2024-02-16: The Prodigal
- Log: The Prodigal
- Cast: Loren Voss, Azoth, Lily Keil, Hannah Curie, Xantia, Lan Lilac, Gwen Whitlock, Meng Wu, Leah Sadalbari
- Where: Kislev-Aveh Front
- Date: February 16, 2024
- Summary: Loren, having located Azoth, takes him back to Filgaia, but Azoth's retrieval from Nede doesn't go unnoticed. Before Azoth can be returned to Solaris' hands, a confrontation takes place between those who would see Azoth remain free and Loren. And Azoth, who can but obey the orders he's given. Loren, though, had planned for this eventuality.
<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.
The sky is overcast by the time they reach the parched and wilted grasslands, well away from the military encampment built atop Lahan's ruins and the dimensional portal to Energy Nede alike. The clouds are heavy and dark, and the wind occasionally builds up into a burst that makes the dry grass rattle. It's the sort of weather that in other parts of Filgaia might presage rain.
But it won't rain. Not here, not now.
Loren had, thanks to his service years ago in Aveh, become acclimated to the rhythms of the lands that bordered the great desert of the Ignas continent. Every year, the desert encroaches further on what grassland and forest still exists here, and every year, the rain grows ever more scarce.
Even so, he looks up at the sky as if searching for something.
"It won't be long," he tells his companion for the moment. It won't be long, but he doesn't know how long: even with advance notice, a shuttle from Aveh's capital of Bledavik can't simply materialize out of thin air, and he didn't even get that much. Signals from Energy Nede can't reach Filgaia, or that would have made his life a whole lot easier.
But then, that's why Leah Sadalbari had sent one person to search instead of a recovery team. One person working alone in an unfamiliar land can sometimes escape notice, even if the thing that they're looking for very much doesn't want to be found.
He'd found Azoth, though. He'd beaten Leah's deadline. But whether or not this might turn for him the way that Sumer Base had -- where he'd made a gamble to save lives and even that didn't work out -- well...
Well, he can't know. Not yet, in any case.
The wind continues to whip across the plains. No. He knows this isn't over yet. What are the odds that he's gotten here alone and undetected? On foot and without immediate backup, he knows he's a sitting duck. But then, Loren had known that would be the case from the start.
<Pose Tracker> Azoth has posed.
The odds are never certain, and there is one who endeavors to worsen them: a Ceruledge. Those on Nede at the time may have encountered the ghost armor Pokmeon trying to get their attention, whether by brandishing its blades or hopping urgently in place before leading them toward the rift. It's a familiar Pokemon to those who saw Azoth in Pallet Town, but there's no sign of Azoth with it... not unless they follow Ceruledge through that portal, and are able to pick up the trail away from the ruins.
It won't be long.
Azoth follows Loren's gaze into that clouded sky that refuses to rain. Red light pulses dimly within his dark chassis at a weary rate, like an error alarm that can barely be bothered to advertise itself. A gust of wind pulls at his inert tail, making it flutter and rattle, before dropping it lifelessly to the ground.
"You ordered me not to lie to you," he reminds Loren after a moment of shared silence. It has been nothing but silence as they traveled together, Loren free from Azoth's usual barbs and quips. Azoth's company may as well have been that of an empty shell until now.
When Azoth drops his gaze, it's with a jarring sag of his head. A single arc of red energy crawls across his spine.
"...It hurts."
<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.
No, it won't rain here.
But it should. It's that sort of moment; the sort of moment one wishes the heavens would reflect the earth. As below, so above.
But Filgaia does not move for this.
Lily was one of those who followed the Ceruledge. She understood its urgency, though not why. And so she followed. Followed, and picked up the trail, until she sees Loren and Azoth, standing under a clouded sky.
Lily is still dressed in the clothes she got from Nede, a fur-collared leather jacket over jeans and a tanktop. It isn't the armored clothing she favors for Filgaia, but armor never protected her that well in any case. Her weapons are out, though. A pistol, on her hip; a sword at the other. And she looks, seeing the wind....
"Voss," Lily says. "Azoth."
"...It's over. You know we won't allow this."
She looks to Azoth, in his pain. She turns back to Loren.
"...This is the great Solaris? The mighty Gebler, tormenting a being who can't fight back?"
<Pose Tracker> Hannah Curie has posed.
That Ceruledge was certainly familiar, yes, and the fact that it had led them to the rift, and beyond...
Hannah had a bad feeling about this. "Zephyr! Help me look for anythin' out of place!"
The Hawk had chirped and taken off into the sky. If one were to look, a red-tailed hawk was circling high overhead, and if one is familiar with that one particular hawk, it won't be too much of a surprise to see a certain pink-haired sorceress running up along soon after.
She is strangely for Ignas, but she could easily pass for someone out doing some light shopping or sightseeing in Nede: black skirt, green t-shirt, and a pink vest. But the magic she is bringing to bear and filling her aura with is anything /but/ Nedian.
She brandishes a crest graph, glowing bright with channeled energy, glaring at Loren. "Let Azoth go! You ain't got no right to subjugate a bein' with free will!"
<Pose Tracker> Xantia has posed.
Xantia knows that Ceruledge. Xantia has also discovered a knack for understanding Pokemon, in a way she never managed to understand Filgaia's animals. She put two and two together remarkably quickly, and didn't hesitate to act. Thus, it's not long before...
"Looks like the inevitable happened, huh?"
Xantia's voice sounds as sympathetic as the look she casts Azoth's way, standing with Lily. The only change in her familiar appearance is the trainer's belt bearing two Pokeballs. She will not be using those today.
Just as she'd told Azoth, the reprieve was temporary. They were always going to find him eventually... as soon as a way to travel between Filgaia and Nede was discovered, it would only be a matter of time. She'd sought to prepare him for this, since as much as she seeks to instill hope, she feels it's best not to entertain hope that is certainly false. Solaris would never let their high-valued assets escape. The leash can't be run from. It has to be cut.
Yes, as she said, it was inevitable that Solaris would come for him. She never said that she would just let them take him.
She lets out a chuckle at Lily's words, though there's no amusement in it. "Typical. You must feel real good about yourself, knowing we can't do anything to you without forcing Azoth to come to your defense. But here's my suggestion, Solaris."
Xantia knows Loren's name. The fact that she isn't using it isn't a good sign. Neither is her activating her right bracer, brandishing the red energy blade of the ARM and extending it in his direction.
"Don't make me any angrier than I already am."
<Pose Tracker> Lan Lilac has posed.
Lan hadn't known that Azoth was actually on Energy Nede until she'd run into Gwen again two evenings ago. Gwen and Loren, both at once. So of course, Gwen hadn't told Lan until after it was just girls' time, after her attempts to distance herself hadn't worked -- or maybe they'd worked too well? Lan isn't sure of anything, anymore.
But Azoth had met and befriended Pokemon of his own. Lan had asked the Lunatone to stay with Ceruledge, maybe for comfort. She knows how dangerous Azoth and Loren can be as a team, even an unwilling one. She still has those scars, even though they're hidden for once beneath her Nedian clothes. Scarlet and black and turquoise blue, all bolder than the faded pastels and berry colors Lan has always worn, all stronger than she used to wear and be.
But she's here too, even not knowing anything about their future. Not knowing if they'll still be friends. Not knowing if she'll be enough to pull him back, whether he wants it or not. Not knowing if she can ever help save Azoth from what befell them both, and he has to live with it, live under it, awake and aware the entire time. She's still here with Gwen, for Loren and Azoth.
"...I know you can't stop," and Lan doesn't know which of them she's speaking to. "That's okay. I'll stop you, for you."
<Pose Tracker> Gwen Whitlock has posed.
There were plans Gwen had formed. Ones she had immediately dismissed as being ignorant of how Solaris worked, or how thoroughly they may have infiltrated Energy Nede. There's no way of knowing; they're on equal footing technology wise, without the post-scarity economy.
There was no way to alert Azoth without possibly alerting someone that he was even here. She took a risk just in letting Lan know, and even that wasn't immediate.
And then, it became too late to do anything at all, when Gwen recognized the Ceruledge. When they parted, Gwen had similarity played Voltie with Lunatone; this wasn't a problem meant for them to solve, and there's no guarantee what shape she'll be in afterwards.
And so, she's there with Lan, moving to start by Lily.
"Loren." Gwen's eyes begin to tear up, then harden. "For everyone's sake, I'm going to stop you for getting any further. I'm going to take you seriously, because Solaris expects nothing less from you."
She's glad Lan is here. It might be harder if she was the only one besides Lily, who has nothing holding her back from treating Loren any differently from any agent in her way.
The glove covering her right hand comes off. It's tossed aside "I'm not even going to insult you with a choice to stand down."
She lies; Loren's seen her move faster. He'll have the time he needs to attack back before she even gets close.
<Pose Tracker> Meng Wu has posed.
The figure wearing a battered old long coat, dressed like an office lady would almost be comical if it weren't for the deadly serious look on her face. She has that aura about her whether she wants it or not. With the wind blowing her hair around. Watching the gathering people a short distance away. She makes a minute adjustment to her top, pulls her coat tighter and walks forward, shoulders back and ready. She doesn't really announce herself persay right away. It's like she's looking for something else. Expecting trouble maybe.
She has heard of the strange new creatures. She's even distracted momentarily trying to look at one. It takes a moment though. Back to business.
Her eyes watch both Azoth and Loren first and foremost. Hand slowly moving inside of the coat draped her shoulders, ready for anything.
It looks like other drifters have beaten her to the punch. That's fine. She does start to walk towards the group properly though.
She does speak up finally though, seeming like she'd forgotten she could speak for a moment. She'd been kind of intense there briefly. "I'm friendly." She nods to the drifters. "Wanted to check on something." That sounds a bit more natural. A bit worn down, but confident.
<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.
'It hurts,' Azoth says. Loren glances once his way, watching the pulse of electricity dance down his mechanical spine.
Loren doesn't say anything. Instead, his dour look grows only ever more drawn, the set of his jaw suggesting he's gritting his teeth. It's already too late for that, he chides himself.
Far too late, for here they are, just as expected. He'd known it couldn't be that easy. Someone must have alerted them, or they were keeping watch, or...
"Keil," he answers Lily in turn, narrowing his eyes. His mouth curls as if in a sneer: real distaste splashed against the tired picture the Gebler medic otherwise paints. "It's been a while, witch." In silence, he glances between her and Azoth, as if to thus make some sort of assessment between the two of them. "Hah. I didn't think you cared."
His gaze tracks to the mysterious Meng Wu and Hannah, close on Lily's heels. He beetles his brow. "...You don't know what you're talking about," he tells her, shaking his head. "Solaris is above things like 'rights'."
He must feel real good about himself, Xantia chimes in, appearing not long after. But of course: of course if Keil's here, she's here too. He presses his mouth thin, staring at Xantia for one good long moment. "And what are you suggesting I do? Let him go?" He shakes his head. "Of course not. I have orders to bring him back."
The same orders that Lan alludes to, falling in with the others. Lan-- of course she's here too. Her, and Gwen. "Stay out of this," he tells her -- both of them -- knowing all-too-well that they won't. That his friends will fight him to the very end, if that's what it takes.
Gwen won't even insult him by trying to talk him down, she says, which evokes a grimace from Loren: he's seen her move faster than that.
And indeed, she might have him at a disadvantage. Where some of the others bear weapons, Loren doesn't so much as look like he's got a single one on his person. Save for that detail, at a glance, he'd not be all that different from many of the other Drifters who had wandered into Energy Nede and updated their look a little bit accordingly.
And he is, apparently, very much alone. There are still no signs of any other Solaris operatives. There isn't even the tell-tale rumble of a Gear's approach. Other than his Ether, Loren may only have one weapon available to him--
"...Azoth."
And the thing is, it's the same person they've chased after him to try and free.
Loren closes his eyes. "Fight them. Hold them off until the shuttle arrives." He opens his eyes, his expression grim. "...That's an order."
Green light -- Ether -- snaps between him and Azoth in an arc, a single expression of Loren's will. If he's going to order Azoth to fight them, it seems, he's going to make sure Azoth's more than able.
And after that, his response towards the threat that his friends pose is a swift one: furrowing his brow, he shifts his stance in a way that Lan might find familiar, sending a sharp spray of stone and sand shooting in her and Lily's direction. It's followed up with another strained shift of his posture: he draws water Ether from the air about him to send firing in a jagged arc for Gwen. Perhaps it might even intersect her before she can shoot.
GS: Loren Voss spends 1 Combo on Reload! GS: Loren Voss has attacked Azoth with Spirit Dynamic! GS: Loren Voss has gained 2 Combo! GS: Loren Voss has attacked Lan Lilac with Terra Set! GS: Loren Voss has attacked Lily Keil with Terra Set! GS: Loren Voss has gained 1 Combo! GS: Loren Voss has attacked Gwen Whitlock with Aqua Sequence! GS: Loren Voss has gained 1 Combo! GS: Loren Voss has completed his action. GS: Azoth accepts Loren Voss's Spirit Dynamic for 0 hit points! GS: Hyper applied to Azoth! GS: Cover applied to Loren Voss! GS: FP up! Loren Voss's Reload!! GS: COUNTER! Gwen Whitlock counterattacks Loren Voss with Counter Attack! GS: Gwen Whitlock fails to charge Loren Voss's Aqua Sequence for 108 hit points! GS: Shield applied to Loren Voss! GS: Lily Keil successfully charges Loren Voss's Terra Set for 62 hit points! GS: Cover applied to Loren Voss! GS: FP up! Arcane Font! GS: Lan Lilac successfully evades Loren Voss's Terra Set for 29 hit points! GS: Cover applied to Loren Voss! GS: Loren Voss successfully guards Gwen Whitlock's Counter Attack for 27 hit points! GS: FP up! Power Burst!
<Pose Tracker> Azoth has posed.
Ceruledge stops short of joining everyone, remaining with Lan's Lunatone and Gwen's Joltik. Despite the urgency of the situation, it seems to readily accept keeping away from whatever is about to happen. Like Lan, Ceruledge has its own scar from what Azoth could not stop himself from doing. Maybe she intuited that much, too.
Each piece of Azoth twitches out of sync to an uncanny rhythm. He twists his sagging head toward the others as they arrive.
"Inevitable," he repeats. His form shudders as if with laughter. There is no sound for it. "Always... inevitable. It wasn't eNouGH tIMe... Error. Override. Reinitialize. Convert. Release. Please, release. Error. Override. Convert, convert, convert --" Azoth convulses with a crackle of energy crawling over him.
Loren is the one holding the leash. Anything Azoth might do now hinges entirely on whatever command he is given. That, too, is an inevitability everyone here already understands. Yet hope lives long enough for Azoth to watch Loren, lights pulsing like a weak heartbeat.
... The order is given. Ether arcs into Azoth and his dim circuits flare, overtaken by the same green color.
RELEASE
"Order received. ERROR. Corruptions detected. Reinitialize. Convert --
*RESTRAIN*
Azoth screeches a distorted, glitched cry and drops to the ground, landing on all fours like a beast and tearing across the earth. In a blur, he in the air to descend upon Wu, all claws. "Target identified in database. Suggested action: sTaY gONe!"
As he tears past, he does not land on the ground in his pivot so much as in the air above it, straightened and biped on bladed feet once more as a fan of energy blades flickers into existence beside him. Several of them fire off, erratic in their path to weave past Zephyr and interrupt his flight patterns before embedding around Hannah, trying to cut off the pair's mobility and scouting.
"DO nOt LIe, dO NOt lIE, Do nOT LIE..." That order from Loren, so long ago, now stuck and repeating, slightly remixed each time.
One blade remains. Xantia probably already knows who it's for before Azoth grasps his claw at the air just under it in a mockery of wielding and sails toward her to engage with a brutal cleave.
"I don't want to go back...!"
GS: Quick added to Azoth! GS: Azoth has activated Force Action: Boost! GS: Azoth has attacked Meng Wu with exec.azoc TRANSMUTE! GS: Azoth has gained 3 Combo! GS: Azoth's stances have changed to Avenger! GS: Azoth has attacked Hannah Curie with exec.mec QUARANTINE! GS: Azoth has gained 1 Combo! GS: Azoth has attacked Xantia with exec.mec DISPOSE! GS: Azoth has gained 1 Combo! GS: Azoth gains 10 FP from his Daredevil! GS: Azoth has completed his action. GS: Meng Wu successfully guards Azoth's exec.azoc TRANSMUTE for 74 hit points! GS: Jam applied to Meng Wu! GS: Poison blocked!
<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.
Lily has Pokeballs, too... but she won't be bringing out those partners, either. Not for this.
Lily hears it in Xantia's voice, feels it in her mind; it is not a good sign, no. But for all that they have sometimes been able to see eye to eye, Loren Voss is the enemy right now. But...
Lan. Lan does not want him harmed, she's sure. But...
Is there any way around that, now?
Gwen isn't going to insult him. Lily narrows her eyes.
A 'friendly' Meng Wu approaches--Lily can judge she probably is. But Loren, of course... has that reaction. It washes over Lily, as she inclines her head. "It has." A pause. He didn't think she cared? "You assume I care about nothing. That isn't the case."
Things like 'rights'...
"Orders. Yes, you have orders."
And so does Azoth. "Xantia," she says. "I'll hold off Voss with them."
Azoth is in motion already. She knows Xantia will move. But she has a different matter to contend with--Sharp stone and sand rush for Lily, and she dives through it, suddenly sprinting towards the other mage and drawing her sword along the way.
"VOSS!" Lily calls. She lifts her spare hand, and extends it--light particles shimmer between the two of them before a column of nuclear fire ERUPTS between them.
GS: Lily Keil has attacked Loren Voss with Catenation! GS: Lily Keil has gained 1 Combo! GS: Lily Keil's stances have changed to Avenger! GS: Lily Keil gains 10 FP from her Daredevil! GS: Lily Keil has completed her action. GS: CRITICAL! Xantia successfully guards Azoth's exec.mec DISPOSE for 138 hit points! GS: Jam applied to Xantia! GS: Poison blocked! GS: Hannah Curie successfully evades Azoth's exec.mec QUARANTINE for 45 hit points! GS: Break, Jam, Poison, and Slow applied to Hannah Curie!
<Pose Tracker> Hannah Curie has posed.
Hannah snorts at Loren's response. "You ain't as above this world as you think you are." Okay, yes, they might be physically above it in some regards, but that's not what she means.
But he gives Azoth an order, and her frown only deepens, but there is no shock there. This was boudn to happen, really. And she is already pivoting her attention to the robot that's been enhanced with Ether, and that determination cracks for a moment as she says, quietly, "Sorry, Azoth."
She doesn't relish this, but backing down now won't help any of them, so fight it is.
Zephyr squawks and spills air out of his wings to execute a dive around those blades, swooping out of the path of those blades. Hannah is throwing herself aside, too, anger flaring in the back of her mind at Zephyr being attacked--but she knows that's not directly Azoth's fault.
She can't evade all the blades though, and takes a nick, grimacing as pain floods through her nerves.
Her crest graph has been crackling with electric sparks and she holds it forth, creating a ball of lightning that lashes threatening and barely looks like she has control of it. With her free hand she snaps her fingers and launches the mess at Azoth.
GS: Hannah Curie has attacked Azoth with Ball Lightning! GS: Hannah Curie has gained 3 Combo! GS: Hannah Curie takes 36 damage from Poison! GS: Hannah Curie has completed her action. GS: Azoth successfully charges Hannah Curie's Ball Lightning for 91 hit points! GS: Mighty applied to Hannah Curie! GS: FP up! Arcane Font!
<Pose Tracker> Xantia has posed.
In response to him asking whether Xantia expects him to let Azoth go, Xantia gives him a look as if to say '...yes?' Even knowing it's exceptionally unlikely to happen, it's objectively the right thing to do. Defy Solaris. Turn your back on Solaris. If Loren were capable of doing that, Xantia's demeanor would shift entirely around in an instant.
But of course he never would. She has zero expectations of Solarians, even without hearing it confirmed just how they think about the concept of 'rights'. So she isn't particularly surprised by the refusal.
Directly ordering Azoth to fight them though... Xantia did warn him not to make her any more angry, and in that he has failed spectacularly. She doesn't even hear Lily anymore, she is immediately on the move. "You...!" Just one word, dripping with venom.
And yet, it's not Loren who she heads towards. As much as she would like to show him her anger in no uncertain terms... she doesn't care about that nearly as much as she cares about stopping Azoth. She knows well that he doesn't want this. That he'd want to be stopped. And as the one who promised 'they can handle each other'... she can't help but feel like the responsibility falls on her.
...Everything about this is miserable. Azoth was already visibly struggling, and now he's forced into this. She meets his blade with her own, succeeding at preventing direct injury, but the force of the blow shatters the energy blade, shorting out her ARM. Which considering it's wrapped around her wrist hurts her as well, prompting a grimace. But no more than that. Aura of lightning crackling to life around her, she is quick to retaliate with a left-handed, electrically-charged punch, containing no less force than her right-handed punches do.
"...Azoth. I wish I knew a better way to help you right now. But I promise I'll free you from them one day. No matter what, I promise!"
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 10 FP from her Daredevil! GS: Xantia has completed her action. GS: Azoth successfully charges Xantia's Elemental Fury for 91 hit points! GS: Mighty applied to Xantia! GS: Azoth enters CONDITION GREEN!!
<Pose Tracker> Lan Lilac has posed.
Of course she's here. No matter how much distance she thinks he must need, Lan knows that there are things that people just have to do. No matter how distasteful they are, or how wrong. Because they're scared not to, or too weak to fight, or just because it needs doing.
It doesn't mean that Lan isn't sad to be fighting him again. It doesn't mean that Lan hasn't been sad for weeks now. She just... has things that need doing.
Gwen moves closer to Lily, Lan glances towards the other girls and then back at Loren and to Azoth, sneakers silent on the earth as she shifts minutely from one foot to the other. He's going to do it, she realizes with a dull kind of creeping dread. Loren is going to give the order to fight them.
When did her heart start pounding like this in her chest?
don't look at her don't look at her don't look at her
And then green Ether arcs between Loren and Azoth and Lan knows the way Loren's body moves; she's already kicking off of the ground, tracing a high arc above to come down on one foot behind Loren. She's got to separate him from Azoth first. She's got to play it smart, she'll kick him towards Gwen and Lily and count on his moment of disorientation to create an opening for them.
GS: Your next attack with the Counter flag will display with the name Irrational Number. 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> Gwen Whitlock has posed.
'Hold them off until the shuttle arrives.'
"Then that's all the time we get to change this shitshow 'round."
Charging into the water, Gwen takes the majority of the force straight on, water hitting her with as much force as any spray of sand.
Delaying her attack allowed her to prepare, at least; Loren can see the way Gwen's ARM manages to somehow take in some of the Ether energy in that aquatic attack. However, it's an imperfect conversion that only leads to a minimal amount of pure energy rocketing straight at him as her momentum carries her onto the other end of the attack. The force of the water did keep Gwen from reaching him just yet, but it's only a matter of time.
Between the three of them, Loren may be at a disadvantage, but he knows Gwen's tricks.
He may even know this one: the throwing knife, plucked out from her vest. When Lan tries to kick him towards Gwen, her knife slashes out towards Loren's shoulder, sparking with energy in her right hand.
GS: Gwen Whitlock has attacked Loren Voss with Comet Clip! GS: Gwen Whitlock has gained 1 Combo! GS: Gwen Whitlock has completed her action. GS: Loren Voss critically fails to guard Lily Keil's Catenation for 149 hit points! GS: Loren Voss successfully guards Lan Lilac's Dancing In The Dark for 25 hit points! GS: Disrupt applied to Loren Voss! GS: Blind blocked! GS: FP up! Power Burst! GS: Loren Voss successfully evades Gwen Whitlock's Comet Clip for 31 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Loren Voss gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Jam applied to Loren Voss! GS: Weaken blocked! GS: FP up! Reaction bonus!
<Pose Tracker> Meng Wu has posed.
Meng Wu admits somewhere in the back of her head that she should have just taken the shot first. Then explained herself. She's out of her usual territory and she's spread her available resources thin though.. Meaning nothing. This is her mistake.
Any assessment goes out the window though. Azoth has tagged her as a bounty of sorts. She reaches up and tears her coat, throwing it up towards Azoth at the same time she draws a pistole, twisting it in the way to try and parry the sudden strike. "Better bounty hunters have tried." She replies, only a hint of strain there. She's burying it.
With one pistol locked up, the slide caught at a strange angle, she pulls the other pistol free and continues in a quieter voice, "I don't have the authority to override him." She figured out what he meant. That's a tacit admission for what it's worth. "I might be able to arrange a different option though." Not that it'll be pleasant.
She swings the second pistol around, tracking Azoth, firing quick practiced shots. Clearly conscious of the crossfire as she rotates against the others to keep them out of the line.
She does give Loren a critical look as he states he has orders. She knows her own pride kept her lockstep long enough. There's even a part of her that wants to tell him to square his shoulders and act like a proper soldier. That gets shoved back down into the depths of drilled in memories though. "Go to ground." That's her answer to what he should do though. She knows that answer well enough!
Either way, if the machine wants to pull a disappearing act, she's all for the effort. That's why she showed up on just the hints of a rumor after all.
There's a brief grimace at the fact that she should have probably gathered her own men though. Might have bought some precious moments. This is why you don't improv.
GS: Meng Wu has attacked Azoth with Deal Out! GS: Meng Wu enters a Counter stance! GS: Meng Wu has gained 3 Combo! GS: Meng Wu has completed her action. GS: Azoth critically fails to charge Meng Wu's Deal Out for 127 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.
'Go to ground', that strange woman says. All he can do is look at her in that moment, as if what she's getting at isn't quite clicking.
At Hannah's words, Loren's expression contorts in distaste. "I said, you don't understand," he bites out, mere moments before he gives Azoth the order.
It goes over as well as he would have thought it might, as those arrayed before him react with varying degrees of shock, anger, and dismay. He doesn't look at Lan. He doesn't look at Gwen.
VOSS!
There is no escaping Lily's immediate wrath: though Loren throws up a hand and though Ether shines about his body in a last-ditch shield, there's still only so much he can do. Especially not when it's Lan who reaches him first, kicking at him and sending him staggering forward in Lily's direction. The distance between them disintegrates further into so much heat and light and fury...
...and Lily has show herself adept at eating through his barriers.
Something bright glints in the periphery of his vision as the spots before his eyes begin to fade and the terrible heat finally abates. A knife, alight with energy. Gwen has a--?
He grabs for her arm, trying to redirect the blow. He takes a glancing line down his upper arm for his troubles. His shirt will never be the same again.
He falls back, outnumbered even with Azoth at his side.
Something like this was going to happen. He had, of course, realized that from the start. So if he couldn't rely on backup -- couldn't rely on anyone else -- then, he'd thought, he'd have to make his own backup.
Even if it's costly. There's a saying among the officers of Gebler: glory or death. There's nothing glorious about this mission. But the Major had said not to disappoint her. Returning empty-handed isn't an option. So--
Both syringes are close at hand, tucked within the lining of his jacket. He'd made sure to slip them there before trying to cross the dimensional tear. With a practiced hand, Loren pops the caps and injects both into his left forearm, letting the syringes fall to the parched earth.
Almost immediately, it feels as if his veins are on fire, a roaring pyre that races up his arm as if all too delighted to consume the rest of him. Clutching his left arm to his stomach, he doubles over in a spasm of agony.
Someone cries out. He thinks, as much as he can think as his awareness begins to disintegrate, that it might have been him.
His grip on his left arm goes slack. It falls away to hang at his side. Slowly, beginning in a low chuckle and rising into something far more manic, Loren begins to laugh.
"I knew it! I KNEW it would work!" he declares to the ones who had come so far to stop him. His eyes are wide. Euphoria twists his mouth in a sort of expression that could loosely be called a grin. Even his frame as he stands there before them betrays the sort of wild energy that one usually associates with a live wire.
"Don't you see?! I've done it! I have! I've finally done it!! One wasn't enough! It had to be two! But now--!" he exults, spreading his arms wide. "--now I'm equal to the others! No, more than equal!!"
With deliberation he yanks his glasses from his face and pulls them aside. Small cores of light have begun to burn their way into existence about him, each burning in the same brilliant blue as a Cherenkov radiation.
"This is the power of a pure-blooded Solarian!!"
BGM: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X-Ywd7QYAFw
All of those points shine bright and something erupts from within them-- but not in the direction one would expect. Rather, as Lan and Gwen will find, the storm of brilliant blue rises in a gridlike array from below.
Loren's feet no longer touch the ground. "Witch," he says to Lily, and when he speaks to her thus, hate itself laces his words. "Watch! Watch and see just how you pale against our power!!" Once, she had demonstrated to him her own hatred.
Now it's his turn. Around him something like a spiral has begun to unwind itself, its edges continuing to unzip as it coils impossibly towards her. In the Solarian tradition, as she's learned, Ether is a fixed thing: an expression of four elements, rigidly defined. But Lily, having taught herself to control her own Ether, has always done much differently than Loren had insisted was possible. Here, having ascended a pharmaceutical mountain, he displays a power much like her own.
DC: You switch forms to Loren Awakened! DC: Loren Voss switches forms to Loren Awakened! GS: Loren Voss has attacked Gwen Whitlock with Prime Constant! GS: Loren Voss has attacked Lan Lilac with Prime Constant! GS: Loren Voss has attacked Lily Keil with Imaginary Number! GS: Loren Voss enters a Counter stance! GS: Loren Voss has gained 3 Combo! GS: Loren Voss has completed his action. GS: Lily Keil critically fails to guard Loren Voss's Imaginary Number for 318 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Lily Keil gains 1 additional Combo! GS: FP up! Arcane Font! GS: Strain! Loren Voss takes 150 damage! GS: Lan Lilac fails to evade Loren Voss's Prime Constant for 177 hit points! GS: Mute blocked!
<Pose Tracker> Azoth has posed.
Shots fire from Wu's pistol, denting into steel, but one striking into Azoth's mechanics with an explosive snap of a cord. Black liquid sputters across the sand. A bounty, Wu says. Better have tried. "Affirmative. But -- Solaris. Is worse, MAlIKovA." But even in this glitched, honest state from clashing code and twisting commands, Azoth is not willing to elaborate further -- even if he does not think Loren is of the mind, or in the position, to make a mess of anything.
Hannah's ball of electricity lashes for Azoth, as wild and uncontrolled as his motions. It smashes into his chassis with an explosion of dangerous sparks, but Azoth does not slow in his pursuit even as he begins leaving behind a trail of worrying black smoke. Yet while her sorcery does damage, Azoth's circuits briefly glow with the color of it. "You're -- holding back --"
Xantia meets Azoth head on. They can handle each other. They have to. Why do they have to? Why is it always inevitable? Azoth emits a distorted, minor key chord as his blade shatters in time with her own, barely able to look at her through the dissipating motes before overrides demand new action.
"...PrOMise iN pROgress... No... matter what happens..." It's a struggle merely to repeat it. He looks back up at Xantia. "Even if you stop. You --" Do not lie. It hurts, letting the hopelessness out. Xantia strikes with her first, and Azoth in the melee with his own claws to trade blows, for as long as she can handle him, it is a moment more of respite. "They might use you next --"
Something, someone, else to strangle Azoth's will with, because his code isn't enough for them.
But something is happening on the other side of he battlefield. Azoth straightens, clarity crawling past the distortions of his voice.
"Loren!" Not 'User Loren.' "Don't! St0P!"
A plea that comes too late, and would fall on deaf ears even if it had not. Azoth can no more protect Loren from the concoction now running in his veins than Azoth can protect himself from the overrides. The light of Azoth's visor shrinks to a thin, horrified line as Loren surrenders to horrific exultation, and arcs of red swarm Azoth like a hive of insects.
A critical error has just occurred.
Azoth rattles with power and error, screeching in digital steel. Energy blades form left and right, some deleting, some reappearing, none of them quite right as they fire off in all directions -- for Hannah, for Wu, for Zephyr, threatening to detonate on contact. His form seems like it's trying to delete itself from existence. And then... he's gone.
And back. And gone. And all over the battlefield in fits and spurts, clawing at nothing, throwing blades into the ground, tail stabbing at the air, until he is
behind
Lan Lilac
with his claw spinning like a drill straight for her middle.
GS: Azoth has activated Force Action: Extend! GS: Azoth spends 3 Combo on Gatling, loading 3 into Gatling! GS: Azoth enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: Azoth has attacked Meng Wu with exec.mec TERMINATE! GS: Azoth has attacked Hannah Curie with exec.mec TERMINATE! GS: Azoth has gained 2 Combo! GS: Azoth spends 1 Combo on Poison! GS: Azoth has attacked Xantia with exec.dior CRUNCH! GS: Azoth spends 1 Combo on Poison! GS: Azoth has attacked Lan Lilac with exec.dior SHRED! GS: Azoth gains 10 FP from his Daredevil! GS: Azoth has completed his action. GS: Hannah Curie successfully evades Azoth's exec.mec TERMINATE for 181 hit points! GS: CRITICAL! Lan Lilac critically fails to guard Azoth's exec.dior SHRED for 356 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Lan Lilac gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Jam applied to Lan Lilac! GS: Poison blocked! GS: COUNTER! Meng Wu counterattacks Azoth with Counter Attack! GS: Meng Wu fails to charge Azoth's exec.mec TERMINATE for 319 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Meng Wu gains 1 additional Combo! GS: CRITICAL! Azoth critically fails to evade Meng Wu's Counter Attack for 204 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Azoth gains 1 additional Combo!
<Pose Tracker> Lan Lilac has posed.
Loren won't even look at them.
That's fine. Lan wouldn't want to see whatever expression she must be wearing, either. She wouldn't want to look at the people she betrayed over and over and over, even if they understood why she was doing it. Maybe especially if she knew what she was doing was wrong, and hurtful, and would harm more people than it protected.
Again, if she were told that the alternative was all of Little Firelight fed into the lower levels of Etrenank to become more Worker Bees, Lan would put her head down and do whatever Gebler asked of her. She could protect maybe one or two. She could take her brother and run. But Loren's family doesn't have the ability to disappear onto the surface of Filgaia, so neither does Loren.
But moving closer to Loren brought her closer to Azoth, and Lan's entire body wants to go stiff and clumsy just from being so close to him. But it's okay. She's got this. She won't be surprised this time. She'll dash right after... Loren...
She recognizes those syringes, she realizes a second too late. Even though she's howling for him to STOP, because one is bad enough. "LOREN! DON'T!"
She starts for him, heart already in her throat, but 'eyes' open in the air around him. Light lances up from beneath her, raw Ether piercing.
Lan staggers backwards, bleeding--
--craning her head, eyes wide and shocked, to regard Azoth.
It's cold in Macalania. She didn't really dress warmly enough, but her crystal castle floats around her, shards of quartz forming a tiny galaxy around Lan as she alights on the snow. It feels like protection. They've saved the day. Nobody died. There is a screech
her white shawl blooms a red, red rose
Ink bursts from within her at the barest kiss of Azoth's claws, from her skin, from the scar the Stranger gave her. She's eclipsed by a tangle of black ribbon; they lash out at anything and anyone that gets too close.
One takes Azoth's offending arm off just above the elbow.
Lan (is it still Lan?) staggers back, black staining the soil under her feet.
DC: Lan Lilac switches forms to Lotus Eater! GS: Lan Lilac has activated Force Action: Lock On! GS: Lan Lilac has attacked Azoth with Destroying Angel! GS: Lan Lilac has gained 3 Combo! GS: Lan Lilac gains 5 FP from Sufferer! GS: Lan Lilac has completed her action. GS: Access! Lan Lilac takes 30 damage! GS: CRITICAL! Azoth successfully charges Lan Lilac's Destroying Angel for 179 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Azoth gains 1 additional Combo! GS: FP up! Arcane Font and Reaction bonus!
<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.
Xantia not hearing Lily worries Lily. It may end in heartbreak for Lan or Gwen... But at the same time, she isn't the type to hold back, either. Lily's eyes dart to Hannah for a moment. "Careful!" she advises.
They both know what it is to be careful with magic. Not just for their own sakes.
The shuttle... Gwen's right. That's how long they have. So Lily, bleeding from where the sharp stone cut her cheek, continues to charge Loren.
Everything changes, though, and she skids to a stop when it oes. She's eaten through his barrier, but she watches as he slips out those syringes. "Wh--"
"No! Don't!"
Not just one; two. More Drive than she'd taken, and when she took it she became a horror. Lily should strike while he's vulnerable, while he's invoking it. But that wild energy gives her pause. "Voss..."
The power of a pure-blooded Solarian.
He calls her 'Witch', and Lily grits her teeth. "Damn you, Voss!" But of course. It's what it's for, and she can't draw on the same, this time. Those cores of light hurt her eyes. His hate burns into her. She remembers that feeling...
That strange spiral rushes her, and Lily moves to form a barrier of her own. She remembers the lessons he gave her, as to stable, solid Solarian Ether.
This, it seems, is a different lesson; the dark barrier before her is shredded by that spiraling power, and Lily is knocked backwards in a horrific feedback explosion. She hits one knee at the back end of it, her jacket burned, her circuitry lighting up red as she draws on her magic to start repairing her body immediately.
"Watch out!" Lily advises everyone, chest rising and falling with labored breath. "He's on Drive! It's a Solarian compound that drastically increases his Ether!"
A peer to them, is it? Lily can see what it is like to fight herself.
And then she can see Azoth coming for Lan. "LAN!" she calls, using her first name. and then she sees. She sees it. The black ribbons that lash out...
"...Him."
Lily's eyes narrow. The hate threatens to overwhelm her, hate for that man, but she pulls it back, focuses. They are fighting Loren Voss, now. Loren, transcendent.
"Just stay alive!" Lily shouts. "...I'm sorry, Azoth. I don't think I can stop him like this. Not now."
She needs more power.
But for now, what she weaves is instead a lattice of purest ice. Lily rises to her feet and spreads her arms, spreading out the Ether as she does; despite the desert, it is abrubtly cold all around them, as forceful sorcery erects blue barriers before Lan, Gwen, and Lily that fade into them, mending, healing.
She grits her teeth as she feels the Stranger's power butt against her own. Focus.
GS: Lily Keil has attacked Lan Lilac with Glacier Heart! GS: Lily Keil has attacked Gwen Whitlock with Glacier Heart! GS: Lily Keil has attacked Lily Keil with Glacier Heart! GS: Lily Keil has gained 3 Combo! GS: Lily Keil's Avenger stance ends! GS: Cancel Bonus! Gained 5 FP! GS: Lily Keil has completed her action. GS: Lily Keil heals Lily Keil! She gains 178 temporary hit points! GS: Gwen Whitlock fails to guard Loren Voss's Prime Constant for 163 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Gwen Whitlock gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Mute blocked! GS: Lily Keil heals Gwen Whitlock! She gains 181 temporary hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Hannah Curie has posed.
She doesn't understand, Loren reiterates. "Darn tootin' I don't. Just 'cause they got power, Solaris thinks they know what makes right? That ain't any kind of world I'm willin' to tolerate."
She catches Lily's shouted warning and glances back to her to catch her eye, and then nods. "Got it!" That is indeed something they share. And one of Hannah's worries, bringing her power to bear without letting it go out of control.
Hannah is watching with a grim, set expression as her spell smashes into Azoth, and the trail of smoke does make her worry, deep down, for the damage she's doing to one she considers friend. But there's more worry as she sees that circuitry glow. "You're absorbin'--"
He didn't always do that, did he?
Holding back. Hannah scowls. "No, I ain't." She's fighting seriously, yes, but she's not tapping into... that power as fully as she has on other occasions. She can't.
She might not be able to avoid it forever, though.
But Azoth cries out to Loren, and Hannah looks--Two syringes, and an unsettling power that even makes her skin crawl, despite what she can bring to bear. "What in the world--"
But the others are keeping him busy, and she's got her hands full with Azoth, who can apparently absorb her magic now. More energy blades form, and there is a squawk from high overhead as Zephyr attempts more daring maneuvers, but this time there are a few feathers dislodged in the wake of those attacks, one of them split in half by a blade just grazing past.
Down on the ground, Hannah is doing her best to weave through the onslaught, though she's having difficulties with Zephyr's attention so divided on her own defense. She's moving as fast as she can (this is not a mage who atrophies at a book all day, she is more solid than she appears and she can move), but there are still scores of cuts and lashes all over her body even as she avoids the absolute worst of the blades that befall her.
"Stop attackin' Zephyr," she scowls out. She knows it's probably just his overrides treating him as a threat to deter her, but--attacking an animal is still low. She withdraws a crest graph, this one thrumming with a strong orange glow. Her foot comes up and she stomps on the ground.
The ground rumbles and shakes--enough to worry, not enough to unblance--but there is a series of cracks spreading in the ground charging right for Azoth and kicking up dust and pebbles all the while. They fall silent for just a moment, before a bevy of stone spikes burst out of the ground for the robot.
GS: Hannah Curie spends 3 Combo on Gatling, loading 3 into Gatling! GS: Hannah Curie has attacked Azoth with Tremor Spike! GS: Hannah Curie has gained 3 Combo! GS: Hannah Curie takes 41 damage from Poison! GS: Hannah Curie has completed her action. GS: Azoth fails to charge Hannah Curie's Tremor Spike for 184 hit points! GS: Mute applied to Azoth! GS: FP up! Arcane Font and Reaction bonus! GS: CRITICAL! Xantia successfully evades Azoth's exec.dior CRUNCH for 160 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Xantia gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Jam applied to Xantia! GS: Poison blocked!
<Pose Tracker> Gwen Whitlock has posed.
Gwen should have realized that something was up the moment Loren had been backed into a corner. He wouldn't back down. He couldn't. He was the perfect soldier, being someone with so much to lose, while being held to the standard of someone long since dead.
He's not stupid. He'd have a Plan B.
"Loren, what are you doing--" Gwen's eyes widen as the syringes come out. She barely knows what Drive is, but she knows what what an animal acts like when it's back against a corner.
Lily won't have to explain; what happens afterwards is enough for Gwen to understand. Loren's mannerisms, his laughter, his speech are all transformed. The fact that he's now floating is icing on the cake.
Gwen checks on Lan at that moment to see her reaction, right as Azoth appears behind Lan.
Immediately, Gwen redirects her course to try to intercept Azoth's attack on Lan, but she's never been that fast.
In that split second, as Gwen sees Lan waver, staggering backwards, the redhead redirects her attention to Lily. There won't be another time like this, the way Gwen looks at Lily directly and, with only a semblence of her usual, lazy drawl, directly tries to give the Second-in-Command of the Black Wolves a direct command. "Lily, get her out of here! _NOW_!" Lily will see the whites of the courier's eyes, as black lace springs from Lan, revealing what scares the courier even more.
"... Shit..." she wheezes, as Azoth's arm sails off. "We have to separate all of them." A tall order, and one Gwen can't do if she borrows all her ARM's power.
Instead, she goes halfway, right fist curled into a claw, the yellow gold organic circuitry contrasted against Lily's red. It only goes up her right ARM and the right side of her face, and it takes valuable time to do, but it may be the only thing that'll keep Gwen herself alive in the next few minutes. "The Stranger's power might've taken over Lan... man... I really screwed the planning on all this, didn't I? But it ain't time to lie down yet...!"
GS: Gwen Whitlock has attacked Gwen Whitlock with Bounding Flight! GS: Gwen Whitlock has gained 1 Combo! GS: Gwen Whitlock has completed her action. GS: Gwen Whitlock accepts Gwen Whitlock's Bounding Flight for 0 hit points! GS: Amplify, Hyper, and Quick applied to Gwen Whitlock! GS: Lily Keil heals Lan Lilac! She gains 186 temporary hit points! GS: FP up! SOS Overdrive!
<Pose Tracker> Xantia has posed.
It's a question that Xantia has asked herself many times. If things have to be the way they are. If there really isn't something more she can do for Azoth. For all her power, sometimes she feels so weak.
Not physically, of course. Physically, she can roll with Azoth's punches - literally this time. She gets knocked down, but springs back to her feet a mere second after, almost making a show of displaying that she can take it. Bruised, but not beaten, not even bleeding. It has nothing to do with being boastful - she needs to make sure that Azoth knows that he doesn't need to worry about fighting her. This is about reducing the anguish he feels, in what little capacity she personally can manage. Which is also why she resolutely refutes Azoth's unfinished statement.
"They will never use me."
She can't promise that, of course. But she feels certain of it.
Yet somehow, the one who breaks her stride... is Loren. She could sense that dangerous Ether spike. That would be one thing. But then, that reaction from Azoth. She's nothing if not perceptive. She can tell that had nothing to do with the overrides, it was genuine concern. For a fleeting moment, she feels conflicted, and uncertain.
A moment that costs her any chance of trying to intervene with what's happening to Azoth in the wake of that development. She's too late to catch up before he disappears, and she's left with a horrifyingly good view of what happens to Lan by the end of it. Azoth pays for it in short order, which is when Xantia makes her move, coming up behind him and putting her copious physical strength to use to try and physically restrain him, and pull him back. ...Really, it's as much to stop him from hurting others as it is to stop him from getting hurt more than he already did. Whatever's happening with Lan is dangerous, that much is obvious.
"Stop! You have to stop!" She yells, but she isn't even sure who she is addressing at this point.
GS: Xantia has attacked Azoth with Forced Restraint! GS: Xantia has gained 1 Combo! GS: Xantia gains 10 FP from her Daredevil! GS: Xantia has completed her action. GS: Sneak! The true nature of Xantia's attack becomes clear! GS: Azoth critically fails to charge Xantia's Scarlet Eclipse for 256 hit points! GS: Xantia drains Azoth! Xantia gains 96 temporary hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Xantia has posed.
Can't blame Xantia for using her energy-draining ability to put a little more oomph behind her restraining effort. This is not a little kitty cat she's trying to handle here.
<Pose Tracker> Meng Wu has posed.
"I know." Wu responds to Azoth's warning. It's why she's stuck her neck out after so long. "Pulling strings and waiting isn't going to cut it though." There is a grimace at a name she's abandoned though. "She is actually dead though. Wrong person." Figuratively of course.
Even with sunglasses, she does lift her arm as the myriad of spells, some brighter than others fire off. Catching Loren's action too late, trying to interject, "Kid I wouldn't do-" and she's too late. She'd actually tried to muster her old voice. Drill instructor sharp. She's rusty, she's got a different approach these days.
It's why she's slow on reacting to Azoth's malfunction. The blade catching her square. She grits her teeth, staggering with knuckles white against the grips of her pistols. Training, drills and sheer determination has her power through. Snapping off a quick pair of shots at the machine in retaliation, "Hah.. better than I thought." Yeah it hurt a little.
She adds to the mess of it all though. Kicking her heel into the ground, she adds to the spikes created by Hannah with a few precisely carved stone pillars followed by a pair of shots, left and right. The slide on the first is locked now, the jam not cleared. Though with a smack against her hip, the caught shell at least rattles loose. She'll have to fix the other part in a moment.
She's clearly an ether user, sending it out both with the pillar and the shots fired. A faint green visible as the shell ejects. Quickly dissipating. Enchanting on the fly's a fun trick! It seems her intention is to disable Azoth though. They're on an even shorter timeline at this point and it's a lot easier to drag someone out of harm's way when they're not fighting back with energy blades.
There is a wry comment directed to Gwen, "No plan ever survives first contact anyway." Not that she knows the woman or vice versa. It's true enough!
There's a comment on pure blooded Solarian, "Pride's the first step-" that might be a dig at herself as much as anything. She thought it was funny. It's a nice distraction from the new holes and the horror of what's actually happening. She presses on though! She would know all about pride being her enemy. It's why she's not running!
A look to the drifters gathered, then to Azoth and the floating figure. One pistol on each. She should be able to get the other rechambered in a hurry.. right?
"Get him parted and out if you can." Actual concern there in her voice even! He said he didn't want to go and she has some personal beliefs in that area. Though her choice of words might be a bit grim.
GS: Meng Wu has attacked Azoth with Lucky For Some! GS: Meng Wu has gained 1 Combo! GS: Meng Wu has completed her action. GS: Gamble: Very High! Azoth critically fails to charge Meng Wu's Lucky For Some for 200 hit points! GS: Meng Wu drains Azoth! Meng Wu gains 100 temporary hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.
"And what," he asks of Hannah, "are you intending to do about that?"
Do not lie, he'd ordered Azoth, so long ago.
Azoth had never lied to him since. Particularly not now, when he declares to the world that he doesn't want to go.
It's another thing Loren can't think about. Won't think about. He refuses to. And so he injects into his veins something that ensures that he won't have to.
He can hear them yelling as the drug burns through him, setting every nerve alight with its raw promise. Lan, Gwen-- even Azoth. What are you doing. Don't. Stop. Kid, I wouldn't--
It's already too late. It's been too late since the moment he stepped into Energy Nede. No, before then, back when he'd made up his mind about what he was going to do to himself if he had to.
Leah had made it clear, after all: further failure wouldn't be tolerated.
"Now do you see where you belong, witch?!" he calls out at Lily, his delight at her apparent struggle and hatred for her making for a particularly ugly mask of an expression on his face. She brings ice to bear before him, weaving a barrier to hold him at bay, and this provokes only laughter from the transcended Loren. "That's right! Run! Run and hide like the rats you are!!" he calls out, almost sounding as if he's enjoying himself in this particular moment. Light traces in flickers behind him like some parody of a sacred tree.
But there's Azoth, right behind Lan. His claws catch the light as he drives that merciless hand for her.
So long as someone like Lan is an enemy to Solaris, Leah had told him once, then Azoth would treat her as such. It's not a surprise that what had happened to Lan in the ice field of Macalania had taken place.
Loren had tried to tear Azoth apart for that. Only Lan's precarious state had forced him to tend to her instead.
Is there any part of him that remembers it now, sunk deep into the clutches of the drug that rides him?
Perhaps so. Loren surges forward, aloft through the grace of the power granted to him. "She's mine!" he snarls at Azoth. Light, cast in the form of an infinitely winding, begins to coil like a serpent as if to intercept--
It doesn't connect. Lan, bleeding the black ribbons of the infection the Stranger so endowed her, protects herself this time.
Does some part of Loren -- the part that's really Loren, the part that isn't this thing that's taken his place -- recognize what's happened? He does stall for that one singular moment. The light that had coiled about him disintegrates into particles, then not even that.
But it would be a mistake to take this as some sort of return to himself. That look on his face of naked contempt says everything.
Thin lines begin to streak upwards at regular intervals, outlining the 'square' about where they are all arrayed. They but presage the beginning: here additional lines join them, here lines become a two-dimensional plane. Here the planes -- brilliant, shimmering, blue -- draw upwards to some indistinct point and here
they turn
and twist apart
and join again
in a way that should not be possible. According to classical physics, that is.
GS: Loren Voss has attacked Lan Lilac with Non-Euclidean Space! GS: Loren Voss has attacked Gwen Whitlock with Non-Euclidean Space! GS: Loren Voss has attacked Lily Keil with Non-Euclidean Space! GS: Cover expired! GS: Loren Voss has completed his action. GS: Lily Keil successfully evades Loren Voss's Non-Euclidean Space for 92 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Lily Keil gains 1 additional Combo! GS: FP up! Arcane Font! GS: Healthy! For entering Condition Green, Lily Keil receives 100 temporary hit points. GS: Lily Keil enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: Gwen Whitlock critically evades Loren Voss's Non-Euclidean Space for 0 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Gwen Whitlock gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Lan Lilac successfully guards Loren Voss's Non-Euclidean Space for 31 hit points! GS: Lan Lilac enters CONDITION GREEN!!
<Pose Tracker> Azoth has posed.
Xantia promises she'll never be used, and there's a moment where Azoth looks at her longer than he should in a fight. His featureless face offers little in the way of expression, but his antenna dare to lift, just slightly.
Hannah observes correctly, to a point. Ambient energy was one thing, but to now take sorcery and feed on it so directly -- that is new. The question is, is he pointing out her holding back because he wants to taste her other power... or because he believes he can't?
If it's the latter, then Lan gives him his wish. Inky ribbons bite black steel and Azoth's clawed arm hits the ground, devoid of light and leaving him with a sparking stub. The Strange's gift, Azoth's glitching overrides, and Loren's Drive empowered Ether all now scour this battlefield. With the one claw Azoth still has, he begins tearing at himself, raking across his chassis in thick grooves and cracking his visor.
"GeT OUt gET OuT GEt oUT gEt Out GET OUT OF ME!"
Once again, Azoth threatens to glitch out and somewhere else until a spike of rock shoots from the earth and impales through the side of his chest. He snarls out an inhuman cataphony, tail darting out to sever it from the ground and his claw ripping it from his chest to crush. His body slumps with the effort, still floating, but riddles with damage and sparks. A series of blades form and fan out, brilliant and shining crimson, ready to seek their targets before Ether shots riddle him. They flicker. They do not die.
Xantia collides with him, telling him he has to stop.
Azoth's floating body hits the ground, pinned, energy draining from him to bring him to a quiet.
Do not lie.
"...I wish... you could fight me with a smile..."
The air around the battlefield distorts with pixelated light in blue and fuchsia. Like a mirage in the desert, a mechanical ring appears -- massive in scale, more appropriate for a Gear to be wielding. But there is no Gear present.
Not in body.
The ring of white and black metal, shaped like snakes devouring one another, begins to spin. Energy gathers at its center, faster, faster, faster.
"EXEC.OUROBOROS... ACCESSING. INITIALIZE TARGETS: ALL IDENTIFIED SUBJECTS"
"Execute."
A massive beam of energy fires from the ring, uncontrolled and barely precise as it recoils from the effort, blasting over the entire battlefield with a deafening explosion of its erratic power. The color in Azoth drains further -- but what does that matter? He's also in the blast zone.
GS: Azoth has activated a Boss Action! GS: Azoth has activated Force Action: Full Clip! GS: Azoth has activated Force Action: Snipe! GS: Azoth spends 6 Combo on Headshot, Poison, and Gatling, loading 3 into Gatling! GS: MYSTIC ARTE! Azoth has attacked Azoth with exec.azoc OUROBOROS! GS: MYSTIC ARTE! Azoth has attacked Xantia with exec.azoc OUROBOROS! GS: MYSTIC ARTE! Azoth has attacked Meng Wu with exec.azoc OUROBOROS! GS: MYSTIC ARTE! Azoth has attacked Hannah Curie with exec.azoc OUROBOROS! GS: MYSTIC ARTE! Azoth has attacked Lily Keil with exec.azoc OUROBOROS! GS: MYSTIC ARTE! Azoth has attacked Gwen Whitlock with exec.azoc OUROBOROS! GS: CRITICAL! Azoth accepts Azoth's exec.azoc OUROBOROS for 587 hit points! GS: Jam and Poison applied to Azoth! GS: Strain! Azoth takes 50 damage! GS: Azoth has Fallen! He is no longer able to fight! GS: Azoth has Fallen! He is no longer able to fight! GS: Lily Keil has activated Force Action: Guard! GS: CRITICAL! Lily Keil critically fails to guard Azoth's exec.azoc OUROBOROS for 467 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Lily Keil gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Jam and Poison applied to Lily Keil! GS: Lily Keil enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: Strain! Azoth takes 50 damage! GS: Azoth has Fallen! He is no longer able to fight! GS: CRITICAL! Gwen Whitlock successfully guards Azoth's exec.azoc OUROBOROS for 257 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Gwen Whitlock gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Gwen Whitlock's Jam Ward may block the effect! GS: Jam and Poison blocked! GS: FP up! Countermeasures! GS: Strain! Azoth takes 50 damage! GS: Azoth has Fallen! He is no longer able to fight! GS: Meng Wu has activated Force Action: Guard! GS: CRITICAL! Meng Wu critically fails to guard Azoth's exec.azoc OUROBOROS for 0 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Meng Wu gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Jam applied to Meng Wu! GS: Poison blocked! GS: Strain! Azoth takes 50 damage! GS: Azoth has Fallen! He is no longer able to fight! GS: CRITICAL! Xantia marginally evades Azoth's exec.azoc OUROBOROS for 400 hit points! GS: Poison applied to Xantia! GS: Jam blocked! GS: FP up! Reaction bonus! GS: Strain! Azoth takes 50 damage! GS: Azoth has Fallen! He is no longer able to fight! GS: Hannah Curie has activated Force Action: Guard! GS: CRITICAL! Hannah Curie marginally guards Azoth's exec.azoc OUROBOROS for 401 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Hannah Curie gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Jam applied to Hannah Curie! GS: Poison blocked! GS: Strain! Azoth takes 50 damage! GS: Azoth has Fallen! He is no longer able to fight!
<Pose Tracker> Lan Lilac has posed.
ust stay alive i'm sor at in the world ave to separate all of th p you have to s n ever survives first conta
she's mine
Physics seeks to warp the air around Lan's hidden form. The ink ribbons strain against space, asserting their own will against Loren's incursion. Underneath them, Lan is still - her eyes are closed, her arms wrapped around herself. The planes of blue crack... and shatter.
Something settles onto her, cool and soothing. Like a friend's hand on her shoulder, like a cool cloth on her forehead. Lan gulps for breath at the heart of the Stranger's madness, cocooned in darkness and afraid.
solaris will be the death of you
you will be the death of solaris
<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.
Where she belongs, is it? Lily grits her teeth in anger. Yes, it's an ugly expression. He seems to be enjoying himself. This is the man Lan cares about. ...No; she's seen other sides of him.
If she thinks this is his 'true' self, what does it say about who she was on Drive? A disconcerting thought. One she pushes away.
She looks to Wu, for a moment--mysterious. But helping. She'll have questions later. But she has to look to Gwen, next, because--
"...I don't know that I can," she says, pained, seeing what has become of Lan. But then, Loren.
Thin lines streak up... Lily's fist clenches. "Oh, no you don't--"
He can pull the same tricks she does. It's not pleasant on the receiving end. Space twists and warps, and Lily finds her body trying to do the same. She asserts herself with sheer Etheric will, glowing with a black aura as an explosion bursts around her, the very ground shattering at her feet as she redirects the force. It's an effort, though; she feels the blood trickle down her ear. But if she transforms to try to match him, then Lan will--
It is not Lan she should've been worrying about. The Ouroboros Ring distorts the world. It spins, it spins, it spins, and Lily throws out her hand to erect a barrier of golden nuclear force--
It shatters audibly, a terrible noise rushing above the blast, as Lily is engulfed by a beam. She's thrown from it bodily, through the air to hit the ground and roll. She comes to a stop with a dull groan. But lan is there, still. They're all here. And that transport could be here at any moment...
She's still burning. One thing at a time. Lily closes her eyes, and draws on familiar magic. She extends one hand--
A dull red glow begins to surround the combatants on her side, which blossoms into a crimson aura, radiant. It forces wounds closed, a fiery heat suffusing the hurt to heal and mend.
She starts to get up. "Xantia!" Lily calls. "It's over! We have to withdraw!"
GS: Lily Keil has attacked Lan Lilac with Red Aura! GS: Lily Keil has attacked Meng Wu with Red Aura! GS: Lily Keil has attacked Xantia with Red Aura! GS: Lily Keil has attacked Gwen Whitlock with Red Aura! GS: Lily Keil has attacked Hannah Curie with Red Aura! GS: Lily Keil has attacked Lily Keil with Red Aura! GS: Lily Keil has gained 1 Combo! GS: Lily Keil takes 37 damage from Poison! GS: Lily Keil has completed her action. GS: Lily Keil heals Lily Keil! She gains 88 temporary hit points! GS: Restore! Jam and Poison removed! GS: Lily Keil heals Lan Lilac! She gains 88 temporary hit points! GS: Restore! Jam removed! GS: Hyper applied to Lily Keil! GS: Lily Keil heals Hannah Curie! She gains 95 temporary hit points! GS: Restore! Break and Poison removed! GS: CRITICAL! Lily Keil heals Xantia! She gains 113 temporary hit points! GS: Restore! Jam and Poison removed! GS: Lily Keil heals Meng Wu! She gains 94 temporary hit points! GS: Lily Keil heals Gwen Whitlock! She gains 94 temporary hit points! GS: Gwen Whitlock enters CONDITION GREEN!!
<Pose Tracker> Xantia has posed.
Xantia has no idea who Meng Wu is other than 'an ally in this fight', but she knows Ether when she senses it. Even some unusual applications of it. Interesting, but not something she can follow up right now. Right now, she's just grateful for the help in suppressing Azoth, in so far as that's possible. And it... appears to be effective. But those words he tells her...
She used to smile in fights all the time. She could find something to enjoy in just about every single one. Just when was the last time she was able to genuinely feel good about a fight...? And that's just in general. When it's Azoth...
She, too, won't lie. "...I can't smile when I know you're suffering."
These aren't the sorts of mental distractions one can afford in the middle of a fight. Especially not when the one you're restraining is still capable of acting. Xantia knows well that weapon. She's acted to prevent it from firing more than once, knowing it was something that absolutely couldn't be allowed to happen.
But something is different, this time. Xantia realizes it immediately. She's a target, even though she's in direct contact with Azoth. He can't target her without targeting himself.
"No! You can't!"
In a panic, her impulse is not to attempt to shut down Azoth, or the Ouroboros. Instead, she attempts to leap clear of the blast zone, while still holding onto Azoth.
This... doesn't work at all. The explosion is far too large to get clear of with the time she had to spare, and that would be without trying to carry someone else with you. At least it saves the both of them from being right at ground zero, but Xantia is struck by plenty of force to launch her quite some distance away, as well as cause her grip to slip, leaving Azoth behind to fall where he may.
She impacts the ground hard, where she remains unmoving right up until the familiar sensation of Lily's fiery brand of healing magic rouses her. She groans, and struggles to rise back up. She hears Lily's call to withdraw... which almost makes her want to lie right back down. She just feels miserable, for reasons beyond her physical condition.
<Pose Tracker> Gwen Whitlock has posed.
"It's okay," Gwen says to Lily. "What's done's done. Now, we just need to... SHIT!"
It shouldn't be possible. Before, Gwen couldn't get to Lan's side. Now, as the out of control Loren grasps at the building blocks of matter, Gwen, somehow, evades through those lines, like a mouse going through a crack that wasn't supposed to be there. That, or she *made* that crack, and... no, that's not possible for her to do, she's still here.
When her left eye is closed and her right eye open, it becomes just a little better to see, but barely, in the same way some things that should make sense normally just don't when under the full spell of the Mockingbird. What Loren is going through, Gwen surmises, is not unlike her own state, only much, much moreso. Her going to the Stranger for help was because that state was limited by her body's own. And it ended with her nearly destroying part of a giant city, or even worse, if others hadn't intervened.
There is a point in front of her, and she is here. Loren is there. And she just needs to...
-----!
She rolls on the other side, on the other side of it, spittle and blood coughing from her mouth. Her body wasn't primed to do this; Lily's abilities were probably the Ace card that enabled her to do it in the first place. How will Loren feel, after all this is over?
'Execute.'
It would make sense, from one kind of symbolic Ouroboros to another, that Azoth's attack would be the one to hit Gwen. Her own ARM soaks a chunk of the damage, but the rest is for Gwen to take on.
Lily's magic comes in handy again, m just enough to make that difference between her being dead and... not dead.
"We need to get Azoth out of here, before that shuttle arrives," Gwen rasps, getting up. That, or help me get Loren down. And..." She spares a glance towards Lan-- or what is there where Lan was. "We'll figure it out as we go. If nothing else... I'll figure something out, if she gets hostile towards us. We can't lose Azoth. We promise him."
Focus.
She charges in, right ARM blazing with electric energy, coming straight towards Loren. No flashy dodging; that last trick was too much already. There is only one direction to do, and it's to knock Loren out, by any means necessary. "LOREN!"
He may never come back from this. Lan may never come back from this. But in this moment, Gwen might be able to at least *try* to keep things from getting worse.
Which, naturally, means she is going to slam her fist straight into Loren's midsection.
GS: Gwen Whitlock has activated Force Action: Lock On! GS: Gwen Whitlock has activated Force Action: Snipe! GS: Gwen Whitlock spends 2 Combo on Headshot! GS: Gwen Whitlock has attacked Loren Voss with Coronal Discharge! GS: Gwen Whitlock has completed her action. GS: COUNTER! Loren Voss counterattacks Gwen Whitlock with Irrational Number! GS: CRITICAL! Loren Voss fails to charge Gwen Whitlock's Coronal Discharge for 187 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Loren Voss gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Jam applied to Loren Voss! GS: Charge!! You gain 50 FP! (That's 35 more than usual!) GS: CRITICAL! Gwen Whitlock successfully guards Loren Voss's Irrational Number for 147 hit points! GS: FP up! Reaction bonus!
<Pose Tracker> Hannah Curie has posed.
What is she going to do about it? "Watch me." They're past the point for philosophical debates now anyway.
But she'll let her actions speak for her, instead.
It's a gamble, to try and feed Azoth more power--she could, potentially, overload him, but she could also empower him. And that's even before she factors in what her strange, erratic magic is (or rather, factors in how she does not understand what it is, despite her best efforts.) But the key thing for now is to survive the fight.
There are some very worrying (and honestly somewhat interesting, because the nerd part of her loves tinkering with geometry and mathematics) things happening on the other side of the battlefield, but she can't pay any attention that because there are some very worrying things happening here.
Zephyr does not need any encouragement to get out of the way of the ring of incoming energy on the ground.
Hannah, though, is unlucky in that she does not have that much time to cross the distance (she is faster than one might expect for a nerdish mage, but she is still not an athlete.)
So she will end up using more power after all.
She pulls another crest graph from her pouch and swipes it in a wide arc around herself. It is just barely formed bu the time the energy blast strikes, a shimmering, crackling barrier of ethereal energy that threatens to crack and buckle under the strain of a Gear's might. She is engulfed--
And when the blindingly bright light dies down she is, somehow, remarkably, still standing. Her eyes are shimmering green for a moment, and within her etheral barrier the air shimmers and twists, corrupted (or impure) magic roiling about within it. She has both hands stuck out, as if she were physically reinforcing the barrier with her physical might.
All at once it all vanishes: the barrier, the glimmer in her eyes, the roiling magic around her, and her footing. With a grunt she falls over onto her hands and knees, breathing hard, panting for breath.
Too close. She's not sure she has the strength to get up. But Lily healing aura comes, suffusing warmth and strength into her body. One foot under her. A strained push on a knee to start rising up. Get the other foot under her.
And she's standing again.
Lily's calling for a retreat. There's not much they can do with Loren empowered as he is. "I'll provide some cover," she manages to get out. A crest graph glowing an icy blue comes out, and she holds it aloft. Ice starts to form and coalesce in the air in the shape of spears, long and cruel and sharp, with a jagged tip and serrated edges. But not just one spear, as people have seen before--a second, and then a third, and then a rain of spears held at the ready, waiting for one final gesture.
She waits for Gwen to get clear, for everyone to get clear, and then slams her hand down, setting them on Loren.
She barely has the strength to stand, she can't even muster enough to pick up Azoth, but she hopes that last attack will buy people time to retreat as she turns to retreat. Zephyr is already swooping down to the pokemon that got left clear of the battlefield, trying to impress upon them that it's time to go.
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: Jam, Mighty, and Slow expired! GS: Hannah Curie has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Meng Wu has posed.
Wu's well aware she's getting funny looks. Mysterious stranger rolls in, starts shooting. Insists they're here to help. Who wouldn't be suspicious? For now though, the mask slips. She had been sincere in trying to save Azoth from. From Solaris? Himself? It's a brief moment of sadness. Then she realizes what's up and with a twirl, the pistols are stashed away and she starts to move forward, dragging rock up around her. Contain the blast. Cover. Drag ball of rock with magic until they're out of the way and can go incognito for a bit and- She's still in a glorified office lady getup. Her heel strikes at just the right angle and down she goes. All that dignity and grace (You know, behind the grime and blood) just went out the window. A rather undignified and out of character (For anyone that hadn't seen her without her guard up) 'Wu-woah shit." as she ends up partially buried by her own attempt at creating a barrier. Right as the beam goes over head.
To add insult to injury (Almost literally), Lily's attempt to cover her lands at almost the same time. Between her ether and Lily's well.. at least she's not bleeding.
There's no recovering that.
She gets back to her feet and almost like she's about to throw a tantrum, winds up a kick against the earth. Charged with ether, it creates a shotgun blast of sand, grit and misery. Something of a smoke screen! Sure there's no dignity in the display, but what can you do?
"On your feet. Get moving." She's put that iron in her voice again, trying to get through any reverie. A hand offered to Xantia as she pulls one pistol to cover. She doesn't know them, but she's not leaving them behind. She does linger though, clearly intending to buy any time necessary.
GS: Meng Wu has attacked Loren Voss with Sandblast! GS: Meng Wu has gained 1 Combo! GS: Jam expired! GS: Meng Wu has completed her action. GS: Loren Voss critically fails to guard Hannah Curie's Frigid Lance for 169 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Loren Voss gains 1 additional Combo! GS: FP up! Arcane Font! GS: Loren Voss successfully guards Meng Wu's Sandblast for 11 hit points! GS: Disease applied to Loren Voss! GS: Blind blocked! GS: FP up! Arcane Font!
<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.
Azoth had torn at himself when Loren had found him. It had been terrible to behold: a glitch in the system, perhaps, or some last desperate attempt of a cornered animal against a foe they couldn't even touch. It's echoed again now before Xantia's attack lays him out. Were Loren at all in his right mind, he might have begin to sweat in this moment.
But Azoth is not so easily defeated. No: not even overriden with system errors and glitches, he may be down, but--
All around Loren, destruction unfolds. Only two are spared the onslaught: one from the gift she bears within her, perhaps.
The other, by the grace of Leah's directives, one assumes.
Loren would have been aghast at the scale of destruction. Hadn't he once seen Azoth nearly give into such before?
TThe Loren before them now spreads his arms wide and laughs, a near-hysterical edge creeping into the edges of his delight. "Do you see?! DO YOU SEE?! You will all fall before us!" he declares to all and sundry.
Lily, still standing, does what she can to salvage the wounded, to try for a retreat before all is lost.
Lan lies consumed for now by her shadows.
Xantia, wounded, still struggles to stand and defend the fallen Azoth.
And Gwen, for good or for ill, refuses to give up. She races right for Loren, her fist shining with all the power it can presently draw upon, and slams it right into his gut.
He drops. Drive coursing through his veins or not, he's still burdened with a flesh-and-blood body and all the limitations that come with it. Unfortunately for Gwen, though, for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction: her only warning will be the points of light that open like eyes in thin air before her. The burst of force and light, when it comes, seems to erupt from another direction altogether.
There is a roar of engines. Something is coming in hot and fast.
"Ha... hahaha! That was a cheap one, Gwen! But that's alright! It's already too late for you!" Loren declares hoarsely, rising again to his feet (to the air). He rounds towards all of those who remain arrayed before him, the light distorting about him as if to trace fleetingly the paths of ambient particles. Already, they seem to have largely made their decision: Hannah does her best to construct a means of covering their escape.
"This is where it e--"
Where he hovers, Loren jerks backwards, a lance of ice half-buried in his shoulder. Around that point the light unspools and gathers: the lance is reduced to so many scattered atoms in an instant. His exposed wound quickly stitches itself together and smooths away.
"Too little, too late! It's far too late to run!" he declares, as a cloud of dust rises seemingly by 'chance' at Wu's hand. "Let me give you something to think about!!"
It rises almost in sick parody of the fractal flame some might have seen him use before, as himself: but where the other had been a swirl of colors, this... isn't. Blue to the point of being almost without color, it distorts the world where it touches, glitch made manifest as if to betray something unfortunate about the fundamental nature of the world.
Perhaps this manifestation itself is too much for Loren to maintain even in this state, however--
For in one moment he is the very expression of exultation, and in the next he folds up upon himself and collapses across the parched earth. There are limits to what someone can bring to bear with Ether: a toll is extracted on the body, after all--
Even with Drive. Especially with Drive.
GS: You do not meet the minimum Force required for that attack. GS: Your FP has been set to 540. GS: Loren Voss has attacked Loren Voss with 4-Manifold! GS: Loren Voss enters a Counter stance! GS: Loren Voss has gained 3 Combo! GS: CRITICAL! Loren Voss heals Loren Voss! He gains 108 temporary hit points! GS: Loren Voss spends 1 Combo on Poison! GS: Loren Voss has attacked Lan Lilac with Khahara -Divide by Zero-! GS: Loren Voss has attacked Lily Keil with Khahara -Divide by Zero-! GS: Loren Voss has attacked Gwen Whitlock with Khahara -Divide by Zero-! GS: Loren Voss has gained 2 Combo! GS: Disrupt and Shield expired! GS: Loren Voss has completed his action. GS: ROU|LET|TE: Catastrophic! Gamble: Lowest! Gwen Whitlock fails to guard Loren Voss's Khahara -Divide by Zero- for 268 hit points! GS: Poison applied to Gwen Whitlock! GS: Lily Keil has activated Force Action: Guard! GS: CRITICAL! ROU|LET|TE: Severe! Gamble: Low! Lily Keil critically guards Loren Voss's Khahara -Divide by Zero- for 158 hit points! GS: Poison blocked! GS: FP up! Arcane Font! GS: Lily Keil has Fallen! She is no longer able to fight! GS: ROU|LET|TE: Ruinous! Gamble: Low! Lan Lilac successfully guards Loren Voss's Khahara -Divide by Zero- for 126 hit points! GS: Poison applied to Lan Lilac! GS: FP up! Reaction bonus!
<Pose Tracker> Azoth has posed.
How does he stop suffering?
Azoth cannot stop himself from calculating the action that may turn the tide of this battle. But his visor light turns to a small pinpoint as Xantia takes him with her. That was not within his calculations. It would not have mattered if it was -- a fact that pierces his core further -- but she was supposed to leave him --
The explosion catches them both, and helpless, Azoth is thrown in the opposite direction. He tumbles across the broken, dying earth. One arm gone, and the other fallen, but... reaching? How utterly pointless. His chassis dented and battered. The chakram of metal he's summoning teeters and falls, spinning like a coin before it vanishes in glitching pixel motes of light, as if it were an erroneous fixture in reality to begin with and deleted by a passing administrator.
Do not lie.
"... Miss Sharon. I understand now," he says, even as Loren's destruction rains down around them, his voice quiet, but warped with garbled background noise, "What freedom means. To know and be your favorite version of yourself..."
He barely lifts enough to look up at the miserable sky. Even on Nede, such a thing was still shy of Azoth's reach. Xantia was right -- she always is, Azoth finds. But every time he computes his third option, Solaris finds a way to shackle it.
"But... Someone once told me humans define love 'inadequately'. And now they've caged me in that 'inadequate love'... an experience without action..."
What does love -- friendship, family, anything else -- mean if it's only locked inside, known to him, unable to be expressed because of what Solaris stole? How can he be what he should be, what he could be? It's overflowing. His voice becomes many: innocent and boyish. Snarky and sassy. The reverberating machine. The obnoxious trickster. This glitched distortion. They do not all speak in perfect agreement:
DESTROY
"I want to everything."
PROTECT
Isn't that a logical contradition? But Azoth's code is completely at peace.
"Isn't that the 'love' I was created to share...?"
<Pose Tracker> Leah Sadalbari has posed.
The moment Loren collapses is the moment that the transport comes through the clouds. It comes to a stop, on the ground, near Azoth, and the hangar doors prepare to open. There is enough time to run...
Or to stand, and watch.
When the doors open, Gebler soldiers in their uniforms storm out, holding weapons; there must be two dozen all told, and six of them gather around Azoth. Six gather around Loren.
The others keep their weapons trained on the battered combatants ahead.
Standing there in the hangar is a familiar figure: Leah Sadalbari, unmasked. She is wearing the robes of the Interior Ministry, rather than a Gebler uniform or her traditional armor. She is not carrying a weapon that can be seen.
But she Watches, all the same, with two blue eyes.
She steps out, her boots clinking against the ramp until she reaches the sand, and there she looks around at the group.
"...Even without 'hope', you struggle," the Watcher says, her voice not modulated. "Even without 'hope' you seek to reclaim him."
"I wonder... is he worthy of such devotion?"
Her cold eyes linger on Lan, embraced by the shadow. They linger for a long moment. She says nothing; her expression does not change.
"...Listen to his will. Listen. And ask yourself if this is that which you would save."
She snaps her fingers, and the soldiers begin to lift the operatives of Solaris and retreat into the shuttle.
"...Today is not the day your stories end."
"But should you continue to oppose us..."
"The day of your destruction will come."
The hangar doors start to close. Soon, the transport will be on its way...
<Pose Tracker> Gwen Whitlock has posed.
Through Loren's delirious laughing, the pumping of blood in her ears, the pain as those twin points of light tear through her, and the sounds of battle, Gwen hears the dreaded sound of something moving in the air, and getting louder.
"GET AZOTH OUT OF HERE! NOW!" Gwen shouts, before coughing up a mouthful of blood as she takes on Loren's next attack, with nothing fancy she can do to defend herself against it. "XANTIA! HUK--HuRRY!"
But it's too late.
Solarian soldiers already are training their weapons on them all; it'd be foolish to fight back.
Gwen didn't seem to get the memo.
"I should have *never* let Loren go with you that day..." Gwen hisses. "I can't believe I even....!!" That she even saw some element of humanity in Leah. "Was it you who gave him those syringes? _Did you even care at all_?"
She has no reason to believe Leah did anything. It's only her anger speaking, at this point.
And because of that, even in her weakened state, the Mockingbird still powers Gwen, especially now that her anger calls for it to pump even more power into her. Two soldiers are surprised when Gwen bursts past them, glow filling the nerves of her body. Shots ping past her and into her, but she's beyond caring, beyond the pain of those shots like Loren was, but not quite.
Because all it takes, is one, well-placed slash in the air.
And that is the final thing that stills the courier. Gwen finally collapses on the ground, her blood staining the ground red around her.
<Pose Tracker> Lan Lilac has posed.
Darkness. Madness. A thousand-thousand hands grasping at her limbs, holding her down, pulling her underwater. A blade sharper than disappointment. Pieces of herself, taken and replaced.
All around Lan, the ribbons waver and curl. They slither through her hair, they curve in the space around her like a nest of watchful serpents.
If she doesn't move and she doesn't think and she doesn't feel and she doesn't hear she can maintain this fragile equilibrium. She can-- if nobody comes near her, Lan can--
Just let her breathe a little longer, let her!
Heat suffuses her and she's back on that altar.
Lan wails like a wounded thing and curls in on herself, shrinking into a ball of limbs and pain on the ground as everything that can go wrong does. Don't touch her. Don't hurt her. Don't, don't, don't--
Don't leave her!!
"STOP," Lan howls, all of her ribbons and her ink and her self are raw and she can't pull them all back and everybody is hurt and she has to get up, she has to get up, she has to Get. Up.
She has to get up or they're going to take Azoth and they're going to take Loren and everything that has happened will have been for nothing! Lan pulls herself to her feet through sheer desperation, even though the corrupting Ether continues to shroud her. The Watcher has all the power here, moreso than the soldiers, moreso than Loren and even Azoth. "Don't--" she tries to call out. "Gwen, don't-!"
Was their friendship meaningless, too? She can barely even begin to process that Leah has both of her eyes, both of her legs, both of her arms. She'd convinced herself that she'd imagined them in the heat and stress of the battle.
But it doesn't matter. She can't-- there are too many-- Gwen--
<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.
Lily has done what she can. She's salved the injuries of the others; those who might have died may yet live. Those who might've fallen can strike back. But it isn't enough. Loren's bizarre magic reaches her, too. Lily reaches out, and a black aura spreads around her--her eyes turn dark, featureless, as she channels Ether in return, unmaking Ether to meet this betrayal of physics. There is another burst of power--and when it is done, Lily is down but not gone.
"...Voss," she breathes, and watches him fall. But she watches the transport, too. But Azoth... Azoth unerstands.
"Azoth...?"
Freedom. What do they mean?
"Azoth..."
"Azoth," Lily says a third time, and coughs, blood coming up in her hand. "We won't leave you. We'll find a way."
To destroy--to protect--everything. There is something that resonnates within her...
"We'll find your 'love'."
"...And if we don't," she assures him, "I'll--"
Another cough, as she falls to one knee, "I'll tear them from the skies with my own hands," she rasps. "I..."
Gwen is down. Lan is calling. And Lily...
"Gh--" Her hand curls. "Dog! Go!"
"BARK!"
Dog rushes onto the battlefield, in the wake of the retreating soldiers, darting past to get to Gwen. She noses at the fallen courier, licking her face and then pushing a Heal Berry against her.
Lily can't quite drag herself the rest of the way.
<Pose Tracker> Hannah Curie has posed.
Everything hurts right now, though Hannah's aches are admittedly more physical and less existential. (At least regarding this particular topic.) But yet it does hurt all the same to hear the anguish in Azoth's voice, to hear those multiple voices glitching. She hoeps one of those is his overrides talking but can't be entirely sure.
But though she followed Lily's call to retreat, she's still trying to watch for the others. Loren has some more things to say, attacks to shrug off and a last one to deliver--but even though she doesn't know exactly what he injected himself with, she can take the very reasonable guess that artificially boosting one's magic and then utilizing it to its fullest is enough to even drain an Ether user of their reserves rather quickly.
She's done that to herself enough to know that feeling first hand.
But even though Zephyr's retreated he sees it before Hannah does, with his keen eyesight and propensity for, you know, being in the sky. The dropship.
She stops, then, and turns to face them. Several people are down--Lily is down, and she's not about to abandon her or the others. She's got another crest graph out now, and she's pretty sure she's got enough reserves for one last spell. It glows with an icy blue light, but that arm hangs down at her side.
It's fine, all she has to do is drop to the ground to cast it. Whether she'll be able to get up again in this state is an open question.
But it seems that they're only there to extract Loren and Azoth, and she can't do anything but watch.
They do not have 'hope', claims Leah, and yet they struggle. Destruction is promised if they continue to interfere, and Hannah bides her tongue until they leave.
She drops to her knees, and the power in her crest graph fades.
"Long as we can still struggle, we have hope," she says quietly. "An' I ain't givin' up on you yet, Azoth."
After a moment of rest she forces herself back to her feet again. There's still work to do.
<Pose Tracker> Xantia has posed.
Xantia, unlike her usual idiom, stays seated, not answering Gwen's desperate call. Granted, she isn't in the best of shapes, but still capable of making an effort. She just... appears to have decided not to. The actual reason is that she can already hear the transport. In her current condition, there's nothing more to be accomplished here except get herself shot. And that in turn wouldn't improve Azoth's condition at all. Nothing she can do right now would be helpful. She's done all she could. She can't even answer him. Lily has a much better answer for him than she could. She feels utterly unqualified to speak on 'love', in any way, baffled by its meaning as she is.
It takes Meng Wu's curt words to snap her out of it. That's right. She needs to stand, and start moving again. It's the only way forward. She takes that hand, and straightens up, taking a moment to stare at Leah with meaningful silence, before surveying the various injured. She can still stand, so she's going to help as she can, but before that... She finally turns to Azoth, as he is being recovered.
"Azoth! You'll have your freedom, one day! I'll never give up, so that means it's inevitable!"
In other words, have faith that her logic will hold true, this time as well.
<Pose Tracker> Meng Wu has posed.
Time's up. The troops arrived and Wu's already running the odds in her head. There's a realization that she overplayed her hand. Doesn't matter. Her eyes are hidden behind the dark lenses, but it's hard to shake the vibe that she's contemplating a shakeup. For better or worse.
Particularly on the sight of those robes. Her finger slowly slides from the side towards the trigger. Doing a mental count. Who's looking where. How many rounds are left. What she can disrupt.
There are others involved though. She smiles slowly at the mention of her story's end. She doesn't say anything against it though.
She watches Azoth, still functioning. "Just have to find the right time and the right opportunity." She doesn't explain herself in the slightest. She smiles after, like it's some private joke.
It disappears soon enough though. It's surprisingly hard not just rolling the dice. If it were herself and her allies, well.. that's different. (Except it's not). She'd make the same call if they're more or less getting off scott free despite any surface thoughts bubbling up. A momentary failure allows for better planning.
With the departure of the troops though, the pistol is checked, cleared and holstered.
She picks her coat up from nearby. Throwing it over her shoulders watching the others.
<Pose Tracker> Leah Sadalbari has posed.
Leah lowers her sword after dispatching Gwen with nothing more but a slash at the air. The Watcher is not finished yet. The soldiers are nothing to ignore, but they are not equipped to handle Gwen's full power... and neither are they equipped to handle Lan's.
Lan is getting up, corrupting Ether seething around her. Leah continues to watch Lan.
She does not answer the matter of whether they will succeed in saving Azoth. She has said what she intended to say there. But as Lan struggles...
Leah draws her weapon from her back once more, and adopts a ready stance.
"Ma'am!?" one of the soldiers besides her asks as she steps forward, but Leah doesn't answer. Instead, she holds her sword, point-down, carrying its huge weight with the hilt up above her shoulders in a diagonal posture.
"Hah--"
She swings suddenly, and where she swings, the air is cut. A shockwave comes forth--and when it hits Lan, the world is awash in blue--blue which fades, sharply, all at once from gray until its color is only ashes.
She replaces her weapon at her back, and turns away.
"Control yourself, Lan."
"...Or I will."
She steps back onto the transport, ignoring the others now. Instead, as the doors close, they can see her turn her head from Loren to Azoth.
"'Love', was it...?"
The transport sails into the sky.