2020-12-05: Bringing Down the System

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<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.

    In the days following the escape from the Via Purifico, various drifters receive a message from Ida Everstead-Rey from the Sphere points that dot Spira. "Rin's Travel Agency, Lake Macalania. Let's meet and decide how we're going to pay Yevon back."

    A date and time follow, and that date and time have come now. With the temple destroyed, this building is the only sanctuary for miles around, and it's controlled by an Al Bhed entrepeneur. As such it feels relatively safe from the eyes of Yevon.

     In the back, there's a small conference room that's lightly furnished with cushioned but metallic chairs, and a functional table in the center.

     Heading the meeting is Ida, who is dressed in an Al Bhed diving suit, the goggles hanging down from her neck. Her brown hair is pulled back into a bun that juts out from the headgear that she's wearing. She wouldn't fool any actual Al Bhed, but that is hardly her intent. She stands there holding a sphere recording device, attached to a blank sphere.

     "Lovely. You're all here. Well, let's get down to it. Yevon bloodied our noses, but we survived. And not only did we survive but we escaped with all kinds of juicy, compromising intelligence on its leadership."

     The smile she offers is almost wolfish.

     "I propose that we bring it all down. The whole system. In front of their own people. In a single beautiful masterstroke that doesn't rely on all-out assault, but rather subterfuge."

     Sweeping her hand out, she points at a map on the table, Bevelle while putting the sphere she'd been playing with in her hands on the table. "And all it will take is a single summoner, and a sphere to record the event."

     That smile becomes crooked, "You understand what I'm suggesting right? We're going to get rid of Grand Maester Mika and send the evidence to every corner of Spira."

<Pose Tracker> Zed has posed.

There's someone here who may or may not belong in a place crawling with Al Bhed. If they knew what he was, what he *really* was, he might... Be used as some kind of model for a cool new series of Machina? Maybe this is how we get Mass Produced Zedder Robos, a bunch of Al Bhed getting bored and also really into the best kind of robot imaginable.

(Super. Super Robots are the best kind.)

But the real reason he might not belong is a simple one indeed. He is SUPER biased. Zed, Metal Demon, is the most biased person in this room at the moment, because he has a bone and a half to pick with the entire Yevonite faith. "Yeah!" Zed cheers, totally not helping the situation, "Let's kill that zombie double-dead and show him what happens to anyone who messes around with Lombardia! Nahahahahaha~"

Vengeance! Vengeance shall be had. Vengeance for Lombardia, even if it might take burning down an entire religion to accomplish...!

<Pose Tracker> Zhang Xiumei has posed.

Xiumei is a little surprised that Ida reached out to her about this particular topic -- all told, leaving aside Marivel's personal agenda, she has no particular desire for action against Yevon except to preserve the lives of fellow members of ARMS. Nonetheless, when a colleague calls, you come to answer.

She shows up, wearing her usual garb: a button-up shirt, vest, ribbon, and a skirt. She tends to dress in business casual unless she is in a situation that expects danger. She never took to Al Bhed fashion; a bracelet dangles from her wrist, two gems on it glowing white and green.

Her eyes blink once, as she sits up straighter in her chair. Her eyes dart to the woman she came with -- Eleanor Klein, of course -- and then back at Ida. She is silent a moment longer.

"Ah, I'm afraid... I don't think that line of thinking is terribly wise or filled with foresight, Miss Everstead-Rey. I know that Miss Marivel has a personal grudge against the Yevonites, and that they've made their intentions clear, but..." She smiles, then shakes her head.

"That seems more likely to cause chaos," she concludes, "than be effective. And it's overstepping our boundaries, besides, as members of ARMS."

<Pose Tracker> Eleanor Klein has posed.

Paying Yevon back? Eleanor Klein is willing to listen. In Macalania, though, it's not just Yevon that concerns her. She knows full well the Guard too has a presence here. But they can be avoided, and Eleanor has made her way here to the travel center. She is dressed in light colors, fur-lined coat and dress against the cold here that's been spreading from the Lake. And here and now...

Survive they did. Eleanor listens, her yellow eyes on Ida as she indicates her plan, and looks down to the map--Bevelle. A single summoner, a sphere...

She looks at Xiumei, and back to Ida again. "My main question is what would make this plan work better than when Summoner Yuna attempted essentially the same thing? She was going to Send Maester Seymour--and Mika intervened, from what I'm told."

"...Even if it did work, it would throw Yevon into chaos, and essentially hand the victory to the Guard. I understand the impulse to strike back, but..."

She shakes her head. "It seems very risky, at best."

<Pose Tracker> Avril Vent Fleur has posed.

    The message had come rather suddenly. Avril, after conferring with her friends, had opted to come out here with Dean -- taking care to ensure that they were not trailed. After all, the message had come from Ida. But...

    She's dressed more for the weather in these parts: heavier layering in the local styles, her hair wound into a loose bun at the nape of her neck. She looks like she's spent some time on foot until recently, her face bearing some measure of weariness. But her blue eyes are still intent upon Ida as she speaks, explains what she intends, explains...

    Avril visibly hesitates, glancing over at Dean the once. The uncertainity remains in her expression still when she looks back at Ida.

    "What Yevon has done cannot be easily forgiven, that is true, and it is also true that we possess a opportunity of a sort," Avril says, after that long moment of silence that follows, "However. We must be careful. If we intend to strike at the leadership of Yevon, we must be prepared for what may come. As Eleanor says, we risk handing victory to Althena's Guard. With our current numbers, I do not think we would be capable of handling an army."

    Avril frowns, as if mulling this whole matter over. "Moreover... in what way will we send a summoner into their midst? Have we a summoner who would agree to this plan? ...I do not believe that Yuna's Guardians would permit her placed in harms way once again."

<Pose Tracker> Dean Stark has posed.

    Like Avril, Dean's dressed warmly, with a furred coat, thick boots, and woolen mittens. His usual scarf is on in the usual way, at least. He considers Ida a close friend and trusts her wisdom, so when she asked him and Avril to show up for a conference meeting about how to make Yevon not hurt anyone else again, of course he showed up.
    
    When it turns out to be more about getting revenge, he still listened, even though he is literally the opposite of Zed in this scenario and the least revenge-motivated person possible, no matter how outraged he also is about what Yevon did to both Lombardia and his friends. (Not that Lombardia isn't or couldn't be his friend, but they only met the once, really. Next time around, they can solidify their friendship, or not.) When Ida explains her intent, he listens. But when she's done...
    
    He shares that hesitant glance with Avril.
    
    The room immediately divides: Ida and Zed on one side, Xiumei and Eleanor on the other. Avril talks things through reasonably, pointing out an issue with a plan and what they would have to do to overcome it and make it all work, implying she's willing to help if they can overcome these logistical problems. Dean has something simpler in mind.
    
    "Ida," he asks, "have you talked to Boudicca about this?"

<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.

    Ida seems to sport a grin at Zed's enthusiasm. "Absolutely. We can't forget about avenging poor Lombardia. That would be quite cruel of us given the circumstances of her imprisonment."

    When Xiumei voices her objections though, Ida holds up a hand, not to silence them. "I understand your misgivings. After all, we're talking about a political assassination, but we must remember, this is not a living person. Instead, it is a twisted shade seeking to hold onto power at all costs, and sending it to where it belongs as an act of mercy. I feel that by such logic it is within ARMS' mandate."

    Before then shifting her gaze to Eleanor, "Your analysis is spot on, as expected. However, Yevon was prepared for us on that day. The wedding was at least in part staged to force our hands. Now, they know not where our retaliation is coming from, and when. As for handing the war to the Guard."

    Her hand rubs her chin as if in thought, "That is accurate, I feel. Yevon will have no choice but to sue for peace, but it will disrupt whatever Maester Seymour is plotting. Whatever terms of armistice Althena's Guard might set cannot possibly be more dire than that."

    Her blue-grey eyes come to a rest upon Avril as she speaks, waiting until she's finished before responding, "We need not tackle Yevon head-on. I'm certain there are simpler infiltration plans we could implement. As for whether Summoner Yuna's Guardians will allow her to participate, perhaps not. However, I believe that any Summoner would consider it their duty to send any impure ghosts. Whether her Guardians would allow it or not, she will certainly feel it is her responsibility."

     And then last of all, Dean. Ida gives Dean a long look, as if assessing the uncertainty on his expression, "Of course. She has signed off on this. She understands that we must be willing to make some difficult decisions in the coming days."

<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.

    The door swings open one final time, and Ida Everstead-Rey walks into the room. She's dressed for the chillier Macalania weather--her traveling boots are sorcerously comfortable regardless of temperature, and she's picked up a colorful woolen poncho from the Agency's shop. Beneath, she wears a pair of cream-colored slacks, and a golden silk blouse.

    Protocol takes over. "Eleanor?" she says, picking her comrade's face out of the crowd and offering an apologetic smile. "I'm sorry I'm late, I--" A chill runs down her spine. Her gaze falls upon the face at the head of the table, her expression flashing through shock, horror, and anger in quick succession. In the next heartbeat, she steps into an open-handed fighting stance.

    "Who in the bloody hell are you?!" she demands of the person wearing her face.

<Pose Tracker> Asgard has posed.


BGM Change: That Dramatic Fight Theme from Attack on Titan - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TQUsnto_3pw

In response to the entrance of Ida, and her question, 'Ida' looks her way, and smiles in a way that feels almost unnaturally smug. "Ah. Marvelous." 'Ida' clicks a button on the edge of the Sphere Recorder's ring, and shuts it off. "If nothing else, your timing is superb."

There's a flash of white light, and a figure steps out of an Al Bhed Girl's body - that body's hair becoming blonde, her build becoming more slight, and her eyes becoming green with dark swirls. The Victim's body collapses to the floor into a heap. While the woman in flowing clothing, and violet hair - known only as Melody to some - stands in the middle of the room with a sense of delighted menace, "Asgard. End this farce."

The wall suddenly buckles inward, exploding into a shower of shrapnel as a blue wave of force smashes across the room into everyone present. Rubble rains down around the room like hailstones.

And two red eyes appear in the crevice he left, belonging to the massive golem whose fist is outstretched. Peeling back part of the wall as he might a can, the Golem slams a massive foot down inside. Melody is sheathed in a blue energy which seems to render her immune to decimation in the immediate area. "Subdue those on your priority target list. Kill anyone else."

"ROGER." The Golem answers synthetically, and perhaps surprisingly to those in the room, as his other foot stamps down inside. "EXECUTING."

GS: Asgard has attacked Zhang Xiumei with Barrier Knuckle!
GS: Asgard has attacked Dean Stark with Barrier Knuckle!
GS: Asgard has attacked Avril Vent Fleur with Barrier Knuckle!
GS: Asgard has attacked Zed with Barrier Knuckle!
GS: Asgard has attacked Ida Everstead-Rey with Barrier Knuckle!
GS: Asgard has attacked Eleanor Klein with Barrier Knuckle!
GS: Asgard has completed his action.
GS: Dean Stark guards a hit from Asgard's Barrier Knuckle for 74 hit points!
GS: Dean Stark activates Countermeasures!
GS: Ida Everstead-Rey guards a hit from Asgard's Barrier Knuckle for 62 hit points!
GS: Avril Vent Fleur takes a solid hit from Asgard's Barrier Knuckle for 104 hit points!
GS: Eleanor Klein takes a glancing hit from Asgard's Barrier Knuckle for 51 hit points!
GS: Eleanor Klein activates Countermeasures!
GS: CRITICAL! Zhang Xiumei takes a glancing hit from Asgard's Barrier Knuckle for 65 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Zhang Xiumei gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Zhang Xiumei enters CONDITION GREEN!!
GS: Zed fully evades Asgard's Barrier Knuckle for 0 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Zhang Xiumei has posed.

"Yes, but, we have higher priorities than Yevon. We should be focused on Vinsfeld Rhadamanthus--and, I think, on Solaris and other presences," Xiumei says. "I don't see much benefit than sewing chaos, and without a clear aim as to why to cause that chaos." She sighs, and then she pushes her glasses upward. She glances across the table -- at Avril, then Dean. She isn't all that familiar with Boudicca.

She frowns a little, thoughtfully. And then her eyes widen behind her glasses, as the door swings open; she sees, at one end, Ida Everstead-Rey. At the other end of the room, Ida Everstead-Rey.

"Um?" Xiumei says.

She squints, eyes narrowing, at the one they found first. She sees something step out of the Al Bhed girl, and the illusion vanishes. A woman in white, with violet hair appears, and her eyes widen.

They flash with a brilliant green light, as her Armor activates. Her clothing is replaced in a flash; black armored body suit and armor, colored white and green. Her purple hair flutters out, then. And she looks at the wall as it breaks inward, rocks flying by her face. "Eleanor!" she cries out. "Get down!"

She leaps. She jumps over a larger junk of rock, and then a piece of shrapnel catches her cheek. Her eyes flash with alarm, as she runs up a rapidly-shattering table. "You--you can talk!" she calls to Asgard. "Who... who are you!?"

She leaps off the table, as a chunk of rock smashes it. It cracks apart, as she leaps up. Her Pulse Saber forms -- fingers wrap about its hilt -- and she swings the energy blade down, in a broad arc across the front of the mysterious Golem. "Varius and Avile... they say they know you!"

GS: Zhang Xiumei has attacked Asgard with Pulse Saber - Jump Slash!
GS: Zhang Xiumei has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Zhang Xiumei has completed her action.
GS: Asgard guards a hit from Zhang Xiumei's Pulse Saber - Jump Slash for 88 hit points!
GS: Asgard activates Countermeasures!
<Pose Tracker> Eleanor Klein has posed.

Eleanor frowns sharply as Ida continues.

"We will NOT simply use Yuna in this way!" Eleanor says, standing up from her seat in outrage. "Ida, this isn't like you--"

It becomes clear why it isn't like her in a moment--Moreso as she mentions Boudicca agreeing to something unlikely. But even most because... "Ida!?"

"Damn," Eleanor swears, turning around to look at the other Ida. A flash of white light comes...

"You!" Eleanor calls of Melody, and abrubtly finds herself dealing with the barrier. Throwing up the chair she'd just been sitting in as a shield, Eleanor drops down at Xiumei's warning, thus able to parry the worst of the damage, landing in a crouch some distance away.

"ARMS!" Eleanor calls. "We can do this!"

The Crest Sorceress scowls at Melody as she pulls something from her coat--a flute of all things, that she brings up to her lips. "I'll be handling support," she tells the others, and breathes--beginning to play. The melody is strange and haunting, a bizarre quality to the bronzeish instrument that fortifies in its lilting tones.

She keeps up the melody hopefully long enough for its effects to sink in...

GS: Eleanor Klein has attacked Eleanor Klein with Shielding Melody!
GS: Eleanor Klein has attacked Zhang Xiumei with Shielding Melody!
GS: Eleanor Klein has attacked Dean Stark with Shielding Melody!
GS: Eleanor Klein has attacked Ida Everstead-Rey with Shielding Melody!
GS: Eleanor Klein has attacked Avril Vent Fleur with Shielding Melody!
GS: Eleanor Klein has attacked Zed with Shielding Melody!
GS: Eleanor Klein has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Eleanor Klein has completed her action.
GS: Eleanor Klein heals Zhang Xiumei! She gains 210 temporary hit points!
GS: Pray grants a random effect! Surge applied to Zhang Xiumei!
GS: Eleanor Klein heals Eleanor Klein! She gains 210 temporary hit points!
GS: Pray grants a random effect! Hyper applied to Eleanor Klein!
GS: Eleanor Klein heals Ida Everstead-Rey! She gains 210 temporary hit points!
GS: Pray grants a random effect! Lock State applied to Ida Everstead-Rey!
GS: Eleanor Klein heals Zed! He gains 210 temporary hit points!
GS: Pray grants a random effect! Burst applied to Zed!
<Pose Tracker> Zed has posed.

"Ida--" Zed starts, when there is suddenly two of her. Ida and IIda, if you will. "You... you have a twin!? Oh no. Is this one of those situations when one of you is an EVIL TWIN!? But wait, which one... is the evil o-oh nevermind." That Woman makes the choice for him. Zed looks almost... disappointed(??) when Melody drops the charade. "You know," he says with more pain in his voice than there really should be, given the circumstances, "Usually you need to pay at least some lip-service to the evil twin trick. Like... You gotta play it up a little, you know? 'No, she's the evil twin, fight her instead!!' Or something. Ah, well..."

A wall explodes nearby, as if to punctuate Zed's somewhat deflated mood. But then...

Then something (someone?) shows up and immediately bolsters his flagging spirits again. That silhouette standing amidst the roiling rubble, that incredibly fashionable longcoat, it can only be...!

"Asgard!?" Zed chirps with glee as a shockwave of pure force ripples towards him. Zed's blade comes loose from its sheath at speeds almost untracable to the human eye. A trail of glimmering starfire leaps and coils out in its wake as Doom Bringer slams into the blast. For a moment, force field and cursed sword battle for supremacy, before Zed neatly parries under the blast and darts forward to cleave his starlight-swathed sword into the golem's torso! "Oh my gosh! You... You can talk!? That's amazing! Ahahahaha!"

A flute plays in the background. Zed finds himself swept along in the (perhaps somewhat ominous) tune. This may not necessarily be his kind of jam, but background music is always important in fights like these.

GS: Zed has attacked Asgard with Saint Arts - Starstrider's Valor!
GS: Zed has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Zed assumes the Avenger stance!
GS: Zed has completed his action.
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.

    Ida's eyes go almost perfectly round. Her mouth moves, but for a moment, no words come out--at least, not until Melody steps out of her victim's body, leaving her to crumple on the ground. "Eleanor, the hostage!" she shouts, turning to the younger elf. The memory of Harmaus' crimes is fresh in her mind, and knowingly or not, Melody just hearkened back to it.

    The wall explodes. Ida stands her ground, raising both arms to shield her head. Reddish-silver fluid erupts from her pores, building itself into metallic fractals, then proper Hyadean exoskeleton. Chunks of wood and plaster slam into Ida's arms. A fist-sized lump of stone glances off her side, and he lets out a sharp, pained hiss of breath.

    As the dust clears, that woman--Melody--stands ensconced within Asgard's shield. In the time Ida spent blinking, one of her eyes turned from blue-grey to green. Fafnir stirs in the back of her mind.

5tthe prototype? why is it--

    "It speaks," Ida whispers. But her gaze quickly turns back to the woman who impersonated her, and her lips twist in a snarl. "Where's your dog, Melody? Did he slip his leash again?" In a sharp contrast to her anger, her movements become slow, subdued, almost languid. She allows the overwhelming force of Asgard's barrier to pitch her back, rolling forwards again as it snaps back into position.

    Ida steps towards Asgard, and starts circling him. Her hands weave through a series of strikes--fingertip jabs, open-palm blows, and similar.

    "It--" Ida pauses, corrects. "He--is not yours to claim!"

GS: Asgard fully evades Zed's Saint Arts - Starstrider's Valor for 0 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Asgard gains 1 additional Combo!
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.

    Ida's eyes go almost perfectly round. Her mouth moves, but for a moment, no words come out--at least, not until Melody steps out of her victim's body, leaving her to crumple on the ground. "Eleanor, the hostage!" she shouts, turning to the younger elf. The memory of Harmaus' crimes is fresh in her mind, and knowingly or not, Melody just hearkened back to it.

    The wall explodes. Ida stands her ground, raising both arms to shield her head. Reddish-silver fluid erupts from her pores, building itself into metallic fractals, then proper Hyadean exoskeleton. Chunks of wood and plaster slam into Ida's arms. A fist-sized lump of stone glances off her side, and he lets out a sharp, pained hiss of breath.

    As the dust clears, that woman--Melody--stands ensconced within Asgard's shield. In the time Ida spent blinking, one of her eyes turned from blue-grey to green. Fafnir stirs in the back of her mind.

    the prototype? why is it--

    "It speaks," Ida whispers. But her gaze quickly turns back to the woman who impersonated her, and her lips twist in a snarl. "Where's your dog, Melody? Did he slip his leash again?" In a sharp contrast to her anger, her movements become slow, subdued, almost languid. She allows the overwhelming force of Asgard's barrier to pitch her back, rolling forwards again as it snaps back into position.

    Ida steps towards Asgard, and starts circling him. Her hands weave through a series of strikes--fingertip jabs, open-palm blows, and similar.

    "It--" Ida pauses, corrects. "He--is not yours to claim!"

GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has attacked Asgard with Ripple Becomes Wave!
GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has gained 2 Combo!
GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has completed her action.
GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has canceled their attack on Asgard.
GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has attacked Asgard with Water Dragon Form - Wave and Ripple Stance!
GS: Ida Everstead-Rey assumes the Stoic stance!
GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Dean Stark has posed.

    Ida addresses everyone's responses in turn. Dean's uncertainty doesn't budget when she responds. He trusts Ida, and he trusts Boudicca, but... He shakes his head slowly. "Ida, I don't think this is right," he says. "I get why you're angry at Yevon, and it's true the stuff they've done is horrible. But this isn't about saving or helping anyone. It's just... And I know Mika isn't actually *alive*, but..." He squirms in his seat, openly uncomfortable. "It feels like this is just about hurting people for the sake of hurting them. That's not like you, Ida. It's not like the person you are now." Though reluctantly, he raises his chin to look her in the eye. "If you say Boudicca signed off on this, I think maybe it's because she misunderstood what you had in mind. We should get in touch with her and talk it over again."
    
    Then the *real* Ida walks in and totally ruins Dean's heartfelt speech and his struggle to stand up for what he believes is right, even against someone he trusts and cares about. He gawks at her, jaw dropping, and then stares back at the fake Ida when the real Ida asks her who the hell she is. He jumps up to his feet.
    
    "I *knew* it! I *knew* something was wrong!" he declares, all but steaming with--of all things--relief. (He really doesn't like having to tell his friends they're wrong.) "Who are you?! And who--"
    
    Asgard happens. Dean hasn't met Asgard before, now, so the fact that he can talk isn't what draws the gasp out of him. It is, of course, the sheer fact that he is here at all.
    
    "OH MY GOSH IT'S A GOLEM!!!!" he squeals, blue eyes sparkling with all the stars in the sky. He jumps up and down with open, childish glee. "AAAAAAAAAHHHHHH THIS IS SO COOOOOOOL!!!!"
    
    Then Asgard punches him and everyone else across the room. It's fine, really.
    
    Struggling to get back up to his feet, Dean looks bewildered. "W-wait, why're you attacking us? Are you with the bad guys?? Do we have to fight you???" His expression changes to what can simply be described as 'utter devastation,' which only grows more distressed as everyone *else*, reasonably and sensibly, returns fire. "Noooooo!!! This can't be happening!!"
    
    It... it's fine. Really.

GS: Asgard critically guards Ida Everstead-Rey's Water Dragon Form - Wave and Ripple Stance for 16 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Asgard gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Eleanor Klein heals Avril Vent Fleur! She gains 210 temporary hit points!
GS: Pray grants a random effect! Surge applied to Avril Vent Fleur!
<Pose Tracker> Avril Vent Fleur has posed.

    The frown she wears has hardly diminished, and she glances among the others, as if to seek an answer in their eyes. Then her attention returns to Ida. "I cannot forget what had occured in Luca, Ida. If this is the means by which we prevent the Maester's plot, then so be it... but we must be prepared to delay what is surely to come at the hands of Althena's Guard."

    But it's Ida's reply about the Summoners that gives her pause. "Any Summoner..." Avril echoes, furrowing her brow. "...Even if they were to face their own superiors? What's more, for Yuna to attempt such a thing, again--"

    At this moment the doors swing open. Avril turns her head to gaze at--

    Ida. She looks between the two of the young noblewomen, astonishment etched on her features. "Ida?"

    Which is then the moment that someone steps out of Ida--no, that Al Bhed girl's body. Someone who Avril has seen before. "You are--" she utters, rising to her feet at such speed that she knocks over her chair; it clatters on the floor behind her. It may be drowned by the cacophany that follows. The wave of force simply knocks her right off her feet; she lands among the rubble in an awkward sprawl.

    Her gaze settles on Asgard, amidst the tumult in the room. "You are..." she repeats, Absolute Zero in her grasp as she rises. The blade appears in a blink. "...you speak?"

    The melody reaches her ears; she straightens. "So be it," she finishes, and catapults herself at the Golem in a run. Propelling herself upwards in a leap, she brings down her unbreakable blade upon the Golem from above.

    And only once she lands realizes that Dean is in distress. "Dean! This one is our enemy!" Any further explanation may ned to wait for the moment in which she is out of immediate punching range of Asgard, though.

GS: Avril Vent Fleur has attacked Asgard with Seraphic Soul!
GS: Avril Vent Fleur has completed her action.
GS: Asgard takes a glancing hit from Avril Vent Fleur's Seraphic Soul for 63 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Asgard gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Delay applied to Asgard!
GS: Asgard activates Evade bonus!
<Pose Tracker> Asgard has posed.


"What kind of nonsense are you babbling about?" Melody frowns deeply at Zed, "I had no intention of spending one second longer in that girl's form than was necessary."

Asgard's fist comes up as Xiumei leaps off the table at him. The blue glow on the back of his fist shimmering as the pulse saber makes contact with an energy field mere centimeters before actually reaching metallic skin and emitter. "DESIGNATE VARIUS, AVILE. WORKING. CROSS-REFERENCING DATABANKS." There's a brief flash in his eyes as she drives the Pulse Saber further and further into his barrier. And it would be easier to mistake it for sudden enlightenment.

Unfortunately... "DESIGNATES UNKNOWN."

Despite it coming up short though, that is not to say there is no reaction. "I... AM... ASGARD." There is a strangeness in those three words. That sounds less mechanical than before, halting. Both certainty and uncertainty. And that is when his opposite fist rockets out to try and slam into Xiumei's gut.

Asgard's eyes start to glow in a strange color, as if he were trying to sense some odd energy spectrum to her Melody as Eleanor's Crest Magic takes hold. And then he takes a wider stance. When gleefully laughs and charges him. Asgard suddenly reacts with incredible speed, like a switch is flipped. "I..." His fist reacts with a barrier-enforced counterforce that simply knocks Zed's blade away mid-swing. "...CAN COMMUNICATE."

Then a moment later, seems to add, "CAN FIGHT."

"Pronouns now is it? Marvelous." Melody says with a single hand to her chin, before her eyes flick over to Ida. "A hound is only as useful as its ability to function off its leash my dear. I would have thought you'd have known that."

Ida comes in, and the Golem's stance widens, as he uses his other hand to suddenly fend off her palm strikes. Batting them away faster and faster each time. "And it is far too late to object to that, wouldn't you say? The fact of the matter is - he is ours."

Dean's enthusiasm though draws the Golem's eye as he's fending off both Zed and Ida. And there's a strangeness to it. "CURRENT OUTDOOR ATMOSPHERIC TEMPERATURE TWO DEGREES. WIND CHILL NEGATIVE TEN." It might be hard to note why he's citing those numbers, until one realizes.

He's explaining why he's cool or why the room is cool at least. He just came in from the outdoors.

He does ask a question though, "I... MUST OBEY, DESIGNATE: MELODY. MY... MASTER." Avril though labels it more succinctly, as the Golem swings high with a certain suddenness to parry. The impact of his sword of his barrier causing him to actually stagger momentarily, "I AM... YOUR ENEMY." He confirms.

And that is when he acts. Or rather reacts, as he deflects Ida's next palm strike, his hand scythes in for one of his own to her abdomen in a devastating blow that might lift her off the ground. Whatever switch was flipped in him causes him to suddenly blur in a quick turn and charge towards Zed, driving in his trenchcoated Elbow right into his rib cage. The moment the blow strikes though he continues to run with hellish momentum in an attempt to keep him aerial and drive him like a battering ram into Avril. En route... towards...

... Eleanor. The mechanical roar of his joints as he swings out his elbow and rockets both of them towards her with devastating force enough to shatter the floor in an attempt to end that 'melody'.

In the wake of that attack, he turns towards Dean. One footstep after another towards him. There's a strangeness towards his eyes, a flickering like he's referencing and cross referencing Avril's identification of him as Dean. To...

"I... CAN NOT... GIVE UP."

... what she stated on the Warwing Varukias. If one can do anything so long as one does not give up. Then what can an immortal, tireless golem do?

GS: Asgard has attacked Zhang Xiumei with Iron Fist!
GS: Asgard has activated a Force Action!
GS: Asgard has attacked Zed with Iron Sentinel!
GS: Asgard enters a Counter stance!
GS: Asgard has attacked Avril Vent Fleur with Iron Sentinel!
GS: Asgard enters a Counter stance!
GS: Asgard has attacked Eleanor Klein with Iron Sentinel!
GS: Asgard enters a Counter stance!
GS: Asgard has attacked Ida Everstead-Rey with Iron Sentinel!
GS: Asgard enters a Counter stance!
GS: Asgard has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Asgard's  stance ends. He enters the  stance!
GS: Delay expired!
GS: Asgard has completed his action.
GS: Delay! Attack weakened!
GS: Zed takes a glancing hit from Asgard's Iron Sentinel for 114 hit points!
GS: Delay! Attack weakened!
GS: Zhang Xiumei fully evades Asgard's Iron Fist for 0 hit points!
GS: Zhang Xiumei activates Evade bonus!
GS: Delay! Attack weakened!
GS: Ida Everstead-Rey fully evades Asgard's Iron Sentinel for 0 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Ida Everstead-Rey gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Ida Everstead-Rey activates Evade bonus and Power Burst!
GS: Delay! Attack weakened!
GS: Eleanor Klein takes a solid hit from Asgard's Iron Sentinel for 206 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Eleanor Klein gains 1 additional Combo!
<Pose Tracker> Zhang Xiumei has posed.

Xiumei nods to Nora -- a breath caught in her throat, as the strange melody instills some power and confidence into her that wasn't there a moment before. She needs it, as she rushes straight to Asgard.

The Pulse Saber collides into it, energy fields striking, and then lightning arcs between the clashing energy fields. "So... you do know your name--"

She leaps. His fist flies and Xiumei jumps backward. She slams down on the floor in a three-point stance. Then, she looks back up.

She only manages a glance at Ida and Zed. Enough to know where they are; enough to take stock of their surprise, too. She looks ahead, expression flat and determined. Her eyes, free of her glasses, narrow at Asgard--

'OH MY GOSH IT'S A GOLEM!!!!'

"M-Mister Stark!" she says in a half-whine. "You--you... maybe you should focus on the situation at hand! He is not terribly friendly to us at the moment."

Avril, thankfully, also suggests this to him.

"Do you remember?" she calls back to Asgard. "They said... they said they fought with you!"

She holds her hand out. The beam saber vanishes; instead, the short handcannon appears, and she turns it on Asgard, taking aim. A trio of green energy bolts explodes off from the barrel with a single pull of the trigger.

GS: Zhang Xiumei has attacked Asgard with Pulse Cannon - Triple Burst!
GS: Zhang Xiumei has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Zhang Xiumei has completed her action.
GS: Asgard takes a solid hit from Zhang Xiumei's Pulse Cannon - Triple Burst for 140 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Asgard gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Mighty applied to Zhang Xiumei!
GS: Asgard activates Countermeasures!
GS: Delay! Attack weakened!
GS: Avril Vent Fleur guards a hit from Asgard's Iron Sentinel for 132 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Avril Vent Fleur gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Avril Vent Fleur activates Guard bonus!
<Pose Tracker> Eleanor Klein has posed.

Eleanor watches Asgard move--in some distress as he attacks Xiumei. But she notces the change in his demeanor--that he has a demeanor at all. And that's troublesome. ...Though, apparently, not a solid grip on slang just yet.

Designate Melody...

"!" Eleanor sees Asgard coming her way, and there's nothing she can especially do about it. She stows her flute and tries to get out of the way, but she's just not fast enough. Asgard's elbow slams into her and knocks her clean across the entire room, where she hits the wall with an ugly noise. The shielding magic her flute gave her absorbs the damage, prevents it from breaking bone and drawing blood, but that doesn't make her any less dizzy when she hits the ground. "Nn..."

The hostage. Ida mentioned her, and Eleanor rises to one knee to look around for her. "We have to..."

He cannot give up. Eleanor doesn't intend to, either.

"Do they know anything about him?" Nora asks Xiumei as she rises, pulling her Crests as she looks around for where she set down her rifle. She at least has them onhand. "Ida! I see her, but I can't reach her!" Eleanor says of the hostage, and with the power of Geo twinned brings up her hands, golden light shining around her. "May the noble earth be your tomb! Crag Essence!"

Eleanor throws out her hand and seeks to push Asgard away with a burst of earth magic, a rocky outcropping that slams out of the floor towards him.

"I won't let you do as you like, Melody!"

Someone else has Dean covered, but...

Huff.

GS: Eleanor Klein has attacked Asgard with Crag Essence!
GS: Eleanor Klein has completed her action.
GS: Asgard guards a hit from Eleanor Klein's Crag Essence for 62 hit points!
GS: Jam applied to Asgard!
<Pose Tracker> Zed has posed.

"Have you never read anything with an evil twin plot twist?!" Zed stares agog at Melody like her head has just collapsed into a microsingularity of literary oblivion. "I'm glad you got out of her body so quick, don't get me wrong! But, like!! Come on!!"

He's incredulous. Incredulous, I tell you! So incredulous, in fact, that is incredulity is approximately a 0.5 on the current Deanspair meter. But as always, Asgard is there to buoy his mood with the promise of battle and a brawl to remember. More important even than that, though... Is what Asgard says.

He can fight.

Zed's eyes glitter in the glow of Asgard's surging barrier system. Has such a simple phrase moved the ancient war-demon to tears...!? "I'm so happy for you, Asgard...! This is so much better than the last time! Nahahahahaha-horf!!"

An elbow plunges into his sternum. There's a sound like metal wrenching as... No! Doom Bringer had been interposed there at the last moment, the flat of the blade catching and dispersing Asgard's incredible blow, and turning what could have been a broken ribcage into what is going to soon become a terrific bruise. He's carried for a ride regardless, hauled along in Asgard's mad sprint before his lips curl up into a mischevious grin. Doom Bringer's starlight glow doubles upon itself, flares and-- explodes! Zed laughs he's hurled clear and sent hurtling towards Avril...

...But he twists in mid-air, his body coiling in upon itself and reorienting so that he flips neatly over Avril's head. Zed rolls further out of the way as Asgard barrels through, his sword still shining with accumulating energies. "Maybe you are our enemy, Asgard, but...!"

With a flashing smile, Zed surges forward, intercepting Asgard from his flank at breakneck speeds... Like an X-Slash turned into an offensive maneuver! "That doesn't mean we can't enjoy each other's BATTLE BROTHERHOOD! Nahahahahaha! Let us forge a bond out of this mere conflict! That we might someday call each other... R I V A L !"

GS: Zed has attacked Asgard with Miracle Strike - Phantom Bite!
GS: Zed has completed his action.
GS: COUNTER! Asgard counterattacks Zed with Counter Attack!
GS: Asgard guards a hit from Zed's Miracle Strike - Phantom Bite for 93 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Asgard gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Cripple applied to Asgard!
GS: Delay! Attack weakened!
GS: Zed fully evades Asgard's Counter Attack for 0 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.

    'I had no intention of spending one second longer in that girl's form than was necessary.'

    "Do it again," Ida growls, "and I will find something you care about, and break it." She weaves to the side, throwing a few more strikes at Asgard's back, but it's clear that the Golem--the Prototype--is learning fast. A frisson of fear races down Ida's spine, and it's not entirely hers. Mixed in is a strange sort of thrilled vindication.

    The Prototype is communicating. It's already surpassed most of the second-generation JOTUNNs. Asgard was not Fafnir's creation, but through the fear and dream-fog, he feels a sort of pride. Is this how a... a Mother would feel?

    "Master," Ida murmurs, as Asgard confirms his alleigance. She keeps right on circle-walking, but shoots Ida shoots Melody a venomous glare. That's all she gets out. Asgard whirls on her as she strikes, responding with a scything knife-hand that could break through a good-sized tree. Ida reacts with speed and grace that are not, strictly speaking, human. She falls backwards, her upper torso flowing out of the way of Asgard's hand with mere inches to spare. She bends so far back that her fingertips brush against the floor, and her spine forms a perfect arch. Her ribs seem to compress inwards a little.

    'I see her, but I can't reach her!'

    "Gh," Ida grunts, as she snaps upright. The motion is just as fluid, but much faster--like water lapping back against an object that pushed it.

<Pose Tracker> Avril Vent Fleur has posed.

    As expected, Asgard comes for her, if not precisely in the way she might have anticipated. "You--" she utters, as Zed is wielded at her like a weapon--
    Before with a brilliant explosion, Zed is hurtled her way by the Golem; Avril ducks her head moments before Zed twists to go over her. But-- that does not mean that the Golem is not still coming her way.

    Avril raises her blade, bearing it before her as if it where a shield. The blade--
    --cracks.

    Absolute Zero is not called 'unbreakable' because it cannot break.

    Avril shifts to the right as the blade alone is rent to fragments in her defense, the sheer force behind that swing enough to see her flung aside even so. She lands, bracing herself with her left hand and pushes herself upright after. Absolute Zero's hilt shimmers as she rises, the blade reforming intact.
    It's 'unbreakable' because it is impossible to destroy the blade in a way that matters.

    "Melody... what is the meaning of this attack?" she asks, her gaze turning towards Eleanor on the tail end of that attack. "Be careful, Eleanor! Asgard's highest priority appears to be to protect her!" Meaning Melody, one would assume.

    She cannot let this stand. She needs to pull Asgard away from Eleanor and Dean. "Come here, Asgard!" she calls out, charging the construct to lash at it with her blade. "I am your opponent!"

GS: Avril Vent Fleur has attacked Asgard with Innocent Saber!
GS: Avril Vent Fleur has completed her action.
GS: Asgard takes a glancing hit from Avril Vent Fleur's Innocent Saber for 64 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Asgard gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Asgard activates Evade bonus!
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.

    'I had no intention of spending one second longer in that girl's form than was necessary.'

    "Do it again," Ida growls, "and I will find something you care about, and break it." She weaves to the side, throwing a few more strikes at Asgard's back, but it's clear that the Golem--the Prototype--is learning fast. A frisson of fear races down Ida's spine, and it's not entirely hers. Mixed in is a strange sort of thrilled vindication.

    The Prototype is communicating. It's already surpassed most of the second-generation JOTUNNs. Asgard was not Fafnir's creation, but through the fear and dream-fog, he feels a sort of pride. Is this how a... a Mother would feel?

    "Master," Ida murmurs, as Asgard confirms his alleigance. She keeps right on circle-walking, but shoots Ida shoots Melody a venomous glare. That's all she gets out. Asgard whirls on her as she strikes, responding with a scything knife-hand that could break through a good-sized tree. Ida reacts with speed and grace that are not, strictly speaking, human. She falls backwards, her upper torso flowing out of the way of Asgard's hand with mere inches to spare. She bends so far back that her fingertips brush against the floor, and her spine forms a perfect arch. Her ribs seem to compress inwards a little.

    'I see her, but I can't reach her!'

    "Gh," Ida grunts, as she snaps upright. The motion is just as fluid, but much faster--like water lapping back against an object that pushed it. "Hold on, I'm going to try something!" She needs something to turn Asgard won't see coming--something to turn his vast bulk against him.

    As Asgard recovers from that strike against Eleanor, Ida makes her move. She blurs into position, slipping into the Golem's right flank with a burst of speed. The barrier Eleanor wove around her flickers as it comes into contact with Asgard's; Ida's arms stretch and elongate, even as she steps into a low, wide stance. Blue armor gives way to black and red. The style changes entirely. Fafnir's arms try to wrap around Asgard's barrel of a body, just above his center of gravity. And if that works...

    Ida lifts. She follows the form to the letter. Every inch of her body burns with power; her aura ignites around her, glowing ferociously as she tries to heft a foe who easily weighs a ton, if not more. Green sparks ignite beneath her as a burst of wind erupts from the soles of her boots. Ida leaps into the air, shifting up her grip to put Asgard's body behind hers. Her back pulls into that perfect, flexible arch once again.

    And if she's successful, Asgard is going to hit the ground back-first, with thunderous force, only to have his shoulders pinned to the ground by Ida. Sweat drips down her brow. Her gaze was locked on Melody's the entire time.

GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has attacked Asgard with After Gusong - Machina Suplex!
GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has completed her action.
GS: Asgard critically guards Ida Everstead-Rey's After Gusong - Machina Suplex for 25 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Asgard gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Eleanor Klein heals Dean Stark! He gains 215 temporary hit points!
GS: Pray grants a random effect! Lock State applied to Dean Stark!
<Pose Tracker> Dean Stark has posed.

    "But it's a *Golem*!" Dean protests to Xiumei, as if this overrides all other things, including common sense. (For him, it does.) When Asgard introduces himself, Dean waves enthusiastically. "Hi Asgard!! I'm Dean! It's really awesome to meet you!!"
    
    Then comes the Deanspair. Avril tells him that this Golem is an enemy; Asgard himself confirms it, not just with actions but with words. "B-but--we don't have to fight!! You shouldn't fight! Not us, anyway!" he pleads, looking to the mechanical man for mercy. A look of confusion crosses his face when Asgard lists off atmospheric readings; Dean may realize later that he is listing just why he is 'cool.'
    
    Punches fly anew. Dean is the only one not assaulted, and he looks around with wide, horrified eyes at the conflict. "Stop! Stop! I--I don't want to fight you, Asgard!" he pleads. "But..." Ida's not giving up any ground; Avril tries to pull aggro off of Dean and onto her. He grits his teeth, then pulls out his Mountain Medium, a grim, deeply hurt determination on his face. "I can't let you hurt my friends either!"
    
    The magic of Dinoginos's Original Artificial Medium spills up, sending up shining light in hexagonal patterns around Dean and his companions--light that will strengthen their defenses and cleanse their bodies. He brightens when Eleanor does something similar and waves at her in gratitude as he feels his wounds heal.
    
    However, when Melody speaks, all but bragging that Asgard is hers, Dean glares at her. "They're not a *thing* you can just order around! He's his own thinking Golem!" he says hotly, and would say this even if Asgard had never uttered a word. "I get it now! You're the one making him do bad stuff, right?!" He whirls around, spreading his arms towards Asgard, the Mountain Medium still in his hand. "Asgard! You don't have to do what that lady says just because she says it! You're your own Golem!" He says he can't give up, and-- "That's right!!" Dean encourages. "Don't give up on being 'you'! You can do anything as long as you don't give up! You don't have to fight us!"
    
    He pauses at Zed and all his rivalry talk, then concedes, "Unless you wanna make this a match, then I guess we can fight, but--we don't have to fight because we're enemies!!"

GS: Dean Stark has attacked Avril Vent Fleur with Protect Crag!
GS: Dean Stark has attacked Ida Everstead-Rey with Protect Crag!
GS: Dean Stark has attacked Eleanor Klein with Protect Crag!
GS: Dean Stark has attacked Zhang Xiumei with Protect Crag!
GS: Dean Stark has attacked Zed with Protect Crag!
GS: Dean Stark has attacked Dean Stark with Protect Crag!
GS: Dean Stark has completed his action.
GS: Dean Stark accepts Dean Stark's Protect Crag for 0 hit points!
GS: Shield applied to Dean Stark!
GS: Zed accepts Dean Stark's Protect Crag for 0 hit points!
GS: Shield applied to Zed!
GS: Eleanor Klein accepts Dean Stark's Protect Crag for 0 hit points!
GS: Shield applied to Eleanor Klein!
GS: Ida Everstead-Rey accepts Dean Stark's Protect Crag for 0 hit points!
GS: Shield applied to Ida Everstead-Rey!
GS: Zhang Xiumei accepts Dean Stark's Protect Crag for 0 hit points!
GS: Shield applied to Zhang Xiumei!
GS: Zhang Xiumei enters CONDITION GREEN!!
GS: Avril Vent Fleur accepts Dean Stark's Protect Crag for 0 hit points!
GS: Shield applied to Avril Vent Fleur!
<Pose Tracker> Asgard has posed.


"IRRELEVANT." Asgard notes to Dean, stating that he doesn't wish to fight. "EXECUTING ORDERS."

"How childish." Melody sniffs, at Dean's statement that she's making Asgard do such bad things, "No wonder someone so beautiful parrots such ugliness with complete conviction." She must be referring to things Avril said on the Warwings Varukias, "Your trite sense of morality is a disease. Asgard..." She did not even need to say his name, he is already lifting his fist in response to the invocation of his Medium. "I MUST."

He does not say anything in regards to Dean's statement of his identity, given his own nascent sense of identity... however it is such valuable data.

However... the blow never falls because Avril comes at his flanks, lashing with her blade and he moves strangely in anticipation of the movements of her strange ARM - and the skillful hand that wields it. His barrier flashing as it subtly shifts the blade away every time before it can cause him significant harm. "YOU ARE." He confirms her statement but then adds, "PRIORITY TARGET."

"Need I even answer that now?" Melody smiles viciously at Avril, in regards to her earlier question.

Does he remember? Xiumei asks. "RUNNING FULL MEMORY BANK CHECK."

It takes pitifully little time for Asgard to check every single battle he's ever fought. Images of every single individual he's protected, fought at the side of. Fought against. Images of figures fighting on an apocalyptic battlefield.

"NOT FOUND."

A trio of energy bolts enter through a gap in the timing of his barrier, and he's forced to raise an arm as they scour his coat, pock-marking it with wisps of smoke from the pulse energy.

"It's unnecessary to run such checks every time someone claims to have known you. Add her to your list of priority targets."

"ROGER."

That's when Eleanor's spell seizes hold, a rocky outcropping that erupts through his barrier, that apparently he hadn't thought to devote energy towards his feet. It scythes upwards, ripping through the collar of his coat as the Golem jerks its head back mechanically to avoid damaging more vital systems, but it still manages to scrape one of his 'eyes'. The optical sensor looks somewhat cracked. Though even as Eleanor looks... it looks like the cracks are sealing themselves.

"Hubris. Unearned confidence." Melody notes to Eleanor. "Wasted potential. You cannot stop me."

Zed dives in at the side, and Asgard suddenly pivots into his blow. Zed's blow slides across his arm with a scrape of metal - sparking, even as Asgard's fist tries to come down right on his head. There are so many questions that could be raised from Zed's statements, and his databanks are working feverishly to try and process it all.

"ENJOY."

... from their prior encounter.

"THRILL."

There's a ring of familiarity at least, to this idea that's hardcoded into his system. Yet he does not understand.

How does one enjoy battle? Or anything? His system needs more data, to discern this fundamental truth.

"I do not care for that one's tone. Twist off the Hyadean's limbs once you subdue him."

And that is when Ida grips him. The Golem is massive, but the technique from Gusong is formidable. And it is not but a moment later that Asgard is lifted up off the ground. He has not leverage to peel her off of him. The impact is devastating...

... to the Travel Agency.

The room they're in blasts apart as struts and supports buckle and burst, turning the floor into a disintegrating slide outdoors. Soon all of them are spilled out into the cold. And Ida and Asgard have vanished into the snow and ice below.

There's silence for about five seconds. Before the ice begins changing, glittering cyan, energy flowing off of it in motes. Then there's a rumble, as the ice and snow cracks into a chasm. A tremendous burst of barrier energy detonating like a bomb as it bursts outward, scattering snow and ice...

... and Drifters. It's quite likely that Ida was the first one blown out of the ground as compared to the others.

Assuming Ida was - and is falling, she'll see Melody on an ice cliffside, delicately lifting a hand, and wiggling her fingertips at her as she falls.

The Golem then leaps out of the ice, it's barrier flaring around it like fire as he smashes it into the ground, its eyes having turned a distinctive red.

The cracks in it's optical sensor completely gone.

"HIGH POWERED BARRIER ERECTED."

GS: Asgard spends 3 Combo on Gatling, loading 3 into Gatling!
GS: Asgard has attacked Dean Stark with Barrier Flood!
GS: Asgard has attacked Avril Vent Fleur with Barrier Flood!
GS: Asgard has attacked Zed with Barrier Flood!
GS: Asgard has attacked Ida Everstead-Rey with Barrier Flood!
GS: Asgard has attacked Eleanor Klein with Barrier Flood!
GS: Asgard has attacked Zhang Xiumei with Barrier Flood!
GS: Asgard has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Asgard has attacked Asgard with High Powered Barrier!
GS: Asgard has completed his action.
GS: Asgard accepts Asgard's High Powered Barrier for 0 hit points!
GS: Restore! Cripple and Jam removed!
GS: Quick and Shield applied to Asgard!
GS: Mighty applied to Asgard!
GS: Zhang Xiumei guards a hit from Asgard's Barrier Flood for 104 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Zhang Xiumei gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Zhang Xiumei activates Guard bonus!
GS: Avril Vent Fleur takes a glancing hit from Asgard's Barrier Flood for 106 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Avril Vent Fleur gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Avril Vent Fleur enters CONDITION GREEN!!
GS: Eleanor Klein takes a solid hit from Asgard's Barrier Flood for 186 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Eleanor Klein gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Eleanor Klein activates Countermeasures!
GS: Ida Everstead-Rey guards a hit from Asgard's Barrier Flood for 109 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Ida Everstead-Rey gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Ida Everstead-Rey enters CONDITION GREEN!!
GS: Zed fully evades Asgard's Barrier Flood for 0 hit points!
GS: Zed enters CONDITION GREEN!!
<Pose Tracker> Zhang Xiumei has posed.

"They said... they fought with him in the past, but--that he wasn't like this!" Xiumei says, her voice hesitant. Relaying it is already hard; relaying information mid-fight is a very tall order.

She grits her teeth, eyes on Melody. She tries to reason through it. What had she done to him? She can't reason through it -- she lacks information, only the worried knowledge given by Varius and Avile.

Then, she looks back at Dean, and calls back: "Yes, but he is trying very hard to punch us!" she says. She hesitates a second, then adds: "I think something is wrong with him! Two friends who live in my head told me so--ahm--that's not as silly as it sounds!"

Varius and Avile sigh in unison.

Dean's magic flashes around her. It infuses her; sinks down into her, and there is a bright flash from her. Xiumei shakes her head once, then looks back at Asgard.

'NOT FOUND.'

Her expression sinks. There is an anguished sound from Avile in her mind; a sharp intake of breath from Varius. The sort of reaction where, even if she hasn't met Asgard more than twice, she has too much empathy to not feel something herself. Her eyes snap to Melody.

"That's enough out of you!" she cries out. Then, she looks back to Asgard. The room is blasted apart; cold wind and snow blow in, and it makes her face chilly for a moment. She looks back at Agsard, and the powerful barrier exploding out towards them and the red eyes beyond.

She crosses both arms. It slams her backward, sparks flying, until Xiumei leaps. She jumps over the barrier, then, and swings back her hand. The handcannon vanishes; a cross-shaped boomerang appears. It ignites, a fiery green aura exploding from it, and she hurls down the boomerang-shaped item.

"Mister Asgard!" she calls out. "My name is Xiumei. I, ah, I'm a friend of Varius's and Avile's. And they asked me to free you from that terrible, inharmonious woman! So... I will do my best!"

The barrier cross strikes -- at Asgard, then slashes by, hits the ice cliff, and slashes by again. She doesn't catch the weapon. It fades away into cubes of data, as her sword appears again.

Gripped in two hands, she crashes down -- and does one immense SLASH, leaving a trio of afterimages past her as she strikes by Asgard.

GS: Zhang Xiumei has activated a Force Action!
GS: Zhang Xiumei has activated a Force Action!
GS: Zhang Xiumei spends 1 Combo on Link!
GS: Formation! Zhang Xiumei has attacked Asgard with Soaring Cross Strike!
GS: Zhang Xiumei has gained 2 Combo!
GS: Zhang Xiumei has launched an attack Link!
GS: Zhang Xiumei spends 3 Combo on Gatling, loading 3 into Gatling!
GS: Formation! Zhang Xiumei has attacked Asgard with Rushing Pulse Blitz!
GS: Zhang Xiumei has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Zhang Xiumei has completed her action.
GS: Asgard takes a solid hit from Zhang Xiumei's Soaring Cross Strike for 202 hit points!
GS: Asgard activates Countermeasures!
GS: Asgard takes a solid hit from Zhang Xiumei's Rushing Pulse Blitz for 245 hit points!
GS: Asgard activates Countermeasures!
<Pose Tracker> Eleanor Klein has posed.

"Noted!" Nora answers Xiumei, "We'll have to find out what's wrong!"

"He's not childish!" Eleanor snaps at Melody. Beauty, again. If she had time, she might explain to Zed ARMS's history with dopplegangers... But she doesn't. So instead, she notices him so eager to fight, and appreciates at least that he can keep up.

"I'll try!" Eleanor calls back to Avril. "I'm still not out yet!"

She watches Ida blaze with power and move forward--and tries to take a moment to get to the Al Bhed woman who'd collapsed there as Dean pulls out his Medium. Light strengthens her defenses, and she smiles at him for a brief moment when he waves. She only has that long though--her spell works, but...

"Spoken like someone on the wrong end of youth," Eleanor quips back at Melody as she says she can't stop her. "It's amazing that someone so obsessed with beauty would have such an ugly way of being."

But the room blasts apart; Eleanor is blasted with it. Barrier energy scatters snow, ice, and her, and she flies out of the room in time to hit the ground again, this time with only so much shielding. Dean's magic helps her, but she crumples nevertheless, hitting the ground again where she'd tried to stand. "Nn..."

She pulls her Crests again, and focuses in her mind on the woman in the Travel Agency, too, trying to find her for the spell. "As ever-changing as the tide, as enduring as the stone! Sublime Renewal!"

Golden light shines down around her and turns to multiple colors as life energy floods into each member of the party, sparkling power radiating in an aura from each like a taste of the heavens itself.

She saw the way Asgard's wound healed. It's not encouraging. But...

"He's not the only one who can heal! Keep up the pressure!"

GS: Eleanor Klein has attacked Eleanor Klein with Sublime Renewal!
GS: Eleanor Klein has attacked Zhang Xiumei with Sublime Renewal!
GS: Eleanor Klein has attacked Dean Stark with Sublime Renewal!
GS: Eleanor Klein has attacked Ida Everstead-Rey with Sublime Renewal!
GS: Eleanor Klein has attacked Avril Vent Fleur with Sublime Renewal!
GS: Eleanor Klein has attacked Zed with Sublime Renewal!
GS: Eleanor Klein has gained 2 Combo!
GS: Eleanor Klein has completed her action.
GS: Eleanor Klein heals Zhang Xiumei! She gains 110 temporary hit points!
GS: Pray grants a random effect! Burst applied to Zhang Xiumei!
GS: Eleanor Klein heals Zed! He gains 110 temporary hit points!
GS: Pray grants a random effect! Shield applied to Zed!
GS: Eleanor Klein heals Eleanor Klein! She gains 110 temporary hit points!
GS: Pray grants a random effect! Surge applied to Eleanor Klein!
GS: Eleanor Klein heals Ida Everstead-Rey! She gains 115 temporary hit points!
GS: Pray grants a random effect! Surge applied to Ida Everstead-Rey!
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.

    Asgard's violent entry compromised the structural integrity of the conference room. Ida's suplex seals its fate. The floor gives way with a thunderous crunch; the impact of the Golem's massive body rips through structural supports holding everything in place. Ida's arms are still wrapped around Asgard's torso as the two of them tumble out, and are swallowed by the snowdrifts outside the building. For a few moments, Ida's entire world goes white. She holds on to Asgard because he's the only thing nearby that isn't snow.

    "Asgard," Ida breathes. Come on, she thinks, there must be an override code. Fafnir must know some way to establish authority over Asgard, if half of what she's gleaned from him is true. She raises her right hand, which is oh so similar to how Fafnir's looked in powered armor. "Do you recognize--"

    BOOM

    The snowbank erupts. Ida flies out of it in a cloud of powdery white, arms crossed across her chest to try and soak the impact. She was only partially successful--her ribs ache something awful, and if Dean hadn't shielded her, they'd be cracked. She might've broken an arm, too. She lands in the snow next to Xiumei, momentarily stunned by the impact. "Gh," she says, eloquently. She tilts her head, and pushes herself up on an elbow.

    "That's not possible," Ida says, her voice pained. "He's a Hyadean machine! I know it! Asgard!" Ida reaches her right hand out, and her arm begins to change. The sleeve of her shirt stretches as the limb lengthens, and additional muscle knits itself into place. Bright crimson lines trace their way down bronze-tinted skin.

    The arm does not belong on Ida's body. It's the arm of Fafnir, in its original state. "Remember your creators!" Ida cries, as she throws herself into Asgard's barrier, leading with a vicious right.

    this doesn't make sense--why isn't it--why does that human--glumzamber--no--

GS: Ida Everstead-Rey enters CONDITION GREEN!!
GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has attacked Asgard with Muscle Memory!
GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Ida Everstead-Rey's Stoic stance ends.
GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.

    Asgard's violent entry compromised the structural integrity of the conference room. Ida's suplex seals its fate. The floor gives way with a thunderous crunch; the impact of the Golem's massive body rips through structural supports holding everything in place. Ida's arms are still wrapped around Asgard's torso as the two of them tumble out, and are swallowed by the snowdrifts outside the building. For a few moments, Ida's entire world goes white. She holds on to Asgard because he's the only thing nearby that isn't snow.

    "Asgard," Ida breathes. Come on, she thinks, there must be an override code. Fafnir must know some way to establish authority over Asgard, if half of what she's gleaned from him is true. She raises her right hand, which is oh so similar to how Fafnir's looked in powered armor. "Do you recognize--"

    BOOM

    The snowbank erupts. Ida flies out of it in a cloud of powdery white, arms crossed across her chest to try and soak the impact. She was only partially successful--her ribs ache something awful, and if Dean hadn't shielded her, they'd be cracked. She might've broken an arm, too. She lands in the snow next to Xiumei, momentarily stunned by the impact. "Gh," she says, eloquently. She tilts her head, and pushes herself up on an elbow.

    "They know him?!" Ida says, woozily looking up at Xiumei. "That's not possible," Her voice is pained. "He's a Hyadean machine! I know it! Asgard!" Ida reaches her right hand out, and her arm begins to change. The sleeve of her shirt stretches as the limb lengthens, and additional muscle knits itself into place. Bright crimson lines trace their way down bronze-tinted skin.

    The arm does not belong on Ida's body. It's the arm of Fafnir, in its original state. "Remember your creators!" Ida cries, as she throws herself into Asgard's barrier, leading with a vicious right.

    this doesn't make sense--why isn't it--why does that human--glumzamber--no--

GS: Dean Stark guards a hit from Asgard's Barrier Flood for 137 hit points!
GS: Dean Stark activates Countermeasures!
GS: Eleanor Klein heals Dean Stark! He gains 115 temporary hit points!
GS: Pray grants a random effect! Surge applied to Dean Stark!
GS: Eleanor Klein heals Avril Vent Fleur! She gains 115 temporary hit points!
GS: Pray grants a random effect! Burst applied to Avril Vent Fleur!
<Pose Tracker> Avril Vent Fleur has posed.

    "I understand! Eleanor, be wary!" Avril calls back.

    "Dean-- Asgard takes their orders!" Avril explains, as she tries to pull Asgard's attention off him and Eleanor. "So long as Odessa is in control of him, he is our enemy!"

    The past. Perhaps it happened at some point in the not-too-distant past for Xiumei's companions, but she's reminded again that--
    There's something familiar about Asgard, moreso than the way in which other things have felt familiar to her before. Almost like...

    Her blade knicks off his barrier; she steps back in anticipation of a counter.

    PRIORITY TARGET.

    'Subdue those on your priority target list'.

    Her expression, as Melody makes that remark, grows grim. "I see," she answers, narrowing her eyes. His attention is on her now. Just as she wanted. Dean's barrier wraps itself around her then, and she begins to advance.

    Just as Ida clinches the Golem, throws Asgard. And the inn's structure collapses from the impact, burying Ida and Asgard under so much snow. "Ida--" she calls out, running at the pile of snow only to stop short as it begins to rumble.

    And then the room seems to explode about her. Holding her blade close, she throws herself for the floor, the better to avoid being swept away in the outburst; the worst of it rushes past overhead. She slowly gets to her feet, her hair spilling down her back from her now-ruined bun.

    She gazes at Asgard for a long lingering moment. Rainbow light, from Eleanor's spell, dances about her in shimmering motes.

    Her blade is gone. So is Absolute Zero's hilt, returned to some other place on her person. Rather, Avril now holds in her hands a single stone tablet. "Dean... are you able to see to that woman from the travel agency?" she says, her gaze on -- or rather through -- Asgard.

    The Medium shimmers with a pale yellow light. "Material," Avril invokes. "Ultradark Impact."

    There is a rumbling from overhead. A dark meteor streaks down from the heavens, enroute for the Travel Agency -- or more specifically, for Asgard. Pale yellow light trails in its wake.
    A good pair of eyes might note that there appear to be many gleaming points from within the meteor's craters. ...Like eyes themselves, perhaps.

GS: Avril Vent Fleur has activated a Force Action!
GS: You have activated the Force Action Full Clip!
GS: Avril Vent Fleur has attacked Asgard with Material - Ultradark Impact!
GS: Avril Vent Fleur has completed her action.
GS: Asgard takes a glancing hit from Ida Everstead-Rey's Muscle Memory for 44 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Asgard gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Mighty applied to Ida Everstead-Rey!
GS: Asgard activates Evade bonus!
GS: CRITICAL! Asgard takes a glancing hit from Avril Vent Fleur's Material - Ultradark Impact for 129 hit points!
GS: Disrupt applied to Asgard!
<Pose Tracker> Zed has posed.

Asgard's missing memory is deeply concerning. To have one's past erased and unrememberable... is distressing indeed. Perhaps, Zed thinks, Asgard was struck on the head too hard?? He's heard that such a blow to the brain could result in memory loss. He thinks this as he hurtles into Asgard like a lightning bolt... And as Asgard's fist drifts ever closer to his forehead. Time seems to slow down in that moment, creeping dramatically to an absolute crawl as the world darkens and lenses in, focusing all senses to that singular, inevitable moment...

And then Zed...

Grits his teeth...

And hurls his head into Asgard's fist.

"RRRRAAAAAAAARRRRGHHH!" Zed roars, answering Asgard's uncertainty with a bellowing battlecry as he bends over backwards to catch the golem's fist. His body arches, curving into an inverted C as the muscles in his abdomen and back and legs and glutes and neck and everything screams in unison against the impossible strength of the Prototype. Inexplicable sparks fly from between Zed's forehead and Asgard's fist. He's doomed-- anyone would be, receiving a punch like that. And yet...

Zed... Zed's skull...

Does not yield... so easily...!

"Nnnnaaahahahaha! This strength! I haven't felt the like since Berserk died! Ahaha! Ahahahahaha!" Zed laughs around the Golem's fist, gritting his teeth as he bends upward forcing Asgard's arm back. The conflict is impossible, the glow of living metal boiling off in a storm of sparking embers is blinding, and yet Zed's wearing an expression like he's having the time of his life. "That's good. That's really good, Asgard! Don't let up. You're like me, you should feel it deep down too! That fire, that light, that inner sun that burns within you! Ahahahaha--"

Ida...

Suplexes Asgard through the travel agency. Into the ice. For a few moments, Zed is released from his tug-of-war with the Golem's fist, an asterism of silver-steel amalgam scar tissue already beginning to seal over across his forehead. He licks a rivulet of silvery blood from his upper lip, eyes ablaze with a rare eagerness and anticipation. Asgard's not done, he knows that.

The ground rumbles. The ice shatters. A flood of pure kinetic force washes outward. Zed... Is nowhere to be seen. Zed is... leaping upwards, jumping higher and higher and higher on footholds of projectile ice floes. He lifts his sword high, Doom Bringer burns with starlight. Its shadow surges as well, a contrarian halo of anti-light void that leaps up and mingles with the astral glow. Zed grins as the two powers fuse and marge. He swings his blade down as he falls, the heavy edge smashing into the periphery of Asgard's barrier.

There's a flash like a star going nova. A flood of starlight and dark energy blasts forth, surging into Asgard's shield like a spear of cosmic genesis...!

GS: Zed has attacked Asgard with Saint Arts - Cosmic Convergence!
GS: Zed has gained 4 Combo!
GS: Zed's Avenger stance ends.
GS: Zed has completed his action.
GS: Asgard takes a solid hit from Zed's Saint Arts - Cosmic Convergence for 173 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Asgard gains 1 additional Combo!
<Pose Tracker> Dean Stark has posed.

    "Your FACE is a disease!!" Dean shoots back at Melody, childishly. Avril explains to him that Asgard is under Odessa's control, and as long as that remains true, he'll be their enemy. Dean's expression twists with agony. "...Damn it!!" he swears--a rare occasion.
    
    That Avril is, for some reason, a priority target doesn't come as a surprise. Dean has learned enough about her to know that certain groups want her really badly. He's not even surprised that Asgard is strong, and takes advantage of the cracks Ida sends up the walls to burst everyone outwards in an avalanche of incoming, and now outgoing, snow. What *is* a surprise is when Ida shouts that Asgard is a Hyadean machine--because the group that Dean knows wants Avril are the *Veruni*, not the Hyadeans. "Wait, really?" he calls her way, confused, as he pulls himself up out of the snow.
    
    Avril calls to Dean to take care of the woman from the Travel Agency. "On it!" he calls. He'll do his best, anyway; with all this snow, it's hard to see where she might even be. He'll do his best to search for her, though, and then dig her out once he finds her. He'll no doubt converge with Eleanor when she also heads for the Al Bhed woman. He does see Asgard's barrier go up, but--on a certain level, he's relieved that Asgard won't get hurt too badly. Of course, he's not happy about his friends getting hurt, either...
    
    "Eleanor, I'll cover you and that lady," he says, turning to face the Hyadean Golem. If he really is Hyadean, then he must be like Zed, and if he's like Zed, then... fighting will be the best way to get through to him. So, even through his regret, Dean calls, "Asgard, I'm really sorry... but we're gonna have to drive you back!"
    
    Twin Fenrir flash into his hands, and he swings the rods therein, first horizontally, then vertically, both parallel to the ground. The motions leave trails of flickering fire in their wake, forming the bones of a great-winged bird. Dean twirls up from behind it and fires an orb of powerful energy from behind the outline. It *explodes* into fiery motion, and sears towards Asgard to envelope him--and perhaps burn away that barrier with its purifying power. Will that work on a mechanical barrier like this, though...? It'll be a learning experience for the young Seer, either way.

GS: Dean Stark has attacked Asgard with Firebird Soul!
GS: Dean Stark has completed his action.
GS: Asgard takes a solid hit from Dean Stark's Firebird Soul for 143 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Asgard gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Dispel! Mighty, Quick, and Shield removed!
<Pose Tracker> Asgard has posed.


Before...

Zed launches himself into that fist, and Asgard twists around to meet it. Asgard's systems know what to expect from Zed's skull, so it allows this. The impact sparking within expected parameters. The Golem's mechanical arm begins to surprisingly discover that what was expected, is not occurring. Putting more and more strength into the blow, he tries to drive his knuckles right in to try and FLATTEN his skull. Like his systems are suddenly wholly focused on attempting to overcome this resistance.

... and then Ida suplexes him.

-=-=-

NOW-

"YOU... YOU ILL-MANNERED-!" Melody replies to Dean... and Eleanor follows that continuing the one -two punch to her ego, causing her to whirl around at her from her perch, "HOW... DARE YOU - YOU INSOLENT... BRATS!" Standing up straight, her whole form trembling like a child about to throw a full on ugly tantrum...

... she instead takes a deep breath, and decides to be the adult in the room.

The Golem watches Xiumei come at him, and crosses his arms, looking at her past his barrier. Then she leaps over him, and he spins in the form scattering snow. The cross shaped boomerang impacts his barrier. And cracks appear as he tries to pour more energy in to reinforce it. His slide backwards though causes the ice to break beneath his weight, and he sinks into the snow.

The red eyes of the Golem show no hint of recognition at Xiumei's claim. "SHE IS..."

A hand raises to meet her slash, and there's the smell of burning metal. The frozen air around him steaming as Xiumei's efforts bypass his barrier. In the aftermath, there's a melted curve carved in his palm.

"... MY MASTER."

The Golem cannot even comprehend the idea of being 'free' from his master. So that is what he says - unable to even contemplate whether he has the desire to be free or not.

"Inharmonious." Melody sniffs, as if she just got a bad taste in her mouth, "It's you who are out of harmony my dear. To 'free' a Golem. What nonsense." Perhaps sensing the threat of the attack, she delicately lifts an arm and waves of blue energy descend upon Xiumei. It is a strange attack, of what must be some strange form of sorcery or a barely incomprehensible ARM. Something that feels like it directly attacks her life energy directly and dissipates a measure of it.

Ida lifts a hand his way. And internally his sensors focus in on that spot... "RECOGNIZED." His hand glides down, and Ida's fist makes contact with that vicious right- her limbs lengthening into something that he might further recognize, which he deflects away with a swipe of his barrier. Ida might feel a surge of hope from the comment. That indeed she might reach him. Except... his hand snakes out to try and grab that lengthened limb, and lift her aloft. "MY CREATORS - ARE NOT - MY MASTERS." Before tossing her right at the cliffside.

And that is when a shadow passes over his head. Asgard's eyes look up. A Dark Meteor streaking down at his head. His systems calculate the chances of him getting out of the way in time.

They're not good odds.

And so he does not move. The Meteor smashes down into the rippling blue field that is his barrier, testing it immediately as it trembles and begins to crack around the edges. His hands then reach out around the side, clamping down on each side of the meteor, and with a desperate heave - he tosses it sideways, as it smashes into the snow where the meteor starts melting through the ground in a shower of steam.

"All Hail the Queen." Melody's lip quirks in a comment that sounds half-impressed. "Long may she reign."

Out of the haze of steam, Asgard appears as a silhouette, before he's on Avril aiming in to try and hammer her into the snow with a blow from above.

Which is when Zed's blade flashes, flooding his barrier and spears into him. The light strikes the Golem, causing a smoking hole in his trenchcoat and forces him to stagger backwards, his fingertips playing at the hole. And then he immediately - surges forward, trying to drive his fist BACK into Zed's skull. In an attempt to finish what he did before. There's no barrier involved in this blow, simply raw strength trying to overcome that terrible unexpected resistance.

Dean's shot interrupts the attempt to test that Hyadean skull, as a burning orb of energy smashes right into him, his barrier sparking as it suddenly seems to flicker in and out of existence. And Melody decides earlier, that while she wants to be the adult in the room...

... there's no reason she can't be an extremely petty one, "Asgard, initiate overload protocol, reroute 25% of remaining power for that purpose. Direct the points of central focus upon the elf and the boy." "ACKNOWLEDGED." Suddenly out of that rippling field of what's left of his barrier after Dean's fiery shot, it begins to spark, arcs of black electricity flowing across it...

... before it erupts outward into a forked blast that scythes across the Macalania landscape to try to smash into both Dean and Eleanor in a flash of light that momentarily sears away all sight of either of them.

GS: Asgard has attacked Zhang Xiumei with Eliminate Scanner!
GS: Asgard has attacked Ida Everstead-Rey with Iron Grip!
GS: Asgard has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Asgard has attacked Avril Vent Fleur with Iron Fist!
GS: Asgard has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Asgard has attacked Zed with Iron Fist!
GS: Zed fully evades Asgard's Iron Fist for 0 hit points!
GS: Zed enters CONDITION GREEN!!
GS: Zhang Xiumei takes a glancing hit from Asgard's Eliminate Scanner for 58 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Zhang Xiumei gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Asgard has activated a Force Action!
GS: Asgard has attacked Dean Stark with Barrier Storm!
GS: Asgard has attacked Eleanor Klein with Barrier Storm!
GS: Asgard has completed his action.
GS: Avril Vent Fleur guards a hit from Asgard's Iron Fist for 86 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Avril Vent Fleur gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Avril Vent Fleur activates Guard bonus!
<Pose Tracker> Zhang Xiumei has posed.

There is a surprised look in Xiumei's too-green, glowing eyes when she smells burnt metal. She sees the way she left a melted divot in his palm. She sucks a breath in, then shakes her head. Then, the blast of blue light slams at her side; she tries to leap away, but it sends her spinning from the near-miss. Some of her vitality goes with it.

"Gh, that's--" She hesitates. Varius and Avile were forced to serve someone. Many machines are, in fact, forced to serve someone. She can't just reply that isn't how it works.

It is how it works.

"The world being unjust isn't a reason to keep doing it," she snaps back up at Melody, before looking at Asgard. She considers for a second, before she nods.

"They said... they get having a Master."

She is quiet for a moment. Her eyes glance at Ida.

"Varius says--" Xiumei's eyebrows knit at Ida. Not at what she says. "--that... stuff... is complicated."

'Stuff' isn't the word he chose.

She gives a nervous glance to Melody. She is shouting at Dean and Eleanor; she seems angry. It reminds Xiumei of the people at the schools she went to, the loud ones who could become cruel when angry.

And then she sees the huge blast that hurtles at Dean and Eleanor alike. Her eyes widen -- they widen so fast that the shimmering green lenses of light over them are a half-second behind, and have to catch up.

"Mister Stark!" she cries out. Then, louder, and more desperate: "N-Nora!"

She spins, facing Asgard and Melody. She forms the Barrier Cross in in her hand; Avile's weapon appears, white steel and blazing green light, and then she hurls it. It whips out, slashing across Asgard's hands. Then, it slams into the ice cliff, and then ricochets up to slash at Melody from behind.

GS: Zhang Xiumei spends 3 Combo on Gatling, loading 3 into Gatling!
GS: Zhang Xiumei has attacked Asgard with Barrier Cross - Whirling Throw!
GS: Zhang Xiumei has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Zhang Xiumei has completed her action.
GS: Eleanor Klein takes a solid hit from Asgard's Barrier Storm for 183 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Eleanor Klein gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Eleanor Klein activates Countermeasures!
GS: Eleanor Klein enters CONDITION GREEN!!
GS: Dean Stark guards a hit from Asgard's Barrier Storm for 109 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Dean Stark gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Dean Stark activates Countermeasures!
GS: Dean Stark enters CONDITION GREEN!!
GS: Ida Everstead-Rey fully evades Asgard's Iron Grip for 0 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Ida Everstead-Rey gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Ida Everstead-Rey activates Power Burst!
GS: Asgard guards a hit from Zhang Xiumei's Barrier Cross - Whirling Throw for 94 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Asgard gains 1 additional Combo!
<Pose Tracker> Eleanor Klein has posed.

Eleanor is as wary as she can manage. Well, no--she should be warier. She shouldn't be sassing her foe. But for all that she is sensible and measured and deliberate... she's also pretty headstrong herself, if not literally so much as Zed.

So it is that when Melody calls her an insolent brat, Eleanor actually smiles at her. It would be pleasant if it weren't smug; it's a perfectly lovely expression. Will that be worth it? Well...

Eleanor for now nods to Dean. "Thank you," she says. "Focus on her--I've got a little more magic in me, yet." ...As, it would seem, does Dean; Eleanor watches in some wonder at the power Dean displays there. It's something unlike what she is used to.

She looks with some pride at Xiumei who has exerted her force, but here--the important moment.

"Overload protocol--that means we--"

Her eyes widen in surprise at the sparks, at the black electricity arcing. She hears Xiumei call out to her, and tenses, covering her face with an arm and moving to get out of the way--

Before the barrier slams into her and entirely through her protective magic, black lightning crackling around the elf as she hits the ground again. This time it's more quickly than last time; this time she's still smoking when it fades. "Mn..." But she does make a noise.

Pushing up to her knee, Eleanor looks out as Asgard and Melody again. "It'd be nice," she says, "If I'd seen this one coming..."

She can't reach her ARM, but at least the Al Bhed girl is safe. So Eleanor pulls one more Crest, empowering Wing twice in golden light. It shines as she begins to invoke the spell. She murmurs something too quiet to hear, words for her spell that can't be made out over the gathering winds--and then thrusts her hand out in focus. From the lake comes a fierce, frigid wind, erupting into a cyclone that crashes straight for Asgard, green-gold and brilliant with sparkling light.

"Mistral Judgment!"

Her hand hits the snow again, and she tries to catch her breath.

GS: Eleanor Klein has activated a Force Action!
GS: Eleanor Klein spends 2 Combo on Headshot!
GS: Eleanor Klein has attacked Asgard with Mistral Judgment!
GS: Eleanor Klein has completed her action.
GS: CRITICAL! Asgard guards a hit from Eleanor Klein's Mistral Judgment for 131 hit points!
GS: Jam applied to Asgard!
GS: Quick applied to Eleanor Klein!
<Pose Tracker> Avril Vent Fleur has posed.

    To be honest, the fact that she is a priority target is... not a surprise, in and of itself. What is more the puzzle is why.

    "What do you intend with me and the others?" she asks of Melody, once she's regained her footing. Snow and ice never really is as much an obstacle to her as it is with others, for some strange reason. "You say that we are 'priority targets'. Why is that? Is it because..."

    "...you are still working with the Veruni?"

    It's a long shot -- but perhaps it may be so. She knows from Riesenlied that the Veruni and the Metal Demons -- the Hyadeans -- had once an alliance, broken when Mother had died. But while most of the Hyadeans had parted with their former goals at that time as well, was... did all of them? And were the Veruni still in allegiance with them?

    The woman had been a lesser priority, if only because Asgard was focused on them first and foremost. But once the roof collapses, and once they're all nearly buried in snow--
    Well.

    Dean moves to see to her and Eleanor, covering both angles of the battle as it is unfolding to her liking.

    The meteor is flung aside (if not without first putting the Golem's barrier to the test) and Avril's gaze flicks towards it where it lands; steam clouds the area soon after, veiling the Golem from view.

    It isn't so much any one thing that she sees as much as it is instinct: he would not stand for that, would he. He would come for her.
    And he does. The surprise is the fact that he comes from above. Avril raises a hand as if to shield herself: a shimmering fang of dense ice rises to meet that incoming fist from her feet. She ducks back after, the air pressure from that blow sending her stumbling back a step. On recovery, she sees that Asgard is--

    "Dean!" she calls out, even as the Golem swings also Eleanor. "No!"

    Her response is quick: ice and frost are swept up about her in a swirling fog, for the moment concealing her from sight as the particles rise high into the air. Then the roiling cloud of frost detonates in a shattering storm of ice fragments, flung one after the other in a torrent for Asgard.

GS: Avril Vent Fleur has activated a Force Action!
GS: You have activated the Force Action Full Clip!
GS: Avril Vent Fleur spends 3 Combo on Gatling, loading 3 into Gatling!
GS: Avril Vent Fleur has attacked Asgard with Courant Glaciaire!
GS: Avril Vent Fleur has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Surge expired!
GS: Avril Vent Fleur has completed her action.
GS: Asgard takes a solid hit from Avril Vent Fleur's Courant Glaciaire for 138 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Asgard gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Asgard enters CONDITION GREEN!!
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.

    "Then how?!" Ida's heart thumps against her ribs as she meets Xiumei's gaze. She has no reason to believe that Varius and Avile are misremembering, but she has no reason to believe Fafnir is, either. "Gh--we can speak once this is over!"

    'RECOGNIZED.'

    For a few, tense moments, Ida wonders if she's gotten through. She sees that flash of recognition, as it were, and a part of her desperately hopes that Melody was arrogant enough to think she didn't need to strip out old directives.

    Asgard's next few words take that hope out back and shoot it in the head.

    what. what. how? no.

    Fafnir reels in rage and horror. Ida, who is dealing with a more immediate threat, lets his emotions feed her. Asgard grabs for her arm, but Ida is already leaping back, whipping her arm out of the way. It's a near thing--the Golem almost grabs her, but at the last second, her forearm seems to half-liquefy, flowing out from between Asgard's fingers like water.

    Melody does not allow Asgard to relent.

    "DEAN!" Ida shouts, but Asgard does not allow her time to intervene. Instead, she whirls on Melody, mismatched eyes alive with fury. "You've made a grave error," she says, to the woman who proclaims herself Asgard's master. "You've made both of us very angry."

    As she speaks, Ida's aura flares to brilliant life--the bonfire of Fafnir's spirit enveloped by the bright pale-gold of Ida's. Her only thought is to remove Asgard from the battle before Melody can order him to hurt anyone else. Ida pulls back her right fist. Muscles tighten like steel cables beneath the red of Fafnir's tattoos. A crown of blazing light ignites around her knuckles.

    Ida moves like lightning. Snow erupts on either side of her in great white plumes--the charge to melee is merely the prelude to what's to come. As Ida demonstrated to Azoth, a proper punch uses every muscle in the body. Ida is battered and bruised and freezing, but she aligns every last part of her behind that fist. The punch breaks the air first, the sharp crack of a sudden pressure wave pulverizing snow and ice. The aura comes next, blazing white-hot. Then, Ida's fist strikes with enough force to punch clean through Gear armor. This technique was made to slay Dragons.

    Ida hopes it can at least put a dent in Asgard.

GS: Ida Everstead-Rey spends 3 Combo on Gatling, loading 3 into Gatling!
GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has attacked Asgard with Unbroken Lotus Fist!
GS: Lock state expired!
GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has completed her action.
GS: CRITICAL! Asgard critically guards Ida Everstead-Rey's Unbroken Lotus Fist for 39 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Asgard gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Ida Everstead-Rey enters CONDITION GREEN!!
<Pose Tracker> Zed has posed.

Creators, masters, these things are of a different paradigm. While he can sympathise with the desire to see Asgard free, and he certainly wishes it as well, there's something else that Zed wishes to rectify first. Something that he knows can be found within the heart of each and every Hyadean, if you look hard enough.

And he can see it stirring within Asgard now, too. The way the Golem's attention suddenly seemed to focus in upon him. The hesitant curiousity it showed in the wake of the wound Zed inflicted onto him, and now...!

The flash of-- is that anger, and perhaps pride? Asgard charges, throwing a punch with nothing more than the strength within its body. No impenetrable barrier, no mysterious internal weaponry, just strength challenging strength, a desire to overcome an impossible obstacle. Zed's grin only widens as the fist comes, and he meets it head on.

Literally.

AGAIN.

There's something to be said for the resilience that comes from a lifetime of surviving the abuse of Berserk of the Quarter Knights. Zed's skull once more smashes into Asgard's fist. Strength battles against strength, Zed's smile peeks out from under the rim of the golem's massive knuckles. "You're strong, Asgard...! Really strong! But-- you felt it then, didn't you? You want to see how far that strength goes! You want to overcome me with nothing but the power you yourself possess!"

"Good!" Zed beams, genuinely, sincerely overjoyed. "That fire burns within all Hyadeans! Within all warriors!! Serve a master or don't, fight for another or fight for yourself, it doesn't matter what goal you have, that fire is with you always!"

"A heart aflame with passion..."

Dean's shot smashes into the Golem, disrupting their clash at a pivotal moment. Zed's grin grows- inexplicably- wider. "A soul as hard as steel!" He rushes in, his sword still blazing with that strange antipodal energy, even as the light of the Guardians finally catches up with him-- but, this time it doesn't hurt. Dinoginos' protective power ensconces him, just as Eleanor's magic soothes the ache in his bones and the pain screaming through his muscles. "I'll see them take root within you yet, ASGARD! Here we go! PILED DRIVER!"

Zed steps in as Asgard's barrier erupts past him. A chaotic mishmash of power swirls in the air around the Hyadean, white and black inexplicably fading to... pink and green? The first strike is delivered, a horizontal blow. The second, a diagonal from the terminus of the first line. The third, a cut parallel to the first...!

Zed spins backwards. He kicks off the ground, launching himself back into the gap... And strikes!

A fourth blow, finishing the combination, and leaving behind it...!!

                                 --==Z==--

And then the letter explodes.

GS: Zed has activated a Force Action!
GS: Zed has activated a Force Action!
GS: Zed spends 5 Combo on Headshot and Gatling, loading 3 into Gatling!
GS: Zed has attacked Asgard with Split Ladle - Sakura Supernova!
GS: Zed has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Burst expired!
GS: Zed has completed his action.
GS: CRITICAL! Asgard takes a glancing hit from Zed's Split Ladle - Sakura Supernova for 133 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Asgard gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Asgard has Fallen! He is no longer able to fight!
<Pose Tracker> Dean Stark has posed.

    "What--you don't like being called ugly?" Dean says, blinking at Melody. This follows; he can't think of a single person who *likes* being called ugly. She seems especially sensitive to it, though. While Eleanor next to him simply smiles, he shoots back, "Well if you don't like it, maybe you shouldn't do ugly things, lady!!" He thrusts a finger at her. "Like scoffing at a Golem being free! THAT'S the kind of ugliness I'm talking at!! Golems are friends! Partners! Not slaves!!"
    
    ...Poor Melody tried so hard to be the grown-up in the room, too. It's pretty much inevitable when Melody gets petty and orders Asgard to counter-fire on him and Eleanor--a force that whooshes forward in a blast of light that knocks Dean off his feet before he can even try to cover Eleanor, though he at least manages to stay in front of the Al Bhed woman as Eleanor encouraged him to do.
    
    "Ugh," Dean groans, picking himself up. At a distance, he can hear Xiumei, Avril, Ida shouting for him in turn. "I'm okay! I'm okay! But--you don't gotta... call me 'Mister Stark'..." At least they're still in one piece, though this cold is starting to bite through his winter clothing. He looks to his companion. "You okay, Eleanor? That one hit really hard... She really gets mad about ugliness, huh? Maybe she oughtta try being a better person if she hates that so much..."
    
    He looks up towards Asgard as the others pour in their efforts to take him out, to send him packing. Zed in particular really gives it his all--that storm of pink is amazing...! But... Dean hesitates to actually add in another blow of his own. As awful as that Melody lady is, and as much as he wants to protect his friends, he doesn't want to add in so many hits that Asgard gets *really* hurt. He watches and waits as the ice and flowers and energy and wind clear, and...!

<Pose Tracker> Asgard has posed.


Melody feels real good about zapping Dean right about now.

Melody is a talkative sort, but as Avril accuses her of working with the Veruni, she brushes it off as she wishes not to give people substantive answers. "Is that what you think?" She says with a coy kind of tone, "Whatever the case may be - I understand your value."

"Poor little human. Realizing the enormity of your insigificance. The world is unjust and you are powerless to do anything about it." Melody's look has this knowing air to it as she examines Xiumei, like she's holding back something within those words. "How pitiful. If you do care for Asgard's fate - know that he shall still be living out his sublime existence long after you have decayed into dust."

Something strange happens when Xiumei aims the blow at Asgard's hands. The green light deflects off one of his hands, before his hand snakes out whip quick and...

GRABS the Barrier Cross on its path away. How could he have understood her intent? Are his systems simply that fast to calculate its path?

The thing's momentum continues towards the cliff though, and Asgard's hands continue to smoke as he drags backwards as a counterweight.

It reaches the cliff at least, but before it can switch its' trajectory up, he finally rips it away and casts it aside.

And Melody remains upon her high perch, as part of the cliffside from Xiumei's effort drips down.

"This is his entire purpose. His whole world. Is to protect my beauty from foolish children that know not its value."

Avril moves to retaliate, with a fog cloud of swirling ice particles, and the Golem responds by trying to charge right through it, but he pays the price. His weakened barrier (THANKS MELODY) does not hold and the machine gun stream of ice and frost are like trying to advance in a blizzard.

It is perhaps the worst possible time for someone to strike, but... Eleanor does, as a fierce frigid wind crashes into Asgard from Eleanor's retaliation... the Golem is more prepared for the spell than last time. Unfortunately...

... he's quite near the cliff.

The wind blasts him into the cliff, and what Xiumei started, Eleanor seems to finish, as the cliff Melody stands upon cracks from beneath her weight.

In some strange show of confidence, she stands there as the cliffside breaks apart... as she stumbles and falls.

Only for Asgard to erupt back out of the falling ice and snow to snatch her out of her mid-air fall, and place her down behind him.

Most of them have seen Melody teleport. She didn't need to do that.

"As you can well see." Melody looks Xiumei's way, patting Asgard. "Pretty words about injustice cannot change something so fundamental, as the bond between a Golem and their Master."

Before her neck suddenly cranes to look at Ida around the massive Golem, "I'm terrified. Truly." Ida's dragon-slaying punch comes in, and suddenly Asgard charges forward into it. Smashing into her blazing hot punch with the same cyan aura that he uses when he sends his barrier deep into the earth. It makes contact in a strange concave clash. And it's uncertain which one might give first. As it turns out, the two counter forces seem to detonate in a wave of both concussive energy and white hot flame, sending the Golem backwards a step.

And then he turns to regard Zed. The Golem, despite having been more talkative than their first encounter is strangely silent - because Zed is giving him so much data which seems to resonate with something that is hard-coded into his system on a fundamental level. As he challenges him...

Asgard advances. And lifts his fist. Not the one that emits Barriers... but the other one. And there's something red-hot within its knuckles, such that might one suspect he actually has managed to reach some chord deep within him and pluck it. Zed darts in, and his fist suddenly swings to meet him.

But Asgard is struck four times before the blow can even land. Leaving the mark of a Z. Right as Asgard's fist makes contact with that space.

The mark left behind detonates

The explosion is much bigger than Zed might have expected. It erupts around him like a column that's then sent skyward. A concussive force that smashes the sky and parts the clouds - bringing out the sun to shine down on the landscape in the localized area for a split second.

And the Golem is on its knee.

"I - S-SEE."

There is an electrical stutter in its nascent modulators. A sign that he's taken at least rather significant damage, and he climbs up to his feet...

... and it sounds like the servomotors of his knee are GRINDING, as he takes up his stance again. "REEN-GA-GAGING."

"That's enough Asgard." Melody says smoothly, as her footsteps crunch through the snow. "While I would have preferred to capture some of them... your progress today has been magnificent. And..."

Melody produces the sphere she was playing with earlier, and touches the ring. The pyreflies within dance as Ida's voice emerges from it, as the shot pans around gently to show the others in the room. "You understand what I'm suggesting right? We're going to get rid of Grand Maester Mika and send the evidence to every corner of Spira."

Before she then touches the ring again, causing it to stop playing, "Wanted fugitives plotting a political assassination... how unsurprising. How much higher would each of you become on Yevon's list of priorities if I just happened to drop this off in Bevelle?" Her lip then curls with distaste, "Fortunately for you... that is not Odessa's way. It would make us no better than the corrupt governments we wish to eliminate... wouldn't you agree?"

And with that, she tosses it in a lazy underhanded arc towards Ida, before raising her hand and wiggling her fingers. "Ta-ta. Please look forward to my next five-star performance."

There is a white light that then surrounds her and Asgard, as the two of them start to lose dimensions. As they leave...

"UNTIL... N-NEXT TIME."

The Al Bhed Girl ends up being fine when she wakes up. Well... fine other than nausea and the worst headache of her life. "Worst hangover ever..."

<Pose Tracker> Zhang Xiumei has posed.

"I don't know, and I don't think they're in the mood to explain!" Xiumei calls back to Ida. Then, she hesitates, and she wrinkles her nose, before she calls back: "B-But... I should always be polite, Mister Stark!"

She may have difficulty shaking this habit.

She looks back at her Barrier Cross -- amazed that Asgard grabbed it, and reminds herself that despite his size, he isn't slow and plodding. It vanishes into cubes of data. She narrows her eyes at what Melody, and then glances up at her.

"I don't think you understand what his purpose is! It's bigger than you, I think..." A moment passes. "...whatever it really is."

She scowls at her. She grits her teeth -- and then she relaxes, a little. She sees the ring fly to Ida, then looks up at Asgard and Melody.

She rubs at the back of her head. "Asgard..."

<Pose Tracker> Zed has posed.

Zed is used to looking away from explosions that he's responsible for. It's like, rule number 3 in the list of Cool Guy Rules: Never look at your own explosions. But something about this one seems to be different. The explosive radius is... far larger than it aught to be. Perhaps it's that fist Asgard raised to strike him with-- that singular gesture that seemed to smolder with something Zed convinces himself was a spark of <<Fighting Spirit>>. Whatever the case, when he feels a stronger shockwave than he expected, Zed glances back at his explosion with a surprised 'Eh??'

And then he turns into a bunch of sketch lines as the blastwave sweeps him up as well.

...When it passes, Zed... Is ass-up, buried upside-down waist-deep in snow. It's... not the most dignified of poses at all.

He pulls himself out of it with a 'PFAH' and a mouthful of glacial ice, only to see Asgard... Pushing himself beyond his limits... Rising, in spite of the damage he'd incurred. Yes! That's it! Zed grins and readies his sword, prepared at that moment to carry on the fight...!!

But then Melody butts in and ends things before they continue, and Zed... Actually seems okay with this?? He, too, is pleased with Asgard's progress-- but along a different axis than the one his Master probably cares about. "Until next time, Asgard...! I look forward to it...!!"

Asgard and his master disappear into the SECOND DIMENSION. Zed turns away and looks to the others with a grin. He flashes a thumbs up...!

And then his eyes roll up into his head and he just kind of topples over into the snow with a solid *floopfh*.

He... Might have something of a concussion???

<Pose Tracker> Dean Stark has posed.

    Melody goes on and on (or it feels like she does) about how Asgard exists to protect ~*her beauty*~ and how the bond between a Golem and Master is unbreakable and blah blah blah. Dean curls his lip in revulsion. "*Gross*."
    
    Just as gross that Melody taunts them with the recording of that meeting, though she then attempts to claim high ground and vanishes with Asgard. Dean still glares at the spot where she was for a moment before he relaxes. His expression turns worried as he looks to the spot where Asgard had been. "Asgard... I wonder if he'll be okay..." He shakes his head, then turns to his friends and the Al Bhed woman, offering a hand up to the latter.
    
    "How is everybody?" he calls. "And you don't have to be THAT polite, Xiumei! It's okay, you can just call me Dean!" He looks over at Ida and Avril; then he looks down at Zed. "...is he gonna be okay?? Wait, it's Zed, of course he'll be okay," he amends a second later.

<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.

    Ida strikes the barrier with every fiber of her being. For a few heartbeats, she and Asgard are stuck in a deadlock--the immovable object has met the irresistible force, and neither one is making headway. Ida grits her teeth until her jaw starts to ache. She strains...

    The barrier detonates. Ida flies backwards, tumbling through the snow. She ends up on her back, at least thirty feet away from the point of impact. It takes a good ten seconds for the world to stop spinning. Ida picks herself up with a low groan, glances sidelong at Xiumei, and feels fresh frustration well up inside her. It's only for a moment, though. She can't afford to take her eyes off Asgard and his master for too long.

    Did Zed just... get through to him? Ida isn't sure whether to feel elated, or terrified, or both.

    Then Melody intervenes. Ida's fine features twist in a scowl as the woman reveals her contingency. "How magnanimous of you," Ida says, as she snatches the Sphere out of the air.

    Her fingers close around it with a crunch. Pyreflies trickle out from between the shattered shards. Crimson and quicksilver drip to the snow.

    "Is everyone..." Ida says, and then Zed collapses.

    "Shit. I knew that skull of his had its limits. Xiumei, help me get him inside."

    Ida glances back at the inn, and the gaping hole that used to be a conference room. "...Rin will not be happy about this."

<Pose Tracker> Eleanor Klein has posed.

Eleanor makes an effort to get up, specifically for those who called worried towards her. As Melody disappears, at least, she sighs in relief. The elf then looks up and around at the others, smiling at Dean for a moment. Then, "I really dislike her," Eleanor admits, as she rests in the snow.

Is everyone...? Eleanor pipes up here, "Ah. I think I..."

Eleanor moves to rise, "Will be fine. Just a little sore." She finishes standing, and walks (slowly) over to Xiumei, taking up a spot beside her friend as she looks up.

"...I think we'll see him again," she says, not quite standing up straight. "Ah..." She looks down at Zed, then. "At least someone's happy."

<Pose Tracker> Avril Vent Fleur has posed.

    Melody might like to talk, but on this she's mum -- relatively speaking, of course. Avril's jawline tenses: just what does she mean by this? Is the situation as she proposed or... not?

    And if not, how is it that Melody knows who she is?

    But there are perhaps things to fixate on other than that statement as the battle proceeds, pushing them -- and Asgard, along with Melody -- closer to the weakened cliffside. "--Be careful," she calls out, shortly after working her arte. "I do not think that it will--"

    Before the cliffside does indeed crack and crumble, taking Melody with it.

    Only for Asgard to leap to the rescue, no apparent will involved. Avril's hand -- the one not holding the tablet -- curls into a fist.

    Under a continued assault, the Golem is at last forced to a knee, but even here it does not stop. Melody is the one who intercedes, but hardly out of any kindness.

    She produces the Sphere and plays it back.

    "How... could you," Avril manages, shoulders trembling. Given the look in her eyes, it would be a dire mistake to confuse the emotion for anything but quiet fury. "This was... this was--"

    But Melody tosses the Sphere towards Ida before Avril can level any accusations, saying this is not Odessa's way. "Then--"

    Melody vanishes.

    Avril glances between the lot of them in the aftermath, as if to ascertain how they were and more importantly, what they do now.

    Which is when Zed passes out. "Oh--!"

    At least that answers both of her questions, in a fashion.