Scene #8375: Six Minutes

Owner	Pose
Rowdyruff Boys	ISHIROU AND BELLAMY... Bellamy looks from Ishirou to the horizon, and shakes her head. "This isn't an opponent I can engage. It will wear me out too much. I will coordinate evacuation and see about averting incidental collateral." She takes a step to one side, and pauses. "Ishirou, most people want the same things at the end of the day. The shape of those things might change superficially, but there is great misery in standing too much as an island. We are not islands. We cannot be islands. We are weak when we are islands." SKRRR! And then she was gone, skywards.
Rowdyruff Boys	MAJOR MAN... Is being arrested for felony possession as evacuation proceeds. "Well, buddy, you're goin' away for a looooong time..." says one cop, too smug for having arrived in the last moments to cuff him. MAJOR MAN sobs and carries on pathetically.
Rowdyruff Boys	MECHA PREDATOR X crashes onto the beach. It is far away, though its mechanical roar reached this far easily. It is moving at a sedate pace compared to what you'd imagine it can do, but it does so quickly in spite of its sheer bulk. It sinks momentarily too deep into sand, but is too tall to be swallowed, and too powerful to be stopped from pulling itself forward another step. It is not crushing beachgoers as it goes; its approach was too enormous to go unnoticed. Those in the way now are those who stay put even in the face of a well-forecasted hurricane. It will reach the edge of Townsville in SIX MINUTES. ================================================================================ This scene exists as a kind of vignette between scenes 8352 and 8353, intended to last two rounds. The first round will reflect immediate reactions to Mecha Predator X and the second round will act as set-up for scene 8353. ================================================================================
Rowdyruff Boys	ELSEWHERE... Boomer bolts awake, his eyes wide. He's heard that roar before, even if it's different than it was then. Still half-dressed, he rockets out the window and up into the sky, staring out over the horizon. "Aw... FUCK, dude!" Butch stirs on the Utonium Household lawn. He, too, remembers that noise. He lies there for a solid minute before he gets up and throws a rock at Buttercup's window. "Hey! We gotta fuckin' go. All hands on deck!" HERE, NOW... Brick blasts away from his section of sky with a pronounced SKRRR, collapsing on Blossom's position. He looks agitated in a way that he normally isn't. This boy has feelings struggling with his business persona. In the end, the business persona wins. "We'll run up the same strategy as before. There are more people here this time, so we're not going to be able to screen you all to the same degree we could screen the three of you back then. Should still be able to buy you the space you need to beat it." "If it's adapted to that strategy," he adds, "I'm counting on you to quickly engage an alternative, Blossom." HERE, THEN... "Alright, here's the shitshow of a plan," past Brick says, scuffed and bleeding from a scratch above his right eyebrow. "You girls have a harder time upsizing so what we're going to do is maximize our size and just get in the fucking way. You're going to stay normal size and come in on the back of its attacks against us and beat the life out of it." This was not a good time for anyone.
Rowdyruff Boys	BERYL... Beryl wipes grime from her face as she sends powered-up Townies flying in every direction, CRUNCHING a multitude of Chem-X pens in her hands right before the vapor within is drawn into the beast on the horizon. She raises her head in that direction as the tone of the surroundings change, and those that were once clamoring for power descend into terror. She stares, the ghost of a determined glare lingering silhouette-like in her shadow. "I didn't fight you last time," she says. They're not words for anyone but herself, even though they're spoken aloud. "Couldn't really get over being the off-brand me, or having to face that. But I wish I had. Truth is, it doesn't matter, and didn't. There's enough awesome in the world for both of us. Literally!" "It's the most fucked up thing I've ever thought or felt," she admits, cracking her knuckles, "but I'm happy to get a redo." SKRRR! Off she goes, her trail reflecting a familiar enough color, but still her own.
Rowdyruff Boys	IN THE PAST... If it should transpire that Sougo looks into what this thing was years back, the answer is very simply that it was Godzilla. Nobody called it Godzilla for whatever reason, but it certainly had every property associated with Godzilla and there's not much else to think about that. Going a little forward from that, the present day Predator X is a machine created using Predator X's bones in the construction of a biomechanical weapon. Or, to put it another way, it's a pretty specific version of Mecha Godzilla. Reasonably speaking this thing probably isn't as powerful as the original Predator X, but it might not have actually been meant to be. Its release in the last little while is a herald of worse-than-usual conditions. It hasn't been released as some final, ultimate weapon; it is concerningly incidental and coincides with the casual abandonment of the pertinent facility by FATHER. Mecha Predator X is no longer necessary for whatever FATHER's benefactor is doing. It's being released basically out of spite.
Ishirou	Ishirou, hands on his knees and sitting against some rooftop machine looks up as Bellamy speaks to him. No person is an island... but when he looks back on things... on the heroes he looks up to... Lilian seems to be standing alone, easily able to direct traffic and needing nobody to stand beside her. But... was that true? There was Tamamo... there was Trudy, there was Go, there was... He remembers her words at the event that nearly tore reality aside. It wasn't her strength that won, but reaching out to her. It wasn't her strength that succeeded in convincing the other side of her that humanity was worth staying with... it was the bond she made. Go, on the other hand, keeps going off to do things on his own. But... when they're together they're so much stronger. When Go is alone, when he thinks he has to deal with things on his lonesome, he always comes back hurt. Not just physically... S6... she never needed him right? But... why did she smile at him from time to time? Why did... she keep saying she needed him to be her partner. He could never stand by himself, but she never said that. It was... was there something he was missing with the idea of being a hero..? He aspired to be like them, but in that aspiration, he was missing the things that they were /with/ each other...and him. He rubs his eyes, understanding something. He was afraid, but... he had learned to ignore the fear instead of understanding the meaning of it. That he could face that fear /because/ of those people. They could too, with him... which... makes the consequences of his actions that much worse. He made a promise, though didn't he..? He would stand by his mistakes and learn from them. That was what he sought, that 'wisdom' that he would make his power. /He/ didn't need strength, or power, or anything like that. He /had/ it... he was reaching for something he wasn't... "Wait," he says to Bellamy before she leaves. He detaches another OPTION and lets it sit with her. "It'll help you detect and find people who need help faster. It'll also let you conserve your strength while doing so. Just... please be careful and if anything goes weird you let us know, alright? You... you're right... and I..." he sighs, "I need to go help the boys before they do anything rash, and the others too.." The RESCUE snaps alive, and he dives off the roof and towards the others. His scanners run overtime, trying to get a better idea of how the creature worked, looking for weaknesses, how its cybernetic parts worked, and anything else he could use as a weapon against it. He lands, taking a few steps toward the group. "Hey... I'm..." he says swallowing as he looks up at the creature. "That's... a bit bigger than it was from farther away.." he says but isn't running or anything. "I'm trying to analyze it, so can we hold off on any plan-making until my analysis is complete? Bellamy is going to rescue civilians in the area, and she's got one of my options with my scanning equipment." "If I need more time to analyze it...then.." he pauses, considering. He deploys three more OPTIONS, recycling the one he gave to Brick, and deploying the others for the other Rowdys. "These ones should be able to help make an optional battlefield and help resist damage. It'll also be able to help repair the damage done in the fight, as well as prevent it." "And... sorry," he says to both Brick and Blossom. "But I guess we can chat about my screw-ups later.."
Timespace Riders	The two Riders present are still armored up. Zi-O wears square, compact armor with red and blue trim that calls a magnet to mind; his flat-faced helmet displays the visage of the space-themed rider Fourze. A black strip across the armor's chest intersects with a vertical strip running down one pauldron. The horizontal strip displays scrolling text--FOURZE MAGNETSTATES. Woz's robot-themed Kikai armor, gold plates over a silver bodysuit with green trim, sports wrench motifs on the cuirass and pauldrons. A third pair of wrenches forms the 'antennae' of his LED-lit helmet. Zi-O stutters visibly, the sign of another temporal jaunt. "I think Father sent this thing out of spite," calls Zi-O hopefully, lifting into the air as Predator X approaches. "Something tells me he doesn't need it anymore. It's still strong, so try to hold out! There's no telling what he has planned down the line..." The retainer, in his primarily metal armor, is carried up along with Zi-O, presumably thanks to some interaction with the king's magnet-themed power. Woz seems surprised by it, but overcomes his initial shock to offer additional tactical insight to Brick's assessment. "If any others among you are able to 'scale up' as Brick mentioned, do so and rotate out as needed." He pauses, then turns his helmet slowly towards Ishirou. "It should keep the distractions from tiring too quickly--which should give you ample time for further analysis."
Powerpuff Girls	HERE, NOW Blossom watches Major Man go with a light look of disgust, having known the slackadasical con-aritst 'hero' for years... And still not liking him. No amount of understanding and rapport built past the oily actuality of a man who really was super and chose to start shit with little people, on purpose, to make himself look good. And that wasn't very Townsville of him. And there's still bigger problems - literally. Wincing at the screeching, mechanical roar that bassily pours down through the streets, hearing every peak and valley of the great noise. She heard it a while off, so now it's just shouting at her. Brick's business persona wins out - Blossoms is painted onto the curves and lines of her face. "We have more people, and that gives us more options - but this thing is in the city. We have to somehow push the fight away from anything major. If everyone's going to max out their scales and push Predator X back with brute force..." Blossom chews on her bottom lip and squints up at the source of the sound, breathing in the smoke from the last crushed pens. The options weren't good, and they didn't make her feel confident about the situation -- much the opposite, her experience with Predator X made Blossom keenly aware of how bad this could be if done messily. "... no matter what plan we use, we've got to lure or smash it away from the city. If we have to hold back, and it doesn't, we lose. What can we do? Who can we call for help with six minutes?" Blossom reaches into her pocket, flipping out her phone and scrolling through her contacts. Ishirou's apology is received by Blossom with the same neutral-acknowledgement that the Puff had given Petra, before: a we'll-talk-later nod. "Okay. We'll talk later then. I appreciate you being here, at least." A beat follows, and she looks up from her phone, hair ribbon fluttering. "Hear the plan so far?" Past Ishirou is the transforming Zi-O and Woz, and that starts giving Blossom an idea... MEANWHILE Bubbles, who had to put down an evil toxic metals (In Your Lungs!) vape-monster that emerged from the Stanford Chemistry labs, followed the trail of glittering Chemical X vapor off towards Predator X and... Sighs, rolling off her nice lab jacket, to fold carefully. "Phooey. I was actually having a really good day." She admits. A monster weak to tornadoes and a performance day in the lab was far above average! Disappearing in a streak of blue and SKRR!, she transitions away towards the center of the city. (The place between several cities each of the size of a large city but Mostly, Townsville.) AND Buttercup, at the Utonium household, rolls over when she hears the bellowing screech of Predator X. She screams, and the reinforced windows of the house prevent shattering. "Are you KIDDING me?! All of this, all of it, and the least fun one shows up just as a cherry on top of this drama sunday cake-" A truly perfect and decadent dish of dark chocolate, fudge icing, raspberries baked in, and a single sinful cherry on top of each slice, with a spoon of cherry juice drizzled over. Served only in the Devil's Due Diner, and only from the hours of 10-12am, Saturday and Sunday, and there's always more cake. "-is the worst! Fine. Fine! I'm OVER it, I guess!" Buttercup decides with a tectonic grinding of her teeth, and then zips! out of her window to the grass out front. "Fine, I'm up, and I'm not happy about the sequel."
Rowdyruff Boys	"You're going to help plenty of people, here. But I'm backing out of the big hero game here, so I'm not going to have you disperse your power into me thinking that I'll be staying in it," Bellamy pushes the RESCUE back to Ishirou. "Don't worry. There are plenty of people I'll be working with here. It's a Saturday in Townsville. Besides, my real superpower is my brain. I'm a Blossom-template." Mecha Predator X doesn't have true material weak points. Unlike the XORDS it isn't really a machine for the most part; it does have weapons bolted onto it that ARE machines but they're not low-quality. They're outsourced to... somewhere. Probably wherever Princess gets her crazy shit. It's running on Chemical X. Chemical X is its whole existence, and Chemical X is ultimately processed into its bones. What you ultimately learn is that you probably really need to start breaking down its bones, weakness or no, because tissue is starting to re-form on them after inhaling all the Chem X that was in the air. It also has a system for drawing in a large amount of heavy gas. It's probably only really meant for working with Chemical X, but triggering it and forcing something else in might be helpful if you could produce something that nothing would want to be 'inhaling'. "Don't know what you mean," Brick asides to Ishirou on his way out, but he seems distracted. "I'll review my footage later to see whatever the fuck it is you're talking about." Woz's book has a little more information to reference: Spitefully fired, yes, but it's intended a lot like a missile. It gets let go, does a lot of damage on its way out, and is spent. But they might have underestimated the creature whose remains they're using... "Yeah... this feels a little too The Creature Walks Among Us. Revenge of the Creature would've been okay. But this whole thing just has that particular flavor of sleazy to it, y'know?" Butch replies to Buttercup, floating up in the air from his position in the grass. He is talking absolute nonsense and it might even be on purpose this time.
Rowdyruff Boys	You have A FEW MINUTES to set up. Townsville is used to rapid short-notice evacuations; it is not necessary to intervene on behalf of civilians, though it is fine to account for not really wanting to rebuild a huge chunk of the city. THE ROWDYRUFF BOYS have increased their respective sizes until they're giants and fired off into the distance to begin the fight and control the approach. They are your point men and will limit the intensity of initial contact. You have time to set up for ONE form of interference that will come up in either the EARLY, MID, or LATE fight. Define these in terms of ATTACK, DEFENSE, or SUPPORT. The impact this has will be WEAKER the earlier it happens in the fight, and STRONGER the later it happens.
Ishirou	"Yeah," he points at his own ears and then POD. "My sense of hearing is actually really good, I just often kinda pretend to not hear everything because people don't like it when they can't talk behind your back. I mean, obviously, you shouldn't but..." he shrugs, "Privacy and all, something that got drilled in my head when I was a lot younger by the Grandmaster." "...And thanks for that. It means a lot to hear after everything," Ishirou says with a little bit of a sniffle. Obviously not actually a sniffle but a recreated sniffle because he can't actually sniffle now, but it's the emotion that matters, right? He smiles at Brick, who seems to let his fuck ups by. He runs through the data and sighs. This is going to be rough, and it's not going to want to be moved. Coordinating a little more effort, he looks over at Woz. "Anything your book can give us a hint on? It'd be appreciated..." he says and tries to give him a smile. "I'm starting to miss the overconfident Woz. Come on, give us some cryptic statements for old time's sake?" he says trying to lighten the mood. "Alright...the intake valves that were used to draw in the Chemical X are going to be its weakness. If we can get it into the bay I can turn those on. Fighting in the water shouldn't be an issue, and I can provide everyone with some gear to help increase maneuverability there. Once there, I'll force the filter on and force it to choke down bay water. That will not be good for any of its parts." he says, bringing up a holoprojection of what he has, intelligence-wise, on the monster for everyone to look over. "...I miss French toast," he says after a moment. "When I can eat again, I'ma get a lot of it. Drowning with syrup. Scrambled eggs and a lot of OJ. Oh and bacon. Hell, I'm just going to make everyone breakfast." ACTION: Attack/Late.
Timespace Riders	Woz consults the book. He seems more certain now than he had been in the fight with Major Man, though that might just be the adrenaline of an upcoming battle after a sustained one. "Indeed," he says. "According to this book, your assessment regarding the creature's regeneration is correct. The best outcome involves curtailing this. Additionally, a number of cooling systems will be revealed during the battle, and may be sabotaged to our advantage." "Right... I have a good feeling about this!" Zi-O lifts a hand into the air, index raised triumphantly. As usual, his catchphrase is uttered with complete sincerity at a time where there seems to be little reason to see a good outcome. "I'll travel back to the point where Ishirou handles the intake, and take care of the cooling systems while it's busy with everyone else." ACTION: Attack/Late
Powerpuff Girls	Blossom, scrolling through her phone, stops on a name and thumbs at it, pausing. "We'll go for the bay then. Push it to the bay, and I think we can win without burning Townsville to the ground doing it." Tapping her thumb down on the phonescreen, Blossom turns away lifting the red and black phone case to her ear, a little red rectangle keychain charm jangling off of it. MEANWHILE... In a SECURE BUNKER at an UNDISCLOSED LOCATION, a man in a Dracula collar and cloak, black out and red within, sits at a table across from a woman with a scattering of freckles dappling her cheeks and scattered artfully across the nose. Flawlessness that was bred and bought, Princess Morbucks in black pantsuit with yellow jacket and long black gloves carefully forks a filet of perfectly marbled beef and lifts her other hand to gently work the flesh against a knife, carefully carving a little square. Deliberately spearing the morsel, she lifts it to her mouth and enticingly goes for a bite to her shadowed companion across from her on the short table. Their room is dark, save for a single golden spotlight over Morbucks, her dining partner cast only in shadowed relief, the inside of his high-collared cloak, and the top of a matchhead-shaped dome. Morbucks is about to launch into a villain schpiel, as the cheshire-wide reflective white smile of her partner grows sinsterly in reflected light-- when she gets a phonecall. And the ringtone is a specific one. "Here they come just in tiiiiiiime~~" toodles out into the air. Morbucks immediately pulls her phone out of her jacket, to the smile-upside-down on her dining partner's face as she eeps out a gleeful 'Ihavetotakethis'. BACK IN TOWNSVILLE: Blossom holds her hand over the receiver as the boys scheme up a plan attacking the vents and intakes. "That sounds like a perfect finisher. Once we get it into the bay -- I'll call in some help to expose all that weaker machinery." The Puff returns to speaking clearly into her phone. "Hello, Princess. It's me, Blossom. I'd like to ask you a favor. About how fast can you loan me. . . all of your solar power satellites? I..." A long, silent sigh eases out of her. "... could realy use like twelve orbital lasers right now." The squealing of joy on the other end of the line heralds an ATTACK that will occur MID in the fight.