2021-01-31: Bodyguard Duty
- Log: Bodyguard Duty
- Cast: Ida Everstead-Rey, Seraph Ragnell, Erzebet Lefanu, Josephine Lovelace, Ashley Winchester, Seraph Lanval, Eleanor Klein, Cidney Laplace, Marivel Armitage, Layna Manydays
- Where: Guild Galad - Skyside
- Date: January 31, 2021
- Summary: Though Odessa suffered heavy losses in the attack on Valeria Chateau, it remains committed to its goal of bringing down the governments of Filgaia by any means necessary. After securing the loyalty of some of the Master's bodyguards, Odessan operatives make an attempt on his life--again. Can ARMS and their allies protect a head of state from Odessa's assassins?
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.
It's a perfectly ordinary day in Guild Galad. The sky is a bleak mid-winter grey, and snow falls from the heavens, illuminated by the glow of streetlights. The Master's Hall sits in what would normally be one of the few green spaces in Guild Galad--a tiny pocket of grass and trees grown in Sylvaland soil, and maintained at great expense. In winter, all that's left is the great steel-framed dome, an edifice of stone and metal.
As always, security is tight around the structure. No one is allowed inside without a stamped card, and that includes family and aides of Great Council members. Today, it's even tighter than usual, and for good reason. There's a long, well-armored motor-coach parked outside, surrounded by a cordon of guards. It bears the Master's personal insignia.
INSIDE
The Master's office is both large by Galadian standards and luxuriously-appointed. The floor and furniture are solid wood, imported from Sylvaland; the intricately-patterned rug is an artistic specialty of a small community within the Great Sea. The Master himself is a middle-aged man with flinty eyes and short blue hair. He wears the long cloak of his station over a colorful silk shirt and slacks. He's hard at work drafting something, judging by the steady scratch of a ballpoint pen.
The door opens without so much as a knock. "Pardon the intrusion, Your Eminence," says a voice from just outside--worried, but clear and attentive. The Master looks up, and sees Colonel Delvecchio standing in the door, flanked by two of her lieutenants. Members of the Master's Guard, all of them, and all charged with defending Guild Galad's leadership with their lives. "But something urgent has come up."
The Master reaches up to adjust his glasses, and scowls. "Urgent, you say," he says. With a belabored sigh, he sets down his pen, and rises from his chair. "More urgent than the military appropriations budget?"
"I know, sir," says Delvecchio. "But we can't discuss it here. The walls have ears." She takes a step forwards, her eyes darkening. "Ears that report to ARMS."
The Master's face twists in a look of shock. For the past few weeks, Delvecchio has been keeping him appraised of ARMS's movements within the city. They might've succeeded in wounding Odessa at the Filgaia Conference, but all that means to him is that Irving's private military is more effective than Rhadamanthus'. That makes it a priority.
"Somewhere secure, then."
The Master rises from his chair. He steps out the door without a moment's hesitation, flanked in formation by his three bodyguards.
Delvecchio reaches up to the Empathite hidden in her collar, and sends out a silent pulse. The Master will not notice anything wrong until Odessa has him at gunpoint.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Ragnell has posed.
Security is tighter than usual and nobody is allowed inside without a stamped card, but does that apply to invisible people?
Apparently not, as Ragnell strolls right in behind someone else who's greenlit through. She winks at the card inspector, who absolutely doesn't notice her, and breaks off as soon as she's inside.
Now, this isn't Odessa's first time going after the Master. But last time really didn't go well. Ragnell didn't even get anywhere close, though in fairness, she's not really all that invested in this particular murder, and it was absolute chaos back then anyway. Here, the more rigid structure works against the Master in that it's easier to identify rhythms and insinuate herself into them, get into the office building where the Master's office is located, and covertly unlock the back and side doors. The other Odessa operatives will still need to break through, but once they do that, it'll be easy street.
After that, she strolls up to the office proper in time to see the Master leaving it with his bodyguards, Delvecchio at his back. Ragnell smirks as she sends out that silent pulse, and falls in line behind the group, waiting for the others to arrive with appropriate bombastic style.
<Pose Tracker> Erzebet Lefanu has posed.
INSERT: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=csgtV0Cs4ao
And in that hallway that the Master takes, there are doors leading to a meeting room - no doubt they would have taken him into one, and from there to somewhere else in Guild Galad's warrens and so forth and so on, except that
the walls
Are falling apart
Because they are being KICKED down! Kick, kick, kick! Wood and structural metal break as the wall is given a vigorous destruction, forcing the Master's route into that meeting room, round an elegant table, given by Sylvaland once upon a time, and with most of the chairs yanked aside. On a metal tripod, such as used by surveyors, there is a glowing sphere, and as the Master is re-routed, Erzebet Mara Lefanu is in the middle of a backflip to land, ass first, in a chair on the other side of the table.
"HeLLO! It's a pleasure to meet you! I think you know how this is going to go, Mr. The Master, but I wanted to take a moment here and have a short interview beforehand!" Erzebet says, resting her chin on her hand as her other arm remains extended, pointing Haborym's barrel straight dead at the Master's throat. She tabbles her fingertips on her chin and lower lip, the glasses she wears gleaming faintly.
"Here's why you should go along with my fantasies of being a hit new journalist for the Meria Bouletin," Erzebet continues. "After we take the short statement -- we'll be done! You won't even feel it! I promise you that. I promise you that on my honor as a person of reputation and renown. If you don't, of course," Erzebet concludes, "I won't, and you will feel it, probably for a while, so - o - o - o - O have a seat right there!"
Erzebet then winks at someone behind the Master. It is not immediately obvious who. But she's sitting quite prettily, the winter sunlight in the window behind her framing her white suit and her red hair.
DC: Erzebet Lefanu switches forms to Revivified Gunner Erzebet! DC: Erzebet Lefanu switches forms to Vampir razboinica Erzebet Mara Lefanu!
<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.
Tight security means nothing when you're invisible. That's one of the lessons of today.
Another is that tight security means nothing when you've got a man on the inside... and then some.
And yet another is that even reinforced walls mean nothing when you can simply kick them down.
Josephine Lovelace, wayward archaeologist, arches an eyebrow as she walks right on in, glancing first at some gap in the room to the Master's point of view (which is to say, she looks at Ragnell) before taking in Erzebet and the ill-fated Master.
"Miss us?" Josie says to the Master, a lopsided smile on her lips. The shotgun braced against her shoulder is surely unnecessary, considering a smaller ARM would be just as sufficient in bringing the man down.
And yet, the shotgun is exactly what she's brought.
Just like the last time, in fact.
"Call me the camera crew, right?" She shifts her shotgun, as if to underline the point.
"Don't try calling for your guards or none. They're a wee bit indisposed, you might say?"
Which is to say, they're not here thanks to prior arrangements, but the Master can think what he likes.
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.
As it so happens, Ida Everstead-Rey is not here on official ARMS business. Rather, she is here because her aunt, Anna Everstead-Rey, is a member of the Great Council, and was here to meet with the Master about the upcoming changes to the military's budget. She is here as Anna's assistant. Jimmy Shen Long, Chief of Corporate Security, is here to protect them both.
The three of them make an imposing trio as they walk down the interior hall. Ida wears her stamped card on a long chain around her neck, and her winter coat hangs open, revealing a button-down silk shirt and pants. Jimmy, as usual, walks the line between upper-class and ruffian; he can't show off his sleeve tattoos since it's coat weather, but he still has his favorite bowler hat. And really, the facial scars and the eyepatch do most of the work of showing off. Anna wears an immaculately-tailored suit, and--like certain other wealthy figures of Aquvy--walks with the help of a cane. Hers looks like it's made of Dragonbone, at least at first glance.
"So," Jimmy says, as the trio walk along. "I can't wait to hear his justification for funneling more money into the second-most bloated budget in the roster. I wonder how much of it'll go right back into Anaheim's pockets. They do have Port Rosalia and Buckeye to tend to, after all."
Anna allows herself a small, wry smile. "Odessa presents a clear, mortal danger," she says. "And it is clear that we cannot trust a band of foreign vigilantes, sponsored and supplied by a foreign nobleman, to look after Guild Galad's interests."
A pause. "Is what I imagine he'd say--"
CRACK CRACK CRACK
It's funny, Ida thinks, how these things can change in an instant. In one moment, she's ready to offer a witty rejoinder to her aunt's observation--in the next, she's leaping forward, putting her body between Anna and an invisible assailant. Beside her, Jimmy draws his ARMs with lightning speed.
"That came from the Sylvan Room," says Anna, her face twisting. Ida reaches for her empathite radio and sends out an automated SOS with coordinates.
"What's the call, ma'am?" Jimmy says.
"I knew they'd try again," Anna hisses. She reaches into a coat pocket, pulls something loose--a metal disc the size of a small plate. She places it against her knee; metal unspools into a webwork of struts and supports. With her leg thus braced, she takes the lead. Anna was a soldier, once. That bearing returns to her as she runs down the hallway at full-tilt. "The call is we stop them."
SUDDENLY
A small metal canister rolls through one of the holes Erzebet punched in the walls, sparking. There's maybe a half a second to react before it erupts in a blinding flash of light, and a thunderous BANG. When the cacophony dies down...
The Master is stock-still, terrified, his hands raised in a gesture of surrender.
Anna and Jimmy stand side-by-side in the opening; Jimmy's semi-autos aim at Delvecchio's two assistants, while Anna's... cane aims at Delvecchio proper. Ida has Devil's Due pointed at Erzebet.
This could be a very ugly standoff if backup doesn't arrive, she thinks.
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.
NEAR THE CONFERENCE ROOM
"What the--?!" the Master cries, as the sounds of splintering wood reverberate down the hall.
"Shit. They're here already--we have to move, Your Eminence!" She draws a revolver from her thigh holster, puts a hand on the Master's shoulder, and hustles him along. The older man's eyes go perfectly round as the crunching intensifies--and then they turn a corner, and--
The color drains from the Master's face. "You--!" he hisses, and he freezes. Delvecchio steps back, out of the way. The Master glances over his shoulder, at the three people who are supposed to be protecting him--
"He's all yours," Delvecchio says, her face unreadable. One of the guards behind her is smiling. The other is glancing about nervously.
Harborym settles against the Master's neck. He manages a look of defiance for all of ten seconds before reality hits him full in the face.
Noel, he thinks, mortal terror tightening like a vise around his heart. Where is he--?
His son.
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.
As it so happens, Ida Everstead-Rey is not here on official ARMS business. Rather, she is here because her aunt, Anna Everstead-Rey, is a member of the Great Council, and was here to meet with the Master about the upcoming changes to the military's budget. She is here as Anna's assistant. Jimmy Shen Long, Chief of Corporate Security, is here to protect them both.
The three of them make an imposing trio as they walk down the interior hall. Ida wears her stamped card on a long chain around her neck, and her winter coat hangs open, revealing a button-down silk shirt and pants. Jimmy, as usual, walks the line between upper-class and ruffian; he can't show off his sleeve tattoos since it's coat weather, but he still has his favorite bowler hat. And really, the facial scars and the eyepatch do most of the work of showing off. Anna wears an immaculately-tailored suit, and--like certain other wealthy figures of Aquvy--walks with the help of a cane. Hers looks like it's made of Dragonbone, at least at first glance.
"So," Jimmy says, as the trio walk along. "I can't wait to hear his justification for funneling more money into the second-most bloated budget in the roster. I wonder how much of it'll go right back into Anaheim's pockets. They do have Port Rosalia and Buckeye to tend to, after all."
Anna allows herself a small, wry smile. "Odessa presents a clear, mortal danger," she says. "And it is clear that we cannot trust a band of foreign vigilantes, sponsored and supplied by a foreign nobleman, to look after Guild Galad's interests."
A pause. "Is what I imagine he'd say--"
CRACK CRACK CRACK
It's funny, Ida thinks, how these things can change in an instant. In one moment, she's ready to offer a witty rejoinder to her aunt's observation--in the next, she's leaping forward, putting her body between Anna and an invisible assailant. Beside her, Jimmy draws his ARMs with lightning speed.
"That came from the Sylvan Room," says Anna, her face twisting. Ida reaches for her empathite radio and sends out an automated SOS with coordinates.
"What's the call, ma'am?" Jimmy says.
"I knew they'd try again," Anna hisses. She reaches into a coat pocket, pulls something loose--a metal disc the size of a small plate. She places it against her knee; metal unspools into a webwork of struts and supports. With her leg thus braced, she takes the lead. Anna was a soldier, once. That bearing returns to her as she runs down the hallway at full-tilt. "The call is we stop them."
SUDDENLY
A small metal canister rolls through one of the holes Erzebet punched in the walls, sparking. There's maybe a half a second to react before it erupts in a blinding flash of light, and a thunderous BANG. When the cacophony dies down...
The Master is stock-still, terrified, his hands raised in a gesture of surrender.
Anna and Jimmy stand side-by-side in the opening; Jimmy's semi-autos aim at Delvecchio's two assistants, while Anna's... cane aims at Delvecchio proper. Ida has Devil's Due pointed at Erzebet.
This could be a very ugly standoff if backup doesn't arrive, she thinks.
GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has attacked Erzebet Lefanu with Flare Grenade! GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has gained 1 Combo! GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has completed her action. GS: Erzebet Lefanu guards a hit from Ida Everstead-Rey's Flare Grenade for 0 hit points! GS: Blind applied to Erzebet Lefanu!
<Pose Tracker> Ashley Winchester has posed.
The cacophony dies down in the room. An instant later, the cacophony is doing the opposite of dying down, when another metal canister blasts through a totally different wall and goes off with a catastrophic BANG!
"Freeze!" Ashley shouts, his ARM smoking from the recently deployed canister round. "Put your ARMS down and your hands up where I can see them!"
Ida asked for cavalry! It just so happened that this particular blue-hair was closer than expected...!
But what was he doing in the area, anyway?
EARLIER
You know who is also in Guild-Galad, except definitely on ARMS business?
That's right! It's everyone's favorite baker and pal, ASHLEY WINCHESTER, who is definitely writing back to Marina Irington on the regular to make sure she knows that he's absolutely A-OK. Really! 'It's been weeks since we even saw Odessa last, it'll be fine,' He wrote in his last letter, 'We're just here to make sure nothing abducts Ida or her family or something. It's okay, promise!'
This is a problem, because A) Who is Ida, Marina Irington might ask herself. And B) Things are definitely, 100% not Fine.
RIGHT NOW
Surely Ida knew that ARMS was hanging around to make sure everything was safe, right? She got the report in the mail, right? It wasn't just chucked recklessly onto the nightstand of the living room by a Zed who wanted to help out around the house but didn't actually know where to put the mail, right????
GS: Ashley Winchester has attacked Seraph Ragnell with Canister - Thunder Cracker! GS: Ashley Winchester has gained 1 Combo! GS: Ashley Winchester has completed his action.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Lanval has posed.
Seraph Lanval has business here! Which is what he insists, in that drunken slurring of his, and has recently been especially determined to communicate this point.
Were he anyone visible to most mortals, this would be laughed off and ignored. He is nowhere nearly appropriate for the concept of 'business' he would insist that he has, and he can only keep dumping clean water willy-nilly around the seat of Guild Galad's government to try to get someone, anyone, to notice that maybe cleaner water would be nicer.
As he is not visible to most mortals, he is merely ignored but sometimes catches laughter being in vicinity of some jokes. (They're good jokes, he laughed along with them.)
It has since upgraded to 'attempts to schedule an appointment' which has met an equal amount of success! Arguably even less. Apparently it does not work to write your name wherever you feel like on a given sheet. It also does not work to write your name eight times wherever you feel like on a given sheet. (This is when you don't ruin the sheet by getting it damp, even.) At least he's heard his name yelled by someone once in the process, albeit with an irritation and scorn he hasn't heard from someone lacking in Resonance since...
...no, that's old history. Well, no, maybe they're still around? They're an-- ah, never mind, not important. Aside from the antics, he so far hasn't tried to lean on Ida for help, because he thought getting the Master's attention would be so much easier when - from a simple point of view - mortals manage to do this all the time. One day. One day way sooner than later. He has been in Guild Galad's water, several times, and he should have been here twenty years ago at latest to discuss this and he doesn't want to have to wait for the next Master in line (it really can't wait).
He watches Ragnell, of all people, manage to get by without problems. He has himself a laugh despite that hers is a presence unwelcome on Filgaia, if only for the sort of playfully mean-spirited idea that the Master probably wouldn't give her the time of day either. Why else has he been trying to get his name in the consciousness of the establishment?!
To his credit, it dawns on the Water Seraph moments before walls start collapsing from someone kicking them down that this is Ragnell, and he goes running full tilt - without an appointment - right through a lot of the mounting chaos with some of his charming misinterpretations of what 'walking' looks like having taken a backset.
"Heyyy," Lanval calls as he catches himself against a twisted wreck of wall, leaning up against it with both eyes half-open as ARM fire and yelling fills the air, "ish thish... 'bout the Master again?" Does he have to ask? He seems to be asking the question generally, then a smile creeps on his face. Oh, yeah, if it is, not only is it the right thing to do, maybe this time he'll get a meeting with them. Right. That's established.
"C'mon, Ragnell," he shoves off against the twisted wreck of wall that's kept him upright, filing behind Ashley, taking a sip from his drinking gourd - taking a more measured, contemplative thought in a high-tension scenario where any fraction of a second might see a dead Master. "'ll do ya a sholid jusht the once. I think I know which paper ya need ta write yer name on if you wanna meet 'em."
Beat.
"...But good luck findin' a pen." That smile of his.
<Pose Tracker> Eleanor Klein has posed.
Eleanor Klein is in Guild Galad once again on this ordinary, bleak, snowy day. Of course, she appreciates the snow rather than finding it particularly gloomy--having spent so much of her time in Sielje means it brings back memories. She was, in theory, not here on ARMS business. She was here to spend some time with her fiance and act as a sounding board or an extra bit of charm on a few deals he was working on, much like he'd been along on her business back on the Thames. But that all went a bit out the window after a particular something happened.
-=-=-
Backup arrives:
"Born of the earth, carried on the winds--Dust Veil!"
Abrubtly around the Master shimmering light bursts into being, sparkling with prismatic colors and golden radiance. A magical shield--or really, a magical shroud--bursts into being around him, giving him haste and protection.
Eleanor herself bursts through the broken wall to reach for him. "This way! ARMS is here to assist!"
There's no reasonable way for her to have been close, given her business in the city.
GS: Seraph Ragnell takes a solid hit from Ashley Winchester's Canister - Thunder Cracker for 116 hit points! GS: Mute applied to Seraph Ragnell!
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Ragnell has posed.
Erzebet kicks through a wall, and Josie saunters in after her. Ragnell exchanges a nod with the latter and casually moves out of the way of the former. It's not a great life for the Master, but it looks like this attempt is going better than last time's so far. Of course, just getting inside and Odessa paying off the bodyguards doesn't mean there'll be no opposition. And sure enough, explosions happen--flashbangs, and a thunder canister that rebounds off the nearby wall and goes BOOM. It splinters part of a different wall, which crumbles down on Ragnell. As she coughs and attempts to wave away the smoke, Ashley enters the room, and Lanval follows up.
Is this about the Master again? "Yeah? Obviously?" she cracks before coughing again--she doesn't actually need to breathe, but this is a lot of debris blocking her movements all the same--before she manages to pull herself up out of the heap and jump down. She tilts her head at Lanval and frowns slightly, eyebrows furrowed.
"Lanval, I know you think you slam-dunked me jus' now, but you do realize the Master's literally right over there?" She draws her paired pistols, in the process doing the complete opposite of what Ashley just demanded, and gestures at the man in question with one of them. "I don't need to schedule shit."
Then she raises a gun and fires towards the ceiling--but that shot comes down over Ashley and Lanval an instant later in an abrupt torrent of needle lightning and rain, which provides a bit of cover for Ragnell as she ducks and rolls to one side.
GS: Seraph Ragnell has attacked Ashley Winchester with Squall Shot! GS: Seraph Ragnell has attacked Seraph Lanval with Squall Shot! GS: Seraph Ragnell has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Cidney Laplace has posed.
This, of course, isn't the first time someone has attempted to take the Master's life.
Realistically it probably isn't even the second, or the third, or the...
... well, you get the idea. The prices we pay for power.
In most recent history, however, it was at that ill-fated summit that the Master almost met his end at his enemy's stylishly-appointed and well-armed hands. The chaos of the event made for a perfect opportunity, if not for the timely arrival of members of ARMs and one very particular officer of the Galadian military.
There's something to be said for the merits of taking a more subtle, more quiet approach, of course.
There's also something to be said, however, for the merits of good fortune --
"This is starting to develop into a bad habit, don't you think?"
-- of impeccable timing.
The voice rings out in the ringing, blinding haze of Ida Everstead-Rey's flash grenade, as if it were there, just waiting for the perfect opportunity to make itself known.
It comes, directly behind Josephine Lovelace, and pairs well with the ominous, mechanical hum that begins to rise up not seconds later.
And as the bright white sear of the grenade begins to fade, there stands Colonel Cidney Laplace, her rifle held pointed at Josephine in one hand, standing tall with all the dignity that the Master lacks in this moment. One might call it a subtle way of trying to rub salt in the wound of his pride, but --
"If I weren't doing this out of a sense of duty and pride as an officer of Guild Galad, I'd say you were running up quite the tab with me, Master."
-- Cidney is the type to eschew subtleties when they're unnecessary.
That single, chartreuse eye rolls from the Master, to his entourage -- to her fellow colonel. The right corner of her lip ticks upward. "Though I guess I'm part of a dying breed in that regard. Hello, Delvecchio." Back to the Master. "Looks like you've been taking all the wrong dogs out on your walks."
Despite that wandering gaze, though, her attention never leaves Josephine. That rifle never stops its charging hum. And when her gaze falls back on the woman -- it is with the slightest, sympathetic furrow of the colonel's brow.
"It's been a while, Ms. Lovelace. I don't suppose I could convince you to drop your weapon and join the winning side, could I?"
<Pose Tracker> Marivel Armitage has posed.
THE MASTER IS UNDER ATTACK
Marivel exhales out slowly and lowers her newspaper. She folds it once, and then twice. And she says, "Right on cue mm, Eleanor?" She rolls the paper up and throws it--
--and Nob rushes off to 'fetch' it eagerly.
Her gaze naturally settles on Erzebet, bowing towards her flamboyantly inn greeting taking in a long deep breath she doesn't need and then straightens it back up.
In her hand... IS A BALL. A Blitzball to be precise.
She throws it with the power of a machina powered blitzball launcher...!
But less power, perhaps, than Guba.
But she's throwing it at Erzebet!
"Shall we play a game my vampiric valentine!" She pauses. "Because it's almost February 14th. ... Which is a holiday in the--aww you get it. You get it."
She looks to Eleanor. "She gets it."
GS: Marivel Armitage has attacked Erzebet Lefanu with Shut up And Jam Ball! GS: Marivel Armitage has completed her action. GS: Cidney Laplace has completed her action. GS: Seraph Lanval guards a hit from Seraph Ragnell's Squall Shot for 69 hit points! GS: Cover applied to Seraph Ragnell! GS: Ashley Winchester takes a solid hit from Seraph Ragnell's Squall Shot for 125 hit points! GS: Cover applied to Seraph Ragnell! GS: Erzebet Lefanu fully evades Marivel Armitage's Shut up And Jam Ball for 0 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Erzebet Lefanu gains 1 additional Combo!
<Pose Tracker> Layna Manydays has posed.
Layna has been hanging around Guild Galad for a little while. It's a place she has... complex feelings about. It's certainly quite fascinating, it feels like everywhere she goes there's something new to see. But on the other hand, it's dark except for the artificial light, the air is heavy, and she's pretty sure at least five people tried to pick her pocket.
Not that that worked out well for them. It was a good effort, she had to give them points for audacity.
And now, much later... this happens. It looks like Guild Galad's Master can't catch a break.
The wind picks up... and then, suddenly, one of the nearby fancy windows bursts open as Layna crashes through it, wreathed in a sphere of wind that catches and pulverises the shards into dust before they can skewer anyone important.
Why did she go through a window when there have been several perfectly good openings punching into the room already? ...Well, Layna always has been one with a flair for the dramatic.
"Seriously, again? I'm gonna count this as a second favor you owe me." Layna says, glancing back at the Guild Galad Master.
Indeed - she was here for the first attempt on his life at the Filgaia Conference. And now she's here for this one, too!
Quickly she scans the room. There's three very dangerous people here. Two of them already looks occupied, and the third has a big gun. More than enough for the task, but there's no such thing as too much gun. Layna can respect that much, at least. So, with her course of action decided Layna rushes toward Josie, a hand glowing red.
"Hey Josie, how's it goin'?" Layna asks casually, even as her palm thrusts out in a grabbing motion, unleashing a burst of red in her direction. It's not a direct, physical attack - it's more like she's trying to steal her strength and add it to her own.
GS: Layna Manydays has attacked Josephine Lovelace with Plunder Power! GS: Layna Manydays has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Erzebet Lefanu has posed.
Erzebet blows a kiss towards Josie with a wink, and then looks towards the Master. "So our first question is, just when did you decide that you would sell out the people of -"
Something comes flying into the room. Haborym highlights it but there's a cryptic phrase in the HUD. Erzebet peers for a moment to try and realize why it's saying 'painlight'. Is it some kind of -
Oh, she thinks a moment later.
Then she shrieks and says, "Whatever smart little boy THREW THAT THING isn't going to get a second BITE because I'm going to EAT YOUR BLOOD! Nobody go anywhere! Stay still! Ghgh! Shit!" Erzebet stands up from her seat but her glasses are a deep black-orange which is slowly de-resolving, momentarily rendering her unable to see! Maybe the Master can get away from a crazy woman with a firearm in the confusion!
"I freeze for no one, you little turd!" Erzebet shouts as she just ends up firing her gun once, into the roof, out of sheer nervous agitation. The lens tint on her glasses is fading. They look like shooter's glasses now rather than the near blinding they were as she turns - missing Eleanor's motion entirely, the protection of the Master a brief flicker.
Something is flying towards her though-- and Erzebet snaps her hands up, cross blocking it. The impact transfers through her body enough to push her back on her heels a good yard, back up against the corner of the meeting room as her arms snap down to catch the blitzball, her glasses reverting fully to normal as she gazes over the top of the object towards -
"Marivel."
BEGIN: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tf7moTpUnqE
Erzebet hurls the blitzball in a credible emulation of a semi-professional pass towards Ida and her levelled firearm. The blitzball is being propelled by the strength of twenty, and it is no sooner flung at Ida than Erzebet is pointing her gun at Marivel and shooting at her!! A steady barrage of burning rounds as Erzebet strides forwards, taking one giant step up onto the meeting table and -- NOW she sees Eleanor.
"NO!" she says, turning the gun round to try and pop off a head shot at Eleanor, who at least had ample warning from the other motions. "BAD! SHOO!"
GS: Erzebet Lefanu has attacked Ida Everstead-Rey with KILL KILL KILL KILL KILL KILL! GS: Erzebet Lefanu has gained 1 Combo! GS: Erzebet Lefanu has attacked Marivel Armitage with Festival of Servants! GS: Erzebet Lefanu has attacked Eleanor Klein with Festival of Servants! GS: Erzebet Lefanu has completed her action. GS: Ida Everstead-Rey takes a glancing hit from Erzebet Lefanu's KILL KILL KILL KILL KILL KILL for 68 hit points! GS: Ida Everstead-Rey activates Power Burst! GS: Eleanor Klein takes a glancing hit from Erzebet Lefanu's Festival of Servants for 54 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Ashley Winchester has posed.
It's... That lady again! Ashley does not yet know what to make of the rogue Seraph, Ragnell. Truth be told, this whole business of Seraphim is still a little beyond him. Would he even be able to see them if it were not for the delicate balance of forces warring within his soul? He'd certainly never displayed any aptitude for the mystic arts before then.
What is the measure of Ashley Winchester's ability? How much is he leaning on the Blazer and the Holy Sword, without even realizing it...?
Electricity pours down in pinprick bolts. Ashley raises his bayonet instinctively to absorb the storm, but literally anyone who knows anything about electricity could tell that this is a bad idea. He yelps as the lightning arcs down into his weapon and up his arms, but clenches his jaw through the lingering spasms once the worst of the shock has passed.
Somehow, he manages to fight through his twitching muscles to shove another canister into the Bayonet's chamber. "I said..." He orders, taking aim with shaky arms. "ARMS down!"
Blam! The canister fires! It bursts just moments before impacting Ragnell's cover, releasing a series of... metal orbs which all fall to the ground, seemingly inert.
For only an instant.
Electricity blasts between each of the orbs, linking them together in a network of crackling nodes. A massive electromagnetic field suddenly starts pulling down, threatening to yank Ragnell's guns out of her hands! Or at least, to make it much harder for her to aim...!
GS: Ashley Winchester has attacked Seraph Ragnell with Canister - Electromagnetic Net! GS: Ashley Winchester has gained 1 Combo! GS: Ashley Winchester has completed his action. GS: Josephine Lovelace takes a solid hit from Layna Manydays's Plunder Power for 0 hit points! GS: Weaken applied to Josephine Lovelace! GS: Mighty applied to Layna Manydays!
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Lanval has posed.
Ragnell points out that the Master is literally right over there, and an eye travels over there. He blinks once. "Huh."
DURING THE PREVIOUS INCIDENT
Lanval literally walks right by said Master without sparing him a second look because of two very important things: 1) two people got shot and he might be able to save them, 2) there is an unguarded punch bowl and he would like the extra strength to work miracles, also 2 and not 3) also he's thirsty.
NOW
There's no time to further look dumbfounded because Ragnell is sending rain and lightning alike and he has to hurriedly conjure pure water to put something to try and catch the lightning bits. The rain's already soaking the ground and ensuring there's nowhere to actually go to avoid having it conduct. The handful of raindrops that do get in give enough for the lightning to play with that some of it pierces. Steam hisses and rises from the impact.
"...shtruck me ash shomeone who never left the office, from the shound of it," and so, Lanval has been subject to - as they say -
S E L F - O W N A G E ! ! !
Ragnell might have a very important point in all of this, but now, the remaining stormwater from her cover fire is brought to his grasp, the expected glyphs underneath as he sweeps out this small quantity of water like they were tiny, sharp little raindrop daggers as if to sweep for her current position.
GS: Seraph Lanval has attacked Seraph Ragnell with Ha Ha Raindrops Go Swish Swish! GS: Seraph Lanval has gained 2 Combo! GS: Seraph Lanval has completed his action. GS: Marivel Armitage takes a glancing hit from Erzebet Lefanu's Festival of Servants for 59 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.
For a long, lingering moment, it seems like they might just have this one in the bag. The security's bought off, they have time enough for the rest of what they need to do, and then it's lights out for the Master.
And then a metal canister comes rattling into the room. There isn't enough time for Josie to so much as call out a warning when it goes off -- the most she manages is to close her eyes and turn her head and her ears are still ringing when the initial tumult dies down.
And it is at this moment that Josie realizes that someone is standing behind her. One ear just about twitches at that sound. It's not unfamiliar.
"Shoulda figured," she drawls, without even looking back to see who's behind her. "You just keep on turnin' up like a bad coin, eh, Cidney...?"
The colonel's hardly the only one to make an appearance on the floor: more of them pour on in -- ARMS, and other apparent allies of theirs. The matter's no longer so much 'in the bag' as it is on the floor and rolling away from them--
Particularly when that wizard girl interrupts with a shielding spell. Crest Sorcery's hardly Josie's area of expertise but she can still sniff a ward.
Cidney, meanwhile, offers the archaeologist a deal. Of a sort.
"Suppose you might try, right?" Josie replies, back still to Cidney. "But the answer's still the same." Her fingers shift on the shotgun's grip; ever so slightly she moves her weight from one foot to the other. Before she can try whatever it is she has planned, though--
Layna Manydays comes in right through the window. It's a distraction that Josie improvises upon, stepping sidelong and leveling the shotgun at Cidney before the glass even settles on the floor. Perhaps this would have translated then into another standoff in this space.
But Layna makes a gesture towards Josie while calling out her name and this is the moment in which Josie's ARM dips in the air and she hunches over as something is stolen right out from under her before she's even gotten started.
But she didn't get where she was by giving up before the gate.
She straightens a mere millimeter, and pulls the trigger.
BGM: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kBBhAUcpW1I
Dancing back a halfstep, she follows suit by jerking the shotgun towards Layna, her body twisting as she does. Bearing the black ARM before her as if it were a shield, she flips it about in her grip, shells clattering on the floor as she ejects them. She doesn't stay put: moving, she pulls back from the two focusing on her while keeping them in her sights.
"Long time no see, Layna! How goes the piracy trade?"
GS: Josephine Lovelace has attacked Cidney Laplace with Lunar Thorn! GS: Josephine Lovelace has attacked Layna Manydays with Lunar Thorn! GS: Josephine Lovelace has attacked Josephine Lovelace with Heart and Dart! GS: Josephine Lovelace has completed her action. GS: Josephine Lovelace accepts Josephine Lovelace's Heart and Dart for 0 hit points! GS: Amplify and Hyper applied to Josephine Lovelace! GS: Layna Manydays takes a glancing hit from Josephine Lovelace's Lunar Thorn for 59 hit points! GS: Cidney Laplace takes a glancing hit from Josephine Lovelace's Lunar Thorn for 57 hit points! GS: Seraph Ragnell guards a hit from Seraph Lanval's Ha Ha Raindrops Go Swish Swish for 73 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Seraph Ragnell gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Seraph Ragnell takes a solid hit from Ashley Winchester's Canister - Electromagnetic Net for 123 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Seraph Ragnell gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Jam applied to Seraph Ragnell!
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.
Ida's maneuver has worked as intended--it's thrown Erzebet off, and bought everyone a few precious seconds. In those few seconds, the gamble pays off. The backup Ida hoped for arrives.
'This is starting to develop into a bad habit, don't you think?'
"Cid," Ida breathes, a mixture of gratitude and relief in her eyes. Moments later, ARMS arrives, too--and in force.
"Ghh--!" Delvecchio pulls the trigger, sending two rounds at Jimmy's center of mass. The security chief is already moving, twisting out of the way. His return fire is a hail of bullets, fired one after another with blinding speed. One of the traitor bodyguards falls, blood pouring from his neck and chest. Delvecchio's other accomplice takes the riskier option--she pulls out a small, thin grip that telescopes outward into a baton. She steps forward, swinging the baton at Anna, a woman with a bad leg and nothing more than a cane for self-defense...
Anna's lips pull back from her teeth. The cane in her hand twists as the Hyadean biotechnology within it activates. A long, thin cutting edge extends from its ventral side; the tip hollows out into a barrel, and the grip reshapes itself into something more suited to a lethal weapon.
In a heartbeat, Anna is holding a lovingly-repaired Hyadean gunblade. She catches the woman's stun baton, and shoves her back.
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.
Erzebet doesn't give Ida the chance to support her family. A blitzball comes sailing at her with bone-snapping force; Ida whips her upper body back, pivoting on her right heel. The ball glances off her shoulder, which means it's still a jarring impact. If Ida didn't have Hyadean tissue reinforcing her human flesh, it could've cracked her shoulderblade. She grits her teeth--through the brief haze of pain, she sees the Master recoil, staring a moment at Eleanor in confusion and terror.
"Back, Your Eminence!" Ida cries, because she's not as deeply personally fed up with the man as Cid is. "Behind me!" She steps forwards, snapping off a single shot. The sharp report of Devil's Due echoes through the conference room. A bullet flies through the air, aimed at Erzebet's center mass; the propellant, meanwhile, boils off as a cloud of thick gunsmoke. It swirls around Ida--and around the Master, as he puts himself behind Ida and the other members of ARMS.
GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has attacked Erzebet Lefanu with Smoke Follows Fire Ignition! GS: Ida Everstead-Rey assumes the Avenger stance! GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has completed her action. GS: Erzebet Lefanu critically guards Ida Everstead-Rey's Smoke Follows Fire Ignition for 17 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Erzebet Lefanu gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Riposte applied to Ida Everstead-Rey! GS: Erzebet Lefanu activates Guard bonus!
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Ragnell has posed.
Ahh, here comes the cavalry. Several other members of ARMs and other various Drifters arrive to thwart this new attempt of Odessa's to kill the Master. Since Ragnell is only here to help out and doesn't have a horse in this race otherwise, it doesn't bother her particularly, though Erzebet screaming is always a treat*. The Master's bodyguards are tied up with Ida's pals, and Eleanor over there seems to have cast some kind of defensive magic on the target. They're doing pretty well at this counter for all that the initial attack came at a surprise.
Lanval meanwhile stares at the Master like he hadn't seen him before, which apparently he hasn't. "Didn't put in the research, huh? I get it. It's not like I give a shit about him either," Ragnell says with something that could be sympathy if there weren't a distinct mocking tone in her voice.
But Lanval gathers up that water to swing back at her in the form of daggers, and Ashley is firing off another set of canisters that shoot metal balls that land and create a gravity-like magnetic effect to tear Ragnell's pistols from her hands. She manages to deflect some of the water daggers with her pistols, but once Ashley (whom Ragnell also has little experience, though she's heard a few things about his brain buddy) disarms her, well, it's not great.
So Ragnell grabs a nearby swivel chair and HURLS it across the room to slam directly into Ashley. Magnets don't do much against wood and leather, after all. "No one asked you!!" she shouts, right before she swivels around and attempts to land a series of kicks up Lanval's belly, chest, and face.
* a nasty kind of treat, like those horrible medicine-like hard candies your grandparents insist on putting out even though no one likes them
GS: Seraph Ragnell has attacked Ashley Winchester with Heartbreaker! GS: Seraph Ragnell has gained 1 Combo! GS: Seraph Ragnell assumes the Avenger stance! GS: Seraph Ragnell spends 1 Combo on Interrupt! GS: Seraph Ragnell has attacked Seraph Lanval with Pummel Kick! GS: Seraph Ragnell has completed her action. GS: Ashley Winchester takes a solid hit from Seraph Ragnell's Heartbreaker for 152 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Ashley Winchester gains 1 additional Combo!
<Pose Tracker> Eleanor Klein has posed.
"Right on cue," Eleanor agrees with Marivel. And then the chaos begins, and foreknowledge can't do a lot for this compared to the speed at which reality happens. Nob rushes offe, and Eleanor rushes in, to find... ah. Of course he's staring.
"Later!" she says, but abrubtly Erzebet has recovered from her brief distraction, and her shout of NO gives Eleanor the rest of the memory. She ducks down, trying to pull the Master down with her while she's at it. She isn't personally fed up with him. Though of course, there's the standard rivalries in place of the Aquvy nations. And just now--
"Your Eminence," Eleanor says, "We are on your side!"
She can't get him out of the way so easily, though she's tempted to use the red bracelet on her left wrist and force the issue. But not yet.
Instead she turns back towards Erzebet. "Sorry, but I'm afraid you won't be keeping him."
She pulls a Crest then, channeling Fray and Wing together with a burst of bright light. "Remembered pain, strike my foe! Acrimonious Echo!"
"I'll explain later!"
GS: CRITICAL! Seraph Lanval takes a glancing hit from Seraph Ragnell's Pummel Kick for 60 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Seraph Lanval gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Seraph Ragnell enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: Mute expired! GS: Seraph Lanval has lost 2 Combo from Interrupt! GS: Eleanor Klein has attacked Erzebet Lefanu with Acrimonious Echo! GS: Eleanor Klein has gained 1 Combo! GS: Eleanor Klein has completed her action. GS: Gamble: High! Erzebet Lefanu takes a glancing hit from Eleanor Klein's Acrimonious Echo for 64 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Erzebet Lefanu gains 1 additional Combo!
<Pose Tracker> Layna Manydays has posed.
Layna weaves to the side as Josie takes aim and fires. She dodges just in time. The gunfire grazes her, catching her in the side and blowing back her coat. It looks like it hurts, but Layna just grins.
"Ah, well, can't say I've had much opportunity to really get back into it." Layna admits with a shrug, rolling her shoulders to loosen herself up. "But my crew an' I, we always find ways to get by."
She casts a glance toward the woman that appears behind Josie. She doesn't know Cidney personally, but she recalls her from the conference. She gets a brief, polite nod of greeting but her attention returns to Josie.
"How about you? Looks like business is going great. Assassination, that ain't a small-time gig." Layna comments. It might be hard to hear, though, as the wind soon continues to pick up. She rushes at Josie with a ferocious grin, unleashing a volley of punches - either with the force of the wind behind them.
She does take a brief glance over in Lanval's direction, just to make sure he's still doing alright. A brief glance toward the Master, too - it wouldn't do for them to get so distracted fighting that someone tried to make an attempt on him.
GS: Layna Manydays has attacked Josephine Lovelace with Dread Momentum! GS: Layna Manydays has gained 1 Combo! GS: Layna Manydays assumes the Avenger stance! GS: Layna Manydays has completed her action. GS: Josephine Lovelace critically guards Layna Manydays's Dread Momentum for 30 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Josephine Lovelace gains 1 additional Combo!
<Pose Tracker> Cidney Laplace has posed.
'You just keep on turnin' up like a bad coin, eh, Cidney...?'
Cidney Laplace's gaze shifts, briefly, towards Anna, with the faintest tug of a pensive frown.
"... That's one way of looking at it," concedes the colonel. "To me..."
Cidney catches sight of Layna just seconds before she bursts through that window in a swirling storm of dusted glass. Her legs tense.
"... bad or good fortunes just depend on who knew to make the right call at the right time before that coin hits the floor."
CRASH
Any expression of disappointment in Josephine's tragic rejection is put on hold as Cidney springs the exact moment the pirate comes bounding dramatically in; the colonel, at least, has time enough to appreciate the style involved, but she's not the only one capitalizing on the moment. Josephine levels her shotgun at Cid. Cid lands, pivoting close toward a collapsed chair within the office space.
Layna's actions inspire the briefest, most crucial of hitches in Josephine, and it speaks to volumes of experience that the colonel does not even hesitate a single second to capitalize on the moment with the squeeze of the Celestial Gardener's trigger.
It's a quick shot -- a diffuse, scattering burst of solar-powered rays that rip plasmic heat across the impromptu battleground with a spinning flourish on the military woman's part. As Josephine fires off her shotgun. But it's not for show -- not entirely, really.
Because that spin gives Cid the momentum she needs to kick up that chair into the air not a second after she fires with the perfect timing. Josie's shotgun fires.
And that chair is shredded to pieces, knocking back just past Cidney as the remainder of the attack clips the woman's right shoulder with a wince.
In the aftermath, Cid offers a two-fingered salute and a mouthed word of "thanks" to Layna, before her attention refocuses on Josephine.
"... Then I guess I'll have to keep trying, won't I?" remarks the colonel. "Seeing all that talent wasted is a shame."
GS: Cidney Laplace has attacked Josephine Lovelace with Heartless Hydrangea! GS: Cidney Laplace has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Marivel Armitage has posed.
"Impossible...!" Marivel shouts. "She caught the Shut Up And Jam Ball....!"
She isn't going to shout that she's on The Master's side because she'd feel a little ill saying it. It isn't UNTRUE exactly but it isn't something she likes to announce. Marivel is more pro-the nobility than most by virtue of seeing what results from democracy (hint: the end of the world) but that doesn't mean she's thrilled with every particular noble or rhater she approves of greed and cowardice.
"I guess you're kind of--"
Erzebet shoots Marivel in the head. Marivel rolls back a few feet before hopping back up to them. "Geeze...! talk about the cold shoulder..."
"...Frigid!"
Bursts of ice come crashing in from all sides towards the Nosferatu but is Marivel telegraphing all her techniques going to help in the long run?
Her forehead is still smoking from where Erzebet shot it.
GS: Josephine Lovelace fully evades Cidney Laplace's Heartless Hydrangea for 0 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Josephine Lovelace gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Josephine Lovelace activates Evade bonus and Countermeasures! GS: Marivel Armitage has attacked Erzebet Lefanu with Frigid! GS: Marivel Armitage has gained 2 Combo! GS: Marivel Armitage has completed her action. GS: Erzebet Lefanu guards a hit from Marivel Armitage's Frigid for 76 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Erzebet Lefanu gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Hyper applied to Marivel Armitage!
<Pose Tracker> Ashley Winchester has posed.
Ashley's brain-buddy is even more famous than he is! What a terrible state of affairs. But maybe it's a bad idea to try to compare one's own infamy to that of some kind of ancient thermonuclear super Satan.
Ragnell's guns slam into the ground. This is a victory! For a moment, Ashley wonders if she'll soon follow through with the rest of his previous instructions.
Nope. Ragnell's hands are not in the air. Her hands are on a chair, which she then hurls through the air, directly into an unfortunate mister Winchester. Ashley yelps as the super-heavy-duty, Guild Galad-brand office chair knocks him straight to the ground, though his head goes through a table on its way down. Maybe that's how they can deal with Lord Blazer: give Ashley enough concussions and the problem will surely sort itself out!
(Don't do this)
"Ugh..." the gunner grunts as he pulls himself unsteaily onto his feet. A thin fog swirls around him, surely just the result of a Water Seraph being in his general vicinity, right?
Not quite.
Elemental energies swirl up from around his feet in currents of mist and rivulets of water, accumulating around the barrel of his ARM and condensing into an increasingly dense sphere of pure water. "If you wanted me to have a seat, you could have just asked...!" Ashley grumbles, the watery globe swelling dangerously as he takes aim.
When he fires, it's not just a bullet that races from his gun, but a beam of ultra high-pressure water, one easily capable of punching a hole through steel...!
The back-blast of fluid swirls around him as well, forming a bubble of protective liquid that may or may not be wise to have around near an electrically-affined Seraph.
GS: Ashley Winchester has attacked Seraph Ragnell with Aqua Spiral! GS: Ashley Winchester has gained 1 Combo! GS: Ashley Winchester has completed his action.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Lanval has posed.
"Mmmmph," Lanval grunts at the (largely well-deserved mockery). When Layna steals a glance over to him, he looks flustered and appropriately S E L F - O W N A G E ! ! !. "...Put in the care ta try 'n meet 'em on the termsh they do... they ain't gonna lishten 'bout nothin' if I jusht barge on in like--"
Beat.
"...Like I kinda jusht did behind ya," okay yeah we don't need the third set of that phrase. That is a well-trodden one now. It can have cooldown.
Just as Ragnell smoothly transitions from FLUNG CHAIR, Lanval moves forward to meet her lunging kicks with a grace that belies the bulbous shape of his form. The kick grazes his belly, swaying to an illogically balanced extent to lean back to allow the next shot to his chest to just pass over his face, and just as he looks up -
Catches it in the face, sending him sliding back against the ground and up a sloped protrusion of Erzebetted wall.
"Y'know, I think I jusht learned shomethin' today~" Lanval concedes as he is lying upside-down, wiggling those legs of his to throw himself up to a stand with that weird way he flows, hurling himself into Ragnell's way with a series of playfully silly high steps along with a shoving motion. "I know it'sh a bad time, but hey," he takes a bit of the Aqua Spiral being blasted near him to freshen up, swinging his head around like he were a subject of a shampoo commercial, "I think I'll cut in line! Ha ha ha!"
Keeping his back, unwisely, to Ragnell - but she likely already sees through what he's intending.
GS: Seraph Lanval has attacked Seraph Ragnell with Carefree Stroll! GS: Seraph Lanval enters a Counter stance! GS: Seraph Lanval has gained 1 Combo! GS: Seraph Lanval has completed his action. GS: Seraph Ragnell takes a glancing hit from Ashley Winchester's Aqua Spiral for 76 hit points! GS: Cover applied to Ashley Winchester! GS: Ashley Winchester drains Seraph Ragnell! Ashley Winchester gains 38 temporary hit points! GS: Seraph Ragnell fully evades Seraph Lanval's Carefree Stroll for 0 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Erzebet Lefanu has posed.
Erzebet does not have time to talk back to Ashley because Ida is moving fast and fluidly. She is already on the tabletop and thus honestly pretty far into the open, even as another gun fires and the bullet flies straight through her top and through her right breast and out through her back just below the shoulder blade. There is a gout of fresh, arterial blood, another, and Erzebet sways -
"Guh! Oww!! Dammit!" As she wheels on Eleanor, she says, "Go outside for three minutes and we'll be done! You can have him for as long as you - want -" And she blanches then, reeling as Eleanor's invocation strikes her.
Eleanor sees Erzebet gasp like a fish for several seconds -- and then she points Haborym at her. "h... hah... I'm surprised you had the guts to try magic like that... this must be a crisis point, but even so... that was one of the forbidden sorts of spells, isn't it? The ones that aim for *direct termination of life*? It felt like... it was effective, too... but there's a problem with your plan, Witch of Death!"
* Title candidate gained?
"I cannot die!"
Oh.
She whirls on her heel, scuffing the Master's tabletop as she leans into Marivel's incoming barrage of ice. "Hmfh-- well, well! I don't know what to say to this, Marivel. Are you feeling well now that you're interfering again? We haven't seen one another in a while, much less most of your lackeys, such as the Witch of Death!"
"But how much have you told them... about ME?" Erzebet asks, even as she pivots round to hold her singular gun catty-corner and fire it, at an angle not usually taken, at Ida -- and these rounds are hotter than usual, smouldering against what they hit. That's what you get for having a room full of wood, rich boy! (The rich boy is the Master in this case.) As she does this, she kip-hops towards Marivel and swings one foot around to administer another of those horrifying kicks-- it is almost grotesque, almost PLAYFUL, but perhaps Erzebet knows Marivel well enough to expect she will, at most, shatter Marivel against a bulkhead for a while.
But it is Eleanor who gets the unique and loving attention of Erzebet - for Erzebet steps to the side of this heavy, costly table and then twists round to give it a peculiar back stomp. Eleanor might not fully fathom this motion until the table rocks and Erzebet moves with disgusting speed to kick the far wall, adding more impulse --
And sending the elf to be crushed beneath the wood!! An ironic demise, or a shift in the battlefield's energy?!
GS: Erzebet Lefanu spends 1 Combo on Poison! GS: Erzebet Lefanu has attacked Ida Everstead-Rey with I'm Burning 4 U! GS: Erzebet Lefanu has gained 1 Combo! GS: Erzebet Lefanu has attacked Marivel Armitage with Illusionary Dance! GS: Erzebet Lefanu has gained 1 Combo! GS: Erzebet Lefanu has attacked Eleanor Klein with Requiem for the Guardians! GS: Erzebet Lefanu has gained 1 Combo! GS: Erzebet Lefanu has completed her action. GS: Ida Everstead-Rey guards a hit from Erzebet Lefanu's I'm Burning 4 U for 67 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Ida Everstead-Rey gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Disease and Poison applied to Ida Everstead-Rey! GS: CRITICAL! Eleanor Klein guards a hit from Erzebet Lefanu's Requiem for the Guardians for 93 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Eleanor Klein gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Cripple applied to Eleanor Klein! GS: Eleanor Klein activates Guard bonus! GS: Marivel Armitage critically guards Erzebet Lefanu's Illusionary Dance for 31 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Marivel Armitage gains 1 additional Combo!
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Ragnell has posed.
"That would make great sense, Lanv, if any o' these jokers could see you in the first place," Ragnell replies. Even so, she smiles, even laughs, and not even in a mocking way. "I'd ask if you were doin' this on purpose, but it's like, of course you are, right, Lanval the Mirthful Wellspring?"
She even snorts and laughs at Ashley's quip about taking a seat. "Man, I lucked out! This is the *fun* side o' th' battlefield." As if to prove her point, Lanval sort of stumbles over himself at her in a silly walk, one she moves out of the way of neatly as she laughs. It's not very effective as an attack, but it *does* serve its purpose as a distraction while Ashley casts his spell and ultimately shoots a jet of high-pressure magic water at her.
She manages to avoid a direct hit, but even a sideswipe is nasty when it's a jet that can puncture steel. She rolls to one side with a grimace of pain, but she doesn't seem mad about it; on the contrary, she seems like she's enjoying herself. "That's more like it! You gotta lean into that attitude, Lanv," she calls, laughing along with him. Her weapons have still been magnetized to the floor, but that refreshing rain that follows the jet of water is an excellent conduit for her magic, such that she leans into it with the appearance of a golden Seraphic glyph.
"Blitzstrahl!" she calls, first creating a tiny thundercloud over Lanval's head and sending down a small bolt of lightning from it down towards his head. This small, quick spell speeds up her casting for the next in the queue, and she chants, "O darkened stormclouds! Thunder Blade!!"
From an angle, a blade made of lightning shunks down towards Ashley and snaps off a burst of concussive force upon impact with the floor, potentially knocking Ashley down. A heartbeat or two later, the blade EXPLODES with electric energy, catching anything (Ashley) that's unlucky enough to still be in its way.
GS: Seraph Ragnell has attacked Seraph Lanval with Blitzstrahl! GS: Seraph Ragnell spends 3 Combo on Gatling, loading 3 into Gatling! GS: Seraph Ragnell has attacked Ashley Winchester with Thunder Blade! GS: Seraph Ragnell has gained 2 Combo! GS: Jam expired! GS: Seraph Ragnell has completed her action. GS: COUNTER! Seraph Lanval counterattacks Seraph Ragnell with Counter Attack! GS: CRITICAL! Seraph Lanval takes a solid hit from Seraph Ragnell's Blitzstrahl for 157 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Seraph Lanval gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Break applied to Seraph Lanval! GS: CRITICAL! Ashley Winchester critically guards Seraph Ragnell's Thunder Blade for 48 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Ashley Winchester gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Seraph Ragnell critically guards Seraph Lanval's Counter Attack for 22 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Seraph Ragnell gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Seraph Ragnell activates Guard bonus!
<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.
"Yeah? Looks like you 'n me ain't so different," Josephine remarks, to Cidney Laplace.
And then the window gets kicked in, leaving Josie with more than enough on her plate for the moment.
Particularly when Cid, taking advantage of the moment, opens fire upon her with that ARM of hers mere seconds before Josie returns the favor. It's a quick burst, little more than a beam of direct afternoon sunlight cast through a window for a few crucial moments. Josie's reflexes are good ones -- she rolls backwards in a hard lean, the pulse of the weapon still quick enough to steal an inch of her bangs from her. They're utterly incinerated; something akin to a mix of surprise, mild shock and interest cross the archaeologist's face. She arches an eyebrow: the weapon is quite impressive. And it would have made an impressive hole in her head if it had hit.
Making the right call at the right time, indeed.
"Yeah? Tomb-raiding or suchlike? Filgaia's no lack of 'em. Sometimes you can collect a pretty gella for the contents. Better pay 'n this lot, yeah?" She jerks her head towards the Master, as if to underscore the point.
Layna closes on her and Josie's grip on that strange black shotgun shifts; she releases it, catching it just above the trigger. Turning towards Layna as the other woman advances, she meets the volley of fists with nothing so much as the stock of the ARM, bearing it like a shield.
"It's a fair cop," she comments in reponse to Layna's remark, her right shoulder rising in an abbreviated shrug, as if to say 'what can you do'. "Ain't the first, neither."
MONTHS AGO
It would have been the perfect shot. In the chaos of the assault on the summit, who would think to look to the galleys above for a would-be assassin? Taking the Master's head in her sights, Josie's breath evens out; her gaze is heavy-lidded, an odd counterpoint to the pulse thrumming in her veins. Her finger eases over the trigger. But before she can take the shot--
NOW
Her lips move and unless Layna has a very good ear, she'll miss the few syllables the archaeologist utters. That right hand rises in the next heartbeat; electrical current swims down the length of her arm. Hopping back a step, she twists with the momentum there to hurl the gathered electrical force for Layna. "Bolt Lance!"
She catches a footstool with a foot, kicking it between herself and Layna, as if to also provide her with a bit of a hazard for the next time around, all the while again tossing her shotgun into the air and catching it.
This time by the stock.
"You'll keep trying, eh? The persistent type, colonel?" She stalks backwards, her gaze dancing between both of her opponents. "Or is it more'n just business? Can't say I ain't flattered or none, now, but--"
She snaps the shotgun upwards with all the speed of a predatory cat, the shot screaming through the air for Cidney.
"I don't think you can afford me!"
GS: Josephine Lovelace spends 3 Combo on Gatling, loading 3 into Gatling! GS: Josephine Lovelace has attacked Layna Manydays with Bolt Lance! GS: Josephine Lovelace has attacked Cidney Laplace with Scarlet Tiger! GS: Josephine Lovelace has gained 1 Combo! GS: Josephine Lovelace has completed her action. GS: Layna Manydays guards a hit from Josephine Lovelace's Bolt Lance for 82 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Layna Manydays gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Layna Manydays activates Guard bonus! GS: Cidney Laplace takes a solid hit from Josephine Lovelace's Scarlet Tiger for 131 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Marivel Armitage has posed.
"Well a little, but it's not my backstory to tell!" Marivel protests, still squirting smoke out of her forehead. "Plus I shouldn't really share what I learn later on before I learned it because then the Hounds will come after me again and they're real annoying. One touch and POOF! But I have missed you, Erzebet. Know it wasn't by choice! I keep getting teleported to the moon! Not by choice, mind. It's a lot less fun than Filgaia, don't you think? Even if there are some lovelies there."
She is given pause at a comment.
"Witch of Death..." Marivel sounds... JEALOUS.
Erzebet moves in with a bunch of kicks for Marivel's body. Her defenses against FEET are minor compared to everything else, but she can still bring up a crackling energy field emblazoned by runic characters that prevent the kicks from hitting Marivel directly but the concussive force still impacts, if reduced, pushing her back. She does slam against the bulkhead though--leaving blood red splatter where she impacts against it--but Erzebet will know it's not REAL blood. It's part of the illusion.
She sinks to a crouch, "Whew...! I was worried but you clearly know your stuff."
She extends a hand and says, "Escape Down!"
A dark aura threatens to encompass Erzebet and it won't feel good at all! Or maybe it feels wonderful. But regardless, ability to defend herself will fray and weaken if she doesn't attend to it.
Marivel notices her head is a little lobsided and takes a moment to CRICK it back into its proper position.
GS: Marivel Armitage has attacked Erzebet Lefanu with Escape Down! GS: Marivel Armitage has gained 1 Combo! GS: Marivel Armitage has completed her action. GS: Erzebet Lefanu takes a solid hit from Marivel Armitage's Escape Down for 0 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Erzebet Lefanu gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Disease, Entangle, and Shieldbreak applied to Erzebet Lefanu!
<Pose Tracker> Eleanor Klein has posed.
Magic like--? Eleanor looks in surprise at Erzebet in turn in the way she gasps, the way she talks of forbidden magic. Direct termination of life. It was effective, she says, but a problem. "Oh?" Eleanor asks, and wonders at the strange title she has just received. But more to the point she wonders at Erzebet at first. ...But she's not wrong.
"You'd be surprised what I have the guts for," Eleanor says, and she doesn't get a lot of chance at first to work with this because Erzebet is very, very, very fast, and Eleanor is not. The heavy, costly table twists round--and Eleanor's eyes widen. She gets it, not immediately, but fast enough that she has time to draw on a magic--the Power Bracelet at her left wrist gleams brilliantly with mystical force, and Eleanor puts out her hands. It slams her against the wall, and she disappears against it. ...Mostly. But it doesn't press her flat against the wall. Instead, when it falls, it falls with two handprints in its luxurious surface, and Eleanor is merely hurt instead of getting her bones crunched. "...Ugh..."
She still wavers; her arms hurt. Her shoulders hurt. Her everything hurts!
"That... was a table," Eleanor manages, as the table in question slams down in front of her and her handprints are visible in it. "Well--regardless--"
"She's told us a little about you," Eleanor says then. "And I have more magic than that!"
Witch of Death. It's a horrible title. ...But she leans into it a little, "I have worse!"
...She does actually have another Time spell prepared at the moment, and the power of Wing shines in her hand in gold as she points forward. "Breath of the heavens, fall down on the unworthy! Mistral Judgment!"
She puts out her hand and a column of gale-force wind whips towards Erzebet, picking up fallen items and chairs on the way.
GS: Eleanor Klein spends 2 Combo on Headshot! GS: Eleanor Klein has attacked Erzebet Lefanu with Mistral Judgment! GS: Eleanor Klein has gained 1 Combo! GS: Eleanor Klein has completed her action. GS: Erzebet Lefanu guards a hit from Eleanor Klein's Mistral Judgment for 117 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Erzebet Lefanu gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Jam applied to Erzebet Lefanu! GS: Quick applied to Eleanor Klein! GS: Erzebet Lefanu activates Guard bonus! GS: Erzebet Lefanu enters CONDITION RED!! GS: Blind expired! [OOC] Eleanor Klein says, "bluray* She does actually have another Time spell prepared at the moment, and the power of"
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.
The Master ducks and covers behind Eleanor, pressing himself close to one of the fragments of the ruined wall. A moment's thought, and he grabs one of the discarded chairs, hauling it over to act as an additional layer of shielding.
Ida presses the assault. On anyone else that last shot would've been a sucking chest wound, at minimum, but on Erzebet, God only knows. Hyadean exoskeleton pours from her arms, but this time, it doesn't seep up and cover Ida's clothing--it's hidden beneath her sleeves. As Erzebet opens fire, Ida weaves her hands through a circular pattern, deflecting the first three bullets with high-pitched SPANG SPANG SPANG noises. Smoldering lead embeds itself in the wooden floor. Ida realizes the danger immediately. "LANVAL, THE FIRE!" she shouts, and in that moment, the next bullet rushes in, glancing off her side. Ida lets out a sharp hiss of pain as it tears through flesh and cloth alike. A brief upwelling of quicksilver gleams in the light, but then it stops, leaving only a slick of crimson. "You're not winning this one," she hisses. Not now, not ever!"
MONTHS AGO
A metal canister hits the ground at Josie's feet. She has scant seconds to react before it erupts in a blinding flash, and a thunderous boom.
"SNIPER!" Ida roars, moving in to shield the Master with her body.
NOW
Ida drives her right hand towards Erzebet's solar plexus, bright golden-white light crackling around her fingertips. "Shut up," she snaps, her temper fraying. Needless to say, if that strike hits, it's going to unleash a wave of Ida's lifeforce into Erzebet's questionably-alive biology. At minimum, it will hurt.
Behind her, Anna Everstead-Rey flows effortlessly from defense to offense, whipping her blade out to slash through the traitor bodyguard's forearm. The woman cries out in pain, drops the baton from nerveless fingers. Anna grips the gunblade's barrel carefully--the blade itself blunting in places to allow this--and swings the stock at the bodyguard's face. There's a loud CRACK, and the woman falls, blood streaming from her broken nose.
At Anna's back, Jimmy has gotten into a melee fight with Delvecchio--with guns. The two of them twist through extremely similar forms, striking at each other with the handles of their paired pistols and trying to snap off point-blank shots. It's a brutal, elegant dance of death.
GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has attacked Erzebet Lefanu with Searing Ember Strike! GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has gained 2 Combo! GS: Ida Everstead-Rey's Avenger stance ends. GS: Ida Everstead-Rey takes 25 damage from Poison! GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Ashley Winchester has posed.
A blade of electric fury descends like an executioner's axe! It comes crashing down like a fist of the heavens themselves! But this time, Ashley is ready for it. The lingering motes of moisture condense suddenly around the blade of the Bayonet-- and freeze! The musketeer raises his frigid ARM up to meet Ragnell's spell, and for a brief moment (albeit one slowed down for the sake of drama), the two weapons war against one another. Insulated from the electric current by a thick sheet of ice, Ashley's muscles still scream in protest as they push back against the spell's raw concussive force...!
The Lightning Blade explodes. So does the protective layer of ice surrounding Ashley's Bayonet. He slides back, forced away by the thundering blastwave... But surprisingly intact all things considered. "That gave me quite a shock... But it looks like I was able to keep my cool after all...!"
Remember, friends.
This is Ashley Winchester.
This is the same man who turns every encounter with an Alien Space Lizard into an impromptu Manzai comedy.
He pulls yet another canister from his hip. This one is a little different from the last few, though. This one is not a cylinder of metal surrounding a hidden cache of munitions. This one... Is a slug made of glowing, blue crystal. A miracle of ARMS technology cooked up by the girls back at the Chateau's R&D department. He slams the cylinder into his weapon. White-blue light begins to lance out through the gaps in the machinery, spilling out in a strobing disco of flashing energy. "Let's see if this is enough to break this storm. Here we go..."
Ashley pulls the trigger and unleashes...
RISING NOVA!
A wave of blinding force erupts from the Musketeer's ARM. It's not simply aimed for Ragnell herself, but the ground beneath her feet as well. The beam seems to condense there, gathering for an instant into a pool of radiant energy... Before it rebounds, shooting upward like a geyser of destructive light!
GS: Ashley Winchester spends 5 Combo on Headshot and Gatling, loading 3 into Gatling! GS: Ashley Winchester has attacked Seraph Ragnell with Rising Nova! GS: Ashley Winchester has completed his action. GS: Seraph Ragnell fully evades Ashley Winchester's Rising Nova for 0 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Seraph Ragnell gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Seraph Ragnell activates Evade bonus! GS: Erzebet Lefanu takes a glancing hit from Ida Everstead-Rey's Searing Ember Strike for 0 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Erzebet Lefanu gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Cripple and Disease applied to Erzebet Lefanu!
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Lanval has posed.
"Ha ha ha! The Mirthful Wellspring..." Lanval agrees. It is boneheaded on his part, again. Every step of his plan, in so much as one exists, is stripped bare as one ill-thought idea over another that makes the ultimate accomplishment of what he's going for seem... um. Pointless? If such thoughts cross his face, they do not show. Even as he goes careening past Ragnell, he does not so much as give the thought that he might have come up short.
"But ya know," he says even as she praises him, "I do got shome real bushinessh here," he swings an arm back - the arm bearing the drinking gourd, which is not something he does so easily with one arm any more. "Even if I don't got a--"
'Blitzstrahl!' That's a lightning bolt to his head, frazzling out his hair and beard like a porcupine - though said features shorten considerably as though they were water itself being evaporated. Eyes peer out, open and blinking but without the color and sense of growing power that follows with it. Shocked out of the full follow-through of his swing, there's not as much behind the swinging gourd for Ragnell to parry. (It still has some weight to it.)
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Lanval has posed.
"Ha ha ha! The Mirthful Wellspring..." Lanval agrees. It is boneheaded on his part, again. Every step of his plan, in so much as one exists, is stripped bare as one ill-thought idea over another that makes the ultimate accomplishment of what he's going for seem... um. Pointless? If such thoughts cross his face, they do not show. Even as he goes careening past Ragnell, he does not so much as give the thought that he might have come up short.
"But ya know," he says even as she praises him, "I do got shome real bushinessh here," he swings an arm back - the arm bearing the drinking gourd, which is not something he does so easily with one arm any more. "Even if I don't got a--"
'Blitzstrahl!' That's a lightning bolt to his head, frazzling out his hair and beard like a porcupine - though said features shorten considerably as though they were water itself being evaporated. Eyes peer out, open and blinking but without the color and sense of growing power that follows with it. Shocked out of the full follow-through of his swing, there's not as much behind the swinging gourd for Ragnell to parry. (It still has some weight to it.)
The gravitas of the situation decompresses for a hot second in Ragnell's favor as the gourd drops against the ground. "Mmmmph." Some of his features slowly recover, steam still rising off of him. "All right. Ash ya know... I got a job, too. 'n... even if I can't get 'em ta lishten," Lanval smiles as he pulls the gourd back up and has a sip.
Then the eyes re-open. There's the color.
"Then I shalt remind them of what a change of their ways couldst one day return...! Ha ha ha!" There is a lot to say here about attempting to show miracles to mortals who have long since given up such notion of them in search of short-term profit and unchecked progress.
In realistic terms...
"O shine of water holiest! Blessed Drops!" In realistic terms, no matter how pretty, voluminous, and clean these shining drops of water are, it is likely to earn only grousing about how so much of this place is ruined rather than work as a sales pitch for saving the water of Guild Galad.
At least Ragnell might appreciate it even if it's the kind of water that goes 'no, go away, shoo.'
GS: Seraph Lanval has activated a Force Action! GS: Seraph Lanval has attacked Seraph Ragnell with Blessed Drops! GS: Seraph Lanval has completed his action. GS: Seraph Ragnell takes a solid hit from Seraph Lanval's Blessed Drops for 180 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Layna Manydays has posed.
"Hey now, calling it 'tomb-raiding' sounds undignified." Layna says, though the grin suggests she doesn't actually care that much. "But, aye, the pay is good... but you know, having a guy like him owe me favors is worth a whole lot more than raw gella can buy."
One can imagine that's Layna's primary reason for being here... beyond perhaps helping Ida out, or general spite toward Odessa.
"Ah, were you there last time, too? Shame, didn't see you - would've said 'hi'." Layna replies with a shrug, as Josie points out it isn't the first time.
Layna does have a good ear, but it's not good enough to catch what Josie's doing before it's too late to dodge. Layna braces herself, rising her arms in a defensive stance the burst of electrical force crashes into her. It crackles across her body, sending her a step back with a shudder.
"Whew, that smarts..." She hisses under her breath, suppressing another shudder. She's fast, but electricity is a different beast - it's difficult to react to.
Josie has put a footstool between herself and Layna. Layna reaches out with a foot and kicks it up into the air, and with a swift turn of her body kicks it right back at Josie.
...But, that's a feint. In the next instance, she vanishes. With her disappearance, the howling wind abruptly stops.
...And starts up again directly behind Josie as Layna reappears, a fist reared back to unleash a single pin-point, full force punch.
GS: Layna Manydays spends 2 Combo on Gatling, loading 2 into Gatling! GS: Layna Manydays has attacked Josephine Lovelace with Dead Men Tell No Tales! GS: Layna Manydays has gained 2 Combo! GS: Mighty expired! GS: Layna Manydays has completed her action. GS: Josephine Lovelace takes a solid hit from Layna Manydays's Dead Men Tell No Tales for 190 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Josephine Lovelace gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Charge!! You gain 55 FP! GS: Josephine Lovelace enters CONDITION GREEN!!
<Pose Tracker> Cidney Laplace has posed.
Heat ripples like little, concentrated trails of sunlight from the barrel of Cidney Laplace's weapon. She watches where she stands; she can still feel the heat of Josephine's firepower as she watches the woman, bent backward, straightening back up. Her brow not covered by that thick eyepatch lifts fractionally.
"Fast," she notes, almost to herself. "Not bad."
But then, she already knows how skilled Josephine is, doesn't she?
From their brief encounter when the woman was still with the Black Wolves, to...
PRECEDENTLY
There is the flash of a grenade.
And then the sound of a gunshot.
It isn't aimed for flesh -- the sole target is the weapon in Josephine Lovelace's hands, to knock the shot astray at a critical moment.
And as the flash fades...
... there stands Cidney Laplace in front of Ida and the Master, a pistol in hand, that confident smile on her lips.
"Wasn't it wonderful foresight on your part, Master," the colonel all but coos, "keeping me on such a short leash?"
That lone eye focuses on Josephine, with the flash of recognition.
PRESENTLY
"'You look like you've found yourself in quite a bad lot,' I think that's what I told you before."
In the briefest lull between bouts of violence, Colonel Cidney Laplace finds precious time to reminisce. "It's not looking like it's improved, overmuch."
Persistent type, eh?
The sharpness in Cidney's smile, and in her eyes, says everything she does not:
'You have no idea.'
"If I told you it -was-, would that help win you over--"
Cid's lead in is interrupted, first with the burst of Josephine's electricity, and then with Layna's forward rush. Cidney, once more, attempts to capitalize on an opening. She sprints for the woman.
Josephine turns, that much earlier than she expected, shotgun swinging upward. Cidney's lone eye widens.
And here, she finds herself presented with a choice. To abort, or to commit.
Retreat, or advance. One side of the coin or the other.
Her decision comes in the form of her planting a bootheel into a fallen bookshelf to -launch- herself in the air at Josephine seconds before the once-Wolf pulls the trigger.
"You never know--!"
BOOM
In mid-air, Cidney can't evade that shotgun blast. It rips into her right, upper thigh and the side of her abdomen, tearing past clothes and splattering vividly red life all across the ground beneath her in a splatter pattern that aggressively chases after her wake.
But she's put in so much momentum into her all but -throwing- herself at Josephine that it barely slows her down. That rifle in her hand transforms with a fluid hiss and shift of metal, a rapier's blade all but sprouting from where the barrel once was like a plant's stem pushing from the earth.
The thrust of that blade towards the shoulder joint of Josephine's sword arm is as unswerving as Cidney's refusal to show the pain screaming through her body as she attempts to both disarm Josephine -- and distract her, to provide Layna that precious opening.
GS: Cidney Laplace has attacked Josephine Lovelace with Graceful Dahlia! GS: Cidney Laplace has gained 1 Combo! GS: Cidney Laplace has completed her action. GS: Josephine Lovelace takes a solid hit from Cidney Laplace's Graceful Dahlia for 119 hit points! GS: Charge!! You gain 40 FP!
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Ragnell has posed.
Ragnell laughs again at Ashley's persistent punning. "N'ice," she drawls. The way he handled himself against her arte wasn't bad, either. She might actually have to get serious--which would be a shame, because she's been having *such* fun this fight so far. Anticipation rises when Ashley trades in a slug made of glowing blue crystal, which sends out strobing flashing of light from within his ARM before he fires at the ground beneath Ragnell's feet, coalescing with brilliant power before *erupting* upwards to consume all in its path.
Ragnell is not in its path. What? She's not a dummy. This definitely looks like something you don't want to get hit by if you can help it, so the instant the floor beneath her started glowing, she *scarpered*. It was a close thing, though--even a split-second later and she would've had a very bad time indeed.
Which is made to happen instead by Lanval as he calls up the pure manifestation of his own power in terms of his Blessed Drops arte. "If you got real business, you might wanna rethink how you wanna get it done," Ragnell points out, a teasing grin on her face. "They can't listen if they can't hear, so why don't you figure out how you can get heard, even by those without the strength t' experience you?"
Water crashes, crushes, pops with their own concussive force. Bubbles are often derided as weak, but pistol shrimp and their cavitation bubbles would like to beg to differ. As the arte smashes her backwards, Ragnell hits the ground and rolls back, landing near her guns, the metal orbs around them now inert. She scoops them both up, staggering to her feet. That last hit took a lot out of her--but thanks to Ashley's attack, there's now a convenient hole in the ceiling, and airborne Odessa vessels are throwing down ropes for their operatives to extract themselves.
Ah, right. They were here to kill somebody or something. Guess that didn't work out so great.
Well, Ragnell's fine with leaving, as much as she's been enjoying herself so far, but they *are* going to need some cover. "Looks like this job's a bust, so I'mma let myself out. I doubt y'all are gonna just let us do that, though, so--" She holsters her guns, dips a hand into her poncho, and retrieves a stone Medium with the mark of Rigdobrite on it. She twirls it around her fingers with ease, intoning, "O countless falling stars, come forth!
"M E T E O R S T O R M !"
The Master might survive this day, but his office sure won't. There's a telltale rumble from outside, and then, as promised, a storm of meteorites hail down from above (conveniently missing the Odessa extraction air vehicles) to smash into and through the building without mercy, unless someone happens to pull something out to counter them before they can land. If nothing else, it ought to help put an end to the fighting by way of giving people--especially Ashley and Lanval, who are actually engaged in battle with Ragnell and thus have a couple of space rocks with their names on them--something more important to worry about.
Under the cover of that Meteor Storm, Ragnell then grabs one of the ropes and begins to make her exit. A parting shot might not mean much at this point, but it might make her opponents feel pettily better.
GS: Seraph Ragnell has activated a Force Action! GS: Seraph Ragnell has activated a Force Action! GS: Seraph Ragnell has attacked Ashley Winchester with Material - Meteor Storm! GS: Seraph Ragnell has attacked Seraph Lanval with Material - Meteor Storm! GS: Seraph Ragnell has gained 2 Combo! GS: Ashley Winchester guards a hit from Seraph Ragnell's Material - Meteor Storm for 139 hit points! GS: Ashley Winchester activates Guard bonus! GS: Seraph Lanval has activated a Force Action! GS: CRITICAL! Seraph Lanval takes a glancing hit from Seraph Ragnell's Material - Meteor Storm for 134 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Seraph Lanval gains 1 additional Combo!
<Pose Tracker> Erzebet Lefanu has posed.
"That's awfully polite of you, but aren't you concerned about their safety? After all," Erzebet answers Marivel as she leaps back into the air, doing a backflip in the middle of the Master's hall entirely to be a gratuitous jerk: "I do have a lot of secrets...!" This is the point where Marivel sends out that darkling aura that surrounds Erzebet, who immediately shiver-shudders like a doused dog as if to dispel the force.
She breathes out. "Indirect... are you hoping perhaps that we," Erzebet begins to say, when:
And then two things happen more or less at once.
One is that Erzebet turns to face Ida dead on and raise up an arm to block her, the arm not carrying Haborym. It deflects Ida's decisive strike slightly - it does not hit her IN the solar plexus, merely AROUND it, which nonetheless makes her double forwards and bloody saliva splatter out onto Ida even as she moves to execute another man.
Well, Erzebet assumes it was execution. She husks in breath just in time for the other spell to reach her and for a fleeting moment she seems to...
It's not clear what happens exactly, doubled over as she is, but her face is lined and weathered looking when she looks up at Eleanor, some hanks of red hair falling loose as she breathes out, "Searching for limits, are you. How relentless of you... You must be a prize recruit. Do you work for the Master or for Mari-berry quite contrary over there?"
"Well, then; when he asks," Erzebet says, cracking her spine as she straightens upwards. Age falls away from her as she breathes out, her stance going from that of a woman on the far end of middle age after a hard life with poor posture back towards her wonted face of eternal youth. She looks paler, though: more wan, more like the invalid that she had presented as in most of the previous encounters, before certain transfigurations.
Erzebet flinches as the RISING NOVA flares nearby, and her glasses flicker orange as she looks towards Ida, gritting her teeth. She sinks down into a crouch, like a spread-kneed squat.
Inwardly, she is counting who is there. She knows Marivel, at least to a general approximation. She knows *of* what is inside of Ashley, the potential he bears. But Everstead has this new trick that is sending strange feelings through her. And there is the Witch of Death, as well. She bore that - could she bear another? Two more? What if the Witch's dread powers were turned on the others? Ragnell is some kind of mini-Guardian (Erzebet does not pay close attention to some things) but Lovelace is not -
In a moment, Erzebet reaches her decision.
She kisses the air again -- towards where the Master is crouching in cover. "Next time, sweets!"
Then, to Eleanor, Ida, and Marivel - as well as everyone else present and all the ships at sea - Erzebet says, "Toodles"
and that is when she recovers from her squat.
The same dreadful strength that let her hurl a blitzball hard enough to mangle the unwary, that let her, with some wind up, kick down a rugged antique wall -- this same strength is now poured entirely into leaping *UPWARDS*, through the roof, which has already developed several problems given the immediate proximity of the conflict. She grasps the dangling rope from something-or-other with legs and, for a moment, *teeth*, before she holsters her weapon and rappels upwards.
GS: Erzebet Lefanu has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Ashley Winchester has posed.
She dodged the Rising Nova...!?
You're not allowed to just dodge the Rising Nova! It's a giant pillar of doom-light! It's supposed to be all-encompassiiiiing...!
But maybe it's a good thing that Ashley Winchester does not personally wield such incredible power. If he did, if he could, then he would be no different from the thing chained within his soul.
Ashley clicks his tongue as Ragnell goes to take advantage of the hole he carved in the ceiling to escape from the tag-team of water seraph and baker. "Don't you star't getting smart with me. We won't just let you get away--"
Meteor Storm.
It makes sense, on reflection. A meteor storm is still a storm, and thus falls neatly within the domain of a Seraph like Ragnell. Stars descend from on high, meteoroids falling, burning, but not disappearing. If those crash into the building... What kind of damage can a localized meteor storm do to a place like this? In the best case scenario, the entire office will be levelled. In the worst...
...There are still people here. Memories of Sielje flash in the Musketeer's mind. His jaw snaps shut and he plants his ARM into the ground. "...Alright. I can do this," he breathes, "Don't lose control..."
Ashley presses a hand against his chest. Blue light floods out from between his gloved fingers, blinding, scouring, the kind of light that is too clean, which glows in the colors of Cherenkov Radiation, but which does not yet scrub the world clean of all that lives. Invisible flame consumes the form of the Musketeer, replacing it with a skeletal frame of pale white chitin. Crimson fire blasts upward, hardening into a shell of black and red metal. White-hot eyes pierce the darkness beneath its helm as a cape that flickers like fire erupts from its back.
Knight Blazer stands where Ashley once did. And then it does not, as it leaps out through the hole punched through the ceiling and lands on the rooftop beyond. The Black Knight looks to the sky and raises its hands. Bright orange fire bursts to life, grasped within its clawed fingertips as if it were clutching a pair of suns. With a sound of exertion, Ashley's voice reverberates a defiant roar! A barrage of fiery bolts lances up out of the Blazer's hands, each sailing through the air like a comet in its own right, each carefully aimed to meet with and counteract one of Ragnell's own summoned meteors...!
The sight of it is every bit as apocalyptic as the stories claim-- a Blazing Knight that fills the sky with calamitous flame...!
But this time, even as it rages against the indignity within Ashley's soul, the power of that ancient disaster is brought to bare to prevent a much more modern catastrophe.
DC: Ashley Winchester switches forms to Knight Blazer!
<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.
"Is it, now?" Josie says, feigning shock. "That used to be my job, you should know!" The light in her eyes suggests she's having a little too much fun with this--
Even as her gaze seeks out the Master for a moment in the middle of the chaos. Behind a chair. Change her position, perhaps, and if he's still not under that enchantment--
Meaningfully or not, it's Layna who closes that brief opportunity for Josie as her advance closes off the opening wherein she might have rounded about and tried her chances. Their chances for finishing it this time are well and truly up the creek. Which means...
"You're quick or you're dead, right," she remarks to Cidney, her lips pressing in what manages to be 'mostly smile, partially grimace'. It's getting to be remarkably like the last time, in a way.
MONTHS AGO
There is a flash of light.
Josie doesn't hesitate. She pulls the trigger.
Something strikes her ARM; it jerks to the side. Distantly she can hear glass shattering. Blinking as the light fades, she gazes down from her perch and sights the cause behind her missed shot--
Ah.
NOW
"So you did," Josie remarks, shaking her head. "And I'll still say the same, like." A pale eyebrow arches. "Try me, colonel. But likely I'll tell you the same!"
Never mind that the current attempt is going over about as well as a lead ballon. ...In other words, it's working out like the last attempt had.
"More's the pity," Josie commiserates with Layna, taking the moment to go so far as to sigh in lamentation at their failure to cross paths at the Summit. "I heard tell the catering was pretty good!" The rhythm of their banter is flung slightly off-kilter when Layna kicks the obstacle right back up into the air at her. Of course it's a feint.
Josie blasts it out of the air anyway, swiveling back towards Layna before the toothpick remnants can even hit the floor and
Layna's not there. Turning hard, apparently expecting Layna to come at her from her right, she realizes quite belatedly that the wind had stopped.
And has started just behind her. She doesn't turn around. She instead wheels left, catching movement out of the corner of her eye and is just in time to receive the bladed end of the weapon right into her shoulder joint. Like a bee, it only needs to pierce her the once.
Layna's fist serves to take her flat off her feet and sprawled onto the floor. Like a fallen flower petal, that shotgun rests besides her.
"Ah... shit," she breathes, rolling over onto her left side. Perhaps it would be easy to think her disarmed and out of the fight--
Except for that teasing twinkle in her eyes as she -- ignoring the screaming from her arms from both arms -- pushes herself up onto her feet, a glimmering sphere suddenly in her right hand.
"Light Flare," she declares, casting the orb upwards in those moments wherein Ragnell intones those words and bids the Guardian come forth.
And it explodes in white.
Josie's read the writing on the wall. By the time the heavens stop falling, by the time the light's faded, by the time Erzebet has made her own escape...
There's no sign of Josephine Lovelace or the black shotgun.
GS: Josephine Lovelace has attacked Ashley Winchester with Light Flare! GS: Josephine Lovelace has attacked Cidney Laplace with Light Flare! GS: Josephine Lovelace has attacked Layna Manydays with Light Flare! GS: Josephine Lovelace has attacked Seraph Lanval with Light Flare! GS: Josephine Lovelace has attacked Ida Everstead-Rey with Light Flare! GS: Josephine Lovelace has attacked Eleanor Klein with Light Flare! GS: Josephine Lovelace has attacked Marivel Armitage with Light Flare! GS: Josephine Lovelace has completed her action. GS: Ashley Winchester accepts Josephine Lovelace's Light Flare for 0 hit points! GS: Blind applied to Ashley Winchester! GS: Layna Manydays fully evades Josephine Lovelace's Light Flare for 0 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Layna Manydays gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Ashley Winchester has attacked Seraph Ragnell with Corona Bolt! GS: Ashley Winchester has gained 1 Combo! GS: Cover expired! GS: Ashley Winchester has completed his action. GS: Seraph Lanval takes a glancing hit from Josephine Lovelace's Light Flare for 0 hit points! GS: Blind applied to Seraph Lanval! GS: Seraph Lanval activates Evade bonus! GS: Cidney Laplace critically guards Josephine Lovelace's Light Flare for 0 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Cidney Laplace gains 1 additional Combo!
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.
THEN
"Cid," Ida breathes, eyes going wide with shock and gratitude. It feels like she can breathe again.
The Master stares at his unexpected protectors from behind his forearms, mortal terror warring with the fear on his face. Laplace, he thinks. Of all the people...!
NOW
Something small and brassy falls from Anna's sleeve. She slips it into the gunblade's chamber, summoning her focus into the Symbological runes etched on the shell. As Delvecchio and Jimmy fight, Anna takes careful aim, and--
BOOM.
The report of the gunblade is oddly muffled. The bullet fragments the moment it leaves the chamber, blowing apart into fine-grained powder. It hits the traitorous bodyguard low in the gut; she starts to flag, instantly, as the paralytic takes effect.
The Master's Hall is sturdily-built, but it's a symbol of human opulence--not Hyadean defensive architecture. Ida shuts her eyes and looks away as Ashley's Rising Nova rips through the room, and blasts up through the ceiling. Ornate stone and ceramics erupt into a cloud of shrapnel. Through the hole, Ida hears--and then sees--Odessan personnel transports. "Ghh--!" she snarls. "Cid, the Dragonkillers aren't--"
It hits her, like a punch in the gut. They must've disabled at least some of the anti-air defenses as insurance. How far down does this go?
Josie doesn't give her time to think. In the time it takes the Symbologist to speak those words, she takes Ida's own trick and turns it against her. The heiress swears violently, rubs at her eyes. She hears Ragnell calling out another spell. Meteors, Ida thinks, as she ducks and covers. Is this going to be how--
Ida's sight returns just in time to see Ashley erupt into invisible flame. Her heart leaps into her throat as he turns Lord Blazer's power against the meteors.
"What the fuck," says Jimmy Shen Long, from behind the tesselating shield of a Symbological forcefield.
Anna, who holds the Symbol-etched gem creating that forcefield, simply frowns, deeply.
GS: Ida Everstead-Rey accepts Josephine Lovelace's Light Flare for 0 hit points! GS: Blind applied to Ida Everstead-Rey!
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.
The Master, meanwhile, is still cowering beneath his overturned chair. He never really stopped.
GS: Seraph Ragnell guards a hit from Ashley Winchester's Corona Bolt for 95 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Seraph Ragnell gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Dispel! Cover removed! GS: Seraph Ragnell has Fallen! She is no longer able to fight!
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Lanval has posed.
It is an uphill battle when it comes to directing mortals to do much of anything when they can't see you, can't hear you, can't feel you, and - most importantly - are not always terribly cooperative. It doesn't take Lanval all that long to think of the head cook and butler of the Everstead-Rey household to be able to return a knowing smile back to Ragnell - a knowing one, rather than one of his usual dopey 'make a strong case that Seraphim do not have anatomical equivalents to the brain' smiles. Like he worked out one small joy between a couple struggling to find a time to relax and truly enjoy life.
The smiling stops when meteors fall. Ragnell is an enemy to Filgaia for her deeds at Love's Cradle (...at her most egregious), but the Seraphim as a whole are not - that fine, granular distinction proven too difficult for personifications of concepts to see as Rigdobrite's power is called upon to rain destruction from the heavens.
Several crash around Lanval. One in particular loosens him from the ground and sends him flying in the air, where he feels a pulse of something. From the corner of his vision... Knight Blazer, whose flames not even he could ever hope to put out.
"Gahauhhuhuh..." His vision flashes inverted colors (and then bright, because of the blinding light). Even as the form of Knight Blazer lessens the damages being done, being in proximity of that - as someone who is now so deeply connected to one of the fundamental forces of Filgaia - simply overwhelms everything.
...
He may have somehow found space near that overturned chair.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Ragnell has posed.
'Don't lose control,' Ashley says, and Ragnell throws him a smirk as she rises on her rope, misunderstanding his meaning.
Then light floods out from within him, consuming him, turning clear and then crimson and then transforming him into... something else. The Knight Blazer. He launches himself upward like a comet and unleashes countless fiery bolts, each to strike through those impending meteorites falling ever nearer and nearer to the Guild Galad compound. Ancient catastrophe meets present-moment catastrophe, and explosions rock the sky, enveloping it in gold and scarlet and sending down a hail of much smaller but more manageable bits of stone...
Ragnell's expression is at first astounded, then impressed, then thoughtful as she watches Knight Blazer counter her arte before it's even completed. Not even *her* arte--this is, after all, the power of the Guardian of the Stars. A power that can counter even the Guardians... Her eyes narrow as she glances briefly towards Marivel, remembering something she said not too long ago.
But there's no time to hang around and contemplate the matter. When Josie's spell dims and the sky clears of the destruction wrought within it, Ragnell's as gone as Josie and (presumably) Erzebet are. At least Odessa's been turned back and the Master still lives.
<Pose Tracker> Marivel Armitage has posed.
"That we could be friends. Hoping." Marivel says. She doesn't answer the question about being concerned for their safety. More than she lets on, less than she can say, and yet--yet--the very idea that she could lose them. So much, and yet she puts them in danger again and again. Does this world really need an ARMS? Or would it be gentler to just live their individual Drifter lives rather than tie them to a cause they may not believe in.
Or a Marivel they maybe believe in too much. They tease her sometimes. Sometimes they tease her. Argue with her. Call her out.
Sometimes she feels like she did in those days. Days she is all but certain she won't ever really feel again. Is it real? Or, like an oasis in a desert, a simply appetizing illusion.
Erzebet retreats. Marivel waatches after her quietly.
"Toodles," She says softly.
GS: Eleanor Klein guards a hit from Josephine Lovelace's Light Flare for 0 hit points! GS: Blind applied to Eleanor Klein!
<Pose Tracker> Layna Manydays has posed.
"Aye, I guess it was!" Layna replies with a good-natured laugh. As for the catering, she grins.
"Aye, it really was. Nothin' tastes better than food on someone else's dime, anyway." She replies.
But there's a time for pleasantries, and there's a time for fighting, and while sometimes the two can mix, it's more the time for latter.
Thanks to an opening provided by Cidney, Josie ends up on the floor. ...But, that doesn't mean she's out. Layna realises what's about to happen a second before it does. Quickly, she stomps, causing a section of the floor to fly up that she catches, using it to shield her eyes from the ensuing flash. By the time it's safe to lower it, Josie's already gone... but to that, Layna can only laugh.
"Looks like you got us good." She says, with a shake of her head... and then glances outside, where a swarm of meteors is falling toward the structure.
"...Ah, hell." Layna says with a sigh. ...But, before the meteors can collide, someone does something to stop them. Layna raises an eyebrow.
"...Huh. That lad's something else." Layna remarks with surprise, then glances back toward the Master, currently cowering under his chair.
"Well, would you look at that! You get to live another day, how swell!" She remarks jovially, before glancing toward Cidney, her expression becoming a bit more serious.
"Nice fighting with you. You're really quite something - I'm impressed." She remarks. Encountering strong fighter she'd never met before... this day got even better.
<Pose Tracker> Eleanor Klein has posed.
"For ARMS," Eleanor answers Erzebet's question. But she doesn't have an immediate sassy remark for her; she hears the crack of Erzebet's spine, sees the diference. Her expression becomes a thin line; she doesn't have insult for now to add to injury. She is not gladdened to see pain, even in someone she regards so angrily as Erzebet. It would be easier if she enjoyed it.
...Her neck aches.
The Witch of Death does consider the others as she looks around for the Master, and finds him again. And suddenly--Toodles.
"I--" She blinks, watching Erzebet leap. "...Away again..."
Dangerous. Too dangerous. But there's nothing she can do about that now.
Ragnell's--Rigdobrite's magic--is next, and Eleanor watches in alarm as she unleashes it. "Look out--"
Ah. Knight Blazer to the rescue. it almost hurts to look at him, not because of the light of the fire. But her thoughts are interrupted. Josie's spell blinds her, and Eleanor drops down to be less of a target immediately.
"Ugh--ARMS, let's regroup!"
She'll just have to rely on the calamitous Knight to cover them while her vision recovers, though she's already pulling a bottle from her bag.
<Pose Tracker> Cidney Laplace has posed.
One little sting, applied to one right spot.
Cidney makes the call before the coin hits the ground. And it works in her favor.
In a matter of speaking.
The colonel's landing is not a graceful one, but not for lack of trying. Like she couldn't bear to show a scrap of weakness, the once-exiled Galadian hits heels first in a full stand that just sees more of that blood of hers drip-drip-drizzling the floor beneath her; that prideful stance is not one to last, however, especially not with that injured leg, and she soon finds herself staggering back a trio of steps before she stops herself with the slightest sway.
That chartreuse eye drops to the fallen Josephine. Her ARM snaps to her side, the thinnest point of blood not her own dropping from its tip.
"There are other ways," Cid breathes out, "to get the things we want out of this life.
"You should try something better on for size--"
But Cidney's persistence is met only with disappointment as Josephine rises back up. She sees that sparkling sphere in the palm of the woman's hand. Her eye widens.
And then her gloved hand snaps up, as if to ward herself from what she knows is coming, even as her weapon begins its rapid, liquid transformation into gun mode.
There are two things that happen to distract her, before she can even try whatever she's attempting. The first: the call of the Guardian's power from Ragnell; Cidney feels the pulse of power from something she holds within the breast pocket of her suit. She looks sidelong, towards the Seraph. It's an open debate whether Cidney, who is by all accounts as magical as a rock, can see the spirit before her.
What she can absolutely see, though...
... is a knight, wreathed in broiling flame, incinerating meteors from the heaven.
Cidney's eye widens once more. She feels a sharp, white-hot ache deep in the back of her skull.
... the sweet chimes of a distant music box melody ring garbled and static-laced in the back of her thoughts...
... by the time she is aware of what is happening again, Odessa is gone. She slouched forward, palm pressed against her eyepatch. The colonel sucks in a breath. She looks to the empty spot Josephine was once at, and quietly curses.
"... That's a shame," she finally says, straightening and offering Layna a look, complete with that sharp, secure smile.
"Same to you. Rare to see talent like that," says the colonel as her ARM folds once more back into its standby mode. "We'll have to swap stories, sometime."
Cidney sweeps the room, taking stock of everything. Her gaze lingers on Anna, and Ida.
"I know," is all she says to Ida, with all that it implies. Odessa was more prepared than they thought, clearly. She tucks the Celestial Gardener away, and as she does, notes,
"It's done. You can trade your cowardice for confidence whenever it suits your fancy, now."
Despite the fact that she hasn't even once looked back at him, it's likely not a big mystery who she's talking to.
<Pose Tracker> Ashley Winchester has posed.
Shards of shrapnel and scourging flame rain down from a smoldering sky. Knight Blazer gazes after the fleeing airships, but its silhouette is cast in such a way that it is the very image of a demon lord relishing in the final sundering of heaven.
There's no pursuing Odessa now, regardless. Knight Blazer, pockmarked with scars from what remained of the meteorites, drops back down into the Master's office... Before its form falls away in another flash of blue light. Ashley is left standing there, looking tired but not exhausted from the effort. "...Is everyone alright?" The man who was only moments ago the Knight Blazer, "Did any of the rocks get through...?"