Scene #9220: The Frog and the Ghost

Owner	Pose
Futaba Nuki	On one fateful-ish evening, on one of the larger streets running through the cozy coastal city of Sotenbori, a ferocious battle is about to commence! From the south side of the block, a mangled skeletal figure coming out of a bowling lane's wall drags itself eastwards. From the north side of the same block, a giant frog with a futuristic-looking gun and large straps bolted directly to its body strolls westward. The two behemoths turns slowly as they register each other's presence, recoil in shock, then shout madly at each other in inhuman tongues before rushing towards each other and throwing down right then, right there. Naturally, this sort of thing happening in the middle of a busy street in the middle of a sometimes-busy city is going to quickly become a problem for everyone that isn't over three stories tall. That's what leads to the call for assistance, too, as they're well into fighting each other by the time more Elites start to arrive. The frog is on the roof of a tall office building, future-gun raised as it fires off a spray of energy blasts at the demonic wall. The wall, clearly not built to avoid attacks, absorbs those shots head on before counterattacking with a volley of its own projectiles, hurling bowling balls in a birdshot-like scatter at the frog while clawing its way up the building just to get to it. Futaba, the tanuki ninja, is already here as well, but she's not involved in the actual fight. No, she's busy stretching herself thin in the most literal sense, forcing herself through the collapsed wall of a hospital to keep the whole place from collapsing under its own weight as it's being evacuated!
Audrey Basque	For over a week, Audrey's life has been utter chaos and a rollercoaster of emotions. The last time she went out, she got to see The City, and what real people living conditions look like at the worst of times. Now... she wanted to see a city that WASN'T a terrible hellhole full of thugs and looters while the power is out. She needed this! So, so badly. Rather than do what any sane person does when they need to pick a travel destination (use Google), she decided to do a bit of divination, in the most vague ways possible, and just trusted where the metaphorical dice landed. Sotenbori is not the worst place she could have ended up at; it's colorful, alive, and best of all, not miserable! A win, on all accounts, and she had spent some time wandering, shopping, even stopped at a nice coffee place for a break. Even better, the school uniform fits in perfectly here, so no undue attention befalls her. It's no high class vacation but it's something different, and it's a good look at a major city that isn't, or wasn't recently, on fire. Sadly this did not include the distinction of WILL NOT BE on fire. An absolutely exasperated Audrey looks in horror as her coffee break is interrupted by a lumbering wall on one side and a giant armed frog on the other. "Huh?!" I mean, what else do you say to that? There's the smallest of mercies in the fact these creatures are within the realm of supernatural dealings within her own world, and so it's not... okay it's shocking but it's not going to be traumatizing. What now? Get involved? Wait for people? She was never one to stand still... As bowling balls and debris fly, Audrey emerges from the coffee shop with a crackling shimmer of mirrored light. Gravity distorts, and halts the projectiles and the rubble from hitting the streets and pedestrians while she tries to think of something better, or at least for someone who knows what they're doing to take charge.
Corona Arclite	Far be it from a gunslinger gadgeteer of the Action Scientist assort to not respond to a distress call for help! But upon arriving on the scene even Corona has to stop and stare at the situation for a moment while the giant frog and the giant... bowling skeleton(?!) take shots at each other. Her tail flicks a moment, and then she huffs softly. "Well now, this is gettin' purdy damn weird even by my scale of reference." One hand goes to pull her goggles over her eyes. The other grabs a small mechanical cube from one of her various belt pouches and flicks it out into the street. The click-a-clack-a of clockwork and retropunk mechanics rattle as it unfolds itself into a larger cubic drone on a tripod of legs and extending multiple flexible manipulator arms. Which reach out to grab onto the hospital wall to help Futaba in keeping it from collapsing on the evacuating staff and patients. Then Corona can turn her attention back on the cause of the chaos, using the telescopic funtion of her goggles to get a closer look at the two kauji-like creatures.
Riku Asakura	The alert goes out, and out from the warp gate comes Riku, in his hands he holds the Fusion Riser, looking up at the chaos spilling out onto the streets. He doesn't have much choice but to get involved, and does so by gripping the Fusion Riser in his hands and starting his transformation sequence. "You go!" he says, activating an Ultracapsule, as a ghostly image of Ultraman appears next to him. "I go!" he says again, this time when he clicks the capsule it's an image of Ultraman Belial. "It's time to get ready!" he shouts again, scanning each capsule from the holster he fitted them into, and pulls the trigger on the Fusion Riser. "GEEEEEEEED!" he shouts, as fire burns from the Fusion Riser and spreads across Riku. ULTRAMAN ULTRAMAN BELIAL ULTRAMAN GEED PRIMITIVE! A growing flame builds up from where Riku was, and from it stands Ultraman Geed, who is now three stories tall to match the giant frog and giant wall that is smashing downtown. Ultraman's first move is to move toward the hospital and help Futaba from stretching herself so thinly by lifting the part of the collapsing hospital.
Natsuki Nuki	Natsuki Nuki, local of the wonderfully coastal city of Sotenbori, had kept trying to entertain several interesting prospects for her weekend activities. She had wanted to go bowling, but then all the guys she sent out to pick a spot to bowl at had their arms broken or were nonlethally made intimate with various pieces of infrastructure for mysterious reasons. "Is something the fucking matter? Don't we own a bowling alley?? Figure it out!!!" Natsuki shouted at her underlings and then headed out to cool her head with a nice long bath. Returning from a nice refreshing trip too a hot springs to relax, Natsuki hears a tremendous commotion but pays it no mind. Dressed in black leather pants and rounded-toe heavy boots, a skull buckled belt, red collared shirt with the top three buttons undone, and an open leather jacket that the collar of her shirt pops out of the neck of, Natsuki tries to snap a cowering stall worker into giving her some service. "Hey, I'm trying to get some of that tonkatsu, boss, come on-!" She shouts, over the din, before the food stand explodes in bowling ball birdshot. Natsuki, dripping in hot spilled soup, licks some of the broth off her face and sighs, put out and annoyed. "Oi, Oi, Oi!!!" Natsuki calls from the street, stamping her foot and pointing accusingly up at the giant space frog. "Do you have to do your episode of crap here?" And then a squint, as recognition dully washes over the soup-drippy eyemasked Osakan's face. "Didn't I rip your guts out at the river? Hey!" Plasma blasts send more people fleeing around her, but Natsuki remains firmly 'pissed off' and only minorly inconvenienced. "You like your bowels? Because I'm about to dis'-em!" She shouts, not even thinking about the quality of her wordplay. Reaching into the disaster of a food stall, her hand finds a hilt in the stupidity that blooms there like a mushroom, and pulls forward a ghostly-gleaming greatsword. "Of course that guy's weapon is here. Well then I'll start--" Pivoting, Natsuki gracefully side-dashes with her usual speed but a lot more floatiness to her swoop, aiming to baseball swing out and bully the demon wall for blowing up her street ramen stand! "With this stupid dinner-blasting wall!"
Meresankh	Among those to answer the call is, well, I'll let her introduce herself. "You FOOLS!" booms an amplified electronic female voice as the nearest warpgate swirls open. "You DARE challenge the peace of the Commonwealth within the sight of I, Queen Meresankh of Oryx, despoiler of the Fifth Heaven, commander of legions, conqueror of--" As her metallic form steps through the warpgate, Meresankh quickly takes stock of the situation and trails off mid-monologue. A giant frog probably can't understand her, and a demon ghost wall probably won't care. She emits a buzzing sigh and tries again. "BE NOT AFRAID!" she intones, marching forward from the gate at the head of a column of skeletal robotic warriors. "People of Sotenbori, I come to you as a friend and savior! Rejoice, for I, Queen Meresankh of Oryx, am here to lend my peerless aid!" She flourishes her cloak, which expands to disgorge a towering four-legged construct with some kind of menacing ray gun atop. Meresankh points her scepter at the ghost wall as it climbs up the side of a building, and on command the walker anchors its feet in the pavement and opens fire. A continuous beam of green energy projects out from the cannon on its back, beaming up at the ghost wall. For the moment its ray is tuned to disrupt ethereal forms without overmuch damage to physical material; the building behind will receive only scorch marks, unless the beam is reset to 'disintegrate'. Meanwhile Meresankh zooms her vision in on the frog, contemplating its technological weaponry. In comparison to the extreme sophistication and detail of Necron designs they may be crude children's toys, but it's still important to assess the thing's capabilities and shortcomings before moving in.
Calvin Nash	This isn't Calvin's first visit to Sotenbori. It is two out of three for 'visits at an agreeable hour,' and sadly also two out of three for 'something obnoxious and dangerous happening.' A pickup with matte white paint tears down the highway with an eerily tall, robed and skull-faced mushroom man sat in the bed. The truck's livery is black, stenciled on the side: an inverted pentacle. Above it, "OSSABAW ISLAND," beneath, "DEMON MARSHAL.". There's no need here for the offroad tires, though the sturdy, rugged light bar atop the cabin is getting use this evening. As it gets closer to the site of the disturbance, Calvin has to slow down. Somewhat. The truck sails over a pile of rubble thanks to an impromptu ramp created by a sunken portion of road. The heavy duty suspension sees the vehicle rock on its landing, sparks flying as a trailer hitch kisses the pavement. One hand coaxing the vehicle into a tire-squealing drift, Calvin downshifts with the other as he works the clutch and pumps the brakes with both feet. Chernobog leaps out of the bed before the truck has stopped moving, and Calvin is out just a moment after in uniform, pulling a breech-loading shotgun from a gun rack behind the cab's seats. "You there up on the roof! Yeah, you," shouts Calvin, pumping the shotgun after inserting two colorful cartridges. "That's a Ghost Wall! If you ain't knocked it out by now, you ain't gonna! Use somethin' else or put that thing away, you hear?" "Chernobog, cover me. I'm gonna get that wall down from there, and it's gonna be pissed." "As you wish." Calvin shoulders the shotgun, pulls the triger, racks the pump and fires again. After the muzzle flash, there's no pellets or slugs to speak of. Rather, two spectral tapirs chase the Ghost Wall, running in an ungainly gait towards it to collide, explode and inflict a sleeping spell. Chernobog holds his heavy silver greatsword outwards and low in a 'fool's guard,' ready to intercept either a swing or a bit of thrown detritus. He'd probably prefer the former.
Futaba Nuki	Thankfully, shimmering lights coming from a transformation are also a dime a dozen in Sotenbori, and most of the locals have already started scattering away from the path of the frog and the wall. The stragglers look towards her in both awe and thanks as they filter out of whatever buildings they were sheltering in, a few even snapping pictures before being hurried along by the people coming up from behind them. Corona's clockwork drones are first seen by Futaba and hospital staff as the latter evacuate their more movable patients out on stretchers and wheelchairs. "Thanks for the hand, little guys!" The former shouts to the drones, pulling some of her mass back to the parts of her reinforcing the ceiling and hold that crumbling infrastructure together. Ultraman Geed's aid in holding the hospital together, too, means the parts of the hospital thatneed the support most can remain standing long enough for more of the hospital staff and patients to evacuate. One of the patients, a child in a wheelchair, even mimics the hand movements Riku had made prior to his transformation while passing by a face-level window with a nurse pushing them along. Meresankh announcing her arrival with actual announcements draws plenty of eyes her way from both inside and outside the hospital, and some of the locals even pause to stare and murmur. "Are those a new...?" "No, the Metal Priests are usually..." "New suits? Did..." "Daddy, that one's from space...!" Calvin's sick truck jump gets him plenty of attention, too, along with some startled noises from those passing by when he lands close enough that the words on the truck are actually legible to them. A pair of red and blue orbs even stop by the truck to peer at it with their faceless forms, circling around Chernobog a few times and then floating back into two of the patients being wheeled away. Natsuki isn't the only one pissed off at today's episode taking place right here. The frog doesn't seem to recognize her as it glances over during that shouting, at least. It also doesn't seem all too happy to hear her, either, as though it's understanding what she's saying. Or... The longer it looks, the more it starts to look apprehensive even though it's a giant bipedal space frog with a gun. It definitely recognizes something about her, but it seems more than happy to keep its distance from both Natsuki and the demon wall. The frog leaps off that building to land atop another one that's much lower to the ground, drawing the demon wall's gaze to her just as she baseball-swings that greatsword right into its skeletal face and Meresankh blasts it with that cannon. The demon wall definitely isn't a fan of that as it recoils on impact, howling madly and swiping at Natsuki and Meresankh's soldiers in return with those gnarled hands. Like Natsuki's sword, they're gleaming with an otherworldly aura! Each swipe of its hands produces a subtle-at-first, yet increasingly dreadful and gnawing feeling of being sucked into horrendously painful. It swings at those spectral tapirs, too, slamming those giant fists down at them and spraying broken concrete all over the place. The sleep-inducing tapair don't seem to put it down, but there is a slight sluggishness to the demon wall's followup swings as it drags its hands along the ground back towards itself. The frog isn't about to not take advantage of the situation, of course, as it lays into both the demon wall and the responding Elites alike with plasma blasts from its futuristic space gun. They come out in scattered blasts like some kind of plasma shotgun, leaving huge scorch marks producing ambient heat on impact.
Riku Asakura	Ultraman Geed would smile if he could at the child mimicking him. It brings much-needed warmth to his heart. He held the Hospital up as long as he needed to until he was blasted across the back with the shotgun. He turns, quickly raising his arms for the second shot, getting ready to fight back. The frog's shotgun smashes into Ultraman Geed, who braces with his arms in front of his face to keep the bits of himself that are important from being shotgunned. Sparks rain down from where he was shot, staggering the giant man backwards, but not knocking him over. Forced back, but not hurt too badly, he pushes forward to the frog now that the hospital is safe. Ultraman Geed jumps towards the giant frog, attempting to smack it across the head with his hands in an overhead chop, aiming to knock the lights out of it. As this happens, Geed punches at it repeatedly, trying to keep the pressure on it as he keeps staying close to the giant frog the best that he can.
Audrey Basque	'Ghost Wall', someone shouts, and that's useful information for Audrey. OK, no, it's not really, but it's a name and if she has to ask people things at least she'll know what to call it. Then there's a bit of clarity; don't lob physical things at it. THAT is really useful to know. So she'd... best focus on the frog, then? People have, luckily, flocked in. She recognizes Riku - not by name, just by transformation - so that's at least one familiar face. An angry woman with a ghostly sword, a truck that suddenly drops by and a man with a shotgun, a shouting robot woman with a ray gun, a fox woman with guns... Deep breaths. She could adapt to this. You thinking you can't? I'll manage. PHONE: Petra Soroka says, "So, hypothetically, my priority would be to keep it from escalating into something that would damage something I do care about; meaning, probably, hurting civilians and causing a whole big disaster." Okay well... already on that. Being thanked by what small parts of the crowd hadn't already scattered seems to fluster Audrey a tad, who is not used to that at all. She doesn't get time to dwell on it though, that frog is blastin'! Plasma and debris both crash and freeze an inch from Audrey, struggling against a barely visible distortion that seems to be shielding her. With a pushback, the distortion twists, and the shots and debris both go flying back for the frog unceremoniously. The collateral risks go up everytime those two monsters look at each other. So she takes a chance; puts her hands together, cups them like she's holding a cube that she expands. The streets stretch, the distance between buildings doubling and doubling until there's vast swaths of empty street. It looks odd, and stretched, and not natural at all, but it's isolating the immediate area around the fighting titans and it'll keep them from getting out-- or bystanders from getting in. Hopefully.
Corona Arclite	"Sunnovabich!" Though getting shot at with weird things is nothing unusual for Corona, who vaults backwards to avoid being blasted directly with plasma while using her own blaster to shoot several of them down. But the shotgun style spread is more than she can counterfire and a few still hit the pavement, showering her with fragments of concret superheated by the plasma. It leaves visible smoldering spots in her jacket as it slowly burns through the material and the protective lining underneath. Corona reachs up to pinch a spot on the brim of her stetson to smother small flames and readjusts the hat a bit to it's not dangling in her face. "Interestin' gun ya go there." She raises her arm and holds it out, taking aim with the oversized sidearm she wields. While giving Greed enough time to leap in and do his melee assault. She's patiently aiming her shot, waiting until he isn't in her line of fire. Only then does she pull the trigger. The gun barks loudly as it fires and sends it's shot screaming towards the space-frog. But it's not just a bullet, as upon impact it releases a potent electrical shock.
Meresankh	A few of Meresankh's warriors are swept aside by ghost claws and the others disperse, take cover from the hail of frog plasma, and return fire with their own ray guns. She wonders, as she often does, about what her warriors are experiencing, if they are conscious of the pain. If some spark of self lingers in those shells or if they are truly walking graves. Metaphorically shaking the thoughts away, she turns her attention to her other allies. Spotting Ultraman Geed getting close and personal with the frog, Meresankh raises her scepter and announces on the radio her intention to adjust the flow of time for him. A moment later everything in Geed's vision slows, while Geed in everyone else's accelerates. Keeping the pressure on the frog will be that much easier, now, even if the warped time is an odd sensation to experience. Her mental analysis of the frog's technology completes. Crude machining, as she suspected. "We need to disrupt the cooling on that plasma gun!" she calls out via radio. "That's its weak point!"
Natsuki Nuki	'Use somethin' else or put that thing away, you hear?' Natsuki actually reacts to the presence of the big American truck rolling up through Sotenbori, almost as disruptive to the street thoroughfare as a kaiju. Almost! The active kaiju attack definitely beats it. Ultraman - actually, people around Sotenbori recognize Ultraman and react accordingly, pointing and running away (positive) when he jumps into the fight. It's Heisei era Japan! Yay, Ultraman! The Demon Wall is, of course, actively what Natsuki is going after and the shattering swing-out she makes with Chernobog's signature zweihander smokes with purple-black spores and dark chill. Where it impacts, crystal mushroom caps and frozen scars of debilitation are left - and after a few moments of growing and darkening the crystal mushrooms explode into demonic ice magic! While delivering her beatdowns, it's the leap-down of the frog and Calvin's arrival that gets her talking. "Are you just going to talk at that big gun-lugging frog? It's enormous and shooting up the city!" Natsuki complains at the Demon Marshal, while having not cared about the kaiju attack herself until the threat to her own enjoyment was made manifest. "Are you going to politely walk them out of the city to run free in the open fields of assholes like a spider you found in the corner?!" All her jibberjabber and angry-frowning talk isn't helpful in Natsuki's own self-defense, and her level of respect for the average haunt is critically low. When it, empowered and screeching, swipes down at her while she braces and counterswings with her greatsword, her floaty power swing is shoved aside -- with the rest of her! Swatted into a building and crunching the wall into chunky debris, Natsuki only causes more damage on her way out, springing back onto the street. <J-IC-Scene> Audrey Basque says, "I'm isolating the space, you'll be able to go all out without any risks for the area or crowd." "Perfect." The chimera Osakan declares, tail uncoiled from behind her and looped around her right side to glare red-eyed with her through the dust. "I'll just tear you apart without worrying about it!" Hurling Chernobog's Black Avenger as an enormous javelin at the frog, Natsuki ignores the perhaps-relevant 'go easy on me' Audrey requests after. Destroying the pavement and testing the space mage's control right as she takes off, her hands-forward pounce pivots one sleeve-rippingly enormous tiger paw slam-swipe. Each of the wicked claws crackle with lightning, leaving a wave of electrical sub-detonations as she brings it down on top of the demon wall.
Calvin Nash	The tapirs explode into their intended effect as soon as they make contact--which is great, when their target attacks them outright! It's not great when those attacks create aftershocks of concrete debris. Chernobog places himself between the debris and Calvin, his body seemingly coming to life as the large sword flicks and whickers through the air, deflecting with the flat of the blade. Smaller chunks still break off and pelt the both of them, but it's better than the alternative. A bit of laser spread zips past Calvin's head, and he spits a swear, taking cover behind the truck. Are you just going to talk at that big gun-lugging frog? It's enormous and shooting up the city! Doing that hadn't worked out fantastically, it's true. No one is more annoyed by that than Calvin, who assumed the big frog was simply another hotshot would-be demon hunter like the Priest from before. "It'll be aight, Natsuki." There's not much evidence to suggest it will be, but Calvin would rather die than admit he made a mistake, and if he did make one, it wasn't that big a deal, and if it is, he'll handle it. "New plan," he says to his demon partner. "I'll stay on the Ghost Wall. You get after that sumbitch with the laser." "I would prefer not to," says the mushroom man, glancing towards the spot on the building across from them still smouldering from the impact of the blast. "It'll be aight," he says for the second time. Chernobog sighs. Calvin settles his jaw, extends one hand towards Chernobog, and rattles off several magic spells (with irritated haste), each one bathing the demon in a differently colored light. "Sukukaja, Samakaja, Rakukaja, Makakaja. You happy?" he asks flatly. "Thank you." Calvin mutters something under his breath as Chernobog vaults the truck, springing forward and rocking the vehicle on its suspension as he propels himself through a spread of energy blasts like threading a needle. His robes flutter as he twists and lands, gliding with unnatural speed towards the frog. He stops on a dime behind Ultraman, letting his much larger ally attack first before wheeling out from behind his leg with a horizontal slash. A scything crescent of deathly energy whistles through the air, on a collision course with the frog's wrist, followed swiftly by another as the demon makes an overhead. Calvin, meanwhile, furiously types in commands into his COMP, retrieving a handful of special cartridges. .load inv .get slug 10B 3 .get slug 11B 2 .get slug 12B 6 The Ghost Wall is stubborn and it's dangerous to everyone around it. That means the best way to handle it is to address the second part first and worry about the resilience once it can't cause much collateral. Calvin hurriedly slots the cartridges into the gun in the order he'd retrieved them--leaving 6 he has to slip into one of the pouches at his belt. Racking the pump, he rises from his position of cover to strafe around and reduce the potential cone of collateral harm by placing himself closer to Natsuki. He batters the Ghost Wall with a barrage of five homing magical projectiles--three polar bears that explode into supernatural clinging frost which threatens to envelop it, two large birds of prey which sink their talons in and explode into tremor-inducing electricity that racks its form and flares up every time it makes a swing or toss.
Futaba Nuki	When Geed comes down at the giant frog, said frog actually seems to recognize the danger enough to start taking evasive action. In a one on one battle against the big silver man, that sort of maneuver might even work as the prelude to a close-range battle across the city, but this isn't a one-on-one duel. This is a battle with several more opponents cutting off all of its escape routes and most of its options! Instead of rolling across half the block in a single movement, Audrey's spatial distortion means it barely crosses even the distance between markings in the street. It looks just as confused as the fleeing civilians that can barely even hear the battle behind them at this point, but those escaping the area aren't going to complain about not having to worry about being caught up in all those toku sparks and purple frog-blood spraying out of each strike to that frog's face. The strikes also prove that, unlike the demon wall, the giant frog has no specialized resistances against physical harm. The electric shot from Corona sizzles against the giant frog's skin, and the bullet itself draws another spray of heated blood along with a garbled cry. Being that much bigger, though, means the shock is more of a hindrance than the bullet stuck several inches deep inside of its flesh. What really drives that bullet in, then, is the sudden arrival of the Black Avenger-turned-javelin, drawing a much more painful shriek from the frog that leaves its arm barely hanging on. Chernobog comes in to ensure that 'barely' stops being an accurate description of that arm, and the arm goes flying. The frog doesn't even have much time to scream at that, either, as the followup slash from on high leaves the bipedal frog with a bloody gash over one eye that's sure to form into a cool scar a few weeks down the line when it's had time to lick its wounds. Surely. Something changes with that slash, though, as the frog's survival instincts kick into overdrive. Rather than just trying to evade Meresankh's time speeding shenanigans around Geed, it recognizes that enough has changed that it can't just use its usual tactics that have yet to even come into play. Instead, it tries to just power right through them instead. It kicks off the ground to bring both legs up to its chest, using Geed as a springboard for a standing dropkick to try and punt him towards the one person that it noticed having an answer to all those projectiles: Audrey. As it does that, the remaining arm continues firing that plasma shotgun at the smaller Elites, taking advantage of most of them being in close range to try and obliterate them with those massive pink fireballs! The demon wall is faring relatively better than the frog at first, almost entirely due to its ghastly state and also being a wall that is meant to take punishment rather than a big frog that isn't. It's more than happy to clash with Natsuki head on even as she slams her lightning-calling claws right into it, all while trying to drag her and anyone else in range of those hands directly into the void at its center. The skeletal hands and people-mangling bowling lane equipment in that void would be bad on their own, but even that aura starts to impart the feeling of being forced into a pinsetter and crammed through so much bowling lane equipment most certainly not meant for a person! Calvin's magical offensive against the ghost wall works wonders against it as well, although the demon seems to be just a bit more wary of striking the bears and birds with its hands. It flings oversized bowling pins at Calvin and his elemental animals, the giant and oddly shaped projectiles ricocheting off the ground and sliding towards the Elites like small cars being flung about. Natsuki's shattering ice explosions and Calvin's exploding bears, meanwhile, have it belting out horrid creaking noises not unlike that of rusted steel and broken parts being forced to operate through mechanical jams instead of receiving proper maintenance.
Futaba Nuki	Despite its efforts to knock Calvin's bears away, the electric magic and the electric pulse from Corona's bullet coursing through it draw more pained howls from the ghost wall while its various displays flicker on. They 'reward' him with cheap bowling lane graphics of bloody-eyed people staring directly at the viewer, along with text scrolling by congratulating someone on their NICE CORN.
Audrey Basque	Please don't test my limits, Audrey asks nicely, because it does take SOME amount of focus to flawlessly warp the space without causing a whole lot of cataclysms all around and the more banged up it is the harder it'll be to snap back into its proper shape. This is immediately disregarded and causes Audrey to turn white in horror at the realization this isn't going to be a walk in the park. The streets are getting torn, and-- She's roleplaying her fe-- Why did she keep it on. Of all the stupid mistakes to make while trying to focus. ... is that someone being kicked at her? THAT IS SOMEONE BEING KICKED AT HER. Brief panic. Is her-- is it SAFE for someone to touch her right now? No, hang on, she's still trying to adjust the field, and she's gone from horror-white to flustered-red in five seconds flat because of-- There's really no time for Audrey to adjust, or to try to lighten the blow. When Riku impacts her, she doesn't budge an inch, because the entire impact of the blow ripples through the crunched space around her and essentially shoots right back out. It'd be like Riku got hit twice as hard! "Oh no, no! I'm sorry!" Yeah not even minding her language here, no "I apologize", that's too long. "I didn't mean to--" Oh she lost her concentration on the field too. Reality wobbles, and two flabs of space overlap and risk crushing the frog! It's pretty nasty, like having gravity amped up to a thousand in two opposite directions. Mercifully, it comes and goes, and even at its worst it shouldn't gore the poor frog. It just won't be fun either.
Riku Asakura	The frog hits directly in the center of mass Geed, which causes him to fall and spark dangerously. He rolls across the ground and unfortunately, Audrey is in the way of the rolling three-story-tall Ultraman. His momentum is turned back on him two-fold, and more sparks rain down the back of Geed. He rolls to a stop and doesn't immediately move after impacting Audrey's field. Shaken from that attack and collision with Audrey's field, Geed takes time to climb back to his feet, but he does so. Shaking with pain and misery, Geed struggles but is, fortunately, able to get back into the swing of things as he looks over at the frog and seems to be charging up something. Energy coalesces on either side of Geed's hands, as he starts looking like a walking power surge. His body is enhanced in speed thanks to Meresankh, who is currently warping time around him so he seems to move like a TV in fast forward. He dives towards the monster and flips onto his hands and knees so that he's facing the back of the frog. His goal? Aiming for the part of the ray gun that Meresankh told him to aim, he pulls his arms into a cross, and fires a beam of energy right for the back of the machine, aiming to try and destroy it and blow the frog up at the same time, holding nothing back because Audrey said they could go all out in the field she made.
Meresankh	The frog is, for the moment, focused on other elites, so Meresankh turns her attention back to the ghost wall that continues menacing her warriors. "Fall back!" she calls to her embattled underlings. "Take the fallen with you!" The soldiers hurry to collect the downed-but-slowly-regenerating members of the column and carry them to safety. "I'll handle this myself," Meresankh says to them as they pass behind her. Under covering fire from the mechanized artillery she brought, Meresankh floats at running speed toward the ghost wall. As she enters its reach she raises her staff again, and it flares with power. Lightning arcs outward from the orb atop the scepter, flowing in all directions, crawling across nearby surfaces and leaving electrical burns on the pavement as the arcs of electricity branch and merge and branch again. Although usually a defensive technology, this sphere of volatile energy should go a long way to punishing the ghost wall's half-blind grabbing at everything around it!
Corona Arclite	A direct hit. Corona twirls her sidearm in her hand before dropping her arm down to holster it. "Maybe next time y'all think better about causin' a ruckus in mid--" Then she's interrupted by a large bowling pin shape slamming down, skidding across the ground to catch the vulpine woman and push her into a wall. Because her focus had still been on the frog and got blindsided. But it didn't crush her apparently. When the pin gets pushed away one can see why, as a set of mechanical limbs had extended from her backpack to brace against the giant object and keep it from crunching her. A final shove moves it away, and the limbs retract once more. "Quick thinkin' there Hopalong, 'ppreciate it." The robotic jackalope shutter-clicks an optic like a wink before tucking his head back down into the backpack that's his body. "As fer you," there's a gleam in the lenses of her goggles as she reachs into her eccentric collection of weaponry, "now ya got my attention." And she pulls out a weapon large enough that she has to heft it onto a shoulder, with a lot of greebly bits, a chamber holding a large glowing crystal, and some kind of sci-fi protusion instead of a barrel. The spurs on her heels also serve as anchors to brace herself. "Say hello to my not so little friend!" It shows she was paying attention to earlier, as the weapon fires what is for all intents and purposes a big freaking laser beam!
Natsuki Nuki	'It'll be aight, Natsuki.' Calvin promises this, but Natsuki doesn't believe him one bit. Even being thrown around buildings and hurtling lightning around like a stormcloud that could swear and smelled faintly of soup and heavily of ozone, there's a periphery of her harping on the demon handler. "You sure?" She asks, with the same kind of disbelieving candor of a 'you good?' after someone suffers a terrible fall. 'Sukukaja, Samakaja, Rakukaja, Makakaja.' "Are you buffing now? Damn! It's so not alright!" Natsuki catches and shouts across the tight quarters, trying to backhop. Her arm, rippling from striped orange fur somehow back to leather jacket wrapped sleeve as the monstrous bulging retract back into wrapper and her other brings up the Black Avenger in a one handed retreating swipe when. . . Suddenly the world warps several times, both because Ultraman Geed crashes into Audrey so the space witch loses her concentration and because suddenly she's being sucked into the center of the Demon Wall! "Ghhk... Hey, [Metal Gal]!" Natsuki shouts over the wall. "It's focusing on me, make it hurt!" Bracing against the pull by shifting her stance, what really stops her from just falling in is the sprouting of centipede legs from the serpentine sides of her tail, and mandible jaws from the fore, the long black appendage chomp-gripping to the earth behind her and cracking the ground as she stretches. It gives her all the room she needs. Two-handing her borrowed blade and charging it with electricity from her arms, she heaves the greatsword into the 'head' of the Demon Wall as it tries to consume her, letting go and springing back on the muscular retraction of her anchor to get free before Meresankh's own electrical attacks can use the blade as a focus point!
Calvin Nash	Are you buffing now? Damn! It's so not alright! "It's under control," Calvin asserts. With the effects of magically-induced freezing and tremors at work, an onerous opponent is made more manageable. "See?" Calvin attests, tucking and rolling out of the way of the Ghost Wall's grasping hand. Coming up to a kneel on the sidewalk, he quickly dips his hand into the pouch at his belt and retrieves the five cartridges he'd called forth moments ago. He hurriedly loads them into the breech, but before he can rack the pump, there's another swipe to try and drag him into that void. "Megidoam!" A beam of concentrated purple energy erupts from Calvin's right hand as he braces it with the shotgun's barrel. The force knocks him backwards, ducking him under the grasping hand and sliding him across the ground just out of its reach. It slams into the wall, an intensive but inarguably effective attack which Calvin only maintains long enough to get himself clear. Rolling back onto his feet and standing, he takes cover behind a street light and blasts away with more sleep-inducing homing spells. It seems resistant to those--but, as Calvin notes, "We're gettin' it where I need it for the big bonanza." Chernobog is having less luck--'hey, death and plant coded guy, dodge these big balls of fire' is not a prompt he cares to deal with. He's fast, for something so tall, but fast only gets you so far when your enemy is using saturation tactics. He utters a hiss like the beginnings of a winter wind through dry, stiff branches, his cloak sizzling as dark blue mycelium oozes and cooks off. Darting an erratic zig-zag between the projectiles, he fires back with more of his own. While his opponent is much larger, he still wields his weapon for its intended purpose of controlling space--broad swings made with deadly speed send more crescents of death energy upwards, and mixed in with them is a fusillade of howling wind, straining against the confines of their X-shaped prison and exploding on impact into a litany of lacerating strikes. He positions himself such that attempting to close on Ultraman and Audrey (whether on foot or by leap) means taking much more of the former projectile than the latter.
Futaba Nuki	The frog has exactly one thing to be thankful for: Having a softer body means it's moderately less susceptible than a hardier space beast would be to getting flattened by Audrey's spatial overlap smashing right through it on both sides. It does get pretty flat at first, though, complete with wet hurking noises as all that air and plenty of blood get forced right out of it, but it does keep most of its parts intact when that sensation comes and goes. It's not so thankful about the gear it brought with it, though, when Geed takes Meresankh's advice to blow up that plasma shotgun. Indeed, the amount of shots that frog has put out means the weapon is venting heat at a nigh constant rate, so feeding more heat into it with that Wrecking Burst creates a terrible explosion from the frog's side that ashes its remaining arm and sears the resulting wounds shut entirely. Corona's big laser repeats the same effect to what's left of the frog's other arm, spreading the smell of cooking flesh as it howls and tries searching desperately for an escape route rather than sticking around for more punishment. It spies an opporunity to escape, too, as Audrey seems to be distracted by something, but instead of getting away, it's going... Downwards? Chernobog's broad slashes remove the frog's legs at the base, sending them flying ands pinning eratically into the distance in yet more geysers of purple blood, leaving the frog to fall right on the street without any means of defending itself nor lashing out at its enemies. The ghost wall, meanwhile, isn't looking quite so hot either. All that electric energy coming from Calvin and Corona had already lit it up enough to look and sound like a bowling lane during Halloween in the middle of the street. With Natsuki making herself the obvious aggro magnet, the ghost wall is all too eager to try and keep pulling her in even as she growns in limb and jaw quantity. Unfortunately for the wall, that's exactly what ends up working against it. Natsuki's Chernobog's Black Avenger's electrical charge surges through it enough to hold the wailing demon still, paralyzed momentarily by the blade sunk right through its skull and slowed down further by Calvin's continued barrage of sleep-inducing attacks. It mostly seems to be getting through its wanging stamina through pure rage at this point, still howling and screeching as loudly as ever despite slowing down so much. Once it's able to move, it grasps angrily upwards to try and yank that blade out, still trying as hard as ever to reach out and pull Natsuki back in even as she springs away. Instead of getting a hold of the blade, however, Meresankh's predictions prove fruitful as it's just too slow to get her, and it ends up clamping down on that lightning sphere instead. Sparks shoot through not just the screens, but the void that would be where bowling balls and pins would fall into in a regular bowling lane. It lights up enough to reveal a mangled corpse forced into all of that equipment, draped in tattered scraps that mirror those of the skeletal figure coming out of the wall. As the heads of both the corpse and the skeletal figure tilt backwards, the eyes of the former and ghostly lights seem to be staring directly at everyone at once, and they scream in a horrendous, ear-splitting unison while countless pin-sweepers erupt from the ghost wall, threatening to drag the Elites into the same fate as the corpse inside of it.
Riku Asakura	Countless pin sweepers threaten to pierce the elites gathered and drag them into the demon wall to suffer the same fate as the giant skeleton that the wall has right now. However, some news comes over the radio that helps them out. <J-IC-Scene> Meresankh says, "Boosting the gravity. Find something to hold onto!" Doing just that, Geed grabs onto the very ground itself, holding on for dear life as the gravity comes down, drawing pin sweepers away from himself. He can't get the Geed Barrier up in time, but he does manage to weave and duck through the weapons and manage to avoid being impaled directly by the sweepers. Instead, they glance off of his body, causing sparks as he moves by. Hurting, but neither causing him to fall or impale him. The yelling gets to him, so he breaths in, and releases a roar of his own, trying to overpower the screeching of the Demon wall and attempting to cause actual physical damage to the wall with the power of his WRECKING ROAR!
Corona Arclite	<J-IC-Scene> Meresankh says, "Boosting the gravity. Find something to hold onto!" The warning comes at about the same time as the Wall Ghost revealing it's true horrorific innards in a ghastly display, and activating a mockup on the pin collectors. With those two things her choice in action isn't hard to make. She stows the cannon, and points her arm to the side to fire the grappler built into her gunslinger gloves. It actually punches through a window to grab onto something inside the building, yoinking the vulpine over the pin collectors scraping across the street and through the window into the building where she can hunker down safely from both the ghost and Meresankh's gravity shenanigans. But it wasn't without a parting gift. In the form of a couple of explosives Corona dropped in her wake, to be caught by the pinsweepers instead and dragged into the monster's hideous form. They're not very potent, but getting up in those inner posessed workings should still sting.
Calvin Nash	"Here it comes." Calvin taps a command into his COMP. .get slug 13C The little grey cartridge that materializes in his hand to the fanfare of floating green pixels and binary digits must be what he'd heralded as 'the big bonanza.' Loading it into the breech and racking the pump authoritatively. He wheels out from cover to put the post behind him, rather than take shelter behind it--then he notes Natsuki's transformed profile and reassesses the shot. Using an overturned car to her right instead, he takes a knee, lines up a shot and pulls the trigger. A continuous stream of energy, much like his earlier spell, billows so forcefully from the shotgun that Calvin is pushed into the overturned car--hard enough to elicit a steadying grunt from him. His biceps strain to keep the gun level and on-target, and for good reason. Where it makes contact with the Ghost Wall, that slate-colored beam induces rapid petrification--and the longer he keeps it trained on the wall, the faster it seems to spread. On the opposite end of the street-turned arena, Chernobog twirls the greatsword overhead in a flourish, before lowering it to his left side, slowly gliding across the street, and staring at the frog like a freak.
Meresankh	The frog is dispatched entirely, but the ghost wall unleashes its ultimate attack, a hellish scream and black-hole-like pull toward the void at its center. Meresankh is, unfortunately, already in mid-air near the wall, so she is quickly sucked toward that all-consuming mess of pinsetters. She swirls her cloak around herself just in time, escaping from the wall's maw with a timely teleport to a few dozen yards away. It takes her a moment longer to recover from the mental effects, however, as that void not only promised oblivion but radiated the sensation of it. The threat of a second, potentially final death is enough to leave Meresankh shaken. She hunkers down behind a parked car before realizing she should do something to help her allies. "Boosting the gravity," she says into her radio. "Find something to hold onto!" As she finishes, she waves her scepter above her head, and barely-visible threads of energy spread out to the other elites. On contact, their subjective gravity is greatly increased, making it much easier for them to hold themselves down against the wall's pull albeit at the cost of some of their speed. The threads are easy enough to evade if you really don't want that! At the same time, Meresankh glances back at the Doomstalker she brought, still anchored firmly to the ground. "Full power!" she shouts, more for her own benefit than anything else. With another wave she transfers a large share of her scepter's energy supply to the walking artillery, and it charges its cannon for several seconds before taking aim directly at that void in the center of the wall... You'd expect such a powerful attack to make a lot of noise, but it's hardly louder than the usual low hum of its Necron doomsday cannon. The neon-green beam grows in intensity as Meresankh feeds more power into the device-- even if she burns this one out it will be easy enough to repair at home, and she really needs this shot to count!
Audrey Basque	There's a LOT going on! Audrey is doing her best. When gravity amps up, and the ghostly pin-sweepers blast out, she realizes she can't just stand her ground on that one. The field might not-- it's ghostly magic stuff, she's never tested. And this is a terrible, terrible situation to test things in. As if her focus needed more strain, that thing screeches like a banshee. Rather than risk anything, Audrey tumbles to the side-- not entirely intentionally, she'd meant to make a much smoother movement than that. She trips into mirrored cracks, reappearing on one of the stretched out, far away rooftops she can see. Not without issue, because it's less that she smoothly reappears there and more like she puts herself two feet above the ground, mid-tumble. Pros: didn't get ghostly pin-sweepered. Cons: bruised an elbow. She does rise, mumbling something under her breath about really, really needing to find someone who can help her hone proper high-stress situation focus. From this distance there's not a lot she can do. But if gravity is being manipulated, maybe... just the right tug, at the right moment, might... A simple twist, to add some kick to one of those threads, and rather than have it apply to her, force it into the Wall. Since it's not physical, it might not affect it as much, but she's amped it up quite a bit, and at the very least it'll make it even less mobile than it already is.
Natsuki Nuki	Taking advantage of the paralysis caused by the sword, Natsuki manages to not get mauled by the gears and parts. It's a near thing, but she can get a few sweeps in, knuckle countering some of the onrushing pins and gears by simply punching them head on or at an angle to guide the threats aside. Fading back in the screeching with an arm crunched and thankful for the fall of lightning once more, Natsuki barely has time to preen herself and offer a confident if a little stiff laugh about the fight already won before the Demon Wall reminds her that it's not. Smashed and caught up, it's touch and go for a moment. Spiderlegs pierce the back of her jacket and plant themselves in the ground behind her to scrape into the street and stabilize, and Natsuki has to deal with looping pin strings and every manner of haunted bowling ball wall shenanigan as it tries to make her budge. The 'jaws', as they are, close in. Charged up, glowing red from eyes and white from arcing crackles, she's about to meet force with force again and trust Audrey has things contained. She wasn't paying attention, but the schoolgirl said that so it must be true. Then... '<J-IC-Scene> Meresankh says, "Boosting the gravity. Find something to hold onto!"' "Miss me with that, tch," The almost-unleashed chimera decides, shifting into dark stormcloud-mist and raw energy for a sudden retreat, dragging sword free as she goes. Sliding to a stop still surrounded by a veil of bad weather, Natsuki aims up above the Demon Wall and hurls her sword so that the spinning blade of misfortune can be in the funniest place when Meresankh's gravity effect takes hold.
Futaba Nuki	Getting screamed back at would normally just be unpleasant, but Geed's shout has several things going for it: Ultraman's size, happening in close range, and happening right in the ghost wall's pit. The noise rattles whatever counts for its insides terribly as pieces of that corpse knocked right off where they're held together by that roar. Nobody will have to feel too bad about the reanimated corpse and skeletal wall mount for long, though, as Calvin and Meresankh both level their respective shots to ensure that nothing will be left inside of the bowling ghost's interior for long. The petrifaction beam strikes home first, turning those decayed remains and the and rusted parts to solid stone first, working its way up to that skeletal figure and the wall around it. It's not for a lack of trying to get away that the wall can't move, but it can't move nearly quickly enough before Meresankh's cannon reaches it. The beam bores a hole straight through the pit, the wall, and then some. It could be a problem for whoever/whatever's on the other side of that beam, but Audrey's defensive thinking kicks the ghost wall up at an odd angle that happens to work wonders for keeping the beam out of the actual city! Sweeping Corona's grenades into itself, too, rattles the ghost wall even further when they inevitably detonate inside of it, dislodging several of those ghostly pinsetters all at once despite their physical existence being questionable enough already. Natsuki's transformation, compared to everything else coming at it, doesn't get nearly the amount of immediate focus that might be warranted, after everything the ghost wall has seen of her already. This proves to be it's downfall, of course, as it.. Well, it doesn't have a lot to stand on any further, but that doesn't mean it won't go down swinging. While in the throes of its last ditch effort to drag everyone in, it doesn't even notice the spinning Natsuki blade hurtling towards it until Meresankh's gravity has already brought it through the top of both the skeletal wall figure and the fragmented remains of the petrified figure inside, cleaving them both in... No, it's not cleaved at all. It's just been pulverized outright, physical resistances be damned. Finally, after all that, the ghost wall starts to dissipate, fading into the night sky with the breeze in a light dusting of powdered stone and electronic sparks. The frog, meanwhile, stares right back at Chernobog with those balefully beady frog eyes. It looks like it wants to eat him, or... No, just chew him up and spit him out purely out of spite, as it doesn't have any limbs left to do much else but that. It truly is in a pitiful state, between its burnt arm stumps and its still-bleeding leg stumps. With the sounds of battle finally starting to fade, civilian first responders start to show up as well, rushing into the hospital and other buildings where they can to look for any other people that might have been trapped or wounded. Some of them might even struggle for a while with Audrey's spatial distortions or Meresankh's gravity effects if they're still lingering, too, and Futaba... She's still in the hospital, groaning and huffing and puffing from keeping the hospital ceiling up for so long. Civilian responders going in means she might have to hold it a little longer, but the immediate danger to the city is gone.
Audrey Basque	A distracted Audrey brings a finger up to one of her ears, clicking something off. That's... quite enough of that, for the evening. She frowns, deeply troubled, returning her gaze down from the roof to the hospital and the stretched out space. She brings her hands together, snapping the area back to how it should be-- it's a bit rough, and sudden, and disorienting, but it's not dangerous. Sadly, with the amount of damage caused (thanks Natsuki!!), the snap back isn't... flawless. But it's a lot better than it'd look if she hadn't stretched the distances up. That wasn't a quiet or relaxing evening at all, but at least it was successful? She's... still not sure what she barged into the middle off here.
Natsuki Nuki	> Sadly, with the amount of damage caused (thanks Natsuki!!), the snap back isn't... flawless. In Sotenbori, that's mission accomplished. Thanks to Audrey's spatial backing, the butterfly pin of the (second, spiritual knockoff) black blade of misfortune slams the demon wall right through its physical resistance (which isn't physical immunity!!!) thanks to the incredible power of space gravity, and all is well in the world. Except Natsuki's jacket, which is ruined. Meandering back through the city as the snap-back brings back the rubble mostly into place and de-debris the city enough for responders to sweep in and help any stragglers that weren't rallied by Futaba or Ultraman, Natsuki finds the (shorter) form of Audrey, looks down her nose, smirks faintly, and cocks a fingergun index and thumb at the witch. "You're that new Partner, aren't you? That makes you my junior now! Ahaha, finally, someone I can go drinking with!" Natsuki calls, before hyoo-hyoo-hyoo thrushsong laughing and turning around to locate Calvin. "Calvin! Hyoo-hoo! We're going drinking!" She calls, like one might sound a dinner bell for a belligerent son or husband. Throwing an arm around the witch to drag her off while still faintly smelling of spilled soup and haunted gear grease.
Calvin Nash	Calvin scoots out from under the overturned car just in time for things to snap back to... mostly-normal. He ejects the spent cartridge, retrieves his hat from the ground, plants it back on his head, and navigates to a status screen on his COMP, balancing the shotgun in his inner elbow to do so. Calvin! Hyoo-hoo! We're going drinking! Calvin knows that tone. Perhaps not from Natsuki in particular, but he knows it and grew up around it. He quickly glances in the upper right corner of the wrist-mounted computer's display. FRI 3/14 Then, at the time. Finding both to be acceptable, he gives Natsuki a thumbs-up. "Aight, Ms. Natsuki. I'll meet y'all up there--gotta clean up here." He doesn't drink when he's on the clock--but with a little more work here, he'll be off the clock and into the weekend. "Chernobog!" He flags his partner down. "Good hustle. Don't stare like that. Gives people the wrong idea." "Not from my perspective." Calvin points at his partner, brow raised imperiously, but doesn't say anything. This technique is much more effective on those who don't interpret the brow as being raised imperiously. In what appears to be a languid afterthought, Chernobog peels himself from staring at the frog to rejoin with Calvin--just in time to catch some kind of pearl from the Demon Marshal, tossed lightly underhand. "There you go. Drive that into you. Didn't I tell you it'd be aight?" "Regrettably," says the god of entropy, winter, death and decay. "Thank you." The demon crushes it in his robe-occluded hand; ooze-stained and burnt robes begin to knit the damage away. "Yessir. Now, let's get down there with Futaba and help the rest of them folks over at the hospital. I ain't 'bout to miss drinks with Natsuki."
Audrey Basque	"O-Oh, erm-- y-yes! Hello!" No, there's no time to talk, Natsuki is a whirlwind. Why does she smell like soup? No, nevermind that, Audrey should be concerned the much taller woman has her hand around her shoulder and-- Drinking. This is... a victory ritual, basically? She... well, it'd be... disrespectful, to say no to Partners, sharing in their rituals and like-- "N-Nice to meet yoOOUUU--" She is being dragged off. Pour one out for her. She's going to need it.
Corona Arclite	As things quiet down Corona pokes her head out of the window. "Good, that's over with." She climbs out, and strolls over to check on where she left the drones to help Futaba with the hospital. They've got the wall, she's got the ceiling, and there's emergency operatives going in and out to deal with things. Everything in order, at least for after a giant monster attack. She sighs, removing her goggles from her face and letting them hang around her neck. "Reckon gonna need a long hard drink after that." It was pretty weird, even for what she normally deals with.