2024-05-18: Opening the House of Battle
- Log: Opening the House of Battle
- Cast: Amaterasu, Ambrosius, Kanon, Kaguya, Dean Stark, Redi Hayworth, Shige Kiwako, Rebecca Streisand, Hannah Curie, Seraph Boudicca, Gwen Whitlock, Ida Everstead-Rey
- Where: Slayheim Saltlands
- Date: May 18, 2024
- Summary: Alas, the Vanguard's excavation of a Golem has not gone unnoticed by certain powers that be, and Amaterasu moves to intercept. She has not come alone.
<Pose Tracker> Amaterasu has posed.
PREVIOUSLY, ON DREAMCHASERS MUSH--
After a week of excavation, the Vanguard, with the help of their allies and other assorted recruits, had succeeded in excavating an ancient Veruni Golem. It was functional but despite multiple attempts, it could not be reactivated.
That is, until they had exposed it to enough Ley energy via what magical arts they were able to conjur and pour into it. The Ley is disrupted in the Saltlands and doesn't exist in sufficient quantity for the Golem to draw upon, hence its torpor. Identifying itself as C4-SS1-N1, or Cassini for short, the Golem had reactivated and stabilized itself. The next step, as far as they could tell, would be to direct it out of the Saltlands and into more hospitable territory.
But unfortunately, their excavation of the site had not gone unnoticed.
NOW:
BGM: The Hand that Gives the Rose - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q6roTXrTziQ
Amaterasu had descended from the heavens like a meteor, turning to regard the lot of them from behind her six-eyed glowing mask.
"Kaguya. You have been busy," she'd said.
And yet, Valkyrja is absent from her grasp. Its pole remains slung along her back, its edge unlit.
"I would expect nothing else from my sister, especially as she works in concert with our queen," she continues, turning her gaze upwards at Cassini. "You have done well. To find a Golem in such a condition, of such an age... It is a shame that I must now reclaim it from you." Her attention sweeps across the excavation crew. "In respect for your labor, I will give you five minutes."
The ground underfoot is shaking. Something enormous is coming. Salt begins to run like a waterfall in white down the sides of the excavation pit.
"Surrender the Golem and our Ice Queen, and you may go unharmed. Or, you may prepare yourself to fight us if you choose." she states. "But I will make no promises about your wellbeing should we fight, or what might happen should you lose. Now! Make your decision!" Amaterasu declares, flinging both hands wide. "Stand and fight, or flee!"
Avril, who has been staring at Amaterasu all this time makes her own decision: ice floods from her in a torrent for Cassini, filling further the Golem's reservoir. Making long but pointed eye contact with Kaguya, Rebecca, and Dean, she inclines her head in a sharp nod before departing for the sidelines: she has chosen to empower Cassini to stand against whatever it is that Amaterasu is bringing to the table rather than fight herself.
But she has chosen that they fight.
OOC: Use this round to summon your Gear, Golem, or what-have-you (or ready yourself for on-foot combat), and otherwise buff and prepare! Violence will ensue on round 2!
<Pose Tracker> Ambrosius has posed.
A golem had been discovered in the land that was once the kingdom of Slayheim, now an empty stretch of white. Even now he can't help but be excited by the discovery. Such a find is rare, and he is curious what kind of golem it is...
...But he is aware, fully, that what discovery means for him and his people. Especially given who has done the finding.
It's a 'when', not an 'if', of when they will be called to action.
And so, that day comes. It is, by all respects, a remarkable Golem from what they have gathered. He would've loved to study it, if he had the opportunity.
For now, however, he puts that aside. It is time once again to make his appearance on the battlefield.
Amaterasu lands and makes her declaration - and, shortly after, there is a glint in the sky and the sound of something very heavy descending. And soon enough, a pod of black metal crashes into the salt plains like a mortar shell - far enough away to avoid striking anyone present, but still visible for its sheer size.
With the hiss of steam, the front of the pod opens. Water pours forth and two long arms covered in dark blue plates stretch out, each with long, terrible claws. Whatever in inside pulls itself out - it's a Golem, by the looks of it. Tall, with a thin body, sturdy legs, and a bestial face atop a long, serpentine neck.
It is the golem, Nimue - and some may clearly recognise it as the one often piloted by Ambrosius.
Nimue emerges fully and stands tall - but respecting Amaterasu's promise, it makes no move to attack.
Ambrosius remains silent.
DC: Rebecca Streisand switches forms to Heartriven Gear Eurydice!
<Pose Tracker> Kanon has posed.
Golem Nimue rises...but as the steam and waters clear, another figure leaps off its shoulder, bounding the distance to scatter salt with the landing of her boots. She is fair, with short hair in the back but an overlong sea-green forelock, and a too-long bright-red cybernetic arm beneath a road-tattered poncho.
Kanon the Exorcist strides forth, adopting a position behind but near Amaterasu. She makes no attempt at disguise, her one sharp blue eye tracking around the field. Her body begins to hum, energy flowing through it from some internal engine.
She doesn't make any aggressive motion other than to flick a knife out of her belt and into her clawed cyborg hand. "The Saltlands are dangerous without an exorcist," she states, and her eye pierces toward Redi. "You've already attracted some dangerous spirits."
<Pose Tracker> Kaguya has posed.
Cassini...
"STABILIZED," Cassini rumbles when Avril pours icy magic into it. Kaguya, meanwhile, looks to her sister Amaterasu, in the distance. That enormous something...
"Yeah, I've been busy," Kaguya agrees.
"But you 'heard' our answer, didn't you? We're fighting. I don't need assurances and I don't ask for any. That's not how we live our lives."
?Though it's how Amaterasu would rather Kaguya, she's sure. The things she's done to protect her...
"Sorry," Kaguya says lopsidedly, with a brief spike of guilt. But this is the path that she's chosen.
"...Since I know the most about Golems other than Avril," Kaguya says, "I'll command Cassini. He's ready to fight, I'm sure of it."
that's when she notices Nimue. Of course, Nimue. ...Kaguya hadn't expected to have to fight Ambrosius too.
"..."
Kaguya looks pained. But rather than voice it, she just says, "Golem Cassini! Set up!"
"COMMAND ACKNOWLEDGED. PREPARING FOR BATTLE..."
A Golem can be a thing of beauty. This one is; its golden-bronze form stretches upward, up, up, up. Its wings unfurl, golden rings around each at the bone, for three per wing. It is like a demon--or perhaps, more friendly, like an animal/man hybrid. There is a lot of cyan and teal in its form, perhaps colored by the salt after all these years...
And it is ready.
She eyes Kanon, too. And then Redi...
But her own battle awaits. "Let's go!" Kaguya says. "Mat! We're ready!"
DC: Kaguya switches forms to Sorcerous Golem C4-SS1-N1!
<Pose Tracker> Dean Stark has posed.
Of course Avril would choose to fight. There's no way they'd give up on Cassini after coming so far and working so hard--and especially not to have a Veruni Radical take them away!
It's precisely that understanding that burns in Dean's fierce eyes as he nods sharply back to Avril. When he turns back to Amaterasu, Twin Fenrir flash into his eyes. He doesn't look back again. He has full trust for Avril and her Cassini-charging plan.
"We're not surrendering anything to you!" he calls. But--she's going to give them five minutes? Dean blinks at that. Wow. Amaterasu really is nice! ...not nice enough that they can just hand Cassini or Avril over, but nicer than the average Radical. "Hey, do you work directly for Volsung?" he wonders, following that train of thought. Its tracks might be a bit opaque to the others.
Volsung aside, that trembling in the salty earth hints at the mode of combat she's chosen. Of course. If she's going to take a Golem, she'd come prepared to fight with a Golem.
...this is so exciting!!...
"Five minutes, right? Be right back!" he adds before sharing another nod with Kaguya and Rebecca and the rest of their excavation pals, then darting off. Naturally none of them crossed the salt flats with all this equipment on foot. His Gear, which was definitely not added in post, is only a short Monowheel ride away. (From Monowheel to Gear and soon to Golem...!! SO COOL!!!)
What's EVEN COOLER is that there isn't just one Golem approaching--there's another, shooting down from the sky in a giant pod. By the time the five minutes are up and Dean has returned to battle in Nimrod, Ambrosius has arrived in the Nimue. "Oh man oh man oh man, this is gonna be the greatest fight ever!" he gushes. Once upon a time, he would've been devastated at the prospect of having to hurt a Golem--but he knows now from Asgard that this is something they enjoy, so he can start to appreciate it for what it is, too.
Kanon... Sorry, Kanon, Dean barely notices you, only stopping to lament, "Awww, luckyyyy!" at the sight of her riding in on Nimue's shoulder. He's otherwise too hype on Golems.
And so, beaming fiercely, Dean faces off against Amaterasu. Her Golem may or may no be here by now, but either way, he'll likewise wait until she's prepared to fight to make a move. It's only fair.
"Okay! I'm ready!" he calls, voice projecting outside from his Gear. He grins over at Kaguya as she rises up herself upon Cassini. *Also* an 'awww, luckyy!' moment, but the thrill of seeing their new friend in action, beautiful in its devilishness, outweighs it for the moment. "You guys all ready too? Then let's do this!!"
<Pose Tracker> Redi Hayworth has posed.
Redi wasn't here when the Vanguard dug up an ancient Veruni golem. But she received word that they succeeded, had infused it with Ley, and that Redi should come help her newfriends out.
She had been on Energy Nede -- some Personal Matters that she needed to attend to -- and that meant she needed to come in a hurry, with just the right thing to get there in time.
Thus, she is peddling as fast as she can on a bicycle of Nedian make, which is Trainer-certified for use for those on a Pokemon journey.
There is a small dust cloud behind it.
Her blue Lacour Postal Express cap is pulled down tight over her head; she has her shorts and white button-up shirt on, though she hasn't quite found the nerve to wear her coat again. "Dean! Rebecca! Avril! Kaguya!" she cries out. "Sorry I'm laaaaaaaaate!"
She looks at Cassini. Her eyes widen. He really does look amazing. She whistles, lowly.
And then, she hits the brakes -- the bicycle skidding to a stop -- and she comes up towards Kanon, mouth opening. Then closing.
An evil spirit, is it? The remark hits closer to home than she would like.
Her eyes narrow. "H-Hey, come on, that's..." She glowers. "It's not like that!"
<Pose Tracker> Shige Kiwako has posed.
It's been a dusty week. Shige's still wearing goggles, a full scarf, a broad hat and a duster coat. Turns out those might have been popular for a reason.
The feline is.. considerably paler than she normally is even despite trying to shake herself loose. And she's currently sitting near the parked.. damaged Kislevi ship she'd acquired.
It wasn't exactly in use anymore. Technically.
The repairs were slow and the thing is more of a hovering skiff at the moment, but it beats walking. And somehow feels appropriate. She can't put her finger on it.
It was naptime as far as she's concerned and, well it's clear that's what she was doing. Lounging there, brim tilted down.This close to her and the ship, the manifestation of a ghost poking her repeatedly and trying to tell her something is pretty visible briefly. She swats at the hand and mutters something until there's other.. noises. Those pointed ears perking up and... she cusses a few times as she suddenly scrambles to her feet thinking she'd missed some of the undead in the immediate area. She calls out, "HEADS UP!" despite.. everyone clearly being on point. Just felt appropriate.
Somehow this is worse though and she scrambles up onto the deck properly and into the smaller control room. Spinning into place on the seat to grab the wheel. She's not the best pilot yet, but she's been practicing (In both states of being.) and the engine whines, then spins up into life. The glorified gunboat shuddering to life before lifting just off the ground.
Kanon gets a response because she takes offense to it, "I've been keeping them under control!" Having.. largely heard most of it. Even if she didn't fully catch if it was friendly or not. There is a scowl though.
She slings her hat and coat to the side with the mask down as she revs the engine and gets the thing moving.
She doesn't.. actually know who the enemy is, but it is obvious there's a problem!
Then it's time to focus.. for now.
<Pose Tracker> Rebecca Streisand has posed.
Traveling around with Dean and Avril - there are times when you just expect this sort of thing to be likely to happen. This is one of those times, and Rebecca understands why Avril would choose to fight here and now. After all they'd just activated Cassini and...
... well Dean's already in love.
That's even beyond practical purposes of why having a Golem is in fact, an asset. "We'll fight of course." She replies, knowing she'd never run while Avril and Dean are in the line of fire.
But Dean's remark...
"Is right now really the time to be asking who her boss is Dean?"
Either way - five minutes, "Think I'll take you up on that." She says, darting a look towards the Golem Nimue. It's a good thing because breaking into a run with Dean, before leaping onto the Monowheel that's already in motion. "MORE LIKE JUST IN TIME!" She shouts to Redi as they take off.
Some time passes (No more than like Four Minutes!), and there's the clambering a modified Light Scouting Gear, that's definitely been souped up. In the grand scheme of things, it's not particularly special compared to some Solarian high spec gear but-
"Let's do this Dean."
Maybe what's special isn't in the Gear itself, as Rebecca slots her Original Medium into the amplifier interface that's been hardwired in, the purplish hued Gear with grey accents suddenly taking on a faint glow.
Dean's enthusiasm though, as he remarks on this being the greatest fight ever earns him- a little public upbraiding over the speakers! "Hey focus up! I know you've got stars in your eyes but we can't just gawk at the Golems clashing! Kaguya needs our support."
<Pose Tracker> Hannah Curie has posed.
Amaterasu gives them five minutes to make a decision.
Hannah scowls, the hood of her white robe still pulled up over her head, her face hidden by symbologically-treated glasses and a mask built into her hood. The notebook she'd been holding is quickly slipped into her satchel.
"I ain't even gonna need a single minute to choose, Amaterasu," declares Hannah.
From her satchel she pulls out a small red and white sphere, and a small wristband with a vibrant gem set into it. She slips the wristband on, and then tosses out the ball. "Let's go, Cassandra!"
Out of the ball pops a quadrapedal creature, unlike anything native to Filgaia. She looks vaguely feline or lupine in shape, with mostly white fur and a single horn on one side of her head. "Absol!" she declares.
She also wearing her own pair of symbologically treated goggles.
Because salt blindness is a thing, even for pokemon.
"Cassandra, we're protectin' Avril and this golem. can I count on you?"
Cassandra looks back to Hannah and nods. "Ab!"
Hannah smiles. "Good. In that case..." She holds the wriestband over her chest, closing her eyes and concentrating. Cassandra closes her eyes in unison, and the gem begins to shine. "Cassandra-- Dynamax!"
Cassandra begins to glow brightly, but more importantly she starts to grow, larger and larger, until she is ready to take on a gear-sized opponent. She paws at the ground for a moment, leaving long, rending scratches in the direct (and salt) before lowering herself down to an attack-ready stance.
She growls fiercely, energy building up within her as she prepares. "Soollll...."
GS: Hannah Curie has attacked Hannah Curie with Justified! GS: Hannah Curie has completed her action. GS: Hannah Curie accepts Hannah Curie's Justified for 0 hit points! GS: Burst and Hyper applied to Hannah Curie!
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Boudicca has posed.
"You will do no harm to Avril!" Boudicca yells, taking a step forward as she gestures towards Amaterasu. "Nor to the Golem! Leave at once!"
When Nimue (no, not that one) stomps in, though, Boudicca takes a big, gusty jump back to avoid getting caught underfoot.
Then the devil comes pedalling in. Boudicca feels a terrible feeling running down what she calls her spine, as she turns to behold Redi. "What are..." She starts, before Kanon stomps in, and she whirls to face her instead.
"D--dangerous spirits?!" She demands, and points at herself. "Why, I never-- well, very well then! Yes, I am a fearsome spirit! Run away!!" She points at Kanon, as her twin braids rise up in a breeze which picks up about her.
(She might be a giant amazon of a woman all dressed in horned full plate, but she's really not that scary.)
<Pose Tracker> Gwen Whitlock has posed.
Why did Gwen think that their expedition, with all its comings and goings, wouldn't attract some unneeded attention? She can't think of anyone she's even told, even Auntie Frea, though that was simply due to never having the chance.
Kanon isn't the first cyborg here; Gwen's ARM is on full display. The two cyborgs bear their differences in their arms; Gwen's own is made to hide in secret, masking its own existence as a dangerous tool of an ancient war. A fraud, in some ways, refusing to bear the price of carrying power in circles where ARM-users would be seen with disdain.
"I ain't fleein', no matter how many chances y'give me. Avril's my friend. And I'm just gettin' t'know Cassini, but I'm sure they'll be a swell friend too. Dean's never steered me wrong there!" At least there's none of that here, as Gwen raises her right hand, and makes a fist, making a show of drawing on that ARM's power.
There is a very big problem, however: it wasn't very long since Gwen had given Cassini a measure of her own energy.
The Mockingbird glows, and as that glow brightens, the courier takes a step forward, willing the bright power to crawl up the nerves of her shoulder--
The foolhardy look on Gwen's face breaks; she bites back a scream as something snaps. The ARM goes dark instantly and falls limp, sucking back that power as a protective measure. It's every bit as painful as Gwen makes it look.
"... Shit..." Gwen curses with a shudder running up her spine. Panting, she looks up, not noticing Kanon, but instead, Redi riding in on her bicycle. She notes the Lacour Postal Express cap. The perky attitude.
Gwen can't let potential competition show her up!
She pastes on a grin and straightens. "Hahaha... Ha... thankfully, I got the Halcyone here. Hehe..." She hops back woozily, then another, then turns, fleeing to the safety of the Halcyone. The lowering of the cockpit disrupts the perfectly good tent it was making, and whatever exposed supplies are left to topple as the Halcyone raises, its pilot now inside.
Voltie squats in Gwen's hair now, making concerned Voltie noises as Gwen drinks down a canteen of water. ".... It's okay, Voltie. Cassini needed a little pick-me-up..." She trails off as Cassini displays its full form for all to see.
And in that moment, Gwen feels like she made the best call she could have ever made to give Cassini that bit of her power.
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.
Ida was wondering when the other shoe was going to drop.
With one final heave, the martial artist hauls herself up the last ladder, and scrambles out onto the salt flats. Her muscles burn from exertion. Ida is strong and fit, but she spent an entire week helping dig a hole, and she doesn't have the boundless excavation energy of Dean Stark. She's tired and dirty. Her jumpsuit and boots are caked with salt, and she's had to wipe her goggles religiously to keep the lenses clear. Marigold the Eevee clings to her shoulder, begoggled and dirty and tired as well.
Ida takes a deep breath, and holds out Marigold's Pokeball. "Back inside," she says. Marigold nods, once, and Ida presses the button. The Eevee disappears in a beam of red light, ensuring one of them will be safe.
Cassini rises from its resting place. Ida's mouth falls open, and she takes a moment to just watch, wide-eyed, as Kaguya and Avril ready the ancient Golem for battle. "They have infantry," she says, cupping a hand to amplify her voice over the din of machinery activating. Her other hand points at the bounty hunter that just rode in, fresh for battle in the way that Ida isn't. "I'll try and keep her off you!"
Ida reaches into a pocket, her fingers closing around her Stone Medium. Invigorating warmth ignites in her breast as Moor Gault's power wells up inside her. Phantasmal firebird feathers fall from the sky, alighting upon Ida, and Boudicca, and Dean. The squad is here. They fight as one.
GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has attacked Ida Everstead-Rey with Material - Inner Flame! GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has attacked Seraph Boudicca with Material - Inner Flame! GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has attacked Dean Stark with Material - Inner Flame! GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has gained 1 Combo! GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has completed her action. GS: Ida Everstead-Rey accepts Ida Everstead-Rey's Material - Inner Flame for 0 hit points! GS: Hyper applied to Ida Everstead-Rey! GS: Mighty and Riposte applied to Ida Everstead-Rey!
<Pose Tracker> Amaterasu has posed.
"No, I did not think that you would," Amaterasu answers Rebecca and Dean coolly. But, does she work directly for Volsung? She tilts her head as if puzzled by this question. "I report to Fereydoon and his division," she answers, which is a fancier way of saying 'no'. But hey, that means she's just one step away from Volsung...!
"Good," she tells Hannah. "I like the decisive sort." Her gaze lifts as Hannah calls upon an ally that is, perhaps, rather more unique to Amaterasu.
"I have heard of these... Poke Mon," she says slowly, gazing upon Absol. "Weapons of war from the distant Energy Nede..."
As the rest of the Vanguard vacates to retrieve their Gears, Amaterasu is left alone with her sister. "I did," Amaterasu says, her expression inscrutable behind her mask. But Kaguya might have a good idea of what that might be because she continues, "And I would have been disappointed had you chosen to run, Kaguya. But neither do I intend to lose. A Golem like this belongs in our hands." Her head turns minutely towards the fleeing Avril, hurrying off to join Dean and Rebecca on the Monowheel and the safety of their own Gears.
"And our queen belongs with her people."
'We're protectin' Avril and this golem.'
'Mat! We're ready!'
'I'm ready!'
'Let's do this, Dean.'
"And so am I! Now come! Show them your might!" Amaterasu calls out, thrusting her hand forward. The salt surrounding the excavation pit begins to outright collapse, pooling at its bottom, as if to threaten to bury Cassini once again. Amaterasu leaps, escaping the river of salt, and lands in a single bound beyond the edge of the pit. Here, she points towards the eastern horizon.
"Behold my Golem... Inanna!"
And there it stands, silhouetted by the sun against the empty white of the Saltlands.
BGM: Unbending Steel
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kcS1SF66NfM
Sunlight glints across its massive ivory form. In the abstract, it might put one in mind of something akin to a lion, if sculpted from bone: long rippling layered plates extending backwards from its head give the suggestion of something like a mane, and its four mighty legs end in claws. But there the resemblence ends. The Golem's mouth is more reptilian than mammalian, and there is no hint of anything like an eye; those plates for all their apparent delicacy are more like shells.
As if they were veins feeding bone, red cords thread across the plates. They glow, their shine echoed by a deeper red from within the place those bone-like plates meet the body.
Just the once, it lashes its massive plated tail and roars, dissonantly.
"And now... we begin in earnest! Inanna! Show them your fury!" Amaterasu declares.
From behind its fanning shell-like plates there erupts pulse after pulse brilliant pink-white light. It falls as a destructive rain, chewing into the Saltland flats where it does not strike Inanna's opponents.
DC: You switch forms to Heavens-rending Golem Inanna! DC: Amaterasu switches forms to Heavens-rending Golem Inanna!
GS: Amaterasu has attacked Dean Stark with The Radiant One! GS: Amaterasu has attacked Hannah Curie with The Radiant One! GS: Amaterasu has gained 1 Combo! GS: Amaterasu spends 2 Combo on Headshot! GS: Amaterasu has attacked Rebecca Streisand with The Unyielding One! GS: Amaterasu has attacked Kaguya with The Unyielding One! GS: Amaterasu has completed her action. GS: Dean Stark accepts Ida Everstead-Rey's Material - Inner Flame for 0 hit points! GS: Hyper applied to Dean Stark! GS: Mighty and Riposte applied to Ida Everstead-Rey! GS: CRITICAL! Dean Stark marginally guards Amaterasu's The Radiant One for 271 hit points! GS: FP up! Countermeasures! GS: Kaguya marginally evades Amaterasu's The Unyielding One for 177 hit points! GS: Blind applied to Kaguya! GS: Hyper applied to Amaterasu! GS: CRITICAL! Rebecca Streisand mostly evades Amaterasu's The Unyielding One for 169 hit points! GS: Blind applied to Rebecca Streisand! GS: Hyper and Hyper applied to Amaterasu!
<Pose Tracker> Kanon has posed.
It's the first time Kanon has acted openly alongside Veruni strikers, and perhaps that deserves questions. Dean and Kanon's attention slides past each other. Kanon is cool, though. He will understand, someday, the joy of wire punches.
"Have you," Kanon says to nobody, in response to Shige's remark. But, it seems Shige's haunted battalion is not Kanon's quarry today.
But it's Redi's arrival that earns Kanon's attention, as the haunted woman skids to a stop and meets her gaze. Not even the thundrous arrival of a tremendous pokemon can shake that stare. "Is that so," Kanon says, and holds out her right arm, fleshy, like she were brandishing a sword.
Then her arm disengages at the elbow, a long sword blade driving out of the slot. "Irrelevant. You are a bearer of a demon. I am an Exorcist."
Her body buzzes as gears shift up higher, higher, and higher.
"Demons...monsters...spirits...all, enemies of mankind! And so I--!"
Then she's MOVING. She surges forward, driving straight toward Redi with a ferocious frontal stab of her sword. She sweeps it to the side as she turns, and brings up her knife-wielding left hand at Boudica. It FIRES OFF, a wire connecting it back to her body as it snakes through the air, slicing at her with the knife in its hand before it continues on to smash into Ida.
It reels back in rapidly. "...will eliminate you!"
GS: Kanon has attacked Redi Hayworth with Dive Cut! GS: Kanon has gained 2 Combo! GS: Kanon's stances have changed to Avenger! GS: Kanon gains 5 FP from her Daredevil! GS: Kanon has completed her action. GS: Kanon has canceled their attack on Redi Hayworth. GS: Kanon has attacked Redi Hayworth with Dive Cut! GS: Kanon has gained 1 Combo! GS: Kanon's stances have changed to Avenger! GS: Kanon has attacked Seraph Boudicca with Bionic Arm! GS: Kanon has attacked Ida Everstead-Rey with Bionic Arm! GS: Kanon has gained 1 Combo! GS: Kanon gains 5 FP from her Daredevil! GS: Kanon has completed her action. GS: Seraph Boudicca accepts Ida Everstead-Rey's Material - Inner Flame for 0 hit points! GS: Hyper applied to Seraph Boudicca! GS: Mighty and Riposte applied to Ida Everstead-Rey! GS: Seraph Boudicca fails to evade Kanon's Bionic Arm for 163 hit points! GS: FP up! Power Burst and Reaction bonus! GS: Ida Everstead-Rey mostly charges Kanon's Bionic Arm for 114 hit points! GS: FP up! Power Burst and Reaction bonus! GS: Redi Hayworth critically fails to charge Kanon's Dive Cut for 165 hit points! GS: Mighty applied to Kanon!
<Pose Tracker> Ambrosius has posed.
Nimue's movement is careful, mindful of its passenger. Ambrosius is certain she could endure it were anything to happen, but he would rather it not as well. Fortunately, the ride is without incident. And so - he turns his attention to the dig site, and those moving to defend it.
Kaguya... yes, certainly she would be here. He feels a pang of sorrow, himself - but expressing it would do nothing.
Some of their opponents remain on the ground, but still others go to their vehicles... though one, he notices, calls upon the aid of a giant animal?
Ah - it must be a Pokemon.
Five minutes pass, and Amaterasu calls out. There on the horizon is her Golem. It truly is a remarkable specimen. Elegant, but fierce and deadly. ...Ah. But, he can no longer.
"...I will face you." Ambrosius speaks aloud, his voice emerging from Nimue. "Defend yourselves."
Gwen... he experiences some regret toward fighting her. But this is how it must be - he will not hesitate or hold back.
Despite its sheer, unwieldy size, it lunges forward with surprising machine. One arm sweeps outward. It's rather long already - but it almost seems to stretch as it moves, making its apparent reach deceptive. And then, Nimue's head turns to Shige and her vessel. The golem's eyes flash blue and Ether surges. Water gathers, firing off toward Shige in a disorienting burst!
GS: Ambrosius has attacked Gwen Whitlock with Arm Swipe! GS: Ambrosius has attacked Shige Kiwako with Water Pulse! GS: Ambrosius has completed his action. GS: Hannah Curie critically fails to charge Amaterasu's The Radiant One for 309 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Kaguya has posed.
Many say they won't surrender. Kaguya looks to each of them; a part of her wants to warn them. Fighting two Veruni and whatever Kanon is...
But they do stand up. And Mat--
"Yeah," Kaguya says of her potential disappointment. "I figured you would be. ...Don't go easy. This is our way. This is the Veruni way."
Much as she hates it sometimes.
"And our queen belongs wherever she wants to be!"
"It's cool, Redi," Kaguya says. "I'm glad you're helping."
Kaguya looks ovr at Shige and her gunboat. Ten at the Gears assembled... 'Kaguya neds our support', Rebecca says, and Hannah--
"The fuck is that?" Kaguya wonders of the Dynamaxed Pokemon. "Well, if it works..."
Bu Amterasu calls out, and the salt collapses. Cassini is blotted out by the rush of ground, invisible once again.
And that Golem...
"We won't just lay down and give up!" Kaguya calls. "Cassini! Rise!"
Cassini leaps from the ground, salt pouring down its wings and shoulders as the rings upon its wings whir to life, balancing Ley and empowering its sorcerous might.
Its sensors may be still salty--salt-blindness is a thing--but it rises all the same. "Now!" Kaguya extends her hand, "Cassini! Engage shielding protocol!"
"ACKNOWLEDGED. ENGAGING--SENTINEL SHELL!"
The Golem lifts both hands, and a verdant shell of light emerges around Rebecca and Dean's Gears, and Hannah's Pokemon, as well as the Golem itself. It has the feeling of falling leaves--and vitality, strength.
"...Don't underestimate Ambrosius," Kaguya advises. "His Golem is strong."
GS: Kaguya has attacked Dean Stark with Sentinel Shell! GS: Kaguya has attacked Hannah Curie with Sentinel Shell! GS: Kaguya has attacked Rebecca Streisand with Sentinel Shell! GS: Kaguya has attacked Kaguya with Sentinel Shell! GS: Kaguya has gained 1 Combo! GS: Kaguya has completed her action. GS: Kaguya heals Kaguya! She gains 64 temporary hit points! GS: Dynamax, Regen, Shield, and Surge applied to Kaguya! GS: Kaguya heals Hannah Curie! She gains 68 temporary hit points! GS: Dynamax, Regen, Shield, and Surge applied to Hannah Curie! GS: CRITICAL! Kaguya heals Dean Stark! He gains 96 temporary hit points! GS: Dynamax, Regen, Shield, and Surge applied to Dean Stark! GS: CRITICAL! Kaguya heals Rebecca Streisand! She gains 84 temporary hit points! GS: Dynamax, Regen, Shield, and Surge applied to Rebecca Streisand! GS: CRITICAL! Shige Kiwako mostly evades Ambrosius's Water Pulse for 248 hit points! GS: Shige Kiwako's Mute Ward may block the effect! GS: Mute blocked!
<Pose Tracker> Dean Stark has posed.
"Sure, it's not a *great* time, but when else am I gonna have the chance to ask?" Dean points out to Rebecca. And, sure enough, Amaterasu answers. Dean gives her a single nod. "Okay, gotcha." So no, but she's pretty close.
Gwen seems like she's drained, literally, after giving some of her power to Cassini--the way her arm ARM just shuts down is worrying at best. But fortunately, she's got her own Gear, so she won't have to fight on foot. "Gwen, be careful out there!"
As he Monowheels away with Rebecca, Redi cycles in at top speed, apologizing for being late. "YEAH, PERFECT TIMING!" he calls back to her after Rebecca. With her joining in with Ida and Boudicca, the three of them should do just fine against that girl who was riding on the Nimue's shoulder. (Dean doesn't know anything at all about Kanon. He assumes this entirely on faith in his friends.)
When he and Rebecca are in their respective Gears, Dean too sets in his Original Mountain Medium in the interface. "Hey, of course I'm focused! I'm not gonna let them hurt Cassini *or* Kaguya *or* Avril!" he insists to his childhood friend.
Once they're on the flats, his smile broadens as Ida calls upon her Seer magic to call down the empowering feathers of Moor Gault, which helps strengthen his Gear. "Thanks a ton, Ida! Watch Boudicca's back for me!" he calls.
But that's not the only thing that stands out. "Woah!! A giant Pokemon!" Dean utters, eyes widening at Hannah and her Dynamaxed Absol. "Great to have your help, Hannah!"
The ground is rumbling--salt is cascading, threatening to re-bury Cassini--and the Golem Inanna rises at Amaterasu's call. "Woah," Dean breathes. "I've never seen a Golem like that! Where'd you find it?"
But then Inanna lashes its tail and unleashes pulses of searing pink light. Nimrod is tough and strong, but not particularly fast; all he can do is have the Gear brace itself and weather the storm of blasts. Immediately it tears into the Gear's armor, leaving pocks and tears in the metal. It's still ready to go, but... truly, this is the power of a Golem. But that's not the only Golem here; setting Nimue aside (as much as Dean hates to do so), Cassini leaps out of the salt trap and summons up shimmering shields to defend the four of them fighting Amaterasu.
"So cool...! But we won't lose either! I'll keep her pinned down, guys! You take advantage while I've got her slowed down!" Dean calls. With that, he has Nimrod charge Inanna outright and attempt to--'grapple' is the wrong word, since Inanna looks more like a four-legged canine than anything else, but Nimrod gets well up in its face and attempts to grab Inanna by its plates and keep it in place, simultaneously tearing at its form and blocking it from Cassini.
GS: Dean Stark has attacked Amaterasu with Garnet Guardian! GS: Dean Stark has gained 1 Combo! GS: Dean Stark gains 68 THP from Regen! GS: Dean Stark has completed his action.
<Pose Tracker> Redi Hayworth has posed.
"Glad you think so!" Redi cries back up at Rebecca, Dean, and Kaguya, before she looks at Boudicca. There's a flicker of hesitation in her eyes -- someone who sees something in her. To make matters worse, that is the moment that a pair of fiery wisps of violet light drift off her.
Which certainly makes her wide-eyed, half-panicked look at Kanon's accusation rather different. Kanon surges forward; Redi kicks off her bike, swings it up one-handed, and Kanon's sword slashes the finest in Nedian hyper-aluminum in half before the blade cuts along the side of her torso.
Her shirt is stained red in a blink as Redi hisses with pain, then throws the ruined bike aside. Her quarterstaff is yanked free.
She grips it in both hands, and sweeps it out in a wide arc -- just after the fist explodes off towards Boudicca and Ida -- right for Kanon's midsection, with a flash of light erupting off the wooden quarterstaff when she swings.
The ground under her feet rattles, as the Gears begin to move.
"I'm not--" She isn't sure if she is a demon. She is, almost certainly, a spirit. "I'm not an enemy of mankind! Don't lump me in with them!"
GS: Redi Hayworth has attacked Kanon with Crescent Sweep! GS: Redi Hayworth has gained 1 Combo! GS: Redi Hayworth's stances have changed to Avenger! GS: Redi Hayworth gains 5 FP from her Daredevil! GS: Redi Hayworth has completed her action. GS: CRITICAL! Amaterasu mostly charges Dean Stark's Garnet Guardian for 292 hit points! GS: Cover applied to Dean Stark! GS: Charge!! You gain 35 FP! (That's 20 more than usual!) GS: Gwen Whitlock fails to evade Ambrosius's Arm Swipe for 352 hit points! GS: Quick applied to Ambrosius!
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Boudicca has posed.
"I am with you!" Boudicca affirms, to Ida, as Moor Gault's flame rises about them.
But -- "Eeeh?!" She springs backwards as Kanon's hand fires off to reach her, and caught unawares, a knife is indeed faster than the wind. It carves a long gash through the orange-peppered green silks which adorn Boudicca's plate armour, but her armour, at least, is able to withstand its cutting edge.
"That is not... how humans are... Ida, what on Filgaia?!" Boudicca turns to her partner, gesturing haplessly, because she has never met a cyborg. Robots, sure, but Kanon doesn't look like a robot!
"W--well, no matter!" She huffs, stomping down a heel. Just like Redi, she insists: "I am no enemy of mankind! I come to Filgaia as a guardian! Do not malign all spirits so!"
A beat, as she glances to Redi: "And I shall take you at your word that you too are indeed so," she says, if only because Kanon is stabbing both of them and she should reserve judgement while she's getting quite worryingly bloodied. "Are you well?"
A Seraphic glyph appears on the ground, green and glowing, as she incants: "Align all crosswinds, fain to walk the path of risk! Access palisade decree -- Fortifying Tailwind!" And her breeze curls out, around Ida and Redi, to defend them from this knife-wielding spirit-hater why does she hate her she's a friendly ghost.
GS: Seraph Boudicca has activated Force Action: Extend! GS: Seraph Boudicca has attacked Redi Hayworth with Fortifying Tailwind! GS: Seraph Boudicca has attacked Ida Everstead-Rey with Fortifying Tailwind! GS: Seraph Boudicca has attacked Seraph Boudicca with Fortifying Tailwind! GS: Seraph Boudicca has gained 1 Combo! GS: Seraph Boudicca has completed her action. GS: Redi Hayworth accepts Seraph Boudicca's Fortifying Tailwind for 0 hit points! GS: Burst, Quick, and Shield applied to Redi Hayworth!
<Pose Tracker> Rebecca Streisand has posed.
"Maybe try submitting a request to Human Resources." Rebecca suggests to Dean, drily, a word framed by her recent experiences in Nede.
(She spent so many hours holding on a customer service line, don't ask.)
Hersnd when Dean suggests he is focused, Rebecca smirks, "I'll hold you to that one."
It's not until she returns that she answers Amaterasu with a sense of defiance, "Avril goes where she pleases. And if she's not back with you - then maybe her people displease her." Yet - it's not a matter of free will is it? It's a matter of might to the Veruni, and as Inanna rises, light glinting off of its ivory leonine form, reflecting off the salt, and Eurydice leaps, it's thrusters whipping it around, even as the shockwave from the impact knocks it back heavily and causes it to sputter.
Rising back up strangely, in a way no person of these proportions could, in the way Gears do, Eurydice clambers forward, as Cassini envelops her with a shell of light.
"Wow. Never seen her put out that kind of output before." Rebecca says as she double takes at the monitor, before she puts a hand over her Medium, invoking it. The air vibrates, humming louder and louder - before suddenly the ground cracks open, jagged spikes thrusting forth one after another as if talons on a clawed hand to assault Innana.
"Lady I don't know what you thinks going on but if Redi's a demon then I'm a dragon." Rebecca sounds over the speakers at Kanon. "The only thing Redi's a danger to is the post office's backlog."
Rebecca's Golem tries to get it's distance again from Innana, a cannon with a revolver like cylinder retracting forward on it's hand, "Don't suppose you know if that thing has a weakness, Kaguya! Now would be a great time to let us know that - you loosened a panel in advance or something!"
Is Rebecca suggesting that Kaguya sabotaged her sister??? Yes? Absolutely?
GS: Rebecca Streisand has attacked Amaterasu with Nethermore! GS: Rebecca Streisand has gained 1 Combo! GS: Rebecca Streisand's stances have changed to Avenger! GS: Rebecca Streisand gains 72 THP from Regen! GS: Rebecca Streisand has completed her action. GS: Ida Everstead-Rey accepts Seraph Boudicca's Fortifying Tailwind for 0 hit points! GS: Burst, Quick, and Shield applied to Ida Everstead-Rey!
<Pose Tracker> Hannah Curie has posed.
"Pokemon. One word," Hannah offers in reply to Amaterasu. "Think it's a portmanteau of 'pocket' an' 'monster'." She crosses her arms. "She ain't a weapon of war. Cassandra fights with me, not for me. An' she fights 'cause it's her choice."
"We all deserve to make our own choices, if we're capable of doin' so."
Zephyr takes off as the salt begins to collapse, and Cassandra reaches a paw down to help Hannah make her hasty exit from the excavation pit. Hannah hastily beats it back to safety though as Amaterasu summons Inanna. She whistles low at the sight of it. It's impressive--even if Hannah didn't anticipate having an opponent so similar in form to Cassandra on the battlefield.
"Cassandra, it's different fr'm the one fought before but don't let that throw ya! You got this!"
"Ab!"
Kaguya wonders what the heck Cassandra is, and Hannah grins at her. "That is Cassandra, an Absol. An'--" She looks to Dean, her grin widening a little more. "Yep! She sure is." A giant pokemon that is. At least temporarily. "An' you're welcome! I'll fill all y'all in later."
Hannah's pep talk, however, is undercut a moment later as pulses of pink-white light come raining down on the flats. Cassandra attempts to stand her ground, but one strikes her in just the wrong spot, causing her to cry out and her legs on her left side to buckle. She lurches dangerously to the side
But C4-=SS1-N1 has a protective shield for Cassandra, and as vitality flows into her, she rightens up again, standing up tall once more.
"Don't worry! You ain't in this alone! Now--use Detect!"
"Ab!" Cassandra focuses, channeling power into her horn. Absol can detect natural disasters through changes in the vibrations of the air and land--but these gear are big enough they cause plenty of vibrations of their own. She charges forward, trying to weave through the last of the bolts to animal-tackle Amaterasu's gear.
GS: Hannah Curie has attacked Amaterasu with Detect! GS: Hannah Curie has gained 1 Combo! GS: Hannah Curie's stances have changed to Hero! GS: Hannah Curie gains 5 FP from Gleam! GS: Hannah Curie gains 64 THP from Regen! GS: Hannah Curie has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Shige Kiwako has posed.
Shige does get a bit incensed looking at the potential dig. Mostly because it's been a long week! And she's trying to avoid just.. literally dragging them all on. Philosophical differecnes can wait. There are literal bigger problems.
Shige's response to the demands of surrender were probably obvious enough before, but the way she throttles forward, trying to blow past the jet of water and the golem firing at her ship in a dangerous pass should probably secure the message well enough as she wheels it around. She twists the wheel, trying to throw the aim off. Trying to ignore the jolting rattle as the concentrated stream scours the side of the ship, leaving a notable gouge in the metal.
She's.. mostly treating this like a glorified waterbound ship and with the wake of salt and creepy mist kicked up, it almost feels familiar to her.
There's some bad thoughts swirling there.
Ghosts flicker and appear on the deck on their way by. The gunner forward spinning the deck gun around to fire a burst on their way by. Raking the golem in return with ammo that is neither here nor there. Glowing faintly with blue fire. Something spectral and the sound muted and desynched like it's some distance away.
Other crew begin to appear on the deck as the pilot focuses. Rousing the remnants that couldn't move on, those she would spend time with until they were ready.
The figure flickers away, just as fast. The manifestations short.
She spots Kaguya's look midway through the bank and gives her a brief, nervous smile and thumbs up. It's fine! Really! (Hopefully.) She does look confident in her piloting somehow at least.
"Here as long as you guys need me if this thing doesn't fall to pieces." Which.. is at least some admission that taking battlefield salvage is probably dubious. "And.. on deck with you-" that's mostly directed to Gwen. "I'll keep out of your way" Suggesting who she thinks is the better pilot of sorts.
GS: Shige Kiwako has attacked Ambrosius with Deck Guns! GS: Shige Kiwako has gained 1 Combo! GS: Shige Kiwako has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.
"Of course!" Ida shouts, flashing Dean a thumbs-up from the ground. Her eyes are underlined with dark blotches from poor sleep, but the gleam in them is genuine. Her legs start to burn from exertion as she charges at Kanon. Her boots churn up the salt, each footstep accompanied by a heavy cruch. She doesn't make it in time to protect Redi--her eyes widen in fear as she sees that splash of red--and as the arm sweeps around to strike her, she whips a hand out to block and redirect.
It doesn't quite work. The fist slams into Ida's forearm instead, and her face twists into a grimace as she whips her arm back. The martial artist lets out a sharp hiss of breath between her teeth.
"She's a cyborg," Ida says. "She's part machine!" How much of her is machine? That's a very good question. Ida's eyes narrow as she turns to Kanon. "I didn't expect you to be working with them," she growls. Is that... disappointment in her voice? Anger, definitely. Exhaustion, absolutely.
Ida whips a spherical object off her belt, and ignites it on something in the palm of her hand. She hurls the flare grenade right at Kanon, with a cry of: "Redi, Boudicca! Close your eyes!"
The flashbang erupts with a blinding flash, and a thunderous BOOM.
GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has attacked Kanon with Flare Grenade! GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has gained 3 Combo! GS: Ida Everstead-Rey's stances have changed to Stoic! GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has completed her action. GS: Amaterasu fails to charge Rebecca Streisand's Nethermore for 337 hit points! GS: Mute blocked! GS: Mighty applied to Rebecca Streisand! GS: Charge!! You gain 40 FP! (That's 25 more than usual!) GS: FP up! Reaction bonus! GS: CRITICAL! Amaterasu critically fails to charge Hannah Curie's Detect for 297 hit points! GS: Cover, Quick, and Riposte applied to Hannah Curie! GS: Charge!! You gain 35 FP! (That's 20 more than usual!) GS: Hannah Curie enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: Gamble: High! Kanon critically fails to guard Redi Hayworth's Crescent Sweep for 190 hit points! GS: Mighty applied to Redi Hayworth! GS: FP up! Power Burst! GS: Kanon fails to evade Ida Everstead-Rey's Flare Grenade for 0 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Kanon gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Blind applied to Kanon! GS: FP up! Reaction bonus!
<Pose Tracker> Gwen Whitlock has posed.
Dean voices his worry, Gwen flashes a grin back at him, in an attempt to assuage his worry. "Dean. I got to charge a golem!" Alright, there's nothing fake about that grin. "I'm retreatin' back to the Halcyone; I'll support ya'll from there, just you wait!" This is to both Dean *and* Shige.
And Gwen intends on keep her promises.
Ambrosius's voice echoes from Nimue as it intercepts Gwen and Shige. ".... Ambrosius." Gwen blinks. "It's been a minute. Hope life's been treatin' ya well." There's no hint of irony in Gwen's voice over the Halcyone's speakers. It wouldn't be the first time they've fought, after all.
Nimue's arm reaches out, and the Halcyone moves to respond, far faster than Gwen is on-foot. However, Nimue proves to be much faster, catching Halcyone with its deceptive field of range.
".... I'll take that as a 'yes'." Gwen says, with a grimace as she recovers from the cockpit shaking. "I don't think I had my Gear th'last time we met. Meet Halcyone! Also, we got some fresh new faces here!" She's not about to introduce Shige to Ambrosius, but she wants to indicate her temporary partner at the very least.
"Halcyone's more of a delivery vehicle than an attack-attack gear, but it does pack a punch when it needs it!" Exhibit A: one of arms of the Halcyone warms up and fires a laser, aimed straight at Nimue.
GS: Gwen Whitlock has attacked Ambrosius with Sting Jet! GS: Gwen Whitlock has gained 1 Combo! GS: Gwen Whitlock has completed her action. GS: CRITICAL! Ambrosius mostly evades Shige Kiwako's Deck Guns for 116 hit points! GS: Jam and Corrode applied to Ambrosius! GS: Ambrosius mostly guards Gwen Whitlock's Sting Jet for 253 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Ambrosius gains 1 additional Combo! GS: FP up! Reaction bonus! GS: Ambrosius enters CONDITION GREEN!!
<Pose Tracker> Amaterasu has posed.
"Pokemon. 'Pocket Monster'. So I see. Then this is not any different from my Inanna," she tells Hannah. "A Golem lives to fight!"
"I have never gone easy on you, and you have grown up the better for it," Amaterasu tells her. "Why should I start now?"
In the blink of an eye, as Inanna crests over the horizon and announces its own presence, Cassini is again buried. But it does not stay buried. "Ah, a magnificent Golem indeed," Amaterasu remarks from her vantage point atop which once had overlooked the excavation site. Even she is miniscule against the massive Golems and Gears (and Pokemon) brought to the fore, yet she does not move or flee for safer ground. Her aim is to be right here, overseeing her Golem from afar as it fights.
Where did she find Inanna, though?
"I did not find it," she answers Dean. "It was granted to me. I earned it by right of combat."
Avril has not returned with the others: doubtless, the plan is for her to flee in her Gear should things go south, but for now, there is no need to do so. "So I see," Amaterasu answers Rebecca and Kaguya alike. "It is no matter. One way or another, the queen will return to her place with us.
No sooner has Inanna announced the opening of hostilities by way of laser rain than Dean, though his Gear might be damaged by the firestorm, rushes it down. It makes no attempt to escape him: indeed, it almost seems as if it rushes toward him as he grapples its leg. Its plates on its legs crack under his grip and small pieces of it fall away: for the moment he holds it fast. It means that Inanna is an open target for Rebecca's Eurydice as she opens fire on it from a distance: there is no immediate way for it to escape. It does not even attempt to defend itself, the cannonfire cracking its delicate plating along its broadside.
"I am afraid maintenance was conducted on Inanna only days ago," Amaterasu calls out. "There is no way in which my sister could have sabotaged it in advance." Is she suggesting she'd already taken that into consideration??
Hannah's Absol leaps at Inanna then as the Golem, seemingly biding its time, takes the blow against its flank. A section of the shell-like plate sheers off and falls away, and one can nearly see the shape of the initial blow and the fracture that extends from it. Yet this damage the Golem does not appear to mind.
It snaps out a clawed limb for Dean's Gear, working to try to shuck him from its body.
A great array of beams fly forth for Hannah's Cassandra shortly thereafter, concentrating to fall upon her Absol as a single detonation thereafter. Inanna, freed from Dean's grasp or not, begins to trot across the Saltlands towards that place where Rebecca and Kaguya's Gear and Golem alike occupy.
That long tail quickly demonstrates that it isn't for show as Inanna, turning sharply, brings it snapping like a whip towards Rebecca's Gear and the Golem Cassini. But even so, should it strike true, some of the plates on its tail crack: Inanna is mighty, yes, but this is a ferocity that cuts both ways.
GS: Amaterasu has attacked Dean Stark with The Righteous One! GS: Amaterasu has gained 1 Combo! GS: Amaterasu enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: Amaterasu has attacked Hannah Curie with Divine Right! GS: Amaterasu has gained 1 Combo! GS: Amaterasu has activated a Boss Action! GS: You have activated the Boss Action Extend! GS: Amaterasu enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: Amaterasu has attacked Rebecca Streisand with The Furious One! GS: Amaterasu has attacked Kaguya with The Furious One! GS: Amaterasu has gained 1 Combo! GS: Amaterasu enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: Amaterasu has completed her action. GS: Rebecca Streisand mostly charges Amaterasu's The Furious One for 439 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Rebecca Streisand gains 1 additional Combo! GS: FP up! Reaction bonus! GS: Strain! Amaterasu takes 150 damage! GS: CRITICAL! Kaguya perfectly guards Amaterasu's The Furious One for 373 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Kaguya gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Strain! Amaterasu takes 150 damage!
<Pose Tracker> Kanon has posed.
Most cyborgs on Filgaia look like a man who has had his torso replaced with a combine harvester engine block and each shoulder replaced with a separate refrigerator, courtesy to technology in the Seed Cities. There's some more slender varieties, but those have hallmarks Kanon simply doesn't. Solarian cyborgs are sleek and clean, with Ether thrumming through them, not the electrical(??) power Kanon runs on. Perhaps this is what Veruni cybernetics look like? But since when have the Veruni given a damn about a human's body?
Well. Perhaps others will have answers to thoughts like that.
"Much more than part!" Kanon yells back. Redi's strike hits her clean, earning her a look from Kanon before the cyborg Merc sweeps up toward her. "Maybe you are not," she seethes. But the look in her eye is unmoved. There's a faint hydraulic hum as *another sword* jets out the back of her LEFT arm, and she slashes Redi with it once, then leaps into a whirl, a slashing hurricane of blades carving the possessed girl. "But I won't indulge such fantasies!"
Her legs make a loud bass BOOM and she suddenly jumps off the air, vaulting clean over Boudica to come crashing down on Ida, leg first. She exchanges her pike kick for a flash in the eyes, and lands with an ungainly "hngh!" She blinks fiercely, shaking her head out.
But she doesn't stop, either, piercing Boudicca with a direct glare. Her sword retracts back into her right arm, which slots back into place at its elbow. The light of *ki* improbably crackling along her form. "...I have cast aside my body. I have resolved to live as a humanoid concealed weapon for one purpose only. To destroy spirits." She forces herself upright, her cape flaring wide in the winds kicked up in the battle. Underneath it is a red minidress on a slender woman, thick legs in thick boots. She shifts her stance, power coalescing within her, and then she CHARGES at Boudica, lunging two huge steps and then crashing toward her. "That is my ambition!"
"As the heir of the Sword Magess!!"
She shoves her fists forward and an EXPLOSION of white light comes from them, scattering salt and battering Boudica's armor!
GS: Kanon has attacked Redi Hayworth with Spiral Edge! GS: Kanon has gained 1 Combo! GS: Kanon has attacked Ida Everstead-Rey with Pike Kick! GS: Kanon has gained 2 Combo! GS: Kanon has attacked Seraph Boudicca with Phalanx! GS: Kanon gains 5 FP from her Daredevil! GS: Kanon gains 5 FP from Sufferer! GS: Kanon has completed her action. GS: Redi Hayworth mostly guards Kanon's Spiral Edge for 64 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Redi Hayworth gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Leak blocked! GS: CRITICAL! Ida Everstead-Rey mostly evades Kanon's Pike Kick for 93 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Ida Everstead-Rey gains 1 additional Combo! GS: FP up! Power Burst! GS: Seraph Boudicca accepts Seraph Boudicca's Fortifying Tailwind for 0 hit points! GS: Burst, Quick, and Shield applied to Seraph Boudicca! GS: CRITICAL! Seraph Boudicca marginally evades Kanon's Phalanx for 124 hit points! GS: Old applied to Seraph Boudicca! GS: FP up! Power Burst and Reaction bonus!
<Pose Tracker> Ambrosius has posed.
The sandship(saltship?) weathers Nimue's fire well, and returns it in kind. Its ghostly passengers man the guns, unleashing spectral shells toward the golem. Nimue dodges to the side, but the distance proves difficult to judge. The golem is clipped... and where that ammunition lands, the spectral energy seems to land.
"...Curious." Ambrosius murmurs with a slight frown. Even golems are subject to the powers of the dead, it seems. "...I must commend you, for the willingness to pilot such a vessel into battle."
And, Gwen - Nimue's arm catches Halcyone.
"...Indeed. It has been some time." He agrees - and hesitates, for a moment. That might be telling in and of itself. "...Well enough. You seem well, as well... This is good."
Gwen introduces him to Halcyone directly - and does so in the form of a laser fired straight at Nimue! Nimue braces itself as the laser meets its mark, leaving a solid mark across the golem's arms.
"Well met, Halcyone. You have found a fine Gear indeed, Gwen." Ambrosius replies. His mood seems to improve a little on the discussion of machines. "A delivery vehicle... it suits you well."
As cordial as his tone may be, this is still a fight. He focuses, and Nimue's mouth opens. The golem seems to almost inhale, drawing it water - before breathing it out in a spray of pressurized water needles toward Halcyone!
Shige and her vessel is not forgotten, either. Nimue whirls, raising a palm toward the ship. In the center of the palms is a barrel - and it glows briefly before firing a beam right toward Shige's ship!
GS: CRITICAL! Dean Stark critically fails to charge Amaterasu's The Righteous One for 426 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Dean Stark gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Dean Stark enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: Ambrosius enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: Ambrosius has attacked Gwen Whitlock with Aqua Needles! GS: Ambrosius has attacked Shige Kiwako with Palm Cannon! GS: Ambrosius takes 70 damage from Corrode! GS: Ambrosius has completed his action.
<Pose Tracker> Kaguya has posed.
Rebecca suggests sabotage. Kaguya shouts, "Great idea! But she has't let me near her Golem, like, ever!"
Which isn't to say she wouldn't, just that she didn't. But Amaterasu agrees!? "Hey!"
As for the Veruni, "You know, they actually don't have an HR department. The Radicals, I mean. The greivance process is pretty much just 'suck it up and deal, soldier!'"
Hannah explains Cassandra. Kaguya tilts her head. "Oh, cool. OK. That's a thing that happens now."
But Amaterasu answers. Kaguya scowls. "Yeah, yeah," she answers about holding back. She did grow up 'the better' for it... right?
"I grew up strong, anyway."
The Queen will return... No. Kaguya doesn't aim that to be the case.
Cassini is struck hard by the tail of Inanna, rocked backward in the air by the sheer force of the attack. Armor cracks; it is not yet ready for a battle this fierce, Kaguya worries. But there's nothing for that now.
"Do you have offense?" she asks Cassini. "...Of course you do. Select an appopriate attack and go!"
Cassini rises again, the rings spinning--and this time, a gigantic gout of flame erupts from its hands towards Inanna, some of the magic gathering to orbit around it!
"You forget, Mat. I'm a Golem master."
...She hopes that's not just bravado. Because her Golem is pretty damaged already...
GS: Kaguya has attacked Amaterasu with Hi-Fire! GS: Kaguya has gained 2 Combo! GS: Kaguya gains 76 THP from Regen! GS: Kaguya has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Redi Hayworth has posed.
"A-All right...!" Redi answers Boudicca, though now her voice is tight when she says that. She nods, glancing back at the Seraph. "I'm not, I promise!"
She does crack a smile, though, when Rebecca backs her up. "That backlog doesn't know what's coming for it!" she adds.
She spins her wooden quarterstaff up; the left-handed blade SLAMS into with a loud thwock-sound, before she yanks the blade back, before she ducks back. The follow-up slash leaves a gash in her arm.
She hisses with pain. "You won't even consider the difference!?"
She steps back, before Kanon leaps high into the air.
Ida calls out that Kanon is a cyborg -- and she doesn't know what that is. Ida calls out to close her eyes, though, and Redi can do that; she shuts them just as the flashbang goes off.
She gets an idea, then, of what a cyborg might be; someone who cast aside their body, who has chosen to live as a weapon. There is a glance at Boudicca.
Then, her knuckles whiten about her quarterstaff. "To destroy all spirits, without hesitation or knowing them... that's awful!" Redi says. "You're--you're nothing like a real Paladienne!"
She starts running, as the explosion of white light hurtles down for Boudicca. Redi leaps up -- right for the side of Rebecca's Gear -- and bicycle kicks off it.
Then she comes flying in for the cyborg, lashing out with three rapid, mid-air kicks, before she slams down into the ground.
GS: Redi Hayworth has attacked Kanon with Triple Spin Kick! GS: Redi Hayworth has gained 3 Combo! GS: Redi Hayworth gains 5 FP from her Daredevil! GS: Redi Hayworth has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Dean Stark has posed.
"Huh? Human what now?" Dean asks Rebecca, befuddled. He wasn't there for that escapade... But it's fine, they've got other things to concentrate on right now. Or to focus on, Rebecca.
"Okay!" Dean calls to Hannah. The story of how she found a way to make her (pocket) monster grow ought to be a great one, but they'll have to save it for later.
Amaterasu declares that she earned Inanna by right of combat. "Huh, really? How'd that happen? Did you beat Inanna in a fight and have them accept you or something?" he wonders. Sure, they're in the middle of a fight, and this is absolutely not the time, but--once again, when else is he going to be able to ask?
He scoffs, though, when Amaterasu tells Kaguya and Rebecca, no, Avril will totally come back to rule her people again someday. "You guys really don't listen, do you? No wonder Avril doesn't wanna go back!"
Inanna snaps a clawed limb at the Nimrod, attempting to dislodge it from its plates. That might or might not have been enough on its own--but then Cassandra's beams fall like shooting stars on the Golem, and it's impossible for Dean to defend against them and hold onto Inanna at the same time. That limb impacts HARD, nearly tearing off Nimrod's arms; Dean has Nimrod let go just in time, but it's sent flying and lands HARD on the broken salt wastes. The ground crunches beneath them, sending a cloud of white billowing up on impact. It takes them both a moment to get back upright.
"Oof..." Dean groans within. "Golems really are amazing..."
But that doesn't mean he can just lie around all day. Nimrod clambers up to its feet, which are the least damaged part of the Gear. That's a good thing, because these legs come *spring-loaded*. It crouches--then--LEAPS!! The sun sparkles at its back; then it descends towards Inanna, one leg thrust out like a spear in a mighty aerial kick as Dean ROARS in defiance!
GS: Dean Stark enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: Dean Stark has attacked Amaterasu with Jet Jump! GS: Dean Stark has gained 4 Combo! GS: Dean Stark's stances have changed to ! GS: Dean Stark enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: Dean Stark gains 72 THP from Regen! GS: Dean Stark has completed his action. GS: CRITICAL! Gamble: Very High! Gwen Whitlock critically fails to charge Ambrosius's Aqua Needles for 551 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Gwen Whitlock gains 1 additional Combo! GS: CRITICAL! Hannah Curie mostly evades Amaterasu's Divine Right for 278 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Hannah Curie gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Blind applied to Hannah Curie!
<Pose Tracker> Rebecca Streisand has posed.
"Tell you later!" Because yes they have to focus right now, DEAN!
One way or another? Rebecca's jaw tenses, her gaze sharpening on her cockpit viewscreen as she speaks of Avril returning to their place, "Sure, when y'all stop acting like a bunch of petty tyrants - think she might give it due consideration."
Amaterasu however notes that there's no chance that Kaguya could have managed that given it's last maintenance, and Rebecca hopes that Kaguya flashes a grin and notes she activated a remote detonator three days ago or something suitably Kaguya, but- no such triumph is forthcoming. "AND THAT STOPPED YOU!?" Rebecca gawks at the idea that Kaguya was never LET near Amaterasu's Golem.
Innana's great tail whips towards Eurydice, and on a sudden whim, the Eurydice is pushed forward, abruptly inward from the tip of the tail. It slams heavily against the cockpit, and Rebecca feels herself rocked sideways, before she steadies it, a notable dent in the frame...
However, Rebecca stops her Gear just long enough as she sees Redi springing towards it, and instead lets the stabilizers adjust to lean towards her subtly so she can boost off of it with the kick.
"What kind of ambition is that?" Rebecca calls out to Kanon, "If harassing good folks who've never hurt nobody is your ambition then I'm pretty sure the Magess would be ashamed of you."
Pushing the Eurydice into Innana's melee range, she notes what a bad idea this is for like the fourth time in the past you know - ten seconds, before it's leg whips up, striking it, before while still raised, the other leg pivots, sending it to hook it down over Innana's neck. She doesn't expect to outstrength the Leonine creature, but she is perhaps hoping to catch it by surprise and have enough leverage to do some actual damage.
"Let's see if we can't make this more than just a maintenance nightmare for you before this is over."
GS: Rebecca Streisand spends 2 Combo on Headshot! GS: Rebecca Streisand has attacked Amaterasu with Tartarean Justice! GS: Rebecca Streisand has gained 1 Combo! GS: Rebecca Streisand gains 68 THP from Regen! GS: Rebecca Streisand has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Boudicca has posed.
"Part machine? Her... her mother was a robot? But, how does..." Boudicca goes ???????? as her head cants to the side and she gestures with her hands and she tries to process this new hybrid revelation. It only gets worse when Kanon explains. "Or -- more than part? Her mother was a machine, and her father was half-machine? I do not understand. I do not understand the Cyborg. Oh, I wish Azoth were here..."
Tragically, those flights of fancy get her so distracted that Kanon is able to not only assault Redi but do an acrobatic fucking pirouette over her head and onto one of her very best friends. "Ah! Do not -- wh -- Ida!" Boudicca exclaims, turning with alarm. She doesn't have time to linger on that, though, because Kanon zeroes in on her instead.
"That is your ambition?!" She exclaims. "If that is so, then -- then your quarrel is with me alone! I am the wind spirit Boudicca, facilitator of Moor Gault's will, and you must cease stabbing them! Not only Ida, but this Redi, as well!" Thanks to Rebecca, she knows her name! "Surely you have seen she bleeds mortal blood?!"
Unfortunately, Boudicca gets just what she asked for, and once again Kanon proves that cyborgs are faster than the wind -- she tries to spring away from that freight-train charge, only to find herself forced to the ground in a ferocious explosion.
"Ah--!!"
Boudicca was able to shield her eyes from Ida's flash-bang, but her aviator shades can't defend her from this light, point-blank. A green Seraphic glyph lights up under them, as she summons the wind to try and push Kanon away. "All conditions worsening -- Buffeting Headwind!"
GS: Seraph Boudicca has attacked Kanon with Buffeting Headwind! GS: Seraph Boudicca has gained 2 Combo! GS: Seraph Boudicca's stances have changed to Avenger! GS: Seraph Boudicca gains 5 FP from Sufferer! GS: Seraph Boudicca has completed her action. GS: CRITICAL! Shige Kiwako mostly evades Ambrosius's Palm Cannon for 207 hit points! GS: FP up! Countermeasures and Reaction bonus! GS: CRITICAL! Amaterasu mostly evades Kaguya's Hi-Fire for 268 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Amaterasu gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Mighty and Quick applied to Kaguya! GS: CRITICAL! Amaterasu mostly guards Dean Stark's Jet Jump for 325 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Amaterasu gains 1 additional Combo! GS: CRITICAL! Amaterasu mostly guards Rebecca Streisand's Tartarean Justice for 315 hit points! GS: Mute applied to Amaterasu!
<Pose Tracker> Hannah Curie has posed.
A golem lives to fight. "Then she an' Inanna ain't alike at all! Cassandra doesn't live to fight. She fights for the same reason I do--because it's necessary, sometimes, to prevent people from comin' to harm."
But Cassandra's first strike hits true. "Yeah!" cheers Hannah, though she pauses as she observes all of that damage. And then frowns. Did Cassandra really hit that hard?
... Probably not, but... That still concerns Hannah, even if it's her opponent.
But lasers are summoned forth, and Cassandra snarls as she leaps to the side, trying to avoid that convergence--the resulting explosion still grazes her side, though, and Cassandra stumbles for a moment but quickly straightens up.
Hannah nods to Kaguya, dropping her voice (and keeping it off of comms.) "It's kinda a new development." She lifts the wrist with her Dynamax Band for emphasis. "You shoulda seen what happened to the Pikachu of this sweet kid I know, though."
And Cassini seems to be having difficulties with her armor plating too. What kind of battle is this going to turn into, if the situation gets prolonged...
"Alright! Cassandra! Feint!"
Cassandra springs forward, zigzagging back and forth as she tries to disguise the angle of her approach before suddenly turning on a dive and making a pounce to rake her claws at the golem once more.
GS: Hannah Curie has attacked Amaterasu with Feint! GS: Hannah Curie enters a Counter stance! GS: Hannah Curie has gained 2 Combo! GS: Hannah Curie gains 5 FP from Gleam! GS: Hannah Curie gains 74 THP from Regen! GS: Hannah Curie has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.
Ida meets Boudicca's gaze with a moment of dull realization. For a long moment, she just stares, eye caught in a tic, as she considers what she's unleashed upon the world. Exhaustion seeps in a moment later; she does not nearly have the energy to clarify the matter and keep Kanon from killing her, simultaneously. "I can explain later!" she promises the Oracle. Let's go with that.
Kanon interrupts the moment with terrifying speed. Ida, having closed her eyes and sealed her eardrums, doesn't know precisely where Kanon is--or wouldn't, if she couldn't sense the bonfire of the woman's lifeforce. The Seer jukes to the side, twisting back. Kanon's heel slams into Ida's shoulder, and spikes of pain shoot through the limb. Ida stumbles back, opening her eyes again.
She's running on dwindling reserves. The others--especially Kanon--can probably tell from her posture, the way every movement is a bit slower, less fluid. Still...
"Boudicca saved this world from a fate worse than death," Ida says, to Kanon's fierce declaration. "And I don't know what the hell is up with the mail carrier but you're not killing her without a damn good reason! Second--you're not the only one whose body is a weapon."
Ida's gaze goes unfocused. Her fingers tremble, then clench. Her face twists into a grimace as quicksilver erupts from her collar and cuffs, flowing down her arms and hardening into gold-and-blue exoskeleton. The martial artist charges Kanon, trying to rush her down with a punch before following up with a drumroll of similar strikes, relying on memory that isn't quite hers to make things a little easier.
GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has attacked Kanon with Muscle Memory! GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has gained 2 Combo! GS: Ida Everstead-Rey's stances have changed from Stoic to Avenger! GS: Mighty and Riposte expired! GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Shige Kiwako has posed.
Shige's response to Gwen is a simple one! "I got ya" not worried at all. (She's very worried, but she's compensating well enough.) "I.. don't think I've met him." She admits.
"I haven't seen anyone's gears!" She admits openly. Laughing in that nervous idea. "I haven't even flown this in combat yet!" In that same tone. The.. I have no idea what I'm doing, but I'm winging it voice.
"This is more of a barely operable wreck, we're in good company."
"Everything is." She retorts, to the idea that even a golem could be affected by death. She has good excuses to be grim sometimes.
The elegy rattles under the blue. Another hole appearing in the side. Exposing some of the internals and making.. a few noise Shige decides pointedly to ignore while her crew gets to work.
As she passes by once more, she doesn't return fire. Instead, as she passes by the ship, she hits the brakes, slowing down enough for a pair of spectral figures to hop down, carrying repair tools and the knowhow on field repairs. That they fade from sight doesn't change the effect. Somehow. Don't worry too much about it.
That the lingering repairs are faintly glowing for a moment is fine right? It goes away quickly enough though.
"They'll keep working I hope!"
GS: Shige Kiwako has attacked Gwen Whitlock with Engineering Crew! GS: Shige Kiwako has gained 2 Combo! GS: Shige Kiwako has completed her action. GS: Shige Kiwako heals Gwen Whitlock! She gains 398 temporary hit points! GS: Regen applied to Gwen Whitlock! GS: Quick applied to Shige Kiwako! GS: Kanon mostly guards Seraph Boudicca's Buffeting Headwind for 45 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Kanon gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Delay applied to Kanon! GS: Amaterasu mostly evades Hannah Curie's Feint for 182 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Amaterasu gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Dispel! Hyper removed! GS: Hyper and Quick applied to Hannah Curie! GS: FP up! Reaction bonus!
<Pose Tracker> Amaterasu has posed.
"Hmm. Are you certain?" Amaterasu muses. "I had heard through our intelligence that Pokemon are fond of fighting one another. ...Hmm. Ambrosius, what say you? Should we travel to Energy Nede and see for ourselves?
Is making that sort of plan mid-Golem battle really the best idea?
"Indeed. We are strong enough to not require 'grievance'!" Amaterasu agrees. Being a part of the Radicals must be rough...
As Kaguya seems to agree, remarking that she 'grew up strong'.
"Oh? Did Kaguya not tell you?" she remarks to Dean. "We are pitted against each other for the right to wield Golems of strength and power. A strong warrior best befits a strong Golem. Only the finest may use a Golem like Inanna!"
But as he speaks to Avril 'not wanting to go back' and as Rebecca says that they ought to stop acting like a 'bunch of petty tyrants', Amaterasu just shakes her head. "You are not Veruni. You cannot understand."
Dean's response might as well come in the form of his own attack upon Innana. Feet-first, into a point just above its left foreleg. Another section of its shell cracks off, and it may well be that the craze lines that splinter along that side have destabilized this part of the Golem's outer shell. Inanna probably didn't like that on some level, for it tries to angle that part away from Rebecca's Gear as she comes in hot--
And mostly succeeds. What it gets for its pains is another hit not where the shell is already half-fractured but several places down its flank, where its shell cracks and splinters in much the same way as Dean's earlier hit.
"Perhaps," she answers Rebecca. "But there is no victory had for one who holds back."
Perhaps that serves as the reason why, as Cassandra zig-zags towards Inanna, the Golem slows and stands ready, leaping forth just as the Absol launches her attack. And nearly, Inanna escapes, too: but the canny Cassandra is one step ahead. Claws sheer away more of the Golem's strange shells; they splinter into pieces upon hitting the saltdunes.
Flame erupts towards Inanna, which this time leaps to escape the bulk of Cassini's flames -- but not without cost. They scorch the edges of the shells throughly, which splinter and fall away like flower petals on the wind. "An impressive display," Amaterasu says. "This Golem would be an asset to our cause. Will you not reconsider, Kaguya?" She pauses for just a moment before shaking her head. "...No, my sister has never been able to let go once she has made up her mind about something."
"Inanna... it is time," Amaterasu tells her Golem. "Open now the house of battle!"
Raising its head towards the heavens, Inanna screams forth her intentions. All those red channels across its body shine the brigher now, red-magenta, magenta-red, and a chaos of laserfire erupts from behind its fanning shells to trace across the sky. They fall in coiling eruptions, they fall as sheets of rain. They fall.
Turning its head towards Hannah's Absol, the sightless Golem opens its jaws to shriek, almost as if it saw something about her Pokemon -- or something about Hannah itself, perhaps -- that it saw fit to render verdict upon. The cry itself is nearly deafening.
The shells across its back begin to move and realign. Something is emerging from deeper in the Golem's body: as bone-like as the rest of its form, the protrusions soon reveal themselves for what they really are, launching missile after missile upon Rebecca's location. Hard light may be favored by the Veruni, certainly, but things such as 'traditional' artillery (if advanced missiles can be called such!) have their place as well!
GS: Amaterasu spends 1 Combo on Link! GS: Amaterasu has attacked Amaterasu with If you do not open the gate for me to come in! GS: Amaterasu has gained 2 Combo! GS: Amaterasu has launched an attack Link! GS: CRITICAL! Amaterasu accepts Amaterasu's If you do not open the gate for me to come in for 0 hit points! GS: Amplify and Burst applied to Amaterasu! GS: Mighty applied to Amaterasu! GS: Amaterasu has attacked Amaterasu with I shall smash the door and shatter the bolt! GS: Amaterasu has gained 3 Combo! GS: You have finished a Link/Follow chain! GS: CRITICAL! Amaterasu accepts Amaterasu's I shall smash the door and shatter the bolt for 0 hit points! GS: Dynamax and Hyper applied to Amaterasu! GS: Amaterasu spends 3 Combo on Gatling, loading 3 into Gatling! GS: Amaterasu has attacked Dean Stark with The Blessed One! GS: Amaterasu has attacked Kaguya with The Blessed One! GS: Amaterasu has gained 2 Combo! GS: Amaterasu has attacked Hannah Curie with Proclamation of the Gods! GS: Recover! Mute removed from Amaterasu! GS: Amaterasu has attacked Rebecca Streisand with The Shattering One! GS: Amaterasu has gained 1 Combo! GS: Amaterasu has completed her action. GS: CRITICAL! Rebecca Streisand mostly evades Amaterasu's The Shattering One for 432 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Rebecca Streisand gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Dispel! Mighty, Regen, Shield, and Surge removed! GS: Amaterasu has canceled their attack on Hannah Curie.
<Pose Tracker> Gwen Whitlock has posed.
"Yeah. Sorry the happy lot of us were gone. It took a lot longer than than we were expectin' to get back."
It's not as if there was anything stopping all of them, of course.
But Gwen has to acknowledge it, all the same.
"Shige, get behind me if you're not holdin' u--HAGURBGLESHHHHHHH*click*" The blast from Nimue hits the Halcyone so hard that the water has managed to get inside the cockpit.
A dripping Gwen tests the speakers a few more times, each time producing a cacophony of white sound.
Which is about the time when Shige's spectral workers hop on the Halcyone, fixing some of the damage away, including the speakers.
Gwen has her own form of healing, which, unfortunately, needs to borrow a little of Gwen's own energy to get going.
Just a drop of it, at least, rather than the 'running up the hill at full speed' feeling of trying to charge up her ARM to power herself into Chrysopoeia mode. "... I'm not sure what you just did, Shige, but that gonna make this a heck of a lot easier t'do."
The Halcyone straightens up on its digitigrade legs.
"..... goddamn it, Energy Nede's gonna bar all the doors at this rate," Gwen grumbles, hearing Amaterasu's earlier comments.
GS: Amaterasu has attacked Hannah Curie with Judgement of the Four Quarters! GS: Amaterasu gains 5 FP from Sufferer! GS: Amaterasu has completed her action. GS: Gwen Whitlock has attacked Gwen Whitlock with Star Cluster! GS: Gwen Whitlock has gained 1 Combo! GS: Gwen Whitlock gains 74 THP from Regen! GS: Gwen Whitlock has completed her action. GS: CRITICAL! Gwen Whitlock heals Gwen Whitlock! She gains 480 temporary hit points! GS: Regen applied to Gwen Whitlock! GS: COUNTER! Kaguya counterattacks Amaterasu with Hi-Devastate! GS: CRITICAL! Kaguya fails to charge Amaterasu's The Blessed One for 573 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Kaguya gains 1 additional Combo! GS: FP up! Reaction bonus! GS: CRITICAL! Kanon fails to guard Ida Everstead-Rey's Muscle Memory for 220 hit points! GS: Mighty applied to Ida Everstead-Rey! GS: FP up! Power Burst! GS: Gamble: Moderate! Kanon critically fails to guard Redi Hayworth's Triple Spin Kick for 154 hit points! GS: FP up! Power Burst! GS: Amaterasu mostly charges Kaguya's Hi-Devastate for 358 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Amaterasu gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Charge!! You gain 60 FP! (That's 45 more than usual!)
<Pose Tracker> Kanon has posed.
Boudicca's wind blast catches Kanon in the recovery from her strike. It does send her flying, but one can see that she guarded the worst of it with that fire-red arm, so the damage itself was largely guarded. Still, it's seconds before she plants her feet on ground again. If Rebecca's rebuke stings her, she doesn't show it. Redi's she can't reply to on account of how Redi says it shortly before rapid-fire kicking her mid-arc, pow pow POW driving Kanon hurtling to the salt below. Spiked, she can't do much before Ida slides into place drum her stomach with a flurry of blows, the ground under them scattering and crumbling from the force of it.
But as Ida steps away to review her work...
A series of short gasps come from Kanon's crater. And then: "Bionic Limiters," she announces, and there's a sound like a massive lock coming undone.
"Level 5 Release."
There's a strange noise, like warping, wailing, churning energies, and then they all become aware they have been struck. A knock to the chin and a brutal, glowing spin-kick to send Ida flying; Redi finds herself grabbed out of the air and DRIVEN to the ground. Boudicca, with her spiritual sense, perhaps can detect that spark of Kanon's light as she comes in, one, two, three, six, eight, twelve kicks, and then driving that clawed hand of hers, spinning like a drill, straight into and perhaps through her armor.
It all takes - three seconds, total? Not even? And then Kanon is behind them all, panting air that she may not even be breathing. She draws herself up, and, turns, her single blue eye piercing and glowing.
"...the Blazing Demon's host says much the same. I'll kill him, too."
GS: Kanon has attacked Kanon with Bionic Spark! GS: Kanon has gained 1 Combo! GS: Kanon accepts Kanon's Bionic Spark for 0 hit points! GS: Hyper and Quick applied to Kanon! GS: MYSTIC ARTE! Kanon has attacked Ida Everstead-Rey with Bionic Limiters Level 5 Release! GS: MYSTIC ARTE! Kanon has attacked Redi Hayworth with Bionic Limiters Level 5 Release! GS: MYSTIC ARTE! Kanon has attacked Seraph Boudicca with Bionic Limiters Level 5 Release! GS: Kanon has gained 1 Combo! GS: Kanon gains 5 FP from her Daredevil! GS: Kanon gains 5 FP from Sufferer! GS: Mighty expired! GS: Kanon has completed her action. GS: Redi Hayworth mostly guards Kanon's Bionic Limiters Level 5 Release for 130 hit points! GS: Ruin! Burst removed! GS: RUIN! All positive status effects and temporary hit points purged from Redi Hayworth! GS: COUNTER! Hannah Curie counterattacks Amaterasu with Payback! GS: CRITICAL! Hannah Curie mostly charges Amaterasu's Judgement of the Four Quarters for 188 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Hannah Curie gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Dispel! Burst, Cover, Regen, Riposte, and Surge removed! GS: Break, Cripple, Jam, Mute, Slow, and Weaken applied to Hannah Curie! GS: CRITICAL! Seraph Boudicca mostly evades Kanon's Bionic Limiters Level 5 Release for 140 hit points! GS: Ruin! Hyper, Quick, and Shield removed! GS: RUIN! All positive status effects and temporary hit points purged from Seraph Boudicca! GS: Ida Everstead-Rey marginally guards Kanon's Bionic Limiters Level 5 Release for 183 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Ida Everstead-Rey gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Ruin! Hyper, Mighty, and Quick removed! GS: Ida Everstead-Rey enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: RUIN! All positive status effects and temporary hit points purged from Ida Everstead-Rey!
<Pose Tracker> Kaguya has posed.
"I mean SOMETIMES!?" Kaguya shouts back at Rebecca. Obviously not all the time. But a maintenance nightmare sounds ideal. But Dean has words, too. "They don't!" Listen, that is. She watches Dean's Nimrod clamber to its feet, and is satisfied that he's OK for the moment. So instead she--
"Aftermarket parts!" Kaguya calls to Boudicca. "I'll explain later!"
Mortal blood... Well, that's something.
Cassandra and Hannah, "Then you're at a disadvantage. Veruni do live to fight. We struggle, we conquer, and we rule. ...No matter who it hurts."
Pikachu... Kaguya nods to Hannah, but doesn't say much else there yet.
Kaguya understands the Radicals too well, sometimes. "Yeah, I didn't mention that. Because Dean believes in something better for Golems!"
Rebecca canot understand, Mat says. But Kaguya agrees with one thing--"Right. We won't hold back!"
Will she not reconsider? "You're right about that, too," Kaguya says. "I won't. It'll be an asset to our cause, instead! The cause of finding a better way to live on Filgaia!"
It doesn't sound right, to Kaguya, to hear herself speaking such idealism... But she wants to believe in it. She doess.
A devastating hit crashes down for Cassini. The rain of lasrs fall, and each blast rocks the Golem entire, knocking it down to the ground on one knee. "DAMAGE... SIGNIFICANT," Cassini reports. "RECOMMEND..."
It eyes flash green, and it stares at its opponent. "GREATER OFFENSE."
It is a Veruni Golem.
"You got it, buddy!" Kaguya calls to Cassini. "Open up as hard as you can! Avril! We're gonna need more power!"
The Golem rises once more, and spectral rings overlap around it, each orbiting at a different angle. They begin to spin, and spin, and spin, until they are a translucent sphere of power.
"INITIATING FULL LEY RELEASE..."
"SPELL: FAULTLESS RING."
Golden circles cast down from the sky wiht a column of light, cascading down to reach Inanna--and detonating in a flash of Veruni Ether, a powerful blast erupting from the ground!
GS: Kaguya has activated Force Action: Full Clip! GS: Kaguya spends 3 Combo on Gatling, loading 3 into Gatling! GS: MYSTIC ARTE! Kaguya has attacked Amaterasu with Faultless Ring! GS: Kaguya has gained 1 Combo! GS: Kaguya gains 68 THP from Regen! GS: Blind expired! GS: Kaguya has completed her action. GS: Amaterasu mostly guards Hannah Curie's Payback for 239 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Amaterasu gains 1 additional Combo! GS: FP up! SOS Overdrive! GS: Amaterasu critically fails to guard Kaguya's Faultless Ring for 638 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Ambrosius has posed.
Amaterasu asks a question. Ambrosius is... a little surprised, but he can't help but chuckle a bit. Of course Amaterasu would find time to ask such a thing, even in throes of battle. He fondly recalls his recent visit.
"Battle is a sport to them. They fight to test themselves against each other, or to judge the worthiness of one they wish to follow. ...Though there are some who do still prefer a peaceful life." He replies. He can't imagine Snom having an eagerness for battle, preferring to spend his time munching on snow or whatever else ends up in his terrarium, or that he finds when out on a walk with Minerva. "Still... I believe you would enjoy it, Amaterasu. There is merit to this idea."
His attention swiftly returns to Shige and Gwen.
"It is quite alright. I have been following events. I understand you all were rather busy." Ambrosius notes.
Shige sails. Nimue watches the ship carefully, head turning to track its voyage. But it doesn't attack - and neither does Halcyone, both taking the opportunity to recover after the harsh opening. Nimue doesn't press the attack, just yet - and only once they both seem ready does it begin again.
Nimue surges forth toward Shige's vessel, hauling an arm back. Rather than use blunt force like before, the arm instead thrusts forward violently, to strike through it with its claws, should Shige's helmsmanship not prove true.
Nimue's head whirls toward Halcyone, then, eyes briefly flashing blue. What its done is not immediately apparent - at least not until water begins to bubble up beneath Halcyone. It spins rapidly, picking up more and more speed - threatening to capture Gwen's gear in a whirlpool!
GS: Ambrosius has attacked Shige Kiwako with Savage Impale! GS: Ambrosius has gained 2 Combo! GS: Ambrosius spends 1 Combo on Poison! GS: Ambrosius has attacked Gwen Whitlock with Withering Whirlpool! GS: Ambrosius has gained 1 Combo! GS: Ambrosius takes 52 damage from Corrode! GS: Corrode and Jam expired! GS: Ambrosius has completed his action.
<Pose Tracker> Redi Hayworth has posed.
"I--I think she has machine parts!" Redi calls back to Boudicca. There's quiet, after, though. She does bleed mortal blood. But, she can't claim that she is strictly mortal.
Suffice to say, there is something up with this particular mail carrier.
She looks back to where she thinks Kanon landed. She sees the crater punched into the saltlands -- and just before she lands, Kanon moves faster. She gets grabbed, and slammed into the earth.
Salt explodes up in a huge burst of dust. Redi groans, pushing herself to her feet. Crackling violet and crimson light wafts off her; her wounded side and arm begin to mend. The freshly split lip and cut on her head, from the impact, begin to close.
And her pale blue eyes glow brightly, now, as she looks at Kanon.
"Didn't the Sword Magess--"
Her staff ignites in the same violet and too-red fire, which doesn't burn, precisely. The salt begins to frost nearby, as she swings it back -- and then she explodes forward, too, moving in a blur.
Redi swings her staff, twice, once for Kanon's midsection, and then smashes it down with an overhead swing for the cyborg's shoulder.
"Say anything--"
And then she finishes with a held up hand. A ball of red and violet light swirls into existence; rime shoots across her arm, forms across Kanon's armor, and then both flash-melt as the infernal, hateful fire remembers what it is to burn.
Then it explodes apart in a titanic, furious fireball that hurtles Redi backward -- and tries to do the same to Kanon.
"ABOUT MERCY!?" Redi demands, as she hits the ground in a three-point stance.
GS: Redi Hayworth has activated Force Action: Full Clip! GS: Redi Hayworth spends 3 Combo on Gatling, loading 3 into Gatling! GS: MYSTIC ARTE! Redi Hayworth has attacked Kanon with Calamity Break! GS: Redi Hayworth has gained 1 Combo! GS: Redi Hayworth gains 5 FP from her Daredevil! GS: Mighty expired! GS: Redi Hayworth has completed her action. GS: Gwen Whitlock has activated Force Action: Accelerate! GS: CRITICAL! Gwen Whitlock marginally evades Ambrosius's Withering Whirlpool for 346 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Gwen Whitlock gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Disease and Corrode applied to Gwen Whitlock! GS: CRITICAL! Dean Stark mostly guards Amaterasu's The Blessed One for 460 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Dean Stark gains 1 additional Combo! GS: FP up! Countermeasures and Reaction bonus!
<Pose Tracker> Rebecca Streisand has posed.
"I know people act different around family but a you that doesn't go near your sister's things is too far out there for me to even picture!" Rebecca sounds just shocked at this thought of Kaguya who isn't a bratty little gremlin to her sister around the home.
"You're right. ...I can't!" Rebecca agrees on not understanding, "I can't understand how you can have a sister and work for people who think they're leagues different from us! I can't understand how your people are still out there subjugating folks when your backs are against a wall! Your people's priorities don't make sense!"
Innana's scream requires Rebecca to take her hands off the controls for a moment, recovering from that bone shrieking sound, even before missile after missile is launched. Abruptly it's like the Gear starts to hover, weaving in and out of the storm of missiles.
However to a Gear so lightly armored, it doesn't need to be a direct hit. One smashes into the Salt, the near-hit'd detonation ripping apart the magical golden layer of protection Kaguya put over it, and sending the Gear toppling forward, as it impacts so hard that Rebecca feels her teeth rattle, her head slamming against the seat.
Tasting blood, she coaxes the gear back to it's feet, and puts her hand on the amplifier, focusing.
"... That's where you're wrong."
The cannon arm of the Gear suddenly extends, and Rebecca points it at Innana. Light shining, as runic rings of Shamanistic energy form, one after another ahead of the barrel, as if it were charging up some massive spell.
"Don't need absolute victory to win."
Then abruptly the Barrel gets pointed upright, towards the sky. There's a burst of energy as something is shot skyward, spherical at first, but then once it strikes high up, it collapses, and expands into an asymmetrical array that's been shot in the sky.
"Just need to survive one more day. Then the next."
It comes down like a drizzle from that array at first, then a shower of shamanistic energy from the sky, violet eldritch flame rains down all around Innana.
"Maybe I shouldn't be surprised your sister knows that one better than you."
GS: Rebecca Streisand has activated Force Action: Full Clip! GS: Rebecca Streisand has activated Force Action: Lock On! GS: Kaguya used Force Action: Mystic on Rebecca Streisand! FP up! GS: Blind removed! GS: Kaguya used Force Action: Mystic on Rebecca Streisand! FP up! GS: Rebecca Streisand spends 2 Combo on Headshot! GS: MYSTIC ARTE! Rebecca Streisand has attacked Amaterasu with Eternal Punishment! GS: Rebecca Streisand has gained 2 Combo! GS: Dynamax expired! GS: Rebecca Streisand has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Dean Stark has posed.
In the same way that Amaterasu says that Veruni fight each other for the right for a Golem, she says they can't understand about the Ice Queen because they aren't Veruni, and Dean frowns. He's sure Kaguya hasn't; he'd definitely remember something like that, since it's Golem-related.
"So the Golems don't get any say in it... I wonder if Inanna really thinks of you as their master," he says. Asgard would know, he's sure, but he's not here right now. Either way, Dean thought that the Prophets didn't appreciate Asgard, but Asgard insisted that he's loyal to them, and it's never been clear to Dean why. Maybe the Prophets also fought for the right to be his master?
But that's something to ponder later. Especially since Kaguya asserts that he believes in something better for Golems--and he does. "That's right! If Inanna's okay with that, that's one thing! But that doesn't sound like it's what's going on here!" He shakes his head. Rebecca takes a lot of the words out of his mouth, so instead, he says, "You're right about one thing, though. I can't understand how you guys can make such a big deal out of might-makes-right. Sure, it's good to know how to fight, but it's way better to help each other and be friends! Kaguya gets that! That's why she's with us now!"
And Kaguya *is* a much better friend to all of them now--in general, but also specifically to Dean, Rebecca, and Avril. She and Rebecca have been bantering this whole time, and Avril trusts her a lot more now too. And Dean--well, Dean's trusted her all along. Hannah's a different case, both in terms of their history and the mount she's using, but he knows she gets it too.
It's just the Veruni Radicals who seem not to get it. And that's just sad.
Even sadder--no, more devastating--is the way Inanna's attack bombards Cassini, wrecking into the winged Golem with incredible force. "Cassini!! Avril!! Are you guys okay?!" he shouts. He laughs a little, though, when Cassini suggests more firepower. "You really would get along great with Asgard!"
So if they're going all-out, then he'd better use an even better move too. He hates to do something that might really hurt Inanna, but... he's got to protect his friends, and the Golem they awakened together, first.
So he channels the power of Dinoginos through the Original Mountain Medium and into the damaged limbs of the Gear. This is just in time for Amaterasu and Inanna's own assault on him and Nimrod. It's a nearly unbelievable amount of force that falls as magma rain, and warning klaxons scream within the Gear as the cockpit heats dangerously hot. But then Nimrod takes that very heat and uses it, making itself into a mobile heat attack as it charges into the Golem and leaps towards it in a full-body tackle.
GS: Dean Stark spends 3 Combo on Gatling, loading 3 into Gatling! GS: Formation! Dean Stark has attacked Amaterasu with Alexandrite Assault! GS: Dean Stark has gained 1 Combo! GS: Dean Stark gains 76 THP from Regen! GS: Dean Stark has completed his action. GS: CRITICAL! Gamble: Lowest! Amaterasu critically fails to evade Rebecca Streisand's Eternal Punishment for 612 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Amaterasu gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Mute blocked! GS: Amaterasu has Fallen! She is no longer able to fight! GS: CRITICAL! Amaterasu fails to charge Dean Stark's Alexandrite Assault for 699 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Amaterasu gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Charge!! You gain 50 FP! (That's 35 more than usual!) GS: FP up! Reaction bonus! GS: Amaterasu enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: Amaterasu has Fallen! She is no longer able to fight!
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Boudicca has posed.
Later, Ida and Kaguya will have quite an explanation on their hands. Their doom looms large on the horizon, particularly given how Boudicca doesn't konw what an aftermarket is, and her first thought is instead of a night market. (A market held after dark. Surely that is what the after-market is.)
You know, aside from Kanon, who is here right now and unreasonably frightening. A different doom, pending surviving this one -- and Inanna, who will call out the chthonic dead. Boudicca is naturally concerned for Dean and the others, but she hasn't had any spare moments to protect them, under the present circumstances.
(And poor Gwen and Shige, facing up against Nimue-no-not-that-one!)
Strangely, it's the new stranger, bike fiend Redi, who offers the most comprensible explanation to Boudicca: "Oh! Parts of her are mechanical! Yes, like Ida's Living Metal which she gained after her birth, I see!" THAT'S WHAT GETS THROUGH TO HER?!
Boudicca is of course proud of Ida's defence of her character, and in a different situation she might have even been able to puff her chest up a little. In this situation, she is forced to blow Kanon from her person so that she can pick herself up again, because they're in what she would diplomatically call 'a tight spot'.
She knows a thing or two about limiters, thanks to Ida, too -- enough to realise that the sound of an unlocking release is terrible news. "Oh," she says, and that's all she has room to say before her senses warn her to RUN.
It's thanks to that sixth-sense warning that Boudicca manages to scramble back enough for those kicks to impact her armour instead of shattering it -- enough that her clawed spinning hand doesn't pierce straight through Boudicca's chest, but only bores a thick hole through the front of her chestplate.
Strangely, no blood comes out. Perhaps that means Kanon didn't pierce her flesh. Or, perhaps...
(She is a metaphor, and she has elected not to bleed terribly much; it upsets her human friends, to see too much blood.)
"Oh," she says, again, looking down at her chest.
"Oh."
And then she turns around, to find Kanon again, faster than the wind and fiercer still. "Surely," she says, "you do not speak of Ashley? He is a kind soul. He baked bread for Eleanor's wedding!" He might also be possessed of a horrible destructive force, but this is not about that.
"You will kill no one today," Boudicca promises her. "I will see to it." And the terrible trick of the Seraphim is her capacity to summon one of those casting-glyphs without an invocation, as a soothing breeze wraps around Ida and Redi.
(She doesn't know.)
GS: Seraph Boudicca has activated Force Action: Extend! GS: Seraph Boudicca spends 1 Combo on Reload! GS: Seraph Boudicca has attacked Ida Everstead-Rey with Soothing Breeze! GS: Seraph Boudicca has attacked Redi Hayworth with Soothing Breeze! GS: Seraph Boudicca has attacked Seraph Boudicca with Soothing Breeze! GS: Seraph Boudicca has gained 1 Combo! GS: Seraph Boudicca gains 5 FP from Sufferer! GS: Seraph Boudicca has completed her action. GS: Seraph Boudicca heals Seraph Boudicca! She gains 201 temporary hit points! GS: Restore! Old removed!
<Pose Tracker> Hannah Curie has posed.
"I am certain!" insists Hannah. "When I met Cassandra, she was bravin' the ire of soldiers who didn't understand what she wanted, all for a chance to help save 'em from a disaster. And we--" emphasis on the we; Hannah asked for Cassandra's help, she didn't demand or assume it, "--ain't fightin' now for the thrill of it."
A beat. "... Though maybe that ain't somethin' a Veruni relates to so easily," she adds after a moment of reflection. She doesn't have to like the mindset she's seen on display to understand it, after all.
Kaguya has more words to share, and Hannah grumpily responds. "Yeah, yeah. But what are you fightin' for? I always thought that mindset sounded like you got all means an' no ends."
But she does smile a little, as Kaguya declares she'll find a better way of living on Filgaia. "That I can get behind."
Innana gets ready to unleash vollies of various kinds of offense--and for Cassandra a horrific shriek that makes Cassandra brace and whine--and Hannah herself, through whatever link lets them communicate. She slaps her hands over her ears, gritting her teeth as Cassandra strains--but she actually pulls herself against that horrible sonic force and swipes out, mid-attack, at the Golem with a ferocious snarl.
And then she withdraws back, panting as both pokemon and trainer recover from that assault.
"Alright then... if more offense is the answer..." Hannah throws her hand out in front of her. "Cassandra! Give it all you've got! Max Darkness!"
"Absol!" souhnds off Cassandra. Digging her paws into the salts, she growls fiercely as a black aura starts to emerge around her. It grows stronger and stronger, dripping upwards off of her slowly at first, but then faster and faster until she is a font of darkness, energy pouring off of her.
And then she springs, her paws kicking up great sprays of dirt as she rushes at Innana with blinding speed. She leaps, the claws on her leading paw leaving a trail of inky black energy that lingers in the air--and then she swipes with her other paw, and several more times before she leaps back and roars.
All of that energy within her body ripples outwards in her roar, colliding with those trails left by her claw to slam those into Innana, too.
GS: Hannah Curie has activated Force Action: Lock On! GS: Hannah Curie has activated Force Action: Snipe! GS: Hannah Curie spends 5 Combo on Headshot and Gatling, loading 3 into Gatling! GS: MYSTIC ARTE! Hannah Curie has attacked Amaterasu with Max Darkness! GS: Hannah Curie has gained 1 Combo! GS: Hannah Curie gains 5 FP from Gleam! GS: Hannah Curie has completed her action. GS: CRITICAL! Amaterasu fails to charge Hannah Curie's Max Darkness for 669 hit points! GS: Hyper and Quick applied to Hannah Curie! GS: Charge!! You gain 50 FP! (That's 35 more than usual!) GS: Amaterasu has Fallen! She is no longer able to fight! GS: Redi Hayworth accepts Seraph Boudicca's Soothing Breeze for 0 hit points! GS: FP up! Seraph Boudicca's Reload!! GS: Seraph Boudicca heals Ida Everstead-Rey! She gains 196 temporary hit points! GS: Quick applied to Seraph Boudicca! GS: FP up! Seraph Boudicca's Reload!!
<Pose Tracker> Gwen Whitlock has posed.
"... Ambrosius, just promise me they ain't gonna go there and completely ruin it all? Solaris's already tried," Gwen says over her speakers, with an exhausted sigh. "Just... yeah."
"Joltik."
"What he said."
Gwen pauses, as her monitors pick up the last threads of a conversation between Kanon and Boudicca. "What's this about Ashley?"
Again, Nimue sends a whirlpool of water towards Halcyone; while it doesn't catch Gwen unawares, as Halcyone attempts to evade, it does manage to slam into Halcyone again, rusting away at its joints.
"Damn it..." Gwen curses to herself.
It's do or die, no matter how polite and cordial their friendship is outside of battle.
The Halcyone suddenly lowers down and bounds high into the air, attempting to use the salt flats to its advantage.
After all, salt blindness...
Like its indirect namesake, the Kingfisher, the Halcyone comes swooping down, attempting to sweep one of its harpoons out at Nimue, while slamming its bulk into it in the next moment.
GS: Gwen Whitlock has activated Force Action: Full Clip!
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.
"A lot of machine parts!" Ida says, to Boudicca. Redi's explanation is far more practical. Yes, like Ida's Living Metal. (Thank you, Redi, Ida thinks.) How much can you replace without killing someone? That is a question for another time.
Ida does, indeed, step back from the crater lip. The gasps suggest both organic lungs and exhaustion. The command words suggest something far more dire. "GET--" Ida squawks. Her nervous system shifts gears into something faster, but with all the grace of a driver with a lead foot. Inanna screams. Ida sees Kanon moving towards her, but it's like her body is half-frozen. The heiress takes that first blow right on the chin. Her lip splits. Quicksilver and crimson stream down her face. Her arms drop to meet that kick with a tearing CRUNCH of shredding exoskeleton.
Ida is suddenly not there. She's a blur, flying back towards the camp. A second CRACK follows as she hits a tent, tearing out the tentpoles and anchors. Tangled in fabric, she flies another ten or so meters, then goes still. A stray gust plays with the fabric, as it rolls across the salt flats--
No. That's green-tinted, healing wind. Boudicca's Arte in action. Ida sucks in a breath. The tent-bundle rises. A hand reaches out, clutching one of the pegs, and jams it into the salt again. A series of slow, deliberate movements follow as the heiress extracts herself from her cloth prison. Ida reaches up, and wipes at her split lip. Her lower face is covered in two-tone blood, and it's smearing down her jumpsuit. She adjusts her goggles, which went slightly askew during the tumble.
Ida becomes a blur. Under ideal circumstances, this kind of speed is tricky to pull off, a delicate balance of supercharging her body without tearing muscle and splintering bone. Now, she's leaning on Boudicca's healing magic to help keep her intact as she charges Kanon like an onrushing freight train. The punch she throws is almost a mirror of Kanon's kick--aimed at the midsection, meant to send Kanon flying, perhaps with considerable blunt-impact damage to her torso.
The air howls in the wake of Ida's passage. It echoes across the salt flats.
GS: Gwen Whitlock spends 1 Combo on Link! GS: Gwen Whitlock has attacked Ambrosius with Kingfisher! GS: Gwen Whitlock has gained 2 Combo! GS: Gwen Whitlock has launched an attack Link! GS: Gwen Whitlock's stances have changed from Link to Hero and Link! GS: Gwen Whitlock has attacked Ambrosius with Gwen Reaper! GS: Gwen Whitlock gains 5 FP from Sufferer! GS: Gwen Whitlock takes 73 damage from Corrode! GS: Gwen Whitlock gains 19 THP from Regen! GS: Gwen Whitlock has completed her action. GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has activated Force Action: Full Clip! GS: Ida Everstead-Rey spends 5 Combo on Headshot and Gatling, loading 3 into Gatling! GS: MYSTIC ARTE! Ida Everstead-Rey has attacked Kanon with Unbroken Lotus Fist! GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has gained 1 Combo! GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has completed her action. GS: CRITICAL! Kanon critically fails to evade Redi Hayworth's Calamity Break for 483 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Kanon gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Redi Hayworth drains Kanon! Redi Hayworth gains 97 temporary hit points! GS: Strain! Redi Hayworth takes 59 damage! GS: Kanon has activated Force Action: Accelerate! GS: Kanon has activated a Boss Action! She enters a Counter stance! GS: COUNTER! Kanon counterattacks Ida Everstead-Rey with Counter Attack! GS: Kanon mostly charges Ida Everstead-Rey's Unbroken Lotus Fist for 199 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Kanon gains 1 additional Combo! GS: FP up! Power Burst and Reaction bonus! GS: Ida Everstead-Rey mostly evades Kanon's Counter Attack for 79 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Ida Everstead-Rey gains 1 additional Combo! GS: FP up! Power Burst! GS: CRITICAL! Shige Kiwako mostly evades Ambrosius's Savage Impale for 353 hit points! GS: Disease applied to Shige Kiwako!
<Pose Tracker> Shige Kiwako has posed.
Shige calls over the radio, "It's fine! They're uh.. were? Repair teams. Just let them keep working for a bit and keep them away from the other person." She means Kanon. She knows the name, but she's trying not to be on the nose because.. well. Commo.
She's trying to keep her focus though. The ship isn't exactly what you'd call in peak condition to begin with and it's getting pretty hammered at this point. She tries to swerve at the last moment as Ambrosius brings the golem up, thrusting through the deck, tearing sections away, but.. the crew is unharmed. For obvious reasons. Though the pilot herself, isn't looking too happy.
She was rattled pretty hard by that.
"I don't think dragging this out is doing me any favors" Which.. she's talking to her crew, technically. She might not be the best on radios all the time so she's not entirely sure if that broadcast and admits after, "Sorry about that-" cutting the last word out halfway through.
There's a brief moment of trying to do just that anyway though. Maybe getting hazard teams on the fire below (They're working on that already!)
She tries something else though, trying to buy any sort of time. Tapping into her own memory and magic, the fog begins to coalesce. Growing colder. Clinging as she spins past. A spectral cold, biting and miserable. Tainted with the chill that one would expect from ghosts and spirits! The storm seems to briefly follow in the ship's wake though!
GS: Shige Kiwako has attacked Ambrosius with Harsh Winter! GS: Shige Kiwako has gained 1 Combo! GS: Shige Kiwako gains 5 FP from Gleam! GS: Shige Kiwako has completed her action. GS: CRITICAL! Ambrosius mostly charges Gwen Whitlock's Kingfisher for 283 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Ambrosius gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Ambrosius marginally evades Gwen Whitlock's Gwen Reaper for 362 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Ambrosius gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Ambrosius mostly guards Shige Kiwako's Harsh Winter for 268 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Ambrosius gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Delay blocked! GS: FP up! Arcane Font and Reaction bonus!
<Pose Tracker> Kanon has posed.
The problem with brushing past Ashley's demonic possession in dealing with Kanon, of course, is it is actually very specifically about that.
She regards Boudicca's swirling anger, her attention too drawn to notice the silent cast of a boon upon her other enemies. "Yes," Kanon says, flat and direct, to Boudicca's anger. Her body is still humming with bionic force. "Demons must die. And whatever the cost...however much of my humanity I must cast aside, I will destroy the Knight Blazer."
Redi immediately punishes her for this. One hit straight to the midsection, then another to the back of the head. It puts her in a vulnerable position. She freezes in a heartbeat. She burns in a second. She explodes on the third, arcing helplessly through the air with a PIERCING "AAAAAAAAAAUGH!"
But she still comes down on her feet. She huffs a breath, the only moment she has to spot Ida charging in at full, destructive force. She rises, her feet driving into a ready position. Ida CRASHES into her. The salt behind her EXPLODES away in a straight line, a piercing bullet of forces shot through Kanon and scattering the saltland surface like a bomb.
But Kanon doesn't move, her own fist thrust forward to slash her knife past Ida's chest.
She's beleaguered but hardly silenced. She flicks the knife back and throws it into her sheathe, then draws both fists back again, chi gathering along her arms. "hhHHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!" Kanon shrieks, drawing out every mote of herself into the chi explosion as another BLAST of light erupts away from her, scattering Ida and Boudicca and driving them to the ground with martial force.
Beads of light slowly scatter away in the aftermath as the energy dissolves.
And bursting through that curtain of light is Kanon, making directly for Redi, eye fixed and focused. "She's not here anymore," she seethes. "I AM!!"
She rears her clawed hand back, much like she did to Boudicca before, and this time it's slower, so much easier to tell what she DOES: the clawed hand rotates at the wrist, spinning up and up and faster and faster as it becomes wreathed in wind and the clawed fingers turn like drills.
She drives it toward Redi, with merciless intent.
GS: Kanon has attacked Ida Everstead-Rey with Released Phalanx! GS: Kanon has attacked Seraph Boudicca with Released Phalanx! GS: Kanon has gained 1 Combo! GS: Seraph Boudicca used Force Action: Mystic on Kanon! FP up! GS: Blind removed! GS: Kanon spends 3 Combo on Gatling, loading 3 into Gatling! GS: Kanon has attacked Redi Hayworth with Vortex Strike! GS: Kanon has gained 1 Combo! GS: Kanon's stances have changed from Avenger to Hero! GS: Delay! Attack weakened! GS: Redi Hayworth critically fails to guard Kanon's Vortex Strike for 277 hit points! GS: CRITICAL! Ida Everstead-Rey fails to guard Kanon's Released Phalanx for 144 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Ida Everstead-Rey gains 1 additional Combo! GS: FP up! Power Burst and Reaction bonus! GS: Ida Everstead-Rey enters CONDITION GREEN!!
<Pose Tracker> Redi Hayworth has posed.
Boudicca's breeze swirls all about Redi. Brilliant light, which washes over her -- and is pushed back before it can sink into her. It rolls off her, like oil skimming over the surface of water.
And then the remnants of the breeze, with its light, is blown back like a hurricane when Kanon rushes straight for her. Redi swings up her staff, trying to intercept.
Her spinning clawed hand catches it, and the quarterstaff is torn from her grip and sent spinning on its own -- slamming into the saltlands, sticking out of it, and then slams into her left shoulder.
Redi screams, shoulder bloodied and shirt torn -- and then she ducks backward. She breathes roughly, raggedly; she looks up at Kanon, glowing blue eyes making contact.
"That... that's not good enough," she manages. "I'm not going to just die because--because that's your mission! Not again!"
She claps her hands, open-palmed, together.
A swirling ball of shadowstuff and flame appears over her head. It spins, faster and faster, and then shoots off like a rocket -- and when it comes close to Kanon, it explodes. A fiery wave of shadow and crimson hurtles at her, while pulses of black energy strain the eyes.
Redi lowers her hands, after, fingers twitching a little. "N-nngh..."
GS: Redi Hayworth spends 2 Combo on Headshot! GS: Redi Hayworth has attacked Kanon with Shadowflare! GS: Redi Hayworth has gained 1 Combo! GS: Redi Hayworth gains 5 FP from her Daredevil! GS: Quick and Shield expired! GS: Redi Hayworth has completed her action. GS: Seraph Boudicca mostly guards Kanon's Released Phalanx for 64 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Seraph Boudicca gains 1 additional Combo! GS: FP up! Power Burst! GS: CRITICAL! Gamble: Low! Kanon mostly evades Redi Hayworth's Shadowflare for 66 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Kanon gains 1 additional Combo! GS: FP up! Reaction bonus!
<Pose Tracker> Ambrosius has posed.
"...I will do my best." Ambrosius replies to Gwen. He can't make any promises. He doesn't have that kind of power.
It's do or die, indeed, and Halcyone springs high into the sky. Nimue's head tracks upward. The salt flats do indeed make it difficult to pick out, and then Halcyone descends quickly - too quickly. Nimue braces itself as the harpoon lands, and then the Gear itself arrives with full force. Halcyone slams into Nimue and the golem is sent staggering backward.
Before it can recover, Shige draws upon her magic. Fog begins to form - a ghostly chill that works on a level beyond the physical. Ambrosius can feel it even with the cockpit, as spectral ice begins to form over the golem. And the golem... growls. A low uttering emerges from it - not Ambrosius's voice, this time. It shifts, shaking the ice off of it.
"...I see, Nimue. Then let us proceed. Optimizing systems... and, begin to cast." Ambrosius murmurs. Lines of light surge through Nimue's body as its power is increased. And with this new power Nimue's arms raise up... and then plunge into the salt. Ambrosius draws upon his Ether... and eyes glowing, Nimue does as well. Two spells layer on top of each other, building and building. The sky darkens. There's a faint shadow of something up above them, sunlight barely shining through.
And to look up... is to see water. A vast expanse of water, gathering above them. A localized rainstorm of terrible proportions which then descends upon Halcyone and Shige's vessel in an all-consuming flood, to wash everything away.
It's a small mercy, at least, that the flood is being directed away from the digsite, so that they are not washed into its depths.
GS: Ambrosius has activated Force Action: Extend! GS: Ambrosius has activated Force Action: Lock On! GS: Ambrosius spends 5 Combo on Headshot and Gatling, loading 3 into Gatling! GS: Ambrosius enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: MYSTIC ARTE! Ambrosius has attacked Gwen Whitlock with Deluge - The All-Consuming! GS: MYSTIC ARTE! Ambrosius has attacked Shige Kiwako with Deluge - The All-Consuming! GS: Ambrosius has attacked Ambrosius with System Optimization! GS: Ambrosius has gained 1 Combo! GS: Ambrosius has completed his action. GS: Ambrosius accepts Ambrosius's System Optimization for 0 hit points! GS: Hyper and Quick applied to Ambrosius!
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Boudicca has posed.
"Do not cast your humanity aside so easily!" Boudicca says, and says no more, because it would be shockingly impolite to yell at a woman being assaulted.
(Thank goodness she's able to keep Ida whole, at least. But --)
Boudicca is occupied with her growing concern over the horrible feeling coming from Redi -- a feeling which only redoubles when her healing artes find no purchase at all. "Oh!" She exclaims, throwing up a hand when Kanon screams her chi into existence; she has to defend herself, because she doesn't even think to dodge, this time. She's sent flying backwards, into the earth. Luckily, the earth bends to the wind, and so Boudicca is able to pick herself up without being weighed down.
(Still, that power... her spirit is wearied, too.)
"Wait --" she exclaims, as she realises Kanon isn't springing for her. "Redi!" She exclaims, and, again? She won't die again? But humans die when they are killed. Of course, humans can also be healed when they're injured, so --
There's too much for Boudicca to parse, even beyond how wrong that shadowy fire feels to the furnace of Moor Gault's sacred flame; she shakes her head, and summons another green Seraphic glyph, instead. "Get off of her!" She cries, as she thrusts her arm out, summoning a gale to blow Kanon off-course. "Whatever she is, she will not die by your hand!"
Whatever she is -- Boudicca will have to figure that out, later.
When a human with machine parts who doesn't particularly seem to want to be human any more isn't trying quite effectively to murder them all.
GS: Seraph Boudicca spends 3 Combo on Gatling, loading 3 into Gatling! GS: Seraph Boudicca has attacked Kanon with Howling Gale! GS: Seraph Boudicca has gained 2 Combo! GS: Burst expired! GS: Seraph Boudicca has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Amaterasu has posed.
"So you have seen it for yourself... hmm, I see," Amaterasu says at Ambrosius's reply. "A place where battles are common among those who choose such a life... Then, perhaps I shall avail myself."
"Hah. So I see," Amaterasu answers her sister. To Dean, she says simply, "They are ours to use should we prove worthy. It is enough. But Inanna and I have an understanding." Inanna is not 'hers', not truly. At any time, her privlege to use the Golem could be taken away and given to another. That is their way. And yet, it is not as if they lack a connection.
"So I see," she says at Hannah's insistance that their connection is not like that. "Then, it seems, you have a different bond than Inanna and me."
"You said it yourself," she answers Rebecca-- and perhaps Hannah. "Can someone who lives at peace with the planet understand our dilemma? You cannot. We fight for our very existence... whatever the cost. Whatever must be done. Or is it true that there is nothing that humans would fight for in the same way? Is there nothing you would give your entire being to attain?"
To Dean, she says, "How else should we prove our worth? If one cannot defend themselves against the world, do they not prove themselves suitable to be subjugated? To be weak is to serve. To be strong is to rule. You need only look to the animals of the world, and know this for truth!"
'Avril! We're gonna need more power!'
As if hearing that call for aid, her Skadi appears to have soared in from the distant sidelines just in the nick of time. Ice -- from the Medium mounted in Skadi and from Avril herself -- pour from the Gear and into Cassini, strengthening it considerably for the course of action it decides upon.
Inanna is a Golem said to be capable of tearing the firmament asunder. Yet, this day it is the heavens that strike down the Golem: focused by the might of Cassini's rings, the Ley itself crashes down Inanna in a brilliant burst of light.
Once the brilliance has faded, Inanna still stands. Its light has faded. Countless numbers of its shells are cracked and broken. But it stands.
And it opens its mouth, light gathering to glow violently there.
But as she had countered Amaterasu's statement before, Rebecca does so again. She doesn't have to go all out: she just has to survive one day, then the next. To make to tomorrow, and all the tomorrows after.
And she proves that point one further as she cracks off that shot towards the sky: there stands the array.
And here falls the magical flame that comes after. It burns brightly where it connects: some of Inanna's shell burns away. Others corrode and partway blacken. Particulates drift like ash in the wind.
And as Inanna staggers, the light in its throat fading, it is here that Dean intrudes, cracking into the wounded Golem with force. All the shellwork across its breast shatters away. Below that is golemflesh, rich and red and bloodless, within which beats nonetheless Inanna's pulsing core.
And then, there is darkness.
There is darkness, and within it, there is Cassandra, rending away at Inanna's shell at her flanks until there is nothing left to shield the Golem from the assault.
Here at last, Inanna screams as if pained, its cry ripping through the sky.
"Inanna. Enough," Amaterasu speaks, though the Golem rounds on its opponents as if to suggest it intends to continue the fight. "We have not won this day. Your order now is to retreat."
Despite what she had said earlier to Rebecca, it seems that she intends for Inanna to withdraw nonetheless, lest the Golem grind itself to powder against its opponents. "Ambrosius! Kanon," she calls out, turning her attention towards her compatriots. "We leave this in your hands. Whether you choose to fight on or withdraw is your decision. I will not fault you for either outcome."
And with that, in one mighty leap, Amaterasu ascends to land atop her Golem's flank, perched apparently precariously atop a single undamaged shell. "Inanna. Away," she commands, at which the Golem begins to make its steady retreat.
Whether she trusts her opponents to not shoot them in the back or whether she has faith in her ability, should such arise all the same -- well, perhaps the difference is merely academic, in the end.
GS: CRITICAL! Shige Kiwako critically fails to evade Ambrosius's Deluge - The All-Consuming for 645 hit points! GS: Quick applied to Ambrosius! GS: Kanon mostly guards Seraph Boudicca's Howling Gale for 120 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Kanon gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Kanon has Fallen! She is no longer able to fight!
<Pose Tracker> Kaguya has posed.
"I didn' say never," Kaguya answers Rebecca, "Just.. not often. It's different."
Kaguya will meet this doom later...
In the meantime she has other doom. Hannah's response gets a shrug. "It varies." On what they're fighting for. "...But for most of the Veruni, yeah. It's survival. Not just of their lives, but of their way of life. If you can't understand that... then you'll never fight them effectively."
She is Concernd about Redi. But there's no time.
She's busy being embarrasssed by Dean. Kaguya's shoulders sink and she sighs. "...Yeah," she says. "I get it."
Rebecca an't understand. But what she says instead...
One more day.
"Because if you get one more day... Maybe you can turn it around."
At peace with the planet. "You're not just giving your being, though," Kaguya insists to Amaterasu. "You're making that choice for everyone else, too! For me!"
Bu Avril has it covered. And wheN Amaterasu retreats, Kaguya's shoulders sag for a diffrent reason. "...Okay," she says. "We got it."
Cassini isn't in a position to help the other battles. Kaguya can just hope for her friends' success....
She doesn't shoot her sister in the back, either way.
GS: CRITICAL! Gwen Whitlock mostly evades Ambrosius's Deluge - The All-Consuming for 486 hit points! GS: Quick applied to Ambrosius!
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.
Ida doesn't see the counter coming. He does. Alarm races through the parts of their nervous system that he can reach, igniting Ida's instincts. Their body twists in a lightning-quick dodge, turning a head-on slash into something less lethal. Two kinds of blood spray in an arc from Ida's chest, painting the salt flats crimson and silver. Kanon's knife found its mark in Ida's side, carving a shallow but bloody wound.
"Ghk," Ida chokes. Her split lip has patched over with blueish-quicksilver webs, but she's still a horrid mess. She meets Kanon's eyes, draws in a breath. "You'll destroy y"
The exploson picks Ida up and hurls her, but this time she (they) rolls with it. She hits the salt, narrowly managing to hit with her uninjured side instead of the bleeding wound. There's still salt everywhere, and it's in the cut in moments, and ow, ow, GOD AND GRANAS IT STINGS. Ida's face contorts in pain as she splays out at the end of her tumble. Her eyes go a little distant. She picks herself up, her hands shaking.
Ida's bloodied right hand slips into the holster at her back. She pulls Devil's Due free, and lines Kanon up in the mare-leg pistol's iron-sights. Ida takes a breath to steady herself, tries to blink away the horrid afterimage of Redi's power--
BOOM.
A tongue of flame races from the weapon's barrel, aimed at Kanon's center of mass. Ida holds down the trigger, hosing the cyborg down with Dragonfire.
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.
Ida doesn't see the counter coming. He does. Alarm races through the parts of their nervous system that he can reach, igniting Ida's instincts. Their body twists in a lightning-quick dodge, turning a head-on slash into something less lethal. Two kinds of blood spray in an arc from Ida's chest, painting the salt flats crimson and silver. Kanon's knife found its mark in Ida's side, carving a shallow but bloody wound.
"Ghk," Ida chokes. Her split lip has patched over with blueish-quicksilver webs, but she's still a horrid mess. She meets Kanon's eyes, draws in a breath. "You'll destroy y"
The exploson picks Ida up and hurls her, but this time she (they) rolls with it. She hits the salt, narrowly managing to hit with her uninjured side instead of the bleeding wound. There's still salt everywhere, and it's in the cut in moments, and ow, ow, GOD AND GRANAS IT STINGS. Ida's face contorts in pain as she splays out at the end of her tumble. Her eyes go a little distant. She picks herself up, her hands shaking.
Ida's bloodied right hand slips into the holster at her back. She pulls Devil's Due free, and lines Kanon up in the mare-leg pistol's iron-sights. Ida takes a breath to steady herself, tries to blink away the horrid afterimage of Redi's power--
BOOM.
A tongue of flame races from the weapon's barrel, aimed at Kanon's center of mass. Ida holds down the trigger, hosing the cyborg down with Dragonfire.
GS: Ida Everstead-Rey spends 4 Combo on Poison and Gatling, loading 3 into Gatling! GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has attacked Kanon with Breath Of The Fire Dragon! GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has gained 2 Combo! GS: Burst and Shield expired! GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has completed her action. GS: Kanon mostly guards Ida Everstead-Rey's Breath Of The Fire Dragon for 117 hit points! GS: Kanon's Poison Ward may block the effect! GS: Poison blocked! GS: Kanon has Fallen! She is no longer able to fight!
<Pose Tracker> Dean Stark has posed.
Dean makes a face at Amaterasu's assertion. "So you're saying you're the same as animals? That sucks," he replies. "Why don't you guys act like civilized people instead?!"
It's an argument they won't have the chance to continue. Working together, they all manage to strike a decisive blow against Inanna. Dean gasps in concern as it screams--but it turns into a sigh of relief when Amaterasu orders it to retreat instead.
It's sad. She really is too nice for the Radicals.
He doesn't try to chase her down when she retreats with her Golem companion. Instead, he turns towards Cassini and Kaguya, whom he wasn't trying to embarrass on *purpose*. There are other battles still raging, but Nimrod is overheating in a bad way at this point; he has to open up the cockpit and step outside to keep himself from cooking alive. (It's bad when the Slayheim flats heat is still better.) He steps out into the open air, raising an arm to shield his face--for even with eye protection, salt blindness is a thing--and looks towards his friends, some still battling, some likewise catching their breath after their fights. He looks across at everyone from behind his goggles. It isn't over yet, and he might not be able to get back into his Gear to help with the battles still raging, but...
"We're gonna be okay," he says firmly. As if it's a thing he could make true just by saying it.
<Pose Tracker> Rebecca Streisand has posed.
"Heh. I'll take your word for it." Rebecca replies to Kaguya. didn't really have a sibling after all, the closest person was Dean and well - she certainly didn't think of him as a sibling. Dean's cheer she hates to admit, is infectious.
Even if she does worry! The main reason she scolds him is because... she's worried about what will happen to him if he doesn't grow up. But she knows often she's too hard on him, as he has, just like she has - just in different ways.
Amaterasu offers an explanation to Rebecca not understanding. Is it true? "There are things I'd fight for - give my whole being." She can at least say now that is true, while in the past it certainly wasn't. "But can you really sit here and tell me that everything the Veruni do right now to the 'people who live at peace with the planet' is just fighting for survival?"
She's pretty certain the answer is no - at least, she hopes it is. Because if it's not, then things just got far more complicated.
Skadi appears, and pours power into Cassini - and in the wake of that attack and hers, that assault from others, and Rebecca wonders, "Did that do it?" Wary, after all, she can never take for granted that any Veruni is down and out.
The Golem is... screaming?
Surprised, the Eurydice slides back, raising salt upon the flats, even as Amaterasu sends Inanna back and departs herself. "Alright... now that she's taken care of we can help Redi and the rest-"
And Rebecca's Gear- suddenly begins to blare warning signals as the controls stop responding. "What do you mean it's overheated!?" As she looks sideways at the half melted setting where her Original Medium sits. "Oh. ... Yeah okay."
The Eurydice sets itself down, as it powers off and-
Rebecca bounds out to the hatch and... hits the latch to open it, her ARM in hand.
Unfortunately - the hatch twitches, then slides back into place, from where Innana struck it. Eyebrow twitching, she begins kicking the hatch, again, and again, and again.
"When I get out of here-" WHAM "-I'm taking you in for more than just MAIL CRIMES MISSY!"
<Pose Tracker> Kanon has posed.
Kanon's clash with Redi is a thing of speed and violence. The worst is taken by the staff, and Redi replies before Kanon can jump away, the blast taking her straight on. But the erupting flame clears to see Kanon sweeping it away with her clawed arm, stalking toward Redi with intent. There's just a whisp of a smile on her features. "At the very least...you've been a fun fight," she says, and her right arm unfolds into that long sword again. "Now--"
Then Boudicca conjures the wind at her. Kanon's weight and chi ground her to the earth, but the salts are no earthly force, and soon the wind sees her released from gravity just enough for Ida to bathe her in flame. Another scream, helpless, long and lingering.
But soon enough she whirls the cape again, and SLAMS herself down to the scorched ground. There's no sign of burn or scorch on her skin. The poncho is singed enough that the minidress beneath is easier to see, the rugged and battered brown boots.
"It's too late for that," is her reply to Ida. But then--
There's a loud, LOUD *SPARK* noise, and Kanon flinches like a shot of pain shot through her cyborg body. "Not...now!" she curses, and then her knee makes a similar noise and Kanon collapses to the other foot, fist slamming into the ground to halt her fall. "This body...isn't strong enough...!" she seethes. She sucks in deep breathes, spitting salt and something like blood from her mouth. Inanna soars away, Amaterasu with it. "How much do I have to give!" She punches the ground again, her cyborg arm making a sound like metal buckling within.
"...fine," Kanon says. "My life...my past...my body and humanity...whatever it takes."
She forces herself up, a wobbling, swaying stance, and her gaze flashes across Boudicca, and Ida, and finally settles on Redi. "Stay alive until we meet again," she says.
"The one who will exorcise you is me."
Her body makes one more sound, a capacitor discharging, and Kanon makes one last burst of speed, breaking into a run that carries her from the field in seconds.
<Pose Tracker> Gwen Whitlock has posed.
One voices her wish to kill demons, even ones like Knight Blazer, no matter how much humanity she casts aside. Or, Gwen assumes, whether or not its host has a great disposition.
Another chooses a path different from her sister despite the costs, despite the curse that inflicts illness upon them both.
Gwen would say Ambrosius was the kindest of the three here, no doubt.
Ambrosius isn't one to take lightly, however, as evidenced by the way the Halcyone sparks and groans its protests against Gwen's piloting. Shige may have insinuated that Gwen is the better pilot of the two of them, but Gwen's not so sure.
Then again, how *do* you evade a summoned rainstorm?
"Ngh...." A quick glance around shows others are standing their ground, and even fighting back, but barely. Gwen doesn't see signs of Amaterasu. Hopefully Ambrosius will retreat soon.
"If I defeat you, Ambrosius," Gwen says, tactifully, "you have to help repair the Halcyone."
WAIT NO THAT'LL ENCOURAGE HIM TO STAY AND FIGHT
Gwen'll run with it. "Hey! Courier person over there!" She means Redi. "Don't you die! Us couriers are worth our weight in gold!"
The cannon on the Halcyone charges, Gwen giving it some more of her ARM's power to escalate the process. Did she begin to believe her own bargain with Ambrosius already, regardless of what he said?
"C'mon...." She is.
She's also a little delirious at this point.
GS: Gwen Whitlock spends 5 Combo on Headshot and Gatling, loading 3 into Gatling! GS: Gwen Whitlock has attacked Ambrosius with Spark Plug! GS: Gwen Whitlock has gained 1 Combo! GS: Gwen Whitlock gains 5 FP from Sufferer! GS: Gwen Whitlock takes 49 damage from Corrode! GS: Gwen Whitlock gains 17 THP from Regen! GS: Gwen Whitlock has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Shige Kiwako has posed.
The elegy doesn't really seem that sea worthy so it's absolutely no surprise that trying to hit it with what Shige estimates to be an ocean's worth isn't healthy for it.
The ship wasn't in the best of shape before, but now it's clearly trailing smoke.
One of the windows is now completely broken out which gets a wry look. And a check to make sure she was wearing boots when all of this started.
After she came back around, having taken the hit hard enough she probably has a welt under her hair somewhere.
Shaking the haze loose, she twists in place and brings the ship around again. Fully prepared to go down fighting. The idea of losing the golem to.. well people like that isn't a thing she's willing to let happen. Especially since the golem she's been trying to out maneuver has all, but scuttled the ship as is!
She's hesitating though. Fingers on the throttle. Like she's unsure if it's better to try and save the ship and harass, or just.. go all out.
The decision's made for her as the crew, sensing their common anchor is about to go down have chosen something else. With something of a grimace, a faint grimace at the trail of red staining her hair near her temple.
Each of the ship's prior weapon systems are manned. Crew served, launchers, even just crew equipment are brought up and her ears twitch. She heard it even if no others would. They want to strike back. To go down fighting a second time and before she can even suggest any other action, they begin to open up.
And she obliges. Turning to broadside the golem.
"Can't say I don't accomdate you guys-" she mutters, mostly to herself, though at least some of the crew definitely would have heard her.
Nothing to it, but to throttle forward again.
She.. does briefly fault at the idea that Gwen's bargaining with Ambrosius which is, really not at all what she'd expect and she voices it as much, "Want to run that one again?" Though it's funny in a way. She's not exactly doing the most tactically sound thing!
The crew.. does what they're going to do. Spectral munitions of all sorts are dumped on the way by. Shige pretty sure she's going to have to figure out how to walk home here soon enough. She's optimistic that way. "Just.. stay safe. I'll take care of you." She adds more seriously towards Gwen. Pausing. "The.. " she mentally facepalms. "We're not dying here."
GS: Shige Kiwako spends 3 Combo on Gatling, loading 3 into Gatling! GS: MYSTIC ARTE! Shige Kiwako has attacked Ambrosius with To the Last Gun! GS: Shige Kiwako has gained 1 Combo! GS: Shige Kiwako gains 5 FP from Gleam! GS: Shige Kiwako has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Redi Hayworth has posed.
Redi looks at Boudicca, for just a second -- but there's not much explanation she can provide. Or quite wants to, right now, in the face of Kanon bearing down on her.
It's about all she can do to keep standing. Her shoulder is screaming with pain -- and her regeneration can only just keep it functional. That still involves pulling energy in from nearby.
She hisses, looking at Kanon. Her eyes widen a little bt, as she sees the sword come out.
But Boudicca and Ida move in, and then she sees the way that Kanon jerks.
A fun fight...?
"You're... you're pushing yourself too hard," Redi says, not quite sure what she thinks of it being a fun fight. She grimaces when she punches into the ground.
Then her shoulders sag, as Kanon forces herself to her feet -- and gives that last declaration. "I'm--I'm not just gonna... roll over and--" She watches as she takes off. Then she stumbles back. She starts to wobble -- and then looks up at Gwen. Redi blinks.
She smiles a little. "Y-Yeah. That's right." She looks at Rebecca, then smiles a little more at her Gear's direction. She puts a hand over her wounded shoulder. "Serious mail crimes. Is Cassini okay?"
Redi looks back after Kanon. She hesitates, for a second. "I'm not giving up my life," she says, quietly. "Not now. Not after I--"
Then she winces, and louder, but whinier: "Ow, ow, owwwww..."
GS: CRITICAL! Ambrosius critically fails to guard Gwen Whitlock's Spark Plug for 505 hit points! GS: Jam applied to Ambrosius! GS: Ambrosius has Fallen! He is no longer able to fight! GS: CRITICAL! Ambrosius mostly guards Shige Kiwako's To the Last Gun for 512 hit points! GS: FP up! Arcane Font! GS: Strain! Shige Kiwako takes 50 damage! GS: Ambrosius has Fallen! He is no longer able to fight! GS: Shige Kiwako has Fallen! She is no longer able to fight!
<Pose Tracker> Hannah Curie has posed.
"Yeah. We do," says Hannah certainly. It's not that she doesn't know what it's like to want to fight for things, but--
She doesn't do it for the same reasons.
Is there nothing she would give her entire being to attain?
...
Hannah has no answer to that. There is, indeed, something she would very much like to lose--her issues are not with the planet, the way the Veruni's are, but there is very much something within herself that is not at peace.
She watches silently as all of their attacks land, as more and more shells are shed from the golem until finally that core is exposed--
Until that core is exposed. Hannah winces, as she hears that shriek of pain. "Cassandra, hold on a tic."
Thankfully Amaterasu chooses not to pursue the battle any longer. Cassandra moves to put herself between the other opponents and C4-Ss1-N1. She is looking worse for the wear, breathing a little harder than when she started... but she's still determined to fight.
She looks to Kaguya. "I c'n understand it. Don't mean I gotta like it none, though."
There are other battles raging, but she gets the feeling they're starting to wrap up. "Cassandra, take it easy. I don't want you pushin' yourself any harder'n you have to. Stay Dynamaxed until we get the all clear though."
The giant pokemon looks to her trainer and nods. There is a tension taht floods out of her as she relaxes.
Zephyr comes swooping down to land on Hannah's shouler, and Hannah reaches up to stroke under his beak.
Avril and C4-SS1-N1 are safe, for today. They can count that as a win.
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.
In one moment, Ida breathes in, preparing to fire a second flame blast, despite running on empty. In the next, she's lowered the ARM. Her eyes go wide, and her lips twist in a sympathetic grimace. That sounded like an electrical short. Just what is Kanon doing to her body?
Something--
No, someone. Fafnir's consciousness comes to rest against Ida's own, and for once there isn't confusion, or a frantic scrambling to make contact.
Is she like her? Or like--
Like him?
A shudder works its way down Ida's spine. "Is this what you think you're worth?" she croaks. "Is that what you think you have to do? Anastasia's legacy, just--this?" Ida's right hand twitches. "Kanon, no--!" Ida reaches out with that same hand, but Kanon is already sprinting off.
Ida clenches that same hand into a fist, and sinks to her knees, pounding it into the salt. "Redi," Ida says. Her voice still sounds horrid. "Are you... okay?"
<Pose Tracker> Ambrosius has posed.
Helping to repair the Halcyone, hm...? ...It's a tempting offer. In any other situation he'd be tempted to throw the fight just to get a shot at it. Now, however, there are too many eyes on him.
"...I see. I accept these terms." Ambrosius replies.
But in the end - he doesn't have to worry about throwing the fight.
Halcyone charges and then unleashes. The cannon blasts into Nimue, sending it staggering back. Claws are pulled out of the soaked salt. And then - Shige's vessel opens fire.
Cannon after cannon is unloaded, riddling Nimue with spectral shots. It's forced back - and then, the topples, crashing into the sand. For a moment, it's still.
In the cockpit, Ambrosius closes his eyes.
"...I see. They've become strong. You fought well this day, Nimue. Perhaps we must, as well..." He murmurs, for the golem's ears alone.
And then, with some effort, Nimue stands.
"My allies have retreated. There is no further point in continuing this fight. I will concede." Ambrosius says. "...I am a man of my word. It seems I owe you for repairs, Gwen. ...But for now, my presence will only complicate matters."
Nimue turns to leave - and will without further incident, if allowed.
"...Do take good care of that Golem, Kaguya." He adds quietly to himself, when he's certain none can overhear.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Boudicca has posed.
"No one is making you!" Boudicca cries, when Kanon asks how much she must give. Boudicca doesn't know her, of course; she doesn't know any pressures which might be on her. But this seems to be something Kanon wants, to her eyes.
Terrifying.
But Gwen speaks to the merit of a fellow Courier, even if Redi is deeply alarming, and so Boudicca -- warily -- approaches her, palms-up. "Are you well?" She asks, with wary concern. "Need you aid? Can you take aid? Er -- there is a spirit medium nearby, that may..."
Then Boudicca looks over to find Shige, only to see her still fighting Nimue-no-not-that-one. "Oh, dear..." She says, deflating, because even if Ambrosius is the toughest of the fighters here today, she is quite too expended to lend them aid.
Luckily, Gwen and Shige are pretty tough.
<Pose Tracker> Gwen Whitlock has posed.
Do not let your ears deceive you, Shige: this is Gwen. Pure Gwen.
.... And pure Ambrosius, really, because he agreed to it like an absolute champ. Gwen was hoping he would, because, _machines_, and also...
... she's kind of light on funds at the moment.
"Right, right... you go, Ambrosius," Gwen says, nodding, even if that motion doesn't carry to Halcyone, who doesn't have a 'neck' to flex.
Boudicca is right to check on the others, as Gwen has become stoically still, as if to say, 'tend to the others, for I shall stand guard here silently!'
"Joltik. Joltik. Joiltik," says the speakers, instead.
The cockpit opens, revealing a slumped, exhausted, sleeping Gwen, who opens a bewildered eye. ".... Voltie..." says the squinting Gwen, who shields her eyes and fumbles around for the 'close cockpit' button. "When'd y'figure out how't... open the cockpit... damn it.... zzzz....."
<Pose Tracker> Redi Hayworth has posed.
"Ow, ow..."
That's Redi's refrain. She looks at the Veruni Golems departing -- her expression tense for a moment, but as Nimue finally begins to take off, that makes it easier. She hisses a little with the pain.
Then she looks at Boudicca, as she approaches. She smiles in a tired way, then she shakes her head. "I'm--um--healing magic isn't going to work, but I get up to snuff pretty quick."
She winces a little. "Thanks, though."