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Cantio	Word has spread about a recently unified continent with rather illogical landforms and weather patters despite its size and the distance between the different regions. On this continent, eight different nations have been thrust into open war with one another, clashing at their borders and skirmishing all throughout the day. Accounts about the reasons for the sudden outbreak of violence vary wildly, but many agree on the most likely outcome: Widespread death, ruined homes, and ideal conditions for disease and decay to spread unchecked. Despite the lack of intel on the conflict itself, Cantio has decided to seize on this opportunity to interfere on behalf of those caught up in the middle of the warring kingdoms. Whether getting involved in the conflict out of genuine concern, aiding Cantio's goals, being wary of Cantio's and Desperado Enforcement's involvement, or for some other reason entirely, the warpgate deposits everyone in the same place in this new land. The group finds themselves on a narrow-ish strip of land, roughly two blocks across, with a lake and mountains to the south and the ocean to the north. At the center of the strip of land where the warp gate is located, a great tower extends into the sky, and the strip itself is flanked to the east and west by coastal villages just before reaching the greater land mass of the continent proper. An APC bearing the red skull-in-a-diamond insignia of Desperado Enforcement LLC rolls on through the warpgate, rolling to stop on the grass facing the great tower. Cantio, dressed in her usual white and purple getup, slides off the top of the APC while a good dozen cyborg mercenaries file out of the APC, guns at the ready as they fan out to make sure that there's no immediately hostile responses. "Everything looks clear here. No signs of hostilities just yet coming out of the warpgate, plenty of open space and clear skies." Cantio speaks into her phone, presumably recording or relaying information about the drop point as she glances around slowly. "It looks like there's only two paths from the warpgate, so that would have made things a little trickier if we had to fight over here, but I think we're going to be okay here." Naturally, Cantio saying that things might be okay immediately leads to things not being so okay. Her attention is directed westwards by one of the cyborgs, and he hands her a pair of binoculars to get a better look in that direction. Dust can be seen being kicked up far to the west, past the bends in the landstrip but before reaching the village in the distance. That dust seems to be coming from the ground as shambling corpses pull themselves out of it while fireballs rain down on them and kick up more dirt and leave small craters in their wake. It appears that an army of fireball-slinging mages in is facing off against a smaller, but incredibly resilient army of zombies. The mages are led by a pair of wizards, one gaunt with a magnificent beard and deathly pallor, and one with bright blue hair and actual human skin color. The zombies are being led and resurrected by a dandier looking wizard, complete with a floating cloak and a full tuxedo. None of them seem to notice anyone on this side of the land strip yet, busy as they are with trying to murder the other side and not get murdered themselves in the process. Cantio and the Desperado mercenaries are all drawing their weapons, too, the latter looking towards the former for guidance on who to fire on while the former seems to be weighing her options while they still exist.
Arcadia	New land region? Local environment and/or phenomenon that don't follow known logical patterns? Large scale conflict that could wipe out one or more civilizations? Checks a lot of the Argo Alexandrian elder scholars' boxes for needing investigation and documentation. The matter involving the actions of a Concord ally is mainly a bonus. Arcadia comes through the gate, moving at her usual exceptional pace, to the point that by the time anyone notices she's arrived she's already hovering in her usual fashion near Cantio and the DE LLC eyeing the distance. Which is enough for her to proc her own advanced sensory means, the magitek visor crackling into existance over her eyes. "This place is already in chaos." Sidebangs sway a little as she cants her head to one side thoughtfully. "I wonder if there is a greater purpose to waging all out warfare, or if this is like how many of The Line's tribes race-battled each other simply out of thrills and lack of alternative options in a constantly moving world..." She zooms her vision in a little more, getting a better glimps of what the mages are actually fighting. "Ugh! Why does every world have gross things like zombies?!" "So," she turns her attention partially back to Cantio. "Is there a side in this madness we're suppose to be trying to impress, or is this a Shoot 'Em All And Let The Gods Sort It Out type of situation?" As much as SHE would like to just rush in with guns blazing, she's at least learned to clarify with allies which ones she's suppose to be making unliving first.
Ishirou	Ishirou pops out of the portal with the APC. He's not as upbeat and ready to help as he usually is, seemingly more distracted or lethargic. He walks to the edge of the tower itself to look out over things, and immediately detects the energy, seeing the fighting starting a bit before most could. He frowns... Will these people change? Can he convince them..? Will it matter? Will others get caught up in this? These questions plague him as he initially starts to wonder what to do. "Suggestion: Use Biohacking to ascertain intent," POD says, speaking up next to him. Ishirou, being shaken out of his spiral looks at POD and shrugs. "Sure, I guess that's a start..." he says and reaches his hand out from here. He'll start with the mage army, trying to aim for those closer to their commanders...but if he has to he'll attempt to use Biohacking to try and figure out why they're fighting. He'll also do the same for the guy leading the undead. "Though...zombies? Really? That's so archaic..." he mutters. "I mean, I get why Trudy does it, but...come on.." he says, frowning. It's just in bad taste.
DRYCLEAN-SIGINT	A pulse in the air above. A shroud pulls away from a bristling vessel, as it shifts down from some higher dimension. An aperture casts an ornery gaze across the battlefield, and there is a moment of hesitation. All at once, almost as if an operation performance had begun, faint static crackles through the standard radio communication systems of all present; though nothing is conveyed directly, there is an implication to those with some experience: Someone's listening.     "Reckon this is the right place. How's the weather?" On cue, a panel slides back from the vessel, and a figure drops to the earth. The landing is not an elegant thing, though their form almost seems to distort at the impact. A few moments spent picking themselves back up.     DRYCLEAN adjusts their antennae their jacket. The vessel suddenly shoots upwards and almost out of sight in more ways than one, quieter than anticipated. The radar never registered it. They've already got down to work, listening over all the local radio and infonets, scraping together some info, some cause. Need some background for our friendly mages, y'know?. The static pries. They'll figure something out, eventually.
Hiromi	Hiromi isn't here, today, and has provided no indication of what it is that's occupying her, but in her place, she's sent one of her own pack to aid Cantio. The girl in the miko outfit is younger, smaller, closer 5' than 8' tall, less tanned, less overtly muscled (if still a match for any farmer's child), and has her brown hair (rather than black) in a long ponytail (rather than wild and loose). She is still, on some level more apparent to those with particular senses, clear kin to the Archwolf. This is not just due to the wolf-like ears and tail, but to some sliver of supernatural presence, to anyone close enough to notice.     She walks in shortly after the APC rather than having been able to hitch a ride, adjusts the strung bow over her shoulder, and pulls on a pair of ornate, bronze gauntlets that look overly large for her hands. They clap together, fist to palm, when she stands at a martial artist's salute. "Good day, Ms. Cantio! I am Hisako. The Archwolf has sent me to help with..."     She looks out in the direction of the fighting, and then in the opposite direction.     "I'm sorry, but I'm not sure what... it is I'm to help you do. Do you know either of those groups?"     Hisako's head slowly tilts in the opposite direction while maintaining an expression of mild confusion, though it clears to a conservatively friendly smile on reaching one of those others present. "Oh, hello, Mr. Ishirou. Do you know where we are?" She was, apparently, not told much of anything in getting her directions to come here.     "Maybe it would be easier to knock out all of their leaders and then ask them. Should I go and do that?" It's a casual question. As long as there's a battle going on, even without a lot of cover, she can get pretty close to the rear lines of one or the other.
Rubi-Kan Vagrants	Rising steadily above the din of crashing fireballs is the roar of a pulse detonation engine. The sound rattles the chest, makes the ears doubt themselves. It comes from the rapidly approaching armored hoverbike. Thick green plates sport golden motifs of alien beasts fleeing otherworldly hounds at the nose. The rider is no less massive than his craft, clad in bulky green power armor over a black bodysuit. A massive greataxe with a glowing monomolecular edge waits for him, secured along the running board. As the craft descends, the rider's cloak of helenium and feather reeds billows outwards, the light of day reflected on the imposing t-visor of his horned bucket helm.      The hoverbike's lift mechanism kicks up a cloud of dust as the rider makes a beeline for the battling wizards. He is as skillful as he is daring, weaving through the chaos of the battle and managing to avoid the worst of it. Even when a direct hit strikes him, it seems hard to budge him from his seat on that behemoth, and just as hard to make the damage 'stick.'      His axe then lifted, the rider stops in the middle of the fray, pulling a rapid 360 on a dime and tracing a line in the dirt with his axe, his grip loosened almost all the way to the butt of the haft. Given the weapon is over seven feet from butt to eye, it's a fairly large circle.      "EI!" He calls jovially, waving with an armored hand large enough to fit near-totally over most of the human mage's faces. "Thy ifightinge hath ill affecten the loth-folk. Thire shalt be som questiouns, from theim that lest ofaxen. Sware theim, and let not fot ne a casten charme encroisen this line." He utters a low chuckle.      "Elles I shalt fuck thee up."
Petra Soroka	The Kana trundles out of the warp gate, metal legs gouging into the soft earth. It tries to delicately step over the cyborgs milling around the field, but after a near miss and a burst of flame from a rocket to readjust before squooshing one, the mech instead hops into the air, sailing over to a patch of unoccupied ground. Despite the recognition of imminent battle with the wizards, the Kana squats to the ground, and its cockpit pops open.     Petra, looking grungy and tired still, pokes her face up and out, folding her hands on the hull of her mech to rest her chin on. "Hey, Cantio! That's a really good figure you're striking there, with the mercs and the vehicle." She twists to look idly towards the wizards, and squints. "What's that, a couple wizards fighting some zombies? It's kind of charming, actually!" She leans her cheek into her hands, looking dreamily happy despite the reasoning for being here. "As long as they're just fighting zombies, there's nothing to worry about. It's just the civilians we care about, right? We're not here on behalf of any side other than the noncombatants anyways."     Her smile drops when Ishirou arrives. He looks unhappy... from Petra's perspective it seems like *everyone* is mean to this guy, so she understands why. And she still feels guilty about blowing up at him at the hot springs, when he already looked down. Petra takes a deep breath. She refuses to let their first time meeting set the tone of their interactions forever. And besides--apologizing to *Lilian* is going to be way harder, she might as well take this as practice.     Take advantage of the momentum or it'll disappear! Petra vaults out of the mech, landing softly on the grass. A moment of hesitation. She grinds the toe of her combat boot into the ground. Her outfit looks a bit rattier in general, the bomber jacket and boots scuffed, though the overalls are still pristine. And in that moment of hesitation, three more elites she hasn't met arrive in various bombastic fashion, distracting her completely and shattering her resolve.     "Oh, new faces! A... baby Hiromi?" She tilts her head at Hisako, though her wondering is answered immediately. The hoverbike, and its rider, definitely catch her attention, though she's too intimidated by his vibe to say anything.
Hiromi	How Hisako is accessing the radio network without any electronic equipment isn't clear, though her ear perking up at DRYCLEAN's entrance indicates that she still heard 'something' as a result of that initial static. She turns to look and --     -- fails to comprehend the robot's form.     "Are you--" she starts, then cuts herself off, as some wary sense of politeness overrides her immediate curiosity. Asking questions about people's nature of existence can very easily be rude.     Petra's question distracts her, and Hisako turns to give her another salute. It's a fist-to-flat-palm affair, her back fully straight, feet a precise distance apart -- something clearly drilled, if not from what most would recognize as a formal military. The pale bronze of the gauntlets would be familiar only to someone who recalls the rings that Hiromi wears. "Hello, miss... I'm sorry, I missed your name. Have you met the Archwolf?" Her tail wags at the mention, just once.
Cantio	"If only they had fought a little further around that mountain." Cantio tries to joke after Arcadia's first comment, although it's clear her heart's not really in that one. It's a terrible joke. "Finding out why they've gotten this kind of state so quickly is part of the job today. Or at least getting some kind of better idea of what's going on here." The general disapproval of zombies is met with a slow nod from Cantio. "It makes it a little easier to just shoot instead of thinking about who we're attacking, at least. Just try to keep your distance if you can't handle the smell." As she says that, the cyborgs all chuckle in unison before tapping on the faceless plates covering what would otherwise be their faces, presumably doing something to filter the potential horrible smell out. Hearing the voice from above and the strange figure dropping out of it afterwards, Cantio finds herself distracted from the battle at least momentarily to hurry over to DRYCLEAN. "Weather's great! Uh. What are-who... Who are you? Are you a machine, or is this some kind of suit? What's it made out of?" She asks in rapid succession, just kind of circling around DRYCLEAN like a robot-obsessed weirdo. "Hisako? Oh, good afternoon! Morning?" Cantio pauses as she looks from Hisako to the sky. The sun is definitely out, but it's high enough in the sky that's it not clear if it's in the process of rising or setting yet. "I'm afraid I don't know anything about these groups yet, no. All we know so far is that there's at least eight main nations on this continent, but... I guess we can try to get some information from them?" She sounds uncertain as she gestures at the battling forces. Each time the mages look like they're about to get the upper hand, dandy commander casts some kind of strange magic that calls yet more zombies out of the ground, allowing the corpses to surge forward again and clog up grassland battlefield once more. "... Defeating their leaders might honestly be the best approach at this rate." She admits after a moment, glancing over at the cyborgs again who simply shrug, as though waiting for Cantio to actually decide. She's the one paying them, after all. Hearing Petra, though, has Cantio turning to laugh with a somewhat bashful shift in her footing (and probably erasing any strikingness her pose may have had). "Really? Oh, thanks! Yeah, this is.. I feel like I've seen something like this before. Several.. Times. Erm. Right, it doesn't look like the village itself is in danger, so..." She taps her chin lightly. "Maybe we could even question whoever wins? But that's a little..." She doesn't say 'lame' out loud, but her face is totally saying it.
Cantio	Ishirou's hacking efforts get a whole lot of raw data all at once. The regular mages just know that they're part of the rank and file soldiers of the FANDARIA EMPIRE, following the orders of their commanders GAUL and SCYTHE. Probing the minds of the mage commanders, meanwhile, is a little stranger: He finds that they both have a single-minded desire to kill RAMDA, the dandy commander of the zombies. Why, though, is unclear, as are the thoughts of the dandy himself. His goal, like the first two commanders, is to eradicate those commanders in particular so that he can get back to his work. What's stranger, though, is that despite their appearances, none of those three minds feels particularly human. DRYCLEAN's radio probing, meanwhile, actually manages to catch onto an underground network of transmissions. Scraping together information about the mages and the FANDARIA EMPIRE that they're working for reveals that the empire had recently declared war on goddamn everyone, followed by (almost) goddamn everyone following suit to declare war on the rest. Why war just spontaneously happened is unclear, but there's rumors floating around about messengers being killed, envoys being insulted, or even long-standing bloodfeuds coming to a boil. Confirmation of any of these details is iffy at best, considering the transmissions are all literally coming from underground. Weirdly enough, there's no above-ground transmissions or radios of any sort on this entire continent to draw from. Also, those handling these transmissions are convinced at least one of the nations involved is just a shitposter. Bercilak, though, winds up making the first move! Charging right into the battle, the mages and zombies alike have to halt while their commanders try and figure out what he's going on about. His hoverbike in particular gets their attention, too, as the three mages all look bewildered by it almost as much as they're confused by his manner of speaking. A few stray fireballs still manage to find their way flying by him, likely due to a couple of the grunts firing before actually getting word to cease. Once the initial shock of having their bloodbath interrupted by Bercilak wears off, however, the three magic using commanders all turn to face each other once more. "Help us, outsiders. This wretched miscreant seek to destroy the peace of Legendra!" The bearded wizard shouts, launching a plume of fire into the sky as meteors start raining down towards the zombie army. "We'll answer you as best we can after his zombies are back in the dirt!" The blue-haired wizard adds, clasping her hands together as a massive golem erupts from the ground, then starts sliding forward to charge through the zombie's ranks. "Heed not their lies, Multiversal saviors! They only seek to revive their dark god through any means!" The dandy wizard retorts, spinning around once with a dramatic flourish of his cape as he summons a trio of whirling tornadoes at the army of mages. Even though they're not aiming at the newcomers to this land in particular, fighting is all but a given, and collateral damage is incredibly likely at this rate.
Rubi-Kan Vagrants	Bercilak watches as a meteor rises up, tumbling down through the air. The explosion disturbs his line in the dirt--and just a moment later, so does one of the tornadoes. "O, thou wert al goinge to sware either wai," he says laughingly, shouldering his axe and revving the accelerator on his bike--evidently something buried inside the console. "But Bercilak is iman of his word. Thy swaringe shalt anau be yeven *afte* an asse-betinge."      The smart thing to do would be to go after the one in the tuxedo first, while the other mages are still piling onto his forces. Bercilak, however, had honestly been hoping they'd all cross the line, that *he* might get the chance to fight through those obnoxiously respawning hordes. For better or worse, the elemental mages are the ones he goes after first.      Piloting through a twister by sheer dint of how heavy the hoverbike is, Bercilak keeps his grip on the axe low, towards the butt. Sudden adjustments pivot the bike up, down, making rolls as necessary to keep the thick plating between him and the spells being hurled. One fireball manages to strike him dead on in the face, but even with his head whipped violently backwards from the force, he continues, popping muscles in his neck as the melted helmet slowly reasserts its proper shape.      Behind the lines of the Legendran mages, he wreaks havoc, hooking ankles at speed, drifting to flick the back end of the bike (and, menacingly, the white-hot lance of fire from its rear thruster) out in broad, dangerous arcs. Even his armored boots are used as weapons, unnatural strength behind his kicks as he lashes out at those that don't get clear fast enough.      "I IFLINCHED NOT FROM THY BLOWS, AND THOU SHALT NOT FLE FROM MINE! BAHAHAHA!"
Ishirou	The two just...did not feel human at all. Something was clouding them, perhaps some protection, but what he sensed was not human. The other one...the dandy, did not feel whole. Like the parts that made him human were not there. Of course, before /anyone/ got to say anything else, the old man's meteor storm rains down. The sonic boom where he was at is enough to knock him to the ground, enough to leave a ringing in his ears. He takes a moment for the ringing to stop, and for POD's words to actually be audible to him. "Recommendation, R.E.S.C.U.E. Unit summoning. Defense of ourselves is the primary objective," To which all he could do was sigh. "Alright...to the rescue!" he says, as the POD lights up, and disappears. The normal clothing of Ishirou is replaced with a black overcoat, battle armored where appropriate. A visor hangs over his eyes, vaguely POD-shaped. From holes in space around him, connecting to his pocket dimension several weird things come out. Modules for his flight systems ranged combat, and sensor equipment unfolds and starts connecting to the suit he's in. Attaching to his back and shoulders, to both arms, and both legs. Around the waist, another module connects before it ends. With his magical boy transformation complete, he hops off the side of the tower and takes flight, trying to stay mobile so he didn't get hit like that again. The first thing he does is use his scanners to try and figure these people out. Trying to actually determine what is going on with them. On the other hand, he reaches up to grab one of the falling meteors. Not with his hands, but with telekinesis, and tosses it towards the mage firing them. Hopefully, he gets the message.
Arcadia	Arcadia nods her head in response to Cantio. "Sounds good. You can handle documenting stuff then right?" Though she doesn't really wait for a full confirmation before spreading her wings to full and taking off. At full speed towards the conflict that's become the focus of the night without a second thought on the matter. Someone observing from afar seeing what she's about to fly into might think there wasn't a first thought, either. But meteors falling from the sky don't phase the sphinx in the least. She dives right into it's path and procees to zig and zag and roll with such precise skill and agility that not a single flaming ball from the sky touchs her. "Hah! That's nothing compared to the barrages I fly on a regular bases back home!" Arcadia pauses in a hover for a moment of dramatics. "And now," as her narrow conical attack options deploy into formation to her sides, and a pair remain at her back, "It's my turn!" Then she rockets back into motion with the options following as she dives towards the extremely target rich environment on the ground. She puts her hands together as her magitek weapon system charges, forming a large ball of flame and hurtling it at the armies below. Her options all mimic the attack with some slightly smaller but still extremely hot orbs of their own to increase the coverage range across the battlefield.... and honestly Arcadia isn't getting picky over which army they're striking. It's pretty clear even to her neither side is going to talk until they don't have armies to shove in everyone else's faces left. But it's not just fire bombs. Oh no no. These orbs of flame hit the ground but don't explode. Instead they bound and roll, to send them crashing through the ranks!
DRYCLEAN-SIGINT	DRYCLEAN-SIGINT plays three overlapped laugh tracks, from some unrecognizable media. It's not too loud, but it's distinctive. They adjust the position of their primary monitor as the audio visualizer shifts to the beginnings of an unnerving grin. A stride over to Hisako is broken before whirling towards Cantio, an arm with ungainly length extended in greeting.     "Name's DRYCLEAN-SIGINT. Pleasure's mine. Just metal and some love, ha ha. Nothin' too special."     "Name's LAUNDROMAT-OPERATIVE. Remember it. Just metal and some elbow grease, ha ha. Nothin' too special." Their monitors adjust towards the fight, their unextended hand carefully adjusting a dial. "Pretty rowdy out there, ha ha, and not just in the immediate. Everyone's fightin' everyone, and they all have some right proper reasoning. Too many reasons, too cohesive. Tech ain't up to spec, either, at least surface-side." Another adjustment. A red targeting reticle forms along the battlefield, almost closer to the spell circles employed by the mages themselves. Focusing. An attack is made, some sort of whimsical hail of foodstuffs. The sound of static pulses. Casting motions listened to. You certain they ain't acquainted with magic? A couple steps, none too fast, yet none of the projectiles land; it looks almost effortless.     Their arm remains outstretched in greeting. The reticle converges.
Petra Soroka	The robot is disconcerting. Their voice is unpleasant to listen to, their body isn't put together right, and they give off a slimy vibe. As far as first impressions go, Petra is not delighted.     Hisako, however, is more interesting to her. A little Hiromi! Knowing better than to immediately feel fond of Hisako, Petra can't help but be excited about this development. "Hi! I have met the Archwolf, yeah, on a couple occasions. Fought her, once." Petra gives her a small wave, in utter contract to Hisako's professional stance. "I'm Petra. So, what's your relationship to Hiromi? Sisters? Or," Does Hiromi have family? "Something?"     <J-IC-Scene> (NPC) Hisako says, in response to the self-introduction, "Oh, so you're Ms. Petra. I'll remember it. I'm Hisako, one among the miko of the Archwolf. It's a pleasure to meet you."     Petra smiles at Hisako, then turns away to run a hand through her hair, a bit self conscious. Petra looks over at the fighting, seeing the combatants agitated after Bercilak barges through them. Well, that's all she cares to argue against fighting. Someone's got to put an end to the battle before anything else can happen. She takes a step back to her mech, preparing to hop in and join, but right as she's gripping the ladder to pull herself up and in, a storm of wind, sent careering towards the field by an unlucky deflection, slams into her, cracking her head against the rung of a ladder.     Tears immediately well up in her eyes, and she scampers the rest of the way inside the Kana before any of the other wayward attacks land on her. Meteors pelt down on the hull, shattering into sparks against it as the mech heaves to its feet. The Kana takes one step, two steps, towards the wizards, then rockets flare and it charges into the necromancer's horde, not firing its cannon, instead swinging the heavy barrel around to sweep over zombies by the cluster, scattering them and pulverizing a handful.
Hiromi	<J-IC-Scene> Ishirou assides to Petra, "She's not likely to kill you for...whatever reason she has this week."     Hisako has no idea as to who is being spoken of, and so, she pays no attention to this.     'Fought her, once.'     "Ohhh...?" Hisako looks at Petra with wide eyes, like she's just casually admitted to some grand feat of heroism.     'So, what's your relationship to Hiromi? Sisters?'     "My sisters and I are part of the pack," Hisako answers, as if giving an unambiguously clear answer, before her attention is drawn to the incoming golem. "Oh, no!"     A stone golem is, fortunately, something to which she is type-strong. Hisako gets a good run-up for momentum, heading directly into, rather than trying to avoid the incoming blows. She leaps over, scrapes a stone punch against the back of one forearm, protected by her oversized gauntlet, and pulls back her opposite fist in the same motion. It strikes dead-on, seeking out the control runes that are usually somewhere near the head of a golem, with stone-cracking force.     Bronze shouldn't, wouldn't, be able to survive that force, on most worlds, but her armaments are something special, even if she mostly registers as 'human,' otherwise, herself. The rough treatment is performed in complete confidence that her weapons won't break.     A series of rapid, resounding follow-up strikes from alternating fists, after she lands on the ground, are followed up by a reach into some hidden pocket on her clothing, pulling out a talisman to slap against her magically animated opponent. If it works, she'll take over control of the stone, using the little bit of the Archwolf's Authority over the materials of Earth, stored into the magical effects on her talisman. Then, she can send the golem out to protect the others, here.
Cantio	Even though the trio of battlefield-wrecking spells do quite a number on the numbers of mages and zombies present, their primary targets (the other magic users) manage to escape largely unscathed. Cantio and the Desperado cyborgs, too, manage to avoid the worst of the explosions and charging chunks of stone, but their APC takes quite a bit of damage before they can regroup with the rest of the Elites to start laying into the locals' ranks. "Are they really that stubborn...? Alright, let's go with your plan, Hisako. Desperado, with me!" Brandishing her longsword like some kind of gun, Cantio and the cyborgs start firing into the crowd of mages and zombies alike, with the former mostly focusing on disarming and injuring the mages while the cyborgs just fire wherever and aren't particularly careful about not going for headshots. The soldiers, mages and zombies alike, aren't all that durable regardless. Numbers prove to be their primary advantage as the former are still able to launch fireballs back while the latter claw at and fire out their ribcages to ludicrous degrees to impale their foes, but... Well. Elites and these soldiers couldn't possibly be more of a mismatch in pure toughness. Bercilak's durability especially just isn't remotely a fair fight for any one or one hundred of them, as the mages are forced to scatter from his head-on charge. None of the rank and file mages willing to take a whole ass motorbike wheel to the face or armored boots to the head, but take them they do as he mows right through an entire row of the robed casters. He's certainly getting what he came for and what he's aiming for, though, as he finds that fewer and fewer fireballs are flying around while the mages are so focused on getting physically away from him. The zombies are still kind of mindless, but they too start to avoid Bercilak in favor of chasing down the fleeing mages or even targeting the rest of the Elites. There's no visible signals or callouts, though, so it may very well be that the commander himself is directing their movements through some magical means. Ishirou's telekinetic snatching of a meteor, meanwhile, lets him fight fire with semi-literal fire. GAUL looks up just in time to see the meteor flying right at his face, and he only has time to get his staff and other hand up before it slams right into him, exploding on impact and sending that rod cla... Rolling on the grass behind him. For a moment, it almost looks like his head popped off from his cloak, but it's where it belongs the next instant. Maybe it was just a trick of a the light. Probing deeper into the wizards' physical and magical makeup, meanwhile, confirms a few things: They're not human. They're human shaped, they smell and sound and speak like humans, and their thoughts are even (mostly) intelligible. There's something incredibly otherworldly about all three of them, though, as if something is restricting them and forcing them into a human shape.
Cantio	Arcadia's rolling fireballs, meanwhile, catch the army of mages off guard. They try to intercept it at first by firing their own fireballs upwards and then leaping out of the way of an assumed explosion. It's the rolling afterwards, though, that manages to scorch them and have them screaming in pain as well, and the zombies fare even worse without anything resembling basic survival instincts of magical defenses to speak of. Needless to say, it's smelling even worse now than it did before. "DRYCLEAN-SIGINT and... LAUNDROMAT-OPERATIVE. Um. S-sure!" Cantio chuckles slightly awkwardly as she shakes both/one of their hands, looking between the monitors rapidly to try and figure out what qualifies as eye contact there. Noticing the targeting reticle, Cantio warns the cyborgs to stay out of the line of fire while the commanders of their respective (dwindling) armies too move their own troops out of the way, but nobody's sure what's going to happen at those spots. Some of the soldiers and zombies wait. Others continue to fight, but being forced into a smaller area makes it even harder for them to continue evading everything else already coming their way from the Kana. The mecha's charge bowls over a good dozen or so of the zombies and mulches several others, breaking their ranks to the point that the mages can start focusing their fire on individual zombies (when they're not getting beat up themselves). Hisako's hijacking of SCYTHE's golem gets the blue-haired wizard's attention, as she seeks out the logical point of control for the thing and sees something rather curious in the construction of the stone soldier: Rather than such things being engraved upon it, it appears that the runes are part of the very stone itself, as though it simply existed that way as a singular stone 'head'. Punching into it still works to snatch control of it away from its summoner, though, and using it as a defensive wall works wonders thanks to being sturdier than the average mage or zombie here. It soaks up all manner of shots and impalements meant for others, forcing the battle to go longer than any of the commanders would like. "So that's how you're going to play this, then... Hmph. Then may the marrow curdle in your bones!" GAUL's clearly irate by what's going on (and getting beaned in the face) as he fires off another storm of fireballs at the Elites directly, although they're considerably smaller and nowhere near as widespread as the meteors from before. "You're making a mistake, little ones. Stay still and let the adults finish their business!" SCYTHE sounds less annoyed, but the dour expression on her face is far more honest about that. She starts summoning pillars of light around each of the Elites, threatening to slow down their movements as GAUL's fireballs come closing in. "Stay your swords, travelers! Or at the very least.. I am not your foe!" RAMDA sounds rather frustrated himself despite his appearance, whirling his hands in the air as runes appear around him, drawing up even more of those wretched zombies from the ground to replenish their ranks from those of the fallen mages.
Arcadia	Really, the meteors didn't stop Arcadia, you think smaller projectiles will do much better? Actually, that's not entirely bad thinking, as smaller also tend to be faster. But still not as fast as the technorganic sphinx wielding magitek combat utilities is. A few of her options get smacked before she can recall them, but that isn't even really an impact on the matter as they had already done their job. Arcadia still remains untouched, zipping her way through the fireballs with little issue. The light beams don't fair much better. The pillar aimed at her makes contact... but Arcadia is so surpremely fast that it barely puts a damper in her evasive abilities, to the point the debuff is barely a tingle. "You all seem to like fighting so much, so we're just giving you a proper display of power as an introduction. Don't take it so personally." The trace lines along her left arm illuminate, sparks arcing across her fingers as they collect into a spherical shape in her palm briefly, before shooting out in a massive bolt of lightning sent hurtling at the battle below her!
Ishirou	The pillar of light shines around Ishirou. He's surprised by this, because such magic is usually the purview of celestial things, not...whatever eldrich things they are. However, as he sears in the light, he throws himself forward, trying to get out of the pillar before it can complete. He's partially successful, getting caught by the spell as he gets out, causing him to lose control and spin a bit out before recovering. Hisako covering him saved him from a lot more. He pushes himself up to his feet. "Uh...thanks.." he says, really not sure what to say to someone under Hiromi. Helping with one hand and destroying his bones with the other. Though his scans give him something, "Here," he says to Hisako, touching her shoulder. Information flows into her, allowing her to see some of what he does, and to better open her tactical options up by what she wouldn't see before. Ishirou, however, takes off again and tries to get on the wing. "I don't know who you three are, /really/ but I'm going to reveal the truth for all to see..." he says and reaches a hand up. Ishirou fires several beams of hacking out, aiming to hit each one of the generals. He attempts to reach into them, aiming to mess with their ability to shape change...and reveal they're true forms for all to see. "What are you trying to hide from me...!"
Rubi-Kan Vagrants	"EI!" Bercilak bellows at the Kana, as it charges into the fray and begins pulverizing zombies. "WHAT ART THOU DOINGE?!" A mage dangles, caught in the beard of his axe. He waits for response from Petra before laughing. "Thou'rt doinge som gret shit, swich is what thou'rt doinge! BAHAHAHA!"      On the Kana's viewscreen, a message pops up: FRIENDLY NANOPROGRAM: Imminence of Carnage Modify Ekanamsha S1 AAO90/AAD180      The air around the mech shimmers. Warning notifications seem to come faster, the controls seem more responsive, even her reflexes and 'pilot's intuition' seem heightened.      The Green Knight flies in closer to the mech, using the white-hot lance of flame at the rear of his hoverbike to incinerate any zombies that try and get back up from the barrel-swing. Even the short distance he traveled seems to have earned him two or three direct hits, his skill notwithstanding. Banking tightly around Petra, Bercilak flings the mage hooked in his axe at GAUL, before choking all the way up to use the blade as a target shield against the pillars called by SCYTHE. Plowing straight through it, he emerges aflame, reversing his grip and punching with the weapon's blunt eye as he passes.      "Thou al croised," hollers Bercilak, presumably at RAMDA, "So thou al gate an ass-betinge! SIMPLE AS!"
DRYCLEAN-SIGINT	The sigil-like targeting reticle converges into one pinpoint, the geometric lines aligning. A thin line is drawn between the reticle and the hovering vessel, almost anticlimactically after the buildup. The laser slices down through the earth at a slight angle, grass igniting in its wake, the gouge travelling slowly across the battlefield, slow and steady. The beam doesn't seem to be aiming for anyone in particular but they just keep walkin' into it, like a poorly-written slapstick comedy. An arm off a zombie on the ground. Someone trips at the wrong moment, directly into the path. A sword swing is dodged, but in the worst direction. It's not battlefield-clearing, but it's definitely doing work. The reticle expands, though the laser does not. Perhaps preparing for something. Though they have been dodging the storm fine up until this point, as DRYCLEAN is in the process of responding to Cantio, a fireball finally lands. A cable is knocked loose from their trunk, unspooling a few feet away from the impact before attempting to pull itself back into their mass in a prehensile fashion. They adjust their antennae. Ain't anything running through their heads of note. But the communications from below... traceable. Worth a look-see. Triangulation in earnest, signal tracing and running dencryption. It's past second-nature. "Ain't real people, but that doesn't mean they ain't got real motivations. Keep it quiet, now, gotta listen close, ha ha."
Petra Soroka	The Kana walks placidly in the tide of zombies, breaking bodies against itself with the ponderous momentum of each step and swing of its turret. The golem mirrors the mech, preventing any zombies from clambering up onto the more vulnerable top section of its hull with its zone of control.     "WHAT ART THOU DOINGE?!"     Petra startles in her seat, blinking back into awareness. She was idly leaning in her seat, one hand swinging the turret back and forth, the other one pressing an ice pack to her forehead, so when her attention is suddenly demanded, she panics, thinking she did something wrong. "Oh, um! My mech is tough, so--" "Thou'rt doinge som gret shit, swich is what thou'rt doinge! BAHAHAHA!" Oh. "Ahahaha!" Petra can't help but laugh, Bercilak's energy infecting her. Alright then, time to have fun with it! She yanks on a series of levers and kicks the piloting brace on her foot upwards, and the Kana reacts with an explosive sort of dance, as much as the clumsy frame can express like that. The beam of light pierces down from the sky and reflects harmlessly in a million directions off the shining metal surface, while the Kana knocks enemies up into the air with its turret and legs for Bercilak to bat away.     "If we're showing off, let me show you what I'm really capable of!" With a forceful push of its back two legs, the Ekanamsha slowly flips forwards, balancing on its barrel for a brief second, and a muffled *THUD* echoes from its muzzle. No immediate explosion is seen, but the Kana's rockets start blasting it up into the air as quickly as possible, still pointing downwards. A second *THUD*, and this time you see the dull silver projectile exit the barrel and embed deep into the ground.     "Watch your feet!" She calls out from the sky, wobbling back into a stable position. The ground rumbles, and each particle of soil seems to vibrate individually from each other, radiating out from the impact point. After a moment, a huge concave section of the ground vaporizes into a cloud of dust, and it explodes, outwards and upwards.
Hiromi	<J-IC-Scene> (NPC) Hisako says, "Forced into human shape... how odd. Are they..." She uses a term that translates, but has the stiff formality of some long-dead empire's language, "<Artificial Spirits>, too...?"     Even with that revealed, and Ishirou's help (which she accepts without any of the complicating feelings he's suffering), it's hard for Hisako to see the three mages as anything but human (having been informed that some humans have blue hair). <J-IC-Scene> (NPC) Hisako says, "I will try to hold down, um... Ramda!"     The name hadn't been spoken aloud, but it comes to her through the biohacked information that Ishirou shared.     'Stay your swords, travelers! Or at the very least.. I am not your foe!'     "You might be right, Mr. Ramda, but..."     With the golem taken over, Hisako runs forward, avoiding the magical attacks, but slowed down having to juke back and forth. She's not long-legged, but she's strong, and propels herself with kicks against the dirt in whichever direction makes her the hardest to hit. She's not sure she can deal directly with being hit, so that's the best she can do in the moment. It's taxing, but she only has to keep it up until--     In far less time than it'd looked from her circuitous route, she's all the way through the zombie hoard, their ribs and teeth no match for her white-bronze arm-armor. "...let's talk about it calmly, afterward. Is that alright?"     The talisman she slaps onto the ground causes it to fall inward, an instant ditch that pushes the dirt up around it in a circular pile, once her foot stamps down on it. If he's unable to dodge that, Hisako takes Ramda down with her, pushes him against the wall, leaps back up, and then rapidly pushes piles of dirt down onto him to seal him in the ground up to his neck.
Cantio	"A display of power? Dramatic though it is, I can't agree when it threatens the safety of this continent!" RAMDA calls out to Arcadia as he weaves through the battle lines of his troops and the oncoming fireballs alike, letting the zombies soak up the direct blast from those lightning bolts so he's not forced to feel what it's like to get however many thousands of volts introduced to his system all at once. The zombies and mages don't fare nearly as well, though, as the lightning rips through their ranks and conducts even more easily thanks to the constant spray of ocean water crashing against the nearby shores on both sides of the land strip. As Bercilak comes flying through the air with the aid of the Kana, he finds that catching individual mages as projectiles is just getting easier and easier with fewer of them around to actually harass him. It's not as though they could effectively stop him at the rate he's going, but the dwindling number of fireballs coming his way means he has fewer obstacles between himself and the trio of wizards. None of them have personal qualms about blasting or knocking aside those mages coming their way, of course, but that's probably saying more about their commanders than it is about the one that was fighting them to begin with. Focusing on not getting pelted with bodies does mean that they're leaving more blind spots open to other attacks, though, as DRYCLEAN's laser starts carving through the already-rotting zombies and the still panicking mages with all the horrid smells of burning flesh that follow. Tracing the communications underground, meanwhile, makes it more obvious that there's a rather wide network of transmissions, all going nuts the longer this battle drags on. The actual activity is unclear in its purpose aside from just building up significantly since this whole thing started, but it almost feels like the excitement that would come from an audience at some kind of wrestling event during a particularly pitched match with the sudden return of a fan favorite. Petra's rising machine gets a particularly long look from the trio of wizard commanders, and Cantio too has her attention glued to it as her mind runs through however many possibilities could come from such a telegraphed, but visually impressive windup. Perhaps it's just familiarity with how giant robots work, then, that saves Cantio and her allies from Desperado from getting caught up in the resulting ground explosion when they all take cover far from the landing zone. The remaining mages and the zombies caught in the blast? Not so much. Some of them go flying into the lake and ocean on each side, others get buried entirely, and even RAMDA gets launched right into Hisako's orbit as her hijacked golem rams its way through the last few zombies still present. Before he can bring up more of the wretched things from the last corpses of the mages, he's caught in that sudden ditch. "... So this is what it feels like. I can't say I hate it." He struggles with just his head coming out of the dirt, to be sure, but he does seem considerably calmer than before with the troops on both sides practically wiped out at this point.
Cantio	"The truth? Little boy, you can't handle the truth!" Unlike RAMDA, SCYTHE is still fired up and ready to murder the shit out of the dandy wizard. She puts a lot of emphasis on the 'boy', too, as she suddenly breaks into a wry smirk at Ishirou. "But if you're really that intent on doing this... I've got nothing to hide!" Seeing his hand going up and perhaps sensing what he's aiming to do, she holds her arms out to the sides in the classic 'come at me, bro' pose. GAUL, too, joins in SCYTHE's posturing in response to his movements, although it's more of a weird wiggling of his arms from under his oversized cloak. In fact, RAMDA's the only that actually seems worried about it all. With his body stuck in th ground, the best he can manage is conjuring up a dome filled with something similar to that strange light SCYTHE had called up earlier. There's a clear sense of urgency to calling this up, too, but it's not clear what happens in the dome as sight of him is all but obscured when the biohacking hits. What is clear, though, is how much GAUL and SCYTHE change once it works its biomagic and undoes the things binding them to their human forms. GAUL grows a solid three feet and multiple clawed arms from his back as his cloak shreds itself to pieces, and SCYTHE sprouts a pair of wings from her head and back that are most certainly demonic in nature. "Behold, the heat that is but a glimmer of your eternal torment!" GAUL calls down another storm of meteors, each one as large as the first wave, but with the potent homing power of the fireballs that had followed them. "You'll not get out of here alive!" SCYTHE brings up flames from the earth itself in turn, three pillars of fire exploding upwards before spiraling outwards wildly to try and catch the Elites in just way too much fire all at the same time.
Ishirou	The masks have been pulled off, and the demonic forms behind the 'leaders' have been revealed. What's more distressing is that they /want/ to be revealed..? What is going on..? Well, not the undead guy, which is even weirder. Is he like Trudy? Questions for lat- Meteors. "Oh sh-" but thankfully, his allies have his back, either by shielding him or transferring protective energy, or refusing to let reality affect him...he lives. His head peeks above his arms, having crossed to try and protect his face from what he thought might have been being Hiromi'ed again. Thankfully, not. "T-thank...thank you," he says, a bit shaken, but not...well dead. He turns towards the two demons, frowning. He reaches up again, his arms glowing in a strange purple glow as he grabs one of the flying meteors again. He reaches up, hacking into the magical spell and attempting to hijack it. The spell, if successful, changes direction, aiming to pound both demons with it. "Yeah, I'm a boy, what of it? I'm the boy that's going to send your back to hell!"
DRYCLEAN-SIGINT	Dryclean is certainly standing a lot more still than they were; blasts rip further cabling, a crack in the screen, though a completely intact jacket. Static pulses through Petra's cockpit, Ishirou's integrated comms, Arcadia's headset, crashing waves of irrelevant information on one end and important tactical cues on the other. No telling which. The reticle continues to have additional circles added, then converged, added, converged, a reverse ripple of geometry and faint red light: smaller tertiary beams pull inwards, weak on their own but primed to add to the core. New info. Hype, indistinct chatter. Got some spectators of our own. Some communications channels are pulled open, spliced, further decrypted: My ears patched through to theirs. Entertainment's a wonderful thing, after all. Even if it's for an unknown party literal demons. "Well, folks, lets give them something interesting to leave off with, ha ha." More probing, then. RAMDA. What's your plan if you'd have won, huh?
Arcadia	Oh, someone is at least trying to be more tactical in their spell slinging. Adding a homing effect is the right course of action when you're dealing with a highly evasive target. Though that doesn't garuntee it will be effective. Still, give the mage credit for effort and skill. It's just that he's trying to hurtle the meteors at someone who has exceptional experience in the matter of dodging projectiles and in a much more cluttered environment and at much more extravegant speeds. Needless to say, the meteors may home in on her position... but Arcadia's evasive moves are so quick that there's no way for even homing projectile spells to change direction at that point to hit her. Maybe he should of invested more into Magic Missiles. If that even exists here. Then she rolls and swoops down, coming closer to the ground. Rings of arcane glyphs briefly flicker around her arms, and then she starts firing off energy shots at rapid fire, blasting away as much as possible at what remains of the battlefield, all while still zigzagging to avoid the meteors still trying vainly to catch and clobber her. Even if all her shots don't land, just her blasting through close to the ground and the armies is enough to leave shockwaves lurching through the air around her to send victims scattering.
Petra Soroka	Dust settles on the Kana, hovering over the hole it carved in the ground. For how still the mech looks, you can all hear Petra cackling over the radio. "Ahahaha! Wow! I've never actually done that before, that was awesome!"     The sky swirls with fire again. So does the ground, but Petra's in the air! She coughs, pounding on her chest a couple times to disperse the laugher still shaking through her. She needs to get serious again. Ah, how did they talk, it was something like, "I'll be engaging anti-air support, neutralizing those meteors! You all focus on mitigating that ground attack!"     A round side gun starts whirring to life on the Kana--then it stops, and a different one moves, this one looking almost like a toy with its nonthreatening curved shape and white paint. Reading into these movements might suggest that Petra's still fumbling with the controls inside, but it seems like she's made her choice. The smaller gun starts shooting fizzing white pellets in a spray at the meteors, tagging as many as she can hit with a staticky aura that slows them down considerably. Meteors that are headed directly towards her are spared, instead crashing against the Kana and exploding, scorching the metal but not budging it even a tiny bit. She acts as an umbrella for the people below her, particularly angling herself over Ishirou.     "You'll not get out of here alive!"     "Sorry, but you're just small fry! There was never a chance of you winning." The Kana leans in the air and floats over Final Forme Scythe's head. "But thanks for the enthusiasm!" The mech drops, smooshing her underneath.
Rubi-Kan Vagrants	Bercilak laughs with glee as Petra vaporizes a portion of the landscape, cutting dangerously close to the impact zone--enough so that when he comes back around for another pass, part of his bike's plating is slowly un-melting itself. "YEA, VERILY HIT WAS, PETRA!" >Behold, the heat that is but a glimmer of your eternal torment! >You'll not get out of here alive!      It's this that pushes Bercilak's laughter from gleeful to 'unhinged.' "ANAU WE PLEIE AT WAGINGE MO DETHLI, EI?! SO BE HIT! BAHAHAHA! QUELL ME, THANNE, IF THOU'RT SO ABLED!" No strategy here--he's lost it. His armor fades away, revealing a green-skinned man only slightly less massive, with wild, blood-red irises full of violent, gleeful intent. An undercut mohawk, a few shades darker than his skin, flaps wildly in the wind as he makes his approach. Ishirou, making his attack, receives the benefit of a friendly nanoprogram--one that appears to be some sort of targeting assist, while DRYCLEAN finds the laser more responsive to command inputs.      Flying straight for GAUL, he whips the axe around in circles far too rapid and graceful for the unwieldy size of the weapon. Using the flat of the blade to deflect, his grip held mid-way up the haft, he is nevertheless pelted by fragments in alarming number. His clothes--the slogan tee, the denim vest atop it--are the first to go, followed by his skin. Frighteningly, his body regenerates *much* faster than the armor does, even if it's less tough.      Burnt, bloodied and bedecked in flaming shreds of fabric, Bercilak pulls a turn so tight even an onlooker might feel it in their stomach, banking on a dime 'round the multi-armed demon to drag his axe's wicked, now noticeably heated blade across the arms on the left side of his body, before attempting to hook the neck with an inverted loop that'd be lethal for any normal person caught in the axe's beard, at the speed he's going.
Hiromi	At the bodily changes (and gloating) of Gaul and Scythe, Hisako looks distinctly troubled. Something about the demonic transformations hits her in an almost-familiar way that a figure as expectedly foreign and as far from 'human' as DRYCLEAN didn't. This is a problem, whether or not Ramda was telling the truth about dark gods. It's a little more than instinct.     Having trapped Ramda in place herself, Hisako hurries to use all the rest of her talismans. One blesses her strength of arms, another the power in her legs, and a third the toughness of body against harm. Importantly, one brings up an earthen shield against the meteors to protect her and Ramda both, but the fireballs break through. She's hit directly against crossed gauntlets, driven back, then bounces into the air in her all-fours scramble to avoid the fire pillars, only to face the meteors again.     Smoking and sizzling and hissing in pain, she presses a healing talisman against her chest like a bandage. Cuts and burns slowly close and seal over with fresh, pink skin, but it is so slow, even with the aid from Bercilak's nano-cloud. Hiromi might have been able to emerge from the explosive cloud whole and healthy, but that's not the size of wolf present for this battle. She's tiring and out of useful magic tricks. Only the blessings of her talismans, that miko-style magic, will keep her going for a little bit longer.     If she were honest, she'd say that it really hurts. But because she's just a bit dishonest, she tells herself that it doesn't.     Through little more than determination, her lack of sensible hesitation allowing her to avoid wasting any of the time her buffed up state will last, Hisako charges, moving as fast as she can for Gaul, huffing all the while. She takes in a deep breath at the last possible moment, and then dives into a tackle for one leg, arms in front of her face to protect her vitals on approach.     Planting her feet in a crouch, she wraps around Gaul's leg and twists her body, aiming to not just keep him from avoiding Bercilak's approach, but throw him into it without letting go.
Cantio	With as many meteors as there are, the risk of wasting time by hijacking one is rather high. It could smash into another meteor, wasting all that effort. It could veer off course thanks to the powerful magics in play along with the sheer speed and force added to them thanks to things like falling from orbit and gravity. Somehow, though, Ishirou manages to guide one through the storm towards the monstrous wizards, smashing it directly into GAUL's waiting claws and hands before it explodes right on top of him in a satisfyingly meaty explosion. That explosion sends the oversized wizard skidding right into Bercilak's rush of just-as-meaty axe swings that force the wizard to actually engage him in close combat. The claws aren't just for show, though, as the beefy berserker will soon find when his axe clashes with the ghoul mage's spider-like appendages. For each one that his axe tears through, another sprouts from GAUL's back in its place. It would be followed by the other five aiming to plunge themselves into the knight to try tearing him to shreds, but GAUL loses his footing as Hisoka latches onto him from below. Even having six clawed arms isn't enough to compensate for not having a proper leg to stand on or getting his head twisted this way and that by Bercilak's axe hooking around his neck. It's all GAUL can do to try and hold his blade back from digging in further, but it's a losing battle before long. Despite the clearly broken neck, however, the demonic wizard finally manages to break free by breaking his neck more and his legs as well, slipping out from around their holds to regroup with SCYTHE. DRYCLEAN's ever shifting reticle, meanwhile, is something that the demons have far less preparation to deal with. They can't simply withstand it with their bodies, so their best efforts come from trying to actually stop it from reaching them. SCYTHE's flame pillars rise up to meet the core, the colliding fires looking almost like a beam clash at one point before erupting towards the pair of wizards and covering them in painful-looking flames. Arcadia's barrage of energy shots, too, finds its way directly into the transformed devils as they're pinned down by so many barrages of oversized projectiles and confounding technological beams already. By adding to the mix, there's really no room left for the two to evade, and it provides Petra with just the right conditions to flatten the pair wholesale with the Kana's relatively giant frame. "We need more time to adjust. It has been a while." GAUL's voice comes through the smoke in a distorted, vaguely gravelly, and somehow booming whisper. There's little crackling noises, too, as through whatever he has that might be a voice box is rattling with something immensely wrong inside of it. "Oh, fine. Their days are numbered, anyway. Don't all of you miss us too much now~" SCYTHE taunts with a flirtatious, yet distinctly insulting tone. There's an almost smoker-y tone in her voice as she says that, too, as though she's speaking through something severely burnt and wrecked while still managing to keep her intensely smug aura.
Cantio	Just before they can get summarily flattened, the smoke kicks up around GAUL and SCYTHE once more. Once the smoke finally clears and the Kana is no longer a visual blockade, they're gone, leaving behind only that charred grass in their wake as their otherworldly powers (probably) allowed them to escape for the time being. RAMDA, however, is still presumably within that protective dome of his. It doesn't take much longer for it to finally disappear and reveal that he's... Still looking about as dandy as he did before, albeit within the confines of a mount of dirt up to his neck. He's finally ready to answer DRYCLEAN's question, too, putting on his dandy airs while looking about as undandy as he ever could. "I would continue my work at the Shadow Tower, of course." He gestures at the tower near the warpgate with his head. "I am honor bound to help a friend, you see, and this place is where I must remain until my work is done." He flicks his head back once, as though throwing his hair back dramatically. He's actually got the technique down, even if he doesn't quite have enough hair to really do it well. "What of you, travelers? Have you come seeking to save Legendra, or to conquer it the name of your own lands?" Cantio, having totally fought this whole time and not having been forgotten, addresses him with a wary tone. "We're here to stop things from getting worse here. What's this about a friend, and this work at the tower?" "Have you heard of Lord Frest?" Ramda asks, already going into his next question before anyone can say 'no'. "Another of Astea's followers, Frest, is trapped here. He is contained within a dimensional warp, and must have a psychic guide in order to break free. This tower is a conduit for my thoughts, which guide him towards freedom. And as we are on the topic of freedom..." He looks over at Hisoka, flashing her the slightest of suave-guy smiles. "Care to release me from this? I give you my word that I will not attempt escape as the other two appear to have done." A beat, and then he looks over at the rest of the group. "... Were they slain, or did they disappear as they often do?"
Ishirou	Ishirou floats back down to the ground, happy that things were settled...though less happy they got away. He'll have to think of a countermeasure for that next time...hmm. Oh well, perhaps Dandy Wizard can actually fill them in on what's going on...and what's going on with him. "They escaped because they're very brave and never at all run away when the tide of battle turns against them.." he pauses, thinking. "I mean, I guess I do too..." maybe he should have rethought that. "So.." he asks, RAMDA, "What are you?"
Rubi-Kan Vagrants	Everyone's eardrums may at last find a measure of peace--but not right away. When Gaul and Scythe disappear, Bercilak slows down. The deafening hiss-roar becomes a rapid bang-bang-bang-bang, gradually slowing until the hoverbike comes to a stop. Blessed silence--save for a gentle susurrus of disturbed grass beneath the bike, before even that halts as it lowers to the ground.      Bercilak's bloodied upper body shows no signs of the injury which drew the blood to begin with, though he does have to slough off the ruined scraps which were once an undoubtedly rude t-shirt and a cool denim vest.      The bare-chested, thickly buildt man raises a meaty green hand, easily the size of Ishirou's head, shoving the analyst's shoulder rudely, though far from his full strength.      "Thou shouldst not ofaxe 'what are thee.' E'en *I* am toknoue that," he chides. Then, in some fit of bizarre himboic well-meaning, half-understood greeting card sentiment, he adds, "Dracula is *what* him is, not *who* him is."      Speaking more generally to Ramda, "Thei atscaped. But 'twas a sporteful ifighte, lanhure." He smiles, looking down at the buried mage. "Wagour I thou shalt harken, whanne-so I maken the nexte covenaunt! Bahahaha!" Kneeling down, and with a gesture of a palm to Hisako, "Hath she not so craftuously beten thy asse, thou wouldst sikerli be nexte."      If Hisako doesn't help him out of the dirt, Bercilak will--grabbing him by the scruff of the neck to do so.      "What elles might thou bitell us aboute theim that at-scaped?"
Hiromi	"Oh..." Hisako says, after the smoke has cleared, while looking at her hands. She closes and opens her fists, watching the articulated bronze move. "I let him get away."     Her shoulders slump for a moment, but she draws in a breath, and pushes them back.     'Care to release me from this?'     "One moment, please, Mr. Ramda." Hisako reaches into the dirt piled around Ramda with her hands, and the bronze fingers sink in, like pushing through mud, rather than the dry earth it is. She grabs the wizard under the shoulders, and begins lifting him out, dirt crumbling away around him.     She sets him down.     Hisako then takes a few steps away, drops onto the ground, rolls onto her back, stretches out her arms, and turns her head to look. From her present perspective, Ramda's tilted about 150 degrees, but she pays it no apparent mind.     She thinks for a moment. "Who's Astea?"
Petra Soroka	Well, it's not like a military mecha is meant to be used like a cartoon anvil anyways. Even though it's fun to use things in a creative way, Petra can't get too mad that this didn't work. She knows she needs to learn to stick to the basics, use the tank like it's meant to be used. An explosive payload, fired at supersonic speed, delivered directly to a target. Efficient, ruthless, effective. It's a war machine, not a toy. She's not in space anymore.     No sense fretting about that. The Kana settles into its place on the ground, and Petra hops out. "Demons, huh? I'm surprised they got away, with everything that you all pulled out just now. I liked the light show especially, Dryclean." Her speech is a little stilted, like each word is consciously manufactured inside of her mouth. "Just to restate all this, those guys follow some dark god, and Astea is, the good counterpart? The one you and this Frest follow?"     Petra crouches on the edge of the Kana and flips off, quickdrawing her gun and firing it towards the mech to launch her towards Ramda. The gun clicks--it's not actually loaded. Petra is propelled regardless, and she doesn't even seem to register that the gun didn't fire, sliding it back into her pocket when she lands next to the Dandy Wizard.
DRYCLEAN-SIGINT	Within a blink after the smoke clears, Infrared Ritual simply turns off. There's no theatrics. It's just a laser pointer, after all. The vessel maintains its distance, though the powerful relay equipment aboard now has an opportunity to shift from combat to intel. It continues to monitor the subterranean transmissions; How did they feel about that fight? DRYCLEAN, meanwhile, pats out lingering fires on their jacket. From the distance that they had been observing the fight, they glance across the battlefield. They adjust their antennae jacket and meander down towards the smoldering, cratered wreckage that used to be where GAUL and SCYTHE stood. "Interesting. I reckon I've got a mite more experience with demons devils than other things. Convenient, ha ha." Data collected, patterns seen. Maybe fiends aren't something they have direct experience with, but a rapid set of queries across known Watch data sources can fill in the gaps. What are those two planning, in the immediate? After due consideration is given, they wheel on their feet, tapping along their leg, before walking up to join the others as the soft static through devices increases ever so slightly in proximity. A distinct grin has coalesced on their primary monitor, and they simply listen in to the talk.
Arcadia	Arcadia glides down to hover near the buried man. "Oh good, someone is finally willing to actually talk. Maybe we can finally get some answers." She folds her arms, but leaves the actual talking to the people more suited for such things. Her place was the fighting most of the time, and now that it was contended with, she's just here to make sure things stay contended with.
Cantio	"Ahah. Their classic strategies, then. Some things never change..." Ramda sighs dramatically with a slight shrug of his shoulders, raising an eyebrow at Ishirou's moment of self-doubt. "Fret not, for discretion is the better part of valor. I imagine there are few who would willingly die meaningless deaths for the sake of appearances." He turns to Bercilak immediately afterwards, blinking slowly for several moments as it becomes rather clear that he has no idea what he's saying. Cantio, as if sensing this, squats nearby to give him the translation before he can finally answer. "I have no doubts people of your caliber would be powerful enough to best me, if your demonstration earlier and continued survival now are any indication. As for those two before..." Ramda's expression darkens noticeably. "They are the Apostles of Darkness, followers of Madruk, the dark god that tried to destroy this land three hundred years ago. They have been biding their time, seeking to revive him to complete his dreaded task." "... But what is a Dracula?" Ramda asks, finally getting back up with Hisako's aid and dangling for a moment like some kind of dandy puppy before finally being released. It might be a little tricky getting him out at first, though, since he now appears to be missing an arm. Without paying it any mind, though, he proceeds to continue float an inch off the ground, leaning back like he's sitting in an invisible armchair. "Astea is the goddess who created this land, blessing it with healthy people and bountiful harvests to ensure that they would be able to prosper." He nods at Petra as she summarizes teh conflict in the easiest-to-understand format. "That's correct, my dear. When Madruk came to destroy Legendra, she created the Star Dragon Harsgalt to fight him, and the Eight Holy Warriors were tasked with counteracting the efforts of Madruk's Apostles of Darkness." DRYCLEAN, ever the inquisitive one, probes into Gaul's and Scythe's goals elsewhere. Currently, they are working as generals for the FANDARIA EMPIRE, commanding armies of mages and wreaking havoc on battlefield after battlefield. Thanks to this meeting with Ramda, the easiest conclusion is that they may be using the empire and its emperor, GOLDARK, to hasten the revival of MADRUK. Arcadia's contendo meter remains thoroughly stable.
Petra Soroka	Petra nods at Ramda. "Cool. Apostles of Darkness, eight Holy Warriors. Easy decision there."     <J-IC-Scene> DRYCLEAN-SIGINT wanders the field, running a hand over the Kana, through some of the spell scorches, a chunk of delimbed zombie.     Petra watches them for a bit, then calls out. "If you want to look at my mech, you can. It's probably the least weird thing here." Still turned towards her mech, she side-eyes Ishirou. Every minute between convincing herself to apologize and actually doing it feels weirder than the last. She's built it up in her mind as a necessary stepping stone to apologizing to Lilian, too, so if she doesn't do it now....     "Hey, Ishirou," Whoops, she's started talking, no choice now. "I'm... sorry I yelled at you, back at the onsen. We got off on the wrong foot, and I don't want that to your impression of me." She fiddles with the strap of her goggles around her neck. "And what I said isn't my impression of you, either."
Arcadia	Arcadia huhs. While making sure that little reaccount/historical lore gets properly documented. "Well, that makes it easy to know which side we need to blow up."
Hiromi	"Oh," says Hisako, from her slowly-healing position on the floor. "But why does Madruk want to destroy the world? Won't there be nothing left, if it's destroyed?"     She tilts her head to carefully watch Petra's and Ishirou's conversation.
Ishirou	Ishirou just sort of...narrows his eyes at the Dandy Mage. "Okay but that doesn't answer the question of /why do you look like a human that's...somewhat missing/. They were demons and reveled in it, but...what are you in this whole equation? Sorry for being distrusting and all, but they DID try and play us." Ishirou scratches the back of his head, he'd rather be cards on the table. Petra, however, catches his attention and he sighs. This was going to be... Oh, it wasn't so bad after all. There is a flash, as the modules float back into his dimensional pocket, and POD separates from him. "It's alright...and Lilian was just trying to mess with me. And I guess you too.." he says, with a small laugh, "POD..." he waves to the flying box with arms, "Is not just what she said, it's a part of me as my eyes and ears are." "Also, she's nice," he says, easily enough. The POD, speaks. It's a vaguely feminine voice, "Greetings, I am POD, I assist Ishirou with various things. Do not worry, during the sauna, he was doing his best to...cover his eyes, figuratively, with me." He pauses, "Though...she was harsh about it, she wasn't completely wrong. Please don't put yourself at risk by getting into an unfamiliar machine, okay? Or if you had to, you should have been more open about it. I could have supported you! Literally what I was built for, you know, before I got fired."
DRYCLEAN-SIGINT	DRYCLEAN continues to pore over the Kana which they knock on the leg of a few times. "Appreciated, pal. Was a right pain needing to aim that beam wide around you; something off about your moves." A glance along some actuators, but nothing further. "Thoughts all odd." Consideration of the reasoning behind it. "Just a joke, ha ha. Don't worry about it. All's well and all that." Intrigue from multiple angles; understandable tech, but an unreadable pilot. Wonder if there's anything interesting to hear from this thing. There's a moment spent; opted against. They turn back and size up the rest of the Elites that were present, before walking over to Arcadia; though, their route did seem to initially be towards Bercilak. "Good moves out there, ha ha. Gave me a good angle spectator seat to aim with." A pause, as they quickly reaffix some detached cabling. "Certainly taking a plot like this in stride. No big questions to ask? No holes in their story exposition?"
Petra Soroka	"She's nice... you mean Lilian?" Petra narrows her eyes in disbelief, despite her already internally stated goal of apologizing to her. "She bullied you out of a hot spring when you were heavily injured." Now that she's apologized to Ishirou, her role in his departure is gone. She sighs. "I guess I don't really have a choice anymore, being open about my... not knowing this mech very well. Thanks, Ishirou."
Arcadia	Arcadia beams at the praise about putting on a good show, tail giving a flick behind her. Then DRYCLEAN queries her not joining in on asking questions. To which the sphinx shrugs a bit in response. "I'm a fighter and guardian. I don't ask questions, I make sure the right people that are better at that sort of thing survive to do so."
Cantio	Ramda watches DRYCLEAN touching the Kana idly, and he squints at both of them for a while longer before finally speaking up. "You there. Are you...? No." He shakes his head slowly, apparently running through way too many things in his own head before finally concluding that whatever it was was a 'no'. He doesn't elaborate, of course. He's just doing that mysterious talking-to-himself thing. Instead, he looks towards Petra and Arcadia with a smug grin of his own. "Oh, really? That's good to know, then. I'd be terrified to think of what you would believe if they had been the ones to survive and tell you of what dreadful things I or Frest would have done." Turning to Hisoka next, Ramda has to shift around a bit before finding a comfortable position in his invisible armchair stance. "Yes. Yes, it would." He's almost content to leave it at that, but then continues after seeing the way Hisako tilts her head. "Just as the goddess of creation must create, so too must the god of destruction destroy. Illogical as they may seem, the whims of the gods have their own logic, and they would do things that a mortal would consider impossible or even contradictory to their own goals." "With all that said and done, though... What are your plans now?" "We can set up a base here." Cantio answers simply enough, already glancing around the tower and relaying orders to the Desperado Enforcement cyborgs. "We'll need a base of operations to gather at and work from, if things really are as dire as they sound. I can take care of getting that setup, and I'll keep an ear to the ground for any leads towards where we should go next." "If you're uncertain about where to go next, might I recommend reconvening here at another time? I'm sure you still have plenty of questions about the lay of the land, and we might even be able to meet some of the rulers soon after that." "Later? I guess that works, but... Couldn't we figure some of that out now?" "I'd like to speak with both arms on." "... Right."
DRYCLEAN-SIGINT	An adjustment to a dial. "Respectable, ha ha. Specialization, division of labor. Best way to handle something cut and dry like this, I reckon." A measured pause; an arm pointed in an arbitrary direction; a slight raise in static volume. They tap the side of their primary monitor. "I'll uphold that other end then, ha ha. Got some thinking searching to do." The vessel drops down, ever quiet, and with a two-finger salute DRYCLEAN enters a side panel that slides shut behind them. It once more raises far into the air, before a bubble forms around it. Slightly hard to look at; it folds upwards into some higher plane, before simply not being present anymore. Quite the drive. The static diminishes.