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Kayoko Kirenai	The city of Kagoshima is unchanged from the last time you saw it. If not for the heavier clouds blanketing the grey sky, every view of the city could be replayed footage of last week. The trains run at the same time, with the same subdued chatter; the same office workers are carousing in the street after work; the same streets have the same mundane level of pedestrian and vehicle activity; the same hundred-foot tall monster dangles over the harbor as if by a noose, with the same indifference from the dockworkers below.     The warning from before stands: Please do not disturb the city with your arrival.     Despite your prior visit, Kagoshima still has no elites. There are no nonhumans. There is no magic. You're here to help, not to make a statement.     Kayoko claims to have smoothed over the disturbance that you caused with Sister Kurokawa and the rest of the Holy Refulgence, the evidence of which is that you were invited to return to the city to aid the local magical girls with the Temptation hanging over the harbor. But really, doesn't it feel like overkill, that so much amelioration would be necessary over such a minor scene? It was just a brief squabble, after all, and the only victim was someone like him.     After the day's classes is Audiovisual club, after A/V club is a short train ride from Our Lady The Second Eve to the harbor, during which time Kayoko has scheduled herself to get a head start on homework. She doesn't manage to focus, looking out the cracked-open window to silently watch the hanging Temptation as the train draws closer, textbook laying open on her lap. It's much of the same once she arrives at the harbor, setting up at a table outside the train station to wait for the others. A can of milk tea sits open and nearly untouched next to her textbook, as Kayoko stares down at the same paragraph for minutes, reading without absorbing. Each time the wind blows off of the harbor to send her hair scattering in fine strands, she reaches up and tidies it again, over and over.     At some point, Spot scurries out of her sleeve, standing on top of her textbook with his batlike feet to smugly grin at her. "Come on, Cobalt, lighten up. You'll do fine! You could do this all yourself, you know that as well as I do; you only *really* organized this for Vermillion's sake. This is a performance, nothing else, and as long as you keep it under control, nothing will go wrong ."     Sometime during this is when Meika joins her, and Kayoko tilts her head up to look in her direction before her sister comes into view, re-tidying her hair and fixing her posture. She flips a page and looks down to appear as though she's reading it, while calling out to her. "Hey, Meika. Was work alright? Want something to drink?"
Kayoko Kirenai	More seriously, Kayoko closes the textbook, glancing at the semitruck-sized Temptation down the street. The humanoid monster has solid colored blue-green skin, nearly blurring in to the dull sea beyond it, if not for the streetlamp buried in its chest, and the golden sphere surrounding its head, shimmering like false sunlight. Its arms hang down past its knees, and its feet nearly brush the tops of trucks driving around in the massive asphalt lot next to the water. Its body lacks a lot of fine detail, almost cartoonish in its simplicity.     One of the three bridges leading to the harbor lot is shredded, probably by unseasonably strong winds. Damaged buildings stretch down the coastline, cleaned up and cordoned off. Your memory prickles uncomfortably when trying to imagine what kind of storm weather would cause that pattern of property damage.     "... I'm kind of excited, a little bit. This is a big change, right? It can only get better from here on out, with everyone helping us. I just hope we can help them all enough in return."     Once the rest arrive, Kayoko stands up from her chair, pushing it back into the table politely. Stowing her textbook in her backpack, she tries to organize her thoughts by voicing them out loud to everyone. "Hello! Thank you all for coming, again. Um. We had some suggestions about evacuating the area, which isn't something that Vermillion and I have tried before, and it might get difficult with the Temptation's memory altering. It's a good idea, though, and since I have it trapped in there," Kayoko taps on the side of her head, probably indicating the presence of the golden sphere, "We have some time to do that before engaging it. And then, once we do, we won't need to worry about hiding from the civilians anymore, since they won't remember us."
Isaac Beaufort	Isaac arrives, and with a case of Creature energy drink for the group.  They come in all sorts of flavors, that usually include their color more than anything else.  They're awful, but they're also energy drinks.  Setting the case down, he grabs a red cherry robin.  Drinking it while others arrive.  Mmm.   Oh right, evacuation... "Well, the problem is that they want us to keep things on the down-low right?  Low disruption...so just trying to toot a horn and use the authority of multiversal powers seems like it'll work very poorly...buuut..." he says, thinking.   He makes a call, talks to his Concord handler, and pulls some strings.  The idea is to use his cash to claim that the harbor area was needed for a movie shooting, which would also require some Concord NPCs to show up with 'camera equipment' to make things look legitimate.  The camera equipment was mostly for show and the real power would be NPCs showing up to push the civilians back and a safe distance away from the action.   It'd take time though, and once he's done calling in favors he closes his phone and grabs another Creature.  This time the can is purple.  "I am going to be so glad once my finals are done.  Senior year and all, ya know?  Still trying to figure out what to do as a career.  Sports are good and all, but...they're never lasting careers."
Kale Hearthward	Kale woke up this morning with new resolve. Well, actually he woke up last morning with new resolve, since life doesn't quite understand how dramatic timing and narrative pacing works. But it's still close enough to say that he woke up this morning with new resolve, and it makes for a better tale than saying the resolve idled in the back of his mind as he did a full day of paperwork, basic maintenance, and bureaucratic meetings, and he only got to act on it the day afterwards. So we'll go with that. Kale got up, and picked out his outfit. Everyday formal wear, appropriate to the region. Something nice, but still something that wouldn't stand out too much. Dress shirt, suit, tailored black pants, dress shoes. He even added a tie - something he didn't enjoy putting on at all, not least because anything that even hinted at restricting his airflow felt like it was choking him. His standard copies of Gobo and Periactus were set aside, Kale instead picking out the slightly smaller versions that were designed for wetwork - versions that had less reach and less power, but that would fit inside his suit without notice. They wouldn't pass someone frisking him, but he'd look entirely unarmed at a casual glance. And that... bugged him a bit. He'd gone seemingly unarmed while undercover before, but that was... while he was undercover. Showing up without his swords on display around people who knew him as Kale Hearthward felt... off. Like he was naked, maybe, without having his twin swords visible on his back, their handles peeking over his shoulders, at all times. He couldn't quite place the feeling. And then the last part. The human-mode illusion magic. It came in the shape of a simple little crystal - tap it against his forehead once to apply it, tap it again to dismiss it. It was easy. It was simple. It'd help him fit in, keep everyone from giving him second glances, make everyone around him happy, and he could remove it the moment he was back in private again. It didn't change him physically, it didn't affect his abilities, and unless he happened across a mirror he shouldn't even really know it was there. So why... ... did the prospect of putting the illusion on today feel more like it was choking him than the tie was? He tapped the crystal against his forehead quickly, and then spent the next ten minutes leaving his quarters.
Ritsuka Fujimaru	Some way, some how, Jeanne is still in Kagoshima, and she hasn't been chased away yet! Much like last time, though, the lady that looks like a jaundiced albino might still draw attention just walking around, so she's taken extra steps to... Dress exactly the same as last time and take no further efforts to conceal herself. She's still wearing the same blue jacket with the fuzzy black lining and gold trim, she's still wearing the same black shirt/skirt garment that barely covers any legs, and she's still wearing the same black boots that would look completely out of place in a Catholic anything. Maybe that's why the girls didn't seem too enthused about her last time. No matter. She'll make up for it today, confident grin plastered on Jeanne's face as she approaches the students at the harbor. "You're very welcome. Oh, I've got something planned for getting evacuations going, alright.  Just say the word and..." Jeanne raises her hand, pausing dramatically before snapping. Nothing happens, though, since she's doing it for emphasis rather than as a cue. "... You'll have your evacuation in no time. Plenty of privacy, too, in case anyone does think twice to come on over." She barely explains, dropping the grin a moment later before giving Kayoko and Meika a more stern look. "Are you two planning on sticking around for whatever happens? Don't blame me if you get caught up anything messy if you stick around." She takes some energy juice and chugs that shit, too. She doesn't even flinch, either.
Kale Hearthward	Kale shows up precisely five minutes ahead of the requested time. (He actually arrived 30 minutes early, and lingered out of sight till he could arrive at the five minute mark.) He's well dressed, attentive, and has his ~~feathers~~ hair neatly combed. He's carrying a serious looking briefcase with him as well. ... Evacuation plans. Right. Kale should have thought about that during the prep time for this operation this morning. His thoughts were elsewhere. "I can set up a storm off the coast as a cover for why we're evacuating people," he offers. "I can do it subtly enough that nobody will realize it's me doing it, and keep it at a level and distance that it can look threatening without actually endangering people. At most there'll be a few trees and broken windows as a result. And since this area has-" He pauses, peering. His memory prickles uncomfortably. "... been hit by a storm already, it should be easier to accept?" He puts his briefcase down on the table, and cracks it open just enough to pull out a tablet, carefully chosen to match this world's tech levels (at least externally). A couple taps on the screen bring up a city map. "I can put it... here, and have it move on this path inwards through the city in the zones we'd want to evacuate. Starting it here at category three, decrease to category one by the time it reaches the coast, and let it coast along at tropical storm strength by the time it reaches any populated areas." "I could call in the East Wind as an evacuation vehicle, but it's clearly outside world technomagical scope - unless authorities here are willing to make a call for Paladins support on their own, might be better to use something more clandestine." There. Professional, courteous, to the point. Focus on the mission, not on anyone looking at him, not on how he's feeling right now. Easy enough.
Ritsuka Fujimaru	Elsewhere: A small wyvern waits at the harbor, taking an early nap on a pile of debris that it has claimed as its own. It waits for Jeanne's second signal, ready to start some fires.
Go Shijima	This is our opportunity to show that we can hold it together. If we can't... it'll be much harder to help Meika and Kayoko. A white motorcycle coasts towards the harbor. As it nears the table Kayoko has set up, more details are visible. It's a feet-forward 'power cruiser' style if the lines and size are any indication, yet the high pitched engine whine is utterly unlike the typical growl of a motorcylce, sounding more like it belongs on the bleeding edge of a test track somewhere. Red racing stripes down the middle match the white hoodie and the helmet of the rider. When he dismounts and removes the helmet, medium length, dark brown hair spills out to either side.      The helmet is stowed in a small compartment above the tail light--another mildly unusual design choice, given bikes of this type generally tend to have saddlebags. "Sure thing," he says with a nod, stepping around the bike. He takes a moment to smooth his yellow tee, before his hands find their way into the pockets of his jeans. "Just tell me where you need me and what you want me doing. Somehow, I can't imagine you want me armored up before we're fighting that thing. Otherwise..." Go dips down, knees bent, jumping into the air and tucking his legs for a backflip that places him perfectly atop a recycling bin.      "I'll just hang tight." I hate doing that. But it's than spinning out. He breathes a sigh of relief when Kale is both here and prepared. It isn't that the latter was unexpected--but after last time, the former was at least in question. "It's good to see you," he says. He means it--though there's a shade of sincere concern mixed in, too.
Hibiki Tachibana	'We'll...um...we'll do our best to not let you down.'     Despite the mumbled closing she gave to the events of last week, Hibiki's words still stand. And despite Kayoko mentioning she handled it, she can't help feeling a little bit of pressure. Technically, she doesn't have any reason she should be blaming herself for anything that happened back there. It was entirely between Kale and Strawberry Princess, and it came too suddenly for her to have ever reasonably done anything about it.     But she remembers Sister Kurokawa's final words, Kale storming out, Go's attempts at damage control, Strawberry trying to pull things back...and the expressions on Kayoko and Meika's faces. And when she does, she knows there's a lot more at stake in making this go well than just her own selfish desire to throw herself at a problem to distract herself.     But that's for her to keep in her head, and not to show on her face when Hibiki approaches, a hand in her jacket pocket while the other comes up in a small wave. "Hey, you two. Don't mention it. 'Course we'd be here."     It feels sort of weird, to her, to be standing around chatting while the Temptation is still restrained right down the street. Like her instincts are saying she should be worried about it /now/. That might just be her projecting the way things work at home onto here, though. ...Or it's her own eagerness to get things started seeping through.     "...Not sure I have any ready-made excuse to evacuate the whole place on hand myself. At least not in any unsuspicious way. Can't exactly just sound the air sirens," she murmurs, glancing around the immediate area only to inevitably end up focusing back down the road, where her thoughts are tinged by that uncomfortable feeling. As others offer up their own ideas - with Jeanne's a little worrying - she instead focuses on Kayoko and Meika.     "Kagoshima is your home, so you guys should get the final say in how we do it. Does the Holy Refulgence give you guys any help with this part of things, too?"
Strawberry Princess	I can't just wear the same kind of shirt I wore last time, right? Then they'll think I'm wearing dirty clothes. But I can't wear my old hoodie or Lilian will be sad. And I can't go in costume either, because that's making a scene...      Not for the first time, Strawberry stares at her extremely sparse closet with creeping despair. Her eyes fall on one of the unopened plastic packages on the closet floor, ordered who-knows-how-long-ago. She can go a little outside her comfort zone, right?      ----      Thin daffodil turtleneck, green flower-print skirt. They don't not suit her, but she seems to think they don't, because she's crumpling up on herself like a piece of tinfoil by the time she joins Kayoko and Meika. The strap of her carrying case is the only comfortingly familiar element; she keeps fidgeting with it.      She gives Kale an apologetic look, when she sees him. In part it's for punching him the other day; they made up over radio, but that's just different from face-to-face. In part it's commiserating: their discomfort is at least a little alike.      While Meika explains the circumstances, Strawberry's eyes keep gravitating towards the energy drinks. Given the draining circumstances, they look really tempting. She hassles Isaac discreetly: "Hey, um. Are these really for everybody?"      It's alarming how fast she can chug one of those things.      "I'm not sure I'll be much help evacuating people," she admits to the magical girl pair, while crumpling up the can. "Not sure if I'll be a big help in the fight, either. I'm... I mean, the only really big thing I can do makes radiation. And-" She sweeps her hand in the general direction of 'the city'.      "But I'll do my best. Is there... any advice, you have? Anything special about Temptations. Anything to keep in mind for the fight. I'd like to hear it."
Isaac Beaufort	Isaac nods to anyone who asks if they're for everyone, "Sure are!" he says to Strawberry. "Oh! I like the outfit Ms. Princess! It looks really good on you!" he says.
Strawberry Princess	"Haha. Thanks. I think I like my usual better," Strawberry says after pounding back the Creature. "But it's good to experiment sometimes, right?"      She is very transparently trying to convince herself.
Isaac Beaufort	Isaac considers the outfit again, he really likes it, but takes another glance just to make sure he hasn't missed anything. "Mm. I think I like it better than normal, but we also haven't met a whole lot? I assume what you wore last time was the standard? Given your name, I assume reds are standard? I'd stay away from oranges usually, or darker blues...going for more green and yellow on your off time. THat's just me, and I am certainly not a expert! Clothing is just something I have to take into mind day to day, but I guess it's easier for guys because 'oh here's a suit' and you're done. Casual isn't much harder..."
Meika Kirenai	Despite the looming monster and the looming fight with it, it's still just a normal day, for their city and for Meika. There's no real 'afterschool' for her, just the long trip back from Our Lady the Second Eve to home, chores (more so than normal, the fight giving no promise of being quick), and skipping off to her job for the rest of the time before the scheduled meetup. Astride her dusty-red Vespa, and conspicuously helmetless, she only barely dodges being late as she pulls up beside where Kayoko waits at the train station. Being late would cause problems.     Before it's even properly skidded to a halt, she's hopped off, and tripping over herself and stumbling to correct it and set its kickstand, with a muffled and frustrated "Ach, heck!". Meika is still dressed for work, wearing a beige apron with its brassy nametag still attached all over her long-sleeved and monochrome school uniform. Between waving to her seated sister and steps towards heading over herself, she awkwardly shoves her apron into a messenger bag, and swaps it with her jacket. It's not something to leave out, even if the upcoming events call for a different sort of costume change.     "That-" A small huff, ever so slightly out of breath, "..Yeah, a drink would be great, sis. Work was work." She sits down next to her, and looks over her surroundings, and the guilty reminders. "...I don't know if I'm excited. It's.. it's weird. I hope they don't get hurt."     She gives out quiet waves as people arrive, and snatches up one of the crated energy drinks before Isaac even confirms that it's alright to. On the topic of evactuations, she speaks up, to add, "Air-raid sirens isn't.. a half bad idea, really. I could probabaly manage something close, I think? But.. ah, I'm scared of drawing a crowd wondering what's going on. Fire alarms, earthquake warnings.. it's worth a shot, maybe?" She throws a weak smile Hibiki's way.     "Miss Strawberry?" Meika pauses, looking for words, "Your outfit is nice. But.. if you prefer your usual, you shouldn't have to..." She look away, down at herself, first, and then to Kayoko, almost flinching. She doesn't say more on the topic.
Hibiki Tachibana	Hibiki is, just a little, surprised that Meika actually gives some credence to that. It shows on her face for a second or two before she offers a weak smile of her own right back. She might only be saying it for her sake. But it's still a little nice to hear either way. "...Well, only if you and Kayoko are up for it. Maybe with Kale trying to whip up some wind, it'll be enough for them to get the idea?"     It's the best she's got. It hasn't exactly escaped her notice that Kale is somehow feeling even stiffer than normal...or that Strawberry is wearing something she doesn't think she's seen before. Hibiki doesn't comment on it, but she does at least shift enough to where Strawberry can see the nod up towards her.     She hasn't so much as even tried to go for one of the energy drinks herself, though. Seems like she's also interested in hearing about what they'd need to know for fighting.
Strawberry Princess	"Thanks." Strawberry flashes Meika a little smile, and Hibiki too when she sees the nod, but then her eyes wander, and the smile turns weak. "I... thanks, but that isn't true. My costume's the most comfortable thing. And I can't be wearing that. Right?"      'Not after making trouble the other day', she doesn't say.
Lilian Rook	'You suffered and then shut up and played the same fucking role I did; you're as much of a coward as I am. Otherwise you wouldn't be so scared, of people knowing.'     "I promised I would, didn't I?" says Lilian to Kayoko. Her smile says 'as if it were ever in doubt'; her eyes wander. "So all that we need see to is their physical safety, yes? They won't remember a single thing about why? That's perfectly convenient." she says. "The human ability to confabulate and misremember on purpose is already fantastic without magic."     Lilian needs nothing in particular to blend in. Though she won't dress down, ever, to the point of forgettability, her armaments are casually carried by perfectly rehearsed experience, her clothes meticulously chosen from a breezy Japanese spring, and the silver lining of past events has freed her from the extra steps of securing an Immunes combat skin for the occasion. If anything, she's only gotten better at hiding being casually dangerous at all times. Even the idea that their last meeting could have mattered at all is completely unapparent in her bearing. It'd be so easy to forget it ever happened, just by seeing the way she goes strutting off the harbour street.     Enough that it somehow feels, by virtue of nothing more than her seeming the last awkward one here; the adult woman, walking off the beaten path as easy as can be, back straight, hand to cheek, voice bright and sharp and vaguely pleasant; that she should be the one giving directions, and Kayoko's suggestions will be taken as suggestions.     Lilian side-eyes the energy drinks with a grimace, turning her nose up at the concoction in silence. "You look fantastic." she says offhandedly to Strawberry, as if they complimented each other's outfits all the time. Girl stuff. "Don't worry too much. It's not as if all of us have to participate equally in every little thing. That only happens in movies."     She looks at Kayoko, as the obvious 'second in command' in the dynamic, effortlessly assuming its implied vanguard. "If you have suggestions, then suggest. Otherwise, I plan to go by standard procedure. This is a harbour. There are public intercomms everywhere. I can have them evacuated with a few words. They'll make up their own reasons why they listened to me. Is there something else you need? Specificity? Simple kayfabe?"
Ritsuka Fujimaru	Spotting Kale and Strawberry, Jeanne does a fairly decent job at not smirking again. "Ah, you're here, too. Good. If all these evacuation plans don't work somehow, round two at the mall could be a good backup." It's not a perfect job since she's still grinning a bit at the end there. "Just make sure to direct any firepower at the Temptation once we get started, hm? I don't want to take credit for any fires I didn't actually start." Hibiki raises that question about the Holy Refulgence that actually catches Jeanne's interest, though, and she looks right over at Meika and Kayoko for answers. She also snags another one of Isaac's energy drinks, if there's still more around. She doesn't even need them at this point, really.
Chase	Chase was not here last time, but thankfully, that's fine, he has Watch reports to fill in what he needs to know. The most important thing, apparently, being that he needs to keep a low profile. A task that he honestly considers himself rather talented at, given his past endeavors.      The Roidmude drives in on his black motorcycle, which looks pretty normal at first glance. Unfortunately, it's not. Between the purple flames printed on it and the giant chrome skull plastered on the front fairing, it looks more like a movie prop from some 80's movie about the post-apocalypse than it does something a normal well adjusted human being would drive.      Deploying the kickstand and killing the engine, Chase parks his motorcycle a bit away from the group, removing and stowing away his helmet before making his way to join the. Rather than participate in warm greetings like everyone else, however, he's just eerily silent as he stands rigidly stock still. The only part of his body that moves are his eyes, which scan everyone, before noticeably narrowing when he notices Go.      Thankfully, for everyone here, and especially the photographer, his respect for the law outweighs his desire to destroy Kamen Rider. That said, there is still a palpable 'killing' intent that can be felt from his stare.
Meika Kirenai	"Oh."     Meika chews the inside of her lip, as she listens to Strawberry's response. She wants to say something reassuring to her, that it wouldn't be too bad to change yet, but that'd just make her a hypocrite for having not done so herself, as much as she wants to. Instead, she just smiles, apolagetic and useless.     "...Won't be too long." is the only piece she can give her.
Go Shijima	Go hops down from the recycling bin to check out Meika's scooter with a small smile. "Hey, nice ride," he says, circling around it. "This is a 946, isn't it? There's not much out there more stylish than one of these," he says, making a tracing motion with his index to illustrate the retro-future lines from the side to the front fairing. "Did you get the 125, or the--" A familiar sound stops him in his tracks and wipes the faint smile from his tracks.      "Ah, man..." He locks eyes with Chase. The tension between them is nearly palpable, though he doesn't share the same animosity that the Roidmude has for him.      "You really have a knack for showing up at the worst possible time, Chase."
Strawberry Princess	"Yeah," Strawberry says to Meika. "Not long." Her hands try, and fail, to find any pockets to be shoved into as she looks up at the monster. That worsens her discomfort. "I knew you'd get it. That it's the worst. But it's also the time you get to be the most 'you'?"      Even though everyone else's compliments had put her off-balance, Lilian's flattery does the opposite. Their back-and-forth is a well-worn social groove, comforting for its familiarity. "Haha. Thanks, Lilian. You too. You're dressing a lot more flattering lately."      "It's not as if all of us have to participate equally in every little thing."      She's still smiling, but it takes on an itty-bitty playful curl. "Yeah. So I can look forward to you supporting me, right?" It takes a years-long friendship to bring out the impish side of her, but it is there.
Isaac Beaufort	"The most you.." Isaac considers the comment for a while. Flashes to the recent incident in Lampport...that knowledge hits him hard, and causes him to look pale for a moment. The feeling doesn't immediately go away, and he takes up another Creature. Drinking it he starts to look better after a few moments.
Chase	Go mentions that he shows up at the worst times, but the same could be said about Go. He /could/ say that at Go, but rather than that, he gives the Kamen Rider an extremely short and to the point answer in his usual deep tone of voice.      "Do not talk to me."      With that said, Chase finally remembers that he's supposed to be keeping a low profile. Calmly, he reaches into his coat as he pulls out a pair of black aviators that he quickly slides on to his face.
Ritsuka Fujimaru	New challengers approach! The friction between Go and Chase has Jeanne looking between the two with mild excitement, and she's doing a terrible job showing that she's looking forward to something between the two. Also, a bit of just plain staring, as a treat.
Kayoko Kirenai	"I can set up a storm off the coast as a cover for why we're evacuating people,"     Kayoko stands up straight and nods in greeting to Kale as he arrives first. Her expression is stiff--not hostile, exactly, but not familiar, seeming to be viewing him as a distant authority figure rather than a threat to the mission. She relaxes as he outlines his plan, growing more confident in it working out as he continues.     "That's a really good idea, Mr. Hearthward. That's probably wider-scale than the fight will need to be, but the infrastructure is already set up to warn people about tropical storms, and evacuation routes for that already exist too. Thank you, that's perfect." In fact, rather than being worried about his presence, Kayoko's response has an undercurrent of consoling reassurance, as if to promise that she's grateful that he's here, regardless of last week's events. "Still trying to figure out what to do as a career."     As a peer, Isaac gets a friendly wave when he approaches, though the energy drinks are regarded with suspicion. "Oh, you're graduating? Or... graduated? That's still two years off for me and Meika, we just started our junior year." On the topic of bringing in TV crews. "I think that'll work! It won't clear people out of the buildings, but maybe it'll help get people off of the street? That way they won't be wandering around when the sirens go off, from Mr. Hearthward's storm." "Oh, I've got something planned for getting evacuations going, alright."     Kayoko hesitates for a few seconds, leaving an awkward silence. When Jeanne doesn't elaborate on what that plan for evacuation is, Kayoko looks distinctly uncomfortable. She rubs her finger down the neck strap of her camera, nail rasping on the plastic texture. "Um. What else is involved, actually, Miss d'Arc? And of course Vermillion and I will be here. We're not just leaving the fight to you." "Does the Holy Refulgence give you guys any help with this part of things, too?"     Kayoko shakes her head at Hibiki, after greeting her with a weak smile. "No, they can't, really. The Cherub network can let us know when one appears, if we're busy, but besides that.... They're all adults. They can't even see the Temptations, much less fight them. They help us with everything outside of fighting, of course." She hastily adds that last bit, as if worried that talking badly about the organization will get her in trouble, somehow. "Is there... any advice, you have? Anything special about Temptations. Anything to keep in mind for the fight."     "Strawberry!" It's by far the best mood that Kayoko has appeared to be in today. "You look really nice. Those colors really suit you. Um... well. Each Temptation has some kind of, weakness? This one got scared when it saw its own reflection, that's how I'm keeping it trapped now. But it'll be free the moment I drop the illusion. Uh... this one used a lot of wind-related attacks. Like making the air hard to breathe, or launching blasts of air. I think Mr. Hearthward is better at manipulating air than it is, from the reports I've read. It's kind of clumsy. They always are, unless they get to split." Kayoko snaps and nods her head. "Oh, yeah, that's another thing. This one was traveling south, I don't know exactly where. But we can't let it get to wherever it was going, because if it gets its... target, then it splits in half, and that's... bad for a lot of reasons."
Kayoko Kirenai	"If you have suggestions, then suggest."     "Y-yes ma'am! Miss Dame Commander!" If saluting was a motion that Kayoko was familiar with, it sounds like she'd be doing it every time that Lilian addresses her. As is, she snaps to attention, devoting her full gaze to Lilian the moment she begins talking. "I-in my perspective, I believe Mr. Hearthward's plan would be the most effective, if-- if maybe unnecessarily risky, in terms of property damage. If you can..." Kayoko trails off, looking slightly dazed. "I suppose you could just tell them to leave. I-I'm sure you could manage that."     Kayoko seems thrown off-balance by the sudden shift in authority. She goes along with Lilian's implied assertion unquestioningly, but stumbles over the change in tone. She puts a hand on her camera as reassurance, and stays silent for a few seconds. "Um. That's my input, ma'am. Do as you see fit, and I'll drop the orb so we can all attack at once when we're ready."
Go Shijima	Go bristles, his fists clenching for a brief and uncomfortable moment as old habits stir up something ugly. It passes, after a moment, with a fatigued sigh, his fists unclenching as his brown eyes drift slowly to the ground. "Sorry," he says, looking over his shoulder at Meika, before heading over to the table to compose himself, back turned to Chase.      "He means well," Go explains. "Things are just... bad, between us. Don't get the wrong idea about him just from the way we act." It's probably not the reaction Jeanne was hoping for. "He'll pull his weight, too. So don't worry about that, either."
Isaac Beaufort	More snapped out of his momentary daze, he shakes his head and nods to Kayoko.  "At least they'll be able to handle crowd control while the rest of us handle the monster.  If people forget the circumstances around it, then it means I'll be able to use some of my ground manipulations to help keep it contained." This comes after mentions of it traveling towards a target, and manipulating the wind.  During all of this, he sends a text message, confirming the deployment and money sending.  Fast Tracking things, and getting civilians off the street.   The buildings will come down to Lilian's plan, which his people will help send them away.  "So it's going after a specific target?  Is there any way to know who that is directly?" he asks, thinking.  "It'd be easier if we could figure that out, and then extradite them in a way that could draw it into traps and away from populated areas." Still, once plans are enacted, Isaac gets ready, taking his jacket off and tossing it over the Creatures, and drawing out a rather large mace-looking object.  It looks larger than some people and is at least as dense as Kale.   When things get ready, Isaac speaks, "Persona!" and then the form of Frankenstein's Monster appears, channeling power through both him and Isaac, before it balls up two fists, and slams them down at the spell bound monster.
Kale Hearthward	He breathes a sigh of relief when Kale is both here and prepared.     She gives Kale an apologetic look, when she sees him.     It hasn't exactly escaped her notice that Kale is somehow feeling even stiffer than normal.     Jeanne does a fairly decent job at not smirking again.         Her expression is stiff--not hostile, exactly, but not familiar. Kale...         ... doesn't really pick up on how other people are looking at him right now. Is that by choice? Or - more likely, by just not wishing to see how people are seeing him right now. Focus on the mission. Ignore everything else. Get through this. "Alright, then. If you'll excuse me." Kale goes to leave, heading towards a more advantageous spot near the harbor to do his casting... ... and the moment he's around the corner and out of sight of the group, he grabs at his tie, and *yanks* it off. ... Actually, he doesn't. He's not nearly physically strong enough to rip the fabric. Mostly he just mildly hurts himself by yanking at the tie that way. Deep breath. He carefully takes hold of the windsor knot holding the tie in place, and his fingers work the fabric, and then he crumples it up and shoves it in his pocket. There. He feels... a little better now. Not nearly enough. In short order, he has the promised storm going. Meteorologically it's still weird as hell for a storm to brew at that spot, at that intensity, and then travel on that path, but - well, it's not like there's any elites here, right?
Lilian Rook	'You too. You're dressing a lot more flattering lately.'     There's a momentary hitch.     "Oh, you've noticed? I'm glad it's meeting your approval, then. I'd feel like a bit of a hypocrite if I didn't experiment too, after all that pushing you've done, you know." Lilian says. "There are all sorts of places out there. Even if I have confidence in my sense of style, it demonstrates a positive quality to be able to adapt~"     She smirks knowingly when Strawberry tests her boundaries. Of course she was never going to change this, over a punch she expressed her belief in being more than justifiable. "If you're talking about not being able to find room for that monster, I'll manage as usual." she says, with the effortlessly bratty edge, impenetrable in audacity. "But try not to reduce your own perceived worth to that one flashy laser beam. I know you're capable of all sorts of things in these situations."     'It's kind of clumsy. They always are, unless they get to split.'     "Beg pardon?" Lilian interjects. She'd looked perfectly content to listen to a mixture of traits and situational modifiers that had seemed individually familiar, until a moment ago. "Apologies, but 'lots of reasons' isn't good enough for field work. Where was it going? Why? What does 'splitting' entail?" Breathing out only to give Kayoko space to respond, Lilian mutters "Funny. It's a good trick, but I'd thought the light was intentional. A proper halo for a properly Christian monster."     She turns to Kale. Disguise or not, her reaction to him is . . . reassuringly? No different from any other time in the field. "Let's try to limit it to a storm warning rather than a full blown gale. Make it look bad, but don't bring it all the way down. I'll use the comms system to broadcast for the look-sees who need convincing." Pause for hairflip. "Asides. It's better if you don't exert all your power whipping up a real tempest, if there's a chance you'll need it to counteract the target's atmospheric Dominion vector."     That said, Lilian moves away to do just that: Locate one of the shitty office rooms inevitably wired to a broadcast system around any shipyard or worksite, commit tresspass crimes, and pick up the horn when the sky is suitably menacing. Then, she begins to blare the system across the harbour, and more importantly, towards the road. It's nothing in particular, of course. A bland and excessively even-toned repetition of a severe storm warning, modelled after the Urban Center emergency shelter warnings she can recall off-memory. A clear and repetitious drone for civilians to move away from the shore in an orderly fashion, shelter at least fifteen blocks away, stay away from windows, and listen for updates.     The important part is what she's doing with her voice. There'd never been a rule that says she can't get into the minds of ordinary people through a speaker. Not when they're all so close to her location. Not when she can say it over and over again.
Ritsuka Fujimaru	'Miss d'Arc'. Jeanne closes her eyes slowly as she tries not to look too surprised at being callethat, but there is another one of those slight smirks crossing her face after several moments. "Fire. Nothing too terrible, just a little arson around one of those buildings that probably need to be demolished, anyway. There won't be any risk of garbage flying around, that's for sure." She looks over at Kale, as though challenging him. "Well, unless a sudden wind blows something into a poor little pet store. Then who knows what could happen or who it could hit? You never know with how unpredictable the wind can be." Sadly, Go and Chase prove to be less violent than JEanne had predicted, and she doesn't get her hot guy fight. After throwing those barbs out, though, Jeanne goes back to looking a little less than pleased with Kayoko's explanation about the Cherub network and the church. "Why am I not surprised? How convenient for them to not to see something only children are equipped to fight." Spitting off to the side in disgust, she shakes her hands off while letting mana build up around herself, getting herself ready for the inevitable battle. Clenching her hands and unclenching them slowly, Jeanne takes a deep breathe before scowling at both Meika and Kayoko. "... Tch. Just don't get in our way. That's why you called us here, isn't it?" She tries to sound dismissive while addressing those two specifically, but she can't manage to sound as petulant as she normally does. There's just some regular anger in her voice instead. Once it's time to get into the thick of things, Jeanne finally lets that magic power manifest as a suit of black armor replacing her jacket and shirt-dress with an excessively long cape in a similarly purple-ish black over her shoulder. A sword rests in its scabbard at her hip while she keeps a massive flag held against her shoulder, billowing behind her while she approaches the Temptation. "Hey. Wake up." She taunts while drawing the flag back, putting enough magic into the weapon to wreath the tip in black flames before driving it forward, trying to just shove it through the Temptation. "Don't make this too easy now."
Hibiki Tachibana	New challengers /do/ approach. And Hibiki is looking mildly concerned as she looks between both Go and Chase - it's obvious that her hope is the exact opposite of what Jeanne's is. It's only when it becomes clear that Chase isn't here to fight /him/ that she lets her shoulders de-tense and breathes out a small sigh.     "Chase...thanks for coming." She's glad for the support. ...Though this also reminds her there's more unresolved issues.     But it's best to focus on problems one at a time. Kayoko's response to her question gets a slight purse of her lips and a nod - she's not surprised, but it seems like when it comes to anything and everything involving Temptations directly, they're on their own. That's...rough. That much more reason to do what she can to make this go smoothly. Wind attacks...splitting. "I'm used to monsters that do that, at least." And...trying to leave. Okay. That won't matter, since she won't let it get to wherever it's going. She'll ask after.     ...For some reason, in the middle of preparing herself, the interaction between Lilian and Kayoko causes a tinge of something negative in her. The way the latter defers to the former on the spot, after Hibiki just mentioned the Kirenai's should have the final say. 'And it's for all of your collective goods. Try to remember that.'     She swallows, and quickly shakes her head entirely to herself, pushing that completely back and away in her head. Time to focus and get ready. A hand comes up to the pendant hanging from her neck.
Strawberry Princess	"They get stronger when they split. I get it." Strawberry glances up at the sun: it's afternoon, so that's west, so south must be to her left. "And its 'target' is... a person? Is that it?"      She rolls those thoughts around in her head for a few seconds before unslinging the carrying case from her back. "Wind's bad enough to mess with flying, right? I'll stay grounded until I have a good feel for it. Thanks, Kayoko."      There's probably a lot to be read into when she says 'Kayoko' versus 'Cobalt'.      "If you're talking about not being able to find room for that monster-"      Strawberry balls a fist up in front of her mouth and coughs sharply. The scab on her knuckles oozes a little from the balling; there aren't any more bandages, but her hands still look sunburnt and raw. "Y-yeah. Don't worry, Lilian. I know I'll be useful, um, somehow."      Eventually, Strawberry excuses herself to find the train station's roof access. (If it doesn't have any, she can probably just climb a wall.) Once she's gotten to her vantage point, she finds a good sightline on the Temptation and opens the case, revealing the cherrywood-and-gunmetal reactor wand and the pistol she'd normally have had in a holster.      Her hands linger longingly on the wand. Safeties are switched off with grindingly heavy thunks. But she can't push the final button just yet. That'd be 'disruptive', wouldn't it?      Instead, she levels the boring, ordinary Glock at the Temptation's chest. You never know when that kind of thing will actually work.
Chase	The fact that, despite Chase making it clear he does not like him, that Go would go out of his way to defend him, annoys the Roidmude to no end. But it's not like he can do anything about it here. It'll have to wait for later.      For now, Chase just quietly nods his head at Hibiki in response to her thanks as he turns to face the Temptation, reaching into his coat once more to pull out... A gun? Or something that vaguely looks like one, if you squint your eyes real hard and pretend.      However, when he quickly pushes in the 'barrel' of the weapon with the palm of his hand before pointing it at the monster, it shouts out the words GUN in a garbled voice, confirming that it apparently it is in fact, a gun.
Meika Kirenai	Meika listens, like always, to the plans concocted. Evactuation is good, no matter its methodology, and maybe it'll save some lives, but by the second it's clear that her help with it isn't needed, she ducks out of the conversing to get ready to do what she /can/ do- fight. She throws a glance her sister's way, as she wilts under the Dame Commander's attention, and whispers to only her, "Easy on it, Kayoko. She's not your boss on this, here. You don't need to let her walk over you like that." It comes out like chiding more than the reassurance she intends. But by the time it's done, and the group is breaking into their separate tasks, she's already facing away from the table.     Meika scrounges in her messenger bag, and pulls out a well-used composition notebook, bent inward from a clear dirth of remaining pages. She clutches it white-knuckled, as if it'd somehow blow away in the wind otherwise- or, really, as if doing so would stop /her/ from blowing away. It's not quite all she needs to be ready, though, and so she awkwardly brushes past to get back to her scooter, where a precariously-strapped hockey stick lies in wait. She snatches it up, too, and tucks it under her arm.     Breathe. Just breathe. It's new, this time, in front of people, but it's still more the same than different. None of this will go wrong. The fight won't either.     Making sure nobody's looking over her shoulder, Meika flips through the pages of the dilapidated notebook, until she finds one that suits her needs. It always hurts, even if only just a little bit, to tear the paper. But it's necessary. With practiced precision, creasing it to make sure it's clean, she rips it out, giving the page one final glance before -gently, as much as it's possible to- crumpling it into a small ball. Her eyes are closed even before the balled-up page is pressed to her heart, but she keeps the drawing on it clear in her mind, as striking red, brilliant white, and steely grey energy pours out from it to surround her .         ____________________________________         °Magical Girl Chevalier Vermillion!°         ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯     The second it abates, in a cacophpnous symphony of roaring thunder and crashing metal, Chevalier Vermillion is already rushing to action. School uniform replaced with a gleaming knightly ensemble. Metal gauntlets extend up her wrist, and bridged up to her bare shoulders with pristine long gloves beneath, ribbons crisscrosing the thin fabric. A steel cuirass instead of a jacket, a fluffier, frillier skirt instead of her plain, long one, a large ribbon bow on her back. She still has no form of helmet, but where her hair was a scrappy mess before, now lies a neat half-ponytail, kept tight by a winged metal circlet and earmuffs. Her motion, while transformed, isn't that of running- her armored boots extend up to her knees, and where the soles ought to be are delicate metal ice skates, trailing faintly-ringing red marks into the pavement beneath her. And of course, held confidently to her side, is her trusty hockey stick, still in its original shape, though having taken on her colors and metalwork patterns, undeniably part of her.     Encircling it is an ever-growing aurora of ringing, pulsing energy, flowing out from her and across her body, until the stick is barely visible beneath it all. But as she approaches the Temptation, waiting for the entrapping halo to be dropped as she circles closer and closer, it's not the hockey stick and its built-up energy she readies a strike with, it's a quickly-summoned javelin of paralyzing sound, ready to throw and pin whatever part of the monster she can like an insect to styrofoam.     "Ready on your mark, Cobalt!"
Go Shijima	Go takes a steadying breath, eyes closed, hands spaced evenly on the table. Things will be better, one day soon. For me, for Chase--for Meika and Kayoko. So... let me take another step towards that day.      Eyes open. Go wheels around, takes a step forward, and spaces his legs evenly apart. He procures and straps on the Mach Driver with one hand, and lifts a tiny model of a supercar with the other. A flick of his thumb and forefinger swings the chassis of the car up and over, turning it into a bike with a phone dialpad present on the side.      The Driver is blue and silver, looks kind of like the muffler of a motorcycle. He lifts the tiny supercar, inserts it into the belt, and presses down. It snaps neatly into place, with two bursts of flame from the 'exhaust,' followed by an announcement and a jaunty jingle seemingly made of bike horns:                               Signal Bike! RIDER!!                                    "Let's..." His right arm is held up, bent upwards at the elbow, left hand resting beneath the elbow. There's a dramatic flourish to reverse their positions, and a self assured nod. "Henshin!"                                    MACH 555!                                          The FiveS armor is flash-forged onto his body, each component briefly visible as a holographic schematic just before it materializes. The armor is sleek, aerodynamic, an homage to the beloved sport of racing. Sharp swept spoilers on the helmet, greaves and breastplate hint at the lineage of performance superbikes and supercars alike. It's white, with two red racing stripes down the middle. Two similarly striped white shouldercapes blow in the wind. At the right side of the sleek armor's cuirass, a wheel snaps into place with the hubcap facing the Temptation, bearing a familiar golden 5 on a field of red.      Kamen Rider Mach drops into a crouched ready-stance. Flame lances from the side of the Mach Driver as he revs the armor, ankle-tires spinning up. He shoots Cobalt a thumbs-up. "Same here," he says, piping up after Vermillion.
Kayoko Kirenai	The dockworkers and various wanderers are pulled out of their routine reverie by Isaac's summoned movie crew. Some stop to gawk, some are successfully cleared away and scatter, but overall, few people ignore the disruption entirely. Some of the crew position themselves to prevent another truck from crossing the bridge to the harbor lot, causing some incensed trucker noises for the brief time before Lilian's announcement goes out.     Even with the storm visibly brewing on the horizon, it's likely that many of the pedestrians would ignore the storm warning. These things are usually overblown anyways, and there's work to be done! That's more important than personal safety, even with the rubble of the destroyed bridge right nearby. Lilian's voice specifically, though, is given weight, both by her subtle compulsion magic and her accent. Trucks reverse and backtrack, pedestrians pick up their pace, and a stream of people leave the coastal buildings and head inland, many of whom approach the train station to do so. "Where was it going? Why? What does 'splitting' entail?"     Kayoko's eyes widen, suddenly put on the spot as the plans go into action. "Oh! I thought I mentioned-- maybe I forgot? The Temptations always have something they're going for. Always-- or, almost always? A person. Letting them get to their target is bad for... you know. The obvious. But then after that, after it's already gotten that bad, it splits and goes after two new people. And that just... keeps going."     Kayoko gives a final look around to the gathered Elites, and then takes a breath, reaches into her backpack, and pulls out-- an extending pole for a tripod. She hoists the backpack over her shoulder, lifts her polaroid camera up to her face with her free hand, and clicks the shutter, pointing it not at the Temptation itself, but at the tide of people fleeing from it. Several long seconds pass as the photo slowly rolls out of the slot in the front, during which time Kayoko keeps her eyes shut, lips moving silently.     Once the photo develops fully, she plucks it out of the camera with a flourish, holding it up in front of her and letting it go. It hangs in the air for a moment before expanding into a doorway-sized frame, the scene beyond glowing with harsh blue-gold contrasts. She holds up the expanding rod, scrunches up her face, and calls out while stepping through the photo.     "Magical Girl--"     On the other side, swirling blue-gold light swirls around Kayoko, coalescing into a similarly-colored flashy set of armor. A heavy steel cuirass covers her torso, pauldrons over her shoulders accented with gold, matching her gauntlets and greaves. A winged headdress forms across her forehead, armor plates tracing down her cheekbones to frame her face. Between the armored boots and chest is a fluttering skirt, settling as the magical energy collapses into a distinct shape. The rod in her hand is transformed into an elaborate golden sword with a red heart gem in the crossguard, matched by a golden shield in the other.     "--Chevalier Cobalt! That's your cue, Chevalier Vermillion!"
Kayoko Kirenai	Chevalier Cobalt gestures with the golden glowing sword in her hand, and the orb around the Temptation's head shatters into glittering motes, sending it plummeting to the ground. Asphalt shatters when it hits, and its head swivels towards the group immediately, oblong and faceless. It's still getting its footing when the Elites charge in, attacks carving through its body with shocking resistance being passively put up. Cutting into it doesn't reveal flesh or blood, only more of the same solid blue-grey mass, like cutting into playdoh.     It raises its too-long arms up into the air, cupping the side of its egg-shaped head with its hands as if holding its ears. A bassy vibration thrums through the air, violent enough to shake your teeth until you taste blood, and the atmosphere seems to thicken like sludge. Drawing air into your lungs becomes active effort, sound travels sluggishly as if you're underwater, and perhaps most importantly, the sensation throws off the orderly evacuation that Lilian's commands had suggested. The shockwave feels like an intense atmospheric pressure differential, far more immediate and frightening than the wind swirling over the water, and because they're already primed to worry about a storm, the crowd panics. People start shouting and pushing, shoving their way onto the train and down the street, potentially getting themselves and others hurt.
Kale Hearthward	There. The storm's brewing, the battle's been joined. Fighting would make him feel better. He'll get to fly around a bit - which is something he hasn't been able to do much. He's grounded, following his injuries, and has been strictly forbidden from doing any sort of flying that isn't mission related. Getting to stretch his wings (metaphorically) would be very nice right now. Kale has his flight gear in the briefcase, he'd just need to find a quiet spot to put it on, and then with everyone evacuated he can let loose. He's bemoaning not being able to go do so when he's keyed into what's happening with the evac. Panic. People shoving, crowding onto the train, and generally... well, panicking. This city can handle itself, right? The Kirenai's have, what did they say? Ten handlers each? Surely there'd be some who'd be primed to help with the giant monster in the harbor - - no, wait, they'd have no idea this wasn't just a storm anyway, would they. They're under the same memory... thing. It's just the Kirenais and the Elites, isn't it. And they almost didn't have the Elites. This could have been a yet bigger disaster than however it's going to end up being. And they almost didn't have the elites because of- Because of- Kale takes that thought and it's many dark tendrils, and shoves the entire mess to one side of his mind. Focus on the mission. Kale starts keying down the storm. The people have gotten the picture, too much storm would just send them into further panic. He moves it a little further inland, away from the harbor and the ongoing fight there - no need to have his comrades deal with crosswinds there, either.
Ritsuka Fujimaru	<J-IC-Scene> Jeanne Alter says, "Are you all shouting those things, or is that part of the transformation?" <J-IC-Scene> Go Shijima says, "It's the Mach Driver's AI." <J-IC-Scene> Isaac Beaufort says, "...You shout and your persona comes out." <J-IC-Scene> Isaac Beaufort says, "Like, that's just basic?" <J-IC-Scene> Jeanne Alter says, "Ah, so it's built in. And you've got one of those... Things. I see. And then the magical girls, that's normal enough..." <J-IC-Scene> Kayoko Kirenai says, "I-I have to shout it. It doesn't work otherwise." <J-IC-Scene> Kayoko Kirenai says, "I need to do that for my attacks, too. It's just how it works." <J-IC-Scene> Jeanne Alter says, "How flashy... Heh. Well, as long as you're not shouting it for every single attack. You'll wear yourselves out." Try as she might, Jeanne can't help but feel a little jealous about everyone else being justified in their cool callouts. It's not like she has named attacks of her own besides her Noble Phantasm, but even that's a rarity than a thing to just use all the time. If she doesn't use it often, though, would anyone even notice that she's here without setting needless fires? Probably, but that's not good enough for the Dragon Witch. Even her transformation wasn't particularly flashy compared to the Chevaliers, so she'll just have to cover some lost ground later. After tearing her flag/spear out of the Temptation, Jeanne eyes that blue-grey gunk coming out of it with a disgusted noise, then leaps back when the creature covers its head. The shaking sensation gets her on her guard, and then she starts to feel things becoming considerably heavier and distorted around her while she maneuvers around the. "What kind of magic is this? Hmph! as if that would slow me down. Try harder before you die!" Taunting the Temptation again, she leaps into the air far above the once-hanging creature, partially because going real high with her flag and cape flapping behind her would look really cool, and partially because dropping onto it would mitigate the feeling of sluggishness at least somewhat. As Jeanne descends at the Temptation, her flag and sword both burst into flames while diving towards it, and she pulls both weapons apart shortly after impact to try and carve two great gashes into it from above.
Isaac Beaufort	Isaac braces as the shockwave washes out.  He weathers the storm, and his body already recovering from it the moment it was over.  He starts to crack his neck, getting ready for a counter-attack, but realizes quickly that the situation with the civilians is starting to get dangerous.  He grabs his phone and puts on an earpiece.   "Situation?" he asks, obviously talking to the NPC 'camera crews' he had on standby from the Concord.  Getting the fact that terror was starting to set in, he grimly nods.  "Alright, direct traffic from each side of the docs, I'll head to the train and try and keep a stampede from happening.  Priority to those who are hurt, but keep emergency services back.  This thing does more than just kill you if it does." Isaac jumps up, leaping across the field, and then breaks into a run toward the train where the panic is happening.  "HEY!" he shouts, getting the attention of people, "Get on the train in an orderly manner, with priority to those who are injured or infirm." He says and proves that he has control of the situation, by turning back towards the shockwave, and... Slapping his hands together, creating his own powerful shockwave in an attempt to drive the atmosphere displacement back.  "I'll protect you, so there is nothing to be panicked about.  Help is on the way, so keep it together and protect your fellow as I'm protecting you!"
Go Shijima	What... is this?! From his crouched ready position, Mach lifts a gauntlet to his chest, as if doing so might make it easier to breathe. Warning lights glare angrily on his HUD--O2 LOW. His hand drifts from the breastplate, balled into a fist, and mashes the button on the Mach Driver. The faceplate of the helmet shifts, vents opening up as turbines spin up rapidly to overcome the difficulty breathing. His fingers then race across the phone keypad above the Mach Driver.                              288//CUT - Cutter Blade!                                  The tire on his right side blasts outwards on a telescopic cable, just as his ankle-tires peel out and carry him forward with blinding speed. He outpaces the fired projectile, reaching out and catching it by the cable. The moment he catches it, blades erupt from the tire. A blur of white and red races twoards the rising Temptation, Mach drifting a semicircle around it and kicking up sparks on asphalt.      "Drift!" He shouts, before braking, funneling his momentum into a whirling overhead with the Cutter Blade, the wired weapon spinning up as it's swung to deliver extra centripetal force to the blow aimed at the Temptation's leg. The suit's engine revs, as Mach yanks the Cutter back, twirling it again before flicking it outwards. "Overtake!" His body in constant motion, he kicks the tire-saw upwards, sending it towards the abdomen, there to strike and peel out against his foe. "I'm always at..." The weapon is yanked back again, twirled at the left side, then the right, before he sends the whirling buzzsaw after the Temptation's ankle. "Mach Speed!"      Even as he twirls the weapon, the rest of his body is in motion, constantly shifting, legs always finding new spots. Without warning he's off like a bolt again, gone from curling around the Temptation like smoke to charging right at it like a bullet. "Kamen Rideeer..." He races up the creature's body in a flash--"MACH!" And his foot crashes into its chest, ankle-tire revving up just after impact to carry him off in a nimble turbocharged backflip, complete with a brief moment of midair inverted jazz-hands for Meika and Kayoko--and probably Jeanne, too.
Hibiki Tachibana	So that's how the Kirenai sisters do it. They're definitely a lot more...traditional. It reminds her of a few television shows. Although she doesn't miss that one has a sword and the other has a whole hockey stick. A notebook paper...and a just-taken photograph? Hibiki sort-of kind-of registers what exactly Kayoko took a photograph of. Are those supposed to be...?     ...No, those are just more questions that can wait to be answered until after the fight. As the restraining orb around the Temptation's head vanishes, her grip tightens around the crimson pendant, and she starts sprinting forward. "Balwisyall nescell Gungnir tron..."     Light explodes out from it as soon as the echoing call finishes, washing over her body in a wreath of golden light from the neck down. The vague outline of clothes vanish, replaced one by one with the silhouettes of something different - form-fitting undersuit, skirt frills, bulky leggings, gauntlets, earphone headpiece, and finally a too-big scarf.     They all start defining their form the moment the shockwave hits, the immense pressure stopping her in her tracks like a physical wall. Hibiki grits her teeth against it, head thrumming and bones shuddering, the sounds of panicked civilians making it to her ears past it...before all the light breaks away and resolves into her Symphogear's physical form, in orange and white and black.     And she pushes herself ahead /through/ the dissonant atmosphere all at once in a burst of speed, like breaking the sound barrier, and closes the distance all at once with a lunging leap - with an outstretched fist to try and crash into the Temptation's midriff. Hard enough to threaten to make even a body as large as its buckle. Hersnd she immediately follows up by pushing back, hovering mid-air for a moment before the backskirt thrusters of her outfit fire, letting her swing up boot-first to send a heavy kick towards the chin of the monster's oblong skull.     "The best way I can protect everyone here--is to shut you up as fast as possible!"
Strawberry Princess	As soon as someone else has made the first move, Strawberry presses her wand reactor's chunkiest button while emptying her pistol into the Temptation's chest from her rooftop perch. It takes agonizingly long seconds to grind to life, long enough for her to glance towards Kayoko and Meika while popping out the magazine.      Armor in the costumes. That's good. Don't they have anything like a shimmer aura, though? No. Try not to worry. They've made it this long, they can handle themselves.      Just as her wand's display is flickering on, that roar nearly knocks her over from her crouch. Her first reaction is to squeeze her eyes shut and cover her ears; her second is to gasp raggedly for breath. Alarm bells are going off in her head. Her magic ought to protect her from this, but she'd been just a little too slow. Stupid. Stupid. Should've been in costume-        05:00        There is no transformation sequence, just a 'pop' of pink light that replaces the flinching girl with the confident pastel heroine. Then the skintight forcefield springs into existence around her, a layer of insulation between her and the storm, and she can breathe. Thank god.      The confident heroine's first action, when she rises, is to run away.      She jumps off the back end of the train station's roof and, using her flight, takes cover behind its upper corner. From there she can peek the Temptation without exposing herself, and fire needle-thin short pulses of brilliant white energy from her wand at its torso. That's as much as she dares for now, with so many people nearby- teammates and civilians both.      At the same time, pastel pink 'ghosts' of a younger magical girl materialize everywhere the civilians are failing to evacuate, ushering them along, wordlessly guiding them down new routes, helping them to their feet, or even picking them up and carrying them if necessary.
Ritsuka Fujimaru	Jeanne will never admit it, but Mach might catch her staring at the jazz-hands. It's only for a moment in mid-dive, but it's totally happening. She'll need to try out some iconic-ish gestures later.
Meika Kirenai	The signal given, Chevalier Vermillion rips out of her encircling spins into a graceful jump, her skates suddenly silent, and at its peak, she looses the sonic javelin. Her magic is ear-splittingly loud the second it leaves her hand, impaling the Temptation's blue-green flesh, and sitting there like a glowing beacon. But, freed from the halo prison, the monster's own reverberations crash into Vermillion before her skates can touch the ground again. She ought to taste blood, her bones ought to ache, and she ought to be thrown off-balance from the pressure of the jellied air slamming into her. It hurts, but doesn't quite accomplish those things, because she's used to force like that. Her skates don't need contact to whisk her away, so, twisting off from the blasts, she utilizes its force as an assist to climb out of reach.     It's hard to fly, but she tries it anyways, kicking red lines through the air as she carries herself higher and higher, the energy in her stick building up like wildfire.     "Anything that'll slow its movement down could help a lot, it's always worst when they can slip past us!" Her call rips through the thick wind, louder than it or distance can drown out. By now, the civilians won't be able to remember it, so there's really no point being quiet.     Gulping at the heavy air to take a deep breath, she steels herself to dive down again. Spinning gently as she freefalls downwards, she /still/ doesn't use her hockey stick to strike, not just yet, instead forcing some of the burning and pulsing energy around her own body. She's tough enough to handle being a projectile herself, and as she slams, bladed skates-first, towards the Temptation, the energy around her crashes like thunder across the short distance, encircling the monster's whole body in a red aura to tear at its flesh.
Chase	Chase fires a few shots at the Temptation as it releases its rancid shockwave, not even bothering to shield or brace himself as he somehow, someway, manages to simply stand through it. Still, it's pretty clear that while he'd be able to put up a fight even as he is now, he definitely needs the additional power that one of his transformation items gives him. He's hesitant at first, given that he's supposed to keep his head low, but given that everyone else seems to be henshining, it apparently became alright.      Having cleared this up by asking absolutely no one, Chase just slams the barrel of his gun into the palm of his hand again, this time holding it there for a bit until a mechanical jingle starts playing. He lets it loop a couple of times, before finally letting go, thrusting the weapon above his head.      BREAK UP      Holographic tires spin around the Roidmude as armor manifests around his body, covering him in an outfit that can only be described as 'a car crash personified'.      Though freshly transformed, Mashin Chaser does not stand still for lingering close up camera shots, instead immediately walking towards the Temptation with slow steps as he levels his gun at it again, this time firing a flurry of purple energy bullets directly into its center of mass.
Lilian Rook	When the teeming masses finally get in order and begin reversing course, filtering out of the harbour area in advance of what's about to come, Lilian relinquishes the microphone with a certain measure of relief. Sitting still to focus on something so mundane, so menial, so thoroughly and mind-numbingly beneath her, is something she still struggles with.     Even with the conscious knowledge that lives are potentially in the balance, and that this is part of her professional duty as a Paladin, Lilian leaves the intercomm room to rejoin the Elites in a hurry. The sound of honking and civilian complaints she can hear drifting from the road draws the taste of bile into her mouth. "Oh shut up. I'm doing you a favour." Lilian whispers hotly under her breath, walking with her fists balled. "You'll never even be able to understand that we're propping you up, so you could at least be reasonable if I won't get a thank-you."     'You don't get to act like you're being fucking benevolent over something you *caused*. If not for you, if not for people like you, there wouldn't be a *situation* at all. It wouldn't *exist*.'     Lilian arrives on the field, already fully transformed suited up. Her armour is wildly at odds with that of the paired magical girls; pitch black frosted glass against shining steel, entwined contour-perfect plates against vibrant capes and skirts, and crown of antler against gilded wings and circlets). Even her weapon is something else; an extension of her that came before her and would exist apart from her; a real sword, to cut and kill, black lodestone and gossamer translucent edge, that bears an inscription meant for her and a quivering aura of malicious anticipation to anyone else. The mismatch is not lost on her. So much that she avoids walking between the two local magical girls along the way, lest the comparison be drawn, or they hear the clicking of her movements, quiet and sharp.      She moves swiftly towards Strawberry instead, intending to regroup with the veteran; the one whom she has worked together with for years, who knows her and knows what to do. She finds her copies first, dealing with the crowd. So many of them, projections of her heart, blanketing the streets to offer their hands to the idiots who can't even run away right. I told them what to do. How hard is this? Why do they need her help? Why do they get to ask her for anything? Why do--     'Nothing would change, no one would feel any different, the world would be exactly the same, because nothing you fought for applies to me, just yourself.'     "Shut up!" Lilian hisses, pressing her hands against the side of her head. Whatever she says, hunched over as if to fend off a migraine, is mercifully lost in the soupy silence that follows. Drowned out by the roar of a monster, rather than the crowd. Thank god. Monsters and I have an understanding.
Lilian Rook	§Not ideal. I might need to actually rely on Hearthward. I know my limits when it comes to anaerobic combat; I'll have to hope it won't require total annihilation. I'll have to be careful not to approach in realtime while those vibrations are going. Even at this distance I can feel bone stress. Christ. No organs, no blood. It adopted a gesture for this attack. We'll go with that.§     Vibration is the movement of air. Lilian has no means to evade or defend against the air itself, but she can at least not let it move while she gets in and out. Launching herself back to a high vantage at the harbour edge, she takes Night Mist in hand and sights down its edge towards the Temptation. Its dividing edge gravitates left, hovering over the monster's wrist from her perspective, supporting its hand pressed to its head. She takes a deep breath, and the heart of the Lady in Black smoulders bright to match her racing pulse.     With the air so thick, one can see it visibly blasting back away from her, expanding unevenly like the flash of a muzzle flare. Each minute motion makes a subtle, hissing crack, accompanied by curling steam rising from radioactively glowing footprints in the concrete. The full circuits back and forth, stroke and return, are something for only Lilian to know. It only looks like each twitch of her sword brings down another rending slash on the Temptation's wrist, sawing through it in criss-crossing wounds that simply blast themselves into existence, until the hand must fall away. She assumes it has to be important.
Kayoko Kirenai	Isaac's efforts to regain control of the crowd, and direct his camera crew, are stalled by one very important factor: they have no idea what he's talking about. They have no idea who he's claiming to be. He has no authority, or social sway, other than the confidence projected by his voice.     The camera crew reacts in dull confusion, packing up their gear now that they've accomplished their goal of diverting pedestrians away from the storm. There is no 'this thing'. Stop overreacting. The stampede reacts slightly more favorably, even without knowledge that he's doing anything to combat the storm. Having an authoritative voice breaking through the clamor at least gets a few people to calm down, but most barely pay him any mind. You're not as important as you think you are.     Strawberry's clones neither need nor get acknowledgement from the crowd. Helping hands are taken without the source being questioned-- anyone could've offered it. Guiding pushes are bumped shoulders, coincidentally aligning them in the direction they need to go. By their combined efforts, people stream somewhat more smoothly into the departing trains, a feat made easier by the Temptation's focus shifting.     Go, Jeanne, and Hibiki's attacks all line up to draw its attention away from the civilians, and the Temptation swings an overlong arm above its head, well before Jeanne gets in reach. The heavy, fluid air condenses and flows across its arm, pushing out like a tidal wave, crashing into Jeanne like a solid wall, sending her flying backwards through the air. Unable to similarly protect itself from Go and Hibiki, the pair manages to drive it stumbling backwards, a featureless crater imprinted in its chest, clay-flesh sheared off its legs.     The Temptation raises its arms together, clasping its car-sized hands over its head. It draws them back with ponderous weight, preparing to drive them down in a hammerblow at Meika and Hibiki. Behind the front lines, Chevalier Cobalt has been weaving together threads of golden light into a massive glowing spear, bathing the train station in artificial daylight. When she sees the motion of the Temptation, the same one that preceded the attack that crippled Meika a week prior, she shrieks and the spear disintegrates into motes of light, all rushing towards the monster in a disorganized cloud.     "Watch out!!! Mei! Miss Tachibana!" The motes coalesce into a giant floating sword, swinging against the Temptation's hammerblow just barely in time to knock the angle slightly off, driving the attack into the ground. Even so, the displaced air-- disproportionate, like a continuous wind tunnel, enough to strip away skin-- rushes past the Elites who stay close by, and the harbor parking lot craters deeply enough that seawater floods into the bottom, chunks of asphalt crashing into the water.     Staggered as it is, Meika's reckless attack lands, barely spared the expected retribution. The Temptation struggles to unlace its grotesquely long fingers, until Lilian steps on its wrist and unlaces it herself, carving repeatedly through thick clumps of clay-flesh until one of its hands detaches.     The monster shudders again, not verbally roaring so much as vibrating, and its eyeless face seems to scan the ground for the lost hand, fingers dragging troughs in the concrete to search. A lensed distortion, like looking through a telescope at a black hole, briefly appears around the severed hand, and it vanishes. Frustrated, the Temptation rights itself again, pushing past the Elites to begin treading south along the coastline, leaving the shattered lot behind.
Kale Hearthward	Kale lets go of the storm. It's overland now so it can't get any stronger, it'll get weaker and die on its own just fine. The extra rainfall is probably good for this area, anyway. He focuses his attention on the fight at hand now - the others hammering on the Temptation. He adjusts the winds - trying to push it back, pin it down, so that it's definitely kept from its target. He doesn't like the thought of it... splitting. That sounds like that could get very bad, very quickly. Does it only ever target people from this world, or could there be an event that stretches across world boundaries, like they might be facing in Rita's world? He pushes himself a little bit harder. Besides, the sooner they finish here, the sooner he can go home and not be here like this.
Ritsuka Fujimaru	As Jeanne falls towards the Temptation, she finds far more resistance from it now than she had earlier. Her weapons don't quite meet their mark as her downward momentum is halted, then reversed as she goes flying back up. It's not the end of the world, though, as a new plan is given by the others aiding the magical girls of this region. <J-IC-Scene> Strawberry Princess says, strained but unusually smooth, "I can do something. I need help to do it." <J-IC-Scene> Isaac Beaufort says, "What do you need?" <J-IC-Scene> Strawberry Princess says, "Those 'ghosts' I make. If they get hurt, I get hurt. But I can shoot it with them." <J-IC-Scene> Isaac Beaufort says, "...Right.  I got just the thing." <J-IC-Scene> Strawberry Princess says, "I need a way to keep them safe if I'm going to use them. If a few of them get hit at once, it's really bad." <J-IC-Scene> Strawberry Princess says, "Cover, protection, anything." <J-IC-Scene> Isaac Beaufort says, "Cover is incoming." <J-IC-Scene> Meika Kirenai says, "I can try and distract it a bit, if that'd help, Strawberry?" <J-IC-Scene> Strawberry Princess says, "Yeah." <J-IC-Scene> Hibiki Tachibana says, "I'll double up on distraction!" <J-IC-Scene> Go Shijima says, "Doubling up on cover!" <J-IC-Scene> Jeanne Alter says, "a distraction, hm? Well... I'll humor you, just this once. Just make sure it's not disappointing!" Instead of trying to get into melee range with just her sword and flag, Jeanne sheathes the shorter weapon in order to grip her flag with both hands while still falling. Putting out a ludicrous amount of magic power in a short time, she sets the flag on fire with all manner of lingering ambient grudges in the area. She draws on her own (which are never in short supply), but she's noticed quite a bit of animosity in the Elites around her. She's seen it towards each other, towards something else, and she knows for certain that even the civilians leaving the area must have left some lingering rage of their own. Some of it certainly stronger than others, but she's not too picky about what she can pull from here. There might even be some to draw from in the Temptation itself, and that's what she's really banking on. "If these Temptations have anything to do with sins, then they're sure to burn up real well in these flames... La Grondement Du Haine!" The burning flag is thrust in as Jeanne goes in for another dive, and a multitude of smaller, yet still flaming spears appear behind her. They all fall in at the same point, aiming to turn her initial stab into a massive, gaping hole in the Temptation, and they conveniently form a line between the Temptation and Strawberry Princess. Jeanne glances back at the nuclear magical girl, then kicks off the Temptation to get out of the line of fire herself. If necessary, she'll even pull Meika and Kayoko out of the way, too. Only if necessary.
Isaac Beaufort	The fact that they're giving him such resistance DOES show that they were not kidding about this.  The pressure of the world they live in is fundamentally different than the one they are.  It isn't any different in his home, where those with Personas live in a different world than they do, to the point that even his crew were not able to perceive this.   It doesn't matter, they're getting out, the people are safe.  But Strawberry calls out for aid, and he has the solution.  He crouches and leaps again.  "COME FORTH, MONSTER IN MY HEART!" as he does this, the Monster makes its return.  Standing behind Isaac like a creature, chained in a mask, and unnatural.  Its body sparks with Promethean flame as it lands directly in front of it.   He refuses to let it move forward.  Even as it screams at him, rending the air around him.  Even as the society around him crushes down on him, even as his own thoughts assault his mind, trying to drag him down into inaction.  He ignores it all, even his /flesh/ ignores the bite of the monster.  The flesh is torn but quickly regenerates.   He slams a foot into the ground, and the earth itself /shudders/ at his power.  Earth shoots up all around him, followed by a cage of metal, aiming to wrap around the monster.  Enough for holes to peek through, and the earth provides cover for Strawberry.  He dives into the cage, aiming to hold it, forcing his own strength on it and sparking dangerously. Then a bolt from the storm forming strikes down, surging through the cage and through Isaac.  Then into the creature, aiming to fry the creature and stun it long enough to give his allies a shot at it.  "IT'S ALIVE!"
Meika Kirenai	She's close-in now. This is what she's been waiting for. Strawberry needs a distraction for... something, but it's what's been called for, and there's no time to think twice on why. Feet planted firmly where they connected with the Temptation's flesh, Meika twists her torso into a fighting pose, and two-hand grips her hockey stick. Its built-up energy, even while it's sitting idly by, is /screamingly/ loud, and it's a miracle that Chevalier Vermillion can hold on to it as solidly as she is.     The thought does cross her mind that, poised and ready as she is to try and bloody the Temptation's nose- well, it doesn't have a nose, or blood, really, but- that she must actually look a bit like a real knight, even for just a moment. She's never herself needed to call out her attacks, or even her name, to summon up her powers, but... when Kayoko does it, in the way she means it, it's hard to question the heroic sentiment. And they're /supposed/ to be a team. So...         "Vermillion Thunder! Sky-Tearing...."     Oh, forget it. It doesn't feel right, like this. She could blame her trailing off from the gaps in her breath, and the slow burn in her lungs, but it's hard to pull it from her heart in a way that others can see. Still, the axe-like arc of her hockey stick rockets into motion, and she follows it, crashing like shattering metal into the Temptation's flesh. There's no backup plan, no followup, she needs it to look her way instead of the others. It'd be too late to think of one, anyways. The monster bats her aside like a bean bag, and she only barely skids to a halt against the pavement on two feet.     /Now/ she tastes blood.     "Oh, screw you, you prick!" She sputters out, angry. And hoping that if it can even be, it'd be angry right back at her. "Is that all you got? C'mon, look at me!" The cutting red aura of her magic still sticking to the beast, ripping at weakened pieces of its clay, outlines the blue-grey against the background, making even the colossal behemoth ever so slightly easier to track and target. Is that enough of a distraction? It better be...
Lilian Rook	Seeing the overhead coming, hearing Kayoko's call of desperation, Lilian mentally files it as someone else's problem. Some other Elite's-- Tachibana's problem. She--     'Is Bikki alright? She didn't... do anything, did she?'     Is too close, ready for the worst all of a sudden, without remember when she got there or why she relocated. The blast of wind is beyond her expectations; she's familiar with shockwaves by now, but the air her quivers like jelly and strikes her like a car. Dull gold sparks ring from her armour, reflected foggily in its surface, as she is blown steadily back. The air is nearly driven all the way out of her lungs. Glaring, eyes prickling with water, Lilian has to back off just to breathe. She has to--     'You actually deserved it. You're strong enough to fight. But if you--'     Lilian skids back, sabatons grating on the broken asphalt, and halts herself with her sword, weight fully draped on the crossguard. Winter Crow comes up from the hip; a weapon even less befitting a magical girl, even for its circle flashes and starry smoke as she fires. It's an awkward position, only serving to pump individually alchemized slugs blindly into the Temptation's legs, each explosive rune going off in a different place within its clay flesh. But the act itself feels good. Gripping her sword so as not to fall, teeth clenched so as not to choke out a sound, eyes wide with anger so as not to show a moment's hesitation or doubt, the kick of the weapon and the spiteful gesture of inflicting pain is what allows Lilian to stagger back upright while shooting, holding the badly needed breath in her lungs.
Go Shijima	The shockwave aimed at Jeanne also catches Mach, for the simple fact that he's moving around so much and the attack itself covered such a broad swath of space in the harbor. Clipped in the shoulder, the sound of his controlled exhale is drowned out by the clamor of the crowd and the spinning of the turbines forcibly supplying him with less dense, more breathable air. Sparks shower from the impact as the suit's kinetic redistribution systems work, some bleedthrough transferred to him in the midst of his lateral flip. His balance regained a split second later, he peels out, ankle-tires squealing as the suit's engine revs.      <J-IC-Scene> Strawberry Princess says, strained but unusually smooth, "I can do something. I need help to do it." <J-IC-Scene> Isaac Beaufort says, "What do you need?" <J-IC-Scene> Strawberry Princess says, "Those 'ghosts' I make. If they get hurt, I get hurt. But I can shoot it with them." <J-IC-Scene> Isaac Beaufort says, "...Right. I got just the thing." <J-IC-Scene> Strawberry Princess says, "I need a way to keep them safe if I'm going to use them. If a few of them get hit at once, it's really bad." <J-IC-Scene> Strawberry Princess says, "Cover, protection, anything." <J-IC-Scene> Isaac Beaufort says, "Cover is incoming." <J-IC-Scene> Meika Kirenai says, "I can try and distract it a bit, if that'd help, Strawberry?" <J-IC-Scene> Strawberry Princess says, "Yeah." <J-IC-Scene> Hibiki Tachibana says, "I'll double up on distraction!" <J-IC-Scene> Go Shijima says, "Doubling up on cover!"      Back in his stride, the indistinct blur that is Kamen Rider Mach punches in another combo on the dialpad, as he races up the side of the building Strawberry had posted up on, moments ago. The Cutter Blade retracts as he lets go of the cable, slotting back into the spot on his breastplate by the time he reaches the lip of the building.                                 775//SPL - Split!                                      The hubcap of the wheel on his breastplate has changed to a blue roadway sign, warning of an incoming split in the road ahead. Kicking off of the building, Mach takes to the skies, as chemical thrusters at his back fire up, burning brightly through billowing, misty white wash. His helmet quickly sweeps the battlefield as he transitions from a flip into a roll, searching for Strawberry's Eidolons. There! A laser pistol in his right hand forms the 'front wheel' to the wheel on the right of his breastplate. Feathering his thrusters for a high-speed roll, Mach hammers the trigger and shoots Strawberry's Eidolons. It is completely harmless for Strawberry and the Eidolons alike, save for a brief blue glow.      Just a moment later, as Mach races back towards the Temptation with Strawberry's Eidolons in position for her idea, all of them briefly bear blue portals that spit out a shredding crossfire of razor-sharp energy needles. Mach gives the real Strawberry a two-finger salute as he carves a tight line around the Temptation, then mashes the button on his Mach Driver.                              HISSATSU//Full Throttle!                                  Mach's cry of mounting focus and effort begins to rise above the din of battle and of his suit. A burning streak of orange shines its way into the red-white blur circling the Temptation, as afterimages of Mach in flight begin to appear. When the Temptation is fully surrounded by flying Machs, all of them pivot at once, surging towards it deliver a flurry of flying kicks bathed in flaming spears of explosive force.                                  MACH SPLIT END!!
Strawberry Princess	This is bad. All those people are in danger. I could finish it right now. But the wand- they'd get irradiated. Have to get distance, use the eidolons instead.      Each point of extra agency Strawberry manifests is a point of extra vulnerability. That's true in many senses, but right now the literal sense is the most pressing. Someone in the press of bodies steps on a ghost's foot and Strawberry winces. The wind buffets three of them lightly from a distance, and she can feel the tripled effect rake her skin under the costume.      So it's an act of trust, implicitly, to use them for offense.      The 'real' Strawberry kicks off the train station and accelerates away from the fight at hundreds of miles per hour, back and up. She keeps going until she's just a speck in the sky. So she'll be the only one exposed to the poison when she powers their attack.      04:23      Her wand's reactor squeals and shrieks as the control rods pull out. She alone can feel the familiar prickling on her skin, taste the metal on her tongue. Her eidolons swoop into new positions: ducking behind the cover that Isaac creates, soaring out of the Temptation's reach, hovering near Lilian and Go with the knowledge they'll be defended.      All twelve of them, the crystalline ghosts of a seventeen-year-old girl with a gashed head and a shattered arm, raise their wands in unison. A dozen points of horrible blinding light glow at the tips, giving everything new shadows. They aim carefully not just to pierce the Temptation's body, but to hit only the sky or sea or sand behind it- never aiming towards the city, like how you never cut towards your body when chopping food.      The beams are each needle-thin, bright enough to sear themselves into the retina for hours, sounding like the roar of an enormous fire. They can't turn the Temptation wholesale into dust, like the Annihilator Beam normally could. But each one 'slices' cleanly, intersecting with the others to divide the monster into smoking blackened pieces. Where they pierce through to the water, it boils. Where they strike the sand it turns to glass.      I want to help them. But I don't want to make them feel bad. Is this enough? Is it too much? Is it okay? Why do I feel like I've done something wrong?
Hibiki Tachibana	Out of her flip-kick and in the wake of the series of assaults that had driven the Temptation back, Hibiki lands on ground at the monster's feet, letting out a heavy exhale. She's not sure how handling evacuations are going. There's no time to look, or check. Even if she did, there's nothing she could do to make it go any better than it is right now.     Right. The best thing she can do right now is fight. It's the only thing she can do right now, actually.     Though that thought lingers just long enough that she's a split second slower than she should be, to react to the Temptation preparing for an absolute behemoth of a strike. Her eyes go wide, and her body is already starting to move on its own with the beginnings of an unconscious and automatic effort to cover for Meika instead of attempting to protect herself - but it's Cobalt, Kayoko, who ends up doing the same for the both of them.     "Ngh...!" Hibiki would thank Kayoko, if it weren't for the burst of air that rends past her and forces her to brace against it. The footing beneath her begins breaking apart and crumbling, and she barely avoids stumbling all the way down into the filling crater.     It's only as she struggles to keep her vision focused past it, that she realizes...Lilian? When did she get this close? Wasn't she just...? The surprise is enough that her eyes go wide, just to be forced to immediately squint them shut again.     She forces back a grunt. Just like before, there's no time to think. It's trying to get away. Always-- or, almost always? A person. "...No you don't! I won't let you...!" Any air she has is let out all at once, as she stomps forward one step, two steps...and then a lunging, thruster-assisted boost.     And the pilebunker in her right gauntlet slots back, an instant before she follows in on the wake of Lilian's series of shots and Meika's own shredding to throw herself like a freight train into its damaged leg. Her fist impacts into the back of its knee in an effort to make it crumple--     Before the machinery hammers in, and a visible explosion of raw kinetic energy punches forward itself, blowing out the other end of the leg before it carries through to try and destroy the majority of the limb on the spot. One up from a distraction, so that Strawberry can lance it through from all directions.
Kayoko Kirenai	The Temptation pushes forwards through Kale's wind, the gusts only pushing air to collect up against its body like sand, as if it was a gravity well for denser air, and the wind was just suction instead of an attack. The heavy, dense air begins to swirl around its legs, forceful enough with its inflated mass to shove cars out of the way, battering Hibiki and Lilian away from its feet. Hibiki herself is denser, though, and as the Temptation trudges south, seemingly expecting to not need to deal with her anymore, she piledrives its leg with enough force to send gore splattering in a cone in front of it, clumping on the ground and disintegrating into dust. The monster buckles, momentarily slowed in its advance.     There's more than enough bitterness seething beneath the surface for Jeanne to draw on. Everything is frothing with it, Kayoko and Meika radiate it, the crowd is ambiently glowing, and the Temptation-- has none at all. Not even the slightest bit of vindictiveness or grudge to draw on. Even without that source, there's plenty for Jeanne's attack to be fueled, and the flaming flag sticks into its chest, blackening chunks of nondescript flesh. Another observation of note-- Jeanne has no special advantage against the Temptation. It is not divine, it is not holy, and it is not considered to be involved with sin.     The Temptation still trudges along, kicking spears embedded in the ground out of the way. After a moment of hesitation where bends slightly at the hips to dispassionately slap Isaac's Persona away with enough force to powder concrete, Go's flurry of kicks and Meika's distraction stall it in place long enough for Strawberry to get a bead on it. Registering some kind of danger from the magical girl's eidolons, the Temptation raises its one remaining functioning arm to swat them out of the air, and all at once, the sky is full of them, a hundred mirror images blurry and quivering as camouflage.     It swings helplessly at the swarm, passing through clouds of illusions, and after a few moments abandons the idea, instead intensifying the ambient cyclone forming around it.     Thick air accelerates to a hundred miles per hour, then two hundred, scouring a hole around the enormous monster, as it intends to indiscriminately blast away everything buzzing around and harassing it. Just before it releases the attack, beams of energy lance through it, over and over, and the Temptation starts to crumple into slag. Each laser-thin wound disintegrates into dust like the scattered gore chunks, spreading outwards until the entire creature vanishes into nothingness.     As a rude, possibly unintentional, final attack, the gathered air loses its density all at once, rushing out and upwards with incredible speed, releasing the gathered energy into a brief pseudo-cyclone. Kayoko heaves a huge sigh of relief, and a blue hardlight disk with wings manifests beneath her feet, carrying her to the site of the Temptation's demise.     "Wow. That really was much more manageable with you all here."
Strawberry Princess	Far above, Strawberry's eyes are shut tight in concentration. (She can still see the pinpricks through her eyelids, radiation tickling the retina. She's used to that too.) Any area of effect attack is a grave threat. If the winds hit ten of them just a tenth hard enough to break a bone...      But they don't. Everyone keeps her safe. When she dismisses the ghosts, it's with a ragged sigh of relief.      03:58      Strawberry swoops back down to the battlefield, lands gently, and shuts her wand off with a hissing of steam and a grinding clunk of control rods. Her crown's a little askew, her heroically upright posture a little drooped. When the pink flash comes again and she returns to the daffodil-green casual, it droops even further.      Her skin looks a little sunburned. Her hands are definitely redder.      She says "Thank you" to everyone, and then "I'm sorry" to the magical girls- senselessly- and then "how do you do it? Um. Alone, I mean. I can't imagine."      Anxiously, she looks around for someone. She can't really imagine that Lilian could have gotten seriously hurt, can she? So why does she look so worried?
Hibiki Tachibana	In the wake of the Temptation finally going down - crumbling away and leaving barely a trace behind - Hibiki scrunches up her face and bears with one last burst of escaping wind. This time, she doesn't entirely win against it, and near the end of it petering out she allows herself to fall down into a sitting position.     "Hah...hah...it's done with..." Folding up her legs and leaning over, she takes a few seconds to get her breath back, then looks down at her hand. It was rough, but Kayoko is right - they did pull through, together. Enough that she can almost forget their last visit here. They all teamed up, defeated the big monster, and it doesn't even seem like anyone got seriously hurt.     Everyone working with each other for a common goal like this. It feels good. She threw herself into this wanting this, and she got it.     ...A part of her can't help still knowing that this isn't how it always is, though. Hibiki lifts her head, glancing towards Kayoko coming to join them. And then Meika. Strawberry isn't the only one glancing around to try and find Lilian, either.     She has to do what she can to make sure it always /is/ like that, here. At least here. "...You guys really don't have it easy, do you?"
Go Shijima	Get out of the air. Go's face, usually lit in gentle blue, is instead bathed in angry red, from myriad notifications after his finisher.      The turbines working to give him less thick, more easily breathable air are beginning to overheat, for one. For two, the amount of collateral he's taken from the Temptation's broad, sweeping attacks is beginning to catch up with him. And now, another notification joins the mix--or rather, a bevy of interrelated ones. Warnings about air pressure, changes in wind speed, difficulty moving the motivators.      It's making a cyclone. Spears ripped up from the ground by its passage race past the rider, a series of brakes, rolls and dips preventing him from being skewered by a terrifying margin. He banks left, palm and knee making contact with the side of the train station, thrusters cutting off as he slides the rest of the way down to the ground. It's just in time for an uplifted traffic light to swing past. Mach's lightning-fast somersault carries him out of lethal harm's way--but not out of any harm's way. The shattered lamp grazes his ribs, eliciting a pained cry and a shower of sparks just as the turbines on his helmet's faceplate give out.      Everything goes quiet, at last, and the rider lifts his helmet, gasping for air and sputtering as his brown hair blows in sea breeze no longer held captive by the Temptation. Rising to his feet from a prone position, he wipes the sweat from his brow with an aerodynamic white bracer.      "Glad to hear it," he says to Kayoko with a lopsided grin. His lip is split, and there's signs of light burns, where his neck disappears into the armor. Turning to Strawberry, he gives a thumbs-up, firm and proud.      "No problem," he says. "I'll cover you any time, any place, Strawberry Princess."      Reaching down with his free hand, he removes the FiveS car-bike-phone from the Driver, then closes the port. The armor disappears in a flash of blue, and the belt's AI helpfully chimes:                                     Good Work!
Isaac Beaufort	Unfortunately for Isaac, nothing he seems to be able to do seems to stick.  The creature dispassionately powders the cage he created to try and contain the creature.  Dispassionately smashes his persona, and sends both him and the Persona through the remains of the cage and through a building. Concrete is powdered, but unfortunately for it, a blow to powder concrete isn't enough to seriously harm Isaac.  Moments, later, with clothing torn and his shirt so tattered he rips it off and tosses it to the ground he looks up, but fortunately despite being dispassionately slapped away, the combined effort from the others manages to put it down.   "Well, at least I brought the Creatures," he says, with a shrug, and walks over to collect his jacket.  The wounds from the battle already starting to regenerate.  "Going to be stiff tomorrow.." he says, with a frown.  "Anyone else hurt?"
Meika Kirenai	Chevalier Vermillion almost wishes she had even half of a second to sit and watch the blinding lights from Strawberry's eidolons, and their horrible, vicious efficiency in cutting through the Temptation's body. But it's only almost a wish, and it wouldn't matter if it was more than that, because fate doesn't play kind to playing spectator mid-battle.     The monster's winds crash against her body, knocking her too and fro, until the final pulse of its death throes. If it wasn't for her armor, the dent her body makes in the shipping container she's blasted into would concern her. It really ought to, anyways, and she's unsure if the loud snap that filled her ears along with the impact was from her teeth smacking together or something else in her body. But death throes mean the Temptation is dead, and that means no one else will be.     Hopefully.     Struggling back to her feet, and clutching her hockey stick for support, she skates against the shattered pavement, more stable for her than just walking would be, in order to regroup with the others.     She throws a worried look Strawberry's direction when her costume fades away, but it's fleeting. Maybe she's just worried about the civilians seeing. Meika hasn't changed from hers. Not yet. More worrying is Hibiki's crumpled posture. Is she hurt? That's not fair. She shouldn't have gotten hurt, if I was doing it right. It doesn't need to be anyone else. Her look turns more to a scowl, before she speaks up, once more smiling.     "Um. Don't worry. You.. you don't have anything to apologize for, Str- Miss Strawberry." She takes a half-breath of the freshly thin air, before a sharp pain makes her have to hide a wince. "Most.. of the time they're not as tough as this one. It's.. I could handle most of them just by myself, even..."     She turns to Hibiki, and offers a plain shrug. "We have it how we have it." <J-IC-Scene> Strawberry Princess says, still a little breathlessly, "How- often, do these happen? That you have to deal with."     " Ahaha. Attacks..? Or... big ones like this..? We.. it's just routine, that.. normal ones come through. A few a week. Big ones..." Another noncommital shrug, and she looks around at the wreckage. /Now/ it's stretching how long she can justify staying transformed. With a soft flash, she's back to how she was, notebook and hockey stick tucked beneath her arms.     Acknowledging Kayoko's comment, Meika gives a soft "Yeah. It.. was, more manageable." It's plainly easy to hear a faint jagged sadness in her voice.
Hibiki Tachibana	"We have it how we have it..." Hibiki repeats after Meika, glancing up at her and then back down for a moment. Seems like she's thinking something over - whether it's because she notices that very brief scowl or something entirely in her own head is up in the air. A few seconds pass, and she begins standing back up.     There are cuts in her undersuit, and her scarf looks a fair bit tattered up. Bruises, here and there - but most of any scrapes she's taken from this fight won't be visible after she de-transforms, and her Symphogear is swapped back out for her still-pristine casual clothes. "...Yeah. I guess I know how that is."     Hibiki gives Isaac a shake of the head to show she's alright, and on seeing Meika revert to normal, she follows suit in a momentary flash of golden light. Now that the Temptation is gone, they /are/ liable to be seen for real, aren't they? She exhales afterward, lets her shoulders sag, and gives Meika a glance when she thinks the other girl isn't looking.     "...Just by yourself, huh...?" It's a murmur quiet enough that it doesn't even carry on the wind.
Go Shijima	"Yeah," admits Go to Isaac. "The armor took the worst of it, at least. There's always bleedthrough, but..." He looks out over the destruction, running a hand through his hair as a sobering thought comes to him. "I can't imagine trying to take on something like that alone. I've only ever fought something like it once," he says, with a shudder. The memory of an Endling comes to him. Then, too, it'd been up against something undeniably dangerous, yet inhuman--a will without pathos. An enemy without a heart to reach at all.      Go dispels the thought with some effort, and takes a Creature for the road, cracking it open. After a sip, he takes a step closer to Meika, gesturing at her with an upwards flick of his head. "Yo, Meika."      "What I said for Strawberry goes for you, too. We all believe in a brighter tomorrow--and together, we have a better chance of finding it. To me, that's worth getting knocked around."
Meika Kirenai	"...Just by yourself, huh...?"     Meika doesn't say anything in response to Hibiki. But her shoulders tighten, and fingernails press into her balled-up palms. It's easy for her to overhear things, but, even as convinced as she is that she's being distrusted or discredited in some way, in Hibiki's mind, she holds herself back from listening deeper, from prying more, and from checking to be certain. Even though she could. Even if it's easier to overhear that deep than not, sometimes. If she tests that, being wrong or being correct won't feel more right than ambiguity. Even if it'd feel better.     Go's comment snaps her to attention, though. "Ah. Yeah. That... that's sweet of you to say, Mister. But it'd be better if you didn't get hurt for it..." She shoves her hands in her pockets, fists out of sight. It wouldn't be polite, otherwise.
Hibiki Tachibana	Hibiki can't read minds - well, not really - but she can at least tell body posture well enough. Her mouth falls open to say something on its own, just to catch and close again as she shifts her attention off to the side and grimaces. '...Did you have to do that. To ask that.'     Kayoko flinches and opens her mouth, glancing over to her sister reflexively.     "...I did it again, huh." This time, she makes sure to keep it to herself, muffled in her jacket collar. ...Go is a lot better at the pep talking, and he's speaking sense, too. So she'll leave that to him this time around. She can't seem to muster up any words she's sure of for it.     Maybe she'll find the right ones later.
Go Shijima	<J-IC-Scene> Go Shijima says, "It would be better if nobody was hurt. Me, or anybody else. Sometimes, things work out that way, and sometimes they don't." <J-IC-Scene> Meika Kirenai says, "It's.." <J-IC-Scene> Meika Kirenai says, "That's not always better. Sometimes you have to, to.. try hard enough." <J-IC-Scene> Meika Kirenai says, "It can't be nobody." <J-IC-Scene> Go Shijima says, "Yeah." <J-IC-Scene> Go Shijima says, "There are times when there has to be fighting. Or even when someone has to get hurt to keep a lot of other people from being hurt. Because that person can handle it. But there's something you said, that I'd like for you to keep an eye on." <J-IC-Scene> Go Shijima says, "I worry a lot about trying hard enough. It can creep up on you, and make you feel like dirt, if you let it. If you let yourself think that this failure, or that failure, was because you weren't 'trying hard enough...' It can lead you to some bad places. Please trust that I'm speaking from experience. Okay?" <J-IC-Scene> Meika Kirenai, noncommittally and faint, says "..Okay."      Go nods. "You were amazing," he says, after a pause. Go finishes his Creature, then heads for the Ride Macher. The similarities between his bike and Chase's are obvious, once one looks past the surface aesthetics. Maybe they come from the same place. Go grabs his helmet from the rear compartment above the tail light, putting it on and starting up the engine. As he drives off, Meika can pick up something he mutters under his breath: "Maybe if I'd killed that urge sooner, things would be different now."
Kayoko Kirenai	Chevalier Cobalt looks down at the leftovers of the Temptation, blackened clay crumbling into sand, with a complicated expression, despite the victory. Behind her, only distinctly outlined because of the light of her sword, her shadow is crouched down, head resting on its knees. She closes her eyes and seems to try to recenter herself, but beneath her breastplate, her chest keeps rising and falling with quick, deep breaths. Her shadow reorients itself, aligning back with her body's motions.     She glances at the crater-- no, just the crater. There's no sense of cognitive dissonance when looking at the damage that the Temptation caused this time, though the pre-existing storm damage is just as maddeningly out of your cognitive grasp as before. Cobalt clambers down into the pit, hoisting a truck up by the bumper to deposit it back into the lot. Menial tasks, just extending how long she's in her armor.     Golden motes of light flicker into existence around each scratch and bruise on Cobalt's body, and she brushes them away, taking a look around at everyone. Settling on Hibiki-- Mei would never want to be first-- Cobalt walks over with the twinkling lights cupped in her hand like fireflies. Her sabatons clank to a stop beside the collapsed magical girl, each step clearly articulated and precisely placed despite the post-battle exhaustion. She lets go of her sword and crouches down, swiping a hand across her skirt to keep it from flaring outwards. The gathered motes in her hand start streaming out to bathe Hibiki in light, coalescing on each point of damage and slowly repairing them.     "We have it the way we have it." Cobalt echoes her sister, turning her head to look at the other Elites. Her attention especially settles on the henshin squad-- Strawberry and the Kamen Riders of course, but she includes Lilian and Jeanne in her look too. "It feels a little silly, actually. That there's so much out there, so much like..." The flash that indicates Chevalier Vermillion's return to Meika punctuates her point.     Cobalt looks between Hibiki beside her, and at Strawberry Princess, and then laughs a tiny bit. "I don't know. Somehow it feels, way too comfortable. Like I'm missing something, and something will go wrong. I'm glad it worked out this time, I'm glad that..." She tilts her head to look past Hibiki, her eyes distant for a few seconds as she scans miles around, and frowns. "That no one was really hurt. But it's still such a huge change. I don't know how to feel."     Chevalier Cobalt rubs her eyes, as if something is stuck in them. She's long past being the only one remaining in costume, and absentmindedly, she tosses up a mirage distortion up between herself and the train station. With just the open sea behind her, there's only one direction that people could see her from anyways. It's uncharacteristically risky. It goes against her own instructions.
Kayoko Kirenai	"... Thank you, everyone. Good work. I'll put the report in to the Cherub network." Coming out of a fifteen year old's mouth, the praise doesn't come across as patronizing at all. Just dully automatic. Finally, with a flash, the intricate armor is replaced with Kayoko's monochrome school uniform again. Seaside air still feels heavy in her lungs as she takes another breath and tugs on the cuff of her sleeve, turning to Lilian.     "H-how was that, Miss Dame Commander?" Easy on it, Kayoko. She's not your boss on this, here. Kayoko trails off and stiffens, momentarily lost. Desperate for some angle of interaction, but not wanting to appear subservient and disappoint her sister, she grasps for something that caught her eye earlier, because of course she would notice every little thing. Voyeur. "Are you alright? You seemed to be... clutching your head, earlier. I can heal you, if you need it."     Kayoko busies herself with unbuttoning her sleeve, wary glances directed towards anyone that might be watching. As usual, Spot crawls out, with his hideous color scheme and perches on her hand, looking around to gratingly comment. "Well, well! Everyone's still standing! A job well done, Commander Cobalt!" Kayoko grimaces and mutters, "Give me a second, Spot, I still need to take the picture." "What am I doing hanging around here, then? Hey, you, Isaac, toss me one of those energy drinks!"     Kayoko sighs and drags her fingers through the air, condensing a vague mirage blur into a nearly legible image. She pulls up her Polaroid and snaps a picture of the temporary image, and it scatters away into nothingness. Once the photo develops, Kayoko waves it around to dry off, then glances at it. Razor-thin beams of light criss-cross through the Temptation, Lilian being the only human who was caught in the snapshot. They won't be able to see it, of course. To them, it'll look like a crackle of lightning, normal for that kind of storm, gleaming off the black metal and gold light of an ordinary steetlamp.     At least you'll know. The Cherubs, too, once Kayoko hands it off to Spot. Right now, he's chugging a can of Creature nearly the same size as him, and nearly as garishly colored.