Scene #8651: Sky Higher

Owner	Pose
Hibiki Tachibana	'How's a race a mile high in the sky to get this dinky old thing back sound? Fun, yeah?' ... "For real, talk about a tough crowd." Good Speed runs a finger over his upper lip a few times, even before he's heard any of the responses to his challenge - or his whole deal. Either he's real good at reading the room (even when that room is all the way over at the bridge), or he's just not in the business of waiting long for replies. "Not that you got too much choice in the matter if you want what I got though, y'know?" There's the thud of something heavy and metal being loudly pat a few times; probably the stolen (is it really stealing if they dug it up first?) goods taken from right under Touta's nose currently propped up in the passenger seat of his ride. "Honestly shoulda just taken it and bolted. That'd be the easy route. Pretty sure not a single one of you guys could keep up with me, after all. But y'know, if that's true... nothing to lose from getting some sport out of it!" This is followed by a long and hearty laugh. Viviane, who has apparently only just regained the ability to speak in the face of this, intones in a quieter voice than normal. "...The Bavarian Illuminati is host to all sorts, so long as they have the desire to practice alchemy," she says, as if this is in any way an explanation for this. "Still, that someone like /him/ would have command over this vessel's operation..." That obnoxiously loud engine roars to life once again, only a few seconds of Good Speed's wheels kicking up into a smoking burn before his car accelerates into a whipping turn and is already zooming back out of the storage chamber, back into the 'road' that is the accessway tunnel. It seems like that must be where he's intending to hold his 'race', given this thing runs the length of the entire vessel and back. "See you at the top, kiddos! Think one of your friends is already waiting up there!" ...If a lightning-like surge of alchemy didn't spark forward from the front of his car, twisting and manipulating the metal ahead. The center of the tunnel lifts straight up in a ramp going all the way up to the ceiling, which parts open floor after floor after floor in a clear route upwards that eventually reveals the sky overhead. Needless to say, he hits that incline and speeds up, the vehicle getting some airtime before coming down on the top of the ship. Leaning out of the window, he gives a two-fingered salute in Arcadia's direction. "He intends to have his 'race' on the vessel itself," Viviane chimes in, with perhaps even more flatness to her voice than normal. "...But he cannot be allowed to leave with that. Please, do everything in your power to stop him." He sure did leave a clear way after him, as long as you don't mind backtracking. A lot. Or have some other way to get on up there in a timely manner. If he gets a head start, there'll /really/ be some trouble.
Ishirou	OPTIONs immediately go out for everyone who doesn't have flight capabilities and don't say no to the sharing of his capabilities. It'll also come with Ishirou's ability to fire large amounts of firepower. The second thing that happens, is that he pops POD out of his connection with him, and POD floats over to the controls. Using its ability to remotely manipulate objects, starts taking control, and routes fine control to Viviane. Ishirou leads the group through a series of doors and eventually to an elevator that'll take them up to the top. From there it's just a matter of getting to a hangar and jumping out onto the ship proper. The RESCUE is capable of flight, so once the flight unit connects, it soars out after Good Speed. The first thing he does is use the weaponry of the ship, the short-range AA guns, to try and take shots at the Car, trying to see just how fast Good Speed really is. Right now, Ishirou has control of the environment they're fighting on, so he's going to use that to his advantage! "...So why not just take it and run? It doesn't seem something a loyal member of the Illuminati would do. Especially with how fast you got up here. Is it really all just for fun, or is there something else you want to talk about?" OPTIONs to Touta and Arcadia activate, aiding in their power and accuracy respectfully. Either by putting extra bullets downwind for them, or by helping correct and map out their strikes.
Angela	"I want it." Rose says as she admires the car. "It's just a car--" Nikki protests. "It'd paint you a target." "It's stylish, and it can fly, it is a perfect representation of the american dream, pardner." "The fuck is an american dream! Pretty sure that's just building your own little superhero girls or boys." "Even Japan has an America." Rose says like she's an authority on the matter. "I saw the commercials, pardner." Of course then the car seizes the Relic storage unit they were here to fetch. #-1 FUNCTION (ANSI:) NOT FOUND Tiphereth shouts. Rose throws her hammer at Good Speed--not Good Speed's car--figuring if she can knock him out she can like steal his car? She's a little worried about banging up the car itself. She'd rather smash Good Speed's head in than damage that car. Nikki isn't so ... kind? She just sends another magical blast towards him, not really paying too much mind with where exactly she aims, clearly relying on Clash Win instead of even looking at each part's abilities. "We're losing ground, we need to find a way after him." Angela pipes in. "Someone give our Agents a ride." She is also being very helpful.
Combaticon	From the airship's port side, a pair of aircraft ascend. The first is a jet fighter trailing violet-tinted energy from its exhausts. Arcing over the hull, the vehicle rolls and drops three people off-- then banks swiftly away with the roar of afterburners. The people who land are all revealed to be robots; the primarily blue Onslaught hits first and heavily, rearing up to his full height and immediately lifting a hand to the side of his head while the other two; a female-molded robot primarily in gold and purple and a less bulky green 'bot with purple windows on his chest, land behind him. "Vortex, get Brawl to position 14." -On it!- -Just say the word. Already itchin' for bombardment.- "Blastoff, track the target from the air." -No way some ground-hugger could outrun me!- "Swindle. Vehicle mode. Engage in pursuit." The olive-drab robot shrugs, his purple eyes closing, "I'm not exactly built for speed, you know." In spite of the objection, his body contorts and expands, limbs reorganizing until he's become a fully sized humvee. The doors open, allowing the two remaining robots to get inside. "Exactly why are we involved?" Swindle's already hitting the accelerator when Depthcharge speaks up, drawing a side-eye from Onslaught, "Because it involves Concord allies. Part of our duty is to get involved in Concord affairs. Any further questions?" The ladybot's eyes close for a moment, letting out an annoyed buzz. Reaching forward, she pops open the SUV's glove compartment, "I'll see if I can't do something about this rustbucket's speed." "Hey! Stay out of there! That's a /private/ transwarp storage dimension!" "Then do something more useful than complain." Swindle the SUV jumps the gap created by Good Speed's exit ramp, landing some distance behind him. From the aft compartment extends a cannon, which swings out and forward to unleash a purple-tinged laser blast. The second aircraft is a helicopter, sleek with pointed rotors, ascending out over the hull towards the bridge tower.
Ritsuka Fujimaru	Good Speed may be facing a tough crowd, but he's got at least two people looking at him with intrigue. Ritsuka, having heard the man's call to race for the prize in search of excitement rather than success, stares right at him with a fierce look in her eyes and a broad smile on her face. Jeanne, too, seems rather curious about what he's doing, even if there's a hint of annoyance on her face at having to take one more detour before doing obviously good things with control of the facility. Mash, in comparison to the two, just looks troubled about all of this. "Cool ride... You're on! Oh. Wait a second. We got a problem." "Eh? What's that, Master?" "I can't drive." "That's.. Oh! Miss Jeanne and I could... Wait. Where would we be racing?" "Didn't you hear the man? In the sky!" It's as he said, though, and there's not much choice they have but to give chase. The big obstacle, of course, is actually getting up there without something to drive, but Jeanne seems to have a solution in mind already as she picks Ritsuka up by the waist with only a small noise of protest (from Mash). Carried along by the Avenger,and tailed by the Shielder, Ritsuka strokes her chin lightly as she considers how to actually get up there properly with any small chance of even catching up, much less passing Good Speed. "Tell me, Master. How suicidal do you want to be today?" "Not at all! So let's do it." "What? But she just asked-" "Yeah, it's fine. She knows what she's doing." After shooting Ritsuka an annoyed look, Jeanne sighs and shakes her head before looking up as the open air greets them outside the tunnel. She squints lightly as she looks around the surface of the ship, following Good Speed's moves with her eyes and holding a hand up before Mash can ask anything. Without actually elaborating, Ritsuka curls just before Jeanne hurls her upwards and leaps in a different direction. Mash, after her brief heart attack, leaps after Ritsuka to make sure she doesn't become a victim of gravity, stumbling along the surface of the ship to catch her balance (with some assistance from Ishirou's OPTIONs to go that much higher) and spot Jeanne about to throw a flaming spear at Good Speed. Before that happens, though- "Hold it, Jeanne! We've.. We've got a good thing going!" "Master! You can't be serious about..." "I am completely serious. Ishirou had a good idea, trying to turn this guy over." "Wasn't that supposed to be a ploy?" "... Hmph. Fine. We beat him at his own game, then. Could be fun."
Arcadia	There was no denying that the Illuminati Alchemist Airship was a well defended and dangerous airborn facility. It just had been intended more to defend against entire sieges or something, and not one single extremely fast and agile target with a life's experience worth of daring-do through overwhelming . But being as much cat as she is Arcadia is not afraid to let some smugness show, hovering to admire her work when the defenses power down. So she's got a bird's-eye view of the speeding craft exiting the airship, the driver throwing a salute her way as he does so, while she's back-thrusting to avoid more than a minor ruffling from the backwash of air from his speeder speeding by. Followed a moment later by her comm buzzing with the message from Viviane 'He intends to have his 'race' on the vessel itself," Viviane chimes in, with perhaps even more flatness to her voice than normal. "...But he cannot be allowed to leave with that. Please, do everything in your power to stop him.' That pumps Arcadia's already high flying (literally and figuratively) spirits more. "He wants a race, he'll get a race alright." Arcadia does a backwards look and then partially folds her wings to reduce air drag and allowing her to divebomb back towards the hull of the airship and picking up speed. Even not accelrating yet to her maximum speed it's not going to take long for her get the racer into her view, and the range of her weaponry. While at the same time Ishirou's OPTION links up, syncing with her own HUD. That's when she lets loose with several shots from both arms. Rather than normal gunfire she's shooting 'bullets' of compressed air in a spray around Good Speed's ride. Most of them will impact with the hull of the airship, and 'explode' in shockwaves of surging wind that while not very damaging will create unexpected turbulance and air resistance in an effort to force Good Speed to have to put more attention on maintaning control of his craft than just racing straight ahead. Maybe that will give other people a chance to catch up.
Timespace Riders	Zi-O is so startled by the appearance of a whole-ass car that he doesn't have much initial response at all, save for a shocked yelp and a clumsy leap. Woz pulls himself up to the ceiling using his robotic manipulator arms, low-profiling to avoid it as Zi-O tumbles across the top of the passing car. "A race...?" Bafflement gives way to earnest amusement as Zi-O rises from one knee, procuring a Ridewatch. "Haha! You're on, Speed! Woz, let's get up there and show him what it's all about!" "My thoughts exactly, sire," Woz agrees, Shinobi Miridewatch in hand. Each Rider slots their transformation watches into their belts. Zi-O spins his bulky white Timespace Driver, the LCD chronometer reading AU24. Woz closes the side-gate on his sleek black Beyondriver, the viewscreen displaying the shuriken-bedecked helmet of the Shinobi Armor... ARMOR TIME! Start Your Engine! DRIVE! Futurering Time! Dare Ja? Ore Ja! NINJA! Futurering Shinobi! SHINOBI! Amidst a cacophonous blend of pop punk from Zi-O and frenetic koto and shamisen melodies from Woz, both Riders shift their armors to speed-forward forms. Woz's Shinobi armor, adorned with shuriken motifs on the helmet, breastplate and pauldrons, forms a silver, green and purple blur as he gives chase to meet Good Speed on the roof. Zi-O is neck and neck with his retainer. The Zi-O II armor's colors have shifted to red with a pair of classic white racing stripes down the middle. The knightly armor's pauldrons are replaced with two whitewall racing tires, and its katakana lenses (spelling 'RIDER') have shifted hues and opacity to resemble the headlights of a supercar. The tenor growl of a performance engine echoes through the modified accessway, dopplering for that iconic 'nyoom' sound as both Zi-O and his retainer rocket off of the ramp. Woz lands with his spear held behind his back, his iridescent purple scarf blowing in the wind. Zi-O drifts to a stop, instead, tires mounted on his ankles squealing as he leans against the brake. "I hope you don't mind if we play rough," calls Zi-O, cupping his free hand to his helmet. Speeding off once again with another tenor growl, the Demon King shoulders his greatsword-rifle and fires bolts of red energy after Good Speed, compacting and coalescing into, of all things, spinning tires, as they fly. The tires, should they find their marks, accelerate rapidly upon impact, before combusting and exploding!
Dysnomia	Dysnomia stared, taken off guard. Her eyes do a around over the sprawling bodies around them, some even alive, before snapping back to Speed. "You're an easygoing bastard, aren't you." Her mouth curved down into a snarl, baring sharp teeth. "Because you think you can outrun any trouble that comes looking for you." We'll see how long that lasts. She didn't want to play his game, and barely had any intention of going along with his 'race,' but if she was going to rip the smug smile off that maggot's face, she had to BE there, first. "Find your own ways up." Dysnomia said to the others, roughly. "I have my own." As Speed took his car on a trip up through the hull, smoky wings spread from her back. Plasma billowed from them, carrying her straight upward! At breakneck speeds, toward the ceilng! But, when she hit it there was no impact, just a remnant of radiant smoke, drifting lazily toward the floor. Floor after floor Mia slipped past, again and again, slipping through them all, like a dark matter wind. She wasn't fast like him, much as she was loath to admit it. But no matter how fast he was, he needed a road, even if he had to make it. She breached through the top of the vessel like a missle, trailing mist. Her wings opened in the air in a burst of light, and there she was, hovering over the ship, eyes bright.
Touta Konoe	Touta's honestly been thriving this mission. He's been able to help the other Elites, he's been able to do his own thing. It's almost been what one could consider a pleasant time as far as things go. So when Viviane tells him of the relic that she seems pretty adamant about getting and he's the only one there that can grab it...He really does feel like it's a nice way to end the mission. Only...Everything gets cut short as the sound of a revving engine cuts through, he watches as a car speeds on by, does a vertical jump like it has springs built into it, and then just nabs the relic. "For real, talk about a tough crowd." "Hey, you know what you did..." Touta has the pleasure(?) of being in direct confrontation with Good Speed out of everyone else thus far and the look on his face is pretty damn pissed honestly. It just has that look of someone smiling, but at the same time you can just see the vein visibly throbbing on his forehead. "You know what...You're right. Would have been too easy. Definitely would have been a little easier on you too though..." Before Good Speed ends up spinning out from the container room, there's a brief moment that Touta raises the black fog up once more. It's not exactly too offensive when no one is shooting into it, but it's incredibly obstructive to a driver for sure...For the two seconds till he drives past it. Still, even with him getting by him, there's just the littlest smirk on Touta's face. "Okay, that should have been enough to do it. Now we'll just wait for things to cool off..." Thankfully, Good's kind enough to let them know where this Race starts. Touta thankfully already had the OPTIONs previously so keeping them for a bit helps. That said, it's gonna need to be pretty maneuverable if it wants to keep up with what Touta has in mind. Once again, Touta fades into the black mist letting himself traverse through the ventilation system of the ship and using it as his personal shortcut to make it to the top of the vessel. He can practically hear the thing as it comes up from the incline. To which he'll find the first, and supposedly farthest person that should have been coming out give him the same two-fingered salute he had only moments ago given to Arcadia. Still...The group has spoken about seeing if he'll switch sides before that though... "What took ya so long? I was waiting ya know." He definitely had to haul ass a bit, but technically he did make it pretty fast! Still, was he going to race? Hard to say, but more than that he wanted to see just how good Good was. He stands right before his car as it revs through, less as a race contender and more like a road obstruction. He stares down Good like instead of a race they're going to play a game of Chicken. So he'll let that car rev its engines, he'll let it floor it as fast as it can towards him...There's only one question he needs to know, is he gonna try to leave Touta for road kill, or swerve? Regardless of the decision, Good's going to need to put on his windshield wipers, maybe his brights as he starts filling the area around them with that black fog...Seems this race was going to have some hazard conditions!
Hibiki Tachibana	The top surface of the absolutely gigantic vessel is certainly poor for a straight-ahead race; beyond just the wind whipping past your face and threatening to send you into the open sky if you lose your footing and can't fly, the geometry of the ship itself is angular and messy. Sometimes, vertical parts of its construction twenty meters higher than the surroundings jut up like walls, and in other places, deep pits leading to a thinner part of the hull can lead to a painful (and more importantly, speed-losing) plummet. Their opponent today is sailing through the air and riding on hull in equal measure, using whatever trick he did to make a path up here in the first place to reshape metal into ramps and get /way/ too much airtime to be natural. It's half flying, half conventional racing up here. "I'm as loyal as it comes s'long as it keeps my interest! Could probably talk a whole lot, but that means you better keep pace!" Good Speed fires back at Ishirou, even as he darts through gunfire as easily as he breathes. Whatever that car of his is, it's sure not normal; it breaks out into sudden and unnatural turns that leave not just his turretfire, but /a lot/ of things hitting the space where he was previously just riding through. There's stunt driving, and then there's just things that are unrealistic. Arcadia's atttempts at forming air resistance get pushed right through by his aerodynamic ride - "Woah now! But maybe you should speed up instead of tryin' to slow me down!" - while Zi-O's accelerating tires are...unable to keep pace!? "Nice drive! ...ing! But you'll need to hustle faster than that, masked men!" Ritsuka's group gets side-eyed as Jeanne's spear is halted - "Ooh? That's the spirit, girlies! Nothing to fear but fear itself up here!" and Dysnomia gets an appreciative whistle...right before Good Speed hits the pedal and continues boosting onward. "I like that...! I like that a lot! Look at all those seconds you saved like that! The fastest way from point A to B is a straight line after all, hahaha!" Even Touta's fog, which served him so well dealing with the alchemists inside, doesn't slow Good Speed down at all. He sends his vehicle into a spin, swerving around him by a margin of centimeters and leaving his fog in the dust. He gets a thumbs up as Good Speed on, without slowing down.
Hibiki Tachibana	...Followed by Swindle taking advantage of his showboating to actually land a clean shot on the tail end of his sports car, the laser shot crossing the distance to blast a hefty chunk of gunmetal-gray material off the back of it and briefly send the vehicle wobbling. Good Speed doesn't seem too bothered, though, outright leaning out of the window to look back and drive one-handed. "Prime Grand Prix!? Damn, the Multiverse really does have it all! Hey, throw me some directions for that sec--" He's promptly shut up by Rose's thrown hammer clocking him straight on the head, eliciting a choked sound of pain that sends him tumbling back into his seat, struggling to take evasive maneuvers against Nikki's assault while his skull is throbbing. "Hey, I appreciate not damaging the goods, but be a little gentler than that! Magical girls are all about not hurting people, yeah!?" For his part though, Good Speed isn't playing especially nice either, now that everyone's here and on the field. They've got a whole lot of ship to go, and at least some of these guys have earned his attention--so he pushes on, as another spark of alchemical lightning surges out from beneath his car and runs through the hull of the ship he's leaving in his wake. Where it runs across, the metal suddenly reshapes itself into towering spikes that suddenly arc up from below, where even those flying are at risk of being skewered, and those on the 'ground' will have to worry about both that and ramming head-on into them! For Swindle and the Lobcorp Agents in particular though... ...two of the turrets Ishirou had been firing is overcome by that same alchemy he's using, suddenly ripped free of its moorings entirely to be thrown at them! High-speed impact incoming. That his alchemy has something to do with control over metal is a pretty good guess by this point.
Ishirou	The magical spikes are something that Ishirou's getting used to, which is why the strike isn't as clean this time, as it was before on the ship... also it wasn't close quarters! So that's... also a good reason as to why Ishirou wasn't impaled and then tossed off the side of the ship. Ishirou spins, the RESCUE takes some structure damage and the unit manages to recover. It boosts off again, trying to keep pace with Good Speed, before speaking up again. "Sounds rather mercenary. What are you really about? Having a good time and a good race is one thing, but everyone has something deep down they're about..." he says, and continues to talk. "I'm about wanting to ease the suffering of others. I think I can do that through knowledge and wisdom." "It used to be that I thought I could solve problems by just that, but I learned that there is a limit to that... a part where emotions don't neatly fit in. So... tell me, what are you about?" With that, he activates more turrets, this time they're explosive. He also provides a heads-up to both Ritsuka, Sougo, and Woz. With Woz specifically, he gives a timetable of the next few seconds, letting the Kamen Rider know exactly where he and Sougo needed to be, and what actions were going to get them ahead in this race. What they did, was still in their hands.
Ritsuka Fujimaru	"That's right... No fear!" "Senapi... You should be more worried!" "Nah, you and Jeanne are around. And we've got Ishirou's flying robot things!" "Still.. Ah. Alright. What's the plan?" "Throw me." Mash doesn't know how to respond to that initially. She can see what the plan is supposed to be, and with the path relatively obvious now that most of the group has joined the race, it's not as though there isn't a chance of actually beating Good Speed at this. She's just pointedly wary about the throwing part, especially with Jeanne so far up, the vessel still moving, and the wind threatening to blow any one of them right off into a massive drop to the ground below. Ritsuka's brimming confidence, though, ends up getting the Shielder to relent and crouch slightly as she looks towards the obstacles up ahead. There's some more ship, there's some potential landing points she can reach with careful jumps and tosses, and... Spikes. Forced to react sooner rather than later, Mash materializes her shield in one arm as she pushes off a spike that nearly impales her and Ritsuka when it pops out. The push launches her towards another section of the ship, but she's going too high and too fast that she could end up sailing right over it! And so, Mash hurls Ritsuka further upwards, both to get her closer to where Jeanne is, and to give herself just enough velocity to slam her shield back into ship and prepare for her next move. Jeanne, meanwhile, jumps off her own section of the ship to catch the Master in midair, crashing into the ship again and stabbing her spear into it to give them both some footing. "Idiot. It'd be so easy to drop you right now." "Oh, yeah. Would you?" Jeanne doesn't answer that. Instead, she just goes back on the chase, bounding off the spear and materializing another for another foothold to stab into the ship, all while giving Mash more time to catch up. She once again considers hurling some spears at Good Speed to slow him down, but... She's intrigued, too. Besides, there's something to work with here. 'Hey, throw me some directions for that sec--' "After the race! If you can beat us, that is!"
Combaticon	"We're here!" The Combaticon helicopter swings the tail rotor around and then splits open, unfolding and shrinking in the same motion. This produces two robots; the first to hit the ground behing by far the largest. A huge, primarily green machine who was previously in the helicopter's cockpit. Behind and to one side of her, the much smaller 'bot who was previously the actual helicopter floats down to a gentle landing. "This is the spot. Go right ahead, Brawl." "About time! I wanna blast somethin'!" The heavier green robot folds in on herself and expands into a split-tracked tank with two cannons. After a moment, the four tread pylons articulate outward and downward, lifting the main body up. The turret swings around, retracting the cannons and extending a much larger fork-barreled artillery gun into an upward arc. "Go get me target telemetry! It'll be just like old times!" "I told you already, I'm not that Vortex." "Whatever, get going!" Brawl's artillery cannon lets out a metallic ker-CHUNK as a slug is loaded into position. Next to her, Vortex leaps off the bridge tower and twists, refolding and expanding into the same attack helicopter from earlier; ascending and accelerating. On the hull, Swindle swerves to avoid one gun turret-- ultimately aimed at someone else, it turns out, as he slams bumper-first into the second that was actually thrown at him. He lets out a grunt on impact and immediately transforms, sprawled out on the deck. Beside him, Onslaught is the one to reshape himself this time, expanding into a heavy looking artillery truck. The passenger door opens. Without hesitation, Depthcharge kicks Swindle inside, then boards the vehicle herself as Onslaught pushes through the debris and resumes pursuit with the throaty rumble of a diesel engine. "We hit a delay. Blastoff, engage. Slow him down." -Consider it done!- The jet fighter keeping pace with Good Speed overhead rolls through spike projectiles from a passive observational position to a more aggressive posture. Ports open up on the underside, deploying a pair of missiles that home in on the sports car itself. Blastoff then accelerates past his own projectiles, dropping a line of cluster-bombs out in front. "How's your suspension? Time to find out! You can't afford to slow down, organic!"
Timespace Riders	"We're just getting started," Zi-O calls back, mashing the stop on his Timespace Driver with a closed fist. Crackling red energy dances across the Rider's red armor. The best way to 'outrun' something that's faster than you is with perpendicular angles, not straight lines. Accordingly, as Zi-O weaves in and out of Good Speed's spike traps, he takes a ramp aggressively and aims the rifle for where he expects the mad motorist will be, instead. Woz, a green, silver and purple blur on the hull of the ship, follows suit. With his touchscreen spear tucked behind his back, and his free hand primed for a throw, he bounces between the altered terrain nimbly. Smokepuff teleports zip him towards a ramp, and, following in Zi-O slipstream, the retainer takes it with an agile frontflip, going for height rather than distance. As Zi-O's tire projectiles fly on an intercept course with Good Speed, Woz flings his arm outwards. A spread of five glowing purple shuriken rocket towards the ground as he, too, descends, fanning out like the spokes of a wheel to cover numerous angles of egress. Turning in midair and switching his spear to the other arm, Woz flings another five, creating a setup between his fast, light barrage and Zi-O's slower, more powerful one. The retainer hits the ground a second or so after Zi-O does, and the both of them take the next corner aggressively--Zi-O, drifting around it to the sound of squealing tires, and Woz, running along the structure of the hull, perpendicular to the ground. A sudden flash of brilliant green illuminates the air--Woz's sickle-tipped spear shearing a section of the flung turret away that he might maintain his speed. "Is that your best?" calls the ninja themed retainer.
Dysnomia	Assailing Dysnomia with alchemical spines today is, broadly speaking, turning out to be a rather poor move. This time, she's watching on all spectrums, and as the points pierce through the air, Dysnomia FALLS through them, leaving them to clash into each other in the air above her. Her wings spread, steading herself near the ground, watching the terrain of the airship's roof become littered with spikes. It hurt to see a ship like this so mangled. Mia hurt for her. But not enough to stop. <J-IC-Scene> Dysnomia says, "I'll burn an opening through the spikes...!" She made a sharp bank down, on the level with the other racers, and her mouth opened wide...Too wide. The light that shone in her throat shone brighter still, and then erupted outward, melting through the obstacles, clearing an easy path through for those willing to take it. Then, she let her wings carry her upward, guiding the beam of her laser forward, toward Speed...And PAST speed. The plasma criss-crossed in front of him, buffeting him with the sharp scent of ozone and thea teaming heat and spark of her breath. He wanted hazardous terrain? She'd give it to him!
Arcadia	"What, I thought you wanted a race?" Arcadia calls back when Good Speed rebuffs her effort to rough up his route. "We'd both rather have a challenge!" And challenge is presented as turrets are are pulled free of their moorings and flung through the air, while spikes erupt from the surface of the track. Unfortunately for Good Speed neither of these are particularly problematic to the high speed sphinx. Arcadia easily pulls up and away from the spike formations while deftly dodging the improvised projectiles at the same time with little trouble. Her acrobatic maneuvering just happens to bring her up along Blast Off, and not having an issue keeping pace with the jet fighter. "Nice vehicle form! Good to see not all of you are just trucks and cars and stuff." There's bombs and missile flying, explosions going off. Arcadia decides to add to the chaos in a different way, the lines in her armor shifting to a fiery hue as she generates several spheres between her hands and lobs them down into the erupting smoke and shrapnel of the blasts. But hers don't explode. The large fireballs bounce forward upon impact with the surface, erupting forth and barreling across the hull towards Good Speed's ride with considerable speed of their own. The Nitro Chasers literally blaze ahead, turning the race into a manic mix between a demolition derby and a pinball multi-round!
Touta Konoe	"Ya know, if it weren't for jacking the relic, I'm starting to think I wouldn't hate this guy. . . But I still wanna punch him a little. . ." He says that but he does have a bit of a smirk on his face. The guy's definitely playing for the other side, but if he's not trying to cause any deaths...Well, no, this guy's still a bit responsible isn't he? And with that, he does have a thought for another someone in particular... "Damn it, now you got me thinking about that..." Still, no time is left to linger as the road obstacles start popping up. The terrain being thrown off and with it, the very footing the others are working with which had already been a mess only becomes more of a challenge, still Touta finds himself shouting back to Good. "Sorry, gonna have to try better than that. I'm wearing the sneakers with grip on'em!" Touta might be having more fun with this than he should, but well...For some reason he's still not been too worried, as if he's already feeling pretty confident about this whole thing. That said, as the obstacles come up, it is Mia's aid that clears the path for the others, and now she's the one getting the thumbs up. "Thank you kindly~!" Even without flying, Touta has ways to get around, and as his toes curl in his shoes it's as if they're practically pulling up the metal beneath his feet with the kind of grip they have. His footwork picks up as he begins to perform his flash step. If Good thought that Touta was going from Point A to Point B before, he'd probably really enjoy seeing it from his rear view mirror as there's just a blur of the guy attempting to latch onto his bumper. It's only when Touta can see him looking back, he'd start shouting as he enjoys the bit of hitchhiking. "Hey Speed! What's your tow limit on this thing?!" So far a few people have had a few ideas on how to slow this car down, though before he even thinks on that he starts shouting out to someone else. "Hey! Jeanne! Mind sending something hot my way?!" It'd probably take a bit for the message to get across, so in the meantime, his free hand reaches for the kendo bag, not even unsheathing the blade as he feels out for a certain nob...When he does...Well, Speed's car if it didn't remove this unwanted passenger was going to be feeling a little bottom heavy as the back of it was going to start dipping.
Angela	OPTIONS fly over to Rose and Nikki though it takes them a moment to realize what exactly they are supposed to DO with the Options. For once, the Lobotomy Corp agents do not THROW the Options at all! Not even a little bit! Instead, Rose and Nikki take one hand each and fly up into the air--it very much is a Nierlike pod glide, even if this means that Rose only has one hand to throw a hammer with which is okay because she THREW the other hammer and hasn't been able to recollect it. Those things don't automatically teleport back into her hand! ''Magical girls are all about not hurting people, yeah!?'' "Magical girls are made different here!" Rose shouts, then considers Hibiki's bodycount. "Okay, maybe they're actually made the same!" She pulls down her scarf, showing Good Speed her HORRIFYING SCARRED FACE before pulling it back up. Nikki shouts as well. "Yeah far as we can tell it's pretty much the same!" Nevertheless, Rose takes aim when a skewer busts out of the ground at her, she swings out of the way but still gets sliced up in the side, hissing as her attempt to attack Good Speed is interrupted. "HEY BACK OFF!" Nikki shouts, using her VAMPIRE MOBILITY to swing around the Option and on top of it, deftly avoiding the spikes hitting her body before she takes another aim with her staff. "LYRICAL TOKAREV EAT SHIT!" Nikki shouts before an eruption of light comes bearing down towards the supercar. "Noooo the car...." Rose says in the background.
Ritsuka Fujimaru	"Something hot? Cheeky brat... Fine, then!" Jeanne laughs as she whips a spear nearby Touta, letting it catch on fire on the way!
Hibiki Tachibana	Explosives, cluster bombs, plasma, and pinballs, talk about a threat! Arcadia's attempt at getting him caught up in the chaos works out even if he's an ace at dodging through the mess; it's one more thing to worry about in a whole host of things he can't hope to entirely avoid, no matter how cocky he is - and to her credit, he laughs uproarously at the rebounding balls. Ishirou's explosives begin battering him around and slowing down his pace, which Good Speed is forced to fix by hitting whatever equivalent of nitro he has and shooting ahead even as blasts fill the air around him and missiles detonate at his back. "Wouldn't dream of it, rustbucket! I think I'm liking you, though!" His banter is cut short by the Kamen Riders' barrage shredding the metal of his ride - Woz gets a wibble-wobble of Good Speed's hand as if to say 'not even close', right before he nearly jumps in his seat and hard-turns to the side to avoid getting totally fried by Dysnomia's blast. "Yeesh, that's a smell I'm never gonna get used to!" He checks the rear-view mirror just to see Nikki coming from above, where her blast actually shears another whole chunk out of the car from above; a big enough hole that the Relic storage unit in the sideseat can be glimpsed, buckled up safely and securely in a sign of road safety respect. "Hey, the hell kinda chant is that!? If Tokarevs are magical these days, they really don't make those shows like they used to!" Wait a second. That's Touta. Beneath his sunglasses, Good Speed squints right before the abrupt weight starts making the rear of his car sag, metal car against metal hull creating a bright trail of sparks that slows down his acceleration. "Now /that's/ a trick...! You're not gonna be freeloading for long though, kid! Only passengers allowed on board are pretty girls like my friend here!" There's the thud of another pat to his cargo. And once again, that burst of metal-shifting alchemy surges out! And it's surrounding...the car itself!? Massive portions of the entire vehicle, both horribly damaged and still-pristine, all fall away to be left in the dust as the entire thing is steadily reduced down to its framework. Touta is going to find himself at risk of being sent flying as the whole part of the car he's riding on is detached, and plenty of others will find themselves at risk of being bashed by metal sailing back at high speeds.
Hibiki Tachibana	In the moment where Good Speed's car is barely existent, nothing more than a frame, some wheels, an engine, and the seat, he adjusts his glasses and glances Ishirou's way, without any real concern for his current situation. "The ultimate speed, kid. That's what I'm looking for. Life's way too short, even when you're an alchemist, you know? Hell, even when you're immortal. Ten years, a hundred, a million-- all that crap's just a footnote on the cosmic scale of a universe that's gonna end one day. It's all too short to not maximize every single second you got, and I'm always finding new ways to do it." "The boss man, Yliaster? He's doing some crazy shit, and I'm gonna see if I can find the way to do my own crazy shit through that. I already figure you're gonna give me the whole spiel about how he's a crazy asshole, he's doing all sorts of evil junk, and all that. But think about it this way." "If I wasn't playing along with it, I'd have never gotten the chance to race against you guys! Hahahaha! I'm sure not gonna let this be the last one, after how fun this has been already! You're on, girlies! Good Speed never turns down a challenge!" The Ritsuka crew is given one of those two-fingered salutes again. At that point, the car begins /re/forming - alchemy pulling up the bulky metal of the hull it's driving over to reform it piece by piece in record time. Not just in the same design it was before either; adding some creativity to the mix, a roaringly large set of rocket boosters is attached straight to the backside, and two scythe-like blades extend out from either side of the vehicle. Dangerously sharp! And he...slams the brakes(!?) only to break out into a blade-spinning, slashing burnout spin to cut through the ranks of everyone lagging behind him! "Yahoooo~! Heads up, or you'll lose your head!" Not intent on ever slowing down for long though, this is immediately fixed by hammering his shiny new rocket thrusters, achieving a blinding burst of speed back ahead towards the bow of the ship, planning on passing by and cutting apart anyone in /front/ of him while he's at it!
Ishirou	Blades are everywhere! Ishirou is forced to avoid blades, trying to shoot them down as they seem to come from every angle in front of him. Energy bullets rain non-stop, as he tries to avoid those that he can't shoot down. Eventually, only a few managed to get through, cutting around the edges of the armor, but managing to avoid vital systems. Still, it's not insignificant damage. The outer armor is about shot off, and at the rate he's going internal systems are about to start to take losses next. There are redundancies, but it's still internal damage! Just a little more, he thinks, just a little more... 'I already figure you're gonna give me the whole spiel about how he's a crazy asshole, he's doing all sorts of evil junk, and all that.' "No, I wasn't. I was trying to figure out what your deal was. If you were a rebel but forced to deal with how he does things, someone who's lost their ways, or someone complicit in what Yliaster is doing. Thanks for answering for me... but I am not the one who could forgive you or your master." Talks have failed, and he knows that no matter what someone like Good Speed would do anything and everything to achieve their goals. The only reason they are having 'fun' and giving them a shot at winning is for their own satisfaction. No... maybe even deeper than that, to get a feel for their abilities. Ishirou's back manifests a laser, as it comes over his shoulder. It fires a single black shot down, aiming to do more than just minor damage. In fact, what happens next is that every tech signal on the ship gets telemetry data. So do all of the Combaticons. The ship's weapons go off, attempting to bury the Good Speed and his car in ordinance, while giving every bit of telemetry to the Combaticons, allowing them to move in and out of the shots he's firing.
Combaticon	"You should like me!" Blastoff barks at Good Speed as he banks out and away, "I'm the greatest dogfighter on Cybertron!" Coming out of the resultant roll, he acknowledges Arcadia's compliment as well, "Ground vehicles are too slow for my taste." "Stop flirting with the enemy," Onslaught barges into the conversation with Good Speed. Inside his cab, Depthcharge stops repairing Swindle to glance up with a scowl on her face, then returns her attention to the 'bot in front of her. "Brawl. Fire as soon as you've plotted a solution." -Way ahead of you!- Blastoff rolls well out of range of Good Speed's spinning maneuver. Onslaught slams the brakes, screeching all eight rear tires and throwing himself into a side-on-slide, then accelerates away and around the danger zone created by the bladestorm. On top of the airship bridge, Ishirou provides telemetry data at Brawl's request and she responds with no small amount of disbelieving appreciation. When he then provides a targeting laser, the faceless artillery tank on top of the airship bridge tower might as well be grinning. "Oh that's more than enough little buddy. Commencing barrage! Don't bother telling me to stop! I'll decide when I'm done!" The heavy cannon discharges an equally heavy artillery shell downrange, pinpointed on Good Speed's reformatted rocket racer. An enormous metal casing ejects out of the side with a mechanized noise as the weapon reloads; a mere five seconds before it fires again; and again; with just enough time spent reloading for the articulated 'legs' of the platform to absorb the recoil and readjust footing.
Ritsuka Fujimaru	"So that's your angle, hm? Hah! I think I'm starting to like you." "Right? Yliaster's still nuts, but this guy... He knows what he wants. Can't blame him for that." "We can still...! Mm. He's certainly devoted, at least." "Yeah! So let's keep it going, Mister Speed!" Ritsuka and Jeanne are clearly enjoying this whole thing more than Mash is, but even Mash can't help but start finding something to see in Good Speed as the race to the top continues. Rather than worrying about the insanity of the whole thing, she just starts joining Jeanne in alternating between leaping and throwing while Ritsuka even aids in the process by holding her arm or leg out at opportune times to make it easier to get passed around on the way up. When Good Speed starts flying backwards everyone with his car and those crazy blades, though, things start going a bit more off the rails. Jeanne flings Ritsuka out of harm's way just in time before impact, bringing her flag up at the last moment to divert the spinning blades from cutting through her before the rest of the car knocks her right off the ship with collision of metal on thinner metal. Luckily, Mash is on her way up just in time to catch both of them, but that means Good Speed only has one target to aim at rather than splitting between the three of them. They're all still in midair when he's coming back, too, so what's the trio to do?! Mash does what she's best at, of course: Tank the car. Kicking Jeanne and Ritsuka up and off of her briefly, she whirls the shield around to put it right between herself and the car, and herself between the car and her companion with a painful-sounding crunch in the process. "Trying to... Ramp this up for a big finish, huh? Okay! Mash! Jeanne!" "L-little busy, senpai!" "Oh, relax. Now we've finally got a ride!" Seizing the potential opportunity granted by Mash, Jeanne catches Ritsuka in one arm while stabbing her flag forward with the other. She's not aiming for Good Speed, though, as much as she would have wanted to earlier. Instead, she's aiming for the front of the car itself, trying to just ram the glorified spear with the flaming pennant into what she can only assume is near the engine block and not another alchemical nightmare. Jeanne being Jeanne, the part of the spear aimed at the car is going to explode shortly afterwards.
Arcadia	There is little doubt that Arcadia can keep pace with the manic racing of Good Speed. Her attack efforts, however, are putting on less of a showing. The speeding balls of flame just becoming another part of the numerous hazards keeping their opponent on his toes is just another example of it. It's not so much being ineffective as it is they're getting absorbed in everything else being flung to stop the man from escaping with their objective, becoming a part of the chaos. So she's getting a bit frustrated. Less at Good Speed and more at the sheer number of styles and attacks being throwing down and making it hard to stand out. How can she be awed and admired if no one can tell what she's specifically doing?! At least Blast Off responds to her, and it unruffles her feathers a little. She's not entirely unnoticed. Wait did his car just explode -- no, wait, he's ripping it apart and reforming it, flinging shrapnel through the air at high speed while he's pulling some crazy Ship of Theseus madness mid-race. But hundreds and hundreds of projectiles hurtling through the air is nothing she is unfamiliar with, and while it may force others to slow down Arcadia does not. In part as the protective ward in her armor flares up, repelling car bits away from her. Not having to slow down and dodge does allow her to keep pace and even steadily gain on Good Speed even as his car is reforming and engaging some serious boosting power. Though her attention was grabbed by his talk of searching for some serious high velocity thrills. "If speed is what you need, you could just visit The Line," she yells, if only to be heard over his roaring rockets. "It's the way of life there!" Unfortunately pulling up along him and his ride puts her right in the range of those blades, and they're much more dangerous than the reformation shrapnel. There's sparks and a volatile flash as it connects and disables the end of her electrical ward. Which sends Arcadia careening backwards from the force of the blow, bouncing off the ground and spinning erratically, more sparks flying as her body impacts randomly with the hull. Until she finally rights herself and shakes off. Some of the magitek in her biomechanics is still sparkling from damage, but as usual she's not going to worry too much about it right now. Being in pain is a problem for later Arcadia. Aetheral thrusters blaze back to life as she steadies herself and takes back off into the fiasco. But now she's not giving direct chase, at least not visible. Instead Arcadia blazes off at an angle to the ongoing battle race, gaining both momentum and some altitude. It's when she reaches the apex over the fight that Arcadia redeploys her arsenal. Practically her -whole- arsenal. The magitek launchers manifest around her arms as she thrusts them forward. Her wings spread and angle forward at her sides, the ends of the pylons between the energy panels glowing with additional emitters. Plus all her attack bits deploy in a formation around her. Then the air is filled with lasers and bullets and most everything else. Bombs that explode in outward violent air. Electrified bolts that spin off smaller cascades of sparks. Flames that weave through the air, making them harder to predict and dodge amongst the rest. It's sheer saturation of firepower upon Good Speed's position!
Timespace Riders	Zi-O and Woz are persistent high-speed thorns in the driver's side. Metal is sheared off from the car, but both Riders are ready for it, in their own way. Zi-O relies on the tires at his ankles to help him enter a controlled spin, twirling at-speed to evade a rear fender and bending forwards to dip under a hurtling wheel well. His kneepads strike up sparks on the hull of the flying fortress, before his greatsword is used as a lever to pop him up into the air. Red laser bolts from Zi-O's sword pepper the 'roadway' before Speed, as Woz obviates the oncoming obstacles entirely with a rapid-fire series of momentum-conserving smokepuff teleports. Heads up, or you'll lose your head! "Uwoh!!" A spinning scytheblade knocks the speeding Demon King's aim awry, sending a laser harmlessly into the sky, as he makes a lightning-quick tumble to avoid being struck clean in the shoulder by the offending blade. His momentum carries him skidding down the pathway, and he converts his sword back into its melee configuration to plant it heavily into the hull and halt his passage completely. Woz reappears beside his king, iridescent purple scarf blowing dramatically in the wind. "From racing to 'chicken,' huh..." Zi-O's ankle-tires squeal, the temporal reflection of Kamen Rider Drive's engine roaring in anticipation, revving a challenge. "I feel like... my heart is in top gear," says the Demon King, mangling Drive's catchphrase. "Woz! Let's go!" Zi-O mashes his fist against the stop on his Timespace Driver, and Woz briskly opens and closes the side-mounted gate on his Beyondriver. FINISH TIME! BEYOND THE TIME! Zi-O's form shimmers and stutters, vibrating at thousands of times per second, until a second Zi-O splits off from him, rocketing towards the whirling deathtrap that is Good Speed's heavily modified car. Circling counterclockwise to the motorist's spinout, he becomes a red and white blur, hemming in the alchemist. The other Zi-O leaps into the air, extending his leg for a kick. Woz, in turn, darts forward, disappearing in a rapid flicker of his own for a split second, with his spear extended. The duplicate Zi-O forms a barrier, not only for Good Speed, but for his opposite number. The original Zi-O bounces rapidly between his temporal clone and his opponent, battering the whirling deathtrap with a multitude of high-speed ricochet kicks-- SPEED TIME BREAK! Interspersed with numerous afterimages of Woz, speeding in between Zi-O's strikes and Good Speed's deadly spinout to opportunistically slash with his sickle-tipped polearm, each strike causing an aftershock of explosive green energy. SHINOBI EXPLOSION!
Angela	The Mahougents give chase! Nikki squints as she gets a nice look at at the Relic storage unit. They're getting closer, but they just can't make up the distance, hench their reliance on magical girl blasts to do the dirty work and suddenly-- --The dude transforms his car while he's still riding it?! "...Okay that's awesome." Nikki grudgingly admits. Tiphereth groans because she's not a car girl. But Rose is thrilled, "I TOLD YOU it was cool, so you can't keep blasting it like this!" "But," Nikki considers. "Isn't it likely it will just fall apart once we take him out anyway? That's like his power not the car's---" They fly in silnece for a moment. The car slashes out with scythe blades but the OPTIONS barely flit out of the way, with Rose swinging up on top of hers after a couple failed attempts. "Fuck, we can't keep up..." Nikki gets an idea. "Rose, do you trust me?" "I mean... seventy percent?" Nikki nods once and starts to fall behind, positioning herself behind Rose. "Your gear gives you strong resistance to Black Damage right?" Nikki channels her power out, increasingly large hearts appearing before her staff. Rose looks back in horror. "Pardner...whatever you're...No, don't, don't do it, Nikki, I said--OH FUCK!!" Nikki unleashes an Arcana Slave at Rose's back, turning the scarred mahou into a projectile that is flung TOWARDS Good Speed! "Nikki I hate you!!" Rose shouts. Nikki wordlessly salutes. "FUUUUCK!" Rose shouts as she flings herself at Good Speed, intending to come down at him with both hammers. "My friends at the Academy say I'm pretty so I get to board!!" Rose shouts in pain and fury.
Touta Konoe	"Please, this is just the warm-up lap." Damn it, even Touta's getting into this a bit now. Though now he's a bit curious what exactly this relic is. Before he can worry about that though, he's all but given the equivalent of the eject button as he's armor purged from the vehicle. It leaves him stumbling with a bit of road rash to say the least, but nothing that Touta's not use to. Though this was still fine because he still did have something he wanted to try and it seemed like he was going to be getting the opportunity. "Something hot? Cheeky brat... Fine, then!" "Don't be shy damn it, you know I can take anything you can give!" It almost sounded like a challenge as he said it, but well, maybe it was? Regardless Touta prepares as she launches that first spear at him. Or rather, he's been gearing up for it a little while. In the time that the car begins to reassemble, rather than a finish line for this wild racer, he can see what can only be described as black clouds on the horizon, just like he had with Touta previously back in the container room. Only this time it fans out to extend the entirety of the width of the vessel. "Ritsuka, feel free to throw some my way too!!!" It probably didn't make sense at this point Touta had already been long and gone behind Speed, who was only now going to be driving into this 'cloud'. Though, one would hope that when Jeanne's first spear comes his way, they'd realize what he has in mind. That magical spear comes thrown and rather than catching it, the spear simply gets swallowed up into Touta's palm, and from it there's a smirk as he looks back in the distance towards Speed. "Hey Speed, you still got some rain coming in!" As he says the words that very same speed that was launched at Touta can be seen starting to fire out from in front of the racer. It was clear that he was actually just redirecting those attacks. And if Jeanne and Ritsuka decided to keep up the firepower well, what would have been just one spear would start turning into a wall of flaming spears, and Gandr shots to come down on him like the worst kind of downpour.
Hibiki Tachibana	"Hahaha! Sorry to disappoint, kid. I'm not some put-upon sadsack with a tearjerker backstory and a family held hostage. I'm just a guy who's got a goal that I think is worth chasing." Even as Ishirou lines up his marker and his shot - which clips the back of the vehicle, sending the whole thing buckling and planting a gash in its reconstructed frame - he can still /hear/ the smirk in Good Speed's voice. "And the day I ask for forgiveness for doing what I wanna do is the day I stop being Good Speed!" No wonder this guy meshes with Ritsuka - who's got a pretty good plan going, what with Mash on the intercept. There's a deafening collapse of metal on metal as his car's frame loses the war with Mash's shield, and by the time he's shifting his vehicle's momentum to break free of the lock, he's coming away with it with a spear embedded where the engine is. Good Speed sucks in air through his teeth. "Ooh...got me there, hot lady." It explodes an instant later as he pushes past, but a considerable portion of the front has gone and blown up--and the reduction in speed seems to be enough that there's a bead of sweat running down the side of his face even as he chuckles in the face of Arcadia's incoming onslaught. "Ahaha, oh cripes... you couldn't just be fast, you had to have firepower like this, too. Egg on my face!" The booming wash of explosions, shells, lasers, heat and electricity isn't the only thing that shreds away at his ride and nearly blows it off its tires entirely, but Zi-O and Woz coming from alternating angles to cut away even as he tries to slice back, the speeding afterimages and rapid slashes shearing away steel and sending Good Speed's car spiraling out of control. "Not...bad! But not...over yet!" His heavily damaged supercar blitzes out of the Obligatory CGI Explosion, picking up acceleration again--just to be faced with two very big problems. One of them is someone who can actually keep up with him, with Rose's rapidly incoming body visible in the (now cracked) rear view mirror. "Hell...maybe it is, actually. 'Objects in the mirror are closer than they appear' my a--" The other two are Touta and Brawl, who pin him between a rock and a hard place as both the barrage of flaming spears and magical blasts begin ripping and tearing away what remains of his ride, punctuated by the Combaticon's gigantic shells utterly annihilating the surrounding hull and throwing his car into the vehicular equivalent of head-over-heels. A messy and entirely uncontrolled tumble, with only the barest amount of frame left by the time the Agent smashes into Good Speed, and sends both him /and/ the Relic storage unit on a trip out. They all come a stop, skidding to near the very bow of the ship. Finish line.
Hibiki Tachibana	A few moments pass, with Good Speed on the ground, sizzling a little bit from the flaming portion of Arcadia, Jeanne, and Touta's attacks, and bearing some heavy bruising from Rose... before he lets out a heavy groan that transitions into a boisterous laugh, sitting back up and rubbing at his head. "Oof! Whew! Well, hey, I'm not dead! Can't be mad when you pull wild stunts like that to get one over on me, hah!" He sure stumbles more than a little as he gets back to his feet properly, only briefly turning his head to watch what's left of his vehicle sail over the edge of the ship and explode. "...Aaaaaaand there goes that. Man. That one was of my favorites." There's a sting of pain in his voice at that, but he shakes his head and steps on over to where the Relic storage unit had fallen--just to yank it upright and nudge it in Rose's direction, given she's the closest one to him after all that. Kind of impressive he can do that; looking at it now, it's actually even bigger than he is. "Deal's a deal, kiddos! Here, take it. Boss man can't be mad if I said I tried my best and still lost it. Ship's yours, too. Was one of the only ones he was willing to trust with it, which probably says something, huh? Good help's so hard to find these days." Now that it's not buckled up in Good Speed's passenger seat, it's possible to get a better look inside the transparent sections of the capsule-like device--and what little of it can be seen seems to be some kind of sword, entirely bright and brilliant golden lined with gleaming, faintly humming blue. Viviane, who had been mostly silent during all of that, finally breathes out, "...Durandal..." "Dangerous stuff, assuming the boss man ever got it started up. Wouldn't touch it too much anyway. Outside of this thing, anyway. Losin' this plus the ship is gonna set the old timer's plans back a whole lot, buuuuut I'm sure he'll cope one way or another."
Combaticon	As Good Speed's vehicle is piece-by-piece annihilated and sent careening over the side, Blastoff rolls into a dive after it. The car's remains explode. And then Blastoff dumps another pair of missiles into it for good measure before pulling out of the dive and ascending in a graceful arc. From the other direction comes the helicopter. Vortex swings head-on towards the downed race driver as he surrenders, circling him at a cautious distance. Once it's apparent he's actually giving it up, the vehicle closes in and-- with that distinctive sound-- unfolds and shrinks into a humanoid robot wearing the rotors like wings. Vortex drops the last few meters, approaching with heavy steps, "We'll be taking that." A moment later, Onslaught pulls up from the other direction. The driver-side door opens and Swindle is uncerimonously ejected, while Depthcharge exits ordinarily from the passenger side. Only then does he convert, reducing in the process to his robot mode. "Are we letting this organic stay online?" Depthcharge's question is punctuated by her right forearm splitting open. Her hand flips in and, in the same motion, a weapon muzzle flips out. "That's not our call," Onslaught holds out his hand, obstructing his fellow Decepticon's approach with a glance in her direction. After she stands down, his attention shifts the other way towards Swindle as the merchant stands back up, "Status?" "All servos accounted for. More or less. Just scrambled a few circuits." At the far end of the vessel, Brawl has ceased fire, the end of her bombardment cannon smoldering. After a few moments, the Combaticon transforms back into her robot mode. She takes a deep breath, letting out jets of steam from vents on either shoulder, then effortlessly jumps down from the bridge tower.
Arcadia	Hurrah! Mission success! Arcadia lowers herself to the surface of the ship as the shimmer fades from the tron-line conductors in her armor. There's one big reason she keeps that sort of attack for a finale, it really drains a lot out of her systems. But victory is still victory. Especially when Good Speed proves to be a man of his word and hands over the container. Well, slides over. "That -was- some pretty impressive driving." Now that she's not all ruffled over getting ruffled in the mixdown of battle Arcadia can be a little more appreciative of Good Speed's talent. Game recognizes game. Particularly when they're both playing the same sort of game with the high speed high stakes stunt racing.
Angela	Rose says, "Are you still alive?" The alchemist laughs and rubs at his head and Rose is starting to wonder if these are people they even need to be fighting in the first place. "I...suppose he can't... Is your boss...what is he like, really? Why are people like you using the Noise to hurt people? It's...not something you can laugh about." Though the car IS cool. Moral outrage only goes so far. Even villains who send Noise places can have cool cars. Nikki says, "Aw forget it, Rose, Fixers don't need no reason and neither do we. Maybe you've been out of the Lab too long and forgot we're no better." Rose's cheeks flush and she sighs and adds to Good Speed. "You're really casusal about it. I guess he's not the type to get mad?"
Ritsuka Fujimaru	"Heh. And don't you forget it, speedy racer." "So this is what real flirting looks like...!" "I didn't think he'd be her type..." Holding onto Mash for dear life, Ritsuka mostly gets to function as a battery for the pair of armored/'armored' warriors between her and Good Speed's ride, yelping when Mash finally grabs her again and leaps off the vehicle. Jeanne, too, throws herself off Good Speed's wild ride, but not before yanking her flag out to... She just wanted to pose with it while the car's getting shot up. The trio crashes onto the finish line with some distance to spare and some pained groans coming from all three of them after landing at such a high speed. They get up looking like.. Well, like shit, but they do get up and they gather around Good Speed as he hands Rose the storage unit they had been chasing for so long. "Haah... Yeah, that was a good race! Your boss still sucks, though." "I suppose it was more interesting than just a straight battle. Do call again if you get a new one for us to fight over." "Th.. That's okay. I think.. It's okay not to be polite all the time." "It's fine, it's fine! Besides.. Yeah, a setback's good." "Not good enough. We need him to know who did this." "Shouldn't we leave that choice to her...?" Ritsuka's grinning from ear to ear, of course, and she claps a hand on Rose's shoulder reassuringly. That fades far more quickly than expected, though, as she hurries over to some other pile of wreckage as her stomach catches up with her. Jeanne still looks like she's expecting something, but Mash's point about letting Viviane speak up has her actually waiting for once.
Timespace Riders	Zi-O and Woz remove their respective Watches, each Rider's armor disappearing in flashes of pink and green. They keep the belts on--even though the fight is over, this is still unfriendly territory, to put it very mildly. "Thanks for keeping your word," Sougo smiles wanly, as his slightly oversized pastel pink dress shirt flaps against him in the wind. His smile isn't as wide or as unburdened as it would otherwise be, because Rose has a point. Everything isn't forgiven just because Speed kept his word--and Speed isn't the type to be swayed by moral recriminations in the first place. So what gets this behavior to stop? Atop the flying fortress, Sougo Tokiwa flickers briefly. It's more obvious here than it normally is, what with the speed of the vessel--for a split second, his shirt and the hanging end of his web belt (not to be confused with his transformation belt) 'skip'. First--he turns his head towards Depthcharge, and gently shakes 'no.' Then his attention returns to Speed. "You're not really happy here anymore, are you? At first, things were great. You were glad to help Yliaster chase his dream, because you thought he might actually reach it--and because if he did, then you'd have more of your own time to live life to its fullest." "But," says Sougo, hands hanging limply at his side as his auburn hair blows in the wind. "He's not the same person he was. He's gotten... boring, in a way." Sougo pauses, thoughtfully frowning. "In wanting to give people opportunities, and chances, he's become blind to all the ones he's taken. And you only have to look at what's happened in Europe to see it--you've lived long enough to know that crime, corruption and instability make things less exciting, not more, because they always create the same kind of people." "If you weren't hovering your hand on the emergency brake, you wouldn't be so carefree about all of this." He won't care about 'making anything right' or 'making amends.' But maybe he can be tricked into it anyway--with the right carrot. Sougo reaches into the pocket of his khaki pants and procures a business card for a contact in the Concord. "You and I both know that intentions don't matter at all. Yliaster's legacy is an eyesore and an embarrassment, at this point. That's why... I'm giving you the chance to join a team with a winning record, that keeps things interesting. Think about it."
Hibiki Tachibana	"Man, you guys are a real riot," Good Speed comments without hiding the cheekiness at all, as Depthcharge casually preps to off him if necessary. He doesn't seem too stressed, but Onslaught does get a thumbs up when he steps in. "I'm still expecting to get an invite to that race next time it comes up, yeah? Ten 'solar cycles' is a hell of an annoying wait, though." Arcadia gets not one, but /two/ thumbs up. "And that was some crazy impressive flying! Me, I prefer my wheels on the ground, but can't write off the results. Wild that you can dart around like that while packing so much heat, though. Like, sheesh! I'll need to be ready for next time." Next time? Rose gets--actually, a bit more of a serious tone out of him, though. Maybe the only thing resembling one he's had all day. "People hurt other people to reach their own personal goal line all the time. That's the way it is on this bitch of an earth, and that doesn't change whether you're an average joe or an alchemist in some shady organization in stupid-looking robes. Something sucks that much, sometimes the only thing you /can/ do is laugh it off and keep trucking forward. These 'Fixers' of yours probably got the right of it." "Boss man? Yeah, he kinda sucks more than he used to." Good Speed jabs a thumb in Ritsuka's direction with a nod. "Ain't no telling if he's gonna be furious or drop one of those ominous 'this won't be anything to be concerned about for long...' kinda lines," he puts on a deeper voice for the impersonation. "But I'll be fine either way. Guy's got a hell of a plan and a vision, buuuuut not sure I'd call it a clear one..." He trails off, just to stop and look to Sougo--first with a raised eyebrow, and then an inscrutable expression behind those pitch black sunglasses. His head dips down to look towards the business card being offered, and uncharacteristically for someone doing everything fast, he pauses. And then Good Speed breaks out into that booming laughter again, practically snatching (positive) the card right out of the Kamen Rider's grip. "Hah! You're a weird one, aren'tcha? Read my mind for that one? My heart? Maybe my past? Ah, it doesn't matter all that much. Maybe you got a point. Compared to what the boss man's been getting up to these days, what's been going on, racing along with you guys was like a breath of fresh air. It felt good. Can't say I care all that much about being on the winning team, per se..." "...But maybe our tracks aren't that far apart. Know what? Think I just might stay in touch. Feel free to gimme a ring anytime. I'll make sure the Concord has my number."
Hibiki Tachibana	Unless anyone has any particular desire to stop him at this stage of things, it's at that point Good Speed steps away to the very bow of the ship. He takes an overly long inhale of some of that mile-high air, then half-turns to the Elites and gives them a two-fingered salute. "S'been fun! Let's do it again on different terms sometime, kiddos! Good Speed to the whole bunch of you!" He jumps, and plummets like a rock. It'd be easy to assume the worst, but a lean over the edge will show that he's yoinking a bit of the hull with him on the way down--so he'll probably be just fine. Time for a new ride. "...What an extremely strange man," Viviane comments, after a delay. "But perhaps, not a wholly bad one. I felt...maybe some similarities. You all have an odd way of winning people over. This is also something I noticed even in my studies of Multiversal Elites prior to all of this." There's the sound of her exhaling over the radio. "I think...he will receive the message to a satisfactory level either way, Miss Jeanne, Miss Kyrielight. I am content with this. You have disarmed the vessel mostly intact, which I am sure will be considerably helpful to Mister Ogawa's attempts to mobilize the United Nations. And...you have safely retrieved Durandal, as well. I will be happy to relay the details later, but for now..." "That is one crucial part of his plan now out of his hands. Thank you all. I cannot state so enough."