakes, no cleverness or anything deeper in you beyond what's skin deep. Perhaps I'll tear that free of you and confirm my suspicions." She snaps, launching fairies out to prematurely detonate Bullet Bills--she catches some movement from Lilian only-- --for a Bullet Bill to hit her underneath her guard and detonate, slamming her against the couch. Garion's armor is cracked and degrading with every passing moment. Garion raises her hand up again and SArracenia finds herself gripped with telekinetic force from all sides as shrapnel from her own Bullet Bills hover in the air, aiming themselves at her. ''But you're obsessed with her, aren't you?'' "... Only so much as I am obsessed with you, Dame Commander. Those little flames that burn away at the doldrums of an eternity of nothing changing. Outside is no better than inside. For all of Angela's complaining, she has yet to see that even if she were to become human and make it into the city as a citizen--it'd be no different, perhaps even worse, than simply staying in here. She won't leave here, even if you open the path." ''God you piss me off!!'' Binah's hand is already raised but Lilian reads her movement, spin kicking it out of the way with a thick CRACK that spins Binah's body around 90 degrees, the blade coming down and ripping through Binah's other arm in a smooth motion and tearing it free from her body.
Angela	"...This is the only life I'd known." Binah says. "So perhaps I was too afraid to leave it." She turns back to face Lilian. "Yes, back then the possibility hadn't even occurred to me. But...tell me, Dame Commander." "What is it I'm afraid of? It is not The Head. The Head is my ''home'' some part of me will always long to return to. It is what came before The Head. Endless monstrosities, Wings tearing one another apart heedless of the City below... The Head came because it was needed. The rules it makes, however nonsensical, are to keep The City in one piece. No, I fear the same thing you fear, Dame Commander..." She swings her hand out, maddening levels of telekinetics aiming to crush all three of them from all directions. "The endless numbers of stupid fucking people, the same kind that have been looking to carve out pounds of flesh from you--just like Sarracenia right over there." She sneers. She turns her head. "...Parker. This is your opportunity. Take revenge." Garion says. Parker steps out from behind Sarracenia. She stares at the old man. "...No." Parker says. She drops the gun. "...No." She says, more easily. "...It's time we break the cycle, Binah." She says, intentionally using that name. "...The Dame Commander's right. We can't wait for anybody but us to change The City. I remember... We helped people all the time, like the Dame Commander and..." She shakes her head with conviction. "I'm just another stupid person, but you can kill him yourself if that's what you want. Nathan always said... No killing. Ness always seemed to regret his past of killing. ... We weren't great people ether..." "But," Parker says. "We could still break cycles. It's...your job now. You being ''bad'' is no excuse."
Madeleine Cadrasteia	Madeleine lowers her spear, amazed that that *worked* (but only somewhat amazed because, well, Nonon). Then Nonon's wrapping her up in a hug, and she drops the weapon entirely. "Y-you sure do..." she manages as the last of the air is squeezed from her lungs. Something cracks - hopefully not anything essential. Does Gold Rush enhance hugs, or is Nonon just this strong?     Madeleine feels like she's halfway to losing consciousness when Nonon finally releases her. Panting, she falls to one knee and reaches for the fallen spear. "Thanks," she mutters, clutching at her chest. "I'll make sure the folks up in Central are okay. You hustle over to Extraction, there's one egg left." The smack on Madeleine's back sends her reeling toward the elevators, and after briefly contemplating a shimmy up the cable she opts to just ride the carriage back up to Central.     There comes a moment in any conversation where silence reigns for but a moment, and a pitched battle is a kind of conversation. As Apocalypse Bird shakes itself to recover from the Elites' assault, as Kukuru and Hibiki catch their breath, as the Agents reload and recover their weapons... The elevator goes DING. Everyone turns to look. The door opens, and Madeleine staggers out, still catching her breath from Nonon's hug. "Oy!" she shouts, raising her spear to point at the Apocalypse Bird. "Yeah, you! C'mere!"     Crushing an egg? Whatever. Going toe to toe with a literally apocalyptic monster? That's the stuff of legends. The stuff Madeleine is *made* for. She draws back her spear and Drogrung lets out a roar of challenge as the huntress charges into the fray.
Rufus Shinra	Rufus *is* alone here, isn't he? The others are getting some help from the agents, from what he's hearing, but... nobody else is here. Do they trust his competence too much? Or is it apathy? Whatever the reason, Rufus is alone, and is feeling alone. And he's struggling. Rufus reaches for the Enemy Skill materia again. There's one he hasn't used, one he doesn't dare to use. Or - no. One he's simply afraid to use. Now isn't the time for fear. And yet, he hesitates as he reaches for the materia- Cinder arrives. "Shit - your leg okay?" Rufus is momentarily more concerned with Cinder's sprained leg than anything else. Apocalypse Bird can only kill him, Petra can put him on carrion duty for another two weeks. "Anyway," he says once he verifies it's just a sprain. "Just in time. This thing is tougher than it looks. You've got your Fourth Match Flame warmed up?" He reaches from the Enemy Skill materia... and over to the red one next to it. "Because I'm in the mood - to get my egg barbecued." Five seconds later, there's fire. Just - so much fire, everywhere.
Ishirou	Bullets come from behind! Ishirou attempts to get out of the way of Tennant's shots.  For the most part, he does so!  Only a few manage to graze him, which helps shatter the egg with eyes and scatter the flying eye feathers.  Breathing heavily, he turns to the grinning Tennant and waves a hand.  "It's all good, just grazed me a little..." he says returning the smile.   "No need to worry about small things, let's go help them in central bring down the giant bird monster..." he says and does just that, flying off towards the elevator and bouncing down the sides of it until he is back in central.   Flipping off, he lands in a three-point stance and grabs some of the nearby debris.  He sucks it up into a giant hammer shape thanks to the electromagnetic force he wields and proceeds to bring it down towards the side of the Apocalypse bird, repeatedly trying to bludgeon it to destruction as he is able!
Kukuru	Indeed, Kukuru's not too keen on using her teeth any further with Apocalypse Bird. The taste is certainly one reason, but she also knows that those eyes are full of lasers, and that's exactly the sort of thing she doesn't want in her mouth regardless of healing abilities. Even as a calcualted risk... No. Hibiki's counting on her, and so are all the other Agents and clerks still stuck inside. Getting shot internally won't help them at all, so she just has to be patient and create an opening for everyone! That seems to come to fruition soon, then, as she feels Apocalypse Bird starting to go up thanks to Hibiki lifting it right off the ground. "Oh my... Hibikiii, when did you get so strong? That's wonderful..." She beams, managing to find a spot of brightness even in the middle of this life or death struggle! She does have to let go of the Abnormality briefly so as to not make the maneuver harder than it needs to be, though, and that gives the Bird a chance to start chomping at everyone in range. "Oh no, you don't... Keep your mouth off these kids!" Rushing through all that extra firepower/moral support being leveled at it by Rose, Nikki, and Carol, Kukuru resorts to scrambling along on her claws and feet to hurl herself right at Apocalypse Bird. She can feel herself starting to shrink a bit, too, as her nanite-induced growth is starting to wear off, and she gives Hibiki a pointed look before realizing... She never really consulted her on this next not-actually-formed plan, did she? OH well. "I'll need a hand later!" That's all the warning Kukuru gives before she all but rams her entire arm into that chomping jaw with something resembling a haymaker and shoulder tackle at the same time. It's almost like she's trying to force Apocalypse Bird's mouth wide open with her entire body, shoving herself against all those gnashing teeth to keep it from having enough room to fit anyone else in! Naturally, that means bleeding a lot in their stead, but Kukuru's fine with that. She can feel her vision swimming a bit, but she gets her second wind as she hears that some of the eggs has been shattered. She's not sure what any of that necessarily means, but... "This is our chance... Hibikiii! I'll get it nice and open just for you!" With one more heart-swelling shout, Kukuru readjusts her hold on Apocalypse Bird with her hands coming around to each side of its main body. It's almost like she's hugging it, even going as far as giving it a chance to return the favor or dig those claws right into her back. Instead of squeezing down on it, however, she's pulling up and outwards instead to try and spread it as wide as she can to give Hibiki as much surface area to grab, strike, whatever she needs for her next maneuver!
Angela	Cinder doesn't know Rufus too well, sure, but she wouldn't feel right letting him fight an Egg alone--to say nothing of the practical issue if Rufus fails to break it in time. "Oh--yeah, I'm okay...Didn't quite land right... But it's fine, we just have to... hardboil this egg right?" She manages an awkward smile at him, ignorant of why he cares about her injury and assuming the best of it for some reason. "All warmed up, ready to go." She says. Fourth Match Flame and Rufus's own fire magic collide against the against and it rapidly melts underneath their combined might. Fortunately, unlike the others, Cinder's way more careful about hurting friends! A Head that looks up towards the cosmos has been lowered. "...Yeah, the City has no place in judging us." Cinder says softly. "Living outside its protection is also dangerous...but we were free."
Lilian Rook	'We weren't so unlike your team. We were trying to fight against the corruption of the City. The only way we could imagine at that point was with the power of the City.'     "That's hardly and uncommon story." Lilian spits; both the words and a tiny glob of blood. "When you spend your entire lives within the cage, you've no other way to define 'the World'; so when all you've ever known is the City, you can't even imagine what could challenge it. The City is built to be proof against itself, after all."     Lilian capitalizes on the disruption caused by the giant Bullet Bill. It doesn't matter if it's Sarracenia; Binah is showing an opening by taking revenge on her, and she snap-shoots half a dozen alchemical slugs into her all the same before vanishing again. The flash-transmuted cases fall smoking into the red hot imprint of her boots. "How will you outsmart anyone if you can only think in their terms? How will you outmaneuver them if you can only use their tools? You can't do anything to them by navigating the City yourself; it isn't an environment you share, but something they built, and they've made certain that every thought and every tool they give you is one you can't wield better than them."     "That's what a fucking 'Colour' rank is. Someone who drew outside the lines just enough that they had to ensnare them some other way; with wealth and promises and gilded boot-licking prodigies."     '... Only so much as I am obsessed with you, Dame Commander.'     "Because you've started to notice what I've done, just like Kali did, right? And that's why you're such a fucking freak!!" Lilian tears her sword free of Binah's armour, lands, translates her momentum backwards, and fades again rather than try to capitalize. Gebura had required all of her offensive momentum just to keep her from out-enduring her. Lilian has recognized Binah as nothing so simple as the 'caster' type, helpless in close range combat, and furthermore realized that Binah can't actually outlast her. It's not in her skillset.     "It seems as though you can't quite grasp what strength of mine you're supposed to deprive me of, like you did to Kali. Does that excite you? You're so luridly attracted to anything that comes from outside your little closed system that I bet you can't stop thinking about it; Colours, EGO, how they relate to the Elites that stand out even in the Multiverse. Something you can't ever have, because it can only be found outside."     Lilian darts in and cuts twice under Binah's dominant arm, twists away her sword-tip, and bats away a chunk of flying armour with her fists around the crossguard, rotating the hold of her sword around herself without letting it stray away from her body. She turns into a flurry of blasts and casings spiralling through empty air, and hot pain slashes from the other direction. The air smokes where she brushed it. The soles of her boots and the palms of her gauntlets shimmer faintly with heat.     "I think I'm beginning to understand. You bowed your head and wagged your tail for the loan of power you needed to rise to the top, and only had your chance to regret it once you finally reached your peak, saw that it wasn't enough to surpass the Head, and understood it was too late to try again. Didn't you? You know you measured up short to the woman who took the road untravelled, and you never got over 'ruining her' for it. And here I am-- the new model."
Hibiki Tachibana	Oh my... Hibikiii, when did you get so strong? That's wonderful...     "Hah..." Hibiki exhales, picking herself back up after Bird Flinging. That was a little exhausting. "Well, being real strong is one of the only things I got to my name, you know..." There's a little moment to get that in, before...     Jaws.     Well, everyone should know that a girl who primarily punches things within arm's reach would have an amazing matchup against gigantic jaws.     "...!"     She'd be in severely bad straits... if it wasn't for the unexpected assistance from Rose, Nikki, and Carol. It might not be a lot of slowing down the unstoppable and quickly-regenerating Apocalypse Bird, but it's enough that when those extremely heavy jaws clamp down, Hibiki is able to react enough to bring her arms up.     And grip in the gaps between its teeth to keep them from shutting down on top of her and turning her into bloody paste. Trying to hold back an ALEPH's bite strength is an extreme ask even for her, and the effort of doing so makes both her arms and legs scream out in intense agony. Her teeth grit down with the strain-- until Kukuru comes in with her fist.     With her taking over, Hibiki briefly rebounds out into the air, getting her breath back and actually having a chance to look over to the Magical Girl Trio. "You guys... thanks! Now...!" Kukuru is giving her an opening, and she fully intends to take advantage of it. Before she even hits the ground, at the apex of her leap back through the air, her Symphogear's thrusters ignite...     ...and she goes right back /in/, this time towards the behemoth bird's face. She's grappled it twice now, to great effect. But with an opportunity like this, the best way to floor it and stagger it for long enough to let the others finish the job is quite clear.     "Haaaaaaaaahhhhh--!" The classic maneuver of rearing her arm back, the piston mechanism in her gauntlet priming back, and driving her entire body into the Apocalypse Bird's head as hard as she can physically manage. Just the force of her punch alone will pummel into it hard enough to threaten to topple it.     The explosive release of raw kinetic force as the machinery slams back into place, beating straight into the Abnormality's body before erupting out the other side, will /definitely/ do its part into helping make sure it has the fight taken out of it, even for a short moment. Better it focuses on them than getting an idea to go after the others!
Lilian Rook	'No, I fear the same thing you fear, Dame Commander... The endless numbers of stupid fucking people, the same kind that have been looking to carve out pounds of flesh from you--'     "Wrong again, you stupid piece of shit. Though I hardly blame you."     Lilian stops her moving directly in front of Binah. She's breathing heavily. Sweat clings to her skin and evapourates into curls of steam. It'd be encouraging, if she weren't taking §that stance§.     Her breathing halts. Her body freezes at its most perfect configuration of violence. Her eyes flash. Everything is held in such pristine equilibrium that Lilian has to think out loud rather than say it.     §I detest them, but I don't fear them. What I'm afraid of is the version of me that frees herself from them without ever reconciling what they are.§     §A lot like how you don't fear the Head, and you don't fear the City without it; just the heart-gripping terror of taking responsibility for yourself and living with it. Just like everyone else.§     Binah throws out the full extent of her degraded telekinetic power, and as far as Lilian sees it, the first genuine spark of defiance she has seen from her.     Lilian throws out the technique she'd used to annihilate Blue Star; one that she'd thought far too risky to execute against Gebura, but that she may have polished just enough, just in time for Binah.     '...It's time we break the cycle, Binah.'     "Cleasanna Lilí Dubha--!"     'It's...your job now. You being ''bad'' is no excuse.'     "Scéalta sé Éigeandála Síocháin!"
Sarracenia	'I loathe people like you most of all. The people who ruin the City, who make the Head necessary... You're just like them. Relying wholly on inherited power, constantly making the SAME mistakes, no cleverness or anything deeper in you beyond what's skin deep. Perhaps I'll tear that free of you and confirm my suspicions.'      Sarra growls lightly at this, only to hmph and smirk as at least one of those Bills hits its mark. "You people are too obsessed with where the power comes from. Where your power comes from is not the most important thing! What is actually important is what you do with it!! And if the City is that bad then we will just have to change that, too!!"      Sarra yelps as she is grabbed by that telekinetic force. Held like this, she is virtually defenseless. She can only watch as that shrapnel hovers around her. She gets a rather worried expression as she looks around at it. Stuck in a telekinetic ball of deadly shrapnel is pretty bad. As the crushing telekinetic power is unleashed, Sarra cries out as she is perforated by many small sharp metal shards in addition to that crushing.      The only bright side is that she succeeded in protecting(?) Parker. Or at least, she thinks she did. But, as she listens she is not so sure. And she can't do anything to stop Parker, either.      When she is finally released Sarra slumps to the ground, her fair skin and battle dress both cut and slashed and punctured and bloodied. Even her face has several cuts, most notably over one eye that she is holding as she stands up again. She pulls out a green mushroom and downs it in one gulp, and some of the more superficial wounds heal.      "I do not want a pound of flesh. All I have ever actually wanted...was to be treated with basic decency! That so few are willing to offer even that is not my fault! And I am not willing to tolerate less than that!" Obviously she says that as much to Lilian as to Binah.      The princess grips her hammer firmly, and a prismatic glow appears around the hammer's head before flowing down over the handle. "So, if you insist on being like that and making others suffer for it, then I will show you just what I can do with this 'inherited power'!"      The glow continues to flow, now covering Sarracenia. Her teeth clench as the borderline demonic weapon possession grows, then the glow finally infuses her eyes and she charges. Recklessly. Once again. This time with a storm of shockwave producing hammer blows!      Afterword, as the glow fades and she is left panting from the effort, Sarra looks toward Xion and laughs shakily. "How is that for recklessly helpful?"
Xion	Xion had fought Binah once for fun. At the time, she had thought it her delightful little plan to sample what Lilian would later solve, a destined duel that Lilian was actually looking forward to and not one she'd interfere with. She had to steal a little duel in the dark, and had played her heart out. In her duel in the dark, Xion had played and paced herself poorly. She had enjoyed herself, and in the end, she had realized that she wanted to win far too late to make it convincing. She 'won', because she was let win. Because Garion surrendered. Because Garion had wanted something more than winning - perhaps even the whole time. > 'The 'you' that should have been, back then, and was too afraid.' Xion's overswing ends with Keyblade smoking and crackling across her back, narrowed blues scanning quickly through the flash of her own attack. Sarracenia's Bullet Bull bonanza is on Garion after, pressing, and Xion brings her sword back to ready while cycling a breath. "I *know* you're tired of this, Garion!" She shouts into the smoke. "But if you just wanted to prove how futile it all was, you wouldn't have *done* this in a way that left an opening." Parker, instrumentally, discards the gun, as Xion is mid-traversal, throwing more electric knives as spacing tools from a seemingly infinite coatsleeve and magic crackles. "You would have *just* used a lethal tool! If--" Xion is caught for a moment in the sequence of events as they had happened, and for a moment, smirks. She thinks she gets it! But then, gravitic distortions begin to shatter and collapse upon her suddenly, and she is '''crushed''' into misty black particles with tremendously violent force. For a second, there's no Xion at all, and then a fresh Corridor of Darkness implodingly reappears in another two-dimensional plane on the wall mid dash. "Or are you playing the villain *and* for all the marbles at the same time? Garion--" Xion continues to shout, about to leap off and take a swing at the Arbiter when she's crushed again, this time scrunched into a little ball and squeezed. Squeakingly, she forces out. "--you really are *stupid* just like Lilian says!" Forcing Eye of Judgement into closing-shut gravity and sweeping an arc of purple first as a shattering stab, then swinging out, fairies - not just three but dozens - gathering up the shattered magic as a yet-grander and much bigger fairy-winged sword. "You're afraid of *letting go*! If you want to change, commit to it!" Hefting big sword up, weightless as the Keyblade ever is, Xion brings the big length down in a single dividing slash over Garion's armored head. The magic blade will fall through to the floor before dispersing with fairywings and fluttering dragonflies... but it might still hurt. "It's time to wear a different coat, Garion!!!"
Angela	Madeleine and Ishirou make their way back to Apocalypse Bird which is, fortunately, still on THEIR layer thanks to Kukuru and Hibiki preventing it from escaping Central. As Ishirou bludgeons it in one side with electromagnetic bursts, while Madeleine spears its side with her spear. And unlike before, those blows...look palpable. When you remove the Head, the Claws, the Eyes...You're bound to be a lot weaker, right? The Apocalypse Bird screams and howls in frustration and fury. There's so much evil to see, so much evil to judge, so much evil to punish. But it is clear that the bird is weakened. The jaws hang limp, the head bows low, the wing's eyes have all gone blind. Kukuru lifts the big big big big big bird way up high for no other reason than to give Hibiki the perfect angle. The Central Agents scatter and keep moving to avoid getting clobbered by its thrashings, lending firepower as they can that rapidly wears away at the Bird's crumbling defenses. And then Hibiki brings the divine(slaying) fist. Her fist collides against the beast's jaws, ripping them open--the kinetic force plunges through the bird's 'mouth' and out its backside, ripping a hole open from pure POWER as Hibiki plows through it and out the other end. Three birds now as one, looked around to find the monster but couldn't find it. There were no creatures, no sun and no moon... And no monster. All that is left is just a bird, and a black forest. ...And that is why, Bikki... Even Binah has a place to. And why I had to do everything I could think of. Even if it meant paying the 'price' myself. The bird shudders and then collapses to the ground before rapidly dissolving away. Three Eggs appear in the cells of Judgement Bird, Punishing Bird, and Big Bird respectively. ...But I can still be a beautiful voice.
Angela	''What is actually important is what you do with it.'' "And what do YOU do with it Sarracenia besides satisfy your ego. Is not this just another avenue to FLEX." Binah doesn't seem interested in harming Parker so much as convincing Parker to ... well ... murder. ''I do not want a pound of flesh.'' "Please, I could smell your excitement at getting to 'show me up' leeching off of you for months." Binah says. "You should have heeded the warning I lovingly crafted for you first--" ''I will show you what I can do with this inherited power!'' Binah lashes out with her remaining arm and catches the hammer with one hand. She rips it out of Sarracena's hand and flings it behind the couch. "But I'll admit ... No, I'll let you figure that out on your own, that little spark." ''The City is built to be proof against itself, after all.'' "Mm. You understand. That is why we inevitably sought help from outside by studying the Blue Star's power." The old man says. "We could not conceive of it on our own so we begged for help instead. Even the Outskirts are not wholly free from their influence, so simply leaving The City was not enough on its own. And we found it. That is why all the Sephirah are enamored with you, why ... Angela is loyal to you above all others." "...I understand." Parker says. "You can't see past the ... the winds of the hurricane, as Binah would put it. Someone from outside those winds has to help you see. ... But I'm not forgiving you. It's not that easy to be forgiven." The old man nods once. His facade seems to be fading back into X. There isn't much else for him to say. And Parker dropped a gun and has...remembered, at least, the core details of herself. The mind wants to heal, after all, even if scars remain.
Angela	''You know you measured up short--'' "Who hadn't...? She was Strength in every sense of the word. Of course it was tragic... I was designed to indulge in tragedy..." ''Wrong again, you stupid piece of shit.'' ''The version of me that frees herself from them'' Binah is there, one moment, and in a flash--Lilian has struck her from nigh-infinite angles, slamming her back into the couch hard enough to shred it into pieces. Stuffing flies everywhere. This is truly the greatest tragedy of the day. And when Lilian is done, Binah has dropped into a crouch, barely standing. She laughs, a little madly, unable to counter Lilian's words. "Parker... Even you... Refuse to join the throng. Even after everything...And now you tell me how to be... You're just an Agent with a world of horror arrayed against you--a world that you struggle to bear the weight of well before you came here..." "Yeah well." Parker says. "Giving up isn't my style. Thanks for letting me take a break from being me long enough to be me again." ''I know you're tired of this, Garion!'' Binah...always sounded a little exhausted didn't she? Inclined to falling back asleep, not so unlike Netzach, but without the joy they found in it. ''But if you just wanted to prove how futile it all was, you wouldn't have *done* this in a way that left an opening.'' Garion's helmet cracks and shatters under the weight of Xion's keyblade. That which was sealed away is opened--revealing a momentary glimpse of the woman she once was. Bags under her eyes, no matter how long she sleeps. Eyes that have only seen wind. Eyes that have looked at the fear without for so long they neglected the fear within. And on some level, knew all this to be true and could not step forward all the same. "An ... opening. Yes. Because some part of me needed to prove that it was impossible to win against the Cycle or the Fear--one or the other is possible, but they always needed to both face the fear ''and'' break the cycle."
Angela	''You're afraid of letting go!'' BGM: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IbbzT5pnseA "..." Binah closes her visible eye for a moment before opening them and looking towards Ayin--rapidly transforming back into X. "...It was my home, Xion. Of course I was afraid of letting go. I was not afraid of being crushed by the Head... My time, I knew, with them was always up. It was those memories I feared to taint of time with Sisters who we had common cause with, a City we had seen ourselves as protectors of but in truth... I had known for too long that we were simply the biggest jackals." She sighs. "Ayin... No, this facility would never had a chance against the myriad forces against them alone." The Arbiter armor fades away and Binah returns to her boxbot form, eye wide open. "But simply idling here in the Hurricane's Eye won't change the world, either. If there are no more excuses to be had, no more places to run to hide in or rest..." She extends her free hand towards Xion hesitantly, then just takes her own in hers. "...I will not close my eyes just because my eyelids are heavy, nor shall I turn away because the sight is painful. Simply proceed as you have..." Binah cannot smile but it feels like she is, like a weight she never needed to carry for so long has been shattered, like she finally has no other option but to face that which had tormented her. "I will fulfill my promise and assist her and you 'till the end of these strange dreams." 80 PERCENT SEED OF LIGHT GENERATION And that seems to be that. The fight is out of Binah and she does, if nothing else, honor her bargains. Once again, the cleanup is going to be insane and the facility will have to operate at like half capacity... ...But if you can change the way an Arbiter sees, perhaps there's some hope for this Hellish world after all.
Sarracenia	Well, that hasn't happened in a while. Sarra yelps as the hammer is ripped from her grasp and the magic possession is broken in an instant. The hammer thrashes in Garion's grasp until it is flung away, where it lands with a heavy thud. Sarra stumbles in the direction the hammer was torn from her before tripping and falling down on hands and knees. "H-hey! My hammer!" she exclaims, more surprised than angry. People other than herself are not supposed to be able to hold her hammer! "Wait, what warning?" she adds after a moment.      'And what do YOU do with it Sarracenia besides satisfy your ego. Is not this just another avenue to FLEX.'      She gets back to her feet as she listens. One painful truth that the princess did not defend against is clear. She does not have a lot of depth. She tries but...the princess still has relatively little in the way of experience and has rarely had to think about who she is at her core and just has trouble grasping those concepts that Lilian and Xion apparently understand. And she does use what power she has to try and fortify her fragile ego. She can't really argue the point when she basically said as much earlier. Still, she tries. "It is not...-merely- an avenue to flex! I do help people you know!"      'But I'll admit ... No, I'll let you figure that out on your own, that little spark.'      Sarra lets out a frustrated growly groan. "...great...thanks." she says with a deadpan expression. Wasn't it just established that she is not good at introspection? She grumbles as she goes to collect her hammer, then slides it into her purse since the battle seems over. "...show you up, hm? I suppose I did."      She will help clean things up for a while and pass out her usual green mushrooms as a meager first aid to those that need it. And before she leaves Sarra finds Xion and says, "It was...nice talking to you after our minecart adventure. If you are so inclined I would be quite happy to continue the conversation. Perhaps over ice cream?" It is one of the few social situations that has worked for the princess.