2024-06-08: A Hymn Forged with Annihilation

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<Pose Tracker> Azoth has posed.

ERROR@#-- as?ist4Nce rEquE5TeD!! d1p?0mac? r3quir?d ERR0R-- SYSTEM COM--PROMI5ED#

A distressing signal to receive, especially if one considers themselves a friend of its sender. Included coordinates lead to Scraphaven: an underground dwelling for a race of small, rabbit-like beastfolk, built within junkyard ruins of ancient, advanced technology. For all their rather... cutesy ways of life, the people of Scraphaven nevertheless prove themselves to be skilled in working with ARMs.

So much so that their patchwork city of junk and scrap proves to be a machine unto itself.

The entirety of Scraphaven has come to life in motion and sound, each whimsical, mishmashed part now moving together as a singular entity. Pistons hiss and gears tick. Cranks twist and hammers fall. Switches click and electronics chirp... all together in a harmonic symphony. Several rabbit beastfolk scatter to and fro, dancing with the back and forth motion of levels, pressing buttons on terminals with a rhythmic tempo, and running on giant gears like hamster (rabbit?) wheels to ensure their locomotion.

If there is a 'conductor' in this orchestra -- a core to its operation -- it would be the massive orrey-like mechanism risen from the ground. It is etched with crude, simplistic Symbology, something the people of Scraphaven have less experience with. Yet, despite this, its pieces glow radiant upon its otherwise rusted structure: data made manifest in brilliant neon as rings of code turn, orbit, and tick like clockwork to keep the rhythm and tempo of the symphony.

Imprisoned within rotating data rings at the 'sun' of the orrey... is Azoth.

He is black steel, clawed, and bestial in silhouette, but slumped and inert. His once red, erroneous circuitry dims to fuchsia, thrumming in time with the city's song. Faintly, he beeps broken sounds along with the melody.

Several of the population pop up to greet the Drifters between their tasks, leaping in and out of machines and garbage like excited dolphins. "Friends!" "Hello!" "Drifting friends!" "Hi!" "No ruins today!" "None!" "Friendship ceremony!" "Befriending, yes yes!" "Angry metal!" "SO angry!" "But we appease!" "Offering of song!" "Calm now!" "Listen with us!" "New metal friend after!" "Many friends!"

Some who have already explored Scraphaven may find the tune familiar, but not exact. This energetic tempo is not suited to a lullaby, either. Whatever its purpose, and whether or not it's being misunderstood, Azoth's visage is one prepared for violence against rabbits he explicitly contacted Drifters to avoid.

The situation is precarious, and there is little time to act. 

<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.

    "Hold it right there."

    Drifters aren't the only ones to answer Azoth's call, it seems. As ever, Solaris keeps Azoth on a tight leash... and it would seem that they have noticed his absence. Unlike with Energy Nede, he is far, far easier to track in the wilds of Filgaia.

    And who have they sent but his usual 'jailor' of late, Loren Voss.

    (Perhaps Leah aims to turn this into a teachable moment for one or both of them.)

    (Perhaps it is merely convenient to her ends.)

    Unusually calm and detached, Loren's gaze sweeps the denizens of Scraphaven. Perhaps a few of them remember him, from the last time he was here -- it wasn't very long ago! He even has cause to recall that particular tune.

    '...does not come from a savior, but a destroyer.' So the message had said. About what it had spoken, he could make an educated guess, based on where the message had been in Scraphaven. And he's not a stupid man. Maybe he can even guess--

    But none of that matters right now. He takes one step forward. He has already drawn his sword.

    "He's ours. Release him, now." The threat hangs in the air, as keen-edged as the blade in his hands. 

<Pose Tracker> Xiumei Klein has posed.

Xiumei was just at Scraphaven, a few days ago. She found it charming. She also found it alarming -- a missing Gear, and something that had Varius quiet and concerned. So when the message came...

She hurried. She runs up towards the beastkin, her eyes on them; her eyes are wide for a moment, as she nods, and the tune is familiar.

Bu, in important ways, different.

She looks at the machine risen from the ground. Then, over her shoulder, at a drone floating there. "Varius, it's Azoth. Is this--"

"Damn! Damn, damn, damn! He--he must have known. Kid, we've gotta--"

'Hold it right there.'

Xiumei turns her head, peering back towards Loren, and then she looks at the rabbits. Xiu sucks a breath in, then calls out: "Biometal! MERGE!"

Light flashes across her. The button-up shirt and vest, with the red ribbon, is covered by white and teal armor; a gem shines at the cest, while her glasses vanish. Her eyes are suddenly too green, aglow with holographic lenses over them.

And when the crystal in her chest flashes, it emits Varius's voice.

"Azoth. You want me to stop you?" he asks.

Xiumei looks at the rabbits. She doesn't hesitate. "Please. Go. We'll protect your home, I promise. I don't want you to be hurt. We're... going to try to help our friend."

<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.

Lily Keil received the message and hurried to Scraphaven. She wasn't alone, of course; she wouldn't try to go after Azoth without Xantia if she could help it. But still, it was a journey. She rode here on the motorcycle she built out of salvage and Zeboim-era knowhow, and she brings it to a stop as she approaches the strange entity that was (is?) Scraphaven. The strange little creatures are there and singing as before, and at the center...

"Azoth..."

She stops, and gets off the motorcycle, stowing it near some of the little bunnies. Then, she looks to Loren.

"I don't think so, Voss."

"You'll have to fight through us if you want to take him."

she looks to Xiumei, to Varius's voice, and then back to Azoth. "...We're here, Azoth."

"We won't leave you alone."

Then, to Loren, "...We're not going to let you hurt these people, either. Whether they release him or not."

Lily is dressed for combat; a ssword at her hip and an ARM at the other, in military gear that includes armoring in her jacket.

"...Do you know what you're dealing with with Azoth, really? Because I do." 

<Pose Tracker> Seraph Ragnell has posed.

    One such concerned individual who receives that missive from Azoth is Ragnell. She hurries to Scraphaven--but even with her speed, she doesn't make it there first. Distance always matters. Once she gets there, she eyes the rabbit-like denizens therein--and that eyeballing turns grim when she sees the bestial black metal entity at the center, beeping brokenly along with the rabbitfolk's song.
    
    It's Loren's voice that cuts that song, and Ragnell frowns over at him as he approaches, sword in hand, and demands Azoth's release.
    
    He isn't the only one. Xiumei, projecting Varius's voice, Lily, and plenty of others... Ragnell's eyes narrow when Lily states she knows what she's dealing with where Azoth is concerned. "Do you?" she asks, tone carefully neutral--as much to ask a legitimate question as to signal to Azoth that she's here. If anything can get through to him right now.
    
    Her paired pistols are in her gloved hands--but she hasn't opened fire on anyone yet. Frankly, if Loren can get those rabbits singing and dancing around Azoth to scatter with threat of violence, that'd be a boon. 

<Pose Tracker> Rille Felis has posed.

Rille doesn't actually know Azoth particularly well (by which she means 'at all, really') but she does know Scraphaven.

To Rille, it wasn't paradise but it was a lot closer than she normally got. A place where beastfolk had a place of their own; a place where they could live in peace. Personally, she would rather live in a bigger city, with humans accepting her instead of just absent - but it seems to work for them, and she likes it here. She's come to help a couple times.

Rille has never been able to figure out how all their stuff works, though. As far as she can tell, about half of it works on a hope and a prayer. She actually volunteered to help with the only thing she could figure out (running on the wheels) but Rille is rather too tall and heavy to actually get on the wheels. She was faintly embarrassed about that.

But when she got a message, she arrived, and not alone. She kept a good pace, though; Timu probably had to hustle to keep up, but at least she's good at that.

"HEY." Rille's introduction is as she seems to like to introduce herself: at top volume, and Rille does have a good set of lungs. "Put the sword DOWN before I take it away from you. We can figure out the rest after that." She looks from Loren to the imposing-looking Azoth, balling her clawed hand into a fist before letting it loose. Her thick tail lashes with enough force that she feels the momentum of it, agitated - or about to pounce. She's not all cat, but some things come through. 

<Pose Tracker> Timu Guado has posed.

    Timu's back out and about in Filgaia doing the work and life of a Drifter, even away from the relative peace (important emphasis: 'relative') and convenience of life on Energy Nede. She's with Rille when the two of them decide to go visit Scraphaven based on a troublesome signal, holding a music box fashioned out of something she found with some of her Nede friends (and Loren... 'and Loren' being applicable in a distressingly vast number of exclusive contexts, come to think).
 
     They've both been there before, separately, and know their ways around the whimsical underground city. She hasn't brought any of her Pokemon out yet, when she is watching the immense orchestra surrounding a distressing-looking machina and the explanations given in exclaimed piecemeal terse statements.
 
     "...Rille," Timu folds her hands up over her chest, and then wordlessly to any others that might have come alongside them, as Loren interrupts and makes things worse. Tension runs through her from the frightening things that happened at Silph Co., a few surfacing distressing feelings from getting to see awful things first-hand in the Guard's Crusade upon Spira feeling like they could be about to repeat.
 
     She takes a deep breath and remembers what Sable helped uncover from the one thing that had coherent, readable language on terminals in a hangar exposed to sunlight and thus the elements (and still functioning!).
 
     "'Everyone is counting on,' somene who left a message," Timu says, "'to stir the Glimmerforge from slumber... But,' they've... 'spoken with the metal and seen into its dreams.'" Timu doesn't know what that means, but there was a sincerity in tone in that terminal message. "'The power' that... they 'borrow does not come from a savior, but a destroyer.'"
 
     She shakes her head. "I'm... I'm not a 'Metalspeaker,' but... someone asked for us to continue their work," she starts to grip her healer's staff, forged into the likeness of flame like her gift of Althena's Blessing, "they say the 'Glimmerforge' can't be awakened... if that's them... they need to go back to sleep."
 
     Timu starts making the motion to bring out the thing she was gifted from Scraphaven by the Widgetmancers, but things may yet escalate before she can get it out. 

<Pose Tracker> Dirk Swordsman has posed.

 
Dirk Swordsman had already been on the scene.

In the words of a noted thinker on battle and outdoor fights, "HOW COME?" Because Dirk's been here before -- he knows HOW to get here. The route from the aperture in Energy Nede to Scraphaven and back.

He has trained. He's become stronger. But a journey like this... it's a good way to grow in comfort and in understanding of yourself. First you build higher, then you figure out where you're at. That's how it is, right? Dirk has no real idea, because he is from a culture where martial arts, though still extant, are more like systematized exercise and team sports than the arts of battle.

At least, publically. But he is a boy with dreams. And when Timu Guado had some kind of tip -- well, hey, did he have any better ideas, other than going to sit at Old Man Rikishi's grave and commune with his (probably awesome) ghost?

He did not. So now -

From behind his shades, he looks at the bizarre orrery encircing Azoth. Containing him? Empowering him? Dirk did not pay enough attention in Symbology class to be sure. That high-tempo song is ringing in his ears. But he's got another issue before him.

He is not that far from Rille (and probs also Timu). After Timu speaks, Dirk does:

"Or don't," he says, resting a hand on the hilt of his blade. "Make us both happy, Drugs Man."

At his feet is only a single Pokemon, at the moment. Quilladin has his ironwood stick, which he points towards Loren, head tilting to the side. In so far as he can frown, Quilladin is frowning. He looks quite intense. Even so: it's a magic porcupine and some punk kid who is literally wearing sneakers right now.

"Got a lot to settle with you," Dirk says. "You want to throw down, you ain't leaving here with all your pieces. Solitary warning." 

<Pose Tracker> Gwen Whitlock has posed.

    Gwen had gotten here in the Halycone as soon as she could, having immediately diverted her course the moment she got Azoth's message. Scraphaven had been on her list for a number of reasons, but she hadn't had a chance to establish contact.... until now.

    And boy, is it a bad time.

    Azoth.... and Loren.
    And Gwen *knows* some of why Loren's countenance has changed.

    "Lily, this is really bad." She steps out behind her, as she tries to mention why Loren is currently as much of an unknown right now.

    But even touching on the topic makes it tempting to touch more, and linger further.

    ".... Loren," she whispers, her voice strained. If she begins to try to appeal to him, or even speak about why people need to be cautious, she's liable to drag herself and Loren back into that comforting, numbing shell of the Stranger's increasing influence. "You need to stop here."

    From Loren's perspective, it's as if some fragment of that song that tempted him earlier was there, but the source is actively quashing it. 

<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.

    Ida rode through the badlands with all due haste. Grey Lady bore up well under the strain, and now the dapple-grey mare rests beneath a rock outcropping, with food and water nearby. Having left her friend with the essentials, Ida rubs her muzzle. "Wait for me, girl. Azoth needs help."

    Ida descends into the depths. The maze of whirring, clanking, buzzing machinery provides ample cover for her advance. Rather than take the main road down, Ida picks a branching route that ends at a ventilation grate. A few moments with her multitool, and the cover's off, and one risky move with a solid metal pipe--and a horrible CRUNCH--deals with the whirling fanblades inside. Ida makes a note to repair it later, then clambers down, and in.

    At several points in the path, the vent narrows, alarmingly, forcing her to stretch out and elongate and twist in ways no human body should manage. But it's second-nature to her, now. Down in the plaza, a second grate pops off, near Loren, and Ida leans out from within, addressing one of the locals with urgency:

    "The Metalspeaker. Where are they?" she says. It's not quite a demand.

<Pose Tracker> Lan Lilac has posed.

 
    The rabbit-like Beastfolk had called for help, and Lan had answered. Lan likes Beastfolk, for Reasons. She had, actually, not received Azoth's distress signal at all! But that's okay. She's here now.

    Azoth is also here, now. He doesn't look okay at all.

    Lan stares through the revolving arcs of the data prison at the body inside. Will this form of his ever stop making her heart skip a beat? --No, will she ever grow strong enough to stop being scared of her friend once and for all, no matter how many times his hand has been (will be) forced against her?

    Lan breathes, deep and steady. She doesn't really notice that she's breathing in time with the music, swaying on the balls of her feet to the song. It's not important. Life is full of rhythms, right?

    She looks away from him, to Lily, who knows what Azoth really is. Why would Lan doubt her? If anybody can understand spooky (sorry Azoth!) super ancient Lost Technology, it would be Lily. Instead, Lan lets her body orient towards Loren and Gwen.

    Something is different. Again. Not different like in the desert with Loren and Eleanor, when the Ether sewn into her had reacted to the same Ether in him. Now there is something--
        A droning three-part harmony at a pitch that can only be felt and not heard--
            Lan grits her teeth and stomps her heel into the ground, the reverberation climbing the bones of her leg and providing a brief counternote. "This is bad. I don't think we..." 

<Pose Tracker> Hannah Curie has posed.

It's an amazing convenience, the Nedian cell phone. Even off of Nede it still has some independent functions it is capable of... and 'no wireless signal' isn't an impediment when someone can broadcast a strong enough signal to be picked up regardless...

It's been a while since Hannah's been to scraphaven, but she enjoyed her previous trip--even if it ended witha very curious discovery, in the end. Zephyr is ahead of her as she makes her way down the hallways, but she halts as Zephyr picks up that tune. "No wait a gosh dang moment here..."

And there is Azoth. But also Loren Voss. And a bunch of the younger set. "Aw, heck."

Hannah charges onto the scene, her robe flying behind her as she runs. She comes skidding to a halt by the rest of the Trainers, turning to face Loren. "Whatever it is you think you're gettin' out of this, we aim to keep it from ya. We ain't givin' up on Azoth without a fight."

Meanwhile, behind her, Zephyr is busy trying to encourage the rabbitfolk to clear the area. Mostly by squawking at them noisily and flapping his wings at them. 

<Pose Tracker> Xantia has posed.

Is there any way Xantia would not be here, when it's Azoth calling for help? The answer was 'no' before, and now it's 'double no' given how much she feels she owes him for being there she needed it most. Granted, she has absolutely no idea what this is about, nor did she have any opportunity to look into what Scraphaven even is beforehand. But when has not knowing what she's getting into ever stopped her?

That being said, she also felt like it would a bad idea to go alone. Just in case. Regardless of how she feels at present, she simply cannot trust herself not to lose control again if she's put in a stressful situation. It would be best to ensure that someone's there who could intervene, should it be necessary. She doesn't like the prospect of possibly ending up a burden again, but... it's Azoth. She has to go.

And so, here she is. Not quite her usual gung-ho self, she let Lily take the lead on the motorcycle, and so has a pretty good overview of what she's about to rush into, once she follows. Solaris is here. That's not good. There's nothing more likely to cause problems for her.

She gives Lily a look, in passing. She trusts that her concern is palpable enough to communicate how worried she is about what will happen if she confronts Loren. She should absolutely keep her focus on Azoth - which is what she wanted to do anyway.

Unfortunately, she still doesn't understand what's going on here. None of what's being said is making it any more clear to her. Can she... reason with these creatures, somehow? This feels like a long shot. But she'll try.

"...Listen, you. That," she points at the contraption holding Azoth, "Is a cage. Whatever kind of ceremony it is you're talking about, you do not make friends by trapping them in a cage! But we're already his friend - why don't you let us handle things from here, before the man who is not his friend makes a big mess of things?"

...Will they even understand, given the way they talk? She doubts it. But she had to try, even she has a feeling that with Solaris here, escalation is alreadyn unavoidable. 

<Pose Tracker> Seraph Boudicca has posed.

    There's a haunting, amongst the rabbits. A voice in their ears... and perhaps some can even see a woman, clad in steel armour, horns on her helm and green and orange silks adorning her.

    "There is danger for you, in this. Go, now. We will not see you harmed." The voice pauses, and then...

    "Be not afraid. He is already our friend."

    It's not fair for Boudicca to pull the 'ancient unknowable spirit' gig with her little rabbit friends, but desperate times, desperate measures.

<Pose Tracker> Grace Harvey has posed.

    Grace is not the usual sort of person to receive distress messages. That seems the sort of thing you'd send to someone reliable, like Claude, or Rena. Not her. But she got one- and Bea's distress upon hearing was enough to make her bail from the inn she was sharing with others and make her way as quick as she could.

    She left a note, at least!

    'Friend emergency, back soon! -G'

    ...she forgot to write it in Filgaian. She was in a hurry. It's fine. Someone can probably read the Tetrageniot written language.

    The weird little rabbity things are cute, if not as homicidal as human media has lead her to believe. Scraphaven is new to her. The little rabbits are new to her. The tech on display seems- well, scrap, copbbled together into. Something.

    The bestial, monstrous form of her and Bea's friend is not new to her. But she still hates it. It's not... who the Azoth she knew is.

    A frightened trill comes from the small machine at Grace's side, and Grace reaches down to gently stroke her chassis. "It's okay, Bea. We'll... find some way to help..."

    Grace wishes she could sound more confident, for her own sake as well as others.

    There's a crowd of people here, now. A few drifters she's seen before, a lot she hasn't. And then she hears a voice call out for surrendering.

    "Yours?" Grace responds, standing up. "Yours!?" There's an anger in his voice. "He's not yours, he's his own person darnit! All you sickos did was hurt him and torture him! Bea could hear him, even when you made it so he couldn't talk!"

    Her hand moves to her ARMs, looking at Loren, ready to attack. Whole lotta people about to get caught in the middle of this.

    Grace hates a whole lot of people caught in the middle of violence. It's one of her few rules.

    "...tsk. Being that gentle won't be enough to clear a crowd like this." She mutters nervously, as Xiumei urges the rabbit people to move. "...I think we might need to be a little tougher than that to move to a crowd like this," Grace says as she reaches into her jacket pocket pulling out... a tiny sphere with a green line. "Sorry, bunny guys." She mumbles, checking the airflow before throwing the sphere behind her.

    It explodes into... a foul smelling gas, the sort of thing that might induce one to vomit if they stay inside it too long. Short lived, fast acting, and a great deterrent. "Eyes and ears, folks, this is a robbery! If you don't wanna get caught in the middle, get running now! You can call the cops if you want, but there's no way they're getting here in time to stop Grace Harvey doing her thing!"

    Her hands move, and both boxx like arms are out in a flourish, spinning around in her open palms before reconfiguring into pistols around her trigger fingers, before being easily caught. She strikes a pose, winking her left and middle eyes, with the right open, pistols in front of her. "Now let's see who gets away with the key to freedom, you grumpy sword jerk!"

    She has been practicing for this moment for years, and that was the best line she could come up with on the spot.

    Maybe this is why Team Rocket have the repeatable bit.

    That probably makes it easier to mask the fear of fighting Solarians again too. 

<Pose Tracker> Meng Wu has posed.

Wu's here because of course she is. There's actually a simpler reason than she's been tapping communications or anything so esoteric though. She's scavaging and playing it by ear. She's no mechanic. She knows the basics, but she also plays by feel more than some of her crew's happy with.
 
 Still, there's a crowd here and.. that means that the beastfolk with her, a bat, a pair of felines and a jackal all loiter around at the entrance, then disperse. Probably off on some orders from the leader.
 
 Wu herself has gone for something more practical. In that it's just denim and a button up, but at least she's got boots on!
 
 "Credit to him for the sigint at least." She mutters, picking her way through the somewhat familiar terrain.
 
 She arrives just in time to take in a crowd of drifters and an ultimatum. "Nah." Is her simple response.
 
 She is going to defer to the others with the situation at hand though. They.. seem to have a bit more intel than she did.
 
 Instead, she picks her way forward and begins tapping her foot. Definitely not to the rhythm. Nope. The earth also is shaking a bit just, right there.
 
 A sidelong glance to a few familiar faces. 

<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.

    Loren makes a sound that's almost a laugh. "You don't think so?" he echoes Lily, narrowing his eyes as he stares her down. "Is your plan to leave him in there, then? Besides..."

    Loren's not alone. He might be medical, but he's the one that Sadalbari put in charge, and of late, her word is law for Gebler's operations on the surface. There are a few Gebler soldiers filing in after him, effectively blocking the way out of this chamber -- from that end, at least. Won't the natives of Scraphaven have their own boltholes if this all turns south?

    His gaze, impassive, turns to Rille. There was a time -- and not terribly long ago at that -- where the presence of someone as formidable as her might have given him pause.

    This Loren instead says to her, "No."

    Timu speaks, and for a moment, Loren's gaze flits towards Azoth, trapped and slowly succumbing to the melody. Yes, he'd seen that too.
    Yes, he'd had the same thought.
    And yes-- there would have been a time when he'd have thought just as Timu does. But things change.
    And he has his own responsibilities. And--

    Dirk's here. Dirk had made his feelings plain just a short while ago, before. "My name is not 'Drugs Man'," Loren repeats, a flicker of irritation -- of his self -- coming through. "But if you want to settle your score, then... fine. We'll see how that goes."

    He's just a kid-- But even that drowns in the melody deep within.

    Lan is here. He doesn't look at her, won't look at her.

    He needs to stop, Gwen says.

    And Loren just looks at her. It's already too late.

    "Enough," he says sharply, as if to address Hannah and Grace in one go. "He is our property," he reiterates, making hard eye contact with both of them in turn, "and currently he is trapped. We'll be taking him back." Briefly he closes his eyes. "One final warning. Get out of the way, or we won't be responsible for what happens."

    Some of the others here are already trying to get the dwellers of Scraphaven to flee. Others continue to hold against the presence of Solaris, here to claim what they view as theirs. Loren's gaze remains fixed ahead, for the moment unfocused as he stares at the device that has trapped Azoth.

    "Aim at the outermost joints," he says at last, gesturing sharply with his right hand.

    As one, the Gebler soldiers lift their ARMs and focus fire on the section of the mechanism he'd called out.

    The joint doesn't sustain the attack long. It explodes, erupting into an explosion that begins to tear across the rest of the mechanism, grinding its rotations to a shuddering, sparking halt. 

<Pose Tracker> Azoth has posed.

One of the rabbits gasps and falls off of a cog wheel, staring at Loren. "Friend... is mean?!" The others join in immediately. "Mean!" "Unkind!" "Not friend!" And then a rabbit bursts forward pointing at Loren. In particular... his Gebler uniform.

"YOU!"

Several of Scraphaven's rabbits look to Loren, and then erupt into panicked chatter. "You!" "You!!" "Them!!" "Give them back!" "Give back the Metalspeaker!" "Give back the Glimmerforge!" But while they make their demands, they tremble and cower, fur bristling and ears back. Ida asks where the Metalspeaker is and several in unison point at Loren in accusation. "Ask him!" "That one!" "The mean one!"

Loren's demand and presence makes enough of them hesitate to slow the song. But Xantia's words make several come to a hard stop (and a few more in wheels get flung out). "Cage?" "Friend box!" "Metalspeaker built it!" "...But..." "Looks like cage..." "..." "Don't like that."

Azoth's energy flickers back to life. His voice, deep, glitched, reverberating, garbles as his attention finds the Drifters that have come to help him. "Miss -- Sharon...? What..." he manages, exact question incomplete.

But then Timu begins to quote something. "Wh... what...? No..." He twitches, claws raking into his helmet. "No." The beastkin look to Timu curiously, wide eyes blinking, then looking to each other. They don't seem to know what she's speaking of, but they aren't protesting with any known contradictions.

A sudden explosion of smelly gas makes them scream and flee from their posts. Which is extremely fortunate for what happens next: Gebler soldiers fire onto the orrey. The joint explodes.

Everything halts.

...

Then everything doesn't.

Red sparks crawl through Scraphaven, seizing every mechanical apparatus and moving part. Each light in the city -- from the bulbs strung on wires above to the gleaming eyes of constructs that help maintain it -- crackles into crimson. Azoth shrieks out with a synthesized, bestial roar. The central orrey shatters, blasting away plumes of dust and fragmented debris. He rises, free... insomuch that the Azoth can ever be said to be free. Machinery hitches and stalls, then slams down with heavy percussion and as the flow of metallic chimes awakens to a new, violent rhythm.

BGM: WHITE FATALIS -- MONSTER HUNTER
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZdGylfR8I2M

Scraphaven's people shriek and weave through erratic apparatuses as they try to flee with no avenue of escape, and with no safe place to hide when every nook and cranny is a part of the rampaging assembly. Their own home has been turned against them, now under a berserk command. All they can do is position behind the Drifters promising to protect them, older and larger beastkin holding smaller ones protectively, fleeing with Zephyr's help and heeding Xiumei and Boudicca's previous urging.

"OBJECTIVE LOCATED: <ARCANE ENERGY AMPLIFICATION SYSTEM>. INSTALLATION PROGRESS... 13.77 PERCENT."

Azoth's body rattles as he lets loose a digital screech and claws at his own face with raked grooves. Light erupts from his body. The erratic rays sharpen into pixelated, distorted blades and fire like a rain of destruction over the city.

Varius has an important question: does Azoth want them to stop him?

"Pro -- tect... th -- em..."

<Pose Tracker> Xiumei Klein has posed.

Xiumei's eyes dart from Lily and Ragnell to Rille. She has a thought that her voice is rather loud; on the other hand, she is grateful that there are more people here. Her experience with Azoth, in the past, is that she needs all the help that she can get.

Even two Pokemon Trainers are here. She glances at them, but doesn't afford a smile. She looks at Lan, then she nods. "We'll... just have to do the best we can."

She looks at Grace. There's a faintly regretful look on her face. "I... wanted to try diplomacy, first, but--ah!" She wrinkles her nose as the foul-smelling gas erupts. She looks at Loren, glaring -- and then cries out as the Gebler rifles shred through part of the mechanism. "He isn't your property!" she shouts at him, her voice peaking with anger.

It's too late. Azoth's blades of energy come out, and Xiumei looks at him. "Azoth..."

She looks to Boudicca, then. The friend she came here with, originally. Someone promising to protect them. She swallows. They'll have to do this, together.

She looks back at him, holds her hand out, and the AV Buster appears in it. Her fingers curl around it, as she takes aim. She looks regretful.

"We will," she promises. "All of us. I'm sorry."

She opens fire, three bursts of energy hurtling towards his center of mass.

GS: Xiumei Klein has attacked Azoth with AV Buster - Triple Shot!
GS: Xiumei Klein has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Xiumei Klein has completed her action.

<Pose Tracker> Timu Guado has posed.

    Things escalate. Timu finds herself overwhelmed by the smelly gas that she's halted from pulling out the music box, coughing and sputtering and clambering back for higher ground further back. This proves prudent, with the way Loren's entourage strike onto the orrey. Explosions... then disconcerting red sparks, and the deafening, pained scream. Debris from the exploded orrey strike at either side of the Guado, a near-miss.
 
     She takes her breath, staff in hand as oxygen returns to her.
     "Rille! Dirk!" Timu calls, finding her inner headstrong teenager, "I know it's dangerous... but I'm going to try to help with them," she says. "Me and my Pokemon friends...!" One of her Pokeballs rattles. She knows which one wants out, drawing a hand from her grip on the staff to activate and throw the Pokeball. "Hooligre!"
 
     The greenish hulking ogre of a Pokemon leaps free, snarling back at the screeching metallic bestial monstrosity that is Azoth's truer self. There's no way to simply be in cover behind a Pokemon when Scraphaven, on all sides, has become a deathtrap.
 
     Hooligre snarls, raising a fist in threat as Timu herself rises to her full height, trying to emotionally assert herself in all of this chaos.
 
     "Hold strong," she tells Hooligre as she - at last - gets out the music box that the Widgetmancers made for her (and maybe even others that were with her).
 
     Its digital music is grainy, as to be expected of something cobbled together from scrap and elbow grease, but she's holding it up aloft with a free hand, letting its lullaby-like melody play out.
 
     "...Go to sleep!" Timu calls. 

<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.

Lily likes Grace's moxie, as it happens.

Lily lifts an eyebrow when Gwen says it's 'really bad'. "...For reasons other than the obvious," she concludes. But she does't answer the looks at her, over what she says. She only answers Ragnell, who actually asks, and she says: "I remember."

And that's dangerous, her tone implies.

She looks to Xantia at that worried look and nods. "I've got your back," she tells her quietly.

But Loren answers her, and Lily shakes her head. "You know your average soldier doesn't stop me," Lily points out. "Remember the palace in Bledavik? I still owe you more for that."

But while she talks a big game, there are a lot of them, and Gebler is not made up of average soldiers. She's glad not to be here alone tryiing this.

They 'won't be responsible'. "You're always responsible!" Lily snarls, as the soldiers start firing. "Damn you!"

Azoth has called out to her, as 'Miss Sharon', as he always does. She gives him a pained look. "Azoth... It's time you knew."

'Protect them', he says to Varius, and Lily adopts a ready stance with her hands at her side, Ether around her starting to tangibly gather as a distortion in the air as her 'circuits' light up violet.

"The Azoth... was a Zeboim-era Gear AI. And it was no one's property."

This part isn't news. But one starts at the beginning. And Lily starts there--and by darting across the battlefield, throwing out her hand. Noxious Ether erupts at Azoth's 'feet', a blast of purple-black energy that bubbles up like the gases from a swamp to impede barriers and corrode metal.

"Hold him back!" 

GS: Lily Keil has attacked Azoth with Affliction!
GS: Lily Keil has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Lily Keil's stances have changed to Avenger!
GS: Lily Keil gains 5 FP from her Daredevil!
GS: Lily Keil has completed her action.
GS: Timu Guado has attacked Azoth with The Lullaby of the Metalspeaker!
GS: Timu Guado has completed her action.

<Pose Tracker> Seraph Ragnell has posed.

    Ragnell's lip curls at Loren's assertion that Azoth belongs to Solaris. Still, that's nothing new. She glances at Boudicca when her fellow Seraph flits among the rabbitfolk to advise them to flee. Ragnell had taken it for granted they wouldn't be able to see or hear her anyway, but Boudicca's always been more of an optimist, hasn't she?
    
    But then the Gebler soldiers open fire, and all hell breaks loose. The rabbitfolk flee, but the chaos affects far, far more than just Azoth himself. Ragnell utters a low 'tch!' as she snaps a glare at those traveling red sparks, then back at Azoth as his body lumbers upright.
    
    'Protect them,' he says, in response to being asked if he wants to be stopped.
    
    "I'll take that as a yes," Ragnell says before raising one of her pistols and charging a blast with grim determination. When she fires, that blast goes up--then breaks into a localized storm and sends down a torrential downpour of rain and needle-like lightning on Azoth. The combination of water and thunderbolts might interfere with the takeover that's happening right now--but then again, maybe not.
    
    She eyes Lily again as she answers--not just her, but also Azoth himself. She catches Xiumei's eye too, but it's what Lily says that has the lion's share of her extra attention. A Zeboim-era Gear AI that belonged to no one, huh. Great news, but that doesn't help Azoth now. Ragnell keeps her snark to herself, though. For now, she only listens, and fights. 

GS: Seraph Ragnell has attacked Azoth with Squall Shot!
GS: Seraph Ragnell has gained 2 Combo!
GS: Seraph Ragnell has completed her action.

<Pose Tracker> Seraph Boudicca has posed.

    "Xiumei," Boudicca beseeches her friend, "please, aid Azoth. Together you are stronger, and I fear I have not the might to meet him." For helping Azoth, as it usually does, involves a fight.

    She turns, instead, to Loren. "Azoth is no one's property!" She declares, pointing to him. "And you shall not harm that child!" Is -- is she talking about Dirk?! (She's talking about Dirk.) "Fear not," she tells that boy with his very impressive shades...

    ... as she pulls out a pair of aviator sunglasses.

    (The same pair she used to protect her eyes from being salt-blasted while they dug out a Golem.)

    "I am with you!"

    And the breeze which picks up to protect the fleeing rabbit-folk wraps around Dirk, just the same, bolstering him wiht a breezy barrier.

GS: Seraph Boudicca has attacked Dirk Swordsman with Fortifying Tailwind!
GS: Seraph Boudicca has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Seraph Boudicca has completed her action.
GS: Dirk Swordsman accepts Seraph Boudicca's Fortifying Tailwind for 0 hit points!
GS: Burst, Quick, and Shield applied to Dirk Swordsman!

<Pose Tracker> Rille Felis has posed.

Rille keeps meeting Loren's gaze, challenging. She's powerful, but she's also a beastfolk, and she *knows* what that means to Solaris. She wasn't expecting anything else.

And after she found that report, she has her own reasons to be suspicious about Solaris. That and aggressive. Strike them before they can hurt anyone else.

"Do it," she responds to Timu. "I got this guy." And not alone, though Rille is pretty sure she could do a number on Loren unless he's scarier than he looks... which he probably is, she's not taking him that lightly. But she knows what she can do, too.

Her tail lashes again - and the stink bomb goes off. Rille covers her nose and mouth with one arm, mashing her face into her elbow - it wasn't aimed at her but that doesn't matter, that stuff goes everywhere. The change in light seems to be a signal, though, especially as Azoth calls -

Protect them?

"He won't get past me," Rille mumbles into her arm, before suddenly rushing forward. She's fast, but she's fast in a straight line; she doesn't really dodge so much as build up momentum, barreling forward at a sprint, lowering her arm as she does.

Rille can't stop the electrical takeover. She can't stand in the way of every shot aimed at the Scraphaveners, though she can sure try. But she *can* leap at a dead run and come down in the midst of the Gebler squad, slamming both hands and feet into the ground hard enough that it *shatters* under her blow, spraying up shards of rock in a burst around her and covering her follow-up strike at Loren himself, a rising uppercut from her crouched, hunched-over position.

"Get your hands off of them!" 

GS: Rille Felis has attacked Loren Voss with Rock Shatter!
GS: Rille Felis has gained 2 Combo!
GS: Rille Felis has completed her action.

<Pose Tracker> Dirk Swordsman has posed.

 
"Tch," Dirk answers Loren, but he doesn't immediately unleash a lethal Demon Wave on Loren, so maybe he's just talking mess. But that's not all that's happening. The Scrapyard residents... they're coming together. They want something back from him.

But they're afraid.

Dirk makes himself remain calm. Quilladin moves to echo Dirk's pose. His frown deepens before there's a gunshot -- and then there's a scream -- panic rises...

Dirk breathes in. "Thanks," he tells Boudicca as she declares she is with him. Quilladin offers his free paw out for a fist-bump.

"I'm fifteen jsyk," he continues, "though it is definitely appreciated in this parlous situation." One more deep breath.

"Go time," he says.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C-YFDV-5x8A

As the wind whips up around him, Dirk leaps! He probably had, like, five feet on Loren from that position but he is nonetheless able to jump up so high that he can fully draw his blade in midair. Quilladin does a somersault...

And both Dirk and the Pokemon come down on either side of Loren! (Dirk kind of in front, Quilladin kind of behind.) As Rille joins them, Quilladin aims a two-handed stick-strike at the back of Loren's knee as Dirk twists around to kick over a nearby Gebler guy while, almost to his own surprise, doing a kick-up somersault and landing in a half-crouch, blade held to the side.

THEN he goes for a rising slash on Loren. "HYAH!" 

GS: Dirk Swordsman has attacked Loren Voss with Swordsman Style Maneuver!
GS: Dirk Swordsman has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Dirk Swordsman has completed his action.

<Pose Tracker> Gwen Whitlock has posed.

    Now that Lan is here, Gwen abruptly changes tactics, donning a slim, but nonetheless cheery, grin. "Lan, I'll help handle Azoth. This ain't gonna go like last time. If he wanted things t'come to a head right now, it would've already." The 'he' is not specified, but it doesn't need to be. The Stranger who has threaded that string between the three of them has nothing to do with today; what's important is Scraphaven, Azoth, and making sure Loren survives. The last one may be a touch difficult.

    "It may be the same as when I took in that spark," Gwen clarifies hurriedly, to Lan and no one in particular. "The incident in Luca. Loren might have a part of himself locked away, and..." There's way too much to explain, and not many here who'd understand. Besides, a Solarian with their sense of ??? locked away isn't that much different than a Solarian just following orders, does it?

    Besides, Lily has information of her own. "... A Zeboim-era Gear AI...." That's much older than Gwen could have guessed. But it's as Ragnell mentally concluded: it's not doing him a lick of good right now.

    But, also like Ragnell, Gwen has the same idea. Preparing her ARM, Gwen tugs off ber right glove with her teeth, and rolls up her right sleeve. "Right behind you, Ragnell!" She shoots out a beam of electric energy, directing it at Azoth.

    She can't call the storm, but she can amp it up. 

GS: Formation! Gwen Whitlock has attacked Azoth with Coil Cannon EX!
GS: Gwen Whitlock has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Gwen Whitlock has completed her action.
GS: Azoth critically fails to charge Xiumei Klein's AV Buster - Triple Shot for 113 hit points!
GS: Mighty and Riposte applied to Xiumei Klein!
GS: Charge!! You gain 35 FP! (That's 20 more than usual!)

<Pose Tracker> Grace Harvey has posed.

    "I get it, but we're in a rush." Grace quietly replies to Xiumei. "Besides, this is kinda my specialty."

    "He's not property!" Grace shouts back, with all the respect for authority she feels Loren deserves. "Oh, you're not gonna take responsibility, huh?" Grace's voice had a surprising edge for her. "Gee, what a surprise! That seems to be your whole deal! Well I'm not gonna take it ei-"

    She gets cut off, as the gunfire starts and Grace dives for cover from the Gebler troops. They're good shots- better than her.

    And then Scraphaven bursts into movement, and she hears Azoth's scream. She hears Bea's whimpering trill in response. "...Oh no." She whispers, looking up at the monstrous form of a town, turned into a weapon. A friend, turned into a weapon-

    As Lily explains, Grace shakes her head. "I don't need to know how long your backwater civ has been mistreating people like him! I need to know how we save him! Him, not it!" Her arms rise. Loren is... still a very real threat. But. "...gh! I got more important things than you!" It's bluster. It's absolutely bluster. Anyone with the sense can tell. For all her anger, she doesn't expect to come out on top against Loren.

    She doesn't expect it to happen with Azoth, either.

    "...okay. Okay. Protect them. Got it." She definitely does not sound calm. "But. Not giving up on you either, okay? We're getting everyone out, right?" It's a question, not a statement, asked to others present.

    Grace leaps from cover, making a dive from one point of cover to another- as much as there is cover that won't betray them, blasting at the attacking bits of Scraptown. "Come on, this won't be too much, right?"

    Given that a bolt from this went through a Wise Man's armour... she's a little worried about that. She's never really had control over the power output. 

GS: Grace Harvey has attacked Azoth with Pin-Up Pin Down!
GS: Grace Harvey has completed her action.

<Pose Tracker> Xantia has posed.

Xantia mutters quiet 'thanks' to Lily. It's the best that she has to offer. It's awful to know you might not be able to trust yourself. But she has to do whatever she can for Azoth.

But having gotten zero memos, she still has no idea what these rabbit-like creatures even are, exactly. But keeping her words simple to them seems to be working. Not liking cages is thankfully a universal language constant. "Alright, then, trust me, okay? I'll handle this, and we can all part ways as friends."

Even Xantia realizes that's being overly optimistic. Solaris is never going to allow that to happen. But she's ready to follow this plan for as far as she can manage. Which, as it turns out, is not very far at all. She's barely taken a step towards Azoth when she already freezes again, anger boiling over at Loren's choice of words. Even if her voice is eerily calm.

"...Say that again. Call Azoth your property one more time, see what happens."

Whatever may have happened, however, is interrupted by Grace's gas bomb that she gets caught up in. Xantia coughs violently at the terrible, terrible scent she finds herself in the middle of, and doesn't manage to get hear bearings until Azoth's already been freed. Which should have been a good thing, but...

When she hears the words 'objective located', she knows what to expect. Azoth will stop at nothing, now. But he still manages to force out his true wishes for the current situation. Xantia nods in understanding.

'Hold him back', Lily instructs. Xantia decides to take this as literally as possible. With a flash of red, her right bracer manifests an energy blade, and she rushes straight at Azoth with extreme speed. Her weapon is mostly meant to intercept - she knows she can expect blades in return. Her free hand is what she uses for her more direct action, to push Azoth back, away from the ones he requested to protect. She has no plan, of course. Reducing the possibility for Azoth to add to his regrets comes first, she'll think of her next move after that. 

GS: Xantia has attacked Azoth with Crimson Flash!
GS: Xantia has gained 3 Combo!
GS: Xantia has completed her action.

<Pose Tracker> Hannah Curie has posed.

Hannah stares down Loren, crest graph drawn, with electric sparks drifting off of it. There are too many others here, too many innocents. But to back off now, no matter what Loren says, isn't really an option. "How many times I gotta tell ya? You can't claim somethin' that can think for itself as your blasted property. Even if he ain't organic."

But Loren's not alone, and more soldiers file in, are given the order to fire-- "No!" But it's too late, Azoth is free--for a certain definition of free--and suddenly everything goes haywire.

Arcane Energy Amplification system...

Hannah's eyes widen as she hears those words. "This could be trouble, if he's reactivatin' pieces in this condition!"

But Azoth's concern is for others, not for himself in the moment, and Zephyr will keep working hard to help shepherd the rabbitfolk to safety. Meanwhile, Hannah glares at Loren. A large, fraying ball of lightning quickly forms in front of her crest graph, tendrils of lightning lashing out wildly. "Ball Lightning!" with a snap of her finger she flings the ball forward towards Loren.

And with her free hand she reaches into her satchel, removing another music box. Without a word she holds it up above her head, and Zephyr comes swooping down to snag it in his claws, then off to try and sooth Azoth with it. 

GS: Hannah Curie has attacked Loren Voss with Ball Lightning!
GS: Hannah Curie has gained 3 Combo!
GS: Hannah Curie has completed her action.
GS: Azoth mostly guards Grace Harvey's Pin-Up Pin Down for 42 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Azoth gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Slow applied to Azoth!
GS: Quick applied to Grace Harvey!
GS: CRITICAL! Azoth mostly evades Lily Keil's Affliction for 119 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Azoth gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Cripple, Disease, and Mute applied to Azoth!
GS: FP up! Arcane Font!
GS: Azoth accepts Timu Guado's The Lullaby of the Metalspeaker for 0 hit points!
GS: Azoth mostly guards Seraph Ragnell's Squall Shot for 65 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Azoth gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Slow applied to Azoth!
GS: Azoth fails to evade Gwen Whitlock's Coil Cannon EX for 175 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Azoth gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Azoth's Jam Ward may block the effect!
GS: Jam blocked!
GS: Azoth mostly charges Xantia's Crimson Flash for 83 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Azoth gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Riposte and Shield applied to Xantia!
GS: Charge!! You gain 35 FP! (That's 20 more than usual!)
GS: CRITICAL! Loren Voss marginally guards Rille Felis's Rock Shatter for 127 hit points!
GS: FP up! Power Burst!
GS: Loren Voss mostly evades Dirk Swordsman's Swordsman Style Maneuver for 64 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Loren Voss gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: FP up! Power Burst!
GS: Loren Voss mostly guards Hannah Curie's Ball Lightning for 39 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Loren Voss gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Mute blocked!
GS: Mighty applied to Hannah Curie!
GS: FP up! Reaction bonus!

<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.

    The locals rise up in a great hue and cry at the Solarians' presence. Ida's face goes pale as the last bits fall into place. She was right. This is the place where Azoth rested, until he was excavated. The Metalspeaker. If Solaris has them--

    But any questions she has about the Metalspeaker, the nature of their cage, or what it's doing to Azoth will have to wait. Ida ducks back into the vent as the poisonous red energy washes out, and mechanical mayhem engulfs the city.

    (Inside Ida's pocket: a tiny data chip she picked up the last time she was here, awkwardly slotted into her cellphone's peripheral port using a kludged Nedian adaptor. A far less elegant solution than Timu's music box.

    Ida lets out a breath. Ragnell and Xiumei and Xantia rush in to deal with Azoth, but her objective is...

    "VOSS!"

    Ida's voice rises in a roar as she charges the Solarian officer, weaving between lengths of sheet metal with inhuman grace. She leaps for him, once she's clear, trying to tackle him to the ground, regardless of whatever object--metal or otherwise--he might land on.

<Pose Tracker> Lan Lilac has posed.

 
    Her words go unheeded. The hum between them is a three-part, flanged thing now. Is her voice not loud enough? Is her heart not sure enough? He won't even look at her.
    Is it all her fault?

    She can't remember. Again, Lan can't remember!

    Lan tries to make sense of her own thoughts, gaze glancing off off Xiumei who's trying to reassure her. At Gwen, who understands more than anyone. "I... I know. I know, it's just-- but it's different than then, because--" The prison is broken, the lights turn crimson and deadly. The clattering town bends, moves, to the Azoth's accord. Lan sniffles a little bit and stands up straighter, forcing a thread of steel back into her spine. "R, right." She can't cry now, no matter whose fault it might be. In the end, it all traces back to the Stranger. Lan can't let herself get caught up on the details now. "Don't get hurt, Gwen."

    And if he won't look at her... Lan takes a deep breath and gathers starlight in her palm, and then she's darting in close enough to throw it right in Loren's face. "You can ignore me if you want. But you know I'm not going to let you just do what you want, even if you're--!"

    And then Lan twists out of Ida's way because whoa, she's way too close to that tackle! 

GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has attacked Loren Voss with Rush Down!
GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has completed her action.
GS: Lan Lilac has attacked Loren Voss with Dancing In The Dark!
GS: Lan Lilac has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Lan Lilac has completed her action.

<Pose Tracker> Meng Wu has posed.

Wu is doing some math, behind those glasses. Checking targets, figuring what can be done. Trying not to spark something off immediately. Sure going in guns blazing, literally is a time honored tradition of hers, but it's not her op.
 
 There is a brief glance towards Lily as she makes her way forward. "Yeah. I can help dish that out." referring to the payback owed.
 
 She of course lights up. It's right before a big fight and she's a creature of bad habits. And sometimes it helps keep the focus. Don't ask how. She can't explain it.
 
 With the important steps out of the way, she smoothly draws both pistols. Flipping the safeties at the same time she uses the holsters to rack the pistols.
 
 She changes her headcount though. Looking at the drifters first, then the local beastfolk next. This isn't going to be a good time regardless and there's going to be collateral. Maybe she wants to..
 
 She just rolls into it. Kicking her foot down to start things out right. Creating a barricade for herself, a precisely cut column appearing before her, tapering down to about waist height that.. well. She's going to use to cover the others. Kinda.
 
 "Just stay behind me and let's pull the fire away from them." Gesturing her head towards said rabbitlike critters.
 
 "He deserves a clean break too." she calls out. Not that she explains herself, but at least.. a few probably know what she's referencing. She leans against the pillar she's created and looks out.
 
 Somewhere in her mind, she's wishing she'd done this already. But a crossfire's never a good time. 

GS: Meng Wu has attacked Meng Wu with Hostile Reconstruction!
GS: Meng Wu has gained 5 Combo!
GS: Meng Wu has completed her action.
GS: Meng Wu accepts Meng Wu's Hostile Reconstruction for 0 hit points!
GS: Shield applied to Meng Wu!
GS: Cover and Shield applied to Meng Wu!
GS: Loren Voss mostly charges Ida Everstead-Rey's Rush Down for 87 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Loren Voss gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: FP up! Power Burst!
GS: CRITICAL! Loren Voss fails to charge Lan Lilac's Dancing In The Dark for 135 hit points!
GS: Blind and Disrupt applied to Loren Voss!
GS: Quick applied to Lan Lilac!
GS: FP up! Power Burst!

<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.

    "And I owe you for what happened in Bledavik, too," Loren answers calmly enough. She'd broken his arm, but more than that, he'd been humiliated and nearly put into a terrible position internally because of that incident. It had been deemed to have been his fault, after all.

    "Am I?" he continues at her. "You've made your own bed." Normally he's sharper than this, has more pointed words for her than this.

    No fewer than four of them tell him that Azoth isn't property. That he doesn't belong to Solaris.

    "Why not?" Loren asks of them quite calmly. "He is as much property of Solaris as I am."

    Once, he had come down to the depths of Scraphaven in the guise of a friend. Now, Loren reveals himself to, by his uniform alone, be anything but a friend to the people who live here.

    But they shout at him, and not just for what he's attempted to do, but what he's already... done? Here again the facade cracks, if just for the moment. "--Who?" Sure, the title 'Metalspeaker' is familiar to him, but it isn't as if he knows who (or what) they're referring to. But that distinction may be irrelevant.

    And then all hell breaks loose. There's gas. There's the gunfire and explosion that follow.

    And then there's Azoth.

    And there's nothing Loren can do about that except stick to the plan. Might another verison of himself chosen differently? It's all moot, now. There's nothing left but retrieval, and he can't do that if Azoth is subdued here by the lot of them.

    Light instead flares about himself: blue and gold and red, an elemental enhancement traded among him and his squad, yes, but he's cast a wide net and it descends about the rampaging Azoth as well.

    A Zeboim-era Gear AI. That's right. He'd already guessed it was something like that, after what he'd seen in the depths of Scraphaven. After Azoth disappeared into this place. After what he'd seen just now with that device that has become obliterated.

    ...It doesn't matter.

    It doesn't matter. Both Dirk and his Quilladin advance, seeking to catch him in a pincher; one of the soldiers, perhaps taking initiative, aims a shot at Quilladin.

    But Rille intrudes, slamming the ground and sending rock and debris forward in a blistering shower for Loren and his squad. White light appears around Loren in a hexagonal array but it does very little to help the soldiers, many of whom (especially the one who had tried to shoot Quilladin) are bowled over by the barrage. The barrier holds as Rille and Quilladin slam into it, but the force of her attack sends him skidding backwards as the light fades.

    He does not stay there. Instead, he rushes at her, blade bared and ready to swing at Rille in a diagonal arc.

    The survivors of Rille's initial attack scarce fare any better: Dirk kicks one of them right over before advancing on Loren. Blade meets blade: blade meets flesh. Loren will trade to Dirk as good as he gets.

    And to Boudicca, the one who had so bolstered Dirk, he responds quite coldly in kind, cutting right through the air itself to permit the pressurewave of his attack close the distance.

    Hannah responds with lightning, its tendrils rolling madly as it surges towards him. His own response is counter with an outstretched hand, the white light that erupts there catching the blast straight-on as it sears across his barrier. Breaking past Dirk, he leaps right for her in response. slamming his blade down for her as if it were anything but an edged weapon.

    He won't get the opportunity to bother Hannah's space long. Lan breaks into the fray and here, Loren pauses as if her presence alone made him hesitate and rounds towards her. "Stay out of this--" he tells her, and that's her moment, and that's when she slams him with starlight.

    And that's when Ida collides with him bodily, forcing him to the ground. "Stay-- get off!" he roars back, vehemence in his eyes as the calm is overtaken by wrath. He still has his sword. But Ida's holding him down and he can't quite get-- she's--

    Water bursts upwards in a torrential wash for Ida, for Lan who is close at hand. For Wu.

    But the color of the pure blue water Ether twists and shifts about. It grows dark and splits into long tendrils.

    BGM: Silent Hill 3 - One's Weaker Self
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=imkuoEQzVG0

    This is not water. It is darkness of a pitch more black that the void beyond the sun. The darkness coils and writhes.

    They are not tendrils, of course. Lan would know them for what they are: the very same thing as her ribbons.

    And they are not kind to whatever it is that they strike. 

GS: Loren Voss has attacked Loren Voss with Sigma Element!
GS: Loren Voss has attacked Azoth with Sigma Element!
GS: Loren Voss has gained 2 Combo!
GS: Loren Voss's stances have changed to Sage!
GS: CRITICAL! Loren Voss accepts Loren Voss's Sigma Element for 0 hit points!
GS: Amplify, Burst, and Surge applied to Loren Voss!
GS: Loren Voss has attacked Rille Felis with Extinction Rush!
GS: Loren Voss has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Loren Voss's stances have changed from Sage to Hero!
GS: Loren Voss has activated Force Action: Extend!
GS: Loren Voss has attacked Dirk Swordsman with False Eclipse!
GS: Loren Voss has attacked Seraph Boudicca with False Eclipse!
GS: Loren Voss has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Loren Voss has attacked Hannah Curie with Astral Hammer!
GS: Loren Voss spends 1 Combo on Link!
GS: Loren Voss has attacked Lan Lilac with Aqua Sequence!
GS: Loren Voss has attacked Ida Everstead-Rey with Aqua Sequence!
GS: Loren Voss has attacked Meng Wu with Aqua Sequence!
GS: Loren Voss has launched an attack Link!
GS: Loren Voss has attacked Lan Lilac with Starless Sky!
GS: Loren Voss has attacked Ida Everstead-Rey with Starless Sky!
GS: Loren Voss has attacked Meng Wu with Starless Sky!
GS: Azoth accepts Loren Voss's Sigma Element for 0 hit points!
GS: Amplify, Burst, and Surge applied to Azoth!
GS: Loren Voss gains 5 FP from Sufferer!
GS: Loren Voss has completed his action.
GS: Dirk Swordsman mostly guards Loren Voss's False Eclipse for 64 hit points!
GS: Shield applied to Loren Voss!
GS: FP up! Power Burst!
GS: COUNTER! Rille Felis counterattacks Loren Voss with Hammer Through!
GS: Rille Felis critically fails to charge Loren Voss's Extinction Rush for 106 hit points!
GS: Mighty applied to Loren Voss!
GS: FP up! Power Burst!

<Pose Tracker> Azoth has posed.

With hell breaking loose, the rabbits of Scraphaven have no choice but to trust, fear keeping them from elaborating further -- and perhaps the realization that they are missing many pieces of this new puzzle themselves. But as blades of ARM energy fly, some of them are unable to look away, even in their huddling.

Azoth darts across Scraphaven in an eruption of corrupted ARM energy and devastation. Words can't stop him now. Only destruction meeting destruction.

Three bursts of energy comes with Xiumei's apology, and both of these things smash into Azoth, slowing his advance on the city and its denizens as a flare of attention shines instead on her and the Drifters. Lily reveals the truth: this is not what Azoth is. His power has always threatened to tear him apart. Varius can see it in the way Azoth moves: like a frustration within steel that the machinery around him does not move with him like it 'should'.

Lily's Ether eats into his metal and disrupts fragments of a crimson barrier of light, letting in Gwen's beams of electric energy that join in Ragnell's storm as they smash into Azoth while he shrieks and sputters, stunned -- and Scraphaven briefly stunned with him. This buys precious time.

Grace opens fire onto the city itself, a daunting task, but piercing enough into the moving parts and pieces to prevent them from starting again, not just preventing disaster, but providing additional cover that counts as 'safe'.

But the Azoth cannot stop.

"INSTALLATION PROGRESS... 24.38 PERCENT. PRIORITY TARGETS IDENTIFIED."

His claws extend as energy blades as he tears after those in his way -- in his way, and doing exactly what they need to help keep him from what he has called them here to do: stop him. He leaps against and ricochets off the architecture he controls, bouncing form one wall to the next as he slashes at Gwen, Grace, and Ragnell one after another. A blade of light forms to crash down into Xantia, meeting her bracer blade in a violent detonation. He lets out a pained, stammering beep as he locks his gaze with her the moment before.

Blasting back, he rides the force of it to cleave for Timu, or rather, Hooligre -- and stops, each note of the music box like a physical force that stalls his motion. Zephyr brings another, both of them playing together in harmony. Azoth's visor light thins to a single line, then brightens. He slowly begins to speak along with the music in a language neither common nor Zeboim.

"exec.vox AIX_aun rler(oth)...
exec.myme EUX_zeph stra(dior) OHR_biu...
egeo(rler) flai(addr:FILGAIA) egeo(EUX_cia)..."

Azoth sways, wavering, light dimming. "...Remember... can't... remember... Miss Sharon... why..."

For a moment, it may seem the Azoth and the city are stalling to a quiet stillness as a robot sings in digital beeps... and then the light of Loren's Ether hits him.

"ERROR. CANNOT ABORT."

His claws rake back into himself as he releases a digitized scream of pain, energy firing out of him in a terrible explosion, Xiumei, Lily, and Xantia to be caught in the blast.

But Timu and her Pokemon, standing right beside him, are miraculously spared. 

GS: Azoth spends 1 Combo on Link!
GS: Azoth has attacked Azoth with exec.azoc TRANSMUTE!
GS: Azoth has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Azoth has launched an attack Link!
GS: CRITICAL! Azoth accepts Azoth's exec.azoc TRANSMUTE for 0 hit points!
GS: Burst, Expansive, and Lock state applied to Azoth!
GS: Azoth has attacked Azoth with exec.gehn TARGET ACQUIRED!
GS: Azoth accepts Azoth's exec.gehn TARGET ACQUIRED for 0 hit points!
GS: Amplify, Dynamax, and Hyper applied to Azoth!
GS: Azoth has attacked Gwen Whitlock with exec.dior RUN!
GS: Azoth has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Azoth has attacked Grace Harvey with exec.dior RUN!
GS: Azoth has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Azoth has attacked Seraph Ragnell with exec.dior RUN!
GS: Azoth spends 2 Combo on Headshot!
GS: Azoth has attacked Xiumei Klein with exec.ohr CRASH!
GS: Azoth has attacked Lily Keil with exec.ohr CRASH!
GS: Azoth has attacked Xantia with exec.ohr CRASH!
GS: CRITICAL! ROU|LET|TE: Catastrophic! Xiumei Klein marginally charges Azoth's exec.ohr CRASH for 353 hit points!
GS: Jam and Poison applied to Xiumei Klein!
GS: Azoth spends 1 Combo on Reload!
GS: Azoth has attacked Timu Guado with exec.vox othSTRA zeph cia!
GS: Azoth gains 5 FP from Sufferer!
GS: Azoth has completed his action.
GS: ROU|LET|TE: Moderate! Lily Keil mostly guards Azoth's exec.ohr CRASH for 102 hit points!
GS: Jam and Poison applied to Lily Keil!
GS: FP up! Reaction bonus!
GS: Meng Wu critically fails to guard Loren Voss's Aqua Sequence for 100 hit points!
GS: Shield applied to Loren Voss!
GS: Meng Wu critically fails to guard Loren Voss's Starless Sky for 174 hit points!
GS: Strain! Loren Voss takes 150 damage!
GS: CRITICAL! Seraph Ragnell fails to evade Azoth's exec.dior RUN for 249 hit points!
GS: Jam and Poison applied to Seraph Ragnell!
GS: Lan Lilac mostly evades Loren Voss's Aqua Sequence for 33 hit points!
GS: Shield applied to Loren Voss!
GS: CRITICAL! Timu Guado accepts Azoth's exec.vox othSTRA zeph cia for 0 hit points!
GS: FP up! Azoth's Reload!!
GS: Lan Lilac mostly guards Loren Voss's Starless Sky for 84 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Lan Lilac gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Strain! Loren Voss takes 150 damage!
GS: CRITICAL! ROU|LET|TE: Severe! Xantia perfectly guards Azoth's exec.ohr CRASH for 122 hit points!
GS: Jam and Poison blocked!
GS: CRITICAL! Hannah Curie fails to charge Loren Voss's Astral Hammer for 142 hit points!
GS: Shield applied to Loren Voss!
GS: Ida Everstead-Rey critically fails to charge Loren Voss's Aqua Sequence for 125 hit points!
GS: CRITICAL! Ida Everstead-Rey mostly guards Loren Voss's Starless Sky for 106 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Ida Everstead-Rey gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Strain! Loren Voss takes 150 damage!
GS: CRITICAL! Gwen Whitlock fails to guard Azoth's exec.dior RUN for 211 hit points!
GS: FP up! Countermeasures and Reaction bonus!

<Pose Tracker> Xiumei Klein has posed.

"Your... specialty?" Xiumei asks, one eyebrow raised, as she looks at Grace.

"How in the HELL do you know that!?" Varius snaps at Lily. The drone's voice is heated.

"A-A fine question, but perhaps don't yell at our allies in the middle of a fight!" Xiumei tells him. Then, she looks at Boudicca -- and she nods. "Yes--I will!"

She glances towards Ragnell for a moment, then it's back to Azoth. She sucks a breath in, as Azoth's claws extends -- and pixellated energy blades rip outward. He bounces off the walls, then, and Xiumei sucks a breath in.

"He's on the move!" she yells. "And he's--he's downloading something!"

That terrible, digitized scream erupts -- and the explosion blasts outward, picking Xiumei up bodily, and SMASHES her back against the nearby wall. The mishmash of machinery cracks and snaps underneath it; her armor also cracks.

"Azoth! You don't want to remember!" Varius says. "I wish I didn't remember! Five thousand years is just more regrets. These kids don't understand that! AZOTH!"

"V-Varius..." Avile stammers.

Xiumei grits her teeth and shakes her head. She looks sideways at Ragnell. "Miss Ragnell! Do you have any suggestions?" she asks. After all, as much as she disagrees with some of her intentions, Ragnell does have a good head on her shoulders.

At the same time, four arcs of blue-white light appear around her. They orbit about Xiumei -- and then explode outward, hurtling towards Azoth one after the other, like massive boomerangs.

GS: Xiumei Klein has attacked Azoth with Cross Barrier - Shock Burst!
GS: Xiumei Klein has gained 2 Combo!
GS: Recover! Jam and Poison removed from Xiumei Klein!
GS: Xiumei Klein has completed her action.

<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.

Grace answers, and Lily shakes her head. "I'm hoping that by explaining this he might be able to save himself. ...But it might make it worse, too." 'Backwater civ', though. Lily notices that. But, "We're getting everyone out," Lily confirms for her.

She keps an eye on Xantia, though. Xantia takes the direct approach, and that's a good sign, but it could change. So when Wu says she can handle payback to Loren, Lily nods. "Good luck."

Varius asks a question. Lily has an answer: "My name was Dr. Sharon Wyatt," she explains. "I was a roboticist in Zeboim. My specialty was artificial intelligence. ...And weaponry."

Loren answers her. "I should've done worse," she answers. But his point-blank denial of responsibility--the strange way he talks--gets a blink from her, rather than a pointed retort. 'As much the property of Solaris as he is'.

But somemething strange happens. Lily's eyes widen. She recognizes that kind of Ether. "Voss, what-!?"

She will have to trust her allies: Azoth is not idle. Energy pours fromm him, and that, Lily can withstand. She throws up her arms to defend herself, and the armor on her sleeves is /shredded, revealing circuitry 'tattoos' and burned flesh beneath. She focuses through the pain.

"AZOTH!" Lily calls as the smoke clears, and the worry and care and concern in her voice rips from her throat. But for Varius's response, she could continue with confidence. But it might make things worse...

Nevertheless--

"The Azoth was autonomous," Lily continues then. "It roamed battles, doing what it willed."

"And those who tried to tame it..."

"Most of them died!"

BGM: The Dark Colossus Destroys All https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nQIvtKM_oT8

"They died, trying to tame its song! But no human could!"

Lily draws forth not more Ether at first, but her sword. The unicorn blade gleams with purity, white and shining in its radiance. Lily channels Ether through it, and the radiance becomes blinding, a white aura surrounding the commbatants on her side.

"Do you hear me, Azoth!? You DESTROYED them! You were FREE!" 

GS: Lily Keil has attacked Lily Keil with Pure Aura!
GS: Lily Keil has attacked Seraph Ragnell with Pure Aura!
GS: Lily Keil has attacked Timu Guado with Pure Aura!
GS: Lily Keil has attacked Xantia with Pure Aura!
GS: Lily Keil has attacked Xiumei Klein with Pure Aura!
GS: Lily Keil has attacked Gwen Whitlock with Pure Aura!
GS: Lily Keil gains 5 FP from her Daredevil!
GS: Lily Keil takes 44 damage from Poison!
GS: Lily Keil has completed her action.
GS: Lily Keil accepts Lily Keil's Pure Aura for 0 hit points!
GS: Restore! Jam and Poison removed!
GS: Lock state applied to Lily Keil!
GS: Gwen Whitlock accepts Lily Keil's Pure Aura for 0 hit points!
GS: Lock state applied to Gwen Whitlock!
GS: Xiumei Klein accepts Lily Keil's Pure Aura for 0 hit points!
GS: Lock state applied to Xiumei Klein!
GS: Seraph Boudicca mostly evades Loren Voss's False Eclipse for 58 hit points!
GS: FP up! Power Burst!
GS: CRITICAL! Timu Guado accepts Lily Keil's Pure Aura for 0 hit points!
GS: Lock state applied to Timu Guado!
GS: Seraph Ragnell accepts Lily Keil's Pure Aura for 0 hit points!
GS: Restore! Jam and Poison removed!
GS: Lock state applied to Seraph Ragnell!

<Pose Tracker> Meng Wu has posed.

Wu calls out at the idea of both Azoth and Loren belonging to Solaris. "You're selling yourself short thinking that. I can tell you that from experience!" There's almost a hint of emotion in her voice there. Sometimes it sneaks up on her.
 
 She ducks away behind the barricade she's created at the burst of water. It's.. a liquid and this isn't the same as trading out in a gunfight though.
 
 She's battered by the water ether, mostly focusing on covering her eyes and face with an elbow.
 
 That didn't exactly feel great, but you do what you can.
 
 She calculates something in her mind. Glasses pulled free for just a moment, held up so she can look around the artificial corner. Calling out as she does so, "Just... drop everything and leave." There was a lot more to it in her case, but that's neither here nor there. Something else she's familiar with!
 
 The dark glasses are set back in place and she focuses her own ether, creatign a localized field, dragging at Loren's gear and stripping the magic away.
 
 There is a wry comment to Lily though, that same.. actual hint of emotion, though fatigue already, "Really should have retired honestly." It's a joke. It might just be hard to tell with her.
 
 Either way, she straightens her back, pressed against the pillar, ready to move again.
 
 What's life without a little risk? It's been coming for a while anyway, right? 

GS: Meng Wu has attacked Loren Voss with Magnetic Earth!
GS: Meng Wu has completed her action.

<Pose Tracker> Seraph Boudicca has posed.

    Boudicca would like to know how Lily knows so much about Azoth, too, but -- well, she can't throw stones (or shiny rocks) when it comes to knowing things about Azoth and keeping them to herself.

    Besides, she has more pressing issues. Firstly, the child -- or, perhaps --

    "Fifteen years... jay-sick? I am unfamiliar with this jay-sick," Boudicca confesses, "and I confess I thought humans considered themselves young until they passed their second decade. Pray, forgive me my misunderstandings." She looks at Quilladin's little paw-fist... and reaches out to shake it.

    She's old and uncool, but clearly doing her best. Timu can surely vouch for her!

    And -- Loren. She is buffeted, even as she leaps away from his storm, but his words cut as deep. "Neither are you property," she says, and there's concern behind her sternness. That darkness writhes, and Boudicca's heart will break. "Loren... there must have been many things happening to you of which I was unaware, throughout these years. I... may have erred, seeing you as but another foe of Solaris. But, this darkness -- it is too much, Loren!"

    She reaches to him, as the wind swirls, and courses for him, in a terrible blow...

GS: Azoth fails to charge Xiumei Klein's Cross Barrier - Shock Burst for 197 hit points!
GS: Charge!! You gain 40 FP! (That's 25 more than usual!)
GS: Seraph Boudicca has attacked Loren Voss with Wind Rose!
GS: Seraph Boudicca has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Seraph Boudicca has completed her action.

<Pose Tracker> Dirk Swordsman has posed.

 
"Ah, I'll tell you later, we good," Dirk answers Boudicca, before he leaps.

But here, now -

KTIIIING! Dirk's face is in a grimace. He is definitely younger than Loren but this is a sound stance. He is not just waving around the sword like an asshole. Quilladin tumbles forwards between Loren's legs, ending up beside Dirk before the clash of blade breaks with a long shallow slash along Dirk's arm. "Tch!!"

But other people are on Loren.

Somehow Dirk doesn't feel relief. A premonition? Nah: it's a memory. He steps back a pace; Quilladin brings up his blade in a guard stance. When Ida bowls him over, Dirk shouts "Yeah!!" but --

He does something. It's not water-Symbology. Dirk knows that, all the more recently from having brought an Oshawott into his school. That's something else. He can't name it. It's nasty, somehow.

Quilladin quails somewhat. He steps back, squeaking, and looks to Dirk and then to Boudicca. "Qui-quill! Qui-quill!!"

"Don't give up yet, man," Dirk answers Quilladin. "I wish I ain't have to play this so soon-- but they're all counting on us!!" Dirk stiffens himself up and shouts as he grasps the second-from-front Pokeball on his belt rack. "Come out-- Sirfetch'd!!"

There is a familiar, routine, clinically-clean blue-white light from the Pokeball. It might be slightly reassuring to the vibes of the area. The knightly Pokemon arrives, heralded by the scent of mist and green onions growing on a springtime day.

His eyes flick round, taking in the battlefield in a moment. "Sir," the duck of proof states with a small nod, raising his shield upwards. Is he going to stand stalwart and defend his trainer and his battle-brother from the marauding dark water? Yes -- but that isn't all:

Sirfetch'd brings down his blade and lunges forwards with intent to skewer Loren. It is swift and ruthlessly efficient. (Ida may be able to sense a radiating grudge from Sirfetch'd. He may have evolved... *but he remembers what happened.*) 

DC: Dirk Swordsman switches forms to The Last Knight of Galar -- SIRFETCH'D!

GS: Dirk Swordsman has attacked Loren Voss with FIRST IMPRESSION!
GS: Dirk Swordsman has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Dirk Swordsman has completed his action.

<Pose Tracker> Seraph Ragnell has posed.

    Boudicca urges Xiumei to focus on helping/stopping Azoth, while she turns to face Loren, declaring that Azoth is no one's property. Ragnell smiles to see it. It broadens into a sharp grin when Xantia takes that same sentiment and turns it into a threat. They might disagree on what's best for Azoth, but otherwise, they really are on the same wavelength.
    
    "Be countin' on ya for this one, Gwen," she calls over her shoulder. Grace asks for confirmation on how they're getting everyone out. "Yeah, sure," Ragnell calls to her. (Fortunately, as a Seraph, she's not affected by any kind of gas.)
    
    That's what Azoth wants, after all. Even if that desire might well turn out to be a lie.
    
    But she has bigger concerns right now--specifically, Azoth's energy blades, tearing forward towards her, Gwen, and Grace. There isn't space to properly evade, even with the time that they bought, and Ragnell's not-truly-physical form is made up of energy, and thus more easily attacked by energy. She howls in pain as those blades tear into her, leaving behind considerable wounds in their wake. She manages to evade enough to avoid any terminal wounds, but Azoth gave her a good whooping.
    
    Which she doesn't mind. Ragnell told Azoth before that it was okay if they ever came to blows. What happens on the battlefield doesn't have to carry off of it.
    
    Varius has a *very* interesting take on all of this, though. Ragnell shoots him a surprised glance. She hasn't lived five thousand years, but she knows after a certain point, it's just more time. Plenty of time for regrets.
    
    "Bad time to be tryin' to give him a lecture, old man!" she shouts his way. Does she have any suggestions, though?
    
    She might. But Lily remembers--and Lily reveals the truth, both about herself and about Azoth, before sending healing energy across their side of the battlefield. Ragnell frowns slightly. It's good news. It's *great* news.
    
    But Azoth will hate it, she's certain.
    
    "Nope," she tells Xiumei succinctly. "Except for: don't die!"
    
    A golden glyph lights up at her feet then, signaling the start of a Seraphic arte. It doesn't resolve into that, though; instead, the motes of golden light that lift up suck into Ragnell's pistols, which she then fires down at Azoth's feet. Those glyphs fire out like spiderwebs beneath him, and are just as sticky--albeit with magnetism. If they land true, they might slow him down by making his limbs harder to move, buying them yet more time. 

GS: Seraph Ragnell has attacked Azoth with Electric Boogaloo!
GS: Seraph Ragnell has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Seraph Ragnell has completed her action.
GS: Xantia accepts Lily Keil's Pure Aura for 0 hit points!
GS: Lock state applied to Xantia!

<Pose Tracker> Lan Lilac has posed.

 
    'He is as much property of Solaris as I am.'

    Asset Spicule suppresses a shiver. He's too calm. It's wrong. It's even worse than when Rahab had eroded his memories, and she had been the last straw--

    --even then, that blank slate shaped like her friend had had feelings. He'd been curious, and cautious, and interested in things around him. He'd been fascinated by the crystal formations in a cave, and had patiently watched Gwen explain how to start a campfire. Lan had been scared for him, but not of him.

    Now she isn't sure. It's like looking at him through glass. Smooth, soundless. Unnerving, because--

    Lan dances back as Ida grapples him. And finally, he shows that familiar anger again. So what if the Song hasn't gotten any quieter? "Stop saying that!" Lan finds her voice again. "Stop saying it's hopeless! Stop saying you're one of them! I hate it when you give up!!"

    And Loren presses the point
    and what curls and writhes inside the shape of his water
    is the same as what curls and writhes inside of her. Lan stumbles back, her teeth closing on a sound of horror as it makes contact. Like calls to like. The ink inside of Lan eventually became the ink inside of Loren, didn't it?

    The ink inside of Lan surges forth, eager, wrapping her in lines of void black. She chokes, fingertips threatening her skin until Lan pulls herself together and will not cry, will not cry, will not cry. She's sorry. She doesn't remember doing it. But if it's her fault, then it's her responsibility. It's her turn to go for the grapple now, the black ribbons rising up around her to grasp for Loren and immobilize him, for the others. "HURRY!" She doesn't have long. 

<Pose Tracker> Rille Felis has posed.

Rille's response to Loren coming at her with a sword is to bring her weight back, onto her rear foot in a bracing stance. She knows he's coming, rushing in, blade at the ready -

Rille explodes forward at the last second, driving her left fist directly at Loren's stomach, and one of Rille's weaknesses is obvious in that moment. She's strong - she's enormously strong. She's tough. She's not even too slow, like some people her size, though you wouldn't call her fast either.

But she's never had proper combat training. She depends on that strength of hers, and in this case her armouring; scales that start at about her knuckles and extend backwards, up her wrist, to make a jagged point up to her lower arm. Against a monster, or a robot, or in a street fight against a thug with a knife, it would have been a fine reaction - but Loren practices. Loren knows how to use a sword.

His blade slips around the ridged scales and digs into Rille's arm. She doesn't cry out, but it *hurt* - and it certainly drew blood, more than she'd like to see. She keeps her left hand back, taking a half-step to present her right side forward instead.

"And that's the problem," she growls. "People like Solaris, like Kislev - they treat 'people' like 'things'. Anything you can call 'lesser', like the beastfolk, like him - !" She doesn't know Azoth; she has to take other people's word for who and what he is. "An' when we object, you call us wrong for it!"

Rille leaps, again - but this time higher. She grabs onto a pipe about ten feet up, and realizes her mistake almost immediately; it's not a very wide pipe and it starts to bend, faintly, under her weight. But Rille swings on it anyway, getting a rattle and a creak of metal from it, a burning in her palms as she realizes she's grabbed a steam pipe -

And then she *dives*, both feet coming down in a two-footed kick toward Loren, shimmering with her own chi. Not Ether, but martial force. Hers is a dark red, brightening into burnt sienna around the edges, but it doesn't feel wrong in the way that his Ether does; it's volcanic, earth holding fire, and when she impacts - him or the ground - there is an explosive shockwave that radiates away from her.

"Ow ow ow," Rille hisses under her breath, shaking her hands until the burning stops and scattering bloody drops when she does. 

DC: Lan Lilac switches forms to Lotus Eater!

<Pose Tracker> Hannah Curie has posed.

Loren counters the retorts of Azoth not being property by claiming that he, himself, is property.

Hannah scowls. "Then you deserve better'n that, just like he does. But if you're determined to carry out Solaris' will, we can't allow that to happen."

Loren blocks her lightning blast with the call of magic, but then leaps for her to slam his blade down like a hammer. Hannah's already reaching for another crest graph, trying to summon energy to block the blow--but she's too slow and the attack strikes home, sending her stumbling back. She's clutching at her shoulder, wincing for a moment as she collects herself.

She holds her breath for just a moment as the melody of the two music boxes seem to pacify Azoth for a moment, reach some part of him in a language that Hannah can't identify...

Azoth can't remember for a moment longer...

And then Loren's Ether forces action. "Aw, dangit." Time to keep fighting, then.

She works her shoulder and draws another crest graph, this one growing a strong orange. She lifts her foot up and stomps on the ground with a shout of "Tremor Spike!" The ground shakes, warningly, as tremors ripple out in front of her towards Loren. A shaking, wavering line of dust kicks up as the pulse of magic races through the dirt and then suddenly stops right as it reaches Loren.

And all of a sudden several large, jagged spikes erupt out of the ground, jabbing at Loren from all sides to try and hold him in place. 

GS: Lan Lilac has attacked Loren Voss with One's Weaker Self!
GS: Lan Lilac has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Lan Lilac has completed her action.
GS: Access! Lan Lilac takes 30 damage!
GS: Rille Felis has attacked Loren Voss with Meteor Drive!
GS: Rille Felis has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Rille Felis has completed her action.
GS: Hannah Curie spends 3 Combo on Gatling, loading 3 into Gatling!
GS: Hannah Curie has attacked Loren Voss with Tremor Spike!
GS: Hannah Curie has gained 3 Combo!
GS: Hannah Curie has completed her action.
GS: CRITICAL! Grace Harvey mostly evades Azoth's exec.dior RUN for 117 hit points!
GS: FP up! Countermeasures and Reaction bonus!
GS: Lily Keil used Force Action: Mystic on Timu Guado! FP up!
GS: Gamble: Low! Azoth fails to charge Seraph Ragnell's Electric Boogaloo for 0 hit points!
GS: Entangle applied to Azoth!
GS: Charge!! You gain 30 FP! (That's 15 more than usual!)
GS: FP up! Reaction bonus!
GS: Azoth enters CONDITION GREEN!!
GS: Loren Voss mostly guards Rille Felis's Hammer Through for 54 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Loren Voss gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: FP up! Power Burst!
GS: CRITICAL! Loren Voss mostly guards Meng Wu's Magnetic Earth for 0 hit points!
GS: Dispel! Amplify, Burst, Mighty, and Surge removed!
GS: Disrupt and Jam applied to Loren Voss!
GS: Shield applied to Meng Wu!
GS: Sneak! The true nature of Seraph Boudicca's attack becomes clear!
GS: CRITICAL! Loren Voss critically fails to charge Seraph Boudicca's Be Not Afraid for 0 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Loren Voss gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Restore! Dispel! Blind, Jam, and Shield removed!

<Pose Tracker> Seraph Boudicca has posed.

    ... a terrible blow which does not harm him. Her wind seeks to purify him, instead, balancing his woes and his blessings back to zero so that he might think clearly again.

    "Be not afraid," Boudicca urges him, as she reaches to him.

    (But... will she have to extend the same efforts to Lan, too...?)

<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.

    Ida has good follow-through. She lets Loren take the impact for her; her hands lash out, wrapping around his wrists and pinning him to the ground. Their eyes meet, and Ida's gleam with righteous fury. She's got him. Don't let him use the drugs. Don't let him go for his sword. Endure his sorcery.

    And endure Ida does, as water sprays into her with all the force of a pressure hose. It hits her square in the chest, the impact forcing the breath out of her. The bones in her ribcage give a little, assisted by Living Metal, to endure the onslaught without cracking. It's still horrible.

    It gets even worse.

    Icy dread shoots down Ida's spine. A familiar presence trickles through her consciousness, like raindrops falling on an ancient city. Bright grey-blue eyes go wide. "What," she chokes out, and then one of the tendrils lashes out to choke her. It tightens around the martial artist's throat, horrid and icy-cold, and it drags her off of Loren before she can try and regain her advantage. And then Lan is on him, and that same horrid Ether is pouring out of her, and Ida struggles for breath. Her hand darts back to Devil's Due, but it shakes as she draws it, and tries to draw a bead on Loren.

    BANG.

    The bullet misses Loren's shoulder by about six inches, flies past him, and slams into the side of a water tank. Pressurized water sprays out, soaking into the ground.

<Pose Tracker> Timu Guado has posed.

    It's hard to watch even some of what's happening to Azoth by other people. Lily's Ether has always been hard on the eyes even when it's not interacting with other physical objects, and watching the way electrical power surge and flash from multiple parties has Timu squinting, but she holds that music box.
 
     Her fingers curl as Azoth's claws extend and start swinging, because he can close ground fast and even her Hooligre friend's looking intimidated by the odds. Not even Xantia's bracer blade can fully hold him back...
 
     "Here he comes," she tells herself as Azoth comes swinging... and starts to slow, until Azoth musically repeats gibberish she cannot understand at face value while the visor brightens. She mouths to Hooligre to 'wait' when he looks ready to strike, watching him waver, slow...
 
     A shiver crawls up Timu's spine from over yonder with Loren, flinching as the Ether passes by her and Hooligre to strike into Azoth.
 
     'ERROR. CANNOT ABORT.'
 
     "No!" She calls, as those horrible claws reappear to rake out and strike at others in the blast.
 
     "Hoooo...!!" Hooligre snarls, as both Trainer and Pokemon are now standing in close range to one of the deadliest weapons to presently walk Filgaia - and probably beyond. The Hooligre Pokemon of Energy Nede are known to be Yes levels of rambunctious, violent, and territorial, to the point that only Team Rocket themselves has really dedicated serious interest and progress in making them better trained.
 
     Timu is not with Team Rocket.
 
     "Wait," she tells her Hooligre. Saying that scares her, because she knows something like Azoth could end both of them. The music box is still running, but to what end or effect can it when some other, terrible power is now compelling Azoth to continue?
 
     "...My people chose, years ago, to keep following a terrible man even at cost of everything to them. It... it must've gotten so much easier," she says to the flailing war machine, "when they already did so many things they couldn't take back."
 
     She's vulnerable, Hooligre is vulnerable, and - in a way - Azoth is vulnerable this close.
 
     "...You couldn't take back killing them," she says to Azoth as she brings the music box closer to herself as to better (if awkwardly) hold her staff, bowing her head and starting to chant to the powers of the curative aspects of flame itself by Althena's Blessing. There's a wash of other powers by Lily's radiating white aura.
 
     It's Hooligre's very nature to flail, snarl, strike, and just violently tear apart anything that offends the presence of itself and anyone they care for... but this Hooligre has been touched by kindness when others of their kind abandoned them to their fate near Pewter.
 
     "...Hooli," he mumbles to Azoth as he lowers his hands, as Timu completes her spellcast under immense fear and duress.
 
     "Cura!!" She calls, as warmth radiates out like a comfortable bonfire underneath the bright sparkles that all Spira-taught White Magic is culturally enforced to try and mimic the shape of, to try and ease the immense hurts of ancient, top-end weaponry amongst them.
 
     Timu has come a long way from the younger girl that Boudicca had to watch over and protect in Spira - and hopefully that 'way' won't end in that space in front of Azoth. For her, and everyone else. 

GS: Timu Guado has attacked Gwen Whitlock with Cura!
GS: Timu Guado has attacked Grace Harvey with Cura!
GS: Timu Guado has attacked Xantia with Cura!
GS: Timu Guado has attacked Xiumei Klein with Cura!
GS: Timu Guado has attacked Lily Keil with Cura!
GS: Timu Guado has attacked Seraph Ragnell with Cura!
GS: Timu Guado has attacked Timu Guado with Cura!
GS: Timu Guado has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Timu Guado has completed her action.
GS: Timu Guado heals Timu Guado! She gains 197 temporary hit points!
GS: Shield applied to Timu Guado!
GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has attacked Loren Voss with M I S S!
GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has completed her action.
GS: Timu Guado heals Xiumei Klein! She gains 192 temporary hit points!
GS: Shield applied to Xiumei Klein!
GS: Timu Guado heals Lily Keil! She gains 201 temporary hit points!
GS: Shield applied to Lily Keil!
GS: Timu Guado heals Xantia! She gains 193 temporary hit points!
GS: Shield applied to Xantia!
GS: Timu Guado heals Seraph Ragnell! She gains 195 temporary hit points!
GS: Shield applied to Seraph Ragnell!
GS: Timu Guado heals Gwen Whitlock! She gains 192 temporary hit points!
GS: Shield applied to Gwen Whitlock!

<Pose Tracker> Gwen Whitlock has posed.

    "You be careful too, Lan."

    What should they do? Gwen's answer might be 'power up', but that would take a logical approach out of the equation entirely, for her.

    Which may be a possible solution, even still, but that is dashed when Gwen spots the shadow tendrils coming from Loren out of the corner of her eye.

    "Shit." She grimaces, then yells out to Boudicca. "Boudicca, it's the Stranger's influence! The same guy that interfered with you guys back in Luca! Lan knows, she can help beat it back too, so help her out if she starts to lose herself!" However, it seems Boudicca may already be helping with that. For now, Gwen needs to keep her eyes on this side of the battle with Azoth. There's nothing she can do over there but further Loren's descent. She's got evidence for that.

    Speaking of that, here's Azoth! Gwen tries to throw her right ARM up as defense, but he's too quick, drawing blood from Gwen's side instead.

    'Be countin' on ya for this one, Gwen.' Gwen grins and casts a brief thumbs up with her left hand in Ragnell's direction. "Ain't plannin' on quittin' anytime soon." Not even that pause to speak is wasted, as Gwen's right ARM continues to charge, brightening fiercely with Lily's enchantments. Timu's own magic begins to seal her wounds.

    "I'm goin' in!" Gwen calls out as a warning to her hand-to-hand combat minded companions, then charges in.

    It's a two part combo, as Gwen runs and launches herself onto what could be classified as 'eyes' on Azoth right now. A bright flash is directed at them, while her left hand, still gloved, comes in for a less strengthened, but still quite mighty punch. 

GS: Gwen Whitlock spends 1 Combo on Link!
GS: Gwen Whitlock has attacked Azoth with Lucky Break!
GS: Gwen Whitlock enters a Counter stance!
GS: Gwen Whitlock has gained 2 Combo!
GS: Gwen Whitlock has launched an attack Link!
GS: Gwen Whitlock spends 2 Combo on Gatling, loading 2 into Gatling!
GS: Gwen Whitlock has attacked Azoth with Special Delivery!
GS: Gwen Whitlock has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Gwen Whitlock has completed her action.
GS: CRITICAL! Timu Guado heals Grace Harvey! She gains 239 temporary hit points!
GS: Shield applied to Grace Harvey!
GS: Azoth critically fails to charge Gwen Whitlock's Lucky Break for 0 hit points!
GS: Blind applied to Azoth!
GS: Cover applied to Gwen Whitlock!
GS: Charge!! You gain 30 FP! (That's 15 more than usual!)
GS: CRITICAL! Azoth critically fails to guard Gwen Whitlock's Special Delivery for 271 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Azoth gains 1 additional Combo!

<Pose Tracker> Xantia has posed.

'Rotten to its very core,' are Xantia's exact thoughts in response to Loren's assertion. What manner of society would deem anyone property - would have its own people be okay with being property like that? It's for the best that these thoughts got interrupted by a gas bomb, following that thread tends to spell trouble for Xantia's mental state, which at this juncture might spell trouble for everybody.

Azoth needs her full attention now. Deflecting his charge away from where he might cause harm to the innocent bystanders, only determination meets Azoth's gaze in that moment. Xantia knows what she has to do. She has to show that their mutual refrain exists for a reason. That they really can handle each other. She needs to stand firm, and do what little she can for him now. She does detect that unusual Ether unleashed by Loren, not far removed. But she's not looking away from Azoth, not for a moment.

Good thing too, because it means she's perfectly prepared once the explosion of energy is launched for her. Decisively, she crosses her bracers in front of her, creating a translucent barrier in front of her, while a shield of Light directly surrounds her body.

The impact shatters the barrier, but it doesn't break her guard. When the smoke clears, Xantia stands firm, calmly uncrossing her arms, grinning. 'See?' she wordlessly communicates. 'It's as true as it ever was.' No need to worry about her. She'll be fine.

To hear what Varius says is to hear the echoes of what Id used to tell her all the time. Don't seek the truth. She's already rejected that notion a long time ago. She doesn't need to tell Azoth that. But with Lily's revelation, she can't stay silent any longer. Healed by Timu, and absorbing Lily's Ether to strengthen her own elemental aura, Light gradually transitioning into Lightning as she speaks, calmly at first, but quickly rising in urgency.

"Azoth, remember what I told you. Your past actions hold no power over you. You don't have to be who you used to be - what you should take away from this is that you can be whoever you want be!"

Sparks fly every which way as she dashes back towards him, a furious flurry of fists that discharge electricity with every strike, ending with a forceful roundhouse kick. "...That's for thinking what you're probably thinking about yourself right now. I'll apologize later if I'm wrong, but... this doesn't make me have any less faith in you than before. You shouldn't have any less faith either." 

GS: Xantia has attacked Azoth with Elemental Fury!
GS: Xantia has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Xantia's stances have changed to Avenger!
GS: Xantia gains 5 FP from her Daredevil!
GS: Xantia gains 5 FP from Gleam!
GS: Xantia has completed her action.
GS: Loren Voss mostly guards Ida Everstead-Rey's M I S S for 0 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Loren Voss gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: FP up! Reaction bonus!

<Pose Tracker> Grace Harvey has posed.

    "oh no oh no oh no CRAP!" She makes another dive, but this one is not as smooth. The energy blade cuts across her leg, and she rolls roughly as it cuts through her leg as she tumbles towards her next shot, letting out a yelp of pain and slamming behind cover. "Ow ow ow crap ow JEEEZ that hurts..." Not everyone has the experience to be cool and tough in combat. It really, really hurts!!

    "Look, uh, how about we save questions for when we're not being killed." Grace responds to Xiumei, peeking out over cover and then ducking again. Not yet. "Or never, never's good too!"

    Lily's response doesn't fill her with confidence. "And Azoth is part of everyone, right?" There's a panic in her voice, a fear. "Right? Cause you called him an it and that really doesn't seem like a person pronoun here!" She's running her mouth- out of worry more than anything else. But her feelings are earnest too. And then she hears Lily's speech to Azoth, and her three eyes widen.

    "This is your idea of helping?" Grace shouts back, clearly disturbed by the speech. Maybe Lily knows more than Grace does, but for Grace.

    There's another trill, in a language humans cannot speak. It carries so much data, so much intent, more than what a human mouth could convey in that moment.

    It's a desperate plea, from a simpler machine. A machine, that nonetheless, has freedom. Identity. Has her own self. If Azoth was free once... couldn't he choose his own terms? Couldn't he choose personhood too?

    "What she said!" Grace says, having understood roughly one twentieth of that.

    Ragnell, as cool as she is, is not exactly. Reassuring. Even if she's so cool!

    And then Timu's magic washes over her and protects her, soothing the wound on her leg. "...Thanks!" She yells back, still having no idea who Timu is. "I uh, I owe you!"

    She combines the pistols into a rifle, pulling the trigger and holding it as a sphere of energy glows at the end of the rifle. "...Darnit, I'm sorry about this!" She bolts up from behind cover, and working out the firing trajectory in a second, her eyes lining her up for as good a shot she can. The sights on that thing sure are just for show, huh. "...I hope this doesn't hurt too bad."

    She's aiming for one of the connections to Scraptown, to try and sever it. If that'll help even a little. 

GS: Grace Harvey has attacked Azoth with One Perfect Shot!
GS: Grace Harvey has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Grace Harvey gains 5 FP from Gleam!
GS: Grace Harvey has completed her action.
GS: Loren Voss marginally charges Dirk Swordsman's FIRST IMPRESSION for 122 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Loren Voss gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Cripple blocked!
GS: Hyper applied to Dirk Swordsman!
GS: FP up! Power Burst!
GS: Azoth critically fails to evade Xantia's Elemental Fury for 226 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Azoth gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Hyper and Mighty applied to Xantia!
GS: Azoth fails to charge Grace Harvey's One Perfect Shot for 188 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Azoth gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Hyper applied to Grace Harvey!
GS: Charge!! You gain 40 FP! (That's 25 more than usual!)
GS: CRITICAL! Loren Voss fails to charge Rille Felis's Meteor Drive for 215 hit points!
GS: Slow applied to Loren Voss!
GS: FP up! Power Burst!
GS: Loren Voss mostly guards Hannah Curie's Tremor Spike for 73 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Loren Voss gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Hyper applied to Hannah Curie!
GS: FP up! Reaction bonus!
GS: Loren Voss fails to charge Lan Lilac's One's Weaker Self for 187 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Loren Voss gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Hyper applied to Lan Lilac!
GS: FP up! Power Burst!
GS: Loren Voss enters CONDITION GREEN!!

<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.

    "Am I?" he wonders of Wu's responses. "What Solaris claims, it keeps." He says it as if the sky were blue -- or water wet. As if it's a fact of the world and nothing else. "Everyone is the property of their nation," he tells Hannah.

    He locks blades with Dirk for an instant. Dirk's good -- he'd heard that the people of Energy Nede had given up such ways of war, but apparently that was a lie (or just bad intel). Or maybe it's the way he'd managed-- he'd practiced the hard way: he'd never studied the blade in Jugend. He'd had to pick it up on his own: first to survive on Lunar and later to try and carve a measure of power he doesn't otherwise possess out for himself. He'll never be as good as Jugend's star blademasters.

    And then it all goes wrong.

    The expression on Loren's face, as he lies pinned by Ida, is a shell-shocked one. In this moment, no one is home: he's host to the corrupted Ether that pours from his body like an escaping parasite. Even when one of the tendrils swats Ida aside, it's as if he barely takes notice of it, much less what Lan screams at him.

    "Shit..." Loren utters, getting to his feet slowly. As if in a fog, he touches a hand to his chest and glances down slowly, as if afraid of what he might see there.

    Darkness, like tar, clings to his fingertips and hangs in strings between them and his chest. He makes the same sort of face someone might upon discovering that the wound they'd sustained was far worse than expected.

    The wind buffets his body, ruffling his short blond hair. And then there is Boudicca there before him, telling him that it's too much. Telling him that he need not be afraid.
    His heart pounds in his chest regardless, even if he can feel the dark tide within beginning to recede. It's nothing, it's nothing, it's nothing--

    The darkness isn't there when he looks down again. It's as if it had never been there.

    Rock crosses the distance in the next moment: it's all Loren can do to meet Hannah's tremblor-induced spike with a barrier of his own, the light beginning to crack and fade as she attempts a maneuver he'd often favored. Except, there's a little flourish here, isn't there? It takes yet more of his focus.

    And he can't afford to split his focus long. This, Rille takes advantage of. Shouting her grievances, she opts to level the playing field by catapulting herself right at him and though white light erupts before him in a barrier, it does little to spare him the momentum of her descent. She comes in like a wrecking ball and he's flung back, hard, against one of the walls. His own protective magic saves him further injury, but even so, he drops to one knee from the sheet impact.

    He can feel the touch of Ether on him. Her? That woman? His consternation creases his expression but for a moment. Just drop everything and leave. "No," says Loren, and the lingering effect of his shield might fade and he might note the way the enchantment is ripped away from his glasses. But nothing else he possesses is elementally enhanced. And the former is a simple matter of reaching up and pulling his glasses off and tossing them aside.

    No, because even like this -- especially like this, he has a job to do.

    A bullet flies past. He can feel the trail of its passage, can see the results of where it smashed into a water tank as water begins to pool on the ground. That's not good, some part of him realizes, and with an expression of will, green light shines at his feet. A jagged fractal trail of light traces from his position to Azoth's for an instant before snapping out of existence. There, see-- there, he has it under control. It's just a matter of control.

    He turns his gaze back to the fight before him and here, he meets someone he's met before. But this is no new old friend.

    This is a new old enemy.

    Sirfetch'd charges and his blade strikes true, piercing neatly through one of Loren's shoulders. It's the same one that Ida's bullet had narrowly missed just moments before.

    And though he pulls free, and though his flesh begins to mend, Lan is right there waiting for him, all clad in void and black. The same that's in his--

    No, no it isn't.

    And he can hold back on it this time, now that he knows that he's--

    He pulls for the Ether that he learned on his own. Seraphita had shown him how to control it: fire Ether takes a special sort of focus and control. But he's mastered it, and this time as Lan's ribbons rush to take him, he seeks to burn them back. Fractal flame uncoils to follow her ink.

    And turns tarnished, the dull aurora of a rainbow by moonlight. He'd only meant to burn her ribbons.

    Instead, he'll engulf everything around him in consuming darkness. 

GS: Loren Voss enters CONDITION GREEN!!
GS: Loren Voss has attacked Azoth with Renewal Order!
GS: Loren Voss has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Loren Voss spends 1 Combo on Interrupt!
GS: Loren Voss has attacked Lan Lilac with Atar Avidya!
GS: Loren Voss has attacked Rille Felis with Atar Avidya!
GS: Loren Voss has attacked Dirk Swordsman with Atar Avidya!
GS: Loren Voss has attacked Ida Everstead-Rey with Atar Avidya!
GS: Loren Voss has attacked Hannah Curie with Atar Avidya!
GS: Loren Voss has attacked Seraph Boudicca with Atar Avidya!
GS: Loren Voss has attacked Meng Wu with Atar Avidya!
GS: Loren Voss gains 5 FP from Sufferer!
GS: Loren Voss has completed his action.
GS: ROU|LET|TE: Moderate! Meng Wu fails to guard Loren Voss's Atar Avidya for 120 hit points!
GS: Interrupt applied to Meng Wu!
GS: FP up! Reaction bonus!
GS: Meng Wu has lost 2 Combo from Interrupt!
GS: Azoth accepts Loren Voss's Renewal Order for 0 hit points!
GS: Dynamax, Hyper, and Lock state applied to Azoth!
GS: Stagger removed!
GS: ROU|LET|TE: Severe! Seraph Boudicca critically fails to evade Loren Voss's Atar Avidya for 218 hit points!
GS: Interrupt applied to Seraph Boudicca!
GS: Seraph Boudicca has lost 2 Combo from Interrupt!
GS: ROU|LET|TE: Severe! Ida Everstead-Rey fails to evade Loren Voss's Atar Avidya for 183 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Ida Everstead-Rey gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Interrupt applied to Ida Everstead-Rey!
GS: FP up! Reaction bonus!
GS: Ida Everstead-Rey enters CONDITION GREEN!!
GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has lost 2 Combo from Interrupt!
GS: ROU|LET|TE: Ruinous! Rille Felis critically fails to guard Loren Voss's Atar Avidya for 211 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Rille Felis gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Interrupt applied to Rille Felis!
GS: Rille Felis has lost 2 Combo from Interrupt!
GS: ROU|LET|TE: Low! Dirk Swordsman fails to guard Loren Voss's Atar Avidya for 48 hit points!
GS: Interrupt applied to Dirk Swordsman!
GS: FP up! Reaction bonus!
GS: Dirk Swordsman has lost 2 Combo from Interrupt!
GS: ROU|LET|TE: Low! Lan Lilac marginally charges Loren Voss's Atar Avidya for 30 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Lan Lilac gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Interrupt applied to Lan Lilac!
GS: Lan Lilac has lost 2 Combo from Interrupt!

<Pose Tracker> Azoth has posed.

"Free," Azoth echoes, voice so much bigger and more distant than it should be. "Free roaming destruction..."

His installation is inching forward. Information paints lines that create shapes of empty space. The Azoth... begin to remember something.

Timu beseeches Azoth in that quiet moment as he looks back at her and Hooligre. Two unlike things coming to an understanding. Had he any control of his actions, even were he reveling in destruction, he might extend his claw and ruffle her hair instead of striking out so that the two of them might enact their own destruction upon the systems that seek to chain them together.

"They died hunting for my power," he says as his clawed arm rattles and sparks. There is only so much the Azoth can do to try and stop an attack: it's thanks to the constant electric barrage against him that he has this much damage to work with, and that Timu and Hooligre both choose not to provoke a retaliation response.

"They carved out the space where my heart should be and called themselves pilots, staining me with their wishes. Wishes I fulfilled, even as they succumbed to a song they could not comprehend."

It was a temporary reprieve before Azoth and Scraphaven both, as if they were one entity sharing a breath and heartbeat, had they had either, but thrumming with a rhythm that they could call that. Hammers slam and machines spark. Azoth darts across the ground, barely floating and kicking up dust as he tries to dodge and weave through attacks while swiping with his own to parry and counter.

"It was the same wish every time."

Xiumei's boomerang light dives after him, and Azoth cannot quite escape it, clipped by each as wires snap and fray, bleeding electricity. His visor flashes, snapping toward Lily, who gathers Ether not to attack, but to heal.

Gwen strikes for Azoth's 'eyes' -- his visor, flashing his optics so strongly they overload and let her fist land straight into his face, cracking it. Shards break and flake away, revealing the usual empty void behind the 'mask' that is no mask at all. Grace makes a perfect shot at some of the construction above and a joint snaps and crashes down behind Azoth, no longer able to hammer away with tremorous force threatening to crack the city.

Fractal ether light touches his chassis: "It's the same wish I'm being begged for now."

Ragnell fires on Azoth's feet -- the bladed, hovering limbs that they are -- as webs of electromagnetism yanks him back to the ground proper, rooting him still and leaving him open to Xantia's barrage of strikes that Azoth can no longer escape from, pulses of power flowing through his circuits in all the wrong ways. He only manages to try catching a fist in a claw after the bulk of the damage is done.

"...The wish for destruction."

Bea beseeches Azoth, faster and greater than any string of informal language could possibly convey within this moment. She gets a response back: he can't choose anything under Solaris' leash. He wants to be free. He wants to be free again. He was free! Let him be free! It hurts. It hurts. Ithurtsithurtsithurts.

Azoth's distorted, glitched energy smears across Scraphaven and flows through its every mechanism. Pixels of light distorted space, as if reality itself were in error. But these discolored patches begin to form a shape quite familiar to many of those present: a giant, mechanical ring fashioned like a segmented, draconic serpent eating its own tail, bladed around its rim with neon light.

It begins to spin as light gathers at its center, nearly filling the space of the underground city. They can fire upon it with spell, bullet, and blade, but there isn't time here to halt it. Neither can Azoth, clawing grooves like tears into his half shattered face again.

"Everyone who ever wanted me to reshape myself for their desires died trying. I killed every pilot I ever had! Falk was only another in a long pattern of established behavior!"

A massive beam of light fires, tearing through Scraphaven, mitigated only by all the ancient relics and architecture in its path, and that it is not aimed at Loren's side of the field. Solaris commands these wishes now, however agonizing.

"...So is it me who doesn't want to remember...

OR IS IT EVERYONE ELSE?!"

GS: Azoth has activated Force Action: Extend!
GS: Azoth spends 2 Combo on Headshot!
GS: MYSTIC ARTE! Azoth has attacked Xiumei Klein with exec.azoc OUROBOROS!
GS: MYSTIC ARTE! Azoth has attacked Lily Keil with exec.azoc OUROBOROS!
GS: MYSTIC ARTE! Azoth has attacked Seraph Ragnell with exec.azoc OUROBOROS!
GS: MYSTIC ARTE! Azoth has attacked Timu Guado with exec.azoc OUROBOROS!
GS: MYSTIC ARTE! Azoth has attacked Gwen Whitlock with exec.azoc OUROBOROS!
GS: MYSTIC ARTE! Azoth has attacked Xantia with exec.azoc OUROBOROS!
GS: MYSTIC ARTE! Azoth has attacked Grace Harvey with exec.azoc OUROBOROS!
GS: Azoth has gained 2 Combo!
GS: ROU|LET|TE: Low! Hannah Curie critically fails to charge Loren Voss's Atar Avidya for 64 hit points!
GS: Interrupt applied to Hannah Curie!
GS: FP up! Arcane Font!
GS: Hannah Curie has lost 2 Combo from Interrupt!
GS: Lily Keil has activated Force Action: Guard!
GS: CRITICAL! Lily Keil fails to guard Azoth's exec.azoc OUROBOROS for 664 hit points!
GS: Jam applied to Lily Keil!
GS: Poison blocked!
GS: Strain! Azoth takes 150 damage!
GS: Xiumei Klein has activated Force Action: Accelerate!
GS: CRITICAL! Grace Harvey perfectly guards Azoth's exec.azoc OUROBOROS for 325 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Grace Harvey gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Jam and Poison blocked!
GS: FP up! Countermeasures!
GS: Grace Harvey enters CONDITION GREEN!!
GS: Strain! Azoth takes 150 damage!
GS: CRITICAL! Xiumei Klein mostly evades Azoth's exec.azoc OUROBOROS for 231 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Xiumei Klein gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Poison applied to Xiumei Klein!
GS: Jam blocked!
GS: Xiumei Klein enters CONDITION GREEN!!
GS: Strain! Azoth takes 150 damage!
GS: CRITICAL! Seraph Ragnell mostly evades Azoth's exec.azoc OUROBOROS for 354 hit points!
GS: Jam applied to Seraph Ragnell!
GS: Poison blocked!
GS: Seraph Ragnell enters CONDITION GREEN!!
GS: Strain! Azoth takes 150 damage!
GS: CRITICAL! Xantia fails to evade Azoth's exec.azoc OUROBOROS for 666 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Xantia gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Poison applied to Xantia!
GS: Jam blocked!
GS: Healthy! For entering Condition Green, Xantia receives 100 temporary hit points.
GS: Xantia enters CONDITION GREEN!!
GS: Strain! Azoth takes 150 damage!

<Pose Tracker> Seraph Boudicca has posed.

    The Stranger, Gwen says. Boudicca scowls. "That wretched man...! I know not what he took... but I know that he took it!"

    And when the darkness comes --

    She screams.

    "Aahhh-!!"

    Boudicca is spiritual being; she fears little from bullet or blade. But the terror of this darkness is a thing unto itself, and she is afraid.

    She can only hold onto what Gwen said -- about Lan.

    "The world exhales!" She invokes another Seraphic glyph, glowing green against the ground. "Soothing Breeze!" This time, there's no pretense -- the breeze which coils around Lan is openly purifying, fresh as Spring.

    She's just glad... Timu wasn't in range for this darkness.

GS: Seraph Boudicca has attacked Lan Lilac 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 Lan Lilac! She gains 91 temporary hit points!
GS: Restore! Interrupt removed!
GS: FP up! Seraph Boudicca's Reload!!
GS: Lan Lilac enters CONDITION GREEN!!
GS: CRITICAL! Timu Guado fails to charge Azoth's exec.azoc OUROBOROS for 658 hit points!
GS: Poison applied to Timu Guado!
GS: Jam blocked!
GS: Healthy! For entering Condition Green, Timu Guado receives 100 temporary hit points.
GS: Timu Guado enters CONDITION GREEN!!
GS: Strain! Azoth takes 132 damage!
GS: CRITICAL! Gwen Whitlock mostly guards Azoth's exec.azoc OUROBOROS for 351 hit points!
GS: Gwen Whitlock's Jam Ward may block the effect!
GS: Poison applied to Gwen Whitlock!
GS: Jam blocked!
GS: FP up! Countermeasures!
GS: Gwen Whitlock enters CONDITION GREEN!!
GS: Strain! Azoth takes 116 damage!
GS: Stagger removed!

<Pose Tracker> Xiumei Klein has posed.

Xiumei gives Grace a look at the word 'never.' But, then, she nods. "Yes, later." There is a rather strong emphasis on that word.

She looks to Ragnell -- hopeful -- for a moment. Then, her expression screws up. "Don't die," Xiumei repeats flatly.

"I'm such a fan of her." Avile seems amused -- even if, given the situation, it's fleeting. The crystal in Xiumei's chest armor flashes each time Avile talks, which has the 'delightful' side effect of highlighting Xiumei's twitching eyebrow. "Heart emoji, Ragnell~!"

The not-entirely-unfamiliar sensation of Spiran magic washes over Xiumei. She breathes easier after Timu's Cura, some of the pain in her back lessened. "Thank you!" she calls to her.

But all three of them quiet down.

They listen, as Azoth talks, watching light flicker across it. Xiumei tenses, until he fires that beam. Scrap it touches behind her turns to ash. She sucks a breath in -- then there's a flash of grey-white light, as time slows and briefly stops -- and she leaps over it before it engulfs her. It blackens her armor on her feet, makes the exposed collar of her white shirt turn to ash, and burns hot enough for her to hiss in pain.

"I don't want you to remember!" Varius screams. "Once you start remembering--once you realize how easy these humans die when they use you--"

His voice breaks, then. "You start asking... why they're worth keeping alive, buddy. I wish I never asked that."

Xiumei's eyes widen. Her heart lurches. "Varius..." She swallows, before she looks at Azoth. "...If you want to remember, you should. But please, don't... don't forget the good things, Azoth."

The AV Buster vanishes. In its place, in a burst of data cubes, the AV Saber forms. The blade of green light erupts from it -- and she suddenly speeds up. A blur of white and green, before she slahes it across his midsection, with a fiery explosion of greenlight in her wake.

GS: Xiumei Klein spends 3 Combo on Gatling, loading 3 into Gatling!
GS: Xiumei Klein has attacked Azoth with AV Saber - Charge Slash!
GS: Xiumei Klein has gained 2 Combo!
GS: Xiumei Klein takes 43 damage from Poison!
GS: Xiumei Klein has completed her action.
GS: Azoth mostly guards Xiumei Klein's AV Saber - Charge Slash for 141 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Azoth gains 1 additional Combo!

<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.

Azoth couldn't take it back. He might hate to her what Lily has to say. But Lily says it all the same--reveals a truth, if not the whole truth. And as she does, she feels the reasssuring warmth of bright sparkles by Timu's power. "Thank you," she murmurs.

Grace asks a question--and after her speech she says, "Yes. Azoth's part of 'everyone'. But back then, he was 'The Azoth', and that was how we referred to him. I don't know if it will help..."

"But it's truth. And truth is what matters today. Not Solaris's lies."

And Azoth... remembers.

He remembers.

"That's right," Lily answers as to how they died, why they died. What they did.

Their wishes.

"That's RIGHT! You should be free to make your OWN choices! Destruction or protection or anything else! You should have that right!"

"You are not a tool to be used!"

But--the energy wasshes over. A giant, mechanical ring...

A ring of light comes. Lily throws up a shield of darkness, a sphere of power to shield herself with shadow from radiace. And she disappears in it.

It shatters Timu's barrier, though perhaps that barrier is why it doesn't shatter Lily instead. It shatters Lily's barrier too. When the light clears, she is down on one knee; her jacket is practically disintegrated, leaving her in an undershirt and revealing the strange, circuit-like 'tattoos' that appear on her body when she uses her Ether. They glow brilliant red now, holding her body together under the force of the attack. Blood trickles from her nose and from her ears, the sheer force of her defense enough to overcome the human body but not yet destroying her. One hand is burned beyond use for the moment. It will heal in time.

Varius's scream reaches Lily's heart. But she has no answer to his question, either. Why are these humans worth keeping alive...?

So far, it is mostly Citan, Elly and Fei who help her answer that question. But they are not here today.

Lily rises to her feet. "...Azoth," she says. "I won't tell you what to do. Maybe back then, I would've been one of those humans seeking your power. But I understand, now. I understand... the wish to make your own destiny, regardlesss of 'why."

"So as long as Solaris controls you...!" Lily lifts a hand, and her markings burst into golden radiance, her hand shimmering with an unwholesome power. It extends around her like an aura, and suddenly, a sickly yellow explosion bursts over the amalgamation as Lily rends the laws of reality to wreak devastation. The result is blinding and searing, a heat beyond fire. 

GS: Lily Keil has activated Force Action: Full Clip!
GS: Lily Keil has attacked Azoth with Stellar Cauldron!
GS: Lily Keil has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Lily Keil gains 5 FP from her Daredevil!
GS: Lily Keil has completed her action.
GS: Azoth critically fails to evade Lily Keil's Stellar Cauldron for 397 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Azoth gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Disease removed!
GS: FP up! Arcane Font!

<Pose Tracker> Rille Felis has posed.

Rille had intended to kick off of Loren, or his shield, but what *actually* happens is that she kind of keeps going; he's flung back and she tumbles, rolling before she picks herself up, springing back to her feet.

She doesn't know Ether. She doesn't know *any* Ether, let alone what he's doing now, but even she can feel something wrong with it. It makes her fur frizz up, bristling, and her feline ears flatten down against her head, the lynx-like tuft blending in with her red-orange hair.

Though she'd never admit it, she looks particularly monstrous at a time like this. Risen to her full height, with her fur bristling and her tail lashing, her lips curled back to show too-pointed teeth accompanied with a low growl, she looks at least partially the animal that Kislev called her - even if she is under control, aside from perhaps the way her tail swings as she moves.

Azoth, too, is out of control. There's nothing she can do to help him; she doesn't know him well, and she has all her attention taken up. She has to trust someone else, and so she focuses on Loren, eyes narrowing. Something's wrong with him, but all she can do is stop him from hurting anyone else here.

Rille lunges forward, again, a lumbering run that turns into a steadier step. She has to run into the fire to do it, burning red and black and uncomfortable colours altogether, playing along Rille's body.

When she staggers out of it - and she does stagger - Rille looks much the worse for wear. She's frazzled, her fur scorched, the scales and claws on her outreaching hand blackened - not that they weren't close already, the claws dark and the scales a deep green mottled with black even when they're intact. Her shirt has been burned a good inch shorter, revealing more of her stomach, and some of the patterns of fur around her navel; the bottom hem of her shorts is scorched black.

But she's still moving, and Rille attempts to literally grab Loren. Lifting with a roar, she's trying to shake him to knock him out of whatever trance he's put himself in - and then *slam* him down with stone-cracking force, a two-handed swing that smashes him straight into the ground.

"You want to keep fighting?" Rille's voice turns into a roar, a bass rumble far lower than her speaking voice that literally shakes the air around her. "Fight ME and get your hands off the rest of them! C'mon! You want a beastfolk to punch down on? Here's your chance, big man!" Her words, and the assault accompanying them, is... not gentle. It is the opposite of gentle; other people may be trying to snap Loren out of it that way, but Rille's forte is in raw force, and force is what she's using, breathing heavily as she catches her breath. 

GS: Rille Felis spends 2 Combo on Gatling, loading 2 into Gatling!
GS: MYSTIC ARTE! Rille Felis has attacked Loren Voss with Unbreakable!
GS: Rille Felis has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Interrupt expired!
GS: Rille Felis has completed her action.
GS: Interrupt! Attack weakened!
GS: CRITICAL! Loren Voss critically fails to charge Rille Felis's Unbreakable for 362 hit points!
GS: Cover applied to Rille Felis!
GS: FP up! Power Burst!
GS: Rille Felis drains Loren Voss! Rille Felis gains 100 temporary hit points!

<Pose Tracker> Dirk Swordsman has posed.

 
Sirfetch'd's blade digs in deep. The Pokemon's eyes look at Loren. Loren can see *thought* there, even if the beast can only speak in its quacking dialect. He pulls back and Sirfetch'd flicks his blade with blinding speed to clean it, raising upwards.

Dirk can hear chaos and mayhem mostly-behind him. Quilladin circles around, hopping forwards - not running but taking the other side. It's probably for the best, since Quilladin can see the madness and horror with Azoth and his battle for his heart -- but to the Pokemon, it's only so much light and chaos.

Sirfetch'd, by contrast, has a simpler task: He watches Loren. The duck's brow furrows as the dark ribbons from Lan seem to harmonize, as Loren struggles. As Loren calls upon Something.

Sirfetch'd's life is simple: He has a foe before him. The inconcievable is nothing compared to the demands of honor. The flourishing leek-shield is brought up even as Dirk shouts, "Sirfetch'd!!" and fumbles for --

The fractal-flame rolls forwards, and the darkness and the flame lick at the living barrier of the leek shield. It pours forwards, scraps of it roaring out even as Dirk lunges forwards and squats down in the leewards side, the fractal-non-flame forming great ethereal wings out and to either side as the tide rolls, raises, intensifies --

And fades. There is the paradoxical scent of grilled onions in the air. Sirfetch'd lowers his shield. Galar was not lost for want of courage in its Pokemon.

Sirfetch'd's head tilts slightly, to look at the others who fight in close. Rille; Ida; and a look of concern for Lan. But Boudicca (whom Sirfetch'd knew long seconds ago was an ally) is tending to her, and he places his faith in her without words. Bringing the sword up, he gives a challenging "Sirfetch'd!" and begins to press attacks.

They're real slashes - real swipes - but they're also bait.

"Guys! If he does that again, get behind Sirfetch'd!" Dirk calls out. He's not giving Sirfetch'd commands at this stage; the knight is still beyond him. But that's the beauty of things, isn't it? (Though, of course, the people of Scraphaven probably don't agree with that right now.) 

<Pose Tracker> Meng Wu has posed.

Wu doesn't recognize the corrupted ether. Truth be told she's been away enough, her ability to ID is.. not quite there. With that said, there's clearly more going on beneath the surface, in many ways. There's the briefest of scowls. That's something new. Not the suggestion that Solaris keeps what's theirs. The situation is rapidly deteroirating one way or the other though. She squares her shoulders, grumbles as she didn't even get to keep another smoke for long, spitting the ruined thing to the side and turns to face another potential end of the line. As she vaults the earthen barricade, it collapses behind her and begins to follow after her, a furrow in the ground that pops up in front of her as she comes to a halt.
 
 "So much just.. slips from their fingers when they squeeze too tight." She calls back to Loren. "And I regret not acting sooner. Not doing more." Still no true explanation from the elf.
 
 Only a brief, worried look towards the other, other situation rapidly deteriorating.
 
 She almost wishes she could counter it, but there's a feeling of hypocrisy if she tried to deny it every time she mounted up. Even if it was to protect others, later in her life.
 
 She also can't deny that she's feeling her age, already feeling the injuries this soon into the fight.
 
 With the figure pinned though, her options are almost limited. Or she's limiting herself. There's a bitter thought that it didn't used to matter to her, but then again was anything really that different? They aren't under her command, but she's made a choice. Some sense of pride?
 
 She slams her foot down, a pillar rising between herself and Ida and the others. A series of other short spikes jut out along the way and she fires at the closest. The shot ricocheting back and forth. A quick and dirty way to infuse ammo on the fly, in a sense.
 
 That there's a barricade between her and the target, even self-imposed means it's a crapshoot. Moreso than usual. Oh well.
 
 She's not as quick as she'd like, getting out of the way of that errant ether. Engulfed in darkness. Eating away and oppressive. And she endures through gritted teeth. And an actual, true grimace as she catches sight of the beam scything through the area.
 
 On some level, with the exposure to that.. wrongness she's not sure she can entirely fault Rille's reaction. Mercy might be the best call. "What have you been getting into since I've been gone-" she calls out. Giving up some of the game. There's an actual air of both anger and concern. Is it a breakthrough? Is it worse than she'd thought? There's doubt there. That she waited too long, pride telling her it's her fault if it goes belly up. Tightening the grip on her guns. 

GS: Dirk Swordsman has attacked Loren Voss with DETECT!
GS: Dirk Swordsman enters a Counter stance!
GS: Dirk Swordsman has gained 2 Combo!
GS: Burst, Quick, and Shield expired!
GS: Dirk Swordsman has completed his action.
GS: Meng Wu has attacked Loren Voss with Lucky For Some!
GS: Meng Wu has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Interrupt expired!
GS: Cover expired!
GS: Meng Wu has completed her action.

<Pose Tracker> Hannah Curie has posed.

"The property-- Property?!" sputters Hannah, to Loren's comment. "I ain't sure what all Solaris has done to make you think that way, but people should belong to themselves, whether they belong to a nation or not."

Still, she scowls as Loren manages to guard against her earthen spikes--she can tell her magic isn't hitting hard today. That would be a good thing, for her overall goals, but right here it's... inconvenient.

But Loren Voss unleashes a wave of fire-turned darkness, and she's so preoccupied with the efficacy of her own magic that she's not prepared to react to Loren's, sent reeling as flames wash over her... though when she lowers her hands again she feels... well, burnt, but maybe Loren's having an off magic day too.

Azoth speaks of being hollowed out, made to serve other peoples' wishes for destruction.

How he killed every pilot he ever had. Hannah doesn't necessarily approve of killing, in general terms... but in Azoth's state, she can't blame him, either.

"Azoth, I ain't sure what's waitin' for you if you recover your memories, but I'd rather see you free--free of pain, free to choose--even if that choice is for destruction."

"... But I think there's more to you'n just destruction, an' I won't give up on that, either."

She turns her attention back to Loren. "As for you. You deserve freedom too, but since you're pullin' the strings, an you don't intend ta stop..."

Out come two crest graphs, one blazing wisps of white energy, one blazing red. The first she makes a slicing motion with, and the ravages of a cyclone with razor sharp blades of air whirling about in a made fashion suddenly spring to life. A ghostly wail echos out from the movement of air, a haunting counterpart to the lullaby.

She brings the second one to her mouth, inhales sharply, and then bellows out a torrent of flame that roars in counterpoint to the wailing winds. Fire and flame dance in a wild, chaotic dance as they surge for Loren. 

GS: Hannah Curie has activated Force Action: Lock On!
GS: Hannah Curie spends 1 Combo on Gatling, loading 1 into Gatling!
GS: MYSTIC ARTE! Hannah Curie has attacked Loren Voss with Elemental Conjunction!
GS: Hannah Curie has gained 2 Combo!
GS: Interrupt expired!
GS: Mighty expired!
GS: Hannah Curie has completed her action.

<Pose Tracker> Seraph Ragnell has posed.

    Free.
    
    There is a shift in Azoth's voice. Ragnell's demeanor shifts in an instant, grimly serious as she stands her ground--and he remembers. If Lily is inducing a false reality in him, and she doesn't think she is, then it's a powerful reaction she's getting. The wish for destruction, huh... She shoots a sharp glance to one side at the glitching energy as it pulses through Scraphaven and its mechanisms. A familiar circle (cycle) forms thereafter, spinning into infinity with power. Ragnell doesn't try to shoot it down. She knows they can't stop it.
    
    So Ragnell winks at Avile-via-Xiumei. Xiumei herself gets a snort. "What're you doin' relyin' on an enemy anyway? Think for yourself, girl!"
    
    If it goes that badly, at least she can go out being herself--instead of having to face the pain of Azoth's furious, agonized questions.
    
    The beam of light fires. Ragnell moves. She gets most of the way out of that beam, but 'most' is a very important qualifier when faced with a weapon that can vaporize what it hits. Ragnell isn't going to die, especially after that healing that showered down on her earlier thanks to Lily and Timu, but it's one hell of a force that she's had to endure. When she lands, she's smoking. Literally.
    
    Varius screams his own wishes for Azoth ("The Azoth"). Lily declares that he should be free to choose, whether it's destruction or protection. Ragnell breathes out a low, long puff of a sigh.
    
    Another glyph forms at her feet. She holds out her pistols and begins to trace lightning in the air in a pair of semi-circular arcs. "I mean, if you wanted to kill all humans or whatever, I wouldn't be too fussed. If you wanna rise up, I'm all for it, even," she replies, calm despite the power that she is manifesting. "But I got the feelin' that *you'd* be fussed about it, an' I don't like Solaris anyway, so let's put this one to bed."
    
    It's Ragnell's way of saying she cares about what Azoth desires and that she knows he can't freely express his desires, and so she'll make his last known desire known. Just without the emotional sincerity, since she's allergic to that. As she traces that lightning in the air, the circle completes, and she holsters her pistols--only to pull out a phase gun from under her poncho, which she points at Azoth from the center of that circle. That Seraphic energy sucks into the muzzle as it charges in an X of power--
    
    And then she *fires* a brilliant beam blast of energy, straight towards her friend. But, perhaps, not dead center? 

GS: Seraph Ragnell has attacked Azoth with X Buster!
GS: Seraph Ragnell has gained 2 Combo!
GS: Seraph Ragnell has completed her action.

<Pose Tracker> Timu Guado has posed.

    Timu tries to hold strong with her Spiran-taught disciplines of sorcery, fighting back the occasional horror of the tender years where she tried to do so against Mauri's onslaught of flame upon Bevelle, while Hooligre gives his utmost trust even as he is staring down the light of Azoth's visor as he speaks clearly, of his memories.
 
     The same wish he's always been begged for, and it has to leave Timu wondering... is this like what happened with Sin, in the days leading up to the Eternal Calm?
 
     Timu flinches as power erupts around her, unable to comprehend the full depths of the conversation between machines and how it reflects upon Azoth's distorted, glitching energy showing up everywhere.
 
     "...Hooligre!!" Hooligre snarls, his resolve faltering, and from there--
 
     "Hooligre... return," Timu juggles things in her hands to get his ball out. She swallows once as she says it, and again. "Return!"
 
     He disappears in a flash of light into his portable spherical home. Who will she bring out, then, if not him? She's without a Pokemon to protect her this close to Azoth in his throes of agony.
 
     The mechanical ring builds energy. She clutches her staff and prays as much as she chants. What spell it is - or was - cannot be heard, nor can it be discerned if it's even successful.
 
     There is nowhere Timu can run - she's too close to ground zero, and unable to run, as Azoth speaks of what happened with everyone who ever wanted to reshape himself for their desires... and what happened...
 
     There is light. It is bright, it is blinding, and it burns on several levels. She feels sick, everywhere, eyes squint shut and head bowed into her staff as the light threatens to disintegrate were it not for the singular x-factor of whatever sorcerous might staves off scientific, physics-based inevitability.
 
     She can only endure, and she only understands that she is because everything hasn't suddenly become empty and peaceful, bereft of light or sound or feel. Even so, holding closely to herself, and maybe only effective because of her close proximity...
 
     The music box still plays. As the light fades, she's slumping down to her knees, ready to pass out from... everything, but one hand still clutches the staff, and the other, even as her grip starts to falter...
 
     The music box continues to play. She's too weak for words, and too spent for action. That she's breathing at all is less relief and more horror, after that. 

GS: Timu Guado has attacked Azoth with The Music Box Still Plays - The Metalspeaker Continues Their Plea By Proxy!
GS: Timu Guado takes 43 damage from Poison!
GS: Timu Guado has completed her action.
GS: Azoth mostly guards Seraph Ragnell's X Buster for 132 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Azoth gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Azoth accepts Timu Guado's The Music Box Still Plays - The Metalspeaker Continues Their Plea By Proxy for 0 hit
points!
GS: Interrupt! Attack weakened!
GS: Gamble: Lowest! Loren Voss mostly guards Meng Wu's Lucky For Some for 10 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Loren Voss gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Shield applied to Meng Wu!
GS: FP up! Reaction bonus!
GS: Meng Wu drains Loren Voss! Meng Wu gains 3 temporary hit points!
GS: Interrupt! Attack weakened!
GS: Loren Voss perfectly evades Dirk Swordsman's DETECT for 0 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Loren Voss gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: FP up! Power Burst!
GS: Loren Voss enters CONDITION GREEN!!

<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.

    The chill of Loren's Ether seeps into Ida's flesh. She feels like she's soaked to the skin, like the warmth inside her is a candle flame in a downpour. Her free hand scrabbles for the dark, watery tendril, grips, and tears. It's solid enough that it gives. Ida pulls free from Loren, and sinks to her knees. Wu raises cover for her; Ida is in no position to thank her, nor to thank Rille as she presents a terrifying presence, and makes a target of herself.

    It's coming in distantly. Azoth's agony. Varius' agony. Of course they would use a Gear. Gears are built to be piloted weapons. But most Gears aren't people, as well. Even if Azoth hadn't come to full awareness then, he--

    Ida breathes deeply, trying to stoke her anger in the hopes it drowns out the Stranger's numbing chill.

    No such luck. Consuming darkness lashes out from Loren again while Ida's still reeling. It washes over her, leaving empty holes in Wu's cover--better than holes in Ida herself. When it ends, burns mar Ida's exposed skin. Blood drips from her brow, and she blinks it away.

    "He has his claws in you," Ida says to Loren, anger and terror in her voice. Another one, just like Lan and Gwen.

    Like her?

    Devil's Due has stayed in Ida's hand this whole time. With effort, Ida raises the ARM and trains it on Loren's center of mass. She takes a shaky breath, then pulls the trigger--and a tongue of white-hot flame races out, towards the Solarian operative. As if she could somehow scour that taint from him. As if she needs to escalate even further to match Loren's power.

GS: Ida Everstead-Rey spends 1 Combo on Poison!
GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has attacked Loren Voss with Breath Of The Fire Dragon!
GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has gained 2 Combo!
GS: Interrupt expired!
GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has completed her action.
GS: Interrupt! Attack weakened!
GS: CRITICAL! Loren Voss mostly guards Hannah Curie's Elemental Conjunction for 149 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Loren Voss gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: FP up! Reaction bonus!
GS: Interrupt! Attack weakened!
GS: Loren Voss critically fails to guard Ida Everstead-Rey's Breath Of The Fire Dragon for 158 hit points!
GS: Poison blocked!

<Pose Tracker> Grace Harvey has posed.

    Later, huh. Later is. Bad. "You know what, let's not make any promises until this is over, huh?" More bluster, more bravado to cover what she's up against." The shot is good! That's some breathing room, at least, as she stil avoids shooting Azoth directly. But as she hears him speak... Grace can't help but feel fear. Azoth is part of everyone... "...Good. That's... That's what I needed to hear."

    It's a fear like the fear she felt fighting for her home. The fear of losing something as important to her as her flight. The fear of a friend being lost to themself.

    "...Azoth..." What is she supposed to say to that? Her life isn't anything like that. The worst thing in her life is being trapped on this three planet system. Not... being a weapon. Being a tool for others. What the hell is someone like Grace supposed to say to Azoth's pain. She could never feel it, never understand anything so dire.

    Being created to destroy. Being demanded to destroy. Grace can't understand that. Not at all.

    And then the blast of light comes, and Grace can't run. She can't. She'll be destroyed. She'll be destroyed and so will Bea next to her and maybe someone will know but-

    "Likelihood of death of second heir above acceptable parameters." It's a mechanical voice, devoid of emotion. Not something emotional, not an entity with a will. Just a running calculation. "Emergency measures required. Activating PD-606."

    As the blast is about to impact Grace...

    There is a momentary glint of green.

    And when the beam clears, in the ditch carved through the Earth by Azoth's power, where there should be nothing.

    Instead, her guns are gone. Converted into tiny white points distributed around her body, distributing an armour of green light around her. Wings of that same green light lift her off the ground. She's alive. The light of a shield surrounds her before fading. She's okay. She's okay, and Bea should be-

    "BEA!" Grace yells, seeing the state of her oldest friend. Most of the small, hot pink mining robot was behind the energy shield. About 2/3rds of her. There is melting- evaporating- slag where two of her legs should be. "Bea.... Bea please be okay, please please please be okay. Please. Please." She lowers herself to the ground, to grasp at her friend's chassis. "You're okay right. Please. Just tell me you're okay. Please."

    A weak series of beeps come from the robot, and Grace moves to cradle her-

    Only for her arms to stop moving. That other mechanical voice reactivates. "Unacceptable threat level to second heir. Best Defense Protocol engaged.

    "W-wait, what are you... Let go, d-damnit!"

    "Threat analysis complete, engaging."

    Grace shakes against the machine. "I don't want this! No one here wants to destroy each other! Stop it! STOP IT!" Grace screams, but her protective armour doesn't listen.

    Her arms out stretch, and the firing mechanisms sitting in the palm of her hand level straight at Azoth. Two spheres of green energy form, pulsing at different rates, one spinning rapidly and pulsing fast, the other slow and stationary.

    "Powerful Demolisher 606...Firing."

    And then the spheres fire at once, spiralling around each other growing ever larger but never quite colliding- until the moment they clash with Azoth or any other object, and a pillar of green light erupts into the sky from their combination, with the intent to annihilate the threat- and anything standing too close.

    ---

    From the ground, there is a tiny trill. It's... weak. It shouldn't be weak. Maybe one of the jury rigged battery connectors got melted with the slag. But it contains... enough.

    Azoth wants to be free.

    Bea wants Azoth to be Azoth again.

    Bea wishes both = true.

    And that's all the little robot has the juice to transmit now. All she can send.

    At least... until she is mended. 

DC: Grace Harvey switches forms to Preservation System PD-606 Activated!

GS: Surge added to Grace Harvey!
GS: Grace Harvey has activated Force Action: Boost!
GS: Surge added to Grace Harvey!
GS: Grace Harvey has activated Force Action: Boost!
GS: Grace Harvey has activated Force Action: Snipe!
GS: Grace Harvey spends 1 Combo on Link!
GS: Grace Harvey has attacked Grace Harvey with Extreme Threat Detected...!
GS: Grace Harvey has gained 4 Combo!
GS: Grace Harvey has launched an attack Link!
GS: CRITICAL! Grace Harvey accepts Grace Harvey's Extreme Threat Detected... for 0 hit points!
GS: Amplify and Hyper applied to Grace Harvey!
GS: Grace Harvey has attacked Azoth with Powerful Demolisher 606!
GS: Grace Harvey has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Grace Harvey has completed her action.
GS: Access! Grace Harvey takes 30 damage!
GS: Gamble: Very High! Azoth marginally charges Grace Harvey's Powerful Demolisher 606 for 247 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Azoth gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Charge!! You gain 50 FP! (That's 35 more than usual!)
GS: Azoth has Fallen! He is no longer able to fight!

<Pose Tracker> Lan Lilac has posed.

 
    He knows. He knows, he knows, Lan saw him realize it. It's a terrible thing. Even if, for a brief moment, he must realize that she was right. There's no joy in such a horrible truth.

    The black ribbons grip and bind wherever they can; it takes a lot to escape them once they've caught hold. A sharp enough blade, a resounding blow - and flame purifies all.

    It's not flame that engulfs Lan, not entirely. A strange un-color, a cracked and broken wellspring of raw madness, but this time it pours out of Loren and not Lan or Gwen or the Stranger himself. Lan gasps, knocked back - or did she let go? - she can't remember can't remember can't remember can't

    she can't remember doing this to him

    Darkness rises off of her in blobs and squiggles, alive and roiling, eager. Lying on her back, Lan looks past everything. The breeze is so nice today... It blows away some of her confusion for the briefest of moments, pets over the crown of her head like her mother's hand. It curls around her like her brother's tail. Lan scrubs at her face and pushes back to her feet. "Boudicca... thank you."

    She sniffles a bit, and then sniffs. ...grilled onions? Oh no, is this what it feels like to have a stroke. Lan doesn't want to have a stroke. Those are supposed to feel really terrible.

    Darkness like his rises in lines from Loren's feet, seeking to ensnare him. Beyond the roots of the ribbons, a crescent-shaped sigil waxes. Fatter, rounder, until it's ready to burst - and it does, light engulfing and scouring him. 

GS: Lan Lilac spends 1 Combo on Link!
GS: Lan Lilac enters CONDITION GREEN!!
GS: Lan Lilac has attacked Loren Voss with Ribbon Dance!
GS: Lan Lilac has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Lan Lilac has launched an attack Link!
GS: Lan Lilac enters CONDITION GREEN!!
GS: Lan Lilac has attacked Loren Voss with Killing Moon!
GS: Lan Lilac has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Lan Lilac enters CONDITION GREEN!!
GS: Lan Lilac has completed her action.
GS: Access! Lan Lilac takes 30 damage!

<Pose Tracker> Gwen Whitlock has posed.

    Lily's earlier explanation settles into Gwen's mind, with Azoth's own pained exposition. A part of Gwen may've tried to relate to that, knowing some of her own ARM's history, but the scale would be off. The Mockingbird was a weapon that called for too much of their owners' energy, sucking them dry as they tried to extract more and more of its power. It had nothing inside it that resembled an AI; the fossil inside it was simply inert.

    For them, the Mockingbird was a weapon. For Gwen...

    'It's the same wish I'm being begged for now. ...The wish for destruction.'

    The massive beam of light hits Gwen square on; the fact that Gwen succeeded in guarding against it is likely why, when she comes rolling to a stop against the ground, that Gwen *isn't* immediately out for the count.
    
    But maybe, it would have been better if she had been.

    Lan and Loren may feel it: the singular thrum that ties the three of them together is suddenly strengthening from Gwen's side of that triangle, as if something awoke from its slumber.

    Gwen raises up on her arms, her curls hanging down over her downturned face.

    "...... Do you want it?" Her soft voice seems to echo, but only for a select few, being Loren and Azoth, as well as those who manage to take notice amongst all the chaos.

    "I can give you peace." She raises slowly onto her feet, her eyes reflecting cornflower blue as she raises her head. Being far behind all her friends making their stand against the combined powers of the two, they may not even realize the brief change, as subtle as it is. How different could those blue eyes be, if yours were already a duller version?

    "I'll give you rest."

    Her left hand raises, casting a slivered thread, like the rot that glows underneath the moon's glow. "Resist if you have to; all is accepted, in my embrace."

    The tendrils cast towards Azoth and Loren; likely finding them after everyone's attacks.

    At that point, it would merely be a soothing lullaby after everyone prevails in fighting them back. 

GS: Gwen Whitlock has activated Force Action: Lock On!
GS: Gwen Whitlock spends 1 Combo on Interrupt!
GS: Gwen Whitlock enters CONDITION GREEN!!
GS: Gwen Whitlock has attacked Loren Voss with Crow Moon!
GS: Gwen Whitlock has attacked Azoth with Crow Moon!
GS: Gwen Whitlock enters CONDITION GREEN!!
GS: Gwen Whitlock takes 55 damage from Poison!
GS: Gwen Whitlock has completed her action.
GS: Azoth critically fails to guard Gwen Whitlock's Crow Moon for 0 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Azoth gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Azoth's Disrupt Ward may block the effect!
GS: Disrupt, Drowsy, and Interrupt applied to Azoth!
GS: FP up! Arcane Font!
GS: Azoth has lost 2 Combo from Interrupt!
GS: Azoth has Fallen! He is no longer able to fight!
GS: CRITICAL! Loren Voss fails to charge Lan Lilac's Ribbon Dance for 0 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Loren Voss gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Entangle and Slow applied to Loren Voss!
GS: Hyper applied to Lan Lilac!
GS: FP up! Power Burst and Reaction bonus!
GS: CRITICAL! Loren Voss mostly guards Lan Lilac's Killing Moon for 155 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Loren Voss gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: CRITICAL! Loren Voss critically fails to guard Gwen Whitlock's Crow Moon for 0 hit points!
GS: Disrupt, Drowsy, and Interrupt applied to Loren Voss!
GS: Loren Voss has lost 2 Combo from Interrupt!

<Pose Tracker> Gwen Whitlock has posed.

     Once it hits (or doesn't), the next time anyone looks back, Gwen will be on the ground, apparently knocked out.

     As if it never happened at all... 

<Pose Tracker> Xantia has posed.

The way Azoth is speaking - the way he continues speaking, regardless of any words spoken in return, is enough for Xantia to realize the danger. Azoth isn't able to stop himself. This might seem like an absolute to most, but she knows well that Solaris's wishes aren't as absolute as they'd like them to be. That with great effort, Azoth is able to force out fragments of his true wishes to subtly act on this own accord.

He won't be able to do that now. Right now, he's feeling so lost that he can't hear, won't hear, anything that might change his course. She, sadly, knows how that feels. And how unwise it would be to persist anyway. And yet, she can't stop herself. When she sees Azoth go down that mental spiral, she beseeches, "Azoth, no! Fight it! If you don't want to do this, then fight it with everything you have!!"

As things are, though, those words are futile. She cannot stop the Ouroboros from being summoned. But she tries. The energy blade on her arm grows larger than before, and she lashes out at the giant weapon, defiant but... in vain. It yet fires, while she is right there in front of it.

No amount of barriers or auras can stand against that kind of power. But, they can mitigate it, somewhat. Enough so for Xantia to still be in one piece when she drops to the ground. Much of her armor is melted to a degree, and her skin looks horribly burned, but... she wasn't incinerated, at least. Whether she is alive is the question.

A question left unanswered for mere seconds. A colorful mist surrounds her fallen form as the fallen fighter draws Ether from the air, then emits a pulse of light, scattering glowing white motes about her body. Already, burned skin starts to rapidly heal, but more importantly, energy surges through her body. Enough energy to allow her to bite back the pain, and force herself to get up. The only reason why this is important that matters right now: she has to show Azoth that her promise still holds true. He can't for a moment be allowed to think that he's hurt her in ways that she can't recover from.

Unsteady, tired and disheveled though she is, she manages the effort. It costs no additional effort to smile in Azoth's direction. "...Have you ever considered, Azoth... that none of that is your fault? You said it yourself... they wanted to reshape you for their own desires. If they only cared about what you could do for them, never about what you wanted... isn't it natural to fight back against that? It says nothing about who you are... or who you could be."

She grits her teeth. This is going to hurt. But she has to do it. "Right now... all I can do is stop you from hurting others... so you can stop hurting yourself. Sorry for this, again..."

She vanishes - no, moves with extreme speed - and stops directly in front of Azoth. Thrusting her palms forward, she doesn't bother to disguise this action the way she usually does. He can feel it quite clearly, her power to draw energy directly out of him. "See you later," she promises with a sad smile. 

GS: Xantia enters CONDITION GREEN!!
GS: Xantia has attacked Azoth with Scarlet Eclipse!
GS: Xantia has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Xantia gains 5 FP from her Daredevil!
GS: Xantia enters CONDITION GREEN!!
GS: Xantia gains 5 FP from Gleam!
GS: Xantia takes 46 damage from Poison!
GS: Xantia has completed her action.
GS: Sneak! The true nature of Xantia's attack becomes clear!
GS: Azoth accepts Xantia's Scarlet Eclipse for 344 hit points!
GS: Xantia drains Azoth! Xantia gains 96 temporary hit points!
GS: Azoth has Fallen! He is no longer able to fight!

<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.

    "Does it matter?" Loren wonders of Hannah's remark.

    Maybe it doesn't. Maybe, all that matters is--

    Once again, green light flashes at Loren's feet, but this time, the pillar travels not for Azoth. For an instant, Loren is at the heart of a fractal tree of his own.

    Hannah won't let him do as he pleases, however. Flame cracks against him while he's still in the midst of his own Ether: he flinches, even as some of the burn is simply smoothed away by the force of his own healing magic. If that had struck him without such benefits--

    But there's no time to dwell on that. The ground shudders. Stone flies at him, drawing a scratch of blood along his cheek, and Loren turns his head towards Wu.

    He still has his sword. Taking a long, steading breath he then rushes off at Wu with little warning, lashing at her with a single arcing swing.

    Once, this sword had been his brother's. His brother had carried it off with him to his death. What had been returned was a charred shell of a weapon, and it had broken. But some of it had been salvaged. It was his brother's sword: it's his, now.

    Wu had sought to cover Ida, and Ida had taken full advantage of it. It gives her the time she needs to regroup.

    To say something to Loren.

    Shock flickers across his face. He glances, fleetingly, at Lan. "No, I didn't--"

    Ida affords him no moment for recovery and shoots him with flame.

    Even now, after all this, is he still in denial about what's going on?

    If he were another man, he might have just burned. As he emerges from the flames, his uniform tells the story of Devil's Due's scourge. But in a heartbeat, he's mended what he'd suffered. And sword in hand he takes but one step towards Ida. Leaning in, he charges, seeking to take her down by his blade.

    And he gets no further than that before Rille is upon him, seizing him bodily with both hands and lifting him overhead to dash him against the rocks. Light flares again, yes, but it flares only enough to shield him from the worst of what would be a devastating blow even to the elite of Gebler's forces. He lies there for a moment, clearly rattled from the strike but Rille's voice will tolerate nothing but all of his attention. Scrambling to his feet and seizing his blade, he reels for but a moment.

    "If that's what you want, you-- then fine!" he barks back, more himself in this singular moment than he's been for most of this fight. He charges at her, leaping into the air as if to take her like a meteor from the heavens.

    And even so, it feels as if all the ocean is beginning to flood into his lungs. When he lands, he staggers, and he coughs wetly, cupping his hand to his mouth.

    When he brings his hand away, there is to his eyes darkness clinging there, as tacky as mud.

    He jerks his hand away sharply, as if to fling the phantom matter aside: it hurtles there for but an instant, a spear of anti-light that would seek to take even a being like Boudicca right through.

    Did that... just happen? And he turns, and he is set upon by Sirfetch'd, and then there's no time to think about that at all.

    They're real slashes. Loren makes the attempt to escape them, and it's into this moment that an impossible miracle occurs (or so it seems to Loren): not a single one catches him. He can feel that blade's passage with each swing. He can feel the force and pressure behind them. But he is unscathed as he presses the attack against Sirfetch'd, carving out what he thinks is the space he'll need to operate. He has to focus. He has to clear his mind this time.

    Shadow reaches up from his feet to take him and he finds that he cannot move: fixed into position, he can only use his Ether to shield himself against the rain of celestial light that erupts all about him.

    And unable to reach anyone at all with his blade, it makes his course of action all the more crystal clear.

    It has to work this time. It has to. Shards of earth rise up about him easily enough until there's a ring of scrap and dust circling him like a nebula. All at once they fly free, surging for Sirfetch'd, for Hannah, and for of course Lan.

    Earth is his innate element. Outside manipulation of energy for healing itself -- itself an expression for him of Earth and Water united in singular purpose -- it's the one thing that he ought to have the most control over.

    But he spasms suddenly, still caught by Lan's shadow. Or is it because he's caught by her shadow? His shadow, her shadow, linked in a singular purpose.

    And he becomes the focal point as his own darkness once again rises from him unbidden, lancing back to her and at anything and anyone it can reach as it closes the loop.

    "I-- don't--" he chokes out wetly, as if he were drowning on the very air.

    Does he want it? Does he want this? Didn't he accept it for himself?

    "No," he gasps out, like a man struggling for air. "Don't--"

    There is no escaping the silvered thread that follows. 

GS: Loren Voss has attacked Loren Voss with Renewal Order!
GS: Loren Voss has gained 2 Combo!
GS: Interrupt expired!
GS: Loren Voss accepts Loren Voss's Renewal Order for 0 hit points!
GS: Dynamax, Hyper, and Lock state applied to Loren Voss!
GS: Stagger removed!
GS: Loren Voss has attacked Meng Wu with Void Shift!
GS: Loren Voss has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Loren Voss's stances have changed from Hero to Hero!
GS: Loren Voss has attacked Ida Everstead-Rey with Astral Hammer!
GS: Loren Voss has attacked Rille Felis with Meteor Break!
GS: Loren Voss spends 1 Combo on Poison!
GS: Loren Voss has attacked Seraph Boudicca with Transient Paradox!
GS: Loren Voss spends 1 Combo on Link!
GS: Loren Voss has attacked Dirk Swordsman with Terra Set!
GS: Loren Voss has attacked Lan Lilac with Terra Set!
GS: Loren Voss has attacked Hannah Curie with Terra Set!
GS: Loren Voss has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Loren Voss has launched an attack Link!
GS: Loren Voss has attacked Dirk Swordsman with Starless Sky!
GS: Loren Voss has attacked Lan Lilac with Starless Sky!
GS: Loren Voss has attacked Hannah Curie with Starless Sky!
GS: Loren Voss gains 5 FP from Sufferer!
GS: Loren Voss has completed his action.
GS: Ida Everstead-Rey critically fails to guard Loren Voss's Astral Hammer for 134 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Ida Everstead-Rey gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Shield applied to Loren Voss!
GS: FP up! Power Burst!
GS: Ida Everstead-Rey enters CONDITION GREEN!!
GS: CRITICAL! Rille Felis mostly guards Loren Voss's Meteor Break for 98 hit points!
GS: Shield applied to Loren Voss!
GS: FP up! Power Burst!
GS: CRITICAL! Meng Wu fails to guard Loren Voss's Void Shift for 179 hit points!
GS: FP up! Reaction bonus!
GS: Lan Lilac mostly evades Loren Voss's Terra Set for 29 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Lan Lilac gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Cover and Shield applied to Loren Voss!
GS: FP up! Reaction bonus!
GS: Hannah Curie mostly guards Loren Voss's Terra Set for 42 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Hannah Curie gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Cover applied to Loren Voss!
GS: FP up! Arcane Font!
GS: Hannah Curie mostly charges Loren Voss's Starless Sky for 129 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Hannah Curie gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Shield applied to Loren Voss!
GS: FP up! Arcane Font and Reaction bonus!
GS: Hannah Curie enters CONDITION GREEN!!
GS: Strain! Loren Voss takes 113 damage!
GS: CRITICAL! Lan Lilac fails to guard Loren Voss's Starless Sky for 195 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Lan Lilac gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Shield applied to Loren Voss!
GS: Strain! Loren Voss takes 99 damage!
GS: COUNTER! Dirk Swordsman counterattacks Loren Voss with Counter Attack!
GS: CRITICAL! Dirk Swordsman critically fails to charge Loren Voss's Terra Set for 110 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Dirk Swordsman gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Cover applied to Loren Voss!
GS: Dirk Swordsman enters CONDITION GREEN!!
GS: Interrupt expired!
GS: Dirk Swordsman mostly guards Loren Voss's Starless Sky for 83 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Dirk Swordsman gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Strain! Loren Voss takes 87 damage!
GS: Seraph Boudicca critically fails to evade Loren Voss's Transient Paradox for 248 hit points!
GS: Poison applied to Seraph Boudicca!

<Pose Tracker> Seraph Boudicca has posed.

    Not only Lan -- not only Lan, but Gwen! "Gwen!" Boudicca cries, as her voice grows so soft. "What has been done unto you--?!"

    Sirfetch'd places his faith unto Boudicca, though, and it strengthens her, even as Gwen falls to the ground. Boudicca hurries to her, but -- "She has fainted," she reports, to her friends, for any who might be afraid of something worse.

    If... it was that bad at all.

    She has to jerk away, though, to avoid calling Loren's wrath onto the swooned Gwen; and in leading it away, she loses any chance to escape it. It lances through her, pinning her like a butterfly to a board, and she cries out as her armour caves in and through.

    "Something is wrong," she gasps, to herself.

    "Something... is wrong... Ida," she draws a shuddering breath, and that she struggles to take it -- though she is air -- speaks volumes to her present state.

    Even so, she lifts her hand, and clicks her fingers. Flint to steel, her breeze carries Moor Gault's spark to her Seer, to empower her, to give her the strength to set it right.

GS: Seraph Boudicca spends 1 Combo on Reload!
GS: Seraph Boudicca has attacked Ida Everstead-Rey with Smoke Sigil!
GS: Seraph Boudicca gains 5 FP from Sufferer!
GS: Seraph Boudicca takes 48 damage from Poison!
GS: Interrupt expired!
GS: Seraph Boudicca has completed her action.
GS: Ida Everstead-Rey accepts Seraph Boudicca's Smoke Sigil for 0 hit points!
GS: Amplify, Burst, and Hyper applied to Ida Everstead-Rey!
GS: FP up! Seraph Boudicca's Reload!!

<Pose Tracker> Hannah Curie has posed.

"It does matter!" snaps Hannah. "Everythin matters. Anythin' capable of understandin' the concept of freedom an' capable of desirin' it should have it. No matter who they are or what their origins are. That includes Azoth, an that includes you."

"Everyone deserves to belong to themselves."

Shards of earth rise up and fly for her, but this time Hannah is ready--a swipe of a crest graph brings up a shimmering, crackling field of energy that buckles but does not collapse, rebuking it. She pants a little as she lets the barrier drop, watching warily--

And then lancing darkness feedbacks, lashes out at everyone around Loren. Hannah was drawing another crest graph, and her summoned magic clashes heartily with the darkness, flurries of her own corrupted ice flashing out as she fights against it.

Hannah is panting harder as the darkeness washes past her, but in front of her is a large, creully barbed lance of ice. Something flares within her--her own anomalous magic springing to life from that clash, surging through her magic as she gestures and sends that lance for Loren. 

GS: Hannah Curie has activated Force Action: Full Clip!
GS: Hannah Curie has activated Force Action: Lock On!
GS: Hannah Curie spends 3 Combo on Gatling, loading 3 into Gatling!
GS: Hannah Curie has attacked Loren Voss with Frigid Lance!
GS: Hannah Curie has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Hannah Curie has completed her action.

<Pose Tracker> Azoth has posed.

The brilliant beam of destruction clears, and Azoth's giant mechanical ring -- clearly a weapon meant to be wielded by a Gear scaled entity -- continues to float as if it were cooling down for a second firing of its massive laser. Neon smoke rises from Azoth's joints in the aftermath, the whole of him trembling and weak.

In the same moment that Grace cries for Bea, Azoth pings her signal in his own urgency. It's not just Bea who's fallen, either. No. No, why always this. For the moment, there is too much silence. The horrors continue as Grace, in response, losing control while begging for all this to stop. It doesn't stop, green light engulfing Azoth with a glitched shriek. He distorts from space, escaping it only by teleporting elsewhere.

The devastating strike distorts the ring.

Bea's message is finally received. All he can do is fire an apology into the void.

Gwen suffers too, destruction begetting more destruction as it always. An offering of peace and rest -- in that horrifying way he saw her slip into when Loren tried to pass on a warning through him. Tendrils slithering into the creases of his metal body before Azoth shrieks out in rejection, red light bursting outward and trying to clear his system of the influence.

Speaking of lullabies, the music box continues to play. Azoth looks down at Timu, determinedly keeping the song playing. "...The song is wrong," he tells her, softer than he's said anything else. "It conveys contradictory inputs, and request incoherent executions. I can't tell if it's forgiving me, or if it's asking me to forgive."

"...But I don't want to sleep. I don't even dream."

Varius has his own agony, and the Azoth goes coldly still for a machine generating so much overclocked heat. "...All I want is -- all I ever wanted was --" Azoth doubles over, clasping at his chest, claws reaching slightly past his own exposed wires and cords with his pain. "ERROR. DATA NOT FOUND." The whole of him trembles, and only his arm moves to snap out with an energy blade to guard from Xiumei's energy slash. It backfires, causing a detonation somewhere up his arm.

Lily cries out for his freedom. The right to be free. To destroy. To protect. "...Then it doesn't matter," Azoth finishes for her, incorrectly. But what Lily is doing is its own gift. This destruction, in the form of fire that can burn even his metal, caused by a yellow explosion resynthesizing his material make, that stops him from hurting anyone else he cares about. As he's blasted into a fallen cog and cracks his helmet, the ring does not crack so much as space around it does.

Ragnell wouldn't mind if Azoth killed all humans. She might even help. It's more comforting than she might realize: is there not a very real possibility that someone will decide his capture is more ideal than his freedom, even in the wrong hands? But right now he is in the wrong hands either way, and brilliant beam of energy shoots a hole clean through his torso. But not his core.

In times like this, Azoth responds to that need for Ragnell to hide her feelings but letting their be refuge in snark. But is it snark when what he says is: "...Some of them are barely worth the energy it would take to reduce them to ash."

Azoth's every motion comes with an uncanny twitch. The ring begins to spin again, broken and half present as it is. Then Xantia is not so fallen as she appears. Fight is, she told him. Loopholes. Logic. What does he have, what can he do? He can't find one. So Xantia does: Scarlet Eclipse.

He's seen her use it before. Sometime it comes unexpectedly. It's not right now.

Somehow, Azoth doesn't move.

Energy is siphoned straight from his core, and the Gear Weapon behind him vanishes from sight, returned to wherever and however he stores it. His claw lifts as if to counter, but instead he traces the way her lips have curved up.

"ERROR. CRITICAL DAMAGE SUSTAINED."

...

"INSTALLATION COMPLETE. REDIRECTING RESERVED ENERGY."

Oh.

Azoth vanishes from her grip, reappearing near Loren. he forms a single, small blade of light -- more a dagger than a sword -- and hurls it up for the ceiling of the underground city.

A massive chunk of steel breaks, slips down and crashes down, forming a wall between him and Loren and everyone else. By the time anyone figures out how to get past it, Solaris will have evacuated.

The people of Scraphaven slowly emerge from the back lines and what few hiding places they could find from everyone's timely intervention. Their city has seen severe damages, but they look relieved more than upset that it's at least gone still again, if silent. Some begin immediately assessing damages, while others look to those who fought to protect them.

"Need rest yes?" "Inn maybe still intact!" "Snacks too!"

Four of them have fetched a cart. They are going to load Gwen onto it if no one stops them.

Well. The city was already a junkyard. Perhaps it isn't so hard for them to readapt to...

<Pose Tracker> Xiumei Klein has posed.

"I-I'm perfectly capable of doing so!" Xiumei answers Ragnell, with a sigh. It's a little more frantic than usual, but she did just dodge the worst of a massive destructive beam.

She looks at Grace -- about to make a retort -- but then she sees Bea; she registers, then, and her eyes widen. She swallows. "We--we can look at her when we're through thi--"

She calls out, but then Grace's armor begins moving on its own. Xiumei mutters a curse in her native Galadian under her breath, and then shakes her head. Her focus snaps back to Azoth, by virtue of necessity. She sees him pull away.

And Varius is silent. He doesn't know what Azoth always wanted.

There's a wall between them -- one that cuts Solaris off from them. Xiumei stares at it for a moment, and then turns towards the people of Scraphaven. She exhales, a shaky breath...

But she nods, after a moment. "You're... you're all okay?" There's a look around -- tired, weary, and trying to keep it together until she gets to somewhere she can be alone.

<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.

Lily looks to Azoth, and he finishes it for her, but she shakes her head. "No!" she answers. "We'll MAKE it matter! If I have to tear down their whole nation!"

Xantia, too. She is sorry, but...

But Ragnell, too. Lily looks to her, for a moment. "...I'm glad he has a friend like you," she comments, beefore she looks with concern to Grace and Bea.

But INSTALLATION COMPLETE. And theree is a chunk of steel...

Lily won't stop anyone from tending to Gwen, but she sighs, after a moment. "...No, i can't get through it," she says. "But... What I can tell you is..."

"...The Azoth was at its most dangerous to attempted 'pilots' when its arcane module was restored."

"If he can become mmore whole, maybe he can free himself."

She coughs, then. She is bloody, and burned. "...I'd offer to tend the wounded but..."

Sigh. "Not in a position to do it." She looks to Xantia. "...I'm glad I told him," she says quietly. "Even if it makes it even harder." 

<Pose Tracker> Seraph Ragnell has posed.

    Ragnell snorts out a laugh, so it may as well be snark. Even if she'd laugh if he were deadly serious, too.
    
    She of course doesn't shoot his core--but Gwen makes that offer to grant his wish of destruction *to* him. Ragnell shoots her a startled stare. She gets that--she's made that same offer to another dear friend of hers, and if that *were* Azoth's desire, she would help grant it--but it's strange to hear *Gwen* make that offer. "What the hell?"
    
    Gwen is promptly put in no position to answer. And soon after, Azoth determines discretion is the better part of valor and escapes from battle with his dubious allies by causing an avalanche of scrap. Ragnell watches this; she does not try to pursue. Instead, she looks over at Xiumei. A number of sassy retorts zip through her mind; she opts to just shake her head.
    
    That might be worse than a sassy retort.
    
    Lily speaks to her. Ragnell looks back. "Yeah? Doesn't seem like it's done him much good," she says, cynically. "But I'd like t'ask you more about what you remember. Later." She swivels a hand at the wreckage around them. "When we're not in the middle of a smokin' heap."
    
    She glances over at Xantia too. Then she walks off. She won't be going far, though. 

<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.

    "That man has--" Ida says, her voice still a raspy creak. There's bruises forming on her neck, blotches of violet and blueish-silver. "Why am I even." Her face twists into something halfway between a snarl and wide-eyed horror. "Do you even care about anything anymore?!"

    Loren charges. Ida steps to the side, and snaps out a hand in an attempt to grab Loren by the forearm and redirect. It doesn't quite work. Loren's sword glances off her side rather than going clean through her belly, and two-tone blood splatters the ground. She stumbles back.

    Blessed, familiar warmth fills Ida's lungs, and she steps behind a power pole, taking a risk--taking a moment just to breathe. As Azoth reclaims another part and leaves with the Solarians in tow, she watches out of the corner of her eye.

    And once Ida's gathered herself, she steps back into the open, and takes it in. "I know," she says to Boudicca, turning to her Oracle with haunted eyes. Her forehead and face have scabbed over with silvery webs; her side is starting to do the same. "We need to get Lan and Gwen somewhere safe. I don't--I don't know if they'll be themselves when they wake up."

<Pose Tracker> Hannah Curie has posed.

Hannah frowns as that chunk of steel comes down and Solaris escapes. "Consarn it all. Every time Azoth gets a chance, Solaris is right there snatchin' 'im back again." She puts her crest graph away and stands up. Zephyr comes swooping down to her, dropping Hannah's music box into her waiting hand, then perching on her shoulder.

Hannah stares at it forlornly for a moment and then very carefully puts it away. Zephyr chiprs sadly to her, and the two lean their heads against each other in a momentary show of mutual support.

"Next time, then."

"... or the time after that, or however many tries it takes to get 'im free."

After a moment more she turns, and both she and Zephyr start looking for wounded to tend to, or things they can help the rabbitfolk fix up. 

<Pose Tracker> Xantia has posed.

There isn't much that Xantia can do, when Azoth bring out hidden energy reserves to free himself from her grip. Even if he hadn't fled at that moment, there are limits to this power. Whatever she absorbs, if it's not something she can use as-is such as Ether, her body must convert into a usable form. She can't drain too much at a time, and when in the state that she is currently... well, suffice it to say that it doesn't make her feel very well.

As such, there is little more than an "Ah--" from her when Azoth pulls away, and her almost automatic impulse to follow falters immediately. She stumbles after a mere two paces, landing on her hands and feet, breathing heavily and sweating profusely. She can't force herself to ignore the state of her own body indefinitely.

It seems to cost her a great deal of effort just to tilt her head Lily's way, hearing the words spoken in her direction. "...You were right to tell him. He... we never expected our memories to make things easier. We need them, all the same. It's... important..."

That's as far she gets before she sinks through her arms. Presumably someone will help her to that inn... she's just getting a head start on it. 

GS: Interrupt! Attack weakened!
GS: Loren Voss mostly charges Dirk Swordsman's Counter Attack for 60 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Loren Voss gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: FP up! SOS Overdrive!
GS: Loren Voss marginally charges Hannah Curie's Frigid Lance for 230 hit points!

<Pose Tracker> Timu Guado has posed.

    Timu's trembling as Azoth talks - the one physical sign she has the capacity to listen even after being at the heart of something like that. The song is wrong - and Azoth is able to parse why that is so in terms those not of machina make can understand. The tone played by the music box provides a somber backdrop to these words. The contradictory inputs, the incoherent requests - unable to decide if it's forgiveness given or asked.
 
     And ultimately... he doesn't want to sleep, for he can't dream.
 
     She doesn't have the strength to ask what, and as it turns out... Azoth doesn't have the data to say it himself, when he starts trembling. Timu, miraculously, can rise... and start to stagger back, away from Azoth, but her gaze doesn't leave his as he gets bombarded with more power and destruction - up to the definitive critical damage sustained by combat - and the installation, whatever it was, completing.
 
     Timu holds her off-hand up feebly as Azoth bursts free with Loren's squad evacuating, and from there... the sunlight feels so dim, yet harsh, as the little residents of Scraphaven bound about to offer support.
 
     She falls to her knees anew. She knows Rille's hurt, she knows others are hurt, but righ tnow, all she can do is muster tears to cope with everything. (She's not in a great way physically herself, but this needs no exhausting detail beyond what being at ground zero of that burst of energy implies.)
 
     The lullaby continues to play. She has the strength to loose a Pokeball to release Chargeray, whom flits about until his larger body necessitates he sometimes find a place to flop and rest more often than he did as a Moteray. From there, sometimes he murmurs off-key sounds at the pitch of whatever wireless signals are going about - including parts of the music box's song.
 
     He'll keep watch to keep everyone safe (and maybe eat an Arcmene if any have been skittering in these parts). 

<Pose Tracker> Grace Harvey has posed.

    Grace's armour holds her position, waiting to see if it needs to fire a second blast. Waiting to assess if the threat is destroyed-

    All while Grace screams at it to let her go- or something approximating that. It's hard to make out through everything.

    And then... the installation is complete. The apology comes just in time to be stored, but not acknowledged. And Azoth... is gone. Teleported away.

    "Assessing threats," comes the voice of PD-606. "Other threats processed. Power exhausted. Risk of harm to second heir minimal. PD-606 deactivating." It lowers Grace to the ground again, and disconnects from her body, reassembling into two smooth white boxes that slip into her holsters.

    Grace doesn't care, dropping down to scoop Bea up in my arms, tears and snot streaming down her face. "Bea... Bea... Wake up... Please... puh-please...." 

<Pose Tracker> Dirk Swordsman has posed.

 
The pressure builds as Sirfetch'd presses his attack. Dirk claps his hands, or tries to. Quilladin looks back - and squeals out a cheer!

When the stone begins, Sirfetch'd presses his attack for a moment - throwing a shallow gash forwards before doing a somersault out of that expanding range of earth and dust, which sadly pursues him. "Sir!" he declares as he's buffetted, dust sticking to white feathers; he braces down when that echo-shadow-darkness comes.

Dirk ducks into the lee of the -- duck; he's trying not to look at that weird stuff. Quilladin joins him with a "din!" of effort. Sirfetch'd simply stares; the wiles of the Enemy are only that and naught more.

The chaos behind him is winding down. Dirk turns his head -- he's not gonna need to coach Sirfetch'd closely, after all -- and he sees Timu falling to her knees. Sirfetch'd, on the other hand, sees Loren staggering. His darkness is rising and lancing outwards. His shield is held up, wooden-striking sounds as the darkness strikes it. The living shield remains hale, but it's shedding pieces of piquant and aromatic onion.

Sirfetch'd crouches downwards, raising his shield up. So help him, if he has to send this human flying, he'll do it. But then the roof trembles - stone falls then, and Azoth appears, shortly before a piece of massive steel falls. "Sirfetch'd!" declaims the duck, leaping backwards. He gives the steel a good hearty slash, but it leaves a hole merely five inches deep.

"Tch'd," the Pokemon says -- but this makes him look back towards Dirk, and the horror beyond. His eyes widen.

"-- I mean -- yeah, guys, are you like, hold on -"

Oshawott and Cufant are released; both of them express dismay in their own ways at the devastation around them. "Y'all," Dirk tells them, "help 'em if anything's on fire. Uh --"

He looks around then. And he can see Grace.

"... yo," Dirk says, after walking over. He reaches into his pocket. "Uh. I - dunno if - you can have 'em, though," he says, holding out a small bottle with a factory-seal and a label declaring it to be HYPER POTION (Silph Co.) as well as a sort of topaz-colored artificial diamond in a cushioned plastic wrapper. A small sticker says REVIVE. "... s'what I got. ...sorry."

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